These Black Eyes
by P0ST
Summary: The ongoing adventures and experiences of the Teen Titans, as witnessed through the eyes of a silent newcomer.
1. Act One: Experiment of a Circle

_**These Black Eyes: A Re – [Post] - ing**_

_**Synopsis: Noir, an incredibly overpowered Gary Stu, joins the animated Teen Titans. During his tenure with the heroic youngsters, many grammatical errors are made, many gross atrocities of the first-person narrative are committed, and a bunch of bloody drama is spilt in the name of lifeless nerdiness. Act One consists of his beating up the Titans and the Titans loving him for it. Act Two consists of predictable villains coming back to battle the Titans in a huge cataclysm of page length and sound effects. Act Three shall never again see the Internet because it sucks major donkey rectum.**_

_**Synopses (?): This has not been edited, but it has been preserved—not so much by me but by those few generous (depraved?) souls who felt this fic needed to stay in existence. It remains hideously in its original format, as was originally spewed forth onto the collective subconscious of digidom, replete with holocausts of spelling, characterization, and good sense. If you hate heroic brutalities, lipstick lesbians, excessive onomatopoeia, Gary Stu-ness, Dr. Pepper, and overall wyrdness, then stay very far away from the train wreck to follow.**_

_**Special Thanks To: Zephyrus (for chronicling the bulk of this), Lord Belgarion (for your ever supportive mofo-ness), Dr. Pepper (for the inspiration, humiliation, and kidney stones I'll someday endure over this), and Cary (for giving me a new reason to exist on a daily basis)**_

**1. ACT ONE: Experiment of a Circle**

I held my position up high on the marble scaffold. From where I crouched at the face of the cathedral, I had a superb view of the street and the ensuing battle at hand. I could have acted at any time, could have jumped in at any moment. But I had my orders. I had my cue. And it hadn't sounded yet.

Through an obsidian shield of glass and night I made out the figure of Fang; an abomination of the earth if ever there was one. There's not much to say about a creature with a human for a body and a spider for a head, save for the fact that it was presently doing its lethal best to ward off five superpowered teenagers intent on foiling its latest armed robbery.

Fang let out a recognizable growl and spun on his two human legs. In turn, his spidery limbs stretched out from his neck and pinwheeled a virtual arachnid blade. The serrated tips of the spider feet were deadly enough to shred human skin, much less Tamaranian skin or animal shell or cyborg metal. The Teen Titans stood their distance. Robin and Cyborg tracked Fang on opposites sides on foot, while a floating Starfire and a levitating Raven guarded the perimeter and a shifting Beast Boy was—well—everywhere.

Fang knew he was cornered. He knew that being stationary was the worst position to be in when facing these five. But most of all he knew that he could outlast every single one of them as long as he kept one of his six limbs on the ground.

The Titans were just going to have to ruin that for him.

Naturally, it was Robin who made the first strike. He whipped out his staff, extended it with the flick of the wrist, and struck—growling—at one of the spider's possessions.

Fang lifted the one, sharp foot up with a jerk, using the other three spider limbs to straighten himself.

As planned, Cyborg went for the attack on the other side to knock Fang down.

But the creature expected this, he pivoted himself sideways—putting all weight on the legs that Cyborg was charging—and literally flipped his human body over to strike an uppercut on the android's chin with his shoe.

Cyborg fell back wincing, and without a moment to lose Fang's mandibles were warbling in such a way that meant he was about to unleash a charge of paralyzing venom.

Raven spotted this, and as soon as the flash of evil energy came from the arachnid mouth, a field of obsidian covered it so that it merely bounced off Cyborg's exoskeleton.

That very instant, Robin went for his second strike. His staff slammed hard into Fang's human back. Surely, it had to have been enough to knock the man over.

But versatile creatures arachnids are, not to mention biopunk bugs. Fang used the bone rattling impact to roll himself over. He squatted low to the ground with all six legs bent to the extreme and sprang upwards with a human fist that knocked Robin upside the chest and over against the side of the street, smashing into a few garbage cans.

I saw the leader take the fall. And so did the rest of the team. That only meant one thing. Disorderly free-for-all.

Starfire went on the attack. She orbited Fang like a spitting moon, launching firebolts at his center of gravity with every fling of the wrist.

Fang's limbs went to work, rapidly flicking away every ball of light so that eventually a shrieking Starfire had to retreat from the return of her own fire.

Raven manipulated a nearby streetlamp into an airborne worm that sailed towards Fang's back.

The creature spun around and lifted his human body up with four limbs in time for the streetlamp to soar underneath him and go crashing into a glass storefront.

Cyborg got up and rocketed towards Fang, fist first.

Fang dropped to his shoes, lifted his spider arms, and spun just in time to catch Cyborg's momentum and send him on his hulking way through a nearby taxi cab. It was like ballet of the damned.

And speaking of which, then came Beast Boy's turn. The changeling ran on two feet and leapt into an emerald mongoose which slinked through the shield of Fang's legs, then gorillaed up behind the creature to strike a blow. Underneath the dome of spider legs, he fought Fang's human body. He cat dodged a fist and frog leapt a kick before squid spinning into a two-legged kangaroo blow that sent Fang's human body bag floating off like a pendulum.

But it was still inside the 'spider leg dome'. Fang's human form merely swung back with an elbow that impacted Beast Boy's sudden armadillo chest. He spun in mid air for a half-second before a human hand fiercely grabbed his neck. Before Fang's second hand could join in the pummeling, Beast Boy's neck turned into a snake that slithered up Fang's arm, around Fang's body, and leapt out from under the dome of spider legs, leaving the foe alone and bewildered.

But Beast Boy was escaping a conglomerated missile of starbolts, cyborg blasts, and black magic manhole covers…

The triple impact sent Fang tumbling so hard that even I wanted to wince. But as severe as it was, it still wasn't enough. The arachnifreak was still grounded.

Robin, who had finally untangled himself from the mess of sticky garbage, dragged a banana peel off his forehead and irascibly spat: "Come on, titans! We gotta get him off his feet!"

"We're…..TRYING!" Cyborg growled, dodging a sharp spider blow after another.

"If all else fails, we've got the wildcard, right??" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Robin said nothing.

And neither did I.

Fang stabbed and stabbed and stabbed at Cyborg with his four serrated feet. The android courageously blocked and dodged every one just in time for Robin to rush up from behind, leap, and put a strangle hold on the neck of the humanoid body.

Fang struggled—suddenly caught in an awkward place. As he tried to shake Robin off, he simultaneously held the strong Cyborg off with all of his spider feet. He was open for an attack.

He was open for Starfire.

She came thundering down like a Venutian comet, hurtling every starbolt she could muster. It blasted Fang's two human legs from under him and Robin. His extra-heavy half came crashing down. But at the last second he sacrificed two of the limbs holding Cyborg in check to stretch behind him and stop his fall. Then—using his body and Robin's like a fulcrum—he picked Cyborg up with his last two spiderlegs and sent him hurtling behind him hard into a building side. Not a second after, the arachnid sprang forward and similarly flung Robin square into Starfire's gasping body. The two sailed down into a dumpster full of garbage, much to Robin's aggrivation.

Shocked at their partners' plight, Beast Boy made a charge with Raven not too far behind in the air.

Fang merely twisted and let loose a web stream at the two of them—who were unfortunately making their charge too close together.

The goo enveloped them both and splortched them stuck to the pavement of the street.

Beast Boy grimaced, all too familiar with this predicament. "Ewww! Not the Sticky again!"

A glob of spider strand meandered down Raven's immaculately, deadpan face as she drolled out: "I don't like 'Sticky'…" A second later, her eyes illuminated a pale bright gray and an entire semi truck resting behind her suddenly lifted and flew at the arachnid in the form of a titanic, black fist.

For a moment, Fang's six red eyes widened in fear. But he soon flattened himself straight against the pavement in the nick of time. The semi truck barely scraped his mandibles as it soared over him and screeched to a sparkling hault. With Raven peeved, there was no telling how quickly he wanted to abandon this brawl. He jumped up and scurried over to the two bags of money he had dropped earlier to engage in fisticuffs.

Cyborg, rubbing his skull, saw Fang's move to escape and shouted out.

Just then, Starfire floated forth from the dumpster with Robin in her grip. As the team leader took sight of Fang's flight through a hat of new banana peels, Robin gritted his teeth and mentally reached for the wildcard.

"Now! Jump him!!!"

I reacted without a moment to lose. My whole body tensed as I reached behind my back and pulled Myrkstaff from his sheathe. My heels pivoted, and I was silently sliding down a granite banister on the cathedral face. I emerged from my shadowy cover, which was now fountaining beneath my legs in black fog before jolting me out into the middle of the street with a flip, upon which I landed with the staff sailing straight down Fang's shoulder.

The blow spun his human body awkwardly between his legs. I knew I had caught him off guard, but not for long. I immediately dropped to the floor on my back and spun my whole body with the Myrkstaff stretched outward, affectively knocking out each of the four spiderlegs from under Fang. All that was left grounded was his human body, but I made good show of that. As soon as my spin was over, I sprang up with Myrkstaff like a golf club that sent the villain's arachnid body twirling upwards in the naked air.

That was it. He was off the ground.

I quickly dove out of the way for my teammates to do the work.

Before he could land, a thunderous ball of green starbolt energy plowed into his side. Fang's body flew straight into the marble face of the cathedral No sooner had he impacted that an emerald elephant was suddenly pinning his chest into the wall, forcibly stretching his four spider limbs flat against the marble. In rapid succession, for birdarangs flew from Robin's nimble hands and pinned each spiderfoot in place. They were soon made unbreakable by obsidian forcefields that a floating Raven effortlessly draped over the projectiles.

The green elephant drew away. Fang struggled hopelessly against the wall, grunting and growling. His arachnid face froze—however—as Cyborg stepped threateningly forward with a high level stun blaster aimed square at the foe's human chest.

"Nighty night."

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-

"This just in. The escaped monstrosity of a villain, Fang, was apprehended by the brave actions of the Teen Titans tonight just in front of St. Faustina Cathedral in Downtown. Fang was supposedly running on foot—or feet in this case—after authorities believe he robbed the west branch of the First Bank. There was surprisingly less collateral damage in this apprehension—with the exception of a semi-truck and a few manholes of course—and people on the site couldn't be giving better praise. Take this eye-witness for one."

"Yeah, I saw them Titans take 'em down! It was amazing! Whammo! They take out spiders with almost more hysteria than my wif—"

"Ahem, an official investigator on the scene had this to say:"

"Though in concurrence with the Metropolitan Vigilante Act of last year we have no business questioning the activities of these local heroes of ours, it does strike our curiosity that a new member seems to be in their ranks. Although his or her identity is yet unknown to us or any of our audio-visual surveillance, it's safe to say the newcomer is completely on the Titans' side. And we here at the local bureau of investigations can't be more thankful for the increased strength of justice in this region."

"Several other eyewitnesses testify to having seen a sixth Titan present at the apprehension of Fang. It apparently matches descriptions made of nearly six dozen incidences prior to this one. Have the Titans increased their rank? And if so, who is this newcomer and what effect will it have—positively or negatively—on the crime rate in our City? Just things to ponder on. For Local News, this is Marilyn Chen. Good night."

-T-T-T-T-T-

The Tower welcomed our weary selves into the Main Room. Well, a select few of us were weary. The rest were fairly jubilant with the mighty victory at hand. Safe to say….

"Boo-ya! I'd knew we'd get him tonight!" Cyborg cheered.

"You can say that again!" Beast Boy leapt in front of him and did a jig. "I mean…we totally kicked his ass! Come on, Starfire! High five!"

The redheaded extraterrestrial giggled and slapped the changeling's palm with a smile. "Yes, Beast Boy. You are most accurate. That was indeed a wondrous pummeling of his illegitimate donkey."

"Did you see how I dodged him?! Huh?! And, like, how I dove out of the way for the three of you guys to knock the lights out of him?! Huh?! Hey, Raven! Where're you going so fast?! This is cause for celebration!"

The dark girl—who had been making a bee line the entire time from the elevator to the lateral corridors—spoke resolutely under a frowning face of spider goo. "I….am going….to take….a shower…."

A lightbulb nearby exploded, and Beast Boy cleared his throat; deciding to let it be.

"I didn't see you do nothing but make him dizzy, green man," Cyborg nudged. "It was I who gave him the final blow!"

"Pfft…chyaa! Cuz I pinned him down for you in Dumbo mode, stupid!"

"Oh, and like you would have done much without Robin's bidrarangs and Raven's powers!!"

"Come on, guys," Robin managed a smirk, scraping off the last of banana peels from his costume. "We all worked together to throw him in the cell this time."

"Robin is right," Starfire lifted a finger. "You both were of equal assistance to each other. Cyborg's sleepy ray would have been no use without the talented head of Beast Boy. And—"

"Well all I know is that I was pretty….dang….smooth….if you know what I mean," Beast Boy beamed.

Starfire blinked. She thought aloud for a response: "Mmmm…..y-you found a streamline form of animal exoskeleton without residual topographic impurities?"

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Say what?"

Cyborg leaned down and whispered in his ear. "If you knew what she meant….then you'd be 'smooth'."

"Yeah….but what does what she gibberished have to do with me being smoothed?"

"…." Cyborg stared. "Ahem…._if you knew what she meant, then you'd be 'smooth'."_

"……..yeah," Beast Boy slurred.

Robin shrugged. He then looked over at me. "Good work you did too, Noir. Thanks for not coming in until we said so. It totally caught Fang off guard just in time for us to take him out."

I nodded silently, then looked towards Cyborg. Just as I expected, he had something forlorn to say.

"Before long, all the baddies in town are gonna be expecting you. Sooner or later, you'll be making entrances along with the rest of us, stealth or no stealth."

He was right. My eyes told him I understood.

"But come on!" Beast Boy uttered dramatically. "He's our wildcard, man! Which one of us can turn invisible and uninvisible on a dime, huh?! We need him for surprise!"

"Don't talk like he's not here, BB," Cyborg remarked. "Jeesh…just because he can't say anything back doesn't mean you should talk like he's in another room!"

"But that's just it! He never talks!" Beast Boy trotted over to me with cartoonish eyes of suspicion. "It's too downright creepy for him to be like that all the time. I tell you, it's an act! I know just the thing to make him snap out of it!"

In quick procession, he turned into a lemur, perched on my head, and dangled his tail entrancingly in front of my shades.

"You're getting sleeeeeeepy! You're getting sleeeeeeeeepy!"

Starfire giggled.

"Knock it off, Beast Boy," Cyborg rolled his eyes, hiding a smirk.

"You're at my everrrrrry commaaaaaand!" the green lemur continued. "Sooner or later you'll open your mouth and say a whole sent—er…ahem….I mean…saaaaaaaay a whoooooooole senttttttennnnnceeeee!"

I couldn't help it. I cracked forth a grin as a shuddering breath of humor escaped my nostrils. I picked the lemur up by the scruff of the neck and set him down on the ground, upon which he quickly turned back into an emerald elf pleading up at me.

"Come onnnn! Will ya just say one thing??"

"You know very well he can't, Beast Boy," Robin said.

I shrugged innocently.

Beast Boy hrumphed. "Jeez…what's the use of having a brand new teamer if I can't even make him laugh!"

"I don't think you've got to worry about that with anyone, BB," Cyborg chuckled.

"Dude, shut up! I'll beat you at F-Zero!"

"Oh, in your dreams, little man!!"

And the two sweaty compatriots zooped towards the entertainment center.

There was a bit of silence…something I was all too used to. Then Starfire said, dangling her hands cutely behind her back:

"Well then, I suppose I must be off to check on Raven. No one may know…she could need help with the remission of spider goo on her person."

She sauntered off down the hall. Robin watched her.

"Er……y-yeah…," the Boy Wonder muttered. I could almost picture eyes blinking dazedly underneath his mask. But again, that was just imagination and nothing more.

He looked towards me and extended a hand forth. "See ya tomorrow morning in the gym, Noir."

I smirked and firmly slapped my hand into his, upon which we formed an ever growingly mutual grip of teamwork. We released with a snap of our thumbs and he signaled the rest of the rooms' occupants goodnight before retiring to his reclusive roost.

I was alone in domain…save for the sound of the videogaming and soda bingeing pair across the way and before the Titan Monitor. There would be times for joining them—I knew—but like the others I was quite exhausted by the night's fervor and felt it best to retire myself.

I headed off slowly, easily, down a dark hallway….down a flight of stairs…down another flight of stairs…and descended into—of all places—living quarters that had been sectioned off within the very basement of the Tower itself. I chose this room in particular. And once I wrote my teammates the reason why I needed it, they perfectly understood and perfectly granted me the darkest place in the building.

Inside my room, I was bathed in utter darkness: save for a gas lantern or two I had set earlier before the whole of us tracked down Fang. I removed Myrkstaff and placed it on a mantle opposite of where my bed lay. Then, by lantern light, I stretched and then walked stealthily towards the adjacent bathroom with its wide stretching mirror within.

I leaned against the counter and stared down into the sink for a while. Composing myself. Meditating. I glanced upward and found that my black threads of hair were in a tangled mess. It's hard to keep oneself aesthetic while fighting crime. It's an awful truth. Robin suggested a bandana or a band of sorts to hold the tresses in place. Beast Boy said I should cut it some while Cyborg said I should shave the whole thing and Starfire….well….she said I should braid it. So go figure.

Nearby lantern light flickered across my neck, and I was again made aware of the all too-familiar reflection of the deep scar nestled beneath my chin. I reached a hand to it and felt once again for as many times what was missing beneath the skin. It was the most cruel scar one could possibly make. An 'X' of lacerated sort that screamed to anyone who looked close enough to me that at one hideous time a despot of some sort must have tried to mark me as his 'property'.

No matter what my new friends said, I couldn't help myself. I knew I was a sight for sore eyes. So I quickly put out the flames, removed my shades, and sat in the pitch black with my eyes.

And I felt happy.


	2. In the Twilight of Post Spiders

**2. In the Twilight of PostSpiders**

The Tower is a creepy and lonely place. Many an angsty soul would find it a welcome retreat from the Realm of the Joyful. Which probably explains why Raven is most comfortable at night and Starfire is most edgy.

For whatever reason, it was midnight and the two had been roused from their sleep. I saw them in the Main Room as I exited the elevator and made my way towards the kitchen. Incessant dreams of humanoid arachnids kept me up all night, and I needed a glass of water to wash away the images. I had a feeling I wasn't alone.

"I have to know, Raven," spoke a dark Tamaranian Silhouette to the petite silhouette beside her at the windows. "How do humans manage to coexist with such disturbing creatures of so many appendages?"

"You're missing the point, Star," Raven said, her nose in a gothic book by candlelight. "Not _every human_ hates spiders."

"Do you mean to say—"

"I'm rather fond of spiders, yes. They don't bother me."

Starfire thought for a second, then asked: "But tonight you seemed most perturbed—"

"I don't *like* being slimed by giant spider-human hybrids with nothing better to do on a summer evening than make off with innocent people's money," Raven said firmly with her lovely bitterness. "There's a difference."

"Oh…," Starfire nodded. Then, "So if a giant sized spider of mutant, bipedal qualities was to vomit its structural fluid all over you…then it would have a negative effect on your warmth for creepy crawly things?"

"Getting warmer…."

Silence.

"On my planet…," Starfire mused, "…I have a pet Hagthorb with the shiniest fur coat that I love to pet and play with and toss the joy cylinder around with. But Hagthorbs are known for excreting sweat from their glands when excited, and it is a sweat that is composed of the most corrosive materials that can melt through an Abligorthian Tree in a matter of seconds and on the Tamaranian skin that is most unpleasant."

An eerie chuckle floated out of Raven's lips. "Starfire….you and me come from different worlds."

"That is quite true, Raven. I am from Tamaran, and you are from Azza—"

"I was _stating the obvious_."

"……Oh….and what a delightfully obvious obviousness that was, Raven!"

"Whatever…."

Silence.

I waited. I waited a little longer. I took a few steps towards the kitchen--

"Raven?"

"Yes, Star?"

"What do you think of this newcomer, Noir?"

I froze in my movement and glanced over. The flicker from Raven's candle danced through my shades and made my left eye twitch.

"What is there to think or not to think?"

"He seems quickly to have won Robin's trust, as well as the rest of the team. I think that this addition is most fortunate to our fight against crime."

"Then what's to talk about?"

"Are these not one of those moments, Raven, when you constantly make mention of the 'too wonderful to be legitimate' syndrome?"

"…..you mean when things are 'too good to be true'?"

"Yes…yes, that is the vernacular to which I refer."

"Well, only time will tell, Star. Noir has certainly proved himself by now, or else we wouldn't have him in our ranks. Why, are you doubtful?"

"No! Not at all!"

"Well, if you have any doubts…why not ask him over there?" remarked Raven with a turn of the head and a nod.

I did a double-take.

Starfire looked over and hoisted her hands to her chin. "Eeek! So it is you and you are here!"

I looked defeated.

"Lemme guess….," Raven hummed. "Couldn't sleep?"

I was defeated again.

"Well…help yourself to a glass of water," she gestured towards the far end of the main room where the kitchen area was. "That is what you're here for, isn't it?"

Dumbfounded, I slowly nodded my head and went off in a zombie motion for my source of wandering.

Raven returned to her book without another word. So peaceful…serene. It's a marvel just how empathic she is. If only she were a bit more advanced in her already superb, mental prowess…she could almost read my mind. Such a scenario would rid my life of much of the awkwardness it now entailed. But alas, such as things are, I can't complain.

Raven always has this stonelike quality to her grace. At sometimes, it can be an edgy stone with rusted sides that cut and inject bitter emotion…the very same emotion she denies wielding. A walking (or levitating) paradox is the full embodiment of her; with mystery to boot. She's so ambiguous in and of herself that she not ask me why I come meandering upwards from my cellar room in the middle of the night. She knows. Or maybe she doesn't know, but it's no concern of hers. She's been in that awkward limelight before. She's felt it burn her skin and melt away the residue to uncover a dark gem of stoic wonder underneath. Souls like her don't change, don't regress, don't progress. They just drift on their own and sometimes bump into the drifts of others who are paddling like mad in the deep mires of their own, debilitating anxieties.

As I grabbed a glass container from….from…dang it, where did they keep the cups in that cupboard…

"An instrument to drink out of is somewhere in the top left cabinet…next to the saucers, I think," uttered Starfire with a helpful, pointed finger.

I nodded/bowed in thanks and searched the area provided for me; finally rewarded.

Starfire smiled at my success. A warmth of joy wafted from her emerald eyes as if she was proud of my learning my way around the place so suddenly.

If there be no words for me, I still must confess. Starfire is the most adorable creature that I've ever encountered. I can never sum up in any other individual a greater source of compassion, innocence, and companionship. Such goes a lot in saying, since I had not known her for too long a period of time before coming to these conclusions. But it's so evident in her: the extent of her generosity…of her scope of respect and admiration for all things living and good. It warms me to see her exist, yet pains me to see the implications of her persona. Alien to our world as she is, she opens herself up to awkwardness and the risk of non-acceptance. But, no matter how incompatible she can be with humanity, she keeps on trying. She's brave for that reason, as she is for many. And thankfully she has found a fine set of friends to embrace her slowly into this realm of conflict and justice for the soul sake of surviving it together.

Starfire joined in last before I did—so I learned. She was the newcomer prior to me. But, by the looks of it, she was the newcomer after me as well. Annoying as it may have been to a few, one couldn't help but smile….and be grateful.

"You must certainly be parched to desire liquid sustenance at so late an hour as this," quoted she across the room, in her trademark symptoms of interstellar jet lag. "Or perhaps it was the thought of arachnids that—"

"The next person who says the word 'arachnid' gets electrocuted with a prosthetic toenail," mumbled Cyborg, suddenly in the room.

Surprised, I glanced over at him. This was turning out to be quite a party.

"Well, this is turning out to be quite a party," he said exactly, glancing at everyone in the room.

Starfire blinked. "Party? Does that mean Beast Boy will be wearing a shade of a lamp again?"

"Ha ha…no, Star. That happens only once a year."

"You seem…quite awake," Raven muttered from her book.

"Don't mind me," Cyborg leaned against the kitchen counter near to me. "Sunshine phoned me on the electrobed. She said she's gonna be a few hours late on account of the latest vampire novel."

Raven blinked directly up at the window before her. "If you're referring to me, you've got ten seconds to get out of here before I use your head for a bowling ball."

"Awwww," Cyborg grinned. "But then, Raven, I wouldn't have the joy of hearing your sweet song voice anymore."

"You want spiders? You'll find a handful in your cereal in the morning."

"Lovely. Hey Noir, make way. I've got a midnight sandwich in here with my name on it." Cyborg wandered over and yanked open the door to the large fridge. A huge wall of light suddenly burst out and screamed its way through my shades. I almost dropped my glass of water in jerking my head away.

Almost immediately, Cyborg realized my predicament and he rushed to close the refrigerator door. "Oh shoot! I'm sorry, Noir. I forgot how much you hate sudden flashes of light. You okay, man?" His voice was hushed and he had a hand on my shoulder. It was very protective of him…not exaggeratingly so. He was truly concerned to the max, is all.

I simpered and gave him a thumb's up. I certainly wasn't offended in any fashion. However, I was sweating.

"Okay, hope everything's cool, man." Said the android. He gave me a compassionate smirk then slowly opened the fridge, upon which I redirected my eyes to the softer parts of the room.

Cyborg is a man who—I believe—has known what death is. Beneath that shattered, blue and onyx exterior is a boy whose boyhood was stolen from him by some unnatural means. I mean, it's not everyday that you're forced to exchange half of your body mass with electronic prosthetics. It hurts me to think that there was an incalculable wrong committed to him, but it's most likely so. I can taste traces of everlasting anger in his being. For the most part, we can all thank our lucky stars that it's mainly during bits of combat with the enemy that his temper shows through—and in such times it is towards both our pleasure and advantage. But on a constant basis there's a piece of Cyborg that respects all life for its potential to survive. And from the very start of my presence in the Tower, I've owed my ability to function to Cyborg. He—more than anyone else—helped me to adapt. In spite of my condition, he did his best to 'talk' to me and paid me more attention than anyone else could muster. In such a fashion, I think we have formed a common ground…and I would be at a loss without his camaraderie. I truly would be.

"Let's see if I remember how to do it…," said Cyborg between sandwich gulps.

That was a sign for me that it was safe to turn around. And as I did so, Cyborg stood—leaning back against a counter—and signed swiftly with his hand a simple expression.

_--How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood—_

I took a swig of water, placed the cup down, and replied lackadaisically:

_--A wood chuck could chuck all the wood he could if a wood chuck would chuck wood—_

"Amazing," Starfire remarked, leaning her chin on her hands. "I can only imagine what intelligent conversations the two of you are having."

I held my tongue—as if that was hard to do—and smiled in a direction away from her as Cyborg spoke.

"Elementary, my dear Starfire," he said dramatically. "Though I must admit it takes plenty of years to….chip away at the woodwork."

I sniffed a silent laugh.

Starfire looked confused. "Why, whatever do you mean?"

"Don't bother, Star," Raven said amidst her vampires. "Boys will be boys…even mute boys."

"I understand that Robin knows a little bit of the hand tongue."

"Only a little, Star," Cyborg exclaimed smugly. "Only I have studied enough to truly get it down pat. Robin's too busy using his hands to smash in thugs' faces rather than learn to talk with symbols."

"On my planet, people talk with their hands," Starfire beamed. Then her smile blinked away as she added, "But it's only during mating season."

"What's this about mating season??" uttered Beast Boy as he wandered into the Main Room wearing green PJs and rubbing his eyes.

"All the bats are out tonight…." Muttered Raven.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire smiled jubilantly. "You wish to join us in the discussion of arachnids, sandwiches, and Tamaranian handlove?"

"…..," Beast Boy blinked. "How long have you guys been out here like this?"

"We couldn't sleep…," spoke Raven.

"Dude…it's like an epidemic!" the green elf exclaimed. "Why is it everytime we fight off that creepy Fang guy, I get the willies all night and think something's sneaking up on me?"

"Calm down, man," Cyborg said and extended his meal to him. "Ham sandwich?"

"Bleah! Man, Cyborg….you're sicker than that spider freak. I'd rather have him sneak up on me than eat that atrocity you have hanging out of two slices of bread."

I tapped Beast Boy on the shoulder.

"H-Huh?" he spun around and nearly spit out his internal organs in shock. "WA-AH!" He jumped and landed somehow on Cyborg's laughing shoulders.

I smirked and waved at him for the first time that evening.

Starfire giggled.

"Duuuude! Noir! That's not funny! How long were you there behind me?!"

I shrugged.

"He's made for the shadows, you know that bro."

"Yeah…I'd knock his lights out someday if he's not too careful, Cyborg. And I mean it. This dude creeps me out!"

Beast Boy….this dude humors me out. But I guess it's only natural….so natural that none of us are willing to admit how truly funny he is. The fact of the matter is—someone that funny doesn't deserve to exist so. It's rather depressing. More depressing than Raven's gothic nature will ever amount to. But we all love Beast Boy for what he is—utter harmlessness. Sometimes—I swear—he's only useful in combat for distracting the enemy. But that can be one of the most valuable things, right? That is to say, his charisma is so fulfilling…so charming…and so inspiring. The fact that he's gone through all the same struts and difficulties as we have. And knowing that he's been so nonchalant and awkward about it and yet has still survived fills us with a reason to keep existing each day. Perhaps that's why we keep our true opinions of Beast Boy secret from him. It's the best we can do to preserve him in his purest form.

"Ya know…," the elf schemed, "…while we're all out here…we might as well do something to occupy our time."

Raven coined. "You mean bore ourselves until sleep hides us from the ever-waking thought of spiders?"

"Ooh! I know!" Starfire gasped with a bounce. "A communal recital of the Eighteenth Chronicle of Hoosblarg's Odyssey Across the Kamensplork!"

"……………...Well, I've got something better!" and with that, Beast Boy whipped out a red-and-black deck of playing cards from some suspicious corner of his PJs. "Who's for a round of UNO?!"

Starfire blinked. "What is this….Ooh-Know?"

I looked at Raven.

Raven looked at her book.

I looked at Cyborg.

Cyborg moaned and finally exclaimed: "Okay…I'll explain the rules. BB, cut the deck. Raven…how about lighting another candle or two?"

The girl sighed, folded the book down, and went about her sudden new task. "Very well then."

"Oooh! Joyous of joys!" Starfire quirped. "How I do marvel at your human rituals of slapping around paper cards and selling property!"

"Wanna join us, Raven?" Beast Boy exclaimed with a raised eyebrow. "If I remember correctly, you still have a score to settle with me."

"Yes, the very fiber of my being desires defeating you at a game of colors and numbers and general monotony," Raven muttered. "Since I have nothing else to do…I might as well do the egotistical thing and….'challenge' you again?"

"YEEHA! I knew you couldn't contain yourself! Number One Uno Master Beast Boy is gonna whip you good again!"

"Man, you know you just said 'Number One One Master', right?" Cyborg criticized. "I mean, technically speaking, of course…."

"Pfft. You're no fun."

"Y tu no puedes hablar espanol si su vida necesita este."

"Uh…..no tango chimichanga…."

Cyborg laughed.

"Is this how we play Oooh-Know?" Starfire asked. "Ooooh! Pretty colorful cards!"

"Not exactly, Star. Hey Noir, come join us, Man!"

I shuffled over with my glass of water and sat at the table of candlelight and Uno cards as the small circle of Titans gathered.

"You've played this before?" Raven asked.

I nodded with a smile.

"Fancy that," she said.

"You see, Star, the point of the game is to match the other player's color or number with that of your own. So, a two for a two or a red for a red or a—"

"Where do the explosions come in?"

"…..I beg your pardon?"

"On Tamaran, explosions tend to accompany the displacement of numbers and zeros, and it is most unsettling."

"Dude! I so want to play poker on your planet!"

"I think she was referring to intergalactic wargames."

"Oh…so Ooh-Know is different?"

"Yes, Star. No explosions in Ooh-Know."

"It's gonna be a LONNNNG hand when it gets to her."

"Oh, are we still talking about Tamaranian handlove?"

"Ehhh??"

-SCHWUMP!-

The elevator doors closed. We all looked up as a fully awake Robin in a t-shirt, sweats, and his face mask entered the main room. He too had the case of bed-interruption.

"Well," he smirked. "If I'd known all you guys were here, I would have brought our gym equipment for training."

"Yeah, go lay an egg Robin," Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "We're just playing UNO to pass the time until—"

"Visions of spiders stop dancing in our heads. I know," Robin smirked with a nod. "Care to cut me a hand?"

Starfire winced. "Oh Robin, but that is most painful."

"Err…"

"Don't ask," trademarked Raven.

"Hiya Noir…welcome to the club," Robin sat down beside me. "So…let's get this game started."

"Well, Cyborg's still explaining the game to Star and---saaaaaaay. Dude! How's he gonna play?!" Beast Boy suddenly retorted, pointing at me.

Raven looked at us both, then asked me: "Got a hand symbol for 'Uno' that we all can understand easily, Noir?"

I shrugged, humored, and lifted a finger.

"Works for me," Robin smirked.

"Pfft…when I said go lay and egg, I meant go lay an egg."

"No fighting now, let's keep this a clean card game," Cyborg smirked, taking his seat after explaining everything to Starfire.

"How about this…," Robin smirked. "Winner takes the next week's supply of ice cream."

"Or how about some piece and quiet during reading time?" suggested Raven.

"This is gonna be a wyrd game with him joining," Beast Boy again gestured to me. "I swear, I'd die for a poker face like that."

Cyborg—the first to look at his hand—grinned wide and retorted, "Oh, you'll get plenty a chance to wish you were dead soon, little man. He he he he!!"

"So much for poker faces," Raven managed a smirk.

So did I.

"Dude, lemme see what you have!"

"Hey man! Not the rules of the game!"

"But I wanna see! I want your cards!"

"Settle down, everyone," Robin said. "We may be competing…but remember, no matter what. Twenty four seven…we're still a team. Keep in mind. Order. Diligence. Support."

Everyone silently nodded. For once, they all resembled me. It felt wrong.

I looked towards Robin. The ultimate mystery. The shadow who comes and goes when he needs to more than he pleases. He was taught by the best, and the more I learn about who exactly that 'Best' is, the more I grow to envy him. He's like the task of unraveling the other four Titans all in one. And yet, I realized to actually manage to do so—as inherently impossible as it is—would be a crime. He is our leader. He earns our respect. He earns our humility. And to assign him anything greater than common familiarity would reduce his deity-like stature in my eyes and certainly in the eyes of my new companions alike. Thus, it has become my goal moreover to abide by him than it is to figure him out. I only hope I can be all he expects me to be….I can only hope I'm all that everyone expects me to be.

More than the mere ghost of Noir.

"Okay then," Robin fanned out his cards and set forth his authority. "Let's get this game started!"

"Here here!"

"Sure."

"Allright!"

"….."

Robin placed the first card down, starting the pile. It was a red eight.

Not more than a second had passed when Starfire—completely possessing seven cards in fan—randomly slammed one of them down over Robin's and joyously chirped: "Ooh-Know!!!"

"Awwwww."

"Duuuude."

"Rrrrrgh."

"Star?!?!"

She looked wounded…confused.

Robin chuckled. "It's okay, Star. Let's start over."

"Yeah, Cy's got overbalanced cards."

"I DO NOT!!"

"Heh heh."

The candlelight flickered against my shades as we played, talked, and laughed into the murk of night.

And once again, I was happy.


	3. Myrkblade

**3. Myrkblade**

The morning light was over the horizon, and already I was up. After the card game, I had only gotten about two hours of sleep that 'night'. But, to be honest, darkness was never truly my time to rest. I've always felt that my body was made to be nocturnal. Not in the dark, morbid sort of way. But rather as a gifted feel for obsidian in the air.

But my greatest of concerns existed in the realm of light. Thus, it was my every day duty—as a Titan as well as a human being—to raise my body from the shadows and seek out meaning and purpose where the living most habituated.

Morning at the base of the tower meant receding tides and cool running low over the dew-covered sawgrass. Just to the North of the bluffs there was a patch of dry ground covered with tall blades of green and brown that shook and shifted in the wind. It was there that I meditated every morning that I could. A hero's talent is not something to leave undisturbed. Like an aging muscle, it must be pulled and flexed to preserve the greatest dexterity. Afer all, to those who are given, much is required…and much of the 'much' is time and commitment.

I held my body stiff in a pose—as if frozen in the middle of a threatening strut or advance on some invisible enemy. My right leg locked as a pillar. My left balanced on my right knee, jutting my left limb outward, above which was a torso with two hands gripped firmly to a slender wooden sword.

Myrkstaff.

I held the blade at seemingly awkward angle. The hilt was raised by my two hands well over my head, though the body itself was aimed seventy degrees downward and a little to the left. It was the ugliest pose to maintain…but the act of maintaining it was where the beauty came in.

I was nearly still as a statue. Yet I could remember the early days when so much as attempting this pose for ten seconds caused every muscle in my body to shake and quake like I was experiencing a seizure: followed by the inevitable collapse of my exhausted, adolescent body to the ground.

Years of obsessive practice and meditation had smoothed out those errors in self-control. For a while there—when my life wasn't so busy or demanding—I had sessions in which I could hold that position for excess of thirty minutes. Yes, it was self-torture. But I knew I would emerge strong in the end. My goal was to make every position of weakness and awkwardness in battle a thing of regularity in my mind and my muscles. I learned how—in any scrape or in any predicament—to right myself back again so that I had once again attained an advantage over my foe.

My eyes were closed under my usual jet black shades. A puff of wind greeted my face, but I stood resolute. Soon I exhaled, my breath showing, and I envisioned for myself a random shadow before me.

In the blink of an eye, I 'fell' out of my torturous position and _glided_ forward with a spiraling, horizontal thrust of Myrkstaff, followed by another step forward and a killer vertical strike, then ending with an upward jab that—if facing a mortal opponent—would have lifted the skull off the vertebra.

Then I spun around in the grass, Myrkstaff at ready. I envisioned the line of advance from which I had come and recovered it in the opposite direction, exercising every graceful swordstrike that I knew. Parrying invisible blades. Slicing through shadowed limbs.

There is no proper name for the fighting style I have endured to emulate. I learned it from a very young age by my mentor, whose energy had left his body a long, long time ago. I learned from him a philosophy I tell only a scant few souls: for its application lies in the very same few who are capable of understanding and wielding essence of the metaphysical.

The energy granted us all in life is not indicative of living alone. The actions we commit from the day we are born to the day we die are full of as much destruction as construction. Birth is a death of its own, and from the very get-go we are destroying things in order to construct things.

Oxygen into energy. Matter and protein. Water and carbon dioxide.

Elements flow into us, through us, and back into their domain for the process to repeat. Existence itself is the construction of destruction as well as the destruction of construction. The presence of one of the two factors cannot maintain itself without the other. It is the duality of everything that is absolute in a universe that's always expanding and yet always growing colder.

Thus, from a young age, I learned to respect that to wield destruction meant also to wield life. I learned to use the Myrkblade---not to save people. Rather, I learned to use the weapon to hurt people and stop people from robbing others of their salvation. To fight crime and simply say that one is "saving innocent lives" is ignoring all the evils of society whom we pummel, stomp, and shove into remission without regard for their own personal motivations.

In saying this, I've not meant to ever excuse the treachery of vagabonds in Life. But merely to point out that it is a foolish thing to expect nothing but pacifism as the main ingredient of vigilantism. In the life I have chosen, I fight people and people get hurt. It's an inevitability that is as cruel as it is beautiful, for I have chosen to believe that the will and salvation of the Innocent is worth more than the desires of the Aggressive. I have long since come to closure with my role in the fight against evil, and take full responsibility for the enforcement I must make to see to the establishment of peace.

I was in the middle of more direct advances; swishing at every angle in my sword and then 'forcing' myself into uncomfortable poses in between so as to randomly simulate enemy advantages. True, one can never rehearse one hundred percent accurately on his own, but I pride myself in a fairly decent halfway percentile through my solo training.

I call it 'meditation' because I do not know any other word for it. When I moved into the Tower and caught glimpse of Raven amidst her chanting, I assumed we had something fairly in common and thus took the liberty of stealing her word. Yet, I always felt that while Raven channeled power from the rift of another dimension, I was always attempting to summon the elements of our very own.

At the precise moment in my exercise, I froze and tightened my grip on Myrkstaff. My eyes narrowed behind the dark shades and I inhaled slowly. The wind around me kicked up a bit, and ink-black smoke rose from where my feet met with the dew-laden grass. Soon there was a billowing cape of black myrk all around my figure. It shook out from my limbs, draped down from underneath my shades, and met together in a spiraling vortex that crawled up the length of my weapon and enveloped it in a warbling mass of onyx power.

Myrkstaff—previously a wooden sword of antique nature—had once again turned temporarily into _Myrkblade_. The myrk was a field of shadow energy that emanated from the Spirit of Destruction I had so long tapped. As long as the Spirit of Construction was held deep inside of me, I could keep the dark energy at bay. I was in perfect balance…perfect harmony…as I always was in any other circumstance save only for the fact that now my energies had literal translations in the physical dimension.

The myrk fed off of the wind…the light…the ticking of time (if there is such a thing as Time). I've always felt that myrk was the wind gauge of fate itself. It spoke to me with shadowdance where gravity would give in with any slight lean of my legs. It showed me the fractures in the Wall of inertia and matter displacement. By holding still to the hilt of the blade, the universe was merely a dome that spun around me. It was a fragile thing which I could cut and force my way through if I needed to see the ambiguous goal at hand. For if one thing was still a mystery to my meditative outreach, it was the future.

Smoke flickered like black fire under my shades. I suddenly parted my legs and my arms and swung Myrkblade to the side; trailing vapor behind it. Where my feet and hands pointed, the blades of grass parted and flexed back in trembling fear.

I suddenly twisted in a spiral and held the blade horizontally by my face as my whole body tensed upward. The grass licked around me and formed a momentary cyclone at my feet.

I slide three fingers down the broad side of the blade, aiming the flickering black tip at some unknown horizon with my left eye. Like a spring, I spun around and swung the sword down with a gasp. A few blades of grass lifted by themselves. I swung the blade up and jabbed downward. Soil flew to the left and the right a couple feet off. I spun, held the blade close to my chest, and suddenly shot it upwards. The energy of the Destructive blade itself lifted my body like a rocket ten feet up. A patch of fog near the tower formed a gash of pale blue sky. And soon I was floating slowly down—foot by foot—to the ground on a cushion of living smoke that soon dissipated where the grass quivered to a stand still.

I took a deep breath. There was one bit of energy left to unleash. I crouched down low, twirling the blade around two hands—skillfully exposing only the dull, broadside of the vaporing nightmare to my skin alone—before springing my whole body towards the sea and jabbing the blade outward with an exhale of fury.

Pebbles flew up from the bluffs…then silence…then a monumental series of flashes in the ocean surf one hundred feet away; as if God had skipped an invisible monolith four or five times across the crashing waves.

Then the smoke was gone.

Myrkblade returned to Myrkstaff.

And I stood up straight and relaxed.

The morning sun raised its nubile head.

I sheathed the sword and faced away from the sun. The light was awfully scalding to my eyes, but I at least stretched my arms so my back could embrace its subtle warmth.

Soon I smiled and headed back up the rocks to the base of the Tower.

_Now_, I thought, _I should be ready for Robin…_


	4. Somebody Has to Clean That Up

**4. Somebody Has to Clean That Up**

"HYAAAAA!!!"

Robin flew at me, chopping a hand down that stunned the length of my right arm. He then lightning-quick-grabbed my aching shoulder and flung me over towards the edge of the mat.

I gracefully recovered in mid flight and landed in a sliding crouch; barely keeping myself from getting out of bounds of the sparring arena. I dashed towards him with all my human might and swiped a forearm at his temple.

He ducked….dodged a second blow of mine, and flipped backwards so that we were at a fair distance apart. We both deserved a half-second to breathe.

Inside the Gym—deep within the recesses of the tower—the Teen Titans were taking part in their weekly training. It was something Robin and I anticipated for days now, for we often enjoyed these bits of hand-to-hand combat. Needless to say, we were both experts in the field. With all the energy we put into the fighting, we knew how to not dangerously hurt each other. 'Boys will be boys', they always say. Robin and I…we were on the way to becoming men.

"Hrmp--!" Robin leapt over me, landed behind, then immediately crouched down and swiped my legs from under.

I fell—but in mid fall my hand reached out and flexed, shoving my body back upwards. I flipped in mid-air and twisted so that a foot would fly towards Robin's chin. The Boy Wonder barely ducked. He backed off a step or two around the time I landed on my feet and stood up, composed.

"Yeah! Allright! Now this is what I call an exciting fight!" Cyborg cheered from the sidelines. With that robotic eye of his, the Teen Titan was acting as visual referee. It was a complicated task all in its own right, not to mention that he was simultaneously 'monitoring' Beast Boy's jog on the treadmill.

"Lemme see! Lemme see!" exclaimed the elf, jumping in mid run to glance over Cyborg's shoulder.

"Nuh uh, little man. You've got a good ten minutes left, so don't be jumpin' off that thing."

"I've already been on this thing for forty minutes!!" Beast Boy exclaimed with an exaggerated pant of the tongue (memoirs of a dog). "Can't I just pause and see who kicks whose butt?"

"I said no. You've got important muscles to grow. And it ain't easy with all the protein you miss out on with that greeny diet of yours."

The emerald one frowned. "You want proteins? How 'bout I jump into your arms and turn Walrus on ya?!"

"That's _fatty tissue_, genius. Just relax. I'll play back the results of the duel later from my neural net."

As if on cue, Beast Boy brightened. "You mean you're recording this thing?"

"Yeah, and your voice is overlapping the combat. So shut up!"

"Pfft," BB pouted. "As if they're both talking or something…"

Robin charged at me with a fist.

I surprised him with an awkward move. I leaned forward and—with use of my greater height—clamped onto his shoulder and held my chest back far enough to miss most of the impact of the Boy Wonder's fist. I then used his torso as a vaulting board—flipping over him—twisting around—and coming down with my chest to his back ready to perform a finishing body slam.

But suddenly Robin's heels slid back and locked with my feet. I was frozen in place by his limbs. He then yanked his upper body down, planted his hands against the mat, untwisted his heels, and shoved them deep into my torso with a leapfrog kick of sorts.

I flew back, flipped, and landed—again, barely in the zone.

Robin spun about and rushed to shove me out.

I merely twirled aside from his advanced and kicked him in the square of his back.

He was sent tumbling forwards. But just before he could collapse out of bounds, he again stopped himself with a handstand at the very edge. He tensed his arms and leapt upwards, flipped, and came down at me with a drop kick and a growl.

I spun to the side—barely avoiding the SLAM! of his impact and flew a fist at his cranium.

He lifted his body in time to avoid my blow, grabbed my arm, and flipped me over his shoulder.

I grabbed the very arm gripping me in time to neatly roll down his back—grab his side—and send him spinning to the other end of the mat, where he stopped a little dizzily and froze in a ready position for the next move.

Again…another half-second to breathe.

"Wow…most exciting," remarked Starfire at the edge of the gym. In the middle of some long-distance, starbolt target practice she looked to her right to observe the ensuing match. "They seem to get evenly matched with each subsequent training session."

"Robin will win, you'll see," said Raven rather monotonously. She was a few feet besides the Tamaranian beauty, floating in a meditative crossing of the legs while levitating various metal spheres and shaping them into a mid-air replica of an electron cloud.

"But Robin always wins," Starfire exclaimed.

"Yes….that's exactly my point." Raven's face scrunched as she turned the electron cloud into a nucleus, and back into an electron cloud again, exercising her mind. "It'd break my concentration to watch the exact same thing happen this week like any other one before."

"I see what you mean…," Starfire nodded. A pause. "……………….._**GO ROBIN!!!**_"

"YAAAAK!" Raven exclaimed, eyes wide. The spheres dropped loudly to the floor. After the surprise left her eyes, her forehead turned into a sizzling red and she growled at Starfire.

"Oops," the alien girl blushed. "Heheheheheh….by all means. Go back to your spinning balls of glory, Raven."

"Yeah….glory be to the engineer who made these things to shatter upon impact with living tissue," Raven griped.

And Starfire was quiet, though she still watched the duel….and smiled.

Robin wooshed up from behind me all of the sudden and gripped me in a headlock. Robin grunted as he applied added force around my neck in an effort to cut my oxygen supply and make me throw in the towel. But there's a little secret that Robin still hadn't gotten used to, and that's that I had a lot more room in my neck to breathe than the average person.

I sneaked in an adequate gulp of air, lifted my legs, put all our weight on Robin's body, then swiftly brought my legs back down and flung Robin over my torso like a catapult.

He landed in a crouch.

I rushed him.

He jumped up with a horizontal swing of the leg.

I blocked with my forearm and swung my other down at his chest.

He pulled it down below his center of gravity and attempted an uppercut at my unbalanced figure.

I spun out of the span of his lunge and elbowed him in the side.

He went sliding across the mat—his boots practically smoking against the material beneath—and then came back at me with a flurry of fists.

SmackSmackSmackSmackSmackSmackSmackSmack.

Backing up, I parried just as rapidly.

BlockBlockBlockBlockBlockBlockBlockBlockBlock.

Cyborg and Beast Boy cheered from the sidelines. Starfire giggled and Raven chanted to herself.

Robin's last punch was really more like a grapple which he used to yank my blocking arm downward and throw me off for a blow to the chest.

But I had anticipated this. And as his right arm went sailing for my torso, I acrobatically flipped the rest of my body on the fulcrum of his grip on my hand, landed behind him, and slid a leg under.

It was here that things happened in slow motion.

The sliding of my leg successfully sweeped his legs out from under him. Slowly, his body swung into a horizontal position with his chest to the ceiling and his back to the floor—thanks to a forceful yank of my arm on his very own grip. I was now kneeling with an airborne Robin right beside me, and the appropriate shove-down of my arm into his chest would most likely ground him to the mat and grant me the first victory in as many hand-to-hand spars as we have had. It wasn't until my palm was making half of its maiden voyage down to smack flat into Robin's sternum that I realized there was a severe error in letting an airborne Boy Wonder named after a bird grip my appendage to begin with.

Robin's right leg snaked to my side, bent, and hooked itself around the entirety of my back. Before an inch of his body could strike the mat, he flexed his lower half with all his might and—using my weight—pulled himself swiftly out of the blow of my palm, which instead struck the floor. I was then helpless while Robin—in perfect agility—snaked around the back of my body, sprung free from my grasp, and used my very derriere as a springboard for his two feet; upon which he leapt high towards the ceiling.

WHUMP!!!

I fell hard onto the mat, chest first. Then I made the foolish mistake of rolling onto my back to get up. For just then—through the black crystal of my shades—I saw Robin flying back down at me elbow-first. He had flipped in midair from jumping off my back, and was now sailing earthward to pin me down.

And he did. And it stung.

WHAM!!!!!

The breath shot out of my mouth. Naturally, there was no grunt or cry. Just the hot air of defeat. Pain warbled out of my body like a heavy stone splashing into a pawn. And after the liquid agony washed over and lapped against the edge of my extremities, the match was over, the gym floor was quieter, and Robin grinned amidst panting.

"Gotcha…"

Cyborg whistled. "Man….that _had_ to hurt."

"Who won?! Who won?!?! Lemme see!!"

"Who do you think won?" Raven mumbled amidst her electrons.

"Say, aren't you supposed to be meditating?"

"Say, aren't you supposed to be going to Hell?"

"Now now, guys," Cyborg tsked, "I know we're all getting worn out in our exercises, but let's not get testy!"

"Yes, Cyborg is right," Starfire said with a helpful smile. "Raven, please do continue with your meditations! And Beast Boy can resume going to the Hell!"

"Think you taught him a good enough lesson, Robin?" Cyborg chuckled. "You know, we stole Beast Boy's whoopee cushions for a reason. Don't take it out on Noir!"

"Heyyyyy!"

Robin stood to his feet and brushed himself off with a smirk. "I know enough about physics to not truly hurt a teammate, Cy. Right, Noir? No damage done?"

I wheezed…hacked…cracked my neck and nodded dizzily.

"Heheh…okay, I'm sorry," he lowered a hand to help me up. "You know me. You were getting pretty good, and I have a record to maintain!"

"Yeah…like most egotistical butt-kickers!" Beast Boy chirped. "Ha ha ha ha!"

Cyborg increased the speed of BB's treadmill by a factor of Five.

"Whoah! Whoah Whoah Whoah WhoahWhoahWhoahWhoahWhoah! Knock it off!!"

"Heheheheh…"

I took Robin's hand and stood up, wincing, but all right.

"Not half bad, Noir," Robin said, patting a shoulder. "One of these days, you may win against me yet."

I nodded silently.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He smiled. "Aw shucks….gloves off. How 'bout it?"

I smiled, knowingly.

Raven's eyes opened from her meditation. "Not again…"

Robin reached back for his rod.

Starfire looked over and blinked. "Eek!"

I reached back to Myrkstaff in its sheathe.

Cyborg gasped. "Uh oh! They're at it again!"

Robin extended his rod and smiled devilishly.

Unlimited powers. _Gloves off indeed._

"Woohoo!" a scampering Beast Boy chanted from his treadmill. "Tear the house down! Tear the house down! Yeah!!"

"RAAAUGH!" Robin leapt..

"!!!!" I leapt.

We met in mid-air, our bludgeons contacting with a broad CRACK!! Myrk erupted outward from my body. I faded and materialized directly behind Robin—forcing his falling body to the ground and pressing him into the mat.

For a moment he struggled, then acrobatically froglegged his lower body into planting two heels deep into the pressure points of my ribs.

Naturally, I was jolted off him. But as I rolled away, I left a carpet of warbling smoke which I promptly yanked out from under him when he stood up—sending him falling to the ground again.

I gasped and swung Myrkstaff down at him.

Robin rolled.

I swung down to strike him again.

Robin rolled to the other side and brought a foot up, deflecting my third swing—and the staff—up in the air.

He then jumped up, recovered his rod, and spun it at me like a huge fan.

"Yeah!! That's what I'm talking about! RrrrRAUGH!!"

I held Myrkstaff out. Blocking each spin of Robin's metal. Making sparks fly.

Robin swung horizontally at my skull the first moment he could.

I ducked and jabbed into his chest with the blunt edge of Myrkstaff.

He groaned and bent forwards.

I made to uppercut him with the wood.

He spiraled out of the way and tripped me with the rod.

I fell butt-first to the ground.

Robin jammed his rod down at me.

A bed of myrk formed behind my shoulders and slid me towards the side of the gym—completely off the map. I then vaulted myself backwards, flipped, and landed with my feet planted against the wall. A coil of smoke formed against the concrete siding and exploded. My body sailed directly at Robin as I stretched Myrkstaff forward like a tomahawk missile.

In slow motion, Robin bent his body back and narrowly escaped my rocketing figure scraping over his chest.

I rolled to the floor and squatted up just in time to see him charging me with three birdarings poised between his knuckles….which he let fly.

I held the broadside of Myrkstaff out vertically and deflected all three projectiles in one shove.

C-C-CLANK!!

Right after, Robin was on me…swinging his staff and grunting and sweating with the whole effort yet grinning all the same with the challenge.

I smiled back at him and deflected each blow, jabbing forward with my weapon every now and then to contact a shoulder or leg—but to no avail.

"Whoah! Watch it!" Cyborg dashed out of the way as we dueled past him. The fight took us both slowly across the floor of the gym. Nothing was sacred anymore. We reached the exercise equipment. Meanwhile a nearby panicky Beast Boy watched in mid sprint on the treadmill.

Robin backed me up against a rack of dumbbells. He swung three times horizontally—each of which I dunked or dodged. Then he made a vertical strike with a growl. I rolled backwards up and over the rack of dumbbells and swung up with a flash of Myrkblade—slicing the rack entirely in two. In slow motion, the dumbbells lifted in midair. I swiftly brought Myrkblade back down through one of the medium dumbell's centers, spun around, and effectively kicked both severed weights--flying directly at Robin's body.

Fast forward. Robin spun his rod counter-clockwise, froze, deflected one weight, spun it the other way, froze, deflected the other, then spun, then jabbed forward with the weapon.

I lunged back, lunged forward, kicked, and sent Robin sailing backwards over the equipment.

Robin righted himself in midair and grabbed ahold of the wire support of a nearby punching bag. He spun around by his grip, landed in a crouch on the body of the bag, and used it as a spring to leap directly over me, squat, and jab the square of my back with the broadside of his rod.

I was sent reeling over towards Cyborg—who again yelped and jumped out of the way. When I had composed myself, Robin was again charging, a grin of competition on his face.

I tossed some dark hair out of my eyes, crouched, and flared up a wall of myrk behind me. FLASH!!! I crossed ten meters in one tenth of a second. The sheer velocity of my power sent Robin floating upward. FLASH!! In a streak of obsidian I was above him, shoving down with my foot. Robin sailed to the floor. FLASH!! I streaked beneath him, caught him with my spring-like legs, and launched his body across the length of the gym.

But eventually, Robin beat me to the punch. I was just then zooming up towards him on miles-per-nanosecond speed when he whipped out a grappling hook and shot it towards the ceiling. So, when I reached where I anticipated his body to be in mid air and swung Myrkstaff, he had recoiled a few feet above me, flipped, and flung himself down rod first.

SMACK!!

The blow sent me spiraling to the ground. At the last second I landed on my right knee and left toe—stretched out athletically—and slid to a stop at the base of Beast Boy's treadmill.

Robin lit the ground and charged at me, growling.

I smirked and flipped up before he could contact me and perched gracefully on one of the railings of Beast Boy's exercise machine.

The green elf sweatdropped and then yelped as Robin's staff struck at me. Beast Boy effectively ducked and dodged each swing of Robin's and my contacting bludgeons—all the while continuing his strenuous jog.

"Aah!" **Whack**! "Eeek!" **Clang**! "Hey!" **Wham**! "Knock it off!" **Smack**! "Sheesh!"

Robin suddenly whipped out his birdtaser and aimed at my chest. Beast Boy shrieked and duck-ran. I again flipped off, jumped off the wall, and sailed down over Beast Boy's head—knocking the taser away. The tool slid far along the ground of the gym and exploded somewhere near Starfire's feet.

"Ackies!!" Starfire jumped up--

"Azzarath…Metrion…Zinth—"

--and fell into Raven's levitating lap.

"--UGH!!!"

Both girls tumbled to the floor—Raven's metal spheres clattering on top of their dizzy heads.

Robin swung at me with both edges of his rod.

I sidestepped both lunges and swung down with Myrkstaff.

Robin leapt away, and my blow broke off the metal bar supporting a dumbbell—which fell to the floor with a clang!

Robin picked up the bar in one hand and held his rod parallel in the other. He winked through his eyemask, growled, and came at me—spinning like a top and rotating both metallic sticks of death like a rusted carnival ride from Hades.

My eyes widened under the shades. I found myself backing up, deflecting, erupting smoke and myrk to confuse him—but he merely pierced on through, spinning and rotating and striking and grinning and sending sparks flying.

I had to get out of that hurricane. So I ducked and slid down, underneath, through his legs, and leapt up the other side. I spun a three-sixty with my sword, only for him to reach backwards with both metal rods—effectively trapping my bludgeon in a rusted grip.

With a yank, he flipped Myrkstaff into the air through use of his rods. I leapt to catch it, but he performed a suddenly impossible bicycle kick that shot my weapon up into the air sharply so that it stuck into the ceiling.

"HA!" Robin spun about and swung both rods mightily to crush my lungs together from the sides. I merely bounded over him and ran right towards the edge of the gym. As I approached it, myrk flashed out from my feet. I grit my teeth and ran directly up the wall. Defying gravity through speed and dark energy.

Cyborg let out a long whistle. "Man, look at 'em go."

"Yeah..," Beast Boy wheezed, looking sick. "Look at 'em…"

Raven pushed Starfire off her and grumbled.

Robin watched.

I ran up the wall, bounded off, shot out into open air, and flipped twice until my feet were close enough to the ceiling. I momentarily fazed into smoke and back again, and soon I was hanging upside down from the ceiling right next to my stuck Myrkstaf thanks to my smoke-encircled feet.

Robin couldn't help but laugh.

I grinned. Grabbed the staff. Let loose my powers. And fell upside down directly over him.

Robin readied to strike me with both rods.

But halfway down the ascent, I faded into smoke and faded back again—upright--with an airbone, spinning kick that deflected both weapons out of the Boy Wonder's.

SM-SMACK!!

Coming down from my full descent, I swung Myrkstaff vertically.

It missed Robin's nose by an inch as he backed up and chuckled. "Heheh! Two can play at that game!"

I'm usually one to listen. But I didn't care right then. I swung again at his form.

Robin leapt, flipped, jumped off unsuspecting Cyborg's shoulders and fired another grappling hook. The cord wrapped around the base of a ceiling fan. Robin let loose some slack and used his momentum to run along the circumference of the gym's walls, one arm tethering him to the grappling hook cord and the fan in the center of the ceiling.

Thus, Robin effectively—er—played round-robin with me. He orbited my body as his feet dashed him horizontally along the walls. With a free hand, he simultaneously grabbed handfuls of birdarangs and sent them—laughing—hurtling towards my figure.

I quickly tensed my muscles, centered myself, and channeled energy into Myrkblade just in time to slash at each incoming projectile. Waves of dark energy deflected them more or less back at Robin's speedily rotating position.

The wall-running Boy Wonder unleashed birdarang after birdarang at me.

WOOSH! WOOSH! WISH! WOOSH!

I deflected each into a piece of equipment…a trophy case…a locker…and other outrageously destructible structures.

CLANK! SMASH!! WHANG! SMASH!! CONG! SMASH!!

Starfire shook the tumbled red hair out of her face, saw the whirling projectiles everywhere, "EEKed!" and again leapt………into the arms of Raven who had just now gotten up. Needless to say, both girls fell down once more.

SMASH!! CRASH!! BANG!!

"Aaack!!" Beast Boy winced, still treadmilling as if his life depended on it. "Not again! It took me two weeks to clean up after last time!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" Robin hysterically exclaimed.

I smirked, then deflected his last birdarang expertly so that it flew like the wind and ripped through his grappling cord.

Robin gasped and plunged to the floor, ironically closed to his dropped weapons.

I gripped Myrkstaff and smoked towards him at the speed of sound.

In a flash he was up on his feet with both rods ready.

_Time to finish this…_

CLANK!!

My staff's vertical plunge ended at the cross of his blocking metal. He lifted against me with a growl and resumed his trademark metal spinning.

I deflected his rapid succession of attacks and put my weight into shoving him back. He snaked around me with a slide and struck up with a double vertical cut. I blocked blindly, reversed myself, kicked him in the chest, and struck low. He leapt, fell back, and lunged. I trapped his rods down to the ground with my weapon, rolled over his back, and struck up against his chest. He brought his rods to his chest and blocked, then shoved against my blow. I was sent spinning but miraculously stopped in time to contact his next attack. He attacked. I parried. I attacked. He parried. We suddenly morphed into a spinning cyclone of clanging metal till somebody slipped and somebody sweat and somebody slid back and somebody slid after and before we both knew it, our weapons had locked with a huge shower of sparks in such a way that the heated metal and wood surfaces were half an inch away from contacting each other's necks.

"…….." Robin panted.

"……." So did I.

Silence.

Cyborg peeked up from where he had been hiding the last minute from behind a smashed locker.

Beast Boy looked as well…his running legs numbed for one reason or another.

Starfire and Raven untangled for the last time and gave us exhausted glares.

"……" Robin panted. Then blinked behind his eyemasks. Then grinned. "Well….I guess…..that leaves it….as a draw…."

I nodded and smiled. Sweat glistened from under my shades as I sheathed Myrkstaff and Robin dropped his rods and looked towards the others.

"Where were we exactly?"

"NOWHERE!!!!" everyone chanted at once.

"….oh."

Just then, the communicator on Robin's utility belt chimed emphatically. Surprised, he lifted the object and opened it up to read the exclamatory text message on the little LCD screen.

His masked eyes widened and he exclaimed out loud. "Titans! Trouble!"

Beast Boy looked around at the ruined, smoking gym. "Pfft! Yeah, you think?"

"Seriously this time!" Robin bolted for the Main Room. "Let's go!"

Starfire and Raven bolted into action.

"We can worry about the protein later," Cyborg muttered as Beast Boy leapt off the machine and falconed his way towards the Briefing. "Noir!" grinned the android at me. "Come on!"

I wiped some sweat from my brow.

_You've got to either love it or hate it._

I ran after my teammates.


	5. Alien Network News part 1

**5. Alien Network News part 1**

"Bugs??"

"Yes," Robin nodded. "Giant, buzzing, killer bugs."

The titans stood before a huge monitor in the Main Room, displaying a 3D schematic of a high-rise building in downtown. A level or two near the top of the spire highlighted themselves and blew up into a blueprint of a large, expensive lounge in the sky.

"Eye-witnesses said that about a few hours after opening their offices in the Kobayashi Tower, giant insects started crawling out of the ventilation ducts and began wreaking havoc on anyone in hovering distance."

Starfire remarked, "Was anyone hurt?"

"Nothing serious," Robin said. "They evacuated the workers and chairmen from the highrise and tried to ward the beasts away. But they were too much for the authorities. So they closed the top floors off and called us."

"We're superheroes," Raven grumbled. "Not exterminators."

"You know who this sounds like, right?" added Cyborg.

Robin nodded. "I wouldn't doubt at all if it was Killer Moth back in action."

"But what would he want with the Kobyashi Tower?" Starfire blinked.

"Say, isn't that where that big news agency nearby broadcasts from?" remarked Beast Boy.

"JCN News? Yeah…along with the distribution of a few other cable channels."

"Pffft," Beast Boy crossed his arms. "I knew there was something wrong with the T.V. this morning."

"If it is Killer Moth, he's probably trying to use the tower as a place to broadcast some threatening message to the city," said Cyborg.

"Or get free HBO."

Everyone looked at Beast Boy.

"Okay! Fine! Sheesh….sorry for existing…."

"Wouldn't he know that we'd try to stop him?" Starfire remarked.

"Most likely so," Robin nodded and switched off the monitor. "This is too much of a give away. Still, I'm not gonna keep a patient man waiting. Especially if he's out on the loose again."

"He did escape two weeks ago…," Raven added.

"Alright Titans. Let's all meet at the tower. Cyborg!" Robin pointed. "You and Raven take the T-Car. Starfire…Beast Boy….you can follow along as I ride by motorcycle."

"What about Noir?" Beast Boy gestured.

I waited patiently.

Robin glanced at me. Smirked. And for a split second I saw a twinkle in his eyemask that resembled the flying sparks from our gymnasium duel.

"You're on your own."

"!!!!" My eyes widened under the shades.

Raven and Cyborg were off.

Beast Boy blue jayed out the window.

Stafire giggled and was gone in a flash.

Robin jumped over to a doorframe and went down the a pole.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Cyborg laughed. "I love it when he does this to the noobie!"

I took two steps towards their door—but it slammed closed on me.

Robin's laughter filled the chamber.

I dashed towards his shute, only to be closed off.

Last but not least, I headed towards the window where Beast Boy and the Tamaranian had flown out. But a wall of glass slid up, mocking me.

I pressed to the pane, only to see a green blue jay cawing and a humored Starfire waving good bye as they floated off towards Downtown and the distant Kobayashi Tower.

Yes, I was the brunt of their joke. And something inside me fumed. But no sooner I counted it all for normality. I _was_ indeed the 'noobie', as Cyborg coined. In due time, I'd be accepted into the regular rush of things. I suppose I could deal with one joke or two as I blended in with the task of teenage heroism.

_But there was no way I'd let them one-up me that easily._

Masculine as I am, I determined to face their challenge. I turned around, squatted, and shot outward from the Main Room in a blur of smoke. Hallways and walls flashed before me. I twisted and turned down dark corridors in the Titan Tower.

LeftRightLeftLeftDownRightLeftForwardRightStop. Into the cellar. Into the darkness. Behold…the door to my quarters. I pressed a panel and it slid open. I blurred inside and to the mantle. I replaced the training sheathe of Myrkstaff with the hardened one I used in the field. I blurred to my bedside table. I whipped out a bandana. I fastened it around my forehead, keeping the hair in check, and was ready to go.

And go I…went.

Having memorized the inside of the Tower appropriately—I hoped—I decided on the fastest way to the exit. So I blurred up the stairs, out of the tower, down the main foyer and---

WHAM!!!

I fell back, rubbing my sore head.

The front doors wouldn't give.

I pulled on them.

They were locked from the outside.

I could hear a chuckle from both Cyborg and Robin on the exterior…followed shortly by the rearing motors of the T-Car and Robin Cycle.

I clenched my fists.

Sure, I could have exited those doors easily with my powers (not to mention my blade). But I had a better idea.

I made an abrupt turn, and soared up the stairwell.

A few seconds later, I emerged on the roof of the Tower. The midday sun warmed me as I stretched, cracked my neck, and blurred to the edge of the structure.

I looked out and could see the T-Car and the Robin Cycle hovering off. And over them were the distant forms of Starfire and Beast Boy.

I have this ability that I call 'Whisping'. It's when the Destruction inside of me clashes with Light. Thus, smoke and air converge to become a feather-light, frictionless anomaly. In other words, I've learned to become in tune with the Wind itself. It's great for show off.

And it was great for then.

I flexed my arms out beside me, beyond me, faced the edge…..and fell over.

Wind kicked at me…my hair…my bandana. The turbulent waves lapping against the rocky bluffs of the Tower base roared up at my figure as I plummeted. Then at the last second, I forced my body into a backflip, encased the soles of my feet in myrk, and halted my descent directly at the shoulders of lapping water.

There was a rush of air all around me like a fountain, and a circle of waves spouted out from my stance and sighed into tranquility

I stood on the water for a scant few seconds, repositioning my limbs nimbly, and in another blink of an eye I was blurring straight forward. Smoke energy shoved me forward through the realm of mist and light. I was running on water, forming white vapors behind me. To my far left, I caught a peripheral vision through my shades of the T-Car on the bridge heading into Downtown; parallel to myself.

I smirked, saluted in mid-sprint with a pair of fingers, and dashed off towards dry land.

Before I reached the crags and docks that formed the Bay part of the town, I leapt high into the air and let momentum carry me over the waterside streets—swarming with cars and pedestrians—and landed on the buildingtops of a medium commercial center. I dashed along from rooftop to rooftop, leaping my way higher and higher as I approached the summit of downtown. I recognized the beginning of Main Street. To get there, I leapt clear over the road to my left and onto the adjacent building tops. I scaled higher and higher. I heard a bird cry overhead and recognized in mid-blur the green form of Beast Boy. I smiled to myself and jumped extraordinarily high—purposefully upsetting his flight as I reached the side of a skyscraper and ran up its side at the speed of sound. Any more of a lagging behind, and he would have certainly pecked my ears out. I grinned as I pivoted myself and ran perpendicular to the buildings' sides, my right torso facing the street way down below. A banner of sorts blocked my way suddenly. With a gasp, I pulsed the murk at my feet, flipped off the left side of the street, rotated in mid air, and made contact with the buildings' sides on the right. Blurring towards my destination.

Soon the height of Kobayashi Tower rose before me. I brought my arms together, leapt off the building in mid sprint, and sorta flipped-dived towards my target. I landed in a squat straight against the vertical, glass windows of the Tower with such dark energetic force that it was a wonder I didn't shatter a single piece of the translucent material. In half a second, I jabbed my upper half ahead of my legs and stretched my legs back, propelling my body like an obsidian bullet upwards as I dashed up the glass. Before my shades there appeared a horizon of blue. Just at the edge of the building top, I spotted a few police helicopters hovering. I figured that they had the place pretty well covered from the exterior. Now it was our job.

I looked for something to perch upon and was delighted to spot a triad of flagpoles. I headed for the one in the center, dashed up past it, released myself from the building side, backflipped, and landed in a solid pose on one precarious flagpole. One leg in front of the other, I leaned over and squinted inside. Through my shades I saw a passageway inside. I was directly facing a huge, wall-sized window.

The T-Car roared to a stop below me, announcing Cyborg and Raven. A rush of wind sounded on top of me, announcing Starfire and Beast Boy. Finally, the pop and swish of a grappling hook took place on the opposite side of the skyscraper. Robin had arrived.

I smiled as I unsheathed Myrkstaff.

_In our own rights…we are all even._

I crouched nimbly on the thin flagpole and channeled murk energy from my staff. All the while I was studying every nook and cranny of the window's glass face. I pressed smoke into it, feeling its cool surface. Feeling its reflective nature. Feeling the edges where it was held into the foundation. Feeling the fasteners. Feeling the nuts and bolts. Feeling the minute pockets of air between them. _There!_ I sensed a half centimeter hole just a finger away from the bottom center of the window.

With a rush, I silently transported through the glass and then stood inside on a curtain of invading smoke. I took a deep breath and sheathed Myrkstaff, holding the dark energies back at bay.

It was dark inside. Dead dark.

_The last thing I'd mind…_

I snaked my way down the hall, my back neatly pressed against one side. I passed a few doors till I came across one with a slit of light showing at the bottom.

Faint light.

I knelt down, held a finger out, and trickled forth a small fountain of smoke that rolled down the doorframe and slipped underneath. I closed my eyes beneath the shades and 'felt' the inside of the adjacent room. It was a somewhat difficult task, but I tapped my spatial awareness along the currents of murk and sensed the room to be empty of threatening life. I stood back up, tried the doorknob, found it locked, stepped back, and swiftly kicked the door open.

WHAM!!!

I stomped half my body through the frame, one hand tentatively rested on Myrkstaff's hilt along my back.

I squinted into the faint glow of the sun coming in through two clear stories of tinted windows. I was at the top of a small flight of stairs leading down into the base of the huge, highrise lounge. There was not a body in sight. Not even giant killer insects.

Perplexed, I stepped slowly into the room—ever vigil. A beautiful chiming sound hovered over me. I spun around and caught sight of Starfire, descending from an upper balcony.

"Noir! It is you!" she floated overhead. "This place is strangely vacant of all evil, is it not?"

I solemnly nodded.

A green blue jay landed on the hand railing of the stairs, chirped, and morphed into a sitting Beast Boy. "So…..like….did the Orkin Man beat us to this place?"

"I have no idea…" Starfire's head shook.

An elevator opened on the far side of the floor.

Beast Boy jumped into a fighting stance. Starfire's hand glowed over her head.

Robin swung in from the dark elevator shaft and dusted himself off. "Report!"

"Wish I had something worth reporting," Beast Boy shrugged. "Besides, we all got here just seconds before you did."

There was a warbling sound as Raven morphed up from a dark portal in the carpet along with Cyborg. Soon they stood and walked towards us.

"We just talked with the police," Cyborg said. "They've got the SWAT Team for backup just in case we flush whoever it is into their hands."

"Aren't we….um….missing something?" Raven remarked.

"I know, it's all wrong," said Robin. "Not like I expected anything less."

"You mean you knew we could be walking into a trap, and yet you still had us come here?!" Beast Boy complained.

"Calm down. There's nothing here we can't handle. I'm sure of it," Robin said. He thought for a split second, then said: "Titans. Split up. Beast Boy, go check out this floor with Starfire. Noir, Cyborg, you guys go upstairs. Raven and I will check the floors below. Keep in contact via communicator. Whatever's fluttering around in this belfry, we're gonna clear 'em out."

"Wh-What if there *are* monstrous, Earth bugs nearby??" Starfire trembled.

Cyborg shrugged. "Fly swatter?"

Starfire bit her lip.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Let's get moving."

Robin nodded and walked off with her.

Starfire and Beast Boy scampered away.

Cyborg tapped my shoulder and gestured up the stairs.

"Come on, let's not leave any stone unturned."

I nodded and followed the android…though there was no stone in sight. _Ha…boy did that sound like Starfire._

Our paths took us up a few grand staircases into what must have been the most expensive offices in the entire city. The firm that ran the business of JCN News was a Japanese group of men, and their workplaces reflected it. Amidst the darklit interiors—no problem for either Cyborg or me—we found ourselves wandering around simulated Japanese gardens, houses, and even a dojo that acted as coffee room. Go figure. We had checked just about every floor—flashlighting and murking our way through each doorframe—when nothing turned up out of the ordinary.

"Whatever _was_ here…it's gone now," Cyborg muttered. "I mean…we checked every room."

I slowly shook my head.

He looked at me funny. "Say what?"

I gestured upwards with a finger.

Cyborg glanced. He smacked the metallic part of his head. "Son of a….how could we not see that?!"

A long escalator led to a balcony with a grand, Japanese sliding-door entrance. It was extraordinarily fancy. Undoubtedly, it must have been the Boss' room.

"Well…no rest for the weary," Cyborg grinned. He lifted an arm, formed it into a laser rifle, and led the way up. I followed the android point man slowly…quietly.

We reached the top of the still escalator and approached the singular entrance with caution. Cyborg signaled with his eyes and I complied by grabbing onto the handle and getting poised to slide open the doors.

Cyborg held three fingers up. Held two fingers up. Held one finger up.

I nodded.

SWISH!!

Cyborg dashed in, gun raised and squealing in charge-up. I posed beside him, Myrkstaff at ready.

And…….nothing.

Cyborg's red eye blinked. "Okay….that was anticlimactic."

I looked around from under his shoulder.

The room was clean. A lot of open space with a desk at one corner, flanked by two heavy models wearing Medieval Japanese armor; complete with katanas. The ceiling was composed of a bunch of horizontal, dojo-esque wooden beams. Slits of light came in from windows that met the outside world. We figured we must have been in the uppermost office room in the city.

"I usually expect more of a party when the boss is not in…," Cyborg said, returning his blaster into a hand. "This is downright wyrd."

_"They're heeeeeeeere!_"

Cyborg practically went pale. So did I.

_Where did that voice come from?_

WOOSH!!!!

There was a shrieking sound as two buzzing mantises flew down from overhead and swiped at our skulls. We ducked the giant, insect fury and slid apart in opposite directions—ready to fight whatever or whoever.

A cackle filled the room as the two creatures perched on the two pieces of Japanese armor and glared at us through compound eyes and drooling mandibles.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Who's there?!?!" Cyborg growled. "Show yourself! Now!!"

A voice fluttered down from the ceiling. I expected something completely demonic and morose. Instead…it sounded like some random person you'd meet in a Hot Topic or Suncoast.

"And no matter how fast you scamper, the Langoliers will get you!!"

"I'm not afraid of no oversized ladybugs!!" Cyborg frowned.

"Those aren't ladybugs you uneducated Wookie!!" the voice squabbled. There was a heavy rushing sound—and I do mean heavy. A modestly rotund, bearded figure landed squarely on a beam right over the Boss' desk. "Those are the exact handpuppets used in the classic 1950s Sci-Fi thriller, _'Nest of the Crawling Terror'_, which scored a modestly low roster in the decade's box office under the shadow of '_The Creeping Evil!_'." The figure spun something in his grasp and illuminated his face with a comically eerie flashlight in the other. "Mr. Kobayashi bought it from cheap in the Land of the Rising Sun just like he bought this here pathetic news and cable Station! But, with a little click from yours truly, they become much more than mere puppets, Mr. Data Wannabe! They're the real McCoy!"

Cyborg's face twisted into something absurdly mixed between fear and disgust. "Control Freak????"

"!!!!" I looked up at him.

"That's Admiral Control Freak to you, Tin Man!" the fat nerd rotated the Klingon controller in his grasp and struck a Cheetos stained grin. "And welcome to the greatest Convention yet!"


	6. Alien Network News part 2

**6. Alien Network News part 2**

"Their names are George and Gracie," Control Freak gladly orated as he gestured towards the living mantis puppets. "Coined nicknames from the original crew of _'Nest of the Crawling Terror'. _They originally wanted to hire Ray Harryhausen to make the giant insects in stop-motion-animation, but due to budget restraints they used these beauties instead. It's amazing what a talented, obese hand and about a pound of green rubber can do!"

Cyborg and I stared in horror. The puppet insects were hardly puppets anymore. Their mandibles shined with serrated glory and their gangly legs twitched with bloodlusting claws.

Control Freak spun his remote in his grasp: the source of his transmogrifying, monster-summoning power. "Let me remind you that they're six legged antiquities! Over a billion yen each--or whatever is an expensive numbers over there. Mr. Kobayashi spared no expense in purchasing them out of storage. Imagine the look on his face to see them mugging him for his very own wallet! Or even his jugular vein! HA!"

"Okay, Freak. Enough games. What's this all about anyways?" Cyborg waved.

"DON'T INTERRUPT ME WHEN I'M TALKING!!?" the tyrannical trekkie cackled. "Everything in this office…everything in this room…EVERYTHING IN THIS TOWER IS PRICELESS. And it deserves more than to just sit around and collect dust! I may be breaking Prime Directive, but I'm willing to donate every and all functional technologies to breathe light into these long-forsaken golems of Hollywood!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

"It's an issue of property, man." Cyborg frowned. "You can't just go and steal it, no matter how 'alive' you make these things with that souped up Clicker of yours!"

"Pffffft!" Control Freak stuck his tongue out. "For Cardassia's sake, I've got a 40 gig hard drive on my computer full of mp3s and theatrical screeners. Property is not a word in my vocabulary!" He smiled, spun his remote, and leapt down from the rafters and landed on the huge oak desk.

Cyborg readied his rifle and I unsheathed Myrkstaff.

"Now don't go into Red Alert just yet…," he grinned. "I"m freeing these relics from their vintage prisons. And you're not gonna stand in my way. After all, I'm doing it for their own good, and anything you do to stop me would just hurt them ALL THE MORE!"

"No overpriced bug mittens are gonna keep us from throwing you back in the cell where you belong, punk!" Cyborg shouted.

I grinned at that and looked over at Control Freak.

The mantises buzzed in mid-air as the rotund villain grinned and said somewhat cooly under his morbid breath: "There is yet a final frontier" He brought a pudgy finger down over an orange button on his remote.

Suddenly, the huge paper wall drop behind the desk slid up; revealing a veritable museum piece of spaceship models, alien body costumes, set pieces, and various other memorabilia that even Cyborg and I could recognize at first glance.

My android companion blinked and limply lowered his rifle halfway. "Whoah…"

"Whoah is right. Let's test out your Total Recall, Mr. Android, shall we? The last time the Titans and I went through fisticuffs, it was inside a lousy junkpile of a movie rental store. I bet y'all were just peachy keen in destroying whatever animated monstrosity I spontaneously conjured up from our surroundings. But these things you see here are all part of Mr. Kobayashi's personal collection. They ain't no two-bit cardboard stand or stack of VHS tapes. They're pieces of Hollywood history measuring up to $5 million bucks each! In fact, I wouldn't doubt if the whole array of goodness here exceeds five hundred million in American dollars!"

He began clicking his remote repeatedly. Each costume, each model, each prop, each puppet glowed bright green and came to life in one fashion or another as Cyborg and I watched, dumbfounded. Some objects sprouted legs and evil mouths. Some just animated themselves as well as they logically could; spaceship engines turned on and rubber monster suits marched forth on sinewy legs.

"You can bet your bottom Ferengi bar that each one will give you nothing but hell till you up and leave this place so I can accomplish my goals. Feel free to beat 'em up and trash them as much as you destructively-minded Titans love to do! Not only will it mean the loss of millions of dollars, but just think how Mr. Kobayashi would feel upon returning to work? I'm sure his national pride will be hurt, so you can just imagine him tossing all of American JCN Broadcasting into the fire along with at least five cross-country cable companies that the billionaire didn't even give a darn about in the first place! The economic repercussions of his bruised ego would shake the entire Western Hemisphere and sooner than you know it, you and your friends will be pulling part time jobs at every McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Krystal from here to the International Date Line! And it'll all be because you decided to tear loose on these menaces just for the sake of stopping a measly, Stargate SG-1 recording, gobstopper whore like me."

He pressed another button on his controller.

"YOU THINK IT'S WORTH IT?!?!"

The two mannequins with Japanese armor came to life. They unsheathed their katanas and led the pack in a slow, treacherous march towards us. Advancing.

"It's Round One, Titans," Control Freak grinned and planted his hands on his hips. "Show me what you've got! I dare ya!"

Cyborg and I found ourselves being approached by a literal phalanx of samurai warriors, drooling mantises, a Mobster, Gamera, an X-Wing, a blue-fluorescent outfit from Tron, and Alf.

_Ever felt like a nightmare came true?_

"Uhm……Noir?" Cyborg gulped as a sweatdrop came down his temple. Both he and I took an uneasy step back. "Remember what Robin and I taught you about fighting in the field?"

I tentatively nodded.

"Remember what we said about giving all your 'macho best' in pummeling the enemy?"

Again, I nodded.

"Screw it all and _fight like a girl!!!!!!!!!!!"_ Cyborg yelled as the monsters jumped us.

I looked straight ahead. I saw both samurai armors charging at me. I saw their shiny katanas glistening in light from the memorabilia display.

I bit my lip…then sighed.

And sheathed Myrkstaff.

SWOOSH!!

They swung at me simultaneously.

I jumped out of their attack and no sooner found myself being charged by Gamera with his huge turtle claws. I grabbed his shoulders and flipped over and suddenly faced the Mobster mannequin. He punched me square in the shades. I fell back and saw Alf flying down--fat feet first. I rolled to the side and got to my knees. I gasped and ducked a low-flying katana of one warrior, then rolled forward to avoid the vertical swipe of the second. An X-Wing flew overhead, firing a trail of blasters at my position. I glanced up at the rafters, charged up murk, and catapulted myself upward in a blur so that I perched high above the scene in momentary safety.

"Crud!!" Cyborg shouted, being cornered on all sides by mantises, samurai, and aliens. "Crud….crudcrudcrudcrudcrudcrudCRUD!!"

He had no way out. I spotted the door. I crouched into position just as the X-Wing zoomed behind me and started blasting lasers. In midfire, I blurred diagonally downward, caught Cyborg by the chest, and shoved the two of us through the paper sliding doors and onto the balcony with a THUD!

The other Titans—finished with their rounds—had long gathered in the spacious lounge below. They glanced up at us in shock.

"Cyborg! Noir!! You guys okay?!"

Cyborg grunted.

I waved emphatically.

"What is it?!" Starfire hovered upwards. "What are you trying to tell us—ZAP!!!!"

A stray blast laser bounced off the Tamaranian's head, leaving a slight trail of singed, smoking hair. Her eyes blinked wide green for a second or two before she snapped out of it and remarked numbly, "Do giant insects have a warrant to carry firearms?"

SMASH!!!

I turned around and looked with a gasp. A wave of new monsters had burst through the wall after us.

Suddenly, Cyborg was on his feet beside me. He braced himself as Gamera flew in out of nowhere and bore down on his figure. The two performed a dramatic, high wire wrestling act along the edge of the balcony.

I got up to help—but then the two samurai armors caught sight of the one opponent carrying a blade and approached me with katanas raised high. I paced myself cautiously, watching their every movement. One swung at me. I danced to the right, letting the blade sink into the balcony railing. The other armor charged me with the point of his sword first. I backflipped onto a solid part of the balcony and then leapt over them in full stretch, rolling on the ground behind them and standing up—only to be face to face with drooling mandibles.

A green mantis puppet latched onto my face and yanked its serrated mouth towards my nose. I gripped its cranium at the last second, gritting my teeth and struggling against the green creature as its partner hissed and hovered around my ears. There was a set of footsteps behind me, and I remembered the samurai. I squatted on the ground—missing two simultaneous, horizontal swings of the katanas from behind—and then rolled backwards with a jump, during which I also tossed the mantis off at full force.

Half a second into my flight, I realized I had jumped over the side of the balcony…

I gasped and reached my hand up as high as I could. YANK! I grabbed onto the bottom of the overhang. The samurai and mantises leered over me. I heard a rush of engines and glanced to my precarious left to see an oncoming X-Wing with blasters firing. While fired at, I grunted and swung my legs up into the balcony, blurred my feet, and twirled back up and flipped onto the balcony again. In mid flip I dodged two blades and a shrieking mandible. I landed against the one solid piece of the paper door left, blurred again, and leapt off it; smashing the structure to pieces. I landed on the railing of the escalator and slid down; my boots making sparks all the way. And I wasn't alone, for the two living pieces of samurai armor were sliding down with me—one on either side. They swung and swung and swung and swung their katanas, and amidst the sparkling descent into the lounge I had to duck, hop, flip from rail to rail, and block their forearms in order to keep my head intact.

When we reached the bottom, I jumped off the escalator rails, leapt directly upwards, flipped, and bicycle kicked the two armors upside down, firmly enough to shove them away without too grandiose injuries to their condition.

But no sooner did I land that a charging green rhino shoved off one samurai warrior and a righteous starbolt deflected another.

I gasped and shook my arms and head in a huge conglomeration of the frantic message: _"NO!!!!"_

"Noir, what's going on?! What is all this?!" Robin asked.

I waved. I pointed. I gestured. I sweat.

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "Couldn't you have done that before we came here?"

I fumed.

The X-Wing dove down, blasters ready.

"Allright….this chaos ends here," Robin growled and readied a fan of explosive birdarangs which he aimed at the approaching prop.

I about had a heart attack.

"NOOOOO!!" Cyborg wailed from above.

Robin nearly pratfalled. He glanced upward at the balcony. "Cyborg?!"

Cyborg fought the giant costume of turtle meat. "Don't….harm….a….single….hair….on…their….head….ugh….dammit! Hold on!" He elbowed Gamera in the soft belly and shoved him off before leaping over the balcony and sliding down a support pillar with more or less grace.

The X-Wing came soaring down at us.

Starfire prepared an anti-air strike while Beast Boy looked at Robin for a command.

"Whatever you do…don't destroy it!"

"You've got to be kidding…," Raven mumbled.

"Just do your shield! Now!"

Raven's eyes glowed a pale gray. A wall of obsidian rose from the ground just in time to block the upcoming blastfire from the X-Wing so that it zoomed over, unsuccessful.

Beast Boy was just about done flinching from the assault when he asked, "What's this all about?"

"Yes, Cyborg, why can't we eliminate these items of confusion and misery?"

"You wanna be flipping burgers for the rest of your life, Star??"

Starfire blinked.

Cyborg looked at Robin. "It's Control Freak! He's taken control of all these crazy things! But they're not just normal office décor. They're Hollywood memorabilia worth more than you can shake a stick at!"

"They're priceless soldiers for the creative cause!!" Control Freak chanted from atop the escalator as he scowled down at us with a grin. "That's what they are! And nuts to you if you try to hurt any single one of them!"

"How much money are we talking about here, Cyborg?" Robin asked, fists clenching.

Cyborg whispered in his ear.

Robin's fists stopped clinching. He cleared his throat. "Ahem……Titans….um….eliminate….er….with care."

"………." Everyone stared.

"Can you be more specific?" Beast Boy asked.

WHOMP!!

Gamera landed. Tron flipped and stood beside him. The Mobster pulled out a Tommy Gun and took aim while Alf struck a pose and the X-Wing hovered down with two mantises and the samurai armors rose again to meet the challenge all as one chaotic body.

Robin sweatdropped. "Let's just start with staying sane."

The Mobster fired off its Tommy Gun.

The Titans shrieked and headed each and every other way in escape from bullet fire. Beast Boy ran into a dashing samurai figure which swiftly swung at the elusive changeling in hopes of severing a nose, beak, or snout. Robin backflipped and found himself going head to head with an amazingly acrobatic Tron costume. Raven had her hands full of mantises while Starfire bumped into an annoying X-Wing. Gamera—of course—went after Cyborg again, and me? I had the other samurai and Control Freak's laughter.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" he cackled, lackadaisically sauntering down the height of the escalator as we all rapidly fought for our lives….and our allowances. "Bend their ears a little, why don't ya?! Twist a nose and pinch a cheek! It won't do no difference when the collateral shows up on your bill!!!"

Robin growled to himself. "I hate to think of it, but he's right…" He flipped the Tron outfit over him.

The living costume landed on a 'knee', stood up, and suddenly unsheathed the discus from its back. Its neckhole glared at Robin ominously (if that's even possible).

"Wuh oh," the Boy Wonder gulped.

WOOOOSH!! The blue discus trailed straight at our hero.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook and shot blindly behind him. It amazingly contacted the ceiling, and he pulled himself at a speed no greater than the incoming blue sprite that was eating at his legs with murderous velocity. Robin passed the center of his swing and came into contact with the glass windows of the huge lounge. He parted his legs just in time for the discus to come in contact with the smooth surface with a blue FlASH. The object rebounded, flew off, and came back at Robin again. The Boy Wonder's feet went to work, trailing him along the side of the window. FLASH! He trailed right, twirled on the grappling cord. FLASH! He jumped and flipped—holding onto the cord with one hand. FLASH! Again and again he dodged. The last time the discus flew at him, he whipped out his rod and deflected the object back—but then regretted it as he saw the inherent speed the object was making in returning to its host….and the inevitable damage it would cause.

"Ha ha ha!!" Control Freak chattered, halfway down the escalator. "It's a long, hard drive to first base!"

"Raven!" Robin called from high above. "I need a Catcher!"

Raven looked behind her shoulder amidst Mantising and spotted the trouble at hand. She extended a free wrist: "Azzarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!!"

A shield of dark energy circled around the Tron outfit, and the blue discus merely bounce off.

Robin let out a sigh of relief—that is until a certain green mantis flew up and chew the cord out from above him. The boy fell—yelling—all the way down to the floor of the lounge. Thankfully, a quickly diving Starfire snatched him up with millimeters to spare.

"Whew…thanks Star," Robin simpered.

Starfire smiled at the boy in her arms. "I believe this is one of those opportune moments when Earthlings say: 'I draw the relaxingly pointed angles of my fingernails across your back/You draw the relaxingly pointed angles of your fingernails across mine!'"

BLAM!!!

An X-Wing blast caught her heavily in the side. Both teenagers went tumbling hard on the ground amidst a pile of smoking ashes. They moaned and saw stars right as the spacecraft made its attack run.

"Stay on target!" the appropriately flat Control Freak ecstatically warbled, reaching the bottom of the escalator.

Beast Boy dodged the swipes of the samurai armor's katana just a few feet off. Every opportune moment he had, he feathered up into a bird to hover over his assailant, or dropped down into a snake to circle around him and dodge the serrated blade. But just then he heard the laugh of the ultimate villain and sensed the X-Wing's descent on his grounded friends and knew he had to take action. He glanced up and saw a banner announcing an 'Employee Appreciation Day' two weeks from now and had an idea. As the set of armors once again swung at him with a sword, the changeling switched into a crocodile in mid-leap and bit onto the broadside of the katana, yanking it out of the samurai's grasp while falling. He then turned into a kangaroo and leapt-carried the blade over in front of the the X-Wing, morphed into a spider monkey, gripped the hilt of the blade with his tail, and slingshotted it straight to the supports of the banner—which promptly fell over the approaching X-Wing.

Blinded, the spacecraft abandoned its attack run on Robin and Starfire and took to the skies---er—ceiling.

The katana fell and embedded itself into the ground a few feet away.

"You guys okay?!" Beast Boy asked, crouching down by his partners in elf form.

"Yes, I am," Robin dusted himself off. "Starfire?"

"Yes Mother?"

"………Beast Boy, go snatch that weapon away while I check on Starfire."

"Aye!" Beast Boy ran over to the sword. He reached down towards it, but suddenly saw a furred hand pick it up and get into fighting position. "Huh?!" Beast Boy's eyes bugged out and he sank to the ground. "Oh Mother Mary!"

Alf brandished the katana, let out a cry, and spun his whole midget body forward at the green elf's prone figure. Beast Boy scooted away, katana metal striking every which place his toes just were.

"ALF WITH A SAMURAI SWORRRRRRD!!!!" Beast Boy zoomed past Robin, clutching his head in horror.

Robin looked up. "Huh?! Ah jeez." He abandoned Starfire, produced his staff, and blocked Alf's sudden banzai attack.

CLANK!! CLANK! WHANG!!

Alf let out a warcry and spun Yoda-style over Robin, sword spinning.

Robin twirled and landed to the ground with one knee-blocking the heaviest of the t.v. show alien's blows.

"My, Mother…when did you get so hairy?" a dazed Starfire grinned, her eyes swirling.

"RRRRRGHYA!!!" Robin struck hard against Alf's blade, sending the creature soaring fifty miles per hour towards the fragile windows of the lounge.

The Boy Wonder gasped and once again summoned Raven. "Raven!! We could use you again about now!!"

Raven was in the middle of trying to shake a rabid mantis off her boot. She turned around, fumed, and stretched out a hand. "Azzarath Metrion Zinthos!!"

The windows turned into blackness, warbled with the contact of Alf, and bounced him so that he fell a short distance to the ground.

But the katana appeared skewered straight through him.

Beast Boy and Robin gasped.

Alf stood up and flexed its arms. The katana dropped down from where it had innocently been caught between its elbow and ribcage.

Beast Boy and Robin sighed in relief.

"Hehehe…," Starfire grinned. "Nice Mommy! I give it ten earth points!"

"Dude," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "You gotta do something about her…"

WHAM!!!

Cyborg slid into the scene, pushing off a charging Gamera. "You guys gotta do something about THIS!!!! RRRRRAAAAUGH!!"

Gamera roared and threatened to snap off its wrestler's head.

Beast Boy and Robin joined in—yanking and prying away at Gamera's limbs with every inch of their scrawny figures at work. At a random moment, Beast Boy was crouched on Cyborg's shoulder, trying to push Gamera's mouth away, when he looked across the room, shrieked, and cowardly hugged the face of the very android he was trying to protect.

"DAAAH! BB?!?! What gives?! I can't see!!"

The green changeling was staring straight at an approaching Mobster with its Tommy Gun at ready.

"Here's an offer you can't refuse!" Control Freak said as he walked lazily through the chaos and across the lounge. "A bullet to the brain! Quickest damn cure to insomnia I've ever seen. HA!"

Raven finally shook off the mantis and saw the cowering targets entangled with Gamera and ready to become Swiss Cheese. "Mmmmmm," she glared. "Must I do everything *myself*?!" She hovered over with both hands outstretched.

The Mobster shot with wild abandoned.

Raven's eyes glowed. Her fingers twitched.

Every bullet turned into black crystal in mid air. When they impacted with Beast Boy's, Cyborg's, Robin's, and Turtle Meat's body…they shattered into dark dust.

"Well whaddya know?" Control Freak smirked from across the lounge. "A regular expert in bullet time."

"ENOUGH!!" Raven growled and pointed two fingers at his chest from long distance. "These toys are too expensive for you."

Suddenly, Control Freak's remote lifted out from his grasp—enveloped in reflective black—and shattered with a flick of Raven's wrist.

Beast Boy blinked. "Now why didn't we ever think of that before?"

"Maybe because I beat you to it!" Control Freak glared.

Cyborg and Robin gasped. Not necessarily in shock of Control Freak's untouched reaction. The futility of Raven's act spoke itself in the unchanging fury of Gamera's muscles.

"There're a lot more where that came from!" Control Freak whipped open his vest, and about a dozen removes with booster packs hovered out from his apparel and filled the room adjacent to him. "They're all well programmed…and well trained. And not until every single one of them is destroyed will this party stop! Heh…never plan to watch a movie if you can't pre-record it, I always say!"

Raven's face dropped. She grit her teeth stressfully and let out an exhausted breath. "I swear, if there just weren't so many like him already…." The girl soon found her center, readjusted her hood, and levitated threateningly towards the villain. "Then we're just gonna have to interrupt your program….one by one…."

"Pfft…girls," Control Freak folded his arms. "Think they can repair anything. I can't believe we'll be considering you as equals on starships in the Twenty-Fourth Century!"

"YyyyRRRAUGH!" Raven tossed a nearby table and lounge chair at him. They stopped in mid flight—however—due to a swordless samurai set of armor elbowing her in the side. She fell to the ground with a grunt and dodged as the warrior wear stomped down on her—attempting to crush her fragile limbs.

"Starfire!" Robin exclaimed amidst Gamera fighting with Cyborg. "Snap out of it!! You've got to destroy those remotes!"

Starfire shook her head. Batted out the cobwebs. And took flight immediately. But as soon as she soared after the rocket-powered remote controls, the X-Wing and mantises were in hot pursuit. The Tamaranian let out a shriek and dodged their attacks as swiftly as she could. Thus began a mid-air cat and mouse game with the alien girl twirling around every assault and tossing Starbolts expertly enough to aim at the remotes and yet still miss the many, violent antiquities coming to life around the embattled lounge.

The entire time, I had been switching between a hide-and-seek game with the armed set of samurai armor and the trigger happy Mobster. In fact, just seconds before Raven's intervention, my half of the lounge room had been riddled with every ounce of bullet you could imagine. It was gonna be a long time before I'd pick up The Untouchables with my friends at the nearest Blockbuster.

Yet, as busily embarrassed I was with an untouchable enemy, I couldn't help but trace Control Freak's movements through the corner of my shades. The entire time the battle went on, he wasn't truly interested in watching. Sure, he made it _look_ like he was interested. But the fact of the matter is that he had an even bigger fish to fry. And I had the feeling such was so from the very get go.

"What's he doing this for?! Did he say?!" Robin exclaimed as he and Beast Boy finally freed Cyborg from Gamera's grasp. The three side-stepped away from the creature and dodged attacks from various other animated foes. "Did he want to take these things home and put them on his freakin' mantle or something?!"

"I dunno! I guess so!" Cyborg panted. "I really don't care, to be honest!"

"Well I do!" Robin grunted, ducking a Tron disc and hopping an Alf kick from the sidelines. "There's gotta be something greater at risk here!"

I looked over amidst blurring under a sword swipe and saw Control Freak before a 'Limited Access' automatic door. He was fiddling with another remote…._hacking into security_.

Raven saw it too. "He's going for something in there. Go after him! I'll provide backup!"

I nodded. A wall of black formed between me and the samurai armor. I made a mad dash for it across the length of the lounge. I ducked under Starfire and two mantises in pursuit. I leapt over X-Wing blaster fire. I weaved my way through a stare off between a green T-Rex and an unarmed samurai. Finally, I leapt over Cyborg and a giant turtle and dove past Robin and a hairy extraterrestrial before covering the last few feet between me and the door Control Freak entered with a split-second blur of murk.

And was surrounded in darkness.


	7. Alien Network News part 3

**7. Alien Network News part 3**

I froze.

Before me stretched a cold, long hallway bathed in darkness, save for the faint glow against reflective walls far off at the distant end of the path. A rustling shadow could be witnessed chuckling its way out of sight and into oblivion.

Control Freak could only be in one direction.

I slithered down the dark hallway in soft pursuit. I blurred my feet so as to sound as light as a feather. As I approached the opening into a larger room, I sneaked against the cold wall and peered outward, fingering the hilt of Myrkblade the whole time. I saw a mesh of metal racks holding all sorts of partially dismantled electronic equipment. At first glance, this place seemed like a storage room of sorts. But I reminded myself of the 'Limited Access' label on the doorway and the coded entry that Control Freak hacked to enter this very same place I was in.

_Mr. Kobayashi must have more goodies than what appears on the surface…_

I heard a rustling sound…an inexpert rustling sound. Control Freak had to be ahead.

I crawled out from the hallway and into the supply room. I sneaked around, under, and beyond various metal racks towards a pale blue light on the far side of the interior. As soon as I caught glimpse of a corner of Control Freaks' figure, I stood still. I concentrated hard, producing murk and smog from my inner being. Blackness poured out from my eyes underneath the shades and out from my boots. The murk crawled upwards and downwards, meeting at my torso and spreading throughout my body surface. After a second or two, the murk blended in with the light filtering through my figure and I turned virtually invisible. In such a stealthy fashion, I crept forward till I was a good ten feet behind the villain and silently observed what he was doing.

_Sometimes reconnaissance is your greatest act of courage_. Robin taught me that.

Control Freak stood in front of a big glass display built into the wall. A bright fixture of lights molded itself around the structure's shape, making it appear far more immaculate than the metallic and wiry chaos surrounding it. True, it was smooth-looking. Futuristic, almost. No wonder Control Freak took such an apparent liking to it.

The obese villain hummed to himself as he hacked into the object with his remote. There was a snap, then a hiss, and the glass dome opened up like a clamshell. He chuckled, reached in a hand, and produced a cylindrical device.

He looked it over with greedy eyes. After a breath, he twirled it about in his fingers and spoke without looking: "You can come out of hiding now, ya know."

I did a double take. A second or two later, my heartbeat returned to normal.

"Oh come now…don't play like you're not really there," the fellow spun around and pressed a button on his remote. A red pulsing light burned through my murkish covering and revealed me to the dim lighting of the supply room. "Not a bad look," he smirked at me. "Very Jedi…with a slight touch of Solid Snake."

I sweatdropped.

"What's with the smoke and mirrors bit? Ha ha! Trying to be Nightcrawler?!"

I grit my teeth and whipped out Myrkblade full force.

"Whoah-ho! Cool!" Control Freak's eyes turned to saucers. "It's even niftier up close!"

I looked surprised by that statement.

"Why, of course I've seen you before," the obese fiend said. "A person who watches t.v. as much as me, it's only natural. The testimonial character sketches. The scant photos at the scene of a Teen Titans bust. All of the City is in a buzz about the latest Teen Titan, and here he stands before me. I at first expected something elemental…like some water manipulating reptile person or something….but a---er---'smoke ninja' works just fine in my book."

I took a threatening stance forward.

"Oh…by all means, do tear me to pieces or throw me in prison or something. Look at me. I'm as cheap as it gets. Smash me all you like."

I held my ground.

"A-HA!" Control Freak winked. "You saw something just about as potentially valuable on me as those priceless icons your friends are entangled with!" He flipped the cylinder in his hand and grinned coyly. "This here device is what grants Kobayashi the buying power for all that memorabilia to begin with. Not JCN Broadcasting. Not this skyscraper. Nothing but this. This very thing that I only read rumors on the Net of being here but had to see it with my own eyes. This very thing that the U.S. Government itself doesn't want either you or me know exists."

I looked at him, puzzled. It was quite obvious he was gonna go on. Or maybe I was just letting him go on?

_For God's sakes, go on…_

"Kobayashi may not show it in the Stock Market, but he's absolutely top dollar baby!" Control Freak flipped the device again and spoke. "Scientific advantages in transmission signals is his game! He's got the most expert team of technopunks in the world working around the clock in both Japan and the States in creating advanced forms of data distribution the likes of which the waking civilization has never seen. When his men got so bold as to craft this sucker here—," he pointed at the cylinder, "---the U.S. stepped in and told him to keep the technology under wraps for a good decade or two before the international scene was ready for it! Now why would sweet 'ol Kobayashi ruffle the government's feathers so?"

I sighed impatiently.

He had a devilish grin on his face as he reached his own conclusion. "Cuz the Government already uses a similar technology to relay top secret information! Technology that no conventional system of society can trace! And along these frequencies one can find the truth to global warning, alien lifeforms in Area 51, the blueprints for genetically engineered viruses, footage from the space shuttle of mysterious objects in orbit of Earth, enough information to crack every conspiracy theory from Project Bluebook to the Kenneth Star Report!! Mwa ha ha ha---well, not like I care about the last one, but—"

I jumped forward and grabbed for the device. He swiftly leapt back and shook a finger.

"Temper….Temper…….as I bet you followed me in here for, you realize that my Hollywood charade in Kobayashi's office was just a distraction. I have the means to use this here transistor to uncover the filthiest secrets imaginable! And I do intend to walk out with it, whether you like it or not. Forgive me if I use forces—equally as dark as yours—to accomplish such a meager goal as escape."

With that said, he pocketed the transistor and grabbed for something in his pant's pocket.

I watched, uncertain.

WHOOSH! Control Freak whipped out a plastic tube of sorts. It looked for a second like a flashlight with the bulbs at two ends. But when he held it dramatically forward in the light, it became clear as a toy double-sided lightsaber..a la Darth Maul.

"All right, so it's not mint condition," he rolled his eyes. "I confess I opened the package. Pfft…only bought the thing for four bucks at a Kaybee Toys. However, thanks to this remote here, you can just buy the farm. HA!" With that, he spun the toy lightsaber around, flipped it upwards, and zapped the item in mid-air with his remote control.

FLASH!

The plastic turned into metal.

It landed firmly into the villain's grip. He got into a dangerous pose for a fat person, grinned, and flipped a switch on the object. Two bright red beams of energy shot out on both sides. They hummed as they ate oxygen molecules from the very air and illuminated the dark supply room in crimson.

My eyes widened under my shades. I know I mouthed something. I forget what…

"Have at thee, tall dark and DEAD! HiYAA!"

With that said, I was charged at by a fat Star Wars assassin, expert in all the dark arts available to acrobatic obese men with beam swords.

The 'training' session with Robin that morning almost dehydrated me by that moment. Maybe such was a good thing…

I stepped back and raised Myrkblade in an instant. FLASH!! It deflected one side of CF's light saber, but he immediately countered with the other half. I ducked and rolled backwards. When I jumped up, he was advancing again with a spinning strike. I slinked to the side, forcing him to cut through the support structure of a metal wrack of electronic innards. Metal and wires spilled everywhere. I blurred into a backflip to avoid a forward jab. Suddenly we were separated by a tall rack. He peered at me through the various equipment, waved, and hacked his way through. FLASH!! FLASH!! CRACK!! At his last swing, the tip of one beam trailed dangerously close to my nose. I could smell the burning air as I backed up and swallowed myself up in a stream of invisible smoke.

"That won't do you any good," he grinned and paced about in an aisle between metal racks. "Something wicked this way comes…and it's ME! HYAAAAUGH!" He started spinning, rotating, swinging the blade for all it was worth. The room rotated with the spirit of a crimson disco ball as the red beams splashed through the air, taking metal racks, wires, bolts, and computer chips with them. Finally, amidst all the chaos, CF struck a ventilation pipe along the wall. Steam gusted out that contact with my concealed form. A ghostly figure of a head—mine—craned up suddenly in a far corner.

"I spy…with my little eye….something DEAD!" the fat Sith cackled and leapt at me with his light saber out stretched and twisting.

I dove out of the way, stood on one knee, and deflected with Myrkblade upon a second attack. FLASH! The Control Freak lifted his saber over the head and laughed maniacally. I took advantage of the diabolical moment to roll under his legs, stretch to the floor behind him, and reverse kick him in the rear with two feet at once.

"WHOAH!!"

The launch sent him piling through an empty shell of a discarded mainframe. Dust and saber smoke filled the air where he fell. In a blink, he stood—slightly singed—and altogether pissed off.

"Nobody….and I mean nobody—except maybe my Mom—pushes me over while I'm unleashing a can of Star Wars." He then growled and threw his whole weight into me. As you all know, that had to suck.

WHAM!! I sailed through a metal wrack and somehow squeezed through to the other side, tumbling a dozen feet across the cold floor along with some bouncing, experimental microwaves and an HD T.V. in pieces. When I got up—wincing—I was surprised to see a pair of dark blue boots and a dangling cape.

"…..what….are you doing?" Raven asked monotonously.

I pointed frantically behind her.

"We need help taking out those remote controls to stop the monsters. What did you find in here? Is Control Freak nearby?"

FLASH!!!

My finger wilted.

Raven turned around. A bright beam of red illuminated her face.

Control Freak grinned and raised the saber over Raven's head. "Hmmm…the force is stuck-up with this one."

Raven blinked. "Excuse me?" she droned.

I yanked her down from below.

FLASH!!!

Lightsaber energy stroked by and severed a rack of metal right where her blue head would have been.

I grabbed her and blurred over to relative safety.

CF practically rotated towards us, his saber dancing everywhere.

"Now this is amusing," Raven said without a hint of emotion.

I frantically raised Myrkstaff and blocked before the cyclonic villain could hack us to pieces. As I blocked CF's numerous advances, Raven floated to the side, lifted a few fingers gracefully, and tossed several pieces of computer hardware and entertainment systems at the homicidal entity. With a distraction provided by my companion, I dove into the fray and started attacking Control Freak on his own grounds. What proceeded was a chaotic ballet of two light saber beams, a Myrkstaff, kicking feet, dodging motions, and random dozens of metallic equipment floating in and out like asteroids which CF eventually shattered and smacked to remission with the aggravated swing of his stolen, icon of a weapon. At some points between the electronic meteor shower, the fat fiend would strike too close for comfort. So in a flash I extended murk beneath and behind him and ported out from under the black carpet to attack him from the rear. But he'd simply bring the lightsabre behind his back to block blindly, then he'd swing around with a warrior cry while aiming down low to spill my bowels out. I sidestepped, overblurred, and outported him every chance I could get. His versatility surprised both Raven and I. I wonder if his remote control had the ability to create steroids out of Tic Tacs.

At one point, Control Freak found an opening in the cylindrical wall of Raven's telekinetic assault. He leapt backwards and grinned with the lightsaber at ready.

Raven narrowed her glowing eyes and launched a throng of floating equipment straight at him.

I sweated.

_Somehow I had a feeling he expected that._

He did. He slashed the first two meteors of metal with both ends of his saber—thereupon breaking Raven's hold on them—and kicked the shards directly at us.

I managed to duck, but one struck Raven in the shoulder; grounding her and all the objects as well. I rushed over and helped her back up, pointing frantically down the hallway from which we both came.

She nodded, "I'll get the others!" and floated off.

"Awwwww," CF posed with the saber. "Running away so soon?"

I frowned at him and spun Myrkblade to ready.

He spun his weapon too and approached. "Cowardice gets you nowhere….it's a lot like Camping…"

I channeled a sudden burst of murk energy into my blade, lifted it high, and brought it down with a thunderous force of smoke and Destruction. A wave of darkness warbled threateningly through the villain's flinching form.

Invisible wind kicked his hair to a lull as he gasped. "Whoah….cool! Thriller, won't you do that again?!" He ducked and charged suddenly at me.

I prepared to swing again—when suddenly the fat individual slid into my legs, tripping me. He jumped up and stabbed down with one edge of the saber. I rolled to the wall, leapt to it, blurred my feet, and soared over his head with Myrkblade aimed directly downward: on a cutting path.

He twirled to the side—losing a shred of cloth from his vest from my blade, and kicked a metal cart on wheels at me as I landed.

WHUMP!

I fell to the ground in front of the hallway and winced.

"Once around the park, Thames!" CF ran, jumped, and landed pot-belly first on the metal cart. It was suddenly rolling towards me at full speed, and the propeller of the careening craft was formed by Control Freak with an outstretched hand spinning his double-sided light saber.

I gasped and ran directly down the long hallway—which seemed a heck of a lot longer this time. The path before me was bathed in spinning red as he approached, burning at my heels. Laughing. In mid-sprint, I aimed Myrkblade backwards and deflected every flick of the wrist he made to slice my legs off while on his wild ride.

Outside—in the lounge—Starfire faithfully flew after and destroyed the last remaining, floating remote with a well-aimed starbolt. The rubber suits, the costumes, the samurai armor, the mantises….Alf…they all fell dormant to the ground as the animated chaos ceased.

Cyborg kicked at the rubber Gamera suit with a grunt and looked over at Robin. "Now what?!"

"Where's Control Freak?!"

Raven levitated into view from the hallway door. "We found him. He's not too far off."

Robin blinked. "And where's Noir?"

_Here I am._

CRASH!!!

I collapsed painfully through the hallway door and tumbled to the ground. The cart Control Freak was riding slammed into me with a jolt. CF flipped off the stopped 'vehicle' and landed directly in the middle of the circle of Teen Titans with his lightsabre glaring. "Ha!!"

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Dude! That is………er……_not_ cool?"

"Sorry the party ended so soon," he winked at the heroes. "But it's curfew time."

Wincing from my collapse, I frantically gestured to my companions to look at Control Freak's front pocket.

Robin was the first to glance through his white eye-mask and spot a piece of the cylindrical transistor stolen from the supply room.

"Titans! The thing in his pocket! Grab it!"

Beast Boy turned into a rhino and charged CF full force. The obese man slid to the side and slice off the green charger's horn. The rhino's eye bulged, and soon Beast Boy was squatting in the corner rubbing his burnt nose. "Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!!"

"RAAAUGH!!" Cyborg leaped from a great height and slammed hard into the carpet besides Control Freak. The villain dug his light saber into the ground and formed a cut in the structure before the shockwave could reach him.

A flurry of magical sounds filled the air as Starfire orbited the villain and tossed starbolt after starbolt with a cry. He merely spun the lightsabre and deflected each shot back at her. FLASH!! POW!! "EEK!!"

Robin growled and charged straight at the offender. Control Freak spun to the side and sliced down Robin's back. The boy gasped, but only the entirety of his cape was cut clean off.

"Hope you don't catch cold!" Control Freak kicked Robin in the back, forcing the boy to the ground. He then ruthlessly stepped over and on top of him and dashed towards the stairwell on the far side of the lounge, flanked by potted plants. "I'll send you a postcard from the Denver International Airport….after I find secret footage of the concentration camps built underneath it! HA HA!"

"What is he babbling about?" Beast Boy moaned, rubbing a red nose.

Robin clinched his teeth and sprinted in full pursuit of the enemy.

"Robin! Wait up!!" Cyborg called out.

I looked up from my painful position.

Raven chanted: "Azzarath Metrion Zinthos!" Tables and chairs flew straight at Control Freak's body. He merely chopped through with his saber and kicked the door to the stairwell open.

Robin was quickly on his heels—that is until CF's heels turned and the maniac whipped out a remote control with a free hand. "Why…Robin…so good of you to join me." He clicked at the two plants. They flashed brightly for a second before turning into giant, drooling, tentacle monsters.

Robin looked up at the writhing beasts and sweatdropped. "Um….that's just plain wrong."

"How _right_ you are…," CF winked and clicked his remote again. Vines shot out from the two plants and circled around Robin's every limb. He struggled for a second or two before being forced into a full-spread position by the taunt tentacles. The plants then oozed out a thick green liquid which encased Robin into a cocoon-sack of sorts which Control Freak promptly slung over his shoulder. "Look's like I've gotten all I needed from this little robin's nest. Pay the mother hen my respects…cuz he may just end up hard boiled…" he motioned towards the entombed Robin and spun around with a cackle.

"N-No…," Starfire suddenly gasped. "Robin!!"

I got up to my knees, wincing.

The vines and foliage of the 'monster' plants started to cluster around the stairwell.

I grabbed Myrkblade, coiled into action, and blurred at full force towards the exit.

Nothing but green covered the doorway.

WOOOOOOSH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!!

I forced a smoking hole in the dead vegetable matter, but all I could see on the other side was emptiness.

Control Freak was gone…and so was Kobayashi's technology…

And our leader.

Cyborg dashed over and looked down the passageway. "Robin?! ROBIN!!"

Raven floated over. "It's no use, they're gone."

"And just who says?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Give me some room. I'll jump in and search!" He was about to flash into a green bloodhound, but Cyborg haulted him with a titanium arm.

"Raven's right. Control Freak obviously planned this all from the beginning. Did you see how he just….invited Robin into that trap?!"

"Then all the expensive memorabilia come alive…," Raven droned. "It was all….a distraction?"

"But for what? For what reason? What does Control Freak want with Robin?" Cyborg asked the air. A pause. He looked at me, "And just what was that thing in his pocket?"

I was still breathing heavily from the whole ordeal. I turned around slowly and looked at Cyborg. I knew I had some explaining to do. But as I walked towards him, I glanced over across the Lounge.

I spotted Starfire, forlorn and blue. She knelt down and gathered up Robin's severed, yellow cape in her hands and hugged it to her chest. "Robin…," she sighed towards the floor with downcast eyes. "We….failed him…."

Beast Boy was about to retort…but soon he too was melancholy.

Cyborg looked off through the windows of the lounge, clinching his fists.

Raven said nothing.

My eyes trailed on the wilted Starfire for a minute or two before I summoned a breath and sheathed Myrkstaff.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Police and the usual cleanup crew flocked upon the scene of battle. Control Freak's shattered remotes—thanks to Starfire—were all gathered for evidence. Mr. Kobayashi himself arrived via escort and saw to the safe retrieval of his priceless treasures. Save for a few scuff marks, they were still in immaculate condition. His nod of approval brought relief to us all…but it was hardly enough consolation.

Not the police…not the eyewitness news…not the local townsfolk…nobody saw any sign of Control Freak's escape route. And where there's Control Freak, there's Robin. And where there's no Control Freak, there's no Robin. And where there's no Robin….there was us.

We huddled about in a corner of the lounge as the sun began to set outside through the tall-windows. Police and workers examined the rest of the area while we vigilantes discussed somberly the situation at hand.

"So….like….does Control Freak even have a base? 'Cept for the butt groove in his favorite couch, I'm sure," Beast Boy remarked.

"Not funny, man," Cyborg moaned. "We're in it big this time. Who knows what that obsessive punk is gonna do to Robin."

I saw Starfire flinch at those words. She had been strangely quiet the whole time. Robin's cape was still in her meek grasp.

"The only clue we had was the transistor he ran off with," Raven spoke. She looked at Cyborg, "Just how did Noir describe it to you."

"It's really all up in the air," Cyborg said and glanced at me. "Something about some sort of 'secret technology' that the government wouldn't let Mr. Kobayashi release to the public."

I nodded.

"You think the old guy knows anything about this?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes…we should question Mr. Kobayashi as soon as possible," Raven insisted.

Suddenly, and electronic voice spouted out from among us. _"Oh, I don't believe that will be necessary_."

Beast Boy jumped with a shriek as something vibrated in his pants. Then he simpered. "Oh…heheh….just my communicator." A pause. "_Control Freak's voice?!?!_" He whipped the compact communicator out and flipped the lid open with a Star Trek sound effect. "What the—how'd you get on this signal?!"

"_That's a very good question. But it seems like your buddies Noir and Cyborg are on the right track!"_

All the Titans crowded around Beast Boy's communicator. Starfire watched from afar with worried green eyes.

"Answer the question straight-forward, pal!" Cyborg spat. "Just what gives?!"

Control Freak's fat face took up the entire communicator's holo-screen with a grin. "_Thanks to that special transistor, I now have access to every form of audio-visual communication in the Northern Hemisphere!! No station…no broadcast…no transfer of digital information is beyond my sight!!"_

"Dude…," Beast Boy slurred. "If you wanted that bad to get Cinemax, you could have just called one of their toll free numbers and—"

"_That's not what this is about!!!"_ CF fattily retorted. His holo-image frowned and leaned forward as he added, "_On the outside, I am just a couch potato. But on the inside, I am a journalist and conspiracy theorist at heart! Both professions shall now merge as one as I exploit the hidden databases of NASA and the U.S. Military for every soul-sucking secret they've got!! And then once I've made an ample review of alien autopsies, UFO sightings, and proof of Yukon Mountain Men which I just *know* is out there—I'll share it all with the public via unfiltered stream!!"_

Cyborg pointed angrily at the holo-image. "And just what makes you think we're gonna let you get away with that so eas—WHOAH!!"

Starfire shoved him out of the way and burned a hole in Control Freak's digital face with her eyes. "Where is Robin?!?! Just what have you done to our friend?!?!"

"_And now to answer both questions in one fatal swoop,_" Control Freak's image grinned and clicked on a remote.

Suddenly, monitors upon monitors upon monitors of T.V. feed switched on all throughout the Lounge. Some of them we hadn't even noticed there before. The Titans and the workers and the police all looked up as the image of a bound-and-gagged Robin struggling on a gurney being aimed at by a red laser appeared before us….appeared all throughout the Kobayashi Tower….appeared all throughout the city…appeared all throughout Internet websties…appeared all throughout satellite feed…appeared all throughout all the TVs. and all the computer monitors and all the output devices wired so as to broadcast anything in that part of the globe _period_.

"Er…..ouch?" Beast Boy sweat.

"_Not quite ouch yet…_," Control Freak's holo image paced over to the struggling Robin's side. "_If you Titans so much as try and interfere with my global plan of Truth……I'll reveal the epitome of painful Truth._" He teasingly tugged on a precarious edge of Robin's mask. "_Try and stop me…and I'll rip off this lousy disguise and show your leader's true face to half the civilized world. Believe you me, in the archives of Earth history to come…not even the Mayan Empire would have half the Identity Crisis as your mortal friend here._"

Starfire gasped, a hand over her mouth.

Beast Boy and Cyborg's eyes bulged.

Raven reflected on the threat in silence.

As everyone around us looked in shock and perplexity at our prone hero on all the screens, I knew one thing was for certain.

The world had turned a lot more naked in the span of a few hours.


	8. Alien Network News part 4

**8. Alien Network News part 4**

It was nighttime by the time we retreated to the Tower. Naturally, the media and authorities were curious as to our sudden anxiety. Cyborg concocted some sort of heroic statement of 'no time to waste' or something in order to get them off our backs. We got home and paced around the main room, sweating bullets. True, the Titans weren't foreign to the concept of kidnapping and team member abduction….but it was never a pleasant experience. Cyborg was the most clearly agitated, pounding a fist into his palm every now and then and spouting out random, faulty plans of action with an auctioneer's fervor. Raven was silent, of course. Like always she confessed that she was in no way affected because unfortunate events like these are 'natural'. Each time she said so, however, a random glass of water or a lightbulb would smash itself apart from long distance…so the dark girl restrained herself into silence while Cyborg eagerly stomped on. Beast Boy seemed preoccupied with an attack on the natural senses. On the ride home in the T-Car, he winced the whole time and rubbed his forehead. By the time we rode the elevator to the main room, his eyes had lowered to sickening slits and he moaned every now and then. Perhaps the action was too much for him. He went to the kitchen unit for some aspirin while the proceedings went on. And Starfire? Well…she was quiet the whole time. She still had Robin's cape…our last memory of him.

Whatever Control Freak had in mind, it had all of us on edge. Even me. I tried to keep up with Cyborg's pacing. But it didn't help that I couldn't naturally respond to everything he had to spout out:

"What if we scour the criminal underground?! Ask every crook in the city if they know what Control Freak's up to?! Try and lasso some of his buddies through threats of jail and stuff?! But wait, Control Freak hardly gets out so how could he have any friends?! Or perhaps they're just accomplices and not friends and they can still know something about each other?! Or maybe we can just do something to distract Control Freak, like put up an auction on Ebay for a Aliens DVD compilation and then lace it with a tracking device and----is anybody listening to me?!?!"

"Unfortunately……yes." Raven said, her eyes firm.

"Well, you got some grand spanking plan then?!?!" Cyborg can really get unruly when his temper is aroused.

"It's all a matter of logical progression," Raven said slowly. "Let's look at the facts at hand. Control Freak's got two items of importance at the moment. For one—as we all know—he has our leader, Robin. He threatens to reveal his identity before the whole world. But such an act is not possible without the second item of importance: an item crafted by Kobayashi's team of technological experts that supposedly can pick up secret transmissions conducted by our ever-protective government and broadcast whatever he wants to half the world. It's safe to assume that Control Freak has enough motive to use both stolen elements towards his own twisted will. But the importance lies in the connection between the two. Control Freak can't possibly reveal Robin's identity without the transistor, and the transistor won't remain his unless he exploits Robin's identity to keep us at bay. What we all right now desire—of course—is Robin's rescue. At the same time, we're obligated to acquire the transistor and return it to the securities of Kobayashi and the Government. Both things are linked, and one or the other can't be found without traces of evidence left by its counterpart. Since all we have of Robin's whereabouts is his cape, and that won't get us anywhere, we must take action to find out where the transistor could be functioning to accomplish Control Freak's ugly means."

"And in short you mean….," Cyborg trailed.

"The transistor First. Robin Second."

Starfire glanced up…then back to the floor.

"And how do we know that Control Freak won't notice us trailing his new toy and ruin Robin's life?!" Cyborg cackled.

"Ugggggh," Beast Boy rubbed his head. "Don't talk so loud…"

Cyborg glared at him, then looked back to Raven. "Besides…we have no idea where to start. Control Freak didn't give us any hint as to how he plans on using that transistor.

"But…..," Raven started.

"……," Cyborg was silent.

I looked at him.

He suddenly smirked. "He's got to have some really bigass receiver to pick up whatever the government tosses around."

"That's a way of putting it," Raven rolled her eyes.

"Or better yet…," Cyborg scratched his chin and stared at the ground. "…he could use a bunch of miniature receivers spread throughout a large area."

Beast Boy moaned. "Ugh……but what's so special about—urp—picking up secret stuff on aliens---erg—Big Foot and all that other stuff?" He rubbed his aching head and took a sip of water before continuing. "I mean….I know aliens exists. Starfire does my laundry every Friday."

"For obsessive morons like Control Freak, the Truth can't be that easy," Raven said.

"Yeah…that guy's gotta have evidence of Roswell, New Mexico sightings and the Jersey Devil and advanced UN aircraft or what have you," Cyborg added.

Beast Boy groaned and cradled his head in two hands. "What's the freakin' point?? It's not like all of that stuff is real, is it?"

"We don't know, Beast Boy. But quite frankly, I'm not about to let Control Freak have access to any information that could sacrifice national security. And I'm not talking about little green men, but more like the missile defense shield and international investigations…." Cyborg blinked, then squinted at BB. "Hey man, you allright?"

"Can you make the room stop spinning?!" Beast Boy groaned.

Starfire, ever the concerned type, finally spoke up on BB's behalf. "When did your ailment start?"

"On the ride home……ugh….don't want to talk about it…just…." And he gulped more water and rubbed his head.

Cyborg shrugged, turned around, and marched over to the computer console. He began typing forth some sort of city-wide, frequency analysis (all Greek to me) and a 3D picture of the city popped up on the monitor. A few typing storms, and red lights popped up all over the city. "Here's where scanners pick up all the television, radio, and satellite feeds throughout the City. Nothing unusual. Nothing out of the ordinary." He spun around. "How're we gonna find a transistor in all that mess?"

Starfire had made it to Beast Boy's side and was giving his shoulder a gentle massage of sorts to distract him from his headache. He didn't seem to mind. In the meantime, Raven replied to Cyborg:

"We'll just have to make it a smaller mess."

"How do we intend to do that?" Cyborg retorted.

"You're letting your emotions get in the way of your thinking," Raven said, an artery throbbing on her forehead as she tried to remain cool. "Just *think* about it. Control Freak isn't using typical transmission frequencies, now is he?"

"No but…..," Cyborg paused to think, and stuttered. "….they…..it…..that's impossible to search! There're so many frequencies available."

"Control Freak is devilish, no?" Starfire said, by Beast Boy's side. "Would he not leave a clue for us to find so that he'd lead us into putting Robin in danger?"

"Tracking him, you mean?"

She nodded. Beast Boy groaned.

"What kind of a clue?" Raven remarked.

I looked at both groups. I thought for a moment. Then I stepped up to the computer console without warning. After typing in a few things with my own blurred fingers, a duplicate 3D rendering of the city appeared, this time with three distinct spots of glowing frequency.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Uh…..Noir? How'd you find that?"

I hand-signed to him.

He blinked. Then his mouth dropped wide into a gaping laugh. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"

I smirked.

"What'd he say?" Raven inquired.

Cyborg stepped up and pointed at the screen. "He narrowed the search down to three distinct streets in the City."

"Hmm?" Raven walked to his side. She narrowed her eyes. "Darth Street, Maul Street, and Obese Boulevard????"

"What kind of street names are those??" Beast Boy moaned.

"They come from the city we protect," Cyborg grinned and gave me a thumb's up. "Delightfully stupid of you, Noir. It got us where we wanted to be."

I smirked, blushing a little.

"How do we know it's where we 'want to be'?" Starfire remarked.

"Because their frequencies are not only stronger than anything else local, they're in the most conspicuous of places."

"Like….?"

"A trainyard in the Northeast, an abandoned warehouse in the West, and an island to the south of the Tower's bluffs."

"They're forming a triad throughout the city," Raven said, looking at the blinking lights on the map. "Control Freak must be using multiple locations to pick up transmissions."

"And somewhere in the center is his base of operations," Cyborg added. "If we find and examine the receivers, we should be able to track the source of the frequencies and find where Control Freak is."

"And where he's keeping Robin?" Starfire remarked.

Cyborg nodded.

A slight wavering twitch of anticipation and hope alighted the alien's green eyes.

The other green organism in the room moaned and said: "Can we just go and look for him already?"

Cyborg stared at the monitor. I watched as the possibilities of action whirred and sloshed about in his cross-platform brain. Circuits and neurons firing together. Forming cohesion. Forming life. Whenever Robin was absent, Cyborg took the role as leader. We all understood it, and didn't challenge his position as number one. A long time ago, I was briefed on a ranking system that the Titans had. Robin was master and chief. Cyborg was number two. Raven followed in third place, most likely. The rest of the slots were filled by Beast Boy, Starfire, and myself as a support team. I couldn't imagine what fate would have for us if more Titans were to join the team. But then again, maybe such was anticipated ahead of time. I always knew the Tower was too big for the five of us.

Er….six of us. I meant 'six of us'.

Cyborg thought for another half minute, then swiveled to face the rest of us. "Let's get to it. No rest for the weary. Raven…Beast Boy."

"Make it quick," the changeling sickly gurgled.

"Take flight to the island south of here and see what you can find."

"Urp….aye, captain."

"Starfire, Noir?"

We both looked up.

"Go investigate the trainyard. It shouldn't be so hard to locate the receiver there."

"Yes, Cyborg," said the Tamaranian. I nodded.

"I'll go West and take a look at the warehouse. It's a shady part of town, but I should be able to handle it on my own." He then popped open a drawer and passed out special devices to all of us. "Use these Detectors to find the frequencies of Control Freak's devices. We'll contact each other via communicator when we've found our separate targets, then figure out what to do from there. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Beast Boy said, hobbling towards the door. "Can Raven carry me."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Deal with it. You're a man."

"I'm a boy," he smirked. "_Beast Bo—_WHOAH!"

He nearly threw up as Raven yanked his arm and pulled him towards the exit.

Cyborg looked at us. "Well….good luck. And Starfire?"

"Y-Yes, Cyborg?"

He looked solemnly at her. "Hang in tight…we'll get 'em back."

With that, the android walked off.

Perplexed, Starfire looked directly at me. "What did he mean by that?"

I scratched my neck and shrugged.

She walked over and opened the window, paused, then turned and looked at me. "This will be slightly awkward with my ability to fly and your grounded sprinting. If you prefer, I can walk and that way we can easily keep in contact."

I so wanted to tell her that such wasn't necessary. It hurts me when—during situations as depressing as that one—Starfire so easily is willing to give herself up for others.

I emphatically shook my head and gestured for Starfire to fly towards our destination of investigation.

Starfire nodded. "Very well then. I'll stop every now and then so that you can catch up. Good luck, Noir."

And she was gone.

For a split moment in time, I was dead alone in the room. The darkness of night caught up with us, filling the Main Room with ugly shadows and disorienting shades of loneliness.

For the first time in darkness, I felt uneasy.

I blurred away in pursuit of Starfire's path.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The moon was half full….or half empty. I wasn't keeping track of the month.

The air was warm with the approach of the city's stifling Summer. It made the skin sweat. It grew upon the already tense muscles.

I would have chosen gladly to blur the whole way over water and hopefully fan myself with some relieving spray. But our path was towards the Northeast of the City, where the industrial complex roared and boiled into the night. There we'd find a trainyard. And hopefully we'd find a clue as to Control Freak's whereabouts.

I sprinted and bounded over streets and rooftops, running along building sides and jumping from lamppost to lamppost. I saw a bright green beacon of light on top of a skyscraper and realized where Starfire was waiting for me. The first checkpoint.

I ran up the side of the skyscraper, reached the top, flipped, and landed gracefully on the gravel footing.

Starfire lowered her hand and cut off her illumination. "You're remarkably quick, Noir. I never got the chance to tell you this morning, but your spar with Robin was most impressive. Perhaps I was a bit too preoccupied with the untangling of my hair and the pain of my bruises from falling on top of Raven to remember about it at the time." She innocently said and smiled.

I sweatdropped and returned a hopeful smirk back.

"Shall we continue to further along our journey?" she said, still smiling. I felt she was hiding truer emotions. She was both expert and poor at that. Somewhere on her person, I could still spot the yellow cape of Robin's.

I nodded, the moonlight reflecting off my shades.

"Very well then. Follow me to the next checkpoint, Noir." She said. She flew off.

I cracked my neck, got into a ready pose, and blurred forward. I launched myself off the skyscraper, over the top of another, and straight down it's structural face. Before I could reach street-level, I kicked with my feet, flipped over moving traffic, and planted a landing on the building face across the way, then ran along the side, hopped to another building, and leveled off to an even set of rooftops in my pursuit of Starfire's position.

My mind amidst speeding dwelled on Robin. He seemed so happy that morning. So teasing. Full of energy and wanting to fight the day on and see whose boss over immortality. Now he was in the hands of some synthetically minded cheapscape of life who could care less about the repercussions his actions have on souls in this ever-real world. I've often heard the stories of Robin getting into all sorts of straits and somehow emerging victorious—and safe. But those were all stories told to the 'noobie' of the group. I've not been with the others at those times. I've not see Robin come back to life and perform other self-preserving miracles. All I had to believe in was a legend. It was the very legend I obeyed. The very legend I sparred with that morning. Robin had more than my allegiance, he had my faith. But I suppose it was a different faith than what the others shared in him. Mine was formed of ambiguity and intrigue. But then again, was I foolish to think I was thusly so different from the veteran comrades I fought with?

My sprint took me over a freeway and into the City's Park. At night, it was illuminated by a spare throng of lamps and fountain lights. It looked fairly pretty…though a stone's throw from the vitality of a sunny day. I saw a green orb by a park bench and stone fountain and made my there. I slid to a stop, hopped onto the stone side of the fountain, and perched still.

Starfire lowered her arm and folded her hands together, cocking her head up at me. "Just a few more stops there," she smiled.

I nodded down at her.

A pause.

Her green eyes trailed.

I was curious.

"Actually….Noir….do you have a moment?"

I looked around. The park was empty. The night was black. The lanters were dim. It was nighttime.

I glanced back at her and stoically nodded.

"I must ask…," she said, but trailed off. She hugged herself and wandered over towards the bench and paused. Then, suddenly, she spun around and asked "Why do you wear those shades all the time?"

My eyes blinked under their protective shielding. I glanced downward—not like she would notice. I didn't answer.

"They are so dark and obtrusive," she said. "And you are always wearing them, even when you are in the dark, just as it is nighttime now and you are wearing them. Even your room is in the darkest, hidden spot in the tower. And I never see you go down there without them. Why is that, Noir?"

I couldn't answer.

She looked down, forlorn. "I….I-I know you cannot answer. We all know you cannot talk." A pause. She glanced back up, smiling sympathetically, "It must be quite the challenge for you."

I shrugged and attempted a smile. It came out broken.

She leaned her head to the side and played with a lock of red hair. Her eyes looked sad. "Never you mind me…," she said in a low sort of voice. "I…I was just thinking while flying here. People may not think of it much, but flying makes me think more than normally. Tamaranians must apply all aspects of thought and concentration to lift their feet off the ground. And sometimes if we fly too long, we start thinking desperate things. And those desperate things in our head do the unthinkable. They chase away joy and all things warm and happy and leave us as empty shells without anything or anyone to lean on." She blinked slowly, then looked at me. "That is why friends are so important, Noir."

I nodded.

"Without friends, people on my planet grow distant. They grow cold. They lose sight of the Eternal Happiness, and turn into the same cold monsters that we all were before the Great Reformation."

I rose an eyebrow.

Starfire was in her little world. "Sometimes…..sometimes when a Tamaranian keeps her life focused on only a select few friends….she….she….she chooses one….ch-chooses one to hold more than just friendship in her heart. She chooses one to be everything that she seeks in a person. A form of stability….trust….and….and….a-and…"

Starfire was stumbling. My eyes wandered down. Her fingers were absent-mindedly caressing the material of Robin's severed cape.

I looked up at her.

Silence.

I hopped down from the fountain side.

Starfire looked at me.

I walked over to a lamppost and eyed a patch of grass beneath the dim yellow glow. I paused. I unsheathed Myrkblade, charged it with dark energy, and slashed the edge of the blade a bit amidst the soil.

Starfire flinched, but looked at my handiwork with one open eye.

Once done, I stepped back and put away my weapon.

Starfire stepped over and glanced down.

I had carved a circle with a 'T' in the center deep into the earth.

"The Teen Titans…," Starfire smiled. "Our symbol."

A pause.

She grinned up at me. "I am not so short of friends after all, am I, Noir?"

I smiled.

"It is not the quantity that matters, it is the quality," Starfire sighed. A pause. She fingered the cape some more. "The quality…."

I looked off towards the night sky.

She swallowed and said rather too joyfully. "Come, companion! We must make haste to the trainyard! Meet me at the next checkpoint, okay?"

I nodded.

Starfire flew off with a slightly hopeful streak of green.

I stood still for a while. Adjusted my shades. And blurred after her.

I dashed through and around a throng of trees, then came across a small cluster of forest at the edge of the park. I leapt up, and jumped off a branch, another branch, a tree top, another branch, and a thin tree which slingshotted me more or less a few dozen meters forward where the ground cleared into a river. I dashed over the water, my feet murking, and leapt onto the dry sand on the other side. Next came a low-income neighborhood which I gracefully winded through, then a freeway which I squeezed under, and a line of warehouses marking the beginning of the industrial complex. I saw the next glowing spot of green atop a water tower. I ran up its side and landed on the rusted, metal balcony besides Starfire. She was sitting gracefully on the edge, the wind kicking at her hair and Robin's cape…which was fully out in the open and in her grasp.

"The reason I asked about your shades, Noir…," she spoke without looking. She seemed melancholy again. "…is that there is this dream I keep having lately." She hesitated for a moment, then looked up at me with crystal eyes. "It is about Robin," she said. "I am on some planet. It is not Tamaran. Neither is it Earth. It almost feels like some land lost in the chaos between our two worlds…." She seemed hurt by her own choice of the word 'our', but kept going. I listened.

"There is nothing but wasteland around me. It speaks of sorrow and anger and loneliness mixed into one. I can feel the pain as clear as an open wound. It is most unsettling. And it makes me want to wake up. But I cannot wake up, because I am looking for someone. I do not know who, but I only know at first that it is someone important to me.

"I go walking aimlessly about this land, because the sorrow is so great that I can no longer feel the unbridled joy of flight. I start calling out for anyone. My voice echoes into the emptiness, and the lack of a reply fills me with loneliness. Again, my mind begs of me to wake up, but I keep on looking.

"Then, in the middle of this emptiness, there is a little boy huddled all by himself inside a lake that is suddenly there. The waters are icy, and yet at the top the liquid boils with an unknown heat and fury. I know upon first look that it is Robin that I see. But I cannot reach him due to the icy pain and the boiling anger. And yet he is crying, his face in his hands. I call out to him, and……and he looks up. And his face is covered in green."

She looks up at me. "I cannot see his face, Noir. I cannot see his eyes. I can see his pain and his anger, but I cannot see who he truly is." She looked back down at the cape again. "When my people cry…with the greatest sorrow that can be associated with sobbing…tears come out opaque and green. Just like our eyes," she smiled momentarily and then sank back into the melancholy subject matter. "Humans are lucky to have such transparent tears. From a long way's off, you would not know if your friend was mourning or not. It would be just enough for the truth to be hidden from you. But on my planet, we cannot hide our sorrow. So, culture has forced itself to chase sorrow off, for it leaves us greatly vulnerable and in danger of falling apart. I never ever want to see green smear the face of a friend or loved one. It is inherent of my very upbringing…of who I am."

She stood up and hid Robin's cape away.

"In my dreams," Starfire said into the wind, "…Robin has the tears of a Tamaran. But in reality, he is human. But….I like to think…he is just as vulnerable as any Tamaranian I grew up with, if not more so. Because instead of admitting to his tears, he hides it all behind a white mask……"

The way she said the word '_mask_' felt like she had come to hate its connotation a long time before I joined the team. I decided to not say a thing about it. Like I could to begin with…

"I would like to know what makes him hide who he really is…," Starfire said. It was not a statement of hurt or distrust. It was full of sympathy. It was full of Starfire. "Could it be that he has a pain he won't share with anyone, Noir? Could it be that he doesn't trust me? What is it about me that he wouldn't see reasonable to share his secrets with?"

I bit my lip and sighed for a way to respond. I like Starfire but….it's enough trouble as it is trying to console a woman. It's even worse trying to talk to a woman and being mute.

But the Tamaranian girl had ways of resolving things herself. In fact, I doubt she truly talked to me to get any response out of me. In fact, the Titans in their own ways were starting to say all sorts of things to me, as if knowing the only role I could play was that of listener. Nothing else.

It cleared their consciousness….or eased their fears.

Whatever.

"Anyways, thank you for listening, Noir," Starfire said and walked off towards the edge of the rusted water tower. "Let's make way to the trainyard."

I nodded and readied myself to blur.

But she stopped, turned her head and said, "Do not take what I said too close to heart, Noir. But do remember this. If you are drowning in your own pain of ice and fire….there is no time like the present to let us know about it. No time like the present…before you lose a chance to—…."

She cut herself off and flew into the night.

I loosely hung my arms at my side and took a deep breath.

_This was going to be a long night._

I dashed off towards the trainyard, which wasn't too far away.

Starfire was onto something. Robin had an identity. A secret identity. It was ironically what we five Titans were working so hard to protect that very evening. True, historians will look back on this night and say we were trying to protect the interests of national security and top secret information. But one thing I've noticed while working for the Titans and that's that our missions are always personal. True, we may be saving the City. We may be protecting the public peace. But it was always for our own interests. It was always to keep each other safe. To keep each other happy. To keep life going. Maybe that's what gave us such a poor review compared to the ever-booming-reputation of the Justice League. But none of us cared. We made people happy. We made people safe. Whether those people be ourselves or perfect strangers. We were all about life. Even Raven.

Robin had an identity…

So did Beast Boy. So did Cyborg. So did Starfire and Raven and of course yours truly. Entering into the Tower, we all signed a contract of sorts at separate times. We called it the Confidentiality of Justice Accord, or something. The purpose of the CJA was to assure us perfect secrecy in our own lives for exchange of residency in and service to the Tower. In Layman's terms, Beast Boy was Beast Boy. Cyborg was Cyborg. Starfire was Starfire and Raven was Raven and I was myself.

Now Robin….

Though he may not admit it—or none of us for that matter—he was the sole reason for the existence of the CJA. None of the rest of us would give a darn about who we were and if that information was revealed to the Tower. In fact, we'd all probably would get along better if we started calling each other by names other than our repetitious pseudonyms and signatures. But that wasn't kosher with Robin. Beast Boy had dark eyes. Cyborg had multicolored. Raven had blue. Starfire was green.

But Robin…nobody knew what his eyes were like. Nobody had seen him. They'd seen almost every other part of him. But his eyes held the final key. They held the key to who he was. Where he was from. What his life was, his soul was, his very existence was.

Robin kept his eyemask on at all time. Thus, he kept the legend living in his persona at all times. He was more Wonder than Boy. More super than hero. More caped than crusader.

Starfire was from a world where anonymity meant pain and a cry for help. But the very one that—we all knew—she wanted to help the most couldn't possibly be helped. It seemed cruel and tragic all the same. Yet it was a beautiful thing to see Robin and Starfire—both two opposites on the sphere—get along so well. It was like the invisible glue that held the Titans together. We were so close and so trusting of each other that paradoxes could happen. And paradoxes could happen with perfect tranquility.

That is….until Robin ends up missing. And Starfire looks at her blooming friendship and suddenly sees a great ball of conglomerated pain and mystery. It was so unfair. So real.

Robin was Robin. Starfire was Starfire. Their relationship was a painful one…that is…when they were separated.

I dashed along through the industrial complex in contemplation of all this. For a second there, I wanted to stop and let the sun come up. Because I almost wanted for the worst to happen. I wanted Control Freak to unmask Robin and bring justice to this pent up world of fear and lies.

But as sweet as Starfire was, even she herself knew that a single Tamaranian's wish only went so far.

I had to honor our leader. We all did. No matter how much it hurt. And as the wind shifted against my ever-dark shades, I thought about Starfire's words, and I couldn't help it. I felt like a victim and a hypocrite all the same. It was perfect confusion. I winked it off.

After a blink or two of blurring, I realized I had reached the trainyard. I skid to a stop and looked around. There Starfire was atop a metal crane, waving down at me. She scanned the area as I blurred up the height of the crane and perched behind her.

"I am giving the place a thorough looking," she quoted the obvious.

I _looked_ as well. The trainyard consisted of nearly a dozen criss-crossing tracks sandwiched between a row of dirty, smudgy warehouses brimming with steam and smoke. Three tracks rain closely parallel to each other. During the span of time we observed the scene, the two outer tracks were racked with almost-speeding engines going in the same direction. Moving oppositely in the center was an extremely slow moving, extra-long train carrying huge mounds of coal and water tanks. They were heading south, where a power plant was located that would utilize the fuel and feed half the City with power.

Somewhere in this industrial, black-soot mess was a receiver.

We could only guess…

A Star Trek sound effect went off beside me. "Cyborg, we are at the trainyard, are you able to respond?" the alien spoke into the communicator.

"_Can you see Control Freak's device somewhere?_" the android's voice said beneath a curtain of odd noises in his background.

"Negative to that inquiry," Starfire responded. "We were hoping you would inform us as to the procedure necessary to accomplish that." A blink. "What are those animalistic noises in the background?"

"_Craziest thing I've ever seen. All the dogs in the city are barking their heads off. I'm at the Warehouse right now and there's a few of them off beyond a metal fence and they're all howling together at the sky. It's downright creepy._"

Starfire and I pricked our ears and—indeed—we could hear a faint chatter of canines in the emptiness of the urban night.

Starfire shivered. "Um…that is all nice, Cyborg, but we still require instruction if that is okay at the moment."

"_Just use those detectors I gave you! You and Noir should be able to find it no problem if you work together. Now I gotta cut you off. This warehouse needs inspecting. Call me back if it's an emergency."_

There was interference, then Raven's voice sounded over the communicator's signal.

"_Raven here. Beast Boy and I are almost at the island. I am being bitten to death by mosquitoes. Can anyone read me? Over."_"Raven, how is Beast Boy doing?" Starfire cheerfully asked.

"….._He is fine."_ Raven said darkly.

_"I am not fine!"_ Beast Boy moaned over the frequency. _"I feel like my head's gonna implode on me! I need to sleep or something……or maybe die!"_

Starfire winced. "Well….um…do the 'hanging of the in there' then. You'll be in 'the good shape no time'." And she closed the communicator. "I fear that Beast Boy is experiencing a _migratory reign_."

I lifted a finger and opened my mouth….

"Hmm?" she looked at me.

….I closed my mouth and lowered my finger.

"Well then," the alien simpered. "Shall we get going?"

I nodded and whipped out the detector. Starfire floated to the ground as I slid off the crane and joined her in a slow walk alongside the tracks and through the trainyard. Our eyes and ears were attuned to the detector as it started to beep slowly…slowly….slowly….slowly….slowly….faster…

"Over here," Starfire tugged me along Eastward. "It seems to be getting stronger in this direction."

We headed towards the increased tempo of the beeping. I held the device in my hand and looked straight down at its pulsing light while Starfire looked over my shoulder.

Faster….faster….faster….faster…faster…slower…

"Wait…too far," Starfire said. She looked around, then pointed down along the tracks where the coal train chugged slowly along. "There!"

I nodded and paced myself in its direction.

Slower…slow….faster…faster…faster….faster….faster…

The beeping's intensity rose. We stood a few feet away from the slow moving beast of a train. Suddenly, the beeping chirped like mad. We both looked over and spotted a silver object on the tracks just under the train. It was almost hidden in the gravel.

"Do you see it too?"

_What's a receiver doing under moving cargo trains?_

I turned around and looked up. There were numerous cranes and metal spires all around us for shipping purposes. Perhaps they were acting as antennae and were secretly wired to the device thanks to Control Freak.

Starfire looked distastefully at the moving cars full of coal and water tanks.

"Hmmm…how are we going to get to it with this in the way?"

I handed her the detector suddenly. I then got down to one knee and extended a hand deep into the gravel besides the shaking tracks. Murk flowed out from my fingertips and spread forth a carpet that slithered under the tracks and churning wheels of the train to where the device was. I timed myself just right and—Starfire gasping behind me—blurred over, under, and teleported squarely beneath the moving train where the object was.

"Oh Noir, do be careful! That is most unorthodox!"

Finally, after all those hours that night, something Starfire said made me want to laugh. I merely smiled, swiftly rolled over, and dug away at the gravel to get close to the device. The heavy train cars thundered over me. The wheels shrieked and scraped and screamed against the groaning tracks. One wrong move of my leg and I would have no leg at all.

The last few pieces of gravel clattered away from the surface of the device. I brushed it off and lifted it to my vision…..and froze.

"_Suckers!!" _screamed a spray-painted image up at me, alongside an amateur sketch of Control Freak in some sort of Star Trek outfit and a phaser pointed 'right at me'.

The implications of this development bounced around in my brain a few mere seconds before a shriek emanated from beyond the screeching wheels on both sides of me.

I desperately looked out from my moving, metal prison and saw Starfire's floating shadow.

"Noir! Get out from under there! It is all a trap! A most horrid and evil trap!!"

"?????" I squinted. Just then, a familiar, hovering remote control zoomed into view between the wheels, stopped, and swiveled around to 'look' at me.

I gasped.

There was another shriek, and the remote quickly decided to turn around and zoom after the unseen Starfire.

I grit my teeth, realizing the difficulty I had in getting out of my position. Meanwhile, Starfire's cries and the sounds of blaring starbolts thundered just beyond in the world I could not see. I heard an unearthly creaking sound and looked down beyond my spread legs. Upside down, I saw a loose pipe of metal sticking out of an oncoming car's belly. It scraped and dug up gravel as it bounce its sharp, rusted way at my body. If I was to get out—for Starfire's or my sake—it had to be immediately.

I dug my fingers into the gravel and strained my entire collection of muscles. Murk blurred all over me and draped into the ground.

The pipe dragged along a cutting path, just meters from my toes.

Smoke flickered up from my chest and legs at the bellies of the cars overhead.

Starfire shrieked and an explosion went off, followed by a creak of metal.

The pipe cut its way between my legs.

Gravel bounced off my thighs and rode up to my middle.

I shot smoke desperately up into the belly directly over me then. I found cracks. I found fissures. I found a fracture that ate its way up into the basin where a sea of coal began.

That was enough for me.

I exhaled, blurred into smoke, and shot straight up into the air.

SMASH!!!!!

My body swam up through the transported pile of coal. I emerged high above the tracks. In slow motion, a full spread-splash of coal leapt into the air and descended. I fell and landed firmly on the ground, unsheathed Myrkstaff. Amidst a rain of coal, I spun about and looked for Starfire's location.

Rather, I _heard_ it.

"Noir! Assistance would be of great help at this present moment of necessity!" She chanted, firing starbolts at what appeared to be a….floating train-crossing sign.

_I shouldn't ask…_

I was about to blur over and assist her when suddenly a hovering remote lowered in front of me, taking me by surprise. It studied me over with a blinking light until it realized I was a 'Titan', and then it opened a panel beneath; revealing a speaker of sorts.

_"Nuts to you, stupid jawas!"_ Cackled the Control Freak's unmistakable, fat voice. "_Ever learned that it's dangerous to play on the tracks?! Well party on round the roundhouse, cuz tomorrow you die. And it's almost midnight, you glob flies!!"_

The remote retracted the speaker with a –SCHLUNK!— and immediately turned to face a huge metal crane.

I watched through dark shades as the crane glowed brightly, shook out of its earthy holding, and walked towards me on creaking, rusted legs.

I bit my lip and thanked myself again for not drinking something prior to this excursion.

"Noir! Look out!" Starfire exclaimed, tackling the animated sign.

I charged up murk and switched Myrkstaff to Myrkblade.

She needn't tell me twice…

The metal crane creaked in some sort of 'monstrous roar' and dove its pointed nose straight down at me. I blurred to the side in time to escape a huge chunk of the earth being ripped out with dirt flying. I ran at one of the crane's 'legs', preparing Mrykblade to swing…when a hovering remote suddenly flew down and smacked me aside the head.

I tumbled to the ground with a gasp and winced. I sat up and rubbed my head, realizing I no longer had possession of Myrkblade. I looked to my left and a saw it besides the tracks. I made a mad scamper for it, but a leg of the living crane came smashing down in front of me, blocking my path.

I looked up in uncertainty as the hulking beast of metal leered at me and slammed its head down again.

I jumped back.

It smashed down again.

I jumped again…and again…each time dodging by a less fraction of an inch.

Starfire finally smashed her animated opponent with a starbolt and looked down at me. She flew to assist, when one of the two remotes hovered in front of her, aimed, and zapped a utility shed. The doors to the shed flew open, and metal tools and splinters flew out dangerously at Starfire's body. She shrieked, deflected a few off, and zoomed up into the air with living buzz saws soaring after her, cutting the air with razor-sharp fury.

In the meantime, I dashed away from and around the stomping legs and 'face' of the crane. I kept eyeing my blade by the side of the train and looked for an opportunity to go after it. I looked for one too many seconds—for suddenly the head of the crane swooped low and struck me upside the torso. I flipped in mid air and landed hard on my bad. I would have groaned if I had the voice to muster it, but instead I sat up and frowned—angrily—at the huge metallic beast before me.

Starfire zoomed overhead, two buzz saws and a hovering remote in pursuit.

The crane stomped towards me and lifted its head for a final strike through my body. If the huge rusted golem had eyes, though, it would have seen the carpet of smoke I secretly formed underneath it. As it struck, I teleported on the other side of it, blurred circles around its rear legs, and forced it to trip over by its own weight and slam into the earth.

WHAM!!!!

Soil and gravel flew everywhere. I dashed over, grabbed Mrykblade, flipped, planted my feet into the side of a passing train car, and leapt over and down into a ready position to fight.

The crane righted itself, turned around, and roared with creaking metallic parts as it faced me.

I gritted my teeth, summoned up Destruction, and blurred directly at it. Time slowed down. I flew a few feet off the ground over a cloud of murk. A trail of shattered earth trailed behind me. When I met the base of the crane, I ran up its metal body, scurried up its medal supports, dashed up its elongated 'neck', and jumped right off the tip of its head. I swiftly flipped in mid air and came soaring down with Myrkblade stretched out ahead of me. Smoke flared out from under my shades as I forced all my dark energy into the blade, cutting effortlessly down the center of the huge crane on my return trip to earth.

SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!!!!

I landed on the ground, rolled backwards, and watched my handiwork with Myrkblade at rest beside me.

The crane creaked for one last time before snapping into two with a CRACK! And falling into two separate directions with a THUD!

I let out a breath and looked after Starfire.

The alien was orbiting my location, the deadly buzz saws swishing every other way to slice off a limb or two of the girl's. She spiraled about and performed other movements of airborne finesse to shake off their pursuit, every now and then firing startbolts at the evil objects to stop them. But to no avail. She needed help.

I thought quickly…desperately…then formed a plan.

I ran to a leg of the 'deceased' crane and sliced off a huge chunk of metal. I then charged up Destruction and—murk warbling through my limbs—swung upwards with Myrkstaff, knocking the metal chunk high into the air. Not a moment later, I blurred over to the slowly-chugging train, leapt off a car, and soared upwards to meet the chunk, upon which I played batter and knocked the spiraling piece of debris past Starfire and into the pursuing blades. The blow deflected them every which way, slicing through a lamp, a warehouse wall, and one of the two hovering remotes.

SLIIINK!!

The robotic accomplice to Control Freak fell down dead to the earth, sparking into remission. Its 'companion' hovered over the scene, looked at me, flashed red as if to 'frown', and swiftly aimed over….at the train cars.

-click-

The remote control zapped one, two, three successive piles of coal in the chugging train cars. The coal glowed, shook, warbled, and took grossly human form. The 'coal bodies' regarded Starfire and me, determined us as enemies, and leapt out of the train cars and onto the ground. Their conglomerated, coal bodies clunked together and rumbled like a herd of tiny boulders screaming at us before the march began.

Starfire gulped and wrung her hands together in mid air.

I looked up at her and frantically gestured for her to take out the final hovering remote.

"Will do!" she saluted and soared off after the elusive device.

I turned and faced the three hulking giants of coal. They stared down at me, craggy fists clinching.

I tightened my grip to Myrkblade, watching their every mood.

This face off continued amidst the night of scraping train cars before one of us moved.

They moved.

The first giant of black took three stomps toward me before smashing a coal-laden fist into the ground where I once stood; I had leapt up swiftly. I landed on its 'arm' and ran up the limb, digging my blade deep into the gritty golem all the way. I sliced a deep wound into the neck and flipped off, landing with a reverse slide so as to admire my handiwork.

But the creature just as easily shapeshifted the carvings into nothingness. It's rear turned into its front as the head reformed and scowled down at me.

I blinked. Just then, its two giant companions charged me from the left. I blurred between them and jumped straight upwards, spiraling with my blade outstretched. I chopped and shredded coal into dust, but the monsters still retained their shapes. I landed and dashed through a leg, slicing it clean off only for it to slink back into the dark form and give it back its mobility.

_The gloves are off._

I concentrated…meditated…and charged up Destruction as much as I could. I gripped Myrkblade above me, awaiting the approach of all three golems. They circled around me, coal-fitted arms outstretched. I grit my teeth as murk splashed out from my extremities. I charged forth an unseen wind which rushed up the length of my body and then sunk down to form a cylinder of intensity about my blade, which I swiftly swung around in a 360 and angled down in a monstrous vertical strike at the three opponents. A wave of dark Destruction blew the three back—along with a utility shed or two—and forced the entire mess of coal across the trainyard…..and straight into a propane tank.

I flinched.

_**BOOOM!!!!!!!**_

Fire engulfed the coal beast. And when I say 'engulfed', I do mean *engulfed*. Soon, out from the flames stood a dark figure—formed together by the burning mixture of the first three monsters I battled. It stood three times as tall and infinitely times as furious. It shook its arms and the fire swept down into its center, forming a giant torch of heat as it stomped towards me.

I sweatdropped and looked up to find Starfire. She was busy chasing the remote in mid-air, but frequently running into random summonings by the elusive device of CF's.

I turned back, out of options, to face the fiery beast. It roared at me with shaking pieces of flaming coal and launched a ball of heat at me. I jumped back and raised my blade, deflecting the next two projectiles. Smoke trailed back and forth between us as the 'ballgame' ensued. I charged at the beast, deflecting flameballs, and tried to get in a strike—but the body was too hot. I was deep in it now, and anything I tried to do made it worse.

Starfire glanced down, considered my predicament, and pointed in the middle of her own persuit. "Noir! The water tanks! They may be able to aid you!"

I looked to my left. As the coal cars of the passing train churned by, a line of water tankers appeared. I looked at them…at the beast…at them…and at the beast again.

Just in time too, a fiery arm was flying at me. I rolled to the side, barely escaping with a singed sleeve. I slid under the intense heat of the leaning beast's torso and made a bee line for the train. When I reached it, I ran up the side of the tanker cars and dragged my blade down behind me. I cut a huge slit, through which a steady stream of highly pressurized water surged out horizontally and slammed into the body of the flaming coal golem.

The monster churned backwards, trying in vain to block off the attack with a raised forearm. The 'forearm' lost its flame. Smoke billowed high up into the night air, slowly swallowing the flame outside in. Suddenly, holes formed in it as starbolts flew in from behind and blasted it into swiss cheese.

I looked up and at Starfire, who finished one last starbolt and smiled down at me with a salute.

I smiled back up.

Then…WHACK!! The remote caught Starfire off guard by whacking the back of her head. She gasped and fell forward.

"!!!!" I sprung into full sprint, leapt, grabbed Starfire's body in mid air, and rolled to a kneeling position upon which I set her down.

She shook her head and murmured: "Owie…"

I looked up and caught sight of the remote. It must have caught sight of me and saw how pissed off I was, for it 'looked around' for avenues of escape but instead decided to fly into one of the cavities formed by the holey coal golem and hid itself in the debris as the smoking beast regained its strength.

I spun around and gestured to Starfire to 'give me cover'. She nodded at the simple command and I was off on a mad dash.

The monster groaned and tossed hulking bits of coal at me.

Starbolts flew ahead of me, demolishing each attack in mid air. But the last hunk of coal Starfire missed, but she meant to. For I used it as a spring board by jumping, leaping off it in mid air, and sailing straight into the center of the coal creature's body. Once inside, the charged up energy of my destructive Myrblade erupted and I jabbed it upward into the niche I had formed in the monster's torso of debris.

FLASH!!!!!

Coal exploded everywhere in hundreds of trails of smoke and sparks. The blast sent the remote flailing in a descending arc from the missing body of the golem it had summoned from the coal. The remote landed in a cute pair of Tamaranian hands…which promptly cradled the device, glowed bright green, and exploded it without mercy.

The chaos ended. The night cooled to a standstill with smoke billowing up in random spots from the defeated golem. I descended softly to the earth on a pillar of murk—a bit smudged—but no worse for wear.

Starfire sighed and slumped to the ground. She mournfully whipped out the communicator with a Star Trek sound and whimpered into it: "This is Starfire. Control Freak set us up with the receiver. It is…how you say…a 'wild chase of the gaggle'."

"_You and me both, sister!"_ Beast Boy's voice sounded over the communicator. Though sickly, there was a vital urgency in his voice that seemed more alive than ever. "_No sooner was Raven and I on the island when two remotes flew in and zapped palm trees into kung fu fighters or something……blargh…_"

There was a moment of static noise, then Cyborg's voice took over. "_Damn! Me too! There was a receiver at the warehouse, allright…but so was a bunch of crazy nut-job monsters thanks to Control Freak! Rrrghh!! And I thought we almost had this guy *nailed*!!"_

Some more disturbance. Raven's voice took over. _"Well obviously we *hadn't*. I suggest we go back to the tower and review what went wrong before we anger Control Freak so much that he makes good on his threat…_"

Starfire winced at that. It made my empty throat sore.

_"Agreed,_" Cyborg's defeated voice said. _"Starfire…Noir…you guys okay?_"

"Yes…we are quite fine," Starfire said, depressingly.

Cyborg pasued before issuing: "_Kay…meet us back at the tower, pdq. Man, I sure wish these damn dogs would stop barking their heads off!_"

_"Stop cussing…my head's gonna split open_," Beast Boy's voice nauseatingly moaned.

The communicator clicked off. Starfire sighed and simply dropped it down into the gravel. Her green eyes lowered as her whole body looked like a wilted flower.

I sauntered over towards her quietly. Our bodies became silhouettes against a backdrop of coal smoke and sparse orange flames. I knelt before her and gave her a concerned look through my shades.

"It is not so bad, Noir," Starfire said more to herself than anyone. "I was only hoping this investigation would take us somewhere closer to Robin. But obviously it was a deception on the part of Control Freak to ensnare you, me, and the rest of us into his evil plan. Of all I know, he might not have spared Robin by this time. Our beloved friend could be dead. He could be dead, and I never got the chance to find out what his eyes look like…or who he is on the inside…or what it is that makes him painful and angry…," her voice started to shake. Robin's cape fell out of nowhere and littered the ground before her. Starfire trembled. "I might never….n-never get the chance to tell him….to tell him that I…"

There was a hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she opened her wet eyes and looked up. A sharp gasp escaped her throat.

Before her, Starfire found a face with two enormous black eyes. There were no pupils to them. No irises. No cornea. No color at all. Just solid, enormous black. The two eyes filled as much space of the sockets that the face could contain. And yet, in the folds of the flesh's expression about their curves, the eyes were just about as human as anybody else's.

These black eyes.

I had taken my shades off for the Tamaranian to see for the first time. The act in and of itself was very painful, for every tiny flicker or dance of the sparse, flaming coals in the background stabbed deep within my retinae with knives of pure light. I couldn't maintain it for long, yet I summoned the strength to keep staring at her while I picked the severed cape of Robin's off the ground and planted it firmly in the alien girl's soft hands. I gently but forcibly closed her fingers around them and pushed the cape into her heart.

Slowly, Starfire bit her lip. A streak or two of opaque green slithered down her cheeks. But I knew she wasn't sad, for it soon was followed by a sweet smile. The sweetest I've ever seen on an already infinitely sweet being.

"Th-Thank you, Noir…," she said softly. "You're right….I….I-I will see Robin someday. He will live for me to see him again. And if fate permits…his eyes—his true self, in turn."

I nodded. Without blinking my black orbs, I lifted the thick shades back onto my face and felt the blindingly bright night go dark again. I sighed…then managed a smile.

The two of us stood up at the same time. Starfire was hugging the cape to herself and watching as I turned around and slowly made my way to a clearing in the messed up trainyard where I could adequately start my blurred run home. In the meantime, Starfire relaxed herself, took to the air, and flew along with me back to the Tower.

In between leaps from rooftop to rooftop, I lowered my lids and breathed.

I'd had people in the past call me 'freak' for pulling such a stunt before. And just then and now, I gave Starfire a new hope for the future.

I glanced up at her streaking, green form a few hundred meters beyond my speeding position and shrugged it off in my mind.

_So what if a select few in this universe are considerate?_

_I don't know._

_Eyes are overrated._


	9. Alien Network News part 5 final

**9. Alien Network News part 5 Final**

Robin's eyemask widened; signifying that he was coming to. He looked straight up at an unfamiliar ceiling. He found his arms and legs strapped to a gurney of sorts. The room was a dark thing constructed of metal, and the ever-present smell of rust filled his nose.

Instead of a sunrise that morning, Robin got Control Freak's furry face rising into view.

"Wakey Wakey, early bird. I've got a worm to pick with you."

Robin frowned. He angrily replied, "Mmmfmmmfffmmff!!" He looked surprised. "Mfmmmfff?"

"Heheheheheheh," Control Freak gestured to his gag and chuckled. "Allow me." He stripped the tape off Robin's mouth with a riiiiiip.

"Ghhhh!!" Robin winced, spat, and gasped. "Think you might be overdoing it?"

"Oh what, are you suddenly the expert on being kidnapped?" Control Freak leapt back, landed in an office chair, and slid a spiral over towards a haphazard computer station set in the dark metal corner. "Well do fill me in on the etiquette that I should follow, my obstinate Vulcan! I'm all ears."

"For one…in these situations, I find that it's the bad guy who does most of the talking," Robin gritted his teeth.

"Quite true. I guess you read through the plot before we got to the initial action sequence," CF chattered, typing away at the computer. "Very well." He swiveled around and smirked at Robin from afar. "You're the one key I have to unlocking the ultimate secrets of Secrethood!"

"And just how do I fit that itinerary?!" Robin said, struggling in vain against his restraints.

"Why, you're holding your comrades back by just being here." Control Freak rolled over to Robin's side and said in a lower voice, "They can't imagine what dark, dirty things I could do to your vulnerable person while I have you in my grasp."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound really…_really_ wrong when you say it like that, you know."

Control Freak thought about it, winced himself, and conceded. "Yeah…that is a bit over the top. Ahem. Well, one thing's for sure." He blurred a hand over Robin's temple. The Boy Wonder grunted as the villain manhandled the edges of his eye-mask threateningly. "This thing can come off any minute!" CF then pointed to a red laser situated above Robin's figure. "This thing can blow it's top off any minute!" He then swiveled around and pointed to an elaborate system of cameras and studio recording equipment. "THIS STUFF can start up any minute!!"

"This is sounding a tad bit goofy for a threat."

CF glared/smiled at Robin through the corner of his eyes. "You talk as if it's nothing to you. I'll agree that, in the general sense of things, it is *nothing*. Your secret is no shot in the dark. We all know you're a short, Caucasian, dark-haired adolescent. We know you once worked in Gotham under the tutelage of the Dark Knight and thus must have lived there at one time. We also know you're an over-achiever who lays his life on the line for worthless companions."

"They are my *friends*," Robin said firmly.

"They are your weaknesses," Control Freak retorted. "And quite the same vice versa. For the protection of your worthless little secret, I'm gonna have access to a slew of GREAT SECRETS!" He spun around on his office chair, cackling. When he swiveled to a stop, he leaned forward, chuckled into a sigh, and rested his chin against a hand. "To think….Area 51…alien autopsy…biowarfare and the spread of Ebola…..all to be confirmed/denied by the simple turn of the nob."

"Where have you got Kobayashi's transistor?!" Robin barked.

"Don't ruffle your feathers so," Control Freak said effortlessly. "It's over here, inside the computer console. From here I have the system hooked up to the greatest receiver in the world. But I can't tell you much more than that. Heheheheheheheh…even if the truth's _always been so close to home_!"

Robin's face twisted. Then he gasped. "Of course! You're using the—mmmfffmmfmfff!"

Control Freak reapplied the gag and went back to the computer. "Showtime is almost here, Robin Hood-less! But first I'll leave a little word with your friends. They tried ever so carelessly to track you down last night. I knew it would happen all along. That's why I had to deal with them in the only language those meatheads can speak!"

Robin's eyemask wilted in horror. "Mmmmfffff…"

"It's all just a matter of time, Robin. Don't you worry. Your worthless little secret is good as hidden, cuz nothing's gonna stop the Alien Network News! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Is everyone allright?"

"I'm allright."

"We are both in considerable shape of goodness."

"Speak for yourselves, y'all….ughhh…it's getting worse."

"Beast Boy, should we write you in for a Sick Day or something?"

"Whatever…just make it stop….errgggghh…"

Cyborg scratched the flesh part of his scalp and looked at the ground. The five of us had gathered once again at the gates of the Tower. It was morning with the dim light of day. We formed an awkward circle right beside where the T-Car was parked in front of the steps to our headquarters. The warm air lingered around us as our temporary android leader attempted to think up a new course of action and Beast Boy looked about to collapse with the way he was moaning and rubbing his aching head.

"It was so simple a clue to capture Control Freak," Cyborg said off-handedly. "He knew we'd look for an advantage to take him up on his trademark superficiality."

"Let's not forget his parting speech," Raven mentioned. "He said he was not merely what he appeared on the outside."

"I thought when villains reformed, they changed from their bad ways…instead of changing into worse ways," Starfire remarked.

"Villains are villains," Beast Boy managed to say between gurgles. "They always have been and always will be. Can we call it a rap now? Ughhh…"

"Giving up on Robin so soon?" Raven quirped.

"My head's killing me. I think we should rethink who we're rescuing here…"

Raven rolled her eyes. "It's a headache…deal with it."

Just then, everyone's communicator went off. Including mine. Curious, we looked at each other as if to see which of us was calling who.

Starfire blinked and jumped with a sense of hope. "Robin??"

Cyborg shook his head. "We're not that lucky." He opened his communicator with a Star Trek sound, and we all followed suit. "What is it now, Control Freak?"

"Just an update, you droid dunce," Control Freak's holo-image smirked. "I'm hours away from unraveling the greatest national secrets ever. And I'd better not get any more interference from your numskulls than you've already _caused!_"

"Interference?? What are you talking about?!" Cyborg bluffed.

"Don't play the part of the inferior Class M Planetoid Civilization!!" CF stuck his tongue out and grinned. "I know you went after my diversion. You guys really think 2-dimensionally, don't you?"

"It hasn't occurred to us," Cyborg said. "Why don't you come over and visit. We'll all get to know each other in any dimension you'd like."

"No can do, cyberpunk! I'm gonna tell you only one thing. Back off from my plans, or Robin will become featherless! I'll pluck every fiber of his ego out bit by bit. It'll be a gruesome fate for a Titan, not without its similarity to Prometheus' liver. But what do you all know?! Do your homework! Ha ha!!"

"Someone make him shut up…," Beast Boy urped.

"You will do no such thing to Robin!" Starfire exclaimed into the communicator. "We will stop your meanie meanness before you have a chance to be mean to him!"

"Congrats, little girl. You won the Ultimate Lameness Award! Once I hack into the Pentagon's reserved archives concerning EMP space rifles, I'll turn the lights out in your whole district and laugh at the thought of you peeing in your bed! Prick me, and do I not kick ass?! This is your new global leader of information, Control Freak, signing out! Live long and MMORPG!!"

And with that, his face blipped off the comunicators' screens.

"Maybe you were a little….up front with him?" Raven asked, glaring at Starfire.

"Rggggh!" Cyborg tossed his communicator to the ground. "That tears it! There's gotta be something we're overlooking! Something simple! An answer to just how Control Freak's able to broadcast everywhere so effortlessly!"

"Well, we're back to square one," Raven said. "Noir's genius _plan_ didn't lead us anywhere."

I frowned.

"And just what are we gonna do?!?! There're too many signals and frequencies to follow!!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"We could run a thorough search using the computer," Starfire said. "I am sure that if we put all our heads together—"

"It's totally impossible, I'm telling you!! Control Freak's finally got a one-up over us! And the clock's ticking. There's nothing we can do!!"

"UGGGGH!!" Beast Boy clutched his head. His knees banged together. "I….I-I can't take it!! So….painful….annoying…." Suddenly, the changeling turned into a green bloodhound and howled desperately at the moon before rolling on the ground, barking its head off.

"………………," we all stared.

"Okay…..," Raven remarked. "What's he doing, and why's he doing it??"

"Wait a minute….," Cyborg said in a low voice. "Beast Boy is…."

Starfire gasped. "It is just like the dogs! Something is causing him to act as though he is irritated!"

Beast Boy turned back into a kneeling elf. "You think?!?!?" he clutched his head.

Cyborg squatted beside him. "Tell us again when your headache started."

"Ugh…..o-on the way back from Kobayashi Tower."

"Was it right after Robin was taken?"

"An hour or so after…..it began so suddenly."

Cyborg stood up and fingered a few buttons on his titanium forearm. A panel lit up with a frequency distribution.

"HA! I thought so!" he said.

"What is it?" Raven asked, getting on her tip toes to look at Cyborg's panel.

"There is a constant, low level vibration in the air. It's all around us!"

I cocked my head, listening curiously.

"This is not normal?" Starfire asked.

"This frequency is constant and shows a pattern. It's very much synthetic and constructed…not like the normal chaotic frequencies that I've recorded before."

"How come you just notice it now?" Raven asked.

"Because I wasn't looking for _sound waves_ before."

"You mean….," Starfire put her hands to her chin.

"Control Freak is using a _sonic signal_," Cyborg said. "It's something even I've read up on in conspiracy theories. The government has these secret sound systems in strategic places throughout the continent that emit specific, key sound waves across long distances that a large, inconspicuous receiver can detect and transmit into data."

"It's like ringing a huge bell across the nation," Raven suggested.

"Exactly….only this sound is so evenly displaced that living things can't hear it. Control Freak must be amplifying the signal somehow using the transistor he stole when he left Kobayashi Tower with Robin. Kobayashi's men must have been working on a way to commercially use sonic transmission when the government asked them to hold their horses."

"But Control Freak has no intention on 'gripping the multitude of equine'?" Starfire remarked.

Cyborg shook his head. "In order to pirate the secret government information, he has to be using a large receiver to produce a sonic transmission of equal distribution back towards the sources of the sonic waves. The result is an amplification of the signal that the very receiver he's using picks up. That is how the government's transmissions supplies him with information."

"And that amplification is too quiet for us to hear," Starfire said. Then looked over at Beast Boy. "But earthling dogs and animals are prone to its effect."

"Glad I could be of help," Beast Boy remarked sickly, resisting the urge to vomit as he rubbed his head.

"What kind of a receiver are we talking about?" Raven said to Cyborg.

"Something ghetto, considering the time and resources Control had in limitation."

"Ghetto??" Starfire asked.

"Big and obvious. Really big and obvious."

"Like what? An antenna?"

"A lightning rod?"

"No," Cyborg shook his head. "Bigger."

"A skyscraper?"

"A bridge pylon?"

"Almost…but I don't see how any in our city could be useful in that way…."

I scratched my head. Then froze. And looked up….up….up….

"…..," Cyborg looked at me. He turned around and looked up.

So did Starfire and Raven. Even a sickly Beast Boy.

Silence.

"You…have got to be kidding me," Raven remarked.

We were all looking at the looming structure of the Titan Tower above us.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the kitchen unit, Raven filled a glass with water. She planted it squarely on the counter. She beheld it as tiny reverberations grew in the water and rippled outward from the center.

"That confirms it," Raven said, then looked up at us. "The Teen Tower is vibrating."

"V-Vibrating??" Beast Boy said, looking even greener as he stared at the shaking glass of water. "How?"

"The tallest skyscrapers sway as much as over a foot from the center of their foundations," Cyborg explained. "In fact, they're built to do that. Any more solid, and they'd break under the constant stress of air and wind at high altitudes."

"The Teen Tower is no exception?" Starfire inquired.

"Exactly…," Cyborg nodded. "Even more so, in fact. The Teen Tower was constructed to resist hurricanes, earthquakes, and all other sorts of elemental disasters that a superpowerful villain could wield upon us."

I nodded.

"But….just h-how is Control Freak doing this…TO OUR OWN HOME?!?!" Beast Boy cackled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I opened the cellar door and led the way down the stairs into the bottom shadows of the Tower. The others followed suit, with Starfire trembling at the familiar creepiness of the setting and Cyborg shining a flashlight built into his torso. We looked around a bit, then I spotted something and pointed it out to Cyborg. He set his light upon it.

"Well I'll be damned…," he walked forward and pressed his palm against a huge metallic plate set against one of the support structures of the Tower. "It's this thing allright. And I bet there're a couple of other, identical ones planted all throughout this area."

"What are they exactly?" Raven asked.

"No real definition. They're just huge metal boxes with whirling cylinders in them. I think they're used for some theme park rides or something. Whatever they are, they're all attached to the support pylons of the Tower and are shaking in unison. Control Freak must have them on a wireless signal to respond to his every command and amplify the sonar transmissions in any way he so chooses."

"How did he get in here to plant them?" Starfire asked, paranoid.

"The heck if I know," Cyborg shrugged.

"The man can turn plants into tentacle monsters with the click of a remote," Raven said. "I'm sure it's not beyond him to walk through walls."

"Why don't we just destroy these things and be done with it?!" Beast Boy remarked, swiftly turning into a green rhino to emphasize his point.

"No! Don't!" Cyborg jumped in front of him. "If we cut off the signal, we cut off Control Freak's access to the transmissions."

"And that means he will do bad things to Robin!" Starfire mourned.

The green elf reappeared. "Well we gotta do something!! Just being down in here is wanting me to tear off my head and call it a night!! Do you know what it's like having sensitive, pointed ears?!?!"

"We're green with envy…," Raven droned.

"Not even funny!" Beast Boy frowned. "And that means a lot coming from _me_!"

"There's gotta be something we can do, now that we know Control Freak's secret…," Cyborg said.

I glanced at Starfire.

She thought aloud. "If we cannot cut off Control Freak's transmissions……maybe there is a we can duplicate it?"

Everyone looked at Starfire.

She grinned. "Dear friends! I have concocted a plan!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Here's the drill, Noir…," Cyborg said, handing a detector to me and patting me on the shoulder. "You're gonna be our reconnaissance man. But we have to work together."

I nodded.

"Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy will be playing part of the farce to throw Control Freak off," he gestured behind to an assortment of fake medical trays, operating equipment, a bed, and a white sheet backdrop set up against a side of the Main Room. "I'm going to operating the camera, the communicator, and the frequency reader. So I'll be doing three things at once; recording the three, looking for transmission signals from Control Freak, and relaying the direction of his location to you."

I smiled and pocketed the detector.

"Nobody here is quite as fast as you are. You must understand, Noir. We're gonna be using the Tower against Control Freak and sending electronic symbols to him. You think you can catch up with electrons?"

I bit my lip and shrugged.

"Well…better than the rest of us. Follow the circuits where me and the detector tell you. The detector should beep rapidly the closer you are to the pirated signal heading Control Freak's way. Once you find him, contact us and try to free Robin. We're gonna nail this guy using his own devices!" Cyborg grinned.

I bet he felt like a genius…even if Starfire technically thought it all up.

"You guys ready over there?" Cyborg turned around and asked.

Raven stood stoically as Starfire busied herself around her, attiring the dark girl in a white surgeon's outfit.

"I….am not….an actress," Raven complained lowly.

"Nonsense, Raven!" Starfire beamed in her face and applied a surgical cap. "You are marvelous at portraying yourself as cold, insensitive, and downright apathetic towards life in general!"

"…..," Raven stared. "But that's how I really feel about life."

Starfire blinked. "Oh…..er….w-well then….all the more realistic performance!"

Raven rolled her eyes and sighed. "Heaven help us all…"

"Hey!" Beast Boy sat up straight from the cloth-covered hospital 'bed' he was in. "I'm the one with the splitting migraine, and yet I'm still able to play the part! Who're you to complain, Raven?!"

"Just shut up and grow tentacles already."

"Yes, Beast Boy," Starfire said through a surgical mask she put on. "You're not supposed to be human in this scene."

"I'm not gonna be anything _sane_ for long if we don't get this done right! You're sure this plan will hit it off, Starfire?"

"Oh, most undoubtedly, Beast Boy! The 'hitting of the off' shall consume merrily with this experiment! We are ready to perform when you are ready, Cyborg."

Cyborg saluted me. "Get ready, Noir. Control Freak is bound to scan the Tower's sonic transmissions at any second!"

I saluted back and opened a nearby window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A Klingon dagger reached '12' on the clockface. Control Freak looked up from his watch and smirked. He leaned back in his chair, cracked his knuckles, and sighed happily. "It…is time."

"Mmmmffffmmff!!" Robin protested.

"Oh hush up and enjoy the show!" CF stuck his tongue out at him. "You're about to see the unveiling of a hitherto forgotten history….or present!" He typed a blur on his computer keyboard and then turned a dial on the device holding Kobayashi's transistor. "Let's see what wonderful half truth we run into first! Accessing strongest frequency!!"

Robin watched helplessly as a nearby monitor switched on, displaying static and snow as Control Freak worked hard to intercept a secret video file in the sonic airwaves.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg caught the waves of pulsing transmissions coming towards the Tower and requesting feedback. He turned a dial on the computer and routed the information request through another network. He then fixed that network to the very same digital camera he had in front of him…and started filming.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Control Freak's monitor flickered once…twice….

He jumped in his seat emphatically. "Come on! Come on!!"

More flickering. More static.

Impatient, he subconsciously ripped open a Butterfinger and started eating. "Mmmrrrmmm…mmrrrmmm….any second now….any second now….any second…._now_!"

There was a flicker that resembled two figures against a wall of white, but was gone again.

"Dag nabbit!!!" the fatty villain waddled. "You rebel scum!! I'll teach you to break up on me!" He frantically fiddled with the keyboard and the controls. The picture became clearer. There were two female bodies standing over a table. Everything about them and the setting was a blindingly clean white.

_"…ha….e…ade….th….nal….ision….t?"_

"Come on….Come on Come on COME ON!!!"

Control Freak growled and kicked the monitor.

PBBZZZ!!

The picture came in clean.

Control Freak gasped.

The secret government footage on the monitor showed two petite women hovering over an autopsy table. One was taller than the other and seemed to be leading the proceedings. The shorter one looked up at her companion as a conversation ensued. Both identities were hidden by surgical gowns and masks.

_"No, not yet, my formal colleague and assistant…," _said the tall one dramatically. _"Even if this creature on the autopsy table before us is a being from another planet, we must wait for the phone call from the House of White of the United States to give us a final word before we can cut into its exotic exoskeleton!!!"_

"Ohhhhhhh man…..an alien autopsy! Jackpot!!" Control Freak grinned a crescent moon. "Oh man…Oh man Oh man Oh man Oh man…" He spun around and smiled at Robin. "Are you seeing this??"

Robin looked at the screen, blinked behind his mask, and went bug-eyed. "Mmmfmmfff???!!!" (Starfire???!!!)

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"But we must know of these…er…creatures' backgrounds sooner or later, Doctor," spoke 'Nurse Raven'. "After all, the invasion is only a few days away and the Star Wars program isn't ready to…um….blast the Mother Ship away…"

"Oh what a tragic universe we live in when nothing but bloodshed abounds before us!!" whoahed 'Doctor Starfire' with an elbow pressed against her temple.

Raven stomped on her foot.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Owchie!!"_ the tall doctor jumped.

Control Freak blinked. "Owchie?!"

"_What's wrong, __**Doctor**__??"_ growled the nurse.

_"Um….it must be the….psychotic telepathy of the aliens all around us………..um…….here in…um….THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT OF THE DENVER!!!"_

CF's jaw dropped. "So that's what they have hidden under there! And all this time I thought it was a dark project of amber cleansing. Whew…that makes me feel good. I can deal with alien psychosis anyday." He turned around and winked at Robin. "_I was born in Florida_," he whispered, as if that would explain everything.

"Mmmfffmmmmfffmmfmfmmmfff!" (This is nuts!)

"Lemme just improve the reception a bit…," Control Freak adjusted a nob.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Starfire and Raven continued the charade, Cyborg filmed them and monitored a receiver at the same time. He caught wind of Control Freak's receding signals, and signaled to me.

I signaled back, dropped out of the high window, and scampered on blurred feet down the Tower. I leapt and soared over the surface of water, following the detector as it lead me directly over a line of underwater cables. I was heading North, straight towards the Bay area of the City. I pushed my powers to the maximum, not wanting to lose a single breath of speed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Doctor, why are you sweating?"_

"As you well know, my faithful assistant, it is hot down here underground and beneath the Airport. Oxygen is short, which explains why the government only hired female scientists to work on aliens because of the small volume of air consumption in our feminine lungs!"

"Whoaaaaaaaaah," Control Freak's sparkled. "That makes so much sense. Why didn't I think of that? Better not piss off my date again, or else she could kill off an entire species."

Robin banged his head against the gurney.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I followed the beeping of the detector. It suddenly lapsed, and I twisted my blurred movement to meet with the change accordingly. I looked up and gasped as I found myself streaking straight towards a sailboat. The pilots on board jumped in each other's arms and screamed.

I launched a plume of smoke beneath my heels and vaulted over them, water spraying on either side of me. I came back down, scampered for a second or two, and continued dashing over water.

The detector beeped a little less…a little more….less…and more again.

I zig-zagged to maintain the high tempo of the signal, and eventually found myself heading for the shopping plaza by the bay. Thus came the first obstacle I had never before encountered due to my hitherto, stealth form of movement.

People.

I brought my arms back, summoned up dark energy, and veritably turned my whole body into smog form. Thus I inked in and around the people, streaking over cars and whirling around shopping vendors in the blink of an eye. By the time I had passed through, every pedestrian or driver batted an eye and barely caught sight of me. It disoriented them a little, but it was a risk I had to take. I couldn't lose the signal.

The pursuit took me zooming down an alleyway, up walls, and finally over rooftops.

I felt a bit more comfortable as I headed after the network of wires and the directions of the detector. Ahead of me was the East.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Shouldn't we be…um…hearing word from the 'president' yet_?" questioned the nurse.

_"It is only a matter of time before the phone call gets here,"_ said the doctor.

A pause.

_"I said, it is only a matter of time before the phone call gets here!!"_

What followed was the sound of a telephone ringing which suspiciously resembled the warbling effect coming from the lips of an African American android.

_"….um….the telephone, Doctor."_

"Praise be to Dog!"

"God."

_"Ahem, --sorry--."_ The doctor reached out of the camera shot and put a phone to her red head. _"Yes? Mmmmhmmm? Oh dearie me, is that so? Well, yes of course, Mr. President."_

She simply dropped the phone and mourned vividly. "Oh what a tragic circle of the human race this is. We must cut open a thing we do not understand and extend our knowledge beyond the infinite that is the known universe."

_"What a….pity…,_" the nurse droned.

"_Why, you do not seem remorseful, my faithful assistant! Do you not know that this is a living breathing alien we are about to lacerate into minute quarters—"_

_"Here's the scalpel,"_ the nurse handed the doctor a silver instrument.

_"…..very well then, alas,"_ the doctor said and took the item in a shaking hand.

A pause.

"_Well?!?!?!"_ the nurse exclaimed.

"_I am deciding the best place to cut it open."_

"Start with your wrists and work your way from there."

"…..I beg your pardon?"

"Ahem…sorry….um…alien psychosis…"

"Telepathy."

"Whatever. What were we doing again?"

_"Alien autopsy under the airport of the Denver—"_

"Right. Let's cut."

Control Freak stared with saucer-wide eyes. "It's….It's….I-It's the steroids! Even female officials are so pumped up with experimental testosterones, they have no choice but to fight with each other! And the alien telepathy and---GASP!! THE PRESIDENT MUST BE AN ALIEN TOO!! HE WANTS HIS GALACTIC BRETHREN CUT TO PIECES SO THAT HE CAN INHERIT THE NITROGEN SUPPLY OF THE EARTH!! This is pure gold!! Pure, informational gold—AW CRAP! I better make sure I'm recording!"

Meanwhile, Robin whimpered.

And meanwhile…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun glistened as I gritted my teeth and leapt over two full blocks of urban sprawl. The detector beeped rapidly then lessened. I realized I had to make a right turn, and quick. I dashed to the right and met a wall. I ran up to the second story and felt the detector lessening again. I grabbed a clothesline and swung myself up and in through an open window. A family in front of a television gasped as I dashed through their living room, blurred, and smoked under their door. I was running down an apartment hallway, following the signal. A right turn. I jumped off a wall, slid on tile, and blurred on my feet again. I gasped. A woman with a baby stroller shrieked in front of me. I ran up the wall and onto the ceiling—barely avoiding her—before flipping off, landing upright, and bursting through the door of a stairwell. The detector beeping, I bounced up the stairwell from wall to wall till I reached the top door and burst through onto roof level. I soared past a couple of roof-picnicking families with a barbecue grill and leapt off the side—sailing over a man made canal—and landing in an industrial complex on the other side.

The detector beeped in recognition of a string of wire on poles overhead. I took a breath as I blurred beneath the cords, soaring after whatever destination the network provided for me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Now, fair assistant, please…um…hold down the…..er….sternum as I make the first incision_," the Doctor said.

The Nurse reached her gloved hands into the center of the white-cloth-covered bed while the Doctor reached in with shaking hands holding a tiny blade.

Suddenly, a throng of green tentacles exploded from the bed and enveloped the cutting hand of the Doctor and the neck of the Nurse.

"_EEEEEK!!!_" both females shrieked.

"_Blllmmbbbbbmmmaaaa!!!"_ cried the 'alien'.

"Duuuude!" Control Freak pumped his arm. "I was *so* right!! Aliens DO look like squid!!"

"_He……seems……to be agitated_," grunted the Nurse. Her eyes above the surgical mask burned a glare at the very alien manhandling her.

"_Oh he is!! Oh he is indeed!!"_ the female Doctor lamented while in the grasp of the emerald, extraterrestrial mollusk. "_He is angry for he knows that the universe is a mortal thing that is here today but like the lilies of the field are thrown tomorrow into the Fart!"_

"Fire!"

"FIRE!!"

"_BLLLLmmmMMMBAAAA!!!!!_" the alien shook the three shrieking doctors.

_"I think it has a headache…_," the Nurse droned.

"_BLMMB_!" a green tentacle dropped her hard to the floor.

"_OW!! Why you little—"_ the Nurse jumped back up and proceeded to attempt strangling the squid alien, but the Doctor blocked her with a hand.

_"Lovely assistant! Guard your temper so! The more wrath you feed into him the more….um….of the black Jedi force….er….you'll absorb???"_

Control Freak did a double take. "Black Jedi Force?"

"Mmmfmmm! Mmmfmmm!" Robin shook behind him.

The villain looked behind his shoulder and beamed. "Are you GETTING THIS?!?!?!"

"MMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmfffff!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You're almost there…," Cyborg's voice whispered through my communicator. "The detector appears to be taking you to the shipyard in the Eastern half of the Bay. I can just bet Control Freak's there somewhere! And Robin too!!"

I nodded…and nodded….and _nodded_. I almost wished he could see my face so he could just _shut up_ for a second.

I was busy blurring and dashing up and over moored fishing craft and private yachts. As I neared the more industrial half of the marinas, I came across huge rusted ghost ships and tankers and oil rigs. One tanker in particular was straight in my path as the detector blinked and vibrated like mad.

I furrowed my brow.

_This must be it._

I lowered my body into the water I was parting with my sprint, blurred my legs, and leapt mightily up into the air, over the edge of the tanker, and onto the deck. I slid to a stop on the rusty surface and beheld my detector.

It blinked faster than a hummingbird's wings.

_Yup…must definitely be it._

I found a hatch. I ran, jumped, flipped, and flew straight down—smashing through the door and landing loudly in the hollow cargo room of the tanker. I gripped the handle to Myrkstaff and looked around the dark surroundings in a crouched, ready position.

Everything around me was rusted. A huge pool of water formed in the center of the grand interior. Over it dangled pieces of cargo and submersible craft on cranes and rusted hulks of metal chain. I looked around for a sign of life.

_Or light…_

I reached a hand to my face and slipped my shades off. I blinked around at the surroundings, my solid-black eyes reflecting the shades. Everything was comfortable and dark, except for one spot that my vision kept. A dagger of light atop a long set of metal stairs stabbed into my eyes from afar.

_Control Freak…_

I whisped over to the bottom of the stairs and slowly crept up the steps, my back to the metal wall. As I ascended, I gradually heard the familiar voices of Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy in their telecommunicated skit. Just a few more steps, and I was at the top of the stairs—peering into the room. I saw a set of automatic doors leading into a grand hallway and a small inlet for a bathroom stall. But within the center of the room was Control Freak. And in the center of the room was a gurney. And on top of that gurney was Robin. And aiming at that gurney was a red laser.

I gulped and looked closely at Control Freak. The rotund villain was practically falling over in his seat at the happiness wafting through him in witness to the 'information' being disclosed. I couldn't help but grimace at the acting job my three fellow Titans were performing, but nevertheless found this an opportune time to radio back to Cyborg the whereabouts of Robin.

I picked up my communicator, muted it on my end, and quietly pressed a button down that would give Cyborg the signal he needed.

…._If only we all thought ahead of time how loud that signal would be._

--Beep Beep Beep Beep!!--

A repetitious sound emanated from the background of the scene on the monitor.

All three; the Doctor, the Nurse, and the green Squid Alien froze.

Cyborg's unmistakable voice gulped in the distance. _"Uhh………he found 'em……"_

"!!!!!" the Doctor gasped. _"Robin!!"_ She swiftly shed her surgical outfit and flew out of the shot.

Control Freak popped an artery. He blinked and sweatdropped. "R-R-Robin???" He spun around.

I bit my lip, and dove.

WOOOOSH!!

I blurred into the room, unsheathed Myrkblade, and severed the tip of the red laser all in one blink.

SMASSSH!!

I spun around and swiftly, unmercifully lifted the gag from Robin's mouth.

RRRRRRRRRP!!!

"Ugh!" Robin shook and grinned wide to see me. "Noir!! You came to rescue me---AACK!!"

I kicked his gurney hard, forcing it to soar on wheels out into the hallway. I then leapt and slashed at a console on the wall. The automatic doors slammed down, protecting the bound Robin on the other side as I spun around to face Control Freak one on one.

"NOOOO!!!' He shouted and stood from his seat.

I raised Myrkblade, frowned, and soared at him.

A wet spot instantly formed in his pants. An eye-bulging Control Freak ducked out of the way.

I flew beyond him and slashed the monitors and computer equipment parts into sparkling debris.

ZZZZZZZZTTTT!!-SMASH!!!!

I turned around and my jaw dropped.

Control Freak was reaching for the transistor in a surviving computer panel.

I slid on the ground and jumped up with a swinging uppercut of Myrblade.

CF's hand retracted with the item in question just milliseconds before I could slash the equipment in half.

The rotund man then kicked me hard in the unguarded chest.

I flew back and tripped over his office chair. I slammed to the ground with stars circling my head.

"What a Romulan technique…," CF frowned. He tossed Kobayashi's transistor into his pocket and whipped out the Darth Maul lightsaber. BZZZZZZ!!! He held the two glowing blades out at arm's length and spat at me. "Prepare to join Dreamcast in the grave!!"

With that, he charged at me, flipping his entire fat body with a whirl of lightsaber fury.

I kicked the chair at him, which burned in half from his blows but bought me enough time to scamper out of the way, gather my footing, run up the wall, flip off, and swipe his legs out from under him.

"UGH!!" he grunted. Sweating, he pivoted around and kicked me hard in the side. "That's not very NICE!!"

WHUMP!!!

I flew back—out of the doorway leading into the room—and back into the huge interior of the tanker. My back slammed against the railing, and I uncontrollably tumbled down the full length of the stairs. I expertly blurred the parts of my body that contacted the metal steps so as to not suffer too great an injury.

I reached the bottom back-first with my legs spread up on the last few steps. No sooner was I wincing when I heard a double-chinned warcry from above.

I looked through a pair of sweat-stained shades to see Control Freak jump from the top of the stairs. His legs spread out, contacting each rail, and sliding his posing body downward. He stretched the double-sided lightsabre ahead of him, spinning like a propeller directly down at my prone body. On the cutting path.

The air heated between us.

I lifted Myrkblade and blocked both edges of the saber at the last second. I twisted my wrist, locking my weapon with his, and lifted my legs—which lifted his body, and vaulted him over me and smashing through the glass windshield of an abandoned submarine craft a couple meters off by the pool.

I sprung my legs and jumped into a fighting position just as an angry Control Freak sliced his lightsabred way out from the rusted innards of the submarine and gritted his teeth at me, panting.

"You…all…ruined…my search….for _truth!_"

I gripped Myrkblade, held the weapon up high, and gestured him to come at me.

"As much as I'd love to…," he smirked and whipped out a dastardly remote control with a free hand. "I'd much rather stand here and watch you _turn into a brainless zombie!!!!_"

My black eyes bulged under the shades. I ducked right as he clicked.

ZAP!!!!

The wall behind me fell out in a circle and rolled towards me like a buzz saw.

I rolled to the side and watched as CF took aim again.

ZAP!!!

I pushed Myrkblade into the metal ground, pushed, and flipped myself up in time to avoid. Dust on the ground got struck by Control Freak's utensil and turned into a dust devil that approached me.

I landed, slid for a moment, and ran the entire length of the wall.

Control Freak laughed his head off ("AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!") and clicked rapidly on the remote control.

ZAP!!! ZAP!! ZAP!! ZAP!!!!

The impacts of the infernal device trailed at my heels. Rusted buckets, cargo boxes, oil rags, and globs of soot turned into animated creatures and leapt at my feet as I streaked by.

Control Freak got smart and aimed a bit ahead of me.

A deep sea diving suit got struck by the device and stood up to face me. I realized to my shock that behind him was nothing but a wall and open water in the pool below.

I gritted my teeth, jumped, and landed on the shoulders of the outfit trying to grab me. I leapt again and impacted the wall over the pool. I blurred across its horizontal stretch before leaping off and landing safely on the other platform beyond the pool.

"From downtown!!" Control Freak cackled, spun, and aimed directly above me.

I ducked, winced, and realized I wasn't struck. A clinking sound took place above me. I glanced up and gasped as a living string of metal chains snaked down and circled around me. Before I knew it, I was being suffocated from the torso up by a boa constrictor made of rusted chains.

"Whenever I think of the word Titan…," Control Freak smirked upwards as he slowly sauntered towards me, lackadaisically spinning his lightsaber, "…I always envision the NASA rocket that exploded during so much testing. Well, my fellow Titan, it's time for you to _crash and burn!!_"

With that said, he reared the lightsabre and prepared to toss its two spinning energy blades of death at my suffocating figure.

I bit my lip, squinted my eyes beneath my shades, and gripped hard to the hilt of Myrkstaff. I summoned the endless streams of destruction up through my limbs and built up a bubble of darkness before unleashing it in one dying breath.

FLASH!!!!!!!

Murk and smoke warbled outward, sending superheated shrapnel of rusted chains soaring every which way.

"AUGH!!!" Control Freak was blinded in mid throw and fell back to the ground. His two-edged lightsaber went sailing aimlessly towards the ceiling of the tanker's dark interior.

A cloud of smoke and burning chains faded, and my figure dropped to the ground. No sooner had I landed that I glanced up and saw the mid air weapon. I dashed to the side, jumped off a railing, bounced off a hanging platform of cargo, flipped, and sailed down onto the rotating weapon with Myrkblade slashing directly downward.

CRACK!!!

I snapped the lightsabre in two. The two glowing halves spun down to the ground and lodged into the metal just inches away from Control Freak's underarms. He gasped—not so much at the close call—but at my figure sailing down at him with the warbling blade of darkness.

He snaked his arms expertly, grabbed the brand new hilts of the lightsabre halves, and raised both blades up to lock with Myrkblade just as I landed. He shoved me back and got to his feet. Thus he proceeded to spin his rotund body around, taking separate swipes at me with both severed sabers. I almost regretted slashing his weapon in half, in that I had made the fat man twice as dangerous.

He swung at my head.

I ducked and jabbed forward.

He deflected Mrykblade down so that it dug into the metal and slashed both blades forward.

I leapt back, forcing him to slice a chunk out of the metal railing adjacent to the pool.

I spun about and swung Myrkblade down onto another end of the railing. A cylinder of rusted metal broke free, which I promptly flipped and down-kicked. It sailed into Control Freak's shoe, bounced off painfully and promptly deflected the left handed saber half out of his grasp.

"Ow…OW!!!!" he jumped back, hobbling on his right leg and shaking his left hand.

The one half of the lightsabre splashed into the pool, where it boiled for a while and died out.

I gritted my teeth and approached him, Mrykblade swinging.

He regained his pained footing and blocked with whatever saber he had left.

The poolside lit up with smog and red ruby saber light as we duked it out. I slashed downwards and he blocked. He jabbed at me and I twirled to the side to get him down below. We deflected and dodged and meandered around each other in such a way that seemed unnatural of a boy wearing shades in the dark and an overweight Trekkie. But halfway through the battle—which was very real—sweat covered our skins, and I knew this had to be finished.

So I charged up destruction for a blow that would completely knock him out. But it was a second too much wasted.

Control Freak stepped back and smirked.

Before I could find out what was so funny, a pair of heavy metal arms grabbed my neck from behind, and I was forced out of my meditative charging of Myrkblade. The deep sea diving suit—animated via CF's remote—had joined the fray to keep me at bay while its master had a chance to strike.

"On behold of Alien Network News…," Control Freak chirped and raised his saber to decapitate me. "Consider yourself yesterday's headlines."

I frowned at him. With a gasp I tossed Myrkblade deep into the metal between and behind the diving suit's legs. I then planted my ankles into the lower legs of the creature choking me, and sprung my lower body upwards with full force. I flipped out of the creature's grasp and raised myself over its shoulders just as Control Freak swung his saber.

SLASH!!!!

The thick metal head of the diving suit came off—instead of mine—and when I landed behind the dead golem, I grabbed the helmet in question and kicked its torso straight at Control Freak.

The trekkie was caught off guard, but growled and slashed through the careening suit with his lightsabre nonetheless. For a second, one could see his snarling face before I promptly spun and tossed the thirty-pound helmet directly into it.

WHANG!!!

CF fell back with a thud, his nose bleeding.

I gripped Myrkblade out of the ground, took a breath, and ran straight at him—holding the blade down on a sparkling cutting path.

He rolled to the side and kicked the broadside of my weapon, upsetting my balance long enough to give me another kick—this time to the rear. I was sent sprawling rather embarrassingly head-first into a metal barrel, where I got temporarily stuck.

"!!!!"

Control Freak stood up, dusted himself off, and once again raised his saber. "Well then…just where are you without your lousy friends, _Strider_?!"

As if on cue, a set of rusted doors creaked open, and their stood Robin. The Boy Wonder grinned and rubbed his limbs—which he had somehow freed from the gurney. "Noir! Great news! I got loose! Now where's that obese butthead so that we can beat him---erp!"

"HA!!!" Control Freak aimed his remote at my leader and clicked.

ZAP!!!!

Robin's whole body flinched……but nothing happened. He rose his eyes over his elbow and glanced down at himself. "…..okay."

"Don't feel relieved yet, my dear prisoner," CF grinned. "I just couldn't help but notice, that fashion statement of yours is positively voracious."

"Huh?!?!" Robin glanced down at his costume. Suddenly, a grotesque eyelid opened in place of the 'R' insignia. The neckline of his shirt formed drooling teeth and opened up like a mouth to bite down on the neck coming out of it.

"RGGGHHH!!" Robin clamped his hands around the 'lips' of the costume's serrated 'mouth' and fought his own clothing for survival.

"Hey Robin! Are you Sure?! Or Unsure?! Ha ha ha ha ha!!" the villain laughed and spun his weapon.

A starbolt sailed down suddenly from the ceiling.

FLASH!!!

The lightsabre was deflected out of Control Freak's grasp and singed to death in the corner of the tanker room.

The fat man gasped and looked up at a fresh hole in the ceiling.

Starfire hovered, her eyes glowing menacingly green, and aimed two more glowing wrists at the villain's prone figure. "Your broadcast…ends….here…."

"Starfire!!" Robin struggled against the man-eating costume he was wearing. "Help!!!"

"Pfft! You call that a finishing line?!?!" CF cackled up at the Tamaranian. "Look sister, as long as I have this here remote, your precious teammate can just kiss his neck goodbye! The battle is loss! Go home to your alien squids and stupid 'airport of the Denver' and—"

WOOOOSH-SLINK!!!!

Myrkblade flew at Control Freak, sliced through the remote control in his hand, and carried it over to where the weapon embedded into the rusted wall. CF watched as the skewered device sparkled, smoked, and died.

The animated buckets and soot and dust collapsed to the ground.

The mouth of Robin's costume fell limp on his shoulders. The boy stopped struggling and wiped his brow with a sigh of relief.

Control Freak gulped.

I had finally made my way out of the blasted bucket. I looked up, smiled, and saluted at Starfire.

Starfire saluted down, smiling as sweet at can be, and suddenly sailed downwards to tear ass on Control Freak.

"Mommy!!!!" the villain flinched.

I watched from afar. Green light lit up the room. I winced at what I saw. A cry and a flash of emerald. I flinched and covered my shades. More flashing. More smacking sounds. I snuck a look, wished I hadn't, and looked away. Finally, after the ordeal was over and silence returned to the room, I lowered my arms and looked hesitantly.

Starfire stood over a smoking Control Freak on the floor, her hands on her hips. "And 'let that lesson be unto you'!!" she scolded.

"Ugggggggghhhh," the villain groaned, his eyes swirling.

"Um….n-nice work, Starfire," Robin stuttered.

Starfire spun around, grinning throughout the extremities of her lower cranium. "Robin! I am elated to see you in your full, functioning goodness!!"

"Yes, good job. Control Freak got what he----WHOAH!!!"

Starfire had rushed over and was now giving him and his transmogrified costume a deep, girlish hug. "Hehehehehe!" she giggled. "I was sooooo worried. I bet it doesn't show, does it??"

Robin strained for breath. "I had no idea….—croak---…seriously."

"Robin!! Boo-ya!!" Cyborg leapt down from the hole above, followed by a floating Raven and a green falcon. "I knew everything would work perfectly!!"

"Actually, he was sweating bullets…," Raven said with a tiny grin. She looked down at Control Freak's pulverized body and the rest of the room in disarray. "Um….what happened?"

I walked over to the wall, removed my blade, and showed them the skewered remote control.

"Impressive," the dark girl nodded. "Do that around the Tower more often and it'd get Cyclops and Beast Boy to shut up."

"Hey!!" said an elf dropping down behind her.

Starfire smiled proudly at Robin. "We realized that Control Freak was using the Tower as a receiver for sonic signals. Raven, Beast Boy, and I distracted the fiend with a faked….er…what you earth people so lightly call an 'alien autopsy' while Cyborg and Noir tracked his signals down to here."

"I figured out the vibrating tower part," Robin smiled and nodded.

Beast Boy double-taked. "Huh?! You did?!"

"Yup," Robin nodded. "When Control Freak was talking to me earlier, I sort of gathered it from his speech. He's wyrd enough to think up something as quirky as using his own enemy's home base against them. Utter foolishness if you ask me."

Beast Boy turned into a frog and gave Robin the raspberry before becoming an elf again to say, "Dang it, why'd you have to be so smart?! I thought robins were only good for pooping and exploding upon eating wedding reception rice!"

"Beast Boy, your good mood has returned!" Starfire smiled, hands held together. "Could it be your ailment has left you?"

"Ailment?" Robin asked.

"The vibration transmissions were screwing around with the hearing senses of every dog in town," Cyborg said. "Including everybody's favorite green mutt."

"Yes, and it was worse than eating frozen ice cream at two hundred miles per hour!" the emerald elf exclaimed. A pause. He scratched his chin, "Well….almost…."

"Wyrdo…," Raven said under her breath.

Beast Boy glared at her, then looked at me. "Noir must have smashed something up to stop the transmission, or else I'd be saying hail-marys and rolling into the grave by now."

I shrugged and smiled.

"You did great, Noir," Cyborg said, patting my shoulder. "Thanks for putting yourself on the line."

I blushed.

"Looks like you all worked together nicely," Robin said. "And I'm proud to see it."

"And I am happy to see you well and—OOH!" Starfire jumped and whipped out his yellow cape. "I b-believe this belongs to you, Robin."

Robin sighed. "Thanks Starfire…but….um…it's a tad bit too late for that, I think." He gestured towards the mutation of his clothes.

"Oh….well then…," Starfire blushed. "I'll just….um….keep it?"

Robin blinked behind his mask. "Yeah…sure…why not?"

Starfire blushed some more and whistled to herself, looking away.

"Well now….look who's the life of the party!" Cyborg knelt by Control Freak's side and reached into his pocket. "Oop! And what's this?!" He produced Kobayashi's transistor. "That's one damn durable device you got there. I think we'll just take it out of your hands before you do something really nasty to damage it." He handed it to Raven.

"But….I-I worked so hard for that…for everything," the trekkie pouted.

Raven pocketed the device and stared boringly down at him. "Ever thought of taking up dieting?"

Cyborg forced Control Freak to his knees and handcuffed him from behind. In the meantime, the villain growled up at everyone. "You stupid Titans!! I was gonna give you truth! I was gonna give you naked reality! I was gonna expose the truth behind aliens and UFOs and everything the government wants to hide from us!!"

"Looking for love in all the wrong places…," Raven mused with a slight smile.

"Besides…dude…," Beast Boy pointed. "You don't have to look far to find aliens nowadays. For crying out loud, you just had your clocks cleaned by one!!"

"I….I-I did?!" CF's jaw dropped. He slowly turned around and looked fearfully up at Starfire.

The Tamaranian growled cutely and poked a mean finger into his chest. "And unless you want your 'chronometers washed' again, I suggest you stay clear of Robin from now on!!"

Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Um…what about the rest of us?"

I sniffled out a silent laugh and sheathed Myrkblade.

"Allright…let's haul this piece of junk off to jail," Cyborg said, lifting a whining Control Freak up by the scruff of his collar. Five of us started walking off until Robin cleared his throat and forced us to turn around.

"Ahem….one tiny problem," our leader said.

"What is it, man?" Beast Boy asked.

Robin slowly---disgustingly pointed at his mutated outfit. "I'm….uh…kinda sorta wearing a dead carcass at the moment."

Control Freak had one last, insect-sized chuckle.

Starfire glanced back and forth and smiled with arms outstretched. "Why…no problem whatsoever, Robin!" Her hand charged up a glowing, green starbolt. "Allow me to singe the undesired parts of the altered costume off of you so that you may join us in our trek to the police department!"

"O-Okay," Robin readied himself.

Starfire unleashed the starbolt.

FLASH!!!!

She lowered her eyelids and clasped two hands together. "See?! What did I tell you?? Hehehe!" She opened her eyes and beheld Robin from long distance. "Your costume has been restored to its normal shade of pale peach with insignias resembling pectoral muscles and a belly button and—WHAAYEEE!!!" Starfire covered her mouth as her green eyes bulged. In a flash she spun around and looked the other way, blushing like mad.

There Robin limply stood….smoking….in nothing but his eyemask. Starfire's bolt did the job of eliminating the mutation on the costume. In fact, it eliminated the costume completely.

I bit my lip and looked at the others.

Raven was politely blocking her gaze with a strategically placed wrist.

Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Control Freak—however—had seen way too much.

"…..Ahem," Cyborg cleared his throat. "That was unexpected."

"Perhaps so…," Beast Boy drolled, then grinned. "But suddenly….I don't feel so bad about myself anymore. Ah ha ha ha ha!"

Robin's eyes widened under his mask. He immediately covered himself and ducked behind a rusted barrel. "Will someone….PLEASE…give me some clothes?!?!?"

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" A blushing Starfire chanted. "I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!!"

I smirked and shook my head.

_I wasn't so sure she was sorry._

Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Control Freak were all laughing as one.

It was Raven who rolled her eyes, whipped off her cloak, and sauntered over to Robin's location with the blue article held out for him to grab and utilize; which he did.

"I swear…everybody in this place needs to _grow up_," she slurred.

Robin gave her a sarcastic look.

She blinked. "For heaven's sake, I wasn't making a pun."

Robin blushed. "Oh…," he squeaked, and donned the cloak. "ACHOO!!" he sneezed from the cold and moaned. "Let's get out of this prison…"

I walked ahead of everyone.

Awww….but we had just arrived!


	10. Sleeping Heroes

**10. Sleeping Heroes**

"Achoo!" Robin sneezed and rubbed his nose. "Ugh….Starfire, I said I'm allright!"

"You are not all right!" Starfire stomped, and then resumed applying a washcloth to Robin's forehead as he lay on the length of the couch in the main room. "The trip back all but drained you of health! I do believe you have what earth people call a 'frigid'."

"'Cold'!" Robin coughed, sniffed, and moaned.

"I fear it is all my fault," Starfire whimpered, drawing a blanket over him. "Had I not been so brash as to try to remove the harmful mutation from your body with my powers, then perhaps you would have been more properly attired as the evening winds kicked in."

"I dunno," Beast Boy mused, sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter a few feet off and swinging his legs. "Raven's cloak is actually kinda fitting around Robin."

"He can keep it….," Raven said dryly, sitting off a ways and wearing a spare. She dug her nose into a book and flipped a page before adding, "Let's just hope the local Tamaranian doesn't burn more costumes from now on. I only have so many 'cloaks' to lend."

Starfire blushed and scratched the back of her head with a sweatdrop.

"And you, Raven," Beast Boy smiled. "We hardly ever see you fighting crime without that cloak of yours. Walking inside the Tower with you today sure was different. Until now, I had no idea you were so thin!"

"Under extreme circumstances, I assure you," Raven said. A pause. She glared up at Beast Boy. "What do you mean '_until now'_?!"

Beast Boy gulped. "N-Nothing."

Raven stood up and leaned into him. "Explain. Now."

BB leaned back. "I—I—I—WHOAH!"

He fell back over the counter and onto the kitchen unit's floor.

"Not a good idea to ruffle a Raven's feathers too much as it is, pal," Cyborg smirked, helping the dizzy changeling up.

"DEFINITELY not a good idea," Raven swung her cloak around and sat again to her book. "Last time I do a nice deed for a naked crime fighter…," she mumbled.

"That makes the two of us," Robin moaned…coughed…and rolled over. Starfire sat by his side.

I looked at them. At Raven. At Cyborg and Beast Boy. Then stood up from where I was sitting.

"Going out, Noir?" Cyborg asked.

I nodded with a soft smile. Night was slowly falling, a few hours after Control Freak was imprisoned and Robin was safe and sound in the Tower. Indeed, he had the slight case of sniffles, and Starfire wouldn't leave his side if her life depended on her. It was an act filled with its unique sense of guilt…as well as other, truer emotions.

A wind had picked up and was cooling the seaside so much, I had to go out and experience it. So I had replaced my combat threads with the usual jeans, black t-shirt, and dark gray jacket. I was waiting for the opportune moment to be alone. So I waved at everyone, adjusted my dark shades, and headed out into the night.

"Take it easy, man," Cyborg waved.

"Hey…if you see any girls who remotely resemble goddesses in blonde form…," Beast Boy remarked, "….give them my number?"

"Which number would that be, Beast Boy?" Starfire inquired.

"…………never mind."

Raven huffed. Robin groaned.

I left.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

For once in three full days, I took my time in heading into tower. I took the land bridge leading from the Tower at a leisurely pace, my feet kicking lazily at pebbles on the road so that they tumbled off into the surrounding waters of the Bay. A fresh wind dove down in the thin gaze of dying sunlight. I lifted my face into it, closed my eyes, and breathed in life. Long strands of black hair kicked over my ears and fell after a brief spite of excitement.

Light waves of the Bay lapped up on the edges of the bridge on either side of me. A few strong lines of water broke through and sprayed my ankles through my pantlegs. Then another breeze of wind would come and bring coolness to the heated, summer air.

_Sometimes I miss being alone._

A half hour later, I strolled onto the mainland and headed east towards the Bay Side Plaza. The Tower was erected on the relatively clean side of town, but I did see my fair share of run-down buildings and junkyards every other block. I took the ugly with the beautiful in this City. It was the same philosophy for just about anywhere I trekked. I always had a love for urban environments; for how people create a landscape of their own. Human beings are just as capable of sculpting mountains, deserts, and lakes as God. Only, they use a different sort of paintbrush; one that speaks of history and lives and blood put on the line over multiple decades, centuries, eons.

If I had my way, I'd spend my whole mortal life walking the world's cities. Diving into their hearts and seeing what makes them tick or groan or both. But I knew that I existed for the sake of maintaining the balance of those very cities themselves…for protecting them. That's why—no matter how much I wandered—I had to stay tethered to one location. Stay tethered to the Tower.

_Not tonight. I earned this. We all did._

Lights and sounds came slowly at me from the dry side of the coast. I walked along asphalt and surf till I came to the Bay Side Plaza. The cool breeze shook with passing cars; many of them convertibles full of nightgoing youngsters. It was summer vacation, and the entire setting—with its arcades and diners and shops and movie theatre—was flocking with people my age and younger. A few scant adults here and there preserved order, as well as a police officer or two on patrol. As a whole, it was a picture perfect scene. Our City in all its levity.

I sauntered on through this crowd completely unnoticed, like the shadow that I was. Flashing neon lights glared off my shades from a local rave scene. Bodies and giggles and chatter floated past me in flocks. A few eyes met me, but not much more. I wondered to myself how long this would last. Sure, I was a Titan. But I was still the wildcard. Or so I hoped.

My hope won out. Nobody so much as stopped to remark upon my presence…or existence. I leisurely made my way over to an empty bench at the center of the Plaza and sat down, my arms crossed. From there I watched the scene…the mass of pedestrians…the innocence and the decadence all the same. Pretty faces, sour faces, and no faces at all.

It all became a hum of noise and lights that vibrated in through my shades, my dark eyes, and my brain. I saw faces and faces and eyes and blue eyes and blonde hair and short and platinum _and wandering like molasses through the crowd and glancing at me through the moving bodies and breeze and running a hand through her ear and smiling the moon and disappearing into the melting away of the world…._

Before I knew it, was going under.

* * *

"Titans! Stop Cinderblock!! He's not gonna stop running otherwise!!"

"Dude, where's he going?!"

"When you gotta go, you gotta go."

"This isn't funny! I have no idea where he wants to go, but I do know where his path is taking him!"

"Oh no! The elementary school! The poor Earth children!!"

"So far he's made a straight line and smashed everything in his way. I seriously doubt he's gonna just walk ***around*** the school up ahead! We've got to beat him back…and _now!_"

"Roger that, Robin! Beast Boy! Follow me!"

"On your six, Cy!"

"Raven, Starfire, distract him till we join you two for full firepower!"

"Didn't even need to ask…"

All five Titans sprung into action. They soared by levitation, green feathers, T-Car, and cycle. Having survived a prior scuffle with the huge, obstinate golem, the heroes traced his trail of destruction through crushed shopping plazas, torn down trees, and squashed gas stations. Potholes formed in the street where his gigantic feet had tread. Over in the distance was a stomping sound that increased more and more with ferocity as the teens gained on his juggernaut momentum.

Starfire and Raven circled Cinderblock in a perfect orbit, assaulting him with their combined powers. Starbolts, coupled with black telekinetic energy, merged over Cinderblock's hulking torso and exploded with intensity. The huge thug stumbled once…twice…but regained his stomping momentum.

Raven picked up a nearby lamppost, flexed it with obsidian energy, and wrapped it tightly around Cinderblock's legs. The creature shook, stirred, and finally popped the lamppost apart with a SNAP! before continuing yet again.

Beast Boy flew down in the form of a falcon before switching in midair to a Pterodactyl. The green creature shrieked at Starfire, who nodded. Then both Titans swooped down and grabbed a shoulder of Cinderblock's each. The Pterodactyl gripped with its thick talons while Starfire used her alien strength.

It was a hard, groaning struggled for both team members, but they did manage to get the golem's legs off the ground.

"N-Now…..R-Raven….," Starfire sweat.

Raven floated down and gathered scoops of earth, bricks, sidewalk, car aluminum, and roofing tile from the ruined street around her. She started layering Cinderblock's body from the heels up: soon forming a cocoon of debris around him and encasing it in black energy.

Cyborg drove by in the T-Car, leaned out the window, and fired with a heat ray. The ray melted the debris around him just as Raven added an added layer of steel from a construction site.

Then Robin road up on his cycle, leapt off, and tossed a coolant grenade at the body.

Starfire and Beast Boy flew up as the grenade made impact. The melted metal 'cocoon' was solidified in an instant. Cinderblock's statue of a body fell to the ground with a huge metal RING!!!

Beast Boy landed around the T-Car and gathering Titans. He switched to Elf form, looked at Cinderblock, looked behind him at the elementary school two blocks away, and looked back down at the villain and grinned. "Guess that's a late call for Snow Day. Heheheh."

SMASH!!!!!!

"UGHHH!!!" the Teen Titans fell back every which way. One edge of the T-Car lifted up and fell back down again. Jolted, Cyborg shook out of it and took a close look. He gasped as Cinderblock stood up out of the newly shattered cocoon and slowly resumed his previous path.

Robin stood up, rubbing his head and gritting his teeth. "Beast Boy!" he cried out. "Fly off to the school and tell them to evacuate!"

"What?! Don't you need me to stop him?!"

"We're not going to stop him…," Robin said grimly.

Beast Boy's face sink. He swiftly saluted and flew off into a bat towards the school ahead of the fray.

"Titans! Delay him the best you can!" Robin shouted to the rest and ran after Cinderblock.

Cyborg growled and put the T-Car into gear. "Rrrrrrrgh….I didn't want to do this to you baby, but this punk leaves me no choice. YAAAAAH!!" he yelled for good measure as he swung the car around and drove it directly at Cinderblock's front at full force. He pressed a button and erected a battering shield at the last second.

But Cinderblock was ready. It merely knelt and grabbed the hood of the T-Car, lifting the front-wheel drive tires effortlessly and tossing the rest of the car behind its hulking backside.

"Whoaaaaaaaaah!!!" Cyborg hollered.

Through the windshield, he saw the earth fly up towards him.

He winced.

YANK!!!

Before he could strike pavement, the car stopped in mid air. He looked in the rear view mirror and saw a straining Starfire using her alien strength in the nick of time to hold the haphazard car up by its rear bumper.

"Thanks, Star!" Cyborg waved out the window. "Almost lost her!"

"Do not mention it," Starfire weakly smiled.

SMACK!!!

Cinderblock reached behind and struck her across the street.

"!!!" Cyborg braced himself as the T-Car fell the last few feet and slammed hard onto its backside, causing the airbag to deploy explosively in the android's face.

"Ughhh," he saw swirls.

"Starfire!!" Robin called after the fallen alien across the street.

"Love you too, Robin," Cyborg wheezed and began to crawl out of the car.

Robin growled and ran angrily at Cinderblock's backside. The creature was just one block away from the school. The sounds of kids playing recess barely broke the chaotic ambiance and chilled the Boy Wonder to the bone. He caught sight of a telephone pole and got a desperate plan. He whipped out a grappling hook and shot it around Cinderblock's right leg. He then wrapped his end of the cord firmly around the telephone pole. The structure bent and shook with Cinderblock's taunt leg-yanking. But no sooner was the villain stalled that Robin whipped out two bolos with explosions strapped to the ends and flung them at Cinderblock's shoulders. They wrapped fast around his arms, beeped two times, and exploded in fiery glory.

A wave of smoke fell before Robin. The Titan shielded himself for a moment and then squinted ahead through his eyemask to see the damage done. Suddenly, the grappling cord yanked viciously from inside the fiery cloud, and the telephone pole snapped out of its concrete foundation and slammed Robin across the back. The leader fell down hard.

Raven, up above, gasped and fought anger as she floated over above Cinderblock—who was a mere building length away—and aimed at a nearby billboard with her powers. She encased the huge, multi-ton sign with black energy. Struggling, her eyes turned a bright white and she let forth: "Azzarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!!" Her hands lifted and the sign's based snapped in two. The rest of the structure leaned over and slammed hard down over Cinderblock's body, totally covering him in wreckage.

Raven panted…panted…panted…and hovered lower to inspect--

WHAM!!!

Cinderblock's fist emerged from the rubble, knocking Raven away and into an awning of a local store. The monstrosity pulled itself out of the rubble and once again found its footing. In its grasp was a strange electronic device. All the time, it had been transporting that somewhere. And that somewhere now lay beyond the elementary school. Thoughtlessly, the monster trudged towards the schoolyards on a warpath.

Cyborg ran by Raven's side, and while helping her up he realized that the place had not been cleared in enough time. "Those kids are in danger!! Beast Boy couldn't possibly have spread word fast enough!!"

Robin and Starfire stumbled over.

"Oh no!" Starfire gasped, her hands around her mouth.

"Titans! Go!"

Robin ran ahead of the rest and soon they all converged on the beast; blasting, pushing, tossing birdarangs, throwing starbolts, swinging titanium, chanting dark energy. Cinderblock deflected them all like flies and took a step through the fence guarding the school's perimeter.

SMASH!!

Elementary kids and supervisors shrieked and ran desperately from the intrusion. There was too much chaos. Sooner than later, Cinderblock's leg was learing over a cowering group of kindergarteners. The struggling Teen Titans watched in horror.

And then, something breezed by Robin. He gasped as he was spun in mid-step by some unknown force. His spin stopped as he glanced at Cinderblock….who had stopped in mid step. The monster seemed puzzled. It looked at its right foot and blinked, surprised, as it suddenly fell clean off.

"Um…..what in the world?" Raven remarked.

"LOOK!" Starfire pointed.

Robin eyed a trail of smoke leading right past him, besides Cinderblock's sliced leg, across the street, and up a building side. No sooner had he seen it, the smoke cleared in that direction and there stood atop a building edge—nimbly—a thin, tall figure in loose combat attire and a flickering black sword in his grasp.

Robin squinted.

Sunlight glinted off the stranger's black shades.

Robin gasped.

SWOOOSH!!!

The figure blurred back.

"Let's get out of here!!" Cyborg hurried the kindergarteners along. "Go! Go!!"

The remaining titans dove out of the way as the black blur rushed to Cinderblock and blinked around him in various poses of swordplay. SLASH!! POW!! SCHIIING!! SLIIINK!!! SMACK!!!

An arm fell off of Cinderblock. Then a shoulder. A hip. A piece of the cranium.

Finally, the streaking figured bounced off his torso, flipped to a pose in front of him, charged up black energy in his sword, and jabbed it diagonally upward so that it skewered Cinderblock's body and split his chest open.

The creature twitched and squirmed from the laceration. Its hulking weight would have fell over onto the schoolyard hadn't the figure been holding it up by his blade with straining arms. Using great effort—Robin surmised—the stranger freed one hand and silently pointed at Starfire.

Starfire looked wide eyed….then understood and nodded. She charged up a handful of starbolt.

Without so much as a sound, the stranger struggled and then pointed at Cyborg.

Cyborg ran up, switched his arm into a laser rifle, and aimed. "All right, then!!"

Robin shrugged and whipped out three explosive birdarangs, grinning.

Raven hovered above and created a half-shield of black to shield the impending blast.

Just when the stranger could hold out no longer, he yanked out his blade—flexed his leg muscles in slow motion—and then shot his body up with a spiraling slice that lopped off Cinderblock's hand that held the device. On the way down the figure kicked the device over and at Robin's feet before landing, sheathing his blade, and rolling a rough distance of safety away.

Starfire, Robin, and Cyborg unleashed their fury at once—aiming for the huge crease in Cinderblock's chest.

FLASH!!!!!

BOOM!!!!!

Dust and debris exploded like a dome from Cinderblock's body. Raven extended her shield, gritting her teeth, and caught the destruction before it could sail its way over towards the schoolbuildings themselves.

When the chaos cleared, Cinderblock's body lay in two. The innards were sparkling computer chips…a betraying piece of handiwork.

"Hey…that wasn't Cinderblock!" Cyborg remarked, retracting his rifle back into a hand.

"Was it not as strong as Cinderblock?" Starfire questioned.

"Only one person I know can make a machine so much like Cinderblock that it could just as well be the real McCoy," Robin said, picking up the fallen device. "Slade. And looks like he was using his new toy to run an errand for him."

Cyborg looked at the device and did a double-take. "That's a smart device for a nuclear warhead!!!"

"Fancy that," Raven said, settling down. "Aren't we forgetting something?"

"!!!!" Starfire gasped and pointed. "Look!"

The Titans spun around and ran over towards the body of the fallen stranger. The proximity of Cinderblock's destruction apparently knocked him out.

A green parrot floated over and morphed into Beast Boy. "Sorry guys, I did the best they could. I guess the principal didn't know that when I say 'East Side of the School', I mean 'East Side of the School'. Looks like I missed quite a party here." He blinked at who the four were huddling around. "Say…who's this guy?"

Robin felt an arm for a pulse. "Right now….let's just hope he's alive."

Again, Starfire gasped.

Cyborg opened a computer panel on his arm and ran a health scan. He immediately looked at Robin. "Let's get him back to the Tower….NOW."

Robin understood his android friend's urgency and nodded. They employed Raven's aide in levitating him away from the scene and towards a place of proper care…

* * *

"………_."_

* * *

_"Jordan??"_

* * *

"Jordan………do you forget who I am?"

* * *

"_I still love you, Jordan…_"

* * *

I shot awake with a gasp. My face sweat. I looked around me.

Night was almost pitch black. The plaza was practically empty.

How long had I slept?

I stood up, stretched, and readjusted my shades. The wind was still cool. The night was still leisurely. The City still safe.

_I really hate napping._

"Um…e-excuse me?"

I looked to my right. Before me was a brown-haired young woman, smiling bashfully with a slight wave. Behind her stood a man with black hair about a solid foot taller.

"Hi there, I hope we're not disturbing you or anything Mister," she said.

I shrugged.

"My name's Renee…and this is my husband, Daniel."

"Pleased to meet you," he extended a hand.

I looked at it, stepped forward, and gently shook it.

He replied with a firmer grip and smiled.

"Fancy meeting you out here tonight."

"???" I looked at them, confused.

"Don't you have a name?"

I smiled and gestured forth, as if they would understand.

"H-He can't talk…," 'Renee' thought aloud with a whisper.

"I see…well….can you tell us this at least?" the husband, 'Daniel', asked. "Are you him?"

I cocked my head to the side.

"You know….*him*!" He held out a newspaper.

I squinted through my shades and saw the unmistakable snapshot of the Teen Titans inside Kobayashi Tower. There were five of them, huddled in the corner. I saw Raven, I saw Beast Boy, I saw Cyborg, I saw Starfire, and I saw Robin—no wait. Robin was kidnapped. That had to have been--

_Oh,_ I mouthed, then nodded with a sheepish grin and pointed to myself.

"Ha! I knew it!" Renee giggled.

_So much for being a wildcard_.

"I kept telling Danny that it was you. You're the newcomer, aren't you?! We saw you sitting here all alone. We couldn't tell if you were sleeping from the sunglasses or whatever that you're wearing. But it's you, it really is. You're the sixth Titan."

I shrugged, gestured—paused—then shrugged again.

"How do you manage to work along Robin and the other four if you can't talk—"

"Shhh!!! *Danny!*" Renee nudged her husband, cleared her throat, and looked at me. "Don't mind us, really. If you have somewhere to go, we won't bother you sir. It's just that….well….it's our anniversary today," she and her husband smilingly hooked arms together, "…and we of course heard all about the battle with Control Freak in Kobayashi Tower. When the News broadcasts came back online, they had nothing to talk about except what the Titans were doing to protect the City and whatnot….and when we saw you, we were glad…cuz that means not only did you throw that scum away, but you also came out alive…and just…."

"I think he's falling asleep, honey," Daniel mused.

"Shh!" she looked back up at me. "Would you….um…..like some coffee?"

I looked at them. I glanced across the waters southward to the Tower. I turned and glanced at them again. I smiled.

"Excellent!" Daniel gave a thumb's up. "We know just the place!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…and so we moved here thinking it'd be a considerable bit safer than Gotham City. I mean, five superheroes is a lot better than having two. Our old town's all about bats, no matter how many birds it's had in the past. You know what I mean?"

I nodded and sipped from my mug. We were seated inside a Steak 'N Shake at the late hour. I sat on the booth at one side of the table. Renee and Daniel—the married couple—sat on the other side.

"And now that roster's climbed to six! I mean…we're very proud, Mister Titan. We really are. What you people do for the city…it's beyond words."

I leaned forward, curious.

The couple was suddenly silent, as if cornered. Renee leaned into her husband and looked away.

Daniel placed a comforting hand around her and looked directly at me. "I guess you should know, sir…the reason why we really asked you here tonight."

I nodded slowly.

He went on: "We owned the store that Fang robbed the other day."

I mouthed 'Ah'.

"It was such a scare. The hideous beast smashed our storefront, ransacked our products, and nearly made off with all our cash. In the process, I tried to stop him. He nearly beat me to death with his inhuman limbs. Renee was there the whole time and what she saw---well---it's not easy to talk about. The heaviest thing is that—that very afternoon—Renee found out she's carrying our first child."

I listened silently.

"And….I hope you never have to feel this someday, sir. But to know that you're a father….and just seconds afterward watch your family and future nearly get trashed by an utter monstrosity….well…," he cleared his throat to remain strong as he added, "…it was such, such a relief when the Titans arrived on time. Because of all of your heroics…Renee and I have an anniversary. We have a future. We can't thank you enough for that. Please…..please continue what you're doing."

Renee added with a quivering voice, "We believe in all of you."

I leaned back into the chair, paused, then lifted the mug up with a smile.

They chuckled the tension away and sank their coffee too.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour and a half later, I was riding the elevator up the Tower into the Main Room. I exited the automatic doors and was heading towards the corridors that led to the showers and then my room when something I caught sight of made me pause. I walked quietly over to the center of the Main Room where I spotted Starfire sitting on the blanket covered couch. A cold-ridden but otherwise peacefully-sleeping Robin was lying along the length of the furniture with his head on her lap. He snored lightly as the Tamaranian girl softly caressed his face and head of hair.

I wondered if he even knew she was ministering to his slumber.

I turned around in hopes of leaving the sanctity of the scene before me, but just then Starfire softly spoke without even looking:

"The temperature of a human body is approximately twenty one degrees higher than a Tamaranian's." She stroked Robin's hair a bit more. "Compared to humans, I am practically cold blooded. I can stand greater extremes in temperature, and broader definitions of 'comfort'. From the very beginning of my time here on Earth, it never ceased to amaze me how living beings that generate so much warmth in and of themselves can spend their days obsessing over their own anxieties so much that they never get close to one another…"

She looked up and over at me with gentle, green eyes. "Robin is a warmth I never want to lose. I thank you all for helping rescue him to safety…"

I smiled and gestured a bit.

Though she didn't understand, she _did_ understand. "Yes…I know…we are all a team. Through our dedication, we warm each other." She looked back down at Robin. "I just hope we never forget that….I hope we never grow distant and cold. For all I know, it may never feel like….like _this_ again…"

Robin stirred a little, coughed, and was silent again.

I stared through my shades.

Starfire looked up again. "Do you think he is happy, Noir?"

I glanced, curious.

"Robin," she emphasized. "Do you believe he is happy?"

I nodded, slowly.

Starfire smiled. "Then I suppose our work today is done."

_She said it._

I showered…then stumbled downstairs to the cellar and my room. I tossed my street clothes into the corner and donned nightly attire before slumping down into my bed with a soundless sigh.

For a dead minute or two in the waking darkness, I felt a comfort I never sensed before.

_Tonight…I sleep, knowing that I'm a hero._

It became doubly dark.

Morning took its sweet time.


	11. The Dangers of Meditating Together

**11. The Dangers of Meditating Together**

If there's one disadvantage towards living in a cellar, you have no indication of whether or not the sun is rising. So, on mornings such as these, I had to rely on crude, electronic alarms. I made a habit of getting up at 6am/7pm at the latest to get in morning practice and meditation and calisthenics. Truly, I've trained myself so that I can wake up at even the most inopportune times, but it never fails to surprise me how one unexpected event can hex an entire morning.

I was stirring in bed. Half awake. Half asleep.

I turned to my side and felt something furry brush against my nose.

"…….!" My black eyes widened.

I blurred my hand over and grabbed ahold of the intruding item in question; which turned out to be a small, hairy mass. I tossed it immediately to the other side of the room.

A curdling "meoooowwwwrrrr!!"sounded throughout the interior, followed by a WHUMP!!. I whipped on my shades and lit a nearby lantern. Blinding light (blinding to me at least) rose up and showered down on a green cat, lying dizzyingly against the wall.

I sighed out of both relief and exasperation.

"Duuude!" complained Beast Boy, rubbing his head in elf form. "What was that for?!?!"

I jumped out of bed and gestured angrily for an explanation.

"I was just coming down to wake you up!!" he said, getting up and smirking. "Cyborg and I were talking last night. We realized we never really dropped in on one of your morning exercises before. We were wondering if you'd allow us to join you this morning??"

I breathed easier and nodded. Then I paused. I glared at Beast Boy suspiciously.

"Okay okay…so that's not the only reason," he said, hands held out. "I couldn't help myself. Instead of knocking on the door, I thought I'd get a chance to see what was under those shades of yours! I mean, it's not like it's a secret or anything like what Robin keeps!"

I pointed firmly out the door.

"Fine fine…," Beast Boy rolled his eyes and sauntered out. He stuck his tongue at me. "But if you see a furball at your welcome mat the next few weeks, don't go blaming anyone but yourself!"

I made like to kick him.

He turned into an iguana and perched on the wall before reverting back to Elf and asking with a whimper: "Awww…but you'll still let us hang out with you today, right?"

I sighed and nodded.

"Woohoo! I'll go get Cyborg! You go get your Stick…or whatever."

He scampered off as a buffalo up the cellar stairs beyond my door.

I stretched, scratched my head, and wandered achingly to the bathroom…..

…and the alarm clock blew off, startling me into a pratfall.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dude, can I hold your Myrkstick for once? Pleeeeeease??? Come on, Noir!!"

I smirked and shook my head. Outside in the brightness of the rising sun and in the tall grass, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I meditated in a fashion most closely familiarized with Tai Chi. I led the proceedings, performing my usual painful poses with Myrkblade and exercising my ability to exit out of them and transfer from one to another. Cyborg seemed to be getting the hang of it with his bio/mecha body. Beast Boy—impatient as ever—had his mind on less important things, in my opinion at least.

He was like a little brother….but…there were not many brothers out there I knew of whose head I sometimes wanted to chop off.

"Seriously! I won't play with it or anything!…….too much."

I winked through my shades and continued posing, exercising.

"Pleeeeeeeease?!"

"Aw come on, leave him alone BB!" Cyborg smirked in mid pose himself. "How would you like it if he hopped up and down while you were animal morphing into a dolphin begged to borrow your gills?!"

"Dolphins don't have gills, geniuses! He would much rather be begging for my blowhole!"

"Well, at least you understand the analogy," Cyborg smirked.

Beast Boy looked perplexed…then frowned. "Say, whose side are you on?!"

He turned to me. "It can't be all that hard to use that thing you've got, right?"

I slinked down out of a position and struck downward with a blur of Myrkblade. SWOOOOOSH!!!! Grass parted twenty meters down towards the waves and produced a spout of water.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were wide-eyed. I was used to such effects, but didn't try to think what their reaction would be.

"Dude….that would so pop a person like a zit!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Ewwwww! Beast Boy?!?!"

"Well, it's true!" he laughed and finally joined in with the exercise.

For a small period of time, the three of us were absolutely quiet in the morning glare of the sun. Out of the corner of my eyes, I took notice of Cyborg. For a huge fellow, he can be quite graceful. I've always imagined that the heat of battle was his ultimate undoing. But it's not like any of us could complain. His extreme brawn and straight-forward tactics helped us on more than one occasion to blitz the enemy into submission.

"You're doing pretty good for a half man half robot," Beast Boy whispered smirkingly. "I'm surprised that chi doesn't bump into roadblocks as it flows through you."

"Man, don't be cruel," Cyborg replied. "I have as much of a soul as you do."

"I've got a few million souls to choose from!" Beast Boy proudly grinned. He then proceeded to perform Tai Chi as a velociraptor, an octopus, a snake, and finished it all off with a bird. "Take that, Karate kid!"

"Ha ha ha ha!! Oh man…stop, you're ruining my concentration.

I smiled.

"Could you possibly be any louder???" groaned a voice from above on the rocky bluffs.

The three of us looked up amid poses to see Raven sitting cross-legged on a rock. Unfortunately for her, she chose to meditate in the exact time and location as we did….more or less. On many occasions in the past, we meditated in the same setting. But ours were two different worlds with two different arts. We never bumped into each other…until now, with the boys on my side.

"Typically, meditation is a _silent_ technique. However, if you three are wanting to _practice_ making noise, I suggest you go to the nearest wrestling match's warm ups. You so do seem to enjoy _watching_ _it _on television_._"

"Dude! You better not be messing with the Rock! The Rock will kick your ass!" Beast Boy cackled up at her. Cyborg laughed in the background.

"Wow, an overpaid actor on steroids is gonna stare me to the ground," Raven remarked. "I am petrified." And she tried returning to her breathy chanting.

I was still exercising. With Myrkblade slightly charged, I aimed at an invisible target and swung slowly. A wave of smoke flew off and dissipated, leaving blades of grass dancing afterwards for a second or two.

"Say…just how much can you charge that sword of yours up?"

I looked over at the green changeling.

"Just asking," he smiled sheepishly in mid pose.

"Yeah, Noir…," Cyborg nodded. "You never did show us the full extent of our power…unless Robin's hiding something from us that only the two of you know."

I gave him a sarcastic look through my shades.

"Show us what you've got!" Beast Boy jumped. "How much punch can that thing of yours pack?"

I glanced forlornly at Myrkblade. True, during practice and crime fighting, I've charged it up to a great extent. But it had been honestly a while since I gave it a good workout. I was due for a session, so no time like the present. _Right?_

I gestured for Cyborg and Beast Boy to step back.

They did so, cheering.

"Yeah!"

"All right!"

"This is gonna be so cool!"

I stood in a fountain of wind-blown grass. Myrkblade hung by my side. I took a few deep, even breaths.

Raven, up on the rock, opened one blue eye and glanced down at me as I began.

I lowered my eyes beneath my shades. I slowed my breathing.

Myrk and smoke warbled up from my extremities and slowly oozed their way towards my swordhand.

Beast Boy's and Cyborg's cheers went silent. That, or I just couldn't hear them anymore. I don't know which. I felt a world of black come up to envelope me against the brightness as I charged up so slowly…so gently…that I was surprised at the weight of smoke and Destruction I was beginning to carry.

It felt like a hundred pounds, but I managed to lift Myrkblade up. I held it up—horizontally—at eye level. I dragged a pair of fingers of my free hand down its broad side. The digits swam through a fountain of black. Like floating ink in the air. The blackness became so thick, it almost developed secret colors of its own that screamed and shrieked to me in little pinpricks of mystery slithering into my solid eyes. And then it started pulsing…and then it started rotating. I knew I was standing, and yet the universe was spinning. I was impervious to gravity and weighed down by it all the same. Destruction and Construction danced around an orbital center inside my throbbing aorta and exploded in a million bits of laughter and pseudo light before the faint image of a face materialized before me in front of an infinite curtain of obsidian. And the face smiled. The face swam through my arteries on tiny canoes and I wanted to scream.

"N-Noir?"

My black eyes popped open.

Myrkblade fell….a forward slash.

_**WOOOOOOOOOSHHHH!!!!!!!!**_

Light exploded blindingly before me and then sliced in half like butter as a wave of murk and smoke trailed out from my leveling sword, ran out to sea, and parted waves with a splash of up to one hundred feet high for a quarter of a mile. It was a damn good thing I wasn't facing the suspension bridge to the North.

I gulped, slunk the sharp edge of Myrkblade into the earth, and fell back on my rear…panting.

"…………….," Cyborg and Beast Boy stared. They looked at each other. Goofy grins dripped down and soon they were jumping up and down. "Dude! Killer! That rocked! Yeah! Ha ha ha!!"

I panted, wiping sweat off my brow.

"That would make mince meat out of Slade for sure, next time we run into his ugly face!!" Beast Boy chuckled.

"I dunno….I don't think even _he_ deserves that level of punishment! Ha! Great stuff, Noir," Cyborg looked down. A pause. "Noir, you okay buddy?"

I smiled weakly and nodded.

"Wore yourself out, eh?" Beast Boy extended me a hand.

I took it and stood up, brushing myself off and gesturing.

"He says 'it's time to call it quits'," Cyborg read aloud.

"Awwww….do it again, Noir! Do it again!"

I sniffed out a chuckle and shook my head, again gesturing.

"He's right, Beast Boy," Cyborg said. "Besides, it's time for breakfast."

"YES!" Beast Boy jumped with a cheer. "Thanks for reminding me! Tofu waffles it is!!"

"Oh no you don't! I'm getting there before you do so I can cook everyone an edible meal—HEY!! GET BACK HERE!!"

A laughing, green toucan soared off towards the elevated Main Room of the Tower. Cyborg ran on foot, sweatdropping.

"No fair! Some of us gotta walk, ya know!"

I watched the two return home, smiling. Wind kicked some of my hair loose. I tucked it back beneath the bandanna and turned around to retrieve my weapon……only to find out it wasn't there.

A swishing sound.

I glanced to my right.

There Raven stood, in a fencer pose facing the opposite way from me, Myrkblade in her grasp.

"A most interesting tool…," she said, trying a jab or two in the naked air, her cloak billowing in the wind. "Wooden swords are underrated these days…but in the right hands—such as yours—they become something to respect, I gather."

I watched curiously as she summoned a forcefield of black around her arm and Myrkblade in turn and slashed at a rock. The structure was swiped clean off its support, the heavy top half thumping to the ground.

I couldn't help it. I clapped.

She turned around and ever so slightly smirked. "Pretty nifty, huh?"

Without looking at where it went, she lowered the sword to her side—unwittingly colliding it uncharged with another rock.

CLANK!!

"Owch!" she winced as the wood was forcefully knocked out of her grasp.

I winced and walked over to pick my weapon up from the tall grass.

"I guess it would help to have your gift of spatial sensory perception," she said, rubbing her hand. "It must not be as easy as it looks to meditate with this thing."

Raven took the time one day to teach me the ways of Azzarath. Though I hardly grasped the extent of her teaching then, I felt honored by her sharing the art with me. So I felt it only natural for me to walk up to her, lift a finger for attention, place the hilt of Myrkblade back in her grasp, and move her arms with my hands so as to help her emulate the correct, fighting position.

"Oh…so is this how you hold it?" she asked.

I nodded…then twisted my hand side to side to signify _'somewhat'_. I lifted my finger again and stood behind her, my chest to her back. I gently stretched my hands along her arms and pushed her shoulders so as to best reach the starting point of murk meditation.

"L-Like this?" she asked.

I leaned my head over her shoulder to get a better view of Myrkblade as I adjusted her fingers around the hilt and bent her elbows just right. Wind licked at us both, causing my hair to whip softly against her neck as I physically instructed her.

"Um….," she swallowed. "And just how do you do the horizontal preparation thingy?"

I was confused for a moment as to what she meant, then breathed a silent '_oh!'_ and lifted her other hand with mine so that it slid across the broad, dull side of the wooden sword. Her fingers trembled as I gently guided them, as if afraid of being cut by the hidden sharp edge of the blade…when the whole time it was still harmlessly in Myrkstaff mode. I lifted the sword up parallel to her eyes, and in doing so my left elbow brushed up against her inner forearm.

Suddenly, without warning, Raven's hair fanned up in a twirl. A static wave of black telekinesis flew up from the ground beneath us, raining soil and grassblades everywhere.

When I snapped out of it, I realized I had collapsed on the ground…and so had Raven a few feet away from me. She swiftly—quite awkwardly for _'Raven'_—jumped up and brushed the dirt and grass stains off her cape and chest. I squinted through my shades and couldn't help but notice that she was blushing furiously.

"Um….er….I think that's enough….copying one another's meditation," she fumbled to say. I almost saw a touch of fear or _something else_ in her eyes, but it was soon replaced by her cool demeanor (even though the reddening skin remained betrayingly the same). "We are obviously built for our own arts….but…th-thanks anyway."

I blinked up at her.

She saw I wasn't responding and immediately trudged—_more like scurried_—up towards the Tower. "See you later, Noir."

_Had she forgotten to fly??_

I got up, wincing, and walked over to where Myrkstaff was. I picked it up, charged it with murk momentarily to shake off the debris, and sheathed it in my wooden scabbard. I paused as I realized I was standing in a fresh circle of grassless dirt from where the two of us….er…stood.

A wyrd thought occurred to me. I looked up at the tower, grinning….humored. I decided to shake it off and head on back myself.

_At that point…tofu waffles sounded not so bad…_


	12. A Hive at the Opera part 1

**12. A Hive at the Opera part 1**

"I could use more syrup on these things. Syrup? Syyyyyrrrrrrup?! YO! Syrup!!"

"You get your own syrup," Cyborg spat. "I was against the cooking of that stuff from word one, pal!"

"Awww….know ye not the joy of molasses-soaked tofu??" Beast Boy beamed. He reached over for a transparent jug on the kitchen unit's counter and oozed the material all over his waffles before eagerly chomping away at their masses. "MmmmmMmmm! God's candy---no wait, that's _fruit_. Ahem…God's aprhodesiac!!"

"Ugh…don't make me sicker than I already am," Robin sniffed from the couch on another side of the room where he rummaged through old crime reports. He was slung in a white-shirt and black shorts. His eyemask looked puffy as he reached occasionally for a tissue box to his right side. "SNORRRT!! Egh….says here that it's been a month since Killer Moth got loose. I was sorta hoping we'd find him in Kobayashi Tower, but that didn't go as expected…did it?"

"For goodness' sake, Robin, can't you call it a day for once?!" Cyborg said from the kitchen, slurping away at a tall glass of orange juice before adding: "We went through all that trouble to save your scrawny butt and you're over there giving us all a headache! You're supposed to be getting better. Not getting busy!"

"Crime never sleeps….so why should I?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Have it your way. Some people just can't be helped." He glanced my way. "Take you for instance, Noir. How can you stand that stuff?"

I took another happy bite of tofu and munched contentedly.

"He's a man of good taste, Cy!" Beast Boy beamed. "You can learn a lot from him!"

"Yeah….like how to avoid food poisoning," Cyborg grumbled. "Is that stuff actually delicious?"

I smiled and nodded slightly.

"Hoooray!" Beast Boy careened and whipped over another plate before me. "Want some more? Maybe with a gallon of syrup this time?"

I politely declined, producing a snort of laughter from the android.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Robin snorted too….but it wasn't the happy kind. "Ugh….I hate colds. Why now of all times do I have to get sick?!"

"Don't look at me, man," Cyborg waved. "I never get sick."

"Do too!" Beast Boy glared.

"Do _not!_ The nanoprobes in my bloodstream act as an impervious Immune System! I can fight off anything short of a world-threatening virus."

"Yeah…except when you eat too much candy," Beast Boy said quietly and chuckled like a munchkin.

"Rrrrrrgh," Cyborg growled.

I finished my breakfast, got up, and went to the kitchen sink to wash it away.

"Well, look who's Mr. Efficient!" Beast Boy cackled at me.

"Don't press your luck, Noir," He pointed. "You'll be out of that good habit sooner than you think in this place."

I gave him a sarcastic smile and went back to my work.

"Ugh…it just annoys me to no end," Robin said.

"What does—besides the painfully obvious and infested?"

"Killer Moth…he must be around about somewhere. A guy that psychotic just can't hang out in one place for long."

A pause.

"Fang….I bet he has a connection to him."

"And how…," Beast Boy added nonchalantly and dug away at his food.

Robin sniffed, smirked, and said, "You've been wanting an assignment for a long time, haven't you Beast Boy?"

The green elf looked up with a mouthful of tofu. "Mmmmfff?" (Me??")

"Well, haven't you?"

--GULP—"Yeah! Dude, you bet!!"

"It's time you got some field action!"

"It's about time!" Beast Boy smirked and took another bite. "What do you want of me, Captain?"

"Go and interrogate Fang as to Killer Moth's location."

Beast Boy coughed and a mound of half-digested tofu flew across the room. "HACCCK!! -gassssp- Excuse me?!"

"You heard me. Go interrogate Fang and—"

"That big 'ol creepy Spider….erm….creep! He spiders me out! Er, I mean…he creeps me spider---d'oh!!" His plate fell to the floor and he sweatdropped. "Why can't I just interrogate some normal guy who's head is not a _giant bug_?!"

"Cuz there're no other acquaintances to Killer Moth in prison at the moment."

"Why not?!" Beast Boy pouted, then brightened. "Oh! I know! How about that pretty little date of yours?!" His eyebrows turned into pink hearts and rose suggestively.

Robin took a deep breath, frowning. "Kitten…," he grumbled through his teeth, "…is missing in action too!"

FLASH!!!

A starbolt exploded out of nowhere. A very anxious Starfire flew into the room—looking frenzied. Her hands glowed in bright emerald fury. "_**Who?! Who?! Who said the 'K' word?!"**_

Cyborg gulped. "Easy, Star. We're all to young to die, ya know…"

"Ehm….," Robin cleared his throat, coughed, sniffed, and looked up. "Nothing, Star. Just sending Beast Boy to….track someone down."

"Oh….okay," Starfire lowered her arms and giggled pleasantly. "Need more flimsy paper sanitary sheets, Robin?"

"No….n-no…I've got enough Kleenex, thanks," Robin simpered.

Starfire sighed dreamily and floated off.

Robin rubbed his sore throat. "It's nice and all for Starfire to take care of me…," he thought aloud, "…but I'm not doing terribly. In fact, I slept like a stone last night. I wonder why she's so concerned?"

I smiled innocently and focused on the dishes.

"Ahem….anyways," Robin sniffed. "Go down to prison, Beast Boy. That's your final order. You can refuse, of course—"

"Whewwwww," Beast Boy sighed.

"----if you want to be washing the Tower's windows from now till December."

"I'm going," the boy leapt to action.

"Hang on…take someone with you!" Cyborg said.

"Huh?!" Beast Boy spun around.

"Well, naturally you get to choose someone to join you on this mission," Robin said. "That's the protocol."

Beast Boy scratched his head. "Yeah….I never thought of that." A blink. "But who?"

"Well, I'd love to join you…but I'm too busy battling phlegm at the moment."

"And I've got a T-Car to fix," Cyborg smirked.

"And Starfire's got her hands full of me," Robin added.

Cyborg scratched his chin, "And Raven's been alone in her room since this morning…"

I glanced up momentarily—paused—and returned to my dishes.

"Then who could I choose……," Beast Boy wondered aloud….as if he had to. He slowly looked over in a direction.

The room was awkwardly silent.

So naturally, I turned around…and saw my weekend shot to shambles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A thin slit of light opened vertically, then parted wide with a glare. Three dark figures marched in: Beast Boy and two armed guards. The door closed behind them as they stepped into a corridor facing a huge sheet of transparent plastic; separating them from a pitch black prison room. Small breathing holes for talking through were at Beast Boy's eye level.

"This is his room, sir," one guard said. "He likes it dark. Don't ask us why. But there's no way to escape on any side of the cell, and this transparent sheet has no chance of breaking. You can talk to him as you see fit….though, to be honest, he doesn't come out into the light much…..for anyone…."

The green elf gulped—tried to hide it—and shook forth: "We'll just have to see about that…"

He sauntered over towards the glass. In the dim light of an overhead, red bulb…he caught a misty image of gigantic spiderwebs stringing their way into the black mire that was the cell on the other side of the plastic.

"God I hate this guy….," Beast Boy whispered. He cleared his throat, put on a stern face, and leaned forwards towards the breathing holes. "So…Fang….here we are. Betcha didn't think you'd be in…..er…._here_ again, didja??"

Silence.

Beast Boy continued. "I need some….information from you. Seeing that we Titans have kicked your butt more than once, you would find it in your best interest to cosplay….er, I mean 'comply'."

Silence.

"Hello?!" Beast Boy planted his trembling hands on his hips. "I am TALKING to ME---Y-YOU!" He shook his head.

Silence.

Then…

An eerie chuckle.

Squirming out from the darkness.

Beast Boy blinked…sweatdropped…and looked both left and right. "Um…..Fang?"

"You're so weak…..so flimsy….," the voice drifted out. "So tiny….how can any meat on your bones be delicious?"

Beast Boy flinched at the word 'meat'. "Dude…I just want to ask you a few questions. Can you cut the—"

"Tell me, changeling….can you turn into insects?"

Beast Boy blinked. "Ummmm…"

"You turn into all sorts of animals without any inhibitions…," the voice droned. "Can you turn into insects too?"

"Well gee….I dunno…I've never tried—HEY! Who's asking the questions here??"

"I wonder what it'd be like if you turned into a fly….fluttered in through one of those holes….and caught yourself somewhere unsuspecting…"

Beast Boy gulped—quite visibly this time—and pointed. "Look….I…"

"Because I sure would enjoy sucking the _**JUICE OUT OF YOU!!!!**_" WHUMP!!! A slobbering face of a half-man/half-spider slammed against the side of the plastic sheet, eyes ogling Beast Boy hungrily.

"WAAAAAAAH!!!!!!" the boy jumped back, sweat, and hugged himself. He looked back at the guards. The guards looked at him.

"Er….sorry," the green elf turned greener. "Tourette's Syndrome." He cleared his throat and faced the cell again and its psychotic spider-human. "_**YOU**_ are _**GONNA**_ tell _**ME**_ what _**I**_ need _**TO**_ know!!!….um….._**BARFMAGGOT**_**!!!**"

"Please…," Fang's mandibles shook. "Drop the act. You're as yellow as my own piss on a Saturday morning. Did Robin send you here to…*ruffle* my feathers?!"

Beast Boy made a face. "Um…"

"I'm just a common thief now," the spider person said, pacing the front of the cell—eyeing Beast Boy the whole time. "I may be a mutant of the hideous variety…but it's downright discrimination for you and the Titans to treat me like I'm in the big time anymore just for the way I look."

"Oh please!" Beast Boy crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "We all know you did and still ***do*** have connections to Killer Moth and his rambunctious daughter, Kit—"

"Is that what this is all about??" the spider face cringed and glared. "Those morons? I'll tell you what, that girl and her pathetic pappy are completely gone from my life now. I don't care what's happened to them, or what's going to—"

"Well, it so happens that the Titans do care. Killer Moth has been missing for a while, and we need you to tell us what you know about him last!"

"Hmm….lemme think about that," Fang tapped his head with a spider leg and then blinked all eyes. "Ooooh! I just remembered something!"

"What?"

"KISS MY ABDOMEN!!"

"…….dude….that doesn't make any sense."

"That's exactly what I have to say about this….'questioning' of yours…," Fang drooled from behind the plastic. "Puppets of a façade of justice, that's what you all are. You don't have the guts to come in here. You don't have the guts to meander your way around my domain with hopes of avoiding my webbed wrath! You're all cowards, you hear me?! And until one of you shows the juicy guts you have, I'm not saying jack!"

Just then, Beast Boy grinned. "That can be arranged."

"????"

Suddenly, the darkness behind Fang warbled into a human figure that produced a wooden, blurring sword directly under his neck.

His mandibles gasped.

His whole body spun as I grabbed his amorphous neck and slammed the back of his spiderhead against the plastic, aiming the tip of Myrkblade deliciously close to his bumpy forehead, between the eyes, eyes, eyes.

I smiled and blew a kiss.

"Wh-Wh-Who are you?!!"

"His name's Noir," Beast Boy smirked. "And as you're sure to find out, he's quite the cut up!"

"What's he gonna do to me?!?!" he drooled in terror.

"Gee, I dunno. What are you gonna do to him, Noir?"

I said nothing. I didn't even move. I kept staring down into Fang's eyes. Myrkblade warbled an inch from his exoskeleton.

"Doesn't he talk?!?! Wh-Why doesn't he say anything?!"

"Cuz you're right. Robin _did _send me to do the talking. Noir, on the other hand, is here to do everything else per my request. You can say stuff, right? Why not start with telling me where Killer Moth and Kitten are?!?!"

"Y-You guys won't hurt me!!!" Fang stammered. "It's against the code of the Teen Titans or something to put people through pain!!"

Beast Boy hummed. "True….but, ya know that Noir's a noobie, right? In fact, I don't think he completed his teammember registration. So he's not technically a Titan yet!"

Fang gulped.

"So where are they?!?!"

"I-I told you!!" Fang gasped, his mandibles quivering. "I'm out of their so-called circle of love!! I have no idea where they are---"

I gripped his body tighter and poked Myrkblade into him.

"TELL US!" Beast Boy yelped.

He squinted his eyes, spider legs trembling. "O-O-Opera house!!"

"Opera house?!?!"

"The Westhaven Opera House!! Just north of the City! I-It's a tour of some sort. Kitten's there! Kitten's there, I swear it!!"

"And Killer Moth???"

"I dunno. I could care less about the old man, I just know where Kitten is! Now will you have him lay off me?!"

Beast Boy coolly gestured to me.

I bowed, smiled, and dropped Fang's arachnid body to the floor with a SLUMP!!

"OOF!!"

I backed up, merged with the darkness, and—like magic—appeared back on the other side next to Beast Boy.

He gave me a thumb's up before kneeling and speaking to Fang on the other side. "So…just what is showing at….the Westhaven Opera House?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Il Trovatore???" Robin sniffed.

"It's some sort of really old, boring opera program," Beast Boy said on the main room monitor. "Something about medieval times or something."

The Teen Titans scratched their heads. They all looked at Raven.

She blinked at them, sighed, and droned: "Il Trovatore…a musical version of _'El Trovador'_, written by Antonio Garcia Guitierrez. The first show premiered in 1853 and depicted a courtship in Medieval Spain flustered by a duel between two long-lost brothers of a fiery tragedy full of martyrdom and infanticide."

Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire stared at her.

She looked at them all, cleared her voice, and said monotonously, "Um…it's got the 'Anvil Chorus' in it."

"Ohhhhhhh…"

"I see."

"That one."

"Yeah, and that's where Fang said Kitten's hiding out," Beast Boy said.

"What's Kitten doing performing in an old opera?" Robin asked.

"The heck if I know!" Beast Boy said. He gestured to me. "Noir here practically scared the living web out of Fang! When he ratted out, I'm pretty sure he meant it!"

I nodded.

Robin coughed and managed, "And any word on Killer Moth?"

"Negative. Just his daughter."

"I see then…," Robin scratched his chin. "Very well. You guys both check it out. Keep in contact with us over radio if you find that there's more there than that whiny brat."

"Yes…and while you are at it," Starfire added, "Be sure to wash her chronometers like I did with Control Freak!"

"Um….dudes…Westhaven is like twenty plus miles away!"

"So?" Cyborg shrugged. "Make a road trip out of it! Don't you want an assignment or not?"

"Yes! Road trip! Allright, Noir gimme five!" Beast Boy said to me on the monitor.

I reluctantly did, then glanced at the other four on the screen.

"Noir…Beast Boy's been part of the team longer. So I assign him as your leader for this mission."

I raised an eyebrow under my shades.

"Ooooh….did you hear that, Noir?" the elf leaned against me and gave a thumb's up. "You're gonna be taking orders from the _maaaaaan_!"

I sweatdropped.

"Whatever you do…don't approach Kitten directly," Robin said. "This is technically covert reconnaissance. We just need you to find out as much as you can about her and possibly Killer Moth's circumstances so that we can help out on the investigation. Understood?"

"Roger Wilco, sealed Crisco!" Beast Boy cheered.

"Dear god…," Cyborg pounded his head with a palm.

"Yeah…well—ACHOO!!" Robin sniffed. "Overandout…."

--BLIP--

As our image switched off, Starfire wandered over and placed a blanket over Robin's shoulders.

"Do you think they will actually accomplish anything?" Raven asked suspiciously.

Robin turned around, shivering into his blanket. "I doubt it'll lead anywhere. I just want to be rid of the smell of tofu until this cold clears up…"

"Ah."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Woohoo!!" Beast Boy jumped. "We're gonna make Robin so proud!!"

I nodded lazily and looked off in thought. Something didn't seem right.

We were standing just outside of the prison gates. The noonday sun shown down on us as Beast Boy tucked away his communicator, stretched, and joyfully exclaimed: "My very own mission."

A pause.

He simpered and patted my shoulder above him, "Sorry, dude. _Our_ very own mission."

I smiled, nodded, and tightened my banana.

"Well then…I never thought I'd say this before…but…let's make haste to the Opera!"

He turned into a green eagle and lifted himself up majestically….only to slam hard into a search light above.

CONG!!

"SCHWAWK!!!" He fell back down to the ground, feathers littering the floor.

"Ugh…," Beast Boy mumbled and sat in Elf form, rubbing his head. "Word to the wise….take off in a clear space!"

I breathed forth a chuckle, helped him up with a hand, and led the way to the prison's perimeter.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird on the planet.

I—safely said—am among the ten fastest human beings on the planet.

Together, and with our fair share of the streaking colors green and black, Beast Boy and I covered the length between the City and Westhaven with time to spare. It was early sunset as we approached the entrance to the Westhaven Opera House; an extremely expensive and fashionable manor built in the middle of a sectioned-off forest from town. People came from far and wide to see the pompous attractions and shows of this place. I never thought I'd see myself within walking distance, to be honest.

The opera house was three stories tall, with a grand entrance with pillars and a giant marquis displaying WESTHAVEN THEATRE in huge yellow letters armed to the teeth with electric light bulbs. At night, the thing had to practically burn with amber glory into the darkness. My black eyes weren't looking forward to it.

The parking lot in front of the manor was empty, save for a handful of trailors and equipment vehicles. But the bulk of activity was situated on the huge lawn stretching out to the West of the manor. Tents and shacks were set up here and there; temporary housing for crew members in charge of putting together the wardrobe and building the props for the upcoming show of "Il Trovatore". Beyond the gypsy-like clusters stretched a small, sapphire lake that shimmered in the sunlight.

"One thing's for sure," Beast Boy smiled at me. "It's no Monster Truck Rally."

I glared at him, shook my head, and continued surveying the scene.

"…..any sign of Kitten?" Beast Boy asked.

I shrugged.

"Oh that's right, you've never seen her!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Imagine this, only fatter." And he turned into a cross-breed of a pig and a Yorkshire terrier.

I couldn't help it. I smirked.

"HA! You're not so tough an audience, Noir. You really aren't." He stood back and cracked his knuckles. "Well, first thing's first. We need to establish a base of operations."

I looked at him funny, turned around, and gestured to the forests.

"Blaaaaah. No way. Just because I'm a beastly boy doesn't mean I *love* to lay my head on a tree branch any given night!" He squinted at the manor a long way's off and pointed with a "HA! That's where we're gonna be!"

I palmed my forehead and shook my skull.

"What?! It's a great idea!"

I gestured madly.

"Hmm…..gonna be hard hearing what you have to say, isn't it? Wish I brought some pen and paper with us."

I fumed.

"Allright….I'll go in and do recon."

I gasped and pointed at myself.

"Whaaaat? You're not the only one who can sneak around!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

I was still emphatic.

"Noir…relax. You spent the last few hours _running_ here. Let someone with a bit more limbs at his disposal do something for a change. Besides," he smirked evilly. "Robin said I give the shots around here. So watch and learn, rookie. Old Greeny's got an opera house to inspect!" He morphed into a hummingbird and was off.

I started to go after him, but stopped. Realizing he was right, I sighed—defeated—and slumped down behind a tree far off from the manor.

_How can a Kitten look like a pig-dog?_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the opera house, in a sublevel hallway which led to numerous dressing rooms, people were in a hustle and bustle of activity. A stage director of sorts—a late-twenties woman with short dark hair and thin glasses—was issuing commands to everyone with upmost…..er…stress.

"For crying out loud, we can't have only ten pairs of gypsy sandals if the producer calls for thirty gypsies!! We've got to rush, people! The Final Showing is in three days!!"

A basement window had been cracked open to air out the stuffy, summer temperature. A green hummingbird flew in, hovered about, and morphed into an Elf in an unseen part of the hallway. He snaked along a wall and pricked his pointed ear in on the conversation.

"Sandy! Come over here!"

Footsteps announced a short teenage girl with light brown hair and glasses of her own rushing up to the dark-haired director. "Y-Yes, Ms. Cartwright?"

"Where're the sandals?"

"With the anvils."

"And where're the anvils?"

"With the candles!"

Ms. Cartwright rubbed her face, sighed, and throbbed forth a: "This is not a joke, Sandy! Either get those sandals or you're back in High School drama!"

"The sandals?"

"Yes, by the candles."

"Don't you mean the anvils, ma'am?"

"Just go get them!!!!!"

"Y-Yes, Ms. Cartwright!"

"B-But first, Sandy. Tell me. Is Mister Allenthorpe here yet?"

"Allenthorpe, ma'am?"

"The head financier! Who else?!"

Beast Boy listened closely.

"We got a call from an Allenthorpe….a-at least I think so'm. He said he'd be late on account of warm weather."

"Ugh! So typical of old men!" Ms. Cartwright groaned. She composed herself, rubbed her glasses, and said, "Well…when he does get here, hail me as soon as possible. We won't be getting the show off the ground without as much as an opening overture if we don't get his top dollars! Brrrr….as if I didn't have Mister Anderson on my neck enough as it is…"

"Is he a classical opera fan, Ms?"

"Who, Mr. Anderson?"

"No, Mr. Allenthorpe'm."

"Why should you care? Get out of here and fetch me those sandals!!"

Beast Boy whispered to himself, "Somehow….if she said 'slippers' instead…it would have fitted her." He frowned momentarily, then rubbed his chin as thought aloud. "Hmm…..Mr. Allenthorpe…."

Suddenly, the green changeling gasped and snapped a finger. "I got it!—whelp!" He swiftly turned into a chameleon and blended into the woodwork of the wall as two stagehands rushed by, carrying a setpiece. Once they were gone, he morphed back into an elf to check if the coast was clear. He then slithered into a snake and ferreted under a nearby door marked 'costumes'. He came out with a bundle of clothes under his paw, then slipped into a pelican that carried them off through and out the basement window with its mouth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I did a double-take at him and mouthed: '_What?!?!'_

"You heard me!" he smiled proudly as we stood in a forest clearing outside the manor. "You're gonna pretend you're this rich dude named Mr. Allenthorpe! You'll knock on the door, say you're here for reviewing the set at hand, and then ask for a place to stay inside the manor over the next three days before the opera show! That'll give you and me plenty of time to find Kitten and whatnot!"

I gestured and gestured and gestured like mad, but it was all Greek to my little Titan buddy.

"Dude! Just trust me on this!" he tossed a fancy set of clothes down at my feet. "You'll pass just fine as a rich man. Plus—I don't know if anyone ever told you this—but you're remarkably handsome."

I looked at him with an edge of suspicion and slight horror.

"Hey!" he raised his hands and blushed. "Talking from a general perspective. Not my personal belief, pal!"

I nodded slowly as if to say '_Riiiiight'._

It was enough for the homophobic anamorph. "Whew….," he sighed. "So…gonna dress up or not? I got these coooool replacement shades for you!" He beamed, holding the items of question over his face and posing. "Whaddya think? Will Smith?"

I glared at him and stiffly pointed a jabbing finger at my throat.

"Don't worry. The coat you're gonna wear will hide that…erm….'X' scar,' he winced. Then brightened. "And about the whole 'no talking' thing…I've got a swell idea!" He swiftly turned into a parrot and whistled.

I looked about to throw up.

_Somehow……I don't think this is what Robin had in mind when he said 'reconnaissance'._

But…who am I to argue with my 'leader'? As a matter of fact, *how* could I?

I exhaled and slowly stripped to don on the rich clothes while Beast Bird looked away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!

"For goodness' sake! Who's knocking? This is an open house to all you workers, ya know! Sandy, will you go get that?!?!"

"Yes'm, Ms. Cartwright." Sandy exclaimed as she opened the door—then froze. "Oh…….um……." Her face reddened slightly. "M-Mr. Allenthorpe?"

There I stood, garbed completely in a business suit, hair tucked down into my collar to hide its length, my shades exchanged to hide my trademark Titan look….and I had a green parrot on my shoulder.

I tried smiling…and I swear a tooth or two broke in desperation.

Sandy blinked at me. "Um, Ms. Cartwright? We have a visitor!"

_This was gonna be a long story…_


	13. A Hive at the Opera part 2

**13. A Hive at the Opera part 2**

Sandy escorted me down the hallway towards the lovely yet astute Ms. Cartwright. As we paced along, we had to avoid various, meandering stagehands and moving men and women.

"Okay…just move your lips right as you hear me talk," the green parrot said into my ear. "I swear…this will soooooo work."

I mouthed something to Beast Boy and shook my head.

He seemed to understand. He clattered his beak and muttered quietly, "I'm the leader here, remember? Whatever I say…you just act out, k? I'm gonna get us familiarized with this place, _Mr. Allenthorpe_."

I sweatdropped, built up courage, and proceeded to carry myself with the very same 'air of dignity' that I entered the building with, per Beast Boy's directing.

"Mr. Allenthorpe," Ms. Cartwright walked forward and extended a hand. "We've been waiting ever so patiently…"

The parrot on my shoulder turned his head, took a breath, and prepared forth some mysterious ventriloquism.

I sweated bullets, but hid it as I opened my mouth just in time:

Patience is a virtue too ambiguous to categorize, my dear madame…~

My eyes stretched in horror at the words 'coming out of my mouth', but I had no choice but to continue as Beast Boy went on.

~…but know that I respect any fair face for the hard work she puts into a marvelous stage preduction, regardless of the pressures of time constraint.~

He supplied a voice extraordinarily deeper than the common Beast Boy…not to mention more refined. It seemed like he was making some wicked attempt to sound older, or at least emulate the voice I might possibly have. I didn't believe so.

My heart beat weakly as I anticipated Ms. Cartwright's reaction.

The dark-haired woman blinked at me through her thin glasses, silent. Then she stuttered forth into a smile, "Why….er….th-thank you, Mr. Allenthorpe. You're just about as sophisticated as Mr. Anderson has told me about you."

I didn't know how to respond to that, since I was waiting on my 'voice' from Beast Boy. So I improved with a pompous smile and did a thumb's up.

Both women stared at my thumb's up.

"….." I brought it to my temple and brushed a few hairs straight, simpering…….waiting….

~How goes the show?~

Beast Boy suddenly voiced, forcing me to calibrate with my lips like I was pushed into 'fast forward'.

"Right on schedule!!" Ms. Cartwright beamed.

Sandy tapped on her shoulder. "Um….but ma'am…about the sandals---OOF!"

Ms. Cartwright elbowed the girl away and stepped towards me happily. "It is going right on schedule, sir. And if I must say, you're gonna certainly enjoy the cast members we've assigned to the final show. Why don't I take you into my office and let you see the program pamphlet in full?" She led me by the shoulder down the hallway and turned around, shooting daggers with her eyes at Sandy in such a manner as to think I was blind to it.

I wasn't.

SLAM!!

Inside her office, Cartwright shuffled to her desk and pointed to a chair. "Have a seat, Mr. Allenthorpe. Excuse the mess, we're busy moving items to and from the backstage, and we had to put some of the furnishings from the hallway in here for the day."

I meandered my way around random lamps, bookcases, and globes.

~Quite fine, my fair lady,~ Beast Boy spoke and I mouthed as I found a seat. ~After serving my country in Desert Storm, I've grown accustomed indeed to pacing myself safely.~ I bit my lip but tried not to show it.

"Oh, how fascinating, you were in Desert Storm?"

No…NO! I WASN'T!!!

~I certainly was!~ I crossed a leg over and gestured nonchalantly (as the parrot did the talking). ~I was over there……with the fires…………….and um, camels.~

"It must have been quite an uncomfortable situation, especially for someone with a pacemaker."

I blinked.

Beast Boy blinked.

"Tell me…when was your last operation?"

_Um…………_

~Tuesday!~

_NO!!!_

Ms. Cartwright blinked. "Good heavens! Shouldn't you be wearing a mask or something?"

~Er….what for?~ I looked questioningly at her.

"Why, for the risk of infections after organ treatment!"

~Oh….that….why, yes, of course! Heheheheh!~

"……"

We both gulped.

Eventually, I cleared my own throat and Beast Boy cut in. ~Tubes!~

"Tubes?"

~It's some sort of….new, exuberant technology, my dear. They run tubes through my……body and it makes me safer.~

"I see…"

~Quite state of the art.~

"Yes, quite."

~…..~

"……"

I shook my shoulder. The parrot flapped up and down until finally, ~Let's talk business.~

I flinched.

"Oh….w-well then," Ms. Cartwright seemed flushed, cornered. "Straight to business, is it?"

~Well, I'm a straight man……straight forward, that is.~

"R-Right…," Ms. Cartwright hesitantly reached in her desk for a finance notebook of hers. She seemed to be stalling for some pressuresome reason. I felt sorry for her and every living thing with estrogen and was about to jump up and carve my way out of the room with Myrkblade when Beast Boy interjected:

~What I mean is, Ms. Cartwright…,~ I mouthed as the voice went on. ~…is that I want to have a guarantee on the goodness of this show.~

The woman blinked. She smiled weakly, "Mr. Allenthorpe, I assure you that our portrayal of Il Trovatore is a most excellent one and—"

~I have no doubt that it's excellent, my fair lady. I just need to know how much more….excellent it is.~

Ms. Cartwright blinked. "I-I'm afraid I don't understand, sir. Did you want to see a program?"

~Actually, I would rather see the show.~

"In that case, we've been rehearsing all week. You can stop on by and see how well the practice has gone along--~

~I mean the real thing. I can't make any judgments on Medieval Spain and all its Spanishness if I can't see the real thing being done! You know…under pressure! Theatre lights! The works!~ I flung my arms about to accompany Beast Boy's dramatics.

"All well and good, but—"

~In Desert Storm, the camels didn't run.~ I swung desperately. ~No. They flew! They flew cuz burning oil fields were licking up at their backsides! When life puts mortal fear into a man, Ms. Cartwright, he doesn't run. He soars.~

I took a deep breath, my jaw getting a workout from lip syncing all that. I never thought of it before, but it must be quite a pain to have to move your lips every minute of every day.

"I'd be more than happy to supply you with the reserved seat Mr. Anderson had planned! And if you desire to watch the rehearsals as well, all you'd need to do is be present!"

Beast Boy nudged my ear with his beak. "_Get up!_" the parrot whispered.

I stood up. ~In that case, I'll need a place to say.~ I adjusted my sleeves regally as I 'said' this and grinned at the woman. ~Something not too trite, if possible.~

"……," Cartwright stared. "Um……okay. No problem. We actually have a few spare dressing rooms on the third floor that could double as bedrooms."

~Have your most spacious one reserved for my nightly stay,~ I paced over in front of her desk. ~I would be…..~ I waited for Beast Boy's words, sweating. ~….._most_ happy with such generosity.~ Picking up on Beast Boy's idea, I patted the pocket where a 'wallet' could be. ~Most happy indeed.~

I swear, dollar signs flashed in Cartwright's eyes as she grinned and extended a hand to shake with me. "Very well, sir. Expect a most comfortable stay."

~It's already been comfortable,~ I smiled. ~….so long as I've been blessed by your grace.~ My smile left. I blinked quietly and resumed mouthing/grinning. ~If it's not too much trouble, may I kiss your hand?~

What?!?!?!

Cartwright seemed taken back. "Well….um….a little old fashioned, but sure…"

I took her hand, panicked a bit in uncertainty, and just simply brought it to my lips. I kissed her skin softly—in an attempt to not be awkward—but realized I had made it worse. When I gave her hand back, she was quite obviously blushing.

"Hehehehe…such a gentleman. Mr. Anderson never told me…"

I smiled—almost fainting.

Beast Boy supplied me: ~Ready, willing, and able.~

In the part, I winked…not like she could see behind the glasses.

"I-I'll…um…have Sandy show you up. Y-Yeah," Cartwright took her glasses off and smiled. Her eyes were thin.

_For god's sake……get us out of here._

~Much thanks…and that goes for Gabriel as well.~

"Gabriel?"

_Gabriel?!?!_

~My parrot.~ I blinked. Then pointed at Beast Boy in a delayed reaction.

The green bird beamed.

I glared at it, saved my persona, and bowed towards the stage director.

~I must bid you farewell. Until later, madame.~

"Hehe…so long, sir."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was out the door…and at the bird's neck.

"SQAWWWK!!" he slunk into Beast Boy and dangled from my grasp. "Whoah!! Easy, Noir!! So I had to improvise! Gotta admit, I do add quite a bit of finesse!"

I glared, gestured with a free hand, stuttered, failed.

"Relax! I got us a place to stay, didn't I? And so what if I got on Ms. Cartwright's good side? I couldn't resist! I'm sure Mr. Allenthorpe would agree that she's pretty hot for an office chick."

I sighed.

"Dude….let's just go to our room…shed all this disguise for now, and then search for Kitten! It's gonna be as easy as pi! Or is it pie? Or maybe---SQUAWWWK!"

"Um….hello? Mr. Allenthorpe?"

I looked down the hallway.

Sandy blinked up at me under her glasses. "Why are you choking that bird?"

I glanced at my now fowl friend, simpered, and planted him back on my shoulder before clearing a throat.

~I was merely petting it~ Came out 'my' Allenthorpe voice, a bit more hoarse than beforehand. I supplied lipsync for it at the last second and was prepared for Beast Boy's next: ~If I don't pay enough attention, it'll start molting.~

"Yes…I suppose so," Sandy replied. Looking at me once over.

~Who's my pretty bird?~ I blinked. Then realized I was supposed to be petting Beast Boy…..ew.

It patted the green bird's head and grimaced as I had to portray: ~Who's my pretty bird? You're my pretty bird!~

"Brawk! Pretty bird!!" the green thing said out loud.

I burned his feathery forehead with my eyes yet managed a: ~Pretty bird! Yup! That's right!~

"Pretty bird!"

"Ahem…," Sandy cleared her throat. "I-I was asked to….show you to a room to stay for the night?"

~Ah yes,~ the voice said, and I turned to face down at her. ~That would be most splendid. Show me the way, dear.~

The girl guided us down the hallway, up a set of stairs, through the extravagantly furnished lobby, a dining area, and then a shortcut through the spacious theatre itself. Both parrot and human couldn't help but look up at the majesty of the place's size and scope. I never thought I'd be rich enough to so much as step inside a place as this. The stage was being swarmed by ant-like stagehands a long way's off from where we walked; hoisting backdrops and set pieces and such.

I—we were so distracted that we barely noticed Sandy talking.

"Mr. Allenthorpe, may I ask you something, sir?"

I subconsciously gestured something in reply. Beast Boy bit my ear, stopping my foolishness, and supplied the necessary voice: ~Go ahead, Miss Sandy.~

"How old are you, sir?"

~Pfft….twenty-eight!~ I glanced at the parrot through my shades. I was somewhat flattered.

"That's interesting."

~Why's it interesting, my dear?~

"Like….from what Mr. Anderson and Ms. Cartwright said, I kinda assumed you were an old guy and stuff, sir."

I sweated and looked at Beast Boy.

He was quick. Boy he was quick. ~Well…you see, that was Mr. Allenthorpe _Sr._~

"Oh? Are you a different Allenthorpe, sir?"

~I'm the….fifth in the line of my family.~

"Where're your roots?"

~Ah…Egypt.~

I cleared my throat.

~I mean Norway. Norway is what I meant.~

"………….huh…."

Sandy led us out of the theatre and up a set of stairs towards the second floor. Through doorways we saw passages leading to opera boxes with fancy chairs. Fancy….

"So…did the weather clear up?"

~The weather?~

"One of your servants called in and said the warm weather was holding you back," Sandy said matter-of-factly. "I was surprised that you made it here so quickly……….unless….."

For a second, both me and the parrot gulped.

"Oh…of course," Sandy chuckled lowly. "It was your father who was detained."

~Indeed~ Beast Boy voiced for me. ~The weather is hardly nice to him. You should see him on hot Saturday nights.~

A pause.

~Then again…maybe you shouldn't.~ Beast Boy cleared his throat—which I mimicked—and then asked, ~Are you a stagehand?~

"I'm Ms. Cartwright's personal assistant," Sandy explained, leading us another set of stairs to what looked and felt like the attic of the place. "I handle memos and deliver messages for her."

~A little young, aren't you?~

Sandy shrugged as we reached an old wooden door. "It's a summer job. I can't complain."

CREEEEAK

She opened the door. I stepped inside, Beast Boy flapping on my shoulder, and entered what appeared to be a room built under half the incline of the attic. A round, Victorian window stretched horizontally along the middle of the room, beside an old mattress, a wardrobe, and a rocking chair.

~It's…..old.~

"It'll have to do if you want to stay here, Mr. Allenthorpe," Sandy said. "We'll do all that we can to see to your comfort, but the WestHaven Opera House you so provide for is a theatre first…a hotel second. Feel free to call me if ever you need something."

~Yes…the WestHaven Opera House….it's about time that I saw this place in person.~

"…..," Sandy was silent.

~Is there something the matter?~

"Nothing, sir. I suppose I'll leave you be."

I glanced at Beast Boy. The bird voiced: ~Yes…now would be a good time to….collect my thoughts.~

"Rehearsals should be taking place soon, sir. Just to let you know."

CREEEEAK—and the door shut.

Beast Boy reappeared in elf form. "Ha! Right into the niche! Man, we both rock together!"

"….." I stared at him.

"What?"

I glanced down.

So did he, and realized he was still sitting on my shoulder.

"Oops…heheh….sorry."

He slinked down onto the floor and nearly tripped.

I helped steady him.

"Sorry…gotta get used to non-bird legs for a while. So…what next."

I practically pratfalled.

"Ha ha ha ha! Just kidding," Beast Boy held his stomach, chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Kitten time."

I gestured at him.

"Whatever you're saying, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about!" he exclaimed. "Just a matter of searching the whole place from head to toe and finding what room she's in. That is, assuming she's a major actress in this play…but then again she probably isn't, so she wouldn't have a room. So she might be staying in a motel and not be in the building at all, unless of course she is in the building but is only rehearsing for Il Trovatore…or maybe she isn't rehearsing at all but doing some sort of part time job like Sandy…or maybe………"

I wanted to whimper like a wounded animal.

"Let's just rest for now," he said.

Allenthorpe or not, I couldn't agree more.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour and a half later—as the sun was going down—the two of us opened the door and peaked out as one into the hallway.

"Okay, remember," the green parrot whispered into my ear. "You're twenty-eight years old, handsome, and rich beyond your dreams. It may be a bit of a stretch for you, but can you realistically portray something as diverse as that?"

I glared at the bird through the corner of my shades.

"Ahem….let's just go downstairs and start searching."

"Oh Mr. Allenthorpe, there you are!!"

~SQAWWK! Ahem…er, I mean--~ I blushed, scratched my neck and waved at Ms. Cartwright as she jubilantly walked up to me. Beast Boy recovered just in time. ~Testing out my lungs there…heheh. Was going to go for a walk and check out the theatre but--~

"You must come with me. I insist!" Ms. Cartwright exclaimed, tugging on my arm.

~Um….come where?~

"Rehearsals, of course! I instructed everyone to put down extra effort since you were here!"

I again glanced at Beast Boy through the shades and mouthed '_now what_?'.

The bird sweatdropped and whispered. "We….um…..critique!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I've never been much of a theatre-goer. I can sit through briefings by Robin for missions. I can stand around while Cyborg explained the multiple positives of his latest T-Car upgrade. I can even manage a viewing of one of Starfire's many favorite, earth-based documentaries. But sitting through an opera—opera rehearsals much less, was a challenge in and of itself.

I'm not sure if it was his momentary, bird-brain instincts…but Beast Boy had no problem staying conscious. In fact, I owed my wakefulness to him and his incessant beak-tappings on my neck whenever I so much as risked nodding off.

I sat—we sat in the front row of the grand theatre, staring straight up at the edge of the stage where actors and actresses—out of costume for rehearsals and flanked by busy stagehands setting up the scenery—sang their lines with as much heart that they could muster.

I suppose I should have felt pretty pathetic. Though it was truly Beast Boy's plot and his plot alone, I had put myself into an embarrassing situation…one not typically befitting of a Titan.

Being new and all, I wondered if the others would have grace on me and my actions. Or then again, if Robin and Co. got mad, I could just blame everything on Beast Boy.

All in good time, I suppose.

Another round of endless—er—foreign singing ended and I got another peck from Beast Boy. I clapped nonchalantly along with Cartwright and a few other directors. In the distance—off stage—I caught sight of Sandy through my shades. She seemed to be hovering about the scene…as if collecting data for her own, secret means. I wonder if the green bird's eye caught it too…

"All right," spoke a female casting director on stage. "This next scene is one we're proud of our performers for mastering. It's in Act Three when Fernando learns the truth behind Azucena and decides to have her executed. Fernando, of course, will be played by Mattias Fitzgibbons. Patricia Heaton is Azucena, and Count di Luna is—"

_**"NOO!!!**_"

I nearly fell out of my chair when the most god-awful, bone-grating sound in the world rocketed into my ears, smacked into the eardrum, and sodomized itself upon the inner workings of my brain. Even Beast Boy—who honestly was becoming light-eyed himself—jumped and fluttered at the horrific sensation before looking over, smirking (if that's possible with a beak) and whispering into my aching lobes. "There be the feline…"

_**"I SAID I WANTED TO BE AZUCENA!!**_"

Cartwright sweatdropped. Sandy fled.

The casting director sighed and looked, thin-eyed, at an approaching blonde thing trashed together in all the forbidden shades of pink.

"Miss Rachel Plath…you're out of line."

'_Rachel Plath'?!_

"_**WHY CAN'T I BE THE GYPSY GIRL?!**_"

"Because….," the casting director drolled, "…you're the _other_ gypsy girl."

**"Yeah…the one who doesn't TALK! Stupid! I want more lines!**"

"Well you can't get more lines! Il Trovatore hasn't been altered in nearly 200 years!"

Ms. Cartwright cleared her throat and leaned into my ear. "That's Miss Plath," she half-moaned.

The girl argued with the casting director in the background. Her eyes were blazing with brattiness.

"She's the daughter of….a rich man, I'm told. I really have done the best I could to keep her only minimally involved with the play. She's got the role of an extra who appears on stage a lot…just doesn't speak hardly at all. Well, she's not _supposed_ to speak, that is…"

~Is that so….~ Beast Boy and I both smirked (beakless or not) at the same time.

_**"WHO EVER HEARD OF AN OPERA WITHOUT A BLONDE LEAD ROLE?!**_"

Beast Boy nudged me with a feathery nudge. I stood up and lifted a finger.

~Um…if we could have a word with the young lady..~

_**"AND JUST WHO ARE YOU, PUNK?!"**_

I froze.

People around me gasped.

Cartwright about had a heart attack.

Sandy peaked over from behind the curtain.

I blinked.

~Ahem….~ Beast Boy emphasized, and we continued. ~I just wanted to say that--~

Suddenly—I could have sworn through the corners of my black eyes—I spotted a flash of pink light.

_Creeeeeak!_

Everybody looked up and gasped. I was the last one.

A metal wireframe of lighting—hung high over the stage—was suddenly snapping off its supports. Stagehands—nowhere near the apparatus—cried out warnings.

"Look out!"

"She's gonna fall!"

"How on earth—"

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!"

The blonde thing was the loudest of all to shriek as the ropes snapped and the thing came crashing down without a hitch.

My black eyes widened under the shades and—for a moment there—I realized Beast Boy was gone.


	14. A Hive at the Opera part 3

**14. A Hive at the Opera part 3**

Half the people on stage screamed. Others ducked and covered their heads in vain.

The huge light fixture sailed mercilessly down over them.

I flinched, momentarily reaching for Myrkstaff—which was tucked away behind my back and under 'Allenthorpe's' coat. In slow motion, I wondered how successfully I could leap up, unsheathed the blade, and snap the object in two with Destructive power before it had a chance to crush any skulls.

But the one thing holding me back was the sudden fear of revealing my identity…and blowing my cover. Even if it meant saving the one crooked person I was there to spy on.

Out of nowhere came a charging sound of hooves. Ms. Cartwright and I gasped as a green-colored beast with wide-rimmed horns dove onto the stage, flared its nostrils, and jumped up to meet the falling structure head on.

SMACK!!!!!!

The metal fixture dented and flew across the stage, smashing into a foam-molded mountain scenery with a thunderous roar. No sooner had it happened, the green animal disappeared in a cloud of dust and down a nearby hallway: startled stagehands in pursuit.

Everyone stood up and sighed with relief.

Heartbeats turned to normal.

Cartwright nearly fainted.

I sweatdropped and stepped backwards—only to be yanked towards a table erected alongside the rows of seats by a conspicuous, green elf. Beast Boy lifted a phone receiver off the table, jammed it into my hand, and firmly—desperately—whispered into my ear.

I nodded, cleared my throat, and let Beast Boy—in the form of a parrot on my shoulder again—provide the ventriloquism. ~Um…I just got done talking to the manager of the local zoo…~

Everyone turned and looked at me in silence.

"………" I looked back. I pointed at the phone. ~…to tell them we've spotted their runaway yak!~

"Ohhhhhhhhh," chimed everyone, who then chuckled helplessly to toss away the tension.

I wiped the sweat off my brow and Beast Boy wiped the sweat off his feathers. I planted the phone back down, readjusted my sleeves, and sauntered back towards the stage.

"How on earth did that ever happen?!" Ms. Cartwright was all the rage…literally. "I thought you all fastened those lights in securely!"

"We did, ma'am!" a master stagehand said, standing over the debris and scratching his head. "Plum wyrdest thing I ever did see. It's like it was sliced off its supports!" He looked up. We all looked up. Metal chains and cords dangled loosely. "Maybe it's rust."

"Well maybe it is and maybe it isn't!" Cartwright boomed. "You send your men up there and you tell them to check every light and every fixture twice over now! You got me?!" She looked over across the stage, "Sandy…?????"

"On it'm," the brown-haired girl scampered off.

"_**What's wrong with you people?!**_**"** Rachel Plath—er, I mean Kitten boomed brattily. "_**Can't even run a decent opera without someone's head nearly getting split in two!**_"

Cartwright's head throbbed with a hidden artery. She lifted a finger, prepared to give Kitten an admonishment she wouldn't forget. But Beast Boy voiced in—and I stepped in.

~If I may…this is a rather awkward situation, so I suggest we all take five and gather our wracked senses. And, if need be, we can continue rehearsals in another location until this theatre becomes free of the recent poltergeist.~

People chuckled. Cartwright looked at me. I smiled back at her from under my shades, being the 'suave' Allenthorpe Jr. that I was supposed to be…or something.

"_**And just how's that gonna help?! And, dang it, I STILL WANT MORE LINES!!"**_

~Ms. Plath~ Beast Boy spoke as I calmly gestured to her. ~Might I have a word with you?~

"_**What for?!**_"

I cringed to think what Beast Boy would say. I cringed all the more when he said it. ~I thought I might compliment you on your acting skills. I can see some definite talent in you. And as financier, it would be in the best interests of the play if I got to talk to you a little.~

Beast Boy then whispered into my ear. "_Do something Robin would do._"

I lifted an eyebrow.

_"Do it!"_ his beak clattered.

I raised a hand and—slowly—smothed it through my hair like a come and gave a thumb's up.

Kitten blinked. "Oh….um…." (I could have sworn I detected a sickening twinkle in her pupils at one point. "Sure thing…s-sir…"

Everyone sweatdropped.

Kitten sauntered off the stage in her half-gypsy garb and into a nearby hallway.

"What are you trying to do?!" Cartwright grasped my arm firmly—but not so as to piss Allenthorpe off. "What's your idea singling her out that way?"

I smirked even before Beast Boy provided the words: ~Humoring her…~

Cartwright took off her glasses and cleaned them with a small cloth. It was rather habitual. "I see….just, do us all a good favor, sir. Please….whatever you do…don't give her *any* impression she's getting a bigger role in this opera. I swear, that brat belongs only in two-bit impromptu garbage in the main city…"

~On the contrary, madame, we are here to see she gets as far away from the opera as possible.~

Ms. Cartwright blinked. "'We'??"

I sweat.

~Er…me and you, of course. We're like a team, Ms. Cartwright.~

The woman blushed. "Er…hehe…I-I suppose that's right."

I cringed, but tried to hide it.

~If you excuse me, I have a Kitten to tame.~ And I wandered off, per Beast Boy's direction.

Far behind, Cartwright stood alone, smiling….then thinking, puzzled. "'Kitten'????"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kitten was outside, pacing back in forth around a flowing fountain in a courtyard behind the structure of the opera house. She tossed her hands and yelped and yelled every now and then, her lips flaming with spoiled heat.

"_**Why can't they understand?! Why can't they listen?! I was born for acting! I was made for singing! I can turn this stinkin', boring play upside down! And what is the thanks I get?! What is the standing ovation?! A stinkin' near-fatal accident! It's a plot! They're all trying to kill me! They all hate me for my talent! If I had my way, I'd—**_"

~What's a young, pretty girl like you doing in a stiff, boring place like this?~ Beast Boy voiced for me as I stepped up, hands behind my back.

"Pfft! Haven't they **TOLD** you?!"

~I hear your father's a rich man. Undoubtedly, he and his daughter must be of significant sophistication for her to be here.~

"Er….y-yes…well," Kitten sweatdropped, looking out through the corners of her eyes.

~May I ask…~ Beast Boy cut to the chase and I leaned forward, lipsyncing forth a grin. ~…is your father around?~

Kitten suddenly frowned up at me. "What business is it of yours?! I thought you were a financier! Not an investigator!"

Gabriel' lost a few feathers on that one. I, on the other hand, was pleased. Instead of directly lying, Kitten was merely evading the answer. Perhaps Beast Boy was right in us staying here after all. We might have a Moth to trap yet.

The green bird countered for us: ~Quite true, but I make an added effort to get to know everyone who's in high places. And I do mean, _high_ places.~ For a split second, I was unsure what Beast Boy meant, so I spare-of-the moment rubbed my fingers together to signify 'money'.

That seemed to get Kitten's attention. "Are you….a business partner to my father?"

Considering what business her father was in, she knew as much as we did—no matter who 'I' was—that we had no honest answer to that question. But it was all right, because it wasn't an honest question that she posed.

~I could be.~ We 'said'. ~Given the right respect paid back…~

Kitten glared at me funny. "What do you mean….?"

~You're a very talented young girl.~ I cringed. ~I can see it in you.~ I cringed again. ~And quite frankly, this….stupid play is not worth the exhaustion of your creative energies.~

_Beast Boy?! Where're you going with this?!_

Blink. "I'm listening," Kitten grinned evilly.

_God, she's blonde…_

~Promise me, Miss Plath, that you'll peacefully take this opera as it is…and once I've critiqued it, I'll consider hiring you for one of my more……….~

Kitten leaned forward. "??"

~……urban, endeavors.~

"_**YOU MEAN CLOSER TO THE CITY?!**_" the girl leapt and hugged me dangerously about the neck. "Oh yes, sir! By all means!"

Beast Boy wheezed. I wheezed. Allenthorpe wheezed. ~A-And then…~ I pushed her back and held her by her shoulders. ~…your father and I can have a little talk about business. I'm sure he'd be…most interested in her daughter's exploits.~

Kitten paused momentarily, then gave me a squinted look of suspicion. "Do you know my father…..like Mr. Anderson knows my father?"

I blinked behind my shades. _What the heck does she mean by that?_

Beast Boy didn't seem to care.

~I most certainly do.~

I…winked behind the shades.

"Allright then," she grinned devilishly.

_Hoo boy…_

"If you'll excuse me, Mr. Oglethorpe—"

~*Allen*thorpe~

"Whatever…I've got rehearsals to attend to. Hopefully in a relatively SAFE location!" she grinned, upturned her nose, and gypsy-sandaled away.

I stared after her in the waning sunset-light. Beast Boy looked at me. I looked at Beast Boy.

"Guess now's a good time to start the recon," he squawked forth a whisper.

I gave him a full-feathed smack on the back.

"!!!" the parrot flew off my shoulder. "Okay…Okay…I get the picture. Meet you upstairs in the attic at nineteen hundred hours. HA! I just love saying that!"

I exhaled exhaustingly as he fluttered off. I was alone by the fountain. It felt strangely….comforting, that loneliness.

I glanced off and—froze—upon sight of Sandy's unmistakable face peering around the corner of the building side. At first look at my…look, she disappeared.

_Umm………okay…………………not a bad idea though._

After a few seconds, Sandy suspiciously glanced from around the buildingside again. But did a doubletake.

Nobody was there.

I had blurred into invisibility and rushed inside—and upstairs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Throughout the rest of daylight, while Kitten squawked out her meager lines, annoyed the heck out of the casting director, frowned and threw tantrums every chance she got, and stormed off and on stage, a green bird tracked her. This same green bird—initials B.B.—fought drowsiness in all its lonely offices, but still pressed on. It was a hard task in and of itself to flap about in pursuit of the banal blonde without being sighted by a stressed Cartwright or a curious Sandy.

But as the sun fell outside the windows and the rehearsing lot wandered off from the site, a sulking/sighing Kitten made her way up the stairs to a room in the far side of the second story of the opera house. An anxious Beast Boy fluttered after her…curious…beak grinning.

Kitten's room was a pocket of a place. More like a walk-in closet or supply room, than anything else. The wall was littered with props and old-fashioned items like bicycle wheels and costumes hanging on hooks and wireframes. Kitten, with her meager cot in the corner, tried her huffy best to sashay the place with various frocks and confetti of pink nature. It about blinded Beast Boy as he snuck in a flutter through the doorway after the girl and hide up in the shadows of the rafters, watching. For what, he wasn't sure.

Kitten tossed her gypsy sandals off with more or less remorse, paced over to the bed, paused, and then rolled her eyes. "For goodness' sake! You can come out, now!"

"???" Beast Boy's feather head craned to look.

A wall panel slid open, revealing a vertical crawlspace of sorts within the woodwork. Only one villain the Titans knew would resort to such creepy, shadowed hiding spaces. And it was the one villain that Beast Boy could not imagine actually fitting his goofy mass inside.

And yet, somehow, Kitten's father—the one and only Killer Moth managed it. He slid out, took a deep breath, and glared down at his daughter through the serrated teeth of his mask.

"What took you so long, Kitten?"

"Unghh! Like, you know what, Daddy!"

"You're here to keep an eye on things, not play prima donna!!"

"Well what else do you expect of me?!" she stomped her foot. "You drag me into this dusty, crummy place! Force me to listen to that stupid casting director ramble her mouth off! And then—to top it all off—they don't even want me to be a part of their show! The nerve of these people! What were you thinking in bringing me here!"

"Now, Kitten…believe it or not, things are *not* all about you…," Killer Moth grumbled.

"Pfftchya!! They sure as heck are! Who was it that helped get this hiding place for you?!"

"Kitten…."

"And who is it that's reporting from the inside for you?!"

"Kitten…!"

"And who is it that's gonna win over the favor of Ms. Cartwright and Mr. Anderson while you go play around with your stupid little maggots?!"

"Kitten, you're not helping at all! I can hear your shrieks all the way from the Underground! If you're gonna help Daddy with this new gig, you're gonna have to fly straight!"

"I don't go pasting stupid _wings_ on my back like some psychos, _Daddy!"_ Kitten pouted, her arms folded. "I can handle myself! You just have fun with your little bugs and I'll get Mr. Anderson to talk to you by and by."

Beast Boy scratched his feathery head and listened.

"I hear there's a new person in the opera house…," Killer Moth mumbled. "The son of a Mr. Allenthorpe."

"Yeah…rich fellow. I think he could be of help to us!"

"I'll make the decisions around here of who is helpful and who is not helpful, Kitten!"

"Awwww, Dad! But he's _**cute**_!"

Beast Boy blinked…frowned…and shook his beak.

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY THAT WORD AGAIN!!" Killer Moth hacked at his daughter. "The last time you had a crush on a boy, I was in the slammer for three months! No way is your father doing that again! Not so easily!" He marched over to a wooden chest, opened it up, and gathered a few chemical formulas stashed away in a briefcase. "This plan is to go flawlessly. In two and a half days, Kitten, there'll be more rich people watching the final showing of Il Trovatore than you can shake a stick at!" He held his bundle of chemical vials close to his suit's chest and turned to face his daughter. "Imagine the ransom for them as hostages? There'll be a fortune big enough to feed every single one of my winged children for a lifetime! Not to mention petty profits off of whatever's in the audience's pockets!"

Beast Boy's bird eyes widened. Jackpot indeed.

WHAP!!

The trunk closed and Killer Moth headed back into the vertical crawlspace—which Beast Boy figured must have been a passage way to the 'Underground'.

"Keep an eye and ear out, Kitten," 'Daddy' said. "About this Mr. Allenthorpe figure….he may just have to be one of the victims in the end. I'm not nearly as trusting as I used to be."

"Pfft…like I'm one to learn!" Kitten rolled her eyes. "You won't even let Fang near the house anymore."

"ENOUGH! I have work to do. Try to keep a low profile. Everything depends on the success of this show! If there's no show, there's no audience. And if there's no audience, there's no hostages. And if there's no hostages…..well…no college fund for you."

"Oh joy."

"Have a good night's sleep. Forgive me if I don't tuck you in." He slammed the wall panel close behind him.

"Rrrrrrgh! He makes me so mad!" Kitten whined to the air, huffed, and sat down and began taking off her socks.

Beast Boy knew it was time to go. He headed towards the door and turned into a lizard just as a sudden flash of bright, pink light illuminated the room.

"Huh??" Kitten looked up. "What was that?"

The green lizard blinked. Stared.

"Oh well," Kitten shrugged.

So did Beast Boy…before slithering out from under the doorway and parroted through the halls, heading upstairs with urgent news.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I had been lucky.

I found a deck of cards and was busy playing solitaire to bide the time while Beast Boy performed his reconnaissance. It was well after nightfall outside the Victorian Window and—to be honest—I was a tad bit concerned.

Thankfully, there soon was a knock on the door.

I got up and—without thinking—swiftly answered it.

Ms. Cartwright's face smiled in the reflection of my shades. "Mr. Allenthorpe," she spoke. "Am I disturbing you?"

I blinked.

_Uh………crud. What to do. What to do. What to do. What to do._

The lady just stood there, looking at me. Her eyes trailed behind her glasses. She smiled awkwardly and sorta lifted an eyebrow in desire for a response.

I blinked again. Standing still. Staring.

Finally, I cleared my throat and…gestured for her to come in.

"Why thank you…," she said pleasantly and strolled over to a rocking chair, leaning on it. "I just thought I'd let you know that a full checkup has been performed on the lighting fixtures and other major structures within the interior of the theatre. I had my people working around the clock and even doing overtime to see to the safety of the opera house. So whatever caused the falling structure earlier today---I deeply apologize. Just rest assured that something of its nature will not happen again."

I nodded slowly, staring at her…shifting up my collar so as to hide my neck.

Silence.

Cartwright swung her arms absent mindedly.

Silence.

I scratched my neck.

Silence.

"And….um….," Cartwright rubbed her forehead, looking down and hiding a smile. "I was wondering if…."

I saw a bit of green feathers appear from behind the doorway. I glared and mouthed something towards the door and hissed—carefult not to grab Cartwright's attention. The green feathers hid just in time as she looked our way.

"…if perhaps you'd give me the honor of having dinner with you?"

I snapped out of it and looked at her, surprised. My lips opened--

"You don't have to!" she blurted, blushed, then cleared her throat. "That is to say, Mr. Allenthorpe, I will not oblige you to dine with me since you're the financier and I'm the director. It's just that…we're so glad to have you here, it would be a shame if I---er---one of us didn't try to show you our…er…appreciation."

I simpered. Nodded. And shrugged.

Cartwright looked to the side, rubbing her neck.

A green bird bolted in and hid on the other side of the room.

I about pratfalled.

"Well then, at least it's something to think about, right sir?"

I nodded.

She nodded.

I nodded.

She nodded….and headed for the door. "Have a good night's sleep, sir."

I waved nervously.

She was about out of the room when--

~I would love to have dinner with you tomorrow.~

My whole body cringed. I spun around and stared daggers into the bird that was suddenly perched on my bedpost.

Cartwright turned around, flushed. "Oh, you would?"

I quickly spun to face her, blushing…smiling…simpering.

~Most definitely, madame! Forgive my silence, I was merely meditating on the themes prevalent in Il Trovatore!~

"That would make…w-worthy discussion, wouldn't it?"

~That it would, indeed.~ Beast Boy beamed. I was dying.

"How's about twelve o'clock?"

~I beg your pardon?~

"….on the veranda. For dinner!"

~Oh yes, but of course! Ha ha ha! Wouldn't miss it for the world.~

My fists clenched.

"Splendid…until then, sir."

~Goodnight, fair lady.~

And the door shut.

I immediately spun around and performed a silent, soundless scream long into the green fowl's face.

Beast Boy materialized in elf form, sitting cross-legged on the mantle. "Relax! She's a stressed woman! She'll forget everything in the morning!"

I palmed my face over my hand and wished—for once—that I could moan.

"Besides, I have good news!"

Suddenly, the door opened again.

Ms. Cartwright peered in. "I'm sorry, but I must ask. What species is Gabriel?"

I looked at her. I looked at Beast Boy, who had performed emergency metamorphosis in the nick of time.

~Pardon me?~

"Your parrot. What species is it?"

Both of us blinked.

~…Bird.~

"……..oh….a-allright then. Cya tomorrow."

~Bye…~

The door was closed again. I walked over and locked it.

"Good call," Beast Boy reappeared, slumping to the ground and groaning.

_He said it right._

Somehow, I was no longer angry at him.

"Anyways…I have good news."

"????"

"Killer Moth is here and he's planning on making hostages out of everyone in the audience during the Final Show."

"!!!!"

"Now just hold your horses!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pushing me back as I reacted emphatically. He yanked out a communicator from his pocket. "This is something we've gotta report first! Remember, Robin called this a covert op! Can't be too hasty!"

_Yeah…can't be to psychotic either._

"Boy…the guys are gonna be sooooo psyched to hear we found Killer Moth in hiding!" Beast Boy grinned, then thought to himself—aloud: "I wonder what color my medal should be?" A pause. "Oh, and you get a color too, Noir. I dunno 'bout a medal, but you get a color," he added, purposefully boastful with a twitch of his grin.

I shook my head and returned to solitaire while Beast Boy radioed home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downstairs….in the cluttered lobby…at a desk, dimly lit.

"Hey Sandy…," a worker wandered to the girl filing paperwork with a note. "I just got a phone call. Mr. Anderson should be coming tomorrow afternoon. He'll call again first thing in the morning to check up on us."

"Thanks for the update, Claire," the brown haired teen replied.

"Should I tell him that Mr. Allenthorpe's son arrived safely?"

Silence.

"Sandy??"

"No, Claire," Sandy said. "I don't believe that will be necessary."

"….all right then. Have a good night, Sandy."

"Good night, Claire. Drive home safely."

"I will."

The brown haired girl was left alone. Her eyes trailed the ceiling. She removed her glasses, rubbed the bridge of her nose, and was still.

Silence.

Finally she shrugged, gathered her things, and switched off the light.

-click-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nighttime outside the opera house.

A few lights could be seen in the tents where stagehands were still up late working on construction and props. A few other tents housed those who were staying for the sake of the show itself. A troupe of sorts.

A light that couldn't be seen—however—was a pink streak of almost magic illumination that crossed the countryside and came to a stop between the crystal lake and the old manor house itself.

After a pause, the streak of pink leapt, flipped, and landed at the front lawn of the opera house and died out.

Silence.

FWOOMP!!!

A flash of bright pink appeared briefly before streaking away.

A ring of fire had been set at the base of the mansion…and was slowly eating its destructive way towards the building structure itself….


	15. A Hive at the Opera part 4

**15. A Hive at the Opera part 4**

"No kidding…Killer Moth and the whole kitten caboodle? If you pardon the pun…."

"No joke, Cyborg," Beast Boy chirped into the communicator. "I saw 'em with my own eyes! He and Kitten are staking out here at the opera house and are planning to strike on the night of the final showing. I bet you every ounce of my allowance that he's got his bugs with him too!"

"Then you must not be betting too much," Cyborg said on the tiny screen.

"….excuse me?" Beast Boy blinked.

"Listen," Cyborg said, a little agitated as he looked frustratingly at something or someone off screen. "Did you actually see a hive there? A nest of those creepy crawly moths of his?"

"Well…er…not yet," Beast Boy scratched his neck.

I glanced at him and smirked slightly from where I played solitaire.

"But I did see him wander off into a crawlspace with a bunch of chemicals!" Beast Boy added. "They looked a lot like the sort of stuff we found in his house's basement last time we nabbed him."

"Until you find the hive, you're not to interfere with what he's doing, got it?" Cyborg stated.

"Awwwww….but Noir and I can handle them! I know it!!"

"No, Beast Boy. It's Robin's orders," Cyborg grunted, staring at something off screen again. "There's no telling how many bugs he might have hanging around and how capable he is of unleashing them on you two if you so much as---HEY! I SAID JUST A MINUTE! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE DYING, YA KNOW!!" He exhaled and moaned exhaustedly. "I was not programmed for this!"

"Hey Cy….everything okay?" Beast Boy remarked, sweatdropping.

"Nothing I can't handle," the android replied. "Just do as your told and we'll provide backup as soon as we can. I'm a little….busy at the moment."

A mumbling off screen.

"I said, just a minute!!" Cyborg again moaned.

"Okaaaaaaay," Beast Boy blinked. "I suppose we'll just….investigate further."

"Thanks, B.B. Truly. Hang in there man, and call us if anything else comes up."

"Over and out."

"That's my line!"

"S-Sorry."

-blip-

I raised my eyebrows and continued with solitaire.

"Bummer…," Beast Boy said, lying back with his head on the floor. Then he grinned up at the ceiling, "But non-bummer too!"

"???" I looked at him.

He turned over and smiled at me, "We get to be more heroic! Just you and me! The thorn in the side of these creeps!"

I rolled my eyes under my shades.

"No seriously!" he jumped onto the bed and struck a prose in front of the Victorian Window. "Beast Boy and Noir! Opera Detectives!! What do you think?"

I held up a 'joker' card.

"Pfft. You're no fun," Beast Boy said, jumping on the bed absent-mindedly. "So what if you're stuck here, impersonating a rich businessman's son, caught in the balance of an opera show's fate?"

I pointed at him without looking up from my cards.

"I know…I know…it was all my idea!" Beast Boy spun and landed in a sitting position on the side of the bed. "But you wait and see, it was a good idea! We've nestled in here just fine, and now we've got all the momentum we need to unearth Kitten's and Killer Moth's plot from beneath them! Well, maybe it's just Killer Moth's plot. But Kitten's got to go too! She's too….pink and…..female doggish. If you know what I mean, heheh."

I gestured out the door where Ms. Cartwright last left us.

"So? We need her more than anyone to believe that you're Mr. Allenthorpe Jr.!" Beast Boy said. "Trust me, I know a lot about women—"

I looked at him suspiciously.

"I do!" he pouted, arms crossed. "And believe me, she'll understand once all this is said and done and we've saved her opera show."

I sighed depressingly.

"Awwww…come one, Noir!" Beast Boy leaned forward and grinned. "You're a handsome guy and I'm a charming fellow! Combined, we're to die for!…Er, that is for women to die for us, ya know."

I cleared my throat.

"You should revel in the fact that you…me…er…us…WE. Yes, *we* have such an effect on girls!"

I raised my hand up to signify Cartwright's height.

"So she's a woman. Not like it's illegal or something, right?"

I blinked at him.

"How old are you anyhow? Twenty one?" Beast Boy asked.

I wanted to laugh. I composed myself and laid out three cards. A seven of hearts, a three of hearts, and a seven of diamonds.

Beast Boy read them, calculated, and looked up at me. "Seventeen?!?!"

I scratched my neck, blushing.

Beast Boy thought for a while. "Ah well…as long as you don't kiss or anything."

My black eyes bugged. I gestured emphatically and pointed out the door again.

"She just wants to have lunch with you. Big deal. You just keep her busy and—"

I pointed at myself, then Beast Boy.

A pause. "Oh right," Beast Boy blinked. "Heheh…we would have to be together on that one, wouldn't we?"

I sighed.

"Well, I'll go and spy on Kitten again BEFORE then. And maybe I'll find the whereabouts of the hive and know where to strike once the rest of the Titans are….er….unbusy."

I looked out at the night's sky through the window.

Beast Boy blinked. "Ah….yeah…sleep would be good, though."

I stood up and walked over, looking out through the glass.

Beast Boy yawned, stretched, and stood up, blinking. "Man…no rest for the weary. I tell you what, my first day morphing into a cheetah…I slept so long afterwards that my underarms grew fungus. And when your whole body's green, it stays undetected for a wh—"

Suddenly, I leapt towards the door, morphed into smoke, and blurred under the frame and down the hallway.

"……," Beast Boy blinked. "I'VE TAKEN A SHOWER SINCE THEN!!!" A beat. "Sheesh…hope he doesn't get us both in trouble!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In mid-sprint, I whipped out Myrkstaff and headed downstairs. My intense speed combined with the shadowed hallways and rooms made me practically undetectable as I whooshed my way towards ground level and out the door. I skidded to a stop on the front, marble steps of the Westhaven Opera House. About half of the yard's grass was on fire. It lit the nearby night sky with a blinding, amber fury that ate its way through my shades and stabbed into my eyes.

I winced and looked around, hoping to find something to possibly extinguish the flames with. But at the rate of the spreading flames, it seemed best to summon others for assistance. Yet I had to be careful not to reveal my presence here or else it could ruin the Allenthorpe image and tip off Killer Moth.

It's a good thing it was night.

I turned practically invisible under the curtain of darkness and blurred over in the direction of the tents. A few workers and stagehands were camped out for the night in little sleeping tents, but it was one of the larger ones I headed for. There I found an assortment of props and structures built for the play. I looked at them, I looked at my staff, I looked at them again.

_Something here has got to make some noise._

I glanced over and saw an anvil.

_Ah ha!_

I stepped over and swiftly collided Myrkstaff with it.

CRUNCH!!!!

The anvil—obviously made out of foam and _not steel_—collapsed under my strike.

"…..," I sweatdropped. I looked around for something truly solid and found the metal tent pole holding the canvas up. I rhythmically struck it with Myrkstaff, creating a loud reverberation that echoed into the night.

Soon, lantern lights and flashlights erupted from the various sleeping tents, along with aroused voices.

My work _there_ was done.

_Now for the fire._

I blurred back over to the front of the opera house and was not surprised to see the fire spreading even further. Though the waking workers would likely rush to take care of it, the disaster was still too widespread for them to handle alone. I had to do something to calm the flames at least ever so slightly until they got there.

I remembered something during my dash downstairs. I blurred into the building and ran to the base of the stairs leading to the opera boxes on the second floor. There I found a fire extinguisher on the wall. I unhooked it and—instead of returning to the entrance—I ran up to the second floor, found a window, pushed it open, and stood out on an outcropping of marble over the entrance's arch. Below me was the sea of fire, flooding outward more and more. I took a breath, lifted the extinguisher over my head, and tossed it firmly so that it embedded into the ground in the center of the flames.

I then held Myrkblade up as a javelin and charged it mightily with murk power. Smoke billowed out from my limbs and shades, forming an obsidian 'tooth' around the body of the weapon as I aimed at the fire extinguisher, gasped, and launched Myrkblade down.

WOOOOOSH!!!

The blade skewered through the heart of the metal extinguisher. A split second later, my stored up murk energy exploded outward from the wooden blade, shooting shrapnel and CO2 everywhere. The spray was powered up by the murk, and it hushed the flames in a radius of six meters; turning the blaze into a small grassfire again. Nothing the stagehands and workers couldn't handle.

I jumped, flipped, and landed in the center of the cleared, smoking ground. I picked up Myrkstaff, wiped the CO2 from its handle, and sheathed it. Out of the corner of my shades, I spotted a throng of panicked workers heading my way with buckets of water and other fire extinguishers. They were mere shadows beyond the amber foreground. One of the workers was taking her sweet time, staring from long distance at the chaotic scene. A touch of amber glinted off of transparent glasses and brown hair and I winced.

I hid invisibly in the darkness-hopefully before I could be seen, and leapt out of the blaze. It didn't even occur to me in those scant minutes of panic and adrenaline what ever could have caused the fire. But as I alighted back for 'Allenthorpe's' room in the attic of the opera house, I could have sworn I saw a dark figure in the woods—nubile and nimble—hopping off into oblivion as soon as I had made my move.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I reached the attic, the lights were out. Beast Boy was nowhere to be seen.

I scratched my head, shrugged, and gave up on the thought of looking for him before it even crossed my mind.

I fell into bed—one of the most comfortable beds since…..oh…._last night?_ And I was under.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When morning came, I was the most relaxed I'd ever been in a while. Sunlight poured in through the window, haunting my black eyes underneath my shades. Thus—for the first time in hours—I was moved to turn to my other side and face the wall. In turning, I realized I had been cuddling a relatively furry pillow. The pillow purred when I turned over, but drowsily I thought nothing of it.

That is, until the pillow stretched, lost its fur, and turned into an equally drowsy green elf that stirred, settled into the covers, and was still.

A beat.

My eyes popped open.

Beast Boy's eyes popped open.

We were practically nose-to-nose.

"WAAAAAH!!!"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Beast Boy rolled/fell off the bed.

I jumped up on my side, my head violently contacting one of the wooden beams of the attic's ceiling. WHAM!!!!

"OOF!!!" Beast Boy fell onto the floor.

"……," I dazily fell back onto the bed, tumbled off, and landed on top of him.

WHUMP!!

"UGH!!"

Then I rolled off a few feet.

Silence….stars…

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh," Beast Boy sat up, clutching his stomach, tearing ever so slightly. "Dude. Tell me….we weren't like that….the whole night….."

_We were like that the whole night._

I gestured, knowing he wouldn't understand. Maybe I just wanted God to understand. I dunno.

_My freakin' head……_

"My freakin' chest…," Beast Boy winced. "It was you who got in bed last. Did you not see me last night?!"

I sat up on my knees, gestured madly, and lifted the sheets—pointing under it.

"I have you know," Beast Boy lifted a finger, "…that sleeping as a feline is the best way to go!" He winced a bit at his rhyme, but nevertheless continued: "Next time you want to share a cot, just ask. And I'll find a place more _visible_ to lay my furred head down!"

_It's not like we made sleeping arrangements to begin with! Son of a--_

-KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK-

Both Beast Boy and I stared at each other. In a flash we both jumped up. I tossed on the 'Allenthorpe' suit. Beast Boy made the bed. I hid Myrkstaff. Beast Boy hid his communicator.

By the second round of knocks, I stood in front of the door and Beast Boy hopped onto my shoulder.

My body sagged.

I blinked. I raised a hand and lightly bopped Beast Boy atop the head.

BONK!

"OW! What the heck—oh yeah." And he swiftly turned into a perching green parrot. Blushing.

I cracked my neck, composed myself, and opened the door.

Sandy.

"Morning rehearsals are starting soon, Mr. Allenthorpe," the brown-haired intern said. "Ms. Cartwright wanted to tell you that you're welcome to come witness them."

~Very fine idea, Miss Sandy~ Beast Boy didn't waste any time. ~Just allow me to….feed my bird and I'll be down in a second.~

"Ms. Cartwright also wanted to let you know that things are going as planned despite the mishap last night."

I knew instantly, but Beast Boy was asleep at the time. So….

~And just what happened last night?~

Sandy blinked behind her glasses. "You mean you don't know, sir?"

~No, my dear. I am in the dark. Tell me about it.~

"…….ahem," the girl cleared her throat. "The fire, sir. We were able to put it out."

~The fire??~

"Yes…we think one of the signs sparked or something last night. There was a huge grassfire in front of the opera house's entrance way. But we were all quick to put it out."

The green parrot looked at me. I cleared my throat and stayed focused on Sandy as I gestured.

Beast Boy filled my lips, ~Well…nothing to worry about then. This team here is top notch. You seem more than able to handle any mishap that may occur. I…er….f-feel safe under the same roof as you people. It's one of the major reasons I'm financing Il Trovatore here to begin with!~

Sandy stared. Then, "I guess it's only all the more special…being that this is your first time your father and yourself have worked with the Westhaven Opera House."

I wanted to pause on that for some awkward reason, but Beast Boy had other plans.

~Yes, indeed!~

Sandy slowly nodded. Then headed off, "I'll tell Ms. Cartwright that you're coming."

~You do that, dear. I look forward to the rehearsals.~

I closed the door.

Beast Boy hopped off and into Elf form.

"Okay…like. I have an idea. We go downstairs. You sit down to watch the rehearsals. Since that'll take a while and you'll be watching more than listening, that should give me time to flap off and search around Kitten's room for some more clues. What do you say?"

_I absolutely hated it._

"Splendid!" Beast Boy grinned. "It's a plan of action! As your captain, I say…" and he hopped back onto my shoulder as a bird and pointed two feathers forward. "Engage!"

I rolled my black eyes and exited the room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the elaborate stage, actors meandered about in the vocal representation of Leonara and Manrico and the confessions of their loves. The casting director watched from proximity. I sat in the front row, Cartwright a few seats down. Beast Boy on my shoulder. My nerves on edge.

_I wonder what I should fear most? The duration of this rehearsl, or the fact that I haven't taken a shower in twenty-four hours?_

I glanced over at Cartwright. She smiled and coyly looked away.

_Probably both._

I looked upon the stage and spotted Kitten in the background—doing her gypsy best to stay out of focus. At one glance at me, she smiled and snuck in a wave when the casting director wasn't looking.

_What had Beast Boy gotten me into?_

But then again, was it all truly his fault? I was as much a part of this operation as he was. I had a great deal of responsibility involved with this position…this place…these people.

It's not as much the part of portraying a stranger that got me feeling paranoid, but the impact it could possibly have on the very people we were trying to save. I assumed that Beast Boy acquired most of his---well, some of his detective skills from Robin. And if Robin did the very same thing that we were doing on many of his quests of old, then perhaps there was something excusable to believe in.

But it truly is disturbing when you're caught in a situation full of its fair share of deceit and intrigue. Everything is up close and distant at the same time. And you can't help but feel like it's all your fault…or all your benefit. Or both at once until it becomes a sick feeling that nestles itself annoyingly in your brain and heart and sweat glands.

I glanced around the stage and audience. Sandy was nowhere to be found. And oddly enough, that made me feel better. Though I didn't know why.

A scene shift, and Kitten's presence was no longer needed. She sauntered her suddenly-docile way off stage. That was all Beast Boy needed. He pecked my ear with a beak, winked a bird eye, and flapped off in silent pursuit. I bit my lip and sat still, hoping—for once—that the next scene of rehearsals would take its sweet time. I surely wanted Beast Boy and his voice back before…before…

I glanced over at Ms. Cartwright.

..….yeah.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kitten toe-tapped down the hallway between a stage-hand or two and scaled a flight of stairs alone.

Beast Boy switched from bird to frog to mouse to lemur to rat to bird again in his pursuit. Soon, Kitten was at her walk-in room. She glanced behind her, forcing Beast Boy to become a transparent jellyfish momentarily. Then she entered, and a slithery Beast Boy scaled under the closing door and slid into secrecy inside a shadowed corner.

As soon as Kitten was inside, she spun around—sighed dreamily—and FWUMPED onto the bed.

"Ohhhhh….he is so much like _him_!"

Beast Boy blinked behind turtle eyes.

Kitten looked around as if to check if the coast was clear, and reached under the neckline of her very own gypsy blouse to extract a folded photograph of none other than--

"Robby-Poo….," she cuddled the photo of the Boy Wonder to her cheek. "Why is it that we are forbidden to see each other and yet I can't stop spotting your handsome face in every man I see?!"

Beast Boy made a puking noise, covered his mouth with a paw, and retreated into the rafters of the room on bird feathers.

"Mr. Allenthorpe is sooooo much older than me," Kitten said. A pause, then a devious smile. "That's what makes it all the more naughty!! Hehehehehehehehehehehehe….Ohhhhhh Robby-Poo, do forgive me! Distance is such a tragic poison!"

"_M-Maybe the casting director should give her a bigger part…,"_ the green parrot mumbled to himself up above.

"UGH!!! I do hope *DADDY* gets done with this STUPID gig of his!" the girl growled, riding a sudden mood swing. She hid the photo back in her…in her………….she hid the photo back. "Just what IS he doing down there?!" Kitten growled and headed for the wall panel.

"!!!" Beast Boy saw an opportunity. He crawled after her as she slid open the panel and scurried down the space. The door shut loudly behind him as he found a shadowed niche to pursue her in. He didn't waste any time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I drummed my fingers on the armrest.

I tapped my foot.

The rehearsals went on…and on…and on.

Cartwright glanced at me.

I glanced at her.

I smiled.

She smiled.

I looked away.

She looked away.

I tapped my foot.

I drummed my fingers on the armrest.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kitten dropped down the crawlspace and into an underground cellar of sorts. She wandered off, her gypsy sandals rustling against wooden planks stretched over raw soil.

A green koala slid down a metal pole and watched after her. The mammal leapt to the ground and landed in the form of an elven Beast Boy. The changeling slid slowly in pursuit, his back against the earthen wall. He pricked his pointed ear after her and felt the resonations of her footsteps. When they grew distant, he peered around the corner, saw a distant, lit room, and crouch-walked towards it. He slid against another wall and approached the room silently. As he got into proximity of the interior, he heard voices. He listened carefully…

"Daddy?!?!" Kitten hissed. "Just what are you up to now—"

"SHHH!!" Killer Moth hacked back. "On the phone with a very important man, Kitten."

"Hmpph!"

"Ahem…sorry about that, sir." Pause. "Yes…everything's going as planned." Pause. "Who am I to know what's been going on to the opera house?! So a couple of stagehands dropped a light fixture and a fire broke out last night. It's out of my hands and into the lap of that Cartwright woman." Pause. "Why of course she's important. She keeps the focus off of our back. At least….so that nothing of our backs has been seen." Pause. "Yes…the continuing of the show is vital to our plan." Pause. "I am most grateful, sir. I'll keep you posted."

--click—

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes. _"Who's he talking to……?_"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I looked up at the ceiling of the opera house….the lights and the catwalks. I looked at each side of the stage. The backdrops. The curtains. I looked behind me, before me, and beside me.

No green parrot.

The rehearsals were coming to a close.

I sweatdropped.

I tapped my toe.

I drummed my fingers.

A figure to my right stood up.

I bit my lip.

I looked down.

"Mr. Allenthorpe…I was wondering…"

I looked up and smiled suavely at Ms. Cartwright.

"…were you still interested in that dinner arrangement?"

_No……No…No No No No No No! God! This poor woman!_

I looked behind my shoulder.

No parrot.

"You've been so quiet today….is something on your mind, sir?"

Suddenly I brightened. I reached for a pen and paper from the casting director's notes nearby. I scribbled down in neat handwriting a simple phrase that I held (proudly) up for the dark-haired woman to see.

Cartwright read it aloud: _'I have laryngitis'._

I made an apologetic face underneath my shades.

"Awww…that must be most uncomfortable, sir," Ms. Cartwright said. "How unfortunate that it would plague you at such an important visit as this."

I smiled and nodded.

"So, shall we go to the verandah? The meal's already prepared."

My smile faded. I cleared my throat. I bit my lip, my knuckles cracked.

No parrot.

I slowly stood up, grinned, and extended her my hand.

She chuckled sophisticatedly and took it.

And we went to Hell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Was that who I think it is, Daddy?"

"Yes. You know I must confer with him every so often. It's for the sake of our task at hand."

"But you don't seriously think we're gonna let him in on the goods, huh?! That's all ours, right?!"

"Now Kitten….you know that he helped us out of prison. So as to not raise too much suspicion, we must work along with him as much as we can and---"

"I can't believe you're saying this!!" Kitten cackled. "My own dad! Nothing but a coward!!"

"Rrrrrrghh…that's enough, *daughter*…."

"No, it's not enough!! Listen to me for once!!"

Beast Boy peered around the corner. He saw Killer Moth and his daughter frowning at each other in the middle of some sort of laboratory. Giant tubes full of bubbling liquids stretched from floor to ceiling in random places. Then there was an assortment of desks full of chemical vials and experimental materials.

_And yet no hive……_

"Fluff it…," Beast Boy frowned. He turned into a snake and dashed under a nearby table to get closer in on the action.

"We don't need that old dirtbag on the phone!" Kitten frowned, then grinned. "Mr. Allenthorpe is ready and willing to help us out. I know it."

"Why??" Killer Moth scowled at his daughter. "Because he offered you empty promises of show business?!"

"He's young, rich, and full of himself!" Kitten spat back. "He won't know what he's investing in until one of your bugs are chewing through his liver!"

Beast Boy turned back to Elf form and watched. He twitched as something bright and pink blurred in the corner of his eyes. "Huh?"

"I keep telling you, Kitten," Killer Moth went on. "…only Daddy gets to release the moths from now on!! Be respectful of me! The last time I let you have your way---"

"That was not my fault!!!!" the girl shrieked. "Now I am an aspiring actress! Now you're gonna get a fortune from half of the nation's wealthy theatre goers! Back then, I was just a teeny-bopper, but now I've grown up!!! And I think I have more sense in me than you give me credit for, Daddy!! So give me some slack and stop dwelling on some unlucky past!!"

Just then, there was an unearthly chuckle filling the entire cave.

"_Hehehehehehehehe…………_" It was more like a giggle. Girl and woman combined. It made the hair rise.

"EEK!" Kitten jumped into her dad's arms and looked around fearfully. "Wh-What's that?!!"

_"The way you sweat so……you know nothing about 'luck'……_"

Killer Moth dropped his daughter with a THUD! and raised his fists. "Who are you?! Show yourself!!"

_"Oh, I believe I already have……hehehehehehehe……_"

Beast Boy sweat, trembling ever so slightly as he tried to make heads or tails out of the whole ordeal.

Kitten rubbed her rear and stood up, looking around anxiously at the shadows.

"What do you mean by that?" Killer Moth inquired. "I've never heard you before." He looked over at his daughter. "Kitten, were you followed??"

Beast Boy gasped and hid low under the table more.

"No, Daddy! H-Honest! I was alone the whole time when I came down here."

There was a streak of pink light.

Kitten shrieked.

Killer Moth let out a yell and tossed a stool across the room—only to watch it smash against a nearby wall.

The pink blurred behind him.

He spun about and kicked, only to knock over a table full of chemicals.

Giggling. Pink. Streak—TAP! (on the back)

"RRRRRAUGH!!!" Killer moth spun to punch the intruder, but found his daughter's face instead. His fist stopped just inches before possibly making contact with her gasping lips.

_"Looks like fate loves to play games with you………_" the voice mused.

"What sort of test is this?!?!" Killer Moth wrenched his fists. "What business do you have here in Westhaven?!"

_"I'd like to call it a lottery………a lottery of talents……_"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile…up on dry earth…in the dry sun….

Ms. Cartwright and I sat under the scant shade of the verandah. She was quite busily employed in her food. I, on the other hand, didn't have much of an appetite.

In the background, workers were busily replacing the burnt earth with fresh soil from the back of a dumptruck that had been ordered in that day. The huge, heavy vehicle upended its rear frame and deposited huge loads of dirt onto a red patch where a bunch of workers were ready with shovels and other tools to smoothen it into place.

Ms. Cartwright's voice kept me in focus as she went on…and on….and on…..and….

"…and so it is I found myself here. I used to always travel with operas, but this house….this Westhaven, it captured me. It called me into its warm arms and showed me what real beauty and craftsmanship is. Once I had a real taste of it, I just couldn't let go. I wanted this place to be a part of me. The grass….the trees…the lake. Everything's so beautiful. And I get to be in charge of it all. Like Eve with a second chance. I owe so much to Mr. Anderson. And I hope you get to meet him. He should be coming here this afternoon."

I nodded.

She went on.

"Once this showing is over…Westhaven will be the Place. I mean, Il Trovatore is going to do it for us. If any play could, that's the one. You won't believe the wealthy people who have signed up for this occasion. Vreeland…Powers…Luthor…it will be a night to remember. And none of that commercial crap. There'll be no cameras for miles around. Just pure, legitimate, sophisticated entertainment. Culture at its very finest. All thanks to my life's effort, Mr. Anderson's patience, and—quite hopefully, sir—your very own support."

I gradually was staring at her. Silent.

She place a hand on my shoulder and smiled.

"We owe you, sir. The whole of us. The opera house. We won't ever make it if it's not for you and your…contribution…."

I nodded slowly, smiling weakly. I tried so hard. I couldn't feel any true joy for her. I felt so self-absorbed and guilty.

_Where was that damn parrot?!_

The distant dumptruck made a beeping sound.

Birds chirped in the distance.

Cicadas hummed.

"Why do you wear those sunglasses all the time, sir?"

I looked up at her.

She smiled and reached for them. "Take them off…I'm sure your eyes suit you just fine."

I gasped and pushed her hand back. The action was so sudden, in nearly frightened her.

It frightened me too. My cover was at risk. I cleared my throat and gestured…paused…paused…and paused some more.

"Heheheh," Ms. Cartwright chuckled. "I'm sorry to ask questions. It must be hard for you to talk without your voice and all."

I blinked at her from behind the shades.

"Laryngitis can be quite an annoyance, can't it?"

_Duh……I'd forgotten!_

I grinned sheepishly and shrugged.

She chuckled.

I sniffed forth a laugh.

And….

Silence.

"It means so much to me….your generosity, sir."

I looked away to hide my grimace while I imagined all the ways I was going to kill Beast Boy…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The changeling sensed fear in the room. Perhaps it was his own. He shivered ever so slightly as the pink streak flew past Killer Moth again, taunting him. Making the costumed villain growl and grasp the air only to find nothing. Kitten was gradually having enough of it. She shouted forth into the empty ends of the cave:

"If this is a joke, nobody's smiling, idiot!!"

The stranger's voice chuckled from the far end of the chamber.

"_Who am I to expect you to smile, Kitten? I've heard of a 'cat without a grin'……_" A figure barely came into focus in the corner. A female figure. In the faint light of Killer Moth's evil instruments, the first noticeable thing was a pearly-white smile. "_But a 'grin without a cat'……"_ The lips of the smile pursed as it faced their way. _"……I've seen that already. And as luck would have it…I'm about to see it again. HA!!"_

The figure flung a hand, and out from the wrist came two blindingly bright pieces of dice. They landed facing up with a five and a two before exploding in puffs of corrosive, pink gas.

Killer Moth and Kitten fell back, startled.

Beast Boy placed a hand over his mouth, scurried into a mouse, and found safety under another table across the way.

Through the curtain of gas, a nimble figure flipped and landed atop a desk, her hands on her hips.

Killer Moth coughed, hacked, and looked up through his mask. _"You???_"

Beast Boy glanced up too. His eyes widened.

"You seem to have known me," Jinx smiled, leisurely regarding the two from up high with pink cat eyes. But seemingly ignorant of BB. "What fortune is this? Hehehehe."

The man in the costume stood up, growling. "I thought the Titans locked you hired hulks of trash away!"

"Believe me," Jinx cocked her pink head and tossed a hand at him girlishly. "The feeling is mutual…"

"Our business is ours and ours alone…," the masculine villain retorted. "Go and bother some other criminal. I hear Slade is lonely this time of year."

"Oh puhhh-lease," Jinx sat down on the edge of the table and crossed her legs…dangling. "So possessive, Killer Moth? No wonder you drag that little, worthless doll of yours around. Must be terrifying to wake up to empty nest syndrome."

"Hey! Don't talk to my dad like that!" Kitten frowned. "Only I can talk to him like that!!"

Killer Moth stretched a hand out in front of his teen offspring and glared further at Jinx. "I think you more than get the picture. Get out of here before I sick the whole hive on you!"

Jinx chuckled and leaned her chin forward on two hands. "But that's where it gets interesting. I am a part of H.I.V.E.. Only my H.I.V.E. is of the intelligent gene pool. We took our interests in this opera house showing of Il Trovatore long before you did. And we intend to get all the profit that you get from your planned endeavor."

"Preposterous!" Killer Moth shook his fist. "You will not even see a single dime!" With that he charged at the young sorceress.

Beast Boy watched.

Kitten gasped.

Effortlessly, Jinx reached down, gripped the sides of the desk with her hands, jolted, and somersaulted forward. She landed with her feet impacting squarely with Killer Moth's shoulders. She shoved her weight into him, using his body as a spring board. No sooner, Jinx flipped, aimed her fingers at the villain, and shot a pulse of pink hex energy upside down and in mid air before landing with one last flip and a pose.

CRASH!!!!!

Killer Moth tripped as a result of the hex blast and sailed straight through another desk, spilling more chemicals.

Kitten gasped.

"What's the matter, _Mothballs_?" Jinx quirped. "Losing your grip on things?"

Killer Moth rubbed his head through his mask and groaned.

Kitten growled like the brat she was and charged Jinx, arms flailing.

Jinx sidestepped her, twirled, and threw a pink beam at the back of Kitten's head with one graceful wrist.

The blonde girl's hair leapt up like a burning bush and sank down in front of her face. "EEK!!" As a result, the girl kept running blindly till she slammed head-on into the rock wall of the room and collapsed with an "OOF!"

"Forgive me if I say that your hair color betrays you," Jinx smiled.

"What…..d-do you want….with us??" Killer Moth panted-growled.

"I want you to realize…," Jinx trailed off. She flipped towards the other side of the room and merely shrugged her shoulders. The act produced two slices of pink light. As a result, two chairs collapsed at the same time on opposite sides of the room. "You are not calling the shots here anymore." She jumped, twirled, and spun into the center of the room. Boards in the floor cracked. Fissures formed in the rock walls surrounding them. "H.I.V.E. has been watching you all along, and sent me as their messenger to warn you…" She slid across the room and leapt up with a split before twirling like an ice-skater and ending in a tai-chi like pose with deceiving, pink grace. Alas, a huge glass encasement of fluids exploded…sending shards and liquid everywhere. Beast Boy gasped and scooted away from the chemicals at the last second.

"Give us a share of the profits…," Jinx narrowed her cat eyes upon Killer Moth in the distance. "Or else."

Having practically pulled his wings off and bitten his fingernails at the chaos occurring within his workstation, a horrified Killer Moth stammered at the witch girl: "Just what good does H.I.V.E. make off of something like this?! I thought your organization was filthy rich enough as it is!!"

"Either you'll comply….or the opera will suffer the consequences."

"How do you mean?"

"Did I not tell you beforehand?" Jinx smiled. "_I've shown you already……_"

Killer Moth stared at her…then gasped. "You! It was you!! You've been behind the recent sabotage!"

Beast Boy muttered to himself. _"Sabotage………_," Images of fires and falling light fixtures blurred through his head. "S_o it was her……_"

"These silly few days past have been nothing but a lottery of talents," Jinx reemphasized. She paced cutely across the room, one foot in front of the other. "Fate plays its hand and that hand shows up in random ways. It's like the world of show business itself. 'Fairness' is a word. The eye of the beholder is a very fickle thing. And—like life and death—who are we to guess as to the trends of its whimsical ways?"

The pink-haired girl spun and faced Killer Moth directly. "I'll make one prediction that I can guarantee is true. If you so much as try to resist H.I.V.E. in this matter…fate will not smile upon the Final Showing of Il Trovatore. I'll spin heads here so fast with calamity that they'll be at a loss for breath—much less words. And where will your precious hostage ransom be without hostages? Simple! Where will your hostages be without a show? There will be no show…for there will be no good fortune on account of me! And, thusly, on account of you! For being a stupid buffoon who doesn't know a good threat when he hears it!"

She spun—leapt—and perched on a tableside. "So…then….Killer Mockery. Care to press your luck?" she winked a cat eye at him and his dazed daughter.

Killer Moth was obstinate. He crossed his arms. "You don't scare me…witch…"

Kitten gulped.

Beast Boy gulped.

Jinx blinked. "…………………Very well then."

Killer Moth grinned.

"Though it's only fair to let you know…," Jinx yawned. "Ms. Cartwright got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. She looked in the mirror, saw her pretty face and for once felt young again. It's funny what amusing thoughts go through your head on the exact day that you die…"

Killer Moth's grin disappeared. "I beg your pardon?"

"Oh…it's not like the papers will over exaggerate it or anything tomorrow," Jinx said nonchalantly, fluffing her pink hair with a flexing hand. "Things are about as exciting as they get when you get crushed alive under a verandah and run over by a dumptruck all in one minute!"

Beast Boy gasped. He looked directly at the exit. He looked back at Jinx.

Killer Moth turned pale. "What…e-exactly are you saying….?"

"Oh…I'm sorry!" Jinx made a 'sympathetic' face. "Did you earlier tell your 'mystery partner' on the phone that Cartwright's unwitting existence was important to your evil plot at hand? Jee…I had no idea! Too bad…I already made my itinerary to kinda sorta kill her in the next thirty seconds. Oh well. Bye now! Hehe!"

"No…WAIT!!!"

Jinx spun, tossed down a pair of dice, and disappeared in a puff of pink smoke.

"Daddy! She's gonna waste that stupid woman! Where will our plans be now?!"

"In the garbage!" Killer Moth sweat, panicking. "Go up there, now! Warn her!!"

Kitten made a comical, mad dash for the exit.

But Beast Boy was already way ahead of her by twenty seconds….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"My mother always told me…," Ms. Cartwright mused, smiling at the sky beyond the verandah's edges. "…that if I put my heart and soul into something…no matter how fantastical…I could make my dream come true, along with the dreams of others. Funny how she's helped me all these years. Even after she left this Earth…"

I was actually listening by now…. intently. Funny what time does to you…and exposure.

"One thing I've always admired about Il Trovatore…," she continued to absentmindedly share. "Is how it explores the issues of the mysteries imbued upon a child by his or her parents. It can affect generations further along forever. Quite remarkable…and sometimes, quite tragic."

I nodded slightly. Through the corner of my shades, I detected a flash of pink. Curious, I looked off towards the working crew. I caught sight of the dumptruck. Suddenly, the entire vehicle flashed a bright pink…shook…and rolled backwards toward us at an alarming momentum.

"!!!!" I stood up, my mouth slightly agape. I watched in incredulity as the vehicle rolled dangerously towards us from a long way's off. Before I could turn and 'gesture' something---

"AAAH!!" Ms. Cartwright shrieked.

I glanced over.

A pink light flashed between us. Then I realized…the ceiling of the verandah was simultaneously caving in.

Ms. Cartwright's work blouse had gotten caught in a nail sticking out from her bench. She struggled to get free as the roof came tumbling down.

Overwhelmed by the constant chaos from all sides, my eyes blurred into smoke and my fists produced murk as I dove desperately towards her body.

CRASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The green Titan leapt up the passage way, rhinoed out of the wall panel, tigered out of Kitten's room, ostriched down the second floor hallway, monkey-leapt out of an open window, eagled down to the ground, crouched into an armadillo, and cheetahed around the perimeter of the opera house. When he reached open view of the verandah…there was no verandah left. He jumped up and switched to elf form as he stared—shock—at the collapsed roof and wooden rubble. Suddenly—to his further dismay—a huge, hulking dumptruck slammed into the pile of debris with pure, accelerated abandon.

SMASH!!!!!!!

A feeling of horror, disgust, and pain shot through the green elf's body so intensively that he grabbed the space of flesh over his heart and warbled forth: "NOIR!!!!!"


	16. A Hive at the Opera part 5

**16. A Hive at the Opera part 5**

"Welcome back to Westhaven Opera House, sir," Sandy more or less curtsied at the doorway as Mr. Anderson stepped in. "I trust you had a safe trip here?"

"Uneventful, little girl. And that's all I can say," Mr. Anderson replied as he looked at the work being done to the lobby. His old eyes surveyed the scene like they had a hundred times before. Gray eyebrows and a bald head forming a cratered surface of liver spots. A plump nose and a plump body and a plump ego. "Where is the director, by chance?"

"Ms. Cartwright is having dinner right now with one of the financiers, sir," Sandy said matter-of-factly. "She's been busy seeing to the continued rehearsals and the setting up of the stage."

"I can always trust her to get a job done right," Anderson nodded. "And who might this financier be? Our long awaited Allenthorpe?"

"Close sir," Sandy spoke. "It's his son."

Anderson looked at her rather curiously. "His son??"

She stared back at him. Waited half a second but no longer. And said," Yes sir."

"Hmmm….I would much like to meet him…," the old man said slowly.

"That can be arranged, sir," Sandy said. "For right now, would you like an escort to your office?"

"No no…I'd much rather have a look at the progress of Il Trovatore. Then maybe when the lovely Ms. Cartwright is done dining with one of our benefactors, she can present to me her review in person."

"I'll deliver a message to her thusly," Sandy bowed her head.

"But first…I must ask you. I trust the little people like you, girl. For little people have no reason for twisting the truth when speaking to big bosses such as myself." There was a slight twist of his lips with that last line. His smile diluted into a sort of half slur when he asked: "What are these rumors I hear of poltergeist in the theatre?"

"I beg your pardon, sir?"

"Maybe my words are too confusing…," he spoke with a hint of senior sarcasm. "I've been told that there have been unexplained mishaps taking place over the last twenty four hours. Is this true?"

Sandy didn't hesitate to nod and say: "True, sir. There was a falling light fixture and—"

"—a midnight grassfire. So what I heard is correct," Anderson scratched his chin. "Quite troubling indeed…and unexpected…."

Sandy stared at him.

He addressed her: "Tell me…has Cartwright gotten them under control?"

"To the best of my knowledge, sir…"

Suddenly—emanating from outside—there was a loud crashing sound, followed by the grinding of a dumptruck's tires and an ear deafening 'SMASH!!!!'.

Anderson's weak heart almost failed on him.

Sandy hopped over to the window, looked out, and nearly dropped her glasses.

"Ms. Cartwright and Mr. Allenthorpe Jr. are in trouble. I'll go get some help." Her voice was surprisingly bland for having witnessed such a calamitous event. Regardless, she picked up speed and dashed out the room to provide aide at the scene of the disaster.

Mr. Anderson slowly…slowly…walked after.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy dug furiously into the rubble of the verandah. Every now and then he switched to an anteater to sniff the victims out, or a T-Rex to scoop up debris, or an ostrich to peck holes. No matter how many times he morphed and dug, there was no sign of progress. He regressed back to the green elf he was and panted desperately: "Come on, Noir! Come on! Don't die on me! Not now! Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on!"

People started running towards the scene from afar off. Beast Boy saw them through the corner of his eyes. He knew that they could probably see him, but he didn't care. He fought desperately to remove his friend from the rubble.

"Man…this is not good. Not good!!" He clutched his head and trembled.

And then….there was a moaning sound.

He looked to the side and saw Ms. Cartwright and myself in a clearing of grass….completely unharmed.

"Noir!!" Beast Boy leapt down. The overturned dumptruck hid us from the view of upcoming rescuers as the elf knelt down by our sides and fought for a breath. "You….Y-You're all right??"

I held Ms. Cartwright in my arms. I had managed at the last second to blur the two of us out from under the crushing weight of the verandah's roof as well as the hulking missile of a truck. The act in and of itself was exhausting—in that I don't typically blur people besides myself from one location to another. I fought for breath as the stage director moaned once more and went under. She was okay…however she had fainted. _And perhaps that was to our advantage._

"Man….I-I thought you were a goner for sure," Beast Boy produced a fake grin, trying to hide his true fears. _Ever the jester._ "I mean…today's not Trash Day…heheheheh…."

I looked at him weakly. Had I have glared—as usual—it wouldn't possibly have as grand an effect on him.

And it showed.

The whole boy's body sagged and he weakly spoke: "Listen….i-it's gotten more complicated. Jinx is here. Representing H.I.V.E. She wants to put Killer Moth's hostages under hostage! If Killer Moth doesn't give in, crazy stuff like this will happen. Don't you see, Noir?! She's the one who's been responsible for all the mishaps! This situation is no longer in our hands alone. There's a lot more at stake here!"

I stared into the grass. Silent.

The sounds of rescuers digging out the verandah sounded out from the other side of the dumptruck. We could do nothing by just sitting there.

"Let's get these people to take care of Cartwright and ditch this scene…," Beast Boy said. "Regroup in the attic to plan from there, okay?"

I said nothing.

I gently laid Ms. Cartwright's unconscious body on the ground and stood up…blurring into invisible smoke.

"HEY!! OVER HERE!!" Beast Boy called out in his most natural voice before turning into a green seagull and flapping away.

People ran around the dumptruck, gasped, and huddled around Ms. Cartwright's body. Upon discovering she was in no ill-condition, they gently carried her into her office inside to rest and slowly rummaged through the verandah for a sign of 'Mr. Allenthorpe'.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy landed on the ground on the side of the opera house perpendicular to the verandah scene; and away from sight. He took a huge breath and looked around him.

"Noir??" he called out.

Silence.

"Noir????" he cackled again, a bit panicky.

More silence.

Beast Boy thought of something. He turned around, jumped up, peered through the window of the opera house. He barely caught sight of a smoking figure teleporting down the length of the hallway and heading towards the staircase.

He gasped and ran for a covert entrance into the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I marched firmly through the hallways of the Westhaven Opera House. There was a glare on my face almost strong enough to break through my shades. I appropriately blurred out of the visual spectrum whenever a body came near, and then I was back to my thundering pace. I upped a set of stairs and reached the second level where I turned down a hallway and came to the unmistakable door to Kitten's room.

I whipped out Myrkstaff…charged it up into Mrykblade with dark Destruction energy and raised it over my head to slice the doorframe apart and finish this ordeal once and for all.

And that's when Beast Boy morphed suddenly in front of me, arms outstretched, prepared to take the full strike of my weapon.

"That's as far as you go, Noir….," he said in a low voice.

I pointed firmly for him to move.

He shook his emerald head. "I'm not about to let you screw things up—"

That did it. I gripped his arm and forcibly threw him out of my way. No sooner had I done that, his temper blew off too. He bounced back and shoved me in the side so that I went slamming into the wall.

"What is your deal?!?!" Beast Boy growled, a bitter side of him I've never seen before showing through. "Did Robin not say I was your captain on this mission?! And you have the gall to shove me like that?! That's a no-no in the Titans' book, Noobie! So help me, I'd turn into a wolverine and bite your hand off for that!!"

I simply glared down at him, smoke warbling out from my limbs in a threatening manner. For once, the thought dawned upon me. I could crush him. I could simply rip him in half and separate the entrails into oblivion in two solid minutes of cyclonic fury. I felt so angry…so frustrated…so stupid all at once. The guilt of the predicament he had put me through throughout this mission…the monotonous passing of time…the way Ms. Cartwright almost died…the fact that she almost died a deceived woman…and the fact that I had been forced to deceive her…

Beast Boy had to have sensed my fury. He had to have felt the awesomeness of my wrathful power that I could have tipped over the brink at any second. If he was afraid, he didn't show it, and that was the most powerful thing of all. For he looked down with disappointment in his face and said simply, "No Teen Titan would ever shove a teammate like that."

The smoke stopped. My fists clenched. I gritted my teeth and shook. At the sound of approaching footsteps—most likely curiosity concerning the noises we were making—I enveloped myself in a cloud of murk and disappeared.

"Yeah…you run away!!!" Beast Boy scowled. "At the slightest hint of your wrongdoing! You freakin' coward!!" He folded his arms, growled in frustration, and pounded his fist into the wall. Soon he morphed into a green owl and flew down the hallway to avoid being caught. He may just have lost a teammate…but he sure as heck wasn't about to blow his cover.

All for the mission……

All for the mission…

Yeah…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fuming, I blurred down to a shadowed corner in the main lobby downstairs to catch my breath.

_Who was he to accept who I was or wasn't?_

I clenched my fists and palmed one into the other.

_He spends all his time snooping around the enemy or joking for laughs while I'm forced to silently suffer the consequences of his awkward decisions!!_

I brought my hands to my forehead and took a humiliating breath.

_So what if I shoved him? He was in my way._

And another.

_He was in my way of ending it all……and he got in the way._

I lowered my hands.

_Why……why did I shove him?_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy flew onto the rooftop of the Opera House and landed behind the huge, neon letters of 'WESTHAVEN'. He hugged himself, shook, and sighed.

"Was he truly angry with me?"

He looked up at the sky and exhaled, his whole body sagging.

"Why does everyone get angry at me?"

He glanced over more or less in the direction of the crushed verandah and overturned dumptruck.

"Oh yeah……that's why……"

He put his head in his hands and sat still for the longest time.

"………I'm sorry………I'm so……so sorry……"

After a minute or two, Beast Boy shrugged off everything and in a melancholy fashion reached for his communicator to make the latest, solemn report.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

So………wrong……

Either I had gathered enough strength to rematerialize as 'Mr. Allenthorpe', or I had lost track of my murk cloaking abilities entirely. Whatever the case, I was walking aimlessly through a bottom story hallway of the Opera House when a voice from behind summoned me.

I turned around and stood face-to-face with an elderly man in a business suit. He grinned at me with a senior rise of the brow and said: "Mr. Allenthorpe Jr., I presume."

_I frankly didn't care anymore……_

But I nodded lethargically and made to walk off.

"I don't believe we've met," the old man extended a hand. "I'm Mr. Anderson."

_So this is the old fart Ms. Cartwright keeps talking about…_

I shook his hand lightly and forced an ever-so-fake smile.

It seemed to work. "I'm glad to see you in one piece!" he exclaimed. "Word has it you were with Ms. Cartwright under the verandah during the most recent mishap…"

I shrugged.

He looked at me oddly. "Are you allright, Mr. Allenthorpe? You're so quiet…did the event traumatize you?"

For a moment there, I considered simply murking into oblivion and screwing the whole deal.

But suddenly, who should walk up but--

"Mr. Allenthorpe! There you are," Sandy exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you."

"Yes, I just managed to run into him," Mr. Anderson nodded his wrinkling head. "I was hoping the two of us could—"

"I'm afraid that can't do," Sandy said, surprising the both of us with her authority. The short, brown-haired girl grabbed my arm and curtsied to Anderson. "I've got to get this man looked at by the local physician who's checking on Ms. Cartwright. If he was at the scene of the accident, who knows what he could have gone through?"

"Oh….very well….all right….but I would most love to speak with the financier in person before the Final Showing."

"Duly noted, sir. I'll arrange a meeting as soon as possible," Sandy excused as she hurriedly escorted me down the hallway and out of sight.

Confused, I merely followed suit…until I realized she was taking me upstairs and not where Ms. Cartwright last was.

I tapped her shoulder and forced us to a stop and tried to excuse myself to leave when she hushed me with a quiete 'shhhhhhh' and whispered into my ear.

"_I know who you are…_"

I stared at her through my shades.

She looked back with firm brown eyes underneath her glasses.

_Somehow, I expected this._

I motioned for the girl to follow me, and led the way to my and Beast Boy's attic room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jinx?! Jinx is involved in all that??" Cyborg remarked on the communicator's screen.

"Yup….and no doubt her motley crew of friends will join her before the Il Trovatore lowers its curtains," Beast Boy said monotonously. He nodded his head with a listless expression and added, "She's the one who's been wreaking havoc all this time. In fact just now, she nearly………killed the stage director."

"This is bad news….," Cyborg muttered aloud. "If H.I.V.E. is involved with this, who knows how many other members of the underground. Intersect? Slade?"

"It's a rather large party for a stupid opera…," Beast Boy moaned.

"….Say, B.B. You okay?"

"Yeah…..fine like wine."

"You don't look it, man."

"Just when are you guys gonna come and provide backup already??" Beast Boy snapped.

"……," Cyborg blinked. "As soon as possible. I assure you. We've been running into our own little problems while you were gone."

"Oh really…"

"Nothing serious. Just……problems. But this is what I propose. I'll provide backup in time to arrive during the showing. When is it, by the way?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Damn. Time's running short. I suggest you keep watch and prepare to perform a sneak attack on Killer Moth and his bugs right before he can unleash them. He'd be most vulnerable that way. And he may even reveal the location of his hive; which is what we most need right now. If we can eliminate the bugs all in one shot, then we won't have to worry about a sweating fight to protect the audience tomorrow night."

"And what about H.I.V.E.?"

"Not much I can say, except it sounds like they're depending on Killer Moth's bugs to do the dirty work of putting the audience under control. If you eliminate Killer Moth's objective, you in turn break H.I.V.E.'s. Once backup comes, they should be a piece of cake to handle."

"Yeah….sure."

"I'm serious, Beast Boy! This is all I can do for you. Now where's Noir?"

The changeling's eyes trailed. "He's….around…"

"Is he okay?"

"Look, what's with all the questions?!"

"If I wasn't too dumb, I'd say this was a briefing, man." Cyborg retorted. "Just what is your problem?"

"I dunno…not enough sleep or something, I guess."

"Well get well rested. We need your butt tomorrow night when Killer Moth makes his move. We need Noir's butt too. So don't lose track of him. Keep it together, okay Beast Boy?"

"I hear you."

"Over and out."

--blip--

Beast Boy sighed.

He stood up, morphed into a bird, and lazily went to perform another reconnaissance mission.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the room, I closed the door behind us and prepared to face Sandy's questioning.

And question, she did.

"How long have you been here? I mean, _truly_ here."

I held up my fingers to signify '_two days_'.

She stared at my hands. Then said, "And long have you not been able to talk?"

I looked to the ground, defeated.

The girl blinked. She paced to the other side of the room and then turned around. "Did you choose 'Allenthorpe' because you overheard Ms. Cartwright and others talking about him? Did you just happen to make the name up and get lucky? What motivated you to fool with us so? Did it occur to you that it might hurt us in the long run?"

I looked down, not saying anything.

Sandy looked at me. She took a step or two forward. "You probably think I'm angry at you. And I probably should be. And I probably should report you to Ms. Cartwright and Mr. Anderson and get it all settled. But….who am I to get in the way of heroism?"

Curious, I raised and eyebrow and looked up at her.

"Well, of course we both know you're him," she said absent-mindedly. "You're the Sixth Titan."

I was dumbfounded.

She knew it.

"Well, it's not like any of us know you're name or exactly how you look. There've been a few pictures. You seem to be quite the…elusive type."

I kept looking at her.

"…I see we're at a loss for words." She sat down on the edge of the bed and took a breath. "Very well." And with that, she started hand-signing a simple phrase.

_'What is there left to hide?_'

I gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mr….M-Mr. Anderson…," Ms. Cartwright exclaimed and tried to sit up.

"Easy there, Ma'am," the old man put his hand on her shoulder and smiled. "You may not have hurt yourself at all, but you still need your rest."

She laid back down on the couch in her office and took a breath. "Mr. Allenthorpe…is he—"

"He's quite fine, last time I checked. A little reclusive, but fine."

"I'm so glad to hear that," she breathed, forming a slight smile as she closed her eyes underneath her glasses. "I wouldn't doubt it if he got me out of the falling verandah himself."

"We're not quite sure *what* happened, dear. But one thing for sure, it was a close call."

"Mr. Anderson…," Cartwright panted. "These last few hours….these mishaps….I have no idea what's behind them."

"Quite frankly, me neither. Though it wouldn't be beyond me to say that we may have enemies in the world of entertainment."

"But…the show….must go on….right?"

Mr. Anderson smiled. He patted her shoulder and stood up. "I'll see to it with all my strength, child."

"Oh…that's splendid."

He paced over to the window and looked out onto the grounds. "After all the work you've put into Il Trovatore…I would see it as a crime to cancel it now. Besides, the opera house needs this. We've been suffering such a dry season, but this program has enough hype to drag in every rich man and woman from here to Metropolis. It's not something we should throw to the wind, but embrace with as much fervor as our lives have provided. You need not worry Ms. Cartwright. It's all in my hands now…"

"I'm glad to hear that…"

"You rest now," the old man smiled and headed for the door.

"Mr. Anderson?" Ms. Cartwright exclaimed.

"Yes, dear?"

"Mr. Allenthorpe Jr…..he will be such a help to us."

"……..," the old man stared. When he smiled, it seemed strangely sudden. "I'm sure he will be."

And he was out the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I finished a hand-sign to Sandy and blinked at her from behind my shades.

"My little sister," the girl replied aloud. "She turned deaf at age 3. Since then, hands have been the best way she can communicate. I learned it for personal reasons. Plus, I'm majoring in education for the hearing impaired. Working here is actually community service. I don't get paid in dollars."

I nodded slowly, rather impressed. I hand signed at her.

She looked at me. "It's simple," she answered. "From the very get go, I saw signs that you didn't possess the voice we all heard. But that wasn't what clued me in."

I stared at her.

"It's funny enough to 'learn' about a son of Mr. Allenthorpe that none of us ever had previous knowledge of. But what really hammered it in was when you had no detectable memory of this opera house…especially when Mr. Allenthorpe Sr. himself was a key figure in…er…constructing it."

I smacked my hand to my forehead.

"Yeah….," her voice trailed. "That was sort of…speculative on your part."

My lips twisted.

"Though…I'm not sure it was all _you_," Sandy said. She hand signed, _'Someone had to be your voice._'

I nodded.

"Another Titan?"

I nodded.

She blinked. A pause. "The bird….the changeling……Beast Boy of the Teen Titans."

A pain shot through my heart suddenly. I flinched and looked away.

"Is he here now?" Sandy asked.

I shrugged.

Silence.

Sandy stood up and walked over.

I turned and looked down at her.

"The verandah….you were there when the structure fell and the dumptruck crashed. Weren't you?"

I slowly nodded.

"Did you…..save Ms. Cartwright."

I didn't respond.

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Sandy said. "I'm sure saving people is the daily itinerary of superheroes like you Titans."

A pause.

"But the reason you're here…," Sandy continued. "There's something terrible that's going to happen, isn't there?"

I looked at her.

"Something that could threaten both the opera house…and our lives. Am I correct?"

I hand-signed.

'_Don't come to the showing tomorrow……_'

"….," Sandy blinked. "I wish I would comply…"

My face fell.

"My place is here, with my co-workers. If anything bad happens to them, I won't be cowardly and ditch them. You know why? Because people stick together. People fight together. In spite of our fears and our vulnerability, we need each other through the thick as well as the thin. Do we not?"

I thought of Beast Boy. I leaned against the armrest of a chair and stared at the floor.

Sandy's eyes trailed down as well. "I never thought I'd see myself lecturing to a hero….but I think it's necessary here. Whatever it is that's going to happen…you're involved. And we all need you." She looked up. "But not just you alone. We need you and whoever it is you brought."

I signed. _'Beast Boy……_'

She nodded. "I hope everything is okay…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun began to set, its amber waves sinking in through the windows as Mr. Anderson trekked through a hallway, opened the door to his office, and entered, sealing himself inside. No sooner had he turned around, a pair of gnarled, gloved hands gripped him by the collar and shoved him against the doorframe.

"Did you know anything about it?!?!" Killer Moth growled through his mask. "Did you know H.I.V.E. would be here?!"

Mr. Anderson batted the villain's hands away with surprising strength for an elderly gentleman. He frowned at the costumed baddie. "It's not like there's anything either you or I can do about it." He wandered over towards his desk and nonchalantly looked through the papers in his in box. "H.I.V.E. has dozens of highly-trained mercenaries and assassins at their disposal. There's no telling how long they've been here…nestled…watching. Undoubtedly, they have more than just that one, pink witch causing these recent accidents."

"So you DO know about them?!" Killer Moth exclaimed, then shook a fist. "And you knew about HER!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Mr. Anderson turned around and grinned. "Did she redecorate your laboratory too much today?"

"Tell me all you know, Anderson," Killer Moth shook. "We're partners, remember? Partners don't hide things from each other."

Anderson leaned forward with a humorous scowl. "Who am I to so simply trust a crook?"

"Because you're a crook too, sir!" the costumed man pointed. "You were the ones who arranged our escape and gave us a place to settle in and make a new home for my ravenous children. Don't try intimidating us when you can't even cover your own tracks!"

"You surely don't think threatening to rat on me would do you any good?" Anderson smiled. "If I fell into the police's grasp, so would you. All in good time."

"Just tell me what H.I.V.E. wants with our gig!"

"How should I know? Those blasted war-children are doing anything at any given time. Whatever that 'Jinx' meant by paying you a visit, it's up to her and her alone to reveal to us the motives behind her organization. I doubt she'll do that unless she knows one of us would die after being properly educated."

"Look, Anderson." Killer Moth paced over. "I _need_ this. And so do you. The ransom money will grant Kitten and I a ticket out of this region for good. In the meantime, you can have all the funds you need to do your little experiments you keep rambling about."

"I'm quite aware of what's at stake, my good freak," Mr. Anderson said, sitting at his desk. "And you need not worry."

"Not worry?!?! With H.I.V.E. breathing down our necks?!"

"They have more money than one can shake a stick at," Anderson retorted. "What they want lies beyond the normal boundaries of monetary gain. I'm quite sure they're desiring something of, perhaps, a political nature. But whatever the case, I am in complete faith that they won't dig into our money pockets."

"For an old man, sir, you're quite naïve."

Mr. Anderson stared up at the villain through his mask. He stood up slowly, threateningly, and grumbled: "This crime is all that stands between me and the completion of my experiments. With the funds from this 'gig' of yours….of ours…my scientists will finish the chemical. It'll be ready and at my disposal within months. I may not be so 'old' or 'naïve' anymore. And when that's so, I'll come looking for you, Killer Moth. I'll come looking for you, remembering what you just said. And I won't be so happy."

"A youth potion, sir?" Killer Moth practically cackled. "I know Kitten and I will be walking away from this whole thing with a secure future…but you….you're nuts."

"I'm dying!!" Mr. Anderson shouted angrily. "After an entire life of devoting myself to the arts, I've learned the greatest tragedy doesn't come off of the stage but out of the dying breath of a man who threw his life away thinking entertainment could distract us from the ultimate question of Mortality. Call me a coward, but I'm not giving into the final curtain. No way, no how. And I don't care what slimy, sniveling creatures of the underworld I must break from prison and enlist to pull me out of such finite weakness as my life has been."

Killer Moth glared at him, and snickered just the same. "Call me when you croak, old man. I'm going down to feed my hive one last time before they're to be used. Until then, I don't want to see your god awful face."

The two parted ways with as much coldness as they had met.

Unknown to them, a green lizard rested upside down in a shadowed part of the ceiling. It had seen and heard everything. And now that the 'meeting' was over, it swiftly turned into a humming bird, and flew out the nearest window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Red-orange sunlight settled on Sandy's face as she lowered her lids and slowly spoke:

"I've always believed that good deeds are done in secret. When you truly want to bless someone, you do it without them knowing. To take credit for it would be nothing but selfishness. Though I'm working around the clock with everyone else here to get Il Trovatore off the ground, I know that my name won't be on the program anywhere. I'm just a mere volunteer. And I accept it as such, for it gives me joy to relieve Ms. Cartwright's stress…or to make a stagehand smile when I tell him I've called in for extra supplies or what have you. The stage is something meant to be enjoyed. It's an experience. It enriches us. Breathes in our culture. I dunno…maybe I'm rambling. It's just that…what you do is a lot like what I do. I mean, you're the brand new Titan. You could have gobbled up the spotlight. But all this time, you've remained mysterious. Here you are standing before me now and I don't even know your costumed name. I suppose it's none of my business. Still, I admire you for your secrecy as much as I feel hurt by it. But as long as you and your friend are doing your best to save this theatre, who am I to complain?"

I was silent…naturally.

I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed besides Sandy. I gently gestured something.

_'Have you ever gotten so angry that you almost hurt a friend?'_

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to wring my sister's neck at times," Sandy said with ever so slight a smile. "She may be deaf, but she's still my little sister."

I thought on that, then gestured..

'_I think I have a little brother._'

"You 'think' you do?"

I paused, sighed, and signed:

_'I want to strangle him at times. Does that count?_'

Sandy giggled. The first time I ever heard something overtly joyful from her. _I wonder if she ever got to open up much._

"Sounds like a little brother to me," she said, her smile fading into a subtle shadow as she looked at me. "If you're anything like me…then the very reason you want to wring his neck is that you want the best for him."

I looked at her…and slowly smiled.

She smiled back.

A flash of pink.

"!!!" I spun around and looked out the window from which the light emanated.

"What is it?" Sandy turned and looked as well.

I leaned over the bed and squinted my eyes through my shades.

A distinctly pink figure dashed across the grassy landscape behind the Opera House. It headed past the crystal clean lake and into the dark forest surrounding us.

"S-Someone you're after?" Sandy asked.

I nodded. Briskly I stood up, tossed off 'Mr Allenthorpe Jr's' coat and whipped out Mrykblade.

Sandy jumped up and backed up a few steps at sight of my weapon.

Standing in my Titan gear, I glanced over at her and gave her a small smile of friendliness.

Eased, Sandy swallowed and spoke: "Be careful…won't you?"

I nodded. I then crouched, focused my energies through the cracks and joints of the window frame, and ported out in a whisp of black smoke.

Sandy stood at the window, looking as my figure blurred across the lawn in pursuit.

She wrung her hands together.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran over the blades of grass, my murking feet sloshing in midair and making me weightless. I had my head leaned forward. My shades acted as a windshield through which I strained to see a pink light meander its way through the thick woods ahead of me.

The blood-red amber of the sunlight faded as I fell under the shade of trees. The forest seemed unnaturally old and dark. The barks of trees were gnarled and parched. The branches jagged and gothic. I felt like I had stumbled into a sadistic fairy tale.

But one thing was good; the pink streak was brighter. It acted as a lantern, guiding my path a few dozen steps ahead of me. I blurred and slunk around tree and under branch and over trunk and through the underbrush in pursuit.

_Something about this seems too good to be true……_

Eventually—once in the belly of the forest—the pink light snuffed itself out.

I slowed ever so slightly and attempted to get a good scan of the place. I lifted my shades up a tad and glanced. With the world a lot brighter, I saw an old wooden cabin emerge from the darkness. I lowered my shades, smirked, and stepped stealthily towards it. I murked myself over with smoke to become invisible in the darkness as I approached the body of the cabin. It was an old structure, its wood splintery and dry. I could smell dust and ash breathing out of the cracks of the foundation. But nothing deterred me from stepping in through the collapsed doorway--Myrkstaff cautiously raised--and surveying the interior.

The floor was covered with leaves, dirt, soiled newspapers, and dead insects. A table against the wall contained a basin full of dark black water with leaves floating on the surface. The remains of the bed occupied a corner, collapsing in on its own frame.

I glanced around, then suddenly noticed seven candlesticks spread in random parts throughout the room. None of them were lit, but they did form a center of sorts. And in that center sat—cross legged—a petite shadow with her back to me.

_"What were the chances that one of your kind would follow me here?_" the silhouette spoke, as if she knew exactly when my eyes fell on her. _"I can never truly say. You all come at one point or another anyways."_

I stepped forward once or twice, Myrkstaff turning to Myrkblade.

_"I should have figured I'd run into you people again. They say lightning never strikes twice. And perhaps, it still doesn't. I mean, you are a new face. Not a bad one at that, I must say._"

My feet crunched blackly on extra black leaves and mud over the floor.

My fingers gripped harder to Myrkblade's hilt.

"_Whoops…that's dangerous in the dark, ya know. Lemme help you…_"

The shadow's arms stretched out.

FWOOMP!!!!

All seven candles lit up in the room. I was blinded. I stumbled back, blinking, teeth gritting…

When eyesight returned, there Jinx sat, her petite back to me. She leisurely lifted a handmirror and examined her girlish face in the reflection.

"You came here for fisticuffs, right? I sure hope you wouldn't hit a girl. Especially one who takes good care of how she looks in front of people she'll eventually kill."

Inexplicably, the mirror cracked into a thousand glass shards.

"Whooops…I did it again," the pretty thing said, tossing the rest of the object into the corner. "Another seven years bad luck." She looked at me, eyelashes evilly fluttering. "What's the tally at now? Three Hundred and Thirty Four? He he he he!"

I raised my weapon again and sought a way to approach her. For some reason, though, I felt suddenly very…very vulnerable.

I was right.

"Word is in the underworld, your field name is Noir. Are you surprised that I know this? Well, quite frankly, I'm one foot ahead of you."

She flexed out a hand. A pink streak of light struck the floor. A hole in the earth opened up, swallowing my shoe. I struggled for balance as the pothole enveloped a quarter of my leg. Mud and earth squeezed around it, holding me in an unshakable grip.

"I do say, that was rather simple," she spun up to her feet and girl-stepped towards me. "While you're waiting here so patiently, might I speak to you a fortune?" The candles were licked by an unfelt wind as she approached me, grinning Cheshire Cat style. "'You will have a long and healthy life'…..for about thirty seconds."

I struggled to get my foot loose. As she came within a hair's length, I swung up high with Myrkblade.

She backflipped, toying with me, and landed with a pose on the far side of the cabin.

"Testy testy…," she tsked. "Bedtime for you." She zapped the bed with her pink hex. The whole frame shook with a bright glow and slid loudly towards me at an alarming speed.

I thought quickly. I stabbed Myrkblade down into the earth, charged forth and let loose Destruction, and shattered a crater of earth beneath me. Freed of my restraint, I leaned my whole weight on the wooden sword, blurred my lower body up, and flipped towards the ceiling—landing with murked feet that clung magically to the structure.

"Hmmm," the pink-haired witch grinned. "Cute." She then spun like a gymnast, the candles warbling around her.

Suddenly, the ceiling above----beneath me shuddered. Splinters formed in the wood, and I was soon collapsing down with an assortment of raggedy, old lumber.

"Nice landing, ace," she smiled. "Shall we get cozy?" She extended a hand at the candles. The flames built up extraordinarily large, forming a cohesive firestorm in the center of the room which Jinx launched at me and the collapsed wood pile with a sudden flick of the wrist.

I charged up murk, gasped, and lifted myself out from the wood before the fire could consume me.

I flew through the fresh hole in the ceiling and landed gracefully on the rooftop. No sooner, Jinx flew through the hole as well. But she soared above me and perched herself on the branch of an old, dark tree. With a cat like grin, she winked and pointed two palms at me.

Waves of pink soared down and impacted roughly with the cabin. Fire danced and licked out of the roof's perimeter on all sides of me. Just a moment more, and I'd collapse into the base of the hellstorm and burn alive.

I gripped Myrkblade's broad side with two hands and backflipped through the licking smoke and landed with a slide a few feet from the cabin's blazing entrance. The black forest was dancing with yellow light against the faint touch of amber sunset beyond.

I gritted my teeth and looked up at the rising column of flame and smoke only to see a pink witch diving through the conglomeration of chaos directly at me, hands outstretched.

"HAAAAAAAA!!"

Pink light soared at my skull.

I leapt back.

The hex bolts struck the earth, sending dirt and soil soaring over me like a black curtain.

I charged up Mrykblade and swung through the black cloud. Once it cleared, pink cat eyes were rushing to meet me.

"!!!" I ducked as Jinx swung a fist. I jumped as she swept a leg. I spun as she struck a second fist.

When I swung Myrkblade at her, she leaned back—perpendicular to the earth—and rose back up with a giggle and a platform shoe to my face.

SMACK!!!!

I fell back hard, Myrkblade tumbling a few feet away from me.

FLASH!!!

Pink streaks flew up at the trees above me. There was a loud, sickening groan…and two massive oaks leaned against each other, crashed, and sailed down heavily over my position.

I gasped, rolled over, grabbed Myrkblade, and leapt up with a blur of smoke, swinging my weapon madly.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-CRACK!!!

I ripped my way through the ancient oak and soared above them in slow motion as they smashed loudly beneath me. I glanced in mid air and saw Jinx sailing directly at me with a jump-kick. I positioned Mrykblade to meet her foot with the broadside.

WHUMP!!

Time returned to normal order as the two of us sailed through the forest, slammed into a tree, and tumbled to the ground. That is to say, *I* tumbled to the ground. Even though Jinx collapsed into me, she was nowhere to be found…that is, until she found me.

"HA!!!"

I had barely gotten on my knees when a flash of pink flew down from her position on an overhead tree branch.

I was thrown back ten feet, tumbled, and jumped to my feet, blade ready again.

But I wasn't half as ready as Jinx was. The expert sorceress-assassin launched hex after hex at me. Soon I was running away from her just to survive. Soil and leaves and branches flew apart at my heels, echoed by her constant giggles and unlucky incantations.

A few pink blasts flew past my side, and I knew she meant business. I blurred for the edge of the forest, jumping and landing on a tree just to leap to the other and then the next, barely avoiding each equally nimble assault of her hex blasts which sailed into the bark and wood, sending splinters and sparks flying everywhere.

When I reached the clearing behind the Opera House once more, the sun was nearly below the horizon. The sky was turning into an all encompassing-pink red. I panted as I looked at the clouds overhead, feeling as if I was drowning in Jinx's color. In her very own Luck.

FLASH!!!

A blast landed at my feet, catching me off guard.

I flipped over, raised Myrkblade, and glared at her, my hand stretched out and ready to take the next move.

Jinx leapt out of the forest, flipped, and landed expertly. She brought her hands down to her side and dangled them as she sauntered forward. "You're not out of the woods yet," she smiled cutely. "Rather, you just fell right in my lap…"

I raised an eyebrow…then gasped as my 'Allenthorpe' shades started cracking in many places. Fissures formed, blinding pink light filtering through, and soon everything shattered into oblivion with a cold CRACK!!!!

I exhaled in pain and gripped my black eyes with a free hand, stumbling back. It may have been a sunset, but it was torture. Everything around me burned. Everything ate me alive with lightwaves. The world started spinning and I staggered to find any sense of order among it.

"Jeepers creepers…where'd you get those peepers?" Jinx's devilish voice mused a few feet off. "Not from anywhere on this earth, I'd say."

I clenched my mutated eyes shut and struck a meditative pose. I warbled smoke out through Myrkblade and found my bearing. Slowly, I kicked my spatial sense into gear. I could sense the blades of grass around me under the blinding sky. The blades tossed and turned in natural ways until they met an impression in the ground formed by none other than Jinx's platform shoes. Thus I felt her, ten feet ahead of me, walking towards me and putting her hands on her hips.

"Ooooh…trying to drown me out? Well I'd like to go for a swim. How about you?"

I sensed her arms stretching out. Suddenly a wall of pink fire squeezed themselves under my eyelids and screamed. I was shoved back a few dozen feet and landed on a sandy shore with a grunt. I smelled algae and sawgrass.

_The lake._

I heard the pitter patter of her feet…then a break…and I sensed through murk a shift in the wind as she inevitably sailed down on me with a jump kick.

Rather than defend the incoming blow, I meditated for whatever split second I had and covered my feet and hands in black gloves of murk power.

WHAM!!!!

I was kicked and thrown like a rag-doll over the lake. Like a skipping stone, I bounced across the surface. But I managed to take control of the elements. I righted myself up, flipped, and landed down slowly with a curtain of murk on either side of me. Soon I was standing on water in a gracefully-awkward pose of meditation. I didn't realize it until a half second later that I was using both hands of mine—empty—to perform the unearthly balancing act.

SPLASH!!!

The unmistakable sound of my weapon sailing freely and hidden into the lake emanated a few yards behind me, followed by a shift in currents that forced me to bob up and down in my stand but still remain poised on the water's fragile surface.

Two could apparently play at that game. Suddenly, I sensed the petite figure of Jinx flipping to a stand before me by about a mere four feet. She was in grabbing distance, but neither one of us could risk any sudden movements without ruining our own meditation for standing on water. I with my murk and she with her hex fields.

"Come to find a sword, sir?" her humored voice met my ears. "Well, congratulations. I'm the lady of the lake. I think I'll knight thee 'Sir Asphyxiate'."

I gritted my teeth and breathed heavily, maintaining my balancing act atop the waves.

With murk, I sensed her stepping on the water towards me. "You know…I've killed many a person in my day. Some of them more powerful than you," she said softly. "Not all of them were as handsome, but such is the fancy of karma; you're next on _my list_."

She stood so close to my chest that if I just reached out, I could grab her. But in my present condition—body tense and eyes wide shut—any little move or act would cause me to sink into a watery abyss. I had to have been far into the center of the lake. I doubted I could swim far without wearing myself out.

"There's a common pattern with bad luck," she spoke almost in my face. I smelled lilies and strawberries. "If anyone was to keep a record of what happens here…this day…this minute…this second…then he or she would say that, quite simply, you put yourself in this bad strait."

I sensed her hand reach up and toy with a strand of my long, black hair. I wanted to fly away.

"Chasing after a cute little witch who could end you in a heart beat. Not smart. Too bad all the good looking guys end up killing themselves. But oh well," she stepped back and poised herself on one foot atop the water. "…who am I to have compassion? I'm a lackey of H.I.V.E. Always have been, always will be."

While struggling, I sensed her reach into her blouse and produce a locket on a chain. Invisible murk echoed from me and over the contours of the object. It was heart shaped.

"I have two sisters, not that it's any concern to you," she popped the locket open and stared at its hollow contents. I assumed there were pictures inside. "Fate and Fortune are their aliases. They're twins. I shall not tell you their real names. Even if you are about to die. Their lives are way too important to me. I won't even entrust them in the hands of death."

She closed the locket with a 'snap!' and set her other foot back down on the waves. "Though I will tell you this, since you're honoring me the chance to kill a Titan for once. Tomorrow night, when the precious Il Trovatore raises its curtain. Hundreds of wealthy audience members will be at the mercy of me and my fellow H.I.V.E. elites. One of them, a Mrs. Calico, will be wearing her nationally renown Khaza Jewell. The biggest ruby this side of the hemisphere. What people don't know is that the very same Khaza Jewell is worth one hundred thousand times its weight in gold for H.I.V.E. scientists working around the clock to improve their latest weapon: a crystal ray inducer. I'm sorry to tease you so, Mr. Noir. Because you won't be there to see me win the Jewell for my team. And for once, luck will shine on H.I.V.E. like never before…for it will also be shining on me."

My knees were wobbling. This was not like normal meditation. I never had the pressure of listening to some contemptuous villainess meow into my ear. My legs were about to give in at any second. _Perhaps they just should_…

"Good luck in the afterlife, Titan," Jinx brought her hands together, stuck the fingers out, and aimed at my forehead. "Let's hope for your sake that you prepared yourself already."

Just then…

I gave up meditating.

I held my breath as my legs sank through the water with a SLOOSH!! When I was halfway submerged, I reached a hand up and grabbed heavily onto Jinx's ankle.

"AAAAAAAA-BBLLBLBLBLBLBBB!!" She was dragged under with me. Shocked by my action, she stood no chance as I swung a fist deep into her gut, kicked her in the ribs, and sent her flying deep towards the bottom of the lake.

Air bubbles sailed everywhere. I tried to open my black eyes—but even beneath the waves the world was blinding. I closed again and diffused murk into currents to sense everything. I found the surface three meters up. Utilizing every ounce of depleted strength in me, I shot towards it.

SPLASH!!

I sailed out into the open air, water droplets trailing after me. For a split second, a sense of hope entered my brain. I envisioned myself landing smoothly on murking legs and blurring my way to the shore and to safety. But no sooner was I airborne that my dry ears heard a second splash to my Six.

Jinx's body flew out of the waves and sailed at me, growling. "RRRRRGHHH-HAAAAAA!!"

Pink strobes.

My body flipped violently over in mid air by the impact of her hex, and I was sent sailing like a rocket back into the currents.

SLOOOOOOSH!!!

I bulleted deep, deep, deep into the body of the lake. So far had I plunged, that it hit me. _It_ hit me. The only it there ever will be when each and every one of us reaches that endless black that our entire lives of wandering can't define.

I don't know what gave out first, my lungs or my brain.

But there was still a spirit in me. And that spirit licked the wall of Destruction ahead of me and sang forth a giggle of light. I remembered the Master. I remembered the training. I remember four bodies in an open field. I remembered the Sun and the storms and the ice and the fire.

And I saw her face.

_And I saw her face._

My black eyes opened.

Underwater, she smiled at me.

Maybe I was dead. Maybe I was alive. Maybe I was in between like I was always taught to be. I didn't care.

And I saw her face. And s_he smiled at me. With the sun in her eyes and the sun off her blonde hair. She told me there's more to luck and chance than bleak hopelessness. The world is too funny to be tragic._

With a blink of my eyes, she was gone. And water rushed in under my lids.

My lungs started to crush in on themselves.

I clenched my fists and charged waves murk at the last second that I could count.

And everything turned dark.


	17. A Hive at the Opera part 6

**17. A Hive at the Opera part 6**

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Jinx sat on the edge of a wooden dock upriver of the WestHaven Opera House. Her legs dangled over water turned murky under the night's sky. A dim lantern hung on a wooden post above her pink head and shone on her fingers as she monotonously opened and flipped closed the heart-shaped locket in her hand. Her face was blank. Her cat eyes round. Her shoulders in a sag.

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With each blink of the locket, Fate and Fortune showed their pretty faces. They smiled at the camera with a slate gray wall behind them. The result of a photo booth excursion a year or two before H.I.V.E. came into their lives.

All of their lives.

Every now and then, Jinx would glance at them, unblinking. They appeared and disappeared from her gaze with the same frequency that they haunted her dreams.

Clip.

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There was a low rumbling sound. It growled over the lapping waters that jumped more and more with intensity.

Jinx quickly closed her delicate hand over the locket, sighed, and hid it away in her blouse. She rested her elbows on her knees and watched lazily…ungracefully…as a small motorboat drifted over to the dock, moored, and cut off its engines. Out from the cabin, a thick-bodied giant of a teen emerged. He took one look at Jinx through his cloud-white eyes and chuckled.

"Well this is a change," Mammoth grumbled. "Usually the fair maiden is present to christen the ship when it _casts off_. But we're all too young for Champaign, aren't we?"

Jinx giggled whole-heartedly, then abruptly stuck her tongue out at her partner and returned to perturbed solemnity. "Let's keep things quiet, Mammoth."

"Yeah, snotball!" squealed Gizmo as he hopped out of the control booth and dashed about the deck, gathering rope. "In case you haven't thought it through in your thick head, we're supposed to be 'slipping in under the cover of darkness'! That doesn't mean yapping your filthy mouth off!"

"Look who's yapping, shorty!" Mammoth grumbled. "You're the leader of this mission and yet you're nothing but a common hypocrite!"

"Oooh! Mammoth learns big words!" Gizmo tossed him the rope. "Fasten us in good, gutlick!"

Mammoth hopped onto the dock and tethered the boat to it. "Why so quiet, Jinx? Usually you're insulting the both of us by now."

"Not in the mood."

"Oh. That time of month?"

She glared. "If luck would have it."

"Yeah, look at you, Jinx!" Gizmo posed himself on the bow of the boat and smirked. "You look like you had to toss a bunch of kittens into the river in a bag or something!"

"I'm tired, Gizmo," Jinx mumbled, then jumped up gracefully towards the center of the dock. "Let's just set up for the Show already."

"And I've got just the thing for if Killer Moth decides to turn on us at the last second!" Gizmo hopped into the cabin, scrounged around, and reemerged with a huge translucent orb that the little person hugged to his chest. "Can you guess what this baby is??"

Jinx put a hand to her hip. "Your mom's toilet float?"

"Hahaha!" Mammoth cackled. "That's the Jinx I know!"

She smiled.

"It's an explosive, photonic amplifier, you marshmallow puke!" Gizmo stuck his little tongue out. "This thing has enough electric illumination to blind everyone in a convention hall, not to mention attract every giant moth from a radius of two miles! And when Killer Moth's winged monkeys converge on it, the C4 inside will send them off to college! It's like God's illegitimate front porch bug zapper! Ha ha!"

"Yeah! Awesome!" Mammoth meatheadedly cheered. "We've got the final wildcard over that costumed freak! The Khaza Jewel is as good as ours!"

Suddenly, a light blinked through the skin of each H.I.V.E. student's shoulder. They paused in their actions for a moment. A chill ran through them like an invisible, arctic wind. And then they all started breathing normal again as if nothing had happened.

"Guess the Bosses want us _all_ to quit yapping," Mammoth murmured.

"Cram it…and I was gonna have so much fun explaining how all this stuff works…," Gizmo mumbled, tossing the photonic amplifier sphere back in with the rest of the equipment. He pulled out a grappling hook of sorts and beamed. "Here, Jinx." He tossed it at her.

He grabbed it and spun it around her fingers via trigger. "Lemme guess….to nab the jewel."

"You're the luckiest shot of us all," Gizmo winked his speck of an eye. "Let's see if we can make this a drive through case. I've got a Deep Space Nine marathon to catch back at headquarters. Can't let life spend itself away." He and Mammoth hopped back towards the cabin to gather more supplies.

Jinx holstered the weapon and cleared her throat. "Ahem…there're Titans here."

The other two froze. They turned around and looked at her.

"What the Hancock?" Gizmo remarked. "Titans?"

She nodded. "And I'll have you know, I just read one of their rookies the black card."

"You were supposed to deliver a threatening message from H.I.V.E.," Gizmo said through gritted teeth. "NOT attract unwanted customers!!"

"You know I'm not one to slip up," Jinx said, deadpan. "Undoubtedly it was that sloppy Killer Moth and his blonde litter box of a daughter that led a trail to where we now stand. I sure hope H.I.V.E. wants Mrs. Calico's jewel badly enough. Cuz our unwitting partners have a few guests."

"And you think that gave you the excuse to smash in the skull of one of those nosejobs and raise Cain?!" Gizmo shook.

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "It was fate."

"Don't give me that crud! There's no luck to you, you anorexic troll! Just estrogen and a bad attitude!"

"HA!!!!!" Jinx suddenly flicked her wrist. A two pieces of dice fell on the boat beneath Gizmo, snake-eyed, sparkled, and shot forth a restraining web of pink energy that shocked and zapped every moving limb Gizmo had.

"AAAAAH!! AAAAAAH!! KNOCK IT OFF!!"

"You should learn to respect luck," Jinx's frown turned into an equally grave grin. "Before luck loses its respect for you…"

She clenched her fists and the pink energy started to constrict painfully around Gizmo.

The little person struggled and gasped in desperation under the weight of the electrocuting strands.

THUMP!

Mammoth stomped into a fighting pose in front of the witch. "Let him go…Jinx," he said deeply. "Don't make me hurt you."

"And what if you do?" she cocked her head and eyed him with disdain. "If you beat me up, the tracking device H.I.V.E. planted in my neck will notify our Bosses as to my casualty. Then they'll get a signal soon afterwards that Gizmo's tracking device is no longer reading life signs. You'd be the last one standing, Mammoth. And since H.I.V.E. doesn't give out mere fractions of grades, you'll be dealt with….severely."

Mammoth growled. He stared at Gizmo. Then at Jinx again.

"Let him go…please…"

Jinx lowered her eyelids. She sighed, then blasted the die with hex.

In a blink, the pink field disappeared. Gizmo fell back against the cabin wall, gasping for breath.

"Get the equipment and drag it to the opera house," she mumbled. She turned around and paced away. "Hope you all crammed for the test tomorrow night. For I've been doing nothing but 'studying' for the last few days."

-T-T-T-T-T-

After sneaking out of Mr. Anderson's room, Beast Boy made a B-Line for the attic. It was a pestiferous task in and of itself, morphing from bird to snake to mouse to lizard and to bird again to avoid detection. But night had fallen. A great deal of the workers had gone home, save for those preparing the entranceway and parking fields of the WestHaven Opera House. Sooner than naught, Beast Boy was on the third floor and back in Elf form. He bounded towards the door to the room, swung it open, and froze upon reaching the doorway.

He blinked.

Sandy stared back, sitting on the bed.

"…..," Beast Boy stared. "…..um….I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that you're sitting there and waiting for a Teen Titan to burst in through the door."

Sandy shook her head. "It's okay. I've figured it all out.

"Sheesh," Beast Boy mumbled to himself. "Is she omnipotent or something?"

"No need for me to be aggrandized," she said, looking quaintly out the window. "Quite simply, people aren't as able to hide secrets as they assume."

"I can see that," Beast Boy quickly shut the door and padded over. "So…you mad at me?"

She looked up at him. "A little, yes. If Mrs. Cartwright was to find out that 'Mr. Allenthorpe' was a fake, concocted by a mute sword-swinger and a green parrot, then I'd hate to see the day."

Beast Boy winced and tried to ignore the implications of her last statement. "So…how could you tell?"

"There were many signs," she said. "I already explained it to your friend a few hours before. One thing I failed to mention him is the outfit you all used for Allenthorpe Jr."

"What about it? I like my fashion statements!" Beast Boy replied.

"And so do I," Sandy said. "Though logically, it would have benefited you in a much more benevolent way to have selected something of more modern and less nostalgic attire."

"Enough with the multi-syllabic words!" Beast Boy gripped his head and pleaded to the volunteer girl with open arms. "What do you want from us? I-I'm kinda sorta busy now. I got to radio in…ya know…the rest of the Titans. Turns out there's a situation at this opera house that could threaten your precious Show tomorrow night! Many people at risk! Bad bombing! Do you understand?"

Sandy nodded. "As much as I'm capable of understanding. I already told your partner that—no matter what—I'm staying here. I won't ditch my friends in a time of trouble."

"Suit yourself," Beast Boy wandered over towards the other side of the room and tried switching on his communicator. "But I tell you what, the whole situation is getting uglier and uglier."

"Why do you say that?"

The green elf glanced at Sandy, paused, and shook his head. "Never you mind. It's not happy."

Silence.

Sandy interjected again, "Does it have something to do with Mr. Anderson?"

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Whaaaa---who are you, anyways?"

"Like I said. No one. I know things because I don't stress about them," Sandy said matter-of-factly. "And if you're wondering, it's no big secret that Mr. Anderson is a sketchy character. He's already been investigated for tax evasion, banking fraud, and insider trading. It's a wonder that he gets away with every crooked thing that he does. A man of that age and deplorable nature is a shoe-in for some sort of threatening occurrence at the Opera House which he owns but barely visits anymore."

"Do you get out much?" Beast Boy squeaked.

"Enough as I need to."

"Just wondering. You kinda have me concerned."

"I would like to know what we're dealing with," Sandy said.

Beast Boy regarded her silently, then finally blurted. "Killer Moth."

Sandy gripped her throat.

"….and H.I.V.E. At least one of their assassins. There's gonna be a hostage situation tomorrow unless my friends and I can sting all the bad guys before the killer bugs can sting everyone else. This was supposed to be a covert operation based on a lead we had."

"I didn't know it was that bad…," Sandy spoke listlessly. "Is there actually….a hive of those creatures here?"

"I've been looking for hours on end, listening to every criminal I could put my animalistic ear to and still no sign of a clear location!" Beast Boy moaned, then stared at the floor. His shoulders shrunk. "I've done a nice job of blowing things too…"

"How do you mean?"

"It's….m-my partner. I….I-I dragged him through all this," the green elf said quietly and looked away from her. "I was so excited to be the captain of a mission for once…I…I overreacted. I lost my cool and he dealt with the brunt of it. It all seemed to be working just fine. Then Jinx from H.I.V.E. showed up and started raining light fixtures and verandahs down on people. Then it just became downright scary. And…And…."

"I'm sure your fellow Titan respects you, Mr. Beast Boy," Sandy stood up and sauntered over by his side. "But…assuming he's not like that 'Tamaranian girl' the newspapers talk about, he's only human. And humans can come to odds with other humans sometimes. Including humans who are sometimes animals."

Beast Boy turned around and tried to smirk as he said. "We should have you come by the Tower sometime. You'd be a great therapist."

"Sorry. I only volunteer."

"Pfft…as if I could pay you," Beast Boy said, chuckled, and sighed. "This is turning into a big mess. Maybe Cyborg will have a word of advice for me when I call home."

Sandy suddenly—awkwardly—giggled.

Beast Boy looked up at her, eyebrow raised. "What's making that come out of you?"

"The rumors are true," she said, hiding a smirk and looking down at him. "You *are* short in person."

Beast Boy's eyes bugged. He frowned, crossed his arms, turned into a giraffe, stuck a green tongue out, and shrunk back into elf form. "Don't be so superficial."

She giggled again.

Beast Boy finally smiled. "Well…always nice to make a girl laugh. What's next on my life's checklists…"

"May I ask you something?" Sandy asked.

"Sure…why not."

"What is his name?"

"Whose name?"

"Your partner. The new Titan."

Beast Boy waved. "Noir. Or so he says. It'll become household soon enough."

"Noir…," Sandy nodded. "Not easy to hand sign."

"You can talk to him??" Beast Boy did a double-take.

"And you can't? You're his partner!"

"Y-Yeah," Beast Boy scratched his neck and sweatdropped. "We're all working on that…"

Sandy walked over and looked out the window. "I would have asked him earlier, but he was in such a hurry to leave."

"Leave??" Beast Boy jumped. "Leave where?"

Sandy pointed out the window. "Last I saw of him, he was running into the forest. I think he was after somebody."

Beast Boy jumped onto the bed and grabbed Sandy's shoulders. He leaned in to her at face level. "Do you remember *seeing* who he was after?"

"N-No…I'm afraid not," Sandy replied. "But I did recall a streak of pink light and he—"

"DAAAH!" Beast Boy pratfalled and rolled off the bed, biting his nails. "It's Jinx! Jinx! Noir can't fight Jinx all by himself!! What was he thinki—oh yeah, rookie. Dang it! I have to go after him!"

The changeling bounded towards the doorway.

"Wait!" Sandy extended a hand. "What are we talking about here? Is Noir in deep trouble?"

"Depends on if he's lucky or not!" and he closed the door in a blink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A full moon gazed down at the back lawn of the opera house as Beast Boy ran out on two feet, surveying the area frantically. When he saw that the coast was clear, he sprinted for the forest. He was about to morph into something faster—an antelope perhaps—when something he saw halted him in his tracks with a gasp.

There was a parting in the forest. Two trees were leaning precariously upon their roots. Much of their bark and branches had been shredded. Just a few meters off and into the grass region was a streak or two of torn soil, like a body had slid roughly across the earth.

Beast Boy padded over to the soft earth and knelt, studying it up close. He swiftly turned into a green bloodhound and sniffed the area. After a while, he whimpered to himself and looked at the lake. A pause. He morphed into a roadrunner and flitted over towards the water's edge. He turned into an anteater and once again sniffed, this time around the water's edges. The green animal paused. It switched to an otter and stuck its head into the waters, squinting. It pulled its head out, shook the water droplets off, and turned into a green eagle. Beast Boy flew high into the air, wings spread wide, and glided over the bulk of the lake. He peered down, cocking his head from one side to the other, scanning expertly the depths of the waters. Something glinted in the direct moonlight. Something dark. The eagle shrieked, switched into a pelican, and dive-bombed straight at the distant form.

SPLASH!!!

Two meters beneath the surface, the pelican turned into a green dolphin and shot itself downwards like a torpedo. There Beast Boy found the body of his partner, lifeless. The arms drifted as limply as the neck and head. Black hair streamed everywhere like an obsidian halo. The dolphin turned into an alligator, grabbed a scruff of the Titan's jumpshirt, and swam to shore, pulling the body with him.

When Beast Boy broke surface, he switched to a gorilla and effortlessly carried his waterlogged partner to dry land. Then he spread him over, face up, and returned to elf mode.

"Noir!!" he cried desperately, pressing his pointed ear to the Titan's chest. Beast Boy went numb all over. He couldn't feel a pulse he feared wasn't there. "Noir!! Come on, dude! Come on!!" He rubbed the Titan's wrists, pressed his chest, slapped his face. "No….No No No No No No!! I…..you….n-not here….not now. Why'd you do it? Why'd I let you?! Noir?! NOIR?!?!"

Silence.

Beast Boy hyperventilated. The world turned dizzy for him. He sat back, scrunched his legs up to his chest, and clutched his head in two trembling hands. His eyes twitched. Lake water dripped off his green hair and streamed down his cheek, camouflaging fresh tears.

Silence.

Beast Boy rocked back and forth.

Silence.

I twitched.

Beast Boy stopped. His eyes went wide.

I shuddered. Shook. Curled into a fetus position, shivering all over.

"N-Noir!!" Beast Boy jumped over and put a hand on my shoulder.

I swiftly batted his hand away with my trembling wrist. He fell back, watching in confusion.

I struggled—hectically—onto my knees and bent over. I opened my mouth and a stream of lake water poured out in a torrent. Then a cloud murk wafted out from my throat magically before rising to the sky. With the barrier gone, I lifted my torso straight to the moon and performed the biggest gasp of inhalation in my natural life. My arms shook with the feat. My face tensed. No sooner had I breathed in, I bent over again and hacked my lungs out. Fluid streamed out of my mouth that the murk couldn't hold back. My black eyes popped open. Everything was fuzzy and twisted. Then my lungs were empty again. I fell back, twirling to my side, and wheezed heavily again for breath. My body spasmed as I hacked out more liquid and fought for a balance of oxygen.

Hours of intense meditation had kept the water from pouring into my lungs. A wall of murk formed in my mouth, nostrils, and other orifices, keeping the pressure of the lake at bay. At the same time, I mingled together the energies of Construction and Destruction to form a fissure through which I could slow my perception of time and have access to my respiration and metabolism. It was a tough feat—not one I could carry on indefinitely. But it did last me nearly three hours. I had no guarantee that I would survive. But the human will is an amazing thing.

I coughed and wheezed, doing my best to live normally again. Beast Boy was at my side, shaking my shoulder, coaching me on. In between hacks he spoke in:

"Easy! Easy, Noir! I don't know how you did it, but you did! Hang in there!"

But I had to tell him something. I coughed and I hacked and I reached blindly for his shoulder. I met his fingers, which grasped around mine. I shook it towards the lake. I coughed and wheezed and flinched and pointed towards the lake with a mad jab of a finger. For a second there, I swear I forgot I couldn't talk.

"What?! What is it, Noir?!"

I pointed and coughed.

"The lake?! I just pulled you out of there!"

I shook his arm. I pointed with emphasis. I coughed. I wheezed.

"….Your…Y-Your sword?? Your sword is in there still?"

_That was good enough for me._

I nodded desperately, wheezed, turned over, and spit out more water. I pointed one last time, gritting my teeth and panting.

"I-I-I'll get it! Just you hold on!"

Beast Boy jumped to his feet, turned around, and ran for the shore. He dove into the water—turning into a sailfish in mid air.

SPLASH!!

With a perfect, streamline body, Beast Boy was gliding down through the currents in no time. His fish-eye glanced around for the unmistakable sign of Myrkstaff. He found it on the lake's floor, leaning precariously over the edge of a sandbar. He grasped it in his sword-like snout and was preparing to return to shore and his miraculously surviving teammate when something caught his gaze in the moon-filtered light shimmering down through the waters. Curious, the fish swam deeper towards an ever-expansive black object covering the bottom of the lake. When he got close enough, he felt a shiver emanate throughout his scales. He nearly dropped Myrkstaff.

At the bottom of the lake, unseen to the random onlooker at the surface, was a huge glass dome filled with air…and giant killer moths. Scurrying, razor sharp bugs of hideous proportion buzzed and hovered against each other within the transparent prison. Their barred mandibles drooled and their compound eyes banged against the contours of the glass. They were all wanting to get out. To unleash their wrath from countless days of captivity. Killer Moth had an angry swarm on his hand. Hidden and deadly, they were ready for his mere command to unleash upon anyone in proximity to the lake…the WestHaven Opera House included.

"!!!" Beast Boy swung around and swam to the surface with Myrkblade. On dry land, he ran over and knelt at my side.

I sat, shaking, rubbing my head, blinking my black eyes.

"Noir…it's insane! They're all down there!" Beast Boy panted, setting down the weapon. "You…you got stuck down there. And you saw them. You got stuck down there. You…" He sat down and hugged his knees, rocking back and forth again. Something swam over his face and chased away the usual vitality and humor he displayed. His eyes curved and looked straight down at the earth. "It all sm-smells the same. The water…the algae. I looked e-everywhere for them with the rescue workers, b-but we couldn't find them."

I coughed a last bit of moisture and looked exhaustedly—worriedly—at my green-skinned captain.

"The smell clung to the sk-skin…," Beast Boy rambled. "The African heat only increased the odor. I g-got sick from it. Like I was a-allergic to the rotten stuff. I was l-lying feverish in a tent wh-when the leader of the search came in and told me i-it was hopeless. Th-They filed it as a drowning in a b-boating accident. My Mommy and Daddy…after all th-they did to save me. The disease…the g-genetic experiment…everything. All ruined. And I had t-to live. I had to l-live while they left th-this world. Why? Do I deserve it? A little nincompoop such as myself?! I hate it when people get hurt. I realize how selfish I am to be alive….I'm sorry, Noir. I-I'm so sorry I let you into this. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm s-so s-s-s-sorry…"

Maybe he didn't feel my arm around his shoulder. Whatever the case, I let him lean into my chest and politefully looked towards the stars as the young man sobbed into his the palms of his hands. Every shaking of his mournful body vibrated into me and met a firm end. I massaged his forearm and took a deep breath. No tears came from my black eyes, but the soreness in my throat was paralyzing.

We stayed there, wet and shaking in the dry grass. The moon disappeared once or twice from cloud cover. The lake remained still.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…

Mr. Anderson sat at his desk the next morning, his hands held together.

Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…

He stared over at the clockface on the desktop.

11:23 am.

Tick…Tick…Tick…Tick…

He picked up the clock and threw it across the room and against a wall.

SMASH!!!

"Was that really necessary?" Killer Moth grumbled from the shadows.

Mr. Anderson swiveled about and frowned at him. "Tonight….you freak. Tonight had better work or else—"

"Impatient, you old fart?" Killer Moth leaned forward, flexing his gloves. "Yesterday I was sweating bullets after my run-in with H.I.V.E.'s little pink brat. But I've been jilted before, so I've learned to accept the fate ahead of me…even if it means half of the share I originally had coming to me. A lot can change overnight. I mean, look at you. You seem just about ready to have a preemptive heart attack. And quite frankly, I wish you would."

"Forgive me for being anxious," Mr. Anderson retorted, shaking. "My whole life hinges on this night, and—"

"Looking for sympathy?" Killer Moth cocked his masked head to the side and grinned through synthetic, serrated mandibles. "I'll show you sympathy the night this gig is all over and I'm a much richer moth."

"Hehehehehe!" Kitten giggled from another seat between bubble gum pops. "You tell him, Daddy!"

Killer Moth groaned and pointed a claw at his daughter. "You. In gypsy attire. Now!"

"But—"

"Kitten! You wanted a part of the play. You got it. Don't complain. Go. Now! The show will be starting in a matter of hours."

"Yeah, when it's dark out!" the blonde brat retorted.

Killer Moth flew his fist through a table, sending wooden splinters everywhere.

"…..," Kitten froze.

Slowly, her father tilted his head up and glared at her.

"……….eep…..I think I'll go get my sandals on," she jumped up, scurried out the room, and slammed the door behind her.

Mr. Anderson winced and rubbed his temple.

"Awww…and a headache too?"

"Shut up…."

"Need some ice for that? Better yet, maybe I can take the whole thing off your bloody neck!"

"SHUT UP!!" Anderson growled. "Stop intimidating me until you can afford it, crook!"

That silenced the villain.

Anderson dabbed a handkerchief against his bloated forehead and huffed. "That blasted H.I.V.E. If only they knew the thing my people are working on could possibly benefit them too."

"What's the worry? I thought you said they probably wouldn't be after the ransom money!"

"It's not that…," Mr. Anderson mumbled. A pause. He looked up at Killer Moth. "I used to be a council chairman of H.I.V.E."

The villain recoiled, his fists clenching.

"I-I'm not associated with them anymore!" Anderson raised a finger. "But I was years ago. Ten years ago, in fact. I spent so many damn years of my life working for those bureaucratic terrorists. And to what extent? It's not the lackeys they toss over the mountain in the end, comrade. It's the governors. The clerics. The rulers. The bosses in charge. The smart ones are to be disposed of. But I….I got out safely—"

"So if H.I.V.E.'s children found you here…," Killer Moth started.

"…I wouldn't be here any longer," Anderson finished.

"All the reason for you not to show your face," Killer Moth smirked.

_"All the reason for him not to show a freakin' pulse!!"_ an electronic voice rang out.

Both bad guys gasped and looked over as a robotic insect flew in on rapid wings through the window, beeped, and 'eyed' them both.

_"Like it? It's a new model. Made it myself. Almost looks like your metal munching insects, Killer Muck!"_ A needle extended out from the top of the tiny, airborne robot. The needle expanded to form a thin, translucent screen upon which a crystal video screen blipped into existence, showing Gizmo's face. _"Hidey Ho, neighbors! So kind of you to welcome us in. I hope fate was kind to you as you waited for us to drop in!"_

"Make it short…," Killer Moth growled.

_"Temper Temper, splotch face!"_ Gizmo's face spat. _"Just gonna list a few of the rules. 1) H.I.V.E. is here, whether you like it or not. 2) You shall not in any way mess with our collection of desired spoils. 3) As long as 1 and 2 are adhered to, you can grab as much ransom money and goods as your greedy hands can get a hand on. But be warned, bump into us during our collective 'gig' and we'll bump you back all the way to your mother's womb! That's got to make her turn in the grave. HA!"_

Mr. Anderson pounded his fist into the desk and stood up. "Why can't you be reasonable? We selected this scene first."

_"Sit down, gramps!"_ Gizmo cackled on the screen. _"Wouldn't want to Jinx you, wouldn't we? We all know that's most unpleasant."_

Killer Moth looked away.

_"That's what I thought. Well, hope to see you all tonight. I hear there's a great show being prepared! Some medieval love epic called Il Trovatore. Heard the reviews on that, by chance? I'd really like to know where I can pick up a program—_"

SMASH!!! Killer Moth's hands came together around the robotic creature, crushing it into sizzling motors.

"Never thought I'd do that…," he mumbled.

Mr. Anderson sat down. He took a breath. "Killer Moth….unless you take me with you and your sister once you flee this scene with your money…I'll be stuck here and I'll be a dead man."

"If you come with me, you'll be a dead man as well," Killer Moth said.

"At least I know you reasonably _well_," Mr. Anderson glanced at him upon the ironic statement with emphasis.

Killer Moth leaned back.

Anderson looked out the window. He sighed. "The show must go on…"

-T-T-T-T-T-

"All three of them?"

"I wouldn't doubt it, Cy. Where there's a Jinx, there's Mammoth and Gizmo sure to follow. I doubt she alone could make the theft for H.I.V.E."

"And Noir's positive they're only after a stone?"

"That's what she said. A power source to some deadly laser or something. Most cliché piece of crap I've ever heard."

"It's still worth our attention. And you also know where Killer Moth's insects are?"

"Yes already! In the lake! This big dome thing. I doubt Killer Moth has access to it and stuff. He's probably been starving all the creatures so that they can attack anything they see. It would be an unfortunate thing indeed to be a hostage tonight when he's got that much punishment ready to be unleashed."

"Roger that. I suppose it's crunch time then. You'll get your help, I promise."

"Just what's been holding you up, Cy? And how come none of the other Titans have been answering my calls?"

"A little situation over here. I thought I told you that."

"What kind?"

"Nothing important. You'll get your help, okay? Be sure of that."

"All right, All right. Who am I to complain? It's not my life on the line here."

"B.B….."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll knock it off. Say, while you're on the way, could you bring some hot pockets? We're starving over here—"

-blip-

Beast Boy blinked. "Ok….kay…."

I snickered, standing with a lean against the bedpost. Sandy filled me another cup of cappuccino, which I gladly sipped. I was wearing a cloak, once again in possession of my Titan shades. _As much as I hated to say it, Mr. Allenthorpe Jr. had to be permanently laid to rest._

"For the most part…it's just us in on this," Beast Boy said.

"They don't sound very supportive," Sandy remarked, setting down the coffee pot and leaning against a wardrobe. "Don't you think?"

"Who am I to question them? I'm just the green guy," Beast Boy sighed, shook his head, and gestured. "We've got to do something. I can even hear them setting up the stage through the floorboards and such."

"Yes…this building's old," Sandy nodded, adjusting her glasses. "Any little thing travels widely with sound and vibration. I'm surprised you haven't heard your enemies by now."

"When a villain hides, a villain hides," Beast Boy moaned. "And what villains they are. Four against Two, Noir."

I looked at Beast Boy and silently nodded.

"Five against two if you count that blonde thing Killer Moth gave birth two."

"And what of the insects?" Sandy asked.

Beast Boy blinked. "Uhhh….six thousand to two? Ugh…what's it matter?! This is hopeless!"

I glanced at Beast Boy. I glanced at Sandy.

"You don't sound that convincing a captain," Sandy folded her arms and smirked.

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "You don't sound that sweet of a smart alek."

"Please forgive me," Sandy droned. "My friends and clients are only going to be moth meat in five hours. What's not to be sarcastic about?"

Beast Boy closed an eye and twitched in the other. "Ow. Did you have loving parents?"

"Yup…and that explains it," Sandy marched over towards the door, smirking.

"Heheheh…you know, I may grow to like you," Beast Boy pointed.

"Yes, that's what I'm afraid of," Sandy replied. "Seems like you grow to like every woman you try to save."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Hehehehe…nothing." A pause. Sandy opened the door and turned to look at us. "You know…you two are all that stand between these people and destruction. If this sting is to go down successfully, you two should start off on the right path by being thankful for one another's existence."

We both stared at her….silent.

She shrugged. "Well that's my own two cents. I don't get paid anything to volunteer. Just to risk my life by helping Ms. Cartwright tonight. Good luck."

She closed the door and was gone.

Beast Boy looked at me.

I looked at him.

Eventually, the green elf folded his hands behind his back and played with some dust on the wooden floorboards with his boot.

"You know….yesterday…I got pretty pissed off at you. I said some mean things. And…um…didn't make you feel good as a noobie. I-I'm sorry for that."

I sighed, smiled, and pointed at my chest with a free hand.

"No….you had every right to be angry. Lord knows I would have been in your place."

I put my mug down, gestured, pointed to myself, and gestured some more.

Blindly, Beast Boy blinked at me. He cleared his throat. "I have no idea what you just 'said'. But if it's anything along the lines of 'I'm sorry, I'm a big buffoon for constantly getting myself nearly killed under your command', then you're forgiven."

I sniffed forth a chuckle.

Beast Boy giggled.

We exhaled at the same time.

Silence.

"You know….I finally got to see your eyes last night," Beast Boy pointed.

I nodded.

"And…um…they were cool, ya know?" he said.

I looked at him from behind my shades.

"Yeah, just that. Cool. Nothing to be ashamed of."

I rolled my eyes underneath the shades and grinned.

Beast Boy looked down. "It's so easy….to get ashamed of things." A pause. "I got kinda….emotional last night. I'm not proud of it. I guess that's why I joke around so much. I don't want people knowing that….I feel so helpless. About….about what happened to my parents, ya know?"

I nodded slowly.

"I mean…as silly as we can be, we all have secrets, right? It's part of the mystery of being a Teen Titan and all that jazz. You should know—er, not that you're silly and stuff. But that you're mysterious…and…um….Noir….you get the picture?"

I chuckled and nodded.

"Yeah….."

A pause.

"You know what I'm thinking, Noir?"

"????" I looked up at him.

"I say we take all our frustrations out on Killer Moth and H.I.D.E…..AND KICK THEIR SORRY BUTTS BACK TO THE BRIG!!"

I grinned wide and lifted a hand.

He jumped up and high-fived it. "Yeah! Down low!" He held a hand out.

I made to slap it, but he dodged his wrist.

"Too slow! Ah ha ha ha!"

I made like to put him in a headlock but instead tossed off my cloak and picked up my Myrkstaff and sheathe.

Beast Boy tucked away his communicator and slipped on his boots.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Noon passed by.

Outside the front of the WestHaven Opera House, workers cleaned the giant, electric letters and lightbulbs to a glistening shine. Field workers painted lines in the plain of grass for parking spaces. Valets huddled together under the direction of a leader, briefing them on the car arrangements for that evening.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Behind the stage, markers were set in the floor for character positions. Lighting props were tweaked one last time.

An inspector performed an intense visit, eyeing each huge piece of scenery and giving an 'okay' symbol above the noise of multiple stagehands carrying prop anvils and horse troughs and weaponry back and forth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the crowded, heated hallways full of extras and actors with costumes, Ms. Cartwright marched mightily down a path amidst the chaos, shouting orders and clapping her hands.

"Get shoes for Leonora! I want all the gypsies lined up and ready for last minute rehearsals two hours before the curtain rises! Sandy, contact the casting director and tell her to have extra scrypts available for the final review."

"Yes'm."

"HEY! Where're my lines?!" A bratty, blonde Kitten marched up.

"Up the river, which is where you'll be going if you don't slip into gypsy garb and shut up for the rest of the night!" Ms. Cartwright shoved the girl into the busy, changing extras. "Come on, people! No more questions asked! Get in your roles! Move it! Move it! Move it! Sandy?"

"Yes'm?"

"I love this job."

"Yes'm."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The lobby of the WestHaven Opera House was covered with tables in white cloth. Chefs and waiters and waitresses delicately placed utensils and glasses and Champaign bottles in key places for both aesthetics and easy access. A small band formed in a corner and removed their instruments from leather cases. A slideshow was prepared, displaying images of Medieval Spain on various white sheets surrounding the lobby.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An orchestra gathered in the pit, tuning their various instruments. Drums and harps and violins and cellos and an eclectic group of other devices formed a chaotic ambiance of sound as the conductor gave the musical sheets a final one through and prepared for his finest performance yet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep within the earth, in a hidden laboratory room surrounded by mud and wooden boards, Killer Moth meditated on sheets of chemical formulas and the basic outline of his plan. He eyed a digital clock besides a smashed table from the previous day and took a deep breath. He flexed his glove, fastened his helmet, and stretched his synthetic wings.

Time wouldn't pass fast enough.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mr. Anderson stood restlessly in his office, staring out at an orange sky.

He took a deep breath and drank from a glass of wine.

Over in the corner, a smashed clock rested still forever.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the rooftop, Gizmo snickered and fiddled with a contraption. The amplifier sphere locked into place in a cannon of sorts nestled behind the huge letters of the building's front. The cannon twirled around at the slightest touch of Gizmo's finger to a remote control device.

Mammoth took a large bite out of a pre-battle sub and flexed his muscles. He chuckled at Gizmo in his most testosterone manner before scarfing down another chunk for energy.

Jinx sat on the edge, dangling her legs over a string of light bulbs.

She watched blankly at the sun set behind the horizon. Some worker cried out to another and there was a huge CHUNK! sound as the circuit breaker was activated. The electric signs chugged to life and the string of lightbulbs flashed brilliantly about the witch's casual, petite figure. She didn't flinch. Rather, she held the locket in her hand, flipping it open and gazing in under the brilliant glow of yellow surrounding her pink figure.

"…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I landed in a squat onto the catwalk. I stood up slowly, straight. My hair and bandanna danced from the fan of a nearby light. I looked behind me as a green pterodactyl landed firmly on a railing and morphed into a balancing Beast Boy who gave me a thumb's up. I gestured back at him, unsheathed Myrkstaff, and paced down the length of the catwalk. Directly beneath my softly clanking feet, an open, lit cavity that was the theatre seating stretched with an enormous yawn beneath us.

Ready for the elite.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the WestHaven Opera House and beyond, a country road stretched to the horizon.

As the night grew dark, spots of yellow headlights swam their way over hills and gradually towards the manor.

The night of the Big Show.


	18. A Hive at the Opera part 7

**18. A Hive at the Opera part 7**

"Where'd I get this stone?" an obese Mrs. Calico beamed with a glass of champagne in her hand. "Why, back in the Khaza mines of Madagascar! The land there is practically *saturated* with these sort of stones. It's a pity that everyone thinks mine's so rare. Ah hah hah hah hahhh!"

The affluent woman's cackle was a bloated one; the sort that only overly-blessed individuals are capable (and willing) to laugh. She proudly displayed the huge red gem glittering around her neck as she stood about in the lobby, floating and flirting her way around the richest groups of people in the world.

It was minutes till the opening number of Il Trovatore. The stage was set. The lights were humming. The orchestra was poised.

Women in shimmering gowns and men in rigid tuxes gathered about in homogenous clusters about the tables and booths of the lobby. The band played softly in the background. The slideshows cast paintings of Medieval Spanish landscapes all around the walls. The lighting was dim, and the overall ambiance was a soft droll formed by hundreds of chattering voices, clinking glass, and shuffling slippers and dress shoes.

"This is positively luscious," the nationally renown Veronica Vreeland mused to one of her many new fiancés. "I've never seen such a gala occasion! But there was that one opera in Toronto last April. You remember that, right Rufio?"

A dark haired suitor at her shoulder sweatdropped. "Um...Veronica...you were with Vincent then."

".....Oh yeah."

Over in a corner...

"So I said, 'Sell the whole damn hardware manufacturer!'," cackled Benjamin Powers to a rich business associate. "Hahaha...I mean, it's not like we need them! We're catching up to Wayne Enterprises anyways!"

"Doesn't the recent recession scare you?"

"Heh...the only thing that scares me is broccoli..........and Ted Turner."

After minutes of socializing and general monotony, the clock reached its quota and a charmingly dressed Ms. Cartwright walked towards a podium to the left of a huge set of double doors and cleared her throat into a mic.

Everyone turned to face her and drew pleasantly quiet.

"Good evening," she said, blushing too much for her own good. _Tonight is the night_. "And welcome to the WestHaven Opera House! We've been showing the finest in the musical artform over the last eighty years. And how fitting it is that tonight we're displaying a work that has captured our hearts for one hundred and fifty years!"

There was a round of applause. The men clapped with joy and emphasis. The women clasped their hands together, their eyes sparkling as they gasped in rich ecstasy (ick).

"It has been a work put together for you tonight by the greatest cast and crew of hard working human beings I have ever had the pleasure of associating myself with...," Cartwright said, smiling.

From the corner, a modestly dressed Sandy watched the proceedings with subtle anonymity and smiled at her boss' proud moment.

"Without further ado," Cartwright gestured to the doors which were now opening, "...I invite you to enjoy the final showing at WestHaven of Giuseppe Verdi's 'Il Trovatore'!"

People clapped, smiled, gasped, and chattered their way through the door...and into the many, open seats.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was nighttime outside. A black sky yawned over the country setting. The huge letter signs for 'WESTHAVEN' shone brilliantly. Trailing electric lights all around the front and rooftop of the opera house produced a dazzling kaleidoscope of golden glory into the ever expansive black. Two searchlights sliced the sky at random intervals and angles. The building was alive with luminescence.

At the front entrance, a couple of valets congregated, sharing a joke or two to pass the time. Beyond them sat a throng of rich luxury cars, classic automobiles, and limousines parked throughout the huge grass lawn in front of the House.

The moon blinked with cloud cover for one minute, and shadows cast themselves over the cars and the sides of the House suffering the cold shoulder of the highly placed lights.

Out from the shadows in the grass lot, three distinct bodies rushed into the clearing under the cloud's obsidian shade. They meandered through the cars and crept up to the southwest side of the building. They knelt before an iron grate leading into the cellar. A streak of pink light emanated from one of them, and the grate fell away. The three slunk in, and lifted the grate back in place behind them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Art...it is an immortal artform. The expressed creativity of language itself is the ever-present epitaph of our communal mortality. It speaks volumes of our pasts, and interprets dreams about our future. Every facet of life...every nook and cranny of civilization is--in some way--touched by the honest hand of the arts. For the arts is from the people. It's breathed through them. It pumps through their arteries and sighs in their veins. To ignore the talent constantly before us is to ignore ourselves. Then, by admiring art...by allowing ourselves to be entertained, we enjoy ourselves. We indulge in the very fabric of our own life. And in that sense, we become immortal too. And I, ladies and gentleman, have thoroughly...overcome the practicalities of death. After tonight, I....we shall once again be reminded that life is not at all about getting up in the morning and getting your money's worth for the day. No. Life is about art. For art is about life. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I implore you to enjoy tonight's presentation: Il Trovatore."

Mr. Anderson bowed and stepped off of the stage. A throng of applause and cheers lit his back. Then soon, the lights lowered. The curtain rose. And the orchestra began the first scene of Act One with All'erta! all'erta!.

The old man frowned once he was off stage, and looked for a wall to lean on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"All right...just where is that maggot muncher?!" Gizmo frowned.

They stood in the basement of the WestHaven Opera House. The three agents of H.I.V.E. Surrounding them, various props and costumes and suits of armor and figurines stood under the constant cover of dust and shrouds. Age-old paintings and musical instruments rested against walls and a smell of rust and lint permeated the air.

The sound of the thunderous opera music wafted through the ceiling and vibrated pleasantly throughout the chamber.

"Ugh...probably didn't want to come down to this boring place," Mammoth grunted. "It's a shame. I was hoping to get friendly with Killer Moth in person. Heheheh."

Sitting on a porcelain horse in the corner, Jinx said nothing. She alternated between flipping her locket open and close and playing with a pair of dice like hand massagers.

"Well, he's supposed to be here!" Gizmo looked at his impractically advanced watch and grumbled. "The show started minutes ago! Is he gonna put the fear into these people or what?!"

"Maybe he doesn't want to do it right away?" Mammoth suggested. "Or maybe he only decided to bail out on meeting us down here!"

"Or maybe you should stop talking, snotbrain, and go out and look for him!!" Gizmo cackled.

"Call me that again and they're gonna be naming you 'Gizless' on your tombstone!" Mammoth shook his fist.

FLASH!!

Pink light flew over them and smashed into a painting on the opposite wall.

Both boys looked over.

"Save it for the Titans," Jinx's eyes narrowed. "As soon as Killer Moth puts his plan into action, we put ours into action too. And then we're gone. No fights. No confusion. Just grab the Khaza Jewell and go."

"Awww...I'm not gonna keep a party going without us for too long!" Gizmo grinned. "Let's see if I can't hack into Killer Moth's hive, ya know? Make him sweat a little for trying to be such a smartass to us guys!"

"Yeah! Show him who's the real bugger!" Mammoth cheered.

"....," Gizmo glared at him with speck eyes of disgust. "You're a hopeless mound of steroids, man."

"What?! I was only trying to--"

"Shh!" Jinx lifted a finger and smiled as the music poured down through. "I love this part..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was approaching the end of Act One, and the audience was fully in the lap of the entrancing show. On stage, in front of an elaborate medieval courtyard, the Count di Luna realizes Leonora's feelings for Manrico when she falls for the troubadour's song in the distance. Inevitably, Di Luna would challenge Manrico for a duel in desire for Leonora's sole affection.

Ms. Cartwright sat, beaming, in the front row. Every actor and actress she had worked with were performing heavenly. All her days of stressing and obsessing were coming to closure. Yet the one individual who happily distracted her from her anxious ways was absent that very night. She glanced over at an empty seat where Mr. Allenthorpe Jr. was supposed to be. A blank expression of confusion and melancholy crossed her face before she once again focused on the events unfolding on the stage.

The famous Second Act was about to take place...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cram it...barf...snot...crud...slime...puke...phlegm...crap..." Gizmo grunted as he paced about and about and about the cellar floor.

"Maybe he slept in?" Mammoth said.

"SHUT UP!!" Gizmo hopped up and down angrily. "He is not getting the upper hand on us! He is not gonna treat us like dirt when he owes his very night to us here and now!"

Jinx jumped down to the floor and put her hands on her hips. "Speak for yourself."

Gizmo blinked. "Huh?"

She pointed behind him.

He spun around.

"Somebody's mouth needs to be washed out," Killer Moth said.

"YAAAH!" Gizmo fell back, his speck eyes wide. Then he growled and shook a tiny fist. "You twirp! Haven't you anything better to do than sneak up on us?!" He whipped out a remote and clicked a button. From his mechanical backpack, a laser rifle arose and pointed its barrel at the costumed adult. "I'd smile if I were you...unless you want your picture taken later." The little man grinned.

Killer Moth frowned...and was silent.

"Thought so," Gizmo lowered the laser rifle halfway with a click. "What took you so long?"

Killer Moth growled. "People."

"Heheh...little too crowded for your liking?" Mammoth asked. "What, you shy?"

"Let's put it this way...," Killer Moth gestured. He stood besides an old suit of metal armor as he spoke, "...I'd much rather be sneaking my way through human bodies when they're on the floor. Homo sapiens have their days numbered. The future belongs to the insects and anyone who--"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Gizmo shrugged. "When are we gonna do this thing, old man?"

"We're going to do this *thing* after I tell you this," Killer Moth pointed. "You can have what you want. But realize that if you so much as try to hurt my creatures at all, there'll be Hell to pay. I chemically programmed an avoidance function in them just for you three so that they'll avoid ripping the skin off your bones with their mandibles. Believe me, I let them down greatly with the loss of such a meal."

"Lucky for us...," Jinx monotonously mused.

"You see this?" Killer Moth held out his gloved hand. There was a cylindrical device in it. At the very end of it was a switch. "This releases my children. One tap of the button and this opera falls under my control. _None of you are allowed to even touch it_. **Only I am allowed to use this**. If so much as a single inch of your _skin_ grazes this device, I shall be very...very...very...angry."

SMASH!!!!!!

Suddenly, the suit of armor besides Killer Moth flew apart in a hundred pieces. Emerging from the metal shell, I brought my charged Myrkstaff back down, spun around, and swept Killer Moth's feet from under him. WHUMP!! I reached down, swiped the trigger from his hand, and somersaulted across the room.

The H.I.V.E. members watched, bug-eyed. Unbeknowst to them, a green dalmatian statue behind their legs turned into a green elf that charged, dove, and became a falcon in mid air.

I tossed the trigger up, which Beast Boy caught in his talons and flew off to a far side of the shadowed cellar.

"........." Everyone stared.

Then Gizmo jolted. "CRUD!" He slammed his fingers onto his remote. The laser rifle uprighted itself and blasted madly away at me.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

I flipped, rolled, and dodged each subsequent blast of the weapon with grace. At one point I knelt down and held Myrkblade up vertically, deflecting a blast or two back at him.

Gizmo shrieked and ducked a firebolt that singed a painting and a statue behind.

Mammoth came charging, growling at the top of his lungs.

I vaulted over his shoulders and nopped off his back--forcing him to plunge into a crumbling grand piano. SMASH!!

I landed right in front of Jinx, lifted my shades, and winked a black eyes.

The pink-haired witch stared breathless and wide-eyed for about half a second before I spun and kicked her shocked self in the stomach. WHUMP!! She flew back into the strings of an age-old stage harp and got tangled up in the cords.

Mammoth got up, rubbing his head, and was about to charge at me again when Killer Moth shrieked from the other side of the cellar: "Not him!! The green bird! He's got the control!!"

Gizmo stood up and saw the emerald falcon swinging around for an approach. He clicked a button on his remote, and his backpack launched an entangling net that swallowed the fowl and brought it down to the earth, sqawking and pecking.

Mammoth was about to stomp on it when Beast Boy swiftly turned into a snake, swallowed the control, and slithered out of the holes in the twine.

WHAM!!

He dodged Mammoth's massive foot, hopped up, turned into a pelican in mid air, and launched the control at me.

I jumped and caught it, landing with a blur that carried me--smoking--up and out of the cellar entirely.

"NO!!" Killer Moth shook. "Why didn't you tell me that the Titans were here?!"

Mammoth shrugged. The stupid oath was quickly slammed to the ground by a green kangaroo's pair of feet.

"We've got to get that control!" Gizmo growled. He turned his backpack into a jet pack and propelled himself up the stairs.

"You mean *I've* got to get it back!" Killer Moth shouted after him and ran in pursuit.

Beast Boy turned into a cheetah and made for the door as well.

Just then, an angry Jinx pulsed pink hex throughout her body, smashing apart the harp entangling her. She stood up, gritted her teeth, and aimed a hex beam at the stair way.

FLASH!!

A wave of energy soared ahead of Beast Boy and collapsed the ceiling of the cellar just before the exit. He stopped in his tracks in elf-form, trapped.

"Attack Pattern Delta!" Jinx growled. She and Mammoth went stealthily into hiding.

Beast Boy spun around.

There was no sign of his two enemies. They were hidden behind ancient set pieces and props. _Stalking him._

"Hoo boy...," he sweat dropped and slowly snuck his way to the grated exit to the lawn outside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred into the main hallway. The noise and music of the opera shook off the walls and filled my ears. I looked behind me and caught the shadows from the stairway that announced my villains in pursuit. _I had to lose them somehow_….I turned around, looked for options, and eventually headed for a corner that led backstage.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy snuck around a tall wooden crate and pressed his back against it. He peered around the corner at the grate in question. A touch of moonlight shone down through it. He whipped out his communicator and whispered into it.

"Good, you got the communicator, Noir…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…_now see if there's some way to activate the failsafe_," his voice electronically murmured to me on my end. _"Robin studied the last one Killer Moth used when we did him in. There should be some switch somewhere that shuts off the device altogether and makes it impossible to reboot._"

I nodded listlessly, sneaking into the shadows backstage, undetected. I glanced around. I could see the curtain through a slit that separated the front of the theatre from the backdrop being used on the set. Suddenly, the curtains rose and before me stood-facing the audience-a plethora of gypsies in some sort of outdoors setting. Kitten was out there, dressed in her garb. An extra. I glanced to my left and then up. A complex set of pulleys and ropes and catwalks stretched vertically and criss-crossed the huge space behind the set's backdrop.

Act Two. Scene One.

_"I'll rejoin you as soon…_"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…I can, but first I have to get my green butt out of here," Beast Boy finished and snapped away the communicator.

"Party line?"

He gasped and stared up.

Jinx flew down at him from atop the crate, hexing fingers first.

Beast Boy mongoosed out of the way.

Jinx landed and flung a hex bolt at him.

The changeling flipped into a frog, leapt, bounced off of Jinx's head, and landed on a wall in the form of a monkey. The green primate grabbed brass candlesticks from a nearby, dusty pile and started lobbing them one by one at the cat-eyed witch. Jinx twirled, side-stepped, and ducked each projectile. She smiled and jumped nearly to the ceiling, making way for a charging (roaring) Mammoth.

"RRRRRGHHHHHH!!!"

The monkey swiftly turned into a seagull and flew over the giant's head as it plowed into the debris.

SMASH!!!

Beast Boy swiftly dropped down, turned into a green gorilla, and slammed both of its fists into Mammoth's back.

WHUMP!!

"UGH!!" Mammoth tumbled, got back to his feet, and ran back, growling. "RrrrrrrrRAUGH!!"

The two behemoths met in the center of the cellar, making contact with their hands. They proceeded to struggle and strain for physical dominance. Mammoth grit his teeth. Beast Boy furrowed his apeish brow.

Mammoth got control at a point. He put his weight into swinging Beast Boy's huge, hairy body into a nearby crate, smashing it into splinters. That pissed the changeling off. He slammed his foot into Mammoth's chest, pushing him back. The gorilla howled, jumped up, and started pummeling Mammoth's face left and right; left cheek and right cheek.

WHAM!

SMACK!

POW!

He gripped Mammoth's shoulders.

Mammoth gripped his neck.

They struggled in place for a few seconds until--

"Ahem…," Jinx muttered.

They both looked over.

She held two glowing, pink hands up and smiled. "Stay still, Mammoth." She proceeded to aim for the green gorilla in her partner's gasp.

The primate's eyes widened, and suddenly it turned into a tiny mouse in Mammoth's grasp.

The sudden change in mass forced Mammoth to topple forward with a gasp and directly in Jinx's line of hex.

FLASH!!!

Mammoth flew hard into a wall with a cry. The mouse fell out of his grasp, turned into a bat, and made straight for the grate when it was snatched from midair by Jinx's hands.

"GOTCHA!" The sorceresses grinned at the winged creature in her grasp. "And if I don't mind saying so…quite a cute one for once."

The bat frowned and turned into a green porcupine.

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Jinx tossed him into the air. "YAAAH!!"

In mid air, the porcupine flipped and found itself sailing straight at Mammoth, who was holding up one end of a rusted crowbar.

"Batter up…," the giant threateningly mused.

The flying porcupine turned into a flying triceratops.

"….," Mammoth's eyes went wide.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!

The green dinosaur landed butt first against the H.I.V.E. mercenary, shoving him into the far side of the room. At the end of its slide, the triceratops got up, dragged its feet, and charged straight at Jinx.

Jinx leapt out of the way at the last second as Beast Boy smashed through countless props and cultural artifacts before leaping into a humming bird and finally flying out the grate.

Jinx grit her teeth and ran after it, motioning to Mammoth: "Come on!"

"What's there to come?" Mammoth asked, lying dizzily in a pile of pain.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime, I was sneaking my way across the backstage. When I found a secluded enough spot, I stopped. Just beyond the backdrop, I could see the shadows cast by the gypsies and actors as the spotlight focused on them. Shadows danced and twirled all over me.

I turned the cylinder over and over in my hand, making sure not to press the button on the trigger. That would release all of Killer Moth's hideous creatures. I strained and squinted my eyes through my shades, and for a second there I swore I saw a meter on the bottom of the cylinder that hinted at an energy depletion for the trigger's signal…er…or something.

A rustling sound emanated from my right. I jerked to see.

Killer Moth was quite obviously entering the backstage area. He glanced over and saw me in an instant.

I looked to my left.

Gizmo hovered to the ground backstage, looked around, and saw me.

I looked up.

A rope.

I blurred. I jumped off the wall. I flew and grabbed a hold of the rope. I climbed it at murking speeds.

The music from the orchestra pounded and the chorus of the gypsies filled my ears.

Killer Moth and Gizmo ran to the center of the backstage and looked up at me. Killer Moth glanced down at Gizmo.

"We've gotta do this quietly. The sooner we alert the audience of our presence while he has that remote, the less of our chances of holding them all hostages by my creatures. It'd be a bad situation if the people got scared off before we could get to them."

"Tell me something I don't know," Gizmo stuck his tongue out. "Fartwing!" He switched to a stealth mode on his jetpack and hovered up after me.

Killer Moth jumped onto the wall in the back and used his razor sharp claws to climb up.

In the meantime, I had made it to a catwalk and was running down the metal platform that quite literally stretched over the stage performance. I looked down and below my feet—between the grating of the catwalk—I saw for the first time the hundreds of rich spectators comprising the audience.

_Whoah…_

CLANK!

C-CLANK!

Killer Moth and Gizmo landed on the platform on either side of me.

"Well looky here…," Gizmo grinned underneath his speck eyes. "The phantom of the opera…"

"Give…that…back…" Killer Moth flexed his gloved hands.

I gripped the trigger tightly in one hand. I looked from Gizmo to Killer Moth and from Killer Moth to Gizmo.

They slowly closed in on either side of me. Step by step.

The catwalk wobbled.

I whipped out Myrkblade. SWISSSSSH-CLANK!! It rested on the metal floor, murk warbling.

Gizmo stepped closer.

Killer Moth stepped closer.

I pocketed the trigger away.

I gripped Myrkblade in two hands.

The music pounded.

The gypsies danced.

The audience entranced.

Killer Moth growled, his mask's teeth glistening.

Gizmo clicked forth a laser rifle from his backpack.

I looked at Killer Moth.

I raised Myrkblade.

They drew to a stop.

Close enough.

I looked at Gizmo.

Gizmo looked back at me.

The gypsies paused.

The actors inhaled.

I grinned at Gizmo.

His specks went wide.

And the anvil chorus began.

I lunged at Gizmo, kicked him in the knee, and struck him upside the shoulder with the broadside of Myrkblade, throwing him back.

Killer Moth charged.

I spun, deflected his arm down, elbowed his chin, and spun-kicked him back a few feet.

Gizmo lunged and grabbed ahold of my back. I flipped murkingly in mid air, grabbed onto an over hanging rope, and yanked my lower body down—tossing him onto the catwalk.

The boy fell at Killer Moth's feet. Killer Moth leapt over him and raised his claws at me in mid air.

I spun on the rope and propelled myself downward. My foot sailed upside his cranium, causing his whole body to spin vertically in mid air till he fell with a loud CONG!!! that shook the whole platform.

Gizmo lost his footing on the shaking platform as I came down, landed on a railing spun, and smacked him good in the chest with Myrkstaff.

WHUMP!!

He slid off about ten feet till he literally fell off the catwalk and into the backstage below. "WHOAH!!"

Killer Moth stood up, shook his head, and charged at me.

He swung serrated fist after serrated fist.

The anvils clanged.

The gypsies bellowed.

I ducked, backstepped, and dodged every attack.

Killer Moth then struck upwards from below.

I twirled to the side, lifted his lunge further with a thrust of Myrkstaff, spun, and elbowed him deep in the chest with the hilt of my sword. He bent over from the impact, upon which I uppercutted him with a kick that sent him sprawling back.

Just then, Gizmo lowered in front of the incapacitated Killer Moth. Hovering from his jetpack, he whipped out _two_ laser rifles and dove at me, firing.

Time slowed down as I jumped off a railing, positioned myself horizontally, and twirled in mid-air, dodging the streaking flamebolts that soared around and under my limbs by a hair's whisper.

Time resumed. Gizmo soared past me.

I landed lengthwise on the platform, winced, and looked up.

Gizmo came flying back for a return.

Suddenly, Killer Moth lifted me from behind in a headlock. I struggled, barely keeping his gloves' claws away from my neck. But he wasn't interested in me. He forced the trigger out of my pocket and into his grasp.

I looked ahead. My black eyes widened under the mask. I swiftly elbowed myself out of Killer Moth's grip and ducked low.

The costumed villain gasped as he suddenly faced the brunt of Gizmo's head-on laser rifle strike.

Gizmo zoomed over, but it was too late. A trail of flamebolts ricocheted off the hardened chest of Killer Moth's costume, knocking him back and forcing the trigger high into the air and out of his grasp.

"I got it!!" Gizmo cried and soared high over the resounding opera, returning with a hand outstretched.

I looked up at the mid-air device. I gritted my teeth, clenched the catwalk with my fingers, and surged murk through my body. I released, blurring myself up into the air, spinning, and snatching the trigger a half second before the flying Gizmo could. When he soared past me, my legs were in the right position to kick him square in the jetpack. And I did.

"YAAAH!!" he went spiraling down into a loud, clanging crash atop the catwalk.

I flipped from my kick and landed in front of a ready Killer Moth.

He punched me hard in the jaw and shoved me back with a foot.

The trigger went flying up into the air again.

He reached for it.

I countered, stepped forward, and swung Myrkblade in an upwards arc.

SWOOSH-CLINK!!

I knocked the trigger higher into the air with my wooden blade, swung, and smacked the broadside of it against Killer Moth's side.

SLAM!!

He fell hard against the railing of the catwalk as I jumped, vaulted off his back, and grabbed the object in mid air---only to have Gizmo soar down and smack into my side.

"!!!" I was sent spiraling down towards the open crowd below.

At the last second, I grabbed the edge of a rectangular, metal light fixture being suspended high above the theatre by four chains. I blurred my lower body and flipped myself up awkwardly onto the top of the precariously dangling platform of metal. I panted straight into the heated fans of two or three ambient lanterns.

Gizmo chuckled and hovered down onto a piece of the metal platform behind me. "Ha! Snotworm! Need a light?" he grinned.

I frowned at him…then grinned.

Holding the trigger in one hand, I swiped Myrkblade across the lengths of the two chains on my side, effectively severing them.

SLINK!! SLINK!!

Awkwardly balanced and awkwardly suspended, the entire light fixture swung like a huge pendulum high over the stage, over the backdrop, and sailed directly into the back wall, Gizmo-first.

"Uh ohhhh," he gulped.

I leapt off at the last second, sheathed Myrkblade, and grabbed onto a rope and pulley.

SMASH!!!!!

The orchestra and the gypsy's chorus drowned out the catastrophe.

Gizmo fell with the shattered debris, hovering as if his life depended upon it. And it did.

Dangling by one arm, I concentrated murk into my body and soared upwards on the rope, spiraling up it like an upside down comet.

I found myself progressing upwards into a literal cobweb of ropes and pulley systems for the various backdrops, stage pieces, and curtain folds. Far up above was another catwalk with a door that led towards the rooftop. I headed for it, jumping and grabbing from rope to rope at dizzying speeds.

But then, a few yards above me, Killer Moth swung in and grabbed the rope I was climbing. Using the sharp mandibles of his mask, he 'bit' through the rope causing it to fall in my grasp—and myself included.

I blurred over to another rope, swung, and propelled myself upward, grabbing onto Killer Moth's cord.

He merely slid down and rammed me with his foot.

From the contact, I lost grip of the trigger.

I let go of the rope, fell backwards, grabbed the trigger, flipped, and barely grabbed the end of another rope. As it turns out, the rope I grabbed this time was on one end of a cord that traveled through a pulley up above and dangled down onto the side that Killer Moth was holding onto. His greater weight took over. Soon he was gliding down on his end of the pulley system and I was flying up at him. A few feet away, he aimed a descending foot at my skull again. I pocketed the trigger, unsheathed Myrkblade, and positioned it on a cutting path up towards Killer Moth's ankles.

It's no surprise that he jumped out of the way. I managed to slice of a hard sliver of his mask. But no sooner had he leapt that I started drifting in the opposite direction, with my weight dragging me back towards earth. I was in mid-reach for another, nearby rope when something mechanical suddenly slammed me in the side. In mid flight, I managed to grab ahold of a nearby cord and swing around to face my enemy.

Gizmo was back, but now his backpack was sprouting four spider-like legs. He grinned, then came at me at full-force, his mechanical limbs acting as perfect arachnid limbs in their climbing of the ropes.

I spun around and made a break for it. I jumped and blurred from rope to rope like some sort of steroid, cyberpunk monkey with a tin daddy-long-legs chuckling in hot pursuit. At some point, Gizmo extended his laser rifles and started blasting as well. I spiraled around a rope or two and dodged as he chased me throughout the high-wire escapade. He then fired to distinct rounds that rang out in my ear. I grabbed hold of a rope at the far end of the rafters, swung around, and unsheathed Myrkblade in one massive swing that deflected the two blasts back at him. He ducked just in time to avoid the return fire, but was too late to escape my launched jump kick.

The contact turned into a sprawl and the sprawl sent the two of us falling down, bumping against ropes and cords, impacting a light fixture, rolling off, and plummeting to the backstage below. I grabbed onto a rope at the last second and slowed our decent—yes, the robot-legged Gizmo had grabbed onto me.

Needless to say, we struck the floor rather hard. He went tumbling and I went rolling and the trigger went sliding.

"AH!" Gizmo gasped. He tapped a button on his backpack and his robot legs 'snapped' off. Thus he had the lightweight mobility necessary to jump up and run over on midgety feet towards where the trigger lay.

Gritting my teeth, I tossed the metal legs off me, got onto my knees, aimed Myrkblade, and flung it straight at him.

SWOOOOOSH-SLUNK!!!

The blade skewered itself through the back of his jumpsuit and out the other side of the neckline. Though it avoided his skin, the utter velocity of the blade was sufficient enough to send him flying over the trigger, across the backstage, and embedded into a wall where he hung struggling: "Get me down! Get me down!"

I was about to dive for the trigger when a pair of fists slammed me down in the back. Despite the pain, I rolled over in the nick of time to avoid Killer Moth's stomping foot. I jumped up and faced him.

"Ha!" He cackled. "Not so tough with your sword, are yo—" WHAM!!!

After karate kicking him upside the chin, I gave his jaw a roundhouse punch then shoved both of my hands into his chest, sending him smashing through a set of wooden props.

Before he could get up, I spun around, dove, grabbed the trigger, rolled forward, hopped up, grabbed the Gizmo-skewered Myrkblade, and swung it at Killer Moth.

"WAAAAAAH!!!" Gizmo shrieked as he flung about on the end of my weapon.

Killer Moth jumped back with each swing I made.

SWOOOSH!! "AAAAAAH!!!" WOOOOSH!! "YAAAAAGH!!"

The costumed villain stumbled backwards.

I pointed Myrkblade at him, leaned back, and shoved my foot along the broad side of it, effectively sliding Gizmo off and kicking his body like a soccer ball straight into Killer Moth's chest.

WHUMP!! "OOF!" "UGH!"

I pocketed the trigger and was about to head back up towards the exit when a blast of pink light struck the floor beneath my feet. A wooden floorboard cracked and caused me to trip. The trigger went flying out of my hands and into the grasp of Mammoth, who had just entered upon the scene.

He grinned and waved at Jinx far above and behind me. Then he sneered down at me, "Looks like you're screwed, tangle-foot."

And that's exactly when a green pterodactyl dove in, snatched the item from his grasp, and soared up towards the rafters.

The look of defeat on Mammoth's face was priceless. I had to grin.

*GRIP*

My whole body winced as Killer Moth tightly gripped my skull in sharp glove-fingers.

Gizmo walked up beside my head and Jinx jumped down to join Mammoth and the gang as they all looked evilly up at Beast Boy, aimed various weapons and bludgeons and powers of pain towards my cranium, and threatened straight forwardly through Killer Moth: "Give us the trigger or we rip your friend up into a sideshow performance!"

Suddenly, a stream of bright power cut through the air and knocked all four villains off their feet. Freed, I jumped up with Myrkblade and looked towards the source of the salvation.

I smiled.

At the edge of the backstage, Cyborg stood with his laser rifle smoking. "Booooo…," he uttered.

Yah???

"Cy!!" Beast Boy waved the trigger from a rope on high.

A bright flash of pink flew at him, destroying a light fixture.

"Whoah!" the changeling barely caught his balance.

I spun around, saw Jinx standing with her hands outstretched, and kicked a piece of floorboard debris at her. She dodged, but was distracted in time for Cyborg to pounce in and ward the villains off with his laser rifle. Gizmo, however, flew out of range on his jetpack and pursued Beast Boy over our heads.

It had become 4v3.

"What took you so long?!?" Beast Boy called down, yelling over the noise of the play just beyond the backdrop and the ensuing orchestra. "We could have used your help sooner!" He yelped and dodged a blast or two from Gizmo.

"Long drive in the T-Car!" Cyborg shouted back, engaging in a fist-fight with Mammoth. "Almost got pulled over, dang it!"

"Only you?!" Beast Boy swung on a rope and perched atop a catwalk. "Where're the others?!"

"It's a long story. I'm as good as it gets!"

Cyborg dodged a punch from Mammoth, growled, and charged him straight in the stomach, slamming him against a styrofoam set of rocks and castle walls.

In the meantime, I was busy dodging and parrying Killer Moth's serrated gloves. Jinx stood in the background, taking a pot luck shot at me every now and then with her hex force. Floorboards and set pieces crumbled and flew at me, giving Killer Moth a fraction of a second of an advantage every now and then. I was starting to sweat.

Above me, Gizmo had caught up with Beast Boy and was wrestling with him for control of the trigger. The tumbled with each other on the catwalk. Gizmo sprouted various laser rifles, tasers, and robotic legs in his attempts and Beast Boy turned into just about every marsupial and primate in the book before the two slammed into a light fixture and the trigger fell completely out of their grasp and landed precariously on the very top of the stage's scenic backdrop. It wobbled, ready to tip over either backstage (on our side) or into the actual opera itself.

For once, everyone gasped at the same time. There was an unearthly pause as everyone considered their options at hand. Gizmo could have flown towards it, but he was entangled with Beast Boy. Killer Moth could have climbed up with his claws, but it would have taken too long. Finally, Jinx could have flung forth a hex bolt destroying the whole backdrop altogether. But that would mean the revelation of their presence and the possible catastrophe of their plan.

So I naturally did the selfish thing. I spun away from Killer Moth, ran towards the backdrop…and up it.

Every villain and every hero gasped or sweatdropped or bit their lip as I blurred my feet into whisping murk and literally ran up the flimsy backdrop. I made every effort to not fluctuate the illustrated scenery at all. I was in complete confidence that none of the rich people watching would have noticed a thing. When I reached the top, I grabbed the trigger, flipped, and perched gracefully on the flimsy backdrop in a victorious pose.

Both Beast Boy and Cyborg cheered.

And Jinx…well…she flung a hex bolt at me.

FLASH!!!

The trigger fell from my grasp.

In slow motion I watched, Killer Moth watched, Beast Boy watched, Gizmo watched, Cyborg watched, and Jinx watched as the device twirled in mid air, sailed down to the stage floor, and landed in between dancing gypsies.

Everyone flinched.

But the play went on.

Nobody noticed the intruding object.

Nobody save for a bratty blonde thing with her gypsy sandals on backwards. She bent over, picked up the device, and looked over the familiar item. Everyone gasped and waved and hissed from his or her spot looking into the play. Eventually she looked over and caught sight of her own father.

And nobody's sure what was in Kitten's head at the time. Maybe she was trying to get revenge for something her father did. Maybe she just wanted attention. Maybe she was high off of the chemicals Killer Moth constantly brewed for his creatures.

Whatever the case, she looked at all of us—Killer Moth especially—and proudly smiled and clicked her thumb over the infernal trigger.

And all our hearts fell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, to the rear of the West Haven Opera House, the Crystal Lake bubbled violently and then was still as the huge dome slid open underneath. Then, in the moonlit glow of the night, hundreds of ravenous, giant insects hovered their way about, fought amongst themselves, and then felt compelled by an inexplicable, chemically-induced instinct to migrate threateningly upon the unsuspecting theatre.


	19. A Hive at the Opera part 8 final

**19. A Hive at the Opera part 8 Final**

Beast Boy and I, who had spent so many awful hours in the infiltration of that opera house, were helpless to do anything but watch in stunned silence. The same can be said of Gizmo, Jinx, Mammoth, and Killer Moth; whose entire plan and motive hinged upon the strategic restraint of using that infernal trigger.

So it ended up being Cyborg—the stranger to these horrid proceedings—who dashed over, grabbed Killer Moth by the throat, and slammed him against a wall growling: "What's going to happen?!?!?!"

"You mean what is *already* happening!" Killer Moth retorted over the sound of the orchestra. "Thanks to my ever so 'dutiful' daughter, my creatures are being released far earlier than I had anticipated!"

"And just WHEN were you anticipating?!" Cyborg shouted.

"Never!!" Killer Moth shoved the android away and brushed his costume off. "My whole point was to just threaten the audience! Never truly release the swarm! Fear is the motivating factor in this case!"

"Then why have a freakin' hive to begin with?!"

"What is fear without a sense of reality?!"

Beast Boy kicked Gizmo off him and shouted down from the lighting fixture. "They'll be coming out of the river and heading for us any minute!"

"Um…bad?" Mammoth grunted with a question mark over his head.

Cyborg sweatdropped. He looked at me. "Any bright ideas?"

I stared at him dumbly.

"Right…Titan Smash," Cyborg switched his fist into a laser cannon.

"NO!" Killer Moth shrieked. "You will not hurt my chil—"

FLASH!!!

A bright pink hex wave struck at the costumed villain's feet and knocked him back into the wall.

Jinx held her glowing hands up and looked at everyone else. "Allright…who else here wants to live?"

"Me! Me!" Gizmo sprang to his feet, swung on a rope, and landed on a platform just in front of the roof-level exit. He swung the door open and shrieked as dog-sized moths swarmed into the theatre en masse, their wings buzzing with an intensity that threatened to drown out the unknowing opera below. Gizmo ducked the fluttering monstrosities, covering his head.

There was a screaming sound. We all turned around and looked at a hall leaning into the backstage where a few straggling stagehands ran dramatically away from a sudden cluster of blood-thirsty insects.

"They're coming in from all sides!" Beast Boy said, sliding down the backdrop and to the floor. He ran up to Cyborg and gestured, "How can we stop them all?!"

Cyborg glared over at the two H.I.V.E. youngsters nearest to him. "Gonna just sit back and watch? How cold blooded are you punks?"

Jinx rested her hands against her hips and smirked.

Mammoth shrugged and said, "Killer Moth…he programmed the bugs not to attack us. You're the ones who're screwed."

"_Some programming!!_" Gizmo squealed from up high. Everybody looked and saw the munchkin wrestling against a ravenous moth on the platform above. "Does this *look* like they're on our sides?! Get away!" He blasted it with a backpack laser and hovered away with jets.

Mammoth gasped, spun around, and shook his fist at Killer Moth. "Why….you…"

"Did you actually think I'd factor in your safety when it comes to chemically programming my swarm?" Killer Moth limply stood up. "All Hell has blown loose…and you're along for the ride, kiddies!"

More and more insects started filling the backstage.

Jinx charged up her hex energy and got into a defensive posture.

Mammoth cracked his knuckles.

Gizmo perched atop a prop and loaded two laser rifles from his backpack.

Cyborg looked at Beast Boy, me, and then everywhere.

"Split up!!" he commanded.

"Aye!" Beast Boy jumped to action. "I'll get the top side!"

"I'll get the hallways!" Cyborg shouted.

A pause.

They both looked at each other. "The front entrance!!!" they both shouted. Then, as if on cue, they looked at me.

I looked at them, the villains, and the bugs…and rolled my black eyes. I unsheathed Myrkblade, spun around to face the backdrop, and—with one fatal swing—broke the secret.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!

Gypsies and dancers and opera singers gasped and jumped out of the way as I burst through and onto the main stage. There was a rush and roll of screams and gasps and utterings of shock from the humungous crowd stretching before me. I would have gotten stage fright, had not the damn spotlight penetrated my onyx peepers underneath the shades and just about blinded me.

I stepped forward while some actors regarded me with confusion. Using an arm to block the glare of the spotlight, I scanned the audience, the seats, the opera boxes, the rafters, and the bulging doors in the back. _Bulging?_

I gasped.

There!

The huge double doors to the theatre were pounding and buckling in from some unprecedented force on the other side. My new foes in question.

The orchestra kept playing, too deafened by their own music to tell that anything was amiss with the interrupted opera or the shocked crowd as a whole.

Before stepping off the stage, I glanced down and caught sight of none other than Ms. Cartwright herself. She was staring up at me, mouth agape, a hand over her chest.

I simpered, sweatdropped, readjusted my shades, and blurred forward.

A woman or two screamed as I soared overhead. A river of heads and bodies parted as I whisped a B-Line for the bulging doors. Every other step I took was a leap off of a seat's headrest. As the back of the theatre rushed towards me, I held up Myrkblade.

The doors cracked.

I gritted my teeth.

The hinges shattered.

I trailed heated smoke and dove into…

SMASH!!!!

The doors fell apart and a veritable wall of evil moths poured out screaming and drooling, only to meet Myrkblade.

SLASH!!! HACK!! CUTTTTT!!! RIP!!!! SHRED!!!!

Legs and mandibles and thoraxes and abdomens and entrails flew as I showed the rabid insects no mercy. I had seen photos and autopsy evidence of them from previous adventures before thanks to Robin. But this was my first up close and personal experience. And I was making it last….for me at least. The bugs weren't so lucky.

A large one came at me, shrieking. I spun and slashed downward, cutting the creature in half lengthwise. Two more came from above. I knelt and raised my staff up to stab through the necks of first one, then the second. A crafty creature circled around and sneaked up from behind. Before I could feel a hair of its legs contact my neck, I swiveled on my knees, exhaled, and slashed upwards in a diagonal fashion. Bug juice littered the scene, and it wasn't long before the moths flew back into the now-smashed atrium of the opera house, searching for a safer way to enter and devour the contents within.

I looked over my shoulder and caught glance of the battle on the other side of the theatre. The actors and actresses had long cleared the stage, and Cyborg and Mammoth were blasting off an unrelenting wave of evil Insecta. Above them, Gizmo and Beast Boy flew on rocket fuel and green wings, firing and slashing at every intruder that came from the rooftop entrance. Killer Moth was frantically shouting at everyone to stop hurting his wonderful creations. And…Jinx? Well, I wasn't so sure.

The orchestra stupidly continued pounding away, and just about every other person in the stage was standing up and spinning around—anxiously and fearfully watching the violent situation at hand.

Then I heard a scream from above…_above me_.

I looked up, and saw opera boxes.

_The balcony seats!_

I had then figured out where the new route of the bugs' was taking them.

I swiftly flung the broken doors back in front of the main entranceway's frame, blurred up, and leapt towards the walls. My feet murking, I dashed straight up the siding, jumped off, flipped, and landed in an opera box where four wealthy audience members were cowering from an onslaught of three, drooling insects. With one gasp and horizontal swing of my blade, all moths were severed apart in an instant.

I heard a shout from the adjacent opera box and spotted a woman fighting off a moth that was trying to tear at her face.

I leapt over and slashed the head off of the insect just as a shriek brought me to the attention of yet another opera box.

And so I proceeded to cover the perimeter of the second story, hopping from balcony seat to opera box to balcony seat, rescuing patrons in the nick of time and slashing bugs apart with wild abandon.

About halfway through the trip, I streaked past Jinx. A bit startled, I looked back at her.

She cat-eyed-winked at me and acrobatically recovered my tracks, where apparently more insects were congregating. I realized that she had been covering the second story on the other side of the theatre, and I was doing the same task of double-checking her bug-crushing handiwork.

Below me, Cyborg was wasting bugs away with his laser rifle. To his dismay, bits and pieces of bug innards littered the first few rows like a Gallagher showing. Rich people 'icked' and 'ewwed' as their various dresses and suits of immaculate nature were ruined by the falling entrails.

Mammoth charged his hulking body through a throng of mutant insects. Every now and then he'd grab two of the vile creatures in his grip and smash their exoskeletons together. He seemed to be enjoying himself…that is until the creatures started biting back.

Gizmo hovered about, under and over ropes, in and around light fixtures. All the while he fired a steady stream of laserblasts at the swarming foe, littering the backstage with shells and wings and legs. Once or twice a creature latched onto jetpack, and the boy slammed the boost into full gear, burning the unwanted passenger into ashes.

Beast Boy had his hands, talons, and wings full of morphing into various airborne creatures to complete his expert dogfighting. With a pterodactyl beak, he bit through a bug or two before switching into a falcon and grasping another monster in mid-air before flinging it violently against another, then pursuing a new opponent with bat sonar.

Killer Moth was…well…a female dog.

Our battle eventually filled every corner of the theatre. Superpowers and mutant moths converged and conflicted at every level and under every shadow, and in every space available. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were careful to steer the action away from the innocent bystanders at hand. The H.I.V.E. members were more or less doing the same thing, howbeit admittedly with less concern for the occupants of the seating arrangement.

During the ordeal, Ms. Cartwright cowered in the front row with her fellow producers. In the sidelines, Sandy watched from a hiding place safely behind a set piece. Kitten and the other extras joined the actors in a mad dive into the orchestra pit, where they hid beneath the musicians and covered their heads and shivered. Mr. Anderson peered in from a clear hallway, gasped, pulled at whatever hair he had left, and went dashing away from the combat.

But it soon became evident that the quantity of the invasion outmatched the quality of our efforts. No matter how much we covered our ground and gave it our best, the stream of incoming mutants became more and more concentrated. Far more than I ever imagined the underwater dome capable of holding.

H.I.V.E. noticed this too…perhaps even earlier than my two teammates and I. I was within earshot of them, but too far away to act when they spoke to each other, back to back.

"Snort it!" Gizmo cursed. "This is a lost cause! Let's get that crummy jewel and be out of here!"

"Yeah! Nuts to this place!" Mammoth grunted, fighting off a moth or two.

"Jinx!" Gizmo spun and shouted towards the pink sorceress far above the ground-level fray. "The grappling hook! Now's the time! Get that fat woman's jewel and let's be done with it!"

Jinx looked down. She paused. Then she saluted…almost too formally for her own good.

It struck me curious.

Amidst slashing away at a few bugs, I looked at her through my peripheral vision.

The pink witch flipped down to the first floor, perched on a seat's headrest, and aimed her grappling hook at the Khaza Ruby far away on Ms. Calico's brooch. The large woman huffed forth a gasp.

Jinx winked and pulled the trigger.

POW!!!

People shrieked and ducked.

SWIIIIIISH!

The grappling hook soared over, its cord dangling behind, and clamped over the jewel.

CLANK!!

Jinx yanked on the cord.

WOOSH!!!

The ruby was ripped off of the woman's blouse and flew into Jinx's feminine grasp.

"You thief!!" Ms. Calico stood up, shaking. A desperate audience member pulled her back down for safety.

"Good! Now let's get out of here!!" Gizmo shouted.

"No you don't!!" Cyborg grunted. He made a move to intercept the H.I.V.E. members, but was caught up in a throng of blood-thirsty moths. Both Beast Boy and I were similarly preoccupied with our insectoid enemy.

"Come on, Jinx!!" Mammoth said, plowing his way towards the side hallways. "………Jinx??"

Mammoth froze long enough to get a good look at the girl.

Gizmo similarly froze. He glared at Jinx with curved, speck eyes and uttered. "Jinx?! What gives?!"

The sorceress stood still, perched on the edge of a headrest while the rest of the room tossed and turned in chaos. She stared directly at the gem in her hand. Deadpan.

"Jinx?!?!"

Slowly, the girl looked over at her H.I.V.E. companions. A Cheshire cat grin lit her face and her cat eyes thinned. "You know what's so special about this amazing jewel we're after?"

Mammoth smashed in a few moth skulls and glanced over, sweating and panting.

Gizmo flew over into the walkway between the seats and glanced curiously at Jinx.

"Sure…your answer will probably be, 'H.I.V.E. needs this for a weapon of unprecedented caliber'. And indeed, that is the truth. The Khaza Jewel has enough electromagnetic power to short out any and all fields of energy. With a high powered laser as its vessel, it can level out a city…a power grid…even half a country. But what's really special is what it can do to just about anything within arm's length. Take my tracking device for example…"

Those who could watch did so—dumbfounded—as the mercenary girl brought the jewel to her chest. The light source that was the tracking device in her neck blinked wildly as the ruby suddenly glowed and a tiny bolt of energy was exchanged between the object and her skin. Jinx winced ever so slightly, and a trickle of blood came out from the burn mark that was once her signature of imprisonment to H.I.V.E.'s control.

Mammoth gasped.

Gizmo twitched.

Jinx looked up, juggling the Khaza Jewel in one palm. "What's the matter, boys? Ever seen a free person before?"

"You…You…You…….," Gizmo stuttered. "You betray us?"

"As luck would have it…," Jinx mused and pocketed the jewel. "I have more important things in life to do than kiss up to H.I.V.E. any longer. Like selling this lovely gem to the highest bidder in the criminal underworld. I'm sure impressing the right people—aside from H.I.V.E.—is the best plan I have available for ever finding out where my sisters are. And, quite frankly, it sucks to be you."

"Why you…," Gizmo shook, aimed a laser rifle from his backpack, and charged up to fire.

Jinx spun gracefully and extended a hand.

A wave of pink light flew over the heads of the people and struck Gizmo's backpack. The item sparkled before exploding, sending the boy flying forwards with a cry.

Mammoth growled, stomped a moth in his way, and charged loudly towards Jinx from long distance.

The sorceress swiftly knelt in her perch and shot two arms out.

A wave of pink struck the ground before Mammoth, forming a pothole in the stage that forced him to trip and fall thunderously crashing into the orchestra; finally stopping the loud music.

Jinx grinned and struck a feminine pose. There was nothing her still-enslaved teammates could do. Nobody could challenge Bad Luck head on.

"Crud…," Gizmo grunted and put out the flames on his jumpsuit with flurrying hands. "Crud crud crud crud…megacrud!"

"See you losers later," Jinx blew a kiss. "I'm off to get this pawned." And she proceeded to jump, flip, and dive her way out of the audience and towards the backstage.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and yelled over hum of invading moths. "Don't let her get away! There's no telling what might become of that jewel if she sells it into the wrong hands!" Just then, an irate Killer Moth took advantage of Cyborg's distraction and pounced him. The two struggled intensely amidst a swarm of ravenous moths.

Beast Boy circled overhead, snapping a beak through one mutant bug to another. At the sound of Cyborg's command, he switched into a falcon and bolted straight after Jinx. But the girl spun around and tossed a hex beam up at the ceiling. The chain supports of a light fixture snapped and the entire platform swung painfully into the feathered changeling, forcing him to collapse onto a precarious rope.

Knowing when I was needed, I gritted my teeth and slashed through a half dozen mutant bugs and then went into pursuit of the elusive, turncoat witch.

She hopped up a bunch of ropes and pulleys before reaching the top platform leading out onto the rooftop. I followed swiftly upwards, slashing through bugs along the way, and eventually slinking through the exit and going right after her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mr. Anderson swung open the door to his office. He wandered inside, sweating bullets. The man reached into a nearby desk and pulled out a pistol. He found a clip and loaded it. Then, with a sigh, he held the metal killing tool to his chest and slowly, solemnly, stepped out into the hallway and headed again for the backstage.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I burst out onto the rooftop, the windy night kicking at my long black hair and banana. It was a surprisingly clear sky. Apparently whatever was left of the moths was all inside, attacking my comrades downstairs. All of them.

I looked around for a sign of Jinx. Instead, I was forced to block with an arm the sudden attack of numerous strobes of light. Brilliantly illuminating the top of the opera house were the letters for 'WESTHAVEN' as well as rotating search lights (intensely bright indeed) and the usual marquis set of electronically blinking bulbs.

My eyes twitched under the flimsy shades.

This is not going to be fun.

Amidst all the visual confusion, I sensed something pink blur past my side. I spun around, Myrkblade raised, and surveyed the scene. Nothing. No one. No body to be found. Just rotating searchlights and the huge letter 'W'.

Another streak of pink.

I spun around. I looked at air conditioning units. Shafts. Antennae. But there was no sign of the stealthy witch.

Except for her voice.

_"Why hello there, ghost of Noir. Did you decide to come knocking on Heaven's door?"_

I raised Myrkblade and slowly stepped down an 'aisle' of sort of gravel lying on the rooftop between the signs and lights. In fact, the gravel formed a sea of sorts…a deposit of gigantic grains of sand that shifted and shuffled loudly with each step I took. I considered murking my feet to whisp silently over the terrain, but realized that Jinx had to have known where my position was already.

"_You're the sort of man to tempt fate……I like that…_" she hissed from nowhere and everywhere at once.

I turned around in my walk, gravel shuffling beneath me. My eyes darted everywhere in search of my foe. My gripped Myrkblade tighter as I passed by a giant 'E'.

"_Now do you truly need to chase me so?"_ her cute voice meandered down into my ears hauntingly. _"It's not any government conspiracy I'm working for. It's not some clever plan to melt the world's polar ice caps or something. There're just two souls in this world I'd like to see. For the last three years of my life, Karma worked against me. It's about time hard luck turned on the flip of a coin. I'm sure you'd understand how it feels to desire the turn of the screw. Why don't you tell me what you're feeling? Sing me a soliloquy. Let me hear your voice bellow with desire…_"

My brow furrowed. I approached a huge 'H' and looked behind it. Only flashing lights. I darted back out and looked all around, myrkblade held high.

_"I never understand what you Titans fight for…_," her voice rambled from all around. _"You already have everything you could ever want. Everything in that fancy Tower of yours. Are you so selfish that you must interfere with the fate of others all the time?_"

I reached the far side of the rooftop and looked down the side to see if she was clinging to the wall or something. No sign of her.

_"For once, Noir, I have conquered the tools of checks and balances. The universe cringes to see what I can do next. For I was once a ghost…a slave in all the physical, emotional, and spiritual connotations for H.I.V.E. But like a true acolyte to the strings of Karma, the ghost has been blessed with salvation. I have been pulled out of the mire of my own misfortune and given a second chance at life. And my first task is to free another ghost. And that's you, Noir. If I couldn't exorcize you with water…then let's see how good fire does the trick!_ HA!!!!!"

"!!!!" I spun around and saw a blinding flash of pink in my face.

I lifted Myrkblade between my eyes, deflecting the blast at the last second around each side of my cranium.

Jinx leapt down from an antennae, landed gracefully in the gravel, and spun—flinging arm after armful of hex blasts at me.

FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!

I ducked, sidestepped, and backflipped towards a huge letter 'V' behind me. The missing hex beams struck the base of the letter. The whole electric structure shattered and creaked half a second before my feet planted into it, and blurred. As I leapt off it, the letter fell back and smashed against the marble entranceway of the opera house down below. In meantime I flew in my jump down at Jinx, blade first.

She flipped directly over my figure, barely missing the whole length of my weapon. As she hovered past my Six, she spun and launched two midair hex blasts. "HAAAAAA!!!

I heard her release and I felt them coming. I tilted my body forward in mid fall, landed in a handstand in the gravel, and jolted my smoking body straight up. I spiraled high into the air as gravel and pink light exploded beneath me. I flipped into an upright position and held my blade up in slow motion as Jinx, perched on the letter 'S', flung two more blasts at me. In molasses motion, I positioned my blade horizontally in front of my chest and played 'batter up' with the blasts, launching them back at her.

Jinx tossed herself off the 'S' right before the streaking pink returned and severed the electric sign apart. Sparks and metal shards flew everywhere. Jinx's body became a dark pink silhouette, floating to the floor.

THUMP!! She landed, kneeling in gravel.

WHUMP!! I landed on my knees ten feet in front of her.

She panted.

I panted.

We stared at each other.

A heartbeat.

We both charged.

Jinx growled and charged up pink hex.

I grit my teeth and smoke Myrkblade into warbling Destruction.

Jinx let loose.

I deflected the pink blasts and reached her, swinging high.

Jinx slid below the blade and below me. She came up and flung a charged wrist of pink at the square of my back.

I blindly aimed Myrkblade down between my shoulders and blocked. The action deflected Jinx for a half second of inaction. I quickly spun around with a heavy swing of my weapon.

Jinx ducked, loosing a few strands of hair from my lacerating bludgeon, and kicked me in the shins.

I half tripped.

She uppercutted me with a charged hand of pink.

I flew up into the air from the impact, fell back, and landed with my shoulders against an AC unit that hummed loudly behind me.

Jinx charged, sending off rounds of pink like a two handed gunsmith.

I stabbed Myrkblade directly into the metal unit behind me, forced my weight onto the hilt, and tilted my lower body up. The pink impacted with the metal beneath my legs, and when Jinx was close enough I dropped my lower body, tugged on the hilt, shredded Myrkblade out from the AC unit, and brought it down on her.

She twirled to the side, the weapon taking off a few strips of her blouse's sleeve. At the end of her twirl, she flung a hex blast right in my face.

I ducked as metal exploded behind me, slid beneath her legs, came up with a jump, and swiveled around with a mid-air kick that impacted her shoulder and sent her sprawling across the sea of gravel.

I landed, jumped again, bounced off the bright letter 'E', spun, and then flew down at Jinx's prone body, the Myrkblade jabbing downward.

She rolled backwards a second before my blade impaled the ground where her legs were. She backflipped gymnastically and landed in a pose and a grin.

_A grin?!?!_

"If you want a jewel, you're gonna have to try harder than that, ghost," she smiled. "Come face your fears…"

Whatever she meant by that, she certainly was taunting me. I cracked my neck, regripped Myrkblade, and charged at her.

She stood still…ready.

I charged closer…closer.

Her eyes thin. Her Cheshire gat smile beamed.

My face fell while running.

_Something's wrong here._

She suddenly flung her arms towards the front row of lights on the opera house's face. A blast of pink or two impacted with a few lightbulbs, causing them to explode. And explode they did….along with the air…along with my eyes…in the immense release of light that ensued.

"!!!!!!!!" I literally stumbled, tumbled, and rolled to a painful stop on the gravel rooftop just a foot or two before I would have reached Jinx.

"What's wrong, big boy?" Jinx stuck her tongue out. "Can't rest easy with a nightlight?"

I stood up, wincing…only to gasp and clutch my shaded eyes when Jinx unleashed another pink hex onto a lightbulb.

FLASH!!!

I stumbled back. My head spin. My eyes were on fire.

"Tsk tsk…," she paced towards me, smirking. "You should have stayed with the creepy attics and graveyards, Noir. You're not welcome in this place."

I blinked desperately at her, but everything was hazy and spinning.

She burst another lightbulb or two.

FLASH!!!! FL-FLASH!!!!

I winced painfully and fell back on my rear, gripping my face.

_Everything…burning…pain…so bright…fire…_

Her cat eyes narrowed and she hissed pleasurably. "Silly mute. Forgot to let the cat out." She proceeded to charge two handfuls of bright pink and launch them at my skull.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downstairs, the same old chaos was taking place…only more chaotic.

Beast Boy had himself surrounded by an angry throng of drooling, ravenous insects. He switched desperately between squid, stegosaurus, and porcupine to ward them all off at the same time. All he accomplished was being held at bay by a meager few while the rest of the swarm concentrated on the theatre.

Cyborg had his hands full of Killer Moth, but since his duty was to the innocent people in attendance, he glanced over his shoulder every now and then and found an opportune time to blast an attacking bug or two from long range with his laser rifle. This only angered his close-combat opponent all the more, and soon he and Killer Moth were wrestling hand-to-hand once again.

Mammoth was taking out his frustrations on the insects by flinging every instrument he could find in the orchestra pit at them. He smashed a few flying exoskeletons in with a violin or a guitar and then crushed a large one with a drum set before finding a whole horde of insects to sandwich with a grand piano. Kitten and the actors and the actresses shrieked and flinched from the nearby struggle. The conductor of the orchestra was sobbing.

Gizmo was putting up an awkward battle, ever since his backpack was dismantled. He had picked up a severed laser rifle and was manually blasting away at soaring creatures over the ducking heads of the audience. Sweat rolled down his bald head and between his speck eyes until he decided things were getting too complicated.

"Time to sink this crumhole!" he grumbled and whipped out a remote to the photonic amplifier.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I rolled painfully to the side and impacted with the huge, illuminated letter 'A'. I gripped my shoulder, wincing. The exploding lightbulbs did a number on my eyes. I could barely see anymore.

Jinx sauntered over and glared down at me. "What's the matter?" she smirked. "Cat got your tongue?"

I tried to stand up, but fell back. My shoulders rested against a leg of the letter 'A' and I slid back to the gravel. Panting. Looking up in her 'general direction'.

Jinx took a few more steps and posed. Right behind her rested the cannon that held the photonic amplifier loaded.

"Sorry if I don't have much in the way of parting words…," she slurred, charging up her two hands with pink. "It's a little pointless to eulogize someone who should already be dead."

I winced and weakly awaited my _fate_.

Jinx took aim…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gizmo ducked a flying, shrieking insect and reached into his pocket for a remote. He grabbed it in shaking hands, fumbled for a trigger, and pressed it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLINK!!

WHURRRRR—WHAM!!!

The cannon came to life, spun around, and incidentally swept Jinx's legs out from underneath her.

"YAH!!!" she fell, tossing her hex beam haphazardly.

I shuddered.

FLASH!!!

The two beams of pink struck the supports of the huge electric 'A' behind me. Sparks fell down on my shoulders.

WHUUUUUURRRR

The cannon aimed down through the roof and fired.

BLAM!!!

CRASH!!!

Gravel and splinters flew high up in the air.

On the floor, Jinx covered her fair head.

The building shook.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Huh?!" Cyborg looked up as a translucent ball sailed down through the ceiling and landed in the stage's floorboards between him and Killer Moth, successfully forcing the two apart from the blast.

Killer Moth landed hard with his back against a wall.

Cyborg slid to a stop in the row between seats. "What the hell is that thing?!"

"Our ticket out of here!" Gizmo shouted. He was about to press another button when a bug came up from behind and impacted his shoulders. The little man fell forward with a grunt. His controller slid and was stomped on accidentally by a panicked audience member.

The device sparkled and died.

Gizmo gasped. "Oh sludge…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The shaking rooftop caused the 'A' behind me to groan and tumble over.

I blindly sensed its imminent collapse, and tried running away. I dove forward and fell to the gravel. And as the light crashed down, I could do nothing but duck and cover.

SMASH!!!!

I was unharmed. My body had found a niche safely in the opening in the center of the 'A'. A new breath came to me, and I found that I could stand.

Jinx stood up, wincing, shaking her head.

I flipped off the rooftop and hid myself somewhere along the sidewall beneath.

When Jinx looked up, I was gone. She growled. "Nooo!!" Then she stood up and started firing pink hexes everywhere. Desperately. Sweating.

Signs exploded. Gravel flew. Lightbulbs flashed.

I was safely on the building side, my back pressed against the wall. I panted. Found my vision slowly murking back. But she was far too dangerous.

I swallowed, composed myself, and thought of something.

While Jinx unleashed her rage above me, I closed my eyes and whipped off my shades…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg sweated and looked at the situation. The swarm was drawing back, but only to return for an immense attack run. He glanced over at Beast Boy's predicament and blasted him a path to get through towards the main entrance.

"Beast Boy!" he shouted. "Let's start getting these people out of here! The bugs seem to want us now! Not them!"

"On it!" Beast Boy saluted. He cheetahed out from the circle of insects and soared across the stage. He leapt over the orchestra pit, only to be grabbed by the neck and yanked down. Mammoth growled and held the green cat in a strangling grasp. "You'll do no such thing!" he growled. "Help kill the bugs and we'll all be safe! Forget about these people!"

The cat's green eyes glared. Suddenly it sprouted scales, a snout, a tail, and ferocious claws.

Mammoth sweatdropped as he found himself choke-holding a velociraptor.

The dinosaur shrieked and snapped at Mammoth's nose.

"YAAAH!" he stumbled backwards, flinching. The raptor hissed, swung its tail, and tripped Mammoth to the floor. It then leapt, jumped painfully off the giant's chest, and landed in the center aisle. Beast Boy swiftly changed into a wildebeest and stampeded to the other end of the theatre. He plowed through the double door entrance and jumped back into a green elf, upon which he gestured to the crowd with a jump and shouted:

"Everyone! Let's get out of here! Single file! We'll take care of you along the way!!"

People murmured, nodded their heads, and scampered towards the exit. Beast Boy leapt from headrest to headrest in the seats, overlooking and directing the escape route with shouts—making sure nobody was falling down and getting stepped on. While he was perching somewhere along the sidelines, a sharp glove grabbed his shoulder and forced him around.

"You….," Killer Moth growled. "You ruined this!! You ruined EVERYTHING!!"

Beast Boy gulped.

"So help me…," the villain raised a serrated paw. "I'll rip every morphing strip of meat out of you!"

SMACK!!! A heavy fist flew across Killer Moth's cheek, effectively putting the evil cretin to sleep.

"!!!!" Beast Boy turned and looked up. He gasped. "Bruce Wayne?!?!"

"That'll take care of him," the wealthy billionaire said, having emerged from the crowd. Standing tall and strong in his gentlemanly tux, he looked darkly down at the young green Titan and said: "I'll help get the people out. I think you've got greater jobs to attend to."

"B-B-But sir!" Beast Boy stuttered. "This place is dangerous! You need someone like me to escort you and the other people out—"

"Trust me on this," Wayne said, his eyes narrowed. "I can get the people out. They're all financiers. They know me." He supplied a rather scripted smile and wink.

That seemed to work for Beast Boy. "A-Alright, sir…" He saluted and jumped back across the theatre to assist Cyborg in his bug smashing.

Wayne watched silently, then turned around and shouted commands to the escaping populace. "Alright people. Let's move it! Go!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRRRHAA!!" Jinx growled and flung hex blast after hex blast at random hiding places on the rooftop. She was getting tired. Frustrated. Despondent.

Then, a shuffling sound.

She looked across the sea of gravel and smiled at the sight of a familiar, tall shadow.

"So…out of the woodwork finally." She growled, lifted two hands, and flung a bright flash of pink.

FLASH!!

I raised Myrkblade and deflected it with ease. Then I stepped out of the shadows.

Jinx blinked.

My shades had been replaced with my bandana, wrapped tightly over my eyes with its ends dangling behind my neck. All light, all visibility was blocked out by the cloth covering my mutated eyes. I was as blind as a bat.

_And yet I wasn't…_

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade, extending smoke energy outward. Like that fateful night on the lake, I felt Jinx's position with my spatial awareness. I felt her legs, poised and ready for my move. But I also felt her arms, limp and dangling by her sides as she eyed me with curiosity.

I wasn't there to oogle. I got into a pose, rose Myrkblade, and stretched out my hand, ready to spring into action.

"….," Jinx blinked at me. "Um…"

I rushed towards her. Whisping.

"ACK!" she stepped back and flung a hex beam at a lightbulb.

FLASH!!

I kept charging, unaffected.

She bit her lip and flung another beam at a lightbulb, shattering it.

FLASH!!

I was upon her.

"Oh sh—"

SWOOSH!!! I brought Myrkblade down.

She barely jumped to the side. The field of Destruction my sword emanated sent pain through her system.

I sensed the sea of gravel shifting beneath us. I felt the current of her stumbling legs. I felt where her body was, and that's where I swung my foot.

WHAM!!

I kicked her in the side.

She rose in the air.

I spun, swung, and struck her with the broadside of my sword.

WHUMP!!!

She went spiraling, falling, and sliding to a stop in the gravel ten feet away.

I ran, jumped, and fell down, blade first.

She spiraled up to her feet and backflipped as I came down. I immediately charged at her. She jumped, literally leapt off my lunging sword, and came down on me platform shoe first. I shifted the weight down on the part of my body she impacted with and retracted in the opposite direction, launching her across the rooftop and slamming straight into the huge 'W' of 'WESTHAVEN'. She fell down, clutching her shoulder in pain. I came charging with Myrkblade. She ducked as I swung, ripping off the top half of 'W'. She uppercutted me. I flew with the impact of her strike and let myself flip so I landed on my feet and slid back in the gravel. I shot out my spatial sense and met her coming at me with a flying fist.

I ducked at the last second as she swung over my blind head. I then elbowed her in the chest, spun and tripped her with my leg, and kicked her airborn body across the rooftop.

WHAM!!

She went spinning, spiraling across the ground and landed like a ragdoll beneath the letter 'W' as its sparkling pieces fell down all around her.

BAM! WHAM! WHUMP!! SMACK—CRUNCH!!

I felt Jinx get on her knees, rubbing her head. Then suddenly she shrieked. She was cupping something in her hands. Her body shaking.

I lifted an edge of the bandana blindfold and snuck a peak.

Across the way, in front of blinding sparks and lightbulbs, Jinx cradled the broken locket of her sister's faces. The heart-shaped treasure had been smashed by one of the falling debris from the letter 'W' sign. The clasp was shattered into a hundred pieces. The photos of Fate and Fortune were shred into indistinguishable parts. As Jinx regarded it, her bottom lip quivered…but soon turned firm into a frown. Her eyes glowed a hot pink and she slowly stood up, facing me.

I quickly lowered the bandana back down and held Myrkstaff at ready.

Jinx took one…two steps towards me. Cat eyes aglow. The frown turning slowly into a devilish smirk. Her words were thick with malice and thin with bitterness all the same.

"I'm going to make you wish you could scream."

There was an intense hissing sound. For a while, I was at a loss as to what it was. Then I realized it was the sound of the air literally burning from heated field of hex energy Jinx was building up in two raised hands and then launching at me.

"RAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

FLASH!!!!!!!

I charged up Myrkblade, grit my teeth, and jumped the huge blast. A crashing liken unto thunder rolled through the air as the blast single-handedly smashed through half of what was left of the 'WESTHAVEN' signs. I came down from my jump and had to roll as I sensed a heated streak of energy slide over me.

FLASH!!!

I slid on the gravel, got up to my feet, and ran as Jinx summoned blast after blast that barely landed at my heels.

FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!!

I ran up the side of an antenna, jumped off, flipped, and swung Myrkblade upside down. I successfully deflected two or three hex blasts back at Jinx.

She stepped through them, unflinching, and angrily threw more beams of energy at me.

Gravel flew. AC units exploded. Lightbulbs flashed.

I jumped and flipped through the carnage, honing in on my spatial sense and looking for an instance when I could strike her. I kept my cool, knowing full well she was losing hers.

Jinx kept growling and launching her energy reserves at me. Her glowing eyes were slowly turning into glowing tears. The world was melting down into a dreadful lull. The images of her sisters faded. Her lips started quivering again. The jewel shook against her chest in her pocket. Everything felt so real…so weighted. So cold and unmerciful.

I jumped over a poorly flung hex bolt and flew down at where I sensed her figure and jabbed Myrkblade into the rooftop.

SMASH!!

The blow sent her flying back. Remarkably, the Khaza Jewel fell out and slid in the gravel a few feet off.

"!!!!" I dove for it.

So did Jinx.

We collided, I blindly and she numbly. We tumbled a bit and when we both stood up, Jinx had the red ruby in question her grasp.

Not for long.

With one breath, I slashed Myrkblade upwards and knocked the gem out of her grasp and nearly twenty feet into the air.

CLANK!!

"AAAUGH!!" Jinx flung a huge hex at my legs.

I jumped back, was hit by the force of the blast, and slid awkwardly to a stop on the far side of the rooftop. In a kneeling position, I paused. Time slowed down. I sent smoke through shoulder, down my arm, along my fingers, and into the sea of gravel. The sea of gravel swam its way in waves along the front row of lightbulbs and eventually to the pair of Jinx's feat implanted in the rooftop. Up her legs, I noticed her whole body tense and caught up in one act. Her head was tilted up. Her hands stretched towards the heavens. She weakly eyed the falling jewel high in the air. Her one ticket for her sisters' salvations.

However, at the same time, it was all that stood in the way of some criminal developing a weapon of mass destruction.

I gripped Myrkblade and blurred towards her. My feet stomped in the sea of gravel.

Jinx kept aiming for the sky.

I slung the weapon down besides me.

The sorceress took a deep breath.

The ruby fell.

I grit my teeth.

My black eyes murked from underneath the blindfold.

I stretched Myrkblade to the far side and purposefully struck each lightbulb in a string of succession as I ran.

SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Bright bits of light flew across the rooftop. Shards of lightbulb glass flew everywhere.

I was immune to the strobe, but it was blinding Jinx. Her pink eyes twitched and strained as she focused all her strength on the falling ruby overhead which was getting more and more hazy.

SMASHSMASHSMASHSMASHSMASH!!

FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASHFLASFH!!!

As my running reached a peak in speed, so did the exploding light bulbs. Soon, my shadowed figure was trailing a smoking missile across the length of the rooftop, showering Jinx with blinding flashes and flying shards of glass.

A trail or two of red streaked across her cheeks. She exhaled. Her cat eyes thinned.

She could no longer see the ruby.

I let out a gasp and dug Myrkblade into the floor beneath me as I ended my charge with a slide. Myrkblade warbled with smoke as it plowed into the sea of gravel and sent a humongous wave of stones and pebbles flying into Jinx's prone figure.

For a split second, she was bathed in the rubble before the impact of the sea of gravel sent her sprawling backwards and way out of the falling trajectory of the ruby.

I ran up, grabbed the ruby, held back myrkblade, and literally ran up Jinx's sprawling body. I leapt off her shoulders, backflipped, and sailed down through the hole that Gizmo's cannon had made.

To say the least, I made the hole bigger.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

I sailed straight down into the theatre with the ruby in my grasp. Gravel and splinters and light fixtures and metal debris rained down alongside me. Cyborg and Beast Boy spun around from what they were doing. Women shrieked and men gasped. I impacted with the floor softly with a curtain of murk. No sooner had I landed, I lifted Myrkblade straight up into the air and unleashed a canopy of dark Destruction. All the falling debris and gravel deflected off of some smoke-filled dome temporarily formed over the tip of my blade and successfully avoided collapsing on top of the innocent craniums of spectators surrounding my landing site.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the rooftop, bruised and slightly cut, Jinx panted.

"….lucky catch," the witch sighed depressingly.

She then fell down in the sea of gravel with a PLOP!

And was out cold.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I brushed off some debris, pocketed the Khaza jewel, and replaced my blindfold with my shades.

Beast Boy flew down as an eagle and finished biting through a bug's head before perching on a headrest in elf form. "Glad that you could drop in," he mused, smiling.

I glanced at him and gave him a sarcastic grin.

"What is this thing?!" shouted Cyborg from the stage.

We looked over through a swarm of cyclonic bugs and saw our android partner holding the tiny Gizmo up by the scruff of his shirt collar. Cyborg pointed directly at the translucent spheroid and spat:

"Why did you shoot it into the theatre?!"

"It's a silver bullet!" Gizmo strained to say. "I made it so that we could finish the insects off in case this would happen!"

Behind the curtain, Mr. Anderson poked his head out. He took a look at the two in confrontation and raised his pistol.

"And just how is it supposed to work, then, genius?!"

"It emits a bright light! Attracting all giant moths! Naturally! At least, it's supposed to. When my remote got crushed, it couldn't finish relaying the signal!"

"So it's supposed to destroy the insects by shining a flashlight in their faces?!"

Mr. Anderson squinted a wrinkly eyelid, aimed the pistol at Cyborg's head, and pulled at the trigger.

WHACK!!!!

Mr. Anderson was knocked out cold. His body fell forward as Sandy emerged from hiding, patting a wooden sword prop in her palm and grinning.

"Well….um…," Gizmo sweatdropped and grinned sheepishly.

"Well what?!" Cyborg growled.

"That thing's also kinda sorta got a few pounds of C4 packed into it for blowing up the insects when they come near. And now that it's….ya know…lying on the floor and only a few feet away from us, I'd say it's only a matter of time before we're all burnt to crud."

"Damn!" Cyborg dropped the midget—who yelped and landed on his butt. The android stomped over to the translucent sphere, picked it up, and gave it a look over. "I think I can switch on the light. We just might be able to use this infernal thing of yours." He glanced up at the lights all around. "But not with as bright as everything is…"

"I'll take care of it," Sandy shuffled up.

Cyborg glanced at her. "Okaaaaaay….you are?"

"Someone who knows where the circuit breakers are. Just give me a second!"

"Let her do it!" Beast Boy said, flipping into the center of the room—taking out a moth or two in gorilla form—and reverting back to the infamous elf. "She's a friend of ours."

Sandy was already running down the hallway and towards a wing of the cellar.

I slashed at a swarm of moths and glanced over, sweating.

Cyborg popped out a tool from his wrist. He aimed it at the photonic amplifier and tweaked it with a small shower of sparks.

"Hey! Watch it!" Gizmo shouted out from the floor. "Those are delicate circuitry, you binary buffoon!"

Beast Boy swiftly turned into a green octopus and squirted ink all over the little man, shutting him up. He became an elf again. "Got it?"

"Just about….there!"

FLAAAAASSHHH!!!

My eyes positively burned. I jerked my gaze away and nearly fell amidst my battle with a throng of killer bugs. _Okay……I'm not looking over there anytime soon……_

"What now?" Beast Boy gasped.

The insects stirred. Only a scant few of them noticed the beacon of light. Something else had to be done.

"We wait for that…erm…friend of yours to—"

CHUNK!!!

Lights went out one at a time overhead. The theatre was bathed in pitch black for but a second before the light of the amplifier drowned everything out. Moonlight streaming down the hole in the ceiling was eaten up.

Naturally, the insects' instincts were piqued. They all hovered towards Cyborg.

The robot was rightfully complacent..

"Okay, she's good. I'll give her that." Cyborg sweatdropped. "But I ain't holding this for long!!"

The bugs flew past me and towards the stage. I squinted in their direction, waiting for their next plan of action.

"I'd get that thing out of here if I were you," Gizmo wheezed, coughing up ink.

Cyborg looked up at the hole in the ceiling. "I can toss it….I think…but not far."

"Give it to me!" Beast Boy shouted. "I'll get it out of here! Magic feathers of green, remember?"

Cyborg looked over at the straggling bunch of people dashing out of the theatre and back at him. "Okay…get it out of here as far as you can!"

"Roger!" Beast Boy switched to a pterodactyl, grasped the orb, and soared up toward the ceiling of the theatre.

Dumbly drawn to the light, the giant bugs pursued him ravenously.

The winged changeling sailed upwards through the hole, and every insect followed suit.

I smiled as the room emptied.

Sandy came up from a hallway and folded her arms, proud.

Cyborg looked down at Gizmo, blinked, and then asked: "Say…what's the fuse on that thing anyway?"

Gizmo chuckled. "Oh….I dunno…fifteen seconds?"

Cyborg's jaw dropped.

My black eyes went wide.

Immediately, I turned around and dashed out the entrance of the opera house. Past the throng of people. And to the center of the debris littered lawn before the opera house's face. Everyone—including myself—squinted up at the sight of a bright comet-like object sailing up towards the stars with a tail of hundreds of killer insects.

I opened my mouth wide, but had nothing to say.

BOOOM!!!!!!!!!

A fireball erupted in the sky.

Everyone shook and cringed. A few screamed. Others covered their eyes.

I froze in place…my whole body numb. Something in me murked, and I streaked a blurred path around the opera house and at the shore of the lake where the body parts of dead bugs were gradually littering the ground in a shower of death. I panted and dug through the organic debris gradually collecting on the soil. My body ached with each subsequent second that no sign of my Titan comrade appeared.

I dropped Myrkblade, fell to my knees, and palmed the earth. Sighing. I clenched my eyes shut and shivered.

"………….."

"…………..yo…face East. Mecca's thataways."

My eyes popped open. I looked up.

Beast Boy cutely posed. "What? Elves are immortal, remember?"

I pounced him, tossed him to the ground, and proceeded to rub every angle and point of my knuckles into his green scalp.

"A-A-Allright!!" Beast Boy giggled. "So I b-barely made it! Come on, man! I'm sorry!"

I shoved him away from me and tried not to smile. But I failed. I sniffed out silent chuckles and fell on my back, exhaling in exhaustion.

Beast Boy laughed his head off. "Ha ha ha ha ha…KABOOM!!! Beast Boyless! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

I exhaled.

Cyborg walked up from the side of the opera house, took one look at us, and smiled in relief.

And the moonlight won out that time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Police squad car lights blinked across the scene. A throng of straggling audience members watched from beyond a taped off area as Mammoth, Gizmo, and Killer Moth—under restraints—were led off into the backs of armored vehicles. The last to go was Mr. Anderson. He glanced forlornly up at the bottom of the steps to the House's entrance. There we stood, alongside Ms. Cartwright and a few other directors.

Cartwright flipped through a few documents and glanced back and forth between them, Mr. Anderson, and the papers again. "It's hard to believe…," she said. "All these items gathered from his office. They all speak in volumes of his…second life."

"I don't think any of us know the extent to which he's dabbled with the criminal underworld," Beast Boy said. "When I get that old, I hope all I do is play golf and keep my teeth."

Mr. Anderson looked down at his shuffling feet as he was carted off into the van.

"I trusted him so much…," Cartwright dropped the papers to the marble and sighed. "…all this time, my mentor was a fraud."

"Hey…everything you worked for…that was you, Ms. Cartwright," Beast Boy said. "That's where the real talent existed. Not anywhere else."

"And what good is it now?" she tossed her hands and spun to gesture at the building's smashed exterior and damaged interior. "The opera house is ruined. The show made a laughing stock. All that work for nothing. An absolute waste."

"Ahem…," Cyborg cleared his throat, smiled, and offered an arm. "If you may…."

Numb…yet curious all the same…Ms. Cartwright accepted his hand. The android led her around the front of the building and to where most of the rich audience members were gathered. At sight of the woman, a cheer of applause and exaltation filled the night air.

"Yaaaaay!"

"There she is!"

"Ms. Cartwright, that was amazing!"

"Great show, Ms. Cartwright!!"

"Best night we ever had!!"

The dark haired woman blinked and stuttered, "You….l-liked it?"

"Of course we did!" Veronica Vreeland exclaimed. "That completely knocked the socks off any regular showing of Il Trovatore! Your knack for the unexpected is most….incredible!!"

"Um…well…," she glanced at us and scratched the back of her head. "It was all rather…..erm….accidental…"

"It was spectacular!"

"Amazing!!"

"We'd pay thousands to see it done next year!"

"Millions!"

Cartwright blinked. "Millions??"

Beast Boy folded his arms and smiled up at me.

I whistled innocently.

"Well…um….you bet….just that…," she turned and pointed up at the disaster. "Got a few things to take care of."

"I don't see a problem with that…," said a deep voice.

Cartwright looked over.

Bruce Wayne smiled from the crowd. "We're gonna see to it that you get back on the right foot. We owe it to you for your steadfastness and inspiration."

People nodded at the billionaire's statement. There was a slow murmur that arose in clapping among dozens, scores, then hundreds of people from the crowd.

To say the least, the stage director was flattered.

She blushed and waved a hand. "Allright….I do hear Falstaff will be in season next year. I'll see _what I can do_…"

More cheers. More applause.

Cartwright chuckled and turned around…facing me. Her grin slowly left.

I swallowed and looked away.

"…..," She blinked. "You seem so….different now. Not the charming, talkative, youthful gentleman I thought you were."

I bit my lip.

"….and in a way, you're more real now," she said. "And more honest."

I looked at her.

"I want to ask you two questions….if it's okay."

I shrugged.

"…..did you save me from the collapsing verandah?"

I slowly nodded.

Cartwright looked down. "Okay. And the second question is……how old are you? Really?"

I blushed and pointed at the 'T' on my communicator with emphasis. I simpered embarrassingly.

She blushed and cleared her throat. "Well…good thing I'm not being arrested tonight too."

I cocked my head to the side.

Cyborg's voice from the side distracted us.

"Here's the ruby back, Ms. Calico," he said, handing the obese woman back her Khaza Jewel. "Sorry you had to have it stolen from you so roughly."

"Quite allright, young man," she smiled fatly. "But with the knowledge of why those ruffians were after it in the first place…I'm not so sure I'm happy with it around my neck. I believe I will take the government up on their offer and donate it to their research."

Cyborg smiled. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

"Though I must say…it would have looked good on that pink-haired child."

"……….n-not really."

Beast Boy chuckled.

I smiled. Then looked up. At the top of the stairs stood a girl in a dress and a cloak wrapped over her shoulders to ward off the nightly winds. She regarded us from behind her glasses.

I made my way up the steps, slowly, and approached Sandy.

She smiled and finally said, "Time to ride off into the sunset, huh?"

I nodded with a grin.

"You know….people like us…we're both very similar."

I gave her a curious look.

"I volunteer….you kick butt….either way, we don't get paid."

I took a breath and nodded knowingly.

A pause.

She looked at her feet. "What you all did was a brave thing. And you? I thank you for your understanding. Believe it or not, I work here not just to improve myself…but to learn from other people. Individuals are so fascinating. It's like reading a book with each face you find."

I shrugged and gestured to her.

She replied, "No, I never read that novel. Why you ask?"

_No reason._

"I see…"

A pause.

I shrugged, waved, and made to go.

"One second…"

I stopped and glanced at her.

She blushed. "Could I ask for one thing….before you go?"

I stared.

"….could you kiss me?"

_Um……the Hell?_

"You heard me…" she murmured ever so quietly.

I waited on that…waited some more…then stepped forward.

Her eyes were glued to the ground. The lids lowered.

I kissed……her forehead.

Sandy smiled, took a breath, and looked up at me. "Cute."

I pointed at her heart, smirked, and walked off.

I nearly ran into Beast Boy. The changeling glared at me with his hands on his hips.

"Dude! What is it with you?! Why can't women be crawling all over me?"

I gestured an elephant snout with my hand to my nose.

"It's not like I'm an animal all the time! Sheesh! I'm more of the boy than the beast!"

That made me sniffle out a chuckle.

"Hey! That's not a bad thing! What's so funny?!"

"Ugh…let's just go home already," Cyborg said, making way to the T-Car.

"I get shotgun!" Beast Boy ran happily ahead of us.

Cyborg glanced at me through the corner of his red eye. "He sure switches from 'captain' back to 'sidekick' really quick, doesn't he?"

I gave the android a thumb's up.

We got into the car, and rode home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Far away from the police-lit opera house, where the lake met the forest, a lone figure stumbled into the first line of trees. She leaned against some bark, and stared behind her.

After a beat, she glanced down into her pale hand and looked at the shattered remains of her locket.

"I'll find you two….I promise."

Her eyes glowed pink as a tear or two trailed down, and she walked off into the shadows.

Mournfully free.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later, as morning light shone, the three of us had returned to the Tower.

We rode the elevator up to the juncture at the Main Room.

Beast Boy spoke: "I don't get it, Cy! Why'd you come alone? I mean, it was a successful mission and all….but we could have used all the help we could get!"

"Pfft…some help that would have been," the android smirked.

The doors opened with a DING! and we walked out.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Beast Boy squealed.

"AAAAACHOOO!!!" Starfire sneezed.

A starbolt randomly flew by and smashed something in the kitchen area.

Both Beast Boy and I jumped back.

Cyborg didn't even flinch. There was a blasé look of exhaustion on his face as he sighed and glared at the sickly scene before him. "I've been the head nurse of this camp for the last three days…"

Raven, Robin, and Starfire moaned from three spots in the room, sprawled on couches and miscellaneous blankets. Tissues were all around, along with cups of water (some empty) and medicine bottles.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Looks like we missed quite a party."

"Turns out Robin didn't just have the common cold," Cyborg said, getting a pitcher of water and refilling a cup for Raven. "It spread like wildfire right after you two left."

Beast Boy gulped. "Is it serious?"

"As much as bronchitis is serious."

The changeling and I winced.

"Uggghh….a kingdom for new lungs," Robin wheezed.

Starfire sniffed. "These Earth diseases are most….sniff….annoying…."

"You look rather green around the gills, Raven!" Beast Boy managed to muse. "That's a new thing for you! I'd never thought I'd see the day!"

Raven blinked her puffy eyes angrily at him. "I don't do 'sick'," she said monotonously and attempted to center herself. "Azarath Metrion Zin…Zin…ZinnnnAAACHOO!!!"

A nearby table turned black, hovered, and shattered into pieces.

"Ah Hell," Cyborg shook his head. "Not again!"

"Hey, how come you didn't catch anything??" Beast Boy pointed.

"Like I told you before," the android retorted, laying a wet washcloth on Raven's forehead. "I don't get sick!"

"Oh…yeah….right…heheh…" Beast Boy chuckled, scratched his neck, and stepped back with me towards the elevator. "I think we'll….stay on the far side of the T while you do your Clara Barton impression."

"Gee…_thanks_…"

I exhaled a giggle as we left the room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Thanks for keeping me company, Noir. You're not a bad dude, dude," Beast Boy said. We settled down on the bean bag chairs in his room as he whipped out a remote and shuffled through the disc changer of the DVD system. "I've got the best thing for us to pass the time before the rest of the folks get better."

I nodded and smiled curiously.

"It's an oldie but a goody! A classic Marx Brothers film called 'A Night at the Opera'!"

He pressed play on the remote and the two of us leaned back on our bean bag chairs and watched the intro.

"…."

"…."

"…."

"…."

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

I stared.

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, you're right. Let's watch Schindler's List instead."

He changed the disc and we sat back.

At some point, Beast Boy interrupted the film saying: "Wait a second…whatever happened to Kitten?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the orchestra pit of the dark-lit Westhaven Opera House, a blonde thing lifted her head and looked to see if the coast was clear.

"Whew…," the brat panted and stood up. "What a bother. I gotta get out of here and see if there's some other wrinkly, rich punk who can bail his butt out of jail. Now where did I keep my stupid gypsy sandals?!"

She looked at a piano bench beside her and lifted the lid.

A hidden bug shrieked and jumped out at her.

"AAAACK!!! NOT AGAIN! DADDDY!!! DADDDDDDDDDDY!! Where'd that old man go?! DADDDYY!!!!"

A pause.

"Oh yeah…jail. Um…SOMEBODY KNOW FIRST AID?!?!"


	20. Beast Boy at Bat

**20. Beast Boy at Bat**

Outside of the Tower and down the soft slopes along the NorthWest side there stretched a sandy beach that met the oncoming surf. Far beyond was the open bay with the suspension bridge in the distance. A few dots and specks of sail boats and cruising yachts completed the background of the scene; and the ambiance was filled by crashing waves, distant horns of freighters, and the occasional flock of seagulls or two.

Under the summer sun, Beast Boy padded out into the sand, barefoot, and carried a baseball bat in one hand and juggled a ball in the other.

"It's absolutely ridiculous," he said to me over his shoulder. "Someone of your age and height…and you've never played baseball?"

I scratched the back of my neck and shrugged. The beach breeze kicked at my hair and sufficiently cooled my body in contrast to the ever-warming sun.

"That's like an Amish guy never seeing a stagecoach by the day he dies!" Beast Boy blabbered as he found a soft spot in the sand and swiveled around to face me. At the moment, his costume was replaced by a Hawaiian shirt and swimming trunks. _It's scary how skinny he was._

"Look, it's quite simple," he said, tossing the baseball up and down and leaning on his bat in the sand. "And I can easily show the ropes to you! I used to be an ace in my junior baseball league…until the coach and soccer moms all conspired to throw me out since I kept turning into a buffalo on the charge to home base."

I snickered a breath.

"Believe me, this should more than pass the time before Robin and the other two get better," Beast Boy remarked. "And there's no way in heck I wanna be trapped inside the Tower with that sick lot. Don't you agree?"

I motioned at his baseball bat.

"Fine…fine….let's get started," he relented. "This," he held up the bat. "Is a baseball bat! Notice that it's a bat. You hit baseballs with it."

I nodded furiously. _I never told him for sure that I needed to learn how to pl--_

"When you're the batter, that's when you hit the ball for your team. But you can't just swing the bat like any old stick. You've got to take the right stance, you see. Me, for example….," Beast Boy turned sideways and held up the bat with his left shoulder facing me. "…now I'm ready to take anything on. The home plate would be right before my feet. You should stand similarly unless…." A pause. "Noir, are you left or right handed?"

I held up my left hand.

"Hmmm….fancy that," Beast Boy said. "So it'd be reverse for you."

I scratched my head.

"Look at the way I hold up the bat. Can't you see yourself doing the same? Only with your right shoulder facing out?"

I nodded.

"Allrighty then."

He took some mental measurements, looked down at the sand, and counted his feet as he walked steadily away from my position. When he found an appropriate distance, he stopped, swiveled around, and smiled at me. "This isn't so bad. It's not quite Professional League or anything…but it's not like you and I are to care, right?" He tossed me the baseball.

I awkwardly caught it.

"Okay," he said and got into a batting position. "I want to show you how it's done. So you just do me a favor and throw the ball to m—WHOAH!!!"

He threw his body down into the sand as I soared the hardball disastrously fast over his head.

I winced, bit my lip, and expressed an apologetic face.

"You're pitching! Not launching a patriot missile!!" Beast Boy spat out some sand, got up, and brushed himself off. "Ahem…Noir. Just because you're a superhero doesn't mean that everything has to be hardcore."

I simpered, blushing.

He walked over, picked the ball up from a crater in the sand, walked back, sighed, smiled, and tossed me the ball again.

"Allright…take two."

I nodded.

"The pitcher is supposed to….ya know…toss the ball over the home plate. He could very well toss it anywhere when he wants to throw the batter off. But if I am to *hit* the ball right now to *show* you how someone is to play *batter*, then I suggest you toss the ball somewhere over the patch of sand in front of me. You ready?"

I nodded and palmed the ball.

"Allrighty," Beast Boy grinned and held the bat up. "Lemme show you how this is done. Pitch it."

I focused on tossing it lightly this time. After the throw, both of our eyes lowered as the ball hit the sand about halfway on its path towards Beast Boy and rolled to a stop against a dune.

"……."

I cleared my throat.

"I have an idea," Beast Boy said. He walked over, picked the ball up, came to me, and handed it over. He then forced my arm and wrist into a position. "Throw it like this. See?"

I glanced at my arm, raised an eyebrow, and looked at him.

"What?"

I gestured at my hand.

"Yeah, so it's underhanded. You're a beginner in my book. I just want you to get the ball precisely where I want it so I can bat it, k? Once you get accuracy and trajectory right, then we can do the whole 'fast pitch' and 'curve ball' jazz. Jeez, don't be impatient."

I looked forlornly at the ball in my hand, then glanced at him.

"What is it? Seriously, Noir! It's okay! That's a very……um……..manly way of throwing the ball. Yeah." He simpered and sweatdropped.

_Okay…_

He walked back to the 'base' as I watched. He turned around, raised the bat, and smiled. "Now…lemme show you—finally—what a good batter can do."

I rolled my black eyes. Brought my arm down in an uncomfortable manner, and managed an underarm pitch.

The ball rose, fell, and met Beast Boy's 'plate' at waist level.

"HA!!" He swung.

CRACK!!

The ball flew outward like a comet.

"Wooo! Hard drive to---oh crap!"

I blinked. The sun glinted against my shades for a split second, temporarily blinding me at a fateful moment.

I was impacting the sand beneath me before I had a chance to realize that the ball had struck square in the forehead.

And I was out like a blown candle.

------

"_Any clue where he's from?"_

"I couldn't tell you that. Cyborg has no idea either."

"I mean…is he human?"

"Oh, very. No doubt about that."

"And those….super powers of his…"

"I'm not sure, Raven. They did look a little bit like yours."

"Yes, they did."

"But when was the last time you could move that quickly?"

"I know. I can't. Something tells me we are not of the same ilk after all."

"There's no denying that—no matter what kind of stranger he may be—I'm thankful for his assistance."

"I noticed you didn't take his sunglasses off."

"Nope. There's no telling if he has a secret identity. It would be wrong of us to assume it's perfectly fine to remove them. It may be like a mask of sorts."

"You're one to talk, Robin."

"Don't need to remind me."

Silence.

"How long has he been under?"

"Ever since we got him here."

"All night?"

"Uh huh. Why do you ask, Raven?"

"Is there something wrong with him?"

"Cyborg says he's as healthy as any one of us. Just suffered a slight concussion or something when the robot duplicate of Cinderblock fell over."

"Then he'll recover?"

"Thankfully, yes. Any time now."

"Maybe he'll answer questions."

"He's not here to be interrogated."

"If he worked so hard to assist us, he would have to understand our curiosity into his person."

"Perhaps. But at the same time, I respect him for his assistance. I don't want to send him off running."

"Understood. I would just advice caution. His powers seem surprisingly dark."

"That fancies your eye, I gather."

"I only mean that—with the exercise of dark energy—there is room for concern."

"I'll see to it that he's perfectly trustworthy."

"I hope so."

Blinding light exploded through my eyelids. I immediately shut my eyes and stirred.

"!!!"

"He's coming to."

I braved my eyes open again, aware only of a painfully bright orb hanging directly over where I was lying. I flinched away from it and found myself attached to a myriad of wires under hospital sheets.

"Are you okay? How do you feel?"

I blindly pointed at the light and motioned away at it.

"What's wrong?"

"It's the light, Robin. He can't handle it."

"Oh shoot. Sorry."

-click-

Everything turned heavenly dark.

I took a breath, winced, and sat up. My eyes blinking under the shades.

Two figures came slowly into view. A masked teenager in a predominantly red costume and a young girl hidden within a dark-blue cape and hood.

_I blinked again, rubbed my temple, and took a breath._

A green gloved hand reached out to me.

I regarded it curiously, and looked up.

"I'm Robin," the Boy Wonder said.

I hesitantly shook it.

"You're in the Tower of the Teen Titans," he said. "After that robot was defeated, you were knocked out cold. We took you here to help you recover. I hope you don't mind."

I slowly shook my head.

The girl with the cape said nothing.

"What's your name?" Robin asked.

I sighed, brought up two stiff hands, and gestured.

Robin stared. "…….um…."

I gestured again…realized the futility…and looked around the room.

It was an infirmary of sorts. Lots of metallic equipment and chairs and beds filled the place. I glanced over at a nearby table, and amidst an assortment of medical tools there rested a notepad and a pen.

I pointed at it.

They stared.

I snapped a finger and pointed at it again.

"Oh…I see," Robin walked over, picked up the pad of paper, and handed it to me with the pen.

I scribbled on it and handed them a sheet.

Robin held it up. The girl looked over his shoulder.

"Noir?" Robin remarked. A pause. He looked at me. "Your fighting name?"

I nodded.

"Are you a stranger to this city?"

To the point…

I scribbled again. Handed them a sheet. And waited.

"A nomad, huh?" Robin said.

"Do tell," uttered the girl. It was the first thing she ever said to me, and it was bitterly sarcastic.

"This is Raven," Robin said as if to explain her tone. "If you're in the hero business at all, she's no strange name to you."

I nodded slowly. I knew them……some way or another…

"What's a nomad doing here locally? Are you after Slade's android minions?"

I glanced at him with a question mark over my head.

"You don't know who Slade is?"

I shrugged.

"Are you unable to talk?" Raven asked.

I nodded slowly.

"How come?" Robin added.

I pulled the collar of my shirt down and pointed at my throat.

The two leaned in and looked.

Robin winced.

Raven was untouched.

After they had sufficiently seen the scar, I let the collar rise and scribbled on another piece of paper and handed it to Robin.

"Ouch," he said.

"No vocal chords," Raven remarked. "It must be easy to live a nomadic life."

I glanced at her.

She looked back.

"Ahem…," Robin cleared his throat. "I'm sure we have lots to talk about….like what your plans in this area were and all. But first off, we need to make sure you're properly rested and recovered from the recent battle. And as team leader of the Titans, I want to thank you for the assistance you provided. Normally, we don't ask for help from strangers. But in that instance, we definitely needed it. Thank you."

I bowed my head slightly.

"I'll go summon the others," Robin said. "I'm sure they'd be happy to see you."

I raised a finger and halted him. I scribbled something down on the paper and handed it to him.

He glanced over it. "You have….a few questions for us?"

I nodded. I sat up straight before the two…and removed my shades.

Both Robin and Raven were the first to see me. And their eyes widened.  


----------

Warm beach breeze kicked at my hair.

I opened my eyes.

A bright sky littered down through my shades.

I sat up from the bed of sand behind me and winced, rubbing my head.

"Morning sleeping beauty," Beast Boy's voice mused.

I looked over.

He sat on a dune, hugging his knees and facing out towards the bay. He smiled lightly at my waking form with a turned head. "At first, I was utterly freaked out that you got knocked out cold by the ball. But when I felt your pulse and breath…I reminded myself of all the beatings you took in the past and told myself: 'He'll be up soon'."

I rolled my eyes and mouthed: '_Thank you_.'

"Don't mention it!" he shut his eyes, blushed, sweatdropped, then cleared his throat. "Ahem…s-sorry about…..ya know…the ball hitting your head and all."

I nodded dazedly and wandered over to sit by his side.

Soon we were both looking out towards the sea. Peacefully. Quietly.

A minute or two passed as the sound of the waves and the feel of the breeze enveloped us. We were still exhausted from the recent adventures and didn't mind the spite.

Baseball could wait.

Eventually, Beast Boy said: "Ya know…when you first came to the Tower, we all were afraid of you."

I glanced at him curiously.

"Well, maybe not Raven. But the rest of us were pretty anxious," he smiled slightly. "Cyborg was really edgy each crime fight with his laser rifle. Robin kept walking by your quarters, spying. Starfire started biting her nails and me? Well, I started morphing into big dinosaurs more."

I smirked slightly.

_Should I be proud?_

"But ya know….I remember being scared the first time I met Raven," Beast Boy said. "And Robin can be pretty intimidating in his own respect too." A pause. "But…I've grown to admire them so much, along with everybody else. I've learned that….with being a Titan…you end up fearing and loving the people you work with all the same. And you have to, ya know? Cuz there're worse things in this world than each other to go up against. And we need each other to survive and make things a happy and safe place for everyone in this crazy city."

I nodded.

He chuckled. "I'm sure this sounds like one big tangent for my hitting you in the head with the baseball."

I sniffed forth a laugh and patted his shoulder.

"I just want you to know that…I-I didn't mean it. You're my friend, Noir. The same as everyone else. If not more so."

What could I say? I was flattered. Not like I could say it anyways…

"Thanks for…..hanging around with me," he said sheepishly.

I shrugged.

Silence.

"Garfield."

"???" I looked at him.

He smiled. "That's my name. My real name. Garfield. What's yours?"

I looked at him. In so telling me, Beast Boy had broken his vow of silence. He had disregarded the Confidentiality of Justice Accord, which Robin and the rest of the Titans upheld upon forming the team.

And it occurred to me that maybe the Titans were not about secrecy. That we were too much of a family to live under the same Tower's roof and treat each other like nomadic strangers caught in some maelstrom of public necessity.

I may have been breaking rules. I would probably end up being barked at by Robin and Raven for my decision….

But I gave in to the little green elf.

I bent over and drew lines in the sand with my finger.

Beast Boy 'read'. He looked up. "Jordan?"

I nodded.

He extended a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Jordan."

I shook it and mouthed a reply to 'Garfield'.

We sat back and watched the waves for a little while longer. Beast Boy talked about a few things, and when we were ready, we tried pitching and batting again.


	21. Lost and Noir

**21. Lost and Noir**

"Cyborg? Where did you put my laptop?"

"I left it with the pile of stuff by your room," the android said, turning around from the window. He did a double-take, "Hey, what are you doing on your feet?"

"Walking…," Robin griped. He teetered and tottered across the Main Room from the couch where he had spent the last few days recovering from sickness. "I need to…go over reports….from Control Freak's imprisonment…and the incident at the Westhaven Opera House…"

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Cyborg shrugged. "If I were you, I wouldn't be shuffling about so soon. You're liable to break your skull with as dizzy as you've been lately. And when that happens, don't look at me for help. I've done my time."

"Oh give me a break, Cyborg," Robin shook his head and leaned against a wall for balance. "Starfire and Raven are already out and about. As team leader, there's no reason for me to be bedridden still."

"Couch-ridden is more like it," Beast Boy smirked from where he perched on the kitchen counter and enjoyed tofu toast.

"Starfire and Raven aren't mere humans," Cyborg said. "They have ways of getting around illnesses."

"Gee, thanks," Robin said. "If you'll excuse me, I've got work to do."

"You are excused," Cyborg waved and walked over to the t.v.

Robin headed for the elevator doors. They opened right as he reached them. Starfire floated face-to-face with the Boy Wonder.

"Robin…you are recovering?"

"Um….," the costumed hero sweatdropped. He stood up as straight as he could and flexed his arms. "Yup! Back to normal, Star! I'm fit as a fiddle!"

The Tamaranian blinked. "I see…..but…"

"I have to go downstairs now," Robin walked firmly into the elevator.

"…how does the structural integrity of a string instrument predict the healthiness of an individual?"

WHAM!!

Robin tripped, fell chest forward, and wheezed out a few coughs. He took a deep breath and sat on his knees, holding his aching head. "Ugh…never mind…the strings just broke."

Starfire gasped and helped him to his feet. "You are not well!!!"

"I'm fine…," Robin groaned.

"Cyborg! How could you let him walk around when he is not well?!"

"Don't look at me, Star," the android replied, sitting in front of the t.v. with a remote in his hand. "Can't argue with a leader's orders. Lord knows I've done all I could for him. You all, too."

"Thanks…," Raven said dryly from another couch. She dug her nose into her book with fervor.

"I knew from the instant that I also became sick that you would need extra care," Starfire said, guiding Robin back to the couch. "I shall thusly provide blankets and the medicine and—"

"Starfire!" Robin stood back up on wobbly legs. "It's allright! You've done more than enough! Cyborg too! And after you and Raven have gotten sick yourselves, I'd say you deserve no more than a break!"

"But you are obviously still unwell!" the Tamaranian insisted.

"I'm fine. And I'll prove it!" Robin was about to head back for the elevator when a dish of white material was held out before his eyemask's gaze.

"Tofu omelet?" Beast Boy inquired.

Robin twitched, turn green, and ran to the nearest wastebasket.

Beast Boy couldn't contain his chuckles.

"That…," Raven uttered, "…was cruel."

"Yeah, well, now we know he's really sick!"

Starfire floated over. "Robin? Are you 'up the chucking cookies' again?"

Robin stood up, moaned, and said: "No…I'm sleeping on the couch."

"Understood," Starfire helped him. "I shall watch over you for the extent of the day."

"Nurse Starfire," Cyborg turned around and gestured. "What about your other task?"

"Pardon me?"

"It's laundry day, Starfire," Beast Boy remarked from the kitchen. "And you're always the one volunteering!"

"I am sorry, friend. But today I must be indisposed."

"I feel so lucky…," Robin monotonously mumbled.

"GASP!!" Beast Boy nearly toppled over. "My precious monogrammed socks! How will they ever get clean?!"

"Simple…," Raven said from her book. "Someone else must do the laundry."

"It's a surprise we don't each take care of ourselves," Robin said.

"I am more than happy to supply my friends with my Tamaranian talents in textile cleaning," Starfire remarked. "But at the moment, our leader is in need of greater attention."

Robin blushed. "Don't go spreading it around…"

"You know what I think?" Cyborg smirked. "Clothes are overrated." He flexed a titanium arm. "I merely polish myself once a week and I'm good to go."

"Dude….you know that you're saying you're 'naked', right?" Beast Boy said.

"And just what happens to your jumpsuit every time you turn into a T-Rex or a gorilla?" Cyborg retorted.

"Simple! Why, the outfit turns…..it goes……..," Beast Boy blinked, sat silent, then blushed.

"This isn't helping us decide who does the laundry this week," Raven muttered.

"Someone volunteer," Robin groaned.

Cyborg chuckled. "I've done enough work this week, my friend. I'm out."

"Go around the circle," Raven said.

"Don't look at me!" Beast Boy squeaked. "Last time I did everybody's laundry, we had green underwear for a month."

"Yeah…we're still wondering how that happened," Robin said.

Suddenly, I stood up from the window seat.

Half the room looked at me.

I raised a hand and smiled.

"You are willing to go through this undertaking?" Starfire asked.

"Oh yeah…let the noob do the work. Ha HA!" laughed Cyborg.

"Lucky Noir…," Raven mumbled. "I'm glad things are settled."

"The basket is in the third floor hallway, two doors down from the elevator," Starfire said. "I put them there, planning on going into the cellar to finish the week's load."

I nodded.

"Take the basket to the laundry machines in the cellar's sublevel. The door marked 'B' should lead you into the laundry room."

"Star, why not just show him the way down there?" Robin asked, coughing.

"Dude…Noir should know his way around those dark places. Right, man?"

I raised a finger and was about to gesture--

"He's fine for the job," Raven muttered. "Can we talk about something else now? Better yet, can we not talk at all? I'm trying to read."

Cyborg flipped the channel to wrestling.

An artery in Raven's temple pulsed visibly. "Very funny…."

"Heheheheheh," the android chuckled.

"Good luck, my friend," Starfire smiled. "And do be gracious with the bleach. It is most harrowing."

I gave her a strange glance and headed off towards the elevator to do the job.

As I left…

"I feel somewhat awkward having a boy do our laundry," Raven muttered.

"Why is that, Raven?" Starfire asked.

A pause.

"Never mind."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Since I was doing laundry myself, I thought I might contribute to the load. I went to my room, stripped to a t-shirt and gym shorts, and put my daily outfits into the basket before heading off for the door marked 'B' as Starfire had instructed. The cold cellar floor stung against my bare feet. I adjusted my shades and held the basket to my side as I looked from door to door. I was still fairly new to this place…this Tower. Though I didn't try to admit it much.

_Let's see now……_

The doors lined up before me and were marked 'B-21a', 'B-17c', 'B-9f'.

I blinked.

_Crap……which one is it, Starfire?_

I continued walking down the cellar hallway. The shadowed interior was ten times brighter to my black eyes. Sometimes night appears like day to me. When the sun's out and the clouds are gone, life is positively blinding. That's why I requested a room of my own so deep in the belly of the Tower. And that's why I felt so comfortable here.

Well, almost comfortable.

_Which damn door is it??_

I retraced my steps and stood at the door closest to the stairs that led me down into this corridor to begin with.

_Something tells me it's probably the first door Starfire would come to. She seems like someone to avoid complications, bless her heart._

I stepped up to the door and gave it a good look. It was an automatic, sliding door. I pressed a panel on the side. There was a whirring sound. I sat for a while, tapped my bare toes against the floor, and eventually pressed the panel again.

It whirred for a split second, shuddered, and opened.

"……."

_Okay…_

I walked through, clutching the basket to my side, and allowed the door to slam shut behind me.

On the opposite side of the hallway that I exited—unseen to my eyes—was a door marked simply 'B'.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Say, Cy."

"Yeah, B.B.?"

"Did you ever get the air conditioning matrix of the Tower fixed?"

"Uh…yeah, man…like…days ago."

"Then turn it on!" Beast Boy wiped his brow. "It's positively sweltering in here!"

"In a minute," Cyborg droned, flipping a channel.

Beast Boy frowned. He folded his arms. "Either you turn it on now, dude, or I start using a litter box by your room again."

"Ahem…," Cyborg stood up, walked over to the computer, and punched in the necessary keyboard sequence. "There. Happy?"

"Ecstatic," Beast Boy smirked.

"That explains my 'fever'," Robin coughed.

Starfire giggled.

Raven rolled her eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The turbines of the Tower's immense A/C system went into work. Ventilation ducks filled with cool air. An electronic matrix formed by thousands of circuits and criss-crossing wires went into work; regulating the distribution of cool air and making sure there was equal treatment to the entirety of the Tower.

But, admittedly, the system was an old system. And old systems made mistakes. An age-old error in the electrical circuitry mistook the signals for the A/C unit for a call towards the Tower's anti-flood defense system. To make a long story short, a spark or two in the wirings flew. Lights flickered on two or three levels, and random doors locked up and sealed themselves water-tight.

Among the doors that locked up were a couple of innocent, barely used passages in the 'B' section of the cellar's sublevel floor…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I whistled to myself as I walked down a pitch black hallway. I held the basket of the Titans' laundry to my side. My bare feet padded against the cold metal floor.

It wasn't until halfway through my trek that I realized how dark the place was indeed. As is obvious, a pitch black room is not pitch black to me. I can see in almost any environment where light barely manages to present itself. But though I was unhindered in my path through the cellar hallway, it occurred to me that this was the normal lighting situation of the corridor. And it certainly couldn't have been a regular laundry spot for Starfire, a girl who attributes the absence of light as the sign of daily End Times.

_She must have a light switch as soon as she walks through the door. If I want to do the laundry like she does, I should probably retrace every step she takes._

So I turned around and walked back toward the door through which I entered. After half a minute, I had returned, and I scanned the nearby walls for a light switch.

_Hmm……funny……there doesn't seem to be a switch of any kind._

I kept looking, searching, scanning.

_Perhaps on the other side of the door? Before entering the hallway?_

I pressed on the door panel.

Nothing. No whirring. No budging. No action on the door at all.

_What the…?_

I pressed and pulled on the door with my free hand.

It wouldn't move.

"……."

I paused and thought.

"…..."

_You know what…I think I got lost. It can't be this door. Maybe it's another one that I walked in through…_

So I went down another corridor, looking for the entrance that I took…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This, Robin, is Tamaranian Glork Juice. Only on rare occasions is it ever administered to members of my planet, for its medicinal properties are—as humans would call it—'top of the notch'."

"Uh huh….is it edible, Starfire---?"

"Throughout history, Glork Juice has proved its worthiness on the battlefields, in the royal courts, and on interstellar voyages of the galactic conquistadors!"

"Um….Starfire—"

"Thousands of lives saved by this supernatural quaff! It is the bane of ill-being, a salvation for all with puffy eyes and bloated—"

"Is it edible?!?!"

"……it does not enter through the mouth, Robin."

"…………"

"Robin?"

"Cyborg…h-how about some more of your cough syrup instead?"

"Uh uh! No way, man. You're liable to get drunk off of that stuff by now!"

"And…?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I whistled my way down the dark corridors, scanning my left side for that elusive door.

The laundry basket was starting to get a little bit heavy now. But I readjusted my grip of it and just mentally told myself that—in a matter of seconds—I would find my way to the room in no time.

And then, to my left, a corridor opened that stretched off into pitch blackness.

I stopped in my tracks.

"……."

_Um………how can a hallway go in that direction? Isn't there another hallway blocking it?_

I turned around.

_I must have walked too far. I'll retrace my…_

The path behind me forked off in three, mysterious directions.

_………steps._

I confusedly looked at all my avenues, scratched my head, and walked through the one on the right.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg jumped up in his seat.

"Oooh! I love this show! You know, the guy they chose to play as Odo was so freakin' old to begin with. But he's such a badass! It's like…I dunno…they set up his character with such a mysterious past that you know he must have tanned quite a few backsides with his Bajoran phaser and whatnot. Er…what I'm saying it, he's tough because we assume in the past that he was tough, but now he's tough as well because of his past…or his past makes his present tough, and they're both tough in and of themselves. It's like an absolute of…um….toughness, ya know. But you have to be tough to work on a space station with the Dominion and Cardassia breathing down your backs from both sides. Boy did that sound dirty. Hey! Look! He's about to morph into something. Can't you see?"

Raven glared. "I see you being disassembled…piece by piece…with a screwdriver dipped in hydrochloric acid…"

"…………………………but can't you see how tough he is?"

The dark girl growled and attempted to return peacefully to her book.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked out of the corridor and found myself in a junction of five hallways.

_Crap!_

I spun around. Tried to find which was 'north' in my head. And rushed down that avenue.

I came to a dead end.

_What the……a dead end?! What are these hallways for?!_

I spun around and returned to the junction, but everything looked different. That is…..I forgot which hallway I took to enter that place to begin with.

_Craaaap!_

I nearly dropped the laundry basket.

I spun around, found a hallway, and rushed down it.

When I reemerged…….I was in the junction again.

_Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap CRAP!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey! Have you guys seen the syrup?!"

"Don't you ever get full, B.B.?!"

"Don't you ever put the syrup back up, Cy?!"

Cyborg rolled his eyes.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

Raven…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Starfire gasped.

Robin shot up into a sitting position in the couch.

Cyborg stood up and clenched his fists as an alarm went off and filled the t.v. monitor with the flashing words: "Robbery! District 32!"

"Titans! Trouble!" Robin jumped onto the floor.

Beast Boy plugged his ears. "You think?!"

Robin dizzily dashed over to a computer console and typed away. The screen brought up the latest security camera footage from a downtown bank. An armed robbery was indeed in progress.

"Well well well," Raven closed her book and smirked. "What have we here?"

"Cancellation of Sick Day," Robin frowned. He spun around. "Let's move!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I froze with a gasp.

My ear craned upwards.

The faint echo of the Titan Tower's alarm warbled down the metal structures around me and came to my attention.

_A crime in progress?!_

I looked for the nearest door I could find.

I dropped the basket and dashed over to the frame.

I jammed my hand against the door panel.

It wouldn't budge.

I shoved against the door itself.

No good.

I gritted my teeth and stood before the door. My eyes closed. My hands relaxed. I meditated and summoned the energies of Construction and Destruction to produce an equilibrium in the form of murk. I spread smoke down towards the floor and against the door frame. I let the murk pour down between the floor and the door and searched for a pocket to travel through. An exit. A passageway.

But there was none.

_The door is……water tight!_

My black eyes opened and I gasped.

_I can't get out and join my friends!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin had gotten suited up. Cyborg was already downstairs with Raven, taking the T-Car.

Starfire slipped on the last of her boots and glanced over at the leader. "Are you sure you are up to this, Robin?"

"I have no choice, Star. I'm not going to sit back while thugs threaten the citizens of this city. We live in this Tower to protect. Not to sit idly by."

"If you would allow, I'll fight by your side to assure your safety," Starfire smiled.

Robin smirked back, "I assume the same is true every day. For both you and me."

"Hey! Have any of you guys seen Noir?" Beast Boy inquired as he ran over to a window and opened it to the outside air.

"I have not," Starfire said. "Where could he be?"

"It makes no difference," Robin said. "We've gotta move. If he's late, then he's late. We must get to that bank…NOW!"

"On it," Beast Boy turned into a green falcon and flew away.

Starfire sailed out the window after him.

Robin punched open a door panel and slid down the pole to where his Cycle waited for him down below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!

I took a breath.

I kicked the door.

WHAM!

I took another breath.

I kicked the door again.

WHAM!!!

I stood back, bent over, and panted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOM!!!!

Robin's cycle screeched against asphalt and zoomed over the bridge towards the mainland. He soon caught up with Cyborg and Raven in the T-Car, with Starfire and Beast Boy soaring overhead.

Together, the five heroes made a B-Line for the city.

To the rescue.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep down in the dark corridor of the Tower's cellar, an innocent door sat within its frame.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

A pitter patter.

A shuffling.

A series of steps.

A series of poundings.

A series of stomps.

Then--

WOOOOOSH!!!

WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ran and jumpkicked into the door, but fell back with as much force as I applied.

WHUMP!!

"!!!!"

I tumbled and slid to a stop on the cold metal ground.

My body ached for a second and then sighed.

I sat up and rubbed my leg, wincing.

_…………crap._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An alarm shook out of the bank as its automatic doors flew open and out ran three armed robbers with bags of stolen currency and their fare share of curse words.

They headed directly towards a rusted minivan and were just about to dive in through the side, sliding door when a blue-and-white titanium car skidded to a stop in front of them.

Cyborg jumped out.

Raven levitated overhead.

Beast Boy and Starfire landed on the other side of the villainous trio.

Finally, Robin road up on his cycle, tossed off his helmet, and jump-flipped to a stand in the center of the offense.

"Hi there…we've come to deposit you into jail."

"Your puns are just about as lousy as they rumor in prison," spat one of the three robbers.

"You seriously weren't expecting to get away without us coming to the rescue, right?" Beast Boy said.

"Actually," the leader of the robbers smirked. "We were expecting it. NOW!"

On cue, all three robbers ripped apart their 'stolen money bags', revealing heated laser rifles which they aimed directly at the five heroes.

Beast Boy's jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding m—"

ZAAAAAAP!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on the floor, staring at my feet.

Silence.

I leaned back and sighed.

More silence.

I wanted to hit myself…for in lying down, I exposed the most of my body possible to the freezingly cold floor.

I shot up with a jolt, winced, and rubbed my shivering arms.

There's got to be a warmer place down here……if not a way out……

I picked up the laundry basket, got up on my feet, and wandered off blindly through a corridor.

_Why would this place be………sectioned off like this? And those doors……why are they sealed so?_

I went around a bend, another corner, then down a straightaway.

I squinted through my shades…readjusted them…then sighed.

_Eh…what's the point._

I whipped my shades off and dropped them in the basket and went on, eyes black and exposed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAAAP!!

ZAP!!

ZAAAAAAP!!!!

Robin backflipped a few times, dodging each blast.

Raven flew by, forming obsidian shields with which to deflect the crooks' lasers.

In an open moment, Cyborg charged forward, growling, and swung a fist at one of the three robbers.

The robber fell back—literally—to avoid the punch.

Another knelt, aimed, and shot Cyborg square in the back.

The blow sent the android careening into the front of a dumpster with a SMASH!

Starfire dove down, shouted in righteous fury, and unleashed wave after wave of starbolts.

The two standing robbers fired expertly, deflecting the Tamaranian's blasts in mid air and then aiming at her.

She gasped and dashed to the side.

Beast Boy charged up as a rhino and knocked the rusted van in the street towards the three.

The robbers jumped out of the way, regained their composure, and kept shooting.

Robin backflipped one last shot before getting disoriented by his edgy health and teetering over.

Before a robber could blast him, Starfire flew by and snatched him to safety.

He looked up at her.

She smiled down.

He gave a thumb's up.

…and they slammed into a window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stopped.

I heard a pattering sound.

I looked around a corner.

No one.

Nothing.

I crept forward, holding the basket close.

The pattering increased.

I came around a final bend.

I took a breath.

I stepped forward and looked with my solid black eyes.

There was something in the corner. Exploding softly.

I walked forward and discovered a puddle of water. A stream was trickling down from a metal ceiling high above.

I smirked sarcastically and leaned against a nearby water.

_No longer am I in the bowels of the Tower. I just stepped into the bladder._

The chill reached me again.

I shivered and shuffled over towards the wall where I put the basket down and slumped against the wall. Hugging myself. Rubbing my shoulders.

My teeth clattered, forming sound. It was eerie coming from me.

I sighed and looked down at my shivering feet.

_God, my feet are cold._

I glanced over at the puddle of water. At my feet. Then back at the water.

I shrugged, walked over, and stuck my toe in.

_Imagine if polar bears could piss…_

I jerked away, wincing all over.

_Smart move there……_

A chill ran laps up and down my body.

I could almost see my breath.

_The first thing I get cold……it comes in waves. I can't stop it. My mind's made up on being cold…_

I was in no desire to get sick. So I looked around for a solution. And…_duh_…there the basket lay. I rummaged through it till I found a pair of socks. Robin's. There was a noticeable size difference, but it would have to do. I slipped them on. It was a snug fit, but it worked.

But it didn't help smooth out the goosebumps on my legs.

I shivered some more as I rummaged through the clothes, tossing away anything remotely non-male-Teen-Titanish. There were a pair of pants or two belonging to Robin and Beast Boy, but none could possibly fit my height. For a second there I wished Cyborg actually did wear clothes. I wouldn't mind a slight bagginess if he had a pair of jeans or something for me to borrow. At the bottom of the pile, I noticed a relatively large, blue article. At first, I thought it was a blanket. But when I pulled it out and blinked my black eyes, it turned out to obviously be a robe. Raven's robe.

_What the hell…nobody's gonna see me. And I'm as cold as Jimmy Hoffa._

I wrapped the blue article over my shoulders and hunched down. Yes, the robe was short on me, but it covered my arms at least—and my lower body too if I sat. Gradually, the warmth came and scared the majority of the cold away. My shivering subsided and I breathed a little easier.

I took a look at my surroundings. The room was oddly large and spacious compared to the rest of the corridors I had been in. It struck me funny, and I assumed that this place must have originally been built to house supplies or computer stations or something of a forgotten necessity.

I had always thought it but never saw proof until then that the Teen Titans' Tower was a large and mysterious place. Many man hours went into its creation, and whenever you have a congregation of men coming together as one, there are more and more ideas lost to the finite mind.

Silence.

I waited in the darkness, listening to the light pattering of the water drops.

_I wonder if they're safe without me?_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WHOAH!!"

Beast Boy flew back from a laser blast and landed smack in Cyborg's chest.

OOF!!

"Watch where you're being tossed, man!"

"Hey! I'm doing my best—YIKES!"

Cyborg dropped Beast Boy, jumped up on the van, and shot down with his laser rifle.

The three robbers combined their weapons, focusing on Cyborg's blast and drawing it back.

The robotic hero gritted his teeth and added power from his reserves. His laser energy crept closer to their position. And then all three robbers increased their frequencies at once, instantly shoving back Cyborg's laser and impacting his rifle-arm.

BAM!!!

He fell back with a grunt.

Raven crept up, chanted, and released three telekinetic bicycles from a nearby rack at them. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!"

The robbers blew the bikes apart into burning aluminum.

Robin leapt in from the side, tripped one robber, and whipped out two birdarangs which he flung through the laser rifle barrels of the remaining duo.

Unarmed, the two criminals dropped their triggers and tried to flee. They were nabbed by a green octopus who grabbed their ankles and wouldn't let go. Cyborg wandered over and handcuffed them.

In the meantime, the grounded robber—the leader—ran up from his prone position and dashed down an alleyway.

Robin would have pursued, but he was suddenly out of wind.

"Ugh…maybe I do need some more cough syrup," he wheezed.

But Starfire wasn't slacking. She soared after the suspect, hoisted him up by the shoulder, and hung him by his jacket on a flagpole over the street.

"Hey! Lemme down! I'm afraid of heights!"

Starfire smiled cutely and waved. "I am afraid your fear is realized!" And she hovered down towards the rest of the Titans. "We are victorious. Have the local authorities been notified?"

"Already on it," Cyborg smiled, pointing at his communicator.

Raven added black energy to the handcuffs and ankles of the two grounded robbers, making sure they wouldn't run away.

Beast Boy turned back into an elf and stretched. "Awwwww yeah. All in a day's work. We showed them, didn't we?"

"Most of us, at least," Raven droned.

"Where is Noir?" inquired Starfire.

"Why don't I ask him?" Robin said, glaring. He swiftly pulled out his communicator, cleared his throat, and talked into it. "Noir. Come in. Do you respond?"

Pause.

"Noir, come in. This is Robin. Do you read me?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In my room, my communicator rested on a bedside table next to other belongings I had set aside to do laundry.

_"Noir? Come in! Please. This is Robin. Can you respond? Over."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Um….dude…the guy's mute," Beast Boy exclaimed. "How's he going to respond?"

"Whenever I call him, he taps the receiver using morse code," Robin said. "If he was able to get this message, he would be sending me a signal by now."

"But he is not," Starfire said.

"What's up with him?" Beast Boy remarked. "It's not like Noir to leave us short of a team member……..is it?"

Robin frowned and pocketed the communicator. "I'd say it's time we found out. As soon as we can, we're heading back to the Tower."

"Right."

"Understood."

Robin cleared his throat and wheezed. "God, I hate Mondays."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood up, held the robe tight to myself, and shuffled on socks across the chamber.

My black eyes had caught something. Indeed, even I needed time to adjust to the darkness.

I stumbled upon an overturned, rusted cabinet of sorts. I brought my hands out from under the robe and fiddled with the handle of one drawer. It took a bit of straining, but I managed to yank the thing open. A bunch of papers poured out from inside. I stared at them, blinking.

I was in the shadows of the Tower's bowels. Hidden and lost from my comrades. And in this abyss of a lonely existence, I just stumbled upon a bunch of written material.

I'm such a sucker for cryptic, hidden information. I couldn't help it. I picked up the folders, shuffled them, and opened the first one I could find.

A photo fell out and into my hand.

I gave it a once over with my gaze.

A photo of the Tower in mid construction. I flipped the photo over and saw scribbles of some sort. The handwriting was hard to make out, but on the very bottom I saw a signature.

It read: "Dr. Silas Stone."

------

_Earth movers and cranes were caring out a crater. In the very center of the impression, the first pylons of a foundation for a remarkable tower were being planted. Hundreds of workers overlooked the successful completion of the site._

The director of the feat was none other than Dr. Silas Stone, an African American scientist of great prominence. He stood, proudly overlooking the work at hand. In the bright sunlight he heard a giggling sound and turned to face his wife and toddler son.

The mother smiled at her spouse and handed the son into his loving arms. The man propped the smiling son on his shoulders, nuzzled his fuzzy head, and pointed off towards the work being done.

"It's the way of the future, Victor," Silas said. "A spire of pure metal. A titanium tower. If all works out right, it'll be a sentry outpost for law enforcement around the world. A sign of peace and justice. Just you wait and see."

The little boy gurgled a smile and reached out towards the structure gradually blocking the horizon…

------

I blinked.

I put the photo away and flipped through a few others that showed the progress of the Tower. It was confusing. I loved it all the more.

I literally pulled the drawer out of the cabinet, walked back over by the basket and trickling water, and peaked into the next folder.

There was a series of newspaper clippings. All were faded and yellow, and I recognized the headline's fonts as that of the Gotham Enquirer.

One clipping was at the front. It was dated three years ago and read: _'Nubile CrimeFighter spotted with Batman'_. I flipped over to the next page: '_Second Robin Suspected In Action_'.

Curious, I read further.

------

"I'm going to tell you one last time, lady! Get the damn money out of that drawer and dish it over. NOW!"

"I-I-I can't! The register's jammed!" a clerk stuttered from behind the counter of a convenience store.

"I hate to stain reasonably good money," a greasy crook cocked his revolver and aimed at her skull, smiling. "But I'll do what I have to."

CRASH!!!!!

A lean body with a yellow cape sailed in through the front glass display and sailed into the robber's chest.

"OOF!!"

The man stumbled to the side.

The boyish figure gritted his teeth behind an eyemask and leapt with an uppercut that struck the thug's chin. No sooner, the hero grabbed the cretin's arms and swung him out the hole in the glass and into the streets of Gotham City.

"UGH!!" the robber winced, then slowly got up, rubbing his head.

"Don't…move…," the Boy Wonder commanded with a pointed finger.

The thug stood up and raised his gun. "You're gonna pay for that, punk—"

A gloved hand gripped his shoulder and forced him around. The thug's eyes widened as he looked up at a shadowed figure against a red, Gotham sky.

"Robin said stay," the shadow said, and punched the robber out cold in the face.

SMACK!!

------

I narrowed my black eyes.

I glanced at all the folders in my grasp.

Silence ensued as my mind wandered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg was the first to step into the Main Room.

"Noir??" He looked around and called out again. "Noir??? Hey…tall dark and darker?! Where're you at??"

"He's not here…," Raven said and found her seat and book again like no excursion had taken place.

"Perhaps he is asleep?" Starfire remarked. "Or caught in some important duty of a research nature. After all, we did just get through with two major endeavors of crime fighting and—"

"I'm using the intercom," Robin said, wandering over to the computer console. He punched in a code and spoke into a mic that echoed his voice throughout the Tower.

_**"Noir, report to the Main Room. On the double."**_

Starfire blinked. "Or maybe that could work."

"Dude…what's with the truck show announcer impression?" Beast Boy moaned, rubbing his sensitive ears. "If that doesn't bring Noir running, nothing will."

"I'm giving him a minute or two," Robin said, folding his arms. "Though, for some reason, I doubt he'll show."

Everyone glanced at Robin curiously, save for Raven.

She stared silently at her novel.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I opened a folder that was significantly blacker than the others.

There was barely any cohesion of information amongst the mangled documents and awkward photographs contained within.

Save for a picture of a teddy bear, tattered and singed at the edges.

I turned it over and found a series of scribbles in red. The memoirs of a horrid communion.

------

"Ooberoth lassiter matarnakae…," the shrouded mass chanted. In the center of the warehouse where they encircled with bound hands was a rune carved into the earth. Possessions of an unknown child were gathered in the center, drenched in a mysterious red liquid. A teddy bear. A summer frock. A wreath of flowers. A hairband.

Torches flickered in the wind coming in through the windows as the crowd continued their chant.

"Klaatitide numeraatacad. Azarath dysrathon zinthos. Trigon ooberoth lassiter matarnakae."

_Slowly, the rune started to glow. But before it could pick up any magnitude, a blue figure floated down; bathed in moon and torchlight._

"These proceedings must stop," she said firmly.

The crowd stared at her. They waved their torches in defiance. The chanting continued.

"Trigon ooberoth lassiter matarnakae…"

"CEASE!!" the blue figure shook. "You do not know what you are doing!"

"TRIGON OOBEROTH LASSITER MATARNAKAE!!"

_"So be it…," she muttered. She held her fingers together. Her eyes glowed. The blue cloak around her turned momentarily into a bright, blinding white as she droned and then shouted: "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"_

A pulsing wave of obsidian bubbled out from her, knocking over people, torches, and the items littering the rune. Everything formed a congealed wave of debris that flew off into the corner of the warehouse, blinding everything in sight.

------

I blinked.

Water trickled into the pond beyond me.

It sounded louder than before.

I clung Raven's robe to myself and took a deep breath, chasing away the shivers.

An awkward scent caught my nose.

I paused.

I inhaled again.

The fragrance was all around me.

Raven's robe was all around me.

_Don't get any ideas, Noir…_

I closed the folder and thumbed through the next one.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy lifted the covers of my bed and looked under.

"Well…he's not there," he said, facing the others. "At least we know he's not a slacker."

Robin scratched his chin silently as the other Titans wandered around my room.

"I have never been in his room before," Starfire remarked. "Everything is so…..dark."

"Not bad, really," Raven remarked.

"We all know that Noir doesn't handle light too well," Cyborg said. "Too much exposure blinds him temporarily. Any more, and he could be permanently damaged."

"I always thought it was a ruse myself till I saw them peepers in person," Beast Boy said. "I tell you what…it's great to have creepy people on our side, for once."

Raven stared at him.

"What??"

"He is elsewhere in the Tower, perhaps?" Starfire asked.

"I agree," Robin nodded. "Let's go and search for him. Split up and branch out! Meet back in the Main Room at sixteen hundred hours."

"Hoo boy…," Cyborg moaned and shrugged his shoulders. "It's hide and seek ghost style." He bumped his head into a lantern. "OW! Dammit!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I pulled out an envelope, stared at it strangely with my black eyes, and sniffed it.

Beyond the mildew was a faint scent of tofu.

I smiled ever so slightly and opened the package.

What I found was a cast photo of a canceled t.v. show that I barely remembered. It wasn't until I found the text at the bottom right that I was reminded of the syndicate: 'Space Trek 2022'. I squinted my black eyes in thought, attempting to deduct a connection. And then my sight happened upon a green figure at the far right of the cast photo. And I gasped…humored.

It was him.

_Son of a gun……it WAS him._

------

"_Tork! We need your assistance!" a suave actor in a captain's uniform commanded as he stood against an alien set._

A green bird flew down and morphed into an elf-like humanoid in an ensign uniform. "Aye, sir."

"Scan for residual traces of our enemy with the atomic resonator. There's more at play here than your sense of smell can locate."

"On it sir," 'Tork' replied and held out a blinking prop which he waved about the fake scenery. "I'm picking up low levels of radiation at the mouths of the nearby caves. Unless I'm mistaken, our pursuers may be upon us—"

"CUT!!!"

A bell rang.

The actors sighed and acted casual.

The boom mic rose and the cameras retracted as an irate director walked up to a very confused 'Tork'.

"Mr. Logan, just *what* are you doing?"

"Uh….," the green elf gulped. "Sc-Scanning for radiation?"

"How come your atomic resonator is upside down, then?!"

Garfield looked down at the prop in his hand. "It is?"

"Rrrrrgh," the director swiped it out of his grasp and marched back off set. "Take five! We'll continue the scene on the Gliyork homeworld in a little bit. Gotta get a few things *straight* with the 'science officers'," he added with a glare.

_  
__Garfield sighed and walked off to a shadowed corner of the set. He leaned against a chair and glanced at a newspaper lying on the floor._

"I'm too young for this…," he mumbled. "I've gotta be made for greater things…"

The front page of the newspaper showed a blurred snapshot of two Gotham City heroes in action.

------

The elevators to the main room opened, and in walked Beast Boy.

Robin was already there.

"Any sign of him?"

"Not a shadow," Beast Boy said. "No pun intended."

"Hmmmm….all the others have been contacting me through the intercom and saying the same thing," Robin remarked.

"It's like he totally disappeared!"

"I had every reason to believe we wouldn't find him…even if we searched the Tower."

"How did you know that?"

Robin lifted my communicator. "I found this on his bedside table when we went into his room."

"Dude….," Beast Boy quietly remarked, taking the communicator and looking it over. "M-Maybe he just took it off for a moment?"

"When do you ever separate yourself from YOUR communicator?" Robin inquired.

"When I'm taking a shower….or dead…," Beast Boy winced.

"No need to be that morose," Robin said. "Not yet. The fact that Noir doesn't have that on him makes this whole situation more complicated."

The elevator doors opened again, and in walked the other three Titans.

"We've looked everywhere," Raven said.

Starfire nodded, "Noir is nowhere to be found."

"I even checked the training areas outside," Cyborg gestured. "Ya know how he likes to meditate alone a lot."

"If he's nowhere in the Tower or on the island…," Beast Boy thought aloud.

Robin finished, "Then he must be somewhere in the City."

"In good hands, we hope," Cyborg nodded.

Starfire looked aside.

Raven was quiet.

"We're gonna find him. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about," Robin said. "Noir must learn that he can't simply run off like that. Especially in the middle of a call to action."

"But what if there were circumstances beyond his control?" Starfire remarked. "What if somebody has—"

"We'll think about that later," Robin coughed. "God, how I hate being under the weather."

"Should just the four of us go—?"

"No, Beast Boy. I'm part of this search as much as the rest of you. I'll scout out the heart of Downtown. I know my way around those alleyways. Starfire, Beast Boy, take the West Side. Cyborg and Raven, drive by the docks."

"How come you and I are always being paired up these days?" Cyborg smirked at Raven.

The dark girl rolled her eyes and walked off. "I'll take shotgun…," she sarcastically droned.

"Keep in radio contact. Let's move!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat casually on the metal floor. I had the documents and files and photographs fanned out before me. I tried assembling them in some sort of order. All of Robin's material were in one pile, Raven's in another, Cyborg's in another, and the same with Beast Boy's. But Starfire's was one I could not locate for some reason. It then occurred to me that she was the latest addition to the troupe, and the contents of this underground chamber were old at best. I sat back and thought to myself, scanning all the documents available.

I realized there were two folders left untouched. I reached and picked up the first of the two and perused the contents within.

I smirked.

_Jackpot_.

I shook the folder and out fell a heavy disc of metal. It spun loudly on the floor, echoing in a metallic fashion.

I grabbed it before it completed its vibrations and flipped it over and over before my black eyes. I raised an eyebrow.

The metal surface consisted of circles upon circles of irregular lines and indentations. As chaotic as it first seemed, there was an obvious sense of order. A structure. A language.

_Tamaranian_.

It never struck me before as odd to share the same roof as an alien female. An alien anything, for that matter. But something about sitting there and holding an actual, extraterrestrial object in my hand practically mesmerized me. Again, I'm a sucker for cryptic stuff. There was no way in heck I'd be able to decipher it. So, as disheartening as it was, I didn't even try.

I placed the metal object back into the folder and set it in a brand new, stand-alone pile. I opened the final folder and looked within. What I saw surprised me at first, but then I found reason for elation.

_A map……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire flew over the suburbs, scanning the streets and lawns for any sign of a sunglass-wearing friend. There was an abundance of concern and worry in her green eyes; something just about as common as her knack for pleasant expression. At one point or another, a group of young elementary school girls looked up from their gathering place in a driveway, saw their Titan hero, and waved cheerfully.

Starfire couldn't resist. She smiled and waved down at them. She wished them joy, as she wished everyone joy. Even if her alien head was full of more stressful concerns.

She resumed soaring off and scanning the residences below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over a commercial plaza, a green falcon flew. Expert, bird eyes helped Beast Boy in measuring every angle and degree of the urban landscape beneath him. If Noir was to be found, Beast Boy would certainly get the job done.

Nearly an hour had passed of this mid-flight observation, and not a single sign of the missing Titan.

Beast Boy knew more than anyone else—without having to brag—that such a thing was not a good sign.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I studied the map before me.

It included schematics which I had never seen before. Geometrically placed corridors, criss crossing, maze-like.

No doubt…it was a guide to where I was.

But of what good was it? I recalled trying all the doors that the map said were there. Not only were they locked, but they were sealed water-tight for some reason. There was no way I could teleport via smoke through any of them. I was stuck within the passageways. And without Myrkblade, all I could do with my powers was bang my head against the walls and go nowhere.

I flipped over to a duplicate map. It was different only in that it showed electrical circuitry and its placement throughout the underground storage rooms (for that's what they were, 'storage rooms'). Nothing interested me until I took notice of a heavy concentration of wiring illustrated to have been in a large chamber much like the one I was sitting in then.

I studied the map, honed some of my skills of spatial awareness, and deduced that it would only take me three hallways of walking to reach the location.

I got up, held the robe close, and let the map guide me.

_I had every reason to believe that there was something of extreme interest where I was headed……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven opened a metal door loudly using obsidian telekinesis. She walked forward and stared lethargically into the open interior of a rusted, abandoned warehouse. She sighed, floated into it, and called out: "Noir?!?!"

Echoes.

Silence.

"Noir, are you in here?!"

Echoes.

Silence.

Raven rolled her eyes and proceeded to the next industrial structure, intending to do the same thing again. As it was for the last hour and a half, each place she tried was absent of her and the Titans' missing comrade. The East side of town consisted of many run-down structures of post-industrial gloom. Hardly a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. But Raven wasn't one to complain.

Seriously, she wasn't.

Seriously…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg coasted by the shipyards. He leaned out the window of his T-Car and squinted at the freighters and tankers that he ambled past. A combination of X-Ray and InfraRed scanning searched for signs of life and cross-referenced them with Noir's bio-electric signature.

No luck.

"Well, Noir…at least you got me to take my baby out for a spin," he muttered and drove off to scan the next row of boats. "Though if I find you, it's your head that's gonna start spinning. Robin's not too happy, that's for sure."

He ambled on a bit more.

"Aaaaugh! Now look what you've done! You got me talking to myself too!"

"HEY!"

"AACK!" SCRREEECH! "Man! Get out of the road! Can't you see I'm doing hero business?!"

HONK! HONK!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stumbled up to the end of a corridor. I looked down at the sheet of paper. I looked back up at the wall.

I pocketed the paper away in the robe and slowly approached what appeared to be a dilapidated mainframe, complete with dusty keyboards and grimy monitor screens. I knelt down and examined the console. The entire system looked forsaken beyond repair…and that's when I noticed that the power button was switched off.

_Oh what the hell?_

I flipped it.

There was a loud clicking noise, and eventually the archaic behemoth of code and plastic hummed to life. A flickering monitor glared at me with growing vitality. The brightness it generated filled the room and stabbed into my unguarded eyes. I shielded my face, crept forward, and blindly fingered the brightness knob. I lowered the intensity of the monitor's display until it was comfortable for me to read legibly.

I operated the keyboard with more or less sufficiency and brought up the first program I could find. It was a word processor with a journal entry of sorts dating back to a year and a half ago.

"_Titan Entry. November 11. 2002._

"_On a routine patrol of the wilderness south of the Bay, we encountered a being whose powers are so strong and yet whose heart is so noble that I'm almost tempted to increase our ranks. Though this individual is unlike any previously encountered. Her origins extend beyond the boundaries of my own comprehension…and Earth's too, as a matter of fact."_

------

"Are you closing in on that signal yet, Robin?"

"Almost, Cyborg," the Boy Wonder said, trekking through underbrush in mountainside forest. He spoke into his communicator and paid attention the beeping signals on his watch. "Whatever it is, it's emitting a frequency way stronger than anything I've ever encountered. This sucker could broadcast data to anyone in the world. Even beyond, I bet."

"Do you suppose some terrorist group is trying to create a drop zone of some sort?"

"No need for conclusions just yet," Robin remarked. "I don't see what anyone would want to do way out here in the middle of nowhere—hold on."

"What is it?"

"I think I see something. I'll catch you later."

He closed his communicator and parted through a few branches and came upon a small lake in the middle of a clearing. A waterfall of miniature proportion trickled down a mountainside and ended in a crystal blue pond. In the middle of the waters, there rested a blinking beacon of sorts. A bright tail blinked a hot-pink strobe that reflected off of Robin's scrutinizing eyemask.

"Hmmm….not of this earth…," he whipped out his rod and stepped cautiously forward. He held his watch up, which blinked madly. "Definitely the target." He squinted at it. "Can't be a bomb…unless the technology's superior. It's just a signaler of sorts. Like……like……an interstellar lighthouse---"

FWOOOOOOSH!!!

Pine needles and grass shook.

Robin looked up, did a double-take, and leapt towards the ground. "AAAH!!"

SPLASH!!!!!!

An obelisk of sorts slammed into the pond, sending water splashing everywhere and thoroughly washing the trees.

Robin stood up, sputtering, and shook the moisture out of his hair. He gritted his teeth and glared at the receding waters. "Could have rung the doorbell first…"

He was silenced as the obelisk cracked open with a HISSSSSS!!! And a feminine figure was revealed standing within the interstellar sarcophagus.

_Robin blinked and took a step forward, staring hard._

A girl stood in the middle of the pond. In a split second, bright emerald eyes flashed open and she stepped out towards the first biped in sight—Robin.

The Boy Wonder cleared his throat and held his staff behind his back so as not to look threatening.

A thin, red-haired……humanoid extraterrestrial smiled brightly, folded her hands together, and spoke: "Konnichiwa!"

_Robin stared._

"…….Bonjour?"

Robin blinked.

"……Hello?"

Robin jumped. "Um…h-hey there."

"Ah! Of course, English!" the alien girl cleared her throat, smiled wide….and flicked Robin off. "Greetings and good tidings from Tamaran!"

"………," Robin sweatdropped.

The Tamaranian continued brandishing her middle finger at the Boy Wonder, a proud look on her face. When there was less than happy a reaction over time, she cocked her sweet head to the side and remarked: "I'm sorry, is this not the proper greeting for occupants of the NorthWest Hemisphere?"

"Ummm…," Robin scratched his neck.

"Interstellar probes constantly observe your people gracing each other with the middle finger in their four-wheeled-automatons. It seemed only appropriate to greet you in such a fashion. Oh! I know! I am forgetting the special wording! I apologize. Ahem. 'Move that fat of the ass vehicular transportation out of my lane of movement, you illegitimate mother f—'"

"_Ummmmm," Robin butted in. "Hi. I-I'm Robin. No need for…erm……...the 'special' earth greetings. Just a handshake will do."_

The alien girl brought her hand down. "A hand……shake?"

"Yeah," He simpered. "It doesn't hurt. Here, I'll start." He extended his gloved wrist out. "Now you do the same."

She tentatively did so.

"Other hand," he chuckled.

She reached her other hand out and he gently clasped onto it and shook it up and down.

The girl gasped, "It's warm! Quite a warm species you are!"

Robin didn't know why, but he blushed. "Erm…we do our best, I suppose."

"This is a much happier greeting than the lonely extension of the finger and the constant verbal reprimand of illegitimate childbirth," she stated. "Oh, of all the things I might learn now that I am walking this planet in person. Dear Earthling Robin, it is glorious to meet you!" She giggled and shook his hand vigorously….thusly rocking his entire body.

"Whoah!! Okay! Take it easy!" Robin was lifted off his boots a few times and eventually stumbled out of the girl's handshake. He rubbed his wrist and cleared his throat. "Ahem…..you seem to be….quite powerful."

"Hmm?" she cocked her head to the side.

"I mean to say….only Cyborg can lift me like that."

"Cy….borg?"

"A good friend of mine," Robin smiled. "Along with two others. We were searching this area out for a strong signal of sorts. I think it's coming out of that very same lake that you landed in."

"You mean the Tamaranian interstellar guidance post?"

"Huh?"

"I have been assigned towards the monitoring and study of this planet," the girl said, her hands clasped together innocently. "For months I have been observing every facet of this location through probes and satellites. Today is the big day of my actual landing. Though Earth is apparently no stranger to alien visitation, I thought it best to make the effort of finding facts out on a first name basis. One can never truly know the glory of another's habitat without seeing it with her own eyes, after all."

_"I suppose not," Robin remarked. "We're glad to have you here. As long as……_"

"_My intentions are purely diplomatic," the girl insisted. "I hope to spread word of Tamaran's benevolence and joyous embrace of Earth and all its culture during my stay here. That is……if I am to find a place to stay."_

_"You know…my friends and I may just be the help you need," Robin said in a friendly way. "That is…if we were allowed to learn more about you and your…gifts…"_

_The girl gasped and cupped her hands together. "Truly?! Oh, glorious!" She pounced and hugged the stuffings out of Robin._

"What……," he wheezed, "…is your name?"

She smiled against his shoulder and replied:

-------

"Starfire?"

"Yes, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder spoke into the communicator from atop a building in downtown. "Any luck?"

"Negative. Beast Boy and I have been unsuccessful in locating Noir's present location."

"Yeah…the same can be said of Cyborg and Raven," Robin sniffed. "They answered with similar results. We might have to resort to desperate means."

"Like what, Robin?"

"I'll get back to you on that, Star. Tell Beast Boy to regroup with me and the rest of the team near the Marketplace in Downtown. You too."

"Affirmative. Over and out."

Robin pocketed the communicator and sighed off towards the sunset. Red sky bathed the urban sprawl before him.

A huge haystack…and Noir was the needle.

Robin took deep breaths, the wind kicking against him and making his cape flare. He didn't realize it, but he was still under the weather. The pressing issues of the day and the call of the search had distracted him, or so he felt.

Sunlight glinted off of windows and car roofs and man-make lakes throughout the synthetic landscape that stretched below the caped crusader.

Robin did something rare. He sat down. He leaned his chin to his knees and hugged his legs to his chest.

He so wanted to be angry at his missing comrade. But as much as he tried, he couldn't help but feel like a hypocrite. The shades…the silence…the dark stature. It was all nothing more than a negative photograph of himself, or so he felt. Parallels and duplicates. Yet contrasting all the same.

So very confusing…and yet so very calming.

It hurt all the more each time he remembered how unsuccessful the search was going.

"Dammit, Noir…," Robin breathed. "Why do you have to be so mysterious?"

His voice flew out from his lips, got knocked back by the wind, and struck his own ears.

He sighed depressingly, stood up, fired off a grappling hook, and swung away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I swiftly opened another document…a much older one. I rubbed my chin and thought and read the contents, curious.

_"Titan Entry. June 13. 2002."_

"It was not a hard decision. I knew, for once, that my mentor would be proud of me. The challenge now is just to find the right materials to put the plan into action. As it stands, there is only the charisma of me and my dark partner to rely on. I hope it is enough to carry us through. But regardless of our intent, what we need the most is…more people."

------

"_I do not know when. I do not even know how. What I do know is that…whatever plans we make…I will be a liability. There is a hidden danger deep inside of me. It is only a matter of time before the evil of Trigon is realized. It is my destiny to deal with this demonic burden seeded deep within. Making trustworthy friends—only to threaten them in the end—is not something I desire at all. I need………help…"_

_"And you shall have it, Raven," Robin reached over and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Even he was amazed she didn't shake him off. "Friends are there to help you not realize your fears. The whole point of having teammates is not threatening people, but learning how to be helped and thus help others. I won't let anything terrible happen to you, you got me? Trigon or whoever…we have something going here. Something powerful. Something fresh. This world is getting crowded and paranoid fast, and it needs heroes. It needs fuller ranks of elite crime fighters. And you and I…we're gonna found something never before attempted. A circle of young heroes whose only connection is a desire for good. Age will no longer be a boundary, just a thirst for justice. And a willingness to learn."_

_"Heh……you're quite the motivational speaker………leader."_

"………now don't go drawing conclusions."

"Robin, you'll be leader. Deal with it."

"Fine……fine…"

"So……where do we go first?"

"Metropolis," Robin said. "I hear rumors of a young crime fighter there. A young man who's crossed through death itself to emerge as a hybrid of human ingenuity and mechanical wonder. The newspapers call him 'Cyborg'."

"_Woowee……we're gonna have some rust bucket be the first to join our ranks?"_

"He may prove more useful than brain or brawn. Rumor has it that his father built a huge tower long ago. A tower made out of pure titanium. To this day, such a structure is waiting for the right funding to make it a citadel for law enforcement."

"And even if we get this 'Cyborg' and his daddy's Tower on our side……where will these 'funds' of yours come from?"

"Let's say I know people in high places……"

"………please tell me you didn't just wink."

"Come on, Raven. We've got a dream to realize…"  


------

"Okay, here's what I propose," Cyborg said as he spread a complex map of the city across the hood of the T-Car and pointed. "A systematic search of the city quadrants. We'll scan every building from head to toe, then plant a beacon in the street to mark where we've been. If we all do this in equally distributed locations within the city, we might be able to pull off a full scan in…four days."

"Four days?!" Beast Boy pulled at his hairs. "Dude, you know what could happen to Noir in that time?!"

"What are you babbling about…?" Raven droned.

"Don't you see?! Noir's been kidnapped! It has to be the truth!"

"Eek!" Starfire gasped. "That is a most unpleasant thought!"

"We can't ignore all possibilities," Robin said. The waning sunset cast shadows across his face. "Cyborg…do we have enough beacons to follow your proposal?"

"That's the only problem. I'd have to construct some more. But it'd take only a little bit of time. The rest of y'all can plan out how to go about the city."

"Hey," Beast Boy pointed. "What about the sewers?"

"…."

"…."

"…."

"Well…crap!" Cyborg dropped grip of the map, letting it slide to the asphalt. "I didn't even think of that!"

"Why?" Starfire asked. "Is that a bad thing?"

"It's going to take for freakin' ever! That's the bad thing!"

"You seemed so enthused about it a minute ago!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Shut up! Like much good you've been doing."

"Me?!?!"

"Enough…," Raven frowned, her eyes set. "We must remain calm. Noir will be found. It is just a matter of time—"

"Listen to you!" Cyborg pointed. "Miss Optimist all of the sudden! Why'd you wait out till now to give us hope, huh?! Got a soft spot for a teammate all of the sudden?!"

Raven's eyes glowed bright gray and her hair twirled. "Watch…your…words…"

"Dudes…just….back off," Beast Boy said softly. "Please…stop fighting…"

"Don't tell me what to do or not d—"

CLANK!!!

Robin got everyone's attention with a strike of his rod to the asphalt beneath them.

"Everyone…just….j-just….," he stuttered frustratingly, shook, lowered his head, and sighed. "Look, people….way back when the Titans were founded….I believed in something. I believed that anything could be accomplished if I just found the right comrades to assist me in this nightmarish fight against the forces of urban evil. I'm about the same height and stature as I was back when Raven and I started searching for everyone, but I certainly feel a heck of a lot older. If there's something I've learned, it's that I can never find perfection in accumulating a noble lot of people such as yourselves. In fact, I found something better. I found a family. A family that I could trust if my own damn life depended on it. I know what was true yesterday is true right now. Go on, Cyborg, be angry because you feel like you let Noir down. Raven, go ahead and be snappish because you're concerned about a teammate and won't admit it. Beast Boy…carry on with your anxiety and need for closure. God knows I want this day to end. But I can't just tell you all to shut up and expect it all to turn better. I chose your for your imperfections as much as I did for your talents. Cuz I trust that in all of this craziness—there's a family of people who care about each other more than to just give up. And Noir's part of this family now. We're all struggling and straining this very moment because we're having a hard time accepting the straggling member into our flock. This may not be the first time he'll disappear on us. But we'll be thankful for it in the end nonetheless. For it's what makes the whole 'family' stronger. And knowing that, I look forward toward waking tomorrow morning as a better, more wholesome person. Noir or no Noir."

Silence.

Robin took a breath and sighed forth, "I….I-I guess that's all I needed to say. I'm not feeling to great today. Still got coughs and such. If you all want…you can take five or something. Then we can see what needs to be done about combing the city."

With that, the Boy Wonder retracted his staff and slowly wandered off.

Cyborg stared down at the T-Car, clenching his fists. He looked up at Raven.

There was melancholy on her face, but she braved the chance to share eye-contact with Cyborg and a mutual nod of heads.

Beast Boy turned around and leaned against the vehicle, hiding his emotional face in the most masculine way.

Starfire looked at everyone, looked after Robin, and decided to follow the Boy Wonder.

Robin sat by a fountain in the middle of the marketplace. He stared up at the evening sky…awaiting the stars that would eventually come with twilight.

The Tamaranian Girl sat down beside him.

Silence.

"I….I almost feel like Noir is still with us," Starfire said.

Robin inhaled. "Why's that, Star?"

"…I doubt that his words—if he could manage words—would be any different from your own just now."

The team leader slowly looked over and stared at her.

The alien girl smiled bravely. "You are both so alike. But I know one difference."

"Hmm?"

"If Noir is the infant of this…'family' of ours….you are most certainly the 'father'."

"Oh…please," Robin chuckled.

Starfire placed her hand on his arm. "And I am very proud of you for that."

He looked at her.

She smiled back.

He grinned, blushed, and looked off towards the evening sky again. With a sigh, he said: "Starfire…you are the truest friend I've ever had."

"I must ask you something, Robin."

"Anything."

"Who is the 'mother' in this case?"

Robin chuckled. He winked at her from behind his eyemask. "I dunno, but I'm looking for a candidate."

She giggled and gently leaned her head on his shoulder.

He wrapped an arm around her—a little surprised at the casualness of the act—and sat still.

A few seconds past.

The fountain trickled.

The citylights began to blink into existence across the horizon.

"Starfire?"

"Yes Robin?"

"Thank you for taking care of me the last few days."

"You're welcome, Robin."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Wait a second…how is this computer still operational?_

I looked at the tangled mess of monitors, input devices, and mainframes. I looked around for wires. _An outlet?_

I whipped out the map and studied the schematics for the wiring again.

_Something's missing here. If I'm right……_

I glanced up at the wall. But for once, the darkness was fighting me.

I forcibly picked up the monitor, swiveled it around to face the wall, and grinned.

_Yeeha!! There it be!!_

A cable traveled up a frame along the wall…and into a hole in the chamber's ceiling.

I looked at the schematics again and smiled all the more.

_Where there's wiring, there's a need for a power source. The power source is up on the central level of the Tower. To get to the power source, the wiring has to travel up. And wherever the wiring travels, there is space. And where there is space, there is room for mass—of some sort—to travel._

With an idea in mind, I sprung into action. I dashed into the waterlogged corridor to extract my shades and return…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans returned to the Tower. They went over city maps. They looked at computer diagrams. They studied Cyborg's beacons and considered Beast Boy's reconnaissance talents and tried to fix together all possible avenues of application. A list of escaped convicts was cross-referenced with suspicious activity within the ickiest places in the city. Then reports filed by the police were discovered for any hints of a nabbed Titan. Throughout the process, papers were dragged everywhere and computer monitors flickered and voices rang back and forth and people got frustrated and happy and angry and tired and restless all the same.

Like a family.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Okay…_

I took a deep breath and flexed my limbs under Raven's cloak.

I stared up at the wall.

My fists clenched.

Murk warbled through my limbs.

My shaded eyes traveled up the cable and towards the hole that I knew was in the ceiling.

I inhaled.

I exhaled.

Construction and Destruction formed an equilibrium.

Smoke traveled up my legs and around my torso.

My eyes blurred with murk.

_I'm ready……_

I took one bold step towards the wall….and slipped.

"WHUMP!!"

_UGH! Damn socks………hang on!_

I sat on my rump, whipped the slippery articles of clothing off, and stood coldly on bare feet.

_Okay……let's try this again._

I lowered my black eyes. Meditated. Reclaimed the murk energy. And once again faced the cable.

I took one step…two steps…and bolted.

I ran at the wall.

_Grunt!_

I ran up the wall.

_Hold breath._

I blurred into smoke. I slithered with murk up the tiny corridor. I wrapped around the cable. I leapt. I dove. I danced around air molecules. Up. Up. Up. Warmer. Warmer. Warmer. The cable snaked into the stratosphere for all I cared, and every separated atom of my existence strained with the effort to propel my essence upwards when suddenly the universe opened wide around me with a fresh breath of air conditioning and I was home free.

FLASH!!

It took one and a half whole seconds. I had teleported up seven floors and into the heart of the Tower.

Safe.

I collapsed on the floor, gasped for breath, turned over, and relaxed.

I chuckled breathlessly, gripped my head, and smiled over how stupid I was.

But I did it. I circumnavigated the water tight doors.

_What time is it? Jeez……I hope the others are okay. I heard alarms._

I walked up, dusted my hands off, and exited the automatic door and into the adjacent hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Elevator doors opened, and I was walking into the Main Room…tentatively.

The place was dark. Night had fallen outside. Starlight settled down on the carpet as I padded over and looked for signs of life.

I whistled.

No response.

Then I got a good look at the place.

The tables…the counters…the couches…they were all cluttered with police reports, city maps, and other various, urban schematics. The huge t.v. screen was split into a dozen P.I.P.'s of my personal bio and more city schematics.

And then….there was everybody. Totally exhausted. Sound asleep. Beast Boy snored, his body lying lengthwise on a counter in the kitchen area besides a couple of midnight tofu snacks. Cyborg was at a booth in front of a table spread over with newspapers, upon which he was obviously working on the meatball construction of various little beacons. Robin and Starfire snoozed back to back on a couch, their laps covered with police reports. And then there was Raven, sitting cross legged on the floor and leaning her head ungracefully on her arms across a low-lying table.

I smiled. I fingered the robe around me. I walked over and gently spread it over the sleeping Raven's back. _Right where it should be_. I walked over, took a blanket that an ill Robin had been using earlier that week, and laid it over the laps of the Boy Wonder and the Tamaranian. I also managed to carry a sleeping Beast Boy over to the more comfortable booth seat besides Cyborg. And for the android, I took a beacon or two out of his hands and leaned him back comfortably against his seat. He stirred momentarily and went back to snoring.

That done and said, I switched off the monitors and the lights and walked back to the elevator.

I paused for a moment, turned around, and folded my arms.

And smiled.

_I've got so much to learn yet about my family._

I walked back, turned one monitor back on with low volume, and casually watched an old sitcom through the night.

I would be there for when they woke up in the morning.


	22. Velvet, Tux, and Slings

**22. Velvet, Tux, and Slings**

"Okay…first order of business," a relatively healthy Robin said. "We need to get the laundry back."

"Umm…Robin, I'm telling you," Cyborg said, motioning to the B Level doors in front of him. "They're all sealed tight! Some error in our wiring caused the flood guards to go up. I'm surprised Noir could even breathe down there for so long."

Robin looked at me.

I shrugged.

"No doubt…that's why you couldn't teleport out of there," he said.

I nodded sheepishly.

"Well then…let's work on getting the flood guards disabled." Robin walked to the elevator.

"That could take all day!" Cyborg exclaimed. He and I followed the Boy Wonder. "Come on, Robin. We spent all of last night on a wild goose chase. Plus, with all the missions we've been on lately…can't we just take a break for one day?"

The elevator doors closed and we rode the platform up the length of the tower.

"Easy for you to say, Cy," Robin said. "You don't wear clothes."

"Oh, don't start pulling that on me again!"

"Think of the girls! They need that laundry taken care of pronto. Did that ever occur to you?"

"Since when did the girls' clothes matter more than yours, Noir's, and B.B.'s?"

_Yeah…_

I folded my arms and glared at Robin.

"Well, you know. Cuz…….they're girls."

Cyborg smirked. "Somebody needs a gender time out."

"Listen. We're heroes. We're busy. We're getting the lower levels of the Tower fixed. If we let those flood guards stay there, sealing the doors, we'll eventually forget about them."

"No we won't!" Cyborg said. "Robin, my brain is half *circuitry*. I won't forget it after twenty-four hours, k?"

"Very well," Robin sighed. "No use arguing with you, Cyborg."

"Boo-ya!"

I silently sniffed the air in the elevator. The suspicious smell of burning tofu increased as we rode up to the Main Room.

"We'll get our day off. Let's just hope nothing disastrously bad happens to the spare clothes we're wearing before we can get to that load of laundry again."

*DING*

The elevator doors opened.

I smelled the burning intensely.

Before us and bubbling out of the Main Room was a congealed mass of overheated, white goo coming out of the kitchen area. The chaotically waving figures of Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy in a chef's cap shouted at us: "LOOK OUT!!!"

The three of us guys recoiled in horror.

"AAAAAH!!!"

"YAAAAAH!!!"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

SPLORTCH!!!!!!!

When I opened my eyes, I found my shades covered in a thick film of tofu pudding. I wiped the material off and saw the entire main room with a new paint job. What's worse, the Titans were covered from head to toe with the sticky, staining material.

"Um….think you cooked it long enough?" Raven dryly said.

"Hoo boy," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "That's gonna take forever to wash out."

Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "Okay then." He looked up at his android partner. "Got an idea for a place to spend the day off yet?"

"You mean besides up Beast Boy's butt??"

"I'm thinking the mall would be good."

"Well allright."

"Good idea."

"Sure."

"Glorious!"

I nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What are we taking? The T-Car?"

"Heck yeah, baby!

"Boy do you seem excited, Cy."

"You bet! Road trip!"

"Dude…it's just to the mall and back."

"Oh come on…don't harsh my buzz."

"Some buzz."

"Ugh…," Robin grunted as he walked into the garage. "These jeans are way too tight on me."

"Hey man, I'm not looking."

"Me neither."

He glared at them through his eyemask and retorted, "I'm not asking for your opinion. I mean it. I should just give these to the salvation army or something."

"Uh uh…I always burn my casual clothes after I'm through with them," Beast Boy said. He had a baseball uniform handy in the extreme corner of his closet. He seemed surprisingly cool despite the obvious….obviousness of his jersey and pinstriped shorts. _No they didn't match._ "Or at least I dip them in acid till there's nothing left of them!"

"Why so protective of your threads?" spoke Cyborg in his typical titanium buff.

"Hel-lo! We're crime fighters! There's no telling who would want to get her or his grubby hands on my shorts, find traces of DNA, and clone an army of Beast Boys or something!"

Robin blinked. "And how would they find DNA on your shorts of all places?"

"Um……," Beast Boy blushed. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Where're the girls?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, that's a good topic. Noir? Where're they anyways? They're late!"

I scratched my head and walked over to the T-Car.

All three looked at me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Denim on denim?"

I sighed and shrugged.

"What's that you have for an undershirt?"

I parted the denim jacket over my jeans and revealed a white 'L.A. Clippers' logo.

Robin and Beast Boy laughed their heads off.

Cyborg sarcastically did a thumb's up.

I stuck my tongue out at them.

"I guess I could have it worse," Robin smirked.

"Noir, I must ask a question," Beast Boy raised a finger. "Do you ever have a _butt_?"

I was about to say something when the voices of girls wafted down from the stairs leading into the center of the garage.

"Raven! Do please come down!" Starfire was clad in jeans and a t-shirt with a cartoony turtle on it (_the hell?_). She spun around in sandal-clad feet and beckoned towards an unseen individual amidst the shadows. "You look perfectly fine!"

"I…am not….going out….like this…"

"Do not be so complacent," the earthly-dressed Tamaranian folded her arms and smiled, her head cocked to the side. "Your attire is most complementary to an outing such as this! Come on out, there is nothing to fear!"

"I will kill you…," Raven shuffled out and frowned in a pink summer frock. "Each and every one of you…"

Robin sweatdropped.

Cyborg whistled innocently.

And Beast Boy? "Hehehehe…hey Raven, you forgot your Easter Bonnet and all the frills upon i---"

Robin's and Cyborg's palms clamped over the changeling's mouth.

I scratched my neck and smiled innocently up at Raven.

She glared daggers at everyone. "This is not worth it. I shall just give you my measurements and let you buy things for m---" she glanced at Starfire.

Starfire smiled back.

"Never mind. I'll go."

"Glorious! I shall be by your side any time you need me. We've made excursions to the mall before. You remember how simple it is!"

"Yes…I remember having to explain to you that credit cards have as much a mortality rate as everything else on this strange planet we call Earth."

"Then it is settled! For surely you must remember my gratitude to you for such deliverance!"

Raven grumbled and looked down at the summer dress that dangled fully around her ankles. "Are you sure…this is your only other article that I can borrow?"

"Mmmhmmm," Starfire nodded. "Is it not pleasant?"

"It's certainly…….very pink," Raven muttered. She glanced up with a suspicious pair of eyes. "You sure I have to wear this and not what you have on?"

"Most definitely it had to have worked this way," Starfire remarked. "Height plays a major role. Besides, giving you a dress of mine is the best solution for accommodating your…..accommodating your……ahem…"

"Accommodating _what?_" the pink Raven glared.

"Never mind!" Starfire blushed, looked desperately over at Cyborg, and squeaked. "'Shot of the gun', please?"

Cyborg opened the front passenger seat door and smirked with an extended arm. "All yours, princess."

Starfire hopped in. Cyborg closed the door behind her and headed for the driver's seat.

"Four to the back?" Beast Boy scratched his head. "Sounds fun."

"We'll make do," Robin said. "Let's just get some new clothes and get back here."

"My thoughts exactly," Raven said, shuffling awkwardly to the left side.

I didn't realize until she was nearly at the door that I could have opened it for her. So I did at the last second, nearly frightening her.

"Um…thanks…," she said.

I simpered and let her in.

Robin and Beast Boy entered the other side—in that order.

I sat down to Raven's left.

It was quite a crunch, but we managed. It's a good thing Cyborg was driving and not riding.

I bumped elbows with Raven and looked apologetically down at her.

"Pleased to meet you," she said.

_A sense of humor._

She looked off towards some unseen horizon with blank, blue eyes.

I almost felt sorry for her.

"Allright, people! Let's get this day on the road! Boo ya!"

"Take it easy, Cy!" Beast Boy spoke, squeezed to the extreme. "This is a task for some of us, ya know!"

"Oh go blow your nose," Cyborg grinned, kicked the car into gear, and throttled forward.

All of us scrunched back into our seats.

"Um…Cyborg?!?!" Robin gritted his teeth and sweatdropped. "The garage door!"

I bit my lip.

Beast Boy and Starfire covered their eyes.

Cyborg smirked.

He tapped the handle at the last second.

The door lifted, exposing the sunlight which blinded me as we swerved under the thin gap and zoomed off down the road.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!" Cyborg laughed his head off. "I've been dying to show you all that!!"

"We can tell," Beast Boy squinted.

"I did not expect to be so frightened on this happy day!" Starfire winced.

"Um…Starfire?"

"Yes, Raven?"

"…..you might not want your dress back now."

"…….oh."

Beast Boy and I scrunched away.

Raven smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We cruised down the road towards the City Mall. Cyborg dangled his titanium arm out the window, whistling to his heart's content. "Ah….nobody could ask for a prettier day."

"Come on thunderclouds…," Raven chanted. "Come on thunderclouds—"

"Don't ruin the moment!"

"Yeah, Raven," Beast Boy peered over and smirked. "You're betraying your dress color."

"Somebody let me out or I'll convert this thing into a convertible and levitate home."

"Oh no you don't!" Cyborg cried. "Somebody talk some sense into her!"

"Think about it, Raven," Robin smirked from his window side. Hair blew at his dark bangs as he said, "Either you can stay stuck like that inside the Tower, or you can come with us and get some replacements!"

"Why couldn't we go in our uniforms?"

"Cuz they're for field action! Don't you get it?!" Beast Boy interrupted.

"That never stopped us before," the dark girl said. "And take a good look at yourself, bat boy. Hit any home runs lately?"

"Pbbbt!" Beast Boy stuck out his tongue.

"Oh, how I do enjoy listening in on such friendly banter!" Starfire grinned, her hands clasped together. "May I join by adding that Beast Boy's athletic costume is most reminiscent of a Treblagork Flower Petal?!"

"Umm…," the changeling looked at Robin. "Did she just call me a flower?"

"She sure did!" Cyborg chuckled.

"Dude! I am so NOT a flower!"

"That is a shame," Starfire grinned, her eyes shut. "You are most green like a stalk!"

"Uh…….what?" Beast Boy blinked.

Robin suddenly chuckled.

Beast Boy looked at him, a question mark bouncing above his forehead.

"That was p-pretty funny, actually," Robin snickered.

"You're all wyrd…."

"You're cute, you know that, Starfire?" Robin chuckled again, a hand over his eyemask.

"Heeeeeee," Starfire beamed.

Cyborg rolled his eyes, spotted a turn in the road, and grinned. "Gotta go west. HANG ON FOLKS!"

Beast Boy glared. "What are you talking abo—WHOAHHHH!!"

"WHOAHHH!!!"

"AAAAAIEEE!!"

Half the occupancy screamed and chuckled as Cyborg took an unnecessarily hard, swerving curve and accelerated us onto a straightaway that led eventually towards the mall in question.

The turn forced me to lean towards the center of the T-Car. I tried desperately to hold onto the Jesus bar above me, but it wasn't sufficient enough to keep me from leaning into Raven's petite shoulder.

"Ooof!" she grunted, forced into Beast Boy's side.

When we reached the straightaway, I scooted dramatically back against the window and gave her an apologetic bow of my head.

"It's okay," she mumbled. "I-I'll live."

"……..?" I glanced at her.

She looked away, but was blushing.

"?????" I shrugged it off and looked out the window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--CHIRP!!--

Cyborg locked the car by remote and slipped the device away into a titanium compartment. He sighed happily. "God, I love my car."

"Keep it to first base on the first date…," Robin patted him on the shoulder and led the way to the mall. "Let's go do this thing."

"Oh yeah! Dressed to kill!" Beast Boy did a jig in his baseball outfit.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "You're being sarcastic, I hope."

"I'm being alive."

"Whatever," a pink Raven droned.

The six of us were heading through the parking lot towards the main doors of the mall.

"Say…last time I was here, we had to beat up Mumbo Jumbo and win back the cash he stole from a Steak Escape."

"Why steal from a Steak Escape?" Cyborg remarked.

"Perhaps he was hungry?" Starfire suggested.

"If I recall…," Raven said, "…he was planning on robbing the software store downaways."

"We should have waited till he did!" Beast Boy slapped his forehead. "Lord knows all he got jailed for after we turned him in was an impromptu snack!"

"It's all in the past now," Robin said. "Right now, I want to get out of these jeans."

The five of us looked at our leader.

"After buying something else and changing! Jeez! You guys have a one track mind or what?!"

"I think you're flustering the girls here," Beast Boy motioned.

"Hardly likely," Raven mumbled.

Robin glanced at her, then at Starfire.

"We are here!" she spun and giggled at the sliding door entrance.

"Any chance people will recognize us out of uniform?" Beast Boy remarked.

"What uniform?" Cyborg glared.

"Oh right. Someone hide Cyborg."

"Hehehehe…friends! Do not be anxious! We are free to shop here without hindrance!" Starfire stepped into the mall. We followed and came to a stop. The interior was absolutely silent. Before us was an interspersed throng of shoppers, walkers, and security guards. And they were all staring at us.

Beast Boy gulped.

Starfire blinked. "Eek!"

"Got that right," Robin sweatdropped.

I looked to my right. Raven was missing. I did a double-take until I sensed a pink-clad figure hiding desperately behind me.

"Must….get…out…of…here…."

"Get ahold of yourself, Raven," Cyborg said. "Let's just….walk forward quietly….do our shopping…and head on back."

"You've got nothing to shop for…," Beast Boy whispered to his metallic friend. "So why don't you just….I dunno…."

"Distract them?"

"That sounds good."

"BOO-YA!!" Cyborg cheered, causing everyone within a visual radius to jump. "TEEN TITANS IN THE HIZZY, Y'ALL!!"

The crowd loosened up, laughed, and clapped their hands: cheering the arrival of the city's heroes.

"Cyborg…," Robin sweatdropped. "We all hate you."

"Yeah…hahahaha!" Beast Boy pointed. "Raven especially!"

"We go….NOW!" Raven shoved me in the rear with her knee.

I jumped, cleared my throat, and whistled innocently—walking along sideways so that the dark girl in pink could hide behind my shuffling figure. We headed straightway for the nearest store I could find.

Hot Topic.

_I wonder if this'll be up her avenue……blah……scene change._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You are certain it is wise to split up in this fashion?" Starfire asked. "Raven seemed most flustered when she and Noir carried off. And Cyborg seemed in a great deal of a hurry to leave the scene along with Beast Boy. Perhaps the mall was not a good place to come to."

"Don't be silly, Star!" Robin smiled at her as they walked past a few storefronts. "Besides, it was my idea. We needed a time out of the Tower. We can't keep cooped up in that place forever!"

"And I suppose I do need to get a new sling."

"I beg your pardon?" Robin looked at her wyrd.

"You know, a sling!" she smiled. "I've been meaning to purchase one from one of your earth vendors as of late."

"Whatever it is, Star…as long as it isn't too expensive," Robin chuckled.

They continued walking.

"You seem in quite the good mood today, Robin," Starfire smirked. "Are you fully recovered from your ailment?"

"So it seems," he exhaled. "How on earth did you and Raven get better so quickly?"

"Raven has meditative powers. It is beyond me to envision the secrets to her improved health," Starfire said.

"You put it so technically…," Robin remarked.

"I'm sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for! It's cute, Starfire."

The casually dressed Tamaranian girl glanced at him and focused back on their trek. "I seem to be cute a lot more lately."

Robin scratched his neck. "Yeah….well….I won't hold you to it."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dude…that is—like—so wrong…," Beast Boy said.

"Need we say more?" Cyborg added.

"Just look at them…"

Cyborg reached a metallic hand out, picked up a 'Beast Boy' toy off the shelf of the kids' store, and looked it over. "Man…they got your ears all wrong."

"It's tiny and plastic! They wouldn't focus on detail!" Beast Boy stood on his tip toes and gawked at the action figure. "Oh my god…look at my crotch!! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Cyborg winced and put the package back. "I'd rather not."

"Are you here?"

"Yup," the android smirked and held up a box from a shelf. It was titled: 'The Titanium Titan'. "Check it out! They gave me a motorcycle! With missiles!"

"There's no cyborg motorcycle," Beast Boy folded his arms and frowned. "And no missiles either!"

"Actually, it's not half a bad idea," Cyborg chuckled. "Man…the scary ideas playthings give me."

"Don't ever repeat that sentence, thank you," Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Can we go get my clothes now?! It's just plain…freaky seeing licensed toys that look like yourself."

"Some of us are lucky," Cyborg mumbled and looked at the aisle in the toy store. "I'm not seeing any Raven or Starfire action figures."

Beast Boy rubbed his neck. "Um…try the girl's section on the other side."

Cyborg blinked. "Don't tell me—"

"They're dolls….yeah," Beast Boy simpered. "I dunno about Raven, but I just know Starfire beat out Tickle-Me-Elmo last Christmas."

"Lemme guess….lots of fake, red hair."

"I worry for the vacuum cleaners of girls' mothers everywhere," Beast Boy moaned. "Those dolls are way too…maintenance centered to be practical."

Cyborg shrugged and walked out into the mall area. "I'll take your word for it."

"HEY!" Beast Boy shuffled after him. "I wouldn't know anything about a Starfire doll!"

"I believe you."

"I've never even handled one!"

"Uh huh."

"…..seriously, I haven't."

"Right."

"……."

"……."

"……..not in the least—"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This is so pointless. This is so pointless. This is so pointless."

Raven and I stood in the dark corner of the Hot Topic. Raven folded her arms and fumed in Starfire's pink frock while I busied myself with looking at a few t-shirts depicting classic video game characters and snazzy logos.

"I have all the robes I need at home," Raven rambled. "We could have spent the whole day salvaging the laundry from the sealed off cellar, but Robin and Cyborg had to insist on our trip here."

I held up a shirt with a Zelda Cartridge illustration….thought about it….then put it back on the shelf.

"And don't get me started on Starfire," the girl folded her arms and gritted her teeth. "That innocence and naiveté is all a ruse. She pleases herself in torturing me. I just know it."

I fingered through Mega Man…Ryu…and Samus.

"And Beast Boy. He can't keep his animalistic mouth shut. I hate immaturity. It just….just…complicates……..things……"

I looked at a pair of jeans, sighed, and put them down.

It was strangely silent.

I looked over at Raven curiously.

The girl was suddenly rummaging through a collection of black, velvety jeans with clothespins. "These are……interesting."

I raised an eyebrow.

"And….the size….," she said breathlessly.

A beat.

"Hold onto this," Raven tossed some pants into my arms. "Please?"

I stumbled with the sudden articles in my grasp and awkwardly recovered my balance. I managed to catch sight of Raven looking furiously through a set of gothic attired, mumbling things to herself. She was like a librarian.

I raised a free finger to gesture something when suddenly--

"I'll be right back," the girl said and ducked into a nearby dressing room.

"…….," I cleared my throat and stared at the floor.

Beneath the door frame of the room, I saw a pair of bare feet. Shadows moved around a few seconds before a pink dress fell to the floor like a deflated flower.

I spun around and stared out the entrance of the store. I hugged the pants to my chest.

It was my turn to blush.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Beast Boy! Come out of there!!" Cyborg banged his knuckles on the dressing room door inside a JC Penney's.

"Just a second!!"

"You've been in there a whole twenty minutes! It's time to regroup with the others, for crying out loud!"

"Patience is the key to success! In this case, success is a good looking changeling! HA!"

"Oh please," Cyborg rolled his eyes. "I'm off to the arcade, smell you---"

The door flung open.

Cyborg flinched, sweatdropped, and whimpered. "….later?"

"Wellllllllll?!" Beast Boy posed in a tux.

"Um……..B.B.," Cyborg cleared his throat. "The idea was to buy day clothes. Not something for the prom."

"It sure beats a baseball uniform anyday in my book!" Beast Boy smirked and did a Humphrey Bogart impression.

"God help us all."

"Indeed. I'm buying it!"

"Your funeral."

Beast Boy led the way to a nearby checkout counter. A young female clerk came to his attention.

"I'd like to….buy what I'm wearing," the green elf smirked and snapped a suave, pointed finger at the girl.

Cyborg planted a hand over his face and moaned.

"……..sure thing, sir," the girl stuttered. "What type of transaction?"

"Cha-Ching!" Beast Boy whipped out a card.

"Not credit again, B.B…..," Cyborg muttered.

"So what? Hey, I'm responsible!"

The clerk smiled politely. "Can I see some photo I.D., sir?"

Beast Boy glanced at her. He chuckled. "Don't you see, Miss? I'm Beast Boy!"

She stared at him.

"You know…the guy who puts the 'A' in TitAn? 'A' as in 'Animal'?"

"I still need to see some I.D., sir."

His face fell. He looked up at Cyborg.

The android smirked. "You'll look back and miss the anonymity, pal."

"Pfft…sure," Beast Boy held out a learner's license and smirked. "Ya know…most girls just ask for my number. If you like my face enough, I could give you another pic. I have copies."

"Um…your credit card, sir."

"Yes, honey?"

"It's declining."

"…………um…Cy?"

Cyborg sighed and pulled out a wallet from an arm panel.

"Tens or twenties?"

"Anything I can pay you back with."

"Fat chance."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin, why do they call it 'American Eagle'?"

The boy shrugged, tugging a bag of shirts and new jeans behind him. "Must be a name they chose when the store was founded way back in—"

"But there were no fowl to be located within the boundaries of the store."

"…..it's a clothing store, Star. It has nothing to do with eagles."

"And Americans?"

"I think that speaks for itself."

"Oh…," Starfire remarked. She looked to the right side at the stores ahead of them and beamed. "Yes! Now I can get my sling!"

"You know…it isn't so bad shopping in public. Not like I once thought," Robin smirked. "I was afraid some morons would flock around us and keep us from living normal lives."

"Thankfully that was not the case," Starfire smiled at him, turned, and headed straight for her store in question. "Though I am perplexed what interest our fellow citizens would have in your purchase of pants and my search for an efficient—" she paused when she noticed Robin wasn't following him. "Robin? Is there something the matter?"

A bit flustered, the boy stood stock still a few feet behind her and cleared her throat. "Ahem….I-I don't think I should go in there, Star."

Starfire looked at him strangely, turned around and faced Victoria's Secrets, and glanced back at him again. "You do not wish to assist me in finding a sling?"

"What's this sling you keep talking about, Starfire?"

"Why…naturally, it is what girls use to suppor—"

"A bra?!?!" Robin made a double-take. "You want me to help you find a bra?!"

Starfire grinned. "So that is what they are called! Quite perplexing. I think it was Beast Boy who aptly compared them to sling shots during a high-spirited conversation with Cyborg early when I came to this planet—"

"Sorry, Starfire. But I have to stay behind."

Starfire looked hurt. "Did I not help you in finding your jeans?"

"It's not….the same, you see," Robin scratched his neck. "Jeans are jeans, but what you need….what you need…"

Starfire looked down, her innocent complexion saddened.

Robin bit his lip. "You only live once…," he muttered and walked over to Starfire's side. "Make it quick."

"Glorious! We shall now embark upon the mission for the sling!"

Robin whimpered and they were off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in the corner, holding a pile of clothes.

I was almost nodding off when the dressing room door opened and:

"Okay….what do you think," Raven's voice asked in a slight bend of the usual monotone.

I looked up.

I blinked from behind my shades.

The usually robed girl stood in a pair of gothic, velvet slacks that appeared positively streamlined—save for the needles and baby pins fastenings that lined the pantlegs vertically. Her top was a long-sleeved blouse of sorts, mesh around the shoulders and solid throughout the torso with spider-web designs that criss crossed around the bodice and met along the sides with string fasteners.

I scratched my head and mouthed: _'Scary'_.

She read my lips: "'Scary'?"

_Good scary._

"Hmmmm," Raven walked over to a mirror and posed. Her face was deadpan, but I could have sworn I saw a fraction of a millimeter of a curve to the sides of her lips. "Maybe I won't kill Starfire for this after all."

She turned and faced me. "I'll get all of them."

I about pratfalled.

"Now where's that sales counter?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dudes!!" a ridiculously tuxed Beast Boy embraced us invisibly from afar. "There you are! We've been waiting fore-----" Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

So did Cyborg's.

"Raven?"

The girl stood before them. "What?"

"Um……….you look like you had fun."

The expressionless girl glared at them. "So I did do a little bit of shopping. Big deal."

I simpered, straining with the weight of three or four shopping bags on my arms.

"Um……….okay," Cyborg shrugged. "Not my money."

"What wonderful garb you have chosen, Raven!" Starfire beamed as she walked over with a little pink bag. "May I ask…was the experience full of trepidation in my absence?"

Raven blinked at her. "Positively nightmarish."

"I am sorry…I will assist you next time like I promised," the Tamaranian apologized. "I was busy purchasing a sling…with Robin's help!"

"A 'sling', huh…," Raven smirked. She looked over. "Is that right, Robin?" A pause. "Robin?"

Cyborg leaned forward. "Yoo hoo….Earth to Robin."

The team leader stood still behind Starfire. He gazed into nothingness. Shellshocked. Melancholy.

"Um….is he gonna drool or something?" Beast Boy shuddered. "If so, I ain't cleaning it up."

Robin whimpered. He looked wounded.

Silence.

"All right…let's go home," Cyborg grabbed Robin's shoulder and pointed him towards the exit as he moved us all along. "I think we could all use a DVD or something."

I strained with my bags and tried to catch up.

"Yeah! How about Mallrats?!" Beast Boy jumped.

"Toss away that tux…and I might consider it."

Starfire giggled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It wasn't until halfway during the ride home in the T-Car that I was interrupted from my gaze out the passing window by Raven's comment:

"What did you get for yourself, Noir?"

I glanced at her in the light of the setting sun. Then at the rest of the car. Everyone, save for a numb Robin, was glancing at me at one point or another. Curiously.

I smacked my head and sighed.

Beast Boy chuckled and straightened his tux's bow tie. "Poor newby! Maybe next time, eh?"

I shrugged.

Raven smirked and looked ahead.

_Maybe I'll grow used to denim?_

Who knows.

Robin whimpered again…


	23. Bad Publicity part 1

**23. Bad Publicity part 1**

I blurred over rooftops.

The night air kicked at my long hair and bandanna.

I gritted my teeth as I ran up the side of a skyscraper, dashed around it, and leapt off and onto a lower building beneath.

In such a frantic fashion, I zoomed on murked feet through the heart of the City.

"Noir! Get your fuming butt over here!" Cyborg's voice echoed from my communicator. "These guys aren't playing around!"

"Cyborg," Raven's voice interrupted. "Watch your Six!"

"Ah!!"

There was a sound of gunfire from Cyborg's end.

I gasped and pushed myself to the limit. Landing on the street. Blurring around traffic. Jumping and leaping from street lamp to street lamp. Streaking a black bullet towards my destination.

In due time, I came upon the construction site. I leapt over the high fence, perched on the flimsy aluminum structure, and scanned the area from under my shades.

In the moonlight, I caught a limousine and two cars in a clearing besides unfinished skyscrapers. Two briefcases were spilled open on the dirt. One was a mother load of green bills. The other was a collection of suspiciously white packages.

I frowned.

The sound of gunfire startled me.

I looked to the left and saw Cyborg squatting behind a metal crate. He was drawing fire from two thugs with uzzis on the other side of the construction site.

He needed help.

I studied the scene. The aluminum fence stretched past Cyborg and the crate and went past a metal scaffold of construction. On the top of a scaffold was a pylon stretching outward. Just below the pylon was a bundle of lumber tied to a cord.

_There we go…_

I smirked, dropped down from the fence, and landed in a kneeling position.

I cracked my neck.

WOOOOOSH!!

No sooner, I had leapt to my feet and was running alongside the fence. Before it made its curve towards Cyborg, I used my blurring momentum to carry me on the very wall of aluminum. I zoomed sideways along the wall, passed Cyborg, approached the scaffold, jumped onto the metal structure, zoomed over the edge of the pylon, jumped down, unsheathed Myrkblade, and slashed the cord holding the bundle of lumber in check.

SNAP!!!

RUMMMMBLE!!

The planks of wood groaned against each other and spilled out over the two gunmen.

The thugs gasped and tried to run away, but were pinned down by the wooden debris and put out of action. One crook who was stuck under the pile struggled to reach his gun. I walked by and casually kicked the gun away. He gasped and tried to avoid my glare as I quickly dashed away from the restrained thugs and checked on Cyborg.

"I'm all-right," the android groaned. "Those guys were real itchy trigger fingers. It's amazing that I didn't get hit once!" He looked at me with firm eyes. "In case you haven't guessed, there was some illegal interchange of drugs going on here. Not the usual back alley crap. The big stuff. Raven and I intercepted at the nick of time, but we had no idea these creeps were armed to the teeth like they are! Thanks for coming on your Tower Watch, Noir."

I shrugged and smirked slightly. I motioned to the incapacitated thugs.

"I know," Cyborg nodded, standing up straight. "Good job…but there're more of them here somewhere. Damn…what a perfect time for Robin to take Beast Boy and Starfire away on a mission!"

I looked around and made a bird symbol with my hands.

"Raven?? Wasn't she with you?"

BANG!

A gun sounded off from behind us.

Cyborg loaded his laser rifle and I held up Myrkblade. We both poised ourselves and faced the center of the construction site where a richly dressed man and his two machine-gun armed men smirked at us.

"Wel well well…look who decided to show," the rich man said. He was a stout fellow in a business suit. His hair was long and jet black. Reminiscent of the Hollywood cliché of drug cartels. "Please…put those weapons away. With as frequently as you use them, someone's liable to get hurt."

"The feeling's mutual," Cyborg frowned, waving his laser rifle at their machine guns. "Isn't that overdoing it?! I'm sure you've all heard of Ten, Twenty, To Life!"

"Since when was Life ever a factor in your 'heroic' calculations?" the rich fellow smirked. "You have no solid proof of our wrong doing. And yet you Titans are determined to beat our skulls in for every waking breath that my friends and I have."

"Cut the talk!" Cyborg growled. "You think we don't *see* your drug exchange in the briefcases over there?!"

"Are you so sure of what you see, Mr. Cyborg?"

"I said cut it!!" my team member shook. I reached a hand to his shoulder to steady him. It seemed my place.

"Temper Temper, Blue," the villain folded his arms. "You have got to learn to control your emotions."

A voice droned from the background: "Stop stealing my advice."

The three looked up just in time to see a telekinetically charged metal pylon soaring down at them.

WHAM!!!

The object slammed into the ground by their feet and exploded in obsidian energy.

The three were thrown off at three different angles.

Raven levitated down to the ground. Her eyes stopped glowing bright gray. "I hate boring conversations."

"Cute," the lead villain winced, clutching his side. "Is this the pain you want of us?"

"Shut up!" Cyborg then gestured at all of us. "Teen Titans! Go!"

All three of us charged the thugs as soon as they got up.

One gunman raised his weapon.

Cyborg zapped it out of his grasp.

I leapt in and swiped the crook's legs from under him with Myrkstaff.

Cyborg jumped and landed with a fist to the man's chest, knocking his breath out.

The other thug started firing.

Gunshots filled the air.

Cyborg and I ducked to escape the bullets we knew were streaming at us.

Raven flew in and shieleded us with a dark field.

"Thanks a bunch," Cyborg grunted, poised himself, and leapt over the shield at the gunman. The two started struggling over control of the machine gun.

"Noir!!" Raven pointed behind me, dissolving her shield. "The leader's getting away!"

I swung my head around and caught sight of the dark haired talker making a run for it.

I gripped Myrkblade, got to my feet, and blurred after him.

One and a half seconds later, I stood in his path.

He didn't seem shocked. In fact, he grinned at me.

_He grinned at me??_

There was no time to think. I hit him in the stomach with the butt of my sword's hilt.

He doubled over in pain.

I then did the finishing blow, spinning about and contacting the broad side of Myrkstaff with his backside.

He tumbled forward to the ground and was out like a light.

The gunshots stopped.

Cyborg had won his wresting match.

_A job well done._

I took a deep breath and sheathed Myrkblade.

"Wait a second," Raven suddenly uttered. "Cyborg…how could you have survived?"

"Excuse me?! Raven, this is no time for—"

"Seriously. I saw that man shoot you _five times!_ Something isn't right here."

I turned around and looked as Cyborg picked up the weapon, aimed it at the ground of the construction site, and fired once.

BANG!!

Nothing happened, save for the sound of the blast. The dirt beneath was untouched.

"Blanks….," Cyborg mumbled. He looked at the two struggling under the lumber pile. "All of them?"

"Yes…," a voice beside me mumbled. "All of them."

I looked over in shock as the leader stood up, winced, and removed his black wig to reveal a partially bald, brown head of hair. "Hit it, Ray!"

CHUKUNG!!

One spotlight…two spotlights…three….

Hidden set teams with lights started illuminating the construction site from atop the metal pylons and buildings across the street. The ground lit up like a stage and a nearby aluminum wall fell down, revealing a huge throng of people. _An audience._

And there were t.v. cameras. The evil villain—now a sauve spokesman—was walking up to the lights with a microphone that he produced from his jacket and started saying:

"Behold! And see for yourselves, dear citizens! The rough and unmerciful vigilantism of your so called 'beloved' Teen Titans!"

Cyborg sweatdropped.

Raven frowned.

We were numbly aware of stage hands wandering onto the site and helping the four thugs onto their feet and out from under the lumber pile.

"They have no regard for justice! No impulse to negotiate! Their sole intent is a meatheaded excuse to pummel suspects senselessly and without logic!

The audience behind the cameras muttered and gasped amongst themselves as the man's footage was broadcasted live. The side of a news van a few yards away read 'JCN Broadcasting'.

"If you have read my articles in the paper and my well-researched publications, you would have been sufficiently warned of these tolerated criminals and their despot dreams!" He spun around and gestured at the three of us. "But this is the only way to capture it in true color! This is the only way to show the Titans in the flesh! In all of their disgusting light! Through drama! The real thing! And I, Blake Glover, have brought to you the truest portrayal of the villains you illogically entrust your security to while you sleep at night!!"

Cyborg had stepped over to the briefcases. He picked up the drugs and scanned a bag of it with his arm sensor. "Why this….th-this is only baby powder! What the—"

"Of course, the only way to make them crawl out from the urban woodwork was to stage a scene that would gather their attention!" Mr. Glover cackled at the cameras with his mike. "And fancy how they love to flock to scenes of the most grotesque and banal nature!"

"Hey! Yo!" Cyborg dropped the 'drugs' and placed his hands on his hips. "Your men were firing those stupid toy guns of yours at us as soon as we came to the scene! We thought we were in danger for our lives! And we also had reason to believe innocent people could be hurt if we let those gun-toting actors be! How can you blame us for taking action?!"

"And taking action involves dropping a load of heavy lumber on my companions, I do suppose! Or knocking the breath out of our lungs! Or slamming our backsides so hard, something's liable to break! Oh no, ladies and gentleman," Glover faced the crowd beyond the cameras. "These are not wielders of justice. These are monsters! Freaks of modern enforcement! And I swear to you…none of them is any more vicious than this one HERE!" He spun around…..and pointed at me.

Honestly….I nearly fell down.

I blinked at him from behind my shades.

"Yes! The newcomer! A demon with that sword of his! What will keep him from slicing a suspect's head off on any given day when he just so happens to be in a bad mood?!"

I opened my mouth and lifted a finger--

But he went on: "Does it not strike you as odd that this darkest and evilest of Titans is still a mystery to us?! That he hides from us his true self, as if it could protect him with an imaginary shroud of anonymity?! Go on, _Titan!_ Tells us your name!"

He thrust the mike hard into my face.

I stepped back and looked at him.

He stared at me…grinning through sweat.

I clenched my fists when….suddenly Raven stood between me and the journalist.

She glared daggers at him. "Leave him alone."

"Or what? Care to display to the viewing audience again your violent control of foreign objects?!"

The crowd muttered.

Raven glared.

Cyborg stepped up to the plate. "Hey…do you not know when to stop pushing it—?!"

"No," Raven said, a hand up. "We're going back to the Tower."

Cyborg blinked. "But—"

"This is useless. We're heading back. Now." And she literally tugged on my shoulder and forced me to walk from the scene with her.

The crowd mumbled in curiosity and shock.

Glover grinned. "That's right, you Titans! Run away when the truth shows its ugly head in your face! Run away when you know the time is coming for you to stop this maniacal charade and leave enforcement to the police!"

Cyborg glared at the journalist….at the crowd…at the whole site. He shook his fists at his sides, sighed, and swiveled around to join us in the peaceful retreat.

"Don't be fooled! Your day is indeed coming!" the man swiveled about and faced the crowd once more. "And I, Blake Glover, will see to it!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Last night at approximately ten thirty pm, local journalist Blake Glover staged a televised mockery of the Teen Titans during one of their nightly trips through the heart of the City's criminal districts. Reports show that he and a few colleagues performed a fake delivery of illegal substances to attract the attention of the Titans, upon which they engaged the vigilantes with fake weaponry and provoked a confrontation. When asked for his reasoning behind the act, this is what Mr. Glover had to say:"**_

"_The Titans are the real menace to our society! Not criminals! The most hardened and deranged nightmares that threaten our lives each day owe their psychotic existence to the Titans and their brash way of dealing with the dredges of the criminal threat. What our city has been witnessing over the past two years is a piece of the world wide hysteria and proliferation of masked heroism and martial law that has so undermined the principals of justice our forefathers died to maintain! There can be no stable civilization if random, power-endowed freaks among us are granted the ability to prance around as they see fit in ridiculous costumes and punch random suspects' faces in! I am determined—with every fiber of my being—to put an end to this deadly charade of theirs and return justice of the City back into the hands of the police and federal law enforcement! The Titans will fall!"_

"_**Earlier that night, Blake Glover singled out the newest of the Titans—whom witnesses are claiming goes by the costumed name of 'Noir' as stated by teammates upon the scene—and this was said during the controversial broadcast:"**_

"_And I swear to you…none of them is any more vicious than this one HERE! Yes! The newcomer! A demon with that sword of his! What will keep him from slicing a suspect's head off on any given day when he just so happens to be in a bad mood?! Does it not strike you as odd that this darkest and evilest of Titans is still a mystery to us?! That he hides from us his true self, as if it could protect him with an imaginary shroud of anonymity?!"_

"_**In light of Glover's accusations, JCN Broadcasting caught up with the police commissioner and asked for any statements regarding the newest member of the Titans, possibly named 'Noir'. Though he had very little to comment, the commissioner had this to say:"**_

"_Let Mr. Glover say what he wishes. But as long as I've been in the service, I've not had a single reason to doubt the trustworthiness and service of the Teen Titans. Any new member to their flock is welcome in my eyes. And until this quiet rookie does something to obstruct justice or overstep his boundaries, I have no problem with him."_

"_**Who is this Noir? Is he a sign of a dark edge to the Teen Titans never before seen? Blake Glover swears that he is destined to reveal a weakness in the vigilante system of the local scene. It remains to be known if his efforts are fruitful, or if the City has reason to doubt the very heroes that has made it famous. Until then, this is Marilyn Chen. Good night."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Thank you for coming on the show, Mr. Glover."

"Thanks for having me."

"So…all this hubbub over the Teen Titans. It isn't another publicity stunt, is it?"

"No sirree. As always, Gary, I'm on a mission."  
"Oh are you now?"

"Yes. And both you and your audience know that—when I'm on a mission—I don't stop for anything save for the successful revelation of truth."

"I remember you and that case concerning the retired greyhounds."  
"Pfft…that was charity work compared to this."

"And the City Disposal System?"

"Elementary."

"You do say…"

"I do say, Gary."

"Might I add, you're quite the proud man, Mr. Glover."

"Not much to be proud of yet. As long as I've been a journalist, the vigilantes of this nation have troubled me. The case of Gotham City is the most archaic of all. We all know what a proverbial rape of the justice system Commissioner Gordon has allowed to run amok in that hellish, urban sprawl. Here in our town, things are much more innocent. But it is in the youth of a community that the nightmare begins to bloom. A nightmare carried on the shoulders of creatures of the night who congregate on rooftops and hunt our very neighbors down like prey."

"But what of armed criminals? Terrorists? Madmen? Their numbers are on the rise and our police system can only handle so much. Surely you can't deny the impact the Titans have had on our security…being that we're so far from Metropolis and other major hubs of heroic defense!"

"'Heroism' is a word, Gary. Surely neither you nor the audience here can deny that the Titans have dragged our City out of some rough scrapes. But it's all out of the frying pan and into the fire. I'm aimed on proving that the very existence of supervillains is dependent on the agitation and continued aggression of vigilantes worldwide. And now with the latest newcomer, the Titans have dug us all an even bigger hole."

"That's the second time as of late you've mentioned the latest member of the Titans. What's his name…..'Night'? 'Noose'?"  
"Noir, I do believe. He brings a sword to the team….a team that already comprises of laser blasts, claws, bolts of alien flame, explosives, and destructive telekinesis. This rookie is not the sort to negotiate. In fact, I don't think he can talk at all. His sole purpose is to cut a path for his team members to dive in and finish the gruesome job. He is an assassin. A ghost. The truest form of the nightmarish manifestation of the Titans that we have yet to see unfold if we so much as let them play out their childish games of cowboy and outlaw throughout this respectable city of ours!"

"Quite heated words to discuss. But before we delve deeper into your theories, Mr. Glover, we must take a break for our sponsors."

"By all means."

"When we'll be back, Blake Glover will talk about the upcoming Law Enforcement Convention and the speech he intends to make in front of a wide audience of officials from throughout this region…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg switched the T.V. off, sighed, and typed madly away at a keyboard.

Raven stood directly behind him. She looked at the now-blank screen at the end of the Tower's Main Room…and then glanced at Cyborg. "Pardon the expletive…. but….. what the hell?"

"Rather, *who* the hell," Cyborg mumbled in reply. He jammed down on the space bar. The balding journalist's face popped up. "Blake Glover. Journalist for fourteen years on the JCN Broadcasting staff. A hard-hitter known for his blatant criticisms of just about everything that moves in the postindustrial world. He's been a conservatist, a liberal, a religious man, a liberal again, and back to conservatist to restart the cycle."

"What's he at now?" Raven asked.

"The heck if I know! Annoying!" Cyborg leaned his chin on two titanium hands and sighed with a slump. "Of all the tails to yank on in this crummy world, he had to pull on ours." A pause. "I wonder if he's had many girlfriends in his life."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Raven glared.

"I was making….a joke."

"It still doesn't change the fact that we're getting bad publicity," Raven muttered.

"Well….you and I can be thankful. He's choosing someone else to castrate the hardest," Cyborg remarked.

A beat.

They both turned around and looked at me.

I squatted on a tabletop, absentmindedly playing solitaire with a fan of poker cards placed down in front of me. Upon feeling their gaze, a part of me woke up to reality slightly and forced me to sigh.

"Why him?" Raven asked, looking at Cyborg. "Just because he's new?"

"Easy to gang up on the newby," the android replied. "In general, that goes for all of us. I'd love to see him flock over to Metropolis and try bashing Superman and the rest of the JLA in front of news cameras. But obviously he's too cowardly. God…people make me so sick sometimes."

"You have to admit, he did get us good."

Cyborg looked up strangely at her. "What are you meaning to say?!"

"I can see now how we could have been more cautious with busting that 'delivery' at the construction site," Raven remarked. "Perhaps we have gotten so used to facing blatant criminals that we've stopped pausing to cautiously weigh the evidence."

"Perhaps…," Cyborg sighed and swiveled around to lean forward on his knees. "But that doesn't excuse how wrong he was for what he did. If it was the police and not us who got fooled into reacting to their blank guns, he'd probably be having less to smile about right now."

"He's got nothing to smile about yet," Raven said. "Let's just keep doing our jobs…regardless of whatever intimidation he might press upon us."

"Heh…," Cyborg smirked ever so slightly. "That's easy for you, Raven. Some of us are too emotional. We let it get to our heads."

She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Then I'll help you." She looked over. "Both of you." A pause. She blinked at me. "Where are you going?"

I packed the cards away into a deck, slid them into my pocket, and gestured on word without looking.

"'_Out',_" Cyborg read aloud.

"You sure that is wise, Noir?" Raven said.

I looked at her…wounded.

She said nothing.

I walked depressingly off towards the elevators, and left the scene.

Once I was gone, Cyborg looked down to the ground and sighed. "He's letting this all get to him."

"He can handle it."

"And just how do you know that?"

Raven looked off through the night-shadowed windows of the Tower.

"I don't."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I wandered into town under the familiar shroud of night.

I rested my hands in my jacket pockets.

I kicked at the gravel on the roadside and took it easy.

_How about the Bay Side Plaza again??_

I sighed and shuffled on.

As the minutes rolled by and the population and crowds increased around me, I tried to regard the world through my shades and only found shadows that were once inviting to me but now seemed fake and insignificant. Everything was blinding. From the headlights of passing cars to the ever increasing neon of the Plaza's stores and theatre marquis just ahead.

And the ambiance of the voices of high schoolers and late night party goers lacked the joy and vitality it once had. It was all so depressing…and yet so real at the same time.

Things change after your spirit…your very name is wounded.

I stood around at the edge of the plaza for a while, looking at traffic, not daring to come out of the woodwork. Everyone around me was in peace and happy. And yet, I couldn't summon forth a feeling of pride from within like I could do in the past. I no longer felt responsible for their peace of mind. I no longer felt the fruits of being a hero.

_Was I mistaken all along??_

I sighed and leaned my head back against the building side.

_Was it bound to……last only this long?_

I exhaled.

_And fade?_

I looked out into the street. A family stood on the sidewalk. The mother and father were arguing over the contents of a map.

_Probably tourists._

But their little boy was unguarded. He played with a rubber ball innocently by the bottom of his parents' legs. At one point, the ball bounced off his sneakers and rolled off into the street.

….and he went after it.

I stood up straight.

My eyes stared, unblinking.

The boy picked up the ball. He stood in the middle of the street. There was a scream----then---a screeching of a semi truck.

The screeching sound became louder, for in two thirds of a second I was already across the street and grabbing the kid up from the asphalt in mid blur. I barely squeezed us by the careening vehicle in the knick of time and sat us on the sidewalk on the other side, panting.

The sudden rush and excitement frightened the boy, and made him cry in my arms.

As the semi-truck settled, the parents ran desperately over to our position. They were followed by an anxious crowd of onlookers.

The mother was first: "Jonathan!"

I stood up and let her sweep the child into her arms. The boy sobbed into her shoulders.

"Oh my god!" the father exclaimed. "He was nearly hit! Sir, I can't thank you enough—" He took one good look at my face.

I smiled at him. But the smile left as the man stumbled back in sudden shock.

"Um….h-honey?," he tapped his wife's shoulder.

The mother was still soothing the child in their embrace when she looked at me and shared her husband's apprehension. "Y-You…."

I blinked at them from behind my shades. I was confused.

So were other people.

"What's wrong?"

"Didn't he just save the boy?"

"Ma'am? Who is it?"

The parents' eyes bulged. The mother exclaimed, "It's….It's that assassin talked about on T.V.!"

My heart fell. I looked around and noticed everyone recoiling and giving me a second glance.

"Why….he is a Titan!"

"He's _the_ Titan!"

"The newcomer!"

"The one that journalist spoke about!"

"You mean, the mean one?"

"The one who doesn't talk!"

"The one with the sword!"

"Back off!"

"Don't hurt us…please!"

I held my hands up harmlessly and stood up.

As if the move appeared threatening, people darted away from me…especially the parents with their child.

I breathed deeply—quite freaked—and attempted to walk off.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

"You have questions to answer, Mister!"

"Yeah! Is what Mr. Glover says true?!"

"Just who do you think you are?!"

"Don't think you can frighten us, sir!!"

I gulped. I had to get out of there. These people weren't _reasoning_. They were a crowd. And crowds turned to mobs on a dime. No matter how heroic the martyr in question may be.

I walked back across the street towards the sidewalk that would gradually take me home.

But people were following me…and stragglers in the distanced formed a perimeter of innocent curiosity that only further hindered my escape route.

I spun around, considering the use of my powers to blur through and over everyone. But any sudden display of my gifts would only worsen the situation. I was not about to make the crowd panic on the part of my own panic.

"Ha ha ha ha!!" guffawed some beer-guzzling saphead in the background. "Look at him! He's afraid!"

I panted. I hurried my pace to get away. But I was getting more and more crowded. Maybe they all weren't hostile. Just intensely curious. But one thing people were quickly forgetting was that I was a human being, not a questionnaire with legs. Howbeit, a few irate people shoved me here and there and that's when I knew it was time to get out as soon as I possibly could--

SMASH!!!!

My whole body shook.

Everyone gasped.

"Ha ha ha ha!!" yelled the drunk from a distance. "Go home, you freak!!"

A glass beer bottle had been thrown against my head.

I winced and raised a hand to my scalp. A small, warm sensation trickled down my forehead, and I knew that I was bleeding. My body turned numb. I didn't know what to do. Evidently, neither did those immediately around me. People who were taunting and interrogating me just minutes before were now fearfully shuffling away…as if expecting me to whip a sword out of my pocket and slash them to bits.

Amidst the dizzying, bleeding confusion, I reached forward for an invisible hand. Imagine my surprise when a pair of fingers wrapped around mine. I looked painfully through my shades and saw the form of a man helping me through the crowd and swiftly out of the street and into an empty alleyway. He pulled me close and had a look at my forehead.

"Hmmm…we need to do something for that," the stranger said.

I winced and tried to get a good look at him.

He was vaguely familiar. Tall, dark-haired, physically fit. When he faced me, he smiled ever so slightly: "Do you remember me, sir?"

I blinked from behind my shades.

"Daniel, remember? Renee's husband. We had a cup of coffee together once."

I mouthed 'oh' and nodded my head. That only made it hurt all the more. I about doubled over in the pang of pain.

"Better come with me," he said, walking off and motioning for me to follow. "Don't worry…it's better than a Steak N' Shake this time."

_Who was I to argue?_I followed the citizen off into the night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I've read some of the stuff Blake Glover writes," Robin said, his face on the Main Room's monitor. "Imagine every code of honor we've ever believed in being ripped to shreds by some mangy journalist's word processor."

"Believe me, I don't want to imagine," Cyborg called over from the kitchen area, fixing himself a midnight snack. He looked up at the monitor every now and then to maintain the long-range communication with the team leader. "That guy pisses me off enough just by showing his face, much less writing some thick-headed crap." He walked over and grabbed a glass from the cupboard. "Robin, I tell you what. You and I both know it's lonely when you and the others have to go on a mission and leave the rest of us here. But the timing with this thing is absolutely terrible. Come back as soon as you can, man."

"Believe me, I'd love to," Robin's face said. "But Starfire, Beast Boy and I are hot on the trail of Overload. We think he might be sucking energy from a nearby power plant. A plan is already devised to catch him in the act. And if we succeed and the electricity-loving freak is put back into prison, then we'll make way for Home without a delay. I promise you…we'll face this Glover creep together and prove ourselves to the citizens we protect once and for all."

"But this is what I'm afraid of…," Cyborg paused in the middle of pouring himself some soda and leaned against the kitchen counter, looking up at the distant monitor. "In trying to 'prove ourselves', we might do greater damage than Glover all by himself. I hate to say it, but the man's a genius. He knows how to ensnare us and make us look bad just for attempting to preserve justice. God knows what he gains from all of this. Heh…maybe it arouses him or something."

Robin tried not chuckling at Cyborg's comment. It only half worked. Still, he kept his cool and said: "Well, do me a favor, Cyborg, and have yourself, Raven, and Noir keep out of Glover's hair."

"And what of the City?"

"By all means…don't stop for a second to answer to the call for justice!" Robin insisted. "What Glover's trying to do is intimidate us. And I'm not about to let us cower before some two-bit journalist with nothing better to do than steal prime time T.V. You will bust every criminal and foil every robbery or drug transfer that you find, regardless of what this man alleges. For that is your job. Our job. And our purpose."

"Right, right…," Cyborg smirked. "'Keep up the good fight'. One of these days, I'm gonna read you like a book, Robin."

The Boy Wonder smirked. "Don't count on it."

The elevator doors opened from behind, and Raven stepped in. She didn't look too happy.

Cyborg took notice of it. He looked up at the monitor. "Guess I better be letting you go."

"It is late," Robin nodded. "The three of us are gonna get some rest. The sting to catch Overload takes place tomorrow. Any messages you or Raven or Noir want to give to the others before I sign off?"

"Yeah…," Cyborg gave a thumb's up. "'Kick his butt'."

"Beast Boy will like that message at least," Robin said. "Anyways. Over and out."

-BLIP-

Cyborg looked slowly over at Raven. "Trouble?"

She nodded slowly, a communicator in her grasp. "Yes. With Noir."

The android took a step forward. "What?? What happened to him??"

Raven held up a finger. She calmly—but solemnly said: "He is all right. I just got done listening to his message in morse code. He's all right…but it wasn't a good night on the town for him."

Cyborg sighed and looked at the floor. "I knew it…"

A pause.

He looked up again. "What happened exactly?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, I think it's absolutely awful…," Renee said, sliding a fresh bowl of ice across the table in front of me.

I nodded thanks to her, opened the washcloth, put in a few ice cubes, folded the cloth, and reapplied it to my aching scalp.

I sat in the kitchen of their modest apartment. Renee paced about, a cup of coffee in her hand. Daniel leaned on a counter behind us.

"It's a good thing you're healing up and all," she said. "It wasn't a big cut, I suppose."

I shook my head slowly…but winced.

Renee looked down at the tiled floor.

"Picked a bad night to go out on the town, I'd say," Daniel remarked. Then he chuckled, "But who am I to lecture to a hero?"

I smiled at him…then returned to my deadpan expression with a sigh.

"That man is being way too hard on you guys…," Renee said. "How can a journalist know what you Titans go through? The sacrifices you make?"

I shrugged.

Silence.

"Do the others know you're okay?"

I nodded and pointed at my communicator.

"Ah…of course," Renee sipped from her mug and then smiled. "It's good to have friends in all this."

"I hear JCN's ratings have gone sky-high," Daniel emphasized, interrupting the tangent. "No doubt they're watching the jack roll in from this controversy they're arousing. Glover is no more than a figurehead for income. Just you wait and see. All in good time, he'll fade away. Along with his words. He won't cause any harm."

I sighed, stood up, and paced over to the window. I dropped the washcloth into the sink and stared out silently.

They could tell I was agitated.

Renee wandered over to her husband's side. The two hugged and looked at me.

The wife said: "Mr. Noir…Daniel and I….w-we meant what we told you in the past. It's much truer now…"

I slowly turned around and faced the two across the kitchen from me.

"We have and always will be grateful for what the Titans did for us…," she said, leaning into her husband's embrace. "And you must realize, it's our opinion that matters, sir. Not that of some two-bit reporter or a broadcasted questionnaire accumulated by biased, media-driven mobs. It's the people you think about and look out for every day of your sacrificed lives. That's what really counts. And, I'm sure, that's what will drive you to continue being virtuous…no matter how mean these journalists might get."

I stared at them.

"We believe in your strength, sir," Daniel added. "If anyone can face off to these allegations, you're able. Look inside yourself and see the truth that you know is there. The truth that you know guides you each night. The same truth that makes Renee and I happy to be alive and happy even today."

Slowly…gradually…I smiled. I bowed my head at them momentarily and mouthed: _'Thank you'_.

They chuckled and one of them said: "Stole the words from our mouths."

And I shrugged.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Sir…look at these," a photographer dumped a pile of photonegatives onto the desk.

Blake Glover swiveled around from the computer in his office, put on some glasses, and looked closely at the pictures.

A beat.

"When were these taken?" he asked.

"Two and a half hours ago."

The journalist looked up.

He grinned.

Cracking his knuckles, he swiped the pictures up and went back to the keyboard…typing like mad.

"Looks like we have a busy night ahead of us before it becomes time to print, Avery."

"Should I contact the head editor, sir?"

"I'm way ahead of you."


	24. Bad Publicity part 2

**24. Bad Publicity part 2**

"And the blood travels back to the heart through the upper and lower vena cavae," Cyborg smiled, pointing at a diagram with a metal rod. "After returning from its trip to the rest of the body, the blood is pumped through the heart, starting with an entrance into the right atrium. Then into the left ventricle, which pumps the blood back to the lungs to gather oxygen. And the process repeats itself."

He retracted the rod, stood next to Raven, and smiled at the classroom.

"Any questions?"

A throng of fourth graders raised and waved their hands.

"You…in the third row."

The kid blushed and stuttered: "H-How do the Titans talk to each other when fighting bad guys?"

The classroom giggled.

The teacher smiled over from her corner at the two speakers.

Cyborg rolled his eyes and playfully growled. "I thought your gracious teacher, Miss Hudson had us here to teach you about the human circulatory system! Not talk about Titan business!"

"Pleeeeeease!"

"Just a little??"

"You guys are soooo cool!"

Cyborg glanced a red eye over at Raven.

She shrugged and muttered to him: "I'm not saying a word. Part of the agreement, remember?"

"Whole-heartedly." The African American android then grinned at the classroom and whipped out a communicator. "This is what we talk with."

_"__**COOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!**_" the children unanimously gasped.

"It provides us with a….'party line', I guess you could call it. We can all talk to each other at once. Let the others know when one of us is in danger and needs a rescue….with AWESOME SUPER POWERS!!"

The classroom cheered.

Miss Hudson chuckled.

Raven rolled her eyes.

"How do you keep from getting hurt??" A girl energetically asked.

"We look both ways before crossing the street," the android smirked.

"Awwww! That's not what I meannnnnt!"

Kids laughed.

"We're trained professionals," Cyborg said. "We've spent many years and months learning how to look after ourselves. You don't become a hero overnight, ya know."

Mutterings.

Nods.

One kid timidly raised a hand in the corner of the room.

Cyborg pointed at him: "And you there? What's your question?

The child bit his lip but eventually said: "There're some people on television who say the Titans are bad. Is that true?"

Silence.

A fourth grader or two cleared her or his throat.

Cyborg looked down at the floor. He sighed.

Raven blinked at him. She looked at the one, melancholy child and said: "There are people in this world who give up the greater part of their natural lives to look after the safety of many. People like that have fears and faults of their own, but they're willing to put all of such in balance to hone in on the single act of saving one soul a night, if need be. Such people are not afraid to run into a burning building or leap into the stormiest waters if it means upholding a family's well being. Now…when such people…go through all that sweat and toil…and someone has the nerve to say they're bad, do you think that certain someone is correct?"

Silence.

The child blinked…and slowly smiled. It was a sweet smile. "No.….I don't think that someone is…"

The other kids nodded, smiled, and cheered.

Cyborg looked up. He glanced at Raven and smiled.

The dark girl looked away.

"Well class," Miss Hudson walked up. "That about wraps it up for today. Tell Mr. Cyborg and Miss Raven 'thank you' for paying us a special visit today."

"Thaaaaaaaaaaaank youuuuuuuuuu Cyyyyyyyyyborg and Ravennnnnnnnnn."

Cyborg whispered to his female partner: "Good speech. A little cliché, but the kids dig it."

"It was not my idea to come here," she whispered back. "It was a decision made in bad timing. I think we can expect a lot of ugly letters from their parents come tomorrow."

"Raven…will you cool it? We're still heroes, after all. The media can't turn us evil overnight."

Raven looked out the window at the T-Car and sighed. "Speak for yourself…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I leaned back against the T-Car and exhaled, my arms crossed. A bright sun shone down on me, filtering light through a deceivingly pleasant sky. My shades protected my black eyes the best they could. But it didn't matter. I wasn't using them much.

The Titans had been cordially invited a week ago by the public school system to pay a visit to Miss Hudson's class and assist in teaching a science study. It was all very…..'public relations' oriented. After all, heroes aren't only good for kicking the butts of villains. They helped old ladies across the street and rescued cats from telephone poles too. Something to that extent.

Neither the Titans nor the school system could have predicted the media sensations rocking the City over the last few days. What, with Blake Glover's anti-Titan campaign and all, it was becoming a more and more skeptical world by the minute.

_I knew that far too personally._

I lifted a hand to my head and winced as my fingers rubbed over the bandage nestled just beneath my bangs of long black hair.

_It could be worse……_

I shifted my feet and continued waiting. There was no way I was walking in to 'teach' that classroom after what happened the night before. It wasn't that I was cowardly…but rather…I didn't want to stir up any bad emotions from the faculty.

Not yet…

I felt my place was best on watch by the T-Car. Cyborg and Raven didn't have a hard time agreeing. They were shocked to the core when I returned the previous night the way I did. I think—in some humorous way—_they_ were the cowardly ones. They didn't want to face me person to person. They didn't want to see how close the media had scratched at our egos and found its way to my forehead.

_Boy was I angsty that morning……_

"Ummm?"

I looked down and squinted.

A first grader with a ridiculously large, Disney backpack looked up at me. He smiled and waved a lunch box at me. "Hello, Mr. Titan!"

I couldn't help it. I smiled and waved back down at him.

"Henry! There you are!" someone who had to have been his mother rushed over and knelt at his side. "What have I told you about running off like that?! You worried me si---" she looked up at me, blinked once, stood up, and walked off with her child in tow. "Come on, Henry. Let's walk this way…quickly…"

I made a step for them, raising a hand….but stopped….and sighed.

It was just as well. In a matter of minutes, my two partners returned. We got into the T-Car and drove home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Some people have insinuated that I'm nothing but a rebel-rouser. That I'm just a 'hotheaded excuse for journalism at its most venomous'. Oh yes…those are the exact words spoken of me from the mouths of loyal, Titan-lovers. And I'm sure they all expect some dramatic retort to come out of my own lips. But all I have to say is _look_. **Look**, dear citizens! Look at the world around you. Look at the crime and the violence and the fighting and riots running rampant in our streets. Look at the Titans and how they're constantly at the center of it all. They are the fulcrums for disaster as much as they claim to be fulcrums of heroism. All chaos revolves around them. Their exploits are merely quests to save themselves, and not the desperate lives of those who dwell in this fine City! Look, and behold, these pictures which were given to me last night! They show the darkest and most mysterious of the six despots—'Noir'—instigating a confrontation with a crowd just outside of the Bayside Plaza! A mother and father nearly lost their son when the Titan confused a truck driver and----

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!

Cyborg slammed his fist down onto the couch's arm and stood up, growling: "That snake! He's twisting the whole truth!! Why, of all the lying nerve….I soooooo want to crack his camera sucking face in!!"

In the Main Room, Raven sat a few feet away, cross legged. She held her hands out with fingers touching and attempted with futility to meditate. "Will you please turn that t.v. off…," she mumbled lowly. "It is disturbing my concentration…as well as my temper."

"YOU THINK?!" Cyborg shook. "You're not alone, girl!" He punched the remote and the screen blipped off. The android sighed…scratched his metal skull…and looked over towards the far corner. "Sorry you had to hear that creep again, man."

I shrugged. Without looking at him, I resumed my lonely game of solitaire on the kitchen counter.

Silence filled the Titan Tower.

The noonday sun gradually grayed into evening.

Raven continued her chanting.

Cyborg stared into nothingness.

I paid attention to my cards.

Minutes later…

"We can't keep going on like this…," Cyborg muttered. "This just isn't right. We're letting it all get to our heads."

"You mean…YOU are…," Raven managed to say amidst meditation. Her closed eyes fluctuated under their dark lids as she added: "Obsession is the ally to anxiety. You cannot have one without the other. The more you keep this situation circling in your mind, the longer it will be a 'situation'."

"Repression's a bad thing too, ya know," Cyborg frowned and pointed. You're not dealing with this any better than I am."

Raven opened a glaring, blue eye. "Don't push it."

Cyborg glared back.

A beat.

They both looked at me.

I looked up at them.

Silence.

I went back to my cards.

They were still staring at me.

I finally slammed down a four of clubs and faced them both, shrugging empathetically as if to shout: _'WHAT?!'_

"We're worried about you, Noir," Cyborg said. "We all know that moron Glover is picking on you the worse. It's okay to be upset."

I 'smiled' at him. Then frowned. Then got up, practically knocking my chair down. I stomped over towards the nearest window and stared out…sighing.

A tiny reflection of Raven in the distance appeared before my shades. Her one open eye was staring silently at me. Eventually, it closed and she was meditating again.

_I truly do envy her sometimes……_

There was a huge, silver and blue reflection in the window. Soon after, Cyborg's hand was on my shoulder.

I fumed.

"A hero wouldn't be a hero if he didn't deal with his own bit of anger now and then," the android said to me. He smiled, "I'm one to talk, right?"

I was not about to let him make me smile. I shook off his hand, sighed, and leaned against the glass. Eventually I turned around and gave him an apologetic look. I gestured with my hands: _'I think I am too dark for my own good_.'

Cyborg chuckled. "Brother…don't even joke about it."

Suddenly, the Titan alarm went off.

Cyborg spun around.

Raven's eyes opened.

All three of us faced the monitor, which was flashing brightly and displaying 'District 7' in red, glowing font.

Cyborg walked over towards a computer panel, typed away, and 'read' something off a small LCD screen. He then spun around and spoke above the alarm, "Looks like an armed robbery. A caravan of robbers in three trucks are redirecting the route of an armored vehicle across town. They're threatening to blow the automobile full of bank notes up along with the drivers of there's any interference."

"…….," Raven stared. "Lovely."

Cyborg stared out the window.

An uncomfortable pause…

"I guess we're going to go intercede no matter what, huh?"

"When would we not?" Raven said simply, stood up, and jumped down to the carpet. "Let's move out….but play it safe."

Cyborg nodded. "Understood." He glanced at me.

I sighed and gave him a weak thumb's up.

Something in his face smiled ever so slightly. "Titans, go!"

We rushed to battlestations.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the Tower, the T-Car revved up and sped down the land bridge towards main land. A couple hundred yards off, a yacht rested in the sea. Two men were inside. A pilot and an observer. The latter spotted the vehicle coming out of the Tower with a telescope and spoke into a radio.

"Glover, sir. This is marine alpha. Looks like the Titans are answering to the crime after all."

A voice replied through static on the other end_. __"Wouldn't imagine them doing any less…freakin' sheriffs wannabes."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a limousine, Blake Glover sat and spoke into his end of the radio.

"Keep a low profile. My boys and I will follow the scene from a safe distance and get whatever footage we the action before the police hold us and every other citizen off. This day is undoubtedly going to show the Titans off in their ugliest colors, and I want to be there to capture it!"

_"Oh, sir!"_

Glover jumped. "What is it?"

_"Not all the Titans were in the automobile. Now that shadowy one is following after them. Heading towards the same destination, I believe. Man, that guy's fast!"_

Glover smirked. "Splendid. Thanks for the update. We'll keep you posted."

The man switched off the radio and pocketed it away.

Across from him sat Glover's assistant, Avery. The richly dressed individual smiled ever so slightly, his arms folded, and asked: "You seem mighty pleased to see the newcomer all the time. May I ask why?"

"Avery…I'm pleased to see the newcomer _today_," Blake Glover lifted a finger. "THAT….I will admit. He's the most frightening and intimidating of the Titans. And as a reporter, I must angle in on what is most dramatic to get my point across. The Titans are going to cross the line again. I can prove it to you! Just by including that sword-swinging creep with them, things are bound to get ugly."

Avery leaned forward. "What makes you so sure the Titans aren't gonna go soft on those gunmen and contradict you by looking good?"

Glover smiled. "Then I'll see to it that _they look bad!_"

He tapped on the glass behind the driver. The window rolled down. "Yes, sir?"

"Follow the scene…and keep us safe!"

"Understood."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ahead of me rested a few rock bluffs against the coastline. Seagulls and pelicans flew up like an upside down curtain as I blurred over the water, leapt, flew over the rocks, and landed on the shore. I kicked sand up as I streaked forward in pursuit of the T-Car. My hair danced. The bandana shook.

My black eyes narrowed.

I kept Myrkstaff sheathed the whole time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where are they located now?" Beast Boy inquired.

Raven typed away at a panel on the driver's side of the T-Car and looked at a flickering display.

"Twelve blocks down," she said. "Heading northwest. Twenty miles an hour."

Cyborg's human eye narrowed. "Quite a pleasant cruise for hard-edged criminals. Something's up."

"We're gonna be on them in no time," Raven said.

"I know. And I think we're just gonna have to ruin their Sunday drive. I'm switching on the siren."

Cyborg pressed a button on the dashboard. Atop the T-Car, a blue dome appeared and started flashing a monochromatic strobe. An ear-piercing howl filled the general area.

Motorists parted ways and allowed the Titans to drive through…a little too eagerly for two's comfort.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the T-Car passed below, I ran up the side of a building a perched to a stop.

I leaned forward and squinted through my shades.

Blocks away, I saw a trio of rusted cars encircling an armored vehicle. A wall of police squad cars drove in lines ahead and behind the convoy.

A twenty-mile-per-hour standoff was occurring.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I don't get it. This is nuts!" a driving suspect sweated, looking ahead through the windshield and back in the rear view mirror as a score of flashing lights and sirens marked the asphalt above and behind him and his cohorts. "Even if we do get the good from the van…there's no way we can shoot our way out of this!"

"We'll form a hole to escape," the leader of the pack smirked, leaning his head into the driver's and passenger's seat area. "With some firepower that's not our own."

Another crook jumped. "Just what are you babbling about?!"

The T-Car zoomed into view in the rear view mirror.

The leader smirked. "There's our ticket now. Tell the other two cars to guide us all into the parking lot."

"By the gas station? You sure?"

"Positively. Move it!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Uh huh….," Cyborg nodded as he watched the three cars maneuver the hostage, armored car into the nearest parking garage. "Definitely an invite."

"We must be cautious," Raven said. "The soonest something unexpected happens, I'll already be having my shield charged for deployment."

"How sweet of you," Cyborg replied, stopping the T-Car across the street.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Avery listened on his cell phone. He looked across the space at Glover.

"The Titans have stopped. It looks like those crooks are up to something."

"Do we have sufficient camera coverage?" Glover inquired, leaning forward.

"How's the scene looking?" Avery spoke into his phone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop a balcony of a nearby skyrise, a camera crew rushed up and assembled.

"We've just found the most perfect spot, sir!" exclaimed the director. "We've got the entire parking lot and gas station covered for every square inch! Just let Glover give the word and we'll be ready to transfer over JCN's broadcast!"

_"Excellent…stay put. Go somewhere less open if the fight scene gets too hairy._"

The director nodded. "I read you loud and—"

WOOOSH!!!!

I rushed past them on the building side.

They all jumped to steady their equipment.

"Whoah!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran along the side of the building, jumped down, perched atop a light post, slipped off, and landed to the sidewalk. I stepped forward to join my friends as they exited the T-Car and squared off against the three vehicles from a distance.

"No…sudden…moves…," Raven insisted.

The two of us boys nodded silently.

Across the way, the leader of the gunmen was the first to get out. He and two other armed crooks marched over to the armored car and forced the two workers out. The innocent men were held at gunpoint as the leader and his nearly dozen compatriots lined up with semi-automatics and sneered at us from afar.

"State your terms…" Raven said.

"You first," the leader smirked, pointed his gun square against a hostage's head. "Gonna smash our skulls in? Blow a few walls down? Make a car explode? I think it's you Titans who're the real threat here!"

Cyborg blinked. "Um…."

"Ohhhhh great," Raven sighed and quietly groaned to Cyborg. "Brainwashed monkeys with guns."

"You heard me!" the leader said, cocking his pistol and forcing it deeper (as if possible) against the man's head. "Let's see what you freaks have got!"

"Death wish, much?" Cyborg grumbled.

"Easy….Easy…," Raven said. Her eyes trailed left and right. Police cars and officers formed a watchful perimeter with barricades. They were entrusting the next course of action to the Titans. "Think….of a plan…"

I sweated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What are they doing?" whispered the director as he and his men filmed the scene from high above in the balcony.

"They're just….standing there…," one of the camera men absent mindedly said. "Not even fighting."

"Keep on rolling," the director replied. "As soon as sparks start to fly, I'm calling Glover."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"All right, you cowards!" the leader grinned, shaking the hostage in his grasp. "I'll give you _ten seconds!!_ Show us what real badasses you all are by the end of the countdown…or I make a withdrawal from these guys' bank! In brain matter!"

Cyborg glanced down at the ground. His eyes traveled along the asphalt and over towards the feet of the thugs.

"_Ten!!"_

"Raven…," the android said. "The leader and his two immediate sidekicks. See their bun barrels?"

"On it…," her eyes glowed a dim gray.

"Nine!!"

"Noir," Cyborg uttered.

I listened.

"The other nine…there's a group of three of them at the very rear….standing close together. Focus on them."

I nodded and clenched my fists.

_"Eight!!"_

"I'll provide the necessary stun," Cyborg said. He glanced down at the ground. "Let's just hope the sidewalk and the parking lot are all one big piece of matter."

_"Seven!!"_

"Cyborg…."

"Yes, Raven?"

"I don't think I can focus on three guns…"

"Then just do the leader's and the gunman besides the other hostage."

"Okay…that I can do."

_"Six!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The limousine drove up a block away. There was already a news crew and van ready for Blake Glover as he stepped out and was handed a microphone by a random stagehand.

_"Five!!_"

"Aren't they going to act?" Avery remarked.

Glover smirked. "Oh….they will." He brushed aside some nonexistent hair, steadied his suit, and walked forward across the street. "They will…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Four!!"_ the leader shouted.

The hostage gulped and shivered in the leader's grasp and against the cold of the gun barrel.

"Okay, Titans…," Cyborg muttered in a low voice. With a whir, his hand turned into a rifle behind his back and glowed a bright blue out of the thugs' sight. "Nice….and easy……like clockwork…."

Raven glared. Her gray eyes glowed brighter and brighter. "Right….."

_"Three!!_"

I clenched my fists. Smoke blurred slightly from my boots. Not once did I touch Myrkstaff's hilt.

_"Two!!_"

There was a glint of movement on the inside of my shades. For half a second, my black eyes twitched aside and took notice of Blake Glover in full glory standing in front of a throng of cameras beyond the police barricade with a microphone in his hand and---

_"ONE!!!"_

Raven's eyes flashed as she shot her wrist out.

The leader's and the second in command's guns turned black as they were covered with telekinesis. Ironically, both thugs were pulling the trigger at that precise moment. The bullets exploded inside the barrels under the pressure of the telekinesis and blew out the handles.

"AAAUGH!" The leader and his partner stumbled back, gripping their hands.

"HIIIIIIYAAAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg shouted, rammed his rifle into the earth, and produced a sonic vibration that warbled across the street, through the sidewalk, and under the feet of the dozen gunmen.

At least half of them fell to hard concrete of the parking lot. The two hostages stirred too, but Raven's telekinesis switched over and grabbed them—hoisting them over towards us and safety.

The three gunmen in the back—the least shaken by Cyborg's impromptu earthquake—raised their weapons and took aim at the two victims.

That's where I went into action. I blurred forward, past the leader, and leapt at the three imposing thugs. I jump kicked a rifle out of one hand, lunged and grabbed a machine gun out of another's grip, and used the butt of the weapon to slam into the third thug's ribs. I spun around, uppercutted the first of the three with my fist and swept the legs out of the second with a kick of my boot to his shins.

They might as well been counting down to 'negative one'!

All around me, thugs shaken by Cyborg's ground shaking were getting up and aiming their guns at me.

I sweatdropped.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

That's when Cyborg leapt in with a growl and started punching thugs' guns out of their grasps one by one, all the time dodging bullets.

I was about to jump to his aid when the flank of gunmen by my side started firing at me from around their car.

I jumped behind the armored vehicle and ducked, using the object to shield me safely as I went into an adrenaline mode.

Things are a lot rougher without Myrkblade.

Suddenly, I looked up and in floated Raven from her task of rescuing the two hostages. She pointed at me, at the armored car, and then at the gunmen firing.

I nodded.

Her eyes glowed a bright gray. She lifted the vehicle off the ground by blackened wheels and shoved it—scraping asphalt—across the parking lot and towards the three gunmen. I ran directly behind it, allowing it to act as moving shield which Raven provided as she floated along above me.

Sooner than not, the thugs' shouted in dismay and dove every which way as Raven's 'shield' slammed into their getaway car with a shower of sparks and aluminum.

I jumped, used the armored car as a stepping stone, and sailed down—blurring—towards the fleeing three. I summoned smoke through my limbs as I punched, elbowed, and kicked the wind out of each of them. I made sure to supply the least number of blows as possible—attempting to make them unconscious with very little contact than normal, as if I was being surveyed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And I was……

"Ohhhhhhhh man," one of the cameramen on the balcony smirked as he stared through a viewfinder. "We are getting this!"

"Avery, sir," the director smirked into his cell phone, observing the explosive scene below. "Give him the thumb's up!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And Avery did.

Glover nodded, smirked, and eyed the cameras.

They turned read.

"On behalf of JCN Broadcasting, this is Blake Glover. I'm fortunate enough to have stumbled upon a dramatic scene in the center of Downtown! Yet more evidence of the Titans in their most primitive, brutal state of law enforcement!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg growled and ducked a bullet shot. He rushed forward and tackled the gunman in question head on. He slammed him down onto the concrete with only enough pressure to stun him. He wasn't going to take any chances with a concussion. His human half sweat as he looked around for a sign of danger and then found two men aiming guns at him.

BANG!!

BANG!

Cyborg flinched.

The bullets turned black in mid-air and streaked around him, ricocheting into the ground.

Cyborg looked up as Raven flew over and chanted: "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

The guns fell apart in the hands of the suspects. They ran off gladly towards the police line.

Cyborg smiled.

BANG!!

PING!!

A bullet flew off his titanium arm.

He winced and looked over.

The leader was up and had a pistol in each hand. He gritted his teeth and started firing like mad.

POW!! POW!! POW!! POW!!

Cyborg dove out of the way.

Raven levitated high into the air, producing a black shield in front of herself to deflect the enemy's attack.

In the meantime, on the other side of the parking lot, I had my hands full of jumping through a throng of armed gunmen, ducking bullet shots, spinning around bodies, kicking thugs in their backsides, leaping and rolling over the shoulder of someone trying to punch me, sweeping legs out from under, and uppercutting one or two crooks into submission.

I had barely caught my breath when two thugs ran to their car a few feet off, grabbed machine guns, and took aim at me.

Subconsciously I reached for Myrkblade's hilt, but I refrained. The image of Glover was still in my black eyes and I gritted my teeth to think what would happen if I unleashed all my normal powers.

BANG!!

POW!!

Time slowed down.

I shut my eyes fearfully and ducked low.

I heard the warble in the air of bullets whizzing by my cranium.

Time resumed, and the bullets flew off the concrete. PING!! POW!!

I exhaled, scrambled back up to my feet, and leapt straight at the two, arms spread wide like a crucifix.

They fired some more, bullets streaking closer and closer to my underarms….

….not close enough.

I landed, gripped them by their collar, and flipped them over me.

They shouted as they flew through the air, only to be caught by Raven's telekinesis and subsequently flung dizzily (and helplessly) into the midst of the police squad.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the police apprehended the bruised subjects in the background, Blake Glover spoke intensely into the microphone and pointed at the scene behind his balding self.

"See the disregard they have for human life?! They toss suspects around like rag dolls! Unnecessary violence in my book! As plain as day!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the balcony, one of the camera men smirked.

"Getting only what the Titans are doing?" the director asked.

"Positively, sir."

"Good. Keep it up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The leader fired off like mad, gritting his teeth.

Cyborg hid behind a car which was quickly becoming a huge, lead pincushion. He readied his laser rifle but—at sight of the cameras in the distance—couldn't bring himself to use it back on the itchy trigger fiend.

"Hahahahahahahaha!!" the gunman cackled as he unleashed punishment through his machine gun on the flimsy shield of an automobile. "Come on and fight back, Titan!!" he sneered. "I'm waiting for you to hurt me!"

"One thing I hate more than psychopaths…," Raven muttered, floating down from behind him and lifting two shards of aluminum with her telekinesis threateningly. "….is a psychopath who doesn't know how to shut up!"

The man turned around curiously. As soon as he did, the sharp shards of aluminum flew down and merely deflected the weapons out of his grasp.

I looked over from my fight and breathed a little easier.

"Give up…," Raven glared. "You should know by now you're not the star of this media freak show…"

"Oh, I'll give up…," the leader said, trying not to smirk. He reached behind him.

Cyborg peered from around the car and saw what Raven and I couldn't. He jerked to action…but was too far away. He looked at me, thought of my speed, and desperately signed: 'Gun!'

I gasped. I got into a stance to blur into action. But just then, a thug jumped on my back. I wrestled with him.

Raven hovered around to face the police.

The leader fingered the gun behind him. "….but first….I've got to thank you for such a prompt arrival…."

Cyborg ran desperately on hulking titanium feet towards him.

I struggled, grunted, punched the thug twice in the face, and shook him off me.

The leader raised the gun. "HA!"

"RAVEN!!"

I blurred over in an instant.

The dark girl turned in mid air.

BANG!!!

I knocked the full weight of my body into the thugs' leader. But it was too late. The bullet flew.

SLIIIIINK!!!

Raven's eyes widened. Her whole cranium recoiled from the impact. In an instant, she fell to the ground on her knees, clutching her face while her robe billowed like a dead flower.

I looked up from where I had collapsed with the leader and glanced desperately over at the wounded Raven.

I could hardly see a thing.

Cyborg panted, staring wide-eyed at Raven. He growled, lifted his heavy foot, and slammed it down over the leader's head.

"RRRRRGHHH!!"

I blurred my hand up and gripped Cyborg's ankle at the last second.

He glared down at me.

I glared up at him.

In an instant…he got the message. He took a breath and lowered his foot gently to the asphalt after nearly doing the impossible.

I looked over my shoulder, taking a deep breath.

Raven finally lifted her hands from her face and looked over.

My heart skipped a beat.

So did Cyborg's.

There was merely a thin cut across her cheek. The bullet had grazed her.

I smiled.

BLAM!!!

THUNK!!

I let out a silent howl, gripped my shoulder, and fell over to my side as the leader got onto his knees with a smoking gun and kicked Cyborg's legs out from under him.

"OOF!!!" the android fell hard to the floor.

The leader stood up, grinning, and reloaded his gun.

I writhed on the ground, gritting my teeth. Blood trickled through my fingers where I clutched desperately to my shoulder. The bullet had gone clean through the meat.

"Stupid…stupid…children," the psychopath raised his weapons and aimed….towards the gas station. "Go fetch!! Ha ha ha!"

My black eyes popped open painfully from under the shades.

I saw the explosions at the end of his gun barrels as he fired like mad at the gas station at the edge of the parking lot. In slow motion I saw the bullets streak their way to an abandoned car at one of the pumps. A patron was in the middle of refueling his vehicle when he ran off from the violent scene. Any random spark from the projectiles could possibly be a disaster. The possibility was too great for me to let them make contact. I jumped to my knees in slow motion, blurred instantly, and streaked a lightning quick path towards the pump. Through mere might of murk alone, I outran the bullets, slid to a stop in front of the pump, and—one handed—finally unsheathed Myrkblade and spun it before me with two and a half flicks of the wrist.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

"Hehehehehehe," the villain chuckled. "Back and forth! So foolish, twirp!" With that said, he effortlessly pointed the gun down by his side…and directly into Cyborg's skull.

And that is how everything sacred to the preservation of the Titans' image that day finally….finally…went to Hell. I didn't even realize I was charging the fiend until I was half the distance and half the second towards him. My wounded arm dangled at my side, but my other hand charged up an unseen fury of smoke and murk through my blade as I spun my body around and managed to swing the sword in an upwards arc. A wall of murk cascaded down, danced along the asphalt, and then leapt upwards under the leader's two feet. He was carried up ten feet into the air, flailing and screaming. Just perfect. Less than a second later, I jumped, met him in mid air, and struck the broadside of my blade against his back. He twirled upwards in time for me to spiral my body around and lay my leg into his side and propelling him downwards like a soccerball.

"AAAAAAAAAH!!" he sailed downward like a missile…and landed through the windshield of a police squad car. SMASH!!!!

People gasped and jumped back—save for the paramedics who rushed over to the down man's side.

"Uggggggh," the once haughty criminal moaned desperately. "Hurts….t-to move…."

I landed a few feet besides him, panting, clutching my arm.

And I realized I was having an earful of….him.

"There you have it, ladies and gentlemen!" Blake Glover cackled into his microphone and faced the cameras. "Total disregard for life! A Titan knows no boundaries in his pursuit of so-called 'justice'."

People gasped and held hands over their mouths as they stared back and forth between the injured thug being treated by paramedics and my hunched-over self. There was disgust and scorn in their eyes. But nothing worse than Glover…

"And still he says nothing!" the man went on. "Still he won't answer for his sins! None of them…will ever answer for their sins!"

Cyborg and Raven stumbled to their feet and looked my way.

"The Titans must go, people!" Glover preached, gesturing at me. "Not to action! Not to the streets! But out of our lives for good! Do you want the neighborhood of your children to be a safe haven?!" He turned….and smirked at me where the cameras couldn't see. "…or a battlefield?"

I stared—unbelieving—at this man. There I was, bleeding, my friends' lives in jeopardy, the safety of everyone around the gas station in peril. And yet he couldn't stop targeting me.

I like to think that I'm a person who doesn't let intimidation get to me….but that day……

I actually took a step forward.

Glover glared at me. "What are you going to do, Titan?" he mumbled only so that I—not the microphone—could hear. "What can you do?"

Before I could possibly do anything, my boots were encased in black telekinesis and I was dragged back by a flick of Raven's wrist. "Hold. Back." She commanded.

"Bitter to the end!" Blake Glover smiled and bowed as onlookers mumbled and gasped from behind. "For JCN Broadcasting….this is Blake Glover. May God help us all."

Cyborg glared at the man, but walked directly to the police, who were accosting the dozen suspects disarmed from the entire fight. The leader was carted off into an ambulance and driven—not rushed—to the nearest hospital.

That last thing was a welcome sign to Raven. She let out a huge sigh and turned around….and saw no sign of me.

"Noir?" She beckoned to the air. She filtered the air with her telekinetic sense of spatial awareness and 'felt' something a few feet behind her. She looked into a nearby alleyway and saw but a shadow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stumbled into the darkened corridor, wincing. I held my hand out in front of my shades…eyeing the patch of blood drying on it. My shoulder stung like mad…but somehow it was infinitely bearable. Another pain was coursing through my body. It set my arteries on fire.

I practically ripped my shades off, tossed them to the ground, and gripped my bloodied hand over my face. My whole body shook and strained. Uncontrollably, smoke and murk warbled out of my limbs and—especially—out of the clean wound in my shoulder.

A soft pair of feet lowered to the ground in front of me.

"Control it…." Raven said.

I shook my head and pounded the wall with my fist. I started hyperventilated.

She stepped forward and forcibly grabbed my wrists. "CONTROL. IT. NOIR." She commanded.

I winced from the pain of her grip on my arm. It awakened me. I squinted at her through solid black eyes of pain.

"Now….with me…," she nodded. Her eyes lowered. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…."

I shook from her grasp and clutched my head. Smoke warbled from my limbs again. Anger. Rage.

She grabbed my wrists again. "Say. It. With. Me." She glared. "Just mouth it. Now."

I took a deep breath.

"Find your center. Repeat after me."

I lowered my eyelids. Trembling.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

I struggled. This was not my meditation. This was not my art.

"Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos."

I inhaled. My lips moved. My thoughts spoke.

Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.

"Rage must never break through, Noir…."

Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.

"In mastering it…one does not deny its existence. One agrees to handle it…and hold it at bay…"

Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.

"No force…..—no man….nothing can intimidate you. Nothing can master you. Nothing can dominate you."

Azarath. Metrion. Zinthos.

"No matter how intense the force of opposition, Noir," Raven said firmly. "You are the master of your self. Control it. I know you can…"

I wasn't chanting anymore. I was on the road to the harmony once taught to me by my Master. Something which the Titans had all seen me do on my own. But none of them could possibly have it explained to them. Not even Raven. But Raven knew an absolute truth that permeated the lives of everyone. And it acted as a springboard for me to reenter my domain and smell the ever rusting mortality of the earth and its gentle weeping across the plains…the grass licked by the wind and rain till it formed a bowl in my heart that overflowed through my obsidian eyes.

I found myself on the floor of the alley, my back slumped against the wall and crying my eyes out. It was hardly the manly thing to appear like. But there was hardly any other safe alternative.

I had embraced Rage—just as Glover desired me to. And all I needed to do was acknowledge Rage's existence and just visit its nextdoor neighbor Sorrow for tea. Thus, my passion was redirected. My body followed suit, and I was hiccupping and hugging myself with my own bleeding arm.

Raven stood over me—still and resolute. I felt for a moment like her shadow.

The girl's eyes lowered on me and she sighed as she said: "You've lasted longer than anyone I've ever worked with, Noir…"

I sniffed and rubbed my wet cheek with my healthy hand. I looked up at her, curious.

"Cyborg ran into it during his first week," she said. "Beast Boy was soon after that. Believe it or not, Starfire was next, though not many have seen her angry. Robin lasted a long time…but when he finally confronted it in full, it nearly hurt the rest of us." She looked deeply into my onyx soul. "Noir, everyone I work with…I've seen them succumb to the pull of Rage at one point or another. I've always thought it was a result of their anchoring to my aura after so many months of exposure. But no. It is not the demon within me that summons the inevitable confrontation. It is the inevitability of life itself. Karma and fate. Light and shadow. Cause and effect. That's why I hardly ever react to things, Noir. I see them for what they really are. Equations. You are an equation yourself, Noir. A very complex and mysterious one…but one nevertheless. And like all problems, you can solve yourself when things go awry. If only you step back, face the facts, and rearrange them to produce order and tranquility."

I took a deep, pained breath and continued staring at her.

Raven turned around. "I am…..regretful, of the way the Eternal Equation has treated you as of late." She glanced at me from around he robed shoulder. "And yet, I realize you have lasted so long. You have the strength to prevail. And such is an inspiration…not just to me, but surely to Cyborg as well. And to the rest of the crew…though they may not be here right now to see you triumph over your greatest adversary yet."

I blinked at her, my mouth slightly agape. I had a hard time feeling the pain in my shoulder then.

But Raven couldn't stop looking at it. "Get up. We're going back to the Tower to recover and get that wound looked at."

I nodded absent-mindedly. Raven extended a hand and helped me up. I winced and leaned on her as we hobbled out of the alleyway, and rejoined Cyborg.

I never got to thank Raven for it…but…the android didn't get to see a single tear.


	25. Bad Publicity part 3 final

**25. Bad Publicity part 3 final**

She stood with her shadow facing the bamboo forest. Her tiny wisps of bangs blown in a downdraft of wind.

She said to me:

"I can't help but think about it, Jordan. One day…all of our training…all of our work…all the power we've gained…it will all be seen. Someway. Somehow. It will manifest itself. And all three of us…we will somehow have to deal with a world that sees us for what we truly are. There can be so much glory in that……yet at the same time, so much hate. It……………I-It kinda sorta keeps me up at night. I can't stop thinking about what I'll have to do…what we'll all have to do…when the world learns of us three. Master's protection can't last forever. And as much as he wants us living in secret……well…eternity may argue differently."

There was a period of silence. And then she looked at me. Her bright blue eyes thinned as she suddenly giggled and ran a hand through her short blonde hair.

"Jordan?? Are you l-listening to a single word I'm saying? Hehehehehehe."

------

"How's the wound feeling, Noir?"

I snapped awake and looked up at Cyborg. I looked at my bandaged shoulder, managed a weak smile, and lifted a thumb's up.

"Good thing it didn't strike anything too important," Cyborg said. "The bullet, that is."

I nodded.

He walked back across the Main Room. "I suggest not using it much. Which means…you'll be backup on the next mission we have. Nothing more."

I sighed, leaned my chin on my good hand, and stared out the window.

"If it helps relieve the pain it all…," Cyborg rambled from the other side of the room, "…you've been a good sport about it."

I glanced back at him…then looked over towards the kitchen area.

Raven sat on a stool with a mug of tea on the counter. She was absolutely still…as if staring off into the wall.

After a beat or two, I got up—wincing—and stepped over to where she was. I stood behind her. Silently.

I sensed her blinking once. She spoke without a rise or fall of her shoulders: "It's healing too quickly. It's too good to be true."

I smirked.

Hi, Raven.

"I suggest you join us in counting our lucky stars," Cyborg said. "Lord knows we got out of there without a media-brainwashed mob wringing our necks."

Raven swiveled about in her stool and faced him. "There shall be repercussions yet," Raven said. "Just you wait and see."

"Heheh….love you too, Raven."

She frowned at Cyborg, sighed, then glanced up at me.

I glanced down at her.

She glanced back.

"……," she stared. "What, want me to do a cheer or something?"

I shook my head. Smiling.

"Stop smiling."

I shrugged.

She sighed. "I never thought I'd hear me say this…but I miss having another girl in the Tower."

"You mean Beast Boy?" Cyborg chuckled.

"I am so out of here…," Raven stood up, took her mug, and headed for the elevator. "Cyborg, I still need to go over the report from our last battle with the gunmen."

"You going to do that now?"

"I was thinking so."

Cyborg stopped what he was doing and headed for the elevator too. "I'll join you."

"Fine by me," Raven sighed from where she sat and watched Cyborg approach. "As long as I'm only with one of you morons at a time."

"Awwwww…come on, Raven! You love us!"

"Pfft…fat chance," Raven said…then glanced at the floor for some reason.

I watched. I looked up at Cyborg.

"Take it easy, Noir," he smiled. "Real easy—"

The doors closed and they descended.

I was alone.

I sighed and looked around the empty Meeting Room.

My shaded eyes caught sight of a blinking light far away on a single computer console.

I shuffled slowly over to it and pressed a keyboard.

A screen blipped to life with an alert in a browser window.

I maximized it and read a message from the local authorities: 'Suspect Shawn Clydeston on the loose after local sighting at a robbed gun store. History of domestic violence and drug use. Considered highly dangerous. Conducting search in Western District of the City.'

I scratched my chin with my good hand.

I glanced back at the elevator.

A beat.

I glanced back at the monitor.

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What is your final assessment of the Teen Titans, Mr. Glover?"

"The same as it was to begin with! The bloody confrontation that happened today only proves everything I've ever said about them to begin with! Everywhere the Teen Titans raise their fists, a massacre of justice is bound to happen! They say that they keep our streets clean…they make them red to begin with! At least they will if we let them keep getting out of hand like they have! It is an atrocity, and we citizens of the City are fooling ourselves and throwing away our future if we let things stay as they are!"

"What of the two drivers of the armored care they saved? What of the gas station they kept from blowing up?"

"Didn't you hear what the police had to say?? The suspects were TAUNTING the Teen Titans! They wanted them to arrive and create havoc. It's one thing to have an underworld of crime, you see. But to have an underworld battling an overworld of vigilantes….well…it leaves us on the ground with much thunder and lightning to deal with, if you catch my drift."

"What is it you propose, sir? That is…with dealing with the 'menace' of the Teen Titans that you keep referring to."

"Oh, I intend to appeal to legislature. The Vigilante Protection Acts must be undone if we want a sane system to live under. Not to mention a safe and properly functioning one too."

"Sounds like it may be a rough battle in store for you."

"A battle worth fighting for, my good man. A battle worth fighting for…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Blake Glover stepped out of the t.v. studio, his assistant Avery was waiting for him.

"How'd it go?"

"Nominal," the balding man huffed. "I could feel the cast and crew of the show resisting me all the way to the finish. Even the freakin' camera men."

"Not your area of the neighborhood?" Avery smirked.

"It just means I have to try harder," Glover grunted. "In all my years of journalism, Avery. I've not lost an argument. Not lost ONE!"

"What about that candidate running for mayor in '98?" Avery asked. "You were wrong in predicting his outcome."

"He doesn't count," Glover frowned. "He shot himself in the neck with a crossbow."

"Twenty years on the landscaping committee will do that to you, I suppose."

"Anyways, that's history," Glover said, heading for his car parked across the lot in the sunset. "The future will be here soon…and I expect it to be a smart one."

"When you say 'smart', you mean Teen Titanless, sir……right?"

Glover glared at Avery. "Were you born yesterday?"

The man smiled, saluted, and said: "Sometimes, sir, I wish I was."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow. I'd love a copy of the police interviews in the morning."

"Understood. Have a safe trip, sir."

"Thank, you, Avery."

The men parted ways.

Avery to his car.

Glover to his.

When the balding man reached his automobile, he fumbled for his keys, muttering light cussings of frustration as he attempted to remind himself where they were located. After a thorough search of….himself, he struck gold. He was about to fit the key into the ignition when he caught sight of a figure in a soiled turtleneck walking hurriedly—anxiously—towards the far side of the street adjacent to the t.v. studio's lot. He looked around—as if certain of being watched (and somehow avoiding Glover's gaze)—and hobbled down the steps leading into the City's Subway station.

Glover shrugged it off.

He unlocked his car.

Got in.

Took a deep sigh.

And put his keys into the ignition.

He turned around to back out…and froze.

A familiarly tall, thin figure was walking in the identical direction as the suspicious man. But this man was even more suspicious…for he certainly had to have been in pursuit of the former.

Glover squinted his aging eyes for focus.

The figure was draped in a long, brown cloak of sorts. It was as if he was hiding something in his arms.

Or an arm entirely.

As the person swiftly, gracefully twirled about to march down the stairs…Glover caught a thin sliver of the man's arm from under the cloak.

A sliver of white bandage.

"Well I'll be….," Glover smirked to himself. He looked around the parking lot. No one was watching him. He turned around again…smiled. "This is too good," he mumbled to himself and jumped out of the car in a flash.

Checking once more to make sure no one was observing him, he quickly made his way out of the parking lot, across the street, and down into the depths of the subway.

Cautiously…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover rounded a corner and stared down into the ticket gates.

He saw the cloaked figure paying his way through, then angling around to wait at the tracks.

There were a few more people down there than above ground. The late afternoon commutes were taking people homeward. To keep from looking conspicuous, Glover slowly walked his way into the center of the hallway, patiently made his way through the ticket gates, bought a ticket to….somewhere…and followed the figure onward down the platform besides the tracks.

He squinted eyes to see beyond the crowd of patient commuters waiting for the subway train. Against a wall, casually leaning, was the figure in the brown cloak.

Glover's heart jumped.

He's wearing dark shades!

He immediately reached for his cell phone. He pressed a speed dial and put the instrument to his ear.

It rang.

The young man in shades and cloak ran a hand through his long, black hair.

It rang.

Glover walked besides a pillar, 'hiding'.

It rang.

His eye caught sight of the arm of a soiled turtle-neck several feet away.

It rang---a voice picked up.

"Hello?"

"Avery! It's me!"

"Lemme guess. Car trouble?"

"Just listen to me. I've spotted the sword-swinging Titan."

"You have?"

"He's in the subway right now. Undercover. I think he's chasing someone. I'm paying him the same respect right now and he couldn't possibly know it."

"Sir…are you sure that's safe?"

"I don't care what it is!" Glover peered around from behind the pillar. The figure was gone. He looked to the left. The figure was standing in front of the edge of the platform. His hands in his cloak's pocket. The lights and sounds of the subway train were approaching. "Just do me a favor and assemble the usual guys promptly! Tell them I'll pay them time and a half if they just assemble at the northernmost station. We're headed that way now, I think."

"Okay. I'll do what I can. Just be careful, sir."

"This might be the chance of a lifetime, Avery," Glover proudly smirked. The subway car rolled in. Urban wind blew at his balding hair. "Who knows what pathetic thing this 'Noir' is planning to do undercover. Drugs? Ties to the mafia? Go figure."

"Don't try to get too sensational."

"I'll let the real world do the work for me, Avery. Over and out."

He hung the phone up, dropped it in his pocket, and readjusted his suit as the train car came to a close.

People filed in and out. The shaded figure in the brown cloak entered a few cars ahead of Glover.

Glover chose the car closest to him and leaned on a pole in the middle. A few minutes later, the doors closed and the subway went into motion. He was heading northward.

They were…

After a minute, Glover felt it was safe. He squinted through the windows of the shaking subway doors leading towards the front of the train. He stepped forward, reaching from pole to pole to steady him. He reached the door, shook the handle, and slid it open. He emerged in the next car. A person or two looked at him. He simpered, cleared his throat, and advanced forward while trying to make it look not so obvious.

The train car shook its way along the tracks. Every now and then, a juncture of sorts would be reached. The lights would blink out. Passing lights from outside the car would strobe the insides. Then everything would return to normal. The whole while, the grinding of the tracks and zooming-by of the exterior structures echoed against the rusted innards of the old transit system turning everything into an ambiance of industrial madness.

Glover smirked.

He made it to the next car door and looked in.

The lights strobed, but he managed to see a cloaked figure at the far end—at the door in the other car—exit and approach the interior of the first car in the train.

Ah HA!

Glover stumbled into the next car—too abruptly for his own taste. He cursed himself mentally and crept forward through the car. Only a sleeping bum could have paid him any attention. He was past him in a second and leaning against the glass of the last door. He peered through. There were quite a few people sitting down in that car. He couldn't seem to spot the figure in brown for some reason.

For a minute there, Glover thought about staying back. If he walked in, surely he would stir attention. He hadn't given into the thought that someone inside the subway might actually recognize him from the t.v. But then again, nobody was shrieking or making a reaction of any sort at the Titan's presence. So Glover felt the urge he needed to prompt his hand towards the door and---

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I heard the door rustle to my left side.

I stayed absolutely still.

Only when the figure was a few feet ahead of me did I look up. But he was not the person I was looking for. In fact…

My whole body froze and my heart skipped a beat. I tried not to show it. When one's eyes are so camouflaged by a dark pair of shades, it gets to be a little bit easier—in theory—to avoid the display of shock or sudden emotion. But inside of me it was a struggle not to either jump out the window or stand up and punch the man.

It took Glover a few seconds to turn around. His eyes made contact with mine. Quite stupidly, he passed off as if there was no contact at all between us. He abruptly made for the far end of the car, sat down, and faced me.

I faced him.

He faced me back.

Bodies rocked and swayed with the jolts of the train between us.

But our eyesights never broke.

And yet, at the same time, I wasn't focused on his face. I was watching the things around me.

Waiting….

Waiting for….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…the door slid open.

Glover looked up. He was sitting besides a young woman and her six year old daughter.

A thin figure stood in the door, wearing a grimy turtle-neck.

"Mommy…I miss ballet lessons…"

"Awww…I know, Sweetie. Mommy's gonna get you back into ballet. Just…Mommy's really busy lately. All I ask is that you wait patiently and know I care. I love you very much."

"Will you come to one of my shows?"

"Most certainly!" the mother smiled.

"Hehehehehe!"

The door closed behind the thin figure. He wandered over to a pole and leaned against it. His eyes….were on Glover.

Or so he could swear. Glover started to sweat. He looked over at the Titan.

The Titan looked back.

"The train is too bumppppppy…."

"It's okay, darling. We'll be home soon."

"Do you have to be at the restaurant again, Mommy?"

"Not until tomorrow afternoon."

"You mean, we can watch cartoons together tonight?"

"Hehehehe…sure, why not?"

The man kept staring.

Glover looked up.

Suddenly, the man walked over. Glaring. He stopped in front of the seat.

Glover gulped.

Just then, the child looked up. She blinked. "Daddy?"

The mother was quick to look. She half stood. "Shawn….what are you—"

"You're traveling about quite often these days, Bernice," said the man in the soiled turtleneck. His face was halfway between a grin and the gutter. "Life got you fleeing underground?"

The girl suddenly clung to the mother.

'Bernice' put a hand on her daughter's shoulder, swallowed, and murmured: "Shawn….th-the restraining order—"

"Hide behind what you want," the man sneered. "You think you can take my own child away from me?"

The mother frowned.

"Wh-Who're you talking about, Daddy?" the little girl quivered.

He bent over, smiled, and said: "Why, you, precious—"

"STOP IT, SHAWN!!" the woman suddenly shrieked and clutched her child close to her. Everyone in the subway car looked over. "You have the guts to break every law in the book to come here and torment our little girl!! Do you ever learn?! After all you've done, do you ever le—"

"Shut your mouth or I'll rip open a new one in the back of your neck…," the man shook.

The mother's eyes twitched. The girl started sobbing.

Glover trembled. He looked at the couple. He looked at the Titan.

He was stock still. But his shoulders were up higher by his neck. His legs were locked straight.

"Now…do we have to argue again?" Shawn said menacingly. "You know how the little one hates that….'honey'…"

A random man stood up from the opposite side of the car, bravely walked over, and put a hand on Shawn's shoulder. "Look….sir…I don't think you're doing that woman any good—"

Shawn spun around, reached inside his shirt, and whipped out a pistol.

BLAM!!!!!

Blood sprayed across Glover's knee and the subway train's floor. The balding man gasped.

The wounded fellow clutched his forearm and started screaming. He keeled over in pain as a panicked pair of occupants knelt over him and tended to the bleeding.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!! ALL OF YOU!!!" Shawn shouted.

The Titan stood still. Glaring from beneath his shades.

Glover trembled.

The man spun around, teeth gritting. He struck his ex-wife across the cheek with the handle of his gun. She fell to the floor with a grunt.

"Mommy!" the girl dashed to her, but not without being grabbed roughly by the arm and hoisted up by her 'Daddy'.

"She's coming home with me!!" Shawn screeched, waving the pistol. "You have them all on your side, you bitch!!" he shouted down at the shocked woman. "The judge…the doctors…the police. They had no reason to lock me up. NO REASON!!"

"Shawn! Let her go! Please!" the woman sobbed.

"NO!!!!" the man forced the barrel of the gun into his shivering daughter's cheek. Everyone on the train shrieked. "NOOOO!!! She's my daughter!! She wouldn't be here without me! You wouldn't be here without me! Nobody…N-Nobody understands! You're all trying to ruin my damn life so maybe I'll just—STOP CRYING!!!"

"Mommmmmmyyyyy!!" the little girl sobbed.

"Hang on, Jessica, it'll be o-okay—" the mother helplessly sobbed from the floor.

"SHUT UP!!! SHE'S NOT YOURS ANYMORE!! YOU LOST YOUR CHANCE!!"

Glover's lips quivered. He looked at the situation. He stammered shortly: "I…I-I think—"

"What?!?!" Shawn aimed his gun at his face. "You want to go first, old fart?!?!"

Glover's hands went up. "N-N-No sir!! P-Please…just….no…."

"Everybody listen!!" Shawn suddenly, crazily announced to the train. He spoke above the family's sobbing and the wounded man's screams as he cackled: "I want this all to end now!! I told the judge to give me one more chance!! But the stupid ass is on her damn side!! Everybody's on her side!! And I know it!! She's trying to ruin my life. Nobody believes me!! They tell me I'm thinking things that I shouldn't be!! She's got every doctor in town on her side!! It's about time I make myself clear!! Either I get what I want, or I put a bullet into my own daughter's neck!! You'd like that, wouldn't you?! A grown man, shooting his own daughter?! You're all on her side!! Damn you all! Damn you all if I don't just do it!! If I don't just freakin' do it!!"

Glover hyperventilated.

The train rocked.

The bleeding man on the floor screamed.

The passengers scurried against the seats and walls and the mother and daughter kept sobbing.

"I SAID SHUT UP!!!" Shawn shouted, sweating bullets. Psychotic.

The Titan poised.

Glover's eyes twitched as he watched.

"FOR THE LAST TIME!"

In slow motion, Shawn pointed the gun down….and outward…at the mother.

The train momentarily turned dark and strobed against his soiled, long-sleeve.

And that's when….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…I took a breath, sprung forward, and exploded out from my cloak.

Myrkblade emerged from hiding, shredding the outward article of clothing into a hundred, blown shards.

I streaked towards Shawn's back.

Glover's eyes went wide.

At the last second, I charged up murk. My body turned into the shifting form of smoke as I teleported with a swing of my sword directly through Shawn's body and the body of his child. When I remerged through their chests, I solidified my blade first.

And it struck dead-center in the pistol.

CRAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

The gun flew apart in slow motion. Bullets rained towards the floor.

Shawn dropped his grip of his daughter.

Slowly his eyes went wide.

A drop of saliva dangled out of the corner of his psychotically taunt lips.

I exhaled.

SWOOOOSH-WHUMP!!

Time resumed as the rest of my body solidified. I elbowed him in the chest, forcing him to bend over. I then uppercutted his chin with the hilt of my sword, spun around, and struck him broad-side across the chest. He flew back against a window of the subway train and had only half a second to moan before I swiftly spun about and high-kicked him directly in the face.

SMACK!!!

Cracks formed in the glass behind his skull before he eventually fainted and dropped down with a slump to the subway train's floor.

I stood still. Panting. Panting. Panting. Panting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Panting. Panting. Panting.

Glover wiped the sweat from his brow.

He couldn't stop hyperventilating.

His head was dizzy.

He took notice of the Titan looking down at the people tending to the wounded. He knelt down, removed a bandana from his pocket, and reached in…tying it around the man's shoulder above the wound to halt the bleeding.

"I-I'm a registered nurse," said a nervous occupant to the Titan. "He should be okay. Good thing j-just his arm was hit and not his chest. He'll be okay if we get him to medics quickly."

The Titan nodded. He pointed to the other passenger and then towards the front of the train.

A woman nodded: "I-I'll go tell the authorities." She hurried off through a nearby door.

The man on the floor gripped his pained limb and moaned dramatically. "It hurts….it hurts…"

"I know…," said the offtime nurse. "It's okay. You're going to be allright. We just need to get that looked at."

"Pleeeeeease….make it stop," he moaned, shedding adult tears.

There was a set of sobs from the other end of the train.

The Titan looked over.

The mother was huddled in a fetal position on the floor. Looking into the nothingness beyond the unconscious body of her ex husband.

At the same time, her young daughter called out for her. "Mommy," she sobbed, rubbing her eyes. "Mommy…say something. Mommy!"

Glover looked at the two…then nervously up at the Titan.

The Titan looked at the mother…then at the child…then at the mother again.

The child beckoned. But the mother was frozen still in shock.

Slowly, the Titan knelt down, and scooped the child up in his arms. Desperate, she clutched ahold of him in his embrace and sobbed over his shoulder. He gently breathed a gentle shush and rocked her body to drown out the sobs and moans.

"I don't want to diiiiiiiiie. Oh goddddd, it hurts so bad…..so bad…..so bad…."

Glover stared at the scene.

Eventually, the Titan stared back. And they were tired eyes.

The balding man's throat became sore.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was just over the horizon.

Before nighttime fell, the strobes of an ambulance lit the path for paramedics to carry a recovering gunshot victim into the vehicle and off to the local hospital.

A few feet away, the mother and daughter stood together, listening to the words of a police officer. The mother nodded her head and barely glanced at two enforcers carrying a limping Shawn away into the back of a squad car, handcuffed. The man was mumbling something incoherent and sobbing.

I didn't want to look.

I sat on a curb, staring off into space. My good arm played with a deck of cards in its palm.

I took a deep breath.

Silence.

And then….

"You know….I always thought what the 'real deal' was…"

I slowly glanced over my bandaged shoulder.

Glover stood, hands shaking, as he lit a cigarette. He mumbled. "Don't mind me. Haven't smoked in….years…"

He took a puff, coughed. His eyes watered…perhaps from the smoke. Perhaps not. His balding head suddenly looked as hollow as his eyes.

"But….the real deal is something else entirely," he mumbled, slowly facing me with a trembling expression. "I've….kept trying to see life through video cameras and interviews and penstrokes. But…..But…."

A pause.

He pointed a shaking finger down the subway…down into the Earth.

"THAT'S real….," he gulped. "And I don't like it one bit."

I shrugged. I looked away.

He must have felt that.

He walked over and shuffled to a standing position besides me. "You…..you deal with stuff like that all the time, don't you?" he asked.

I glanced up at him. I said nothing.

"And yet….you don't shake. You don't tremble. You just……breeze right through it. Do you know where I'm coming from?"

I stared down at the asphalt. I sighed.

And then he said: "How can anyone….anyone….anyone….who goes through that be blamed for what they do?"

That made me look up at him.

He wasn't fishing for a response. He was similarly dazed. Exhausted.

"You go through hell like that all the time…," he muttered under his breath. "You must….so others won't have to anymore."

I blinked underneath my shades. I looked for the first time directly at the mother and daughter. The police officer was elsewhere as the two hugged desperately on a sidewalk. The girl was shaking and the mother was crying.

A weak smile on her face.

I bit my lip.

"…I think….I think it is I who…wh-who needs to consider a reform," Blake Glover said. He dropped his cigarette. Stomped on it. And readjusted his suit with trembling fingers. "I…I-I think I need to…..cut back. Relax. Enjoy life….wh-what's left of it."

I stared at him.

He saw something in the distance, cleared his throat, and walked off. When he was in the middle of the street, he turned around and looked at me. He struggled for something to say. His face meandered between pain, fear, and remorse.

I cut him short with a smile.

He exhaled. Nodded his head, and smirked ever so slightly. Then, in awkward fashion, he swiveled around and shuffled over to a limousine where Avery and three cameramen stood, awaiting his footsteps with curious expressions on their faces.

A few minutes after, they drove off…and in drove another car.

A blue and white car.

It came to a stop, hummed, and then cut the engine.

The window rolled down automatically and Cyborg leaned his head out.

"You know….you had Raven and I worried sick," he said.

I nodded with a sigh.

"We could just about kill you right now."

I scratched my neck.

And then, Cyborg smiled. "But at the same time…I think you saved us all a headache from that bozo for eternity to come."

I looked up at him and smiled slightly back.

He motioned with his cranium. "Hop on, hero. We're going home."

I quickly obliged. I shuffled the cards away into the deck and into my pocket. I got up, walked into the passenger's seat, and buckled up.

"Lemme ask just one thing…," he said as he turned the key in the ignition again. "Did you plan all that just now?"

I looked at him. I exhaustedly gestured.

'I never plan pain.'

Cyborg nodded. "Of course not. Like the rest of us, you just answer to it."

I didn't even have to answer that.

"Whatever you do, no spitting on the dashboard," Cyborg winked.

That was enough to make me smile then. But after the drive home, when I was in my bed and in my room where nobody could see me, I quietly cried myself to sleep.


	26. Being Mellow

** 26. Being Mellow**

"_What are you saying, Mr. Glover? Do you mean to infer that all your previous accusations against the Teen Titans have been false?"_

"_Have been and always will be, Gary. I've been………quite blood-thirsty as of late. I'm not sure what's left to trust of my own words."_

"_Yet you seem humble enough to confess this on television! Tell us, did something unfortunate happen to you, sir?"_

"_Unfortunate……perhaps. It depends on what context a person thinks in. Or at what time a person thinks about it. Yes. Yes……it was unfortunate. And for that sake alone, it was fortunate for me that I was a part of it. Most fortunate that nobody died—of course—but I surely can't complain. Nobody can complain when they are enlightened."_

"_And what did this enlightenment tell you, sir?"_

"_It told me that life……life in all of its offices…is much too important to leave only to the battles of journalists and congressmen. There is a greater evil amongst us. An evil that manifests itself in the nightmares of our urban domain. And these Titans…these *people*…they've been doing the same thing that I've been doing throughout the years. Only, they've been putting as much of their flesh into the fight as I have my pen and paper. Where I stand the risk of public ridicule…they stand the risk of gun wounds and knife stabs. I've never truly come to respect such bravery until I saw it up close and personal. Until I saw it…through mortal eyes."_

"_Are you certain this just isn't a phase, Mr. Glover? Perhaps nothing more than distraction to your plan at hand for the legislature?"_

"_I've already given up on that plan, Gary. All the pen pushers are going to be spared an earful of me this year. Perhaps even much, much longer than a year."_

"_Early retirement?"_

"_A vacation, Gary. A very long…deep…relaxing vacation."_

"_Well, we all hope you rest up."_

"_That makes the two of us."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I always buy from this store," an elderly customer smiled over the counter. "You two are the nicest people I've met in a long time. And the things you sell are in good condition for being brought in from random people."

"Best pawn shop in the district," Daniel said with a wink.

Renee smiled from where she was filling out paper work from a previous transaction. "We've been celebrities ever since that 'Fang' character came in and rained on our parade."

"Oh no! Are you serious?!" the customer gasped. "Were you two okay?"

"We survived," Renee said. "It was rather disturbing. The Titans later thrashed him good for his wrongdoing."

"Yes, I know," the woman said. "But this store?! I had no idea!"

Daniel gestured to the front of the store. "We had the window replaced a few weeks ago. He smashed the thing apart entirely. Darn wreckless, if you ask me."

"Well, looks like you both are recovering nicely."

"We do our best," Renee walked over and leaned on Daniel's shoulder. "And we hope people like you are satisfied."

"Well, no doubt about that," the woman smiled. "I think I'll tell my children about this place. They're always looking for low prices on electronics and hardware."

"As long as they all have electricity and a lawn to take care of."

"Heheheh…understood. So long. You'll be in my prayers."

"Thank you, ma'am."

The woman headed out to the front of the store.

Renee looked over at Daniel: "Did you hear?" she whispered.

Daniel nodded. "That Glover creep backed down."

"It was on the news this morning! The interview with him….it's like he changed completely!"

"Looks like we aren't the only lucky people in town," Daniel replied.

Suddenly, the woman walked back. "Curious…I think somebody dropped something on the way out," she said.

"Oh really?" Renee reached forward and took an envelope from the woman's hand. "I swear I would have seen it if—what in the world?"

Daniel looked over his wife's shoulder. "It's addressed to us…"

"Corresponding to someone through mail?" the woman asked.

"Not that we know of…," Renee stated. Nevertheless, she opened the envelope and pulled out a blank white card. She turned it over and read the short contents.

'_Thank you' -N_

"N??" the woman reacted. "Who pray tell---"

The couple was smiling.

"A new friend of ours…," one of them said.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the window of their storefront, I glanced in.

I saw them reading the letter.

A smile lit my face.

I adjusted my shades, turned to face the wind, and walked home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was a beautiful day.

No exaggeration.

A blue sky with sparse clouds and relatively quiet streets.

Children at recess echoed giggles outward from the school courtyards.

Young couples walked pleasantly through the city parks.

Even crime seemed to be taking a holiday.

I was under such an atmosphere that I walked back towards the Tower. Taking my time. The wind danced against my face and kicked at my long black hair. I breathed it all in.

_Have I learned to accept the good with the bad?_

I kicked at some gravel on a dirt road I took as a detour to reach the tower later—not sooner.

_And if so…is this my reward?_

I paused for a moment and tilted my head up towards the Sun. I closed my solid black eyes.

And sighed.

_Blue eyes, short blonde hair, and the voice of gold._

I opened my eyes. Through the shades I was stabbed with blinding white light.

_It's been four years…and yet……I can't stop seeing you…_

I waited there in silence.

I twisted about, kicked some more gravel, and headed for the Tower without further tangents.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The elevator doors opened and I walked into the main room just to hear:

"You beat him?"

_"Yup…he's back in the hands of the authorities. The Power Plant was saved. We're coming back home," _Robin's face smiled on the huge monitor.

"Well, allright!" Cyborg smiled. "Gonna give us any details, or are you gonna come home first?"

"_We're all homesick. So I suppose the alternative we chose is more than obvious."_

"_You got that right!!"_ Beast Boy's voice chanted from off screen.

"B.B.!" Cyborg chanted. "Come out so I can see you!"

Beast Boy's face butted out Robin's from the screen. "_Lookey! It's the all Changeling channel!"_

"Ha ha," Cyborg put his hands on his hips. "When you get back, you still owe me twenty bucks. You know that, right?"

"_Dude?! Like……what for?!"_

"For me beating your F-Zero track records in half the courses while you were gone! HA!"

"_No way! I'm so gonna beat you up for that!"_

"Yeah…beat me over the head with four Fives! Ya dolt!"

_"There shall be no beating over of the head. Cyborg's skull is just about as precious as Beast Boy's!"_

"He was only joking, Star. He didn't truly mean it."

"Oh……so there is no owing anybody money?"

"Darn right there's not! Cyborg's gotta be lying! I'm an ace at that game!"

"Beast Boy, you're hogging the transmission! I only have so much juice left in this receiver. If you don't—"

"Eeek! But what about me? I wished to send tidings of good will and glorious victory to my friends in the form of the Twelfth Epic Sonnet of Glorkinphorp!"

"You can just fax 'em a memo! I've got to iron this out with Cyborg!"

"Unacceptable! We must be democratic in the use of said transmission!"

"Says who?!"

"Guys, for crying out loud, the transmitter is going to—"

-BLIP-

The monitor blacked out.

Cyborg smiled. "They'llllllllll be here soon."

He swiveled around and waved to me. "Hey…Noir…my main shade man. S'up?"

I gave him a cockeyed look.

"What?! Aren't you happy?! Glover's shutting up and Overload's overloaded. I think that calls for a victory celebration!"

I looked around. Then gestured to him a 'flapping bird'.

"Raven? Heck if I know where she is. But she better get her butt here so we can go out somewhere and PAAAARTAAAH!!"

I scratched my neck and smiled, humored. _Too bad Beast Boy's not here._

"I'll go to her room. You look for the other spot."

I gave him a wyrd look.

"You know! The other spot!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I opened the door and walked out onto the rooftop of the Tower.

My eyes scanned the helipad, the cargo equipment, and the edge of the structure. On the far side, Raven sat, cross-legged.

Meditating.

I thought about it…threw caution to the wind…and slowly walked over and stood behind her.

The wind kicked at her blue hair, free from the robe. Her hands were stretched out, fingers gracefully touching each other.

Without looking, she uttered: "Lemme guess….Cyborg wants to 'celebrate'."

I scratched my neck and simpered.

"Ain't gonna happen…," she added.

_Figured as much._

Without asking, I sauntered over, sat down beside her on the edge, and stared out at the stretch of Bay and City beyond us.

Silence.

"I guess….you're not going away, then," she mumbled.

I smirked.

Her eyes finally opened. She sighed.

"It's allright….I wasn't getting anywhere in my meditation today anyways."

I looked at her strangely.

She looked at me. "Nothing to smooth out in my head this afternoon. That is a good thing."

I replied with a silent 'Oh' and nodded.

She looked back out at the waters of the Bay.

A pause.

"I love this spot," she said.

I listened…trying to get over the surprise that she was actually *talking*.

"It is so perfect for meditation. It takes so long for people to get up here that they usually don't even bother. Except for Starfire and Beast Boy, who can fly."

I blinked behind my shades.

"Or you, who can just run up the freakin' building side," she half-smirked. "I guess the only real reason I get so secluded here is that I get so secluded here. It could be anywhere. But, honestly….this place has a nice view."

I nodded absent mindedly.

"How's your arm doing?"

I took a look directly at my shoulder for the first time in hours. I flexed it under the bandage. I winced, then shrugged.

"Figured," Raven said. "Gunshot wounds don't fix themselves overnight…_overnights_, I should say by now. You're not being a baby about it. That's commendable."

I wanted to chuckle. If only she knew…if only _they_ knew…I wasn't capable of moaning.

A pause.

Raven slowly brought her legs up and hugged them to her chest.

It was a rather….unusual posture for Raven.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know why I don't give you the cold shoulder whenever you visit me, Noir?" she remarked.

I shook my head.

"You don't talk your head off," she said. "Everyone else talks their head off. I think people who talk too much show an insecurity. Even a lack of intelligence."

I shrugged.

"Heh. I'm one to speak," she stared at the rooftop. "I'm chattering away to you right now." She barely looked up at me. "But a girl can indulge _sometimes_……..right?"

_Um………okay……_

I nodded with an awkward smile.

That seemed to suffice. Raven sighed and looked off at the city again.

"Realllllllly glad that bad publicity is over with," she muttered with vitality.

She knew I couldn't agree more.

"What're you two guys doing? Patty cake?!"

Raven's brow furrowed.

I turned around and glared at Cyborg.

"Why mope around here all day?!" the android shrugged, smiling. He walked over. "Let's go out! Let's do something!"

"I wasn't MOPING," Raven frowned. A beat. She realized she was still hugging her knees. She returned to a meditative squat, blushing.

I wanted to giggle.

"Looks speak loudly, my dear," Cyborg bowed. "Pray tell, what's afflicting your spirit?"

Raven blushed even more. "Nothing," she growled with venom-laced speech.

I cleared my throat and gestured to Cyborg. _'What's the plan?'_

"I dunno."

I smacked my head.

"You think of something, Noir! You're always the quiet one. Ha!"

_I hate being on the spot…even though it's not often._

I gestured to him. '_Pizza?'_

"We always do pizza! Come on, you're not even trying. Where would YOU like to go?"

I looked at Raven.

She looked at the city.

I looked at the city.

I smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven's eyes widened. After thirty solid minutes of complaining against Cyborg and I dragging her out, she was quiet.

Before her stretched the hazy, jazz-filled interior of a poetry café. The oldest one in town in the hardest part of the City to fine. Elderly musicians and poets filled the place with a retro ambiance of soul and literary spirit.

"It's……so…….ancient…..," Raven murmured.

Cyborg smirked at me. "You read her like a book." He leaned down and whispered in the dark girl's ear. "He reads you like a book."

"Shut up," the girl said blindly and wandered forward like a stiff zombie. "Must….listen….to….poetic….goodness…."

I scratched my head. When Cyborg looked at me, I shrugged.

We both smiled.

Eventually, the three of us were seated at a table on the side, halfway towards the podium. Random poets walked up and had their hand at reciting lyrics: both original and classic. There was no ounce of ridicule to be weighed in the place. Even the less-than-superb poems were given an ovation of snapping fingers and intrigued mutterings.

The whole time, the jazz permeated the air and gave the place a noir feeling.

_If you pardon the pun._

Raven leaned her chin on two hands the whole time. She looked like a little schoolgirl in the candy store. I was afraid for a moment there that I might see her drool for the first time. But, thankfully, that never happened.

"This is so…..so…..so…..poetic….," she murmured.

"Uh….yeah, Raven. I think that's the whole point," Cyborg said. He seemed less than enthused about the poetry. I couldn't blame him. It was all over my head too.

I looked at him while our blue-eyed friend remained focused on the proceedings. I gestured something.

"Bored? Hardly. Just mellow."

I cocked my head to the side.

"Mellow's a good thing, Noir. You seem to be mellow all the time, if I'm not mistaken."

I mouthed '_mute'_.

"Heh….that too."

I leaned my chair back against the wall.

He did the same.

A couple of lazy guys……………..

"You know what I think about every time we go through something intense?"

I looked at him curiously.

"I think about what happened to the dumb crooks we've done away with. Ya know….either they're in prison or they're in shame. Overload's gotten the lock and key. And Glover's got his head on the platter for media to laugh at. And yet….I dunno…I almost sympathize with those creeps. It's sad, I know. But I can't help but think if anything we've done actually *helps* them. And furthermore, if they're thankful to us for busting their heads in from time to time."

I smirked. My eyes traced Raven's shadow against the dimly lit podium and stage.

"And then ya know what I think?" Cyborg remarked. "I think I'm making a fool out of myself. In the end, we're only helping the innocent victims that such morons threaten. And in doing that, we help ourselves in turn."

I nodded casually.

Cyborg smiled and brought his hands behind his neck while leaning. "Yup," he said. "This is our reward. Being 'mellow'. I bet I can 'be mellow' your ass into the floor, punk! You're still a newby, ya know!"

I sniffed forth a laugh.

Cyborg chuckled.

We both sighed…..and realized Raven was gone.

"Where in the world?!?!" Cyborg remarked, then looked up at the podium. "Ah Hell….I think we drugged her."

I looked up. My black eyes twitched.

Raven walked up to the podium after the previous person stepped down. Someone rushed in and provided her a stool. She said thanks, cleared her throat, and produced a random sheet of paper from under her robe. _She was prepared._

"I wrote this the night before last," she said. "It was right after one of my teammates was nearly hurt bad in a run-in with some gun-toting morons."

People seemed curious at that. When they took a closer look and realized who was speaking, a few people gasped, a few people smiled, but everyone in general recognized the Titan and remained quiet for her to read off her poem.

Cyborg and I were likewise attentive.

"Ahem…," she began:

'Under the Dark Wings'

Under the dark wings  
Your midday races and gold-laced things  
Shout out the shame that greed and lust bring  
As if the kingdom was built in a metal tube  
That people turn on only to keep from thinking.

Under the dark wings  
You slit your throat and sing  
The blood on the hands of crooks, you say  
Is only painted sweat

And yet  
You'll cower when  
The light from the tube goes out  
And you're swimming in the shadow  
Of your hollow bucklers  
Against fright and fear

Under the dark wings  
You realize  
That midday races and gold-laced things  
Are all that you are to all that you are  
Planted and watered in  
Two inch soil

For the wind eroded everything else away  
While above you, they carried us up  
On dark wings

She was finished before anyone realized it. The ovation was delayed…but it was rich. Raven smirked ever so slightly and curtsied.

I snapped my fingers and smirked.

"Very niiiiiice," Cyborg said. He blinked. "So what was it about? Turkey sandwiches?"

I elbowed him hard.

"Ouch! Jeez! Sorry, I'm hungry! HEY! CAN WE GET SOME BAGELS OVER HERE OR SOMETHING?!"


	27. Egoload

**27. Egoload**

SCHLUNK!!!

The elevator doors opened.

Cyborg looked up from the computer.

Raven peered over her book.

I glanced away from my lonely game of solitaire.

Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire sauntered into the Main Room.

"For the last time, Beast Boy, that's not how it happened! You were there! Same with Starfire! I dove in with a jump kick and gave Overload the final blow!"

"Nuh uh! Dude, I totally saved our butts! Once I shook those power plant workers off me, I was all over that scene!"

"Are you two forgetting the perils you face that I had to rescue you from?"

"You may have saved people, Starfire, but you didn't save the entire situation!"

"Beast Boy, your statement is entirely false!"

"Prove it! Where were you when I was kicking Overload's butt?!"

"I believe *I* did him in, like I said before…"

"Unacceptable! You must give me a chance to tell what really happened!"

"Oh, like we don't know the way things happ—"

A shrill whistle warbled through the room. The three newcomers looked over as Cyborg took his fingers out from his lips, leaned forward, and smirked. "Okay….welcome home. But before anything else….what in the world is going on?!"

"Beast Boy is—"

"Starfire is—"

"Robin is—"

"—_**lying!**_" they all pointed at each other, forming a triforce.

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "How interesting…"

I watched.

"Lying about what?" Cyborg asked.

"Everything!"

"The battle!"

"Overload!"

"The two chicks from the plant!"

"There were no 'chicks' at the plant!"

"And you didn't beat up Overload!"

"Yes I did!"

"No you—"

"_**Enough**_!" Raven growled.

Cyborg chuckled.

I rolled my black eyes.

The dark girl stood up and glared at the three. "Sit down. One at a time."

Silence.

The three Titans looked at each other. They crossed arms and gave each other indignant glares before marching over to a sofa in the center of the Main Room and launching their butts down into a 'sitting position'.

They continued their mutual staring contests until--

"Oh come on," Cyborg cackled. "Don't tell me we've got to pick who speaks first?!"

"I'm just waiting for the other two to embellish their account on the first turn…," Beast Boy.

"Pilfered psalms is not the way I desire to recount true events!" Starfire retorted.

"I think Robin should go first," Raven said. "He is the leader after all."

Robin smirked.

"What?!?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

We all looked at him.

He cleared his throat, frowned, and sat back. "Sure thing. Robin, you go first. _Embellish away_."

Robin glared at his companion under his eyemask before clearing his throat and beginning:

"Ahem…We tracked a trail of clues Overload left behind. They led us to a Power Plant halfway between here and Bloodhaven. After days of being on this mission, we were finally ready to strike. I told everyone to meet near the west entrance of the Plant. We chose a covert operation. There was no need to risk Overload possibly being warned of our presence. So we had to sneak in the same fashion he did…"

------

Nighttime outside the power plant.

A tall, wire-framed fence surrounded the structure, laced with barbed wire. In the dark shroud of the evening, the spires of the building blinked with electric strobes of red and blue.

Suddenly, amidst the glow of the moonlight, a pair of wings formed. Silvery. Sleak.

Robin handglided down. With rippling muscles, he adjusted his descent till he came to a perfect landing just outside the fence. He shrugged his shoulders, and the winged 'backpack' popped off. He cracked his knuckles and billowed his cape back into place. Handsome as a picture.

"Robin! You arrived just seconds before I!" Starfire walked out of the forest, held two hands together, and beamed. "What a magnificent device! Wherever did you get it?"

"_Made it myself," Robin smirked. "While you and Beast Boy were sleeping last night, I got some aluminum shingles and copper wire from a nearby landfill and spent the night working on it. I know I overdo things. But I can't help it. Love inventing……"_

------

Starfire glared at Robin, her arms crossed. "I do not remember a 'wrist glider', much less your knack for creating one."

"It's called an 'R-Glider'!" Robin corrected.

"Oh…so it's not a 'hand glider' anymore?!" Beast Boy smirked. "What, that term not cool enough for you, leader?"

"Let him tell his story!" Cyborg said, leaning against his chair with a curious expression.

"Anyways…," Robin went on. "After I *landed*….there was still the fence to attend to. But, first of all, I couldn't help but notice—"

------

"_Where is Beast Boy?" Robin inquired. "He was supposed to meet us here."_

"I am afraid I have not heard from him since last time we were grouped together," she said. "He is probably sleeping or making jokes with taxi cab drivers like he always is!"

"Then we'll have to continue without him," Robin said.

_He whipped out a pair of electric pliers. Blue sparks danced about as he knelt down in front of the wire and burnt himself a hole through which to crawl. He motioned with a grin for Starfire to follow. She was pensive. So he offered her a hand, and she crawled through-trembling-and sighed with relief on the other side._------

"Quite frightening. I was afraid of getting cut by the wire!"

"Not while I'm here," Robin winked through his eyemask. "Come on…let's go inside……"

Starfire glared again at Robin.

"What?!?!" the leader remarked.

"Nothing," she huffed. "Go ahead."

Beast Boy giggled.

Raven lifted an eyebrow.

Robin cleared his throat and went on.

"So…when we stepped inside the power plant…most of Overload's damage had been done. I thought it best that we—"

------

"Split up!" Robin said through gritted teeth. "We must find Overload or else this power plant is toast!"

"But Robin!" Starfire gripped her chest. "I am too afraid to go alone! I want you here to protect me!"

"Don't worry, Star," Robin smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We won't be apart for long."

She sighed against his hand.

He patted her head and walked off.

He took the main corridor while Starfire meandered down the hallways.

Overhead lights above the various power equipment flickered as Robin pressed onward. Cautiously. He furrowed his brow and scanned the area around him.

He clenched his fists.

"Show yourself!" Robin shouted.

His voice echoed.

And then…a rustling sound.

Robin spun around with a shout and raised his stick.

"Aaaack!!" Beast Boy shouted and cowered. "It's me, dude!"

"Beast Boy," Robin glared. "You should be more careful."

"I'm sorry," the green Titan rubbed his eyes and yawned. "I'm exhausted. Didn't get enough sleep."

------

"Oh go blow your nose!!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "That wasn't the reason I was so out of it!!"

"Then what was?" Robin asked.

"I already told you---"

"Oh, not with that again!"

"One at a time, B.B.," Cyborg said, a finger lifted.

Beast Boy mumbled.

Robin went on. "He was exhausted. So I said—"

_------_

_  
__"Pull yourself together," Robin grunted. "Our target is nearby."_

Beast Boy blinked. "What makes you say that?"

"Eek!" Starfire flew in, shrieking: "It! It is here! Here, it is!!!"

Beast Boy gasped.

Robin spun about and held his staff ready.

With a flash of light and electrical current, Overload jumped into the corridor after Starfire. It growled, waving tendril limbs of electrical energy. Its computer chip core glared at the three—especially Robin—as it uttered: "Puny fleshlings…OUT OF MY WAY! I need JUICE!"

Starfire cowered behind Robin.

Beast Boy gulped and ducked his head.

Robin smirked with glaring eyes. He held his staff out with one hand and motioned for Overload to come with the other. "Come on and take it, then."

Overload charged up a bolt of electrical plasma and launched it at Robin with a shout.

Robin shoved Starfire safely out of the way and leapt backwards, dodging the blast barely over his chest. With just the edges of his costume singed, he jumped back up, growled, and charged full force at Overload.

The electrified monster fired spark after spark.

Robin dodged like a caped comet and sailed in, staff first.

SWOOOSH!!

The metal staff struck hard against the chest of the metaphysical beast. Though it sent him teetering back, the electric repulsion forced Robin to launch backwards.

He landed with a twirl, unleashing three birdarangs in midair.

All three sailed into Overload's electric field and exploded. They merely rocked him into an imbalanced state.

It bought enough time for Robin to charge up, growl, and swing his staff again---this time under Overload's legs.

The monstrosity fell down with a splash of electricity.

Robin stabbed his staff's end down—growling—to deliver the final blow.

But Overload traveled up the staff like a shape-shifting snake and emerged at the top with a splash of white light and an electric 'foot that smacked Robin away, head first. The Boy Wonder stepped back and got into a new, fighting stance.

Beast Boy and Starfire hugged each other, shivering. "Don't let him hurt us, Robin!"

Robin growled. "I'm not afraid."

"You should be!!" Overload shook and launched a stream of electrical energy at him like a humongous bullwhip.

Robin barely sidestepped it. He spun his body around, reached towards the ceiling, and shot a grappling hook.

POOF-CLANK!

It stuck into the ceiling. Robin retracted. His body soared upwards and over the swipe of Overload's electrical arm.

The Boy Wonder let go of the handle, flipped down to the ground, and scooped up his staff. He spun it into a fighting position and jumped forward with a cry, striking at Overload hard.

The blob of electricity stumbled back from the blow and towards the power generators.

"Be careful, Robin!" Starfire gasped.

Robin gave her a thumb's up. He then retracted his rod. Got into a ready position. And sprinted towards the villain.

The chip inside Overload winced. Expecting…

WOOOSH!!

Robin jump kicked his way towards the monstrous villain's center. "HYAAAAAA!"

_As soon as his boot made contact, there was a clash of electricity and metal.__**had**__ to._

The hero and the villain squared off. Athletic dexterity versus electrical brawn. Shocks and sparks riveted the Boy Wonder's body. But he persisted in applying pressure to his strike on Overload's center. He had to prevail. He

Starfire watched with wavering eyes of fear.

Beast Boy hid his head.

When the attack was finished, a wave of electrical release splashed throughout the corridor…knocking out everyone in the vicinity.

Robin fell down with a gasp. The last waking thing he saw was Overload's defeated, computer-chip-form.

"And stay down…," he grunted.

Lights out…

_------_

"And when I woke up…just like the two of you did…," Robin motioned to Beast Boy and Starfire, "…I saw Overload's chip lying on the floor and the workers returning to the plant. All we had to do was carry the evidence—and the crook—away to the authorities. And we were okay to go."

Silence.

"Well….that's how it happened," Robin said, crossing his arms. "Like it or not."

"I am most displeased with it," Starfire grumbled.

"Yeah…what a load of—"

Cyborg cleared his throat.

"….bologna." Beast Boy finished.

"Well, that certainly was….," Raven blinked. "….action packed."

Robin smirked and leaned back with hands behind his head. "Wasn't it, though?"

Crickets.

"Dude…," Beast Boy glared. "That tale was so self-indulgent."

"It doesn't have to be! It's the truth!"

I scratched my head and looked back and forth between the whole lot of them.

"Some truth! You totally embellished!"

Robin stared Beast Boy down and pointed at himself. "Do you think I would lie?! I'm the leader!"

"That's the truth, Robin?" Cyborg inquired.

"Yes!"

"That's exactly as you remember things?!"

"One hundred percent!"

Cyborg scratched his head. "Interesting…"

Robin made a face. "W-What?! You doubt me?"

"Now hold on," Cyborg raised a finger. "If this is all so important—how y'all beat Overload—we should look at this at every angle."

"Pfft…what good will that do?" Robin grunted.

"You're a detective, Robin…," Raven said. "Don't tell us you don't value the weighing of varied testimony."

Silence.

I smirked.

Robin folded his arms. "Fine. Do what you want. I just don't want to hear—"

"You tell us what you remember happening, Beast Boy," Cyborg said.

"D'oh!" Robin winced.

Beast Boy grinned wide. He leapfrogged to the table in the center of where we all sat and took the stage. "This is the way things _really_ happened," he smoothly said. "And without all the high-flying John Woo fluff that Robin obsesses with."

"Hey I never--!!"

"Shhh!" Beast Boy cautioned. "You've already laid your egg, Robin. The yolk's on you."

Robin frowned.

"…..huh?" Starfire blinked.

"Just listen!"

"S-Sorry."

"Yes…I *was* running behind the others to the Power Plant. But believe me. It was for a good reason!"

------

"Here you go, little guys," Beast Boy smiled and gently opened his cupped hands. A guy and a girl bullfrog leapt into a pond before the boy and into their aquatic habitat. "You'll be safe here. But I better not be seeing you two trying to cross the highway again!"

The frogs ribbited at him. Their amphibious eyes sparkled.

Beast stood up, dusted himself off, and turned around to face the thick of forest. "Allrighty. I hope my little detour didn't hurt the mission at all. When I see my animalistic kind in need of assistance, who am I not benevolent enough to help them out? I'm sure Robin and Starfire won't mind. Now…off to the Power Plant. AWAY!!"

With that said, Beast Boy grew wings in the moonlight, spread into a huge bald eagle, and flapped his way mightily towards the Power Plant. He soared under the luminescent stars. His bird eyes twinkled as he scanned the forest floor below.

Finally, the forest parted beneath him, and there lay the fence surrounding the power plant. The eagle 'squinted'.

The forms of Robin and Starfire were evidently there before him. Robin knelt in front of the fence with a blue, sparking object. He seemed to be having a frustrating battle of cutting through the wire. Starfire walked over with a hand outreached to offer help. Robin barked something at her and inadvertently zapped himself. He grabbed his hand and hopped around in pain. Eventually, Starfire's figure sighed, grabbed Robin by the arm, and flew him over the top of the fence.

_Beast Boy's beak smirked—if that was possible._

'I can sooooo beat them to the plant,' he thought to himself. 'But I think I'll take my time. And best not to join them now. They're sneaking around, and I might startle them. I am Beast Boy, after all!'

The eagle chuckled and dove down towards the plant. He entered through a window with a flap of feathers and landed on a third story room in elf form.

"All right," he cracked his knuckles. "Time to reboot the Overload!"

------

"Reboot the Overload?" Raven remarked.

Robin hid a smirk.

Starfire giggled.

Beast Boy glared. "May I continue?!"

"By all means…," Raven droned. "I'm on the edge of my seat…."

An artery in Beast Boy's temple throbbed momentarily. He cleared his throat.

"Anyways…I was obviously not in the spot where Overload would be. So, naturally. I looked around to find my way to the main corridor of the Plant…"

------

Beast Boy wandered around, scratching his head. "What a predicament. Surely there would be a door or something on this room that leads to a hallway…"

The changeling inadvertently walked backwards into an entrance to a vertical metal chute of sorts.

"Whoah!!"

His shouts echoed all the way down. He slid two floors towards the center of the earth before being launched out the bottom mouth of the chute and into a soft pile of packaging material in the center of an underground room of sorts.

"Oof!!" he rubbed his head. His eyes widened when he heard voices.

"And so, like, I told Janice, you shouldn't be going out with him! He's, like, a total creephead!"

"Way to go, girl. Honest and up front. That's what my Mother always to—omigosh! Are you okay?!"

Beast Boy blinked as two young blondes in hard hats and working jumpsuits rushed over from a breakroom table and leaned over him.

"Did you fall all the way down?!"

"You poor thing!"

"Oh…I've had worse," Beast Boy winked. He cleared his throat and mumbled: "But……I-I'm not really supposed to be here…"

"You're not?" one blonde pouted.

The other lifted a finger with a grin: "Saaaaaaaay! I know you!"

"Yeah! You're that Beast Man!"

"From the Teen Titans!"

"Yeah……well," the changeling cracked his knuckles. "That's not *exactly* my name. Though it does fit. You can just call me **beast** if you want." He snapped a pointing finger at them and wiggled his eyebrows. Grinning.

"Awwww."

"He's so cuuuuuute."

"Here, let's help him up!"

The two hoisted him up—one arm apiece.

He jumped to his feet between them and dusted himself off. "Thank youuuuuuuu, ladies." He said, suavely.

"Oooh! Are you on a mission?"

"What type!"

"Tell us!"

"I'm afraid it's a covert operation," Beast Boy said, leaning against a nearby wall where a dim light hung overhead. "I can't tell you much about it…except that it's dangerous."

"Oooh, but it must be important if YOU'RE taking part in it!"

"And I bet no evil could withstand your shapeshifting wonder!"

"'Shapeshifting wonder'…," Beast Boy thought aloud. "I like the sound of that. Don't you?"

"Hehehehehe……most definitely, Mr. Beast!"

"What're you going to do next?"

"Well…," Beast Boy looked at the door on the other side. "I'm going to have to find my way out of here. Sorry for dropping in on such short notice. But I have butt to kick."

"Awwwwww!"

"Please stay!"

"We have so many things we'd love to ask you!"

"Yeah! An actual Teen Titan!"

"Well……," Beast Boy squinted at them. "Lemme ask you one thing."

"Anything!"

"What're two hot pieces of sugar and spice doing in a grubby power plant like this?!"

"It's community service," one of the blondes sighed. "We have to do a certain number of hours for our major in college. So all the girls in our sorority branched out, and this was the best place that me and Bambi here could find."

"We'd do anything if it'd mean high marks for us."

"Hmmmm," Beast Boy thought aloud. Then smiled. "If you could come with me upstairs…and help me nab the person I'm after…I promise it'll be worth your while!"

The girls gasped and clasped their hands together.

"Really?!"

"You mean it?!"

"A Teen Titan helping us?!"

"Tit for tat!" Beast Boy smiled. He then looked at the camera and winked. "And I *do* mean tit for tat!"

"Hoooray!!"

"You're our hero!"

"We'd gladly help you!"

"But first…we must show you our thanks!"

"Oh, but you don't have to…seriously," Beast Boy shook his hand.

"Oh…"

"But we must!"

The two crept towards him, smiling.

"Ladies! Please! We must make haste if my mission is to be a success. Ladies…LADIES! Come onnnnnn! I'm only one Beast!"

Giggles and giggles and coos.

………

A few minutes later, Beast Boy emerged into the main corridor of the Power Plant, covered in lipstick marks. He grinned dizzily, shook his head, and found his bearing. "All in a day's work. I just hope they're both around when I asked them to be."

------

"……………," everyone stared at Beast Boy.

"Okay…," he glanced around, sweatdropping. "What's with all the googly eyes?"

"Can we move onto Starfire?" Raven asked Cyborg.

"Hey! I'm not finished yet!"

"You might as well be," Robin gestured. "This story's just about as true as Sasquatch."

"Those female laborers must have been irrationally compassionate," Starfire said.

"And since when did workers in a power plant wear lipstick?" Raven added.

"This is so unfair!" Beast Boy whined. "I'm a lady killer! Cy! Tell them I'm a lady killer!"

Cyborg looked at him. He looked at Robin. "Hey. Yo. Beast Boy's a lady killer."

Robin stared. He broke out laughing.

Cyborg laughed too.

I snickered.

"Knock it off!" Beast Boy pouted.

Starfire giggled. "By all means, Beast Boy. Finish."

"Pfft. Very well then. Someone's gotta be listening. You hear that, Noir?"

I raised a finger--

"Okay…and just as I was about to explore the place…"

------

"Beast Boy! There you are!" Robin's voice gasped.

Beast Boy sauntered over. "Missed me? What seems to be the problem?"

The Boy Wonder struggled on a metal gantry. "Nghh! I got my utility belt caught in a rail!"

Beast Boy rolled his eyes, walked over, and yanked Robin loose. "Must I get you out of these ruts ALL the time?!"

"Thanks Beast Boy. Where have you been?" Robin asked. He sniffed. "And why do you smell like jasmine perfume?"

Beast Boy shrugged handsomely.

"Eek!" Just then, Starfire flew in. "It! It is here!! Here it is!!!"

Robin gasped. "Overload?!"

Beast Boy cracked his knuckles. "About bloody time!"

The giant, sparking beast jumped into view, slamming on the ground. It roared at the three heroes with its arms dangling threateningly: "Puny fleshlings…OUT OF MY WAY! I need JUICE!"

"I can handle this…," Beast Boy said with a serious tone.

Robin impatiently whipped out his rod. "Teen Titans! Go!"

The Boy Wonder rushed forward.

Overload roared and slapped forth an arm of electricity.

It struck the leader across the chest and flew him twenty feet away into the side of a generator. CONG!! "UGH!" Robin slumped to the floor.

Starfire gasped.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Typical…" He ran forward, morphed into a gorilla, and jumped mightily across the corridor. He landed hard in front of Overload and snarled through primate teeth.

Overload raised his arms to strike.

Just then, the green elf reappeared. Petite by all measures in contrast to the sparkling monstrosity, he cleared his throat and lifted a finger: "I think you need to calm down, dude. When was the last time you heard a joke?"

"EXCUSE ME?!?!?!" Overload shook.

"You know! A joke!" Beast Boy smirked. "Why did the asthmatic chicken cross the road?"

"………" Overload glared.

"**Why did the asthmatic chicken cross the road?!**" Beast Boy repeated.

"I dunno…why did he?"

"To get to the other **sigh**!"

Cymbal crash.

Overload winced…but a hidden part of its computer chip face let out a chuckle or two.

"What do you get when you cross a dog and a cat??"

Overload shrugged.

"A mother-in-law's makeover!!"

Cymbal crash.

Overload laughed. His electric body sparked all over.

Beast Boy grinned. He secretly glanced up at the catwalks above Overload. Two blonde workers covertly dashed along the series of walkways and over the enemy.

"How many times must an aardvark read 'Hamlet' to get college credit?"

"I don't know!!" Overload hopped. "How many?!"

"Never!" Beast Boy smirked. "An aardvark can't read!!"

Cymbal crash.

Overload just about fell over, howling in laughter. Its computer chip 'eye' closed tightly. Its arms pounded the ground helplessly.

Beast Boy looked up at the two girls on the catwalk.

They hoisted two huge water cooler bottles over their shoulders. They smiled down and blew kisses at Beast Boy. Awaiting his cue.

"Hey…I've got another one," Beast Boy winked. "What do you call a villain who doesn't know when to stop laughing?!"

Overload chuckled. "I give! What!"

Beast Boy struck a pose. "All…washed…up…" He saluted the two girls.

They saluted back, popped open the lids to the water cooler bottles, and dumped the liquid contents down and onto the electric enemy.

Sparks flew. Overload screamed. The corridor filled with an enormous, flashing strobe of bright blue.

Beast Boy backflipped out of the way of the dancing sparks.

The two blondes oohed and aahed.

Starfire gasped, flew over, and hugged the unconscious Robin fearfully.

When all was said and done, only Overload's computer chip remained. Smoking.

"Uggggggh," it moaned.

The two blondes ran down, giggled, and hugged Beast Boy. They clapped their hands and jumped up and down, dropping the water bottles.

"We did it!"

"Yaaaaay!"

"Way to go Mr. Beast!"

Beast Boy slyly picked up the bottles, looked at the camera, and winked. "Gotta love girls with big jugs."

Cymbal crash.

"Hehehehehehehe!"

"He's soooooo funny!!"

"Come here, you!!"

------

"…..," Robin stared.

"…..," Raven stared.

"…..," Cyborg stared.

"…..," Starfire stared.

"…..," I stared.

"………….OH YEAH!" Beast Boy jumped up. "And there's one more thing!"

"If it involves Hugh Hefner, I'm leaving."

"Shh, Raven! This is important…."

------

"Ladies! Ladies!" Beast Boy, humored, tried to fight them off. "What I tell you about—"

Overload's computer chip chuckled one last time. "Jugs. HA!"

A spark of electricity shot through the metal floor, shocking the two workers, Beast Boy, and Robin and Starfire.

They slumped to the ground.

Unconscious.

------

"And we all woke up later," Beast Boy said. He sighed and looked depressingly down to the floor. "And the girls were gone."

"Wow…," Raven blinked. "That's so surprising."

"I'm guessing that…ya know…hourglass figures make them less likely to conduct electricity. So when they woke up before the rest of us, they ran off to contact the authorities and—"

"That's allright, Beast Boy," Cyborg said. He looked at Robin. "Well….um…"

"That's funny," Robin mumbled aloud.

"I know!" Beast Boy grinned. "My jokes were so good, they knocked us all out!"

"No, not that," the Boy Wonder said. "As different as our memories are…they end with us being knocked out."

"Well, at least you were honest about one thing!" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out.

"Nuts to you, Mr. Casanova! What the crap is up with your whole 'stand up comedian' bit! 'To get to the other sigh'?!?! You scare me, big time, Beast Boy."

"Well, it's not like I was hopping all over the place and kicking butt with a stamina that only steroids could afford and—"

Cyborg whistled again.

Raven winced.

Robin and Beast Boy looked over.

Cyborg smirked. He pointed a finger over at Starfire.

"Me?" the Tamaranian pointed at herself. "Are you so sure you want to hear my side of the story?"

"Have at it, Star," Robin said. "You seemed so willing to argue with us earlier."

"Y-Yes…but…," the girl timidly gulped. "Yours and Beast Boy's tales were long and, unfortunate as it is to say, did cause me great trouble in maintaining my eyelids open and my lungs from yawning and—"

The Boy Wonder and the Changeling glared. Their pupils were on fire.

Starfire blushed. "Eheheheheheh," she scratched her neck. "I suppose I could indulge in my own, truest testimony of what really happened."

"Please do…," Raven droned.

I leaned forward.

"Well…the first thing I remember was being slightly delayed during my flight towards the Power Plant. Howbeit not a delay to the extent of Beast Boy's—which he claims to be caused by bullfrogs and blonde haired jug holders—it was no less vexing—"

------

"Dum de dum…dum de doo…," the Tamaranian girl hummed to herself as she flew mach 5 over the forest in a pink/violet streak of alien glory. She glanced upward at the starlit troposphere. She couldn't help but think of home and all the beautiful friends and family members who had to have been thinking about her in her moment of adventure just then. Suddenly, a jet flew into view from far away. Starfire thought of the people inside, happily transporting themselves to their loved ones.

She giggled, waved, and called forth through the night. "Hello there, wondrous Terran automaton of flight!!"

WHACK!!!!

"OOF!!" Starfire flew straight smack into a tree and fell to the earth on her rear.

WHUMP!!

"Owwwwww," Starfire rubbed her head and mumbled. "Hello there, wondrous Terran forest of oak…."

She shook out of it, got up, and walked the rest of the way towards the clearing in the distance.

"It is remarkably cold out tonight for a summer solstice in this hemisphere…," she spoke to herself. "I do hope Robin is not 'catching the frigid' again. It is most difficult hugging a human who leaks in various places—" She froze and her eyes widened as she reached the fence. "Robin! You have arrived just seconds before I!" She smiled wide. A pause. She cocked her head to the side. "What are you doing?"

"Trying…to get……this darn thing……to work!" Robin said, struggling with a set of electric pliers. Blue sparks illuminated their spot along the fence, risking the exposure of their cover.

"Ummm," Starfire looked around, smiled, and lifted a finger. "Why not allow me to levitate us over the fence and—"

"It's not worth that extra effort, Star," Robin grunted, fighting with the stubborn pliers.

"But surely you know as well as I do that there is no added effort required!" Starfire exclaimed. "As a part of being Tamaranian, I exceed the limits of your human strength by a factor of four hundred and fifty two point eight percent.! Even if it did mean putting in 'extra effort', such a factor would be infinitesimal compared to the stress you are encompassing in your present task of punishing the expensive wire cutters—"

"I can take care of it!!" the Boy Wonder gritted his teeth.

Starfire's eyes thinned.

Robin struggled.

Starfire sighed.

Robin struggled.

Starfire dug her foot into the earth.

Robin struggled.

Starfire leaned back and forth.

Robin struggled.

Starfire hummed.

Robin struggled.

Starfire stared.

Robin struggled.

"How about now If you allow me to—"

"GOT IT!" Robin grinned wide.

The pliers sparkled brightly for a second……smoked…and then died out.

His face fell. "Um……I—WHOAH!!"

Starfire lifted him over the fence by an arm and dropped the both of them down swiftly on the other side.

"Ta-daaa!! Hehehehehe! I rather enjoyed that, actually!"

Robin glared. "Yeah…super." He holstered the tool away into his belt and rushed forward. "Come on! We're behind schedule!"

"Where is Beast Boy?"

"He'll just have to catch up!"

"Oh………okay!" Starfire floated after him.

------

"Pfft…you're exaggerating, Star," Robin smirked with his arms crossed. "Sure, the pliers shorted out once or twice. But I didn't spend ten minutes trying to fix them!"

Starfire looked down timidly. "Well….actually…"

"What?" Cyborg leaned forward.

"It was more like fifteen minutes," she blushed.

Robin did a double-take.

She pointed, "And I also left out the fact that you accidentally let the electric pliers burn you on your elbow. I recall you yelping in pain. It was most unpleasant." A pause. "I hate unpleasant parts of stories."

"Awww…it's okay, Starfire," Robin said, a hand on her shoulder. "I soooo didn't get zapped by my own pliers. I'm not that clumsy."

"Are you sure?" the Tamaranian asked with green eyes of concern. "I am positively certain I saw and heard you—"

"Not in a lifetime!" Robin smirked.

"**HEY!!**"

Starfire and Robin looked over.

Beast Boy spat: "What's with the **compassion**?! You didn't show me such support when I told MY story!"

Robin pointed. "You're not Starfire."

"What's that supposed to mean?!?!?!?!"

I shook my head.

"Please continue…," said Raven

"Well…," Starfire thought aloud. "Beast Boy was not there. Robin insisted we make haste to find Overload. So we went into the Power Plant and…."

-----

"Split up!" Robin said through gritted teeth. "We must find Overload or else this power plant is toast!"

"But Robin!" Starfire stepped in front of him. "We still have not reunited with Beast Boy and—"

"Time is precious. And we're losing it! Don't worry. We'll all meet each other soon. Keep in contact through the communicator. We must split out and find Overload!"

With that, Robin obstinately ran off down a gantry that led into the Main Corridor.

Starfire sighed, turned around, and headed up a flight of metal stairs and into a dark hallway with checkerboard floors.

"I fail to see the plausible gain in this," she mumbled to herself as she drifted past the doorways. "Unless Overload is hiding inside a janitorial closet."

Just then, a babyish sound lit her ears. Starfire blinked. She craned her neck around a corner and gasped.

A cardboard box full of kittens lay on its side in the middle of the hallway. Tiny, baby cats stumbled out and wandered every which way. Mewing their heads off.

"Awwwwww!!" Starfire swooped down and scooped them all back in the box. "Most adorable little creatures!!" She stood up with the box of life in her arms and smiled down at them. "Whatever caused you to be discarded in such a paltry manner? You poor things!"

A kitten or two toyed with the locks of Starfire's hair, making the girl giggle.

A gasp emanated from the other side of the hall.

"Omigosh!! Thank you!!" a blonde woman in a hard hat ran over. "I about slapped my co-worker when she told me she just 'put them down' in the middle of the hallway! I was scared to death! Are they all in there?!"

"Um……," Starfire stammered, blushing at being sighted. "I-I think so."

The woman looked through the cats. "Rambo…Cocoa…Little Bit…Louie…Katey……whew…they're all here."

"May I ask you if you have seen anything peculiar as of late……," Starfire squinted her green eyes and read the employee's name tag: "…'Bambi'?"

"Only you, girlfriend," the woman said, taking the box from her. "Say……aren't you that 'S' chick?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Ya know…the 'S' chick. Wears a skimpy outfit. Punches stuff. Shoots laser out of her eyes."

"You must be confusing me with another alien female," Starfire said. She smiled, "My name is Starfire. From Tamaran!" She curtsied. "It is a pleasure to meet the guardian of such furried treasures!"

"Uh……yeah," the woman nodded. "I was working a full shift today and couldn't bear to leave them home alone, so I brought them here to be taken care of and fed and stuff." A beat. "What're you doing here?"

"I am pursuing a villain most treacherous," Starfire said. She held out a hand, "Please…do not panic. But I must ask you. Have you seen a glowing monstrosity comprised entirely of electricity?"

"Ummmm," Bambi gave her a suspicious look. "No. But I just came back from checking the west wing of the Plant. Rumor has it that some green-skinned wyrdo got stuck inside a packaging suit. Clumsiest thing I've ever heard of."

"Oh…"

STOMP!!!

Lights flickered in the hallway and under the doorway. The room shook. The kittens mewed fearfully and clamored around in the box that Bambi hugged tighter to her chest.

"What the Hell was that?!"

Starfire shook her head. "I don't in Hell know!"

STOMP!!

More lights flickered.

The room suddenly lit up from the side.

Overload stomped into view. Growling. "**Where are they?!?!"** It stomped again. "**Where are the power generators!!"**

"Wooooo boy!" Bambi droned with a slight touch of latent intoxication in her eyes. "I think it's about time I switched sororities."

"Stay back!" Starfire said to the worker. "This situation is most danger—EEP!!"

Overload swung a whip of electricity at the two. Starfire flew into a wall. Bambi fell down on her back. The box of scared kittens slid into the center of the hallway.

Starfire gasped. She flew at Overload.

It pulsed out a wall of electricity. Holding her back. She hid in a doorframe, wincing at the sparks.

Overload marched down the hallway. Blindly searching for juice. "Out of my way!! I must reenergize!!!"

Starfire glanced at the path the electrified golem was taking and gasped.

The box was in the firing line.

"MOVE IT!!!" Overload cackled.

"Nooooo!!" Bambi stretched a hand out.

Starfire's eyes glowed green. She growled. "You…shall not……harm……THE FURRIES!!!"

She yelled, kicked against the wall, and sailed her body like a green missile straight into the body of Overload.

"RAAAUGH!!" Overload shouted.

Starfire gritted her teeth, fought the pain of electrocution, and forced the monster with her momentum through two rooms—smashing walls into pieces. The two fell down a stairwell and collapsed through the doorway and into the Main Corridor.

The ends of the Tamaranian's hairs smoked for a second or two. She stumbled up on her knees, rubbed her head, and moaned.

"Ugggh…I feel like a Thlorian Eel in a Blabazork's fishing net."

"RAAAAGHHH!!" Overload 'stood up' and growled.

Sstarfire gasped. She spun around and looked for an avenue of escape. She saw Robin and Beast Boy down a ways. She flew into the air, but not without a spark or two being launched at her.

She spiraled her way into the boys' company.

"Eek!" she gasped and pointed: "It! It is here! Here, it is!!!"

Robin and Beast Boy got into fighting stances.

Overload leapt through the air and slammed into a landing. It waved its electrified arms about dramatically as it bellowed: "Puny fleshlings…OUT OF MY WAY! I need JUICE!"

"You need a time out…," Robin growled.

------

"Hehehehehe!"

Starfire giggled, cupping her hands to her chin.

"I thought it was so riveting when he said it like that!"

We all stared at her.

She cleared her throat. "Anyways. And then…."

------

"Titans! Go!" Robin shouted with his staff outstretched.

Beast Boy blinked at the huge, pulsating target. "Go **what** exactly?!"

"RAAAAGH!!" Overload slung an arm of electricity at them.

"AACK!" Beast Boy jumped to the side and covered his head.

Robin growled, sidestepped, and struck with his rod repeatedly.

Starfire circled overhead, flinging starbolts.

The monster flung electric fists and arms and feet at the three Titans over and over again. But they merely encircled it, attacking from long range, diving in for quick gorilla tactics, and overall distracting it from the power generators in the far side of the corridor it most desperately needed.

"I have no time for this!!!" the monster cackled. It leapt its whole body forward at the nearest target……Robin.

"WHOAH!!" Robin tried in vain to block. An electric current surged through his rod and blasted against him. He fell back, slammed hard into a metal generator, and fell down with a moan.

"Robin!!" Starfire gasped. She immediately flew down by his side while Beast Boy distracted the creature. She felt his pulse, panting. "Wake up! Wake up! This is no time to not be waking up!!"

STOMP!!

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Overload leered over her. "Looks like your little birdy took a fall!"

Starfire's eyes glowed with emerald fire. She grit her teeth. "The only thing worse than harming another person's innocent creatures……is lifting a finger against ONE OF MINE!!!" She soared at Overload. "HAAAAAAAA!!!"

The computer chip's eye widened.

SMACK!!!!!!!

However possible it was to uppercut a body of pure energy…the Tamaranian girl managed to do it. She then flew down with a sailing kick that sent the creature sprawling across the corridor, scraping burn trails of electricity against the metal grating of the floor.

That being done, she lifted a humongous ball of starbolt fury above her head, screamed, and let it loose on Overload's downed figure.

FLASH!!!!!!!

Beast Boy jumped into the side and hid himself in the form of a turtle as electricity, starbolt trails, and burning metal flew everywhere from the impact.

After a beat of silence, the turtle's head peered up and turned into a trembling green elf.

Starfire stood in a gallant pose at the far end of the corridor, her glowing hands stretched to her sides as she panted…panted…panted…and frowned.

Overload had been reduced to about half its normal size. Its computer chip eye dizzily spun around before shaking into a glare.

"You will pay for THAT!" it cackled.

Suddenly, a voice from behind. "Hey, Cyclops!!"

It looked over.

Beast Boy looked over.

Starfire looked over.

Bambi stood on a metal gantry with a huge bucket of water in her grasp. "Go find yourself another power plant!"

Beast Boy's eyes widened. His pupils sparkled in the shape of cartoonish hearts. "Wowwwwww…now that's what I call one fine piece of a—"

SMACK!!!

Overload swept Beast Boy aside as it stood up, growled, and bore down on the plant worker.

"You want some of this too?!"

"Plenty," Bambi frowned and tossed the bucket at them. "BE NICE TO CATS!!"

Overload's chip eye thinned. "Oh dear……"

SPLASH!!!!!

Starfire spoke: "Um……Miss Plant Worker? That offensive act is most ill ad**vi-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ised!!"** Starfire's comment was cut short as the contact of water to Overload sent waves of electricity through her Tamaranian body in mid sentence. The same wave of shocks struck a grounded Beast Boy and an already unconscious Robin. The three Titans fell down for the count. Overload's computer chip smoked by itself and was silent.

"……," Bambi blinked. "Crud."

------

"And when we woke up," Starfire grinned. "I had a splitting headache!"

Robin was silent.

Beast Boy was silent.

Starfire blushed and folded her arms. "Well I did…" she murmured.

"Most…..interesting," Raven commented.

"Very similar to what Beast Boy and I said," Robin nodded. A beat. "But incorrect!"

"But it's true!!" Starfire implored.

"No it's not. I told the truth!" Beast Boy jumped and winked. "And a darn good truth at that!"

"You're all forgetting what really happened…," Robin moaned. "I kicked Overload's butt! Simple as that!"

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"No, nobody did anything! Miss Plant Worker, she—"

"You're all right," Cyborg smiled. "Each and every one of you."

The three Titans looked wide-eyed at the android. "**WHAAAAAAT?!?!?!"**

Cyborg swiveled around in his chair to the computer console. "Wouldn't you know it? We were just reading the police file of the event at the power plant when you three returned home."

"Cyborg read it out to Noir and I," Raven added. "We heard everything we needed to know.

I nodded, smiling.

The three other Titans blinked.

"But…B-But how can we *all* be right?!" Beast Boy stammered.

"Quite simple," Cyborg said. "You all had one thing in common. You were all three knocked out in the end of fighting Overload."

"The paramedics found you unconscious," Raven said. "They gave you checkups to be sure you were okay."

"Yes, we know that part," Robin nodded. "What's your point?"

"It turns out, all three of you suffered a concussion," Cyborg smirked.

"A concussion?" Starfire remarked.

"Earth term. It happens when too much force is applied suddenly to the brain," Cyborg said. "Like a nasty bump or even something as bad as a car crash or fall from a great height."

"Whatever it is that caused you all to receive such head trauma…," Raven explained, "…it affected your brain in such a way to mess with your memories."

"The truth is…," Cyborg gestured, "…none of you truly remembers what happened during Overload's defeat."

"But salvaging bits and pieces of information…," Raven said, "…you each came up with your own logical conclusions in your head."

"It was your brain's way of making sense of what all happened. Even though what all 'happened' remains a mystery."

"As far as you all know, what you remember is what you truly experienced."

"In a way, you are all right in your testimonies."

"Simply due to the fact that…you're all wrong," Raven finished with a smirk.

I clapped. Nobody responded. I cleared my throat and sat silently.

The three Titans blinked at that realization.

"Huh….," Robin remarked.

"Darn," Beast Boy uttered.

"Fascinating…," Starfire stared.

"I guess that's what happened," Robin scratched his neck. "And if so…"

"That means we have nothing to argue about!" Starfire beamed.

"None of us are right or wrong!" Beast Boy grinned.

"Now y'all make up!" Cyborg tossed his arms. "I'm tired of you guys bickering at each other!"

"*Really* tired…," Raven said, finally returning to her book as if none of this happened.

"Hehehehe!" Starfire giggled. "Friends, I am sorry for losing my temper with you so!"

"You, Star?!" Robin remarked. "Pfft. You're hardly ever mean."

"Well, maybe I should apologize to you, Robin," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Yeah, maybe you *should*."

The changeling stuck his tongue out. "Seriously…sorry I put you down for your tale."

"And I'm sorry for making fun of yours," the Boy Wonder patted his shoulder. "Well…I guess we can't tell you three more about what happened…since we have no clue." He shrugged.

"But what happened with you dudes?!" Beast Boy smiled.

"Yes! We were most looking forward to coming home and the inevitable communion with our companions!" Starfire added.

Cyborg scratched his head. He looked at Raven.

Raven looked at him.

"Not much," the android shrugged. "Oh. Noir got shot!"

The three looked at me.

I smiled and waved a bandaged hand.

"GASP!!!" Starfire reacted and blurred to my side. "Atrocity!! Whatever caused this to happen to you, friend?!"

She fingered my wound with gentle, sympathetic hands.

I blushed and gestured with one wrist.

"He says a bullet made love to him," Cyborg leaned back. "HA!"

Robin walked over. "No permanent harm done?"

I shook my head.

"Good," he turned around and walked towards the elevator. "Whatever happened, it had to have been serious. I want a full report. ASAP."

I rolled my eyes and saluted his fading figure.

Beast Boy hopped onto a table. "Did you get to keep the bullet?! Huh?"

I shook my head.

"Rats! That's good luck you're tossing to the wind right there, dude!"

"I am glad to see you're already recovering," Starfire smiled.

I smiled back.

"Hey! I'm starving!" Beast Boy dashed to the kitchen area. "You better not have thrown away all my tofu!"

"No, we ate it allllll down," Cyborg said sarcastically.

"WHAT?! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!"

"That was a joke, greenback."

"It sure as heck better been!"

Starfire shook her head and looked at me. "You are okay, then?"

I nodded for the uptillionth time.

"Glorious," she smiled. "I thank you for being such a good sport and listening to our stories."

I shrugged.

"Remarkably ironic how all three of us had equally conflicting and inaccurate memories of the occasion! I am disappointed, for every fiber of my being says that what I saw and heard was true. But…Raven's and Cyborg's research is quite compelling. I suppose what I remember is all just a fabrication of my fragile, Temaranian mind."

I patted her hand and smiled up at her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downstairs, in Robin's room, the Boy Wonder stripped out of the top of his uniform. He sighed tiredly as he peeled it off and padded towards his shower. Naturally, his eyemask stayed on.

He was about halfway past the bathroom mirror when something caught his eye.

"Huh?"

He brought his left elbow up and examined it in the reflection.

"Strange….where did that burn mark come from?"

After a few minutes of studying it, the boy shrugged.

"Oh well."

And went off to wash the week away.


	28. Obligatory Thunderstorm Episode

**28. Obligatory Thunderstorm Episode**

That next afternoon, during a thunderstorm, the lights in the Tower flickered out.

The first to notice was Starfire. She shot up from the chair in her room with a gasp, completely abandoning her diary. In the pitch blackness, she bit her lip and trembly floated over towards the other side of her room where her Glork plushie was. She hugged the soft replica of her home planet's domesticated pet to her chest and whimpered out into the emptiness:

"Why has all the illumination perished?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg was busy in the laboratory, whistling and carrying a box of samples from one half of the room to the other.

Thunder rolled and the lights went out just as he was about to step over a cable.

Naturally…the cable tripped him.

"WAAAAAAH—" KERPLANK!!! "DAAAAH! JEEZ! What gives?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Surfing the Internet in his room, Beast Boy smirked. He typed joyously away at an IM window, talking aloud as he did so:

"Why, of course, baby! I'd love for the two of us to meet! Should I pick you up in my Ferrari? It'll be six o'clock and I'll be coming back from an important business meeting with my agents and—"

Thunder rolled.

The screen blipped off along with the rest of the Tower's electricity.

"….," Beast Boy blinked. "Awwwww dude!" He slammed his fists down onto the darklit keyboard. "Third time this month!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was busy…hitting things in the gym.

He positioned himself between three padded pillars jutting up from the floor. He punched, sideswiped, and kicked the bodies of each in rapid succession, attempting to simulate a cornered situation.

He was about to perform a roundhouse kick when the lights shut down overhead.

"Whoah!!" he slipped, dove forward, and slammed against one pole and then bounced off the other two like a human pinball. He eventually collapsed onto the smooth gym floor, his eyemask squinting in pain.

"Uggggh…guess I failed that test. What the heck??!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat in front of a window, reading a book.

Thunder rolled and the Tower turned black.

She looked up.

She blinked.

She returned to her book.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was sitting in my cellar room, whistling, polishing Myrkblade.

My eyes were shadeless and bare to the flickering lanterns I used to dimly illuminate the place.

It wasn't until after I placed the weapon back on its hilt, smiled at my handiwork, and turned around that I noticed something odd.

The digital alarm clock in the far corner of the room was off.

I scratched my neck.

I walked over and checked it.

It was plugged in.

I walked into the bathroom and tried turning on the fan.

Nothing.

_Power's out_.

It made sense. I had felt the low rumblings of a storm shake itself down into the very foundation of the Tower. A lightning strike or something must have finally hit its mark.

Which was fine by me. I wasn't in a hurry to…turn on a television or something.

But I thought of the others and realized that something needed to be done. They were probably looking for it on their own…but…

I was bored…and admittedly a bit lonesome.

I extinguished the lantern lights, put on my shades, and casually made my way out and into the body of the cellar.

I walked up a metal set of stairs, into a hallway, and tried the elevator.

It wouldn't respond.

_I swear……_I stood there for a good minute and a half before hitting myself in the head.

_Duh!_

I looked around, found the door to the stairwell, and opened it.

I looked up at the grand height above me.

_This might take a while……_

I began slowly..steadily…walking up the rows of stairs all the way to the top floor where I knew the Main Room was waiting for me.

After a while, the impatience got to me and I thought _'Screw It!'_

I blurred my bare feet and hopscotched my way from wall to wall up the stairwell until I reached the approximate 'top'. When I came to a landing stop, I shuddered at the painful throbbing in my toes and told myself to _never do that again._

Pressing myself onward, I hobbled in through the door and came out into a hallway. A few steps later, I was at the automatic doors into the Main Room. Naturally, they were stuck closed. Rather than force them open, I reached out a hand, seeped murk through the creases in the frames, and poured my power out into the other side.

SWOOOOSH!!

I teleported over and walked the length of the Main Room over towards the computers. It was a dark, blue-gray world outside…intermittently stabbed by bouts of bright white lightning.

All in all, though, it was comfortably…dark.

I smiled, took off my shades, and felt fine with my black eyes in the gothic atmosphere.

In such a spirit I approached one of the computers and pressed a key.

Nothing happened.

I scratched my chin, thinking.

_Not even the reserves are working. This is more than your usual shutdown._

I walked over to a wall panel and opened it. I pulled out a laptop computer from its station. I flipped it open and sat in front of the window. After switching it on, I turned the brightness to its lowest legible frequency and squinted at the boot screen.

Once the system had loaded, I accessed the most recent logs of the main computer. I checked on the power reserves up to the sudden shut down.

After reading the statistics, I exclaimed a silent 'oh'.

_That's right……Cyborg was in the laboratory, working on an experiment with the reserves' reliability._

A pause.

_Maybe it wasn't the lightning strike at all that caused this._

I flipped the laptop closed and stared out at the windows as rain started to streak down heavily.

_Exactly how does someone go about rebooting the reserve power?_

There was a squeaking sound.

I looked over at the floor.

A rat sniffed its way in from under the malfunctioning doors. With a strobe of lightning, I noticed green fur.

One of my eyebrows rose.

Beast Boy morphed into elf form. "Sheesh…thought I'd never get up here—" He took one look at me. "YAAAAH!!"

I fell back in my seat and all but dropped the laptop. I hugged it to my chest and glanced at him cockeyed.

"S-Sorry," Beast Boy hiccuped. "After all these weeks…I-I'm still getting used to your eyes."

I rolled them.

"Must be pretty dark in here, then," Beast Boy said. He bumped his knee into a table and winced. "Y-Yup…pretty dark."

I sniffled forth a giggle.

"So…like….what's going on?" Beast Boy asked, looking around at the dark, storm-lit room. "I haven't crammed for the End Times yet."

I gestured towards the laptop and reopened it.

The changeling looked over my shoulder. "So everything's down. But why?"

I shrugged, then gestured inquisitively out at the wet storm.

"Yeah, I thought of that," Beast Boy nodded. "But the reserves?"

I scratched my head.

So did he.

"Guess we'd better find the others, then," Beast Boy remarked. He pulled out his communicator and flipped it open. But there was no Star Trek sound. His eyes bulged. "The heck?!" He shook it, pressed a button, and called into it. "Hello?! Can anyone hear me?!"

I raised an eyebrow. I reached to my side and whipped out my communicator, similarly tapping its buttons and finding it dead.

"Oh….I get it now," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "The transceiver's down."

I glanced at him wyrd.

"Ya know…the Tranceiver! It runs all throughout the Tower and bounces our communicator's signals back and forth against each other. It's usually always working, except for in the event that both the Tower's power and its reserves are down. And this….er….is that very *first* time. At least on my watch."

I nodded slowly. I stood up and walked over towards the windows. I stared out at the cascading water on the other side of the glass. The dull blue light and its brilliant gasps every now and then stretched before me. Sooner than naught, Beast Boy stood beside me, looking out.

A beat.

"We should….ya know…be looking through the Tower to regroup with the others," Beast Boy said.

I nodded.

A beat.

"Kinda hypnotic….the way it's all raining and stuff outside."

I nodded.

A beat.

The two of us sighed, simultaneously swiveled about, and headed back for the hallway that led to the stairwell.

"Where do you suppose they'd be right now?"

I shrugged and looked at him.

"Don't look at me!" he cackled. "I've been busy the last few hours….er….'socializing'."

I gave him a suspicious glance.

"Seriously!"

I opened the doors to the stairs and was about to head down.

"Uh…aren't we taking the elevator?" Beast Boy asked.

I smirked.

"Oh….duh. God, I'm so modern."

Together, we walked downstairs. I didn't blur this time, though. I didn't want to rush Beast Boy in the descent. Similarly, he didn't morph into a lightweight fowl and cut his time off. It was like we were both in 'casual' mode.

_Rainy days will do that……_

"So…like…I can almost see how you got stuck for a day in the bottom chambers of this place," Beast Boy mused, his voice echoing. "I never stop to think about how large the Tower truly is, ya know?!"

I smiled as we descended.

"So many rooms and doors and bulkheads and stuff," he continued. "Not to mention dark—WHOAH!"

He tripped forward down the stairs.

I gasped, swiveled around, and caught the brunt of his fall.

Bracing myself with murked feet, I managed to let us slide no further than three bumpy steps down.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Eheheheheh," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "How about this floor?"

I nodded.

We stood up straight and went through the first door we could find.

"Yeesh," Beast Boy shivered. "I'm suddenly getting déjà vu. Not the déjà vu that I like!"

I glanced at him funny.

"Our first run-in with Control Freak," he simpered. "The night was followed by all sorts of demons and monsters and stuff chasing us in a darkened Tower."

I blinked my black eyes.

"I'm not making it up!"

I held my hands up and showed a legitimate face of concern.

"Oh, we were all right in the end," Beast Boy giggled.

I was curious.

"Turns out it was Raven's subconscious powers or some crap," Beast Boy said, doing a 'loo-loo' symbol with his finger by his head. "None of the chaos stopped until she realized what she was accidentally doing."

I had a look of shock on my face.

"What! Don't tell me you're actually *surprised* at that tale!"

I nodded. He was right.

"Let's keep going. I'm getting the spooks just talking about it all."

We pressed on. Down a dark hallway. Pass doors.

I felt like a newby again. Everything was much more…real to me with the shades off. As dark as it was, the new habitat of mine looked brighter. Healthier. Livelier. I couldn't recognize the doors anymore. I didn't even know if we were getting close to someone's room or not.

"If I'm not mistaken…," Beast Boy thought aloud, "…just a few steps should be—"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" an unmistakable, Tamaranian shriek caught our ears.

I winced and gripped my head.

Beast Boy cringed, but managed to gasp: "Star!!"

He ran ahead to the doors—to her room, I suppose—and tried to force them open.

There was a second 'EEEEEE!', and suddenly the doors flew wide and a red-headed alien girl flew out and tackled the green Titan.

"WHOAH!! OOFF!" Beast Boy was squashed beneath her.

"Light! Light! Light! Light! Light! Light!" the girl squeezed him to death, her eyes wide shut. "Need a light!!"

"But…I….thought….you….didn't….smoke…..," Beast Boy turned from green to blue.

"No no no no no!!" Starfire held him up. Her eyes were hollow as she lifted Beast Boy up by the shoulders and stared him down. "Need….light!!"

Beast Boy looked desperately at me.

I pointed at him.

"Oh…um….," he turned into a lantern fish and dangled a glowing tentacle before her. He held his 'breath' and waited for….

Starfire sighed. Her eyes thinned. A drunken smile came to her lips. She cradled the glowing tentacle with one hand. "That's better…"

I walked forward, grabbed her wrist gently, and held it up to her eyes.

"Huh?" She looked at it….then blushed like mad. "Oh….right. I forgot." She charged up half a starbolt, and her hands started glowing…adequately illuminating the hallway dimly.

Beast Boy dropped down into elf form, gasped, and shook his head. "What's with you, Star?! I know it's dark, but—"

"Of course it is dark!!" Starfire exclaimed, holding up to glowing hands and practically cradling them to her cheeks. "It is so very dark! I do not like the dark!"

Beast Boy blinked. "You don't?!"

The girl trembled, hugged a glork plushie that was suddenly there, and pointed into the black hole that was her room.

"All the night lights. Not working. My night lights! Not working! None of them!"

Beast Boy doubled over, laughing. "You! Hahahahaha!! You, Starfire?! At your age?! You need nightlights?! Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

Starfire frowned and said: "Lest you forget that I am the one given the weekly task of doing laundry, and whenever I go through your selection I am constantly aghast at your post-adolescent—"

"Okay, Star—"

"—possesion of—"

"That's enough, I get the picture—"

"—a most worn out blan—MMMMPPPHH!!"

Beast Boy covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, okay?"

I glanced at them both. A curious expression lit my face.

The changeling sweatdropped and simpered at me. "Roommate quarrel. No business of the newby's."

I folded my arms and frowned.

Starfire nibbled on Beast Boy's palm.

"YOWCH!!" he jumped back, shaking his hand.

"Ptooie!!" Starfire exclaimed, regained herself, and said with a pouting face. "It was so dark in there for so long. Where is Ro—er, the others?"

"The others _is_ somewhere we don't know!" Beast Boy said, blowing on his palm. "Noir and I are trying to find them."

Starfire lifted a glowing hand towards me and squinted. "Noir….your shades are off!"

I squinted through her blinding greenness and nodded with a grin.

"Ooops! Most sorry!" she brought the glowing wrist down a bit and simpered, hugging the glork to her chest. "The darkening experience has confused me, I must say. I am still getting accustomed to the unpleasant side effects of your earth storms and—"

Thunder shook throughout the Tower.

"EEEEEE!!" she again pounced, landed on Beast Boy, and forced the two to the floor…along with the plushie.

"OOF!!

"UGH!!"

"….," I stared. Rubbed a temple. And gestured down the hallway.

"Yeah….let's…..see what Raven's up to," Beast Boy said.

The two got up, dusting themselves off.

"Just a few levels down…," Beast said. "Assuming she's in her room too."

"Ummm…," Starfire stammered and blushed.

"What?"

"May we….erm….go together?"

"Of course, Starfire!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "What did you think I was suggesting?!"

"Oh, glorious friends! We shall trek downward together!" Starfire said, spinning around with her plushie and smiling her eyes shut. "Surely then, no storm of any caliber could ever harm—"

Thunder again.

Starfire froze. Her teeth chattered.

Beast Boy cleared his throat and led the way. "At least you didn't pounce that time. Come on, let's go."

_I almost wished she had…_

The three of us traveled across the hallway and down a flight of stairs and into a corridor that—annoyingly—seemed darker than the previous.

Starfire couldn't help but tremble. In so doing, her dim starbolt light flickered across the walls.

Beast Boy squinted for a steady bearing. "Starfire…stop shaking so much! It's all right, we're with you!"

"I cannot help it. My muscles will not listen to me."

I looked at her.

She looked back.

"I always had a nightlight back on Tamaran," she simpered. "I suppose I got too used to it while growing up. It is like a second type of oxygen, no?"

I smiled.

"We're here," Beast Boy said. He leaned forward to the door on Raven's room and got ready to knock. A pause. He leaned back.

"????" I looked.

"Um….why don't YOU knock?" he asked.

I bit my lip, shrugged, and stepped forward in the green elf's place. I raised my knuckles to the door…paused…and glanced back at them.

They stood back at a safe distance. Waiting…

_Okay…_

I shook it off and knocked on the door.

…….no response.

"She is…..sleeping?" Starfire inquired.

I turned around and looked curiously at their timid figures.

"Anything to fear worse than a thunderstorm…," Beast Boy said with a scratch of his neck, "…is interrupting Raven on a bad day."

I placed my hands on my hips.

"Believe me," he whimpered. "Believe me whole-heartedly."

_Whatever…_

I slid the door open and walked in.

The others gasped.

I stepped forward and looked around…and around…and around.

Nothing, save for gothic furnishings and a rain drenched-window.

"Well then…," Beast Boy said, peering in from the hallway. "She isn't here. Our lives are spared for another hour…"

"There is…..some light in there," Starfire mumbled, drifting forward like a moth.

"Oh no you don't!" Beast Boy held her at bay. "Come on, Noir! You had her fun! She's obviously not here. Let's keep on looking."

I nodded, turned around, and started to head back.

A strobe of light gushed into the room from the windows as lightning struck.

"EEEK!!" Starfire pounced…and found me this time.

"!!!!"

We both collapsed on the floor outside Raven's room. Stars circling our heads.

Beast Boy chuckled. "Ya know…looking at it from this perspective, that actually *is* kinda funny!"

I stood up and rubbed my head.

Starfire knelt, huggingher glork plushie. "A thousand apologies, Noir. There seems to be no end to my instantaneous phobia."

There was a rustling sound from down the hallway.

Starfire gasped and stood up tall. "What is that?"

More rustling.

Hair stood on the end of my neck. I craned my head to get a look around the corner. But I had no luck from my position.

"Um….I-I-I'll go first," Beast Boy stammered. He crawled forward, Inspector Clusoe style, and approached the corner.

Starfire and I filed behind him…not necessarily in that order.

Rustling.

Beast Boy peered.

Rustling.

Beast Boy looked around.

_Rustling_.

"What….wh-what is that noise?"

"I don't know!" Beast Boy shook his head. "It's not coming from over there!"

My head turned around part way.

Starfire's green eyes blinked wide. "Then it is coming from—"

"---BEHIND US!!"

"EEEK!!"

We spun around.

Raven walked to a stand-still with a book in her grasp. "…..what?"

She flipped a page.

Rustling.

"I was in the middle of reading when it got all dark. I sensed Starfire's light and so I came here. Mind if I stand a little closer? I'm just about at the blood-sucking scene."

"B-By all means," Starfire trembled, holding up a glowing wrist.

"Thank you much…," Raven said, reading by the starbolt.

"H-How can you read vampire novels at a time like this?!?!" Beast Boy cackled.

"How can I not?" Raven replied. "Might I add, you all look worse for wear."

I gulped down the last of the willies and breathed normally.

"And just what's up with you?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Don't tell me you're not freaked out by this storm and the power and all that jazz!"

"Not at all. I rather like it."

I smiled.

Starfire looked at Beast Boy. "She is Raven, after all."

The changeling growled. "Rrrrrrgh!! Freakin'….dark girl person you!!" He shook a fist. "I swear….I'll never understand you!"

Raven droned without looking: "Rest assured…that's the one reason I have for keeping you alive…"

Beast Boy blinked. "Huh?"

Starfire giggled.

"Oh…go hug your Mork plushie."

"Glork!"

"Whatever."

"I assume you're all wanting to regroup with the rest of the team…," Raven muttered, eyeing her book closely.

"That's the general plan," Beast Boy said. "Noir and I started in the Main Room. We've been working our way down."

"And the reason for the blackout….?"

"Not sure. But the reserves are down too."

"That would explain the communicators."

"Yup. Know that already. Can we go now?"

"Cyborg has a light," Starfire said. "Let us go see Cyborg next. Can we go see Cyborg next?"

"ALL RIGHT!!" Beast Boy motioned and stumbled down the hallway. "Geez…remind me to buy you a million nightlights after this is all said and done…"

Starfire gasped. "Do you really mean it?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Heeeeeeeeee!!!"

I shook my head.

Raven flipped a page.

Rustling.

We meandered our way down another stairwell. Thunder coursed through the building's structure every now and then. Starfire trembled against her stuffed animal. Raven's brow furrowed as she tried to concentrate on her mobile reading.

"Starfire…why must you be so skittish? It is only a thunderstorm."

"Storms on my planet are a very different nature," the Tamaranian replied.

"Do tell…."

"For one, they lack the frightening electrical charges between the ground and the sky."

"Dude! No way!" Beast Boy remarked. "Your planet doesn't go through lightning?"

She shook her head. "No…the organic cyclones are enough as it is."

Beast Boy blinked. "Organic….cyclones?"

"Tamaran's atmosphere is populated by microscopic lifeforms called TropoKelp. TropoKelp are lighter than air and float about in a homogenous mixture with the already-present chemicals in the atmosphere. They are so prevalent on my planet, that many species—including sentient Tamaranian bipeds such as myself—base their metabolism on the microbes they inhale when breathing. Someday I may show you a diagram of Tamaranian anatomy. My stomach is closely linked to my lungs."

"Ewwwww," Beast Boy couldn't help but wince.

Raven glared at him. "Oh, like you're so handsome."

"Only cuz I am!" Beast Boy smirked. He led us down more flights of stairs and spoke to Starfire again: "So how do these organic cyclones begin?"

"Well…it's quite simple, really," Starfire trembled as another rumble went through the structure. "A trough of cold air settles closer to the planet's surface while simultaneously a trough of warm air is pushed upwards to great heights and—"

"Sounds like the makings of a tornado…," Raven interrupted.

Starfire gasped. "You have them too?!?!"

"Yup."

The girl's eyes watered. "This planet is so….hazardous…"

"But what makes yours so organic?" Beast Boy asked.

"Well…when the cyclone starts, the TropoKelp are compacted together within the throes of the winds and….naturally…they explode."

"E-Explode?"

"Very tiny explosions, mind you. But it begins a chain reaction, and sooner than not Tamaranian storms have cyclones of fire caused by billions of microbes combusting at once. Safe to say, many a house burns down during the warm seasons."

The changeling blinked. "Yikes…."

"Cool," Raven said.

I tried not to sniff forth a chuckle.

"It is not cool!" Starfire protested. "It is most harrowing and disastorous! Yet, I might add, nowhere near as harrowing as this planet of yours. Ohhhh…if only I could transport myself home over the night and let this storm pass on by."

"It's just a common thunderstorm," Raven mumbled, flipping a page. "Deal with it."

"'Dealing with it' is the foremost desire of my will this moment…," Starfire said. "As soon as we find Cyborg---and his light---I am certain that things will be well on their way to fruition."

Just then, a huge warble of thunder shook down the tower.

"EEEK!!" Starfire shrieked and---

"Not again," Beast Boy whimpered.

I flinched.

WHUMP!!!

Raven lifted an eyebrow, "Again?"

I gestured for her to not ask.

The two titans disentangled themselves.

"A th-thousand apologies," Starfire blushed.

Beast Boy brushed himself off. "Make that two thousand."

"This is the floor," Raven said, closing her book and stepping up to a door. "I suggest we go in…now."

Beast Boy and I opened the doors, letting the girls walk through. We followed up behind in what had to have been the darkest hallway yet. Even Raven's floor—gothic to the max—had windows in it.

"Why's Cyborg's spot such a……black hole?"

"It wasn't made for crew quarters," Raven said. "It's foremost a place for laboratories and system diagnostics."

"A science wing!"

"Exactly. It's just that…well…Cyborg's Cyborg. Sleeping in a bed isn't his idea of comfort. He needs a computer station to temporarily shut himself down at."

"I don't think he's in his….er….'room' at the moment," Beast Boy said. Noir and I checked the logs. He had to have been in one of the computer rooms, performing a test on the power reserves."

"Why would be engrossed in doing such a thing during a thunderstorm??" Starfire asked.

Beast Boy shrugged. "Beats me. Waiting till the last minute, I guess." He lifted an eyebrow and looked behind him as he realized Starfire was walking less than an inch away. "What're you doing?"

"There's safety in numbers."

"Go crowd out your Fork!"

"Glork!"

"Whatever."

Raven sighed and whipped out her book again in mid-walk.

I walked ahead of the group and to the computer room doors first.

"Impatient, much, Noir?" Beast Boy smirked.

I stuck my tongue out at him and gestured for help with the door.

"Gladly. Star…give us light."

"Allright," the Tamaranian held a hand out, casting a dim green glow on the door.

Beast Boy and I gripped two sides of the automatic panels and struggled with all our might.

"It's…..not….budging….," Beast Boy gritted his teeth.

I sweat, my face straining.

Eventually, the two of us stopped and relaxed to breathe.

"The door is being stubborn?" Starfire inquired.

"It's addicted to electricity and is going through withdrawal, " Beast Boy panted. "I have an idea. Noir, stand back."

I did so.

Beast Boy turned into a velociraptor. Muscles rippling, the green dinosaur stuck his claws in between the panels and struggled—snorting and hissing—to open them.

No luck.

Starfire blinked. "Maybe if you try—"

"GOT IT!" Beast Boy jumped back, turned into a rhino, and charged at full force.

I flinched.

WHAM!!!!

The changeling's horn dented and stars formed in his eyes. He teetered and fell hard to the ground before turning back into an elf in a fetal position.

"Owwwwwwie…."

Starfire knelt by his side. "I was going to suggest a tapeworm to go between the panels."

"Stick to vertebrates," he mumbled.

I walked towards the door and scratched my chin, trying to think up a solution.

"How shall we go about this task, then?" Starfire asked.

Without lifting her nose form her book, Raven extended a hand and turned the door panels into solid black. Under Starfire's light, the two slid open easily.

"…….," I looked at Raven.

Raven spoke: "I am reading. I do not like being interrupted, so do not let it happen again."

I sighed and walked forward.

"Noir! Wait for us!"

"Take as much time as you want…," Beast Boy wheezed.

I sneaked into the room and glanced around. Starfire entered behind me, a glowing hand held up. From her guidance, a halo of dim green danced across the walls just in time for my black eyes to scan.

"He is nowhere to be seen…," Starfire said. The Tower rumbled again and she winced.

I walked forward a bit. My foot bumped into something. I glanced down, and did a double take.

I tapped Starfire's shoulder.

"Huh?"

I pointed downward.

She cast her light to the floor and gasped. "Cyborg!"

The android was stretched out on the floor, in a rigidly frozen position. There was no sense of life emanating from him. I was startled even to see the usual electric blue of his titanium replaced by solid black.

I knelt down and felt for a pulse. Then I thought to myself: _'Does Cyborg even have a pulse?'_

"What the heck?" Beast Boy rubbed his head, walking in. "Awwww man!" he exclaimed. "He ran out of power again!"

I gave the other Titans a horrified look.

"Hehehe….first time you ever witness it, Newby?" Beast Boy smirked.

"He is merely unable to function at the moment," Starfire said, kneeling down and knocking a hand against his head. CLANG CLANG. "Ohhh…I most sympathize with you, Cyborg. Even if your heart is pure alkaline."

"I gestured emphatically to the bunch."

"He needs a reboot is all," Beast Boy said. "Sooner than later, of course. But…ya know…" He gestured to the dark interior surrounding us. "Kinda difficult at the moment."

I looked down and thought.

"We need him…," Raven said from out in the hallway with her book. "He was last working on the power reserves, right? Only he knows what happened."

"But what can we do?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "All the power cells in the place are down thanks to the storm!"

"Or whatever caused it…," Raven added.

"Don't complicate things!!"

"I'm not….now stop yelling."

Starfire stepped in, smiling. "Perhaps if we locate Robin, we can all put together our collective minds and think of something to—"

"Robin's last on the list," Beast Boy interrupted. "We've got to get Cyborg to a power source. And I think I know just the thing."

"Do we just leave him here?" Starfire pouted. "That is most rude!"

I lifted a finger.

Everyone looked at me.

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Some….idea…..Noir…!!" Beast Boy grunted.

I similarly struggled and sweat on my end of Cyborg.

Together, the changeling and I hoisted Cyborg's unconscious, stiff body down the steps….one at a time…at a time…at a time…at a time.

Every now and then, our strength would slip and one of Cyborg's feet would fall down hard onto a step. CLANG!!

"Watch it…," Raven said, slowly trailing us and reading her book. "That's fragile cargo you've got."

"I wonder who's more fragile…," Beast Boy wheezed. "His titanium butt or my aching wrists!"

I strained and focused my strength on carefully, steadily carrying my half of him down.

Starfire floated over us, her glowing hands providing light. "Do not fret, my friends!" She smiled. "You have only twelve more flights to go!"

"Ugggggggh," Beast Boy grumbled. "I'm gonna feel THIS in the morning. That's for sure."

"To alleviate the stress of your toil…," Starfire grinned. "I shall sing a traditional Tamaranian labor song. Its cadence is most complementary to such a task at hand as you two are undertaking."

I simpered.

"Thanks, Starfire..," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "But it's quite okay—"

_"Gluuuuuuuuuuuraaaaaaaaaaaaaw-ka-jork-aaaaaaaaa!!!"_

"Uh….Star?"

"_Turu-Turu-sork-jaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"_

"I think we've got it—"

_"Aye-sarj-yo-kohhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"_

"We've got it—!!!"

"_NeeeOOOeeeOOOeeeOO!"_

"WE'VE GOT IT!!"

"_Lululululululululu!!!"_

"WILL YOU PLEASE—" Beast Boy spun around…and suddenly realized he wasn't holding his half of Cyborg anymore. "…..we don't got it!!"

"!!!!!!!!!!!" My body convulsed as an uncontrollable, weighted Cyborg rolled over. I winced from the impact, pressed against the stairs. And then was shocked to feel nothing. The th-thumping and cl-clanking in the distance announced the unimaginable. Cyborg was tumbling like a barrel down the steps!

"Better catch him….," Raven suggested.

"AW CRAP!!!!" Beast Boy jumped over the railing and turned into a diving pterodactyl.

I got to my feet, charged up murk, and blurred down the walls.

Together, the changeling and I outran the fumbling android. Around the third floor platform, we both came to a stop. That is to say, I was first. I planted myself on the ground and stretched out my hands. A shadow in dim green light formed over me. I looked up and let out a silent scream. Jumping out of the way at the last second, I barely avoided Beast Boy in elephant form. He spun around and presented his huge, mammalian butt as a cushion to deflect Cyborg's tumble.

WHAM!!

A trunk-ful of face was sent into me.

WHUMP!!

I tumbled backwards, rolled on the ground, and ended with my back propped up against the wall.

………ow.

Beast Boy dizzily turned back into elf form and looked Cyborg over. "You okay, Cy? Hmm…no cracks. No broken arms. You are truly made out of the main stuff, dude!" He patted the unconscious android's shoulder.

His red eye fell out.

"Er……," Beast Boy looked at me.

I got up.

Beast Boy swiveled around, stuck the red eye back in, and gulped forth a smile and a scratch of the neck. "That…..didn't just happen."

Starfire floated down to a landing. "Friends! Is he okay?"

"A sight for sore eyes," Beast Boy said…..then winced at his own words.

"Poor Cyborg," the Tamaranian cooed. "It must be so uncomfortable to be knocked around so while sleeping." With that said, she gracefully leaned over, grabbed his shoulders, and lifted him effortlessly to his feet. "There! Now you are standing! Hehehe!"

Beast Boy did a double take. "Wait! How did you----?!"

"How did I what?"

I smirked.

"Being Tamaranian, my strength is greatly amplified in comparison towards yours."

"Oh yeah….r-right," Beast Boy simpered, blushing. "But wait!" He pointed. "All this time you could have been 'carrying' Cyborg down!"

"Yes."

"And not losing a sweat!"

"Yes. Yes."

"How come you didn't suggest it?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble!"

Starfire timidly looked aside. "Well..after Noir suggested taking Cyborg to the garage, I was more than willing to assist. But once I saw you two busily employed in the task of transporting him, I was reminded of you Titan males and your inclination of doing things on your own. I believe it is what earthlings call 'nacho'."

_Nacho………_

Beast Boy mouthed it. He looked at me.

I shook my head and mouthed it correctly.

_"Macho?"_ Beast Boy read. His eyes widened and his brow furrowed and he glanced at Starfire. "You think we were trying to be macho?!?!"

There was a surprising chuckle from above and behind us.

The three of us turned to see Raven descending, covering her mouth.

"Don't mind me," she said with momentarily warm eyes. "I sure as heck am not minding you."

"You're on Starfire's side for once………," Beast Boy stammered. He jumped, "And I hate it!"

"We're almost at the garage," Raven said. "Why not complete this chapter in the journey?"

"Splendid!" Starfire grinned, hugging her stuffed glork.

Thunder shook the Tower.

Cyborg's red eye fell out again.

Beast Boy gasped and hackey-sacked it back into place before anyone could take notice.

"Going! G-Going now!" Beast Boy stuttered.

"Allow me…," Starfire volunteered.

"By all means," Beast Boy smiled. "Take responsibility."

Starfire had a proud smile on her face as she lifted him and floated his body down the stairwell.

I followed behind…rubbing my aching back.

Raven returned to her mobile book.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg?"

"Wake up, Cy!"

"It is time for you to awaken! Your powers have been returned to you!"

Cyborg blinked. "Ughhh," he sat up slowly on the garage floor and rubbed his titanium skull. "Am I….dead?"

"Hardly," Starfire smiled as we all huddled above our metal companion. "You are as alive as ever!"

"Then how come it's so dark still?"

"We were hoping you could tell us," Raven said from behind her book.

"Last thing I remember…," Cyborg spoke. "I was moving stuff around in the laboratory. I had some computer chips to replace the system in charge of regulating the power reserves. There was a loud crash throughout the room…..like…..thunder…."

"It could be the storm presently above us!" Starfire remarked. "A storm which is most unpleasant, I might add."

Cyborg glanced at me…Beast Boy…Raven. "Quite a party we've got going here," he said. "What's the occasion?"

"The power's out in the whole Tower," Beast Boy said. His glanced turned suspicious. "And the reserves weren't around to provide backup!"

"Hey, don't look at me!" Cyborg retorted. "I had no idea a lightning strike would happen when it did! Besides, I could easily have prevented it had I not gone under!"

"Cyborg…your power was completely drained," Beast Boy said. "There wasn't much you could do."

"What could have caused it??" Cyborg thought aloud. "I was at full power! It's possible that in the middle of—ah ha!"

"What is it?" Starfire asked.

"Of course!" Cyborg stood up and waved with his hands. "The lightning sent a surge through our system. The console containing the power reserve regulators must have short circuited and sparked outward…and I was probably caught in the cross fire!"

"So….like a seizure or something?" Beast Boy suggested with a scratch of his head.

"I guess you could say that," Cyborg nodded. "My system was confused as to what happened to me, and started leaking juice until I was all dry. Good thing y'all helped."

"It was the least we could do!" Starfire beamed.

"Now exactly how did you guys do it--," Cyborg turned around. His natural eye bulged. "WAAAAH!! My baby!!"

The waking android noticed for the first time that he was wired directly to the battery of the T-Car.

"You sapped the juice out of my baby!!" he cackled. "Why in the world would you do that?!?!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy frowned. "We just risked our overall good health to get you down here and plug you in so that you could mouth off at us!"

"Well I wished you hadn't! I actually have to go to town and BUY those batteries! On my allowance, it ain't cheap!"

"Oh yeah?! Well maybe you should keep some batteries in your lab if you're so gosh darn fragile—"

"I DO!!" Cyborg shrieked. "But naturally you're too lazy and thick headed to look for yourse—"

His red eye fell out.

What was left of Cyborg's optics widened.

Beast Boy sweatdropped, blushed, and chuckled. "Eheheheheheh….ahem. Lemme get that for you." He bent over, picked up the red lens, and popped it back into place.

"……," Cyborg stared. "We'll talk about this….later…"

I smiled tentatively.

"What is our next course of action, Cyborg?" Starfire inquired.

"Why you asking me?"

"A great deal of us want the lights back on…," Raven droned. "Though don't look at me."

"One of us needs to go down into the cellar and reboot the reserves manually. What…have any of you been wasting your time going up to the top floor or something?"

I smacked a hand over my forehead.

Cyborg smirked. "Nuts to you, Noir."

I gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Beast Boy shrugged. "Let's go switch them on—"

"They're in the darkest spot in the Tower," Cyborg said. "None of us has been there in ages. And last time I checked, the spider population was quite high."

Thunder rolled.

Everyone was silent.

Starfire gulped.

"Fascinating…," Raven said, her eyes completely off the pages of her book by now.

"What of Robin?" Starfire stammered, faithfully changing the subject. "We have not heard from him and I am most worried."

There was a sudden, rhythmic, knocking sound. The five of us looked around. The knocking continued. It echoed this time. We all looked towards the garage door.

Cyborg raised a hand and twitched a thumb.

An electronic signal was sent from his metallic insides, signaling the door to open.

Moist, cool air rushed in from the terrific downpour directly outside.

Standing with his back against us—a perfect silhouette against the backdrop of streaking gray and blue rain—was Robin. His arms were folded and his posture was casual. Judging by the drops of rain hanging off a bang or two of his black hair, he must have been out there for a while. He turned slowly, looked at us, and smiled.

"I heard everything," he said. "It's about time you all showed up. I've been standing out here….enjoying the view."

Slowly, the five of us walked over to join him. Starfire too…though she was slightly pensive of approaching the natural storm of her fears.

We stood alongside Robin, facing the curtain of rain that fell a mere few feet in front of us. The Bay stretched out beyond, with the suspension bridge cutting into the fogged skyline of the city amidst the falling moisture.

After a moment of silence, Beast Boy naturally said something unnatural: "It's…..kinda………_pretty_."

"Mmmmhmmm," Robin nodded with a smile.

"I had no idea…," Starfire said. Thunder rolled, and she didn't move an inch.

"I was gonna rush to meet with the rest of you guys…," Robin said. "But as soon as I exited the gym, I heard the rain…and I couldn't help myself. It's been a while since we had a good storm. Don't you think?"

"I….I-I guess," Starfire replied, hugging her glork doll less depedently.

"Doesn't bother me a bit," Raven said.

Silence.

Interestingly, the Boy Wonder went on. "Some nights in Gotham City were like this."

We all looked at him.

"For once…the ever nightmarish red sky would fade to gray. And then the rain would come down like a stage curtain. It was the intermission of crimefighting; a reminder that—no matter how stressed or pushed to the limit I could be—there was a Nature somewhere more powerful than any evil. And that Nature served as an absolute. A shining light—or a black hole on the horizon. Which ever it was…it made me want to keep on fighting. I owed much of my apprentice days to such breaks in action…"

I marveled. It was a rare thing for Robin ever to talk about his past. Judging from the expressions and looks of those around me, it seemed likely that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

Robin was such a hardened, task-oriented individual that…sometimes I wondered if he ever truly had a soul. I only had to teach myself that—like everyone—he had many faces. Many masks. Many layers of which to peel and see what lies beneath.

Perhaps we were all seeing the first of this 'peeling'. And though it was only an instant…it was an instant we would all remember. Subconsciously. Like a precedent to grow on…and something to emulate.

Our leader was a rounded leader after all. He could frown all day and yet afford to smile at a thunderstorm.

It was one of those moments in time when time had no moments.

"I guess we should….ya know…..reboot the power and stuff…," Raven said.

"Yeah…..," Beast Boy trailed.

A beat.

"Maybe later…."

And the rain kept pouring.


	29. Stone Golem part 1

**29. Stone Golem part 1**

"Tell us when we're closing in, Cyborg," Raven spoke into a receiver.

On the other end, Cyborg used his own, patented communicator to talk back. He guided us directly through Raven.

"_Go a few more meters straight ahead of you,_" his voice said. _"Take a left at a small set of stairs and you'll see a lower platform stretching down through the length of the corridor."_"Noir, did you hear that?"

I nodded without looking back at her. I took point through the generator area of the Tower's cellar and scanned the left side of the walkway. After a few seconds, I came upon the stairs. I looked towards Raven's flashlight, squinted my black eyes, and motioned down.

"We're descending," Raven said.

The two of us headed for the lower end of the corridor.

After a rather restful afternoon of rain, the sun went down and the interior of the Tower was bound to become doubly dark. So it became pertinent to reboot the reserves and then the main source of power as soon as possible, or else we would have a couple of restless teens and a bouncingly frightened Tamaranian to deal with.

Cyborg was the first to volunteer for the trip, but his power cells were so low that Robin ordered him to stay put. I and Raven offered to go in his place. Me, because I like pitch black. Raven, because…I suppose she likes spiders.

I jumped down onto the platform, looked both ways, and then squinted back at Raven. I could see quite nicely in spite of all the darkness. It was only for Raven's sake that we had the flashlight. I tried not to look in her way too much. Oh well.

"Do we go straight ahead, Cyborg?"

_"What's in front of you?"_

"Ummm," Raven squinted.

I looked ahead of us. I faced her again.

She looked at me, helpless.

I motioned for our end of the communicator.

"Cyborg, is Robin with you?"

"_Right here…," _the Boy Wonder's voice said.

"I'm gonna hand this thing over to Noir."

"_Understood._"

I got it and immediately started punching in a morse code.

Over time, Robin responded. "_Okay….underneath the bulkhead on the left, there should be a door."_

"_Open it, and inside you should see a small compartment for the reserve switches,"_ Cyborg said.

"Do we need a password?" Raven asked, walking ahead.

I inputted her inquiry.

"_I'll supply you with it when you're at the door,"_ Cyborg said. "_Take it slow……_"

"Believe me, I am," Raven droned. "I rather like it down here.

I smirked. I didn't input that comment.

I walked to Raven's side and motioned to where the bulkhead was. She nodded a 'thank you' and we both walked over to a door with a huge number pad beside it.

"Here we are…," Raven droned.

I handed the communicator back to her.

"Cyborg?"

_"Yo."_"Ready when you are."

"…………_for what?_"

"The code, you ignoramus."

_"Oh y-yeah…sorry. Beast Boy just turned into an aardvark and was fighting Starfire for her glork plushie."_

"……………."

"…._and um………….heh….it was pretty funny lookin—"_

"Just give us the damn code."

"_Ahem. Here goes. You ready?"_

"Yesssss."

_"Two…Nine…Two…Five…Zero…Zero…"_

Raven repeated the numbers out loud and entered them into the pad.

"_Then simply press enter."_

"Gee…this is complex," she sarcastically muttered before following through.

There was a beeping sound, then a hiss.

The door was heavy and only parted with a tiny gap.

I reached in, gritted my teeth, and opened it.

Raven stepped inside the room with her flashlight. She blinked. "Well, hello there."

"????" I followed in after her and ran nose-first into a dangling spider from the doorframe. Naturally, I jumped back, then breathed easier as the tiny invertebrate ascended out of 'harm's way'. I wasn't the arachnophobic type. But I still didn't appreciate flailing tiny limbs in my face.

"Boy, these are a lot of switches….," Raven mumbled to herself.

I walked over and scanned the area with my nocturnal eyes. Amongst a scattering population of spiders there were eight distinct levels. Each numbered from zero to seven.

"What now, Cyborg?" Raven asked into the communicator.

"_There should be a bunch of levers, all numbered."_

"Yup."

_"Do you also see a button? Large and green?_"

"Ummmmm," Raven squinted.

"_It should be under the big white letters 'transfer'…as in to 'transfer' the reserve energy to the main core."_

I pointed for her.

"We found it," she said.

"Good. Here's what you should do," Cyborg dictated. "Numbers Two and Six are the ones you need to pull. It's best that these levers be pulled down at the same time…and then retracted at the same time. After that, the reserve generators should rev up. A light overhead will go off, so don't get frightened."

"And then what?"

_"Press the transfer button. That'll bridge the gap between the reserve and the main power. The system cycles itself automatically, so this place should be up and running again in no time."_

"Can we do this now, or must we wait for something?"

_"Well, Starfire's considering calling an exterminator for the spider friends you have down there. But I think it's a tad bit too late for that."_"Indeed," Raven said. "Noir and I will pull the switches, then."

_"Contact me when you're done. Although, I think we'll all know whether or not you were successful before you have to tell me."_"Understood. Over and out."

She holstered the communicator and looked at me. "Are you ready, Noir? You pull number Two. I have Six."

I nodded.

We gripped our levers at the same time.

"On the count of three….," she said.

I nodded.

"One….two…..three…."

We both pulled…slightly surprised at how tough the things were to move. It was a bit of a strain, but eventually we pulled the levers down, took a breath, and retracted them at the same time.

CHTUNG!!!

The spiders scurried everywhere as the room shook to life. There was a tiny glow from between the cracks of the levers' holders. A dim light above us flickered into view.

"Well, that was easy," Raven said. "Now for the next part."

She looked at me.

I looked at her.

We both looked at the button.

Perhaps both of us thought the other one wasn't going to hit 'Transfer'. But as fate would have it, we rushed our limbs forward and jammed the button at the same time. The result was the skin of our fingers making contact. We both jolted back, a bit reddened. But then the whole Tower was humming to life. The task was done. The button was pressed.

"Ahem….," Raven returned to the communicator as if nothing happened. "You people noticing anything?"

There was an unmistakable, Tamaranian cheer uttering from Cyborg's end of the communicator.

Then he responded:

_"Boo-ya! Back to normal! Well done, ya'll. You can head up now."_

"Good," Raven said, collapsing the communicator. "Enough of this nonsense. I….have a book to read."

I smirked and looked at her. The room was still bathed in darkness, save for the dangling light above our heads. My eyes had been peering comfortably through blackness over the last few hours. Everything felt natural and warm and inviting. In such a 'light', I noticed Raven for the first true time that evening. In the darkness, she wasn't so petite anymore. She seemed giant, graceful and…..had a lot more curves than I ever noticed before.

There was a twinkling sound.

I snapped out of it and looked directly upwards.

Beyond the dangling bulb were two fluorescent lamps.

The Tower hummed into well-being.

My heart skipped a beat.

_Two fluorescent lamps?!?!_

The twinkling stopped and---

_I didn't have my shades on!!_

---the lamps turned on.

FLASH!!!!!!

I gripped my face and fell back.

CLANG!!!

My back squished a few spiders as I slammed into the wall, had the breath knocked out of me, and collapsed wheezing—and blinded—to the floor.

"Noir?!?!" Raven's voice said above me. After a beat. "Oh yeah, I forgot. Geez…that's gotta suck."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I heard the doors to the elevator open.

I leaned on Raven's shoulder as she helped me—hobbling—into the Main Room. My free hand was tightly covering my dizzied eyes.

"Here you go….sit on the couch," she said.

I shuffled over, found a cushion, and sat on it…covering my eyes with both hands.

"You should have been prepared for that," she scolded in a bland voice. "Oh well. I suppose we all forget things every now and then. Wait here. I'll be back with your shades."

I heard her feet softly pad away with a ruffle of a cape.

I sighed into the blackness.

Silence.

"….."

More silence.

"…..?"

_Isn't Beast Boy usually in heer---?_"HI THERE, NOIR!!!!!"

I almost had a heart attack and fell back into my sofa, wincing.

"Ha ha ha ha!! Couldn't resist, man! You were soooooo asking for it!"

I stood back up and gritted my teeth beneath my hands. _Where……is………MYRKBLADE?!_

"Ha ha ha ha! I used to be the expert at scaring people! Ha ha! Boogalooga!! Er, I mean….Ooga Booga! Ha ha ha ha!"

I groaned.

"Hey, brighten up, man! Thanks to you and Raven, the power's back on. Just in time for American Idol!"

And then….a phone rang.

"…..aww shucks," Beast Boy's footsteps stomped over towards the other side of the room—far from me. "We barely ever use this thing and just NOW someone calls!"

He griped, picked up the phone, and said in a suddenly pleasant voice: "Saving the City one day at the time! Thanks for calling the Teen Titans' Tower! This is Beast Boy, how can I be of service?"

A pause.

"Mr. Who?"

Another pause.

"Stone?"

Another.

"Sorry, never heard of him."

Another….

"Oh, you mean CYBORG!! Ohhhh….well, yeah. He kinda sorta….lives here."

I faced over in his direction, curious.

"Ah, well, of course! I'll fetch him post-haste!"

I cocked my head to the side.

The doors opened behind me.

At first, I thought 'Raven', but then Beast Boy said:

"Well, speak of the devil! Here he is! HEY CY! Come over here!"

"What is it, BB?"

"Phone."

"…..we have a phone?"

"You have an Uncle?"

"Uncle Simon?! Hang on!!"

There was a scuffling sound…which I interpreted Cyborg fighting the phone out of Beast Boy's grasp.

"Hey there, old man!! Ha HA! Great to be talking to you! What's up??"

….

"Why….kicking butt as I always am! How about you? Still in Metropolis?"

….

"No kidding…?"

….

"Hey, that would be so cool! I've been dying to talk to you in person again!"

….

"Oh, everyone here would love to meet you."

….

"Robin? Pfft….he may be my superior in the battlefield. But he can't say 'no' to a family reunion!"

….

"Excellent! I'll see you---when?"

….

"Tomorrow at noon? Kick ass! I can't wait!"

…

"All right."

…

"Heheheh…you too."

…

"Bye!"

-CLICK-

"Woohoo! Good times!!"

Beast Boy's presence returned: "Someone important?"

"Don't you believe in family relations?"

"Well, I—"

"Hey everybody! My Uncle Simon's coming to visit the Tower tomorrow!"

There was a response from----_Starfire? How long had she been in there?_

"Glorious! I am most enamored with the prospect of meeting someone with whom you share common blood!"

"The man's so cool!" Cyborg cackled. "He's an expert in cybernetic engineering, just like my dad! He's taught at three universities. And he's an on and off member of STAR Labs in Metropolis! Man oh man, I can't wait to see what gizmos he's been thinking up for the betterment of mankind."

"Sounds like he's your Uncle," Beast Boy's voice said, humored.

There was a Starfire giggle.

"Hey guys, I'm not biased!" Cyborg retorted. "Uncle Simon's one in a million. Just you wait and see. Where's Robin? I'm gonna tell him the good news…"

The sound of the elevator doors reopening lit my ears.

"Good news?" Raven remarked. "This must be something we'll all dread in the long run."

"Aren't you happy, Ray?! My Uncle Simon's coming to visit!"

"Positively jubilant…."

"Rrrrghh….I'll deal with you later. I'm in too good of a mood right now. Woo!"

And his presence left, and Raven's presence came.

"Here you go," she said. Such was soon followed by the gentle placement of my shades over my eyes. I blinked—and hesitantly opened my black peepers. Things were still a little hazy, but I could comfortably see Raven standing before me.

And she was….smirking.

"You should be good as new in no time," she said. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a matter of minutes before your sight 'returns'."

I blinked from under the shades. I pointed at my eyes and nodded.

"……..you mean….you can see me now?"

I nodded again.

And her smirk left.

"Okay…," she said, deadpan. "Glad to hear it," and she walked off in a hurry.

I looked after her, scratched my head, and decided to give up on it.

"Hey, Noir! How's it going, dude!" Beast Boy walked up with a high-five.

I returned the favor, took a good look at him, and did a double-take.

He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. "What?"

I shrugged and mouthed 'nothing'. Soon I got up and walked over to the windows. Nighttime had fallen outside. The storm was gone, and a calm ensued across the faraway City and wilderness.

"This should be an interesting experience for you, newby," Beast Boy said. "You get to meet someone else in the family!"

"Why do you insist on calling him 'newby' still?" Starfire inquired.

"Cuz, quite literally, he is one!" Beast Boy chuckled. "I mean, HELLO! Only—how long—a month and a half now?"

Starfire's green eyes blinked. "But…I had been with the team that long once and you did not call me newby."

"Well…."

"In fact, I do not recall you ever gracing me with the term newb—"

"You're different, Star!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "You don't ask for it like he does!"

I turned around and glanced at him funny.

"How does he 'deserve it' more than I?"

Beast Boy looked at her. He eventually blurted, "Testosterone."

I smirked and looked back out the windows.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…he's an expert with technology, then…."

"Duh. Robin, he worked with my father. My father helped build the Tower, remember? Having my Uncle here will be a good thing. He can help us fix the bugs in the computer set off by the lightning strike!"

As I heard the voices, I walked to a stop in the hallway just outside one of the laboratories. I listened in.

"That's quite true. I've been looking over the information left in the computer files myself. Whatever the thunderstorm did to the power grid…it really messed it all up bad. I can't make heads or tails out of these databanks."

"Does it look serious?"

"Have a look yourself."

Pause.

"Hmmm….strange…," Cyborg uttered.

"Isn't it? I almost wish Batman was here. He's worked with computers much longer than I have. I tell you what, when you run a Batcave, you have to have good maintenance—"

"I'll see what my Uncle can do," Cyborg said. "Either way, I'll take a look into it myself. But, quite frankly, I'm both happy and tired at the moment. I think I'm gonna go in standby mode."

"Yeah, I think I will too in a few minutes," Robin's voice replied. A beat. "In my bed, that is."

"Heheheh….good night, Robin."

"Cyborg, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Is everything……..okay, between you and your Uncle Simon?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well…..it has been quite a long time since the two of you last talked and—"

"Look, Robin. I've had my hard luck. We've all had our own share of hard luck. But believe me…Uncle Simon's immune from it all. I've just been too busy kicking criminals' butts with y'all to keep in touch with him like I should! I only have myself to blame!"

"What I'm saying is, don't feel obligated to let him come over, Cyborg," Robin added. "We all know how sensitive you can be whenever issues come up concerning—"

"I've got it under control!" Cyborg retorted, more or less fitting the bill.

Robin replied in a soft voice. "Okay. I trust you, Cyborg. Sleep well."

"Yeah….like a rock."

He stepped out, and all but bumped into me.

I stared at him.

He stared back.

Deadpan.

_Did I mention he and I are almost at eye level?_

Finally, Cyborg smiled. "Hey, man. How're you doing?"

He patted my shoulder.

I smiled. I gestured something.

"You bet I'm happy!" Cyborg stretched and yawned. "Haven't seen Old Simon in years. I respect him so much. It's a pity we have to wait so long between visits."

Silence.

Then…

"Robin's right," Cyborg sighed and stared at the floor. "I do get sensitive about my family." He glanced up at me. "You were listening in, of course, right?"

I scratched my neck.

"Let's just say….Simon was there for me when my dad…..well….Simon was there for me," Cyborg said, his eyes vacant. "He made sure I was operating at one hundred percent functionality. Looked after my health. My recovery. My post prostheses exercising. Everything."

A pause.

"He's almost becoming….a new 'dad' to me."

I tilted my head to the side, looking at him.

Cyborg glanced at me. He smiled. "I'd love to introduce y'all to each other. He'd get a real kick out of you!" Cyborg 'punched' my shoulder. "Simon's worked with deaf and mute kids during his career. He taught me all I know about sign language. Lucky you."

I sniffed forth a chuckle and signed back: '_Lucky me_'.

"Well, I'm off to crash for the night," he smiled, walked off, and waved. "Good night, Noir."

_'So long……_'

------

The metal door creaked open and sunlight stabbed me through my shades.

_  
__I squinted and stepped up onto the rooftop of the Tower. In the sunset, the huge Bay glittered with light and the distant city stretching beyond faded into golden shadows._

_The wind was strong up there. It kicked at my long black hair and chilled my exposed limbs._

I stood there for a while with Myrkblade sheathed behind me. When I was satisfied with the whole Picture, I felt comfortable enough to make my exit.

I walked over to the very edge and prepared to blur away.

"There you are," said one of the Titans from behind me.

I turned around. It was the half human/half robot one. The tallest and most mature looking of the group. He stood outside another doorway, his arms by his side.

A slight smile came to his lips. "Leaving so soon?"

I merely nodded.

"Well, naturally you expect me to ask why you're deciding to," the android stated. "All we Titans have done was give you a good place to recover from your injuries, food and water, and the greatest invitation that could possibly be given to a superhero."

'Superhero…………'

_I sniffed forth a chuckle._

"Something funny?" he slowly walked towards me. "Up till now, you seemed no more than some dark loner. Why this sudden soft side of yours?"

I gave him a wyrd look and waved a hand at him. I turned to leave again—but froze when I noticed something through the corner of my shades.

He was signing something.

'_You know that we can help you.'_

I looked at him, my mouth agape.

The android smirked. He gestured again, 'Got your eye now.'

I hesitantly signed back: 'What do you want?'

'_I want a safe world. I want happy people.'_

'_What does that have to do with me?'_

'_You are like us. Not only can you help people, you want to.'_

'I do not know what I want.'

Cyborg spoke aloud, "Then stay here with us. Become a Titan. Let us help you find what you want."

_I looked down at the rooftop floor. After a while, I sighed._

"You go back out there into that world…," Cyborg said, '…all you find is an endless chase. You can play the 'lone ranger' bit all you want. Lord knows, it's fun. I tried it myself once, and it kept me going as long as I chose it to. But what you're gonna find out is exactly what I found out. And that is that a person needs 'family', no matter what. Human beings aren't built to be their own flesh and blood alone." He flexed a titanium muscle as he added, "Rather, a human being is a sum of many elements. Many of which is foreign to his own concept of himself. You gotta learn to trust pieces of you in the hearts and hands of others. It's the only way to keep from going crazy…and from chasing your own tail around for eternity. You got that?"

I looked up at him, helpless.

He stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder: "Look, I know it feels silly to be asked to join the Titans, man. Like me, you're both older and bigger than most of the kids on this team. But if you're at all like me, you'll learn to love them. And in that way, you'll learn to respect yourself more. And what you do more. Now, just how're you gonna feel as good kicking criminals' butts when you're all alone out there with your angst and aimlessness?"

He was right……damn it……so darn right.

I sighed, and smiled weakly.

"Gonna consider it?" he asked.

I nodded and gestured: 'Already considered'.

Cyborg smirked. "And I'll be here to help guide you." He brought his hand back down, fished around, and produced a communicator. "Welcome aboard, Titan." He handed it to me.

I slowly…honorably…took it from him.

------

Slowly, my black eyes open.

I was lying in the bed in my cellar.

Safe and comfortable.

At home.

I have an extraordinarily accurate biological clock inside my head.

Must be morning. Time for meditation.

I stood up, stretched, and eyed Myrkblade off the mantle. I walked over towards the bathroom to shower….

…..

….and then the alarm clock went off.

I collapsed, startled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside in the patch of grassy field, I went through my morning routine with my weapon. I practiced sparring moves and charging Destruction and Construction with waves of smoke and murk. The blades of grass shook around me. The Bay stretched off beyond me in its perfect blue glory.

Best morning I could ask for.

On a hill of rock a distance off, Raven sat cross-legged in her own meditation. I could hear her ritual chanting in the distance.

"Azarath…metrion…zinthos…"

When I was done meditating, I sheathed my weapon and looked at her.

Is it just me? Or have we been meditating in the same 'area' a lot lately?

I shrugged it off and headed back for the Tower. Just then, a large rumbling sound caught my ears.

I turned around and nearly did a double-take as a UFO-like object rumbled into view. It was soaring over the Suspension Bridge and heading the Tower's way over the water.

I gasped and was about to dash over and warn Raven when---

"Hey! He's here!" Cyborg shouted from the base of the Tower. He ran over towards a ledge of rock and waved his titanium arms. "Hey! Old Man! This way! Damn it, stop being a show off!! Ha ha!!"

Raven's eyes opened as the hovercraft zoomed loudly over head and made a mess out of her blue hair. "Okay….I hate him already."

I shook my head, smirked, and walked over towards the fresh landing site to observe this deafening reunion.


	30. Stone Golem Part 2

**30. Stone Golem part 2**

I walked up a few ledges of rock and sawgrass clumps and ascended to the paved lot right in front of the garage door at the base of the Tower. I joined the already-gathered assembly of Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin as they stared up a the nearby sky. I joined their gaze with mine as the hovercraft gradually lowered to a hovering standstill a dozen safe meters away. Artificial wind kicked at our hair as the jets flared off one last time, making sure the hulking vehicle landed safely. Soon after, the cockpit 'window' lifted like half of a lid and a dark-skinned gentleman in his mid forties smiled over and gave a thumb's up. He was wearing sunglasses and had a smile to die for.

"Have to park in style, don't ya?!?!" Cyborg smiled and shouted above the noise to his uncle.

"That's not the half of it!!" the man shouted back. His voice was surprisingly youthful. He raised a finger and cackled: "Watch!!!" With that said, the jets retracted, the vehicle settled, and—with a loud whirring sound—a set of wheels popped down into existence and filled the space between the hovercraft and the ground. Before our eyes, the hovercraft morphed like some corny G.I. Joe toy from an airborne craft to a sports car, which revved its engines and ambled on towards us for a few seconds before parking and cutting off its engines.

A tall, lean man stepped out of his craft, switched the security system on with a click of a remote, and smiled at us.

Beast Boy smirked at me and said with the covert curve of a hand beside his lips: "I wonder if they're related…"

I sniffed out a chuckle.

"Got a license for that piece of junk?" Cyborg said with his hands on his hips.

"Depends. You're gonna arrest me if I don't?" Simon Stone replied.

Cyborg chuckled, walked forward, and greeted the man with a handshake. "Welcome to the Titans' Tower, old man."

Simon transformed the handshake into a hug enjoyed by all. "It's great to be here. And I didn't mind the trip." He patted Cyborg on the back of the shoulder and parted the hug. "STAR Labs can get so cramped at times. I swear, I should have chosen a field study in botany or something."

"Our family was never blessed with a green thumb," Cyborg stated. "The paths we chose are the paths we were destined."

The Uncle nodded. "Indeed." He looked up at the Tower. "Well…the place is still looking in good shape. Gotta hand it to you there, Vic."

Beast Boy made a face. "_Vic??_"

Robin cleared his throat.

"Um….," Cyborg sweatdropped and leaned into his Uncle's ear. "Call me Cyborg, old man. It'd be most appreciated."

"Ahhhh…..," the gentleman nodded. "I see…."

_"Victor?!?!_" Beast Boy cackled.

Cyborg glared back at him and then smiled at his Uncle. "Come on! I'll show you around the place!"

"Well, I don't know," the man said politely. "I wouldn't want to break any other 'rules of superheroism' or something."

Robin stepped up. "I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem," the team leader said and extended a hand upward. "I'm Robin. It's a pleasure to meet someone so close to one of my valued partners. Feel free to take as much of a tour of this place as you like."

"The Boy Wonder…," Simon Stone smiled and shook his gloved hand. "I've heard lots about you…even during your Gotham days."

"All in the past. I assure you."

"You're about as short as I imagined too."

"Yo!!" Cyborg nudged his uncle. "What's that for?!"

The old man chuckled, "Can't help myself!"

Beast Boy giggled.

Robin sighed and managed a smile. "I get that a lot."

Simon looked over, and walked towards Beast Boy. "And this is the changeling."

"Beast Boy at your service," the green elf bowed. "Think I can borrow your vehicle to go cruising for chicks sometime before you go?"

"Think you can get a license first?" the old man smirked.

"Cy!! He's as cynical as you are!"

"Don't bet on it," the android winked.

The old man chuckled then looked at me.

I politely smiled and nodded my head.

"I'm afraid I haven't heard much about this one," Simon thought aloud. He extended a hand towards me to shake, "Oh! But of course! You're the new fellow with the sword. Pleasure to meet you."

I shook his hand and continued smiling.

"If I'm not mistaken, the papers and media had a hayday in making you look scary. But in person, all you've got is just a lot of long hair."

I raised an eyebrow from under my shades.

"Don't mind him," Cyborg stepped in and said to me. "My Uncle knew a lot of hippies in his day."

I mouthed a silent 'oh'.

"I might as well get this over with," Robin cleared his throat. "Noir is unable to speak verbally. I don't know what the media said about that, and frankly I don't care. He's as much a Titan as any one of us."

"Okay, Robin," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Rather quick on the draw there, don't you say?"

"What? I was only trying to—"

"No explanations needed, Mr. Robin," Simon said then looked again at me. "For every gap there is a bridge."

And the old man gestured to me: _'The bird is one who loves to peck, no?'_

I brought a hand over my mouth to keep from smiling.

Robin's eyemask furrowed. "What?"

Cyborg cleared his throat and smirked. "Nothing, 'leader'. Absolutely nothing."

The Boy Wonder folded his arms and glared.

"We should get to know each other some time," Simon said to me. "I taught Vi—er, Cyborg here all he knows about sign language. I bet the two of you have carried on interesting conversations."

"He knows more than you give him credit, old man," Cyborg said. The then tugged on the gentleman's shoulder and led him towards the Tower itself. "Come on! I'll let you see the place! It's been a long time since your visit to the construction site with dad!"

"Cyborg, you were too young to remember that!"

"Well, I have pictures. And all the digitally accurate circuitry regarding the event that I could ask for!"

"You are a remarkable creature indeed. It's great to be related to you."

"Great to share the same blood with you too….blah blah blah….stop squawking and come on!!"

"A-Alright! Heheheh…just someone keep a watch on my hovercraft."

"Don't you worry about that…"

The two wandered off.

Beast Boy grinned at me. "I'm dying to see where this is going." He turned into a cheetah and went into pursuit.

I glanced at Robn.

"As much as I'd love to be a part of it," he said, "…I've still got to study up on the computer system and figure out why the power went out last night."

I gave him a thumb's up for his diligence and watched him walk off towards the entrance.

I was tempted to take a close look at Simon Stone's vehicle. I suppose it was the boy in me.

But as I turned around, the boy in me got cornered.

"He's definitely a lot like Cyborg," Raven said, having ascended from her area of meditation. "Open, socially tactless, and has a penchant for loud automobiles."

I rolled my eyes and smirked at her.

She saw it. "Noir….," she slowly turned to face me completely. "One of these days you're gonna realize—just like the rest of the Titans have—that I have an unnaturally accurate knack for seeing things in people. And in that man I see something beyond a stereotypical clone of Cyborg in older, more fleshy form. Whatever it is I see—though I can't put my finger on it---unsettles me."

I performed a mock gasp as if to exclaim: '_Oh my god! Raven boasted about something!'_

Raven glared at me. Eventually she sighed and said: "The most frustrating thing about you, Noir, is that even now you're a mystery to me."

I smirked.

_I'll take that as a compliment._

"But don't take that as a compliment."

Damn.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHLUNK!!!

"…and this…is our base of operations! This is where we bring up all criminal reports, locate current points of emergency within the City, and communicate with local authorities."

"Also a great entertainment system for the latest Playstation 2 releases," Simon Stone smirked.

"Huh?" Cyborg glanced over and frowned. "Yo! BB! I said hold off on that!!"

Beast Boy hammered away at a fighting game on the huge t.v. screen. "Sorry! I couldn't help myself! I got a new Action Replay disc and just had to try it out!!"

Cyborg sweatdropped and scratched his neck. "Um….he's not in charge of answering emergency alarms…"

"Yes, I suppose not," Simon said. "Now, are there actually any females in this Tower of yours? Or is this a gentleman's club of some sort?"

"Ummmmm," Cyborg blinked then scanned the Main Room. He smirked: "Why, there's such a creature now. Hey! Star!"

Starfire stood in the kitchen, humming quaintly to herself and working on a bowl of…….something extraterrestrial.

"Starfire!"

"Huh?" the girl looked up. She smiled, "Oh, glorious! The reunion has begun!" She blushed and hurried along in her cooking. "I must apologize for my tardy appearance in greeting your long lost relative, Cyborg. I was busy preparing a feast for such an occasion! Tamaranian Egg Stew!"

Cyborg bit his lip and waved, "I-I'm sure that's not necessary, Star. I actually love my Uncle and would prefer that he left with his stomach in tact and—"

"Eggs? I love eggs!" Simon stepped up to the kitchen counter. "Mind if taste a sample?"

"N-N-No!! Don't do it!!" Cyborg emphatically exclaimed.

Beast Boy froze in mid game and looked over.

Starfire beamed, her green eyes sparkling. "You mean it?"

"Certainly. Hand me a spoon."

She did so, dipping it into the viscous mystery quaff, and handed a mouthful to Simon. "Do be kind. I have not yet added the Blorgik stomach fluid, which makes the dish twice as palatable on my home planet."

To the boys' horror, Simon greedily swallowed a lump of the stuff, swallowed, and thought aloud: "Hmmmm….could use some salt or something, yes. But sure beats home-made chilly where I'm from."

"Chilly?"

"Mexican dish, ma'am."

"Oh, rapture!" Starfire giggled. "Thank you for your heartfelt critique! I am most complimented to know that my interstellar dish rivals that of the Yucatan Peninsula!"

Cyborg whimpered: _"I've never liked Mexican…_"

"So…," Simon leaned forward. "Are you really an alien?"

Starfire looked down at her cooking. "Well….yes. Are you really an earthling?"

"Don't mind me," the Uncle smirked. "In the last ten years or so—starting with Superman and stuff—aliens have become a fascinating new culture on our world. I'm happy that we've learned to embrace your kind so easily. Our planet could do with more beings of your…..beauty."

Starfire blushed. "W-Well…..hehehehehe….it comes with being foreign to Terra Firma….I-I suppose…."

"Stating the obvious…," Simon stated. "Innocence and culture shock mixed into one. You are one intriguing creature, StarfFox."

"Starfire," the girl corrected with even a bigger blush. "That is my code name."

"My apologies, dear. It was a mistake that I assure you will never happen again."

Cyborg stepped in between the two. "Ahem. Uncle. My man. Heheheheh…….um…..I think it's about time I showed you my Baby."

Beast Boy smirked at his game. "Here it comes."

Simon's eyebrow raised. "Your Baby?" A pause. "Is Starfire here the lucky girl?"

She again giggled and blushed.

Cyborg put his hands on his hips. "Keep your hormones at bay, old man. Lemme show you what I'm talking about. You'll practically kill me with envy!"

"I can't wait…," the Uncle smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh….my….tap dancing….Lord…."

Cyborg smirked. "Ain't she a beauty?"

Simon Stone stumbled across the length of the garage and met the T-Car in the middle. He about drooled all over her exquisitely smooth exterior.

"It's….I-It's like an extension of you!"

"Nowhere near as durable, of course," Cyborg winked a human eye and gestured over. "Come on…I'll let you sit inside her."

He opened the driver's seat for his uncle and got into the passenger side himself. Both inside the car, the android decided to show off its many features.

"Nitro, evasive devices such as smoke screen and oil slicks, an ejector's seat, frontal shielding, water-tight environmental conversion…."

"Did you build a car or a tank?"

"This is no ordinary automobile," Cyborg smiled. "It's the main form of land transportation for the Titans! It gets us the power and push necessary to chase down the most violent of criminals, and yet at the same time fits in a drive thru. Oh, and it's got a five disc CD changer as well."

Simon chuckled and patted his nephew's shoulder. "Always a knack for the creatively subtle. You are much like your father. When it comes to the good things, that is."

"Yeah….so I hear," Cyborg replied, his gaze trailing.

A pause.

"You know," Simon smirked and leaned back in the driver's seat. "Your father did have a lot of good qualities, Victor. And you inherited every one of them. You're a true Stone to the very core of your being. Beneath both blood and circuitry, you were made for a purpose."

"I wish I could see it that way, old man…," Cyborg leaned forward, his muscularly titanium arms resting against the dashboard. "Life has seemed to be nothing more than twisting fate. It's fate that ended my mother's life. As well as brought me to this point in life."

Simon was quiet. Eventually he said the inevitable: "It wasn't fate alone that made you who you are---"

Cybog jerked to face Simon. "Don't say that, Simon," he glared. "You know what it means when you say that."

"Care to reeducate me?" Simon retorted, his arms crossed.

"I became who I was for the same reason that my mother died," Cyborg said. He sighed. "And behind both reasons….there's my father."

"People make mistakes, Victor. Even fatal ones."

"My father was not a man of making and accepting mistakes. He was a man of careful planning and humane experimentation. And as far as I'm concerned…," he frowned at his uncle, "…the man who was once my father 'died' on that fateful afternoon in STAR Labs. He died before my mother's last breath. And he died long before the last fusing of circuitry to blood vessel was complete in my new shell of a body."

"He saved your life, Victor," Simon said. "And I helped him."

"As far as I'm concerned, old man," Cyborg sighed and leaned back. "It was all you. You hear me? It was all you."

Silence.

"I would have thought you'd changed, Victor."

Cyborg glanced at him.

Simon was unwavering. "After all these months. These costumed charades with the Titans. The ever-distracting 'task' of crime fighting. I thought you would have changed your perspective. I thought the experiences you've gained would have matured you faster for your own good…so that you would realize that your father was sorry for what happened. He took the shame of his misfortunes with him to the deathbed. I know, Victor. I know because I was there when he died. I think at the time, you were still too angry with him to even visit him for his passing…"

Cyborg's fists clenched. "Is this all you came here to do?! Make me feel bad for a dead fool's irresponsibility? Look, you try being a freakshow twenty four hours a day! You try being turned down from every American institution because nobody can officially declare you a 'human being' anymore! Just see how warm-hearted you feel. Simon…he took my mother from me…and my life from me. That never settles well with a person. _Never_. You talk as if you were here for me from the beginning. You were only there for the 'new' me, Simon. You may be my father's brother. But that's as close to me as you'll ever get."

Simon's face was full of a sorrowful sort of compassion as he sighed deeply and said: "If only you knew…how wrong you are…"

Cyborg looked at him. His glare left. He exhaled and looked out the window into the garage.

A beat.

"I can tell things are still too sensitive to change," Simon said. He fumbled for the door handle. "If you want I'll be on my way—"

"No…..n-no, Simon. Please….you can stay. It's just that…."

"What, Victor?"

"I don't hate _you_, Simon. You keep trying to make me change. Each time you visit, it's the same thing. I wish you realized that I already _have_ changed. I'm no longer the hateful, angsty teenager lost in a metal body like I once was. I've found a purpose. A reason for living in a world that can't define me!"

"….the Titans."

"I know you think it's just a passing fad and crap. But after you've fought for your very life alongside these heroes….you can't go back. Going back would mean de-evolving, in a sense. Becoming less of a person than you've already grown to be. I've changed, Simon. I've changed for the better, and in that sense I've grown. And you—of all people—should know what the doctors and physicians and even my father said about my likelihood of ever 'growing' out of this infernal shell."

Simon chuckled. "They said it was impossible. Against all laws of nature. That the cybernetics would inhibit any possible form of maturation in your person. Of course they were speaking in the physical sense, but—"

"But they were wrong." Cyborg smiled. "And I'm mature enough now to declare that without any qualms or misgivings." A pause. He sighed. "I'm trying, Simon. I'm trying to hate my dad less. I feel bad that he left without us being on good terms. I do. But…things like that need a lifetime to heal. Not a few years. So please….please stop trying to rush me. You have my eternal respect, Simon. If that means anything. You really do."

Simon smiled. He patted Cyborg's titanium shoulder. "I've always thought of you as a son, Victor."

The android smiled.

"You and I….," Simon continued, "…we're all we have left, Victor. We're the last of the Stones. We're the last of…._the family._"

Cyborg gripped Simon's hand. "And if all else fails…we'll end it with a bang."

"Hell yeah!"

"Boo yah!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Heheheheheh…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ducked my head into the computer room.

Robin sat at the console with its line of multiple monitors. He squinted at the screens and typed every now and then a string of digits. He was busy at work with the backup data and seemed completely engrossed in the matter.

I turned around and was about to leave when he said without looking: "Step on in, Noir. It's allright."

Shrugging it all off, I walked inside and stood patiently behind him.

The Boy Wonder sighed amidst his flurry of typing. "Here we have the grayer side of crime fighting," he mumbled. "The monotony….the monotony…the monotony…" He finished one string of typing, cracked his neck, and swiveled around to face me. "You wouldn't happen to have some caffeine on you, by chance?"

I simpered and shook my head.

"Lame attempt at a joke," he apologize and faced the computer once more with a slump. "Uggggh…why can't I just say it was 'all the thunderstorm'."

I raised an eyebrow.

"The power outage," he exclaimed. "It doesn't show any signs of a complete shutdown. The data here is severed in such a way that it's far too complex for a lightning strike. Even if both the reserves and the regular power banks were brought down. I've been spending hours hypothesizing and testing avenues of possibility. And I've narrowed the situation down to three possible things.

I listened.

"Number one," he said, rubbing his eyes through the mask. "There was an overload in the power banks that actually caused the rupture in electricity to degrade over time, while keeping the illusion of an instantaneous shutdown."

I nodded, dazedly.

"Number two, some third party hacked into the Tower's mainframe and shut it down from a remote location."

I winced.

"Number three, blame it all on Raven's powers."

I wanted to giggle.

"So far…," Robin spoke, "…the first one gives me the headache, the second one scares me, and the third one scares me even more." He glanced over at me. "Want to be the one to ask her if she skipped meditating for a day?"

I vehemently shook my head 'no'.

"Me neither." He yawned, stretched, and sighed. "I almost wish Cyborg wasn't too busy showing his uncle around. He could really help out here." A pause. "Heck, his uncle too. I bet he's pretty gifted on this subject."

A beat.

"Am I boring you, Noir?"

A beat.

"Noir?" he turned around.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stepped into my cellar room and relaxed in its entrancing blackness. I took my shades off, rubbed my onyx eyes, and rested Myrkblade on the mantle. I was beginning to think a relaxing shower would do me good when—out of the blue—there was a knock on my door.

I turned to face it and signed: _'Come in'._

A beat.

I smacked myself in the head. I walked over and opened the door to greet--

"Hey there, Noir," Cyborg spoke. "Do you have a minute?"

I blinked at him. I nodded with a gentle smile and let him in.

He leaned against the foot of my bed and folded his arms. His eyes gazed beyond the floor.

I looked at him, concerned, and gestured: _'What's up?'_

"I'm….taking a break from showing my Uncle around," he said. "He's upstairs in the meeting room. Probably eating more of Starfire's crap..or getting on Beast Boy's bad side, if he's anything like me. Heh."

I stared at him.

He looked up to face me. He took a breath and then asked, "Noir…do I seem….the angry type?"

_Hoo boy……how do I answer that?_

I simpered and fumbled for a response.

"Be honest."

_Okay……_

I gestured a reply.

Cyborg chuckled. "Yeah…I suppose I only have myself to blame for that."

I cocked my head to the side.

"My father…he was a well-respected man," Cyborg explained. "From his induction into STAR Labs, the construction of this Tower, his expertise in cybernetics…" the android sighed, "…he became a god in the world of science. It's only natural he expected the same for me when I'd grow up. But before I got big enough for all that…the worst thing happened. My mother she….she….."

He was silent.

I waited patiently.

"It was all an accident. And I know it," Cyborg huffed. "Just…so tragic. So careless." He looked over my way. "One of my dad's experiments was with transdimensional teleportation. One day, he succeeded in opening up a portal. And that one day, the portal gave way to a hideous extraterrestrial who launched upon the first organism it saw inside the laboratory. My mother—who was visiting that day—was such a victim. I followed second. I had been there that day too. Scientists managed to ward the creature off, but the damage had been done. My mother died shortly after. And I…well, what was left of me got salvaged into this golem you see here," he held up a titanium arm. "Screw the days of my athleticism and science dreams. I had become a mean machine. And it was all thanks to my father. He was saving my life, or so he says. I can't help but think I was just another experiment to him. After all that his work had done to destroy my mother and ruin my existence…he had to extend himself through me again. With nuts and bolts. So I….I…..I grew angry at him. And I distanced myself from him, even when bad health took his life a year after. I only had my Uncle to tell me the old man's fate. My Uncle was also there for my reconstruction. So, naturally, I switched my respect of my father to a respect of old Simon. And everything seemed fine. But, like an old ghost, Simon is always haunting me every now and then with memories I'd rather not have. And…..well….it can really consume one's mind after too much exposure, you know what I mean, man?"

I nodded slowly.

Saying nothing….

Cyborg rubbed his fleshly temple with two fingers. "Jeez….I don't know why I'm telling you allt his. I know I'm probably breaking a whole motherload of rules that Robin has laid out with that nutty 'Confidentiality Agreement' of his. But…telling you won't be of much harm. Would it?"

I smirked and gestured: '_No._'

If only he knew he wasn't the first.

_Garfield………_

"Noir, I'd like to show you something."

I snapped out of it and pointed to myself.

"Yes, you, punk!" he smirked, nudged my shoulder, and headed for the door. "Grab your shades, man."

I nervously complied.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The automatic doors to one of the Tower's laboratories opened.

Cyborg led the way while I awkwardly followed.

I recognized the room as where Cyborg chose to 'sleep' at night. He had a medical table to the far side where he linked up to power cells and rested for the evening.

He walked towards the far side of the room—at a titanium console—and imputed something into a keyboard.

There was a hiss, and a hole opened up in the floor at the center of the room.

I watched with curiosity as a cylinder arose with a glass case atop it. Inside the case was a 'T' shaped electrical device of sorts. It looked like an awkward combination of a taser or an electric plug.

I scratched my head and looked up at Cyborg for an answer.

"I've only shown this thing to Robin before now…," he said. "Robin is the team leader. And for that, I must respect him with the knowledge of this thing." He tapped a button. The glass case opened up. He grabbed the plug device and held it out to me. "Go ahead. Just hold it. It'll be allright."

I reluctantly did so. The object was heavier than it looked. Whatever it was, it had to pack quite a punch. I lifted it up and down in my grasp, feeling its weight. Testing it out. I glanced back up at Cyborg.

"That, Noir," he pointed, "…is my Destabilizer."

I raised an eyebrow.

He firmly explained: "It's what anyone would use to shut me down with a push of a button."

I had the sudden impulse to drop it and smash it into bits with Myrkblade. Twitched as I did, I managed to keep it in my grasp. Maybe it's a good thing I had left my weapon downstairs on the mantle.

"Don't be so shocked, Noir," Cyborg said. "It's for emergency use only. As much as I don't want to admit…I'm not all flesh and blood. And because of that, I'm much more susceptible to foreign control than anyone else in this Tower."

I swallowed and nervously looked up at him.

"It's true," he nodded. "And because of that truth, I have that thing. If ever a bad person manages to hack into my system and use me for bad…I want the Titans to take advantage of this thing. The cylinder that holds it is programmed to pop up out of the floor like this whenever my neurological frequencies change dramatically enough to signify takeover. In such a situation, I could be very….very dangerous." He reached out to take the device back.

I gladly handed it back to him.

As he put it away and retraced the cylinder back into the floor, he spoke to me: "I've shared this secret with Robin because he's the team leader. And I respect whatever initiative he might take to use this thing if the worst stuff happens. I've shared it with you, Noir, because I've come to trust you."

I looked at him in awe.

"I trust you because you trusted me," he said. "I knew you didn't want to leave the Tower when you first ran into us. I knew you didn't want to be on your own again. You gave me the chance to talk you into our flock instead of giving us the cold shoulder, Noir. And that was what it took to make me believe in you. To make me understand you weren't just one of those two-bit, rogue superheroes out there with nothing to do but make infrequent cameos and scare the living crap out of enemies and allies alike." He walked over and put a hand on my shoulder, "You _humbled_ yourself to us. And I've not seen any greater reception to the cause of being a Titan. Not even among the others."

I swallowed and bowed my head ever so slightly.

He smirked, "You're a close friend to me, Noir." His face turned solemn. "Do me the favor of using that thing if you have to."

I politely nodded. And in so doing, I made a promise.

Suddenly, lights flashed. Sirens went off.

The two of us jumped. We looked all around.

Cyborg dashed over to an intercom. "Robin?! What's going on?!"

_"Come up to the Main Room! Quick!"_

I was already rushing out the door as Cyborg joined me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"How exciting," Simon remarked smirkingly under the blaring alarm. "Is this what you Titans have to look forward to every week?"

Raven walked into the room, glaring. "Hardly…"

Cyborg and I entered.

"What's up?!" the android asked.

"Newcomers," Robin said, standing in front of a monitor showing maps and schematics. "Two of them. And these thugs appear to have superpowers."

"Of what kind?" Starfire inquired.

"Not sure yet," Robin remarked. "All I know is, two cars and a bus have exploded in their wake, and now they're holding hostages at a bank in downtown's Central District. I'll have their profiles downloaded before we get to the scene of the crime, but we've got to move now."

"What about him?" Beast Boy gestured at Cyborg's uncle.

"I'll sit tight," Simon smiled at his nephew. "This is your life, after all."

The android smirked.

"Titans! Move!" Robin dashed for the corridor with the pole.

Cyborg grabbed Raven's shoulder, "Shall we dance?"

"Pfft…why not."

"I'm getting a strange feeling of déjà vu!" Beast Boy said before flying out the window in albatross form.

Starfire stood at an open window and blinked at me. "Who's this 'Déjà Vu'?"

I smiled and waved her along.

She flew off with a green streak.

I made away for the stairwell to blur down to ground level and speed to the scene---but paused. I looked over at Simon.

The man stood by the monitors with his arms crossed. "I'll hold the fort here. Don't you have butt to kick?"

I gave him a thumb's up and took off.

Okay……maybe the two are slightly alike…


	31. Stone Golem part 3

**31. Stone Golem part 3**

Under a gray, late-afternoon sky, the six Titans sped towards the downtown district of the City. Beast Boy and Starfire formed tiny, green specks in the air during their flight. I was blurring a streak over and around buildings in the East Part of Town to meet with them. Taking a direct path, Cyborg revved the T-Car at full throttle up and over a rise in asphalt, causing the vehicle to go airborne for a split second.

The T-Car came down with a THUMP and a screech of tires.

Raven gripped hard to the Jesus bar, regained her composure, and glared over at Cyborg. "_Must_ you do that?"

Cyborg glared back at her before radioing in to Robin on the communicator. "Robin…what kind of crooks are we dealing with? The usual bank robbing bit?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On his R-Cycle, the Boy Wonder veered in and out of late afternoon traffic, making his way towards the scene of chaos.

"Police reports on these two people are hazy," Robin replied into the microphone devices in his helmet. "I've got names and descriptions of a run-in they had with authorities back in Metropolis months ago. Hang on a sec---"

Robin revved his engine and skirted around a semi truck and straight into a construction site. Workers scattered—shouting—as he zoomed through, around concrete pylons, and hit a ramp made out of lumber. The wheels of the R-Cycle screamed in mid air as he gradually vaulted over an aluminum fence and landed barely in front of a limousine on the street beyond before resuming normal momentum.

"……….ahem," he cleared his throat. "As I was saying, the crooks are a man and a woman, both of whom seem to be gifted with destructive powers."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'…the woman is Rachel Mendez. Age, late twenties. Dark haired. Average height. The loudest of the two, and always equipped with huge custom made machine guns.'

"Which one of you pipsqueaks operates the vault?!" shouted the woman, a bizarre gun wrapped about her wrist and aiming at the hostages lining the floor of the bank. Her eyes were joyfully round in only the way psychotics could afford. When she smiled, her teeth glistened with a sort of metaphoric, invisible gun powder. "This isn't a game of trivia, people. Either one of you raises a hand or I start making Swiss cheese out of your skulls!"

A frail, balding man at the far side of the line raised a shaking hand.

The woman smirked and motioned at him with her gun. "Up with it, handsome. I want to make a withdrawal."

He stumbled up to her—upon which she gripped him strongly by the arm and shoved him in the direction of the vault.

"Now, lemme guess," she smirked. "This thing's got a timer on it and no matter how much you unlock it using the combination or what have you…it doesn't open until seven a.m. tomorrow or some crap."

The man stammered. "Th-That's right, ma'am. I don't know how I can help you…"

"Just enter the first combination and see where it takes us."

He nervously nodded and went about the task: not ready to risk his life stupidly.

'_Her code name is Reload. There's no explanation as to how she's able to do it, but she possesses the ability to transform pure energy into metallic matter.'_

Fwttt!

Reload struck a match and lit a cigarette. The waved the match till it was out and griped at the man. "Got it yet?"

"A-As much as I can, yes!"

A voice called out to her from the distance. "What's taking so long, Reload?!"

"JUST A MINUTE! Que va!!" she sighed out some smoke and glared at the locking mechanism. "So…the timer's being stubborn, si?"

The man nodded.

She smirked and pulled out her entire pack of cigarettes. "Then I suppose all we need is a key." She took her lit cigarette and shoved it into the pack. "Muy grande, of course." Slowly, the whole pack turned red with collective lighting. She palmed it and squinted her eyes. "You might want to step back…" FWOOMP!! The pack caught fire.

The man stumbled back.

Reload concentrated. The flames erupted brightly momentarily, shrunk into nothingness, and died out. Suddenly, Reload's eyes glowed a red-orange. She flicked her wrist, and a huge, black scimitar shot out…shredding the burnt cigarettes apart.

The man gasped.

She winked. "I know what you're thinking. 'Take this job and shove it!'" She promptly shoved the full length of the fresh scimitar into the locking mechanism, smashing it to pieces and grinding to death whatever sensitive mechanical devices there may had been inside.

The worker raised a shaking finger. "Watch out! The vault is strongly w-wired with—"

ZZZZZZZZTTT!!!

Electrical sparks shot out of the scimitar and up Reload's limb. She grinned euphorically, her eyes a glowing red-orange. "Ha ha ha ha!! It likes it!" She stretched out her free hand and palmed the body of the vault. There was a flash of light between her fingers, followed by cracks flowing outward in the metal surface of the vault. The sparks stopped shocking up her limbs. She brought her free hand down, revealing a fresh spike of metal driven into the vault's body.

After the punishment, the vault hissed and limped open. The old man had to hobble away before the giant door fell down with a huge THUD! off its hinges.

'She's reported to be completely unpredictable, especially as her powers continue to manifest themselves. There seems to be a constant variation between her reckless behavior and the exercise of her talents.'

Reload smiled and tossed the scimitar down. "Muy bien. Now, gonna be a good gentleman and help me load up on some money?"

"Well, I—"

She yanked him in with her to the vault.

"Aah!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

All the Titans in their various locations of transit listened as Robin continued the mobile briefing.

"The other suspect has a subtler power. Just like Reload, his choice of weapon is ballistics, though it won't be beyond him to use his power in close-combat methods as well."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'His name is Jean-Luc Blair. Alias, Slug. If it weren't for the bullet proof vests worn by police during his last incident, he could very well have killed each and every one of them with the shots he took. But he was merely toying with them. Slug's power goes beyond a mere itchy trigger finger…'

The lean young man walked up and down the line of hostages. He held a pistol in each hand at the end of long, slender arms. He was thin and frail looking, but with a touch of athleticism that gave him a subtly threatening posture. Rested above thin cheekbones were sleepy eyes that one couldn't tell from if he was either angry or bored.

"Don't y'all threat," he said loudly, like a preacher. "I only kill people if I'm strongly tempted by certain morons."

As if on cue, a desperate woman at the far end of the hostage line looked at the door exit to the bank, saw it clear, and made a run for it.

Slug glanced over his shoulder. He didn't miss a beat with his sleepy eyes. He stretched his arm out and—almost in reverse—aimed a gun at the fleeing citizen.

Someone screamed.

In slow motion, a field of dark-blue sparks danced around his arm out from his shoulder, shot down his forearm, gathered into the gun in his fingers, and exploded out the barrel in a cocoon formed around the bullet.

BANG!!!!!

A blue streak went past the fleer and struck the glass doors. But it didn't make just a bullet hole. Rather, the entire door itself shattered with a humongous gap of destruction. As did the next two or three doors adjacent to it. The woman shrieked and covered herself as glass and metal framework rained back down from the gigantic blast.

All from one bullet.

"We came to steal money from your vault, ma'am," Slug firmly said. "Not paint the atrium with your worthless entrails. Now I suggest you sit back down where you were told to or else I may be forced to reeducate you on the meaning of the word 'explode'."

Bug-eyed, the woman complied.

'Slug is purely sadistic in nature. More than anyone, we'll have to watch out for him. He has the power to propel and increase the centripetal force of any inanimate object he uses as a weapon. He uses it mostly with guns, turning an ordinary pistol into a veritable grenade launcher in miniature form.'

Slug watched the worker sit down and resumed his pacing. "I swear…I should be paid for this sort of thing. Not robbing for the money."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Titans….approach this situation with extreme caution," Robin said on the R-Cycle. "These two are not only the youngest and most deadly of the nation's powerful crooks, but they're ready and willing for a fight. Now we'll give them one, but only if it means them going to jail. They won't be afraid to end our lives, I'm sure. Remember, Titans. Teamwork! Keep focused! We'll meet on the street of the bank one block to the south!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Listening to the speech on my communicator, I finished my sprint. I ran up the side of a building, leapt to an adjacent rooftop, and slid down the front of another side before leaping gracefully to the floor. I stood with Myrkblade at ready, ahead of everyone else. It was only a matter of minutes before Beast Boy and Starfire joined me. Then came the R-Cycle, and finally the T-Car.

All six of us gathered and surveyed the troubled street from afar.

"I stopped momentarily to speak with the chief of police," Starfire said. "There is a barricade formed in front of the bank entrance with squad cars, paramedics, and firefighters. They are ready for any eventuality."

"Are the people inside accounted for?" Raven asked.

"He did not say," the Tamaranian replied. "However, there was a report of a gunshot that took out four of the doors in the entrance."

Beast Boy did a double take. "Don't you mean gunshot_**S**_?"

The alien shook her head. "Just one bullet."

"Maaaa-aaaan," Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Slug…," Robin nodded. "So he is there. Reload can't be far then."

Cyborg pointed. "Have a look for yourselves."

I looked, and so did the others.

At the entrance to the bank, two figures emerged with bags of money over their shoulders.

Cyborg's eyes suddenly went wide.

And they had good reasons to, as the rest of us gasped in surprise as well.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slug and Reload were cyborgs. Half of the woman's face—from chin to hair—was a cold plate of reflective steel. Even some of her explosively grinning teeth were blue metal. Patches of skin were replaced haphazardly with metal on her arms, wrists, and ankles.

Slug was a much more streamlined piece of work. His entire bald head was fleshly, except for where his neck was. It was like he had been fitted with a collar of titanium. Then the entirety of his arms from the shoulders down were unnaturally long, streamlined, and—of course—metallic.

Reload looked like she had gone through meatball surgery. At the same time, Slug was like a work of art.

Regardless, they were both villains. And the throng of policemen and SWAT Team members faced off at them from across the street. Guns were aimed. Tear gas grenades at ready.

An enforcer squabbled through an amplifier: "_You are surrounded! Put down your weapons, place your hands behind your head, and turn your backs to us! Now!"_Slug's voice was humored, despite his deadpan expression: "My, they're rather quick to skip to the last step."

"I hate formalities," Reload smirked. "Take this,"she handed her bag of money over to Slug, who took it in the same wrist he was holding his own.

"_Halt what you're doing this instant!!"_

"Halt this, fodder!!" Reload shouted and flicked her wrists. The custom machine guns swiveled into place as she stretched her hands out, winked, and unloaded a steady stream of bullets from invisible clips.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

Reload's caliber was relatively weak in and of itself. What mattered in the long run was that she had four barrels per machine gun to unleash the bullets. And also, the bullets kept coming—endlessly—from an unseen source. To say the least, the squad cars lost their paint jobs.

PING!! PING!! CLANG!!! WHANG!!!

Police officers couldn't get a defensive shot out. They all ran for cover, shouting. Bullets streamed everywhere. Shattering glass. Denting aluminum. Kicking up asphalt. Showering sparks down from lampposts and signs. Bulletholes formed everywhere, like it was raining microcosmic meteors.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!" Reload shouted amidst her joyous chaos. "Que pena para si! Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

As a last resort, the enforcement fled awkwardly to the far side of a large fire truck. As they sought shelter, Reload unleashed an unrealistically lengthy stream of bullets a the vehicle, gradually eating its way through the hulking truck's body. Officers shouted for backup. A trio of squad cars screeched up—sirens blazing—from the flank.

Slug saw it. "Cute," he uttered. He reached down to his holster just as a fresh batch of officers poured out of the vehicles and focused on the two. The villain spun the pistol a dozen times in his robotic hand before gracefully aiming it straight at one of the cars and pulling the trigger.

Blue energy streaked through his limb and exploded out the barrel.

BANG!!!

A single bullet soared through the air, past the officers, and ate directly into the middle squad car's fuel tank.

BOOOM!!!!

Officers yelled as they flew back from the blast and landed roughly on the street.

Slug spun his pistol, aimed, and shot.

BANG!!!

BOOOM!!!

Another squad car went up in flames. In the distance, a dozen or so parked cars' alarms went off throughout the City.

Slug spun the pistol for a third time.

Cops were already running.

"Smartest thing I've seen all day," he smirked and took aim. BANG!!

Fire plumed up into the air.

Those officers who were thrown back from the previous blasts scampered or hobbled over to join the others cowering behind the bullet-ridden fire truck.

"Signing their own funeral," Slug smirked. He spun his pistol about left…right…and gracefully aimed at the firetruck.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-_**CLANK!!!**_

A birdarang sailed down and knocked the pistol out from the villain's grasp.

"Augh! What?!" He looked up.

Reload relented momentarily on her punishment and glanced over as well.

Robin landed gracefully on the ground. He reached up a hand and grabbed his returning projectile. "You shouldn't play with those…," he said, glaring.

Starfire landed by his side, so did a green falcon that turned into Beast Boy. Finally, Raven levitated overhead while Cyborg jumped into place and I blurred to a stop along the side.

Slug smiled. "Finally…," he said and swiftly dropped the money beside him, taking a step or two closer.

Robin saw that. He lifted an eyebrow.

"This will be a most heated duel…," Slug cracked his metal neck and loosely dangled his titanium arms as if getting ready for a mile long sprint. "And don't be so smug about that gun, my dear fellow. There're plenty where that came from." He blindly opened a palm towards Reload.

The woman smirked, brought her hands together, and parted her fingers---revealing a freshly crafted pistol with clip which she tossed into Slug's grasp.

Slug gripped it, spun it while pulling a second from his holster, and shook both guns into position—effectively cocking them. "Shall we make this a bloody day? Or a happy bloody day?"

"Always the latter for me," Reload chuckled.

"What are you two _really_ here for?" Robin asked.

"Do we not speak for ourselves, chico?" Reload grinned wide, glistening. Her bulging eyes fluctuated as she cocked a half-metal head to the side. "I swear…you all die so young."

"You don't know what you're up against," Cyborg frowned. "I'd stop being so smug if I were you."

"Why the animosity, brother?" Slug shrugged his metal arms and smirked. "Can't we do this with less talk and more shooting?"

Cyborg made a face. "'Brother?!'" He growled. "Listen, _Ben Kingsley_, we might both be half metal…but I know a rust bucket when I see it."

"And it's time we kicked you real good! Yeah!! Ha ha!" Beast Boy jumped.

We all sweatdropped.

"What?! Everyone else was getting poetic!"

"Indeed," Slug half bowed. "There is nothing more romantic than a gunfight……save for….of course…a deep, gashing, bullet wound in everyone one of your sorry skulls." And he took aim.

"Titans! MOVE!" Robin shouted and leapt---

--…just in time.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Giant gaping holes formed in the building behind us as Slug let loose his arsenal.

Beast Boy and Robin flipped out of danger.

Cyborg and I ducked behind a burning squad car.

Starfire and Raven took to the skies.

"Surround them!" Robin shouted from where he perched atop a lamppost. "Attack from all sides! Don't let them—"

His command was cut short when Reload took aim and fired endlessly at….everything.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Glass from a store front shattered over Beast Boy, who panickedly turned into a armadillo to avoid any major cuts.

Robin jumped off the lamppost as it became riddled with holes and fell down from its own weight.

Starfire shrieked as she soared a serpentine motion in the air, avoiding streaks of white hot bullets barely here and there.

Raven took a much more stationary position and deflected the many projectiles with black obsidian.

Cyborg and I cowered behind the squad car. We looked over at Robin. The Boy Wonder drew fire from the psychotic woman and gestured to us.

Cyborg nodded, motioned to me, and we were both up on our feet and charging.

"Why, hello there," said Slug in our faces. Gun raised.

Cyborg gasped.

I summoned forth murk, grabbed my comrade's shoulders, and blurred us back.

BANG!!!

In slow motion, the blue-charged bullet burned a path through the air above our noses. Our eyes crossed in watching the close projectile fly over us—a blue comet tail of energy warbling behind it.

Time resumed to normal as we fell to the asphalt. A mail truck behind us took the brunt of the hyperbullet and blew up in a ball of flames.

Slug laughed, spun his pistol, and took aim.

Cyborg shot jet boosts out of his feet and I blurred away.

BANG!!

A deep crater formed in the street, revealing the white sand beneath the asphalt.

I tumbled to my feet, gripped Myrkblade, and charged at Slug.

He saw me, spun his pistol, and fired.

BANG!!

In slow motion, I saw the hyperbullet coming at me. I jumped a half foot off the ground, spun in my momentum, and dodged the bullet barely under my armpit before landing on my feet again, completing my charge, and swinging a fully charged sword up at Slug.

SWOOOSH!!!

The right hand pistol literally exploded in his grasp from my impact.

Slug stepped back, wincing slightly, and swiftly spun his left pistol out and against my forehead.

I gasped. It was a cold sensation.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg's fist flew down and struck Slug's titanium arm towards the ground.

"AHH!" he teetered to the side and pulled the trigger.

BANG!!!!!

Asphalt exploded a foot before me, throwing me back from the energy blast.

I landed on the street with a THUMP! I sat up, wincing, rubbing my head. A string of hard impacts flew towards me. I looked over and realized that Reload was aiming her endless punishment at my figure. I spun my whole body—myrkblade charged—and vaulted directly upwards, spiraling.

Reload laughed her head off and aimed at my airborne figure.

As I came down from my leap, I saw a wall of lead coming at me in slow motion. I gritted my teeth, whipped Myrkblade out in front of me, and spun it like a highly-coordinating fan—deflecting every bullet I could and dashing my neck side to side to dodge the ones I couldn't.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

I landed on the ground and a jolt of impact ran up my spine and interrupted my ministrations with Myrkblade.

One too many of Reload's many-many bullets streaked past my defense and straight between my eyes.

I winced.

FLASH!!

A wall of black covered my nose and deflected the bullets at last second.

With a breath, I dashed to the side as Raven came down—eyes glowing—and tossed a wall of onyx energy straight at Reload's figure.

The evil woman gritted her teeth. Her eyes glowed a contrasting red-orange as she increased her stream of bullets.

And so the two ladies struggled. Raven's shield versus Reload's river of heated lead.

The dark titan gritted her teeth. She slowly…slowly…extended her shield closer.

Robin, Beast Boy, and I tried distracting Reload. But she sacrificed one of her hands aiming at Raven's shield by pointing it at us and warding off our attack with her endless bullets. Beast Boy and I jumped to safety. Robin took the high ground and flung a birdarang at her, only to have it shattered to pieces in mid air by her ballistic punishment.

In dividing Reload's attention, we managed to give Raven the edge she needed. She growled and shot her shield further towards Reload, slowly beginning to pin the woman down from the ricocheting action of her own weaponry.

Just then, Starfire soared down to provide air support. She yelled and flung starbolt after starbolt at Reload.

"Yeah! Go Starfire!" Beast Boy shouted.

Robin looked at the scene. He gasped. "Starfire! No!"

Everyone was confused. Especially the Tamaranian girl. But it was too late. She had flung her green energy at Reload.

Reload lifted her one free hand and absorbed the starbolts. She sneered forth a chuckle, her eyes glowing more, and the bullets intensified.

Raven gasped as she was shoved back—her heels sliding deep into the asphalt.

The shield was pushed back and back and back by stronger and stronger bullets until it started to warble and buckle from the pressure.

Raven squinted her glowing eyes shut. She looked like she was going through a migraine. She would falter any second, and when she did--

I gasped and was about to blur to the rescue when one of Slug's bullets stuck a wall above and behind me, showering me with concrete debris. I fell hard to the ground, pinned. Slug was struggling with Cyborg, and one of his bullets happened to unleash near me.

I watched Raven helplessly. Soon, her shield broke. The bullets ate through.

I winced.

A green pterodactyl flew in at the last second, grabbed Raven, and carried her off as the asphalt licked up beneath them from Reload's punishment.

I breathed easier and tried to get out from my imprisonment.

"I do not understand!" Starfire's voice exclaimed from the side. "Did I….help her?"

"Reload absorbs energy to produce her bullets!" Robin said. "The more you attack her with starbolts, the more she'll be fed! Help Cyborg out with Slug! I'll try to take care of Reload!"

"Okay!" Starfire flew to Cyborg's side.

Robin dashed over and kicked Reload's legs out from under her. He then flipped away from the daring act just as the villainess started firing madly at his figure.

I struggled to get out from my holding. Suddenly, the pieces of concrete were lifted off of me by green, furried hands. I gasped with the sudden room in my lungs and looked up at Beast Boy in gorilla mode.

He shapeshifted to normal and helped me up with a hand. "You allright?"

I winced, but nodded.

"We've got to help Robin! He's giving us the distraction we need!" Beast Boy spun around. "Raven? How're you doing?"

She clutched her aching head in two hands. "Um….g-give me a second…"

"Looks like it's just you and me, newby," the changeling smirked and pointed towards Reload. "Charge!!"

As he switched into a green rhino and charged, I whipped up Myrkblade, gritted my teeth, and blurred over.

We both reached Reload at about the same time. She was firing at Robin and her back was to us.

WHAM!!!

The rhino's horn smacked into a metallic plate in her back.

SLASH!!!!

I swung Myrbkalde down, severing one of her wrist guns into pieces.

She spun from the impact and landed on the ground. She immediately screamed and unleashed a steady stream of bullets at us.

Beast Boy leapt into a snake—sailed over the bullet stream—and landed on my shoulder as a parrot. The bullets came at me. I ran a building side to my right, flipped off, and landed behind Reload with a hand outstretched. Beast Boy slithered down my arm as a mongoose and bit onto Reload's shoulder.

"AAAUGH!" she struggled.

I brought Myrkblade down and severed the last of her wrist guns.

SMASH!!

"Goob job, Titans!" Robin smiled from atop a burnt squad car. He jumped high up, spun, and flew down in a kick.

Reload tossed the green mongoose off, spun up, tripped me, and stood just in time to take the brunt of Robin's kick.

WHUMP!!

She slid back on two firm feet.

Robin charged. He pulled out his staff in mid sprint.

Reload's eyes glowed. So did her hands. She produced a metal baseball bat and raised it just in time to deflect Robin's attack.

"Nice….stick," she smirked, then swung high with a growl.

Robin ducked and jumped back.

I got up, charged Myrkblade, and joined the fray.

Robin and I faced off with Reload. We paced ourselves…then dove in.

Reload shrieked with vigor and blocked our dual attacks.

Robin flipped over to her backside and struck low.

She blocked blindly in reverse and brought her back bat in time to deflect my own blow.

She spun around, swinging the bat at full length.

Robin and I leapt back.

She lunged at me.

I blurred to the side and stabbed at her metal skull.

CLANK!!

She winced and uppercutted me with the bat.

WHAM!!

I flew back, flipped, and landed with my feet against the wall. I sailed at her just as she was parrying Robin's attack.

"!!!!!" I swung a fully charged myrkblade at her.

She was thrown back a few feet. When she landed she produced three serrated discs in her free hand and flung them at us.

I deflected one of them and ducked the other two.

Robin wasn't so lucky, the discs pinned him to a nearby wall by his cape.

He struggled to get free as I once again charged Reload and brought my sword down.

CLANK!!!

She blocked and leaned forward till our noses were nearly touching. "Ooooh, me gusta un swordsman!" Her free hand produced a black scimitar.

I raised an eyebrow.

SWOOOSH!!

I duckd the fresh weapon and sidestepped the baseball bat.

Reload came at me, spinning like a metallic cyclone with both the blunt and the serrated weapon kissing the air and looking for a limb or head to lop off.

I stepped back, parried, blocked, sidestepped, and evaded her every attack.

For one dizzying second, she left open a vulnerable spot.

I dove in to strike, but she tripped me.

I went tumbling along the ground and stopped dead with my back against a fire hydrant.

I saw stars through my shades.

"Watch where you put your head! You don't know where that thing's been! Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

I glared at her.

_The gloves are off._

I shot forth smoke, teleported to my feet, and slashed off one end of the fire hydrant.

SWOOOOOOSHHHH!!!!!

A steady stream of stinky water sailed right into Reload's chest.

"OOF!! She fell back and tumbled up against a bus stop.

I jumped high into the air, back flipped, and landed with murking feet onto the horizontal stream of shooting water. I literally ran the length of fire hydrant spray like a transparent platform and held Myrkblade out on a cutting arc.

Reload's eyes bulged more—if that was even possible—and she lifted both weapons at the last second.

CLANG!!!

No sooner had my strike impacted, I shot smoke beneath her legs and teleported on the otherside, swinging.

CL-CLANK!!

My sword struck the metal half of her head, sending her spinning.

I leapt and teleported directly in front of her—striking down in mid air.

SLASH!!!

I deflected the baseball bat out of her hand. I landed and kicked it up into her chest.

WHUMP!!

She doubled over, breathing for air just seconds before I struck her up the nose with the hilt of my sword, spun around, and karate kicked her square in the forehead.

She literally flipped three hundred and sixty degrees before landing against a taxi cab—forming a huge dent.

"….Ow." She uttered.

I rushed at her, silently screaming.

She lifted her scimitar.

I charged Destruction to its fullest in my downwards strike.

CRRRRRRUNNNCH!!!

My sword literally ripped down the length of her blade, sending metal shards shooting off everywhere. When the blade reached her hilt, the hilt exploded—sending her cybernetic wrists back behind her neck and sailing deep through the aluminum body of the cab.

SMASH!!

I stood over her, panting, and holding the edge of my wooden sword to her chest.

But….she smirked. "Thanks for the juice, Casanova." Her limbs started sparkling and her eyes glowed.

To my horror, I realized I had launched her hands into the battery compartment of the cab. I tried to strike down and stop her…but she brought her legs up and kicked me square in the abdomen and forcing me back.

When she had sucked the necessary amount of energy she needed, she yanked her hands out from inside the car, produced a shotgun out of thin air, and pumped it.

I gulped.

"Better start running, senor." She took aim and fired.

BLAM!!!!

I was dragged out of the way by Triceratops horn impaled through the back of my shirt.

Beast Boy shoved me safely behind another car. Robin was dangling by his cape from another horn.

Beast Boy changed back to elf form and dropped the both of us. "Sheesh…am I saving _everybody_ today?!"

BLAM!!!

Shotgun pellets slammed into the vehicle we were hiding behind.

"Go for cover!" Robin shouted. "Now! Divide her fire!"

I saluted and did so, blurring about to distract the ever-responsive trigger finger of Reload. During the ordeal, I looked out through the corner of my black eyes to catch sight of Cyborg's and Starfire's progress.

The struggling match had turned into a relatively risky, close-combat dual. Slug still had one pistol left, and was busy firing shots at point blanc at Cyborg as the android circled him. Cyborg would dodge at the last second, causing the hyperbullets to streak past him and explode a huge chunk of building face.

Starfire flew above the scuffle, launching Starbolt after Starbolt at the back of Slug's neck, distracting him. She didn't want to charge to large of a blast, though, for fear of hurting Cyborg in the process.

"You are quite…fast moving….for a hulking piece of scrap metal," Slug smirked.

Cyborg's human half sweated as he geared into another fighting position. "You're neither human nor machine. You're an animal."

"Then take this as a compliment from my pack," Slug spun the pistol…---

Cyborg got ready to dodge.

---…and aimed it at Starfire.

"STAR!!"

The alien gasped.

BANG!!!!

The girl twirled in mid-air, barely dodging the blast. But it did managed to singe a good portion of her hair and send her reeling. She landed hard on the asphalt…right beside Slug's feet.

"Heh heh heh," Slug spun the gun and aimed it squarely at her forehead. "Should have stayed in your damn UFO."

Cyborg ran up and kicked the gun out of Slug's grasp. He yelled and shoved another heavy fist deep into the villain's stomach. He finished it with a roundhouse kick against his side.

"OOF!!" Slade tumbled onto the only piece of sidewalk not shattered by bullets.

Cyborg stood over him, fists clenched. 'Nobody…shoots…at my friends…"

"How chivalric…," Slug stood up, gripped a stop side beside him, and yanked it out of the concrete. "You must be a hit with the ladies. Women these days do so prefer machines over men."

"Quit yakking and start giving up," Cyborg stepped forward.

Slug held the stop side up like a staff. "I rather looked forward to this, actually."

"You think that puny thing's gonna stop me?"

Slug smirked. Blue energy ran up his smooth metal limbs and traveled across the length of the stop sign. He took a breath and whacked the charged bludgeon across Cyborg's torso like a giant mallet.

WHAM!!!

The android flew back and formed a crater in a building side. "UNGH!!" He slumped down to the ground, heaving.

Slug walked over, palming the stop sign and smiling. "Reckless kid. Obey traffic signs." He lifted the stop sign, charged it up, and struck Cyborg across the face.

WHANG!!!

The metal Titan went tumbling. He gasped for breath.

"I was told you were going to defeat us in one fatal swoop..," Slug muttered an clanked one end of the sign down like a staff as he leered over Cyborg. "Tell me…what are you holding back?"

The android sputtered, wiped his chin, and glared up. "My foot up your ass. RAAAUGH!!!" He ran forward like a bear and completely tackled Slug. Gripping onto his shoulders, he flung the metaphysical villain towards a semi truck.

SMASH!!!

Slug flew completely through the hulking trailer, totally dropping the stop sign. He shook his bald head and looked up just in time to see Cyborg—with a scream—dive through the fresh hole in the truck and sail down at him, fist first.

WHAM!!!

A huge crater formed behind Slug's head in the side walk.

Cyborg began pummeling him senseless. When he was twice as red hot, he stood up, gripped the villain, and flung him into a storefront with a growl.

SMASH!!

Slug sailed back through the glass, but he gripped to the metal framework and brought his legs up in time to shove Cyborg back. He then jumped to his feet, leaned forward, and struck Cyborg's cheek with a blue-charged fist.

SMACK!!!

He then punched Cyborg deep in the stomach with another charged arm.

WHUMP!!

And brought both wrists up—joined together—in a massive uppercut that sent Cyborg slamming so hard into the side of the semi truck—the entire vehicle fell sideways.

Cyborg winced. His titanium body literally had scratches from the heavy impacts.

Slug slowly cracked his neck and flexed his streamline, glowing arms. "Looks like someone's needing an overhaul. How about I overhaul you to Hell?"

"That all….you got?" Cyborg wheezed.

"Kid….you tempt me so," Slug charged his fists, stepped up, and was about to bring them sailing down and crunching through Cyborg's shoulder when a huge wall of obsidian shoved him aside and into a brickface, crumbling it.

Cyborg looked up.

Raven floated over. Her eyes glowed. "I took some advil," she said monotonously and proceeded to lift the entire trailer of the semi truck up and flung it at Slug with dark energy.

The villain got to his feet, but it was too late.

SLAM!!!!

He was flung across the street---along with shards of the projectile trailer.

He tumbled on the ground and got on his knees. He gritted his teeth at Raven's floating figure and was about to charge her when a starbolt struck the back of his head and sent him slamming face-first into the asphalt.

Starfire flew behind him, hands glowing. "My hair is smelly now, thanks to you!!"

Slug winced and groaned as Cyborg stepped up to him with the two femmes floating besides. The android folded his arms and grinned. "Looks like someone's needing some more friends…"

Slug glared. Suddenly, a shotgun slid along the ground and stopped against him.

The three Titans gasped.

Slug gripped the weapon and grinned over at Reload.

"Mata para mi," she winked and produced two pistols to combat the other Titans.

Slug grinned.

"Uh oh….," Cyborg gulped.

He spun the shotgun.

"Move…."

He pumped it.

"MOVE!!" Cyborg shouted and gripped the nearest girl he could.

…and fired.

_**BLAM!!!!!**_

Cyborg and Starfire dove as one out of the way. Raven sent herself spiraling with a cocoon of protective dark energy around her.

A literal wave of shotgun pellet and blue energy flew down the entirety of the street and exploded an entire building front. The asphalt caught fire from the friction of Slug's concentrated power.

He spun the shotgun again…

Cyborg got up. Starfire flew into the air and gasped.

…he pumped it…

The alien grabbed Cyborg's shoulders and hoisted him out of harm's way.

…and fired.

_**BLAM!!!!**_

This blast came uncomfortably close to Robin, Beast Boy, and I.

We dove out of the combined bulletfire of Reload and the wave of Slug's destruction. Two squad cars shattered to oblivion from the combined chaos. Thunder echoed in our ears.

"Hey Romeo!!" Slug spun the shotgun and called forth to Cyborg in Starfire's grasp. "Let's play spin the bottle!" He pumped it, aimed high, and smirked: "KISS THIS!!"

_**BLAM!!!**_

A wave of bulletfire and blue energy sailed up.

Starfire strained to carry the two out of harm's way swiftly enough. She barely skirted out of range of the blast. The wave struck a nearby streetlamp, which shattered explosively enough to catch the Tamaranian off balance. She and Cyborg let out a cry and sailed down to the earth.

WHAM!!

CLANG!!

"UGH!!" Cyborg grunted.

Slug planted a foot down beside his head.

Cyborg's human eye widened as he looked up.

Slug rested the gun over his shoulder. "Pathetic," he smirked, then aimed it down. He pumped it. "Some demonstration this was."

Cyborg gritted his teeth. Behind his back, his arm switched into a laser rifle. "You like guns, hotshot? Well get a load of THIS!! HAAA!!!"

He fired a steady stream of blue energy straight into Slug's heart.

ZAAAP!!!

The blast sent the villain flying back a mere four feet. But what surprised Cyborg—the other titans too—was the sparks of electrical chaos that shorted through Slug's chest from the mere impact of the android Titans' blast.

"Uggggggggh!!!" Slug shook, his bald head reeling. He dropped the shotgun and gripped his chest.

Everyone froze.

Including Reload. She look wide-eyed at the event.

Cyborg looked at his laser rifle, unbelieving. He glanced at Reload. Then at Robin. Then at Reload again. He aimed his laser rifle.

"Cyborg!" Robin stretched a hand out. "Wait---"

ZAAAAAP!!!!

The blast flew hard into Reload's side, flinging her against a wall.

To everyone's surprise—except Cyborg's—she didn't absorb the energy. Rather, she shorted out in a similar manner as Slug and winced from the ordeal. As if overwhelmed by Cyborg's sole laser.

The android stood up, his arm smoking. He looked at the others, shrugged, and aimed at the villains. "Show's over! Give up or you'll taste more of this!"

Slug stumbled to his feet, wincing. "Another time, fellow." He motioned to Reload. "Another time."

Reload weekly slid a pistol to his feet.

Slug kicked it up with his foot, spun the gun, and aimed it at the fire truck.

The Titans suddenly remembered the officers, paramedics, and citizens hiding behind the vehicle for cover. And in that one fraction of a second, many things happened. Beast Boy charged in the form of a T-Rex, grabbed two officers by the back of their shirts, and carried them off. Starfire dove in and hoisted another three in her strong, Tamaranian grasp. I blurred through, snatched two people, and emerged on the other side. Finally, Raven floated over and formed a shield of black energy between the fire truck and the leftover officers while Robin swung over by a grappling cord and tossed down extinguisher discs at the soon to explode vehicle.

And—indeed—Slug pulled the trigger.

_**BLAM!!!**_

The firetruck served its name. A plume of heat rose into the air, formed a cloud of smoke, and dissipated quickly thanks to Raven and Robin's efforts.

The officers were saved. Similarly, everyone inside the bank was unharmed.

But, as the Titans regrouped and cast their eyes upon the scene…the two half-human villains were gone. Left in their wake was a ruined scene of burnt squad car shells, shattered asphalt, broken glass, bullet shells, bullet shells, bullet shells, and bullet shells.

"Um….," Beast Boy glanced around. "That's coming out of your pay, Raven."

"Bite me."

"Ew."

I sheathed myrkblade and walked over—with Robin—towards Cyborg.

The android finally retracted his laser rifle into hand form and flexed his fingers. "Heh…," he said under his breath. "I guess I don't even know my own strength."

"That was far too easy…," Robin said. "No offence to you or anything, Cyborg, but it's unnatural how well your rifle stacked up against them. After all the effort both you and the rest of us put in trying to defeat them."

"Yeah…and just what's up with that?" Cyborg exclaimed. "All it took was one blast each. It was like….they were made to be defeated by my blast."

I looked at Robin.

"And they did seem to taunt you the most out of all of us."

"Well, maybe that 'Slug' guy."

"And the money…," Robin said, looking over and gesturing to it. It was still there. "As soon as they saw us, they dropped it like it wasn't important. They were only waiting for us."

I pointed at Cyborg.

He nodded. "Or just me."

"It doesn't add up," Robin shook his head.

"Yeah!" Beast Boy stepped up with the others. "What was the point?"

"A test, perhaps?" Raven suggested.

We all looked at her.

She shrugged. "It sure felt like a test to me. They were just about as unprepared for us as we were for them."

"But whatever could they be testing us for?" Starfire held her hands together and exclaimed.

I looked at Cyborg.

He looked back, sighed, and said: "I dunno. If by chance they were after me…then perhaps inside of me is where the answer lies."

"It's a good thing your uncle's here," Beast Boy said. "Something tells me we could really use his help in figuring all this stuff out!"

"Yeah…," Cyborg said, staring at his hand. "We could….use his help…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Tower…inside the Main Room…Simon Stone sat, watching the News Unfolding on the main screen. Footage of the recent battle and the wreckage leftover filled the monitor.

Slowly, the old man leaned forward and let out a sigh. "Victor…," he mumbled quietly as the composite sketches of Slug and Reload appeared before him. Reflecting against his eyes."What are we getting into….?"


	32. Stone Golem part 4

**32. Stone Golem part 4**

Simon Stone typed with blurred fingers across the keyboard. He brought up the string of data from the computer banks on the night of the thunderstorm. He leaned forward, looked it over once, and scratched his chin.

"Hmmmm…," he mumbled. He typed away some more and highlighted random strings. "Yup…definitely not a lightning strike that caused the power outage."

The Titans around him all murmured. I leaned against a nearby wall, watching silently.

"How do you know?" Robin asked. "I've been looking at that system for hours and couldn't notice a thing!"

"Because it's all masked by a cover stream of data…," Cyborg's Uncle said. After a river of typing, he magnified the highlighted data and extracted detailed, numerical information. "Oftentimes the cover stream goes by an invisible pattern of synthetic placement. I know this from having worked with viruses and hack jobs before. STARS has to be on its guard, ya know."

Cyborg smirked at the Boy Wonder. "I told you he's the best!"

"So what does it mean?" Robin asked the old man. "We had a virus in our Tower? A hacker?"

"Probably the latter," Simon said. "Someone deliberately snuck into your system from a remote location to access secure files," he explained, and tabbed over to a particular file that interested him or her. "Such a performance was quick and forceful…not a very graceful hacking, since it's raised suspicions since the incident. So however the hacker did it, he or she decided to use a cover stream of data to fill in the gaps of the damage done. In order to do that so quickly, however, the actual computer system of the Tower had to have been rebooted. So he or she chose to do it during a thunderstorm, knowing that y'all would pass it over as a lightning strike."

"But they failed to realize that we'd raise our eyebrows at the failure of our reserve power," Robin said, gritting his teeth and palming his fist.

"Crime doesn't pay," Simon smirked.

"What did this hacker want from our computer system?" Starfire asked.

"I'm trying to figure it out right now," the old man said. "Considering how ugly this thing was done, there shouldn't be a problem finding what they were after."

"You do seem to know your way around hacked computers…," Raven said.

"I make it my aim to."

A few keystrokes later, the digital matrix of the Tower was brought up. Simon dragged the computer through the damaged strings of information and came to a resting spot. "Aw crap…"

"What is it?" Starfire remarked.

Cyborg frowned. "My files…"

A few gasps.

"Dude…someone was so checking you out," Beast Boy remarked.

Cyborg leaned forward and read the files in question. "System Linkup…Defenses…Prostheses………Electro Magnetic Pulse Frequency…..," his voice lingered as he read off the last one.

"Is that bad?" Raven asked.

Simon sighed. "Very bad."

"My circuits function with a….wavelength of electrical energy, as it were," Cyborg explained to the other Titans. "There's a gap in the wavelength that stays neutral, or else a sudden pulse in electromagnetic would overload me. I'm sure you've all seen 'EMP Shockwaves' in sci-fi."

"Sooooooo….," Beast Boy scratched your head. "You mean…."

"Someone's trying to figure out how to land me flat in one punch."

Starfire gasped.

Robin furrowed his brow. "Slug and Reload…"

Everyone looked at him. Including me.

"What makes you think they hacked in?" Simon asked.

"If there's anything I know about criminals…," Robin glared, "…when they try to get ahold of the smoking gun, they get too much of an itchy trigger finger for their own good. And in the case of these two gunslinging newcomers of ours, that fact is twice as valid. I wouldn't doubt it if they were smart enough to hack in and acquire the EMP signature of Cyborg's, but were too careless to use it right."

"They must have thought that….b-by modulating their signatures inversely with Cyborg's…," Simon thought aloud, smiling at the revelation, "…they could counteract his powers!"

"But all they managed to do was leave themselves open for my laser blast," Cyborg said, looking at his arm. "Which operates solely on the EMP frequency operating inside of me."

"That's why they went down so hard," Robin finally smirked. "Their silver bullet bit them back."

"Heh….nice shooting, Tex. Heheheheh!" Beast Boy giggled.

"But…wh-why would they go through all that trouble to vainly attack Cyborg?" Starfire remarked.

"They didn't at all seem interested in the robbery after he and the rest of us arrived," Raven said.

Starfire nodded. "I think they just wanted him."

Simon looked over at Cyborg. "Vic. I don't like the sound of this. For some reason…those two creeps want you. And they want you bad."

Cyborg nodded. "Normally, I'd be flattered. But I don't go for obsessed fans who put my friends in danger!" He looked down at his uncle in the chair. "Simon, when our two EMP signatures clashed, there would have been a reflection of our dual frequencies, correct?"

"In theory, yeah."

Cyborg popped open an arm panel, dragged out a cord, and plugged it into the computer station. "Here're my readings from the incident. Download them into my personal program and see what information it brings up concerning our dual signatures."

"What good will that do?!" Beast Boy gestured.

"If I'm onto what my nephew is saying…," Simon smirked. "We might be able to find out specifically which gap in Cyborg's EMP signal the villains are using. And in that case—"

"We can track them by their own signal!" Robin smirked.

"Glorious!" Starfire beamed. "It enamors me when justice is so righteously pursued!"

"I dunno….," Raven folded her arms. "Sounds almost too…..easy to be true."

"Oh, it's true allright," Cyborg smirked as he stood beside his uncle. "We're gonna chase those two punks down and cart 'em off where they belong!"

"I should certainly hope so…," Raven mumbled.

I stared at her for a while.

"Vic…--I'm sorry, 'Cyborg'," Simon sighed, then smiled. "For your safety…I suggest recalibrating your EMP signature to another secure form. That way, once the studies from the crime scene are complete and we can track these crooks, you won't be anywhere near suffering from one of their attacks like they suffered from one of yours."

"That's a good idea, old man," Cyborg said. "Come on…we'll go into my laboratory to do it."

"Okay."

As Simon stood up, Robin walked over and shook his hand. "Thanks a bunch for helping us out, Mr. Stone. It shows you're one of Cyborg's kin by how reliable you are. It's a shame we don't have too many adults around here in the Tower. They can really be helpful at times."

"Pffft," Beast Boy smirked. "Speak for yourself."

Simon chuckled. "Glad to be of help. It's the purpose of STARS scientists to protect the security of our infinite domain."

"An honorable creed indeed!" Starfire giggled.

"Come on, old man," Cyborg motioned and headed for the elevator. "Don't lag behind!"

"Not on your life, kid."

They wandered off.

Robin and Starfire wandered off.

Beast Boy went to the kitchen.

I stood there, thinking to myself. I looked across the way and was half-surprised to see Raven still standing there. Her arms folded.

"That was too quick for my comfort," she said. "Mysteries never solve themselves. They take time and effort."

I cocked my head to the side.

She looked through my shades from afar. "I have a bad feeling about all of this," she said. "And in my case…that's not something to take lightly."

_Yeah…yeah…_

I waved and walked off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHURRRRRRR-CHUNG!

The metal bed pivoted to a stop.

Simon stood over Cyborg, attaching and reattaching wires. He walked over to a console and typed away. The wires lit up a bright electric blue.

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Whoah…what a rush."

Simon smirked while typing. "Don't let it get to your head, Vic. We only do this for your electromagnetic signature…not your endorphins."

"It was always great having you around when I was taught how to change my frequencies," Cyborg twitched. "Being mechanical has its awkward sensations. Leave it to you to keep me from doing this all the time on my own when I was a kid."

"Yup…," Simon mumbled amidst computer work. "Switch your electromagnetic frequencies too much, the consequences include blindness and a hairy palm."

The two men laughed.

Silence…save for the hum of the system.

"Dad never taught me how to do cybernetic maintenance," Cyborg muttered.

"Maybe because you never let him."

"He was never around!"

"True….true…."

Cyborg sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "Over three years since his death, and suddenly I'm the belle of the ball." A pause. "Say…Robin said in the briefing that Slug and Reload were from Metropolis. Was STAR Labs asked to do a diagnostic of the crime scene where they first appeared?"

Simon slowly nodded after a while. "Yup…we were all over that site like crap on Velcro."

"Did they seem anywhere near interested in……money? At that time?"

"As far as I could tell," Simon smirked over at him. "Common criminals."

"Common criminals with titanium limbs and the ability to produce metal out of thin air."

"That too."

"This world is chock full of freaks…," Cyborg mumbled.

"Your dad would hit you for saying that, ya know."

"My dad is _dead_."

Silence.

"Victor…," Simon spoke. "Did you lose faith in your family?"

"Pfft…," Cyborg smirked. "Not all of it."

"Are you sure of that?"

"What are you getting at, old man?"

Simon walked over slowly and placed a hand over Cyborg's strapped wrist. "You and I…Vic…we're the last of the Stones. The very last. Does that ever bother you?"

"…..," Cyborg stared. He looked off. "I suppose I don't think about it too much."

"But I do," Simon said. "You and I….Vic….we're not just a part of something. We _are_ something. When you left everything to the wind and became a Titan, I was scared. I was really scared, Vic, cuz I thought I might lose you. And then I'd be alone."

"You could always start dating again…," Cyborg winked.

Simon nudged his shoulder. "A man my age…I'd be lucky if I got a retirement fund, much less a woman."

"So I really mean that much to you, huh?" Cyborg said. "That is….as a remaining member of the family."

"You are who we are, Victor," Simon said. "The fact that you exist…..it…i-it makes me feel safer. It makes me feel like I'm **that** close to eternity." He gestured with two fingers thinly apart. "Titanium and laser rifles aside, Vic, you protect me. You protect me by existing. And whether or not you're willing to admit it, I protect you."

Cyborg was silent.

Simon sighed and walked back over towards the computer console. "Families are built to protect each other. To make each other feel significant. I'm sorry, Victor, that because of tragic circumstances, you were never fully taught that."

"I know what I've been taught…," Cyborg said shortly.

Simon nodded and typed away. "That makes the two of us."

A beat.

"I'll need the access code."

"Hmm?"

"Your password for initiating the EMP recalibration."

"Oh. It's 'ELINORE'."

Simon froze. He looked up. "Your late mother's name?"

Cyborg smirked from the bed. "I've got all the protection I need."

Simon exhaled. He slowly inserted the code. "She loved you as dearly as your father did."

"Yeah….I know."

Simon looked up. "You do?"

The young man was silent.

"I'll be quiet now," the uncle smiled and initiated the procedure.

Cyborg took a deep breath and waited tout the process. His human eye trailed where Simon couldn't see.

And he seemed troubled by something…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downstairs….

Inside the garage…

The T-Car came to life.

Its insides blinked brightly with blue lights just seconds before dying out and returning to silence.

Then…nothing…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later, I walked up to the door to Cyborg's laboratory/room and knocked with a free hand. I then resumed balancing the tray of foodstuffs. A few seconds passed as I waited at the door.

No response.

I was about to knock again when--

"Come in, Noir," said Cyborg's voice calmly from the other side.

I blinked behind my shades, opened the door, and walked through.

The room was dark, save for a glowing computer screen or two in the distance. Cyborg sat alone at the edge of his metal bed. He stared off into space.

I was concerned—but figuring who it was that I felt concerned about, I decided not to say anything. I walked over to a lab table and placed the tray down. The smell of fresh lunch filled the room.

"Beast Boy or Starfire sent you down to bring that to me?"

I gestured with a smile that I had volunteered.

He looked aside. "Sorry….not hungry."

I slowly nodded.

"I'm never hungry after an upgrade or recalibration," he said. "It reminds me that I'm mostly a machine."

I said nothing…..not like I could do otherwise.

When silence felt poisonous, I felt it was due time to leave. I turned and headed towards the door.

"Noir…you know your presence never bothers me…," he said from behind my back.

I froze in place, sighed, and slowly turned around with a curious smile.

"If….i-if you don't mind….," he gestured to a nearby chair.

I shook my head, walked over, and sat down.

Slowly, he got off what was on his titanium chest. "When I go deep into thoughts….like I'm doing a lot as of late…I enter into another world. My brain is a different place than the dark mystery it was before my transformation. I once had a mind which I assume is like yours and Robin's and Beast Boy's. Everything is dark. Everything is speculative. Everything…..shrouded. But not my cybernetic brain. I can 'see' thoughts now, Noir. I can see them exactly as they are…or were. The 'going to be' is still a mystery to me, and for that I'm at least thankful. But….my mother's dying face….I still see it."

His red eye squinted as he slowly continued:

"Right now…I'm looking at her sideways. I'm on the floor of STAR Labs. I'm bleeding all over. The portal is closing, and as its brilliant light fades….I can see her face. What isn't scarred of her skin is now cut in a dozen places. Her lips are torn a freakish curve…so that it looks like she's smiling at me as she passes away. But those are not her happy eyes. That is not her warm breath. She's looking through me with death…for she can't see her little boy anymore. All she sees is a machine…a hulk of titanium and metal with a stringy, fleshy core."

I was silent, watching him with black shades.

"I never truly forget what I'm seeing, Noir. Never a second passes that I forget who---_what_ I am. What I could have been. What we all could have been."

A pause.

"In a blue sea of ones and zeroes….I see her. And I see my father too. And the sea of ones and zeroes turns from blue back to the black my head used to be. And for once…I hate the prospect of becoming human again. Because I'd have to deal with his face too. And I'd take the dead face of my mother any day over the smiling face of my father."

I looked down to the ground.

Cyborg looked over at me.

"Noir…tell everyone upstairs that I'm not hungry. And I'm not going to be eating in a while. Not until this whole….mess is sorted out." He looked down. "Reload…and Slug…they bother me. But it's not just them. My uncle's presence here….it keeps shaking me up. Keeps making the images I see more alive. Like I can smell her corpse too." He faltered, clenched his fists, then sighed into relaxed melancholy. "…I don't…..know why he is trying to help me."

I stared at him.

"But I think I have an idea."

Just then, the intercom went off.

"_Titans!"_ Robin's voice shouted. _"To the Main Room! On the double!_"

Cyborg groaned and stood up. "How come every time I let you listen to what I have to say, there's some damn emergency?!"

I grinned and shrugged.

We both rushed towards the top of the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's them again…," Beast Boy said.

"Looks that way," Simon said, leaning over Robin at the computer screen.

Two signals appeared at a location far from the heart of the city.

Stafire squinted. "The Prison?"

"What do they want from there?" Cyborg remarked.

"Probably having a family reunion," Beast Boy snickered with a sweatdrop.

"They're nothing but punks with big guns…," Robin said. "Our interference last time must have ticked them off. I bet they're trying to get our attention with a threat to eliminate the security systems of the prison."

"Like how they lured us before?" Raven asked.

"Right," Robin nodded. "But we're far too smart to fall for that trick again."

"Don't be so sure," Cyborg spoke. "We're going to have to intervene eventually on behalf of the Law Enforcement, right?"

"Of course!" Robin said. "The guards won't be able to hold those two back by themselves!"

"And I did provide the smoking gun during our last run-in," Cyborg spoke. "Do we all forget that?"

Simon looked at all the Titans.

"Cyborg…," Raven said. "Your Uncle himself said that they were purposefully trying to take you down. If they're looking to do anything at the prison, they're looking to attract you."

"Not unless y'all provide a diversion for me to strike in from the side!" Cyborg said.

"Yes!" Starfire nodded. "Beast Boy and I can fly in…."

"…Raven and I can take them up front…" Robin spoke.

"…and WHAM! Knock out punch by Mr. Robot himself!" Beast Boy said.

"I think it's still too risky…," Raven said.

"If risk is what it takes," Cyborg said, looking at Raven, "…Then I'm all for it."

Simon walked over and patted his shoulder. "I'd have to agree."

Raven folded her arms. "Oh, would you?"

Simon blinked.

I stepped forward and gestured to Cyborg.

He replied. "I promise. I won't strike unless I can from the sidelines. You guys will be the frontline."

"Woo joy," Beast Boy moaned.

"Sounds like a plan…," Robin said. "We'd better make haste. Starfire, call the police, suggest to them to stay undercover till we make our appearance. No need for Slug and Reload to suspect anything by security's reaction."

"I'll keep a tracking signal on their EMP signatures," Cyborg said, pointing to his titanium wrist compartment. "I'll relay it all to you from the T-Car."

"Very good," Robin said. "Titans! Go! Normal squads!"

Everyone went their own way to exit, including me.

Cyborg stood still, however. His eyes slowly went back and forth. He spoke up, "Actually…I suggest Noir take the T-Car with me this time."

I froze, turned around, and looked at him funny.

"But…," Simon spoke. "Doesn't Miss Raven usually—"

"She needs to go ahead with Robin on the frontline," Cyborg said. "Noir can be of assistance to me by providing reconnaissance of the enemy as I strike in from the side."

"You sure about this, Cyborg?" Robin asked.

Raven was silent.

"Yes," he said. "I'm sure."

I looked over.

Raven stared directly at me for a few seconds before going off with Robin.

"Noir," Cyborg motioned. "Let's go."

When he was about to leave though, Simon was standing in his way.

"Vic?"

"Old man?"

"………good luck."

Cyborg smiled. He leaned over and the two hugged.

"Kick some butt for me, kid."

"Gladly."

The two of us rushed down to the garage.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes after departure, Raven hugged Robin as she road the back of his cycle.

"Just a little while and we'll be there!!" Robin called back to her over the rush of transit. He eyed the flying forms of Beast Boy and Starfire overhead. "Sorry if the ride's a little bumpy!! I'm not used to passengers!!"

"……."

"As soon as we get there," he continued, "…we'll form a cautious perimeter defense!! We've seen how dangerous these two metahumans are!! No need to be hasty in capturing them!! Once Cyborg helps us out, it'll be a better story!!"

Raven finally replied: "I'm not so sure Cyborg will be joining us…"

"?!?!" Robin glanced back through his helmet. "What's that supposed to mean?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car zoomed down city streets.

I polished Myrkblade and sheathed it…waiting impatiently in the passenger seat.

For some reason…I felt extra anxious.

Cyborg was silent the whole drive. His eyes were firm…determined. Something was on his mind.

Something was on everybody's mind.

_Why was I so clueless?_

My black eyes didn't notice….but Cyborg's did.

A spark or two lifted from the steering wheel and danced off his titanium fingers.

He stared at them without batting an eye. He glanced over at me.

"Noir…," he spoke.

I looked over.

He was extremely deadpan. "Are you feeling fit right now?"

I was confused. I merely nodded.

"Good," he said. "I'm going to need you."

I lifted an eyebrow.

"But of course you know…," he looked back at the road. "…we're falling into a trap."

My jaw dropped.

ZZZZZZZTTTT!!!

Cyborg grunted as an electromagnetic shockwave flew out from the core of his Baby, up the steering wheel, and deep into his cybernetic heart.

I gasped widely and jumped in my seat. The seatbelt screamed into my skin.

Cyborg's hands went limp. His blue lights turned to black.

And the T-Car careened out of control….


	33. Stone Golem part 5

**33. Stone Golem part 5**

_**SCREEEECH**_

Robin's R-Cycle came to a stop at a reservoir just below the prison Some sewage water sprayed from the tires as the vehicle halted with a jerk.

Raven clung onto the Boy Wonder from behind. She hesitantly opened a tembling, blue eye.

"Are we there yet?"

Robing glared at her, took off his helmet, and whipped out a communicator. "Starfire……Beast Boy, we're at the pipes leading to the sewage system. We'll be sneaking into the prison from below. Hopefully from there we can get a jump on Slug and Reload."

"This is going to be fun…," Raven muttered as she limped off the cycle and padded towards one of the huge pipes of the reservoir.

"Where are you two guys?" Robin asked.

"_Approaching the rooftops_," Starfire replied through the tiny speaker. "_Beast Boy is higher above, getting a look at the surrounding area to make sure the two villains are not escaping at the last second. We should be able to provide backup whenever you are needing of it, Robin."_

"Good," the Boy Wonder said. "Raven and I will take them on first. I want to see how long we can go without them knowing our presence, though. It's quite possible they may be after something else entirely than just a rematch with us."

"Whatever it is, it'd better be worth it," Raven said as she trudged over sewer puddles inside the giant pipe. "These are new boots…"

"_Are Cyborg and Noir on route?_"

"Good idea, lemme check," Robin changed frequencies and spoke into the communicator. "Cyborg! Are you closing in on the prison at a safe distance?" A pause. "Cyborg???"

Raven glanced over.

Robin gritted his teeth. "Cyborg, please respond!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Noir?!"_ Robin's voice exclaimed over computer speakers throughout the Tower. _"Noir?! Cyborg?! Is anyone there?!"_

Simon Stone sat at the head monitor in the Main Room. He took a deep breath of melancholy as the cry went on unanswered.

Slowly—ignorant of the call—he pulled over a keyboard and typed a quick string of letters and numbers.

On the monitor, the schematics of the T-Car popped up…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were dead still on the sidewalk. The tires were still steaming from its blazing swerve off the main road. The smell of burnt rubber and charred electrical sparks filled the air.

I winced, my teeth grinning. I tested every limb in my body, feeling for pain or something broken.

I was allright.

I stretched my neck around and glanced to my left.

Cyborg lay in his seat. The blue gone to black. He was unconscious.

I winced, reached a hand over, and shook him.

No response.

_"Someone respond! Noir?! Cyborg?! Where are you two?! What's wrong?!"_

I reached achingly for my communicator. I tried tapping in a morse code response….but suddenly, the speakers crackled. The T-Car lit up from the inside. I froze as the engine started magically on its own and the steering wheel jolted to artificial light.

_What the hell?!_

SNkkkkKKTt---chhhh---_"I'm sorry, young Titan."_

I gasped. The voice coming through the speakers….

_Simon Stone……_

"_I can't explain my actions. I can only perform them. Cyborg and his T-Car are going where I want them too. Since you are my dear nephew's friend, I'll spare you the expense of coming along."_

The roof to the car suddenly whirred open.

I stared up at the evening sky through my shades.

My chair shook…and got warm.

I gasped.

POMPH-SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The ejector seat went off. Blood danced down my brain as I found myself soaring high into the city streets, a virtual rocket going off just a foot and a half below my pelvis. The chair that I was in unleashed a parachute with a jerk, and I slowly started floating back towards the ground—restrained in the drifting object by my seatbelt.

Below me, I watched at the T-Car revved its engines, squealed its tires, and soared down the street on its own with an unconscious Cyborg trapped inside.

I gritted my teeth and struggled to reach my hand to where my sheathe was stuck between my back and the seat.

I drifted further to the ground.

The T-Car rocketed towards the horizon.

I grabbed the handle to Myrkblade.

The automobile disappeared over a hill of asphalt.

I exhaled.

My chest thinned.

I squeezed my blade out, spun it in my grasp, and sliced it over my chest.

The seatbelts snapped apart.

I acrobatically got onto my knees, jumped up off the seat, ripped through the parachute, and landed on a telephone wire. Summoning murk, I slid two feet down the wire like ice against a metal rail, jumped off, landed on the street in a crouch, and blurred forward like a human missile.

I gritted my teeth, ignoring the ache in my limbs from the recent near-crash, and concentrated all the power I could in making a mad dash towards the distant T-Car.

_That man is NOT TAKING HIM! Not after all he's been through!_

The implications of the situation mattered very little to me. All I knew was the desperation of my sudden hunt. My quest to stop that car at all costs.

I rounded a hill in the road….and came upon a traffic jam.

I gasped and leapt—barely clearing a van in front of me. My powers lifted me off the ground and landed me hard. I struggled desperately to keep the balance of my sprint in tact, and I proceeded to weave in and out of stuck cars. Stopped cars. Collapsed cars. Apparently—in controlling the T-Car—Simon Stone wasn't wasting any time. Traffic was either forced or plowed out of the way.

_This could be very dangerous…_

As soon as I spotted the T-Car ahead of me in the distance, a citizen's automobile or two meandered back onto the road.

I desperately leapt to the side, ran off the surface of an SUV, hopped over a sports car that honked in protest, and dove forward, flipping, and resuming my lightning fast streak after the unconscious Cyborg.

The Car swerved to the right into an alleyway of sorts.

I jumped onto the building face on my right, soared up the wall, leapt onto the rooftop, and hopped from building to building in a direct line for the T-Car. When I reached the alley, I jumped down—found myself in a paper-thin, bricklined street, and landed barely a hair's width behind the T-Car.

It rocketed ahead of me.

I struggled to keep on my feet.

_Damn!!_

The walls of the alley zoomed past us like some masonry's version of the Death Star Trench. The wheel-span of the T-Car nearly occupied the entire alley ahead of me. It screeched left and right, its blue lights blazing in the darkening evening and extra darkening alley. It struck a garbage can that flew up, ricocheted off the wall, and spun leakingly at me.

I whipped out Myrkblade and slashed it in half…along with a wooden crate also knocked back by the T-Car…and a metal barrel.

SWIIIIPPPE!! SMASH!! CRACK! BASH!!

The T-Car swerved out into the open street, screeched to the side, and forced a semi-truck to halt suddenly with burning rubber.

As the T-Car attempted to zoom off, I ran out into the street, jumped, bounced off the grill-front of the semi truck engine, and landed on the back of Cyborg's Baby and rode it off over the asphalt. I clung onto it for my life and prepared to use Myrkblade…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"No response?" Raven asked.

Robin slowly shook his head. "No…and until we get into contact with Cyborg, there's no telling where the two felons may be."

"Then I suppose we must utilize the old fashion technique," Raven stepped down the sewer pipe and stood beneath a dimly lit grate leading up into the prison yards. "Search for them ourselves."

"We're in no position to spring upon them!" Robin said.

Raven looked up through the grate. Her eyes momentarily widened…then returned to normal. "They, on the other hand…."

SMASH!!!!

The grate exploded downward.

Raven and Robin jumped out of the way at the last second as Slug landed before them, a revolver in each hand.

He smirked, lifted the magnums, and uttered: "Hello, children. Permit me to teach you about life. I lock. I load. You die."

"DUCK!!" Robin shouted.

Slug's metallic arms charged up blue…flew into the guns…and--

_**BLAM!!!!**_

BLAM!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sounds of explosions and gunfire sounded off through Starfire's communicator.

At the sound of it, Beast Boy dropped down into elf mode on the rooftop besides the Tamaranian girl.

"Robin!!!" she gasped. She spun to face the changeling. "We must help them!!"

"Sister….you have the knack for the obvious!"

They were about to fly towards the sewers when the rooftop beneath them crumbled apart and a string of hot lead soared up from under.

SMASH!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

"WHOAH!!"

"AIIIEEE!!"

The two Titans collasped two floors down into a tiled hallway of the prison. They rubbed their skulls and looked up—gasping—at Reload.

The cybernetic gunslinger puffed a cigarette in her mouth and winked at them. "Don't fly the coop just yet, mis avitos." She swung her wrist machine guns back into position and aimed directly at them.

Beast Boy gulped. "Good thing I used the bathroom before we came here."

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

"Run!! Flee!! Retreat yourself!!" Starfire commanded as the two scampered off from the bulletfire.

Tile flew into shards and wall panels crumbled under Reload's punishment. She kept firing—marching after the two and laughing her psychotic head off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Raven dove forward with a grunt.

A blue-charged hyperbullet sailed overhead and slammed into the concrete sides of the pipe, forming a shattered crater.

Simultaneously, the sounds of gunfire and chaos emanated from his communicator.

"Starfire and Beast Boy! They're in trouble!" he hobbled to his feet and hoisted Raven up. "This is all a big trap!"

"You think?!" she snapped.

"There you are!" Slug grinned.

_**BLAM!!!**_

The two leapt out of the way.

The pipe shook.

Debris fell and formed tiny splashes all over the sewage puddles.

Robin spun around and tossed a birdarang at the half-robot villain.

He merely lifted his metal arm, letting the object clank off the skin.

Once deflected, he chuckled and took aim again.

Raven summoned telekinesis and pulled the two out of danger.

_**BLAM!!!**_

A hole formed beneath them.

Raven flew them over Slug.

"You got 'em?" Raven asked, eyes glowing.

Robin saluted. "I got 'em!"

She let go of her onyx hold of his limbs.

Robin dropped down, whipped out his staff in mid air, and struck down hard on Slug's aiming wrist.

SMACK!!

"AUGH!!" Slug's arm threw to the side and he pulled the trigger.

_**BANG!!!**_

CRASH!!!

The concrete side of the pipe gave way completely and sewage water started rushing in like a torrent.

Slug and Robin dueled close combat in front of the torrent. The Boy Wonder kept the villain at bay with his rod constantly making contact with the villain's forearms. Slug couldn't even pull off a point blanc shot.

"Go upstairs and help the others!" Robin grunted without looking to Raven. "I've got him under control!!"

"You're….positive?" a floating Raven lifted an eyebrow.

"Yes! Now go!"

Raven sighed and levitated up through the smashed grate and onto the prison courtyard.

"Rather smug…wouldn't you say?" Slug sneered down at Robin.

"I suggest you put your mouth where your gun is," Robin glared. He shouted: "HAAAA!!" jumped back, twirled, and swept Slug's feet out from under him.

"OOF!!!" Slug fell with a splash into the rising river of sewage water. He gritted his teeth and aimed a magnum directly upward as Robin sailed down at his prone figure with a kick.

_**BLAM!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!!!

I inwardly winced, but kept on stabbing with Myrkblade regardless. Struggling to keep my balance on the madly speeding T-Car, I managed to dig in enough with my weapon to charge it with smoke energy and start peeling open a hole in the surface.

The T-Car suddenly swerved right.

I grunted and held tightly to the hilt of my sword, keeping myself on the back of the remotely piloted vehicle.

The car then swerved to the left.

My body literally flipped over the back. Just by clinging to the hilt, I stayed on…though my lower body was banged around like a rag doll.

I winced.

The car lit up and its radio speakers suddenly crackled at full blast.

_"I assure you, Mr. Noir…,"_ Simon Stone's voice spoke to me through the vehicle. _"You will only hurt yourself if you try to intervene."_

The car swerved again. I nearly slipped. I hugged the side of the vehicle, blurred my feet, and kicked myself back onto the top and grabbed onto the hilt of my weapon embedded in the car.

_"What assurance do you have that my business with Victor is that of harm?"_

The car swerved again.

I held on steadily this time.

"_Your kindred friendship to the kid is twice as honorable as my familial relationship with him. Please understand…I do not consider you my enemy. But you are getting in the way of the Family."_

With that spoken, the engines flared dramatically. The tires squealed, and the T-Car I was 'riding' turned into a rocket as it took a last second exit off the present road and towards the back of a underground subway entrance. The overhang to the entrance looked suspiciously like a ramp.

I gritted my teeth.

WHAM!!!!

The T-Car smashed through the metal railing around the entrance.

I shook, keeping my grip.

People scattered.

The car honked.

Its demonic lights flashed.

We hit the 'ramp' at eighty miles per hour and….

CL-CLANK-WOOOOSH!!!

The force of the takeoff tossed me off the top of the vehicle in an instant.

Time slowed down.

The revving of the T-Car's airborne engine grumbled low and solemn as the seconds oozed by.

I flew up ten feet from the flying car, twirling sideways and upside down. I clenched my flailing fists. Smoke poured out from under my shades as I shot murk out into the currents of heated air around me. Wings of destructive smoke ate at the air while invisible beams of construction evened my body out and flipped me back over so that I was sailing back down at the vehicle at the same time that it landed in the middle of the street.

CLANK!!

Time resumed to normal.

SWOOSH—My hand grabbed ahold of a side mirror. My arm tightened. I swung my whole body around like a chain lock and landed with my lower body perched on the T-Car's bumper. I winced as the headlights stabbed my eyes.

"_Quite risky of you, mute one…_," Simon's electronic voice said. The T-Car ran onto the sidewalk of the Town's Civic Center as he added: "_But your bravery has forced me to take even more desperate measures."_

I looked over my shoulder at where we were headed.

I gasped.

A series of thick, metal bicycle racks jutted up out of concrete in a straight line. I was so low to the bumper that I could see beneath the myriad of 'bridges'. _I could see them sailing at me._

I held my breath, grabbed the hilt of my sword, and pulled with all my might.

YANK!!!

Metal and glass shards flew as I ripped Myrkblade from the T-Car's body, leaned backwards, and faced the impending metal bars upside down.

My let out a long, silent scream as I twirled my blade back and forth ahead of the car in my out-stretched position.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!!!

Smoke warbling, I sliced each thick bar to shreds and tossed them to the wayside. My black eyes widened as one last obstacle—an oak tree—shot out of the concrete sidewalk ahead of us and screamed at my skull.

I swung Myrkblade once…hard.

SLUNK!!!

I took out most of the lower half explosively, but there was plenty of trunk left for us to ramp over.

CH-CHUNK!!!

The jolt sent me up bouncing over the streamline body of the car and towards the rear.

I gritted my teeth and dragged Mykblade into the butt of the vehicle.

SKKKKKTT!!!

I stopped myself from tumbling off just in time for my feet to dangle off and make contact with the blurring asphalt.

Smoke blurred down my legs.

I kicked off the speeding ground just quickly enough to gain momentum, leap back, and land securely back on the back of the T-Car.

I let out a breath. Then panted.

_"You do not know when to quit…,"_ Simon's voice said from the speakers. "_It is very well. For neither do I."_

The engine revved as we returned to the road.

I looked off and gasped.

The highway was getting closer.

_"Soon…it will get too dangerous even for YOU to stay on board."_

I gritted my teeth and resumed the desperate task of ripping through the body of the vehicle.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the prison…

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

Reload laughed at the top of her lungs and unleashed bullet stream after bullet stream. She walked slowly…tortuously down the hallway while her victims were forced to scamper and hide behind flimsy structure after flimsy structure in a vain attempt to avoid her lead carnage.

Starfire flew down in front of a metal desk of a warden's office room and covered her head. A green bat flew between the barrage of bullets, landed beside her, and turned into a cowering Beast Boy.

"W-Well…," he gulped. "So much for the 'sneaky interest' part."

"We must regroup with the others!" Starfire shouted over the bullets. "With Robin and Raven together, we could overcome this foe!!"

"Alli estan, idiotas!!"

PING!! CLANG!! POW!!!

Reload—and the bullets in turn—found Starfire's and Beast Boy's hiding place. The desk started falling apart in mere seconds.

"Save the thinking for later!!" Beast Boy cackled. He was about to morph into something with wings and skedaddle when a series of desperate voices lit his and Starfire's ears above the firefight.

"Look!" Starfire pointed towards the far side of the office. In a lone cubicle, a dozen or so pairs of limbs waved at the two heroes. Office workers and guards—frightened and cornered by Reload's violence—were begging for help.

"The poor workers!" Starfire exclaimed. "They have no way out!"

"Not unless we make one…," Beast Boy uttered. "Starfire. You go. I'll distract Miss Buffalo Bill!"

"Affirmative!"

Beast Boy leaped over behind another desk, popped his head up, and waved his arms.

"Hey!! Hawkeye!!"

Reload glanced over.

"Hit the bird, win a prize!" he proceeded to turn into a green duck and quack his way across the office.

"Madre de Dios…," Reload rolled her eyes and took aim.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Desks flew into splinters, chairs exploded, and lights shattered as green birds, green gophers, and green fish dashed to and fro between the desks and furniture, drawing the evil cyborg's desperate gunfire.

Reload gritted her teeth in frustration and tightened her grip over the trigger…if that was even possible.

Her gunfire was so intense and explosive that it blinded her from her own actions and immediate surroundings.

A green penguin slid belly-first on the tile between Reload's legs, hopped up as a squirrel, scampered up the villainess' side, and grabbed her face in the form of an emerald octopus that immediately shot a jet of blinding ink into her eyes.

"Mmmmmmmffff!" Reload struggled. She fired bullets everywhere—especially above her. A hulking ceiling fan took a bullet or two, creaked, and fell down.

The octopus turned into a bullfrog and leapt off in time for the apparatus to slam down over the half-human and pin her helplessly to the floor.

The green elf morphed to normal, looked over at Starfire, and gave a thumb's up.

"Help is here!" the Tamaranian flew over and shouted to the people. "Stand back!"

She aimed at a wall and unleashed wave after wave of Starbolt. The structure collapsed and led to a metal gantry over a prisoners' wing. Awakened voices of convicts shouted out from their cells at hearing the ruckus throughout the entire building.

"Go! Make haste!" Starfire motioned the guards and workers along. They scampered out gladly. Finally, Beast Boy ran her way, saluted, and jumped through the wall. Before Reload had a chance to get up, Starfire flew through the hole, aimed at the ceiling, and unloaded more starbolts…collapsing the passageway closed behind them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HIYAAAA!!" Robin screamed and jump kicked Slug across the face.

The half robot man grunted, glared at the Boy Wonder, and dove back at him over the rushing sewage water with an outstretched fist.

SMACK!!

Robin's cheek turned red from the impact and he was sent spinning.

Slug chuckled and aimed a magnum at Robin's torso.

But the Titan ended his 'vulnerable' spin with a jumping bird kick that knocked the magnum out of the villain's grasp.

But Slug still had one gun left. He aimed it and fired with his power.

_**BLAM!!!**_

Sewage water and concrete flew up in a fountain. The Boy Wonder was lost from view. When the debris fell, he was nowhere to be found.

Slug squinted. Looked around. Lifted an eyebrow, then turned around--

SMACK!!!

Robin uppercutted him from behind, grabbed his reeling leg, and sent an elbow deep into Slug's crotch.

WHUMP!!

The villain stumbled back.

Robin grinned…..then stopped grinning.

A seemingly unaffected Slug smirked at the boy. "You'd be surprised how much of me is machine," he smiled and raised his gun.

Suddenly, a grappling hook and cord wrapped around Slug's wrist and yanked---slamming him into the sewer water.

Robin held onto his end of the cord and frowned, "You'd be surprised how much of me cares…"

Slug jumped out of the water, sputtering. He looked at his hands.

Empty.

"Even terms, eh boy?" he smiled up at Robin.

Robin got into a kung fu pose and motioned his opponent to charge. "I don't like guns."

Charge, Slug did. His arm glowed as he slung a fist at the boy with a growl.

Robin ducked, side-stepped, and swung a boot up towards Slug's face.

Slug grabbed the shoe with a palm, gripped it, and pulled upwards with a jolt.

Robin's body spun a few times before landing hard on the ground.

Slug shouted and slammed both fists down over the boy.

Robin rolled out of the way, spun his legs like a break dancer, and shot a grappling hook up towards the ceiling of the pipe.

PFFT-CLANK!!

He retracted the cord, lifting him up swiftly, and bringing one of his upside-down, swinging legs twice against Slug's cheek.

SMACK!! WHAM!!!

The villain reeled backwards as Robin swung up over him, spun on the cord, impacted his feet against the ceiling, and sprung directly downward, staff outstretched.

WHAM!!!

Slug was struck hard across the back.

Robin landed on his knees, dug his rod into the concrete, and vaulted his legs up to kick the bad guy mightily in the rear.

The impact sent Slug toppling over—neck first—through the stream of sewage water like a blue hedgehog. He landed in a sitting position with his back against the side of the concrete pipe.

"…..owch."

"You better believe it," Robin gritted his teeth and charged across the growing river of sewage. "Here's your medicine, bastard!!"

Slug smirked. "Wash that mouth out." He slammed two blue-charged elbows into the concrete wall on either side of him. Huge holes were formed in the structure, and sewage water poured in with solid streams.

SPLASH!!!!

Robin cried out and was sent flying back with his rod.

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Slug was suddenly up and sailing at Robin between the water streams. He sent a blue charged fist across the boy's cheek, a second deep into his stomach, and an elbow into Robin's side.

Soaked and bruised, Robin tumbled up the wall of the pipe and came to a stop at a dry spot. He coughed and wheezed as Slug walked menacingly towards him—his knees deep in the sewage.

"Fleshlings are so pathetic…," Slug smirked. "So unclean and imperfect. Everything you do goes full circle for no logical reason at all. Heh…I'm standing knee deep in you as we speak," he motioned to the crud water below him.

Robin wiped some blood off his lip and gritted his teeth. "You've got one thing right. You're deep in _it_." The Boy Wonder whipped out a blinking birdarang.

Slug's eyes widened.

"HAAA!!" Robin flung the projectile into the sewage water.

The birdarang nestled itself deep into the liquid…blinked one last time…and exploded in a burst of electrical energy.

Slug's half human eyes turned white.

Blue light soared up from the sewage water and fried the air as sparks flew everywhere.

"AAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!"

Robin draped his cape protectively over his figure as the sparks flew.

Slug screamed at the top of his unnatural lungs as lighting filled the interior of the waterlogged, concrete pipe and shook his figure to the breaking point.

_**BZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SNKKKKKKKKTTT!!!!

I gritted my teeth, cutting the last of the lines into the T-Car's roof.

Air pressured vomited back and forth as I forced the chamber open. I cut one last slit and a fresh panel of aluminum flew out from the metallic wound—nearly decapitating me as it got caught in the rushing air over the zooming vehicle.

I reached a desperate hand down and gripped Cyborg's shoulder. I grunted and pulled…pulled…pulled…to get him out.

"_I do not know how many times I must tell you, Titan…"_ Simon's voice said. _"There is nothing to save him from. Cease your efforts now."_

_God……will you just…SHUT UP?!_

I yanked some more, sweated, and looked at my handiwork. I wanted to hit myself. Cyborg was still buckled in.

I reached deep into the T-Car's compartment, grabbed his leather belt, and yanked. As soon as I finally clicked it free…Simon swerved the vehicle by remote.

"!!!!"

I fell over the right side….and dangled by my grip to the inner seat belt. The belt was short, so my arm was forcibly stretched over the side and top of the vehicle towards the inside to which I was tethered.

_"I warned you……_"

The speeding T-Car veered into the right lane….and directly against the side of a pickup truck going the same route.

I was about to be sandwiched—

I took a breath, planted my feet into the car door, blurred, and jolted my lower body up in a flip.

CLANG!!!!

Our vehicle struck the truck with a shower of sparks.

_HONK!! HONK!!_

SCREEECH!!!

The truck swerved away.

My throat gulped…for I was still in mid flip.

I 'landed' on the other side. The seatbelt slacked this time. My feet were touching the ground…and we were going over eighty miles per hour.

My feet blurred with my murk power. For a second or two, I was literally running on the street alongside the T-Car—tethered to it by a leather strap. We zoomed over the crest of a bridge together. My face strained as I 'ran' as fast as I could. I kept trying to leap back onto the car's body. Suddenly, the asphalt beneath me grew thin. I realized Simon was veering the car to the left this time. I had suddenly less and less space between the T-Car to the right and the blurring-by guardrail on the left.

In desperation, I jumped, leapt my feet off the mudguards of the T-Car, and planted my blurred feet into the guardrail. I ran sideways through my momentum for a few seconds. Huffing. Puffing. With a grunt, I blurred off the passing guardrail and flipped back onto the square top of the vehicle.

I had to gasp again…for we were taking an exit ramp off the bridge and a huge, green sign stretched out dangerously low in clearance ahead of us.

I grabbed Myrkblade and looked at the upcoming sign at mach five. At the last second, I realized there was no way in hell I could cut through it that fast.

I let go of the strap completely, clutched onto Myrkblade, and side-jumped off of the T-Car.

I flew over the guardrail, spun my body, and stabbed my blade to the right.

CHUNK!!!

It imbedded hard into a concrete support of the bridge and slid down in a deep cut.

SNKKKKKTT!!

I came to a stop halfway down the pillar, hanging onto the concrete color by my biting myrkblade.

I exhaled and surveyed the scene ahead of me. My heart skipped a beat as I realized the exiting offramp was curving off the bridge, winding around, and stretching down directly beneath me. In less than a second, a familiar set of headlights zoomed down the ramp.

I planted a foot into the pillar, yanked upwards with Myrkblade to pull the sword out, and blurred off with my lower limbs.

I flipped, fell, and landed back on the T-Car. We sped off in the opposite direction than before and at a lower elevation…but at no less a speed.

"_Gloriously annoying…,"_ Simon's voice crackled. _"I'd salute you…but I'm rather busy at the moment."_

The car's brakes abruptly pressure down.

I gasped and was yanked to a loose grip of the front of the car.

The tires swerved.

The car fishtailed and spun across two lanes of opposing traffic. Cars swerved or stopped to miss the vehicle and ended up crashing loudly into each other instead. I gritted my teeth, my world spinning dizzily, my black hair flying in the night air.

CLUNK!!!

We hit a guard rail to another overpass.

…and I lost my grip.

I fell, gasping, over the edge of the bridge.

"_Fairwell, hero……_"

"!!!!"

…..

A story and a half below—in front of a video rental store sandwiched beneath the overpass with a few other old structures—two guys sat in a convertible.

"Okay…for this double-date," the driver said, "..we'll treat the chicks to 'Wicked Scary!'"

"Awww…dude!" the young man in the passenger's seat slouched and sulked. "But you know Wendy doesn't get scared much! She ain't a normal chick, so what's the point!"

"Who's Wendy?"

"My chick."

"No way, Ben, she's mine. Remember our agreement—"

"Just get the damn DVD!"

"Sheesh! Wait here, okay?"

"Like I have a choice," 'Ben' sulked.

The driver left his keys into the ignition and rushed in through the store doors.

Ben sighed. "She likes to hold me when *I'm* scared," he smirked.

_**WHUMP!!!**_

I blinked…having landed upright in the driver's seat.

"AAAH!!" Ben jumped, nearly wetting himself. "What the hell?!"

I looked up at the bridge directly above us. The blue glow of the T-Car sped off towards the edge of the City.

"Where'd you come from?!" the teenage boy exclaimed. A pause. He squinted and then pointed at me, "Say…aren't you that new Titan—?"

CLICK.

He looked down.

I had just buckled him up.

"Um….what's that for—"

I turned the ignition. Pressed the clutch. Shifted gears. And hit it.

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

"WHOAH!!!" Ben flew back in his seat as the convertible suddenly rushed from zero to seventy in six seconds.

I gritted my teeth, concentrated, and shifted gears as we meandered through traffic wildly and soared off towards where the bridge exited into ground-level roads.

"Hey!! HEY HEY HEY HEY!!" Ben raised a finger. "Y-You can't be doing this! This is my best friend's car and if I so much as mark it he'll kill me—WHOAH!!!"

I swerved to the side, causing the car to spin and fishtail before I shifted gears down, reapplied the gas and clutch, and angled us even with an offramp just in the nick of time to pursue the T-Car's speeding bumper. I shifted into higher gear and pressed down hard.

The skin on Ben's face warbled as he was pressed deep into his seat. "AAAAAAAAA_AAAAAA__**AAAAAAH!!!!!**_"

Simon must have known we were catching up, for soon the T-Car was swerving left and right in front of us.

I swerved to follow it…and soon was swerving to miss it.

Simon purposefully slowed the remote vehicle down and started wielding its rear tires and bumper as a wrecking ball…threatening to crush me and the innocent passenger if I got too close.

_I wasn't in the mood for collateral damage._

I swerved aside, carefully handling the stickshift and gritting my teeth.

Ben panted.

The T-Car revved its engines, shot forward, and cut off the front of a minivan. The van spun out of control and swerved towards us.

I yanked the wheel to the left suddenly.

Ben flew into his door. "OOF!!"

We screeched around and past the halting van and gained the distance to the T-Car's rear.

Suddenly, mechanical flaps in back of the wild automobile opened and squirted black oil all over the asphalt.

"Say…that's the Cyborg's car, isn't it?!" Ben remarked. "WHOAH!!"

I swerved to the side, barely skirting the oil, barely missing the scratching contact between the guard rail and the immaculate aluminum of the convertible.

Ben sweated bullets.

The oil ran out.

I swerved back directly behind the T-Car.

Two sets of pipes shot out from hidden compartments in the runaway vehicle.

"Um….," Ben glanced at me. "Is that legal?"

I reached a free hand over and covered his mouth and nostrils.

"Mmmmmffff!!!"

PFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT!!!!

I held my breath as we entered a cloud of smog from the T-Car's defenses. Through my shades, I summoned smoke energy and used construction to part the smog----only to find out that the T-Car was decelerating towards us.

Like tin foil to iron…

I slammed onto the breaks.

Ben leaned forward as I released his mouth. He coughed and wheezed.

I bit my lip and swerved the wheel to the side.

The car spun around a total of three times into oncoming traffic.

Cars around us screeched to a halt. Burning rubber was everywhere.

I shifted down and reapplied the breaks.

The convertible jerked to a stop.

Ben gasped.

I gritted my teeth and stared ahead past the dashboard as the T-Car took an onramp….up and onto the highway.

"Oh no….," Ben whimpered and looked at me. "No man…no no no no no no NO NO!!!"

I shifted up.

I slammed down on the gas.

"MOMMY!!!!!!!!" Ben squealed.

We sped directly into the moonlight, then evened out onto the elevated highway. We soared through the acceleration lane, screwed the yield sign, and zoomed after the rocket-on-wheels that was the T-Car down the four lanes of nightly traffic.

Headlights traced past us along with maniacal honkings as we played our deadly cat and mouse game at ninety-plus miles an hour. The T-Car was an exceptionally fast vehicle…built to be lightning in blue form. It rocketed ahead of us, veering in and around trucks and sports cars and other citizens' automobiles.

I wasn't about to let Cyborg be taken away. I swerved desperately in and around traffic. A string of semis blocked my course to the left at one point, so I went offroad—bumping once or twice from asphalt to grass and back to asphalt.

"Look out!!!" Ben pointed.

A broken down car and a tow-truck zoomed up at us.

I swerved to the left.

Ben covered his eyes.

SWOOOSH!!!

The crane of the tow truck nearly clipped our heads off.

I gulped and pressed harder on the gas.

Still not fast enough.

I concentrated.

Smoke danced off my shoulders, murked down my arms, coursed through my fingers, danced off the steering wheel, poured into the ignition, swam through the alternator, giggled along wires, jumped into the engine, and exploded in a bulb of dark energy at the tip of the spark plug….again…again…and _again_.

VroooOOOOOO_OOOO__**OOOOOOM!!!!!!!**_

"Sweet jebus!" Ben whimpered and held tightly to an emergency bar on the doorframe as we rocketed at an unnatural speed past cars in adjacent lanes and gradually caught up with the T-Car. The tires screamed and burned. The engine wailed. Ben was afraid to even look at the speedometer.

I glanced—sweating—through my vibrating shades and saw an offramp up ahead, just in front of where the highway overpass swerved left. I looked back at the T-Car. I had a plan.

I poured more murk into the engine.

We accelerated.

The car would have caught fire…

We zoomed past the T-Car.

It swerved to hit us.

We pulled out ahead at the nick of time.

The T-Car struck the front of a semi-truck engine, forcing the trailer to jackknife and halt all traffic behind us to a screeching end.

Now it was just us and the T-Car.

I took a deep breath. I gripped hard to the wheel and clutch.

"Um….."

3….

"Sir?"

2…

"Wh-What are you doing?"

1…

"S-Sir?!"

0.

"Don't you ever talk—_AAAAAH_!!"

I hit the clutch, shifted all the way down, and spun madly at the wheel.

The car screeched a one hundred and eighty degree spin on its wheels.

I hit the clutch, shifted in reverse, and reapplied the gas.

VRUUUUUUUM!!!!

The convertible sped backwards—speeding in reverse—with us facing the front of the T-Car's glaring headlights over the dashboard.

"Holy crap….holy crap holy crap holy crap!" Ben shuddered. "We are NOT going backwards at ninety miles an hour on a highway!!"

_We were._

I gripped the wheel tightly with one hand, driving backwards. With the free hand, I lifted Myrkblade overhead. Ben cowered as I twirled the weapon in one hand like a baton, charging it with black energy.

The T-Car revved its engines and zoomed straight down on us.

I squinted one black eye.

Smoke warbled through Myrkblade.

HONK!! HONK!!

I gasped and launched it over the dashboard like a javelin.

SWOOOOOSH-CHUNK!!!

It embedded itself deep inside the metal bumper of the T-Car. It vibrated with smoking energy…but didn't discharge. _Waiting…....._

Similar smoke drifted out from under my shades. I gritted my teeth, swerved right on the steering wheel, and hit the breaks.

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!

"OH SH--!!!" Ben almost vomited.

The convertible spun wildly.

I steered at the last second, making us spin down the offramp and out of the T-Car's zooming way.

We screeched to a stop about ten feet below the curve of the overpass.

I took a breath, meditated, and flicked a wrist.

A stream of smoke shot forward.

The dark energy channeled into Myrkblade released.

SWOOSH!!!

Smoke and murk blurred out from the T-Car's bumper, forming a ramp that sent the vehicle sailing up off the asphalt, losing control, and smashing through the guard rail of the highway's turn.

CRASH!!!!

In slow motion, the T-Car zoomed out into the open air and directly over us. Pieces of the guard rail slammed into the ground on either side.

I jumped up, planted my feet on the back of the driver's seat, and shot murk out of my lower limbs. I zoomed directly upwards like a black comet, grabbed ahold of the wooden blade sticking out of the airborne T-Car's bumper, tightened my wrists, and swung myself up and back onto the hood of the remotely controlled vehicle in time for us to land with a shower of sparks and go careening down the streets leading out of the City.

Time resumed.

Ben watched as I rode the wild vehicle off into the distance.

The convertible hummed to silence…not a single dint on it.

He took a deep breath and slumped back into his seat.

"Whew….."

Just then, a distracted bicyclist pedaled straight into the convertible.

CLANG!!!

Scraaaaaatch!

"ACK! Look what you did!! My best friend's car! You son of a---"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sparks died down.

Robin flung the cape off him, stood up, and looked down from the dry side of the concrete pipe.

An electric bolt or two jumped up from the river of sludge and sewage water. Then everything was silent. Empty.

Slug was nowhere to be seen.

"Bon voyage…," Robin saluted. He whipped out a grappling hook, aimed through the open grate above, and lifted himself out of the pipe.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Beast Boy led the pack of panicked workers downstairs to an abandoned prison corridor. A long, dark-lit hall stretched before them—laden with bricks—and with rusted jail cells emptily lining the sides and ends. At the far side was a touch of moonlight and—thus—an exit.

"Through there!" Starfire pointed. "Get as far away from the prison as you can! You will be safe!"

BANG!

PING!

A single bullet landed against the brick besides the Tamaranian.

"EEP!" she flinched.

The workers gasped.

Beast Boy looked over, mouth agape.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Reload beamed from the far end of the old corridor. "I've got a lot to catch up on my community service," and she aimed at the throng of innocent people.

Starfire growled, eyes glowing green, and she launched a fiery starbolt down the hallway. It lit up the abandoned cells like an emerald comet.

Reload retracted her guns, glowed red-orange eyes, and produced a scimitar out of mid-air that spun and batted the starbolt away.

CLANG!!

Starfire threw another energy projectile.

Reload spun the scimitar and slashed forward, knocking it back towards Starfire.

FLASH!!

Bricks flew. The workers cried out.

"Get out of here!" Beast Boy shouted at them.

Everyone made a mad dash towards the exit.

Reload giggled evilly, pivoted her wrist guns into position, and took aim. "Like shooting pescado en un barril…."

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Everyone flinched…including the heroes.

The bulletstream sailed through the air and exploded…a few feet before they could hit the victims.

Reload's eyes twitched.

A black curtain of energy had stretched out between her and the targets.

Reload growled and spun around.

A huge onyx fist materialized in the air and struck her across the head.

SMACK!!

"UGH!!" the half human fell back.

Raven lowered to the ground and stood before her at a long distance.

Starfire and Beast Boy beamed.

Reload got up—wincing--and spat. "Bruja!!"

"Speak English," Raven scowled.

"I think I'll plug a bullet into each of your eyesockets and set off the blasting caps from a distance," she grinned. "Then maybe I'll remove your kidneys with a bayonet and feed them to you while your face is bleeding too much to shed tears." The woman cackled, cocked her guns, and struck a pose. "Sounds painful, verdad?"

Raven frowned. "You don't know pain." Her eyes glowed. She lifted her arms. Her cape billowed.

The corridor shook and turned doubly dark. An invisible wind kicked up.

Starfire blinked.

Beast Boy gulped and forced the workers out finally.

Raven walked forward slowly—one boot placed gracefully in front of the other. Her arms raised like skeletal, blue wings. Eyes glowed a bright gray.

Reload grit her teeth and aimed both arm guns at the dark Titan.

Raven's wrists pivoted.

A set of rusted jail bars rattled in its brick foundation, snapped out of the hold, and sailed out into the corridor, striking Reload.

WHANG!!

"AUGH!!" the woman toppled back, wincing.

Raven twisted her wrists again.

Another set of bars shook to life. Covered in black energy.

Reload growled and aimed again.

The bars ripped out of wall, dragging brick with them in mid air, and struck Reload against her back.

SMACK!!

"OOF!!" Reload stumbled forward, dizzily regained her footing, and shouted: "No vas a vencer mi!!!"

Raven's glowing eyes thinned. "Let's test your _metal_."

The winded picked up.

She floated into the air.

Every cell along the corridor rattled.

In an instant, all the bars ripped out of the walls, congealed into one cyclonical mass of floating metal in the center of the hallway, and rushed towards Reload like a giant snake of rust.

"AAAAAAAUGH!!" Reload raised her hands and fired madly at the stream of metal.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

The gunfire ate its way into the wall of spinning, flying bars, but eventually the bullets were all either deflected or shattered as the invading, metallic monster slithered its way in mid air into Reload.

CLANG!!

"OOF!!" she was tossed back, shoved over the dirty floor, and thrown—screaming—into an open cell beyond Starfire and Beast Boy.

Raven gritted her teeth and crossed her arms.

On command, the telekinetically charged metal squashed itself over the entrance to the one cell housing Reload. Thunder echoed throughout the prison as the metal slammed to a stop, crumpled under Raven's forces, and compacted itself into one, huge, rusted prison door.

Then…silence. Not even Reload's loud mouth.

Raven landed to the ground. Her eyes returned to normal as she dusted her hands off and walked away. "No parole…"

Beast Boy ran up. "Yeah! Raven!" he hopped with a cheer. "You can be our warden any day!"

"Most glorious intervention!" Starfire added.

Raven looked at the two. "Have either of you heard from Cyborg or Noir?"

"No," Starfire shook her head. "The last we heard of them, Robin was trying to make contact."

"Oh man….are they missing or something??" Beast Boy uttered.

"Looks that way…," Raven said.

"I'd have to agree," spoke a voice behind them.

The three Titans turned to see Robin land down from a stairwell into a crouch, stand up, and walk over to them. "I've lost track of Slug, though I think I put him into pretty bad shape. Looks like you three have taken care of Reload here."

"Yes…," Raven droned. "'Us three'."

Beast Boy glared.

"Then…we are victorious?" Starfire uttered.

Raven sniffed the air, made a face, and muttered: "Hardly."

Robin looked at her funny.

SMASH!!!!

Slug landed down through the brick ceiling.

The four Titans jumped back.

Slug stood up, slowly. He had burn marks all over from the electrical shock. What's worse, his metal and human skin was dripping with sewage. He was still wet. "That….," he uttered and shook a few droplets off. "…smelled like crap."

Beast Boy gulped. "So does this."

Slug growled and charged at the four, his blue limbs blazing.

"Titans!" Robin pointed. "GO!"

And the four met the charge.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!

I took a deep breath, leaned over atop the speeding T-Car, and tried again.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

After two consecutive tries, I just couldn't puncture the tire with Myrkblade. The vehicle's tires were simply constructed beyond the normal constraints of durability.

I took a deep breath, charged up murk, summoned it through the length of my sword, and stabbed down hard.

POP!!!-FFFFFF!!!

The T-Car thu-thumped down to a speed twenty miles per hour less than before after I successfully ripped apart its front left tire.

I smiled in conquest momentarily before---

SHLUMP!!!

The tire magically reinflated.

VROOOOOM!!

The T-Car regained its maddening speed.

I gasped.

_"My nephew has created the most remarkable feat of engineering_," Simon's voice said. _"Not even you can undermine his prowess."_

I frowned. I had had enough. I re-gripped Myrkblade, held it up over my head, and prepared to stab deep into the vehicle's engine compartment.

Simon must have sensed what I was up to—however he was monitoring me during this wild wide.

"_One last measure, Titan_," he said. "_I've been saving it for a rainy day._"

He swerved to the right, cutting off three lanes of traffic. Cars swerved and honked as I struggled desperately to cling onto my position atop the hood. We sailed through the air for a split second as we zoomed downhill then regained our momentum on the asphalt.

_"Plug your ears…"_

I looked ahead. My black eyes widened under the shades.

Ahead of us was a tunnel set underneath a hill on the outskirts of town. It was only two lanes.

A peculiar smell filled the air.

I sniffed, and realized it was coming from the rear of the T-Car.

And I remembered…_the nitro!_

_Aw crap……aw crap aw crap aw crap!_

I looked desperately around me.

We were passing cars, swerving in front of others, and generally causing a huge ruckus amongst the tunnel-bound traffic.

Then I saw a red pickup truck ahead to the right. I craned my neck and gasped to see what was in the bed of the truck. Lumber and loose chains.

I poised myself on the back of the T-Car, and at the right moment, I pounced off—landed atop a sports car—and agilely leapt into the back of the pickup truck with a THUMP!

I grabbed a handful of chains, wrapped them around my right arm, and—quick as lightning—jumped off the truck onto a jeep, leapt onto a minivan, slid down to the hood and jumped back onto the rear of the T-Car, barely making it onto the trunk.

_"You're playing a dangerous game, Titan…_"

The nitro thrusted yawned open in front of my face. It started glowing orange.

I gasped and scrambled to the top of the T-Car.

We approached the mouth of the tunnel.

I loosened the chain in my grasp and held Myrkblade out.

We zoomed towards the entrance. I could already hear the echoes of honks around us.

I wrapped the chain around the middle of my wooden sword and formed a 'knot'.

SWOOSH!!!

The tunnel's ceiling rushed over us.

I sat up straight. My heart skipped a beat.

_"It's been a nice drive, Noir. Fairwell."_

FWOOOOOOOM!!!

The nitro lit.

The thin air inside the tunnel heated up.

The T-Car passed the one hundred and eighty mile per hour mark and streaked like a blue kamikaze towards the vehicles ahead.

I was literally flailing at the end of rear bumpers, gripping on for dear life as the nitro burned just a foot or two over my head and we approached a semi-truck trailer.

I gritted my teeth and prepared myself, keeping a tight hold to the chain and Myrkblade.

As I expected, Simon swerved T-Car to the right. The accelerated vehicle literally ran up the wall with its monumental speed, angled over, and zoomed over the ceiling.

_Two hundred and thirty miles an hour…_

When I could no longer hold onto the burning metal, I dropped down and landed with my back against the semi-truck trailer. Upside down, I let momentum slide me along the white metal roof of the trailer, during which time slowed down for me to spin the myrkblade by the chain over my head, aim, and fling the smoke-charged object at the rocketing T-Car overhead.

SWOOOOOSH-SMASH!!!

Myrkblade smashed through the rear window and into the nitro-ing vehicle's interior.

I yanked back.

CLANK!!!

The length of the blade acted as an anchor and held firm against the thin hole it had formed in the window.

My whole body was pulled like a rag doll off the semi truck.

I twirled about in mid air as I came off the trailer. My feet planted down onto the hood of the engine and snapped off the clear, plastic bug guard.

The T-Car veered left and angled itself back onto earth.

CRAAACK!!

I landed on the ground, my feet planted firmly against the plastic bug guard sheet which--due to the speed of the asphalt passing beneath me—acted as waveboard of sorts that kept my blurred feet from grinding into the ground. I held myself tethered at a distance of twenty feet with the chain wrapped around my right arm and with my left hand gripping hold.

The T-Car swerved in and out of traffic. I slid directly behind it, pivoting my legs and letting sparks and gravel fly as I 'surfed' between cars and motorists along the length of my chain.

As the nitro began to die out, the T-Car swerved around and in front of a commercial bus.

I was careening towards the length of the transport vehicle.

I gritted my teeth, blurred smoke beneath me, and leapt myself and the plastic board up—grinding vertically against the side of the bus. Passengers inside shrieked and ducked as I surfed over the windows, cracking them into a million fractures. I winced and formed a shield of smoke around me just as I smashed through the side mirror, which went flying against the wall of the tunnel with a CLANK!

I leapt off the edge of the bus and landed back on the asphalt with the plastic board. I pulled myself forward on the chain to gain distance.

The T-Car swerved again, forcing me to head directly towards a sports car.

Desperate, I took a breath and leapt off the plastic sheet. I flew over the car. The sheet slid under the car. We both met on the other side. _SCRAAAAPE!!_ I continued sliding after the T-Car.

It swerved again, and the momentum forced me up towards the tunnel's right wall. I gasped, blurred my left foot, and tossed the sheet up into my grasp in time for me to contact the wall with my legs. My feet dashed a mile a minute against the blurring wall while the hot plastic sheet burned in my left grasp, causing me to wince. As the T-Car angled out towards the exit, I leapt off the wall, flipped, tossed the sheet beneath me, and resumed sliding on my tether over asphalt.

WOOOSH!!!

We exited the tunnel and the road took a sharp right turn along a hillside. I flew right into a thick guardrail.

I leapt in the nick of time and grinded the plastic sheet along the length of the guardrail, curving around to match the T-Car's turn. Miraculously, my grinding helped me catch up with the T-Car's slowed speed from the turn. When there was no guardrail left, I leapt forward with a charge of smoke, let out a silent yell, and managed to land back on the rear of the T-Car.

I took a deep breath, yanked at the chain hard, and managed to snap the shattered window out from its frame. I regripped Myrkblade, shook the chain off it, and snaked into the rear seat of the T-Car. For the first time since this crazy chase began, I was back inside the interior of the automobile. I immediately reached for Cyborg's shoulder to drag him out.

"_No you don't."_

The seat beneath me shook.

The ceiling opened up.

I gasped and dashed aside.

FWOOOMP!!!

The left rear ejector seat went off, nearly searing my leg.

The seat I was on started to shake.

I jumped off immediately.

FWOOOOMP!!!

The right rear seat ejected.

I gritted my teeth and dove madly towards the front of the car, Myrkblade first.

I jabbed it hard into the dashboard, stabbing closer and closer into the alternator. Sparks flew. The lights flickered.

"_Enough…_"

The T-Car swerved to the side.

I tumbled.

The right passenger door yanked open and I flew out.

I rolled on the asphalt, jumped up, and landed directly in front of the T-Car in a ready position as if nothing happened.

I panted…panted…panted.

The T-Car faced me with glaring headlights.

I panted.

Its engine revved.

I glared.

_"I lied, Titan…_" Simon said. "_I do have another last measure. One I was hoping you wouldn't force me to use."_

With a mechanical whur, a panel in the top of the T-Car opened up and Cyborg's patented photon cannon appeared, glowing at me.

_"The force of this gun's blast is sufficient enough to match my nephew's laser rifle,_" Simon's voice said over the speakers. _"It would be a shame to see what it could do. Not necessarily to you, Noir, but to those around you._"

I gasped.

I looked around at my surroundings for the first time.

We were in an intersection at the border of City limits. To my left was a gas station where I could see a few patrons. Behind me was a huge plaza with a Wal-Mart and one or two fast food restaurants. To my right was an entrance to a retirement home. To top it all off, each road of the intersection was full of stopped cars. Drivers and passengers looked out with a mixture of curiosity and fear at the unfolding situation before me.

_"What's it going to be, Titan?"_ Simon's voice said. _"Let's not end this day with an unnecessary massacre."_

I glared angrily at the car through my shades…as if I could see the man's face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAUGH!!" Slug punched Robin hard, sending the Boy Wonder flying.

Starfire flew over him in the corridor, launching Starbolts.

Slug blocked with his metallic forearms.

Just then, his right arm was covered in black obsidian and lifted him into the air.

Slug gasped and glared over at a floating Raven with glowing eyes.

The villain looked down and saw a metal bar on the floor. Before he was out of reached, he kicked the object up with his boot, grabbed it in his hand, charged it with blue energy and tossed it at Raven.

The girl's eyes widened.

On the ground, Robin stood up, shouted, and tossed a birdarang.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!

The object barely deflected the metal bar from striking Raven's face. A shower of sparks from the impact struck her eyes and forced her to drop Slug with a cry.

No sooner was the villain on the ground that a green T-rex bore down on him.

Slug lifted his blue-charged limbs and gripped the T-rex's mouth. The two struggled as Beast Boy tried to bite down on him and Slug tried to force him back.

Raven rubbed her eyes.

Starfire circled ahead.

Robin stood up, painfully.

In the background—unknown to them—the metal door formed by Raven's manipulation of the metal bars started to shake. They suddenly exploded outward from the pressure of constant bulletfire.

Growling, Reload emerged from her 'cell' and glared over at the four Titans battling her partner.

She looked over and saw a circuit breaker against the wall.

She hobbled over, punched the thing open with a grunt, and shoved her hand into the mess of old, rotting wires.

_They were still live._

BZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!

Sparks flew. Her end of the corridor lit up.

Reload gritted her teeth as she channeled wave after wave of electrical energy through her fingers and into her body. Her eyes glowed a hot red/orange.

She brought her hands out—sparking—and yelled as she summoned a huge wave of transfer. Soon, she had a huge metal object in her grasp. A rocket launcher.

"SLUG!!!" she howled.

The villain and the T-Rex looked over.

"BARBECUE TIME!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

Starfire gasped and pointed. "Look out!!"

_**POW!!!!**_

Slug took advantage of the Beast Boy's shock by shoving the T-Rex's snout into the ground. He made a mad dash for the far side of the corridor.

The rocket flew.

_**SHOOOOOOM!!!**_

"Titans! Move!" Robin shouted.

Raven had her eyes shut.

Beast Boy was stuck on the ground between animal modes.

Robin was limping.

And Starfire…rushed into the fray to help one of them.

_**FWOOOOOM!!!**_

A fireball exploded above them, and huge pieces of brick and concrete fell down on the Titans' prone figures.

Bathing them…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Time to choose, Titan…_," Simon's voice said through the speakers. "_You can have my nephew…but you can have the lives of innocent dozens—even hundreds on your head._"

I glared at the T-Car, my body heaving.

The vehicle squared off against me. Its photon cannon charged.

Silence.

The bystanders looked on fearfully.

I took a deep breath.

I sheathed Myrkblade.

"_Smart boy…,_" Simon's voice said. The photon cannon retracted and the engine revved again. _"Your heroics will go down in the annals of……something. Though, you can't trust me to tell you which. I hope you and Cyborg will meet again someday. I truly hope you do. So long."_

The T-Car spun about, screeched its tires, and sped down the road and out of the City.

I clenched my fists. I watched the vehicle and its headlights zoom towards the horizon.

I sighed and looked down between my feet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Shouts and pounding.

Robin groaned. He slowly opened his eyes.

He was lying on his back in the center of the main prison corridor of the place. The other Titans were lying unconscious beside him.

On either side of him, convicts banged against the cell bars and shouted at the Titans and their captors.

Before he had a chance to struggle, Reload finished forging metal handcuffs around his arms from out of thin air.

He glared at her.

She blew him a kiss, smiled, and walked over towards a cell where Slug stood, holding Robin's utility belt.

"What….are you here for?" Robin wheezed.

"Well, for you Titans, naturally," Slug spoke. "It was a marvelous trap…not without its fair share of challenges, I must say. You should be commended."

"Cyborg….Noir….," Robin coughed and managed to say. "You two must know where they are. What have you done to them?"

"Exactly what must be done…," said a familiar voice. Simon Stone walked up from the background and sighed down at Robin. "I'm really sorry things had to happen this way, young leader. I really am."

"You betrayed us…," Robin gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I bet you're sorry."

Simon's face was melancholy. "If only you knew the truth." He looked over at Reload and Slug and spoke with a nod, "Let's get this over with…"

"Like I said, Titan," Slug smiled and reached into the Boy Wonder's utility belt. He pulled out a fancy, universal key which the young Titan used for covert operations. "We got exactly what we came here for." He handed it to Reload.

Reload smiled, took the key, and opened up a nearby cell.

The convicts shouted vulgarities and utterances of confusion.

The inmates inside the cell stood up as the metal door opened.

Robin watched, squinting through his eyemask.

Slug stepped into the dark cell.

An inmate stretched his arms out before him, grinning: "Take me, honey, I'm yours!"

The others laughed.

Slug effortlessly shrugged the one into the wall. "Settle down, Junior. You're not worth this trip." He sauntered over to a frail, sleeping figure in the far cot. "Mr. Anderson…your ride is here."

Slowly, the old man turned over. Sleepy eyes graced Slug from under a bald head. He slowly smiled. "It's about time…," he wheezed.

He stood up as Slug guided him out. A convict ran up, protesting. Slug merely elbowed his face in, quieting all the others in the cell.

Robin watched them emerge. He saw Mr. Anderson's face.

"The man from Westhaven…," Robin gasped. "The opera house…"

"The rule of the game, kid," Anderson smirked, "…is to always have a backup plan."

Robin's face twisted. "The heck is going on here?"

WHUMP!!

Slug kicked the Boy Wonder in the stomach and leaned down over his wheezing figure. "Refit, Titan. Refit."

Robin coughed. "R-Refit?!"

Simon lowered his head. "Exactly…," he looked over at Anderson. "Sir…my nephew is waiting for us at your laboratory."

"Cyborg….right?"

"Victor…," Simon glared.

Mr. Anderson walked up and firmly pointed to Simon's chest. "Watch. It."

Simon didn't stop frowning.

Anderson looked at Reload.

Reload smiled and closed the cell door.

"Let's get going…," the balding man muttered. "And take the Titans with us!"

"Gladly," Slug smirked and hoisted Robin and Raven over his shoulders.

Reload took the rest while Simon followed the exiting party close behind.

The footsteps and the shoutings rocked their way into Robin's head.

And the Boy Wonder went unconscious again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WHURRRRRRRR!!_

The huge entrance doors to the Tower slowly opened.

I limped in, wincing all over. I tried for the umpteenth time to contact Robin through morse code on my communicator.

No response.

I sighed and looked up the length of the Tower's Interior.

I froze.

No Simon.

No Titans.

_No lights._

_What's going on here?_

I limped my way into the elevator and took it to the Main Room.

The monitors inside were still on. That brought me some relief. But the lights overhead were dim and flashing read for some reason.

_Hmmmm…_

I shuffled slowly into the room, looking around.

Nobody was there.

_Are they still at the prison?_

I looked at the main computer screen and its monitor. The image of a word processing program was up. Three words were splayed across the screen.

I walked up slowly, took off my shades, and squinted with black eyes.

'_I AM SORRY'_

The words were in a gentlemanly font.

_Simon…_

I hesitantly pressed the ESC key on the keyboard.

The screen brightened as the window of an important program flashed before my eyes and stabbed deep into my optics with the glaring digital confirmation:

_**'TITAN TOWER MAIN POWER CORE'**_

'_**SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE IN EFFECT'**_

'_**COUNTDOWN TIMER: 00 Hours 00 Minutes 07 Seconds'**_


	34. Stone Golem part 6

**34. Stone Golem part 6**

"Honestly…what do you need them for? They have nothing that you need. There's no point in keeping them here."

"Believe me when I tell you this, Stone. These youngsters are more trouble to me in one piece. As soon as I can have them where I want, I have the upper hand. I have….security."

"It's not too late to reconsider. It's not too late to relocate them and avoid any possible confron—"

"You're a peaceful man, Stone. Quite betraying of your use to me. If you had been where I have, you would understand my lack of mercy. Prison is not a friendly environment for anyone…much less a man of such old age and frailty at myself."

"You've only done it to yourself, sir."

"Watch what you say. I can change that, you know."

"…."

"Where is your nephew?"

"Your thugs should be carting them in shortly."

"Slug and Reload have been most useful. I should reward them."

"Deactivation?"

"I was thinking of a system upgrade, but that would do."

"Believe me, sir…even cybernetic people need a chance to rest."

"All life thinks it _needs_ rest. So much so, that death is becoming a less and less arguable alternative to heartbeat and breathing. All my life, I knew I was built for immortality. I only needed to find out what matter to build with. That's where you come in."

"That's where I'm _forced_ in."

"Testy testy, Stone. You'll reap the benefits yourself in due time. I swear it."

"…."

"What is it?"

"One of the Titans. He's waking."

"Who?"

"The leader."

Robin stirred away and opened his eyes from under his mask. He winced, twisted his neck, and blinked over at a pair of shadows in an immensely white aura.

"Wha……?"

"Don't be so surprised, Robin," Simon Stone said. He walked over and performed a few tests on Robin's vital signs with a deadpan expression. "Your heart rate has been lowered chemically at the present moment. As has the motor functions of the other Titans here with you. My serum's keeping you from acting aggressively. It must hold your temper at bay…I know how tragic that must be for the Boy Wonder."

Nevertheless, Robin managed to grit his teeth frowned. "Somehow….this was coming. Raven saw it. And I bet Cyborg saw it too. But I believed in you too much to believe it, Stone. You betrayed us….you betrayed us because I let you."

"He acquired his own nephew for me because I told him to," said Mr. Anderson, walking forward. The white lights of the mysterious place shined off his bald head and enhanced the wrinkles of his face and arms. "Don't feel so deceived. Mainly, just defeated."

Robin tried moving his limbs. Everything felt sluggish. He was afraid he'd faint if he so much as wiggled his toes. He managed to look down, however, and found his entire body standing vertically in a metal stretcher built into the wall.

But where???

"Anderson…," he mumbled. "How does an old man like you manage to get his hands so dirty?" He looked back up. "Was teaming up with Killer Moth and threatening the lives of hundreds inside an opera house a mere joke to you?"

"Oh no, Titan," Anderson breathed with a wrinkled smile. "It was well worth the education of the experience. My days in Westhaven were bound to come to one close or another. I just didn't expect it to blow up in my face the way it is. But even in my seventies, I suppose life is still bent on torturing me with surprises." He paced over towards the center of the room as everything became clearer to Robin. _A laboratory. No windows. Metal everywhere._ "But long before Westhaven's plot began…," the old villain continued, "…I focused all my energies here. I wanted to find the ultimate answer to immortality. Be it something solved by science, alchemy, or paranormal essence. I just _had_ to have the answer. Life is too short a play with too heavy of a curtain over our heads," he said as he glanced at the Titan from afar. "Enjoy your young life of hopping from building to building and pummeling purse snatchers, Titan. When you're my age, you may become evil yet. Life forces you—at some point or another—to become evil."

"Biggest definition I ever heard for a coward," Robin managed to spit.

Anderson frowned. He then smiled, "Evolutionists have it wrong, Titan. It's not survival of the fittest. It's survival of the richest. I was blessed at teenagehood by inheriting my parents' fortune. I invested in many things—the Westhaven Opera House being one. But I've also had shares in Wayne Enterprises, LexCorp, Powers, and STAR Labs."

"…..," Robin stared. He looked over at Simon Stone.

Cyborg's uncle looked to the floor.

"I first met Simon Stone seven years ago…," Anderson said. "He was in quite a pinch then. His brother had just lost his wife to a mishap in the laboratory. A mishap that also left his brother's son in a critical condition that required experimental cybernetics to save his life. Silas and Simon Stone worked hard around the clock…and the son, Victor Stone, was saved. He became Cyborg; the ultimate creation of mankind's ingenuity, science, and funding. But in the case of the latter, the Stones were desperate. Silas was a shy man; not one to beg for money—even if it meant the preservation of his offspring's life. But Simon….dear Simon….now that's a man of desperation. He knew he and his brother needed money. And he knew he needed it fast."

"So he went to you….," Robin muttered tiredly.

"So I went to him." Simon confirmed with a touch of bitterness.

Anderson ignored him. "Simon searched far and wide across Metropolis for a bidder. He ended up in a high paying job for Lex Luthor. Now, official records have little to say on this…but…Luthor is hardly an honest man."

Robin glared. "Tell me something I don't know."

Anderson smiled wrinkly. "Good to see we're on the same page, Titan." He cleared his throat and continued: "Luthor was working on a secret project then. An operation involving electrosurgery and a former henchman named John Corbin."

Robin breathed: "Metallo…"

"Metallo was gifted with the most advanced technology, durable alloys, and rare kryptonite the planet could offer," Anderson said. "But what it needed was geniuses to put all the puzzle pieces together. Simon was one such key. He and the other experts worked on the project. And as a result, Luthor paid them….generously. You see, Titan, Cyborg was built on blood money. Life comes full circle when it comes to evil. There is a bit of infamy in each and every one of us. Including you 'heroes'."

"What does Lexcorp have anything to do with Simon being your lackey?"

Stone glared at Robin.

Anderson spoke: "I was a shareholder in the project. When Corbin—Metallo bombed out and went to Intergang, I secretly sued Luthor for selling me false securities in the endeavor. It took a lot of red tape, but my lawyers are priceless. The multi-billionaire of Metropolis actually **owed** me something. But he had nothing to pay me with…except…lives."

"They threatened me," Simon said with a touch of exhaustion and melancholy. "Everyone I knew and everyone I worked with were the pawns of Luthor and Anderson. If I had any idea the project I was working on would build an incarnation such as Metallo to begin with, then such would be an evil to keep me from the experiment. But I didn't know. It was too late…"

"And to save yourself, you're willing to give up your own nephew?!" Robin frowned. Yelling made him dizzy. "For what purpose?!"

"It's not as simple as that!" Simon spat. "Nothing's ever simple anymore!"

"Simon Stone belongs to me," Anderson said with a nod of the head. "His talents and his genius is mine to command."

Robin took one look at the dark-skinned scientist before glaring back at Anderson. "We are never *owned*, Anderson. We are merely coerced by large headed oafs who crap in their pants at the first sign of danger and hide behind those who are smarter, stronger, and more honorable than themselves."

A moment of silence ensued. Not even Stone dared to speak and interrupt Anderson's fuming response of quietness.

The old man eventually said: "I had no choice to fall back onto this plan," he glared. "You Titans ruined everything. All I needed was a little more money. _More Money!_ Then survival would be in my hands. Nobody at the opera house would have been hurt. The authorities would have responded to my threat monetarily, and I would be safely out of your country and out of your hair to pursue my experiments with Immortality. But no, you had to intervene. All of my projects were lost because of you. All of my chances for success. All of which were without risk and without endangerment to every other humanoid who walks this planet ignorant of the falling sky in all its fickle wonder. All except for this last card I had in the deck. All along, I knew it would work. But in applying it…I would have to dig my nose deep into the very hearts of the Titans. A dirty task that I didn't look forward to. But when I saw my imprisonment imminent, I realized I had no other alternative. So I sent a command to Simon. I summoned Reload and Slug. I set all the clockwork into motion for the hacking of the Tower's mainframe and the capture of Cyborg. And if things worked out all right—and they did—my release from prison would be the final factor. The measures have all been met. All the pieces are in play. It's just a matter of time before this grandest of experiments is complete, and I'm one step closer to shedding the legacy of this disgusting, crumbling body of mine."

"What do you plan on doing to Cyborg?" Robin growled.

"You should be more concerned as to what we'll be doing to the rest of you," Anderson paced over to Robin's unconscious teammates in their restraints. "With Simon working for me, there's no telling what I can make out of you superheroes. Incredibly gifted cybernetic individuals, you will each become. Each just as useful to me as the two thugs that did you in. Even more useful." He stopped in front of Beast Boy's unconscious form and scratched his chin. "I think we'll start with this one. He was—after all—the most obnoxious foil of my efforts at Westhaven to get my money. I think I'd turn him into a robot tiger….or a titanium deer to go hunting down over and over again in the woods."

Robin glared, frowning.

Anderson smiled over at him. He walked over to Starfire's body. "Or the legendary alien girl. My, she's almost too pretty to enhance with prosthetics! But I'm sure there are plenty of clients out there who could make use out of a metallically durable version of her. Very happy clients indeed…"

"Shut your damn mouth!!" Robin shook, even startling Stone. "You're not going to get away with this! You've used and abused one too many people! I won't let you do this!!" The more he shouted…the more dizzy he became. The serum ate into him.

"Oh, I do believe I made him mad," Anderson chuckled.

"Do you hear me?!" Robin spat. The laboratory blurred before him. "You won't get away with this! You won't get away with this. You won't….g-get away…."

The world spun. Everything turned dark.

Anderson laughed and Simon sighed.

Robin's head fell. He knew he was passing out and he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

But one thought flew through his mind. A thought of desperation.

Their wildcard…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……"

Slowly, I sat up.

I shook my head and took a deep breath---realizing my lungs were empty.

I keeled over and gasped, hacked, and eventually panted for breath over and over again.

I looked up weakly at the computer console of the Main Room.

It stood above me, spark one or two more times before going dead with a touch of smoke and burnt air.

I heaved and fell back, staring at the ceiling and regaining my exhausted breath.

It took one of the seven seconds of the self-destruct countdown for my brain to resonate the danger at hand.

It took two of the seven seconds to input a course of action into my body.

At three of the seven seconds, I was concentrating murk and smoke energy throughout my limbs.

At four of the seven, I had teleported in smoke form directly into the computer mainframe through the crevices outside the hardware.

Five of the seven, I meandered rapidly in and around wires.

Six of the seven, I located the computer chip responsible for the self destruct sequence.

At seven seconds, I managed to sever it completely with an intense teleportation of my powers.

One second later, I exploded out of the cracks of the computer and switched back into human form.

I had used my teleportation powers to their absolute limit. It wore me out beyond imagination. I must have been unconscious for a good twenty minutes before I could consciously observe my actions.

The Tower had been saved. It no longer mattered to me how in the heck Simon was smart enough to hack into the system and initiate the command to freakin' _explode_, but I had silenced the matter. Robin and crew could thank me later….then beat me over the head afterwards for discovering I had royally screwed up the computer's motherboard in the act.

Eventually, I regained energy. I put my shades back on, limply stood up, and stared at the screen. I sighed, big time. My feet shuffled me over to the windows and I stared out at the expansive Bay and City before me.

_I don't get it…_

I thought to myself.

_That was……too predictable._

I glanced over at the burned out computer station.

_Simon entered the self-destruct sequence. But……_

I glanced at the monitor and looked back through my short term memory.

_He left me a note. He said he was sorry._

I stared out the window again.

_He must have known someone would come here._

A beat.

_He must also have known that someone could stop the self destruct sequence._

The discovery of the self-destruct sequence in effect was surprising. But I was merely thrown off guard for a short time. It was not a matter of questioning _if_ I could have halted it like I did with my powers. But a question of _when_ or _with how much time_. Simon must have known….he must have known that I'd be there at the Tower in time to do it. And the fact that he called off the car chase for Cyborg with the photon cannon….

_He was telling me that my time's up!_

I scratched my head and paced around the room.

_But…if he was the bad guy…why was he working in my favor?_

I stopped and scratched my chin.

_Unless……of course…there was more at stake than just Cyborg._

I whipped out my communicator. I stared at it for a few seconds before again trying to contact Robin.

No response.

_I can't contact the other Titans…_

I stared at the communicator.

_All Simon wanted was Cyborg._

I stared out the window again.

_If the other Titans got involved, he'd fight it. He might even tell me._

I glanced back over at the smoking computer console.

And……I think I've been told.

The other Titans were in trouble. I didn't know how. But they were. The Tower doesn't nearly blow up on just any day, of course.

There was suddenly a soft ringing sound. It came from the speakers of the laptop.

I looked over at the compartment in the wall. I walked over, opened it, and removed the laptop. As soon as I had it open, the screen flashed: _'You've Got Mail!'_

_Good thing the Internet was still working after all I fried._

I sat down with the laptop and keystroked till I opened the e-mail and maximized the window.

What I saw made me freeze.

In eerie clarity, a message read:

'_**Dear Noir,'**_

'_**Trying to figure out Mr. Stone's motives? Don't bother. That man's more upside down than a drunken kangaroo. I'm going to give you all the hints you need. What do you get when you cross one tin can and four sardine cans? A serious fix for the Titans…but it's not without their very own can opener. That's you, my friend. Start at the prison, Noir. But from there on, I can't help you anymore, so you'll have to ask for directions.'**_

'_**Sincerely,'**_

'_**-the Messenger'**_

'**P.S.: No, I am not the Riddler. :P' **

I blinked. I had to read the text a few more times before I came to one conclusion:

What the hell is all this?!?!?!

Nevertheless, I dumbly printed the e-mail out and stared at it a few more minutes. With a sigh, I went to the web browser and check out the local news.

_The hell I'm going to find out…_

On the homepage's top headlines was that of the battle at the prison. Being out of touch with reality due to my last few hours of car chasing and bomb defusing, I scanned the article…and gasped at the news of the Titans' ambiguous fate. There was no sign of their release. And my heart dropped at the name of the one prisoner supposedly released by Slug and Reload.

I glanced down at the printed out e-mail.

"…….."

I got up, gathered my things, and blurred out the Tower.

I headed for the prison…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rise and Shine, Victor. We may as well have one last talk before everything is all said and done."

Cyborg groaned and tried sitting up, but he was strapped down to a metal laboratory bed. He sighed as he looked up at the brightly lit ceiling of the mysterious establishment. He didn't even have to glance over to sense Simon huddled about him, performing scans and diagnostics on his half-android body.

"The electromagnetic signature…," Cyborg muttered. "You didn't adjust it so that I could face off against Reload and Slug safely…."

"No, Victor, I didn't."

"….you adjusted it to a key level so you could shock me to sleep at any time while Noir and I were in the T-Car."

"Sounds about right," Simon said monotonously.

"…….why?"

Simon was silent.

"Pffft," Cyborg frowned. "Figured as much."

"I wish I could explain, Victor—"

"Don't bother."

Silence.

Simon continued—slowly—to shuffle around the restrained, bed-ridden Cyborg with his instruments.

"Where're my friends?" Cyborg asked.

"They're here as well. Most of them."

"Going to screw around with their bodies too?"

"I have no intention of doing so," Simon said. "Mr. Anderson disagrees, however."

"Anderson?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "As in…_Westhaven_ Anderson?"

"The very same."

"So that's who you're working for…I knew it had to be somebody."

"Does it matter who I'm working for?"

"I suppose not."

Silence.

Simon sighed, "He was freed from prison just recently…soon after you shorted out."

"Also shanks to you, no doubt."

Simon sighed and glanced lethargically down at his nephew. "Are you going to admonish me all day?"

"Well, what do you expect, old man?!?!" Cyborg barked. "You betrayed us! You betrayed each and every one of us! And after I let you get so close. Because you were family. Because I knew you and you knew me!"

"If I had my choice," Simon said. "I wouldn't be doing this. You wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here. None of this would be happening."

"A clear case of reality-denial if I ever heard one," Cyborg frowned.

Just then, a set of footsteps entered the room.

Simon glanced over.

Cyborg craned his neck to see.

Slug and Reload entered in dual cadence. Like a pair of fraternal twins.

"Back so soon?" Simon asked.

"Anderson says we can rest," Slug smirked. "I think it's about time we complied….through you."

"But of course," Simon gestured to two vertical gurneys along the metallic wall of the laboratory. "After you."

"Gracias," Reload giggled and walked over to her standing place.

Slug went to his.

Simon walked over to a computer console and typed away at a series of buttons.

Cyborg watched as the gurneys' restraints clasped around the two half-androids. Then a series of wires fed into the metallic parts of their necks and skulls. They smiled the whole time—perfect as a picture.

Then Simon performed the final keystroke.

Like magic, the life from the two thugs' cybernetic prostheses left them. Their smiles faded away like boiling water as the juice to their electrical components were shut off.

No sooner had such happened, Slug spoke out in a desperate voice never heard from him before: "P-Please…T-Titan! Y-You must help us!!"

Reload was suddenly sobbing. Tears came from the fleshly half of her being.

"W-We can't get l-loose," Slug panted, sweating all over. "Th-They keep using us. We j-just wanted our limbs back!"

Reload was muttering something in Spanish as the tears flowed from her eyes.

"P-Please…help us…end us…..e-end us….," Slug's eyes went thin as his fleshly half suffered the effect of its little energy and went unconscious.

Unplugged.

Cyborg inhaled and looked at Simon. "What have you done to them?"

"Truckers," Simon said. "Both of them. They were transporting fuel back to the Metropolis Airport when something caused their cargo to explode. They barely made it out in half a piece, much less one. I took them in to give them new arms, legs, and bodily components. But that was shortly before Anderson became 'in need' of my services. He forced me to reprogram them…to use them towards his own villainy." A sigh, then: "Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair are now husks…stone golems…automatons who follow Anderson's every command. Technically, it's not too late for their minds to be salvaged. As much as we're concerned, they're still there…under all that circuitry and prostheses. However, the metal reigns supreme over the man. The machine controls their consciousness. All the time their outsides have been fighting you and the other Titans…they've been crying inside. The artificial hormones and nanomachine technology in their bloodstream keeps them under the delusion that they're determined, homicidal criminals…when actually their personalities are quite the opposite."

Cyborg gritted his teeth as he stared at the unconscious two. "Simon…."

"Yes, Vic?"

"When did you become such a heartless bastard?"

"………perhaps it was when I lost my heart."

The Titan looked at him funny.

Simon was staring off into space. "There's something…..I never told you, Victor."

"What's that?"

"I was there."

"……?"

Simon looked at him. "I was there when your mother died."

------

_FLASH!!!!_

_Mrs. Stone screamed._

The monster emerged from the portal and bore down at her.

Silas ran over from the computer console at STAR Labs and tried to push her out of the way.

The monster formed a hole in the ground, forcing a metal beam to sail up through the floor and knock Silas back against a wall and unconscious.

"Mommy!!!!" Victor screamed.

The woman turned to face the little boy. "Run away, honey! GO!"

And that's when she was ripped to shreds.

------

"I saw it all…," Simon spoke. "I was in the atrium to the lab. The quarantine locks to the door had gone off. I had a sheet of glass between us…distorting what I saw of your hell, Victor. I felt so…so helpless…"

------

A younger Simon stone pounded on the glass.

"NO!!! Get down!! Get down!!"

He and the other scientists watched in horror as the woman's body was hidden in a spray of warm red.

He looked to the side, grabbed a chair, and slammed it hard into the glass window with a shout.

CRACK!!!

He swung again.

SMASH!!!

An alarm went off.

The laboratory flashed red and gray amidst the screams and noise.

The monster was approaching a sobbing Victor Stone.

"Mommm!!!"

Simon jumped through the window desperately. He picked up a metal bar lying from the debris that the portal had formed.

He charged the monster's back, growling.

Victor looked up. He saw his Uncle Simon coming to the rescue. For the rest of his life, he would never remember those scant ten seconds…for that's when all the other senses in his body became aware of his torso being eaten alive.

"NOOOOOO!!!" Simon shouted and swung down on the monster.

The trans-dimensional creature was already turning to face him…

------

"I fought it…no matter how much it devoured me as well…," Simon said. "It was too late for your mother. But it wasn't too late for you. Somehow…we drove the worthless creature back through the portal. But the damage had been done."

Cyborg took a good, long look at his uncle. "How did you survive it??" he asked.

Simon looked at him, then turned around. "What difference does it make?" He paced off from the bed. "I survived only to become the despicable creature that I am today. And it is costing you dearly….both of us." He turned around. "When I told you, Victor, that I value your existence. I meant it. As long as you and I are around…the Stones—despite all of their tragedy—still survive. The only thing keeping me from destroying myself for all the evils I've assisted Anderson in is the fact that—at the end of all this, you and I will still be around. In one piece or another…we will survive. We will exist. We will be….immortal."

Cyborg squinted his human eye. "What exactly are you going to do to me?"

Simon swallowed. He softly said, "Please forgive me, dear Victor. But I cannot tell you until you see it all for yourself."

"See _what_ all?"

"Please forgive me…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to the back of an FBI Van opened up.

A gentleman helped a young woman in high heels and a plain business dress step up and inside the vehicle. Escorted by officers, Ms. Cartwright of the Westhaven Opera House walked down the thin path between computers and monitoring equipment to where two detectives stood besides an electric lamp and a spread of folders and photographs.

One detective looked up and shook her hand. "Ah, Ms. Cartwright. Thank your for coming all this long way. We're trying to sort through all the traces of the two cyborgs and the Titans' whereabouts. Your help is most appreciated."

"Glad to be of service," she said softly with a nod. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just this one thing, ma'am," the other detective said. He picked up manila envelope and handed it to her. "Inside that folder is a photograph of a person. We want you to identify that person if at all possible."

"Okay…," she reached into the envelope and pulled out a small sheet. She gracefully slipped on a pair of glasses and took a good long look at the fuzzy image of a man in what appeared to be a security camera snap. Despite the bad quality of the capture, she had no problem announcing: "Anderson."

"How're you sure?"

"I'm sure," she sighed. "I've worked with the man half my life. It has to be him."

"Did you see the news at all before coming here?"

"No sir, I haven't seen or watched or heard anything since one of your men drove me here from Westhaven."

The detective nodded. "As I had hoped," he took a deep breath. "Ms. Cartwright, we have a few questions to ask you. Don't worry, we're not suspecting you of anything, we just want to know if you have any intuition from having known the suspect that could help us in locating him. For, in doing so, we might find out what he did with the Titans."

"I'll be glad to help in any way possible," she said politely.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour later, Ms. Cartwright walked off towards the edge of the FBI stationed formed temporarily on the edge of the prison parking lot. In the distance—against the backdrop of an early morning sun—workers began the task of patching up the damage done to the prison and its sewage system from the intense battle the previous evening.

"You think with all the villains in this city…," Cartwright muttered to herself between sips of coffee from a Styrofoam cup, "…they'd be proficient at that now."

She paced about slowly, hugging herself and enjoying the steaming cup. She looked off at the early morning sky. She sighed and turned around—almost running into me.

"!!!!!!" she spit out the coffee in her mouth, coughed, and dropped the cup. She gasped for breath and glanced at me bug-eyed from behind her glasses. "Saint Nicholas!!--you scared me!" she exclaimed, a hand over her chest. "Are all the Titans so…sneaky about their introductions?"

I shrugged with a simper.

She looked at me…and slowly raised a finger. "The Titans are missing….wh-what are you still doing here?"

I crossed two fingers.

"Lucky, huh? Well, lucky you….you get to search for them, don't you?"

I nodded. I pointed at the FBI vans.

Cartwright turned and looked. She sighed. "And you want my help…..shouuuuld have guessed." She cleared her throat, brushed a few bangs of hair from her forehead, and looked at me. "Look…I kinda sorta signed a confidentiality treatment with them. I could get in big trouble if I told you anything…as much as I'd love to. And as I'm now in the middle of reconstructing much of the opera house from Anderson's last charade with a costumed freak…well…I'm in no position to be risky."

I slowly nodded. But I kept looking at her. I was indeed the sneaky type. Cartwright—if any person—should have known that.

And she did. And she smiled. "But….I can tell you one thing," she placed a hand on her hip and gestured with the other. "Anderson—for being such a somber old fart—was very fond of fishing."

I blinked from behind my shades.

"And I do mean….very _fond_ of fishing," and she glanced subtly at the Bay of the City.

I mouthed a silent 'oh' and gave her a thumb's up.

"That's all I can help you with," Cartwright said. "Small price….considering what you and the other Titans did to save me and my clients. Cyborg and Bus Boy?"

I made a lizard with my hand.

"Beast Boy. My bad."

I smiled. I bowed and made to leave.

"You know…," she said with a smile. "I have a message for you."

"????" I looked at her wyrd.

"It's from Sandy," she said. "You know, the volunteer girl? She told me 'I bet you'll find Noir when you're there. Tell him it's all about friendship'. She said you'd know what that means."

I chuckled silently and nodded.

"Fancy how much that girl seems to know," Cartwright said. She looked over at the FBI vans. "It's almost scary. But, I can't deny that she has a gift. A lucrative one too. I just might ask her to be my associa—" she glanced back over and stopped mid-sentence.

I was gone.

I had to find my friends…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'Fishing'……

Back in the Tower, I sat at the working computer consoles in the main room. I ran over a couple schematics of lakes in the WestHaven area.

I scratched my chin and rolled over in my computer seat to another monitor where I had information brought up on the Web about Mr. Anderson's known exploits.

After an hour and a half of solid studying and hypothesizing, I decided to search three lakes in a rural county to the north of the opera house. For it was in that region that Anderson once owned a summer retreat in the wilderness. Complete with a log cabin by the lake and a dock.

And where there's a dock…

I got up and gathered my things.

I paused.

I looked at the e-mail printout.

"….."

I crumpled it up and tossed it into a wastebasket.

I made for the elevators and rode it down.

But not to the first floor…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to the Titan laboratory opened slowly with a whur.

I walked into the center of the dark room. I hesitated…but then continued to the wall on the other side. I entered a keystroke into a computer console like I had seen Cyborg do the other day.

With a hiss, the familiar circle in the metal floor opened and up emerged the glass-encased cylinder.

I opened it and stared at the Destabilizer. The t-shaped taser rested mutely…innocently. Black and spotless.

I took a deep breath, scooped it up in my hand, and left the room.

Not looking back.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Many hours passed before all the captured Titans managed to wake at the same time. Robin again beat the others to a punch. Beast Boy was second…but passed out two more times already for overexerting himself in a vain attempt to escape. Raven was third…and Starfire fourth. Now that they were all conscious, they murmured amongst themselves and to Cyborg the most. The android Titan lay on a metal lab bed—too restrained and sapped of energy to do anything to help his comrades.

"Dude…m-maybe if we all…like…think of the restraints snapping off at the same time, then they'll break!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Power of will! You know what I'm saying?"

"I'm the only one with telekinesis," Raven grumbled. "Stop pretending you can do the same."

"Then why don't you do something to get us out of here with that dark, gothic head of yours!?" Beast Boy spat. "You don't need your body to use your powers!"

Raven took a deep breath, centered herself, and remained calm. "My powers are metaphysical. They require a perfect balance of both mind and _body_. I'm afraid the same serum keeping you from turning into a gorilla is keeping me from turning into a badass, thank you very much."

"It is also preventing me from utilizing my starbolts," Starfire said. She looked over at Robin, "Robin, do you not have your fancy tools of escapeness?"

"Slug took my utility belt," the Boy Wonder gritted his teeth. "Right now, I'm only human."

"Lucky us," Beast Boy griped.

"Cyborg! They didn't pump a serum into you!" Robin said. "Concentrate and maybe you can get out of your restraints and help us out of here!"

"No can do, man," Cyborg groaned. "Simon has me on reserve power only. I can barely blink my eye."

"Dude…your uncle is—like—totally crazy!"

"Shut up, BB," Cyborg sighed. "You don't know a thing."

Beast Boy looked hurt. He quieted down in contemplation.

Raven looked over at Robin. "I knew something was awry. I knew it from the very beginning."

"Were you not moved to intercede on behalf of the implications of such intuition?" Starfire inquired.

"It's not so bad, Star," Cyborg breathed. "I knew something was up too."

"Even with your uncle?" Robin asked.

"You all were so willing to accept him in open arms," Cyborg spoke. He glanced at Raven. "Well, most of you. But it's not so easy for me. When it comes to people in my family….I feel wronged."

"Does all of this come full circle to your father?" Robin asked.

"What doesn't?" Cyborg remarked. "Brother like brother. Simon is just a Stone at heart. He's just family. And being part of my family…he's not part of me at all."

Starfire looked sad. "I am….depressed for you, Cyborg."

"Heh….thanks a lot."

Silence.

"Simon Stone is not acting alone….," Raven muttered.

"I know," Cyborg spat. "It's that creep Anderson. He's behind all this."

"Man, I hate that guy!!" Beast Boy whimpered and looked at Raven. "After all Noir and I did to stop him and Killer Moth at the Opera House, the guy just ups and walks from prison! I thought that mission was a success!" Sniff…

"You have my sympathies….," Raven sarcastically droned.

"Where is Noir?" Starfire remarked. "I do not see him here."

"How should we know?" Robin remarked. "Wasn't he with you last, Cyborg?"

"He was…"

"I'm one for hoping he's trying to save our butts as we speak," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Yes," Starfire mourned. "Our derrieres are certainly in need of salvation…"

"Right now…we've got to figure out what we can do on our own. And the best we can do at the moment is think this out. Why would Simon be helping Anderson out so much?"

"He won't tell me," Cyborg said. "Considering that he's talked his mouth off about everything else. I can't help but think he's hiding stuff from me…and yet hinting me to some untold truth all the same."

"What _has_ he told you?" Raven asked.

"He was indeed behind the hacking of the Tower's mainframe on the night of the storm," Cyborg said. "But that wasn't his first time. Beforehand, he tried unsuccessfully to tap into our computers from remote. He bailed out of the system just in time to cause minor damage with the command sequence to the A/C Unit…affecting the flood seals of the basement levels."

"When Noir got locked away…," Starfire remarked.

Cyborg nodded. "He attempted his second attempt to tap into the Tower while y'all were away beating up Overload…"

"And Blake Glover was making a scene here…," Raven added.

"And Anderson's part in all of this?" Robin asked.

"Commander in chief, I suppose," Cyborg said.

"Yeah, I got that feeling from when he talked to me last time I was awake. But why? What does he have over Simon? I can't just be that thing with Lexcorp."

"Lex Luthor is involved in this?!" Beast Boy muttered.

"The ghosts of Metallo's creators," Robin said. "Anderson's and Simon's connections go deep into both the criminal underworld of Metropolis."

Cyborg gestured his head over towards the unconscious forms of Slug and Reload. "Get a load of those two. Mere puppets of Anderson's through Simon. It's no coincidence that they were first encountered by law enforcement in Blue Boy's city. I bet Simon grafted them together in STAR Labs itself."

"Duuuuude," Beast Boy moaned. "This is soooooo big."

"Not really," Raven said. "Just annoying." She looked over at Cyborg. "Your Uncle…you said you think he was trying to give you hints?"

"He's not telling me everything," Cyborg said, "But he's showing me lots through his emotion. Through his voice. Little things like that. None of you would understand unless you were related to him like I am. I can't put a finger on it. It's just….odd…"

"Don't think too much now…," Robin said with a frown and motion of his head.

Everyone silenced and glanced over weakly as Anderson and Simon walked into the room.

Anderson's winkled face smiled as he stood over Cyborg and looked down. "I am ready."

Cyborg made a face. "Say what?"

"Immortality awaits me. I only need cherish the last few seconds of this fleshly existence of mine…," Anderson flexed an arm and then touched Cyborg's metallic shoulder. "I'm about to move onto better things."

Cyborg's human eye widened.

"Cyborg!" Starfire gasped. "It is your android body! He desires to inhabit it!"

"That can't happen!" Beast Boy cackled. A beat. "Can it?"

Robin looked for the first time at a lone panel in the wall at the far side of the laboratory. It was like the holding cell that the Titans, Reload, and Slug were in. Only, it was free of restraints. It had places for hands and feet to go…but the cavity was larger and less restricting. Whoever would step into its frame would be doing so out of will…free choice….deliberation.

"Cyborg! You must get out now!" Robin shook in his harness, almost passing himself out. "That instrument in the wall! It's wired to you for electrosurgery!"

Cyborg frowned at the old man above him. "So…want to go the same way as Corbin, do you?"

"Corbin is a flaw," Anderson smiled. "I'm about to become the master of perfection. And you, young sir, are imperfect." He gestured to Cyborg's biological parts. "A few replacements and key instruments will make you complete. That's when I jump in and control the golem I'll be for the next eon."

"If I hadn't heard words spoken to me like those before…," Cyborg spat, "I'd call you a one in a million crackpot."

"Then what am I really, Titan?"

"An asshole."

"After today…," the old man winked, "…_you'll_ be the asshole."

A shadow crossed over Cyborg's face. His human eye followed it momentarily, but then shook itself off as he said, "So you want to inhabit my body. Then what? Once you're black, you never go back, old man."

"Well, I think I'll wait around and see what things are like on the digital side of Life's fence," Anderson said. He turned and faced the other Titans. "Then I'll pursue my business prospects in turning these do-gooders into robot slaves themselves. Once I'm in you, I'll have inherited your knack for cybernetic talent. I'm sure I'll be more than a match for your uncle's prowess."

"Hardly…," Cyborg said bitterly.

Simon stared constantly at the floor.

"But enough chatter," Anderson whipped out a remote and clicked it. The bed pivoted vertically and faced the wall compartment across the laboratory. "I'm not much for ritual. Just action. I will have your circuitry, young Titan. And I shall evolve it into something more fitting than vigilantism."

"The only thing evolving is your insurance bill," Cyborg frowned. His eye returned to the shadow. "Noir!! Now!!"

I materialized.

I dropped down from the ceiling, Myrkblade first.

SLASSHHH!!!

CRACK!!

Anderson gasped as his remote was ripped to shreds.

I swiftly spun and kicked him in the stomach.

The old man tumbled across the room and landed with his back against the wall. He winced in pain like he broke a hip or something.

"Yeah!!" Beast Boy smiled. "Go us!!"

I spun Myrkblade into a pose and faced the downed man.

"Oh yeah…," Anderson winced and stood up. "Forgot about you…"

"I knew Simon was going to set us up," Cyborg spoke to the aged villain. "If Noir went to the prison, he'd be in the same place as the other Titans right now. So I asked Robin to have Noir take the T-Car with me. When Simon's EMP pulse took me out, Noir managed to escape capture like I knew he would. He's the only Titan fast enough to catch up with the other five and get them out of the fix we're in now."

"Gee," Raven—the usual T-Car passenger smirked ever so slightly. "That's flattering…"

"He was not supposed to be so free…," Anderson gritted his teeth and frowned in Simon's direction. "You! You were supposed to finish him off!"

"Sorry. Not my bag, you old fart," Simon Stone smiled in such a way that made his relation to Cyborg unarguable. "It may have been subtle…it may have risked the lives of dozens of people on the streets of the City…but I foiled you. I foiled you, you merciless bastard."

"We both did," Cyborg smiled. "Stones who live together…--"

"--…work together," Simon finished.

"Glorious….," Starfire murmured with sparkles in her eyes.

I smirked from under my shades.

"Give up," Simon said, pointing a finger out. "You've been caught in your own trap, and you're too old and too blind to fight back, you creep."

"Are you so naïve, Stone??" Anderson laughed. "A blind man I may be, but a blind man still has his bluff. And this old fart's been controlling you for the last decade. And he still controls you now." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen-shaped device, clicking a button on it.

Suddenly, Simon Stone stumbled for some reason.

Cyborg looked his way. "Simon???"

Slowly, Simon turned and faced me.

"Um….," Beast Boy stammered. "What's going on?"

"Take him down!" Anderson shouted.

Simon marched at me.

Confused, I held a hand up to shoved Simon back---

WOOOSH!! The uncle charged me.

Cyborg gasped.

I would have gasped too….if I had breath in my lungs.

WHUMP!!!!

Simon smacked he hard in the gut.

WHAM!!!

Kicked me in the sides….

SMACK!!!

And uppercutted me so hard, my jaw nearly popped.

I flew back the length of the laboratory and landed painfully hard with my back to the wall.

SMASH!!

I slumped to the ground, sputtering. Coughing up blood.

Simon flung his limbs down, cracked his neck, and raised his fists, facing me from far off.

"Interesting…," Raven muttered.

I limped to my feet. I looked through one squinting black eye and shades at the once-weak man. He was a threat now…no matter how much he assisted in my getting here.

_Or maybe it was all a trap to nab the last Titan. Or maybe Anderson pumped serum into him too. Or maybe……_

Ugh…gawd, I'm so confused…

"Finish him…," Anderson hissed.

"Simon! Don't do it!!" Cyborg called out.

The uncle stomped at me again.

"Noir! Move!" Robin shouted.

I had no choice. I charged up Myrkblade.

Simon came running.

Smoke danced out from under my shades.

I blurred at him.

"NO!!" Cyborg cried.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPE!!!!!!

I slashed my blade hard across Simon's upper body. It made full contact with his head—which I didn't necessarily intend, but it did the job. I landed on the ground beyond while Simon stumbled directly into the wall on the other side. Dizzy and disoriented.

Starfire gasped suddenly for some reason.

I looked in her direction and found her eyes following something in the air and fluttered to the floor. I stared at it and winced.

_It was Simon's face._

I blinked.

_No blood._

I looked his way, gasping.

Everyone else did.

Simon slowly turned around from the wall. His eyes were motorized. His face was metal. His nose….missing like a skull's. Lights blinked in crevices of the metallic exoskeleton as he sighed and looked at the floor in his trademark way.

Cyborg stared….his human eye twitching. His mouth agape.

"You asked how I survived the incident in STAR Labs, Victor…," Simon said, looking at his hands. "The reason's pretty obvious now. Neither you or John Corbin was the first successful experiment in prosthesis. There was barely anything left of me after I saved you from the monster. It took electrosurgery to turn me…..into this."

"And Anderson has control over you…," Robin spoke to 'Simon Stone'. "That was Luthor's payment to him…"

"S-Simon….," Cyborg muttered.

"We are more related than you think, young nephew," Simon spoke. "Both blood…_and circuitry_…"

"I said…..FINISH HIM!!" Anderson shouted, breaking the moment. He jammed his finger over the pin again.

Simon's whole body twitched. His eyes closed, then opened thinly. He marched towards me again.

I readied Myrkblade. Gritting my teeth.

"Simon…..you're….," Cyborg rambled aimlessly.

Simon let out an electronic war cry and charged me.

I stepped back.

His right fist came at me.

I sidestepped it, twirled, and brought my blade down on his shoulder.

CLANK!!!

It bounced off.

Crap!!

Simon's other fist flew into my ribs.

I winced in pain, hobbled to the side, and jabbed with Myrkblade.

He grabbed the length of my wooden sword with invincible, robot palms.

I desperately charged up my weapon and exploded smoke energy into his chest.

He struggled through the Destruction with brute force and slammed a fist into my sternum.

I lost grip of the hilt and flew back hard into a computer panel. SMACK!!

Simon silently aimed the weapon and flung it at me.

SWOOOSH!!

I jerked aside at the last second.

SLIIINK!!!

The weapon sank into my jumpsuit, pinning me into the computer's mainframe.

Sparks shot into my back, electrocuting me and making the ends of my fingers burn.

I let out a silent scream and fell limp. I was still conscious…and that's what hurt most of all.

Simon stomped threateningly towards me like some sort of Terminator until Anderson stepped forward with a click of his pen and smiled. "I may have more use for you alive than dead," he smirked at me. "Just look how he turned out."

I stared through pained, black eyes. Helpless.

Anderson pressed a button and Simon relaxed. The uncle panted and looked at me with regret…but couldn't do a thing to help me. He was truly under Anderson's control in the end.

Cyborg took a deep breath and frowned at Anderson. "Are you happy now? Kicking a near-dead family when it's down? Do you get off from this sort of torture?!"

"It's been a good fifteen years before I could 'get off', young Titan," Anderson said, turning around and heading for the crevice in the wall. "I'll have my chance again, I assure you. And you'll be completely aware of it."

"How nice…," Cyborg gritted his teeth and struggled for once to get out of his restraints. "When I get free of this thing, my uncle and I are so going to kick your—"

"You won't get free," Anderson said bluntly. He then laughed, "And what makes you think he's your uncle any more? He stopped being a flesh and blood relative long before you could even handle a laser rifle!"

Cyborg looked at his melancholy, cybernetic relative, then back at Mr. Anderson. "I stopped being completely human years ago…but that doesn't stop me from having feelings…and friends."

The Titans were silent…too shocked.

"Oh, save me the mush," Anderson smiled and stepped into the crevice. "And give me your body."

He clicked on the pen.

Simon's eyes lowered. His entire body started glowing.

"Your uncle isn't just an accomplice," Anderson said, putting his hands and ankles into the correct sockets of the wall piece. "He's the final key. The one link I have to you through electrosurgery!"

Cyborg watched in horror as Simon's many limbs snapped off and hovered separately in mid air on tiny rockets. They expanded to comparable sizes to fit an entire body. Even Cyborg's….

"He is the shell, young Titan," Anderson smiled. "You are the core. And I…," wires came out of the wall and attached themselves to multiple parts of Anderson's aged body, "…I am the glue that will hold us three together as one. Cybernetics Ultimate!! A golem of three evolved elements of human essence! Refit!! Refit into Triad!!!"

"I am sorry, Victor," Simon's robot skull said before it expanded and flew over towards Cyborg along with the rest of the limbs. "I'm…..s-sorry…."

"Rrrrrrrgh!!" Cyborg struggled in his restraints. "I….won't…be…a….part…of this….!!"

"You already are….," Anderson laughed. "Heheheheheheheh!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

"Cyborg!!" Starfire shouted.

"Fight it!" Robin jerked.

"Don't give in!!"

"RRRRGHH!! Can't…break….free!!"

**"AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!"**

I struggled to force Myrkblade out of the computer station. I couldn't make it or myself budge.

I watched with horror as the various parts of Simon's android body floated into place and coated themselves over Cyborg's writhing body like a cocoon of armor. Simultaneously, the wall panel Anderson was in lit up and wires transferred sparks of energy from his body and into the lab bed where Simon and Victor Stone merged into one. Anderson's age-old body twitched as every ounce of life was sucked out of him and into the new host. And then it lay still. And then the room turned still…and quiet.

"C-Cy??" Beast Boy muttered, wide-eyed.

Lying on the bed was a brand new being. Cyborg's proportions were increased by twenty percent. But the usual exterior was gone, replaced by a monstrous looking automaton with jagged features and dark red eyes. After a few seconds, the dark red glowed…and the beast easily snapped free of its bondages. It sat up on the lab bed, revealing its face to us. Its skull-grin-of-teeth. Its chiseled chin and ears. It flexed its arms, stood up, and laughed in Anderson's voice without the metal lips moving.

**"After all my life….a brand new life is made…three souls poured into one and dominated by me! Anderson is gone…and Triad is born!"**


	35. Stone Golem part 7 final

**35. Stone Golem part 7 Final**

I finally wrenched Myrkblade out from the computer console and slumped forward. Wincing, I got to my knees and then stood with the weapon, facing 'Triad' across the way.

**"Heheheheheh!!"** the behemoth chuckled.

I panted, staring at it in horror.

"Cyborg?? Our friend??" Starfire whimpered. "Are you there?"

**"Cyborg is mine forever! Simon is mine forever! And you!!"** he pointed a titanium finger at me, then flexed his hulking wrist at the wall behind me.

A beeping sound.

I glanced over my shoulder.

Reload and Slug were pumped with revitalizing serum. They came to life, gasping for breath.

"**You have no choice but to surrender to me!!"**

The cybernetic halves of the two thugs came to life, and their panic-stricken faces morphed into the drunken grins of their evil personas. They easily snapped out of their harnesses and surrounded me alongside Triad. Slug slipped two magnums out from their holsters and aimed at me. Reload blew a kiss and created a shotgun out of midair.

**"This game ends now…," **Triad boomed. **"You have no choice. No alternative. But to give yourself up."**

I held myrkblade at ready, staring at the three threats around me.

"Don't! They're too much for you, Noir!" Robin said.

"Your move, muchacho," Reload smirked, aiming the shotgun.

Slug chuckled and pointed his revolver at my skull. His arm glowed blue.

Surrounded by three robots…

I slowly reached behind me.

All three took a step close.

I secretly whipped out the Destabilizer.

Triad glared. "**What are you waiting for?**"

I looked up at him.

I smirked.

Triad's metal brow furrowed.

I charged smoke into my legs and blurred up into the air with a huge spin.

Reload fired her shotgun.

BLAM!!

Slug fired two hyperbullets.

**BANG!! BANG!!**

My spinning blade created a smoking wall of force that deflected the shots everywhere.

One of Slug's bullets sailed past Starfire's head and sailed through the wall.

CRASH!!

"EEK!"

Reload's shot sprayed off into Triad, who easily deflected them with a wrist.

The second of Slug's bullets deflected into the ground beneath me, forming a crater.

I reached the ceiling, grabbed ahold of a light fixture, and flip-blurred behind Slug.

In mid air, I pressed the switch to the Destabilizer. Sparks danced a trail beside me as I landed behind the bald thug, jumped up, and shoved the taser deep into his backbone.

_ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

Slug let out a loud cry as the device found his EMP signature in a heartbeat and overloaded it. His cybernetic half plummeted, and his fleshy half drooled, fell asleep, and slumped his body to the ground.

Reload gasped. She aimed at me and fired another shotgun round.

BLAM!!

I blurred, slid beneath her shot, slid beneath her legs, came up the other side, and shoved the device into her leg.

_ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

In likewise, quick fashion, Reload fell to the ground cold. Defeated.

I spun and faced Triad…a smoking Myrkblade in one grasp…a sparking taser in the other.

Robin gasped. "The Destabilizer! Cyborg showed it to you!"

"The whatsit?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

I frowned. I took a step towards Triad.

"**Stop!**"

I did so.

"**You take me out with that….you take out Cyborg and Simon too!**"

I raised an eyebrow and smirk.

"**Don't be so haughty. Cyborg is not the same old Titan. He is now the core of a whole new matrix! Who's to know that short circuiting me won't end his life and Simon's too?!"**

I glared at him. I held the sparking taser at ready.

"**Ready to give me a hardware test, Titan??**" Triad asked. **"I think you're not one to gamble…**"

I stared.

The Titans watched.

"…………," I bit my lip. I shut off the Destabilizer.

Raven closed her eyes.

Triad smiled.

I pocketed the device, spun Myrkblade, and posed into a fighting stance.

Triad smirked. **"Toast."** He pointed his hand at me. In true, Cyborg fashion, it turned into a laser rifle. But not any ordinary rifle. This thing had….um….'needles' on it that sparked and vibrated, creating a mysterious black aura that seemed to suck all light from the luminescent corners of the laboratory.

I gulped.

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!_

I flew back with a leap, twirled in slow motion, and barely avoided a string of obsidian energy that flew beneath me and ate through a couple of bulkheads like a hot knife to butter.

I landed with a gasp, winced, and got to my feet.

Before Triad could fire a second time, I was gone up a flight of stairs. He growled and charged after me madly.

"Noir!!" Robin called out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped and jumped my up the stairs and onto the main deck of Anderson's private yacht. Before me stretched the sun-glittered Lake Cook north of Westhaven. I had found the craft out on the waters about a mile south of an abandoned marina. Ms. Cartwright had been essential in her assistance.

But I had greater things to worry about.

I spun around and inhaled deeply as a blast of obsidian came my way.

_BZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!_

I ducked, rolled, and ran down the deck.

**"RAAAAUGH!!!"**

SMASH!!!

Triad punched his way out of the cabin and looked my way. **"Ahoy there!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!**" He jumped onto the deck, smashing the wooden floorboards, and stomped his way after me.

I blurred to the bow, came to a stop, and blurred to face him.

He picked up an anchor and effortlessly flew it at me.

SWOOSH!!!

I backflipped just in time---

SMASH!!!

--and perched on the railing along the ship's side.

I blurred my feet and launched myself at him.

In mid air, I stretched out my weapon. It grated against the Simon-surface of Triad's body, but only produced a shower of sparks without doing damage.

I skidded to a stop on the other side of him.

Without wasting time, Triad spun around with a huge fist. **"RAUGH!!"**

I sidestepped, ducking.

SMASH!!!

A hole was formed in the hull of the ship.

Triad lunged at me and grabbed me by the leg.

I struggled to wrench myself free.

He brought a palm down to squash my head.

I concentrated, shot forth smoke, and teleported behind him a fresh kick to the back of his head.

CLANG!!

Before landing on the ground, I spun a three-sixty and batted his skull like a home run king.

SWOOOSH-SMASH!!

The blow actually sent him toppling over, smashing the deck to splinters.

I landed, jumped up, flipped, and sailed down at him—Myrkblade stabbing downward.

Triad swiftly rolled over, and in doing so, he swung a massive leg out that struck me hard in the side.

I grunted, flew towards the side of the ship, and grabbed the railing at the last second. I dangled over the lake's waters by one hand. The other hand helplessly held onto Myrkblade.

Soon, Triad stomped to his feet and leered down at me from atop the deck.

**"Heheheheh…what's the matter?! Afraid to get your feet wet?!"**

I gave him a sarcastic smirk. I flung Myrkblade straight up at his skull.

Naturally, he lifted his head and dodged the throw. The wooden blade sailed straight up like a rocket.

I let go of the railing….and dropped down to the water.

Myrkblade slowly fell straight back down.

Triad arrogantly stretched out a hand to catch it.

My feet made contact with the water, blurred, and balanced my entire body in a concrete of liquid. A second later, I shot myself up like a comet.

I flew up past Triad's arm.

I grabbed Myrkblade on its descent.

I landed on the automaton's hand, gritted my teeth, and swung the blade with all my might into his face.

WHAM!!!!

The force sent him flying back and into the hull.

His hand retracted out from under me.

I grabbed ahold of the railing, planted my feet against the ship, blurred off, flipped, and landed on the splintered deck. I charged Triad's prone form against the wall, let out a silent scream, and kicked my smoking powers into gear. I teleported to directly where I stood over and over again, each time in a different pose with a different strike of my weapon against his titanium skin. By doing so, I was able to pull off ten times as many attacks than when I'm giving my normal crime-fighting effort.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!!!

Try as he could, Triad's wrist just couldn't block quickly enough. My strikes burned at his metallic exoskeleton and showered spikes upwards like a geyser.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!!!

The rapid use of my powers was an energy-consuming one. I started to tire…twice as much so when I realized that my attacks were having no apparent effect on the behemoth.

Triad noticed this too. He let out a loud growl, burst a shoulder through my attack, and slammed deep into my chest. I fell back with a gasp just seconds before he grabbed me by the front scruff of my jumpsuit. He slammed me into the hull…into the deck…and into the hull again before tossing me down the side and towards the stern. I plowed through a set of sticks and a shuffleboard court before tumbling to a stop. I was bleeding in a dozen places and bruised in a dozen more. My shades were smashed so that my left black eye peaked out at the blazingly bright world. My left shoulder was killing me, and I desperately clutched it and panted as the metal monstrosity stomped towards me and glared.

**"Friendship….it is a pathetic thing. Almost worst than family. It binds people into helplessness. You could have finished me in the cabin's laboratory. But you decided to try and take me on like a brave little hero…as if that could somehow salvage a comrade who is long gone. You are not invincible, Titan. You are an organism of impurity. Something I can and will crush in an instant. Already you can feel it…the impulses of pain running up and down your central nervous system. Your body is telling you in a string of data that the fight is useless. Facts and absolutes are dealing you the only truth you can face. Ones and zeroes govern the universe. True and false equations are the only reality. Not emotion. Not flesh. Not love. Cyborg and Simon believed in impurities…and the cold hand of reality consumed them and their entire family. And it shall consume his new companions in just the same vein."**

I stood up, wincing…bleeding, and faced Triad with Myrkblade by my side.

**"Why do you persist? To amuse me? I am amazed that there is still a subroutine within me to appreciate the bitter nature of irony."**

I gritted my teeth. I reached behind, whipped out the Destabilizer, and held it out.

**"You do not truly expect to use that now, do you?**"

I took a deep breath. I flicked my wrist, and tossed the Destabilizer out.

It slid to a stop on the deck between the two of us and stopped.

**"Giving up??"** Triad chuckled.

I spun Myrkblade, sheathed the weapon, and sighed. Wincing from the pain, I raised my hands and gestured with sign language:

_'Control it, Cyborg'_

Triad's head cocked to the side. **"What are you doing??**"

I took a breath, winced, and repeated the gesture.

'Control it……Cyborg.'

Triad could not read sign language. But there was one person who could. There were two people…

"**Enough with this nonsense!"**

Triad too a step to safely retrieve the Destabilizer. But he froze in mid step. His voice choaked.

"**Wh-What?!"**

_'Control it……'_

"**What's going on?!?!"**

_'Control it…_'

**"No…..NO!!"**

Triad cringed.

His glowing eyes fluctuated.

His cranium twitched.

"**Nooooo!! Must…..control….c-control!!"**

I whipped off my shades.

I glared into the blinding world.

I gestured.

'_Control it…Cyborg…Simon…_'

Inside Triad's twitching body…underneath his skull like face…beneath the glowing eyes…a battle was taking place…

******

"Can't control it!! What's happening?!"

"Never meant it…never meant it at all. Couldn't control it. The algorithms on strings……on strings…"

"I can almost seek the darkness again. Is this death? Or have I always been dead?"

"That stupid Titan…that dumb freak!!!"

"Everything is gone. Everything is falling apart."

"My friends are half as dead as I am. My body is buried but standing up. This is so screwed up."

"Damn it. DAMN IT!!"

"The zeroes and the ones……the sea……it looks like Vic's."

"Wait, I'm still here. I'm still in one piece. Surrounded by chaos and black destruction…but one piece."

"Stay together. Control it!!"

"We can……control it."

"I can control it……"

Victor Stone's eyes opened. He was floating through a sea of black. He stretched out his hands and a laboratory soared down at him. Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven…they were shackled to the walls. Noir was falling into oblivion in corner. Reload and Slug danced into static.

"_No. STAY OUT!!!"_

Anderson grabbed Victor and tossed him into the orchestra pit. Gypsies and Spanish knights danced behind him. The curtains spouted lightning. The audience was full of skeletons.

"You're mine now. This all mine now!"

"Leave. My. Nephew. Alone."

Anderson spun around and met Simon's face.

Simon grabbed the man and shoved him against the computer monitor inside the Main Room of the Tower. "You've spent the last ten years controlling me. That was a task in and of itself, you piece of crud! You can take one Stone down. But not two! Not in a million years, dammit!"

_Anderson struggled against the railing of the yacht. "You can't harm me! You can't! This is my domain!'_

"You forget that I'm the SHELL!" Simon shouted and tossed Anderson overboard.

The old villain fell screaming into a blue sea. A blue sea of zeros and ones. They burned his skin. They laughed down his throat.

"What are you doing here?" Victor asked.

_Anderson gasped. The ones and zeros parted and the beach beneath the Tower appeared with crashing waves and waving sawgrass. "You have no order. Must I train you before I own you?!"_

"Say what?!" Victor frowned. "You own no one, you old bag. You have no one. You spent your life trying to preserve your worthless little self while forsaking everything and everyone else! You think there's room for you as a ghost to control anymore?!"

"A ghost?!" Anderson gasped.

"Ghost in a shell," Simon smirked, leaning against his hovercraft. "Without an anchor to warm him."

Anderson jumped up in the laboratory and shouted, "Stop it!! Stop it!! Both of you!! You are mine! You are my shell and core!! You are a stone golem!! A puppet!! A plaything! I give you the voice…I give you the command…you obey THE VOICE!!"

"_**Control It, Cyborg.**_"

Echoes.

Earthquake.

_Anderson's teeth chattered._

Reload and Slug dangled overhead. Glaring. Hollow eyes.

"You want to control me?" Cyborg walked down the street in front of the smashed T-Car. "You want to have me?"

_Anderson panted. Eyes wide. Sweating._

A ten year old Victor shook his fists and squealed: "Have it!! HAVE IT AND LOVE IT LIKE YOUR LAST LIMB, BASTARD!!"

Victor's mouth exploded into a portal through which a monster emerged, roaring.

Anderson fell back, gasping.

"Victor!! Run!!"

_The world spun._

Anderson was lying on the floor of STAR Labs. Bleeding all over. Half of his body meat.

Mrs. Stone lay across from him. Her lips cut into a grin. Her eyes gone red forever.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" Anderson screamed. He tried to close his eyes but his lids had been ripped off.

******

"**Get out!! GET OUT!!!"** Triad shook and clutched his metal skull. **"GET OUT OF MY EYES!!! GET OUT OF MY EYYYYYEEESSSS!!!! AAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!!!!"**

The Destabilizer on the floor sparked once…twice….and shot out bolts magically.

I shaded my naked eyes and winced.

Bolts ran into Triad's body and slipped under the crevices of the Simon skin. The automaton's body shook, convulsed, and screamed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down under in the cabin's laboratory, Anderson's body shook and jerked about in the crevice. His limbs twitched a few last times and he grew limp. Liquid poured out of his mouth and nostrils.

Starfire made a face.

Beast Boy turned greener.

Raven glared.

Robin….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Triad's body froze…fell apart into two dozen clanging-metal pieces…and Cyborg stood in the center. He fell to his knees with a sigh and shook his head.

I stopped shading my eyes and looked at him.

A few sparks came out of the Destabilizer…then all was silent and still.

The wind picked up, kicking at my hair and stinging into my wounds. I slowly limped over, clutching my shoulder, and stood a fair distance behind my android, Titan comrade.

He was cradling the robotic 'head' of Simon, which had shrunk back to normal and was blinking with faint life.

Simon's robotic eyes slowly opened and looked up into his nephew. "We….W-We're free, Victor…"

Cyborg's face was deadpan. "Yeah….you old fool. You're one lucky fellow…."

The mechanical lips stretched into a weak grin. "Funny….your head….it's a warm place."

"So's yours, old man," Cyborg said. "Though…somewhat darker."

"I…..wish….I had the blue, Victor," Simon spoke slower and slower. The power fading. "I…..w-wish……..things could have…s-stayed normal."

"I know, Simon…..I know."

"….wish……..the family……………stayed……………………….a…..a-alive……"

And the lights in Simon's cranium faded.

Cyborg exhaled. He brought a titanium hand over the head's face…and Simon's eyes were closed. He leaned his metal forehead to his Uncle's and spoke:

"I have a new family now…."

I took a deep breath and looked away.

And the sun began to set on the lake.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later, under the night's sky, a squad of boats with bright lights had escorted the yacht to the local boatyard. Authorities examined the ship all over. Many hitherto undiscovered files of Anderson's treacherous history were found and used for evidence.

The Titans—recovering from the serum—assisted in the removal of Anderson's frail body from the laboratory. He still had life signs…but was in a seemingly irreversible coma. And at his age…that was not a good sign. He was carted off in a silent ambulance.

Robin and Raven were present when paramedics carried Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair off on stretchers. The two were awake….fleshly awake.

"How're you feeling?" Robin asked.

Jean-Luc managed a faint smile. "Like a free bird, child. I think….I-I think this is the beginning of the beginning…f-for us…"

"STAR Labs has heard of what happened to you two," Robin said. "They've offered to assist you two into full recovery after what Simon Stone was programmed to do."

"If it's allright, senor," Rachel spoke, "…we're putting forth a request to go to Gotham Labs instead."

"I….don't blame you," Raven uttered.

"Wish you luck," Robin nodded.

"Same to your friend," Jean-Luc said solemnly.

And they were carried off.

Robin looked off towards the dark waters and sighed.

Silence.

"It would be folly to call what we go through….'adventures'," Raven said to him. "From the beginning…when you and I set up the Titans…I knew that thee would be pain ahead. I prepared for it the best I could. And I still do. Every morning. While meditating."

"I prepare for it too, Raven," Robin said. "Or at least I think so. By being with all of my friends. By assuring them my trust for times like these. When everything hits the fan…I want to be here for them. I trust for them to be here for me too."

"Getting close is a threat to one's self and one's sense of stability," Raven spoke. "Already, I can see the Titans aren't fully prepared to deal with the tragedy of today." She gestured towards Cyborg and I to the right…and Starfire and Beast Boy to the left. Everyone was separated. "We part ways….instead of coming together. I've chosen to accept that…for now."

Robin looked over at Starfire and Beast Boy. The green elf looked at the ground. His shoulders shook once or twice. The Tamaranian girl hugged him from behind.

"Beast Boy's taking this hard…," Robin said. "I'd better go talk to him."

"He must learn to deal with it on his own," Raven said. "It's the only way he can become strong."

Robin glared at her. "Not everyone is mature as you, ya know, Raven."

She glanced back at him. "……..ain't that the truth." And she shuffled off.

Robin shrugged, sighed, and walked over to Beast Boy and Starfire.

In the meantime, I sat on a couple of stones looking over the waters.

Cyborg was hunched down beside me. His human and red eye equally glazed. Nothing more.

"You know….," he mumbled. "He isn't technically dead. Nobody who's a case of electrosurgery is ever dead by our standards. STAR Labs…they…th-they can reboot him. They can bring him back…..they……"

His voice lingered.

He looked down.

He sighed.

"I never got close to him like I could have…," he said. "I treated myself and I treated life in turn like I was the last and only Stone in the world." He grabbed a stone and tossed it out on the water. It skipped a few times and plunged in. "I danced along the tides of time and didn't fear sinking. And then Simon had to come into my life…wake me up…and screw everything I felt secure about." He tossed a rock roughly out. It splashed violently without a skip. "And I realized…for once in a long time…how alone I am. How I am truly the last of the Stones. How my mother is dead and my father twice as dead to me and some of it has been my fault all along." He sighed and stared down at his feet. "And now that I've had that wake up call, I have nothing to wake up to."

I limped, walked over, and stood in front of him.

He looked up. He took a breath. "But what I told Simon….it was the truth. I do have a new family. I do."

I smiled my cut lip ever so slightly.

Cyborg stood up. He glared at the yacht…then shivered. "Dammit….let's go home."

And he walked off.

I stared back out at the waters…then at my open palm, where I held the Destabilizer. Swiftly, I blurred my arm and tossed the black taser out and onto the Lake.

It skipped a few times, flew, and plunged in.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning, freshly bandaged for my wounds, I sat at the laptop in the Main Room of the Tower. I scrolled through past e-mails…and came upon the one suspicious document.

Signed…_**-The Messenger.**_

I leaned my chin on my hand and scratched my chin.

Thinking.

The doors behind me swung open.

I jerked and quickly deleted the e-mail. I spun around to see Robin and Beast Boy walk in.

"So…what now?" Beast Boy asked.

"Remember the robbers we faced with the laser rifles?" Robin asked. "Back when Noir was missing?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

Robin glanced at a document in his hand. "Among the evidence gathered from Anderson's yacht last night was this piece of information. Apparently on the night of the Il Trovatore showing at the Westhaven Opera House, Anderson had sent an Internet message to his accomplices in Intergang."

"Of Metropolis?"

"Yes. Turns out an arsenal of weapons that Simon Stone and Lexcorp prepared for him over the past ten years were sold to every bidder in the criminal underworld. It was an attempt to secure funds for Anderson in case his Westhaven stunt failed. Well, turns out it did. But Anderson is now subdued…and there's no telling where either his assets or his sold weaponry is."

"Except, in the hands of baddies," Beast Boy nodded. "Like the guys we faced that one time with the lasers."

"I have no doubt that there's been a massive proliferation of highly advanced guns throughout the criminal underworld," Robin said to both Beast Boy and myself. "We have a huge project on our hands now. And that is a mission to uncover this conspiracy and find the weapons before they can be used to terrible use."

"Wonderful," Beast Boy shrugged. "Now we actually have a direction in which to fight crime."

"More or less. It'll take research," Robin stepped up to the main computer. "Lots and lots of research." He typed away…waited…and made a face. "Why's this computer burned out?"

I simpered, sweatdropping.

"Didn't Noir and Cyborg tell you?"

"About what?" Robin asked.

"Ya know….the self destruct sequence being stopped and all…"

"…..," Robin stared. "Correction," he sighed and looked over the computer. "It'll take repairs….lots and lots of repairs."

The elevator doors opened again and Starfire stepped in with a Tamaranian fruitcake gift thingy. "Where is Cyborg? I wished to present him with the traditional Edible Gift of Sympathy."

"It's best to leave him alone, Star…," Robin said. "Cyborg…needs time to recuperate."

"But…is it not our responsibility to—"

"It's our responsibility to adhere to his wishes," Robin said. He took a deep breath. "Less confrontation that way."

"Yes," Raven said from behind her book. "A lot safer." She had been sitting there the whole time.

I looked at everyone, sighed, and stood up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Baby…what in the world happened to you?!" Cyborg exclaimed.

The T-Car…what was left of it…rested butchered and beaten in the corner of the garage.

Cyborg sighed, shuffled over, and knelt down by the vehicle's side. He began the long process of repairing, repiecing, and repolishing the T-Car back to its goodness.

"You're still a piece of me, right Baby?" he managed a tiny smile. "And I can always refit you…" A pause. "God, I hate that word now."

A few minutes later, he stumbled at one piece of repair. "Where's that one cutter…," he mumbled.

Suddenly, a hand reached down and held it for him.

He looked up.

I smiled down at him through my shades.

"Uh….th-thanks," Cyborg said. He took it from me and went to work, mumbling: "But I really wanted to be alone, man."

I said nothing.

A few minutes later, Cyborg struggled again.

"Dammit…where're those screws…."

I handed another handful of tools for him.

He looked up. He sighed. "Okay….maybe I do need some help after all."

I smirked and knelt down with him to help in the car.

A few minutes later, a shrill whistle flew into the garage.

Cyborg turned around.

"Man….that's a lot of Sunday Driving," Beast Boy leaned against a door frame and shook his head. "I suggest not washing your car with hydrochloric acid from now on."

"Har har….really funny," Cyborg frowned. He looked at me.

I shrugged.

He looked back at the elf. "Whaddya want, BB?"

"Thought you could use a hand," Beast Boy walked over and smiled. "Or a couple of hands and a tail…or even someone who can fit into tight spaces of your Baby." A pause. "Okay, that sounded bad."

"Thanks but…I really wanted to do this alone….er," Cyborg motioned at me. "He was just being helpful with a few tools and—"

"Gotta replace the tires soon?" Beast Boy asked.

"…well…eventually," Cyborg nodded.

"Sounds like a three man team, considering how much that thing is wrecked!"

"Fine, fine," Cyborg rolled his human eye and smirked. "Come on over here. Less squawking and more helping."

"Dude…that's what I want to hear," Beast Boy knelt beside us and assisted.

A few more minutes later.

"Man….this work is making me thirsty," Beast Boy wiped his brow.

"You're not alone…," Cyborg sweated.

I nodded.

A voice from the far side: "Friends! If refreshments are what you need…"

Cyborg looked over.

Starfire smiled with a tray of lemonade, "…then refreshments are what you will need no longer!!"

"Star?! What are you doing down here?!" Cyborg grimaced.

"Were you not thirsty just seven and a half seconds ago?"

"Uhh…"

"Let me be of assistance!"

"I said…I wanted to be alone!" Cyborg frowned. "Can't you at least grant me that after all I've gone th---say, is that lemonade?"

"Yes," Starfire nodded vehemently. "Trademark, the Kool hyphen of the Aid!"

"Hmmmm….that sounds delicious," Cyborg said. He looked at Beast Boy and I.

We smirked.

"Get some for my friends here…"

"Gladly!" she went to work.

"Now let's get this car up on the rack," Cyborg said, pulling out a tire.

"Need help with the hydraulic controls?" said Robin's voice from the edge of the garage.

Cyborg sighed and looked over at the doorframe. "You too?"

"Me four," Robin smirked. "You need someone to operate the controls of the rack."

"And to hand you tools!" Beast Boy smiled and raised four tentacles.

"And to serve you Aid that's Kool!" Starfire beamed.

I smiled and pointed to the tire.

"While you show us just how you want your Baby….shoed," Robin smirked.

Cyborg stared at him. He slowly smiled. "Thanks, Robin. That would help."

The four boys went into work while Starfire refreshed them all. They lifted the car with the rack and worked on setting the tire. The rack started rocking and Cyborg frowned.

"Damn…this thing's so old. It's unsteady."

"Kind of dangerous, isn't it?" Beast Boy said.

"It'll be fine for now as long as we—"

A field of black energy formed and surrounded the metal structure of the rack…stabilizing it. The Titans looked over—Cyborg most curiously of them all.

Raven stood off to the side with an outstretched hand. She calmly lowered her hand and her eyes glowed back to normal.

Cyborg blinked.

Eventually, Raven smiled. "What the heck….we're all immature, right?"

Cyborg smiled. His cheeks were warm. "Sure…we all can be."

She walked over. "So…how's the Baby…..fairing?"

"I'll show you," he said to the Titans and motioned to the various pieces of the elevated T-Car that needed repair. "As you see here…she needs a lot of work. But it ain't impossible. If we work together, there's nothing to worry about. Now look here…the wheel well is slightly bent…if we were to adjust it correctly…"

I smiled as he went on. We all worked on the T-Car through the day, past lunch, into the evening, and stopped at night when we all went out to pizza. At some point before the day was over…we all managed a laugh or two.

Even Victor Stone.


	36. Orphans

**36. Orphans**

A spray of gray water flew up in the moonlight as the speedboat skimmed past the docks. Three drug smugglers frantically piloted the vehicle through narrow channels and in/around moored yachts. One of them stood at the stern with a huge laser rifle in his grasp, which he shot randomly at the heroes in pursuit.

Robin zoomed with the R-Cycle on a gravel road parallel to the channel. He gripped the steering of his bike with one hand and let fly a series of birdarangs with the other.

Two ricocheted off the body of the boat, but one struck the gunman's weapon. It merely sparked and misfired once or twice. The thug growled, took aim, and shot at Robin.

ZAP!!!

Robin revved the bike's engine and shot ahead of the blast.

In the meantime, Starfire zoomed in from above a warehouse and let loose pair after pair after pair of starbolts.

The driver of the smuggling speedboat veered left and right to avoid the blasts. The gunman in the back of the boat shot at the alien girl.

Starfire dodged swiftly and few off for a second run on the craft.

"Get them before they throw the evidence overboard!!" Robin shouted into a communicator.

I nodded in silent confirmation. I was running at blazing speeds from dock to dock, leaping over boats and ducking under masts. I ran off the bow of a huge yacht and jumped onto the water.

My feet blurred, and I ran a bullet over the waves and at the back of the smugglers' boat.

The gunman took aim and fired when I was nearly at him.

ZAP!!!!

I morphed into smoke form, parted around the blast, and teleported lightning-quick onto the hull of the ship myself. With my feet planted on the railings, I slashed hard at the laser rifle with Myrkblade.

CRACK!!!

I severed the barrel of the weapon off.

The gunman stumbled back, gasping.

I switched Myrkblade to Myrkstaff and prepared to knock the man out atop his head.

The pilot suddenly swerved the boat.

We all swung to the side.

I toppled onto the deck of the ship. Cold Bay water sprayed over me.

The second pilot stood up, whipped out a high-tech looking pistol, and aimed at me.

BLAM!!

I flipped up off the boat and dodged in mid air.

I landed and held Myrkblade up…glaring from under my shades.

The pilot with the pistol smirked.

"????" I turned around.

The single bullet traced around and was coming back at me.

_Homing shot!_

I held Myrkblade up behind me and half-blindly blocked the bullet.

CLANG!!

The pilot shot again.

I ducked.

BANG!!

The bullet swung around—whistling—and came back at me like magic.

Damn technology!!

I had no choice…I leapt off the boat.

SPLASH!!

Underwater, the bullet splashed down after me.

I saw a trail of broken water as it skirted down towards my body.

I charged murk into my sword and deflected the bullet.

I swam up and surfaced, gasping for breath.

The speedboat got away, and I was all wet.

In the meantime, the thugs had a brief moment to cheer at my defeat as they zoomed down a channel.

Unknown to them, there stretched a bridge over the water ahead. The T-Car—repaired—drove to a stop on top of the bridge. Cyborg and Raven got out.

"Give me a lift!" Cyborg shouted.

Raven's eyes glowed. She held her hands out. "Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!!"

Black spheres enveloped Cyborg's feet.

The half-android Titan was lifted off the bridge and safely over the boat.

He growled and leapt straight down onto the speedboat, fist first.

SMASH!!!

"WHOAH!!" the pilot fell back as broken shards of the hull flew at him from Cyborg's blow.

The metal Titan growled, kicked his way through the boat's windshield, and wrestled with two thugs at once.

The third gunman worked desperately on repairing the laser rifle.

The boat slowed to a stop as the fight took place.

Starfire sailed down towards the scene. Her eyes glowed a bright green as she charged up a huge blast and shot a blazing starbolt at the pilot.

Cyborg drew back as the green blast successfully knocked the thug away and into the waters.

Cyborg smirked.

The second pilot took the distraction as an opportunity to aim his homing pistol straight at Cyborg's skull.

"SKREEEE!!"

A green hawk sailed down and snatched the weapon away. It flew off towards the docks where it landed in elf form and smirked. "Ten…Twenty…To Heck, pal," Beast Boy quirped.

Realizing the second pilot was still kicking, Cyborg shoved his elbow back into the man's face.

SMACK!!

The thug fell back onto the deck of the speedboat. He grabbed a wooden oar and swung it hard into Cyborg's chest, knocking the Titan back.

The third gunman continued in desperation to fix the laser rifle.

The pilot in the water tried swimming away in an escape. He gasped as a black sphere enveloped his body and floated him over towards the docks where Starfire landed and handcuffed him.

Robin road up on the R-Cycle, jumped out, and whipped his helmet off. He ran towards the dock's edge and shot a grappling hook towards a warehouse rooftop on the other side.

PANG!!!

CLINK!!

Robin soared off the dock's edge by the cord and swung mightily towards the speedboat.

Cyborg blocked two swings of the oar by the second thug and jumped back.

The man shouted and raised his bludgeon to smash Cyborg's head in.

SMACK!!!

Robin flew into him, feet first, and knocked him over the boat's edge and into the waters.

"Boo-ya!!" Cyborg chanted.

The third gunman clipped the barrel of the laser rifle back on finally. "HA!!" He took aim at the two Titans in the boat.

Starfire gasped.

"LOOK OUT!!!" Beast Boy shouted from the docks.

Cyborg and Robin spun, eyes wide.

The thug winked and pulled the trigger.

WOOOOSH---WHUMP!!!

I blurred over the water, jumped, and nailed the thug in the backside with my elbow.

"OOF!!" he fell to his side and fired blindly.

_**ZAAAP!!!!**_

As a result, the laser blast soared straight up.

The five of us walked—hearts stopping—as the stream of energy flew into the bridge, smashed into the guardrail, and exploded right next at Raven.

_**BAM!!!**_

"Ughhh!!" the girl fell down hard. Her eyes were shut.

"Raven!!!" Cyborg shouted.

Starfire immediately flew to the bridge, panicky.

I panted.

"RRRAUGH!" Cyborg spun around and punched the downed thug hard in the gut.

WHUMP!!

"Cyborg!! Take it easy!!" Robin held him back. "Starfire!! Is she okay?!"

"I…I-I do not know!!" the Tamaranian shrieked. "Her pulse…it is so very faint!!"

"I gotta get to her," Cyborg grunted. "B.B.!! Help me out here!"

The green changeling turned into a pterodactyl, picked Cyborg up by the shoulders, and flew him back onto the bridge.

Robin reached out and hoisted the second pilot in from the waters. He handcuffed him, swiftly turned around, and grappled himself up and onto the bridge.

I picked the wheezing gunman up and held him still from behind. My eyes were glued to the bridge above me. As I watched, the boat was slowly drifting further and further under the stretch of the bridge. I couldn't see what was happening. I only saw the huddled shoulders of the four Titans as they ministered to the unconscious girl. I could only hear their frantic voices:

"Come on Raven! Come on Raven!"

"Don't die on us!!"

"You got her, Cyborg. You're doing a good job. Keep at it."

"Come on….come on…."

"Is she….??"

"HUSH UP!! Come on, Raven! COME ON!!"

"She's not breathing…"

"She will in a second, dammit. COME ON!!"

A coughing sound.

I exhaled.

Raven's voice sputtered, gasped for breath, and wheezed.

"Glorious!" Starfire's voice chanted. "A recovery!!"

"Raven! Can you see me?"

"Y-Yeah….," a cough. "Why're you all….hugging me?"

"You just had the breath knocked out of you. Girl, we thought it was worse. We thought we lost you."

"I'm fine. Stop cr—" (cough) "---cramping me…."

"Thought we lost you, Raven…."

"……"

I sighed and looked down to the deck of the speedboat.

Two huge packages of cocaine had spilled out of compartment.

I gritted my teeth and angrily kicked the compartment door shut.

SLAM!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven seemed dazed. She sat on the corner of the boatyards, a warm cup of tea in her grasp. Robin had leant her his cape for added warmth. Starfire stood behind the dark girl with a gentle hand on her shoulder. For once, Raven didn't argue. She still seemed to be catching her breath back.

I wrung the water out of my hair and bandanna. I looked to my right where police were carting away the thugs towards a truck. The speedboat had been stripped of its evidence, and there were enough smuggled drugs recovered to put the trio into prison for a long…long time. Not to mention the dramatic weaponry in their possession….

"Third case this week with those crazy guns," exclaimed a police chief with a scratch of his head. He looked over at a cape-less Robin and Cyborg. "You were right when you said the underworld got a handful of technological crap from whats-his-name…"

"Anderson," Robin nodded. "A few weeks ago, he sold his arsenal from a lifelong embezzlement in destructive technology. We've got a handful for sure."

"Nuts to you, filthy Titans!!" a thug shouted from the back of the van. "You can't trace anything to anyone!!"

"We'll be back, just you wait and see!" said another thug.

"Hey! Morons!" the chief shouted to the thugs. "If I were you, I'd shut up. I already read you your rights."

"It's worth it," one thug snickered. "Almost offed a Titan tonight!!"

Raven looked up with exhausted eyes.

Cyborg stared. His brow furrowed and he clenched his fists. "Sure..y'all will be back," he said darkly. He stomped over to the dock. Up to the thugs' speedboat. He gripped the hull at the bow with two titanium hands. His metal muscles flexed. His treeth grit. "RrrrrrrrrrrRRRRAAAAAAAUGHHHH!!!!"

RIIIIIIIIIP!!!! SMASH!!!!

Cyborg literally snapped the speedboat in half, lengthwise. Everyone—Titans and police officers too—watched in shock as the strong Titan lifted both halves up like giant weights and smashed them together.

CRUNCH!!!!!!!

Debris and splinters and shards flew everywhere like a shower of chaos.

Cyborg panted, wiped his brow, and spun around…frowning at the thugs. "Sorry 'bout your ride, boys…"

"Hey!!" one thug shouted. "HEY!! YOU CAN'T DO THAT! THAT'S OUR PROPERTY YOUR BASTARD!!"

"It's litter now," Cyborg pointed a strong finger. "And so's your damn skull if EVER I catch you nearly killing one of my friends again!!"

"You can't do this!" the thug shouted as the van started up. "I want my lawyer! I want a lawsuit! You stupid piece of—"

The officers closed the doors to the van and it carted the prisoners off down the street.

Cyborg stomped over towards the sides of the dock, shoulders heaving.

Robin walked over to him. "Was that…..really necessary?"

"You saw what they did!!" Cyborg spun around and barked, pointing at the bridge where the blast damage was. "Raven could be dead now thanks to them!! Have you no feelings?!"

"I have feelings, Cyborg," Robin frowned. "And I **do** care for my teammates when their lives are threatened. But that doesn't give me the excuse to go smashing things to bits."

"Those crooks are never going to learn!!" Cyborg roared. "The law's not going to make them realize their wrong!! They're gonna keep coming back and—you know what—they're gonna keep hurting people!! Citizens. Friends. _Family!_ I. Won't. Stand. For. IT!!"

"And I'm not asking you to, Cyborg," Robin jabbed a finger into his chest. "But I am asking you to cool it down!! We're trying to set an example for this city. Not give people something to fear!!"

"These people don't know fear…," Cyborg grumbled, low. "They don't know what pain is. Their butts are too busy being saved by our sweat…our efforts…our SACRIFICE!!"

"Shouting's not going to help anything, Cyborg," Robin said. "Neither is smashing up things and threatening people."

"I'm telling you, Robin, they won't---"

"It won't bring your uncle back!!!" Robin said firmly.

Starfire and Beast Boy flinched.

I swallowed.

Raven looked to the floor.

Cyborg's eyes widened. Then he glared down at Robin. "You just like twisting the dagger in….don't ya Robin?" he said under his breath. It was far more venomous than shouting. "Anything to win an argument. Anything to get your stupid point across."

Robin glared. "I only want the best for you, Cy…"

"Then do the best for me by shutting the Hell up," Cyborg waved and walked off towards the bridge in a huff. "I don't need you to teach me a lesson. I don't need you when all you do is take the bad guys' sides."

"I'm not on their side—!!"

"See ya at the Tower," Cyborg got into the T-Car, slammed the door shut, and drove off.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!-_VROOOOOOOOooooooooooooom._

Starfire cleared her throat. "I do not believe Cyborg has yet…….recovered from his recent losses."

"You think?" Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Robin stared after the car.

"What now, Robin?" Beast Boy shrugged.

The Boy Wonder sighed. He turned around and headed for his R-Cycle. "Our job tonight is done. We're going home."

"Y-You mean…..where _he_ is going?" he pointed in the direction of where the T-Car left.

Robin said nothing in reply. He got into his R-Cycle, put his helmet off, and zoomed off in a similar fashion.

Beast Boy folded his arms. "Yeah….thanks Robin."

"Boys and their toys…," Raven finally said, catching our attention. She muttered weakly, staring down into her mug of tea. "Relying so much on distractions to ignore the situation at hand…"

"What is that situation, you think, Raven?" Starfire asked.

She sighed and looked at the ground. "Something I feel very sorry for."

"Raven…come on!" Beast Boy wandered over and knelt in front of her. "It wasn't your fault, girl! It's not like you fired the laser rifle off-kilter and nearly killed yourself! If anyone's at fault, it's probably Noir over there for bumping into the gunman so!! Heheheheh!!"

I winced.

Raven looked at me, then glared at Beast Boy.

"That is….," Starfire spoke, blinking, "…how you say…'a joke better saved for deaf ears'?"

"Y-Yeah," Beast Boy simpered and scratched his neck. "I was desperate…."

Raven stood up, sighing. "Let's go home."

Starfire smiled. "Need a mode of elevated transportation back to the Tower, Raven?"

The dark girl looked at her tiredly. "Sure…," she smirked ever so subtly. "I'm up to my neck in boys tonight and feel sick of it anyhow."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

Starfire giggled. "'None of your laxative of bees'!" She hoisted Raven up by the shoulders and gracefully flew her off towards the Tower.

"Guess we lag behind…," Beast Boy muttered. He looked at me and smiled nervously. "No hard feelings…eh Noir?"

I glared at him. I faked to charge him.

"WAH!!" he jumped back, flinching.

I smiled with a silent chuckle and blurred down the street.

"Hoy vay…," Beast Boy exhaled. "Good thing I wasn't a skunk just then." And he turned into an albatross and flew away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I arrived at the Tower last. I trudged down to my cellar room, peeling my wet, sticky clothes off. I entered my room and wrinkled my nose as Bay water smell filled the place.

_Yuck_.

After a brisk shower, I donned on a casual white t-shirt and jeans. I was about to make up my bed when I noticed—in the lantern light—a white envelope at the bottom of my door. Like it had been slid in. It was knocked into the center of the floor a bit and had some water droplets on it.

I must have walked over it on the way into the room before showering…

Curious, I knelt down and lifted the envelope up. There was no writing on the cover itself. I quickly ripped it open and produced a printed-out note.

_**Dear Noir,**_

_**Good job eliminating the threat that was consuming Cyborg. No doubt, the Titans' challenges are just beginning. I wanted you to know that you're not alone. I'll be watching…and, yes, I'll be helping every now and then when I get a chance to. Don't you fret, my friend. You can kick ass just as much as any of your teammates. And your sword is pretty friggin' cool.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**-the Messenger**_

_**P.S.: Lanterns in your room? That's downright gothic………I like it.**_

I jumped as if the letter was stabbing me.

I dashed out into the cellar and looked around.

No sign of anyone.

"……," I pocketed the note for a later time.

And headed up the stairs towards the elevators.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"From the data we've collected in Anderson's files, we know the quantity of technological weaponry Anderson had in his arsenal. The count maxed out at eight hundred and ninety units. The units are divided into eight categories determined by alphanumeric strings or 'titles'. There's every reason to believe that these are model numbers of some sort…but there's no way to tell what they signify. Anderson's scientists were privately employed, and they had no common legend to go by. There's no existing taxonomy of weaponry to tell us what we're dealing with. So far, we've accumulated twenty-two weapons through our own work and that of law enforcement. Among them were two types of weapons: a standard laser rifle and a gun with target-homing bullets. There are six different types of weapons left to identify, and among them we have eight hundred and sixty-eight units to relocate. The long and short of it is—in combing the City's criminal Underground—we're only two and a half percent complete in our task."

"Is there a point to all this?" Beast Boy muttered. "You're putting me to sleep, Robin."

The Boy Wonder turned around from the computer in the Main Room and glared at the changeling. "Beast Boy, this is serious."

"This is boring! Okay…so we're nowhere near finding all the proliferated weapons. Okay. I buy that. It's depressing. I'm depressed. What more do you want from me?"

"You're overloading him….," Raven hummed from behind a book.

Robin sighed and stared down at the keyboard. "This is going to take forever. I wish Cyborg was here to share my study into this case."

"Yeah well, after earful you gave him earlier…you have only yourself to blame for his absence, dude."

"Somebody has to talk some sense into him!" Robin exclaimed. He got up from his chair and walked over to the kitchen for a glass of water. "He can't let himself go off the deep end like that! It's not exemplary for a Titan! If I let him have his way…he could have been smashing the skulls in of those thugs a mere minute later!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy retorted, "For all Cyborg knows, he's lost his Uncle! Give him a break! Would you be so cheerful if your family was just cut down in half?!"

Raven looked up.

I walked into the room and froze.

Robin looked at Raven….at me…and then at Beast Boy before saying: "And just who here hasn't suffered like that?? Cyborg's not the only one!!"

Silence.

Beast Boy blinked. He looked at the rest of us.

Raven looked at me….Robin…Beast Boy.

The Boy Wonder was still…as if awaiting a reply.

He got it.

"Um…," Beast Boy lifted a finger, "I'm not the only one?"

"He's not?" Raven asked.

I looked at Robin.

The Boy Wonder's fists clenched. He took a deep breath. "Isn't it obvious? All of us. All of us had to have lost someone….or more…"

Beast Boy scratched his neck and looked away.

Raven returned to her book.

I stared at everyone.

"Right?!?!" Robin exclaimed.

Raven glared up at him. "Don't. Push. It."

Robin fumed. He loudly placed a glass down on the kitchen counter and filled it with water.

Silent.

Everything was bitterly silent.

Beast Boy was concerned. "I…I-I know _**I**_ have lost people….but…..y-you guys? Robin? Raven??"

"Drop it," Raven muttered.

"Why s-should we drop it?!" Beast Boy exclaimed, his eyes wide. "Come on! Let's talk it over! We're friends, aren't we?! Let's deal with it! That's what we're here for!"

"No…it isn't," Raven hissed, her brow furrowed. "We're here to protect this City and its people. Our personal lives have nothing to do with it."

"Well, it's important to me!!" Beast Boy pointed at himself. "As nutty as I am, I care about you dudes!! I'd like to talk about it!! We can't keep going on like this…so tense and afraid to open up to each other!"

"Beast Boy…," Robin said, on edge. "The Confidentiality Agreement…."

"Screw that!" Beast Boy glared. He gestured at me, "Jordan and I talked about each other once and it did wonders for how wrecked our emotions were during the Westhaven mission!!"

Robin spilled his water.

Raven looked up, her lips parted curiously.

I winced and waved for Beast Boy to hush up.

"Ummm….," Robin glared.

"'Jordan'??" Raven raised an eyebrow.

I winced.

"And I'm Gar!!" Beast Boy proudly exclaimed. "Garfield Logan!! So shocking, isn't it?! Now how about you, Robin?! Huh?! And you, Raven! Out with it!!"

"This is pointless," Raven stood up and headed for the door. "I'm leaving before we get into too much trouble."

"Don't you go running away now!!" Beast Boy shouted after her. "It never helps to be afraid to open up!!"

Raven spun around and glared at him with glowing ray eyes. "I. Am. Not. Afraid. I am only smart." And she exited.

"Robin! Come on! You can't settle for this! This is stupid! This is all so stupid!!"

Beast Boy quieted when he saw the leader's glare from under his eyemask. "If there's anything you should have learned from living with us for so long, Beast Boy," he muttered, "…is that there's always a time and a place for you to _shut up!"_

He slammed the refrigerator door shut and stomped out of the room on the other side's exit.

Beast Boy and I were left standing alone.

"Phweeee," Beast Boy sighed exasperatingly, looked at me, and shrugged. "Some happy family, huh noobie?"

I looked to the floor.

"Sorry about that…," he shuffled over towards a chair and slumped down. "I just….get so sick of it. All this mystery. All this hiding. If we know each other so much…we should have nothing to hide. Robin…he made up the confidentiality accord. I think he only meant it to protect himself. The only other person I could possibly see ever benefiting from it is Raven. And look at her…pfft…she's sooooo on his side about this."

I walked over and looked down at him.

He looked back up at me. He smiled weakly, "It's all stupid….but kinda silly at the same time. All this fighting. R-Right?"

I slowly nodded.

He looked down. Then raised an eyebrow. "Say….wh-where're Starfire and Cyborg?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It could use some more spark, Star…"

Starfire sat straight across from Cyborg on the Tower's rooftop. She leaned her hands towards the tiny bonfire, glowed emerald, and lit the flames taller.

"Aw yeah…that's what I'm talking about!" Cyborg stopped shivering and warmed his hands before the flames that danced up towards the night's sky.

Starfire giggled and similarly rubbed her hands before the fire. "Is this when earthlings typically hold the sumos out on sticks?"

"Sumos??" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"Yes…with the marshes of mellowness."

Cyborg laughed heartily. "That's 'Smores', Starfire."

"Your words…they are so simple and yet so complex. How did you ever finish schooling?"

"Cliff Notes."

"Huh?"

"Never mind, Starfire," Cyborg grinned slightly. "Out of your league."

"I see…"

Cyborg took a deep sigh. He leaned back where he sat cross-legged on the Tower's rooftop. The night's sky stretched over them. Stars twinkling tiredly. It was his idea for the bonfire. He had wanted to get out…and yet stay warm and close to home all the same. So, he and Starfire chose to do this.

And it was relaxing.

Cyborg opened up, "Earlier, Starfire, I got ugly. Really ugly. I meant the things I said…and I still do mean them…..but….I'm sorry it had to be so explosive. So unpleasant. I want to apologize to you first, Star. Of all the wyrdos I fight with, you're the one who deserves a sweet apology the most."

"And I do accept it, Cyborg," Starfire said. "The Titans…they are so tense. So bothered, I can feel it. But I do not believe it is ugliness that they are showing. Rather, it is sorrow. Robin—he may not want to confess it much, but he is deeply regretful for the pain you have gone through recently. Like typical earthling males, he goes about an adverse way of showing you his concern. Ugliness is merely a symptom…a side effect…a placebo…."

Cyborg chuckled. "Star….you know earthlings a lot more than you give yourself credit for. Yup….you got us earth males sketched right. We're helpless."

Starfire smiled: "But it is that very same helplessness that makes you precious in my eyes," she said. "That is why I cannot ever make myself leave back for Tamaran. The friends I have made here are so…..so remarkable." Her eyes traced the dancing flames. She said, "So strong in support….and yet….so fragile in need." She looked back at Cyborg with emerald eyes. "It is a most attractive paradox. Forgive me if I sound full of sap."

"'Sappy'?"

"Yes."

"Nothing to be sorry about, Star," Cyborg sighed. "You have nothing to be sorry about…..except for maybe your homemade cooking."

She pouted. "The earthling's palate is most fickle. I shall never understand it."

"Whatever keeps us eating Terran stuff," Cyborg smirked. "No offense."

"No fence taken."

He glanced at her, shook his head, and looked back to the fire.

Silence.

A crackle or two.

"Starfire…..I'm the last of my family…"

The Tamaranian girl slowly nodded. "I figured as much."

"It's…..a strange feeling," he said. "I mean…it was always technically true with my parents and all gone….but….now I realize it more so."

"You realize that you're an orphan…," said a voice.

Starfire and Cyborg spun around.

"OH….you two," the android muttered.

Beast Boy and I walked over to the bon fire. "Mind if we join you?" the changeling asked.

"I have no argument against that," Starfire smiled. "Do you, Cyborg?"

"Go on….take a seat," he said nonchalantly.

I sat with Starfire to my left and Cyborg to my right.

Beast Boy knelt opposite of me and hugged his legs. "Feels nice out."

"Tell me about it," Cyborg said.

A pause.

"You've been listening in on us?"

"A little…," Beast Boy said. "Then you got to the sad part. And I remembered why Noir and I got out form under the Tower's ceiling to begin with."

"Robin and Raven being their usual selves?"

"And me being my normal self," Beast Boy mused.

Starfire looked at me. "What about Noir?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "A boy has his shadow."

I rolled my eyes from under the shades and warmed my hands in front of the flames.

"So….you're an orphan now…," Beast Boy muttered.

"Pfft…always was," Cyborg muttered. "Victor Stone. Son of the late professor and his wife. Raised into adolescence by science and circuitry."

"Garfield Logan…," Beast Boy muttered, staring into the flames. "Son of two scientists in Africa. Raised into nothingness by circus troupes and unsuccessful, t.v. ripoffs of Star Trek."

Starfire and Cyborg did a double-take at him.

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Garfield??"

"Gar for short…."

"As in…the fat cat?"

"GAR FOR SHORT!"

"Okay! Okay!" Cyborg raised his hands and chuckled. "I get it…._Gar_."

Starfire giggled. "It is a cute title to go by! May I hug you, Garfield?"

"Surrrrre," Beast Boy smiled. "Anything to please a lady."

Cyborg moaned: "Oh please…"

"Heeeeee!" Starfire scooted over and wrapped her arms around Beast Boy's shoulders. "I am most honored to know of your identical title to that of a murdered president!"

Beast Boy squinted. "How charming."

"Sounds like Starfire's been studying up on her history," Cyborg smirked. Then he glared at Beast Boy, "And sounds like Beast Boy's been ignoring the Confidentiality Agreement!!"

"Hey!! Look at you, Mr. _Victor Stone!_"

"Just joshing you, man," Cyborg waved a hand and smirked. He sighed as he said, "So….you too, huh?"

Beast Boy slowly nodded. "Is it any surprise?"

"Honestly, no."

"I mean….I joke around a lot and---"

"Defense mechanisms, I know."

"Just like your anger…," Starfire pointed at Cyborg.

He nodded.

I watched everyone.

Wow……a regular psychology debate.

"W-What is it like?" Starfire stammered. "If…I m-might ask."

"Hmm?"

"What's what like?"

"Being an orphan?"

The two male Titans looked down.

"You mean…._you_ don't know?" Beast Boy asked.

Starfire's face was solemn. "No. I do not."

"Didn't think you were that lucky, Star," Cyborg said. "But….I suppose it is only fitting."

She smiled ever so slightly, but her eyes still expressed sympathy.

"It's hard to explain…," Beast Boy said.

Robin's voice sounded off from a distance: "It's like living each day of your life trying to prove yourself to people you can't even see."

All four of us turned to look at him as he slowly shuffled towards the bonfire in mid-speech.

"It's like having everything happening around you being your relation. Being your conscience and your guide. You learn from an early age to trust yourself above all things…and you can get very…..very defensive when someone so much as tries to tell you that something you're doing is wrong."

Cyborg looked away and towards the rooftop.

Robin stood over him, sighed, and extended a hand. "Cyborg…I'm sorry for going at you earlier like I did. What you're going through…..honestly…..it brought memories back to me. I didn't like it. And I didn't like the idea that you were going through with it all……again…"

Cyborg shook the leader's hand. "I understand, Robin," he said quietly. "Thanks."

"Robin….you are also…….---?" Starfire's voice ran off.

Robin slowly nodded. "And that's all you need to know."

"Hail, hail…the gang's all here," Beast Boy said. A pause. "Well….most of us."

"Raven's just like us too, I bet," Cyborg spoke to himself. "A girl so dark….so reclusive. She had to have been hurt big time. Right?" He looked up at Robin and was surprised to see the Boy Wonder shake his head.

"Believe me…," he said. "She only wished she was….'one of us'."

Beast Boy thought aloud. "In her mindscape…when Cy and I ran into the red dude with the four eyes….d-does that have anything to do with it?"

"For her sake….I won't answer that….," Robin said.

Silence.

"Again, I'm sorry, Cyborg," Robin said with a sigh. "I've been so wrapped up with tracing where Anderson's arsenal has gone. It was a innocent search until today…when I realized I was ignoring the one thing that was truly top priority for the Titans. Looking after you."

"Pfft…that's hardly priority," Cyborg says. "I don't need attention. Only time."

I slowly nodded at that.

"If there's anyway I can make it up to you," Robin spoke, "I'd be more than willing.

Cyborg smirked up at him. "You can start by getting your butt downstairs and coming back with the fixings for Smores!"

"Yeah! Awesome!" Beast Boy bounced.

"Hehehehe!" Starfire beamed and cupped her hands together. "Yes, Robin! Do bring us some sumos!"

Robin sweatdropped and grinned. "O-Okay…guess I'm waiter for the evening." He spun around. "I'll be back with your junk food."

"MAKE IT JUMBO SIZED!" Cyborg shouted out.

"WITH TOFU!!"

"Man…nobody makes Smores out of tofu."

"Nobody puts ketchup on ham!"

"Touche."

I smirked. I looked over. Starfire was staring directly at me.

I suddenly remembered I was real.

"Noir….," she cocked her head to the side and asked softly, "And you??"

Beast Boy looked at me.

Cyborg looked at me.

"…….," I sat silently.

"You….d-don't have to talk about it, Noir," Beast Boy ever-compassionately offered with a wave of the hand. "We won't….ya know…force you."

I held up a hand. I took a breath and gestured in Cyborg's direction.

He 'read' me over the flames.

"What doe he say?" Starfire inquired.

Cyborg blinked. "He says he doesn't know if his parents are alive."

I nodded off into the fire.

Silence.

"Welcome to the club, Jordan," Beast Boy said.

Starfire blinked.

Cyborg did a double-take. "Say what?! Jordan?!"

"Oops!!" Beast Boy winced and hit himself in the head. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

I moaned silently and shook my head with a smirk.

"'Jordan'….huh?" Cyborg smirked at me.

I stuck my tongue out.

"Like the shoe?" Starfire beamed.

"No….Star…."

"Basketball?"

"Warmer."

"Jordan's a fitting name," Cyborg rubbed his metal chin. He grinned. "Kind of gender-neutral though."

"!!!!!" I glared at him through my shades.

"And….ya know….I always did think your hair was kinda long for a guy," Cyborg said. He then laughed his head off. "HA HA HA HA HA!!!"

"Hehehehehehehehehehehe!!!" Beast Boy toppled over, giggling. "Good one!!"

"HAAAAAA HAAAA HAAAA!!" Cyborg teared.

I crossed my arms and pouted.

Starfire blinked. "I do not get it. Are you a girl now, Noir?"

I waved my arms.

"Once was a girl?"

I waved harder.

"What's so funny now?!" Robin exclaimed.

We all looked over and shut up.

The Boy Wonder had a package of marshmallows and a packet of candy bars in his arms. But standing next to him was Raven.

The girl smiled ever so slightly and shrugged: "I brought sticks."

"Glorious!"

"Excellent!"

"Well, allright!"

"Come on over and let's get them things roasted!"

"Yeah…Noir's as giddy as a schoolgirl. HA!"

"Hehehehehehehe!!"

"….."

The night waned on. The bonfire warmed us. The Smores smelled good.

And were delicious too…


	37. Field Day

**37. Field Day**

"Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"Think of it…," Robin smiled, "…as community service. We've got to pay our respects to the public every now and then."

"Yes…but…._in public_?" Raven lifted an eyebrow.

The six Titans rode the T-Car towards the Western District of the City. The buildings swinging by the windows slowly turned into trees and residential suburbs. The path to the recreational Western Fairgrounds was a quaint one, considering.

"It'll be fine, Raven," Cyborg said from the driver's seat. He smirked as he cruised down the road. "We go there. We make a speech to the high schoolers. We sign a couple of autographs. We showcase our powers. Then we go home. It won't last more than two hours. I promise you."

"I for one am looking forward to this," Beast Boy cracked his knuckles and leaned back in the rear seat. He grinned from ear to ear. "I'm behind on catching up on all my lady fans."

"What lady fans?" Raven squinted at him.

"You wouldn't know."

"Well, duh, I'm not a lady fan of yours."

"Yeah….(sigh)…tis a shame."

"Excuse me?"

Robin cleared his throat. "I normally wouldn't be having us do this sort of thing at such a time as this. We really should be continuing our search of Anderson's weapon arsenal. But…to be frank…the citizens' needs are our top priority. Plus, I think the whole lot of us could do with a….break, ya know?"

"Amen to that!" Cyborg said.

"I must confess…," Starfire spoke from the front passenger's seat. "I have never happened upon the high school populace of your planet in person before. I hope they are a mostly inviting group of youngsters."

Robin winced. He tried to hide it. "They can be at times, Star. As long as you know how to deal with people, you'll be fine."

"Yeah…this is just a public event thingy," Beast Boy said. "I wouldn't stress over anything except keeping your hair straight."

"Same difference, sounds like," Raven mumbled.

"I have appeared before a group of elementary school students before….," Starfire said. "Is there any difference between the elementary schools and the high schools on your planet?"

"Hmmmmmmmm," Beast Boy thought aloud. "Pretty much the same, really. Only, high school has more dropouts."

"I see…."

"You know…," Cyborg said from the steering wheel, "….I just thought of something."

"What's that?" Robin asked.

"This will be Noir's first official appearance to the public," Cyborg said. "Outside of kicking butt, ya know."

Everyone looked at me.

I was busy looking out the window at passing trees. But at the sudden attention, I glanced back at them.

"That is remarkably true," Starfire said. "Is it not?"

"More or less…," Raven mumbled.

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "I suppose the whole ordeal with Blake Glover really…..um…..exposed………….er…"

I sighed.

"Oopsie," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"You're no longer our wildcard, noobie!" Cyborg winked at me through the rear-view mirror. "Enjoy the spotlight!"

I let out a silent chuckle of sarcasm.

Raven smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was high noon on a sunny day. Hardly a cloud was in the sky. The summer was a few degrees below sweltering. Hot….but bearable. The perfect weather for t-shirts, caps, and ice drinks.

At the Western Recreational Field, a huge gathering had occurred. A charity event for residential construction was the center of focus for the day. Four local high schools came together to organize the proceedings. There were plenty of arts and crafts on sale. Refreshments. Carnival amusement rides. And marching bands. There was also a charity walk-a-thon taking place around the stretch of the field itself. Both old and young were present. Families. Couples. But, most of all, the four high schools brought most of their student bodies—evolving from one grade to another over summer. And everyone was awaiting the most exciting element of the charity event; the guest appearance of the Teen Titans, the guardians of the City. They had agreed to arrive free of charge to make a public speech, show off their skills, and support the residential construction efforts the best they could.

With its windows glinting in the sunlight, the T-Car came down the long stretch of road leading to the field and approached the back entrance where they were scheduled to appear.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Are we there yet?" Raven hummed.

"NO!!" Cyborg barked. "You of all people…why would you care?!"

"We are here!!!" Starfire beamed.

Cyborg blinked at the back entrance coming into view. "Well, allright."

"What time is it??" Robin asked.

"Two minutes after Twelve—aw man!! We're late!"

"Not in my book!" Robin grinned. "Let's make our entrance!"

"Dude, we gotta park first!"

"That'll be part of it! You get what I'm saying?!" Robin leaned forward into the driver's compartment. "Swerve to a stop. I'll flip out since I'm closest to the door…."

"I get it!" Cyborg grinned. "Then I'll zoom out with my booster packs and skid to a stop beside you….like…in some kickass pose!"

"Then I shall fly overhead for some kicking of the donkey in the air!" Starfire smiled.

"Um…..I'll float too," Raven said.

"Then I"ll come sailing down in---like---dinosaur mode and roar my head off!!!!" Beast Boy cheered. "GROWWWWWWLLLLL-YEAH! TEEN TITANS!!! Hehehehehehehe!!"

"Wait…what about Noir?" Cyborg asked.

I nodded with a question mark over my head.

"Crap!" Robin mumbled. "I forgot!"

"He'd have to be before Raven," Beast Boy said. "Cuz he's closer to the door."

"Not if he turned into smoke form and she like….I dunno…flew through him. We want the girls making an early appearance too, ya know."

"We're almost there," Cyborg sweatdropped, steering towards the back entrance where some high school volunteers were waving him in. "Better clear this up, quick!"

"What if I flew out first, lifted the vehicle, and allowed you three an elevated platform from which to launch yourselves?" Starifre suggested.

"Uh uh! Nobody's lifting my baby!"

"She's got something going!" Beast Boy grinned. "I….like…turn into an elephant and shove the car up a ramp and it flips in mid-air and you five jump out!"

"NO!!!"

"Beast Boy…how're you going to get out the door ahead of me?"

"Simple, Robin, I turn into a snake and slither between your le---"

"Why don't we all go home?" Raven droned.

"Hush! We're doing this one way or another!"

I signed to Cyborg.

"NO! For the last time, she's my baby!!"

I shrugged.

"Okay….here's the plan!" Robin said.

"Make it speedy!!"

"Cyborg…you jump out first. It's your car."

"Pffft….yeah, allright."

"Then….um….Noir can do his blur thingy…"

I nodded.

"Then Raven flies out—"

"Why me?"

"Ahem…THEN RAVEN FLIES OUT….and I'll flip out. Then Starfire. Then Beast Boy….and do whatever animal you want. Just…like…not a goat. It's that part of the country, ya know."

"Huh?"

"WE'RE HERE!!"

"Okay….on the count of three…."

"Wait….what is the kick donkey plan again???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Loud speakers on a skeleton stage boomed out towards the crowd of mostly high schoolers.

"You've all been waiting a long time. And here they are! In person! The saviors and ever vigilant protectors of our City! The! Teen! Titans!"

Citizens cheered, whooped, and whistled around an open patch of field.

The T-Car drove up. Its engine revving. Its tires kicking up grass and bits of dirt. As a throng of cheers lit out, the blue vehicle skid to a stop straight in the middle of the field. The doors flew open. The six glorious Teen Titans jumped out.

And…

"OOF!!"

"AUGH!!"

"WATCH IT—!!"

"!!!!!"

"D'OH!!"

Cyborg tripped and fell titanium skull first into the earth.

Robin and Starfire bumped into each other in mid flip, got tangled in the air, and fell down together in a pile.

I blurred out, only to be trampled by a green buffalo that promptly plowed into the grass.

Only Raven—emerging last in a dainty levitation—was unharmed. She floated over us with her robe hanging over her shoulders and her face a perfect deadpan.

"………," the crowd stared, wide-eyed.

"Um…..hey there," Raven nearly whispered.

Robin coughed. He hopped out from under Starfire, limped to his feet, and straightened his hair. "Ahem," he spun and struck a cool pose with his staff as if nothing happened. "Teen Titans! Go!!"

"_**YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!**_" the crowd cheered.

Starfire sat, rubbing her fair head. "Owie…charity is hazardous."

Robin hissed at her.

"Oh!" She floated up above him and blushed forth a cheshire cat smile with her hands behind her back.

Cyborg likewise composed himself. He posed like Fonzie by his car and waved at the crowd.

I got up, dusting myself off.

A green buffalo shook its head, transformed into a green elf, and—sweatdropping—did the 'peace' sign.

Robin looked over at the stage/scaffold.

The high school speaker smiled, waved him towards the platform, and threw him the microphone.

Robin caught it, smoothly spun it around, and then brought it towards his mouth:

"On behalf of the Titans, I want to say it is a pleasure to be here! We love this City from the bottom of our hearts, and would gladly give all our effort—and time—to its justice and happiness!"

Raven glanced at me.

I shrugged and smirked.

She sighed as she floated her way after Robin.

"If I may, I'd like to introduce us one by one!" the Boy Wonder said as he first took stage and pointed out to the closest lines of the crowd watching us under the noonday sun. "Of course, y'all know me. I'm Robin…formerly from Gotham City. But I've set my priorities straight. Every birdarang I throw, every staff I swing, every grappling hook I fire is for the sake of helping each and every one of you---the citizens of this city."

There was a soft cry and hard FLOP as three or four teenage girls collectively fainted amongst the crowd.

Robin smirked.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"Now I'll toss the mike to my good pal, Cyborg!"

I smiled to hear a few whoops and bouts of 'yeah!' from the crowd.

Robin threw the mike at Cyborg, who walked onto the stage and pointed at everyone. "Yo yo, what's happening?!"

Cheers.

"Okay, that's all I've got to say. When're you paying me?"

Laughter.

"Hey! No fair!" Beast Boy hissed privately to me as we went up the steps. "Only I can make them laugh!"

I sniffed forth a chuckle.

"I'm just gonna say that my Baby over there is much cooler than anything this Boy Wonder's got to spout out at y'all," Cyborg winked.

Robin glared at him.

The people didn't seem to mind. They laughed and clapped.

"But I'm here for only a short time. Alas, such is life. Here you go, Starfire," he tossed the mike.

A strong throng of girls' voices cheered.

There was also a wolf whistle. Robin glared out at the crowd.

Starfire beamed with her eyes closed and chanted into the wrong end of the microphone. "Greetings earthlings!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg cleared their throats.

"Huh? Oh…the bad that is mine," Starfire spun the microphone around and chanted again: "Greetings, earthlings! My name is Starfire!!! I bring you tidings of rapture and ecstasy from my home planet Tamaran! My family would certainly be smiling down at me in this wonderful expanse of half dead grass surrounded by randomly maintained asphalt to know that I was gracing you with such a social embrace of joy! So much so, I would desire to recite the Nine Epic Poems of Noogaroog's Revelation!"

The crowd was silent.

Cyborg rubbed his scalp. Robin pulled at the neck of his costume. Beast Boy sweatdropped. I bit my lip.

Starfire blinked at us all, concerned.

Raven shook her head.

Starfire blushed, "But…..I-I think you would rather hear some words from my fellow cohorts and then see….s-some explosions?"

The crowd cheered again.

Starfire simpered. "I shall hand Michael over to Raven!"

Raven took the microphone and stared—bored—out at the crowd. "Hello." She handed it to me.

I looked at the microphone funny, shrugged, and handed it to Beast Boy. I promptly wished I hadn't.

_**"WAZZZZZUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

I swear….some members of the audience spontaneously suffered seizures.

"Gee…is it hot out today?" Beast Boy fanned himself, then pointed out with a handsome squint of the green eye. "Or is it all the chicks out there?!?!"

Cyborg palmed his hand over his face.

"But seriously folks! I would have driven in on my moped if I had one. I'm only a few allowances towards getting it, but I'm sure it'd be no trouble if I set up a kissing booth over there or something. Anyone want to volunteer to help me?! You'd get discounts!!"

Raven gritted her teeth and leapt to grab the mike from Beast Boy. I bravely held her at bay.

"I'm here all night!!" Beast Boy bowed. "And when I say all night, I mean two hours of bitter sweet brevity. Now back to the main dude himself, R to the O to the B to the—UGH!!"

Robin dove in with an elbow, knocked Beast Boy back, and caught the in-flight microphone from the impact. "Ahem. Now for the formalities!! Ladies and gentleman, you know that as great a City we live in; life is still a struggle for survival. Especially in the urban environment, people struggle every day to make ends meet. This is true in our lives, but it's even more real to people needing homes. People who eat, drink, and sleep out in the street waiting for the City organizations to assist them in shelter and labor programs. But those programs can't flourish without your support! And without the support of everyone! So pitch in, people! And spread the news! The Teen Titans and I can keep crime down to an all-time low—which you all know we have, heh. But in order to make this a happy place for everyone, we need assistance from the people themselves! Now what do you all say?!"

Cheers. Applause. All we could ask for.

"All right! Now, let's make up for that entrance, shall we?" he tossed the microphone back at the volunteer speaker and faced us. "Okay Titans," he grinned in a hushed voice. "Let's do Entrance Pattern Charlie!"

"Naw, man!" Cyborg shook his head. "Not Charlie!"

"…..Delta?"

Cyborg smiled. "I like Delta."

"Okay then, Delta it is."

"Right!" Starfire nodded.

"Whatever…," said you know who.

I scratched my head.

Beast Boy elbowed me. "Dude….ya know, Delta!"

I remembered. I mouthed a silent 'Oh'.

"Teen Titans! GO!"

Robin whipped out his staff and tossed it into mid-air.

Raven's eyes glowed and she raised her fingers. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"

The staff turned obsidian in its fall and fell into Cyborg's grasp.

Cyborg loaded it into his laser rifle and shot it high into the air.

BLAM!!!

The rod shot up like a rocket.

Robin aimed at it with his grappling hook. POW!!

In the meantime, Beast Boy sailed up as a green pterodactyl and grabbed the flying rod with his talons.

CLANK!!

Robin's grappling hook impacted with the broadside of the rod.

Robin retracted and yanked himself up.

In the meantime, I dashed off the stage and towards a patch of earth. I blurred my feet and ran solid circles repeatedly. My moving feet dug into the earth, kicked up grass, and exposed the brown soil.

When I was done, Cyborg leapt off the stage and came sailing down with a growl.

SMASH!!!

He landed hard in the circle I had formed, making a miniature crater and echoing thunder across the field.

Meanwhile, Robin flew up to the rod on his grappling cord. He grabbed the metal object, spun up, and landed gently on the green pterodactyl's shoulders. Beast Boy glided downward in a spiraling arc.

Starfire flew overhead, spiraled gracefully, and flung two starbolts down at Cyborg's back.

Cyborg smiled, his hands folded.

The crowd watched.

Cyborg stood.

The starbolts flew down.

The crowd sweat.

Cyborg winked.

The starbolts almost struck him.

He raised his titanium hands up at the last second and palmed them. It looked as though he was casually holding two emerald torches in his grasp.

The pterodactyl sailed down to a spot directly overhead and morphed into an elephant. It sailed straight down like a green comet with Robin nonchalantly riding into the earth.

A sphere of obsidian energy encircled it as Raven floated up to meet its descent and slowly lowered it to the ground.

Starfire floated down as Cyborg stood with two green torches and Beast Boy and elephant form reared its front legs up behind the android, trumpeting. Robin leapt off the elephant's back, grabbed his rod, and landed in a pose in front of Cyborg. Raven floated down beside the group her robe billowing. Finally I blurred to a stop by the side and posed with Myrkblade.

_Cha-Ching._

And…of course…the crowd applauded.

Beast Boy returned to elf form and beamed.

Starfire curtsied in mid-air.

Cyborg tossed the starbolts away and saluted.

Robin stood up, retracted his rod, and pocketed it away—smirking.

"Let's give them a standing ovation, shall we people?!" said the speaker on the stage into the microphone.

More cheers. More clapping.

"Oh! And good news! Our extra special guest has also arrived!"

Beast Boy did a double-take and looked at the others. "Um….extra special guest? Which one of us is that?"

"Not me," Raven muttered.

"I'm confused too…," Robin muttered and looked curiously towards the stage.

"Ladies and gentleman—appearing impromptu for the sake of charity itself—please give a hand for Green Arrow's sidekick, the one-boy-archer-batallion himself, Speedy!!!"

There was a glint of light.

Everyone tiled their heads up.

Atop the metal wireframe housing the megaspeakers, a red-headed superhero perched. He gave the crowd a salute with his short-sleeved hand. Then—bow outstretched—he flipped off the scaffold, sailed down, and landed nimbly on the stage. Speedy took the microphone and winked out at the crowd of high schoolers. "Well, hey there citizens! Hope you all did your homework, for lord-knows I'm doing mine right now!"

There was a fair set of laughter from the males in the crowd—which made Beast Boy glare.

There was also a fair set of fainting sounds from the females in the crowd—which made Robin do a double take and gasp: "Speedy?!"

"Hey, Robin!" the superhero pointed down from the stage—as if he had heard him. "Great to see you, man! Let's get some houses paid for!! Cuz when it comes to the needs of the homeless, there's no room for error! Every effort must make a bull's-eye!" He tossed the microphone back at the volunteer speaker. He reached into a pocket and produced an apple. He tossed it high into the air. He then whipped out an arrow with a golden metal tip. He aimed into the air opposite of the fruit and let loose.

PTWING!!!!

The arrow shot out, glowed, and magically swung back in the opposite direction from which it was launched. It homed in on the apple, skewered it, and fell neatly into Speedy's outstretched palm.

He winked through his eyemask.

The crowd stood up and applauded merrily.

So did I. _Hey…I couldn't help it. That was friggin' cool._

I stopped—however—upon looking at Robin and noticing him practically melting into a pool of gritting teeth, clenched fists, and furrowed brow. "What's….he….doing…..here?"

"Charity," Raven hummed.

"Robin, do you know this mysterious yet….remarkably lean superhero," Starfire smiled. She looked somewhat flushed.

Robin did a double-take at her.

"Wuh-oh…," Cyborg sweatdropped. "This could get interesting."

"Hehehehehe….yeah!" Beast Boy chuckled. "Very much so! Hehehehe!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay! LET HER RIP!!!"

A couple of workers pulled hard at a metal lever.

A huge wall of titanium lifted into action from a device planted in the middle of the field.

Cyborg flexed his metal muscles and charged directly into it.

His feet dug into earth as he pushed back down on the metal wall that groaned and creaked against him.

"RRRRRRRRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!"

It took a half-minute effort, but the android succeeded in snapping the wall in the opposite direction. The joints and bolts of the wall snapped and flew apart.

CRACK!!!!

SMASH!!!

The wall collapsed hard into the ground.

"Boo-ya!!!"

The crowd stood and cheered.

Cyborg smirked and saluted. He pointed to another pair of workers.

"Okay! Launch 'em! PULL!"

FPOW!!

FPOW!!

A pair of clay discs shot high into the air.

Cyborg ran the length of the field open to him and aimed up high with his laser rifle.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!

Blue energy coursed upwards and blasted the discs to bits.

"PULL!!"

A fresh throng of discs flew into the air and Cyborg repeated his punishment.

As the citizens clapped and cheered, Beast Boy and I stood to the side.

We applauded a few times. Beast Boy leaned over and continued speaking to me:

"…and so after Robin defeated Speedy, he had to take on the Master of Games. Cuz the Master of Games planned all along to zap the losers into his power-stealing-gem-thingy and make off with our talents."

I nodded.

"Well, Robin didn't take to kindly to that. And for the sake of freeing his friends—and competitors alike—he challenged the Master of Games to a grand duel for all the winnings. Speedy ended up being freed and agreed to help Robin. Eventually—through teamwork—the Master was defeated and we all walked away happy. Even the losers."

I motioned at him with a curious look in my face.

Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck, "Yeah….well….you can't win all the time. And—umm—I guess that's true for me too."

I mouthed: '_Awwwwww'_.

"Oh stuff it."

I smirked under my shades.

"Anywho…Robin and Speedy met for the first time in the Master of Games' dimension. And no sooner had they introduced themselves to each other that they fought a desperate battle for victory. Robin won their versus match, but Speedy contends that it doesn't count since the Master of Games was a crook. And Robin says it does count, cuz no matter how treacherous, the battle still had rules. Yadda yadda yadda," Beast Boy moaned. "Basically…the two are rivals. In the egotistical sense, of course. We're all good guys, right?"

I nodded.

Cyborg blew up another pair of discs and everyone cheered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Black energy enveloped an entire school bus.

Raven floated in mid air and concentrated as she lifted the huge transport vehicle with her mind and sent it 'cruising' through the center of a huge, metal loop erected in the center of the field.

People applauded her talent.

Besides me, Starfire cupped her hands together and beamed. "Hehehe! You go, Raven! You manipulate floating metal with the greatest skill!"

"Shhh! Don't distract her!" Beast Boy hissed.

"S-Sorry!"

I smiled. I glanced over.

Robin and Speedy were in conversation.

Curious, I walked over.

"…what do you mean 'what are you doing here'?! I volunteered to come! Same as you guys!"

"We were _invited_ by the City to appear!" Robin retorted to the red-headed Speedy. "_Our_ City! Why aren't you doing charity work in…in…Sherwood Forest or something? Say, where're you from anyways?"

"None of that matters, right?" Speedy smiled. "I was in the area. I cared for the charity going on. I thought I'd come, free of cost! Now is that so bad?"

"Ohhhhh, I get it now," Robin smirked. "You heard the Titans were appearing. Thus, you knew I'd be here. Perfect opportunity to show off and try to prove that you're better than me!"

"Huh?"

"Well, I meet your challenge, Speedy!" Robin folded his arms and smirked. "I'll charm the skin off these people long before you're drawing the first arrow!"

"Ah jeez….Robin! Give it a break!" Speedy moaned. "The duel we had was a long time ago. I'm not here for competition. Heck, there's no _reason_ why we should be butting heads over anything!"

"Sure….play dumb," Robin said.

"Napoleon syndrome," Speedy muttered. "That's what you've got."

Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "Huh?"

Speedy laughed his head off.

I performed a silent chuckle.

That's when Robin noticed me. He glared. "You think he's funny?"

I shrugged.

"I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of meeting this one."

"This is Noir," Robin motioned. "The newest honorary member of the Titans. He can't speak…so don't try bribing him into making me look bad—"

"For the last time…I'M NOT CONSPIRING TO BLAST YOUR EGO!" Speedy moaned, shook his head, then smiled over at me. "Hey there, Noir. Pleased to meet you."

I extended a hand.

He shook it.

I smiled.

"Swordsman, huh?"

I nodded. I whipped out Myrkblade, spun it a few times, and held its hilt out to Speedy.

He took it and held it up…admiring it. He whistled.

"Wooden sword…don't see many of those these days," he exclaimed.

I nodded and took the blade back.

"Old fashioned weapons are a rarity," Speedy said. "Especially when they work." He showed off his bow and quiver. "I consider myself like you—a preserver of quality. You and I should fight crime together someday. I bet it'd look pretty kickass."

I smiled.

_I like this guy--_

Robin butted in: "It'd be wonderful for us all to chat and stuff, but we've got more important things to do."

Speedy raised an eyebrow. "Like…..?"

"Checking up on security."

"Security?!?!"

"You see the people they have overlooking this field?! Just high school volunteers! No security guards! You wouldn't know if some creep's slipping in a weapon of mass destruction or something! It's ludicrous!"

"You're just changing the subject! I was having a great conversation with your friend here when—"

"I'm serious! While my partners are showing off their stuff for the crowd, it'd be a great time to check up on security here!" Robin said. He then glared, "Unless you absolutely hate the idea of me making good suggestions for even you to follow!"

"What?!?! Now you're being a jerk! I agree that security is important but you could have done a less forceful way of broaching the topic—"

"There you go being boss of the 'conversation' again!"

"I'm just trying to be polite! You're the one being argumentative and accusatory!"

"Well maybe I have good reason to be!"

"Give me some!"

"Gladly! For one, you…."

Their argument dissipated in my head as I turned around and looked off at the field. I scanned the tents selling arts and crafts. The crowd watching Raven's performance. The high school marching bands practicing for the next run-through. The elderly couples in the walk-a-thon. The refreshment tables. The man with the mysterious briefcase. The---

I did a double take.

_Man with the mysterious briefcase?!_

I squinted through my shades and saw a lanky fellow with thin, brown hair walking towards the edge of the field towards a radio tower. He looked around anxiously and quickened his pace…tugging the briefcase along. He disappeared behind some shrubbery.

_Hmmmmm…_

I looked at the arguing two. I looked back at the radio tower. I smirked.

I blurred into invisibility and quietly rushed my way over.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Behind the shrubbery, a middle-aged man rubbed his hands together nervously. He blew into his palms, shook all over in a psychotic manner, and took a deep breath. He paused…as if forgetting his next course of action. He then smiled.

"Of c-course…"

He nearly tripped over his own briefcase, cursed, then hobbled off towards the distant port-a-potties.

Then….silence.

"……"

I reappeared, the smoke wafting from my form and disappearing.

I looked after his figure with a raised eyebrow.

_Okaaaaaay……_

I looked down at the briefcase.

I scratched my chin.

_What the heck……_

I knelt down, gripped the latches, flipped them, and opened the briefcase.

"……," I stared into its interior. I looked the contents over quietly.

I glanced over in the direction of Robin and Speedy.

I smiled slightly.

I reached into the briefcase, took a few things out, pocketed them, and closed the item.

I returned the briefcase to the ground where the strange man had left it, whistled innocently, and walked back in the direction from which I had come.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green seal balanced a beach ball on its nose. It barked and tossed the beach ball up high. Soon, a green kangaroo was leaping up and kicking the beach ball away in mid-air. The kangaroo turned into a bird, flew across the field, and landed in the form of a rhino in time to impact the ball with its long horn.

POP!!!-HISSSSS!!

The people cheered.

The rhino turned into a T-Rex and roared.

A few shrieked…then laughed.

The T-Rex 'winked' and proceeded to turn into various forms of air-dancing fowl.

"Well….he's certainly eating it all up…," Raven muttered from the sidelines.

Cyborg nodded. "Can't blame him. He's got to have a chance to shine once in a while, right?"

"If you insist."

I finished walking up.

"Where were you?" Cyborg asked.

I honestly pointed back towards the radio tower and the shrubbery.

Instead, Cyborg saw the port-a-potties. "You should have done that before we left the Tower."

Starfire giggled.

I glared at him with a smirk and my hands on my hips.

"Where's Robin?" Raven asked.

"At Speedy's throat, no doubt," Cyborg said.

I nodded.

"Yup…at Speedy's throat!"

Again, Starfire giggled. "What is the earth saying? 'Boys won't be boys'?"

"Will."

"…..Boys will be Will?"

"No, Star, I meant—"

"Will will be Will?"

"Your turn."

"Huh?"

Beast Boy walked up.

"Your turn, Starfire."

"Oh! Glorious!!"

A rush of wind kicked at us as she flew into the center of the field and proceeded to woo the crowd with her starbolting of targets.

"Whew!!" Beast Boy wiped his brow and smiled—sweating—at Raven. "What an effort that took! Impressing a whole crowd! And I'm _only one_ Beast Boy…heh heh heh!"

Raven rolled her eyes towards Heaven. "Lord. Rapture me now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I squinted my eyes through my shades.

I gripped the hilt of Myrkblade.

My feet began to smoke.

On cue, the three aluminum cutouts of 'crooks' lifted up like levers from the floor.

I sprang into action, blurring across the field.

I slashed horizontally across one body—causing the top half to topple over.

I leapt and slashed straight down the middle of a second.

I then teleported on waves of smoke over to the third and performed a spiral cut.

Chunks of aluminum flew up into the air.

I slashed and slashed and slashed and slashed again until all the aluminum was practically dust at my feet.

I then spun Myrkblade a few times behind my back and sheathed it in some….er….'cool' pose.

It was enough to make the crowd go wild at least.

They applauded and cheered as I smiled and took a bow.

I had to admit…it did feel rather good.

"Noir! Noir!" Beast Boy ran out to me. "Good show! Now come on, let's get going!" He circled his elbow around mine and dragged me off the open field.

I gestured curiously.

"Don't look so perplexed! It's autograph signing time! Time for me to get in touch with my admiring fanssssss."

_Oh……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A long, long table had been set up at the edge of the field. There, the six of us Titans sat—along with Speedy. Seven long lines of citizens—mostly high schoolers and people our age—formed hungrily at our 'stations', with books and the like for us to sign. We wrote our codenames down in our handwriting, of course. None of us—Robin especially—was so willing to give away our true identity to the random public. A few volunteers from the high schools flanked us, acting as 'security guards'. They smiled politely and were prepared to take any action necessary if a fan stepped out of place.

"My parents saw the Bat many times in Gotham!" said a guy at Robin's station as the Boy Wonder signed his name on a piece of paper. "This is my first time seeing his sidekick in person!"

"Heheheh…well….I may have been his sidekick _once_," Robin said, twirling his pen. "But I'm quite clearly in a different fix now."

"Yeah!" Beast Boy called out from his station. "He just won't admit that he's the only one of the Titans who didn't start out solo!!"

A couple bouts of laughter.

Robin sweatdropped and tried to grin. "I'm not a sidekick, sir. Sidekicks don't kill their teammates after a public appearance."

"What's that?!" Beast Boy's voice gulped.

"Then why still be 'Robin'?" the fan asked with a smile. "Why not choose a super-cool solo name like 'Crimson Feather' or 'Reaper of the Wings' or---"

"I've been thinking about it," Robin smirked, leaning his chin on his hand. "The original Robin took 'Nightwing' and went to Bloodhaven. I've always been envious of that move."

"So maybe when you're older, then? Like him?"

"Sure…that sounds good."

"Next in line, please," a volunteer smiled and politely urged the fan holding his autograph.

"Oh, alright. Robin, it's been awesome meeting you!"

"Keep it safe, man," Robin gave a thumb's up and winked under his mask.

As the next fan walked up to Robin's station, Speedy spoke up from his position adjacent to the Boy Wonder at the table.

"You know…," he spoke while signing his name for someone. "There's nothing wrong with being a sidekick. Heck, I see it as an underdog's role, ya know? You get to sneak up on the enemy cuz you're not their sole focus of attention. And at the same time you're learning from a valuable mentor all the secrets of good crime fighting."

"You're just jealous that I've moved out on my own and left my sidekick days behind," Robin slyly said from aside.

"No…..," Speedy glared, then grinned, "Why would I be jealous of an egotistical bird whose idea of a crimefighting team is living in a over-exaggerrated dorm? 'Friends, let's go out for some justice pizza!'"

Fans laughed and giggled. Beast Boy was among them.

Robin glared at the changeling. He smiled back in Speedy's direction, "True…the Titans and I get our off time. But it's no different from anyone else in the business." He signed an autograph as he continued, "Speaking of off-time, Speedy, what gave you the vacation to come all the way to our City and start poking fun at other caped crusaders."

A chorus of 'oooooooooh' filled the local scene.

"Not caped crusaders," Speedy said, signing his name. "Just one. You're the only person with a cape here, my friend. I must say, it matches your eyes most fashionably."

Chuckles and giggles.

Over at Cyborg's station.

"They're never going to stop," he uttered, shaking his head.

The next fan stepped up to him. "Cyborg! My man! How's it going!"

Cyborg smiled at the guy. "Well, hey there!" A pause. "Do I know you?"

"Only in writing, dude," the guy snapped a finger and pointed, "Caleb's and Son's auto parts!"

"Hey! Allright!" Cyborg stood up, leaned over, and vigorously shook the fan's hand. "I've always wanted to meet one of you in person!!"

"Surprised?"

"I expected someone taller."

The fan chuckled. "Yeah, me too!"

Starfire giggled.

Cyborg smirked and crossed his arms. "Really funny, man."

"How'd you handle the suspension we shipped you?"

Cyborg sat down and began autographing. "Perfect, man. Absolutely perfect. My Baby's made out of the best parts, and you're the one to provide them."

"Dude, that car is totally tricked out!" someone said from way back in the line. "How can you not drool all over yourself every day, knowing you own that thing?!"

"Yeah!" exclaimed another. "That thing is badass! How's the handling?"

"I'd say hell on wheels, but I shouldn't cuz I'm a superhero," Cyborg said. He paused. He thought a while. He then said: "It's like hell on wheels!"

"Yeah!"

"Allright!"

"Awesome!"

Raven shook her head slowly at her station. "Like….a sponge…."

"How so?" Starfire asked.

"Soaks it up."

"I see…..Cyborg would make a rather large sponge."

"There's an image for ya," Raven droned and finished signing a book lethargically. "Next…."

A petite teenager meekly stepped forward. "Um…M-Miss Raven? W-Would you like to….I-I mean….would you care to….er…i-is is alright if—"

"You bring the book, I provide the pen," Raven said stoically. "Simple as that."

"O-Okay…"

The girl timidly placed the book down and Raven signed it.

When Raven was finished, she handed the book back. "Here you go, next."

The girl hugged the book to her chest. "Actually….um….M-Miss Raven….I-I was wondering—"

"What is it…..?" Raven moaned.

"How do you meditate?"

"…..," Raven stared. "How do I meditate?"

The girl blushed and turned away. "I-I'm sorry. I know I should go now—"

"No, wait," Raven raised a hand.

The girl froze and looked at her forlornly.

Raven leaned forward. "Meditation…is about focusing oneself. Finding one's center and controlling it. Once the center is in check, all the outer points of emotional focus come under surveillance and control. One must realize that nothing is out of her or his grasp that can't be tamed or manipulated for the sake of goodness and prosperity. It's about finding the restrictions in one's psyche…and learning when to hold back….and when to let go."

"To…t-to let go?" the girl stuttered.

Raven nodded slowly. "Sometimes….for some people….letting go is the most important step. It's not my aim in life…but for others, it's necessary."

"I s-see…," the girl nodded. She looked over at Beast Boy's station. She took a deep breath. She walked over.

"And so I think that if all girls invested in miniskirts instead of jeans, they'd be saving the textile industry from suffering overstock---" he was caught off in mid speech to his fan when the petite girl walked up. "Why, hello there. Can I help you?"

The girl blushed, simpered, then leaned far across the table. She planted a big, wet kiss on Beast Boy's face.

Raven did a double-take.

"YAAAK!!" Beast Boy fell back in his chair. "What gives?!"

People laughed. Beast Boy's fan giggled.

Two volunteers ran up and gently dragged the girl away by her shoulders.

"Th-Thanks Raven!" the girl beamed. "It feels good to let go!"

Raven smirked, "Feels very good indeed."

"Pfft! Pffft!!!" Beast Boy rubbed his lips with a sleeve. "So that's what an obsessive fan is!! Jeez! I've never been so scared in my life! What if she's carrying germs or something!!"

"If she had the guts to kiss you…," Raven muttered, "I wouldn't doubt it."

"Oh shut up. You're enjoying this."

"Yes I am."

"…….ahem," he once again faced his fan. "Where was I?"

"Miniskirts."

"Enough about women. Wanna see me turn into a snake?"

Meanwhile, at Starfire's station.

"Would you prefer the form of writing indigenous of your people or that of Tamaranian font?"

"Oooh…alien writing?" the fan gasped. "Can I see it?"

"Most certainly!" Starfire smiled and wrote in circular discs on the piece of paper. "You see…the spherical shapes of our writing represent the Tamaranian solar system in multiple incarnations. My name is centered upon the third moon of Dresna, which is famous for its beautiful green lakes of chloroplankton."

"You must have been throughout the entire galaxy!"

Starfire thought aloud. "Hmmm…I have visited three on occasion."

"Three?!?!"

"Well, one of them is technically an alternate dimension to our continuum maintained by a single wormhole, but it is safe to call it another galaxy."

"I wish you could pay a visit to our astronomy class sometime," the fan said, dumbfounded.

"I assure you," Starfire finished the autograph, handed it to the fan, and smiled. "Nowhere else in this universe have I found a place more fascinating and more endearing in quality than the planet Earth. Undoubtedly—as times permits—I am bound to visit every place on this globe, including your astronomy class if need be."

"Truly?"

"I do not see why not. The peculiarities of this planet attract me."

The fan hugged the book to his chest and seemed about to faint. "You're like everything I've ever dreamed of…"

"……huh?" Starfire blinked.

He dizzily walked away.

Starfire watched. "……my case is rested." She looked at the next in line and smiled again, "Hello."

She blinked.

She looked down.

A little girl smiled up at her with some missing teeth. "Starfire!!"

"Hehehehehe! Well hello down there, little girl with absent bicuspids!"

A teenage girl stepped up and placed her hands on the little girl's shoulders. "I couldn't help it," she smiled. "My little sister had to come with me. You're practically her idol."

"Idol?"

"You know….the role model she worships…."

"Ohhhhh," Starfire nodded. "I have never had a religion centered upon me before, but I am indeed flattered!"

The teenage sister chuckled. "That's an interesting way to point it. Pretty true around my house, really."

"Starfire, someday I want to be like you!!" the little girl beamed.

"You are even better!" Starfire smiled and patted the girl's head. "You are yourself!"

"Can you sign yourself, pleeeeeease?"

"Myself?"

"She means her Starfire doll," the teenage sister blushed.

The little girl eagerly held out a slightly-larger-than-Barbie figurine. A flattering replica of Starfire.

"Oh! One of those!" Starfire curiously took it and looked it over in her grasp. "I have never seen one of these things in person. The people at Mattel told me it would be an exact likeness as to myself. I must say they did do a nice job." A pause. She raised an eyebrow at the teen sister. "Do I truly have that much hair?"

The sister shrugged. "Hey…I only buy them."

"Them?"

"Sign it! Sign it!" the girl hopped.

"Gladly, I shall do so," Starfire smiled and turned the doll of herself over while holding the pen. "Now, where to sign. Where to sign." A pause. "I am certainly thin, am I not? Ah! There we go." She signed on a 'part' of herself and handed it back to the little girl. "There you go, infantile earthling! Remember that good is good and bad is bad!!"

"Weeeee! Thanks Starfire!" she hugged the doll to her chest. "Sissy, can I get my name written like where hers is?"

The sister looked at the signature on the doll and blushed. "Um…..maybe when you're older." She looked up, smiling. "Thanks."

"I welcome you," Starfire smiled, her eyes closed.

The two walked away.

Meanwhile, at my station.

My ordeal was a rather quiet one. Just about everyone knew I couldn't talk. So all I had to do was sign, smile, nod my head, and they were off to be replaced by another one. It was all rather disheartening, and things started passing by in a blur. But gradually I became aware of some….interesting pattern.

I finished signing my name in a book and gave it to the fan. My name was so bitterly short, that it took no time at all.

"Thanks," the fan—a girl—said. She hugged the book to herself and walked away.

Another fan came. Also a girl. "Hey there. C-Can you autograph my paper, please?"

I smiled and politely nodded.

"I-I know you can't talk. It's o-okay…."

I shrugged and wrote my name—slowly this time. I handed it back to her.

"Th-Thank you," she blushed, hugged the book to her chest, and walked off.

The next fan…another girl. "Hey there. Like she said."

I raised my eyebrow. I looked at the other lines. Studied the heterogeneous mixtures of gender, then back at my fan.

I smiled, shrugged, and did so.

"Thank you…," she breathed and walked away.

The next fan….you guessed it.

"I'd be happy if you….um…signed your name," she said.

I nodded and opened the front page of her book.

"Inside the heart," she said.

I glanced curiously at a heart-shaped-design in pink pen. I looked up at her.

She blushed.

_Okaaaaay_.

I signed my name inside and handed it to her.

"Heeeee…thanks," she scampered off.

_God, I wish a guy would come along or something. What's with this?_

I looked over at Raven.

She half-glared at me. "Don't look so surprised," she droned.

"????"

"Never mind…," Raven said and paid attention to her autographing.

I shrugged and continued along the chain.

Meanwhile, at Beast Boy's station…

"You know….you remind me of someone in one of my dreams," Beast Boy winked at a female fan as he autographed her sheet of peper. "And it was a very…very good dream."

"Um…yeah," she remarked. "Aren't you the one that changes into animals?"

"That's my specialty. Yup."

"So….like….did you start out as a human?"

"Hmmm?"

"I mean…were you originally a dog or an orangutan or a ferret—"

"I was once a boy," Beast Boy smirked proudly. "Hence the name."

"Then where'd the 'Beast' come in?"

"I could show you if you paid a visit to the T-Car after the autographing."

"Nevermind. Cya," the girl grabbed her paper and fled.

"Did you do that on purpose?" Cyborg asked.

"I most certainly did!"

"You meant to make her run away?"

"Huh?"

Back at Starfire's station.

"Thank you!" a fan smiled and carried off the autograph.

"No, thanks be to you! Hehehe," the alien girl gestured. "Next!"

A short haired, teenage girl marched up.

"Hello, Starfire."

"Hello, stranger. How are you doing today?"

The girl blushed. "You're as nice in person as you are in news interviews."

"People keep saying I'm 'nice' and 'sweet'," Starfire remarked. She glanced aside at me. "I have always assumed they were exaggerations."

I gave her a mock look of horror, then winked from under my shades.

The fan shook her head. "And you're just about as humble too."

"Why thank you. You are most complimentary. Do you desire a penstroke in your book?"

"That'd be nice. C-Could you write 'To Mable'?"

"I do not see why not," Starfire said while autographing. "Is that your name?"

"Yup."

"Pleased to meet you, Mable," Starfire said.

Mable bit her lip. "You know, Starfire…you're more than just a hero in my eyes."

"Oh is that true?" Starfire looked up, smiling. "I hope I am not a villain."

The fan giggled. "It wouldn't really bother me if you were."

"How is that?"

"Well….let's just say……I find you most……um….," the girl blushed and looked away. "…..intriguing."

"I see," Starfire nodded. "Well, Mable, I find you most intriguing too!"

"Y-You do?"

"Yes!" Starfire beamed. "All earthlings are special."

"I'd beg to differ…," the fan said as she took her book back and hugged it. "Tamaranians seem….so much more gifted."

"Ah yes, well, if you have me as a role model, I'm afraid to say that is a limited perspective," Starfire said. "You should see a Tamaranian male sometime. Their strength is oftentimes twice that of a Tamaranian girl due to social expectations, and not often do you find Tamaranian males with dark hair and---"

The girl shook her head. "None of that matters to me."

"Oh….it does not?"

"I'm afraid not…," the girl grinned, blushed, and leaned forward. She whispered to Starfire, "Th-that is to say….boys aren't my bag."

Starfire blinked. She whispered. "But you do not seem to be carrying a satchel at all!"

"No no no…I mean…," the fan fumbled for the correct expression and again whispered. "I admire you more than just a superheroine. I am….er….of a different persuasion than you think."

Starfire giggled. "Well, whatever persuasion it is that makes you admire me is fine! Raven is often under persuasion herself when it comes to me."

The girl blinked. She blushed. "S-She is too?"

"Yes!" Starfire smiled. "She's persuaded that I am quite annoying during times of her meditation."

"No no no…that's not what I meant," the girl sighed. She then smiled and whispered something into Starfire's ear. "I'm not straight."

"……….," Starfire looked the fan over. "Well….I agree. You don't look straight."

"I'd knew you'd understand," the girl sighed, relieved.

"You are a girl. You have too many curves to be straight."

The fan placed a hand over her head, moaned, and tried again.

Meanwhile….

"Thank you, 'Noir'," a girl hugged a book to her chest and walked off.

I shook my head, sighed, and prepared for another fan---_aw shucks…_

"Front page, please," another girl blushed.

I exasperatingly wrote my name and handed the book back to her.

But she didn't leave immediately. Rather, she looked at me and simpered, "So…..like….i-is that all real hair?"

"?????" I looked at her. I said a slient 'oh' and reached back to my long, black hair. I smirked, shrugged, and gestured.

"He says it's natural, to the best of his knowledge!!" Cyborg chuckled from across the table.

I smirked and motioned 'thanks' to him.

"I s-see…," the girl said. She blinked. "Can I…..like…..touch it?"

I made a face.

"Okay…off we go," a volunteer said as she and another worker gently guided the girl away.

Another female fan walked up, smiled, and immediately said: "Can I touch it too?"

The volunteers immediately came back under a halo of chuckles and carted the second girl off.

I gradually became aware of a throng of girls—most of which were those holding books with my autographs—giggling at the two ostracized members joining their flock and gradually glancing at me.

I blushed and shivered with my shoulders. _This was getting creepy……almost in a good way. Almost._

Another fan walked up and handed me a book.

I sighed and lackadaisically signed it.

I was surprised when—after a few deafening seconds—there was no speaking from the person for whom I was autographing.

I looked up…and found out it was a guy. Not only that, but he had a miniature microphone on his shirt's lapel with a wire that stretched up into his ear. He was a moderately tall high schooler—about my age, if not a little younger. There was a yellow ribbon on his shirt's collar. He smiled gently at me and performed a flurry of sign language while mouthing emphatically with his mouth.

He was near-deaf.

'On behalf of the sign language class of Lake Bear High School, we would like to thank you for the good you and your teammates are bringing to our city, and the example you are setting for all with speech disabilities.'

I watched, my mouth slightly agape. I noticed the entire lasting length of the line at my station gathering into a group directly behind the one fan and forming one body of people. All of them had the yellow ribbon. Most were smiling. Some were respectfully deadpan. They all matched the sync of the fan in front and hand signed:

'_Welcome to the City, Noir.'_

It was the entire hand signing class. Perhaps most of them could speak. But it was the message they had that drilled into me.

A warmth spread over my heart which I hadn't felt in a long time. It made the day worth getting up for. I took a deep breath, smiled, and stood up. I swear, my black eyes almost watered as I signed back to them:

_'I feel welcomed already. And thank you.'_

Cyborg was watching the whole thing. He started clapping.

Robin and Speedy joined in.

So did the rest of the Titans, and a couple clumps of fans at the stations.

I sat down, smiled, and gladly autographed their many books and papers.

Raven looked over. "Well…that was certainly honorable."

"Raven?" Starfire asked the dark girl.

"Yes, Star?"

"Do peaches taste good?"

Raven glanced at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"This one high schooler for whom I was autographing a few minutes ago…," Starfire spoke. "…the one who was confused about her own curves. She seemed most fond of the fruit. Or so she told me."

"Ummmmm."

"Do we have any peaches at the Tower? I am most curious now."

"I'm busy autographing, Star."

"Autographing for who?"

"People."

"Very well then." Starfire said. She was quiet for a while. Then. "Come to think of it…she did seem a little….straight."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I am glad that was over," Raven droned as she stood by the T-Car.

Beast Boy was beside her. "Well, naturally. Me? I couldn't begin to peel the fans off me!"

"True," Raven nodded. "They were too busy running away to ever get stuck to you."

"Naw! Just that one!"

"She set a mighty fine example for the others."

"Why do you always insist on cutting me down?!" Beast Boy growled.

"Give me something to cut down, and I'll answer you."

Cyborg chuckled as he leaned against the T-Car's hood. "She's good. Real good."

"Pfft..then go ask her out on a date. I'm tired of it!" Beast Boy tossed his hands to the sky.

"Admit it, B.B. She gives you a challenge to face everyday."

"I prefer my challenges when they're not strung so high up on bitter sweet estrogen that they give themselves every reason to castrate me!!….er….in a metaphoric sense, of course."

"Riiiiight," Cyborg nodded.

"You're doing the job for me," Raven said.

"Can it!!"

Raven smirked.

"Where is Robin?" Starfire asked. "Is it not time for us to depart?"

"He's not ready yet, Star," Cyborg said. "Look over there. He's yet to show off the demonstration of his talents. We all had our chance. He saved his for last."

"What part does Speedy play in Robin's demonstration?" Starfire asked.

"Huh?" Cyborg looked over. His face fell. "Aww nuts…."

"They're at it again," Beast Boy moaned.

"Boys….," Raven muttered.

"????" I looked over.

Speedy and Robin were at the clearing in the field. Instead of a performance by the Boy Wonder, we were seeing the two cackling at each other from afar. Gradually, the audience of citizens took notice of the argument.

"Somebody should go and stop them before they set a bad example for us heroes," Cyborg said.

"Yeah….," Beast Boy nodded.

"Yeah….," Raven droned.

Starfire looked at us all. She smiled cheerfully, "I'll go!"

I held a hand out to her and shook my head. I pointed to myself, smiled, and walked off.

"But Noir!" Starfire said from behind me. "I would be most happy to—"

"He volunteered," Raven said. "Let him."

"But—"

"You've seen Robin ugly enough for one lifetime, Star," Cyborg winked up at her. "Trust us. It'll make you happier for someone else go go."

"Oh….a-allright," Starfire watched with forlorn eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you mean 'We go together'?!" Robin frowned. "I'll have my chance, then you go!"

"Man, I already talked it over with the organizers of this event!!" Speedy retorted. "They thought it was a good idea! I mean…we both look similar enough as it is! And our talents—when combined—would make a spectacular show!"

"In a pig's eye!"

"Come on, Robin! It's for charity!"

"What's with you and your bright ideas all of the sudden?! Can't I just have my chance to shine and then you have yours?! Isn't that a happy enough alternative for each of us?!"

"I think this idea is better."

"Wait….," Robin smirked and pointed at Speedy's chest. "It's not that you want us to have a showcase of our talents at the same time. You want to somehow prove to the citizens watching that you're way more talented than me!"

"What?!?!"

"You'll show off with your blazing arrows while I'll be flipping around like a madman to try and steal the people's attention!"

"There you go again! Always accusatory!"

"Well, you should have talked to us and the other Titans first about this 'simultaneous' showcase thingy before giving the go-ahead to those in charge of this charity!"

"You're not going to let the people down, are you?!"

"No. You just did!"

"What?!"

"You heard me!!"

I walked up and tapped on Robin's shoulder.

"Not now, Noir," he brushed me aside and again faced Speedy. "Now you listen to me. Get off the field before I toss you off. I've got a demonstration to do. You can go last."

"Nuh uh, Captain Untrusting! After all this hubbub, I think I deserve to go first."

"Typical Speedy. Impatient to the end."

"I heard that!"

"I know you did!"

"Got a problem with it?!"

"Is the sky blue?!"

I sighed.

I looked over towards the radio tower. I saw a figure at the top of it. I glanced over at Robin and Speedy. As the two argued, they were ignorant of a tiny red dot of light suddenly hovering over their costumes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The thin, middle-aged man squinted his eye through the sight of a sniper rifle. He tried to steady his shaking hands. He used the laser guide of his long-ranged gun from his perch on the radio tower to zero in on the two targets.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I yawned.

I put my hands on my hips.

"You're ruining this whole event for everyone here!"

"I am?! Look at you! You're raising a ruckus!!"

"Only because you're forcing me too!"

"I was only trying to make a good example—"

"By doing what?! Butting in on the Titans?!"

"For the last time, I wasn't butting in!!"

The laser pointer found a spot at Speedy's back and rested to a stop.

I glanced back at the tower, bored.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Gotcha….," the man psychotically chuckled.

He snaked a finger down….and pulled at the trigger.

…

Nothing.

His squinting eye widened. "Wh-What?!"

He pulled at the trigger again.

Nothing.

He pulled again. Again. Again. Again.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

"N-No!!! What gives?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm going to count to ten," Robin glared, his gloved fists clenching. "If you're not out of my sight by then, there'll be hell to pay."

"Bring it on."

"Ten…."

"Coward!"

"_Nine…"_

"I'm not afraid of you—"

I cleared my throat.

Both heroes looked at me.

I smiled and held up a finger.

I knelt down and scooped up a hand ful of dirt in my bare hand.

I stood back up and tossed the dirt into the air.

The dust caused the red laser beam to materialize in mid air. Robin gasped as he saw the thing aiming square between his eyes.

"Sniper!!"

People gasped.

Speedy gritted his teeth, spun around, and drew an arrow. He fired in the exact direction from which the laser was coming.

PFTWIFFFT!!!!

SWOOOOOOOSH!!

The arrow sailed straight towards the radio tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The man gasped.

CLANK!!!!

The sniper rifle was shot out from his grasp.

"OW!!!" he gripped his wrist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin whipped out a grappling hook in a flash, aimed, and shot at the tower. POW!!! CLANK!! He retracted, and his body zoomed over the distance of the field and towards the position of the sniper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!

Robin sailed in and pivoted his feet up.

The man gasped at the last second.

SMACK!!

"OOOF!!" the man was kicked out from the radio tower. He fell all the way down and landed in a springy clump of shrubbery.

FWOOMP!!!

Robin slid down, leapt into the foliage, and hoisted the man out by the neck.

"Allright, creep!! Who're you working for?!?!"

"I…..I…"

"Who hired you?!"

"But…B-But…"

"TALK!!"

The assassin winced. "I….don't know what to say…"

Speedy and I walked up.

"I think he works alone…," Speedy said.

"I think so too…," Robin frowned from under his eyemask and dropped the man hard to the ground. "What were you just planning on doing??"

"With this toy, I might add," Speedy said, lifting the sniper rifle up from where it fell.

The other Titans and a few citizens rushed over, concerned.

The assassin gulped and stuttered, "I….I'm sick and tired…of hearing you punks on the news everyday. I had to stop you people when I had the opportunity! I had!! But the damn thing wouldn't fire!! No matter how many times I pulled the trigger! I don't understand it!! Why wouldn't it fire?!"

I whistled.

Everyone looked at me.

I smirked and held up the bullet clip that was in my pocket the whole time.

"Where'd you get that?!?!" the assassin gasped.

I pointed to the foliage.

"???" Beast Boy snuck in as a dog and pulled out a metal briefcase with his teeth.

"So…someone _was_ in there….," the assassin wilted.

Beast Boy returned to elf form. "Dude…you were so jilted."

"Noir…," Robin commented breathlessly. "W-When did you take that thing out of there?"

I gestured.

Cyborg was there. He read: "Noir says it was while you and Speedy were too busy arguing your asses off about 'security'."

The two masked heroes winced. "Yeowch."

"Serves you punks right!!" the assassin cackled. "I would have finished you off! Just like the radio told me too!!"

"Radio??" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"The radio speaks to me!! She's beautiful with her airwaves!! Even though she rapes me as a succubus at night, I still love her!! She whispers to me that the Titans are bad and must die. And I would have satisfied her!! I would have finally freakin' satisfied her, but you all had to sick dark boy here on my sniper rifle which I got from the radio succubus' friends and—rrrrraugh!! This is so much Kenneth Star's falt!!!"

"Oooookay," Cyborg hoisted the man up and carted him off. "I think you need to go somewhere."

"I'm not finished!!!" the middle aged man cackled. "If you don't believe me, you can talk to the succubus radio herself!! I left her in the port-a-potty with my Gatorade bottle! The one armed to explode with dust bunnies!! WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME?!"

"Hmmmm," Raven smirked ever so slightly. "This day suddenly got interesting."

Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah….well…heheh….looks like I nearly got us killed for being a jerk."

"No….," Speedy similarly sweatdropped. "I…nearly ended us with my attitude. I was so bent on proving to you my part of the argument, I distracted us both from the scene at hand."

"I think our competition is too intense for our own good," Robin said.

"Finally…you said something today which I can agree with."

"Friends?" Robin extended a hand.

Speedy shook it. "Of course."

I smiled and folded my arms.

"Noir…thanks," Robin blushed. "You're a life saver."

I shrugged.

Starfire dove in and nearly plowed Robin over with a huge hug.

"OOOF!"

"Robin!! You are unharmed!!" Starfire beamed, her eyes shut. "I was so concerned for a second there that your head would have turned into the Swiss of Cheese!:

Robin wheezed in her arms. "It's okay, Starfire. Nobody got to shoot this robin today."

"Heeeeee!"

"Dudes! Come take a look!" Beast Boy said, kneeling over the sniper rifle and metal briefcase.

We all shuffled over.

"What is it?" Raven asked.

"The weaponry…look peculiar enough to you?" Beast Boy held the rifle up.

Robin snaked his way out of Starfire's crushing arms and took the rifle. He squinted at it through his eyemask. "It's got the model number on it…just like the others."

Beast Boy grinned. "More of Anderson's stash."

"And a brand new unit to boot!" Robin beamed. "Awesome!"

"What's this?" Cyborg asked, walking back from where the assassin was safely restrained.

"Another one of Anderson's boomsticks!" Starfire exclaimed.

"The assassin must have bought it from some connection in the Underworld," Robin said. "Believe it or not…this thing might be a clue!"

"Well alright!" Cyborg smiled. "We got ahead with our quest without even trying! Now that's what I call an end to a near-perfect day!"

"Who's Anderson?" Speedy asked.

"A creep we just recently did in," Robin said. "He invested much of his life and embezzled money into wicked experiments. One such experiment was the creation of an arsenal of mysterious weaponry. This arsenal's been spreading throughout the criminal underworld of this City, and we're trying to catch up with it all before there's too much damage done."

"Looks like you've got a good lead now with this thing," Speedy said. "Got an idea where to go next?"

"I have a suspicion…," Robin said. "But we'd have to study this thing further."

Speedy raised an eyebrow. "We?"

"Freudian slip," Raven mused.

Robin scratched his neck. "Yeah…."

"Need help tracking these creeps down?" Speedy smirked.

"I don't see why not," the Boy Wonder shrugged.

"Glorious!" Starfire beamed. "Does this mean we will be having company at the Tower?"

"I didn't mean to intrude," Speedy simpered. "I was just offering my assistance—"

"Then let us offer you a place to crash for the night!" Beast Boy jumped. "I've got a bunkbed!"

"Um….the couch would do just fine," Speedy relented.

"Sounds good to me," Cyborg smirked.

"Whatever," Raven said.

Robin shook his head, "Speedy. You're along for the ride. Quite frankly, we need all the help this week that we can get."

"Glad to be of help," Speedy said. "Now..don't you and I have demonstrations to do?"

Robin winked. "Most certainly. You go first."

"Nah…you go first."

"Oh, but I insist!"

"No, I insist!"

"I do!"

"I do!!"

Cyborg whistled. "Why don't we just flip a coin?"

"Marvelous idea."

The Titans wandered off.

Just Raven, Beast Boy, and I stood there by the tower.

"Well…," Beast Boy shrugged. "It's not like I cleaned my bunkbed much anyways."

"I don't think that would have been a factor," Raven said. A beat. "He better not go anywhere near my room."

"I don't think you've pulled him in with your charm yet," Beast Boy winked.

I silently chuckled.

"Finally…," Raven droned. "You got me."

"And you know it," Beast Boy winked. He looked at me. "So…..is Romeo here gonna get us a ride back to the Tower from one of his many girl fans? Lord knows it's gonna be cramped in the T-Car if we're bringing Speedy along."

I frowned at him.

"Don't act like it's not true," Raven said. "They were practically crawling all over you."

"Yeah," Beast Boy sighed. "I'm leaving before I'm greener with envy," he carted the rifle and briefcase along and walked off.

I scratched my head and looked at Raven.

She looked up at me with her blue eyes. "It's because you're the quiet type, you know."

It is?

I shrugged. Pause. I smirked and pointed at my hair.

"No…," Raven shook her head. "Not because of the hair." A pause. "Okay, maybe a little."

I raised an eyebrow from behind my shades.

She cleared her throat, lifted the robe's hood over her head, and shuffled off. "I'm going to go see Robin and Speedy……er……sweat."

I shrugged and followed her across the field.


	38. Warehouse Fight

**38. Warehouse Fight**

"So, Speedy, what's your favorite type of tofu omelet?"

Speedy looked across the Main Room to the kitchen area and politely said with a smile: "Thanks, but no thanks, Beast Boy. I don't like tofu."

"……..so…..with or without cheese?"

Speedy looked back at Robin and whispered: "How do you manage under the same roof as him?"

"You learn to love his more subtle qualities."

"What was that?"

"NOTHING."

Robin typed furiously at the keyboard to the main computer. A schematic of the City's Northeast district popped up.

"Burns Street. Industrial Complex. Between two warehouses, Unit G5 and G6. Supposedly, they're units that house auto parts for huge trucks."

"Your typical storage facility…," Speedy said.

"Right. And the location of where the would-be-assassin from yesterday acquired his sniper rifle."

"Purchased from the street, huh?"

"Precisely."

"I detect a 'but' here," Speedy smirked.

"_**But…**_," Robin said as he looked up files concerning the two warehouses. "If what the assassin confessed is true, the precise time of day he got his package coincided with a weekly checkup by the employees of the unit."

"So, unless the employees weren't present when they were supposed to be," Speedy added aloud, "Or unless they were completely blind to the exchange going on…."

"They're completely in on it," Robin said. He brought up a few profiles. "Here're the three chief workers at the Northeast Truck Parts Housing Division. Each and every one of them has a record of past involvement with burglary, theft, insurance fraud, all the gritty stuff."

"You sure it's not a coincidence?" Speedy remarked. "I mean…it _is_ an ugly part of town."

"I'm convinced we're onto something," Robin said. "I would have passed it all off as nothing, hadn't every employee had one special thing in common."

"What's that?"

"Green eyes."

"…….um…..okay. Point being?"

"Take a look at their photos," Robin said, highlighting them.

Speedy leaned forward. "Whoah! Happy St. Patrick's Day!"

"Unnatural, wouldn't you say?"

"There a reason for it?"

"Are you familiar with an experimental new drug on the street called Dragonflare?"

Speedy thought aloud. "Narcotic…shipped in from Southeast Pacific Region….emerged into the illegal trade around three years ago. Yes, I've heard a little. What about it?"

"It has many peculiar side effects. Among the usual obligatory rape of the human body's nervous system, it's known to create an intense green hue among all of its users."

"Sounds like fun….," Speedy mused. "You think these three are distributors?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Robin smirked. "They're also clients."

"And where you have an illegal drug trade…"

"You have the case for gang persuasion. The need to defend ones goods."

"With weapons."

"With weapons….," Robin nodded.

"I'd say it's worth checking out."

"Stole the words from my mouth," Robin smirked.

"You are your mentor's apprentice," Speedy complimented. "A detectiveling to the end. I'd say the Titans are lucky to have you along for the ride."

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Robin winked. "Just smarts."

"Hey!" Beast Boy called out from the kitchen area. "If you two lovebirds are done kissing each other's asses, care to help me put out this tofu fire?!"

Robin moaned and turned around. "For crying out loud, Beast Boy, there's no threat of—HOLY CRAP! TOFU FIRE!!!"

"I TOLD YOU!!!"

The three boys rushed over the counter to put the blaze out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the laboratory, Starfire stood in front of a circle of bright blue formed on the wall from Cyborg's flashlight.

"Okay….okay….guess which animal this is!" Starfire beamed. She held her hands up in front of the light and formed a shadow puppet with her fingers. The shadow was……….hard to distinguish. "Go on!" she smiled. "Guess!!"

Raven and I sat on either side of Cyborg on the metal bed.

We stared.

"….."

"….."

"…..um…."

"A forsbarg!!!" Starfire grinned wide.

"What's a forsbarg?"

"Only the most indigenous huluquark of the upper plains of beenorak!"

"Ya know…Star…," Cyborg scratched his titanium scalp. "It's a little easier for us if you stuck to Terran lifeforms."

"Oooh! I know!" Starfire jumped, giggled, and formed a new puppet with her hands. "Guess what this creature is!!"

Again, indistinguishable.

I shrugged.

Raven droned, "A pseudopodium?"

I glanced at her strangely.

"A glarkadoog!!"

"Star!!" Cyborg barked, "I said Terran lifeforms!"

Starfire blushed and smiled, her hands behind her back as she teetered back and forth. "Does it not count that I last saw my pet glarkadoog in Beast Boy's sock drawer?"

Cyborg did a double-take.

The automatic doors opened and in walked Robin, Speedy, and Beast Boy….slightly singed.

"What were you guys doing?" Raven asked, an eyebrow raised. "Jumping through hoops of flame?"

"No…but Beast Boy will be doing so soon, no doubt," Robin muttered.

"Tofu fire," Beast Boy simpered and scratched the back of his neck. "Love hurts."

"Whatever."

"I thought it was rather adventurous, actually," Speedy said.

"Speedy, my man," Cyborg high-fived the visitor. "Did you find the couch inviting?"

"Up until some giant amoeba thing crawled over my neck in the middle of the night," the red-headed young man said.

Starfire gasped. "!!!! My glarkadoog!!"

"Anywho, I came here to mention to you all that I have a new mission plan," Robin said.

"Does it involve the safe retrieval of my pet glarkadoog?" Starfire stuttered worriedly.

"Um….full circle…sure!" Robin exclaimed. "But, up-front, it deals with what could possibly be a major break-thru in our hunting for the weapons arsenal."

I smirked.

"Do tell," Raven said.

"Robin thinks there's a gang spreading Dragonflare around here."

"Excuse you?" Beast Boy said.

"A new and rare narcotic," Robin said. "I think a couple of warehouses in the Northeast Industrial complexes may be a front for hiding a distribution of the stuff."

"Great…," Raven hummed. "More drug smugglers."

"This is more intense than those homicidal boat pilots we nabbed a few days ago," Robin said. "Dragonflare is very expensive. Reserved for the crime kingpins of the Underworld. If we strike rich with this investigation…we might end up deep in our armpits in the most notorious characters we've fought in a long time."

"That is why you are addressing everyone of us communally," Starfire remarked. "This may be a very dangerous chapter in our heroism?"

"Possibly," Robin nodded.

"Well, I'm game," Cyborg said.

"Me too," Speedy smiled.

"Me three!" Beast Boy hopped. He smirked at Raven, "Third is the one with the hairy chest."

Raven glared at him. She then looked at Robin. "You have a plan?"

"In the next few hours, there'll be a window of opportunity for us to catch the three workers of the warehouse at the location in question. I suggest we all go there, do a little reconnaissance, and then spring upon them all as one unit to overwhelm whatever organization may be functioning there illegally."

"Will Speedy be coming along for the ride?" Beast Boy asked.

"You can count on it!" Speedy crossed his arms and smiled. "In fact…I was thinking of returning the favor for my stay here by _providing_ the ride."

"Oh really?" Cyborg smiled.

"Curious….," Starfire remarked.

Robin looked at Speedy as Speedy smirked and motioned with his head. "Follow me, kids."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the Tower, the seven of us huddled by a sleek speedboat moored at the docks just beyond the bluffs of the island.

Cyborg whistled. "Niiiiiiiiice. Sweet little thing. Ain't it, Noir?"

I nodded dazedly.

Smooth titanium finish. Dual motors. Mysterious compartments for special, super-hero gadgetry (hehehe). A design of red on black on brown. But mainly, lots and lots of red.

"Put her together myself," Speedy winked.

"No way."

"Yeah way. Took forever. A superhero needs hobbies…believe it or not."

"I believe it," Beast Boy said.

"Nobody asked you," Raven remarked.

"But I was just—"

"Can it fit all of us?" Robin asked.

"It depends…," Speedy smiled and leaned against its hull. "Do you all care to fit in?"

"Oh, we do! We do!" Starfire beamed.

I smiled.

"I think we got us all a ride," Cyborg remarked. "If it's okay with the driver, that is."

Speedy winked under his eyemask. "Let's make it a date!"

"Teen Titans!" Robin smiled and gestured out towards the Bay. "Go!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Trailing a plume of water and spray, Speedy's watercraft zoomed across the Bay, hading towards the docksides of the Northeast Industrial Complex. A mid afternoon sun shined down from above us.

The controls were enclosed under a metal roof. Speedy stared out at the length of the bay through sleek windshields as he sped the boat along. The whole of us Titans wobbled and shook with each crest of wave we hit.

"Killer!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "The Green Arrow must give you some wicked allowance to afford this thing."

Speedy smirked back over his shoulder. "I often wonder how Robin saved up for his R-Cycle."

"Checks and balances," Robin mumbled.

Beast Boy glared, "That's your answer to everything."

Cyborg leaned back. "Aw man…this is the best!! Too bad you can't take the top off this thing! We could be getting some nice sun!"

"Actually, the roof does retract," Speedy says.

"It does?"

The agile archer nodded. "Yeah…but we need the cabin enclosed if we're gonna approach the scene of focus as safely as possible."

"Really now…"

"I'll explain later."

Cyborg looked over at Raven. The dark girl huddled in the corner under her robe. "What's the matter, Ray? You seem…….scared."

"I am NOT scared!" Raven said. She urped, and then confessed in a hushed tone: "I don't like boat rides…."

I winced and tried looking out ahead through the windshield as we proceeded speedily along our course (no pun intended).

We skimmed around the first of the metal tankers docked at the shipyards.

"Hey, I remember this place!" Cyborg pointed as we passed by. "Control Freak's 'station', remember?"

"That is not a recollection I hold dear," Starfire frowned, folding her arms.

"Come on, Star!" Robin smiled. "I made it out safely!"

"Hmph!!"

Robin blinked. "So did you….," he added meekly.

"I've seen enough of the shipyards to make a sailor bored," Beast Boy said. "Please tell me we get to fight in one of the warehouses, please!"

"It's been a while since we had a decent warehouse battle," Cyborg said. "Hasn't it?"

"Let's see….power plant…tanker….prison…..yup, been a long time since we've done a warehouse brawl. We've done just about everything else under the sun, though."

"I once fought along Green Arrow in a trainyard," Speedy said.

"Oooh! Noir and I did that!" Starfire beamed.

I nodded.

"But with an exploding blimp overhead?" Speedy smirked.

"Dude!"

"Kickass!"

"Got photos?"

"Maybe after the mission."

"You know where I want to fight for once….," Robin said.

Most everyone looked at him.

He smirked, "A cemetery!"

"Yeah!"

"All right!"

"That'd rule!"

"Stop trying to cheer me up…..," Raven moaned sickly.

"I know it's not my place to ask but…," Beast Boy sweatdropped, regarding the green-Raven. "Are we there yet?"

"Brace yourselves, everyone," Speedy said, raising a second hand to the controls. "About to initiate Cloaking."

"Cloaking??" Beast Boy made a face.

"Your boat has cloaking technology?!" Robin gasped.

"Yup," Speedy smiled proudly. "State of the art."

"Dude! That's sick!" Cyborg exclaimed.

Raven groaned.

"And….now!"

Speedy pulled a lever and pressed a button.

The metal hull of the boat flashed momentarily, then darkened, then faded towards the color of the Bay's water.

"Crystallized polymers in the metal react to sunlight differently at a specific computer command. I simply programmed into the boat the average hue and texture appearance of the Bay Water, and the hull attempts to emulate it. We're not invisible per se, but from a distance we're hard to spot."

"Oooooooooh," Starfire beamed.

"Awesome….," Cyborg practically drooled.

"Now for cruise mode," Speedy slowed the craft down.

"Whatever makes the waves disappear," Raven grunted from under her hood.

The boat coasted towards the docks slowly…making little noise.

"How far away are the warehouses from the water?" Speedy asked.

"Only two blocks," Robin said. "Half a minute by foot."

"So we can't just jump out and jump inside…," Speedy said. "Are we on time?"

"Yup….whoever's working there should be there now," Robin said. "I suggest reconnaissance."

"And how're we supposed to do that?"

Robin swiveled around. "Noir?"

I saluted, smiled, and stood up.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Speedy chuckled. "A long-haired dude with a sword?! The only was someone that tall and conspicuous can get in is if he can turn invisible!!"

"Got that covered," Robin said.

As if on cue, I channeled smoke energy outward from my body and blended into the shadows of the vehicle.

"……..," Speedy stared. "Well…then….if he can do that outside as well as he can do inside, fine by me."

"Noir…go check the warehouses out," Robin said. "Keep in radio contact. Describe through morse code what you see and I'll decide if we should go in or not."

I nodded.

Speedy opened the exit automatically.

"Good luck."

"Be careful!" Starfire added.

I swiftly jumped out and was on my way.

"I could be in his place, ya know!" Beast Boy frowned and folded his arms. "A green seagull could get the job done just as well!"

"………no it couldn't," Robin said.

Speedy chuckled.

"………………….a green seal?"

Raven threw up.

"Aw! Jeez!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran across the docks and to the first structure.

I stopped and gained composure.

As much as I could move through the day-time in stealth, it took intense concentration. I could remain invisible at night much easier. In both cases, however, it oftentimes sapped me of my other abilities.

So, to conserve strength and stealth, I ran-not blurred--at a human speed across an alleyway and towards one of the warehouses in question. A pickup truck suddenly throttled past me on the road. I remained still, pressed against the wall. Though I was invisible, I still risked detection if I moved too much.

When the coast was clear, I sneaked my way across the path and towards the structure of the building itself. There was a van and two cars parked outside. Ironically, the pickup truck was coming to a stop at the structure too, and two figures came out. They headed towards the main door.

I glanced up, and saw a ladder leading towards a scaffold that served as a second story fire exit.

I quickly climbed up it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Aw man!" Speedy pulled at his thin red hair. "The upholstery!"

"I know….it's all spinning," Raven moaned.

Cyborg scratched the human half of his skull and stared at the seat. "Well….just a little Goo Gone will do the trick."

There was a beeping on Robin's communicator. He opened it up with a Star Trek sound. "Gotcha Noir. What do you see?"

There was a set of morse code instructions. Robin listened. Then he looked at everyone. "There's some sort of meeting taking place. Noir's gonna let us listen in."

"By all means….," Starfire said.

The communicator crackled. Slowly, the volume rose and a couple of strange voices materialized into the cabin of Speedy's boat.

"...doesn't come cheap. You should have figured that out before coming here."

"We obviously didn't come to collect some today. We're gonna need more than a stupid pickup truck for that job."

"Tell us something we don't know."

"Rumor has it you sell more than the Dragonflare here. Rumor has it y'all have some nifty toys up your sleeves."

"Maybe we do, maybe we don't. Who do you work for?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I perched on a railing on the second floor of the warehouse. While blending in with the shadows, I aimed the communicator down at the first floor where three employees and the two visitors were standing and talking amidst a bunch of wooden crates and mysteriously shrouded cargo.

"What difference does it make? We can't measure up to your boss."

"It makes a lot of difference to him. Already, one of our clients turned out to be a total nutjob. He was caught and done in by the Titans, and our product went along with him."

"Sounds like security here is at a sudden minimum. What? Is Dagger losing his bank cards or something?"

I made a face.

_'Dagger'???_

"Don't mention his name out loud!"

"So what?! We all know he exists! Anyone with a brain and a backbone in these streets knows he exists! Now, the cops don't know he exists. But they could, ya know, if Dagger doesn't take advantage of good offers when they're shoved into his face!"

"Is that a threat, bub?"

"Merely a proposition. Five hundred grand for five arms. The long range stuff."

"And the Dragonflare?"

"You can keep that crap. Lord knows by the sights of your peepers that you all seem to enjoy your own stock."

"You're walking a thin wire, my friend."

"Friend?? Ha! Look how benevolent these hypocrites are as soon as you shove them up against a wall, Barney!"

"Heheh…pathetic."

"Don't be so quick to insult Dagger's flock. You might insult the shepherd."

"Look…have we got a deal or not?"

"Five hundred grand isn't enough."

"What?!?! Keep joking, pal, you might just twist the wrong funny bone!"

"Let's just say we need some….insurance."

"You want a background check? I assure you, neither Barney or I have touched that green crap you guys keep hogging."

"I'm trying to be serious here…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Who's Dagger???" Speedy remarked.

"I don't know…," Robin said. "But there's one way to find out." He signaled to me through the communicator and then spoke to the others. "We're going in! There're five in the warehouse! Packages and crates lining the inside! No telling what's in them. So be careful! It could be evidence!"

"Okay!" Starfire nodded.

"Righto," Beast Boy hopped.

"Let's get this party started!" Cyborg cocked a laser rifle-arm.

Raven clutched her stomach. "Um……'woo hoo'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I pocketed the communicator away and whipped out Myrkblade. I poised in a ready-to-pounce position from where I sat on the shadowed railing up top.

"So it's settled then?" said one of the workers. "Seven hundred and fifty grand??"

"That's the highest we'll go. Five sniper rifles can't be that much worth it."

"They are if they can fire from a mile and a half away with heat-seeking bullets."

"…….hmmm…..I rather like the sound of that."

_**SMASH!!!!!**_

A hole shattered high above in the warehouse as Cyborg dropped down and Starfire flew after.

Cyborg thunderously between the three workers and the two visitors. His titanium fists clenching.

The crooks drew back, but just then the door busted open as a green rhino charged in and Speedy dashed I after.

Finally, Raven and Robin emerged from a wall through black energy.

I leapt down and completed the encircling of the crooks.

"You're surrounded!" Robin pointed with a shout. "Get down and put your hands up!!"

Speedy drew an arrow with his bow.

Starfire's hands glowed green.

Cyborg aimed a laser rifle.

Raven's eyes glowed as she lifted two threatening crates.

Beast Boy morphed into a green tiger.

I held Myrkblade out, warbling.

Robin smirked.

_Textbook………_

One of the workers—panicking—looked back and forth with his unnaturally green eyes before jumping over to a computer panel and slamming his fist onto a red button.

"NO!!" cried out another worker. "NOT YET!! DAGGER SAID WE COULDN'T ACTIVATE THEM UNLESS THEY WERE SOLD!!!"

"Activate _what?!?!_" Speedy glared.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!!! CRASH!!!

All seven of us looked over as three wooden crates exploded into splinters and three—count 'em—three metal, robot skeletons appeared. Looking like monstrosities straight out of 'The Terminator', they shook to life, glared at us with glowing eyes, and charged at full-sprint…..smashing through crates and packages.

WHAM!!!

Beast Boy turned back into an elf and gulped. "Well….that was certainly unexpected."

SMACK!!! SLAM!!

Beast Boy and Cyborg were punched back by metal fists.

"Titans! Go!" Robin shouted. He dove at the first robot he could, kicking it I the side of the head. The android lumbered brainlessly and countered with a flying kick. The Boy Wonder was hit hard and sent flying back into me. "OOF!!"

Speedy squinted through his eyemask and unleashed a barrage of arrows at the automatons. The projectiles whistled through the air before contacting the metal skeletons hard and exploding upon contact.

The robots merely marched through the flames and started charging at him.

Speedy rolled to the side as Starfire floated up to plate and unleashed a heavy starbolt. "HAAA!!"

A wave of green enveloped two of the robots, stalling them and causing their limbs to spark.

At precisely that same time, Cyborg and Beast Boy got back to their feet. Cyborg let out a shout and ran at one of the sparking robots, fist first.

WHAM!!!!

The robot flew back on its metal pelvis while Beast Boy turned into a triceratops and slammed the other sparking android into a wall, sending splinters and shards of metal flying.

Robin and I disentangled ourselves. Amidst the storm of flying arrows, starbolts, and black energy, he pointed over towards the five fleshy crooks. "They're getting away!"

Without so much as a hand sign, I blurred through the chaos, leapt off a crate, and sailed down onto one of the two visitors who was pulling out a pistol.

SNAP!!!!

Myrkblade sailed through the barrel of the gun. I grunted, spun, and high-kicked the man in the sternum. Throwing him hard into a wall of the warehouse and knocking him out cold.

There was a pumping sound from behind me.

I turned around and my black eyes widened under my shades as I looked down the barrel of a shotgun.

"Go spoil your own fun," the second visitor smirked.

Swish-swish-swish-swish-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-**CLANK!!**

A birdarang flew in and sliced the shotgun in half. Lead pellets fell to the floor as the crook stumbled back with a cry.

Robin sailed directly in with a flying kick. "HIYAAAAA!!"

SMACK!!

The crook hit the floor hard.

Robin landed and gave me a thumb's up.

I smiled and saluted him back.

In the meantime, Starfire and Cyborg circled one of the metal androids. Starfire let out a cry and shot a starbolt straight at the ground. A crater formed at the android's feet, tripping it forward so that it fell into Cyborg's embrace.

"Let's test your performance rating!" Cyborg winked. He let out a huge cry, twisted his torso and upper arms, and mightily body-slammed the creature hard into the ground.

WHAM!!!!

"From one buckethead to another…," Cyborg dusted his hands off. "You're pretty weak."

The grounded robot shook its head. It reached a hand into a nearby wooden crate. SMASH!! It pulled it out—holding a high-tech magnum.

"…..," Cyborg sweatdropped. "Now that's not playing fair!"

BLAM!!!

Cyborg dodged in time and scampered helplessly across the warehouse.

The robot got to its knees and aimed again.

BLAM!!!

Its second bullet was deflected just milliseconds before it could strike Cyborg's back by a starbolt. Starfire flew into view, gritted her teeth, and practically blinded the gun-toting automaton with a flurry of green energy.

In the meantime, a green dinosaur was having a wrestling match with another robot. A match that it eventually lost. The robot threw up its arms with immense strength and the dinosaur was tossed halfway across the warehouse and into an exploding pile of crates.

Beast Boy materialized in elf form, his eyes spinning. "Ughhhhh," he stood up, shook his head, and examined the dozen sniper rifles spilled out around him. "Hmmm….treasure trove, much?" He looked up. He shrieked and jumped out of the way as a fist-throwing robot flew down at him.

Suddenly, the robot froze in mid air as a sphere of black energy encased it.

"Save it for the Olympics…," Raven droned. Floating in mid air, she held the robot up with one hand and looked aside with glowing eyes. She saw the three workers fleeing desperately towards the exit. "You're. Not. Leaving!!" She waved her free hand.

"WHOAH!!!" the trio were thrown back by an obsidian wall and tossed into a set of lockers which the dark girl promptly closed tightly over them. Their fists could be heard pounding against the aluminum as they whined and demanded to be let out.

Raven stared. She jerked with a cry. She looked over and saw the robot punching its way out from the onyx shell.

She tried concentrating her powers at the last second, but the stream of energy was broken by a metal fist. The robot jumped down to the ground and charged her.

Raven hovered backwards and waved an arm, forming a shield.

FLASH!!!

The robot punched through and got closer.

She waved another arm and shielded.

FLASH!!!

The robot inched its way closer with a second fist.

Raven grit her teeth—eyes glowing—and held both palms out in front of her.

The robot sailed with both fists at once.

CLASH!!!!

Sparks of black energy danced between the girl's telekinesis and the android's invading fists. The two struggled violently for a second or two before Raven let out a cry and forced her arms apart. She succeeded in encasing the robot's two wrists in black energy and stretching its limbs out like it was being crucified. For a moment there, its chest twitched in intense vulnerability.

That's when Robin swung down via grappling hook cord and kicked the metal man mightily in the chest.

SMACK!!

Raven let go of her powers as Robin sent the robot teetering back. The Boy Wonder swiftly landed, jumped back up, and landed hard on the robot's shoulders—grounding it. He came around with his staff and duked it out with the robot mano y mano while Raven stood on the sidelings delivering backup—regaining her core energy.

In the meantime, Speedy has his hands full of the third robot. He jumped dodged each raging fist of the automaton, which missed and smashed a wall of the warehouse or a crate or a piece of the floor. Between every leap and landing, Speedy swiftly drew an arrow out, took aim, and fired at an exposed part of the robot's body.

He managed to slow the android down, but couldn't seem to damage it permanently. Speedy was merely holding it at bay, and he knew it. But for what reason?

The robot bore down at him past a few crates.

Speedy spun an arrow in his hand, his bow ready.

The robot raised two fists and brought them down.

SMASH!!

A crater in the ground formed.

Speedy was jumping backwards. He then ran indirectly towards the robot, dashed up a wall, jump-flipped off the side, and launched an arrow while upside down at the robot's chest.

PTWIFFT-BOOOM!!!

The arrow head exploded. The robot's torso sparked.

There was a rush of wind.

Speedy landed and looked behind as I ran up, Myrkblade raised, and slashed downward at the same chest that Speedy struck. A gash was formed in the robot's metal skin. Wires and android guts showed underneath.

The robot defensively shoved me away.

I flipped and landed gracefully besides Speedy as we both squared off at the creature.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

I smiled.

He smiled.

I gripped the hilt of my sword as he drew another arrow.

The golem came charging in at us.

"HA!!" Speedy took aim from long range as I rushed in with my blade. The arrow flew overhead. The robot deflected it with an arm. Thus, for a split second, the metal creature was open to me when I leapt in and stabbed at its legs. Sparks flew. The robot flew a fist down at me. I teleported to the side. Speedy struck an arrow across its skull. The robot shook and plowed towards Speedy with its arms out. I let out a silent scream and spun around with Myrkblade warbling in a spiral. With my added force, the right arm of the robot was severed completely. I ended my spin and stabbed high. I stuck the tip of Myrkblade in between the joints of the robot's skeletal neck. I grunted and pulled at my hilt. My sword acted as a lever and tilted the chin of the overwhelmed android up; exposing its neckpieces.

Speedy grined.

_Target…lock…_

The archer took aim with a red-tipped arrow and let it loose.

PFTWIFFT!!!!

The projectile lodged into the android's neck. It glowed and hissed.

I jerked Myrkblade out and dove out of the way with Speedy.

BOOOM!!!!

The head of the robot was gone, and soon its entire body leaned over and crashed to the ground.

In the meantime, Cyborg's and Starfire's robot continued aiming and firing with the magnum. **BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!**

Cyborg dove to the ground, grunted, and fired with his laser rifle.

The android was shoved back. It blocked with both the bare wrist and the trigger finger held up.

That was all Starfire needed. She soared down with both hands glowing together-palm to palm. She let out a warcry and flung a starbolt straight into the android's face.

BLAST!!!

Its red eyes shattered. Its head spun.

Starfire landed on the other side, twisted around, and shot a blast at point blanc into the robot's pelvis.

FLASH!!

Half of the metal structure melted away from the intensity. As it stumbled to its knees, the android aimed the magnum straight at Starfire. The Tamaranian girl effortlessly glided down, around, and up against the shoulder. She gripped the arm and—with a cry—slammed a green-glowing hand down onto the elbow.

BLAM!!!

The robot was forced to fire, and the bullet sailed consequently across the warehouse and into the torso of the android counterpart that Raven and Robin were tackling; assisting them greatly.

"HAAAAAA-AAAAA!!!" Starfire shouted and let loose a starbolt straight in the robot's skull. Electrical circuitry flew. The robot sparked, dropped the magnum, and fell to the ground twitching just in time for Beast Boy to jump, morph into a gorilla, and land on the metal body—smashing it to pieces.

CRASH!!!

"Boo-ya!!" Cyborg chanted on his feet.

Starfire smiled and hovered in the air with her hands on her hips. "However spontaneous, I do believe I washed its chronomete---" Suddenly, inexplicably, the alien girl twitched. Her right eye bulged and her left eye thinned as her face formed a twisted expression. Then she let out a sigh as her optics rolled back and she slumped cold to the floor.

Cyborg's jaw dropped.

Beast Boy returned to elf form and gasped.

Speedy and I looked over, shocked.

"STARFIRE!!" Robin exclaimed. He growled at the robot, held it at bay with a rod, and produced an explosive birdarang. He swiftly shoved the blinking projectile into the android's ribs and leapt away.

BOOOM!!!

A fireball lit up behind the Boy Wonder as he flipped over, landed, and ran swiftly towards Starfire's figure.

Raven floated over, a deadpan expression on her face.

The battle was over and everything was silent as Robin knelt and cradled the unconscious Tamaranian in his lap. "Starfire!! Starfire!!" he looked up at Beast Boy and Cyborg. "Who got her?!"

"No one!!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "The only other fighter was clear across the warehouse and in yours and Raven's hands when she just collapsed!"

"Cyborg?" Raven spoke. "Got a reading?"

Cyborg opened a panel in his arm and scanned the girl. "Give me a sec."

"Hurry!" Robin exclaimed.

"What happened?" Speedy asked as we both walked over.

"Don't know…," Beast Boy said. "But it's not good."

"Do Titans have the habit of just falling down on the spot?" Speedy asked. One of the two visiting crooks stirred and rubbed his head. The red-headed archer kicked him back to unconsciousness without looking.

"Something's wrong here…," Robin said. "This was not part of the plan!"

I nodded as if to say '_No duh!'_

"I'm getting a reading…," Cyborg said.

"What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," he looked at his arm's screen. "I'm very much tempted to say she's in a coma. But too much of her vital signs are way active for that to be true. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was sleeping."

"Sleeping?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Tamaranians aren't narcoleptic…," Speedy said. A pause. "Are they?"

"Heck if I know," Beast Boy muttered with a shrug.

"Well, we have to find out," Robin gritted his teeth. "And quick. Speedy! I need your boat. We have to get her back to the Tower!"

"No problem," he nodded. "Carry her inside. I'll have us there in a jiffy!"

There was a creaking sound.

"Say, what was that?" Beast Boy hissed.

Raven pointed, "Look!"

The lockers that housed the three workers had been kicked open from the inside. A door to the warehouse hung open to the bright, outside world.

"Rrrrrgh!!" Cyborg shook. "Crap! They're getting away! And they're the only ones who have answers over all this chaos!" He ran after them but Robin motioned with a shout:

"No! Cyborg, come with us."

"But they're getting away!"

"Beast Boy can go aver them. I need you. Starfire needs you. Please…come with us back to the Tower!"

Cyborg looked at Starfire's limp figure in Robin's arms. He sighed. "Allright, man. B.B. Go fetch!"

"Aye, sir!" Beast Boy turned into a green cheetah and rushed out the door in pursuit.

"Noir…Raven…stay here until the cops come. Help them out in their investigation. I want as much evidence analyzed about this place and those screwy robots as possible. God, I hate it when fate works against us!"

"Save the poetry for later," Speedy said. "Let's go!"

"We'll hold the fort here…," Raven said. "Make sure Starfire's okay."

"Will do. Move!"

The three guys carried Starfire off.

I watched, biting my lip. I looked over at Raven's face as if somehow that would bring solace to me.

She looked back deadpan at me. "I cannot give you assurance, Noir. For, like Robin, I have no clue what's happening to Starfire."

I nodded. That made the both of us…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The three green-eyed workers of the warehouse ran down the street, panting. They stopped at a corner of two major streets in the industrial district to catch their breaths.

"Everything's blown to crap…," one of them heaved…then glared. "And it's all thanks to YOU!!"

"What?! For crying out loud, it was the Titans!! I had no choice but to seek the Sentries on them!"

"Those were the most expensive pieces of hardware we got!!" the other one shouted. "And now they're smashed to jigsaws!"

"Hey! As much as I care, we don't exist! Let's get out of this town and pretend like nothing happened! Dagger won't know! Anderson's old friends won't know! We'll be old news!"

As if on cue, a black van drove up skidded to a stop, and opened its sliding side door. A couple of shaded men jumped out, grabbed the leader of the three workers, and hoisted him—struggling and shouting—into the vehicle. No sooner had that happen, the black van drove off in a hurry.

The other two workers stared….their green eyes twitching.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah…we're dead if we stand here any longer."

"Let's move!"

And they were about to do so when a green cheetah leapt in from the street and pounced one of them to the asphalt.

"OOF!"

The animal spun around.

The second man gasped.

The green changeling pounced towards him, morphed into a kangaroo, and kicked him across the street and into the side of a dumpster.

CLANG!!!

"Ughhhh…"

Both fell unconscious.

Beast Boy landed in a crouching position. He morphed into elf form and looked down the street towards where the van last drove off. He then glanced a the two men and sighed:

"Two peas in a pod….."

He then proceeded to handcuff them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A half hour later, Starfire lay on a medical table in Cyborg's lab. She was dressed in a hospital gown, and numerous instruments and wires were attached to her.

"Kinda…..overdoing it, ya think?" Speedy remarked.

Robin, who was kneeling by her bed, glared up at the archer. "I'm not taking any chances."

"Okay! Allright! It's cool…man. Seriously!"

Robin looked across the lab. "Any further results, Cyborg?"

"It's not sleep….," Cyborg said. "There's no REM cycle to her neurological activity. And yet, it's not a coma either. It's almost like she's awake….only paralyzed. Her electromagnetic signals aren't responding to anything we say or do, so I'm at a loss to say whether or not she's cognitive of what's happened or is happening. I wish I could tell you more….just….I don't know Tamaranian physiology enough. Show me a cyborg Tamaranian, and I might be able to help you."

Robin glared at the floor. "Then we're gonna have to find a better source."

Cyborg frowned. "Hey man! What's wrong with what I have to—"

"Nothing…," Robin said, standing up. "In fact, you pointed me in the right direction."

"What are you proposing?" Speedy asked.

"Come on," Robin motioned as he headed for the door. "It's time we take something out of mothballs." He paused. He turned around slowly and looked at Starfire's silent figure.

"Something wrong, Robin?"

He took a deep breath. "Yeah." And he headed out the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whoah…you guys store a lot of stuff here…," Speedy remarked as they traversed a dark corridor in the cellar.

"It's easy to get lost," Cyborg nodded. He provided a flashlight out from his very shoulder that lit the dusty path before them. "Happened to Noir once. And I can't blame him. I have no clue what my old man was thinking when he built the cavernous innards of this Tower."

"There!" Robin—the point man—gestured. He ran over to a crevice (like a 'garage') in the corridor. There a hulking object lay silent under a dusty shroud. He pulled the tarp off in one swift jerk.

Dust flew.

Speedy and Cyborg coughed. They squinted through the 'mist'.

"Whoah….what's that thing?" Speedy remarked. "It sure ain't human."

"That's because it isn't," Robin motioned to a giant metal pod that he stood beside. "It's Tamaranian."

"That's the thing Star landed here in!" Cyborg remarked.

"Yup…and I bet there's some sort of alien transceiver inside."

"Gonna dial a collect-call?" Cyborg smirked.

"Let's just hope Starfire's people have a health hotline," Robin said. "It's a wild guess…but I don't know what alternatives we have."

"Gotta give your all for a teammate, right?" Speedy remarked.

Robin glanced at him.

"Right?"

Robin slowly nodded. "'Teammate'….right….."

Cyborg stared.

Robin turned and opened the hatch with a grunt.

The thing hissed as it lifted from its hinges.

Robin waved the dust off and walked into the cockpit. He looked around inside the cramped space, found a button, and pressed it.

The pod lit up in brilliant, unearthly colors.

Speedy whistled. "Close encounters of the rainbow kind!"

"Not in the mood," Robin muttered. "Now…let's see what these buttons do…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the crime scene, a brigade of policemen and detectives had arrived. Many of the guns and equipment (and Dragonflare stashes, to say the least) were carted off and measured as evidence.

As the sun set, I knelt beside the ruins of one of the androids that were spread out on the concrete. I took off my glasses and stared at its contents with black eyes. I then looked up at Raven.

"…..," she looked at me. "You know what I'm thinking?"

I nodded slowly.

"Looks like Simon Stone's work…."

I stood up and put the glasses back on with a sigh.

"And to think the whole Stone-Anderson situation was complete…"

I shook my head and gestured to her.

She couldn't 'read' me, but she got the idea. "Or this is the start of a whole new situation…."

I nodded.

Beast Boy walked up. "I've got good news. Remember the two crooks I caught?"

"Hard not to."

"Well, they've been taken in for questioning. It's a safe bet those junkies will give up sooner than most criminals. And if the cops can't get to them, I'm sure it'll be out task to try squeezing some truth out of them or something."

"Oh joy…"

"The bad news is…," Beast Boy moaned, "…there's no sign of the third suspect _OR_ the black van that took off madly with him!"

"This is all starting to get really fishy…," Raven said. "There's something deep at play here. Something dark. I can feel it."

I gestured as if I had a 'knife' in my hand.

"'Dagger'," Raven nodded. "That name must mean something."

"Oh great! A new crime lord! That's just what we need!" Beast Boy moaned. "Who's next? Lesbian Luthor?!"

"There're plenty of fish in the sea…," Raven said. "Though I suppose we should be thankful. We may be close to catching this one."

"Any word from Robin and the gang about Starfire?" Beast Boy meekly asked.

Raven slowly shook her head.

Beast Boy sighed. "Bummer…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This is Earth. The Teen Tower. Is anyone there?"

Pause.

"Are there any Tamaranian relay stations out there? This is Earth. Robin of the Teen Titans! Can someone respond?"

"Ya know…," Speedy scratched his head. "There's gotta be a more….official way to contact an alien species."

"I know it looks like Robin's just fishing for intergalactic compliments…," Cyborg stated, "…but Starfire specifically told us that she had a satellite that responded directly to the signals of her space pod's receiver. If what she told us is accurate, we should be getting a reply now from some piece of Tamaranian communication."

"How come the government doesn't tell us about all this alien stuff?" Speedy remarked. "Superman. Supergirl. Starfire….you think it'd become regulatory now. I mean….DUH! Aliens exist! Go climb a tree, you frickin' amish!"

"Shhh!!!" Robin exclaimed. "I think I'm making contact!!"

Cyborg and Speedy leaned in towards the doorway of the pod as static built up on Robin's receiving end and a mysterious, dark voice came to life.

_"Zzzz…..tkkkks….adfjfhhhurjarb? Hujugarb? Urublorkin gasset-laysie?"_

Robin blinked. "Um….could you repeat that?"

Static. Then--

_"Tkkkk—Oh! Glorious! English speaking Terrans! This shall be a most intriguing challenge indeed!"_

Cyborg smirked. "Sounds like Star's ilk, alright."

"H-Hello out there!" Robin stuttered. "With whom am I speaking?"

_"Why…the C.S.A.I.T.!"_

"The who?"

_"The Collective Satellite Artificial Intelligence of Tamaran!"_

"You mean….you're a machine?"

_"Affirmative. A most marvelous invention too, made to emulate the emotions and feelings of biological, sentient organisms of all galactic walks of life as well as provide a vessel of communication from parsec to parsec---"_

"Yeah yeah….look. We need help. Our…..Our cl-close friend is Tamaranian, and something's happened to her. And we can't figure out what. We think it might be indigenous of her people!"

_"Are we talking of an ailment, a behavior, an accident, an evolution, or an abduction?"_ the voice asked.

"Ummmm," Robin blinked under his eyemask and looked back at the others.

Cyborg and Speedy scratched their heads.

"We'll take 'ailment' for four hundred, please," Speedy said.

"An ailment!" Robin spoke into the machine. "It's like a coma. We don't know what it is! Starfire just fell down and went unconscious and—"

"Starfire??" the computer voice warbled. "Do you mean Koriand'r?"

"…..," Robin blushed. "Er….I guess so. Yeah."

" Koriand'r??" Cyborg remarked.

"Kinky…," Speedy smirked.

Cyborg elbowed him.

"Ow!!"

"_One moment, please…,_" the computer voice cheerfully said. _"Processing!"_

"I don't have a moment!" Robin growled.

"Dude…just let the computer do its work," Speedy said.

" Koriand'r….," Cyborg scratched his chin.

_"Processing………_," the computer repeated.

Robin sighed and leaned a chin on his elbow.

Then….

_"Probable solution acquired. Likelihood of accuracy, 99.69 percent_."

"Great!" Cyborg said. "Let us here it!"

"_Hormonal suspension. Prevalent in the ages of adolescent boy and girl Tamaranians. At sporadic moments in their teenage lives, Tamaranians undergo comatose states of hibernation. The bouts of sleep are spontaneous, natural, and a healthy component of gradual, post-adolescent transformation."_

"But…I-I thought Starfire had already gone through her transformation!" Cyborg muttered.

"Transfor-who?" Speedy blinked under his mask.

"Alien puberty," Robin explained. "A few months ago, Starfire started undergoing dramatic, physical changes. The whole ordeal ended up with her hatching out of a…er…cocoon and developing the ability to shoot starbolt beams out of her eyes."

"She's been practicing it on and off since her transformation was complete," Cyborg added. "Or at least when we _thought_ it was complete."

"Huh….," Speedy remarked. "And here I was thinking up Autobots and Decepticons."

_"As long as the state of comatose hibernation is uninterrupted…_," the computer voice said through the communicator, "…_the Tamaranian will eventually wake up and resume normal biological functions. Such an unpredictable step in Tamaranian evolution forced the parental guardians of the offspring to keep the brood within their 'nest'—as you would—for a period of time much longer than other, celestial, bipedal, sentient species. Thus Tamaranian culture today is one shaped heavily around family, friendship, and trust."_

"Well, that explains a lot," Cyborg smirked.

"How long do these comatose episodes last?" Robin asked.

_"On average, as little as two days to as long as three weeks."_

"Oye….," Cyborg moaned. "Could have picked a better time, Star."

_"However, with modern Tamaranian medicine, the hibernation process is commonly limited to a few hours thanks to chemical intervention. The process—often utilized by common, household Tamaranian physicians—has been performed constantly over the last five centuries and is part of the traditional treatment of such states of puberty…"_

"Oh, I see," Cyborg nodded. "Like a pill."

Robin muted the transmission and looked over at the other two. "As much as I want Starfire to catch up on her beauty rest, I think it would be appropriate for us to rouse her as soon as possible. She'd appreciate it if we let her keep on track with the rest of us. And, quite frankly, we need her help in this situation with the weapons arsenal and this 'Dagger' character."

"Or maybe you just want her safe and sound…on her feet," Speedy smirked.

"So what if I do?"

Speedy shrugged.

Robin cleared his throat. He spun around and resumed communication with the artificial intelligence. "How can we go about acquiring the assistance of a Tamaranian doctor to….er….traditionally wake Starfire up?"

"Processing……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Groggily, the leader of the warehouse workers opened his green eyes. Rich carpet was passing under his feet. He realized he was being carried through the halls of a lush building.

Not just any building. _**The**_ building.

"No…N-No!!" He struggled and grunted, but the henchmen dragging him only tightened their grip. They said nothing.

They approached a pair of silver double doors. Two heavy bodyguards opened it up.

The man was practically shoved in and in front of a huge, oak desk overlooking a slate of clear glass. The rooftops of the City stretched below the window.

The sounds of machine guns cocking lit both of the man's ears.

He gulped and looked at the back of the large office chair.

A man's hand stuck out over the armrest, twirling a silver-plated dagger between his fingers like a jacob's ladder.

"When I grew up on the streets…," spoke an emotionless voice behind the chair, "…I learned what true respect was. I learned the pain of making errors. I learned that consequence was a thing to be feared…and thus a thing to be honored. Years and years I toiled and sweat to come to where I am now. The blood and bones of those I struggled with now lie behind me. I can still smell their gaping wounds in my sleep as they drown in the quagmire of the decrepit streets of postindustrial waste."

The chair swiveled around. A surprisingly young man of moderate build and height stared stoically at the warehouse worker behind dark brown eyes and under short black hair. He wore business casual. He twirled the dagger.

"After all the trouble I went through…to reach this height…and then hire a suburbs-born prince like you into my flock…why is it that you have not learned that same respect and—in turn—failed to pay it to me?"

"I-It's not my fault, s-sir," the man stuttered. "The clients we tried to get for you…they were either complete psychopaths or complete hogs! I would have run them off…but the Titans came!"

"And what did you do when the Titans came?" the man stared with cold, unfeeling eyes.

"They….th-they….I…"

"What. Did. You. Do. When. The. Titans. Came?"

The silver dagger twirled to a stop. Its cold, serrated point glistened in the red sunlight and made a prism on the worker's forehead.

The man sweated. "….I….I let loose the sentries."

"You let loose the sentries…."

"B-But I would have fallen into the hands of authorities had I done anything less, sir!!"

"You would have fallen into the hands of authorities either way…," the cold man said.

THWACK!!

He stabbed the knife into the tabletop and leaned forward with his unblinking eyes. "Because I hired an incompetent drug addict to handle the latest and most important supply of illegal arms my organization had the blessing to put its hands to. Because I let a fool try to organize the only piece of evidence linking me to our most important business partrner."

"But….but….but…."

The man stared.

The worker gulped.

The man looked up at his bodyguards. "Take him out of here. Drive him to the river. Kill him."

"NO!!!" the man struggled as the armed bodyguards grabbed his shoulders. "Please!! G-Give me another chance, Dagger! I swear! I-I'll make you happy!"

The man finally stood up, yanked his knife out of the desktop, and pointed it at the worker across the room. "You will either drown in the river or you will be stabbed to death in this very room. Make your choice. Now."

The man was shocked silent. He whimpered.

Dagger looked at his bodyguards…and nodded.

They carried the sobbing man away.

The doors were closed.

'Dagger' was alone.

He slumped down into his chair, still unblinking, and twirled his knife some more.

"You have too many junkies working for you, Dagger," came an eerie voice from the shadows. "It is most embarrassing."

Finally…the dark-haired man blinked. He sighed exasperatingly without so much as turning his head. "Come out of the shadows, Slade. Your hide-and-seek games do not work on me."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that…," said the masked villain as he emerged from the corner of the office room. He was flanked by two of his typical android guards. "If the Titans can sneak up on your staff…then so surely can I."

"The drug trafficking was a bad idea from the start…," Dagger mumbled. "From this day forward, Dragonflare belongs back in the hands of the Malaysians."

"What makes you so sure it isn't already too late for that?" Slade said slowly, staring at the man with his mask's one emblazoned eye. "Already the Titans and the police have in their hands the greatest chunk yet of the late Anderson's arsenal. The option of replicating the technology is growing increasingly hazier. While you sit in your chair and play with your knives, opportunity is slipping through our fingers."

"Unless….," Dagger said and swiveled over to face Slade. "…this is all somehow falling into your 'grand plan'….as things always seem to do."

"Perceptive….," Slade ever so slightly nodded with his hands behind his back. "That is why I trust you, Dagger. You know enough about me to be an enemy. And for that same reason, you are dangerously my ally."

"Tell me, Slade," Dagger leaned forward. "What truly inspired you to begin this partnership."

"Simple…," Slade spoke. "I need strings to pull at the Titans…and I'm running out of loose ends to taunt them with." He suddenly retracted his rod, spun the bludgeon beside him, and lopped off the head of one of his bodyguards.

CRACK!!!

BZZZZTT!!!

The head of the android flew and fell with a KERPLUNK on Dagger's desk, where it sparked, smoked, and went silent. Dagger stared at it, unphased.

"Simon Stone is no more…," Slade said. "As a result…my henchmen are no more. Unless of course, I acquire a replacement."

"You were wanting to replicate the sentries in the warehouse…," Dagger said.

"Elite….strong….four times as powerful as any one of my 'henchmen'…," Slade said. "They were Stone's latest model. And improvement vastly greater than the original. Thanks to Anderson's and Luthor's agreement, Stone was planning on processing a horde of them for my approval. But such an operation was cut short."

"Westhaven….," Dagger remarked.

"And then Anderson's unfortunate demise…," Slade added. "For once, I have a shortcoming in my supplies. Thus I must move onto bigger and better things."

"Such as…"

"The eradication of the Teen Titans."

"Tell me something less redundant," Dagger retorted.

"Oh, it is the most intriguing of schemes," Slade said. "But it is not like me to give away that which will work perfectly. We must hold true to the faith that the Titans will survive the next few days in time for me to exact my ideas."

"I'm afraid I don't quite get you."

Slade paced over to the window and gestured, "Out from the East, there comes a shadow. It shall consume the lives and symbols of justice in this city…one…by….one. All out of the motive of pure hate and vengeance." He looked over at Dagger through his mask. "The Titans are at the end of that list. It will be an exciting play to watch. Maybe it will even bring a smile to your stone face, Dagger."

"I don't smile when I'm amused," said the dark-haired man. "People die."

"Then you shall be very amused….," Slade nodded. "Very amused indeed…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes after returning to the Tower, I walked down to my room and put Myrkblade up on the hilt. I stretched and sighed.

I was thinking of Starfire.

I walked into the bathroom and froze.

On the mirror—lit by the lantern on the wall—was a pale white sheet of paper taped to the glass.

I picked it off and held it to my eyes with my shades off.

I squinted and read the letter:

_**Dear Noir,**_

_**Things are about to get very, very bloody.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**-the Messenger.**_

My heart froze. I took a deep breath and nearly jumped when there was a pounding at the door.

I half-blurred to it and opened it.

Cyborg stuck his head in. "Noir! Trouble! We gotta move!"

I mouthed: _'Starfire'?_

Cyborg shook his head. "No. She's okay, just sleeping. It's the City Court House. There's been a murder."


	39. Silence is Crimson part 1

**39. Silence is Crimson part 1**

An hour and a half earlier…

Inside the City Court House…

"Heading home so soon, Judge Carson?" a secretary spoke from a wooden desk.

A graying man smiled at her as he tugged along a suitcase and headed for the front atrium. "Theresa misses me these long nights," Carson said. "With this immigrant custody trial…I've been too preoccupied to even have dinner with her. Being as it is so close to our anniversary, I thought I might make an exception tonight."

"Ah, a break then, your honor?" the secretary smiled. "If I may be so bold, you need one."

"So does my wife," the judge winked. "Have my papers ready in the morning, Freeda. I don't want to think about them until then."

"Understood."

It was late in the evening. The sun had already gone down, and the long gothic windows stretching across the atrium like a cathedral cast dim streetlamp light onto the marble floor as the judge clip-clopped towards the exit in his dress shoes. His shufflings echoed throughout the dead interior. There was an eerie silence, save for the swish of a revolving door as he exited into the night air outside. It was strangely thin for a summer evening. Chilling in its own way.

Carson thought little of it. He ruffled his shoulders in his suit, walked towards the VIP lot, and straight to his car. A single streetlamp overshadowed his luxury vehicle. Every now and then, the old bulb blinked between white, yellow, amber, and a touch of red. The latter of which hues it seemed to linger on as the judge stood in front of his car door. There was absolute silence until his hand deafeningly shuffled into his right pocket and produced a clump of dangling keys. He fumbled for the right one to his car door with two fingers and took a deep breath.

_Theresa's eyes never lost their blue…_

There was a tiny whisper of wind that kicked at his graying eyebrows. Suddenly, the summer heat was cut by a touch of cold through his wrist—followed by a flash of silver that was there and was gone in an instant.

Judge Carson blinked. The cold wave in his arm ended, and it became intolerably hot.

Clink!!!

His keys struck the asphalt.

He looked down and realized why. His hand had been cut off.

"!!!" the judge gasped and looked at the red stub that was aimed at his car's door. It hung there—naked in the moonlight—and started to spray.

Blood came out like a fountain for a throbbing two and a half seconds—staining the aluminum body of the car from peach to red.

And _then_ the pain hit.

The suitcase fell.

"AAAUGH!!" Carson clutched his severed limb, twisted, and slammed hard against his splattered car as he writhed in pain. "UGHHH!!!! GOD!!!!" His teeth grit. His eyes watered. Blood spread down his arm and across his torso like crimson vomit.

He slumped down against the body of the car till his back was to the front left tire. He heaved. He exhaled forcibly: "Somebody!! HELP!!"

His watering eyes wandered down. A pool of thick crimson gathered beneath his body. A footprint appeared in the pond out of nowhere.

Carson's eyes widened.

A column of sparkles danced up from the imprint in the blood. Smoke and a spark or two danced off into the dark of night as, slowly, a black leg materialized. His eyes twitched upward and saw a black body. Hanging from the obsidian figure was a humongous sword. Frighteningly silver in contrast. And then there hovered two twinkling eyes in darkness.

The streetlamp blinked red.

"NOOOOOO!!!"

The figure drew the sword back and jabbed forward.

The last sensation to go through Carson's body was the shock of the exploding tire against his back…just milliseconds before he felt the metal that had skewered his body and then…

Nothing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sirens.

Screeching tires.

Spinning lights.

The chief squad car came to a stop.

Out from the passenger's side stood Commissioner Decker. He squinted at the gathering emergency vehicles and officers hustling about the taped-off scene in front of the Courthouse.

He sighed. "Gone are the days of coffee and donuts…"

He walked briskly towards the scene. A lieutenant rushed up to join his pace.

"Anything left of him?" Decker asked.

"And how. All over the place. A bloody mess. No pun intended."

"Serial killer? Assassin?"

"Too early to say. There's no known enemies in Carson's career. The only family he had was his wife at home."

"He's a judge. We should factor that in," Decker said. "What's the case he was overseeing?"

"Hernandez vs Montoya," the officer replied. "Custody battle."

"Hardly seems intense a situation enough for this type of murder" Carson said. "I'd like to see the body."

"Well, sir, we wish you more luck than we've had," the lieutenant said as they reached the tape. "I did say we had the remains of Judge Carson…..I didn't say we had any of it in one piece."

Carson ducked under the tape. He approached the car where photographs were being taken. He stared. He made a face.

"If you're going to ask….sir…..the answer is 'no'. Carson did not own a red luxury car."

"An obviously out-of-place choice for window tint…," Decker said. He swallowed something back down and looked a the lieutenant. "Any evidence left behind? Odd clues?"

"We're still working on that, sir," the officer replied. "Odd as it may sound, there's indeed a lot to _look at_ here."

"A job I don't mind passing to the underlings….," Decker said with a sigh, looking off towards the tall windows of the court house's front. "Mrs. Carson??"

"We're sending two men to the mansion right now, sir," the lieutenant said.

Decker nodded. "Very well. I want to speak with her personally as soon as possible. No doubt she will be…….distraught by all this. Regardless, I need to know as much raw information from her as I can possibly find. If she knew her husband best…she might know something about his fate that nobody else could have predicted." Decker sighed and managed another look at the 'car'. "I do not think we're dealing with a murder of your….average human nature."

The lieutenant nodded. "The Titans have already been summoned, just as you suggested."

"Any news on their proximity?"

The officer looked over Decker's shoulder and pointed. "I believe you have your news, sir."

Decker turned around.

The T-Car ambled up per directions by workers. Raven and Beast Boy flew down to a landing on the sidewalk. Finally, I blurred up from a side street and came to a stop as Cyborg, Robin, and Speedy got out of the car.

"And so it begins….," Decker mumbled and walked forward.

"Commissioner Decker," Robin gestured and stepped up. "We came as fast as we could."

"It makes very little difference with the promptness tonight…," Decker said. "The damage is far more than done."

"Sounds bad…," Speedy remarked.

"It is," Decker nodded. "But you wouldn't believe how bad unless you saw it for yourself." He made for the car but stopped halfway. He fought for words and eventually said to us, "I understand that you six are….superheroes. But many of you are still young. And the murder that's taken place here is….not pleasant."

"Nothing about murder is pleasant," Raven said bluntly.

"We're here for the City in its victories," Cyborg said.

"Let us be here for its defeats," Robin finished.

I nodded.

Decker breathed. "Very well." He motioned silently.

We followed along.

When we reached the site, there was a fair share of grimacing.

"Holy….holy….," Beast Boy blinked. "….er…h-holiness!"

"Is all that blood…..from a person?" Speedy remarked.

My eyes were wide and black under my shades.

"The honorable judge Carson," Decker sighed and lit a cigarette. "God rest his soul."

Robin stepped as close as he could to the gruesome scene without damaging the evidence. "You can't tell what did it! Gunfire….laceration…..?"

"How about an explosion?" Cyborg remarked.

Raven was deadpan.

Robin kept squatting around the soaked car. Studying it up close.

Beast Boy gulped and held a hand over his mouth.

I scratched my chin and stared from where I stood.

"If any of you heroes can toss me a bone here, I'd be most grateful," Carson mumbled.

"How long ago was he discovered…..l-like this?" Robin asked.

"About forty minutes…," Commissioner Decker said. "An hour and a half ago, he was last seen leaving the courtroom by his secretary. Around the time she had to go home, she drove through the parking lot and noticed his car still there. When she came close enough to see……well…….the call to 911 was most frantic indeed."

"I'd say…," Beast Boy urped.

Decker glared. "Are there any rogues…any criminals…any crimelords among your nemeses capable of committing such an atrocity?"

"Capable, yes," Robin said as he stood up. "Willing? No. Our City's roster of villains is chock full of the egotistical…the obsessive….and the foolish. What I'm seeing here is the work of pure madness and hatred. It's like old times."

"Gotham City has its fair share of horrors," Decker nodded. "I never thought I'd live to see the day Hell caught up with this Town."

"It has to be a newcomer…," Robin said.

"Not Slade?" Raven asked.

Robin turned and looked at her. "What purpose would this serve Slade? Even if it was him, it's not his style. There's nothing that outright taunts us…leads us to him. You know how he obsesses over us….over _me._ It's not Slade."

"But it could be someone working for him?" Decker asked.

"I can't tell for sure," Robin said. "Like I said. I don't even think Slade's a part of this. Just because he's the darkest member of our rogues doesn't mean that—"

"Say…," Beast Boy sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Speedy remarked.

"I swear…it smells like—"

"Blood," Raven glared. "Get used to it."

Beast Boy whimpered and took a step or two back.

"Whoever it is, he covered his tracks," Robin said. "Carson's body is so completely desecrated that there's no hint as to what caused him to be….everywhere."

"Not exactly!" Cyborg said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

The whole time the discussion went on, the android had been scanning the scene beyond the limits of normal human vision.

"There's a shoeprint here!" he pointed down.

"Where?" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I don't see anything!"

"Cuz it's below the upper layer of blood," Cyborg said. "There's an older layer at the very bottom—between the surface and the asphalt. It's like a cover of blood that dried out before the rest. And it left an imprint. Here, I'll highlight it for you."

He extended an arm and popped open a couple of panels. His other hand typed away at a keypad and a beam of light shot down and illuminated a section of dried blood in the pool through holograms. The other Titans and I—including Decker and the lieutenant—walked over and glanced over his shoulder.

A rough approximation of a shoeprint and its lines appeared before our eyes.

"So he did leave a clue!" Speedy said.

"Not something the police and I would have found," Decker said. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and looked up at Cyborg. "At least nowhere near as quickly."

Cyborg shook his head. "And by the time you could figure it out, the old blood and the fresh layers would have congealed together. Making the imprint impossible to find---no matter how faint."

"But the Titans _could_ analyze it fast enough," Robin said. "Meaning…"

"We were expected," Raven nodded. "This is a message after all."

"A sickening waste of life is what it is…," Decker grunted. "But if it's a message to you Titans as well…I implore you all to decipher it. And quickly."

I raised an eyebrow from under my shades and gestured at the commissioner.

Cyborg looked at me and then nodded at Decker. "Noir's right. There's something more to this than you're not telling us, is there?"

Decker breathed out smoke. He held a hand over to the lieutenant.

The officer handed him three files.

Decker shuffled through them and presented the bunch to Robin. "Three other murder cases. Throughout the course of the day."

Robin glanced through the files. "Connection?"

"Not to this….not yet," Decker said. "But I believe it will. We'll discover it soon." He pointed, "Today…a cop, a security guard, and an M.P. from the army base all died within a span of six hours. Each were murdered alone. Each were on their way home. And…."

"And???" Raven asked.

"Each was missing their hand. Their right hand."

I looked over at Robin.

Robin stared. "Curious…"

"Sir!" someone called out from the front of the car.

Decker glanced over. He walked briskly over as we followed.

"There's something inside the car….we have to get a better look."

Decker glanced at the blood on the windshield. He nodded at the worker. "Okay…"

The worker hesitantly leaned forward, wiped a gloved hand over the glass, and cleared a clean view in and onto the dashboard dimly lit by the crimson light.

"Gods…," Cyborg grunted.

"This is nuts…," Speedy added.

Beast Boy coughed and looked away.

I leaned forward and squinted through my shades.

There was a severed right hand resting between the dashboard and the steering wheel. Between the fingers was a set of keys.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Decker lit another cigarette. He took a puff and blew out through his lips.

"You know….those things are bad for you…," Robin said.

The two stood behind a police van at the very edge of the scene in the shadows. Flashing lights and busy workers drowned off in the distance.

"There are many things in this world that are bad for me…," Decker said. "I could be in worse situations."

"You are the morose type..," Robin said. "Not like Gordon."

"You're going to compare me to Gordon, eh?" Decker said with half a smirk. "You sure are being 'brought back' to Gotham, aren't you?"

Robin stared down at the asphalt.

Decker blew another cloud of smoke. "I knew this day would come. As soon as the Titans assigned themselves to this city…I knew the innocent days would end."

"Now you're sounding like a prophet of doom."

"Would you deny it?"

"I don't deny that a terrible atrocity has been committed," the Boy Wonder gestured, "At the same time, I'm not accepting some hideous fate. Yes…we're dealing with what may be a potential madman of the most violent proportions. For all I know, it may not be a man—or person at all. But if there's one thing that history's told me, it's that evilness does not go—"

"—unpunished?"

"_Without a trace…_," Robin said. "Evilness can be a silence. A silence that kills and wanders off under the shroud of secrecy. But something had to have been used to form that shroud to begin with. And that's where the search begins."

"We're not dealing with the usual, tongue-and-cheek villain here, Robin," Decker said. "This is a whole new ball game."

"And quite frankly, I'm older than I look," Robin replied. "I grew up with this sort of thing under my mentor. I'm ready to solve any mystery….no matter how bloody."

"And…," Decker relented with a smoky sigh. "You all are the only ones this city can depend on."

Robin managed to smirk. "_Now_ you are sounding like Gordon."

"Yes……yes, I suppose I am," Decker took a last puff and tossed the cigarette to the ground where he stepped on it. "That supposed to be a good luck charm?"

"If it makes you feel any better, yes," Robin said. "If your men are cooperating with the Titans as we speak, then Cyborg should have his sample of the shoeprinted-blood right now. We're gonna analyze the heck out of it. Maybe it'll help us find some sort of connection with the other three murders today. And where there's a connection…there's room for more clues."

"Think you'll do well short of a Titan?" Decker asked.

Robin lifted an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?"

"The alien girl…," Decker commented. "She was absent today."

"Secret business…," Robin remarked. "All I can tell you is that she's fine. She's just…..indisposed."

"Your face speaks otherwise," Decker said.

"……," the Boy Wonder was silent.

"Don't look so shocked, young detective," Decker remarked. "Even a low-grade idiot can see your concern for a fellow teammate. There's something wrong with her and it's hounding at your soul."

"So what if it was?"

Decker took a bold step forward and pointed into Robin's chest. "Don't. Let. It. Distract. You."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven, Speedy, Beast Boy, and I sat on the steps to the courthouse away from the flashing scene.

Speedy ran a hand through his short red hair, whistled, and smirked at the others. "You sure I didn't walk into Bloodhaven instead?"

"Hardly amusing…," Raven grunted. "We're in a serious situation here."

"Really…."

"Or in your vernacular…," Raven blinked. "Deep shit."

"Only in my vernacular."

"Yes, only in yours."

"Gotcha."

Beast Boy hugged his knees to his chest. "Holy…..holy…..holy…."

I placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Shellshocked?" Speedy asked with a raised eyebrow.

I nodded towards the changeling.

"Figures," the archer said. "Ever seen death before, kid?"

Beast Boy shook his head 'yes' without looking.

"That surprises me," Speedy spoke. "You strike me as the soft type."

"I'm only soft because of what I've seen…," Beast Boy said. "….and still see."

"Happens to the best and worst of us," Raven droned.

I smirked.

Cyborg walked up from the scene. "B.B."

The green changeling looked up. "Y-Yes?" he stuttered, hugging his knees.

"What was it you said earlier?" the android asked. "About what you smelled…."

"I…I-I only said I thought I smelled something burning…," he said.

"Why do you ask?" Raven inquired.

Cyborg scratched the human part of his chin. "The shoeprint I've been studying…," the android remarked. "I think I may be onto something…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Early the next morning…inside the Tower, Cyborg sat at the computer of the Main Room's computer screen. Robin and Speedy stood behind him. Beast Boy was in the kitchen unit. Raven sat with a mug of tea at the bar counter while I sat on the side, polishing Myrkblade.

"Here's the chemical analysis of the layers of dried and fresh blood that formed the shoeprint I discovered," Cyborg said as he typed furiously at the keyboard and brought up a few windows of schematics. "Notice the composition of the old blood contrasted with that of the new."

"Less oxygen in the dried cells…," Robin said. "What's it mean?"

"It means that the blood didn't dry up normally," Cyborg said. "In fact, whatever happened to the blood helped it to keep its more solid shape that allowed me to notice the shoeprint when we first scanned the scene."

"Like a molding?" Speedy asked. "What would have caused that?"

"Beast Boy said he smelled something burning…," Cyborg said.

"That's right! I did!" he called over from washing the dishes.

"At first, I thought it was just the smell of all the blood. Then I got to thinking: 'What would happen if blood was subjected to intense heat?' So I did a few calculations with my onboard circuitry and came up with a hypothetical scenario."

"Let's see it."

I looked up from my wooden sword as Cyborg initiated an animated diagram on the screen of a pool of blood being subjected to heat.

"If there was a jolt of intense heat…like, in the shape of the shoeprint itself……"

"The oxygen dries up," Robin finished.

"But why would the blood have molded around the shoe?" Speedy asked. "Don't things that heat up usually do the opposite of solidifying?"

"That's why I think the heat generated was an intensely short burst. The energy supplied was cut off as soon as it exploded forth through the blood cells. A circuit of energy was cut off before it could complete its natural cycle."

"A circuit?" Robin lifted an eyebrow.

"Electricity….," Raven said, her lips to a mug.

"A huge jolt of it too," Cyborg nodded.

"From someone's foot?!" Beast Boy remarked.

"From someone's boot," Cyborg corrected. "Not an average boot either."

"Something high-tech, no doubt," Robin said. "If this theory is true…"

"And it _is_ a wild theory…," Speedy crossed his arms.

"I know. I felt the same way," Cyborg said. "Then I looked at the images of the other three murders."

"Awwwww," Beast Boy whimpered. "Do we have to look at those again?"

"Turn away if you want to, B.B.," Cyborg said, already keystroking the windows open.

Beast Boy squinted into the background.

I smirked.

Cyborg brought the photos up. "Notice the bloodstains around the bodies."

"I see them," Robin nodded. "What now?"

"Look again when I invert the colors…"

He pressed a key.

The photos turned into negatives.

Raven turned around and squinted at the screen.

I leaned forward over my polishing.

"There're…..white spots," Speedy blinked beneath his masks. "One in each pool."

"In each photograph…," Robin added.

Raven said, "Right next to the severed hand, no doubt."

"There's a burnt shoeprint at each of these sites…," Cyborg said. "Unless there's some conspiracy by a bunch of murderers to make this look like a connection…then we're dealing with a criminal who has not just ended the lives of four city officials in one day…but he did it all within the span of ten hours and decided to play fingerpainting with the blood just to finally get our attention."

Silence.

I cleared my throat.

Cyborg looked at me.

I gestured.

Cyborg nodded. "Yup…and each hand severed is a right hand. Apparently done prior to death, judging by the condition of the sliced arteries."

"This is turning out to be an absolutely terrific week," Beast Boy said, nearly throwing up.

Robin thought of something…_someone_. He sighed. "Tell me about it." A pause. "God, I hate this."

"You're not alone," Cyborg sighed and leaned back. "What do we do?"

"If there's anything I've learned from psychotic serial killers…it's not to encourage them," Robin said with arms folded.

"Wouldn't there be damage done if we ignored this person entirely?" Raven asked. "I mean…you saw how far she or he went."

"I know…that's what's scaring me at the moment," Robin nodded. "For once…I can't predict what's going on. And I think that's exactly what this silent maniac wants from us."

"I wouldn't be so sure…," Speedy said.

We all looked at him.

"This creep couldn't possibly care about having our attention…," the archer said.

"Then what would he want?"

Speedy smirked. "Us."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day, inside Cyborg's laboratory, Starfire lay silently on a medical bed. Instruments blinked and beeped while she rested still. Breathing lightly through her nostrils. Her hair perfectly straight and beneath her fair head. Her green eyes shut.

When Robin was done staring at her comatose features, he took a sigh and knelt down besides the bed. His face was near her head. He could almost smell her.

Silence. And then…

"And to think the worse we ever get is nocturnal emissions…," he chuckled.

"…….," the Tamaranian slept.

"Gotta hand it to you, Star," Robin smirked. "You make sleeping on the job look so innocent."

A beat.

"I spoke with the C.S.A.I.T. Ya know, the satellite computer person thingy? We had to use your pod's transceiver, I hope you don't mind."

"….."

"He explained everything to us. The hormonal induced hypersleep thingy…god, it must be annoying to collapse out of nowhere and be unconscious for a week or two." A pause. "At least, I hope it's no longer than a week or two."

"……"

"The C.S.A.I.T. told us that it radioed your homeworld. Some sort of Tamaranian physician is supposed to be coming by. But there're many light years for him to travel, so it won't be until two or three days at least until he's here. He's supposed to help you wake up faster. Apparently it's customary on your planet to undergo this procedure. And….to be honest….I'll be relieved once he gets here."

"….."

"You really light up the place, Star. Especially when you're awake. Especially when you're smiling. Especially when you're kicking criminal butt or smiling when you find out your teammates are okay or when you're asking for the explanation of some earthling catch phrase and…..j-just everything."

"….."

Just then, Speedy walked into the laboratory. He saw Robin and silently came to a stop, leaning in the doorframe. He watched. And listened.

"And…..it's really nice….h-having you around, Star…," Robin said with an exhausted grin. "It's really nice having you as part of the team."

"….."

The Boy Wonder sighed and leaned his head against the side of the bed. "I…r-really miss you right now, Star. Especially with all this….murder going around. I almost feel like I'm back in Gotham again with this sort of stuff. And it's not necessarily because of the violence factor. Rather….I feel like I don't have a very dear friend to share my feelings with. Before I helped set up the Titans….I-I really needed that. I really did…."

"…."

"And now that you're slumbering away….for lord knows how long…..I'm missing out on it again…."

Speedy cleared his throat.

Robin jumped up, straightened his cape, and turned around. "Speedy. Greetings. How can I help you?"

"I didn't mean to interrupt your confessions," Speedy smirked.

"Confessions?" Robin lifted an eyebrow above his eyemask. "I was….um….merely testing her ability to….um….be coached through subliminal osmosis."

"Sure you were," Speedy smirked.

Robin glared. "I suppose I _do_ have better things to do…," he wandered for the door.

Speedy folded his arms. "She really cares for you. You do see that, of course, right?"

Robin froze. He turned around. "What are you getting at?"

"Don't play dumb, detective!" Speedy cackled. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"And if I do…," Robin said, "…and kick my foot up your ass because I know what you're talking about….would you be grateful?"

"As long as it was you and not Beast Boy."

"Allrighty then," Robin said. He looked towards Starfire. He sighed. "Ya know, Speedy, you don't have to be here anymore."

"Still trying to get rid of me?" the archer smiled. "I thought we resolved that during the Field Day."

"I'm serious, I'm worried about this situation," Robin spoke. "You have no obligation to the Titans that would make you stay here and possibly get your neck in trouble."

"Hey…trouble's part of the business!" Speedy exclaimed. He pointed, "I'm shocked to hear this coming from the cliché' speaker of the old 'stay here because we need your special talent in this time of dire need' fluff."

"Nobody's saying it…but…," Robin exhaled, "…all the Titans are worried. This is shaking them up because they haven't seen this sort of stuff before. Raven and I…we're not so phased. But Noir, Beast Boy, and Cyborg….I'm concerned for them."

"And for me too?" Speedy asked. "That's why you want me to pack up and go, right?"

"I—"

"I'm here because I want to see this whole mess resolved," Speedy spoke. "I don't just run away from a mystery that begs to be explored. After all, you—of all people—should know that it's my distinct belief that winning is all that matters….especially when it comes to friends."

Robin smiled. "So we're your friends now."

"Always have been," Speedy winked under his mask. "Even if your ego was too blind to notice that."

"Yeah….sorry about that."

"I know you are."

Robin stuck his tongue out. "Did you come here to give me some motivational speech?"

"Nope," Speedy shook his head. "I came here to tell you that there's been a possible development in the weapons trafficking."

"……," Robin stared.

"Ya know!" Speedy gestured. "Anderson's arsenal?!"

"Oh…..yeah….," Robin rubbed his temples. "I kinda sorta forgot about that ever-important situation."

"Fancy that."

"Let's go hear it…," Robin said.

"Gladly."

As they made their way towards the elevator, Robin took one last forlorn glance at the slumbering Tamaranian.

He held his breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven pointed to a diagram on the computer. "By now…we've located twenty-two percent of Simon Stone's products for Anderson. The sting at the warehouse worked greatly to our advantage. There were many units found, and at least two new categories of weaponry we haven't seen before. They even had the model numbers and everything."

Robin, Speedy, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were watching and listening to her.

"Lemme guess….the robots fit in some how?"

"Stone's work, no doubt," Raven nodded. "They had model numbers on them. The structural design is very similar to that of the model used for Metallo's design. Only much cheaper."

"Many of them could be made easily, right?" Beast Boy suggested.

"In theory. But I think those were the only three," Raven said. "We got our hands—or fists on these things in the nick of time. Had we been a few days later, the latest and greatest underground crime syndicate would have acquired it and used the prototypes to mass produce a whole gallery of android thugs to use against us and the local law enforcement."

"It may be my uncle's engineering…," Cyborg folded his titanium arms, "…but it's Anderson's dirty sales pitching."

"You know….those robots looked strangely familiar…," Robin said.

"They should," Raven said. "They have at least two dozen identical mechanical similarities with a type of robot we've fought earlier."

She typed away at the keyboard. A picture of a black and brown, reflective android henchman appeared.

Robin stood out of his seat and clenched his fists. "Slade…"

I looked at him.

"No way!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "You mean this whole crazy Anderson/Stone/Dragonflare/Weapon Arsenal thing has some connection to Slade too?!?!"

"And 'Dagger'!" Speedy smirked. "Don't forget to toss in that pretty little word."

"Oye….," Cyborg covered his face with his palm.

"There's nothing to make us believe Slade had a hand in this," Raven said. "Though it's very much possible, it's also likely that the basic components of the androids we ran into were either coincidentally identical to or stolen from the design of Slade's mechanical minions."

"Even if Anderson was pulling his strings….," Cyborg said, "…Simon would never plagiarize. If his handiwork looks like Slade's robots, then more than likely he made Slade's men too."

"Are you saying….," Robin said, "…you think Anderson made Stone engineer for Slade too?"

Cyborg glanced at Robin with his human eye. "Would you hold it against Anderson?"

"Man….," Beast Boy exclaimed. "It all comes full circle."

"How would this 'Dagger' fit into things?" Robin asked.

"'Dagger' is a word," Raven said. "My best theory is that 'Dagger' is a middleman."

"The meat between the bread," Speedy smirked.

Beast Boy winced.

"Stone made the weapons…," Robin spoke, "…Anderson provided the product…..Dagger distributed the product….and Slade……….?"

"We may be knee deep in something brand new happening here…," Cyborg said.

Raven raised an eyebrow, "Or in Speedy's vernacular---"

Robin cleared his throat. "You said there was….another category?"

"Yeah…what else beside the androids did they find at the warehouse?" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Well, they didn't find the other category," Raven said. "But they know it exists. It's like a ghost."

"How so?"

"Remember the data we found in Anderson's yacht?" Raven said. "The very same data we've been basing this whole search on?"

"Yeah."

"There're similar documents at the warehouse," she explained. "Identical in style and ambiguity to Anderson's own copies. Among the arsenal distributed to the location, there was one category that consisted of two units only. Whatever this technology is, the two units were sold barely before we got there."

"Do we know to who?"

"Yes."

"Great!" Robin jerked his hand and smiled. "An end to search!"

"Evidence points to a wealthy nightclub in the Southeast of Town called the Crystal Palace," Raven said. "If we find the proprietors, we might find the answers. And then…"

"We might find where the two units went," Robin said. "And in turn….more answers concerning this conspiracy."

"Sounds good to me!" Beast Boy shrugged.

"I suggest we commence a search…..even an interrogation," Robin said. "Let's pay a special trip to the Crystal Palace. And screw the age limit!"

"Aren't we forgetting something?" Cyborg remarked. "There's a bloody murderer on the loose."

Robin nodded. "We should focus on that foremost," he said. "But at the same time, I can't risk losing any momentum in hunting down these sold weapon units."

"Split up?" Beast Boy suggested.

"I would like to investigate the nightclub…," Raven said. "I've been studying the findings at the warehouse closely. I have a few suspicions I want to sort out. And there's no better way than if I go seek them out myself."

"Understood," Robin nodded. "The murder case is important….so we'll need a lot of Titans on it. But at the same time, I don't want you to go alone." A pause. "Take Noir with you."

I looked up.

"I think the two of you will be a sufficient force to be reckoned with," he said. "Speedy, Cyborg, Beast Boy….I suggest you guys come with me."

"Where're we going?" the changeling asked.

"A couple of places," the Boy Wonder said. "First off….the Bay Side Mall."

"Where the security guard was murdered…," Speedy said.

"We know that the manner in which the murders were committed were all similar," Robin spoke. "But what we don't know is how the scenes of the crime were all similar. I want to go take a personal look and judge for myself. We might find another pattern…and something we can prevent."

"Allrighty," Speedy said. "I'll take my boat."

"And I'll take my car," Cyborg smirked.

"And I'll take Noir," Raven droned and tugged on my arm. "Come on. We've got a party to crash."

I smirked, saluted at the rest, and followed her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the City's Prison, Chief Warden Georgeton sighed. Ever since the Titans' less-than-flattering battle with Slug and Reload at the facility, people had been working around the clock to reconstruct the damage that had been done. Cranes, earth movers, and various materials lined up outside the smashed walls where the two cybernetic villains had forced their way out. Inside the prison—within the West Wing—extensive repairs were being made to the basement levels, sewage pipes and—most importantly—the inmate quarters. It wasn't the first time the prison's interior had to be refitted due to a superheroic battle that took place within. Everything was becoming far too familiar and annoying to the stressed Warden. He had to wonder if the Titans were for much good other than demolition. Twice they had visited the facility he overlook. And on both occasions, their battles had been losses.

Georgeton shuffled through the construction site as the workers started to head on home for the evening. The sunset fell slow, and red. Almost a crimson. It glittered on Georgeton's pale skin as he shuffled off towards the main structure, walked through a gate and entered the guards' section of the prison through a side door.

He walked up a set of stairs and into an office. A subordinate warden was typing away at the computer.

"Here late, Jefferson?" Georgeton remarked.

"I am if you are, sir," the assistant replied. "Gotta get this prison back into ship shape." A pause. "Lord knows it's dead quiet in here ever since we relocated the prisoners out of the West Wing."

"Can't have any escaping and posing as construction workers…," Georgeton said as he visited the water cooler and poured himself a sip. "I rather like the silence we've been awarded with, atually."

"Never would have guessed, sir."

Georgeton smirked.

"Read the papers today, by chance?"

"Yup….scary shit," Georgeton said, glancing over a front page on a local desktop. "Assassin….serial killer….psychotic whatever. Doesn't it creep you out how he takes the hand off first and then kills his victims?"

"All speculatory, sir," Jefferson uttered, typing at his computer. "The details are hazy. I actually talked with Commissioner Decker today after I read it. He said the Titans were on the case as much as his men were."

Georgeton raised an eyebrow. "Decker called the prison today?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you didn't tell me?!?!"

"It was during your lunchbreak," Jefferson smirked while typing.

"Heheheheh…good boy," Georgeton sipped from his paper cup and looked back down at the headlines. "It frightens me to think what new sorts of criminal psychopaths were's gonna be shutting away into these cells once the prison is back to order."

Silence.

Jefferson's typing had stopped.

"Jefferson??" Georgeton said.

Silence.

He looked up.

The computer screen glared into emptiness.

The assistant warden was gone.

Georgeton raised an eyebrow. He looked around. "Jefferson??"

Silence.

"Where are you?"

Silence.

Georgeton paused. He slowly shuffled to the computer station.

Nothing.

"Rude…," he uttered. He threw his cup into a nearby bin, sighed, and headed towards the local hallway.

He opened a creaking metal door that screamed into the quietness of the West Wing.

He walked down a metal catwalk over the hall that—normally—would have been populated by hundreds of grunting, fighting, shouting, howling prisoners. But at that moment—with the relocation in effect—there wasn't a single soul in the metal beast of the prison. It was hauntingly quiet.

Dead silent.

Georgeton's feet clanked across the platform. He walked slowly. His hands in his pockets.

Halfway down the catwalk, he stopped.

He looked behind him.

Silence.

"Aren't there guards assigned to this post at this hour?" he spoke aloud to himself.

Even though the prisoners weren't there….he hadn't ordered for the guards not to be there.

Georgeton walked briskly down the rest of the catwalk—his feet clanking. He turned into a hallway and opened the door to a set of offices.

He rushed in, expecting to see a flurry of guards taking some sort of unorthodox break.

But there was no one. Not even the mandatory graveyard shift.

Empty.

Silent.

Georgeton's eyes squinted. He called in: "Hello??" A pause. "Henry?? Rodriguez??" A pause. "Anyone??"

His voice echoed against the flimsy walls and cubicles.

Silence.

Georgeton closed the door.

He was out in the hallway again.

His hand rested on the doorknob as he stared into nothingness.

In a flash, he spun and turned around him.

Nothing.

Silence.

His hair stood on end.

It felt oddly colder.

He swallowed and walked forward…unsettled by the sound of his clanking shoes against the frigid, tile floor.

A door at the end of the hallway appeared before him. The communications room.

He extended his hand out.

The door came to him.

He opened it.

He looked inside---and froze.

There the guards were. But it would serve them little justice to refer to them in the plural since. There the _thing_ was….and the _thing_ was a pile of twisted, bloody bodies all congealed together in a flurry of limbs like a human ball of yarn. But something was dripping from their wet, dripping mass of red. Right hands. Georgeton only had to look a few feet to the left to see a second ball of yarn; full of fingers.

CLANK!!!

Georgeton's twitching eyes jerked up.

There was Jefferson. His mouth hung open. His eyes bulged. He was floating in mid air and being slammed up against a glass window overlooking the prison cells. Blood trickled out of his 'levitating' body and shot diagonally downwards to the tile floor. The trickling blood was suddenly hidden when electrical sparks danced in mid air and a silver broadsword temporarily phased into visual existence and disappeared. There was a body there….a huge and hulking body in black. It blinked in and out of Georgeton's eyes. Holding Jefferson up.

The silver sword flickered again. There was an electronic growl…and suddenly Jefferson's body exploded down the middle with a flash of ivory.

SPLORTCH!!!

Blood shot out everywhere like a crimson grenade. It doused the mid-air, where a human figure appeared in scarlet. The scarlet pool of blood turned its 'head' at Georgeton and the whole body marched—flicerking—towards him.

Georgeton let out a silent scream, slammed the door closed, and backed up in the hallway—panting.

SLICE!!!

A silver sword jumped through the middle of the metal frame.

Georgeton spun around and pounded down the hallway on numb feet. There was absolute silence behind him. Regardless, he looked back and gasped at the sight of the hobbling shadow of red blood coming at him.

He turned around the corner and ran the length of the catwalk. His stepped too far to the right, struck a bar of the railing, and tripped him. He fell hard to the metal surface, breathlessly climbed back to his feet, and scampered forward like a poorly weighted missile.

He burst through the door to his office, looked hurriedly left and right, and found the first door appealing.

He ran—panting—to frame. He opened the door, swung his body through, and stood inside…slamming the door behind him.

WHAM!!!

The restroom.

Georgeton locked himself in and leaned his right hand on the doorknob as his whole body heaved in his lungs' effort to regain oxygen. He sweated profusely, and shook the droplets from his bangs.

_**THWACK!!!!**_

Suddenly, his right hand was gone…along with the whole doorknob.

"AAAAAAUGH!!" the chief warden clutched his limb to himself. His body spun, knocking the orange lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The room danced between amber and crimson as he slumped down the doorframe, looked up, and saw floating bloodstains in the shape of a human head glare down at him.

An 'eyelash' winked. And a solid sheet of silver sailed down over the man's head.

For a split second, Georgeton was graced with the odd sensation of extra peripheral vision when his face split in half and parted his eyes.

Then the circuits snapped.


	40. Silence is Crimson part 2

**40. Silence is Crimson part 2**

"Decker!" exclaimed the lieutenant, his head ducking through the commissioner's office door.

Decker looked up from his desk. He saw the look of urgency on the man's face and stood up immediately.

"There's been another!"

"Another what?" Decker asked.

"What do you think?"

"Damn….," Decker marched over and followed his subordinate through the busied interior of the City's Police Department. Workers and officers alike were busy answering phone calls and running reports. They were all in a flurry on that day of days.

"Where at?"

"The prison."

"Aren't they in the middle of construction?"

"Yes. In fact, there's been an incident in the West Wing of the facility…where the prisoners had been removed due to relocation."

"Any other details?"

"No, sir. Not even casualties. There's a list of missing individuals at present. All we know is that there's been a few screams…and the person who called in—"

"Yes?"

The two reached a communications station. The lieutenant turned around and looked at the Commissioner. "Well…he was interrupted on his end in mid call. Violently."

Decker took a deep breath. "Anyone of major importance on that list?"

"Well….the Chief Warden for one."

"Georgeton?"

"Yup."

"Crud…."

The lieutenant spoke to the person at the station. "How many units do we have near the West End of Town?"

"Only one or two in the near vicinity."

"Should we do normal procedures, sir?"

Commissioner Decker looked far out the window on the other side of the seven story floor. He took a breath. "Yes….but something tells me they won't get there fast enough."

"Sir??"

"Put a signal through to the Titans."

"Yes, sir!"

"The rawer the suspect…the better!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car cruised towards the Bayside Shopping Center as a leisurely speed.

"Hey….got any CDs to play?" Beast Boy said from the backseat.

Cyborg slowly shook his head. "Nah….not now, man."

"Sheesh….just try to liven things up a little!"

"Yeah….how about we drop you off at Chuck. E. Cheese's?"

"Hardy har har."

"I knew you'd laugh…"

In the front passenger's seat, Robin popped open his communicator with a Star Trek sound and radioed in Speedy. "Hey there, sailor. How's it going?"

"_Don't call me that."_

"Why not?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Speedy's speedboat, the red-haired archer gripped hard to his controls and zoomed along the waters of the Bay towards the Southeast coast.

"It just sounds wyrd, is all."

_"Like how wyrd?"_

"What difference does it make, now—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"---are we gonna inspect a murder scene or not?"

Robin smirked. "You sound like me on a bad day."

"Isn't this a bad day, though?"

"Only if we make it one."

Beast Boy crossed his arms in the back seat. "At least he's allowed to be in good spirits."

"In spite of the circumstances, I don't see why not," Robin said as he glanced to the back of the T-Car. "Raven's done us all a good job. I'm confident she and Noir will come up with something significant in the weapons arsenal case."

"And what about us?" Beast Boy muttered.

Robin sighed. "Let's put that in the hands of whatever god spins the globe."

Cyborg grunted.

There was suddenly a beeping signal on the dashboard.

Robin spun and looked. He raised an eyebrow. He leaned forward and popped open a computer console. He read the information being displayed on the tiny monitor and clenched his fists.

"Turn around. Take us to the prison. Now!"

"What?!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Why?!"

"Just do it!!"

"Hang on!!!"

SCREEEEEEECH!!!!

Beast Boy let out a cry as the T-Car swerved violently into opposing traffic, spun around, and then zoomed off towards the West part of Town at blinding speed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy glanced at a lit-up map on a monitor inside his boat. A blinking light on the street layout showed the T-Car turning around and going in the opposite direction.

"Say…what's up with you guys?"

_"Head for the prison!"_

"On water?! How'm I supposed to get there?!"

"_Take the aqueducts or something. Whatever it takes! We're going there…now!"_

"Why? What'll we find?"

_"Quite possibly…the assassin. If anything, fresh blood."_

Speedy grit his teeth. "One Hell of a party….," he mumbled. He pulled hard at the controls.

Water sprayed high into the air as the boat angled around, picked up speed, and hopped waves Westward.

Both vehicles made like giant bullets towards the bloody destination.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven and I stepped up to the entrance of the Crystal Palace. The bright lights and neon signs of the nightclub's front welcomed wealthily dressed patrons as they laughed and marched their ways out of limousines and in through the revolving doors.

"And to think….every one of those diamond studded aristocrats are tongue-and-cheek allies to the worst crooks in town…," Raven muttered as she glanced at me under the neon glow. "Just by coming here, they show their true, slimy selves. While we walk in, Noir, remember that you and I are not of this crowd."

I nodded.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "I'm talking to the wrong person, aren't I?"

I smirked and shrugged.

"Whatever," she droned. "Let's go in….nice and quiet."

I nodded.

We walked forward.

"And then I sniffed the stuff and liked it!!" a woman with a mink coat chuckled gaily in her date's arms as she conversed with the bouncer. "I tell you what, I've never felt so high in my lif—oh…..erm…," she glanced at us two heroes and hurriedly ushered her partner in through the revolving doors.

The bouncer stepped up and folded his arms. "I'm sorry. But you two are too young to enter this plac---"

Raven encased his torso in a black sphere, shoved him twenty feet through telekinesis, and slammed him cold against a neon light.

SMASH!!!

"Ughhhh," the man went unconscious.

I gulped.

"Thanks for not making any noise," she smirked at me.

I smiled as we walked in.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Crystal Palace was a glittering establishment of sin and sinners. There wasn't a square foot of the place's lavish interior that didn't have a gambling table, a drug cartel, a scantily clad waitress, a homicidal flank of bodyguards, a mobster, or highly paid courtesans haloing one lucky, snazzily dressed criminal or another.

At the far end was a stage where showgirls made their raunchy appearances, and down the center stretched a highly popular string of roulette tables and slot machines.

A band near the entrance played a classic symphony of jazz music that gave the place a retro feel—and separated it in the eyes of the affluently evil from that of the common, underground scum club.

Raven glared at the entire scene through firm, blue eyes.

I readjusted my shades, took a deep breath, and looked towards her for the next course of action.

"This place…..," she blinked, "…..smells bad."

I raised an eyebrow.

She snapped out of it and looked at me. "Believe me…I want to get this over with as much as you do. We go in. We find out who owns the place. We question them."

I cocked my head to the side curiously.

"Allright, I question them," Raven said. "You just….be badass with that sword of yours and things will be taken care of….as usual."

I smirked.

She sighed and stepped slowly forward. She leaned against the railing of the atrium's platform and looked over the crowd. "Now….somebody here owns the Crystal Palace. And that somebody should be buddy-buddy with another somebody who visited the warehouse we ambushed. That very somebody bought questionable technology from the green-eyed junkies who ran the place. We get to the bottom of this hunt….we get to learn more about the distributed arsenal of Anderson's weaponry. We learn more about the arsenal, then Robin gets happy. When Robin gets happy, we go on less missions. When we go on less missions, I have more time to sit in perfect quiet and _read_. Do you understand?"

I nodded furiously.

"Kay….," Raven droned and looked off at the crowd. "Now who…..who is it…..who….is…..it….."

Her eyes scanned the faces of mobsters in suits, women in glittering dresses, women barely wearing dresses, and the occasional thug or two….or three….

"Is it the one with the most money?"

She glanced at a gambling table where a huddle of rich cartels were playing cards.

"The most drugs?"

An exchange seemed to be going on at a table to the far left.

"Or the most things at stake….?"

At a roulette table, a bunch of people cheered and a bunch of people pulled at their hair simultaneously.

I tapped Raven's shoulder.

She looked at me. "What?"

I gestured.

"……," she stared.

I simulated 'curves' with my hands.

She raised an eyebrow.

I rolled my black eyes under my shades. I did a wolf whistle.

Raven frowned. "What….are you babbling about?"

I smacked my forehead. I clutched her cranium, turned it, and pointed towards a booth on the far left of the establishment.

A red-haired, silkily dressed man in his twenties sat pompously in the middle of a seat at a table. He was surrounded by a dozen—count 'em—women of all various shapes, sizes, ethnic groups….and _ages_. He said something with a sly look on his face and all the prettily attired women laughed in artificial cadence.

"Or….it's the person with the most women hanging off him…," Raven said and started to march over in that direction. "Thanks, Noir."

I shrugged.

Don't mention it.

I followed her.

We cut a slow path through the villainy. Some thugs scowled murderously at us. Others saw us, gasped, and ran-panicked-towards the door. As we drew closer to the man in question, we all heard his voice….and regretted it.

"And so I said…'Momma! You better not be catching me with my pants off again or else someone's bacon will be frying and it won't be mine'!"

The girls all around him laughed and giggled and cooed 'he's so funny!' and other stereotypical suck-up things of that nature. By the time the two of us stepped up, the women had gasped into silence and only he was the one left laughing.

Even he didn't like the sound of his voice.

He snapped out of it, looked at everyone, and found us. He blinked.

"Well now….this is a change. Are you both girls too? Or is the one with the sword taking testosterone pills?"

I frowned and took a step forward.

Raven held me back with a hand.

"Do you know the owner of this place?"

The man smirked. He rested his silkily sleeved hands behind his head and leaned back. "You're talking to him."

"…..," Raven stared. "That was quick. You don't seem scared to admit the truth…considering you know who you're talking to."

"I know very well who I'm talking to," he leaned forward, smirking cockily. "And I frankly don't care what you do about it. The rich earnings of this place is so extreme, no matter what you'd slam against me—that which you could _prove_—the fortune alone is enough to bail me out each and every time. The only alternative you and your stupid Titan friends have is to beat up every single living body that walks through this place to have some fun."

Raven gritted her teeth and maintained her composure. "Don't….tempt….me…."

"I don't think the issue here is what I'm willing to say…," he said. "….but what you're willing to know."

"Where were you three nights ago?" Raven asked.

"Right here," the owner said. He smiled brightly, his teeth showing, as he snaked an arm or two around two lady friends. "…I was having fun…with birds of a feather."

The girls giggled and cooed for him.

I tried to hold my lunch.

"Between humping poultry…," Raven said, "…who did you talk to?"

The man frowned. He shook off the girls and leaned forward again. "Even if I was talking to anyone you'd like to know about….what makes me think I'd tell you?"

During the conversation, something stabbed my sensitive black eyes from under the shades. Something red. I looked around curiously at the surroundings directly near us.

"How does having your stomach turned to black coal sound?" Raven said.

"Ooooh…harsh….I like a girl with a rough mouth."

"You have no idea what you're dealing with, fool," Raven said, fists clenching. "When a Titan makes a demand from a cheep crook-hugger like yourself…your only option is to comply."

"Is that a threat?" the man smiled.

Again. A red stab. I jumped and looked around frantically. Something was glinting off the metal rims of the booth and table between us.

"It is what you make out of it."

The man leaned forward. "Tell me…Miss Gothika….how can you say threatening things without a head?"

I gasped. I saw it. A red dot on the back of Raven's hood.

I jumped and literally plowed into her from behind.

PIFFT!!!

A silencer half-muted a gun from the far side of the room.

A bullet sailed hotly through the air. It burned a path downwards where Raven's head would have been. Instead of making contact, it soared down and exploded in the seat cushion of the booth barely an inch between the owner's legs.

"EEEK!!" the man jumped.

The girls screamed and ran away.

PIFFT!! PIFFT!! PIFFT!!

I held Raven down. Her eyes glowed and she snaked out a meditative set of fingers.

The chair broke off its hinges, bathed itself in obsidian energy, and floated between us and the rest of the Crystal Palace. It acted as a shield and shattered each incoming bullet like it was glass.

SMASH!! CLINK!! POW!!

Someone cursed loudly from the distant side of the nightclub, followed by another—PIFFT!! PIFFT!! PIFFT!!

Raven gritted her teeth and struggled to hold the table up against the hail of bullets.

By now, everyone was clearing madly out from the nightclub. Panicked cries lit the air as every gambler, thug, and stripper thought of nothing but the essence of life itself and made for the exit.

Pretty soon, just the two of us were stuck with the club's owner and even he tried to escape.

Raven extended a second hand out and stopped the man by his feet with black energy. "No, you don't!! This gunman….he's a friend of yours, is he?!"

"I don't care! Let me go!!"

PIFFT!!

PING!

The man flinched.

"Stop hiding, you cowards!!" a voice said. There was a reloading sound. Then another PIFFT!! PING!! "Some heroes you are! How'd you like it if we duked it out like this in your place, huh?! Believe me! We thought of it plenty of times!"

"And why haven't you paid us a visit yourselves?" Raven mused. "Cowards?!"

"Rrrrrgh!!" -reload- PIFFT!!

POW!!

Raven deflected with the table.

I looked emphatically at her.

"Can you see him?" she whispered under her telekinetic strain.

I raised a finger, then proceeded to covertly peer around the black, floating table in order to spot the sniper.

My black eyes scanned the empty nightclub through my shades.

Nothing….nothing….nothing….flash of red.

"!!!!"

I ducked.

PIFFT!!!

PING!!

A bullet ricocheted off the booth where my head had been.

Raven flinched. "See anything?"

I took a deep breath. I raised a finger. I tried again.

I clenched the floor with my fingers.

Smoke warbled out of my limbs.

I flinched.

I teleported. Glanced. Teleported. Glanced. Teleported. Glanced. Teleported. Glanced. And returned.

PIFFT!!! PIFFT!!! PIFFT!! PIFFT!! PIFFT!!

The sniper tried in vain to shoot my porting figure.

I slumped down besides Raven, panting.

She looked at me curiously with her glowing eyes.

I gestured a palm down my face.

She raised an eyebrow.

I mouthed '_invisible'_.

She read it. "Really?" she whispered. She glanced through the table. "I wonder how----" She paused. Her face turned firm…as if she figured something out.

I was immensely curious.

"I think I have things….partially in perspective," she said. "Noir….," she looked at me. "Can you see his laser sight?"

PIFFT!!

The owner flinched.

I nodded to her.

"Will you people DIE already?!" the voice echoed out, reloaded, and fired again.

PIFFT!!

PING!!

"He may be 'invisible'…," Raven said, "…but he won't shut up. And as much as I hate it, that works in our favor. Use your stealth. Find his laser guide…then find him. I will….distract him for you."

I nodded. I took a deep breath. I summoned up a wave of smoke energy and blended in with the lights and colors of the room. I cautiously snaked out—invisible—and sought cover in another part of the nightclub.

In the meantime, Raven made the table dance in mid air.

"What's wrong, big boy?? Can't shoot your way through my powers?!"

PIFFFT!!

"Show yourself!!" the voice cackled.

"I'd much rather show someone else…," Raven said.

The owner suddenly gasped as black energy lifted him up and into open view.

Insanely, the sniper fired at him….red laser streaking and shaking.

PIFFT!! PIFFT!! PIFFT!!

Raven expertly dangled the man up, down, and side-to-side in the air just swiftly enough to avoid the hot, streaking bullets.

"AACK!! EEEK!! AIEEE!" the man winced and wetted himself.

"Son of a---," the sniper's laser sight paused for a moment. "Sorry, John!"

"You moron!!" the floating owner grumbled. "Shoot them!! Not me!!"

I stared at the laser sight and crept—cloaked—to the far side of the room from where it emanated.

"And be careful!" the owner gasped. "One of them is in some sort of stealth mod—"

WHUMP!!!

Raven threw him hard against a pillar, knocking him out as he dangled in mid-air.

"Your friends are nerds…," Raven said.

"Shut up! Dang it…shut up!!" the sniper took aim. PIFFTT!! The table shattered from the next bullet. "Y-Y-You punks are too…too….."

"Take your time…," Raven droned, "…search your extensive memory banks of third grade education."

"…too smart!!" the red light shook. "I'm gonna waste your brains good! Then we'll see who's so smug!!"

"You seem to have many issues," Raven said from behind the table. "Let's talk about your father. Lord knows mine did wonders to me."

"I don't need you giving me a psyscho….psychi….psyc…..I don't need you messing with my head!!"

"What's there to mess with, exactly?"

"SHUT UP!!!"

I planted my back against a nearby wall, taking a deep breath. The voice was right above me. I sensed the balcony above me…on the second floor. I looked flatly to my left. I saw a flight of stairs. I dashed towards it.

PIFFT!!!

PANG!!

The tabled shattered some more. Raven had very little of a shield left.

Nevertheless, she gritted her teeth and uttered: "Tell me….did you get that sniper rifle from the same place that helped you do what you're doing now??"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!!"

PIFFT!! PIFFT!!

"Sure you do, Mister Ghost," Raven said. "I might say….you're looking rather transparent today."

I didn't know what made me grimace more, the closer and closer sounds of the sniper's silencer or Raven attempting to make a pun. I snaked my way around the second floor's layout of seats and stared at the balcony. I saw nothing. And yet, I saw a something in the nothing. It was like a translucent cloud was perched before me. Making the air murk separately from the rest. What caught my eye more was the sniper rifle resting and pivoting magically by itself on the edge of the railing and aiming down towards Raven's end.

"That's it…when I kill you…I'm cutting your tongue out and feeding it to my dogs!!" the 'cloud' shook with the voice.

_That's him…_

I reached back to the hilt of Myrkblade.

PIFFFT!!!

The table started to fall apart in mid-air.

Raven's face stressed as she held the last splinters together. "You…talk….too….much…."

"The feeling's mutual…," the invisible sniper said, reloading….and taking aim.

I threw off the cloak of murk. I ran forward, unsheathed myrkblade, spun it, took a breath, and slashed downward.

CRACK!!!

The barrel of the sniper rifle was severed.

"WHOAH!!!" the cloud shook.

I immediately kicked the translucent blob.

WHUMP!!!

"AAAAAH!!" a voice invisibly teetered over and sailed to the ground below. I glanced down over the balcony and watched as a roulette table directly beneath me shattered on its own. Then a human-shape cloud blinked in and out of existence, moaning, as sparks danced out like a short-circuiting machine.

I raised an eyebrow.

Raven suddenly floated in and extended her fingers.

Two ends of the cloud turned dark. Suddenly, the figure of a scrawny man appeared—splain all over the smashed roulette table. Two thick, black gloves were floating in mid air. Supposedly the source of his invisibility.

"My…what nice mittens…," Raven droaned.

I jumped off the balcony and landed on a cushioning fountain of murk. I grabbed the man by the shirt, hoisted him up, and slammed him hard up against a pillar.

"OOF!" he grunted.

Raven stepped forward, holding the two sparking gloves. "Where did you get these?"

"….," the man struggled.

"The warehouse?" Raven asked.

I pressed him harder against the pillar and glared in his face.

"Ughhhhh," the man winced. "YES!"

Raven glared. "Let me guess….three nights ago?"

"What's it to you?!"

"You know very well it means a lot to us," Raven said. "What moron would have put you in charge of the retrieval of sniper rifles and two sets of special Cloaking gloves?"

"How do you know all this?!" the man struggled in my grasp. "You shouldn't know anything!!"

"Anderson may have been an ambitious crook…," Raven said, "…but he was never a cleanly one. As soon as he was 'gone', all information that he ever held secret leaked out like an open wound. You're one such scratch he failed to stitch. And judging by your eyes…" She stepped forward and pulled one his eyelids open between us, revealing an unnaturally bright-green pupil. "…you have many afflicting obsessions in your life."

"Okay…one or two doses of the Dragon stuff…so what?!" the man flinched.

"I bet your partners are no different," Raven spoke. "Psychotic…junkies. It was one of them who tried to off Speedy and Robin at the charity in the City's Recreational Fields, wasn't it?"

I glanced at Raven, interested.

Man…she's good…

"Old Ted was always a bit nuts."

"Old Ted isn't here now," Raven said. "So we need you to give us the answers…the _sane_ answers we're looking for." She leaned forward and glared with glowing-gray eyes. "Where're the other gloves?!"

"You know I won't tell you!"

"Allright then…let's try this," she folded her arms. "Who is 'Dagger'?"

The man gasped.

"Struck a cord?"

"You're not allowed to say the 'D' word!" he grunted. "Nobody's allowed to say the 'D' word!!"

"Why not?"

"He's powerful….way too powerful!!"

"Even moreso than Slade?"

"…..," the man was silent.

"TALK!" Raven commanded.

I gripped tighter to him.

He gasped. "Not….for…a….million…Dragonflares!"

Raven took a deep breath.

A pause.

She turned around. "Noir. We're going to the roof. Now."

"????" I glanced at him.

"It's way too hot in here," she droned. "I need cool air. Just call it a girl thing."

I shrugged.

"Bring him along."

I smirked. I swung the man—gasping—around and dragged him behind us as we headed towards a stairwell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHANG!!!

Raven blew the locked door to the roof off its hinges with T.K. We stepped out onto the eighteenth-story roof of the building that housed the Crystal Palace far below. The cool night wind kicked at her hair as she took her hood down and stepped up to the edge, looking peacefully out at the city.

I walked towards the edge, dragging the struggling crook with me.

"…..," Raven stared out. Her blue eyes failed to blink. "Mister, people are dying. Dying because creeps like you exchange weapons like currency and overlook the consequences of such action."

"I know very well what happens with guns and flesh…," the man grunted.

Raven looked over. "Am I supposed to pity you now?"

"You're supposed to let me go!" he wheezed. "I have nothing to tell you!!"

"Dagger would 'kill you' otherwise or something, right? Sounds like something a typical mob boss would do."

"Something….like that…," he gasped.

"Tell us the name of who has the other set of gloves, and we'll let you go."

"No can do!" he gasped. "Even if I did tell you…he's nowhere near here! I have no clue where he went!"

"You do and you know it," Raven said firmly. "Tell us. Now."

"Go screw yourself…," he grunted.

"…….," Raven stared. Then. "Very well," she turned away and folded her arms. "We have no use for him then. Noir…throw him over."

I did a double-take. I glanced with wide-eyes at Raven.

"Wh-What?!" the man shrieked.

"You heard me, Noir," she casually looked at me and said plainly, "Toss him over!"

I stared at her.

She stared back.

Her blue eyes twinkled once, and in them I read 'trust me'.

I shrugged.

I threw the man over the buildingside with one arm.

"NOOOOOOOO!!!"

Raven leered over the edge. She watched the plummeting man.

So did I.

Two stories down.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!"

Four stories down.

I swallowed.

Six stories down.

Raven stared…her hair waving.

Ten stories down.

The man's body flailed.

Fourteen stories down.

I sweated bullets.

I looked at Raven.

And then---

_**"SCHAUER!!!!!!!!!!**_"

Raven lifted two fingers up the center of her face. "_Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!!!!"_

I watched as black energy encased the man and performed air-breaks. His fall was stopped and he flinched as his face came within two feet of the hard concrete below.

I took a deep breath.

Raven flexed her wrist.

SWOOOOSH!!!

The man was yanked back up the eighteen stories and back at face level.

Raven walked up to the floating, upside-down crook and glared. "Schauer…huh? Where is he?"

The man whimpered. "Th-Th-The Howard Building…Southern District….Tenth Floor…Room 1014-A!"

"Thanks," Raven winked. She tossed the man towards a metal antenna that she forcibly wrapped around him as a restraint. Then she turned to me. "Funny the things I can do when Robin's not here to watch."

And she smiled.

She actually smiled!

I scratched my head and followed her as she walked back to the stairwell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car zoomed into the air from a ramp, landed on the bridge leading towards the prison, and speedily screeched its way on towards its destination.

Inside, a very concentrated Cyborg gripped the wheel, a very sickly Beast Boy gripped his stomach, and a very determined Robin gripped his communicator.

"Decker! Come in!"

_"Tkkkkkttkk—Blip—This is the Commissioner."_

"Decker. We're at the prisoner. Got any details on what happened?"

_"All I know is that something's happening in the West Wing. Where they're making repairs from the time you guys took on Slug and Reload._"

"Ah….I remember this place," Beast Boy mused depressingly from the back as he stared out the window. He gulped. "Still got bruises as souvenirs."

"Any casualties?" Robin asked.

"_Over twenty people missing. That's all we know. Robin, Warden Georgeton is among them."_

"Sounds bad….," Cyborg muttered.

"We're investigating immediately!" Robin said. "Send your men for backup. We'll keep in touch."

_"Be careful, Titans. I don't like this situation one bit."_

"Point taken," Robin nodded and flipped the controller close. "How close are we?" he asked.

Cyborg glared. "Take a wild _guess!_" He swung hard on the steering wheel.

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!_

The T-Car swerved sideways to a stop right at the edge of the prison's west wall.

The Titans hopped out, with Beast Boy dizzily teetering for one second or two. Robin spun around, eyed the construction equipment and pylons stretched against the building's structure, and pointed.

"There's the West Wing! Let's enter in through there!"

"First stop?" Cyborg asked.

"Warden's offices. Let's make sure everyone's accounted for. Keep together!"

"Allright!" Cyborg took point, his hand converted into a laser rifle.

"I'll…um….be a tiger," Beast Boy mumbled, turning into a huge, green cat and following Cyborg.

Robin followed swiftly behind. He whipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound and spoke: "Speedy! We're at the prison! Where are you?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy glared out the windshield of his speedboat.

"Give me a second…"

He kicked in the acceleration.

_VROOOOOOOM!!!!!_

A group of men guiding a boat trailer in reverse into a loading bay gasped and ran every which way as Speedy sailed in. He initiated the rear rockets of his craft and his boat literally used the trailer as a ramp. Water trailed and the propeller spun in the naked air as Speedy's boat was launched high into the air and literally flew over two blocks before landing barely in the current of an man-made canal on the other side.

Water sprayed.

Speedy steadied the craft.

He angled it towards a set of tunnels that led into the sewers of the city and—eventually—took him under the structure of the prison itself.

"I'm gonna be a few minutes, man," he said into the communicator while steering with one hand. "It hasn't been so easy for me to navigate as it has been for you guys."

_"Understood. Radio me in as soon as you're here."_

"Will do."

Speedy cut off the communicator and sighed.

"I'd rather be sailing…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG!!!

Cyborg kicked a locked metal door down and pointed inside with his laser rifle. Robin and a green tiger knelt beside him and checked down both sides of the hallway.

Nothing.

It was dreadfully dark inside the prison's interior. Someone hadn't switched on the lights for the nightshift.

"Cozy….," Beast Boy mumbled, back in elf form.

"This way," Robin pointed left.

The three crept slowly down the passageway. Cyborg switched on his flashlight, but Robin held his hand out and said:

"No….it might give us away…."

"To who exactly?" Cyborg said.

"I'm almost afraid to find out."

"……y-yeah, me too."

The light flipped out.

Beast Boy moaned. "Something tells me this was a bad day to wake up to," he whispered.

"Shhhhh!"

"Must keep quiet!"

The three snuck around a corner and swiftly stared down the new hallway.

Nothing.

Darkness.

Silence.

Robin pointed at a set of doors up ahead to the left.

Cyborg nodded.

Beast Boy dashed head as a dog and stood up again in elf form by the door. He held his hand to the doorknob.

Cyborg and Robin stood next to him.

Robin lifted three fingers…..two….one….

Beast Boy swung open the door.

Cyborg dashed in, laser rifle aimed.

Robin flipped in and held out a fan of birdarangs.

And…..

"Nothing….," Beast Boy muttered.

"The whole place has been cleared out!" Cyborg muttered. His eyes scanned the office and its cubicles and computer stations. One monitor was on. The screen saver danced about innocently. "Unless they got a skeleton crew working overnight…I'd say someone's been here. And the people didn't like him…."

Robin paced around, scratched his head, and turned towards the others. "I suggest we seek out the other places."

"Wait….," Beast Boy raised a hand.

"What is it?" Cyborg asked.

The changeling turned into an aardvark. It sniffed along the ground.

"Smell something?" Robin folded his arms.

The animal grunted. It traced a path—following some sort of scent. It led around a few cubicles and to a white door marked 'Gentleman'.

Beast Boy turned back into elf form and motioned at the door. "I think something's in this room, guys."

Cyborg and Robin stared, wide eyed.

"What??" Beast Boy remarked with a face.

"I think you're right, B.B."

Slowly, Beast Boy looked towards the door. The frame was completely splashed with crimson blood.

"Eep….," Beast Boy gulped and stepped back. "I hope I'm wrong…."

"You're not…," Robin stepped forward. He held his door to the knob. He paused. A bead of sweat came down. He composed himself, turned the knob, and pushed at the door.

Suddenly, a streak of blood trickled down the door frame.

"Huh??" Cyborg did a double-take.

Robin squinted. He pushed the door open all the way.

THUMP!!!

Georgeton's head fell down from where it had been balanced atop the closed door.

"Ack!!" Beast Boy hopped onto Cyborg's shoulders and stared bug-eyed. "Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack! Ack!!"

"Beast…..Boy!!" Cyborg struggled.

"Calm down!!" Robin snapped. He reached into his utility belt, pulled out a flare, and lit it.

FWISSSH!!

The interior of the bathroom strobed into the visual wavelength. The flare's light showed blood all over the toilet, the urinal, and the sink. Situated in the center of the bathroom—in a pool of his own deceased blood---was a headless Georgeton. An handless Georgeton too. A bloody, right-armed stub dangled at the end of the toilet's rim.

"Wonderful….," Robin muttered. He knelt by the head and whipped out his communicator.

"This is sooooooooo bad," Beast Boy gulped. "Hold me, Cy. Tighter!"

"Dude! You're already holding me!"

"Quiet!" Robin commanded. He spoke into the communicator, "Decker….bad news. It's Georgeton…well….pieces of him."

"Damn. You think it's the same guy?"

"What's there to think?" Robin said. "He wasn't mutilated half as bad as Judge Carson…but the sadistic style of the murder remains the same. We better go inspect the rest of the West Wing before we can do anything with the remains. I fear what happened to Georgeton may have also happened to the other---"

A shoeprint appeared in the pool of blood in front of Robin.

"…..," the Boy Wonder stopped in mid sentence.

The shoeprint sparked. A boot partially appeared.

Robin glanced up.

SHIIIIING!!!

A sheet of silver came flying down.

"LOOK OUT!!"

Robin rolled backwards. The carpet beneath him ripped to shreds. The silver disappeared.

Robin jumped to his feet, teeth gritting.

The shoeprint sparked and disappeared. A set of bloody spots padded across the ground straight at him.

Robin whipped out his rod in a grunt and held it at defense.

SLASH!!!!

It snapped in two.

The boy's eyes widened under his eyemask.

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg dove in with a blind fist. The android struck something. That something lifted off the ground for a second and then---

SMASH!!

A cubicle across the way fell over.

"Nuts!!!" Cyborg shouted. "He's invisible!!"

"He's here!!" Beast Boy shrieked. "Run!!"

The cubicle shook.

Faded red stains charged at Cyborg.

The android ducked instinctively and rolled to the side.

A plant was shredded in half…then a cubicle wall shattered behind.

Cyborg pumped his laser rifle and took aim. "YAAAAAAAH!!!!"

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!_

Chaos ensued. Cyborg's blue energy shot forth through the office like a wall of destruction. Chairs flew apart. Computers exploded. Papers caught on fire.

There was a flipping sound and rush of air. A spinning ceiling fan above Cyborg suddenly stopped and bent down slightly. A perched shadow sparked into translucence there momentarily and disappeared just as it streaked down towards the Titan.

"Cyborg! Head's up!"

SHIIIIIING!!!

The edge of a broadsword appeared.

Cyborg spun to the side.

CLANK!!!

The blade grazed his titanium arm, showering sparks.

The android reeled—off balance.

Sparks.

A sword was raised in the air out of nowhere.

A green triceratops charged in—smashing through a few desks. It struck the air beneath the sparkling half-sword. A ghostly body momentarily appeared upon impact. Beast Boy continued charging, shoving an invisible weight across the length of the office and towards a utility closet door.

SMASH!!

The door cracked and flew open by itself. Maintenance equipment and papers inside fell down and got knocked around in a streak towards the dark corner inside the closet.

"Everyone out! Now!" Robin commanded. He lifted a fan of birdarang detonators overhead and flung them with a grunt.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

All three birdarangs flew and embedded themselves like darts around the wall at the mouth of the utility closet. They started beeping.

"Fire in the hole!!!" Robin shouted.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were already out the door.

Robin followed far behind. He whipped out a grappling hook launcher, fired it, and retracted.

The Boy Wonder soared out the office door just as the explosives beeped for the last time and went off.

_BOOOOM!!!_

Fire erupted, consuming the utility closet and the desk area and the whole office.

Robin sailed out, struck the wall, and fell down. He was swiftly scooped up by his cape when Cyborg reached a hand out and yanked him towards the wall adjacent to the open office. As the explosion continued to erupt, a fireball ate out into the hallway like a vomit of flame from the doorway. When it died down, the hallway returned to quiet—save for the crackling sound of a burning office beyond the door.

"I-I hope Georgeton's family were kosher with cremation," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Shhh!" Cyborg insisted. He let go of Robin and peered into the burning ruins of the office. He placed a pair of fingers to his temple and scanned the area through infrared.

"See any signs of the creep?" Robin asked, dusting himself off.

"Hard to tell," Cyborg squinted his human eye. "The room's so hot, I can't tell if his body's lying around in there and generating heat—"

Just then, a white blob in Cyborg's infrared vision exploded towards him.

He sweatdropped, "Then again---"

WHACK!!!!

The cold taste of silver smacked the android across the face.

He fell back as a ghostly body—sparking and trailing fire—vaulted off the titanium titan's body and went streaking down the hallway.

Beast Boy turned into a green wolf in pursuit.

"Beast Boy! Wait up!!" Robin ran after him.

Cyborg sputtered and wheezed on the ground. "I'm fine…..thanks…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the tenth floor of the Howard Building, Raven and I stepped down a grimey hallway and faced the apartment room 1014-A.

"This Schauer fellow better have the gloves," Raven said. "Or I'm having you toss more people off the roof."

I shook my head.

"Have it your way….pacifist."

Raven walked up to the door and knocked on it. "Schauer? This is the Teen Titans. Open up, please."

We waited.

Silence….save for the usual sounds of domestic poverty. Shouting…baby cries…

Raven looked at me.

I looked at her.

She nodded towards the door.

I whipped out Myrkblade, spun it, and slashed forward with a wave of smoking Destruction.

SMASH!!!!

The door shattered. I kicked the rest of the frame away and stomped inside. I stopped suddenly when a terrible smell hit my nostrils.

Raven was not immune to it herself. "Lovely….," she muttered. She coughed. "Schauer?!?!"

No response.

I took point. I crept ahead past a bathroom…a kitchen…and into the tiny living room. I looked. There was a body slumped down with its back to us in the chair facing the t.v.. I squinted my eyes from under my shades.

The way the body's positioned……shouldn't there be a head above the seat?

The t.v. showed nothing but snow as Raven walked ahead of me, looked at the chair's front, and grimaced. She motioned for me.

I walked up, faced the chair, and swallowed.

Schauer sat with dried red fountaining out from his stub of a neck. His head was resting neatly in his lap.

"This isn't good…," Raven said.

I nodded, staring at the decapitation.

Raven shook her head. "Not that…._this."_

She pointed.

My eyes followed.

Schauer's right hand was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin joined up with Beast Boy as the two now crept slowly across the metal catwalk over the abandoned prison cells below.

"I lost him…," Beast Boy muttered. "It was only a mater of time before….well….stopped flaming."

"I wished you wouldn't just go off running like that," the Titan leader muttered.

"Where's Cy?"

"……I wish I wouldn't just go off running either."

"Bingo…," Beast Boy said. He looked around. "This is nuts. He's invisible?!"

Robin's communicator made a chime.

He popped it open with a Star Trek sound. "Yeah?"

_"Robin, this is Raven."_

"Kinda busy right now…."

_"Robin…it's the assassin,"_ Raven spoke through the instrument. _"He's caught up in our investigation. He stole something from Anderson's arsenal. Two technologically advanced gloves. Robin…they can turn a person invisible."_

Beast Boy and Robin glanced at each other.

Beast Boy glared at the communicator, "Way _ahead_ of you, Ray!"

"……._oh_."

"There's been a murder at the prison," Robin said. "We nearly got our heads lopped off too. This fellow means business."

"_Need assistance?_"

"We'll get back to you on that," Robin said. "Robin out."

He flipped the communicator closed.

Beast Boy shook his head. "Why does everything have to do with everything?!?!"

"……," Robin stood.

"A guy with a sword, I can take. But now what…is he working for Anderson?! No wait, Anderson's dead. Maybe he's working for Slade! Or this 'Dagger' creep! I hate conspiracies. If anyone asked me, I'd say Area 51 was just a huge intergalactic harem or something but nothing else—"

"Shhh!" Robin emphasized. He held out a hand and whispered, "Listen!"

Beast Boy was silent.

The Boy Wonder was silent.

"……"

"……"

"…..what is it?"

"Tell me what you hear….?" Robin inquired.

Beast Boy's green eyes darted around. "Silence."

Robin swallowed. "Me too."

CHIIING!!!

Both heroes spun around.

A silver sword flew down at them.

The two hopped out of the way.

A railing of the catwalk shattered apart. Sparks flew.

Robin flipped and landed in a squat from which he tossed a bolo.

The three weights spun around an invisible leg and pinned a shadow in place. With a flash of metal, the invisible assassin sliced himself free.

Beast Boy perched on an adjacent railing, turned into an octopus, and let forth a spray of dark black ink.

A wet silhouette formed, which swiftly hobbled sideways then dashed at the two. Beast Boy leapt up into a bird and flew out of sword range.

Robin—in the meantime—swung around on the railing and came flying back, boots first.

SMACK!!!

The ink shadow stumbled back.

Robin landed on the ground and charged at him.

The shadow's body pivoted.

"!!!" Robin made a good judgment and canceled his charge into a dive.

CLANG!!!

Sparks showered as the sword struck the railing where Robin's body would have been.

The Boy Wonder slid past the killer on the catwalk, jumped up, and swept his leg out.

THWUMP!!

The shadow tripped.

Robin picked up a broken piece of the severed railing, spun it like his staff, and faced the shadow.

The silhouette stood up.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

A silver blade appeared, disappeared, and reappeared among electrical sparks as the invisible assassin stood up and poised to fight Robin.

A beat.

He charged.

Robin sidestepped.

Air swished as the blade invisibly came down.

Robin spun and side-kicked the suspect in the ribs.

The assassin stumbled.

"HYA!!" Robin struck the piece of railing downward in a swipe.

CRACK!!

It struck hard with the assassin's elbow.

He didn't like it.

SWOOSH!!

Robin tilted his head up. The uppercutting blade barely missed his nose and instead sliced off the end of a few of the boy's hairs.

Robin backflipped and readied himself for another charge.

CLANG!!!

The assassin's invisible sword and Robin's bludgeon locked. The two struggled for a few seconds, with Robin gritting his teeth in the struggle. In that he couldn't exactly _see_ his opponent, Robin had no way of telling the weight of the enemy in question. Thus, he was totally overwhelmed when the assassin revealed a monumental amount of strength and shoved the young Titan away and free of his weapon.

"Ooof!" Robin cried out and rubbed his scalp.

SL-SLINK!!!

Robin glared as the severed piece of his railing was severed even more and tossed at his feet. He looked up at the shadow.

The assassin wiped the last of the octopus ink off his torso, flexed a sparking neck, and turned absolutely clear again. There was a heavy set of pounding on the catwalk as Robin sensed the opponent charging straight at him.

SWOOOOSH!!

"SKREEEEEE!!!!" A green pterodactyl soared down and bit down onto something.

Robin jumped up to his feet and gasped.

Beast Boy had managed to bite down on the width of the silver sword. His dinosaur beak struggled to break the object free of an invisible thug. Clawed feet gripped hard to the catwalk floor and emerald wings flapped.

Robin wanted to help. He whipped out a birdarang and was about to let fly when--

_YANK!!_

Beast Boy managed easily to take control of the sword. _A little too easily…_

WHUMP!!

Having given up the sword, the assassin unleashed invisible kick after invisible kick into the changeling's chest. One final kick struck Beast Boy hard in the snout. He dropped the sword and flew back against Robin in Elf form, moaning.

Robin dropped his birdarang and caught Beast Boy.

CLANK!

He looked over the changeling's shoulders.

Sparking boots planted into the catwalk, then disappeared in a flurry of sparks. The silver blade floated up in the air and then disappeared into a sparking shadow of an arm before fading away completely.

Robin gulped and held tighter to Beast Boy.

SHIIING!! CHIIING!! SLIIIINK!!!

A circle of sparks ate into the left railing, the floor, and then the right railing of the catwalk.

Robin gasped as the metal beneath him lurched, then fell down.

The assassin had severed the catwalk apart.

Robin hooked one strong arm around Beast Boy's chest and used the other to reached into his utility belt. He grabbed a grappling hook, aimed towards the ceiling, and fired just as he and the changeling fell down into the open air.

POW!!—CLANG!!

Robin fell until the cord was taunt. He and Beast Boy swung over the corridor of abandoned prison cells and out towards the tall windows where moonlight poured in.

SMASH!!!!!

The two sailed through the glass, snapped free of the cord, and went sailing through a metal platform/wrack of the construction site. They landed on a walkway of wood. The whole wrack started to teeter. Robin hoisted Beast Boy over his shoulders and nimbly hopped, skipped, and jumped his way down the teetering wireframe of the collapsing platform.

CRASH!!!!

The whole structure smashed to bits as Robin carried Beast Boy safely to the ground and looked up above the rising dust of destruction.

The fresh, gaping hole in the window yawned silently down at them.

Robin gulped.

Then….

SMASH!!!!

The adjacent window shattered as a brand new hole suddenly formed. Some of the falling glass trailed outward as if carried by an invisible body, then fell limply to the concrete below.

"Still not alone….," Robin mumbled.

"Nnngh….," Beast Boy shook.

"Can you stand?"

"I-I think so…"

"Good…then shut up."

Beast Boy snapped out of it and stood still next to Robin.

Robin fingered his utility belt, ready to pull out any item or weapon necessary to deal with the shady threat.

Silence……

Beast Boy bit his lip.

SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-CLANK!!!!

The birdarang that Robin dropped sailed down and struck the ground between his feet.

"YIP!!!" Beast Boy jumped.

Robin grunted and flung forth two handfuls of smoke pellets. They exploded with huge puffs of mist. As a result, a shadowed figure—tall and well built—was revealed a few feet off.

Beast Boy frowned, jumped, and landed by the figure as a huge gorilla. He growled and swung a muscular fist into the mist at the shadow. But the shadow dodged, trailing smoke and mist as he hopped back, leapt forward, landed on the green primate's shoulders, and vaulted himself straight up and out of the smoke.

"Dang it!!" Robin clenched his fist and looked in the direction of the acrobat.

Another platform shook. Then a column of sparks danced—soon morphing into a black figure that spun into view. No longer invisible.

"L-Look," Beast Boy pointed.

The figure stopped spinning, froze, and glared down at the two heroes.

The assassin was a tall man. Well into his thirties. Muscular—of what could be seen of his skin. An ivory-white head stuck out from a black turtlenecklike jumpsuit. In fact, his entire outfit was solid black. Down to his padded boots and thick, sparking gloves. As he held a sword twice his height over his shoulders, he smirked with a glare fit for a demon. His face was pale white, mature, and balding. Folds of muscles criss-crossed over his eyebrows. Around his neck—where the flesh met the 'turtleneck' was a metal band of sorts. At first, it looked like a collar to the two Titans. But it was too close to the actual diameter of the neck to seem anything but a simple prosthetic. There were transparent columns built into the metal part…as if windows into a tin man.

It's safe to say that there was a fair share of red stains and burn marks all over this otherwise immaculate portrait.

"Why're you doing this?!?!" Robin called up. "Why all the murder?! Revenge?! Amusement?!"

The villain smirked. He never stopped staring down. Never stopped posing with his sword.

"I give one vote on the 'amusing' part," Beast Boy said to Robin.

"Let me make one thing straight….," Robin shouted up at the man. "Muder is not tolerated in this city! The Titans will make any effort necessary to make sure of that. _Any_ effort."

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

The man smiled more. Not once did he open his lips.

"Why won't he say anything?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Aren't villains usually cocky and chatty?"

Robin's face fell. He thought aloud, "He….he can't talk, Beast Boy…"

"Say what?"

The assassin saluted. He planted two feet firmly down onto the platform, spun his sword, and prepared to jump down.

"Noir's long lost cousin?" Beast Boy gulped.

Robin readied some birdarangs and frowned. "Hardly."

The man's legs flexed to jump--

WHAM!!!!

Cyborg flew in with a fist from the broken window. "I'll give you something to talk about!!"

The assassin fell into a pickup truck.

WHAM!!!

Cyborg leapt down with his laser rifle. "AAAAAAAH!!!" he fired straight down in mid-flight.

_ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

The villain raised his feet, vaulted himself up, and dove out of the laser blast.

The energy beam caught the truck, which exploded in a furious fireball.

Cyborg landed besides the blast, spun around, and took aim at the backflipping assassin.

ZAAAP! ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!! ZAAP!!!

The man in black sidestepped, flipped, and ducked every blast before dashing towards Cyborg, leaping, and dropping down behind the android's side.

"Cyborg!!" Robin shouted. "Look out!!"

Before the titanium titan could turn around, the assassin spun his blade, smiled, and jabbed the tip of it deep into Cyborg's back.

"Cy!!!!' Beast Boy cried out.

The android shouted as sparks emanated out from his back. The assassin hadn't come anywhere near close to skewering him. What he did do—however—was stab deep into the android's power cells.

Beast Boy dove forward, turned into a huge green bull, and rammed the villain hard across the construction site.

But the damage had been done. Cyborg moaned, slumped to his knees, and collapsed onto the ground.

"Cyborg!" Robin ran over and knelt beside him. "Say something!"

"Can….hardly…..move…..," Cyborg winced. "Gonna….bail….out….on…..you…soon…."

"Stick with us!" Robin exclaimed.

In the meantime, Beast Boy blitzed the assassin. The bull turned into a jaguar that howled at the assassin while swinging serrated claws.

The man in black sidestepped, jumped back against a pile of bricks, and lifted both boots.

WHAM!!

Beast Boy was thrown back on his furred behind.

CHIIING!!

The villain whipped out his sword again and flew at Beast Boy.

The changeling shook his head, glowed bright white eyes, and roared into a T-Rex: "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHH!!!!!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

The dinosaur swung a mighty tail into the chest of the silent killer.

SMACK!!!!!!!

The villain's body flew back like a rocket and straight into the construction site's office trailer.

SMASH!!!

The T-Rex wasted no time. It marched over to a propane tank besides the prison, snapped it up in drooling jaws, spun, and flung it straight into the trailer.

It smashed into the structure, cracked open, scraped against debris, and----

BOOOOOOM!!!!!

Robin looked up from Cyborg's body and shaded his eyemask as a plume of fire rose high into the sky beside the prison.

The T-Rex hissed before morphing down into a panting, glaring elf form.

Beast Boy took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his brow, and swallowed. "I. Didn't. Like. Him."

Robin stood up. He squinted into the fire.

Beast Boy was about to walk away, but he stopped when he noticed something.

A part of the flames were parting. A trail of smoke was floating…_running_ towards him.

CHIIIING!!

A flash of silver.

The assassin was invisible again and making a kill.

His kill.

Beast Boy cried out and flinched.

TWIFFFT!!! CLANK!!

An arrow sailed down and knocked the sword away before Beast Boy's skull could be cleaved in two.

The shadow sparked and looked up.

Speedy perched on a platform overhead and drew another arrow with his bow. "Time for a showstopper…"

He let loose another arrow…an explosive one.

TWIFFFT!!!

"Eek!" Beast Boy flew up into a falcon and was gone lightning quick.

The assassin wasn't so quick. A shadow could barely be seen leaping aside as the explosive landed.

_POW!!!!_

After a flash of light, a sparking figure rolled onto the ground away from the sword. The assassin momentarily reappeared in his black garb as he stood up, heaved, and flexed his muscles back into invisibility.

"Oh no you don't," Speedy gritted his teeth. He stood up on the platform and drew five arrows at once. "Try dodging this, you bloodlusting turd!!"

TW-TW-TW-TW-TWIFFFFT!!!

Five arrows flew at once.

A sparking shadow streaked across the construction site towards the sword.

Speedy squinted his eyemask, calibrated, and let loose a sixth arrow.

TWIFT!!!

SWOOSH—SLINK!!!

The TWHUMP of the assassin's body hitting and sliding across the concrete sounded throughout the area. Blood poured out from an invisible wound as the sixth arrow had made its mark by skewering the villain's ankle.

Speedy smiled.

"Now's the chance!" Robin exclaimed. "We gotta get out of here!"

Speedy frowned. "Excuse me?! I just got he—" he then noticed Cyborg. "Oh. Damn."

"Beast Boy, help me!" Robin said, hoisting one of Cyborg's shoulders up.

The changeling rushed over and helped Robin carry the drained android towards the distant T-Car.

Speedy looked over from his high place and saw the arrow being removed from the writhing shadow's leg. Blood spurted…then sparks danced…and the figure disappeared. Soon after, the sword that was a few feet away disappeared up into the air as well.

"No!" Speedy called down to the three. "Take the manhole beside you! The T-Car is too far away! Go into the sewers!"

"What for?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"My boat's closer!"

"Let's go!" Robin said. He pulled at the manhole cover.

"I'll provide cover!" Speedy shouted. He whipped out an arrow, squinted at the scene, and….

Sparks.

A trail of blood.

Speedy let it fly.

TWIFFT!!

It clanked off the ground just inches in front of a recoiling shadow.

Speedy drew another arrow and shot again, close by.

TWIFFT!!!!

In the meantime, a green elephant assisted in flinging the manhole cover up and away. He switched back into elf form and jumped down to accept Cyborg, whom Robin dropped down into the manhole.

Speedy kept launching arrow after arrow down at the scene, creating a ring of projectile protection around the three escapees.

Soon, Cyborg was down the hole with Beast Boy. Robin began to drop down.

It was then that the shadow of sparks dashed through Speedy's shield.

The redhaired hero gasped. "Robin!! Get down! Now!"

Robin instinctively ducked.

SHIIIING!!

A silver blade came down.

SLIIIINK!!!

It grazed Robin's shoulder. Blood flew.

"AAAUGH!!" Robin slumped down the hole, collapsing awkwardly on Beast Boy and an unconscious Cyborg.

Speedy grit his teeth. He leapt over and planted his feet firmly on a diagonal set of metal railings, aimed earthward. He slid down on two steady feet, and while sliding he unleashed arrow after arrow at the villain's invisible location.

TWIFFT!! TWIFFT!! TWIFFT!!!

A flash of silver erupted upon each arrow impact, slicing the projectiles in half.

Speedy leapt off the railing, and now _he_ was sailing down at the swordsman.

The silverblade rose up out of the curtain of shadow. Glistening. Ready.

In midfall, Speedy whipped out a flame arrow and let loose.

TWIFFFT!!!

FWOOOM!!!!

Fire erupted over the manhole.

The assassin flipped away.

Speedy braced himself.

He sailed swiftly through the wall of fame.

Through the manhole.

And down deep into a puddle of sewer water in the underground pipe below.

No soon had he landed, he whipped out an ice arrow, spun it, drew it, aimed directly upward, and fired.

TWIFFFT!!

_CKKKKKKK!!!_

Ice literally ate at the flames and took the form of torch that clogged the manhole shut with translucent crystal.

Speedy panted and looked down at his companions.

"You okay, Robin?"

Robin winced and clutched a bloody shoulder. "Gonna be a while before I can take up spinning plates," he muttered.

"Oh please," Speedy smirked. "You use that shoulder for much, much more and we both know it."

"Excuse me…," Beast Boy emphasized. "Cyborg here…."

"Right," Speedy nodded. "Let's get him back to the Tower."

"Where's your boat?" Robin asked.

"This way…"

Speedy joined Beast Boy in carrying Cyborg by his shoulders. Robin limped behind.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir…look at this…"

I stood up from inspecting Schauer's dead body in his chair. I walked across the apartment living room to a wall.

Raven pointed at a tiny hole. "This……it's important for some reason…."

I blinked. I leaned forward, took my shades off, and squinted through the hole.

"See anything?"

I put the shades back on over my black eyes and nodded at her.

"Let's have a look-see."

I whipped out Myrkblade, jabbed deep into the wall, and pulled out.

CRACK!!!

Over a minute, I managed to discreetly peel a piece of the wall back. There was a black camera positioned within the wall's frame. It was aimed directly at the living room. Even at Schauer's dead body himself.

"Well, this is……….convenient," Raven said. She looked at me.

I looked at the camera. There was a wire. I followed it along the wall. I stabbed into the sides of the room every now and then with Myrkblade to be sure of where the wire was going. Inevitably, it led me into the nearby bedroom.

Raven and I stepped inside…and we saw a cabinet where the wire led to. Raven opened it…revealing an entertainment system. Complete with a vcr. A tape had rewound after recording.

We glanced at each other.

"Curiosity killed the Titan…."

She turned the t.v. on and pressed play.

_I hope not…_

I swallowed, stood back, and watched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy was the last to jump into his speedboat—moored in the waters of the deepest sewer pipes of the city. He sealed the door behind him, climbed past the other three Titans, and hopped into his seat. "I swear…I should start charging fares…."

"Thanks for coming to our aid in the nick of time," Robin said. He winced as he wrapped a bandage around his own shoulder. "That guy is too much for just three of us…four of us even!"

"Yeah…we'd be better off with Raven's telekinesis and Noir's counteractive stealth and Starfire's-----oh wait."

"Let's make haste."

"Gotcha," Speedy accelerated the boat. It went cruising down the tunnel at a generous speed. "How's Cyborg?"

"Cy? How're you doing, buddy?" Beast Boy asked, shaking the android's shoulder.

"I'll….be…..fine….j-just…..need….power….reserves….," Cyborg muttered.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "You don't look fine to me."

"Don't….be….a….pessimist….."

Beast Boy smiled.

Silence.

Speedy looked in mirror.

All three Titans were absolutely quiet. They could just have been weary from their skirmish….but….

"I don't like this," Speedy said.

"Don't like what?" Robin said.

The redhead's eyemask narrowed. "The silence.

CLANK!

Everyone jumped.

"Wh-What was that?" Beast Boy panicked.

_CLANK!!_

Robin looked around. "I dunno! Sounds like it's coming from the outside!

_CLANK!!_

The whole boat shook that time.

Speedy clung to the controls, gritting his teeth. "What the hell?"

Cyborg moaned. "He…folllllllowed….ussssss."

SLIIINK!!

A silver sword stabbed down through the ceiling of the boat.

Beast Boy shrieked.

Speedy jumped.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook and fired. POW!! The cord wrapped around the blade.

Robin yanked on it.

The sword retracted.

Robin was pulled over towards the center of the boat for a split second before the serration of the blade snapped the cord apart.

"Ooof!" Robin exclaimed.

"Look out!!"

The sword came back down over Robin.

The Boy Wonder gasped. He rolled to the side.

_Stab!!_

It came down again.

He rolled the other side.

_Stab!!_

Speedy swerved the controls to the side.

The blade yanked out and a body slumped to the left hull of the boat.

Beast Boy stared out, wide-eyed.

The assassin materialized. He dangled momentarily against the hull of the craft and looked in through the window, saw Beast Boy, and smiled. He pulled his blade back.

Beast Boy gasped and ducked.

CHIIIINK!!

The blade sunk into the cabin just over Beast Boy's head.

Speedy swerved again towards the wall.

The assassin swung to the top before Speedy could grind his body against the side of the pipe speeding by.

_SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!_

"Not my boat!" Speedy growled. "NOT MY BOAT!!"

"We gotta shake him off somehow!" Robin exclaimed, clutching his bad shoulder. "I'll go out and try to take care of him! Speedy, keep the boat steady—"

"No!" Beast Boy jumped back up as the assassin clanked against the outer hull. "I'll go out there!"

"But Beast Boy---!!"

"Look at you! You wouldn't last a second!! I'll go out there and take care of him! Trust me!!"

Speedy glanced back.

Robin panted. He nodded.

"Okay….," Beast Boy took a deep breath. "One….two….three…."

"Good luck…," Cyborg mumbled.

Beast Boy let out a war cry, flung open the door, hopped out onto the hull, and shut it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the boat, Beast Boy almost immediately lost his grip on the speeding craft. "Whoah!!" He slid against the slipper surface and reached out blindly. He found himself grabbing ahold of an ankle. A bleeding ankle. He looked up with round, green eyes.

The assassin waved, produced the sword, and swung down.

Beast Boy gulped and rolled out of the way.

CLANK!!

Showers sparked and flew off down the pipe and sewer water speeding behind them.

Beast Boy got awkwardly to his feet.

The assassin hopped up. He spun his sword and stabbed at Beast Boy.

The changeling ducked and rolled forward. He switched into a porcupine as he grazed by the villain's leg.

"!!!!' The villain hobbled painfully to the front of the craft. His feet planted down on the windshield.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrrrgh!!" Speedy grunted and struggled to see through the man's legs. "Move it, will ya?!"

"Cyborg!" Robin crawled over. "Can I borrow your arm?"

"Don't see….why not…," the drained Titan replied. "Not….using it…."

Robin snapped Cyborg's arm off and opened the panel. He typed away at an interface while it still had some scant energy left.

"What're you…..doing?" the android asked.

"Calling your favorite girl…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the prison…

Just as squad cars started to arrive…

The T-Car remotely came to life, lit up, and revved its engines.

Its tires squealed and it sped down the route Robin commanded while distant cops watched with curiosity.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The assassin let out a silent scream and sung the blade down.

CLANK!!

The green porcupine rolled to the side and leapt up in the form of a lion. The lion roared and pounced the villain, slamming him down so that his bed barely fell over the bobbing bow of the speeding boat.

The villain's sword slid out of his grasp and leaned precariously over the edge of the boat.

The man struggled to keep Beast Boy's jaws back. He grit his teeth, flared his nostrils, and then butted his huge, bald head forward.

WHACK!!

The lion saw stars as it stumbled back and landed in elf form.

The villain scooped up his broad sword, vaulted up to his feet, and swung mightily down ward at the changeling.

Beast Boy held his breath. He leapt back—dodging the swing. In mid-flight, he flipped, turned into an upside down albatross, soared around, and glided towards the assassin. At the end of his glide, he turned into a velociraptor that shrieked and plowed its mighty legs into the bad guy's chest.

WHAM!!!

The villain flew back, rolled, and fell off over the boat's bow. Before he could be sucked under in the water, he jabbed his sword upward, grinded the metal into the hull, and used its skewering grip to swing himself around, sideways, and back up onto the boat with a leap and a spinning kick.

SMACK!!

Beast Boy flew back, bounced off the rear motor of the boat, and fell hard into the sewer water with a SPLASH!!!!

The assassin panted…then smirked. He swung his blade around and focused his attention back on carving his way into the interior of the speeding boat.

He was oblivious to the green shark fin rising up out of the water behind him with the same momentum of the speeding boat. The shark fin turned into a green sail. With a huge splash, a huge sailfish launched itself out of the water and flew past the assassin, scraping hard against his back with its long, serrated snout.

SLIIIINK!!

The man let out a silent cry and swung his sword at the fish.

The fish had already turned into a alligator, which ran up the blazing walls of the pipe for a second and a half before leaping off in the form of an anaconda that spiraled itself down the assassin's torso and started to squeeeeeeeeeze.

The swordsman struggled for breath, gritted his teeth, and used whatever mobility left in his hands to fight off the snake. But to no avail.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"How's he doing?!" Robin asked, working wildly at the controls in Cyborg's detached arms.

"Heck if I know!!" Speedy looked back. He looked forward. His eyes widened under the mask. "Oh shoot!!"

He swerved just as the boat nearly struck a wall between a fork in the pipe.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SPLASSSSH!!_

Water sprayed as the boat suddenly veered to the side.

"HISSS!!" the green anaconda exclaimed.

It and the villain fell down hard against the hull.

"Ooof!!"

The snake turned back into an elf and the villain was sent tumbling across the boat's side. He stopped himself by stabbing hard into the interior with his sword.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLIIINK!!

The sword came to a rest just a few inches besides Robin's head.

The Boy Wonder eyed it, sweated, and worked hard at the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a part of Town overhead, the T-Car sped by itself through traffic.

It skirted through an intersection, screeched its tires, and nearly spiraled out of control as it made a hard turn and headed towards the South.

Bayside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The assassin removed his sword, stood up, and fought for his breath to return.

Beast Boy rubbed his head, looked up, and gasped.

The villain frowned and charged. He brought his sword down heavily.

Beast Boy swiftly turned into a triceratops and blocked with his horns.

CLANK!!!

Consequently, the boat started to sink deeper and plow through the water with huge spray.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What?!?!" Speedy exclaimed.

He pounded his hand against the ceiling. "Hey!! Less weight, ya moron!! LESS WEIGHT!!"

The engine sputtered as it got deeper and deeper into the water.

The boat shook and shuddered.

Cyborg moaned and Robin grit his teeth as he worked on the remote controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The villain forced his weapon down firmer and firmer.

The triceratops sweatdropped and turned into a squirrel monkey, dodging the blade.

CLANK!!

The weapon sunk straight down against the hull. The villain then gasped as the boat—no longer weighted down so heavily—vaulted back upwards and ruined his balance.

The green primate jumped and performed a monkey kung fu kick into the enemy's tummy.

THWAP!!

The villain doubled back.

The monkey landed, turned into a komodo dragon, and tripped the man with its scaly tail.

WHUMP!!

The man fell down hard, dropping his sword.

The silver blade slid across the hull.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I think he's still on us!!" Speedy exclaimed. He looked ahead. "Two paths ahead! Which should I take?!"

"I was wondering when you'd ask me that," Robin said. "Go left!"

Speedy did a double take as he manned the controls. "But….but….that's a dead end of the aqueduct!"

"I know!"

"It doesn't end at the Bay!!"

"It's close enough," Robin said.

"Yeah?! How close?!"

Robin smiled up from his controls. "Only a block."

"……," Speedy stared…then looked back ahead through the windshield. "I hope you have a good plan."

"I do….now pick up speed."

"Aye, sir…," Speedy reached for the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy turned back into elf form and dove for the silver blade.

VROOOOOM!!!

The engines kicked into a higher intensity.

"Yikes!!" the changelng fell, tumbled back, and gripped hard to the wind tail of the boat.

The villain got slowly up to his feet, the air kicking at his body.

Moonlight suddenly glared down at them as they emerged from the pipes and into a man-made canal.

"Ugnnnnh…..nnghhh…," Beast Boy struggled to hold his grip. He looked up fearfully as the villain crawled over, grabbed his sword, and leered down at the changeling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy and Robin watched as they quickly approached the sloped end of the aqueduct.

Speedy ducked. "It was a good boat…."

Robin watched silently. His hands firm to the controls of Cyborg's arm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy swallowed.

The villain smiled…winked…and raised his sword over his head.

Then….

The water ran out. The speedboat hit the end of the aqueduct.

_CLANK!!!!_

"AAAACKIES!!" Beast Boy clung onto the tail of the boat for dear life.

The villain was knocked off and he flew.

But then again, they all flew.

The boat flew off the slope like a ramp, sailed into the air, and came down in the very street of the city.

_SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAPEEEE!!!!!_

Sparks showered as the boat slid across the asphalt and through two lanes of traffic towards the other end of the man-made land ridge where the Bay itself lay.

Cars screeched to a stop. Others honked and swerved out of the way. A truck or two was actually clipped by the sliding, careening speedboat.

WHUMP!!!

The villain fell hard and tumbled to a stop on the concrete.

Beast Boy dangled form the sliding boat as it came to a stop……just a few meters away from the edge that would safely tip them over into the Bay.

_High and Dry._

Beast Boy panted.

The villain got up. He clutched his side. He glared at the vehicle with one mean eye.

"Uh oh….," Beast Boy squeaked.

The assassin smirked. He held his sword out. He ran. He charged. He leapt at the changeling on the boat at full force.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy swallowed. He looked at Robin.

Robin smirked and jammed his finger over one last button on Cyborg's controls.

"Honk. Honk."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In mid-flight, the assassin's lunging body was illuminated by a glaring set of headlights.

Simultaneously, the T-Car had driven upon the scene, vaulted itself over the back of a pickup truck, and rocketed itself straight at the airborne killer.

The man's eyes twitched.

WHAM!!!!!

His body was knocked like a rag doll into a third story office window.

SMASH!!!!

The T-Car landed in the building after him, smashed through chairs, office equipment, walls, and emerged through the glass window on the other side.

CRASH!!!!

Glass and debris flew all over the street.

Cars swerved to a stop as the T-Car spiraled, squealed its tires, and headed back promptly and rammed into the side of the speedboat.

_RAM!!!_

Beast Boy held on as the boat was shoved—sparking—the rest of the length over the edge and into the Bay's water.

SPLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy smirked and gestured.

"Peace!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOM!!!

Water sprayed as the speedboat hopped waves safely back towards the Tower…and home.

The T-Car was switched to autopilot and did the same.

The assassin was nowhere to be seen.

Beast Boy let out a little cheer, got into a diving pose, and tossed himself into the waves.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well…I needed a new paint job anyways…," Speedy said. He looked out the window.

A green dolphin pranced out of the water, turned into an elf in mid-air, and gave a smiling thumb's up before once again splashing into the Bay and escorting the speedboat home.

"Looks like the little jade rascal made it," Speedy said. "Do you need a license to ram titanium cars into swordsmen, Robin?"

"What's it matter…we're safe now," Robin said. "So's Cyborg if we get him back in time."

"Can't say much about those at the prison," Speedy exclaimed. "Who was butchered this time? The Warden?"

"Georgeton…yes…," Robin sighed. "Quite the tragedy."

"He wasn't…the….only one…," Cyborg muttered.

Robin leaned down. "What? Did you see more?"

Cyborg nodded weakly. "At least….a dozen. Most of….the West Wing's….crew…."

Silence filled the boat.

Speedy took a deep breath and aimed for the Tower's outer docks.

"We'll assemble with the others…," Robin said. "Hopefully what Noir and Raven found will help us. But I think I've got a lot of evidence myself that'll clue us in on who this maniac is, exactly."

"How….did you…do that?" Cyborg blinked.

"I'll brief you later," Robin said. "Right now….you could use some more juice."

"Make that the three of us," Speedy said. He glanced out the window at a frolicking, green seal. "Three and a half, that is."

Robin sighed and reattached Cyborg's arm with a SNAP!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

After a good twenty minutes of snow, the video finally showed something.

A living room.

_The_ living room.

Slowly, a nervous-looking man shuffled over and sat in the chair. A man with his head attached.

He took a shuddering sigh and looked at the hidden camera.

"I am…….George Schauer…I work for a man whose name is never uttered…for fear of losing one's life. But…I am convinced………my life has served its length. My end is coming. So……I am now giving this message……using the same devices I've used infamously in the past…to set up people double-crossing my former boss. Now it's time for my own incrimination. My own confession."

He took a deep breath, rubbed his eyes, and continued.

"Dagger has been my employer for the past seven years. During that time…the only luxury I've earned is that of a somber ambiguity that only distances every human around me due to fear of the unknown. Dagger is a very frightening 'unkown', but he is only a man. And all men—l-like myself—must someday die."

He leaned forward and looked forlornly into the camera.

"_Fate is……changing. The world is becoming the playing grounds for a whole new slew of rules. Good and evil are threatening to shift. It is a conflict that extends upon the comprehendible elements of flesh and bone and metal. But rather…everything around us…the air…the spirits…they are all at stake here."_

His eyes grew firm as he went on.

"There is a deadly experiment taking place. An experiment to see if the Balance of Morals is a real thing or not, and furthermore if it can be manipulated. Not many people know what this is, save for a few destructive souls who seek to master it. Dagger is one such soul. But he is not alone. I am sure of that."

He looked over his shoulder momentarily, then faced the camera again.

"Anderson…a former accomplice……a master of provisions for Dagger and many others in the Family of Blood…he is now dead. He is lost in the devices of his own hands. And those devices have now passed down to us. Dagger himself employed me in the distribution of these materials. I agreed at first, but now am deciding to turn back on my choices. It is not that I regret a destructive wave of crime in the Underworld of this City. Such can be expected—no doubt—as a result of this destructive technology. But that is merely the surface of the issue."

He shuddered for a moment, then continued.

"_It's all part of the Experiment. The weaponry…Anderon's death…Simon Stone's ended career. It's all a bunch of lures set to make the Experiment culminate. I do not know how, but fate is being manipulated and forced to let the players slide down into the core of the Experiment and set things in motion for the Balance of Morals to fade into awkwardness. I had to do something to sabotage this. For though I wanted to make a living under Dagger's protection of ambiguity…I did not want the utter ruination of my fellow man. I sold Anderson's materials to incompetent clientele. Drug users. Young mobs. My own associates within the criminal circle of the Crystal Palace. I figured that at least one of them—or one of us—would show a trace of this mess of complexity and give way to the Experiment's abortion. Be it the police…the FBI…the JLA…Teen Titans…whoever. Someone must know. Someone must discover. I am sorry for how far this has gone. I am sorry that I was carried along with it……_"

Schauer suddenly stopped. He looked up at something off the edge of the camera's view. Wind kicked into the apartment as he stood up in front of his chair. His head was out of view. He rested back with his right hand against the sofa's armrest.

"You………………who do you belong with? Luthor? Slade?"

A dark pantleg with a thick boot appeared. An ivory sword draped to the side.

An eerie, electronic voice emanated over the video feed. Almost robotic. Inhuman.

"_**I am yours………only yours….**_"

SLINK!!!

The sword came down over Schauer's right hand.

His headless body danced in pain.

"_Au-ugh!!"_

The silver flew again.

THWAP!!

Schauer's lower body jerked, dangled, and slumped down in the chair. His head rolled bloodily down into his lap.

He was still.

The body in black stood there for a minute and a half before wandering off camera.

A beat.

The body wandered back. A pair of thick, black gloves sparked in his grasp.

The body faded away—disappeared into invisibility.

The camera continued filming Schauer's headless body for the next three hours.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven and I looked at each other.

Raven took a breath. "We better take this video with us back to the Tower."

I motioned towards the living room.

Raven nodded. "I'll contact the police." A pause. She looked at me. "You and your sword….you should probably head back to the Tower before they come. Just in case…."

I nodded. I took the video and blurred away.


	41. Silence is Crimson part 3

**41. Silence is Crimson part 3**

The lab's medical bed besides Starfire's pivoted up. Beast Boy and Speedy helped a sighing, drained Cyborg rest against the platform.

Robin pressed a switch.

The bed lowered with a whir till Cyborg stared at the ceiling. Clamps closed around his limbs and held him steady as a network of wires snaked in and attached to various parts of his titanium exoskeleton.

"How's that, Cy?" Beast Boy smiled hopefully.

"Not….quite….," Cyborg mumbled. His human eye wandered over in Robin's direction. "Press the….blue switch…."

The Boy Wonder did so.

The walls of the laboratory lit up. The computers hummed to a higher factor of performance.

Cyborg's human eyelid lowered and his red optic faded to a deep, electric blue. His body glowed and then the monitor across the way from him and Starfire blipped to life, showing a frequency line that vibrated like an EKG.

_"Ah yeah!"_ Cyborg's voice electronically emanated from the walls. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" the monitors flickered and flashed in cadence with his transient voice. _"I can rest easy here while my nanoprobes repair the damage made to my power banks!"  
_  
"So you'll be…….okay?" Speedy asked, making a face.

"_As snug as a bug!"_

"Man…," Beast Boy scratched his neck. "It creeps me out that you can do this, Cy."

_"Hey…this Tower was built by Stones too, ya know!"_ the walls spoke. _"It's as much a part of me as that rust bucket you see lying on the table there!"_

"Well then…," Robin winced and shuffled his bandaged shoulder. "…I'm glad to hear you're so happy."

_"I'm fit Robin," _Cyborg's voice said. _"Not necessarily happy."_

Beast Boy stared down at the floor.

"Let's go meet with Raven and Noir," Robin said to Speedy and B.B. He faced the computers. "Care to 'follow' us to the Main Room?"

"_I don't see why not. I'm not letting this creep get away with all his atrocities. And I just bet you're onto something, aren't you, Robin?"_

"Don't know yet…," the Boy Wonder muttered. "That's why I want to talk to Raven and Noir first."

"Communal detective," Speedy winked from under his mask.

Robin glared at him.

Speedy smirked.

Robin looked at Starfire.

The alien girl slept soundly.

_"Don't worry, Robin,"_ Cyborg's voice said. _"I'll look after her."_

"Didn't even need to ask….," Robin muttered and headed out the door with Speedy and the changeling in tow.

"I've heard of a 'housesitter' before….," Beast Boy mumbled, "….but this is ridiculous!"

_"I heard that!"_

"Crikey! You can hear everything! Shut up!!"

_"Ha ha ha!"_

Starfire slept still.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nineteen deaths….," Raven spoke as she spun a pair of inviso-gloves in her grasp. "All in a span of forty-eight hours……..what a massacre…."

I surfed the Internet on a computer station across the Main Room. I glanced over a news site that listed headlines of the horrific findings throughout the city—but chiefly the prison's West Wing. I took a deep sigh and glanced at her through my shades.

The blue maiden looked up. "I often wonder….what emotions spawn homicide to manifest itself in the hearts of fools and villains. All my life, I've valued the repression of desires and personalities that threaten to hurt me and those I'm around. I would like to think I've done well in maintaining peace and prosperity in spite of my many, carnal urges. So many hours a day spent in meditation…the careful control of thought and consciousness. I have invested so much of my life into a sort of mental security. When I see maniacs like this ghostly man shedding blood relentlessly….it makes me sick. It is a waste of not only spirit…but also principal and social ethic. Common decency is raped in the need of personal gain—or just plain lust."

A pause.

"It almost summons up the very same flare of anger I fight to suppress…," she mumbled.

I stared back at the computer. Try as I might, I could never begin to understand the restraint Raven had to practice. So why begin to try?

All I could do was listen. And that was fine for Raven—a girl who could only speculate, and never take part in the feelings of hurt and hatred forbidden of her.

"What's taking them so long?" Raven muttered, looking at the doors.

I shrugged blindly.

"I swear…ever since Speedy paid his visit…," Raven droned, "…the boys have been more….boyish."

I smirked at her. I cupped my hands together and did a girlish expression.

"Starfire?" Raven blinked at me. "What about her?"

I gestured towards the dark girl.

"No, I don't miss her," Raven said.

I stared at her.

"Um….th-that is what you insinuated, right?"

I folded my arms and smiled.

Raven huffed. She stood up and firmly turned around. "I need tea." She shuffled off towards the kitchen area. "Now."

I exhaled and turned back to the face the computer---and was shocked to see a sudden IM Window open and glaring at me.

_**XraverGreen**__**: Why's it always the dark gals that are most attractive?**_

I raised an eyebrow.

I looked around me. Through the darklit windows of night. Behind me at Raven. Back at the computer.

The screen name had typed and sent me a brand new line in the IM window.

_**XraverGreen:**__** Oh, I see, you're not one to like being teased.**_

I cleared my throat, cracked my knuckles, and typed a reply. I hesitated momentarily before hitting 'send'.

-CLICK-

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Do I know you?**_

Silence.

Faintly, I heard Raven behind me pouring herself a pitcher of tea.

Then…

_**XraverGreen:**__** 'Squirrel'?? What a goofy name for you, Noir.**_

I couldn't help it. My heart jumped. I sweated—rather spooked—and typed a little to hastily:

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Huh?**_

_**  
**__**XraverGreen:**__** Don't be alarmed, Noir. I've gotten closer to you than the Internet. And you know it, too.**_

My jaw dropped slightly.

I thought for a while….then typed:

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Is this the Messenger?**_

Silence.

I leaned forward and stared at the screen through my shades.

Then….

_**XraverGreen:**__** I am your friend, Noir. No matter the name. Now answer me this, are you scared?**_

I replied.

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Should I be?**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** Maybe. Maybe not. There is cause for concern lately, but you don't need me to tell you that.**_

I bit my lip.

I took a deep breath and typed:

_**SpSquirrel:**__** What do you know about the assassin?**__**XraverGreen:**__** I know he's a snake in urban grass.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** He's involved in marijuana shipment?**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** lol! Gawd! Can't you take things figuratively?**_

I frowned.

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Either say what you have to say or stop wasting my time.**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** Okay! Okay! Sheesh, you're more grouchy than I imagined.**_

………

_**XraverGreen:**__** Do you believe that crimefighting is a war in and of itself, Noir?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Yes.**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** And does war have its casualties?**_

I rubbed my chin in thought.

I waited.

I sighed and typed:

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Yes.**__**XraverGreen:**__** Then it is so. I am regretful of the loss you and the Titans have encountered. And yet, I am thankful and proud for your heroic efforts.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** You're not answering my question.**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** So greedy! To be honest, I wish I knew your assassin. He'd do a good job of scaring off trick-or-treaters while I'm reading comic books in the living room.**_

I grumbled.

_**XraverGreen:**__** But it's hard to know a man who's invisible unless you had a big enough net.**_

I lifted an eyebrow from under my shades.

_**XraverGreen:**__** Remember how I asked you to think figuratively? Well, imagine the City as one huge pool. The pool is full of leaves from the tree overhead. But it's a special tree, and every now and then a clear leaf falls into the waters. It's the job of you and your teammates to scoop the leaves out with the pool net. But how can you find one tiny, clear leaf on the surface of such a huge basin of water?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** How??**_

A pause.

I felt my own heartbeat.

_**XraverGreen:**__** Answer. You make waves. Eventually, the leaf will be shaken into your net.**_

I cocked my head to the side.

_**XraverGreen:**__** Noir? Cat got your tongue?**_

I was about to type a response when the elevator doors behind me opened.

"Finally," Raven said between sipping tea. "Let's get this meeting over with. We have a killer to catch up with."

I looked back and saw Robin, Beast Boy, and Speedy walk in.

"Calm down, Raven," Beast Boy said. "We'll kick some butt eventually."

"Give us a break!" Speedy remarked. "We trudged through blood, fire, and sewage to get where we are now."

"And just where _are we now_?" Raven glared.

Speedy and Beast Boy blushed.

Robin gritted his teeth: "Ever a step closer." He headed towards me and the computer.

I turned around. I did a double-take.

The Messenger had left a few parting lines.

_**XraverGreen:**__** It's been a pleasure 'talking' to you, Noir.**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** If you want my advice…the next time Raven needs some tea, pour it for her.**_

_**XraverGreen:**__** Peace out.**_

_**XraverGreen has signed off**_

A chill ran down my spine. I quickly closed the windows.

"Mind if I take over, Noir?"

I gestured: '_By all means.'_

I stood up and offered Robin the chair.

He hopped in and typed furiously.

A subprogram popped up.

He clicked on something and the mainframes circling the Main Room lit up with blue intensity.

"How's that, Cyborg?" Robin spoke into the air.

I jumped—startled—as Cyborg's voice boomed down from the intercoms.

"Just nice, Robin! I can listen in on everything here."

"Why so shaky, Noir?" Beast Boy smiled, his arms folded.

"I think he's getting used to it…," Raven said, sipping at her tea.

"Sorry to scare you, buddy!"

I simpered.

"Okay, Raven," Robin spun in his chair and looked at her. "Let's start with you. What did you and Noir find?"

She gulped down some tea, swallowed, and spoke: "Plenty. Not only did the trip to the Crystal Palace confirm my suspicions about the circulation of Anderson's weaponry, it also shed light on the assassination attempt by that deranged sniper at the field day charity event."

"Oh yeah….," Speedy smirked. "When Robin and I nearly lost our heads."

Beast Boy glared. "In more contexts than one…"

"And then we found those," Raven pointed.

I walked over and held up a pair of thick, black gloves.

"Try them on, Noir," Raven said.

I nodded.

I slipped them on…then flicked my wrists.

Sparks danced down my body and limbs as I turned invisible.

Speedy and Robin gasped.

A security camera on the ceiling panned over to look at my ghostly figure and Cyborg also added: _"Ooooh…now that's snazzy!"_

I slipped the gloves off and reappeared as Beast Boy spoke:

"How're we sure Noir's not just turning into cloaked mode himself?"

"You give it a try, then," Raven said.

I smirked and tossed the changeling the gloves.

He snatched them and slipped them on.

With a dance of sparks, he was invisible. "Duuuude! Sweet!"

"Over your paws, perhaps," Raven said stoically. "But in the hands of our target---or any other individual getting ahold of the late Anderson's stash—it is a most deadly tool."

"How'd you go about acquiring them?" Robin asked.

"We found and interrogated one of the purchasers of the missing items at the warehouse," Raven said.

"And he just gave these things away?" Robin remarked. "And info too?"

"I was……most convincing," she said.

Robin's eyemask squinted at her.

She smirked ever so slightly.

"Hey! Guys!!" a ghostly Beast Boy invisibly chanted. "Guess which animal I am!"

_"A rat…,"_ Cyborg's voice muttered. _"Now take those things off and let Raven finish what she has to share."_

The gloves fell to the ground as a green rodent perched on the table and morphed into a pouting Beast Boy. "Spoilsport…"

"You said you went to an accomplice's apartment and found another murder…," Robin spoke to Raven. "What did you discover from that?"

"It's hard to say," Raven said. "The video of the man's last few minutes of living is quite……revealing. But it only makes things all the more confusing. Schauer kept speaking of a 'Balance of Morals' and a 'Grand Experiment'." A pause. "He mentioned 'Dagger' a lot…an individual in the crime circles that he evidently worked for. When the assassin appeared and finished him off, Schauer seemed to expect him. Though, he didn't know who the assassin worked for. He suspected Slade or Luthor."

"_How deep the rabbit hole goes…,"_ Cyborg's voice muttered electronically.

"Okay, dude. That's. Really. CREEPY!' Beast Boy cackled.

Speedy snickered.

"So, the assassin got the gloves from Schauer…," Robin spoke. "Somehow…I don't think Schauer was the only one expecting things to happen as they did."

Raven nodded. "The assassin had to have been onto him from the start."

"How old is the tape?"

"From the date on the recording—and the state of Schauer's decaying body, I'd say three and a half days at least."

"It's what the assassin needed to commit his murders…," Robin mumbled. "He's already as silent as death. He needed to become as unseen as death too."

"There's something worth mentioning….," Raven droned on. "…when the assassin appeared, there was a voice. Most likely, the assassin had an accomplice."

"Someone who could speak for him?"

"Yes," Raven nodded. "Since our enemy is apparently mute."

I blinked under my shades.

She glanced subconsciously at me and continued, unabashed. "Whoever spoke…his or her voice was somehow distorted. Like it was spoken through some sort of electronic filter."

"Creepy….," Beast Boy shivered. "Almost creepier than Cyborg right now…."

"_I see green peeeeeeople…."_"KNOCK IT OFF!"

_"Heheheh!!"_

Robin glared at the computers. "Are you done?"

"I'm listening…"

Robin folded his arms and looked at Raven. "Schauer was working for 'Dagger', right?"

"Right."

"The assassin kills Dagger's man…," Robin thought aloud, "…then how could the assassin be working for him?"

"Slade's man, perhaps?" Speedy remarked. "Slade has a history of hiring bloodthirsty underlings from time to time."

"Yes…sometimes we _fight_ them," Beast Boy muttered.

Speedy shrugged, "Whatever, man."

"Hmmmmm," Robin thought aloud. "It's very possible that the assassin is a man all for himself. Or maybe he was working for 'Dagger', and 'Dagger' needed someone to off Schauer."

"And then go after every official of justice in the City?!" Beast Boy remarked. "If I'm getting the right drift…this 'Dagger' character is one to hide in the shadows. I mean…we didn't know about him until just recently! Why would he suddenly go ballistic and send his men out to kill people and toss weapons around?!"

"Maybe it's all part of Schauer's 'sabotage' that he preached so much about…," Raven uttered. "You should have heard him, Robin. The man spoke like a prophet. He seemed uniquely aware of a change in events taking place that nobody else is familiar with."

"Until we find a pattern to fill in the missing pieces…," Robin said and spun around in the chair to face the monitor. "I've been having a hunch. And I think I've rounded up my own evidence to prove it. Allow me a second while I bring up some information on the computer—"

_"Might as well ask me to do it, Robin,"_ Cyborg's voice said. _"I gotta be helpful somehow, right?"_

Robin rolled his eyes under his eyemask. "Very well, Cyborg. Do me a favor and bring up a map and official information on Pakistan."

"_Pakistan??"_

"You heard me right."

_"Okaaaaay,"_ Cyborg's voice said. The monitors flickered through a dozen windows or so as Cyborg personally accessed the computer mainframe.

Glancing at the monitor through my eyes, I once again thought about my recent conversation with the Messenger. I shook it off momentarily and paid attention to events at hand.

"_There!"_ Cyborg's voice said. The required information was on screen—most noticeably a big, green political map of Pakistan.

Robin stood up and paced before the huge monitor. He faced the four of us in the room and gestured to the image.

"In the Eastern Region of Pakistan, about two years ago, there was a series of grisly murders. I read up on it as I always try to keep focused on all major counts of homicide throughout the world. What made this so special and unique was the type of people victimized in the assaults."

Robin glanced at the monitor.

"Cyborg…bring up the file labeled 'RTHomCase4112002'."

_"Will do."_

Another window popped up, showing various text and photos of murder scenes. Bodies and pools of blood appeared in black and white.

"On April 11, 2002, the most gruesome of the murders took place. Fifteen police officers were having a meeting to discuss city ordinances. They weren't heard from overnight. A janitor walked into the building the next morning and found their bodies discarded in a pile in the corner. Their right hands were all cut off."

"Well…," Beast Boy blinked. "This sounds familiar."

"How come you didn't make a connection before?" Speedy said.

"I did," Robin said. "But I didn't think it was worth pursuing. This looked like an act of terrorism to me—on behalf of the constant stress going on between Pakistan and India in that region. I felt a radical or two ambushed the officers and attempted to create an uprising and incite conflict."

_"It's interesting to note…,"_ Cyborg spoke, "_…chopping off the right hand means a heck of a lot in the Arab world."_

"The whole eating-versus-other-actions-thing, right?" Speedy remarked.

The computerized voice of the android replied: _"The right hand is the clean hand. I'm sure you've all heard of the stereotypical punishment of stealing involving the chopping off of the right hand yadda yadda…"_

I nodded.

"So…whoever murdered those Pakistani cops…," Beast Boy remarked, "…they really meant for them to be disgraced."

"Perhaps," Robin nodded. "Notice there're two similar patterns at work here," he added.

"We've got the 'chopping off the hand' part," Speedy said.

"What's the other?" Beast Boy asked.

"Law enforcement…"

Everyone looked at Raven. Including me.

She continued: "Judge Carson. Warden Georgeton. The police officer, the security guard, and the M.P. The guards at the prison. They're all symbols of law enforcement."

_"And, in a matter of speaking, so are we,"_ Cyborg's voice said.

Beast Boy gulped.

"Okay then," Speedy folded his arms. "So these are serial killers whose signatures are to go after cops, judges, guards, vigilantes, etc. How do we know that these 'avengers of villainy' aren't anything but different, independent cases? I mean, we're talking about murders being committed two years and a world apart!"

"This is where I believe God gave me a photographic memory," Robin smirks. "For cases such as these." He turned back to the monitor. "Cyborg…can you bring up 'RTProfEtc156'?"

"One second."

The monitor flipped through a bunch of files and settled on a group photo.

It was dated July 8, 1999. A throng of people stood across a garden in rich clothing. It seemed like a special occasion: a wedding or a wealthy party of some sort.

"This photo was taken in India about three years before the Pakistan murders."

"Heading a little bit east, are we?" Speedy smirked.

"This is important," Robin spoke. "Cyborg…zoom in on the top right."

"Okay……"

A rectangle appeared over the image, highlighted the upper right quadrant, and maximized the pixilated section.

"Clarify…"

"Read my mind……"

The pixels faded into each other and the faces became slightly more discernible. Smiling…happy…affluent guests. One face was whiter, paler, and thicker than the rest.

Robin pointed, "Zoom in once more….on the white face on the top right."

"_Hmmm………_" Cyborg's voice hummed aloud.

"What are we looking at?" Beast Boy muttered. "Isn't your high school reunion a little too far off from now?"

"Shhh!"

The picture zoomed in, became clear, and there was a slight gasp from some in attendance.

Raven and I were clueless.

_"It's him!"_ Cyborg remarked.

"Totally!" Beast Boy jumped.

"I'll be damned….," Speedy mumbled.

"You mean….you guys saw his face?" Raven asked.

"Clear as day," Robin said. "Caucasian. Muscular. Thick neck. Balding head. It's him all-right."

"What about that disc-like-thingy around his throat?" Speedy remarked.

I raised an eyebrow.

_"You mean this??"_ Cyborg made a cursor outline a dark line surrounding the white suspect's neck. _"It's there, my friend. It has to be the guy."_

"Doesn't seem like a true assassin if he shows his face…," Raven stated.

I nodded.

"Well, he did!!" Beast Boy waved.

"It's because we're not dealing with an assassin after all," Robin said. "Just your average, lunatic killer." He turned and faced the screen. "Vincent Patrick Matthew Thames the Third, I present you."

"Doesn't sound very….Indian," Speedy said with a twisted eyemask. "If you don't mind me saying."

"None at all," Raven droned.

"That's because he's English-Indian," Robin said. "That is to say…he's the latest in a line of an English family that colonized in India back during the Age of Imperialism. His household has survived the fall of the British Empire after the World Wars and the rise of the Indian populace to power in the middle of the Twentieth Century. Such survival is mostly due to Vincent's father, Vincent Thames the Second, and his constant embezzlement in organized crime and drug trafficking in the area. He was found out, though, early in Vincent the Third's life. Vincent the Second was discovered of his crimes in a government sting operation. As it turned out, Vincent the Second had performed more crimes against the Pakistani government throughout the last three decades. So a joint decision by Indian and Pakistani officials was to take him westward to answer for his crimes. Along the trip there, however, his plane transport crashed into the mountains. Thought it is unknown how—Vincent the Second's wife also perished around the same time. Vincent the Third was orphaned in his early teens because of all this. Since his father never got to answer officially for his crimes—and due to many other reasons—there was still a grand fortune for Vincent the Third to inherit. But it's then that his family legacy becomes even more vague, for Vincent the Third went into hiding. He hardly appeared I public—this photo being an example. Just five years ago, his family estate had been discovered abandoned. Vincent the Third had disappeared and been presumed dead. All his fortunes were auctioned off and liquidated. Everything about him…erased…almost magically. It's as if his father never committed any crimes to answer to."

"Maybe there was a powerful hand at play….," Speedy remarked. "To make his life vanish so easily."

"Or he could be dead," Raven suggested.

"If that face in the photo is him….," Beast Boy remarked, "…it's him! I can still see him now….clear as day!"

"How does this…'Vincent the Third' fit into all the murders?" Speedy asked.

"Think about it," Robin remarked. "A family history in crime. Roots in the geographic region. A possible motive for disliking Pakistani government and law enforcement—not to mention Pakistanis in general…"

"And why would he come all the way here to do the same sort of stuff?"

Beast Boy added: "And how come he's mute?!"

I blinked.

"_Um………guys?"_ Cyborg's voice hummed.

"What is it?"

_"I've been looking up subsidiary information on this Vincent the Third fellow while y'all have been talking…,"_ the android spoke through the computer speakers and intercoms, _"…and you might this very fascinating."_

A photo popped up on the monitor. A middle-aged woman smiled into the camera. The image was labeled: "Mariah Vincent."

Speedy stepped up besides Robin and squinted. "A woman. Who is she?"

"Vincent the Third's mom."

"Husband to Vincent the Second, then," Speedy nodded. "Died mysteriously. Yadda yadda. What about it?"

"……," Cyborg spoke, _"Check out her maiden name."_

The photo blipped. The label was replaced. It read: _"Mariah Anderson."_

"………..," Speedy stared.

"Crud," Beast Boy gripped his temples. "I'm gonna get a headache!"

I gestured emphatically to the ceiling.

A camera whirred.

"_Yup,"_ Cyborg's voice replied. _"American. Born in Westhaven. Went to college only eight miles away from where the Tower now stands. For crying out loud, we have our connection! How'd you assume it, Robin?"_

"I keep a mental note to watch over the developments and fate of all and any rogues of interest around the world," he said. "I knew Vincent the Third's disappearance was too good to be true." He turned and looked at us all. "From the photo…his mother's relation…the similar nature of the murders that could very well be connected to him, I believe we're dealing with the son of the English-Indian crimelord. Somehow, he's mastered the art of killing. Unlike his father, he faces his enemies first hand, and then proceeds to chop off their hands…followed shortly with a murder. A most grim and bloody murder."

"But _why?!_" Beast Boy pulled at his hair. "And why's he mute?!"

"I think we should stop considering reasons behind this 'Vincent' character," Raven stepped up and said. "And instead, we should start focusing on 'how'. As in, 'how do we catch him'?"

"_Those gloves Raven and Noir nabbed could be of help,"_ Cyborg's voice said. _"If I just copy down their electrical signatures, I might be able to use the Tower's scanners to find where another pair is being used in the City. Since our suspect is so fond of blending in with the shadows, it seems natural we'd find him doing it again somewhere."_

Raven nodded, "True."

"There're too many electronic devices being used in a mobile fashion all over the place," Robin said. "It'd be impossible to track down two technological gloves among that urban mess!"

"Anderson's technology doesn't differ enough to hold its own?" Speedy remarked.

"It does…but not enough."

_"How about if I narrow down the search of electronic signals to courthouses, police departments, prisons, etc?"_

"Good idea in theory," Raven spoke, "…but not practical. By the time we narrowed down enough electronic signals, we could possibly be too late in preventing another bloody murder."

"Well, we've got to think of something!!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

I was half-listening to the conversation at this point. My dark brain was swimming in an invisible pool full of leaves. The leaves bobbed up at the surface, brown and disgusting. In my mental world, I extended a net at the far end of a long pole into the waters and dragged the leaves out. Yet, no matter how many leaves I pulled out, more leaves fell in from the trees shading the pool above. And yet, none of them was the leaf I was looking for. For my leaf was clear…invisible on the surface of the waves…elusive.

"If only we had another factor to cross-reference the electrical signals with…"

_"Yeah! That could work. But it'd have to be a reading far more accurate than what we're using now."_

"Like what?"

I looked at the monitor. The Messenger's words burned in my black eyes.

I glanced to the side, let my vision trickle down, and let it land on a T.V. remote resting on a table.

A pause.

I brightened.

I jumped forward and gestured to everyone emphatically.

"What is it, Noir?" Robin asked.

I beamed.

I had a plan.

"He has a plan……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I led the way down into the dark cellar, opened a few doors, and then walked up to a bulkhead where Control Freak's intrusive, huge vibration devices still resided. I gestured to the machines and smiled.

Robin, Speedy, Raven, and Beast Boy stared.

"What the heck are those things?" Speedy remarked.

"Control Freak's…," Beast Boy remarked. "He planted those there under our noses. He used them to shake the entire metal frame of the Tower and….er…..'pirate' the sonic transmissions of the government so that he could have secret access to classified information."

"Snazzy," Speedy said. "Must have caused quite a stir."

Beast Boy whimpered and clutched his skull. "You have no idea…"

"Why didn't we take these things out of here?" Raven muttered with a frown.

"Guess we got lazy," Robin said. He held a communicator out beneath him. "Or just simply busy. Give me a moment in the last month when we had time to do anything else but beat up bad guys??"

Raven held her tongue….until she said: "How about that big trip to the mall."

"You mean the 'Pink' incident?!" Beast Boy said, then giggled madly: "Hehehehehehehehehe!!"

Raven glared fiery eyes at him.

Speedy smiled and folded his arms, "I'm interested…"

"No," Raven gave him the glare too. "You're not."

I gestured towards the devices and symbolized 'waves' with my hands.

Robin stared, "You're suggesting, Noir, that we use sonic vibrations as a second detector of Vincent?"

"Like sonar?" Speedy suggested.

"Only one bigass sonar!" Beast Boy said.

I nodded and smiled.

"You getting this, Cyborg?" Robin exclaimed into the air.

The communicator in the Boy Wonder's hand crackled forth: _"Yup. And I'd say it's a marvelous idea. From what we all saw, I can estimate our suspect's body weight and stature. I'll cross-reference the readings of the sonar with that of the electrical signals…"_

"And we'll have the path of our killer," Raven finished.

"Woo hoo!" Speedy cheered with one jerking arm. "Now that's what I call action!"

Beast Boy pouted. "Must you really turn this thing on? Like…soon?"

"_Deal with it, B.B. There are lives depending on this. On us!"_"I knowwwwwwww," he whimpered. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be upstairs getting the cotton for my _ears_."

Beast Boy sauntered up the stairs and out of the cellar.

"I'll….um….follow him," Speedy remarked and was gone.

"Got all the info you need, Cyborg?" Robin spoke into the communicator.

"I think so. It'll take a while to do, of course. I'll let you know as soon as I get any results in the region of the City. Over and out."

Robin flipped the communicator closed and took a deep breath. "We'll have some time on our hands, I guess." He glanced at me. "How'd you think of it, Noir?"

I smiled. I mouthed while gesturing with my hands: _'Make the waves shake out the leaf.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's starting…," Beast Boy sat on the roof of the Tower at night and clutched his head. He squinted his eyes shut. "I can feel it!"

Speedy walked up, knelt down, and offered a soda can. "Root beer?"

Beast Boy popped an eye open and glanced at the beverage. "Huh?"

"Always calmed me down during a migraine," Speedy said as he sat down by Beast Boy on the roof's edge, dangled his legs, and popped his can open for a drink.

"You get migraines?" Beast Boy asked, straining.

"Yeah," Speedy sighed after taking a swig of root beer. "I think it comes from squinting so much in the line of duty."

"I see…," Beast Boy muttered. "It must not be fun having your life depend on arrows."

"The same can be said for tentacles and claws."

"Touche."

Silence.

"So how's it relaxing, exactly?"

"Pardon?"

"The root beer."

"Oh…," Speedy smiled and held up his can. "It's not as….hard as other soft drinks."

"Not as hard as other soft drinks?" Beast Boy looked at him. He clutched his head and closed his eyes. "Stop using oxymorons….it doesn't help my head."

"Let's just say, root beer lives up to the 'soft' in the 'soft drink'," Speedy said. "I've always thought of the quaff as having a personality. The reason it foams so much is that it's too lazy to hold its own weight in liquid, so it turns it all to bubbles. You get me?"

"Kinda…," Beast Boy whimpered under the clutch of his hands.

"Go on…try it…"

The green-eyed changeling looked forlornly down at the can, considered it, and gave in. He picked the can up, popped the lid, and took a swig.

Speedy watched.

Beast Boy blinked. "Darn it, now I'm hungry for pizza."

Speedy chuckled: "Would that chase away your headache?"

"I dunno," the changeling replied. "It makes me think of Italian restaurants."

"Those stereotypical, red-plastic cups, right?"

"Yeah."

"Me too."

A pause.

"Are you hypoglycemic?" Speedy asked.

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

"…."

"…."

"….it's working, I-I think."

"Is it?" Speedy asked.

"Y-Yeah….it tastes good. No more headache," Beast Boy smiled.

"Heheh…good."

Silence.

Then…

Beast Boy hugged his knees to his chest. "Think drinking root beer will chase away a killer with a huge ass sword?"

Speedy breathed. "No. It won't."

The night's wind kicked at them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stood in front of a monitor in the Main Room, displaying the functioning schematics of the machines down below making the Tower vibrate. She glanced at me.

"Funny…"

I did a double-take over at her from whatever I was doing. I mouthed: '_Funny??'_

"For me, it actually is," she said, deadpan. "Here we are using Control Freak's devices to find a madman. If he hadn't attacked Kobayashi Tower, kidnapped Robin, and endangered national security weeks ago like he did, we wouldn't be able to stop this bloody murderer like we're attempting to now."

I nodded.

She was right.

"It seems—now—that everything is coming full circle…"

I glanced at her, my head cocked to the side.

"Seriously….it intrigues me," she said. "Over the last month, we've found most—if not all—of our adventures intersecting in some fashion or another. Simon Stone's visit was decisive in Anderson reaching his end. Anderson would not have been around to end had it not been for yours and Beast Boy's escapade in the Westhaven Opera House. Anderson's relation extends to Vincent the Third, who is now committing murders at will throughout the City. We're locating him through the same device used against us by Control Freak long before the Westhaven incident culminated. And we're also using a set of technology that—beyond being supplied by Anderson—is being distributed through means of this mysterious 'Dagger' character."

I took a deep breath. It was a brain-full.

"Schauer's words keep echoing in my head…," the dark girl said. "How there's an "Experiment' going on. How some 'Balance of Morals' is being threatened. These are all ambiguous terms…but somehow, I feel…I just feel that there's a connection in the meaning. Especially in regards to events as they've culminated as of late."

I pointed at her heart from far away.

Raven blinked. She spoke, "You're right. I've only predicted trouble for myself when I rely on what…I 'feel'." She sighed. "For once in my life, I am confused over whether or not I've been 'thinking' too much or 'feeling' too much."

I gave her a compassionate smile.

She frowned at me. "Wipe that smile off your face."

_You bet I did._

A beeping sound.

I looked over her shoulder.

She turned to face the monitors. Her posture changed. "I'm contacting Robin….this may be good. And at the same time, it may be bad."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We may be making progress…," Robin spoke quietly. "Raven…Noir…Cyborg….we've all put our heads together. Beast Boy and Speedy have been supportive as ever. Beast Boy actually saved all our necks as we exited the tunnel in Speedy's getaway boat. You should have seen him. You would have been proud. Heck, even I'm proud."

Starfire slept soundly on the medical bed.

Robin knelt beside her in the lab.

"You know…," he began, faltered, and smiled for strength as he continued: "…if everything goes well, and this character gets locked up or whatever, it's gonna be tough telling you all about it. I mean truly telling you. You may zap me for saying this out loud, but I'm glad you weren't awake to see what this man has done, Star."

Silence.

The girl was peaceful. She breathed gently.

"After our first battle with H.I.V.E., I thought we were changed forever. Then came Slade, and I realized I was wrong. We were still changing. Maturing. Evolving. I thought we had reached our apex. And then….Terra….." Robin took a deep breath and skipped that subject. "Again…things are changing. The City runs crimson with blood. I can't bear to think about the faces of the family members whose loved ones will never again enter their embrace. The Titans have done the best they can. And….it just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like a loss. But I know it is. I keep telling myself it is. I've seen the blood. I've seen the pain. I even have a scratch to show for it," he waved his bandaged shoulder and sighed. "I guess I can't accept the fact that we're imperfect, Star. We provide salvation to the people of this City…but it isn't an omnipresent salvation. God help us, we are so mortal. So damn mortal."

Silence.

"It…I-It would really bless me, Star, to see you awake soon," Robin said with a deep sigh.

The intercom went off. _"Robin. It's Cyborg."_

"Yes?"

"Come upstairs, now. Raven just told me the data is in."

"And?"

"See for yourself."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The police department?!?!" Beast Boy gasped.

"Looks like it," Raven folded her arms. "The signal has been tracing around the blocks over and over again. Like he's scooping the situation at hand and waiting for a perfect time to strike."

The Titans watched the monitor in the Main Room as it displayed a beeping signal encircling the police department's building.

Robin gritted his teeth: "He's waiting for us."

"Is that what you think he wants out of all this?" Speedy inquired. "The Titans?"

"I'm sure of it," Robin nodded. "Nothing against the cops, but we're the most….flashy form of justice and law enforcement in this vicinity."

"Point made," Speedy nodded.

"_He keeps inching closer and closer to the building, Robin,"_ Cyborg's voice said. _"Waiting for us, he might be. For all we know, he was doing that at the prison too. But when he waits too long…"_

"He grows impatient and kills people," Raven spoke. "To see if that rouses us any."

"Lovely….," Beast Boy gulped.

Robin glared at the computer screen. He looked at the inviso-gloves.

I watched his gaze. I was on the same page as him…_or so I felt then._

"Speedy….Noir….," Robin spoke as he spun around. "The three of us will be paying the police department a visit."

"Fine by me," Speedy nodded. "Maybe we can get this over with."

Robin squinted. "Maybe."

"Wait!" Raven extended a hand. "You can't be serious! The last time only a limited number of us faced this madman---"

"I have a plan," Robin emphasized.

"You need all of us," Raven said firmly.

"And I still plan to use all of you," Robin smiled. "Please….listen to what I have to say."

And so we did.

Myself included.


	42. Silence is Crimson part 4 final

**42. Silence is Crimson part 4 Final**

Inside the Seventh Story of the City's Police Department, the late crew was busy hustling and bustling away in the smoke-filled offices. A lazy electric fan or two hummed amidst the slow moving haze over the wooden office equipment and furniture. Save for the random shuffling of paper or spontaneous cough, the office was dismally quiet.

Somber.

Commissioner Decker slumped back in his chair inside his open office. He rubbed his temples and looked exhaustedly at the collection of newspaper clippings, photographic evidences, and written testimonies concerning the murder scenes.

He sighed.

It would have helped if he knew the first place to go with this case.

He closed his heavy eyelids.

It would have helped if he wasn't an insomniac.

Decker groaned, stood up, and shuffled out of his room. He drifted through the second-hand smoke of the office and towards the distant corner where a water cooler rested.

"Fun case, eh Decker?" a worker said from his desk.

"Positively jocular….," Decker moaned. "Do I pay you overtime to run your mouth off?"

"If you did, I wouldn't be running it, sir."

"God help you, Bernard," Decker reached the cooler and fumbled for a paper cup. "If there was a position in this department for civil cynicism, I'd recommend you for it."

"In another universe, perhaps."

A woman rushed up to Decker with a bunch of papers, "Commissioner, you're still here?"

"I'm always here, Susan," he grabbed a paper cup.

"Could you just sign this quickly, please?"

He took the notebook from her. "What is it?"

"Letter of condolences to the families of the—"

"Murdered. Got ya," he signed his name at the bottom. "I'd give my life's fortune one of these days to see who actually writes these things."

"Me too, sir."

The commissioner said nothing. He finished his name and Susan was quickly on her way.

"Aaaaah," he tiredly hummed at the water cooler. "Finally, an evening alone."

He held his cup under the faucet and lifted the plastic handle.

The clear water tank bubbled as the drink poured out.

The paper cup turned cool against his fingers.

When he was done, he lifted it to his lips and sank a pleasant tongue full.

He exhaled and looked at the tank.

The corner was dimly lit by a single, amber light a few feet away in the ceiling. As a result, Decker's face and the office behind him was reflected against the curved surface of the water tank in a crimson hue. Decker noticed the blinds of an open window behind him shaking, parting, snapping back, and shaking to a stop.

He blinked.

He spun around.

Decker stared down an aisle between desks where a few workers were drowsily working on reports.

Nothing was amiss.

Decker squinted. His fingers pressed into the soft body of the cup of water.

Slowly, the haze of cigarette smoke started to clear from the window. As if a tiny draft of wind had flown in.

"This…..," Decker barely whispered, "…..isn't right."

Sparks.

His eyes widened.

For a split second, a column of shadow and sparks stood far away in front of him.

Then…

Thwack! _Thwack! __**Thwack!**_

In a straight line towards Decker, the right hands of three random workers severed in the air. Blood flew amidst cries and curses of pain. Not a moment after, a column of sparks flew straight towards the commissioner's figure.

The paper cup fell to the floor. Water spilled.

Decker's left hand flew to his right wrist and he spun his body out of the way.

WOOOOOSH!!!

A cold rush of air kissed him from the face down to the elbow as a momentarily visible broadsword barely missed his right limb.

A split second later, Decker's dodging wrist went to his holster. He spun out a pistol, aimed at the water cooler, and shot.

BLAM!!!!!!

People screamed.

There was an invisible gasp of pain..

The water cooler danced and drained as a hole formed in the water tank. Decker could see the bullet resting to a stop inside the tank. It was trailing fresh blood in the water.

WHUMP!!

An invisible, bleeding elbow shoved him hard in the side.

He fell back, landed in an office chair, and was sent sliding across the office and toppling over a wooden desk upon impact.

A rush of air and feet thundered across the smoky interior.

Decker got up from behind the desk, eyed his gun alone on the floor, and reached for it. CRACK!!!

The weapon split in half from an invisible blade. There was a rush of cold air again.

Decker grit his teeth and ducked.

A section of cubicle was chopped off.

He fell to the ground.

The chair behind him was hacked to pieces.

He rolled under the desk and sheltered himself as the furniture was hacked to bits all around him.

Then…

"It's him! The assassin!"

"He's invisible!!"

"Take him out!!"

BLAM!!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!!

There was series of gunfire from police officers…shortly followed by the clanking sound of a broadsword deflecting the bullets.

CLANG! PING!! CLANK!!!

"Look out!"

"Duck!"

"Jeez!"

Decker took a risk and swept his leg out.

He made contact with an invisible ankle.

A body was sent falling—sparking—to the tile floor below.

Decker rolled out, dashed up to his feet, and ran to the nearest weapon he could find.

A coat rack.

He lifted the wooden object up, gritted his teeth, and swung it down at the last place the figure was seen.

SLAM!!!

Nothing but tile.

"What??" Decker gasped.

He was kicked in the rear by something.

He hit the side of a cubicle. He spun around with the coat rack at full swing.

An end of it was effortlessly lopped off by the sparking figure.

BLAM!! Another officer fired. BLAM!! BLAM!!

Decker momentarily saw a huge shadow in front of him duck, look at the officer, and disappear.

"Drake!!" Decker shot. He lifted the coat rack over his head like a javelin. "Get down!! Nggh!!" He threw the wooden object for all it was worth.

The police officer's eyes widened. SMACK!! Decker's projectile hit him and sent him sailing to the tile just before a section of cubicle was sliced to bits behind him.

Decker motioned to another officer, who tossed him a gun. The Commissioner quickly cocked it, aimed, and fired.

BLAM!!!

His other men joined him.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

A broadsword flashed into existence, spinning and deflecting the bullets.

Decker and his men were forced to duck as the bullets flew every which way. Some landed in the ceiling. Others plugged into furniture. Others ricocheted off the ground next to three office workers who cringed and screamed at the loss of their hands.

"Hold your fire!!" Decker shouted. "Everyone out!! Now!!"

The killer wasn't about to allow that. He flickered into reality for a moment, just long enough for everyone to see him raise his weapon and come charging straight at the group.

The Commissioner's heart fell. His eyes froze.

Then…

SMASH!!!!

Robin flew in through a window by grappling hook, stretched his feet out, and slammed directly into the side of the invisible assassin.

WHAM!!

The invisible body landed, streaked through the blood of the dismembered, and slid to a red-trailed stop on the other side of the office where a cubicle fell over his shadowed body.

Robin stood up, shook off the shards of glass, and got into a fighting pose. "Speedy! Now!!"

An arrow flew in from the smashed window where the archer then perched.

TWIFFFT!!

The gray projectile sang through the air, exploded into a flying net, and wrapped around the invisible figure at the other end. The assassin struggled in the coils, gasping and grunting.

Officers let out a sigh of relief. Some workers ran over to the injured while Decker approached Robin and Speedy.

"How did you know he'd be—"

"Here?" Robin finished. "We've been doing our homework."

"Glad you have."

Speedy marched over to the writhing figure, drew another bow, and aimed it at the man's shadowed forehead. "Feel like smiling now, punk?"

"No!" Robin cried out. "That's not the way to deal with him. Put your weapon down."

Speedy did so, frowning. "A waste of arrows not to kill him," he muttered.

Robin looked up at Decker. "Your people are wounded…and vulnerable. I suggest you get out of here, now."

"Excuse me," Decker said firmly. "This is my police department. We're locking that guy up now and for good."

"It isn't all over this easy….," Robin whispered. "Trust me….please…get out of here…"

Speedy turned around. "Robin?! What's taking them so long??"

Behind the archer's back, the netted figure flashed his broadsword. He snapped free of the restraints and stood up, flickering, with the weapon raised high.

A woman cried out: "Above you!!"

Speedy turned around. His eyemask widened.

The blade came down.

CLANK!!!

It deflected against something.

"!!!!" the figure twitched.

SWISH-SWOOSH-SMACK!!

I materialized in a puff of smoke energy as I brought my sword down from blocking and slammed its broad side against his ribs.

He was sent flying back into a wall. His whole body flickered, and his gloves shorted out. The bruised and battered maniac appeared before us—in his tall, black-clad glory. He rubbed his ribs, glared at me, and came charging with a silent scream.

Speedy stepped back and fired arrow after arrow.

The villain deflected each in his charge.

When he got to me, I deftly pivoted to the side, knocked his sword downward, and put him in the awkward position to be struck in the side.

Robin provided in that department.

SMACK!!

He flew in with a jump kick.

The assassin went reeling.

I shot out smoke and teleported directly behind him. I raised Myrkblade for a crucial blow.

He swiftly blocked in reversed and spun a three-sixty with his sword out.

I jumped back in time to avoid being cut in half.

Speedy launched two more arrows.

They veered a heart-shaped path around Robin and converged on the assassin's figure.

CLASH!!!!

The man leapt, grabbed the blade of a ceiling fan, and spun out of danger.

Robin was ready for him.

"HYAA!!" he swung a punch.

The assassin ducked, stepped back, and swung his blade.

Robin side-stepped, dove back in, and kicked high into the villain's chest.

WHUMP!!

He flew back into a window.

Speedy launched a flaming arrow.

FWOOOMP!!!

It landed with a fireball at the villain's feet.

But the assassin managed to jump through the blinds, grab ahold of the frame, swing around, and smash back inside through the adjacent window with his feet. No sooner had he landed, he streaked a path towards the archer—glass shards tumbling.

Speedy couldn't load another arrow fast enough.

The villain's sword came down.

I slid in, teeth gritting, and blocked.

CLASH!!

I pushed him back and let out a long, silent scream as I performed a flurry of ballistic Myrkblade stabs at all corners of his figure. He deflected and sidestepped as much as he could, gradually moving our battle across the length of the police department office and towards a set of desks with computer stations. Officers watched—wide eyed—with their pistols at ready. Decker clenched his fists and sweat.

I swung high at the villain's head.

He swung his blade up—perpendicular to the earth—and twisted his grasp, spinning me to the side.

He struck at my vulnerable right.

I shot out murk and teleported to the other side of the man just in time to avoid his swipe. I jumped back, leaned forward, and stabbed straight at his thighs.

He spun out of the way and brought his sword up just in time to meet with my dive.

We pressed our weight together. Blade ground against blade. Our faces nearly touched. My dark shades to his pale sockets. My long black hair to his thick, bald head. I gritted my teeth. He smirked.

"Yo!" Speedy's voice called out.

I glanced aside.

He aimed an arrow. "Head's up!"

PTWIFFT!!

I smirked. I slid my arms across the broad edges of our blades and gripped hard to the assassin's hands. I leaned back with all my torso, trapping him in the path of the upcoming projectile. He struggled and strained to get loose. Then he held his breath, leaned his own body back, ran his feet up my legs, and kicked off with such force that I had no choice but to fall back.

CLANG!!!

The assassin flipped backwards off me in time to avoid the arrow's impact.

I stumbled back. "!!!!" I looked down and realized I was holding both of our swords.

SWISH-SMACK!!!!

A sudden jump kick caught me off guard across the cheek. The impact was so strong, I literally spun twice before collapsing against a desk behind me.

"Noir!!" Robin cried out. He growled and ran straight at the assassin.

The villain rolled out of the way, grabbed his blade, and knelt beside me. He reached into a pocket of sorts and picked up a huge, silver tablet.

I blinked weakly at him through my shades.

He smirked, winked, and then tossed the object hard to the ground.

SMASH!!!

"Tear gas!!"

"No way. More powerful! It's spreading fast!"

"Get out of here!!"

The assassin's figure ran in my partners' direction, sparking into invisibility. The sudden, intensely white fog parted with his figure. The last thing I heard was the painful grunt of Speedy's voice before the fog reached my black eyes. I coughed, spit, vomited, and hacked my way into a curtain of blackness.

And flirted with death.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I let out a cry and jabbed forward with my rod.  
She blocked with a grunt, spun, and swept down at my legs with her staff._

_I easily side-stepped, paced myself, and dove in for a second attack._

_She sent me back with a huge uppercut._

_I jumped backwards, bent into a pose on my legs, and prepared to spring into a counterattack._

_But she knew I was inviting her to come in._

_"Not all of us are as impatient as you, Jordan," she smiled._

_I smirked._

_For a moment there, we stood still in the field. Being beaten by the wind. Her blue eyes. My brown eyes. Short blonde hair and short black hair. Waving like the grass. Sighing like the setting sun._

_"Master tells us all the time…" I spoke, "…we'll meet combatants in the future who'll waste no second to attack and kill us. We must be prepared!"  
"Do you really want to kill me?" she playfully pouted._

_"Don't tempt me."  
"Hey!" she cackled. "That was mean! GrrrrrrDIE!"_

_She charged me._

_"Don't make yourself vulnerable—" my eyes widened. "Hey! Wait!"_

_She dropped the rod entirely, ran up, and pounced me._

_"Oof!!" I dropped my staff._

_She giggled madly as she wrestled me into the deep earth._

_I couldn't help it. I chuckled and fought back._

_After a few seconds, I managed to get her off me._

_She rolled off, sighed, and just laid their smiling with her eyes facing the growingly gray sky._

_So did I._

_Perfect silence……_

_"……"_

_"……"_

_"Jordan?"_

_"Yes?"_

_She looked over at me through the blades of grass. "If we do……ya know……fight evil people in the future……we'll protect each other. R-Right?"_

_I smiled over at her. At her sapphire eyes and angelic expression. Angelic hair. Angelic soul._

_"As long as we're together—no matter what—I'll feel safe."_

_She smiled, blushed, and closed her eyes as the warm fuzzies took over. "Me too……" _

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir…..Noir…….Noir, wake up."

My black eyes opened. I winced. The shades were gone. The world was blinding. My whole body ached, but mostly in my face where I remember vaguely being kicked.

The police department.

I braved my eyes open. Shadows stabbed into them for a solid three seconds until I had acquired enough important data and I snapped my eyelids shut for good.

I winced.

I was slumped against the wall within the interior of some sort of factory or processing planet.

I wasn't alone.

The bodies of at least a dozen other people were there as well.

Robin and Speedy were next to me.

There was also Decker.

The other faces, I couldn't recognize.

But I remembered seeing at least one bloody stub of an arm. They must have been taken from the police department.

The tear gas.

Had we been captured?

Damn……

"Are you hurt bad?"

In response to Robin's inquiry, I stirred my body. I realized my arms were behind me. I was chained to a metal pipe or bulkhead of some sort behind me.

"Think you can teleport?"

I exhaled.

"Well, if you can, hold it," Robin whispered. "Remember the _plan_."

_The plan??_

I blinked.

The world flashed bright white.

I remembered. The plan!

"Shhh! He's coming back!"

_Who? Oh wait……lemme guess…_

CLANK!!

The landing of a pair of heavy feet was the first thing to announce the presence of our enemy. He had made a sound. He wasn't suspecting a thing, then….

I squinted my eyes open to bravely make out the situation that was transpiring before me. Thankfully, the plant or factory wasn't terribly bright, so I could see at least a little bit.

And what I saw was the figure in black sparking back into the visual spectrum. He adjusted his gloves, cracked his neck, and walked over to a pile of objects. Probably equipment.

Was this place his base of operations?

"We're waking up, you know….," Robin said aloud.

I was still.

The villain said nothing. He hunched over the pile of things and continued rummaging through for something.

The Boy Wonder persisted, "It begs the question how you got so many of us here in one piece…"

The figure ignored him.

"Then again, there're many things that beg the question. Like, where you think you're going with so many murders on your head?"

Silence.

Rummaging.

Robin's face frowned, "Is it vengeance, Vincent?"

The figure paused. His white, bulbous face looked over in Robin's direction.

Robin stared. "Vincent the Third, to be exact. Disappeared son of Vincent the Second of India. I suppose bad blood runs in the family."

The figure let out a silent chuckle, and then sneered. He stood up straight with a cord in his hand, attached to a black square-shaped object. He attached the wire to some hidden spot in the metal ring within his neck. He then adjusted something on the square, and the translucent slates within the neckring suddenly lit up.

The villain's eyes lowered. He took a deep breath. When his eyes reopened, he seemed tranquil. Focused. His neckpiece flashed red as an electronic voice emanated out from the square object.

**"Vincent is dead, Titan. Viper stands before you now."**

Robin's head cocked to the side.

I gasped. My eyes would have widened if I didn't know it would hurt.

"So that's what that thing in your neck is for….," Robin spoke. "An artificial voice box."

**"Much more advanced than that…,"** the self-proclaimed Viper uttered synthetically. His lips didn't move an inch. He merely stared at Robin and his neckring flashed red as he 'spoke' and the black object produced the voice. **"It feeds off electrical signals sent to the vocal cords and approximates the sound desired to come through the paralyzed voice box. It's like having a computerized translator standing right beside me."**

"You're only friend, I bet," Robin spat.

**"So bitter…so resentful….,"** 'Viper' smiled as the object spoke. **"Do not be so quick to forget that I am no different than you. My whole life functions by a one-track-mind. An obsession that serves as my transient meaning of existence. It is a drive no less fervent than your own…**"

"Exactly what are you getting at?" Robin growled. "Don't pull this cliché 'we're one of the same' villainous crap. You forget, I've fought Slade before. I've heard enough of it."

**"And that's what deludes you…**," Viper walked off and unsheathed his sword. He proceeded to polish it casually while 'talking'. **"A blind disregard for those who are homicidally inclined. Shedding blood is all but a natural part of humanity. From our teeth down to our toenails and back up to our brains…we were built for destruction and nothing else. To cause death is to fine one's purpose in meeting death. Only self-proclaimed 'heroes' such as yourselves are the 'cliche' ones, Robin."** He turned around and looked over his half-metal neck. **"Never willing to expand your perception. Always repressing that which can make you whole and true to your own, pumping arteries."**

"You're no sample of human evolution," Robin frowned. "You're just a vengeful maniac who cowardly prays on people in the dark. Your crook of a father died on you. Well tough crap. It was bad karma. Everyone who knew him knew he only bought it for himself in the end."

CHIIIING!!!!

The blade was suddenly resting half an inch from Robin's adam's apple.

**"You will NOT SPEAK OF MY FATHER THAT WAY!!"** the device crackled as Viper angrily shook. He lowered the sword and stepped up close to Robin, glaring. **"My father—all his life—did what he could to protect his family. He loved his own blood first, and put the world second."** Viper paced over towards a metal railing and leaned on it. **"When I was just a little boy…I was playing out in the gardens when I came upon a frightened snake. It was the most rare and venomous of the kind found in that region of India. A deadly Viper that could paralyze a man with half a drop of its venom. The servants of the household saw how close I was to the creature and ran over to separate us. But it was too late. I had been bitten. My life had been eclipsed by two blood-letting fangs."** Viper turned around and 'spoke' with squinted eyes. **"My father and mother were home. At first sight of my peril, they immediately provided me with medical attention. My life was saved from ages of being bed-ridden. But parts of my body succumbed to the venom. The first of which were my vocal cords."**

"Are you supposed to have my pity now?" Robin glared.

**"Robin…….do you want a story or not?"** Viper smirked. **"You caped atrocities do seem to live for this thing."**

Viper paced and continued speaking.

In the meantime, I heard the groggy awakenings of Speedy, Decker, and the other police workers.

**"My father loved me deeply…,"** Viper said. **"He couldn't live in a world where he was unable to speak to his very own son. So he invested all of his funds…all of his efforts…all of his strength into the construction of my very own 'voice'."** He pointed the neckring. **"Cutting technology you won't find anywhere—I assure you. Not even STAR Labs. Though not without its primitive trademarks…"** He fingered the cord and black square hanging off him. **"I planned on living a happy and normal life, Titan. I truly did. My father and I would have lived out our years together, along with my mother. Our love would have persisted beyond the boundaries of Death's most sinister venoms."**

"But fate caught up with you," Robin smirked.

"Ughhh…," Speedy shook out of it. "What a rush---Whoah! Check that shit out!" He stared wide-eyemasked at the talking Viper.

"Bloody lovely…," Decker mumbled.

**"My family was torn asunder, Robin,"** Viper leaned towards the Boy Wonder. **"A bloodlusting government abducted him into a circle of desolation. Imagine…a man of his stature and greatness being reduced to ashes against the side of some god-forsaken mountain…"**

"The plane crash was an accident," Robin spoke. "Besides, he was to be tried for international crimes. Your 'old man' was meeting his retribution."

**"Retribution??"** Viper glared. **"Retribution?!?! What is retribution that takes your father and reduces him to glowing embers in a spontaneous heartbeat?! What is retribution when your mother boards a flight to identify what's left of the charred body—but instead is passed off to criminal underlings of the government who beat her, rape her, and slit her throat all within an agonizing span of five days?"**

Robin bit his lip.

Speedy looked at the others in captive.

**"Did not find that information, did you, detective?"** Viper's electronic voice almost had a shudder to it.

"Your mother—if indeed she suffered that fate—did not deserve such," Robin said. "But neither did the murdered committee in Pakistan or the innocent people of this City!!"

**"Heh heh heh heh…,"** the speaker dripped. **"You child of such weak sight….,"** Viper sneered. **"In due time, you will discover that everything comes full circle. That everything is inherently a factor in everything else. And the only thing keeping a butterfly on one side of the world from affecting a newborn infant on the other side is twelve thousand miles full of ignorant, cowardly people too afraid to change the environment around them as divinely appropriate."**

"Listen, you yahoo!" Decker spat, "Butterflies, infants, and dead mothers aside….you're a murderer. You are evil. And you will pay."

**"Do not assume that you are in a place to bargain, infidel,"** Viper pointed with his broadsword. **"You slimy excuse of a human being! I despise the very juice that giggles lazily through your meaty strings. I spit and stomp upon every inch of ground you tread and every gram of goodness you steal from the righteous in this world in the false cause of 'justice'; an illusion you fabricated in the sheer strength of your sniveling numbers to preserve hollow concepts of 'order' and 'prosperity'. Prosperity is not the sanctioned execution of souls for the greater good of arrogant populations. Prosperity is found in the obedience to one's self and the respect of family, something I've seen torn asunder by pompous, gun-toting bureaucrats such as yourself!"**

"Somebody's got issues…," Speedy mused.

Robin cleared his throat.

Viper glared, stomped towards Speedy, and threateningly leaned over: **"You…..it is you most of all I despise. I knew from the very beginning that I started my life's journey—throughout all the years of training, of learning the dark arts, of mastering the sword. I knew that somday….someday…I would hack my way through all the police officers, all the judges, all the constables, and come finally to you. The vigilante. The masked marauder. The murderer under a shroud. All along, it's been my obsession clashing heads with yours, and I won."**

"Don't speak so soon," Speedy sneered.

"The deaths of your parents motivated you to commit slayings throughout Eastern Pakistan…," Robin said, "….and what brought you over here…"

**"Another death in the family…**," Viper's eyes were cast down.

Robin glared. "Anderson. Your mother's brother."

Decker looked surprised.

I stared—squinting—at Viper.

**"There is nothing worse than a recurring nightmare…,"** Viper shook his head as the speaker went on. **"My anguish can not end. The lasting legacy of my family can not be spared. Your kind is determined to destroy, shred apart, and abolish every strand of my sacredness that you can find."** He leaned towards Robin. **"I planned on killing you all quickly at first. But I think that is too little of a payment. I came all the way overseas…I wielded my sword…I sweated bullets…to reach this moment. No…..no, Robin. Your death will be a slow one."**

He spun and faced everyone.

**"All of your deaths will be slow. I'll peel the skin from your bodies and feed it to the meaty leftovers of your mouth and force you to swallow it alive. And then when it's all over. When you've shed the last drop of blood. When your screaming vocal cords have shook and vibrated for the last time. When your brain resonates no more thought than pain itself….I will seek out every single member of your bastard families and do the very same thing to each and every one of them too…"**

Some peopled muttered.

Others sobbed.

"Even someone like you can't be that evil," Decker glared. "No single man can be that thirsty for carnage."

**"Man? Man???"** Viper smiled. His eyes lowered. **"Ha ha ha ha ha! I am no man, Commissioner. Not anymore. Like I said before, Vincent is dead. Viper remains. Viper…the product of his own misfortune. Silenced by the venom of a snake and fueled with the vindication for his family. Viper is the wind itself, the subtle twist and shift of the raised hairs on your necks. Viper has worked for many might years and many mighty months to become that which he was born for—an agent of death and judgment through the only vessel built to balance mankind's futile perception of peace and the ever waking reality of nonexistence."**

SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-CHING!!

Viper spun his blade around and sheathed it in a pose.

He glanced up.

He said: **"Viper is the eternal wielder of the cold blade of silence."**

Robin breathed. "Funny…I always thought 'Silence was Golden'."

Viper stood up straight. **"That is where you're wrong, Titan. Silence is crimson."**

"You can't possibly work alone," Speedy said. "Those gloves. They aren't yours."

"You got some help in your little 'judgment romp'," Robin added. "From someone named Dagger, no doubt."

I nodded.

Decker listened, curiously.

Viper flicked his wrists and sparks danced down his limbs. **"Merely returning that which belongs to my family. Dagger is a thief. The only thing keeping me from ripping his overstated head off is that he perfects the human race almost as much as I do."**

"Fancy that," Speedy grunted.

"You know Dagger," Robin glared. "You know where he's keeping Anderson's arsenal??"

I looked at Viper.

He took the bait. **"What use is it to you, Robin? I assure you, the Jermaine Hangars are far, far away from the River Styx. The same can be said for your whole, bloody City. And it will become much, much more bloodier following your deaths."**

Robin smiled—as I expected him to. "Thanks for the chat, Viper. That's exactly what we needed to hear." He tilted his head up from his restraints. "_Raven! Now!!"_

A field of black energy circled Viper's body.

**"What?!?!"** he struggled.

WOOOOSH!!!

He was slammed up against a metal bulkhead besides the railing and knocked loose of his breath.

A body of sparks levitated over us, quickly materializing into a visible Raven. She floated with her eyes glowing and sparking, inviso-gloves over her wrists. She scowled down at the assassin as she shouted: "You can all come out now!!"

In perfect choreography, a dozen ropes lowered and SWAT Team members slid down from the ceiling with guns armed. At the same time, at least four full squads of police officers ran out from crevices and hallways in the outer ring of the factory's interior. They aimed pistols and shotguns—cocking—towards Viper's restrained figure. A green panther landed on their flank and materialized into a smirking elf.

"Surprise….," Beast Boy mused.

Viper grit his teeth.

"Beast Boy…radio the rest of the police force," Robin smiled. "Tell them to search the abandoned Jermaine Airport in the North of the City."

"Already on it," the elf winked.

"Woo!" Speedy smirked. "I'd say this was well worth the hangover!"

Decker smirked over at Robin. "Titan…does this mean you went over my head?"

Robin winked through his eyemask. "You can yell at me over it later."

"I think I'll pass………..this time."

Viper didn't stop glaring.

"I hope I was punctual enough…," Raven said while holding the villain at bay.

I smirked.

"You can maybe….ya know….free us now," Speedy simpered.

"Fine…," the dark girl flicked a free wrist.

One by one, the bonds holding me, Robin, Speedy, Decker, and the dozen other hostages snapped free. We stumbled to our feet while a few police officers scampered over and assisted the most injured of the lot. The rest of the force kept their pistols and shotguns aimed at Viper.

Robin rubbed his wrists through his gloves. "I don't know what's worse…sitting through his annoying speech or my hands feeling like they're empty of all blood!"

"Try worrying over your stupid necks and keeping a safe distance to boot!" Beast Boy walked up. "Brought a few things for ya."

He tossed Robin his utility belt and Speedy his bow and quiver. He then tossed me Myrkblade and a pair of shades.

I gladly donned the glasses on and put my weapon back in its sheathe.

Robin and Speedy marched up to the restrained villain.

"It's over, Viper," Robin said. "You're to be tried for the murders of over a dozen innocent people. You can't win anymore."

Viper's frown slowly morphed into a startling grin. **"No…,"** his neckring flashed red. **"…but I can still escape."**

Robin's eyebrow lifted.

Viper closed his eyes, concentrated, and the speaker uttered: **"Optics Ultimatacon!"**

With the magic words said, there was a whirring sound. Then a series of sparks danced out from his neckring, down the black wire, and into the black square. The very same object he used to communicate started to glow and vibrate.

Everyone's eyes widened.

But Viper's eyes were closed.

Maybe it's because we were both mutes. Or maybe it was because we were both swordsmen. Whatever the case, I suddenly connected with the villain, gasped, and clenched my eyes shut too.

Just in time….

_**FLASH!!!!!!!!!**_

A blinding strobe of light emanated out into the interior.

Everyone groaned and covered their eyes.

Raven included.

As a result, a resounding THUMP! announced Viper's feet making contact again with the floor. I gasped and opened my eyes under my shades just in time to see Viper picking up his sword, dashing over the railing, and sparking back into invisibility.

There was a flurry of gunshots.

BAM!! BANG!! BLAM!! POW!!! BANG!!

It was no use. Nobody's bullets were making contact.

Viper needed a pursuer who was faster than bullets.

"Noir!!!" Robin shouted, clutching his eyemask and pointing blindly. "Get him!!"

I nodded.

I ran on pained legs, blurred my feet into a fury, and teleported in the direction of the fleeing Viper.

"So….close…..," Raven muttered, a hand over her face..

"We're already halfway victorious…," Robin finally blinked and regained his eyesight. "But this thing still needs to be finished. Speedy! Come with me!"

"Didn't even need to ask!"

They both swung and hopped after me, leaving the rest of the disoriented lot behind.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred to a stop in a corridor and panted.

I looked around.

Amidst a series of jutting pipes and huge metal tanks and mechanical instruments, I spotted three paths converging and leading in every which direction.

I glanced left. I glanced right. I glanced forward.

I took a deep breath, raised my hands in an 'x' across my face, summoned forth murk energy, and shot my arms towards the ground. Smoke swam down my legs, shot forth along the ground, and swam in each of the three directions. I held my breath as I stretched my senses lightning-quick along the fresh carpets of dark energy. I sought disturbances, impressions, fresh craters.

I found a pair of hurried feet. Heavy and thick. To the right.

I opened my eyes, inhaled, and blurred down that passageway in pursuit of my invisible foe.

My inhuman speed was bound to catch me up with him.

In mid-sprint, I stretched a hand out and bent my fingers. I produced an orb of murk that shot out and splashed down on the floor ahead of me.

I again sensed the target's footsteps….and they were two feet in front of me.

SMACK!!!

I gasped and Viper's sparking body exhaled as I collided into his rear. We were sent sprawling out the end of the hallway, tumbling out across the metal floor, and sliding up against a railing over a huge dip in the processing plant's structure.

A split second later, we both jumped up.

I could only sense him because of my spatial sense. Otherwise, he was completely invisible.

I whipped out Myrkblade.

The kiss of metal against air announced the unsheathing of his broadsword.

I got into a pose.

I sense him ready himself.

I had been waiting a long time for this…

WOOSH!!

Air screamed as someone rushed forward. I don't quite remember who--

CLANG!!!

My murk-covered, wooden sword clashed with his metal scimitar.

I slid my blade down the length of his, pivoted, and swung a leg out towards where I sensed his lower body.

WHUMP!!!

I sent him teetering over back towards the hallway.

I stepped back and slashed down to catch his backside.

He blocked in reverse. A sparking in the air, and he spun at me with two swings of the blade.

He was moving too fast for me to sense where his weapon was. So I ducked for good measure and held Myrkblade over my cranium.

CL-CLANK!!

I deflected both spin-attacks of his weapon.

I slid along the ground, beneath a pair of twitching legs, and jumped up with a reverse jab of my blade.

SLINK!! Warm liquid spewed.

There was a painful shuffling of feet, and soon a rough elbow slammed into my back.

I collapsed forward and impacted hard with the railing, knocking the air out of my lungs.

Another shuffling.

I sensed him spinning to face me.

Sparks and--

He charged.

I tossed Myrkblade straight up.

I gripped the railing.

I flipped my body straight up into a vertical position.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!

His blade swung down and struck the metal floor where my body was.

I stood on my hands on the railing.

Myrkblade fell.

I inhaled, vaulted up off the railing, flipped, grabbed Myrkblade in mid air, and landed in a graceful perch on the railing. I slashed downwards with my sword.

CLANK!!

An invisible arm parried.

I slashed again.

CONG!!

He knocked me off balance and then dove forward at full force.

WHUMP!!!

Together, we were sent spiraling over the edge of the railing and deep towards the industrial abyss below.

I swiftly spun out of his falling descent, gripped hard to Myrkblade, and—teeth gritting—dug my blade deep into the wall of metal blurring past me.

_SCRKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!_

My gradual laceration of the wall slowed my descent.

Viper's body sailed past me—beyond my ability to sense him. There was a resounding impact sound, complete with an awkward SPLASH!!

I prepared for anything. By the time I descended towards the noise, I yanked the blade out and came soaring down.

SPLASH!!!

My feet landed on the ground about two feet deep into a layer of water.

"!!!!"

I lifted the shades off my eyes and got a visual bearing.

I was in a metal, man-made canal of sorts that ran through the center of the processing plant. Perhaps a dried up desalination center. I looked straight up. There was a good forty feet stretching above. It was relatively dark in that spot. Almost pitch black. But it didn't help to realize that he was invisible _and I was not._

A series of splashes to my right announced an invisible, charging figure. A silver sword sparked into existence and sailed down at my right shoulder.

I spun out of the slice at the last second, took a panicked breath, and dashed towards the nearest wall.

Only one way to play this game…

I splashed out of the water, ran up the wall, backflipped off, smoked away into invisibility in mid-air, and landed on blurred feet on a patch of water. I managed to perch myself weightlessly on the water's surface—sword raised—in a cloaked state.

I breathed slowly, evenly, in and out the nostrils. Every meditative facet of my being was focused on absolute stillness. Silence. Peace.

I held Myrkblade horizontally by the hilt and rested my fingers on the broadside of the wood.

Smoke danced momentarily out from under my shades—but it was not a smoke that someone could see. I was using the blackness to my advantage. Not even a nocturnal animal could spot my shadow. And my blurred feet resting atop the water kept me from revealing my location.

And, in such a state, I waited. I waited for the deadly Avatar of Silence himself to give away his position.

I tested his mettle.

Slowly.

Straining.

A minute passed and I hadn't moved.

Years of practicing the balance of awkward positions for long periods of time more than prepared me for this situation.

He was in my domain now……

I kept my breaths steady. I so very much wanted to practice my spatial sense and see where he was around me. But to do so would most likely sacrifice the balance of my other powers honed in on that constant perch.

So I remained still…..still………….still……

Silence.

………………..

"………………"

……………….

"…………….."

………………

………………

………………

……………a ripple.

My brow furrowed.

_A ripple………then tiny waves of water lapping up against my blurred boots._

I tense my body.

Ripples coming from the right.

I let out a silent cry, flipped sideways to the right, and slashed down hard.

SWOOOSH!!!

SLIINK!

Warm liquid flew.

My opponent's voice gasped.

A rush of cold air.

I dodged his sword.

I stabbed at him again. CLANK!!!

Deafening contact.

Hot breaths.

Swinging and swinging.

Mighty limbs.

I ducked and leapt backwards out of his fury.

SPLASH!!

I landed deep into the water.

I shot murk out through the liquid and found where the nearest wall was.

I held my breath as I sensed him charging through the waves and bringing his sword down.

I teleported myself through the underwater trails of smoke, up the wall, materialized, and bounced off it.

I flipped in my descent.

Blurred my feet. Landed in a squatting pose.

And concentrated.

Meditating….meditating….meditating…. Still.

Silent.

_Standing on the waters._ Silent…………

"…………."

…………..

…………..

…………..

………….

I gritted my teeth. Sweat ran down.

Three minutes passed.

………….

………….

………….

………….

My fingers re-gripped Myrkblade.

I waited.

I breathed steadily.

Five minutes.

Silence……

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………_shuffle._

I sprang a spin immediately towards it.

SPLASSSSSSH!!!

SWOOOSH-CLANG!!!

My Myrkblade immediately made contact with his sword.

Damn!!

After blocking, Viper lifted his leg and kicked me hard in the chest.

I fell back and went splashing through the canal like a skipping stone across a black lake.

I flipped over, turned into smoke form, and teleported backwards a dozen feet into a ready posture with my sword.

My trailing murk sensed Viper charging at me with heavy feet.

Sparking limbs cut through water like a diamond to glass.

His sword was raised high—soon disappearing out of existence. Splash Splash Splash Splash Splash……

I gripped hard to Myrkblade, took a deep breath, and summoned a huge warbling aura of Destruction through it.

Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!

Smoke danced out under my shades. I ground my teeth. Myrkblade became an obsidian blade.

_**SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!**_

He was on me. Sword swinging.

I let out a silent scream and flung all of my power at him at once with a forward slash of Myrkblade. SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

The waters in the canal parted like the Red Sea. A stream of shadowed Destruction cut back in the opposite direction. Viper's invisible body was sent tumbling through the liquid as the whole abyss shook and warbled with the unleashing of my pent up murk.

There was a metallic groan from above.

I looked up. I gasped.

A shattered catwalk came crashing down.

I backflipped out of the way.

SPLASH!!!!

CRACK!!!

The canal shattered. Cracks flew up the walls. Water started draining.

Amidst the confusion, I extended a hand and shot smoke over the rubbled ground like a sheet. Feeling for the enemy.

No luck.

I lifted the shades from over my eyes.

I saw a sparking figure climbing up the far side of the canal and making it back to the main level of the plot. Crud………

I immediately turned and ran up the metal wall to my side on murked feet.

I rounded up on the surface and looked immediately in the direction of Viper.

But he was gone.

Vanished in thin air.

Crud!!!

I spun around, panting.

He could be anywhere.

I spun around again.

Any place!

I was so overwhelmed with my loss, I neglected to go into a cloaked mode to escape Viper's sight.

I was foolish.

Vulnerable. Vulnerable……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Viper's invisible world, the villain vaulted up onto a higher platform of the plant. He caught his breath—wincing from a deep wound in his back from the dark Titan swordsman. He limped forward through a dark hallway and found himself overlooking another huge chamber. It too was shrouded in darkness.

Viper snaked along by the railing of a catwalk over the black chamber. His sparking limbs functioned in perfect order so as to equalize all pressure in movement and make the least amount of sound of contact of body-to-metal as possible. Years of constant exercise and practice had honed his talents down to an expert mastery of silence. It was his own saving card. His one salvation.

And yet….Viper had a weakness….

clink clink……

Viper froze.

clink clink……

The villain looked over the side of the catwalk's railing.

Deep down in the corridor, dozens of feet below, a lone figure stood by a wall. A tall figure with a bandanna. A sword by his side. Slowly, the silhouette clanked his weapon against the metal floor. Testing the foundation. Sending smoke power—most likely—through its structure to find Viper's position.

But the villain was far above the shrouded Titan's range of spatial sense. And he knew this. And he smirked.

clink clink…

Viper slowly, silently unsheathed his broadsword. He gripped the railing of the catwalk silently.

clink clink…

Viper climbed over the railing. One snaking leg after another. Invisible. A spark or two, but nothing more.

He leaned his body over once….twice…three times…and then flew down.

Forty feet he fell and---

No sound. He brought his entire body down in a graceful crouch as soon as his feet strongly met the metal floor. With precise meditation, not even a slight shuffling was made. Viper was silence itself. Death itself. And Death was presently walking towards the tall shadow a few feet off.

clink clink…

Viper's feet moved swiftly. One in front of the other. Like a macabre ballet. He grinned.

The shadow seemed closer.

clink clink clink……

Viper proceeded to spin his sword vertically from side to side. Only when he was close enough to make a kill did it finally kiss the air enough to produce soundwaves.

swoosh…..swoosh……swoosh….swoosh….swoosh swoosh swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh Swoosh SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH--

…he knelt, flexed his arms, and struck sideways….

CLANK!!!!

Viper's broadsword came to a dead stop.

His invisible eyes blinked.

The tall shadow wasn't a Titan. It was a pipe. The bandanna was a utility belt fastened at the top. The sword was a bow resting against the structure.

A grappling hook attached to a birdarang was resting in front of a hole in the vertical pipe that constantly blew out cool air, forcing the metal weapon to lift off and fall back via cord into the cylindrical structure in a rhythmic fashion.

clink……clink……clink………

"……..," Viper slowly stood up.

He gulped.

There was a padding of boots.

He spun around.

Robin's fist flew straight into his face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SMACK!!!!**_

Viper's body materialized as he flew backwards in slow motion from the Boy Wonder's impact.

Robin jumped up, cape billowing, spun around, growled, and struck the broad side of his leg straight into Viper's side.

_**WHAM!!!!**_

Time resumed. Viper smashed straight into the pipe so hard, he bent it thirty degrees from the ceiling.

Robin wasn't finished. He landed from his kick and immediately jumped up with a bird-kick upside the sparking villain's chin.

_**CRACK!!!**_

Blood flew as Viper's nose shattered. He somersaulted backwards from the impact, sparked back into invisibility, but trailed blood as he slid across the metal floor and towards a lonely window that shone in the dim, morning light.

Speedy jumped down behind Robin. He hoisted up his bow and tossed Robin his utility Belt.

Robin reattached it and immediately whipped out a hand ful of razor-sharp discs. "Hide and seek, asshole."

Speedy drew a heat-seeking arrow. "You're it."

PTWIFTT!!!!

Viper jumped up. His startled, bleeding face could be seen for a split second before he turned invisible and made a sparking run for it.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!

The arrow curved in mid air and followed the invisible target. It wound all the way around the dark corridor, weaving in and around pipes, zooming over desalination equipment. Metal carts and abandoned toolboxes fell over a few feet before the zooming projectile—hinting of the invisible Viper's panicked escape from the heat seeker. At one point, the arrow streaked up the wall, looped off, zipped around the catwalk, and then straight down at a spray of dust on the ground way below. A sparking figure flickered momentarily—running towards Robin and Speedy—and the arrow flitted in pursuit.

Robin took a breath and flung three discs straight at the space in front of the arrow.

SW-SW-SWOOOSH!!

SLIINK!!

A spray of blood.

A gasp.

Dust flew off the ground.

The arrow followed, zooming down—but grinding futilely into the metal.

"Damn it!" Speedy cursed and readied an ice arrow.

A sparking figure—sliding past them—jumped up and rammed straight into Speedy.

"OOF!!" the archer stumbled aside and awkwardly let loose his arrow into mid air.

The sparking figure tried to escape.

Robin thought fast. He whipped out a grappling hook and shot at the streaking ice arrow aimed at the ceiling.

POW!!

CLUNK!!

The hook managed to catch the broadside of Speedy's ice arrow.

Robin pulled back at the grappler with all his weight.

He successfully swung the arrow around like a slingshot and towards the villain's location.

The Boy Wonder let go just in time for the cord to wrap around an invisible body. The arrow spun around a column of air until there was no slack to the cord left.

_TKKKKK!!!!!_ The ice arrow flashed and a Viper-shaped column of frost appeared just a few feet away.

Robin ran and performed a flying kick straight at it. "Rrrrrrraaaugh!!!!"

_SMASH!!!!!_

Sharp shards of ice flew every which way.

Viper's materialized body sailed back, slammed into the ground, and slid a melted trail towards the dim window.

Robin landed, squatted, and jumped up to charge the villain. Viper got up, picked up a sharp chunk of ice, and launched it straight at Robin's throat.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

SWOOOOOSH-CHING!!!!

I flew in, slicing the shard safely in half with Myrkblade. No sooner had I landed, I let out a silent scream and blurred towards Viper with my Myrkblade held high.

He stood as I charged him.

Thump Thump Thump THUMP THUMP—CLANG!!!

Our swords clashed.

He smirked and disappeared.

AAAAARGH!!!

I spun with my sword like a mad man. Smoke and murk burned in the air.

Cold air sang against my ears as his invisible figure madly swung his silver broadsword in a similar fashion.

Rushing air. Near misses. Two blind swordsment in a flurry of fury.

Between every dodge there was a clash of blades. Between every clash there was a gasp for air. Between each gasp was a heart beat and a rush of G-Force as one of us jumped or one of us blurred or one of us teleported or one of us materialized briefly before spinning to strike another blow.

And then—as I was starting to sweat my face off--

WHUMP!!!

He kicked me hard in the side.

I fell back, half flipped, and landed painfully—awkwardly—on my back square between my shoulders. My feet stood up towards the ceiling.

I sensed Viper raising his blade.

_Soon I would have no more legs………_

PTWIFFFT!!

Speedy's arrow flew in and struck an invisible shoulder.

"!!!!"

Viper stumbled.

_Just what I needed._

I flexed every muscle in my body. I squinted my black eyes shut.

My body blurred and I rotated, spun, and slashed outward with Myrkblade while vaulting up to my feet.

SWOOOOOOOOSH-SWOOSH-_**THWACK!!!!!**_

There was a loud hissing sound…the sound of someone with paralyzed vocal cords doing his damn best to scream.

Once on my feet, my eyes followed two things as they flew up in the air and landed across the floor with a splatter of crimson.

Viper's sword…._and his severed right hand…_

The fleshy stub bled from under the thick glove still clutching to the hilt of the broadsword.

All three of us looked aside as a sparking figure materialized for good. Viper clutched his bleeding dismemberment and leaned back against the window. He hissed through pained teeth and glared at us with bulbous eyes of anger and shock.

"We see you, Viper…," Robin pointed. "Give up. Now."

Speedy walked forward, aiming an arrow. "You don't have many limbs left. For your sake, I suggest you not argue…"

I spun Myrkblade into a pose.

….and smirked.

Viper glared.

We all squared off against him.

And then….he smirked.

Ignoring the leaking reality of his bloody stub, he stood up straight, bowed, and then jumped backwards. As time slowed down, he flipped and smashed through the tall, dimly lit window. But before exiting, he held his left hand up and tossed a black, spinning object at us.

The three of us parted ways.

The object flew across the corridor and embedded itself into the wall.

Beeping.

"What is that?!" Speedy asked.

Robin ran up to it. He examined it up close, and then his eyemask widened dramatically. "It's a carbonite bomb! And it's set to blow!!"

"What?!?!" Speedy gasped and holstered his bow back beside his quiver. "That'll take out this whole structure alone! We won't stand a chance!"

"Maybe not…..maybe so….," Robin grunted. He spun and called out to me: "Noir! We've got to head back to the others!"

I was perched at the shattered window. Looking down. Wind kicked at my long hair as I spied a long stretch of river adjacent to the building.

No sign of Viper.

"Noir!!"

I sighed, sheathed Myrkblade, and gestured emphatically to Robin before running after the two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Everyone! Everyone!" Robin ran back into the room where Raven, Beast Boy, and the law enforcers were. "We have an emergency."

"Where's Viper?" Raven asked.

"We won't have to worry about him," Robin said.

Speedy rushed up. "There's a carbonite bomb set to detonate any second!"

Everyone gasped.

"No way….," Beast Boy exclaimed.

"We could never get out of the blast fast enough…," Decker mumbled.

"He could," Speedy pointed at me. "But that doesn't leave the rest of us in good shape."

"What'll we do?!?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Robin…tell everyone to huddle together as close as they can."

"What good will that do?!"

Raven looked at him. "I think I can be of use here."

"But you can't hold off an exploding building!!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"What makes you say that?"

"You've never done it before!!"

"Still doesn't mean a thing," said Raven simply. "I've been meditating hard. I'm prepared. We haven't got any time to argue."

"At least….at least……we need something to amplify your powers!" Robin said.

"And fast!" Beast Boy said, panicky.

I held up my blade.

"No…," Raven shook her head. "I don't see how we can combine our powers, Noir."

"If only Starfire was here….," Robin mumbled.

"Fire!" Speedy jumped. He pulled out an red arrow. "If I let loose an explosive arrow head, could you somehow manipulate it as some sort of counter-effect of the inevitable blast wave??"

Raven nodded. "I can try."

"Try?!?!" Beast Boy gulped.

"Sounds like she knows what she's doing….," Commissioner Decker said.

Robin smiled.

"Then it is settled…," Raven said.

"Everyone! Get close together!! Here!! Now!!"

SWAT Team members, police officers, hostages, and heroes alike all gathered around the dark girl.

She flexed her arms underneath her blue robe and took deep breaths. "Must…..concentrate…..must….concentrate…."

I placed a hand on her shoulder.

"…..???" she looked up at me form under her hood.

I took off my shades and looked deep into her eyes. Despite the blinding pain it caused me, I bore my black eyes firmly into her soul and raised Myrkblade up a few inches from the center of my face. As if to meditate.

Raven nodded. "Thanks, Noir. I will center myself." A pause. "_We……_will center ourselves."

I nodded slowly. Firmly.

She lowered her eyes. She took one last, huge breath.

"Now, Speedy…"

"Head's up!" the archer spun the red arrow. Drew it. Aimed directly up….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The carbonite detonator rested in the wall.

It beeped once. Twice.

A last time. And…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BOOOOOOM!!!!

The entire building shook.

Random people cried out in fear.

Speedy grit his teeth and let loose on the arrow.

PTWIFFFT!!!

It soared straight up in the air.

The place heated up.

Things started to crumble.

The arrow fell back down.

In the distance, a wall of flame erupted and flew towards us.

The arrow reached the tops of our heads.

_"Azarath…Metrion…__**ZINTHOS!!!**__"_

Raven shot her arms up.

A shield of obsidian formed a dome over our heads.

Speedy's arrow erupted in flames against it.

FWOOOOM!!!

Raven's glowing eyes narrowed.

Her fingers curled.

The dome warped upwards, swallowed the firewall, and stretched back down protectively over us—twice as reinforced.

And that's when the wall of destruction hit.

_SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!_

Fire and debris and metal shards and all sorts of rubble bounce off the black shield. Everyone flinched. Everyone ducked and covered themselves.

Everyone except for Raven and I.

I meditated along with her to give her strength.

She grit her teeth and her arms shook.

"It's….too……..m-much….."

I stared firmly at her. My black eyes smoked. I ran a pair of fingers down the dull side of my wooden Myrkblade.

Raven watched with twitching eyes of bright gray.

"Must……stay…..f-focused….."

I slowly nodded and kept her eyesight.

She kept staring at me. Straining.

"You can do it, Raven!!" Beast Boy shouted.

"Hang in there!" Robin added.

"We're not going to make it!!" Decker shouted.

"Don't….s-say…..that!" Raven grunted. The skin on her temples pulled tight. "Only….makes….it….worse!"

_SWOOOOOOSH!!!!_

A cyclone of fire danced over us. The black shield warbled. The air's temperature rose by ten degrees.

_"Rrrrrrrrrrghhhhh!!!!!"_ Raven's eyes clenched shut. Her wrists started to twitch. The black dome began caving in.

People gasped.

I swiftly reached in and grabbed her hands.

Raven gasped.

I clenched my eyes shut.

Smoke traveled up my arms, surrounded her wrists, and steadied her ams.

She exhaled.

Her fingers steadied themselves.

Thanks to our combined meditation, the dome regained its shape.

A few more seconds passed, and the rubble and fire cleared away.

The dim morning sky stretched over us.

All the officers cheered.

"Raven…."

She gritted her teeth. "Raven!!" Robin emphasized.

Her eyes popped open. Back to normal. She panted.

"You can stop now…."

She relaxed her hands in my grip.

The dome disappeared.

Everything cooled down.

Her eyelids closed. She sighed and fell forward.

I gently steadied her. Speedy came by and helped me hold Raven up by her shoulders.

"Nnnnghh…," Raven shook her head and managed to open her eyes weakly. "Suddenly….a frozen Slurpee doesn't seem so bad anymoe…."

Beast Boy giggled.

I smiled and put my shades back on.

"Let's hear it for Raven!!" Speedy cheered.

People clapped and whistled.

Robin folded his arms and sighed forth a smile.

Decker wiped his brow and looked out at the wasted landscape. "Looks like we'll be going home after all…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile….

Across Town….

In an abandoned field in the north, the Jermaine Airport resided. Long forgotten. Scrapped as a holding site for retired airplanes and utility vehicles.

A lone pickup truck drove up a dirt road to one of the two, dusty hangars.

The vehicle came to a stop and three shady characters walked out.

"You heard what happened to Williams?" one asked.

"Yeah. Same thing that happened to Schauer, right?"

"Nah. Schauer is a sob story all on his own. Williams was executed per Dagger's request. That we know for sure."

"What for?"

"'Incompetence' or some shit."

"Guess we'd better be watchful," said one as they unlocked a personnel door from the outside. "Or else the boss will have our necks too."

"Heheh…"

They walked into the hangar.

Suddenly, a blinding searchlight shone down on them from a catwalk.

Out from crates of secret weapons and storage, a throng of armed police officers shouted: "FREEZE!" and held the group at gunpoint. "You're under arrest!"

The three hesitantly raised their hands over their heads…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You mean…..it's over?!" Cyborg exclaimed as his medical bed was pivoted up and he easily stepped out, flexing his titanium muscles. "The rest of the arsenal has been found?!"

"Simple as that!" Robin smiled. "Almost too simple, come to think of it."

"Tell me about it," Raven mumbled.

Cyborg walked over to the center of the laboratory. "Well, all right! So Viper had the missing link! It was worthwhile to work on both searches simultaneously all along!"

"Don't you love it when things start working together?" Speedy smirked with his arms crossed. "The city's safe from Viper, your power's back, and your big hunt for weapons seems just about over."

"All that's left is Starfire," Beast Boy motioned.

Robin looked over at the sleeping Tamaranian. "Yeah…..about her, I—"

"Got a message while you were all gone kicking Viper's butt," Cyborg smiled.

Robin did a double-take. "You did?"

"Sub-space signal," Cyborg smirked. "A doctor named Morgan'm. He's visiting straight from Tamaran to revive Starfire from her hormonal unconsciousness thingy. He should be here as earliest as tomorrow afternoon in his galactic transport."

"YES!!" Robin cheered.

We all jumped away from him, startled.

"Er….I mean….," he cleared his throat. "Yes…that's good news. Good news indeed."

"Heheh….," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Things aren't exactly over, of course," Raven spoke. She gestured over towards a table that held an assortment of various weapon prototypes and devices. "We have many things to analyze here. Many of which might unlock more of this 'Dagger' mystery."

"And perhaps explain if Slade's had his hand in a thing or two," Robin said.

I nodded.

"And lookee here!" Cyborg picked up a black square attached to a cord. "Is this what I think it is?"

"A speech…um….inducer thingy," Beast Boy scratched his neck. "We found a couple of those at ground zero, still in tact."

"I always thought these things were an urban myth!" Cyborg beamed. He smiled at me. "You could make some use out of the same thing Viper used, Noir! Think about it!" He set it back down onto the table before us. "With a few implants and experimentation, you could be made to talk just like he could! And—"

SWOOOOSH-SMASH!!!!

Everyone gasped and jumped back. Even Raven.

I took a deep breath and sheathed Myrkblade after having sliced the device in half. I stood, panting, and staring firmly at the group of fellow Titans. Solemnly, I swiveled around and headed out the door on heavy feet.

Slowly, everyone looked to the floor in silence.

Eventually, it was Beast Boy who said: "There's……th-there's gonna be a memorial….for the victims, r-right?"

"Yeah….," Robin nodded. "Soon……….soon……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A jagged knife spun in Dagger's hand, reflecting the amber dance of light in a nearby fireplace. He sat at the desk in his office, his free finger on an intercom machine.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, sir, but it's gone. I-It's all gone…"

"Every piece of weaponry was found by the police?" Dagger spoke calmly.

"Y-Yes, sir. We're so sorry, sir. We were overwhelmed! Even if we had some warning, we couldn't provide enough guards to fight back that sort of—"

"Understood, O'Reilly," Dagger said. "Report to me tomorrow morning and we'll start going back to normal business."

_"But sir!! Anderson's arsenal! It's completely gone! Aren't you the least bit—"_

"Over and out."

Dagger flipped the intercom off.

He leaned back in his big chair, flipping the knife around.

Silence.

His sleepy eyes glanced up.

_**"You……."**_

"Need help, Viper?"

A black figure hobbled into the crimson light of the fire. He hugged a bandaged limb to himself.

**"You……owe….me…" **

"Nobody owes you but yourself, fool," Dagger spoke firmly without a change in his expression. He swiveled to face the assassin. "It was your obsessive initiative to travel clear across the world and take on the Titans. You loss for your stupidity. Now it has cost you."

_**"And cost you too…..**_"

"Hardly," Dagger said.

_**"But did I not just hear your servant speak of the discovered arsenal—**_"

"All part of the plan."

_**"Plan??"**_

"Nothing for you to concern yourself with." Dagger suddenly pulled out a drawer to his desk and reached in side. "Here." He tossed a robotic, right hand down onto the floor in front of Viper. "Take it. Stone's craft. Lord knows, you'll need it."

Viper looked down at the hand, then slowly glared up at Dagger.

_**"You knew……."**_

"Naturally I did."

_**"No….you knew before hand….**_," Viper's voice electronically hissed. He clenched his lasting fist. _**"Somehow you did. Who're you working with?!"**_

"That'll be all, Viper," Dagger looked away and waved him off. "Leave before the smell of blood disgusts me and I get really annoyed."

_**"How's this for annoyance?!?!"**_ Viper reached with his left hand into the fireplace, grabbed a hard metal poker, and swung it hard down at Dagger's skull. _**"RAAAAUGH!!!**_"

Dagger raised a thin wrist up…..and blocked the poker effortlessly. CLANG!!!! Viper stumbled back, gasping electronically. _**"What?! How could you—**_"

Dagger spun out of his chair in an instant and kicked Viper in the chest.

The tiny impact somehow sent the assassin flying across the room and slamming into a suit of oriental armor in the corner.

He groaned and squinted painfully up as Dagger walked over and leered over the man.

_**"How can you do that? It's inhuman!**_"

"Trade secret…," Dagger grunted. "It's not your concern who I am working with as of late, you sad excuse for an orphan. But do know that whoever it is, I've been granted with a special gift for understanding…..fate…"

Viper blinked. _**"The Experiment……..I thought it was all made up.**_"

"It is very real, Viper," Dagger glared. "So real, it will end your miserable existence if you don't so much as leave my office with your new hand _**now**__."_

Viper glared. He stood up, limped over to the hand, and picked it up. Not once did he stop giving Dagger eye contact.

_**"Mark my words. As long as there is silence in this naked world, you'll have a reason to fear my return.**_"

Dagger didn't even blink. "You'll have to explain to me someday exactly what 'fear' is."

Viper didn't reply. He grabbed his things and leapt out the window.

Dagger paced over to his desk, returned the poker in the fireplace, and sat down.

He leaned his chin on his fingers for a split second.

He pressed a button on the furniture.

A panel in the wooden desktop opened up and a monitor appeared.

Slade's face flickered into view.

_"How proceeds it, Dagger?"_

Dagger spun the blade between his fingers and leaned back in his chair.

"You were right again, Slade."

"_Of course I was right…" _

"The Titans fought Viper. Viper spoke his bloated head off. The police discovered the last of the weapon arsenal."

_"Everything is falling into place."_

"The Titans survived though…."

_"As I intended,"_ Slade's image leaned forward. "_I want them all alive for when the time comes. Only with everything working like clockwork will the Experiment triumph."_

"And the Balance of Morals?"

_"Textbook terminology merely, Dagger,"_ Slade gestured. _"Your man Schauer served his purpose so long as he was melodramatic. Just know that once the Titans are in my hands, you won't have to worry about them anymore."_

"And the City will be mine for three quarters of the share," Dagger replied.

"_You can have the entire City for all I care."_

"Really now…"

_"Don't think you haven't a reason to covet me in the future, Dagger,"_ Slade said. _"I intend to achieve something greater than anything I've ever fought for before. The Titans will rush into this reality in perfect victory. And in perfect victory, they will equally know perfect defeat. The relativity of 'success' will flip over on their very noses. It will be a very remarkable thing to see indeed. I almost wish you would be there."_

"You have enough company as it stands," Dagger stated. "Tell me…how is she faring?"

_"She does not expect a thing,"_ Slade spoke. _"I owe you for that. Lord knows the last time I tried to use a 'she'……"_

"I have faith in your charisma, Slade," Dagger stuck the knife into the desk. THUMP! He folded his hands. "Surely not your history."

_"Surely not…"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in the Main Room.

I stared out at the rising sun through my shades.

I sighed.

A sound came from the computer.

"?????"

I turned.

I walked towards a console, sat down, and moved the mouse.

The screen saver died, and there was a new e-mail.

I opened the mailbox, and there was a single message:

_**Dear Noir,**_

_**Nice job. All of you.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**-The Messenger.**_

_**P.S.: Can I come to one of your pool parties some day?**_

For the first time in days, I felt like laughing out loud.

I sighed, leaned back in the chair, and managed a smile.


	43. Bedside Maniac

**43. Bedside Maniac**

"Any minute now…," Robin said. The wind on the top of the Tower kicked at his hair as he stared up towards the sky. "The last transmission was five minutes ago. He should be landing soon."

"A watched pot never boils, Robin," Speedy smiled as he stood with the rest of us behind the Boy Wonder on the landing pad. "The spaceship freakin' crossed a thousand light years in three days. I don't think it'll have any problem descending through the Earth's atmosphere at a fast rate."

"Yeah, lighten up!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "This 'Morgan'm' dude's gonna take care of Starfire! What more do you need?"

"Finality…," Robin said.

Cyborg shrugged and smiled. "Always the mysterious type."

I smirked.

"Mysterious my foot," Speedy huffed. "I wear a mask no different than his. You don't see me being labled for it."

"Nah…you're not mysterious, Speedy!" Beast Boy nudged him with an elbow. "You're just Paradox-Lite!"

"Pffft!" the archer replied.

Robin managed a smirk.

"Look at that!" Speedy cackled.

"Could have predicted it," Cyborg said, titanium arms crossed.

"Certainly making the wait bearable…," Robin mused. A pause. "Say, Speedy," he turned around. "What're you doing here?"

Speedy placed his hands on his hips. "Oh…am I that detestable?!"

"I mean….we found the weapons arsenal of Anderson's," Robin stated. "Viper's murderous rampage was ended. We pretty much succeeded with our mission. We're glad that you helped and all….but….w-we don't need to be holding you back any longer if you've got places to go—"

"Hey, I wanna see Starfire come out of this peacefully just like the rest of you," Speedy smiled. "Then I'll be out of your hair. I promise."

"As a matter of fact," Robin smirked. "You've more than proven yourself worthy of our ranks. If ever there was a time to invite you as a permanent member…."

"Yeah!" Beast Boy jumped. "You and I could shoot hoops on days off!"

"Like what we all need is a second 'Robin'……..," Raven mumbled from behind an open book.

I snickered breathlessly.

Speedy glared at Raven momentarily before looking back at Robin: "As much as I'd love to…there's still a certain Green Arrow that needs my attention."

"Heh," Robin nodded. "Understood."

"Besides…," Speedy folded his arms and produced a contemptuous glare. "That invitation sounds familiar. If I'm not mistaken, shortly after the Master of Games was defeated…..—"

"Okay, Speedy…."

"…you handed me a communicator…--"

"I get your point…."

"…and said that you just as well then and there considered me an honorary—"

"WE ALL UNDERSTAND YOU!!" Robin exclaimed. "Sheesh! So I was a little too…..egotistical to let you fight by our side before."

"A little?" Speedy smirked.

"Shhh!" Robin insisted and pointed up in the air. "I think I see it coming!"

Cyborg shaded his red eye. "I see nothing!"

"Naturally….," Speedy droned.

"Face it," Raven mumbled without looking up, "…it would take more than a week and a murderous villain to blend you into our camaraderie You'd have to face a nightmare most divine. Robin's ego."

Beast Boy smirked and pointed: "And Raven's sarcasm."

"Don't push it."

"Ya know…," Speedy smirked and leaned in towards Raven, "…you almost remind me of a girlfriend I once broke up with."

"………………gee, I'm flattered."

"Heh….something tells me, she would be too."

"Don't bother trying to find Raven's good side, Speedy," Beast Boy said. "It's almost been two years of trying for me, and I still can't locate it!"

Cyborg sighed. "Ahhh….the mysteries of the female—"

"There!!" Robin pointed.

I looked up. The sun glinted off my shades. A gust of air kicked at my long, black hair.

In slow, graceful fashion…a black, cuttlefish shaped spacecraft lowered down on cushioning thrusters and descended towards the landing pad.

The six of us swiftly walked backwards and gave the vehicle room to land.

Raven put her book away. Robin stared silently.

The loud engines hissed to a calm. After a pause, a wave of steam shot out and an automatic door slid open. A tall, dark figure emerged. A man with short, red hair. His eyes, bright green. Eyebrows small, lonely, and orbiting high on his brow.

A Tamaranian doctor.

"Morgan'm, I presume," Robin said, taking a bold step forward.

The towering Tamaranian man stared down at us. Blinking.

Beast Boy leaned up towards me and whispered with his hand aside his mouth: "I never met a guy-alien before."

I nodded.

"Think he knows any other girl-aliens?"

I nodde---I did a double take at him.

"I'm Robin," the Boy Wonder said. "And these are the Teen Titans. This is the Titan Tower. Home to Starfi-er…the one whom you call---"

"Koriand'r…," the fellow smiled. White teeth. "I've heard of her valiant efforts here on Earth. Most impressive indeed." He adjusted his sleeves. A green bracelet hung off his right arm.

_Ceremonial……_, I thought.

"She said she….always sends transmissions back home," Robin said. "Though she's lived the life of a heroine here, she insists on maintaing her role as a messenger."

"An 'explorer' is more like it," said Morgan'm. He stepped down the landing pad and stood amongst us six. "Carrying the energy of our people. I am most happy to be of service to her and to her friends."

"Well, allright!" Cyborg smiled.

"Way cool!" Beast Boy added.

"Yippee…," Raven droned.

Robin cleared his throat. "I'm surprised a member of Tamaran got the message so quickly. Not long after we contacted C.S.A.I.T. about Starfire's unconsciousness, we were given a reply. I have to say, it made our lives a lot easier."

"And happier," Speedy smirked.

"Don't try speaking for us," Raven glared.

"What?! I was only trying to—"

"The Collective Satellite Artificial Intelligence of Tamaran is a most advanced system," Morgan'm explained. "There should be no surprise when it comes to its punctuality. But being that you're earthling, I'll excuse it," the doctor chuckled.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"This….urban dwelling….," Morgan'm spun around and gestured. "This Tower. The established technologies in use. Quite basic. Rudimentary. And yet—in their perceivable flaws—they are extremely admirable."

"We do the best we can," Robin said. "Starfire---I mean, Koriand'r has told us on numerous occasions how advanced your people are."

"And the galaxy in general," Morgan'm nodded. "Lord knows why this planet's grinding in the dust."

"……," Robin blinked from under his mask.

Speedy cleared his throat. "Say…there's a….ya know…..comatose alien girl to tend to."

"But of course," Morgan'm smiled. "Care to show me the way?"

"Um….n-no problem," Robin managed. He gestured and headed for the stairwell. Robin, Speedy, and Beast Boy soon followed.

"Sheesh….guess snobs aren't limited to just Earth," Cyborg muttered.

I gestured something at him.

"Okay…Earth and Universities," the android smirked. He slowly followed behind the small caravan.

I sighed and glanced over.

Raven was staring at the roof beneath.

I shuffled over and looked into her blue eyes.

She glanced up. "What else is new?" she almost chuckled. "I have a funny feeling."

I cocked my head to the side.

"What does it matter…," she mumbled and walked towards the stairwell. "It's nothing. It's always nothing."

I stood there in the cool wind and wondered to myself if it was _something_.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The monitors beeped.

The lights blinked.

Starfire's chest slowly rose and fell.

Morgan'm leaned down and looked deep into her closed eyelids. He stood back up and scratched his chin.

Robin cleared his throat from behind him in the lab. "It's….normal-looking, right?"

"Very," Morgan'm said simply. "How long has she been under?"

"Four and a half days."

"Hmm?"

"Earth days. Um….a little over ninety-six hours."

"Hours?"

"………um….."

"A long time, and yet a short time," Raven spat.

"Ah," the alien physician nodded.

Beast Boy smirked. "Leave it to her."

"Shhh!" Cyborg insisted.

"And these apparatuses….?" Morgan'm gestured to the monitors and computers around Starfire's medical bed.

"They're to monitor her life signs," Cyborg stepped up and explained. "Heartbeat. Electrical brain signals…."

Morgan'm smirked. "Silly Terrans….the girl is merely going through a natural phase. I'll never understand the earthling obsession over putting health detection devices on a perfectly healthy body."

Cyborg stared. His voice tried to hide a natural bitterness: "People a lot more fragile on our home planet. We couldn't take any chances—"

"And that's why I'm here," Morgan'm pulled out a shiny, metal container of Tamaranian instruments. "If you would be so good to assist me, young android---since you are the most technically minded one here---we can proceed with the awakening and your friend Koriand'r will be aroused by the fall of your golden sun."

"What can we do to help?" Robin asked.

"The two of us will do just fine," Morgan'm absent mindedly stated. "If we need any unnecessary assistance from the rest, I shall unnecessarily summon for someone."

"Er…..okay," Speedy scratched his red hair and looked at the rest of us. "We done here?"

"Can I at least stay and watch?" Robin asked, arms folded.

Raven looked away. She knew more than anyone that the Boy Wonder was close to losing his cool.

Thankfully the oldest of us spoke up:

"It'll be okay, Robin," Cyborg said. "I'll let you know how Starfire fairs."

Robin took a deep breath, spun around, and marched out the door.

Speedy followed, and so did Raven—floating.

Beast Boy and I walked out together last. When the door closed behind us, Beast Boy groaned. "Man…so much for the beside manner."

I nodded.

"Think he and Cyborg can last a minute in there?"

I smirked. I gestured a 'sinking ship' below my other forearm.

Beast Boy laughed. "Yeah! Heheh!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You know……," Cyborg said while pivoting Starfire's chair around so that the doctor could have comfortable access, "….contact between interstellar cultures is a very….v-very precarious thing. It would help if you were a bit more tolerant of our technologies and stuff."

"This planet sure has a huge ego to bruise…," Morgan'm mumbled while looking through instruments. He picked up a neural scanner and flicked his wrist. The green bracelet clattered around his hand where it rested. "It's no wonder you've had so many wars."

"Yeah, well, ego is relative, pal," Cyborg said with a glare. "And what's with the fashion statement?"

"Never you mind….," Morgan'm yawned.

"Okay, pal. You've been short, cross, and downright rude since getting here!" the android said, pointing a mean finger. "It's a good thing you're here to help our friend. But what is your deal?! Are all men on Tamaran this stuck up?!"

"Jabbering away at the top of your lungs….," Morgan'm hummed. "Just like a good little primitive thing."

"Oh, so you WANT to hear me yell, eh man?" Cyborg growled.

The red-haired gentleman looked up, smirking. "I just love how distraught you people get over little things. How quick you all are to anger. The incessant barking of your voices. It's cute."

"Trust me," Cyborg glared. "You've ruined your chance for cuteness."

"I have ruined nothing," Morgan'm retorted. "And if you want to see your friend rise and shine earlier than normal, you will respect that."

"Show me something worth respecting." Cyborg kept getting angrier and angrier.

"What is there to be found in respect….," Morgan'm looked straight at Cyborg's face, "…in the cousin of a man who allegedly worked for the devils of your urban wastelands?"

Cyborg's jaw dropped. Every artery in his body went into overdrive of shock and flabbergasted horror. Slowly, like a melting volcano, his brow furrowed and his shaking hands clenched fists.

And Morgan'm simply smirked……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You're going to die now!!" Speedy shrieked.

"Not if I take you down first!!" Robin returned.

"Go screw yourself! I have a rocket launcher with your ass' name on it!!"

"Good lord no! Eat minigun!

"Aaaaaaaaugh!!!"

"RAAAAAUGH!!!"

The television screen flashed. The video game froze as a blood-red curtain of light fell over the deceased, polygonal characters. Crimson letters flashed between the split, 2-player screen. _"Double Suicide!"_

"D'oh!" Speedy winced.

"Guess we went a little overboard…," Robin sweatdropped.

"Me! Me! Me!" Beast Boy hopped over the back of the sofa in the main room. "My turn! I'm fighting Speedy next!"

"Hey! We got a double kill! Nobody won that round!" Robin frowned. "Why're you replacing me and not him?!"

"Duh! Cuz he's the guest!"

Speedy smirked. "I like this kid."

"Pfft….like him all you want," Robin mumbled.

"Okay…lemme pick my character!" Beast Boy bounced. "What?! You have to use a weapon?! I thought there was a shape-shifter in this game!!"

"Nope…just guns and melee weapons."

"Well, no fair. That's not true to life!"

"Games aren't true to life, man."

"Well they should be," Beast Boy beamed. "I'll have you know I'm the greatest shape-shifter there ever was. If they had a game of shape-shifters, I'd kick ass!"

"Hmmmmm," Robin thought aloud. "I almost picked up Bloody Roar 3 the other day….

"Huh?" Beast Boy glanced at him.

"Round One!" Speedy shouted, hands on his controller. "Go!"

"Yipes!!"

"Ha ha ha!!"

I shook my head and smiled from where I sat on the side.

A computer console next to me chimed.

I glanced at it. I leaned forward and typed a few keys. I read what was on the monitor.

I blinked from under my shades. Confused.

I stumbled over a few feet and tapped hardly on Raven's shoulder.

She was in the middle of a book. _Bad idea._

She glared over at me. "What?" she bitterly spat.

I pointed at the monitor.

She moaned, got up, and ruffled over.

She stared at the screen. "That's funny…."

"What?" Robin asked from the couch. "Something wrong?"

"Don't know….," Raven said. "The Titan's computer is saying that Cyborg's left the building."

"Huh???" Robin left the gaming duo and walked up to Raven and I. He glanced at the screen, squinting from under his eyemask. "Wasn't he in the middle of helping Morgan'm with Starfire?"

"The only one with the guts to…," Raven droned.

"Why'd he leave?" Robin asked. "Did he leave a message of departure under his profile?"

I checked it. I looked at the Boy Wonder. I shook my head.

"He just up and left," Raven said.

"I think we should have seen this coming," Robin frowned. "Come….let's have a talk with the good doctor."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Morgan'm wandered around Starfire's bed, placing sensors on various parts of the sleeping girl's limbs and hospital gown.

"We got into talking about earthling technology, culture, politics—all the while assisting Koriand'r of course—and at some point I inquired about family relations. Somehow I struck a bad cord. He got angry, and left the laboratory in a rage. I had to keep to my duties, of course. I think I've faired well with your technologies without his assistance, though."

"Cyborg left because he was angry?" Robin asked.

"Mmmhmmm," Morgan'm nodded his head. "It's indeed a pity. He seemed most interesting a fellow."

I looked over at Raven.

She was glaring at the alien man.

"Cyborg's been sorta….sensitive, lately," Robin explained. "He's just about lost his uncle. Plus, we've all been wrecked ever since the recent dealings with Viper. I'm sure it wouldn't take much to set him off…."

"And it didn't," Morgan'm smiled.

"Did you do something to him?"

Everyone looked at Raven.

She kept staring at Morgan'm. Glaring.

"Why….," the alien doctor chuckled. "Whatever does that mean?"

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh," Robin sweatdropped, grabbed Raven's hooded shoulders, and simpered at the doctor. "She's um….had t-too much tea. Don't mind her. We're going now to leave you to your administrations. Bye!"

The Boy Wonder hurried them out.

I looked at them, at the doctor, at the door through which they left, and at him again.

Confused.

Morgan'm stared at me.

I smiled awkwardly, bowed, and left in a hurry.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin spun out into the hallway and dangled Raven off to the side. He turned and faced her, flabbergasted.

"What on earth are you doing?!"

"What did it look like?!" Raven retorted.

"You can't just go ahead and attack people!" the Boy Wonder exclaimed. "Especially when they're from a foreign planet and are doing us a favor!"

"Detail to me the favor that he is doing for us, Robin," Raven grumbled as I walked up. "Ever since he came here, he's been doing nothing but stirring everybody's emotions the wrong way. Even yours. Don't deny it."

"So maybe he's a bit of a rabble rouser," Robin spoke. "All that matters to me is he's here to take care of Starfire."

"I know that's all that matters to you, Robin," Raven glared. "In fact, it matters to you so much that it's blinded you to the basic elements of how the Titans deal with strangers. In your obsession over Starfire's recovery, you've overlooked warning signs a mile wide. It'll be on your head if something bad happens to Cyborg and it turns out to be Morgan'm's doing."

With that said, she swiveled around and walked off down the dark hallway.

"Hey! Don't think you can just take off without hearing me through!"

She did.

Robin shook. "Fine! Be that way! Sheesh!" he folded his arms. "And besides….I'm not obsessed over Starfire's recovery." A beat. He looked at me. "Am I?"

I scratched my neck and simpered.

"Bah….," Robin grunted and walked off towards the other end of the hallway in a huff.

I stood alone, looking in each direction.

What had happened to this afternoon?

I shrugged and chose a direction to walk down.

Raven's direction.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Stupid….gothic….stuck up….girl….," Robin gritted his teeth and stomped through the hallway. He came to a stop under a dim lamp and spun around, facing no one in general. "Who does she think she is?! I'm not obsessed over Starfire. I'm just…….just………Bah. Stupid, stuck up—"

He spun around and ran right into a titanium chest.

CONK!

"AUGH!" Robin jumped back in a kung fu pose. His jaw dropped. "Cyborg??"

"Hey man…," the android sighed.

"You're back!" Robin stepped forward. "What's up with you?! Why'd you leave the Tower so suddenly?"

Cyborg paused for a little bit. He looked aside and breathed in a low voice: "Just had to get it out of my system. What that Morgan'm guy said…..it just got to me, ya know?"

Robin smiled. "I understand. But hey….let by gones be by gones, ya know?"

"It isn't so easy as that," Cyborg muttered. "But, I'll deal."

"Well, next time you leave," Robin patted his arm, "…leave us a note, eh? Even if you're all upset and stuff, it'd be nice to know where you are so we don't worry."

"I understand….I understand….," Cyborg nodded. "I did something productive while I was gone."

"Oh?" Robin asked, head cocked to the side.

"Yeah. A report from Commissioner Decker on the Jermaine Hangars. Come on, I'll show you."

"Well, way to go, Cyborg!" Robin smiled as he followed his android companion down the dark hallway. "Leave it to you to do something besides smashing a wall in when you're pissed off."

"Yeah….," Cyborg scratched the human part of his neck. "I do my best. After you."

Robin walked ahead of him. "You should have seen Raven. Hehehehe…she was royally mad at Morgan'm."

"Do tell."

They reached a dead end in the hallway. "She was sooooo sure that Morgan'm had somehow done something bad to…..y-you……..," Robin came to a stop. "Um…..Cyborg? Where're we going anyways?"

Silence.

"Cyborg?"

Silence.

Robin turned around and faced his companion. He looked up. His eyemask widened and he gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stood by a window, staring out onto the sun-lit Bay of the City. She was in a graceful repose, leaning against the frame with her right leg at an angle and her arms hugging her waist.

I shuffled up to her and stared out as well.

Silence.

"I wonder if I react too strongly to my premonitions…," Raven gradually mumbled aloud. "Why is it that I am so certain of my convictions that I must pester the leader of this team that I'm a part of?"

I was silent. Of course I was silent.

"But I can't shake the feeling about Morgan'm…," she said. "The utterly dreadful feeling. I wish I could make others understand what it means…..I wish I understood what it means."

For a person who repressed her emotions, Raven sure had a lot of them to share.

I guess she was a girl underneath.

And I was the listener in and out.

Raven shook her head. "This is pointless. I should explain everything to Robin. Maybe he'll be in a good mood enough to actually hear me out."

I smiled and shrugged.

It was her decision.

She stepped down from the frame and proceeded with me towards the elevator when suddenly its doors opened and Beast Boy walked towards us.

"Say…have you guys seen Robin?" he asked.

The two of us did a double-take, exchanged glances, and looked back at the changeling.

"He's not with you?" Raven asked.

"No. I tried calling him on his communicator," Beast Boy said. "It was his turn at the game. But there was no response! What happened with the meeting with Morgan'm?"

I looked over at Raven.

"……..," she thought to herself. "Come with me. I just thought of something."

"Okay," Beast Boy shrugged.

"Where's Speedy?"

"He went off looking down the other side of the Tower for Robin…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There you are!"

Speedy smiled and walked down the aisle of glass displays inside the evidence room. The brooding shoulders of the Boy Wonder faced him from across the way in the shadows.

"Decided to pull a Cyborg on us, eh?" Speedy remarked as he walked across the tile. "You know, I think it's the sort of example you set for your partners. Cyborg leaves in a huff without announcement because it's just what you do!"

Robin's voice slurred out slow and angry: "I know what you're up to, Speedy…."

"Huh?" Speedy made a face.

Robin turned around. He was glaring. Menacing. "I just found this…" He tossed a crumpled piece of paper at the redheaded archer.

"Hey!" Speedy stumbled back, making a face. "What's this all about, man?!"

_"Read it!"_

"Pfft….fine," Speedy huffed. He bent over, picked up the paper, unfolded it, and scanned over it through his eyemask.

_**Dear Robin,**_

_**Speedy's words have dug deep into my heart. He's right. You are an incompetent leader. Over a dozen people were murdered during our wild goose chase to find Viper, and it's all thanks to you. I cannot fight for a team that allows so many mistakes to happen. And quite frankly, I don't think you're mature enough to understand that. I'm heading back with Speedy to the Green Arrow's lair. From there, we'll start a new team. A team that doesn't depend on rotten excuses for 'charisma' alone to succeed. Fairwell."**_

_**-Cyborg**_

"The hell???" Speedy remarked, disgusted.

"Don't play games with me!" Robin spat. "You've been twisting Cyborg's mind all along! While we were fighting side by side—like trusting friends—you were only trying to stab the Titans in the back!"

"Robin, seriously," Speedy emphasized, "I have no idea what this is about! Cyborg's out of his mind if he thinks that—"

"We've already had to deal with Terra," Robin fumed. "We don't need assholes like you coming in and giving us nightmares all over again!"

"What are you trying to say??" Speedy glared.

"Leave," Robin pointed firmly towards the door to the evidence room. "Get out of this Tower and never come back again, traitor!"

Speedy clenched his fists. "You won't even listen to me…."

"I have nothing to listen to," Robin glared. "Get out of my sight."

"Rrrrrrrrgh," Speedy shook. He gritted his teeth. "Fine." He spun around and marched towards the exit. "You never change, Robin. You'll always be just as we first met. Egotistical, untrusting, competitive….."

Speedy came to a stop. He froze in place. A grin plastered across his face.

_"Competitive……_," he breathed. "The Robin I know is _competitive……_" He slowly turned around. "If you're so angry at me right now….why aren't you beating my ass for every inch of my life?"

Robin shouted: "I have no time for this!!"

"Oh, so NOW you're turning aggressive!" Speedy folded his arms and smirked. "Creative! What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?"

Speedy hated himself for his words—for the next instant there was a bright flash of purple light enveloping his figure and knocking him out cold against the wall.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, that explains it…," Raven said, typing quickly at the computer in the Main Room. "You haven't seen Robin because Robin's not in the Tower."

"What?!" Beast Boy did a double-take. "How could Robin have left?!" A pause. "**Why** would he have left?!"

Raven pointed at the computer screen which declared Robin's exit approximately twenty minutes prior. "Whatever the explanation, we just know that he _did_. And unlike Cyborg, he left a message."

"He did?"

"A very brief message," Raven typed away and a small text message appeared on screen. "Which is very unlike him.

**"Going out to scan the streets for drug trafficking."**

**-Robin**

"Yeah…he's usually technical and boring," Beast Boy said. "Besides….he usually asks for someone to come with him when looking to take out drug dealers."

"Exactly….," Raven nodded.

Beast Boy smiled: "Unless the Boy Wonder's got a few, dark habits that he's keeping secret from us! Hehehehehe!"

Raven and I glared at him.

"What?! Sheesh…get a sense of humor."

The elevator doors opened and Speedy walked out.

"No luck. I couldn't find Robin anywhere—whoah, what's going on here?"

"We're figuring out why Robin's missing," Beast Boy said. "A-At least, I think so…."

"Mind if I join you?" Speedy smiled.

I motioned to the monitor. Speedy leaned over us.

"Hmmmmmm," Raven brought up security camera footage of the Tower's garage from twenty minutes ago. Footage showed Robin strapping on a helmet, mounting his R-Cycle, and speeding off through the automatic doors towards the City.

"Looks like he left to me," Speedy said.

"To take out druglords, apparently."

"At this time of day? Pfft…good luck!"

"Hold on for one second….," Raven cycled through files and looked at security footage of the lab.

"Morgan'm and Cyborg. Why're you bringing them up for?"

"Shhhh!" Raven emphasized and leaned in. "I'm curious…."

Footage showed Morgan'm and Cyborg working on Starfire from earlier. They got into a heated conversation. Morgan'm said something and smirked. Cyborg's shoulders rose as he gasped at what he heard. His limbs then went into a flurry of emphatic, angry gestures. Soon after, he spun around—face frowning—and stomped out of the lab through the automatic doors. Morgan'm sighed, shrugged, and went back to work scanning the Tamaranian girl.

"And then he left the Tower," Beast Boy finished the story. "What's your point, Raven?"

"The point….," Raven muttered, "Is that there is no point."

I scratched my head.

"So what now?" Speedy uttered.

Lights flashed.

Red and yellow.

The floor vibrated.

Sirens blared: _REEE! REEE! REEE!_

Everyone jumped.

Beast Boy gasped: "The Titan alarm!"

"What's it mean???" Speedy remarked.

"Intruders…," Raven gritted her teeth and pointed at the computer screen. "First Floor. Main Atrium."

The rest of us leaned in and looked at a live security camera feed.

I gasped at the sight of two familiar rogues smashing their way through the chairs and computer stations of the entrance. Mammoth himself was stomping his way through the material, glaring a the cameras overhead and taunting 'us' on. Gizmo flew over him on his little jet pack, blasting away with his mounted laser rifles.

"H.I.V.E.?!?!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "How did they get out?!"

"We've got to take them out!" Speedy remarked. "Protect the Tower!"

I looked at him. I nodded.

"Let's go!!!" Beast Boy shouted.

The three of us boys ran towards the elevator and zoomed down to the first floor.

Raven….however….slacked off. She stood up, slowly, looked over towards the stairwell slowly, and walked over to it…..slowly….

…..alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to the lab opened.

Morgan'm, bathed in flashing lights of red and yellow, looked up from where he remotely operated the neurological scanners all over Starfire's body.

Raven floated in.

"Is there an alarm going off?" Morgan'm asked dumbly.

"You don't seem so anxious about it," Raven bluntly said.

"I am sorry….earth matters are none of my concern---"

"Oh, but I believe they are," Raven glared and stepped towards him and the medical bed. "I want answers now, Tamaranian. And I want them now."

Morgan'm chuckled delightfully. "You're still so determined that I'm here for malevolent reasons?"

"Aren't you?"

"…….," Morgan'm tilted his head up. "I would like to see you give an explanation."

"You first, fake," Raven spat.

And thus, a minute-long staring match began. Unhindered by the flashing lights or blaring sirens.

Unhindered—that is—until Morgan'm started to smirk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where's Speedy?!" Beast Boy asked.

I gestured confusedly as we ran down a series of steps.

Amidst the rush, our archer friend got lost in the shuffle.

"Never mind, we'll have to do this the hard way," Beast Boy growled. "Two on Two. It has to be so."

We ran to a stop in front of an emergency door on the first floor which had closed in the nick of time to cut off Mammoth and Gizmo.

"I get the big one," Beast Boy motioned and crept towards a wall panel. "I can match him in the flick of a tail!"

I nodded, whipped out Myrkblade, and struck a battle pose.

"You ready?" Beast Boy whispered under the sirens. "On the count of three….I'll open the door. Then we strike them down in our own house!"

I concurred.

1….

I channeled murk through my blade.

2….

Beast Boy's skin started developing scales….

_**3!!!!**_

Beast Boy slammed his fist over the panel.

The door swung open.

I spun Myrkblade and dashed forward.

A green T-Rex roared and charged.

….and the atrium was empty.

The two of us screeched to a stop. I raised my eyebrows, confused. A question mark popped over the T-Rex's head.

The green elf returned to normal. "What in the world?! Th-They're not here!"

I scratched my head.

"Do a computer search! See where the intruders are!"

I nodded. I walked briskly over to a computer console—shut the alarm off for first—and did a scan.

"This is too wyrd….," Beast Boy muttered.

Schematics answered my inquiry. My heart dropped. I motioned for Beast Boy to come over.

He did so. His jaw dropped as he saw the screen. "What in the world?!?!"

_**'No intruders present.**_'

"This is nuts! Are we having a bad dream or something?!"

"……," a curious thought entered my mind. I typed madly away at the computer. I brought up another schematic.

When Beast Boy saw _it_, he nearly fainted. "Oh, what the hell is that?!?!"

'Speedy is not located inside the Titan Tower.'

"I swear to god….it's like we're dropping like flies!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He pulled at his face and looked at me, panicked. "How come we keep disappearing?"

I looked off into space. Suddenly I made a face.

So did Beast Boy. "Raven!! Oh jeez…where was she last?!"

I gestured.

"Let's back upstairs! Quick!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was gradually turning into night outside the windows of the Main Room as we dashed in and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"You're all right!" Raven exclaimed. "That's good!"

"The feeling's mutual!" Beast Boy panted. "False alarm! Mammoth and Gizmo weren't anywhere to be seen!"

"I think somebody's playing tricks on us!" Raven said, wide-eyed. "There has to be an actual intruder somewhere in the Tower!"

"He must have slipped in while we were all too busy welcoming Morgan'm!" Beast Boy said. He ran over towards Raven and the computer console. "Now Speedy's missing! This is scary!"

"I know…let's get to the bottom of this! I think Morgan'm's somehow involved!"

"What?! Raven, give it a rest! He's innocent!"

"But I have a feeling….I don't trust the man…."

I was only half listening. Most of my effort was going through my eyes. I was staring at Raven. Studying her.

_She seemed………frantic. Paranoid. Almost………fearful._

What had gotten into her?

"Noir?!"

I snapped out of it.

Raven was looking at me: "I have a plan. It requires your assistance!"

I awkwardly stumbled over towards the computer console.

She pointed at the schematics on the screen. "There's a strange reading coming from the garage. I have a feeling someone there may be accessing the core of the main computer and screwing up the scanning sensors!"

"And making Mammoth and Gizmo appear where there's nobody!" Beast Boy frowned.

"And finding ways to sneak up on us and take us out one by one….," Raven nodded.

"Aw man….this is bad," Beast Boy sweated.

Raven swiveled around. "This room is the safest and most secure in the Tower. I suggest one of us stay here and keep in contact via communicator. The other two can stick together and investigate the garage together."

"Good idea," Beast Boy nodded. "But we gotta move fast."

"I agree," Raven nodded. "I'm more than willing to volunteer to go with one of you to the gara---"

I suddenly hooked an arm around Beast Boy's shoulder, saluted, and dragged him with me towards the elevator.

Raven blinked. She stood up. "B-B-But….I can be most helpful!!"

"I think he's made up his mind, Rae!" Beast Boy simpered. "Stay here and keep safe! We'll report to you as soon as we can!"

"……," Raven stared. She sat down. "Okay. Be careful."

My mind swam as I pressed the buttons to the elevator.

She didn't even argue………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to the garage opened with a disturbing _creeeeak_. It was dark inside. A dim red light from the ceiling reflected off the T-Car's smooth, glass-like surface.

"I-I don't see anyone," Beast gulped and trembled behind me.

I leaned forward and took my shades off. With solid black eyes, I scanned the scene. I was graced with a 'lit up' world, and I couldn't spot any intruder amidst the shadows.

I stepped forward slowly. Beast Boy tip-toed behind.

"Maybe Raven was wrong?!" the green changeling whispered. "Maybe whoever's been sending the transmissions is in another part of the Tower and has been trying to fool us?!"

I walked across the garage. I looked to my right. What I saw made me freeze.

"It's only a matter of time before what happened to Robin, Cyborg, and Speedy happens to us—OOF!" Beast Boy bumped into me. "Noir??!" He rubbed his head. "Dude, why'd you stop—" He froze.

We both stared in front of us.

The R-Cycle was sitting there. Undisturbed.

And no Robin in sight.

"Aw dude….this is crazy," Beast Boy walked over and all but collapsed on the motorcycle. "Am I the only one who remembers Robin owning only _one_ R-Cycle?! How come we saw him leaving with another one in the security footage?"

I spun around. I looked at the camera.

It was dead still.

Not even a red power light.

Beast Boy kept rambling fearfully behind me. But I was no longer resonating his words.

Memory was wafting back to me like the gentle, night waters of the Bay against the bluffs of the Tower.

My black eyes twitched. My mouth parted slightly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The elevator doors to the Main Room opened._

Beast Boy ran out.

Raven spun.

She looked towards us.

Her eyes were wide.

_Her eyes were wide……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My brow furrowed.

My lips parted more.

My eyes darted left and right in the memory.

In the blackness of nothing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The elevator doors opened._

Raven spun to look at us.

Her slender wrists dangled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I exhaled.

My face scrunched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Raven spun……._

Her wrists dangled………

_Off the right wrist……a green bracelet……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped.

I cocked my head to the side.

My eyes trailed.

My memories swam….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Speedy walked out of the elevators._

He joined us by the computer console.

He leaned forward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I squinted.

My fingers twitched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Speedy leaned forward……_

His right hand on the back of Raven's chair…

_A green bracelet……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted.

My eyes rose towards the ceiling.

My mind shot all the way back to the rooftop.

The landing pad…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Morgan'm walked out of his craft._

He stood, staring down at us with his green eyes and isolated eyebrows.

_On his right wrist……_

A green bracelet hung……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A sudden pain shot through my heart, up my spine, and chilled my brain.

A thought.

A realization.

I shuddered.

I spun around, gasped for breath, and tried to compose myself.

"……."

I glanced back at Beast Boy.

"……."

"Okay….okay…here's what I think we'll do," Beast Boy paced and thought aloud. "W-W-We'll….um…g-go back upstairs and reunite with Raven. Then we'll regroup with Morgan'm and wait till he's woken up Starfire. Then with her help, we'll…um…get out of the Tower and try to get some help to find our friends."

He spun around. "How's that for a plan, Noir?"

A beat.

He sank. "N-Noir???"

_I was gone._

"Oh man….," Beast Boy sweated and pulled at his green skin. "Oh man oh man oh man oh man!!" He spun around, panting frantically. "This isn't happening! This isn't happening!"

In a panic, he dashed out of the garage and up the nearest stairwell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to the Main Room flew open.

Beast Boy dashed in. "Raven! Raven! Noir's gone now!!" Beast Boy shouted. He froze. "Raven?!?!"

The Main Room was empty. Dark. Pale moonlight giggled outside the windows.

The changeling was alone.

"…….eep….," he gurgled. He stepped backwards and bumped into a wall. "ACK!!" he spun around and gasped for breath. A pause. "The doctor!!"

He ran into the elevator.

The doors closed loudly behind him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dr. Morgan'm!" Beast Boy ran into the lab. "There's a really bad situation! We gotta wake Starfire and get out of here----Oh no." He gulped.

The room was barren. Darkly lit. Amber emergency light flooded the interior. Starfire remained alone on the bed. Breathing gently in her continued, Tamaranian slumber.

"Not him too….," Beast Boy fidgeted.

After a while, he dashed over to Starfire's bed. "Star….I gotta get you out of here! Everyone's disappeared! I don't know what to do! This may be a bit rough, but I'll try my best!" He proceeded to detach the wires and electrodes in her and attempt pulling her off the bed. It was a gruntingly strenuous effort for the petite changeling.

"Ngggggggh…..," Beast Boy strained. He gently lowered Starfire back down. "What's the use. I can't do it! No offense, Star. It's not that you're too heavy. I'm just too noodley. Now, if I was a buffalo…"

The automatic doors suddenly swung open.

Beast Boy jumped and looked over. He sighed. "Noir! There you are! God, I was so worried!"

A tall, teenage Titan walked halfway into the room. His hair was long. His shades, solid black. He looked at Beast Boy with an expression of concern and a cock of the head.

"Come on!" Beast Boy motioned over. "Help me carry Starfire! Raven and Morgan'm are gone too! We gotta get out of here and find help outside the Tower!"

Noir nodded with a helpful smile.

Beast Boy turned his back to him and attempted once again to pick up Starfire. "Be careful with her! She's been lying in one position for a long time! Don't wanna strain any muscles!"

Noir slowly walked forward. Like molasses. He glanced aside. He picked up a metal fire extinguisher. He held it high over his head and aimed for Beast Boy's skull.

"Noir….come on! I mean it!" the changeling spoke without looking.

The dark Titan approached Beast Boy slowly, bludgeon raised.

"I need help!"

Noir bit his lip, smiled evilly, and swung the heavy extinguisher downward.

….and that's exactly when I materialized out of hiding.

WOOOOOOSH---SLASH!!!!!!!

Carbon dioxide fogged outward from the center of the room.

Beast Boy gasped and jumped aside, hugging Starfire's torso.

Noir stumbled backwards, gasping and sputtering.

I emerged from the 'snow' with Myrkblade raised.

Noir shook his head and looked at me, jaw dropped.

I stabbed my blade forward. It snaked itself along the length of the doppelganger's arm, upon which I yanked back furiously.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I managed to unhook a reflective, green bracelet off of the person's limb without cutting it.

"Aaaaaaaughhhh!!" 'Noir' screamed, his voice becoming increasingly higher by the second. A flurry of sparks and tiny lightning shot out from his figure.

I glared, frowning.

Beast Boy trembled as he watched.

The figure twitched, cringed, and shook. It stumbled backwards in a flurry of electrical sparks before backing up into a wall, sliding down, and morphing into the perfect image of a tall, slender teenage girl with long, black-as night hair and wearing a dark jumpsuit. The girl shook her face, clutched a hand to her aching head, and gritted her teeth as she shot daggers at my body.

Beast Boy snaked around and stood next to me. He stared unbelieving at the figure.

"Blackfire?!?!"

"Imbeciles!!" Blackfire spat and tried to get up. "There's always got to be a stick in the mud! My life sucks!!"

"Noir?! What gives?!" Beast Boy asked for an explanation.

I looked over at the wall. I marched over and slammed my free fist over a button in a console.

With a mechanical whur, four panels slid open and there—within the walls—rested four tubes of bubbling liquid. Cyborg, Robin, Speedy, and Raven (in that order) were seen sleeping peacefully inside.

Beast Boy gasped. "Suspended animation!" He blinked. "But where's Dr. Morgan'm?!"

"You stupid fool," Blackfire stood up, rubbing her aching limb. "There is no Dr. Morgan'm! Can't you see you were had?!"

I glared and held her at bay with my blade.

"You……how……..but….," Beast Boy stammered.

"The first thing I thought of when I broke out of the Centauri Prison Mines was the first thing I thought of when I entered them!" Blackfire exclaimed. "How much I had to get even with my treacherous sister!!! But when I picked up the Titans' transmissions with the C.S.A.I.T., I knew I had a chance of the life time! I made a pit stop at the Rings of Thelmore Prime and acquired that little toy there!" she motioned her head at the green bracelet on the floor.

Beast Boy looked.

I barely glanced.

"A shape-shifting device….," Beast Boy mumbled.

"And it would have worked too!" Blackfire shrieked, red with anger. "The Thelmore Bracelet got me this far!! I would have crushed your skull in!" She pointed at me. "I thought he had left! I thought he was a coward!"

"Not my Nooby!!" Beast Boy frowned and gestured at me. "You may have intercepted our transmissions and got as far as the Tower…but nobody's gonna hurt Starfire on our shift!!"

"I wasn't gonna hurt her…..not yet," she smirked. "I was gonna first seal all six of you away, wake her up, and force her to watch as I melt your skeletons inside of your bodies while you're still alive."

Beast Boy gulped. "R-Really glad we were on our shift…..," he whimpered.

Blackfire took a step forward.

I jabbed Myrkblade towards her, glaring.

"Noir's right!" Beast Boy summoned strength. "The game's over, Blackfire!" She pointed. "Give it up!"

"What makes you think I'm so easily defeated?" she smiled as her eyes glowed a bright purple and her hands did too. "I came to this Tower to make my revenge one way or another! Now, thanks to you, I'm just gonna have to do it the _hard way!!!_'

She raised two glowing, purple hands and shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Run….trust me, Noir. RUN!!!" Beast Boy cackled.

"YAAAAAUGH!!!" A purple starbolt soared at us, thundering.

Beast Boy and I dove sideways.

FLASH!!!

The leaking fire extinguisher slid across the floor.

Starfire's bed spun around and to a stop. The sleeping girl's hair dangled.

Beast Boy slid to a stop besides a tray of equipment.

Blackfire shouted: "HA!!!" and launched a starbolt.

Beast Boy morphed into a frog and jumped out of the way as the energy blast struck the tray and exploded debris all over half the room.

I dashed to a wall and attempted to attack Blackfire's flank.

She spun and aimed two hands at me. "HAAAAA!!"

A pair of starbolts struck the ground beneath me.

BLAM!!!

I fell back from a fresh crater, shook my head, and looked at her, panting.

"You…..I shall kill you first," she marched over towards me with two glowing hands. "Any new friend of my sister's is a new enemy of mine!"

She raised her purple hands over her head.

I winced.

A green spider monkey dove down and encircled her black head of hair.

"EEEEK!!!" she misfired.

I ducked.

BLAST!!!

A crater formed in the wall behind me.

I rolled over towards the struggling girl, jumped up, and blurred straight into her center of gravity.

WOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

The monkey fell off and onto the floor with a THUD!!

My speeding slid me and the evil Tamaranian out of the laboratory, smashing through the automatic doors, and hard into the metal wall of the hallway.

SMASH!!!!

She growled and kicked me off her.

I fell back on the smooth tile and slid for a dozen feet.

She hovered up and—yelling—flung purple starbolt after starbolt at me. I let out a silent scream and deflected each attack while sliding backwards with Myrkblade. CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

She got the idea and raised two hands over her head, summoning a huge purple blast.

My black eyes bulged under the shades.

I ended my slide by stabbing my blade deep into the tile beside me.

She let loose of the blast. "RAAAAAUGH!!!!"

I tensed my whole body and vaulted upwards vertically on my grip of the blade.

_SWOOOOOOOSH!!!_ The heated sphere of purple flew at me.

I flexed, yanked up at my hilt, and spun a dodge in mid-air.

ZOOOOM!!!

The blast zoomed past my arching back and slammed into the metal wall beyond with fireworks.

I landed in a stretched crouch, slid to a stand, and swiftly dashed down the hallway towards a fork in the path.

Blackfire flew after me, growling and launching homicidal waves of purple death.

I blurred my feet, ran up the walls, and barely avoided the spheres impacting at my heels. I think she was purposefully tormenting me.

She let out a fiendish laugh and pursued me down the pathways, around winding metal corridors, and up a gradual ascent of stairs…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG!!!

I kicked the door open to the cold and ran out onto the rooftop.

Panting, I glanced up over the space vessel parked on the landing pad. Blackfire's getaway vehicle from the Centauri Prison Mines. Above, the stars shone down white and red and purple.

_Purple…_

BLAST!!!!

A sphere landed at my feet.

I was vaulted upwards from the blast. I took a breath, summoned murk power, and transformed the vault into a well-coordinated jump that sent me flipping over the sleek body of the spaceship and sliding down the other side.

CLANK!!!

I dug my blade into the hull of the craft and cut my way down into a slow ascent.

SNKKKKKKKK!!!!

My teeth grit.

Blackfire suddenly zoomed over me and thrust a hand down.

FLASH!!!

I kicked my feet against the hull, slunk the blade out, and flipped ten feet away and to safety.

BAM!!!

Sparks flew from the hull of the spaceship as Blackfire's starbolt struck the craft. She was soon aiming closer at me, causing bits and pieces of the concrete/metal rooftop to scatter at my feet.

I blurred a frantic pattern around the perimeter of the Tower's summit.

Blackfire let out a villainous laugh and played with me, launching a few bolts ahead of me and forcing me to blur backwards.

Once, I dashed blindly over a few feet and slammed the breaks just millimeters before teetering over the very edge of the Tower. I swung my arms and Myrkblade awkwardly, teetering back and forth and searching for balance.

Blackfire let out a dirty giggle and flung a finishing starbolt at me.

FLASH!!

My body jerked.

I flexed my legs.

I vaulted myself upwards.

BLAST!!!

The starbolt landed brightly and explosively beneath me. I formed an obsidian silhouette as I flipped backwards, arms out like a crucifix, and spun as I reached Blackfire's levitating position with a slash of Myrkblade.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

She spun to the side, smiled, and mused: "Nice try." She tossed down a miniature starbolt.

WHAM!!

I was struck in the back in midfall and forced hard to the ground.

SLAM!!!

I winced. My body ached.

"HAAAA!!" Nightfire shrieked.

I felt the heat of another starbolt.

I rolled to the left.

FLASH!!!!

She missed.

"HAAAAAA!!" she flung again.

I rolled to my right.

FLASH!!

The blast was close enough to send me tumbling hard and slamming into the side of her ship.

My back arched.

I wanted to groan.

I felt blood coming out of a few places in my shoulder.

I panted and wheezed as Blackfire touched down to the ground and marched towards me, hands glowing a violent purple.

"Ever imagined what it'd be like to burn alive ten times over?" she spat. Her hands raised to scorch me. "Well, live and learn, dear Terran. Have a taste of Tamaran before you sink into Hell!"

I panted, staring up at her weakly.

_**"Leave him alone!!"**_

"Huh?!" Blackfire gritted her teeth and looked up. Her whole face suddenly flexed and her eyes widened in surprise. "Sister!!"

I made a face. I looked up, wincing.

There was Starfire.

Fully garbed in her pink, Titan glory.

Her red hair danced in the wind and her green eyes glared as she perched atop the hull of Blackfire's spaceship and placed her hands on her hips.

"You shall release my friend at once!!" she commanded. "Your murderous plans shall not come into fruition!!"

Blackfire clenched her purple hands. "It's been a long time, Sister," she hissed. "But I have not forgotten what you did to me!! Prepare to have everyone you love melted screamingly before you!!"

She again prepared to blast me.

Starfire halted her with a strong finger pointing down. "NO!! Whatever pain you cause him to bear, I shall do unto you a hundredfold!! You are no sister of mine. You are a sad excuse of Tamaran! I am here to bring you back to Centauri where you belong!!"

"How dare you?!?!" Blackfire shrieked. "You'd threaten your very own flesh and blood?! _Yuukablark_!!!"

"I am not the same little sister you so easily deceived months ago," Starfire's green eyes narrowed. "I have gone through my transformation. I have honed on my skills. I have even survived a hormonal hibernation! I am just strong—if not stronger than you are, Sister. If you wish to harm my friends, you will have to face me first. And I assure you…your pain will be legendary."

Blackfire growled, her teeth gritting.

But Starfire stared her down. She held her hands to the side. Slightly bent. The Tamaranian symbol of combat readiness.

Slowly….chillingly….Blackfire's eyes rounded and her growl turned to a whimper. This was her sister. Her very own sister. And she intended to blow her away. For once in her filthy life, Blackfire felt afraid. Afraid of the very same person who never fought back. Who always backed down.

But now…..now…..Starfire was _not backing down…_

Blackfire took a deep breath. She lowered her hands…and stopped glowing purple altogether.

I took a sigh of relief.

"Wise decisions, sister," Starfire firmly said. "Your fate may not be a happy one…but it need not end tragically for us all."

"I do this only because you've reminded me….," Blackfire sneered without looking. "We are still family…."

"Noir…restrain her."

I stood up—wincing--, walked over to Blackfire's rear, and produced a set of handcuffs. The surrendering Tamaranian didn't fight as I bound her wrists harmlessly together and held her still by her shoulders.

"I am still angry with you…..," Blackfire grumbled.

"Yeah, well, that's tough," Starfire suddenly winked. She hopped down and playfully skipped over towards us. "Dude! That was so awesome! Noir, we so kicked ass!!"

Blackfire's eyes bulged. She regarded her sister with astonishment. "'Kicked ass'?!?!?! Sister, that's….it……that's not like you!!"

"Oh shut up!" Starfire stuck her tongue out. "We totally whipped you good!"

"'We what'?!?!" Blackfire gasped. She frowned. "You're….not….Starfire….."

'Starfire' smiled. She lifted a graceful hand, showing off a green bracelet. She winked, slid it off, and sparked/shrunk into the form of a green elf.

"Well, that was easy!" Beast Boy winked.

I smiled from behind Blackfire's shoulder.

"You….cheating…..little….bluffer!!!" Blackfire struggled in my grasp, her teeth grinding.

"What'd I say?!" Beast Boy beamed and juggled the green bracelet in his grasp. "Greatest shape-shifter there ever was!!"

"I….am….so….going…to…obliterate…..everyone….," Blackfire threateningly growled. Her eyes glowed a bright purple. Then suddenly---out of nowhere---the eyes returned to normal, widened, and thinned as she sighed and her whole body went limp.

WHUMP!!!

She fell onto the rooftop between us.

"……," I stared.

"……," Beast Boy stared.

We exchanged glances.

We quickly knelt down and examined her.

Beast Boy had his elfin ear to her chest. He gasped and shot up. "Dude! She's in that 'Tamaran puberty sleep' thing!"

I shook my head, my jaw opened wide in a disbelieving smile.

"Heh….," Beast Boy started into a giggling fit. "I think there's more to revenge when it comes to Blackfire envying her 'little' sister!"

My body shook in a silent chuckle.

Beast Boy doubled over, clutching his chest and laughing.

I wanted to howl. If I could laugh out loud, the two of us would have been making quite a ruckus up there on the nightlit rooftop.

Blackfire drooled in her sleep.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning, the six of us Titans stood in the sunlight on top of the rooftop and watched as a familiar, Centauri Cruiser lifted off towards space with both a hibernating Blackfire and her stolen spacecraft in tow.

The wind kicked at my hair as I smiled and looked over at the similarly blown companions.

"Well…..," Beast Boy stammered. "Back where we started."

"Yeah…….," Cyborg lisped.

A pause.

Robin turned and faced us. "I knew it all along."

"Pffft!!" Speedy rolled his eyes under his eyemask.

"Sure you did….," Raven droned, frowning.

"That Morgan'm guy was never trustworthy from the beginning and---"

Speedy clamped a hand over the Boy Wonder's mouth.

"Let's go downstairs and just….ya know….shut up."

Cyborg chuckled.

Beast Boy giggled.

"Sure…why not?" Robin shrugged.

We all walked down the steps and into the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin, Raven, and Beast Boy walked down a hallway towards the lab.

"So this is the jest of it, I figure…," Beast Boy said, "…Blackfire, in the form of Morgan'm, systematically got each and every one of us alone and took us out with a strategically thrown starbolt! The first was when she was alone with Cyborg."

"Then she took me on in the form of Cyborg," Robin nodded.

"And took out Speedy in the form of you, Robin," Beast Boy pointed.

"She overpowered me when I approached her in the lab….," Raven said.

"When Noir disappeared, I could have sworn she'd gotten him too," Beast Boy shivered. "Turns out, he was just cloaked the whole time and using me as bait for the next strike. Heh….it was so genius, even Blackfire fell for it."

"And when she tried to take you out---"

"Noir intervened. He distracted her all the way to the roof of the Tower, just in time for me to grab the bracelet, assume Starfire's form, and approach her with a paralyzing bluff."

"Remarkable….," Robin smiled. "I'll enjoy reading the report of this event."

"Have fun writing it, Beast Boy," Raven managed to muse.

"Awww man. That's right!" he sighed. Then he smirked, "I"ll make Noir do it."

"Naturally."

They reached the lab. The automatic doors swung open and they stepped inside.

"For now…," Robin said. "We have to figure out what we're going to do with---" he froze to a stop and his eyemask opened wide. "…._Starfire_?!?!?"

"She's gone…," Raven mumbled.

Indeed, the bed was empty. The covers tossed aside. No Tamaranian Titan.

"Aw dude….," Beast Boy mumbled. "What now?!"

Suddenly, the intercom overhead cracked to life and Cyborg's voice emanated throughout the room.

"Robin. Rae. B.B. This is Cyborg. I think you'd like to come to the Main Room."

They all exchanged glances, then rushed out the door and down the hall.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The elevator doors swung open.

The three stumbled out and stared at the kitchen unit.

Cyborg stood by the door, his arms folded. He smiled at them and motioned across the room. "She won't stop eating. I think all the sleep put a hole in her stomach."

Beast Boy beamed. "Star!!"

He dashed over to the bar, where the redheaded girl sat atop a stool in her hospital gown. She was in the middle of her third dish of chocolate ice cream, her second helping of a turkey sandwich, and her fourth jar of mustard.

"I….cannot….cease….the demands….of….my stomach!!" she managed to gasp between scoops, bites, and slurps.

Speedy sat across from her at the bar, his chin leaning on his hand. He looked over her and smiled as Robin and Raven stepped up. "She woke up twenty minutes ago," he smiled. "Completely natural, apparently."

"Was I….truly in….hibernation?" Starfire asked, her face dribbling with chocolate and mustard.

"Ahem….," Robin kept his composure. "That you were, Star. We didn't know what to make of it. We're glad you're…….all right."

Raven eyed the mess Starfire was making. "Yes…very glad…."

"I must apologize," she managed to pause and pout. "I do so very much wish to embrace you all and chant the Ritual Poems of Adolescent Reawakening…..but….," she went at it with the ice cream/turkey again. "…the first…..biological…..course of….action…..for a….awakened Tamaran….is to resume…..normal…..metabolism!"

"Hey….when one needs to snack," Beast Boy shrugged and smiled. "One needs to snack!"

Mustard flew.

"Whoah!" Beast Boy jumped. Watch it!

I snickered. I was sitting in front of the window across the Main Room. I was smiling.

"Let's give her some space to……erm……consume," Cyborg winked. "We'll all hug you later and stuff, Star. Just….sh-shower first, k?"

"Ooooh…immersing myself with a cloud of steamy droplets sounds most inviting after so long and stiff a slumber!" Starfire beamed. She glanced over with hungry, green eyes. "Do you not think so too, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder sat next to her while the others walked away and held their distance. "Er…..s-sure….why not?"

Starfire looked over her shoulder. She glanced curiously at herself, then at Robin. "May I ask the meaning of being adorned with a sleeping shirt that has no rear to it?"

"It's a hospital gown, Star," Robin said. "It's made for people who are bedridden and possibly in need of emergency atten—" he glanced behind her. His face blushed. He immediately snapped his gaze straight in front of him and folded his gloved hands, flushed. "Ahem…..I-I can get you a towel or something if you w-want—"

"Pass the nectar, please?"

"Huh….oh," Robin understood and handed her another jar of mustard.

She slurped happily.

He tried not to watch.

"Ahhhh," Starfire sighed. "I am happy right now to be awake again. But something gives me the feeling I should be deeply saddened." She glanced at the Boy Wonder. "Something awful has happened during my slumber, has it not?"

Robin sighed. He leaned forward on his arms propped upon the bar. "It'll take a long story, Star. Just know that I'm glad you're back to your normal self."

She smiled at him. "Does it feel like Gotham City anymore?"

Robin blinked under his mask. "Um….."

"Did you not say that it felt like fighting in Gotham City again?" she stated. "The confrontations with Viper?"

Robin's jaw dropped. "You heard that?! Er, I mean…o-of course you 'heard' that….but…y-y-you were sleeping the whole time and—"

The girl smiled bashfully, her green eyes curving.

Robin squinted his eyemask. "You……_heard………__**everything?!**_"

She lifted the jar of mustard as if to say 'cheers!'. "Tamaranian hibernation does not stifle all of one's cognitive abilities. I was most….attentive throughout your graceful administrations and worrying over my unconscious figure."

Robin blushed again. "I….I…..eheheheheheheh," he ran a hand over his face and sighed. "You're full of surprises, Star."

She looked warmly at him. "As are you, Robin."

He was silent.

So was she. She suddenly beamed: "I know!! Nectar on ice cream!!" She then proceeded to pour liberal amounts of mustard all over her chocolate dessert.

Robin groaned and closed his eyes shut.

I watched them from across the room. I took a deep breath and looked out the window.

I found myself looking at Raven instead.

"So I wasn't crazy after all."

I jumped—startled—and then composed myself. I cleared my throat and cocked my head at her, indicating 'curiosity'.

"My premonitions," she explained with an ever so slight smirk. "I shouldn't have made a big deal out of them to begin with."

I shrugged and smiled.

She looked out the approaching light of noon. "I'm not proud of falling for Blackfire's deception. At least, I'm thankful that you and Beast Boy won the day in the nick of time." She glanced at me through the edge of her hood and asked: "Tell me…when did you first realize……..that it was all a trick?"

I thought for a bit. I pointed at my eyes through the shades, then at her.

She pointed at herself. "………y-you mean you knew when you saw Blackfire shape-shifting as me?"

I nodded.

"How so? If I may ask?"

I opened my lips. I paused. I exhaled.

_I thought about the way the doppelganger Raven looked scared._

I thought about how she looked incapably weak.

Unrealistically pensive.

Hardly a flattering reflection of the strong depth and mystery that is the dark girl…

I pointed at my wrist.

"Oh…the bracelet," Raven nodded. "You saw that and that's how you knew?"

I nodded and mouthed: 'Yep'.

"Sharp eyes," she complimented.

_You have no idea……_


	44. Every Bird Must Someday Die

**44. Every Bird Must Someday Die**

They carried the dead bodies in coffins draped with red, white, and blue. Streams of people and horse-drawn carriages came down the concrete path between the sage green plots of earth. Bordering the path like bricks were lines of weeping faces and stone-faced citizens. Behind them, white stone edifices stuck out of the ground like fallen teeth from the sky.

We stood atop a hill where the plots in the ground of the memorial cemetery were awaiting the newcomers to the flock of the deceased. Our bodies formed a line, tall and proud. And yet, humbly silent and sad.

Our costumes were replaced with appropriately black attire. Robin and Speedy looked identical in their trim, dark suits. Eyemasks hung sleepily under black, spikey hair and short red hair. Beast Boy stood next in line, wearing dark brown. He could never be one hundred percent dark. Raven was next in a jet black pantsuit that looked modest on her. She seemed like some foreign ghost outside of the trademark robe which she had graciously rejected for the occasion. Cyborg made an effort to salvage one of his few sets of clothing: a large dark suit that made his bulky frame look even bulkier. He towered like a giant, black mountain that succinctly summed up the solemnity of the scene at hand. Next was Starfire, dressed in a modest blouse and long skirt of solid black. Her usually fiery hair was up in a bun, stale and lifeless. I was at the end of the line facing the funeral. I had less-stylish shades on over my black eyes and my black hair hung behind my suit in a ponytail.

I took a deep breath and watched—silently like the rest—as the deceased victims of Viper's rampage were laid to rest under the honorable watch of the City. Commissioner Decker was there, standing by most of his number one officers in the force. I could also spot the mayor, the district attorney, the family of Judge Carson, managers of the Prison, and various other high people in the local system.

The group of people who had arrived were enormous. Most were quiet and emotionless. A few were weeping.

As sickening as it sounds, I was happy to see them. For when I saw them, I did not for once detect an ounce of hatred or dislike for us Titans. Nobody seemingly blamed us for the deaths that occurred during our hunt for Viper. Viper was the murderer after all, and it was morbidly comforting to know that people understood that we did our best…and that we were suffering as much as they were to see the aftermath of the assassin's ruthless murders.

At some point, clouds overhead drizzled rightfully so. There was a twenty-one gun salute and a few eulogies read over the miserable precipitation. Robin himself read off a speech the whole of the Titans had written, and the mayor gave a lasting word.

And everyone parted ways….sighing….

Wounded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire and I stood and sat at a couple of benches in the middle of a garden at the summit of the cemetery. Half of the funeral crowd had left already, and we in our dark clothes stood around and kicked at the ground silently while we waited for Robin to return from something.

"They said that when they found the bodies in the prison….," Cyborg spoke solemnly, "…they were all congealed together. Viper had been malicious enough to not only chop their hands off and kill them, but he also somehow used his sword to….I dunno…..mush all their flesh together so that it was next to impossible to discern whose body was whose."

"Horrid….," Starfire hugged herself and stared at the ground. "Absolutely horrid…."

"Carson and Georgeton….," Cyborg went on, "….nobody knows where their skin went. Almost all that was left of them were a few bloody limbs and blood. Lots and lots of blood."

Beast Boy took a deep sigh.

Raven was silent.

"I've seen a lot of bad stuff in my days…," Cyborg went on. "My mother, no less, perished before my eyes." A pause. "To this day…I cannot begin to grasp the terrible reality of murder. I mean…._to have your life taken away from you._ And it's the only life you have. The only life you're ever gonna have. And somebody robs it of you. I mean…_how can that be?_ One minute, you're awake. The next, everything's dark. Everything's dark forever. There's no waking up. There's no seeing light. There's no feeling warmth. There's no feeling anything. There's no nothing…for all is nothing. And to have that be so because some maniac chose to steal the one existence that is existence from you."

"It is so very selfish….," Starfire added. "So very despicable. I weep inwardly for these people laid to rest today."

Beast Boy hugged himself and looked off towards a drizzled wind of gray.

I leaned against a bench, staring off at the rows of white gravestones amidst the waving grass. The landscapers had been late in their job that week. That, or a lot of summer rain recently had forced the vegetation to grow.

Death breeds on life? Or life breeds on life? Or life breeds on death?

I took off my shades, squinted my black eyes, rubbed my eyelids, and put the shades back on.

I sighed.

The grass continued dancing against the graves. The blades tracing the faded names of faded years of faded lives.

Life and death commingling…a paradox of reality……reality and paradox. Reality exists because of paradox and paradox is defined by reality.

I bit my lip.

What use will all of this thinking be when I'm dead myself?

A drop of meek rain or two struck the head of a gravestone and trickled down, refracting letters of a love one's last words or something.

Something for nothing……

"Sometimes I come to this cemetery when there's nobody for the Titans to fight," Raven droned.

Starfire looked over. She had let loose her hair and it was waving like a windsock in the wind. "Why's that, Raven?"

"Why would I not venture into a cemetery?" Raven remarked. "Cemeteries are as much a part of us as schools and hospitals. It symbolizes a piece of the linear path of humankind. The birth, the growth, the struggle, the end. I come here oftentimes to remind myself that I should be aware that one day I will no longer be. To think otherwise is to deceive myself and my soul."

"Or maybe it's just because you're gothic…," Beast Boy mumbled.

Raven glared. "Will you—please—stop calling me gothic. Just because I have the good sense to grasp my own mortality doesn't mean—"

"Will you just drop it?!" Beast Boy snapped.

Cyborg put a hand on the changeling's shoulder.

The elf looked away.

Raven stared. She looked off towards the graves.

So did Starfire.

Everyone was silent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You sure you have to go so soon?" Robin asked.

He stood a block or two away from the cemetery. Along a boatyard that led—via canal—into the Bay.

Off the side of a wooden dock, Speedy stood on the deck of his speedboat and managed a smile.

"Yeah, man. I'd say my….'visit' here in your City is done. The Green Arrow is a super badass, but he still needs me."

The gray sky's wind kicked at Robin's messy hair. He adjusted his suit, sighed, and then smirked. "You were priceless, Speedy. I'm not just saying that to be nice. I truly don't think we would have done away with Viper without you."

"And I know it," Speedy winked. He gripped the railing of the boat as it started to bob up and down a little in the wind-kicked waves by the dock. "But seriously, Robin. You have a wonderful family here. If someone was to ask me if I was crazy enough to bunk in with an egotistical kung fu student, a cybernetic ass kicker, a green skinned jokester, a clumsy alien, a mute samurai, and a moody sorceress…..I'd be stupid enough to say 'yeah, I'd love to'."

Robin chuckled, "The invitation is open anytime, Speedy. You know it."

Speedy blinked under his eyemask. "I'm surprised you're still inviting people, Robin."

Robin looked down into the waters. "Yeah….well….we may be wounded. But we're smarter now. More mature." He looked back up at Speedy. "And…to be honest….we make wiser choices."

Speedy nodded. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Don't stress it," Robin pointed. "I'm still the reigning champion in sparring!"

"Pfft! In your dreams, Hamlet!"

"Heheheheh…."

"Heheheheh…….."

Silence.

Speedy looked off towards the coastal cemetery. Towards the distant, five Titans. He motioned with his head.

"See if you can make them chuckle before everything is said and done with, man," Speedy said. "Make the whole City laugh too. We all need it."

Robin spoke: "I'll see what I can do."

Speedy waved, jumped into the cockpit, and closed the cabin door.

The boat's engines warbled, and Speedy's craft puttered away towards the Bay.

Robin watched in the wind.

He sighed.

"May we all die laughing…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was raining by the time I returned to the Tower.

I loosened my collar and pulled the tie off. My shoulders were wet with raindrops as I rode the elevator up to the Main Room and tried to relax my stiff limbs.

I sighed and reached back, undoing my ponytail so that my black hair hung loosely.

And yet—after loosening both my hair and collar—I felt no more free. My bones ached with a pain I couldn't put my finger on. It was a gray day with gray faces and gray clouds and gray graves. Each shudder of my limb ached into me and forced the meat of my innards to rumble with the rise and fall of my sighs.

My body is a prison……

SCHLUNK!!

The doors to the Main Room opened.

Starfire and Cyborg were there. Neither had changed out of their funeral attire either. The huge windows of the floor shone through gray-blue light as rain streamed down the glass and filtered the already dismal light of the dying evening.

I exhaled and made a straight line for the kitchen, praying to God I'd find something…..juicy.

"Where're the others?" Starfire asked.

I thought she was speaking to me. I simply shrugged without looking.

Cyborg answered: "Raven's in her room. Robin's….making a transmission or something. Beast Boy still hasn't come back."

Starfire looked out the window…at the rain. She blinked. "Do you think he is allright?"

"Pfft…if he gets wet, he can turn into a seal or something," Cyborg shrugged. He sat down and perused through the TV Guide. He couldn't touch the remote for some reason. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

Starfire stared continuously out the window. Her hands were folded over her skirted lap. She breathed gently…a fair silhouette against the trailing rainwater.

"He is….much younger than the rest of us, is he not?"

Cyborg sighed. "Yeah, Star. B.B.'s a littl'un. And I don't mean just literally. He's got….his own issues."

"An orphan, right?" Starfire looked his way.

"Yeah, that's part of it."

I gave up on the fridge when I couldn't find something to drink. I walked over towards the middle of the Main Room, stalled….stalled….and stalled.

My mind was a complete blank. My fingers dangled anxiously by my side. My feet wanted to move, but didn't. The world outside was so gray. The water trailing….trailing….

Cyborg glanced my way once, then returned to the T.V. guide.

The Tamaranian kept staring out the windows.

I stood there for a good long minute, succumbed, and slumped over in a sofa. Sitting still. Thinking…._or was I not thinking?_

Silence.

Starfire was about to say something. But she stopped with her mouth closed and drifted back towards the windows.

More silence. More rain. More grayness.

_'So this is life…'_, I mouthed.

Nobody read me.

"Heh…," Cyborg randomly huffed.

"Hmm?" Starfire glanced his way.

"'Contact' is on tonight," Cyborg said. "That's a good film."

"Meeting aliens, right?" Starfire remarked.

"………..," Cyborg blinked. "Never mind."

Starfire almost had a smile. She looked out the window. Beast Boy had his face frantically placed against the glass.

"Eeep! He is here!" she rushed over in her dark dress and swung the wet-heavy window open with her heavy limbs. Wind and mist howled its gray way in as Beast Boy—dripping—snaked onto the floor with a small, wilted object bundled in his arms.

"Guys! Guys!! Help me!!" he panted, panicky.

"What is it?!" Starfire asked, concerned.

Cyborg stood up.

Beast Boy gasped for breath. His shoulders heaved. His eyes were wide. "I-I found him on the way to the Tower! He looks badly hurt!!"

He held his hands over.

I craned my neck to see.

"Why….th-the poor thing!" Starfire gasped at the sight of a twitching, injured bird in the changeling's palms. It was a cardinal. Its wings had been pressed by the rain and were molting. Its eye aimed at the ceiling was half open. Its left leg—bent awkwardly—moved back and forth in a sickeningly smooth motion of repetition.

"I don't think he's gonna make it!!" Beast Boy gasped.

Cyborg walked over. "Hmmmm….where'd you find him?"

"By the side of a road!! He was almost drowning in a puddle in some gutter!" Beast Boy said. He swallowed and looked with bulging eyes at Cyborg. "We gotta get him to a vet!! Now!"

Cyborg glanced at me. He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Um…B.B. He's really hurt bad. A-And the vets are almost closed so—"

"Not yet, they aren't!!" Beast Boy snapped. "Come on, Cy!! You can drive!! Please! You gotta take us to a vet!!"

"It might die!!" Starfire added.

I glanced back at Cyborg.

The Android moaned, sighed, and nodded. "Allright, B.B. G et a towel and a box to put the bird in. You can't just cradle the poor guy all the way there."

"Th-That means we're going?!"

"Yeah. I"ll meet you at the T-Car!"

"I'll h-help!" Starfire stammered and left with him towards the elevator.

Cyborg grabbed a soda from the fridge and walked after them.

He passed by me, stopped, and turned around. "Gonna keep watch over the fort?"

I shrugged.

"Yeah….my thoughts exactly," he turned around and took the stairs.

I was left in the gray streaks of light.

I took a long, deep breath.

Eventually, I sauntered over towards the other side of the room.

I closed the window that Starfire had opened and Beast Boy had flown through.

There was a cold puddle formed in the carpet beneath my shoes.

I ignored it for the time being…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin sat in front of a monitor in his room.

He typed away at a phone pad.

The screen blipped to life.

A static, live feed displayed a computer station with a deep, dark cave stretching beyond.

A dark figure sat at the station. Two cold eyes pivoted towards the camera.

Robin took a deep breath.

_"………………I was not expecting a transmission…"_

"I know," Robin replied to the figure in the feed. "This is impromptu."

_"Has something come up? An emergency?"_

Robin slowly shook his head. _"Then what is it you need?"_

Robin slowly leaned his chin on his hand at the side of his seat.

_"………………Robin?"_

"Just wanted to say 'hey', Bruce."

_"You know it worries me when you call me that from there,"_ the figure's 'eyes' narrowed. _"One of your friends may be listening."_

"Not just friends," Robin muttered firmly. "Teammates."

_"……………,"_ the figure stared. _"……I heard of your recent adventures."_ A pause. _"I am proud of you."_

Robin took a deep breath. "Look, Bruce, I didn't call so that you could—"

_"The Justice League is even proud. I'd expect a message from them within the next few days, commending you and requesting a---"_

"Listen…just….," Robin raised a hand, stopped in mid speech, and then sighed.

_"What is it?" _

Robin managed a weak smile. "How…..h-how're you doing, Bruce?"

_"What type of a question is that?"_

"One that I would like you to answer," Robin said. He tried to fight off the shakiness in his voice when he added: "P-Please. For me…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**XRaverGreen:**__**Boo.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** It's you.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Well, I would hope so.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** May I ask you something?**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** You may try :P**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Who are you?**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Try something less forward.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Allright. How are you?**_

_**XRaverGreen;**__** I am alive. And you?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** More or less.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Bad day?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** There's no such thing as a bad day. Only bad moods.**_

_**XRaverGreen**__**: Anything I can do?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** I can't imagine demanding you to do more than you have.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Oh come now. Don't be meek. You're sickeningly nice as it is.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** It's my habit. My friends deserve it.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** So your friends 'deserve you', eh?**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** That's not what I said.**_

_**XRaverGreen**__**: Oh, of course not. You're too meek.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** ….**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Oh lighten up. Go climb a tree or something. Life's too short to be confused.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** You're right about one thing.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** You know, I saw you at the funeral.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** You were there?**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Who wasn't? I'll have you know, the people think highly of you.**_

_**SpSquirrel**__**: Thanks.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Thank yourself. It's a hero's prerogative to accept an admiring, thankful populace.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** And you would know this how….?**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** I don't. That's one reason I envy you, Noir.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** And is that why you're always helping me?**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** ……..**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Messenger??**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** You're almost as perceptive as I am, man.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Explain.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Unlikely. I g2g.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Really now…**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Noir??**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Yo.**_

_**XRaverGreen:**__** Try to smile. In days to come, you'll need it.**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** When you put it that way, it almost makes it hard to.**_

_**-XRaverGreen Has Signed off-**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** …….**_

_**-Nobody hears you-**_

_**SpSquirrel:**__** Oh go to Hell.**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour and a half later, the elevator doors opened.

I turned away from the computer.

Raven glanced up from reading her book.

Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy drifted in. Their faces were numb.

Beast Boy cradled a shoebox with a washcloth. He walked over and placed it ontop of the table and sat at the sofa in front of it…staring sadly into the contents.

Starfire sat down beside him and placed a gentle hand on his depressed frame.

Cyborg walked over towards me.

Raven returned to her book.

"The little thing won't make it….," the android said quietly, below a whisper. He sat down across from me beside me and stretched back in his sofa. It was raining less now. A touch of increasing moonlight glinted off his titanium shoulders that poked up out of the black suit he still wore. "The vet took a good look over it before closing the doors to the office. One wing is broken and the opposite leg shattered. It must have been a truck or car that the cardinal hit. When Beast Boy found it, it must have been lying down on the asphalt for a long time. The soaking rain didn't help either. The thing's terminal as all get out."

A pause.

Only the sound of Beast Boy shuffling in his seat. Eyeing the dying bird.

"Beast Boy….ya know….realizes this," Cyborg gestured. "He won't talk much about it. No use forcing it out of him. Starfire's being and friend and all but I…..," he sighed. "I've seen it all before."

I gestured: '_You already said that once today.'_

"So what if I have??" he glared at me.

I looked to the floor, sorry.

Cyborg bit his lip and looked off through the windows.

Silence.

"What needs to be done….," Raven droned from her book. "…is separate him from the creature. Or else he's gonna cry us a river."

"The kid's gotta learn, Rae," Cyborg said.

"Learn what, exactly?" Raven glanced over.

"Shhh!" Starfire frowned.

The three of us winced. Cyborg and Raven didn't realize how loud their voices had become.

Beast Boy heard everything.

Starfire returned to rubbing the boy's back.

"It didn't do anything mean to anyone….," Beast Boy swallowed and whimpered. "It's just a poor little bird. So beautiful. Feathers and all. Why does it have to be hurt?"

"I wish I knew, Beast Boy…," Starfire spoke to him. "Cars on your planet are most destructive things indeed---"

Beast Boy interrupted: "I feel so bad. How many times have I been a bird or a falcon in the line of work?? I sure as heck was never hit by a car and left to die on the roadside in the rain!!" He slumped down and stared inside the shoebox. "It's just not…..fair….."

"Life isn't fair…," Raven muttered. "Deal with it."

Starfire glared in her direction.

"Show some support, for crying out loud….," Cyborg mumbled.

"Support for what?" Raven glanced up. "A dying bird? Have anyone here not heard of the circle of life? An organism lives out its days. It spreads its genes. Then, upon the appointed day, it ceases to exist. It falls to the earth and feeds the ground. Death feeds life and life feeds more life which feeds more death and the cycle is born. There can be no time without the dynamic repetition of destruction and construction. Face it. Every bird must someday die."

"Is that what we are then?!" Beast Boy retorted. "Organisms?! You make it sound so cold, Raven! So hopeless and bleak!"

"That's because it is," she put down the book and emphasized. "One night you'll wake up in bed and realize it."

"Like you did?" Cyborg smirked.

Raven glared. "It's a fascinating thing to sit up in the middle of the night and see death staring straight at you. Everything around you is dark. There's nowhere to hide. And the thing you want to hide away from is truth. The truth is that one day you'll lie your head down to sleep and never wake up. All you'll ever see is blackness. Infinite cold. Absolute zero. It's the final curtain that waits for each and every one of us at the end of the show. There's nothing we can do to change it, nothing we can do to evade it, and nothing we can do to ignore it." She glanced at Cyborg as she said, "In the end…life itself is the ultimate murderer."

Cyborg raised a hand to argue…but he faltered with his mouth hanging open. He looked aside.

I swallowed and leaned forward on numb knees.

Beast Boy sighed. He stared at the box.

"On my planet….," Starfire began, "….we have a Festival of Death."

Cyborg looked at her strange. "Who are you and what have you done to Starfire?"

She smirked slightly, but then returned to solemnity as she said: "I am serious. Our culture is one built around joy. Joy is what permeates life and gives us the ability to fly…to shine…to perform righteous acts of bravery. But with joy comes sorrow. For breath and blood is limited. When all of it runs out—in whatever glorious energy used to spend it—there is a time when all must cease. Many Tamaranians believe in the Final Nebula…where all souls will congregate on the eve of the Great Collection. I will not go into too much details about the….Faith of our culture. But with or without a belief in the Great Nebula, we make sure that our families are what we hang onto till the very end. Families and friends. They complete us. They make us feel fit and whole for passing." A pause. "I apologize, I must be rambling."

"No….it's okay, Star," Cyborg waved. "We all are…..when it comes to death, we're all rambling."

"Yes, indeed," Starfire nodded listlessly. Yeah……

Silence.

"He's suffering…..," Beast Boy stared at the shoebox. "He's going to die….and he's suffering straight through. One would think death would be a….gentler thing."

"It rarely is….," Raven said, reading her book again. "It would be wise simply to do it the favor and finish it off."

Starfire gasped.

"Rae!" Cyborg stood up. "That was uncalled for!"

"Keep things in perspective….," she mumbled.

"Don't think being all moody and dark is any excuse to just treat a living thing with such disrespect!!" Cyborg said loudly.

Beast Boy shook.

"Okay….so maybe life just simply sucks for you and all of us!!" Cyborg went on, towering over the dark girl. "God knows I've had my share!! I don't think any of you could even call me technically alive!!" He jammed a finger at his chest. "This body's comprised of eighty percent circuitry!! You hear that?! Eighty percent!! Nobody can detect a pulse inside of me because it's been replaced with damn wires and motherboards!! I'm not even sure how all of me ticks! Where the blood goes! If there's even much blood left!! I'm practically dead each time my power runs out, which means each and every day I'm no more than a walking corpse with scant flesh hanging off my shell!! Don't think you or me or any other person in this room can talk so flippantly about death when death serves no definition to our mortal eyes!!"

THWAP!!

Raven slammed her book close.

Her eyes shot daggers as she stood up and stared the towering Cyborg down.

"It must be so comfortable to be you. To know pain only by what you see and speculate. Haven't you given a thought to the fact that—for some people—there is a fate worse than death waiting for them?!" She took a bold step forward and nearly snarled as she said: "Believe me when I tell you this. Whatever end I may face, if indeed it will be death—I am sure that I'll be in the condition at the time to gladly accept it with every single fiber of my being!!"

Raven's hair lifted a bit. The lights flickered and the table upon which the shoebox rested shook, causing Beast Boy to gasp and grab the bird. I squinted through my shades and—for a split second—I almost swore I saw a flash of four red specks in Raven's blue eyes.

"Raven….," Starfire insisted softly. "Your emotions…."

Raven's hair lowered. Her eyes rounded. She took deep breath and looked forlornly towards the floor.

Cyborg was quiet.

"I'm out of here….," the dark girl mumbled. She stormed out of the room and into the elevator right as Robin stepped out. The Boy Wonder watched—curiously—as she descended out of view. He looked back at the rest of us tiredly.

"Heh….," Cyborg sighed and rubbed the human half of his skull. "Guess more than one of us in here has to mature…"

"What's going on?" Robin asked, stepping forward. "You all look like someone's dying!"

I bit my lip.

Cyborg cleared his throat.

Starfire pointed at Beast Boy and the shoebox.

Robin produced a silent 'Oh' and shuffled over to the seat that Raven had been occupying.

Silence.

"I……I-I don't want to die….," Beast Boy sniffled. "Am I alone, guys? I-I don't want to f-fall asleep some day and never wake up. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible." He rubbed a moist eye and shuddered. "I'm….so scared. So very scared…."

"We all are….from time to time, Beast Boy," Starfire said and offered him a hug which he gladly accepted. "Raven is right….to a degree. It has plagued me in the middle of my sleep as well. It increases the more I grow up. Undoubtedly, it will happen to you as well. It may be of no consolation, but you are not alone."

"Alone…..," Beast Boy sniffed. "That's what we'll all be. Alone. When we're all dead. Lonely souls in infinite darkness."

"I believe differently," Cyborg said.

Robin glanced at him. "Are you religious, Cyborg?"

"How can I not be?"

I smiled slightly.

"How about you, Noir?"

I didn't get a chance to answer---

"Why would a God or gods make us so that we can die?!" Beast Boy remarked. "And don't say it's to 'teach us a lesson' or 'glorify Him' or some crap like that!!"

"Maybe there's no God," Robin shrugged. "But if that's true….things would be twice as lonely."

"I know….," Beast Boy nodded. He rubbed his eye again and sniffled. "It's just so…..so unfair….."

"Perhaps it is….," Robin nodded. "But I know something that's more unfair."

"What is that, Robin?" Starfire looked over, her green eyes blinking softly.

"I can imagine living a life till I'm dead," Robin said. "But I couldn't—no matter what—imagine living a life without friends like you."

Beast Boy looked up, tears forming.

"I may be alone after my life is over…," Robin said. "But I sure as Hell don't want to be alone before." He glanced up through a rounded eye-mask. "I am willing to face whatever end I have…whatever fate may take my life…whatever dark abyss plans to swallow me up. I am willing to face all of that….secure in the knowledge that each and every one of you—Raven included—is there to see me off. As far as I'm concerned, my life will be complete with everyone I know by my side. Holding me as I go. Smiling or crying. Warm or cold. Happy or sad. Just as long as they're all with me. Just as long as they're thinking about me, and as long as I'm thinking of them up until the final snuffing of life's candle. That's all I'd need."

Everyone nodded.

The room turned silent and would remain so towards the better part of the evening.

I stood up on weary legs, saluted everyone, and was the first to retire.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat in front of a window in her room.

Rain drizzled against the glass.

She hug some flimsy book to her chest…and sighed.

A single tear trailed….which not a living thing saw.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I opened the door to my room.

It was pitch black. Not even the lanterns were lit.

I stripped of my suit. I stripped of my shades. After a warm shower, I got into bedclothes.

But I didn't lay my head down to sleep.

I grabbed a tray and placed it on the floor.

I took a candle out from the bedside table and placed it down on the tray.

I lit a match and lit the candle.

A flame danced lonesomely in the infinite dark.

A cold had spread down into the cellar of the Tower from the moist world outside, and the tiny flame warmed me subtly as I sat down—cross legged, and stared at it.

The flickering object stabbed into my eyes. And yet, I kept staring at it. I kept cradling it…like I was incubating an egg. And I did so long into the darkness of the lonely night.

To this day…I do not remember Who outlasted Who.

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Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.  
His house is in the village, though;  
He will not see me stopping here  
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer  
To stop without a farmhouse near  
Between the woods and frozen lake  
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake  
To ask if there's some mistake.  
The only other sound's the sweep  
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep.

_Robert Frost_


	45. Dear Diana

**45. Dear Diana**

'_Dear Diana,_

_Please do not think that the first thing I'm writing to you is a complaint, but I must confess that I find the form of address that you requested aimed at you to be somewhat unbefitting. That is to say, you yourself are a princess—or so the legend goes. Please know that I am very honored to take part in this correspondence. Though I have not had the chance to meet you in person, you have my eternal respect as a hero, a warrior, and a Regal Lady of the peace. Please forgive me for any grammatical errors or improper writing techniques I might employ. I am not used to long distance communication by hand, save for scant experiences with chat rooms. Oh lord, I'm rambling already. I had better start this letter on a better note._

_I honestly expected Robin to volunteer for this job. Being the leader of the Titans, he is the most objective and task-oriented and he would have marvelous things to tell you with such a perspective of his. Second to him, I imagined Starfire would have been enthused to take part foremost in this endeavor. It's no great secret, but, you are a great role model for the Tamaranian warrior. You might think it trivial, but you mean the world to her. Then there are Raven and Cyborg. Raven—though a great founder of the Titans—is not very keen on interpersonal communication. Cyborg would have been game for it…and perhaps even Beast Boy as well, but for some reason or another, a small conference appointed me as the writer. I don't mind, truly. It's just that……well……I am still getting used to this place and I can't understand how a 'nooby' can represent the Titans._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Just a few days ago when we first got your message, the day began uneventfully. I was out meditating in the Bayside sawgrass around the Tower. It was a beautiful morning. The afternoon previous, Speedy had left his visit in the City to go back to the Green Arrow. Raven was also meditating outside the Tower somewhere. Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing catch with a football. Starfire and Robin were in the Tower still._

"Be a little easy one me, Cy!! Sheeesh!!" Beast Boy frowned. "Not everyone of us has a titanium quarterback arm!!"

"Tis a shame," the android winked his human eye. "I know. I'll toss it against the wind this time. It'll make the traveling distance shorter."

"Allrighty then," Beast Boy shuffled to a safe spot in the sand and palmed his fist. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"You ready??"

"Yup!"

"FIVE HUNDRED!!!" Cyborg shouted.

Beast Boy's pointed ears twitched. "Wait a second, you bozo, the wind's shifting!!!"

The football went soaring high above the changeling's head.

"HA HA HA!!!!" Cyborg bellowed.

Beast Boy snarled, leapt into the air, and flew into a green pelican over the sands. He caught the football in his pouch of a beak.

"Hey!!" Cyborg ran and jumped up amd down at the distant bird. "No fair!!!"

The pelican 'chuckled' with a mouth full of pig skin.

"Don't make me use my laser rifle on you, ya cheater!!"

I perched in the grass dozens of feet away upon the edge of earshot. The morning sun of summer glinted off my shades. I had been posing in a painful position balanced on one ankle with a knee bent. Four minutes into it, I was just barely starting to strain. I bit my lip and inhaled slowly to strengthen myself. I felt the currents of smoke energy through the wood of Myrkblade and up into my fingers.

_Oftentimes the other Titans ask me about my powers. They like to know what makes me tick. Why I can teleport on some occasions, and then turn invisible the next. How is it that there's no single strain of DNA or ounce of chemical mutation inside of me and yet I can run up the sides of buildings and walk on water. I guess it's just that I can't truly explain what I can do, or why I can do it._

I finally slid down into a crouched position, Myrkblade held high. I kept my knees bent and yet they never touched the soil. It was a squat that was ten times more painful than the pose previous to it. I always challenged myself. Always made the training and meditation strenuous. I had to. I had to…….

_I am human, Diana. At least, by my own definitions I am. I was born among everyone I see around me. I share their emotions and their smiles and their tears. Only in two departments am I lacking—and if popular culture hasn't echoed it by now over the superhero-obsessed news or something, then I'd be surprised. My eyes and my voice. They are different. Completely different. And, you know what? It wasn't always that way._

I rocketed up from the squat, charged up Myrkblade, and swung outward towards the Bay. Dark energy warbled. The grass swayed and danced. Water rippled in a straight line towards the horizon. I took a deep breath and slowly lowered Myrkblade down along the center of my being. Centering myself.

_There are so many things shut up inside the human being. This is so now, just like it was for me before I joined the Titans. When I was out on my own. When these superheroes inducted me into their flock, I was surprised that I wasn't probed from all corners to spill the beans of my past. I was allowed to keep and preserve my secrecy. I was……most thankful to say the least._

_Robin and Raven are the prime reasons for this reality amongst the Titans. I do not know what it's like with the Justice League, but Robin had us all sign a Confidentiality Agreement. Basically, we could get to know each other so far as our secret identities or pasts weren't completely revealed or placed pressure on to reveal. For the most part, we have held true to this doctrine. But gradually—at least ever since I joined the group and had the chance to observe it—the Agreement have been broken by almost everyone. Only Robin and Raven are keeping silent about their true identities or backgrounds, though the rest of us have some inclinations into Raven's situation._

_'It's funny that Robin and Raven—the ones who founded the Titans—are the most stubborn of our group. In Robin's case, I can understand. He is the apprentice of the Dark Knight after all. Well……one of his apprentices. And if rumors surrounding the Batman is true, he is not one to give away any secrets. You would know this more than I ever would._

I was done meditating. I sheathed Myrkblade and took a breath. It seemed to be getting easier lately. I smiled.

"Okay, Beast Boy!! I'm gonna count to three!! You'd better drop that football or else!!"

"Or else what?!" the pelican scoffed.

"You'll see!!" Cyborg frowned and charged up his laser rifle. "One….two….th---" BONK!! The football bounced down off Cyborg's head. "OW!!!"

"Hehehehehehehehehe!!" Beast Boy landed and giggled.

"Okay, little man!! HYAAA!!"

"WAAAAH!!"

Sand flew as the two tumbled and wrestled. The android playfully wrangled down into the ground a green elf, alligator, rhinoceros and ostrich.

I shook my head, smirking. I glanced over at the bluffs where Raven sat cross-legged.

Her face was scrunched amidst meditation. I didn't have to ask her to know she was having trouble concentrating.

Sometimes it's good to have a sword help you.

_About forty minutes into the morning routine, Starfire flew in with a message from the Tower…_

"Friends!! You must make haste to Robin at the computers!!" the Tamaranian said. "We have been hailed!!"

"Say what?!" Cyborg froze amidst shoving a giant, green squid into the ground.

"A mail that is not that of snails," the hovering alien blinked her pretty eyes.

"E-Mail….," Raven mumbled, quitting her meditation and dusting herself off.

"Yes, that is it!"

"Fan mail?!" Beast Boy smiled in elf form. He shook the sand off his hair like a dog and stumbled forward. "Letters from home?"

"I haven't heard from my old friends in ages!" Cyborg grinned.

"It does not come from anybody's home," Starfire explained and motioned us towards the Tower. "But rather, it is from outer space."

"Outer space?" Raven lifted an eyebrow.

I cocked my head to the side, curious.

"Something called 'The Watchtower'!"

Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances.

They both beamed.

"Dude!! Let's check it out!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

The boys ran eagerly up the bluffs alongside Starfire. Raven and I took our sweet time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Don't take this personal, please, but at first it didn't strike my memory what exactly the 'Watchtower' is. And then I remembered the last time the world faced certain alien invasion or thermonuclear war and realized………'oh yeah!'."_

"Well?! Well?!" Beast Boy hopped in the Main Room. "What does the Justice League want from us?! A meeting?! Autographs?! Commendation?!"

"Hmmmmm," Robin smirked slightly and typed away at the computer. "Perhaps a prelude to all three."

"Do tell!" Beast Boy leaned forward, his chin on propped hands.

Robin brought up an e-mail. A simple letter. Black text on white background.

Beast Boy blinked. "What?! No attachments?!" He glanced up at Cyborg. "Flash is on that team! You'd think they'd send us a link to where we can watch a cartoon hamster explode in an oven or something."

Cyborg shook his head. "Grow up, man…."

Starfire gasped happily, her hands clasped together. "It is signed by Wonder Woman!!"

"Well, alright," Cyborg smirked.

I squinted through my shades.

"_Dear Titans…,_"Raven—of all people—read: "_After the last meeting of the entire Justice League, we have unanimously agreed. You are more worthy of our attention than ever before. Your efforts to bring down Control Freak, Killer Moth, H.I.V.E., Slug, Reload, Overload, and Viper all within a span of months is most commendable. You are no longer the nubile fighting force we had once envisioned, nor are you the experimental project we all assumed only Robin was pushing the effort towards_."

Robin blushed slightly and rolled his eyes under his mask: "Gee….how flattering. Thanks, Batman…."

Raven read: "_For the best interests in Justice and Peace worldwide, a correspondence between our two forces—allied against the same manner of Evil and Tyrrany—would be exemplary towards possible, future codependence on our heroic energies. Thus, Superman has asked me to approach one of you through writing to see to the fruition of this goal. Please consider our invitation and choose one of your numbers to act as a representative to relate to us the nature of your adventures and teamwork, and I shall attempt to present you with the same in representation of the JLA_."

"Dude…that's sweet!" Beast Boy grinned wide. "We're all getting buddy-buddy!"

"Super….," Raven muttered as she walked away from the screen—and the e-mail. "All the Titans need are adults to answer to."

"Awwwww, it's not like that, Rae!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Besides!" Starfire beamed. "It is Wonder Woman!" She glanced at the computer screen as to re-confirm her suspicion, and again she boomed: "It is Wonder Woman!! Heeeeeee."

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"I, for one, think it's an excellent idea!" Robin exclaimed. "The more connections we keep with other heroes, the more security we may have in the future!"

"I beg to differ," Raven leaned against the kitchen bar and folded her arms. "Mass communication breeds mass confusion."

"You make it seem like some sort of bureaucratic nightmare," Robin smirked. "Didn't you just read the stuff to us, Raven? They're trying to make it sound as simple as possible. Just one on one communication between one of them and one of us!"

"You're so wise and pessimistic, Raven!" Beast Boy smiled. "Why don't you volunteer for the correspondence?!"

"No, thank you. It is all very much pointless," Raven droned. "Besides, I find something very fishy about them wanting to nose into our business."

"This is the JLA we're talking about….," Cyborg blinked.

"Awwww….it's just cuz she's not enthusiastic about having to talk to Wonder Woman!" Beast Boy smirked up at the android. He looked at Raven and gestured: "I bet you'd think differently if one of the men was writing to us!"

"Don't be ridiculous," Raven rolled her arms.

"Maybe Green Lantern! No wait! Someone mysterious and mystical and telepathic….Martian Manhunter! You'd write back to him if he was the one doing it, huh Rae?!"

"Hardly…," the dark girl muttered and looked away. She was blushing though…..

I glanced at her curiously.

"How about you, Robin?" Cyborg said. "You're the leader! You have most to say!"

"Too busy," the Boy Wonder shook his head.

"With what, exactly?"

"Let's say a less feminine member of the JLA is wanting a letter sent to him too," Robin said. "In regards to the technical reports of our defeating the last few creeps of the City."

Cyborg smirked and folded his titanium hands. "The Bat?"

"You said it."

"Jeez….that guy's got you on a leash!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It must suck being a sidekick."

"It must suck having your teeth punched in."

Beast Boy cleared his throat and whimpered: "Shuttingupnow."

"I am far too unworthy to be the brunt of Princess Diana's writing!" Starfire exclaimed with a dramatic swoon that almost looked mocked. "I would forever be embarrassed if I so much as tried to correspond with her!"

"I'm sure it'd be fine, Star," Robin said. "You of all people seem most enamored with Wonder Woman."

"That doesn't sound right," Beast Boy winced.

"Agreed," Raven hummed.

"Well somebody's gotta take up this job!" Cyborg exclaimed. "It can't be too hard! Come on!"

"Don't be lazy!"

"We're not being lazy! We have lives too, ya know!"

"I'm out of this."

"We all know that, Raven."

"Why don't you write her, Cyborg?"

"Pffft….math I can do. Essays are female dogs, I swear to god."

"Nice excuse."

"Like yours was any better?!"

"Guys! Calm down! One of us is going to write, okay?! I want us on good terms with the JLA!"

"Yes! And her most heightness the Diana Princess!"

_You know what? I just thought of something. I almost feel like I'm typing to a deceased, British Monarch. Never mind that, that was uncalled for._

_To make a long story short, my teammates squabbled as they always do. It almost makes me thankful for not being able to speak. I do enjoy listening, though—as perverse as it may be. Just hearing htem…knowing they're alive. Be it in harmony or cacophony, they liven my days. I think it's their personalities that keep me from going back out on my own again. I'll have you know, the temptation has crossed my mind from time to time. Sound like a dark crime fighter that you know?_

_They argued and argued and circle and circled and fell and fell until the conversation tripped over the inevitable hump when everyone is scratching their head and sunk in their own perplexion. And it's typically at such a moment that either Starfire says something utterly adorable that makes us laugh and want to hug her (except for Raven) or Beast Boy gets that devilish look in his face of a malevolent epiphany and spouts out:_

"Nooby!!!"

I winced.

Everyone looked at the changeling….then at me.

I blushed and scratched my neck.

"He'd be perfect!" Beast Boy pointed. "Hehehehe! Wildcard saves the day again!!"

"Naw, man!!" Cyborg defended me. "Why must we dump everything on the newcomer?!"

"He's got a point there….," Robin scratched his chin. "Since you're new, Noir, anything you tell Diana in mail will be fresh. Almost as if they're looking in. I hope you don't take offense to that, but it's technically true."

I nodded.

"Yeah….so…dump on the newcomer!" Cyborg frowned.

"Do you want to write her, Cyborg?" Raven asked.

"……….," the android stared. He walked off and muttered: "Fine. Dump it on the newcomer."

"Wooo hooo!" Beast Boy giggled.

I rolled my black eyes.

"You up to it, Noir?" Robin asked.

I lifted a finger and opened my mouth--

"Good! It's settled then. I suggest replying to her within the next three days!"

I deflated with a sigh.

"Hey…cheer up," Beast Boy nudged me in the shoulder. "Think of it this way….you're getting to know a really attractive babe!" A pause. "Well heck…maybe I should be corresponding with her!"

If I didn't volunteer before, I sure as Hell did then.

Beast Boy got the message.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_True, he can get annoying. I'm talking about Beast Boy. But, in all of his deconstructive character, there's something absolutely adorable. I don't mean in……that sort of way, of course. What I'm trying to say is, as much as Beast Boy tries, he can barely hurt a fly. He's most useful in the field of crimefighting as transportation or distracting the enemy. I know that sounds cold, but I really don't see a vicious butt-kicking personality in him. Please excuse the vernacular, Diana. I just don't know how else to treat the elf._

"So like….this is the oldest joke in the world. It's not exactly funny. It's more…um….cool then anything. But you'll like it, I promise you!" the changeling beamed.

I sat on a metal crate atop the Tower's roof. Wind kicked at our hair as I shuffled a deck of poker cards and started lazily playing solitaire. In the meantime, I danced my black eyes up and watched Beast Boy through glistening shades. He was balancing playfully on the very edge of the rooftop while giving his speech. If he fell off, he'd easily turn into a bird or something to fly himself to safety.

"There's this farmer, you see," Beast Boy began as he walked the edge of the Tower like a tightrope. "He's coming home from the market. This is like old France or something. Anywho, he bought three things at the market. A head of lettuce. A goat. And a fox. Don't ask me why he bought a fox in a market. Maybe he just wanted to make a coat or something."

I shrugged, smiled, and went through my game of solitaire as I listened.

"So, on the way home, he comes to this river, you see. And there's this tiny canoe inside. He can only carry one thing across the river at once inside the canoe. He can't walk around the river, so he has to go back and forth from one side of the river to the next with the lettuce, the goat and the fox. But there's a problem. If he takes the fox across the river first, he'd be leaving the goat and the lettuce on one side of the shore alone. The goat would eat the lettuce, right? Bad bombing right there!"

I breathed a chuckle.

Beast Boy spun around, balanced, and tightroped in the opposite direction. "And if he left the fox and the goat on one side of the river, then the fox would eat the goat! No milk that weekend, you dig?"

I nodded.

"So he has to do this in key steps. Can you guess what steps?! Huh?! Huh?!" he beamed at me with pearly white teeth.

I scratched my head. I shrugged without much time to think on the subject.

"Pfft! You're no fun!" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "So be it. I'll tell you! First, the man takes the goat across the river. When the fox and the lettuce are together, nothing happens! So after he takes the goat across, he comes straight back and picks up the lettuce. He leaves the fox alone and goes back to the goat. Then as he puts the lettuce down, he picks the goat up and goes back to get the fox. He leaves the goat back on the side that he started on and goes back to take the fox to the lettuce and-----oh crap."

I looked up at him. "?????"

He was scratching his chin in mid-balance. The wind toyed with his hair. "What's keeping the goat from running away when alone on a river bank??"

I cocked my head to the side.

"Okay…so the goat has an anchor tied to his neck! It keeps him from running off!"

I blinked.

"No wait….a goat and an anchor at once would be too heavy for the canoe to carry across the river…." A pause. "Okay, screw the anchor. The goat was schizophrenic!"

I did a double-take.

"Y-Yeah! I thought the earth bleed and the sky was holding a knife behind its back. So, like, it was catatonic schizophrenic with paranoia and wouldn't budge. That's why it didn't run off—but then, maybe it'd be a suicidal goat. It'd gladly leap into the jaws of the fox. And….pfft….who's gonna go to market to buy a catatonic schizophrenic goat?!"

I couldn't help it. I chuckled.

Beast Boy beamed. "Hey! You're laughing! I guess it was worth it after all!"

"That's not how the joke goes….," says Raven.

Beast Boy glared up at the crate atop which the dark girl had been perched the whole time, reading a book. "And just what do you know about jokes, Madame Morbid?!"

"Enough to tell you there's a joke even older than that in mythology," she droned, her eyes scanning the pages of her novel. "One that is much more creative."

"Try me!" Beast Boy folded his arms.

"'What crawls in four legs in the morning, walks on two feet at noon, and hobbles on three feet at night'?"

"………..," Beast Boy blinked. "What kind of neurotic moron wrote that?!"

"Just answer it."

"I don't know what the answer is!"

I smirked. I pointed at Beast Boy.

"Huh???" Beast Boy glanced at me. "The answer is me?"

I nodded. I pointed at myself.

"You too?!"

I pointed at Raven.

"Okay…now you're BOTH screwing with me!"

"Have you not heard the story of Oedipus' rise to power?" Raven looked up finally. "It's only the most intriguing of mythological tragedies."

"What about it?"

"You don't know the evil Sphinx that was plaguing Thebes and the riddle it asked everyone to answer in order to save the culture?!"

"………I don't watch PBS."

"Fine….," Raven grunted and returned to her book. "See if I care."

_If there be a God, Diana---or in your case, Goddess—I imagine she sculpted my teammates perfectly to develop some sort of haphazard chemistry. You really benefit from living under the same roof as opposites. And believe me…there isn't much attraction involved. It's fun, nevertheless. When it's all light hearted, of course._

"What kind of name is 'Oedipus' anyways?!" Beast Boy made a face. "Sounds like a real wuss!"

"Well, he was a momma's boy," Raven said.

And the way she said it—laced with her trademark stoicism and unemotional detachment—I wanted to laugh my freakin' head off.

A gust of wind came in a downdraft.

My poker cards were tossed into the wind.

I gasped and dove for them.

They were too far off for Beast Boy to save.

They went fluttering over the Tower's Edge.

I bit my lip.

Suddenly, fields of dark obsidian enveloped them. They paused in mid air, floated, and zoomed back at me.

I sighed happily and held a hand out. They landed neatly in my palm, upon which I closed my fingers and turned around to smile a 'thank you' at Raven.

"Don't mention it….," she droned.

And she was back in her book like nothing had happened.

_Raven is one of the most outstanding members of our team. Anyone who is either knowledgeable or fanatic about the Titans could recognize her in an instant, moreso than Starfire or Cyborg or Robin, etc. I'm not sure what it is that makes her so unique…since she does her best to be anything but noticeable. It's a little tough to realize she was a founding member of this team. Yet—as is so—she sacrifices her leadership despite her credentials. Since her backing down, Cyborg has more or less taken the reins as 'second in command' under Robin's leadership. But we still all look up to Raven for guidance, wisdom, and—most of all—stability._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Now, Starfire, repeat after me."

"Okay, Raven."

"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

"Slower."

"Azarath……….Metrion………..Zinthos………"

"Azarath………..Metrion……….Zinthos…………"

The two girls hovered in front of a table where an urn of sort rested. They were inside a dark room sealed off from the rest of the Tower.

After a good deal of concentration and chanting, an orb of black and green energy formed above the orb as the two girls' powers mingled and produced an aura of strength and vitality.

"You can stop now, Starfire."

The alien girl opened her eyes. She gasped and clasped her hands together. "Oooooh! It is pretty!"

A flashing green and black sphere floated between them.

"You should see the one I made with Cyborg," Raven said with ever so slight a smirk. "Blue and black alternating colors. Certainly very……'pretty'….."

"Indeed…..," Starfire stared with glistening eyes. She blinked. She looked over at Raven: "Cyborg has also meditated with you?"

"Yup," Raven nodded. "He's pretty good with it too. For having so many confusing parts put together of flesh and metal, he's truly in touch with his chakras."

"Interesting," Starfire said. "I have not before conceived of him undergoing a meditative state."

"Boys will be boys," Raven mumbled. "But on few occasions, they can be astral."

"Does it bother you that so many of us have practiced your meditation with you, Raven?"

The dark girl looked at Starfire funny. "What do you mean by that, Starfire?"

"I mean…when I first joined the team, associating your secrets with another person seemed like the last thing you would desire to do."

"Meditation isn't a secret," Raven replied. "It's a key part to controlling one's emotions. Everyone can benefit from it. I've learned to master it from youth so as to keep my especially dangerous powers at bay. I didn't invent the process or anything."

Starfire nodded. "But when I first ever saw you meditating, I transfixed it to you. I was careful not to intrude by asking to partake until I was absolutely certain you could….trust me."

Raven squinted at her. "Do I come off as that…..dubious?"

Starfire's eyes trailed. "Well…you can be frighteningly pessimistic at times. If that's what you mean, then yes."

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "You're one for honesty, Star."

The alien girl giggled. "Then I shall be honest in saying that I enjoy your company!"

The ball suddenly disappeared with a FLASH!

Both girls glanced at it.

"……," Starfire blinked. "I-Is it dead?"

"It wasn't alive to begin with," Raven said. "It just ran out of juice. Plus, you and I were too busy talking to meditate its structural integrity together."

"Awwwww," Starfire frowned. "I shall miss it so."

"It's o-okay, Starfire," Raven placed a hand on her shoulder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_In this cynical, modern world that we live in, it is so easy for us to stop believing in some form of transient good…or even that of evil. Existentialists say that there is no essence that breathes meaning into existence. But rather, existence leads to essence. Thus, every one of us in our chaotic lives must live in the present to find a moral code of right and wrong or good and bad. Such is the post-modern point of view prevalent in the Western Half of the human race._

_Having lived and fought alongside this Tamaranian, I'm proud to say that existentialists are wrong. There is an essence of good and evil that defines existence. For one of them—the 'good' one—is a precious alien girl named Starfire. Her innocence and naiveté is overflowing with as much fervor as her endless well of joy and charitably. No matter how gruesome the fight, no matter how depressing the situation, no matter how despondent our souls—she is there to gather us in a gentle hug and reveal to our hearts once and for all that there is indeed an absolute Good that we are all fighting for in the urban streets of Hell every night. To just know that there are souls like her out there…trusting and free of guilt…it makes the quest for Justice twice as Just and twice as much worth questing over, if that makes sense, Diana._

_I do not know what Starfire's purpose is with the Titans. She's been 'visiting earth' far longer than I'm sure any Tamaranian etiquette supports. And yet, she's still here. And maybe it's the act of 'being here' that is her purpose. For if she hasn't found a reason for staying on Earth…at leas she's found a person………_

"Ta-Daaa!!"

"DAH!!" Robin nearly fell back from his computer. He breathed a sigh of relief with a hand over his chest as his eyemask shrunk back to normal proportions. "Star….y-you scared me…..wh-what do you want?"

The girl teetered around, her eyes clenched shut in a big grin. She was hiding something behind her back as she stood before Robin in his room. "Inquire as to what I have concealed behind my pelvis!!"

"Um…..I-I'm kinda busy here, Star," Robin sweatdropped and pointed at the report he was typing out. "In case you forgot, I'm doing almost as much writing as Noir! Gotta get on good terms with the JLA!"

"But it is something you will find most rewarding!" Starfire beamed.

Robin sighed. "Allright, Star. What do you have behind your pelv—er back?"

She whipped out a DVD case and held it upside down. "See?!?! Heee heee hee!! The Lord of the Kings, the Rerun of the Ring!" Viggo Mortensen's printed hair dangled upside down.

"Niiiiiiice!" the Boy Wonder smiled and took the DVD from her and held it upright. "I missed this in the theatres and wished I had seen it." He looked up at her. "You remembered, Star!"

"If it would so please you," she twiddled her fingers together and looked off bashfully, "I have a tray of edible stuff to 'nuke' in the microwave, as Beast Boy puts it. I think it would be most pleasurable to dine on it while viewing the film, would you not agree?"

"I dunno," Robin sighed and faced the computer screen again. "I'm busy…ya know. I think it'd be wrong to—"

"It is fish and macaroni of the cheese!"

Robin froze. He blinked. "M-Macaroni and Cheese?"

"Indeed!"

"Hmmmmm," Robin smiled. He stood up from his chair. "That sounds awesome, actually."

"Glorious! When would you like to view the D of the V of the D?!"

"How about a few minutes?" Robin smiled. "I'll catch up with you!"

"Sounds acceptable."

"Good then," Robin gave a thumb's up. "It's a date-----er….," he gulped at his last words spilling out of his mouth.

Starfire cocked her head to the side. "Date? What is a 'Date', in this circumstance, Robin?"

"Um….," He sweated, blushed, and rushed out of the room. "Gotta go change!"

Starfire stared after him. Blinking.

A pause.

"Raven is right," she sighed. "I must buy one of these earth books called a 'dictionary'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Robin earns my eternal respect. He also summons forth my eternal perplexity. For as mysterious of a young man he is and as diligent to crime fighting he is, his awkward side keeps showing up more and more. Mostly around Starfire. I think I have an understanding as to the reason behind it all, but I shouldn't go out on a limb and assume things._

_In so many ways, I want to be like Robin. I want to be fearless. I want to be badass (excuse me, Diana). And I want to balance all of this firmness with an ever-present concern for my friends like he exhibits. It's so exceptional; Robin's character. He's definitely the role model for all of us. I do not know if JLA has a role model or not. If you don't, I greatly pity you (that, I am not ashamed to say……ahem)._

_I think the Teen Titans is doing for Robin the opposite of what he anticipated. He founded the order with Raven to create a determined fighting force to stomp on crime and keep everything in an objective light. But…the longer Robin works and fights in our midst, the more and more………human he becomes._

_Isn't it funny?_

Starfire and Robin sat side by side on the couch. They were alone in the Main Room. Dressed in casual, evening attire (t-shirts, shorts). The huge t.v. screen/monitor flashed images against them, illuminating their lonely bodies on the soft leather. Two trays of macaroni, rice, and fish scraps rested on a table a couple of feet away.

The movie progressed into it's third hour. The two were absolutely still.

At some point or another, both of their eyes trailed off from the orc-slaying on screen and glanced at each other. No sooner, they jerked away—cleared their reflective throats, and resumed watching a blonde elf bring down a gigantic elephant of evil.

Minutes later.

Starfire's eyelids were growing heavy.

Robin was locked to the screen.

Again, their attention drifted. A few seconds later, they realized they were looking at each other.

Another jerk.

Another clearing of throats.

A blush or two and----

The movie rolled on through the climax.

Minutes passed…..minutes passed….

Poor Starfire. She had had a long, energetic day of finding that DVD for Robin and shopping for the microwave dinners. Her Tamaranian strength was fading on her. Her eyelids started to close. Her head began to nod. Soon, her body went limb. It slowly teetered back, rested against the leather seat, and slid.

Her body slid till it bumped into Robin's left shoulder.

The Boy Wonder jumped. He glanced aside, saw Starfire's head tilted back unconsciously, and smiled. Such a pretty picture. He had to look away.

The Boy Wonder looked beyond the T.V. screen at a blinking, red clock splayed across a lone computer monitor's screen. It was well past midnight.

"Must be exhausted….," he mumbled at the girl's head of flaming hair.

He tried to politely scoot out from under Starfire's lean.

But then something happened. Starfire leaned even more.

"Er….," Robin bit his lip. He tried to move faster.

SHUFFLE!

Starfire now was draped across half of Robin's chest.

"Ack!!" Robin cried out, then cut his voice short so as not to awake the unconscious beauty. He lifted a trembling hand to her shoulder and tried to push her back. And that's when he remembered: Tamaranians are over four times stronger than humans.

SLUMP!!!

Starfire slinked across his torso. She snored against his right shoulder.

Robin was being pressed down into the corner by her alien body. He sweatdropped. "Um….," he tried moving her. "Star??" He finally resorted to whispering her name. "Star?! G-Get up! You're falling all over me—"

WHUMP!!!

When it rains, it pours. Starfire was practically lying on top of him like a bed. She snored. Her soft body shook against his trembling thinness.

He grunted. He struggled to get her off him. He was embarrassed. "Star!! Please!! I'm begging you! Move!!"

He shoved hr shoulder. "Wake up!! Please!! I'm not kidding, Star!!"

"Nnnngh," the Tamaranian stirred in her sleep and spoke with her native tongue: "Hoobla korkin sada bargh….." She cooed and drowsily hugged the closest thing in her grasp……Robin's chest.

"!!!!!!" Robin sweatdropped immensely. "Star???" he whimpered.

She giggled sleepily and nuzzled her head into his neck. Soft red strands of hair against Boy Wonder goose bumps. "Soriglobb……"

Robin struggled to get out from the hug, but it only made the girl hug tighter…coo sleepier…and feel…..warmer.

"Not….g-good….," he was as white as a sheet.

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

Robin looked over from the couch. "Noir!!"

I stepped in.

I froze.

I saw Starfire's body stretched out against Robin's in an embrace on the length of the sofa.

"You've got to help me!!" he whispered hoarsely in the flashing glow of the t.v. screen. "Please!!"

I stared.

"……"

I turned around.

I walked back into the elevator.

"Noir!!!!"

I was gone.

"No good….rotten….," he mumbled.

"Mmmmmm," Starfire smiled in her sleep and nuzzled him. "Why yes, Robin, you can help get my costume on!"

The Boy Wonder's eyes bulged…and then—for the first time in his life—he fainted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"DODGE THIS!!!! RAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg shouted and threw a giant hulk of granite at me.

I flipped out of the way and slid to a stop on a patch of stony earth beneath the Tower. I smirked. I blurred towards him, Myrkblade outstretched.

The android stepped back and raised a titanium forearm.

CLANK!!!

My weapon showered sparks after striking up against his block.

He swung his fist at me.

I swiftly teleported behind him and swung my leg out, tripping him.

WHOOSH-CLANG!!

"Ow!!" Cyborg rubbed his butt.

A scoreboard at the computer station atop the bluffs bleeped a '1' under my name. Cyborg had a '0'. Raven looked up from where she was monitoring the training spar that morning. "That's one for Noir. Zero for Cyborg. First to three wins."

Cyborg got up, glaring at me. "Loser gets to become concrete casserole…."

I smiled.

"Woohooo! Get him, Cy!!" Beast Boy cheered on the sidelines.

Starfire giggld. "Yes! Make it a glorious spur!!"

"Spar."

"Spar!!"

Robin stood besides the two. He was silent. Something seemed to be clouding his awkward mind.

Cyborg spat into the ground, flexed his arms, cracked his neck, and smiled. "You had it coming, punk."

I blinked under my shades.

His back shot out a jet of energy. He came sliding at me, dust and pebbles flying. His fist flew at my chest. "HAAAA!!"

"!!!" Surprised, I barely sidestepped in time. I lost my balance as Cyborg flew past me.

He jumped up, landed against a wall of earth, bounced off, and came sailing down at me like a wrestler.

WOOOOOSH—WHAM!!!

I leapt out of the way. His huge robot feet formed a crater in the earth.

I backflipped, spun Myrkblade into a grip, and faced him from afar.

He flexed his titanium arms, took a breath, and charged.

I charged too.

We met at the center, swords and fists swinging.

Raven watched. She winced.

CLANK!!! My sword struck his forearm….and bounced off. His fist came through and grabbed my chest.

My black eyes bulged.

He smirked and tossed me high into the air.

I was sent flailing…trailing smoke energy…

He immediately lifted his hand up, switched it into a laser rifle, and fired at my airborne figure.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!

Starfire gasped and covered his eyes.

SMACK!!!

The blue stream of energy struck me hard in the chest and sent me flying into the waters of the Bay a few feet off.

SPLASH!!!!

"PULL!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "HA HA HA!!!"

Bleep!

A '1' replaced the '0' under the android's name.

"Well…," Raven folded her arms. "That's certainly getting the job done."

I swam to the surface and sputtered. My long hair—drenched—clung to my neck and felt like a weight. It was rather annoying…

"Need a life saver?!" Cyborg cried out from afar. "Cuz your ship just sunk! HA!"

I smirked sarcastically.

_'Cyborg can be…………loud. But I love him for that. Who couldn't love him for that? He was very much a source of energy and vitality worthy of challenging Starfire's. But while the Tamaranian girl was a symbol of innocence, Cyborg was a idol of support. Of camaraderie. Of strength. Motive. Family._

_Rather ironic that he'd be an icon of 'family', for Cyborg has none left. With Robin, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy…it's all rather speculative. There be orphans among us. But Cyborg……with him, we saw the tragedy unfold. We felt the pain with him when his Uncle faded away and left Victor Stone to be the last of his blood._

_Yet Cyborg isn't the weepy type. He's quite prone to anger and physical expression. But oftentimes it's when he's worried about us or trying to save our butts. You should have seen him when he thought Raven was hurt, Diana. He was practically ravenous. He's the sort of human being—metaphysical or not—whom you want on your team. And he is on our team. And we're most grateful._

_As a matter of fact, I'm most grateful. I owe a lot of my sanity to Cyborg. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have stuck with the Titans. He showed me that there's no definition to the life or humanity of a superhero. There're only souls and darkness. And when working together, souls—of different ilk—shine with a light so bright, the dark has no choice but to cower. God, I wish I had strength like him. I really wish I did._

_Anyways, back to the sparring……_

"Come out of the water, Noir! The air's fine!! Heheheheheh!!"

I slowly stepped out of the Bay, dripping, shaking my feet. I cracked my dripping neck, flexed my arms, and spun Myrkblade into a fighting pose.

Cyborg smiled and motioned me to come at him before raising his fists.

I smirked evilly from under my shades.

"Round…..um….Three….I guess," Raven droned.

Cyborg charged.

I waited.

He ran.

I waited.

He stomped towards me.

I waited.

"RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRR**RRRRRAAAAUGH!!!!**" a titanium limb flew at me.

I shut my black eyes. I finished meditating. Smoke shot out from under me and under Cyborg. I teleported right beneath him and shot up with my Myrkblade.

To say the least, it's a good thing Cyborg has no discernible genitalia.

SMACK!!!

The android was sent spiraling upward from my slash.

"No…fair….no…PORTING!!" he managed while sprawling in midair.

I held my breath. I blurred up at him. I swung Myrkblade.

His eyes were wide.

SLASH!!!!!!!

A bright flash of white emanated from the friction of my blade against his metallic body. No sooner had I slashed upwards and lifted his torso, I teleported to the opposite side of him and slashed down. Sparks flew. I teleported beneath him and slashed up. More sparks. Grunts. Gasps. All in a matter of two and a half seconds. I performed at least two dozen teleportations and sword swings. The result was a dancing marionette of titanium twenty feet above the sparring the grounds. I finished it with a silent growl and a huge downward blow that sent Cyborg's body sailing straight down into the dust and forming a crater. Half a second later, the two dozen sets of sparks caught up with him and littered the ground as I softly lowered a few feet away on a curtain of smoke….smiling.

Cyborg blinked. "Ow."

Bleep!

"Noir 2, Cyborg 1."

"H-H-H-Holy craaaaaaap!!" Beast Boy pulled at his hair and chuckled his head off. "Dang, that's got to hurt!! NOIR!! THAT WAS REALLY FREAKIN' COOL, DUDE!!!"

I winked at him through my shades.

Cyborg stood up, wincing, and rubbed his titanium skin. "Aw man!! That's gonna take me forever to polish."

I winced.

"Don't worry, Noir," he stood up and dusted himself off. "I'm gonna beat you to a pulp, is all."

I gulped and got into a fighting position.

So did he.

_Friendly competition. I assure you. One thing about the boys here in the Titan Tower……they sure love to spar. You should see Robin and I go at it._

_Then again, maybe you shouldn't._

"Round Four….," Raven hummed.

Cyborg smirked. He held up both hands….and both turned into laser rifles.

My eyes bulged.

"Surprise!!"

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

I dove to the side as two streams of blue energy warbled overhead.

Starfire gasped and looked away.

Beast Boy cheered.

Robin said nothing.

I flipped, somersaulted, and rolled out of the trailing blasts. I ran up the side of a rockledge and blurred a path just beneath the cliff—horizontally.

"EAT BLUE!!!" Cyborg shot.

The cliff shattered over me.

I tumbled…but managed to land with more or less grace.

Cyborg retracted one rifle back into a hand and came charging at me with his last one blasting madly.

There was no way I could outrun it, even if I blurred immediately. I spun Myrkblade, held it vertically in front of my torso, and dug my feet into the earth. I gritted my teeth.

ZAAAAAAAAP-FLAAAAAAASH!!!

I summoned smoke energy into my wooden blade and literally split the incoming blue stream in two. The sound was deafening. An invisible wind kicked at my jumpsuit, hair, and bandanna. What's worse, the light was intensely blinding as it screamed its way through my shades. Regardless, I held firm to the hilt of Myrkblade, summoned Destruction, and continuously split the charge of power sailing in at me.

Cyborg slowly stepped towards me during his long-range administration; which only made the intensity greater. I struggled to split the laser. My hands shook and strained around the weapon's hilt. Cyborg eventually came so close, I could notice his left side.

….his left hand was gone.

"?????" I looked surprised.

I caught a grinning face.

A rustling sound.

I glanced own amidst my struggle and saw a robot, titanium arm walking up via five fingers, 'look' up at me, and suddenly fly up my chin.

SMACK!!!!

I was uppercutted fiercely by Cyborg's cunning, remote arm.

Myrkblade flew from my blast.

I was vulnerable to---FLASH!!!!!!

The split stream was no longer split. It slammed into my chest in midair, threw me across the sparring grounds, and smacked me hard against a rock wall.

SLAP!!!!!

The stream cut and I fell to the ground, wheezing.

Blip!!

"Oh shoot!!" Cyborg retracted his hand and rushed over. "I didn't mean to pummel you that bad, Noir!" He knelt beside me. "You okay, pal?"

I winced, gathered my breath, and gave him a sheepish thumb's up.

He smiled. "Thattaboy." He helped me up with a hand. "Thought I got a little too rough on you."

I gave him a look. I walked over and picked up Myrkblade and then proceeded to dust myself off.

"Wanna finish the spar?" he asked.

I swung Myrkblade around and got into a pose.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," Cyborg smirked.

So did I.

"Ohhhhhh man….this is gonna be so awesome," Beast Boy practically drooled..

Starfire smiled. She looked aside at Robin. "Robin? Are you not excited about the psuedo-fight taking place between your masculine teammates?"

"Huh?" Robin snapped out of it, looked at her, and blushed. "Oh. Sure. Starfire. Very excited. Believe me. Woo." He looked away, flushed.

"…………," Starfire stared. "……………………….huh." She blinked. She shrugged it off, smiled, and looked back at the fight with her hands innocently behind her back.

Robin gulped and kept to himself.

_Did I mention this training session hurt……a lot?_

I hid the discomfort as I faced Cyborg from afar.

He flexed his fingers and prepared for the ultimate.

"Noir 2. Cyborg 2. This is it. Final Round. Take it away."

Neither of charged.

We cautiously eyed each other.

Sweating.

Beat.

Paranoid.

He stared at the sword in my hand.

I stared at his deceptive hands.

It was somewhere between the distant shrieks of seagulls, the rush of the Bay's surf, and the overhead roar of a distant jet plane that someone—or both of the someones—thought 'screw it' and two Titans rushed at each other.

SWOOOOOOOSH—CLANK!!!!

He gripped the length of Myrkblade.

I struggled to pull it out of his grasp.

He was about to yank hard on his grasp.

Smoke warbled out from under my shades and I let loose a charge of Destruction through the blade.

FWOOOMP!!!

Cyborg was blown back.

I charged and slashed, slashed, slashed, slashed, slashed.

CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK!!! He blocked each stab and swipe with his impenetrable arms and—when the moment presented itself—dove in with a fist.

I was clipped in the side. Air shot out of my lungs. I spun around, inhaled, and held Myrkblade up just in time to meet his rush.

CONG!!!

I hit him hard on the forehead.

"OW!!" He growled and grabbed my leg.

"!!!!" I gasped as he lifted me up by the ankle and prepared to slam me into the ground.

I shot smoke down his body, teleported straight out of his grip to a spot beside his hip, and elbowed him in the side.

WHUMP!!

He stumbled aside. "Hey! No fair—" CONG!! "OW!! DAMN YOU!!"

Beast Boy giggled.

So did I.

SMACK!!

A punch across my face. Two strong hands on my shoulder. Wrestling. Strangling.

I gritted my teeth and wheezed for breath between his titanium arms.

"You….deserve….a HUG!" my close friend mused.

I wrenched my hands free, gasped, grabbed Myrkblade, summoned up dark energy, and spiraled the blade towards the ground. I let loose a current of murk which pushed us on a dark magic carpet of smoke clear across the ground with frictionless speed, up a rock face, and straight towards the computer station.

"………," Raven blinked. "Um….."

"Look out!!" Starfire cried.

"WAAAAAH!!" Cyborg shouted.

My face fell.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!"

A huge black dome of energy appeared on the other side of the station as the two of us hulkingly soared up and---

SMASH!!!!!!

Bits and pieces of rock and computer panel flew everywhere.

It was enough to make even the delirious Robin wince. "Something tells me I'm paying for that."

The smoke cleared. Cyborg and I were sprawled out dizzily across a cliff. The computer station was in sparking shards. Raven lowered her hands. The black sphere around her faded. She was totally untouched. Not even a strand of blue hair was out of place.

"Ughhh…..," Cyborg moaned, rubbed his head, and sat up. "Simon was right. I should have refitted myself with an airbag."

Raven eyed the smashed circuits of the computer. "I'd count this as a draw and call it even," she said.

I sputtered, gasped for air, and shook the dust out of my hair.

"So much for Beast Boy's and my turn," Robin mused.

"Dude…I so would have squashed you."

"Sure you would have."

_Maybe it's some sort of karma, Diana. Working with the Titans, I've learned to expect life to be full of anticlimax. It's amazing the number of battles we've won by stumbling over clues and somehow ramming our spiraling heads into the suspects. I wonder if any deity up there sees the friendship we all share, values it, and then decides to roll the dice of fate in our favor. It's a silly idea, I know. But I have no other way of categorizing it._

_The JLA should be happy with your systematic puzzle solving and world saving and what have you. There's a lot for the bunch of you to be proud of. Us? We're happy, but it's not necessarily pride. At least, I don't think so. I think faith is a bigger virtue than pride. Then again, faith can be an even bigger sin than pride. But who am I to judge?_

I was still sputtering. I closed my eyes, took my shades off, wiped the dust off them, and put them back on—clear. I looked up and saw Cyborg dizzily getting up.

"Someone stop the world, I have to get off."

"What can we do now??" Starfire remarked. "We can no longer bash each other if there is no counter for us to bash each other by!"

"I suggest a rematch…," Cyborg said…just seconds before tripping and joining me back down on the ground. "Erp….then again…."

I silently chuckled….wheezing.

"Um………," Raven looked over at the others. "Pizza?"

"PIZZA!!!" Beast Boy jumped.

"Glorious!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Rumor has it that all you on the JLA's Watchtower have some sort of anti-gravity coffee room where you commiserate between battles with all forms of evil to lower the tension of the atmosphere and regain your energy._

_For the Titans, Diana, it's the City's Pizza Parlor. A tiny establishment just a few blocks south of Downtown. Along the hillsides where trolley cars surf the asphalt up and down. A little bit like another Bay Side town……only cheesier……er, if that makes any sense._

_As I understand it, the Titans have been coming to this place to eat and relax and just simply be together long before I ever joined their ranks. I am more than blessed to be a part of the occasion nowadays. And none of them complains. After all, I'm not a finicky eater of pizza. I'll go for whatever the rest of the Titan go for. I even had the Tofu Vegetable Supreme that Beast Boy ordered for his birthday. I sacrificed more bites than the rest of the crew. I don't understand why they were so revolted……or why Cyborg—an android—threw up later that night._

_Am I getting on a tangent, Diana?_

"And so there I was," Robin smiled and gestured over a half eaten box of cheese and pepperoni. "Batman and Batgirl were on the far side of the warehouse. Two Face was standing on a balcony overhead. He had two pistols in his grip and was gonna blast their heads off. At the same time, there were two henchmen with crowbars slowly approaching my partners' flank. Now, these guys have been in the business much longer than I had at the time. Heck, I was only thirteen! For once in my still-young partnership with them, I realized they were vulnerable and only I could save them!"

"Whatever did you do???" Starfire stared, gasping.

Beast Boy and Cyborg leaned forward in earnest.

Raven slurped from a straw.

Robin smiled. His body formed a dark shadow against the afternoon sunset seeping down between the buildings in the distance. "I had only one batarang on me and one bolo. The bolo had three weights on it. Even if I flung the batarang with all my might, there was no physical way it could arch up—snap the pistols out of Two-Face's hands—then sail back down to incapacitate the two crooks with crowbars."

"Sounds terrible….," Starfire remarked.

"That's what I thought too. But we've all done the impossible before, have we not?" Robin smirked.

I playfully shuffled a deck of cards while leaning back in my chair and listening. Smiling.

"Okay…so I had to think fast. I didn't even have enough time to call out Batman's and Batgirl's names. I had only one thing I could do. And it was a stretch to work, I tell you that…."

Half of us leaned forward, curious.

Robin beamed with pride: "I spun the bolo around like a slingshot and flung it high into the air. So it was spinning horizontally like an airborne top, ya see." He gestured wildly with his gloved hands. "I then flung the last batarang I had straight up into the air so that it severed the cord of the bolo. The three weights flew out in random directions, but luck won out for me. Two struck Two-Face and knocked his wrists upwards so that his gunfire hit the ceiling and not my friends. The third bolo landed on the ground between the two men with crowbars, startling them long enough for me to slide in, jump up, and kick their filthy butts from here to doomsday!!"

"Yeeha!! Now that's kickass!" Beast Boy bounced.

"Glorious!" Starfire remarked. "And what of your costumed friends?"

"Oh, naturally they realized the tactical advantage Two-Face nearly had over them," Robin leaned back and balanced his boots on the edge of the table. His hands were behind his head. "So Batgirl took a grappling hook up to the second floor and showed the creep who's boss."

"Niiiiiiice," Cyborg smiled and leaned his metal chin on his hand. "God, I wish I could have been there with you to kick butt in Gotham."

"You'd have to get past Batman first," Robin mused. "He's not so thrilled about newcomers."

"Heh…sounds like someone else we know," Beast Boy said with bouncing eyebrows.

Raven glared. "Watch it."

"What makes you think I was talking about you?"

No reply.

"I am glad that you are talkative again, Robin," Starfire smiled at the Boy Wonder. "Most of the day, you've seemed most……..distant."

He cleared his throat and sat up straight. "Yeah, well," he said in a whispy voice. "I had a strange night's sleep."

"So did I….," Starfire nodded absent-mindedly, searching her mindscape out loud. "I had the most fascinating dream."

Robin twitched. He swiftly guzzled down a glass full of Dr. Pepper and exhaled.

Beast Boy and Cyborg stared at him, blinking. "That time of month, pal?"

"Pfft!"

"You do seem on edge," Raven muttered.

"Thanks, Rae. I'll contact you when I'm dead."

"Whatever."

"Dudes…we should do a night on the town!!" Beast Boy cheered, perching on two subtle feet in his chair's seat. "Go cruising around for girls—and men for the lady folk here."

"Hehehehe…"

"Bah."

"And also throw in a movie or something!" Beast Boy beamed. "Whaddya say?! Throw caution to the wind! Carpe diem and all that other mortal fluff!"

"I'd rather go home and do Xbox," Cyborg yawned. "Having a sparring session with Noir really makes me want to blow the dust off Soul Calibur II for a change."

I smirked. That made me proud for some reason.

"Noir!!" Beast Boy pointed. "We can use him!"

"For what?" Robin asked, eyebrow raised above his mask.

"For the cruising for girls part!" the changeling cackled.

"Oh please….," Raven muttered.

My words exactly.

"Jeez…I envy the guy!"

I mocked a Fabio pose.

Starfire giggled.

"Don't sell yourself so short, Beast Boy," Cyborg said. "Someday, you'll be a scorer with the ladies."

Beast Boy grinned wide. "I will?! Seriously?! You mean it?!"

"Nah….you just have my pity, is all."

Robin laughed.

Beast Boy frowned. "Meanie."

"I think you are cute, Beast Boy," Starfire smiled, hands in her lap.

Robin glanced at her.

"When you are the furry!" the girl added.

Robin nodded. "Of course."

"The furry?" Beast Boy made a face. He paused. "Oh!! The face!!" He switched into a super-deformed kitty kat of green fur that perched atop the table, looked up at the Tamaranian girl with big glistening eyes, and mewed.

"Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe!!!" Starfire instinctively threw her arms around the tiny mammal. "Rapturous cuteness omega!! I cannot help myself!!"

"Do a scorpion," Raven droned. "I haven't seen that one in a while."

The kitten turned into an elf in the center of the table. "You've never seen it…PERIOD!" Beast Boy stuck a tongue out. "For the last time…Stick. To. Vertebrates!"

"Coward." Raven huffed.

Cyborg chuckled.

"Well, now that I'm the center of attention…," Beast Boy reclined atop the table.

Starfire giggled again.

"Hey! Get off my pepperoni!" Robin complained.

"You weren't eating that abomination! Hush up, you big baby!"

"Baby's got a metal staff."

"Sitting down now," Beast Boy jumped back to his seat.

Cyborg cackled.

"This is why I eat alone…," Raven groaned.

"Come on! You love us!!" Beast Boy smiled. "And on the subject of love," he looked around mischievously. The bottle spun in his head and stopped, pointing at me. "We need to get you a girl, Noir!"

I did a double-take.

"Don't play shy!" Beast Boy pointed. "Tall, dark, handsome. Mysterious. Keeps to himself. Loves to play with his sword—"

Cyborg nudged him.

"Ooof! Ehehehehe," Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck. "What I mean to say is…you're one lonesome loner, dude! You need a missus to set you right!"

"Who's insisting?" Raven asked, eyebrow raised.

'Yeah', I mouthed.

"He's not impressed," Cyborg whispered to Beast Boy.

"So many lady fans at that field day a week ago!" Beast Boy moaned. "And you wouldn't even say 'hello' to one of them?!"

I gave Beast Boy a cockeyed smirk. I lowered my collar down and pointed firmly at the scar over my larynx.

"No excuses!" Beast Boy leaned forward. "So what's your type? Shy? Flirtatious? Hard to get??"

"Where're you going with this, B.B.?" Robin asked with a curious smirk.

"Never you mind!" Beast Boy retorted and then smiled at me. "I bet it's somebody famous. How about that tennis girl?!"

"What tennis girl?!" Cyborg made a face.

"Ya know….whats her face. The European Cornucopia chick!"

"Oooh! Oooh!" Starfire bounced. "The one with the million dollar buttocks, right?"

"We're talking tennis, Starfire," Raven mumbled. "Not pop music."

"You need to read Maxim Magazine," Cyborg chuckled.

"He's too young," Robin waved.

"HA HA HA!!"

"Oh shut up!" Beast Boy pointed at me. "I know! Batgirl!!"

Robin cleared his throat. "Stay out of the family, man."

"Eep…sorry."

Raven almost smirked.

"Ooooh, I know!" Beast Boy winked at me. "Along the same lines….Supergirl! Now there's a chick in everybody's dreams!"

"Poultry visits R.E.M. sleep?" Starfire remarked.

Raven didn't even try to counter that.

"You'd like to meet Supergirl someday, wouldn't you?" Beast Boy smiled at me. "One sunny day in Metropolis!"

I rolled my black eyes and gestured.

"He says 'Knock it off'," Cyborg spoke.

But Beast Boy was gasping. "Look!!"

Everyone looked at me.

"Oh my god! It worked! It actually worked!" Beast Boy stumbled his own victory with a laugh and pointed. "Look! He's blushing!"

I shook my head and glanced down at the table. I saw my face in the reflection of a glass of Dr. P and was flabbergasted. My cheeks were red.

"He's blussssssshing!!" Beast Boy giggled his head off. "He likes Supergirl! I just found Noir's weakness!"

I folded my arms in a pout and looked off. But it was happening. My cheeks were burning. I could feel it.

"Oh lordy," Cyborg ran a hand over his face. "This isn't happening…heheheh…."

"Noir likes Supergirl! Noir likes Supergirl!" Beast Boy sing-songed.

I shook my head, but couldn't help it. I blushed even more.

What's wrong with me?!?!

"Oooh! Welcome to Metropolis, Noir!!" Cyborg suddenly mocked in a high-pitched voice. "There seems to be a rip in my outrageously skimpy tube skirt! Mind if you help me kick ass in one hundred degree weather?!?!"

I glared.

"Oh my go-o-od," Robin pounded the desk and buried his hand in his shoulder, laughing. The Boy Wonder was laughing. "This is crazy…."

Starfire giggled. "Indeed, behold Supergirl and fear her, Noir!!"

Oh my god…she was in on this!!

I hid my face with a hand. I smiled bashfully.

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin were laughing giddily. Everyone was going crazy.

"You're all immature," Raven muttered.

"Oh, live a little, girl!" Beast Boy said, his eyes streaming with humored tears. It was just the moment I needed to shoot murk under the table, teleport behind him, and grab a pitcher of Dr. Pepper which I promptly doused over his head.

"HA HA HA—" Raven covered her exploding mouth, cleared her throat, and composed herself back to safe stoicism. "Ahem. That was pleasantly ironic."

Cyborg's nose nearly bled, he laughed so hard.

Beast Boy spat out some Dr. P in a stream and smirked at me. "You're dead, loverboy. Not even Supergirl can save you."

I smirked. I spun around and bowed like a ringmaster.

Beast Boy gave up and giggled again. Cyborg was still laughing.

"People are looking at us….," Starfire murmured pensively.

"Man…we are SO going to get thrown out….," Cyborg wheezed.

"Who cares….," Robin's lips were sore. "Who cares….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Okay, so we all have our little, ridiculous infatuations. But Supergirl?? Beast Boy's nuts. Why would I fall for a stereotypical blonde with blue eyes who could smash through robots and brick walls without so much as breaking………a………………sweat………_

……

_Ahem……s-somehow, I do not feel this is the subject matter the JLA had in mind when they requested to initiate correspondence._

_So, to conclude this expository……that evening we walked off into nothingness and found……_

The stars hung gently over the rushing surf. A few miles west of the Bayside Plaza, there was a famous stretch of beach open to public. There was a major film or gala event taking place on the mainland, so not a lot of night owls were on the sand that evening. Plus, the tide was high.

The six of us wandered the shallow surf as it ebbed and flowed, crashed and receded. The foam and surf reflected the heavens, and the distant illuminated 'T' of the Tower glittered against the foremost horizon. Home was far away and yet all around us at the same time.

I don't remember when the last time was that we simply….relaxed like this. It was heavenly. It was….

"Yes!! Found another one!" Beast Boy ran ahead, picked up a shell, and tossed it out into the ocean.

PLOP!

A tiny fountain sprouted in the dark air.

He jerked his hand. "Three points!!"

"That's one really big basket," Cyborg shuffled past him in the sand.

"Nuts to you. I bet you ten bucks it landed on Aqualad's head! Hehehehehehe!"

"I'm sure he's keeping his distance from you, man."

"Hey!!"

Starfire giggled and looked over at Robin as the two walked side by side. "I miss the beaches on my homeworld. But it is nice here in its own right."

"I'm glad for that," Robin smiled.

"I have family there," she said. "And friends here. Like the grand ocean….mysterious as the fabric of space itself….I feel strung between the two. But despite this conflict, I am more than willing to crash and slink back on either shore. In my mind or under my feet. It is a blissful state of mind."

"Wow, Star, that's really deep," Robin nodded. "Wish I thought of it."

"I am sure you have thought of it before," she smiled at him. "But, as friends, we can think of it together, no?"

He chuckled. "I like your logic, Star."

She offered him her arm.

He shrugged. He hooked their arms together. In such a fashion, the two walked the waves.

I watched the two walk off. I smiled. The wind kicked at my hair. It kicked at Raven's too. I looked at her and she took the moment to glance at me.

"…….so……Supergirl, huh?" she asked.

I blushed. I slowly nodded.

"I see," she spoke. A beat. She pointed at herself: "Martian Manhunter."

I mouthed: 'I figured as much'.

We both chuckled at the same time. Then sighed.

A beat.

We fidgeted and looked in opposite directions.

Eventually, Raven walked off to join the others in the shallow, toe-kissing surf.

I stood there. My eyes were fixed to the bobbing horizon of dark against dark.

I slowly took my shades off and glared into the unknown.

The stars came alone—blinding in their fury. They burned down and melted into the waves that appeared—to my sight—like a rippling wave of obsidian satin. It was beautiful.

_Everything is beautiful, Diana. I have no other way to sum it up. Again, I wish Robin would have volunteered instead of me. Something tells me he's not quite the romantic at heart like I am. Though—honestly—that could very well be changing._

_This City……this land……it is still beautiful. My friends and partners are still beautiful. There is an innocence that no amount of murdering on the part of the notorious Viper or threats on the part of the mysterious Dagger could tear asunder. And I am proud of that. As we all are._

_In that—as we are the Titans, as we are a whole and the whole is one, there is perfection. There is completion. There is beauty, and then there is Justice and Peace forthwith._

_I hope, Diana, that the JLA is more of a family than an organization. For in a world full of monsters and orphans, one needs unity to survive. To succeed. To eliminate evil in all of its ambiguous and/or transient forms._

_I cannot explain this in any clarity, I'm afraid to say. I can only tell you what I see. I can only tell you what I feel. And over the next few months, I shall do my duty as correspondent to provide that to you, Diana, in whatever idiotic or ambitious form it may present itself. For as fate allows, I shall write of it. To do otherwise would be to lie. And I've done enough lying for a lifetime._

With my shades off, I turned my head to the side.

I saw my five friends…partners….soldiers…walking off in the glowing shadows of each other.

And they seemed so bright in these black eyes…so true.

So warm.

I was starting to feel cold.

I slipped the shades back on, dashed through the shallow surf, and joined them. We talked about a few things…joked about a few others…but at some point or another—rather subconsciously—we all joined arms in a human chain that slunk through the sand and surf and into the infinite night. I could have fallen asleep like that. And—who knows?—maybe I did.

_Life—with all of its necessity and calling—is a short thing._

_And……I'm actually glad for that._

_Until later, Diana. I await your response with much anticipation for the furthering along of this project. May peace and prosperity be unto you and your colleagues as it is unto me and mine._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_


	46. Scattered Raven part 1

**46. Scattered Raven part 1**

_They gathered in a small circle dotting the vast wasteland. Mysterious cosmos spun and danced overhead; a mirror of some forsaken land of all forsaken lands._

_The air was cool and breezy; which was a feat in and of itself since there was no air in the place at all._

_But there was ground, and ground's name was 'Sanity'. Sanity stretched across towards the horizon of Knowledge. Everything in between was chaos._

_And governing the chaos was the circle. They all faced the center. The hoods to their robes flapped in nonexistent breeze like a heart's pulse on strings._

_"Things have been too quiet lately!" Green Raven grunted. "I want butt to kick! I didn't get enough action while Viper was in town!!""Viper?!" Gray Raven cowered and hugged her cloak to herself. "D-Don't mention his name! H-How could you want t-to see someone that v-violent?!"_

_"She is partially legitimate in her negative disposition towards that," Yellow Raven nodded and adjusted her spectacles. "Viper's presence in the City was nothing short of a massacre of inhumane proportions. To desire his further presence is to selfishly promote the possibility of future loss of life."_

_"I don't want him here to kill people," Green smirked. "I'd smash his freakin' head in before he had a chance to do anything!!""Hehehehehe!!" Pink Raven giggled. "Give him a Whopper!! Hehehehehe!"_

_"Well something's gotta happen?!" Green exclaimed and pulled at her hair. "I've been sitting around this Tower for hours!! You'd think there'd be a robbery to stop or a hostage to save or some crap like that!!"_

_"Your anxiousness perplexes me," Yellow said with her head cocked to the side. "I assumed that the general consensus of recent events was relief in regards to their conclusion!"_

_"I can never rest!!" Green shook. "The longer we wait around, the more bad things can happen! And that doesn't sit right with me, yo! Give me some ass to tear!!""Can we all j-just go home?" Gray whimpered. "I'm sc-scared……th-this topic is scaring me……"_

_"Every topic scares you, wimp!!" Green spat._

_Gray sniffled._

_"Wimpy!!" Pink giggled. She lowered her voice comically: "'I'll buy a hamburger, for which I'll gladly pay you Tuesday'! Hehehehehehehehe!!"_

_"I must share in some of the impatience," Yellow stated, looking over her shoulder. "This is an insurmountable amount of time to be waiting…""Oooh! Oooh!" Pink hopped. "How about a song?!"_

_"Another time, perhaps….," droned a voice._

_The circle looked up._

_Blue Raven….True Raven dropped down from the sky and landed softly in their midst. She stood up and faced them all. "Forgive me for being late. Meditation lately has been….unpredictable for some reason. I took me forever to get here."_

_"Most curious….," Yellow breathed."I-Is everything okay?" Gray asked worriedly._

_Raven turned to face her. "I do not know. A few days ago, one of you slipped."_

_"Who?!" Green asked, snarling and palming a fist. "Tell us and we'll pound her!!"_

_Raven glared. "You know as well as I do that that's not the solution."_

_"Yeah! Take it easy!" Pink smiled._

_"What do you hypothesize the situation to be?" Yellow inquired._

_"Not sure yet," Raven spun. "I first sensed it the night of the funeral."_

_"Oh….," Gray mumbled and held herself. "That….."_

_"Not my department," Pink shrugged with a grin._

_Raven stomped through the group and out of the circle as the rest watched. "I think it's about time I met with our little friend….""Need a hand?" Green asked._

_"I must do this alone. I must always do this alone."_

_Yellow glanced at Green. "She's right."_

_"Grrrrrrr," Green shook._

_Raven walked down into a dark valley far from the eyesight of her personalities. She jumped down from crag to crag till she stood at the bottom of a deep abyss that barely sang with the twilight. Mysterious sounds echoed back and forth as she smoothly trekked through the obsidian corridor of rock. A gradual, flickering glow lit her figure as she reached a dead end flanked by torches. Thorny vines were grown into the granite. The ground was uneven and showered with pebbles, like an eternally fresh impact site._

_Raven stood firmly. She spread her legs. She held out her fingers in a harmonic pose._

_"Azarath…Metrion….Zinthos…."_

_The ground shook. The pebbles danced. The ground between the torches opened up. With a gurgling roar, a wrought iron cube rose up out of the ground—fastened to the earth by chains that glowed with the faint touch of bitter was a cell. A kennel. A rusted, black-metal jail with barred windows and gargoyles ornately poised on the corners._

_Raven took a deep breath. Frowning, she stepped forward and pressed herself up against the barred window and peered in._

_A beat._

_She breathed through the bars: "I know you're there. It's not like you to hide."_

_In a rumbling tone, a humored voice of pure evil spoke from the dark interior._

**_"It is always you who are hiding, you brat!! Hiding your emotions because you're afraid of me……"_**

_"I did not come here for you to restate your redundant desire for mental conquest," Raven rolled her eyes._

_Four red eyes opened in the darkness. Red Raven stood up, glaring with barred teeth. **"Then what do you want, little girl??"**_

_"We need to talk….……"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Inside the atrium of the Titan Tower, a doorbell rang._

_Yes, that's right, a doorbell rang._

_There was no reply. After all, it's a very large building._

_So…after a few minutes…it rang again._

_And again._

_And again….._

_"Sheesh…I GOT IT!!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He came down a flight of stairs, mumbling, and stomped towards the huge doorway. "God…nobody here knows the meaning of patience. And—for crying out loud!!—who in his right mind would walk the land bridge alllllll the way to knock on the door of a bunch of superheroes?!"_

_He slammed his fist over a wall panel._

_With a huge clanking of metal, the entrance way opened up and a bright slit of daylight swam over the atrium._

_Beast Boy squinted his eyes and leaned forward. "Who rang that bell?!"_

_There was a short shadow standing in front of the bright sunlight._

_"Um…excuse me, sir. How're you doing today?"_

_Beast Boy blinked. "Um….just fine. You a fan or something? Cuz we've got a hotline—"_

_The figure was slowly coming into focus. "No no no no no, sir. Don't you remember me?"_

_"Give me a second, and I might," Beast Boy blinked and rubbed his eyes._

_The figure came into focus._

_Beast Boy gasped. "You!!"_

_"Took you a while."_

_"Wow! Hey! Welcome to the Titan's Tower!" he dashed forward and shook her hands. "What brings you to town?!"_

_"The very same thing that brings me here," she smiled. "Is Noir around?!"_

_"You bet!" Beast Boy beamed. He spun around and cupped his hands over his mouth: "HEY NOIR!! YOU'D NEVER GUESS WHO'S HERE! COME ON!!" He faced her again. "You know, we're still in debt to you for many things!"_

_"Oh please, sir. The feeling's more than mutual. You know that."_

_"Well, any chance I get to be 'mutual' with a ladyfriend, I'll leap upon it!" Beast Boy winked._

_"Um…..yeah." A pause. "Is Noir here yet??"_

_I stumbled down the stairs, looking curiously at the open doorway with shaded eyes._

_"Well speak of the devil!! Or angel…depends what you're into."_

_"Hehehehehe."_

_"Noir! Come look! We have a visitor!"_

_I raised an eyebrow and walked up beside him. I squinted from the painfully bright world outside._

_"Yeah, I know," Beast Boy chuckled. "Shake it like a Polaroid picture."_

_A figure came into focus…complete with brown hair, glasses, and a librarian smile. "I still haven't read that novel you asked about, Noir."_

_I beamed. Sandy!!_

_"How're things?"_

_Naturally I jumped forth and shook her hand._

_Beast Boy chuckled._

_I cleared my throat, stood straight, and gestured._

_She giggled and replied in sign language: 'I am volunteering. As always.'_

_'And that is why you are here?'_

_'If you mean here as in the Tower, I had something to ask of you.'_

_'Anything! You can ask anything!'_

_'I should talk with the other Titans first.'_

_"Um….," Beast Boy cleared his throat. "S-Sorry to interrupt, guys, but I don't speak 'fingers'. What's going on?"_

_"If you must know," Sandy nodded, "I was in town for volunteer reasons. I'm working with a fundraiser for the Westhaven Opera House. There's a carnival taking place in Town, and its proceedings are going directly to the construction."_

_"Oh yeah! I heard of that!" Beast Boy looked at me and then back at her. "On the front lawn of Veronica Vreeland's Summer home!"_

_"She's a major supporter of the Opera House which Ms. Cartwright is managing," Sandy said. "She's inviting a lot of wealthy patrons, but she wants to open it up to everyone in general. She doesn't know how to go about doing it….unless…."_

_"She got some….'special icons' of the City to come," Beast Boy slyly pointed at himself._

_Sandy took a breath. "You could put it that way."_

_"I know just who to bring this up to!" Beast Boy spun and dashed up the stairs. "Come on! Follow me! It's okay! You're welcome in our home!"_

_"I-I should hope so," Sandy blushed. She looked at me._

_I smirked down at her. I gestured: 'You are too bashful'._

_Sandy shrugged. "Perhaps." She squinted her spectacled eyes. "I see your hair is still long."_

_I did a double-take._

_"So….show me around! I'm dying to see this place!" Sandy exclaimed._

_I shrugged, smiled, and led her towards the elevator._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_"And so you're saying Ms. Vreeland needs us to make an appearance?" Robin asked as he sat in reverse in a chair of the Main Room and faced Sandy._

_"See? It makes total sense!" Sandy gestured. "The Titans are the ones who saved the operahouse!"_

_"And did manage to smash it to bits," Cyborg gestured with a smirk._

_Sandy rolled her spectacled eyes. "Besides that. Hundreds upon hundreds of rich people owe their lives to you bunch. Thanks to your noble actions, the night Il Trovatore showed was spared from being a holocaust! People look back on the evening now with good spirits. To have you at the carnival fundraiser would make everyone happy! And it'd help bring in people from the City and spread the good news about Westhaven around!"_

_"She is right," Starfire nodded at the Boy Wonder. "And after unfolding events with Anderson's notoriety, it would be most beneficial to Ms. Catrwright and her people to have us appear for them, no?"_

_"Right on, Star!" Beast Boy grinned. "Time to show the world what the Titans think is a real class act." A beat. "Er….even if I don't understand opera."_

_Starfire giggled._

_"To be honest…," Robin smirked. "It sounds like an excellent idea. When's it taking place?"_

_Sandy bit her lip. "Tomorrow evening. I'm sorry for such short notice. I had suggested it to Ms. Cartwright long ago. And she suggested it to Ms. Vreeland's agent. And Ms. Vreeland's agent eventually got around to notifying Veronica herself and—well—the will of the aristocracy is seldom punctual."_

_"How would we know?" Cyborg shrugged. "HA!"_

_I smirked._

_"Are you all still up to it?" Sandy sheepishly asked._

_Starfire looked at everyone, smiled, and said: "Consider it signed, sealed, and in the mail!"_

_"You mean you will?" Sandy beamed._

_"Why not?!" Beast Boy grinned._

_"Sure thing," Robin nodded. "We're getting rather used to these events, to tell the truth." A pause. "Is a certain red-haired archer going to be at the charity too?"_

_"Um…..n-not that I'm aware of, sir."_

_"Heh…," Robin sweatdropped and scratched his neck. "No biggie."_

_"Great!" Sandy clapped. "I can't wait to tell Ms. Cartwright!"_

_"Hold on a sec….," Cyborg said._

_Everyone looked his way. "This ain't unanimous yet."_

_"How do you mean, Cyborg?" Starfire inquired._

_"Um….aren't we forgetting someone really important?" the android remarked._

_I blinked._

_I looked at Raven's favorite reading seat._

_She wasn't there._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_"I understand a time and a place for anger…," True Raven paced around the wrought iron cell. "…but I draw the line at hatred. I always draw the line at hatred!"_

_**"And that's where you're weak and incompetent, girllllll…..,"** Red Raven hissed from inside the dark contents._

_"Okay, enough with the ridicule," Raven pressed herself up against the bars and glared inside. "Either you answer my question or I'm putting you to sleep for a long time."_

_**"RAAAAGHH!!!"** The metal box shook as four red eyes flew up and stared into Raven from the other side. **"You can't put me to sleep every hour of every day, chilllld! And you knowwwww that. As much as you hatttte me. As much as I makkkke you think of your dear olllld Dadddddddy, you need meeeeee."**_

_"I don't kneed you……," Raven mumbled. "I need what you could have been." Her voice was soft and deflated._

_**"Heh….heh….heh….heh….,"** Red slurred with a slant of her four eyes. **"Do I smell….—sniff sniff--….regret?! Be careful, girrrrrl. Looks like sssssssssomeone needs a new colorrrrrr."**"You're not the master of this domain," Raven glared. "Let me keep things straight here. You almost leaked out a few days ago. And in front of my friends. I will not stand for that."_

_**"Friendssssssssss,"** Red hissed at the word. **"Friendssssssssssssssss? Friendsssssss is an 'idea', girrrrrrrl. Such a stupidly weakkkkkkk 'idea'. I swear to yyyyyyyou, one day when you lose conttttttrol and I am free, yourrrrrrr friends will truly….truly know what it meanssssss for me to 'leak'. Heh heh heh heh."**Raven inhaled. "Is that a threat?"_

_**"IT'S INEVITABILITY!!!"** The iron cage shook. The chains flexed her fingers, staring at the bars. "Whenever we meet……I am reminded as to why you're so dangerous. And it's not just because of my father. No…you're dangerous because I hate you so much…in spite of the fact that I know you're Hatred itself."_

_**"Love it or leave it, princesssss! Heh heh heh heh."**There was a rumbling sound throughout the entire, dark world._

_Birds flew, cawing high overhead._

_Raven glanced up._

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

_"Please……," she groaned. "Not now.""RAVEN?? RAVEN ARE YOU THERE?"_

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

_"I must go……," Raven sighed, defeated._

_**"I will be watching…."**The chains pulled. The torches danced as the cage was dragged back underground with a haunting rattle._

_"You're always 'watching'," Raven rolled her eyes. "What else is new?"_

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

_"RAVEN, AM I DISTURBING YOU?!_

_Raven grumbled. "Just a minute!!!"_

_And the entire world started to fade……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire reconsidered knocking on the door one last time.

But it slid open and there stood Raven, glaring.

"What?"

Starfire blushed. "Er….s-sorry for the intrusion. I imagine you were—"

"Meditating, yes," Raven nodded. "What do you need?"

"Your verdict."

"Verdict?"

Starfire innocently twiddled her fingers. "A volunteer from the Westhaven Opera House has visited the Tower this afternoon, requesting the Titans' presence at a charity event in honor of the civil function and—"

"Get. To. The Point."

Starfire simpered: "We wanted to know how you felt about our possible attendance at a carnival tomorrow evening!"

"How do I usually feel when I'm interrupted in the middle of my meditation?" Raven fumed.

"Um……"

SLAM!!!

"The verdict is 'no'," came Raven's muffled voice from inside her closed room.

Starfire sighed. "Are you certain you will not reconsider?"

"It depends," the muffled voice says. "Is this a vote by unanimity? Or majority?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day's evening….inside the T-Car that zoomed off towards the carnival….

"Yeah! Majority rules!" Beast Boy cheered.

Raven sat to the left of me in the backseat, her arms folded and her face sour. "I should have known…."

"Come on, Rae!" Cyborg smiled from the driver's seat, glancing at her in the rear view mirror. "This thing is key to us winning the hearts of those in high places!"

"Not to mention making up for the spontaneous deconstruction of the Opera House in attaining custody of Killer Moth and H.I.V.E.!" Starfire bubbly added from the front passenger seat.

I winced.

"Um….no need to state the obvious, Star," Beast Boy sweatdropped and rubbed his neck.

"I shouldn't be here…," Raven grumbled. "I've. Been. Very. Busy. Lately."

"Busy doing what?!" Cyborg remarked. "Being cooped up in that darklit room of yours?! How's that being 'busy'?!"

"You forget who you're talking to," Robin remarked with a smirk.

"Oh, I remember all right!"

Raven sighed and stared out the passing scenery through the window. "I hate my life." A pause. She glanced at me. "How're you doing?" she spoke with sarcasm.

I shrugged and gave a thumb's up. Then pointed at her.

"Absolutely rapturous….," she said. It was droll.

I chuckled with a breath.

"Hey! I think that's the Vreeland Mansion straight ahead!" Robin pointed.

"Well, this has been a most brief trip," Starfire blinked.

"We're heeeeere folks!" Cyborg smiled.

"Dude! They've got a scrambler!"

"Huh?" Raven glanced through the front seat area out the windshield. "Oh great. Spinning lights and organ music. This will do wonders to my head."

"Hang on, people," Beast Boy prophecied, "Raven's carrying a bucket of sarcasm!"

"Well, she's just gonna have to kick it," Cyborg smirked and parked us on the edge of a grassy knoll. "I, for one, want to enjoy this gala occasion!"

And we proceeded to get out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Under the starlit night, the carnival flashed with merriment and illuminated the wide patch of grass in front of Veronica Vreeland's luscious manor. Richly attired citizens laughed, chattered, and filed their way like ants around big bodies of Merry-Go-Rounds, Ferris Wheels, and Fun Houses. There were middle class citizens there too, lining up and enjoying shooting galleries and other fun games where prizes were involved. Finally, a stage stood roughly at the every end of the carnival grounds. It was well lit up, and it was awaiting the appearance of the Titans.

But the speech was a good half hour off, so the six heroes went about their time casually. They walked down the path between rides in a group, pointing at the various sights and going the usual route of 'ooh!' and 'aaah!'. There was a fair share of citizens pointing at them and going 'ooh!' and 'aah!' as well, but that was normal.

I was still getting used to it, though……

"Hey! Guys! There you are!" cried out a voice. It wasn't just a normal fan, for even I recognized it.

I looked over, smiled, and waved Sandy over.

She rushed up, wearing a…suit of sorts. All workers were wearing suits that night. They looked like ushers.

Sandy the usher……

"I'm glad you came! I really am! This is going to be the best night ever for Westhaven!"

"More than willing to help," Robin smiled. "Besides, this place looks rather enjoyable."

"Indeed!" Starfire beamed.

"Are we needed already?" Cyborg asked.

"Not quite. Veronica's gotta freshen up to make the opening speech to the crowd and such. Real drama queen if you ask me," she said the last part with a hushed voice.

I winked under my shades.

"Do we have to be here long?" Raven droned.

Sandy curtsied. "Well, greetings'm. I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting you."

"That's rather believable…," Raven said bluntly.

"……," Sandy blinked.

"Um…..," Robin sweatdropped. "Sandy, meet Raven."

"Subtitles: 'The Ice Titan'," Beast Boy said, imitating quotation marks with his fingers.

Raven glared at him, but was interrupted by an invading shake of the hand by Sandy.

"Glad I could finally see you in person, Raven," the girl smiled. "You've always intrigued me out of all the Titans."

"…..," Raven stared. "You don't know me," she muttered and walked off.

"Er….was it something bad I said?" Sandy simpered.

I gestured: 'Could have said anything'. I politely smiled and followed after Raven.

"It's okay, Sandy," Beast Boy said. "It's just Raven's way. If Mother Theresa came down from heaven and asked to have a match of table tennis, Raven would find something cold to say like : 'What'll we use for a ball, one of your rosary beads?'"

Cyborg chuckled.

"That sounds rather………wrong," Starfire said.

"You said it," Robin nodded. He leaned towards Sandy. "Care to show us around?"

"My pleasure, sir," Sandy said. "Follow me!"

"I wish to join you! May I?!" Starfire asked.

Robin looked back at her and smirked. "Are you kidding?"

The Tamaranian blinked. "No."

Robin rolled his eyes under his eyemask. "That means 'come on!' Star!"

"Oh! Heeeeee!"

The three walked, skipped, and floated off.

Cyborg placed his hands on his hips. "Well, we only have so much time. Whaddya want to check out? The scrambler? The dunking machine? The Ferris Wheel?---"

The android's voice trailed. He watched silently as the green elf looked forlornly up at a nearby Ferris Wheel. His shoulders sagged. His pointed ears drooped.

"I…..d-don't like ferris wheels anymore….," Beast Boy murmured.

"Huh?" Cyborg remarked. He paused a second….then realized. "Oh." He looked solemn for a second, then brightened. "Hey, squirt! Bet I could beat you at ring toss!"

"Pffft!! No way!!"

"Let's race! First there, first toss!"

"You're on!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I hate carnivals," Raven griped.

I nodded as we walked lazily across the flashing and warbling sights.

"Mankind, in all its lunacy, contrives ways to distract itself from the seriousness of the world with no regards of the future."

I shrugged.

"What? You don't believe me?!"

I shook my head and waved my hands emphatically.

She glared at me through the corner of her eyes and folded her arms. "This is all your fault, you realize."

I pointed a finger at myself incredulously.

"You and Beast Boy were the geniuses caught up in the whole Westhaven fiasco," she mumbled. "Now look at all these rich saps crawling to us…."

I formed a 'circle' with my fingers and held it over my left shades lens.

"Okay….so Cyborg too."

I smirked.

"I sooooooo did not want to be a part of this," she sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose stressfully. "I've got so much to worry about as it is. So much on my mind. On my mind…."

I cocked my head to the side and looked at her funny. I was concerned.

She saw it.

"It's pointless to talk about it," she droned and walked on. "I just want this night to end."

I shrugged and followed her.

The two of us were neglectful of a lanky figure in the shadows behind us. The figure stared at us—hiding flat up against the rear of a Fun House. As we walked off, the figure pranced in pursuit, carrying an awkwardly slender object in his arms. He stared at us, let out a comical chuckle, and danced off into the shadows on flailing, lanky limbs.

Disappearing…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire gasped, shading her eyes as if spotting dry land. "Over there, Robin!! A stand of concession!! They must have the pink cotton there!!"

"Hey…that sounds nice," Robin smirked. "I could go for some, to tell the truth."

"Oooooh! May I go procure some for the whole party?!" the Tamaranian beamed.

"Um…it's a long walk, Star."

She floated up, beaming. "But an even shorter flight!" And she zipped off towards the stand over people's heads.

"Guess there's no arguing with her," Sandy mused.

Robin stood and folded his arms. "Nope. She's a lot less pensive than when she first arrived on our planet."

"You say that like you're 'proud' of her or something," Sandy squinted.

"Nah. Not pride. Not exactly."

"Then what?"

"Ahem," Robin cleared his throat. "Noir was right. You are the nosy type."

"So he told you?"

"As beast as Noir can 'tell'."

"You mean….you can't 'speak' to him?" Sandy remarked, surprised.

Robin shook his head. "Not like you can."

"Then how do you communicate?!" Sandy inquired. "I mean, you're the team leader and all!"

"Our communicators have a morse code function," Robin said. "Besides that, Cyborg is an avid translator."

"But shouldn't you and the other Titans….I dunno….learn to talk to Noir?" Sandy remarked. "He's practically family to you all, right?"

"Yeah, well….," Robin sweatdropped and scratched his neck. "We're working on that."

"I hope so….," Sandy trailed. She was eyeing Raven and I across the way, walking slowly across the grounds.

Robin followed Sandy's eyes. "Yeah, they're a lot alike," Robin said. "Both masters of the dark arts."

"Not alike in my book," Sandy said. "I mean….I know Noir. Somewhat. But Raven, she—" The girl hesitated. She looked up at Robin. "I-I didn't mean to intrude when I asked the Titans on such short notice to attend this carnival. And I can tell Raven's heart is not into it…."

"Raven's heart is not into a lot of things," Robin said. "In fact, it may not be an insult to say that Raven tries not to 'have a heart' period."

"Why is that?" Sandy asked. "If it's not too much to know?"

"Not too much to know a little," Robin emphasized. "Raven is…….a lot more vulnerable than the rest of us."

"Pfft. Could have fooled me!"

"No, seriously," Robin defended. "I've known her longer than anyone else. She and I were the ones who founded the Titans."

"Really?"

Robin nodded. "She has immense powers. All the same, she has immense demons she must struggle with."

"Demons?"

"You and I, we are lucky people," Robin said. "When we go to sleep, we are in sound mind. When we wake up, we have the same head. We don't have to worry about our little feelings and personalities and all the tiny pieces of us running loose from our skull and creating mischief for our psyche."

"And it's different with Raven…."

"She must keep all of her emotions in check. On a daily basis," Robin emphasized, looking at the dark girl from afar off. "Raven is always in constant meditation. Perfecting her mind. Maintaining a grip on her powers. She has to sacrifice pleasure…desire…warmth and feeling," he sighed. "I can't blame a person so ascetic as that being bitter every now and then." A beat. He looked at Sandy, "Do you understand where Raven comes from, now? Her mindscape is a daily battle. As of late, things have been a little……tough for her to hold things at bay. Heck, it's been tough for all of us. Battling Viper was no walk in the park. And Starfire's sister invading the Tower and stuff to boot—we've been in stressful times."

"I had no idea," Sandy shook her head. "Er, th-that is to say, I had some idea…but…..well, I guess I'm in no place to judge. Raven is right. I don't know her."

Robin placed a hand on the volunteer's shoulder. "Hey. Don't feel so bad. None of us truly knows Raven either." He folded his arms again and looked our way. "I suppose—if fate would allow it—the only way to understand Raven is to be Raven."

"Thank God for reality….," Sandy mused.

Starfire flew down. "Friends! Rejoice! I have brought the pink cotton!!"

"Alright!" Robin smiled, accepting a cone of cotton candy from the alien girl. "It's felt like forever since I indulged in one of these!"

"And look what else I retrieved!!" Starfire smiled with her eyes closed tightly. "Nectar!!"

"Nectar?!—aw jeez, Star!" Robin winced.

The girl brandished the mustard jar and popped the lid open. "Hehehe!! Such a great night! Bottoms to the up!"

"What's she talking about?" Sandy asked.

"Whatever you do—trust me—do…not…look…."

"Look at what?" Sandy looked. "Ohhhhh, sweet mother of---"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I can't explain it, Noir," Raven mumbled. She leaned back against the side of a concession stand while I listened. "Meditation is so hectic lately. I can't seem to concentrate. I'm afraid that—any second—a thought or emotion can slip and—wham! I may not show it, Noir, but I don't want any of the Titans hurt."

A pause.

She made a face. She looked up at me. "Wait….how'd I get here?"

I scratched my head.

"How'd I start opening up to you?"

I shrugged, smiling.

"Ugh….," Raven clutched her head and shook it. "I hate carnivals…."

"Ahem….," a middle-aged voice cleared itself.

I looked lazily to the left. I made a double-take.

"Greetings, Miss Raven. Mr. Noir."

"Huh?" Raven glanced up. Her eyes widened a bit. "Oh……um….."

Blake Glover stood—in the flesh—smiling subtly and extending a hand towards me. "Fancy meeting you here tonight."

"Come, Noir," Raven gently tugged at my arm. "Let's go and…..er…..regroup with the others."

I held a hand up to stop her. I turned around, swallowed, and politely shook Glover's hand.

"Whew….," the man exhaled. "Wasn't sure if you were gonna chop it off or something."

I simpered.

"I'm here off assignment of investigating a possible case of abuse in a local senior home," Blake Glover said. He took the time to role his eyes at his own, stereotypical antics of journalism. He then said: "I've picked up a considerable amount of funds throughout the year. Believe me, it's no price for me to be here and bless the Westhaven troupe with a contribution or two."

I nodded. Smiling slightly.

"And….um….," the man—in all humility—fumbled with his words. He scratched the hair behind his ear and said: "It's….nice seeing you Titans here. It truly is."

I felt that was an apology from him. I smiled. It made him feel better; his face showed it.

"So many people look up to y'all. It's true," he rambled.

Whatever……

I glanced at his lapel. There was a ribbon of sorts on it.

I gestured and pointed at it curiously.

"Oh….this," he fingered the ribbon, sighed, and managed a weak smile. "I've been involved with charity for lung cancer."

I cocked my head to the side.

"Not only am I an employee, I'm also a client."

I realized what he meant. My face fell.

"That is unfortunate," Raven droned. I held my breath. Thankfully, the inflection in her voice wasn't so bland. It was a few safe rungs below bitter sarcasm.

Glover seemed nowhere affected. "Well, I'd love to chat, but—it seems like one of you is needed."

"????" we both looked towards the stage.

Vreeland was already making a speech. She pointed outward and the loudspeakers boomed: "…and now I present to you, the Teen Titans!"

I jumped.

"That's our cue," Raven said. She finally regripped my arm and glanced (more like glared) at Glover. "We're going now."

"So long…."

She dragged me off.

The man stood alone with his ribbon.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's about time you got here!" Cyborg hissed as he stood on the stage next to a perfectly posed Beast Boy and Starfire. "Get your butts in gear!"

"Get your own butt….," Raven grumbled.

"Smooth," Beast Boy winked.

Cyborg elbowed him.

"Ow!"

"They've all come here to personally support the fundraiser for the Westhaven Opera House!" Veronica Vreeland grinned. She spun and pointed the microphone at Robin's chin. "Isn't that right?"

"Uhhhh…," the Boy Wonder cleared his throat and spoke textbookly into the recording instrument. "Yes, we have all come here to personally support the fundraiser…for th-the Westhaven Opera House."

Starfire winced.

Sandy giggled off stage.

"Well naturally you have!" Vreeland cooed. Aaaah, the rich. "In fact, it was three of you that saved the necks of me and my fellow audience members weeks ago!"

The gathered crowd on the grass clapped and cheered.

Beast Boy grinned wide.

"And who else is here to commend those three in person?! None other than the fresh young manager of the Westhaven Opera House, Ms. Cartwright herself!!"

There was applause.

I glanced over curiously. I hadn't seen the woman since the incident at the prison with Slug and Reload.

She shuffled up in a shimmering black dress, looking as mature and powerful as ever.

Ah yes…Cartwright.

"Ah yes….Cartwright," Beast Boy murmured with hearts in his eyes.

I slowly stared at him….

"I remember you two," the woman smiled slyly. She was holding something in her grasp. Medals. "The most mischievous, deceiving, dishonest lot ever to come to one of my shows!"

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Y-Yeah….heheh…that's us!" Beast Boy simpered.

But Cartwright smiled. "And we couldn't possibly be more thankful for your having saved us from Killer Moth and H.I.V.E." She looked at Cyborg. "You too. You came in the nick of time and showed us we weren't totally hopeless."

People chuckled.

"Pleased to be of help!" Cyborg bowed.

"Hey!" Beast Boy whispered up at me. "He was a newcomer! How come he—"

"Please accept these tokens of our gratitude," Cartwright knelt and draped one around Beast Boy's neck before patting his head.

The changeling grinned wide. "Hey, Cy! Welcome aboard!"

"HA!"

I rolled my black eyes. I smiled and bowed at Cartwright as she put the medal around my neck.

"Thanks, Noir," she said. She glanced. "I see your hair is still long."

Again, I did a double-take.

She finally put the medal around the android's neck. "Once the charity donations are in…and the Opera House is fully prepared…expect three free tickets to all showings from here on out!"

"Well, allright!" Cyborg grinned.

"Heck with it. Six free tickets!"

Robin did a thumb's up.

Starfire cupped her hands together: "Glorious!"

Raven blew a strand of hand out from over her face and crossed her arms impatiently.

"And now that the formalities are over with," Cartwright grinned. She waved at the crowd. "Enjoy the festivities! Carpe diem!"

People cheered. Cartwright and Vreeland walked off the stage. Off in the shadowy distance, a lanky figure with a slim object in his grasp peered over the necks of aristocracy.

We were left standing on the stage….a little dizzy with confusion.

Starfire blinked. "That was….faster than normal."

"Hey," Robin shrugged. "I can't complain."

"All the more time to check out the sights and sounds of this place!"

"Speak for yourself," Raven mumbled and headed towards the steps. "Can we go home now?"

"Uh uh uh!!" slinked in a quirky voice from across the grass.

"Um…..," Beast Boy popped a question mark out of his forehead.

The lanky figure hobbled out of the shadows. He was a retired beatnik of a man with an angular face, long tufts of black hair for bangs that danced straight out from under a woolen cap. Above a pointed, pale nose he wore solid black specs. A goatee hung under his grinning teeth as he stumbled out—dragging and hold fashioned camera in his arms—and bowed.

"Please, do not exit just yet!" the lanky man exclaimed. "Allow me to take a picture of the gallant heroes while they're still on the stage! I really dig this charity fundraiser, you see, and it would be a crime not to capture the guests of honor in their moment of generosity and all that jazz. You get me?"

"Er….well….I dunno," Robin shrugged.

"Don't be afraid!" the man leaned on the stilts of his cloth-covered camera and grinned like a Muppet would if it took too much amphetamines. "I've been beat looking for a good chance like this, ya dig? I'd kill myself if I went to sleep tonight without snapping a shot of you cats!"

Sandy cleared her throat and walked towards the man—suppressing a grin. "Allright, allright. That's enough. I don't know who you are, but I can't force the guests to go through a camera shoot if they don't wan—"

"Nah, it's all right," Robin smirked.

"Yeah!" Cyborg nodded. "I don't mind a picture or two. How about you guys?"

"Fine by me," Starfire said.

"All the more copies of me, the merrier," Beast Boy's eyebrows danced.

I shrugged. I hadn't had my picture taken a lot lately. It's not that I hated cameras. Only their inevitable, bright FLASH! I adjusted my shades for good measure.

Raven, however…….

"Um….,"she fumbled. "You sure we can't just go home?"

"Relax, Raven. This is a publicity thing."

"So the answer is yes?!" The old beatnick hopped.

"Yes, the answer is!" Starfire beamed.

"Great! I really dig you for this!" the lanky photographer shooed Sandy back with a wave of his hand, propped the camera, and slinked up behind it and under the tarp of the old-fashioned contraption. "Really…..really……dig you……" he grinned under his breath. Nobody heard him then.

"All together now," Cyborg said, smiling and pulling Starfire and Robin closer.

"Oomf!" the Boy Wonder grunted. "Assuming he's zooming in, huh?"

"I'm tallest," Cyborg winked. "I'm in the back."

I raised a hand.

"Next to me, Noir," Cyborg motioned with his head.

I smiled and stood next to him.

"I should stand in the back too, no?" Starfire held her hands behind her back and said.

"Yeah, you're kinda tall too," Cyborg scratched his chin. "So Robin…exchange places."

"Hey! What made you art director all of the sudden?!" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out.

"I'll have you know, my mother was a photographer!"

"I thought you said all she took photos of was plants!"

"You're pretty green yourself, little man. Now stand next to Robin."

"Blah."

"Um…where should I go?" Raven asked with a lethargic shrug.

"I'd say you'd do well in the very front," Robin nodded.

"Whoopeee," Raven droned. A beat. "But wait a minute. Isn't Beast Boy the shortes—"

"Depends on if your wearing heels or not," Cyborg said. "Now down in front!"

Beast Boy giggled.

Raven rolled her eyes. She stood in position.

As we all posed for the photo….

Raven was directly in front. She stood in ahead of everyone…closest to the camera and in the absolute center of the shot.

Behind her—parallel to each other—were Robin and Beast Boy.

Then there was the final layer of the Titans. Cyborg stood in the back center. Starfire was to his left. And I was to his right.

For some reason or another, I was a few inches farther away from Cyborg's right shoulder than Starfire was from his left.

I thought nothing of it at the time.

The same with Raven. She was in front of everyone.

But thought nothing of it at the time……

"Looks like they're ready," Sandy folded her arms. She smiled at the fellow. "Take your shot, old man."

"Right-o-rooney!" he exclaimed, muffled from the tarp. "On the count of three, say cheese!"

Starfire glanced around. "But I do not see a dairy product anywhere!"

"Just say 'cheese', Star."

"O-Okay…."

"One…."

We stood up straight.

"Two…."

Raven exhaled.

"Three………"

FLASH!!!!

I winced hard. It was inevitable. My black eyes burned for a few frothy seconds before things faded back to normality under the safe halo of my shades. I shook my head and took a deep breath.

I glanced over and….saw Raven's head nodding.

"Rae?" Beast Boy remarked.

"Ugh….," the girl clutched her head and teetered over.

"Whoah! Take it easy, girl!" Robin grabbed her shoulders and held her upright. "You okay??"

"I…..I don't know," the girl dizzily shook her head. She glanced up and blinked at the chaos of the carnival. "So many lights….i-it gets disorienting after a while, I guess."

"Poor thing," Starfire said. "Perhaps we should get you home early."

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "Enough excitement for Raven is enough excitement for all of us."

The rest of us chuckled.

Raven smirked slightly. She still fought off some mysterious dizziness, standing upright once again.

"Yes! Perfect!!" the skinny man said and danced out from under the tarp of his old camera. "I shall have prints for you in no time! I know where you all live!"

"Heh," Beast Boy shrugged. "Who doesn't! Sorry, but, we gotta split now."

"All in good time!" the old, lanky beatnik bowed. "I bid you cats adieu. Live long and jazz it, baby!" And he danced away—giggling—into the night. He was hugging his old camera like some forbidden treasure.

"What a…..fascinating creature," Starfire remarked.

"I've seen enough," Robin yawned. "Let's go home."

We started descending the stage.

"Better not find out you blinked, Raven," Beast Boy smiled and pointed. A beat. "Raven? You okay?"

Raven still shook her head. "Yeah…..j-just….tired is all."

"Jeez…what did you eat this afternoon?"

"……….nothing."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We returned to the Tower and all shuffled to our bedrooms. We were all a bit more tired than normal. Everyone save for Raven, that is. Along the T-Car trip home, her dizziness left. And—I swear—I saw more of the white in her eyes than ever before.

When you're someone like me, you take note of the 'white' in people's eyes a lot. You really do.

I was just passing through the Main Room for a glass of water sometime after midnight.

Robin sat in front of a video phone.

"I'm telling you, the charity has been a blast!" Sandy said on the tiny screen. She seemed genuinely happy. "Ms. Cartwright will be so pleased!"

"How much is the earnings?" Robin asked, sipping some juice.

"Don't know exact figures yet…."

"But it's a lot, you think?"

"Oh yeah!" Sandy beamed. "C-Can I come by the Tower again tomorrow to go over with you what I've found?!"

"Sure thing," Robin said. "We'd love to have you by again."

"Splendid! Ooops! Get a good night's sleep, sir. I'm sorry, I didn't notice the time."

"Quite allright. Chat with you later. Good night, Sandy."

"Good night, sir."

Blip!

Robin sighed, smiling. "Not bad. We did good tonight." He spun around and saw me. "ACK!!! Oh….whew….Noir….you gave me the heebie jeebies."

I glanced at him from besides the fridge.

Um………okay……

"Say….do you get this wyrd feeling of….I dunno…..like a bunch of insects and stuff in the halls of the Tower?" I shook my head. In the middle of doing so, I accidentally dropped a jug of milk—spilling contents everywhere.

Damn!!!

I grit my teeth and rather forcibly yanked a handful of paper towels to do cleanup. I took a breath, calmed down for some reason, and went at the task down on my knees.

"……..," Robin watched. "I dunno…just me I guess," he scratched his arm and glanced out the windows at the moonlit Bay beyond. "Must have seen a lot of bugs and stuff at the Carnival grounds and it got me thinking wyrd things." A beat. "I wonder how Raven's doing?"

I grunted and continued mopping up the milk.

I could care less about what Robin was worried about just then……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Halfway into the night, Raven couldn't sleep.

Ever since the arrival home at the Tower, her body felt----alive. Awake. Antsy. Anxious. All the other 'A' words.

She felt hot. She perspired a lot. And yet, she wasn't sick.

She tried showering to cool herself off. But it didn't work. And it wasn't that time in her cycle either. So she was perplexed. She was worried. She was---

Raven sat up straight in bed.

Worried?

Something invisible pushed at her. She huffed and jumped out of bed.

She tripped on a sheet and toppled over, slamming her knee into the wooden gargoyle of an ornamental chair.

WHACK!!

"Owch!!" she fell to her rear on the carpet and gripped her knee. The nerve had been stabbed just right, and it sent unnerving waves of pain throughout her body.

She clenched her teeth. She shut her eyes. She….

"!!!"

Raven gasped.

She froze.

She raised a hand to her face.

Moistness.

A tear……

Raven's mouth fell agape.

She looked at her wet finger.

Her hand was trembling.

She looked up towards the pale walls of her darklit room.

The emptiness.

The bleakness.

It all seemed so….so…..

"Stupid….," she whispered.

Silence.

She bolted up, limped her way across the room till her leg was no longer sore, and burst out through the automatic doors in her bedclothes. Things inside her being became a flurry. A rush. Adrenaline. Blood. Pumping. Throbbing. Jumping. Pulsing. Her legs rushed up and down. She locomotived down the hallway and up the stairwell. She dashed up steps, panting. Huffing. Heaving. Living.

CLANG!!

There!!

The door to the rooftop flew open.

Raven froze.

She was staring up at a sky full of stars. Celestial glory. So large. So vast. Mysterious and….

was all so……very beautiful……

Raven exhaled. "Oh wow……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jordan……please……you m-must do it—"Screaming voices.

Hair and arms.

Scalps bleeding.

"M-Must………"

Metal limbs. Gunpoint. Sparks. Screams.

"……do it……"

I jumped forward. I was anchored to the wall by plastic tendons."Jordan…please……"

She was weeping. She was golden. She was being torn apart by sparks.

My angel……

"Your Master taught you well. You are a resilient one. Yet not as much as her. We spent hours and hours upon her—""WHAT DID YOU DO, JORDAN?!?! YOU BASTARD!!!!"

"P-Please……"Beating the ground. Screaming.

Metal.

Plastic tendons.

"You must…"

Myrkblade's hilt.

My aching knuckles.

Numb legs.

Drenched legs.

Brown eyes twitching.

Hair and mouths.

Pool……

"WHAT DID YOU DO, JORDAN?!?!"

My heart pounded. They were all dead. Pouring onto the floor around me with spaghetti sauce.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!"

SLASH!!!!!The screams cut short.

Hair flew with a bowling ball and formed a crater in the earth that swallowed her away with her angel eyes and blond hair and all I saw were four red specks peaking into existence and swimming into me.

**"Heh heh heh heh……"**I was holding Myrkblade.

I was covered in sauce.

**"I know…….I know what….."**

The red spots had teeth. They devoured me and I fell down the tube full of blood and hair and she sobbed into my face.

"Jordan!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shot up straight in bed, clutching my head. My black eyes bulged. I sweated bullets. Hyperventilating.

The lanterns flickered as if a ghost was rushing away at the last second.

I looked all around me, shoulders heaving.

Everything heaving.

Hot and heaving.

Blood rushing.

Blood……

I gripped my neck. I felt the scar. The vision of four red specks faded from my eyes.

My lips quivered.

I fell down onto the covers and curled into a fetal position.

Shivering…

Horrified…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That morning, Robin yawned. Answering a call on his communicator, he sauntered up the stairwell of the Tower. He had a hard time sleeping that night. He kept hearing noises in his bedroom. Childhood revisited. He shrugged it off and trekked upwards—but froze when he saw the door to the rooftop hanging open.

"Huh???"

He dashed up the steps and into the blinding sunrise.

He squinted across the rooftop and saw a familiar, dark figure perched on the side in her bedclothes.

"R-Raven??" Robin remarked. He stumbled over. "What's going on? I thought there was something wrong! What're you doing up this early—"

He stopped in mid sentence.

Raven had turned to look at him, and she was doing two monumental things.

Smiling and tearing…..

"Raven…," Robin gasped. He knelt down and put a hand on her shoulder. "You're…..you're….."

"I'm free, Robin," Raven murmured. Her eyes were streaming with tears. And yet—all the time—there was a bitter sweet smile on her face. The Boy Wonder could also see her fists clenched, as if a righteous anger was hidden under the surface. And Raven's posture was straight and strong. Full of confidence. Full of fervor.

Full of emotion……

"I…..can feel," the girl sobbed. She stroked a palm across her face, gathered the tears, and stared at it in the glistening sunlight. "In the middle of the night…I-I felt it all lift my shoulders. It's all gone." She looked straight into the Boy Wonder's eyemask. "And….HE is even gone! It's….a m-miracle…."

Robin was at a loss for words. So, he tried to do something for Raven that he had never tried before.

He offered her a hug.

And she accepted it.

"This…th-this is amazing, Raven!"

"I know it is….," Raven shook against him with a sob and a smile at the same, paradoxical time. "I know it is…."


	47. Scattered Raven part 2

**47. Scattered Raven part 2**

"Rise and shiiiiiiiine!!" Cyborg cheered as he sauntered into the Main Room. "Ahhh…it's a beautiful day, isn't it? Boo-ya!!"

He looked to his side and stopped at the sight of Beast Boy leaning over atop a sofa, his nose in a book. "Why, hello there, little man. What're you doing up so early?"

"I was undergoing insomnia," Beast Boy said without looking. His little green finger traced the words of his book as he read and spoke at the same time. "I figured that there was no point in slumbering, so I ascended the elevator to find something of recreation here."

Cyborg leaned over with a smile and squinted his human eye. "Hey….is that the Dictionary you're reading?!"

"If that is what the title on the front cover claims, then that is an affirmative," Beast Boy replied with hummingbird speed to his lips.

"But why the Dictionary, silly guy?!" Cyborg chuckled.

"I have never taken the opportunity to read it before," Beast Boy uttered, flipping a page. "There is no time like the present to learn, I always say."

"Um……actually, you 'never say'," the android corrected with a wink. "Whoah…you're almost halfway through that sucker!"

"Page four hundred and seventy two and three quarters to be exact," Beast Boy said. He flipped another page. "Make that four hundred and seventy three and one third."

"Hehehehe…Boo-Ya! Now that's the spirit!" Cyborg snapped a finger at him and walked down the rest of the length of the Main Room, whistling a happy tune. He waved, "Rae! Rob! S'up?!"

"Um…t-talk to you in a m-minute," Robin stuttered with a raised finger and turned to Raven. "H-How're you doing?"

"Shhhh!" Raven hissed. She stuck a spoon into her sundae, lifted a generous amount of sweetness to her lips, and swallowed. A pause. She let out a huge sigh through her nostrils and closed her eyes. "This is………amazing……"

Robin smiled bashfully. "You've eaten ice cream before. Is it so different now?"

"It. Is. Very. Different. Now." Raven smiled gently. She sighed and swiveled about in a stool at the bar counter. A drunken look was on her face, like that of an infant or a minnow. "I can't explain it Robin. Everything is so….real, today."

"You sure you're……um…..," Robin fumbled for the words. He scratched his head. His usually spikey hair was drooping. His cape was wrinkled. He looked out of it. Finally he found what he wanted to say: "….y-you sure you're safe?"

Raven smiled at him. She spun around, jumped to her feet, and walked slowly towards a tall window where the sun shone in and warmed her limbs. She stretched her arms out, tilted her head back, and inhaled the rays of light.

"R-Raven?" Robin blinked from under his eyemask.

"Egads!!" she giggled. "It's hot!! The sun's so hot!!" She shivered and tossed off her robe, standing only in her jumpsuit and tights that were usually hidden underneath. She leaned forward and practically hugged the glass of the window. "So hot…and yet….so cold." Her fingers trailed the glass. She brushed her cheek against it, giggled, then turned around with her back against the window. She stared up at the heavens through the ceiling and hugged herself. "I…..I-I had no idea that happiness was so………..happy."

"I….I-I guess," Robin scratched his neck.

"Or sadness…..so…..cleansing," Raven mumbled, tracing a lone finger around her eye and feeling the faint residue of moisture. "So very….relieving." She looked up at Robin with a quivering lip.

He watched her, in awe.

Raven smiled. She jumped up on the stool, then up on the kitchen counter. She reached her hands to the ceiling and cawed: "OR ACCOMPLISHMENT SO REWARDING!! YEAH!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!"

Robin shivered. "Um…y-you're starting to scare me, Raven…."

Raven's laughter turned into a shivering chuckle. Her voice trailed off, and she looked past Robin. "Fear…..fear is what…makes us feel reality."

"Um….what's the occasion??" Cyborg remarked while pouring his milk. He looked up at Raven with a cockeyed glance and smirked. "Are you Raven's good twin or something?"

Raven glared at her. She then brightened. "Or…..!"

She jumped down besides Robin, picked up her ice cream sundae, and tossed it square in Cyborg's face with a grunt.

SPLORT!!!

"Hey!!!" Cyborg exclaimed, wiping his face off.

Raven leaned over the counter with a bounce and a scowl. "THAT'S FOR CALLING ME AN 'ICE PRINCESS' TWELVE TIMES IN THE LAST MONTH!!!!"

Echoes.

Robin cringed.

At the end of her shout, Raven leaned back…blinked….and giggled uncontrollably. "I'm gonna really dig anger too!!"

"Hehehe!! I'll make a note of that!" Cyborg smiled wide and chuckled.

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

"HA! HA! HA!"

"HEY!!!" Beast Boy snapped from his dictionary. "Will you ignoramuses silence your infernal utterances of jocularity?! I am trying to access the infinite banks of knowledge in this god forsaken world and I cannot focus on such a diligent task with your monotonous attempts to fluster my progression!"

"S-Sorry, Beast Boy!" Robin insisted. "We're sorry! We'll quiet d-down!"

"No we won't!" Cyborg beamed and literally dunked a pitcher of water over his head to douse off the ice cream. "Life is short! We should embrace it with open arms and smile at the absurdity of everything! And how else will we celebrate than by being absurd ourselves?!"

Raven chuckled. "You know what, Cyborg? This morning I'm really liking your attitude!"

"I'm really liking my attitude too! Heheheheheh!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!" Raven smiled. She blinked. She looked at Robin, "Say…weren't we expecting company?"

The elevator doors opened and in walked Sandy.

"Oh yeah…I-I set the Tower's Security to recognize her and let h-her in automatically," Robin trembled. "S-Sorry I didn't tell anyone last night…."

"Robin….it's okay…really," Raven insisted with a wave of hands. "Nobody's going to be mad at you! Sheesh!"

Robin stared. "Y-You sure?"

Raven shrugged it off and walked towards Sandy.

"Hehehehe!! Got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, Robin?" Cyborg chuckled.

Robin's lips quivered. "D-Do you think I did?"

"Ughhh….the incessant sounds of a brainwashed populace, buckling under the weight of inevitable discord…," Beast Boy mumbled annoyingly into the pages of his dictionary.

This—along with everything else—Sandy was observing. Heavily….observing. She nearly jumped when Raven—of all people—walked directly up to her and shook her hand.

"Sandy! It is so nice to see you again," Raven smiled and patted the volunteer's shoulder. "I must apologize for my attitude yesterday. I guarantee you, I'm a different person today. Hehehe!"

"…….," Sandy stared. Her spectacled eyes glanced over Beast Boy in his Dictionary, Robin hugging himself on the stool, and Cyborg playing with some animal crackers behind the counter. Her eyes rested once again upon a robeless Raven and the dark girl's warm, blue eyes. "…………..I think I'm in the wrong Tower."

Raven giggled. "Why, whatever do you mean? A person can change, can't she?"

"Yeah but…..," Sandy looked around again and scratched her head. "I'm confused."

"Why be confused?!" Cyborg said from the distance. "You were so happy last night!! Did the same thing happen to you as happened to Robin here?!"

The Boy Wonder shrugged and shook his hands defensively in Sandy's direction. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Honest!!"

Sandy blinked. "Okaaaaaay." A beat. "Well, um, I-I just came by to tell you all how well the carnival went last night and—"

"The carnival….," Raven's voice and eyes trailed. She took a deep breath of joy and cupped her hands together. "So many flashing lights. Couples walking hand in hand. Magic in the air." She fluttered her eyes and looked at Sandy directly. "I wish I was there again."

Sandy bit her lip.

Raven blinked. "What?"

"Listen….o-over here….," Sandy dragged Raven over to the far side of the room.

"Ow…ow…ow….ow…ow!" Raven struggled and yanked her wrist from Sandy's grasp at the last second. "Goodness, girl! What's wrong with you?!" she frowned.

"Seriously….what's going on here?" Sandy whispered. "Is this some sort of joke or something?! It's like you're all drunk and stuff!"

"How dare you insinuate that!!" Raven snapped. "We're Titans. Heroes, for goodness' sake!"

"And look at you!!" Sandy gestured. "You're the nationally renown stoic of Justice! And here you are changing emotion on a dime!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Raven glared. "I was having a nice day until you—"

"A horse walked into a bar," Sandy folded her arms. "He said 'ow!'"

Raven's eyes bulged. She laughed uncontrollably. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!! Ohhhhh my….I-I never heard that one before!!"

Sandy stared. "You'd have to live under a rock not too. And as solitary as 'Raven' is, I doubt she'd live a life without hearing that lame joke at least once. I think there's a difference now, though, for some reason. Though you're hearing the same joke….for some reason….it's funny to you now. Am I on the right track? Please tell me that I am!"

"Pffft," Raven waved. "Listen to yourself! You're just about as analytical a nut as Beast Boy is over there!" Raven gestured.

"Do not assume that a mere distance of ten and a half meters prevents me from receiving the sounds of your hushed conversation!"

"Um….isn't that the same green elf who was stuffing cotton candy in his ears and dancing around last night?" Sandy sweatdropped. "And why's Cyborg so ecstatic and Robin so…so…."

The two looked over.

The Boy Wonder hugged himself in the stool. He shivered and a tear rolled down.

"What in the--," Raven stumbled towards him, suddenly concerned. "Something's wrong, I better go talk to—"

Sandy held her by the shoulder. "And then there's Starfire."

Raven glanced at her. Glanced at the ceiling. Toyed the inside of her mouth with her tongue. Then blinked. "I haven't seen Starfire all morning." A beat. "What about her?"

Sandy gulped. "Well, on the way up here, I kinda sorta got lost. I saw her doing stuff in the gym and…."

"And????" Raven glared.

SMASH!!!!!!!

The elevator doors were forced open as a punching bag and a broken chain soared in and rolled to a stop on the carpet.

Robin shrieked, jumped over the counter, and hid behind a curiously amused Cyborg.

"RRRRAUGH!!!" Starfire flew in and kicked the punching bag with her Tamaranian foot, forcing it to sail through a potted plant and shatter its foundation to pieces. "Insolent scrap of leather and padding!!!" the alien girl shook and fumed as she stomped across the room and shouted at the punching bag. "You are most ill-mannered in your constant desire to swing back at me in response to the impounding of my fist!!!"

Sandy mumbled into Raven's ear. "She was…..training out…."

Raven nodded mutely. Watching wide-eyed.

"I will show you who is the one in possession of the title of leadership, you piece of ambiguous bovine excrement!!!" Starfire lifted the punching bag by the broken chain and proceeded to swing it around and smash it into the ground—shaking the entire room. "RAAAAUGH!!!" SLAM!! "RAAAAAUGH!!! SLAM!!! "RRRRRRRRR**AAAAAUGHHH!!!**" **SLAM**!!!

A crater formed in the carpet. The punching bag burst and sand poured everywhere.

Starfire panted, sweat rolling down her amber brow and her red hair tossed and tangled roughly around her neck. She took a deep breath, wiped a forearm against her skull, and grinned mischievously. "Oooh to the Ra!!" she cheered with a jerking hand. "Wondrous tearing of the proverbial donkey! HA! And such has left my stomach most famished!! I am so beat, I can eat an entire equine!!" She smiled and was about to walk towards the kitchen unit when she froze in mid-step. "Oop! Hey, everyone! Watch me accomplish this!!"

"I am preoccupied…," Beast Boy mumbled.

Robin shivered.

Starfire unleashed a burst of Tamaranian flight, soared up in the air, flipped, grabbed a ceiling fan, spun round once, lifted off, sailed down, and somersaulted into a perfect landing between Cyborg and the refrigerator.

"Hey!!!" Cyborg did a double-take. "Wondrous landing, but give the judges a chance to tally the scores of their stomach first, dearie! He he he he!!"

Starfire spun around and shoved him to the ground.

WHAM!!

"Ooof!!" Cyborg's eyes spun. "Nice toss. Hehehe!!"

"Do not label me as 'DEARIE'!!" Starifre shrieked, hands on her hips. "For that, I shall now acquire your milk from you!!"

"Awww….I was drinking that!!"

"You are the one who snoozes, you are the one who loses!!" Starfire jabbed a hand straight into the fridge, yanked out the milk, and drank straight from the carton. After guzzling a good half gallon down, she exhaled, wiped her lip, crumpled the carton in one hand, and tossed it behind her. "I must hurry on with my breakfast! I have a mile to jog!!"

"Wh-Why jog when you can fly?" Robin meekly suggested.

"DID I ASK YOU, SCRAWNY ONE?!"

Robin shrunk into a nearby corner, eyes brimming with tears.

"……………..," Raven stared.

"……………..," Sandy stared. She glanced at the dark girl. "Satisfied?"

"Ehh, they're just mood swings." Raven waved.

Sandy pulled at her brown hair. "Mood swings?!?! Miss Raven, I am sorry to be so frank, but your friends are making Charles Manson and his crew look like picnickers!"

"Pfft, now that's a hyperbole!" Beast Boy said from the distance.

"Hyerbole!!" Cyborg giggled on the floor. "Such a funny word! Hehehehehehe!!"

"I think you should be a good guest and stick your nose OUTSIDE of our business!" Raven frowned, arms folded.

"Listen to me!" Sandy gestured emphatically. "I. Am. Worried. Here! Doesn't this seem out of place?! Doesn't this seem abnormal?!"

"Abnormal?!?!" Raven nearly shrieked. She took a step forward and frowned in Sandy's face. "I'll have you know, girl, that I do not know what 'abnormal' is anymore. Do you know what happened this morning?"

Sandy—mouth agape—shook her head.

"I woke up….in the middle of the night….and I could feel," Raven said. She lifted a pale hand and stared at it up close. "Emotions that were once forbidden to me…are now mine at the flick of a wrist. There is no more consequence for my indulging in a happy thought. There is no more pain from raising my fist at someone. I can even shed tears and not cause the entire building to fall apart!! All my life, I sought perfect tranquility. Perfect calm. Escape from self, and thus an escape from the Inevitable." She took a deep breath and looked almost wounded as she added with a quivering voice: "For one day. One single day…I-I can now realize that everything I worked for was mine to have not from repression, but from acceptance." She swallowed and turned around, holding her arms. "I…I-I can't describe it. I can fear things….but I have nothing to fear. Nothing whatsoever to fear. There is no greater feeling…now that I know what 'feeling' is." A beat. She spun around and shouted angrily in Sandy's face: "WHY MUST YOU FILL MY FIRST TRULY LIVING DAY WITH WORRY?!?!"

The whole room shuddered to a stop.

Sandy winced, backing up from Raven with gritted teeth of uncertainty. She snaked a finger around and pointed at the other Titans. "Even if it was the first time you would feel, Miss Raven, would you not feel concern for your friends?"

Raven blinked.

"Something is wrong with them, Miss Raven," Sandy stammered. "You may be fine like wine….but look at them. Look at them and ask yourself how you 'feel'."

"…..," Raven was silent. She turned around. She watched Beast Boy straining his eyes to speed through a torturously long dictionary. She saw Robin cowering in the corner, his eyemask bulging as he trembled and spotted hidden demons. Cyborg had a full set of animal crackers and was playing dolls with them. And Starfire was taking her frustration out on a soup can that wouldn't work by picking up a fire extinguisher and madly hammering the package loudly over and over again.

"Raven???" Sandy whispered.

"Eh, they've always been crazy," the girl mumbled. A beat. She looked up. "Where is Noir?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Okay………_

Let's try it again……

I took a deep breath.

I gripped Myrkblade. I bent my limbs slowly. Smoothly in the wind. In the field of grass outside the Tower.

I tried for the fifth and last time to perform a pose. One of my usual….painful poses. I meditated and focused every fiber of my being into holding that one, awkward position……………and succeeded for only about three seconds.

WHUMP!!!

I fell on the ground.

I grit my teeth.

I wanted to growl.

I pounded my fist into the earth.

Dirt flew.

Grass warbled.

I jumped up.

My knuckles were white as I gripped Myrkblade.

I kept gritting my teeth and clenching my eyes shut. It felt like my head was going to explode. I felt the pulse rushing through my arteries. Red. Fervent. Hot. Hot.

Hot………

Two hours…and not a single satisfying step in meditation.

I trembled. I shook.

I opened my frowning, black eyes from under the shades.

I gasped.

For half a second, four red specks reflected off the undersides of the lens and laughed at me.

**"Heh heh heh heh……**"

I let out a mental scream, charged up Myrkblade, and slashed blindly in front of me.

FWOOOOMP!!!

Grass shot up from the ground in a stream and the shallow waters of the Bay parted so much, I could see the ocean floor for a split second.

I gasped….sweating.

I hadn't even swung that hard……

"N-Noir?"

My body tensed.

I spun around with Myrkblade raised, glaring.

Raven cowered, her hands held up in defense.

My eyes rounded. I panted.

"Noir??" Raven swallowed. "It's me. Are you okay?!"

The pulse…the sweating….my head….

I gulped. I took a deep breath. I realized I was still holding my weapon up, so I reluctantly lowered it and sheathed it away.

"Whew….y-you had me worried for a second there," Raven smiled.

I nodded---I did a double take. I glanced at her, my eyebrow raised.

"So….," Raven pointed at her smiling lips. "How do you like it?"

My jaw dropped ever so slightly. I cocked my head to the side and gestured complete confusion.

"It's….hard to explain," Raven said. She walked down a dune of sand and up towards the softly crashing waves in the Sun. "Nothing feels wrong anymore. Nothing feels urgent anymore. Everything is lightweight and easy. And….I don't have to worry about Him at all."

I took a deep breath. My right hand trembled as I watched Raven's fair head of blue hair from behind. My black eyes squinted and I had a sudden, mysterious urge to slash open her skull and _suck her brains out like a watermelon_. My heart jumped. I realized I was touching the hilt of my sword already. I gasped and brought my wrist to my chest, panting.

Raven turned and glanced at me from over her shoulder. "You okay, Noir?"

I sweated…but managed a nod 'yes'.

"Just checking," Raven said, her eyes lowered. "I was….happy. I was happy this morning, I was. But after Sandy came…she started to get me worrying," Raven hugged herself and kicked at the sand and surf lethargically. "I hate her for doing it, but she's right in what she says. Everything is too wyrd. I-I'm happy…and yet….I shouldn't be. It sounds terrible, I know. But….something is very screwy around here. Very screwy indeed."

I relaxed my hand and stood up straight, managing to look at her peacefully.

"I…..I-I haven't even….tried meditating….," her voice faded.

I blinked.

Suddenly, our communicators vibrated.

Raven jumped. She whipped out her communicator with a Star Trek sound and spoken into it. "This is Raven. What's going on??"

"I think y-you too better come up here," Robin's voice muttered.

I leaned my ear. The Boy Wonder sounded……paranoid.

"What is it?"

"F-Find out for yourself. I'm sorry I can't tell you any further. I'm so sorry…"

Blip!

_The hell is going on here?!_

I took a deep breath and rubbed the goosebumps on my shoulders.

_Somebody tell me!!_

"We'd better go," Raven said.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T.V. screen flashed on.

A recorded message was interrupting the standard broadcast.

_An cartoonish, middle-aged man in a magician's outfit stood tall and lanky as he spun a wand with a grin and tilted his hat._

_"Ladies and gentleman!! I, the amazing MUMBO JUMBO, have some exciting—stupendous—gargantuan news for you!!! The Teen Titans are indisposed, and the City is mine to plunder!! What magic has conjured this hand of fate, you ask?! Why, the most fanciful deck of cards there could ever be!!"_

The comical figure flipped a full deck of poker cards into his hat, tapped it with his wand, and shouted: "PRESTO!!"

He pulled out from the hat a bomb which exploded into a flurry of confetti in his grasp.

"WHOOPS!! How'd that happen?!" he tossed the hat up and fitted it over his head. "All part of the show, folks! Yes, I assure you that I do have bombs! And those bombs are set to blow in the First National Bank of the City, where I intend on making an appearance! I do apologize, I cannot be signing any autographs! Reason being, the only paper I'll have will be greenbacks, and any such mark of a signature or whatnot I let be inscribed on it could be interpreted as tainted money!! And you all know how much the amazing Mumbo Jumbo hates being short-changed, right?! HA!!"

He tapped his own head with the wand and teleported into smoke.

Seconds later, a wall panel in the background of the camera shot swiveled around and there stood Mumbo Jumbo in his polka-dotted skibbies.

"Wuh oh!!" he blushed.

_Laughtrack._

"Guess I used the wrong wand!" He winked, spun in a circle, and was suddenly wearing clothes again. "But seriously, folks! I shall proceed to bomb my way into the safe deposits of every bank in the city until the officials award me with a preliminary sum of money. How big a sum, you ask? I'll fax you the estimate. ALL NINE DIGITS OF IT!! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Alla Kazaam!!"

_He flung the wand._

All of his body disappeared, save for his hat that floated in mid-air. His head popped out, upside down.

"Oh, and when I say your Titans are indisposed…I do mean indisposed!"

YOINK!

He disappeared.

The hat fell.

Snow.

And……the T.V. was turned off.

"The absolute nerve of that villain!!" Starfire growled, palming her fist. "What makes him think that the Titans are indisposed?!"

"Beats me," Cyborg shrugged. He smiled at a lion animal cracker. "What do you think, Leo?!"

"As King, I command you to send me down your esophagus!" 'Leo' roared in Cyborg's muffled voice.

"Well, alright!" Cyborg snapped a finger and pointed at the cookie. "But be sure to bring your mosquito net!" He tossed the cookie down his throat, swallowed, and giggled. "Get it?! King Leo!! HA HA HA!!"

"Mumbo Jumbo scares me….," Robin murmured, hugging his shivering arms. "W-We'd might as well be indisposed."

"Wimp!!!" Starfire growled.

"He is hardly an intelligent man worth pursuing," Beast Boy mumbled. He suddenly had a pair of glasses fixed over his nose as he delved deep into a work by Tolstoy. "There are far too many jesters and such haunting the urban sprawls of criminal psychosis."

"Um….," Raven glanced at me, then looked at the others. "D-Don't you think we should try and stop Mumbo?! He isn't really that hard of a villain, ya know. And before we know it, he might hold true to his promise by—"

There was a rumbling sound.

We all looked out and saw a column of black smoke rising from the Downtown of the City.

"Th-The First National Bank….," Robin swallowed.

"Rrrrrgh….I knew it!!" Starfire floated up and shook her fists. "That is it!! We are going out there to wash his chronometers!! Are we not, Robin?!"

"……..," Robin trembled, eyemask glued to the site.

"ROBIN?!?!"

"D-Do we have to?" he meekly whimpered.

"YES!! TEEN TITANS!! DO THE GO!!" Starfire flew…..through the wall.

SMASH!!!!

And the Tamaranian trailed a purple streak towards the center of the City.

"Well I'm game!!" Cyborg jumped up, chuckled, and dashed towards the exit. "Always willing for a party! COME LEO!!"

Beast Boy sat with his book. Shakespeare this time. "This where I am complexed, is Ophelia truly a misogynist's stereotypical portrayal of a self-defeating feminine stereotype, or merely an objectifying tool towards outlining the incessant, moral irresponsibility of prince Hamlet and his constant inaction regarding his stepfather's infedility and—?"

"I said COME LEO!!!"

Cyborg grabbed Beast Boy from the scruff of his shirt and yanked him away.

"YAAAH!!"

I ran a hand over my face. Fuming.

_Such morons……such stupid…stupid morons……_

Sandy sweatdropped. She stared at Raven and I. "Sh-Shouldn't you guys get going too?!"

"I suppose," Raven sighed. She grabbed her robe and slipped it back on. Fastening it on her sleeves. "You're right, Sandy. Maybe I have reason to worry."

"Think about that later."

Raven nodded. "Stay here. We'll be back." She jumped into the air……and fell down on her butt. "OOOF!!"

I glared.

_Stupid……_

Sandy knelt down. "Um….Raven. Did you do that on purpose??"

"I….I…..I…..," Raven stuttered, her blue eyes wide.

_Shut up…for god's sake…just shut up…_

I clutched my heads.

_Morons……idtots……all of you…_

Sandy helped the dark girl up.

Raven was trembling. She stared at her hands and torso in disbelief. "I….I-I can't use my powers!!"

Sandy gasped.

Raven looked around, panicked, and rested her eyes on me. "Noir…what's happening to me?!?!"

I clutched my head, teeth gritting. Black eyes bulging.

_For the last tme…WILL. YOU. JUST. SHUT. UP?!?!?!_

I whipped out Myrkblade.

CHIIING!!!

Sandy shrieked.

I snarled breathily and blurred forward, teleported out the window, and went speeding demonically towards the scene of the crime.

Raven panted, scared. "I'm…g-gonna need a ride…"


	48. Scattered Raven part 3

**48. Scattered Raven part 3**

"You want to come along?" Raven asked from inside the Titan's garage. "I know it's only Mumbo Jumbo and all, but, it could be dangerous."

"I've been in dangerous situations before," Sandy replied. "Remember, this isn't my first time hanging around with a Titan'm."

Raven smiled. "Well, since you put it that way…" She put on a helmet. Then grabbed another and handed it to Sandy. "You'll need this. Put it on."

Sandy did so, and spoke: "Think we can catch up with your teammates in time?"

"The way this thing handles, I wouldn't doubt it," Raven said, mounting it and gripping the handles. "Besides….er…not all my teammates were in such a hurry to leave."

"We'll worry about that later."

"Hop on board," Raven said, revving the engine.

Sandy got on behind her and held on tight. "Just curious…have you ever driven this thing before??"

"Never had the chance to," Raven spoke over the engines and reached for the garage door opener on a side panel. "But I've watched it in action very carefully!"

"Somehow that isn't very reassuring," Sandy gulped. "But hey…you turned from stoic to hedonist in twenty-four hours. Anything can happen, right?"

Raven exhaled. "We're about to find out…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to the Tower's garage opened with rattling clanks.

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

Raven ambled the two of them out on the R-Cycle. The engines revved as she tested the gas in the middle of the driveway.

"So….um….," Sandy blinked beneath her helmet. "How fast can this thing go—**OOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"**

**VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

Sandy was not alone in her shrieking. Soon Raven's screams were joining her as she approached an undesired velocity on the strange bike that sent the two blasting down the land bridge and streaking towards the center of the City at mach 5.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime…

In Downtown…

Besides the smoking entrance of the First National Bank…

Cars stopped in the street and multiple drivers, pedestrians, and workers wandered curiously—silently—across the asphalt and peered into the fresh hole of the urban establishment.

**"…………………"**

SMASH!!!!!!!

People shrieked, cried out 'Run!', and dashed every which way as a newer hole was formed in the building side. A humongous white automaton emerged with an electronic growl. A twenty foot tall bunny rabbit. Circuits and robotic limbs. Parts that supported aluminum whiskers and glass-plated, black eyes whirred and hummed as the multiple, synthetic body parts moved around and marched the sluggishly huge beast one rabbit foot at a time out onto the sunlit pavement.

CRACK!!!!

A sidewalk split in two beneath one of the giant white feet, unearthing a fire hydrant that spewed water and a lamppost that sparked to death before careening over and collapsing loudly through the length of a minivan.

The gargantuan, android lepus lifted its razor-sharp buck teeth to the sky and let out a betrayingly vicious snarl as it heaved a bulging canvass of cargo over its back. The bag was full of solid gold bars, and it dangled halfway between its folded ears of titanium and a huge, fiberglass fluffy tail. All eccentricities aside, the robot was the perfect getaway machine.

In a puff of smoke, Mumbo Jumbo—the comic villain himself—appeared beside the three ton weight of his hideously cute golem.

"Fluffy…," the lanky fiend smiled up at the robot. "How ever did I pull you out of a hat?! Ha HA!!" He swiveled around, spun his magic wand in his grasp, and tipped his black top hat towards the frightened tellers and bank members inside the hollowed out building. "I'm sorry, folks. But I am far too busy for an encore. Fluffy and I never believed in a heaven. So we're going to take these bricks some place where we can pave our own streets with gold!! Too-ta-loo!"

He swiveled again, tapped the side of the robotic mammal with his wand—producing sparks.

Two big, beady eyes creaked down to face him.

"Come, Fluffy!" Mumbo smirked and proceeded to gleefully goose-step towards the far end of the city. "Life's a stage, and we're only in the First Act! Hop to it!! Ha ha ha!!"

The buck-toothed monster reared its metallic head and let out a serrated roar. People across the street ran in every which way as Mumbo sauntered playfully along and the three ton rabbit smashed-jumped its way down the road, forming craters with each hop.

BOOOM!! BOOOM!! BOOOM!

On the fourth leap, the titanium rabbit had a delay in coming back to the ground.

Mumbo—realizing that even his magic wasn't impervious to gravity—naturally formed a question mark over his head and glanced up.

An enraged Tamaranian teenager had flown down and was hoisting the beast halfway up from the ground by its ears.

"RRRRRAUGGGH!!" Starfire growled and flung with all her might.

"Nooo!!" Mumbo shrieked.

The huge rabbit tipped backwards and somersaulted in reverse. The ground shook. Cracks went off for dozens of yards in the asphalt. The canvass bag of gold bricks tumbled to the side and rolled to a stop against a squad car, denting two doors and breaking the siren.

Starfire floated in mid-air, panting and heaving heavily. "Your magic is most foul, annoying, and inherently WEAK!!!"

Mumbo Jumbo gasped. His usual devil-may-care grin left him as his masked white eyes drooped cartoonishly from under the top hat. "You….you can still fly!!"

"Affirmative!!!!!"

"You….h-have not lost your powers?!" he growled and wrung his fists.

"She most certainly has not!!" daintily mused a certain android.

Mumbo squinted. "Eh?!"

Cyborg jumped down from a building top with his feet together and lifted his arms up. "Ta-daa!! Now who wants to party?!"

"P-Please…must we fight?" moaned Robin as he sauntered over, draped sadly in his own cape. "W-We could just….ya know…ask him nicely to stop robbing stuff…."

A green pterodactyl landed next to him, turned into a spectacled elf, and mumbled: "I do hope this excursion will be abbreviated. I am wasting valuable time that could be spent indulging in the late modernist prose of Jack Kerouac and---ooh, is that a large scale, cybernetic replica of a oryctolagus lagomorpha?"

"It is in shambles!!!" Starfire growled like a tiger, her green eyes blazing. She pumped both fists out and zoomed straight into the chest of the giant, white rabbit.

SLAM!!!

The robot skidded across the street, scraping up asphalt. It let out a roar, its eyes clanking, and headbutted the Tamaranian girl on her third descent.

WHUMP!!

"UGH!!" Starfire was sent flying back across the street, smashing through a station wagon, and tumbling into the side of a newspaper stand. "Rrrrrrgh," she grit her teeth and pounded her fist into the sidewalk, making a hole. "Curses untold!!!"

"I don't know how you pathetic punks still have powers…," Mumbo glared with a pointed finger. "But don't think Mumbo Jumbo will back away that easily!! You need to be shown some real strength! It's a good thing that—since the last time we met—I got the beat down on a great class act!! Hocus pocus!!" He spun his black wand, which transformed into a pistol. "Back in the days before magic school, people in my home town used to call me Buckeyed Jumbo!!"

Beast Boy had a sarcastic face. "Guess it was not too difficult switching to a new profession to match with your last name." He blinked. "Is that an antique luger?!"

BANG!!!! BANG!! BANG!!!

Robin gasped. "Look out!!" he jumped belly first onto the sidewalk and grabbed Beast Boy's ankles.

"CRIMINY!!" the green elf fell to the floor as bullets whizzed overhead.

"I'm sorry!!" Robin gasped as the two hid behind a car that sheltered the bullets. "I'm so so sorry!! I-I'll try to be less forceful next time!!"

Beast Boy sighed calmly as the bullets ricocheted a few feet away. "This is already transforming into an experience of pure redundancy," he mumbled and wiped his glasses with a cloth.

Robin ducked his head under his hands and jerked each time a bullet struck the car nearby.

BANG!! BANG!!!!

Mumbo unleashed shot after shot.

"Pfft!! Now where is my magic aim of youth??"

"HEY DAVID COPPER OF THE FIELD!!!"

Mumbo glanced to his left.

Starfire blazed towards him, her entire upper arm shaped to launch a punch at him. "TAKE A GOOD AIM AT MY INEVITABLE FIST!!! RAAAUGH!!"

Mumbo spun the luger, which turned back into a wand. "Drawbridge!" he grinned. He tapped the wand against his torso. Somehow the shirt of his suit dislocated completely from the pants of his suit, creating a gap which the hot-tempered Tamaranian soared through.

"AAAAAH!!!" she sailed straight into the razor sharp mouth of Fluffy, who shook her around in its jaws and sent her flying off across the city over three rows of building tops.

Mumbo's two halves rejoined and he spun his wand with a chuckle. "Heheheh…had to pull myself together for a minute there."

"YO!!"

He glanced aside.

Cyborg walked up. "You're not very nice," he smiled. He aimed a laser rifle that glowed in the magician's face. "If I were you, I'd have a talk with Mr. Laser! He's positively Electrifying!! He he he!!"

STOMP!!!

Fluffy landed down right behind its master, bent over, and roared threateningly at Cyborg.

The android gasped. His human eye sparkled joyfully and he spread his arms out with a huge grin. "BUNNY!!!!"

"Hrmmm??" Mumbo raised an eyebrow over his eyemask.

Cyborg skipped over—giggling—and hugged one of the titanium legs of the robot beast. "SOOOOO CUUUUUTE!! AND SOOO BIGGGG!!" A pause. Cyborg looked up, grinning. "Wanna come to one of my birthday parties?!"

WHACK!!!

"OOOF!!" Cyborg exhaled as an iron forepaw swatted him across the street to where he formed a crater in the side of a brick wall. He blinked. "Hehehehe!! And I thought rabbits kicked!!"

"Hmmmmmm," Mumbo Jumbo scratched his chin, looking at the android across the street. He glanced at the bullet-holed car where Robin was practically hiding under his cape with the case of the shivers and Beast Boy was studying the tires of the automobile.

"Fashioned in Nineteen Ninety Nine by the Appleton automotive company in Detroit, Michigan, Brevard Street….," the changeling mumbled. "This thing should be recalled! Listen, Robin, if someone were to drive on this vehicle today, he could fishtail and end up perishing along with all passengers against a telephone pole or a guardrail!"

"S-Stop talking l-l-like that!!" the Boy Wonder's voice mumbled from under the cape. "You're sc-sc-scaring meeee!"

"Hmmmmmmmm," Mumbo smiled. He spun his wand and looked up at the lumbering robot bunny. "It looks like it worked out afterall. Howbeit, not in the exact fashion that I desired. But it'll do. Now let's resume our trek to the banks of the Western District!! Something tells me…I could just have easily left my wand at home. HA!"

The robot Fluffy roared in obedience. It lifted the canvass satchel of gold in its mouth, hoisted it over its shoulder, and resumed hopping a straight path of titanium destruction westward while Mumbo whistled and pranced alongside.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!-SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!**

Dust flew into the air, mixed with black sediment from a tire.

(The R-Cycle's rear tire….)

The vehicle was dead-still now in the center of the road.

It had taken Raven the entire ten minutes of frantic fright to 1) figure out how to brake and 2) implement the brakes.

She and Sandy were frozen in an eternal flinch.

"………"

"………"

"Are we there yet?" Raven whimpered.

"What?! You're the driver. Why're you asking me that?!"

"I don't know," Raven blinked her eyes open from under the helmet. "I d-don't even know if we're still alive or not."

SMASH!!!!!

The girls shrieked. They yanked off their helmets for a better look as a giant, white rabbit smashed straight through a nearby skyrise and hopped its heavy, titanium way across the city street.

Both girls had horrified looks on their faces. They stared, wide-eyed.

Sandy finally blinked, gulped, and said: "Well, at least I know I'm alive."

"How's that?"

"I just peed in my pants."

"I see…," Raven coughed. She knocked the kick-stand down and ran over towards Mumbo Jumbo and his automaton.

"Wait!!" Sandy cried forth and reached a hand out. "How're you going to fight them without your powers?!"

"I'll work on that when I come to it!!" Raven shouted back. "Just call it an experiment with 'fear'!"

Sandy bit her lip.

"Let's go do the hop!" Mumbo Jumbo psychotically sang as he goose-stepped besides his leaping Terror. "Doo doo doo!"

SMASH!!! SMASH!!

"Let's go do the hop!! Doo doo doo!!"

"Hold it right there!!" Raven shouted.

Mumbo looked over. "Ah! Lovely lady of darkness!! I was wondering when I'd be bestowed with your enchantment! I do declare, your partners are most mixed up at the moment!!"

"Cut the chatter!" Raven shouted. She gave only half a thought to the fact that—in trying to sound 'threatening' in front of the fiend—she in no way matched the intimidation of her formal self. Nevertheless, she did her best to frown and yell: "Stop what you're doing this instant!! The Titans will not allow this sort of mayhem!!"

"Mayhem?!" the magician shouted above his robot's hopping. "The name's Mumbo, you confused gypsy!! Mumbo Jumbo, and the two of us here are late, late, for a very important date!! Isn't that right, Fluffy?!"

The giant rabbit roared and jumped through an abandoned jeep.

SMASH!!!

"HA!!"

"No oversized wind-up toy is a match for the Titans!" Raven grunted.

"On the contrary," Mumbo winked. "Both you and I know that you aren't really the Titans today. Are you, Miss?!"

Raven's face fell.

Mumbo Jumbo faced her directly and opened his coat halfway at her, exposing his undershit. "Follow THIS down the rabbit hole!!" A giant, rubber boxing glove magically protruded from his inside pocket, sailed at Raven, and smacked her hard in the chest.

"OOOF!!!"

Raven flew back and skidded to a stop a couple feet off.

Sandy ran up from behind and helped her up. "Are you okay?!"

Raven dusted herself off. Her face was flushed. "I dunno. I didn't count on 'embarrassment' feeling so…..embarrassing…"

"Yeah, well, good thing you're not in High School."

"What are you two babbling about?!" came Beast Boy's voice from behind.

Raven spun around while Mumbo and Fluffy smashed through the street in the distance. "Beast Boy!! Robin!!"

The two stumbled up. Robin sniffled, clinging meekly to his cape. Beast Boy yawned intensely.

"This is rather dull," the elf hummed. "Why can we not engage in fisticuffs with some villain of a slightly more intellectual persuasion? Like 'Descartes Demon' or something?"

"At least he still has a sense of humor…," Sandy muttered.

"What are you just standing around there for?!?!" Raven exclaimed. She pointed down the street. "There's a twenty foot bunny smashing through people's stores and apartments, and instead of turning into an almighty T-Rex or something you're sitting around talking about classic philosophers?!"

"Hey!" Beast Boy snapped. "Descartes was not just a classic philosopher!! He was an important, theological component in the socio-political application of Newtonian physics and proliferation of bourgeoisie ideals throughout Western Europe during—"

"This. Isn't. Europe!" Raven exclaimed. "Europe doesn't have giant, demolishing bunny rabbits!!"

"I dunno," Sandy giggled. "Have you ever been to Amsterdam??"

Raven spun around, bug-eyed. "And what are you doing—SHUT UP!!!"

"Please….stop…y-yelling," Robin whimpered and shivered.

"I fail to see where this verbal interplay is advancing us in either a sophistication of this already bland day, or the apprehension of the mammalian golem in question."

Raven turned around once again and glared at the changeling. "I thought I just told you to TAKE THEM DOWN!!!!"

"Pfft!! Who am I, your lapdog?!" Beast Boy adjusted his spectacles and folded his arms. "If you are such a goddess of authority, why are you not employing your telekinesis as we speak?!"

Raven blushed. "I….kinda sorta….lost my powers."

"Oh…brilliant…hiding behind the claim of total ignorance," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "You are practically proletariat and oafish to the core!"

"…..," Raven blinked. "I think I liked you back when you were…..unsmart."

"Hmph!!"

"Where're Cyborg and Noir???" Sandy asked, concerned.

"Noir….pfft….how should we know??"

Robin peaked up from under his cape. "I….um…s-saw Cyborg stuck…i-in a wall….s-somewhere…."

Raven ran a hand over her face. She brightened. "How about Starfire?! Something tells me at least she'd be helpful right about now!!"

Beast Boy shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was displaying what I interpret to be the numerous adverse side effects of the Tamaranian menstrual cycle and—"

**"RRRRRRAUGHH!!!!!!!"** A purple comet streaked overhead.

"Ah!! Speak of the corrupted Lilith herself!!"

SWOOOOSH—BAM!!!!

A militaristic Starfire slammed once again into the side of the metal rabbit, forcing it to tip over into a semi-truck of gas that burst in flames.

BOOOOM!!!!

Sandy and Raven jumped and shaded their eyes.

"Awwww fiddlesticks!!" Mumbo Jumbo shook. "There's a sucker born every minute!!"

"I am not finished with pummeling your pet of machina!!!!" Starfire growled.

"Well, pummel away, dearest!!" Mumbo grinned as the giant rabbit emerged—hopping—from the flames. "Your knuckles only have so much of a cushion of flesh left on them!!"

The rabbit roared and charged Starfire with its razor sharp incisors.

"RRRRAUGH!!" Starfire swung her fists. "STARFIRE SMASH!!!!"

WHAM!!! SMACK!!! CLANG!!!

The flying Tamaranian girl exchanged futile punches, kicks, and jabs with the hulking robot while the amused Mumbo laughed his top hat off on the sidelines.

"I can't let this go on forever….," Raven mumbled. She spun and extended a hand to Robin. "Robin!! Give me your staff!!"

"Wh-Why?!" the Boy Wonder coward. "Did I do something wrong?!"

"Not yet! Give me the damn staff!"

"You better do it," Sandy said.

"But….but…but..," Robin frightfully eyed the alien girl and the rabbit. "If you join that fight….you m-might get hurt!!"

"It's a risk I'm gonna have to take!!" Raven spat. "Now give me your staff right now or—I swear—I'll hit you so hard in the jaw your mother will feel it!!"

Robin blinked, whimpered, and tossed the staff to her from under his cape.

"I like your psychology," Beast Boy grinned.

Raven flipped the staff to its extension and tossed her cape over her shoulder. "I'd like your head on a plate." She spun, growled for courage, and ran across the pavement towards Mumbo Jumbo.

"Don't bite the girl too hard, Fluffy!! She might get rabies!! Robot Rabies!! HA HA HA HA!!"

Raven ran up with the staff. "YOU!!!"

Mumbo looked over. "Waah?!" CONG "OUCH!! MY SHIN!!" He hopped on one foot.

"Give me that wand!!" Raven shouted.

"Or you'll do what—" CONG "OW!! MY OTHER SHIN!!"

"I'm….not….JOKING!!" Raven growled.

"Sheesh, missus!" Mumbo stood still again and readjusted his top hat. "You've lost your mind just as much as the others!!"

"What do you know?!" Raven growled.

"Plenty," Mumbo winked his eyemask. He pointed his wand up at Starfire. "Hail Mary, Full of ANVIL!!"

There was a sparkle of magic and a huge metal anvil popped into the air just above Starfire's head. The alien girl was too busy fighting to notice—much less dodge—the object flying down at her.

Raven gasped. "Star!!" She grunted, spun the rod, and tossed it up at her.

"Grrrrrrr—huh?" the alien glanced down. SMACK!!! The rod struck her back. "OWCHNESS!!"

THWANG!!!!

The anvil flew down where Starfire would have been and formed a three-foot-deep hole in the sidewalk.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho!!" Mumbo Jumbo chuckled gleefully. He spun around, disappeared in a puff of smoke, and reappeared in a 'saddled' position atop Fluffy's head. Between the ears.

"Tally Ho, Bugs!!"

Raven stared upwards, panting, eyes wide.

Mumbo waved his top hat from up high at Raven. "I'm sorry for the brief meeting, girl. But when there's an exit in sight, I must LEAP to the occasion. Ha ha ha!! Onward--!"

The rabbit was about to hop---when I streaked down from a building side and rammed my blurred shoulder straight into Mumbo's chest.

SWOOOOOOSH—WHAM!!!

"UGH!!!" he cried out and flew across the street, landing hard.

I leapt off the rabbit, flipped, whipped out Myrkblade, and blurred straight at him…snarling.

He was just then standing up—

RIIIIIP!!!

Myrkblade slid through the collar of his shirt and lifted him off his feet. I soared across the street like a jousting knight and shoved Mumbo hard through the window front of a clothing store.

SHATTER!!!!!

Mumbo Jumbo landed painfully amidst a sea of glass shards.

I spun Myrkblade around and aimed it at him. Panting. Frowning.

Raven watched. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape.

"Ugh!! Pffft!!" Mumbo Jumbo coughed. A trail of blood or two trickled down his cheek from where the glass cut him. "It's fun until someone gets hurt," he wheezed.

"Looks like that someone is me!"

My brow furrowed under the shades.

_He was damn right._

I reached in, grabbed him by the neck, and—holding my breath—flung him straight back out into the street.

"OOOF!!" he landed hard on the pavement, aching all over. A torn and disheveled magician.

I spun Myrkblade above me. Above him. Above us.

_Make this disappear, you bastard!!_

I gripped the blade with two wrists.

I grit my teeth.

My eyes saw red.

I swung the blade down directly over his cranium.

Mumbo flinched.

CLANG!!!

"No!!!" Raven shouted, having blocked my sword with a stab of Robin's staff.

My face jerked up to see her. Sweating.

"That's enough….you grounded him," she panted.

I glared.

A flash of red.

CHIIIING!!!!

I dashed forward and raised Myrkblade. I managed to stop myself just seconds before Raven's head split in two. The tip of my blade rested at the end of her nose.

She had her head tilted back. Eyes like golf balls.

She was panting.

I was panting.

Everything was heaving.

My face fell.

_What am I doing?!?!_

"Noir….," she breathed. "What are you doing?"

I swallowed.

"Tender moment?" Mumbo asked.

We both looked down.

The magician grinned. He flicked his wrists and two tensile strings of scarves flew out. "Let's call it a wrap!!" He whipped his forearms to his side from where he lay.

The scarves acted like bullwhips, tripping Raven and I hard to the ground.

Not a moment later, Mumbo jumped up to his feet, leapt, and backflipped towards the other side of the street.

I started to get up—wincing. I heard a roar and a stomping sound. I looked forward.

Fluffy charged at full force.

I inhaled and held Myrkblade up vertically.

CLAMP!!!!

Fluffy's bucktoothed mouth bit onto the length of my sword and pushed forward. I slid on two steady feet over the concrete, blurring and practically leaving a trail of fire. The giant robot shoved me against a pickup truck. I upended along the side, tumbled over the side, and fell onto the ground behind. The rabbit butted the truck aside with its head.

CRASH!!

I jumped up, blocked a bite with Myrkblade, and stabbed forward into its titanium chest.

CRKKKKKK!!!!

I made a sparking scar.

The robot roared and stamped its huge, white food down at me.

I rolled to the side, charged up Myrkblade----flash of red---and swung forward with a silent scream.

FWOOOOOOOM!!!!

Somehow, the wave of smoke and Destruction was enough to knock the giant golem over. I gritted my teeth—limbs pulsating—and leapt on top the creature. I proceeded to madly stab and stab and stab and stab into its white, polished skin.

In the meantime, Raven was getting up from being knocked down She winced and rubbed her shoulder.

Mumbo whistled.

She looked over.

The magician winked at her. Spun around, and whipped a string of scarves at her.

SWOOOSH!!!

_Titanium alloy!_

Raven's eyes twitched. She raised Robin's staff and blocked.

CLANK!!

"HA!!!" Mumbo spun the other way and flung his other arm.

SWOOOOOSH—CLANK!!

Raven blocked and jumped back.

Mumbo spun around like a ballerina and extended both hands.

SW-SWOOOSH!!

Raven gritted her teeth. She charged forward with the rod held horizontally. The two scarves struck the far ends of the weapon and wrapped around.

Raven jerked the object up to redirect the scarves and ran to perform a charging punch straight in Mumbo's chest.

_She had practice……_

"Some flowers, Miss?" Mumbo smiled as his face flew into her view. A rosebud magically appeared on his lapel. "A rose is a rose is IN YOUR FACE!!!"

The rosebud exploded forth blinding sparks like a roman candle.

Raven skidded to a stop and covered her eyes. "Ughhhh!"

Mumbo bowed, tipped his hat, and spun around---kicking Raven hard in the side.

"OOF!!"

She tumbled to the ground.

Mumbo glanced across the way. He saw me stabbing madly into his robot rabbit. He brought two fingers to his lips and whistled. "Let's move, Fluffy! And bring your lucky rabbit's foot!"

Fluffy twitched from underneath me. As if on cue, it stretched a leg up and slapped the entire length of my body with it.

THWAP!!!

I grunted and flew off into a buildingside hard. "!!!!!"

The rabbit stood up, gathered the canvass of gold, and hopped quickly towards the edge of the City.

STOMP!!! STOMP!!!! STOMP!!!

"We'll worry about the other banks later!!" Mumbo chanted as he ran up the robot's side and stood between its ears. "For the Titans are dimwitted as of today! And

I still have plenty of things up my sleeves!! He he he he he!!"

Starfire pulled herself to her feet, rubbed her head, and glared at the escaping villain. "NO!!! We almost had you!!" She flew to the center of the street, charged up starbolts, and unleashed them in wave after wave after wave of streaking fury.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

But it was far too late. Mumbo and his mechanical bunny were hopping off towards the horizon. His goofy laughter flew through the air, littered off the rooftops, and dangled into the streets with the gradually setting sun. The gold was stolen. The battle—if it even was one—was lost.

Raven winced. She dropped the rod and rubbed her shoulder. She slowly twirled around and looked everyone and everything. A plume of fire and smoke arose from the semi truck. Storefronts and cars had been smashed to bits. Starfire had bruises. Cyborg was nowhere to be found. And the other Titans were….were…..

She slowly looked over at me. She glared. "What…..has gotten into you??"

I fumed.

I clenched my fist around Myrkblade's hilt.

_Why won't you just………shut…up……?!_

She marched up to me. Slowly at first. Then with an increasing tempo of rage. "Do you have any idea….any clue…how many codes of heroism you nearly broke by not only trying to kill Mumbo…but trying to STAB ME THROUGH THE FACE?!?!?"

_Shut the freakin' HELL UP, __**BITCH!!!!!!!**_

I silently screamed, raised Myrkblade, and blindly let it rain down.

**FWOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Pavement flew up like snow. Glass windows shattered in a straight line down the road. Cars rose up and fell, alarms going off left and right.

Starfire spun and glared at me, her fists clenched. Beast Boy blinked behind his spectacles. Robin jumped and sobbed his head off, clutching his face and hiding his eyemask.

Sandy hugged a telephone pole for balance and stared at me…unbelieving.

I panted.

I would have stared at myself too….

My arms couldn't stop shaking.

_I wanted……wanted……_

I panted and looked at Raven's shocked form. My Titan companions….all in pieces.

_Extinguish……_

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

_Extinguish………everyone……_

"Noir…..take it easy," Raven said. It was the softest sound in the world.

And yet…it was enough to send everything inside of me pulsing and heaving and sweating again.

_Your head…__**IN THE AIR!!!!**_

I struggled. My right hand tugged to slash her head off. But my left hand held the hilt of Myrkblade down and to my side.

Raven eyed my shaking muscles.

I had to get out of there……

I panted. I shook.

_Had to get……her out of my sight……_

I spun around and limped down the road towards the distant direction of the Tower.

"Hey!!" Starfire growled. "Where do you think you are going, you unruly miscreant?! Raven was talking to you—"

Sandy grabbed Starfire's ankle and lowered her to the pavement. She faced the Tamaranian girl and shook her head.

Starfire frowned at the volunteer, shook her shoulder free of her grasp, and crossed her arms. "Hrmmphh!"

Raven swallowed. She watched as I sauntered off like a zombie.

Sandy and Starfire walked up.

"That….is not normal Noir," Sandy said.

Raven spun and glared at her. "What do you know? You know nothing!!" she marched an angry path towards the R-Cycle.

Sandy played 'catch up'. "No! Listen!! Everything is wrong here!! You! Noir! The Titans!! Heck, the only normal person at this fight today was Mumbo Jumbo himself!!"

"And I suppose you're all peachy keen yourself too!!" Raven spat.

"That's not the issue here!!" Sandy said. "Raven, listen to me!!" She forced Raven's shoulder around till they were eye to eye. "Listen. To. Me!"

Raven sighed.

"Titans don't turn into violent punks overnight! It just doesn't happen!" Sandy said.

"I could care less," Starfire mumbled. "He almost hurt Raven. The traitor!"

Sandy glared at the Tamaranian before continuing to lecture Raven: "Maybe I don't know much. But I'm a good observer. You can ask Noir himself."

"He's kind of in a bad mood right now," Raven bluntly droned.

"I had a talk with Robin last night," Sandy said. "At the carnival. He told me all about you."

"Oh did he really?" Raven chuckled sarcastically.

"I'm sorry!!" Robin murmured.

"I wasn't TALKING TO YOU!!!"

Sandy stepped again in Raven's face. "Your life is a challenging one."

"Drop it…."

"You have to meditate to hold back on your emotions."

"I SAID DROP IT—"

"When was the last time you did that, Raven?!"

The dark girl stared at Sandy blankly. She looked down at the cracked pavement, sighing.

"You're changing, Raven," Sandy said. "Something happened overnight. As silly and as crazy as it seems, something's gone off in that mysterious little head of yours and somehow, someway, it must be related to what's going on with everyone else."

"Why me, Sandy?" Raven mumbled. She looked up—wounded—in the volunteer's face. "Why are you trying to get through to me?"

"Because," Sandy said with gentle firmness, "…as crazy as every one of you is acting right now, you're the sanest of the craziest. And I think that means something very special. And very helpful too."

Raven was silent. Contemplating.

"Now…..," Sandy went on slowly. "When did you remember……being freed?"

Raven looked back up at Sandy. Her lips parted. Her eyes wondered. She ever so softly said: "I……last night….I woke up last night and…." A pause. Her blue eyes squinted. "No……it was earlier….before sleep…..I was dizzy. The ride home. Walking down the stage—"

"I know what happened," Beast Boy said, examining his nails.

Everyone turned to face him.

"You what?!?" Starfire squinted.

CRASH!!

Everyone jumped—Robin most of all—as Cyborg walked onto the scene through an overturned car. "Wooo!! That was fun!!" he brushed the dust and rubble off his shoulders. "Nothing like peeling oneself off a brick wall to realize how silly life is!! He he he he!! What'd I miss?!"

"Not now," Raven glared.

"You have an answer and yet you are holding back!" Starfire shook a fist and stomped a pace forward. "Out with it!!"

"Verily, verily, I say unto you," Beast Boy adjusted his spectacles and squinted with scholarly contempt. "The solution lies within the boundaries of the carnival itself."

"It does?" Sandy remarked.

"Should we go there or s-something?" Robin murmured.

"Pfft!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Silly plebian! There's a factor of time involved as well!!"

"Sorry….," Robin whimpered.

Raven stepped forward. "WHEN?"

"I suggest a timely return to our heroic abode," Beast Boy yawned. "The tools I need to explicate the complex situation there would be most applicable there."

"Lemme guess," Sandy folded her arms. "A hammock and a glass of lemonade?"

"Negative," Beast Boy shook his head and then gestured. "Cyborg's skull!!"

Sandy and Raven raised eyebrows of perplexity. The two girls and Starfire turned to look at the android.

Cyborg grinned. "Heeeeeeey!! I'm the life of the party!! Well, alright!! So!! Who's down for some Twister?!?! Hehehehehehe!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLAM!!!!

The door behind me shut.

I stood in my bedroom.

Heaving.

Panting.

Fuming.

My fists clenched.

I cracked my neck.

I walked over to my mantle, took a deep breath, and set Myrkblade down in its holding.

…the weapon fell out of place.

I gritted my teeth. I rushed over to grab it. I tripped. I smacked into the mantle, banging my knee.

_DAMN IT!!!_

I snarled. I flung my arms up…flinging the mantle up into the air and all over the wall.

CRASH!!!

The noise snapped through my ears. Enraging me more.

I dashed to the opposite side of the bedroom like a madman, elbow first.

WHAM!!!

A lantern knocked over, shattered, spread glass and oil.

I jumped to the other side and swung my fist into a hanging mirror on the wall. SMASH!!!!

My knuckles were cut. Bleeding.

I wanted to howl.

I clutched my head.

I stumbled left….I stumbled right.

I ended up in the bathroom.

I fell to my knees…in front of the counter….over the sink.

My face strained.

My teeth grit.

I looked up at a distant face framed by two clutched hands. My eyes bulged as I saw four red spots leering over my reflection in the wide mirror.

I gasped and fell back against the wall.

Panting.

Sweating.

Chills ran up my spine, melted at my cranium, and boiled down like lava down my veins and back into my heart where they were pumped into plasma.

My body jolted.

I jumped up.

I was hyperventilating.

I dashed into the shower—costume and all—and frantically drenched myself in the coldest water possible. I yanked my shades off and let the water invade my black eyes. Wash away the bleeding face of Mumbo Jumbo. Raven's wide eyes as I held the blade to her nose.

_I held the blade to her nose!!!_

I hugged myself, shivered in the icy faucet spray, and leaned into the tiled corner.

_I tried to kill………I tried to kill……_

I wanted to sob. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to explode. Implode. Melt and fly at the same time.

I shivered.

My lips quivered as ice water trailed down my cheeks and nose and mouth.

Black eyes bulging against the moisture.

_Four red spots……_

Something deep inside me whimpered. For a second, I thought I almost made a sound. And that sound sounded like a laugh. An evil laugh full of pulsing blood and four red spots and the flapping of naked black wings like salamander eyes stretched across buffalo muscle and pierced by a rusted dagger.

I knelt down in the cold shower. It no longer felt cold. I clutched every shivering part of myself I could get a hand full.

_Was I going mad? Was I…Was I…_

I bit onto my finger. Hard. It hurt. My eyes clenched shut.

_Oh Master……Master……I can't control it……I can't feel the dividing line anymore…………  
_  
Flapping wings.

The cries of crows.

_No, not crows._

_Not crows at all._

_Feathers littered the floor. Feathers and sauce. Myrkblade's handle forming lines in my palm. Someone screaming my name and being carted off._

My throat hurt.

I clutched a hand over the scar. It felt like something was moving underneath.

I gasped.

I teared.

The ice water flowed into my ducts and laughed their way back out.

_Master………please help……_

_I can't………see myself……anymore…_

I shivered. I gasped.

My black eyes twitched. Looking. Not finding.

Not finding.

_I……I…_

_Four red spots._

My heart skipped a beat.

_I……can no longer see her face……_

A bell sounded off in the distance of the spiritual abyss.

_**"Hello, Jordan."**_

I gasped.

I shot up—drizzling—in the shower and spun around.

I was alone. In my damn dark room in the bottom of the damn Tower in the damn cellar.

Every fiber in me was collapsing.

_I had to get out……_

Minutes later, I dried up, threw on a t-shirt and jeans, and dashed out of the Tower for what I hoped would be a leisurely, relaxing walk through town like I always enjoyed.

The moon stalked me like a wolf into the night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So if we attach these audio-video fiber optics to the neural pathways in Cyrborg's central system of operation, then we should be able to produce on the output devices a rough representation of his visual recording over the last forty-eight hours," Beast Boy explained.

Cyborg was propped up in a chair in the Main Room while the green changeling hooked him up to a dozen wires attached to the large monitor screen.

"Hehehehehe!!" Cyborg smiled. "Better skip last night, B.B.! I had some naughty dreams!!"

Beast Boy sighed during his electric administrations. "Silence, my dear friend, we will not be visiting your cybernetic romps through hormonal planes of existence."

"Awwwww….you spoil the fun!"

"There we go!!" Beast Boy beamed. The monitor flashed a bright white.

"There we go where?" Raven exclaimed, arms folded. "I don't see anything!!"

"Cyborg, do be a good fellow and rewind some," Beast Boy mumbled.

"With pleasure!! Hehehehe!!" Cyborg's human eye thinned.

The flash imploded into a tiny dot of white in the center of Cyborg's 'vision'.

"Hey!! The carnival!!" Sandy pointed.

"When we were getting our picture taken on the stage," Beast Boy nodded. "Keep rewinding."

"Yup yup yup!!" Cyborg beamed. Images from Cyborg's perspective danced backwards in Charlie Chaplin mode.

"Um….," Starfire remarked, "I think he is going back too far."

"You can stop now, Cy," Beast Boy said.

"Heeeeee!"

"Okay, Cy! STOP!!"

The scene was going backwards further. Ms. Cartwright's face loomed as she placed a medal around the android's neck.

"HEY!! IMBECILE!!" Starfire grunted.

"Whoops!!" Cyborg 'stopped'.

The recording froze on a blink of Cyborg's past eye. Fascinatingly, it was zeroed in on Mrs. Cartwright's cleavage.

Sandy lifted an eyebrow.

"Ahem….," Cyborg's human side blushed. "Moving on then. Hehehe!!"

Robin blushed. "That was……wrong."

"Doo doo doo."

"Did you a-apologize to her??"

"Shh!!" Beast Boy leaned forward. "There! Stop, Cyborg!"

The recording stopped.

"What is it?" Raven asked.

Beast Boy adjusted his shades and produced a laser pointer. He walked like General Patton in front of the huge monitor and pointed to shadows in the distance of the carnival as spotted from the stage. "Notice at the very edge of the congregation of aristocrats. There is a rather…thin shadow. Holding something."

Sandy squinted. "Yeah…."

"Cyborg…progress two point thirty-five seconds."

"Rogerooni!!"

The recording progressed a bit and the shadow in question emerged.

"The photographer….," Raven mumbled.

"Not often that you find beatniks wandering the wasteland of our postindustrial empire, now is it?" Beast Boy muttered with raised eyebrows. He spun around and pointed with the laser. "Notice the tufts of hair coming out of his cap. The prominent nose. The hidden eyes."

"Yeah…..," Starfire's eyes trailed. "Get to the point!!"

"Tsk tsk," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "You have such a deflated sense of imperative dynamics. Very well. Cyborg…ahead by five seconds."

"You're on candid camera!!"

"Oh hush with your levity and follow through with my commandment!"

Five seconds later….

"I'll be damned…," Sandy mumbled.

"It is him….it has to be," Raven frowned.

"Remove the stereotypical costume and cosmetic apparition of a retro hipster and you have---"

The figure in Cyborg's recording flashed the old fashioned camera.

POOF!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"MUMBOOOOO JUMBOOOOO!!!!"

The magician laughed maniacally as he hung a perfect photo of the six Titans on the center tent pole of his canvass abode. He jumped back in a chair, bike-pedaled his feet in the air—giggling—and jumped back up to his feet.

"Gone!! Wasted!! Carted off!! Lunatics!! Every rotten lot of them!!" he danced his way towards a huge tarp-covered lump of titanium and rabbit edification hidden inside the bulk of the tent. "It was the perfect plan, Fluffy!! Why didn't I contrive it earlier?! Oh right. JAIL TIME!!"

He poofed! over to a fresh stack of gold bricks. He picked one up and petted a loving hand over the reflective, yellow surface.

"Well…I'll now have enough to bail myself out of every prison between here and purgatory! CUZ I'M SURE GONNA LIVE A WARLOCK'S LIFE!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"

He kissed the gold brick, danced with it, and flopped himself down on the cot. Giggling loudly.

Alone in his tent.

In the abandoned carnival.

On the Vreeland lawn.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Freeze the frame here!" Beast Boy pointed with the laser.

Cyborg did so in mid 'poof!' of Mumbo Jumbo's beatnik camera shoot.

The changeling palmed his laser pointer and faced the others. "This is no normal flash." He pointed at the layers of discoloration in the brightness itself. "The spectrum has been altered in such a fashion as to emit programmed streams of optical data."

"Meaning…..," Starfire trailed off her tongue.

"A brainwashing device of sorts," Beast Boy said. "I am unsure as to exact effects of it. But I think it is somehow correlated to…..erm….these 'problems' Miss Sandy keeps saying are real."

Half the room glared at the volunteer.

Sandy glared back. "Hey…I can see at least ONE problem right now!"

Raven intervened. "What could optical streams of data do to us?" she asked. "Hypothetically, Beast Boy…."

The changeling grinned. "So desperate on me to acquire necessary information?"

Raven frowned. "Do you want a black eye, Beast Boy?"

"Yeah!!" Starfire shook her fist. "Want a black of the eye?!"

"Fine, allright," Beast Boy moaned. "In theory, this optical flash could be used to—quite literally—reprogram the transmissions of our central nervous system through our optic nerves. Any chosen functions of the body could be cancelled out, mutated, or even absorbed."

"Absorbed?"

"In the form of data….like a key that the host—or photographer—would keep at leisure," the changeling adjusted his spectacles.

"But what would Mumbo Jumbo want from you?" Sandy asked.

Raven clenched her fists. "Our powers."

"Then how come it did not work?!" Starfire gritted her teeth. "Grrrr….that Mumbo Jumbo fool! He seemed most surprised at my ability to fly when I first confronted him!!"

"H-He was surprised for only a l-little while…," Robin added form his frightened corner. He sniffed. "B-But then he s-saw us and wasn't afraid anymore…"

"I think he wanted to steal all of your powers…," Sandy said. "Ya know…like sucking out life juice or something."

"But somehow it didn't work??" Cyborg remarked. "Hey!! I'm part of the discussion!!! Hehehehehehe!!"

"Instead….we're all acting so….so strange…," Raven said. She froze. She looked up with a start. "I don't have my powers!! If that's what Mumbo Jumbo was after, it worked on me but not you guys!!"

"Hmmmm," Beast Boy rubbed his chin. He stared at the screen. "Cyborg…rewind a bit."

"This is fun!! Heeee!"

"Freeze."

"Done!"

Beast Boy pointed with the laser. "Raven is in front of the photo shoot."

"In front of everyone…," Starfire nodded.

Sandy glanced at the dark girl. "Y-You think that's important?"

Raven stared at the screen. She looked at her teammates. She saw Beast Boy standing tall and dignified with his glasses. He saw Starfire with her hands on her hips, glaring. She saw Cyborg wired up, a dumb grin on his face. Finally she saw Robin hunched over in the corner, pensively hiding behind his cape.

"R-Raven?" Sandy breathed.

The dark girl spun around and headed for the elevators. "I have to go do something. Now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Night howled overhead.

Cars and bodies streamed by.

Puddles and asphalt.

Chuckles and cigarette coughs.

Bayside lights and police sirens.

I stared at my feet.

I dug my hands into my pockets.

Neon lights danced across my shades.

I was not going at a leisurely pace.

I was not having a leisurely time.

My breath was short.

My feet hurried.

My pace stumbling.

I gasped, swallowed, and rushed on.

Sweating.

Panting.

I glanced up.

People were blurring by.

The world was blurring by.

For once, everything around me was blurring and speeding and I was a stone at the bottom of some damn river and I couldn't swim to the surface.

_What is happening to me?!_

Visions of Raven's bulging eyes.

Shattered pavement and glass.

_What have I done?!_

I clutched my head. My walk turned into a run. I scurried through the crowd, bumping into a cursing person or two.

_I shouldn't be here._

I shouldn't be here.

_Oh god……_

I panted.

Four red spots.

Black wings.

_**"Heh heh heh…"**_

I gasped and shot up against a wall.

I was in an alleyway.

Puddles of water and liquor bottles clattered against y ankles.

Moonlight squeezed its way down and licked my nose like a dog on strings.

_Extinguish……_

My heart raced.

……_everyone………_

My teeth chattered.

……_all stupid morons……_

I hugged myself.

I shivered.

I melted.

_**"Hello, Jordan."**_

I gasped.

I jerked around.

I was alone in the alleyway.

But I wasn't alone.

_I was……_

_**"There is no ussssssse running away……"**_

I stumbled down the alleyway. I bumped into the wall. I coughed uncontrollably. I hunched over.

_**"I am sssssso lucky that I came to youuuuuu."**_

I clutched at my chest. I winced. Pain. Intense pain.

_**"I was rather surrrrrrrprised when it happppppppened myself…."**_

I limped down the alley. Gasping for breath. Miserably moist and melting all over inside.

_**"It's likkkkke the wet snapppp of a mother's corddddd. Or the gusssssh of blood down a throattttt and out through the gash of a daggggggger."**_

I froze. I heaved.

_**"To be honest….it was a ssssssspiritual orgasm of its owwwwn. Heh heh heh heh!!!"**_

My lips quivered. My black eyes glossed over. I gripped my shades, flung them away, and cupped a hand over my face.

_**"You holdddddd so much powerrrrrr. Senseless Destructionnnnnn is what I like the most…."**_  
My body jerked up and I gasped. I felt like a set of claws was fondling my pumping heart from inside of me.

_**"And Constructionnnnn…..hisssssssss…..haddddd to do awayyyyyyy with thattttt waste of energyyyyyy!!"**_

I twitched. The claws swam their way up my throat and tingled the emptiness there. I felt like hacking up my lungs.

_**"Poor…..poor boyyyyyy…..you don'ttttt even have a voiccccce to talkkkkk back. Heheheheheheh….I am sooooo going to likkkkkkkke you much more than herrrrrrr."**__  
_  
SCHUMP!!!

Claws in my brain.

I clutched my face and leaned over.

My black eyes clenched shut as I let out a silent howl.

_**"But herrrrrrrre. Herrrrrrrrre is where the meattttttt is…….."**_

Black wings.

Raven wings.

Red specks and black feathers.

Tossed on the floor.

I twitched. I cringed. I sweated blood.

Feathers.

Bodies.

_Circling around me._

_**"Yessssssss……"**_

Red sauce.

Red skin.

Myrkblade.

Fingering the hilt.

_**"Yesssssssss!!!!"**_

I shook my head. My eyes exploded.

I was staring into a sheet of broken glass on the alleyway floor. My black eyes formed four red specks like ruby irises floating in the nether.

My jaw dropped.

_**"I know……I know where your hatred lies……"**_

The red specks spread.

These black eyes were gone.

_**"Allow me to consume you, WORM!!"**_

The black wings flew into me.

Cawing.

Falling over and bleeding off my sword.

_A girl's face sobbed and exploded in red ribbons that carried the blonde hair and blue eyes across the sea just as I ran into a pearly white grin with fangs._

_**"Azarath Metrion TRIGON!!!!"**_

Red.

Red.

Everything was red.

The invisible spikes that shot out of my body were red.

The needles that shot into my stomach and produced ink were red.

The ice that clogged the sensitive spot between my brain stem and my spinal cord was red.

My eyes were red as I tilted towards the cowering slit of moonlight at the top of the alleyway and put all of my energy into the release of one torturous scream.

Imagine….

Imagine my horror when I actually heard myself releasing that scream into the night.

_**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Raven descended into her Mindset._

She landed softly on the ground. Her eyes opened. Her lips parted.

Emptiness. Even the cosmos were gone.

The gray and black world had been washed like a clean slate.

None of her emotions……none of her personalities were anywhere to be seen.

_"Hello???" she called out._

Echoes.

Wind.

Silence.

The trees were barren.

The soil swept away towards the horizon.

Towards oblivion.

"Is anybody there?!?!?!"

More echoes.

More emptiness.

Raven stumbled forwards. Her feet shuffled against the cold ground. She glanced ahead. "Please!! Respond! Is anyone—" she gasped.

The canyon……

Her lip quivered. She ran in a full sprint, panting.

She blazed through the canyon, winded in and around rock crags, and came to the stop with a skid.

She struggled for breath. Her face fell.

The torches were out.

The ground had been open.

And Rage's cage……Rage's wrought iron cage……

Raven stumbled forward and leaned tremblingly on it.

The hinges were blasted open. The gargoyles shattered.

The prisoner had been released.

And Him………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In her room, Raven meditated at the end of her bed.

Her eyes flashed open.

She gasped.

"No……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHLUMP!!!

Sandy and the four awkward Titans looked over across the Main Room.

Sweating, pale as a sheet, Raven stumbled in. "This is bad. This is bad….bad…..bad…bad…very bad!!"

"What is it?!" Sandy stumbled over and held Raven's hands. "How bad is it?!"

"My mind…," Raven swallowed. "All of my emotions. All of my personas. They are gone."

"Gone?!"

Raven looked at all of her perplexed teammates. "And I think I know where they went."

"The camera…."

"I was in front of everyone when the flash went off," Raven said. "My powers are closely linked to my emotional personas. I took the brunt of Mumbo's device. Because my mind is so complex and poly-functional…."

"Only your power was taken away…," Sandy filled in.

Raven nodded. "And the rest of the Titans were spared. Only, my personalities had to be displaced. They all went inside them!!"

Sandy stared at Raven's face intensely. "There's something else, isn't there? Something bad?"

Raven took a deep breath and shuddered. "Something horrible….utterly, utterly horrible."

"What is it? We need to know!!"

"It's Rage….," Raven trembled. "Th-That emotion….it is closely linked to a…..a terrible, terrible demon."

Sandy's eyes rounded. "A demon?"

"My father….," Raven quietly admitted.

Sandy nodded. She spun around and glanced at the Titans. "How….h-how do we know which one got Rage?"

_**SMASH!!!!!!!!**_

Everyone jumped and shrieked.

My body leapt dramatically into the center of the Main Room. Shards of glass from the windows flew with me like water off a crimson dolphin. I landed in a squat, my limbs speckled with cuts and bruises.

"N-Noir???" Raven gasped.

I slowly rose like a package of meat on strings. When my face elevated, my solid black eyes were dotted with red fury. I grinned a serrated set of teeth and moved my lips as a sickening, foreign voice came out from my scarred throat.

_**"Hello, little girrrrrrrrrrl……"**_

Raven's eyes widened.

I stood up, summoned red murk, and flexed my bleeding arms.

_**"Daddy's gotttttt a new toyyyyyyy!"**_


	49. Scattered Raven part 4

**49. Scattered Raven part 4**

Raven stumbled backwards, a hand to her mouth. "N-No…..it can't be…"

**"**_**Out of thhhhhe shell, dearessssst**_**,"** the voice came out of me as I grinned and marched over with trailing red smoke from my limbs. **"**_**Out of the mossssst miserable, disrespectfullll SHELL**_**!!"**

I swung a glowing red fist through the counter, causing debris to fly.

SMASH!!!

Robin winced and shivered behind Cyborg.

Beast Boy watched curiously, lowering his spectacles.

**"**_**I don't know how…..I don't know whyyyyyyy, but I've beeeeeeen freed from that insufffffferable brain of yoursssss,**_" my four red pupils twinkled inside the two black eyes. **"**_**Here I have falllllen delightfully into this haphazarrrrd soul."**_

"What have you done to Noir?!" Raven shouted.

**"**_**He's riiiiiight heeeeere,"**_ I grinned. **"**_**Heh heh heh heh. IN THE FLESH!! And the ssssssspirit now is oh…so…willing…."**_

"If you so much as hurt one of my teammates," Raven summoned strength and frowned. "I'll—"

**"**_**Hurt?! No no, darllllllling. I did not take command of Noir to hurt himmmmmm. I have my eyes on you.**__"_ The four specks blinked as my lips slurred: **"**_**All…..my eyes on youuuuuu. It's always been that wayyyyy."**_

Raven gritted her teeth. "I. Know."

_**"But thosssse clerics of Azar…,**__"_ I glared. _**"They twisted you….disssstorted you. You never coulddddd love your fattttther because of themmmmm."**_

"As far as I'm concerned," Raven spat. "I have no father!"

_**"Oh, but you do!! You do, chilllld!"**_ I smiled and stepped towards her with a hand outstretched. _**"Allow him to touch you…..**__"_

SMACK!!!!

I flew back to the floor after the impact of Sandy's fist.

"Touch yourself, you damn poltergeist!!"

"Sandy!!" Raven pulled her back by the shoulder. "N-Not a good idea! Trust me!!"

"He shouldn't threaten you like that!!"

_**"RRAUGH!!**__"_ I jumped up. Blurred forward, knocked Raven aside with a cry, and stomped menacingly towards the cowering volunteer.

_**"Wretched….MORTAL!!"**_ My red eyes pulsed as I grinned wide. _**"I think I'll spend the night ripping your ovaries out with a CROWBAR!!!"**_

Sandy's eyes widened.

I raised my glowing, red hand.

SWOOOOOOOSH—WHAM!!!

An irate Starfire flew into me, sending me tumbling over the floor.

"You and me, Lucifer!!" the alien shouted.

_**"Tamaranian…,"**_ I sneered while slowly getting up on a curtain of red smoke. _**"I will most enjoyyyyyyyyy decorating the walllllls with your organsssss!!"**_

"RRAAAUGH!!" She flew at me.

Glowing green met glowing red.

FLASH!!!!

Sandy shaded her eyes.

"Starfire!! No!!" Raven cried out.

The Tamaranian grunted and shouted with each eye-glowing attack of her fists, starbolts, and kicks.

I was a swirling cyclone of crimson energy. A streaking limb or two would block the alien's emerald punches, while a teleporting sidestep evaded her kicks. I was playing with her. She was too brainwashed by a one-track mind of aggression to take notice of my gambit. And I knew it.

When one of her punches sent her lunging to the side, I kneed her hard in the chest.

Her Tamaranian lungs emptied in a heartbeat.

I slammed two fists down onto her back.

She collapsed to the ground but was suddenly yanked up as I grabbed a handful of red-hair and literally flung her against a wall hard by the strands.

WHAM!!!

I let go and the bruised Titan slumped to the floor.

"Starfire!!" a timid Robin shook.

I smirked over at him. _**"Keep shivering, littttttle boy. When I'm finished with her there'll be nothinggggg left to kiss!!"**_

Red smoke wrapped around my limbs as I grabbed the hulking computer monitor of the Main Room. I struggled. _**"RRRRRAAAAUGH!!!"**_ With Herculean strength, I snapped the electronic device down from its scaffold. Nuts and bolts and metal shards flew.

Robin gasped.

I held the object over my head and flexed my smoking limbs to crash it down over the alien girl.

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!

A stream of blue energy flew into my side, likewise shattering the monitor into helpless little shards of glass and metal and plastic.

Cyborg smiled with his laser rifle stretched out. "Now play niiiiiice!! He he he!!"

He retracted his gun back into an arm and charged across the room.

I stood up, shook my head, and hissed. Red smoke poured out from my eyes.

"Tag!!" Cyborg shouted. "You're IT!!"

SMACK!!!!!

The impact of his titanium fist into my mouth sent me flipping back, landing awkwardly on blurred feet, and sliding two trails of red smoke to the other side of the room.

Blood trickled down from my face in three places.

_**"Heheheh….that's right….bang up this pretty face…"**_

Raven gasped. "Cyborg!! Please!! Hold back!!"

"He's a meanie!" Cyborg pouted. "Guess I should show him who the bouncer to this party is!" He let out a cry and charged.

Beast Boy watched. Blinking. "Well, I suppose there is some merit in joining in this confrontation for the sake of benevolence." He switched into a green tiger and pounced at me just as Cyborg approached. The two burly Titans swung, clawed, and swiped at me as I sidestepped, blocked, blurred, and teleported with snide remarks of demonic humor.

"All of you!! Stop!!!" Raven waved. "You can't take him down!! Trust me on that!!"

But they didn't listen. Even Starfire was ignorant as she got up, rubbed her head, growled, joined the three on one.

Robin sobbed in the corner.

"Didn't you hear me?!?" Raven jumped. "Leave Noir to me and me alone!!"

"Are you crazy?!" Sandy dashed in front of her. "You have no powers!! How can you be a match for that possessed Titan?!"

"I am me," Raven glared. "For Trigon, that is enough!!"

_**"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"**_ I shouted as I teleported around the three Titan's assault. _**"Yes!! Let the rage burrrrrrn onnnnnn!!"**_

"I'm not mad!!" Cyborg shouted. "I'm having fun!!"

"And I am finding this positively educating!" Beast Boy said.

Starfire flew at me with green hands. "Speak for yourself!! RAAAUGH!!"

I braced for impact, my arms crossed in front of me.

Starfire pushed me through the kitchen unit, smashing straight through the counters, a stool, and a table beyond. Before we reached the wall of the other side of the crumbling Main Room, I locked my arms with hers, charged up red murk, and flipped her over me with a cry. _"__**YAUGH!!"**_

"WAAAH!!" she shrieked and went smashing out a window into the open air.

CRASH!!!!

A green velociraptor leapt through the gaps in the counters and aimed two razor sharp feet at me.

_**"Going EXTINCT!!!"**_ I held two hands together, charged up a ball of red murk, and let it loose at the changeling in the form of a dancing ribbon of destruction.

FLASH!!!!

To say the least, he was knocked clear back across the room and into the wall.

Cyborg watched. "Oooooh!" He smiled at me and clapped his hands. "Do that again!!"

I sneered. _**"Gladly….**__"_

I flung my wrists at him.

A stream of murk flew.

FLASH!!!!!

He shorted out and collapsed to the ground. "Weeeee—oof!!"

Sandy winced. "Since wh-when could Noir do that?"

Raven walked forward. "That's. Not. Noir." She planted her feet and faced my back by about six meters away. "Trigon!!"

In a puff of red smoke, I teleported so that I stood in reverse, facing her.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "We need to talk."

I gestured. _**"Why talk whennnnn we can play?!"**_ She flinched. I blurred at her in a flurry of red.

WHAM!!!

I streaked the two of us past Sandy, who gasped. "Raven!!"

SWOOOOOSH—through the opens doors of the elevator and against the wall—WHAM!!!!

"Ughh!!" a powerless Raven slumped down and then was slammed back up against the wall by my merciless hands to her wrists. She squinted at me.

_**"Now…,**__"_ I licked my lips. _**"Let's sssssssee if you truly arrrrrrre your mother's daughter!!"**_

Her eyes widened.

Outside, Starfire flew back up into the air. Her hands glowed. Her eyes were blindingly green. Her hair flew in an invisible torrent. She eyed the elevator across the way, let out a shriek, and zoomed straight towards it.

In half a second flat, she was at my back and slamming me into a console inside the elevator.

"RAAAUGH!!!"

CLANG!!!!

_**"OOF!!"**_

The console short circuited. Sandy ran over but froze in her tracks as the doors closed between us.

The elevator car shook and descended with a shake and a long, melodic hum.

Starfire gritted her teeth and punched me in the gut.

WHUMP!!

In the gut again.

WHUMP!!!

And then two fists across the cheek.

SMACK!!!

I spun and flattened my back against the doors.

Raven ducked as Starfire flew over her with a shout.

I grinned and turned into smoke, which the Tamaranian promptly soared through as she hit the wall.

I materialized behind her and grabbed her neck in a demonic choke hold.

The girl's glowing eyes clenched shut as she struggled to get herself loose.

_**"Extinguish….,**__,"_ I sneered. _**"…..EVERYONE!!"**_

"AAAAUGH!!" Starfire kicked at the wall with her feet.

We stumbled across the elevator and slammed into the other side—this time with myself against the metal.

Starfire let out grunt after grunt as she lifted her lower body and 'flew' her head into my hold—forcing my torso painfully into the metal wall of the elevator again and again and again.

WHAM!!! WHAM!! WHAM!!!

A dent formed in the shape of my possessed body.

Starfire finally released her hands from my choke hold and aimed her fingers at my face. They sparkled and glowed and then---

FLASH!!

_**"AAAUGH!!"**_ I let go of her and clutched a hand over my red pupils.

Starfire—free—spun around, floated in the air, and performed a spiral kick straight in my side.

WHUMP!!!

My body flew horizontally across the claustrophobic space.

Raven gasped and dove to the side before my body could fall over her.

THWUMP!!

Starfire soared straight up, flipped, planted her feet against the elevator's ceiling, and shot straight down at me like a bullet with a spiraling kick..

I rolled to the side.

CRASH!!

Starfire's leg actually broke through the floor panel of the elevator. She was stuck.

I smirked.

_**"Look before you leap…,"**_ I aimed a red-glowing hand straight between the alien girl's eyes. _**"…and see no more."**_

Raven jumped up and kicked my hand.

My wrist jerked to the side right as I unleashed a wave of destruction.

FLASH!!!

A slice of wall broke away, revealing the naked floors streaming up past us.

I growled and back-handed Raven to the floor.

SLAP!!!

_**"Worm!!"**_

Starfire broke her leg free, gritted her teeth, and promptly decided to swing the limb in question upside my chin.

SMACK!!!!

I flew back against the back wall of the elevator.

Starfire charged.

I brought my hands together, yelled, and summoned a full wave of red Destruction. "Starfire!!" Raven sputtered. "Get down!!"

The girl grunted and dove flat.

FLASH!!!!!!

Though it only grazed her, the stream of red murk was enough to blow her directly out the elevator—smashing the doors open and sending her flying out into the hall.

"Ooof!! Ach!!" she tumbled onto the tile.

The elevator stalled with a jerk.

I glanced down and winked at 'my daughter'. _**"I'll be backkkk for you later, darling. Family chat."**_

Raven panted.

I marched out and approached Starfire threateningly.

She stood up. "I always assumed that I would desire to meet Raven's relations," she uttered, wiping the alien blood off her lips. "But now I realize I was grossly in error."

_**"Save me the breath, Starfire,"**_ my eyes glowed like my outstretched hands. _**"Both you and I know we aren't ourselves today."**_

"You can say that again…BLOGARK!!!" she flew at me.

I charged up two spheres of murk power and ran at her.

We met in the center of the hallway with a flash. The walls warbled outward like rippling waves before cracking apart with deafening noise. Christmas colors of death encircled each other as result of a swirling Tamaranian and a teleporting demon.

Dodges and punches and starbolts and murks and--

FLASH!!!

There was a huge impact…….and Starfire flew back.

"UGH!!" she landed hard on the ground.

_**"YeeeeeeAAAAUGH!!"**_ I ran, jumped, and flew down in a jump-kick.

SMASH!!!!!

I sent the two of us crashing down a floor and landed through a mesh of metal framework inside the Titan exercise gym. Starfire tumbled to a stop and moaned.

I landed, backflipped, and stood beside a wall panel. I swiftly grinned, glowed my hand bright red, and struck the panel hard.

Sparks shot out. The overhead lights flickered…then went out.

It turned pitch black like the night outside.

_**"You're not afraid of the dark, are you?!"**_ the voice rang out. _**"Heheheheheheheheheh!!!"**_

Starfire panted. She stood up. She rose her fists up and they glowed sufficiently to illuminate her nearest surroundings. But the gym was so large in its interior that she couldn't see well beyond a few feet ahead or behind herself.

The voice whispered down like floating knives from all around.

_**"Braverrrrrrryyyyy………Braveryyyyyyyy………"**_

Starfire panted and spun around, aiming her glowing green hands everywhere.

_**"….you were alwaysssss the most bitchy of the emotionssssss. Almost as bad as herrrrr…."**_

"Nnnghhh!" Starfire grunted. "Show yourself!!"

_**"Years and yearsssss I've dreamtttt of licking the freshly made holllllle in your neckkkk."**_

The alien girl sweated. Her green eyes danced left. Danced right. Twitched….

_**"How depressssssing it is to seeeeeeeee you the wayyyy you are nowwwww,"**_ the hiss wafted down from the unseen heavens. _**"So paranoid…….so pensive…….so strong, and yettttt so weakkkkk…."**_

"Grrrr….Silence!!!"

_**"Oh butttt you are afraid!!! Noir knowsssss about yourrrrr pansy nightlight fetish!! You are still Starfire underneeeeeath!!"**_

The girl panted, her lungs heaving. She slowly backed up in the darkness.

_**"You arrre like the shell of a daughttttter I've been hidddddddden inside all thissssss time!! So incomplete!! Noir is differenttttttt. He already hasssssss a dark half. All I neeeeeeded to do was fillll it in. To makkkkke it complete."**_

She backed up and was suddenly aware of a red glow straight behind her.

She spun around, gasping.

_**"And make his friends BOW DOWN!!!"**_

FLASH!!!!!

A snake of red constricted around Starfire.

She struggled under its hold.

My eyes glowed red in four places. I screamed as I lifted her up with murking telekinesis and slammed her repeatedly against the gym floor.

WHAM!!! WHAM!! WHAM!!

I then let out a banshee cry and tossed her across the way and through a set of weights.

SMASH!!

"Uggggh!!" Starfire moaned and struggled to get on her knees.

I ran at her, hands glowing.

She gritted her teeth and shot a sudden starbolt across the darkness.

I brought my hands together, met the incoming starbolt, and shattered it with a burst of red. _**"HAAA!!"**_ I finished my charge.

Starfire jumped back and raised her fists.

I knocked them aside and swung into her gut.

WHUMP!!

She bent over.

I brought my glowing hands together on each side of her face.

SMACK!!!

"Aaach!!" she cried out.

I kicked her hard in the navel, sending her flying back and landing against a wall. She moaned, her eyes clenched shut.

I snarled, cracked my neck, and slowly approached her with a curtain of red smoke warbling underneath.

_**"One by one…..every crrrrreature of this dimensssssion must surrrrrender to meeeee. Whether the vesssssel be my worthless daughtttter, or this patheticccc boy. I shalllll burst free from the flessssshly confines of my cursssssse and you. will. taste. the. Reckoning!!"**_

Starfire's face tilted up. Her eyes were glowing brighter than I'd ever seen before.

"I still have friends in this dimension…."

FLASSSSSSSSH!!!!!

Two eyebeams of bright green sailed into me, shoved me in the air across the gym, and sent me flying through the cinderblock wall.

SMASH!!!

I landed in a hallway, grumbled, and stood up. A circle of blue light was projecting on my chest.

_**"Huh?!?!"**_ I looked up across the hallway.

"Back from my power nap!!" Cyborg bubbly said, and let loose with his laser rifle.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!

I flew down the hall with a grunt. In mid flight, a green pterodactyl zoomed over, clutched my shoulders, and added momentum to my movement.

I was tossed by the talons clear through a glass window and screamed my way towards the rough waters by the bluffs below.

SHATTER!!!

_**"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"**_

SPLASH!!!

Raven and Sandy ran down a flight of stairs, looked at the window, gasped, and sprinted over.

The three Titans—soon joined by a limping Starfire—looked out the opening in time to see a madly laughing figure blurring a red path over the waters and towards the Western District of the City under the starlight.

_**"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Cowardddddly daughter!!! Rage will consume you!!! IT WILL CONSUME YOU ALL!!"**_

And soon I was too distant to be heard.

Sandy swallowed. She looked at Raven. "J-Just how much total damage can the spirit of your father do?"

Raven frowned. She spun around and walked down the hallway. "Enough."

Sandy and the Titans watched her.

"And just where do you think you are going?!" Starfire frowned. "We have a possessed teammate to capture!!"

"YOU are not capturing ANYBODY!!" Raven said without looking. "Trigon is my own responsibility. And I must go after him!"

She was about to walk up a set of stairs when Robin appeared, clutching his cape.

"B-But it's too dangerous by yourself….," he stuttered. "Let us h-help you…"

"I don't need help," Raven glared. Her fingers clenched. "If you people had been LISTENING at all, none of you would have gotten beaten up like you had!!!"

Robin flinched.

Raven spun around and gestured towards the majority. "Don't you get it?!?! Trigon is not of this universe. He can't be defeated by any of our regular means. Even if he's half mortal by Noir's standards, the fact of the matter is he's out of my mind and any second now he can call upon absolute Hell on this City and the rest of the World along with it!! As the only soul to have lived my entire rotten life housing his burning spirit, only I can do something about it!!"

"But y-you're our friend!" Robin insisted. He took a trembling step forward and reached for her shoulder. "We d-don't want you t-to get hurt—"

"STOP TRYING TO CONSOLE ME!!" Raven shouted.

Robin ducked to himself, tearing up.

"YOU KNOW NOTHING!!" Raven shook. She spun and faced the others. "NONE OF YOU KNOW ANYTHING!! Okay?!?! You have absolutely NO IDEA what this means!! Zero!! And to top it all off, none of you are in the friggin' condition to do anything about it anyways!! You! Starfire!! Always going in over your head to smash the enemy's skull in!! Beast Boy!! Hyperintelligent to the core but too arrogant to lift a finger to assist the rest of us!! Cyborg!! You're a nutjob all of your own!! And Robin, today you've not even been worth the spit on my tongue!!"

The Titans looked down, ashamed and confused.

But Sandy stepped forward. "Raven…y-you must calm down…"

"Do not tell me to calm down!!!"

"Your emotions," Sandy swallowed. "Th-They're new to you. You can't just—"

"My emotions have NEVER BEEN NEW TO ME!!" Raven shouted. "Don't TELL me how to control my emotions. I KNOW HOW TO CONTROL MY EMOTIONS!!! I've ALWAYS known how to control my emotions!!! I've just been blessed with the risk of blowing up the whole damn world if I USED THEM!!!" She frantically glared and pointed at every Titan as she continued: "You….you….each and every one of you. You with your practical jokes, your hugs and kisses, your high fives and your temper tantrums and your pity parties. You prod and play with your feelings each day like a dog to its own rear end and you think nothing of it!! And every day of my life in this Tower for the past two years you've been grinding it all into my face!! And then you tell me to 'smile'. You tell me to 'volley the ball'. You tell me to stop being 'so cold' and 'so bitchy' and 'so serious' and 'so distant' and you don't give me REST ABOUT IT!! Do you know….do you have any idea…h-how much I WISHED to GOD that I could b-be free like y-you?! Did it e-ever cross your m-mind that every h-hour that I meditate, every s-s-second that I spend cooped up alone i-in my dark room c-concentrating on the w-walls of my subconscious, my entire b-being is breaking apart with the envy and the need and the d-desire to desire! To cry!! To fall apart and let you catch m-me!! B-But the very first thing after f-falling apart, I would unleash **s-such** an evil!! Such a great and mighty evil that haunts my head e-every godawful night in th-the dark when I can't even cry myself to sleep for fear of YOUR PRECIOUS LIVES ALL AROUND ME?!?!"

By this time, Raven was shaking. Her face was collapsing. She flung her wrists down to the floor, shook her head, and squinted her eyes tightly shut. "And yet you STILL don't UNDERSTAND!!! You pester and you pester and you pester and you PESTER till I'm afraid I might burst, things are s-so twisted and cold and h-hurting all inside my head, it hurts and fr-fractures in on itself and still you PESTER ME!!! I…I…." She screamed. "I hate you!!! I hate you all!! I've always hated you all!! Two years ago I started here b-because I needed people m-mature and understanding and instead I got a bucket full of immature jokers!! I hate you!! I HATE YOU!!!! I H-HATE YOU!!!"

Raven's last, echoing outburst imploded in on itself. The girl jerked and bent over as if suddenly choking on something. She shook once…twice….then collapsed to her knees. Her eyes were brimming with tears as she brought a hand to her face and sobbed hauntingly quietly.

The Titans looked off, silent. But they glanced at her as she wept aloud:

"I…..I-I've always wondered….wh-what it would be like…..to show anger at you all….," she hiccupped in a low voice. "I've a-always…w-wanted…..t-t-to tell you th-th-that I hated you. And…..a-and now that I have…..it…..i-it hurts so bad. It hurts s-s-so very bad and I h-hate the fact I would ever hate a s-single person…." Raven wiped her moist face with a sleeve and shuddered. "The moment…the one s-single day in my whole crummy life I could h-hate someone….and I f-find out that it hurts. It st-stabs me back with as much p-pain as I wanted to inflict. And th-that pain is not new to me. All my time here in the T-Tower….I've felt it. Because of j-jealousy….perhaps. I w-wanted what you all had. I wanted that f-freedom. A-And now that I have it….it's been thrown to shit. N-None of you are the same. Noir's life is in jeopardy. My f-father could very well b-be on the loose and…." Raven hugged herself. "I hurt…..I-I always hurt so much. I wanted… so…. bad…. to…. tell….. you…." She shook violently with a sob and sniffed it away. "….b-but I couldn't. I couldn't share the deepest hurts o-of my being with you. That dark and a-awful nightmare that consumes and h-haunts me every night I lay down to sleep. A-And it angered me. Even wh-when Rage is supposed t-to be a forbidden emotion….I-I have to admit, it's my strongest…."

She wiped her eyes and shivered on the open floor between everyone. "I'm so sick of it….s-so sick of being bitter all the time. I am so, so sick of a-always being bitter…….and d-distant…….and a-alone….."

She dug her face in her hands, took a monumental breath, and let loose the greatest sob in her life: "Please forgive me…."

She deflated, murmuring…like a mad woman in a mouselike breath: "Pleaseforgivemepleaseforgivemepleaseforgiveme" till she had no strength to her vocal cords anymore and all she could do was shake and cry.

Maybe it was because they were Raven's emotions. Or perhaps there was an overlying sense of identity among the brainwashed Titans that fixated with their dark friend. But they all descended slowly upon her. First it was Robin from behind with a meekly-gentle hug. Then it was Starfire by Raven's shaking left shoulder. Then Beast Boy knelt by to give Raven something to lean on. Finally, Cyborg encircled the group with his huge titanium arms and warmed them.

Robin….Starfire….Beast Boy…and Cyborg…..for once, all were stoical and emotionless. Their proximity to Raven brought old feelings back, and she sobbed the complicated quagmire of hurt and pain and joy and anguish and bitter salvation between them.

Sandy took a shuddering breath and covered her mouth as she watched the scene.

"I-I have to face h-him alone…..," Raven sobbed. She clung to her friends tightly. "I-I'm sick and t-tired of having to face him e-every night in my h-head. I know I have to do it a-alone but I can't. Oh please, I can't. I can't I c-can't…."

They merely hugged her tighter. No consolations. No solutions.

Just…..existence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Mumbo Jumbo yanked the tarp off his giant, robotic rabbit. He adjusted his suit, spun his wand, and pointed it at the android mammal.

"Come, Fluffy!! The Titans are disbanded by now, and tonight is the night we hit every bank vault in the City!! We'll be rich beyond our dreams!! I'll buy myself a haunted mansion in New Orleans! And some….er….titanium carrots for you, of course."

The glass eyes of the giant robot shifted. It came to life with an electronic hiss and slowly stood up inside the tent.

"Hehehehehehehehehe!!" Mumbo giggled and marched forward towards the tent flap. "I'm almost going to miss those Titans!! I never thought I'd be elated to perform for a no-show!!"

WHAM!!!!

A glowing red fist ripped through the tent canvass and struck the clownish man across the mouth so hard, a bloody tooth flew.

"MMMPHH!!" the lanky fellow stumbled back. He wheezed, coughed up blood, and sat up. "What in the blazes?!"

I blurred into tent with red smoke. _**"Almost on the money, you old clown!!**__"_

He gasped. "You!!" A beat. "You can talk?!"

I squinted my four red pupils. _**"I can kill…..**__"_ I stepped towards him.

He gasped. He pointed his sparkling wand at the giant, rabbit golem. "Fluffy!! Attack!!"

I smirked. I glanced to the side.

Razor sharp incisors flew down at me.

I held my hands to the side.

I was swallowed whole by the rabbit.

GULP!!

Mumbo grinned…..then his face fell.

The giant rabbit started glowing a crimson-red at every orifice.

Until…..

**BOOOOM!!!!!**

The tent ripped apart as the giant robot exploded.

Mumbo cried out as his body was projected ten feet into the grassy lawn of the Vreeland Estate. Shrapnel from the android and tent canvass scraps showered down all over the abandoned carnival.

I floated gently to the ground on a fountain of red murk. I stepped menacingly towards the man. _**"It is always the fool I love to kill most…**__"_

Mumbo panted, scuffling back on his rear.

I blurred over and picked him up by the scruff of his collar.

"Yaaah!!"

He dropped his wand, which I promptly stepped onto with a blur of red and snapped in two.

The magician's getup faded away, and Mumbo was replaced by an aging, thin man who eyed me in horror under a balding head and wisps of gray hair.

_**"Boo.**__"_ I smiled.

"Wh-Wh-What do you want with me?!"

_**"I can tell you what the former 'me' wanted…,**__"_ I winked two of the red eyes. _**"Your camera……**__"_

"State of the a-art magic!!" the man gulped. "I-Impossible to explain—"

_**"A reversal to it, you pathetic waif!!"**_

He pointed a shaky hand behind me. "H-Hanging off the tent pole!! It's the actual photo print!! It contains the spell t-to reverse the power drain I attempted!!"

I glanced behind my shoulder. I saw the portrait in question. I extended one hand, grabbed the picture from long distance with talons of telekinesis, and floated it swiftly into my grasp.

_**"Hmmmmmm,**__"_ I smiled. _**"Everybody looks so………….alive…."**_

"Please…..l-let me go…."

I tossed the man effortlessly behind me. Regardless, he flew a good fifty feet and landed hard through the rooftop of a concession stand.

SMASH!!

"OOF!!"

_**"It's not you that I want, old fool…**__"_ I snarled as I stared at the picture. I brought a finger up and stroked Raven's image in the foreground. _**"I want my litttttle girrrrrrl. And my littttle girl wants her control bacccck. Or so it is inevitable. To bring the Tittttttans back to normal……she will have to come herrrrre with them for this painting."**_

I turned and shouted at the man with a glow of red. _**"You turn yourself in!!"**__  
_  
Mumbo stumbled—brused—out of the stand and shivered to look in my direction.

_**"Tell the authorities you have a messssssage for the Titans!! Tell them to commmmmmme here. Righhhhht here. And I might reconsiderrrrrr hunting you dowwwwwn and ripping you inside out in your prison cell!!"**_

Mumbo panicked, started running, and shrieked his way out of the carnival.

I smiled and hugged the painting to my blurred, red chest. _**"Come to me, littttttle girrrrrrl…….we'll be oh so merrrrrrry. Heh heh heh heh heh….HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"**_


	50. Scattered Raven part 5 final

**50. Scattered Raven part 5 Final**

That afternoon, Sandy walked out into the sunlight of the Tower's rooftop. A light breeze disrupted the warmth in the summer's air. She adjusted her glasses, squinted across the landing pad, and saw Raven sitting cross-legged before the edge.

She slowly drifted over and stood behind the quiet Titan.

"If you're going to say something, don't hesitate," Raven said softly without looking. "There's no reason for me to meditate now…"

Sandy breathed in deeply and sat beside Raven. "Ya know….I-I was a little worried. You don't how your powers….so….wh-why're you sitting so close to the edge? It's not safe."

Raven smirked ever so slightly, her blue hair being kicked by the breeze. "I'm not that depressed, Sandy. Even if last night I….kinda sorta went off the deep end."

Sandy looked down. "I-I think I can imagine. Having the first day in so many years to show off your emotion and—"

"I was a complete and total bitch."

"No!!" Sandy shook her head. "No you weren't. Raven, listen, you've just been—" she placed a hand on Raven's shoulder.

Raven glanced at her, eyebrow lifted.

Sandy swallowed, removed her hand, and looked off towards the glittering Bay beyond.

A beat.

"Why are you here, Sandy?" Raven asked.

"I….wanted to make sure you were all-right."

"But why?" Raven turned to face her. "Why're you here? In this Tower? In this City? The carnival ended two nights ago. Why continue to be here?"

Sandy hugged herself as a gust of wind hit. She looked down at the rooftop between her legs. "I don't know, Raven. I guess I feel so….so……..responsible."

"Responsible?"

"For you. The Titans. Everyone." Sandy said. "I've always felt responsible. I've always believed in being a part of the grand evolution of the world. That's why I admired Noir and Beast Boy so much for what they did in Westhaven. They were trying to save people. And you know what, each day in my own little way, I'm trying to save the world too. I'm trying to make it a better, happier, more functional place. And if that means making sure you and the other Titans get out of this mess with Mumbo Jumbo and Trigon, then so be it!"

Raven chuckled, sighed, and looked off at the City. "You could so be a Titan, Sandy. If only we could find you a superpower."

Sandy beamed. "I can touch my nose with my tongue!"

Raven giggled. Then breathed. "I am going to miss laughing."

Sandy looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I've come to a decision, Sandy."

Sandy cocked her head to the side.

"I've been sitting here a long time. In the lotus position. And I've done everything I normally do on this rooftop except for one thing."

"Meditation," Sandy nodded.

"I was the master of my domain, Sandy," Raven said. "Emotions were not bothersome things that did whatever they wanted. I had centered myself to the point that the 'self' was an obscure concept. From thereon, emotions were like furniture. They livened up the room in my mind, and I could move them around as I pleased….though it took a great deal of pushing and pulling. I once knew what it meant to not be the slave of feelings. To have control of one's self. But it always secretly bothered me because my mastery sacrificed a great thing in my life."

"Freedom?"

"Yes," Raven nodded. "Freedom to laugh. Freedom to cry. Freedom to yell. Freedom to create. Freedom to hate. All these things were absent in my every day. And I felt so robbed. So wronged. This is the only life I will ever live, and it was forever stale because of the events that took place to make who I am. Cursed by an all-powerful demon. The child of destiny and Hell rolled into one. Raven."

The girl took a deep breath. She tilted her head till she looked at Sandy again.

"And in spite of all that wrong….the life I lived before yesterday was right. Because in spite of all my sacrifices, I had the one thing which now I can't seize because my friends are all confused and my father is starting a rampage. And that one thing is _peace_. Order. Tranquility. And reason. Without those things, I am not mature. I am not strong. I am not me."

Sandy stared.

Raven sighed. "I will give up anything and everything—emotional freedom included—to get me back."

"That's a tough decision, Raven," Sandy said. "How do you plan to do it?"

"By facing my fears," Raven stood up and adjusted her hood. "And asking for help……from my friends."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

They gathered in a circle in the wrecked Main Room. Dust, debris, and shards of glass collected around them from the battle of the previous night with Trigon incarnate.

The air that wafted in was cool and breezy; a feat in and of itself in that they were in the middle of summer.

Amidst this chaos, they all faced the center of the circle. Waiting for the one who summoned them to appear.

"I do not care how distraught she may be," Starfire grunted. "We need to make an act of aggression and we must do it NOW!"

"D-Don't be too hard on her, p-please," Robin shivered. "Sh-She's been through a lot. And l-let's not forget about Noir…"

"Robin has a realistic argument in this circumstance," Beast Boy adjusted his spectacles and spoke: "Whatever course of action we may take—aggressive or no—

Noir will in some form or another be at the receiving end of our offensive administrations."

"If Noir is the same condition as you or I," Starfire gritted her teeth, "Then he will not mind if we SMASH HIS CRANIUM ASUNDER!!"

"Hehehehehehehe!!" Cyborg giggled. "She said 'asunder'."

"What are you humoring about?!?!" Starfire shook.

"Ahem."

The four looked up.

Sandy cleared her throat and waved.

Raven stepped down beside her and walked into their midst. "Forgive me for being late. I was….gathering up strength for what I have to say."

"Wh-What is it?" Robin asked.

Raven took a deep breath. "I need you. All of you."

They stared at her.

"To engage with Trigon?" Beast Boy asked.

"I cannot fight him alone," Raven lowered her eyes and sighed. "Because, the truth be told, I have never fought him alone."

"Then what was the meaning of your exuberant tirade last night?!?!" Starfire exclaimed.

"I didn't think about it hard enough," Raven said. "I….I-I miss my friends. Yes. I said 'my friends'. Because—to tell the truth—they aren't really here right now."

Robin gulped.

Beast Boy: "Hmmmm."

Starfire exclaimed: "What are you suggesting?!"

"Whenever I fought Trigon…the only way I could hold him at bay in my mind was through my emotions," Raven explained. "Until last night, they were safely sealed away in my head. But Mumbo Jumbo's 'power-draining' camera scattered them. And now they're resting in you. But not only that, they have become you. You were once my friends…and I believe that you once again will be. But as of this moment—undeniably—your are nothing more than the representations of my psyche. And that be the case, I need you, dear emotions, to help me once again put Trigon back in his place. And then….THEN…we can work on returning things to normal."

Silence.

Cyborg giggled. "Hehehehe…TEAM WORK!!"

"Are you all up to it??" Raven asked.

Robin eyed left….right…then rose his trembling hand. "Um….y-you will be with us, right Raven?"

She nodded.

Robin swallowed. "Then it'll be just like old times. L-Let's do it."

"Yeah!!" Cyborg cheered. "Wooo!!"

"This should certainly be interesting," Beast Boy smirked and folded his arms.

Everyone looked at Starfire.

"……well, no one lives forever," she grunted and smirked. "Now where is Trigon?? He has my fist to kiss!"

"That's where it gets a little difficult," Raven said. "We have to find him first. And then there's the issue of Noir…."

"W-We won't have t-to hurt him, will we?" Robin meekly asked.

"I hope not," Raven sighed. "I think that…..perhaps…if we were able to find Mumbo Jumbo's camera and try reversing the spell at the same time as we take on Trigon…."

"Then the transferal might deplete Trigon's energy and alleviate our fears as to injuring Noir's body!" Beast Boy said.

"Ooooh! A plan!!" Cyborg chuckled.

"But…where to find Trigon to begin with?"

"Here's something you might find of interest," Sandy said.

The circle looked over.

She was positioned at a computer console on the side. She brought up a screen. "Word has it that an explosion went off at Vreeland's estate last night. They tried investigating….but workers were chased off by unexplained energies. A photo was taken of the site, showing a rising mist of red." She smirked. "Sound like anyone we know?"

Starfire palmed a fist and gritted her teeth.

Raven took a deep breath. "Friends….emotions….countrymen…..We have a carnival to go to…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My shoulders hunched. I breathed deep, yet rapidly. A mysterious mist came out of my mouth and my red irises were narrowed by black sockets. I stood in the center of a Fun House, in a Hall of Mirrors. Light of the falling evening scattered in from the hole I had formed in the ceiling. Outside, the carnival grounds were gray…dismal…dead against the dying land and dying night around the lavishly built mansion.

Everything was silent….everything was empty….

A red mist rose slowly from the ground.

And then….

_**"Jordan…….**__"_

In one of the many mirrors, my face shot up and gasped. My black eyes were wide and full of horror. My face bruised and bleeding from….what? I couldn't tell. Couldn't remember. Or maybe I could but didn't want to.

I panted.

_**"Jordannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn….."**_

The voice taunted.

I spun around. I ran from one mirror to the next. I stopped in a place and hugged myself. Panting.

_**"Why do you tryyyyyy so hard to hold onnnnnn??"**_

I looked all around me. Mirrors and mirrors. Gray light. Red mist.

_**"This body is minnnnnnne nowwwwwww…"**_

I gasped for breath and ran across the mirrors till I ended up in an upside down world. I gasped, finding my body stretched across the blue sheet of glass.

_**"Is it because of yourrrrrrr past that you stay alivvvvvve?!"**_

I stepped backwards. My body stretched and stretched against the glass.

_**"You have no seccccccrets. You know thattttt. Just because your so-callllllled friends are in the darkkkkk, it doesn't make what you know secret."**_

I backed up into a corner where three of me appeared. Three pale, frightened, ragged me's.

_**"You know everythingggggg about your pastttttt, don't you?"**__  
_  
I panted. I swallowed.

My face was a sheen with sweat.

_**"You're not an amnesiaccccc. You just dennnnnnny who you arrrrrrre."**_

I spun around. I faced a fat, stretched-out me across a grand mirror.

_**"That's why you'rrrrrrre with the Titansssss. To forgettttttt."**_

I desperately clenched my fist and struck the image. It shattered. I shattered. It hurt. I wanted to scream.

_**"When I was freeeeeeeeed from my daughttttttter's cage of a minddddd, I chose you because I coulddddd feeeeeeel the darknessssssss."**_

I spun around and ran down a corridor of glass and geometric chaos.

_**"I could feeeeeeeeeeel the blood. I could tasttttttte the screams. I could hearrrrr the sliced skinnnnn."**_

I came to a stop, bent over, and heaved for breath.

_**"And yourrrrrrr mind. No, it was neverrrrrr yours alonnnnnne to begin with."**_

I looked up. Sweating.

_**"I justtttttt had to makkkkkkke room for myself. And I mustttttt say, you have mannnnnny gifts to offer me."**_

I gritted my teeth. I spun around and gasped to see myself through fly eyes.

_**"What do you havvvvvvve to live forrrrrrrr?? Your friendsssss?? Friends don'tttttt keep secrettttttts from each other."**_

I stepped back, hugging myself. Shivering.

_**"I'lllllll tell you a secretttttt. Would you carrrre to hear?"**_

I bit my lip. I shook.

_**"I see you in herrrrrrrrrr mind a lotttttt. Sitting alone in my cccccccccage. I lookkkkk out from the barred windowsssss and there you'll beeeeeeeeee, floattttttting by like a thunderrrrrcloud."**_

I clenched my eyes shut. Tears formed.

_**"How often I wonddddddddered what it'd be likkkkkkkke to reach my gnarllllllled hands out and ripppppp you into oblivionnnnnnn. But now…..that will verrrrrrry much happennnnnnn. She and the Titanssssss are coming to stop meeeeeeeee. And you will be destroyeddddd."**_

My throat hurt. I opened my eyes.

Four specks were staring me down. Glowing.

_**"Or woulddddddddd you ratherrrrrr I have you destroy her?!?!?!"**_

I clutched my head. I bent over. I screamed. We screamed.

Everything screamed.

_**"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

Everything spiraled down. The mirrors got caught up in the cyclone, shattered into a river of glass, and bathroom drained into an infinitesimal nub of oblivion surrounded by bleeding bodies and my standing body and my hand gripping Myrkblade and--

Tears.

_'Hold on, Jordan……'_

_In the dark, I wept and obeyed her._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car rolled to a stop.

The engine cut.

Six bodies got out.

They stared in the wind of the cold, dark night.

The carnival rested on the Vreeland lawn. Dead and ghostly in the gray light and red mist. Everything was dreadfully silent. And cold.

"C-Can we go back?" Robin whimpered.

Starfire elbowed him.

"OW!"

"Well look on the bright side," Cyborg grinned and looked at the rest. "No mimes!!"

"…………….," they all stared.

"Hehehehehe!! I kill myself sometimes!"

"I wish you would," Beast Boy muttered.

Raven glanced over at Sandy. "We're going in. Sandy…stay in the T-Car and keep in contact. We may need all the help we can get."

Sandy nodded. "I'll do anything I can do to help."

Raven looked at the rest. "You all remember the plan, right?"

They nodded.

"I'll go in first," Raven said. With a sigh she added: "When I give the signal—you all know the signal, correct?—you come in and help me. We'll get Trigon together."

"Be careful," Starfire said firmly. "I do not wish to find out you need your proverbial donkey saving."

Raven smiled. She enjoyed it. "I'll be fine. Trust me."

"Better make haste," Beast Boy said.

"Agreed. Robin, come with me," Raven guided the pensive boy to the rear of the T-Car. They popped a trunk and inside was an identical utility belt and set of tools like Robin's.

He handed them to her. "I-I guess that training in the o-old days finally came in handy," he simpered. "I finally became worthless."

"You're hardly worthless, Robin," Raven said, snapping the belt on and gathering birdarangs and grappling hooks. "It was you who taught me what it meant to fight crime without superpowers. I may be a little rusty, but I never once forgot any of the things you taught me." She removed her robe, stuck her hands inside the T-Car, and pulled out a blue cape modeled after the same size and material as Robin's. She fastened it behind her shoulders. "This may be an awkward undertaking….but it'll have to do."

She looked at him. She raised an eyebrow.

Robin was shivering. He hugged himself and looked off in the distance.

"Robin??" Raven asked. She leaned towards him. "What's on your mind?"

"I-I'm so scared…..sc-scared for you…f-for Noir. For e-e-everyone! I-I can't believe I let all of this happen!"

"Nobody suspected a thing," Raven said.

"I-I'm so sorry!" Robin shook his head and whimpered. "I'm a t-terrible team leader!! I-I can't keep it secret anymore!! All of you will hate me!! All of you will want nothing to do with me!! I-I can't stand it anymore!!"

That said, the Boy Wonder frantically grabbed his eyemask and started to yank….

"No!!!" Raven grabbed his hands and shook him out of it. "Robin, NO! No, Robin!! Look at me. Robin. Look at me!"

The boy gasped and slowly looked in her eyes.

"Don't. Give. Yourself. Up." She said. "You aren't your normal self tonight. You would regret it in the long run. And for your sake, Robin, I won't let you do that to yourself. You will thank me in the end."

The boy sniffed. A tear ran down from under his eyemask as he looked away. "I…I-I wish I was brave…"

"You are brave, Robin," Raven said. "You just can't see it, right now."

The boy whimpered. He flew forward and Raven had no choice but to give him a hug. He sobbed over her shoulder as she sighed and rolled her eyes to the sky while patting his back.

"I wish Cyborg and Starfire would switch emotions right about now….," she muttered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Birdarang in grasp…blue cape billowing in the wind…Raven stepped slowly, cautiously into the gray aura of the carnival. Her breath produced vapor. Her eyes glanced left….flicked right….and back. Her feet kept pressing onward—slow and snakelike—one's heel before the other's toe.

Grass and weeds crackled under her soft weight.

Silence.

She came to a stop.

She looked into the dark shadows of a row of concession stands. She looked up at the dark silhouette of a ferris wheel. She glanced at porcelain horses of a merry-go-round glistening in the moonlight.

Silence.

She took a deep breath, frowned, and whispered: "I'm here, daddy."

CHTUNG!!!!

Raven's eyes were stabbed as a row of bright lights turned on overhead.

She raised a hand over her squinting eyes and gritted her teeth. "Nnnghh!"

CHTUNG!!!

CHTUNG!!!

WHURRRRR!!!!

Lights sparked to life all across the carnival in a circle.

A large hum arose.

The porcelain horses started to bob up and down in an ever-accelerating circle.

The ferris wheel groaned to life and spun on its own.

Lights danced and flickered across the concession stands and booths.

From somewhere in the reincarnated, beating heart of the fairgrounds, a moaning voice climbed up the ladder and ran the track higher and higher till the typical fanfare siren of the carnival went into full-blown merriment.

Raven almost expected clowns to come flipping down the aisles.

She spun around…lights flashing and dancing on all sides of her. She held her birdarang at ready.

_**"Be happy, little girrrrrrrrrl. For once, you know you can!!"**_

She gasped and spun around.

My figure stood atop the center portion of the Scrambler. The part that didn't spin. I chuckled. My folded arms exploded outward into a crucifix position.

_**"Don't you just LOVE carnivals?!?! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"**_

Raven glared.

_**"Ohhhhhhh what kind of a fatherrrrrrr would I be if I never took my own daughterrrrrr to one?! Ha ha ha ha ha…"**_

"I've come here to free Noir….," she said.

_**"Sure you did,"**_ I winked two red irises. _**"And I waited for the Titans and not you. Be honesssst daughter. You want your old self backkkkkk and nothing more. Nothing less."**_

"Don't dictate to me what I want or don't want," Raven growled. "It's not your place. It never was."

_**"Whose was it then?!?!"**_ I leaned forward on my knee and smirked. _**"Those bitchessss of Azar?! I surrrrrre made mince meat of themmmmm. Too bad they raised you to beeeeeee a tough little shit!!"**_

FWOOOM!!!

In a blur of red murk, I was nearly at her side.

Raven gasped and jumped back, raising the birdarang overhead.

_**"What are you going to do?!?!"**_ I smiled, stepping leisurely around her with my arms behind my back. _**"Rip me a new airhole?!?! Stab me in the heart?!?! Produce blood out of a body that's been so battered and bleeding over the last twenty four hours that there's no chance in his hell or yours that Noir would ever forgive you?!"**_

Raven panted. "Don't…tempt….me…."

_**"You ever wanted to just kill your friends ever before?!?! Just rrrrrip them aparrrrrt and let it all be done with?!?! Listen to his voice, Raven. Listen to his voice and wonder…."**_

I leaned forward. My black eyes flashing red. I smiled.

_**"Do you wantttttt this to exisssst?!"**_

Raven glared. "This. Is. Not. His. Voice."

_**"No….of course not…it's your voice, Raven. The only voice you'll everrrrrrrr want to hear from here on outttttt."**_ I reached for her.

She gasped and swung with her birdarang.

But I teleported out of the way. The voice chuckled and cackled as I teleported in short bursts of red from rooftop to rooftop of the rides and stands circling the girl. _**"HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!!!!"**__  
_  
Raven spun around, sweating.

I ported to a stop atop the ferris wheel. I flung my arms up and shouted. _**"WITH WHAT IRONY THE FATES COME INTRO FRUITION!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!"**__  
_  
"Shut up and come down and face me!!"

I teleported to the top of the merry-go-round. _**"Oh, but I havvvve faced you, girrrrrrrl. For years and yearrrrrrs I looked upon the celestial psyche swirlllllling over my wrought iron cell and saw nothing butttttt you!!"**_ My head slowly turned—as did my body—as I forced myself to face her on the spinning top of the merry-go round. _**"Eventualllllly all I wanted to do was get away from youuuuuu. That deadpan face. Those bitttttttter lips. Those downcast eyessss."**_ I leaned on the circling steeple of the structure and peered down at her, grinning. _**"But the truth was then and is now the sammmmme. I must reinventtttt you. I must tear my way inside and force apart the stitches those Azar waifs made to holddddd your true potentialllll in. And make you minnnnnnne,……..HA!!!**__"_

FLASH!!!

I was gone.

Raven stepped back and bumped into Noir's body.

_**"BOO!!"**_ I raised a hand to launch a red sphere of murk down at her.

She shrieked and flew the birdarang straight at my face.

I was gone in a puff of red mist.

The birdarang flew up and struck a set of bright lights.

CRASH!!!

Sparks flew.

Raven gulped.

A body of red teleported over in a streak that slammed her in the side.

Raven grunted. Her body was sent flying up and over the grounds and through a concession stand.

SMASH!!!

Splinters flew. She tumbled to the ground in the darkness formed between the back of lined-up stands.

A roaring sound.

She glanced up and saw me streaking towards her—warbling red smoke—through the hole.

She ducked.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I soared through and smashed into the rear of the concession stand on the other side.

Raven spun around and reached into her utility belt.

I flipped off the stand, landed, teleported backwards, and approached her with glowing red arms. My eyes on fire. _**"Come. Give. Daddy. A. HUG!!!"**_

Her hand flew back out—and with it was a metal staff.

SMACK!!!

My head flew to the side.

She grunted and jabbed forward.

WHUMP!!

I bent over.

She could have performed a finishing blow, but instead she swung the staff low and tripped me out from under.

THWUMP!!!

Mist flew up in a red splash.

Raven panted and ran back out into the open.

I got up to my feet, chuckling. _**"Heheheheheheheh!!! Let the blood flow. LET THE BLOOD FLOW!!"**_ I growled and streaked out at her on blurring crimson.

THWAP!!!

"AAGH!!" Raven cried as I shoved her in the back and across the field. I let go with a kick to her rear that sent her stumbling forward, into the merry-go-round, and falling over the back of a horse. "OOF!!"

I pounced, turned into smoke, flew into the merry-go-round, and materialized on the revolving platform two horses down from her. _**"Tell me….dear chilllld,"**_ I smirked as I leaned on the saddle of a bobbing steed.

She got up, winced, and looked over at me.

I spoke over the merry-go-round music. _**"Did your friendssss hug you last night? Did they make it allllllllll better? I bet they didn't. Heheheheheheh!!"**_

Raven growled. She ran over and swung the staff.

SHATTER!!!

A porcelain horse head flew to pieces.

I blurred over and peaked under the hooves of another one. _**"You realize that—no matter how nice your friends are---I still own you, right?!?! Heheheheheh!!"**_

She swung again with a cry.

Shards of horse flew.

Everything around us spun.

I spun towards her….and grabbed her cape.

_**"Let's dance. YAH!!!"**_

That said, I yanked till she twirled off the merry-go-round and tumbled to the grass.

"Mmmph!!" she dropped the staff.

SMASH!!!! I flew up through the roof of the merry-go-round and soared up into the air.

Raven spun around, faced up, and gasped.

I came down at her. I charged up my hands. Orbs of murk glowed brightly. _**"RrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRAUGGGGH!!!"**_

Pulse after pulse of crimson destruction flew down at her.

Raven sweat. She tilted her head up. Upside down, she saw the ferris wheel off in the distance. She whipped out a grappling hook and shot at it. POW!!! The cord flew and the hook sailed into one of the cars of the ride. It lifted up and away from Raven, dragging her body along the ground just quickly enough to kick away and avoid the crater-forming blasts of murk landing at the soles of her boots.

I landed and ran at her, charging a heavy blast. _**"Hatred. Fire. CONSUME!!!"**__  
_  
With a free hand Raven pulled a disc out of her utility belt and flung it at me. "NGHH!!"

It met with my hands right as I unleashed the blast.

FLASH!!!!

My own demonic energy forced me back ten feet.

The next moment, Raven was being dragged under the cars of the ferris wheel and up into the air a she dangled from her elevating car. She climbed up—grunting—and stood at the top of her car as she reached the peak of the wheel. She panted and looked down from the height.

I was gone.

Her eyes widened.

_**"Raaaaaavvvvvvvvvennnnnn."**_

She gasped. She spun around just as her car was lowering.

I appeared over the horizon of the next car above her. I stood atop it with my arms folded and a grin on my face.

_**"I think it's about time you grew some wings.**__"_ I shot a hand down. A stream of red energy flew.

ZAAP!!!

"UGH!!!" Raven cried as her body shot out into the night.

She flew into a colorful banner between two poles. It stretched with her weight…then snapped. In mid-fall, Raven grabbed a hold of one of the severed banner halves. She swung around the length of the banner down a pole and came to the end, upon which she was yanked off by gravity and smashed down through the weak ceiling of a fun house. She landed on a foam 'sea' inside. Humps of sea serpents and plastered mermaids rose around her.

She rubbed her head and winced.

A rattling sound echoed into the chamber as a 'mining car' rolled along the track of the fun house and past her. She stood up and hobbled through the foam sea before coming to solid ground. She navigated her way across the tracks as another car or two rolled by and wandered into the next scene.

She was now inside a 'haunted' mansion. Electronic ghosts and ghoul sounds swarmed around her. A goblin appeared in a fireplace. As another car rolled by, she wandered by a bookcase through which a dragon had burst through and was breathing dry ice from its still, papier-mâché mouth.

The voice came out through the walls…soft and whispery.

But still demonic.

_**"You know….Raven….."**_

She panted and slowly approached the bookcase through which the voice whispered.

_**"Your mother….sh-she thought I was a h-handsome man…"**__  
_  
Raven bit her lip.

_**"She never knnnnnew I was the demonnnnnn that now claws its way throughhhhhh your bloodstreammmmm…."**_

I leaned against the wall on the other side—the Arabian Knights corridor—and practically made love to the wall as I smiled and whispered sweetly:

_**"…….I was still……I-Inside her when I transformed…….to my real self……"**_

Raven fumed. She clenched her fists and stared at me through the gnarled dragon face.

_**"Ohhhhh she screamed. She tried to get me out….she screamed and she bled…….and she screamed and she bled………………..and she screamed and she bled till she was not herself anymore…….heheheheheh…"**_

The red specks in my eyes trailed upwards as I smiled, licked my lips, and kissed the wall.

_**"You see…..Raven…..no matter how much she fought……….I had to do itttttt. I had to make sure you were borrrrrrrrrn."**_

"Shut up….," Raven shook. "SHUT UP!!!"

SMASH

The dragon face flew apart and I stomped through, holding up spheres of red murk and staring her down. _**"But the fact is…I never shut up!! I never die!! I never die because you live and you Raven are forever a part of ME!!!!"**_

"I said SHUT UP!!!" Raven flew a birdarang at me.

I ducked and kicked with my foot.

WHUMP!!

Raven flew back, hit a two dimensional ghost, and fell hard over the tracks. Her eyes squinted at the rails. The track rattled against her cheek. She saw a car coming straight at her.

She pushed up from the ground with a gasp and barely avoided the careening car.

She back up---into me.

I hugged her from behind, gripping her arms down.

"Aagh!!" Raven struggled against me.

_**"Shhhhh!!"**_ I whispered into her ear. _**"Don't be like her…."**_

Raven gritted her teeth, wiggled her hand into her utility belt, and grabbed a taser.

"My mother DIED to save me!!" she spat. "I owe her my life. NOT YOU!!!"

She stabbed the taser deep into my leg.

I jerked, twisted, and shouted. _**"RRRRGHHHH!!!**__"_ with demonic strength I grabbed her shoulders, spun, and flung her through the wall of the funhouse.

SMASH!!!

She sailed out and tumbled onto the grass.

She stumbled to her legs, winced, and looked up. She gasped as a flock of red, cawing crows swarmed out of the hole in the fun house and flew past her.

The 'crows' formed together and I materialized. No sooner, I ran over and flew a fist across her face. _**"RAAUGH!!"**_

SMACK!!

She fell back to the ground. She spun around and kicked her foot up.

I grabbed it, glared, and lifted her up into the air.

She let out a cry.

I dropped her, spun, and plowed my smoke-charged hand into her side.

WHAM!!!

She flew into the ground. The air escape her lungs. Everything was burning.

She winced as I stomped over, knelt down, and grabbed her skull. I lifted her forcibly to face me.

_**"Stubborn…..disrespectful….BITCH!!!"**_

Raven winced under my grip. She gritted her teeth and her blue eyes darted past me and across the carnival grounds. She saw a dismantled tent collapsing into the grass. Resting on one pole—she could see clear as day—was a huge framed portrait of her and her friends.

The picture!!

_**"For over a decade and a half I've dealt with your insolence…and to what end?!?! Forget Noir's body…I can still make myself one with YOURS!!"**_

Raven's goal had been reached.

She had seen the painting.

She glanced and smiled into the four eyes of Trigon.

I glared. _**"What is it?!?! Speak now or forever hold your peace, you WASTE!!!**__"  
_  
"I have only one thing to say," she said. She blinked. She tilted her head up towards the night sky. _"HELP!!!!!!!!!!!"_

That was a signal.

There was a rush of wind.

_**"Huh?!?!"**_ I looked up.

A pair of green pterodactyl wings sailed down. A set of clawed feet smacked me in the face.

WHAM!!!

I let loose of Raven and went flying across the grass.

Robin dropped down from a concession stand top. He gulped, whipped out an explosive disc, and flew it at me.

SWISSSSSSH!!!

Cyborg and Starfire jumped out of hiding. Giggling or growling, they let loose a stream of blue laser and a thundering starbolt at me.

The disk, the laser beam, and the starbolt all converged on my figure at once.

**BLAST!!!!!!!!**

I was plowed into the earth. I formed a canal and stopped at a crater. I was literally smoking in a few places. _**"Nnggggh!!"**_

"Titans!!" Raven shouted and pointed at the distant picture. "Get that picture!!! Now's our chance!!"

All five made a mad sprint for it.

I didn't even need to look. My teeth grit and my black eyes glowed a sun-bright red. _**"GrrrrrrrrrNO!!!!!!!!!!!!"**__  
_  
FLASH!!!!!

The five stumbled, covering their eyes.

I jumped up, warbling with fiery murk of red.

I reached out a hand, shouted, and flung a stream of crimson at Beast Boy.

His body sagged, rolled, and slammed against a set of stands.

I spun and aimed at Robin.

I blasted him into the side of the ferris wheel.

Cyborg and Starfire charged me.

I flexed my arms and pointed at the earth. Two trails dug their way under the two chargers and exploded at their feet in flickering tongues of red smoke.

They collapsed, wheezing.

Raven gasped.

My whole body bowed, shook, and shot straight up to the heavens with a shrieking cry that sounded like a thousand ravens burning alive at once. The demonic murk and smoke of Destruction swam up into the air and formed two crimson/black wings that 'flapped' above me as I glared back down at Raven an stomped towards her. Each time I took a step onto the earth, distant lights flickered and the ground shook. The 'wings' twitched and a red-hot wind wafted down towards the dark girl as I advanced.

_**"Extinguish….everyone….Azarath Metrion Trigon….the beginning and the end of the next dimension of reign! The inevitability. The future. The past. The NOW!!!"**_

Raven stumbled back. Her eyes twitched to the side. She squinted past my demonic aura and saw the shadowed form of Sandy running towards the distant pole and snapping the picture down.

_**"This is your fate, girrrrrrrl!! It is life!! It is your death! It. Is. ME!!!"**__  
_  
I flung a tornado of red at her with a flutter of the crimson rings.

Raven dodged with a dive.

Sandy ran up. "Raven!!! Catch!!" She tossed the picture—frame and all.

I gasped. My four red eyes flashing.

Raven looked up.

The picture spiraled in the air in its descent.

She got to her feet.

The image of the six Titans fell.

She ran and dove for it----

But my hand snatched it first.

Raven gasped. "No…."

_**"Oh yessssssssss,"**_ I grinned, my eyes murking red. I held the picture high above myself and aimed my other hand about it. In a second from then, I would melt it all away with my demonic force. _**"You will not prevent the reckoning. I shall---"**_

The voice stopped. My whole body jerked. The red irises rolled back and I tilted up.

_**"What…..WHAT?!….NO…..Noir……NOIR!!! JORDAN!!!!"**_

Raven watched, her jaw dropping.

My body twitched. My arms shook.

_**"Obey….OBEY…."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I stood still._

Trigon towered over me.

His red muscles flexed and his four glowing eyes glared.

_**"You will DIE for this!!"**__ he hissed with fanged, white teeth._

_I listened…but I didn't look._

I was watching someone through him.

_**"Huh?!"**__ he spun around. He growled. __**"Who are you?!?!"**_

_She walked calmly. Beautifully. An unseen wind kicking at tiny wisps of blonde hair. The blue eyes were soft and inviting. She walked gently through Trigon like he was a sheet of water and emerged sparkling on the other side as she embraced me in the gentlest hug that only she could give._

_"Thanks for holding on, Jordan…," she whispered soft and warm into my ear._

I felt a tear fall from my tortured face as I held her back and surrendered into her arms.

"Now……remember your friends…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The red specks and wings momentarily disappeared.

I gasped.

My eyes were black again.

My mouth agape, I tilted my neck down and looked at Raven.

She stared across at me.

I bit my lip, pulled my arm back, and threw the painting at her.

SWISSSSSSH—CLAP!

She caught it and hugged it to her chest.

She stared at me, wide eyed.

My eyes bulged and my lips quivered. My faced pleaded with her for those last half seconds before the red flashed back to demonic life and seized me once again.

_**"Rrrrrrghhhh GET OUT!!!!!"**_

My body jerked and screamed and flung all about. My limbs glowed red once again. Smoke and murk warbled crimson up my arms. I gasped and looked at her.

_**"What---CHILD!!!"**_

Raven spat. "Go back to where you belong." She gripped the frame of the picture and snapped it in to.

CRACK

Streams of bright energy flew out from the painting. They sailed into Starfire….Cyborg….Robin…Beast Boy……..and me.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Titans groaned…and I screamed.

_**"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

The Titans twitched a few times…then sighed with ease as streams of energy flew back out of them and squirmed their way like snakes in the air and tossed themselves into Raven's body.

She gasped and jerked around as the emotions reentered her.

Sandy shaded her eyes from the fireworks display of magic.

Slowly, Raven's body calmed down. The light disappeared.

She stood dizzily on two feet and shook her face. Her eyes glowed gray. She was getting her power back. Her mind back. Her…..

She froze.

She looked up.

She wasn't complete yet. She couldn't feel…anger.

The Titans weakly got up and shook their heads as Raven walked over to my grounded body.

My body pulsed red. Red murk leaked everywhere. The grass was dying in a halo around me. A twitching hand gripped my throat and preserved whatever demonic voice was still housed in it.

As the girl stepped up—the broken halves of the picture in hand—I glared up with four fading red eyes and gritted my teeth with a snarl.

Raven's glowing eyes narrowed. "Expect no windows to the cell this time…." She was about to smash the picture halves apart when I stretched my hand out towards her.

_**"WAIT!!!!!"**_

Raven stopped.

I gripped my throat again. _**"Destroy…….me….."**_

"Give it up."

_**"NO!! LISSSSSSTEN!!"**_ I panted and squinted the red specks at her. _**"My poor….litttttle….daughterrrr. You can be free. Yes! You can!! Once and for all!!!"**_

Raven's eye stopped glowing. Her blue eyes reappeared, moist and confused.

_**"Destroyyyyy Noirrrrrr,"**_ I grinned. _**"It is the only way to end me!! The only way to rid you of Trigon forever!!!"**_

Raven's lips parted. For a second there, she seemed to be considering it.

The Titans walked over, watching silently. Fearfully.

_**"If you take me back inside youuuuuu,"**_ I hissed. _**"I will once again break freeeeeee. And you know it!! I knowwww it!! Poor litttttle girl…….heheheh…..destroy Noir! Destroy Noir now and YOU SHALL FOREVER BE FREE!!!!"**_

Raven gritted her teeth. She shook. "RrrrrrrNO!!!!!"

She smashed the painting halves together.

I shrieked. _**"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"**_ The voice warbled as a red stream of Trigon demon force flew out from my throat and was sucked into Raven's body.

The Titans flinched as a huge wind blasted out from the tumultuous transfer.

"I will NOT destroy a fellow teammate to assure myself an empty FREEDOM!!!"

_**"AAAAAUGHHHHHHH---NGGGGHHHH!!!"**_

"You were planted inside of me. Raised inside of me. Grafted into my very being!!!" Raven shouted.

The glowing energy surrounded her and sank into her center.

"As evil as you are, you are my own responsibility!! And I shall deal with you personally in the way I was always meant to!!!" The wind died down. Her cape and hair lowered and she wilted into half a crouch as she whispered out in finality the familiar imprisonment of Trigon. "Alone……"

The Titans stared.

Cyborg rubbed his scalp.

Beast Boy blinked.

Starfire leaned on Robin.

I sputtered, wheezed, and gasped. I snapped up into a sitting position on the ground. I looked at my arms…at the bruises and the cuts. I felt my throat. Felt the emptiness, and sighed. I stared up at Raven.

She looked towards the ground.

I slowly got up and limped towards her. I stood a foot or two away, staring silently. My jaw agape. I breathed out and gently touched her shoulder.

She jerked up to look at me. Her trademark glare was back…and ever so bitter.

"Get away from me!" she spat.

I stepped back like I had been stabbed.

Sandy walked up, and was silent.

Raven spun around and walked towards the edge of the carnival.

Alone.

She stripped of the utility belt and cape and weapons along the way.

And we were helpless to assist her in herself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next afternoon, while gradually cleaning up the wreckage and damage in the Main Room….

"My lips are still sore from all that smiling," Cyborg mumbled while lifting up a huge, replacement monitor for the main computer. "Was I really that…..giddy?"

Beast Boy hung upside down on the ceiling from bat feet. He assisted in screwing in the monitor back in place. "I dunno. I guess so. I was a bit…..busy in the brain at the time, dude."

"Yeah, what's up with that?!" Cyborg honestly chuckled. "You were like Mr. Wizard!"

Beast Boy burped.

"Yup…great to have you back, man."

Across the way, Robin was polishing the top of a newly constructed bar counter for the kitchen unit. "That ought to do it!! There's nothing like a sturdy base to come home to after crime fighting, I always say! Then again, anything beats a cave nowadays."

"Agreed," said a familiar, Tamaranian voice. "And I know the first order of edibles to place on top of the platform!"

A plate of……alien pudding rested on the counter in front of Robin.

"Um….th-thanks, Star," Robin managed. A blink. He looked up at her. "What is it?"

The girl Titan wrapped her hands together and said: "It is a traditional Plate of Apology from my home planet. I wish for you to enjoy it."

"Apology??" Robin remarked. "Starfire…what are you sorry for??"

"All the times I treated you in the most disrespectful manner during the great dispersal of Raven's emotional personas," she said.

"Star," Robin smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay! I forgive you! You weren't yourself for the last two days. Heck, I did things I would forever be embarrassed of."

"You did?"

"Yeah!! I mean, I'm the team leader and there was a time for a moment there that I let Raven's pensive personality take over me and keep me from believing in myself and the rest of you as well!! That's nothing for me—or anyone else for that matter—to be proud of. I should be the one, apologizing."

"Then….w-we are on equal terms?" the alien girl asked.

Robin smiled and nodded. "Mmmmhmmm!"

"Oh, glorious!!" she hugged him tightly. "My aggression and your cowardice have been washed away into the black hole of our respectful pasts!! Hehehehe!!"

Robin wheezed, his face turning blue. "Easy, Star….before you do something you DO have to apologize for."

She blushed. "Eeep!! Much sorries!!"

"HEY!!" Cyborg shouted in the background. "YOU LITTLE GREEN TURD!! YOU'RE NOT FASTENING THE T.V. IN RIGHT!! IT'S GONNA FALL!!"

"Jeez, I'm trying, dude!! Smile a little!!"

"RGGGHH!! CAN'T. HOLD. IT. MUCH. LONGER!!"

Starfire simpered and pointed in that direction. "I should probably go and provide some assistance."

Robin smiled. "You do that."

She flew away. "Let me help you in the lifting of the T. of the V.!"

Robin sweatdropped and glanced over at the videophone. A light was blinking.

He walked over and lifted the receiver off the hook. "Hello? OH! It's you!"

Sandy smiled, on screen. "I thought it'd be only polite of me to say goodbye."

"Sandy, you've been so much help to us. You really have."

"Only happy to, sir," the volunteer smiled. "I want to help anyone I can."

"Tell me when you learn to fly or shoot lasers," Robin smirked. "Cuz then I'd induct you into the team."

"Hehehehehe…will do."

"I'm…….sorry that Raven didn't say bye to you before you left the Tower," Robin said. "She's not been talking to much of us lately since the victory last night."

"I understand," Sandy nodded. "She's probably been meditating all this time."

"Yeah…," Robin said. "You know….for visiting on such short notice, you really got to know Raven a lot. In fact, you probably learned more about her in two days than the rest of us did in two years. Just because we were so—well—not ourselves lately during Raven's time of dire need."

"If there's one thing I've learned," Sandy said, "…it's what you Titans all know."

"What's that?"

"There is no understanding Raven," Sandy said. "Not even if we tried. But—just like you—that doesn't stop me from loving her. Like a friend."

Robin smiled. "Wise words, volunteer."

"Over and out."

"Oh! Wait!" Robin insisted and spoke into the phone. "You never told us how well the fundraiser went!"

"Oh, I'll tell you another time," Sandy said. She smiled wide under her glasses. "Like one of opening nights at Westhaven over the next THREE years!!"

"Dude!! That's great!!"

"Yes!!"

And they both laughed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_In Raven's mindscape……_

_"Weeee! Great to be back!!" Pink spun around and giggled. "Come on!! Smile!!"_

_Green pouted. "I liked the Tamaranian. She has a body to kick ass!"_

"You mean she has a nice ass!" Pink giggled.

Green glared. "Listen to you. You've been in a male's body too long!!"

"Hehehehehe! And you know it!!"

Yellow bore a sarcastic grin and adjusted her glasses. "Please…she is just being herself. Being a boy or a cyborg boy or what-have-you makes no difference. Just the same you are yourself and nothing will convict you to take on a trajectory otherwise."

_"Whatever," Green smirked and palmed her fist. "I'm just glad we got to get into some action!!"_

_Yellow groaned. "You have no sense of urgency, do you?! You only get swayed by instances of action and thus are self-gratified!"_

_"Heeeeeey!" Pink leaned over gray and smiled. "What you got there?!"_

Gray held a small bird of obsidian energy that chirped. She looked up and gave a pensive smile. "I-I think I'll call it 'Robin'!"

_"Pfft!!" Green rolled her eyes. "They're all swooning. The Titans need more girls."_

Yellow looked off towards the black canyon leading into the stone. "We have enough of girls. Soon we will have a Woman."

They all nodded…eyeing the canyon listlessly.

_Down the winding passageway of stone, true Raven—blue Raven—stood at the end. She took a deep breath, drew fingers across her brow, and chanted: _

_"Azarath……Metrion……Zinthos………"_

_The ground opened up. The torches flickered as the wrought iron cell floated deep into the obsidian rock. The windows had been replaced with pure black. There was no verbal protesting from the Rage sealed inside. Just a low-level grumbling that shook into oblivion as the chains slurped down into the hole and the ground closed up._

_Raven sighed._

She spun around and was about to exit out of her mind when she glanced up to the top of the canyon…and froze.

_The form of a teenage girl looked down at her. Tall. Short blonde hair. Blue eyes._

Raven squinted.

The girl stared silently down at her. A touch of wind kicked at her wisps of blondeness. She smiled. Waved. And disappeared.

Raven gasped. "Who…………is she…………?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the Tower, on the bluffs overlooking the crashing waves, I sat.

I gently stabbed Myrkblade into the shallow waters lapping up at my legs. I raised the blade, paused, and stabbed down again.

Lethargic….sleepy…..alone…..

My black eyes curved under my dark shades. I stared at the smooth waters and sighed.

On my arms, chest, and legs…bandages covered the bruises that Trigon had formed during the two days of possession.

But there was a deeper wound that bled unfixed.

And even though I felt her walking down from the heavens and hugging me with ghost limbs….this time it didn't heal up.

When I swallowed, there was a soreness in my throat.

Because I knew….I knew….

I would never be the same Titan again.


	51. Birth of a Ghost

**51. Birth of a Ghost**

_When I realized I had walked into the City, I froze in my steps. 'Into the City' to me meant a drop off the suspension bridge and onto the main land on the East Side of the Bay. Before me stretched a tame horizon of gray, reflective building sides that rose in tiers towards the central climax of the urban horizon. Cars zoomed past me, taking the off ramp of the bridge to the main thoroughfare and happily joining the aluminum bloodstream of society. There were store fronts with highly decorative windows that shined in the reflection of the noonday sun. Over at a sidewalk corner of an intersection, a hot dog vendor serviced a touring family in shorts and sunglasses. A few feet off, five kids with a basketball and a dog giggily trekked their way across Town._

_This was a Heaven, an urban Heaven. Indicative of its own relative beauty._

It was also the end of my journey. But I hadn't necessarily walked all this way to end up here. Any town would have been fine in my opinion. Be it Metropolis, Gotham City, or what have you. As long as I reached the East. The Atlantic Ocean. The end of everything.

I just……had to get away from the West.

_I took a deep breath and pressed on, bordering the inlet curve of the Bay along south. The length of travel showed on me. My jeans were stained with rain and the cuffs caked in mud. My t-shirt grew stiff from several baths of midday sweat, and my denim jacket was getting ragged and stringy in various locations. My long black hair hung like a ponytail, and it had turned stiff and dry with splitting ends that frizzled off everywhere imaginable. I had on goofy-large sunglasses. The types that old people on meds wear. I looked almost like a robot about to shoot out death rays from his concealed eyes. A satchel hung over my back, click-clacking with everything else in my life that I needed._

_Everything else……that I needed._

_I looked like a bum. I probably was one. I was down to under fifty dollars and two pairs of underwear. Not very heroic._

_I found myself entering a place relatively pleasing to the eye. My black eyes, at least. The 'Bayside Plaza'. Essentially a hormone-filled pit of concrete, park benches, store fronts, eateries, movie theatre box offices, and the random dispersal of after-school Americana in between._

And in spite of the commercialism of it all—between the plastic laughter and the Bay breeze wind—I liked it…

_I spent a fifth of my life's funds at the time on a Japanese cuisine. I had reached the frontier and I needed to celebrate it……somehow. The human soul is truly hedonistic under all the white linen._

_I ate at a table, shaded by an overhang. Above me, unseen teenage faces rambled on and on in post-pubescent excitement:_

"Oh man!! I saw them with my own eyes! Cyborg, man, he kicked ass!!"

"Were any of the others with them?!"

"Yeah!! Robin! Starfire!! The whole lot! They were wailing on Mumbo Jumbo's ass! God, they certainly straighten this town up! I tell you—"

"Robin's my hero. You can straighten the town up with the rest of them for all I care."

"Pffft…Vicky, you're so pathetic!"

"So are you!! What's that Starfire spread doing on your wall in the basement!!"

"Ha ha ha ha!!"

"Knock it off!!"

I walked away.

I found the beach. Or the beach found me. Either way, I was satisfied. The sun began to set as I padded my way through the sand. Soon it would be night. I was jobless and I needed shelter.

I didn't care.

I sat in the rough and stared out into the rough and somehow found a soft sigh escaping my rough lips. My breath rippled on the golden waters and laughed up into the crimson sky and all was still and all was moving at the same time.

_I pulled out a deck of playing cards and absent-mindedly shuffled them in my hands. It's an awkward form of meditation, I know. But I didn't have my myrkblade out._

Amidst the shuffling and the rippling and the sighing of the cards, the water, the breath—something strong and real emerged and stabbed its way into my consciousness.

My black eyes twitched and I saw IT for the first time.

The Tower. A giant 'T'—a half cross—jutting up from the bluffs of some forsaken island and acting as a figurative lighthouse for City. Glistening light and everything. The sunset shone off the windows in red fury as the world went to sleep and the moon yawned overhead.

The immensity of it all clouded me. In my mind, the finite shadow of my being stretched out and covered me. For a split second, just looking at the Tower made me realize—after miles and miles of oblivion—what my self truly was.

And I smiled…I smiled so much.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My face was deadpan.

I looked sadly at the game of solitaire, its cards spread across the cold, freshly-constructed kitchen counter.

I sighed heavily and continued placing cards down.

In the background, the tender voices of Cyborg and Beast Boy lit the air.

"Ah yeah!!" Cyborg chirped. "Finest room I ever did see! Told ya we'd have it back in normal in no time!"

Beast Boy yawned. "Nnnnghhh…I've seen enough of it. Must….rest…."

"You gotta be kidding, man! Just look at this place! We should take pictures of it and stuff!"

"Awwwww, duuuuude!!" the changeling whined. "Cyborg, we've been up practically ALL NIGHT on this thing!"

"So? I feel more awake than ever!"

"Zzzzzzzzz."

"Pffft. Typical."

A beat.

"Hey Noir!!" Cyborg waved from behind me. "Check it out, man! All back to normal!! I told y'all that the battle wasn't gonna have any lasting damage!"

I exhaled. I slowly—miserably—swiveled around and eyed the Main Room from under lethargic shades. The Main Computer had a new monitor, sparklingly new. The huge windows has been replaced and the frames tinkered back to goodness. The floor was absolutely clean of all the torn and scattered debris from the Trigon fight. And the kitchen counter was also a new accomplishment.

Robin had been the engineer behind the counter's reconditioning. He seemed good at carpentry—to our surprise.

Cyborg naturally took the reins in fixing the windows and monitor, along with Beast Boy's help.

Starfire and I pitched in every now and then, but our main task was to get the floor swept up and clean once more.

It was an amazing feat for a mere three days of effort.

I wasn't enthused.

But Cyborg was. "I say we all have a dinner in here tonight to commemorate the occasion! Together!"

I glanced at Cyborg. I looked down and saw Beast Boy sleeping—drooling—on the sofa.

_FLASH!!!_

Beast Boy and Cyborg flying from my glowing, red arms.

Trigon's laughter ripping through my throat.

_FLASH!!!_

I winced, hugging myself.

Cyborg looked concerned. "Noir?……buddy? I-Is everything allright---"

I scooped up the cards, leapt off the stool, and stomped my way out of the Main Room.

Cyborg watched silently. His human eye blinking.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I breathed heavily as I marched through the hallway.

I realized then how huge and empty the Tower truly felt. With its metal walls and echoing chamber. A product of Silas Stone's over-inflated ego. Or so Cyborg once told me. I didn't really care at that point.

I approached the elevator doors and would have kicked them open had they not been fast enough…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The door rattled open as the landlord pressed a hand against the frame. It was barely hanging off its hinges. Just as decrepit as anything else in that hallow building._

Under the dim glow of night-piercing neon signs outside, I stepped in beside the landlord and took a good look.

"Like I said, the shithole ain't worth much," the landlord said. He was a cesspool of a man, two feet too short and forty years too single. He rubbed a slimy hand over his nose and smoothed up a few strands of hair over a monk head. "But considering where you've probably been……heh……must be paradise!"

I didn't give him a glance. I slowly shuffled forward into the shabby room. The floor was dusty, layered with bits and pieces of scraps of newspapers and lent. Off to the far side in a lonely corner rested a bed mattress on a crooked metal frame. Along the broad side of the apartment room there were two huge, glass-less windows that looked out onto an elevator train track less than twenty feet away. From the ceiling, a lone electric wire hung with a socket for a missing lightbulb. I fingered it lightly.

_"Not even sure if it's got any juice," the landlord slimily chuckled, rubbed his nose, and added: "But it's yours, assuming you can land your ass in a job. The bathroom's out in the hallway…what's left of it. Yup…it belongs to everyone on the floor. Haven't had it cleaned in a while. Hell, I don't even use it myself. But like I said…just what you pay for."_

I slowly looked at him and nodded.

He squinted at me under a few stray hairs in the urban wind that wafted in. "You don't talk much, do you?"

I stared.

"Yeah…well…heh……good luck buddy. I better be heari—er, seeing from you next week!"

_And he grumbled and he waddled around, and waddled off down the brown, run-down hallway._

With him gone, I became aware of the hideous ambiance of the place. The muffled shouts of arguments between the walls. Violent t.v. sets and wailing children. Doors slamming in various places on all the different floors for mysterious reasons that I didn't want to know.

And I didn't care. I was finding myself.

I shuffled over and slumped the satchel down in the corner by the bed. I reached in, rummaged around my various, scant belongings, and produced a picture frame with a photograph inside. It showed a field of grass with an oriental hut in the center and—stretching off in the distance—a line of grand cedar trees.

I took a breath. My black eyes scanned the walls from under my shades. To my luck, there was a nail stabbed into a spot where the surface was peeling. I marched over and gently hung the frame on it. I stepped back and admired it. My past……

_SLAM!!!_

"Heheheheheh—are we going to the place, Ricky?!"

"Shhh!! Shhh!! Hehehehehe!!"

A series of footsteps increased in volume………and came into my room.

I spun around and looked.

_A teenage boy and girl hobbled in quickly, arm in arm. Carrying bottles of wine or such. They giggled and cooed in some sort of blushed state of euphoria. Upon seeing me, they doubled back with a half-gasp._

"Whoah! Shit! Uhmm……"

"Hehehehe…hello, Joe!" the girl slurred.

"H-Hey there………uhhhh……do you live here now?"

I stared at them.

I slowly nodded.

"Ah……I see……," the guy blinked.

The girl giggled.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Um……HI! N-Nice to meet you!" the boy waved drunkenly. "I'm Ricky. This pretty thing here is Janice."

"Hiiiiiii," Janice grinned, hanging off Ricky. "How're you doing, Joe?"

A beat.

"Pfffftt!!" Janice cracked. "I am sooooooooo high right now!!"

Ricky laughed his mouth off, snorting.

To be honest, I smirked ever so slightly.

Janice leaned on Ricky—full of giggles—while the boy pointed and burped forth: "Ya know……if it's okay……could we just……ya know……borrow that mattress……ya know?"

I cocked my head to the side.

"Shhh!! Ricky!" Janice hissed.

"What?!" Ricky slurred at her. "We've used it every night for the past two weeks!"

She howled a laugh and nearly fell over him. He was full of chuckles too.

They both looked up at me.

I looked at them. I turned around. I gripped the mattress. I flipped it. I placed it down with the other side up. I dusted my hands off. I turned back to face them. I crossed my arms.

_Silence._

_"Huh…………………," Ricky blinked. A beat. "I guess we should be leaving you alone, then."_

I nodded.

"Nice talking to youuuuuuu!!" Janice squealed giddily as they teetered around as one body and hobbled down the hallway, their bodies illuminated randomly by the blinking neon light outside the windows.

"Where're we going now, R-R-Ricky??"

"Downstairs. I know this old woman who lives on the Fifth Floor. She'll let us use her bed."

"Ewwww. Old woman?! How come?!"

"Don't ask me! She died four days ago!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Hehehehehe!!"

I stared off as they left.

An L-Train passed by on the local tracks. With a thunderous roar from the metal wheels, the entire building shook and the picture frame rattled off the nearby wall, falling to the ground and shattering apart.

I sighed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven shot up with a gasp.

She clutched the sheets to herself in the mid-afternoon glow filtering down the windows.

Her eyes danced around.

Had she been cooped up in that room……in her bed……all that time?

She didn't care. The images…….the images circling in her head…

She clutched her skull and gritted her teeth with her eyes shut.

She couldn't get her out. Not since…….

Her eyes bolted open.

She had to make it real….

She kicked the covers off herself and hopped out of bed. She dizzily rested against a bedpost to let the blood stop swirling through her brain, and then she sauntered off into her closet. She flipped on a dim light, circumnavigated the hanging forest of robes, and found her target. A stack of painting canvasses.

All blank.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire spoke:

"The only way to counteract the effect of wormhole is to create something of similarly crucial gravity yourself. In the year 76532 of the Tamaranian Golden Age, King Fordenc'j had his people forge the obsidian sphere. The obsidian sphere was filled inside with billions upon billions of revolving rings that wrapped around on top of each other. It would be comparable to slicing an earth onion in half and counting each fragment inside as a revolving piece of metal. When supplied with an immense energy source, these rings spin around themselves at incalculable speeds, far surpassing that of light. The result is an enclosed, imploding threshold of centripetal force which mimics the infinitesimal pull of gravity. To make a long story short, the obsidian sphere of King Fordenc'j collapsed in on itself much like a star. An artificial black hole had been made in close proximity to the next, and yet not close enough to absorb each other and become as one. The result has been—to this day—a spiraling force of energy that has torn a permanent laceration in the fabric of space and time between the natural black hole and the Tamaranian-made one. With the right form of manipulation, that laceration can be made to send a body of mass at any known spot in the universe—but at the price of a grand exhaustion of energy, which is why the Tamaranian Gateway is never used save for moments of interstellar urgency."

Robin whistled. He sat across Starfire in the atrium with his arms folded. "So that's the only known wormhole in the universe?"

"The only known synthetic one," Starfire smiled. "Well, that is not entirely accurate."

"How so?"

"It is the only one on such a scale," Starfire said. "If you count the ones that my classmates and I made for school projects---"

Robin's eyemask bulged. "You're telling me y-you made a wormhole for a science project?!"

The alien girl looked at him odd. "Why…yes…does that strike you as odd?"

"I mean….jeez…a WORMHOLE, Star!!"

She shrugged and giggled. "It only took two weeks of intense study on Tamaranian astrophysics and a trip to the fifth plane!"

"Fifth plane?"

"Erm….I cannot speak of the place in the vernacular of that alien dimension. To do so would make the cosmos explode right here and now."

"Er…..okaaaaay," Robin blinked.

At about that time, I trudged through the Atrium between them.

"Hello, Noir!" Starfire jubilantly exclaimed. "How do you fair on this exquisite day?!"

"Hey, Noir," Robin waved. "S'up?"

I gave them half a glanced and waved a lethargic hand…and I kept marching on.

I left them in silence.

"…..," Robin stared. "What's wrong with him?"

"I believe Noir is still…..recovering…..from the incident with Raven's loose emotions," Starfire said.

"You think so?"

She nodded. "Would it be beyond us to doubt that he bore the worst brunt of Raven's personalities?"

Robin stroked his chin. "Yeah….well…Trigon's no walk in the park. I just kinda thought….."

"Thought what, Robin?"

"Well, he's Noir! You'd think he'd get over it by now."

"What makes you assume that?"

"I dunno….just…," Robin shrugged. "He's Noir…"

"….," Starfire stared. She looked down and pressed her fingers together. "Silent people….do seem strong at face value. But I would not be happy with myself if I was to assume he lacked the fears and hurts that are common to Titans such as you and me."

Robin looked off into space.

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "Robin? Is there something else going on?"

"I dunno….," the Boy Wonder mumbled and looked off in the direction in which I left. "I just……dunno….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beep!

After pressing the wall console, I sighed as the huge doors to the Tower's main entrance opened.

It was time for some belated meditation.

I gripped Myrkblade and stared up as a slit of light stabbed into my eyes and poured over my tall figure.

After the doors were done moving and groaning, I stepped out…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_In the glistening sunlight, something made me pause in my step._

My black eyes squinted through my shades.

Across a line of traffic, there rested a lavish funeral home sandwiched between tall buildings to the side of downtown.

And there was a sign………

_"???"_

I stumbled across the street when there was no traffic and took a closer look.

_I'll be damned……_

_'Usher Wanted'._

_I walked inside the cool interior, feeling ugly in my sweaty clothes from the last two months. Thankfully, there wasn't a service, but I did see two workers silently preparing the chapel/seating hall for an open casket showing. Frantically pointing fingers around and directing the place was—who I assumed to be—the manager. A pudgy man with glasses and squeezed into a brown, gentlemanly suit._

They were all in suits.

"Where're the flowers already?! Gods, we'll never get this done in time!! We need an extra hand!!"

"Got a phone call from the Juniper family. They're expecting fifty persons to come."

"Why do the dead always come on Tuesdays?!" the manager moaned. He turned around and faced me. In some sort of half-repressed snobbishness and impatience he spat at me: "Can I help you??"

I couldn't build up the strength to ask for a job.

So I stumbled out of there without saying a word (like I could) and back out into the streets of the City.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I needed money. And I needed food._

But of the latter part, I had myself well trained.

True, the fundamentals of fasting were passed on to me by the Master in those days on the Field.

But it was this life. This journeying…that truly taught it to me.

When one suspends one's own body. When one pushes foods and desires and other needs of the flesh away—only answering the carnal call on necessary occasion—there is a strange sense of euphoria mixed in with it. I realized how much I wanted and needed things. I realized how fragile I was. The desensitized cloud of fulfillment washed away from over my black eyes and I saw life once more as a constant fight. A race. A quest to attain something or some things. I no longer complained if a line for the subway didn't move fast enough. I didn't lash out in anger when all I was given to live in was a hole in the wall excuse for an apartment.

Things would come in their time. In their sweet, fateful time.

And I learned the value of waiting.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_That night, empty as ever, I was walking back up to my apartment. I had no luck in finding a job. I was hardly presentable for interviews or anything anyways. I knew it…I accepted it. Whatever worries I had I put beyond the boundaries of sleep, no matter how helpless I knew I truly was._

I walked the streets with my hands dug into my pockets. My breath steamed in the cold air. The gutters of the street steamed in the air. Everything was abandoned and steaming and miserable. My black eyes took what they could get.

The closer I came along the street toward my apartment, the louder a certain scuffling noise resounded in my ear. I raised an eyebrow in curiosity. I slowly, cautiously rounded a bend and came to the glass front of a gentleman's apparel store. The windows had been smashed in. There was a getaway car parked outside, and I could see the shadows of frantic crooks rustling about from the inside.

And I heard--

"P-Please! Don't kill me!! Y-You want my money, it's in the cashbox!! J-Just don't hurt me!!"

"Shut the hell up, you old fart, before someone hears you!!"

"Dude…let's just off him, man!!"

"N-No!!"

"Shut up! I admit, it's tempting!"

"Shhh!! Coast is clear! I got the stuff. Grab some of them suits!!"

"What about the old man?!"

"What about him?!"

The first of the two crooks spun around with a hand full of money and rushed out of the store window……bumping into me.

He gasped. He looked up. He frowned. "Hey, punk, get out of the—"

WOOOSH—THWACK!!!!

My fist blurred up into his nose.

Dollar bills fluttered to the ground at our feet.

He grabbed an oozing fountain over his face and stumbled back. "AGHHH!!! GOD!!! DAMMIT!!"

I gripped him by his shirt collar and flung him out into the middle of the road.

Another man gasped from inside the clothing store. He drew forth a pistol.

I teleported from standing in a straight position to behind his back under the shadows. I grabbed his wrist with the gun and brought my knee up to it with a heavy impact.

WHUMP!!

He dropped the gun with a clatter to the ground, but no sooner I had him flipped over my shoulder and through the glass and against the side of his vehicle.

SMASH!!!—SMACK!!

He fell on the ground, moaned, then got up.

I marched over towards him. My brow furrowed over my shades.

"Shit, man……," he gasped and ran down the street, panting. His bleeding friend soon joined him in the sprint.

I took a deep breath.

_"Young man! Thank you!!"_

My eyes bulged as I was hugged from behind. Thankfully I wasn't on edge. I turned around to face the owner—an elderly black man with apparel of the Islamic touch.

"I-I saw them earlier…I-I didn't think they'd do it. Such rough villains…all of them in the streets these days." He panted and looked at me. "I swear……I will repay you in any way fashionable. Please! I'm in your debt!"

I knew I would feel bad if I made any demands. But then I realized—as fate would have it—the pearl was being handed to me just then.

I looked around at the plethora of gentlemanly suits hanging around me. I looked at the owner.

I smiled.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I adjusted my collar and cuffs while the funeral house manager spoke. My ponytail was tucked beneath the back of my suit. My face was cleanly shaved. My large, awkward shades—replaced by stylish glasses._

"No no no no……NO!" the man sighed and rubbed his balding head as he anxiously leaned back and forth in his desk chair. "It just won't work!! I'm at a pinch this month, and I'm not about to hire some loud, obnoxious, hippy teenager from the street to oversee services in this fine place and----"

I silenced him with a lifted finger. I reached into a pocket, pulled out a sheet of paper, and handed it to him.

Curious, he snatched it from me and read it through bifocals. His eyebrows rose as he graced the text in my own, neat handwriting.

_'I am sorry, I cannot speak. I am mute and can only talk through writing or sign language.'_

_"…………," the man scanned the paper. He looked up at me._

I smiled, sitting up straight and polite.

_He blinked. "I suppose………y-you do have an air of…respectability around you……"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_After the first week of ushering funeral services, I got my first paycheck. It was meager, but in my present situation, it sufficed._

One night I walked briskly up the steps to the apartment hallway, my suit half undone. I toted with me a plastic bag and whistled.

I entered my room—only half using the door—and shuffled over to the corner by my bed. Under the intermittent glow of a neon light, I grabbed a secret wall panel under the bed and slid it open. There was my satchel—safely hidden from other, less generous residents (or so I assumed). I pulled out a can-opener I had been saving for a long time, then whipped out a can of ravioli from the plastic bag. I sat on the bed and prepared for the first…luxurious meal in a long time.

Patience had served me well.

But before I could take my first bite, there was a scream and a thumping sound from down the hallway.

I looked up from my bed. My ears pricked.

_"Ricky!! Calm down!! Ricky!!"_

"Rrgggh!! What were you thinking?!"

_Down the hallway, in an open room, the dark-haired teenage boy growled and shook his fist at Janice, her roommate, and her roommate's daughter. They cowered from his fury._

_"I needed that for Hector and the others!! You know what they'll do to me when I show up dry?!?!"_

_"It wasn't your money, Ricky!! My roommate, she—"_

"You said we were sharing that stuff alone, you good-for-nothing whore!!!"

"You're making that up!! That's my money and I—"

"SHUT UP!"

_He struck Janice across the face._

_THWACK!!_

"Aaagh!"

_She fell back into her roommate's arms. The little girl was sobbing and trying to hide under the bed._

_"After all I've done for you!!! I gave you a place to stay in this god damn city!! I gave you a roof over your head and you treat me like this?!?!" Ricky shouted in a drunken rage._

"Leave her alone, you tramp," the roommate glared as she hugged a sobbing Janice. "When you're done screwing with her, you so much as think you can rob her of all she's got too? Go to hell, you bum!!"

Ricky glared. Over the sobbing of the little girl he stepped forward and produced a switchblade. THWICK!! "I think I'm gonna enjoy cutting both of your throats out, BITCH!!"

A dark hand materialized with smoky trails around his wrist.

"Huh?!" He looked up.

Black eyes.

SWOOOSH!!

I tossed him like a rag doll through a table. Splinters and a porcelain statue when shattering across the floor and digging into his back.

"Aauugh!!" he moaned.

The girls shrieked.

He convulsed and snaked a hand along the ground to grab his knife.

A foot blurred over and stomped on his wrist. There was a sickening SNAP! sound.

"AAUGH!! GOD!!" he clutched his arm and hobbled up to his feet. A mighty kick in the rear sent him tumbling hard into the hallway. He landed with his back to a dusty wall. His lip and nose were bleeding He winced in pain and gasped as a shadow walked through the hallway towards him. Looming. Ominous.

Every now and then, a soft red glow from the neon sign outside wafted in and shimmered off two, solid black eyes that glared down at him. Again. And again. And again.

He gasped and crawled backwards—limping on his broken hand.

He scrunched himself up against the wall and panted.

I stood over him. The black eyes appeared again in the glow and---

CHIIING!!!

SWOOOSH!!!

A flickering, smoking blade was lowered just an inch away from his Adam's apple. It warbled with a magical, obsidian flame.

_Murk._

"Oh jeez…," he breathed. "Oh jeez…oh jeez…oh jeez!"

He flattened himself against the wall.

A dark wet spot appeared between his legs.

My eyebrows narrowed the empty sockets.

His eyes bulged out.

I slowly lowered the weapon.

Like an undertaker, I stretched my left hand out and pointed straight towards the stairs.

He nodded, got up, and with a stifled cry he bounded down the steps like there was no tomorrow.

And the hallway was silent.

I sheathed Myrkblade. I spun around.

A few residents had poked their heads out of their doors. They regarded me with shock and awe. But not as much as Janice, the roommate, and the little girl. The three stood opposite of me in the doorway to their room. Their mouths dropped. In each other's arms.

I looked at them.

I flicked my arm forth, tossing them a can of food.

Janice awkwardly caught it. She glanced at it and then she glanced back at me.

I smiled. Under the gaze of everyone, I gently walked back to my room and shut the haphazard door behind me.

And they kept staring…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey Rae!" Beast Boy leaned over the dark girl's shoulder. "Whaddya painting?"

She droned. "Never you mind."

"I never knew you could paint!"

"I didn't know you were still alive."

"Hehehehehe……w-was that a threat?"

"Take it as you want."

"Oh…."

Atop the rooftop of the Titan Tower, Raven stood with a canvass and easel. She dipped a black brush into a palette and started forming specks of black and red around the white in some sort of elliptical halo. There was no shape or sense of logic in the painting at that point. Raven didn't even know if there'd ever be.

"So…..um….why are you painting?"

Raven grumbled. "Go away!"

"I'm just asking! Come on! Be friendly for once!"

"Be….QUIET!! for once!" Raven shouted, producing some sort of mystical wind that blew at Beast Boy's hair.

He shook his head and stepped back, whimpering. "Okay….Okay….I can take a hint."

Silence.

Raven sighed and continued dabbing with the brush.

Then……. "I-If you want to talk…..ya know….a-about what happened with you and Mumbo Jumbo's camera….j-just know I'm here for you, kay Rae?"

Raven didn't snap his head off this time. She exhaled slowly, and muttered: "Thanks. Beast Boy. Really. But I have to be alone right now."

"I understand," he said in a solemn—but his normally squeaky—voice. He spun around and headed for the stairwell that lead back downstairs.

Raven sighed and applied more red.

"Come out……come out!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOSH!!

I swung Myrkblade into a pose.

I stood still—in an awkward position—for a prolonged time amidst the tall grass. Green blades danced around my ankles in the Bay breeze by the water.

I exhaled gently…inhaled gently…held my breath and--

THWISSH!!!

I spun and crouched into another position and held it.

My muscles strained.

I sweat.

I concentrated.

Everything felt……………better………

I took a deep breath, summoned smoke energy, and spun again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SWOOOSH!!!_

I froze in a pose with Myrkblade atop the roof of the apartment building. My feet were grounded upon a sheet of tar and interspersed gravel. Behind me—illuminating my figure—were huge neon lights with their back to me, advertising some soft drink or something. The rest of the square footage of rooftop under the night's sky was barren. A metal stack or two jutted up from the floor. Two stairwells reflected each other against the far sides.

_I took another breath, twirled, and jabbed forward with my blade. That done, I let loose a blur of smoke, launched myself backwards, and let loose an intense, horizontal swipe of focused energy and--_

"Hi!" Janice smiled.

My eyes bulged under their shades. I stopped the blade just inches before it could dig into her neck. I jumped back, panting, wiping sweat from my brow.

"Sooooooo," she cutely (soberly) teetered back and forth and eyed my sword. "Are you a……ninja of some sort?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"You're not very talkative, are you?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Because that can come across as scary to some people," she said pleasantly. She leaned forward, pointed towards a stairwell, and whispered: "Like those people who typically come up here every night to enjoy the view but are too plum scared by this newcomer spinning around with a weapon by himself!"

"???" I followed her finger to a stairwell. The door to the roof was cracked open. The curious—paranoid faces of family members, residents, and little children eyed me with curiosity.

I glanced back at Janice.

She giggled. "If you don't mind sharing……"

I had a gasping look of apology on my face. I swiftly sheathed Myrkblade and simpered.

Janice spun around. "It's okay!! You can come out now! He's good!"

There was a throng of muttering as people filed out onto the rooftop. Kids giggled and bounced a ball between each other. A few old folks pulled out lawn chairs which they positioned in the center of the rooftop to gaze up at the sky through the neon light. Over all, everyone was familiar with each other. There were plenty of parents and guardians around for the children.

I smiled with wonder. These poor, stomped-on tenants of the City's underground had a haven of their own up on the moonlit rooftop. I had no idea.

"No harm done," Janice said. "It's not like they're mad at you or anything."

I glanced at her, curious.

"In the past three weeks since you've been here, you've just about thrashed and kicked out every low-life that haunts these peoples' lives! How can you expect poor people like us not to be grateful? And curious?"

_I shrugged._

I turned around and walked towards the side of the rooftop. I stared out into the City skyline with the sounds of chatting adults and giggling childred behind me in the night.

I sighed.

I realized Janice had walked up beside me and joined me at the edge.

"So……are you a ninja?"

I glanced at her, humored.

"Vow of silence and all that jazz?" she straightened a lock of brown hair and leaned on the side. "How mysterious can you get?"

I rolled my eyes and looked away.

She stared. "I-Is it because they're so black that you can wear shades over them at night?" _I jerked a glance at her._

She jumped. "Er…S-Sorry! Touchy subject? I'll go now—"

I waved emphatically. I showed her through expression that it was allright. My gaze then trailed back to the city.

She remained by my side.

"Ya know………um……I wanted to thank you. Ya know……for that night a few weeks back."

I shrugged.

"No really!" she exclaimed. "Ricky was fun at some points……but he's mixed up in all the wrong things. I don't know what made me hang out with him so long. H-He was right about one thing. He brought me to this City."

I glanced at her curiously.

Janice hugged herself and stared off into the stars. "I'm………I'm a runaway. From a very rich family. S-Sounds crazy, I know. I bet you're thinking that I'm another one of these good-for-nothing bum chicks of the street with nothing good to say for themselves except grand fish tails of their fake pasts. But it's true. The Kinnard family of Westhaven. Bigass house and everything. Heh……I went to a preppy school. Girls in blouses and plaid skirts. You would have loved it there."

I chuckled breathily. I was beginning to believe her……

"My parents were…………so good to me. But it wasn't the 'me' that I saw. There was something else I saw in myself. In my future……th-that I wasn't going to get a taste of if I lived in that stuffy mansion for much longer. So……I ran away. I ran away with Ricky. Because what my had wasn't good enough for me. I had to discover the world on my own. Well……heh……I discovered it all right. I discovered it under the fist of Ricky. Pathetic bastard."

I bit my lip and looked away.

She went on. "Now……I-I could go back. It's just that I have a new family in this place and—"

Her voice cut off.

I looked at her again.

She sighed.

"That's a lie. I haven't tried going back because……I'm scared. I'm scared of what my parents would think of me. I'm scared of how much I'll hate myself for ruining my pride so much. It's just……far too late for any reversals, ya know?"

I was silent.

She smiled a weak smile. "At least……even if this place is a dump……I-I'm beginning to think it's a safe dump. Thanks to you."

I smirked back at her slightly. We were suddenly aware of a throng of small bodies surrounding us.

I glanced from under my shades.

The children had gathered around. A parent or two walked over and stood protectively by them, eyeing me curiously.

"C-Can we see your sword again, Mister?" a kid holding the ball stammered.

I looked at their awed faces. I glanced at Janice.

She shrugged. "Not my doing this time!" she giggled and stepped back.

I smirked.

I reached back, and unsheathed Myrkblade in a blur.

SWOOOSH!!

Some jumped back.

Others gasped.

But generally: "Cooooooooool!!"

_Myrkblade warbled with energy. I alternated between converting it to Myrkstaff and back. I spun the blade a few times and phased in and out of smoke form. I smiled._

_"He's got superpowers!!"_

"Look at that!! Awesome!"

And the parents:

"Remarkable……"

"Who is he?"

"How can he do that?"

_I spun the blade around and sheathed it._

People clapped.

A tall man walked forward and offered a hand. "Welcome to our home, tall, dark, and mysterious."

I shook his hand, smiled, sighed, and stared off towards the City's horizon.

_The huge, all-encompassing 'T' glittered against the waters in some distant land…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!!!!

Robin's staff struck me hard in the sternum.

I fell back and landed hard on the mat. My combat staff fell out of my grip. I gritted my teeth, winced for a second, then dropped my head to the mat with a winded sigh.

Robin dropped his staff, groaned, and leaned forward. "Come on, Noir!! You're not even trying!!"

His voice echoed.

Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg—watching from a bench on the gym's sidelines—were silent.

I slowly got up to my knees and rubbed my neck.

"Get with the program!!" Robin exclaimed. "You're supposed to counter and hit me! Not fall down three times in a row!!"

I looked at my feet. Deadpan.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"I do not think….," Starfire murmured, "….that he is 'totally into this', correct?"

"Noir, you okay man?" Cyborg asked. "You look beat, dawg."

I shook my head, sighed, and stood up.

"You gotta try harder, Noir!" Robin exclaimed, spinning his staff into ready. "Don't give me any openings! Trust…your perception! You know you can block attacks more than I can! I don't have that gift of spatial sense! I only have experience! Now…again…let's spar. And I want to see some effort on your part this time!"

"Yes, Noir!" Starfire cheered. "Spin those sticks!"

"Gawd," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "I wish something exciting would happen. Where's Raven when you need a good ounce of sarcastic droll?"

"You actually **want** her here to add boredom to this exercise?" Cyborg remarked.

"Pfft…I think Noir's doing a pretty good job filling up the 'gloom' department!"

I didn't even glance at him. I readied my training staff for Robin's approach.

The Boy Wonder gripped his bludgeon and exhaled: "Go!"

He charged at me.

I stepped back and held my staff out vertically.

CL-CLANK!!

Robin's staff spun into mine, contacting twice.

I side-stepped and blocked a second attack, this from down low.

"That's it, Noir!" Robin said. "Don't let me get a lateral advantage! RRRGH!!" He dove forward with a jab.

I deflected him upwards and sidestepped again.

I kept blocking and blocking and guarding…but not once did I attack.

Beast Boy yawned. "Can this get anymore spectacular? I can hear my intestines digesting."

"Man," Cyborg elbowed the changeling. "Wait till it's your turn with Robin before you start complaining!"

"Dude! I can so own him!"

"Yeah right—"

"Shhhh!" Starfire hissed. "Can you not see that they are spinning the sticks?"

Robin spun around and swung hard at my legs. I hopped to my side and blocked in time to deflect his incoming jab.

"I'm gonna give it all I got!!" the Boy Wonder panted. "You ready?!"

I didn't respond.

"HIIIIYA!!"

A flurry of twirling metal was the result. I gasped and blocked for all I was worth.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

I was being shoved to the back of the gym. I was nearing and nearing the edge of the mat…which would have been an 'out'.

"No chance….," Beast Boy muttered.

"Come on, Noir!!" Cyborg pumped his hand. "Do one of your blur-dash-thingies!!"

I gritted my teeth, trying my meek best to block each of the Boy Wonder's strikes.

Robin grunted and swung and jabbed and gasped: "Damn it, Noir!! Show your stuff!! RRAUGH!!"

He jabbed hard. The metal bounce off my fingers over my staff. A shock of pain rivered up my limbs and into my brain.

I winced.

My eyes clenched shut.

_FLASH!!!_

Trigon's laughter.

A stream of red energy.

Robin flying across the carnival grounds.

_FLASH!!!_

My eyes flashed open.

Robin was coming at me in slow motion.

I noticed for the first time how open he was.

A heated breath surged through me as I blurred to the side, spun, and smacked Robin straight across the chest.

WHUMP!!!

The air flew out of him in slow motion as I spun around and slammed his backside.

THWANG!!!

His body lumbered. His eyemask clenched shut.

I marched toward him, twirling my staff, repeatedly punching Robin's chin with the ends of the metal bludgeon.

WH-WH-WH-WHACK!!!

And I ended in a spinning, reverse jab hard into his side.

BUMP!!!

He was sent tumbling like a rag doll across the map, over towards the benches, and slamming into Beast Boy.

"WHOAH!!!"

KERPLUNK!!

The two sprawled onto the ground.

Robin's staff spun on its end precariously for a second or two before finally dropping to the floor with a metallic echo.

The two boys groaned…Robin most of all.

Cyborg and Starfire gasped, wide-eyed. They glanced over at me.

I panted heavily, holding the rod out lengthwise. A shudder or two went through my body. As soon as I felt my black eyes moistening, I clenched them shut. I shook. I dropped the rod to the mat with a THWUMP and quickly marched out of the gym.

Cyborg stood up and extended a hand. "Noir! Wait! Don't go……where're you….."

I was gone.

Starfire stared. She looked over at the others. "This was not a good time for Noir to train. I dare say almost as much as Raven had to be absent during it."

"Tell me about it," Beast Boy groaned and stood up, rubbing his head. "What's up with berserk boy anyways?"

"I don't know…," Robin wheezed as Cyborg helped him up. "I-I wish he'd open up to us about it!"

"And how do you expect him to do that?!" Beast Boy spat. "The dude's mute, man!"

Everyone was silent.

Cyborg and Robin hung their heads.

Starfire looked off into space…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The dark, red spots were forming shades and textures. Raven let her subconscious guide her as the brushstrokes became truer and truer.

The halo now consisted of dark objects in rings of red. They circled an endless expanse of white. Such insignificant little figures. And yet—between brushstrokes—the dark girl could not help but stare at them.

And wonder….

The Tower shook as Raven felt—from the rooftop—the doors to the entranceway opening again.

She first assumed it was Cyborg taking the T-Car out for a drive. But when she looked down over the edge of the rooftop and her canvass, she saw a familiar figure. Dark and tall. Alone.

One of her eyebrows raised as she watched me wander off down the land ridge towards the city.

The afternoon was slowly dying.

"Can't rest either, huh?" she mumbled and returned to the painting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_In the sunlight I stood silently. Suited up. Dignified._

I waited patiently by the street in front of the funeral home. Watching the traffic.

Finally, I saw it. The hearse.

When there was a break in cars, I walked out and silently held my hands out. I silently and skillfully gestured the driver of the hearse into the thin alleyway that lead into the back parking lot and the rear entranceway through which the body was to be transported into the main chamber.

_And when such was said and done, I placed my hands gently—silently—behind my back and followed._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_A half-hour into the gathering of the deceased in question, I stood still by the podium in front of the doors leading into the chapel. I made eye-contact—through my shades—to the solemn visitors and directed them to sign their name in the booklet. I then quietly led them down the aisle and ushered them into an appropriate seat. Then I returned, waited by the podium, and repeated the whole process._

Again and again and again…with each death.

_That one day, though, there was a straggler. A middle-aged woman in a long, dark dress and holding her purse to herself nervously as she paced about the lounge before the entranceway to the chapel. It was just a minute or two before the hushed services were to begin. And she seemed very………anxious about attending._

Every now and then, she gave me eye contact as if to draw some sort of response. I politely said nothing…but simply stood there—objectively waiting for her to sign in whenever she felt comfortable enough to.

Eventually, however, she shuffled up to me, cleared her throat, and said: "You must be the usher they say can't speak."

I was a little bit surprised by that. Regardless, I smiled ever so slightly and nodded.

"N-Nice to meet you," she stuttered, eyeing the service inside.

I motioned subtly to the sign-in sheet.

She bit her lip. "I………I-I can't," she shook with a hoarse whisper. Then sighed. Then looked up at me. "Charles………I-I knew him……but the last time we met, it was not pleasant. We said so many nasty things to each other. I……I-I never thought he had cancer. I would have been more gentle to him. More……loving during the last time we saw each other alive……"

_I silently stared at her._

She sighed and looked at me. "But……I suppose the worse thing in life to do about death is……look back at loved ones with nothing but regret. Forgetting all the good times………all the so many good times Charles and I had together……" A gentle smile rose across her face and faded just as soon. "My……have the years gone by so fast?"

I leaned my head to the side.

The woman hugged her purse to herself in some childish fashion. "I……feel ashamed to put my name down on that list. And yet, I would feel ashamed not to be here………I-I so want to honor him……his memories……"

I blinked. I smiled. I lifted a finger.

She looked at me.

I grabbed the pen. I lightly—briskly—wrote a name down on the last available line. I turned the book around, held it up, and showed it to her.

She read. She smiled.

_'Jane Doe'._

"Works for me," she said and grinned at me. "Thanks," she whispered.

I shrugged with a smile.

She took a deep breath for strength, stood up straight, and walked into the chapel.

I put the book down back on the podium, folded my hands behind my back, and stood silently.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The manager rubbed his nose over his spectacles. He pulled out an envelope and handed it to me over his desk._

"Here. Paycheck."

I nodded, took the envelope, and performed a little bow.

The balding man sighed and looked up from his office position. His tongue played with his upper lip for a moment before he uttered: "You know……my district manager was in here the other day. He gave me this……impressive speech about his opinion of you. He saw you helping people out in the chapel—wordlessly as always—and had nothing but good vibes. And all from a kid who can't talk and barely makes his wages."

I stared at him, blinking through my shades.

"And I wonder…," he leaned back in his chair. "Where are you going in life, mysterious one?"

I smirked slightly. I shrugged. I made to go--

"Wait." He held a finger up.

I paused.

He stood up and shuffled over to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and looked sincerely in my face. "I've seen where you live."

"……," I was silent.

"And to tell the truth, I was surprised," he said. "And since I was surprised, that shows how much I've grown to appreciate your work here as well, young man. Because……the first day I saw you, I could have sworn you were nothing but a bum. One of those punks on the street, ya know. And yet……after having employed you for these last few weeks……you're not that at all. And yet you live in that decrepit, run down apartment. Why? What good does it do for you to live so low? Surrounded by so many……low lifes and impoverished families barely making it?! What's your goal in that, young man? Y-You honestly have me concerned!"

I stared at him.

Slowly………slowly……a smile came to my face.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_"Ughh!!" a teenage boy was shoved up against a brick wall of a dark alley._

Under the glow of neon lights, two gang thugs grinned and approached him.

"Okay……if you won't pay up…," the lead one gripped the boy's collar and held up a hand with brass knuckles. "You'll bleed up!"

"P-P-Please!!" the boy struggled in his grasp. "I-I don't want anything to do with you guys!! I never did!! It was my br-brother who forced me to hang out with you that one t-time!!"

"And that means," the brass knuckled one sneered. "You saw too much."

He raised his fist.

The boy flinched. "Nnghh—HELP!"

A black wave of smoke appeared on the brick wall overhead.

The two gang members looked up.

"The Hell?!"

I dropped down—materializing into physical form halfway. I kicked the thug hard in the stomach, forcing him to let go of the boy. I glared at them and whipped of my shades. Black eyes glistened in the neon light.

The second thug pointed a shaking hand and gasped. "I-It's that freak from the Norman apartments!! The Black Eyes!"

"He's pulp!" the one thug growled. He swung a brass-full of fist at my face.

My body turned into smoke which swished around his arm.

"Huh?!" he gasped.

_The smoke slid to the side, teleported back into myself, upon which I grabbed his arm, unsheathed Myrkblade, and slammed the hilt into his chest._

"OOOF!!!" He slid back, wheezing.

I swung Myrkblade horizontally.

CH-CHIING!!!

The thug gasped as my blade grazed his arm. His fingers flexed. The brass knuckles had been sliced in half and fell apart. His skin had barely been spared.

I glared at him through my black eyes.

"L-Let's get out of here, man!!"

"We're never coming back!!!"

I slung Myrkblade against the brick wall, forcing sparks to shower.

They ran off, shrieking.

And all was silent in the alleyway.

I sighed and sheathed Myrkblade away.

_The boy tentatively walked up to me. "Th-Thanks," he shook. "I-I think I know where my family and I are moving next," he simpered._

I glanced back at him. I smiled slightly. I started to wander off into the street.

"W-Wait!" He cried out and reached a hand towards me. "Are……a-are you a Titan?"

"???" I spun and looked at him funny.

"Cuz………y-you certainly could be one!" he said, sweating.

I blinked. I slipped my shades on. I gave a thumb's up, and walked off.

He smiled, sighed, and said to no one in particular: "There's hope for this god awful City yet……"

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I sat on the side of the rooftop to my apartment. I smiled at the man next to me as he told some age old story of fishing to me and a few other tenants with cans of beer in their hand. In the distance, children played with the rubber ball in a circle of chatting, smiling mothers on lawn chairs. Janice and her roommate and another friend were smiling and laughing about something._

Above us the stars shone and the neon light glared away, leaving us in dim peace.

In fact, things felt so jubilant, that not many of us immediately noticed the short, hobbling figure of the landlord as he scurried up out of the stairwell door and inquired a group of people about something. Six fingers pointed in my direction. The short fellow bowed his bald head and waddled over towards me.

_The storytellers and beer drinkers drew silent as the man approached. In fact, everyone was quiet and looked my way as the landlord walked up to me, sweating, and grinned a very plastic grin._

"H-H-Hey there, Mister Black Eyes, sir. I-I-I-I just wanted to say….ahem…um…uhm…th-th-thank you for…uhm…p-p-paying the rent on time and uhm……" he eyed Myrkblade resting on the sheathe strapped to my back.

_I cocked my head to the side and grinned._

He sweated instantly and stammered, "A-A-A-And uhm……it was very n-nice of you and……uhm……feel free to h-have as much f-f-fun up here as you can….and….OH! Electricity! I bet you'd like electricity to your room!"

I shrugged.

The people around me chuckled.

"Bathroom……BATHROOM!! Y-Y-Y-You want me to get a guy upstairs t-t-t-t-to clean up the toilet on y-y-your floor?! OH! B-Better yet! Chinese takeout! I-I-I hear you really like their cuisine!"

"It's Japanese, numb nuts!" Janice shouted from the side.

Everyone laughed.

I chuckled breathily.

_"SORRY!!" the land lord grabbed his skull with slimy hands and wobbled. "S-S-S-S-So sorry! Japanese! Japanese takeout!! You l-l-like?!"_

I shook my head. He was practically about to kiss my feet.

_"Um……," the man stammered. He flushed red as he said, "It was………ya know……awfully n-n-nice of you Mr. Black Eyes person sir for……ya know…kinda sorta……ch-chasing out all those intimidating crooks who h-hung around this here apartment of m-m-mine and……um……"_

The tenants around us snickered.

The man coughed. "Beengettingalotofnewcustomers……and um………I l-l-l-like that, Mister. So……so……," he struggled, shook, squinted as if he was constipated and finally blurted: "I'll lower your rent!! I will! I promise! J-J-Just whatever you do, STAY HERE PLEASE!!"

People laughed and clapped.

I smiled. I then turned solemn. I scratched my chin. I then proceeded to point out four or five families I had gotten to know during my stay there. Families whom we all agreed—as an apartment community—needed the most assistance financially.

The landlord's eyes were bulging. "Y-Y-You mean……You want me to l-l-lower their pay too?! B-B-But I can't! Er….well…maybe I can but------WHY?!"

I sighed, shrugged, and turned around. I made like to jump off the side of the building for good.

The landlord wabbled forward, hands emphatically outstretched. "NO!! No no no no no! Please! Stay! I-I-I'll do it! I promise! They'll all g-g-get an easy break! Okay?! Just p-please stay!" He whimpered. "For me?"

I pretended to think about it. I whistled. I finally nodded.

People cheered.

The landlord let out a big sigh relief. He stepped backwards, simpering and bowing his oily head. "I-I-I'll get the paperwork ready! L-Lower rates! Happy apartments! V-Very happy apartments! I assure you! Uh……uhm…b-bye now!"

And he dashed back down the stairwell in a fright, generating much laughter.

A few of the beer men laughed and patted me on the shoulder.

I smiled up at them and jumped back down onto the rooftop. I looked across the way and saw Janice looking at me. She smiled and returned to her friends' conversation.

I stared at her for a while, silent, and once again immersed myself in the fishing stories and the distance laughter of the children and the stars up above.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir??"

There was a sweet voice from behind me. From up above.

"????" I spun around and looked up from where I was in the middle of the land bridge. I did a double-take.

Starfire glided down and landed in front of me. She was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and jacket. Undoubtedly from one of her shopping experiences with Robin.

"Greetings," she waved a hand and smiled sweetly. "I see you are embarking upon one of your evening treks through the city," she said.

I slowly nodded, looking perplexed.

"I was wondering if you wanted someone along for the walk," she smiled.

I sighed. The last thing I wanted right then was company. I just…..had to get away….away from the people I had so recently hurt.

But the way Starfire was looking at me—dressed so casually in earthling attire, her head cocked to the side and her smile ever so friendly and inviting—I felt like saying 'no' to her would have been even more hurtful.

So…with more or less regret, I moaned and motioned her to come along.

She nodded silently and joined my side.

I was rather surprised…not even her trademark 'Glorious!' came out from her lips. She just….silently walked by my side.

I shrugged it off and continued on the land ridge like nobody was with me. Like I was by myself.

But I wasn't….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrghh!! That's not it!!" Raven grunted and all but tossed her brush down.

She stared at the canvass, huffing.

Red spots stared back at her. Formless. Meaningless. Elliptical mysteries of red on black.

She rubbed her stressed forehead. "Something else….**something else!**"

A pause.

She exhaled.

"Of course…"

All that time, she had been concentrating on malevolent energies. When the benevolent ones were….much much stronger.

She realized that there was a space between the red spots large enough for the sudden vision coming to her.

She breathlessly took her brush…and dipped it into the yellow paint of her palette first….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was gradually setting.

Starfire followed me into the depths of the City. The deep, dark depths of the City that I once knew so well. That weighed so heavily on my mind then.

But I had no idea why. Why was I obsessing over the past?

I sighed. I glanced to my side.

Starfire immediately smiled back at me. She said nothing.

Nothing at all.

I trudged on ahead with the Tamaranian in tow.

She said nothing as we explored the Bay Side plaza.

She said nothing as we rounded the mall.

She said nothing as we trekked down Downtown.

Not a single speech. Not a catch phrase. Nothing about her home planet or anything.

She just…followed me. Silent. Mute.

My mind started spinning.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I sat inside my window, one leg propped on the edge of a neon's sign metal frame and my hand leaning against the window sill. I stared out over the thundering L-Track at the night sky from my apartment. Stars twinkled above, and a moon shown in pale glory. Below, the skyline glowed with urban splendor._

I took a deep breath.

Silent footsteps shuffled up behind me.

I didn't look.

I simply motioned towards the next window beside me.

Janice softly padded over and sat on the window sill, looking out.

"You're the type who likes to………look at things, aren't you?"

I looked at her. I smiled. I nodded and again gazed out at the city.

"…," Janice chuckled. "Guess it's because you can't talk. You spend all your days listening until your ears get worn out. So your eyes just do the next best thing and become a big part of you."

_"……………," I stared out the window. A light breeze blew at my black locks._

"Are you……ever going to tell someone how they got the way they are?" she asked.

I didn't respond.

Janice's eyes slowly traced my shaded gaze out the window and towards a distant, glowing 'T' in the waters beyond the City.

I sighed.

She glanced at me. She smiled. "That's where you should be, ya know."

I finally looked at her.

"Not here," she smiled. "Not in this dump."

I glanced down. My eyes slowly circled and found the Tower in the distance again.

_"I-I never thought I'd meet a hero up close," she mused. "Especially one who……stays true to the code of protecting those around him."_

I blushed.

She giggled. "Hey, I got you something."

I looked at her strangely.

"It's not much……but……," she lifted a bag.

_Curious, I took it, reached inside, and pulled out a drawing pad and colored pencils._

She teetered back and forth, arms behind her back. "I……used to draw. It was gonna be my major at the college my parents wanted me to go to. I-I guess I have a gift for coloring."

I smiled.

"W-Want me to sketch something for you?" she asked.

I pointed at myself.

"Hehehe…anything you want. Just don't get me in trouble. I'm under eighteen."

I winked under my shades. I thought.

She cocked her head and looked at me.

I raised a finger and motioned her to my side of the window sill.

"All right!" she smiled.

I took a piece of paper and a brown pencil—assuming she wasn't going to use it. I wrote down a few sentences and showed it to her.

"Good idea," she nodded. "You write down at commission, and I'll draw along. See? We both make use of the pencils!!"

I chuckled.

She read the first paragraph I wrote.

"Okay……I think I can do that."

She propped the pad of paper on her knee……and took out a yellow pencil.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven's brush strokes cascade down in a gentle, dome like fashion. She surprised herself in how rugged the lines of yellow appeared. There was no simple order to it. There was, rather, a chaos. A very aesthetic chaos.

It took her a good minute of stroking and adding in thin lines of black paint before she realized she was…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Sketching a head of hair._

Blonde hair.

Janice licked her lips and pivoted the pad to the side. She took both a gray and black pencil and alternated between the two as she…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…fine tuned a gentle, round face. Petite and pretty.

Complete with a button nose and thin lips and gentle eyes…..

Raven lingered.

Her hand shook as she pulled the brush over, and dabbed into the blue paint…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Angel eyes formed before the rest of the face was sketched into existence._

A gentle neck sloped down much longer than Janice thought.

This girl was actually tall…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

With thin but firm arms slipping out of a thick, yellow vest.

One hand held up to gracefully part a few, golden bangs.

Raven was glad she had saved the details on the mouth for last, for she left a tiny slit of white canvass to signify a tiny, toothed smile of sweetness.

She then dipped her brush into the green paint and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…_drew long, jump pants that stretched down the supple length of the blonde girl's legs._

The outfit—the vest and the pants—were rugged and yet gracefully feminine all in itself. It was a paradox…lovely enough for even Janice to ponder during her sketching.

Lastly came two humorously large boots and a long, slender—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…wooden sword.

Raven blinked. She let her hand finish the paintstrokes.

Alas, the blonde girl was holding a sword.

A wooden…Japanese-looking sword.

She inhaled deeply, staring at the canvass in the waxing daylight of summer.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"There……," Janice smiled and held it up for me to see._

I took a deep breath. Admittedly, there was moisture at the edges of my black eyes.

I couldn't dare let Janice see that.

She glanced at the painting, then back at me. She smiled gently.

"Old girlfriend?"

I looked at her.

I leaned my head to the side, bashfully shrugged.

"She is, isn't she?"

I chuckled.

She giggled.

I sighed.

She sighed.

A beat.

"Was?"

_I looked away._

Janice winced. She cleared her throat and studied the sketch closely. She smirked, looked at me, and pointed at the sword.

"I can see what you both have in common."

I nodded.

"It's amazing……what mysteries one's past can have, huh?"

I looked at her curiously.

"Never mind me," she chuckled. "Just rambling." She stared at the painting and her mind drifted. "I-I've been thinking…"

I cocked my head to the side and listened to her.

"My parents……they must think I'm dead……or worse," she said.

I nodded.

She glanced at me. "And………m-maybe I should go back to them after all……"

I smirked.

"D-Don't get me wrong!" she emphasized. "I'm happy to be here with so many wonderful people and your protection and all……i-it's just that…………I think I know now where I should be. I think I know now………where I always should have been."

I patted her shoulder.

She blushed. She smiled.

"Yeah……the past…it really helps remind us where we should be."

I nodded.

She sighed.

She held up the sketch and winked. "Does she have a name?"

I rubbed my chin……considering the necessary to reveal it.

Janice stared at me patiently.

I gave in. I motioned for a pencil.

She handed it to me.

I took it in hand, held the pad up, and wrote three letters on the paper…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'A……..N……….A…….'

Raven finished her brush stroke.

She paused and looked at it.

"Ana……..," she breathed. She blinked off towards the horizon. "Who's Ana??"

A pause.

A brush of wind.

Raven's blue eyes twitched.

She looked up—her dark bangs swinging—and gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_BOOM!!!_

The apartment shook.

Janice jumped up.

So did I.

_The picture of the blonde swordswoman drifted to the grimy floor between us._

Janice stammered. "The roof!!"

I looked towards my bed.

Myrkblade!

I dashed over, grabbed it, and blurred away.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Parents, tenants, children backed up on the rooftop, gasping._

From the side—in front of the neon sign—Ricky looked up. He his nose was bloated and infected. Still red. He snickered. By his side, a dozen black and brown androids stomped forward at attention. Their white eyes glowing.

"Guess who's back?!" he snickered. "And I remind you…there are still gangs in this town that recognize the power of Slade!" He hissed. "And when my friends and I don't like the lack of respect from this district of Town……neither does Slade."

The people murmured fearfully, eyeing the robotic henchmen who leered at them.

Ricky and a bunch of other gang members finished climbing up the side of the building and jumped down onto the rooftop. Together, they palmed bats and lengths of chain and knives. All the victims of a certain, ghostly hero's vigilante escapades.

And they were back with revenge and with _**help**__._

_"Let's paint this place red!!" Ricky shouted._

The robots charged forward.

The people shrieked, cowered, and ran away.

The first in the line of Slade's androids reached for a little boy who had tripped. Razor sharp fingers.

SWOOOOSH—SLASH!!!

It's robotic arm was severed off.

After landing, I spun around with a vertical slash of Myrkblade.

The torso of the robot split in to. Pieces of sparking bolts and wires spilled out everywhere.

_The human gang members gasped._

Ricky grit his teeth and pointed at me. "YOU!!!"

I glared at them, holding Myrkblade at ready.

"You think you own this town, punk. THERE ARE HIGHER POWERS AT WORK THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE!!!"

_Mutterings._

Fearful cries.

The distant thunder of the L-Train.

I had spent well over a month turning this urban Hell into a Heaven.

I. Was. Not. Backing. Down.

_I reached a free hand up and motioned for them to come._

Ricky's eyes widened…shocked.

Janice rushed up the stairwell and watched from the position of the other tenants and onlookers.

Another gang member marched up to Ricky's side and waved a baseball bat. "Nuts to you, shithead!! You can't take us all on at once!! Especially when we got Slade backing up the rulers of this block!!"

I glared. I motioned again.

"Be that way!!" Ricky shouted. "I'm gonna be sucking the blood from your severed neck! GET 'EM!!!"

They all charged.

Slade's robots first.

I gripped my shades and flung them hard to the ground.

Black eyes glistened.

The thugs shouted at the top of their lungs.

The robots raised razor-sharp claws.

I charged Myrkblade

_The sword flickered with dark Destruction._

_The two fronts converged in the center of the rooftop._

I held my breath…and blurred.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

My body spun, formed a human tornado, and slashed Myrkblade straight out in a monstrous spiral straight into the opposing rush of robots.

Sparking limbs, heads, and scraps of metallic skin flew.

Ricky gasped as I tore through the onslaught Slade had to offer, spun to a stop, and grabbed him by the collar.

He winced, expecting his head to come off.

Instead I kicked him hard into the rush of thugs coming my way.

WHUMP!!

"OOF!!

"UGH!!"

"DAMN IT!!"

No sooner, I dodged a lacerated swipe from one of the robots, backflipped, landed on the shoulders of a thug, and dove towards in a horizontal spin, hacking off two android arms and landed with a slide along the rooftop.

One severed limb slid with me.

As two thugs charged at me—throwing a bottle and a knife—I deflected their weapons, kicked the robotic limb up in the air, and batted it into their skulls.

CLANG!!

They fell down.

A robot jumped behind me and grabbed my shoulders.

I summoned murk, teleported behind it, and slashed it straight through the stomach.

CRUNCH!!!

With the robot skewered on my wooden blade, I let out a silent scream and charged at the throng of enemies.

The gang members dodged to the side, many tripping over each other.

_The robots, I plowed through…and some I managed to knock over the side of the building so that they crunched to oblivion in the hard streets below._

Ricky came at me from behind with a baseball bat.

I shredded my sword out of the skewered robot and slashed at him.

Ricky screeched to a halt and suddenly looked at a baseball bat sliced in two. "Holy sh—"

I kicked him in the chest again and spun around just in time to ward off a handful of robots and chain-swinging thugs.

_Janice and the other residents watched fearfully. Some cheered. Most gasped._

I slashed and I parried and I attacked and I defended the rooftop with all my might. But soon, even my energy was wearing down.

After slashing off a robot arm, one thug clipped me in the side.

I let out a gasp and slumped to my knees.

I winced. I looked up with twitching black eyes.

My neighbors watched me with jaws dropped. There were even some tears on their faces.

The people I protected.

Janice brought a hand to her cheek.

My black eyes widened.

I saw the blonde swordswoman for a second.

I gritted my teeth and, screamed silently, and blindly jabbed Myrkblade behind me just in time to slide through the groin of an incoming robot.

Janice cheered.

I exhaled, flipped backwards, and spiraled down with my blade shredding the robot in half. As I landed on the other side, the pile of metal split in two, and I fought through the urban army with renewed strength.

_Two minutes later, half of Slade's henchmen were lying in pieces, and most of the thugs were either lying on the ground unconscious or running off._

But a good number still remained.

And I was out of breath.

I slumped down in the middle of the rooftop, gripping Myrkblade, panting……painting……panting……

Sweating.

Ricky got up, winced, and smirked. He walked forwards and pointed a switchblade at me.

_I gritted my teeth._

_"Know your god, freak," his eyes winced. "Know your god……"_

"No!!" someone in the crowd shouted.

My ears pricked…for I heard something else in the air. In the cold night, something metallic was flying this way………

_Swish-Swish-Swish-Swish-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!!!_

_"AUGH!!" Ricky grabbed his hand as the blade was knocked violently out of his grasp. "What the?!"_

The two of us looked at the projectile in question. It had imbedded in the floor of the rooftop. It was metal, curved, and shaped in the razor-edged likeness of a red bird.

"No……," Ricky shuddered.

Slade's robots looked up. _**"Teen Titans!! GO!"**_

_A shadow swung down onto the roof. A caped shadow._

My jaw dropped.

Neon light cast upon the legendary Boy Wonder as he jumped and sailed a kick into Ricky's stomach.

"HIIIIIYA!!!"

_WHUMP!!!_

"OOF!!" Ricky flew off and landed in a pile of thugs in the distance.

Four more shadows descended. Some floating. Others stomping. All kicking ass. The thugs' ass. The robots' ass. Hell, my ego's ass.

The Teen Titans……

I jumped to my feet as I watched them engage the enemy from afar.

I spun around, holding Myrkblade.

The confused, concerned populace looked from them and back at me.

I sheathed Myrkblade and ran over, motioning them to head downstairs.

Janice got the idea. "Quickly!! This way!!" she pushed and guided the tenants down the stairwell.

People muttered and clamored for the exit.

I took the rear, guarding against any stray thug or robot that might try to attack a few stragglers.

I was the last to duck down in the stairwell. But before doing so, I got a good look at the battle. The beauty of it all. The wonder.

_Not mine……_

I smiled and slammed the door shut behind me.

This was a job for true heroes………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sunset was getting late. The sky red. The traffic less and less dense.

I walked slowly along the sidewalk.

I listlessly glanced to my right.

Again, Starfire was walking next to me.

Again, she was smiling.

And again…….she was absolutely quiet.

And—to be honest—I couldn't have asked for more.

I smiled slightly and looked ahead. My heart skipped a beat.

The funeral home………

My path grew slower as we both walked by it. In fact, I almost stopped altogether. Starfire glanced curiously at me, full of innocent curiosity. She studied the front of the funeral home with round, green eyes.

I took a deep breath.

To form the common cliché, it **did** feel like yesterday.

I was about to go on my way when my eyes noticed the black marquis built into the side of the entrance as always. A huge gasp escaped my lips. A gasp big enough to startle even Starfire.

She almost said something…but even then, she held back for some important reason.

I rushed over to the marquis and red the white, plastic letters on it a second time…a third time…a fourth…

Starfire read over it. She glanced at me.

My heart was falling…plummeting. My face turned pale under the shades. I briskly—but quietly—stepped through the familiar doors of the funeral home and inside the lounge.

Starfire played catch up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"You didn't even……say 'hi' to them……," Janice marveled._

The two of us stood at the end of a relieved group of tenants huddled in the hallway. Hours after the rooftop battle, and we were all still recovering. I had hidden myrkblade and was in the most casual attire I had afforded at that time. I blended right into the crowd. Nobody knew these black eyes except my closest neighbors.

_"They came and saved us all……just like you did," she said. "They were so close……so close to another hero. And you didn't lift a finger to grab their attention!"_

I blushed. I smiled, kicked at a bit of dust on a nearby staircase step and shrugged.

Janice smiled and shook her face. "Humble to the core. Lemme guess……you're just 'not ready' yet to grab their attention?"

I nodded. It was true.

"That's unfortunate," she lowered her eyes. She chuckled. "I suppose……as it stands……you're too dark and mysterious to join their ranks right now. Too shadowy. Too noir……"

_I snapped my eyes up at her. I stared._

"What??" she giggled.

I smiled and mouthed 'Noir………'

_"You like that word or something?"_

I mouthed it again. I chuckled breathily.

"No matter," she sighed. "I'll be leaving soon," Janice said.

I mouthed 'Oh?'.

_"Yeah…back to my parents place……," she smiled cutely and crossed her fingers. "Here's hoping."_

I nodded with a grin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked numbly through the atrium of the funeral home. There was a service taking place. No casket this time…it must have been a cremation. Starfire softly padded behind me, but I paid no attention to her. My eyes and ears were tuned in on the eulogy as I took a seat in the back. My mouth still agape.

The man spoke in a podium, surrounded by pictures of a brown-haired teenager in various poses of happiness, smiles, and beauty. The people in attendance seemed rich. Preppy. Foreign to this City……

"It was Janice Kinnard's personal will to be honored in this City," the man spoke. "It was shortly after her return home to Westhaven from the Eastern District here in Town that she was diagnosed…and her last days were spent donating to AIDs funds around the state. She even invested her own…college funds. She wanted to be an artist…and family and friends say she drew with a genius never before seen. But before her brave last hours, she painted pictures much more beautiful than any pen or paintbrush could stroke. She painted with the generosity of her heart. And for such…we shall always remember her…"

About the time Starfire found a seat beside me, I had completely buried my face in my hands. I randomly peaked out through shaking hands and saw from under my shades Janice's frozen face. Her eternal smile. That bleakest of bleak existence that I once knew…that I once saved…like all the others I tried saving.

I took a deep shuddering breath.

Starfire looked at the eulogizer….the mourning people in the seats….the photos of some strange, lost girl…then she glanced at me.

My lips quivered. I sighed and stared up at the familiar ceiling of this haunted place where I once worked. And I thought about all the broken lives that once giggled and chased little red balls and shared fish stories around me. Urban ghosts dancing alone forever on abandoned rooftops in their own little microcosms, forgotten forever by all these freakin' people who live their lives not caring, not feeling, not wondering what it means to hurt and be hurt and want and be wanted and hunger and be hungered for…

All these emotions swam up inside me and met the damn blockade that had been clawing into my heart since the last three days. I hiccupped and looked over at Starfire, wounded.

And after hours of silence, the Tamaranian girl suddenly had the magic words to say.

"After Raven was….fixed….I expressed my deepest apologies to Robin," she whispered ever so politely. "And that is when I realized how silly it was to feel bad for everything. At times, I may hurt people…meaning to or not meaning to. But I cherish the fact that my one chief concern in life…my one focus on this lovely planet you call Earth is to protect others and maintain their lives above my own. No episodic possession…no demonic force is ever going to distract me from what my heart tells me is the truth that I fight for, no matter how violent the attack may have been."

My lips quivered. My eyes moistened as I looked at my fellow Titan.

Starfire smiled. "Forgive yourself, Noir…," she breathed. "The heavens bear witness…the rest of us have."

I shook my head. But everything was collapsing. Starfire had a face…she always had a face. That angelic look that preached to me in sickening soft screams the beautiful reality of a transient good that's so hard to touch and feel and see these days that I nearly plummet into the abyss of my own despair. Everything was shattered by her simple innocence and through a painfully beautiful hole my teammate reached to me and massaged the rough wounds out of my heart that Trigon had left.

And I cried. I cried because I realized once again as in so many times why I agreed to join the Titans in the first place. I was being born again…and it tore me apart.

I leaned on her gentle shoulder as she hugged me…and stained her jacket with my tears. She smiled, lowered her eyes, and stroked the back of her friend.

"Something tells me you saved her, Noir," she whispered. "Much like you have and will continue to save us…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nighttime…

Raven sat in the kitchen unit of the Main Room. She sipped from herbal tea.

Robin wandered up behind her. He gave her a glance, then looked across the room at a sofa. He walked over and picked up a painting that was resting there. He studied it closely.

A beat.

"……….who's Ana?"

Raven took another sip, swallowed, and breathed: "I don't know."

Robin eyed the sword in the illustrated girl's grasp.

"Looks Noirish…."

"Mmmmhmmmm."

Silence.

Raven swiveled around. "Robin…," she asked.

The Boy Wonder put the painting down and looked at her. "Yes, Raven?"

She fought for words…fidgeted…then mumbled. "The Pacific Case…..did you ever stop researching it?"

Robin seemed surprised by that inquiry. "Well……I………uhm….."

"Did you?" she inquired more forcefully.

"Well….I started it when he first joined us but now….," his voice trailed. He cleared his throat. "D-Do you think….Raven…that we must go back to it?"

Raven looked at the painting. She looked past the blonde swordswoman and at the obscure specks of red on black. She sighed.

"Yeah…."

Robin solemnly nodded. "Okay….," he said quietly. "Tomorrow….first thing in the morning…..I'll get to it."

Raven lowered her eyes. "And I'll help you…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and I walked all the way home on the land bridge.

The stars shone over us.

I was deadpan.

At some point, Starfire smiled and hopped by my side, hooking her arm around mine.

I couldn't help it. I smiled at my friend.

She giggled, her eyes shut tight.

We went along in such a fashion towards the tall, glittering structure of the Tower.

But when almost at the doors, I turned around and stared across the Bay….across the City…at a distant speck of neon lights atop a run-down apartment building…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Janice stopped at the stairwell._

She turned around with her backpack hoisted behind her shoulder.

She waved at me.

I waved from the hallway, smiling.

She giggled and trudged off…out the door……on her way home.

The darkness swallowed her gently up.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_On a cold night…when the wind howled……when the rooftop was empty…_

A dark figure in a militaresque jumpsuit stepped up to the edge of the building side.

_His eyes were solid black._

Hanging over his shoulders was an ornamental scabbard.

He pulled out a bandanna and tied it around his forehead, pinning down his long black hair that danced into the wind.

After a pause for breath and meditation, he whipped out a wooden sword—flickering with dark justice—and blurred down into the streets of the City.

_A streaking shadow._

_Mysterious and noir. _


	52. Wildcard

**52. Wildcard**

There was a beeping sound from the other side. Muffled. Sharp.

Following was a beat, then a hiss as an abandoned door slid open for the first time in weeks. A layer of dust flew up from the floor as the room was opened. A caped crusader and a robed girl stood with black silhouettes against the amber hall outside. They stepped in on clanking metal floors, the caped one reaching to the side and flipping a switch.

A pale blue light flickered to light above them as the door closed behind.

It was a converted utility closet, presently stacked to the brim with computers and filing cabinets. All the monitors were off and the keyboards were littered with printouts and maps and other bits and pieces of information. Stretched against the wall was a bulletin board with maps and articles from the Pacific West Coast of North America. More or less, everything seemed to dangle about a single subject matter.

And for some reason…the door had been closed off to everyone's access except Robin's…

"Can you make sense out of all this mess?" Raven asked, her blue eyes dotting around the room's interior.

"You bet I can," Robin said, sitting down at a chair, switching on a computer tower, and shaking it to life. "But as soon as I make sense out of it, I realize there's nothing to make sense of."

"What do you mean?"

The Boy Wonder sighed and leaned back in his chair as the monitor hummed awake. "The furthest I got was about random sightings in regions between Northern California and Alaska. All along the West Coast."

"Sightings of what?"

A beat.

Robin swiveled and faced her. "Why…lightning fast shadow people with swords."

Raven nodded.

Robin swiveled back and typed away as soon as the DOS prompt became clear. "It took me almost all of the first month of Noir's stay with us to come to these loose ends."

He finished a keystroke. A list of files shorted down…quite abbreviated.

He sighed and leaned his chin on his gloved hand. "Eyewitness accounts…surveillance testimony…but no names. No places. No fixation or center of all of these sightings. Just…local, urban legend. If there was more people like Noir out there, either they're gone now or he was the only one in that location and thus all the sightings died out after he walked East and found us."

"So you believee there is nothing further to search?" Raven asked.

"Unlike any hero I've ever worked with…," Robin muttered, "…Noir is practically untraceable. I fear the only way this detective's apprentice who sits before you can make any progress is if I asked him about his past myself!"

Raven stared off into space. "But he won't tell us……"

A beat.

"Well…..we do have clues," Raven said.

Robin glanced at her. "Care to elaborate?"

"We know his real name now, Robin," she emphasized, eyes narrow.

Robin shook his head. "No. No. Raven, the Confidentiality Agreement—"

"Robin…."

He stared at her.

Raven sighed. A beat. "When Rage reentered me….and Trigon too…..I felt the normal wave of evil that I must always deal with and suppress within my being. But also I've been feeling things that do not belong to my demon father. Negative emotions attributed to memories that neither him or I have."

"You think you absorbed a little of Noir's psyche?" Robin asked.

She nodded. "There is something very……very dark inside of him. Inside his past."

Robin shrugged. "We all have our secrets. I for one have my own secret identity—"

"Robin…," Raven spoke. "I sincerely…whole-heartedly believe that the secrets Noir is keeping is more than your usual secrets." A pause. "I think it may even be enough for us to be concerned about."

"Like…..h-how concerned?" Robin raised an eyebrow over his mask.

Raven stared at him. "Have you forgotten so soon, Robin? Have you forgotten how dangerous it is to trust a newcomer?"

That bit hard. Robin sighed. His eyemask thinned as he stroked the bridge of his nose and moaned, "You don't need to remind me about Terra, Raven. We were all hurt by her. Hurt very bad—"

"Because of trust."

Robin was silent.

So was Raven……until: "I know that Noir has done a lot for us. He's proven that he's a great team player and values our lives. But even Terra valued our lives once. And even she was willing to share her past with us. Robin…Noir is a dark and disturbed boy underneath. I can sense it now. Whatever he is hiding…it makes him dangerous. And when there's danger and mystery thrown together in his past, he is still the same now as he was when he first fought alongside us. A wildcard."

Robin muttered lowly to no one in particular: "Why did I let this rest for so long…."

"We all let it rest," Raven said. There was a touch of hurt in her otherwise deadpan eyes. "We have all forgotten….that pain."

Robin shook his head and sighed. "L-Let's not jump to conclusions. Noir's a good person, okay!"

"No doubt about that."

"We'll look into him more just…..n-no false presumptions, allright?"

"By all means."

Robin looked at Raven for a moment. "You're not doing this because—for a short time—Noir was practically your father, are you?"

She glared in response.

Robin cleared his throat, swiveled to face the monitors and typed away. "This is gonna take a long time…"

"Type in the first clue…," Raven said with a nod. "'Jordan'."

"And is there a second?"

"…………..yes. 'Ana'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**Dear Noir,**_

_**Back to your normal self, I hope. Good. Cuz I've got a lot of pressing issues on my head. I can't help it, but…I have this feeling. This very bad feeling about what's going on all around us. It's like a sudden, cold shift in the air. There's a downdraft that's about to happen. I don't know what storm it will bring or cyclone it might summon. But it's something to fear. Something to be ready for. And prepared for. And I worry the most about you, Noir. Because somehow I feel as though you may be in the center of it. Things are all swirling about in complexity and chaos and yet forming some sort of spectacular, nature-defying order. If you don't understand all of this, that's fine. I frankly don't have enough time to explain. Not now.**_

_**Just stay tuned. I'm quickly trying to sort everything out for myself. I have my eye on you as always. Not like THAT, you freakin' pervert. Just be aware that—no matter what—I'm on your side. I won't betray you, because—believe me—betrayal is such a terrible, terrible thing. I suggest you be on the lookout for your friends.**_

_**Sincerely,**_

_**-the Messenger.**_

_**P.S.: Oh…to liven things up a bit. I put an attachment on this e-mail for you. Press the print button. Go on, click it. I think you'll enjoy. **_

"????" I raised an eyebrow.

I moved the mouse of the Main Computer across the screen and clicked on 'print'.

I swiveled over in the chair towards the printout and watched as the paper went through like a fax. I chuckled instantly and rolled my black eyes as I saw what came out.

A full-spread, rather provocative illustration of Supergirl in her red, white, and blue costume stretched out before me.

I blushed a little and looked over my shoulder. Cyborg was making a sandwich in the kitchen area. Beast Boy was in the middle of an Xbox game.

I whistled innocently and hid the poster. I then deleted the e-mail, got up, and walked out of the Main Room in a prude search for the first wastebasket I could find.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

….My 'search' for a wastebasket ended up with me in the dark confines of my cellar room.

I walked inside and as soon as the door closed behind me, I froze.

I blinked under my shades.

I glanced down at my hands.

I still had the Supergirl printout in my grasp.

I winced. I looked across the room and found a wastebasket. I was about to crumple the thing up when---I paused. I glanced at it a second time. I shrugged.

Walking over, I taped Supergirl to my wall between lanterns.

I took off my shades, stepped back, and looked with bare, black eyes.

Supergirl flew straight up towards the ceiling—freezing mid way.

Silence.

I sighed.

I yanked the poster down, ripped it in half, and tossed the shreds away.

I headed out of my room and back up the stairs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Typing.

Typing.

Typing.

-click-

"Nope…," Robin sighed as he reached a bottom of a list of photos and names. "No photos of anyone named 'Jordan' in the locations of the sightings that look like Noir."

"And 'Ana'?"

"Negative. Nothing in the city records, high school albums anything. I suppose we could do a search of the greater area of the Pacific Coastline…but that would take forever." A sigh.

Raven nodded. "Any chance of programming the computer to do a search of such magnitude for us?"

"Theoretically, yeah," Robin nodded. "I'll get to work on it. But something tells me that if Cyborg were to help me, the job would get done sooner."

"…….," Raven was silent.

"Something wrong?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"Are you certain it is okay to get the others into this?" Raven inquired.

"Why not?" Robin said. "If Noir's past is important to us, then certainly it is important to the rest of the team as well."

"I don't want them to know that we are doing this again," Raven shook her head. "I don't want to rouse suspicions."

"Suspicions of what, Raven?"

She looked down.

Robin scooted over and looked up at her eyes. "Raven…is there something you're not telling me?"

"I-I've told you everything that I have……that I-I have felt," she said. "…not until just recently could I feel anything about anybody. Thanks to my dispersed personalities, I had a chance to see everyone in a true light. And at that particular moment, Noir struck me as odd in a manner that I had never sensed before. It is….unfortunate that I am so pressed to pursue these premonitions…but…no matter how nice he is—or appears to be—I cannot ignore them."

"You feel paranoid that you could be wrong?" Robin asked.

The dark girl nodded.

"We can always be wrong, Raven," Robin said. "Lord knows, we have been wrong. In the past."

"With Terra….," Raven mumbled.

Silence.

"But that was different," Robin shook his head.

"You're sure?"

The Boy Wonder looked at her. "No. I'm not." He swiveled around and faced the computer again. "That's what we're here for, though. To make sure. To be sure."

Raven thought for a moment on her own. Her eyes squinted as she searched her mindscape. She suddenly hit something and walked up besides Robin.

"In any of those old eyewitness accounts…," she asked. "Were any of the sword-carrying shadows described as being……'feminine'?"

Robin lifted an eyebrow. "'Ana'?"

"Something to that extent."

"Hold on…," Robin said, entering a search through the handufl of eyewitness accounts. "It's been a while since I've read those testimonials word for word. I'll have the computer check it out."

"There are so many different accounts of these 'shadows' on the West Coast, right?" Raven said.

"Yeah…."

"Too many to be one person?"

"Perhaps."

"It's worth considering," Raven said. "From what I sense…Noir may have a mysterious past. But it need not be a lonely one."

Robin typed away.

He hit one last key.

-click-

Two listings came up.

"Here," Robin said, highlighting one and going towards a particularly conspicuous piece of the text. "'Figure most likely female. Short hair. Face unknown under the shade of night….'"

He brought up another file. "'I watched as the figure hopped the fence and darted off through the field. She was wearing a yellow vest….'"

Raven's eyes brightened slightly. "The painting…the vision I saw….she had a yellow vest."

"Looks like you may have gotten a snapshot in time from Noir's head, Raven…," Robin thought aloud, scratching his chin.

"Where were those two sightings located?"

"Good point. Let me check."

Robin brought up a map of the Northwest.

Two blinking lights appeared in the corner.

"Washington State….," he uttered.

Raven stared at the map. She blinked. She held a hand out, pointing: "Bring up all the sightings' locations."

"All of them?"

She nodded.

Robin typed.

A string of lights appeared all along the Pacific Coast.

"I have a hunch….," Raven said.

"I'm listening."

"See if there's a contrast between the sightings north of Washington State and those South of it."

"Interesting…let's see if we come up with anything."

As Robin typed, Raven's eyes traced the dusty floors.

She sighed gently.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through a hallway, my hands in my pockets.

Lazily…

Aimlessly…

It was a dull afternoon. There was no place to go. Nothing important to do.

I stared at my feet through glazed shades.

Sighing.

The Messenger's words rang through the distance of my mind….

The metal of the floor seemed odd all of the sudden.

I raised an eyebrow. I looked up and realized I had drifted to a seventh floor room of the Tower that I rarely visited. In fact, I didn't even remember that particular hallway at the time.

God……this place is so big……

I stopped in front of one particular door that struck my eye. I squinted through my shades and studied the surface of the frame. The door seemed…fresh. Sparkly. As if it had barely been used during its life here in the Tower.

Must really be an unpopular part of the Tower……

I walked forward. I looked at the door closely. Curiosity took over. I pressed the panel to open it.

Nothing happened.

Confused, I pressed again.

Nothing.

The door didn't even budge.

I looked over at the panel. I firmly tugged at it. The panel popped out of the room and—dangling by wires—I spotted a number pad inside. I pulled the pad out of the wall and inserted the four-digit, universal Titan passcode for opening medium level doors.

Finally, the room opened to me with a fresh hiss.

Dust flew, and I knew then that the place hadn't been untouched.

I waved a hand in front of my shades and peered in.

There was a huge window stretched out and facing the afternoon cityscape. Light blue light filtered in and dimly brought to life a small but artistically lavish room. The first thing that entered my head was 'desert'. The bed ,carpet and furniture was the color of a night-dark violet. The walls rose up in tiers of desert-beige colors, shaped to look like mountains and plateaus. Finally the ceiling melted down with a dark violet similar to the floor, but speckled with pinpricks of white to represent a starry, night sky. The only thing missing was a cactus plant potted in the corner. I glanced over not a second too late and realized that the room even had those too.

It was a bedroom…a living quarters. And yet…for whom?

My eyes scanned the room…and froze.

There was something on the bed.

I walked over…squinting in the faint sunlight.

I came to a stop at the edge of the mattress.

Settled neatly in the center of the bedspread was a heart-shaped case. Ivory and reflective. Like it was carved out of a mirror…or something. Anyways, it was pretty…even if it looked homemade.

I reached a curious hand down and fingered the top. I opened it, and saw my reflection in the upside-down heart of the lid's interior. Then something caught my eye. I tilted my head to the side and became aware of the image of a huge, green bear charging up from behind me.

GRASP!!!!

My heart jumped as two burly paws grabbed my shoulder and flung me wildly across the room. I flipped and landed on my feet, upon which I literally slid in a crouched position through the room and out into the middle of the hallway. I sweatdropped and watched—shocked—as the green bear shrunk down into a green elf that stomped towards me, frowning so hard his face nearly caught fire.

"What were you DOING in that ROOM?!" Beast Boy fumed. "Nobody…NOBODY goes into that room!!"

I stood up, panting, gesturing in mad confusion.

"Do you hear me?!?!" he shook, incredibly upset. "That room is off limits!!! Wasn't it obvious when you found the door locked?!?! I don't ever want to see you in there again!!"

He slammed his fist madly against the wall console and the door slammed automatically close.

BANG!!!!

"Man!!" Cyborg muttered as he rounded the corner. "What's all the clatter about---" He blinked and stopped in mid-step. "Beast Boy? What's up?"

"I caught him inside The Room," Beast Boy growled. He glared daggers at me—a suddenly hideous creature—and stomped off down the hallway.

I took a deep breath and looked at Cyborg in absolute shock. I gestured madly at him.

He didn't answer immediately. His eyes were gazing gently on the slammed-shut door. It wasn't until then that I realized I had trespassed some sort of precious sanctuary. Beast Boy could yell as loud as he wanted to, and still it wouldn't drive the message in hard enough. Seeing the pain in Cyborg's eyes made me want to lobotomize myself with a toothpick and forget every forbidden shape and shadow that crossed my vision as I so recently entered that room.

The android Titan sighed and looked at me. "That was Terra's room, Noir." He said.

I leaned my head to the side. I mouthed: 'Terra'?

Cyborg's human eye widened a bit. "You mean….nobody's told you yet?"

I stared at him.

"N-Not Robin?! Surely Robin would have……."

I slowly shook my head.

Cyborg glanced down. He sighed. "I guess none of us want to talk about her…."

I gestured curiously.

"Not now, Noir," Cyborg turned around—suddenly very somber—and shuffled down the hallway. "Just……n-not now…."

I stared after him….blinking confusedly.

I stared again at the door and felt a mysterious, nameless emptiness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…there is a small pattern forming…yet it's significant enough to take notice of," Robin said.

Raven folded her arms. "I'm listening."

"There are seven sightings to the north of where the 'female swordsperson' was spotted twice. Of the seven, four are in Washington, two are in Canada, one is in Alaska," the Boy Wonder pointed at the spots on the map. "Commonalities with all of these sightings suggest a male with short black hair. And a wooden sword. That's it."

"And South of the two female sightings?"

"Five accounts," Robin said. "In Oregon and North California. Also a male with short black hair and a wooden sword."

"Well…down to two people," Raven said.

"Not exactly….," Robin spoke.

"Hmmm?"

He glanced back to look at her. "The swords were different."

"How so?"

"All the sightings in the north suggested a straight sword. All the ones in the south suggested a curve."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "So….the pattern suggests—"

"At least three distinct individuals being sighted, but barely," Robin said. "Unless it's all one person playing a joke on us with different swords."

"And sexes," Raven added.

Robin sighed. "And just what is all this telling us about Noir??"

"How far apart did these sightings occur?"

Robin typed and brought information up. "A maximum range of three months."

"Is it safe to say they all ended at approximately the same time?"

Robin nodded. "About four years ago."

Raven paced. She paused at one point. She looked over. "How old did Noir say he was?"

"Officially?" Robin asked. "When he signed in as a Titan, he was seventeen."

"So…he would have been thirteen during the time of these sightings…."

"If or if not they're connected to him at age thirteen, yeah."

"Think there's a connection there?"

Robin glanced at the monitor. He looked at Raven. "Eyewitness testimony did suggest that the people sighted were adolescent. But that's based on difficult circumstances during the sightings."

"But it's a reasonable guess for an age search, right?"

Robin nodded. "I can check local listings of those areas for teenagers fitting those descriptions and at such an age level. But to connect anything to Noir in the West, I'll still need more details."

Raven glanced off into space. "That may possibly be arranged…"

Robin squinted. "What do you mean?"

She waved him off. "Carry on with your work, Robin. I have something to do." She wandered quickly out the door with a wave of her robe.

Robin stared for a moment…then slowly swiveled back to the computer monitor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat down on her bed, cross legged. She shifted about until she was in a perfect lotus position and glared at the chair strategically placed across from her.

A blonde girl—smiling in a yellow vest and green jump pants—stared back at her from the canvass of the painting across the space of carpet and upholstery. The red and black spots formed a halo around her. Mysterious. Suspended….

Raven took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and chanted…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……Azarath Metrion Zinthos….Azarath Metrion…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"……Zinthos."_

_The girl finished her chant._

The earth at the end of the dark canyon shook and opened up.

_The ever-so-familiar wrought iron cell lifted up on rusted chains and rattled to a stop._

_Torchlight flickered across Raven's frowning face as she stepped gently towards the cell._

_**"You…….so soonnnnnnnn. What could you posssssssibly wanttttt?!"**_

_"You haven't stopped plaguing my mind since I dragged you back here," Raven said firmly. "I want some answers."_

_**"Answers?!?! Whattttt answers?!?! You insolent girlllllllll. All you ever givvvvvve yourself in life is questionnnnnnnns!! Who are you to speak of answerrrrrrs?!"**_

_  
__"I speak not just for myself," Raven sighed. "B-But my friends."_

_**"Oh do you, now…………"**_

_"You know something that may be very important to us……," Raven said. She paced slowly around the now-windowless cell and spoke. "You were inside Noir's head. You saw his memories. You saw what he was hiding. And you know something……something you've been hinting to me in my sleep and in my subconscious because it's too heavy for even a demon like you to maintain."_

_**"Heheheheheheheh," the cell shook with the echoing laughter. "Tell me, girrrrrrrrl. Are you afraidddddd?!"**_

_Raven's eyes glared. "Don't. Push. It."_

_**"You are afraid!! You and Robinnnnnn. Sooooooooo Paranoidddddd! What's the matter?! Can't stand the raw taste of deception once again?!"**_

_Raven gritted her teeth. "Shut it……"_

_**"Scarrrrred that another 'friend' of yourssssss may just be using you like SHE did?!?!"**_

_Raven's eyes momentarily glowed red as she shook. "I said……SILENCE!!"_

_The cell rattled._

Silence.

Raven panted and her eyes returned to normal.

The cage rattled. A wheeze came out. It slowly—oozingly—evolved into a laugh. _**"Heheheheheheheh!! Watch out, girrrrrl! You're a spitting image of your fatherrrrr!"**_

_  
__"So you know how to pull at my strings a little," Raven grunted. "So what? Yes, I am paranoid. I admit that I let fear slip out where it shouldn't have to begin with. But I remain resolute in my satisfaction that it is not a self-absorbed fear." She clenched her fists and added strongly: "I fear for no one but my friends and their safety! It is the only emotion I am willing to show, for it is not fear as is defined by average conventions. But rather an eternal respect for those I work with and those who protect me with their trust."_

_**"Trust?!?!"**__ Rage's voice hissed. __**"You speak of trusssssst like it is some eternnnnal thing!! Trust is relative, my dear! SHE showed you that, did she notttt?! For SHE gave you trust…then tore your being outttt from under you, then gave you trustttt again! You and all your pathetic 'friends'! And now that trusttttt is absolute as stone. For she is stone herself!!"**___

_"Terra's destiny remains to be seen," Raven said, wincing as she said the 'T' word out loud. "The verdict is out on her in that case. What I am concerned about is the welfare of my friends right now."_

_**"Welfare indeeeeeed,"**__ the cell's voice hissed. __**"Know this, girrrrrrl! Your welfare would be increased tenfold had you followed my advice in the endddd!! Heheheheheh!!"**___

_Raven's eyes widened a bit. "If……I-If I had destroyed Noir?"_

_**"So mannnnnnny secretsssssss. So much darknessssssssssss. I rather liked it inside of himmmm."**_

_"Tell me what you know!" Raven shouted._

_**"Uh uh uh!! You didn't say the magicccc wordddd!! Heheheheheh!!!"**_

_Raven glared. She closed her mental eyes. She chanted. "Azarath……Metrion……Zinthos……"_

A cloud of smoke formed in mid-air. An obsidian rectangle flashed into existence, then solidified into a floating, mental copy of the canvass painting.

Raven's eyes glowed bright gray as she shoved the two dimensional facsimile of the blonde swordswoman towards the cell. "If you're so absent-minded at the moment……maybe I'll give you something to refresh your memory!!"

And she shoved the painting into the iron cell. Magically, a black portal opened and the painting sank through till it was inside the rusted structure.

Almost immediately, the cell shook and a great roar zoomed up into the mindscape's atmosphere with a rumbling liken unto thunder.

_**"NOOOOOOOO!!!!! GET HER AWAY!!!!!! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF HER!!!! ENOUGH OF HER!!!!"**___

_Raven clutched her robe hard to herself and faced the rippling winds of red, pulsing energy. "TELL ME WHO ANA IS!!!"_

_**"NO!!! NO!!!!!!"**_

_"TELL ME WHAT NOIR IS HIDING FROM US!!!"_

_**"RRGGGHHH!!! IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!"**___

_"TELL. ME. NOW!!"_

_**"YOU SHALL DIE!! EVERY LAST BLEEDING ONE OF YOU SHALL DIE!!! BLOOD EVERYWHERE!!! EVERYWHERE!!!!"**_

_The cell shook. A halo of red and black spots identical to the painting shot forth in a wave and slammed into Raven._

She fell back with a shout. "Ooomf!!" And suddenly gasped. Her pupils dilated to pinpricks and then exploded till her entire eyes were black. Her robe ripped in two and hung on her arms as shredded rags. Her hair shortened and melted over her skin. Everything turned brighter. Light stabbed her eyes deeply. Her lips quivered. She was standing in a metal room. The rusted floors were soaked. Soaked with blood. Blood and body parts and entrails and meat strings that once beat and quivered inside human husks which decorated the corners in ribbons. She glanced down and saw herself holding Myrkblade. There was a FLASH!! and some blonde angel floated inside a room in the back of her mind, being struck by lightning at all angles. Her eyes bled. Red from black. And she laughed. She couldn't stop laughing. The bodies and the screams and the warm bubbles of blood dribbling off the tip of her wooden sword. A skeleton shadow shook on the far side of the river of crimson and glared at her with white eyes of hate. And she laughed at it. And she laughed at everything. She laughed until she couldn't see from the red streams pouring out of her black ovals and inevitably a scarlet light stabbed its way through the air till it kissed her neck and exploded with the pain of a thousand twisting daggers in the thick meat of her throat.

_**"JORDAN!!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!"**_

_FLASH!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven gasped.

She had fallen off the bed and was spread like a wilted flower across the floor. She sat on her knees, gathered her robe, and straightened her blue bangs. She inhaled deeply and frantically gripped her throat.

She swallowed.

No more pain.

She hummed just in case---she had her voice.

The dark girl's blue eyes closed for a second. She breathed slowly, centered herself, and opened her eyes again.

The painting stared at her from the chair. Innocent. Silent.

But she suddenly couldn't bare to look at it.

And that was when the Titan alarm went off.

Raven stumbled to her feet and stared up at the blinking red light in confusion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Up in the Main Room, Cyborg, Beast Boy and I dashed up.

Starfire was already there. She looked back from where she manned the Main Computer. "Most depressing circumstances!" she exclaimed. "A 'shooting of the out' between police officers and three suspects with submachine guns in Downtown!"

Cyborg stepped forward. "Anybody we know?"

"Negative," Starfire shook her alien head. "These assailants are complete strangers to our database. But they are most dangerously equipped in firepower. Commissioner Decker wants to summon the S.W.A.T. team of the City, but---"

"This looks like a job for us, I know," Cyborg nodded. "I think we'd better answer Decker's silent plea. And fast!"

I looked forlornly over at Beast Boy. The little changeling wasn't so much as giving me a side glance. He folded his arms and glared up at the monitor, sighing.

I looked down. My heart felt heavy.

"Where are Raven and Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Right here!" the Boy Wonder panted as he ran into the Main Room. Raven levitated not too far behind. "Sorry we're late. We were preoccupied!"

Cyborg glared. "With what, exactly?!"

Robin fidgeted. "Studies," he spat.

Raven said nothing. She look disheveled….distressed.

I raised an eyebrow. Concerned.

"Well, it's about time you got here!" Cyborg uttered. "In the Downtown we've got—"

"Mad gunmen, I overheard," Robin nodded. "We'd better go take care of it!"

"So early in the day….," Starfire mumbled as she eyed the map of the City where the shootout was located. "They must be madmen indeed."

"Let's give them something early to sleep to," Robin pounded his fist. "Teen Titans! Go!"

Everyone ran his or her way. But today, there was obvious lethargy. Robin and Starfire were quick to head out towards the R-Cycle and sky—respectfully—but the other three….

Cyborg seemed as solemn as before. He walked—not ran—towards the elevator to reach the garage and thus his T-Car.

Beast Boy took a few seconds to sigh and rub away a moist eye before flying out the window after Starfire.

And Raven…..well….I noticed for a split second her glance falling on me. So I looked directly at her. Our eyes made contact across the room. I regarded her through my shades. She stared at me with glazed eyes.

_Was she………getting emotional?_

No……

No…that's not it.

She looks………wounded…

The girl eventually spun around, rushed to the elevator, and took it down with Cyborg.

I was left alone, the last to leave the Tower. And in so doing, I realized that I was suffering from the same, mysterious syndrome of sorrow suddenly permeating the atmosphere of the home base.

_What was going on here??  
I ran a hand over my face and sighed._

_What was wrong with……everyone………everyone……………?_

I fastened Myrkblade scabbard to the back of my jumpsuit, ran up to the window, and blurred down the outside surface of the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Sakura Scraper was the latest pride of Mr. Kobayashi himself. Having earned millions from his management of JCN Broadcasting, the Japanese-American businessman had personally funded the construction of a brand new skyscraper. It was a marvel of architecture—laden with huge, blue tinted windows and a spire at the top that tilted towards the noonday sun with a forty-five degree angle. Parts of the scraper were still being constructed. Huge cranes and operating lifts hugged the side of the slowly rising tower. Most of the workers were at lunch or taking the day off in respect of a religious event.

Kobayashi's dreamchild was sadly the location for a dramatic exchange of bulletfire that afternoon. Positioned behind a concrete barricade of pipes in the construction lot were three dark strangers in body armor. Sweat glinted off their skin and rolled down round sunglasses as they took aim from behind the concrete and shot AK-47s at a throng of police cars and barricades out in the main street of the City in front of the infant tower.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets whizzed and pinged off of metal and concrete. Commissioner Decker scrunched himself up behind an armored truck and gritted his teeth.

"Shit!!" he exhaled. "How do punks like these get these pop guns all the time?!"

"I don't know, sir," breathed his right hand lieutenant. "We radioed in the Titans. They should be coming in to help."

"I frankly don't care at this point," Decker grumbled and looked up as a bullet or two whizzed over the armored truck. "I almost feel like sending the S.W.A.T. team in anyhow."

An officer ran up, covering himself with a blast shield, and handed Decker a bullhorn.

"Here you go, sir!!"

"Thanks," Decker nodded. He made a face at the officer. "For god's sakes, man. Next time there's a shootout, take a piss BEFORE leaving the station!!"

"Y-Y-Yes sir!"

"I'd rot in Hell if I was shot dead with a bullet in my brain and my pants soaked with that shit!" Decker said. He shook his head. "Whatever. Ahem." A bullet pinged off a nearby car as he leaned the amplifier around and spoke into it. "This is your final warning!! Give it up or we'll come in there with the tear gas and—"

A stray bullet struck the amplifier, shattering it apart and causing sparks to fly.

"………," Decker blinked. "Dammit…," he pulled out his pistol and cocked it. "And to think I'm missing Columbo right now. Okay…give me the radio to that damn S.W.A.T. team—"

"Sir!!" an officer pointed up. "Look!!"

A green streak flew overhead.

Decker squinted. "About bloody time."

Starfire soared over the chaos. She squinted through glowing emerald eyes down at the scene.

The three gunmen saw her. One pointed. Another took aim.

She froze in mid-air and extended her hands, which glowed brightly.

A string of bulletfire streamed up at her.

She let out a growl and produced a stationary starbolt that simultaneously absorbed the incoming bullets with its heat and blinded one or two of the gunmen with its brightness.

That was all Beast Boy needed to sail down safely as a pterodactyl. Robin hung on his lower legs. Beast Boy dropped off the Boy Wonder, who promptly unleashed to spinning birdarangs after landing in the dirt of the construction site.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SL-SLICE!!!!

The barrels to the AK-47s of two assailants snapped off. The gunmen gasped and reached behind them for a pistol and a grenade.

Between them, a black portal formed in the ground. Raven lifted up with Cyborg, who promptly grabbed the skulls of the two thugs and—growling—smashed them together.

WHAM!!!

The third gunman spun around from shooting at the police and aimed at the Titans.

I blurred down with Myrkblade and severed his machine gun in half. SNAP!!!

Raven spun, extended a hand, and wrapped the thug up in telekinesis. She held him at bay just long enough for Beast Boy to rush in as a ram and smack the air out of the levitating crook's chest.

All three were down for the count.

"Textbook," Robin smiled and grabbed his returning birdarangs in mid-air. "Absolutely textbook."

Raven squinted. "Almost too textbook."

A braying ram turned into a green elf. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Can we go home now?"

I looked at the irate Beast Boy. I sighed. I sheathed Myrkblade.

"It is safe and secure now!!" Starfire called out from where she floated up above. "The situation is under control!!"

Commands were shouted between the cops. A S.W.A.T. team advanced upon the scene. Robin and Cyborg handed the disoriented thugs to the experts, who disarmed the criminal lot and carted them off to the squad cars.

Cyborg scratched his head. "So….wh-what was the point of all this?"

I shrugged.

"Bringing guns to a construction site?!" Beast Boy gestured all around them.

"Perhaps there was an illegal drug conference taking place…," Starfire suggested, floating down to the ground. "This is not the first time such has seemed to taken place at a construction site, no?"

"Yeah…b-but that almost seems cliché!" Raven said with an outstretched hand. "I swear, I would have written this to happen on a bad day!"

I took a deep breath. I gestured to Cyborg.

"I have a bad feeling too, Noir…," the android nodded. "Something's fishy about all this."

The whole time we bounced this around, Robin was silent. He squinted at the scene of Kobayashi's Sakura Scraper all around us. He looked at the spent bullet shells on the ground beneath where the crooks were. He looked across the street. He saw police officers accosting and handcuffing the three gunmen.

"There's nothing to rob here!" Beast Boy uttered. "Nothing at all! What were they defending with all that fancy shmancy gunfire?!"

Robin leaned forward, squinting.

A cop took the sunglasses off one of the suspects. The suspect shook his head…and looked in the Titans' way. He had green eyes. Bright green. Unnatural.

Robin's lips parted.

ALL of the gunmen had those green eyes. And all of them were staring across the street from their imprisoning squad cars.

Waiting….

"……………Titans, move….," Robin mumbled.

Cyborg looked down at the team leader. "Say what?!"

Robin spun and waved emphatically at all of us. "I SAID MOVE!!! TITANS MOVE!!! EVERYONE OUT OF HERE NOW!!!"

Beast Boy bit his lip. He transformed into a falcon and went soaring up into the air.

I looked around at everything.

The suspects clenched their green eyes shut and hunched over.

There was a whining sound. Increasing in magnitude. Directly beneath us.

"THAT GOES FOR YOU TOO!!" Robin shouted out at the police as Raven levitated far away overhead. "GO!! MOVE IT!!! NOW NOW NOW!!!"

The whining was practically an unearthly squeal.

I felt the asphalt beneath me turning hot red.

Vibrations….

"Robin!!" Starfire shouted. She was already grabbing Cyborg by an arm and hoisting him up with her Tamaranian strength.

As the vibration turned to shaking, and the squealing to a high-pitched shrill, the Boy Wonder ran up a fence around the construction site, jumped off, and grabbed ahold of Starfire's free hand. The three lifted up as one giant bird with three concerned faces gasping down at me.

"Noir!!"

"Hurry!!"

"Get out of there!!"

I looked down.

I smelled carbonite…

Holy crap!!!!

The first flicker of flame were literally licking up just as I hunched over and began blurring out of there. With smoke trailing, I zoomed over the fence, across the street, up a building side on the other side, and up towards the distant rooftop on vertically-scaling feet.

Somewhere in the middle of my ascent……..it happened.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**_

A dome of pure plasma rose up out of the concrete bowels of the City and completely engulfed the construction yard.

A half second later, a wave of heated air and concussion danced at my heels as I flew up the buildingside across the way.

A half second after that…flames plumed up and outwards like a giant, dancing balrog of fire.

Seconds after that…the foundation of the freshly-constructed Sakura Scraper melted. Steel and all. The foundation buckled. The plasma ate and consumed. The weight of the giant tower gave in. It started collapsing. Straight down at first…then at an odd angle as the uneven construction took its toll. The sheets of blue glass windows warbled, rippled, and shattered. Fountains of lacerating shards flew out like vertical, crystal rain that ate at the fire that ate at my feet up, up, up the buildingside across the enflamed street.

I gritted my teeth and blurred with all my might. I reached the rooftop, and yet I knew I wasn't high enough.

_A flagpole!!_

I jumped out towards it. I gripped it with a nimble wrist and swung myself up.

At the end of my swing I let go and flew like a ragdoll diagonally up over the rooftop and towards the edge of the buildingtop. The sea of flying fire and glass turned me into a flailing silhouette. I landed hard on the gravel of the rooftop and slid in a veritable fetal position till I stopped and covered my head from streaming, blazing bits and pieces of debris as the collapse completed its metallic holocaust.

The immense height and mass of the Sakura Tower thundered into the earth, forming a deep earth that fissured out into the two adjacent scrapers and sent huge cracks up their heights and sending glass and debris littering the fiery abyss. At the top of the collapsing height were two cranes that flew off into the street, scraping over asphalt and encompassing three whole lanes of traffic—abandoned street from the gunfight thankfully—smashing through abandoned cars and lifting up entire vehicles from the momentum of impact. One of them was a firetruck that literally lifted up into the air four stories and smashed into the glass front of an office building.

A few stray comets of debris finished the gravity massacre, sailing through squad cars and windows and rooftops and chunks of asphalt for the nearest square half-mile.

And…like that…the rumbling stopped.

The Sakura Scraper was no-more, and in its place was a hole into Dante's peak. Burning like a wound of flaming blood in the center of our wonderful City.

Deep and penetrating.

I slowly stood up, wincing, and paced hesitantly towards the edge of the building side.

I found myself looking into a literal sea of glass shards, burning cars, and molten plasma. Smoke rose up, red and furious into the otherwise impervious blue sky. On a lone building atop the charred street, Starfire landed with Cyborg and Robin. I glanced to my left and saw Raven floating to a stop atop a window sill with a green falcon.

I sighed….relieved…but once again looked at the mayhem below us.

In a strangely un-scorched part of the street, Decker and his men came out of hiding with the suspects in tow. How they managed to find a place of safety is beyond me. They were covered in soot and dust from the building's collapse. They looked miserable.

Car alarms were going off everywhere. My eyes traced the huge gashes of scrape marks in the length of the street leading to the fallen construction crane. I noticed the firetruck embedded into a building side. I gulped.

Sirens came out of the depths of the city. Every firefighter, police officer, and paramedic was coming to the scene of urban catastrophe.

I looked across the way at Robin and the others. They had their eyes fixated at something at street level where the damage hadn't quite spread. I followed their gaze to a storefront where over two dozen t.v. sets were displayed before the sidewalk. There was a familiar face on all of them.

I blurred down to the street just in time to join Raven and Beast Boy floating down. Soon, Robin swung down, followed by Starfire and Cyborg. The six of us marched up to the storefront of an electronic hardware store and graced the plethora of television sets.

Slade's masked face was on every screen….

_"Good afternoon, Titans. I assume you got my message."_

"Slade….," Robin gritted his teeth. "Were you behin—"

_"Come now, Robin. For a detective liken unto you, the answer to that is most obvious. Since there are many rescue workers who will be needing your assistance over the next few hours of futility, I will make my message short. This is only the beginning. Next time I could just as well set my eyes on a building with more……..people….in it…."_

"What are you aiming for this time, Slade?!" Robin inquired, his fists clenched. "What's your goal this time through?! Haven't you screwed around enough with our lives and our City?!"

"_Mark my words, Robin_," Slade said, his head leaning forward and his emblazoned eye glittering on the multiple t.v. screens. _"The end is coming."_

"The end?" Beast Boy muttered.

_"The end of everything you and your fellow Titans know…,"_ Slade slurred—almost hissing. _"And once such comes into fruition, expect there to be a new Balance of Morals. Though I doubt there will be an afterlife waiting for you to look down upon my finest hour from."_

The picture flickered into snow.

Starfire hugged herself.

Cyborg rubbed his scalp.

Beast Boy gulped and looked at Robin. "I-I'm guessing this is a bad thing….right?"

Robin glared at the snow on the t.v. sets before slowly turning around and hobbling sullenly towards the wreckage everywhere. "Yeah…."

I panted, sweating.

_This was not good……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Every one of us was numb that afternoon, but we pitched in regardless, assisting in the cleanup and search for survivors. It was well into the sunset—between the flashing emergency lights of vehicles and the hustle and bustle of cleanup crews and volunteers—that we all realized that there were no deaths. A few casualties, a few injuries—yes. But, quite simply, the Sakura Scraper was completely void of its usual construction workers—especially since the area had been evacuated in lieu of the 'shootout' that took place. So the brunt of our efforts ended up being collecting debris samples for evidence in attempting to unravel the nature of the carbonite explosive Slade somehow set up in the sewers just beneath ground zero.

Decker was outraged. All throughout the numb afternoon, the six of us could hear him grunting and cursing quite loudly all the emphatic ways he desired to slice off Slade's genitalia and mount them on the highest skyscraper for all to point at and laugh.

He never got his wish, though. None of us—all the way down to Robin—knew this was coming. Slade had struck out of the urban jungle in perfect surprise. We knew we had to deal with him eventually. His name came up constantly during the Anderson weapons hunt. But for this sincere of an attempt to end our lives—or just send us an explosive message—that was completely out of the blue.

City officials said it would take well over a year to clean up the wreckage from the blast and ensuing collapse. We were all dizzy just trying to imagine the financial cost it would have on Kobayashi's JCN—or the world stock market for that matter. It felt like the echo of Control Freak's laughter was crawling on the back of our necks from over a month down the line. Everything was collapsing. Chaotic. Tragic.

We hobbled home under the falling cloud of evening. Confused. Stressed. A perverse map of Slade-hunting inevitably drawn before us.

I know I felt scared. I could only imagine about the others…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Besides slicing apart that robot duplicate of Cinderblock the first time we met….," Beast Boy mumbled as we walked into the Entrance of the Tower, "…you've never faced Slade, have you?"

I slowly shook my head.

"Heh…," he managed to chuckle some. "You are a noob yet, aren't you?"

I shrugged.

He sighed. He folded his arms and looked to the side.

A beat.

He shook his head then glanced up at me. "Noir….look, about this morning—"

I waved my hands.

"No! Dude! Seriously!" Beast Boy raised a finger. "I'm sorry. I-I should have explained things to you better. Terra….she….I…..well…."

I stared at him blankly through my shades.

Beast Boy sighed. "You've been here with us for well over two months…and still we haven't told you anything," he mumbled.

A beat.

"J-Just know that I'm sorry, okay?" he exclaimed. "Wh-While I was on that window sill with Raven…wh-when the building crumbled and all….I-I started looking to see if I could find you. I-I couldn't. Of course, you were fine. But suddenly—in the middle of that crunching nightmare—I thought I had lost a friend. What's more, I lost a dear friend with whom the last memories I shared was tossing him across the freakin' room in yogi bear mode and it didn't feel any good."

I smirked slightly. I nodded.

Beast Boy sighed. He shook his head. "I-I wish Slade was dead. I know that sounds cruel and meanie and stuff…but…..h-he just makes me think of her. He makes me think of Terra."

_I wish to God almighty I knew who this 'Terra' was……_

"Never mind. Let's go upstairs. There's a tofu waffle with my name on it."

I shrugged and followed him to the elevator. _I could settle for Dr. Pepper…._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLAM!!!

Robin grunted and raised his glove from having it slammed it onto the kitchen counter. "Slade. Slade! Slade! Slade! Slade! SLADE!!!"

"Say it enough times, you'll wear it out," Cyborg muttered, staring out a window of the Main Room at the night-darkened City. A spot in Downtown still glowed amber and bright. It was sickening. "You should learn to calm down."

"Why can't he ever die…why can't he ever LEAVE US ALONE?!" Robin growled.

Cyborg spun and looked at the Boy Wonder. "Gotta hand it to him, man. The creep's resilient. I wish I knew the secret of being as versatile as you and yet not having any friends. Then I'd be a millionaire."

"Yeah, and then you'd be a loser."

"Love you too, Robin."

The Boy Wonder turned around, slumped down on a stool, and sighed heavily.

Silence.

The Boy Wonder stared at the Main Computer. "He drew us out there on purpose, Cy," he said. "Slade knew we'd respond to that shootout. He knew we'd intervene. And he knew we'd be there for him to set off the carbonite bomb. But how?!"

"Coincidences happen," Cyborg gestured. "If we're not used to it by now, I don't know what to say."

"But there's more to it….," Robin breathed. He looked over his shoulder at his android number one. "Think about it. Recent events. Recent adventures. Everyone seems to know where we are or how to get us to some place of ambush. Viper. Anderson. Slug and Reload. Even Control Freak way back in the day. People have been mastering the art of knowing where we go and why. Are the Titans that predictable?! Do people seep in and know us that well?!"

Silence.

Cyborg squinted at the team leader with his human eye. "What are you getting at, Robin? So the enemy has had lucky guesses! So what?! We've kicked them all in the ass in the end! And what's more, what's that got to do with Slade?!"

Robin stared at the Main Computer again. He leaned his chin forward on two gloved hands and thought aloud with a mumble: "What's anything got to do with anything………Slade…….Dagger…….Viper……..Schauer…..the Experiment…..the B-Balance of Morals……"

Cyborg listened intently.

Robin mumbled some more. "The fact is….everything has to do with everything. When Beast Boy whined about that…he wasn't just being his immature self. He was stating the truth. Everything has been connected lately. I can feel it. Things don't make sense any other way. All of our victories…they've been too good to be true. They've been in such rapid succession. And each time we've kicked ass……………."

The Boy Wonder's voice trailed off.

"Robin??" Cyborg asked, curious.

Robin got up. He walked over towards the Main Computer. He stared into the blank monitor…past his reflection…into the noir glass that graced him.

"It's like water…..a river….rippling down the brook and letting the currents take us in some sort of crazy-sick Tao of fates…"

"Now you're not making any sense!"

"Sure I am," Robin breathed. "Because….I felt this before. And it was the last time….the last true time we faced Slade. The last time he scarred our lives and shocked us right when we were beginning to think that everything was heavenly and tranquil."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "When Terra was deceiving us under our very eyes…."

Robin stared into the black monitor. "Under our very eyes….." A beat. He spun and spoke firmly: "Cyborg. Take me to the computer core of the Tower."

"What for?"

"I need you…..f-for research that Raven and I have been doing lately," he marched off towards the elevator.

Cyborg hesitantly followed. "What……kind of research?"

Robin took a painful breath and uttered: "The only kind necessary right now…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I couldn't stand it inside there anymore.

I was going out.

I was always going out.

It was the only way I could think those few days.

In my denim jacket and jeans and white shirt, I sauntered through the Main Atrium.

I opened the huge doors and….there stood Starfire.

"Going out?" she uttered with only half a smile.

For a second there, I assumed she wanted to join me again. But then I realized she was still wearing her Tamaranian uniform.

I nodded slowly.

She lowered her emerald eyes. "I cannot blame you. You have performed most dutifully today in assisting us and the city workers in the wreckage recovery. And after such a frightful occasion as the collapse of that structure, it is only natural for you to find a retreat."

I shrugged and was about to walk off when--

"Noir…," she placed a hand on my shoulder. She was concerned. Her gentle voice was commanding.

I stopped.

"I heard about what happened earlier today. You happened upon Terra's room, did you not?"

I looked off.

"And….when Beast Boy found out….he was most displeased."

I sighed.

Starfire folded her hands together. "I am sorry that you saw such an unpleasant side of him. At least it is important to know that even Beast Boy—as childish as he may be—is truly capable of bearing pain."

I looked at her funny.

"He knew Terra the most," she said. "And I can share a great deal in his hurt, for I felt that----I knew that Terra was my friend. My close friend. I trusted her deeply and with the utmost love and adoration. And when she betrayed the Titans……"

Her voice lingered off.

_Betrayed????_

My lips parted. I exhaled and reached for Starfire's shoulder as if in some vain to console her. _Console her for what?!_

Betrayal?!?! _Oh my god…what happened to these dear friends of mine and why was I not aware of it?!_

Was I blind?! _What's going on?!_ _What's wrong with everyone?!_

Who is Terra?!

Starfire?!?!

She sighed and smiled at me. "I suppose…even the strongest team members that you look up to…are inherently weak. With every fiber of my being I desire to tell you about who Terra is just the same as everyone else in this fighting force wishes, and yet…none of us can muster up the strength to detail to you the extent of our pain from what had transpired." A pause. "Slade is a most evil, evil man, Noir. I pray you do not forget that."

I didn't know what to say….er…gesture.

I merely nodded.

Starfire brightened so suddenly it scared me and made me want to hug her. "Enjoy your walk!!" she said. Then a blink and a concerned face. "Be certain not to wander too near to ground zero."

She flew up and past me into the interior of the Tower.

I stood and watched her fly off.

I no longer felt like walking.

And yet I knew—or at least I believed—that if I so much as tried to break forth a conversation about this 'Terra' character…I wouldn't be anywhere better off.

So I sighed, swiveled around, and took my usual, long trek towards the depths of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Up in her room, Raven pressed a hand against the window and stared out.

The tall, thin body of the Titan swordsman wandered casually into the nightlit town.

The dark girl slowly turned around and eyed her chair.

The painting canvass rested there. Ana standing proud and tall. Smiling. The red halo….haunting.

A chill ran up Raven's usually still spine.

She hugged herself and decided to meditate earlier that night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay, Robin…," Cyborg said, seated at the computer station inside the core room of the Tower. Metal consoles and glowing wires hung all around the two. "What am I searching for?"

Robin leaned against a wall opposite of the android. "Electronic messages," he said. "Sent out from the Tower and being received again."

"……..," Cyborg paused. "Can you be a little more specific than that?"

"Encrypted," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Level Eight frequency."

Cyborg typed away. While doing so, he sighed. "The type Terra used…."

"Yes."

"Gonna review old wounds?"

"No…do a search for the last three months."

Cyborg stopped. He turned around. "Robin???"

"You heard me," the Boy Wonder glared.

Cyborg swallowed. He swiveled back and typed away.

Robin folded his arms and watched. Waited. Listened.

Minutes passed.

Cyborg took a deep breath and slowly slumped back into his chair. "Damn…………"

Robin's eyes shut under his mask. He inhaled and spoke without looking: "How many, Cyborg?"

"………..I……it….."

"How. Many. Cyborg?"

"Well over two dozen."

"Senders?"

"Two."

"Outer source?"

"Unknown identity."

"…….interior source?"

"………," Cyborg leaned his head down into his hands, sighed hard, and breathed out chokingly: "Damn……"

Again.

Again……

Robin stood up straight, let his arms dangled by his side, and opened his lips a good few seconds before finally summoning the strength to roll out: "Gather the others through intercom. Everyone but Noir. We're having a meeting. Now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through Bayside Plaza.

Store and marquis lights reflected off my shades.

The amount of people around me was surprising, considering the explosive catastrophe that took place hours before.

Everyone was happy. Everyone was in piece. Nobody suspected a thing.

I realized then and there what a fallacy these citizens lived in. To assume the Titans were at ease was to assume the City was at ease.

How I worried about them. How I worried about them so…

I found a bench and sat down with a miserable huff besides a garbage bin.

High schoolers gathered by the theatre box office in throngs. Chatting. Laughing. A few even pushing and shoving.

Families were walking with their little children in hand.

Old couples braving the night with both hearts open.

Everything I ever enjoyed watching……

Everything so fragile……

Slade…

I hugged myself as a shiver ran through.

I sighed and slumped back in the bench further.

I thought of my friends. The Titans. Their pain.

_Betrayal?!?!_

My heart ached at the word. And yet it kept stabbing me. In the gut of my spirit. Twisting.

_How could anyone do that to them?! How could anyone?!_

The pain got numbed by a gentle, nightly silence as the wind drifted down and cooled me. I was reminded what 'cold' really was, and I stopped shivering.

For a split second there—as if through spontaneous enlightenment—I felt peace.

So imagine my supreme gasp when the trash bin next to me started…………….ringing.

I jumped and looked at it.

Silence.

It rang again.

The freakin' trash bin rang.

I blinked under my shades.

I reached into the trash and pulled out a shoebox.

The shoebox was ringing.

I took the lid off.

There was a cell phone inside.

I looked around.

People kept walking their own paths. Enjoying their own lives. Nobody was seeing me freaking out.

The cell phone rang and shook.

I picked it out and dropped the shoebox.

I nervously fingered the receiving button…….and pressed it.

I held it to my ear.

I was mute……

_"Ya know, whenever I drink orange juice—like a whole lot, especially in the mornings—and then go out for a walk immediately afterwards, I get the chills. It's most annoying."_

"………," I listened, dumb.

The voice was young and full of vitality. Someone approximately my age and yet wise beyond the years of the average moron. Clay Aiken and Groucho Marx rolled into one bubbly/dry thinness that dripped through the phone and anxiously relaxed me.

_"Have you been drinking a lot of orange juice, Noir?!"_

I jumped again. I spun around, breathing heavily.

_"Ack! Stop huffing into the phone! It sounds creepy!! Sheesh, you're like my girlfriend on a Saturday morning……--HA! I don't have a girlfriend!!"_

My eyes enlarged under my shades. I was caught somewhere between panic and perplexity.

_"Now….don't you think I'm funner to listen to than read??"_ the voice inquired. _"Come on, Noir. Smile. This day has been screwed up enough as it is. Don't tell me I'm going to make it more somber for you. That's not my job, remember?"_

I exhaled. I mouthed: _'Messenger_????'

_"If you don't know who this is by now, I'd be the first to sign you up for psychiatric evaluation. Or maybe public television. HA! But seriously, Noir."_ A sigh. _"You're in deep detritus…and I think it's all me who's to blame."_

I lifted an eyebrow and helplessly listened as his voice went on.

_"First off, I want you to know this. Your friends—the Titans—they are still your friends. They shall always be your friends. But like all true friends who are truly true, there's always a time to battle suspicion. It's like when Genghis Khan was out falconing with his bird one day in ancient China. He was thirsty as Hell and knew there was a babbling brook up on this mountaintop. But each time Khan tried to climb his way up to the brook, his very own well-trained falcon would swoop down and claw at him. Three times Khan tried to get to the water to quench his parched throat, but his very own bird kept dive-bombing him. So Genghis got royally pissed. And the last time his bird came down to keep him from the water, he slashed that damn turkey apart with his sword. Or scimitar. Ah Hell, whatever the Chinese used back then. I'm Japanese. Anywho—so like, he kills his own bird. He climbs up onto the top of the mountain finally and—what does he find? A mountain goat had died and its carcass was strewn into the waters itself above the babbling brook. If Khan had spent all that time he did trying to kill his bird drinking instead, he would have had one god-awful stomach ache, died, and none of us today would be eating fortune cookies……or something. You get what I'm saying, Noir? We hurt the ones we love and then discover in the end how much they were doing us a favor. Khan wept over the prized falcon that he himself had ended. He carried its lifeless body home and gave it a golden tomb and everything for generations of pigeons to poop happily on. In some psychotic way, you too are in the same strut. But you are the falcon, Noir. You are the brave do-gooder. The underdog. And the reigning champions…the Titans…they're about to face off against their greatest adversary yet. And it's not necessarily Slade—as explosive as his sports seem to be as of late, heh. But rather, their chief antagonist is going to be their trust in you."_

I gulped and looked around as if to see if someone was watching this taboo phone call.

_"Sit still, Noir."_

So I did.

_"Do not despair. Things like this happen. Like a babbling brook of poison, it ebbs and flows till it meets a lake or ocean so big that all the pollutants are deluded into nothingness. It doesn't make the trip down the falls any calmer, but the end is still secure. As long as you believe that, Noir. As long as you believe in an ending…I trust that you will be allright. Because there are so many cyclonic things at play right now. I was right, Noir. I had a bad feeling and that bad feeling was legit. There's all sorts of shit swimming around in the air. And all of it is chanting 'full circle', 'full circle'. Everything in this whole damn City is coming 'full circle'. At first when I visited here, I scoffed at it. I helped you like there was no tomorrow. And I don't regret doing that. What I regret—though—was underestimating how much a foreigner such as myself could get caught up with the Experiment."_

My eyebrows rose. I leaned forward and listened more intently.

_"Schauer was right, Noir. There is an Experiment. And just like what both he and Slade coined, there is a 'Balance of Morals' too. Don't ask me to try to explain it. Hell, I'd love to do that. I'd also love to take you to Islands of Adventure in Florida some day…but I don't know how to drive yet. HA!"_

I grumbled.

_"Ahem. I screwed up big time. In all these occasions of helping you out, I dug myself in too deep. And I dragged you in with me. Because of that, the falcon is being distrusted. The Titans are bound to scratch their heads. And it will be such a terrible, terrible distraction for when Slade and Dagger do what they've been hoping to do all along."_

I gasped.

_"Yup. The two of them. Buddy buddy. And, no, they're not from Massachusetts."_

I rolled my eyes.

_"I was gonna tell you all this in e-mail. But that's the fulcrum of all the bad stuff going on now because of me. So I think it's about time I threw my cowardice into the wind."_

A pause.

I glared at the phone.

_"Pffft!!! Silly!! That means that I want to meet you in person!!"_

My heart stopped.

_"The Soto Dance Club. Downtown of the City. Two miles east of Sakura's Ground Zero. Meet me there in one hour. I'll explain everything………well……everything you need to know."_

My heart was still tripping.

_"Oh, and Noir?"_

I mouthed: 'what?'

_"Bring some orange juice. I'm thirsty enough to dunk over Genghis Khan!"_

**-Click!-**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A conference, Robin?! Where is Noir? Was he not invited?!"

"No, Star….," Robin said in a low voice. "He wasn't."

He stood in the Main Room, looking at everyone sitting on the couch before him. Raven had her legs crossed and her arms folded. She seemed anxious. Starfire sat with her hands in her lap and a curious expression of concern on her face. Cyborg stood, hunched over, very depressed. Beast Boy sat on the backrest of the sofa, his eyes darting around in confusion.

Robin took a deep breath. "This meeting is about Noir." He opened his mouth to say the next line. But he faltered.

Everyone looked at him patiently. Everyone but Cyborg. The android's eyes were to the floor.

"Ahem….," Robin muttered and summoned strength. "It's about Noir. Cyborg and I………h-have just discovered a couple weeks' worth of secret, encrypted messages interchanged between the Tower and an outside source. The interior source of the Tower—however—has been Noir."

Mutters. Gasps. "No way"s.

"But….wh-who could Noir be talking to that we don't know about?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Raven looked at Robin.

Robin looked back at her. He spat: "Slade."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It is beginning……," Slade said, pacing across a brightly lit cabin. "…it is beginning to end…"

Dagger stood by a wheel for steering a ship. He spun a blade through his fingers. "In what context do you speak of now, Slade? Your words are ever so cryptic…"

"The Titans are falling apart," the masked man uttered slowly like an eel. He stood before a circular window looking out onto the bow of some unknown ship. "It is not the first time this has happened. In the past, I had made sure of it. I had stuck my foot into the door of their future and invaded their lives so intimately that their tender little hearts were wounded forever. And now their own history of pain is churning back on themselves. The tools of fate—working in our interests—have mingled with their clouded mind. What was once trust is now dissent. What was once honesty is now confusion. The Titans will distract themselves with the delusion that the Third Apprentice stands among them. The truth is, we have the Third Apprentice with us. And she is the prime component of the Experiment to overturn the Balance of Morals. You see, Dagger, I told you from the beginning this would all work in my favor. But it took time, like I emphasized from the start. It took time like the running of water from the mountaintops into streams and into the great body of water that governs our lives with as much blindness as karma itself. Only—for the first time in the history of our plane of existence—karma shall bow to us."

"You think they are so easily motivated to doubt the goodness among them….," Dagger said. "You rely on paranormal tools to make sure of this. Can it be that simple?"

"Dagger…," Slade eyed the man with his emblazoned eye. "It is that simple. Through our combined efforts and that of the Third Apprentice, the last two months have gone by like clockwork. The Titans will fall into our grasp in a matter of a week. The Experiment shall begin. I shall attain that which I always wanted. And you, dear partner, will have the weapon of fate at your disposal."

"I must admit," Dagger nodded. "I am pleased with the prototypes."

"May it serve you better than Dragonflare, my friend," Slade said.

A pair of footsteps alighted the cabin. The two crimelords looked over as a petite figure came to a stop in the shadows. Features hidden….shrouded….

"Speak of the devil….," Slade mused. "How was your night on the prowl, Apprentice?"

"Sufficient," the figure replied. It was a feminine voice. Youthful, playful….yet bitter. "The carbonite explosion went off without a hitch. I did as you asked. I gave them sufficient time to escape."

"I know," Slade nodded. "I saw. It's the most impressed I've been with you since you sacrificed Viper's hand to the Titans in the desalination plant."

"All these interventions are taking their toll on me…," the figure grunted. "Anderson's coma…Viper's hand…Mumbo Jumbo's camera…what other incidents do you want me to 'fix up' before I get my end of the bargain?!?!"

"Your 'end of the bargain', young Apprentice, will come to you in time," Slade gently said. "As the whims of fate and fortune spin full circle on their own, so shall everything here come…full circle. The Titans will be finished. My power will become supreme. Your wish…..your every wish…shall be fulfilled."

"And for that…and for that alone, I serve you……'Master'," the figure did a mock curtsey in the dark, then turned around and walked away into the darkness of the ship's cabin with clenched fists.

Dagger spun his blade and eyed Slade without blinking. "Her patience dangles on a thin rope."

"But oh…what a tangled web she weaves, Dagger," Slade said with a nod of his helmet. "For you and I alike. She has more than fulfilled her task. But I will need her for one more week…."

"For the Titans to fall in your hands."

"Affirmative. Do you now still hold doubts?"

Dagger sighed. He sheathed the blade into a tiny scabbard on his belt. "I don't doubt, Slade. I never doubt. I merely exist."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came to a stop.

I took a deep breath.

The bright neon lights flashed 'Soto' above the rumbling, bass-driven aura that was the hottest rave scene in town.

I was to have a meeting with the Messenger…and with worried thoughts for my friends—my reputation included—in my head, I stumbled forward with an awkward eagerness to get the night over with.

And I disappeared in the throng of young people, looking for him.


	53. One Hand Clapping

**53. One Hand Clapping**

"Are you trying to tell us…," Beast Boy stammered, "…that all this time, Noir has been in secret correspondence with Slade??"

"I had Cyborg run a diagnostic on the computer network," Robin said, arms folded. "There was a level of encrypted signals recorded in our database. Signals that were sent to an outside source on multiple occasions and then responded to. The digital signature matches with past attempts Terra made to e-mail and communicate with Slade prior to her betrayal. Unless some random stranger is operating the same computer address that Slade once used—which I highly doubt—and Noir's merely sending these messages by 'accident'---"

"Do you actually have any text-based proof of what Noir was specifically sending?!" Beast Boy asked.

Cyborg slowly shook his head. He continued staring at the floor.

"All we know is that he's been sending messages out," Robin said. "These signals are going to the exact, same address as Terra's did. And Noir hasn't—even once—told us about it."

"This is ridiculous!!" Beast Boy jumped out of his seat and shook. "You've got the wrong data!! Cyborg, tell me those were Terra's old messages you were scanning and not Noir's!!"

Slowly, the android Titan looked up. His face was dead. "The date's of the files don't lie, B.B. They've been all happening over the last month. One even happened this morning."

"Well those files are wrong!!" Beast Boy snapped. His voiced echoed alone and sharp over the heads of the Titans in the Main Room. "Do a double-check! Get a second opinion…o-or something!!"

"We scanned over them five times," Robin emphasized. "We're not wrong."

Beast Boy's fists clenched. "Noir is our friend!! Our teammate!! He's not like Terra!! He's not!! He's not another---"

There was a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder.

He gasped and looked up.

Raven stood by him. And she was touching him. Her blue eyes blinked, then grew firm as she addressed everyone as a whole: "Noir is dangerous. I've felt it ever since my emotions returned to normal. After Trigon came out of his body, I caught a glimpse of the boy's mind. There is something very….very dark and bloody about his past. Something he won't tell us. Something even my demon bastard of a father shook and shivered to admit. And just like these messages—which I didn't even know of until now—Noir hasn't told us a single thing about it all. He's been hiding from us something so dark, it would have put Terra to shame when she was working for Slade. I can sense it. I sensed the danger in Terra to begin with. And my fears—our fears---came true. With Noir, it is no different. Only now I have the courage to face the fact that our very own friend—a newcomer in all irony—is a traitor in our midst."

"N-No….," Beast Boy protested, but this time it was a breathy whimper. "He….c-couldn't…."

"We all have to face it…," Cyborg grumbled. "It's happening again. We let our guard down….we got friendly with a newcomer….and we've fallen for the old fall again. Another new Titan. Another betrayal. Simple as that. Friggin' simple as that…"

Beast Boy stared at the floor. He sighed painfully. A tear formed in the corner of his eye.

Starfire looked at everyone. She was silent. Her green eyes wide with indecisive desperation.

Robin turned around and paced in front of the window overlooking the cityscape at night.

Everyone was dead. Dead quiet.

As it had once before, it took a while for the pain to sink in….and throb.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Soto was—in quoting Blackfire—a 'creepy, run-down warehouse'. But it had been more or less converted successfully into a bass pounding, light flashing, air heating rave club for the local youth scene of the City. In fact, it was probably the only place in all of the East Coast where high schoolers were not only safe to party on into the techno oblivion of night, but given the approval to. Soto had been the setting for numerous tours and reviews by anti-drug committees and proven statistically before all dubious parents everywhere as being a safe location for their teenage children to hang out. As expected, that innocence took a great deal of the 'fun' out of going to 'Soto' for any random group of late-night socialites. But a spontaneous battle between the Teen Titans and a trio of robot, Centauri probes many months ago completely changed that. It became a place of legend and lore, and soon all the 'phat' DJs were floating on by to sample their latest mixes for the enthusiastic, hormonal populace of the City.

It was not a place I was in the mood of being at.

Regardless, I trudged and snaked and stumbled my way through the raving bodies of sweating, euphoric teenagers all jumping as one. My black eyes squinted under their shades and I gritted my teeth at the random laser or strobe of light that stabbed down from the metal rafters beneath the ceiling. I was not a fan of laser light shows, especially when I was stuck inside an entire freakin' room of it.

Did the Messenger choose this place to purposefully annoy me?!?!

I bumped into a teenager or two.

I straightened my jacket, blushed, and hurried to the far wall of the place and furthest from the center of the hopping crowd as possible.

Some wildly remixed version of a Chemical Brothers track thundered out of the plethora of speakers overhead. Everything was flashing lights and chaos. And I hadn't the first clue what the Messenger looked like or how he was dressed. Heck, it wasn't until just a few minutes ago that I found out over the phone what sex he was. So what was I to look for?? It's one thing trying to find a needle in a haystack. It's even worse to try and find an invisible needle inside a haystack constantly jumping, shifting, and morphing to a relentless, techno beat.

I shuffled over towards a wooden crate. Actually, a pile of wooden crates. The whole 'warehouse' look had been preserved….I guess.

I leaned against the boxes, folded my arms, and stared out at the raving mass through my shades. My heart beat steadily…hard.

Where was he??

The throbbing of the bass through the floor shook up my legs and numbed me.

I sighed while waiting for something or someone I didn't know.

……and my mind drifted to the thought of my friends.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I remember when we first confronted Terra after her personal revelation as being Slade's apprentice….," Starfire spoke gently into the air of the Main Room, "…in the middle of combat, she said that I was 'always easy to fool'. And I was so shocked that those words….would come out of her mouth in such a manner. My heart was ripped apart from the inside out. And what is worse, I did not feel betrayed. I felt guilty. I felt like I only had myself to blame for arriving at such a point of pain and hurt. Yes, I had trusted Terra. I had trusted her and loved her with all my heart. And for doing so, I had hurt myself. Deeply. Painfully."

A beat.

Half of the other Titans sighed.

The other half was painfully quiet.

Starfire went on: "When Noir joined us…well…I must admit it, I was fearful. I was so very fearful. I felt that he would do the same that Terra did. But the longer he persisted in being around the Tower….a-and the longer I communed with his presence, I saw only innocence. Or at least what I perceived to be innocence. He never lifted a finger of malice towards any of us. He never acted suspicious. He was just nice, considerate, and……….quiet….."

Silence.

Starfire sighed, her green eyes thinning into sad ovals. "Noir has been….so very nice….so very gentle…..so very friendly…..j-just like Terra."

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Starfire looked up. "Friends…..please tell me….if this fate is true…to what extent goes the level of my naiveté? Am I truly so…easy to full? Like Terra said? Have I treated Noir all this time with unfair benevolence? Have we been treating him unnecessarily kindly??"

"I-I just can't believe it, dude….," Beast Boy shuddered. "Tell me how y'all thought it up. At least do us that favor!"

Cyborg looked at Raven and Robin too.

"I thought it through right before asking Cyborg to scan the computer," Robin said. He pointed at his fingers as he spoke, "Number One. In the time that we've had Noir join our ranks, countless of dramatic events have taken place. Number Two, Noir was a pivotal factor in all of those events. Number three---"

"Wait, what do you mean he was a pivotal factor or whatnot?!" Beast Boy asked, eyes doing loopty-loops.

"Quite simple," Robin said. "Noir was the one who found Control Freak's base for us before doing the criminal in. Noir single-handedly defeated Jinx and retrieved the Khaza Jewell from her during the battle with Killer Moth's swarm and H.I.V.E. at Westhaven. It was Noir who suddenly, magically 'convinced' Robert Glover of the Titans' good intentions while three of us were away, entangled with Overload. When Cyborg's Uncle turned out to be controlled by Anderson, all of us were captured while Noir alone was our sole salvation. Then there was that Hellish week when Viper went on his rampage. Remember how much you, Cyborg, Speedy and I tried tracking the criminal down?! We were unsuccessful until Noir was thrown into the mix at the desalination plant!! Then Noir is the first to outwit Blackfire when she had already trapped the rest of us in suspended animation as a revenge upon her sister. And when Raven's emotions flew into us from Mumbo Jumbo's camera, Trigon just happened to take a liking to Noir. If you ask me, I'd tell you that in every major event, battle, skirmish, adventure we have had…Noir's presence—in some fashion or another—directly determined the outcome of the situation. True, we all brought our enemies to their knees through teamwork. But Noir as always the silver bullet. He was always the wildcard. And fate seemed to hinge on that one wildcard…our mysterious nooby friend. The 'friendly' Titan who never talks and never makes a complaint. But—as it turns out—he's been making correspondence with the devil right behind our very backs."

Everyone looked to the floor. Except Raven. She stared off into space. She always stared off into space. Even back when Terra…..---

"While Viper was out and about…," Robin said, "…we discovered Schauer's message. A message about a conspiracy dealing with an 'Experiment' and a 'Balance of Morals' and the seemingly biological whims of fate and destiny. I think there's something deep going on here, and Slade is playing a part in it. He's playing in some far-out chess game that none of us know we're a part of. His purpose in this game is to change our future….our karma…to his own will, I'm willing to gander. And he has two major pieces that he's moving across this dangerous board. The first is Dagger, the person of name only who is so ambiguous that people on the street who speak of him either get wasted on Dragonflare or disappear altogether. And the second…I'm sadly convinced…is Noir. Slade has tried every angle possible to steal what is precious among us and shove it right back into our face. First….it w-was me. Then he chose to rip our spirit apart with Terra—and to an extent, he succeeded. Now…..now Slade has acquired a third apprentice. And if indeed Noir is that third apprentice….well….even Slade should know that we're not going to fall for that bloody tactic again."

"Then what do we do?" Raven asked. "Obvious things never go by Slade either."

"Right," Robin nodded. "This is far too simple. We've tracked down Noir faster—and relatively sooner—than we were fated to do with Terra. Even if Noir is a traitor…there's more to it. There's more to what Slade's after and what he's trying to do. He never teamed up with a figurehead such as 'Dagger' before when Terra was his apprentice. There's got to be something about his scheme this time. He can't be so dull and repetitive to once again let things boil over and come full circle."

"How do we break the cycle??" Cyborg shrugged. "I mean…w-we can confront Noir with the evidence we've found right away. Make him 'fess up."

"Yes!" Starfire nodded. "And perhaps acquire some answers from Noir concerning his actions as well!"

Robin shook his head. "No. I've got a better idea."

"What could that possibly be?" Beast Boy moaned.

"Slade thinks he can use his third apprentice against us….fine….let's let him," Robin said. He pounded his fist and added with gritted teeth. "But if there's one thing about Noir that hasn't changed, it's that he's our wildcard and ours alone. And if need be, we're going to use him back against Slade."

Raven blinked. "You don't want us to tell Noir of our suspicion…..do you?"

Robin shook his head. "We'll lead Noir on….just like he has lead us on."

"Aw man," Cyborg shook his head. "We can't do that to him!"

"Why not…," Beast Boy muttered. He was frowning at the empty side of the room as he played listlessly with a piece of lint on the couch. "If he and Terra fooled us….we can certainly fool at least one of them back."

Cyborg raised a finger to say something……but didn't.

Starfire hugged herself. "This will be……m-most difficult."

Robin nodded. "I know. We must try and treat Noir like we always have. We must not let him suspect what we've learned. And what we know."

"And exactly what do we plan to do then?" Raven inquired.

"We will bring Noir along in our dealings with Slade," Robin said. "I'll 'brief' all of you—and him—tomorrow like I had originally planned. We need to scour the City for signs of possible explosive-settings and other suspicious, Slade-related activities. I'm going to take the threat he made to us after the fall of the Sakura Scraper seriously."

"And what about Noir?" Cyborg asked.

"He'll be our barometer…," Robin said. "We must keep our eyes pealed. We must never lose sight of Noir. Not once. He won't be the smoking gun of our endeavors this time. For if he so much as tries to be—I have a feeling fate will magically work on his side. And, in turn, Slade will benefit. For things are coming full circle. We may have discovered Noir out, but it was at the last second. Slade was right. The end is coming. The end to all of these haphazard events with all of their wild, dramatic endings and smoking guns. But what Slade doesn't know is that the end is coming to his damn charade with his new apprentice. The smoking gun will smoke no more. For as soon as we spot Noir tipping the pendulum of betrayal over the Cliffside, we will cut…him…off…."

Starfire gasped. "C-Cut??"

Robin sighed, his eyemask lowered. "We will turn Noir in, Star."

"Oh….," she exhaled.

Silence.

"Is everyone in agreement?" Robin asked. It was something he hardly ever asked his teammates. At least so bluntly.

Raven was the first to look up and utter: "Yes."

"Yeah…," Beast Boy.

"Indeed," Starfire.

Cyborg looked up. He frowned. "It's unanimous……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I rubbed my tightly shut eyes.

I put my shades back on and blinked the flashing world back into existence.

The rave house continued to shake and bounce. The bass thundered throughout Soto's foundation. An Oakenfold song reverberated against the walls and bodies.

And I was still alone.

I groaned and tilted my head back against the stack of crates. There was no point in staying if a person I had never seen before was not going to show.

I shifted in my lean against the crate. I sighed.

For some reason….I really didn't want to go back to the Tower….

"Um….e-excuse me, sir??"

I blinked. I tilted my head down.

A meek, toothpick of a girl with dark hair looked at me. Her hands were clutched together and holding a piece of paper. She had a nametag. It read 'Emily'.

A worker of Soto's….

"I-Is your name, Noir?" she asked.

I slowly nodded.

"I was told to give this to you…," she handed me the note.

I regarded it curiously. I hesitantly took it and bowed my head.

"You're welcome," she simpered. She walked away…blushing furiously.

I raised an eyebrow.

The girl was gone.

I shook my head, unfolded the paper, and eagerly read it.

**"Not where there're so many people, silly!!! Up here! On the roof!!"**

**-the Messenger**

I did a double-take.

I slowly tilted around and looked straight up at the ceiling.

One of the long stretches of skylight showed a starry sky high above.

There was a lone shadow set against the stars.

A dark 'shadow hand' rose up and waved at me from above the glass skylight.

I took a deep breath.

My appointment……

I slowly looked around to see if anyone was watching, then inconspicuously made my way across the deafening dance hall and towards a stairwell in the corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The top stairwell door to the Soto Warehouse rooftop creaked open.

A gust of wind flew at my face and kicked at my long black hair as I stared out across the gravel.

A lone, shadowed figure stood above the skylight. He was looking down casually at the rave scene below.

I took a breath. I closed the door behind me and gently walked in the figure's direction.

When I was barely two yards away from him….he finally spoke.

He said: "Answer me this, Noir."

I stopped in my tracks. I squinted.

His shadowed side was still to me. He asked: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

"………….," I blinked. I cocked my head to the side.

"What??" his voice uttered. Still as youthful and light as on the phone. "Is that one too tough? To be honest, all koans are. Hell, I don't know if they can even be answered." A beat. He slowly shook his head. "Man….it's awful."

"?????" I gestured curiously.

He shot a hand out and pointed down through the skylight. "They remixed Kraftwerk!! Nobody remixes Kraftwerk and makes some nazi-goose-step-of-a-dance-track out of them!! Kraftwerk is Kraftwerk, man!! Pffft…freakin' philistines of post-industrial rice crispies crap, I swear to God!"

My face looked pained. I bit my lip.

"Ah well…enough of that," he shook his head, smiled brilliantly, and turned to face me. And in turning, his expression met the full shines of the rave's lights from down below us. "How're you doing?"

I squinted through my shades.

He was not much younger than me….or not much older. I couldn't tell which. He was shorter, though. He was very short, in fact. Well, he wasn't stout. He was more 'small' than anything. Petite. Too scrawny to play Hockey and yet too lean to be a jockey. He was Asian…with soft brown, almond eyes under a crown of spiked black hair. The tips of his hairs were highlighted a bright, neon green. And that green matched his sweat jacket. The color of grass…only clean and synthetic. He had his hands buried in a pouch at the base of his sweatjacket, and stretching out under his torso were legs clad in a stone-gray pants that had reflective green bands running down the length of the sides. He looked like a veteran raver somehow in my eyes, beyond the acknowledgement of what he had just spoken to me. Peaking out from the edge of his pouch—around his right arm—was a bulky, black watch of metal. Around his neck hung a necklace with the Yen and the Yang.

There was something so soft and casual about the way he stood…it looked more like he was floating in place. Like a ghost…a very friendly ghost.

A sigh of relief escaped my lips.

"Expecting a girl??" he smirked with an eyebrow raised. "Sorry, not in this lifetime, buddy."

I shook my head. I gestured something in sign language in some half attempt to see if he understood.

Whether or not he did, he didn't let on. Instead he said:

"Pleasure meeting with you, Noir," he nodded from two yards off. "It would be even more pleasurable if things weren't culminating in the way I sense them doing so. Ya know…when in Rome, do as the Romans do….except forget the orgies. It's been a long time since I've seen Trojan man ride around and that could be positively dangerous."

My eyes twitched.

"You still haven't answered my question."

I snapped out of it. I tilted my head to the side and mouthed: 'What???'

"What. Is. The. Sound. Of. One. Hand. Clapping????"

I gestured like mad.

"I know I said there's probably no way to answer something like that….," the Messenger said. He paced around me and waved a finger while talking. "But still…that doesn't mean I don't expect you to try and answer that, my good swordsman. Go on. Give it a shot!"

I sighed. I frowned.

I raised a hand and flimsily flung it around. There was no sound. I rolled my black eyes and shrugged emphatically as if to convey: 'What the hell do you want from me?!'

"Okay….now you're not even trying…," he smirked as he paced around me. My neck turned to follow him. "Granted, human beings cannot naturally comprehend what it means to clap with only one hand instead of two. Why…it defies explination! It bends the mind!! It frustrates us more than a Barbara Streisand marathon and a fridge empty of all Doctor Pepper to drown out the doldrums! And yet…we still ask each other impossible questions like that." He spun to the side, leaned on a radio antenna, and smiled at me. "Why?"

I stared at him.

He shrugged, grinning wide. "Why??"

I looked off into space.

He pointed. "We ask stupid questions like that….questions that could not possibly be answered….because we have faith in there being a higher Truth. A higher Absolute. Something transient and indefinable. Something so far beyond the limits of our reason…we're at a loss to explain it. And still, it exists. Tell me this, Noir, if you can…….do you believe in Something like that?"

I stared at him. On the spot. I slowly….shook my head 'no'.

"Awwwww….that's too bad," he cooed. "But, I guess I can't blame you. What, with being cooped up in that silent little head of yours with nobody close enough to share all of your dark secrets with…it must be sure as Hell hard to believe in much beyond the walls of your skull."

I frowned and folded my arms.

"Touchy subject?" he smirked. "That's a good thing."

I raised an eyebrow.

He twirled about and paced alongside the flashing skylight as he spoke. "At one time, I believed in God. Heck…sometimes I still do. But I'm a lot like you in that department, Noir. I trust that which I see in my eyes and what the things I see tell my heart. Am I on the ball with that, amigo?"

I chose to nod.

"Now….I would have stayed in my dull halo of spiritual numbness for a long, long time…," he went on. "But thankfully, all Hell broke loose in my life." He swiveled about and faced me from the other side of the skylight. Rave scene lights flashed against his Oriental face. "And I found myself…..utterly, hopelessly trapped in a prison I could not escape. And no matter what the details are…what nature of the imprisonment was….there's something which I believe in deeply now. The ultimate prison was myself….and nothing more." He pointed at himself and smiled with his head leaned to the side. "I was eaten down into nothing but this. This hulk of flesh and hair gel you see standing before you. Oh, there were people beyond the 'iron bars'. I shouted and screamed at them to notice me. But everything I did or say fell on blind eyes and deaf ears. Noir, I tell you. It was hell…."

I observed him. Listening. I always listened….

"To make a long story longer….," he resumed pacing around the skylight, "…I was forced to look inward. And in looking inward, I realized that….quite frankly….there is a great deal of futility to the concept of a 'self'. Just what is existence? What is singularity in an infinite domain? What's the point of being alone? Well…quite simple…toss all that down the garbage along with your Hardees' takeout bag!" He walked up to me, took a breath, and smiled forth: "We are not ourselves, but we are selves…."

I looked at him funny.

"Bet you want to go back to the koan, huh?"

I scratched my chin.

"The word 'self' is just that, Noir. A word," he walked over and leaned one foot on the metal frame of the skylight. "It is restricted by our linguistic limitations. It doesn't change. It doesn't evolve. It just sits in its lonely little corner being 'self' for eternity…or until the next fall of the Roman Empire or Ice Age screws the world back into place again." He waved a hand and added: "But the 'self' is a piece of a lot more than just a vocabulary. It's part of a chain. And in this chain…the links are invisible."

I watched him silently.

"Imagine……you have a world," he did a circular frame with two sets of fingers. "A circle, right? Well, I know the globe is a sphere. But see it for once as a three-dimensionally cast circle. A….cut out from a cylinder."

I nodded my head, inhaled, and stared at his hands.

"Now….this is the world as we perceive it, Noir," he said. "One circle. One flat plane of cause and effect and dichotomy. But such has been proven false, hasn't it? Reality—space and time—bends." His fingers closed together and formed two fists as a 'sphere'. "Dimension is relative. It took over seven thousand years of human sperm running around and bumping heads to make Einstein born and have us realize that. Relativity is as real as reality." The Messenger grinned wide and held a sole finger up. "Who's to say that—since we spent so much time realizing how pathetically shallow our primitive concepts of dimension were in the past---the same thing isn't happening now?"

He walked towards me, gesturing with enthusiasm. "The universe…the big bang…the flexing and bending of space and time…that's all well and good. But that's no limit. They used to say the sky's the limit. Some people say the sky's the limit. You know what I say, Noir?"

I mouthed: 'What'

He grinned. "The limit is the limit, and there is no limit…."

A question mark solidified over my head.

He chuckled, spun over towards an A/C unit, and sat casually on it. "Ohhhhhhh the oddest things I've seen. The craziest things I can tell. It truly is a beautiful thing, Life. In all of its tragedies and upsets and victories and triumphs all the same. Chaos sings to me. Can't you hear it as well, Noir?"

I blinked.

"When I was freed from my imprisonment….," he went on. "I found out I could see, visit, and taste so much more than what I was born with. And yet, it was what I was born with. Call it 'satori', call it 'freakishness'. Whatever. But I found that I could cross the threshold. And beyond the threshold is the answer to what the 'self' is. And I no longer see the need for an afterlife, Noir. You know why? Because we are never truly reincarnated. Our 'other lives' are 'living' as we speak! Just not here. And not now. And yet here. And yet now."

I squinted my eyes and rubbed my temple. He was giving me a headache.

"It's so simple, it's complex," the Messenger said. He stood up and sauntered towards me, gesturing. "Take everything you know and don't know about the universe, Noir, and stack it up with everything you know and don't know about the universe…..only, infinity-fold."

I glared at him, confused. Then my black eyes widened under the shades. I mouthed something.

The Asian boy nodded. "Alternate universes….they are. We are. Or 'It Is', if you prefer."

I stared down at our feet. I exhaled sharply and pondered…..

"At first glance…the idea of multiple 'yous' and 'mes' makes life feel a bit….thin. And stale. Does it not?" the Messenger asked with a lean of his head. He smiled. "It's like a ton of people you can't even see are crowding in on your act!"

I gulped.

"But then….you realize….o-once you've seen enough….that multiple dimensions only means multiple friends," he grinned wide.

I pointed at him curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" he cackled. "I'm the last thing you'll ever find indicative of your reality!! Pfft…where I come from, people prefer standard uniforms over the colorful spandex."

I raised an eyebrow.

"And you're also wondering why I'm so bent on being 'here', of all the infinite realities assumed to exist beyond the thresholds of our perception…."

I slowly nodded.

"I dunno," he shrugged and smirked. "You are kinda handsome, ya know."

I scowled.

"Yeah, I know," he chuckled. "I'm too ambiguous to be gay. Ahem. But I will tell you this, Noir. For whatever reasons I'm doing here…I've placed a footprint in. A pretty deep one at that. And I fear over what it may have done to you."

I looked at him, concerned.

"As we speak," he sighed and looked suddenly solemn as he proceeded in a low voice, "….your friends are most likely under the complete and utter assumption that you're a traitor in their midst."

My jaw dropped. My brow furrowed in disbelief.

"Oh yeah!" he nodded. "Not that I can blame them! You're positively noirish in your……being Noir!" A beat. He lowered his eyelids and pointed. "Over the last month, Noir, you've been in the busy process of corresponding with a secret identity over the Internet…."

I blinked. I pointed at him.

"That's right!!" he exploded. "But…they don't think that. In fact, they have every reason to believe that—instead of me—you've been talking to a certain scoundrel. A scoundrel who knows no boundaries when it comes to giving the Titans every little bit of Hell their hormonal little souls can taste of…."

I exhaled and glared off into space.

Slade……

"Why you would work for him is beyond me!!" he smiled.

I frowned at him.

"But you see---it's not so easy for them to realize how ludicrous such an idea is!" he said, pacing around me. "Because they've been confronted with the ludicrous world before. And it stabbed them in the back. Twisted and pulled out…dragging out the meat of their hearts and leaving them empty and wounded. And the knife's name was 'Terra'."

I looked at him.

I thought of Starfire's speech to me.

I saw the frown of Beast Boy and the downcast eyes of Cyborg.

I bit my lip.

"Slade's been….ya know….playing this really bigass ball game with the Titans ever since day one," the Messenger said, balancing playfully on one foot. "If you haven't known about this before—I'm honestly surprised. I'm guessing those Titans hide more about their past from you than you hide about yourself from them! And yet, I know more than you could ever shake a stick at. And look at me! I'm from another universe!"

I looked at him.

He giggled. "Wow. So literal. Ahem. So….Slade playing baseball…..yes….," he paused and then went on: "Robin was strike one. There was a morbid obsession from the beginning of Slade's notoriety to tame the would-be Titan king. For a split second in heroic history, the Boy Wonder was forced to work for an evil, crime underlord. His spirit was not into it, but oh gawd was his flesh into it. Smacking his teammates around like there was no tomorrow—and quite frankly there may not be anymore."

I stared at the Messenger. Awestruck.

Why was I not told any of this before???

"Robin came around. Duh. You know that," he rolled his almond eyes. "Well, that was Strike One, anyways. Strike Two was far worse. Slade reached out to the sweetest girl that there could be. A girl with immense power and a spirit that so impressed the Titans, they inducted her right upon meeting. Oh no, Noir. You are not the Sixth Titan….but rather the Seventh. There was a Lady of the Earth before you. An ever-so-tragic example of a soul strung between good and evil. She fought the whole time to figure out the infinitesimal meaning of 'self', and she pulled both Slade and the Titans into the cyclone of confusion with her. People were hurt on both sides. But we only care about the Titans, don't we? Their wound was the greatest. For Terra was their friend. She was one of their flock. A bird of their feather. And she roasted their asses so bad one day…oh gawds, it was terrible. You should have been there."

I gritted my teeth. I remembered the headlines of the City being overrun by Slade's soldiers.

But Terra….

"Believe me, she redeemed herself in the end," the Messenger grinned. "But it was far too late. The damage had been done. There was an incurable hole in the spirits of the Titans that still remains today—undoubtedly. Bleeding and ragged. When you came along…I think you more or less filled that needy hole, Noir."

I looked at him.

"Terra was strike two of Slade's ballgame," he said. "He had gone through two apprentices. But the inning was far from over." He smirked and spoke over the raging bass of the rave downstairs. "Oh no, two torturous battles with the Titans isn't enough for the cantankerous bastard. He must have a third strike, even if it kills him. He must manhandle a Third Apprentice. And in more ways than one—skewing even more the singularity of 'self'—he is doing that very same thing as we speak."

He walked over and perched up on the stand in front of the glowing sign reading 'SOTO'. "Both you and I know—Noir—that those hushed Internet conversations were between you and me. I'll take the blame for it being so 'hushed' to begin with. For now, at least. But what Slade has managed is a total mother of all hacks. Robin and his detective companions—using all sorts of technological prowess, I'm sure—have scanned through the messages you've sent and concluded in their empirical findings that you communicated with none other than the badass baseballer himself. As far as they're concerned, you are the Third Apprentice, Noir. You are the next in the line of betrayal. And that ragged hole of pain Terra had formed—that you had helped fill up in all of your sefless goodness—is starting to rip asunder again. Growing wider. Bleeding all over the damn place like an armadillo roadkill. You ever seen an armadillo run over by a car? The crazy-ass mothers practically explode! Heh…"

The Messenger paced the metal platform in front of the glowing letters as he continued: "And now that they're so convinced—magically I might add—that you are as evil as evil itself, I wouldn't doubt it if they kept mum about it. Certainly they're curious—as you and I are—as to why things are coming full circle."

I raised my eyebrows.

He looked at me. Frozen. "Is that phrase getting worn out to you by now? I hope so. It's only because things are coming full circle. You. The Titans. Slade. Slade's Apprentice. Everything is wrapping around itself. The giant Snake of Time is trying to encircle the Machine and eat its own tail. But that's only part of the game…part of the big ploy. You see….," he gestured, "…Slade wants things to come full circle. But that's not his ultimate goal. No, his ultimate goal is the successful completion of the Experiment. And the Experiment will lead to a total upheaval of the Balance of Morals. But to get from A to Z, you have to have A first. And that's going full circle. Through whatever far-out means that Slade can find. And believe you me, Noir, he's found them."

I took a deep breath and listened to him. Watched him. Breathed him in.

"The Balance of Morals….," the Messenger began. He leaned against the 'T' in 'SOTO'. "Would you believe me if I told you that—as odd as it sounds—there indeed is a scale to transient good and evil?"

I gave him a wyrd look.

"Well…nobody can sum it up in vocabulary," the Messenger shook. "The Zen Buddhists have it all down pat. Word of mouth cannot sum up the universe. The deconstructionists of literature say the same thing. But I like Zen Buddhists more. You won't find any deconstructionists managing a rock garden. HA!" He jumped down onto the flat roof and walked up to me. "You. Me. Slade. We have a balance of positives and negatives flowing through us. Kinda like George Lucas' Force…only minus the green elf lifting X-Wings and talking like an idiot-savant. Here….," he fingered his Yen Yang necklace and held it up for me to see. "Taoist?"

I gave him a 'look'.

"Pfft…right, forgot who I was talking to," he dropped the necklace back down around his sweat jacket's collar. "Ahem. Well, when things are NORMAL…these….um….'charges' cancel each other out. We live as three dimensional humans. Or four dimensional. Depends on whether or not you wear glasses. But in theory—and a wild theory at that—if this cancellation was to be upended…we could end up with too much positive charge or too much negative charge. But how does one accomplish that? You create a force strong enough to attract or repel the desired or disliked charge and gobble up whatever is left behind. I truly believe, Noir, that a giant buffet table of celestial experimentation has been prepared and Slade's mouth is watering."

I slowly spun around and looked at the distant image of the Tower against the horizon of darkness.

"Slade wants to….'dip his hand into the pool of charges'….you see…..he wants to destroy whatever balance there is to this unnamed force that summons the good and bad in everything that is. If such is possible—I am not sure. But Slade is aiming for it. And if for some far-out reason he grabs ahold of it…..well….the limit's the limit, and there is no limit. Slade will have infinite power over this domain. Such a ripple in the Balance of Morals could be so intense, so damaging, that it could even break through the thresholds cushioning this dimension within existence and affect the alternate universes bordering what you call 'Home'."

I took a deep breath and looked at him. This was all very……….frightening.

And yet, the Messenger smiled. "Only your world, Noir. I've been to so many…and I've only seen it brewing here. This world. This Slade. This City. And this…….th-this 'You'."

I blinked under my shades.

He chuckled. "Oh….I really like this 'You'. It's so…..so…..'You'."

I swallowed. I leaned my head to the side.

"You are the center, Noir," the Messenger said. "I knew it from the first minute I ever e-mailed you. You are where the fulcrum of this madness lies. Slade needs to use you as an upper hand against the Titans. As a distraction while he prepares to bring things full circle—somehow—and rape the very essence of essence itself. I'm not entirely sure how he plans to go about this fiendish plot. As dashingly cute as I may be, I'm not God, Noir. I'm just a humble little helper with a knack for seeing things. And from what I've seen, Slade has help in a lot of mysterious places. There's the Third Apprentice. Whoever that is, she or he is on Slade's side. And then there's the ever so lovely name that's been plaguing you and the Titans for weeks. The very same identity responsible for hacking into the Tower on so many an occasion----this time to falsify the data into making the Titans think it was Slade you were talking to and not me."

I inhaled…then mouthed: 'Dagger'.

The Messenger nodded. "The mother of all conspiracy theories. Er….'Father', I meant. Ahem. Even in all of my ghostly reconnaissance, I have no way of telling who exactly he is. But I know a little bit of what he's up to. The Third Apprentice is working directly for Slade. But Dagger…..Dagger is working with Slade. He's actually sharing Slade's rewards from bringing things Full Circle. But he wants different things than Slade. Things he may have acquired already—for he has been in the business of hiding in the criminal underworld, delving into conspicuous, secret schemes of evil, and being an overall pain in the proverbial Donkey—if you don't mind me quoting Starfire. Gawd, she's such a cute alien girl…isn't she?"

I planted my hands on my hips.

"Moving right along," he said. "Dagger. Slade. The Third Apprentice. All working together. Dagger wants the City. Slade wants the universe. And the Third Apprentice….."

"????" I waited anxiously.

He smiled. "Well, what do YOU want, Noir?"

I frowned at that. I gestured.

"Well, whatever it is….," he smirked. "She wants the opposite."

I did a double take. I mouthed: 'She?'

"All I know," he shrugged. "And if you're gonna maintain your trust with the Titans long enough to actually help them nab Dagger and Slade…you're gonna have to be the exact antithesis of her. Don't ask me how…cuz that's your department, hero."

My eyes widened under my mask. I hand-signed for him to 'stay'.

"My time in this universe is like a ripple in the water," he said. "Dancing down the stream, ducking under, and appearing in another place. I wish I could stay longer….but…..I have my constraints." He pointed at his bulky, black watch as he said that….as if that was supposed to mean something to me.

This guy was wyrd…..

"Do me a favor, Noir," he said in sudden solemnity that surprised me. "When you walk back home….when you're back inside that Tower…and you're surrounded by people who—as of now—you know do not trust you and are leading you on for their own sake…….do me a favor, and yourself one as well….."

I leaned forward…waiting.

He finished: "Treat them like your friends." He stared at me, deadpan. "For that is what they are, Noir. And if you want them to stay alive…that is what they must always be. The one constant in every universe I've been to is this: friendship, friendship, friendship. Friendship is the only Full Circle you'll ever want. Everything else….Slade…Dagger…the Third Apprentice….that can all go to shambles. Just see to it that you remain friends with those whom you love as long as you can. Even if they're too confused and wounded at the moment to return the favor. Life takes self-sacrifice. At least….the life that we all want."

I lowered my head.

I sighed.

I didn't want to go back now……..but…..I did want to all the same.

At least I knew I had to. And that was good enough for me.

The Messenger smiled and walked backwards across the rooftop of the Soto Warehouse. "So….again I ask…what is the sound of one hand clapping?"

Silence.

"By the end of this week….this hellish week to come…," he breathed in and said: "I hope you find that answer out, Noir. And—in fact—I hope to God you beat Slade and the Third Apprentice to it."

He gently reached to his watch.

Suddenly, before my eyes, there was a flash of green lives.

I blinked….and….

The Messenger was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I entered the Tower that night through the windows of the Main Room, having blurred my way home. It didn't feel like a routine entrance. And at the moment, it felt good to break with routine.

To my luck, I came across Robin, Raven, and Cyborg in the Main Room.

As soon as they saw me, some of them smiled….some of them waved….but all of them were silent. I watched—still—as they returned to the scripted activities of doing nothing.

Cyborg did nothing as he played his favorite Xbox game.

Robin did nothing as he read over police reports concerning the collapse of Sakura Scraper.

Raven did nothing with her nose stuck deep into a book.

I looked at them all. I sighed.

I walked to the elevator without so much as a gesture of 'hello'.

As the automatic doors closed behind me, I could have sworn I sensed their heads turning and hushed voices rising into a tumult. And it no longer felt like home. I shivered and hugged myself.

I hugged myself all the way down the cellar…into my room…and onto my bed where I rested till morning.

I didn't get a wink of sleep.


	54. Full Circle part 1

**54. Full Circle part 1**

"Noir!! Get. Your. Butt. Down. Here. NOW!!!"

I gritted my teeth as the communicator blared in my ear. I leapt off the buildingside, flipped, fell, and blurred my feet down the face of the structure. Rapidly, the hard concrete floor of the City's environment rushed towards my face. I took a breath, summoned murk through my limbs, and vaulted myself outwards diagonally towards the ground. I spiraled, slowed my descent with a plume of smoke, and settled down softly onto the ground, upon which I zoomed lightning fast across Town to rejoin my Titan allies.

Night. A very hot and dark night.

This was all part of a week that had been turning out increasingly frustrating. We were five days into pursuing Slade's plethora of bomb threats throughout the cityscape. We circumnavigated tons of dead ends, false leads, hoaxes, and inaccuracies. Now—presented with a grand parallax of information and at least three near-hits, we were on our biggest break yet in tracking down Slade's explosives. And—as it turned out—our 'biggest break' had a flaw in it. The latest carbonite bomb he was threatening to trigger was in one of three places.

We had just spent the last frantic hour narrowing down the possible locations to one…and that was where Robin was at that very moment. He let out a cry for help. Raven and Beast Boy immediately flew from their area of search to assist him. Starfire and I were also on the move. The only thing, Starfire could fly. I was making the best I could on foot, skirting around buildings and cars and blurring down streets at the maximum of my power's speed.

To put it shortly, the rest of the Titans had already assembled at Robin's location of the bomb. I was doing my futile best to catch up. I had to rejoin the Team.

I bolted through an intersection. I flung my arms behind me and tilted forward; becoming streamline. In such a fashion I ran a ground-heating path straight between two lanes of opposing traffic. Screeches, loud honks, and curses flew past me as I blurred on towards the destination. At one point, a commercial bus was changing lanes—thus blocking my path entirely. I held my breath, fell back on my shoulders, and literally slid on a carpet of smoke under the heated vehicle and out on the other side. I vaulted my body up, flipped, landed, and blurred off the road and onto the sidewalk. The faces of gasping people soared at me. I gritted my teeth, ran up the buildingside to my right, and took the rest of the road's length in a vertical sprint over windows, awnings, and flagpoles. At the end of the avenue, I launched my body up off the buildingside and sailed through a thin alleyway across the street. I landed and blurred past garbage heaps, metal staircases, and the occasional bum.

I came to a metal fence stretched over a water canal that formed the border between the Eastern District's commercial zone and the industrial center. I leapt mightily upwards, soared through the air with trailing smoke, and landed hard on the other side of the canal. I landed, rolled, jumped back to my feet, and continued blurring without a second breath.

Now warehouses were soaring past my sides. I sweat. I glanced left and right under glistening shades.

One of these……one of these warehouses was where--

An explosion. Laserfire. I glanced to my right.

A plume of glowing, amber smoke rose to the sky.

Ah…follow the explosions.

"Noir?!?!?!"

I'm COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!

I darted right, blurred around a stray van, soared up the side of a utility shed, rounded the rooftop, and leapt off mightily. I soared down towards the scene…which was sprawling with Slade's robot henchmen.

I gasped.

Lasers were flying everywhere. Some at me. Some at seemingly nothing at all. I saw a speck of red and green which I knew was Robin, and a streak of green which had to have been either Beast Boy or Starfire providing cover from above. But the one thing I saw clearly was blue. Electric blue. Just to my immediate left was Cyborg. The android Titan was encircled by a throng of pummeling, relentless androids. He was giving them one hell of a beating, but it wouldn't have been for long. In mid-fall, I reached a hand back to the hilt of Myrkstaff. My black eyes narrowed. I applied a burst of smoke that glided me down towards his growling, pounding aura and---

I landed.

CHIIIING!!!

Myrkblade warbled thunderously forward in a straight line and my body followed. I skidded to a stop past a handful of bad guys. Some of the asphalt actually sizzled under my heels. I exhaled, holding my sword out. I turned to look behind me.

Three android henchmen—standing in a line besides Cyborg—were frozen in place.

I blinked.

Their torsos fell clean from their hips all at the same time. Then everything collapsed.

I took a deep breath. I spun around and rushed back to Cyborg's side, hacking off a robot that was grabbing him from behind.

"RRRAUGH!!" He shouted and threw the remnants of his combatant into an oncoming charge of two more robots. They fell hard to the ground.

The android Titan wiped his human brow and gritted his teeth at me. "This is it, alright!" he panted. "Slade wouldn't send so many of his damn machines here to guard a hoax, now would he?!"

I shrugged.

"Behind you!!"

I grunted, spun around, and met the charge of a razor-clawed henchman with my blade. I stabbed at him and warded him off.

Cyborg stepped over till we were back to back. In such a fashion we were close enough to both talk and fight off the encircling horde of evil machina.

"Robin says he saw the actual bomb inside the warehouse!" Cyborg shouted, smashing a robot's face in with his fist. "It's a big one, he says!! Big enough to form a crater twice the size of what brought down Sakura Scraper!! As soon as we all got here to assist in disarming it, these bastards showed up!! RAAUGH!!" He punched his fist into the torso of a robot, converted his arm into a laser rifle, and blasted the robot apart from the inside. BLAM!!! "First order of business. We smash heads! Second order of business. We smash some more heads!! And third order of business---" He paused to dodge the swipe of a robot's claw, then gripped it hard by the shoulders and flung it across the warehouse lot and into an exploding fire hydrant. "There is no third order!! We just gotta help get Robin safe passage into the warehouse so he can disarm that damn thing!!"

I nodded. I slashed off the arm of an invading robot and then noticed a fresh phalanx surrounding Cyborg and I. I sweat.

"Guess we gotta part for now…," Cyborg said. He frowned and switched both of his hands into laser rifles. "Go! Go! Go!!!"

I let out a silent scream and flew at the wall of charging robots. I slid on the ground between a gauntlet of them and swiped Myrkblade left and right above me, hacking off sparking legs, ankles, calves. A hulking android raised its titanium fist and flung it down at me. I vaulted up from my slide, flipped over him, and immediately stabbed him reversely in the back upon landing. Two androids came at me, claws glistening. I put my weight on the hilt of Myrkblade which was embedded in the hulking robot behind me, lifted up my legs, and kicked both attackers back. I then brought my lower body down, summoned up a pulse of smoke energy, and swung the entire weight of the robot behind me in a one-hundred-and-eighty degree arc over my head and smashing down onto their twitching, sparking bodies.

WHAM!!!!!!!

I jabbed Myrkblade out of the entangled mess of metal, wires, and circuitry just in time to spin around and hold off a wave of hobbling, footless robots clamoring all around me.

In the meantime, Cyborg was having one hell of a heyday with his dual laser rifles.

He took aim in two separate directions, melting titanium fiends away with his blue fury. They kept coming from all sides of him. He spun around and aimed both laser rifles directly ahead of him at an advancing phalanx. Two robots flew apart. One jumped over the blast and soared down at Cyborg with lunging claws. Cyborg fell down onto his back and met the leaping robot with his legs aimed upwards, pinning the android in place. The henchman swiped at Cyborg's head. The Titan tilted his cranium and deflected the claws with the metal part of his skull. CLANK!! He gritted his teeth and squished the attacking henchman's head between the barrels of his two rifles. ZAAAAAAAAP!!! The robot's head was obliterated in a heartbeat. Cyborg grunted, kicked the metal body off of him, and jumped to his feet. An android grabbed his neck from behind. Cyborg struggled to get loose, at the same time blasting off random, advancing enemies in front of him. He pivoted his body around till his back was to a streetlamp and rammed back into it, squishing the clinging android. The robot fell off him. He promptly kicked it over into the center of a group of henchmen, took aim, and fired. The laser beam struck dead center in the grounded android's energy core. It exploded, blowing back the creeps lumbering around it.

Across the lot, a green elf finished karate kicking a robot's head off and elbowing its body away. Three razor-sharp androids approached him. Beast Boy stepped back, frowned, and flexed his arms. The arms exploded into rippling, hairy muscles as the changeling morphed into a hulking gorilla that roared, stomped forward, and literally punched a robot torso apart with a single fist. The primate then grabbed a second robot by its leg, swung it up, and used it like a club…smacking the third henchman across the street and into a utility shed. The gorilla effortlessly tossed his robot 'club' into the air, morphed into a T-Rex, and snapped its jaws through the sparking torso of the android. The green dinosaur roared and stomped its way over towards a crowd of some of the robots surrounding Cyborg. It ducked its head down, bit, swiped, and thrashed its teeth around. The sparking limbs of henchmen flew, while most simply sprawled out painfully across the lot. One huge robot aimed a laser at the T-Rex. The changeling promptly leapt into the air and morphed into a green sparrow that dodged the laser shots and dove down at the robot. When it reached the android, it dropped to the ground as a snake, slithered a spiral up the legs, hips, and torso of the henchman, then vaulted off the fiend's back in the form of a kangaroo. The android was plowed so hard into the ground, it formed a crater in the asphalt, sparked a few times, and died. The kangaroo turned into a panting green elf who swiped the sweat off his brow and ran off to take on another wave of Slade's forces.

At the same time, Starfire flew over the carnage. Her hands glowed bright green as she provided cover fire from the skies, blasting the torsos and legs out from under Slade's henchmen with her righteous fury. Emerald eyes caught fire as she flew down at a mass of churning robots converging around me and my sword. She let out a Tamaranian growl, fisted together two hands, and summoned a huge orb of starbolt destruction. She soared to the ground, skidded to a stop on two boots, anchored herself, and unleashed the fiery orb with a cry. I looked over my shoulder, held a breath, and jumped away just in time as Starfire knew I would. The henchmen stood for a split second of confusion before the starbolt reached them and melted them into oblivion from the inside out. The alien girl inhaled and turned around—SMACK!!! A robot punched her hard in the gut. She went sprawling. The attacker and two fellow fiends pounced on her. She shook her head, opened her eyes, and immediately unleashed a beam of green destruction from her pupils. The center henchmen flew apart, blowing the other pouncers to the side. Starfire jumped to her feet. A robot grabbed her from behind. She grunted and struggled in its grasp. Another joined in and grabbed her left arm. She gritted her teeth and charged up another stream of energy in her eyes. But then a hulking android came in and clamped his metal palm over her face, cutting off her firepower. Starfire gasped. More and more bodies formed a dogpile on her. Her hands burned bright green against the clamoring, robot bodies. Her legs flexed. She took a deep breath…and lifted off the ground with boundless confidence. The alien girl and about nine or ten androids lifted as one body. Higher and higher into the air. Pulsing and flexing and struggling. Starfire took a deep breath, frowned into the palm over her face, and cut off her power of flight. SWOOOOOOSH!!! The huge mass of entangled combatants sailed straight down towards the hard ground of the lot. The Tamaranian let loose the starbolts in her hands blindly at the point of impact. FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!! Her whole body exploded forth a wave of green fury. Robots and metal limbs and circuitry flew everywhere in a halo of shrapnel, disorienting many of the grounded henchmen around her. She took a deep breath, took to the skies once again, and proceeded to provide cover fire.

Underneath Starfire's soaring figure, Raven levitating cautiously backwards as a line of robots approached her. The dark girl's eyes narrowed. The robots' limbs flexed…and then they pounced.

"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!!" Raven's right hand stretched forward. One of the pouncing robots was encased in obsidian energy. It twitched and floated in mid air. Two more robots flew at Raven's body. The girl flexed her left hand out to her side. A pickup truck shook with telekinesis and floated up on a black platform. Raven gritted her teeth and aimed her left hand at the attackers. The truck was encased in black. It soared like an onyx meteor through the air, smacked into the two leaping robots, and slammed into the ground, upon which it slid across half the lot and smacked into a couple of the robots taking on Cyborg and Beast Boy. A few laser beams flew at Raven from her side. She glanced at them. Her eyes glowed bright gray. She focused on the robot she was still telekinetically floating in place with her right hand. She stretched her other hand out, flexed her fingers, and slowly drew her forearm back like she was drawing an arrow into a bow. The robot convulsed and sparked as its limbs were literally ripped apart slowly from Raven's administrations. Soon what was left of the victimized henchman was two floating arms, two floating legs, a torso, and a head. Raven pivoted about to face the laser-toting robots. She flexed her hands and brought the floating body parts in front of her. She then extended her fingers towards her foes, and the limbs flew out like missiles. A torso slammed into two of the robots. A head sailed straight through the chest of another. Two limbs smacked three robots into pieces. A left arm severed an android in half. Then the last arm went to the henchman with the largest rifle. Raven gritted her teeth and flexed her wrists. The robot arm floated up, literally bitch-slapped the robot fiend, and sailed down its recoiling chest to where it met its energy core, sparked, and caused the whole android to explode brilliantly. Seeing the damage done, Raven glared and floated over to assist Cyborg while Starfire flew overhead.

At this point, I had made it to the center of the lot. I was spinning around at a circle of robots around me. Myrkblade soared about, cutting the air with the heat of warbling smoke. I gritted my teeth and sliced a head off…an arm…a shoulder. My eye caught the glint of a laser rifle to my side. I sidestep, spun, and dodged a close laser blast. I knelt into a stab that sent the tip of my sword planting itself in the barrel of the laser gun. Smoke danced out from under my shades as I let loose a pulse of destruction through my weapon. The laser gun exploded—so did half the torso of the robot holding it. I leapt up to my feet, spun around, and immediately slashed an attacking robot in half down the center. I kicked its halves away from me, charged forward, slashed through two more robots, and came to the clawed block of a hulking henchman who swiped at my cranium. I ducked. He swiped again. I backflipped. I blurred. I literally dashed through him, swinging Myrkblade into what ended up being a shower of exploding metal, chips, wires, and circuitry. I came to a stop. I panted. Something rushed up behind me. I held my breath, gritted my teeth, and spun with a heavy swing of my blade.

CLANG!!!!!!!!!

Robin's staff.

Robin.

He had just blocked my swipe.

I gasped. Sweat.

His eyemask narrowed. Sweat.

We brought our weapons down and simultaneously spun to face an advance of robots.

While bashing henchmen back with his staff, he grunted: "We can't be fighting like this forever! Slade knows that we've found his carbonite bomb in storage! These robots will only distract us while he tries to relocate the explosive! Noir…help me get to the warehouse! The Titans have been holding off these creeps long enough as it is! We should be safe facing off all that's left. But right now—for the sake of the City—we have to get. into. that. warehouse!"

I nodded.

"GO!!"

He charged at the building and I alongside him.

Immediately, over two dozen robots converged on us to stop the charge. I dashed ahead and ripped a path through three of them. Robin vaulted over with his staff, reached into his utility belt, and threw forth a fan of birdarangs in his descent. The projectiles shredded four robots apart. I ran on ahead and clashed with two laser-toting fiends. Robin growled and bashed two attackers away with his staff. He spun his bludgeon, leapt into the fray, and cracked the android skull in of one of my opponents. I ripped the last one to shreds and we had a clear path to the warehouse.

The team leader and I dashed over towards the side. A huge, metal door blocked the entrance.

"Rrrggh!!!" Robin exclaimed, frustrated. "They lowered this thing since I got here!!" He reached into his utility belt. He pulled out an explosive disc. He planted it onto the door, pressed a few numbers on the pad, and dashed over to the warehouse's side beyond the doorframe. "Fire in the hole!!!"

I nodded and ran over to my other side.

3…2…1…

**BAM!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Fire, dust, and metal flew.

Robin out a handful of birdarangs.

I gripped the hilt of Myrkblade.

He jumped into the doorway.

I blurred up beside him.

We stared in, and there it was. In the center of the dark warehouse. A metal obelisk with blinking lights. The carbonite bomb. At least twenty robot henchmen were swarming around the explosive…fastening it to something. They looked up at us after the explosive entrance. Their solid-white eyes narrowed.

Robin pointed. "Give it up!! The bomb is as good as ours!! We need that thing for analysis!! Soon we'll be tracking Dagger down…then on to squash your pathetic lord and mentor, Slade!!"

The robots flexed their arms into attack mode. Others raised laser rifles at us.

I glanced around from under my shades. Sweating….

"Believe me…," Robin glared as he held the birdarangs up over his head. "You all have more than perished today…."

They didn't listen. The lasers blasted off and a handful of fiends pounced us.

Robin and I ducked the streams of energy.

Robin dove to the side, flinging out his birdarangs with a grunt.

Laser rifles and robot wrists sliced apart.

I blurred against a wall, jumped up, and sailed down through an attacker's body—Myrkblade first. Circuits and metal flew. I inhaled, I dashed across the floor of the warehouse—deflecting lasers off with Myrkblade—and hacked off the head of another henchman.

Robin smashed torsos in with his staff, grunted, and spun around to strike the broadside of two other androids. Lasers streamed at him. He ran up a wall, jumped off, unleashed a grappling hook in mid flight, swung across the length of the warehouse, and slammed his feet into a swarm of robots, piling them on top of each other.

As the Titan leader and I made scrap metal out of the final layer of guards, one robot positioned by the obelisk looked around, pulled out a remote, and tapped a red button it. The explosive obelisk blinked with an amber light.

Robin and I froze in the middle of our battle—panted—and looked over at the oddity.

There was a deep humming. Slowly…the obelisk rose into the air.

I made a wyrd face. I glanced down and saw a platform of some sort. A craft….hovering beneath the obelisk. Lifting it up. With thrusters.

The other Titans ran up/flew down into the entrance of the warehouse at that time. Piles of android bodies rose in the lot behind them. They all froze and gasped.

"Um….is it just me?" Beast Boy uttered. "Or is the tower of death floating away?!"

"A hovercraft!!" Robin shouted and pointed at the obelisk. "Slade's trying to fly the thing away!! Stop it!!"

"Good times….," Cyborg mumbled. He aimed his laser rifle to blast out the craft's engines.

And just then…the thrusters flared. The hovercraft lunged to the walls of the warehouse. It struck hard. WHAM!!!!!

The whole building shook. The ground beneath us rumbled. The Titans lost their footing. Starfire cried out. Beast Boy pratfalled. Cyborg couldn't get his shot off.

WHAM!!!!

The hovercraft slammed into the wall again. The whole building shuddered. Metal groaned from above.

And….._a flash of pink light._

I gasped. I stared up through my shades at the ceiling.

A shadow darted away at the last second.

I squinted my black eyes.

The hell??

GROAN!!!

The metal rafters suddenly broke out of their foundations above…and fell.

Robin gasped. "Look out!!"

Cyborg looked up. He gritted his teeth and flexed his arms up at the last second.

But he was too late…and the falling of the metal pylon was too intense. Rubble fell down around the metal bulkhead and grounded the Titans. They were stuck under the debris.

Robin and I ran over to get them out. The Boy Wonder pried with his staff like a lever. I stabbed with Myrkblade.

The hovercraft with the carbonite bomb started plowing its way through the warehouse's dilapidated wall.

"Forget us!!" Cyborg shouted, struggling from the weight.

Starfire waved. "The explosive!! It is escaping!!"

"Rrrrgh!!" Robin jumped back with his staff. "We'll be back. Come, Noir! Now!!"

I nodded and saluted the pinned-down Titans. Robin and I ran for the hovercraft. In mid sprint, a hole cracked open in the damaged warehouse's floor. Robin let out a cry and tripped over. His rod fell against the floor with a CLANK! and he grunted.

I skidded to a stop. I turned and faced him, gasping.

"I'm….stuck!!" he shook. "Rrrghh!! Can't move! The hovercraft's getting away!!"

Raven's eyes glowed gray. From where she was pinned down, she stretched out a hand and encased the body of the hovercraft in black energy.

The vehicle shuddered to a stop halfway through the gaping hole of the warehouse. The obelisk wobbled. The whole hovercraft struggled. The thrusters flared brightly, fighting against the dark girl's manipulations.

Raven gritted her teeth. Her temples throbbed. "Too….strong. Can't……stop….it…."

She sighed and dropped her hand.

The hovercraft soared out the warehouse and lifted up towards the air in the lot outside the warehouse.

I ran after it.

Robin called out: "NOIR!!!"

I froze to a stop. I spun around and faced him, panting. Eager to give chase. All other options lost.

Or were they??

There was a pained look on Robin's face. He sweated heavily, swallowed, and looked back at the other Titans.

They responded with a look of similar pain and shock. How did things end this way?! Such despicable circumstances. Every Titan pinned down, except for one……

I knew what they were thinking. I had the Messenger to thank for that. But they didn't know that I knew what they were thinking.

Could they trust a traitor??

Right now??

With Slade's prized bomb slipping nastily from their grasp?!

It was a painful thing. It felt like poison in the air. Not just then…but for the last five days since I talked to the Messenger. Between detective research, hardly a word was exchanged between the Titans and me. Not even smiles or nods of acknowledgment in the halls of the Tower. We were so afraid to look at each other. So afraid to tap the reserves of our distrust. The Titans expected to lose their heads…to lose their honor…to have their wounds reopened and toyed with like Terra and Slade had done so viciously long ago. Or was it so 'long' ago??

And I……I expected to lose a family. A family I had grown to love and respect and base my whole damn day from rise to fall on. Things had happened so quickly. I had jumped into their arms, and soon—it was boiling over—I was bound to be tossed out of their halo of trust and once again into that lonely abyss I called 'me'. I had been 'me' before. Not the 'Sixth Titan'. Being 'me' tore into my being because I had nobody to share my oxygen with. Nobody to prove I was….still a good person.

The trust between me and the Titans had been dissolved. Soon I would be alone with my memories again. Things would come full circle like predicted. And I would never get the chance to fight with them, smile with them, or suffer alongside them again.

All of this was churning and twisting in my soul as I anxiously awaited a word from Robin. And I knew—as much as it shredded me apart—that something similarly painful (if not more so) was burning at their hearts as they all shared a communal glance of helplessness and then turned to me.

And the words that came out of Robin's mouth made me want to cry: "Okay, Noir," he said…as if it was so obvious that he had made a monumental decision. "Go after it!! Take this!!" He slid a grappling hook to me along the floor.

I kicked it up into the air, grabbed it, and nodded at him.

"Remember!!" he shouted. "We need that bomb in tact!! If we can access the core, we can find out its origins and possibly get a lead to Slade and Dagger! Now go!!" he pointed with a gloved finger. His teeth grit as he forcibly had to spit out: "We're counting on you…."

I took a deep, painful breath. I spun around, and blurred out of the warehouse.

I left the warehouse in a blurring, dark street. My helpless companions were abandoned to somehow get themselves free on their own.

When I was gone, Robin slumped down against the length of the floor and sighed.

"Dude….," Beast Boy shook his head from under the rubble. "Not good. Definitely not good."

Cyborg muttered, "Tell me about it."

Raven rubbed her aching head.

"Are you sure that was…..wise, Robin?" Starfire asked.

The Boy Wonder propped himself up on an elbow and struggled to get unstuck from the hole. "Something tells me we're about to find out…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The hovercraft elevated into the night's sky ahead.

I blurred after it, clinging to both Myrkblade and the grappling hook.

I gritted my teeth.

This was my chance to prove myself. To show the Titans I could still be trusted. I. Had. To. Catch. That. Bomb.

I blurred up the side of a tall warehouse and rounded out onto the metal rooftop.

The Messenger was right about some things. He was right suggesting I stay with the Titans and help them track down Slade. Even if they didn't trust me. But he also told me I would have to be an 'antithesis' of the Third Apprentice. Well……I hadn't caught sight of her yet. And neither had the Titans. As far as I was concerned, I was ahead of the Messenger. I was going to stop this hovercraft…and prove to them once and for all. I. Am. Not. A. Traitor.

POW!!!!

I fired the grappling hook up at the flying craft.

CLANK!!!

The hook clamped in.

I gripped hard to the cord with one hand and lifted myself—through the air—and swung a curved arc down and up towards the escaping hovercraft. I let go of the cord and stabbed Myrkblade into the edge of the vehicle with a breathy grunt.

I dangled…swung my legs…and pivoted myself up and stood on the wobbly edge.

I balanced myself a hundred feet in the air, pulled Myrkblade out, took a breath, and marched towards the Obelisk—WHAM!!!!

A metal fist slammed into my face. I went tumbling. Myrkblade slid over the sleek body of the craft and teetered on the edge.

I gasped and looked up, wincing.

I had forgotten there was one henchman left on the craft!!

His robot foot came slamming down.

I rolled out of the way. I jumped up.

He and the obelisk stood between me and my precariously balanced myrkblade on the other side of the craft.

I raised my hands into a fighting stance.

His gray, robot eyes narrowed. He charged at me.

A serrated fist flew at my face.

I ducked, spun on one knee, and swiped his legs out from under him.

He sprawled out onto the vehicle.

I made a dive for my sword.

He grabbed my leg.

I fell down flat. "!!!!"

He tumbled over till he lay on top of me and brought a handful of claws down.

I gripped his arm and held the claws at bay just inches before they could dig into my nose.

I struggled with him. I summoned murk into my limbs and shoved him hard.

His metal body flew back and slammed against the obelisk. CLANG!!

The whole hovercraft shook.

Myrkblade wobbled.

I winced. Damn it!! There's a bigass explosion in that pillar!! Can't bang it up too much!!

I slid over, grabbed Myrkblade, and paced myself carefully around the circumference of the hovercraft.

The robot stood up and paced himself across from me. Glaring.

Buildingtops streamed by beneath us.

The wind kicked at my black hair in a constantly changing direction as I circled the center of the hovercraft and its obelisk. I kept facing my enemy.

My enemy kept facing me.

At one point I stopped, flexing my fingers around Myrkblade.

He stopped two.

We had a staring match.

The muscles in my frowning face tensed. I gripped hard to Myrkblade and dove straight at him.

But then the henchman did an odd thing. He jumped up and down in place once.

The result: the entire hovercraft tilted towards him from the weight of his jumping.

I was thrown off-balance in my attack.

I slammed hard into the obelisk, spun around it, and tumbled directly into his grasp.

He gripped my shoulders hard and slammed me face-down (hard) into the body of the hovercraft.

I winced. He gripped my head from behind.

I gasped as he forcibly tilted my head up….and forced it over the edge of the hovercraft and directly into a white-hot thruster.

I immediately lifted Myrkblade up, stabbed it into the side of the ship, and put my weight into it.

Struggling…shaking…I thus managed to fight his pressing of my head into the thruster. My face sweat from the boiling heat of the fiery propulsion. I gritted my teeth. The bright pulsing light of the thruster blinded my black eyes through their shades. He pushed harder…harder….

I bit my lip and clenched my eyes shut. I forced a whole wave of Destruction Energy through Myrkblade and into the body of the hovercraft. A ripple was sent through the hole, and a thruster on the other side exploded.

POWW!!!

The hovercraft shook and plunged straight down to the earth, now that one of its four lateral thrusters was gone.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

As a result, the whole vehicle tilted.

The robot lost his balance. His clawed grip of my skull loosened as he literally fell over me and clung to the side of the craft, hanging on for dear life (if robots have 'lives').

I rolled over, awkwardly got up through putting pressure on my sword, and dug Myrkblade out of the hull. I marched over slowly, saw the robot clinging to the side below, and raised Myrkblade to swing down and cut him off.

And that's when the hovercraft's descent lowered us into a busy street of the City and grazed a building side to the right.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!

The craft jolted. I fell back against the obelisk.

The robot swung his legs up, flipped onto the craft, and swung his fist at me.

I gasped and dodged to the side.

SLIIIIINK!!

His claws grazed me and imbedded itself deep into the obelisk's body. CLANK!!

I gasped—not so much from the fresh blood leaking from my shoulder—but in surprise that, from such an impact as that, the carbonite bomb still didn't go off.

There was no time to sob over my wound. I gritted my teeth and stabbed Myrkblade into the side of the robot.

CHUNK!!!

My blade went in deep into his hip.

I was about to charge smoke energy into my weapon and finish him when the robot caught me by surprise by gripping the length of the blade with one hand and elbowing me with his other arm.

SMACK!!

I fell back, yanking the sword out of him.

He sparked and limped a little, but he came at me with sharp claws.

I blocked for all I was worth.

The hovercraft descended further. Eventually, it struck the pavement of the street between the city high rises. Sparks flew as we scraped along…and then came the traffic.

Cars swerved and honked around us. Automobiles crashed into each other and structures on the side of the road to avoid us. Everything was chaos. Finally we clipped the rear of a line of trucks in the right lane, scurrying away from us.

CLANK!

CRASH!!

SMACK!!!

All the while, the working thrusters of the damaged hovercraft kept firing…and the robot henchman and I kept fighting and fighting around the fragile obelisk and its huge explosive contained inside.

He lunged at me with a sharp armful of claws.

I spun to the side, raised Myrkblade up, and brought it down over his arms with a cry.

SLICE!!

His right arm came clean off.

The android was unphased. Immediately after the laceration, he lifted his leg up and kicked me in the chest.

I stumbled back just as we scraped past a crashing minivan. I leapt back off the hovercraft, planted my feet against the van, blurred, and dove into the robot.

WHUMP!!

We tumbled across the hovercraft, barely missing the obelisk. I stabbed down at him.

He gripped the blade of my sword with one metal hand and managed to shove me back.

I tumbled in reverse and was about to attack him again when I heard the unmistakable sound of a semi truck head.

I looked over…and my black eyes widened under the shades.

We had veered into the left lane and was heading bull-first towards a semi trailor.

I did quick thinking. I looked at the rear of the hovercraft. The rear thrusters were flaring brilliantly. The mount they were on pivoted loosely now that one of the lateral thrusters was gone. It was like a rudder……

The robot came up and charged me.

I kicked him away and dashed to the rear thrusters. I stabbed Myrkblade down between the main body of the craft and the mount they were on. I strained, gritted my teeth, and pushed at my blade. The sword acted as a lever and repositioned the rear thrusters to aim us back into the middle lane.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

We missed the hulking semi by a hair's inch. Sparks actually flew besides the left of the craft and the truck's wheels.

The robot pounced again.

I couldn't get Myrkblade unstuck.

WHAM!!

He slammed into me, and because of that, I pushed awkwardly at Myrkblade.

The rear thrusters pivoted to the side.

The hovercraft barreled through the right lane of traffic, over the sidewalk, and scraped against the buildingsides. Loudly, we smashed straight through newspaper vendors, lampposts, traffic signs, parked cars. Sparks flew in a constant shower. Cars honked as they soared past us. The robot henchman and I struggled. Claws scraped at my side. I kicked him away, let out a silent scream, and pushed on Myrkblade in the opposite direction.

The hovercraft careened left.

We slammed into the side of a commuter bus, forming a dent and causing metal shards to fly.

The robot teetered against the obelisk from the jolt.

I looked at them…and above them.

I gasped.

We were heading straight into Kobayashi Tower.

The obelisk wobbled. The carbonite core rattled inside.

Images flashed through my mind. Control Freak. Sakura Scraper. The construction site. The explosion.

Full circle……

I exhaled and kicked off the body of the hovercraft. I yanked Myrkblade hard to the rear of the hovercraft, tilting the mounted rear thrusters so that they aimed directly into the earth.

WOOOOOOSH!!!!

We angled up…fifteen degrees….twenty….forty-five….sixty….

We soared over tops of semis, vans, buses.

The wall of the JCN broadcasting tower loomed ahead.

I pushed harder, my teeth gritting.

Seventy degrees…..eighty degrees…….

I hung on by the mere hilt of my sword.

The robot henchman clung with his one hand to the obelisk which was almost….

Ninety degrees….

SHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

We literally scaled the wall of the building's face. We soared up, up, up…past windows and floors and offices and everything. About twenty stories up, we smashed through one of three flagpoles. It snapped and fell loosely/wildly to the distant street below.

The thrusters were beginning to short out. They couldn't handle the weight and intensity of the strong ascent.

The hovercraft angled out….lumbered….

We reached the top…or at least nearly the summit. The glass windows of Kobayashi tower curve upward to meet the steel-reinforce rooftop with its two, huge steeples.

The thrusters started to die.

I gasped.

We struck the glass.

SHATTTTTTTTTTER!!!!!!!!

A veritable sea of blue shards splashed up and over us. I shaded myself with an arm as much as I could. I formed numerous scrapes and cuts as we plowed up…scraped a terrible path through the windows…and landed to a dead stop in between the two steeples.

And the hovercraft stopped humming.

The robot shook its head—as if disoriented—and looked at me.

I took a breath. I yanked Mirkblade out. I charged at him in a blur.

SWOOOOSH-**STAB!!!**

My sword went straight through the henchman's chest.

The fiend twitched and convulsed.

I let loose a silent, breath scream…swung Myrkblade around, and let centripetal force fling him off the tip of my sword and up over the side of the rooftop to suffer a crushing death in the streets over thirty stories below.

I panted….panted….panted….let out a final breath, and smiled.

And that's when…..a shadow graced the corners of my eyes.

I did a double-take. I spun around atop the hovercraft…atop the roof of the Kobayashi Tower. Atop the City.

My black eyes darted left and right.

My heart beat fast.

And…I could have sworn I saw a reflective glint of bright pink off the surface of the vehicle.

I gasped and spun around.

Nothing but night's sky.

And then….the obelisk started to glow.

I looked at it. My eyes widened.

There was suddenly a countdown timer.

**60 seconds.**

How the Hell?! Why now all of the sudden?!

Panicked, I ran over to the obelisk and looked for a button or a console or a switch or anything to cancel the sequence!

But I could find none. I had stopped the hovercraft, all right. But now I was sitting there…atop one of the most famous buildings in all of Western Society's broadcasting. I had well over a thousand working citizens on the multiple floors beneath me. It was a tower owned by the same, wealthy, overseas investor who was funding the Sakura Scraper. There was a bomb with me…and it was going to take all of that and send it to Hell in a handbasket.

It seemed too ironic to be true. To many things wrapping around and kissing each other while the Titans and myself—especially myself—watched helplessly.

Full circle……

**50 seconds.**

I sweated heavily.

Chills ran all through me.

Robin wanted me to preserve the explosive.

He wanted the core in tact.

But now it was set to blow.

**45 seconds.**

The Titans trusted me to save this thing. But I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if there was anything I could do.

Except….save people.

**40 seconds.**

I made up my mind. I spun Myrkblade, held it over my head…and jabbed into the obelisk.

SLASH!!!!

I warbled Myrkblade into my weapon and used it like one would use a turkey-cutter. Through meatball surgery, I hacked the carbonite core—detonator and all in tact—out from the interior of the obelisk.

**35 seconds.**

I sheathed Myrkblade, held the carbonite core to my chest, and ran off the side of the building.

I blurred down with the explosive in my grasp. I came to the street where people had gotten out of their cars and night restaurants to observe the path of destruction the hovercraft had left.

I blurred past their gasping forms, cradling the explosive to myself. Heading East. Due East. Blazingly, quick, son-of-a-bitch-fast East.

**30 seconds.**

I summoned all the stealth, all the speed, all the teleportation, all the Destruction, all the Construction—every facet of my smoke energy into the blur of my legs as I warped in and around cars, alleyways, pedestrians, parks, houses, and shops. I came to the canal. I jumped inside. I ran on the water. Fountains kicked up at my feet.

**25 seconds.**

I blurred through tunnels. Through the sewers. Up the walls. Up a manhole—CLANG!!—and onto a street. Towards the docks.

**20 seconds.**

Around warehouses, over warehouses, _through_ warehouses.

SMASH!! SMASH!!

**15 seconds.**

The smell of fish and salt water and sea breeze.

The Bay stretched out beyond me.

I rocketed….

**10 seconds.**

The core started to glow.

I raised it in my hands.

I dashed out into the Bay. Over the water. Towards the unmanned island far off the docks.

**5 seconds.**

The thing was on fire in my grasp. The detonator whined. Smoke danced out from under my shades as I performed a final running leap, lunged, and tossed the explosive with all my might.

….

….

….

It plopped silently into the water at the beach of a tree-covered island.

**0 seconds.**

I was underwater when the explosion went off. I'm not even sure I heard it.

But I felt it. A mountain of liquid carried me high into the air. But at that one moment in time, it wasn't air. It was pure water. A crater of water. And through that water flew entire trees uprooted from the islands. One of them clipped me in the side and sent me spiraling just seconds before I flew through the air, covered forty feet, and splashed hard into the currents just a dozen meters off of the boatyard.

I came up to the surface, gasped, sputtered…and saw the moon eclipsed by a tidal wave.

I gasped and dove down as the second wall of water came crashing down and sent me flying through the supports of the docks until I slammed into a concrete wall. Only the bare instinct of my blurring powers alone cushioned me and kept me from shattering like bones inside of a rag doll. When the currents lowered, I realized I was still underwater and needed air.

I darted through the water on a pulse of smoke energy and broke through the surface just beyond the docks. I shook the stringy, black hair from over my eyes…lifted my shades off…and stared at where the islands once were….but now were gone.

I tread water and spun around.

Boats had been literally tossed up and onto the warehouses surrounding the docks.

It didn't seem like anybody had been working or mining the boats at that particular hour.

It was another miracle. But, suffice to say, it was a miracle at my hands. Robin would see that…and he wouldn't like that.

And he wouldn't like the fact that there was no explosive material to trace back to Slade.

I waded to shore under the gloomy shadow that—in fact—things had gotten much…much worse.


	55. Full Circle part 2

**55. Full Circle part 2**

_"Greetings again. I'm Phil Garrison, and this is "The Weekly Table". In case you're just now joining us, I have here with me three men of distinct prominence in this great City of ours. The first is Mr. Allen Bringham, City Secretary. The second is Mr. Frederick Smith, director of civil services. And finally we have the esteemed journalist, Mr. Blake Glover. Gentlemen, thank you for joining me this evening. We certainly have a lot to talk about this week."_

_"It's a pleasure."_

_"Same here."_

_"Thank you."_

_"'Slade's Explosives Have City On Edge'. That's what today's headlines read. If you've been watching our broadcast prior to this hour's segment, you would have heard word of the Titans' latest attempt to track the elusive criminal's bombs down. Apparently there was an incident at the Kobayashi Tower, somehow linked to a gigantic explosion that took place in the Bay off of the Eastern Shipyard. We now know that the Titans were involved in the safe redistribution of what authorities describe as a 'carbonite explosive'. Yet in the process of tracking this bomb down, there was immense collateral damage. Car crashes. Wreckage on the roadside. And also extensive damage to the face of the Kobayashi Tower. The question of this evening is—'Do the Titans have the City safely protected from Slade's latest scheme, and if so at what cost is it to the citizens abroad?'"  
"Can I speak, Phil?"_

_"Go on, Mr. Bringham."_

_"We mustn't lose faith in the Titans. There are many events in the past that support the need to stand behind them. They're laying their lives on the line for the sake of our City. Warzone or not, they have as much at stake as we—the people—do. If not moreso."_

_"Quite correct."_

_"Now…having said that, I must admit that I am very much concerned. The Titans have had a precarious track record with Slade. Word has it that one of Slade's former cohorts was a Titan herself, but she turned out to be working for the madman the whole time. My fear is that Slade's corruption is so intense that the Titans themselves are not immune. How are we to know that the latest member of their flock is not likely to repeat history by turning over to Slade's side?"_

_"When you say 'latest member of their flock', Mr. Bringham, to whom are you referring?"_

_"Oh…that frightening one."_

_"Raven?"_

_"No, the newcomer. The one with the sword. 'Night'…is it?"_

_"'Noir'."_

_"'Noir!' That's it! That's the name of their latest member. How much do the people know about him? For one thing, he doesn't even speak. From what the Titans have told Commissioner Decker, he can't even speak. And on top of that, he's a mystery. I think there's a lot to worry about there."_

_"If I may add in a word here, please……"_

_"By all means, Mr. Smith."_

_"Noir isn't a complete mystery. Just like the rest of the Titans, he has made public appearances, attended charity events, and even seems to have formed a bond with a local high school's sign language class. To assume that Noir is any less public relations-friendly than the other Titans would be an error, in my opinion."_

_"I was aware of some of his appearances, Mr. Smith. But that still doesn't change the fact that his image—compared to the other Titans—is quite conspicuous. No details, no background, nothing has been given to us by the Titans to sum him up. Unless I am near-sighted, this is very similar to the situation during which the Titans last inducted a member into their group. It would be most terrible—while Slade is on the rebound—that history decides to repeat itself."_

_"Mr. Glover, Mr. Bringham has some strong words. In the past, you were adamant about the Titans' essential danger and threat to the order of society, and you were most emphatic about outlining this 'reality' through your analysis of the mysterious 'Noir'. Do you have any words now to say on the subject?"_

_"To be honest, Phil, I've become a man of fewer and fewer words. Heheheheh. Life throws you curve balls sometimes. Ahem. What I've learned from the Titans—from personal experience—is rather obvious. I've publicly renounced the negative statements I've made about them. In regards to Slade's ability to corrupt members of our City's defensive heroes, I don't think it can be put in words that simple. Truth be told, if Slade is able to 'corrupt' a Titan…then that Titan was already corrupt to begin with. And once burned, I doubt the Titans would be willing to induct into their roster someone of that revolting caliber again."_

_"Am I to understand, Mr. Glover, that your verdict on this 'Noir' character is reinforcing?"_

_"What I'm saying, Phil, is that if the Titans respect Noir as a member of their team, then they have nothing to worry about…and we have nothing to worry about. There is nothing more important than camaraderie. It is what defines true commitment. It is the direct evidence……of trust."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir…answer me this, at least. Are you certain there was no way you could have simply shut down the explosive device and preserved the core?"

I sat shirtless on the hood of the T-Car, parked besides the Kobayashi Tower. Squad cars and cleanup crews were all around us. People gathered and squabbled over the chaos in the distance. Starfire stood behind me, fastening a bandage to my bare, wounded shoulder. Robin stood in front of me with his arms folded. Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven…they were spread all around.

I sighed and gestured slowly with my hands. I winced at the movement it forced my administered shoulder to make.

Cyborg read what I had to say out loud: "He says there wasn't a single button or contraption. Not anything."

I gestured some more.

"And he's never had experience in disarming bombs like that."

"I guess I should hand out bomb diffusing lessons from now on," Robin muttered.

I gestured something else.

Cyborg spoke. "Apparently the countdown timer for the explosive went off as soon as it reached the top of the Tower."

"Nobody in the cleanup crew found a countdown timer," Robin said, looking at me suspiciously. "You're sure it had one?"

I took a deep breath and gestured.

"'It was part of the detonator'."

Silence.

Robin sighed. "I bet it was…cuz now it's destroyed." He rubbed his temple and looked at his boots.

I stared at him. Silent.

Starfire finished applying the bandage. "A-All done…," she softly said. It was like a whisper.

In a delayed reaction, I looked at her handiwork. I smiled…bowed my head…and slowly slipped my shirt back on. I sat with my arms folded.

Silence.

I looked at everyone.

Nobody was looking back at me. Not even Cyborg.

Silence…..

I slowly stood up from the T-Car.

Starfire shuffled slightly, but still said nothing. Staring at the ground.

I took a step forward…then another. I paced my way slowly away from the site and across the street.

About seven seconds into it, Robin asked without looking: "Where're you going?"

I shuffled to a stop. I sighed. I spun around. Glared at him for a moment through my shades. And pointed firmly across the street.

He stared. He nodded slowly. "Okay……"

I twirled around, shifted my weight gradually, and limped forward.

Leaving the five alone.

"……."

"……."

"……."

They slowly looked up at each other.

"

What do you think?" Cyborg asked Robin.

Robin shook his head and ran an exhausted hand through his hair. "I….I-I dunno. He could be lying. He could be telling the truth. He could be anything. He's Noir."

"Rather convenient that the countdown timer was destroyed with the explosive," Raven said. "Don't you think?"

"How do you mean, Raven?" Starfire asked. A beat. He looked at everyone in general. "Are we to think that Noir caused the explosive to go off himself??"

"We can't just assume anything," Robin said. "None of us were there when he crashed the hovercraft. We can't tell if he's saying the truth or not. But…."

"But what?"

"If anyone of us were there and not him…," Robin said. "I'm quite convinced we would have the carbonite core in tact now. We'd have more evidence to pursue Slade and Dagger with."

"I dunno, dude…," Beast Boy shrugged. He was still brushing off the dust from the warehouse rubble on his suit and hair. "I can't operate a gum ball machine, much less a carbonite detonator. Can't we give Noir a break for once?"

"I wish I could, Beast Boy," Robin said. "But in the last few days…every time we've gotten close to catching up with Slade…something has gotten in the way. And the one to have gotten furthest in these attempts—"

"Noir…," Cyborg breathed. "What is with that?"

"Yeah…even if our suspicions were true," Beast Boy said, "Why would Noir be doing so well against Slade?!"

Robin rubbed his chin. "If…perhaps…these haven't been leads we've been following."

"How do you mean?" Starfire asked.

"If Noir is working for Slade…then somehow he may be a vessel through which we are being led into Slade's ambushes."

"Ambushes?"

"Those robots at the warehouse…," Robin said. "They were way too numerous for just any of Slade's normal defenses."

"There was a bomb there," Raven said.

"Of course," Robin nodded. "The bomb was there because we were there. We would have not found Slade's operations if it weren't for the emissions being leaked from the carbonite. Now, while on that topic, we know there was carbonite involved. But how do we know it was truly an explosive?"

"Say what?!?!" Beast Boy's eyes bulged.

"What happened between the exiting of the hovercraft from the warehouse and the explosion in the Bay is based only on two things. Scant eyewitness testimony…and Noir's personal words."

"You mean…the bomb could have been faked?" Raven asked.

"And the explosion manufactured in a remote location to match up with a story Slade programmed Noir to tell us."

"But why??" Beast Boy shrugged. "Isn't that an awful waste of time and 'boom!'??"

"Not for Slade," Robin shook his head. "And not if he's trying to ensnare us all."

"But we haven't gotten anywhere!" Cyborg exclaimed with raised hands. "Nowhere further in our search and nowhere behind!! Slade hasn't accomplished any sort of defeat of us! At least…I don't think he has! Someone care to explain to me how he's getting an upper hand in this wild goose chase?"

"Slade is always getting the upper hand," Robin muttered. He glared at the other Titans. "He has always gotten the upper hand."

His teammates were silent.

Robin sighed and shook his head. "We all need to get some rest." A beat. "And….w-we should probably talk to Noir more."

"Agreed…," Starfire nodded and said silently. "He must certainly be aware of our….suspicions by now."

"So?" Raven glared.

Robin looked at her. "So….we can't lose him now. Not till we know the truth!"

"What truth do we still need to know?" Raven frowned. "You all sense his dishonesty. I sensed it first. We all agreed that he isn't to be trusted."

"We never agreed that he is not to be trusted, Raven," Starfire said.

"We only agreed to deal with Noir in perfect justice if indeed we find him to be working for Slade," Robin added.

Raven took a deep breath. "Remind me whose side you're on. The deceiver's? Or the deceived?"

Robin was quiet.

So were the others.

"I know that Noir is our friend….or was our friend," Raven said firmly. "The same could have been said about Terra. You know that. You all…know that."

More silence.

Raven sighed and walked away.

Cyborg rubbed the back of his neck. "Man…she really puts it into perspective, doesn't she?"

Beast Boy hugged himself. "I kinda sorta…..missed the days when Noir didn't seem like such a bad guy."

"You and me both, B.B.," Cyborg said. "You and me both."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stepped into a dark alley where nobody could see her.

She clutched the robe to herself and stared at the ground.

She was biting her lip….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was on the other side of the street…leaning against a storefront window….lethargically shuffling a deck of cards in my grasp.

My eyes stared at the sidewalk beneath me. Trailing the cracks through my shades.

I sighed heavily.

Silence.

And then my butt vibrated.

"?????" I reached a hand down and pulled the cell phone out of my pocket. The same phone I had found in the trash while sitting on a park bench in the Bay Side Plaza.

I had kept it…

I flipped it opened and put it to my ear.

_"What are you doing, Noir?!?!"_ the Messenger's voice exclaimed. _"You're kicking too much ass!!"_

I raised an eyebrow.

_"Yeah, that's right!!"_ the cell phone squawked. _"Ever since we talked, it's been one chase after Slade followed by another for you and your pals. And each time you get close to Slade's scheme, you get all gung ho about it and try to be hero!! Now, I suppose that's natural to you and all…but…don't you see how dangerous it is?! You're kicking too much ass!! You're kicking ass while your friends sprawl around in the dust!!"_ My lips parted. I exhaled in confusion. I eyed the phone.

_"Imagine it from your teammates' perspective…,"_ the Messenger said slowly. _"They whip Slade's robot army good. They fight with every ounce of vigor they can muster. Then—in a blink of an eye—something cataclysmic happens. Like today. The freakin' ceiling rafters fell and pinned them to the ground. Then, inexplicably, a hole in the floor forms and traps the leader in place!! The only person on his feet and able to chase down the explosive in question is exactly the one person they're having a hard time believing in at the moment! You, Noir!! Don't you see…it's not a good vibe for you! Not good at all!!"_

My black eyes widened a bit as the realization hit.

_"For some god-awful reason, Noir, Slade has singled you out. He wants to make you look as suspicious and as hairy and as uber-indecent as possible. And somehow, miraculously, he has the means to do this with!! Don't ask me how. But I think it all ties in with the Balance of Morals. The very whims of fate are being bent to coincide with Slade's plan. The ceiling rafters of the warehouse fell because he chose them to! The hole in the ground trapped Robin because it was Slade's idea! And the sudden countdown timer to the explosion! Oh, I believe you on that one, Noir! That's damned creepy for sure!"_

I listened intently, eyeing the distant image of my conversing teammates across the nightlit street.

_"Things are coming full circle….just as everyone expects them too. Slade, more than anyone else, expects it. So try and do something unexpected, Noir. Take the back seat. Please. I know you love your friends and you'd do anything to help them along with this quest. But you're trying too hard. And you're only hurting yourself. So take a back seat, Noir. Let them do the dirty work. Help them only as you need to. As you were born to do. Maybe….__**maybe**__ that way, the cycle will be broken and Slade will be left in the dark."_

I took a deep breath. I nodded….as if somehow, someway, the Messenger could see me from where he omnisciently spoke through the phone.

_"And one more thing….,"_ he said in a low voice. _"You saw her, didn't you?"  
_  
I raised an eyebrow.

_"The Third Apprentice. She was close. I could sense it…"_

I scrunched my face.

_"Never mind,"_ he sighed over the phone. _"Go home and get some rest. And when it comes time to go on another hunt…try and keep a low profile."_

-Click!-

I pocketed the phone away and shuffled my cards.

I couldn't have agreed more….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"The issue at hand is that the Titans—along with the entire City—is on a rebound!"_

_"Care to elaborate, Mr. Bringham?"_

_"Of course. In a positively seasonal fashion, the Titans are always ridding the world of evil, running head-to-head with an ultimate adversary, creating a lot of collateral damage in the climactic engagement, then either emerging triumphant or enjoying a partial success. Whatever the case, the evil force is extinguished, but the damages from the battle remain. All the Titans do is recover from their efforts and wait out another season of battling evil until that one major adversary rises again to initiate a battle far more severe than the previous and we are all the ones to suffer from it. It's a destructive pattern that seems to be in its third wave as we speak. We've already had this City of ours overrun by Slade and his menaces. What's to say how bad it might get this time??"_

_"Good perspective to keep in mind, Mr. Bringham. Howbeit pessimistic. Do any of the rest of you gentlemen have a response to this?"_

_"Well, I for one respect Mr. Bingham's concerns when he puts it this way…"_

_"Truly, Mr. Smith?"_

_"As you well know, July Fourth is just a few days away. The City is still planning to organize the Independence Fireworks Show, despite recent events. The last thing we want getting in the way of a celebration of freedom is outright, urban terrorism. So I've been hard at work with City officials and law enforcement to create the highest security and surveillance for any public occasion ever to date. But, seemingly, no matter of preparation on our part can match with the level of intensity that the Titans and Slade are conflicting each other with. But unless the City turns into an absolute warzone, we are still going for a successful July Fourth fireworks extravaganza. It's our way of showing our faith in the Titans and in the desire for a peaceful and crime-free society in days to come."_

'_ "I look forward to the fireworks show that you and the City provide for us citizens every year…but this time around, I must insist that it is far too dangerous!!"_

_"But Mr. Bringha—"_

_"Such a large, public event will be more than a casual target for Slade to focus in on! He'll stop at nothing to irk the Titans, even if it means taking innocent lives!!"_

_"But this year security is far more than matched—"_

_"It has not stopped Slade before!"_

_"Gentlemen, I must break in here. There're still many questions to ask, and the next one is for Mr. Glover. Sir, after all of the recent events. The fall of the Sakura Tower. The hovercraft incident. The entire Slade confrontation. Do you believe this City will ever be the same?"_

_"Phil…to be honest with you…the City has never been the same with each morning from Day One…"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning in the Tower…

Robin's gloved fingers typed away at the keyboard. He hit a final key and a map splashed up across the monitor with brightly-lit trails illuminating the streets and topography.

"Okay….," the Boy Wonder took a deep breath and spoke without looking at the rest of the Titans, "…after a week of searching, the last sting was the closest we got to acquiring a piece of the explosives. There was actually an entire core of carbonite in the device we encountered. The traces of the substance are what led us to that warehouse and threw away the false leads. However, since we were not able to analyze the core itself independent of the detonator, we can only rely on the same data as previous to run a search on Slade's possible, leftover explosives throughout the City."

Robin did a keystroke and highlighted the bright trails on the computer monitor.

"According to our system, there are at least forty-two different possible locations of carbonite explosives judging on primary tracing."

"Right back where we started…," Beast Boy muttered.

Raven sat in a chair beside him. "There are six of us. We can do at least seven different searches simultaneously if we pace ourselves just right."

"It would still take too much time," Cyborg said. "And judging from the past few days, Slade has an itchy trigger finger. He won't give us forever to bat at his toys."

I stood silently off to the side, leaning against a table and absent-mindedly shuffling through playing cards. I looked up lethargically at the computer monitor through my shades and sighed.

"Is there any possible way for us to "skinny down" the search results?" Starfire asked.

Robin rubbed his head. He typed a bit. He brought up a few images of glowing matter with different categorizations. "As much as we know, one of **these** types of carbonite materials can be used in an explosive of the size and magnitude we encountered. Each releases an entirely different form of traces."

"Like radiation?"

"Much less harmful than Radiation. But it does suggest a dying down of molecular excitement….if you know what I mean."

"Dude….none of us do," Beast Boy shrugged. "But that's kinda sorta your job, man."

All of us wanted to smile. But none of us did.

"Seven different types of traces…," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and stared up at the monitor. "Could we randomly search them and see if there's any showing up in the City?"

"There's another factor, though," Robin said. "Which makes it rather difficult."

"Naturally…," Raven droned.

"These seven carbonite materials must be treated with a special, synthetic compound to acquire their unstable condition. It's next to impossible to guess just what any of these applied compounds can be unless someone has seen the carbonite core itself."

"How so?"

"Well, there're well over five thousand possibilities."

Beast Boy moaned.

"The feeling is mutual, Beast Boy," Starfire nodded.

"But how can **seeing** the carbonite core help in identifying the compound?" Cyborg asked.

"The material gives off a brilliant color, like a vapor. The exact hue and shade speaks volumes of the carbonite being used."

"And when cross-referenced with the seven different types of materials…."

"The search could be 'skinnied down' enough for a computer analysis of the City!" Starfire hopped.

"Easier said and done," Raven said. "I sure didn't see the carbonite core. Did any of you?"

"Don't look at me!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I was buried under tons of crap in the warehouse, remember?!"

"Yes," Starfire nodded. "I was also submerged in the figurative fecal matter and could not observe the carbonite core emanating from the obelisk explosive."

"Sooooo….we're still back to square one?!"

"Ugh….this search is going nowhere…."

……….

All this time—while our teammates rambled—Robin and I were having a staring match. Cold, white eyemask slits to cold, black glass shades.

Eyes hidden.

Souls tense.

Arms folded and cards shuffling.

The Boy Wonder and I had our own little test of wills.

The leader and the rookie.

His eyes narrowed.

My brow furrowed.

Robin knew….he knew I would have an answer to this dilemma. Or at least, I would have an 'answer'….as in a supplement. A fib. A fabrication.

A lie.

He didn't believe me. He didn't believe a single alibi I could give about the carbonite explosion that happened the night previous. And he showed it to me. Right there in the Main Room under the cloud of obscurity he glared daggers across the furniture and computer consoles and probed the god-forsaken shadows of my soul.

When the Messenger told me that the Titans had their suspicions of my loyalty, I was shocked. Flabbergasted. Horrified.

And….to tell the truth…I didn't immediately believe in what he said. I realized that then, as Robin was staring invisible death rays into my being. I was feeling that shock, that flabbergasted horror all over again. Like it was the first time I woke up and realized that this aura of depression and sorrow was not just a passing phase for the Titans and myself but truly the death of something warm and precious.

Everything in Robin's gaze was as cold and as emotionless as the legends I once heard about as I trekked Eastward through the streets of America, listening to crooks and bums ramble on about the dark heroics of the unfeeling Batman and his agile apprentice.

Robin had faded away from friend and morphed into icon in that very second. It was cold…brutal…like the feel of a dagger sliding out of my heart that I didn't know had sunk in to begin with.

Out of the peripheral vision of my shaded, black eyes…not a single other Titan was paying attention to our silent battle. Not another person cared.

It was between me and the leader of a group of crime fighters that was growing ever-so-distant from my heart. The walls of the Main Room felt strange. I envisioned myself looking in on the Tower from a newspaper front page and not from my own, flesh-and-blood eyes.

A sharp pain ran up my lungs and I exhaled.

I had lost the match with Robin.

I had become Jordan again.

With wounded eyes he couldn't see under my shades, I looked helplessly up at the photo album of carbonite substances on the monitor. Worthless lumps of rock, they all were. And yet, I wanted nothing but to destroy them.

Instead, I was going to give in.

I was going to give into Robin's challenge and allow him one last chance to test me.

I knew the Messenger would kill me for this. I knew this wasn't 'taking a backseat'. But thanks to Robin—I no longer cared what happened. I just wanted to get closer to Slade. That was all I wanted to do. It's like the urge to crawl and inhale things into one's mouth. Primordial and instinctive. Two dimensional, stripped of spirit.

I wanted to roll over and die.

My black eyes scanned the photos. I found the type of core that I knew I had carried to the Bay—the one Robin would undoubtedly insist in secret confidence with his teammates that I 'concocted'—and pointed a finger.

Everyone saw the mute raise his hand immediately.

"Huh??" Cyborg formed a question mark.

"I believe Noir recalls what the core looked like," Robin said so emotionlessly, nobody took notice.

And damn, did it hurt…

Raven squinted her eyes. "Carbonite IV?"

I nodded.

"You remember the color it emanated?" Cyborg asked.

I glanced at Robin. I stared at him as I gestured to Cyborg.

"Light green….," Cyborg nodded his head. "That might get us near to a search."

"Good…," Robin said.

That made me curious.

"I'll need some more details, Noir," Cyborg said. "How about you work with me and maybe we can do a city-wide search for this stuff."

"And where will that take us??" Beast Boy asked.

"To Slade or the Dagger!" Starfire exclaimed.

"Sounds like a plan to me…," Raven nodded. "Assuming that Slade's other explosives are using the same signature."

"It's the best lead we have so far," Robin said. "Cyborg. Noir. Get to work on it. The only direction we must go is forward." And with that said, the Boy Wonder simply turned around and left.

The other Titans murmured and parted ways.

I sighed and stared off into space for a few seconds before I felt a titanium hand plant itself over my shoulder. I looked up.

Cyborg smiled. "Come on, kid. Let's go do some homework!"

He walked over towards a computer console.

I looked after him, blinking. The way he just said and delivered that…it almost felt like he was truly happy to work with me.

But I knew he wasn't.

I followed him slowly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay….so….," Cyborg typed away at the computer and spoke aloud: "From the combined details…a Type IV substance of Carbonite…trailing lights of a light green…approximate temperature ninety two degrees Fahrenheit…..giving off the faint scent of rust….we get three possible avenues of search. Two of them show up benign for traces in the computer. One of them shows significant readings in the Northeast part of Town…by the City Scrapyards. Huh….I-I think we may be onto something here!"

I nodded listlessly, staring at the collection of glowing trails around the northeast industrial section. A few miles north of the warehouse where we encountered the hovercraft and its explosive.

"I'll go tell Robin," Cyborg said, standing up. "This should be enough for a plan of action."

I looked to the floor.

The android Titan walked past me.

I reached a blind hand out and grabbed his shoulder.

Cyborg froze. He looked at me. "What's up?"

I looked at him through my shades. I sighed.

I knew where this was going. I knew it was a test. And—from the words the Messenger told me—it was also probably a trap. Something had to be done to break the circle. To prevent a fateful loop. I wanted to go search that place alone. No. That would be even worse. I at least wanted to go there with just Robin or just Cyborg and not get the entire team's lives in trouble.

I told this to Cyborg through sign-language.

And he said:

"But, Noir….w-we all should be together. There's no telling what dangers we may face! If we're together, we'll do a greater job of thwarting Slade!"

I shook my head. I gestured again, emphatically.

"There's no point in only some of us going, Noir. We're a team, remember?" A pause. Something in his eyes died, and he tilted his head to the side. Nevertheless, there was some sort of tangible concern in his voice when he blurted: "Is there something you're not telling us, Noir?"

My hands were up halfway to gesture a reply, but I froze. My body turned pale. I looked down.

Cyborg blinked. Then he suddenly flinched, as if struck by an invisible error. "Er….n-nevermind," he stuttered and waved. "Forget I asked that, man." And then he sighed. And then he walked off.

I was left staring at the floor beneath my feet.

Everything was collapsing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"The thing you must understand, gentlemen, is that the Titans have the upperhand over Slade for one chief reason. They are a __**family unit**__. Not by blood or flesh, but by spirit. After fighting such horrible evils night after night in close proximity to each other, they've built an inseparable camaraderie that makes them impervious to whatever lonely attempts criminal fiends out there might make to finish them and the innocence of this City off. Unlike crime fighting groups of notoriety in cities such as Gotham and Metropolis, our Titans have achieved a sort of…invulnerability. Their bond to each other is like an impervious chain. It's never remarkable unless—like me—you've had a chance to see it up close and truly appreciate it."_

_"Remarkable words, Mr. Glover. But what if the Titans' bond fails?"_

_"I seriously doubt that would ever happen, Phil."_

_"But if it would? As impossible as it may seem?"_

_"………then God help us all. The City…the Human Race as well………"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Robin rocketed down the highway on his R-Cycle towards the distant City Scrapyards in the north. He hugged the shoulder, soaring pass cars to the lanes left of him.

"I am nearing the yard of scrap now!" Starfire's voice said over the communicators. "Should I search for the explosive or—"

"No," Robin said into the mouthpiece of his helmet. "Wait for all of us. And I do mean all of us. I don't want any of Slade's or Dagger's henchmen taking any of us out individually!"

"Then hurry up!!" Beast Boy's voice cackled over the communicators. "I just caught up with Star and we're both tapping our toes!! Sheesh…for a superhero named after a bird, you think you'd learn to grow some wings or something, Robin!"

"I'm going as fast as I can," Robin said firmly. "Stand by and don't make any sudden advances on the Scrapyard. Slade might possibly have a secret storage facility there."

**"'Possibly'?!?!"** Beast Boy's voice replied.

"Over and out!" Robin said.

He zoomed around a stalled van and headed for the off ramp.

"Robin…this is Raven. I'm speaking to you on a private channel."

"What's on your mind, Rae?"

"Are you sure this is……wise?"

"What?"

"Following Noir's testimony? You know, we're practically trusting everything he's said in coming here. What if it's a trap?"

Robin sighed and accelerated down the offramp. "When I was forced to fight for Slade, you all gave me a second chance. When Terra was on Slade's side, we gave her a second chance. Now that Noir may be his Third Apprentice….well…let's just say that this is it. This is the threshold. If this turns into an ambush, then we'll have no choice but to….to…."

"To what?"

"…..," Robin paused. His strength rebooted. "We'll have no choice but to remove Noir from the team."

VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!

He thundered on towards the Scrapyard.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I fell from a leap.

My feet blurred.

I landed silently on the other side of the fence. I stood up, unsheathed Myrkblade, and slowly crept across the edge of the scrapyard.

Piles of household appliances, stacks of squashed automobiles, and the occasional, randomly-placed airplane or diesel vehicle rested all around the dirt-swept compound. The place was a rusted jungle of post-industrial waste. In the distance, a crane or two loomed. Abandoned. In the center of the scrapyard, a series of conveyor belts led to a huge, metal compacter.

There was not a soul in sight. And certainly no visible sign of a huge, carbonite explosive.

My black eyes narrowed.

"Psssst!!"

I spun to the left.

Beast Boy and Starfire motioned for me from where they hid in the shadows of an abandoned dumptruck.

I quickly rushed over and scrunched up against the vehicle next to them.

"You can't just walk out in the open like that!!" he hissed. "What if someone were to see you?!"

"Who is the someone here to see?" Starfire remarked.

Beast Boy blinked. "Yeah….good point. This place is empty!" A pause. They both looked at me.

"Are you certain this is where the carbonite trace is located?" Starfire asked.

I looked at them….through them. I sweat.

There was a rush of wind.

Robin swung in from some unknown location by grappling hook and dropped down.

"Robin!" Starfire whispered.

He held a finger over his mouth and looked at me. "Are Cyborg and Raven here?"

I shook my head.

"We have to wait until all of us are present and accounted for. This is a situation that calls for intense team work. I don't want any of us going out into that open air alone."

"Not even a little recon?" Beast Boy remarked.

"I got a good look at it while swinging in," Robin said.

"So did I," Starfire nodded. "This field of deceased machina is entirely lifeless."

"Makes sense why Slade would want to hide something here," Beast Boy uttered.

"But not why he would want to bomb it." Said Robin.

Everyone seemed to agree with that.

Including myself…

Suddenly, the dumptruck besides us began to shake.

We all glanced over in one accord.

A black vortex formed, and through it emerged Raven and Cyborg.

"Sorry we're late," Cyborg said. "We had to ditch the T-Car far back so nobody could spot our arrival." He said the latter part with a twinge of pain.

"Say…what's it with you two guys always being last to the scene?" Beast Boy complained a hushed tone with his hands to his hips. He then smirked and lifted an eyebrow, "Run out of gas a lot?"

Cyborg's human eye widened.

Raven glared, temple pulsing.

Starfire giggled.

I almost wanted to smile……

"Now that we're all together….let's get this over with," Robin said. We all listened as he peaked his head out, got a good visual of the scrapyards, and spoke to all of us with his leaderesque voice: "I'm not seeing any sign of Slade's handiwork. It's quite possible that wherever his equipment is, it could be underground. We're gonna have to rely on those readings of the carbonite traces that you acquired, Cyborg."

The android Titan nodded. "Roger that." He raised his arm, opened a compartment, and studied the little computer screens bleeping up at him. "It's a little hard to pinpoint the strongest manifestations of the material cuz so much of the traces are all around us. But if we get moving a bit, I may be able then to find the source. If it is underground, at least we'll find out where to start digging."

"So we're going in then?" Beast Boy asked. "Both guns blazing?"

"Looks like it," Robin fisted his palm. "There's no backing out now."

Raven nodded. "We should keep close together."

"Agreed," Starfire said. "We must not expose any of ourselves to unnecessary vulnerabilities."

"Titans….move out!" Robin motioned.

Cyborg went ahead. Robin and Raven were at his flank. I considered taking rear…but felt it best if I was in the center of them. Starfire and Beast Boy took up the behind. In such a fashion, we marched out as a group into the open area of the scrapyard. Our movement was slow….cautious….paranoid. Robin held up a bidarang or two at ready. Raven's eyes glowed bright gray as she peered around. I had Myrkblade held up high and Starfire and Beast Boy checked behind us constantly to be aware of any sudden movements.

Cyborg stared at his arm's instruments as he headed the pack. His human eye narrowed. "We're getting close," he whispered hoarsely. "About ten meters and closing…"

"Where to?"

"Straight ahead."

We passed a broken schoolbus, a pile of shopping carts, a conveyor belt, the huge compactor, and eventually made it to a patch of earth right beside a huge, abandoned crane. "How much further, Cyborg?" Raven asked quietly. We descended under a shadow.

"I'm not sure….," Cyborg squinted his human eye more. "I could have sworn we'd be over it by now—"

Suddenly, the computer output devides in Cyborg's arm panel fluctuated…like a changing channel.

He blinked. "Huh?!" WOOOSH!! His hand pointed straight up. "Whoah!! What the--!!" His whole, titanium body wobbled….shook….and literally flew straight up in the air.

"Cyborg!!" Starfire exclaimed.

SWOOOOSH—CLANG!!!

Our robot ally was pinned to a circular, black object above us. We realized that there was a gigantic, magnetic disk dangling from the crane overhead. Suddenly, it had come to live. Whether it was by electrical juice or what—we didn't know. But we did know that Cyborg was in no position to do anything, much less move.

"Help…..me….," he wheezed.

"Hold on, Cyborg!" Robin cried out and produced a grappling hook. "We'll get you down from----" SWOOOOSH-CLANK!! The grappling hook flew out of his grasp and immediately smooshed itself up against the flat bottom of the disk. "No!!—WHOAH!!" The Boy Wonder gasped as dozens of birdarangs, grappling hooks, explosives, and other metal tools flew out of his utility belt and up into the disk. Cyborg winced as the razor-sharp birdarangs barely missed the shape and contour of his neck. The next thing to attract up to the disk was Robin's titanium polymer cape…along with Robin himself. "OOF!!" Soon, two male Titans were struggling upside down with their weight stuck up against the disk. "Can't….move!"

"Robin!!" Starfire exclaimed.

I bit my lip.

"We'll get you down!" Beast Boy turned into an elephant and reached a green trunk up at the heroes.

Starfire flew up to assist.

"Look!" Raven pointed.

I spun around.

There was a mysterious shadow seated in the operating compartment of the crane.

Suddenly, the huge machine groaned to life. Hydraulics hissed as the neck of the huge metal crane pivoted. It swung the black disk with the two Titans away….and then swung it right back, slamming into the sides of the green elephant and Starfire.

WHAM!!!!

"!!!!!"

"Eeek!!"

Their bodies went tumbling through the air, falling over heaps of trashed appliances, and landing in some unseen mound of dirt beyond.

Robin and Cyborg shouted out as the disk flung precariously over us.

"Somebody's seen us!!"

"You gotta get us down from here!!"

Raven extended her hands. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!!"

Black energy encased the neck of the crane and the huge disk magnet hanging from it.

"Noir!" the dark girl commanded me with glowing, gray eyes. "The person in the pilot's seat. Take him out!!"

I nodded. I raised Myrkblade, charged up smoke, and blurred over towards the track tires of the huge machine. I zoomed up the side, leapt, and landed at the door to the pilot's compartment. I gasped.

There was no one there.

VROOOOOM!!!

I blinked.

I spun around.

An old, rusted semi-truck engine suddenly came to life with glaring headlights and plowed its way across the scrapyard towards where Raven stood, focusing her telekinesis to steady the crane.

I gasped and reached out a hand towards her from a distance. I was powerless to warn her…

SCREEEEEECHHH!!!!

At the last second, Raven's head spun over and saw the incoming vehicle. She instantly let go of the magnetic disk, formed an obsidian shield in front of her, and met the oncoming front of the truck.

SMASH!!!!!

A flash of black energy. Raven grunted and was sent flying backwards across the scrapyard and slamming into the side of a stack of mangled cars. She lay—practically unconscious—with the unphased truck barreling down on her a second time.

I gasped.

I blurred my feet.

I slid down the long neck of the crane, jumped off where the pulley held the cord supporting the disk, flipped, and landed on the ground parallel to the careening truck. I had two options. 1) Raven. 2) The truck.

I chose the truck.

"!!!!!" I held my breath, blurred, and let loose a burst of smoke energy that sent me sailing straight towards the front of the truck. I slashed Myrkblade out in front of me at the last second…literally slicing my way through the front half of the semi-truck engine and causing its engine to explode into oblivion.

The energy died out, the tires grind to a stop, and the vehicle settled barely a foot away from where it would have squashed Raven into aluminum pastrami. She was not conscious to see my having saved her.

I inhaled. I spun around. My black eyes widened under the shades.

There was no one in the driver's seat. But the door to the semi truck was dangling open…

A darting shadow…

I spun, gasping.

The crane—the same old crane—was lowering its neck. The disk was lowering quickly towards the ground. And with it, my soon-to-be-squashed friends.

Was someone in the pilot's seat again?

I didn't bother to look. I blurred over towards the plummeting disk.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!" Cyborg and Robin watched the earth sail up at them like a gigantic, rusted brick.

WOOOOOSH—SWOOP—STAB!!!!

I had blurred under them and shot Myrkblade straight up into the disk. It cut into the magnet precariously close to where Cyborg's and Robin's skulls met. They gasped as the blade barely missed their craniums, and I gritted my teeth and reinforced my muscles with wave after wave of murk as I strained to hold the huge weight from squashing the three of us. By no means did I possess superstrength, but the smoke energy warbling through me was doing a good job of simulating it. When I say 'good job', I meant that we were being kept alive for about twenty seconds. As the murk circled and flew up around me…a gradual, cylindrical crater was surrounding us. And it was growing deeper and deeper as my muscles shook harder and harder.

"They had the drop on us!!" Cyborg shouted through the shaking carnage. "Somehow they must have known we were here!!"

"It's not everyday that we fall into a trap. And it's not every week that we fall into **two traps**!!" Robin shouted. He glared at me through a frowning eyemask and a tornado of smoke energy. "Noir!!! What do you know?!?!"

I gritted my teeth and strained out of squinted black eyes to look at him.

"**What do you know, Noir?!?!**" He shouted, angrily.

Cyborg panted.

The world was crunching…crunching….

I hung my mouth open, tilted my head back and—black hair flying—let out a long, voiceless scream and channeled the biggest pulse of murk in my entire life up and into the magnetic disk.

**CRACK!!!!!!**

In slow motion, the circle split in two that rolled off their hinges with Robin and Cyborg safely pointed upwards. Dust flew up as shards of metal showered around me and I hung Myrkblade down by my side, letting out a huge breath of relief.

And timed resumed and---

A shadowed figure glided out of the pilot's compartment, slid down the crane's neck, and blurred into my face, fist first.

POW!!!!

I literally flew back, smashed through a mountain of aluminum cans, and came to a tumbling stop on the other side.

I groaned, stood up, and rubbed my head. And that's when I realized I was beneath a dumptruck.

WHURRRRR!!!

I looked above me.

There was a darting shadow…and then the rear of the dumptruck pivoted towards me—dumping a huge pile of age-old, metal public school desks over my figure.

I pivoted on the ground, held up Myrkblade, and charged a dome of smoke to deflect the falling, rusted furniture just in time to blur out with a burst of energy and jump up to my feet away from the growing pile.

There was a rush of wind as I sensed the shadowed figure zooming behind me.

I spun around, swinging Myrkblade---only to meet Starfire's neck.

"!!!!!" I cancelled my swing instantly.

Starfire gasped. With green eyes bulging, she eyed the no-longer-smoking blade of wood barely touching the side of her throat where I had stopped it.

"N-Noir!" she gasped. "What is the meaning of this?!" A beat. "And where are our friends?!"

FLASH!!!

Bright, pink light.

I spun around.

SMASH!!!! SWOOOOSH!!! The neck of the crane came flying through a mountain of rusted appliances and sailing at us.

I ducked.

Starfire didn't.

WHAM!!! With a cry, she was knocked back into a green wolf that had been trotting up to the scene. The Tamaranian girl and the changeling went tumbling painfully onto a stretch of conveyor belt benath a nook in a body of stacked cars. A very…precarious body of stack cars. There was another pink flash and I saw the dead vehicles leaning over them…about to come crashing down over the conveyor belt

I gasped and was about to blur over when the dark shadow zoomed by and landed a kick into my chest.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!" The breath flew out of my lungs. I bent over hard.

SMACK!!!!

A tiny fist slammed me hard in the jaw. I went flipping backwards and collapsing somewhere in the entangle heap of two dozen, rusted shopping carts.

My arms, legs, and myrkblade were stuck at awkward angles amidst a sudden jungle gym of wiry metal.

While struggling to get free, my black eyes sought to find my periled friends through the mesh of metal webbing. Instead I saw the faintly discernible shadow of a figure peering down at me. Hands on its hips.

_"I think you've been a hero enough for a lifetime…,"_ the voice happily hissed. A shadowed hand waved. _"Say goodbye to your friends….what's left of them."_

I gritted my teeth.

The shadowed figure flipped away…and once it was gone, I could see through the shopping carts and see the cars toppling over onto Starfire and Beast Boy.

CRASH!!!!

My eyes widened. I gritted my teeth….shook…and let loose a pulse of murk through my blade.

SMASH!!!!!

Shopping cart shards flew. I leapt out, landed on the ground, and blurred over to the conveyor belt. I jumped atop it and looked into a pocket of the aluminum heap of cars. My heart skipped a beat.

Beast Boy and Starfire were in tact. They were unconscious, though. Encased in the cocoon of dead, mangled cars.

I stabbed Myrkblade into the layer of metal and was about to peel a hole to get them out when--

"Noir!!"

I gasped and looked ahead of me.

From atop the conveyor belt, I could clearly see Robin and Cyborg. They were still clinging to their halves of the black disk magnet. Somehow, the thing still had them stuck on. They were stranded and helpless atop the black halves as a schoolbus across from them suddenly came to life and barreled towards them.

"For God's sake, Noir!!" Cyborg shouted. "Help us!!"

I looked at the conveyor belt. I looked at them. I looked at the conveyor belt again.

Starfire and Beast Boy were fine. They could wait.

I pulled Myrkblade out and leapt mightily off the conveyor belt to go help my male Titan comrades.

But upon landing…something awful happened. My feet sank into the ground.

I gasped. I looked down. I was stuck, ankle-deep, in a pile of aluminum debris. For some reason, I couldn't get myself unstuck. I was powerless to move. I was powerless to save anyone.

In desperation, I spun Myrkblade around and prepared to stab the earth out from under me when---

SWOOOOSH!!

The figure suddenly blurred over from the schoolbus, zoomed by, and batted the sword out of my hand.

I gasped. I heard laughter.

And I heard cries.

"NOIR!!!"

"RAVEN!!!"

"SOMEBODY!!! RRGHHH!!"

I watched in absolute horror as the schoolbus ramped over a hill of metal and came down on the two disk halves and Robin and Cyborg.

I struggled to move. I gritted my teeth. I sweated heavily.

SMASH!!!!!!!

The disks were shoved against each other by the force of the bus. I couldn't tell if Robin and Cyborg were squished or not, but the two halves were shoved along the way across the scrapyard and towards the conveyor belt.

THWUMP!!!

As the bus slammed hard into the apparatus, the two disks flipped over and landed bottom up on the conveyor belt platform. I heard panting breaths and realized Cyborg and Robin were still alive. And lying on the conveyor belt beside them—unconscious—was Raven's body.

The hell did she get there?!

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

The black figure streaked along the conveyor belt.

My eyes barely managed to follow it. My focus stopped where the figure stopped…..right at the trash compactor at the end of the conveyor system.

And—as if by magic—the compactor switched on. The conveyor belt groaned to life.

Mounds of trash—and my five teammates included—were consequently being driven into the jaws of a huge shredding, crushing, and mangling apparatus made for turning scrap into literal metal sand.

I. Had. To. Get. Loose.

I closed my black eyes under the shades.

I meditated.

The compactor snapped and cracked.

The conveyor belt rattled along.

I took a deep breath.

I focused on Construction and Destruction within my system.

The Titans rolled towards shredded death.

Ahead of them, a rusted front half of a truck fell into the compactor and shot forth sparks as it jerked into a cyclonic plummet down a chute of serration that rendered it to metal ribbons.

Smoke warbled up my legs, around my thighs, through my waist, up my torso, encircling my arms, into my head, pulsed, and **shot straight down like an invisible rocket.**

SMASH!!!!!

A crater formed deep around my legs, freeing my ankles completely.

Smoke danced out from under my shades as I reopened my eyes, glared, and sprinted instantly towards the compactor.

Raven was the first to head into the mouth of the shredder.

I blurred on smoking legs.

The dark girl's robe started to dangle off the conveyor belt and into the compactor's mouth---

WOOOOSH!! I stretched a hand out, grabbed a handful of cords, and ignored the shock as I fiercely yanked them out of the apparatus' side and cut off the power.

ZAAP!!!!

Raven's unconscious head rested at the edge of the conveyor belt. Just a few inches beyond her blue hair, the whirling and crushing blades groaned to a stop.

I let out a breath.

I glanced to the side.

The shadowed figured blurred off towards the horizon.

An intense anger rose through me. I forgot everything about what the Messenger said. I forgot all about the suspicion of my teammates. I forgot all about what little future I had left with this team.

All I knew was….in a matter of two minutes…I almost lost every single friend I had.

I gritted my teeth, trailing angry smoke, and blurred off in pursuit.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I zoomed across the scrapyard, dipping my hand down once to snatch up Myrkblade.

CLAMP!!!

I spun it around in a nimble wrist and held it behind me as I rocketed after the dark figure.

This had to be the Third Apprentice…

I saw the dark opponent ahead of me. Moving so fast I couldn't discern features. I couldn't establish identity.

I didn't care. I was so angry. If worse came to worse, I'd rip the apprentice's face off and show it to the Titans for them to find something else to judge instead of me.

I saw Robin's glare in my black mind, and I ran faster. I heard Cyborg's hopeless sigh and gnashed my teeth harder.

Finally I felt Raven's cold gaze and felt my heart beat faster.

The figure ahead of me dashed and darted around heaps of cars, trash, appliances, a bus or two. Every now and then there'd be a flash of light and one piece from the crumpled mountains would loosen and fall down in time to fly at my pursuing figure. I jumped a rusted clothes drier, ran around a shower of metal barrels, and smashed my way through a car door with my sword.

I then held Myrkblade up and let loose a stream of dark energy ahead of me.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The figure jumped the stream, flipped, and flung two nimble wrists at the ground below my feet.

As fate would have it….

A hole collapsed in the ground in front of me.

I barely outstepped it, leapt over the crater, and landed in a canal between tall stacks of cars…continuing my pursuit.

The figure regained its momentum, running away from me. Every now and then it'd flick a wrist towards the walls of cars around us. Smashed trucks, minivans, and other heaps of aluminum tumbled, bounced, and crashed their way down the canyon of trash towards me.

I jumped, flipped, then came upon a huge collapse of about seven cars. I blurred my feet and literally ran up the wall of trash to my right. The impact of my blurred feet caused a domino effect of dozens upon dozens of collapsing, crushed automobiles behind me. A thunderous roar chased my footsteps down the 'canyon' as I chased the figure's footsteps and we both blurred a path down the rest of the length of the scrapyard.

Eventually, we emerged out from the end of the alley of cars and approached the edge of the grounds. A huge metal fence stretched before us. The figure pointed a finger and a hole magically ripped open in the structure, through which it dashed through. A wall of dirt shot up behind the figure, covering the hole.

I took a deep breath as a wave of dark energy shot through me. I leapt at the fence, teleported into smoke form, flew through the wireframe, and solidified on the other side…continuing my pursuit.

We dashed across a dirt road towards a huge building that at first seemed like a factory to me.

The figure leapt up onto the rear, semi-truck loading deck and dashed in through a side door.

I ran after it, raised Myrkblade, reached a garage door, and literally shredded my way inside.

SMASH!!!!

It was instantly cold. I ran into a frigid wall of air. Everything was dark. My black eyes twitched under the shades as I ran into a horde of dangling bodies.

I skidded to a blurred stop on the floor.

A gigantic meat locker.

Huge sides of beef hung all around me like pendulums.

There was no sign of the figure.

I gasped and spun around in the forest of flesh.

Something caught my eye. A glint of metal.

A dagger…

I stopped, jerked my head straight in front of me, and saw a throng of men poised on a catwalk overhead. The figure dashed up and stopped, joining them. The tallest of the men stood out to me. He was twirling a knife between his fingers. His eyes….never blinked.

And that's when the men by his and the figure's side suddenly swiveled huge floodlights around, aimed them at me, and---

_**FLASH!!!!!!!!!**_

The intensity of a thousand suns screamed their way into my black eyes.

I dropped Myrkblade to the floor with a CLANK!!!

I gripped my hands over my shades and exhaled in extreme pain.

Hot tears were streaming out. My body convulsed as I backed up and collapsed against a dangling side of meat.

Everything was cold and everything was burning.

Burning……..

_"I see you're still getting used to those eyes, Jordan…"_ said a hauntingly calm voice.

I had no strength gasp in shock. I fell to my knees, desperately gripping my burning eyes. My teeth clenched and my whole body shook in pain.

_"It was quite remarkable giving them to you. But what I remember most was the process in which we took your old ones out."_

I panted. I reached a hand out and felt around for Myrkblade's hilt.

Who was this guy?!?!

_"You were such a……loud little boy then……,"_ the voice calmly continued. It echoed down from the catwalk, bounced off the dangling bodies of beef, and rattled into my weary, confused ears. _"You never seemed to stop screaming……"_

I panted.

My finger touched something hard.

Myrkblade.

I shakily scooped the hilt up into my wrist and stood up on wobbly legs.

I tried opening my eyes, but it was still burningly bright. I tried turning around and doing it again. But the light was everywhere. It was coming at me from all corners. An ambush of fire. It was my equivalent to someone else being shut inside a room with no lights. I couldn't open my black eyes to see a damn thing. All I could do was listen……

Oh god….

_"If the Titans knew the secrets that we keep……the pain that you went through……maybe they would not be so quick to apathetically abandon you in this time of utter confusion and twists of fate. But, alas, it is far too late for your redemption amongst your ill-destined friends. Slade's apprentice and my invisible hand of power saw to that…"_

I panted.

_Dagger???_

_How does he……know me??_

_"You may walk away from this warehouse knowing the truth, Jordan. That you've been framed. That you are innocent of the betrayal that the Titans suspect of you. But what good is truth? People believe that truth sets a soul free. But that is not the case, for truth itself is not 'free'. Truth is a prison, and each and every one of us suffers within the claustrophobic walls of its existence. Even if you were to meet your fellow Titans again, Jordan, they would not be able to see your face. For you'll forever be hidden deep within the walls of a unknown truth that they'll never pierce through. Such is the rule of Fate in this lifetime. In this existence. In this Now."_

I took a deep breath and stepped blindly forward.

I ran face-first into a hanging side of beef.

I let out a silent scream and slashed through it with Myrkblade.

CHUNK!!!

Smelly juices squirted out and covered me.

I gasped.

_"Temper temper……you were always so violent with that sword of yours……"_

I stumbled back into another hanging body.

I spun around and slashed at it.

Scraps of meat and juice flew.

I spun around and slashed again, panting. Sweating.

More meat. More cuts. More blood.

The voice was silent for a while, until it coolly oozed out: _"Consider this as our doing a favor for you, Jordan. You may be ostracized…but you've been that way before. You've been that way before because all you've done is banish yourself. We were there once to help you, Jordan. And it's not that you've forgotten about us…but rather, you've decided to put us far back into the blinding oblivion of your mind and tried to distract yourself with silly vigilante dreams of social servitude. But all playtime must come to an end and each of our kind reach the realization that there's a darker purpose ahead of us. A purpose as dark and menacing as the Destruction itself that surges in our arteries. You may not realize it now, but you're going to be alone again for a purpose. You will become full circle. And—hopefully—you will then realize your true potential. And once you do, I will be waiting for your return. I may not be a man of feelings, Noir. But I am a man of second chances. And consider yourself entreated with one…"_

I slashed one last time in madness.

I stood there…panting….gripping hard to Myrkblade.

I felt juices congealing around my ankles.

And a smell…

My black eyes popped open into the burning world.

That smell………

I was standing on a metal floor, surrounded by chunks of beef. _Black on red bodies. Everything oozing together like sauce. Myrkblade in my grasp. Fingers tight around the hilt. Red everywhere…red everywhere and the urge to laugh. The urge to laugh mightily. Tears streaming down my eyes. Red tears. Red tears and red sauce and boiling laughter. I expected a nightmarishly thin figure and a pain of guilt in the flash of red light forming a pain in my throat but instead---_

The dark figure and the bodies dashed away.

I was staring into the brightness too long.

I clenched my eyes shut again and hung onto a dangling piece of meat.

I panted heavily…things swarming through my head. Familiar scents…faces….

Voices…..

The burning stopped.

It was cold once again in the warehouse.

My pained eyes fluttered open under the shades.

The floodlights were off.

I was alone.

Something glinted in a pale light.

I looked to the ground.

Marinating in the spilled juice of shredded sides of beef was a silver dagger.

I knelt down and picked it up.

There was a white tag tied to the hilt. And on the tag, a little message had been written in hauntingly familiar handwriting.

I squinted my eyes as everything came into focus and I read:

**'Don't tell me you forgot about the carbonite bomb you came here to find……'**

I gasped.

I spun around—nearly slipping on the meat juice—and dashed out through the hole in the warehouse I had made and into the heated air of summer.

I came to a stop on the deck of the loading area, panted, and stared off at the scrapyard across the road.

The scrapyard stared back at me and---

_**BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!**_

Metal shards and debris flew into the air as a dome of pure plasma erupted from the ground producing a blast wave of dirt, metal, and dust that rolled through the metal fence, slammed over the warehouse, and threw me back into the interior forest of meat.

And utter…horrifying loneliness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"The last question of the show is this, gentlemen. If we are, in fact, seeing a repetitious trend of the rise and fall of Slade and the challenges of the Teen Titans…when will the pattern ever end?"_

'_ "That's a good question, Phil. Honestly…I have no clue. But there is the obvious answer."_

'_ "What's that, Mr. Bringham?"_

'_ "The pattern would stop coming full circle if someone was to die."_

'_ "Someone…like Slade?"_

'_ "Indeed……or, for that matter, the Titans themselves…"_


	56. Full Circle part 3

**56. Full Circle part 3**

I stabbed one last time with Myrkblade, and a burning slit opened up to the outside world.

I held an arm ahead of my shaded black eyes and crawled out of the rubble.

I took a deep breath once on the surface. I looked behind me. Half of the meat packing warehouse had collapsed from the blast wave of the carbonite.

And my friends…

I turned around and stared out at what was once the scrapyard. Underneath a curtain of dust, a throng of police squad cars, firetrucks, and other emergency vehicles had gathered. Their flashing lights streamed outward into the hazy air of destruction all around us.

I sheathed Myrkblade, winced, and gradually limped my way towards the huge crater in the earth. The closer I came, the desolation increased greater and greater before my weary eyes.

And there was no sign of the other Titans anywhere…

I took a pained breath as I passed through the bent mesh that was once the metal fence surrounding the scrapyard. I stood at the edge of the crater and looked down the slopes. The gigantic hole in the earth was filled with a superheated carpet of metal dust and ash. The carbonite explosion had practically melted the junk in the scrapyard into a pool of chaos at the bottom of the pit.

Could my friends have been a thin layer of ash underneath all that?

I peered across the crater.

I could see the bodies of police officers and firefighters scurrying about on the other side, establishing a base of operations. Among them was a familiar figure.

I inhaled, swiveled about, and walked the circumference of the crater.

As I approached the squad cars and emergency crew, the form of Commissioner Decker came clearly into view. He was shouting out orders in only the way Decker could.

"We've still got a fire going, dammit!! Get that shit of yours and go take care of that shit!!"

I cleared my throat.

The Commissioner and a few cops looked over at me. A good number of them gasped.

"Dear lord!"

"There's one of them!"

"Where'd he come from?!"

"Okay, people, get moving!!" Decker shouted at them. He marched up to me. "You look like you spent the last few hours climbing through crap. What happened?!"

I took a deep breath. I gestured and pointed all around.

He raised an eyebrow. "Uh……yeah. That's right, you're the one with the broken throat, aren't you?"

I gestured madly.

"Can't understand you, kid. Think maybe you can write it down?"

I looked to my left. The lieutenant was writing information on a pad of paper.

YANK!

I grabbed it from him.

"Hey!! What's the big idea—"

Decker held him back with a raised hand.

I scribbled like mad on the paper and held it—shaking—up for Decker to see.

'Where are the Titans?'

Decker squinted his eyes. He looked at me. "You mean….you don't know?"

I stared at him, mouth agape.

Decker pointed towards the southern horizon. "They all headed back to that Tower of yours soon after we arrived on the scene! We thought you were with them! All in the feather, right?!"

I insanely scribbled on the paper and held it up again. 'They are all right?'

"In terms of normal Titans, yeah…more or less," Decker nodded. "They were walking, if that's what you wanted to know."

I sighed with relief and tossed the notepad in the lieutenant's face. My shoulders sagged and my arms dangled at my side. There was a big, weak grin on my face.

"Why did they leave you behind??" Decker asked. "They didn't even ask about you when we came."

I bit my lip.

I looked towards the southern horizon. The late afternoon sun and its yellow-orange glow casting over the urban gray of the City.

I turned, pointed towards the horizon, then saluted the Commissioner before walking off.

"Godspeed and all that jazz," Decker grunted and waved. "And tell the Titans I would greatly appreciate them cutting back on these damnable craters!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Main Room of the Tower…

Beast Boy huddled on the end of a couch. His jumpsuit was stained with dirt, rust, and ashes.

Beside him sat Starfire, a bandage on her cheek and her hair stringy with flakes of dirt and dust.

Raven stood behind the couch. Her robe had been completely shredded, so she had tossed it to the floor and merely stood in her tights. Her arms were folded.

Cyborg stood on the far side, away from the sofa where Beast Boy and Starfire were. His titanium exoskeleton had been scuffed and scraped in several places. His fists were clenched.

Robin stood before them all, his back to the computer monitor and the tall, stretching windows behind him. His outfit had been cut and torn in several places. Amazingly, his cape stayed in tact.

"What are you getting at, Robin?" Raven asked as the five were in the middle of a conversation.

"What I'm saying is this…," Robin said firmly, "…we scan the City. We find Noir. We question him."

"How do we know he's still in the City for us to find?!" Beast Boy asked. He frowned. "He totally ditched us in that rusted powder keg!! If I so much as see him now, so help me all that is holy---"

Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder. "Let us not be so quick to fisticuffs."

"Why not, Star?!?!" Beast Boy cackled. "It was a setup! A complete setup! I hate to hear myself saying this…but we should have never trusted Noir with the whole 'carbonite-location' thingy!"

"Are to assume he did not try to save us when we were in peril?" Starfire asked. She looked at everyone with her round green eyes. "When I came upon him, he was not trying to exit the scene. I believe he was staying behind to save us!"

"If we're not mistaken, Star….," Raven began, "…the moment you saw him, the neck of the crane knocked you into Beast Boy. Is that correct?"

"Well…"

"And did Noir do anything to save you then?"

The Tamaranian was silent. She looked down at the floor.

"How'd those things come alive?" Cyborg suddenly remarked. "The magnet. The crane. The automobiles. The conveyor belt. I've should have seen it coming….but….I mean, come on!!"

"It was a coordinated assault," Robin said, fisting his palm. "Anyone—Slade included—could have planned such an intricate way to destabilize all of us, providing he had an inside ear for the exchange of information as means of preparation."

"It worked so perfectly," Raven said. Her blue eyes narrowed. "And yet…Noir must have overlooked a few things. For instance, if Noir was working for Slade and he really wanted to finish us off, he would have sabotaged the T-Car as well."

"Yeah," Cyborg nodded. "It only took a few seconds for me to remotely control the Baby to come around and cart us off before the carbonite blew. Noir would have known that."

"Then he is……innocent?" Starfire asked.

Robin shook his head. "Not innocent. Just foolish."

"But what good could possibly come for Slade in merely teasing us with the prospect of extermination?" the Tamaranian asked.

"He's Slade," Beast Boy shrugged. "He's one of them sado-mastodons!"

"'Masochists'," Raven corrected.

The changeling glared at her. "How would you know?"

"……."

"Robin, let's think about this for a moment…," Cyborg spoke. "Okay…let's say there's Noir. And there's Slade. Slade hires Noir. Slade tells Noir to join the Titans and finish them off. How would this go about happening? For that matter, how **did** it go about happening?"

Robin folded his arms. "Simple. If you remember…it was one of Slade's schemes that Noir first helped us thwart."

Everyone froze.

"Ummmm," Beast Boy blinked. "It was?"

Starfire gasped. "The robot duplicate of Cinderblock!"

"The android was smashing its way through the City," Robin said. "In just a matter of time, it would wreak havoc on a schoolyard full of elementary school students. Noir dove in out of nowhere and—"

"…ripped the damn robot to shreds…," Cyborg muttered, staring off into space.

"And, as it turned out, it wasn't Cinderblock at all," Robin said. "It was merely a robot replacement."

"If Slade hired Noir to come in and bash up one of his henchmen, it wouldn't have been someone as special to Slade as Cinderblock," Beast Boy nodded. "So he used a robot instead!! Sheesh…that's crazy…"

"This isn't the first time that a…..a t-traitor has joined us simultaneous to a plan of Slade's," Robin said.

"Terra….," Raven droned.

Everyone shuddered.

"Both times she joined us…," Raven spoke, "…Slade was up to something. The first time, it was an attack on a diamond mine."

"The second time he was trying to bury our home," Starfire said, her hands clasped together.

"When Slade was attacking us and we needed help the most…Terra was there," Robin said. "When we needed help the most to stop the Cinderblock doppelganger—"

"Noir was there," Cyborg muttered. "And right now we've been needing him again."

"For the second time in a row…," Robin spoke, frowning, "…everything the five of us tried to do came under the hand of chaos. First metal rafters were falling on us and holes were popping up in the ground to trap our feet. And now at the scrapyard, all the junk and equipment came to life to shred us apart. And when that didn't work, we were nearly blown to smithereens."

"But how'd it all happen??" Beast Boy exclaimed, brushing off more and more dust and soot from his figure. "Does—like—Noir have some wyrd superpower he's not shared with us yet?"

"I don't think it's that complicated," Robin said. "But rather, there's been a two-sided work going on. Noir leads us into these battlefields, and Slade somehow provides a supernatural cover fire."

"The Experiment….," Raven slurred. A beat. "Do you think he already has access to whatever mysterious tools the Balance of Morals implies?"

"There may be no way to explain it," Robin said. "But we can surely spot it. We've been twice burned…not just here with Noir, today after the scrapyard. But also with Terra. We're smarter than Slade thinks, and we're not going to take much more of this."

"Then….Noir is—" Starfire mumbled.

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

Everyone turned to look. They all stood up as their breath left them.

I limped into the Main Room….paused….and looked at them through my shades.

"…………………….."

They all stared at me.

They were frowning.

My black eyes rounded.

I exhaled.

"………………….."

My vision scanned their faces. Raven's glare. Cyborg's pain. Starfire's confusion. Beast Boy's bitterness. And Robin's frown.

I gulped.

Finally….

"You're here rather late….," Raven droned.

"What's wrong?" Cyborg grunted. "Couldn't sit down and make yourself comfortable earlier when you left us to roast?"

My jaw dropped.

They thought I had abandoned them!!

They were too busy being knocked unconscious to see me trying to save them……

Beast Boy folded his arms and glared at me through the corners of his eyes. "Nice job scuffing yourself up. Had a sudden change of heart and wanted to get beat like the rest of us??"

I slowly shook my head. I blinked. I stared over at Robin…...disbelieving.

Robin slowly paced over towards me.

My heart beat.

The Titan came closer, his white eyemask furrowed.

He stood a mere few feet away from me. Staring daggers.

I gulped.

"You look so…..so….surprised….," he said. A beat. He whispered: "That makes me **sick**!"

My throat hurt. My heart shuddered.

"Cat got your tongue?"

I bit my lip. I looked over at Cyborg.

The android was glaring. Nevertheless, he nodded.

I looked at Robin and—with shaking hands—gestured.

"'I came here as soon as I could'," Cyborg read aloud. He chuckled with indignity as he finished translating my words: "'I was buried under a building across the street when the blast went off.'"

"Ah, I see," Robin nodded and folded his arms. "What were you doing there to begin with??"

I was about to gesture—but I froze. I looked at Cyborg….Raven….Beast Boy….Starfire.

I should have listened to the Messenger's words. But I didn't. I went off chasing the Third Apprentice, whoever it was. I should have been there to save my friends. As far as I was concerned—due to my carelessness—I had truly betrayed them.

I had……betrayed the Titans……

I lowered my head and clenched my eyes shut.

Robin took a deep breath. "I suppose there's no time like the present to tell you this, Noir," the Boy Wonder said. "We know about the transmissions."

Raven's lips parted as she looked Robin's way.

Beast Boy and Starfire swallowed.

I looked up into the Boy Wonder's eyemask.

I knew they had seen the transmissions. But I also knew that they weren't truly sent to Slade. Dagger had hacked into the Tower. He had changed the truth of the data and turned it against me. The Titans had seen the transmission data nearly a week ago, and it was their springboard—besides Raven's premonitions—to identify me as a traitor.

Indeed, I knew about it. But they didn't know that I was knowledgeable. Everything up to this point had been a double-sided charade. We kept our secrets from each other so that we could ride the wave of Slade's scheme and try and find out what the truth was.

Well, the Titans were about to get their truth. Or at least, what they thought their truth was. If I had told them all about the Messenger and the conspiracy earlier, maybe I could have prevented this elevation. But it was too late. Six straight days of unsuccessful battles with Slade and two intense conflicts in which the Third Apprentice had framed me as a battlefield turncoat, there was no way I could convince the Titans of anything.

And as it was so……this was the threshold. This was the point of no return. While I watched the Boy Wonder's lips moved…as I heard the words dripping out of his mouth, I felt my soul well up in despair. I was no longer a Titan. I was on my own again. I was…

Full circle…

"You've been supplying information to Slade," Robin said. "And trying to cover your tracks. It would have been quite ingenious of you, hadn't Terra done the exact same thing months before to bring about the ruination of both the Titans and the City."

I exhaled deeply.

"What?" Robin cocked his head to the side and said bitterly: "Thought you could get the drop on us, Noir? We've figured it all out. We've been wounded before…by a traitor much colder, badder, and—I must add—smarter than you."

I couldn't help it. I frowned. These were true lies coming out of Robin's mouth. He didn't know it. But I did. They burned in my brain.

"I'm sorry, does this hurt your feelings? Good!"

CHIIING!!!

The Titans jumped and raised their fists in a fighting position.

I had unsheathed Myrkblade.

Glaring, I spun it around, held it out by the width of the blade, and tossed it on the ground in front of Robin's feet.

CLANK!!!

I took a breath and held my hands up…harmless.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

Starfire looked between us.

I gestured.

Cyborg read: '"I have known of your suspicion lately. But please believe me that I am not the traitor you think I am. I will do anything, surrender anything, agree with anything that I must to prove my innocence."

Robin clenched his fists. "I already gave you your second chance, Noir. Whether or not you suspected anything, you lost our trust in you. We know better about you and Slade now. We fell for it…but not any further."

I took a deep breath. A heat of anger rose in my body. I couldn't help it. I fell back. Just like how I ran after the Third Apprentice and left my partners behind, I gave in. I gestured.

Cyborg sweatdropped and read: "Uhhh…..he says 'If you knew so better, you wouldn't have fallen for anything to begin with'."

Raven gritted her teeth.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Robin glared at me. He slowly turned around and faced the distant windows of the Main Room and--

SWOOOOSH---SMACK!!!!!

He immediately spun around and plowed his fist into my cheek.

"!!!!"

I fell back.

GRIP!!!

He had his gloved hands clenched on my shoulders and shoved me up against a wall.

WHAM!!!!

"You want to know hurt, huh Noir?!?!" Robin shouted. "YOU DO NOT KNOW HURT!!! I LET MY TEAM GET TORN APART BY ASSHOLES LIKE YOU BEFORE!! NOT AGAIN! YOU HEAR ME?!?! NOT AGAIN!!"

I gritted my teeth. It made no difference. I was still angry.

It helped me none…

I charged Murk up my limbs and pulsed it out of my chest.

FLASH!!!

Robin was thrown back ten feet. He landed on his rear with a grunt.

"Robin!" Starfire rushed over and knelt by his side.

He frowned and rubbed his head, looking up at me.

I panted…my arms flexing.

Suddenly, my limbs were encased in black energy. I was lifted up and pinned hard back into the wall like a levitating crucifix.

I looked across the Main Room.

Cyborg and Beast Boy spun around as they also saw Raven standing up, an wrist outstretched, her eyes glowing bright gray.

She said: "If you so much as hurt one of my friends I will **RIP YOU APART WHERE YOU STAND**!!!" Her eyes flashed a momentary red as she said that.

My jaw dropped.

"Rae!!" Beast Boy hissed desperately. "Don't!"

Raven's eyes returned to gray. She panted…glaring madly at me.

Suddenly, Starfire jumped up besides Robin and shrieked: "Please!! Raven! Robin! Noir! Stop it this instant! Must we forget, we are all friends?!?!"

Silence.

Cyborg rubbed the human half of his skull and looked to the floor.

Beast Boy gulped.

Starfire panted. Her brow furrowed and she clenched her fists. "Are we not?!?!"

No response.

Robin stared out the windows.

Raven dropped me from long distance, folded her arms, and looked away.

I rubbed my arms and looked at Starfire.

She looked at me, panting. Slowly, her face melted. It was the saddest thing in the world. A glowing, emerald tear streamed down her face. "I-I thought………..…..we all thought…….that you were our friend."

I froze from the inside out.

My eyes darted down at Myrkblade.

Robin saw it. His muscles tensed.

But before any desperate move could be made….the huge computer monitor flickered to life and a creepy masked face with a creepy voice slithered into the air of the Main Room. _"I hope I am not interrupting a special bonding moment…."_

Robin gritted his teeth. "Slade…"

I gasped.

_"Robin. You and your teammates are alive. I find that most unpleasant."_

"Nobody finishes all the Titans in one day," Robin marched towards the monitor and shook his fists. "You should know that!"

_"Oh…but I do,"_ Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed as his chilling helmet tipped forward. _"The one consolation I have for my inability to snuff out the lights of all five of you is the futility of you and your teammates in combining to snuff out my own."_ Slade's hand gestured. _"Luckily, I had slipped a wildcard into the deck."_

Robin's brow furrowed. "What do you mean??"

_"The games we play, Robin. They are most trivial. You give, and I take. I give, and you take. One attack leads to a counterattack, and vice versa. We are an ever-churning balance of Yen and Yang. This City's outstanding symbol of the endless battle between good and evil. Our fated orbit is so elliptical and predictable in the rise and fall of dramatics, that we achieve nothing significant for our own causes. I never gain complete control of the City. You and the Titans never have a night of peace. Everything simply comes full circle. And, alas—as you have discovered—I have provided my end of the bargain. But hopefully, in this repetition, my plans will be exotic enough to extend outside of the boundaries of common decency and break the circle."_

"Get to the point," Robin gritted his teeth.

_"Now now, Robin. Both you and I know that the Titans have already gotten……'the point',"_ Slade said. His face on the monitor pivoted over…….and looked directly at me. "_Apprentice_," he addressed, _"……I commend you on a job well done."_

I gasped. My eyes rounded. I looked desperately at the Titans beside me and then back—unbelieving—at Slade's face.

_"I would not have the upper hand that I now have if it weren't for your assistance, Noir,"_ Slade 'spoke' to me. _"Your distractions during the Carbonite detonations were effective in blinding your teammates so that I could strike."_

All the Titans glared at me.

I sweated profusely. Panting, I tried to gesture. But nobody could read me. Nobody could hear me.

_How could they?_

What could I say?

I couldn't say anything.

Not a thing…..

Robin frowned at me and turned to face Slade again. "We all know about your little 'apprentice', Slade. You've tried betrayal on us before. We're smarter now."

_"Are you all really, Robin?"_ Slade's mask leaned back as he folded his arms behind his back. _"Yesterday while you and your Titan teammates were pinned down in the warehouse, Noir wasn't really chasing down the carbonite explosive."_

Robin spat. "We pretty much figured that out!"

_"Truly. But did you know that—at the time—Noir was actually retreating to the Tower to set up a Type Five EMP Detonator?"_

Starfire and Beast Boy gasped.

Raven—shocked—looked over at Cyborg. "No….."

Cyborg glared at the screen.

Chills ran through my helpless skin.

_How could this be happening?_

_"And today…,"_ Slade menacingly added, _"While you all waited what I hoped was your fate in the exploding scrapyard, my silent apprentice was performing Stage Two of my plan. He was arming the three long-ranged missiles which are presently aimed at the Tower and set to launch in……oh……about twenty seconds."_

Robin's white eyemask widened.

The other Titans murmured.

I clenched my fists. I hyperventilated. Every will inside my spirit wanted one thing: Slade's testicles on a platter.

"You…..," Robin shuddered, but summoned enough strength to grumble: "You won't get away with this."

_"Maybe I will…maybe I won't…,"_ Slade's eye narrowed. _"Either way, things are working towards the successful completion of the experiment. Whether or not you die, a new circle will be formed. A new Balance of Morals will be formed. Fate will swing on an invisible axis. This universe will be changed—at least in the way we perceive it—forever."_

There were large glints of light in the distance.

The six of us turned to look.

Over the horizon of the City, three shiny objects rocketed towards the Tower.

_"If I may say so…,"_ Slade spoke, _"…the defenses of your home base are most finite. Terra shut them down easily for my henchmen to come storming in. And in a touch of irony today, the EMP shockwave from Noir's explosive will completely shut down every electronic device in your abode. I almost wish I could see the effect my missiles will have on twenty-plus floors of hollow concrete. Good bye, Titans. It has been a rewarding experiment. And Noir? I suggest you get out of there, apprentice. Though—to be honest—it would matter very little to me if you were consumed by the flames along with your former 'friends'. I truly need your assistance no longer. Farewell."_

Slade's image blipped off the screen.

Robin immediately spun around and glared right in my face. "Noir. Tell us where the explosive is!"

My lips quivered. I jerkily shook my head and shrugged.

Robin gripped the collar of my jumpshirt and yanked me down to face him. "Tell us!! Now!!"

I shrugged, helpless.

Robin raised a fist….

Suddenly a loud hum filled the Tower. The floor began to shake. The Titans looked around—gasping—as sparks started dancing more and more from the computer consoles while the lights overhead flickered.

Starfire stammered. "Cyborg…..," she breathed.

Cyborg took a deep breath. A solemn expression was on his face. "Take out the missiles," he said firmly. "Whatever it takes, protect the Tower. I'm sorry, friends…..I'm sorry I can't be there—"

"Cyborg!" Raven reached a hand out. "Wait!!"

It was too late.

The EMP bomb exploded from some concealed cubby hole deep within the bowels of the Tower.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!**_

A plume of electricity shot out of the walls. The computers were fried. The lightbulbs exploded. And Cyborg….he tensed and screamed.

"**AAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!!!!!!!!"**

Sparks shot up, spawned lightning out through his mouth, kissed his teeth, traveled down his neck, flexed around his shaking muscles, and coursed through his screaming lungs. In a moan, he slumped forward and fell flat against the ground. The bright blue was gone from under his titanium exoskeleton. Everything turned pitch black and…dead.

The lights went out.

The distant roar of three hurtling missiles outside settled in through the cracks of the windows and haunted our ears.

"Damn…damn damn DAMN!!!" Robin pounded his fist. "We needed him! We needed Cyborg!!"

Beast Boy knelt beside Cyborg, feeling his pulse. He let out a sigh of relief…but still looked worried.

"Without his laser cannon and disarming expertise, how are we to go about stopping the missiles?!" Starfire gasped.

"Any way we can…," Raven said. "…but we have to act **now**!"

I was only partially paying attention. Between the shock of Slade's lies, the EMP shockwave, and the collapsed body of Cyborg, my mind kept racing through something.

_How???  
_  
I spun around and scanned the lengths and widths of the Main Room.

_How?!?!_

_How could the EMP shockwave have gotten in here?!?!_

My gaze wandered to the far corner.

Something wasn't right…

I yanked my shades off and squinted with naked, black eyes.

There was a petite figure in the corner. A shadowed figure. It caught sight of me catching sight of it and darted towards the elevator doors.

I gritted my teeth, jumped over, grabbed Myrkblade, slid, and blurred out of the room and through the elevator doors.

"Noir!!!!" Robin shouted. "Stop where you are!!!"

I didn't listen.

I was gone.

"Shit!!" Robin cursed.

"What're we waiting for, man?!" Beast Boy ran over and forced a window open with split-second strength. "Screw him! He never cared for us in the end anyhow! We got missiles to stop!"

"Yes!" Starfire hovered in the air and nodded. "We must hurry!!" She zoomed out of the window.

Raven ran after her. She paused to place a firm hand on Robin's shoulder. "We have time yet. Come on." She glided effortlessly out the window.

Robin looked at her…glared at the elevator doors…then looked solemnly down at the floor.

Cyborg's body lie silently…waiting for his teammates to save the day.

"I'm sorry I trusted him…," Robin spoke silently to the unconscious android. "I'm sorry I trusted anyone new…."

Cyborg lay silent.

Robin spun and ran towards Beast Boy at the open window. "Beast Boy! Up, up, and away!"

"Roger that, dude!"

Robin jumped and gripped onto a pair of green, pterodactyl feet. The winged creature flapped its wings and carried the two off towards the three incoming projectiles to join Raven and Starfire in the emergency defense.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As soon as I ran into the elevator, I discovered a glowing-red hole in the floor beneath me. It was as if someone had melted an exit just seconds before my pursuit brought me in there. I stared down through the hole with black eyes. The elevator shaft dropped down the entire height of the Tower. It was cold and uninviting. And yet—I swore I could spot the distant, plummeting figure of the shadow.

I jumped up, straightened my body, and went sailing down through the hole and falling down the open shaft. My black hair danced wildly above me. My feet dangled as I glanced down at the darkness slowly swallowing me up.

Suddenly—about five stories up from the dreadful bottom, there was a flash of pink light.

My eyes widened under the shades.

A glowing hole formed in a set of elevator doors leading into the hallway.

That's where I wanted to go……

I held out Myrkblade, gritted my teeth, and jabbed the sword deep into the walls of the shaft hurtling past me.

SkkkkkkkKKKKKKKKkkkKKKkkKkkkkkk!!!!!!!

Sparks flew. Metal chips fell. A brilliant comet trail formed behind me as my cutting slowed my descent enough to kick my feet off the wall, yank out Myrkblade, and flip-fall into the hole, upon which I swung into the hallway (legs first) and darted down the obsidian passage.

Again, I whipped my shades off and stared ahead with naked black eyes.

The figure I was pursuing dashed to the right.

I made a turn to follow it.

It zoomed down a flight of stairs.

I slid down the railing on blurred feet and jumped in pursuit.

The figure spun around and aimed a petite wrist.

FLASH!!!

Pink light.

I shut my eyes in time to not be blinded.

I had seen this before……

Something heated flew at me.

I raised Myrkblade instinctively in mid-run.

CLANK!!!

I deflected a blast of energy and charged at my foe.

The dark figure spun, leapt around a corner of the hallway, and was gone.

I slid around the corner, Myrkblade held high. I came to a stop.

I glared straight ahead.

It was a dead end…and at the end of the hallway were the automatic doors to the Evidence Room.

They were slightly ajar.

Slowly…I crept in after my target…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire's green eyes squinted against the press of wind. The waters of the Bay glittered deceptively pretty in the amber sunset. She soared over the waves, her red hair flickering like an alien torch, and soon she was upon the incoming rockets.

They thundered along in a perfect, triad formation. Their metal bodies—painted the traditional brown and black of Slade's liking—glistened in the sunset as their warheads wobbled threateningly and their engines roared in flaming ferocity.

Starfire brought two hands together. She growled, charged up a basketball-sized starbolt, and let it loose on the incoming craft.

FLASH!!!!

The starbolt sailed down…and merely bounced off the warhead of the lead missile.

She gasped.

The projectiles were upon her.

She barely performed a mid-air dodge. Her body shook in mid air and her hair danced as the missiles flew by.

Raven was next. She levitated to a stop and held out two nimble fingers. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

A huge, obsidian black 'net' formed in the air and stretched across the path of the missiles.

Slade's projectiles soared through them, and the telekinetic field snapped and shattered like levitating glass.

"Nnnghh!" Raven grunted, her temples scrunched up and pulsing. She gritted her teeth and squinted her eyes open.

Glinting metal came upon her.

She held her breath, twirled, dodged the missiles, and immediately aimed two hands on the straggler of the flying group. In so doing, she extended a warbling, black 'lasso' that latched onto the body of one of the missiles and yanked her along—trailing for the ride.

While Raven held on for dear life, Starfire's flight caught up with the missiles and she started vainly to pummel them with starbolt after starbolt of attack.

In the meantime, Beast Boy flapped overhead as a pterodactyl with Robin in toe. As soon as they got a good altitude over the incoming missiles, Robin shouted out: "Now!!"

Beast Boy angled his green wings and glided down. The two soared straight towards the hurtling bodies of the missiles. At just the right time, Robin let go of Beast Boy's legs and fell down past the missiles. He reached inside his utility belt, whipped out a grappling hook, took aim high above, and fired.

POW!!!

A cord shot up, wrapped three times around the body of the rightmost missile, and pulled tight.

YANK!!!!

Robin was pulled upwards with intense velocity. He absorbed the energy of his ascent and released it through his pivoting legs. Thus, he swung himself up till he soared around and above the top of the missile. The Boy Wonder pivoted his legs downward and found himself perched on the body of the flying missile itself.

He pulled out his staff, extended it, spun it, and stabbed it straight down into a square panel in the exoskeleton of the projectile.

"NGHHH!!"

CLANK!!!

He pried with all his might, trying to snap the panel open. But the harder he tried, the faster the missiles seemed to go. Soon he was riding a flying explosive straight towards home with Raven and Starfire helplessly trying to smash apart the other two and Beast Boy catching up overhead.

And the Tower kept appearing closer…….and closer….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My feet shuffled as I crept into the pitch-black evidence room.

I held Myrkblade up.

My naked eyes scanned the room. To me, everything was at least dimly visible in the absence of perceivable light. Glass displays containing criminal weaponry from the Titans' history of adventures jotted up from the floor at every other step.

The walls were adorned with rack after rack of mysterious tools and props and infernal gadgetry.

The thing I was looking for was alive…

My footsteps—silent as ever—echoed annoyingly through the darkened interior. About the time I came to the center, I shuffled to a stop. My brow furrowed.

I twirled around.

I looked up.

The figure—petite and feminine—stood nimbly with one foot atop a different glass case each. The added height helped her glare down from above me.

A sickening giggle flew into the air.

The smell of lilies and strawberries and---

She flicked her wrists towards the ceiling.

"!!!!" I flipped my shades on over my eyes just in time.

FLASH!!!!

The emergency lights—previously extinguished by the EMP shockwave—were now on. The glow they emitted from four distinct spots where the wall met the ceiling was dim. But it would have been enough to blind me had I not been prepared.

The fiend knew this. For she was Jinx.

"Hehehehehehe!" She smiled her Cheshire cat smile and stood on one leg, pressing her hands to her girlish hips. "Ohhhhhh, you must hate me soooooooo much by now! Poor you with your mysterious black eyes and your handsome, devil may care looks. Face it…you were born to be a loner. Nothing else. You should be thanking me…."

I gritted my teeth as I glared at her through my shades.

Her quirky, gothic attire was no more. Rather, Jinx was now shapely attired in a metal and spandex mesh of black and brown. Slade's colors. She sported the traditional 'S' insignia on the left shoulder of her outfit.

The Third Apprentice incarnate.

"Like it?!" she spun around and 'modeled'. "I know, it's uniform. But it has its own good taste. Besides…everyone's so conservative these days!! Hehehe!!"

I exhaled, charged at her, and swung Myrkblade.

SWOOOOSH!!!

She leapt out of the way in a blur of pink.

SMASH!!!

Glass flew out from the glass display she was standing on. Two of Control Freak's remote controls tumbled out and spilled onto the floor.

Jinx flipped and perched herself weightlessly atop another display two yards off.

"Temper temper!! You should be mad at yourself, Mr. Ghost! It was your ambiguity that set you apart from the rest of the Titans! Much more than any single hex field I could toss!"

I growled breathily and stabbed at her with the tip of my blade.

SMASH!!!

Glass flew.

Jinx was already in mid-air.

Anderson's pistol from Westhaven rattled as it fell to the tile floor amongst glass shards.

"If only you could see the look on your teammates faces when everything came crashing down!" Jinx mused cutely. She hopped down to the floor and paced around me. Her warm cat-eyes distorted as I stared at her through the occasional display as she walked by. "The pain! The agony! The deepening wound of betrayal!"

I clutched Myrkblade's hilt. I hyperventilated angrily. I charged at her and swung hard with my sword.

She effortlessly leapt it and flipped over me.

A display was knocked over, spilling framed newspaper clippings of Blake Glover's scathing accusations against the Titans.

I spun around.

Jinx was in my face. Breathing hotly.

"Boo, ghost!!"

FLASH!!!!

A wave of pink hex shot into my chest.

I was blown back through a glass display. I tumbled and slid through a sea of shards and up hard against a wall. THUMP!!! The rack of evidence rattled above me, and eventually I was showered with bullet casings from Reload's maniacal gunslinging.

"You know what happened just months before you fell into the laps of the Titans, big boy??" Jinx daintily stepped towards me and grinned with her metal-gloved hands to her hips. "The Titans had their lives ripped asunder. Right underneath them! A girl called Terra did Slade's bidding, and the Titans' sense of security was shattered in an instant! Their pain was unfathomable. And almost half a year later, it's happened again!"

I panted. I sweated. I slowly stood up, using Mrykblade as a staff, and stared emptily at Jinx across the displays as she spoke. I was exhausted in boundaries beyond physicality…

"Slade has a Third Apprentice," Jinx smiled. "Another girl, to be exact. And the man has managed to use the elements around him—the ones of darkness which he knows best—to bring everything full circle. And it's all thanks to you as much as it is to me, Mr. Ghost! And yet…everything has worked out so perfectly! Like clockwork! The pain of the Titans now is almost equal to that of how they felt before they met you! Hehehehe…you didn't even need to be here at all!!"

I gritted my teeth. I charged at her.

She jumped over me, shot a hex at my feet in mid air, and perched along a wall on the opposite side of the room.

I went tripping and sliding straight into a metal rack where bits and pieces of Viper's voice synthesizer fell to the ground from my impact.

"And look at you!!" Jinx giddily cackled from the wall. "What good has this short-lived romp with the Titans done yourself?! You're all alone with your dreadful past and your cutesy little darkness! Oh, I've done my research! It comes from being buddy-buddy with Dagger through Slade!! You joined the Titans just to forget who you are! You joined them as a distraction from the truth!!"

I shook angrily. I grabbed the metal case of medical supplies Blackfire had brought in the form of Morgan'm and flung it at the evil apprentice.

The pink haired girl launched a hex bolt and shattered the case in mid air. She jumped down and perkily stepped towards me from across the way. "And that truth is…without the Titans…you have nowhere to go! Nobody to turn to! No family! No friends! And certainly…," and she grinned like Satan as she said this, "…no redemption."

My black eyes widened.

I sweated bullets.

I was struggling to breathe as if under a hidden attack…

But the truth is, I knew what was hidden…

I knew……

"So in the end, everything comes full circle!" Jinx Cheshire catted and raised two pink, glowing hands to the side. "And you are surrounded by nothing but the dry desert of two or three months of worthless, superficial memories!! Memories that will always stay with you…and haunt you. Because the only thing you ever treasured was the trust of your teammates. But even that is gone now that you are alone! Now that you are yourself! Now that fate has so easily pivoted around and given you what you deserved!!"

I looked to the side.

I spotted Mumbo Jumbo's magic, antique camera.

I sheathed Myrkblade and lifted the apparatus by the sand. I glared demonically at Jinx, huffed and puffed, and walked briskly at her with the 'weapon' held high.

Jinx giggled and stepped backwards as I approached. "Hehehe!! You lost, Mr. Ghost! Slade dealt you the final wildcard!! This Tower—and the future of your friends—shall forever be as much of a waste as your god-forsaken honor!!"

I let out a silent scream and flung the camera.

She dodged it. The antique went smashing to bits against the rack of evidence behind her.

Jinx leapt at me, knee first.

WHUMP!!!

I was struck hard in the sternum and forced back.

Jinx raised both hands over her head like a ballerina, spun, and high-kicked me across the chin.

I twirled from the impact and smashed through a display. Glass and photos from the Westhaven Opera House flew. My skin seeped blood.

Jinx cried out: "HAAA!!!"

A pink charged elbow slammed deep into my back.

I jerked in pain. My body arched.

Jinx twirled and kicked me in the side.

WHUMP!!!

I went tumbling across the floor and slamming into a wall. The racks shook and collapsed over me. I was buried in instruments from Anderson's yacht.

Jinx ballerina-spun to a stop, curtsied, and blurred at me on a carpet of pink energy.

She had improved her talents!!

I rolled forward just as a charged pair of wrists blasted a crater in the wall where I had slumped.

I jumped up, stood over the girl, and reached a hand back to Myrkstaff.

She didn't give me a chance to whip out the weapon. She kicked me in the shins from down below.

I hobbled over.

Jinx shot up in an uppercut.

WHAM!!!

My neck flew back in a painful pivot as my whole body somersaulted and landed against a booth, cracking the glass and causing the hanging costume of Robin inside that Control Freak mutated to fall from its support.

I groaned and flexed my aching, cut muscles.

So……much…glass…

Jinx stepped slowly towards me as I bent over in pain.

She grinned and aimed a glowing wrist straight at my skull. "Tsk tsk. Silly Ghost. Always such a gentleman. Even to his end. Ya know…you always did treat me like a lady…"

Her hand glowed brighter.

I barely looked up at her. I gritted my teeth.

Murk soared up through my being.

Time slowed down.

My body turned into a half-smoke of sorts. I blurred my right hand into my chest—literally through my osmotic body—and to the hilt of Myrkblade that rested on my murky back. In similar fashion, I converted Murkblade into pure smoke, dragged it through my body with one twirl, and solidified myself back into physical form as I spun Myrkblade and slashed upwards from my crouched position.

SWOOOSH—SLIIIINK!!!

Blood flew from the side of Jinx's arm.

The girl shrieked and jumped back, clutching her dripping cut. Pink tears welled in her eyes and she stared at me with a girlish quiver of the lip. "You…..y-you'd cut me?!?!"

I shoot up into a standing position. I had on a frown that could make pure stone ashamed of itself. Murk danced and warbled violently out from under my shades. In a blink, I flexed my arms out from my side.

FWOOOSH!!!

The glass shards momentarily danced off the floor and splashed outward from the pure intensity of my murk energy. My knuckles tightened around the hilt of my sword as I gnashed my teeth and leaned forward towards the Third Apprentice.

Jinx gasped and stepped back.

I. Was. Having. A. Bad. Day.

I took one step forward and practically burned the air through the force with which I slashed Myrkblade at her.

In a split second, I saw the scared face of the lonely sorceress girl whom I fought weeks ago atop the Westhaven Opera House.

SHOOOOM!!!

A huge rip formed at a distance from my blade in both the ceiling and the tile floor at once.

Jinx had jumped to the side in a pink blur.

I let out a silent scream and flung my warbling blade at her again.

Three rows of displays shattered on their own.

Jinx panickedly ran through a sudden shower of glass shards that cut the part of her skin not covered in Slade's attire.

I swung again with a wide open mouth of hatred.

A rack flew apart on the opposite side of the room.

Blackfire's green, alien bracelet fell and rattled to the floor. Jinx blindly slipped on it and fell hard to the ground.

I jumped high in the air, spun Myrkblade overhead, and stabbed mercilessly down at Jinx.

The Third Apprentice rolled out of the way.

SMASH!!!

I landed, forming rivers of cracks in the tile floor from my blade.

Jinx got to her feet, jumped off one display, two displays, flipped, and sailed down at me with two outstretched hands of glowing pink. "HAAAA-AAA!!!"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

I jerked Myrkblade up out of the tile with a CRACK!! Debris and dust flew as I peformed a last second uppercut that deflected both hexes away with one swing.

CL-CLANG!!!

The two energy flashes of pink soared back at her. She twirled her body in mid descent and landed in an agile crouch.

I knelt, flexed my muscles and blurred at her.

Jinx's body flattened down against the sea of glass shards.

I soared over her, Myrkblade first, and missed her entirely.

I rolled, jump to my feet, and spun around to face her before my slide was over.

Jinx jumped up, panting, and eyed a pair of Slug's magnums resting on a display next to me.

I raised an eyebrow.

She flung a wrist at it.

Pink flew into the magnum. The chamber rotated.

I took a breath and teleported---

BLAM!!!!

A bullet flew out—shattering the glass display and forming a hole in the wall far away.

I solidified a few feet away and started sprinting.

Jinx gasped and flung a hex bolt at another one of Slug's magnums…aimed more in my direction.

BLAM!!!!

Glass shattered behind me. I raised my blade and--

BLAM!!!!

CLANG!!

--deflected the last blast.

Jinx aimed ahead of me…at a vial of Killer Moth's acid.

The glass display shattered. Smoke filled the air as the acid spilled forward and burned at my path.

I leapt over it, grabbed an X-Wing model on wires overhead, and swung safely around and towards Jinx. I let go of the miniature spacehip, flew down, and swung Myrkblade in my descent.

Jinx's head ducked before it could be ripped off.

I wasn't playing around anymore.

The girl spun, slid backwards, and flung a hex bolt to my left. "HAAA!!"

A pink stream of energy landed in one of Viper's smoke pellets. It exploded just to my side.

I side-jumped out of the way, dodged two more hex bolts from Jinx, rolled along the ground, and snatched up one of Control Freak's remotes. I swiftly aimed it at something over Jinx's shoulder and pressed the huge red button.

ZAP!!!

Jinx blinked.

She spun around.

The huge, severed head of Mumbo Jumbo's exploded robot bunny—Fluffy—came to life from Control Freak's remote and snapped its razor sharp incisors down onto Jinx's head.

The girl shrieked, ducked, and step backwards just in time to avoid a decapitation.

However, she didn't avoid the harsh SLAM!! of my elbow as I charged into her.

The girl went tumbling over the sea of glass. She slid onto her knees, winced, and charged at me—yelling at the top of her lungs. "I WILL SILENCE YOU!!!"

I charged at her at matching speed. Suddenly I lowered my arm and tossed Myrkblade to the ground. It slid on the glass shards beneath Jinx's legs and out behind her. I then ducked my body and slid underneath the girl as well. By blurring my back, I avoided being cut by the glass. Once behind her, I grabbed the sliding sword, jumped up to my knees, and slashed straight at the girl's rear.

THWACK!!! A good piece of her pointy, pink hair was severed into floating strands in the dimly-lit air.

Startled, the girl ran straight into a glass display. Her face formed cracks in the surface. She groaned in pain.

I got up and marched at her from behind, gripping onto Myrkblade hard.

Jinx rubbed her face, stared into the glass display and—with a shout—smashed her hand through the glass and reached inside. When she spun around, she was holding Control Freak's double-sided lightsaber.

I came to a stop and held up Myrkblade at ready.

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. She fingered the switch to CF's futuristic bludgeon.

PFFSSSHHH!!!!

Two red streams of energy emerged on both sides. The room suddenly lit up with a crimson glow that complimented Jinx's pink fury.

I glared at her, murk pouring out from my shades and Myrkblade warbling.

She let out a cry and spun at me.

The saber beams burned in the air.

PFFSHHH-PFFSHHHH-PSFFHHH!!!

I held Myrkblade out horizontally and deflected the attacks.

CLANK-CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!

Jinx struck hard with a spinning jab.

I deflected with Myrkblade vertically…but I wasn't prepared for her follow-up kick.

WHAM!!

I dropped Myrkblade and flew from the impact through a display, causing video cassette recordings of Glover's broadcasts to litter the floor. I rolled painfully over the shards, got up, and ducked as Jinx came at me with a relentless flurry of red beams.

I was helpless to do anything but dodge and duck her attacks.

Seeing that I was so unarmed, the beat-up sorceress grinned as she increased her sadistic attacks more and more.

Eventually I was backed into lonely corner of the shambled room. My feet shuffled up against a collapsed metal rack…but there was something else of metal lying down on it. I glanced down.

Jinx aimed the ruby lightsaber at my throat. "Grin and bear it, Ghost," the girl winked. "I don't care what Dagger says….Fate was always meant to shut those freakish eyes of yours!"

I glared at her. I reached a hand down.

She cried out: "HAAA!!!" She flung the blade down at my skull.

I clenched my teeth and flexed my hand upwards.

Jinx's eyes twitched in shock as a wave of silver flew up into her vision.

CRACK!!!

Jinx hobbled back. The dual lightsaber had been slashed in two and she was left holding one, sparking half.

I spun back to face her from my massive upswing of Viper's broadsword. I now aimed the huge blade at her chest. Murk coursed through my limbs and into Viper's blade…turning it into a huge stream of white and black smoke.

Jinx sweatdropped.

I gritted my teeth and flew at her.

The sorceress panted and dropped to the floor.

I sailed over her, spun, and slashed the flickering broadsword straight down at her prone figure.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Tile and glass shards flew.

Jinx rolled out of the way and then tumbled as the wave of Destruction kicked her along.

I ran, jumped, and sailed down at her again.

Jinx scooted away.

Two displays shattered from my swing.

Jinx awkwardly scampered to her feet, came to a stop a few yards off, and stood at ready—sweating and heaving—with her lightsaber held up.

I glared at her. I walked over a few steps and picked up Myrkblade. I spun it in my left hand and spun Viper's broadsword in my right. I snapped them both still in my fingers around their hilt and struck a deadly pose. Both blades warbled with smoke energy.

Jinx's grip of her light saber trembled. She gulped. "Shit…"

I blinked.

I blurred at her.

"Shit!!"

SWOOOSH!!!

Both blades clashed together on her lightsaber.

The Third Apprentice hobbled backwards, blocking desperately as I spun around with a flurry of warbling blades. No matter which side of mine was facing her—either left or right—there was always a blade being swung at her defense. First Myrkblade took a stab, then Viper's broadsword, then Myrkblade again. Showers of sparks and trails of smoke and glowing ruby erupted across the room. My attacks and her parries sliced and burned through items of evidence and displays all around us. We were destroying the whole place.

I didn't care.

My time with the Titans was over.

The Tower was soon to be destroyed.

Everything was collapsing on its own.

So what the Hell?

I persisted with my relentless, cyclonic attack of the prone Jinx.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the same time all of that was occurring…

The Titans continued in their struggle to disarm the three, streaming missiles.

Starfire and Raven were pummeling two of the projectiles with streams of green starbolts and black telekinesis. The missiles flew on though, uphased.

Robin was still riding his missile, trying desperately to pry off the prone metal panel from the exoskeleton with his rod. "Rrrrrghhh!! Come on, dammit! COME ON!!"

A green falcon flew down onto the thundering projectile and morphed into a huge bear.

Robin gasped.

The bear winked a white eye.

Robin nodded.

The changeling roared and dug its claws deep into the panel. Its furry muscles flexed. One bolt after another popped out of the missile's side as the panel was pulled out. Then—SNAP!!!!

The bear ripped out the panel, which flew off and was melted into oblivion by the afterburn of the missile's thundering rocket propulsion.

Robin immediately reached into his utility belt and whipped out an explosive disc. He fastened inside the ripped-open panel amidst a mesh of vital wires and mechanical devices. He set the explosive, which beeped over the roar of the missile.

"Let's bail!!!" the Boy Wonder shouted.

The bear 'nodded'. It grabbed Robin by the cape and leapt mightily off the missile. In mid air, Beast Boy switched to a pterodactyl again…carrying Robin to safety.

The missile behind them flew for an extra few dozen meters before---

BOOOOM!!!!!

An explosion went off in its side.

The projectile careened off course and splashed heavily into the depths of the Bay below.

In the meantime, Starfire kept hurling bolts of green energy at the missile closest to her. Her pulses merely bounced off the metal sides.

The Tower was coming closer and closer and…

"Please!! Combust!! Combust for all that is good and lovely!!"

Raven flew up by Starfire's side. "Starfire!!" she shouted above the roar. "Let's combine our powers!!"

"Yes, Raven!!" Starfire's hands glowed bright green.

Raven's eyes were a bright gray.

"Azarath…"

Starfire gritted her teeth.

"Metrion…."

The alien girl's wrists charged a huge pulse of emerald fury.

"ZINTHOS!!!"

Starfire let loose a stream of starbolt power with a cry. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Raven extended her wrists and surrounded Starfire's beam with a cyclone of black energy.

The conglomerated force slammed hard into the closest missile's side. Superheating the metal. The projectile glowed a bright orange…but still it wouldn't blow up.

So Starfire added some extra force for measure. Her eyes glowed and—in the scant seconds to follow—two bright green rays shot forth from her eyes and joined hers and Raven's administrations.

And that did it… BOOOOM!!!!!!!

The girls cried out. They were too close to the explosion.

Their bodies were knocked down towards the Bay.

Starfire caught her balance and grabbed Raven by the shoulder before the two could plummet into the waters.

They looked up from the waves where they levitated and gasped.

There was still one missile hurtling towards the body of the Tower.

There was no way they could catch up to it now…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the same time, I was spinning serrated attacks at Jinx's body and red light saber in unabashed fury.

The sorceress gasped and deflected weakly, being pinned up against a wall more and more.

I sweated heavily and continued slashing again and again and again and again….

I only knew one girl who worked well with a sword, and Jinx sure as Hell wasn't her!!

Finally, one of my swings deflected the hilt of the light saber up from out of the girl's grasp.

SNAP!!!!

SLUNK!!!!

The blade dug deep into the ceiling. Sparks spilled down on us.

I spun both Myrkblade and Viper's broadsword and prepared to rip off Jinx's torso from both sides. Like a huge pair of scissors.

The Third Apprentice would have nothing of it. She flung both wrists a my feet.

FLASH!!!

Pink hex knocked me back.

I slid over the sea of glass to the middle of the room where I stopped.

Jinx jumped, yanked the light saber out of the ceiling, flipped, and sailed down at me.

I deflected with the broadsword and stabbed with Myrkblade.

Jinx twirled about and swung a red ruby fury at my leg.

I leapt over the swing.

Jinx quickly spun and stretched a free hand out at my airborne body.

"HAA!!!"

FLASH!!!

I was sent tumbling forwards. With both swords at my side, I slammed chest-first into a wall.

Jinx spun her light saber, gritted her teeth, and flew at me.

She jabbed the burning saber into the square of my back.

I exhaled.

I leaned backwards at a severe angle and criss-crossed Myrkblade and Viper's sword over my head in reverse.

CLAMP!!!!

Jinx was stuck with her glowing saber stuck between the 'X' of my backward swords.

I grunted and grinded the blades against the saber.

Jinx was forced back with a twirl.

I leaned back up. I spun my two swords. I tossed them into the air.

I summoned murk, teleported, and solidified backwards in time to catch the hilt of my blades on their return to earth. I spun Myrkblade now in my right and Viper's now in my left as I marched towards Jinx.

The girl panted and desperately jabbed again with her saber.

I swung my two blades together so fiercely, I sent a shockwave down the body of Jinx's lightsaber that exploded in the hilt and shattered the weapon apart from her grasp for good.

She gasped. She tried to blur away….

My eyes glared.

I would have none of it.

I crossed the blades into an 'X', tensed my legs, and blurred directly at her in an infinite slide.

WHAM!!!

The broad, dull sides of the blades slammed into the girl and forced her straight through the wall of the evidence room.

SLAM!!!

CRASH!!!

I sailed the two of us through the wall, across a passageway, and through the wall on the other side.

CRASSSSH!!!

I let out a silent scream and thought: 'To heck with it!'

I shoved the two of us along a blurred path through several walls of the Tower. The sheer force of my blurred speed and the two blades pressed against Jinx sent us through the structures like a bulldozer at Mach 5.

CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!

And—suddenly—everything exploded in white light.

I had smashed us through the wall to the outside world of the Bay surrounding the Tower.

In a fraction of a second—having shoved Jinx out into the open—I stretched both blades out and held my body from plummeting into the air.

I squinted under my shades as the brightness stabbed its way in.

I looked straight down as a chunk of the Tower's wall face sailed to the bluffs below and smashed to bits.

Jinx was clinging to the side a few feet down.

She gasped for breath, holding on for dear life.

I had no compassion in my gaze.

She looked behind her….and suddenly grinned. In fact, she giggled.

"Hehehehehehe!! A fine fight you put up, Ghost! But all things must eventually struggle with Fate clamps her cold fingers around their necks!"

I looked up. I gasped.

A missile was heading straight towards me….and the Tower.

"Send my regards to Hell!!" Jinx said. Then she giggled. "Oh, my mistake! You're already there!!"

She released her grip. She fell down the length of the Tower. Her feet moved in mid air, blurring into a pink fury that carried her along the vertical stretch of granite and sent her streaking down the Tower and safely over the waters of the Bay.

I glared at her retreating figure.

I sweated and looked up at the incoming projectile.

The Tower vibrated and the air heated up from the missile's proximity.

I realized—to both my horror and curiosity—that the missile was practically at the same elevation as the Tower's floor I was now on.

I turned around and looked at the tunnel I had made in my plowing fury.

I had already smashed a hole through one half of the Tower's width.

Who could say I wasn't capable of doing the same to the other half?

Fate indeed……

I took a deep breath and started spinning both Myrkblade and the silver broadsword.

The air thundered behind me.

My two blades spun and blurred.

The missile careened in on my rear.

The weapons flickered with the smoke of Destruction.

SHOOOOOM!!!!

I exhaled deeply and blurred straight ahead of myself.

I soared down the 'tunnel' and made it back into the Evidence Room and was tearing through its wall in no time flat.

CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!

I bored through the width of the Tower on blurred feet.

My dual, spinning blades acted as a giant drill with smoking fury.

CRASH!! CRASH!! CRASH!!

I sailed through a computer room, a utility closet, a hallway, the infirmary, Beast Boy's room, all sorts of rooms I could care less about anymore.

All the time the missile soared through the fresh, horizontal wound I made.

It ate at my blurring heels as I drilled along.

And---

A flash of white.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Emerging through the other face of the Tower, I leapt out and directly stabbed to the side. Myrkblade was embedded into the outside surface of the Tower. Putting weight on the weapons hilt, I swung my whole body around and out from the exit of the tunnel.

The missile thundered pass me. I didn't count on the intensity of its afterburn. My sword and I were shaken from the side of the Tower.

I gasped and dropped Viper's sword in my descent.

Using an expert dispersal of smoke energy, I glided my body via murk over the bluffs and deep into the salty water of the Bay.

In the meantime, the missile's engine died out as it surpassed the recquired distance of travel. The projectile fell down onto the waves, skipped over the waters like a giant stone, and submerged somewhere into the depths where it exploded—sadly—unnoticed by anyone save for the unsuspecting fish.

A plume of salt water splashed momentarily in the air.

And that was it.

I swam forlornly to shore.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Sun had nearly set when I stumbled out of the waves and up onto the rocky bluffs of the Tower's island.

I dropped Myrkblade with a CLANK! and slumped to the ground, panting for breath. Wet as a dog.

Everything was cold and chilling.

Aching…

Lonely.

I looked up.

I squinted through the water-drenched shades over my eyes.

There stood Robin, Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire.

On the elevated bluffs above me.

Glaring….

I panted for breath. I sat on my knees.

So what if they hadn't seen me save the Tower from that last missile?

So what if they didn't trust me.

Let's just get it over with…

Robin seemed to agree. He broke the silence by reaching out his hand from afar and saying: "Noir….give me your communicator."

I took a painful breath.

That was it.

I pulled it out from my suit, looked it over once, and tossed it at him.

Robin caught it. Not once did he stop glaring at me. He sighed and said, "You have ten minutes to get away from the premises of the Tower. If we so much as see you in this City from now on….you will be dealt with."

"Robin!" Raven snapped. "Aren't we going to turn him in??"

Robin glared at her. "No. As much as we should…what would prison or the authorities teach him??" He looked back down at me. His gaze was cold through his mask. Like a stranger. "He's to face the only punishment worthy of a traitor. A life without friends. The life he always had…"

My insides hurt. Like shattered ice against throbbing arteries.

I wanted to roll over and die.

But I instead got up on weary legs, grabbed my one possession to myself—Myrkblade—and limped away from the group.

Beast Boy folded his arms and stared angrily at the waters.

Starfire hugged herself and closed her eyes.

"So what do we do now….," Raven muttered.

Robin stared at the communicator. His hand shook as he clenched it hard.

"We learn."

He growled and tossed it hard against the bluffs.

SMASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Stars were beginning to show as I trudged painfully down that land bridge towards Town.

The same bridge I always took on those walks I loved.

The walks to be alone and compose myself between battles with the Titans.

Now it was a permanent road…and the horizon was my 'self'.

And it was not a future I looked forward to.

And yet, the whole time, it seemed right.

It felt right. It tasted right.

These black eyes…lonely freaks in a night without sunrise.

I didn't look back. Not once.


	57. Full Circle part 4

**57. Full Circle part 4**

_"……b-but I don't know. I've worked for other people long enough! I-I'm not gonna become a slave again now that I'm free!"_

"But child, you have always been free. Your recent defiance against H.I.V.E. testifies the immense power you hold in your being. And it is a most fantastic and terrifying power, capable of wielding the Hands of Fate themselves. When I ask to take you under my wing, it is not an obligation. It is a request. The organization that adopted you before turned you into something you couldn't possibly have chosen to be. They needed something that you weren't. I, on the other hand, need you as you are. I need your power, your determination, and your resolve. By my own devices, I feel that I am incapable of reaching my goals. And—to be honest—if you are on your own, you have no other devices to rely on…"

_  
__"I'm perfectly f-fine on my own!"_

"Surely you do not believe that, child. Your heart aches for hands you cannot see. For warm faces you cannot touch. Two long, lost sisters. Abandoned and floating in the darkness of the criminal underworld. Your every waking hour is filled with the longing to find them and free them from the very same slavery you were subjected to. This desire was foremost on your mind when you left H.I.V.E. And now—more so than ever—it is the very peak of your aspirations."

"How……how do you know me so much?"

"I know those whom I feel a connection to. A special bond that echoes of our parallel struggles. You Jinx, like me, are a wandering nomad in a world that couldn't possibly accept you. You dash from city to city, trying to find tolerance. And for you, you can only find that in your two lost sisters. I assure you, Jinx, I can give you the support you need. Together, we will be two shattered halves making a whole. A teacher and his student. Together, we could grow."

"But you're a terrorist!"

"I am an artist. And you, you are a 'witch'…are you not?"

"I'm not a witch! I'm just………I'm scared……"

"That is a more flattering description of you. It would seem as though each of us is named unfairly by this twisted world we live in. How better can we exist than with the strength of each other to lean on?"

"…………I……I accept. I will agree to your terms. Provided that you—"

"---help find your sisters. Yes, Jinx. I shall search with all the strength we have combined. Your siblings will be found. Your family will be made whole. Tolerance will be yours to warm you once again."

"Thank you……Slade."

"Just call me 'teacher', Jinx. And I shall call you……my apprentice…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clip!

The shiny new locket opened in Jinx's hands.

Two smiling girl faces posed in the photo that Slade had pieced back together for her.

The pink haired sorceress sighed, staring at the image with faded cat eyes.

She stood in her black and brown apprentice suit of mesh and metal.

In front of her was a sealed door with a turning wheel.

The whole structure bobbed up and down and Jinx with it like the deck of a ship.

Jinx closed her eyes.

Flip!

Snap!

She closed the locket and dropped it back down the front of her jumpsuit. She twisted the wheel and opened the sealed door.

She walked in…closing it behind her.

The cabin was much darker than it needed to be. It was a hell of a lot more open than normal cabins in the interior too. But that's the way Slade seemed to love his hideouts. And Jinx wasn't about to question her teacher.

Gears and axels and pistons of some infernal machine creaked and clanked high above in the shadowed ceiling as Jinx lightly tread across the spacious interior to a circular window. The shadow of Slade stood, facing out the window and eyeing the moonlit waves beyond the bow of ship that they were on.

"A job well done, apprentice," Slade said calmly without looking. "Your talents are most spectacular. Combined with my initiative, our strength is unstoppable."

"You can relax now, Slade," Jinx smiled her Cheshire cat grin and leaned with a hand to her hip. "The Ghost-boy has been banished as the total scapegoat of the Titans' troubles. And their stupid Tower was helpless to the missile launch."

"And yet…it is still standing," Slade spoke emotionlessly. Without turning around, he held up a remote and clicked it. A t.v. screen flashed to life against the black walls of the cabin, displaying the still-in-tact Tower with a gaping hole in its side.

Jinx gasped. She clenched her fists. "But…but…impossible!! The EMP Shockwave went off!! I was distracting Noir!! The leftover Titans couldn't possibly have taken out all three missiles and—"

"Do not despair, my fair apprentice," Slade spun around and stared softly at her with his emblazoned eye. "Whether or not the Tower is still standing matters little. Your task was accomplished to its full extent."

"But…..but…."

"The Titans are full of despair. Their trusted ally is a friend no more. All this time, you have played the part of the phantom, Jinx. But now you truly are the phantom. They have no way of knowing that you are the Third Apprentice. And it is not so much because of an inability to locate clues to your presence at the crime scenes…but rather a blindness of the mind and a wound in the heart that keeps them from seeing the truth. The truth is that their friend Noir is nothing. Not a villain. Not a hero. He is merely a figurehead for their hate. The Titans' emotions are their greatest enemy. You and I can now slip in and lure the Titans into their greatest fate yet."

Slade turned about and gestured out the window as Jinx listened.

"Everything has already come full circle. The happiness, the shock, the drama, and the tragedy. The Titans are back in that same nest of torment where I had last confronted them. The only thing in their hearts now is the heated pain of betrayal. And now that the dagger has been dug once again in the same old hole, I can start all over again. I can do things right this time. And I have you to thank for that, apprentice."

"It was your plan all along," Jinx said. "You point. I go. You lead. I follow. The fate of the Titans matter little to me. The only one I truly ever had a need to claim vengeance on was Ghost boy." She grinned. "But I think he feels now what it was like to be me. To have lost the trump card I needed to find my sisters with…"

"The Khazza Jewell, I assume?" Slade turned and glanced at her. "Child…that would never have gotten you anywhere." He walked over towards her and softly placed a gloved hand on the metal mesh of her shoulder. "Have you forgotten my promise, apprentice? With all my power, I am searching for the whereabouts of your sisters. I am getting closer and closer to the truth. I can sense it. And when I find the truth, I will point you in the right direction. After all, I owe it to you so dearly. You have served the Master well, and the Master is very rewarding…"

Jinx looked at him. She blushed. "Of c-course….," she smiled with her eyes closed. "I-I can almost see my sisters now! It's been so long…"

"Patience, Apprentice," Slade removed his hand and paced slowly across the cabin's interior. "Your glory will come…as will mine."

"What's our next course of action?" Jinx asked. She gestured, "Now that Noir is out of the Titans' lives forever…what's there to move on to? They'll obviously think they've caught up with you some!"

"Thanks to the role you played, they will assume they've had a partial victory," Slade nodded. "As for the next course of action, I must consult Dagger. I will need you too, of course, but Dagger's already proven useful in his computer expertise. We've made good use of his falsified data and we'll make good use of it again. Indeed, Noir is out of the Titans' lives for good. But his supposed 'treachery' isn't. The Titans' leader, Robin, is a detective. I know him well. He won't forget an enemy. Especially a new one. As we speak, he is searching for any residual bits of information the 'traitor' left behind. And if Dagger still pulls his part of the bargain…it will lead the Titans further and further into our hands. And the Experiment will consume them…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg…can you hear me? It's Raven?"

The android's red eye came to life. He stirred and groaned as the blue light returned to his titanium body. He tried sitting up.

"Easy…," Raven settled him back down with a graceful hand and offered him some water.

He eagerly sipped it, swallowed, and coughed.

"How do you feel?"

Cyborg wheezed and managed: "Like a burnt-out toaster." He blinked and looked straight up at the ceiling of the Main Room. "The power's back on."

Raven nodded. "The EMP Explosive was enough to short out half a city. Knowing that the Tower encompasses a power generator fit to run four cities, the effects of the shockwave weren't permanent. We came back online about an hour and a half ago. During that time, I've been recharging you."

Cyborg glanced over at a pile of batteries wired into his side. He took a deep breath. "Ah yes. The proverbial electric finger of God." He coughed…then managed a weak smile. "Thanks, Rae."

"Don't mention it."

A beat.

Cyborg blinked. He sighed. "Noir….is he—"

"Gone for good," Raven droned. Her blue eyes stared soullessly through Cyborg. "Naturally, he completely abandoned us while we saved the Tower from the missiles. Though, at some point he must have had a slight twinge of conscious. He kept the last missile from blowing up the Tower. Soon after that, Robin had no choice but to banish him. That was five hours ago."

Cyborg looked to the side. His face was exhausted, despite the fact he had been shut down since the late afternoon. "He might as well have let the missile take out the Tower. Now we have to live with this place to remind us of him…"

"Your father built this Tower, Cyborg," Raven said. "As much as you hated your father, do you always think of him as you're walking through these cold, metal halls?"

Cyborg thought of that. He shook his head. "No…I don't think of him."

"Then what do you think of?"

Slowly, the android smiled. "Friends." He raised a titanium hand up and placed it on Raven's shoulder. "My true…friends."

Raven smiled ever so slightly. "Welcome back, Cyborg. It's time we all started over again."

He nodded. He sat up slowly—with a groan—and rubbed his head. He became aware of a racket of typing and keystrokes behind him. He turned around to see Robin going at it madly in front of a side computer.

"Cyborg, you're up. Good." The Boy Wonder absent-mindedly uttered without looking.

"Nice to see you too, Robin," Cyborg got up. He limped towards Robin as much as the battery cords would give him slack and leaned on the back of the Titan leaders' chair. "Noir has been kicked out of the Tower and we all barely escaped total annihilation. Now just what are you up to?"

"Since that traitor's no longer with us…," Robin muttered while typing, "…I deactivated his security codes for computer access. Now I can trace more data concerning his file transfers in and out of the Tower."

"Can you find out exactly what he was saying to Slade?"

"No. But—Lord willing—I can find out where Slade was when he received the transmissions from Noir."

Cyborg's eyes traced the corners of the room. He cleared his throat. "Uh….Robin…don't you think you should…..rest a little?"

"Just because you've been deactivated for the last five hours doesn't mean I should sleep too."

Cyborg frowned and planted his hands on his hips. "That's not what I meant and you know it, man! I know you, Robin. You worry about the Team too much! Don't let this betrayal get to you so bad! Lord, we all know how crazy you get whenever the Titans are endangered!"

Robin swiveled around. "You weren't there, Cyborg!! You weren't there!!" He clenched his fists and furrowed his brow. "If only you could have seen him! If only you could have looked at that mock look of surprise! That scripted gasp and pale shock! And—oh—how Noir just simply ditched us when the lights in the Tower went out, you fell down like a rust bucket, and the missiles were incoming!! Maybe if you were there and awake at the time the damned rat turned his back on us for good, you'd be a little restless too, don't ya think?!"

Even as Robin's loud voice echoed against the walls, he was already swiveling back to work at the computer.

Cyborg was silent and solemn for a good few seconds before quietly responding: "I was there when Terra betrayed and attacked all of us, Robin. I know what it's like to have a close, close friend rip your heart out from under you."

"This is different…," Robin grunted under his breath.

"How's it different, Robin? Because Noir's a guy? Or is it because he saved our butts ten times more than Terra ever did during the short time she was with us?? Or is it that he can't speak?? And from the beginning it felt like we had a silent killer hiding among us like a snake??"

"I don't want to talk about it…."

Silence.

"Robin…," Cyborg placed a hand on the Boy Wonder's shoulder. The Titan leader stopped typing. "Slade may have control over Noir. He may have once had control over Terra. But he never….never…had control over you. You've always been our leader, Robin. And you never forgot not. Never. Not even when he forced you to fight against us and you did everything in your power to keep us safe."

Robin's body rose and fell with a sigh.

"What Noir has done…it's not your fault. We all got close to him. I guess….I-I guess we all just forgot that the Titans are a group of five. We can't afford to get close to anyone else anymore."

Silence.

Robin replied under his breath, "I suggest you take a look downstairs." The Boy Wonder's speech was quick and sharp. It was like he was hiding a sudden weakness in his throat in the best way only boys can. "Beast Boy and Starfire may need some help with cleanup."

Cyborg removed his hand. He took a deep breath and headed towards the elevator doors.

He passed by Raven, who was pouring herself some herbal tea.

"So…where exactly is this 'cleanup' going on?" Cyborg asked.

Raven sipped. "Just follow the hole."

Cyborg paused and swiveled to face her. "Hole??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Moonlight filtered in from the side of the Tower facing the City--danced its fading way through over a dozen smashed rooms, corridors, and hallways—and met the starlight coming in from the side of the Tower facing the Bay.

As Cyborg stepped out of the stairwell and looked both ways with a gaping mouth of shock, he realized that a tunnel had been bored clear through the width of the building.

"My God….," he stammered. "Why didn't someone call and tell me we were visited by a meteor!"

"Make that a missile," a disgruntled voice uttered.

Cyborg looked to the side and saw a hunched-over Beast Boy in front of what used to be his room. He was busy sweeping tiny bits from a huge pile of dust into a miniscule dustpan. The task was ineffective, and somehow the changeling must have known that. Indeed, he had a sour look on his face.

"Beast Boy….," Cyborg breathed as he stepped forward and looked inside the smashed room. "Man…I'm sorry. You've had this room ever since you got here. That's tough, man…"

"Yeah, yeah. Everything's tough." Beast Boy spat.

Cyborg blinked. He knelt down. "Are you okay, man?"

"What does it look like??" Beast Boy glared. "I hope you're happy, Cy. You were the closest to that traitor. You could speak to him and all. Now look what he's done to us…"

"Hey!" Cyborg frowned and pointed. "Don't blame it all on me! You were his friend too!"

Beast Boy tossed the broom and dustpan down with a CLATTER! "Dude!! You think I don't know that?! You think I've forgotten that I practically broke down in front of Noir once?! I told him about my parents! I told him about my fears! I let him listen to me! I let him hang out with me! I even let him hug me once!!" Beast Boy growled and kicked a piece of metal and dry wall across the hallway.

It made a banging noise and echoed against what was left of the metal walls.

Cyborg winced.

Beast Boy sighed and looked down. His fingers were clenched. "Robin and Raven are right. They were always right. We never should have opened up to each other. We should never open up to each other. Not in this business. Not when we're superheroes." He looked up at Cyborg and painfully put on a mock grin. "Hello, Cyborg! How are you today?! My name's Beast Boy!" he waved a hand. "I can turn into animals and do tricks! I can kick bad guy's asses as a kangaroo or a hippopotamus! Do you know this kid named Garfield Logan?! Pfft! He died seven years ago in a tent besides a river bed in Africa! Woooo! Look at Beast Boy go!"

The green elf swung around and plowed his fist into a wall. He gritted his teeth and rubbed his aching knuckles.

Cyborg shook his head, sighed, and walked towards Beast Boy. "Look, B.B. Don't be dramatic."

"Just shut up…," Beast Boy slurred. His voice was beginning to shake with the same growing intensity as his shoulders. "I….I-I don't want to talk to anybody right now. You wanna clean up?" He pointed a trembling hand without looking Cyborg's way. "Starfire's in the evidence room. That place is smashed to bits. Sh-She could use s-some assistance."

Cyborg nodded. He knew it was best to leave Beast Boy alone.

He wandered towards the moonlight, stepping through holes and gashes in the walls. An electric light or two flickered overhead as he entered the glass-encrusted sea of what was once the evidence room. The Tamaranian girl was busy stacking pieces of evidence together in categorical piles for clean, efficient relocation. She divided her attention between that and the sweeping away of the river of broken glass.

Cyborg looked around at the room. His fleshly eyebrow raised. The evidence room is a relatively large place in the Tower. It was spacious and broad to fit in all the memorabilia and props collected from various, done-in criminals. It was wide enough to fit well up to ten of Slade's missiles side by side. And yet…just one missile had flown through the center of the room and the entire thing was smashed to bits.

"Awful lot of damage in here…," Cyborg thought aloud. "Just from one missile? Not even any of the other rooms I saw were this bad, and they were even smaller than this place. I wonder why…"

Starfire managed to hear Cyborg. She looked over and smiled brightly. "Cyborg! Glorious, you have awakened! Care to assist me in the Cleaning of Spring??" She beamed happily and lifted a brush and plastic bag. "I have utilized some tools in the gathering of the glass debris. I have also coordinated an effort to relocate all of the evil toys extracted from this City's villainy so that they can await refurnishing upon the successful repair of our Tower! I assume Robin will be most pleased by this endeavor, considering his insistence on maintaining the evidence room!"

"Star…."

"Look! See? Control Freak's remotes! Killer Moth's vials! Anderson's files! Viper's sword! Mumbo Jumbo's camera! They are all here! Er…well…Mumbo Jumbo's camera has tragically been disassembled in some inarticulate fashion, but at least the shards of its existence have been preserved!"

"Star…….."

"Would you care to assist me, Cyborg??" the alien girl beamed and hugged the broom to herself. "This will be a most glorious rebirth! I do believe the Tower was in need of reconstruction. Do you agree?"

"Listen…Starfire," Cyborg walked over and stood in front of her. "It's okay. It's okay to be sad."

"Sad??" the girl smiled. "Who is sad? There is no time, for sorrow! On my home planet, every Tamaranian knows that the next step towards recovering from an unfortunate occasion is action! And right now I am performing the 'action'! And I would greatly like you to assist me!"

Cyborg took the broom gently from her. He dropped it to the ground and looked down at her. "Unless I'm mistaken, on your home planet people would be making Pudding of Sadness as 'action'. So why aren't you in the kitchen?"

"I….I…," Starfire blinked. "But I-I am not sad! The Tower has been saved! My friends are undamaged!"

"All your friends, Starfire?"

Silence.

Starfire bit her lip. She looked down. "Noir……h-he was my friend. Our friend."

A beat.

The Tamaranian clenched her green eyes shut and suddenly shook. "I do not understand. I never understand." A beat. She looked up and her eyes were watery as she shook her head. "Why are earthlings so paradoxical?? Why do they claim to be one thing when actually they are another?? It is most distressing, and sometimes….s-sometimes I feel afraid to make friends with any more earthlings!"

Cyborg took a breath. "Humans are wacky people. But only some of them are both wacky and **wicked**. You still have friends that you can trust, Star." He leaned down and looked her straight in the face. "And these friends of yours won't let you hide your pain. After all, it's the same pain eating at all of us right now…"

Starfire sniffed. Green liquid trailed from her eyes. She looked down and rubbed her cheek with a gloved wrist as she spoke with quivering lips: "I do not wish to be eaten by pain right now. There is a Tower to be repaired. We still have to catch Slade. 'So much to do and so little time'. It is an earth slogan that I am almost hurt enough to believe…"

"Trust me, Star. Admitting that you're 'hurt' like you just did is the best 'action' any lonely Tamaranian on Earth could do."

The alien girl broke down. If she still had her voice, she would have performed her stereotypical request for a 'group hug'.

Cyborg knew her. He walked over and gave her a pair of titanium arms to fall into.

She did…clinging to him desperately as she shook and the green tears trickled down.

Cyborg stroked her back gently and looked over her red head of hair. Again, his human and robot eyes scanned the demolish lengths of the room.

"I just do not understand….," Starfire sobbed. "I can never understand…."

Cyborg took a deep breath.

Why was the place so smashed up?

And was what Raven said true?

Why would Noir—if he was on Slade's side—try and stop the last of the three missiles from destroying the Tower?

Why?

He just didn't understand…..he didn't understand…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the West Side of the City, bathed in the dim glow of the myriad of stars overhead, the Bay waters lapped up against concrete bluffs holding buildings, towers, and various other structures in place. There were few cars on the main thoroughfare. Everyone was either asleep or dying in some other fashion. Stretched across building fronts and painted on the sides of a stray commercial bus or two, brilliant banners announced in a flash of red white and blue: 'Come Enjoy the Independence Fireworks Show! July 4th! Bayside Beach!'

The night was warm and dry. Like purgatory. And there I was.

I stood silently with my hands behind me. My tattered Titan costume fluttered with the breeze, as did my long strands of black hair. Myrkblade dangled in its sheathe across my back. Sweat was beading against my black shades.

My gaze lingered on the Bridge. The huge suspension bridge leading across the Bay and in towards the mainland of the Continent.

West.

My past and myself.

So much for rebirth.

I sighed.

I was about to make my first step forward when a voice calmly, casually interrupted me from the far side of the sidewalk.

"How can you leave already if you don't know the sound yet?"

I spun my head over.

Underneath a lamppost, the Messenger leaned with his hands in his sweatjacket's pockets.

"You know…the sound of one hand clapping?"

He stared at me with lazy, almond eyes. Surprisingly, they looked almost as exhausted and weathered as my black optics felt. For that reason alone, I didn't brush him off.

We waited out a few seconds…staring at each other under the dim lantern light by the bridge.

Silent…..

…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Another koan is an even freakier one. It goes: 'What did your face look like before your parents were born?' But I won't force you to think over that one. You already got that one koan to stress your head over, and besides—I'm no Zen master."

We sat and stood at the concrete wall stretched over the crashing waters of the Bay.

The wind was gusty down there. It blew the hot, dry air into our faces which burned at our nostrils and tear ducks.

It was dreadfully warm. Nothing was clean anymore. We were both sweating.

"But I bet it does make you curious, Noir," the Messenger said. He paced back and forth on the edge of the concrete, precariously balanced. Beyond him I saw the huge proximity of the suspension bridge, lunging its mass through the waters. My correspondent continued: "What could your face have looked like before your parents were born? Something tells me you're a bit…uninformed when it comes to your parents. Am I assuming too much?"

I took a deep breath, but didn't respond. My right hand absent-mindedly shuffled a deck of cards. My left hand hung at my side. It hurt for some odd reason that evening.

"The heck do I know?" the Messenger smirked slightly and twirled about on the edge, pacing in the other direction. "I've always know my parents like the back of my foot. And you know what, Noir? You know the back of your foot a heck of a lot more than the back of your hand. I mean…when you look at your hands, you divide them equally between looking at the back and the palm. But looking at your feet, that's different. You practically have to get into a lotus position to see the heels. Heh."

A pause.

He twirled to a stop and faced me. "Your parents, Noir. Your past. Everything that is about where you came from….you know so little of it. And yet, what you do know…you don't want to know. Is that on the ball?"

Silence.

I sighed.

I slowly nodded.

"Hardly is it any of my beeswax to pry into that quagmire," he said…pacing again. "From one ghost to another, I respect your past and need for ambiguity. But what I'm worried about, Noir, is how you're treating it all."

I looked up at him, tiredly.

"And when I say 'it all', I mean '**it all**'. The lies, the coincidences, the happenstance tragedy that ended you up here."

I groaned and looked down at the waves.

"You feel so crushed that…as sad as it sounds, every good aspect of the future has been ripped from you." He leapt over and stood before me.

I glanced up at him, startled.

His brown eyes were firm as he pointed sharply at the suspension bridge. "If you step onto that thing, Noir, and keep walking….all you'll find is all that you didn't want to know and still don't want to know. You will become a shell of a human being. Full of regret. Full of pain. Full of longing to long for something you're not allowed to long for anymore. And—trust me—that would be enough to blind you from the truth. And the truth, Noir, is that you don't deserve to be here. The Titans are still your friends. They just don't know it. They don't know the virtue of your heart that is as true as it has ever been to them. They don't know the pain and agony you went through to save their asses no matter how much they treated you like Lucifer himself. And they don't know that you were fighting to stop Slade as much as they are, and that Slade used you as the ultimate wildcard to turn the wounded sides of their souls so that they were facing up to the burning sun again."

I blinked at him. I looked down at my deck of cards. In perfect irony, the Joker grinned at my face.

"Is life a set of calculations? A string of cause and effect integers that work together according to the push and shove of karma? Do you believe that your life is what life makes of it and not what you make of it?" The Messenger knelt down and sat at my side. The two of us stared out at the bridge stretching into the Past as he continued. "I tell you what…Slade believes that the universe is a dynamic cataclysm. Or at least he's recently started believing that. Consider him a karma convert. A turned-leaf into the world of spontaneity."

I continued shuffling the cards and listened.

"So he had an epiphany. So he heard of some sort of god-awful 'Experiment' to manipulate a 'Balance of Morals' in perfect assumption that morality is an integer in and of itself. So he got in touch with the king of conspiracy, Dagger, to give himself some backbone. And he hired the Third Apprentice—Jinx, as it appears to be—so that she could provide the spirit necessary to wield the pendulum of Fate. Together, all three are shaping, manipulating, and altogether guiding the Titans into some sort of ambiguous doom. And they used you as the barrel to toss in all the hate, animosity, and consequence of such an endeavor."

I bit my lip.

"So what happens now, Noir?" he looked at me. His brown eyes narrowed as he rested his hands on his knees. "I'll tell you what Slade thinks will happen now. You will become 'tragically overwhelmed' by all the unfortunate events that have fallen upon you. You will 'inevitably turn towards surrender' from having felt the rejection of the Titans. And thus you will 'be inclined to shrink back' into your former self. A shell. The past. Just like that." He snapped his finger and let his mouth hang open before finishing: "Noir, the fallen Titan, nothing but a degrading equation."

I exhaled…staring at him.

He slowly grinned. "But you are much…much more than an equation, are you, Noir?"

I blinked.

"Even when Jinx was beating you up, beating your friends up, beating your entire life up…there was one thing that factored out of Slade's equation. He could never count on the dedication of your heart to your friends. Yes, he thought it was enough to keep you fighting alongside them and give Jinx and Dagger enough time to frame you. But he didn't count on the fact that right now—this very second—the last thing you truly want to do is take that Bridge…and walk Home."

I stared at the bridge. At the water. At the blackness of light.

The Messenger smiled, leaned forward, and lifted his eyebrows. "Am I on the money?"

I slowly…stoically nodded.

"You are still a Titan, Noir. You are still on the good side. The greatest heroes are the heroes that do their deeds in secret. The ones who call the ultimate bluff and know what's truly in their deck." He held my hand and the cards inside up into the air, forcing me to look at him. "In the end, Noir. It'll be you who springs the wildcard on Slade. It'll be up to you to take the full circle in your hands and **break it.**"

I stared at the Messenger. I stared at my deck of cards. My lips parted.

Again…the Joker was staring at me. I had only been shuffling them for a half minute, and already it was facing up at me again.

What were the odds?

There was a flash of green, and the Messenger's hand was no longer gripping my wrist.

I looked up.

My only friend was gone.

I was alone…facing my past.

And yet…there was something inside my loneliness that I had forgotten.

Something that was there in the days of my stay at the Norman Apartments. Something Janice had seen in my black eyes and criminals and villains in the night had gasped and cowered from.

The strength…the strength of loneliness.

I was a ghost…but a ghost with memories. And a ghost that looked forward to reincarnation.

I popped the deck of cards back in my pocket.

I stood up, turned around, and faced the world opposite of the Bridge.

For the first time since my banishment, I saw the Tower. The beautiful, ever-resilient Tower.

I took a deep breath and took a step forward.

My fists were clenched.

Karma had better find a damn good place to hide…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There!"

"Found something?"

"I believe so, hang on!" Robin typed with a flurry of gloved fingers against the keyboard.

The next morning inside the Tower's Main Room, the Titans all huddled around the Boy Wonder as he worked through the data at his computer console. He went down a list of numbers and highlighted one line.

"Bingo! CHK2004A92-AK!"

"Okaaaaaaaaay," Beast Boy blinked. "Got anything that's not in R2-D2 lingo?"

"It's a code for a network address," Raven said. "If we match it with a legend of this region, we might find out where that computer station was for Noir to have sent an transmission too."

"I've been using the legend all night," Robin smirked. "I know where it is. Western District. Around the office buildings!"

"Could that be where Slade once was?" Starfire remarked.

"Or still is…," Cyborg added.

"It's the safest bet we have," Robin stood up and palmed his fist. "We better get there before Slade evacuates the place! After all….since his apprentice has been found out…"

Everyone was silent. They nodded their heads.

And…

"Let's get going already!" Beast Boy chanted.

"Right!" Robin nodded. "Teen Titans, G--!"

"By the way….," Raven interrupted. Everything came to a screeching halt. "Frederick Smith from the City Council sent us a message. Tomorrow night there's going to be a public event to raise support for the Independence Fireworks show on July Fourth. He wants the Titans to attend if at all possible."

"What for?" Beast Boy asked.

"He thinks if we appear…they can more easily dissuade the fears of the populace. With Slade and Dagger running amok as of late, the citizens are almost too afraid to go to a Fireworks Show."

"Man…," Cyborg rubbed his head. "We sure are being asked to a lot of charity events lately."

"The more the merrier!" Starfire smiled with her hands clasped together. "The people can only benefit from our continued reassurance!"

"Starfire's right," Robin nodded. "Unless there's a sudden emergency, we'll be there. Consider it a….break from all this."

"Dude!" Beast Boy smiled and pointed at themselves. "I am so good at this charity stuff! Any more of them and I'll be on the 'Man of the Year' magazine cover for sure!"

"Pfft," Raven rolled her eyes. "Make that 'Boy of the Year'."

Cyborg smirked. "'Beast of the Year'."

Starfire giggled.

Robin folded his arms and smiled.

It was the first time they all lightened up in days. And yet—as they all sensed—the memories of the traitor would waft back down to them.

They had to get moving before the wound reopened again…

"Let's move!" Robin motioned.

They all ran to their respective stations.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the Main Room—perched like a spider on the side of the Tower—Jinx rested with her gloved hand pointed towards the tall windows. A mic was positioned on one of the glove's fingers. Around her, the defense and surveillance devices of the Tower were sparkling and dead from a couple of temporary, pink hexes. It was how Jinx managed to be close by undetected. It was how she always managed to sneak into the Tower…

Once the Titans were done assembling and formulating a plan, Jinx reached her hand up to her ear where an 'S' emblazoned speaker was nestled in the dainty canal.

"Did you get all that?" she whispered joyfully. "They're making a short trip to Ceti Point! And tomorrow evening they're attending some public address thingy!"

"_There will be cameras and publicity there for sure…,"_ Slade's voice murmured into her ear. _"It would be prudent of you to secretly attend that event. If there was to be a……mishap while the Titans were being broadcasted, then the citizens' fears would be realized. The pressure will be doubly weighed on the Titans' shoulders. Their passion to find me out will increase tenfold. They'll be further blinded by the fact that they're crawling into our hands…"_

"So you want me to intercede tomorrow? Got it! I'll be there with bells on my feet!"

"_Save the cuteness for then, apprentice_," Slade's voice lingered. "_For now, make your way to Ceti Point before the Titans get there."_

"What do you want me to do then, sir?"

_"Wait for the Titans to enter the building. Allow them to look around some. Then when they start to feel the slightest bit puzzled at the lack of evidence in the place…perform some of your nasty demolition. Both Dagger and I know how exceptional you are at that!"_

She grinned. "Do you want them destroyed?"

_"I want them disenchanted. It is not their time to perish yet."_

"Hehehe…understood. Jinx out." The girl giggled, spread her arms out, and blurred down the side of the Tower in a pink streak. Her brown and black apprentice outfit faded into the camouflaged obscurity of the gigantic world. She ran over water towards the Western District just seconds before the Titans themselves disembarked by T-Car, R-Cycle, and air.

She would be there for their arrival…a spiderweb of fate in the making…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the cabin of his ship, Slade stared out the circular window at mysterious waters.

After a silent span of time, a t.v. screen popped up against the black walls.

Dagger's face appeared. He leaned back in his chair, twirling a blade in his fingers above his desk.

"_How did I know I'd find you there?"_ the young despot remarked.

"Dagger….so good to see your stone face," Slade's emblazoned eye turned to glance at him. "I am always here. For _here_ is where I need to be. What is on your mind?"

"_You're in quite the inquisitive mood,"_ Dagger said, unblinking. "_As am I._ _Which means that both you and I are getting comfortable. And I do not feel well at ease when I am……'comfortable'_." A pause. He leaned forward. "_What is Jinx up to now?"  
_  
"With Noir gone…," Slade spoke. "The Titans feel their troubles are limited only to me. Jinx is now in the process of assuring that assumption of theirs is secure. The Titans will investigate Ceti Point—where your computer hacking has led them to believe I was once stationed to receive a message from Noir. And once the Titans are there, a trap will be sprung."

"_To destroy them?"_

"No, Dagger. To frighten them. The Titans have been full of anger and bitterness these past few days. It's about time they caught up with respect. Respect for me. And—in turn—respect for us."

"_I fail to understand where your constant toying with the Titans is going_," Dagger's cold eyes narrowed. "_Would your will be manifested if you simply arranged their deaths_?!"

"No!!" Slade suddenly snapped, breaking his calm. He fervently raised a clenched fist at the monitor as his helmet shook. "You have not faced the Titans as much as I have, Dagger. They are not exterminated through mere means of brute force or assassination! Superheroes never die in such simplicity! The rules of our universe dictate—however perverse—that the only way to end a vigilante's life is to coax it into submission! Two times have my schemes failed…for I was doing them completely wrong! You cannot control the destiny of a superhero in this universe. So what else is there to change but the universe itself? The Balance of Morals—my friend—is where the answer lies. Now that everything has been brought full circle, I shall break it! And I shall break it in as subtle a declination as possible! Do you understand me, Dagger?"

Dagger took a deep breath and leaned back. "_Then what I am to assume…is that as long as everything falls into your plans, the City will eventually be free of the impact of the Titans?"_

"Not just the City, my friend. The universe. And not just the Titans. But everyone who clings to the ambiguously defined concept of 'goodness'. This is going to be a revolution, Dagger. A revolution in the whims of karma itself!"

"_Speaking of the whims of karma…,"_ Dagger finally blinked. "_It might be safe to tell you this one thing_."

"Do speak…," Slade nodded.

"_He has not left the City."_

Slade's emblazoned eye widened. "What???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx flew down and landed gracefully on the building top. She stood up, held her hands out like a gymnast, and backflipped over the edge. She flew down, twirled up right, and extended her hands towards the window panes flying up in front of her. She let out a field of hex and was magically drawn towards the surface of the building. She clung to it, took a breath, and extended another hand at the window.

SMASH!!!

It shattered. Glass showered down like sharp water.

She snaked her way in, twirled towards a door, and quietly opened it.

She bird-toed down the hallway, crept around the corner, down a flight of stairs, and into a broad, dimly lit office room full of computer stations. She looked straight up at the high ceiling. The area was covered with panels. She gracefully ran over to a wall, hopped, jumped off it, and soared up to a ceiling. Two graceful hands latched onto a metal crossbeam. She then swung, lifted her feet up, and kicked a wall panel out of place. She slipped up through the fresh opening, nestled herself in the insulated crawlspace, and closed the wall panel after her.

She grinned and waited…waited…waited…for the Titans to come.

From her hiding place, she heard the rumbling noise of the T-Car's and R-Cycle's engines.

Minutes later, she peaked through the cracks in the ceiling tile and saw the bodies of the five Titans wander into the computer room and gathered in the center.

"So….um…is it the people's day off or what??"

"If this was a place of operations for Slade, he'd only need to use it temporarily. It's not workers for Slade that we're looking for. One of these computers holds the key to the transferal of data from Noir's station in the Tower to here. If we find that computer, we can learn more about the network signals Slade uses."

"And what good will that do?"

"It could possibly tell us when and where he'll set off another carbonite bomb or launch another missile."

"Oh."

"It would be a glorious step forward in eliminating his threat. How should we get started, Robin?"

"There're ten aisles of computer stations. Each of us will get two aisles. Turn on each computer…and start looking."

"Awwwww man! This will take forever! Isn't there a simpler way we can do this?"

"Stop complaining, B.B. This will certainly beat facing off against another one of Slade's phalanxes of robots."

Jinx smiled. She raised a pink, glowing hand. "What's there to face off if there's nothing less to stand on?" she giggled quietly to herself. "Time to bring the house down…."

Suddenly, the speaker in her ear crackled.

"_Jinx_!!" Slade's voice warbled. "_Bring the place down now_!!"

The sorceress winced. "Sheesh! I'm doing that! What's your problem?! Why the sudden hurry?!"

"_You're not alone!! He's there!!"_

"Huh?" Jinx looked around the crawlspace. "Who's there—"

WHAM!!!!

I materialized as my boot slammed right into the girl's face.

She tumbled off a few feet, rolled over fragile fiberglass insulation, and collapsed straight down through a set of ceiling tiles.

"Ooof!!"

She landed hard in a breakroom just a doorway beyond the computer lab that the Titans were in.

Jinx's nose bled. She looked up—wincing—at the hole in the ceiling.

I snaked down, fell, and slashed Myrkblade at her figure in mid-fall.

"Crap!!"

She rolled out of the way.

CLANG!!!

Sparks showered as Myrkblade sliced off a chunk of the top half of a copying machine.

Jinx rolled to the side, gritted her teeth, and kicked me hard in the side with a platform shoe.

WHUMP!!

I stumbled back against a bulletin board, twirled Myrkblade, and slashed at her from afar.

A string of Destruction rippled through the carpet and exploded in smoke under her.

"Yaah!!"

She cried out as she was lifted off the ground and into the air.

I planted my back against the bulletin board, charged up smoke, and unleashed it in a quick burst.

I was propelled towards her, upon which I batted her body straight across the breakroom with the blunt side of Myrkstaff.

SMACK!!

She soared over as a pink comet and smashed through a coffee table.

CRASH!!

She rolled through the splinters, clutching her side.

I landed, took a breath, and blurred at her with Myrkblade spinning.

She was scrambling to her feet just as I slammed into her.

WHAM!!!

SLIIIIIINK!! Myrkblade sliced through her costume, grazed her shoulder, and stabbed dead-on into the wall beyond the splinters. The sheer intensity of my powers sent the two of us smashing through two sets of walls—away from the Titans.

CRUNCH!!! CRUNCH!!!

After sailing through a room and a half, we were scampering over tile. The two of us slid and fell onto the slick floor of a commissary's kitchen. Myrkblade ripped out of Jinx's outfit, exposing bleeding skin. I tumbled hard into a dormant stove. Jinx slid across the tile, leaving a red streak.

I shook my head and hopped acrobatically to my feet.

Jinx stood up, wincing and clutching her shoulder.

I spun Myrkblade and charged at her with a jump.

She frowned and blurred underneath me with a pink stream of light.

I landed. I immediately jabbed backwards with my blade and warded off her counterattack.

I spun around and swung smoke-warbling slashes of Myrkblade at her.

She backstepped down an aisle in between metal utensil racks and cutting boards, constantly ducking my slashes and sidestepping my jabs.

At one point I took a breath and lunged down low.

Jinx jumped straight up and parted her legs. She perched with one foot on each countertop to her sides and flung her fist at me. "HAAA!!"

I somersaulted backwards into a kneeling position with Myrkblade held up vertically.

CLANG!!

I deflected the hex bolt, summoned smoke into my lower limbs, and sprang dramatically at Jinx's figure with my arms outstretched.

WHUMP!!!

I flew into her like a comet. The two of us were sent flying with trailing smoke and pink light across the width of the kitchen and straight-smack into a metal rack. WHAM!! We both fell down under a deafening shower of pots and pans and dishes. Jinx covered her fair head under the hail. I got bopped once or twice in the head and dizzily rolled across the floor.

Jinx jumped up—slipped on a spatula—and fell down hard on her butt. "Ow!!"

I grabbed onto a counter, supported myself, and stood up.

Jinx's rubbed her rear, wincing at me with thinned cat eyes. She saw where I stood…then eyed the drawers in the kitchen counter to my side. She immediately flung out a wrist and zapped the nearest drawer with a hex bolt. "HA!"

RATTLE

My black eyes darted to the side.

The drawer shook open, and a handful of serrated utensils flew out.

I deflected an armful with my blade and jumped back to avoid the rest.

Jinx smirked. She flung her wrist at the next drawer.

RATTLE!!

"!!!" I started running.

Forks and knives and carving instruments flew out behind me.

Jinx kept flinging hex after hex and drawers kept flying open in a trail behind my fleeing legs. I blurred across the perimeter of the kitchen as a swarm of launching knives followed me.

Jinx smiled evilly. "HAA!!!" She flung her wrists again. Pink flew. "HAA!!!"

I ran, ducked, rolled, and leapt—barely avoiding a carving knife or a pronged fork in each jerk of movement. Blades stuck and stabbed into the tile, counters, walls, and ceiling. Soon there was a wall of metal coming behind me. I looked up and saw a hanging light fixture. I jumped a swarm of slicers, grabbed the light fixture, swung my lower body to avoid a school of air-swimming forks, spun around, and slashed Myrkblade directly at Jinx from long range.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

As a result, the incoming throng of knives flew straight at her.

Jinx's eyes widened. She squeaked and flinched, cowering her head behind her black and brown sleeves.

She glowed pink in the nick of time.

TCHING!! TCH-TCH-TCHING!! TCHING!!

Thanks to her hex, all the blades spiraled out of the way and embedded into the floor and walls around her.

She looked at them, and sighed with relief.

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH-THUNK!!!

"ACK!" Jinx was pressed back against the wall. She looked up and saw Myrkblade pinning her pink tuft of hair to the metal surface. The hilt wobbled as it came to a standstill after my toss. Jinx's eyes darted back down and looked at me fearfully.

I took a deep breath. I jumped down from the light fixture, grabbed two rolling pins from a counter, twirled them, and ran threateningly towards Jinx.

"Nghhh!!" she tried to get away, but she was caught by her hair. "Damn it! Get unstuck!!"

I came at her. Rolling pins raised.

She tugged helplessly at the hilt of Myrkblade.

I blurred.

Jinx gasped. She clenched her eyes shut and instinctively shot two hex beams towards where the wall met the floor. FLASH!! With a burst of energy, her lower body twirled up as she hugged the length of Myrkblade.

CLACK!!!!

The two rolling pins came together at the end of my swinging. I had missed Jinx's body by an inch.

Jinx took a breath. She encircled her left leg around my shoulder. She growled and literally bitch-slapped my face with her right platform shoe while clutching onto Myrkblade.

WH-WHAP!! **WHAP!!**

"YAH!!!" she lowered both legs and kicked them off my chest.

I stumbled back about six feet.

Jinx's legs swung back down, and in so doing she pulled all of her strength at the hilt of my blade.

YANK!!!

She pulled the sword out of her hair, out of the wall, and landed. Teeth gritting, she then lunged forward and tossed the blade at me this time.

I jerked both rolling pins up in defense.

CRACK!!!

They shattered into toothpicks as Myrkblade sailed through them.

My head dodged the flying wooden sword at the last second. The blade clattered hard to the tile floor behind me.

Jinx brushed herself off with a grunt. She knelt down, picked up two identical butcher knives, and stood up—gripping both knives in each hand. She let out a warrior cry and charged at me.

I gulped.

SLASH!!!

I ducked.

Both of her blades came together, showering sparks.

CL-CLANK!!

"HAAA!!" She uppercutted with one and slashed down with the other.

I backed up.

She jabbed with her left butcher knife.

I twirled to the side--

She jabbed with her right.

--and I leapt backwards in a spiral. SLIIIIINK!!

Blood flew from where she grazed me in the left shoulder.

I clutched the wound and stumbled backwards…wincing.

She grinned evilly and charged at me with both butcher knives swinging. "HAAA!!"

I frowned.

I stood perfectly still.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Both blades came together at my neck…and touched metal-to-metal.

CLANK!!

"Huh?!" Jinx's cat eyes bugged.

I had turned to smoke form at the precise second she slashed. My neck tilted back as I solidified. While her guard was down, I quickstepped, jumped off the countertop to my right, positioned my leg on the counter to my left, and swung my other leg around in a spinning kick that slammed upwards across Jinx's chin.

SMACK!!!

She flew back five feet from the impact and slid along the kitchen floor.

"OOF!!"

I came down, rolled backwards, snatched up Myrkblade, twirled it, and blurred at her.

She gritted her teeth, jumped up…and met my charging stab with her butcher knives.

CL-CLANK!!!

I stabbed again and again and again.

She deflected and backed up. Sometimes with one butcher knife at a time. Sometime with both of them crossed as an 'X'. Sometimes with barely their hilts.

As we passed the edge of the counters, I kicked her back with my foot, grabbed tight to my hilt, and swung a three-sixty-degree slash that she possibly couldn't block. And she knew it.

SLASH!!!!

She ducked and jumped back.

Just as I expected her to…

At the end of my spinning attack, I twirled to a stop, blurred, and rushed at her—elbow first.

WHUMP!!

I sent her sliding out through the double-doors and into the commissary room beyond.

I ran and jumped-kicked my way through the doors. I slammed my boot into Jinx's chest when I emerged on the other side.

She fell back and slid across one of the nearly-dozen sets of fold up tables. Eating tables with white surfaces were spread out throughout the spacious interior of the abandoned eatery. A couple of windows filtered dim light inward that reflected off the sneeze guards of the al a carte line and the empty trayholders. Soon, a pink light rose and faintly lit the shadowed corners as Jinx charged up energy into her butcher knives and flew herself into a fighting pose as she faced me.

I twirled Myrkblade into a ready stance…took a breath..and advanced on her again.

She twirled at me with a streak of pink energy trailing behind her knives.

SWOOOSH!! CLANK!!!

Showers spark. Black smoke on pink heat.

I twirled Myrkblade, forcing her knives to the side and stabbed at her vulnerable side.

She blurred up onto a table with pink fury and jumped down at me, both knives raised. "HAAA!!"

I sat back against a stool, leaned my back against a tabletop, and lifted my legs. My feet met her and launched her across the commissary.

She flipped in mid-air and landed with a spinning slide against the tile; facing me.

From the table I kicked my legs, launched myself up, and teleported into an upright position—upon which I came down, landed on a table top, and blurred at her. My speed crossed the spaces in mid air between each table and soon—within the blink of an cat eye—I was upon her, slashing.

SWOOOSH!

She raised her knives up at the last second.

CLANG!!

She twirled one knife and shot a stream of pink energy at me.

FLASH!!!

I was knocked into the air.

I twirled horizontally and landed in an awkward, spread crouch.

Jinx charged and swung both blades down.

I deflected once with Myrkblade and spun my whole body down on the tile like a break dancer. I slid one leg out, tripping her.

"OOF!!"

I immediately kicked with the other leg, sliding her like an air hockey puck across the cold tile of the commissary.

Her hair ground painfully against her neck. Jinx clenched her teeth and vaulted herself up with a burst of pink energy. She flipped and landed just as I came at her, swinging Myrkblade down.

CLANK!!

She blocked with two crossed knives.

We pressed our blades against each other.

My weight against her agility.

Our heads leaned closer and closer to each other as we struggled.

Our noses practically touched.

Jinx's faced scrunched up.

I glared.

She let loose a fresh stream of hex. "HAAA!!" And pushed me back.

I slid a foot or two and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

And this time she came at me.

Swinging and spiraling and stabbing in either one of the two butcher knives at every chance she could take.

I deflected and parried with patience.

In such fashion, the two of us gradually carried the sword fight down the long aisle between the dozen sets of white tables in the commissary.

"_Jinx!!_" Slade's voice crackled into her ear. "_What are you doing?! You must bring down that building!!"_

"I'm kinda busy here!!" Jinx grumbled while dodging sword swings and striking with her knives. "Can't it wait?!"

"_No_!!" the voice shouted. "_Noir can wait!! He is already out of the equation!! It is urgent that you bring down that building to further along our plan!!"_

"But….," Jinx grunted and ducked a swing of mine. She parried and hopped backwards. "He will contact the others if I don't—"

"_No! He won't! Trust me, apprentice!!"_

I let out a silent scream and swung down hard onto Jinx.

She was shaken out of her conversation, blocking awkwardly with her knives.

I gritted my teeth and swung a leg under her ankles.

She fell…but in mid fall she stabbed into a stool with one knife, charged up a stream of pink, and miraculously vaulted herself up and onto the table top on her feet.

I jumped up the stool, onto the table top, and charged her.

SWOOOOSH!!

CLANK!!

She blocked and jumped to another table.

I leapt to join her, slashing down.

She flipped out of the way.

SMASH!!

The table turned to splinters from the force of my Destruction.

Jinx hopped off another table, flipped, and flew at me with both blades slashing. "HAA!!"

I deflected—but the force was too much. I fell onto the tile floor hard.

Jinx pointed a blade down at me and shot a field of hex. FLASH!!

I twirled to the side.

CRACK!!

A crater in the tile formed beneath me.

Jinx aimed again. FLASH!!

I rolled backwards and leapt forward in a dive.

CRACK!!!

Bits of tile flew at my heels as I slid under a table.

Jinx hopped onto the table and raised her knives over her pink head, watching for me to slide out from the other side.

But I didn't….

"…...," Jinx blinked. "Huh?"

**SMASH!!!!**

The table exploded upwards in a bulge from beneath her feet as I launched myself straight up—Myrkblade first. In slow motion, Jinx flew off with a spray of white and brown splinters. I sailed up in the air, twirled, and swung the blunt length of Myrkblade hard against her side.

WHAP!!!!

Time resumed.

She flew off about ten feet, smashing through another white table.

CRASH!!!

She rolled to a stop on a curtain of splinters, wincing.

I landed and blurred at her.

She stood up and stretched one butcher knife out in front of her to block--

CLANK!!!

I knocked it out of her grasp with an upward swing of Myrkblade.

The butcher knife spun straight up at the ceiling.

SW-SW-SWOOSH!!!

And sliced directly into the bladed faucet of a fire sprinkler.

CLUNK!!

The impact sent a chain reaction throughout the plumbing set in the ceiling above. Soon, water was trickling down in a smelly, indoor rain from every fire sprinkler faucet.

Jinx backflipped, landed with a table between us, and held her last butcher knife at ready with two hands.

I held up Myrkblade.

She panted…glaring.

I panted…waiting.

Water droplets fell across our shoulders and streamed down over our arms like liquid cloaks.

Under the artificial rain, we paced across from each other. With white tables and glares in between. Droplets streaked down Jinx's butcher knife and splattered off the length of my Myrkstaff.

Black eyes and cat eyes.

A wet, miserable stand off.

"_Jinx…remember_!" Slade's voice crackled. _"Noir does not matter anymore! He is no longer part of the equation!!"_

Jinx panted.

My eyes narrowed under the shades.

She let out a scream and came at me. Water splashed in fountains around her platform shoes.

I held Myrkblade out in defense.

CLANK!!

She stabbed twice more.

CLANK! CONG!!

I lunged at her.

She backflipped and landed in a wet slide across the tile.

SPLAAAAAASH!!

"_He has been written out by fate, Apprentice!! Only the Titans are the focus now!!"  
_  
"I want to kill him….," she muttered. "I want to kill him so **bad!!**" She came at me. "HAAA!!"

I twirled to the side, caught her butcher knife with my sword, twirled, and sent her reeling across the commissary.

She landed awkwardly against the al a carte line and twirled to face me. Her wet body heaved under the shower. Her teeth grit and her cat eyes burned.

_"You do not need to kill him!! As of right now, you are an even match! For you are even roles!!"_

I slowly paced at her. My feet splattered menacingly through the puddles. Not once did I stop glaring at her. I held Myrkblade high.

_"You are the Third Apprentice of reality! He is the Third Apprentice of fantasy!! Both of you share equal purpose in bringing the Titans into our hands!! But as identical as you are…there is one major difference that sets you apart as the victor in this case, Jinx!!"_

"And what's that…?" she grumbled.

_"I. Am. On. Your. Side."_

Her cat eyes trailed.

I came at her. I twirled Myrkblade. I stabbed.

She parried with ease, backflipped, planted her feet against the sneeze guard of the al a carte line, and vaulted off with a flash of pink.

She landed on the other side of the room as I watched.

"_Think of your sisters, Jinx……_," Slade's voice smoothly said.

Jinx gasped.

_"If you kill him…the circle won't be broken. The Experiment won't be reached. My plans will have failed and I would be powerless. And how can I help you find your sisters when I'm……powerless?"_

Jinx panted. Sweat from her brow mingled with the liquid sopping her pink hair and drenching over her face. She looked up at me…cat eyes round.

I stood in place…Myrkblade held high.

Jinx suddenly found her cool. She smiled and hung her butcher knife to the side.

"Slade just gave me a command," she slyly lied. "He wants me to surrender."

CLANK!!

The butcher knife clattered down into a puddle.

"????" I eyed it…then looked back up at her.

"And who am I to disobey Slade and finish you off??" she smiled.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh wait!!" Jinx giggled, a wet hand over her mouth. "Now I remember!! I'm that sweet little sorceress you royally screwed way back on the rooftop of the Westhaven Opera House!! So maybe I should follow Slade's advice after all by taking this whole day and saying—TO HELL WITH IT!!"

I blinked.

She laughed like a schoolgirl, curtsied, and stretched her hands high to the ceiling.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I gasped.

Stream after stream of pink energy flowed from her fingertips and were absorbed into the walls, ceiling, floor, bulkheads, and utter foundation of the building we were in.

The whole place shook. Her eyes glowed brightly as her hands brought a pink sunlight of a queer sort into the naturally dim commissary.

"_HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"_

I raised an arm to block the blinding light coming at me. I gritted my teeth. I couldn't let her go through with it. I charged forward.

…and that's when Jinx brought her glowing hand down and aimed at the floor beneath me.

CRAAAAAAAAA-AAAAACK!!

I gasped as the tile split apart beneath me.

The floor shook me off balance. I fell towards the fissure just as a metal bulkhead jutted up—shook—and slunk straight back towards the earth. I reached out one hand and grabbed onto the edge of the precarious metal beam just seconds before I could fall five stories down into the fresh abyss formed by the sorceress's intense hex.

Jinx brought her hands down and girl-stepped towards the edge of the hole. She leaned over and smiled at my struggling dangle with her Cheshire cat grin. "The truth is…all debts are forgiven. You're no longer the target of my frustrations, Ghost Boy. The Titans are the main focus from now on. Me and Slade…we gotta watch out for them. Not you. You're no longer part of the equation."

I gritted my teeth as I struggled to keep my grasp. I looked up at her…sweating, dripping from the sprinkler water that was then sloshing down the hole and dousing me.

"Keep out of this fight…and you'll be safe," she smiled. "Try and intervene and—well—you'll learn if you haven't already that there is nothing you can possibly do to disrupt Slade's plans. Because Fate is on Slade's side. And Fate has sent me to be the Third Apprentice. There's no room for a hero anymore, Ghost Boy. Ciao!" She then blew me a kiss, winked, and giggled. SWOOOSH-FLIP!! She spun around and aimed a glowing wrist at me. "HAAAA!!"

FLASH!!

It struck my gripping hand. The metal beam snapped. I fell down into the gaping hole of the collapsing building with a silent scream.

Jinx's figure disappeared above me—leaping into oblivion.

As I did.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile, the Titans stood up from the computers they were inspecting and gasped.

Robin's eyemask was wide.

Beast Boy's jaw hung open.

Starfire was all emerald shock. She glanced across the shaking interior at Raven.

"It's another trap!" Raven said. Pieces of ceiling tile and debris flew down beside her. She sidestepped them. "Slade's been expecting us!"

"Again?!?!" Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"This structure will not be a structure for long!" Starfire exclaimed as the glass of the distant windows started cracking.

Cyborg shrugged. "Robin, what'll we do?!"

"We can't leave now!!" the Boy Wonder exclaimed. "We're so close to valuable data!!"

"We have to leave!" Raven argued. "If we stay here and the whole building goes out, Slade will have his greatest victory yet!"

"What if Slade wants us to abstain from computer addiction?!" Beast Boy said.

Everyone looked at him.

"Allright! Sheesh! Sorry for existing!"

"Raven's right. Let's go!" Cyborg shouted as the ceiling cracked wide open above him.

"No! We're so close!!" Robin desperately typed at the computer. "We're so—"

Slade's face suddenly blipped onto the screen.

"So close indeed, Robin. You have no idea how close you are to the end."

The Boy Wonder gasped and stepped backwards.

"I commend you on your predictability. I'm always watching you. You know that. Be assured I'll continue to watch you even after this cold, heartless building squashes you into vigilante has-been."

Sparks flew from the computer as the lines were cut from the building's fissure. Slade's picture disappeared in an instant.

"Run!!" Beast Boy exclaimed, pulling at his hair and jumping out a window. "Go go go go go go go go!!"

Cyborg ran out behind him. There was a resounding CRACK overhead. He looked up. "Huh?! WHOAH!!" He lifted his Titanium hands and clasped onto a falling, metal bulkhead. "RRRRRGHHHH!!!" He held the ceiling—and the upper floor for that matter—in place through sheer strength. "Everybody!! Out!! Now!! I can only hold it for so long!!"

"I-I can still save the data!!" Robin exclaimed. He grabbed a computer tower. "All we need are the hard drives and—YIP!!"

Starfire flew by, latching onto Robin's arm and protectively yanking him out through an open window. "We must make haste!!"

"Nooooooo!!" Robin's voice faded into the outside world.

Raven hovered to a stop at the window and looked in at the shaking interior. "Cyborg!!"

"Could….use….a….little….help!!" he grunted.

Raven's eyes glowed gray. She reached out two hands. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!!"

Two streams of dark energy flew forth, joined together, and wrapped around Cyborg's torso.

The android Titan took a deep breath and whimpered. "B-Be gentle?"

**YANK!!!**

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Raven pulled Cyborg out from the center of the computer lab. As he let go of the bulkhead, the metal beam came smashing down behind him. As a result, an entire cascade of ceiling slammed thunderously behind his sprawling figure as Raven tugged him out and safely through the window via a rope of telekinesis.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green falcon, Starfire and Robin, and Raven and Cyborg landed safely besides their vehicles in the parking lot as the seven story building collapsed by the Bayside.

**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Dust and debris flew. A mountain of destruction was all that was left of the lonely office building.

Then….silence.

Pedestrians came wandering in from the neighboring blocks, gasping as they saw the level of destruction that had occurred.

"Um….," Beast Boy scratched his neck. "Morale of the story: 'Make sure your computers have firewalls'?"

"Rrrrrrgh!!" Robin shook. He spun with a growl and punched the nearest hard thing he could find—the T-Car.

CLANK!!

"Hey, man!! Watch the Baby!" Cyborg spat. "No punching my Baby!"

Robin cleared his throat. "R-Right. Sorry, Cy." He growled, spun, and slammed his fist into the R-Cycle instead. Once. WHAM! Twice. CLANG!! Thrice. SMACK!!

Starfire gasped. "Robin! Your poor hand!"

He realized it by then. He clutched his knuckles through the gloves and hunched over. "Sh-Shit!!" He wheezed. He stood up straight and shook his head. "Damn it! We were so friggin' close!!"

"I doubt it…," Raven droned. "Slade had to have planned that from the beginning."

"Yeah," Beast Boy frowned, his hands on his hips. "Cuz it was Noir-boy sending him transmissions to this place! When we caught up to Noir, we caught up to Slade!"

"Perhaps it was….revenge," Starfire said. "For banishing him?"

"I don't care what it was anymore…," Robin grunted and paced between the vehicles and the Titans. "All I know is that we almost had Slade cornered. Now we're back to where we were when the traitor was working for him under our eyes. How're we to track down the carbonite and explosives now?!"

"I dunno about you guys," Cyborg said. "But I think y'all shouldn't have kicked Noir out like you did! We could have found ways to question him. Get answers!"

"That's what I suggested," Raven grumbled, frowning at Robin.

Robin frowned back. "You think he would have told us anything?! You think Terra told us anything?! And who would be the one to strap Noir into a chair and threaten the information out of him. You, Raven?!"

The dark girl's blue eyes widened. She looked away, breathing. That had silenced her.

Cyborg rubbed his head.

Robin composed himself. He flexed his arms and sighed. "Look….I'm sorry. This has….th-this has affected all of us. I can't deny the pain we're all feeling right now."

"You got that right…," Beast Boy murmured, his arms folded.

"I say we go back Home…relax a bit for the evening…and prepare for tomorrow night."

"What's happening tomorrow night?" Cyborg asked.

"Do you not remember?" Starfire remarked. "Smith's public appearance for supporting the Independence Fireworks show!"

"At this point…," Raven muttered, eyeing the collapsed building. "I think Smith's opponents may be right in their complacency…"

"We shouldn't allow such pessimism and paranoia to rule the citizens of this city," Robin said. "We've got to let them know that the Titans can still be believed in. Despite our setbacks, our struggles…….o-our traitors. We're still a team that upholds the justice and prosperity of this City. Mark my words…Slade. Will. Not. Own. This. Town. On. July. Fourth."

"Strong words, Robin," Cyborg nodded. "Better write 'em down for your big speech tomorrow."

"Yeah, and write me in some jokes this time!" Beast Boy smiled.

Starfire giggled.

Raven rolled his eyes.

"Well….as long as we're all there…..," Robin smiled slightly and added, "…the five of us."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a building across the street, safely hidden, Jinx perched.

Water was still dripping from her black and brown suit as she squinted her cat eyes to watch the assemblage of squad cars and emergency crews around the collapsed building.

"_You did well…even though you almost faltered_."

"I never falter," Jinx mumbled. She smirked slightly. "I only tease…"

"_Well then…you did a wonderful job 'teasing', Apprentice. Come back to the frigate. We must prepare for the public appearance of the Titans tomorrow_."

Jinx stood up and sauntered towards the far side of the buildingtop she was on. "It's due time fear fought alongside Fate, huh?"

"_Something to that extent, yes."_

"I have a favor to ask of you, Master."

"_Your sisters_?"

"That's a given," Jinx smirked. She posed on the far edge of the building top and fingered her sleeves. "But for now, I think I'm going to need a new set of wares."

"_Simple. That will be arranged_."

"And Master?"

"_Yes_?"

A beat. Jinx blushed and spoke into the air. "Thank you."

"_Our dual strengths as one, Apprentice. Our dual strengths as one_."

She sighed, smiled, and blurred down the building side.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was approaching night when I finally dug my way out of the debris. I gasped as I reached the open air. My body—bruised and aching—was covered from black hair to booted toe in soot and dust. Only the last-minute shielding of my murk energy saved me in the collapse of the building.

I groaned and spread myself out—panting—under the stars.

I was really getting tired of stuff falling all around me……

I sat up and hugged myself. The wind was strangely cold that evening. Not the hot jets that had blasted me when I talked to the Messenger the night previous.

The Messenger….

I took off my shades and closed my black eyes. I rubbed them through the eyelids. Sighing.

I tried to follow the Messenger's advice. I let his optimism take hold of me, and I attacked Jinx.

I exhaled and bent down…looking at my ankles miserably.

I attacked Jinx…and still no good had come of it.

I leaned back and stared at the sky.

My shoulders heaved.

What was the use? No matter how much I attacked her, I could not bring her down. She would forever be the apprentice of Slade. His secret hand in the deck. His key towards setting the Titans up at every crime scene. Over and over again until they eventually slipped into his clutches. And it would be any day now. Any second. Any blink of the eye.

"………."

I scrunched my face up.

I thought….

His secret hand in the deck……

I fumbled my hand into my pocket.

I pulled out my stack of cards and thumbed through them until I found the Joker.

I stared at it.

My mind wandered to last night…

_**"The greatest heroes are the heroes that do their deeds in secret,"**__ the Messenger said. "__**The ones who call the ultimate bluff and know what's truly in their deck."**_

My naked, black eyes narrowed over the laughing image on the card. The lunacy and downright, unpredictable absurdity of its presence in the deck.

_**"In the end, Noir. It'll be you who springs the wildcard on Slade. It'll be up to you to take the full circle in your hands and **__**break it**__**."**_

I looked up at the stars.

They stabbed down at me. A million specks, a million numbers, a million equations.

I was just one soul.

_**"You'll learn if you haven't already that there is nothing you can possibly do to disrupt Slade's plans. Because Fate is on Slade's side," **__Jinx said__**.**_

My eyes relaxed. I held up the card. Due to parallax, the joker's face blended in with the stabbing specks of the stars. Everything was everything and yet nothing at the same time.

A paradox.

A break….

A break!

_**"There's no room for a hero anymore, Ghost Boy. Ciao!"**_

I gasped.

That was it!

That was it!

I knew how to break the circle!

Every time I attacked Jinx…every time I tried to save the Titans…every time I tried to stop the carbonite explosives….every time I did that which was normal and expected and heroic of me, I only added to the completion of the full circle. I flowed forth with the Tao. I manifested Fate as only Fate wanted to be manifested.

_**"Is life a set of calculations?" **__the Messenger asked me__**. "A string of cause and effect integers that work together according to the push and shove of karma? Do you believe that your life is what life makes of it and not what you make of it?"**_

I clutched the joker card closed in my hand so hard I nearly squished it. I glared past my hand with dark eyes and—for some reason—the stars were no longer blinding.

I took a deep breath. It was a cold and painful breath. It was cold and painful because I finally knew what I had to do, and what I had to do was what I didn't want to do. And it was the only way to avoid going back to a past that I knew but didn't want to know.

I stood up, refreshed, on fire. I looked around me. I began gathering shards of metal debris and bulkhead pieces from the debris of the building that I was standing in.

It was time for my very own Experiment.

Slade wanted a twist to the Balance of Morals.

Well…he sure as Hell was gonna get it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T- '_Dear Diana,_

_By the time you receive this letter……IF you receive this letter…the JLA will no longer desire to correspond with me. I will have be branded a traitor, and ostracized from the company of the Teen Titans. I regret that such as happened. Alas, you might expect me to fill this letter up with claims concerning my innocence. While I am both willing and able to defend my name, I seriously have neither the time nor the strength to. Instead, I hope to grant you a slight explanation for the things that are about to come to pass…_

In the night, I wandered around the mountain of debris. I found a canvass bag amongst the litter, and filled it with all the metal shards and pointy edges and ugly things I could find. Under the cover of darkness—when emergency crews weren't looking, I snuck out and blurred a path eastward with Myrkblade and my new possessions.

_I am a hero. Or at least, I once was one. The prime goal of my existence is to further the cause of peace and prosperity in this vulnerable world we live in. I am urged by a deep calling within my being to govern the energies of Construction and Destruction so as to assure the tranquility of innocent civilians. Even now…now as I duck into the backstage of darkness and ambiguity, that is still the motive of my heart. And it is the motive of my future actions. Actions which—I admit—will be dramatic. And may seem harsh. And may make me look worse._

On board Slade's dark ship, Jinx smiled as she tried on her new apprentice outfit in front of a mirror. She twirled about, flailing her limbs girly and grinning. There was not a torn or tatter to be seen on the black and brown suit. She looked up at the reflection of Slade as he walked up with his hands behind his back. She said something cutely. He nodded menacingly…and patted his apprentice on the head. She blushed.

_Everything in this City is reaching a boiling point. Things are churning and grinding up against each other in some sort of heated friction of madness. Events and consequences are swinging around and coming Full Circle. Slade—the greatest villain of these parts—believes that this must be show. So much does he believe in this, he has hired a fate-bending apprentice and has teamed up with the overlord of underground crime to make sure the future that he desires comes into fruition. I still do not know what his plans are. Neither do the Titans. They are too wrapped up in the supposed betrayal of my hands to possibly think straight. And, honestly, I do not blame them._

Inside the Tower the next day, the Titans were doing some last minute clean-up of the tunnel that had been bored through to make way for the third missile. The five gathered in the Evidence Room, brushing away the glass…repairing and replacing the displays…and putting back the weapons and props that had been littered all over the place. Every face was solemn and quiet until Beast Boy had the urge to hoist up Fluffy's disembodied, rodent head over his cranium and do a silly dance. The other three couldn't help it. They giggled and laughed merrily. The rest of the cleanup was filled with the occasional chatter, comment, smirk, and snicker.

_Wounds are very hard things to repair. Spiritual bodies do not mend as easily as things you and I can touch. From the days the Master taught me about the fragility of the human form…I realized we were nothing but smoke on the inside. Black and thick…yet tangible and as fleeting as the wind. The Titans have gashes ripped so hard into themselves that they're leaking smoke all the time. Slade knew of their unsealed wounds. So when I came in, he used me and my murk as a mirror to which the Titans were to reflect their long-withheld pain. Now I'm nothing more than a second Terra in their eyes. A Third Apprentice._

Inside the dark shadows of a small, claustrophobic room somewhere…I busied myself in sewing together something in the shape of a body. I alternated between that task and the sparking weld of metal to metal. I acquired metal goggles and welded in obsidian shades to fill the oval peepholes. I acquired metal mesh and hammered them to fit around the contours of sleeves, ankles, and joints. I got out brown and black paint spray cans and went to work with a mask over my face. With the welder, I cut and pieced together sharp strips of metal in the shape of an emblazoned 'S'.

_I realize—as of today—that I am the Third Apprentice. Not necessarily in title or in body. But in spirit. I am the cause for the Titans' fall. I am the wildcard Slade used to hurt them…to bring them down. Again and again and again. I betrayed the Titans. I did, Diana. But not out of deliverance, but rather out of ignorance. I let my emotions get ahold of me and blind me, much like the Titans did. And because of that…we both suffer. Slade's wildcard did its job._

That evening, workers finished assembling the stage at the Bayside Plaza. The usual courtyard in front of the movie theatre and food stores had been filled with a huge platform with flashing lights, speakers pumping hip hop music, and stacks of television screens showing past images of previous Independence Fireworks shows. Frederick Smith and other officials directed the last of the setup. Crowds of people—young and old alike—gathered joyously to support the continuation of that year's July Fourth celebration…which was merely a few days away.

_But the wildcard works both ways. Slade didn't realize that—in alienating me from the love and trust of the Titans—he had given me the greatest advantage ever to break the circle. He thinks that I'm to walk away. He thinks that I'm to head back West to my Past and become the 'Ghost Boy' I once was. That's what he expects. It's probably also what Dagger expects. But—nuts to him—it's not what I'm going to do._

I pulled the outfit over my head. I slipped my hands effortlessly into metal-laced sleeves. My feet slipped into boots which I snapped shut with copper clasps and then clanked the heel down with a resounding echo of steel to make the fit snug. I wrapped the pair of black-lens goggles around my head and over my eyes. I fastened my bandanna—now laced with steel ringlets--around my long, black hair. I then spun Myrkblade and slid it into a rusted, metal-encased scabbard behind my back. I took a deep breath.

_I. Know. What. I. Must. Do. I must break the circle. And in breaking the circle—the only way I know how—I will hopefully save my friends. For if there's any painful truth in my life that I've learned, Diana, it's that sometimes the only way you can ever help your friends is by hurting them…_

In a shifting shadow, I blurred to a rooftop, leapt over an alleyway to another building, climbed a few feet, and leapt onto a flagpole. From there I perched and glared down through black goggles at the bright flashing lights of the public event down below in the Bayside Plaza. The T-Car was parked behind the stage. The Titans were stepping up, grinning and waving. Cameras flashed and recorded with red flashing lights. People waved and cheered and churned. Frederick Smith clapped and smiled proudly. Blake Glover was even there—covering the event from a journalist's point of view. He was smiling. My black eyes narrowed.

_I write this because I want someone to understand. And I do not desire this message to be preached out. I would greatly desire of you to keep it secret, Diana. Keep it a secret that I still love the Titans. They are my friends and I would—and will—gladly die for them. I just can't be goody-goody about it anymore. Not when I must beat down the Hand of Fate. And right now…that is the only way to stop Slade and his allies._

_I wish you, the JLA, the Titans, and the whole world everlasting piece._

_Sincerely,_

_-Noir._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ladies and gentleman!!!" a famous, local celebrity spoke gleefully into the microphone as she stood atop the flashing stage. "Here to promote the Independence Fireworks show!! In the middle of giving their all to save the City from the evil likes of Slade!! Give a welcome hand to Robin and the Teen Titans!!"

People clapped. Cheered. Stomped their feet.

A rock anthem played out as the lights flashed down on the Boy Wonder and the trailing four. They smiled and waved—all except Raven of course—and wandered right in front of the cameras, the lights, the gazes, the souls…

There were well over a thousand, excited citizens in attendance. Crammed inside that small, Bayside Plaza.

"Heroes indeed," Blake Glover muttered to Smith. "There's no way your July Fourth celebration is going down the tubes after this!"

Smith folded his hands together and smiled. "That's exactly what I was hoping…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a rooftop across the way, Slade landed and perched…silently eyeing the scene.

"I'm here," she spoke, covering one ear with a graceful hand.

"_I can hear it…,"_ Slade's voice said. "_You must stay out of sight, Jinx. Find away to sabotage the event without getting seen, heard, or even smelled by the people there."_

The girl giggled. "Funny you should say that. I spritzed myself with 'Vanilla Sunrise' today!"

"_You must be serious, apprentice_," Slade's voice said. "_There are many camera crews here. The Titans must not know you're the Third Apprentice."_

"Don't you worry," she winked into the night air. "I'm exceptional at disappearing. Jinx out." Her cat eyes looked up and scanned the scene. She searched for a precarious scaffold…a bulkhead…a glass window one foot too big--

There!

Jinx eyed the huge light fixture hanging over the stage…and the Titans in turn. She licked her perk lips.

"Cakewalk…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Greetings, citizens of the City!!" Robin joyfully cried forth into the mike.

Cheers rose. They were deafening.

Raven plugged her ears, her blue eyes squinting.

Cyborg and Starfire happily chuckled.

"Are all feeling happy tonight?!?!"

**"YEAH!!!"** roared the crowd in response.

"Would you like to feel happy all year round?!"

**"YEAH!!"**

"Well you can because the Teen Titans are always on the go!!" Robin raised his fists. That generated more cheers. "We will never stop fighting for the safety of your family, your friends, and your future!!"

Applause.

Beast Boy folded his arms. "He surely knows how to work them."

"You admit that?" Cyborg remarked.

"Yeah…well…."

"And speaking of the future…," Robin spoke into the mike. His voice crackled forth through the speakers as the crowd dumbed down to a low murmur to listen. "…how dull it be without our Town's annual July Fourth Celebration?! I assure you, people! The Titans will not let Slade or any of his creeps make us scared!! The Independence Fireworks will go off without a hitch! But only if we all state our determination and vote for its unfolding in the next coming week!! Now what do you say?! Are you scared?!"

**"NO!!!"**

"Then let's hear it for Frederick Smith and everyone down at his office for putting this thing together!!"

Thunderous applause and cheers.

The rest of the Titans smiled.

It was the perfect pause in though…

Only emotion…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx smiled.

"Showtime…."

She stood up, flexed her arms, and aimed both wrists down at the light fixture….

……

And a dark shadow streaked by her.

She blinked her cat eyes wide and looked up.

"Huh???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans bowed as a shadow landed on the light fixture overhead.

Robin was the last to do so. He smiled and leaned his head over.

But as he stood back up…..

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH—SNAP!!!

"Augh!!" Robin jumped as something flew down and ripped the microphone from his hands.

Starfire gasped.

The other Titans jumped.

CLANK!!

The microphone was embedded into the stage floor by something.

Half of the audience stopped cheering as a hideous, electric whine screeched through the speakers and crackled into oblivion.

Smith's jaw dropped. "Wh-What?!"

Glover watched, wide-eyed.

"The heck was that?!?!" Beast Boy stammered.

The audience was quiet. Fearful.

Robin stepped over. He knelt down. His brow over his eyemask furrowed.

Cameramen and lighting crew people craned their necks around their instruments to see. People watching on television were perplexed…shocked…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

One of them was Slade.

_"Jinx?! What's the matter?! What's going on?!"  
_  
"I dunno!!" the girl stammered. She leaned forward over the building side and squinted her eyes with a craned neck. "Something…or someone beat me to the light fixture I was about to collapse!!"

_"What are you talking about?! Who is it?!"_

"I can't tell from here!" the petite sorceress said.

Sudenly…her pink hair sagged and her cat eyes rounded.

"You've got to be kidding me…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin reached his hand down and picked up the object as the four other Titans huddled around him.

"Wh-What is it?" Cyborg stammered.

Robin squinted his eyemask. "It's….a p-playing card…."

Robin held in his hands the skewered microphone. Embedded halfway through its sparking, plastic body was a joker card from a poker deck. Its edges had been somehow laced with a haphazard arrangement of rusted metal, welded together. Frightening.

"What's that on the bottom?" Starfire asked.

Robin turned it around.

"There's writing on it…," Raven remarked.

"What's it say?" Beast Boy crowded in.

Robin's eyemask thinned as he read:

_**"Did you think you could get rid of me so easily, Titans?! Slade's apprentice has only begun to make your lives a living Hell. Signed…'Wyldecarde'."**_

"Wyldecarde?!" Cyborg remarked, eyebrow raising.

"Who is that?" Starfire asked.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Suddenly, the dark figure blurred down from the light fixture. It spun in the middle of the Titans, tripping all of them and kicking half of them all across the stage in one fatal swoop of murk. Starfire and Beast Boy went flying straight into the t.v. screens, cracking the glass. Raven and Robin fell off the stage and into the sound crew. Cyborg went smashing through a speaker.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

No sooner had the figure struck, it blurred up and landed on a balcony of the bayside plaza. People screamed, shrieked, and scattered away to flee.

"Get him! Get him!!" shouted the director of the lighting crew. Workers swiveled spotlights straight up the balcony till it lit the figure in full.

The Titans shook their heads and looked up.

Starfire gasped.

Beast Boy near had a heart attack.

Raven and Robin's eyes were wide.

Cyborg stood up and breathed: "No…"

Blake Glover took a step forward. When he saw the figure, his heart fell. "My god…"

There I stood—staring into the stabbing spotlight. I held Myrkblade in a threatening pose. My body was adorned in an industrial nightmare of black and brown painted metal. While I glared down at the Titans menacingly through my sleek, black goggles…the spotlight glinted off the unmistakable image of an emblazoned 'S' for 'Slade' engraved on the metallic breastplate of my new outfit.

There was a moment of dreadful silence.

Jinx—across the way—all about lost her footing.

"Noir??" Starfire managed to squeak. "Why are you---"

I suddenly grinned.

She gasped.

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred straight down towards the Titans, let out a silent scream, and swung Myrkblade straight at their prone bodies.


	58. Full Circle Part 5

**58. Full Circle part 5**

SWOOOSH!!!

CRACK!!!

The stage shattered and formed a gaping hole where Myrkblade struck.

Starfire fell through with a cry. "EEK!!"

I bicycle-jumped to the side, snaked around a gaping Cyborg, twirled, and struck the broadside of my sword to the back of the android's legs.

THWACK!!!

He fell on his knees.

I swiftly brought my leg up and slammed my foot into the back of his neck, pressing him to the stage.

THUMP!!

I stepped on his shoulders, vaulted off, flipped, and tossed two razor-sharp playing cards in midfall at Beast Boy.

The green changeling yelped. "YACK!!"

THWUNK! THWUNK!!

Two cards swiftly pinned him to the sparking t.v. sets behind him by his jumpsuit.

I landed in front of him, spun, and kicked him square in the stomach.

WHUMP!!

Both Beast Boy and about four t.v.s tumbled back off the stage and went crashing to the courtyard of the Bayside Plaza below.

I immediately spun around—dark goggles glistening in the spotlights of the public extravaganza.

From the sound controls and camera pit below, Raven and Robin watched…dumbfounded. There jaws were still dropped in shock.

I smirked, snapped a finger, and pointed at them.

"He….he….," Robin stammered.

I twirled Myrkblade. I blurred down the stage and ran at them. People shrieked and went every which way as my shadow streaked a merciless path.

"He's evil!!" Raven finally shouted for the two of them. She raised two obsidian-encased hands. "Defend yourself---!"

But it was too late. I was upon them.

SWOOOSH!!!

Myrkblade came down. It completely shattered Raven's black shield and tossed her back with a FLASH!!

"Oof!!" she landed hard with her back to a news van.

Robin looked at her and gasped. He spun to face me.

I grinned.

I spun around and slashed horizontally at the Boy Wonder's cranium.

Naturally he ducked.

SLIIINK!!

My blade sliced through a camera behind Robin like a hot knife to butter.

The Titan leader rolled along the ground, hopped up, and jabbed his fist at me.

I effortlessly sidestepped his punch, and dodged and twirled to avoid the next two.

Robin sweat. He knew that I knew his fighting techniques. So he swiftly reached into his pocket to pull out his staff.

I spun. I kicked him the side.

WHAP!!

The staff fell out of his hand before he could pull it out. He grunted as he landed against a sound system console.

I swung Myrkblade down.

He spun to the side.

SLASH!!!

The sound system split open. Wires spilled out and sparked.

Robin pressed his weight to a refreshment table and lifted a steel-plated foot up. "NNNGH!!"

I was shoved back a bit.

He charged forward, both fists swinging.

I tossed Myrkblade up into the air. With free hands I blocked both of Robin's punches, grabbed him by the shoulder, and spun him to the side. As he twirled—suddenly vulnerable—I reached a hand up, caught Myrkblade on its descent, twirled it, and struck Robin hard across the back with the blunt edge of my blade.

SMACK!!

Robin was sent stumbling forward and collapsing over a roadblock and onto the hard concrete of the courtyard.

THWUMP!!

People gasped. People fled. The cameras kept rolling.

Filming the villain in his limelight…

I flexed my arm, gripping onto Myrkblade.

All the Titans had been downed.

I looked up at the Stage.

Smith and Glover stumbled back, gasping.

I 'smirked'.

I looked up at the rooftops to my right. I saluted in a dark shadow's direction.

Jinx went bug-eyed. She swiftly ducked behind the border of the rooftop to avoid being seen. She was panting.

I 'smirked' again. I turned and headed for the stage--

FLASH!!!!

A starbolt struck me hard in the gut.

I flew back a dozen feet. I flipped in mid air and swiftly landed in a crouch.

I looked up…my goggles glistening in a sudden glow of green.

Starfire lifted up out of the half demolished stage. Her hands glowed bright emerald with her eyes. Her red hair flickered about her head like a torch.

At the same time, Cyborg slowly shook his head and got up. I also heard Raven stirring besides the news van and sensed her getting to her feet.

"Rrghh!" Robin stood up, clenching a fist. "Titans!! Attack pattern alpha! Go!"

Beast Boy turned into a green bull and tossed the t.v. sets off him with his horns. He quickly stampeded onto the stage and posed beneath Starfire, grinding his hooves into the stage. Cyborg ran over and readied his laser rifle, aimed blue and deadly and directly at me. Finally, Robin flipped over and readied his staff while Raven floated over the rest with her eyes glowing bright gray.

"Has the term 'crossing the line' ever resonated in that dark head of yours, Noir?!" Cyborg grunted.

"He is not Noir…," Starfire said firmly. "Not any longer…"

"Give it up!" Robin shouted, extending his staff and pointing. "It's five against one!! You stand no chance of taking us all d—"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred directly at them.

Robin sweatdropped.

I leapt up, flew down towards, and spun with a slash of Myrkblade.

Robin's head ducked at the last second.

My blade sliced off the tips of his spiked hair.

I came down and immediately swung my leg outward, tripping the Boy Wonder. I swiftly jumped up and kicked his careening body into the green bull that was Beast Boy. Two starbolts soared down at me, burning the air. I flipped over them and grabbed Starfire's left leg with a free hand. When I came down, my gravity went into play and I swung Starfire's body around like a club straight into Raven's side. Both girls went sailing out off the stage and through the glass entrance of an ice cream shop. An aura of blue light exploded from behind me. I slid to the ground as Cyborg's laser beam warbled through the air right above me. The stream of blue chaos plowed into the marquis of the movie theatre, shattering it completely. I vaulted up from my grounded position, spun towards Cyborg, and stabbed straight into his laser rifle with Myrkblade, shorting it out. While the android Titan gasped, I swiftly snaked around his dormant rifle, yanked him down by the shoulder, and flipped his titanium body over me. Cyborg went tumbling to a stop and slid with sparks flying out from underneath him.

At that moment, Robin was getting up on his knees. He reached a hand out for his staff.

THUMP!!!

My metal-laced boot clamped down over Robin's hand.

"Augh!!" he cried. He looked up at me. His teeth grit. "Y-You…."

I smirked. I waved. I kicked him hard in the chest.

WHAM!!!

He went tumbling off the stage and into a refreshment stand, smashing it apart.

Raven and Starfire were limping out of the ice cream shop.

Cyborg groaned and started to get up.

I looked at the scene…and judged that I had done enough.

I spun around and rushed past Smith and Glover. The two old men watched in shock as I blurred up the side of the speakers and up onto the light fixture. I twirled Myrkblade, grabbed onto the light fixture like a saddle, and slashed apart one of the support chains.

SNAP!!!!

As a result, the entire light fixture of metal mesh and cobwebs swung down by one support. Before its loose end could grind hard into the stage, Cyborg ran up and caught it with strong, titanium arms and an intense growl for composure. At the same time, his act of heroism supported the light fixture safely enough that I could run up the length nimbly like a ramp and leap onto a building's rooftop bordering the courtyard.

Robin got up. He winced, rubbed his head, and spotted my escape. "Not today!!" he shouted and let loose a birdarang.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

I spun.

I faced him.

My lips grinned from underneath the goggles as tossed down a razor-sharp playing card.

SWIIIIIIIISH-CLANK!!!

The birdarang pierced through the body of the playing card. But the colliding momentum of my playing card stopped the ascent of the birdarang. The two skewered objects twirled in place in the middle of the air before falling straight down to the concrete below with a CLUNK!

I jumped and blurred away.

The chaos was over.

People slowed their frantic running-away and murmured in shock and confusion.

Smith and Glover stepped out fully in the open, eyeing the damage done to the stage and courtyard.

Cyborg sweat and dropped his end of the light fixture, stroking his head.

Raven and Starfire floated over while Beast Boy knelt down and picked up the birdarang and playing card stuck together. "Uh….dudes…this is not good. Not good at all."

Robin walked over and rudely snapped the two objects out of Beast Boy's glance. He narrowed his eyemask and read the contents scribbled down on the ripped playing card.

_**"Mark my words, Titans. Slade's apprentice doesn't give up that easily. The Wyldecarde will be watching you…"**_

Robin gritted his teeth. "It's happening….It's happening all over again…"

"Lovely," Raven grumbled. "Just lovely."

Starfire looked around at the scared faces and the ruined cityscape. "Wh-What do we do?!"

"Looks like we'll have more on our hands than just Slade and his bomb threats…," Cyborg said. "His latest apprentice is bound to rain down on July Fourth."

"We're gonna do what we've always done…," Robin slurred. "We take crooks down." He grunted and slammed the birdarang and playing card into the concrete.

SHATTER!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx stared at the scene below her.

Her heart beat crazily.

Her mouth was dry.

Slade's voice crackled into her ear.

_"Apprentice! Head back to the frigate!!"_

"But….B-But…," Jinx held a graceful hand to her ear and gestured out at the disorganized public scene. "I didn't even get a ch-chance to…."

_"Believe me, Jinx. It's far too late for that. I'm meeting with Dagger over what has just happened. I want you there with us!!"_

The sorceress shuddered forth a sigh. "Understood. Jinx out." She stood up…her fists clenching, and turned around to blur a pink path clear across the City and to Slade's HQ.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I leapt over rooftops, blurred along buildingsides, and dashed through alleyways.

The city grew loud with the echoes of police sirens and emergency crews.

For the first time in my life, I knew that those haunting sirens howled because of me…

When I felt I was sufficiently far enough away from the scene of the crime for the Titans to not be able to locate me, I made a stop at the top of a metal fire escape. I slumped down against the brick wall of the fifth floor of a building side. Shrouded in the darkness of the alleyway around me, I slipped my goggles off till my quivering black eyes were exposed.

I couldn't stop it. I was hyperventilating.

Pain wracked through my lungs and up my empty throat with each heave of my shoulders. I ran hands through my black hair and down to the side of my head where I clutched the skin so hard I felt like I would smash my own skull in. I shook. My eyes clenched shut. Moisture formed around the edges.

I couldn't believe what I had just done.

But I had to do it.

At the moment…all it felt like was pure evil. Pure betrayal.

And it was.

But it was the first step in what would soon be a battle of necessity.

And I had just gotten over the initial hump. That painful crest of no-turning-back.

There was no time—or reason—to cry. Or so I told myself…

On shaking legs I got up, composed myself, and took a deep breath.

I slipped my goggles back on, sheathed Myrkblade, and blurred towards the Southwest side of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sealed door creaked open.

Jinx stepped inside the dark cabin.

She peered across the black expanse with blinking cat eyes.

Dagger stood beside Slade, twirling his trademark knife between his fingers.

The apprentice's master looked over and signaled for Jinx to come forward.

"How prompt of you to join us, Jinx. You did have to run across the entire length of the City. I commend you."

Jinx jogged up, panting frantically. "M-Master! It's Ghost Boy! He—"

"I know….I saw," Slade said. He gestured towards a t.v. set in the black wall displaying a mute news coverage of the disastrous public event. "Everyone saw. Noir is back. He is doing your job for you, apprentice."

Slade's helmet turned and the emblazoned eye glared at Dagger.

"And I would like to know why…"

"You look to me as if you expect me to provide an explanation…," Dagger said, unblinking.

"Well, naturally," Slade gestured. "You do seem to know the boy. Jinx has told me about the speech you gave him in the meat packing plant just before the second carbonite explosion. I hadn't tried to think much of it before. But now that the infernal, black-eyed phantom is back and pulling off some……frustrating antics, I'm inclined to ask about the depths of your knowledge."

"We all have our secrets, Slade," Dagger said with a tip of his head. "You would be a hypocrite to deny that."

"I deny nothing," Slade said firmly. "You should trust me by now, Dagger. Think of all that I've provided for you. All that I will provide for you. Is it not logical that you pay me and my colleagues the same respect?"

Jinx placed her hands to her hips and glared at Dagger.

Dagger didn't blink. But he did inhale deeply. "There is not much that I can honestly tell you. You have your own Experiment, Slade. And I have mine."

"Oh really, now?"

"Indeed," Dagger nodded. He twirled the knife as he spoke, "And believe me when I tell you that Noir is as much a wildcard in my prospects as he is in yours."

"Well that's rather obvious," Slade glared and folded his hands behind his back. "Neither one of us has ordered him killed."

"As it must remain."

"Why is that?"

"The Balance of Morals is a trivial thing you believe in, Slade," Dagger said. "I've only chosen to assist you in making it come into fruition because of your payment to me for my services. Mark my words—when you are done with the Titans and you have gathered the strength and universal rise in power you've always desired—Noir will remain standing. And in so doing, he will prove to be a key to a much greater shift in power. If I was to explain all of it to you, I would have no choice but to end your life. But I respect you, Slade. And for that…I will play along with this….'partnership' of ours."

"Your threats are most fantastic," Slade spoke. "I admire a man of ambiguity. I can never truly trust someone I can understand."

"I think along a different spectrum," Dagger said. He turned and faced Slade completely with a suddenly ominous glare as his knife twirled to a stop and pointed at the masked terrorist. "So I would greatly appreciate it—especially after this sudden incident of unexpected chaos—that you outline to me the exact plans you have for the Titans' fate!"

Silence.

Jinx looked worriedly between the two despots.

She bit her lip.

Slade glared. His helmet tilted forward. "Very well…," he finally said. His emblazoned eye glanced over at Jinx from a distance. "Apprentice…leave us be for a moment."

"But…s-sir, can I at least—"

"Dagger's men are here," Slade spoke over her. "I would be most happy if you provided them with more of your wares…"

Jinx frowned. "But….I don't want to! I helped them with another shipment merely a day ago!"

"Apprentice….," Slade spoke softly—yet firmly. "I do not wish to argue with you…."

Jinx's face flushed. She looked down…legitimately ashamed. "I'm s-sorry, Master," she uttered. "I'll g-go now…"

She slowly turned around and sauntered off towards the far side of the ship…somewhere in the cargo hold.

Dagger watched her walk off. Once she was gone, he looked at Slade and started twirling the knife between his fingers again.

"Leaving her out of this conversation…is that trustworthy between a master and his apprentice?"

"What I'm about to tell you, the fair Jinx is quite aware of," Slade said. "Believe it or not, Dagger, there are some things—and I do emphasize 'some'—that Jinx knows as much as you and I."

"Does she yet suspect the cold truth about her—?"

"No," Slade said firmly. "Now pay attention, Dagger. You're a man who learns fast, correct?" The terrorist pulled out a remote. He clicked it and the black walls of the cabin's interior flickered and turned into displays of microscopic bloodstreams. There were five separate displays total. Each was labeled with a different Titan's name: Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy.

"What are these, pray tell?"

"These….," Slade gestured, "…are recordings taken nearly a year ago. When I first came close to eradicating the Titans."

"Hmmmmm," Dagger stared. His stone eyes squinted…but didn't blink yet. "Are you referring to when Robin became a turncoat against his will?"

"I succeeded in subjecting him to my will for a blissful period of three days…," Slade said. "And my method of controlling him to do my bidding was this…" He clicked the remote. One of the bloodstreams was magnified and displayed billions of nanoprobes attached to the blood cells of the Titans.

"Nanotechnology….," Dagger nodded. "Harmful, I assume."

"**Deadly**," Slade emphasized. "With a push of a button, I could have eliminated the Titans at any time…and at any place."

"What—may I ask—kept you from doing so when the ability was just a finger stroke away?"

"At that time, I was foolish. Obsessive. I did not yet know the planes and dimensions of my true thirst for power. All I wanted…was Robin. I wanted Robin's loyalty. His obedience. His bowing down to my feet. I wanted him to be my loyal subject. And as such, he momentarily became my apprentice. The….First Apprentice. It was my goal to brainwash him and thus—long term speaking—tip over the Balance of Morals by converting a true hero into the advocate of Evil."

"The plan failed, I assume."

Slade nodded. "My second attempt was out of bitterness and spite. Months later, all I wanted to do was destroy the Titans."

"And that is when you employed Terra….," Dagger added. "The Second Apprentice."

"Correct. She had the power and the fervor to betray the Titans and eliminate them…momentarily freeing the City from all vigilantism and heroism. But my taste of victory was short-lived. I underestimated the fleeting emotions of the girl. In the end, she turned on me. Though I had managed to wound the Titans beyond all recovery, Terra's vengeance had struck me down so hard…I had to start over again."

"And how do these nanoprobes from the first scheme play a part in all of this?"

"My schemes as of present is a conglomeration of my successes and mistakes learned from both plans I have undertaken before now," Slade explained. "You already know that Noir's villainy exists solely because of the psychological damage Terra made on the Titans."

"Until tonight…," Dagger slurred.

Slade ignored that. "Similarly, the plan I had in taming Robin is playing a part now in bringing things full circle. Observe."

He clicked the remote.

The five screens blipped for a second. In their place appeared seemingly identical images of the Titans' bloodstreams; with their names labeled and everything.

"I fail to see the difference….," Dagger droned.

"Oh, but there is one," Slade pointed. "Notice the date."

Dagger stepped forward. He read from the schematics beneath the images of the bloodstreams. He glanced back at Slade. "These readings were taken two days ago."

Slade nodded. "That they are. Notice the nanoprobes again present in the Titans' blood."

"They are much smaller in number," Dagger said. He folded his arms and tapped the handle of his knife against his shoulder. "Hardly in the billions like they were when you were 'taming Robin'."

"Not yet in the billions, they aren't," Slade said. "When I infected the Titans' with the nanoprobes the first time, it was through the sudden burst of a transferal energy rifle. The probes were essentially 'beamed' into their bloodstream from a close—yet remote location. Knowing the Titans' knack for learning from the past, if I desired to infect them again anytime soon…I could not do so by identical means. I had to find another process to….expose them."

Dagger rubbed his chin, thinking hard. He paused. He tilted his head to the side. "The carbonite cores…."

Slade's helmet slowly nodded. He clicked on a button which showed schematics of a Type IV Carbonite substance. "Polluted with nanotechnology, the carbonite I've been supplying for the bomb threats are good for one of two things. One: Either they'll explode at the push of a button and consume the Titans by fire—as I threaten for them to. Two: Up until the moment of explosion, the Titans absorb the nanoprobes into their bloodstream through osmosis. The closer they are to the carbonite cores and the longer they are in proximity to them—the more they are infected by a gradual, energy transfer of nanoprobes being beamed into their bloodstream. Don't you see, Dagger? My constant ambushes and lures and traps and ensnaring of the Titans have been serving a purpose. They think it is merely a cat and mouse game. What they don't know is that—each time they come to the rescue—their bodies are being once again polluted and infected by the tiny, blood-borne machines that can kill them like they were once threatened before. But they haven't a clue due to the fact that the method I am presently using is not of the same convention they've faced in the past."

"Eventually, they will have acquired enough nanoprobes to rival their first infection during the trial of the First Apprentice," Dagger said. "Am I correct?"

Slade held up a finger. "Just one more exposure, Dagger. Just one more exposure to my carbonite cores and the Titans will again have their lives determined by the push of a button. All of them."

"All of them except…."

Slade stared at Dagger. He turned and clicked the remote at the screens.

An image of a Titan's bloodstream appeared. It was titled: 'Noir'.

"Noir……..is seemingly immune to the nanoprobe energy transferal," Slade said slowly. "Though—to be honest—I had psychological reasons for singling the dark-eyed boy out as the 'Third Apprentice' and betrayer of the Titans, it turned out to be twice as logical an exclusion due to his incompatibility with the technology." He slowly turned his emblazoned eye about and glared at Dagger. "One reason that I brought you here is curiosity. I want to know **why** he isn't affected, Dagger."

"And what if he could be?" Dagger retorted. "And what good is it to you if any of the Titans—for that matter—is affected? Is your only choice in the end to destroy them? To be honest, that is exactly the outcome I would desire. But your motives confuse me greatly, Slade. Just exactly where are you going with this nanoprobe scheme of yours and how exactly is it any different from last time during the trial of the First Apprentice?"

"I see that we are at a stalemate…," Slade's mask nodded. "I am no more willing to give up my secrets as you are willing to give up yours. It matters little." He clicked the remote and the screens all turned blank. "Like I told my apprentice earlier…Noir—immune to the nanoprobes or not--is out of the equation. Regardless of whatever foolish thing he's done tonight, he is still exactly what I want him to be. A scapegoat. He may not know it, but he has only further assisted in my plans. The Titans may have once suspected him at the Third Apprentice earlier. Now he has made sure that they totally believe in that."

"If he is of no threat to you…then I trust you will not make any attempts to kill him anytime soon," Dagger said.

"Don't tempt me, Dagger," Slade's eye narrowed. "I surely do not like being tempted."

Dagger nodded. He took a deep breath and twirled his knife. "How far along is your apprentice? I would greatly like to leave this god-forsaken ship of yours."

"Impatient to the end. You truly are a man of the street, Dagger," Slade said. He held up his communicator. "Apprentice. How far along are you?"

_"Just starting, Master."_

"Please make haste. Dagger and his men will be leaving soon."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx stood in the cargo room. A few dark-suited men gathered around her as she walked gracefully up to a tall, gray machine with a crevice in the shape of a human figure.

"Understood," the girl nodded, a hand to her ear. "And what have we decided about Noir?"

_"I believe 'Wyldecarde' will be the correct reference for that waste of DNA from now on…,"_ Slade's voice replied darkly. _"He is of very little concern to us. He is a fool, as he always was. We shall proceed with the plan as scheduled."_

"The shipyard?" Jinx smiled slightly.

_"Indeed. After giving Dagger's men the shipment…get a good night's sleep, Apprentice. I will need your talents fully tomorrow…"_

He nodded. "Understood. Jinx out."

She let her hands fall to the side and sighed. She turned around and stared at Dagger's henchmen.

A beat.

"Don't you guys ever smile??"

They were silent.

Jinx shrugged. She stepped backwards and into the crevice of the machine. "Let's get this done with…," she said quietly. She slipped her hands and feet into special slots…closed her cat eyes…and concentrated.

Slowly, her body started to glow. Pink rings of energy soared out of her wrists and flew into the wires and framework of the machine.

The henchmen walked up with cartons of glass vials. They slipped the vials into a slot of the machine one by one, upon which they were filled with a glowing pink aura. The henchmen literally captured the sorceress' hex into the vials and carted them off in a human chain that ended up in a metal container hung from a platform, suspended by a crane. Later, the crane would lift the metal cart full of hex-vials onto the deck of a smaller ship running abreast to Slade's frigate. Minutes later—when an exhausted Jinx was done—Dagger and his men left in the boat…shipping the paranormal material to some mysterious destination under the cover of night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Run a search of the entire City…," Commissioner Decker mumbled to his lieutenant inside his office of the police department. "If all else fails, it'll be up to the police force to ensure the peace of this City. Make sure that you hunt down and arrest this Noi---" He froze in mid-speech. He glanced over across his office at where the five Titans were gathered. "……..arrest this…Wyldecarde…" he corrected. "And I want no hesitancy on the force's part. He may have been a Titan before, but he's Slade's lousy spawn now."

"Understood, sir," the lieutenant said. He gave the Titans a subconscious glare before exiting the office in a hurry.

Silence.

Decker leaned forward at his desk and sighed. "Okay….so…which of you kids would like to explain to me how your long-lost buddy is suddenly the flashiest terrorist in town?!"

"We cannot answer for Wyldecarde's actions," Robin replied firmly, "…but we can assure you that we'll hunt him down and turn him in the first moment we spot him!"

"Oh! Naturally!" Decker cackled, stood up, and paced around the office windows. "Lord knows it's the job of the Titans to understand the psyche and prowess of their teammates just in case any single one of them happens to go berserk one day and work for Slade and the rest will have to kick his ass!" Decker kicked a waistbasket across the room with a CLANG! and turned to fume at the Titans. "What's the tally at now?! Three?! You think we—the citizens and protectors of this City—were so happy the last time a newcomer to your team turned out to be Slade's right-hand lady and about tore this damn Town to bits?!?!"

"Terra redeemed herself in the end," Starfire exclaimed, frowning.

Robin nodded. "The entire time she worked for Slade, she was being manipulated. She didn't truly desire to do any harm."

"Easy for you to say!" Decker marched over and stared down at Robin. "You…who—if I'm not mistaken—was the first to pull this 'betrayal' trick!"

The other Titans winced.

Robin clenched his fists, but managed to keep his cool as he said: "I was **coerced**!"

"Oh, I'm sure you were!" Decker nodded. "That makes it feel sooooooooooooo simple, doesn't it?! 'Coerced'. Such a cute little word. It evokes sympathy in almost the same fashion as does 'manipulated'. Well grow up and learn, kid! Whatever it was that has caused Titans to turn evil—unfair or not—it still doesn't change the fact that damage is done, peace is jeopardized, and people. get. hurt!"

Most of the Titans were silent in response to that.

Raven spoke up: "I suggest you think twice about who you're blaming. Remember that Slade is behind this."

"Oh, Slade has alwaaaaaaaays been 'behind this'!" Decker tossed his hands. "Always polluting the Titans and thus polluting the City. Do me a favor, young lady. The rest of you too! After you've fought your way through Wyldecarde and reach Slade, do the just thing that my forces and I cannot do by **killing him!!**"

The commissioner's voice echoed with his last words. It was silent, even in the cubicle area outside of his office. A person or two coughed once or twice before the five seconds of utter deadness was over and the typing, filing, and cigarette lighting continued.

Decker cleared his throat. He marched over orderly to his desk, sat down, and rummaged through a few papers. "Allright…," he said in a low, calm voice. "You've heard enough from me. Go out there into that urban Hell and do what you do best. Just be sure no more of you turn evil on us again."

"What will become of the Independence Fireworks show??" Beast Boy uttered, to the others' dismay.

Decker looked up. He glared. "Well, Mr. Beast. That's in all of your hands now…**isn't it?!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans filed out of the front entrance to the City Police Department. The night sky hung low and depressing overhead.

"So….um….," Beast Boy simpered and scratched the back of his neck. "Good thing I didn't make a donut joke, huh?"

"Save it, man…," Cyborg grunted. He looked over at Robin. "I think we should go back to the Tower. Try and assess this situation."

Raven added with a nod, "Cyborg's right. That's the safest place we can be right now. With all the security system updates we've made, I don't see how Slade—or Wyldecarde—could interrupt us in a thorough search of the City."

"Search for what exactly?" Beast Boy muttered.

"Residuals of Wyldecarde's smoke energy. Eye witness accounts in the papers. Anything."

"Sound like a good idea to you, Robin?" Cyborg asked.

The Boy Wonder was silent. He stared off down the city street.

"Robin??" Starfire walked softly up behind him. "Are you not listening to our suggestions?"

"I'm listening…," he muttered. "And I frankly don't give a damn what we do."

"Dude, we're all pretty torn up about this too, man!" Beast Boy frowned. "As if we haven't enough of Noir's betrayal—"

"He is NOT NOIR ANYMORE!" Robin spun and growled.

Beast Boy yelped back into Cyborg.

Robin shook, his fists clenching. "He is Slade's pet. Wyldecarde! A terrorist! Now we have to add his bloody name to the list of those we beat up!! You think that's gonna be enjoyable?!"

Beast Boy gulped.

Cyborg looked to the side.

"There's hardly enjoyment in what we do," Raven said firmly. "A world with Slade is hardly a good one."

"Slade Slade Slade SLADE!!!" Robin shook. "It's all about Slade!! The air breathes his name!! The City streets echo with his voice!! Why…Why on this godawful green earth does he have to have so much power?! So much treachery!! Why can't he just roll over and disappear?! Why can't he die?!?!"

"It's the Experiment…," Raven said. "It is what's pushing him forward."

"The Experiment! The Balance of Morals! Full Circle!!" Robin cackled and pulled at his hair angrily. "I've had enough of words! There is no excuse for what he's done and what he continues to do!! Whatever the motive…whatever the cause, he will do anything and everything in his power to make our lives a living Hell!! And I hate him!!"

Robin spun around and shook his fist at the night air. "**You hear that Slade?!?! I hate you!!! I hate you!!!!!!!!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's yell echoed through the City in a haunting ring.

Maybe I heard it. Maybe I didn't.

Whatever the case, I flipped from buildingtop to buildingtop till I came to a strip of stores along a city block in the Southwest District.

I jumped down and landed swiftly on the roof of a two-story store packed in between the street, two office buildings, and a back alley. I walked over to the rear edge, descended to the fire escape, and walked down the steps to the first floor. I looked around the alley to see if I was followed. I wasn't. I reached into a belt pocket and whipped out a key. I opened the rear door, slipped in, and closed it shut—and locked—behind me.

Once inside, I took a deep breath. I slipped my goggles off from over my face and tugged my metal-laced bandanna loose. I slumped them down onto a table in the dark room I was in. I was surrounded by a not-so-aesthetic assortment of used appliances, hardware equipment, kitchen tools, and electronics. The backroom to a store of some sort.

I wandered over to my 'corner' where there was a rough cot to sleep on. Besides the cot was a canvass bag full of the things I had gathered from the collapsed building site. A tiny base of operations.

I removed Myrkblade and its scabbard from my back and placed it on a makeshift mantle above the cot…within arm's length of the 'bed'.

FLIP!

A dim light illuminated the backroom.

My black eyes squinted and I looked indirectly into a nearby hallway where a figure stood besides the light source.

"Back so soon?" the voice meekly said.

I silently nodded.

"I-It's good to see that you're all right…," the figure said gently and stepped into the light. Renee was in her robe and slippers. It didn't seem like she could sleep. "You were……on the n-news, ya know."

Again, I nodded. My black eyes went to the floor.

Daniel stepped down the stairs and joined his wife's side. "How'd it go?"

I sighed. I wandered over to the table where a pad of paper and a pen rested from where I had used them earlier. I quickly scribbled a response and held it up for the two pawn shop owners to read.

They squinted their eyes and nodded.

"Thought as much," Daniel said. "Can't be all that…….fun doing that."

I bit my lip. I busied myself in removing my boots and belt.

The two stared at me.

Eventually, Renee said: "Noir…..why are you doing this?"

I froze. My belt in my hand. I slowly…slowly folded it.

"Why make yourself look so bad?" she asked in a concerned voice. "Why must you ruin your image? How is it helping your friends?"

I looked up at them. I dropped the belt down on the floor besides the boots. I picked up the pad of paper and scribbled again. I held it up for them.

'I am not even sure myself. I am hoping tomorrow will tell.'

The two nodded.

"Well….we trust you….heheh," Daniel simpered.

It tore at my heart.

"Lord knows we owe you enough as it is for what you've done to save us and this place," Renee added. "And like we promised earlier…we're more than willing to help you with a place to stay."

"Just be careful, Noir," Daniel said. "We don't want to see you ruining your life by trying to be the hero."

I suddenly snickered breathily.

"What??" Daniel raised an eyebrow.

'Hero' I mouthed, and again I chuckled.

Daniel scratched his head, looked at his wife, and shrugged.

When I was done chuckling, I let out a long…depressive sigh. I wandered over to the cot and slumped down.

"I guess….w-we should all get some sleep…," Daniel suggested.

Renee nodded. "Yeah. Good night, Noir."

I saluted them.

They were gone…and the light went off again.

Alone in the dark backroom, everything was still bright to me.

I sighed. I missed my room. I missed my eyemask. It was a curse to try sleeping when even the dark was as bright as day.

I thought of the goggles….but I didn't want to wake up with rings around my black eyes.

Heh….like it really mattered anymore.

I laid down on the cot.

But instead of sleeping, I pulled out a radio that had meatball surgery done on it. I turned the knob as it crackled and snowed in a desperate attempt to find a signal….

It hardly made any sense…but I was still thinking of the Titans the more I tweaked the radio.

Somehow, I drifted off in the middle of all that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bright and early the next day….

In the northeast shipyards….

SMASH!!!!

Shipment workers and sailors cried out and ran away from a huge tanker full of multicolored, shipping trailers as an explosion went off against the huge, metal hull. A throng of Slade's robot henchmen jumped down and marched after them. They aimed and fired threatening laser blasts that ricocheted all around the fleeing workers, scaring them off even further.

ZAP!!!

ZAP!!!!

ZAP!!!!!

Hopping, flipping, and blurring from crane to building top to ship's hull to crane again was Jinx. The Third Apprentice covered the scene from above, launching hex bolts down to assist in the occasion explosion of a truck, or the collapse of a crane's cargo, or the sinking of a life raft. Combined with the robot henchmen, the girl succeeded in frightening off the last of the panicked people from the scene.

"_Good job, apprentice,"_ Slade crackled in her ear. "_All we want here today is the Titans."  
_  
"Glad to be of assistance," she smiled cutely. "I rather enjoy this!! Hehehehe. Scatter, ants!!" She flung another hex bolt that popped the tire of a van full of escaping workers. The automobile skid, swerved, and rolled miserably along its way towards the distant highway leading South to Downtown.

_"Is the carbonite in place??"_

"Being assembled just as we speak," Jinx perched atop a crane and planted her hands on her hips. She smiled and looked over at a dozen henchmen carrying a black obelisk over to the center of the freighter's deck. "The emissions are already being let loose. Hopefully the Titans will take the bait."

_"And the C4?"_

Jinx giggled. "No problem, Master! Your apprentice spent the early morning hours putting up all three explosives all around the freighter's hull!" She flicked her wrist, produced a cylindrical trigger, and spun it in her hand. "You just give me the word, and I'll press the button. The whole ship will go down…and the infected Titans with it!"

_"While keeping yourself hidden, I assume."_

"Naturally!"

"_Well done, Jinx,"_ Slade's voice said. _"This will be it…the final pull."_

"And then they'll have enough nanoprobes to go 'kerplunk', right??"

_"Relatively speaking. And after the ship goes down with both the carbonite and their disoriented bodies…you and my henchmen must carry them over to the frigate as quickly as possible. The Experiment is nearly complete. I can already taste the power……"_

"Did you work everything out with Dagger that you needed to?" Jinx asked. She swiveled around atop the crane and watched as the distant henchmen assembled the obelisk. "Ya know…with Wyldecarde and all?"

"_Do not fret about that, apprentice,"_ Slade said in a hideously gentle fashion. "_Just do your job and round up the Titans one last time. You have performed well for me. I am proud of you."_

Jinx smiled. "Thank you, Master." She held her hand to her ear. "Is there anything else?"

_"Not until you're victorious. Slade out."_

The voice died.

Jinx sighed dreamily, blushing. She cleared her throat, pocketed the C4 detonator, and blurred down the crane's Tower to assist the henchmen in establishing an ambush.

She was totally oblivious of a dark shadow across the way on a building top. Two black spots glistened in the Sunlight for a split second before the figure turned around…and leapt off towards the horizon.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Raven pressed a button on the main computer console, shutting off the noise.

"Well…the fourth scan is in and it's showing positive. If there was ever a doubt to its certainty, there isn't any now." She looked over and blinked at the other Titans. "There's definitely a heavy amount of carbonite emission located around the shipyards."

Starfire looked at Raven. She turned and faced Robin. "But is it safe to go there?"

"Like…do we have a choice??" Beast Boy gestured. "I know we're all pretty beat trying to chase down Slade's loose ends and such….but—in case we forgot—carbonite DOES explode."

"What's worth protecting at that shipyard anyhow?" Cyborg asked. "Word is that all the workers have cleared out from some sort of robot attack. So there can't be many lives at stake."

"There's something we should be learning more and more these days," Robin spoke. "It's not always blood that's on the line. But money. Control Freak had it right way back when he threatened Kobayashi Tower. Money and goods can be just as valuable as lives in terms of protection."

"Pffft!" Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"Dude!!" Beast Boy gasped, surfing the web. "According to this site, the next Final Fantasy game is coming in on that shipment!!"

Cyborg's eyes bulged. "Okay. We're going there. Now!!"

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Friends, we must use caution!" Starfire exclaimed. "There are more things at stake now! More villains to contend with!"

"No sweat!" Beast Boy smirked. "If we run into Slade's henchmen….WHAM! SOCK! POW! And if we run into Wyldecarde, we'll do the same thing!" A beat. "…………………………right??"

Silence.

Everyone looked down.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

"We have to be serious about this…," Robin spoke firmly. He frowned as we looked up. "If any of us see him…if any of us run into him…we must not hesitate."

"We hesitated at first with Terra," Raven nodded. "Look where it got us."

"No setbacks this time," Cyborg cracked his titanium knuckles. "We won't let Wyldecarde get the upper hand just because we wanted to be soft on him!"

"Agreed!" Starfire nodded. "Besides, it was he who initiated the sadness between us!"

"So……," Beast Boy grinned. "WHAM? SOCK? POW??"

Robin smirked.

Starfire giggled.

"Let's get a move on," Cyborg motioned. "Last one to the shipyards is a rotten Titan!"

On cue, they rushed to their stations.

Cyborg and Raven went to the elevator.

Robin rushed down the pole.

Starfire opened the window and flew out.

Beast Boy stood at the window, transformed into a green eagle, and flew out into the open air.

In mid flight—the bird stopped. The changeling glided around and returned to the Tower.

Clinging to the outside frame, Beast Boy returned to elf form and looked curiously at the open window.

"Why did I leave it open??" he thought aloud to himself.

Then he realized why….and his heart sunk.

"How stupid of me….," he groaned.

There was no longer a sixth person to blur out the window and down the Tower's side…..

Beast Boy sighed, shut the window from the outside, and flew last in line to join his friends in the cavalcade to the shipyards.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Slade's mysterious frigate, the masked terrorist stood facing an array of live feeds showing the Titans rushing out of the Tower and heading Northeast towards the shipyards.

"That's it, Titans….," Slade said. He folded his hands behind his back and narrowed his emblazoned eye. "Take the bait. Come embrace your fate. A new universe awaits us…."

"_Slade?!"_ Jinx's voice crackled. _"I think they're coming! One of the henchmen spotted them with the farsight!"_

"That they are, apprentice. Be ready for them."

_"Affirmative."_

Slade's helmet tilted forward. "Take your time, Titans. For I am already in your veins…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I landed into a crouch on top of a warehouse.

I pressed myself low to the roof and glared over the side like a falcon.

The wind kicked at my long black hair and bandanna. The Sun glistened off my costume of brown and black metal mesh.

In the distance—coming along the road—I spotted the Titans. First there was the T-Car. Following a fair distance behind was the R-Cycle. Starfire and Beast Boy flew in from the sides. They were nearing me…passing docks of private yachts and fisherman ships coming in from a night's catch.

I took a deep, shuddering breath. I stood up, flexed my knuckles, and unsheathed Myrkblade.

My black goggles glinted emotionlessly in the bright morning.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOM!!!!

Cyborg cruised the T-Car along, his hands firmly gripping the wheel.

Raven sat in the passenger's seat, typing away at a computer on the dashboard. "Only five minutes away…," she said. Her blue eyes tilted up. "Into the lion's den."

Cyborg smiled over at her. "Come on, Rae! Brighten up a little!" He pointed out the windshield and gestured at the clear blue sky stretched over the distant freighter and the cranes overhead. "It's a beautiful morning! Not a cloud in the sky—"

WHUMP!!!!!

The whole vehicle lurched as I landed on the hood and perched right in front of them.

Raven's eyes bulged.

Cyborg gasped. "WHOAH!!!"

I grinned, saluted them through the windshield, and promptly stabbed Myrkblade straight down into the T-Car's engine.

CRUNNNNNNNNCH!!!!!

Sparks flew and smoke flew up and engulfed me and the passengers in turn.

The whole car shook and jerked as Cyborg fumbled for control of the wheel.

"My baby!! MY BABY!!!"

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!

I was gone. The car spiraled across the road, hobbled sideways over the sidewalk, and crashed diagonally with the side of a warehouse.

SMASH!!!!

The windshield cracked.

Raven and Cyborg jerked forward just as the airbags safely deployed.

And everything was still.

Raven moaned and rubbed her head.

Cyborg leaned up. His teeth gritting. He spoke into the communicator in his titanium arm.

"Robin!! He's here!! Wyldecarde is here!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Huh?!" the Boy Wonder uttered into the hollowness of his helmet as he sped the R-Cycle down past the docks. "Where is he?!?!"

_"He just leapt down out of nowhere and tore a fresh hole in my car!! Go get his ass!! He's gotta be around here somewhere!!"_

Robin watched as he passed the smoking T-Car to his side.

"I don't see him!!" He looked forward. "He's not anywhere near—"

Robin gasped.

I was jump-kicking over the front wheel of the cycle and sailing straight into his face.

WHAM!!!!!

I kicked Robin off the motorcycle and blurred away.

Robin flew back eight feet and tumbled hard across the asphalt. "OOOF!!!! Nnnghh!!" He rolled to a stop and winced. It was a good thing he was wearing his helmet.

The R-Cycle roared off on its own, veered, and slid chaotically into a streetlamp that bent over and shattered glass over the downed vehicle.

WHAM!!!

The engine died down.

The wheels slowed to a still dangle.

Cyborg kicked the titanium side door open to his car and stumbled forth. He gave Raven a hand as she dizzily stepped out. The two limped towards the center of the street as Robin stood up, removed his helmet, and looked around. Finally, Beast Boy and Starfire touched down besides the other three.

"Goodness! Is everyone allright??" Starfire exclaimed.

Cyborg took one glanced at his smoking car and glared. "It depends on one's definition of 'allright'."

"Dude! You were totally trashed!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Who was it?? Slade's robots?"

"No…," Robin muttered. "Him…."

"Noir???"

"**Wyldecarde!!"** Everyone else growled.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"He just came out of nowhere…," Cyborg murmured.

Starfire looked around. She wrung her hands together. "Wh-Where is he now?"

Raven's eyes narrowed…then widened. "He's here."

Robin spun. "Where??"

I materialized behind Robin and kicked him square in the butt. WHUMP!!

"Augh!!" the Boy Wonder went stumbling into Starfire. The two collapsed to the floor.

I immediately flipped over a gasping Raven, pulled the hood of her robe over her eyes, grabbed her shoulders, and tossed her straight into Cyborg.

THWAP!!

"OOF!!" Both flew back into a fish merchant's stand, smashing it to bits.

I spun around.

Beast Boy growled. He morphed into a triceratops and came thundering at me with a roar.

I stood in place. I reached back. CHIIIIING!!! I held Myrkblade at ready, glistening in obsidian murk.

The triceratops's white eyes bulged. Beast Boy cowardly turned back into elf form, crouching low and covering his head with his hands.

I swung my blade over him—just in time meet the incoming dive of Robin with his staff. CLANK!!

"RRAAAUGH!!" Robin vaulted over Beast's Boy's huddled figure and came at me, spinning his bludgeon madly.

I stepped backwards towards the docks behind, parrying and deflecting each attack stoically. CL-CL-CL-CLANK!! CONG!!

Robin swung high and brought his staff down.

I backflipped, landed on a railing, and slashed down with Myrkblade.

CLANG!!

I pinned Robin's staff to the sidewalk.

The Boy Wonder struggled to get his weapon loose. He looked up at me.

I grinned.

He gasped.

WHAP!!

I swung my leg up and kicked him hard in the eye-masks.

As he flew back, Starfire flew forward. FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!! Starbolts soared at me in a swarm as she gritted her teeth and frowned at me with glowing emerald eyes.

I dodged the first volley of alien energy and backflipped a large pulse that exploded against the railing.

I flew back and landed on the bow of a small sailboat.

"RAAAGH!!" Starfire flew a heavy starbolt.

FLASH!!

It exploded against the hull, knocking me back. In mid flight I reached a hand out, grabbed the boat's mast, spun around on it, and let go into a flying kick straight into Starfire's chest. WHAP!!

"UNGH!!" she fell back with a cry and landed in Robin's arm as I flew over, flipped across the asphalt, and landed in a slide surrounded by newspaper stands. As I raised Myrkblade, the newspaper stands were encased in black energy and floated up from the ground.

I looked off as Raven—ten feet away—rose up from the ground with her robe billowing and eyes a glowing gray. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos!!"

The telekinetic stands spun around me like an onyx cyclone. I eyed them all through my goggles. At the right time, I leapt.

SWOOOOSH—SMASH!!

All the stands smashed together to squash me, but they missed by an inch. I leapt directly over Raven, flipped, and—while upside down—flung a handful of razor sharp playing cards down at her figure.

THWUNK!! THW-THWUNK!!

All three cards stabbed through Raven's robe and stuck her to the asphalt. She grunted and struggled to yank herself loose.

I landed from my flip behind her, spiraled, and kicked her hard in the square of her back.

RIIIIIIIIP!!!

Her robe shredded from the cards as she teetered over and collapsed into a recovering Beast Boy. "OOOF!!"

I panted. I spun around.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg rushed in with his fist.

I barely ducked the mountain of titanium muscled, jumped backwards and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

SWOOOSH!! "RRRGHHH!!" Cyborg angrily punched. SWOOOSH!! He punched again. "YAAAUGH!!"

I held Myrkblade up and—showering sparks—blocked each throw of the limb. My body was jolted back with each massive deflection. I tried to stab once. My sword merely bounced off the Titan's chest, as expected.

Cyborg suddenly gripped onto the length of Myrkblade, holding my weapon at bay. I tried to yank it from him, but to no use. He raised a blue laser cannon and aimed square at my head. "Your call, punk!!"

I took a deep breath.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Blue energy exploded where my head was.

I teleported swiftly behind Cyborg and slammed both of my fists—murking—into his back.

THWACK!!!

He stumbled forward with a cry. He dropped Myrkblade.

On murking currents, I slid down, under the android's legs, snatched up Myrkblade, and shot straight up in a massive uppercut to Cyborg's chin.

SMACK!!!

"UGH!!" he fell down. When his laser rifle struck the asphalt, it shot off a burst of blue that impacted a fire hydrant. SMASH!! Water spurted out. Robin and Starfire—who were nearby—ran for cover.

Beast Boy and Raven stumbled to their feet and rushed over to Cyborg's side, helping him up.

"Nnngh…why did we teach him so much?!" Cyborg grunted. He looked up. "Where is he?!"

Robin and Starfire—soaked—wandered over. "Did any of you guys get him?!"

"What?! Dude, we thought you got him!!"

"He was too agile and fast for us!!"

"Well, he has to be somewhere—"

There was a whistle.

They all looked up.

I smirked. I waved down from where I perched on a boat's crane suspending a huge net of live, twitching fish. I raised Myrkblade and slashed a rope that was part of the pulley system.

CREEEEEEAK!!!

The crane pivoted away from the boat, past the docks, and stretched over the center of the street. I saluted and slashed the rope holding the net beneath me.

SNAP!!!

An ocean of fish came sailing down at the huddled five.

Their eyes bulged.

"Titans!!" Robin started jogging. "MOVE---"

And the Boy Wonder was silenced by fish.

PLOP!!!!!!!

The entire net sagged around them, pinning them to the ground.

I let out a sigh of relief, looked towards the freighter, and flipped away.

….

….

After nearly a minute, the net of twitching fish started to shake and bulge from underneath. Soon, a green elephant sprouted up from underneath and tossed the net to the side with a mighty trunk. The rest of the Titans were sprawled about on the ground, covered in a random assortment of flip-flopping, aquatic life.

Beast Boy shrunk down to elf form, looked at the fish slime on his body and gave a wretched expression as he tried to brush and wipe the stuff off him.

"Don't quote me on this…..," Cyborg muttered. "But….'ew'."

"You said it," Robin grumbled, reaching down his costume, pulling out a twitching fish by the tail and tossing it away.

"Yecch!" Starfire stood up and shivered. "Forgive me for saying this…but the marine life on Earth possess the most unpleasant of smells!"

"Yeah…," Beast Boy nodded. "Strange, though. It kinda sorta smells like Raven's laundry."

The dark girl gave Beast Boy a horrified look as she stood up.

Beast Boy blushed and scratched his neck. "Eheheheheheheheh…"

"Now that we're all collected," Cyborg clenched his fists and looked around. "Where'd he go?"

"He is….gone?" Starfire blinked.

"I don't sense him anymore," Raven frowned. "He is definitely gone."

"Aw man!!" Beast Boy groaned. "It was another trap!! I bet there's worse waiting for us at the freighter!"

"If there's anything at all…," Raven's eyes narrowed.

Starfire glanced over. "Robin? Are you okay?"

The Boy Wonder nodded absent-mindedly. He was diligently scanning the dockside street with his eyemask. "Um….guys? Where's my motorcycle?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx paced around on the deck of the freighter, twirling the C4 detonator in her fingers. The robot guards stood silently along the perimeter. The sun glistened on the waters surrounding the scene of the ambush. Seagulls flocked and cawed overhead. One even perched down innocently atop the obelisk containing the carbonite.

"Where are they?!?!" Jinx hissed. She glanced at a watch built into her apprentice outfit. "The Titans are usually more prompt than this!!" She looked over and raised a feline eyebrow at the henchmen.

The robots stared emotionlessly past her with white eyes.

Jinx made a face. "Can't Master at least choose prettier looking thugs?"

Just then, the roar of an engine lit her ears.

Jinx's cat eyes brightened. "Ah!! Here they come now!! Places, everyone!!"

The robots nodded and shuffled into the shadows around the obelisk.

Jinx stepped up towards the walkway platform leading to the deck from the shipyards. "Heheheh…this is it!! Won't Slade be pleased?! The last of the infection shall consume the Titans! All we need to do now is wait for them to park outside the scene of the crime, assemble calmly, and walk up the—"

_**VROOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

Robin's R-Cycle soared up the walkway and vaulted like a hulking missile towards her.

Jinx's cat eyes exploded. "Holy mother of---!!!"

_**CRASH—SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!!!!!**_

Jinx dove out of the way as the rider-less bike slammed down onto the deck, tipped over, and slid past her with a huge shower of sparks. It smashed through three thugs and clipped off the legs of two more before crashing hard into the obelisk and knocking the explosive container of carbonite over.

Jinx looked up from where she lay on the ground, gasping.

The robot henchmen gathered around the obelisk. Their heads swiveled and exchanged confused glances. Then their heads fell off.

SLASH!!!! SLASH SLASH SLASH!!!

Heads, arms, legs, and torsos flew apart as a dark figure blurred among the throng of henchmen and disappeared just as quickly.

Jinx watched it all from the ground, her jaw dropped. She got up on trembling feet and wrung her hands.

Henchmen—desperate—whipped out laser rifles and shot everywhere.

ZAAP!!

ZAAP!!

ZAAP!!

Jinx herself had to duck and dodge a few paranoid laser blasts. "WATCH IT, YOU TIN CANS!! AACK!!" She jumped a blast that exploded beneath her.

ZAAP!!

ZAAP!!

ZAAP!!

Then….silence.

The deck was quiet. The obelisk sparked a few times. The R-Cycle, sprawled on its side, smoked from its rattled engines. The ebb and flow of waves against the ship's hull filtered through the encore of seagull caws.

Jinx panted. She stepped out into the open, looking around with wide cat eyes. Trembling.

_"Jinx?! What's the matter??"_

The girl absent-mindedly placed a hand over her ear. "Uhhhh……," she slurred.

SWOOOOSH!!

She sensed a dark figure blurring behind her.

She spun, raising glowing pink fists and gritting her teeth.

Nothing.

She lowered her fists….blinked…then gasped.

Something was wrong.

She squinted her eyes. She bit her lip.

One of the C4 explosives was missing all of the sudden!

_"Apprentice!! Report!! What is going on?!"_

"Um….," Jinx stammered, "I-I'll get back to you on that…"

She lowered her hand and then spun to face the remaining henchmen. "Check the C4!! Quickly!! Make sure the last two aren't taken!!"

Behind her, something blurred over and stabbed into the gas tank of the R-Cycle. A moment later, the vehicle exploded.

**BOOOM!!!!!**

Jinx fell hard to the ground. "OOF!!"

Something blurred through the flames and dashed over her.

The henchmen raised smoking pistols, but soon their arms were lopped off by a smoking blade. The blade then twirled and a blurred figure with it. SLASSSSH!!! The robots fell down their middles and sparked to a dying silence.

Jinx stumbled up to her feet, scampered—panting—across the deck, and froze at the edge's railing. She gasped.

A second C4 explosive had been stolen.

She turned around and bumped into someone's chest.

She shrieked girlishly and jumped back, pink hands raised.

One of Slade's robots. It stared down at her lifelessly.

Jinx let out a sigh of relief. "Good…there're still some of you left. Look, we gotta run off with the carbonite before it's too late—"

The android's head teetered and rolled off the shoulders to the floor. Its body still stood.

Jinx blinked. "Um…"

THWUMP!!!

The body was suddenly shoved into Jinx.

She cried out from the impact and slid five feet across the deck.

WOOOOOSH!!

A dark figure leapt up from behind the android's body, flipped in the air, and sailed down at her.

CLAMP!!!

I landed, pressing the length of my body like a predator down against hers.

Jinx gasped. She stared up into two, glistening black goggles.

I grinned. I grabbed her shoulders. I somersaulted with her into a roll and kicked her off of me with a jolt of my feet.

WHUMP!!!

"AAAAAAAAIIIEEEEE" Jinx soared through the air, twirled once, and slammed her back hard against a stack of trailers. Her entire body flattened against the wall. She dropped the cylindrical detonator before slumping down to the deck with a sigh.

I leapt to my feet, spun around, and ended in a pose with Myrkblade twirled into readiness.

Jinx gritted her teeth. "You….," her eyes glowed pink. "YOU!!!!"

I smiled wide and mouthed 'Me!'

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred at her.

She brought two hands together and aimed directly at my feet. "HAAA!!!"

A hex bolt flew…but struck nothing but deck.

Jinx blinked. "Huh?"

I materialized behind her. I grabbed her shoulders and spun her madly behind me.

"YAAK!!" Jinx stumbled, spun, and careened across the deck and into an open trailer. "AAA-AAA-AACK!!" WHUMP!! She fell down inside the metal box.

SWOOOSH!

CLAMP!! CLAMP!!

The double doors to the trailer slammed shut. Daylight filtered in through a barred window as the locking mechanisms were fastened from the outside.

Jinx gasped. "HEY!!" She ran over to the window, gripped the bars, and yanked on them. "Nnnnnghhh!!" The doors wouldn't budge. "Frickin' stupid…," she grumbled.

My head rose into view from the outside.

She gasped.

I slipped my goggles off. With black, frowning eyes I stared at her from outside on the deck.

Jinx's lips quivered.

Suddenly, in a strangely familiar fashion, I blew her a kiss, winked, and 'giggled'.

Jinx snarled. A growl grew up from the inner heat of her being and exploded out of her throat. "rrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRAAAUGH!! LET ME OUT OF HERE YOU CREEP!!" She pounded the metal doors of the trailer in frustration. "YOU HEAR ME, GHOST BOY!! CREEP!!! LET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!!"

I didn't reply. I blurred up and out of sight from the inside view out the trailer's barred window.

Jinx's shoulders heaved. She growled and kicked hard at the door. "NNNGHHH!!"

Suddenly, the whole trailer lurched.

"Whoah!!" Jinx shuddered. Her whole body wobbled with the dancing trailer. The world outside the bars dropped out from under her. She landed hard on her butt. "OOF!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, I had blurred up to the operating cockpit of the crane which—coincidentally enough—was currently suspending the trailer Jinx was sealed inside. Pulling back at the joysticks and pressing the right buttons, I managed to swivel the whole neck of the machine about and dangle the trailer over the Bay's waters several feet away from the hull of the freighter.

I whistled a pleasant little tune, curled my fingers, and lightly touched a tiny red switch…flipping it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the trailer, Jinx pouted with her hands on her hips.

"Now what?"

CLUNK!!!

The support cables unlatched to the roof of the trailer.

The lumbering metal box fell from a great height.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!" Jinx shrieked and clung desperately to the walls.

After a split-second eternity…… SPLOOOOOSH!!!!

A fountain of water leapt in through the barred windows from the outside. Jinx was jostled beyond definition. Amazingly, the trailer proved buoyant. It bobbed up and down in a sickening fashion. The smell of ocean water and fish wafted in and filled the girl's nostrils.

She stumbled up to her feet, wincing.

"I swear….you can't do this to me, Ghost Boy. Do you know who I am?!?!" She brushed herself off and straightened the top half of her outfit. "I am the Third Apprentice!! The trusted aid to my Master Slade and—" She suddenly gasped.

In fingering her outfit, she realized the flatness of her belt pocket.

She fumbled through her belt, stuttering. "M-My detonator!! Wh-Wh-Where is it?!?! Did I drop it?!?!"

Suddenly, she froze. Her cat eyes twitched. She slowly looked over at the far, dark end of the Trailer.

Stacked on top of each other…wobbling in the bobbing motion of the buoyant trailer…were the three C4 explosives.

Jinx waved her hands. "NO!!!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I perched on the docks.

I twirled the detonator in my fingers, brought it still, and jammed my thumb down over the trigger.

_**BOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

The trailer exploded in a flurry of shrapnel, fire, and ocean spray. A gust of wind flew across the waves, kicked water violently against the docks before me, and scattered frightened flocks of seagulls overhead.

The debris flew back to the ocean in a myriad of white splashes.

And all was silent save for the distant roar of a tall plume of flame over the waters.

My brow furrowed.

I stood up.

I carelessly tossed the cylinder hard to the docks beneath me.

CLANK!!!

I slipped my black goggles on, slung a canvass bag over my shoulders, and marched off slowly with my back to the fire.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Apprentice!! Apprentice!!" Slade shouted into the communicator. "Answer me!! Report!! What happened?! Where are you?!"

_"You've been trying to contact her for twenty minutes, Slade…,"_ Dagger said, his image on a t.v. screen against the wall behind the terrorist. _"Accept the fallen of your flock already."  
_  
Slade turned and glared at Dagger with his emblazoned eye. "Jinx is no ordinary lackey. She is a sorceress. She bends the fabric of fate itself!! There's no way she could POSSIBLY have failed me!!"

"_Well look alive, Slade_," Dagger glared, unblinking, folding his hands together. _"She just failed."_

Slade's fist shook. He spun around and again shouted into the communicator. "Jinx!! This is your master! Respond at once!!"

CREEEEAK!!

Dagger's image glanced up.

Slade looked over.

A slit of light appeared. A sopping wet, physically exhausted Jinx stood in a hunched-over position before the unsealed hatch. "R-Reporting for d-duty Master…."

"Jinx….you are alive….," Slade walked over to her. "There was a terrible explosion on my end of the communications. Did the C4 go off prematurely?"

Dripping, Jinx nodded and moaned: "Uh huhhhh….."

_"How did you survive?"_ Dagger's voice asked.

Jinx's face sagged. She wheezed: "L-Luck…."

"Tell me that you saved the carbonite core….," Slade demanded.

"I….I….," Jinx stammered.

Slade's fists clenched. "You came straight here?!"

"A-Aren't you going to give me a hug?!"

"I do **not accept failure!!**" Slade shouted.

"Eek!" Jinx cowered, covering her head with trembling hands. "I-I-I'm sorry!! It was him!! He came in out of nowhere!!"

"It was who, exactly?!" Slade growled.

_"Who do you think??"_ Dagger exclaimed.

"Wait a minute….," Slade's eye narrowed down Jinx's shoes.

"What??" the sorceress blinked. "So I'm soaking wet!! I had to swim half of the way here!! Why the Hell do we live on a boat anywa—AAACKIES!!"

Slade hoisted her upside down by her leg. He stared closely at a razor-edged playing car embedded in the heel of Jinx's platform shoe. "Interesting….," he murmured and yanked the thing out.

"Wh-What's that?!" Jinx gasped with upside down cat eyes. Her wet pink hair dangled like storm clouds to the floor. "A playing card?! Sorta out of style this far from Gotham City!!"

WHUMP!! "OOF!"

Slade dropped her and turned the card over in front of his mask. "There is some writing…." He squinted.

_**Hey there, Slade.**_

_**Answer me this…what did your face look like before your parents were born?? Oh wait, my bad. You're a BASTARD! You'd better start getting more useful study buddies if you're gonna erase my equation off the paper! In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the show, Master. Your Third Apprentice is taking care of the Titans for you. In fact…I'd say he has their full attention by now. Ciao!**_

_**Sincerely, Wyldecarde**_

Jinx stood up, brushing herself off. "Master….we've got trouble with him hanging around loose like this!"

_"My thoughts exactly, Slade,"_ Dagger nodded. _"Something tells me you're going have to try harder for that universal revolution of yours."_

Slade shook. "Yes…..yes….it appears that I have to." He let out a yell. "RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRAAAAUGH!!!" And flung the playing card into the ground.

It shattered from the heavy throw of the masked terrorist.

CRASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans stepped slowly onto the deck of the freighter.

Cyborg was first, with his glowing laser rifle head at ready.

He eyed left and right.

A beat.

"Okay…," he whispered. "Coast is clear."

Robin stepped up, his staff at ready.

Starfire flew overhead, hands glowing bright green.

Beast Boy and Raven took up the rear.

After a while, they all relaxed.

The deck was full of scattered robot limbs, burnt marks, metal shards, and—

"Look!" Beast Boy pointed.

"My bike!!" Robin ran over to the charred remains of the R-Cycle. He looked around. He spotted something else.

A tipped over obelisk. There was a huge gash in its side where the core was supposed to be. The thing was now an empty, metal husk.

"Guess they bailed out when they saw us coming…," Cyborg rubbed his head. "Maybe Slade sent Wyldecarde to distract us long enough for them to retreat!"

Raven knelt by the husk. "If they retreated…then why didn't they take the entire obelisk with them? Why just the core?"

"And why are all of the henchmen in disarray?" Starfire gestured towards the robotic body parts.

"Dude…this is wyrd. But you gotta admit," he smiled. "It's sorta good luck for once!"

"Yes….," Robin stroked his chin and thought to himself. "Absolutely….good karma today…."

He stared at the gash in the side of the obelisk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Late that afternoon…as the sun was beginning to set amber and warm…

I stood in the center of an iron mill. Heat bubbled through the air all around me as I stood on a catwalk overlooking a huge urn of red hot, molten metal.

After sneaking my way in, I pulled the canvass bag over from hoisting it over my back. I untied it and reached inside. My hand pulled out with the glowing carbonite core in my grasp. I stared at it. The light reflected off my goggles.

I smirked.

I was about to toss it in when I paused.

I thought about it.

I placed the carbonite down on the metal catwalk floor.

I knelt in front of it and whipped out Myrkblade, twirling it.

SWISHSWISHSWISH-THWACK!!

I brought the wooden blade down, chipping off a glowing piece of carbonite. I pocketed the sliver away in one of my belt pockets for future examination. The rest of the carbonite core I picked up, held over my head, and tossed mightily down into the urn full of molten metal.

FFHSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!

Steam rose as the explosive melted harmlessly away.

I folded up the canvass bag, pocketed it away, and sheathed Myrkblade behind me.

I swiveled around and walked away from the heat.

I emerged onto a high scaffold of metal overlooking the industrial complexes of the City's North district.

I took a deep breath…absorbing the sunset from far away.

And I smiled.

For the first time in my life…'being evil' almost felt good.

I cracked my knuckles, readjusted my goggles, and blurred off towards the Southwest.

I would make it by nightfall…and would plan the next counterattack.


	59. Full Circle part 6

**59. Full Circle part 6**

"_Please. Stop defending him! It is obvious that the one called 'Noir' has converted over to Slade's side. I for one believe that you should have stuck to your past resolves in pointing out the possible malevolence in that young man as a Titan!"_

'_ "But you don't understand where I'm coming from, Mr. Bringham! What I'm trying to tell you and the audience right now is that the issue is not that simple!! If you were to see these teenagers fighting crime up close and personal, you would understand that there are many complex…intense elements at play in their lives! I saw Noir defend an innocent citizen before! It was not pretty, but he got the job done. He forced himself into a harrowing situation and proved himself worthy."_

_  
__" Then consider yourself one of the many betrayed citizens of this City suffering from the shock of the running-rampant Wyldecarde in our midst!! We once believed in Noir as a Titan ourselves, but our trust was ripped asunder by the actions that—as seen plainly on camera—he has chosen to do! You, Mr. Glover, were one of the rarities to publicly try and denounce the Titans! I do not see how your pain is equal to that of every other citizen in this City who—from the very beginning—did nothing but believe whole-heartedly in the goodness of the Titans' hearts!"_

_"When I speak out concerning Noir now, it is not to emphasize an opinion solely of my own like I used to in the old days. Please believe me, Bringham, I'm just saying that we—as a City—need to sit back and think. 'Why is Noir doing this'? 'Why is he doing this to his friends and the people he once protected'? Tell me just what good could come out of Noir's assistance of Slade?"_

_"The same good that could have come out of Terra's betrayal. Complete wastefulness and absurdity."_

_"Gentlemen…I'm afraid I'm going to have to interrupt you. Time is almost up. Ladies and gentlemen, please join us tomorrow as we continue this heated debate. 'Wyldecarde: Bitter Traitor or Villain from the Beginning?' Some added details concerning the next debate will be broadcasted tomorrow on the radio at 8. pm. Thanks for watching 'The Weekly Table'. I'm Phill Garrison. Good night."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Blake Glover and his coworker stepped out of the elevator and walked briskly through the parking garage that evening. Glover tugged a suitcase by his side. He was in a hurry…not necessarily out of impatience but rather preoccupation. His coworker struggled to catch up.

"I haven't seen you this irate since before your vacation," the man addressed him. "If I may ask, sir…why the constant obsession over Wyldecarde? Even when he was 'Noir' with the Teen Titans, you couldn't stop talking about him on the air."

"You wouldn't understand, Avery…," Glover huffed. "Nobody would understand. Not unless you were there to see what true heroism is."

"I hate to hear myself say this, sir," Avery blinked. "But isn't your point of view rather biased? I-I mean it almost sounds like you're admitting it!"

They stopped at Glover's car.

The old journalist looked at his partner as he fumbled for keys and spoke: "Then maybe I'm biased. My days as a journalist are coming to a wicked close, Avery. I don't know if you've heard…but the latest tests from my lung doctor are in. I frankly can't afford to spend too much time being cynical anymore…"

Avery glanced down solemnly. "I hear you, sir…"

"Do me a favor…"

"Anything, Mr. Glover."

"As soon as you catch any sign of Wyldecarde's appearances….ANY….," Glover opened the car door, leaned over, and pointed. "You contact me, you here? Contact me and I'll round up the boys and we'll see if we can get up close and personal to Wyldecarde again so that everyone will have the footage to see and turn biased themselves!"

"What do you hope to find in that fiend, sir?" Avery asked as Glover stepped into his car, started it up, and rolled the window down. "What can possibly be more sensational than a traitor?"

Glover glanced at the man as he gripped the wheel. His mouth hung open…and he smirked slightly. "What's more sensational than a traitor? How about a 'mock' traitor?"

"Sir??"

"I have a hunch, Avery…," Glover checked the rear view mirror. "And though I may be a dying journalist, I am an experienced one. And a journalist always follows a hunch…"

He backed up into the main avenue of the parking garage, shifted gears, and cruised downhill.

Avery watched silently.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flip!

Clip! Snap!

Flip! Clip!

Snap!!

Flip!

Clip! Snap!

Jinx sat on the edge of the frigate in mysterious waters. Her feet dangled over the side of the hull as she absent-mindedly opened, closed, and reopened the locket featuring her happy sisters' faces.

Her tired cat eyes wandered the glossy surface of the photo. She took a deep breath and closed it one last time. Her lips pursed as she slowly turned around and stared at the sealed cabin.

She wondered what type of conversation was taking place inside….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I can see what he is trying to do now….," Slade uttered as he paced across the black room.

Dagger's face rested on a nearby t.v. screen. Deadpan….listening…

"After all this time we spent tricking the Titans into putting the blame on him…Wyldecarde is attempting to reverse the spell. He's trying to rehex the hex and slam it in our faces."

_"Seemed like he did a good job of it too,"_ Dagger said.

"I implore you to cease in taking his side, Dagger," Slade came to a stop and glared at him with his mask's one eye. "At this point in time I would greatly need your cooperation."

_"By all means…go on,"_ the criminal lord nodded.

"Yes…my apprentice and I were unprepared," Slade said. He clenched his fist. "But I count it all as merely learning. I have always known and will always know more about this situation and the Experiment than Wyldecarde. It is the nature of constantly being one step ahead of him that makes us powerful. The fact of the matter is…I know where I will strike next. Such a future revelation is not up to him. Even if he were to catch up, he'd still be bound by the mechanics of karma. Now…Wyldecarde's one strength in this situation is that he's as much of an enemy in the Titans' eyes as I am now. When Noir was banished, I expected him to leave. From what you told me about him, it seemed only his natural choice to go back to life on his own. But apparently a friendship with the Titans polluted his mind. He is much more…extroverted than we give him credit for. Thus he's decided to do the foolish act of playing masked criminal to throw off the Titans into a greater level of suspicion than either you or I have anticipated."

"_Do you always talk this much when facing an obstacle_?" Dagger gestured.

Slade glared. "This is not an obstacle, my friend. I assure you. It is merely an annoyance."

_"Why not send the Titans a transmission? Deny all involvement with Wyldecarde. Set them on the path to pursue you more than him?"_

"You are missing the point, Dagger," Slade replied. "As far as I wanted the Titans to know, Wyldecarde IS my Third Apprentice! It is his betrayal alone that blinds them! And I need the Titans blinded so that I can draw them into my trap!"

_"Just one more exposure to carbonite……"_

Slade's helmet nodded. "Just one more exposure to carbonite and they'll be mine once more. All of them will be mine. To publicly oppose Noir would be to undo the prime component of my deceit. The Titans would collapse in on themselves, start over, and get nowhere near to becoming parts of the Experiment. I rely on Jinx because—like Wyldecarde—she can perform under the shroud of stealth. But—unlike Wyldecarde—her powers allow her to bend karma and leave the scene of a crime without a trace. Her very finger of intervention is nothing more than a coincidence or a product of cause and effect in the Titans' narrowed vision. To reveal her as the Third Apprentice would be just about as damaging as revealing Wyldecarde to NOT be the Third Apprentice. You see…there is an ounce of risk involved…but something clearly defined for us to avoid, at least."

_"I am concerned over what you plan to do now…,"_ Dagger remarked. _"What steps are you going to take next to finally ensnare the Titans? And what assurance do you have that Wyldecarde will not intervene again?"_

"Honestly, I have no such assurance, Dagger…," Slade calmly stated. "Which is why I must raise the stakes. I only have so much carbonite left, and I must devise a way to make a threat so urgent that the Titans will forego all other actions—including a battle with Wyldecarde—and pursue me foremost." Slade extended his hand and whipped out a communicator. He spoke into it. "Jinx…please come in and join us."

_"On my way, Master."_

Slade pocketed the communicator and spoke at Dagger without looking. "And…if worse comes to worse…I will be needing your assistance, Dagger."

_"My assistance? Again? Slade…what __**more **__do you want from me?"_

Slade turned and glanced over his shoulder. "You know where the boy is, don't you? You always know where the boy is."

_"Both you and I know that."_

"Why can't you relay that information to me on a regular basis?"

_"The boy's not yours to monitor twenty four/seven. If such is what you desire, attempt getting to know him at least four years in advance like I have."_

"Regardless…your expertise in surveillance and……criminal organization would be most helpful in the heat of things," Slade's eye narrowed.

_"You are on your own on this one, Slade. Just as you most like it."_

"Tis a pity…," Slade muttered. "I was hoping our friendship would persist indefinitely…"

The hatch opened. A sliver of light cut through the shadow of Jinx as the sorceress girl-stepped in and stood before Slade. "Y-You needed to see me, sir?"

"Jinx…you've had a long and tiring day," Slade held his hands up and spoke gently. "I feel you deserve a break from giving Dagger's men more of your hex for their vials. How about resting earlier this evening?"

Jinx gasped. She happily clasped her hands together. "You mean….I-I don't have to go into the machine tonight?"

"Not at all. You are free to retire and rest up for tomorrow's plans…," Slade looked at Dagger as he spoke to the girl. "In fact…I think Dagger has had enough of his……..jarred goods. Perhaps you don't need to step into that machine ever again, apprentice…."

At hearing that, Jinx blinked. She knew this was all just a bluff being called. She stared up at Dagger's face alongside Slade with her round, cat eyes.

Dagger stared. He actually blinked. He sighed. _"I see where this is going, Slade…"_

"That's good to know…," the terrorist slurred. "Care to inform me how you would rather see it instead?"

A beat.

_"Allright…,"_ Dagger consented. _"Tell me exactly what you need and how much of it…"  
_  
"Just what I thought," Slade nodded. "Now that's a good friend…."

"Um…..," Jinx meekly blushed. "D-Do I really have to go into the machine tonight M-Master?"

Slade looked down at her. A pause. "No," he consented. "Not this night, Apprentice. That word…I can give you."

She nodded, sighed depressingly, and walked off.

"Oh Jinx…"

The Third Apprenticed stopped, swiveled, and looked up.

Slade stared at her. "Tomorrow we broadcast to the Titans. We will threaten to use three more of our missiles. I have every reason to believe now that Wyldecarde will be most interested in intervening. Can I trust on you to be there to squash him out?"

A beat.

Jinx suddenly brightened again. She jerked a hand and bore a girlish grin. "Squashed like a grape!"

"Sweet dreams, Apprentice," Slade uttered. "Tomorrow morning, you wake up to create a nightmare…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The tangled up bits of radio crackled forth a column of snow through the speakers as everything got distorted. A loud hissing sound emanated from the mangled gadget.

I winced…shut the radio off…and placed it down on the table, silent. I took a deep breath and slumped back…sitting on the cot with my back to the wall in the rear of Renee's and Daniel's pawn shop. I hugged myself while black eyes circled the scenery. The night was still and disheartening.

I couldn't sleep.

I got up and stepped over towards a table on the far side of the tiny place where I was staying. In candlelight, I observed two days of my handiwork. Mesh of metal and wiring and electronic equipment were all jumbled together in various tools and fashions indiscernible to the casual eye, and yet they still served mysterious purposes to me in a couple of different ways. They needed some tweaking. I picked up what looked like a tiny satellite dish made out of blender blades and started screwing on another attachment.

Halfway through this task, my black eyes spotted a green glow reflecting off the metal of the instruments I was working on.

My brow furrowed.

I grabbed a baseball bat off the table, charged it with murk, and spun around with it held high.

The Messenger stood still. His almond eyes squinted from across the room. "Look…I know it's baseball season…but try using something less homo sapien as the ball, please? For my sake?"

I blinked. I glanced at the rear door. I glanced towards the front. I looked at him again.

"Don't ask…," he mumbled. "Lord knows I don't."

I dropped the bat with a clank!, sighed, and waved tiredly at him.

"Yes, 'greetings'," he waved back. "Salutations. Good tidings of joy and 'peace be unto you'." He took a firm step forward, his eyes knotting. "Now that the introduction is once again over with, how about I sit back and let you tell me what in the bloody virgin mary Hell you think you're up to?!?!?!"

I smirked sarcastically, turned around, and went back to work on tweaking my 'devices'.

"Hey!! I'm serious!!" he barked from behind me. "I've told you a bunch of absurd koans in our time of talking to each other, but what you're doing now defies all manners of friggin' logic!! I know I suggested that you be the one wildcard to break Slade's cycle, Noir, but it wasn't my intent for you to turn around and beat your friends up about it!! For the love of all that is holy and carbonated and graduated with the PHD of 'Pepper!'" He cackled and stepped up towards my back. "What are you trying to do with this 'Third Apprentice' bit?! What are you trying to prove?!"

I sighed frustratingly and ignored him. I focused on my work.

"Hey! Noir! Remember me?! Ya know…mysterious asian guy who smiles too much and appears out of nowhere to set things straight in that discombobulated skull of yours?! I'm talking to you here!! What you're doing is nuts!! It's like schizophrenic suicide!! Won't you reconsider?!"

I didn't think he honestly read any of my sign language. So, without looking, I gave him one gesture that he **would** understand.

The Messenger frowned. He marched over, grabbed my shoulder, and pulled me around. "Quit your clowning!"

I gritted my teeth. With a blurred arm I tossed him back, clenched my fists, and stood threateningly above him.

The Messenger's brown eyes widened and he stumbled backwards, breathing in a frightened manner.

I glared at him…but slowly my black eyes narrowed and I looked depressingly down to the side. I fumed.

"So…..Noir is dead….what a shame….," the Messenger said breathily. "He was a young man I truly…truly believed in. Always there for his friends. Selfless. Caring. Always a great swordsman in battle who defended his teammates and sacrificed himself for the innocent at all costs. But you wouldn't have liked him, Wyldecarde."

Seething, I glared up at him as he spoke.

"You wouldn't have liked his boundless love," Messenger spoke to 'Wyldecarde'. "You would have scoffed at him for giving his all for his friends. Friends…who—in spite of all the things he did to prove himself—rejected him in an emotional heartbeat. Friends whom he loves dearly, even though they treated him like shit for things even they know—deep down in their shadowed hearts—he didn't do."

I breathed heavier and heavier. My fists shook. I tried not to look at him.

But the Messenger's face washed over with a sort of awe and revelation as he continued in spite of himself: "You would have hated Noir for being so foolish. It's because you're different, Wyldecarde. You….you hate those Titans, don't you?"

I glared at him.

I shook.

"You hate those Titans for what they did to you….and what you're doing now is nothing short of cold, hateful revenge."

WHUMP!!

I exhaled. My black eyes blinked. I hadn't realized until I heard the sound that I had rushed over and slammed the Messenger up against the wall by the collar. I was sweating.

He calmly looked up at me. "Did I hit a sour note, Wyldecarde? If what I said was the truth…you wouldn't be shoving me around like this. Because you're evil. And evil people don't deny that which they want to be." His almond eyes narrowed and he whispered: "Noir is still alive, isn't he? Still selfless. Still ticking inside that mesh of metal and rust you call an 'apprentice of Slade' outfit everynight. And that ghost of Noir…he still loves his friends. And that's why you're always hurting and being hurt, isn't it, Wyldecarde? Because Noir won't admit that—no matter how much he loves his friends—they betrayed him. They betrayed him cold-heartedly….ignorantly…and selfishly…"

I let go of him. My skin was pale. I wandered sickly across the room. Panting.

The Messenger swallowed. "I don't know where you're going with this. As long as you get some place. And at this point….you know…what good would it be to win back the love of the Titans which has always…always…been so shallow."

My body shook again.

I just couldn't believe that….

"Are they worth it….Wyldecarde?"

I grabbed a toaster off a rack of backstock, flung around, and tossed it at the Messenger in a superheated, silent growl.

CLANG!!!

The apparatus struck the wall hard, fell apart, and clattered to the floor.

The Messenger was gone.

I panted…sweating…shaking.

A soreness spread through my empty throat. I gripped it. I felt the scar. But that was only a mask.

There were more scars…..so…so many more.

I fell to my knees and my whole body quivered. My black eyes clenched shut as hot streams of tears screamed their way out. I hiccupped and shook. Wilting into myself.

The Titans……the Titans……I could not stop thinking about the Titans…

I was oblivious to the light in the rest of the building turning on and a soft set of footsteps coming down.

"Noir??" Renee's voice softly said as she entered the back room. "We heard a crashing noise. Was th-there someone here?"

She froze as she saw me.

I slitted my moist eyes open and looked weakly at her. I must have looked wretched, for the reaction she had was heart-wrenching.

"N-Noir…," she swallowed and stepped over with a hand outstretched. "Do you need to talk about something?"

I shook my head furiously. Sniffling, I stood up…gathered all the metal tools in two massive sweeps into my canvass bag…grabbed my shades this time…and rushed out into the darkness of the City streets at night. I wouldn't need the Wyldecarde garb for that specific moment in time.

Renee looked at the open door with forlorn eyes. Daniel stumbled down the stairs and walked up to her side.

"What's the matter?"

Renee sighed. "I don't know, Daniel. I don't know….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Tower, the Main Room glowed faintly in the corner where a candle had been lit in the kitchen area. There, Raven sat. Her blue form almost matched the dark windows behind her as she gently lifted a mug of herbal tea to her lips, sipped, and held it out at bay again. She was silent…staring off into some forbidden space set apart for her mind alone.

Thus she was totally oblivious in the microcosm of her 'bliss' to take notice that Cyborg had walked into the room.

"Nice party you're having here…," the android Titan mused.

Raven inhaled. "Yeah…….."

"I'm sorry, are you—"

"Meditating? Now. Not now."

"Okay. Just checking. You're always so quiet, it's hard to tell sometimes," Cyborg said, wandering over to the bar of the kitchen unit. "I just came out for a snack. I'll leave you alone."

"Well…um….," Raven began…but didn't finish.

A question mark popped over Cyborg's head. He smirked and leaned forward. "Wanted to talk?"

"Whatever…," was the best she could reply with.

"I can take a hint," he chuckled. He sat on a stool a few feet away from Raven and leaned on the bar. "So…got a lot on your mind? Heh…never thought how funny it'd be to ask you that."

Raven glared at him. She calmly sipped some more tea, swallowed, and said: "Are you the only one perplexed by how….well the day went today?"

"Today went well?" Cyborg bore a perplexed expression. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware you were fond of being beaten up by a former teammate and crashing inside my wrecked Baby to boot!"

"That's not what I meant," she shook her head and sighed. She looked at him. "Were we almost annihilated in an explosion today?"

"No."

"Pinned to the ground by metal ceiling rafters?"

"No."

"Swarmed by an impregnable force of Slade's robot henchmen?"

"Nope," Cyborg shook his head. "Some days rain more or less than others is what I think."

"But why??"

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Why??"

Raven looked up at him with blue eyes.

The android rubbed his head. He sighed. "Well…….most people who know me think that I'm an atheist. They think that I see life as nothing but a bunch of cause and effect circumstances. Kinda like the ones and zeroes in my body's programming, right?"

Raven nodded.

"But……..," Cyborg exhaled and bore a drunken smile as he looked through the candle and softly uttered: "I'm convinced---no, I know. I know that I love life more than anyone else here. More than Robin. More than Beast Boy. Yes, more than Starfire." He looked over and performed a mock gasp. "I even love life more than you, Raven!! Oh my gawd!!"

She honestly smirked.

"Just because I'm half metal and circuitry doesn't mean I can't appreciate a warm sunny day or a cool breeze or a pleasant dip in the lake," Cyborg said. "Similarly, just because I'm half machine doesn't mean I don't believe in Destiny or a Loving Creator or a….a 'Forgiving Karma'." He looked directly at her and gestured. "We've been through some tough, tough times over the past two weeks. I think God, Buddha, Big Bird or whoever's in charge Up There is starting to spin things back into our favor. You know…a payment for our diligence and hard work through all the toughness."

Raven leaned her blue head to the side. "Do you believe in sacrifices, Cyborg?"

"Kinda like Atonement? Christ dying on the cross and all that jazz?"

"Do you believe that—if there is indeed a 'Forgiving Karma'—good things come at the same time as bad things? Do you believe sacrifices must be exchanged for prosperity?"

Cyborg looked at her. He leaned forward on his titanium knuckles and breathed. A beat. "Wyldecarde is our enemy now. Just today…he attacked us—"

"And when we got to the crime scene," Raven finished, "…there was no trap. No ambush. No….'toughness'."

Cyborg swallowed. "Well….," he looked aside at her. "…it's certainly bad for all of us. Ya know…what Noir became. Heh, perhaps what he always was." A beat. "You know what I think, Raven?"

"Hmmm?"

"I would gladly take all that toughness and bad karma each and every day…if it meant sacrificing the pain of having Noir become a traitor."

She nodded.

Silence.

The candle fire danced.

"I….I keep thinking about the same thing over and over again…," Raven finally admitted.

"What's that, Rae?"

"It's…..s-something my father said," she bit her lip.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"He told me….on a few occasions since Mumbo Jumbo's camera screwed with my emotions….h-he told me that I should have destroyed Noir."

"When he was in Noir's body?"

"Kinda…," Raven took a deep breath. "But…it went beyond that. He wanted Noir destroyed completely. As odd as it sounds….I-I think my father was actually trying to protect me from Noir…"

"**Your** dad, Rae?" Cyborg smirked. "Are we talking about the same guy who's over ten feet tall, has four glowing eyes, fangs, and—oh yeah—he's a demon!!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Yes…the same one. My father. Trigon."

"What're you doing listening to him for, Raven? He's bad!"

"Do I tell you how to or not to listen to your father?" she glared.

Cyborg merely stared at her.

Raven clutched her forehead and shook it. "S-Sorry…Cyborg. That was uncalled for."

"It's okay," he smiled softly and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We all have our sensitive parts. Sorry if I overstepped yours."

"I….I just don't know what to think anymore," she moaned. "At one time, I thought I did." A beat. "Can I tell you something, Cyborg?"

"Why not?"

"It's sort of like a confession."

"Uh oh."

"Just sit still," she sighed. A beat. "Soon after Trigon's……'warning', I did a bit of investigation."

"Investigation?"

"In my head."

"Ahhh."

"I found that I had residual memories from Noir's mind itself. They were carried over with Trigon when rage returned to my psyche."

"Okay…."

Raven continued: "And what I found……..was this vision……..this dark and frightening vision."

"Want to tell me about it?"

"Not really…."

"That's fine."

"Just know that it…..was very disturbing," she said, rubbing her eyes. "And…it definitely had to do something with Noir."

"You sure your father didn't make it up?"

"Quite sure," she nodded. "My father may be evil…but he's seldom dishonest."

"I see…"

"And…..based on that vision alone…..I asked Robin to continue the search."

Cyborg blinked. "The search?"

"Of the Pacific Coast," Raven blurted. "Since day one of Noir's stay here…Robin and I have been………er…….investigating his past." She blushed slightly.

Cyborg took a few seconds to digest that. He slowly nodded. "That's perfectly understandable, Raven."

"Is it?"

"Why do you ask? I just said it was!" Cyborg chuckled a bit. He squinted his human eye. "Do you feel……regretful, Raven?"

She placed her mug down onto the counter and rested her hands in her lap. Her eyes gazed straight into the woodwork of the bar. She was silent.

"Raven," Cyborg said. "What you and Robin did was right. Wyldecarde is a villain because he chose to be. Anything we did or once did to offend him in the past is not something we should feel bad for. Remember, he **betrayed us.** Not the other way around."

Raven bit her lip. "But is it really that simple?"

Cyborg leaned back.

Raven looked at him. "I….I do feel bad, Cyborg. I feel bad because—as soon as I suspected him of his wrongdoing—I pursued a way to bring him to justice immediately. I was honestly surprised when you and Robin found those data transmissions of Noir's to Slade. Up till then, I was just obsessed. Now…….now…"

"You're hurt."

Raven glared at him. "I don't do 'hurt'."

Cyborg rolled his eyes. "Didn't you just say ten seconds ago that you 'feel bad'?"

Raven winced.

"And don't try and make me forget the breakdown 'Raven' had when she was stripped of all need to repress her emotions. God, you should have seen yourself, Raven. You were beautiful."

"Beautiful?"

"In a bitter-sweet…emotional fashion. Admit it. It felt good to collapse once it was all over and you decided to have us face on Trigon."

Raven was befuddled. She subconsciously nodded her head.

"Raven…we've all been hurt by Wyldecarde. And bringing him down in the coming days will be a challenge. Not so much because of his fighting expertise and all the physical weaknesses he's learned about us through training. But because he was once someone we trusted. And it took us a denial of our friendship to root out treachery he was performing under our very eyes."

"I just can't believe that he's doing this….," Raven breathlessly stammered. "And I also can't believe that—Trigon warned me about him—and he was right. I was right. We were all right….i-in distrusting Noir…"

"Well, Raven," Cyborg breathed. "It's gotta be doubly tough for you."

Raven glanced at him funny. "Why me?"

"Because you two were close."

Her eyes bugged. She frowned. "**We were not!**"

Cyborg chuckled. "Sure you were!! What….you think the Titans and I couldn't see it??"

Raven folded her arms, and looked away. "Noir and I were not close…"

"Hell yeah, you were!! There're many definitions of the term 'close', Rae. And it need not mean the innuendo that's probably going through your head right now. The innuendo which would be truly threatening to your fragile psyche. You and Noir were close…in that you respected each other. Robin and I both talked about how—after a battle or during an investigation—we would casually look over and there you and Noir would be. Just sharing a glance or a chat or something. You both had a connection. You were distanced by your state of mind. Noir was distanced by his state of silence. You were both very…mature people. It's only natural that you hung out together so much."

Raven took a deep breath. "But it was all so fake……"

Cyborg stared. "That's what's truly on your mind, isn't it…Raven?"

She was silent. Still as a statue.

"It's not Trigon's words circling your head or our distrust of Noir bothering you. You're bothered by the constant realization that you got really, really close to someone for once. And that someone turned out to not be that someone in the first place. That someone is Wyldecarde. A villain. A traitor. And the first moment he swung his sword at us…all those memories of your time together. The looks exchanged. The silent respect. The maturity. It all went down the tubes in a bloody rag of the metaphorical sense, didn't it?"

Raven swiveled out of her bar, stood up, and adjusted her robe. "I-It's late…," she uttered. "I've b-been sitting here too long. I should go to bed and r-rest for whatever we must face t-tomorrow and the next day." She walked off. "Good night, Cyborg…"

Cyborg moaned. He shook his head, then spun around and waved at Raven. "Rae! Rae, come on! Sit tight! Don't walk away like that! I'm only trying to bring things to the surface so that you can get them off your chest! It was you who hinted that we should talk! This is what you wanted, right? To talk about it?"

Raven slowly turned around. Her face looked so wounded. She breathed: "You know what I want, Cyborg? Do you really know what I want? I-I can't have what I want. Because if I did….Wyldecarde would be **dead** by now." She turned around, and was gone.

Cyborg watched her leave.

He sighed and swiveled around. The candle glow flickered off his titanium skin.

"'Forgiving Karma….'," he muttered, eyeing the fire. "Someone on the opposite side of the universe must be feeling very…very happy on account of her."

He licked his metal fingers, then reached them out and closed them over the candle's flame.

The light went out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRIIINK! CRIIINK! CRIIINK!!

I finished.

I stepped back with the wrench and wiped a few beads of sweat off of my brow.

I had attached three metal apparatuses in strategic locations around the rod in the center of a huge satellite dish.

Wind kicked at me hard and hot.

I turned around, my black hair wavering in front of my shades.

The sun was starting to rise against the myriad of buildings below.

Another day…another mission.

I placed all my tools back into my canvass bag and slung them over my shoulder. I glanced back at the satellite dishes.

Hopefully…my machines would do their job…

Sunlight was increasing. I had to get back to the pawn shop before anyone could see me. I had a disemboweled radio waiting for me.

I took a breath, blurred, and ran down the height of the Kobayashi Tower. My work there was finished….for now.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that morning…

As the commute rushed into full spring and filled the main streets of the City with the hustle and bustle of capitalist life…

Commissioner Decker marched along the busy sidewalk towards the distant entrance to the Police Department. He had a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Flanking his side and keeping up with the pace was his lieutenant.

"Thankfully, nothing valuable was destroyed at the freighter yesterday. The final reports show an empty trailer had blown up somehow, and there was some burnt marks and debris scattered around the main deck. But no commercial shipment was trashed."

"Well, that's a good thing for once," Decker nodded in mid-walk. "Barely any collateral damage in the fight against Slade's bomb threats! I commend the Titans on that!"

"Actually, sir, the Titans weren't at the scene when that destruction happened."

Decker laughed. "HA! Well, that explains it then! Who was there, lieutenant?"

"We don't know, sir."

He looked back at him. "'We don't know'?"

"Correct."

"Well…shit! Doesn't that beat all!"

"The Titans were busy fighting off Wyldecarde at the time."

"Really now…how fascinating," Decker took a puff from his cigarette. "Slade's apprentice was rather distracting. He must be new to the whole 'badass' deal."

"Beats me, sir."

They passed a huge banner spread across a street's fence advertising the Independence Fireworks Show.

Decker glared at it as they walked by. "Tell me, lieutenant. Is our Mayor insane?"

"It's not my place to judge, sir."

"Neither is it mine. But I'll judge anyways," Decker faced the lieutenant. "That son of a bitch has a screw loose! I can't believe he's allowing the fireworks show to go on as scheduled amidst all this mess!"

"It's our duty to ensure to the event's security, sir."

"Don't need to remind me of that, lieutenant," Decker moaned. They reached the entrance to the police department and he tossed the cigarette down to the sidewalk. "My only consolation about this lunacy is that—with a huge public event about to go underway—perhaps the Titans will be a teensy bit more careful in how they handle themselves in taking down Slade and his little card-throwing monkey. I have my limits, lieutenant. I swear to God, Allah, whoever….if people get hurt this July Fourth on account of the Titans or their former has-been Wyldecarde….I might just have to take the Vigilante Accord and wipe my ass with it!"

The lieutenant chuckled. "Spoken like a true poet, sir."

"I hate poets," the commissioner grumbled. "Come on…I want to have a closer look at those reports."

They both went up the steps and through the department's entrance.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you mean the Titans weren't on the freighter when all Hell broke loose?" Blake Glover exclaimed into his cell phone. He sat in the back of his limousine as it went stop-and-go through morning traffic down the main streets that morning. "If they weren't there, then who was?!"

_"Heck if I know, sir. Whoever was there, the place saw a lot of explosions. Workers found burnt pieces of Slade's robots, singes from fire on the main deck, Robin's charred R-Cycle---"  
_  
"Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait," Glover gestured and stared into his cell phone as his mouth hung open and he uttered: "The R-Cycle was there?"

_"In pieces…yeah…"_

"But Avery, I thought you said the Titans weren't there at the scene!"

_"They weren't!"_

"Then how come Robin's R-Cycle was??"

_"Beats me! Last time the Boy Wonder saw it, he and the other Titans had just been distracted by an attack of Wyldecarde's!"_

Glover blinked. He paused for a moment.

_"Sir??"_

"I'll call you back, Avery. Remember what I said last night? Keep your eyes open."

_"Yes, sir. As soon as Wyldecarde shows up, we'll be there with bells on."_

"And cameras too, right?"

_"Yes sir…,"_ Avery's voice chuckled on the other end. "_Cameras and bells."  
_  
"Splendind. Over and out."

Click.

Glover pocketed the cell phone away.

He wheezed and slumped back into the chair of the limousine seat.

A beat.

"Why would the R-Cycle be there if the Titans weren't?" he thought aloud. His aged eyes narrowed. "For that matter…who besides the Titans knows how to pilot that thing??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Against the black wall of the inside of Slade's frigate…

Eight separate t.v. screens flickered and flashed forth the image of an abandoned building top from separate angles. Atop the worn down roof, a dozen robot henchmen were seen setting up three titanium missile launchers that glistened in the Sun. Thankfully, they were nowhere near a populated zone. The operation was going on completely unchecked. Once the third and last missile was loaded, two or three robots walked over and faced the camera broadcasting the largest of the t.v. screens. They looked straight at the recorder and saluted.

Slade nodded. He whipped out his communicator. "Apprentice, come in."

_"Snnnkkk—Jinx here!"_

"Have you gotten a good position?"

_"I can see most of the City from here. I also have a viewfinder if I need help spotting Wyldecarde if he makes his move."_

"Don't stress those rare eyes of yours too much, apprentice," Slade spoke liquidly into the communicator. "If we absolutely need to know where Wyldecarde is…we have all the help we can need."

_"Is Dagger really going to work with us after what you said to him last night?"_

"I'm convinced that he will help us out because of what I said to him last night. But, hopefully, we won't have to resort to such means. Just wait for my signal. It only a matter of time, I will broadcast the message for the Titans to pay heed to. More than likely, I'll be needing you to help ensnare them at the missile launcher site."

_"Awwww…I was hoping I'd get to see Ghost Boy again!"_

"The Experiment, apprentice. Do not forget about the Experiment."

_"And I assure you that I haven't, Master! But that boy……rrrrrghhh!!"_ Jinx's voice warbled from the other end. _"He will pay for what he almost did to me yesterday!"_

"I assure you…when the power shifts from the Balance of Morals…I can assure you just retribution," Slade said. His emblazoned eye narrowed. "The same is true of my promise to find your sisters. It will all be made possible one day, Jinx. You will just have to trust me."

Her voice sighed. "_I know, Master. I'm sorry."_

"Good girl."

_"When will you broadcast the threat?"_

"Any second now…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Northwest District of the City, bordering the raised highway and towering skyscrapers around it, there was Phaser Labs. It was that City's sister to Metropolis' STAR Labs. Inside Phaser, scientists were constantly working on the newest and most fantastic technologies to assist mankind. Many of them were aimed at crime fighting techniques—as people such as the JLA and the Teen Titans needed all the help they could get.

On the third floor of the futuristically curved building, scientists were huddled about various computer stations in a halo format that hugged the walls of a twenty-five feet by fifteen foot room. In the very center of the room—suspended in a cylindrical chamber—a green orb floated and glowed. It was the latest in experimental, chronotonic technology. The theory at the time was that a suspension of time separated from the rest of the known dimension by a pocket in space-time could create a mysterious form of temporal friction that generated energy and could provide juice for a power grid literally forever. The dark side of such experimental technology is that many a villain attempted to create something called a chronotonic detonator. Such a bomb would simply pierce the space-time pocket in one sudden burst, causing the suspension of time inside to seep out and merge with the rest of the continuum. The result would be a paradox which scientists and braniacs could only sum up as a 'stop' of time forever. Slade himself—once—threatened to used a chronotonic detonator. But he was merely bluffing. Even Slade knew the extremely hazardous prospects—in a universal sense—of piercing a pocket of chronotonic suspension.

Thus it was easily understood that Phaser Labs, with its chronotonic core being worked on, was a place off access to anyone except privileged and trustworthy scientists who made it the sole goal of their life to be there and experiment on utilizing the space-time pocket as a source of energy.

It was halfway through the work day. The scientists worked quietly, typing at various reports and experimental programs in an air of concentration. At some point, a worker came around and handed out cups of coffee. Someone shared a joke with them and they both pleasantly laughed.

And then…an alarm went off.

WREEEEEEE!! WREEEEEEEE!! WREEEEEE!!

All the scientists gasped and jumped up.

One rushed over and—panicked—checked the schematics of the chronotonic core. "E-Everything's stable!! It's not the core!!"

"That's not a meltdown alarm!! There's been a security breach!!"

"But who?!?!"

Suddenly, there was a loud hissing sound.

Pure white smog came filtering down through the vents in the ceiling and filled the room.

"Gas!!"

"It's flooding the whole building!!"

"Everyone out!!"

"Now!! Now!!"

"Evacuation Route Beta!"

"Go! Go!"

"Move it, people!!"

As the gas seeped into the room, everyone cleared out. The tray of coffee was knocked over and spilled hotly over the floor in the rush. Soon all the workers had exited and the doors were sealed. The gas gradually spread throughout the room. Everything was gray and milky.

And then….

CLANG!!!

One of the ceiling grates was kicked open from above. It swiveled for a second…then fell hard to the ground.

A pair of legs nimbly dropped down and a figure slipped to the ground, landing with a crouch.

I peered through a gas mask at the room. When I was certain I was alone, I got up and swiftly marched over towards a nearby computer console. My breath echoed through the mask as I clicked a few buttons and pulled a lever.

A fan started, and the fog was cleared away…slowly.

Before the fog went away, I took a deep breath into my mask and murked my whole body. I blended in with the smoke. In such fashion, I streamed my form up and around the ceiling of the building. I materialized every now and then…slashing apart the security cameras. Once all surveillance equipment was destroyed, I settled back onto solid feet and flexed my muscles. I sheathed Myrkblade and waited for all the smog to clear.

Once it had, I whipped off the gas mask and shook my long black hair out. I blinked through black goggles at the spinning, chronotonic core.

I shrugged.

I walked over towards a wide computer console and unloaded my canvass bag over a nearby table. Tools of metal, wiring, and computer chips spilled out. Haphazard electronics. I shuffled through them, found a cylindrical device, inspected it, then planted it over a lens-scanner that extended outward from the computer monitor. I pulled and twisted at two wires, and my device went to life. An electrical shock ran to a transplanted CD-Player's laser. The laser bored into the lens scanner with surgical softness and burned the device from the inside out. The scanner short circuited and died. The computer flickered and the security access screen went away. I had access to the main system. I typed away and brought up a program for Internet connection. I glanced up at a square box atop the computer mainframe. I picked up another device, clamped it over the box, and pressed a makeshift button. The device blinked to life and flashed in cadence with the lights on the box. Finally I reached over and picked up a cam corder and a bunch of wires. I set the cam corder up on the edge of the table and then went to the tiring work of syncing the wires into the actual computer system itself.

Aren't we all nerds at heart?

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade looked at a digital clock on one of his t.v. screens.

He nodded his helmet.

"It is time…"

He pulled out a remote and switched the screen off.

He turned around and faced a camera set up before him. One of his robot henchmen aimed the recorder at him.

Slade nodded.

The android henchmen began recording.

Slade's message was this:

"Titans…how I regret having to interrupt national broadcasting when all I need to talk to is you. After all, the people deserve their regularly scheduled brainwashing and propaganda. Especially when their lives are at stake. But let's get to the point, shall we? I know how impatient you Titans are. Sadly, it seems to be rubbing off on me."

He turned around and aimed his remote at the black wall again.

A huge screen of the rooftop of the abandoned building and its assortment of missile launchers appeared.

"This…," Slade said, "…is what's waiting for you. But not for long. Find it…before I decide to make good use of it. There are well over fifteen million people in this region alone, Titans. It would be a shame to have all of their blood on your hands. Now wouldn't it? And who knows? Maybe you'll find me this time?"

He leaned forward and glared with his mask's one eye as he said: "I've been waiting for you to be in my presence again. Waiting for a long…long time." A beat. "You have four hours."

He nodded at the android.

The robot cut the feed.

Slade's message ended.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From the mysterious frigate, a powerful signal carrying Slade's message was sent by a satellite dish into space.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A huge satellite spiraled over the orbit of the planet. Slade's signal reached it, bounced off, and sailed straight down to the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The signal flew down through the atmosphere…and struck the satellite dish of Kobayashi's Tower.

It was there that something odd happened.

Slade meant for his signal to encompass all of what the satellite dish received, all of what the wiring transferred, and eventually all of what the JCN station broadcasted. But a strange assortment of metal devices placed strategically around the body of the satellite dish changed that. They powered up the dish, adjusted to Slade's signal, and redirected it through a minor route—not at all interrupting the main broadcast of the JCN Network.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the newsroom of JCN Broadcasting, an anchorwoman and an anchorman were talking to the camera about the latest developments in the Independence Fireworks show.

In a thin, dark room separated from the stage…the audio visual crew sat at a throng of chairs. Numerous screens and feeds and switchers were splayed out in front of them.

The director of operations leaned back in his chair with headsets and chewed gum.

At one moment…the video feed flickered, went static, then returned to normal. All in a split second.

The director made a face. He leaned forward and checked all the systems.

His assistant rushed over and checked as well.

"The heck was that?!?!" the director exclaimed.

The assistant checked all the systems, gestured, and shrugged "Nothing."

"Nothing here too…."

"Wyrd."

A beat.

They stared as the anchorwoman and anchorman went on unhindered.

The director operated the switcher just in time to go to a live feed of the City Hall. "Ah well…glitch in the Matrix, I guess."

"Yeah…ha ha ha!"

"Heheheheh…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Unknown to the workers in the tower, their computers received Slade's signal.

The signal was carried into the Internet and strung—via broadband connection—into the digital crossroads of chaos.

The signal bounced around and metaphorically flew through the air, over the City, and streaked down into the Western District where Phaser Labs was presently being evacuated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the laboratory of the chronotonic core, I sat in the computer seat after having wired the cam corder into the system.

The device planted on the box blinked.

I smiled.

I typed furiously and intercepted Slade's signal.

I converted it into a sound file only and loaded it into an editing program I had quickly installed into the mainframe.

After a bit of tweaking, I was ready to record a live broadcast of Slade's message laced in with the footage from the camcorder. I quickly hacked into the satellite broadcasting program of Phaser Labs and directed an overwhelmingly powerful feed back towards Kobayashi Tower.

Before clicking the mouse one last time, I took a deep breath.

-CLICK-

I dashed over and stood in front of the camcorder…besides the chronotonic core….in my 'apprentice' outfit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Pfft!! Why do you have the news on for, Robin??" Beast Boy remarked over a dish of tofu waffles. "Listen to me! I'm a couch potato and suddenly I could care less about what they're broadcasting!"

That morning in the Main Room, the Boy Wonder sat on the sofa facing the huge monitor. "I have a feeling we're going to be really stressing it on July Fourth," he said to Beast Boy. "It's only two days away, and people are going to need us to assist in security. We can't have Slade showing off the ultimate fireworks."

"Agreed!" Starfire smiled from a window seat. "He is neither patriotic nor Uncle the Sam!"

"But it **is** absurd…," Raven mumbled from the pages of her book. "Frederick Smith must have an ego problem if he's so determined to pull off the fireworks this year. It is clearly too dangerous and tense of a time in this City for such public reverie."

"Here here!" Beast Boy chanted.

"Awww…come on!" Cyborg said between bites of bacon and eggs. "Can't people have a little faith every now and then?"

"That's Cyborg…," Robin smirked as he watched the screen. "Ever religious…"

Cyborg and Raven exchanged glances.

They were silent.

Suddenly…the news feed was interrupted and the image of a floating chronotonic core flashed into view.

Robin jumped up, fists clenched. "Titans!!"

Beast Boy looked up. He dropped his soy milk. "Whoah!!"

"Good heavens!" Starfire gasped.

Raven put her book down. "Well this is interesting."

Cyborg joined the rest as they all walked forward and joined Robin in front of the monitor.

Wyldecarde clearly stood next to the core, grinning.

However, it was Slade's voice that spoke—as if behind the camera—as the live feed of interruption continued.

_"Titans…how I regret having to interrupt national broadcasting when all I need to talk to is you. After all, the people deserve their regularly scheduled brainwashing and propaganda. Especially when their lives are at stake. But let's get to the point, shall we? I know how impatient you Titans are. Sadly, it seems to be rubbing off on me."_

Wyldecarde waved, unsheathed Myrkblade, and held it up to the chronotonic core.

_"This……is what's waiting for you. But not for long. Find it…before I decide to make good use of it."_

Wyldecarde spun his blade dangerously close to the core.

The Titans gasped.

_"There are well over fifteen million people in this region alone, Titans. It would be a shame to have all of their blood on your hands. Now wouldn't it? And who knows? Maybe you'll find me this time?"_

Wyldecarde smirked at the camera, and gently walked off screen.

_"I've been waiting for you to be in my presence again. Waiting for a long…long time. You have four hours."_

SNKKKKKK!!! The feed went to snow, and suddenly flashed back to a pair of disoriented, pale anchorpeople who cleared their throats and started reading off a pile of incoming papers in an attempt to explain what was just seen.

Robin muted the screen and faced the others.

"This is not good…."

"No kidding!!" Beast Boy bounced and grabbed his hair. "I hate crouton detonators! I hate them!!"

"That was not a detonator," Starfire said. "That was an energy core."

"What's the difference?!"

"An energy core can be found in a chronotonic detonator, yes," Starfire nodded. "…but in such a circumstance, the core would not be free floating like that. It must be an experimental energy core."

"Anywhere nearby where people are experimenting with chronotonic energy?" Raven remarked.

Cyborg nodded. "Phaser Labs. In the West of Town by the highway. They've been working on it for years."

"That's okay, right?!?!" Beast Boy stammered. "N-No time stopping forever or what not?"

"If Slade orders Wyldecarde to stab into the core…it would have the same effect as a chronotonic detonator going off!" Starfire said.

Beast Boy collapsed to the ground.

Raven glared at him, then looked towards the others. "Slade and his apprentice are way over their heads now. Unless, of course, this is a bluff."

"We have four hours to act upon this and four hours alone," Robin clenched his gloved fists. "I'm not ready to treat all of this as a bluff. Wild goose chase or not…if Slade has his hands on a chronotonic core, this entire City—perhaps even this entire hemisphere—could be at risk!"

"Then we're going!!" Cyborg exclaimed.

Robin nodded. "Right away. Teen Titans! Go!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat at the desk in his office, working on an article.

Avery burst in through the door. "Sir!"

Glover looked up. His mouth opened.

"Good news or bad news?" he asked.

Avery replied. "Knowing you, both. It's **him**."

Glover jumped up, grabbed his briefcase, and rushed out the door.

"Did you round up the boys—"

"Yes sir."

"Cameras and everything—"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Where is he? Where're we going?"

"Phaser Labs."

"Phaser Labs?! What in God's name is going on there??"

"Word is…Slade has his hands on a Chronotonic Detonator. Or should I say…Slade has **Wyldecarde's** hands on it…"

"This should be worth writing about…"

"Heheheheh…"

"Heheheheh!! Come on, Avery! To the car!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shut the power off to the camcorder and yanked out the wires with flying sparks.

I whistled a tune to myself as I got into a chair, rolled across the lab, and stopped at another computer station. I typed swiftly and dragged the mouse around. I managed to convert Slade's original signal into a movie file when I attached to an e-mail that I was sending out.

At the same time, I typed a simple message, printed it out, and slipped it into a fax machine.

All the while, the green core rotated harmlessly behind me…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the City's Police Department, everything was in chaos.

Phones were ringing in.

Officers were scrambling to exit the building and get to Phaser Labs.

The place was in an uproar in response to Slade's latest, broadcasted threat.

To say the least, Decker wasn't in a good mood.

"Hell of a day to wear briefs…," he muttered. He finished signing off a sheet and shouted at a trio of officers standing in front of his desk. "What're you guys standing around for?!?! Get your asses to Phaser Labs now!! Damned costumed creeps everywhere! I swear to God….they're making this City miserable…"

Suddenly, the lieutenant rushed in with a printout. "Sir…a fax for you."

"Not now, Lieutenant…"

"I think you should see this, sir."

Decker looked up. He stood and snatched the paper away. His eyes squinted. "The hell???"

_'5467 East Hardware Lane. The Slums. The condemned Vicksburg Apartment Building. Slade has missile launchers resting on the rooftop. That is where the real threat is. I suggest you go there and stop him.'_

The Commissioner sighed and shook his head. "I have no time for pranks! Not when a god damn 'chrononomic thingamajig' is about to go up in smoke!"

"But sir…," the lieutenant leaned forward and whispered hoarsely above the noise in the background. "We also got a strange e-mail at the same time. And there's a movie file with it."

Decker glared. "What kind of movie file?"

Minutes later, Decker and about ten other officers huddled tightly around the lieutentant's desk. The man played a movie file from an e-mail attachment. Clearly they could all see Slade, clearly they could all hear his voice, and clearly they could see the image of the missile launchers resting on the run-down rooftop behind him.

"You know…I used to work that beat before they condemned the place…," an elderly officer said. "That's the Vicksburg Apartment all right! I'd know it as plain as day!"

"George ain't kidding!" another officer exclaimed. "I was there two weeks ago busting a drug run! East Hardware Lane! North of Town! That's the place all right!!"

The lieutenant looked up at Decker. "You think Slade would have made such a dead giveaway?"

Decker looked at his other men…then back at the video. "It's not Slade who's provided a giveaway…," he stared at the fax printout. A beat. "Any clue who sent these things?"

"No, sir. We couldn't trace it."

A beat.

"What should we do, sir?"

A beat.

Decker looked at another officer. "How many of our men are heading to Phaser Labs right now?"

"Ten squad cars...two SWAT Teams…and one bird."

A beat.

"Any news on the Titans?" Decker finally asked.

The lieutenant nodded. "They're heading to Phaser Labs right now."

"Good. Tell our men to fall back. Not all of them. Let three squad cars remain at Phaser. The rest, we're heading north. If the Titans will be at Phaser…we shouldn't have to worry about dividing our attention too much."

"Understood. Get those dispatches going through, men! On the double!"

The officers cleared out. Decker and the Lieutenant marched across the chaotic offices.

"I'm going north to the apartments," Decker said. "Come with me."

"Of course, sir. D-Do you really think Slade has missiles up there?"

"Think?? You poor young bastard," Decker shook his head, lit a cigarette and smoke. "Lieutenant, I stopped thinking on this job about ten years ago."

They both jammed into an elevator…and descended.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From where Starfire flew high in the sky, she could see the T-Car carrying Cyborg, Raven, and Robin (R-Cycle-less) through the streets of town and westward. She glanced to her right and was surprised to see that the squad of police cars—until then going in the same direction—were suddenly swerving about and heading north.

The girl squinted her green eyes with curiosity. She held her communicator out before her face in midflight.

"Something seems to be distracting the authorities!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"They are all disembarking in another direction!"_

Cyborg listened with his hands on the wheel.

Raven leaned over and looked at Robin in the backseat.

"Probably just taking a detour…," Robin replied into his communicator. "We do have to go under the Interstate's overhang to get to Phaser Labs. For a bunch of squad cars, that's quite a tight squeeze."

_"I suppose you are right…"_

"We'll contact Decker and his men if we need backup," Robin said. "In the meantime, we must hurry. I'm not giving Slade any time to toy with this chronotonic detonator of his!"

_"Understood. Starfire out."_

Robin put the communicator away.

"How long till we get there?"

"Almost passing under the interstate now," Cyborg said. "Man…how big did they need to make that thing?"

"Traffic is the least of our worries…," Raven droned.

The others nodded in silence as they cruised along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade stood inside the dark cabin, eyeing varying camera angles on the Titans and their movement.

His eye narrowed with perplexity.

"West???" he remarked to the empty air. "Why are they heading west?? What are they up to?"

Suddenly, another t.v. screen blipped to life and there sat Dagger's face.

_"Slade…we are all waiting."_

"For what, pray tell?"

_"For an explanation."_

"My good friend…," Slade glared. He tried to keep the composure in his voice but slightly failed. "What do I have to explain **now**?!"

Dagger stared. He spoke: _"You have no idea what you just broadcasted, do you?"_

"Humor me…"

Dagger's hand reached to a keypad at his desk. He looked up just as another t.v. screen blipped to life next to his image. It showed the full extend of Wyldecarde's performance besides the chronotonic core.

….And Slade's voice.

Slade's eye widened. "No…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover's limousine sped down the road westward.

A news van full of cameramen was tailgating them.

Inside the limousine, Glover and Avery bounced and shook with the high velocity trip.

"I know I want to make haste…," Glover grunted. "But if we are not more careful…we could be pulled over."

Avery stared out the window. "I don't think you're gonna have to worry about any cop cars spotting us. Heck, they all seem to be heading north!"

Glover made a face. "North?? But **we're** heading in the direction of Phaser Labs."

"I know…," Avery nodded and looked at his senior. "Wyrd, huh?"

Glover blinked. He stared out the window. "What's going on in this Town??"

The driver's voice crackled in through an intercom. _"I can't go any further! They have the roads besides Phaser Labs blocked off!"_

Glover slapped his hand against the door handle. "Damn it!!"

Avery blinked. He leaned towards the intercom. "How about the Interstate?"

"Word is that the highway's still open!"

Avery looked at Glover. "That'd give our cameramen the height advantage."

Glover suddenly beamed with a nod. "Yes…we could pull over on the median over the laboratory and see if we can catch anything from there!"

"What'll we catch, exactly?" Avery smirked with his arms folded.

"Young man…you never guess the fish. The fish guesses you." He then gestured towards the intercom. "Take us to the interstate on the double!"

_"Yes, sir!"_

"And tell the boys to follow!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!

Slade slammed his fist into the wall.

_"Keep your cool, Slade,"_ Dagger said. "_All we need to do is redirect the Titans…"  
_  
"Not until we've gotten that worthless fool out of there!!" Slade shook. "He will **not** be the boss of my schemes!" He stepped towards the screen, glaring. "Dagger…I've told you that I would be needing your assistance sometime. Now is such a time…"

Dagger's head nodded. _"You need not worry, Slade. I've already sent……assistance to the Phaser Labs."_

Silence.

Slade's helmet tilted. "Good…," his voice sounded pleased. "If you help me out, Dagger…you can rest assured fate will be on your side more."

_"I'm sure of that….'friend',"_ Dagger glared.

Slade whipped out his communicator. "Apprentice."

_"Yes?"_

"Head southwest. To Phaser Labs."

_"What for?"_

"You'll get to rendezvous with your 'ghost boy'."

_"Finally! Thank you, sir!! He is so going to regret it…"_

"Less talking and more blurring."

_"Um…I-I've got a long ways to go. Will he stay at the labs that long?"_

Slade glared up at the screen. Dagger's face.

"I believe so…," Slade said. "Dagger knows exactly where Wyldecarde is….and something tells me the little infidel is going to have his hands full."

_"Excellent! Jinx out!"_

Slade pocketed the communicator away and gestured to the screen. "How long till your assistance comes into fruition, Dagger?"

Dagger folded his hands. _"In the next five seconds……if you wish."_

"I wish."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I yanked all the devices off of the computers and shoved them back into my canvass bag. I tied it shut and hoisted it over my back.

I was in a hurry to leave.

I walked across the laboratory…and froze.

I glanced up at the core.

Heck…I had no idea of how I could damage that thing. All I did in front of the camera was the same thing Slade did with his message. I bluffed. But the difference between my bluff and Slade's bluff is that I was planning only on distracting the Titans. Not trapping them. As far as I knew, that's what Slade wanted to do. And that's all that Slade did….until I started to break the circle.

I smiled, adjusted my goggles, and marched straight towards the nearest door…

………which exploded.

_**BOOOM!!!!**_

I fell back with a grunt.

I looked up and gasped.

Three men in dark suits rushed in. Uzzis held high.

They weren't police.

They weren't FBI.

I'm not sure who they were.

Except for one thing.

They were firing at me.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!_


	60. Full Circle part 7

**60. Full Circle part 7**

!!!!

Gritting my teeth, I unsheathed Myrkblade and deflected three sets of uzzi fire away from my torso in three and a half swings.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH—CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!

I vaulted my legs up off the floor, backflipped, and landed in a crouch upon which I swirled my blade in front of me and created a blurred shield of smoke that shattered the bullets apart.

CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACK!!!!

My whirling sword of destruction absorbed the energy and expelled it at my feet, forcing me back in a dusty slide across the cold, hard floor of the laboratory and towards the door on the other side.

And then one bullet slid through my shield and streaked past my right ear. I gasped as I felt tufts of long black hair rise towards the ceiling and fall again from the close proximity of the projectile.

Summoning a desperate pulse of strength from my limbs, I jerked myself forward into a stiff lean and slashed Myrkblade downward. A warbling line of destruction swam its way over the floor and impacted with the feet of three, dark suited assassins. Typically such a burst of my inner murk is enough to ground a room full of ordinary men. But it only just set these thugs off balance for a second or two.

My eyes under my goggles widened.

_The Hell???_

Nevertheless, there was a split second delay in their gunfire.

I teleported backwards, took a breath, and ran towards the opposite doorway.

SMASH!!!!

The thing kicked open and a large man in a black suit emerged, pumping a shotgun and aiming in my face.

I gasped and ducked.

BLAM!!!!!

Shot flew hot over my head. The men on the other side dodged miraculously.

Crouching to the ground, I spun my body and lifted it up in a spiraling uppercut. My sword slashed vertically at the man's right side.

With speed comparable to the Flash, the large thug shifted his weight and deflected my smoking blade off with the thick side of his shotgun's hilt.

CLUNK!!!

My jaw dropped in slow motion.

_How did he---_

CHU-CHTING!!! He pumped.

_Crud!!_

He aimed.

My leaping body twisted into an awkward, horizontal dive.

He fired.

BLAM!!!!!!

I spun in my dive to the ground with Myrkblade smoking along the length of my body. In such absurd fashion, I deflected back half of the shot and barely avoided the second half which shorn my skin through the metal mesh.

THUMP!!!

I landed on the ground.

Time resumed to normal.

I gritted my teeth and swung Myrkblade along the floor ahead of me.

I managed to trip the man to the ground—although I honestly meant to rip his damn ankle off.

The sound of marching footsteps and cocking guns reminded me of the three other men behind me. I spun on the ground, pivoted, and leapt barely to the side as machine gun fire ricocheted off the tile where my legs barely streaked away.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I rolled three more feet, jumped up into a standing position, and backed up with Myrkblade raised to defend.

Two pairs of arms grabbed me from behind.

_How many men are in this room now?!?!_

I immediately clenched my eyes shut, tensed my muscles, and teleported through the limbs encasing me. I materialized on the shoulders of the two extra assailants and vaulted off…causing them to lumber forwards and trip into the other four.

As I came down, I flipped backwards, reached into my pocket, grabbed a handful of razor sharp playing cards, and tossed them at the opposite side of the room upon landing.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!

_What I saw was just freakin' wyrd._

All four thugs who were standing leapt up like swan and pivoted in mid-air—the likes of which only caped crusaders from Gotham could do. In extraordinary grace, they pivoted their flailing limbs to avoid the streaking cards and landed safely out of the slicing projectiles.

I blinked.

_Who were these guys?!?!_

They all got up at once. As a result, they all held up their guns at once.

_Crud…_

BLAM!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

I deflected a wall of hot metal and twirled to the side. Bullets ricocheted off the floor, ceiling, walls….and the encasement of the chronotonic core.

I winced.

_Double crud…_

I had to get out of there.

I stared ahead of me with my back to the core. I saw nothing but a computer station and a solid wall.

I blinked.

Just then, the two extra assailants rushed in from either side of me…grabbing opposite arms.

I gritted my teeth and struggled with their grip on me as the four gunmen rushed around the core to get a shot of the prone figure.

I couldn't let myself get in that predicament. So I charged up murk energy into my limbs, jumped up, planted my feet against the chronotonic encasement, and flexed my forearms inward with as much fervor as I could muster.

I succeeded in dragging the two men grabbing me into each other. Their skulls slapped like coconuts. I flipped over them, flew free from their grasp, twirled Myrkblade, and ran full force at the solid wall as bullets leapt, ricocheted, and danced at my feet.

At the last second…I jumped---

SMASH!!!!!

--and shattered through the wall to land in a roll on the other side.

It wasn't until the end of my roll that I realized I was on the edge of a metal catwalk.

I gasped as I suddenly fell into open air.

I reached a hand out while falling and grabbed a handful of chains attached to some pulley in an unfamiliar ceiling.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLINK!!!

I descended along the chain in a rickety fashion. I looked around. Through my goggles I saw the interior of some sort of crash-test-center. Unpainted vehicles of gray aluminum were parked in different spots across the concrete floor. And in between them were about a dozen men…..all aiming guns at me.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

I let out a silent scream and flipped backwards off the descending chain.

While falling, I slashed Myrkblade all across the air before my torso. It was incredible. Everyone's aim was perfect. Every single bullet from every single gun from every single of the dozen men shooting at me would have struck me between the eyes had I not defended myself so swiftly. In fact…it almost seemed too good. All the bullets were streaming in right where I could deflect them. One crucial point.

I landed on the ground and blurred to the side. I crouched with my back to a pile of metal oil drums.

I panted…sweating.

My world turned into thunderous chaos from the loudness of the ricocheting bullets against the hollow drums behind my head. I was soon overcome with the horror that the suited men's ammunition was quickly eating through the very structure of my blockade. Not only that, but I looked straight up at the catwalk and saw the four gunmen and the two attackers from the laboratory emerging, looking down at me, and taking aim.

_No time to breathe…_

I leapt forward as bullets rained down at me from above and sang after me through the destroyed oil drums.

I streaked a serpentine path through the car testing facility. Sparks and flashes from impacting bulletfire made a comet tail behind me. I leapt over a car that soon turned to swiss cheese, then vaulted over a computer or two that exploded from the projectiles' impact.

I looked an exit amidst the blurred, heated chaost. I glanced up.

There was a platform with a set of stairs leading up to a wide glass window and a clear doorway.

I rushed, jumped, flipped, and blurred up it in a twirling fashion to miss the swarm of bullets streaking up from behind me. When I reached the window, I gasped. There were five men in dark suits on the other side, aiming at me.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

CRASSSHH!!!!!

The glass shattered in a rain of shards.

I teleported ahead five feet, coming up behind the first round of air-searing bullets. I held my breath, dashed to the side of the shattered window frame, and blurred up the side of the wall in sheer momentum.

As I entered the Phaser Labs hallway, the five before the window pivoted around to aim at me.

A trail of bullets followed my feet against the wall. From a vertical playing field, I stretched my sword behind me and swung like mad…deflecting the following projectiles more-or-less back at the gunfiring fiends.

As the bullets streaked back at them, I barely caught sight of the thugs jumping backwards, diving, and twirling with great finesse to avoid the fire.

It was insane….like ballistic ballet. They dodged and jumped and swayed with the grace of Jinx….I could swear it….

I ran around the wall of a corner, leapt sideways, spun in the air, and landed on the ground…upon which I blurred straight ahead towards the distant elevator doors beyond. Just before I reached them, though, two ceiling panels disappeared above and two men in black slinked down. They stood up and faced me with raised fists.

_Are they crazy?!?!_

I gritted my teeth, held up Myrkblade, and brought it down as I reached them.

SLASH!!!!!

Both bent backwards, dodging. When they came up—both had a simultaneous fist to my face.

WHAM!!!

I was punched hard in the chin. I landed with my back to the tile and slid till my feet contacted the elevator doors.

I wheezed.

Both men spun and came down at me with their fists.

WHAM!!!

WHACK!!!!

Their knuckles slammed into the tile as my head blurred and dodged. I pivoted a leg up and kicked the 'down arrow' button of the elevator's console. I then spun around with Myrkblade stretched out. Both men tripped, but flipped in mid air to slide back on their flat feet.

I jumped up, twirled Myrkblade, and faced them.

They spun like dancers, glided over, and shoved their fists towards my gut.

I leapt up, split my legs in mid-air, and uppercutted both of their chins.

When I landed on my feet, I spun around with Myrkblade outstretched.

Both ducked, flexed their lower muscles, and literally tackled my midsection straight on.

DING!

Ironically, the doors to the elevator opened behind us.

I was shoved back four feet and into the elevator itself.

They must not have counted on the sudden space between me and a wall, for they literally collapsed with their bodies stretched merely halfway up mine.

I had no problem in kicking them off and vaulting up to my feet. However I did have a problem when they jumped up to their feet just as quickly and crowded around me as the elevator doors shut and we descended claustrophobically to the floor.

I gulped.

WOOOOSH!!

They leapt.

I stabbed with Myrkblade.

One dodged but the other grabbed my sword arm.

I pivoted about and elbowed him in the chest with my free limb.

He stumbled back.

I spun and slashed low at his abdominal muscles.

He side-stepped, barely avoiding my blade.

The other rushed at my neck.

I teleported behind him, kicked him in the butt, and slashed down hard at his rear legs.

The other man deflected my slash with a fist beneath my downcutting wrist. A split second later he wrangled his two arms around my slashing limb and tossed me over his shoulder and backwards into his partner's arms.

I struggled as I was gripped tightly from behind. With whatever mobility I had left with my wrist, I jabbed straight down at his foot.

SWOOOSH—CLANK!!

He deflected with the side of his boot and kicked at the wooden sword.

It broke from my grasp and spun awkwardly on its tip for a second and a half like a top.

The other man rushed at me, fist raised.

I teleported to the side, grabbed Myrkblade's hilt before it could fall down, backed up against a wall, summoned murk, and blurred forward in a dive at the punching man.

WHAM!!!

I hit him in the side, but he effortlessly gripped me, spun, and tossed me into the corner.

WHUMP!!

My body winced. My eyes blinked….and as soon as the lids under the goggles were open again, I saw two pairs of fists coming at me.

WHANG!!!

The two men's punches hit the metal wall as I slumped to the ground, whacked them both hard in the legs with Myrkblade, and forced them to the floor.

DING!!

The elevator doors opened.

I took a breath and leapt forward.

THRUMP!!!

Both men tripped me at the same time.

The floor of the bottom story hallway flew up into my chest.

WHAM!!!

The breath was knocked out of me and I could barely wince as I slid a good ten feet across the cold tile. Looking up, my eyes widened at the sight of four men—waiting for me—and armed with shotguns.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

I let out a silent scream and twirled Myrkblade three times in front of me, deflecting all three swarms of shot.

The fourth man fired.

BLAM!!!

I leapt up from a fresh crater in the tile, pivoted in mid air, planted my feet diagonally with the wall, and vaulted off. I sailed towards the lower body of the man on the far right just as he fired a second round.

BLAM!!!

I literally teleported in smoke form through him and his gunfire. Once on the other side, I jumped up, rear-kicked him into two of the other gunmen—and dashed towards the distant, bright exit of Phaser Labs.

The last man tossed away his shotgun, reached under a trenchcoat, and pulled out a huge launcher of sorts. He pumped it, took aim, and fired four loud shots.

CHUNG!! CHUNG!! CH-CHUNG!! CHUNG!!

While running, panting, sweating, and all that other good stuff…my goggled eyes glanced left and right.

Four glowing discs flew into the framework of the entrance's doorway. They blinked with green-to-yellow-to-red lights.

_Timed grenades……_

I had a sudden fury of smoke trailing behind me as I leapt with all my might and burst through the row of glass doors.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!!!

Shards showered in a spray.

I landed on the concrete courtyard in front of Phaser Labs and shadowed by the highway.

My metal-laced boots scraped loudly against the ground as I slid to a stop.

I panted. And….

FLASH!!!!!

"FREEZE!!!!"

My black eyes burned.

I stared torturously into a blinding blueness emanating from the barrel of Cyborg's laser rifle.

He and the other Titans faced off at me from about twenty feet away. While Cyborg aimed his rifle, Starfire charged up two bright starbolts, Robin held up a fan of birdarangs, Raven telekinetically charged a levitating lamppost, and Beast Boy morphed into a razor-clawed velociraptor. Behind the five heroes, a police squad car or two joined the standoff.

My jaw dropped. I panted….

"You've got nowhere to run to, Wyldecarde!!!"

One second….two seconds…

I swallowed.

I had nowhere to go….but….

Murk swarmed through my legs as my whole body tensed. Gripping hard to Myrkblade, I leapt straight upwards…..

_**BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The entire front entranceway to Phaser Labs bowled outwards in a churning wave of fire, glass, and metal debris. Up, up, and up my body vaulted over a wall of orange plasma and chaos that surged outward underneath my airborne figure and towards the five unwitting Titans.

Half of them sweatdropped…the other half's eyes went white.

Within a split second, Raven whipped out a black shield of telekinesis, Robin covered himself with his polymerized cape, Beast Boy shrunk into the green shell of a sea turtle, and Cyborg rushed over with his titanium girth protecting himself and encircling Starfire.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**_

The wall of fire splashed underneath me.

….And I started falling down.

My body flailed. My body sweat from the incoming heat.

I looked down, silently praying.

_Come on……come on……_

My body plummeted. My boots' soles started melting.

_Come on………come on!!_

Smoke erupted from the blast.

_YES!!_

I absorbed myself into the smoke, blurred, and darted my half corporeal body forward in a brown and black streak. The speed of such propulsion was a little sudden to me…for in half a second I was about to kiss the concrete layer of the highway's overhang.

I lifted Myrkblade at the last second.

CHUNK!!!!

It embedded halfway to the hilt.

I gritted my teeth, wheezed, and vaulted my body upwards. On the uplift, I yanked Myrkblade out of the concrete with a CRACK! and flipped up and over onto the side median of the interstate.

_**RUMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

I slumped to my knees and hands and panted as the structure of the entire, raised interstate shook from the proximity of the blast.

Cars streaked blazingly fast past me a few feet ahead. Some of them honked and screeched in surprise reaction to the explosion. Otherwise…traffic was mostly unaffected (and unaware) of the fire brewing far below in the lot in front of the Labs.

Down under, it wasn't quite so pleasant….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cops ran from smoking squad cars.

Distant pedestrians shrieked and cowered behind building sides.

The fire died down and ashes littered the courtyard.

Five shielded Titans rested where they were for a split second.

Slowly they stood up and uncovered themselves from their shields, shells, and protective capes.

A green turtle hopped up into a green elf. He stuck a finger into his ringing ear and dizzily uttered: "Dude…was that God farting or what??"

"It wasn't the chronotonic core going off!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Unless of course, fire is flammable."

Robin ran over and looked through the flaming entrance. "The building's still in tact! It was a localized explosion!"

"One of Wyldecarde's tricks, not doubt…," Raven spat.

"In speaking of our familiar villain, where is he??" Starfire peered around and shrugged. "I do not see him! Did he escape unharmed?!"

"He disappeared with the fire!" Beast Boy exclaimed. A beat. "Whoah…you think he's toast, guys?"

"Hardly…," Raven muttered. "I would have sensed it if he perished."

"Then he got away somewhere!" Cyborg exclaimed. "We must go after him!"

Robin looked around. He clenched his fists. "Where exactly?! We gotta help put out this fire first!!"

"Right…," Cyborg nodded. He ran over to manhandle a nearby firehydrant. Raven flew after him to assist with telekinesis.

"I shall go summon a truck fire!" Starfire said, soaring away.

"**Firetruck!!"** Beast Boy called forth after her. He shook his head. "Awww forget it." He looked at Robin. "What'd we do now?!"

"Figure out why on earth time hasn't stopped…," the Boy Wonder said.

Beast Boy watched him run off to help Raven and Cyborg.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I lay on the side of the highway….panting.

I wheezed and turned over.

The sky stretched blue and partly cloudy over me.

Innocent.

Quaint.

I swallowed.

_Those men……who were they?_

I closed my eyes and panted some more.

_How were they so……so…_

I struggled for breath.

……_badass?_

"Ahem…."

My heart stopped.

I opened my eyes.

Jinx's pink face smiled and waved down at me. "Hi!" She suddenly gritted her teeth like a demon and slammed her platform shoe straight into my side.

WHAM!!!

"!!!!" I exhaled painfully. I rolled towards the center of the highway.

A semi slammed on by.

I stopped one inch from the pavement as nine semi-truck wheels flew by so close to my body that it literally kicked a strand or two of black locks away.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

I gritted my teeth and jumped up to my feet.

Halfway in doing so—however—Jinx blurred up and elbowed me right in the back.

I flew into traffic.

BEEEEEEP!!!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I barely flew past the front bumper of a seventy-mile-per-hour minivan, rolled on the ground, and came to a murk-warbling stop before I could slam into the side of a sports car's door that was in front of me and then gone in half a second.

There was a maniacal giggling.

Between lanes, I spun around and saw Jinx acrobatically flipping towards me. At the end of her leap, she twirled around with a high kick blown straight across my face.

WHACK!!

I spun from the blow.

WHAM!!!

My body bounced off the speeding side of a pickup truck. I teetered towards Jinx.

Casually leaping across a lane, Jinx came down, grabbed my the collar, growled in girlish wrath, and flung me over two lanes of cars. I flew for a few seconds before slamming hard against the concrete divider between the opposing sides of traffic.

Every inch of my body wracked with pain. I winced and squinted through twitching eyes as Jinx landed in the median and girl-stepped towards me with a frown.

"How does it feel, Ghost Boy?! Huh?! How does it feel?!"

I strained to listen to her over the roar and whistles of traffic zooming on either side of the divider.

"Do you like being tossed around like a rag doll?!" she marched over and leered down at me. "Do you like being disregarded as nothing more as a piece of meat?! Huh?!"

I winced and reached slowly behind my back to the hilt of Myrkblade.

Jinx grinned. She slammed her platform shoe down hard.

WHACK!!

I bit my lip.

She pinned my wrist to the concrete girder and leaned her head nimbly down to Cheshire grin in my face. "What did I tell you, moron?!?! Nobody intervenes in Slade's plan! Now…smile and enjoy the wrath of fate!! HAAAA!!!"

Shrieking, she hoisted me up by the shoulders, charged up pink hex, and flung me around and straight into the traffic hurtling by.

In mid air I gasped and summoned a desperate impulse of coordination. I spiraled my body around and tried to land somewhere in between the lanes of the highway. The closest I got was skimming over the top of a pickup truck and landing in its empty bed.

WHAM!!!

I groaned…lying chest first between the wheel-wells of the rattling vehicle.

WHUMP!!!

The rear of the pickup truck hobbled as Jinx landed on top of me. She leaned down and gripped my head. With a cry, she kicked the hatch-door of the bed down and shoved me practically halfway over the edge.

SLUMP!!!

I gasped. Concrete and asphalt blurred wildly past my dangling face.

Jinx sat on top of me and gripped my skull. Her eyes glowing and her grin glistening evilly, she gradually forced my head further and further down past the rear bumper of the truck. The highway shredded the increasingly thinner pocket of air between my tensed nose and the ground.

"You know what happens when rubber meets the road, Wyldecarde?!" she slurred. "I have no idea myself, but it's not going to be anywhere near as messy as what's going to happen to you!! Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

I gritted my teeth. My legs and wrists beneath Jinx's body charged murk. In the blink of an eye, I flung my arms out from underneath her and gripped the sides of the truck bed. WOOOSH!! I flung myself into a forward flip. Jinx gasped as she was catapulted straight off the rear of the vehicle and dead-straight towards the front of a semi truck.

She flailed in the air for a half second before summoning pink energy and gracefully perching herself on the roof of the truck.

In the meantime, I landed with my feet on the highway.

HONK!!!! HONK!!!!

I looked up.

The glistening front grill of the semi truck reflected off my goggles.

I took a breath…and literally fell back flat against the concrete.

WOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

The engine and trailer of the semi truck soared over half an inch above me.

As the rear came over head, I blurred an arm over, unsheathed Myrkblade---CHIIIING!!—and stabbed up it into the back door of the trailer. CLANK!!!

SWOOSH!!

I was yanked up like a marionette. My two legs flickered like black flags for a split second. I tugged at Myrkblade and balanced my bottom half on the rear of the truck. Highway sped beneath me. I panted and held on tight to the speeding hulk of metal until---

"HAAAA!"

I looked up.

Jinx had scurried back across the top of the trailer and was now sliding down the rear with a platform shoe aimed at my skull.

WHAM!!!

I was knocked off the truck. My feet landed on speeding concrete. Naturally, I couldn't hold my balance.

I dove immediately forward and directly at the flat, missile-like front of a commercial tour bus. I tele-blurred to the side in mid air just far enough to stretch Myrkblade sideways and tear into the center of the commercial bus' left flank. Aluminum shredded loudly in a long trail as the friction slowed me down just enough for me to swing my legs about, kick off the bus, and fly back with Myrkblade yanking free.

I landed safely-balanced on top of the concrete divider.

But not for long.

WHAM!!!!

Jinx flew in like a pink comet and kicked me into traffic beyond the divider…..going back towards Phaser Labs.

I bounced off the top of a car—blurring—and got entangled in the metal cobwebs of a semi truck trailer in the next lane carrying two stories of sports cars to some nondescript sales lot. I got my footing on the shaking supports, panted, and looked towards the rear of the vehicle for Jinx.

She was pursuing me. She was about three cars back, hopping from rooftop to rooftop in an inconspicuous lighter-than-air grace. She was grinning.

I didn't want to fight. I just wanted to get away from her.

I spun around, climbed up through the metal beams, and ascended the hood of the top most automobile just a foot or two behind the semi truck's engine. From that vantage point, I took my bearings. I was about three lanes away from the East side of the interstate. A few strategic hops and I'd be off the highway.

Just as Jinx was gaining on me, I spotted a cement truck in close proximity. I made a leap for it.

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!!

I stabbed Myrkblade into the cement turret on the truck's left side. Luckily, it was rotating towards the right side of the highway. I let it carry me up…and down. I then tried to spot either a vehicle or a clear spot in the road to take advantage of in my progression.

A giggling sound haunted me from above.

I looked up and saw Jinx rise above the horizon of the cement truck's turret.

"Going down!" she smirked with folded arms…then proceeded to jump, fall, and kick—WHAM!!

I flew off into the next lane and got entangled in metal chains. Gasping, I looked up and realized I was caught in the pulley system of a large pickup truck. My arm hooked around the chains coming from the crane in the rear. Concrete flew a foot or two beneath my dangling legs.

THWOMP!!

Jinx landed on top of the crane and glared down at me. "There's room for only one apprentice in this City!!" she shrieked. "Slade and I let you wear sheep's clothing for one day!! But the game's over and it's high time we hung you out to dry!!"

With that said, she flung a wrist at the mechanisms locking the crane into piece.

FLASH!!

CLUNK!!

The crane swung freely.

She planted a platform shoe on it and happily winked. "Bon Voyage, Ghost Boy! Give my regards to **Henry Ford**!!"

SHOVE!!!!

The metal crane creaked and swung me directly into the path of an SUV's rear end.

I struggled, jerked at the chain, kicked at my feet—anything to get loose.

No use.

The SUV's license plate became readable.

The crane groaned.

Jinx giggled insanely.

I gritted my teeth. My black eyes squinted.

I reached a free hand into my pocket. I pulled out a razor sharp playing card. I flung it at an awkward angle.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!!

The card bounced off the top corner of the SUV's body, lost momentum, spun in the air, and soared straight back at my body.

I grunted and strategically pivoted my body with a pulse of murk.

SWOOOOOSH---CLUNK!!!

It snapped the chain suspending me completely.

I reached a hand up and grabbed the crane before I could fall. I swung my body up on top of it and stretched foot out, meeting the SUV's back end gently and shoving myself off. With a loud creak I swung—riding the crane—back towards the truck and slamming smack into Jinx's body on the main hulk of the vehicle.

WHAM!!

The girl let out a cry and flew into the next lane. Her body smacked into the side of a van and went tumbling down between lanes.

I gritted my teeth, jumped, raised myrkblade in mid fall, and came down on her.

SWOOOOSH!!

SLIIIINK!!!

Some blood flew as I grazed her shoulder through the metal mesh.

"AUGH!!!"

She cried out and—with pink eyes—shoved me back with a platform shoe.

I slid in reverse along the white, dotted line, twirled Myrkblade, and dashed towards her.

We fought in between speeding, honking lanes of traffic. I advanced on her with swings of my sword and she dodged, ducked, and jumped back. At one point she let out a cry: "HAAA!!" and lunged at me with two hex bolts aimed at my feet. FLASH!! FLASH!!

I jumped back and jabbed at her. She literally jumped, stepped onto the blade in half stab, and leapt off it towards me with a flying kick.

I ducked, grabbed her leg, and tossed her straight into the next lane of traffic.

She barely flew by before she could have been hit by a huge van.

She gracefully landed and stood perfectly still on a white line.

I twirled Myrkblade into a pose and faced her.

We glared at each other with a lane between us.

Cars soared by, separating our fight.

At one point, a dark gray limousine cruised by. We spotted each other's glares in between the blinks of the multiple, blazing windows. Cold. Black. Apprentices on either side of the glass.

A breath or two later…the limousine had passed. The asphalt was momentarily open.

We went for it.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

SLASSSSSSH!!!!!

Hex met blade met pink met black.

FLASH!!!

We froze in the middle of the lane from the cascading impact of our powers. Strength warbled back up to our torsos and we immediately spun with smoking serration and pink wrists aimed high.

FLASH!!!!

Again, a deflection. Again a crater of chaos. Again the inevitable rebirth of energy and spiral…

Jinx broke the cycle by tossing hex at my feet.

I broke it even more by jumping over her, flipping, twirling, and coming down her back with Myrkblade outstretched.

She blurred to the side, spun like a ballerina—giggled and—SMACK!!!

Her platform shoe—outstretched--hit me hard in the chest.

I flew over a sports car, past the concrete divider, and again into an opposite movement of traffic on the highway's west side…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on! Come on!!" Glover groaned, rattling his fingers against a leather armrest inside his limousine. "As much as I want that chronotonic detonator to stay safe and all, I'm being rather annoyed by time right now…"

Avery sat across from Glover with his ear to the phone. "Word is that there's been an explosion at Phaser Labs," he nodded to Glover. "The Titans are already at the scene."

"Heh," Glover smirked and folded his arms. "What else could a day like this toss a journalist?"

SMASH!!!!!!

The men cowered from a shower of glass shards as I sailed in the left window, flew through the inside compartment, and smashed my way out the right.

CRASH!!!!!

Startled, the driver at the limousine's wheel in the compartment ahead swerved hard to the right. The long vehicle screeched to a stop along the median, scraping up against the guardrail and showering sparks. Everything came to a sizzling halt.

Avery and Glover panted. Slowly they looked up at each other.

A beat.

"Ahem…," Glover brushed the shards off his coat. "Over twenty years in journalism and I still never know when to stop having a big mouth."

"Look!!" Avery pointed out the rear window which was still in tact.

Glover turned around and gasped. "Tell the boys to stop!! Never mind Phaser Labs…the action's going on right here!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I got up, wincing.

I brushed the shards off me, picked up Myrkblade, and looked around.

A beat.

I blinked under my goggles.

_Now just where exactly did she—  
_  
SWOOOOSH—SMACK!!!

A pink streak soared up at me, upon which I was soon uppercutted.

I slammed back into a guardrail and gasped.

Jinx clenched her teeth and dove at me.

I leapt back, took the brunt of her weight, fell to the ground, and launched her over my reclined head in a flip.

She twirled upright and landed with a slide. I jumped up, spun Myrkblade around, and ran at her.

She grinned, her eyes glowing a bright pink. She stretched a hand out and launched a hex bolt to the side. "HAAA!!"

I ran at her but was suddenly deflected back by a pink-charged guardrail that ripped out of its foundation and coiled at me.

WHAP!!!!

"It's true!!" she chuckled menacingly. "Guardrails kill!! Care to watch?!" She flung another bolt. "HAAA!!"

A long length of metal to my left and bordering the side of the interstate glowed pink and warbled. In desperation, I took a deep breath, raised Myrkblade, filled it with murk, and flung it straight down into the metal.

WHAM!!!

Black energy warbled through the metal, chased out the pink, and exploded just to the side of Jinx, throwing her back.

FLASH!!!

"Augh!!"

She landed hard and awkwardly on the median. An outstretched hand shot a random burst of hex.

ZAP!!!!

It popped the front right tire of a minivan traveling in excess of seventy-miles-per-hour. A mother at the wheel gasped and fought for control of the vehicle as it careened towards the median and bore down on us. Jinx quickly jumped to her feet and leapt over the edge of the interstate, clinging onto the side of the concrete for dear life.

I merely leapt straight up with an outburst of murk.

While in mid-air, I watched in horror as the minivan swerved directly towards the smashed section of guardrail.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several feet down the interstate, the news van stopped behind the smashed limousine. Per Avery's and Glover's directions, two camera men were already filming as the scene unfolded.

"Who's that person Wyldecarde's fighting?!"

"I have no idea."

"She looks somewhat familiar—Oh my god!!"

"Holy crap!!"

"Look at that minivan!!"

Glover's eyes widened.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!

The van snapped through the shattered railing and teetered over the very edge of the elevated interstate.

Whatever was left of the front wheels spun in mid-air. The van tilted back and forth, trying to find its balance. If it tilted forward, it would collapse well over twenty-five feet to the city streets and concrete below. If it tilted back, it would roll into the nearest lane. Over time…it seemed increasingly and increasingly likely that it would plummet to a crushing fall. Inside of the vehicle, a mother panicked. She scrambled desperately to calm down her shrieking little girl in the front seat as the two danced dangerously on the edge of death.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Shit!! There's someone in there, man!!"

"Come on!! Let's help!!"

"Hurry!!"

Avery and two of the cameramen ran desperately towards the scene while Glover and two others remained behind, filming.

The old journalist bit his lip…sweating.

There was no way the three could reach that spot in time….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted. I looked at the van…at the flailing bodies inside.

I turned around.

I looked towards the other edge of the interstate.

The Northeast side.

Freedom.

Jinx was hanging on the side of the hallway. She was incapacitated. I could have run away….I could have run away…

Freedom.

I looked back at the van.

Flailing limbs and screams.

The front wheels stopped spinning.

It started to tip over.

The guardrail groaned.

I took a deep breath…tensed my limbs…and blurred forward.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Jinx barely began to climb up the side and take a peek at the situation.

I streaked towards the van.

It teetered downwards.

I gritted my teeth. The van began to slide.

I raised myrkblade overhead.

Screams shot out.

I let out a silent yell, reached the van, and stabbed downwards.

CHUNK!!!!

Myrkblade slashed through the side door, down through the floor, and into the concrete siding of the median below.

The van jerked to a momentary stop.

The woman and daughter inside gasped.

I had pinned the vehicle down.

I clenched my teeth and just about wrenched the driver's side door opened.

The mother took one look at me and shrieked. Her eyes bulged as she desperately clung to her daughter at the sight of me.

I panted. I forgot I was a villain.

I reached a hand out.

She looked at it…trembling.

I pointed at her daughter, furrowed my brow, and reached my hand forth further.

The mother blinked at me…..slowly nodded…and passed her little girl along.

"Mommy!!!!"

"I-It's okay, honey!! J-Just take the boy's hand!!"

"He's scary, Mommy!!"

I all about yanked the girl out of the car. Before she or the mother could protest, I dove back in, grabbed the adult woman, and tugged.

THUNK!!!

She was still in her seatbelt.

The woman shuddered against me as I whipped out a playing card in a flash, pressed it against the seatbelt, and jerked.

RIIIIIP!!!

The belt gave way.

With an exhalation, I dragged the woman out safely onto the median.

The van lurched.

I took a deep breath, let go of the mother, and reached for the hilt of my sword to yank it out.

"NOOO!!!" she shrieked and grabbed hard to my shoulder. "My baby!!!"

I panted and looked at her. I raised and eyebrow and pointed at her daughter.

"No!!" the woman trembled and all about leapt over me towards the van. "My other baby!!!"

I spun around. My eyes bulged under the goggles.

There was an infant in the back, strapped inside a toddler's seat.

CREEEEAK!!

The van lurched.

The little girl sobbed.

The mother reached in.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved her back and dove into the driver's seat of the teetering vehicle. I crawled my way in like a giant worm in an aluminum, Vietcong tunnel, and grabbed ahold of the tiny seat. The toddler inside wailed and swung his chubby limbs wildly as I tried to get him free. I yanked and pulled and jerked at the seat. But it wouldn't budged.

I sweated.

CREEEAK!!!

The van lurched.

Myrkblade wobbled as the weight of the vehicle began to tear it loose from its holding place.

The two ladies outside screamed.

Sun filtered in and cooked the minivan like an oven.

I yanked and yanked and yanked at the child's safety seat. I fumbled for controls to unlatch it. I sweat.

The toddler wailed.

CREEEEEEAK!!!

I took a deep breath. I flung the black hair out of my eyes, dove forward, and encircled the child in my arms.

_1…._

The aluminum around Myrkblade snapped.

_2…._

The metal tore through. RIIIIP!!! My sword shot straight up into the blue heavens. PTING!!!!

_3…._

The van gave way. It fell over the railing. The whole vehicle plummeted like a ragged meteor towards the concrete below. As it smashed apart and echoed throughout the nearby, urban landscape…My body could be seen streaking upwards in the form of smoke, materializing with the toddler in my arms, and falling hard to the concrete on my back.

WHUMP!!

I lost my breath. My black eyes squinted. Something was spinning towards me from up high. Something black and spinning.

I gasped as I realized that my sword was coming straight down.

I pivoted to my side on the asphalt and shifted the toddler in my grasp.

SWOOOOOSH—CHTUNG!!!

Myrkblade's hilt wobbled after the blade embedded mere inches between my chin and the baby's head.

I wheezed.

"Oh thank gawd!!!" the mother came and practically tackled me in the process of scooping her wailing child up into her arms. "Oh thank gawd thank gawd thank gawd thank gawd!!" She knelt down and shared a deep, sobbing embrace with her two trembling offspring.

Snarling, I sat up on my butt and kicked the length of my wobbling sword with my foot.

_Bad sword!!_

I took a breath, gripped the weapon, and jumped to my feet.

Yards away, I was oblivious to a hideous grin on Jinx's face. The Third Apprentice hopped up and slowly charged her hands pink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Did you see that?!?!" one cameraman gasped.

"Not only did I see it….I got it!!" the said, squinting through the viewfinder and pointing at the lens.

"Same here!! Damn…they almost bought it!! The mother AND her kids!!"

Glover's lips parted. He thought aloud: "Why would a villain want so bad to save ordinary people??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At Phaser Labs, Robin looked overhead and caught sight of Starfire's return. She flew over the distant streets in a green streak. Flashing lights of a firetruck rose in the distance.

The Boy Wonder smiled. He gestured towards Cyborg and Raven. "You can relax now!" he exclaimed. "Here they come!!"

"Okay!!" Cyborg nodded. He had manually unscrewed a side pipe of a fire hydrant while Raven guided the spurting water towards the flame-engulfed entrance of Phaser Labs. As the firefighters came to do their specialty, Raven glowed her eyes gray and sealed the water back into the hydrant, allowing Cyborg to close the lid tight.

"Guys!!" Beast Boy ran up while Starfire landed to join them. "I just got done chatting to one of Decker's men to update them!! Turns out they had an update of their own to give us!!"

"What's that??" Robin asked.

"The Commish and at least ten other squad cars and two SWAT Teams are heading north!!"

"North?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"What is there??" Starfire asked.

Beast Boy shrugged. "I dunno. But they're sure in a hurry! Whatever it is that's got their attention, it's bigger than what's going on here! If you can believe that…"

"I'm not sure I can…," Robin uttered, scratching his chin. "Slade specifically made his threat about the chronotonic core. It showed that way on the live feed!"

"Then we're staying here?" Cyborg asked.

"Some of us are," Robin smirked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Wyldecarde left this place in a hurry. I bet the gig's up. But just to be safe…Raven, you and Beast Boy and Starfire investigate the labs. Cyborg…let's you and I go and see what's up with where the police are going!"

"Right on," Cyborg gave a thumb's up. "Better see where this leads to! Is it just me, or does it seem like this whole thing was a diversion?"

"No doubt Slade is trying to give us a run for the money!" Beast Boy nodded.

"Whatever the case…we're about to outrun him!" Robin palmed his fist. "Come on. Let's move!"

He and Cyborg ran to the T-Car and were off.

Raven looked at the remaining Titans. "Is it just me….," she droned, "…but did Wyldecarde seem his cheerfully evil self when we confronted him this time?"

Starfire shook her head slowly. "No…he seemed terrified."

"I dunno about 'terrified'…," Beast Boy scratched his neck. "'Stressed' is most like it."

Raven and Starfire stared at him.

The changeling rolled his eyes. "Fine fine. 'Terrified'. Whatever. Sheesh…why do I even bother talking?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ma'am!! Are you allright?!" Avery and the two other men rushed up besides the smashed guardrail on the interstate's median.

The shaken mother looked tearfully up from her family's huddle to thank me…but I was gone.

I ran down the side of the highway, panting.

I came to a stop when I heard a familiar-sounding engine.

My eyebrow raised.

I looked across the lanes of traffic. I saw a lamppost. It looked like a strategic spot to look from.

When there was enough of a clearing, I blurred across the lanes, ran up the lamppost, and perched at the top.

I squinted my eyes across the sunlit urban landscape and spotted the T-Car just then passing under the overhang of the interstate and heading northward.

_North…._

I gasped.

Were they really going towards the apartments?

How had they heard about Slade's true scheme---

I froze.

I winced.

The police…of course.

Birds of a feather…

After all I had sweated and done—encountering completely unexpected obstacles—the Titans were still going to fall into some dreadful trap. I now had to do the one thing I was hoping to avoid the entire day.

I had to confront some of the Titans one-on-one.

I pulled out Myrkblade, took a deep breath, and was about to blur down off the interstate and jump the T-Car when---

"Ohhhhhh Ghost Boyyyyyyyyy!!"

I spun around.

Across the lanes of traffic, perched atop solid guardrail, Jinx smiled up at me. She giggled then asked: "Forgetting something?"

I stared at her, panting.

"No?" she cocked her head cutely to the side, then evilly grinned. "Well…allow me to give you something to forget!!" She looked over and aimed her wrist at a tall hotel building stretching up over the interstate a half-block away.

FLASH!!!!

A stream of pink energy flew out from her limb and straight at the side of the hotel facing east. There was a huge, vertical groove—a hollow column of sorts—that served as an outside elevator shaft. A cylindrical, tube-shaped elevator encased in glass was slowly rising up to the top floor. There were at least seven innocent tourists standing inside. When the pink struck the platform, the whole tube shook. The people inside gasped and lost their balance. Then all Hell broke loose. Jinx's hex snapped the elevator cords loose. The tubed elevator plunged straight down the groove. The tourists inside—staring at over two hundred and seventy degrees of sunlit world flying up past them—plunged towards the hard concrete fifteen floors down. After two floors of descent, the breaking clamps of the elevator tube went into action. Sparks flew as the tube grinded to a halt high up in the groove. The seven people inside—panicking—tried pressing all the buttons. They even pulled out the red phone on the compartment and sobbed for help. They were full of fear and horror. Rightfully so too…for Jinx was still aiming her hand of sorcery at the column from afar.

I went pale.

"Amazingly resilient those elevator breaks are," Jinx grinned at me. "Able to resist innumerable forces of gravity to keep the occupants of that glass-laden sarcophagus alive and kicking!! Though I bet you a lifetime supply in strawberries that the thing's not built to resist my magic!!"

I sweated. I turned and looked at the T-Car.

It grew distant and distant.

I gulped and looked back at Jinx and the endangered elevator beyond.

"With one flick of the wrist!!" she shouted above the traffic soaring below and between us. "That thing comes crashing down and everyone inside dies!!"

I looked back and forth from the elevator to the T-Car to the elevator and to the T-Car again.

"If you try and save them….," she slurred, "…those Titans will go and meet the destiny Slade has for them!" She grinned a cheshire cat. "Your former friends will fall into the trap you've been stressing all this time to prevent! All your work will be for nothing!!"

I was sweating bullets. I glanced back at the T-Car. It was growing fainter and fainter. It rose a hill in asphalt four blocks away. As soon as it dropped, it'd be out of my sight for good.

"So you want to be the Bad Boy, huh?!?!" Jinx cackled. "So you want to wear that outfit?! So you want to look like Slade, talk like Slade, and act like Slade in front of your former teammates as if that'll somehow break the laws of Fate and grant them an easy future?!?!" She narrowed her cat eyes and jeered: "Wise up, Ghost Boy. Even if you are to live two lives, you must die two deaths!!"

I looked back at the elevator. Some of the tourists inside were family. They huddled together and shivered.

"This is it!!" she exclaimed with glowing, pink eyes. "The ultimate conflict!! The final choice you've been taunting yourself to make all these days!! Are you the hero?! Or are you the villain?! Better think quickly with the hand dealt you, Wyldecarde!! **Cuz I'm tired of all this bluffing…."**

With that uttered, she released a strong stream of pink hex. It flew through the air, echoed magical thunder, and slammed into the body of the elevator. The brakes shattered, and the tube hurtled straight down the groove in a halo of descending screams.

Jinx laughed, and her laughs morphed into warbles as everything went into slow motion.

I jerked my head over.

The T-Car was on the crest of the asphalt hill.

My whole body blurred.

Teeth gritting, I spun and faced Jinx. I streaked down the lamppost.

Cars and trucks and vans streamed ahead of me.

I flew through them like clouds. I ran the width of the interstate. I reached into my pocket.

Jinx kept laughing. The elevator kept screaming. The T-Car kept disappearing.

My lungs heaved. Sweat ran down my lips and into my mouth. I turned into an almost-burning smoke in mid sprint.

My hand emerged from my pocket with a razor-edged playing card.

My boots slapped against the asphalt.

I streaked straight at Jinx.

Her cat eyes rounded as her laughter died out and she blinked for an eternity.

I leapt towards her.

The wind kicked at my long black hair.

The elevator's metal frame sparked against the sides of the groove.

The T-Car was a distant speck.

I reached the last lane.

I streaked past the screeching body of a dumptruck.

Tires squealed.

Everything was screaming.

Everything was crashing.

Jinx gasped.

I exhaled.

I solidified, ran up her body like I weighed nothing, and jumped off her pink head. I vaulted up, spiraled in the air, and charged up the same wave of smoke energy that had streaked down the lamppost on the opposite side warble through my shoulder, up my elbow, along my forearm, and explode at my wrist…flinging a murk-encased playing card Northward like a patriot missile.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

A disoriented Jinx—recoiling from my springboarding off her—squinted her cat eyes to see.

A bullet of a playing card sailed through the air, cut against the wind, barely missed power lines and lampposts, and sunk into the back left tire of the T-Car.

POW!!!!!!!

Two Titans inside the vehicle didn't have a time to gasp. The car spun out of control and slammed sideways into a storefront.

Glass shattered. Noise emanated…shook in the air…and sent an intense wave of concussion that shook through the city blocks, skirted up the interstate, and plowed into my head with a rush of air that popped my eardrums and spun the world like a toy and resumed time to normal.

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I backflipped off of Jinx, spiraled around, flew off the interstate, and glided with murking limbs towards the hotel's side.

Jinx spun around—dizzy—and watched.

I descended faster than the hurtling elevator.

_Eleven stories….ten stories…._

I flew into the groove. Sparks showered over me.

_Nine stories….eight stories…_

I took a deep breath. I spread my legs.

The metal of my boots were encased with smoke energy as they grounded into the sides of the groove. Sparks flew and concrete shards went rattling off into the air.

I twirled Myrkblade, took a breath, and stabbed my weapon straight up into the base of the elevator car.

CHUNK!!!!

People inside gasped and parted to the sides of the falling compartment as a black sword stuck up through the middle of the floor.

_Seven stories….six stories…._

I strained…gritting my teeth. I pulsed wave after wave of murk and smoke through my blade, into the elevator, and let it all warble back down into me and through me and ending in my boots.

The elevator needs brakes, huh? Well, I am the brakes…

Sparks flew from my boots and the elevator as a loud screeching noise ran out from the side of the hotel and reverberated among both the nearby buildings and the overhang of the interstate.

_Five stories…four stories…  
_  
The people inside weren't screaming anymore. They just held to each other, stared at the blade, and panted.

I gnashed my teeth. My muscles stretched to the breaking point.

Jinx watched breathlessly from above.

_Three stories….two stories…._

I tilted my head back into a large, silent scream.

Sparks fell into my mouth and singed my tongue.

My goggles pressed into my skin as my eyes clenched tightly shut.

The grinding lessoned.

The shield of murk took over.

The elevator slowed drastically.

And…

_**TAP**__._

The heels of my boots barely touched the bottom of the groove's elevator shaft.

Everything stopped.

I took one deep breath…two deep breaths….three--

WOOOSH!!

The elevator lunged as my body popped out, flipped, landed, and jabbed forward with Myrkblade in time to skewer the bottom floor of the elevator to the shaft.

The people fell onto their butts…but besides that, they were fine.

They were on ground floor.

I took a deep breath. I yanked Myrkblade out, lifted my foot, and kicked the glass casing apart.

SHATTER!!!!!

The people jerked and looked at me fearfully.

I pointed firmly down the road.

All of them nodded fervently and hurried out.

Just as the last person stepped out, I jerked my sword out.

CREEEEAK!!!

The elevator tube fell over—empty—and shattered completely.

CRASH!!!!!!

The people ran off to safety.

In the distance, a myriad of sirens filled the City. I couldn't tell what they wailed for—if it was the elevator, the crashes on the highway, or the fires at Phaser Labs.

I didn't care.

I looked up. I glared at Jinx through my goggles.

The sorceress gritted her teeth as she looked back down at me. Her fists clenched and shook.

I sheathed Myrkblade…stared at her for a few seconds, then spun around and blurred down the dark alleyways of the city under the interstate's overhang.

The Third Apprentice slammed her fist into the guardrail with frustration, sighed, and streaked a pink path her own way before the authorities could possibly catch up with her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover leaned against the side of the interstate, staring at the hotel's side and breathing in awe. He swallowed and looked at the two cameramen. "Did y'all get that?"

"Yes. Sir."

"Good…..good good good good…..," a beat. "Good God."

"You said it."

"But what does it mean….," Glover whispered to himself. A beat. "Boys…we're taking this footage back to the station immediately. I want a cut by the end of the evening!! You hear me?!"

"Loud and clear."

Glover spoke under his breath. "Not everyone's given up on you, my mysterious-eyed friend. Not everyone…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and Robin stumbled out of the T-Car, wincing.

The Boy Wonder stepped gingerly through a sea of glass from the smashed storefront.

The android Titan wandered to the back of his baby and spotted the playing card stuck into the obliterated rear tire.

Cyborg let out a huge growl and slammed his titanium fist into the sidewalk.

"RRRghhh!!" he grumbled. "This just isn't my week!!"

"You're not alone…," Robin brushed himself off. "Looks like the cops are alone on this one."

"Man, we can still get there!"

"Now…," Robin sighed. "We can't."

"…..rrrrghhh!!" Cyborg growled again. "Wyldecarde?!?! What are you thinking, man?!?! What do you want from us?!?!"

Robin folded his arms and looked at the smashed storefront. He sighed. "Same thing Slade wants."

"Who cares what Slade wants anymore?!?!" Cyborg shook. "It's Noir that's beating our asses!"

Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "Y-Yeah……very true, Cyborg." A beat. He looked off, thinking. "Very true…."

Cyborg looked at him, curious.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An emergency vehicle screamed its way down a street towards Phaser Labs.

I hid in a dark alleyway, my body pressed to a wall.

I panted…waiting to collect my energy and use powers of stealth to retreat 'home'.

And that's when my butt vibrated again.

I blinked…rolled my black eyes…and yanked the cell phone out of the pocket. I held it up to my ears in a jerk as if to frustratingly utter: 'what?!'

_"Noir, it's me…,"_ said the Messenger's unmistakable voice.

I tried hanging up.

_"No!! Please!! Listen!! I-I'm not calling you to rebuke you f-for whatever you're doing or whatnot. Noir…p-p-please!! Just listen to me!! This is urgent!"_

I raised an eyebrow. My heart froze. I had never head the Messenger sound so…….panicky before.

_"He knows where you are!!"_

I blinked.

_"Dagger!! Dagger knows where you are!! H-He always knows where you are!!"_

I looked around me.

The alleyway was dark and claustrophobic.

I got the chills…

_"Don't ask me how! But he does!! I've been doing some studying. It makes perfect sense!! Did you almost bite the dust, Noir?! D-Did something inexplicably dangerous happen to you!! Something like running water or clockwork?!"_

I looked absent-mindedly in the hidden direction of Phaser Labs. I thought of the men in dark suits. The machine gun ballet. How fluid they moved and seemed to expect and counteract my every move.

I got more chills….

_"Imagine a dark Tao if you will!! And Dagger's got it!! Either he's way ahead of Slade or th-they both got it!! It's something just about as mysterious and tr-transient as Dagger's conspiratorial legend itself!! And on top of that, he somehow knows where you are at any m-moment of the day!!"_ A beat. _"Noir!!"  
_  
His last exclamation sounded so pleading and desperate through the phone.

I pressed my ear closer to the plastic.

I panted.

_"If Dagger knows where you always are……then he knows where you've always been!!"_

A beat.

I squinted.

_"I repeat……,"_ the Messenger breathily. _"If D-Dagger knows where you are, he knows where you've __**been**__ as well!!"_

I gasped. My heart stopped.

_"Now Noir, don't d-do anything desperate---"  
_  
I hung up.

I spun around.

I blurred madly southwestward.

Straight towards Renee's and Daniel's pawn shop…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dagger…..," Slade growled through his mask and shook his fist at the face on the t.v. screen in the dark cabin. "Why isn't he **dead**?!"

_"I've told you before…,"_ Dagger spoke. _"I can't have my men kill him."_

"Why not?!" Slade uttered. "Your men now have the power to defy rules of fate on the fly!! Could you at least show me a little thanks by eliminating this threat??"

_"Happy as I am to give the stuff a test run…,"_ Dagger said,_ "…I must hold true to principals I've sworn to protect in the dark, dark past."_

"You're hardly a man of ethics, Dagger. You do not need me to remind you of that."

_"Not ethics, Slade,"_ Dagger folded his hand at his table. _"Preservation. The boy stays alive. End of argument. But just because I can't kill him doesn't mean I can't teach him a lesson."_

"Like….."

_"Like a punishment for his intervention. A punishment worse than killing __**him**__…"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred through the City.

The sun was setting.

Everything was on fire.

Burning with amber like my lungs as I heaved and gasped for the next ounce of strength to blur my legs forward.

Ahead of me, the commercial district stretched.

The streets seemed barren.

My heart ached.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Wyldecarde is very conflicted at the moment, Slade. He's stretched between being a hero and being a villain. You and I both know that there's no go-between. But as strong and valuable to my past as the swordsboy is, he still has lots of room to grow. And growth must come with both the stretching of skin……as well as the spilling of blood…"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came down the final stretch.

I blurred past storefronts and lampposts and parking spaces.

My black eyes squinted through the goggles and spotted two black vans in front of the pawn shop.

I gritted my teeth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"He thinks he's helping save friends of his from your precious 'Experiment'. But just like any over-achiever, all he manages to do is hurt those around _

_him. It almost surprises me that a vigilante of his caliber isn't familiar with the concept of……'risk'…yet……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMACK!!!

Daniel fell back from the thug's punch.

"Stop it!!" Renee shook in the grasp of a dark-suited crook holding a knife to her throat. "Please!! Just leave us alone!!"

The leading thug—a sparsely haired man in a brown suit—rubbed his knuckles and walked towards her. He grinned. "You're not used to City life, are you sweet cheeks? I think I'll turn that face of yours blue like your husband's is about now…"

"Don't you touch her!!" Daniel growled and tried to rush the man. Two more thugs rushed over and grabbed him from behind. He struggled. "Just take what you want and leave!!"

Six of Dagger's men were accosting the two owners in the front room of the pawn shop.

"Sir…," the brown-suited one chuckled. "What we want….**who** we want, is not here. I think we'll just have to settle for your young blood instead."

Renee sweated, panting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You are a despicable man, Dagger…," Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed. "I may find something to salvage from our partnership yet."

_"I do not think you'll be so tolerant once you receive this 'power' of yours you keep bragging about."_

"Honestly, Dagger….haven't I shared enough with your men?"

A chiming sound erupted from a blank t.v. screen.

Slade growled. "What is it now?!" He pointed his remote at the screen. A picture of one of his robot henchmen atop the abandoned apartment rooftops stood beside a missile launcher and saluted the camera."

"This had better be good….," Slade slurred.

The robot pointed over the side of the roof. The camera image panned to show a long line of police cars and two SWAT Trucks cruising up the road towards the destination.

Slade's eye widened.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This Commissioner Decker!" the Commissioner said into the radio of the squad car his lieutenant was driving. "What do you see?!"

A helicopter soared low overhead, its rotary blades spinning and chopping up the air.

The voice of the copilot replied: _"Nothing at the moment sir. No sign of---wait!! Holy crap, it's the mother of all payloads up here!!"  
_  
"Come again??"

_"Slade's henchmen and three missiles!! They seemed to be aimed at Downtown, sir!!"_

"Mother of God…," Decker mumbled. He switched frequencies. "One Eight Six to Dispatch!! Tell everyone to hold back!! Repeat!! Hold back!!"

He looked up at the bug-eyed lieutenant. "We're gonna need the military if this day's gonna go anywhere near well…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the screen in Slade's cabin, a helicopter circled the missile site.

Slade took a deep breath.

_"How unfortunate…,"_ Dagger droned. _"I assume besides pirating your broadcast…the Boy also had a hand in this…"  
_  
"As far as I'm concerned…," Slade muttered as he turned and walked down the length of the cabin. "…now that he's touched it, it's unclean."

He clicked the remote.

A cylinder of a computer console rose out from the floor.

Dagger's face squinted from his screen. _"Slade……what are you doing?"_

"Covering my tracks…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, boys?" the brown-suited man leaned against a rack of pawned items and eyed Renee hungrily. "Should we just get it done with or have fun with them first?"

Chuckles.

Daniel struggled. "Let her go!! You want to know stuff about Wyldecarde, I'll tell you!!"

"Danny….," Renee stammered.

"She doesn't need to be here!!" Daniel gritted his teeth.

"Pfft…why? Because you 'love her'?!" the thug leader rolled his eyes. "Save it for someone with compassion, pal…"

"She….s-she….," Daniel desperately sweat and blurted, "She's with child!!"

Renee flushed and looked away, trembling.

The brown-suited thug blinked. "Oh, is she?"

"Two months. P-Please…just let her go. I'll tell you everything you want. But Renee means the world to me."

"I bet she does…," the brown-suited one smirked and wandered over towards her.

She watched him with twitching, wet eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade opened a compartment on top of the cylinder.

A hand-shaped console appeared before him.

He placed his glove over it.

It read his heat signature, beeped, and uncovered a red switch.

_"Is that really necessary, Slade?"_ Dagger's voice interjected. _"You know you do not have too much carbonite left."_

Slade nodded without looking. "As I do not have much patience left…..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CHIIING!!!

The lead thug pulled out a dagger and held it to Renee's breast.

"So….," he practically drooled. "Got a junior inside you, eh?"

She shook….she nodded.

"Gonna make it reallllll fun tearing you open," he smiled.

She gasped.

Daniel was about to yell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade lowered his helmet.

He flipped the switch.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**CRASSSSSH!!!!**

Glass flew in a spray as I blurred in and rammed into the brown-suited man.

"OOF!!"

He fell sideways and hit his head hard on a metal rack, leaking blood.

His dagger went sliding.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**BOOOOM!!!!**

The center missile launcher exploded on the rooftop.

Soon afterwards, the ones flanking it joined in.

**BOOOOM!!!!-****BOOOOOM!!!!**

Three fireballs flew up into the sky and then consumed the apartment downwards in a fiery implosion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The other five henchmen gasped.

The brown-suited one looked up through trickling blood coming down his forehead.

A black-eyed demon tossed off his goggles—smoking—and stood up with a black sword flickering.

One thug raised a pistol.

I jerked towards him. I rushed with a high sweep of Myrkblade.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ground shook.

Thunder resounded through the north of the City.

The helicopter jerked from the distortion in the air and flew back sharply to avoid the climbing plumes of fire.

Robot limbs and bodies melted as the building collapsed in on itself like inside out plasma.

The squad cars screeched to a stop.

The lieutenant and Decker stepped out and stared wide eyed.

"Hollllllly shit!"

The fires climbed higher and higher and higher…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLIIIIINK!!!

Blood flew from a huge gash in the one thug's shoulder and splattered across lawn equipment.

The man screamed but was silenced as I kicked his lungs tight with a boot to his chest.

The thugs holding Daniel whipped out uzzis.

I spun around and unleashed two playing cards at once.

SWIIIIIIIIISH-SWIIIIIIIISH!!!

TH-THUNK!!!

The sharp projectiles literally pinned the thugs' wrists to the wall with a spray of red. They shrieked in pain as they let go of Daniel, who stumbled forward into the arms of his wife.

I glared…smoke dancing out of my eyes.

These men weren't the phantoms I fought in Phaser Labs. They were different. They were normal.

I was once again a god amongst insects.

I marched towards the last two standing thugs.

One panickedly picked up a baseball bat and ran at me.

I effortlessly twirled Myrkblade into the wooden object.

SHATTER!!

Splinters flew into his face, cutting his skin.

He gasped and clutched his face.

I gripped him by the collar, flung him over me, and kicked him through the storefront.

SMASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the smoke and fire merged into one…a chime came to one of Decker's special communicators.

He was too mesmerized by the blast to take notice.

He blinked.

He snapped out of it and picked up the communicator.

"H-Hello?"

"Commissioner??" Robin's voice uttered. "What's going on up North?"

Decker stared at the flames. He squinted and smirked slightly. "Some really nice shit, kid…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The other standing thug aimed a pistol at me.

He aimed a pistol at me.

I rushed forward knocked his arm up.

BANG!!!

A hole smoked in the ceiling.

I slashed Myrkblade at his chest, snarling.

A shallow red line formed through his shirt and skewered his pectorals.

Tears formed in his eyes.

I slammed into him. He went tumbling over the shopping counter and fell hard on the other side, dropping his gun.

The man with the gash in his shoulder clutched himself with one hand and aimed a pistol at me with the other.

"Look out!!" Renee shouted.

I turned around.

BANG!!!

Blood flew as the bullet grazed my shoulder.

I jerked slightly from the impact…but then slowly—unphased—turned to glare smokingly at him. With a jerk I slashed Myrkblade and knocked the gun from his hand.

The man's lip quivered. He turned and ran out the smashed storefront.

The brown-suited thug struggled up to his feet.

In the meantime, the two uzzi-bearers ripped the cards---and their wrists—out from the wall and stumbled in pain.

I marched over towards them and slashed both guns out of their grasps with Myrkblade.

One ran off while the other—bleeding—tried to kick me.

I grabbed his leg, summoned murk, and flung him into the air.

"YAAAH!!" he shouted.

In mid air, I let go of him, spun around, and kicked him square in the back.

His body went flying out the storefront and slammed into a lamppost so hard he actually dented it.

WHANG!!!

The man behind the storefront got up, panted, and ran directly out the rear of the store.

All that was left was the brown-suited thug.

I marched towards him, bleeding and bruised. Frowning. Eyes dancing smoke.

Renee and Daniel watched, trembling.

The thug leader had picked up a shotgun and was in the furious process of trying to pump it. His eyes twitched and his hands fumbled as I got closer and closer. Slowly pacing his way.

He panted. He saw how close I was and simply held the shotgun up, cowering.

I gritted my teeth and slashed.

CRACK!!!

Shot flew out in a waterfall of lead.

I blurred forward and literally head-butted his chest.

WHUMP!!! He flew out the storefront, struck the concrete, rolled backwards, and slumped with his back against the tire of one of the black vans.

I marched quickly towards him.

He squirmed.

I twirled Myrkblade.

He struggled to get away. I lunged. He gasped.

SWOOOOSH-STAB!!!

**POP!!!!**

The tire blew out.

"AAAAAUGGGH!!" the man screamed as my sword skewered his shoulder and pierced the tire on the other side.

"Noir!!!" Daniel exclaimed.

I jerked a firm finger up, silencing them. Not once did I stop glaring at the man.

Though I seldom did it….I knew how to pierce the body and not inflict a mortal wound. Yes, I knew how to inflict pain.

The man squirmed and moaned as blood leaked from where Myrkblade licked its smoking way through him.

I could have let him go.

I could have given him a break.

But I wasn't a hero anymore…

I leaned forward. My smoking eyes were inches away from his tearing ones.

I frowned and mouthed: _'How?!?!'_

He squirmed. "I……I-I……"

I twisted Myrkblade.

"AAAAH!!! AAAA-AAAH!!"

Renee and Daniel hugged each other from inside, wide-eyed.

_'How?!?!?!'_

"Dagger….Dagger knows….h-h-he knows everything!!" the man wheezed.

I leaned in forward. I could practically suck his blood. Hell, I probably would have.

_'………how?!?!_' I mouthed.

The man struggled.

I surged smoke into his body.

Pulsing….

He gasped.

He twitched.

He arched. "**CHIP!!!!!!**"

My eyebrows raised.

"Ch-CHIP!!!" he stammered. "Look…ch-ch-check yourself!! Arm….ARM!!!" he shrieked. Blood splattered in a small pool beneath us. "Check for it!! A chip!!!"

I exhaled. I looked back at the pawn shop owners. I looked back at the man. Not removing Myrkblade, I clutched his head hard.

"Wh-What?!?!" he panted.

I forced him to stare at the couple.

He panted. "I….I…."

I twisted Myrkbalde.

"AAAAAGHH!!" he shouted. "I'm….I'm sorrrrrry!!"

I twisted more.

I bore my teeth. I could have had fangs.

"I-I-I'm sorry!!! T-T-T-To your wife!!"

I twisted one last time.

"AND CHILD!!! I'M SORRY TO YOUR WIFE AND CHILD!!! I-I AM SO…SO…SORRY!!! AAAUGH!!"

**YANK!!!**

I pulled out Myrkblade….

**WHAM!!!!**

…and kicked the man harshly in the cheek with my boot.

WHUMP!!!

His head impacted hard with the sidewalk. A bloody tooth fell out.

He wheezed and looked up at me with wide eyes.

I glared down at him. I pointed Myrkblade.

The man hobbled up. Bleeding from his shoulder and mouth and forehead, he hobbled off into a black van that was taking off with the other conscious thugs.

I took a deep breath. I sheathed Myrkblade.

A beat.

I slowly turned around.

Daniel and Renee stood—in the store amongst broken glass—staring at me while in each other's arms.

I blinked.

They continued staring at me. Their faces were a queer mixture of awe, fear, and admiration.

I didn't know if they wanted to hug me or exorcise me. I honestly wouldn't blame them if they chose just one—or neither—of those two.

I took a deep breath.

I turned towards the street and walked away.

"N-Noir!" Renee stepped forward.

"Wh-Where're you going?" Daniel asked.

I didn't answer. I didn't look back.

I had been playing this game so…so passionately. I hadn't stopped to think about the risk.

I had to accept the fact that I was a villain. Not just playing the part. If I was to live a life by my own impulses, I had to live a life alone. Not something that would threaten the innocent.

And yet…that felt so paradoxical that it confused me all the same.

All I knew was that I couldn't be there anymore. I couldn't use them. Renee and Daniel were too good to me. I had to leave them to save them.

Much like the Titans…

_Much like the Titans……._

Two blocks down and in stealth mode, I sighed depressingly to myself. I stepped into an alleyway and put my goggles back on.

The words of the Messenger and the brown-suited lackey of Dagger rang through my head.

Somehow……my greatest enemies knew where I was. And what's more…they could launch an impregnable army to take me down.

I had to find answers.

But I no longer had any tools available to myself to assist in that.

But I knew where I could find them.

So—as night fell—I gradually made my way Southeastward….towards the Bay.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You bl-blew it up??" Jinx gasped.

"Yes, apprentice," Slade spoke, sitting in a metal throne of sorts erected besides the circular window looking out onto the bow. "I had to."

"But why???"

"If the police found the carbonite in tact…they might find the nanoprobes we've been trying to infect the Titans with. I could not allow our schemes to be rooted out. Just because of the rebellious antics of the former Noir…"

"H-He can't do anything!!" Jinx exclaimed. "H-H-He's as weak as the other Titans!!! Surely both you and I—with Dagger too—can outsmart him!!"

"Outsmarting is one thing, Apprentice…," Slade stared down at her with his mask's eye. "But Wyldecarde has proven to be very….remarkable in his art of understanding fate. Almost a match for you, even."

Jinx frowned. She clenched her fists. "That's not **true!**"

"Then how is it he predicted the exact scheme I was plotting today?!?!" Slade growled and slammed his fist down onto the armrest of his 'throne'.

Jinx winced.

"How could he have known I was making a broadcast?! How would he have known about the missiles or---"

The evil mastermind froze.

Jinx blinked at him. "Wh-What?"

He slowly stood up.

He walked towards her.

Jinx blushed. "Um….M-Master? Why're you looking at me like that?"

"Not at you, dear child….," Slade said, gently cupping her chin. "But rather…a part of you." He jabbed two fingers forward.

Jinx jerked, frightened.

Slade reached into her ear and pulled out the communicator.

His eyes narrowed on the object. "Of course….," he whispered. "Surely Noir would have studied the earpiece Robin had leftover from the First Apprenticeship. He must had devised a way to pick up our communications!"

Jinx gasped. "How….H-How long do you think…."

"Since Wyldecarde stepped among us….that's how he knew everything. **Everything!**" Slade slammed the tiny earpiece down and crushed it underneath him with his boot.

Jinx stared into nothingness.

Slade took a deep breath. "Thus far….Wyldecarde has tempted your fate, outpaced Dagger's precision, and annoyed my patience." He turned around and faced the window. "It looks as if I may have to get a lot more personal with the boy if I am to dissuade him from pursuing the rescue of the Titans any further."

"The Experiment….it m-must go on, right?"

"And it will…," Slade nodded. "Poor Dagger…he will just have to have his heart broken."

"Wh-Why's that, sir?"

Slade turned around. He hissed: "For I know how to kill the boy…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I paused.

The wind kicked hard at me.

While my other three limbs murked/clung to the surface, I reached a free hand down to my pocket and pulled out the disemboweled radio. I held it up to my ear. I shook it.

They had caught onto me…

I sighed and let go of the radio.

It flew past my face, down the length of the structure, and smashed into the bluffs and sea surf below.

I continued my upside-down climb on the underside of the 'cross' of the Titans' Tower. Soon I would reach a crevice that I could teleport through and—hopefully---avoid the primary security systems.

To do a little bit of homework…I had to go into the lion's den.

There'd be no sleep that night.


	61. Full Circle part 8

**61. Full Circle part 8**

In the dark editing room of a news station, two young men worked on piecing together the two sets of footage taken of the day's events. Monitors glowed blue and silver with images of the exploding Phaser Labs, The Titans in pursuit of the elusive Slade, and—most rare—a certain Wyldecarde performing an act or two of heroism.

Glover stepped into the room while the footage was being selected and pieced together.

One of the young editors turned around and pointed out a few things on one screen: "I almost have a shot of Wyldecarde's opponent in this snapshot. Whoever it is, it's definitely female. Seems to be wearing the same sort of outfit that Wyldecarde is."

Glover leaned in between the men's chairs. "Same outfit, huh? Could she be working for Slade?"

"Why would two apprentices of Slade be fighting each other?"

"Maybe because only one of them is the true apprentice….," Glover mumbled. A beat. "Look at the way she moves. Almost like the former Noir himself."

"Could they be related?"

"Pffft. Hardly. One relies on darkness and the other on light."

"Even if their powers are different…they fight relatively similar."

Glover nodded. "Give or take a sword."

"Heheh…"

"Whatever the case," Glover folded his hands and grinned. "I think this footage of ours will be pivotal in one form or another."

"To do what exactly, sir?" One man remarked. "I-I mean…what does this prove?"

"It proves that…even though I'm an old man…I'm not quite so demented," Glover patted one of the individuals' back and walked out the door. "If you need me, I'll be in my office. Send me a page, please. I'm gonna be a bit busy."

"Working on a project, sir?"

Glover stopped at the door, glanced at the monitor displaying Wyldecarde on the highway, and uttered: "I've got a….phone call to make…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Main Room of the Tower…

"Okay…here's what I think is wacked out!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He sat on the top of the sofa with his back to the night-shrouded windows. "Slade's been making these badass threats all week. And yet he can't seem to hold true to any single one of them!! I mean, one day he wants to blow up a freighter. He sends Wyldecarde to knock us around a bit. Then he ditches the freighter and leaves dead robot parts behind. Then he warns of blowing up a chronotonic core or something, but instead just sets the front of Phaser Labs on fire and explodes an abandoned building clear across Town!! I mean…I know Slade is like supremely evil and all that jazz….but since when was he this clumsy?"

"I am not exactly sure it is clumsiness," Starfire remarked. "I think Slade knows we expect him to be so punctual in his wickedness. Perhaps these inept bomb threats have been an attempt to distract us until he is truly ready to strike full force?"

"Let's look at things like there's a pattern," Cyborg uttered. "Before we discovered Noir was a traitor, every time we tried to catch up with Slade…something crazy happened to us. Now that Wyldecarde is reunited with his master, Murphy's Law has switched around. With the exception of my Baby, of course."

"Yeah," Beast Boy nodded. "It's like chaos was playing practical jokes on us…then switched over to Slade since he got his apprentice back!"

"Don't forget the office building with the computer lab," Robin lifted a gloved finger. "That wasn't so lucky an excursion for us either. And it was after we discovered Noir's treachery too."

"Ah yeah…..," Cyborg nodded.

"Perhaps Noir best functioned as a satellite agent?" Raven suggested. "He seemed to work alone well, even when he was pretending to be on our side. Now that Wyldecarde and Slade are working side by side, there's most likely a clash of egos. The chemistry breaks, and chaos ensues."

"Do you suppose Slade and Wyldecarde are at odds?" Starfire asked.

"I suppose nothing except for what I've seen," Raven responded. "Either Slade or Wyldecarde is screwing things up. And it shows."

"One thing's for certain," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Wyldecarde's did a good job at least twice to kick our collective butts!!"

Robin bit his lip.

Cyborg uttered: "Heh."

"Have you forgotten the last time we saw him??" Starfire looked at everyone. "He was hardly possessive of his villainous confidence which we have previously born witness to."

"Fine by me…," Raven huffed.

Robin gave the dark girl a sideways glance before saying to everyone: "I think Wyldecarde's starting to feel the heat of justice on his heels. He once fought for the good guys—traitor or not—so he must be at least remotely aware of our intolerance for villains such as him."

"Or Slade's giving him a hard time for something," Cyborg muttered. "Can't be fun."

Beast Boy glared. "You say that almost like you sympathize with the jerk! What's wrong with you, man?"

Cyborg glared up at the changeling. "I had a friend named **Noir** who 'died'. How about you?"

Beast Boy bit his lip and looked away.

Robin cleared his throat. "Come on…guys. No leaping at each other's throats. Just because Noir hurt us all…doesn't mean we can't look back and find at least some shred of good memories lying around. By no means is what Noir did excusable. I'm merely saying that……well…..okay, I do miss him. And I'm sure you all miss him too to some degree. But the hardest part of it all is realizing that the 'person' we are now missing is---rather, **was** a fake. And there's nothing that can shirk that truth."

Beast Boy rubbed his forehead.

Cyborg stared straight down to the floor.

Raven blinked. "Who knows…."

Everyone looked at her.

"…after this whole fiasco is over with and we have Wyldecarde in jail…maybe he'll answer a few questions."

"We're taking him alive??" Beast Boy blinked.

Raven glared. "Yes. What did you think I was inferring?"

"You weren't inferring anything!" Beast Boy cackled. "Why does Wyldecarde have to be alive?"

Cyborg chuckled dryly.

Raven sighed and shook her head. "I'm not having this conversation with you---"

"You think a crook like that deserves to live?" Beast Boy shook.

Everyone but Raven winced.

"Of course not," the dark girl retorted and glared at the changeling. "But I'm gonna let him live anyways if I can help it! Are you suddenly obsessed with capital punishment, Beast Boy? You wanna be the one to put the wet sponge on top of Wyldecarde's head when all is said and done?"

The changeling flushed red. He looked away, fuming.

Robin shook his head, rubbed his temples, and stood up. "Maybe some of us should just….catch up on some sleep or something."

"Yeah…," Beast Boy folded his arms and muttered. "I think I have a better idea. That 'some of us' is going off to mope on his own." Frowning, he jumped up out of his chair and marched out of the room.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire reached a hand out to him.

Cyborg halted her. "Let him be….," he said, hushed.

The elevator doors opened…closed…and then just the four remained.

"Ugh….," Raven shook her head. "Why does he have to be so young?"

"It all goes back to Terra," Robin spoke. "You know he still hurts from that."

"He cannot take betrayal as well as we can," Starfire added with hands clasped together.

Raven shifted her robe. "Well, y'all let me know when he grows up. I'm tired of counting down."

"Be patient with him, Raven," Cyborg said. "Lord knows we're all patient with you."

Raven's mouth opened. She stopped. She took a deep breath, sealed her lips, and nodded.

Silence.

"I keep thinking about Schauer's words….," Robin eventually said out loud. "You know…from the tape Raven and Noir found."

Absent-minded nods…..

"All that talk about the Experiment…the Balance of Morals….Fate. Heh, just the other day I was sick of hear those terms. And, to be honest, I'm sick of hearing them now. And yet…now they mean something else entirely in my head."

"How so?" Cyborg asked.

"Because Slade seems to be doing the exact opposite of manifesting some awe-inspiring, fateful destiny," Robin shrugged. "Everything is chaotic and going in circles."

"Murphy's Law in reverse," Cyborg smirked. "Just like I said."

"But then again, Starfire could be onto something," Raven added. "This is probably one huge trap. Just because Slade's made some goofy---er---villain moves as of late, it doesn't mean we should let our guard down."

"By all means…," Starfire nodded.

"I suggest strong vigilance," Raven said. "And perhaps even….cautionary reconnaissance the next time there's a transmission drawing us to some sort of Slade-imposed target across town."

"Beast Boy or myself could fly in and report to the rest of you the authenticity of the crime scene!" Starfire smiled.

"Let's just hope Slade isn't ahead of us in that degree," Raven spoke.

Suddenly, there was a chiming sound on a distant computer.

Everyone looked across the Main Room.

"Hrmmm," Robin stood up. "Phone call."

"Is it customary for earthlings to make transmissions this late after the setting of the sun?" Starfire asked.

"Not really," Cyborg grunted. "Unless it's urgent………………or sexy."

"I don't care," Robin grunted. "I'm bored." He clicked a button on the computer console and opened an intercom program. "Titans' Tower. This Robin. Who, may I ask, is calling?"

_"Dear Titans…,"_ uttered Blake Glover's unmistakable voice, _"…I have something you may all desire to see. Nothing frightening, I assure you, but pertinent all the same…"_

Robin's eyebrow lifted. He spun around and glanced back at the other Titans.

They were all gaping.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I took a deep breath.

_1…..2….3…._

My muscles tensed.

Murk warbled up my limbs…

And…

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

I morphed into smoke, slipped out of the claustrophobic compartment, swam through walls of Titanium along passageways of wires, soared past electronics, reached a socket at the end of my breath, and solidified on the other side.

WHUMP!!

I tumbled forward across the floor of the Tower's security hub.

Not a moment too soon, I leapt up to my feet, rushed over, and flattened myself against the wall of the dark room.

_Pant……Pant……Pant……_

Sensors in the floor detected a sudden temperature change from my presence.

With an electronic whur, a field of criss-crossing lasers appeared and swept across the room, flexing in a patchwork format that ate through the air like a cheese grater.

I watched from the wall as the red field swam at me.

I took a deep breath.

One touch of the lasers and every alarm in the Tower would go off.

I knew that.

I was once a Titan.

I stretched my hands behind me and flattened the palms against the cold metal wall.

I tilted my neck back.

Red lights glittered off my goggles.

Sweat ran down my brow.

The laser field was a foot and a half away.

I took another breath.

Counted down…

And……

FLASSSSH!!!

As the lasers ate into the spot where my body was, my body once again took the form of smoke and literally became one with the wall. A thin, microcosmic layer of murk inked across the wall like a shadowy paint job.

It took approximately seven seconds for the laser field to reach the wall, pause, and then shift back towards the opposite side of the room where it had started.

I materialized and immediately gasped for breath.

My body heaved.

The field died out on the other side. But there were still cautionary red lights flashing across the many computer consoles in the security room. The temperature had not fallen to normal. In about thirty seconds, an alarm would go off if my heat had not been removed.

I had only a handful of time to work.

I rushed over and unsheathed Myrkblade while standing over a console.

Obviously, all of my activation codes had been disabled and there was no way a former Titan-turned villain such as myself could switch off some of the security protocols manually. So I resorted to a….ghetto method.

I calculated approximately where the wiring for the motherboard responsible for temperature detectors throughout the Tower would be. I aimed for it, summoned murk, and stabbed my blade down.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I turned the end of my blade into smoke. Inside, the friction of the warbling, metaphysical weapon severed the connections quietly.

The blinking red lights switched off.

I took a deep breath.

Now all I had to worry about were cameras….and darned if I couldn't switch those off in a similar fashion as I had the temperature detectors.

I headed for the door, aimed my body into the crack leading to the other side, and teleported out into the hallway…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"I'll tell you this as much,"_ Blake Glover's voice said. _"The information I have has to do with Wyldecarde."_

"If you're wanting to give us a long lecture concerning his treachery, save it," Raven droned. "We're quite aware of his villainy. After all, he **did** betray us, you know. And if you're calling to brag about your pessimistic premonitions concerning him than you can just—"

_"Titans, seriously,"_ Glover's voice was emphatic, _"I called for neither of those reasons. I merely have video evidence of Wyldecarde outside the crime scene."_

"What kind of evidence?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

_"The sort you would be most interested in."_

"Let me guess," Robin folded his arms. "There is a price involved for our seeing it?"

_"You are all so very defensive…,"_ Glover uttered. _"You do truly feel betrayed, don't you?"_

"Just answer the question!"

_"The only price I have is your honorable time spent in meeting me. I'll be here until two in the morning in the JCNT News station building. If you so desire to pay me a visit, I would be most honored to share this information with you. Either way, I do intend to submit it to the media tomorrow afternoon. So it might be in your best interest to peruse it first."_

At that, the Titans exchanged glances.

_"Don't misunderstand me, Titans…,"_ Glover solemnly spoke. _"I want to do what's best for you. Until later, farewell."_

-click-

"Okay….," Raven blinked. "So some people **do** change."

"I dunno….something sounds fishy," Cyborg rubbed his titanium head.

"What is the plan of action concerning this, Robin?" Starfire outright asked.

Robin sighed. "Well…I know I sure as heck won't be sleeping any tonight. And I have no other leads to follow concerning Wyldecarde. So…."

"Gonna go for it?" Cyborg asked. "I'm not all that enthused, to tell you the truth."

"I'll go alone if need be," Robin asked.

"I'll go with you," Raven stood.

"You're sure of that?"

"It was both you and I who investigated Noir/Wyldecarde to begin with. Besides…."

"What?"

Raven blinked. "You'll need someone to fly you there."

Cyborg chuckled. "The R-Cycle's smashed up, remember?"

The Boy Wonder blushed.

Starfire giggled. "Fly the skies of friendliness, you two!"

Robin rolled his eyes under his mask. "Do I need a helmet for this?"

"As long as you don't need a vomit bag," Raven walked to the elevator and motioned him along. "Come."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I rushed over to a wall in a hallway and flattened myself against it.

I panted.

Just above me, an electric camera whirred and pivoted its lens around.

My black eyes squinted up through my goggles.

The camera whirred to the side.

I made a run for it.

I blurred around a corner, snaked along a wall underneath another camera, and rushed down a flight of stairs and towards the floor below me.

I was looking for Cyborg's laboratory…

At one point, I came through a junction in the halls. They were dark and hauntingly familiar. Oddly enough, there was no camera present around there.

I heard a whispery sound.

My ear pricked.

I looked down the hallway.

An automatic door was halfway open and the wall console beside it partially torn out.

I raised an eyebrow. I blurred over and sneaked my way over and glanced inside…carefully.

The whispery sound turned into a gentle weeping. I realized I was looking inside the room that once belonged to Terra. The same room an irate Beast Boy once threw me out of. Peaking in, I could presently see the green changeling. He was curled up in the bed in elf form, hugging the silverfish, homemade heart box to himself.

His shoulders heaved and he hiccupped once or twice. The back of his head was to me—which was a good thing considering the situation I was in. But I couldn't see his tears.

I took a deep breath.

_The last time I saw Beast Boy sobbing, I was there and able to hug him….._

I swallowed a painful lump in my throat, spun around, and blurred on down the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Starfire, how are you doing?"

The Tamaranian girl looked up from the kitchen unit where she was making a small dish in the tradition of her home planet. "Huh??"

Cyborg smiled and asked. "How are you doing?"

Starfire blinked. "I am doing wonderfully well, Cyborg. And you?"

"Just curious. You've been quite…..calm over the past few days," Cyborg said.

"Is there a reason that I should not be?"

"No. It's just that….well….sometimes you really make me wonder, Starfire."

"In what fashion?"

"I'm amazed at your composure. At your ability to take any situation and—"

"Count it all joy?" Starfire smiled. "Cyborg…it is a very, very sad thing that we are both suffering from the betrayal of our former friend and the elusive villainy of Slade. As you recall, I already went through my mourning, and I have you to thank for the companionship at such a time. But the way I see it, I still have four dear friends left and they have not done a single thing to disappoint me in the middle of all this chaos. Would you not count that as joy too?"

Cyborg chuckled. "Yeah, Starfire, I guess I would."

"Then it is not so much to wonder about, is it?" she fluttered her eyelashes.

Cyborg chuckled. "You're one in the million Star. Robin's lucky."

She blinked. "How so?"

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Er….no reason. Ahem. Lemme know when Robin and Rae are back."

"Where are you going?"

"Lab," he said bluntly. "Thought I could use a little recharging."

"Very well."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to Cyborg's laboratory stretched above.

I took a deep breath and unsheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!

Cyborg's father was the one who built this Tower. Similarly, Cyborg was the one who engineered the security for it.

Thus it was perfectly understandable that Cyborg's room—more than anyone else's—had a supreme security grid inside.

Sensors in the floor, wall, and ceiling registered changes in heat, motion, light, and even bio-electric signature.

It was all run on a high-tech computer system positioned with its core inside of a console on the opposite side of the room from the door.

I had only one way of beating it all.

_Moving really…..bitching….fast….._

I knelt to the ground, gripped Myrkblade, and took a breath.

_Again…._

_1….2….3…._

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

I teleported under the door, exploded into smoke on the other side, shot through the air like black lightning, and materialized on the other side of the room with Myrkblade stabbing straight ahead.

CHTUNG!!!!

I let out a gasp of relief.

_Bulls eye._

My sword sank into the computer console, which short-circuited.

The red lights of the dim room flickered for a moment, then blipped out.

I was surrounded by perfect darkness.

I stood up straight, sheathed Myrkblade, and relaxed.

_Familiar territory…._

I wandered over to a switch in the wall and flipped on the lights.

My black eyes squinted momentarily under the goggles.

I looked across the room. I spotted Cyborg's recharging table, a medical bed or two, suspended animation chambers, compartments for holding technologies and crime-fighting weapons, and an assortment of sensors and fancy microscopes.

I wandered over towards the latter area of interest. There was a huge, opposable metal arm of sorts. I pulled at the 'wrist' of the device, and it pivoted easily in my grasp. It was a sensor for cybernetic scans. Cyborg used it for 'checkups' and system diagnostics on himself.

I glanced over to the side. There was a compartment that looked like an oven, complete with a transparent shield and everything. It was a scanner for analyzing strange materials.

I scratched my chin.

I decided I had even more homework to do.

I reached into one of my belt's pockets and pulled out the sliver of carbonite that I had acquired a few days ago. I eyed its faintly glowing structure…then glanced back at the compartment.

I was about to reach for the handle when I froze and stopped myself.

I glanced at a console in the center of all of this equipment.

A huge handprint rested in plain view.

_Crud……_

I sighed.

The device would only respond after one of the Titans placed a limb across the console, activating the system.

And I wasn't a Titan anymore.

I looked across the room.

There was a metal cabinet with a lock on it. I remembered it from the very first day Cyborg showed me around the lab.

I momentarily pocketed the carbonite sliver and walked over to the cabinet.

There were two layers to it. The outer one had a simple locking mechanism to it. A hole for one of Cyborg's special keys to slide in and undo. The inner layer—I knew—was just a compartment door to slide open.

I leaned forward and squinted into the keyhole.

A beat.

I leaned back. I raised a hand. I took a breath.

My limb warbled into a field of smoke. I extended it forward. My smoking limb entered the keyhole. I thinned my black eyes and concentrated. The smoke murked around inside the keyhole, fumbled with the tumblers, and found the right position.

CLICK!!!

The compartment snapped to life.

I reached my hand out, solidified it, and sighed. Renewed, I opened the outer door, slid the inner lid to the side, and peered inside.

_Bingo…_

A literal pile of titanium right hands rested in the shadows on to of each other. Cyborg's spare arms. Yes, he had more than two.

I reached in and grabbed one. I walked back across the floor, positioned the hand right, and flattened it across the console.

After a while, the sensors lit up and a pleasant beeping sound lit my ears. The consoles, equipment, and compartments me came to life.

I smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg whistled to himself as he walked down the hallway.

He rounded a corner and descended a flight of stairs.

Just two stories down…and he'd be right at home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The carbonite material rested inside a glowing compartment. The device glowed and rotated the sliver around. It almost looked like a microwave. On a computer monitor hanging over the apparatus, a computer screen flashed forth graphs, data tables, and other technical readings of the matter in question.

While I waited for that test to complete itself, I busied myself with the bio-reading arm apparatus. I stood in various positions, stretching the metal 'wrist' around me in almost every conceivable fashion. My limbs. My torso. My neck. I was searching for something……..foreign. And I waited for the computer to give me a signal of confirmation.

So far, I had heard none……

I pushed the metal apparatus away, leaned against the wall, and sighed.

My mind wandered.

I thought of the brown-suited thug earlier that day…twitching in pain at the end of Myrkblade.

My black eyes narrowed.

_"Ch-CHIP!!"_

I blinked.

_"Look…ch-ch-check yourself!!"_

I searched my mind a bit more.

I found….

_"Arm…ARM!!!" the man had shrieked. "Check for it!! A chip!!!"_

I took a deep breath.

I looked at my arms.

The same arms of mine I had always known.

Nothing felt odd about them. I had even scanned them just minutes ago…but nothing showed up.

I inhaled.

The thug…he knew something about Dagger….and a chip….

_And my 'arm'…._

I just had to…search harder.

I positioned my right hand upwards and slowly scanned the 'wrist' of the machine along it. Slowly. One centimeter per second. Back over again. The front side. The back side. Down to the elbow. The shoulder.

Nothing.

I sighed.

I positioned my left hand up. I scanned my fingers. My palm. My wrist. The back of my arm. The front of it---

SKREEEEEEEEEE!!

The machine whistled.

I froze.

Chills ran through my body.

Slowly, I brought the sensor up to my wrist.

Silence.

I brought it down to the middle of my forearm in exactly the same position as before. SKREEEEEEEEEE!!!

I blinked.

I brought the sensor down to the inside of my elbow. Silence.

An uneasy lump formed in my empty throat.

I swallowed it down and brought the sensor back over the area of alarm.

I reached over my right hand to a nearby computer console and typed away.

I stood still as the sensor did a strong scan.

When it was done, I stepped hesitantly over towards the monitor and looked at it.

I squinted my eyes. I took my goggles clean off and stared at the blindingly bright screen. Blinking.

A three-dimensional image of my left arm showed a foreign object, rectangular in shape, no larger than a postage stamp. It had settled somewhere between the foremost joining of my radius and ulna. Surrounded by muscles and bones—yet inconspicuously away from moving tissue—the chip had managed to rest unnoticed in my system. And it was hard to detect too. Never before had I scanned a part of my body as thoroughly as I had just then. So when I was first given an examination upon joining the Titans, it must have avoided detection somehow.

But…..

I blinked.

My black eyes rounded.

Goosebumps formed on my skin.

_How long had it been inside of me? What did it have to do with Dagger? And how on Earth did it get inside of me?_

I suddenly gasped. A painful breath escaped from my lungs.

_FLASH!!!!_

_Ana's body surrounded by streams of blue bolts._

_Screaming in the dark._

Standing in a pool of red sauce and gripping Myrkblade.

A shadowy skeleton and…

Laughter……

Laughter………

_FLASH!!!!_

I gripped the wound on my neck.

I swallowed…exhaling.

_I knew very well when it must have been put inside of me._

And I decided to leave it at that.

But still…Dagger's words from the meat locker where the flood lights blinded me ran in my head again. And I had to wonder.

_Was he there? Was he there when I lost……I lost…………_

I shook my head.

I clenched my fists and stared—fuming—at the computer monitor. The chip glared at me.

I gritted my teeth angrily. For I suddenly knew that I was branded in more ways than once.

The 'X' shaped scar flexed with the tightening of my neck.

And then….I heard footsteps.

I gasped.

I spun around.

There was a shadow beneath the crack of light on the other side of the automatic doors….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!!

The doors opened wide.

Cyborg stepped in---and froze.

His eyes narrowed.

All the lights were on.

He glanced over.

Half the equipment was switched on and in use.

He stepped forwards slowly. One titanium foot after another.

The compartment to his spare limbs was open.

He looked forward. He saw the stabbed hole in the security console and came to a stop.

A beat.

Cyborg had a hauntingly calm expression on his face as he took a breath and spoke liquidly to the air: "Noir…what are you doing here?"

I kept still. I had blurred over to a shadowed, thin crevice between computer consoles across the room. From where I hid, I could look out and see Cyborg with my black eyes. Beyond him, the monitor displayed information concerning the carbonite sliver which I had openly left inside the sensor compartment.

"What are you looking for?" the android Titan asked again.

A beat.

I breathed slowly…steadily………quietly.

"Was it worth coming back here for?" his voice asked as he slowly spun around and 'addressed' the lengths and breaths of the room. "Understand me, Noir. I'm actually giving you a chance here. You hear me? I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself. If the other Titans caught me…they would have my neck. But I don't care. Things with Slade have turned too chaotic for any of us to sum up. Why'd you betray us, Noir? Could you at least answer me that?"

I bit my lip. My throat turned sore. I wanted to just give up and melt right there and then. I wanted to tell him everything…to defend myself. And who knows? Maybe he would have actually listened to me. Unless this was a trap.

"Noir….please….," he pleaded in a solemn voice. "Just show yourself. I promise…I won't try and hit your or anything if you'll just explain why you've done what you did!" A beat. "Being evil must feel very……very lonely."

I clenched my eyes shut. My body shook.

_I couldn't give in. I couldn't give in…._

When my black eyes reopened, they were somewhat moist. I gasped as I noticed something.

The readings on the monitor for the carbonite scan.

I silently lifted my goggles, rubbed my wet eyes, and squinted across the bright interior.

A red, blinking window appeared besides a three-dimensional, spectral analysis of the carbonite sliver. The diagram of a tiny circular device with an 'S' engraved on it appeared. And next to that were the flashing words: 'Nanoprobes detected'.

My mouth fell open.

My mind wandered back to long, informative conversations with Robin. The Boy Wonder told me of the first epic battle with Slade. He told me of his coercion into serving the terrorists, and the threat to his friends.

_The nanoprobes…._

The nanoprobes in their bloodstream, and how at a touch of a button Slade could kill the Titans.

All of them.

My black eyes twitched.

Long before I ever joined the group, they had narrowly escaped a gruesome fate at the hands of such microscopic machines. Surely they were familiar with the threat of them. But as Robin had told me, the way it got into their bloodstream to begin with was from the impact of a laser gun of sorts that beamed the technology into their bloodstream.

_How was it that Slade's carbonite explosives were infected with the very same things?_

_Better yet…__**why**__ was it?_

My brow scrunched.

_The way the carbonite glowed….the way it pulsed and gave off energy…it must have released more. It must have released the nanomachines too…_

_That meant......_

My black eyes widened.

_We were getting infected. The Titans and myself. We hadn't suspected that the carbonite was more than just carbonite. It actually was contaminating material. And each time Slade made a bomb threat, the Titans had to assemble and approach the carbonite explosives as a whole. The warehouse…the scrapyard…all of us came close to the locations of the explosive materials.  
_  
Which meant…we were already contaminated. Slade could have killed the Titans at any time. And yet he hadn't.

_But why??  
_  
My brain pulsed. I remember listening in on the radio I had torn apart. On the day of the freighter bomb threat, Slade's transmitted words to Jinx…

_'This will be it…the final pull…'  
_  
A breath escaped me.

_'The Experiment is nearly complete. I can already taste the power…'_

I trembled.

The Titans hadn't accumulated all of the nanoprobes, but they were close! Just one last exposure away from being fully contaminated! That's why Slade was playing his cat and mouse games. It wasn't that he wanted to bomb the City into submission. He wanted to drag the Titans to nests of glowing carbonite until they were stocked up on enough nanoprobes for him to inflict whatever destiny or fate he wanted to on them.

_The Experiment…_

_The application of an old scheme renewed. Full circle…_

My thoughts were quickly shattered as my eyes refocused and I noticed—to my horror—that Cyborg had seen the strange glowing object inside the compartment and was slowly stepping up close to it….

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred out in an instant, raised my weapon in Myrkstaff mode, and slammed the android hard in the back with gritting teeth.

WHACK!!!

"OOF!!" he fell hard to the floor.

I hobbled over him, slid to a stop at the compartment, and punched my fist through the glass.

SHATTER!!!

Shards rained down to my boots as I grabbed the carbonite, pocketed it, and spun around.

Cyborg was struggling up to his feet.

I skewered the monitor with my sword. It sparked as I swung it and launched it straight into Cyborg's chest.

WHAM!!!

He stumbled backwards.

I blurred at him, teleported through him, and ran out the doors on the other side.

I slid into the hallway, panted, and looked desperately down both avenues for the best escape route.

I heard a whirring sound.

I looked straight up.

A camera glared down at me. It 'clicked'.

Alarms went off all throughout the Tower.

I sweatdropped.

_Too late to care about that._

I turned around.

Cyborg limped out the doorway and stared at me. He looked hurt. His eyes did, at least.

I gave him a deadpan look and blurred down the hallway without gesturing a thing.

"Titans!!" Cyborg shouted into his communicator. I heard his voice echo throughout the hallways above the sirens and alarms. "He's here!! Wyldecarde is here!! He's broken into the Tower and now he's trying to get out!! Stop him!!"

I panted.

I ran up a stairwell and onto the floor above.

Red lights flashed all around me as the sirens thundered against the walls.

Ahead of me, two huge panels within the ceiling and floor closed in to meet in the center.

My black eyes widened.

_The emergency seals!!_

I dove forward and slipped through barely in time to avoid being snapped in half.

I rolled along the ground, hopped on my feet, and blurred forward.

I rounded a corner and skidded to a stop as a green glow erupted before me.

I gasped.

"W-Wyldecarde…," Starfire trembled and managed to say as she floated in front of me with glowing eyes and hands. "Do not take another step!! I implore you!"

I glanced to the left.

Bare wall.

I glanced to the right.

A fire extinguisher.

I whipped out a playing card and tossed it at the red case.

SWIIIISH-CLANK!!

PHOOOSH!!!

CO2 exploded outward and bathed Starfire.

"Unngh!!" she winced from the sudden slush.

I streaked past her.

She blindly shot a trail of furious starbolts at me.

They trailed heatedly at my heels, forming melting craters in the metal floor.

I ran up a wall and around the corner, the craters chasing me for a few dozen paces until I had distanced myself from the Tamaranian and ran up another flight of stairs to a higher floor.

Another set of security doors closed way ahead of me. They were too far ahead for me to dive through.

I desperately glanced to my right. I twirled Myrkblade, charged up smoke energy, and plowed myself through the wall.

SMASH!!!

Debris flew as I jumped through the structure in a cloud of metal-slicing-darkness and emerged on the other side.

A familiar tunnel stretched before me. Half repaired.

I sweat. I glanced past the evidence room.

I saw a starry cityscape.

_An exit!_

I ran towards it…but before I could make it out the huge, gaping hole…a green elf dropped down, switched into a rhinoceros, and charged straight at me with thundering hooves. The stampeding changeling occupied the entire girth of the 'tunnel'.

I gasped and dashed into a shredded hallway to the side just seconds before his emerald horn could skewer me.

I slid on a smooth metal floor, vaulted myself up, and smashed my way through the elevator doors.

There was nothing but empty shaft below me.

I impacted a wall, charged up murk, and vaulted myself upwards and off of it. I bounced off the thin shaft and up the rest of the stories of the Tower till I reached the very top. I grabbed ahold of the elevator cable, aimed myself at the topmost doors, twirled Myrkblade, and leaped forward.

I smashed through the doors, rolled onto the breezy rooftop, and jumped up into a sprint.

FLASH!!!!!!

I skidded to a stop as a blue light stabbed into my black goggles.

I shaded myself with an arm and made out the sight of Cyborg, his laser rifle aimed at me.

He frowned. "As far as you go, man….," he said in a low, saddeningly solemn voice.

SWOOOSH!!

A green aura lit up behind me as Starfire floated down to the ground and aimed two starbolts at me from the side. "Attempt to escape no more!!"

I glanced over as finally a green falcon touched down and turned into Beast Boy in a fighting stance. "Whatever you came here to do, Wyldecarde…you're not getting away with it!"

"Just put your weapon down…and surrender….," Cyborg glared.

"We do not wish to persist in this conflict!" Starfire insisted. "Do not make us hurt you!"

_Hurt me……  
_  
The idea rang in my head.

I was surrounded by three frowns. Three angry hearts.

Slowly, the threatening Titans closed in around me.

I took a deep breath and shivered. I could **not** let them get too close to me. Not when I was carrying the infected carbonite.

I held Myrkblade up with two hands.

"I said…put it DOWN!!!" Cyborg snapped.

_His voice ripped through my soul._

"It's over, dude!!" Beast Boy glared. He was the angriest of them all. "It's so over!! Don't try and get away!"

I slowly turned around.

Staring at their frowns. At these former friends of mine.

It was a great reminder that I was a villain.

That there was a terrible Experiment to prevent.

I took a shuddering breath as I realized my last resort.

_It was time for an 'Experiment' of my own._

I twirled Myrkblade around in my hand.

Starbolt's green intensified.

Cyborg gritted his teeth.

Beast Boy raised his fists.

I glared at them. I twirled Myrkblade to a stop…and jabbed its tip right up to the edge of my throat.

Stopping there…warbling the blade with murk.

Slowly…the three frowns melted into three faces of shock.

Cyborg's human eye widened.

Starfire gasped.

Beast Boy blinked.

I glared at them all.

I took a deep breath.

I pressed Myrkblade closer to my own throat….threatening myself.

Threatening them…and what was left of 'us'. _God it was cruel……I was cruel……_

Cyborg was the first to flinch. His laser rifled lowered ever so slightly. "N-Noir….no…," he gasped.

"Shut up!!!" Beast Boy snapped. His whole body shook. "Let him do it!! We don't care!! Do we?!"

"Wyldecarde….you need not resort to that…," Starfire shuddered.

Beast Boy clenched his teeth. "Rrrrgh!! Go on, you criminal!! Make the job easier for us!!" he stammered.

I glared at him.

I charged up Myrkblade some more. The blade licked at my throat.

Beast Boy panted. His limbs trembled. He clenched his green eyes shut and shook his head. "Why?!?!" He glared at me, tears forming in his angry eyes. "Why are you doing this to us?!?! Why must you rip us apart?!?! Why must you torture us?!?! What did we ever do to you?!"

I merely glared at him. I was 'Wyldecarde'….

"Say something!!!!"

I didn't.

Silence. Dead silence. Even the wind closed its mouth.

Starfire sniffed and stepped back. She lowered her arms to her side.

Cyborg looked down and lowered his rifle.

Finally, Beast Boy turned around and let out a huge sigh.

I closed my black eyes and inhaled.

"Go on…..," Cyborg muttered. "Get out of here………"

_I wasn't there to begin with._

WOOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred up, backflipped, and fell over the side of the building. Streaming down the Tower, my legs went into motion…murking against the structure. In such fashion I pivoted around, blurred down the building, and off over the waters of the Bay towards the City.

Escaping….

"I can't believe…w-we gave in…," Beast Boy shuddered and wiped the sleeve of his uniform against his cheek. "I can't believe we let him escape…."

"But we did…," Starfire stammered. "We did allow him a way out…"

Cyborg looked off towards the City. Titanium fists clenching, he wandered towards the stairwell.

Starfire looked his way. "Cyborg, where are you going?"

"To the lab where I found him," he muttered. "I'm going to try and find out just what the Hell he was searching for…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I reached the shore, I ran under the suspension bridge and hid in the shadows of the girders beneath the structure.

Safely in the shadows, I caught my breath. I leaned back against a concrete slab inside the 'pocket' and panted.

My left hand twitched. I subconsciously hugged it to my chest and stroked the wrist. I glanced at it through my goggles.

_To think….Dagger knew where I was. He always knew where I was._

_Could Slade have known too?_

At least it explained how I was ambushed in Phaser Labs and the thugs at Renee's and Daniel's.

_Though…those men at Phaser Labs…._

I shook my head. I sighed.

My left hand twitched at my chest.

It felt foreign. Odded out.

I bit my lip and leaned my head back.

_What was I to do now?_

What was I to do now……

I had no place to call 'home'. I had no more devices to my disposal save for what was on my person.

_How was I to carry on the charade? How was Wyldecarde to be the thorn in Slade's side? A kink in the Experiment?_

Dagger and Slade had the upper hand on me now. Perhaps they always had. The chip in my arm sang that out loud and clear.

A pause.

I reached into one of my belt's pockets. I pulled out the carbonite sliver. It glowed at me as I twirled it about in my fingers.

I squinted my black eyes through the goggles.

Dagger and Slade may have had an upper hand, but I had an upper hand of my own. I had come this far…sabotaged their plans so much…that fate itself—the full circle and the experiment—had been delayed. And if that isn't a feat, then I don't know what is.

And another thought struck me. More than any other Titan over the past week, I had been exposed to the carbonite explosives. I was three times more infected than anyone else in my former team. And yet—if Slade could have exterminated me by remote control—he didn't.

And that meant one of two things.

Either her was sparing me for some ludicrous reason, or…

_I was immune…._

My black eyes narrowed.

I stood up and dropped the carbonite onto the concrete ground beneath me.

I had a mission to accomplish. I had already showed my former teammates that I would do anything to get what I wanted. Even kill myself.

I whipped out Myrkblade.

I twirled it.

_This isn't over……not until __**I'm**__ over…_

SLASH!!

CRACK!!!

I shattered the carbonite into bits and kicked it into the Bay waters.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over the skyscrapers of the City, Raven flew with Robin floating besides her on a disc of black telekinesis. The high winds kicked at their hair. They headed towards the JCNT News Station in the West District of the City.

"Thanks for the lift," Robin smirked as he spoke over the whipping, night air. "I often forget how rewarding it must be to have the ability to fly."

"You can swing. Isn't that good enough?" Raven droned.

"For the most part, yes. But even I've dreamed of having the gift both you and Starfire have."

"I find that hard to believe…"

"Why's that, Raven?"

"Do I have to have a reason?"

"Knowing you, no."

"Then you know better than to ask."

Robin rolled his eyes under his mask. "Why do I even **try** to speak casually with you?"

"Sorry," Raven grunted. "I'm not Starfire."

A beat.

"I beg your pardon?" Robin asked, eyebrow raised.

"We're here."

The Boy Wonder glanced as the neon lights of 'JCNT' glowed on top of a seven story building with a huge antenna.

"Wow…and what a wonderfully fun trip it was," he droned.

Raven glared at him, temple pulsing.

The two landed on the rooftop of the building and meandered their way down the fire escape on the side.

In the distance—atop another building—a shadowed figure landed and perched still.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blinked.

I squinted towards the distant new station.

_Did I see who I thought I saw?_

My lips parted.

I cocked my head aside.

A beat.

_Screw it…_

I blurred over, leapt, landed on the antenna, slid down, impacted with the rooftop, and slowly crept down the fire escape after the two. I scurried down to a window and quietly tip-toed my way to the frame. I craned my ear. There was definitely a conversation going on between familiar voices inside.

Raven's voice. Robin's voice. And….And….

My eyes twitched and I sweatdropped.

_Glover's voice?!?!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Get to the point," Robin placed his hands on his hips. "What is it that you have to show us?"

Glover leaned against a table in a dimly lit meeting room outside his office. "Video footage taken from earlier today."

"WHEN earlier today?" Raven glared.

"Following the explosion at Phaser Labs," Glover spoke. "There was an incident on the highway soon after the fiery eruption. My camera men and I were there on the raised interstate when---well---Wyldecarde practically fell into our laps."

"How so….?"

"The video feed we have will show more than I could ever tell you," Glover smirked. "And trust me…you will benefit from seeing it." He gestured towards a t.v. and vcr seated on a metal tray in the corner.

Robin and Raven exchanged glances. They both looked back in Glover's way.

"Fine…," Robin sighed.

"Let us see it," Raven relented.

"I'll be right back," the aging journalist said. He turned around and quietly headed into his office.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The lights were out in his room.

He closed the door behind him and headed to his desk.

He froze. His eyes widened.

The window had been opened since he was gone.

And on his desk where he had left the video…..

He gasped.

He ran over and cradled what was left of the tape. It had been smashed and shredded to bits.

"How…….wh-who?!?!?!" Glover stammered.

A shadow materialized behind him.

Glover's head raised.

He spun around and gasped.

I rushed over and clamped a hand over his mouth.

I raised a hand to my lips and emphasized: "Shhhhhhh!"

His eyes curved. He looked wounded…confused.

I removed my hand. With a sad look behind my goggles I shook my head and mouthed: 'Don't……'

"But….why??" he whispered.

'Don't……please…' I mouthed.

"But….you……....w-why, Mr. Noir?!" Glover stammered quietly. "It had proof! It could vindicate……y-you…."

I stared silently at him. I took a painful breath.

He blinked. He squinted his eyes. "Why do you want to be the villain, Noir?" A beat. "Are you…..doing it to save your friends?"

I clenched my fists. I looked away.

"Mr. Glover??" Robin's voice called from the meeting room outside. "What's taking you so long?"

Footsteps approached.

Glover gasped. "I….I-I have nothing to show them now…"

I tapped him on the shoulder.

He looked at me.

I held up a piece of paper from his notepad I had scribbled a short message on.

_**'Do not worry. I am not going to hurt you.'**_

His brow furrowed. "Huh??"

I crumpled the paper, tossed it into an unseen wastebasket, and disappeared in the shadows.

"………….," Glover blinked. "What is he up to….," he whispered.

The door cracked open.

A sliver of light glowed into the dark office from the meeting room.

Robin and Raven peaked in.

"M-Mr. Glover? Is everything okay?"

The journalist spun to face them. He stuttered: "Uhhhh….I-I…."

Raven glanced down at the table. She raised an eyebrow.

"Is that….th-the video?" Robin pointed at the shattered pieces Raven was staring at.

Glover fidgeted. "I…..it…."

"What happened to it?"

**CRASH!!!!**

A nearby closet burst open.

I blurred out of it—as if I had been 'hiding' in it the whole time—and rushed up behind Glover. The man gasped—startled—as I unsheathed Myrkblade (CHIIIING!!) and held the smoking blade up close to the base of his neck.

"WHOAH!!" Robin exclaimed.

Raven's teeth gritted. She glowed gray eyes and lifted a chair to toss at me.

"No!!" Robin held a hand out. "He's got Glover!!"

The man trembled back against my chest.

I held the blade threateningly across his neck.

I bore a mock, villainous grin at the two heroes and blew them a kiss before backing to the window with Glover in my grasp.

"Wyldecarde…let him go!!" Raven glared.

Robin whipped out his staff, extended it, and spun it at ready.

"N-No sudden moves…," Glover stammered to the Titans. He sweated…but calmed himself as he subconscious eyed the crumpled letter in the wastebasket. "N-Nobody has to get hurt…r-right Wyldecarde?"

I had a playful expression on my face. I licked my lips, smirked, and suddenly blurred back—shoving the man forward with my foot and releasing Myrkblade from his neck.

WHUMP!!!

Robin and Raven caught Glover's stumbling figure.

In a flash, I backflipped out of the window and blurred down the building side.

"He's getting away!!" Robin rushed to the window.

"He **got** away…," Raven muttered, steadying Glover back to his feet. "Let him go. There's no point."

"But….but……….," Robin clenched his gloved fists, growled, and punched the window frame. "Damn it!!" He spun around and faced Glover. "Glover!! What was on that tape?!?! What did Wyldecarde want to destroy it so badly for?! What did your men record?!"

"We……I….," Glover glanced at the wastebasket.

Raven and Robin stared impatiently.

The man sweat. He looked back at them and his voice almost squeaked as he barely uttered: "Wyldecarde….tore his way through traffic on the highway. He tried to kill a woman and h-her two children. Thankfully my associate Avery and m-my boys ran in and saved them at the last second. All I r-recorded was Wyldecarde's total disregard for life…"

Raven and Robin looked off into space. They fumed.

A beat.

Wyldecarde bravely added: "Whatever you do…Titans….y-you mustn't…..you mustn't trust that boy…."

They nodded.

"Way ahead of you on that, Glover," Robin said. He whipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound and hailed the Tower. "Titans. We need to regroup in the Main Room and discuss some stuff. Turns out we almost ran into Wyldecarde…"

Cyborg's voice immediately replied: _"Small world, Robin. We just chased him out of the Tower about twenty minutes ago."_

Robin's eyemask widened.

Raven walked over. "What???"

_"I suggest you come back here, guys,"_ Cyborg spoke solidly. _"There's some stuff I'd like to show you."_

A beat.

Robin glanced up at Glover. "Over and out."

He flipped the communicator close.

"What did Wyldecarde want at the Tower?" Raven exclaimed.

"Never mind that…," Robin muttered. "How'd he manage to escape it?"

Glover stared at the wastebasket.

"Mr. Glover?"

The journalist snapped out of it. "Huh? Wh-What?"

"Thanks for trying to help out…but we have to go."

"Oh….y-yeah. Sure things, Titans. Do your duty…"

"Let's go, Raven."

They rushed out the window.

When they were gone, Glover bent over and picked the crumpled paper out of the basket.

_**'Do not worry. I am not going to hurt you.'**_

He sighed.

"Dear boy…….I hope whatever of a hero is left inside of you will benefit from my lies…"

He tossed the paper aside on the desk, where it joined the shattered pieces of the video evidence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm convinced that Wyldecarde broke into the Tower just to get into my laboratory…," Cyborg spoke, standing before the others in the Main Room.

"What did he want in there?" Robin asked. "Was he trying to steal something?"

"Everything's present and accounted for," the titanium Titan said. "Granted, one of my arms was relocated cuz somehow he broke into the compartment holding my….er….extra limbs. Ahem. But nothing was stolen."

"Anything damaged?" Raven asked.

"Well….yes. Security systems were fried—specifically the temperature sensors throughout the Tower. Don't worry, I repaired them by the time you two got back."

"I thought you said there was something else smashed in the lab," Robin said.

Cyborg nodded. "The computer component of the metallurgical analysis apparatus was destroyed. It was in tact when I first got in there. I noticed something glowing inside of the device. But before I could get to it, that's when Wyldecarde sprung on me, shattered the apparatus, and dashed off with whatever the glowing thing was."

"So he did steal something…," Beast Boy uttered.

"I think he brought that with him," Cyborg replied. "Whatever it was, he didn't want me near it."

"What did it look like?" Starfire asked.

Cyborg blinked. "If I didn't know better….I'd say a sliver of Type IV Carbonite."

Beast Boy gasped.

"So he was trying to blow up the Tower…," Raven clenched her fists.

"Nah…not enough of it," Cyborg shook his head. "It was just a tiny fraction of the sort of stuff you'd put in a carbonite explosive. And before you ask, the answer is yes: I ran a scan for carbonite emissions throughout the Tower and came up negative."

Starfire looked over at Robin. "Why would Slade's apprentice break into our Tower just to run an analysis on the very same explosives his Master is using to threaten the Town with?"

Robin rubbed his chin. "Did you catch sight of the results of Wyldecarde's scan?"

Cyborg shook his head. "Didn't even get a good look at the monitor. If I did, then we could search the memory banks of my neural net and find an optical snapshot of it."

"Just our luck…," Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"Curious…," was all Raven had to say.

A beat.

"He was doing something else too…," Cyborg said.

"Like what?" Beast Boy asked, eyebrow raised.

"He seemed to have given my bio-scanning device a real workout…," the android paced over to the huge computer monitor as he spoke, "…I checked the computer's memory. He moved the apparatus well over two hundred times…pivoting it around and such."

"To what purpose?" Starfire asked.

"Well, naturally to find something inside himself," Cyborg said.

"Like what?" Robin asked.

"Like this."

Cyborg pressed a button on his arm.

The screen blipped to light.

The last image of Wyldecard's scanned arm from the laboratory flashed into existence in the Main Room.

The Titans all stood up.

"Um….," Beast Boy blinked. "Is this a bad thing?"

"A computer chip…," Robin stammered as he stepped forward. "He was….scanning himself to find this?"

"If you knew where a computer chip was in your body….," Cyborg spoke, "…would you move a scanner over two hundred times to find it?"

"How is it that none of us knew of this inside of him before?" Starfire inquired. "Did he not undergo a physical examination upon first joining our ranks?"

"Perhaps he received it after joining us," Raven stated. "Maybe it was a crucial step in his betraying us?"

"Just what would it accomplish, anyways?" Robins shrugged.

"Besides…according to the data from the scan, he got this thing in him way earlier," Cyborg gestured to the screen.

"Like how earlier?"

"Try four and a half years ago."

Silence.

"Again…I must reiterate my confusion regarding that," Starfire blushed.

"So we overlooked something crucial in an examination," Raven shrugged. "It happens. The computer can't be right all the time."

"Still…what does it mean?" Robin gestured towards the screen. "So Wyldecarde's got a chip in him. It sure as heck isn't our chip."

Cyborg looked at the monitor. "I'm beginning to think that there's some sort of rift forming between Wyldecarde and Slade. Assuming such is true, let's also assume that Slade put that chip in there and didn't tell Wyldecarde about it. So if Wyldecarde wanted to use any devices to search about his person, he couldn't use Slade's stuff. So he broke into the Tower and used ours, thinking it'd be less risky in and of itself."

"I agree with Cyborg," Starfire nodded. "Insomuch as there may be a rift forming between Slade and Wyldecarde."

"Or perhaps it was always there…," Robin muttered.

Everyone looked at him.

He glanced back and gestured: "Well, it would explain things, wouldn't it? Every time Slade's posed a threat, Wyldecarde has gotten involved. Yet every time Wyldecarde gets involved…it always **feels** like Slade's plans are only halfway coming into fruition. Slade threatens to blow up the freighter. Wyldecarde beats us up. The freighter is ditched. Then Slade threatens to destroy the chronotonic core at Phaser Labs. Again, Wyldecarde is there. The threat turns out to be a dud, and—aside from two massive explosions on both sides of Town—Slade's threat falls short."

"Dude…what about those scary missiles on the building that exploded?" Beast Boy uttered. Robin tossed his hands. He sighed: "Beats the crap out of me, honestly. All I'm trying to say is…if the Master and the Apprentice are trying to work together……they really suck."

"Well, they had to have been together, period," Raven said. "Remember the computer transmissions they exchanged while Noir was still in the Tower?"

Cyborg raised a finger. "Yes….but—now—how do we know those were conversations of benevolent correspondence?"

Raven blinked at that.

"Do you believe it was possible for Noir and Slade to have been at odds with each other and yet still communicate secretly?" Starfire uttered.

"Possibly," Cyborg rubbed his titanium skull. "A battle of egos, perhaps?"

"Then why would have Noir betrayed us at all?" Starfire asked.

"Maybe a race against Slade to see who could screw us over first?" Robin suggested.

Beast Boy pulled at his hair and collapsed in the sofa. "Ughhhhh…..two evil factions….Wyldecarde and Slade. Say it ain't so."

"Nothing to confirm at the moment," Cyborg uttered. "Whatever the case is---if Wyldecarde is working for Slade or not—he is still attacking us and trying to take us out. He's as dangerous a criminal as Slade is, I'm convinced."

"He's a dangerous criminal with a chip in him," Beast Boy rolled his eyes and shrugged. "So…where does that bring us?"

"Only more and more circles," Robin grumbled. He looked at the other Titans. "You're right, Cyborg. Wyldecarde is a pure villain to the core. Just this evening, he threatened the life of Blake Glover in front of Raven and I."

"Almost can't blame him," Raven ever so slightly smirked.

"Was Mr. Glover allright?" Starfire asked.

"You could say that….," Robin nodded. "And according to him, Wyldecarde was wreaking havoc earlier on the highway. Almost killed a mother and her kids."

Starfire gasped.

"Go figure…," Beast Boy mumbled. "He tried to kill himself on the roof earlier tonight."

Robin bit his lip. "I-I remember hearing about that…"

Raven's eyes fell to the floor.

Beast Boy folded his arms and griped: "Lousy creep. He keeps hurting us and hurting us some more. I'm sick of it…."

"You are not alone, Beast Boy," Starfire sighed. "I am also suffering from a spiritual affliction of figurative nausea."

Cyborg sighed and shut the monitor off. "I'm gonna peruse through Noir's old files again. I'll look for one hint…anything…that suggests a kink or a disorder in his left arm. Maybe it'll help me figure out something about this wyrd-ass chip inside of him."

"You think he knows the answer himself?" Robin asked.

"I frankly don't care."

"That's not the answer to my question."

Cyborg sighed and sauntered out of the room. "Answer it yourself, man. This day's been shit."

And he was gone.

Starfire bit her lip.

"Um….'everyone's dismissed'?" Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Yeah…..," Robin mumbled.

The party got up and parted ways. It was time for bed. Everyone knew it subconsciously.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Coincidentally, Robin and Raven entered the elevator at the same time and descended together.

A beat.

The silence was awkward.

Robin would have said something hadn't Raven started:

"Do you get the feeling that Wyldecarde—as of late—is confused?"

"We're all confused. Why should he be any better off?"

"Well, he's the one who betrayed us, right? Wouldn't he know what he was doing?"

"And I'm pretty sure he does."

"Stumbling into our Tower is 'knowing what he's doing'??" Raven remarked. "And did he seem confident earlier today when he leapt from the exploding front entrance of Phaser Labs?"

"What are you getting at, Raven?"

"I think Noir came to the Tower to find answers…..out of desperation."

"The Chip?"

"Among other things," she nodded. A beat. "And tonight with Glover…"

"Yeah?"

"I…..sensed something odd."

"What was it this time?"

"Noir…..wasn't honest….," she stammered.

"Raven??"

"I can't explain it, really. Only…I kn-know that he didn't mean it."

"Didn't mean what?"

"To smile," Raven exclaimed. "He wasn't enjoying what he was doing to Glover. His smile was fake. And….as a matter of fact….I could swear I felt a similar feeling before."

"When?"

She gulped. "The night of the July Fourth Fireworks promotion." She said. "I believe he was faking then too."

A beat.

"Raven…..," Robin breathed, "….what are saying?"

"Think of it, Robin," she said firmly. "After all the evidence we found…Noir's betrayal was never manifested beyond supposition….until we forced it out of him."

A beat.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Robin remarked, blinking behind his mask.

Raven swallowed. "Yes……," she weakly uttered.

Robin folded his arms, frowned, and stared at the floor.

Raven blinked. "And so are you."

Robin did a double-take. He stared at her.

She stared back.

Silence.

The elevator kept descending.

Robin's brow furrowed. "Raven….Wyldecarde has been attacking us and continues to attack us…."

Raven sighed and shook her head. "Robin—"

"Add that to the digital evidence, Slade's addressing of him as his apprentice, and the manner in which Noir so easily escaped our grasps, and you have all the evidence you need—as far as I'm concerned."

DING!

The doors to the elevator opened and Robin sauntered towards them.

"As far as we've gotten, Raven, we can't afford to soften up on a criminal such as Wyldecarde! We hesitated with Terra when the evidence was staring us straight in the face and it cost us greatly!"

"Robin---!"

"Good night, Raven."

Raven pressed the 'close doors' button with her fist, trapping Robin inside the elevator with her.

"Noir **isn't** Terra," she said firmly. "He is a completely different person of a different mystery with a different path and different circumstances. To equate him as the same with the Second Apprentice is relying on bias alone."

"Raven, if I remember, you—"

"I was the first to suspect problems with Noir," she nodded. "And until now, I've not had the guts to admit that….th-that I was emotionally reeling."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

"I had just had my personalities scattered and faced an incarnation of my demon father Trigon for the first time in years. I was not in the right state of mind to draw empirical conclusions."

"No, you weren't," Robin nodded. "That's why I stepped in and worked with Cyborg to find proof. And you know what, Raven? **We. Found. Proof.**"

Raven sighed. She looked to the floor.

"I need your help, Raven," Robin said. "You and I….we founded the Titans. The worse thing we can do right now is hold back our convictions---our painful convictions and leave ourselves open to a complete deconstruction at the hands of the enemy. We held back once…and Terra thrashed us so hard, we were wounded forever. It's amazing that we even survived her treachery. Wyldecarde's legacy—howbeit problematic—will be short-lived. Do you know why, Raven? Because we're seizing the opportunity to get a jump on a traitor before he ever had a chance to get a jump on us."

"But—"

"Can I trust you not to hold back any longer, Raven?"

Silence.

Raven's eyes fell aside. "You can always trust me, Robin…," she uttered. "You know that."

He nodded. "Yes. I do."

He pushed her fist aside and pressed the 'open' button.

DING!

"Get a good night's rest, Raven….," Robin said. A beat. "Please."

She slowly nodded.

He limped off and down the hallway towards his inviting room…sighing.

The doors closed behind him and Raven descended two more stories to her own floor.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose with exhausted fingers.

"Maybe…..m-maybe I should catch up on meditating…."


	62. Full Circle part 9

**62. Full Circle part 9**

The following afternoon…

The City glistened under the high, summer Sun.

Around the Bayside Plaza, the unthinkable was happening.

Huge metal grandstands and refreshment booths and port-a-potties were being set up over the courtyard, the street, and the stretch of beach beyond.

The Independence Fireworks Show was going ahead as scheduled. Workers went about setting up the location for the community on the following day.

July Fourth was just a sunset away.

In the distance, floating in the Bay, a huge floating dock of sorts was constructed. It was the launching pad for the fireworks. A skilled family of pyrotechnics directed the organization of the many cannons, electrical wirings, and flammable packaging across the floating platform.

Everything had to be set up so that the least risk was involved in the occasion. With Slade's threat of terrorism looming over everyone's head, it was going to be an effort in and of itself to soothe the City's populace into a mood of celebration.

But the people were willing to give it a shot. Frederick Smith saw to it.

The sky was partly cloudy. A few gray clouds swarmed here and there…early warnings of a cold front moving in that had the slight risk of raining down on the festivities in the coming day or two.

On a skyscraper stretched high above the Bayside spectacle, I perched on a building top. I subconsciously stroked my right fingers across my left forearm.

I sighed.

_Just a matter of time…_

_Just a matter of time before Slade's next move…._

I turned around…and blurred towards Kobayashi Towers. I ended up not having long to wait.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Snkkkkkk!!_

_"Greetings, Titans. I hope you enjoyed the big bangs yesterday. I must admit—whenever our two factions come at odds—we certainly keep the City on its toes. I am quite sure you are glad at the fact that there is a relatively large portion of the City left whole for you to worry about. In time, I will remedy that. I would be most happy to obliterate the five of you along with it if I have the chance. Care to dance again? If my missiles or my apprentice still isn't enough for you, then I have a new address. The Subway. Station Eighteen. Eastern District. If you're not there in thirty minutes…the station becomes a crater…along with every building three blocks emanating from the circle of destruction my carbonite bomb will cause. Better get out those running shoes, Titans. This one won't wait for you to laugh at."_

_Snkkkkkk!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"God almighty….two days in a row!!" the director of the news broadcasting crew moaned from behind his station of editing screens and switchers.

"I think his broadcast is over!" the assistant remarked.

"Crud. Just perfect. Cue the director…we gotta get a transition out of that. Man…terrorism always gives me ulcers."

The perplexed anchorpeople of JCN News floundered over sudden papers handed to them and tried to recover from the latest feed interruption of Slade.

In the dark corners of the control room—unseen by the crew—a shadowed figure in goggles gave the t.v. screens a parting glance before turning around and blurring off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Main Room of the Tower, Starfire finished a keystroke and pressed a final button on a computer. The monitor flashed up data.

"Affirmative," she nodded, swiveled about to face the other Titans, and uttered: "There is an intense level of carbonite emissions inside Subway Station Eighteen. Slade may not be bluffing this time."

"Still…can't be too certain," Raven said, eyes narrowed.

"We should do recon while the others tag behind…," Robin said. "I"ll go ahead and scout the place out. The rest of you keep contact over the communicators."

"But Robin!" Starfire stood up. Everyone realized once again that she was taller than the Boy Wonder as she stepped forward, hands clasped together. "You heard what Slade said! We have merely thirty minutes to reach the scene. There is no telling what Slade would do if we fail to arrive on time. I suggest I perform the reconnaissance. My flight is most talented in such a punctual task."

"She's right," Beast Boy nodded. "Star's the quickest of us all now that Noir's gone."

"Okay…," Robin sighed. "Be careful, Star. This could be a trap."

She smiled and curtsied. "I am well aware of the peril."

"The rest of us…let's move out!!"

"I'll get the car ready!" Cyborg shouted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

I blurred down the steps into the subway station.

I came to a stop and unsheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIIIING!!

I looked towards the tiled wall of the underground corridor.

The huge text 'S18' splashed across a colored set of tile before me.

I took a deep breath and crept forward.

The place had been abandoned somehow. Not a single subway traveler—or worker for that matter—was present.

My black eyes narrowed.

_This doesn't feel right……_

Regardless, I pressed on. I snaked along the wall and peered past the ticket booths and turnstiles. Again…more emptiness. The floor was completely barren all the way to the depression where the tracks lay and stretched back and forth into dark, shadowed tunnels.

I leaned my heard forward. I looked harder.

There was something….sticking up out from the depression where the tracks were. Something tall, black, and slender.

An obelisk…..a carbonite explosive….

I blinked.

_Why would Slade and Jinx plant it on the tracks?_

I looked both ways.

Nobody.

I held Myrkblade at ready as I hopped over the turnstiles and crept towards the tracks. The obelisk appeared closer and closer.

Suddenly, while walking, my black hair lifted up alongside my head and settled back down.

I froze.

I glanced up.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Four….six…eight….ten robot henchmen dropped down from the ceiling of the underground subway and got into fighting poses in front of me.

I gritted my teeth, jumped back, and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

Slade's androids narrowed their eyes, crouched, and charged at me.

I held my breath and slashed Myrkblade up, immediately slashing in half the torso of the first mechanical advancer. I spun around with my sword outstretched to spiral-attack the next wave back. But as the entire nine of them converged on me, I had no choice but to back up and twirl my weapon in a random fashion to ward off a dozen flinging fists, serrated claws, and low kicks of metal boots.

I was backed all the way to the turnstile. I jumped backwards, flipped, perched on one, and dove forward. I plowed through two robots, slammed them to the ground, rolled, and hopped up with a downward spiral of my sword that slashed two floored androids' heads off.

The remaining seven raised their fists.

I frowned and spun Myrkblade into a ready pose.

And then…..

VRUMMMMMMMMMM!!

My lips parted.

Beyond the robots…the obelisk was raising up from inside the depression. It was on a hovercraft, and that very same hovercraft was lifting up from the racks. The entire craft turned around, facing directly at me past the androids. Its left and right side slid open compartments. Two small missiles flew out of it and down either tunnel.

SHOOOOOOM-BAM!!!! BAM!!!!

The entire subway shook.

I struggled for balance.

The exploding missiles caved in both tunnels on either side of the stretch of tracks.

That being done, the hovercraft's rear thrusters flared…and it soared straight at me.

WOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

"!!!!!!" I ducked down low to the floor.

CLANG!!!!

The robots were unlucky. Slade's own hovercraft smashed through his android phalanx. Metal limbs and sparking circuitry flew at me in a splash, then the hovercraft rocketed loudly over my figure.

I clutched my head as the thrusters streamed past me. My hair blew wildly then settled.

I spun around, gasping for breath, and stared towards the entrance of the subway.

The hulking hovercraft barely squeezed itself over the turnstile and under the ceiling. It swung heavily to the left and hovered up the stairs towards the open City streets above. It was a tight squeeze. Sides of the hovercraft scraped against the walls and rained sparks. The thrusters shook the entire foundation, causing glass to shatter and tiles to fall and scatter.

I struggled up—leaning on Myrkblade—and summoned murk. I blurred at the thundering scene.

But just as the hovercraft burst up through the exit, a rear compartment flew open. Two gray grenades fell out with a clank!-clank!-clank! and exploded in a fiery plume.

BOOOOOM!!!

I screeched to a halt and shielded myself with an arm.

The ceiling collapsed and the exit imploded in on itself. A solid wall of concrete, brick, and tile blocked the exit way.

I panted.

The way to the streets were sealed. The way down the west tunnel was blocked. The way to the east tunnel was closed off.

A well-timed ambush.

I was utterly and completely stuck.

Sweating, I turned around---

_**GRIP!!!!**_

A metal-gloved hand closed tightly around my scarred throat. I wheezed as I was spun about and slammed against the tiled wall of the subway. A heavy fist plowed into my stomach once (WHAP!!!) twice (**WHAM!!)** and I was then tossed mercilessly across the hard floor.

Myrkblade slid across the way to another wall.

I curled alone on the floor.

I spit blood. I wheezed for breath.

"No more running….fool….," a hideous voice slurred into my open ears from above. "If you want to be an apprentice…you will have to face the test of the Master…."

I looked up through thinned, black eyes of pain. I gasped.

Slade stood over me, his fists tightly clenched. His emblazoned eye glared as he tilted his helmet and said:

"And—unfortunately for you—this is a test you will not pass."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WOOOOOSH!!!!!

The hovercraft rocketed down the street…and towards a Tamaranian girl.

In mid flight, Starfire gasped. "EEK!"

She swirled to the side just as the thing thundered past her.

She spun and stared at it, her green eyes wide. She tightened her muscles and flew at it.

She exclaimed into her communicator: "Friends!! The carbonite is no longer in the Subway! It is heading due West! Repeat! It is heading due West down Hunter Avenue on a hovercraft!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two blocks down, the other four Titans stood around the T-Car.

Everyone leaned in as Cyborg's arm communicator squabbled Starfire's voice:

_"I cannot overtake the vehicle on my own! I need assistance, over!!"_

"You got it!" Cyborg shouted back into the communicator. He looked at the others. "And so the cat and mouse game begins…"

"Titans! Go!!" Robin shouted.

Raven and Beast Boy took to the skies.

Cyborg and Robin leapt into the T-Car and thundered Westward with tires skidding.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a building rooftop overlooking the four, scrambling heroes…Jinx perched.

She placed her hands on the hips of her black and brown outfit and grinned, cat style.

She brought a hand to her ear. "The Titans are in pursuit!" She hopped from rooftop-to-rooftop, following the Titans and speaking. "All five of them are heading Westward after the hovercraft!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"They're taking the bait, just as you predicted…Master…"  
_  
"Good…," Slade's helmet nodded. He glared at me as he spoke into the communicator in his hand. "Keep close to them, apprentice. When the Titans are almost caught up with the hovercraft, cause it to crash somewhere……inconspicuous. Then radio me when they've all come close enough to be infected."

_"Aye, sir. Jinx out."_

Slade pocketed his communicator, looking at me.

"Did you hear that, Wyldecarde? I greatly suspect you did. Did you ever have a mother to teach you that eavesdropping is wrong?"

I glared up at him. I slowly stumbled up to my feet.

"You had a nice handful of tricks up your sleeve, fool. But even a passionate vigilante such as yourself could not resist Fate itself. The Titans are likewise helpless to my plans. Destiny is not just something you can 'deny'…."

I stared at him. I gulped. I eyed Myrkblade beyond him on the floor.

"Uh uh uh…," he slowly waved a finger. "I'm afraid I can't let you cut things up anymore. If you want to finish this…finish this with me. Right now."

I clenched my hands. I shook. I blurred at him and raised a fist with a silent scream.

He effortlessly sidestepped, hooked an arm around my chest, and flipped me over. I was airborne for a split second before Slade brought his elbow down and slammed it into the square of my back.

WHAM!!!!

I flew chest-first into the ground. I coughed…wheezing for air.

Slade knelt down, pressing his weight through a knee into my backside. He tilted my head up in a painful stretch and hissed into my ear through his helmet.

"Understand that I do not compare myself to opponents likely. But you and I are very similar, Wyldecarde. Not 'similar' like Robin and I are. But you and me, we are both snakes in the grass. Traitors to the core. Funny how—in our own opposite motives—all we've managed to do is hurt the Titans with no reward. Until now."

He hoisted me up by the back of my neck and put me into a headlock from behind.

I struggled and shook in his iron grasp.

He slurred again into my ear through his helmet. "You are my reward, Wyldecarde. I'll greatly enjoy carving your body out and stuffing you with the bleeding hearts of the Titans once the Experiment is complete!! RRRRAAUGH!!" He shouted, flung me around, and slammed me up against a wall.

I winced in pain and fell to the floor amidst a shower of tile.

He ran up to me, boots stomping, and flung a foot straight into my chest.

WHUMP!!!!

I fell back into the wall again.

More tile fell.

I slumped to the ground, wheezing. Collapsing.

He walked over and clamped a foot down over my left arm.

THWUMP!!!

I let out a silent wail. My body throbbed in pain.

"Worthless piece of mindless guile….," he spat. "I should just have had Jinx kill you in your sleep! But then…I wouldn't have the pleasure of doing the task myself as I am now. Take a deep breath, Wyldecarde. It's rather unfortunate that you don't have fresh air and blue skies to enjoy your last waking moments **alive**!"

He growled and kicked me hard in the side.

I tumbled across the subway like a runaway log. I slid through the fallen bodies of the ten robot henchmen, ramped over a metal arm, and rammed into the side of the turnstiles. I gripped my side, wincing.

"RRRRRAAAUGH!!!"

My black eyes peered through sweat-streaked goggles to see Slade running, jumping, and sailing down at me in a massive flying kick.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car swerved onto a four lane street, tires screeching. It sped down past a myriad of building fronts in pursuit of the distant hovercraft soaring ahead with a green streak in close pursuit.

Raven and Beast Boy flew up on the flanks and caught up with Starfire.

Suddenly, the hovercraft veered to the right.

Starfire gritted her teeth, zoomed around an antenna atop a skyscraper, and streaked after the vehicle in pursuit. Raven and Beast Boy haphazardly kept in formation with her.

Below, the T-Car swerved around traffic, road signs, and avoided pedestrians in its mad chase.

Unseen, Jinx hopped, skipped, and skirted over the rooftops…grinning…her cat eyes fixed on the hovercraft.

The sun turned from bright yellow to amber as it headed towards the horizon. The clouds turned grayer and darker. The air felt thin and cooler than normal on the eve of July Fourth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG!!!

Slade's foot dented deeply into one of the metal turnstiles.

I rolled to the side, limped to my feet, and stumbled back.

Slade's fists hung by his side, clenched. He swiveled about and stared at me like a standing slab of metal.

"So eager to live?"

I panted, clutching my side.

"Feel free to dodge all you like…," he marched towards me. "Honestly, it makes your termination all the more enjoyable."

I clenched my teeth.

He raised his fists, sidestepped, and dove at me with a punch. "RRAAAUGH!!"

SLAM!!!!

His fist sailed into the tiled wall, sending chips of plaster flying everywhere.

After ducking, I twirled to the side.

"RGGGHH!!" he swung his fist into me.

I leapt.

CRASH!!!

His elbow smashed through the glass of a ticket booth.

I came down, literally landed on his arm, and with a blur of murk I flipped off him and landed on the other side.

He effortlessly kicked in reverse.

WHAP!!

I was sent tumbling towards the tracks from his boot.

He spun around, flexed his arms, and dove at me.

I tried standing up--

WHAM!!!

He plowed me hard in the chest.

THWAP!!!

Karate chopped me in the side.

**WHACK!!!**

And uppercutted me with a high kick up my chin.

I flew back, sailed over the edge of the depression, and crashed into the subway tracks below. I coughed and sputtered.

Slade stepped up to the edge of the subway station. He glared down at me for a few menacing seconds before hopping down and kneeling beside me on the tracks. He gripped my head—my arms in turn—and slammed me up against the wall inside the depression.

WHAM!!!

I flinched against the cold, concrete surface.

I was powerless to shake myself from his iron grip of my limbs and body.

I was already bruised and blood-stained in a dozen places from two days of intense chaos. He was only adding to them….

"You could have just walked away, Wyldecarde…," he sneered into my ear. He gripped me so hard, I thought I would snap. "Think about it. I gave you all the avenues of escape you needed. I gave you every reason and every impulse you could ever ask for to **leave** this Town!! To head back West to that god forsaken past of yours that Dagger keeps talking about. You could have disappeared. All your troubles would have been gone. You wouldn't have to take responsibility for any of the Titans or anyone else for that matter. Doesn't that appeal to you? Don't you want that sort of control…that sort of freedom…that **peace**?!"

He spun around and flung me hard against the debris covering the East Tunnel of the Subway.

SMASH!!!

I slumped to my knees, panting.

He marched towards me.

"But no…I had to select an absolute **fool** to be the scapegoat of my inner workings. The one pathetic wretch I dumped all of my negative energies on had to be stupidly selfless and devoted to lost causes. Five lost causes. Dear Wyldecarde…the Titans were doomed to die from the day they were born. Who are you to intervene with Inevitability?"

I looked up at him. I clenched my bloody teeth. I ran at him and swung a fist.

He dashed backwards.

I performed a sideways kick.

He sidestepped. He grabbed my leg.

I gasped.

He lifted me up—took a breath—and slammed me back down onto the tracks with a shout. "RAUGH!!"

WHAM!!!

I lost my breath.

He picked me up again and tossed me back onto the station of the subway.

I went rolling across the floor.

WOOOSH!!

He sailed up over me and came down with an iron fist.

"RAAAAUGH!!"

SMASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHOOOOOOM!!!

The hovercraft screamed past buildingsides, causing windows to crack from the force of its thrusters.

Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy streaked after the vehicle's winding past.

Down in the streets, Cyborg clutched hard to the wheel as he screeched the T-Car after it.

Robin suddenly unbuckled himself and whipped out a grappling hook.

"Sunroof!"

"Huh?!?!"

The Boy Wonder pointed straight up. "Sunroof!!"

"Oh yeah!! Got it!!" Cyborg pressed a button.

A rectangular opening appeared in the forward ceiling of the T-Car.

Robin climbed up on a back of a chair so that his body was halfway up through the sunroof. He aimed his grappling hook up at the hovercraft. His eyes squinted under the white mask. He fired…

POW!!!!

The cord flew up…and contacted the bottom of the hovercraft.

CLANK!!!

"Good luck!!" Cyborg shouted.

"Yeah…hopefully," Robin clenched his teeth and retracted the device. He went sailing up by the cord through the roof of the T-Car and up several stories of blurring scenery towards the hovercraft above.

The flying Titans eyed the Boy Wonder as he climbed closer and closer to the vehicle.

Closer and closer to the carbonite core….

Suddenly, the hovercraft pivoted. Its thrusters burned through the cord.

SNAP!!!

Robin gasped. He fell like a dead weight towards the speeding streets below.

Starfire gritted her teeth, flew out of formation, and streaked down in time to grab Robin's arm. The two soared up to join the other Titans.

"I do hope you are in the mood for dangling for a while…," she exclaimed with a sweatdrop over the whipping winds.

Robin huffed and puffed, hanging onto her wrist. "If you don't mind dragging me along for that matter!!"

She smiled slightly and caught back up with the hovercraft as the chase swept towards the Western District.

The sun was setting.

A shadow ran parallel to the five on the building sides nearby.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!

Tile and bits of concrete flew out from a small crater where Slade's boot landed.

I rolled to the side, hopped to my feet, and suddenly wished that I hadn't as I careened backwards in a dizzy fashion.

Slade rushed up to me and slammed me against a wall.

I winced….I glared up at him through my goggles.

His emblazoned eye glared. "Tell me what it's worth, Wyldecarde…"

I frowned. I secretly started then and there to charge up a wave of murk energy…

"Tell me why you must fight for them…"

He growled and held me up, slamming my back against the tile.

WHAM!!

I struggled in his grasp…but I kept charging murk.

"You never betrayed the Titans….not once…," Slade slurred. He slammed me against the tile again and leaned his mask up. "They betrayed **you**, Wyldecarde. Don't you realize that?"

He spun and flung me against the floor.

I slid for a few feet, wincing. I kept charging murk through my still limbs….

Slade marched over and glared down at me. "They jumped to conclusions. They sought for reasoning from the emotional instability of their wounded hearts and chose you as a scapegoat. It was only a matter of time, Wyldecarde. You were the 'nooby'. The strange wolf in their flock. They were all bound to distrust you at some point or another. All that Jinx and I did was point them in the right direction. Even Dagger gave them a tiny little push. Then everything went downhill from there. And you know as much as I do that it was all the Titans' doing."

He knelt down, yanked me up by my long hair, and glared in my face.

I struggled to look away from him. Murk coursed more and more in my limbs.

"The Titans were never your friends. How could they be? Friends don't treat someone they love like utter waste. They were never fully trusting of you. Only a **fool** like yourself would keep defending them. Only someone as wreckless, young, and immature as yourself would keep fighting for friends that do nothing but hurt you. And an even **greater fool** would think 'hurting them' as a villain would solve anything!!"

He shoved me down and kicked me hard in the ribs.

I went tumbling. But I didn't fight or protest. I just kept charging….

He bore his knee into my back and wrenched my arms in the direction they shouldn't go.

I let out a silent moan of pain.

"Face it, Wyldecarde. You are no more than a disgruntled villain. Like so many wretched souls, you've been dealt an incalculable pain and forever feel wronged by it. So you lash out in revenge at those who have torn you apart. The Titans. The Titans, Wyldecarde. They are your greatest adversaries. They have always been so. You fit the bill of villainy so well…I almost feel tempted to tutor you as an apprentice after all."

He picked me up and slammed me against a ticket booth. I slumped to the ground—charging secretly—as he walked over anc clenched his fists.

"But it is too late for such redemption. Even at my hands. You've crossed me one too many times, Wyldecarde. Because you attacked both the side of Evil as well as the side of Good, you are no more a villain than you are a hero. You are just a ghost. A worthless afterthought of wasted spirit and bravery, forever running away from some obscure past and slashing your sword around madly in some shallow attempt to ignore the realities of the present."

He gripped me by the neck and held me up. His other fist prepared to smash my skull in for good.

"I admit…killing you like this is far more gratifying a feeling than it should be. But I will always—gladly—eliminate everything that's pointless in my sight. And you, Wyldecarde, have bluffed your last. Send my regards to Hell…though I doubt you're even bad enough for such a fiery Abyss."

My head tilted back. Smoke started dancing out from under my goggles.

Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed.

I glared down at him, teeth clenched.

He glanced and realized that my arms were now completely covered with black murk.

"Hmmmm….," was the last thing he uttered.

FLASH!!!!

Time slowed down as I smacked his arm around my throat away, drifted to the floor, and blurred with a massive, spinning kick straight into his gut, splitting the metal mesh of his costume apart and sending black and brown shards scattering in the air.

WHAM!!!!!!

Time resumed as he stumbled backwards and my body turned into a wave of super-charged smoke that rushed at him. I materialized in front of him with a punch to the gut, teleported, materialized behind him with a chop to the back of his shoulders, teleported, and appeared to his lower side with a ramming elbow to his abdomen.

In such a hyper fashion, I let loose the remaining energy of my charged up power. I teleported and blurred and teleported and blurred in sporadic spurts all around Slade's helpless body. Each time I materialized, I did so with a punch or a kick or a shove—only to reappear on the opposite side of his body and do the same.

SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH!!!

BAMPOWWHACKSMACKWHAMTHWACKTHAPCRACK!!!!!!!!

At one point, Slade's body was practically covered with a column of smoke as I appeared and reappeared all around him with lightning fast impacts after lightning fast impacts. Soon he danced around from the multiple punches, kicks, and plows--and metal fragments from his hammered suit flew straight up in a fountain of brown and black debris. Like water. And yet no blood….

As my charge ran out, I vaulted off his shoulders, flew up, flipped, and came down with a punch straight down the back of his mask. His helmet cracked slightly as he bent over form the backwards blow. I landed in a crouch below him, took a breath, and pulsed murk through my legs. I sailed straight up with a kick that uppercutted him square in the face. His helmet cracked some more as he flew up. I came down, grabbed his body, and swung under it like a draw bridge. As he slammed hard into the ground, I slid smoothly across the subway floor, snatched up Myrkblade, twirled it, met the far wall with my feet, and pulsed murk one last time.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!! I blurred straight at him.

Slade stumbled to his feet and turned around.

I raised Myrkblade, let out a silent, bloody yell, and swung upward.

**SLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Slade's body jerked and wobbled.

I came to a screeching halt ahead of him, Myrkblade held up still at the end of my swing.

I panted.

CL-CLANK!!!

I looked down.

The sliced-off front half of Slade's helmet rattled on the floor and vibrated to a standstill, facing up.

"…," I blinked.

I slowly turned around.

My jaw dropped.

Where Slade's mysterious face should have been there was instead a series of gears and circuitry. The hollow helmet sparked and sizzled as the husk of a body stood there, wobbling.

_A robot decoy……_

"All we are……snakes in the grass, Wyldecarde…," Slade's electronic voice filtered out through the speakers of the android. The robot body stumbled backwards till it pressed against a wide stretch of tiled, Subway wall. "From one expert trapper to another…I salute you. Your name will be a dot in vigilante history. Commendable, but still just a 'dot'. But then…once the Experiment is ready for completion in a matter of hours……none of that will matter anymore. Farewell, Wyldecarde…"

The robot's body sparked. Shook. And glowed a bright red.

I gasped and jumped behind the nearest turnstile.

**BOOOOOM!!!!!!**

Flames erupted. The wall shattered into a spray of tile and concrete madness.

No sooner had the decoy exploded…the entire Subway station shook and a fountain of water exploded outward from the new hole in the wall.

I watched with a dropped jaw as a river of liquid flowed past me, around my feet, and cascaded into the depression of the tracks. The water came rapidly. Thunderously.

My black eyes twitched as I realized…

_He j-just blew the Water Main!!_

I stared at the smashed wall. A huge, metal pipe ran along the side of the station beyond the wall. Slade's decoy had blown a hole clear through it. Enough water to run the City was pouring. It was more than enough to bury ten Subway Stations….hell, maybe fifty.

_That's what Slade wanted all along!! To drown me out!!_

I spun around. It was the perfect place to be drowned out.

The exit to the City streets above was caved in.

The East and West tunnels were blocked.

In less than two minutes, this whole area would be under water.

And myself with it.

_I panicked…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the mysterious, black cabin of the frigate…Slade sat silently on his 'throne' and leaned forward.

His fingers rested together before the metal chin of his helmet.

His eye stared off into space. If there was someone present, she or he might possibly spot a slight 'twinkle' in his glare. A miniscule touch of pride.

Otherwise, he was perfectly emotionless.

Slowly, he stood up and paced over to the circular window. He stared out at the amber glow of the Sun against the waves. A beat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his communicator. "Apprentice….come in…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx landed on a rooftop, grinned, and held a hand to her ear.

"Yes, Master?"

_"How's the hovercraft fairing?"_

Jinx ran alongside the chasing Titans to her far right.

"Well ahead of them."

_"It is time…,"_ his voice crackled coolly in her ear. _"Crash it someplace where only the Titans will approach it. I only want them. Not any bystanders or cops."_

"Hehehe…understood," she giggled. "And Wyldecarde?"

_"What Wyldecarde?"_

She gasped. "Sir, did you—"

_"Carry out your mission, apprentice…,"_ Slade's voice said. "_I did what I had to do. Slade out."_

Jinx smiled while running. "Wow…." A beat. She pouted. "Wish I was there."

She glanced over with her cat eyes in mid sprint.

"Oh well!!" she giggled insanely, reached a hand out, and short forth a stream of pink hex from an angle the Titans wouldn't see.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BLAM!!!! One of the hovercrafter's thrusters suddenly exploded.

Raven's eyes widened.

Starfire gasped.

"Whoah!!" Robin exclaimed.

The hovercraft wobbled in mid-air, smoked, and began a downwards dive towards a distant construction site.

"Watch where it goes….," Cyborg chanted to himself in the T-Car. "Watch where it goes!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Water rose up the depression. The tracks disappeared as the liquid lapped up the solid debris in front of the tunnels.

I panted.

I looked around.

I thought fast.

Robot bodies.

_Robot bodies!!_

I knelt down, charged Myrkblade with smoke, and jabbed into the torso of the first android body I could find.

SMASH!!

I tore its chest open.

I sweated and fished around inside the cavity of the android with my hands.

Every one of Slade's henchmen had a power core inside. A very…explosive core if handled haphazardly. I fished around inside some more and finally found the glowing, green sphere. I yanked it out and pocketed it before leaping and digging into another robot.

Water rose up from the depression and started lapping out onto the main floor of the Subway, meeting with the cascade of liquid rushing out of the torn wall.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The hovercraft veered left and right in mid-air.

A green falcon shrieked as it cautiously backed up.

Raven and Starfire—with Robin in tow—kept their distance.

Cyborg slowed the T-Car and stared breathlessly up through the sunroof.

The thrusters of the hovercraft completely died out.

It went careening into a huge skyscraper under construction. It barely squeezed through the metal bulkheads and landed on the makeshift, wooden floorboards of the eleventh story. It scraped to a burning stop with thunderous noise.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gathered a sixth robot core and cradled it to my chest as a surf of water rushed up—foaming—across the tile and splashed around the strewn bodies of the androids. I hobbled painfully away towards the opposite side of the Subway. A layer of water kicked and sputtered at my heels.

I hopped through the turnstiles…accidentally dropping one of the cores. I knelt down and picked it up from the fresh puddle and dashed over to the far wall where ten payphones rested.

I hastily pocketed the cores, whipped out Myrkblade, and started slashing the cords to the receivers of pay phones off one by one. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

The water rose up to my ankles.

When I had six cords, I snapped the receivers off.

The water rose to my knees.

I splashed over—panting—to the stairs leading up to the collapsed exit.

I perched halfway up the steps and started tying each cord to a respective core.

The water lapped up the steps.

Eighty percent of the station was already flooded.

The hole in the wall where the Water Main burst was gradually being covered, and the rushing exit of water thundered under the underground lake as it churned up and kissed my boots.

Working on my fourth core and cord with fumbling, sweaty hands…I scurried up the full length of the stairs. The oxygen grew thin as I bent over with my back to the ceiling and debris wall.

The lights in the ceiling flickered.

The pocket of air filled with a haunting echo of my pants. It was the loudest I'd ever sounded in five years.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car screeched to a halt.

Starfire dropped down with Robin and the both settled down as Cyborg got up.

Finally, Beast Boy and Raven landed as the five Titans huddled together.

"Stay in a complete group!" Robin shouted. "And be cautious! Let's take our time!! I want us all together as we disarm this thing!! I don't want to risk anything!!"

"Right," Raven nodded.

"Let's do this thing…," Cyborg fisted his palm.

"Come on…follow me…," Robin motioned.

Slowly, the five crept onto the bottom level of the skeletal, metal tower. The sun faded into a faint orange glow as the stars came out overhead and shadowed the half-constructed behemoth.

Pale, green lights popped to life on each of the barren floors. Eleven stories up, a smoking carbonite core waited for the five heroes.

Jinx perched on an adjacent skyscraper, smirked, and waited it all out….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted.

The water was cold.

It was up to my shoulders.

I shivered.

The lights flickered in the Subway one last time…and went out.

Only my black eyes found anything recognizable in the watery firmaments.

The liquid came to my chin.

I finished my last core and cord and bundled it in my fist.

I tilted my head up.

Wet hair clung to my submerged neck.

I took one breath.

Water ran up my chin.

I took a second breath.

My ears submerged into an ambient chaos.

I took a final, huge gasp.

"!!!!!!!!"

And I dove.

SPLASH!!!!!

With smoke trailing, I torpedoed straight down the incline of stairs and into the shadowy grave of the Subway Station. I kicked my legs and skirted over the turnstiles. Bodies of dead robots floated ahead of me. I pushed myself past them and kicked off a severed torso, swishing myself closer and closer towards the submerged tracks. A bubble or two escaped my lips. My black goggles started to fog. I squinted my black eyes and kicked my legs with a blur. I swam down into the depression. I skimmed with my black and brown chest over the tracks. My eardrums bulged in. My chest throbbed. The extremities of my body tingled. I kicked again. I skirted towards the debris of the West Tunnel. I reached a quivering arm back through the currents and grabbed one cord from the bundle. I held it to the side. I twirled it in the water. Bubbles and tiny currents spread outward from the spiraling core. My lungs shook. I clenched my eyes shut. I summoned murk into my arm, up the cord, and into the core. It glowed a bright green. It vibrated….ready to blow. I jerked my whole body and flung the glowing core via cord into the wall of debris like a slingshot. My whole life rested on the brink of its impact.

Dink!

_**POW!!!!**__  
_  
I surged forward as the explosion bore a hole in the wall.

I was splurted in a fountain of water. I tumbled hard across dry railroad tracks.

I gasped.

Just in time too….

**SMASH!!!!!**

The entire wall of debris gave way from the pressure. A wall of water and cement mud slammed into the back of me. I tumbled some more, flew, and was submerged once again in a churning nightmare of liquid.

SPLASH!!!

I soared down the dark tunnel under water. Twirling. Bubbles flying everywhere. I tumbled forward twice, fought to keep my rattling mouth closed, and stared straight ahead of me. Through airtight goggles, I strained to see where I was hurtling towards. I saw a wall of bubbles rise up at the end of the wave of torrents. There was a wall dead ahead. The directors of the Subway system had suspended a firewall blocking the passageway at word of Slade's explosives. I reached a hand to my back and yanked at another cord. Twirling around, I spun the core in a circle and—upon coming to an end of my twirl—slung the explosive electronic forward and into the wall.

Dink!

_**POW!!!**_

Amidst a scatter of metal debris, I splashed out into the next corridor of subway tunnel.

I had only four corded cores left. I had no idea how many firewalls were left.

In the meantime, I gasped for air and went tumbling forward as the next wave of water carried my ragdoll body forward. I glided sideways, my nose and chest bare inches from the subway wall blurring by. I saw a couple of yellow, painted letters flying past me. I gasped. I whipped out a third explosive, spun it over my shoulder, and pulsed smoke energy through my legs.

SPLASH!!!

I leapt up out of the wall of water. I soared sideways down the subway, gritted my teeth, and slung the core forward.

Dink!

_**POW!!**_

The wall shattered before me. Amazingly, the water started pouring through it as well. I gasped.

_It had worked!_

I blurred over, fought the currents slamming against me, and burst through the hole.

I fell about ten feet into the underground canal of the City sewers. This particular tunnel ran parallel to the Subway, and at this point the two nearly met.

The hole I had formed in the subway wall became a duct through which a large fountain of liquid from the Water Main splashed. The waterfall joined the canal in the sewer and formed a heavy current that pushed me along briskly.

I managed to keep my head above water, sputtering.

I looked straight ahead.

A splash of water was impacting heavily as the current in the sewers met a 'fork' in the walls. There was a stream going both left and right. But the rushing water was so fast that—in a matter of seconds—I would have been slammed into hamburger against the brick foundation.

I held my breath in the water and charged murk up in my body.

RUSHHHH!!!!

I came flying at the wall.

I leapt out of the water with a discharge of murk.

My feet ate through the foam of splashing water.

I pivoted my body sideways.

I planted my boots against the wall.

I ran across the foundation for two seconds before diving into the sewer water rushing to the right.

WHAM!!!!!

Cracks formed into the wall as the mountain of Water Main liquid slammed into the foundation behind me. From there, the current split. The sewer water slowed in its race away from the Subway hole. I could almost swim.

I panted.

I looked to the right.

There was a rusty, metal ladder on the side of the underground canal leading to a manhole. Surely there was a street above.

I breath-stroked desperately to the right. I angled myself so that the rush of water and my forward movement would properly guide me directly to--

Clamp!!

I grabbed onto the ladder and held on tight as the water pushed my body past it. I gritted my teeth, pulled to the end of my limb. I summoned unearthly strength and flung my other arm back.

I grabbed onto the ladder with two sets of fingers.

I took another breath.

I lifted my body.

I emerged from the water. Everything was cold and stinging. I felt like my costume—and body—weighed a hundred tons. I slumped across the metal rungs of the ladder for a few seconds. I caught my breath. I shook the hair out of my hair and face.

There was a loud groaning and rumbling sound from the back of the tunnel.

I whipped my head over and looked.

A huge wall of water was catching up to me.

I panted.

I looked at the brick foundation at the round bend in the tunnel.

I balanced myself on rungs below me and reached to my shoulder. I pulled out two cores and tied the cords together with fumbling hands while leaning against the metal ladder. As the rushing water came, I successfully doubled the explosive objects. I raised them over my soaked head, spun them, and tossed them straight at the foundation.

**POW!!!!**

Bricks, cement, and rock went storming out and plunging into the sewer's canal. The rush of water was slowed.

I had enough time to ascend safely…and so I did.

I clamored up the rusty rungs of the ladder.

I reached the manhole at the top.

I pushed up at it.

It wouldn't budge.

I gritted my teeth and slammed my elbow into it. WHANG!! Again. WHANG!! Again… WHANG!!!

The crumbled bricks and cement started to shift.

I gasped and looked down.

SPLASH!!!!

The wave of water plowed through.

The fountains were eating their way through the canal and leaping up at me.

I summoned murk, soared it through my elbow, and struck the manhole again.

**WHANG!!**

The circular object of metal flew off its hinges.

The water struck. It cracked the ladder beneath me. The structure shook, shattered, and fell.

I leapt up off the rungs and reached for the open manhole….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLAMP!!!

My hands gripped asphalt.

I vaulted myself upwards in a blur.

Water ate at my heels.

I rolled to the side in the middle of the room.

I panted.

I paused.

_Middle of the road??_

**HONK!!! HONK!!!**

My head rolled to the side.

The wheels of a semi truck bore down at me.

I exhaled, rolled backwards, and dove in reverse out of the street.

SCREEEECH!!!

The truck skidded past the open manhole, lost control, fishtailed, and slammed into two rows of lamppost before crunching to a stop.

Evening pedestrians gasped and ran at the scene. Others looked at me in shock.

I limped to my feet and clutched my side. I dripped all over.

I suddenly noticed that half of the crowd was actually looking in the opposite direction.

I spun around.

I popped my goggles off from over my black eyes and lifted them up some.

In my naked vision, I saw a glow from the eleventh floor of a half-constructed skyscraper. Below the metal skeleton of beams and cross beams, the T-Car resided.

A gasp escaped my empty throat.

_The carbonite explosive!!_

I unsheathed Myrkblade and streaked over towards the scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans took a flimsy, makeshift elevator up to the eleventh floor. The red platform rattled against the foundation as the chained doors obscured the sight of the floors floating down past the Titans' gazes.

"Remember….," Robin said, whipping out his staff. "Be prepared for anything. Any traps. Any explosives. Any obstacle that could prevent us from deactivating this thing."

"Already on it…," Cyborg frowned, switching his right arm into a laser rifle.

Beast Boy cracked his knuckles.

Raven was silent.

"We are together…," Starfire spoke. "In such, we are strong."

"Yeah…well….let's keep it that way," Robin nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx stood on a building top parallel to the skeletonesque scraper. She tapped her platform shoe and smirked.

"Any minute now….," she slyly hummed. "Any minute now….."

SWOOOOSH—CLANK!….clank!!….tap.

Something fell onto the rooftop, bounced, and rolled to a stop against her shoe.

"Huh?" she looked down with squinting, cat eyes.

Resting beside her was a green glowing sphere tied to what looked like a phone cord.

_**POW!!!**_

"AAACK!!" Jinx's body lifted up into the air.

I blurred over, jumped, and struck her midair body hard in the side with the blunt edge of Myrkblade.

WHACK!!!

She went sailing across the street like a whirling disc and smashed into the thirteen story window of a hotel.

I spun and faced the construction site. I narrowed my black eyes through my goggles and gasped.

The Titans rose to the eleventh story on the elevator, got out, and wandered towards the crashed hovercraft across the open floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"That's right, Titans…," Slade leaned forward and stared intently at the t.v. screen displaying the camera's view from the hovercraft. "Walk into the jaws of fate. Come to me…..come to me…."

The static footage from the camera showed the five heroes slowly walking forward. Thirty feet away….twenty-five….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Twenty….fifteen….

"Easy does it…," Robin whispered as they approached the obelisk. "As soon as we can all touch it…let's take the tower off the craft before it can fly away or something."

"I'll disarm it…"

"Wait till we're there…."

Ten feet.

The Titans were almost within the glowing aura of the carbonite core---

WOOOOOSH!!!

A black and brown figure ran up the obelisk, down it, onto the floor, and sailed at the five.

They all gasped.

"WYLDECARDE!! GET HIM—"

I held up Myrkblade, gritted glistening teeth, and swung.

SLASH!!!

CLANG!!!

Robin's staff went flying.

WHUMP!!!

So did his body after I pivoted on my sword, used it as a vaulting pole, and kicked him hard in the chest.

"RAAAUGH!!" Cyborg shouted and aimed at me.

ZAAAAAP!!

I leapt over the beam, landed on the ground, teleported around, and blurred at him.

SWOOOOSH!!

I tripped him and immediately jumped up at Starfire on the other side.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!

Starbolts flew.

I twirled around both shots, spun at her, grabbed her arm with one hand and warded off the clawed attack of Beast Boy in tiger form.

I jumped back, twirled, and swung Starfire straight into the changeling.

WHUMP!!

The two Titans got entangled, tumbled, and fell over the edge of the floor where surely they would fly away.

Suddenly, Myrkblade became encased in black energy. I did a double-take at it, and flashed a look to my side.

Raven chanted. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos—"

Before she could yank my blade out with telekinesis, I pulled out a playing card and flung it straight at her skull.

SWIIIIIIIIISH—CLANK!!!

The jagged corner of the card stuck hard into the stone of her forehead's chakra.

Startled, the girl went crossed eyed and tried to yank the projectile out of her prized gem.

FWOOOSH—WHAM!!

In the meantime, I ran and jump-kicked her hard in the stomach.

The card fell loose as she flew off and tumbled into an aluminum chute that slid her down to a lower floor.

I spun around.

Cyborg was getting up.

I blurred at him.

He had a fist ready, snarling.

I teleported behind him, jabbed Myrkblade downward in a diagonal fashion, stuck it between his metal legs, and lifted with a blur that vaulted him straight over my figure with accelerated strength. As he came over on the other side of me, I jumped in the air, spun, and kicked him hard in the titanium side.

CLANK!!!

He went rolling back to the elevator, smashing through the gates and slumping with his back to the platform's railing.

I dove to the ground at my right, rolled, swiped up the playing card Raven dropped, perched on my knees, and threw it across the floor and towards the elevator. The playing card spun in the air with a maddening twirl before it stuck into the green button with a down arrow.

The elevator platform hummed and carried a dizzy Cyborg back down the eleven stories.

A padding of heavy feet.

I glanced to the side.

Robin ran, jumped, and flew—screaming—at me with a kung fu kick.

WHAM!!!

I went tumbling from his impact.

He raised a fist and sailed his knuckles down at me.

I yanked Myrkblade up.

The Boy Wonder gasped and leaned his entire weight to his side to avoid the tip of my blade.

I swept a leg out, tripping his already off-balance step.

He slumped chest-forward to the ground, sliding and kicking up dust.

I vaulted up, swiveled around, and ran over Robin.

I reached a hand down and grasped his cape. He exhaled as I dragged him along, blurred towards the edge of the floor, jumped clear off the side, and jabbed back with Myrkblade. CLANK!!! I stuck the sword into a metal beam. I swung outward, downward, and back towards the next, lower floor in the scraper—upon which I let loose of a sling-shot Robin.

"AAAAAH!!" he screamed before landing in a wheel barrow, rolling across the floor, and slamming to a stop against a metal pillar.

CLANK!!

He tumbled onto a wooden platform, winced, and sat up.

His eyemask widened.

I was nowhere to be seen….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade raised his fists. "What?!?!"

The static camera view from the hovercraft suddenly showed an empty floor.

Suddenly, my face appeared.

Slade's eyemasked widened.

I frowned through my goggles. My torso lifted up The sole of my boot suddenly sailed down and covered the screen before the entire video feed turned to snow.

Slade's hands shook.

He growled through his helmet.

"Apprentice…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"APPRENTICE?!?!?!"_

Jinx stood up, rubbed her head, and squinted painfully through the shattered window of the hotel.

"Uhhhhh…..huh? M-Master?"

_"Wyldecarde is in the building!! He's at the hovercraft!!"  
_  
"B-But I thought you had taken care of him!!"

_"He is there!!!"_ Slade's voice shrieked through the sorceress' earpiece. _"Take him out!! NOW!!"_

Jinx gritted her Cheshire cat teeth and leapt out of the hotel window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Titans!! Report!!" Robin shouted into his communicator. "Where are you??"

_"Flying back up to the hovercraft!!"_ Starfire exclaimed.

_"Trying to find Wyldecarde!"_ Beast Boy's voice said.

_"Stuck in an elevator…."_ Cyborg.

"Getting there." Raven.

"Change in plans….," Robin gritted his teeth. "Get Wyldecarde!! All five of us are here!! We must put him down!! You hear me?! Take him out!! Now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted. I whipped out Myrkblade and attempted to stab into the obelisk to pry out the carbonite core, grab it, and make off with it.

Unknown to me…thirty feet off and perched on the edge of the floor, Jinx hid behind a metal pillar. She glared at me. Her eyes glowed pink and her hands glowed. She slowly reached an arm out, pivoted her wrist, and aimed….

FLASH!!!!

I spun around.

A green sphere of energy flew into my chest. I flew back and landed hard on the floor.

Jinx blinked. She looked to the side.

Starfire floated into the floor. Her hands glowed bright green. She raised another starbolt over her head and let it loose. "YAAAAH!!"

Still recovering from my impact, I vaulted up into the air to avoid the impact of the starbolt. I spun Myrkblade in front of me and deflected the next two starbolts before landing and twirling my sword at ready.

The Tamaranian Titan hovered twenty feet off, hands glowing, eyes squinted and face frowning.

"Tell me…Wyldecarde….," she uttered firmly in the air. "Why is it that you wear those goggles?"

I panted, facing her and holding my sword up. I glanced to the side and checked the distance between her and the obelisk.

She was safe.

"Why do you hide your eyes, villain?" she asked. "You never truly answered me why you keep them secret." She slowly drifted towards me, glowing. I backed up, keeping our distance constant. Keeping the standoff still. "It is not the fear of bright lights. It is not some secret identity. But rather, I believe you are hiding a secret. You are holding back the very last thing in your being which you hold dear to and believe—however falsely—that it preserves whatever strength remains within you."

I bit my lip and came to the edge of the floor. I had nowhere to backup anymore.

"That one night…when you showed me your black eyes for the first time…," she spoke. She sounded wounded. "I thought that you had showed me something, Wyldecarde. I thought that you had given me hope. I thought that you had given me further things to expect from friendship. But that was not the case. You were deceiving me. And because of that, my friends….my **true** friends have suffered dearly. On my home planet as much as on earth, this is a transgression which I can never forgive!! And to what extent does such treachery and betrayal assist you, Wyldecarde?! Would you at least convey that to me?! Or is it that you cannot speak, for if you could your words would be just as hollow as your eyes??"

I took a deep breath. I glanced at the carbonite detonator far away. I looked back at her.

I couldn't let her go on any more. I had to get her away from the carbonite. I had to get all the Titans away from the carbonite.

_I had to get them away from the building…_

So I took a deep breath, summoned my villainous 'Wyldecarde' grin, and aimed Myrkblade at her.

Her glowing eyes widened.

WOOOOOSH!!!

I rushed.

She exhaled and slung starbolt after starbolt. FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!!

I deflected all three, twirled Myrkblade, and leapt up at her.

SWOOOOOSH!!

Blade first---

SWISH!! She twirled to the side.

I pivoted in mid air, met a metal beam in the ceiling with my feet, and stuck to it upside down with murk.

Starfire hovered around.

WHAM!!

I struck her hard across the chest with the blunt side of Myrkblade.

"Nghh!!" she cried out and tumbled to the floor.

I vaulted downwards.

She tossed a huge starbolt at me.

I teleported around it, drifted to the floor, materialized, and stabbed down at her.

CLANK!!

She rolled out of the way and jumped up with a boot uppercutting my chin.

WHACK!!

She yelled and tossed a starbolt at my flying figure. "RAAAUGH!!"

I flipped over, absorbed the energy into my blade, landed, and blurred at her.

WHUMP!!!

I tackled her and we went tumbling across the floor to the edge. She kicked me off of her.

I went sailing back hard into a metal pillar.

WHANG!!

She stood up. Her eyes glowed desperately green.

I winced. I looked at her. I gasped--

ZAAAAAP!!!

Two trails of hot green flew at me.

I ducked.

The steel behind me melted.

I slumped to the ground chest first like a snake and slid at her with a pulse of murk.

She aimed her laser eyes down at me.

The green trailed a burning path after me.

I teleported up, materialized in the air behind her, and grabbed her ribcage on either side.

She gasped.

I spun around and flung her to the edge.

She landed her boots to the floor and skidded to the stop before she could fall off the eleventh story. She spun around and froze. I was already halfway through a jump-kick sailing straight at her.

SMACK!!!!

I impacted with her chest, bounced back, and landed in a crouch on the edge. Starfire's shrieking body went sailing straight over a short building, into the block beyond, and landing through the wall of another scraper. She was sealed by the shadows with in.

I took a breath and spun around.

CRACK!!

My body jolted.

I looked down.

The makeshift floor beneath me was cracking.

SMASH!!!

A circle tore away beneath me.

I fell down a story and landed hard on my butt.

I winced and stood up.

Something large, hairy, and green growled to the side of me.

I looked over.

SWOOOSH-SLASH!!!

Three bear claws ripped through the back of my apprentice outfit and ripped at my skin.

I let out a silent scream of pain and teetered over and straight into a metal pillar.

Trickling blood rivered down my back.

I winced and spun around.

A green changeling charged at me in bear form. Three red-stained claws flew at my face.

I ducked. CLANK!!!

Sparks and metal shards flew from the pillar.

I twirled to the side, held up Myrkblade, and jabbed forward.

The bear sidestepped, turned into a green lion, and bit its mouth over the blunt edge of the blade's tip.

I gritted my teeth and charged a pulse of murk up the length of my sword.

FLASH!!!

The jaws of the feline were forced open.

I jumped, landed on its furry back, and vaulted across the floor to a pile of lumber. I landed between wooden planks and looked for an avenue of escape.

There was a shrieking sound from behind.

I turned around.

A green velociraptor pounced down at me.

I fell to my rear, lifted my legs, and shoved the changeling over me.

He tumbled into a pile of wood, his scaly limbs flailing.

I got up and stumbled backwards, panting.

The dinosaur morphed into a gorilla and charged at me, arms flailing as it roared.

My arm bumped into a two-by-four. I gritted my teeth, picked up the plank, and swung it heavily into the rushing mammal's face.

SMASH!!!

Splinters flew.

The gorilla growled and clutched his head. He soon turned into a green elf.

I panted, glaring through my goggles.

Slowly, Beast Boy lowered his hands and frowned at me. His little nose was bleeding.

"Are you enjoying this, Wyldecarde??" he sneered. "This perfect irony??"

How was I to respond? If I showed compassion, we'd get nowhere. We'd still be in this building. He'd still be at risk with the carbonite.

_But if I egged him on……_

I smirked and saluted.

The green elf shook. He let out an angry yell and charged at me. At the end of his run, his swinging fist turned into a handful of bear claws.

I leapt over him and batted him off with the blunt of my sword. I pushed him towards the edge with my weapon.

The bear turned back into the elf. "I can't believe I once cried over you…," he fumed. "I can't believe I ONCE CRIED OVER YOU!!!"

I glared and backed him up more with the tip of my blade.

"I worried for your life…," he grumbled, backstepping. "I even saved you once or twice!! And at Westhaven. Besides the Lake. I sobbed because you….you reminded me of how hurt I was when my parents died!! How helpless I felt!!" He stopped at the edge of the floor. We were so close. He shook his fist. "Now I know what is the truth. What you've done…Wyldecarde…it's worse than when my parents died…"

I took a deep breath and continued pointing Myrkblade at him.

"At least I knew that my parents were decent souls when they died….," he clinched his teeth. "But thanks to you…I now know what's it like to embrace helplessness. Cuz so help me, I'm helpless to save your treacherous life right now!! RrrrrrRRRRAAAAAUGHHH-**ROWWWWWWWHHHHRRRRR!!!!"**

I backed up as the changeling's scream morphed and he turned into a gigantic, hulking T-Rex. Jaws brimmed with glistening teeth snapped at me. I jumped back. The dinosaur's green snout smashed through piles of lumber, dented metal pillars, and slashed apart construction equipment as he stomped after me. I leapt over splinter and shard and shower of sparks in attempting to avoid the snapping teeth. At one point, my foot got entangled in extension cord from an electric light. I tripped hard to the floor. I spun around. The jaws clamped down on me. I clenched my teeth and held Myrkblade out lengthwise. CLANK!!! The teeth caught on the hilt and tip of the blade. I struggled. Dinosaur saliva cascaded down and wet my torso. I looked to my right. I spotted the electric light. I picked it up, thrust it into the mouth, and touched the hot, glowing bulb to the dinosaur's twitching tongue. Steam rose from the burn.

The dinosaur roared and let go. My sword dropped down onto me.

The changeling spun around and turned back into Beast Boy, clutching his mouth. I jumped to my feet, inhaled, and blurred towards the Titan.

The elf turned around and glanced at me with bug-eyes at the last second.

WHAM!!!!

I hooked my free arm around him. Together we blurred the distance between the center of the floor and the edge of the scraper. Just a foot and a half before we sailed over the side, I clinched my teeth and stuck Myrkblade into the makeshift floor.

CLANK!!

I gripped hard to my hilt, yanked on it, and spun around in two circles before letting go of Beast Boy completely.

The Titan's body went flying clear out into open air. In mid-fall, he turned into a stegosaurus and smashed through two floors of a nearby apartment building before careening dizzily to the streets below in the form of some heavy animal.

I panted. I yanked Myrkblade out and clutched the blood scratches on my back. I winced and hobbled towards the elevator shaft.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx perched on the floor above me. She watched—panting—as both Starfire and Beast Boy were tossed far away from the scraper. She cupped a fair hand over her ear and spoke.

"I can't catch up to him!! He keeps fighting the Titans and throwing them off!! If I attack him, they'll see me and the Third Apprentice will no longer be a secret!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade scratched the chin of his helmet with gloved fingers.

_"What should I do, Master? I-If I wait around too long…there won't be any Titans left in the tower for the carbonite to come close to…much less infect!!"_

"…….," Slade stared out the circular window of the frigate onto the starlit waters of some mysterious sea.

_"Master??"_

"Blow it up…."

The voice on the other side of the communication gasped.

_"But Slade---!""  
_  
"Blow it up, Jinx…," he said firmly. "The three Titans left are the most dangerous. It will be unfortunate that I can't simultaneous infect **all** of them at once, but I'll settle for all I can at the given moment. The explosion of the carbonite should sufficiently spread carbonite emissions throughout the body of the Tower. The nanoprobes will find their hosts yet."

_"Understood!! I'm on it!!"_

"Fate is a fickle mistress indeed…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As I reached an elevator, something blue and glowing suddenly rose up before me.

I came to a limping stop. The eyebrows above my goggles raised.

Cyborg came into view…and so did his laser rifle.

"Tenth floor," he smirked evilly. "Appliances, lingerie, and **kicked ass!!"**

ZAAAAAP!!!!

A blue stream of blinding light thrust into my chest.

I was blown back clear across the floor and slammed into a pile of lumber that splintered around me and showered splinters around my tumbling body.

I literally smoked as I winced and sat up. I shook my head…and gasped.

_Where was Myrkblade??_

I was surrounded by shattered sticks, two-by-fours, and planks. Before I could start digging frantically through them to find my blade---

"RRRRAAAAAUGH!!" a titanium mountain of a hero smashed his way through with swinging fists.

I dove forward and rolled out of the way of his charge.

Cyborg whipped his hand into a laser rifle again and blasted down at me.

ZAAAP!!!

I leapt up from a fresh crater in the floor.

He fired again.

ZAAAAAP!!

I teleported forward, ducked his blast, and ran full force into his chest.

CLANG!!!!

My tackle stopped instantly.

"Nice try, shithead."

He gripped me by the metal mesh collar and tossed me into the ceiling.

WHAM!!!

I struck it, then came falling down.

WHAP!!!

I hit the floor hard.

Breath escaped my lungs.

Cyborg stomped over and hoisted me up by the back of my neck. "You know….," he muttered to the back of my ears. "After my Uncle went through what he did…I realized I had only one family left. And that family—I was concerned—consisted of those I fought alongside with. But I realize now that I was wrong." He reached into a compartment in his arm and pulled out handcuffs. "Family is not the people you fight alongside with….but people who fight **for you**." He positioned my arms firmly behind my back and together, wrist-to-wrist. "You never fought for me, Wyldecarde. Yes…you fought alongside me. But I realize now that it was all a guise. All a ruse to distract me from the fact that you could care less about me or what happened in my future. Whatever you fought for, it was merely to fool me long enough to hurt me really bad." He handcuffed me and locked the manacles tight. "You were willing to take away the last 'family' I have left. And I just won't settle for that…"

I panted, handcuffed. Sweat ran down my brow and trailed over my goggles.

He leaned over, frowning. "Forgive me if this sounds contemptuous….but….'what have you got to say for yourself'?"

I took a deep breath.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I teleported backwards, through his body, materialized in the air, and kicked him swiftly in the back.

CLANK!!

He stumbled forward into empty floor.

I landed, blurred my hands into smoke, and let the handcuffs drop. I kicked the cuffs back up with a reverse heel, grabbed them, and flung them straight forward.

Cyborg spun around.

SMACK!!!

The manacles struck him hard in the human side of his face. He clutched his nose.

I ran at him and tackled with a blur of murk this time.

WHUMP!!!!

We both went sliding towards the edge of the floor.

But before either of us could fall over, he yelled, grabbed my bruised shoulder, and swung me mightily towards the open air.

I flew towards the edge, gasping. I saw a miniature crane clamped over the side. I reached a hand out, grabbed the pulley system, and held on tight as I spun completely around on the creaking metal crane and flew at Cyborg.

He swung a fist at me.

I blurred and leapt off his fist and vaulted forward in a flip towards the pile of splinters. In mid-fall, I caught sight of the mahogany beam that was Myrkblade and sailed down at it. I gripped it, slid through a thin sea of wooden fragments, and spun to face Cyborg from afar.

Chu-Chting!!

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

A steady beam of blue energy soared at me.

I gritted my teeth and held Myrkblade up vertically in front of me.

FLASH!!!!!

The blue stream split mere inches in front of my face as my murking sword cut the laser in half as it kept barreling at me with warbling destruction. My body shook as I fought to hold the flimsy blade in the middle of the impregnable onslaught of blue.

Cyborg's face tensed as his rifle glowed more and he intensified the laser.

I was shoved back a bit as the thundering beam thickened and pulsed right before my figure.

I sweat. I trembled. I took a breath and summoned a wave of murk through my body.

Cyborg's red eye blinked.

I let out a silent scream, teleported into smoke, and trailed forward literally around Cyborg's laser beam in a spiral all the way across the distance to the android's converted arm. In smoke form, I sunk into his laser hand and materialized—bursting out with Myrkblade outstretched.

SMASH!!!

Sparks flew. The laser rifle went dead. I came down from my ghostly leap with Myrkblade in full swing.

CRACK!!!!

Cyborg's right hand shattered into tiny fragments.

He gasped.

I didn't care. He had plenty of spare limbs left. I gripped his shocked neck with two arms, tilted back, and vaulted him over me with a blur.

He flipped, tumbled to the side, and fell off. CL-CLANK!! He got entangled in the chains at the end of the miniature crane and dangled ten stories above the street before. He struggled. He looked up at me.

I took a deep breath. I whipped out a playing card.

He growled. "No, Wyldecarde. NOOOOO!!!"

SWIIIIIIISH!!!

The card flew and severed the neck of the crane halfway.

SLASH!!!

Cyborg fell, smacked off an extension of a metal beam, and went tumbling in through a window of an adjacent building—crashing safely into the interior and far away from the center of the half-constructed scraper he was once in.

I took a deep breath, spun around, and rushed up a stairwell back to the floor where the hovercraft still rested.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx had made her way to the obelisk and was charging it with a hex of pink when she heard the smashing sound of Cyborg's fall resound through the nearby City blocks.

She gasped, but then snapped out of it. She sent waves of pink flying into the detonator.

On the display, red digital font popped up and counted down from _'5:00 minutes'._

She sweatdropped. "No!! I don't want a countdown!! Explode now!! **Explode now**, damn you!!"

She pounded the obelisk with girlish fists.

The sound of blurred footsteps up the stairwell to her back echoed.

She gasped. She spun around and looked panickedly at the stairwell. A beat. She turned back and looked at the countdown: _'4:52 minutes'._

"Screw it…," she muttered.

She jumped down to the floor and blurred out of the building in a pink streak.

I came up the stairwell. I took one look at the countdown timer on the carbonite detonator. I gasped.

I was about to blur towards it when--

FLASH!!

I couldn't move.

I blinked under my goggles.

I looked down.

My boots were encased in black energy.

FWOOSH!!!

I gasped as I was pivoted upside down and soared skyward by an invisible force. SMASH!!!

I plowed through the makeshift ceiling/floor above me and onto the twelfth floor.

SMASH!!!

The thirteenth floor.

SMASH!!!

The fourteenth.

SMASH!!!

SMASH!!!

SMASH!!!

My whole body racked with pain by the time I reached the summit of the half-constructed scraper. I was lifted off a dozen feet into the air, let go, and dropped hard to a wooden plank of a floor.

WHUMP!!!

I winced. Hobbled up to my feet.

As my pained eyes opened, I saw Raven floating ten feet in front of me over a series of naked, metal crossbeams. Her eyes glowed bright gray and her robe billowed. Her brow furrowed as she spoke in a haunting voice of echoes: "It ends here, Wyldecarde…."

I stood up to my feet, bruised and aching all over. I panted. My face was sheen with sweat.

"You've hurt all of my friends….," she exclaimed. "You've shown your true, dark self before the naked heavens. There will be no redemption for the likes of you."

I took a deep breath. I raised Myrkblade at ready.

"Did you seriously think you could fight the entire lot of us???" she exclaimed. "After trying to stab us in the back so mercilessly??"

I stared at her. The starlight silhouetted her coldly.

"I find it hard to believe that I ever once…..ever once………," she hesitated…then spat forth: "…ever once **trusted you**!"

I took a deep breath.

She went on. "You seemed so trusting…so mature so……so…..receptive……" Her lungs heaved. She bore her teeth as she frowned harder and her glowing eyes intensified. "It was all deceit!! A **lie!! Like so many have lied and used me before!!!"**

Black objects rose in the air. Metal beams, two-by-fours, saws, various construction equipment.

I glanced at them all. I took deep breaths. I gripped harder to Myrkblade.

"How unfortunate for you that the battle is now between you and me…," she hissed. "Unlike the other Titans you've pummeled, I know very well that there is a fate worse than death. Yours will be….oh so trivial. Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"

The black-encased objects swarmed in on me.

I jumped into action.

I blurred across the wooden planks

I spun Myrkblade behind me.

I deflected off a buzz saw, a jackhammer, and a board of wood.

CLANK!! SMACK!! CRASH!!!

I spun Myrkblade in front of me.

I slashed and knocked away a toolbox, a metal bar, and a swarm of nuts and bolts.

CLASH!! SLASH!! CRACK!!

Raven flung her wrist outward.

A huge beam of metal flew at me.

I leapt over it, slid down a pillar, and landed on the crossbeams below Raven. I blurred across the spiderweb of steel.

Raven's teeth grit. She twisted both hands downward at me.

Rivets popped and started flying out from the beams underneath me like bullets.

CLANK!!! CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!! CL-CLANK!!!

I ran at full speed, panting, as the metal exploded in fountains of shards beneath me and sailed off into the air.

The entire upper floor of metal crossbeams crumpled and warped from Raven's punishment.

I leapt off a pillar, slid across a still-solid crossbeam, twirled Myrkblade, and leapt straight up at the dark girl.

Raven's eyes flashed.

Two black bird 'talons' morphed out of the pillars to either side of me and gripped my figure hard in mid air.

YANK!!

I struggled in the grasp of pure telekinesis. I glared through my goggles as the two 'talons' lifted me up and parallel to Raven's floating form.

"I should have known why Trigon picked your body when he jumped out of me….," she grumbled. "Your knack for evil. For treachery. Your….your…."

I glared at her.

Suddenly, Raven gasped. Her head tossed back.

My jaw dropped.

My eyebrows raised in sudden concern.

My frightened thought was cut short as the 'talons' squeezed harder around me. I wheezed and sputtered for breath as I was constricted from all sides. Slowly, the black energy encasing me was being laced with glowing red.

Raven's head tilted back, and her eyes were suddenly a glowing crimson. As hatred boiled uncontrollably over her turbulent spirit, her teeth sparked with grinding fangs and a hauntingly familiar, masculine voice slithered out of her mouth.

_**"I haven't forgotttttttten about you boyyyyyyy!!"  
**_  
I gasped, sweating.

Raven's possessed face leaned in towards me. Hot breath seeped over me.

_**"I couldddddd care lesssss about fattttte!! For I am fate!! Raven's fatttttte!! I wanted you to hurttttt her!! I wanted you to tearrrrr her aparttttt!! So I filllllled her with fearrrr and doubtttt!! I knew itttttt would make her huntttttt you downnnn!! And it worked!!! I was shockkkkkkked to find out you were reallllllly a traittttttor!! But such irony doesn'ttttt matterrrrrrr!! Destroy my child, boyyyy!! Destroy her and free meeeeee!!!"**_

The talons of energy crept up and gripped at my throat. Pain coursed through my arteries. I clinched my teeth and shut my eyes tightly as I twitched in agony.

Red smoke poured out of the girl's mouth as Trigon bellowed:

_**"Ha ha ha ha ha!!! It is so apppppppropriate that youuuuu do it!!! It is so irrrrrrronic that you end herrrrrr life!!! For you were the one she trusted mossssssst!!!!"**_

I struggled for breath. My ears throbbed. And yet I listened…

_**"It was you she thoughttttttt of mossssst!!! And becausssssse of that weaknesssssss, you can sink your teeeeeeth in the most and SUCK ME OUT!!!!!"**_

I opened my eyes. A strong current of black smoke fountained down my face from under my goggles.

Trigon's red eyes widened across Raven's face. Fear….

It was too late.

_Now it's demon versus demon, asshole._

I ripped Myrkblade up through the talons. Smoke and red energy fluttered through the air.

_**"AAAAAUGH!!!"**_

Snarling, I jabbed Myrkblade straight at the glowing eyes. Not at Raven—but rather at the manifestation of her father's spirit.

SWOOOSH—CLAMP!!!

Two extra talons of red closed in around the tip of my blade.

I pushed harder and harder against Trigon's defenses.

Red smoke pumped out of Raven's mouth as Trigon's voice panickedly uttered: _**"No….No!! You will not summon her!! You will NOT SUMMON HER!!"**_

I summoned her.

I closed my eyes.

Smoke warbled out from my hands, down the length of my blade, and thundered against Trigon's field.

_**"AAAAAUGH!!!"**_

Black smoke merged with red smoke.

The talons quivered.

The connection was made.

_FLASH!!!!_

_Blue bolts of lightning._

Metal floors covered with blood.

Swishing blades of grass under thunderclouds.

FLASH!!!

Blue eyes.

Blonde hair.

Waking up.

A smile.

A scream.

SLASH!!!

Swords and fields and smoke and--

FLASH!!!

_**"NOOOO!!!!**_

_She charged forward. A bolt of green. Wisps of blonde hair kicked in the breeze. Ana smiled and righteously swung a wooden katana up and across the cheek of a red wall._

Demon blood flew.

_FLASH!!!!_

_**"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"**_

Raven's body arched back in mid air. Streams of red light beamed out of her eyes and mouth, formed the image of a shrieking bird, and sailed back into her being.

WARBLE!!!!

The talons constricting me disappeared.

My eyes stopped spilling smoke as I gasped and fell. I perched agilely on the edge of a metal beam. I panted, swallowed, and looked up.

The red glow left Raven's eyes. The screaming voice of Trigon dwindled into the natural moan of the girl's voice as her cape stopped billowing, her hood fell loose, and her blue hair streamed….as she fell straight down through three stories of crossbeams.

I gasped. I stood up, flexed my muscles, and took a swan dive.

Black hair shook and whipped past my neck as I sailed down like a cruise missile, caught up with the dark girl, and hooked a protective arm around her waist. Together we plunged towards the stretch of floor below.

I twirled Myrkblade in a free hand, charged up a wave of smoking Destruction, and stretched the blade directly forward. It formed an obsidian arrowhead around the two of us as we met the floor.

SMASH!!!

And the next floor.

SMASH!!!!!

And the next…

SMASH!!!!!!!!

Like a hot knife through butter, I plowed us effortlessly down the same stories through which Raven had initially hurtled me upwards.

At one point, I jerked Myrkblade to the side and scraped the blade across the length of a pillar of metal.

SNKKKKKK!!!!!

The cutting impact slowed us down.

I hopped to the floor, panting, with Raven's draped across my arms.

She moaned and stirred slightly.

_She was unconscious…._

I took a deep breath. I looked off towards the edge of the floor. I looked at Raven.

Holding onto her tight, I ran straight towards the edge and leapt strongly.

The two of us flew in the air before landing on the rooftop of a ten story building on the other side.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile…

On the eleventh floor of the half-constructed scraper…

The detonator of the obelisk read: _'2:08 minutes'._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I set Raven down lightly and drew the robe over her head.

I sighed.

I slowly turned around to leap back to the scraper and see if I could either deactivate the explosion or take care of---

"HIIIIIIIYA!!!!"

WHAM!!!!

The Boy Wonder flew down in a jump kick that sent me tumbling back and landing with my rear to the side of the roof.

I shook my head and looked up.

Robin landed on his feet, ran at me, extended his staff, grit his teeth, and swung the weapon upside my face like a golf club.

WHACK!!

I literally somersaulted backwards from the blow and fell down the edge of the building. I jabbed Myrkblade into the wall blurring up past me and cut-grind to a hault.

WOOOOOSH!!

Robin vaulted over the side and kicked down at me.

WHAM!!!

I sailed across the elevated width of the street and smashed in through a window of an apartment building across the way.

SHATTTTER!!!

I tumbled to a painful stop amidst a sea of shards. I stirred and tried to get up.

Robin swung in, landed, and whacked me hard in the side with his staff.

WHACK!!

I flew into the wall.

WHAP!! I ached all over.

Robin lifted me up. I gasped.

He elbowed me hard in the chest.

WHUMP!!

I lost my breath.

He uppercutted me with a high kick of his boot.

WHACK!!

My teeth clattered as I teetered back from the impact.

Robin reached out a grappling hook, shot it across the length of the hallway, and retracted. He slid at me with the staff outstretched. It stabbed me deep in the gut as he forced me sliding across the entire hallway of the apartment complex and straight out a window on the other side.

SMASH!!!

My body spiraled in mid air and landed to a grinding halt on a five-story building beneath the apartment complex.

I tumbled and slid on the gravel. I then lay still. Silent.

THUMP!!

Robin landed five feet away from me.

He panted.

He gripped hard to his staff.

"Get up….," he muttered.

I was still. Silent.

"Get up and fight me…," he griped. "You know you want to. It's what you were hired to do. To torment us. To play games with us. To betray us…."

"….."

He paced around my grounded figure. "Get up and fight me, Wyldecarde. The game's revolved around the table. It's your turn to deal. Go on. Surprise me. Pull out a joker card."

"….."

Robin sighed. He whipped out a pair of handcuffs and sauntered over towards my side. "Might as well end it now—"

SWOOOOSH—SMACK!!!

My leg suddenly flew up and struck the Boy Wonder across the cheek.

Sweat and saliva flew.

I snarled, teleported up into a standing position, and rammed the hilt of Myrkblade into his chest.

WHUMP!!!

He bent over.

I kneed him in the face.

WHACK!!

I spun, and slapped the length of Myrkblade's blunt side against his ribcage.

SMACK! He teetered across the ceiling, spun, and slammed into the door of a stairwell all on his own. He slumped down to the floor, but caught himself on one knee. He glared at me through a thin eyemask of pain.

I looked at him…grew dizzy…and slumped down to my knee just the same.

He gripped hard to his staff.

I held tight to Myrkblade.

Slowly….simultaneously…we both stood up.

Bitter wind from the incoming cold front blew down and kicked at our figures. My black hair danced. Robin's yellow cape whipped.

I glared.

He glared.

Clouds covered the starlight from above.

Silence.

Then…

"I hate you….," he hissed in a shaking voice.

I took a deep breath, doing my best Wyldecarde frown.

He shook his head slowly. "I thought I hated Slade with all my might……b-but I was wrong. I hate you more, Noir. Because—unlike Slade—you were once my friend."

I took a deep breath. Robin could say what he wanted. He could vomit forth what he needed. But he didn't know that I had already won. In his attack, I had diverted him incalculably far from the half-constructed scraper. All I needed to do was get rid of him….

And in the case of Robin…that meant a final fight.

CHIIIING!!! I raised Myrkblade high.

SWOOOSH!! Robin held his staff up.

Dark clouds spread overhead.

We slowly….cautiously paced around each other. A dozen feet apart. Eyeing each other through hidden eyes. Masks and goggles. White and black. Black and white.

Two warriors….screw the Balance of Morals.

He charged.

I met his attack.

SWISH-SWISH--

SWOOOSH--

**CLANK!!!**

Our weapons met with a shower of sparks.

He shoved his weight against me.

I shoved my weight against his.

His weight turned out to be stronger.

I slid back.

He swung high with his staff.

I ducked. My long hair was knocked aside by his metal.

I jabbed low with Myrkblade.

Robin flipped over at me and stuck my legs out from under.

I fell to the ground and swept Myrkblade out.

THWUMP!!

Robin tripped. He landed on his rear, somersaulted backwards, and hopped in time to meet my thrust.

CLANK!!

He twirled to the side and jabbed at my ribs.

I jumped back and twirled Myrkblade in time to meet his lightning-rapid advance.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

I lifted a foot and kicked him back.

He slid up against an antenna.

I swung a horizontal slash.

Robin easily ducked.

SLASH!!!

Metal severed and fell to the floor.

Robin dove forward and tackled me.

The two of us tumbled through the gravel, somersaulted, and he ended up kicking me off and towards the edge of the building.

I skidded to a stop and flailed my arms. I was precariously balanced on the wall siding of the building. I spun around to face Robin again.

POW!!---SWOOOSH!!!

I gasped as a grappling hook wrapped around me and constricted my torso tightly with a tug.

Robin stood, holding onto his end with a gloved hand over the grappling hook launcher. He had me strung up…literally.

"It's over, Wyldecarde….," he glared. "Give up before I hurt you as badly as you've hurt my friends."

I frowned at him.

"**NOW!!**" the Boy Wonder shouted.

"……………..," I stared. "……….." I smiled.

Robin's eyebrows lifted.

I took a breath….and leapt backwards.

SWOOOOSH!!

I fell down the length of the building.

Robin gasped. He dropped his staff to the rooftop and gripped hard to the grappling hook launcher with two hands. He was not about to let go of his new adversary. In so doing, his boots skidded along through the gravel and he was soon yanked over the side with a cry.

Soon the two of us were plummeting down the buildingside to the dark alleyway below on both ends of the grappling hook. I wrangled my arms under the binding cord wrapped around me for control of Myrkblade. When I once again tightened my fingers around the hilt, I stabbed it deep into the building side flying past me.

SNKKKKKKKK!!!!!

In so doing, I came to a scraping stop with my feet planted against the wall and murking about two and a half stories up.

Robin sailed down at me, breathless.

I charged up murk, exploded it outward through my limbs, and broke the cord wrapped around me.

SNAP!!!

I reached a free hand out and hooked it around Robin's incoming waist.

WHUMP!!

"Oof!!!"

I then yanked out Myrkblade, pulsed smoke through my boots, and vaulted off the buildingside.

WOOOSH!!!

I backflipped and sailed face-first towards the alleyway floor with Robin in grip. An open garbage stumper full of cardboard flew up at us. I gritted my teeth and tossed Robin straight down into the mess.

"AAAAAAAAH—" THWUMP!!!!!

He landed safely as I teleported to the floor, inhaled, and blurred mightily down the alleyway and out into the night-shrouded City streets beyond.

Robin kicked his way out of the dumpster and fell out. Growling, he hopped to his feet and ran in vain after me. He dashed out into the street and shook his fist at the distant figure blurring off into oblivion.

"Damn you, Wyldecarde!!!! Damn you if I don't catch up to you myself one day and—"

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!**_

A plume of fire, flying debris, and burning dust rose up suddenly in open sight of Robin.

He immediately gasped and stumbled backwards.

The half-constructed scraper erupted into a sky-high body of plasma.

A carbonite explosion….

Robin sweated and—in a panicked fury—reached to his belt and whipped out his communicator.

"Titans!! Titans!!" he shouted in desperation. "Report!! Where are you?! Is everyone okay?!?! Is anyone hurt?!?!"

_"I am undamaged……,"_ replied Starfire's weary voice. _"I'm two buildings north of the explosion. Was anyone near it??"_

_"Not me…,"_ Beast Boy wheezed. _"Though I'm aching all over. I was fighting Wyldecarde when I got my ass shipped by air a block away!!"_

_"Same here!!"_ Cyborg's voice joined in. _"Man…that thing nearly fried me!!"_

_"Ughhh…,"_ Raven's voice moaned. _"Wh-What happened? I've been out of it. Whoah……big fire over here. What's going on??"_

_"The carbonite must have gone off!! But……I-Is everyone okay?!"_

_"I am perfectly fine. And it seems nobody was near the blast."_

_"Robin, are you safe?"_

"Y-Yeah…."

_"It was another one of Slade's traps!!"_

"Traps?!?! B.B.! None of us are fried!!"

_"How come?!?!"_

"Cuz none of us………n-none of us was there…"

_"Have any of you seen where Wyldecarde went off to? I was in the middle of fighting him when I conked out. What am I doing on this rooftop??"_

Robin panted. He was staring dazedly at the fire as sirens lit up throughout the City's atmosphere.

He listlessly spoke into the communicator: "Titans….," he uttered. "…were you all fighting Noir when you—somehow—got away from the building before it blew?"

_"Yup."_

_"It would appear as such."_

_"Yeah…what's up with that?"_

"Guys…what's going on? I'm confused."

"Well I'm not….," Robin swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. "Wyldecarde just beat the living crap out of us…and yet…we're all alive and breathing right now."

_"…………………"_

_"…………………"_

_"…………………"_

_"…………………"_

Robin snapped out of it. "Titans!! Regroup on the Tower! On the double!! We've got a lot to talk about now…"

_"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"_

"Yeah, Cyborg…," Robin breathed. "I'm sure it's what every one of us is thinking right now…."


	63. Full Circle part 10

**63. Full Circle part 10**

_It was a playground in the center of a curve of apartment buildings._

The sky was crystal blue and the spring air clean.

Children climbed the jungle gym in a gang of athleticism. Agile little limbs balanced themselves and stretched over the metal bars as the young ones played games and made up pretend names for each other.

_At least five parents sat on various benches surrounding the playground. Two of them were reading a book. One was on a cell phone. Two more were watching their offspring and smiling._

Two dark-haired twin girls were playing in a sand box in the shape of a green seaturtle. Faye and Fiona were their names. They giggled as they made castle after castle in the sand, only to smash it and start all over again. Every time a castle was built, it was perfect and smooth in every way. They had a secret power—even at such a young age—of keeping things constant. A secret power that they giggled and smiled at having.

Just a few feet away, dangling her thing legs over the edge of a bench, Jean sat with her small nose in a book. It was a tale about sorcery and magic spells and medieval adventures full of splendor. Every now and then she would look up from her book and smile at her young, twin sisters. They waved at her and she nodded her head with a smile. A cool breeze rustled down and kicked at her long, exotically pink hair. She wore it down in a ponytail and had dark sunglasses over her eyes.

_Her eyes……Unlike the hair, Jean would never show her eyes out in public. She tried once, and people her age who couldn't understand who or what she was only hurt her. She wasn't about to let herself get hurt again. Not in front of her little sisters. She was in charge of looking after them while her Mommy spent the Saturday working at the nearby diner. Their father……well……he was hardly ever around much for the three of them to call 'Daddy' to begin with._

_After watching her little sisters play for a while, Jean dug her nose back into the book. Her feet dangled playfully. She dreamed of being a powerful sorceress and bringing evil kings down to their knees and saving distraught families from tyranny._

So engrossed was the older sister, she barely noticed the pair of black vans ambling up the side of the parking lot until they were nearly within arm's length of the sidewalk. When the two vehicles stopped, they did so abruptly. There was a harsh Screech! that awoke both the children and adults out of their senses.

Jean glanced up, blinking behind her shades.

The sliding doors of the two vans opened swiftly. A total of a dozen strangers in black suits rushed out. They were carrying gray rifles of some sort……and they were heading straight for the playground.

Jean's jaw dropped.

ZAAAAAP!!

The first row of invaders fired. Bolts of blue electricity flew out and struck an adult standing up from the bench. She yelled out in pain and fell down to the grass, smoking.

Children shrieked.

Adults jumped up and gasped.

ZAAAAP!!!

ZAAAAP!!!!!

Electric streams flew rapidly. Two more adults fell. Children rolled to the ground, out cold. One bolt struck the jungle gym, and tiny bodies went flying hard into the mulch bed of the playground.

Jean dropped her book and flattened herself to the ground with a cry as the tasers went off without mercy. Blasts of blue fury danced all around the scene. Children ran everywhere, sobbing. Two youngsters shook their mother's body and cried for her to wake up.

And then the dozen strangers marched in through the mulch.

Jean gasped. She looked behind her and realized that her sisters were still in the sandbox. They hadn't been zapped. They froze in their spot, hugging each other and shivering as the strangers approached……and marched right up to them.

"Faye!!!" Jean exclaimed. "Fiona!!!"

"J.J.!!" they shrieked. They were yanked up and wrangled into vicious arm-holds and carted straight back towards the vans.

Jean grit her teeth. She got up to her feet and ran after the kidnappers. "NOOO!!!"

Two of the invaders spun around. They fired their tasers immediately.

ZAAAAAP!!!

ZAAP!!!

Jean gasped. Both bolts of blue struck her hard in the chest.

She flexed her arms up and shifted back a few feet…but amazingly, she was still standing. Unaffected.

ZAAAAP!!

Another blue stream flew.

Jean raised up a hand and shielded herself. The jolt caused her sunglasses to tumble off. She shook her head and frowned at the invaders with pink cat eyes of fury.

"You……leave…them…ALONE!!!" She raised two hands out and the earth started to rumble as her fingers glowed a bright pink. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHH!!!!"

The strangers in black wobbled on unsteady legs.

The two sisters clenched their eyes tight.

Overhead, a powerline shook and a telephone pole leaned over, cracking down the middle.

Jean unleashed her secret power. She flicked her wrists in the direction of the pole as her cat eyes glowed hotly. "HAAAA!!!!!!"

The wooden pole shattered and fell in a shower of splinters down at the attackers. A few of them tumbled hard to the ground, clutching broken limbs. Her two sisters were still in custody.

That's when a single stranger wandered around and sneaked up behind Jean. The person raised the butt of his taser rifle and smacked the girl's pink head of hair hard.

WHACK!!!

Jean grunted and fell forward. She looked up, her nose bleeding from the impact.

Fiona and Faye were being dragged into a black van through the sliding door. "J.J.!!!!" they sobbed.

Jean reached a hand out towards them. "Stop!!!!! Please!!!!"

The stranger behind the little girl recharged the taser, aimed at the back of her aching neck, and pulled the trigger.

_**FLASH!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx gasped and sat up straight in her berth on board the frigate. She sweated heavily. Her mouth hung open and she panted.

From the suspended cot's mattress, she saw nothing but a barren, metal room. Dull and lifeless.

Everything was bobbing.

On seas.

She looked down and saw herself dressed as she truly was. The Third Apprentice.

She ran a hand over her face, took a shuddering breath, and lay back down.

Silence…..

Then….her communicator squabbled.

"Apprentice…," Slade's voice said. "Come to the cabin. Dagger is here."

Jinx sighed. "Y-Yes, sir…."

A beat.

She pulled out the locket from the front of her outfit.

Clip!

She looked at the pictures of her two sisters. 'Fate' and 'Fortune' were their aliases now.

Now that H.I.V.E. still had them in custody in some secret, dark place since day one when all three of them were dragged away from their natural lives…

Jinx sighed.

Flip!

Snap!

She pocketed the locket away, swiveled her thin legs off of the cot, and jumped down to the floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When Jinx entered the dark cabin through the pressure hatch, she could see Dagger and Slade facing each other. The two criminals were much closer than she had ever seen them before. They seemed to have just finished talking about something, and now Dagger was handing Slade something.

A cylindrical remote.

"What's this?" Slade asked, glancing at the remote in his gloved hand through his mask.

"A failsafe," Dagger replied.

"A failsafe?"

Dagger nodded, twirling an ornamental knife through his fingers. "And if you had any sense left in you, Slade you would use it. It will stop him if there's no other option left."

"It will stop Wyldecarde?"

"The trigger on the remote sends a signal to the chip implanted in the boy's left arm. Immediately, a special toxin will be released into the bloodstream that—when carried to the heart—will cancel out all cardiac muscles. His circulatory system will fail, and in a matter of minutes his body and brain will lose the necessary amount of oxygen to function and he will perish."

Jinx cocked her head to the side, listening.

Slade lifted the device closer to his mask. He eyed it closely.

"But….," Dagger uttered.

Slade and Jinx looked at him.

The knife-twirling despot spoke: "It will only work if Wyldecarde gets within a radius of ten feet from the device. Thus, it is a failsafe. If you are to run into Wyldecarde in person…Slade…then and only then will you be allowed to exterminate him through the best devices I have available to offer you."

Slade's eye narrowed. "I would not have to resort to such tools of yours if you had been so merciful enough to eliminate the boy from the start!"

Dagger's unblinking eyes barely twinkled with a glint of scorn.

He leaned forward and spoke firmly to Slade: "In all of your motivational speeches of 'fate', in all of your endless chanting over the sacred absolution of the 'Experiment', in all of your grandiose and epic promises concering the 'Balance of Morals'…it is most surprising to me that your stamina and fervor has not been enough to eradicate Wyldecarde on your own. I provided the assistance from the beginning, Slade. I tampered with the data inside the Titan Tower's mainframe, I provided the system of events from Anderson to Viper as the perfect backdrop of this battleground of yours, and yet when it was your time to take stage—you failed. You failed miserably so. Now you are days past the scheduled implementation of your greatest dream, the Titans are still alive, and Wyldecarde is laughing at you. And in spite of all this, you have the gall to insult me as if the manifestation of your plans failed on account of my persistent diligence? Understand this, Slade, that I have no qualms about our meeting this morning being final and lacking of an encore."

With that, Dagger swiftly swiveled about on his heels and headed back towards the hatch/doorway of the dark cabin.

Slade spoke after him. "Is this an end to our partnership, my good friend?"

"It is the end of a disaster, 'friend'," Dagger spat. "Whatever the fate of your exploits may be from hereon out, I do not care. Just do your finest to not cross paths with mine."

Slade was silent.

He glanced over at Jinx. He slowly nodded his head.

Jinx nodded back. She frowned and raised two glowing hands of pink. She walked in front of the hatch/exit, blocking Dagger's path.

The man came to a stop.

"Seriously you did not believe that I can let someone with as much power over information and knowledge as you to walk away with having been extensively throughout my lair?"

"Amusing, Slade…," Dagger simply responded. "Now do me the favor of telling your little monkey here to move out of my way."

Jinx grit her teeth. Her eyes glowed pink.

"My apprentice has a greater grasp of cause-and-effect than you ever did, Dagger," Slade spoke. "While you're sitting behind your desk and forcing minions to alter data by code and keyboard or the transient ambiguity of bureaucracy, my loyal follower is out there in the field, bending reality to shape into my intentions through an unsettling force that neither one of us can describe. I would hate to see what her powers could do to your frail existence. Actually, on second thought, I would love to see what her powers can do."

"Is this a threat or a joke?"

"Both….'friend'."

A beat.

Dagger stared down at Jinx.

The sorceress grinned. She charged her pink hands brighter.

Without blinking, the crimelord spoke to her: "You must be very lonesome."

"Save it for a time when my Master does **not** want you torn apart, creep…," Jinx sneered.

"Such anger…," Dagger's eyes narrowed. "I suppose it does get so…entirely frustrating to look for sisters you can never find."

Jinx's eyes widened. The pink faded. "W-What??"

Slade immediately took a step forward. "Dagger….."

"All those years oppressed by H.I.V.E…," the knife-twirling despot continued, "…and now that you're on your own, you felt that you could scour the secrets of the hideous underworld and there Fate and Fortune would be. Like magic. Right before your eyes. But karma itself---as it ironically seems—let you down."

Jinx's lips parted. She stammered: "What…d-do you know??"

"Dagger," Slade had crossed the distance and had his hand firmly placed on the criminal's shoulder. He insisted in a strangely hushed voice: "I think it is now time for you to leave us peacefully…."

Dagger glanced an eye back behind his shoulder.

Jixn—mouth wide—stared at Dagger, at Slade, and back at Dagger again.

The knife twirled to a stop. The man nodded. "I was hoping you'd say that. Farewell." He marched out through the hatch and was gone.

Jinx trembled. She gulped and looked anxiously up at Slade. "Wh-What did he mean by saying all that?? D-Does he know where my sisters are?!?! H-Have you two b-been working on it?"

"Dear child…," Slade sighed. He reached a hand over and patted her pink hair. "Your sisters are a mystery that is gradually being solved each day. I promised you from the very beginning that I would find them wherever they are. And I am still sticking to that. And I am still working on it."

"But…B-B-But the things Dagger s-said…"

"He is a manipulative man with no respect….and certainly no redemption. You know that very well, Apprentice. After all the times I have warned you."

Jinx sighed. She stared down at the floor of the cabin and slowly nodded her head.

Slade held the cylindrical trigger up. He looked at it a little bit, then pocketed it away. He turned around and faced the distant, circular window before the mysterious frigate's bow.

"I have come to realize—Apprentice—that it is most difficult to stamp out a ghost. Especially one with the fervor and resolve strong enough to match mine. Perhaps…I have focused too much on stifling our little adversary. After all, his despair is enough to consume him all by itself. For us to intervene only distracts him from running himself into the proverbial ground of reality. And that reality is that he is alone. He is truly, disastrously alone. Our conflict with him has distracted him from that. To heckle him anymore would be to add fuel to the fiery limbo which prevents us from reaching our goal."

Jinx nodded listlessly. Her head was in another time and place. Regardless, she looked up and tried to pay more attention as her Master went on:

"Regardless…it is in our best interest to hold Wyldecarde back. Even if it's prudent that our focus shift back to the Titans themselves. Dagger—in his parting words—has given me the final key in eliminating Wyldecarde. I now realize how foolish I was to ever believe in that fool's potential threat to our resolve. The fragility of his life…of his quest to save that which is beyond salvation…is all the more clear to me now."

Slade walked over towards the windows and looked out with his arms folded behind him.

"Tonight….tonight is a night of celebration. The anniversary of the founding of a political empire that still persists blindly in our midst. Tonight is the celebration of a society's freedom from invisible monsters of an Ancien Regime and theocratic ideology. People will be parading the streets…setting the streets and skies on fire…reveling in something they hold blind trust in. Among them will be the Titans—unknowing of the struggle of our resolve or the sufferings of their former teammate. Already, I can sense our strong grasp of their consciousnesses weakening. Lessening. Being replaced with a waking doubt as to the way Fate has treated them over the past weeks. Our chance to strike deep into their hearts and lure them into our clutches is fading. At the same time, our reserve of carbonite is running low. In essence, everything hinges more or less on one last pull. One last cast of our line into the pool of reality in hope of catching the biggest fish of all. The competition is fierce…and he will rather die then see us win over his former teammates. We have no choice but to keep on hunting. In the meantime…we could give him much bigger fish to tackle with."

He slowly turned around and faced Jinx. "Apprentice…"

"Y-Yes, sir?"

"I need you to pay someone a visit…"

She gulped. "W-Wyldecarde?"

He slowly shook his head. "Not this time, Jinx. I will not force you to take him on alone again."

"Then who do you want me to see?"

"Who….what….there's no exact way to pinpoint it…," Slade uttered. "Rest assured. You will not be alone in the field on July Fourth."

She smiled at that. "J-Just tell me what I need to do, Master."

"I need you to make a trip to Prison…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City was basking in the glow of red, white, and blue passion. Flags unfurled from every other apartment window located on the bottom three stories or the very top ones where the wind was strongest. City organizers filed to and fro in luxury cars, delivering the last messages to directors in charge of the parades, confetti, and—most of all—the Independence Fireworks Show.

By late morning, crowds were already gathering in the streets of Downtown to view the July Fourth Parade that was to proceed down the avenues, complete with floats and marching bands and the City's greatest celebrities. Radio stations sent vans full of DJs and representatives to cover the event and add to the festivities. In the City Park, tents were set up with arts and crafts and simple games put together by the local populace, visiting from the countryside on that most festive of days.

In the Bayside Plaza, a stage had once again been erected for a famous band or two to play hit singles from the radio. Minutes later, the crowds would all surge to the beach facing into the Bay. The floating platform of cannons would launch the greatest splash of fireworks in the region.

A fine tradition. And as its construction went into high gear for that afternoon and evening, all fears of terrorism gradually dwindled.

Gradually…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stood in front of Beast Boy, Raven, and Starfire in the Main Room of the Tower.

"There's been a pattern emerging. I didn't think much of it at first, because there was no ounce of conviction in my heart that could possibly have supported Noir's actions. But the first time I noticed the pattern was at the freighter. We had just come across what looked like a deadly aftermath of a battle on board the ship. There were scorch marks everywhere. The carbonite explosive was missing from its shell. My R-Cycle was blown to pieces. Beast Boy thought it was all 'good karma' for us…since we were not the brunt of Slade's ambushes that time. It was a little hard for me to believe that at the time—because we were attacked so viciously by Wyldecarde and all. But then later—after the explosion at Phaser Labs—Cyborg and I were forced to a stop when the T-Car's tires suffered the punishment of Wyldecarde's playing card, and the only thing on our mind was how much Wyldecarde was kicking our asses, not Slade. And just last night after all five of us took Wyldecarde on--only for him to chase every single one of us out of the building before it blew up--the pattern reappeared. The reason why Slade's attempts to finish us off has been awkward and unsuccessful—I believe—is that Wyldecarde isn't trying to help him at all. In fact, Wyldecarde is most likely working against Slade…and Slade isn't willing to admit the conflict between the two for some reason. What's more…in foiling Slade's attempts to destroy us or lure us into a deathtrap, Wyldecarde is…….well….more or less saving our butts."

A beat.

The Titans were silent.

Beast Boy hunched over, his hair in his hands.

Starfire bit her lip.

Raven looked off out the window.

Robin took a breath and continued: "Think of this scenario. You are a new member of an elite team of freedom fighters. You keep your past a mystery from others for reasons only you know. Ironically, your joining of this team is identical to a new member of the past. A member of the past…..who spelled disaster for your new teammates in days gone. Now pretend that a series of events take place that remind your teammates of the treachery done before you arrived. Would you not feel it difficult to convince your companions of a truth they may readily deny in favor of finding a pattern of reborn evil in you?"

Further silence.

"Wh-What are you getting at, Robin?" Beast Boy muttered.

Robin clinched his fists through his gloves and sighed. "I think….I-I think that some sort of bad karma…some sort of chain reaction of events….some sort of order of cause and effects has triggered among each of us an epiphany of paranoia, panic, and distrust. I think it's very probable that….th-that we have overreacted to a mysterious stimulus. A stimulus made up of the conglomeration of falsified information, negative happenstance, and improbable coincidences that have forced us to…t-to make Noir what he is now."

"You mean…he's not Wyldecarde of his own choosing?" Raven remarked.

Robin stared at her. "You said it better than I ever could."

She blushed slightly and looked back out the window.

Silence.

"Friends….h-have we done a terrible thing?" Starfire stammered.

"I dunno…," Beast Boy muttered. He looked up. "But think about it!! We found transmissions between Noir and Slade!! Slade addressed Noir as his 'apprentice'!! Wyldecarde was even broadcasted across cable t.v., delivering Slade's threats about Phaser Labs!"

"And then when we encountered the carbonite explosive of Slade's…," Starfire added. "Wyldecarde was there to attack us!"

"Everywhere Slade has had a hand in things…Wyldecarde was there!"

Robin nodded. "That's very true." He lifted a finger and then said: "But in that is where another pattern lies. And I think that pattern is most accurately summed up in saying that 'everywhere Wyldecarde's been, Slade has had his hand in'."

A beat.

"Huh???" Beast Boy cackled.

"The only reason why Wyldecarde is evil to begin with is because Slade's somehow 'involved'," Robin exclaimed. "And the only reason we find that treacherous is Slade's presence to begin with. Now….what if that 'presence' was merely **implied**??"

"Meaning….," drone Raven.

"A fabrication. A lie. A ruse."

"To what purpose??" Starfire remarked.

"Yeah!!" Beast Boy shrugged. "What for?"

Robin stared. "To get us to hate Noir to begin with."

Beast Boy blinked.

Starfire brought a hand to her lips. "You mean….it is possible that—"

"Noir is innocent," Robin blurted. "And if my assumption is right, he always was."

"Then why is he attacking us?!?!" Beast Boy remarked, standing up and gesturing wildly. "If he's as much a goody-goody as he's always been, why's he been giving us bruises all over?! It's insane!!"

"No, Beast Boy," Robin shook his head. "It's not insanity. It's ignorance. **Our** ignorance." He looked at everyone as he gestured and said: "We've been so wrapped up in our own suffering…in our own history of pain…in the tragedy of Terra and what she did to us. We've been so…so absorbed in that feeling of betrayal and deceipt…we were too afraid to look up to some dark, desperate truth. And I believe the victim of our arrogance—Noir—is aware of that truth. And since we won't listen to him in any other way…."

"He has been playing the part of the villain…," Starfire gasped. "He has been deceiving us even more."

"Because ignorance is bliss…," Raven mumbled.

The others looked at her.

She slowly glanced back. "We banished Noir, remember? If he is still—in theory—the virtuous boy we all once believed he was, then his only incentive is to let us have our way. And if he could, he'd protect us in the meantime."

"By beating us up?!?!" Beast Boy again cackled.

"That's what I did when I was coerced by Slade," Robin said bluntly.

Starfire swallowed a painful lump down her throat.

Beast Boy blinked. "But…b-b-but…Terra!! When she kicked our asses, she meant it!!"

"Did she in the end?" Raven remarked. "If I remember right…even she was wise enough to counteract the exploitation of her powers by Slade. She gave her last recorded breath in the effort of saving us."

Beast Boy's lip quivered. "But….that…..this….th-th-this is insane!!" He pulled at his hair and once again slumped to his seat. "He's had to have been a bad guy all this time!! It's not like us to totally disregard his role in all of this insanity and kick him mercilessly out of our circle of friendship!!…………….i-is it??"

Starfire lowered her eyes. "It would appear so…"

"No way….," Beast Boy shook his head. "No way. I can't believe it. I won't believe it!"

"Believe it," Raven spat.

Beast Boy was silent. He almost bit his nails.

Robin shuffled over and sat in a chair opposite of the others on the sofa.

A beat.

"What Terra did to us…it was unforgivable. It was treacherous. It was without any room for redemption or sympathy. And yet…when she turned around in the very end…and suffered the fate that she did….who now among us would turn her down a roof to live under or a bowl to eat from if she was to magically crawl up our front steps and beg for acknowledgement?"

"But….N-Noir….he's different…..he's……..," Beast Boy trailed off.

"Is he??" Starfire remarked.

The others looked at her.

She looked at each and every one of them with sad, rounded eyes of green. "It was not very long ago that I went out with Noir on an excursion through Town. We stopped by a place where the memories of the dead are honored. It so happened that the reception that very evening was for a deceased person Noir once knew before he joined our ranks. He was moved to tears in front of me. I realized he was still very sad and regretful for the part he inadvertently played in Trigon's manifestation outside of Raven's body. So I solaced him with what—at the time—I believed to be the fervent truth. I informed him that he was an avid partaker in the saving of citizens everywhere as well as each and everyone of the Titans themselves. I told him…I told him that he had received our forgiveness for whatever transgressions Trigon made him commit. And he was relieved emotionally to hear that. But just days after that…wh-when the results of a secret search into Noir's supposed treachery turned up positive, it was not the foremost desire in my mind to question such 'evidence'. But rather I fell upon the instinct to condemn Noir upon the spot. I-I believe I was not alone in such an act…."

The other Titans nodded silently. They gazed away from each other.

Starfire added: "As far as I am concerned, I am horrified at the prospect of my own actions. I was impulsive and emotionally charged. Worst of all, I was a hypocrite. I am the lowliest of everyone in this room in such regards."

"You may not be so alone, Starfire…," Robin said. He leaned forward from across the way. "If this is all true…if Noir is innocent…then we're all guilty. Because we all betrayed a Titan. Ourselves. Out of paranoia. Out of pain. And worst of all…out of pride."

"It is my fault….," Raven uttered. "If I wasn't so quick to follow my meager premonitions so soon after my emotions recovered from the magical camera…."

Robin looked up. He sighed. "Raven, now please—"

"I'm serious!" she exclaimed with a glare. "I can't believe I was so foolish that…..I-I almost listened to what my father said." She hugged the cape around herself, trembled suddenly in some betraying fashion, and looked away.

"Raven??" Beast Boy breathed, concerned. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"B-Barely….," she admitted in a low voice. She looked back at the other Titans. Her face was deadpan. "He almost got loose again…."

"Who?" Robin asked.

"Your father?" Starfire remarked.

Raven slowly nodded. "Sometime in the battle with Wyldecarde last night. Trigon almost made it out in a rupture of rage and fury. I-I think it happened at the one point when I fell unconscious."

"You told us you woke up on the rooftop across from the imploding building," Robin said.

"Wyldecarde must have relocated you somehow…," Stafire remarked.

Raven looked off into space again.

At that moment, the elevator doors opened and Cyborg marched solemnly into the room.

"Hey…," Robin simply uttered. "What did you find?"

Cyborg sighed heavily. He dropped a computer pad with a CLANK! onto the table between the seats and slumped back down in a lonely love seat.

"See for yourself…," he breathed.

Beast Boy and Starfire leaned in. Raven looked over their shoulders from her remote location as they all read the schematics.

"I was running a scan for certain properties common in the old transmissions between Noir and Slade," the android explained for them. "Robin didn't even need to suggest it to me. I found exactly what we're all probably looking for."

Starfire looked up. "These strings of data….they are somehow familiar."

"They should be…," Cyborg nodded. "We've found them in our computer data base before when the Tower had been hacked into."

"You mean….wh-when Terra sent her transmissions and lowered the security system?" Beast Boy remarked.

Cyborg shook his head. "No….more like when my Uncle Simon was here and working for Anderson."

"They're identical….," Raven admitted. She looked over at Cyborg. "Noir's 'transmissions' have the very same technique of computer hacking that appeared during Stone's access to our system."

"And if Anderson had a hand in the hacking then…and he is dead now….," Starfire spoke, "….then that means we may be looking at—"

"Dagger," Cyborg spat.

Beast Boy gulped.

Starfire gently set the computer pad down and folded her hands in her lap.

Raven exhaled.

"For all we know….Noir may or may not have had transmissions," Cyborg said. "But the truth of their subject matter and who they were addressed to is now up to conjecture. The same computer hacking force prevalent when my Uncle was here was also there to mess with Noir's computer usage. The Tower's memory banks have been lying to us. Our core piece of evidence in suspecting Noir of his planned betrayal is now negligible. In all terms of practicality, we should be back to square one in convicting Wyldecarde."

"But we're not at Square One…," Raven droned. "Are we?"

Cyborg shook his head.

Robin leaned forward, sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose below his mask with two gloved fingers. "Well….," he said. "This development couldn't come at a worse time. Just twenty-five minutes ago, I got a call directly from Commissioner Decker." He looked up at the Titans and spoke firmly: "He wants us there for the July Fourth festivities. And when he says 'there', he means 'everywhere'. The parade. The park. The fireworks show. All over the place. He doesn't want to take any chances, especially with Slade's threats as of late. We need to give all our all tonight to ensure the safety of the people. Chasing down Slade, Dagger, or Wyldecarde can wait. Let's just get through this evening. Let's just survive and then think of what to do from there. Sure, there may be some sort of frightening and ambiguous 'Experiment' or 'Balance of Morals' looming over our heads in pure, conspiratorial fashion…but it is not our place to act upon supposition when there are ordinary citizens to be looking after."

"And what if we run into Wyldecarde?" Starfire exclaimed. "Do we engage in battle with him?"

"More than likely he'll attack us!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I mean…th-that seems to have been the pattern as of late."

Robin took a deep breath: "If any one of us…any one…runs into Wyldecarde………" A pause. He finally gave in: "Then ask questions first."

"Shoot later?" Raven remarked with an eyebrow.

"I prefer we don't 'shoot' at all. At this point, it's only fair we….g-give Wyldecarde……………..give Noir the shadow of a doubt. Maybe if we don't react to him as we have in the last few days—"

"You mean ass kicking?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded. "We might break the cycle if we're peaceful. If we hold back. If we give him a chance to say something…."

"Heh…," Beast Boy folded his arms and rolled his eyes. "Fat chance of **that** happening!"

"You know what I mean," the Boy Wonder emphasized. "As much as he may not try to admit it…Noir isn't lashing out, he's reaching out. He's trying to save us in what he's doing. Much like I was forced to once."

"It is all so very confusing," Starfire said. "I wonder if he would be willing to explain it all to us?"

"Would he even be willing to talk to us, period?" Raven added.

Starfire bit her lip.

Beast Boy looked depressed.

Cyborg stood up. "Well…nothing'll get done if we sit here feeling sorry for him and ourselves. Let's get going, shall we?"

"Why such a hurry?" Beast Boy remarked, eyebrow raised.

Cyborg managed the first smile in a while. "Because I freakin' love July Fourth, that's why, little man!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the afternoon drew into fruition and the festivities readied themselves for a gala occasion, the Sun began its gradual tilt towards the horizon. It was a very exotic sky. The approach of thundercloud cells in the distance stretched high and gathered the first of the falling Sun's slanted rays. Meteorologists all over the News predicted that the summer rains and thunder would come well after the July Fourth celebration and the fireworks—most of all. But the presence of the gray, Sunlit clouds could not be denied. They loomed on the approaching horizon like some dark prophecy untold. The clear sky between them and the East turned a haunting orange hue. Like a dying flame running out of ashes. Dry and sparkling with the vain joy of driveway fireworks that were now being set off all across the streets in front of apartments of families doing their last-minute shopping for Chinese explosives.

The sidewalks of the main streets of Downtown were filled to the brim with spectators, families, parents with daughters or sons sitting on their shoulders and holding sparklers. People with camcorders, people with umbrellas, people with coolers full of drinks and sandwiches and electric fans. The streets were buzzing with chatter, laughter, fish stories and patriotic stories and the occasional grumble in between.

Far away in the dark alleys where the ambiance drifted and dripped into lonely puddles, the orange-amber of the sky softened into burgundy silence. In one such shadow sat I, curled against the wall, struggling once again as I had so many hours—back to back—that day with memories I did not want to harbor any longer.

_WHACK!!!_

Starfire flew off from my kick and sailed—shrieking—out into the open air beyond the scraper.

I flinched. My black eyes clenched shut, free of the goggles. I gripped my head hard and shook it.

_CRACK!!!_

Splinters flew.

Beast Boy frowned at me with a bleeding nose.

I bit my lip.

Tears welled up in the corners of my eyelids.

_Cyborg's hand exploded._

His face gasped in horror as I sent him tumbling overboard with the crane.

CRASH!!

I rocked back and forth.

I wheezed.

My lips opened and a shuddering breath came out.

_Raven's body lay in my arms._

She was so still and unconscious.

Almost like she was dead.

I hyperventilated.

I shook my head.

A lump of pain formed in my throat.

_"I hate you, Noir…," Robin uttered._

His face was wounded.

The leader was stripped of dignity.

I swung Myrkblade at him.

SLASH!!

I gasped wide, hyperventilated, and shook my head. Teardrops flew.

I took a deep breath, wiped my face, and leaned back with my wounded body against the wall. I strained for a clean inhale…but could salvage none.

"I'm not much of a card player….b-but…."

I gasped.

I looked up with round black eyes.

The Messenger stood at the end of the alley, he was leaning against the wall and his face looked exhausted. "….y-you look like you're at the bottom of the deck."

I sniffed. I blinked.

He stared at me with tired, almond eyes. As if in some form or another, he shared my anguish. I knew he couldn't…and yet….I knew he could all the same.

Regardless, he was there. And I was there.

And somehow…that brought order to chaos.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat, shirtless, with my feet dangling over the buildingside above the alleyway. Behind me, the Messenger stood and wrapped a series of white bandages tight around my chest and backside. The three scratches from a green animorph disappeared under the gauze. My mysterious friend had brought a first-aid kit with him. He was resourceful.

My face and black eyes were blank as I stared into the winds of the coming cold front filtering down the alleyway with the amber glow.

"Maybe it'll sound like cheating……but…..I-I've been searching for the answer myself…," he said slowly while fitting the bandage on. "Just what **is** the sound of one hand clapping?"

I didn't respond. I just sat there as he patched me up.

"If you think I knew the answer to that question when I asked it of you way back when, what would be the whole point in raising it to begin with?" he uttered.

I sighed.

"…..," he went on. "Could it possibly mean the sound of someone banging against some….sort of….m-metaphoric wall? Like a figurative translation of frustration?"

Silence.

"Or….," he pulled the bandage tight and fastened it to the rest of the gauze. "….maybe it means the lonely fight of one diligent soul in the darkness. Clapping on his very own, ya know?"

I took a deep breath.

Silence…

He sat back and handed me back the top metal-mesh of my outfit. "Either possibility could apply. Whether or not it could be the answer, I dunno. What I do know is that you're full of despair right now, Noir. And that's a rather unfortunate thing."

I quietly slipped the outfit over my head and tightened the metal strips. My black eyes were thin and tired.

"Well…after all…," he leaned back against an a/c unit in the rooftop and spoke casually: "…you are in a limbo. You're in a perpetual state of equality with your adversaries. No matter how hard you fight, Jinx and Slade fight back just the same. You have foes out there on a parallel rung of the celestial ladder. Every time you try and save your best friends, Slade and Company do something of equal and opposite reaction to repel your attempts. In the end…the Titans are equally in danger and equally safe. And things stay that way until either you or Jinx and Slade bite the dust. And as is obvious…Slade's group has the majority of resources."

I blinked. I stared down at the alleyway.

"Sounds very Newtonian, huh? Action and reaction? Dichotomies canceling each other out?" He crawled over and sat on the edge of the building side next to me. "But what about Einstein? He took Newton to school, didn't he? What if there was something you're doing that could curve the perception of reality in this figurative model of ours and make the idea of one hand clapping worthwhile?"

I looked away from him. I sighed again.

His Asian eyes blinked. He leaned forward. "Noir…"

I looked at him.

He smiled. "Remember back when I asked you if you believed in something like a God?"

I nodded.

"You shook your head, right?"

I nodded again.

"Still shaking your head?"

I was still.

"Heheheheh," he stared up at the July Fourth sky. "For once, I think I have you baffled!"

I glared at him.

"No really. Look at yourself! Beaten to bejesus and back! And yet…you're not half as miserable as you look!" He thinned his eyes and gave a thumb's up. "You're A-Okay in my book, Noir. Ya know why? Cuz you have faith in stupid things. And one of the stupid things is what I told you before you started this whacked out Wyldecarde stuff. Friends are all that matter. And you have a moral edge over Slade by sticking on your friends' side throughout this. You both may be in limbo; Slade and you. But you're fighting for the righteous side. You're fighting for the side that matters. And no matter what existentialists and other liberal-minded philosophers in this world think, I'm convinced of one thing. As long as you're on the side of Virtue, there is a chance to bend reality, break the limbo, and come out victorious by doing the very same thing that you've been doing all along. And….guess what, Noir?"

I raised and eyebrow.

He winked. "Slade hasn't tipped the Balance of Morals yet. The Experiment is still—and has always been—in yours and the Titans' favor."

I looked off into space. Thinking….

"Slade…..heh….he makes me laugh," the Messenger honestly confessed. "He thinks he knows everything about the fabric of the universe. I've been to many universes." He leaned back against the rooftop and stared straight up with his hands behind his back. "I know what it's like to see the laws of reality, the balances of morals, and the structure of structures themselves change and switch on the fly. It's not so much that everything's relative, but rather that relativity's everything. Even in one universe alone—this one for example—things are so complex and so perceivably different and yet so perceivably the same from different angles of the playing field. My universe feels so stiff and dull in comparison. I'm rather envious, Noir."

I gave him a doubting look.

"For one thing," he winked. "The general population of females in this dimension is eleven percent more likely to produce Gwen Stefani look-a-likes than approximately thirty other realities I've been to."

I couldn't help it. I chuckled breathily.

"Heheheheheheheh!!" he seemed tickled pink. "You KNOWWWW what I come to this dimension to do!!"

I shook my head.

He chuckled some more, sat up, and took a deep, grinning breath. A beat. He looked at me with an added layer of solemnity over his lingering smile: "I wish….so very much…that I could help you out more, Noir."

I slowly nodded.

"But…alas….," he motioned to the clunky metal watch on his arm. "My time here is always limited…and always fragile. I'm here and I'm gone again. I'd help you kick ass…but all I can afford to do is be my same old quasi-informative, mysterious, and fairly androgynous self whenever I'm called upon to give you a hand."

I looked at him.

He blinked. "You've found….a chip inside you, haven't you?"

I bit my lip and subconsciously clutched my left forearm. I slowly nodded.

He glanced at my limb. Slowly he said: "All I know….all I could possibly know…is exactly the same that you do, Noir. The chip is Slade's doing. Or—at least—he had a part in it. You know more about your past than you're ever willing to tell anyone. Heck, you probably know it all but just don't let on about it."

I had no expression in response to that.

The Messenger went on: "I have no idea what it's for. Obviously he tracks you with it. And that may be your most important piece of revelation yet."

I cocked my head to the side in curiosity.

"If he can track you with that thing….," the Messenger uttered, "…who's to say you can't track him back with it?"

I blinked.

He raised a finger. "But…it isn't exactly that simple. You'll need a spring board to find out whatever signal that thing operates on. And I suspect such an item of assistance would be another piece of technology. Something else that Dagger may be linked to, but not have such a firm hand in. Something that could have been used in at least close conjunction with the technology of the chip itself. Something just as equally integral to his, Slade's, and Jinx's quest to accomplish the Experiment. Find that link, and you may find the key to hijacking the return signal of the chip. And you may find Dagger. If ever you're that lucky….well….then it'll all be up to you. Cuz I frankly have no damn clue what to do if I was to meet Dagger. But it's going somewhere at least….right?"

I looked at my arm. I nodded listlessly.

Suddenly, the Messenger flickered green. The both of us looked at his watch. It started sparking as if it was made to do so.

He looked up at me with his brown eyes and green-tipped hair twitching in the breeze. "Well…," he uttered. "Good luck, Noir. If you start tearing some ass…save me a piece for a souvenir, kay?"

And he disappeared in a final flicker of green.

I was alone.

I glanced back at my arm.

My mind wandered.

And the first thing that came to my mind was like a thundering epiphany.

I leaned back...staring up at the amber sky.

_Jinx…………_

My black eyes squinted.

_Her earpiece……the one she communicates with……_

My lips parted slightly.

_If she uses that to communicate with Slade……maybe Dagger could be reached on a slightly different frequency. And if so……_

I gasped.

_I have my link!_

I jumped up, slipped on my belt, and fastened it. I pulled out my goggles and slipped them over my eyes. Finally, while fastening my metal-laced bandanna, I thought to myself…

_Find Jinx. Grab the communicator. Hunt down Dagger._

A beat.

_And then on to Slade……  
_  
But geared up as I was with my equipment and Myrkblade and all…I couldn't help but face the orange obscurity of that July Fourth. I know the saying is that 'red at night, sailor's delight'. But I couldn't shake the fact that—as frighteningly exotic the weather felt and looked—something was looming over the horizon. Whether it be apocalypse or someone's forgotten birthday, I don't know. It sorta felt like something right in between. It chilled me to the bone and started my feet moving so that sooner than naught, I blurred down the alleyway and zoomed through the streets.

I was on a witchhunt.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!!!

SKREEEEEEE-POP!!!!

Kids cheered and danced around on a sidewalk as another bottle rocket flew up.

Cyborg cruised by in the T-Car. Raven sat in the passenger's seat.

Evening was falling, and as the sky turned to a dark orange aura from fireworks glowing all across town, the flanks of the street shined in the strobe of multiple sparklers and waving flags of red white and blue and camera flashes.

"I hate celebrations…..," Raven mumbled.

"Relax…," Cyborg said, gripping the wheel. "Take it easy and enjoy the view. Cuz if Slade pops up somewhere, there's gonna be no time for us to take this day at leisure."

"We have a City wracked with terrorism, hundreds of patriotic citizens obliviously thrown into ecstasy all around us, and the ever-so-weighing guilt of a banished former team member on our hands. What's there to be leisurely about."

"Uhhhhh," Cyborg sweatdropped. "Th-They're handing out free hot dogs in the park?"

Raven stared at him.

"Ahem…," he cleared his throat and whimpered. "I miss Noir too…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Blocks away, Starfire and Beast Boy floated from building top to building top. They patrolled just above the roadway where the parade of floats, marching bands, and celebrity cavalcades was about to begin.

"So…like….what do we say if we see him?" Beast Boy uttered, keeping up with Starfire. "Look, Noir, sorry for kicking your ass out of the Tower and abandoning you like pure, tyrannical morons….wanna come back and talk sports?"

"I seriously doubt he is interested in discussing recreational activities at a moment such as this."

"Come onnnn, Star!" Beast Boy uttered with a shrug. "I was only joking."

Starfire paused. She turned around and looked at him….blinking.

"Are you feeling bad, Beast Boy?"

"About what?"

"About wishing Noir to perish?" she inquired with a cock of her head.

"Huh??" Beast Boy did a double-take. "Hey, I didn't---"

She stared at him.

He sighed and looked down at the rooftop. "Okay…so maybe I did. I got angry. We all did."

"That is true," she nodded. "And unfortunate." She flew off.

Beast Boy blinked. "Sheesh…why do nice girls have to be so bloody honest?"

He hopped after her as they continued their patrol.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin perched on the top of the theatre at the Bayside plaza. His cape billowed in a gust of cold wind. Dark clouds came closer over the horizon. Besides that, things were in full swing with the Independence Fireworks Show. A huge crowd had gathered before the makeshift stage. Throngs of people chattered and cheered as a popular band made their appearance and a famous rock song sounded off through the mega speakers.

Robin scanned the horizon through his eyemask. He sighed.

"I almost want him to show up…."

He shot out a grappling hook…and swung to a higher vantage point.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in the streets, the T-Car ambled along.

From a dark alleyway, the crowd could be seen gathering around the parade route, waving sparklers and cheering.

As the blue and white car of titanium passed by, two ovals flickered in the darkness…reflecting the sparklers. I quietly leaned forward and stared out from the shadows. Obviously…I was not the only vigilante out that evening.

I looked up the alleyway wall. I took a breath, blurred up it with murk, and rounded onto the roof. I swiftly crept along the rooftop in a crouch. I kept myself parallel to the position and speed of the T-Car.

If Jinx was to show up somewhere…it'd be where her Master was most likely fishing. And the bait was not too far off…

I slinked along, pausing when the T-Car paused, jumping across alleyways when the T-Car throttled along, avoiding the gaze of the vehicle and the throngs of celebrating people below. The street glowed with gold from all the sparklers. Every now and then, a bottle rocket shot up and exploded with shrieking glory. One or two nearly even hit me as I jumped from building to building and blurred out of danger.

I was aware of two shadows rushing over me.

I glanced up.

My black eyes widened under my goggles and I gasped. In an instant, I went into stealth mode and blended in with the texture of the rooftop as Starfire and Beast Boy soared overhead. I could practically feel the glow of Starfire's eyes and smell B.B.'s cologne as they passed within an arm's distance. Once they were gone, I agonizingly came out of my stealth mode, twirled about, and scrunched to the rooftop floor with my back against an a/c unit.

I panted momentarily, wiped my brow, and decided to continue along.

Though….I took it much more slowly this time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swung down to where the parade was starting. Confetti of red, white, and blue fluttered down from rows of windows and formed black silhouettes against the amber-lit sky. Three local high schools contributed to the blaring horn sections preceding a series of floats depicting Washington Crossing the Delaware, Betsy Ross and the first flag, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The high school bands thundered forth rough approximations of 'Yankee Doodle Dandy', 'God Bless America', and 'Hail to the Chief'.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. He had been the watchful eye over parades before. Back in the days of Gotham City, no public event was ever safe. It was amazing such a city kept its culture in tact with all the threatening psychopaths running amok. In theory, this July Fourth was to be a cakewalk.

But it didn't feel like one…

Robin sighed and swung to a rooftop on the other way to continue his surveillance.

He was unfortunately oblivious to a slight touch of pink glow on the other side of the block. An agile shadow blurred in and out of view from the rooftops in a pink strobe…and was gone again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy yawned. He and Starfire perched lackadaisically on the window sill of a hotel building overlooking the parade.

Starfire couldn't help but smile and exclaim over the noise and fanfare: "This is a remarkable occasion. Is it a celebration of the beginning of the world?"

"Almost," Beast Boy blinked. "Beginning of America."

"Ohhhhh….America." A beat. The Tamaranian's eyelashes fluttered. "Where is that, Beast Boy?"

"…………………."

There was a flash of pink overhead. Three flashes of pink, actually.

Starfire glanced up. "Huh???"

Beast Boy looked. "Hmm….WHOAH!!!"

Three heavy, metal flagpoles…which were jutting out of the building up on the tenth floor…were now sailing down heavily past the Titans and towards the sidewalks full of people below. They were like silver comets with tails of red, white, and blue.

"Think fast!!" Beast Boy exclaimed. He dove after one of the flagpoles, fell past it, landed on the street in the form of an elephant, and reached a green trunk out over a gasping crowd to snatch one of the flagpoles in mid-air.

In the meantime, Starfire flew after another flagpole, gripped it, and used her alien strength to lift it up and away from its arc of descent. Her eyes glowed as she tossed it harmlessly into the middle of the street. "RrrrrRRAAUGH!!!" CLANK!!! She looked over. She gasped.

A third flagpole was falling and about to crush the heads of two families of onlookers.

"Beast Boy!! Behind you!!"

Beast Boy turned and looked. He turned into elf form and ran into action.

But both Titans were too far away. And there were only two of them.

The last flagpole sailed upon the innocent skulls of the victims.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Something black and brown blurred over, jumped, and---

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!

The flagpole was ripped into ribbons and tossed piece-by-piece out into the middle of the street and safely away from the bystanders.

People gasped and covered their heads instinctively as the last piece was shredded away.

I drifted to the ground on a plume of smoke, the flag preserved and draped over my arm. I handed the stars and stripes to a random civilian who took it in bewildered hands. Everyone around him took one look at me, gasped, and backed off in fear.

I took a deep breath and looked up. There was a shadowed figure against the horizon of the building tops. Petite, catlike, and laced with a pink aura.

My fingers tightened around Myrkblade.

"Noir!!!"

That wasn't a name I heard in a while. At least not in that voice. I glanced behind my shoulder through my goggles momentarily.

Starfire and Beast Boy were running towards me. The Tamaranian was gasping and had her hand outstretched.

"Y-You are here!! Please, could you—"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I leapt over the flinching crowd, blurred up the buildingside, and chased after the disappearing figure.

"Noir!! Wait!!" Starfire was about to fly up. "We just desire to converse with you---"

Beast Boy held her down with a hand on her shoulder. "Let him go, Star."

"But---!"

"We've got a duty to do **here**," the changeling said. "Robin, the City, the people…they're all counting on us."

"Noir is obviously not a villain!!" Starfire exclaimed. "You saw how he just saved the people!! He could be of assistance to us!!" Beast Boy slowly shook his head.

"No, Star. I wish he could, but he can't. It doesn't take a genius to tell he's not ready to help us out…….or simply t-trust us."

Starfire looked down, sighed, and uttered. "You are right. Let us continue our patrol before more flagpoles fall for no apparent reason."

"Yeah…..," Beast Boy scratched his head and looked up at the top of the hotel. "What's up with that anyways?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I chased Jinx across rooftops, gritting my teeth and blurring as fast as I could.

She hopped, skipped, and jumped from building to building to telephone wire to lamppost to building again and so on.

She was a dark figure of intermittent pink beneath an amber sky full of the smoke of domestic fireworks and the rise and fall (but mostly fall) of confetti from the building tops around us. Searchlights danced up in the background where Bayside Plaza stretched. And beyond that was the Bay with the grandstands erected momentarily on the beach to house viewers of the Independence Fireworks Show. In less than an hour, the skies would be on fire.

So people may have seen my heroism with the flagpole. I didn't care. I didn't care what my image was anymore. Everything in my system was honed in on one act and one act alone. Catching up to Jinx and yanking one of those communicators out of her ears.

It was almost like Jinx knew of my singular desire, for she hopped, evaded, and blurred along with wild abandon. And yet, she was moving slowly enough—giggling—to taunt me and torture me.

I was not in the mood for it.

I dragged Myrkblade alongside me and pursued her quicker and quicker.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A light blinked on the computer console of the T-Car.

Cyborg glanced at it…then at Raven.

The girl paused for a second before opening the computer console and performing a keystroke. Data splashed across a miniature computer screen.

Raven's blue eyes narrowed.

"We're detecting some residual carbonite."

"Where??"

"Somewhere in the City."

"Pfft!! That helps!"

"Hold on…," Raven typed some more and brought up more specific information. "Somewhere in this district. It's hard to tell with all the chaos happening where the carbonite emissions are coming from."

Cyborg looked out the windows…at all the waving, sparkling crowds waiting for the parade to pass.

"Not a pleasant time or place for a bomb to show up…."

"I'll run a scan using the T-Car's remote access to the Tower. Hopefully it'll only take a few minutes…but we'll get a positive reading."

"Better report this to Robin…," Cyborg said, reaching to the communicator in his arm.

Suddenly, the console beeped again.

Both Titans froze.

Raven inspected it.

"What now??" Cyborg remarked.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Better report this to Robin too…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Was anyone hurt??" The Boy Wonder asked, perched on a building side over the passing parade and noise.

_"Negative…,"_ Starfire exclaimed. _"And soon after all three flagpoles were taken care of, Wyldecarde dashed away towards the East of Town."_

"And what did you say about just right when the flagpoles fell?"

_"Beast Boy and I both swore we could have seen a strobe of pink light out of the corners of our eyes…"_

"Pink….," Robin thought aloud, his eyemask narrowing.

_"I am sorry, Robin. I must cut short the communication. The parade is reaching us and we must keep a sharp look out."_

"You do that. Thanks Star. I'll contact you as needed. Robin out."

No sooner had the Boy Wonder cut off his transmission with Starfire, Cyborg hailed him.

_"Robin! Come in!!"_

Robin flipped his communicator back open with a Star Trek sound. "You sound excited. What is it?"

_"Two things. There're traces of carbonite emissions around this side of Town!"_

Robin gritted his teeth. "**Where** exactly?"

_"We're working on that. In the meantime, something else has come up."_

"What is it?"

_"There's been a breakout in prison."_

"What??"

_"A hole's been smashed in the Omega Wing!"_

"Omega Wing?!?!" the Titan leader's eyemask bulged. "Th-That's where they house—"

_"I know! What should we do??"_

"Stick to the parade and fireworks area," Robin commanded. "See to it that these people are safe. And track. Down. That. Carbonite!!"

_"Understood. But what about the prison?"_

"We'll deal with that later…and **hopefully** it'll be later. Unless Slade has freed someone somehow to make things miserable for us."

_"I miss the July Fourth when patriots were dying and bleeding in the virgin fields."_

"You and me both, pal."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gritted my teeth, summoned murk in my legs, and leapt mightily after my target.

Three sets of building tops flowed beneath my flailing body as I honed in on the pink target, dove my body forward, and tackled--

WHUMP!!!

Jinx effortlessly rolled the two of us, vaulted her legs, and flipped me off of her.

I sailed off the side of a five-story building at an awkward angle. I pivoted myself in mid air and landed on the asphalt below with blurring feet. I slid back about five feet, Myrkblade held at ready as I looked up and saw the pink streak of my foe swan-diving, flipping, and landing in front of me.

Jinx crouched, looked up, and smiled with a girlish wink.

My brow furrowed.

WOOOOSH!!!

Without saying a single thing, she blurred over me.

I slashed with Myrkblade, but she was too fast. She sent me sprawling as she sailed straight into a large car lot behind me.

We were just at the edge of Downtown. Here, the streets were literally empty. Businesses were closed and sidewalks barren as the crowd of citizens congregated westward where the parade meandered its way to the Bayside Plaza. The car lot rested silently under the amber sky. Long strings of multicolored, plastic flags flipped and flapped in the cool breeze coming from the distant thunder clouds. The empty shells of crystal-clean cars reflected orange hues in the windows between bright signs displaying dealer prices and handling specs. It I hadn't known this was July Fourth, I would have guessed a plague had hit and desolated the populace.

I slowly headed into the lot. I walked through rows upon rows of vans, cars, trucks. All from the same manufacturer. The wind kicked at my black hair as I looked behind every aluminum shell for Jinx. I held Myrkblade up high. My breaths were steady as I traversed this ghost town of industry.

In the distance beyond the reflective roofs of shiny, painted bodies…the main building of the dealership curved concave around the nook of the asphalt lot. It was a transparent clamshell of a building, filtering the orange sunset through rows upon rows of windows lining the outside frames of metal as well as the translucent cubicles housed deep inside. It looked like some sort of tiffany glass experiment Frank Lloyd Wright would have made in kindergarten. To the side of the building was a huge, oblong propane tank surrounded with rusted aluminum fencing—perhaps the leftover component of a remote industrial facility once residing on that very same slab of concrete.

My black eyes thinned under the black goggles. I looked left. Nothing. I looked right. Nothing. I looked---

FLASH!!!!

Pink exploded above me as Jinx vaulted over and flipped to a landing behind a minivan.

I hadn't realized it till I hit the asphalt that she had hopped on my shoulders.

WHUMP!!

I winced and jumped up—rather embarrassed—and held Myrkblade at ready.

"Chasing after me?" she flirtingly smiled. "I'm soooooooo flattered, Ghost Boy! Hehehehehe!!"

I frowned and approached her slowly with my blade.

I. Had. To. Get. Her. Communicator.

"You and I…we'd make a perfect couple," she girlishly tiptoed backwards and gestured with graceful hands of pink. "Think about it!! What if you and I were to wed in holy matrimony? We wouldn't have to worry about quarreling! Cuz both you and I know that—no matter how much we fight—we always end up right back here." She gestured at her and I. "Together. Facing off. Having fun. The thrill of the chase. The sword and the hex. Jinx and Wyldecarde, the eternal card game of luck and bluff and overall absurdity!"

I frowned and approached her further.

She twirled backwards like a ballerina, jumped in reverse, and stood on the top of a pickup truck. "Face it, Ghost Boy. You never die, and I never run out of fortune. We're a stalemate. On this chessboard of a City, we're constantly bumping into each other. The pawns of good and evil. The only difference---though it hardly seems to matter anymore---is that I have friends moving my pieces around. You don't. Hehehehehe!"

I frowned and slashed at her.

CLANK!!!

A huge chunk was shredded out of the truck.

Jinx effortlessly backflipped and landed by the side of the dealership's clamshell building. Her back was to the only solid piece of cement wall the building had.

"The Titans…they've been long claimed by the chess player on my side of the board," Jinx smirked. "King Robin, Queen Starfire, Knight Cyborg, Bishop Raven and---hehe—pawn Beast Boy. They're all flipped over and lying on Slade's side of the table. They all just have to look beneath them and realize the black and white squares are gone. If chess pieces had eyes, then they'd be much better off…wouldn't you agree?"

I didn't respond. I approached her with Myrkblade outwardly stretched.

"But what do you know?" Jinx grinned like a Cheshire Cat, her back to the wall. "You never play by the rules…cuz you have eyes, Ghost Boy. Frighteningly black eyes that see far more than you should. And that turns you into a smarty pants who thinks he can outwit Slade. Well maybe you **have** outwit my Master…but the fact remains, Wyldecarde, that he has far more pieces on his side of the board than you ever will have."

I narrowed my black eyes.

I froze in place.

She giggled. "And it's about time Slade uses his rook!"

**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!**

Jinx flipped up as a huge bulge smashed through the concrete wall and thundered straight at me.

I didn't even have time to gasp--

WHAM!!!!!

A wall of stone knuckles flew into me. My whole body sailed back like a bowling pin and slammed hard into the side of a van, literally denting its side.

CLANK!!

I fell down to my knees, aching all over. I panted and looked up. My black eyes widened.

**THUD!!!**

One granite leg stomped into the asphalt.

**WHUD!!!**

A second leg formed another crater.

**"RrrrrrrRRRGHHHH!!!!!"** Cinderblock stood before me, flexing his craggy muscles and growling with thick, Gibraltan jaws.

I stood up, wincing. My lip quivered. I fearfully looked a few feet above Cinderblock where Jinx was perched above the shattered hole in the building's wall.

"He's on parole," she winked and smiled. "Oh…and he's also on my side. Have fun playing, you two! Ciao!!"

I gasped. I prepared to blur towards her when--

WOOOOSH—WHAM!!!!

Cinderblock's massive fist slammed once again into my gut.

I fell back, struck the top of the van, tumbled over it, and landed on the asphalt aisle between cars.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-SMASH**!!!!

Cinderblock effortlessly charged through and knocked the van to the side. He………………it………….Cinderblock growled and swung again at my prone figure.

I gritted my teeth and rolled to the side.

CRASH!!

A wave of asphalt literally warbled outward like water from the fresh crater. I was lifted up off the ground and thrown onto the hood of a sports car.

I shook my head and looked up just in time to see the monstrosity coming at me again.

**"RRRRGHHHH!!!"**

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-SWOOOSH!!**

Two fists—jointed together—swung down.

I vaulted myself up with a pulse of murk and flipped off the car.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!

The hood shattered. The engine crunched. The front end of the car flattened by a factor of ninety percent in two thirds of a second. The back end lifted up and interrupted my backflip. WHAP!!

I landed awkwardly on the asphalt between two vans and tumbled hard to a stop.

Cinderblock brushed the half-sports car away and ran at me. His eyes glowed yellow and soulless as his jaws opened and closed like Pac-Man on steroids.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!**

His two arms flexed and came together on either van to my left and right.

I vaulted upwards in the nick of time.

CRUNCH!!!!!!

The two vans sandwiched beneath me in a shower of hot aluminum.

I backflipped, landed, and slid back a dozen feet.

I clutched hard to Myrkblade, panting, gritting my teeth. I looked up as sweat came down my goggles and saw Jinx perched against the amber July Fourth sky atop a lamppost in the center of the lot. She blew a kiss down at me, waved, and blurred off towards the West.

I had to follow her.

I made a run for it, but Cinderblock was on me again. He smacked me hard with his stone elbow and I was sent flying across the lot, landing atop a car, rolling off, and clutching my side in pain.

How could I get out of there??

Not a second afterwards, he was coming at me again.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-"RAAAAUGH!!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx's path back to the parade was more of a dance than a sprint. She swayed back and forth from one side of the street to the other. She vaulted off buildings, flipped acrobatically, and giggled her way down to rooftops where she repeated the joyous excursion. Her aura was a free, victorious pink.

She had shaken the ghost off her.

And as the crowds and the sparkles and the confetti drew closer and closer beneath the orange world, she grinned her cat-like villainy in full glory.

"The rook is in place…," she hissed happily with a hand over her ear. "Wyldecarde has his hands full of concrete. I'm heading back to the quarry…"

_"Good,"_ Slade's voice replied calmly. _"A job well done, Apprentice. Now complete the circle. Infect the Titans……and bring them to me."_

"Affirmative." Jinx's eyes glowed brighter. She leapt straight over the parade and soared down with streaming hands of pink…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!

I flew back from the impact and slid to a stop. I clutched hard to Myrkblade, panting.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!**

Cinderblock came to a stop. He growled and shook his fists threateningly.

I swallowed. I summoned smoke warbling through my blade.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I blurred at him and slashed up at his right leg.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!!

Sparks flew.

I didn't even make a scar.

**"RRRRAAAUGH!!!"**

Cinderblock shouted and swung a fist down.

SMASH!!

I side-jumped, rolled, hopped back up to my feet and jabbed a Destructively charged blade tip straight into the monster's left side.

CLANK!!!!

He didn't even budge.

He hissed and backhanded me.

WHAM!!!!

I was sent back ten feet. I landed atop a car at the beginning of a line of parked vehicles and poised ready…panting.

This was no robot impersonation of Cinderblock. This was the real McCoy.

And the Real McCoy was charging at me.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!**

I panicked. I spun around. A row of car rooftops stretched before me. I hopped across them to get away.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!

Cinderblock plowed through them like dominoes. Aluminum, tires, and glass shattered in a constant spray like painted water. The bodies of the cars tumbled loudly behind them and spun and swiveled to grinding stops of vehicular ruin.

I reached the last rooftop. A luxury car.

I spun around and let loose a fan of razor-sharp playing cards.

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!

**"RAUGH!!"** Cinderblock flicked his wrist and effortlessly deflected them. Two flew back in my general direction. One popped the tire (**POW!**). The car lurched and I lost my balance right as the second car soared at my head. I ducked quickly, loosing a few strands of long black hair. SNIIIP!!

Cinderblock reached me.

**STOMP-STOMP-SWOOSH!!**

His fist crunched the luxury car in two.

I was already vaulting into the air. My free hand grabbed ahold of a branch suspending a light from a lamppost. I swung myself up and perched atop the metal 'tree' high over the lot. I tried to catch my breath.

Cinderblock would have none of it. He grabbed the front half of the luxury car in two stony hands, snapped it loose, spun, and flung it at me with a growl.

SWOOOOSH!!

"!!!!" I blurred and jumped off.

**SMASH!!!**

The car piece shattered against the top of the lamppost, sending the metal branches showering to the floor with shredded car parts. **CRASH!!! CRINKLE!!**

I landed on another lamppost two aisles away and crouched in my perch. Panting.

Cinderblock grabbed the back half of the luxury car and threw that too—but this time at the base of the post I was perched on.

WHACK!!!!

The lamppost wobbled, groaned, and started to lean over.

I inhaled. I looked up and saw a string of flags stretched over me. I made a mad dive as the lamppost started to fall over and gripped ahold of the colorful banner's cord.

CREEEEEAK!!! Below me, the lamppost careened over and smashed straight through five SUVs in a row. CRUNCH!!! Glass and aluminum flew. Sirens went off.

In the meantime, I was shimmying madly down the cord with two hands gripping the ends of Myrkblade stretched over the top. The sharp edge of the wooden sword ripped the rainbow-colored flags off and snowed them down in a plastic trail behind me. My shimmying speed increased and I realized—at the last second—that I was sliding straight down towards the concave, glass front of the dealership building.

My body tensed.

I hated this part……

CRASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx jumped down and perched on a windowsill.

Lights of gold and red danced across her grinning face.

She emanated a pink light that swallowed all other celebratory strobes up as she reached a hand out through the confetti and aimed a pink hex at the lumbering parade between the throngs of people below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Cyborg glanced aside.

Raven leaned forward and pointed at a map on the dashboard's computer console. "There!!"

"A location?"

She nodded. "I found the carbonite signature!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where is it??" Robin exclaimed into his communicator above the noise of the parade. He was perched atop an awning on a second floor building.

"This may sound crazy…but…"

"Just tell me where it is, Cyborg!!"

"Right behind you, Robin!! Right behind you in the middle of the street!!"

Robin's jaw dropped. Slowly he turned around. Across the air full of sparklers and confetti, he squinted his eyemask and zeroed his vision in on a lone, remotely operate float covered with a paper mache recreation of the battle of Bunker Hill. The patriot soldier standing in the very center was uniquely tall and slender compared to all the other manufactured figures. And the way the float moved along with the parade….it didn't even seem to touch the ground.

"Titans!!!" Robin blurted into his communicator. "The seventh float from the front of the cavalcade!! It's the bomb!!"

Almost immediately as he said that, a pink stream of energy struck the float. It suddenly gained speed, curved a path out and away from the parade, and down a dark alleyway.

"Shit!!" Robin grunted. He jumped down from the awning, landed in front of the sidewalk of people, and sprinted in pursuit. He ran across the parade, hopped over a float full of city officials waving at the crowd, meandered and shoved his way through a high school marching band, and streaked down the alleyway as fast as his legs could carry him.

The float picked up speed, the paper mache figures on it wobbling and shaking. At some point, a trash can or two brushed against the side of the float and ripped some of the décor off. Then the float grinded against the sides of the alley's brick walls, and the paper mache got stripped off completely. A hovercraft--complete with a blinking obelisk and carbonite detonator—soared into an adjacent street and took to the skies.

"It's heading Northeast!! Repeat!! A hovercraft with the carbonite detonator is heading Northeast!! I need backup!! Now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg winked at Raven. "So much for a lazy drive."

She blinked back at him. "Please don't do the swerve-thing…"

He did the swerve-thing.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!!

Raven flinched and clung hard to the Jesus bar as the car spun a one-eighty in the street, revved its engines, and sped down the barren road away from the parade and towards Robin's coordinates.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Surrounded by a sea of shattered glass, I looked up from the middle of the showroom floor. I shook my head and did a double-take as Cinderblock charged at me—growling.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!**

The low clearance of the window frames shattered and bent from his lumbering neck.

CRUNCH!!!

He let out an ogre cry and swung down hard at me.

SMASH!!!

Tile and plaster flew.

I flipped back and slid in reverse on the glass. The inside of the dealership building was dark, save for the sparse amber light of the dying Sun filtering in through the rows of glass windows.

Cinderblock thundered over and lifted his foot at me.

I dodged to the side and vaulted over an behind a 'C' shaped desk. I rested my back to the wooden structure and panted…trying hard to catch my breath.

THWUMP!!!

The entire desk was lifted up effortlessly. Cinderblock's eyes narrowed as he peered at me like he had lifted a rock over a scrumptious bug.

I sweatdropped and made a dash for the large windows opposite me in the building.

SWOOOOOSH!!

The desk flew over me, slammed into the metal frames, and showered into violent splinters that blocked my path.

I skidded to a stop and turned around.

But just as soon as I was facing in reverse, Cinderblock was upon me.

He effortlessly gripped my torso with one hand. I struggled for breath. I couldn't lift Myrkblade out from under.

**"Rrreeaaaugh!!! RHAAAA!!"**

He spun around on grinding legs of granite and tossed me straight into a translucent cubicle against the barren wall.

SMASH!! I slammed through a computer station, slumped against the wall, and draped limply down the edge of a desk.

I wheezed.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!**

He came at me.

I looked up. I swung my head to the side. I sent a channel of murk through my sword and dove straight through the translucent cubicle's divider. SLASH!!!

SMASH!!!!

Cinderblock's lunging fist occupied half of the office space. Meanwhile, I bore a hole and leapt into the next cubicle. I rolled on the ground, jumped up, and ran Myrkblade first to the next compartment--

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The space behind me shattered to pieces from Cinderblock's fist. He chased me through cubicle after cubicle alongside the wall. Splinters and shards and shrapnel of office equipment and glass and computers flew all around us in a fountain. Soon I reached the last cubicle, beyond which was a wall that curved upward. I blurred, ran up it, backflipped, and landed on Cinderblock's shoulders with my legs dangling around his neck. I lifted Myrkblade up with two hands gripping the hilt, clenched my teeth, and jabbed straight down into his stone skull.

CLANK!!!!

A spark or two flew, but I couldn't penetrate. I forced and forced and forced Myrkblade, my entire body shaking.

Cinderblock merely grunted, lifted an arm of mountainous muscle and gripped the back of my black and brown outfit.

I gasped as he gripped me, raised me up in the air, and tossed me clear across the interior with a monstrous yell.

I flew, bounced painfully off a desk, and landed in an office hair that wheeled me a good ten feet before I crashed straight into a spilling water cooler.

I shook my head dizzily.

**"RRRRRAUGH!!!"**

I looked up.

Cinderblock had his leg raised up from afar. He brought it down heavily and slammed it hard into the ground.

**SLAM!!!!**

A ridge of crunching tile swam its way through the building's foundation and thundered straight at my grounded body.

I gasped…and was then jolted nine feet into the air.

RUMBBBBBLE!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

"Skreeeee!!!!"

Starfire and a green-feathered Beast Boy soared down over the City with its glowing earthworm streets full of sparkling citizens and lavish parade cavalcades. Below them, the blue and white dot of the T-Car throttled down the streets in an awkward pursuit. An even smaller dot of yellow and green hopped from building top to building top in the same direction.

And that direction was aimed at a silvery hovercraft that glinted in the orange sunset and rocketed Northward towards the edge of the City's Park.

Hidden and alone, a pink dot was blurring across the City…taking the leftmost flank of the chase.

Matching the speed….and even mastering it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx hopped from buildingtop to buildingtop, grinning. She didn't even break a sweat. Her black and brown limbs moved effortlessly. Like skimming over water. Pink hair fluttering in the breeze of adrenaline.

Acceleration…

Fate in action, rolling off some precipice of inevitability and crashing into everyone and everything that dying evening of celebration.

The end of an era. The eve of a Revolution in Karma.

Jinx kept the hovercraft in her sights. Every now and then she shot a weak—nearly invisible—band of pink hex across the rooftops and into the flying vehicle, forcing it to maneuver strategically to keep the Titans on their toes and drag them towards the Park…

Towards the Master of the chess board.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My body vaulted upwards from the sudden fissure in the floor.

I came back hard on the tile, almost dropping Myrkblade, wincing.

Cinderblock let out another warbling shout and stomped his foot straight down again.

**THUD!!!**

Another fissure swam at me.

Lying face forward, I looked up with clenched teeth as an invisible rabbit burrowed at me through the tile and plaster.

This time I was ready…

I sent waves of smoke through my limbs.

RUMBBBBBBLE!!!!!!

I flexed my arms and legs. I launched myself upward, using the exploding fissure as a ramp. I flew up, latched onto a light fixture, and swung forward. In mid swing, I whipped out two razor sharp playing cards in one hand and threw them with an exhale.

SWIIIIIIISH!!!!

They soared straight into Cinderblock's face.

He closed his yellow eyes.

CL-CLANK!!!

The projectiles stuck hard into his stone eyelids.

He grunted in frustrations and fumbled with chubby fingers to yank the objects out.

At the end of my swing, I leapt off the light fixture, flipped, landed with my feet implanted on the wall over the smashed cubicles, blurred my legs, and shot back out across the 'arena' with Myrkblade jabbing towards Cinderblock's pelvis.

STAB!!!

The force of my blow sent the two of us sliding across the floor with dust and plaster flying beneath Cinderblock's legs. He blindly reached a hand back and grabbed me lengthwise.

I gasped as he screeched to a stop and threw me forward.

I flipped and barely landed inside. My back rested precariously against a slate of glass forming the window of the building's front.

Cinderblocked gripped the playing cards, growled, and yanked them out.

CLUNK!!

He shook some loose pebbles off his eyelids and opened his yellowish peepers again. With a sneer, he tossed both cards at me.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

I twirled Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK!!!

Both projectiles shattered to pieces.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!**

Cinderblock quickly charged at me soon after that.

I had no choice but to hold up my sword, tense my muscles, and flinch….

**"RRRRRRAAAAUGH!!!!"**

SMASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHOOOOOOM!!!!

The thrusters of the hovercraft glowed as the vehicle burned its way through the air and towards the green expanse in the center of the crater of urban glory that was the Park.

As the last layer of buildingtops came up ahead, Robin took a breath and pushed his legs into overdrive. He leapt off the rooftop into open air—and with the street and park's sidewalk yawning beneath him—he whipped out a grappling hook and fired at the hovercraft above.

POW!!!----CLANK!!!

His device attached, and he hung on a twenty-foot-long cord. He retracted slowly, closing the distance between him and the thundering vehicle overhead.

In the meantime, Cyborg and Raven ran out of road.

The T-Car screeched to a stop. The side doors flung open and Cyborg and Raven popped out. Immediately Raven's eyes glowed a bright gray as her body lifted up. She flicked a wrist to her left side, and a circular platform of black solidified under the android Titan. Together, the two shot up towards the hovercraft at air-whipping speed.

Starfire and Beast Boy caught up, hair and feathers flapping in the July Fourth air.

The thunderclouds boiled in the distance. The air began to rumble slightly. Any second now, and fireworks would rack the night and crack the world in two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx hopped off a building, sailed through the air, and landed with graceful pink light on top of a tall oak tree on the edge of the park. She looked up. She grinned. She extended a hand and shot the hovercraft from afar with her hex.

FLASH!!

She giggled.

Her cat eyes sparked.

"Checkmate…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Hovercraft's thrusters glowed less.

The vehicle slowed in mid-air.

The Titans caught up with it.

Beast Boy was the first to touch down. His flings flapped as he perched onto the side of the careening vehicle with razor-sharp talons. He then turned into a large, green gorilla that tipped the hovercraft to the side with his weight. The hovercraft tried calibrating, but only caused it to fall gradually towards the earth.

With white eyes narrowing, the changeling flexed his gorilla arms and pulled at the cord Robin was dangling from. He slowly yanked the Boy Wonder up and onto the body of the rocketing hovercraft.

Next, Starfire touched down and gripped ahold of the obelisk, steadying herself on the vehicle's surface.

Then Cyborg and Raven levitated up and hopped onto the platform.

All five Titans had caught up….and their bodies reflected the green glow of the strobing, carbonite detonator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From some mysterious location, Slade stood still with his hands behind his back.

Wind blew leaves and bits of grass past his statue-like form.

Orange sunset glinted off his smooth helmet.

A single, emblazoned eye tilted up towards the sky.

Calm.

Waiting….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SMASH!!!!!  
**  
I flew out of the front of the dealership building, soared over open asphalt, and smashed through another set of glass.

This time, the windshield of a huge pickup truck.

CRASH!!!!

I collapsed against the driver's and passenger's seat.

Panting.

Wincing.

Bleeding in a few places.

I looked up with thin black eyes through my goggles as Cinderblock slowly ducked through the hole in the front of the building and glared at me.

I wheezed and looked out over the dashboard.

I gasped.

The propane tank was straight ahead of me. Thirty feet off. Guarded by a flimsy fence of aluminum.

I swiftly swung my head to the left.

The placard showing the vehicle specs had half collapsed on my shoulder from my impact.

Upside down, I read the unmistakable text: "HEMI Engine."

I looked back up.

Cinderblock slowly stepped straight towards the hood.

The propane tank rested far behind him.

I inhaled, blurred to a sitting position, and went to work.

SLASH!!!

With Myrkblade, I ripped apart the casing for the steering wheel.

I fumbled with aching fingers with the wires.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's no use!!" Robin exclaimed above the noise of acceleration, fumbling with the controls on the obelisk. "I can't disarm the thing while we're in mid-air!! We gotta bring it down!!"

"But we keep increasing altitude!!" Starfire exclaimed. "The thrusters are gaining strength against our combined weight!!"

"I can become heavier!!" Beast Boy smiled and waved.

"Not advisable…," Raven shook her head. "We want to ground this hovercraft. Not squash it."

"You have any better suggestion?!?!" the changeling cackled.

"I do!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Starfire!!"

"Yes?!?!"

"You and I are gonna blast the thrusters on our side simultaneously!!"

"Good idea!!" Robin nodded. "Beast Boy!! Smash the rear thrusters after they're both done and we've drifted close enough to the ground!!"

"Roger!"

"I'll guide our descent!!" Raven said.

"Okay…," Cyborg turned his right arm into a laser rifle. "On the count of three!!"

Starfire raised a glowing hand of green.

Beast Boy flexed his green muscles.

"One……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sparks flew as I connected and reconnected wires.

I grit my teeth.

I glanced up.

Cinderblock came closer and closer.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!**

I took a deep breath.

Concentrating…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Two….."

Raven's eyes glowed gray. She held two hands up and prepared to use her power.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAP!!!!

Sparks flew.

I sweated.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!**

The windows started to rattle and shake as a wall of stone enveloped the sight through the windshield.

FLASH!!

One last flurry of sparks.

My fingers burned as an electric current shot through and I successfully hotwired the truck.

The HEMI engine thundered to life, shaking the truck and warbling up my spine as I gripped ahold of the wheel, gritted my teeth, and raised my foot over the gas pedal.

**"RRRRRRAUGHHH!!!"** Cinderblock came down on the truck with massive arms of destruction.

I frowned.

_Up yours…you damn oversized brick!!_

SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!

The tires burned on the asphalt.

The engine screamed.

The RPM meter spun laps.

I shifted gears.

**VROOOOOOOOOOOM-CLUNK!!!!!**

The engine plowed hard into the midsection of Cinderblock. The monster growled as I shoved him across the lot and straight towards the propane tank.

I sheathed Myrkblade with one hand, whipped out a playing card, and tossed it straight down.

SWIIISH-CLANK!!!

The projectile stabbed into the gas pedal, pinning it hard to the floor of the vehicle.

**"RRRRAAAAUGH!!!!"**

Cinderblock shrieked. He turned around. His yellow eyes widened.

The giant propane tank flew at his back.

CLANK!!

The metal fence gave way.

I took a deep breath…

Relaxed my limbs….. And turned into smoke.

WOOOOSH!!!

I teleported to a stand still as the body of the truck flew through me and shoved the monstrosity straight into the tank.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"THREE!!!"

Cyborg fired. ZAP!!!!!

Starfire launched. FLASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**FWOOOOOOMB!!!!**

A veritable mushroom cloud of fire and shrapnel danced upwards at the edge of the ruined car lot.

I solidified in a backwards flip, landed, and slid backwards across the asphalt….panting and watching the flaming chaos.

Flame and orange light danced across the black surface of my goggles. There was a sudden smell and thunder of explosion throughout the air…because above the fiery grave of Cinderblock, bright splashes of red white and blue lit the sky.

The Independence Fireworks had started. As the plume of propane eruption stabbed into my eyesight in the foreground, branches and splashes of multi-colored carnage formed the background over the Bay.

There was celebration in the air, and it reeked of death. Of the destruction and deterioration of something great, strong, and pumping with familiar spirit. Like the last breaths of friends. Warm on the verge of pain, and laced with cold sorrow.

I inhaled heated air of leaked propane and smoking Cinderblock.

_The Titans!!_

I spun around in the opposite direction.

My heart beat.

_My hands had been too full to do anything!!_

_What had Jinx done?!?!_

I blurred across the City as fast as my murking legs could carry me. I left Cinderblock to burn to ashes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!!!!

The thrusters exploded.

The hovercraft lurched.

Robin and Beast Boy almost lost their balance.

Raven enveloped the base of the vehicle with her black telekinesis and slowed the descent.

As they came to the level of treetops and fountains in the park, Beast Boy leaned over as a giant sloth and shredded the large, rear thruster of the hovercraft apart with long claws.

CRACK!!!!

The hovercraft was powerless now.

Raven gritted her teeth and strained.

She managed to lower the craft to a grinding slide through the grass and earth.

SCRAAAAAPE!!!

"Eek!!" Starfire exclaimed.

Cyborg wobbled.

Robin gritted his teeth and clung hard to the obelisk.

The carbonite glowed against him.

Against all of them…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Robin's bloodstream—as in everyone else's….

Nanoprobes materialized from a short-distance energy transfer.

They swirled in the plasma with microscopic motors before bumping into a blood cell, suddenly spinning and rocketing towards it, and clinging on with tiny claws.

Across the tiny shells of the probes, emblazoned 'S''s spun and twirled with the throttling cells through the arteries and veins.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**GRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND!!!!**

The hovercraft plowed up a hill of earth between sidewalks and ended with a lurch against a patch of high grass, unattended to by negligent landscapers.

The point was high enough to catch the surrounding cityscape and the splashes of fireworks to the south where the Bay was.

All five Titans sighed and jumped off the hovercraft…somewhat dizzy.

"Good! We stopped it!!" Robin exclaimed. He spun around and studied the obelisk up close. "Okay….now all we need to do is find a way to carefully peel this thing open and get to the carbonite core inside. Cyborg, can I get a little hand?"

Silence.

"Cyborg??" the Boy Wonder spun around and soon realized why all four of his teammates were suddenly quiet.

His jaw dropped.

"Hello, Titans…," Slade's helmet nodded. The masked terrorist stood calmly in the high grass. A phalanx of robot henchmen stood behind him in a line. Wind kicked at the high grass beneath their still legs and glaring eyes of gray and emblazoned mystery. Far off in a distant corner, a hauntingly familiar figure leapt down from nowhere and perched atop a lamppost with a green glow. "How nice of you to drop in….," he added. "A force stronger than gravity has pulled you into my lap. The fireworks…they scream and laugh for you. This is a great time to be alive. To be alive to die…"

"Titans!" Robin shouted as his cohorts readied themselves into fighting positions and frowned. "Get ready—"

"Get ready for what, Robin?" Slade gestured with his right hand. "You've already fought all that you can fight. You've already suffered all that you can suffer. What is there left for you to be ready for but the act of not being ready for anything? In short…this is the end. This is the end that I promised you from the day that the Sakura Scraper fell. But you were too ignorant to pay me much heed then. Perhaps things are a lot clearer now."

"What are you getting at?" Robin sneered.

"There's nothing to get at anymore. Don't you see, Robin? Don't you feel it? Swimming through your arteries and pumping through your heart like the very life force prodding you into that everlasting darkness we all must face at some time or another? It is all a matter of inevitability. Of cause and effect! Weights and springs of the celestial clock. Everything pulling and pushing together to drag you and your friends to where you are now. Borrowing from the past and creating a new future. Maintaining old rules and inventing new ones all the same. And in spite of it all, there's the same old pull. The same clutch of fate. The same energy of helplessness that fills your heart with dread and a realization that the Experiment is no longer tomorrow or yesterday but infinitely now."

"You gonna make sense?" Cyborg growled. "Or should we blast you a new mouth to talk with?"

"There'll be no blasting here, dear child…," Slade's eye narrowed. "And the only sense left for you five is pain. A pain much like the anguish I've dealt with all these months in trying to concoct a way to eliminate you and claim the City for my own. But like all other souls exposed to the triviality of life and all of its finite materialism, I've realized the greatest power there'll ever be is power itself. If I could never achieve what I needed in this universe…the only thing left to do was change the universe. To deconstruct reality and rearrange it with a transverse dichotomy. A reinvention of Morals, and the shattering of whatever Balance once governed their checks and balances prior till now. It's not that complicated, Titans. The structure of the universe is much like a broken heart. It's infinitely vulnerable to pain and shock…much like your hearts when you so eagerly rejected the innocent companionship of Noir. For once, I feel less than the supreme villain of this dramatic domain."

Beast Boy frowned.

Raven spat with glowing eyes: "What did you do to Noir?!?!"

"If you insist on knowing…," Slade's helmet tilted. "I freed him. It was never him that I was after. Nor was it the City. All I wanted…were you five. And all it took was a simple prod…a shove to the back of fate to set things in motion towards the Experiment. It was so easy…until the freedom I granted your Noir came back to haunt me, and for a while there was an impervious limbo that made me reevaluate the vulnerability of this fickle universe of precarious Balance of Morals. But in the end, my perseverance won out. And I once again have the five of you in my clutches like it was in the beginning of this trifold Experiment."

"You have nothing in your clutches but an ass-kicking!!" Robin grumbled with a strong finger pointed at the terrorist and his henchmen. "So give it up or we'll rip it from your bleeding heart!!"

"Such strong words…," Slade's eye glared. "You sound just as vicious as you did back when you were all infected last."

The Titans' eyes widened to that.

"But of course….all life has done to you—dear Titans—is repeat itself! You are back at where things started!! On the eve of the turn of the First Apprentice! The only difference now is evident in two ways. One: I care very little for Robin's pathetic neck. Two: I care very little for the whole five of you as a matter of fact…."

"I-Infected?" Beast Boy gasped.

"Why…of course the carbonite was not there only to blow this City apart in pieces and bring people down on their knees!" Slade exclaimed. "It was a lure…the most obvious lure. And the biggest fish of all bit at once. All five of them. And the hook is settled in so deep, no amount of struggle will yank it from the meat. The carbonite transferred its venom for the third and last time. The gradual process of contamination is complete. Once again the five of you know no destiny than the simple flick of my finger. It is the coldest and most ironic manifestation of Full Circle in our Age yet…."

Cyborg gasped. "Nanoprobes….."

The other Titans' faces fell as chills of cold horror ran up their spines and splashed down through their skin.

Slade held up a trigger in his left hand.

His eye narrowed.

His voice hissed.

"De………ja………vu……"

-click-

Somewhere in the distance of the night, a dying woman screamed like falling rain against a sheet of rusted copper. Or so that's what it sounded like in the remote corners of the Titans' eardrums. Like steam exiting out of dried bones and clanking down the tubes in their heads till it exploded in a missile that fell down their chests and melted hot, molten lava over their hearts. Their eyesight and bodies glowed with an orange fury that matched the celebratory sky. Fireworks exploded with bangs, pops, and hisses that melted against their skin and constricted all muscles around their necks and squeezed out the only thing comprehensible to their aching needs:

Unabashed screaming.

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!"**

Robin fell to his knees.

Starfire toppled over.

Beast Boy curled up.

Cyborg slammed to the earth.

Raven wilted.

Five glowing bodies…forming a ring around the smoking hovercraft in the tall grass.

The glowing pain of their agony reflected off Slade's helmet.

He watched, his emblazoned eye twitching once or twice with a heartbeat like he was aroused.

The henchmen watched silently…emotionlessly. They were looking more through the halo of tortured teens rather than at them.

In the distance…as the screams turned into thundering echoes, Jinx's cat eyes thinned.

The sorceress slowly smiled…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred across the landscape.

I panted.

Fireworks boomed behind me.

The resounding waves of their concussions skimmed the asphalt, pavement, and grass blurring beneath me and giggled up my heels.

I streaked a smoking path out of the City blocks, into the park, and up a hill.

A lonely hill.

A lonely hill with the dilapidated remains of a hovercraft.

I gasped.

My blur came to a slow, sluggish step of heavy feet.

My jaw hung open wide.

I approached a halo of yellow objects.

I stripped my face of the goggles and stared with wide, blinking black eyes.

Five communicators.

Alone.

Discarded.

And the footsteps of androids all around the grass and dirt.

_I was too late……_

I hyperventilated.

_I was……too late………_

I fell down to my knees.

My whole body shook.

I hugged myself.

I hiccupped.

_Slade had them…he had them all…he always had them._

I clenched my eyes shut and let loose a silent howl into the sky.

Arteries pulsed in my neck.

A numbness crept up my extremities and vibrated me into agony as the tears flowed.

_Full Circle……Full Circle……Full Circle……_

I panted.

I shook.

I teetered and tottered on my knees. Dizzy. Empty. Needing food. Needing sleep. Needing sanity.

Needing friends.

Defeated and wilted and melting into oblivion……

First there was the horror of Robin, the First Apprentice. Then there was the Betrayal of Terra, the Second Apprentice. And now there was the defeat through Noir, the Third Apprentice.

Full Circle.

Everything had come Full Circle.

Slade had won.

Slade had won and I couldn't do a damned thing.

I had tried and tried and tried and tried. I had thrown my dignity into the fire. I had raped my name before public with every swing of Myrkblade, every toss of the wildcard, and every cowardly dash into the night after senselessly beating the friends I loved and tried to 'protect'.

Over and over and over and over and over… Full Circle. Full Circle and I was alone again. And I was helpless again. And I was……without redemption again.

The irony was so dark. So hideously wrong, that it was hideously right. A chuckle ran up my spine. It exploded out of my mouth in an insane giggle. And it wasn't until halfway through the maniacal cackling that I remembered that I had no voice and I looked over and saw a pink skeleton of a sorceress perched alone atop a lamppost, leering down at me, clutching her gut as he Cheshire Cat mouth hung open in an eternal bellow of contempt, haughtiness, and banal victory.

I bit my lip till blood formed. My teeth grit into a red sauce and smoke warbled down my eyes.

In one jump….in one single jump….I put my goggles back on, unsheated Myrkblade, and slashed hard in front of me. I didn't realized I had miraculously crossed the distance between me and Jinx until I saw her flying back from the blunt impact of my wooden sword.

CRACK!!!!

Her body went sprawling with a good half of the lamppost reduced to violent shards of superheated, smoking metal. I came down at her in a shower of shrapnel. I lifted the blade over my head—screamed silently—and slashed for all that 'all' was worth.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

The earth and sidewalk parted. Jinx agilely rolled to the side and a fountain in the distance literally exploded in a spray of stone and reclaimed water from my Destruction.

CRUMBLE!!!!

Jinx jumped up to her platform shoes and let out a gothic giggle, clutching to her bruised side from my sword as she grinned at me and winked. "Hehehehehehe!! What's the matter, Ghost Boy?!?! Letting back?! Hit me again!! I've been a bad girl!!"

I gritted my teeth till sparks flew. I had one thing on my mind and one thing only.

_Communicator……_

I twirled Myrkblade and flew at her.

_Communicator!!!_

SWOOOSH!!!

Jinx easily jumped back from my slash. She zapped me with light flicks of pink hex. Toying with me. Reveling in the afterglow of her victory. The cat and her dark little mouse of a chess playing adversary.

"You should have been here, Ghost Boy!!"

I slashed.

The ground shattered.

She backflipped and perched on the back of a bench.

"Tears rolled down everybody's eyes!! They were in sooooooo much pain!! Even the blue one you hung around with so much had a face sopping wet from the torture!! What's her name…..Risty? Raver? Ah, it doesn't matter. She was a bitch anyhow. Hehehehehehe!!"

I exhaled and dove at her.

SMASH!!!!

I flew through the bench as Jinx flew up.

She hung on the side of a lamppost and leisurely 'inspected' her fingernails as she added:

"Oh…they're gone. Gone for good. Gone off to shift the Balance of Morals. You see, Ghost Boy, when you become the fulcrum upon which the very matter of the universe's structure hinges upon…the pressure builds up intensely. And all you know…and all you are…is 'pain' itself. That's what your Titan friends are. They're the fulcrum! And once my Master crucifies them in any fashion he sees fit, a hole will be torn in the Machine of life and everything will come crashing down for him to rebuild according to his own rulebook! It will be the start of a brand new Creation!! And Slade shall be the one articulating the draftboard!! He'll have his macrocosm. I'll have my sisters. And you, Ghost Boy, you'll have yourself!! Which is just as well!! It's all you ever freakin' cared about, isn't it?!?! Hehehehe!!"

I ran up the lamppost and stabbed at her.

She flipped off, landed in the sidewalk, and twirled off a few feet—giggling—and performing a graceful curtsy at the end of her spins.

"Enjoy the universe you helped formulate, Wyldecarde!! Your bluffs made it alllll possible!! Now if you don't mind…I have a future to attend to. It's been fun dancing with you. But you're not my type. I prefer boyfriends with souls. Ciao!!"

She blurred south towards the Bay in a pink stream.

I heaved. My goggles shook above a fountain of smoke pouring out from my eyes.

So maybe I didn't have a soul. Maybe I was just a machine that fitted into Slade's equations. I frankly didn't give a shit anymore. I was an animal. My eyes narrowed and my neck throbbed with smoke filling my bloodstreams. The sprockets burst and were replaced by hairy muscles sprinting across some unseen prairie or meaty ligaments pouncing through a dark jungle in some metaphysical abyss of nature. The numbness of my body mixed with the exhaustion of my mind and formed a parallax, between which my resolve squeezed through and popped out the other side, screaming forth a warcry with blood-stained blades swinging, thirsting, cutting the air and whistling with the same speed that blurred through my legs and pushed me along in some sort of hazed sprint directly following the pink stream of sorcery streaking meters ahead of and away from me down a cutting path through the South of the City.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

As the grass beneath me turned to pavement and asphalt, I gradually caught up closer and closer with Jinx. She looked back at me, giggled, and flung pink hexes to either sides of her. Parking meters, stop signs, and newspaper vendors flew at me. I slashed each and every hulking object away with calculated swings of my Myrkblade. The girl skirted over building tops, around dark alleyways, up and over cars and past semis and gradually through the sparkling tunnels of citizens and onlookers congregating in a bulbous body of humanity trailing after the parade cavalcade and towards the exploding horizon of the red, white, and blue-against-amber sky beyond.

As I chased her with every fervor matching her own sporadic bursts of speed and direction, my world was submerged in chaos. Sparkling gold blinded me between strobes of darkness—inside which the skies laughed with colorful flowers of noise and grandeur. The bleachers beyond the Bayside plaza embraced the chaos from afar. It was the Revolution of a Revolution. Past, Present, and Future forming one giant orgasm of social obliteration as the citizens of this virgin City imagined a world with safe Titans, happy heroes, and cowardly criminals. And for a second there amidst the running and the panting and the cold-hearted obsessing I had the urge to turn around and laugh venomously at the pathetic organisms I tried so desperately to save with the swing of an antique sword day in and day out, only to see them laughing and smiling back at me with the full understanding that they did not understand just what Hell my former teammates were going through and that it was all my fault and that if I died tomorrow it would be of no little cost as long as I expend every waking shred of lingering metabolism in my emaciated, bleeding, and beat up body to leap forth and grab…Jinx's…communicator!

And that was when I realized I had lost her.

I skidded to a stop at a pair of docks just half a mile beyond the bleachers and overlooking the lapping waters of the Bay.

I gasped and spun around. My black eyes shivered under the black goggles. In an instant…I saw the last hope of my former teammates fall.

….and then something else fell.

"YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAA!!!" A petite, pink body pounced down from a building top, saddled my shoulders, and gripped two glowing hands over my eyes.

"Guess whooooooo!!" Hex charge and—"Hehehehe!!"

FLASH!!!!

I went blind.

I let out a silent, painful scream. A pink Sun was in my eyes. I had no strength to even lift Myrkblade to stab Jinx off of me.

She laughed louder and rode me…flashing pink strobes of magic into my eyes over and over again like spurs digging into my retinae.

I twitched, teetered, and stumbled.

I realized she was trying to blind me into the ground.

But I was more than the typical stallion. I was mad with disease. The disease of heroism. And what a damn good disease that is.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

"Whoah!!!" she exclaimed, gripping hard to my cranium as her body tilted back.

I blurred blindly forward. Just as I expected, my feet started splashing into salt water surf. I added smoke to my limbs and ran over the waves. Straight out into the Bay. A streaking, visionless form of brown and black with a pink girl riding desperately on his shoulders.

Jinx panted. I sensed fear and I lapped it up thirstily. I could have run us into the waters…grinding us into the bed of the Bay and through the earth's crust to emerge as smoking skeletons in China. I could have run into a boat and let our blood mix together as the impact with the hull squeezed our guts out of our epidermal layers. Truth be told, all I did was run. I let my powers warble above and behind me and act as a sail. It was up to Fate and Fate alone to determine where I went.

Explosions from the fireworks rocked directly above us, booming into our ears and silencing the shrieks and giggles and taunts of Jinx till she once again became that fearful, lonely little henchgirl in my blinded eyes like I had faced off against before on the Westhaven and seen her vulnerability strip her down to nothing but a skeleton that hides behind a shallow resolve and sporadic piety to one notorious despot after another.

The world returned to me in a blur of fading blindness as the water below me suddenly turned into dry ground.

THWUMP!!!

I went sprawling forward across a wooden floor rocking in the waves. I felt the body of Jinx fly off me and I heard her tumble hard to the floor ahead of me with a soggy gasp. And then I heard the world exploding directly in my ear.

PHWOOOOMP!!!

A blaring, shrill whistle and then--

KRA-POW!!!!!! Directly above.

I opened my black eyes…blinked…and rolled over.

Ashes and sparks sailed down from me amidst stars and an amber glow.

I blinked.

The sky….

PHWOOOOOOOMP!!!!! Something exploded aside me.

I gasped and sat up.

I was surrounded by black cannons aimed at the troposphere.

Jinx and I were in the center of the Bay. Atop the floating deck full of cannons. The launch site for the Indepence Fireworks Show.

KRA-PING!!!!!!!!

A half-mile wide flower bloomed above us in red white and blue. The concussion in the air warbled down—literally kicked at my long black hair—and flattened my eardrums into my skull.

I winced, hobbled up onto numb legs, and rushed towards the sides of the deck and away from the myriad of cannons.

SMACK!!!!

A platform shoe swung around from the side suddenly and knocked me back. I flew seven feet, collapsed on the ground, and knocked my head square back against a cannon….which fired.

PHWOOOOOMP!!!!

The vibration of the fireworks launch shook down my skull, my neckbone, and rattled my spine.

I gasped, gritted my teeth, and looked up as a pink sorceress giggled, leapt, and came down at me with a sailing kick of death.

I twirled to the side.

SMASH!!!

Her kick bent the now blank cannon.

I jumped up, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed at her.

She sidestepped and a cannon in front of me launched—PHWOOOOOMP---almost knocking up straight through the length of Myrkblade.

KRA-POW!!!

BANG!!!!!!

I gasped and leaned precariously back. Colored ashes fell all around us and the deck on the waters in a distant halo.

I heard a twirling sound and didn't even need to turn and look to see the ballerina sorceress swinging a kick upside my back.

WHAM!!!

I tumbled forward—flipped over a firing cannon—and teleported just in time to avoid the blazing contact with the streaming projectile.

PHWOOOOOMP!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!! I materialized in reverse and slid to a stop down a live row of cannons.

Jinx hopped from cannon top to cannon top effortlessly…fearlessly…every other step she took, the cannons immediately launched right as she hopped away from them. Three blazing streaks of fire rose up into the air and exploded as Jinx found one tall cannon with the tip of her platform shoe and twirled slowly about with her hands outstretched and her face a crescent moon of Cheshire as mountain-sized, brilliant splashes of psychotic jubilee splashed and cascaded maniacally in the amberlit sky, silhouetting the absurdity of her pink-hued, petite figure as she aimed her cat-eyes down at me with amusement.

The world was a play and this was her encore.

For a split second the exhaustion lifted from my body as I stood there…panting…marveling.

Things were coming full circle….in that the circle itself was giving me another chance to break it. Jinx was Slade's most deadly apprentice yet. But she was still a girl.

She was still young. She was till immature.

And I could still get that damn communicator out of her friggin' ear……

She winked.

I smirked.

Jinx's cat-eyes widened in shock as her smile fell.

SWOOOOSH!!!

At the end of her twirl, I blurred over and plowed into her. In slow motion we both zoomed over the length of the deck's array of cannons as the red, white, and blue ashes waterfalled around us and reflected in the Bay.

WHUMP!!

Time resumed as I slammed her to the ground back-first. I jabbed down and reached for her ear under a tuft of pink hair.

She vaulted her legs up with a growl.

I went spiraling down an aisle of cannons, some launching on either side of me.

PHWOOOMB!!! PHWOOOMB!!!

I slid to a stop, twirled Myrkblade, and came at her with a snarl.

She jumped up and blocked with criss-cross wrists, glowing pink.

CLANK!!!

KRA-POW!!!!

Red white and blue.

I spun and stabbed low.

Jinx jumped back.

I back-kicked her straight in the chest.

WHUMP!!

She stumbled backwards.

I spiraled my body around and struck her ribcage hard with the blunt side of Myrkblade.

WHACK!!!

She went flailing over cannons firing haphazardly up past her figure. Streams of sparkling light whistled until the concussions boomed off above us and shrouded the rushing sound of wind as I teleported over in smoke form and literally caught Jinx at the end of her flight from my previous impact.

WHAM!!!

I brought her back down onto my knee.

WHUMP!!!

And kicked her in the side.

She went tumbling painfully across the deck. She curled up against a cannon and clutched her ribs….eyes tearing.

I had no mercy.

I dove down for her ears.

She gritted her cat like teeth and swung a platform shoe up at me.

WHACK!!

My chin flew back as stars hid against the splash of a golden flower above us.

"RRRRAUGH!!!" Jinx pounced up, pounced me, and pummeled my head up against the edge of a cannon. She gripped my chin with glowing pink fingers and forced my cranium further and further against the barrel of one cannon that hadn't fired yet.

Not quite yet….

"I think it's about time you went to Hell, Ghost Boy…," she sneered. "Don't worry. Your friends will be joining you shortly."

I frowned. I didn't like hearing that. So I kneed her hard in the mammary glands.

WHUMP!!!

Jolted, Jinx stumbled back and hugged her chest in pain.

I jumped up in an instant---PHWOOOOOMB!!!!

The cannon blasted right as my cranium left its aim.

I rolled forward, blurred, teleported under and through Jinx's legs, and materialized behind her. I performed a reverse kick.

WHUMP!!

She stumbled forward, tripped, and gripped the one thing she saw in front of her to support her fall. It turned out to be the steaming hot barrel of the freshly blown cannon. The metal singed her skin.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Jinx shrieked, her voice hidded by the-KRAPOWWWW!!!!!—fireworks screaming above us.

I turned around.

She turned around.

I jabbed.

She blocked with pink, burnt hands.

CLANK!!!

She yanked the tip of Myrkblade away. Her eyes burned with fiery pink as she stretched both palms out at me and launched the biggest hex of her life. "HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

A humongous sphere of light flew at me.

I was literally plowed backwards with a gasp as the hex flowed overhead, burning at my nose and forehead red.

I fell back onto the deck and slid down an aisle of fresh cannons. I thought fast and twirled Myrkblade across my chest, slashing left and right and striking the cannons one by one so that they bent and 'aimed' at Jinx. CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

As Jinx advanced upon my sliding figure, I vaulted up, backflipped, and landed with a skidding stop. I twirled Myrkblade, aimed for a jumble of electric cables below me, and stabbed down into it.

STAB!!!

Smoke replaced electric currents, chased the lengths of the wires into the cannons, and set them all off prematurely. Seven fireworks shot up at once.

_PHWOOOOOMB!!!!_

…and they were all at a forty-five degree angle aimed at the empty stretch of Bay…and Jinx.

The girl shrieked. In slow motion and surviving by a glow of pink hex alone, the sorceress jumped up and twirled in mid air as seven distinctly different plumes of sparklight warheads flew around, under, and past her flailing limbs. She literally spun a vertical three-sixty in the miraculous dive.

But she was nowhere near the point of landing it when I charged murk, blurred forward, and jump kicked her airborne body hard in the gut.

WHUMP!!!

KRA-POW!!!

BANG!!!!

BOOOM!!!

Time resumed as Jinx's ragdoll body tumbled hard to the opposite side of the deck, against a horizon of exploding flowers close to the surface of the distant waters. From the bleachers of the bayside way behind me, a loud rushing sound of thousands of citizens watching and gasping at something evidently going wrong lit my ears.

I didn't care…

SWOOOOSH!!!

I dove for Jinx…for her ears….her communicator.

She rolled to the side, jumped up, and limped backwards. Limping.

I had no compassion.

I gritted my teeth and slashed at her.

She loosely blocked with a pink hand. Gasping. Collapsing. Panting for breath and no longer the cocky, victorious apprentice that she was mere minutes ago when she had taunted me in the park where I discovered the Titans' horrible fate.

She was now a prey…and she had met the animal she and Slade had inadvertently created.

I bore my fangs and slashed at her repeatedly.

SWOOSH!! SLASH!!! SWIISH!!!

CLANK!! CLANG!!! SMACK!! She blocked with her hands and wrists which were glowing less and less dim. The pink was fading away as the fervor of the fireworks above and around us took over with their booming intensity.

And I knew that I was winning.

And—as always—when I know I'm winning I find out I'm loosing.

There was a loud, haunting series of splashing sounds just behind me.

Splash—Splash—Splash—_**SPLASH—SPLASH—SPLASH!!!!!**_

Jinx's panting face brightened.

I spun around.

My black eyes twitched.

**"RAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!!!"**

A charred, smoking Cinderblock leapt out of the Bay Waters and slammed down onto the deck with a swinging fist.

**SLUMP!!! CRUNCH!!!!** Ten cannons smashed and exploded fireworks underneath his stone feet as he landed and literally upended half of the deck of fireworks.

Naturally, his fist smacked he hard in the side and I went flying to the opposite side of the imbalanced deck. The screams of fireworks above us dwindled into the shrieks and screams of frightened bystanders of the Show beyond in the bleachers. I got to my feet, panted, and faced to enemies now. A hulking piece of half-blown-up granite and a rejuvenated sorceress.

_Full Circle….Full Circle…_

Cinderblock charged at me.

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!!!!**

Cannons on either side of him spouted off and exploded fireworks high above. One or two fired and deflected off his impervious limbs, sailing off and smoking to silence directly into the Bay Waters.

As Cinderblock came, I blurred up and vaulted over his shoulders---only to meet the jump kick of Jinx.

"HAAAA!!"

SMACK!!!

I swirled form the impact and landed between a fresh bed of cannons.

Cinderblock turned around, roared, flexed his muscles, and stomped towards me.

I stood up and spun Myrkblade at ready.

Cinderblock's fist came down.

SMASH!!!!

I jumped back, took a breath, and ran up his arm. I trailed Myrkblade to my left side…scraping a long and hard scar of sparks and slicing murk along his stony limb.

SNKKKKKKKKK!!!

I slid down his rear, met the ground, hopped up, and was in the right position at the right time to grace a fireworks rocket sailing up out of a cannon directly in front of me.

PHOOOOMB!!!

I batted it directly into the backside of Cinderblock.

CLANG!!!

Jinx shrieked as a flower of sparks and fire sparkled all around us.

Cinderblock went tumbling forward, off the deck, and splashing hard into the Bay Waters.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

Salt water rained down.

Jinx sheltered her head.

I came down from my mid-air batting, twirled Myrkblade, and blurred at the sorceress.

SWIIIIIISH-THWACK!!!

I struck her hard across the shoulders.

She tumbled over.

I ran for another strike.

WHAM!!!

Cinderblock jumped back onto the deck. The cannons on the far side lifted up at an awkward angle from his landing as I flew. Fireworks exploded dangerously close to the cityscape.

People started fleeing from the bleachers.

I landed square with my back against a cannon.

**STOMP!!!!**

"RRRRRGHHHHH!!!"

Cinderblock leered over me. He held two fists together above his head and prepared to bring them down.

I sensed an electric field behind me.

I took a breath…and rolled off the cannon.

PHWOOOOMB!!!

Immediately, the cannon shot up a fresh rocket.

CLANK!!!!

It uppercutted the stone monstrosity right up the chin.

Cinderblock lumbered backwards, his head tilted straight up.

I took a deep breath, teleported, materialized at the base of Cinderblock's feet, and immediately shot upwards with Myrkblade jabbing sky-high.

THWACK!!!!!

Time slowed down as my impact was so freakin' intense, it literally lifted Cinderblock off the ground as two cannons shot up along his flank simultaneously, struck his shoulders, and caused him to flip backwards amidst a shower of red, white, and blue sparks.

Into this storm of blazing lights I soared, twirled about, stuck my feet into the midair fire, planted my boots into his upside-down stone skin, and vaulted away in a flip.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Time resumed as I soared towards the dizzy figure of Jinx.

I landed beside her, skidded to a stop, grabbed her arm, and flung her straight into a launching cannon.

PHWOOOOMB!!!!

Her body literally struck the sky-soaring rocket and bounced off.

WHACK!!

"NNGH!!" she cried.

As she flew by me, I twirled, blurred a hand, reached into her ear, and yanked out the trophy.

SWIIISH!!!

Her head—and her body—soared beyond me and collapsed on top of Cinderblock.

KRA-POWWWWW!!!

Sparks showered around us and littered the bay.

I took a deep breath and blurred over towards the far side of the deck to make my getaway.

That's when Jinx stood up, gritted her teeth, and fired a hex at a cannon besides her and Cinderblock. Instantly, the launcher bent, aimed at me, and fired its rocket.

PHOOOOOOMB!!!

I twirled Myrkblade. I did two things. First, I slashed down at a cannon at the very edge of the deck before my feet. CLANK!! It bent outwards at an angle towards the bay. Second, I spun around and jumped off the deck in reverse. In mid-flight, I slashed Myrkblade horizontally and deflected the sparkling projectile straight back at the two villains.

SMACK!!!

PSSSSSSSSHHHH!!!!!

With a golden comet tail, the rocket struck the floor of the deck, tumbled across the ground, and lay sparkling in between a throng of fresh-unfired cannons fool of explosives.

Jinx's cat eyes widened and Cinderblock whimpered.

In the meantime, I was sailing off the edge of the deck. I relied on perfect fate and struck Myrkblade out to my side…

PHWOOOOOOOMB!!!!

My bent cannon shot forth a large rocket. With Myrkblade, I literally skewered the center of the rocket with my smoke-encased-tip. I let the projectile literally carry me off like a meteor out across the Bay in a curved arc.

In the meantime, Cinderblock scrambled to his feet, grabbed Jinx with a shriek, and jumped off his end of the deck with a SPLASH!!!

The rocket's comet tailed died. It flicked once on the deck…then exploded.

_**POW!!!!!!!!**_

In quick, apocalyptic bursts…all the cannons surrounding the situated explosion caught fire and went off one by one.

_**POW-POW-POW-POW-POW!!!!!!**_

The entire deck of fireworks erupted into a fireball of red, white, blue, and gold sparks. Whistling and howling and streaming thunder up into the orange air.

And in the meantime, I spiraling with my grip onto Myrkblade which was skewered through the rocket. The two of us came down and I gasped to see a twenty-meter-long, luxurious yacht moored straight dead ahead in our path. The rocket—and I in tow—skimmed the black waves of the Bay once—SPLASH!—twice—SPLASH!!!—and sailed straight into the hull of the yacht. At the last second, I summoned murk, pulsed it through my whole system, and launched myself up off the rocket and over the yacht as the projectile mercilessly ate its way into the centermost guts of the boat and exploded.

_**BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!**_

My body flailed as it 'flew' over a splintery, shrapnel-spewing fireball of a cruise-ship-no-more. Seconds later, the explosion met the fuel reserves of the boat…and the fire increased in a tenfold burst.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**_

A pillar of fire separated me from the horrified world…the ruined celebration….the insecure Revolution as I came to my feet against the waves on the other side, blurred, and regained my balance as a new energy overtook me and I streaked across the waters with Myrkblade in one hand and Jinx's communicator in the other and a thick ceiling of dark thunderclouds moving in from the Southeast promising a dark tomorrow of joyous anxiety as I burned my way eagerly towards the Tower and its supply of computer technologies I would need to find Dagger and regain the lost track of my friends' endangered whereabouts…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyes opened under his mask.

The other Titans woke up at the same time.

They were strapped in metal chairs.

All lined in a row.

Wired. Monitored. Electrified.

Before them stretched a black, expansive interior. Against the blackness was a circular window looking out on a dark-orange night made darker by thunderclouds, complete with the distant rumblings of foreboding. The still and cold silhouette of Slade stood in the mirror. Looking out onto the waves of some forsaken Sea.

He slowly turned around.

"Greetings…Titans…..destiny calls."

"Where….," Robin winced. "Are we?"

"You are in the Experiment….," Slade said. He marched towards them and held out a remote. "To finally overthrow the Balance of Morals…"

"Do you plan to kill us?" Cyborg grunted.

"Something like that…," Slade mused. "Observe…"

He clicked the remote once.

The familiar, torturous pain entered each of the Titans' bodies. But this time—somehow—it was different. The glow wasn't quite there…and yet it was. It levitated up and down. Almost with….almost with….

"Titans!!" Robin exclaimed. "Concentrate!! The nanoprobes….s-somehow they are…fused into our psychobiological network!!"

"Dude!!" Beast Boy winced in pain. "I'm not feeling too good. Could you talk with LESS syllables for once?!?!"

"Allow me to paint the picture for you, Titans…," Slade leaned forward. "The nanoprobes are programmed to release pain-inducing toxins in your body. Every drop of the material into your body is equivalent to the digging of a serrated blade through your abdominal muscles. The only purpose of this chemical application is to kill each and every one of you. And—indeed—in due time each and every one of you will die. But not yet. Not quite so fast…"

"What….i-is the catch?!" Raven grunted, her brow sweating like all the others as the torture agonizingly lingered on. "There is always a catch…isn't there?"

"The nanoprobes are linked directly into your electromagnetic signatures and hormonal release systems…," Slade said. "A super computer monitoring the individual nanoprobes keeps a record of the level of malignant feelings and thoughts cast at me and in response to my words and actions. To make a long story short…the more you hate me while you five are in here…." And he clicked a remote as he added, "…the greater the level of toxin. See for yourself."

-click-

"AAAAAAAAGH!!!!" Starfire was the first to shriek.

Beast Boy followed.

Then Cyborg.

Raven clenched her teeth tightly.

Robin sweated profusely.

"Those of you who are suffering the most now…dying the quickest now…means that you are most resistant to my cause and my plans….," Slade said, pacing around the tortured Titans. "Already, the Tamaranian is experiencing pain equivalent to that of an electric chair."

Starfire's face brimmed with emerald tears. She panted and let out shriek after shriek as the pain endlessly wracked her body with each heroic thought transferring through her brain.

"In the meantime…Robin—on the other side of the spectrum, which I certainly predicted---is merely feeling something liken unto a scalpel across his wrists. It speaks volumes, Boy Wonder. Right now in your head…you are forcing yourself to like me, Robin. After all…it's the least you can do to stay in this world and try and figure out a way to rescue your friends who are in the same condition as you…."

"I….d-do not favor you….Sl-Slade….," Robin grunted, sweating.

"Is that so?" the terrorist leaned his mask to the side. "Why is it that you can still manage to talk while your Tamaranian sweetheart screams her head off?"

Robin bit his lip and looked over at Starfire. The alien girl twitched, convulsed, and let out shriek after shriek of wailing pain.

"Oh…she will quiet down eventually…," Slade said. "Her resistance to me is not so great that she would die. Instead, she will learn to appreciate me. To love me. And to deconstruct her entire perspective of 'Evil' so as to diminish the pain infesting her system. Likewise, Robin, you too on the other side of the spectrum will learn to appreciate me…if only it'll mean lessening the torture you and your friends are going through."

"I….I w-wouldn't….I…."

"Would you….Robin?"

The Boy Wonder sweated. His pain increased as he thought maliciously against Slade. It felt like a grenade had gone off in his chest. He bit his lip and twitched.

"Ohhh how the Balance of Morals will change. For in an instant…five superheroes will become five supervillains…," Slade hissed. "It is a shift in power the likes of which the dichotomy of this universe has never seen before. It will upset the entire fabric of order in this reality…and things will finally be weighted over to my side. The side of greed and totalitarianism. The universe where there is no hope but the constant struggle against an unforgiving machine of a system that dominates and capitulates the meandering lives of the confused innocent. You Titans will go through with this test to manifest this shift because I….want….that….reality!!!!"

"You're wicked, Slade….," Robin exclaimed. His body caught on fire inside out and he screamed. "I HATE YOU!!!! AUGHHHHH!!!!!" The Boy Wonder arched back in his chair and screamed at the top of his lungs. The other Titans—caught up in the passions of hatred and remorse—soon joined him in the endless wail.

Slade watched the writhing five…shrieking and screaming in their restraints. He sat down on his rusted throne and leaned his metal chin on his gloved hands.

"This will be a marvelous Experiment indeed…………."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It took me fifteen minutes to reach the Tower.

Ten minutes to burst my way in through the entrance's doors.

Five minutes to shatter the defense systems I knew so well into nothing with my sword.

Eight minutes to ascend the stairwell.

Two minutes to disable the sirens in the Main Room.

One minute to pull at my hair in frustration and stab my sword into the computer console to bypass the access codes in a ghetto fashion.

Then an agonizing twenty-five minutes to cross-reference the data from my left arm's chip with the signal frequency of Jinx's communicator.

Two minutes later, I realized I needed to use a greater technology to actually find Dagger while he was finding me.

Eleven minutes…and I had switched on Control Freak's vibrating apparatuses.

Four minutes later, the Tower's sonic vibrations zeroed in on the source of Dagger's transmissions to my chip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thirty minutes is what it took for me to reach the dark alleyway….facing the street…facing the entrance to a skyscraper on the end of town. Gothic and foreboding…Hyde Tower stretched twenty-five stories up into the skyline of the City. Many lavish windows and balcony shouted out: 'expensive hotel'. But it was more than that. It was Dagger's center of operation.

I knew it had to have been. Because from across the street, I saw the dark men in suits congregating around the glass entranceway. A limousine was parked nearby. They all looked shifty and anxious.

Thunder rolled overhead.

One drop came…then another.

Then a torrent.

Rain poured through the alleyway, dripping and echoing out into a grand puddle that slid down the post-July-Fourth aura of depression that was the lonely asphalt of the City beneath the dark shoes and slacks of the unsuspecting thugs.

I stepped out—the ultimate Wyldecarde.

CHIIIIING!!!!

I held Myrkblade out to my side. My bruised and bleeding body dripped in the rain. My black hair ran back down straight…soaked. Myrkblade collected moisture and dripped similarly.

When the thugs looked up at me….that look of shock…that look of fear….

I knew that this was it.

This was the beginning of the break. The breaking of an Experiment of a Circle. Like rain, everything was cascading and collapsing around me. I was alone and I was pissed off at being pissed off and being alone.

With my former teammates' probably dead and my past catching up to consume the bitter parts of me, all that was left was the animal. The bloodlusting bandit that I always denied until that very, damn second.

The dozen or so thugs in dark suits swarmed out of the exit. They cocked shotguns, uzzis, and pistols and all marched slowly…menacingly at me.

I gripped Myrkblade and frowned under my goggles.

_It was time to end this._


	64. Full Circle part 11 final

**64. Full Circle part 11 Final**

My left arm twitched.

There was a brief shot of pain running up from my forearm into my shoulder and then it was gone again.

I winced, shook it off, and slowly crept forward through the rain. The computer chip embedded in me was like a Ring returning to its Master. I knew then and there without a doubt that I was at the doorsteps to Dagger's 'house'.

I gripped hard to Myrkblade's hilt with my right hand. Rain plodded down my head, soaked my hair, and streamed down my face and over my black goggles. My tattered apprentice outfit of black and brown metal mesh glinted with the sheen of moisture.

Across from me and forming a solid line in the puddles of the street were Slade's henchmen. There were twelve to fifteen of them at that time and place. Clad in rain-soaked, absurdly formal suits of black, dark brown, and dark blue. A handful held uzzis aimed at me. Another handful had shotguns. Slowly, the line formed a crescent curved outward from my slowly advancing stride. Beyond their dark heads I saw through the glass entrance of the gothic skyscraper's first floor. Everything inside the foyer was clean and white and polished. Another throng of men in black was inside, standing over the blinding, ivory tile; either oblivious to the standoff outside or impervious to it.

I crept forward. My metal-laced boots plopped in tiny rivers of water cascading down the asphalt and into the City gutters. The air from the cold front was betrayingly frigid for the summer season. Steam rose gently from my nose as I exhaled into the curtains and curtains of rain. A thin surface of water constantly splashed over my black goggles at some point or another.

Everything was melting inside of me as I marched out across the concrete. Everything was oozing away into some cold, soft mass in the bottom of my being. Like lead that held my feet stiff and still and forced me to stop in my sudden tracks and gently black-eye the crescent of gun-toting bodies before me…..and gradually around me.

Black suits and taunt wet muscles and taunt wet metal of ghostly triggers and barrels and clips of ammo.

My black eyes narrowed, hidden and dark.

These were not thugs……these were not human beings……

I inhaled slowly.

They crept forward. Inching. Guns cocking. Waiting……

These were equations……equations in the antithesis of the Experiment……

My fingers flexed around Myrkblade.

My metal-laced bandanna danced against the impact of rain drops.

My empty throat swallowed.

And I………I was the Scientist………

SWOOOSH!!!!!

Everyone instantly jerked and twitched their fingers around their triggers as I swiftly raised Myrkblade above my shoulders and curved to the sky.

I again inched slowly towards them, twirling my head about to face each and every one. The raindrops splattered down onto the serrated edge of my wooden sword and sliced apart into a drizzling spray that baptized me with each step I took.

They started stepping back now. Some of them were trembling. Some of the equations were already cancelling themselves out.

And for once, I saw things as Jinx saw them. Or at least as how Jinx had the capability of seeing them, had she not clouded herself with the evil ideologies of wretched criminals.

Everything around me and inside of me were just puzzle pieces trying their damned best to fit together but always taking the longest route to find each other for some odd reason. Perhaps the Titans had already learned ahead of time that a straight-line is always the best direction to take towards a goal or foe. I was still a nooby, and after days of playing the wildcard and bluffing my confused self around the table, I was finally learning my lesson. I was finally realizing that—in this world—it is the hero that reigns supreme. The Balance of Morals assured that for me. The Messenger was right. I had manifested the Einstein approach to the continual dichotomy of Good versus Evil and now reality was curving in my favor under the flag of Virtue.

And virtue carries an obsidian sword to tear ass with.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I rocketed towards the crescent of henchmen in a straight line. Myrkblade warbling. My eyes smoking.

Guns cocked, fingers pulled, and--

BLAM!!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The bullets were like the rain. I merely blurred to smoke and splashed straight through them.

I materialized with Myrkblade skewering a shotgun through the middle.

CRACK!!!

I swung it into a thug to my right. The gun exploded. Shot flew hot and mercilessly. Two men fell to the ground, their upper legs bleeding.

BLAM!! BLAM!!

Shots from behind me.

I leapt straight up, backflipped, and came down between two shotgunners.

Standing straight, I twirled Myrkblade clockwise in front of me. The tip sliced red canyons into the right and left shoulders of the thugs on my flanks. They fell down, screaming.

A half dozen remaining thugs gasped and fired at will.

BLAM!!! BANG!! BANG!!

I spun, twirled Myrkblade, and deflected every bullet, shot, and stream.

Two projectiles flew back through the ankles of two thugs. They fell down, leaking red.

I deflected another bullet with a crouching jab of my blade.

The object sailed up and bounced off the shades a man was wearing. The sunglasses split in two and the sheer concussion of the ricochet sent him plunging unconscious to the puddles beneath him.

I squatted there…panting. The rivers of rain-made puddles ran towards me and under me. Fresh crimson trails squirmed through the rivers. I saw the blood as the Tao. And that Tao was inside of me. And I didn't need to stress and I didn't need to worry. Just dance. Like a ballet. The rhythm of fate and destiny was settling down a pinball machine of celestial gravity and bouncing off the paddles of my heartbeat. It was always like that. I was just too preoccupied with the disillusions and detriments of being banished by the Titans to bother slipping a quarter in.

BANG!!!!!

PING!!! I deflected a shot from behind my back, twirled around, and blurred at two black-suited shadows. I leapt up and slammed the tip of my shoe into the Adam's apple of one thug and jabbed diagonally downward into the shoulder of another.

SLIIIINK!!!

"AAAUGH!!" he shouted.

I came down—his arm still skewered—and swung Myrkblade around and yanked away. A spray of crimson touched the air and was instantly shoved down by the curtain of rain as the man teetered off and plowed into two recovering thugs reaching for their weapons. They all collapsed to the puddles, bleeding and bruised, but not mortally wounded.

I twirled Myrkblade, swiveled around, and faced two last men with pistols. Their limbs shook. Their feet were unsteady. They hobbled backwards and fired round after round from their metal friends.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

I marched slowly towards them. Every time a bullet flew at me, I blurred into smoke and let the projectile stream past me. Rain pattered off my head in intermittent gasps of liquid light. My goggles spewed murk out from under and---WOOOOOSH!!!

Water parted in mid-air as I teleported forward, kneed one thug in the stomach, thwacked the other in the head with my hilt, and slapped the legs out from under the first with the broadside of Myrkblade.

THWAP!!

SPLASH!!!

One man fell hard to the puddles below. The other man teetered.

I grabbed the latter, rushed towards the entrance, and slammed him hard against the hood of the limousine.

WHUMP!!!

Aluminum bounced and dented and the man was unconscious.

I hopped over the vehicle and under the concrete shadow of the building. My body steamed with smoke into the lessening rain as I came to the overhang.

The people inside the blindingly white foyer had seen me finally. They were busy scrambling to slide in the bolt locks of the fragile glass doors.

A grounded thug on the sidewalk stirred and stood up, painfully rubbing his head.

I blindly hoisted him up by the collar in mid march. He struggled in my grasp for a half second or two before I picked up the pace, stretched him in front of me, and charged the doors and the recoiling thugs inside with the man's sprawling body as a battering ram.

**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!**

Glass fountained into the foyer with rain water.

Two thugs met the body of the man as I leapt over them and into the line of fire of nearly twenty recruited thugs aiming at me. In mid-air, I looked ahead and saw a dark-haired man in front of the huge elevator doors at the end of the foyer and flanked by half a dozen thugs. He was twirling a knife in his fingers. He had on a stone face.

Dagger……

With that revelation streaking across my mind, the bulletfire rang into my ears as I fell and everything speeded up like a blender.

BANG!! BANG!! RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I fell with a spinning fan of Myrkblade in front of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

Bullets deflected back in a conical fountain.

I landed in the sea of glass, side-flipped, and ran up a concrete pillar.

Bullets splashed behind my heels.

Plaster and stone flew in shattered shingles.

I vaulted off, teleported through a wall of shot, and landed in the center of a circle of six gun-toating thugs.

I spun on the ground with Myrkblade pointed outwards.

SWOOOOOSH-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLINK!!!!

All six thugs fell at once, simultaneously grabbing their bleeding ankles.

I rolled across the red-stained tile, came up to my knees, and raised Myrkblade with a blur that deflected two magnum rounds.

BLAM—CLANK!!!

BLAM—CONG!!

I dove forward, slid across the ground, and jumped up besides the man with the revolver.

He fired point blank at me.

BLAM!!!

I teleported behind him, spun once, and jabbed Myrkblade backwards.

CLANK!!

The tip skewered his revolver.

I twirled Myrkblade in front of me and slashed forward at two thugs rushing up with shotguns. The swing caused the revolver to fly off the tip of my sword, land awkwardly on the floor, and explode in a fury of silver shrapnel.

Blood splurted from the two shotgunners' legs as they fell hard to the ground.

I spun around, kicked the revolver man in the face, and backflipped across the foyer as another phalanx of black-suited men rushed up with uzzis and took aim.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

At the end of my flip, I slid across the ground. Bullets ricocheting in a stream behind my heels, I ran up a column, blurred my feet, ran up the ceiling, streaked upside down above the men, and tossed a fan of razor sharp playing cards from directly overhead. The last of my deck.

SWIIIIIISH—CH-CH-CHUNK!!!

Three uzzis bit the dust. Two men were still armed. They fired rapidly as I teleported from the ceiling to the floor, side flipped, dove forward, deflected their shorts, and charged at them.

I danced and twirled between the men, gracefully slashing off gun barrels, grazing shoulders with red streams, knocking feet out from under gasping torsos, and even slamming two heads together.

The long and short of it…the last gunmen were grounded in three and a half seconds flat.

I spun and glared at the elevator doors.

Dagger and his last half-dozen thugs stepped back towards the door. The henchmen formed a protective circle around them.

I charged.

They aimed. My feet smoked and blurred.

They fired.

BLAM!! BANG!!!

I deflected the bullets with ease.

I gritted my teeth.

The elevator doors opened.

Dagger slowly stepped back. Emotionless.

The thugs fired as one.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

I teleported through the wave of bullets.

I came at them.

One thug ran off, whimpering.

The wall flew at me.

Bodies with metal weapons.

Dagger's unblinking eyes.

Twirling knife.

BLAM!!

CLANK!!

I swung through a gun, shattering it to pieces.

The elevator doors were closing.

I jumped up, kicked my way through a thug's head, and streaked past the others grabbing for me in vain.

A thin slit of doorspace left.

White puffing into nonexistence in the corners of my goggles.

A twirl of Myrkblade, and dive, and stab, and---

SWOOOOSH!!!

I squeezed through the closing doors and slashed straight at Dagger's torso against the wall.

TH-THWIP!! He spun the knife and blurred his hand up.

CLANK!!

My blade stabbed up into the metal wall two inches above his head.

He glared and yanked forward.

SLIIIINK!!!

His knife grazed my right cheek.

I winced and stepped back. I planted my back against the elevator doors, twirled Myrkblade, and aimed it at him from across a scant span of half a meter and a half.

Dagger was poised into a perfect position. His thin and seemingly harmless body angled itself into a meditative stance. His left hand pointed his ornate knife straight out at me. Stone still. Not shaking in the least. His other hand bent fingers into a tranquil position. There was more strength in his flick of a tiny blade then there was in a nuclear warhead. I could sense it pouring out of his unblinking eyes. Cold and collected. Infinitely strong. Evil.

He was still.

I was still.

The flow of Fate paused as we regarded each other.

Black eyes on impervious eyes.

A soaking wet body and a dry granite figure.

The elevator hummed around us…dragging us gently upwards to some unknown tier in the gothic tower of industrial Evil.

Silence….

"How did I see this coming, Jordan?" Dagger throated. And I knew once and for all that he was the same voice as beyond the bright floodlamps of that meat packing plant. "Like your eyes, my mind is constantly wakened by the bright flares burning across this land we call 'Existence'. I saw your fire flickering in the night as you crawled into this City of mine. Like the prodigal son, you came back under my wings. It would be a completely accurate analogy…if only I was your father."

I panted…glaring at him. My black goggles formed hard lines into my skin. My fingers tightened around my weapon's hilt. Blood trickled down from the fresh knife cut on my right cheek.

"I honestly never believed them when they said you would be the epitome of the undertaking…," he said hauntingly. Glaring at every revealed and hidden corner of my face. "You were too passionate. Too strong in the things that you clung to. Not like the red eyes."

My lungs heaved. I looked past him and into a dark past I wanted nothing to taste of anymore. I remembered everything…I still do remember everything, even if I don't admit it.

But I didn't remember Dagger….not one bit.

But the things he remembered….

"The red eyes succumbed….," he spoke. "…and it was rather ironic that he was the one to crumble. He was so fiery in spirit. Lord knows, it was his element. But the flame was kindled in our direction. His fate was predictable. Not like yours, Jordan. Not the black eyes. The black eyes seems intent on making a future of his own. Most pathetic, I think. Most disrespectful as well."

I gritted my teeth and made to jab at him.

"Don't…," he spat. "You may not recognize me, Jordan, but I can sense every muscle in your face melting away as you realize that I know you. And in order for me to know you, I had to have been there. And I **was** there, Jordan. I was there through all the screaming and the bleeding and the infinite blinding light. And that means I'm twice as dangerous as you'll ever be. So stand back, boy. You are no longer in your element."

I didn't believe a word he said. But I remained still, regardless. With Myrkblade aimed at him.

It wasn't my time to strike yet….it wasn't my time….

"If only you could tell me what it is that gives you the guile you have, Jordan….," he glared. "That foolish perseverance that makes you crawl back to your past while avoiding it all the same. Slade was right. Things **are** coming full circle. But not for him. No…not for him and his foolish dreams of supernatural dominance. Full Circle is the fate that you and I share. And I know where my part is in the play of destiny. But where is yours? Or do you even have a 'yours'? Rather…I'm inclined to think that where red eyes fell in and black eyes fell off….white eyes fell through."

My lips parted.

A chill ran through my body.

"White eyes….," Dagger breathed. "She's behind this, isn't she? It all makes sense, somehow. By yourself, you couldn't possibly have made it back to my threshold. White eyes has to be a part of it. Ana must be inside of you, Jordan. And it's only fitting…after the day she—"

SWOOOOSH!!!

I jabbed Myrkblade straight at him with a silent scream.

He ducked, knocked my sword away with a massive swing of his knife.

CLANK!!

He kicked me back in the lower body.

WHUMP!!

I fell against the doors, wincing.

"I can see you are still obstinate," he sneered. He reached into his pocket with a free hand. "It may be fated for you to hunt me down, but fate itself is no more than a commodity in this day and age." That said, he whipped out a glass vial that glowed in a pink light. "And I am chock full of wealth as we speak…"

My brow furrowed. My eyes squinted as I stared at the tiny container. The hue and glow of the color seemed so…..familiar….

Dagger frowned at me. His knife held at ready in one hand, he twirled the pink vial with the other and tossed it straight at the elevator floor.

CRACK!!!!

The vial shattered between his feet. Instantly, the glass flew apart and the pink glow drifted upwards like colorful steam. It 'absorbed' itself into Dagger's legs, abdomen, torso, arms, neck, and face. He held his arms out like a crucifix, flexed his muscles, and took a deep breath. At the end of his inhalation, his entire body momentarily shined in what appeared to be a pink aura. His eyes were softer than before…but still just as emotionless.

I blinked.

He narrowed his gaze on me. "Let's give those black eyes of yours a run-through, shall we Jordan?"

SWOOOOSH!!!

He blurred at me.

I could barely gasp--

WHAM!!!!!

The elevator doors behind me shattered as Dagger's glowing body plowed into me and shoved me onto a cold, metal floor of the twentieth story.

I slid across an aluminum gantry, hopped up, and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

My black eyes widened.

With inhuman speed, Dagger rushed around me, grabbed my left shoulder, and effortlessly flung me through a glass window overlooking the dark hallway we were in.

SMASH!!!

I fell a good story and landed on a catwalk in a giant interior full of noise.

I reached a blind hand up, grabbed ahold of a railing, and pulled myself to my feet. I winced all over. Glass fell off my shoulders and to the floor beneath my boots. I gripped loosely to Myrkblade as I ached.

Since when could Dagger move like that??

He was only human just seconds ago!!

I blinked.

Where was I??

I looked around. Stories seventeen through nineteen of Dagger's building were not solid office floors as one would expect from looking at the outside of the structure. Before me stretched a huge processing plant of sorts, built high up into the shell of the skyscraper. Steam hissed and machinery parts cranked all around me. I saw conveyor belts, robot arms, moving platforms, pulley systems, rattling chains, and all sorts of fancy devices constructed for the mass packaging of a mysterious material. And that mysterious material turned out to be hundreds upon hundreds of little glass vials of pink, glowing light. Robot arms with slots for the glass cases whirred and shook their rattling ways across the indoor factory and towards containers of hard-plastic and metal braces. Before my black eyes, a shipment was being prepared. All of the glowing pink before me was about to be shipped off to unknown and frightening places. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before…

"I do owe Slade one thing…."

I spun and held Myrkblade ready as Dagger dropped effortlessly down from the smashed window and slowly stepped towards me. He hadn't even broken a sweat.

"…his sorceress was most gracious in providing me with these wares." He glowed pink as he gestured towards the handfuls of lit vials moving all around him and us on the catwalk. "Pure Hex is what it is, Jordan. The key to bending fate in a bottle. Just one average man like me—weighing less than one hundred and eighty pounds—can move mountains…." CLANK!!!! He casually kicked a wrought-iron catwalk railing out of place. "…can cheat time…." WOOOOOSH!!! He was suddenly behind me by ten feet. "…and can play with destiny." He jumped up, flipped, and literally perched upside down on a metal bulkhead above as I watched him. "I grew up in the streets, Jordan. I knew what it meant to not know what the future was going to be. I knew what it meant to be clueless as to the whims of tomorrow." He dropped down, flipped upright in the blink of an eye, and landed right in front of me. He advanced as I stepped backwards from him with my sword. "And yet I persisted. I tempted fate. I fought for that which is at most odds impossible for me to grasp: plentiful life. Now that I have reached this apex…this height in the same underworld that once suckled me from the mire of urban sprawl…I think it is more than fitting that I decide how fate should operate from hereon out." He twirled his knife and pointed at me with glaring eyes as he glowed pink once again. "Imagine to yourself, Jordan, a criminal society impervious to bullets! An evasive opponent to death! An eternal rogue from the reaches of law! Slade can have his empty part of the bargain…for what I have acquired here is nothing short of invincibility itself!! The effects of these pitifully small vials may be temporary and impractical…but once my team of experts whom I stole from Anderson find the right pieces to the puzzle, my men and I can reproduce the hex on our own. And the world will have no choice but to bow down to me and my will. The implications of this are incomprehensible. You should know, Jordan. You've faced against this inevitability before, haven't you?"

I took a deep breath.

I had.

In Phaser Labs.

The ungodly assassins who shot every bullet a hit and swung every punch an impact.

They looked and moved like Jinx for a reason. Dagger had manage to get the Cat's tongue for once.

"Imagine this whole City full of that. Then the whole region. This is a happy July Fourth indeed, Jordan. In a matter of weeks…there will be a new definition to this Nation. Though, to be honest—I'll set up nothing more than pure anarchy once I have gained enough power…"

I growled and swung Myrkblade at him.

He lifted his hand.

CLANK!!!

His wrist blocked my smoking, serrated blade.

My jaw fell.

His eyes narrowed.

He spun around and extended two hands of glowing pink.

The air suddenly thundered between us and I was sent flying back.

WHUMP!!!

He twirled his knife, dashed forward, and slashed downward with the seemingly flimsy blade.

I rolled backwards.

SMASH!!!!!!

An entire section of the catwalk cracked and fell out from the impact.

I jumped up.

Dagger came at me.

I held my breath and teleported right as he blurred through me with blue pink.

I solidified across the room full of moving parts and rattling machinery and vials.

I panted.

"You move fast, black eyes…," a voice said directly behind me.

I gasped and spun around.

Dagger glared. "But I move faster." WHAM!!!!! He punched me in the stomach with a single fist.

Regardless, I was sent flying back ten feet, striking hard against a metal bulkhead, and falling down hard onto the conveyor belt.

WHUMP!!!!

I winced. Packages of pink vials bobbed alongside me.

Thump!!!

Dagger landed on the moving platform, standing before me with hands on his hips.

"Come now…where's the fervor of red eyes? The resilience of white eyes? Have you truly forgotten about them, Jordan?"

I looked up and glared at him through my goggles. I never forget anything……

He blurred down, gripped me by the scarred throat, and lifted me high into the air as we both rattled along. I struggled and gasped and dangled in his grip…even though I was much taller and more physically fit than he was. Dagger had the pink hex empowering him. He didn't let up on me one bit.

"

You were so….so much more complete alongside the two of them…," Dagger reminisced. "After all, that's what the three of you were trained to do, right? Complement each other? At least that's what I was told when I extended my services. But now as I look at you, I know that you needed those two as much as they needed you. And without them…you're nothing but a chaotic shell. That's all you are, Jordan. A ghost of violence. Your only purpose in life is to fight. To attack. To pillage. You have nothing else to think about…and nothing else to say. It is no simple irony that you are mute. For you are hardly even half of a human being without them on your side like the old days!!"

He let go of me with a toss and I fell hard to the conveyor belt again…wheezing for breath.

"The Titans….they are a poor substitute," he murmured, clenching pink-glowing fists. "Perhaps it will do you good now that they may indeed be perishing in the hands of Slade. You'll learn that—from one experiment to another—you were strung between two torturous events and meant only for exercising the power donated to you in becoming black eyes. Your life has now come full circle. But I see that you're learning absolutely nothing. It was my job…the task appointed me to give you the ultimate test. Now, black eyes, let's see if indeed you **fail!!!**" He kicked me hard in the side.

WHUMP!!!!

I went flying off the conveyor belt and straight into a stack of plastic and metal cases.

CRASH!!!!!

Packages splashed all around me and thundered to the cold, metal floor along with my ragdoll body. I winced and flinched in pain. I looked around me and gasped. One of the packages had spilled open, and I was surrounded by glass vials of Jinx's hex…rattling to a stand still. I gulped. I looked up. I looked back at the vials again.

A beat….

THRUMP!!!!!

The packages around me were kicked loose of the fresh mountain of debris as Dagger rummaged through with pink limbs in search of me. He squinted his unblinking eyes at the spot where I was and twirled his dagger.

I was gone.

Invisible.

Stealth mode……

He obviously knew it.

He inhaled, looked up, and spoke firmly to the thin air: "Always one to disappear. Like a true ghost." He twirled his blade to a stop and the knife's metal glowed a bright pink. "But there's nowhere left to hide, Jordan. Once things are full circle, there's no extra perimeter to cling to. You're as good as found….and as good as mine."

With that said, he flicked the knife straight into the air.

The pink glow increased. The metal glinted with lavender. The blade literally curved in mid-flight, arched downwards, twitched around a robot arm, flew past a conveyor belt, and spun right as---

SLIIIIIINK!!!!

My body solidified momentarily as I grunted and clutched a bleeding shoulder where the blade had grazed me. The knife fell hard to the floor…stained crimson.

CLANK!!

Dagger clenched his fists. "Out of the woodwork…." He held his breath and blurred at the leaking red in mid-air.

WHAM!!!!

His knee struck me first. I lost my stealth as I stumbled back…gasping and bleeding.

Dagger spun and---with frightening acrobatics---lifted a swinging foot up and across my face.

SMACK!!

I teetered back towards a tall stretch of gothic windows overlooking a rainswept balcony. White lightning flickered outside in the wet weather, briefly shining off the pink vials and clanking machinery inside the skyscraper. Thunder rolled above the rumble of the factory as Dagger advanced harder and harder, dealing blow after blow on my aching figure with unabashed disregard for the rules of fate and happenstance.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! THWACK!! WHUMP!!

Pink glowed against my chest from each impact of his strikes.

I fell dizzily backwards, clinging desperately to Myrkblade. My lips bled. My hair hung in tangled knots around my bruised face. I panted and wheezed.

Dagger's eyes narrowed. "Obstinate….so horribly obstinate…."

He jumped up, twirled, and sidekicked me square across the face.

SMACK!!!!

I was sent spiraling backwards and through the gothic windows.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!

Shards flew and tall cracks swam up the tall stretch of glass. I stumbled awkwardly across the balcony of stone where rain drenched and flowed in rivers past my sprawling figure and directly over the edge of an arrangement of stiff gargoyles overlooking a seventeen-story-drop to the black river of asphalt far below.

I lay on the ground….gasping. Dagger's last kick had completely shattered my goggles apart. The leather strap holding them in place littered to the ground, and my naked black eyes were exposed permanently to the unforgiving night. Lightning flashed and burned my optics instantly. Tears of pain merged with the rain streaming down my forehead.

Dagger slowly marched out onto the stone outcropping of the ghothic scraper's surface. His dry, ornate self remained impervious to the rain, for a pink glow deflected all dropping moisture away from his head and shoulders as he leered over me….breathing steadily.

"You disappoint me, Jordan. But I suppose you could have predicted such. Regardless, my verdict is not the final one in your case. You know as well as I do who I answer to. It's the same one responsible for the glory you could have begun. But this test proves him wrong. And I feel almost regretful for ever lending a hand to the procedure that brought meaning to the three sets of eyes. But there is one last step for this test. And I am most eager to see the results…"

He took a deep breath…and kicked me hard in the side.

WHUMP!!

I went splashing across the balcony and sailed over the side.

I gasped, reached up, and stabbed Myrkblade hard into the neck of a gargoyle. I dangled from my hold of Myrkblade, which was stuck halfway into the stoned monster. Rainwater vomited out of its granite mouth and littered down me…plummeting seventeen long stories to the hard asphalt looming far below.

Lightning flashed, burning me inside out. I gritted my teeth and squinted my black eyes up.

Thunder rolled and Dagger appeared. He stood over me. He sighed.

"And so it is….," he mumbled. "You are defeated. I suppose it is time I did my part and suggest the procedure choose a new pair of eyes to empower. As far as I'm concerned…my efforts have been just as fruitless as Slade. He failed to reinvent the universe…I failed to reinvent you. But you know what they say about the best laid plans….they come full circle into oblivion. And you, Jordan, are the epitome of such oblivion."

I took a deep breath….dangling…straining…staring up at him.

His eyes narrowed and he nodded his head down at me through the shower of nonstop rain drops and strobe of lightning. "Learn to embrace the end, Jordan. All your life…you've been avoiding it."

I frowned.

So freakin' sue me……

I reached into my belt pocket with a free hand.

Dagger's eyebrows raised.

I pulled out a glass vial of pink hex I had snatched up from the factory floor.

Dagger's lips parted.

YANK!!!!!

I pulled on Myrkblade….and fell.

Dagger's body turned into a speck that sailed up at me on the balcony's edge.

And I fell with the rain like a wet bag of discarded meat.

Lightning flashed as I spun my body around and faced the biting wind. My hair whipped behind me and my black eyes narrowed against the stinging air.

The asphalt soared up at me.

I took a deep breath.

I flung the vial straight down. It flew a few feet of falling ahead of me.

I twirled Myrkblade…and slashed downward.

SWOOOOOSH-CLANK!!!!

The vial shattered. Glass flew past my face, some chards cutting at the sides of my skull. I gritted my teeth and absorbed the glow of pink hex contained within. A strong glow of warmth and fluidity merged with the smoke in my bloodstream. As the street came rocketing towards my bright vision, I felt the currents of reality shift and morph in my favor. God came to earth in my empty throat as I took a deep breath, stretched Myrkblade straight down towards the urban sprawl, and willed for the impossible to happen.

And it did…in the form of a petroleum semi truck suddenly hitting a brand new sinkhole in the asphalt and fishtailing across the myriad of puddles. The driver inside scrambled in vain to take control of the vehicle as the truck glowed a dim pink and fishtailed through the slick street before slamming into a telephone pole. The pole snapped and the tank of the semi truck trailer cracked open…leaking petroleum. Power lines flew in the rain and dangled above the leaking spot of fuel. At the last second, the driver bailed out of his seat and ran clear across the street as the dangling cords sparked once…twice…and---

_**BOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

In perfect, coordinated coincidence…an enormous fireball flew up at me and stabbed deep into my black eyes with unbearable blindness. My face was on fire….and I smiled. I smiled a Cheshire cat grin. I twirled like a ballet dancer in mid air, the tips of my fingers glowing around Myrkblade. I spiraled through the rain, blurred my feet, encased my body in solid smoke, and absorbed the vertical plume of erupting plasma.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOMB!!!!!!!**_

A mushroom cloud of fire shot up both buildingsides bordering the four-lane-space of the street. The air heated up and shook with grenade-like-concussions as the flame danced up and shattered every single pane of glass and window stretching up for about fifteen feet while I cannonballed towards the rain-soaked and lightning filled sky without regard for fate, death, or the nameless 'other' beyond.

_**ROAAAAAAAAAAARR!!!!!**_

Before long, Dagger's stone face flew straight down at my vision and shattered into pebbles of shock and disbelief.

I gritted my smiling teeth, slashed Myrkblade upwards, and struck heavenly hard with the wooden sword across the full length of the crimelord's chest.

**SLASSSSSSSSSSSHHHH!!!!**

Dagger's shirt ripped to shreds. A thick red line formed diagonally up his chest as he teetered back.

I was already flipping and coming back down in a pink streak.

SMACK!!!!

I struck his arm down with Myrkblade, spun around, and jabbed straight into his stomach.

THWUMP!!!

He fell back a full fifteen feet and tumbled across the wet balcony.

I twirled the blade, danced in twirls and spins across the way, and effortlessly swung again. His arm just happened to be there.

SLIIIINK!!!

Blood flew from his skin as I grazed it. I was a god then. If I wanted to beat Dagger's ass without killing him, then I beat Dagger's ass without killing him. The pink aura glowed as I continued with my punishment, jabbing and slashing and swinging my sword.

Blood flew from Dagger's sensitive skin in eleven different places. He stumbled, teetered, wobbled, and careened all around as my strikes mercilessly assaulted him with the quickness of the lightning, the relentlessness of the rain, and the fury of the thunder.

At one point, his wheezing—bleeding—body fell back against a pillar of stone set in the gothic front of the building face. He gasped…struggling for breath and yet somehow keeping his emotions in check, save for a awkward slice of desperation: "Y-You have passed the test, Jordan. A-Allow me to live and I c-c-can help you!!"

I gritted my teeth and slashed again.

He tried ducking, but I only shred a cut in the back of his billowing, soaked shirt. Blood leaked down his back as he stumbled backwards, spun around, and hobbled backwards away from my advancing figure.

"Y-Your past….Jordan…," he wheezed, "….I-I can explain everything….I can t-tell you all the truths they told me….I-I can fill in the gaps for y-you…."

My black eyes glared, reflecting pink hex and white lightning.

I'm happy with my gaps…thank you very much!!

SLASH!!!!

Dagger's shirt came loose and hung on him by one sleeve alone as his soaked, bare skin bore a dozen deep cuts and scratches. He stumbled closer and closer—and dizzier and dizzier—towards the rainsoaked edge of the balcony.

"I can….I c-c-can even help you…," he wheezed, "….f-find her again…..Jordan…."

I came to a stop.

I froze with Myrkblade in mid-swing.

My lips quivered.

The pink aura started to fade.

Dagger leaned haphazardly on the edge of the balcony. Rain mixed with red rivers coming down his torso. His stone face melted into pure pain and exhausted as he panted and emphasized:

"Ana……white eyes…..I-I can help you two….r-r-reunite…."

My heart turned cold. I gritted my teeth.

_Liar………_

Smoke billowed out from my eyes and blade.

_Filthy……unforgivable……LIAR!!!_

I charged straight at him with a silent scream and a swing of my sword. The smoke exploded back into a bright pink fury.

_I know very well what happened to Ana………_

SLASH!!!!!!!

Dagger literally twirled from my last cut. He teetered at the edge, groaned, and fell over.

"!!!!" I dove forward…slid over the last length of rain-soaked balcony….and slung my left hand out and over the edge.

CLUTCH!!!!!

I grabbed ahold of a handful of shirt. I strained and gritted my teeth as Dagger dangled far over the edge below me. His right arm was slung awkwardly through the last bit of sleeve stuck around his skin. Mere cloth. It lurched, stretched, and strained from the weight of the man hanging far below my grasp of the other end. Dagger's body spun slightly as he dangled. Limp legs over a dark abyss of shadowed alleyway below. He looked up—cut and lifeless—as lighting flashed and illuminated the corners of his crumbled face. The pink aura faded for good from his body. The temporary effects of his smashed vial of hex died out like he said it would. He was now as endangered by the altitude and weather elements as any normal human on any normal occasion.

I panted down at him…rain streaking down from my matted hair and off my chin and over his eyes.

He finally blinked at me. He spoke with a haunting air of sadness as he said: "You are far more alone than even I thought, Jordan…."

I panted.

My lips hung open.

Hidden from my black eyes, Dagger reached a free hand to his tattered slacks pocket and fingered the hilt of a concealed, ornate knife.

"But perhaps not for long….," he whispered. "For you still have Titans to save."

I blinked.

His eyes narrowed. "Twenty miles east…in the waters of the Atlantic…Slade has your companions held hostage in his frigate. If he hasn't already, he intends to either brainwash or kill them. Perhaps even both. The Experiment Slade's been in love with all this time is now in effect. Surely, you have felt it."

I breathed heavily.

My left hand ached and strained as I struggled to hold the man up by the flimsy shirt.

He slowly slid the knife out of his pocket…but not all the way.

"If you wish to attempt saving your friends, you may do so…black eyes," he spoke solemnly. "But that chip in your left arm—the very same one I put in there—will stop you."

My eyes widened.

"Slade has with him a remote. As soon as you're in the same room as him, he will press the trigger and release deadly toxins into your body. And you will die, Jordan. You will have no time to save your friends. You'll perish at Slade's hands before you even have a chance to look at your tortured companions…."

My lips quivered in the rain.

Dagger took a deep breath. The last breath he would ever take. "Alas, such is the consequence of fate. It clips us of our wings…and sends our dust settling back into the heartless streets."

SWOOOOSH!!! He swung his blade up….and severed the sleeve around his arm.

RIIIIIIP!!!

I gasped and reached down for him…but it was too late.

The stoical despot fell with the rain down the seventeen stories below. I watched as his body was swallowed up in the darkness of the alleyway below. And everything but the thunder echoed silence.

The bloody, tattered shirt flapped at the end of my grasp like a dirty flag. I slowly stood up…Myrkblade hanging by my side. I took a deep breath.

Something beeped behind me.

"???"

I turned around.

I looked in through the smashed windows at the factory full of transported vials. The machinery were blinking with red lights.

I gasped.

Dagger was dead.

And he had a failsafe---

I spun around, ran towards the edge of the balcony, and leapt with the last charge of pink hex I had left.

BEEP!!!—**BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

The three floors of packaging materials exploded brightly behind me.

I flew across the space between buildings, perched on a window on the opposite side, and blurred up to the rain-soaked rooftops as the fireball erupted and shot debris all around me from where I had leapt.

I stood up on the next building's spire, silhouetted by a sky strobing with lightning and raindrops reflecting the fire of both the smoking petroleum truck below and the erupting building of Dagger's fallen empire. In the distance beneath the rumble of thunder, the sounds of sirens erupted and wailed this way.

Fate had gone up in flames. I couldn't care less.

I looked off towards the East, my hair flapping wet and loose in the wind and rain.

_I had to save my friends…but how??_

I looked at the flapping shirt, still hung around my left arm. The arm with the damnable chip. The chip that would kill me in a matter of hours when I inevitably went to save the Titans.

_And yet…I would never save the Titans. I wouldn't be able to get close to them._

Dagger didn't really need to warn me about the chip. I had greatly suspected that it was my death card. It was the sort of thing a despot like him or Slade would use. In fact, I was rather surprised I survived as long as I did against him on the soaked balcony. But none of that mattered now.

_Slade…..I had to face Slade. I didn't want to and yet I did want to all the same._

My mind reeling, I blurred down the buildingside and away from the amber glow of destruction before the cops and paramedics and firefighters came to embrace the desolation….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Panting.

Sweating.

Lungs stinging with pain.

Robin slowly stood up. Curtains of moisture swam their way down his cheeks from under his eyemasks. Gradually, as he woke up to the topmost layer of consciousness, he realized that he was still there. All five of them were still there. It was not a dream, and yet it was a nightmare. A real nightmare.

The other Titans…Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire…they moaned and stirred in their chairs.

Robin couldn't tell whether or not Slade had lowered the level of torture the nanoprobes were releasing into the heroes' bloodstreams. The level of pain did seem strangely lower. Now it only felt like a carving knife against the curves of Robin's intestines. But the more he thought about the situation…the more he thought about Slade…the more he wished to get free, and that very thought triggered the electromagnetic sensors of the computerized chair he was sitting in and moved the metaphysical 'carving knife' to his lungs.

"AAAUGH!!!" he suddenly yelped and shook in pain from the hellish punishment.

A girlish finger tickled the tip of his sweat-covered chin.

Robin gasped and looked through hazy eyes at the pink figure of a sorceress leaning in front of him.

"Awwwww….poor thing," Jinx cooed. "Does it hurt? Oh wait…yes it does!!! Hehehehe!!"

Robin swallowed hard. He wheezed dryly: "Y-You…."

"I've seen you in a better light, Bird Boy…," Jinx remarked softly. "But my-oh-my how the layers of suave vigilante image have crumbled. All you are underneath is this. The squealing Mama's boy who gives in under pain. Ya know, the only reason you and your fellow Titans are alive right now is that you're not resisting. And in a way…that means a victory for my side."

"Where is Slade?" Robin growled, immediately feeling the equivalent of pins being stabbed in his eyes. He gasped and shook.

"Temper temper…," she smiled. "I'm keeping watch while my Master tends to navigational issues," she gestured out the circular window a the darklit waves. "He trusts me to keep your powers at bay with my hex so that you last through the Experiment. After all, it's only the **first** day!"

"'M-Master'???" Robin wheezed. "You are….," he eyed her black and brown outfit. "….h-his apprentice…."

Jinx winked her cat eye. "In the flesh." She jumped back, twirled like a dancer, and stood with a girlish lean as she spoke: "While you and your friends were bashing your precious Noir, I was secretly hopping around and making things a royal headache for you!! Thought things were too coincidental for there to be ambushes at the end of every Slade-lead? Or felt that Noir kicked so much ass while the rest of you Titans collapsed under chaotic circumstance? Well…you're looking at the hand of fate! The manifestation of misfortune! The ever-present Jinx in your life that makes you fall over yourself and collapse into egotistical oblivion!!"

Suddenly, Cyborg wheezed—coming to in a painful moan: "Robin…who's this chatterbox?? Not even Slade talks his damn mouth off like this—AAAUGH!!" He winced as the impression of a hundred invisible knives flying through his chest racked through his body from the nanoprobes and he sweated bullets.

"Keep yourself under control Cyborg…," Robin gasped. He swallowed hard and managed to speak: "W-We gotta think of something…we gotta last…."

"We ain't joining Slade's side…," Cyborg whimpered, his human eye closed tightly. "W-We can't!!"

"Y-Yeah…," Beast Boy's voice suddenly entered the air with a sigh. "L-Let's just get it over with….altogether??"

"Hang in there….p-please….," Robin shuddered. "E-Everyone…"

"I am…..finding it….most difficult…to remain virtuous….," Starfire whimpered. Green tears leaked from her eyes as she shook in her seat. "The joy…is fading with…each release….of my resolve….."

"You're doing great….j-just hang in there….w-we'll think of something…"

"Oh really???" Jinx grinned, her hands on her grip as a Cheshire cat grin floated across the space towards the Boy Wonder. "And just what do you expect to do? You can't get out of those damn seats!! The more you think about escaping from Slade or hurting him, the nanoprobes torture you all the more until you flat-out die!!! How could you possibly formulate a plan under such circumstances?!?!"

"What's in it for you??" Beast Boy spat, wincing from the nanoprobes' reaction to his outburst. "I-I thought you were on your own, Jinx!! I thought you were gone from H.I.V.E. and people like Slade---an-and lookin' for your sisters and c-crap!!"

"They're as good as found now, thank you," Jinx smiled softly. "Master will make sure of that."

"He'll make sure of nothing!!" Cyborg retorted. He winced in a sudden wave of pain. He bore it through, panted, and spoke on: "Every time…Slade has made an apprentice…he's double-crossed him or her. It'll happen to you. J-J-Just you wait and see!!"

"I'll wait for you to wish that I could see…up until you're either dead or a vegetable zombie serving the Master," Jinx paced across the tortured five and sneered. "I know what my goals are. And unlike you fools, I know where the answer to my questions lie."

Clip!

She pulled out her locket and opened it…staring at the photo of Fate and Fortune. She sighed happily.

"At the end of this rough road…my beloved sisters will be waiting for me. Slade and I shall free them from whatever hideous institution is still housing them. Be it H.I.V.E., be it Lexcorp, be it anything or anyone. After all these long years of separation…I shall finally be reunited with the ones I love."

Flip!

Snap!

She closed the locket and slid it back down the front of her black and brown costume.

"But what do you creeps know about the 'ones you love'? You throw caution to the wind and focus on nothing but your grimy selves!!"

"We're nothing like you…," Robin said, wincing. "W-We don't endanger innocent lives and torture heroes with disregard!!"

"Oh ho ho ho ho now!!!! Listen to yourself!!" Jinx flipped over and landed agilely in front of Robin, smirking. "Name me one soul…one tiny little soul in this world that you've senselessly beat, Boy Wonder. That you and your 'friends' here have dashed against the rocks of respect and decency out of fear for your own pathetic hides!! Name him!!"

Robin strained, sweating. Grunting.

"Name him!!!!!"

"Noir…..," wheezed a voice.

Jinx looked over at Raven.

The dark girl had been meditating the whole time to relinquish the pain and gather her thoughts. But overhearing the conversation, she broke off the concentration and sacrificed her comfort in place for the exquisite pool of torture as she frowned in Jinx's direction and spoke: "Is that what you're here for? To t-teach us about what we've done to Noir? We know the truth now. He w-was never working for Slade. But now it is t-t-too late to make a difference about that…"

The other Titans couldn't frankly tell if Raven was speaking on their behalf or Jinx's. They shrugged it off in favor of fighting the waves of torture settling through their systems from the relentless nanoprobes.

Jinx blinked. She smiled. "Such….white…pure…innocent…Titans. How hard it must be to wake up to what you've done. I think it's not so bad myself. I've betrayed my close friends before. And I'm proud of it. I could care less what happens to Gizmo or Mammoth these days. Hell, I'd be happy to see them die. Sooner than naught…even you five will see things my way. It's so easy to destroy trust. So easy to take it in your hand and rip it apart. Best to live that way, to be honest. I think the nanoprobes inside of you agree, right?? Hehehehehe!!"

"We…will not…," Robin grunted, straining as each firm word he said sent a wave of pain through his resisting body. "….w-will not give in….to a shift in…th-the Balance of Morals!!"

Starfire joined in: "W-We are not like you!!" She teared more as fresh pain wracked through her. "We will not join your w-wretched side!"

Jinx leaned forward, grinning wide. "EVERYONE IS IMMORAL!!!" Her cackling voice echoed throughout the dark cabin of the frigate. "Don't you get it?!?! Everyone….EVERYONE is immoral!! There is no Balance of Morals or whatcrap going on here!! My Master can believe what he wants and get what he wants, as long as he helps me find my sisters in the end!! I frankly don't care if you're becoming the most brainwashed of homicidal villains ever to walk this earth…but you all were never pretty to begin with!! You're only fooling yourself to think you kicked Noir out and treated him like poop out of pure ignorance!! You chose to oust him because of your own, selfish vulnerabilities!! And you know what?? I enjoyed humiliating him!! I enjoyed it everytime I brought him pain and made him hurt! Cuz it was all just a cleanup job from what YOU had done!! Hehehehehehehehe!! Isn't it just hilarious?!?!"

The Titans winced and strained. Their sweat and tears mixed together in chaotic fashion. It was hardly humbling. Hardly glorious. The Experiment was in full bloom…and they were being stripped of everything redeemable. Nothing normal in the least.

Raven gritted her teeth as she shot her voice through a thick wall of pain: "We m-may have given up on Noir…but I am convinced he has not given up on us. He will devise a w-way to come save us and when he does—"

"He will die….," Jinx finished with a grin.

Raven's twitching eyes widened.

The other Titans gasped.

"How….H-How???"

"Because of this……," Slade said, holding up the trigger and walking into the cabin once again. "I am quite sure the lot of you are familiar with the computer chip in Noir's left arm, courtesy of Dagger. The first moment your ostracized member comes within arm's length of me…and he dies. One click of the button, and his foolish bravery will swallow him up in a much more ravenous jaws of death than that which is consuming you now." He pocketed the trigger away, walked up, and gently patted the pink head of a blushing Jinx as he continued: "But such is the way things must be. As I stand here and speak to you—I can hardly believe that the Experiment is going on unhitched as it is. But reality for once is singing in my favor. And I am most in tune to the octaves in the throat of fate. It is a lovely siren song Destiny sings. I shall never, ever wander back after hearing it. And I'm taking you five with me. Beyond the Balance of Morals and into a new universe judged by despondency and not deliverance. It will be a grand tragedy indeed. I couldn't have written it better on my own if even I tried."

"Say Slade….," Robin gritted, struggling with his nanoprobes' torture. "While you're busy gloating over our weeping and gnashing of t-teeth….when're you gonna tend to Jinx and her sisters?? If y-you can twist the heart of f-fate around and listen to the song of D-Destiny…then surely you can find her m-missing siblings in a heartbeat!!" Technically, he was speaking in favor of Slade's apprentice…so the nanoprobes did not punish him for his bravery.

However, as Slade listened—and he witnessed the sudden look of doubt and anxiety on the pink sorceress' face—he frowned at Robin and whipped out another remote.

"New rule, Titans. You only speak when either I ask you to….or when you're not busy screaming……"

-click-

The Titans wailed as a wave of fire swiftly surged their bodies.

Bolts of electricity danced between their limbs and the chairs they were writhing up against.

Jinx watched silently…but as she saw the blue bolts of electricity…something in the faded past of her pink, cat eyes twitched and she absent-mindedly bit her lip…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rain filtered down a dark alleyway beyond the sirens and fires of the blast sight as I hobbled to a stop, shivering. I had wrapped Dagger's shirt around me to warm my soaked body as the raining night drenched on.

I stopped because I realized that I had been walking in circles. I had been wasting time. I had been running away inside my head like I had done across country so much within the last four years.

With a shuddering breath, I slumped down with my bruised and aching back against a brick, alley wall.

I sunk into the abyss and let the darkness swallow me up through my naked black eyes.

I hugged my left arm to my chest like a long lost puppy. The skin there throbbed and tingled. It was like I was suddenly twice aware of my flesh now that the implications of the chip were made known to me.

I took a shuddering breath and shivered with the loose, blood-stained shirt flapping against me from the downdraft rushing through the thin alleyway.

I knew where Slade was now.

I knew where the Titans were.

Any second now…they could be killed. Executed. Transformed into brainless hulks of meat. Done in by the Experiment and the Full Circle of tragedy, as bent by the fate-ravaging ideals of Jinx and Slade.

I knew that only I and I alone had the speed and dexterity necessary to blur a path to Slade's boat and perform a rescue.

But even then…it would be hopeless.

The chip….the blasted invader of my being…it would end me. It would end me before I had a chance to even grab the Titans and hoist them out of their imprisonment.

Slade was the end of my life. With his all-seeing, emblazoned eye and his featureless voice drifting through my mind and chilling me to the cord.

It was no use.

I should have just headed back West.

I should have just walked away from this whole situation.

So what if the Experiment caused the entire fabric of the universe to screw itself in? What if this reality's weight of Morals changed forever because of one single tragedy and its repercussions?

I'd seen plenty of tragedy in my life. Plenty of dying breaths and spilt blood. The world hadn't changed any since the first day I ever screamed. The only thing that changed was me.

But…in everything coming full circle…would I just revert to my former ghost of a self? Would I just walk back West and into oblivion?

Oblivion was where Dagger was. He was an empty shell of a dictator, and he knew what was coming to him when it kissed him in the face.

I had no idea what would come to me if I gave in to my cowardice. But I knew what would happen if I did what I should have done. The only thing I **could** have done. The only option available to me. The only way…the only single way to save my friends. The Titans. The only way to earn their trust.

The key…the circumnavigation of death and the Experiment itself.

The final shove to tip the Full Circle off the cliff and break it into tiny, helpless pieces. Like dust in the grave.

I bit my lip as that familiar chill ran over my body. The same chill that splashes across your heart when you realize some horrid truth that you've known all along but push off for the sake of an irrational fear that even you yourself can see through.

That very same, frozen terror gripped my heart. But something inside me gripped it back. It wasn't so much that I was selfless, but rather that I was desperate.

I knew that if I headed west…I would be absorbed into my own Hell. Without friends.

But the Titans…and the bleakness and hopelessness of their salvation…that spelled sparks of awkward hope for me.

My breath shuddered painfully.

My right hand shook.

My fingers were numb as I reached back.

The emptiness in my throat constricted as I felt the hilt…gripped it…and pulled.

CHHHHHHIIIIIIIIINGGGGG!!!!

The unsheathing of Myrkblade echoed throughout the walls of the alleyway where everything was dark and naked and screaming up at relentless rain to stop without hope of an answered prayer.

I was hyperventilating by that point. Myrkblade shook in my grasp. I felt I could drop it….I **wanted** to drop it.

My black eyes twitched. I sweated profusely. The loose shirt whipped around my torso. Useless. Everything was useless.

I used that as an impulse to push my hesitancy over the cliff and be done with it.

But I couldn't.

I was sobbing.

I was hyperventilating.

I couldn't go through with it…I couldn't go that far.

I loved the Titans but I loved my own life and I loved my wholeness.

But I was anything but whole.

I was staring west into black oblivion and starting all over again.

Bouncing back and forth against the alleyway walls with each hyperventilating shake of my chilled body.

Everything shook to numbness and in some selfish fashion, the better part of me begged for the weather and coldness to take control of me and make me faint.

But nothing of the sort happened.

I was still painfully holding Myrkblade out in a shaking grasp. The shirt was still useless. I was still hyperventilating.

My black eyes teared. I sniffed amidst my weakness and stared straight into the oblivion of the alley wall and the West beyond it.

_There was a flicker of yellow and green._

My lips parted.

_She stepped gently towards me. One sandaled foot in front of the other. Her hands folded softly behind her green vest. Her blue eyes gently lowered and her blonde hair impervious to the rain._

I shuddered.

My breath shuddered between pants.

_"What's wrong, Jordan?" she asked in her angelic voice._

I shook. I shivered.

Myrkblade rose and fell.

_'I'm sc-scared, Ana……I d-don't know what to do……'_

_"You know very well what to do, Jordan," she blinked, staring firmly at me. "Why don't you tell me the truth? I already know what it is……"_

I flinched.

My eyes squeezed shut.

My teeth gritted.

_'I'm……I'm scared to do it. I don't want to do it. Please don't make me do it, Ana……'_

_"What is at stake here, Jordan?"_

_'I………I-I can't do it!!'_

_"What is at stake here?"_

_'…………the……th-the Titans……'_

_"Do you love them, Jordan?"_

_'Y-Yes……they are my friends……'_

_"Do they love you?"_

'………………'

_Ana slowly knelt down beside me and placed a gentle hand on my shaking, soaked shoulders. "Did they……ever __**once**__ loved you, Jordan?"_

I blinked.

I shivered.

_'Yes……they did……'_

_She leaned her angel-soft hair against my shoulder and stroked a hand lovingly across my injured chest. "Remember how I __**once**__ loved you, Jordan?"_

I slowly nodded. I bit my lip.

_"……and I never stopped, Jordan. I never stopped……"_

The tears rolled down freely from my black eyes. And they warmed me. And the shivering lessened as I imagined her arms there…around me…like they always were in my mind.

_"I believe the Titans never stopped loving you either, Jordan…," Ana smiled softly. "Even when they most distrusted you. They distrusted you because they love you……"_

I clenched my eyes shut.

I nodded into the night.

Somewhere in the alleyway, a hand gripped tightly to the hilt of a wooden sword…and lifted it overhead.

_"Then you must know…as I do, Jordan……," Ana said solemnly, stroking me to tranquility. "That there is no sacrifice…no sacrifice at all too little……"_

There was a slight rush of air as the sword twirled in the air.

I lay beneath it.

Falling asleep almost…

Except for a shudder or two that betrayed the fact that I was more awake than I had ever been.

_'Will I ever be the same, Ana?' I asked her, scared. 'Will I live, for that matter?'_

_Ana stroked the wet hair out from my face, leaned in, and shared her tears with mine. "When were you ever alive, Jordan? When were you ever alive??"_

Somehow, I nodded. And somehow, I sighed.

And somehow…I didn't move at all as the mysterious hand twirled Myrkblade to a stop, blurred, and brought the whole weight of the sword down straight in a single blink.

_**THWACK!!!!!!!!**_

And for once I was glad that I wasn't able to scream….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans winced, shook, shuddered, and gasped as the latest wave of pain and nausea momentarily left them. They panted for breath…slumped back in their chairs. And not once did they experience relief. The ache and torture wracked their bodies endlessly from start to finish of each wave and mid-wave interval.

Slade paced before them, his boots clamping coldly against the floor.

Jinx sat on his throne in the background, hugging her knees, in contemplation.

"What does it mean to shift the Balance of Morals??" the masked terrorist rambled aloud. "It means to shred a hole through this virgin world and show it that innocence—a mere 'word' and nothing more—died a long, long time ago. The darkness hidden within the seams of this reality's construct will burst free from their holdings, because the supports of Goodness will falter as every hero who hears of the Titans' defeat shivers in fear and expects the total collapse of all things perceivably orderly. The universe is like a giant dystopia waiting to discover its own, grubby hands of guilt and uncleanliness. All that's needed is the right shove. And thankfully I had the devices necessary to accomplish that provocation. You, my dear Titans, are of little concern to me anymore as egos or identities. I no longer desire your torture. I don't even want to know the secret identities of a scant few of you anymore!"

"Then…wh-why keep us here?!?" Beast Boy wheezed.

"Because you must play the role in the power shift…," Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed. "You are chess pieces. Not adversaries. I no longer see you as things I must taunt, but rather elements I must apply in the grand scheme of Destiny's upheaval. Call it a maturation on my part. Even villains must learn to grow."

"Is Jinx part of th-this cold equation too?!" Robin grunted, sweating. "D-D-Do you not care for her any?!"

"Naturally I do," Slade glared. "She is my apprentice!"

"But how does caring for an apprentice fit in with the upheaval of destiny?" Robin asked. "Did you not just say that—"

-click-

"AAAAAUGHHH!!!" Robin yelled as pain ripped up through his bowels and tore a path into his central cavity—as such the nanoprobes simulated.

Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed on the Boy Wonder's twitching figure. "Enough of that…Robin. Enough of that."

"Stop it!!!" Starfire shrieked amidst her own wave of pain. "Stop hurting him!! He is only trying to p-preserve the courage of all of us!!"

"My dear child….," Slade turned to face the tortured Tamaranian. "There is not a soul left in this room any worthy of preservation. So I suggest you keep your lips sealed from now on, or you will be the first to perish."

"I would gladly volunteer for death….," Starfire frowned with a green tear or two streaking, "…if it would mean the life of Robin!"

"St-Star!!" Robin murmured amidst his pain.

Beast Boy panted.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Raven lowered her eyes.

Slade fingered the buttons of his remote…facing the glaring Tamaranian.

Jinx stared at everyone and everything from where she hugged her knees. She took a shuddering breath. The locket suddenly felt heavy around her neck.

Starfire sniffed, but kept staring hard at Slade…not bothering to shake as wave after wave of nanoprobe torture shot through her system.

Slade's helmet tilted. "So be it."

Robin gasped.

Slade's finger went for the button.

Jinx craned to see---

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Slade was interrupted from cutting Starfire off. He turned and faced a t.v. screen blinking to life against the black wall.

Jinx hopped girlishly down from the throne and watched—lips parting—at the security image from the deck of the frigate.

Draped in a flapping, tattered 'cape' of sorts…the unmistakable figure of Noir climbed up onto the side of the boat, unsheathed Myrkblade, and crept down the deck.

Starfire gasped.

"Noir!!" Beast Boy blurted.

"N-No….," Cyborg whispered…..swallowed a wave of pain…and wheezed: "Go back…g-get out of here…."

Raven didn't open her eyes, but her lips quivered.

Robin glared through his sweating eyemask.

"Well well…," Slade folded his hands behind his back. "The stupid do walk among us…"

Jinx sweat. She looked up at her Master for a command.

He gave none. He stared at the video image.

He absent-mindedly tapped the cylindrical remote in his other pocket…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shuffled one foot forward. I shuffled another one forward.

I wobbled to a stand still….blinking dizzily…but then recovering with my head tilted forward as a throng of robot henchmen leapt down to the main deck to meet me in a standoff.

I had tied Dagger's tattered, stained shirt around my neck like a cape. Its light-colored cloth—wet and crinkled—hung down low over my torso and clung to my chest and arms and back. Two sleeves billowed around my neck where the article had been tied like a shawl. My right hand stretched out from underneath…gripping Myrkblade as I stared down at the deck. The wind of the Atlantic Ocean kicked at my long black hair.

The androids gathered around me. More and more. Over two dozen. Many with laser rifles. Aiming. Glaring. Circling.

Seconds passed. More seconds. Half a minute.

They all closed in on me…and then froze.

Wind kicked my hair up and toyed with my 'cape'. I tilted my head up. My black eyes were scrunched into a burning frown under a furrowed brow. In a split second, the black almost seemed to flash white as---WOOOOOOSH!!!!! I suddenly blurred forward.

ZAAP!!!

ZAAP!!!!!!

ZAAP!!!!!

Lasers shot at me from different angles.

I dodged and streaked through them. Gripping Myrkblade with my right hand, my body leapt and spiraled around in a horizontal slash that lopped off three robot heads at once. I ran past the torsos, up a wall, and flipped off it—my stained 'cape' billowing.

More lasers followed me in vain as I flew back from my arc, landed in the center of a throng of androids, and spun like a top with my swinging Myrkblade.

SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!

At the end of my swing, robot limbs and heads littered the deck at my feet as I jumped forward, crouched, and jabbed straight through two henchmen at once. I wrenched and twisted Myrkblade with the fingers of my right hand and—with a flick of the wrist—shredded them apart before charging at the next enemy in line.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"N-Noir…..," Starfire shuddered.

"He's gotta get off this ship!!" Cyborg panted. "H-He'll die if he comes near!!"

"Rae!!" Beast Boy squealed. "U-Use your powers or something!! Can't you warn him somehow?!"

"I…..can't….," she groaned. "I'm just as….helpless….as the rest of you!!"

Robin grunted and struggled in his chair, but the waves of torturous pain only increased.

"I'll spare you the agony this time…," Slade said, noticing the Boy Wonder's resistance. "I'll let you all be conscious enough to watch your 'traitor' die before your eyes. It'll erase whatever, scant remaining shreds of respect you have left for the poor fool…"

Raven panted and sweated as she watched the security camera feed from afar…

The other Titans inadvertently joined her viewing…

-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASH!!!!!

An android sparked as it was sliced vertically up the middle and split into two halves clattering to the deck floor.

I made a bee-line towards the center cabin of the boat. As I blurred along, the white shirt flapped against my back and billowed against the wind. I slashed through every android that I passed, lopping off an arm or a leg or a head as I then dragged Myrkblade beside me in my right hand and let sparks fly in a trail behind my heels.

I approached a throng of guards in front of a hatch. They formed a last line of defense, guns raised and everything.

I gritted my teeth. A mysterious whiteness danced across my black eyes as I jumped an onslaught of lasers, spun in mid-air, and came down with a downward slash of my blade.

SWIIIIISH!!!!

Two robots were shredded in half.

I ducked the punch of a third, jump kicked his skull off, dodged the laser blast of a fourth, stabbed it deep in the electronic gut, and spiraled Myrkblade back and into a twirl just in time to deflect the oncoming rush of a fist-swinging Robot whose torso I eagerly shredded into thin, corkscrew strips of metal.

SLASSSSSH!!!

CLUNK!!!

The last limb of Slade's robots fell to the ground.

I took a deep breath…my black hair waving and my naked eyes glaring.

I turned—gripping Myrkblade—and marched towards the hatch to the cabin---

**"RRRAAAAUGHHH!!!!"**

**SWOOOOOSH-STOMP!!!!**

I backflipped and slid to a stop, gritting my teeth and glaring at Cinderblock who had just leapt down from a higher tier.

The monster raised two stone fists, growled, and charged at me.

My face tensed. My eyes twitched—white—and black again.

SWOOOOOSH!!! CLANK!!!

I struck hard across Cinderblock's chest, shoving him back.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx panted, watching the screen. She looked towards the hatch door—at the t.v. screen—and back at the door again.

"I gotta get out there!!" she exclaimed, her fingers glowing a desperate pink. "N-Noir's not his normal self!! He's all super badass now for some reason!! I-I'm scared Cinderblock won't stand a chance."

"Stay here….," Slade throated.

"But….B-B-But!!"

"**Stay……here…..,"** the masked terrorist commanded again.

Jinx frowned. Her clenched fists shook. "What….wh-what do you know?!?!" the Third Apprentice shouted frustratingly at her Master. "You've not fought Noir one on one!! Every day that you've sat in this damn boat and given me orders over the communicator, I've been the one to get my ass handed over on a plate by that Ghost time in and time out!! I know him more than you—and even any of those brats in those chairs over there!! What do you know, Slade?! We might all go under thanks to you!!"

A wyrd sound erupted through the confines of the dark cabin. It shook the hearts of the Titans more than any torturous device could. It positively made Jinx gasped as she stepped back and eyed her Master with throbbing cat eyes.

It was the sound of Slade laughing.

"Foolish….little….witch….," Slade slowly turned and leered over the pink sorceress. "I certainly know a lot. A lot more than you'll ever comprehend."

Jinx pouted. She spat above the chaotic noise of the fight going on out on the deck: "I don't care!! All this time you've been making me do all your dirty work!! Not once did you show me how much you appreciated it!! Sure, you always said 'good job' and 'I'm proud of you'…but that doesn't make me stop hurting, ya know?!?! And just how far along are you in finding my sisters, huh Slade?! How far are you?!"

"My dear child…," Slade calmly spoke, "…what sisters are you referring to?"

Jinx gasped. Her eyes turned round…confused…shocked. "What…..?!?!"

The Titans watched and listened wearily.

Slade's emblazoned eye narrowed. "Of course you know, Apprentice, you are an only child."

Jinx's breath left her. Her lips started to quiver.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"RAAAUGH!!!"** Cinderblock charged and struck a fist down at me.

SMACK!!!!

The deck splashed in an upside down shower of splinters.

I leapt the blow, flipped, and perched on Cinderblock's forearm. With Mykblade outstretched in my right hand, I ran up his shoulder and trailed the tip of the sword up his stone skin. Sparks flew and a tiny crack formed just seconds before I reached his cranium and gave his skull a firm blow with the center of my blade.

WHACK!!!

**"RAAARGHH!!"**

He grabbed for me.

I effortlessly leapt up from his grasp, flipped, and streaked down his back with another slice of my sword.

More sparks flew. More cracks and chips of pebbly debris.

Cinderblock let out a howl of pain and frustration and kicked in reverse.

WHUMP!!

I was sent flying back, but I effortlessly landed on my feet, twirled Myrkblade in my right hand, and charged at his rear.

He turned around at the last second.

STAB!!!!!

I stuck Myrkblade a good three inches into his granite chest.

CHUNK!!!

**"RAAAUGH!!!"**

He warbled and fumbled frantically to loosen the blade.

But my black eyes danced with trailing black smoke as I sent wave after wave of murk into his granite guts through my sword.

Cinderblock's head tilted back and he….it screamed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wh-What are you talking about?!" Jinx shook her fists. "Stop toying with me!! You know nothing about my life before H.I.V.E.!! Or my sisters!!"

"You mean Faye and Fiona?" Slade's helmet tilted. "Such adorable little twins. Loved to play with sandcastles, if I'm not mistaken."

Jinx gasped. She snarled and shook. "How **DARE** you say their real names out loud?!?! Nobody says their real names out loud but **ME!!**"

"A rather selfish demand of yours, I must admit…," Slade said. "Considering we chose the names ourselves."

Jinx's mouth dropped. "You…..You….Wh-What???"

"The first time I ever partnered with Dagger…," Slade spoke, "…we heard of H.I.V.E.'s acquisition, and we learned of you. You were a girl with much potential, Jinx. The power to bend reality itself. It was a power Dagger and I desired. I managed to claim you first…but I employed Dagger's talents. He sent his neurosurgeons in to infiltrate H.I.V.E.'s high-security orphanages. When they kidnapped you from your holding cell, you were still new and fresh to the experience of organized crime and forced training in the deadly arts. It took Dagger's men very little time to…..program your memories as I saw fit. I knew that if I was to use you to bring everything Full Circle and manifest the Experiment…I had to give you a motive strong enough so that you would break yourself free of H.I.V.E. and fall under my wing. So I suggested we 'invent' two little sisters in your past. Twins. Innocent little things that you in your girlish habits would fall for immediately. The brainwashing succeeded. Dagger even digitally rendered the photograph you have in your locket to resemble the imagery implanted in your false memories. You were our property, Jinx. We bought you out from H.I.V.E. a long time ago. Until just months ago, you were on 'layaway'…to put it lightly. When Dagger arranged for the Khazza Jewell to be present at Westhaven during H.I.V.E.'s operation there…we both knew you would jump on the opportunity to free yourself of H.I.V.E.'s tracking and go out on a lonesome quest to find two despicable siblings who don't even exist. And at the precise moment, I as there to embrace you and promise you all the false solutions your equally false dreams wanted to acquire. You fell into it, you earned my trust, and you became my Apprentice. But you were my Third Apprentice way back in the start, Jinx. Even before I ever first spoke to Robin or commiserated with Terra…you were the One to bring the Balance of Morals down on its side. You've been the apex of our programming. And you've served your purpose well. And now…I need you no more."

Silence.

The Titans panted.

Jinx's blinked. She shook her head. "No….N-NO!! It's not true!! It's not true!! My sisters are real!! I remember everything!! Like---"

"—the way they always called you 'J.J.' when they were happy or scared?" Slade remarked with a gesture. "Or the game of 'sailboat' you used to play with them while helping them in the bath? Or how about the gentle smell of lilacs in their hair as you hugged them before tucking them in their beds to sleep? Do you remember the nightlight Faye and Fiona loved so much? The one they couldn't sleep without? The Cheshire Cat from Alice In Wonderland. It would cast a huge, purple silhouette of cartoonish hue on the far wall of the bedroom where your bed lie and from where you could hear them snore into the softness of the night. And in the middle of their dreams, they would call out—"

"'We love you….J.J……'," Jinx uttered. A stray tear fell down her pink-shaded face. "'See you when we wake up…'" She blinked into nothingness.

"Figments of your imagination….foolish witch….," Slade hissed. "Absolute figments…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came down from a spiral, spinning Myrkblade.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

Cinderblock's head jolted repeatedly from the rapid strike of my descending sword.

I landed beside him, 'cape' billowing', and slashed at his feet.

SMACK!!!

He fell back, grunting and stumbling. He swung down at me. **"RAUGGGH!!"**

SMASH!!

More splinters of the deck flew. I jumped backwards, planted my feet into the railing, took a breath, and blurred forward.

Cinderblock flexed his muscles.

I soared at him.

He raised his fists.

I charged smoke into my blade.

He stomped towards me.

My black eyes twitched white and back to obsidian as I let out a silent howl, swung my right arm up, and a warbling Myrkblade in tow.

SWOOOOOOOOOSH---SLASH!!!!

I screeched to a stop, Myrkblade extended upwards at the frozen end of a swinging arc.

I blinked.

I had literally just dived **through**Cinderblock. As I squatted on the other side, the granite monster stood still.

Two seconds passed…

CLUNK!! CLANK!! THONK!!!

Cinderblock's head fell to the ground….then his shoulders…then his forearms.

The creature disintegrated into pure rubble. Whatever soul may have been housed inside his rock-hard shell was now gone.

I stood up, took a deep breath, and marched towards the hatch.

It occurred to me once that I may have just ended the life of a sentient being.

_I didn't care…._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Your purpose in my plans is over, Jinx…," Slade said firmly, his hands folded calmly behind his back. "It was over to begin with. Though, understand that I am nonetheless grateful for your participation in my endeavors…"

Jinx's eyes suddenly glowed a bright pink of hatred and seething anger. She pointed two hex-charged hands of pink at Slade and snarled. "Not so fast…you bastard of a tin can!!"

Robin watched—sweating—through narrowed eyemasks of pain.

Cyborg and Beast Boy panted.

Raven and Starfire breathed slowly.

"I don't know what's true or not true anymore….," Jinx said, on the brink of madness. "But one thing is for certain. I shall forever rue the day I called you Master. I think from now on….I'll be calling you 'six feet in the ground'!!"

"Tsk tsk tsk…," Slade uttered. "So brash. So quick to avenge an ego you never possessed to begin with!" His eye narrowed and he leaned forward. "True, Jinx. Your power is the only real thing that you have. And it was a power so real—Dagger and I had to have it for ourselves. But tell me….how can a superpower—no matter how real—react to the all encompassing force of a bullet at close range?"

SWOOOSH—Slade whipped out a revolver from his side and—click-**BANG!!!!!!!!!!!**

Jinx's cat eyes bulged.

The Titans' eyes widened.

Slowly, the witch's arms fell down and dangled by her side.

Slade continued aiming the smoking barrel at where it had fired—directly into the girl's chest.

Jinx's eyes thinned into tiny crescents. There wasn't even a breath to exhale as she slumped forward on her knees and flattened out onto the ground and lay silent.

Slade shouldered his gun, lowered his gaze, and spoke to the petite corpse:

"Yes, Jinx. You and Noir are both the same, Third Apprentice in that you are both dead."

**CRASH!!!!**

Slade calmly looked up.

The Titans gasped and writhed.

I emerged through the hole I had slashed through the hatch-door.

I stepped through the frame, clutching Myrkblade in my right hand. The shirt draped and clinging to my upper body. My black eyes frowning….squinting firmly and in resolve.

"And alas….," Slade droned, "…the holocaust is now complete."

"Noir!! Get out of here!!" Cyborg shouted, shaking as a wave of pain hit him.

"P-Please….do not come a-any closer!!" Starfire added.

"He'll kill you…," Raven grunted. "He'll kill you in an instant!!"

"He's got a switch thing!! Get out of here, Noir!!" Beast Boy writhed.

I ignored them.

I marched forward.

Frowning.

The shirt billowing from the sea air gusting through the hatch's frame.

My hair dancing.

Everything shaking and collapsing and running full circle.

_Full Circle……_

"Noir!!" Robin shouted. "Get out of here!! Please!!"

"We don't want you to die!!"

"Go!! Now!!"

I stepped all the way towards Slade.

I gripped Myrkblade hard with my fingers. I dragged it threateningly along the floor of the dark cabin. It scraped annoyingly against the metal.

"You should listen to them…," Slade managed. He fingered the cylindrical remote in belt side pocket. "But you are the fool that you are. I suppose there is no danger real enough to teach you that the Titans are beyond your grasp. You tried to save them by being honest…you tried to save them by hurting them. In the end…they didn't love you. They betrayed you, Noir. Allow me to put you out of your misery."

Slade whipped out the cylinder and held his finger over the trigger.

I came to a standstill.

I stared up at him.

So close…we could breathe in each other's exhalations.

The Titans watched with lumps in their throats and mouths agape.

"You bluffed out, Wyldecarde….," Slade hissed. "And Fate holds for me alone the winning deck."

He firmly brought his thumb down over the trigger.

-click-

……

……

……

……nothing happened.

Slade's eye narrowed. "Wh-What????"

He jammed his thumb over the trigger some more.

-click- -click- -click-

"How…..H-How…..?!" he panted.

I glared up at him.

I shifted my body and the front of Dagger's shirt hanging over me came loose, revealing my left arm. There was a bloody stub of a bandage where my wrist and hand used to be. Where I had hacked it and the computer chip off and away from my body in a dark alleyway two and a half hours ago.

The Titans gasped loudly. Many a set of bug-eyes stared in my direction.

And Slade's eye exploded in similar fashion. His shaking hand dropped the cylinder. He took a step back.

I gritted my teeth. With my one remaining hands, I sent an impregnable wave of murk through my blade and slashed it out and upwards.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Metal and blood flew diagonally up Slade's chest in a spray.

"AAAUGH!!!" he shouted through his mask and stepped back.

I jumped and lunged at him. Myrkblade skewered through his side and fountained crimson out the other side.

SLIIIINK!!!

Slade's body jerked upwards.

I exhaled and yanked my sword back…ripping skin out from inside the exoskeleton of his suit in the sword's exit. He leaked madly and twirled over against a wall…gripping hard to the blank t.v. monitors in panting desperation. I spun towards him, and slashed Myrkblade at his upper limbs.

CHOP!!!!

"AAAUGH!!" Slade shrieked as three of his fingers were ripped off and pinned somewhere inside the smashed screens. He clutched his missing digits and stumbled across the cabin.

I came at him—regardless of his pain—fuming.

Limbs are overrated…

SLASH!!!!!

I sliced deep into his shoulder. He yanked out, blood spraying outward. He panted and wheezed and backed up to the window. He shook and shivered and looked up at me.

My left-armed stub flailed as I charged at him, let out a silent scream, and stabbed outward and downward with the full length of Myrkblade.

SLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!!!

I drove Myrkblade into Slade…to the hilt. The wooden curve of the blade easily drove out the back of his body. He lurched forward on the object skewering him and convulsed. The opening to his mask was just besides my right ear as he hacked and crimson saliva oozed heavily out from his breathing vent.

"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools……….," and his breath faded.

I inhaled, charged murk, and pulled back.

**SLASH!!!!**

After yanking my sword out and spinning around, a fountain of spurting red sprayed from the hole in Slade's metal costume and drenched my right side in rusted blood. His lifeless body teetered back, smashed through the circular window, and plunged into the waters of the Atlantic…only to be churned into obscurity and lost in the bubbles of turbulent water beneath the bow of the ship ahead of us.

I panted.

I looked across the way at the five tortured Titans in their seats.

So close….so far away…

CLANK!!!

I dropped Myrkblade.

I teetered towards them…limping…swaying from side to side….dizzy with the pain that I had denied myself to acknowledge since the very minute I summoned the courage to chop my left forearm off and rid Slade of his wildcard to kill me and make the Titans his forever.

I was limping towards the computer to shut down the nanoprobes. To end this all. To stop the experiment.

I didn't think I could make it.

"J-Just a little further, Noir!!"

"You can do it!"

"Concentrate!! Concentrate!!"

"We b-believe in you!!"

I lunged forward. I fell to my knees. I gasped. I felt fingers that weren't there. I wanted to cry. I wanted to sleep in a pillow of soft blood loss and call it a life. I lurched forward, right hand outstretched, and hit the controls at the last second.

CLUNK!!!

The chairs unloaded The sparks died out.

The five Titans gasped and sighed as the pain finally…**finally** stopped.

They stood up, aching and catching their breaths.

Cyborg immediately ran over to my side.

"Noir!! Noir!!"

"Dude!!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "What the hell did he do to himself?!"

"What does it look like?!?!" Cyborg glared. He ran a reading of my battered body using his arm controls and sensors. His human eye rounded. "Oh man….not good. Dammit!! How far from shore are we??"

"I can take him to the Tower!" Starfire volunteered. "The facilities there would be adequate in giving him aid, no?"

"I think we have other problems to attend to…," Raven uttered.

"Huh??" Beast Boy blinked. He gasped as he realized that the computer console besides the chair was humming loudly and glowing red.

In fact…all the computer consoles were glowing red.

The whole boat was vibrating…on the verge of blowing its top.

"Rrrrghh!!" Robin fisted his palm. "Slade's set this whole damn thing to blow!! Even when he's been finished off like that, he's still making our life a living Hell!!"

"Um…I like to worry about an afterlife of an eternal flame as much as the rest of you guys…but…," Beast Boy blinked. "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!"

"There's no time…," Raven gritted her teeth. "This thing will blow any second!"

Cyborg sweat. "Man, what'll we do?!?!"

FLASH!!!!

A pink hex burst from out of nowhere and struck the computer consoles.

Beast Boy gasped.

Raven squinted her eyes.

Slowly…the consoles stopped glowing red. The pink aura took over…canceling out the self-destruct sequence. Soon, Slade's frigate cooled down…and the looming threat was over.

Robin spun around. He gasped and ran over to Jinx's side and knelt down.

The petite sorceress was stirring.

"She is alive!!" Starfire floated over.

Robin cradled the girl's pink head in his lap. "Easy there…don't try and move."

"Nnngh…the sh-ship…," Jinx wheezed. "It won't explode now…."

"Dude….how did she survive a bullet to the chest??" Beast Boy scratched his head.

Jinx's cat eyes slowly opened. She looked weakly up at Robin. She blinked. She looked at the others. She slowly reached into her costume and pulled out the locket. A steaming bullet was lodged halfway through the heart-shaped container of her 'sisters'' faces. She took a deep breath as the corners of her eyes welled up with tears.

"The locket….," Starfire gasped, a hand over her lips as she cradled Jinx's keepsake in the other. "It stopped the bullet!"

"That's insane!!" Beast Boy muttered.

Jinx's shook her head. She muttered: "It's luck….."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Thank you for stopping the ship from blowing us all out of the water…," he deigned to say.

Jinx curled into a fetal position and hid her face in Robin's thigh. "Just….J-Just get me into prison already. I-I-I don't want to talk to or listen to anyone…p-please….."

The sorceress sobbed.

The Titans were silent.

They huddled for a bit, discussed a plan of action, and soon Starfire carried my body away with Raven and Beast Boy flying after and towards the distant coastline. Robin and Cyborg remained behind on the ship to safely navigate it until the Coast Guard came along and they could cart Jinx off to prison.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Last night, soon following the celebratory events of July Fourth, the Teen Titans were captured by Slade and were taken hostage on board an unmarked sea cruiser in the Atlantic Ocean, upon which the heroes of the City were reportedly tortured for reasons unexplained. There is no reported, permanent damages to their persons—however in a startling development, former Titan Wyldecarde made an appearance and attacked Slade viciously before personally freeing the Titans from their predicament. Reports are still coming in, but it's rumored that both Wyldecarde and Slade were wounded heavily in the fight. The details of such are unclear, but right now Wyldecarde is residing within the infirmary of the Titans' Tower and Slade's body was nowhere to be found after the coast guard arrived on the scene._

_"Robin, the Boy Wonder himself, responded to a few questions after his brief conversation with Commissioner Decker at the Police Department last night. Robin is reported as saying that the incident at the Independence Fireworks Show and the explosion of a petroleum semi truck and a business high rise were all more-or-less related to the defeat of Slade and his mysterious ally 'Dagger', a name that circles about in conspiracy theories and could provide startling developments in the prospect of the said 'Dagger's' death. More on this as the story develops._

_"Robin did—however—assure the public during an interview that Slade's terrorism—at least for now—has been put largely to rest. The Titans insist that the bomb threats are to happen not only less frequently but not at all. It would appear—according to them—that Slade's forces have been dealt with officially, and oddly enough Jinx, former member of the elusive H.I.V.E. corporation has been brought into custody and is now facing the possibility of a life's sentence in the penitentiary._

_"As to the fate of Wyldecarde, not many questions have been answered, but the general consensus is that a great deal of information regarding Noir's villainy is up to reevaluation now that more and more aspects of Slade's schemes are being uncovered and revealed to the people of law enforcement and the city. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow, a Titan or two will have been dragged to another press conference and more information will have been revealed thusly."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When my black eyes opened, there was a sleeping mask over my face and that was when I knew I was 'home'.

I sat up in bed and slipped the mask off with my right hand. Bright lights stabbed my black eyes. I blinked and realized that I was in the infirmary. I was draped in a hospital gown with a few wires plugged into my being.

I looked across the barren room….down…and at my left side.

A cast of sorts—shrouded with bandages—was covering the stub. I could feel the effect of a multitude of drugs and their after effects on what would have been an infected limb otherwise for sure.

In a haunting move, I reached my right hand over and magically 'clutched' an invisible wrist where flesh used to extend down past the half-severed forearm.

But there was nothing. I heard stories of amputees who could still feel their fingers after they were gone. I got the chills.

I looked up to my left side and froze.

There was a mirror. And in that mirror, I saw my reflection for the first time in well over a week and a half. I had scrapes and scratches and stitches and bruises all over me. I was thin…pale….emaciated. Like an ascetic who hadn't eaten in days.

I kicked some covers off and swung my legs over to the side…watching the mirror wall and realizing how small I seemed to be suddenly. Small and frail. Limbless on one half of me.

I took a deep breath. I didn't want to be this shrill thing. I didn't want to be a half-ling…a broken down ghost.

And slowly…the realization swam to me….

That I was in the Tower. That I was dressed, cleaned, and sitting softly on the edge of a hospital bed in the infirmary.

And the last things I remembered previous were loving voices cheering me on somewhere… Cheering me on. I smiled slightly.

"So….tell me, Titan….."

Startled, I glanced quickly to the side.

My black eyes rounded as I spot the Messenger standing in the doorway. He folded his arms and leaned casually against the frame. His face was presently deadpan as he looked me over from across the way with Asian eyes and said: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

I blinked.

I looked hesitantly down at my severed left hand…then at my whole right hand.

I slowly looked back up at him…a crooked smile on his face.

The Messenger breathed softly as he said: "You very well know the answer to that…don't you?"

My lips parted.

Slowly….like melting ice…the Messenger smiled. But it was not his goofy grin. It was a breathless smile. One that sang of pride all over. And that pride shined through his brown eyes and across his smooth skin and out from his curved lips in some unfiltered aura of admiration and respect and honor.

And everything inside of me snapped. The cords of dichotomy fell away. There was no such thing as pain and there was no such thing as suffering. The stupid koan faded into the back of my mind like white noise and I drifted through the horizon of my soul, ripping a hole through and hopping onto the other side of the mirror to realize that there was no reflection. There was no self and the self was none. I was the half of a much, much greater whole. And that wholeness was never complete without a sort of spiritual glue forged by patience and perseverance and the ever-so-ridiculous quest to cling to one virtue and one virtue alone in a blind faith that everything that is everything will bend under the pressure of absolution and yield forth a break in the circle of lifelong tragedy.

It was a truth that—I'll be damned—the Messenger must not have known himself either.

That punk of an Oriental kid was staring at me across the way and suddenly the pride in his face turned out to be **envy** just as well as he admired every shape and contour of my left hand that I no longer had. I almost saw tears well up in his eyes.

I would have gestured 'thank you' if I had more than one set of fingers. And…yeah…that kinda sorta hurt….

And I'm glad it did hurt.

"You've climbed through more crap than a lifetime should allow…," the Messenger said with a sigh and a smirk. "And quite frankly, I'm pooped just watching you. I won't be seeing you for a while, Noir. Cuz I'm going on a vacation. And I suggest you take one as well."

I slowly nodded.

Suddenly, a throng of five footsteps and excited voices emanated from the hallway.

There was a glow of bright green. I did a double-take as the Messenger was suddenly gone. Through the doorframe, Robin and Cyborg and Beast Boy and Raven and Starfire emerged.

They were talking busily about explanations to give the city council and Commissioner Decker and what-not.

At one glance, they noticed I was awake…and they all froze.

Silence.

The five heroes stared at the ostracized. The ostracized stared at the five heroes.

The infirmary beeped and bleeped its sensors into hiding.

Slowly…I bore a crooked smile. An exhausted, crooked smile under rows of bruises and stitches.

The Titans took a deep breath.

Starfire was the first to say: "Hi!"

I waved my only hand.

They gulped. They wandered over…Robin first.

"Noir….," he said. A beat. "Jordan….," he corrected—making the others look at him wide-eyed. "We are……glad you're back…."

I nodded and looked down.

"L-Listen….Cyborg and I have been running some tests. And about your arm…we think we can do something to help out. We think we can……….." Robin's voice trailed off as he realized that words were useless at this point. Not that they would be useless forever…but just not right then. Not at that moment.

Every Titan's face was suddenly wounded and either looking down or looking away.

It was not something I enjoyed witnessing.

I quickly shuffled around on the medical bed and looked away. A sour lump formed in my throat as I clutched the bedsheet to my chest and sighed heavily.

Silence.

It was Beast Boy who did it first. I could tell…I could always tell. Even when I'm sitting down, his arms always wrap around so low against the rib cage.

Surprisingly, it was Raven who was second. I knew because she came to my side and wrapped her arms around my left shoulder…immediately hiding my missing limb with her cloak.

Starfire floated in from the front and squeezed me hard, her fair head of hair leaning over my shoulder.

Robin came in secretly on the right…and Cyborg encircled with his Titanium arms from the back.

I fought for a steady breath…I fought with all my strength not to cave in…but I soon realized that I had every need—and right—to do just that. So I did. And I did so sobbing. And I did so collapsing into wet tears against every soft arm I could come into contact with. All five Titans hugged me close…completing me with their fivefold limbs the humongous depths of me which had been so viciously lost unto myself. And I couldn't stop sobbing. Because it felt so right. And it felt so good. And we all rocked gently and slowly as one in some sway of ritualistic atonement. And I knew they didn't have to ask it of me or hug it from me to get me to forgive them. I forgave each and every one of them in the dark alley the very second the blade came down and I had won myself the ticket to rescue them from the hand of Fate itself.

I don't remember how long that went on. Twenty minutes…forty minutes. Heaven can't be measured.

At some point, I passed out. I felt soft and warm into the morning and the long and winded afternoons of the next few days to follow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The night after I returned, Raven sauntered into her lonely, dark room. The window was dimly lit by sparse stars peering through latent thunderclouds hovering across the urban landscape.

The dark girl yawned, padded over towards her closet, and stripped off her robe.

After hanging the article, she made her way towards the shower—but stopped as her eye caught sight of a rectangular object on the floor.

As if she needed to remind herself what it was, she picked it up and carried it over to the windows. Her blue eyes squinted as the canvass of the mysterious painting she made was bathed in starlight.

The picture of a blonde-haired girl with a wooden katana and wearing a green vest smiled back at her. An image that was as soft and angelic as it was foreboding and mysterious.

A beat.

Raven actually smiled. She said: "Don't you worry. We're going to take very good care of him from now on. I promise."

There was a gentle reverence in the way Raven carried the painting to the closet, cleared an open area, and softly set it down. Hiding it in the darkness, Raven let the painting be. She closed the closet door, and prepared for a sound night's sleep.

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_**[End of Act One.]**_


	65. ACT TWO: Red Aviary

**65. ACT II: Red Aviary**

_The catwalk went on for miles and miles. Acid dripped from the ceiling and mud caked the metal surfaces. Everything was boiling and steaming around him as he ran along. His boots clanked loudly against the floor. His lungs heaved and his black spikes of hair started to bend and melt with sweat. Somewhere in the distance, a strobe of light danced against a red, red sky._

"R-Robin!!" a voice cried out from a black horizon.

"I'm coming!!" the Boy Wonder panted. His face was pale beneath his eyemask. Chills ran through his thirteen year old body.

The catwalk started to rust beneath him. Bits and pieces falling out from under. There was more and more mud.

Mud everywhere.

Brown against the black and sizzling with the acid that dripped from the ceiling.

And beyond that the immortal red with its dancing strobe.

The factory crumbled around him.

Robin gasped.

He lost his footing.

His leg broke through the rusted catwalk and he tripped forward with a grunt. Acid fell onto his cape and slowly ate into his agile form.

He strained and grunted. He couldn't move.

"R-Run, Robin!!" a voice sobbed from the far horizon. "Can't you see? I'm not real!!"

Robin bit his lip and looked ahead.

Shaking.

She was flailing in the center of a churning mass. The mud was eating her from the inside out. Her round eyes bulged and her black hair shattered as the acid and rust swallowed her whole.

"NOO!!!!" Robin shouted. "Get out of here!! Stay alive!! STAY ALIVE!!!"

She disappeared. The factory rippled like waves. The mud laughed and the acid flew and everything crumbled and rattled down a maelstrom of urban Hell.

"AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!" Robin bellowed as he clawed at the rusted walls of life and tried to escape the inevitable plunge into the endless sea of red. His voice shouted out to her. "Come back!! COME BACK!!!!!!!!!"

FLASH!!!

Everything froze.

Robin was standing still on bluffs overlooking black waters.

He shivered.

His lungs couldn't breathe.

Far off…alone and mournful…..a single lighthouse stood against a crimson sky. Its single strobe flung around, sliced through the frigid stillness, and exploded into the Boy Wonder's face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Augh!!" Robin shot up in bed. Sweating. His shoulders heaved as he hyperventilated….then slowly rested his lungs. He swallowed and hugged his knees to his chest and rocked himself until the chill dissipated.

His eyemask clung desperately to his face. He never took it off while in the City or the Tower. Not even when he was sleeping.

He ran shaky hands through his hair and sighed heavily.

"Damn……………..," he muttered.

He always hated that dream.

Slowly, Robin looked to the side of his bed.

A bedside table with a drawer rested there. Silently.

He took a breath. He uncurled, shifted towards the bedside, and swung his legs over in a sitting position.

He grabbed the handle to the table drawer and slowly slid it open.

There was a single item inside. A framed photo. Plain and inconspicuous.

Robin gently picked it up and held it out in front of him with bare hands.

His eyemask rounded and he sighed.

The photo was two years old, taken from a single security camera snapshot at a bus terminal. Dozens of middle-class citizens dotted a courtyard beneath two escalators leading up to a higher tier. The image was grainy, and lines of video disruption laced the bottom and bottom right edges of the picture. It was the most meaningless and insignificant piece of documentation one could imagine. And yet, Robin's eyes were glued to it. Specifically glued to a lonely little figure huddling to herself at the bottom of one of the two escalators. A fuzzy image of a person with dark hair and a thin coat shrouding her drooping shoulders.

The Boy Wonder swallowed. Until recently…he had cut back on looking at this one photo. But as of late…he was returning to routine. He was looking at it every morning as he woke up.

"Why didn't you run…..?" he murmured.

Knock Knock Knock!

Robin gasped. He blurred and quickly put the framed picture away in its drawer.

"J-Just a minute!!" he called out.

He kicked the covers off him, jumped out of bed, gave his head a few seconds to recollect the rushing blood, and padded over to the door.

He clicked the wall panel with his fingers.

SWHOOOP!!

The door opened and there stood Starfire, pleasantly standing up straight with her hands folded in front of her.

"Greetings and pleasant morning to you, Robin," the Tamaranian smiled. "I apologize if I am intruding…."

Instantly upon seeing her, a warmth crept over Robin's body and chased away the chills that awoke him. He smiled and said: "Hey there, Star. You're not intruding at all. What's up?"

"Well…," the alien's green eyes trailed and she blushed. "…yesterday evening you seemed quite adamant when you proposed that we perform morning calisthenics together, and being that it is ten o'clock and the calisthenics have not yet transpired, I was worried that perhaps you were stretching my femur."

Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "Stretching your femur?"

"Er…."

"Oh! You mean 'pulling your leg!'"

"Y-Yes…hehehe!" Starfire blushed. "That is the vernacular of correctitude!"

"No way, Star! I wasn't joking! I was serious! I slept in, is all. Thanks for waking me up. Just lemme get my outfit on and we'll do some exercises together!"

"Glorious!!" Starfire clasped her hands together. "I am most excited about sharing with you the Tamaranian art of aerial stretching and accuflight!"

Robin sweatdropped. "Uhm….Star? I-I'm not sure I can learn any exercises that actually involve flying."

Starfire blinked. "I could carry you."

The Boy Wonder blushed. "Uhhh…w-we'll take it as it comes, okay?"

"Hehe…okay."

"Be with you in a minute," he smiled and closed the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thirty minutes later, atop the rooftop of the Tower, Starfire and Robin stood side by side. Their limbs gracefully flexed and stretched beneath them as they performed identical movements of Tai Chi. Their fingers stretched together and their arms flowed like mid-air water. The July Sun was warm and life-giving as it filtered down and bathed them. Beyond the glittering Bay, the City stretched bright and inviting…

…and safe.

"I must admit, Robin….," Starfire spoke aloud, breaking the silence. "The arts from the region earthlings call 'the Orient' seem to encompass a large fraction of your gifted abilities."

"You mean martial arts?" Robin remarked, crouching on his legs and rising back up with gliding arms. "Or this Tai Chi exercise?"

"'The Above Of All'," Starfire remarked. "Perhaps it is the exotic nature of Oriental techniques which you have studied which makes crimefighting in this region much easier in contrast to the uneducated criminals."

"I think I know what you mean, Star," Robin nodded amidst his movements. "But really…all of this is just what my mentor taught me."

Starfire smiled. "Do you mean the Bat?"

Robin chuckled. "Bat**man**."

"I see," Starfire nodded. A beat. "He is quite a frightening individual. It must have been harrowing learning under his tutorship."

"More or less," Robin mused. "I'm a great fighter because of it. That's for sure."

Starfire glanced curiously at him with her emerald eyes. "And what of the other half of Batman? Was he a….father to you?"

Robin froze in his exercise. His eyes blinked behind his mask. "Well…..h-his alter ego…..sure."

Starfire bit her lip. She looked down. "I am sorry, Robin. I know how much you wish for us not to pry into your…y-your secrets."

Robin shook his head and smiled warmly at her. "It's okay, Star. I just….well…..I n-need a secret identity, and Batman too. Heck, he probably needs one even more than I do. It's as simple as that."

"Yes…..," Starfire nodded listlessly. She gazed off towards the City.

Robin craned his neck. "Star? Is something the matter?"

"I am….curious…….," she turned and looked at Robin. "You do have…'another life', correct?"

Robin slowly nodded.

"I wonder….if in that 'other life'….do you have friends? Like the Titans? Do you have other people who know you, embrace you, and make you feel at home?"

Robin took a deep breath. He thought about a reply for a couple of minutes before finally managing: "To tell the truth…Star….I-I'm beginning to like 'this life' a heck of a lot more." He shook his head. "I have barely anything to go to when I'm not Robin."

"Barely anyone as well?" she asked.

He slowly nodded.

She exhaled. "That is unfortunate…"

"Why do you say that, Star?"

"Because….b-because it sounds lonely."

Robin placed a hand on her shoulder. "Starfire…..I assure you. I am **anything** but lonely. Because I have the Titans. I have friends like you." He smiled.

Her lips curved and she softly giggled with her eyes shut as a breeze came by and kissed them both.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BEEEEEEP!!

-click-

RATTLE—Chu-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-ung-CLANK!!!

The chain-linked, elevator doors slowly came to a stop after opening vertically.

Four prison guards stood around the body of Jinx. She was clad in a reflecting orange jumpsuit. Her hands were manacled together in front of her. Her pink hair hung down tightly behind her head and her cat-eyes were thin and bored.

Slowly, the four guards marched forward…surrounding her and urging her on down the bleak, concrete hallway lined with special holding cells. Through thick blocks of plastic, the likes of Fang, Control Freak, Killer Moth, and Mumbo Jumbo could be seen…sitting lethargically on plain cots behind thick, glowing force fields.

Behind the procession of guards, Beast Boy and Raven marched alongside a well-dressed warden.

They collectively eyed Jinx…watching for any sudden moves.

But the sorceress was silent. She followed every move and direction of the guards as they brought her to her cell…lowered the force-field…and prodded her forward.

On soft feet, she slowly stumbled in through the doorframe and walked over to a cot on the far side.

A single guard walked in with a key, unlocked her handcuffs, and walked back out…leaving her inside to rub her arms and sigh into her seat.

The door was closed and the warden drifted past Raven and Beast Boy to a console, upon which he entered an eight-digit code.

BEEP!!

THWOMMMM!!!

The force field hum and came to life.

Jinx's body flickered beyond the dancing light.

"Thank you for being present to provide extra security during the prisoner's lockup…," the warden said to the two Titans. "She's proven herself to be a lot more dangerous than the other eccentric rogues in our collection."

Raven nodded. "Your caution is wise. We are more than willing to help."

Beast Boy looked up. "What about…ya know…her former friends? Where're they?"

"In another section of Omega Wing," the warden said. "Everyone of the facility's council agreed it would be harmful to hold her too close to the cells where Mammoth and Gizmo are located." He took a breath and looked in through the plastic sheet of the cell window.

Jinx stood silently on the cot. Her cat eyes gazed forlornly at the floor.

The warden shook his head. "So young….leave it to H.I.V.E. or Slade to corrupt these little people and turn them into terrorists a decade early."

"Evil is evil," Raven droned. "It's best to hold them here."

"I just do my job," the warden said, walking back towards the elevator. "Your presence is needed no longer. Extend your leader our thanks. Hopefully we won't have to force you to come back here anytime soon."

The guards went to their posts. Raven and Beast Boy stood alone in front of the cell.

A beat.

"You know…she hasn't been her usual…….um……'evil laughter apprentice bad girl' self since they took her away from the frigate."

"So what?" Raven lifted an eyebrow. "She's in prison. She's down."

"But I think it's more than that…," Beast Boy whispered. "Don't you remember what Slade did to her?"

"I only remember what he did to all of us…," the dark girl droned. "What about you?"

Beast Boy blinked. He sighed. He slowly turned…walked over to the cell door…and stood on tip-toes to look at Jinx through the plastic sheet.

She was silent.

The changeling opened his mouth: "Do you still have the locket?"

Slowly, she looked up at him Tired cat eyes. She swallowed and throated: "No."

Beast Boy's eyes looked down. He uttered: "Y-You're still thinking about them….aren't you?"

Jinx frowned. She slowly swiveled onto the bed and laid on her side.

"Ya know….your sisters?"

"I don't have any sisters," she spat…facing away from him.

"Who knows!! Maybe you do!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Slade was a liar and a manipulator. You think he deceived you?? He deceived us all the time! Who knows if he was telling the truth when he said what he did?!"

"I frankly don't care anymore….," Jinx hummed. "Do me a favor…and go away…."

"………," Beast Boy sighed. "Well…someone will be looking for them."

"Lost cause…..'Fate' and 'Fortune' are merely words. There's no destiny in my future now……."

Beast Boy leaned back down and sauntered by Raven.

"Satisfied?" she quirped.

He glared at her. "Don't you ever have any happy thoughts?"

She slowly nodded. "Herbal Tea and a literary conversation with Martian Manhunter."

"…………."

"…………"

"…………you're such a nerd." Beast Boy blurted and marched off down the hall.

Raven smirked ever so slightly and followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A half-hour later, the two were leisurely strolling down the streets of the City towards the Tower.

They were taking their time in returning.

"It's been over a week since Slade and Dagger bit the dust and nothing worse than a purse snatching has transpired. Don't you find that as odd?"

"Yeah….sure….," Beast Boy nodded. His mind was elsewhere.

Raven went on: "We've not had a calm like this since right after the City was won back from Slade's previous takeover. At that time, even the criminals were recoiling in aftershock from the to-and-fro power shift. I can't imagine how much they're being thrown off now."

A beat.

"Beast Boy??" Raven glanced to her side.

The changeling had walked over to a vendor selling fresh flowers. He grabbed a bundle of daisies from the stands and offered the seller a couple of dollars and three coins. The seller took them, smiled, and bowed her head.

Raven walked over, hands under her robe. "Let me guess…," she spoke monotonously. "You want to go visit The Place on the way home?"

Beast Boy nodded. "I-I was thinking of that, yeah…," he swallowed and looked innocently at her. "D-Do you mind if you come and join me, Raven?"

She shook her head. "Not at all, Beast Boy. Not at all…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The two wandered into a crater of stone and earth…separated from the rest of the City by a makeshift park with metal railing surrounding it. Sunlight filtered in through a hollow cave as the Titans walked slowly up to a spot of granite and stopped. They looked up.

The girl stood…encased in stone. Her name engraved on the slab beneath her. The signature of the Titans honoring her memory and legacy.

Beast Boy shuffled over, knelt, and planted the bundle of daisies down. It reminded him of the gold in her hair.

She sighed and stepped back besides Raven.

Silence.

"The reason I….I-I feel a need to help out Jinx…," Beast Boy spoke, "…is because—in some ways—she's a lot like the apprentices that came before her. Both Robin and Terra were used by Slade. And in the end…we found out that both were worthy of compassion. Even Terra…who betrayed us and tore at our hearts and tried with all of her might to kill us off…she was good in the end, ya know?? Maybe we were right at some time to hate her. But she was really a good person. And she was evil only because she was confused and abused…forced to do stuff for Slade. Made to hate us. I-I wonder if—in response to that—we've made ourselves ready to hate anyone who fills in her shoes? We just got over assuming Noir was nothing but pure evil. And now we realize how wrong we were in hating him. **I** realized how pathetic I was in wanting him dead. And with Jinx….I-I feel that you and I and everyone else is repeating the pattern all over again. We're hating her for what she was. For what she did. And—in the end—maybe it wouldn't hurt to show her compassion. Even if she did try to kill and torture us for Slade many times…she was still acting out on behalf for two sisters she believed in. Slade was using her just as much as he used Terra before she…b-before she faded away. It's too late now for us to show Terra our love. But Jinx is still alive. Should it be too late for her too?"

"She was a villain before Slade used her…," Raven mumbled. "And she is still a villain now. As cold as it sounds…she breaks the pattern. She's different from all the other apprentices."

"I-I just can't believe that…," Beast Boy shook his head and stared at the granite statue, sighing. "I just can't……."

Silence.

Raven leaned in to face Beast Boy. "You know…we'll find a way to save Terra. We haven't entirely given up on her."

Beast Boy slowly nodded and looked towards the ground.

"Who knows….maybe we're all growing up after all."

A beat.

He glanced up. "Say…where did Cyborg say he was going today?"

"Where else?" Raven blinked. "Phaser Labs with Noir."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CLICK!!

"There…," Cyborg smiled and applied a tiny, sparking tool to the metal joints. "New and improved from the last time you tried it. Give it a shot."

I blinked under my shades.

I lifted my left arm up…performed a natural thought…and a set of five, titanium fingers flexed instantly. It was so 'real' that I jumped as if startled.

"Heheheheheh….," Cyborg chuckled and patted my back. "Ain't it wyrd at first? Now imagine having two fake hands. And imagine those fake hands being able to turn into all sorts of funky shit. You, my friend, are lucky."

I rolled my black eyes and smirked at him. I looked back at my new left 'hand'. A shiny, silver skeleton of whurring engines and minute circuitry. The cybernetic piece pivoted gracefully on a silver disc that encased what was once a stub of flesh. An intricate operation with Cyborg himself in the director's chair supplied me with the metal extension two-third of the way up my forearm. My radius and ulna were grafted into a metal framework with plastic ligaments, while miraculous wires connected and completed my missing synapses and gave the silver hand attached to my limb a synthetic aura of 'feeling'.

"Try saying something," Cyborg smirked.

I looked up at him. I grinned wide.

I cleared my throat, steadied myself, and with a slight bit of extra effort—combined the metal fingers with the flesh of my right hand's fingers to hand sign: _'I am your father'._

Cyborg laughed his head off. "You're a riot, Noir. Pure riot. You'll be getting used to that thing in no time."

I nodded…staring at the metal joints and mechanisms.

"I'll be back," he patted my shoulder and walked off. Inside the laboratory, a handful of police workers sat at other tables…enjoying and practicing the flexibility of their own, new limbs. They were the clerks and officers from the City Police Department who were there the night Viper paid a visit and rid them of their right hands. Cyborg's technology came just in the nick of time for them as it did for me.

But he was not alone…

Cyborg walked to the far side of the room where a circular pad of sorts rested against a metal wall where scientists shuffled and worked on instruments of various sorts.

"Come show yourself, old man!" the android Titan smirked, his hands to his hips. "I wanna talk to you!"

"But you can talk to me now!" mused a disembodied voice. "I am grafted into the computer here, ya know."

"Only cuz I dragged you here and installed your neural net myself," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Now come on…lemme see you again."

"Oh, alright. But I swear…if ever you're in my position, the physical body seems nothing but tiresome."

The lights dimmed on his side of the lab. The circular pad hummed. Suddenly, blue bands like lightning bolts shot up from the floor and flashed and crackled in chaotic strobes. Cyborg and a few other people watched as—once again—pure energy filtered upward from the power banks and converted to matter in a Star Trek fashion. Soon, the clean and gentlemanly clothed figure of Simon Stone stood before his nephew atop the pad. He shrugged and showed off the suit with a dry smirk.

"What do you think? I have a whole slew of outfits to choose from. Kinda retro this stuff, huh? Makes me want to boogy."

Cyborg sniffed forth a chuckle and pointed: "Ya know…that thing isn't a toy. Wait till we build a bigger once and then you can dance all you like."

"Still, I'll be cooped up in this stuffy laboratory!" the Uncle in synthetic flesh uttered with a slump. "But…given the circumstances, I suppose the very last thing I must do is complain." A beat. He folded his arms and smiled: "Looks like you've been quite the busy beaver. Got your friend a new hand to play with, huh?"

"I guess you could say that," Cyborg grinned. "But believe you mean, he earned it. I'm sure he'll make good use of it in the future."

A beat.

The Uncle was staring at his nephew with a soft smile. He spoke warmly: "I'm proud of you, Victor. I really, truly am."

Cyborg took a deep breath and replied with a slightly shaky voice: "I'm just glad you're still around, old man."

I smiled over at the scene.

I looked back at my new limb and did a 'hand puppet' with it.

_Well…not all things are gone…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_The City is at peace._

_Since Slade's and Dagger's downfall, it's almost been downright ludicrous and boring to be a superhero. At least that's the case in these parts. I can't imagine how Metropolis or Gotham City are doing. The Titans here are so bored…we've resorted to going out to Chinese Restaurants and renting Barbara Streisand DVDs for Movie Night here at the Tower._

_Don't ask, it's a long story. But basically, the reality is obvious. Slade and Dagger were major, criminal influences on the events of this Town. With them gone, the average thugs and thieves of the street have nothing to hide under or cower behind. The result is a calm…an ever-permeating aura of tranquility that is both a blessing to our citizens and a curse to our sanity. But, I suppose we'll make the best of it as we can._

_In fact, that job seems to be in the hands of my titanium buddy, Cyborg. Since our last visit to Phaser Labs (which is why I'm able to type this to you right now, Diana…ahem) he's boiled up in an enthusiasm and a fervor unprecedented, and every fiber of his being seems poised to leap up into the air and propose:_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A VACATION!!! WOOO-YEAH!!!"

I was jolted out of my typing with a gasp. I looked with twitching black eyes as the android bounded down from the elevator and slapped a map down onto a table between couches where Raven was reading a book and Beast Boy was indulged in a Game Boy.

"A vacation?" Raven droned, an eyebrow lifted.

Robin and Starfire looked up from the kitchen unit where they were making sandwiches.

"Think about it!!" Cyborg beamed. He pointed at a line of red ink carved into the map of the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachians. "We cruise along the beach, go west through the Smokey Mountains, see the sights, and then head out West to wherever the road takes us!!" Cyborg gestured. "It could be a real good test for the T-Car, and we can all just kick back and relax and watch the scenery go by! Together!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy jumped. "That sounds so cool!!"

"Hehehehe!" Starfire clasped her fingers together. "Glorious!! An asphalt trip!"

Robin sweatdropped. "Road trip." He coughed.

"Oh."

"An interesting idea…," Raven droned. "…but we can't leave this City or the Tower."

"Why not?!" Cyborg jumped. "This place is a ghost town for crime lately anyways! And quite frankly, I think we all deserve some down time!"

"You're right about that, that's for sure…," Robin nodded, scratching his chin with a gloved hand and smiling. "But Raven's got a good point. We can't just leave this City alone as it is. What kind of heroes would we be?"

"Then—like good little heroes—we'll work out a way so that we can leave the City **without** it being alone!! Come on, guys!! Work with me here! We'll never have another opportunity to do something like this again!"

Everyone else was silent as we looked at the map on the table. We considered it. Our hearts jumped at the possibility—even Raven's, I am convinced.

I looked at the fresh silver of my new, metal hand and sighed.

_West……this is all about going West._

My black eyes blinked under the shades.

_But……I-I'd be with my friends. So it'd be okay……_

I sighed with relief, smiled, and swung back to the computer.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana……_

_Uh……l-let me get back to you._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_


	66. Vacation

**66. Vacation**

At the round table of the Main Room…..

"Well, for one thing, Cyborg, how's a trip like this going to be comfortable? I mean…it's tough enough as it is squishing all six of us into your T-Car."

"Don't you worry our spikey little head over that, Robin!" Cyborg beamed. "I've been making adjustments to the T-Car. Modifying it. The chassis is wider and the interior a bit more spacious. We should all be able to sit inside no problem now."

"Dude," Beast Boy grinned. "I thought you made that thing to be like a sports car, not a Hummer!"

"Oh yeah!" Cyborg snapped a titanium finger and pointed. "It's worthy to mention that I momentarily uninstalled the photon cannon…..sooooooo," he leisurely kicked his feet up onto the tabletop, annoying Raven. "Who's for riding in a convertible through the Smokey Mountains??"

Beast Boy jumped in his seat. "Phat!! I can't wait to try that out now!!"

"You and me both, little man!"

"You seriously don't expect us all to drive miles and miles with the top of the T-Car off….," Raven muttered. "It's a hot and humid summer, the weather is getting muggier and muggier, and—in case you haven't noticed—God made these little things called 'bugs'."

"The electric field generator on the front of the T-Car will take care of any infinitesimal winged creatures that'll fly over the dashboard," Cyborg proudly winked.

"And kill a few birds and raccoons while we're at it," Raven droned.

Robin cleared his throat. "Um….a vacation sounds nice, Cyborg. But….wh-where exactly are we going to go?"

"What?!?!" Cyborg cackled and waved his arms. "WHAT?!?! You don't ask that, man!! You don't jinx it!!"

"I'm afraid I don't catch your drift…."

"We go wherever the road takes us!!" Cyborg beamed. "Just hop in the car, load up on gas, and vrooooom!!"

"As long as the 'vroooooooom' takes us through North Carolina…," Raven hummed with a tiny smirk. "I hear there're a lot of ghost hunts and haunted battlefields there."

"No way!! We're going to the beach first!" Beast Boy grinned a crescent moon. "That's where all the ladies are!!"

"I'm a lady…," Raven glared.

"Ahem….**happy** ladies in **bikinis**."

"Those aren't ladies," Raven replied. "Those are culturally brainwashed, anorexic waifs of a hormonally subjugated society, built around the patriarchal bias of overt sexuality and feminine stereotypes."

Beast Boy blinked. "Did a stork drop you on the front door of Yale or something?"

"We can do the beach, we can do the mountains, and if necessary—" Cyborg squinted at Raven and Beast Boy, "---we can do the paintball field."

**"Huh??**" both beast and dark girl uttered at once.

Starfire giggled. "I am ecstatic! If we are indeed to embark upon this odyssey, I hope to record and commemorate every sight and sound we come across! This Earth is certainly splendid with its cache of bugs, asphalt, ghosts, and bikinis!!"

"Er….," Cyborg sweatdropped. "I think you'll enjoy the pounding surf of the beaches and the green forests of the mountains all the more, Starfire."

The alien girl blinked. "Then these 'bikinis' I keep hearing about are not equally glorious? Quite often I hear of you and Beast Boy exalting 'bikinis' on a regular basis, and I felt so inclined to see them for myself!"

All the boys in the room blushed and scratched their necks.

Raven rolled her blue eyes and sighed. "Whatever the case, Starfire…this will certainly be a learning experience for you."

"Hehehehe!" Starfire smiled, her eyes shut. "Glorious!! Mountains and bikinis await!"

"Y-Yeah…," Beast Boy smiled crookedly. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

Robin cleared his throat. "Now…it sounds like we all are interested in doing this. Am I right?"

"Yup!"

"Boo-Ya!"

"Definitely!"

"Sure…"

"But the question is 'how?'!" Robin remarked. "We can't just…..**abandon** this City!"

"What's to abandon??" Beast Boy gestured. "Oh, woe to the harrowing task of watching the plaster dry on the sides of buildings! I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but I'm bored now that crime is taking a holiday!"

Cyborg finally admitted: "You never can know. Perhaps every thug in the City is waiting for us to high-tail it out of here before they do their dirty deeds."

"Aaaaugh!" Beast Boy slumped his head to the table. "But we need this vacation!! I need this vacation! You realize how long it's been since I've put the move on a cute girl from out of town?!"

"Ummmm….," Cyborg blinked….then smirked. "It depends. Do you believe in reincarnation?"

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out.

"I'll take that a 'yes'."

"Hey!!"

"Ha ha ha!!"

"Well…with necessity and etiquette ruling over us…," Raven spoke, "It looks like we're stuck here."

"Awwwwwww," Starfire cooed.

Robin smirked. "Don't fret just yet. I've been working on something."

Cyborg gave him a sideways glance with his human eye. "What're you up to?"

"You'll see," Robin leaned back. "Just know that I want a vacation like this just as much as you guys do."

"I find that surprising…," Raven droned.

"Why's that?"

"Because you're Robin."

The Boy Wonder blinked from behind his eyemask. "Yes…well…I recognize it when my teammates and I have earned some time off. And believe me…it's been royally, legitimately earned."

"Sooooo glad you worry about your teammates," Raven rolled her eyes.

Robin glared at her.

A beat.

Beast Boy blinked. "Say….where's Noir?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!

I slashed Myrkblade forward and froze in a crouching position.

I held my breath. Meditated. Tensed my muscles. And after half a minute---

SWISSSH-SLASH!!!

I spun around and stood up with an upwards swing of my sword.

I held my breath. The sawgrass of the island's beachside swished around me. Waters lapped gently up against the bluffs. The Sun shone down and glinted off my synthetic left hand that clung to Myrkblade alongside my flesh.

I waited in that position forever….feeling the strain…the need to fall.

I blinked under my shades.

CHIIIIING!!!!

I knelt down low in half a second, Myrkblade stuck in its scabbard.

One second….two seconds….three---

CHIIIING-SLASH-SLASH-SWOOSH!

I unsheathed Myrkblade, spun three times with it stretched outwards, and jabbed towards the Tower.

Grass swayed in a path away from my blade as the smoke died down and the air's tranquility returned.

I swallowed.

I stood up straight—relaxing outside of meditation. I stared at my left hand. I tossed the hilt into its grasp. I spun Myrkblade around with titanium fingers. SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!! I ended the twirl with a jab towards the sky. SLASH!! My black eyes narrowed.

Almost feels natural. Gotta work on the friction, though. I keep fearing the blade's going to slip out of the metal fingers.

I twirled it around once more and gripped it hard. I held my breath. Smoke danced out from under my shades as I sent a wave of murk up my left limb and into the metal. Tendrils of black vapors swam off the flesh, onto the prosthetic, wound through the joints and metallic ligaments, and coursed into the blade which charged up with obsidian fury.

I smirked.

I spun and slashed at a nearby rock.

SWOOOOSH!!!

CRACK!!!

The boulder broke to rubble.

I grinned.

_Still got the touch……_

I let loose the murk and tossed the blade into my right hand. I then held my left prosthetic up and concentrated again. The smoke repeated its movement up the limb and enveloped the metal. I bit my lip and narrowed my eyes. Slowly, my left arm turned into smoke form. I then gently moved Myrkblade through it. SWISH!! The smoke of my limb swam around the blade as it went completely through and then reformed. Again I moved Myrkblade through. My left arm teleported around it.

I solidified the hand and flexed the metal muscles.

_As good as new……_

I breathed a sigh of relief. True, I had been testing my new hand out like this before. But an experiment isn't an experiment if it can't be repeated for the sake of empirical goodness.

My heart chilled.

I flinched with a jolt. A frosty sensation crept outward from my center, up and down my spine, and into the extremities of my limbs. I dropped Myrkblade and I hugged my arms as a sudden coldness overtook my body. I shivered. My teeth clattered. My black eyes thinned as I felt like I had suddenly been shoved straight through a meat truck.

_Ah jeez……not again………_

As soon as it began, it ended. The chills vibrated away. The warmth of the sun took over…and my shivering stopped.

I took a deep breath, stood up straight, and flexed my arms.

_That's the second time this day…_

I bent over and picked up Myrkblade with my new hand. As I gripped the hilt and lifted the weapon, I felt a slight numbness that was there then gone. It was like my titanium prosthetic was phasing in and out of existence.

_It wasn't the first time._

I took a deep breath, turned around, and was about to head back to the Tower when—

"Giving the new arm a try?" Cyborg smiled.

I blinked. Sheathed my sword. And hand-signed.

Cyborg nodded in response. "That's good to hear. If I must say, you're getting used to it rather quickly."

I smiled. But something in my lips trailed.

Cyborg's human eyebrow raised. "Something's wrong….isn't there?"

I bit my lip and shrugged.

He leaned over and took a close look at my hand. "Is it…….causing the shivers again?"

I relented with a sigh and nodded.

"I was afraid of that…," Cyborg muttered. "I could swear…I've done everything I could to calibrate it just right—"

I paused him with a finger held up. I gestured something.

At 'reading' me, Cyborg looked aside and hesitantly said: "Yes. I-It's quite possible that such side effects are as permanent as the new limb…."

I nodded and smiled to console him.

But he shook his head and grumbled. "I-It's not right! It shouldn't be acting up like that! The sync of the nerves are perfect! And the chance of getting the 'shivers' from sensory fracture is a mere one in five hundred thousand!"

I held a hand up in front of him, turned it into smoke, and materialized it back to normal. I smirked.

Cyborg gave me a cynical look. "Even for nerves like yours…Noir…," he placed a hand on his metal hip. "The chances are still slim."

I shrugged.

"Are you…..s-still willing to go through with having that thing," he pointed at my left hand.

For some reason, I suddenly didn't like it being called a 'thing' anymore. I vehemently defended its existence with a gesture.

"Allright…allright!" Cyborg chuckled and patted my shoulder. "Sometime soon, Phaser Labs will graft something improved that will eliminate the random shivers. I promise you that. They're working around the clock and my Uncle Simon's on the team with them! Now ain't that special?"

I nodded with a smile.

"Come on, man," He tugged me along towards the Tower, "…we need you to help us out with this vacation plan of ours! You're part of the family, remember?"

I took a deep breath.

_I remembered……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the front entrance to the Tower…..

"Okay…so we take the T-Car along the Atlantic Seaboard, west through the Appalachians, then where?" Beast Boy uttered.

"I'm telling you, man!" Cyborg smiled. "Wherever the road takes us!!"

"But we gotta have a plan! Dude, come on!!"

"What's the matter, B.B.?" Robin smirked. "I thought spontaneity was your favorite thing!"

"Yeah, when I'm driving!!" the changeling put on a cartoon frown and pointed at Cyborg. "That guy scares me. You ever ridden shotgun with him before?"

"Nah…I just give that seat to Starfire," Robin said.

"Well he's a demon!!" Beast Boy cackled. "I love the idea of living life to its fullest, but not when 'its fullest' is synonymous with 'its deadliest!'"

"You got the demon part right…," Raven said, her nose in a book.

Cyborg merely chuckled and leaned back in his seat.

I smiled, leaning against the open doorway to the Tower. I flipped and shuffled a deck of cards in my titanium hand. Everyone hung around in their chairs or paced about the entranceway in a viciously bored manner as the Sun cast its dying rays in.

"Friends, we are sitting here with nothing prevalent on our list of 'to do-ness'," Starfire exclaimed and smiled. "To assist us in the efficacious solution to the question of vacationing, I suggest a communist dispersal of unhealthy junk food to appease our spirits!"

"Not sure junk food will help the head right now, Star," Robin said. "Besides, I have the perfect solution."

"We'd all like to hear it!!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Solution to **what?!**" Cyborg cackled with shrugging shoulders. "I'd say we just pack up, ship out, and be done with it!! We need this vacation, man!!"

"We all know that you're rearing to go on this thing, Cyborg," Raven uttered. She glanced up from her book, "And although your enthusiasm is contagious, we cannot ignore the fact that our presence here in this City has been and shall always be the necessity to preserve lives and ensure their safety. Just because there seems to be a sabbatical being taken by those in the criminal underworld, such is no excuse for us to—"

Beast Boy interrupted. "Raven…a little less of the dictionary and a little more action." A blink. He giggled and hugged himself. "Hehehehehehe!! Dude, that sounded so funny!"

Raven fumed. "Whatever." She returned to her book. A beat. "We still have a duty, just remember that."

"Agreed," Starfire nodded. She looked up at the other Titans. "I know how special it is for earthlings to reserve their time of leisure for intense moments of focus such as these 'vacations'. If need be, I will be glad to stay here at the Tower while the rest of you embark upon your westward trip of chaos and spontaneity."

"Awwwwww, Star!" Cyborg pouted. "That's not what we have in mind at all!"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "That'd be royal suckage for us, cuz we couldn't enjoy ourselves with you staying behind!"

I tapped the cards to the doorframe.

Everyone looked at me.

I hand-signed.

Everyone looked at Cyborg.

He cleared his throat. "Um, th-that's awfully nice of you, Noir. But…you sure you'd be willing to do that?"

I nodded.

"What's he saying?" Beast Boy remarked, a question mark popping over his head.

"He says if Starfire stays, he'd stay too."

"Awwww," Starfire cooed. "The warm of the fuzzy all around!"

I blushed.

"No need for sacrifice, people," Robin said. "Star…Noir…you earned this vacation as much as the rest of us. If we go along with Cyborg's proposal, I'd like for all of us to be there. You got it? No need for any of us to get punished for the others having reverie."

"Besides…," Raven droned in her book. "Robin doesn't want anyone staying behind or else he'll be admitting that he wants some time off from the superhero business."

Robin frowned at her, an artery pulsing in his temple.

Cyborg and Beast Boy snickered and Starfire giggled as she smiled and said:

"Hehehehe…if that be the case, then I will gladly come with the rest of my friends. To think…an excursion through this continent's plethora of mountains and tourist entrapments: I am most enthused to be a part of it!"

"And what about you, Noir?" Cyborg remarked. "You're not excited to be with us or something?"

I simpered. I looked out the Tower. I saw the suspension bridge over the bay in the glittering, gold sunlight.

_The West……_

I swallowed, turned back to them, and lied with my hands: _'I do not have a problem if Starfire does not have a problem'._

"Good! Glad to have you join us!" Cyborg smirked.

"Yeah, we need Noir!" Beast Boy winked. "Especially when we hit those beaches."

Raven looked up…bored. "And why is that, exactly?"

"We can show him off! We can strap him to the hood of the car and go cruising down the beach! Man, I tell you, girls will be flocking all around!"

"Sure they will…," and Raven returned to her book.

"I'm telling you, he's a magnet!" Beast Boy looked at me and whispered aside his hand. "You do have swimming trunks, right?"

I raised a finger to gestu---

"Great! It's settled!" Beast Boy grinned a crescent moon and hopped victoriously. "Secret weapon to goodness! Yeah!"

I rolled my eyes under my shades.

"Hey!" Beast Boy frowned and pointed at me. "If I was handsome, I wouldn't be rolling my eye----er…..w-wait, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to."

Cyborg laughed his head off.

Starfire giggled.

"Duuuuude!! Not funny! So sometimes I slip on a joke! So what?!"

"Some joke…," Cyborg said, chuckling some more.

"Well, you're laughing, right?! That means something……huh?!"

"Do not be so hard on yourself, Beast Boy," Starfire smiled. "You and Noir are equally handsome."

I smiled at that.

"You're just saying that out of pity to save my bruised ego!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Yup." Raven.

Beast Boy glared at her.

"Oh, but it is true!" Starfire clasped her hands together. "Noir is most proficient in his exercise of having long black hair. And you are most proficient with your pointy ears."

Beast Boy blinked. "Pointy ears?" A pause. "Really?"

"Mmmhmmm," Starfire smiled.

"Yes!! I knew it! Ladies love the pointy ears!"

"Indeed," Starfire giggled. "On my planet, prominent ear lobes is a sign of---"

"Wait a minute!"

"---virility….," Starfire blinked. "Did I say something wrong?"

"On your home planet, Star?"

"Precisely!"

"Argh! But I want earth babes!"

"And what is wrong with Tamaranian infants?"

"N-Nothing! Er…there's nothing wrong with Tamaranian **chicks**, it's just that….well….I only know one of them….and she's….well…ya know….."

Robin looked up.

Starfire blinked. She squinted one eye suspiciously. "She is **what**?"

Raven glanced up from her book.

I swallowed.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Er….she is tall. VERY tall!"

Half the room sighed with relief.

Starfire giggled. "Yes, my height does seem to be rather prominent in comparison to earthling females of my age."

"Yeah. But it's cool, ya know, Star?!" Beast Boy blushed. "It's just that I'm not exactly Robert Waldo, here. Heh. But there're plenty of tall guys out there who….um….w-would love to get to know an alien girl who doesn't need to wear high heels and…..erm…..I-I know! We can strap you to the hood of the car next to Noir so that we can get a bunch of guys on the beach to walk up to us and….uh….flirt with Raven! Yeah!"

Raven's brow furrowed. "**What?**"

"Deadly territory, little man," Cyborg shrugged.

"Maybe I should just keep my mouth closed."

"Good thinking!" Cyborg remarked.

Starfire blinked. She looked at Raven. "How long will Noir and I be fastened to the front of Cyborg's automobile? I do hope not for long."

"No, Star…," Raven sighed. "They were merely joking."

"Oh…..," the alien girl blinked. "Then it is only Noir being fastened to the vehicle?"

"No, Star, they------n-never mind…"

"Hey, what about me?"

Everyone looked at Robin.

He smiled and ran a hand through his spiked hair. "Will I get strapped to any cars?"

Silence.

"Yeah…," Beast Boy said, folding his arms. "If we were driving a Volkswagen Bug!"

Cyborg laughed.

I sniffled a chuckle.

Robin frowned.

"Hahahaha!" Beast Boy hugged himself. "He'd fly right off the T-Car, man!"

"The Boy Weightless! Thin as a board!"

"Swoosh!! Yeah! Ha ha ha!!"

"You guys are so biased," Robin spat.

"Do not worry, Robin," Starfire smiled. "As soon as I learn to drive earthling transit, I will be sure to fasten you to my hood."

Robin's mask bug-eyed.

"Errrrr….," Cyborg uttered.

Beast Boy cleared his throat.

Raven smirked slightly.

Starfire beamed at the others, her eyes closed. "Is that not generous?"

"It certainly lets the imagination run wild…," Raven said.

"Pfft!" Beast Boy remarked. "As if you had an imagination."

"For your information, I'm envisioning your head ornately placed on a pike. How's that for imagination?"

"I'm thinking of taking math class soon, thank you very much."

"Whatever."

I glanced out the doorway to the Tower. I saw something. Actually, I saw two things. I did a double-take at first…then smiled in awe and enthusiasm. Being the person that I am, naturally none of the other Titans could audibly bear witness to my revelation.

In the meantime, Robin—who seemed to sense what I had sensed—spoke up: "Back to business. I think I have a solution for our 'leaving the City alone' predicament."

"Oh yeah…heheh…we were getting around to that, weren't we?" Cyborg uttered.

"We could all leave if we had someone here to guard the Tower, look after the City, and generally be a welcoming force for a short period of time. Like a substitute."

"Pfft…great idea," Beast Boy mumbled. "But hardly a dream come true!" He paced around the room and more or less headed towards the doorway, tossing his hands up. "But who on earth would possibly do such slave work for us—"

WHUMP!

"Owie!!" Beast Boy rubbed his nose after bumping into something. He looked up. "Hey Speedy."

"Hey, B.B.," Speedy smiled in the doorway.

A beat.

"Speedy!!!" Beast Boy gasped.

"Oh, so now you notice me," the red-headed archer grinned. "And to think that last time I was here I nearly blended in with this place."

"How're you doing?!" the changeling emphatically shook the archer's hand. "Dude…we missed your ass-kicking while you were gone! Not to mention your anti-Robin's-ego."

Speedy chuckled and leaned on his bow. "Yeah, well. Heroes have their duties in their respective places. And heroes also owe each other good deeds. So that's what I'm here for."

Starfire floated over suddenly and tackled Speedy in a hug.

"Whoah!!!"

"Glorious reunion!!" Starfire beamed. "Welcome back to our honorable abode, oh wielder of the furious projectile of righteousness!"

Speedy wheezed. "Robin…I-I….think your alien….is…crushing….me…."

Robin walked over, reached a glove up, paused, then set it down lightly on Starfire's shoulder with a smile. "That's enough, Star. Only **I** get to choke him."

"Eeep!" Starfire blushed. "A thousand apologies!" she let go of Speedy.

The archer regained both his breath and the natural color of his face. "That's more like it. Took you long enough, Robin."

"Though I must say…you got here pretty fast," Robin smirked. "Couldn't resist an invitation?"

"An **invitation**?!" Speedy remarked. "Is that what you call it?!" He spread his arms out and echoed upwards towards the high ceiling of the atrium. "I love this place!! I'd give a leg and a foot and something in between to get to work here on any occasion handed to me!"

"Wait a second…," Raven closed her book and stood up. "Do you mean to say that Robin called you over to house-sit for us?"

"Oh, believe me…I'd go on vacation with you too," Speedy smirked. "But alas…as karma—and my mentor—dictates, I have plenty a task to perform 'for the sake of goodness' and all that crap before I can lay my own head down to rest. Besides…where're you guys going anyways? The Carolinas? Bleah…I'd rather go to California and get it over with! Ha!"

"We might do that too, you never know!" Cyborg beamed.

I swallowed a painful lump down my throat suddenly.

"I do not think we are going anywhere…," Raven blinked. "Speedy, do not take this the wrong way. We're thankful for your assistance—much more than your manners I admit—"

"Thank you, Miss."

"….—but you alone, with all your powers and bravery, are still not enough to protect an entire City. We need more than that, and I don't know what Robin was thinking in asking just you to come by."

"Who said anything about just me?" Speedy smirked.

"Pfft!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes and gestured: "What? You got a girlfriend now?! I swear, why am I always the last…one……..to…." The changeling's eyes widened and he stopped in mid sentence.

Another figure had entered the Tower by Speedy's side.

"Well, now," Green Arrow's voice boomed as he leaned on his bow, grinned, and admired the widths and breadths of the Tower through his eyemask. "What marvelously voluminous headquarters for a team of rag-tag youngsters!"

"I stand corrected," Raven said…smiling ever so slightly.

"….," Beast Boy's eyes were wide and solid white in some cartoonish fashion. "It……he……that…….is……" He fainted and fell over.

"Whoah…..," Cyborg stood up, breathless. "The Green Arrow….!!"

"Oh, my bad, have you guys not met?" Speedy pointed at his mentor with hilarious subtlety. He winked under his mask.

"Greetings…Teen Titans," the green-clad man extended his arms and bowed. "You have all been very accepting of my young ward. I feel the desire to reward you—and your City—for such benevolence. Besides…I need new locations to strike fear into the hearts of the foolishly criminal!"

Cyborg rushed up. "I….um…er….I-I-It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

I smirked.

"Likewise, Mr. Cyborg, likewise," Green Arrow smirked, his blonde beard and sideburns highlighted from the golden rays of sunset behind him. He extended a hand to shake with the android's titanium fingers. "I've heard of your heroics. Of all of your heroics. I'd love to fight alongside you someday."

"A-A-Alongside me?!" Cyborg turned red as his red eye shorted out. "Y-Y-You can't b-be serious!"

"Take it easy, Cyborg…," Speedy smirked. "He's not a god or anything."

Green Arrow leaned over. "I'm better than a god. I'm your mentor."

Speedy sighed. "Yeah…true that…"

Beast Boy got up. Took another look at the scene. And fainted again.

"I seem to have fans in this area of the country," Green Arrow remarked, looking over at Robin. "Are your teammates always this….bashful around grownup superheroes?"

"Only the good ones," the Boy Wonder smirked. He walked over and extended a hand to shake. "Welcome to Titan Tower, Green Arrow. It is an honor to be in your presence."

He shook Robin's glove. "And it is an honor to watch after the City during your absence. I must say…I wonder why you youngsters have not thought of doing something of this sort before? You're always working so hard."

"Yeah…especially recently!" Speedy smirked and stepped forward. "Tell me! What was it like kicking Slade's butt?! I wish I was there!"

Silence.

Cyborg looked to the side, scratching the human part of his head.

Starfire bit her lip.

Raven was silent.

Beast Boy got up and scratched his neck nervously.

"Erm…..," Robin uttered. He looked in my direction.

I readjusted my shades and sighed.

"Am I missing something?" Speedy remarked. "Why all the doom and gloom on people's faces?"

"Let's just say that….i-it makes perfect sense why we've never had a vacation after any adventure until this one," Robin solemnly said. "And I use the term 'adventure' lightly."

Speedy was still perplexed.

Somehow, the more veteran hero perceived what was amiss. Green Arrow stepped forward, cleared his throat, and said; "Well…I'm sure the six of you are just dying to get on your way. Feel free to give us all the run-through you promised, Robin. And then we'll get a plan in action!"

"Splendid!" Starfire smiled. She spun and beamed happily at the others, breaking the fog. "Shall we bag the packs for the cross-country excursion?"

Slowly, everyone snickered slowly at that and shuffled into a greater tempo all throughout the Tower to get things ready for what would most likely end up being two weeks of pleasant oblivion.

Even me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A trip like this…," Beast Boy smiled and looked at me. "…deserves all the best tunes to accompany us! I already talked to Cy, and he's got one mother of a sound system in that T-Car of his. Ten CD changers. You hear that?!?! TEN!! That's like audible Ragnorak on wheels!!"

He dug into a pile of CD cases and tossed them onto a table behind him….making another pile.

"I know Cyborg suggests we all bring one album each so we can all share and stuff. But I can't just bring **one**, dude!! But, I know when it's wise to conserve. So I'm going to modestly truck along about thirty-eight gems. Okay…maybe thirty-nine. Well, it's more like thirty-eight and a half. One of them is a record. It's a song I'm absolutely **dying** to share with everyone. Say, Noir, it's only safe to ask you….are you a Beastie Boys fan?

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Books…," Raven said, holding up a hardback cover in front of me and gesturing to a bag she was slowly filling up in the Main Room. "Lots and lots of books. I'm only coming along on this trip because it's so very easy to read while riding in a car. And most people—I hear—find it the opposite. The constant hum of the engine and the passing scenery outside the window tends to make people fall asleep. But not me. My soul is much like a car. Constantly shaking. Constantly having things blur by it. In the midst of all that chaos, I find it easy to concentrate. Because it's like I'm being separated into a pocket universe where all I can do is immerse myself in text. Does this make any sense?"

I opened my mouth and raised a finger--

"Good. Cuz I don't want anyone thinking that I'm going on this vacation because I'm stressed. The truth is, I'm not stressed. I'm perfectly tranquil. All this reading and all this meditation following Slade's defeat has gotten me sedated. If I was stressed, I would be talking my head off. But of course I'm not stressed. Can't you tell? And in speaking of telling…I sure hope Robin tells Speedy to stay out of my room. I don't think he has to tell Green Arrow, because that archer is a grown man of urban legend. But then again, his yellow beard does somewhat make him look suspiciously eccentric…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Birdarang. Bolo. Grappling hook. Discs. Strobe pellets. Knockout gas. And—of course—utility belt," Robin spoke as he pulled each item out of a cabinet inside the gym and placed them out on a table. He then leaned on the table and smiled at me. "Yup. Just about all I need."

I stared at him.

"What?!?!"

I placed my hands on my hips.

"It helps to come prepared! What, you think we can't be heroes outside of the City or something?"

I sighed.

"Oh come on! Give me a break! Okay. Okay. You're right. This is a vacation. I'll….um…..not bring the strobe pellets." He removed the item from the table and then leaned forward again. "How's that?"

I frowned. I pointed at the items….then his costume.

He made a face. "You mean I should lose the costume too?! No way!! Gawd…what is it with you guys?! A vacation is not meant for relaxation!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh, and I do believe this would look marvelous on me!" Starfire spun around and looked at me across her room. She held up a purple tank top and purple skirt in front of her…..purple tank top and purple skirt. "Ta to the daaaa! How am I looking?"

I bit my lip.

She blinked. "I see….well. How about this one?!" She spun back to the closet, put away the purple tank top and purple skirt….and held up another purple tank top and purple skirt in front of the purple tank top and purple skirt she was wearing. "Ta to the daaaa!"

I rubbed my scalp.

"Erhm…..I am confused. Were my last two choices in error?"

I marched over to her closet. Slid the two doors across the way. And exposed the concealed half of the casual, earthling clothes that she bought and never wore. All twenty articles of them. I fervently **pointed** to them.

"Those?" Starfire blinked. "I thought those were only meant for 'the shopping'."

I blinked.

The alien girl gasped. "I am to wear them too?!?!"

I smiled and nodded.

"Oh, glorious!! I never thought of that before!!"

I tried not to chuckle.

"I never thought much of it. After all, Raven never wears the clothes I get for her during 'the shopping'…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…explain to me how this system works…," Green Arrow politely asked as he sat at the computer station with Cyborg.

"Well…," the android began. "This is no normal security net. It's the same design my father made, with some tweaks here and there."

"Okay."

"This…," Cyborg pointed to one of over twenty dozen nodes across a three-dimensional grid schematic of the Tower. "…is the Alpha failsafe. It's wired directly between the Beta and Ceti failsafes. But at the same time, it's cross-wired to the Omega grid."

"What's the Omega grid do?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Then why have an Omega grid?"

"Oh, the fact that it does nothing makes it very important."

"Oh?"

"Yes. It becomes a double-failsafe."

"What's a double-failsafe, exactly?"

"It throws off hackers and invaders into thinking that the failsafes are fake."

"Ohhh. How many fake failsafes are there?"

"You mean double-failsafes?"

"Yes."

"About twenty of them. And there are twenty-one failsafes."

"So…twenty-one fake failsafes and—"

"No…twenty fake failsafes."

"I thought you said they were double-failsafes."

"They are. And that's what makes them fake."

"By…"

"By making the non-fake failsafes appear fake so that the fake failsafes won't be treated like unfake failsafes by people looking for the unfake failsafes."

"…………..so….um…."

"Oh, and one other thing."

"Yes?"

"The crosswiring alternates by the twenty-first nonfake failsafe, so sometimes the fakes are nonfakes and the nonfakes are fake but they all end up being failsafes at some point or another."

"I see…."

"Wanna repeat it?"

"What? The fake part or the nonfake part?"

"Parts. Not 'part'."

"But I thought you said they were all fake."

"………um…n-no. Let's go over this again…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"They Might Be Giants…Red Hot Chilli Peppers…," Beast Boy suddenly gasped as he tossed all other album asides, hugged one CD case to his chest, and just about sprouted warm tears. "Bare…..Naked…..Ladies…."

The changeling smiled at me and waved the album around. "Best ever! Best ever! Best ever!"

He paused. He suddenly blushed. "Um…did I just sound like a fangirl there?"

I politely lied by shaking my head 'no'.

"Ah…well….I know I can do better," he tossed the album behind him, shuffled through more CDs, and gasped at another 'gem'. "Gorrilaz!! My life is complete!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Quintessentially," Raven uttered, holding up a book in my face. "You have not truly lived until you have read Scarlet Letter. I admire it notsomuch for the oppression Hester Prynne patiently endures…but the grand tragedy of Arthur Dimmesdale in his gradual physical and mental decline at the hand of Chillingworth provokes such intelligent reflection of symbolism that I cannot help myself but read Hawthorne's masterpiece over and over again. I have chills run down my spine each time Dimmesdale goes through his public, dramatic, almost orgasmic revelation of unpardonable sin—and yet in such humiliation and shame, he achieves a transient form of salvation. But is salvation fair? Dimmesdale dies…and Hester lives on to bear the shame of her copulation with Dimmesdale til the end of her bitter years. Maybe I can read this again during our first few days of travel and see it more clearly the eighth time through."

A beat.

"Now that I think about it, I hate this book…," and she tossed it into another, hidden pile while I scratched my head.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay….," Robin took a deep breath. "I think I got it down now."

He reached over to the table and picked up a bolo and tossed it behind him. "There…how's that? Stripped down, huh?"

I reached a hand out and—in a blink of an eye—shoved every weapon and tool on the tabletop off and onto the floor.

"…….," Robin blinked through his eyemask. "I can take a hint."

I smirked.

He bent over and picked his utility belt up from the floor. "At least this—"

I frowned and made to grab it from him.

"Uh!!" he held it up and shook a finger. "Uh uh uh! If you can bring your sword, I can bring this thing at least. Deal?"

I gave him an 'Okay' sign and shook his hand.

He shook mine back and then gestured towards the other end of the gym. "Now, we got tents. Blankets. At least two lawn chairs. And….um…two umbrellas. Oh, and a cooler. God…I hope Cyborg was right when he said he refitted the T-Car and stuff."

I gestured something that even he could understand.

"A trailer?!" Robin made a face. "Ewww….no way. Not on any car I'm riding in. I don't even care if it's Cyborg's car or not. If worse comes to worse and we're overstocked on traveling goods, I'll make you walk outside and carry it!"

I pouted.

"Okay….you're right," Robin folded his arms and smirked. "We'll make Beast Boy carry it. I just hope he's kosher with being a donkey all vacation."

We both chuckled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"An earthling camera! It is most appropriate for this sort of vacation, is it not?"

I pointed at the bag behind Starfire.

"Huh?? Oh, this!!" the Tamaranian reached in and pulled out a fuzzy stuffed animal which she squeezed to her chest. "A Theodore Roosevelt Bear!! Fuzziness was never before so fuzzy…hehehe!! Do you care to touch him?"

I simpered and mouthed the correct name of the stuffed toy.

She squinted her green eyes. "Shredded hair?"

I shook my head. I mouthed again.

"Lead Die Rear?"

I planted a hand over my face.

"I take it you do not wish to touch the fuzzy….?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"All right…," Green Arrow spoke, his eyemask scanning the computer screen. "I shall attempt to make order out of this. The failsafes are all red herrings, insomuch as they are not red herrings. The double-failsafes were created to misdirect hackers into disabling the wrong parts of the security grid—"

"Assuming they can get in to begin with," Cyborg said.

"Correct. Now, let us pretend that I wish to run a system diagnostic on the security grid…how can I best avoid the complications of these failsafes and double-failsafes?"

"That's where you get into the sub-failsafe protocol."

"Sub-failsafes? That sounds new."

"Not necessarily. It's basically the canceling out of the failsafes and double-failsafes."

"But the failsafes and double-failsafes are not even numbered. I thought the double-failsafes had one extra member."

"Well, that depends. It's oftentimes the failsafe that has and extra number, but since the wiring and cross-wiring is in a constant state of flux, it's relatively random as to which of the two systems is the red herring or the legitimate system-----aw crap."

"What's wrong?"

"I forgot about the firewalls."

"What sort of firewalls are we talking about?"

"It depends….whether or not they're firewalls or double-firewalls or s-sub….."

"………."

"You know what? If any bad guys come to the Tower…you and your apprentice just….ya know….shoot arrows at them really fast."

"That sounds marvelous."

"Yup. We're done here."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stepped into the garage and set down his bag of stuff. He whistled at what he saw. "Man, Cyborg…you weren't kidding."

Cyborg was finishing up a polishing of his T-Car. The wheels seemed a good two feet wider. The compartment in the back was more spacey. And most of all…the top was down.

The android looked over, polished away one last smudge, and smiled. "My baby's growing up."

Robin walked over, arms folded. "Well aren't you proud?"

"Yup. It'll be ready for us first thing tomorrow morning."

"We're going about this thing really casual, aren't we?" the Boy Wonder stated.

"I'd say so…," Cyborg nodded. "Our best friend will be the beach, the road, and the sky…unless it's gonna fall sometime soon."

"Heheheh…," Robin chuckled and leaned against a tool rack nearby. He took a deep breath. "I never thought I'd see the day when we could afford to just…..take off."

Cyborg smirked. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd be so willing to 'take off'."

Robin craned his neck. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Look at you?! Gosh…when I first ran into you, you were a stiff as a corpse! No offense."

"None taken….not yet at least."

"You've changed, Robin. And if I may say so…I kinda like it."

"Whatever," the Boy Wonder shrugged and headed back for the stairwell. "As long as I'm still leader of this team."

"As long as you're still mysterious and badass, you mean," Speedy smirked from the doorway where he leaned.

"Aren't you supposed to be upstairs….um…sharpening arrowheads with your mentor?"

"Done enough of that to write a book and then burn it, man," Speedy replied. "I'm spending the time enjoying your soft side, Robin."

"Man…that sounds sick."

Cyborg laughed.

"Ya know…," Speedy smirked and pointed at the Boy Wonder, "…one of these days you're going to give in completely."

"Hardy har har."

"No! Seriously!" Speedy stopped Robin in his tracks. "You'll wake up and tell yourself 'Okay, Robin. I've had enough of this secret identity! It's about time I told my close friends who and what I really am!'"

"Don't go there, man," Cyborg shook his head. "Lord knows…we all tried."

"Nice attempt, Speedy," Robin smirked and brushed the young archer aside. "But I got to go to sleep as 'Robin' to wake up as 'Robin' so I can be 'Robin' for the teammates of mine who need 'Robin'."

"Ahhh baloney," Speedy stuck his tongue out. "I swear…I'll find out who you really are someday. I'll shock the great Detective's apprentice by learning who and what he really is and why his ego has to be so well-preserved."

Robin stopped, turned around, and smirked. "For that to happen…I'd have to die first."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning, the T-Car rested outside of the front of the Tower. The Titans were finishing packing their stuff into the rear trunk. I had very few things to bring with me. I stood twenty feet away on the side of the driveway in jeans and a jacket. With stylish shades I looked into the hair-whipping wind as the Sun rose up behind us and cast a shadow westward.

_Westward……_

I sighed.

"I'm afraid I haven't had the chance to speak to you much!"

I smiled and looked up at the blonde-bearded hero in green. He was only half a foot above me…and I remembered just how tall I was.

"Word is….you pulled a lot of crazy, selfless stunts to ensure the safety of your teammates….and your City."

I looked to the side.

Green Arrow momentarily eyed my left 'hand' as he added: "Dedication like that is…..inspiring. I have no qualms about taking up this assignment to watch over the sleeping City now…"

I slowly nodded.

A beat.

"Well…," Green Arrow smiled and saluted me. "I suppose you greatly desire to go on your way. A trip West—I hear—is always rejuvenating to the soul. It suggests forward progression….change….and maturity."

I slowly nodded. _I didn't try and tell him a single thing. I wasn't not sure he could understand. I wasn't sure anyone could understand._

"Robin??" Starfire flew overhead in a t-shirt and shorts, looking very girlish and….well…girlish. "Robin? We seek your company in the 'taking of the off' for our vacation!!"

"Try his room!" Beast Boy said, dressed in a polo shirt and pants and trying his futile best to balance two tall stacks of CD albums in his grasp as he hobbled towards the trunk and made Cyborg frown.

"Thank you very much!" Starfire soared up overhead.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I think I got everything….I think I got everything….," the Boy Wonder mumbled. In khaki slacks and a white t-shirt, he squinted through his eyemask as he rummaged through desktop, drawer, and bedside searching for the last bits of personal material to sling into his modestly sized backpack.

At one point, he absent-mindedly stumbled over and opened his bedside table drawer.

He froze.

The photo from the bus terminal's surveillance camera glanced up at him. Cold. Lonely.

He took a deep breath…and slowly shut the drawer closed.

"I don't need you on this vacation…," he muttered. His fists clenched once…then relaxed. "I have something happy to wake up to with these people…."

"Robin??" Starfire's voice echoed in the hallway outside. "We are awaiting your presence!"

Robin quickly smiled, sighed happily, and dashed towards the door…slinging the backpack around one shoulder. "Coming!"

And the room was empty.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I finished gently placing Myrkblade in its scabbard down into a corner of the trunk.

Cyborg closed it—miraculously—and brushed his titanium hands off. "Allrighty. Everyone hop in!!"

"Dude!! We've all hopped!! You and Noir get your butts in here!"

Cyborg and I sweatdropped.

"R-Right…," Cyborg cleared his throat, turned, and waved at the two archers standing at the steps to the Tower. "Keep the place in one piece!"

"Don't worry! We'll try!" Speedy smirked. "Say…can we have some girls over while you're gone—"

Green Arrow elbowed his ward.

"Ow!!"

"Godspeed, heroes!" the adult archer waved. "We'll keep in contact!"

"Right!" Robin gave a thumb's up through the window.

Cyborg got into the driver's seat.

I sat down in the left rear passenger seat. Raven—this time—sat to my right next to Robin while Beast Boy took the back rear seat. Starfire took shotgun and we were all situated.

"Allrighty…," Cyborg took a deep breath, smiled, and whispered: "Glad to have you around, Uncle…."

"What was that?" Starfire remarked.

"Er…n-nothing. Just expressing thanks for inspiration," Cyborg smiled widely and turned the engine on.

The T-Car hummed to life.

The Titans clapped.

Raven and I joined in, smiling slightly.

"Aaaaaand now for the good part!" Cyborg pressed a button.

The top came down.

"Sweeeeet!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"You don't know the half of it…," Cyborg's human eye winked in the rear view mirror. "And off we go! GO WEST YOUNG MAN!! HA!!"

"And young woman…," Raven droned.

"And young alien!" Starfire smiled.

"Um….young elf?" Beast Boy blushed.

"Someone sing a song!" Robin chuckled.

Raven spat: "No."

VROOOOOM!!!

The archers watched as the T-Car burned rubber and sailed on down the land ridge, towards the main heart of the City, and prepared to make a sharp turn west and across the suspension bridge.

And the sunrise warmed us as the trip began.

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"Ooops….um….," Beast Boy sweatdropped and simpered. "Eh heheheheheh….I-I forgot my toothbrush. Can we go back?"

"D'oh!!"

SCREEEEEECH!!!


	67. Wind Tunes

**67. Wind Tunes**

"Dude….so like…tell me where the logic is in going West to get to the East Coast!"

Cyborg gripped the wheel and eyed the road as he replied: "We're not exactly going 'West' per se. We're just rounding the Bay and river beds till we get south into Virginia. There we'll have damn good beaches. I promise you that."

"Well, there'd better be pretty, sunbathing chicks down there," Beast Boy folded his arms and scrunched in the backseat. The wind rushing over the convertible T-Car kicked at his green hair. "Or else this trip will be wasted, you know what I'm saying??"

"B.B., trust me," Cyborg said, "…there're a lot of miles along the Atlantic Coast…and plenty of fish in the sea." He smirked at that.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Didn't Lancelot say that once to King Arthur?" Robin remarked.

"Uh….y-yeah…I think so," Cyborg shrugged as we drove down a country road leading past green pastures with huge stretches of blue sky hanging all around us. It was the most I'd seen of the blue sky—unobstructed—in nearly a year.

It's felt so long since I've been out of this state. Westhaven was a trip all in itself….but this….this was like being on the road again.

I did my best to solace myself with the aura of my friends riding the T-Car with me.

"Merlin…," Raven droned, her nose in a book.

"Huh?" Robin blinked under his mask.

"Merlin said the 'fish' line to King Arthur. Not Lancelot."

"Is that before or after the badass rabbit rips people's heads off?" Beast Boy beamed.

Raven glared at him. "That is not canon, Arthurian Legend."

"Pfft!! Nuts to you! They didn't have cannons in medieval England!"

Raven sighed and returned to her novel. Vampire Eunichs of the Crescent Moon or something…

"I think I get it now….," Starfire spoke. "Beautiful earth females have their spawning pool on the Atlantic Coast. Do aesthetic males come from the Pacific Coast?"

Robin chuckled.

"Nah," Cyborg shook his head. "Just actors and serial killers."

"Hey, you've been to Virginia before, right Rae?" Beast Boy smiled.

"Yup….," she blurted, flipping a page.

"Tell me. Any drop dead gorgeous chicks on the beach there?"

"I wouldn't know. I don't have testicles."

"Ahem."

"Let'sssssss put in some music right about now," Cyborg sweatdropped.

"Oh!! Me me me me me me!!!!" the changeling hopped in his seat.

"You you you you you you you what?"

"I've got an album!!"

Everyone moaned.

"What?!?" Beast Boy cackled, fumbling through a plastic bag where his stack of albums were. "What am I missing this time? And don't say 'a higher education'!"

"A higher edu—"

"Dude, Cy! Shut up!!"

"Ha ha ha!!"

"We all know that….erm…..y-you brought an awful lot of music with you, B.B.," Robin sweatdropped…trying to be mediator.

"Yeah, and---?"

"If you try and force us to listen to it all, we'll gut you with a plastic fork," Raven said.

"There ya go," Cyborg nodded in the rear-view mirror.

"No need for plastic threats! I brought my own cd player and headsets. I only want to share this album!" he beamed, teeth glistening as he whipped out a CD in its case.

"Just that and that alone?" Robin asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yuppers!"

"All right…everyone else willing to risk it?"

"What's a vacation without its sense of danger?" Cyborg mused and reached back with one hand while driving. "Give it here, B.B."

"Treat it like the Quran, man…," the changeling gently, carefully, steadily handed it to the driving android. "It's one of the first CDs I ever bought."

"Right…," Cyborg one-handedly shook the disc loose of its casing and jammed it into the deck.

Beast Boy winced.

"I am most intrigued to hear the music that epitomizes you, Beast Boy," Starfire remarked from the front seat, smiling as the wind blue her red hair back wildly. "You are a Titan of many skins and certainly that must have an effect on your perception of acoustics."

"Actually…it's just the pointy ears," the changeling winked.

Starfire giggled.

"I'm not hearing anything…," Robin said.

"Whoops, my bad," Cyborg fondled the knob. "Had the volume down."

"Heh….good one."

"Shhhh!!" Beast Boy hissed and leaned forward towards the front speakers. "You'll never guess who it is!"

"Adam Sandler??" "Shhh! Raven!"

I smirked slightly.

As the track began, just about everyone in the car except Starfire instantly understood:

"Ahhhhh."

"Of course."

"Naturally…."

Beast Boy beamed. "I tell you…aren't the Beatles great?!"

"I should have figured."

"Why? What's that mean?"

"Well…," Robin folded his arms and smiled slightly. "The Beatles are just so….so….you. I dunno. Bouncy, happy, yell 'woooo!' a lot—"

"Dude…that's EARLY Beatles. Like, in their Boy Band phase. Wait till you hear their later stuff. I put it on this CD. It's a mix. 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' will dunk over your happy-go-lucky perspective of the Beatles."

"Yeah, allright," Robin smirked.

"I was not aware that beetles were capable of recording music," Starfire said.

"It's a group name, Starfire. Kinda like Teen Titans. They aren't real beetles."

"Yeah…heheh," Beast Boy grinned wide. "They're British, Liverpool heart-breakers who had a penchant for melodies, movies, and a little marijuana. Oh, and half of them are dead by now. I suppose that's worth mentioning."

"Long live the atman of George Harrison…," Raven droned.

"Say what?"

"……….never mind."

We were all silent for a while as 'Yesterday' by Paul McCartney graced the speakers.

"It is most beautiful…," Starfire blinked. "I believe you are incorrect, Robin. This music is downright melancholy."

"Nah, it's bouncy too, Starfire," Beast Boy interjected. "That is, the stuff the Beatles could do was both happy and sad. They liked to change. They covered a lot of bases with their talent. There's a song for happiness, like 'All Together Now', there's a song for sadness, like 'For No One', there's a song for mental craziness, like 'Tomorrow Never Knows', and then of course plenty a song for romance, like 'Something'."

"Ah! A most splendid array of talent!" Starfire beamed. "The music shifts and changes to conform to different shapes of emotion. Almost liken unto you, Beast Boy!"

"Hehehehe! N-Never thought of it that way, Star! Thanks! Cool! Dig that, guys! The Beatles were made for shape-shifters!"

"Can't wait to see what happens when 'I Am the Walrus' rolls around," Robin smirked.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

The cd played on, and 'Eight Days a Week' came through the speakers.

"This is a good driving song…," Cyborg commented.

"Yeah…," Beast Boy sighed dreamily and leaned against the back of Starfire's seat….staring lazily out the front of the car. "I always imagine that…as soon as I get a license…this is the song I'll be driving to. It sorta fills your head with the images of spinning hubcaps. Maybe it's just me."

"I want to bounce for some reason!" Starfire giggled.

"Wait till we're at the beach."

"Cyborg….," Robin grumbled.

"Hehehehehe…what??"

I stared out to my left. Cars and scenery whizzed by me.

The uplifting beat blurred with the speeding gravel beneath us as we slowly headed southwest till a highway would take us back towards the Atlantic Ocean.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Rickety thumps rattled beneath us as we throttled over the tracks._

_I leaned against the open door, taking a deep breath of the warm Pacific air. Sunlight reflected off my brown eyes as I smiled and looked out at the majestic, brown landscape._

"I think we better get off soon…," she said from behind me.

I turned around, smiled, and said: "So eager to get a job done?"

"Jordan…you know the Master is timing us!" Ana walked over by my side and finished fastening the scabbard to her back. "I dunno about you…but I'm not exactly rearing to scrub the dojo clean for a month."

"Why not? It builds character!"

She stuck her tongue out and shoved me.

"Ack!!" I teetered and grabbed to the doorframe at the last second. "You almost pushed me out!!"

"You would have survived it," she giggled. "You're the best of us three when it comes to hopping around."

"Still…'look before your leap' is a platitude I intend to hold tight to…"

"Don't use your prep school words on me!"

"Fine. Are we going or are we going?"

"Now look who's impatient!" she smirked.

"Nah…," I shook my head. The wind kicked at my short black hair as I added: "I just trust your judgment, Ana. When it's time to get going. It's time to get going!"

"Woman's intuition?"

"You're not a woman. Not yet."

"And who are you to judge?"

"Heh……good point."

She winked, stepped up to the door, and held a graceful hand out. "Together?"

"Need some of my 'hopping' talent?"

"Nah…just something to land on."

I rolled my eyes. "Why'd the Master have to pair me with _**you**__ this time?!"_

"Beats the heck out of me," her blue eyes twinkled. "Let's make the best of it."

"Okay……," I took her hand.

"One……"

"Two……"

_"__**Three!!"**_

_Together, we jumped out of the boxcar of the moving train. We were planning on landing gracefully with blurred feet on the passing grasslands, but somehow in the middle of our descent we must have gotten distracted by the warm wind and scurrying jackrabbit and—oh yeah—gravity._

THWUMP!!!

"Oof!!"

"Ackies!!"

It was only natural that we clung to each other during the collapse, as if that would somehow make the calamity any less chaotic. And also…it was only natural that the outcome of such spontaneous decision was my rolling to a stop on my back and Ana quite obviously lying on top of me.

"………," I blinked.

"Erm……," Ana blushed.

So did I.

When we realized the embarrassing situation that we were in, we realized _**that**__**we realized**__ what embarrassing situation that we were in, for it was a good five seconds before we took notice and took notice of taking notice and finally shot off the synapses in our respective brains to—_

_"Dah!!"_

"S-Sorry!!"

"M-My bad!" Ana hopped off.

"N-No…my fault," I shuffled over.

She swallowed.

I scratched my neck.

A beat.

"The Master would snap at us for sitting on our butts this long."

"As long as it's just our butts…," I stammered.

"Huh?"

"Never mind," I stood up and—like a good gentleman—helped her up.

"No chivalry," she pouted, tossing my hand off. "It gets points deducted from both of our grades."

I smirked and shrugged. "I can settle for a 'B'."

She blushed at that.

I chuckled.

"Oh hush!" Ana hid a smile. "Come on…we got a forest to find!"

And we wandered across the tracks once the train was gone, and headed towards a dark line near the horizon where the grasslands eventually died.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We had stopped at a gas station.

Cyborg leaned lovingly against his convertible. He whistled a tune as he filled the T-Car with the pump and looked around the station with half human and half robot eyes.

Off to a corner, Robin was doing his expert best to uncrinkle a single dollar bill just right for a Pepsi machine to take it.

"That which you are doing is futile at best…," Raven muttered, leaning against the machine while reading her second book of the trip.

"Love you too, Raven…," the Boy Wonder muttered. He slipped the bill in, watched it come out, straightened it, slipped the bill in again, watched it come out, straightened it…. "You may not know this…but what I'm doing is an artform."

"Oh really?"

"Yes…it requires…..dedication….concentration….and focus. Just about everything I've learned as a crimefighter up to this point in my life has prepared me for this Pepsi Machine on the outskirts of a town probably named after some half-cousin's goat. For a band of superheroes who have learned to respect the whims and fickleness of destiny, we should be happy to have arrived at this point of reckoning."

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "You desire to kick the ever-living fecal matter out of that machine right now, don't you?"

"Oh god yes…," Robin slipped in the bill, watched it come out, straightened it, and slipped it in again.

"It's a funny thing, capitalism," Raven said. A beat. "Well, who am I to say 'funny'. Rather, capitalism is an ironic, hypocritical thing. Adam Smith fashioned it with the concept of laissez faire democracy. He envisioned an empire that could allow people to acquire the wealth and fame due to them in respect to their social input into civilization. But what was made instead was money-grabbing, unequally yoked, totalitarian dogma that seeks to force young entrepreneurs like you fishing endlessly for a goal that can never, ever be achieved because of the monetary constraints of powers infinitely higher on the social ladder than people like yourself."

"How cheerful…," Robin slipped in the bill, watched it come out, straightened it, and slipped it in again.

"Keep fighting for that carbonated pie in the sky, Robin," the girl droned, her nose in her book. "No amount of patience will ever change the perpetual stigmas enforced by acquisitive man in this Western Hemisphere of ours."

Robin smirked cynically as he straightened the bill again and shoved it in. "Might I ask, Raven, is your solution for the world the Communist Manifesto?"

"No," she gently shook her head. "Something more along the lines of 'Dante's Inferno'."

"Ah…," Robin uttered, slipping the bill in again.

"Dudes!!" Beast Boy hopped out of the convenience store and pointed in through the door. "They sell edible panties here!! This place is crazy cool!!" And he hopped back in.

Cyborg sweatdropped over by the pump.

"Ahem….," Raven emphasized, her nose in the book.

"What do you think capitalism has in store for people like him?" Robin uttered.

"If he's lucky…he could get early retirement by becoming a cadaver," Raven said.

"Heheh…I hear you," Robin fought the dollar bill again. "Though…I wonder if medical research could really benefit from tearing open somebody's dead pointed ears."

Raven looked up. "Better yet, if he turned into a blue whale right before dying, his body would become really, really expensive."

"Huh….never thought of that." Robin slipped in the dollar bill. A pause. He gasped for joy--

Whurr!

The bill came back out.

The Boy Wonder sighed.

"For money is the root of all e—"

"Oh hush!"

HONK HONK Vroooom!!

"Got her filled up, people!!" Cyborg grinned wide and motioned over from the driver's seat. "Everybody hop in!!" "J-Just a sec!!" Robin growled, fighting the dollar bill.

Raven clasped her book closed, straightened her robe, and headed towards the car. "Come on, Robin…," she sarcastically droned. "We have bikinis to get to."

"Lovely thought…but I'm kinda busy here…"

Without looking, Raven flicked a wrist behind her shoulder.

The dollar bill flew up out of Robin's hand, straightened with black telekinesis, and zooped straight into the slot of the Pepsi machine.

Whuuuur-DING!

Robin blinked. "Well…maybe patience is a virtue after all."

He pressed on the button for Dr. Pepper…and a Diet Pepsi bottle rolled out instead.

CLUNK!

"Dah!! Son of a----"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOOOM!!

The T-Car thundered southward. Small, quaint towns passed by and the breeze was inviting to our faces.

"Word to the wise, Cyborg," Robin uttered. "If we—the Titans—so much as speed a half mile-per-hour above the limit, I'm putting your keys on the railroad track and wearing them around my neck as a souvenir."

"Shut up and hand me my CD," Cyborg chuckled.

Robin grabbed an album in its case, handed it to me—who was directly behind the android—and I gave it to Cyborg over his seat.

He grabbed it, flipped the disc out, and shoved it in the deck.

"Now…this is REAL music!" Cyborg beamed.

"You mean Beast Boy's music was fabricated?" Starfire remarked.

"No, he's just being a show-off," the changeling smirked and kicked his legs back into the middle of the front passenger area and folded his arms behind his neck. "I wanna see just what makes Cyborg's musical taste tick."

"Oh, it'll be ticking inside each and every one of y'all soon enough!" the android winked in his rear view mirror.

The album started….and a chaotic ensemble of electronica and layered guitar riffs floated haphazardly out of the speakers, accompanied by a wailing….wailing…wailing voice.

I raised an eyebrow over my glasses.

Starfire winced. "Um….i-it is must…..intriguing, Cyborg."

"Y-Yeah….," Beast Boy rubbed a finger in his pointy ear. "Who in god's name is it?"

"Pfft! Figures you wouldn't know! It's Radiohead, man!"

"Radio-who?!"

"I've heard of them," Robin smirked. "The best music these days is anti-music."

"You said it right!" Cyborg barked. "Thom Yorke is an absolute god! All of his stuff is about the proximity of dystopia on the horizon and mankind's post-modern anxiety and the effects of mass communication and advanced technology on the promotion of social obliteration."

"God bless you…," Beast Boy blinked. "The only thing I understood from the first word is the name of this stuff. 'Radiohead'. Kinda fitting for your titanium skull, eh Cy? Heh heh heh!"

"Just listen to the music and be educated!"

So we did.

The caustic clanging of 'Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box' opened up with an epitome of isolation and angst. Then the music dipped down into a melancholy funeral drone of 'Pyramid Song', before slipping into utter, symphonic insanity with 'Pull / Pulk Revolving Doors'.

"I like it…," Raven blurted from her third book.

"Figures you would," Beast Boy shuddered. "Um…Cy…do we really have to listen to the rest of this album?"

"Why, what's wrong with it?"

"Well…um…….."

"It sounds like someone is dying," Starfire said with a drooping face.

Robin laughed his head off.

I smirked. I was actually liking the music.

"Come on! Be fair! Besides, it's my car!"

"Knew THAT was coming eventually…," Raven droned.

As we rolled along through another old fashioned town, I glanced left at the passing scenery again. Soon we were drifting past an old, civil war battlefield. The haunting music and wailing of Thom Yorke in 'You and Whose Army' floated into my ears and I envisioned through my shades dozens of ghostly soldiers wandering around in a limbo of an abyss…never to bind their bullet-splattered bodies.

The thought of blood and its smell stabbed me in the brain and again I tripped backwards past the painful threshold to a time when things were cleaner…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Wow……," Ana blinked as we passed through the mighty trunks of a cedar tree forest. "These are even bigger than the ones around the mannor!"_

"The further north you go…the denser it gets," I said. I glanced at her. "Or so I've heard."

The Sun filtered down in intermittent waves of ivory and platinum. It filled the cedar tree forest with a fantastical glow: dim in nature yet heavenly to the eye. If we looked down, it'd seem as if we were stepping in gold mist.

"What does the Master want us to find in here?" Ana remarked.

"All he said was that we'd sense it with our eyes shut."

Ana winced. "It _**would**__ be a test of our spatial awareness today, wouldn't it?"_

"Hey…I don't make up the tests."

"What did we have to 'look' for, exactly?"

"He said something smooth and spherical. It'd be…um…in this forest. Somewhere."

Ana and I took a look across the forest. We eyed the many huge bodies of cedars. The veritable chaos of wooden bodies and disillusion of direction. A perfect maze from the inside out. And we were in the thick of it.

"Well…this is gonna be fun with our eyes closed."

I shrugged. "Might as well get this over with," I reached into my pocket.

Ana smirked at me as she reached into her own. "Am I boring you that much?"

"Yes…positively dull to the bone," I muttered, hiding a smirk. I pulled out a red bananna and fastened it around my forehead…covering my eyes completely like the Master had told us to do when he sent us on this 'learning mission' about one hundred and fifty miles south of there. "I'm bound to get a low score with you talking my ear off." The crimson bandanna blocked out all vision. I took a deep breath and gathered together a focus of murk through my limbs. It took some effort, but I could sense the wooden trunks of cedars around me. "Seriously, Ana. I enjoy talking to you and listening to whatever you have to say—even when it's boring—I just rather spend time doing that than this wyrdo test we're on. Save the best for last, you know?"

A beat.

"Ana?"

I turned towards her and sensed her hands covering her mouth from a couple feet away. I soon heard a girlish giggle—suppressed and helpless.

"You look so silly with that thing covering your eyes."

I rolled my brown pupils—not like anyone could see them. "It's part of the test."

"Pfft! I know that. Sheesh…you're so uptight. By the way, it looks cute on you."

My cheeks fought not to match the hue of the bandanna, but failed. "Th-Thanks…," I mumbled. "Now are you gonna put yours on too or am I gonna have to lie to the Master when we get back for your sake? You know how easily he looks through stuff like that!"

"Yeah…spatial awareness grand marshall, he is." I sensed Ana's limbs going about her cranium as she attached her bandanna. If it was the bandanna I remembered, it was yellow. She always loved yellow. The color made me think of her.

"Shall we do this thing?"

"Yup," Ana replied. "Keep in contact with each other."

"Sure thing."

"Just……ya know…don't 'feel' me anywhere your hands wouldn't go."

I chuckled. "What about eyes?"

"Hmmm……give me a second on that."

And then…as if like clockwork…the two of us immediately concentrated on the test in hand. Like two warriors in sync with each other, we combined our spatial senses with a merge of murk. Smoke swirled together outward from our bodies and connected. Two wielders of the waves of Construction and Destruction. It was a very intimate thing. 'Intimate' in the manner that partners of the blade connect. It was always like that for the Master's three tutors. Today, it was just Ana and I in sync. But when all three students were testing together…the resulting power was indescribable. You had to have been one of us. You had to have _**felt**__ it._

"Ready?" I asked.

Ana took a breath. "Yeah…"

_**CHIIIIIING!!!!**_

_**CHIIIIING!!!**_

_We unsheathed our wooden swords at once. Mine was solid black. Ana's, solid white. Both curved and blunt—save for when black murk from our smoking centers encased them and turn the staffs into blades._

I, with Myrkblade, was a moderate student. I was adept at speed. At agility. I mastered the art of evasion, short-ranged teleportation, speed, and vaporous form. I could cut through things like the thinnest razor and come screaming out the other side. My element was Wind…and yet darker than wind. A smoking wind that spoke of some unseen fire nobody could find burning. Endless smoke. Boundless murk.

Ana, with Choral, was the epitome of Earth. And yet, at the same time she was Water. But both Earth and Water would never meet in the center of her might. They always ran off each other. Untouchable. And stuck in the constant flux was a hardened force much like layers and layers of seashells congealing together after millennia of abandonment until all that's left is the white fury of eons of Life who—altogether—know what beats in the hearts of all things mortal. Whenever Ana swung Choral, breath and blood bowed down. She was powerful. She was a goddess. She was easily the most powerful of the Master's three apprentices, and she made him proud. Yet, despite her awesome power…she refrained. She depended on the spirit and fury of her two compatriots to give her support. To uphold the trifold balance. She was white life, purity, Construction at its finest. Wisdom itself.

The element of Fire, the third student, was not there that day. Though we wished he was…in that we could very easily have benefited from his passion and the impressive wield of his red blade.

_"Let's go…," Ana spoke softly into the golden forest._

I nodded. When Ana commanded, nobody argued. She set sail and I provided the wind. Wisdom and Balance…earth and murk…walking side by side into maturity.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So, let's hear your music, Raven!" Robin smiled.

Raven glanced up from her fourth book. She blinked. She returned. "It's not worth it."

I smacked my forehead.

"Surely, but it is!" Starfire exclaimed from up front. "Now that Cyborg's….erm….interesting collection has ceased, we are most curious as to what album you have selected for us to indulge in!"

"You guys wouldn't like it…"

"So?" Beast Boy shrugged. He gestured towards the progressively orange sky. "The sun's beginning to set! It's getting dark! The mood's set for 'Raven'!"

I smirked, the wind kicking at my long black locks.

Raven sighed. "All right. Robin, check the bag to your lower left."

"The one with the Martian Manhunter patch sewn into the canvass--??"

"NO!!" Raven snapped, blushed, and cleared her throat as she calmly uttered: "Ahem…look for the plaid one—"

"Oh, this?"

"Y-Yes…," Raven gulped. "Not the other bag."

I scratched my head.

Robin reached in, pulled out a CD, and tossed it at Cyborg.

"Watch it!!" Beast Boy shrieked. "We're in a convertible, ya know!"

"Take it easy, B.B.," Cyborg chuckled, jamming Raven's CD in.

"Yes, Beast Boy," Starfire giggled. "Be easy when you take it!"

"….."

The music started playing.

I leaned forward, resting my chin on my knuckles.

Raven read her book.

A series of violins and bass fiddles mingled together with a deep drum beat, creating what felt like a strangely 'rocking' take on….I dunno……celtic? Folk?

"This is interesting…," Cyborg nodded. "Very…..old fashioned and yet modern at the same time. I dunno."

The violins went into overdrive, and the voices of two female vocalists created a bitter-sweet chorus along with the drum beat beneath the layers of string instruments.

"Sounds like a Wiccan barbecue," Beast Boy suggested.

"Hardy har har….," Raven droned.

"I think I've heard them before…," Robin blinked under his mask. "What're they called?"

"Rasputina," Raven replied, her nose still in her book.

"Rasputina…," Starfire blinked. "If I'm not mistaken, earthling folklore dictates that there was a castrated Russian zombie by a similar name—"

"Different story altogether," Raven retorted. "This is Rasputina. The gothic rock artists. All fear and beware…..er…or something."

The second track on the mix played, a surprisingly melodic tune entitled 'Transylvanian Concubine'. Starfire seemed really in tune with the beat. It made me smile.

"Kinda freaking me out," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Cyborg, put back in some more of your Refrigeratorhead!"

"**RADIOHEAD!!**"

Raven rolled her blue eyes. "Fine…if you're all so bored. Cyborg, flip to track twelve."

"Will it put a hex on me if I don't?"

"Wanna find out?"

Cyborg quickly obeyed the dark girl.

A quick drum beat began an almost-square dance sounding tune which---by God—turned out to be the total antithesis of a square dance. I gasped and smiled as the tune rolled on.

So did the other guys.

"Dude!!" Beast Boy gasped. "I know this tune!"

"Led Zeppelin," Robin nodded his head and grinned.

"Only….like…violins. Wicked!"

It was. Rasputina echoed through the speakers a violin and bass fiddle cover of 'Rock and Roll'. It was ungodly.

"They're good," Cyborg nodded. "Why didn't you share this stuff with us before, Raven?"

"Nobody asked…….," Raven uttered. "Even though it was all right before your very eyes."

"What do you mean?" Beast Boy squinted his eyes.

Raven lowered the book in her grasp. Beast Boy noticed—for the first time—Raven's black t-shirt with an album cover on it reading: 'How We Quit the Forest'. Besides that, Raven was adorned in black, reflective jeans with a chain latched from the waist to her pocket where she housed…..er….something.

"Oh…," Beast Boy blinked.

"Leave it to you to pay attention to what I'm wearing," Raven rolled her eyes.

Beast Boy likewise rolled his. "Leave it to me to **care**," he hummed.

Raven shook her head and glanced at me. "People are so ignorant."

I stared at her.

"Noir??"

I blinked behind my shades and then mouthed: 'Huh?'

Raven…..slowly….returned to her book.

Starfire smiled. "The belated revelation of the music is nonetheless rewarding. Thank you, Raven."

"This isn't the only cover Rasputina's done, I don't think," Raven uttered, flipping a page in her book as the wind kicked at her blue hair. "They made a cover of 'Tourniquet'…at least I think it's a cover. Original artist was…I dunno…Marilyn Manson perhaps. God, what a poser. He thinks he's so evil and whatnot. I tell you…when you've lived your life with a real demon in your brain, famous people start to look silly. Heh."

Nobody had anything legitimate to respond to that. So we were just silent as Raven read to herself and Rasputina mourned on.

One particular song, 'A Quitter', really moved me. And I looked out at the golden sunset resting across the passing scenery and thought of mystical, dying days in the shadows…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_As I stepped through the bodies of wood, I sensed Ana's flesh to my left side. We were both slow in our movement. Both gliding through as if the grass and underbrush were water. I was the smoke and Ana was the smooth surface. It was like warm ice._

We combined our spatial senses and shot them outward in multiple, mental directions. Spiraling together like horizontal cyclones. Our consciousnesses spiraled together, wound like rope, and felt around the forest for the synthetic object of the Master's emphasis. The treasure. The sphere. The end of our quest.

_And all the time, we were perfectly blind._

I was just as lost as Ana was, or at least I thought. Out of nowhere she exclaimed in a whisper: "Jordan…I think we've found something."

_I took her word for it…_

"Where at?" I hissed.

"Over here…on my side."

Of course it was on her side.

We softly padded through the grass together, our white and black swords raised. Choral and Myrkblade smoked separately, but surely—as had been witnessed before whenever the Master's tutors train together—the mist had to have been commingling. A visual symbol of our combined powers.

Before us, we sensed an opening in the cedar forest. The air warmed up…and I assumed the Sun was shining in through a clearing above. What's more, I lifted my nose and could smell an air of moisture settling down. Like floating rust. It was going to storm by the end of that night--

WHUMP!!!

I fell over. "Dah!!"

"Jordan??" I sensed Ana lift the yellow bandanna from her eyes. She took one look at me and giggled girlishly. "Well…I don't know if that deducts points or wins us the grade!"

"H-Huh?!" I whipped off my red bandanna and looked beneath me. As my brown eyes focused in on clearing in the golden forest, I realized I had tripped on a smooth, metal sphere sticking out of a pike in the tall grass. "Awww jeez."

Ana giggled some more, Choral dangling by her side. "Nice job…hotshot. Leave it to you to stumble for a good grade!"

I stood up, brushing myself off with one hand while gripping Myrkblade in the other. "Well…some of us have to resort to desperation, ya know."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Whatever."

Ana wandered over and knelt in front of the metal object. "So……um…do we take this back to the Manor or something?"

"Sounds like a good idea."

"And it is so…," Ana smiled, reaching for the metal sphere.

Suddenly, there was a gasp of light.

She gasped and stood up.

I looked at her.

"W-Wasn't me!" she exclaimed.

Shadows dropped down all around us.

SWIIIIISH!!!

SWOOOSH!!

Ana and I instantly posed into battle-ready positions, our swords held high. We eyed with brown and blue eyes a circle of what appeared to be………black ninjas. Silently gathered on all sides. Katanas and shuriken in their grasp.

Ana gulped. "Anybody you know?"

I took a breath. "Something tells me we're about to get really, really intimate."

The 'ninjas' glared…and they dove at us.

"DEFEND!" Ana shouted.

Heck yeah……

I dove forward, slashing hard at two attackers in the forest clearing with Myrkblade while Choral danced behind me.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Aerosmith….," Cyborg mumbled. The T-Car rolled along under a darkening sky as Steven Tyler shouted away the lyrics to 'Jaded' in endless rhythm and….well…his Steven Tyler voice. Cyborg glanced back in the rear view mirror and again uttered: "Aerosmith…."

"Got a problem with that?" Robin's arms folded. "I tell you…they've been around forever, man!"

"Yeah, I know that but……..Aerosmith?"

"Yes. I've always been an Aerosmith fan. Always am. Always will be. Even if I were to die tomorrow at the hands of Plasmus or Lex Luthor or something…I'd still have 'Sweet Emotion' carved on my grave."

"Robin!" Starfire exclaimed. "Please, do not say that!"

Robin sweatdropped. "You're right. I think I'd have 'Back in the Saddle' on my gravestone…"

"No! The dying part!" Starfire pouted. "You must never die!"

"Oh, that," Robin blushed. "Heheheh—I wasn't being serious—"

"You must never die, Robin! You understand?"

"Okay! Okay, Star! I'll live forever!!" Robin chuckled. "I give!"

"You had better stay alive," Starfire 'frowned'. "It would be most harrowing if you died."

"Somebody's gonna get 'harrowed' one of these days," Raven muttered to her fifth book.

I elbowed her.

"…………'ow'."

The T-Car's speakers shook happily as 'Love In an Elevator' rolled out with the bass.

A beat.

"Well," Beast Boy smugly lifted a finger, "I like it!"

At that, half of the T-Car burst out laughing.

Robin pouted, his arms folded. "Okay then. Friends, Titans, countrymen…lend me your stigmas. What band do you think the Boy Wonder **should** be listening to?"

"I'd start with the Doobie Brothers and work up from there," Cyborg said.

Beast Boy laughed.

"Oooh!! How about Elton of the John??" Starfire beamed, a finger held up.

Beast Boy flushed with laughter.

Even Raven smirked slightly at that.

I gestured something in the air.

Cyborg watched me in the rear view mirror, turned it around and read it backwards and somehow managed to drive at the same time while interpreting: 'The Singing Nun.'

More chuckles.

Robin glared at me.

I grinned.

"Everyone's in on it…," the Boy Wonder shook his head.

We sighed and relaxed our sore mouths as 'Fly Away From Here' drifted by in a thrash of powerful melancholy.

"Okay…," Robin breathed—apparently happy with his self indulgence. "Starfire's turn."

"Me??" Starfire replied, as if shocked. "I was not aware that I could share too!"

"Of course you can, Star!" Robin smiled from the back seat. "You did pick out an album, right?"

"Well…yes but….I feel ashamed…"

"Why's that?" Cyborg remarked, already switching discs to an open slot for a new CD.

"I have not memorized all the song titles of my current favorite musical prodigy among earth's artistic elite. Nor have I memorized the band's name. All I know is that this compacted disc—" she held up a case as she spoke "---contains tunes which I consider most passionately glorious!"

"Well…grab bag!" Beast Boy smiled. "Pop the sucker in!"

"That sounded dirty…," Raven droned.

I glanced at her.

"Here you go, Cyborg," Starfire generously smiled and handed his free hand the disc. "Pop the sucker gently."

The android cleared his throat and slipped the disc in.

"Forgive me if the music is anything but appealing…," the Tamaranian modestly said.

"Take it easy…," Raven droned. "We can deal."

"Besides…," Beast Boy grinned, leaning back. "This is 'Starfire' music we're about to listen to! It can't be anymore surprising than what Robin's into!"

And the speakers proceeded to crackle forth a flurry of screams, insane guitar rifts, and schizophrenic tempo.

Cyborg nearly lost control of the wheel.

Beast Boy blinked. "Uhm…..I-I stand corrected."

"Heeeee," Starfire melted into her seat. She clasped her hands together and leaned her fair head towards the speakers where the screams emanated from. "This musical 'band' sings with such righteous fury! I wish I knew their name." A beat. She glanced back at the others. "Friends! Why are you suddenly so mute!"

I shrugged and pointed at the others.

"You don't know who this band is, Star?" Robin remarked…quite amused.

She shook her head. "No, I am not aware."

"It's System of a Down. Nobody told you that?"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Hardly…," Raven blurted.

I smirked.

'Toxicity' warbled on into the growingly dark air as we zoomed down a highway with lights flickering to life on either side of us.

"Well…," Cyborg smiled, beating his titanium fingers to the wheel of his car and the beat. "I'm certainly more awake than I was back in Steven Tyler land."

Robin fumed.

"I'd say we better find a place to eat before crashing for the night. Man…I'm up for almost anything! Let's just find some field somewhere to hitch up our tents and…like…start a fire or something!"

"Yeah!!" Beast Boy jumped.

"You like the idea of a campfire?"

"No! Food!"

Cyborg rolled his human eye. In the meantime, 'Innervision' came through the speakers and kept our shadowed hearts pumping.

"Why do you like this stuff so much, Starfire?" Raven asked over her book. "To be honest, it just doesn't seem……'you'. System of a Down is not about the color pink or warm fuzzy things."

"If you had experienced the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos, you would greatly appreciate how an angry heart lets loose its frustration in the form of singing. As tranquil as my Tamaranian culture wishes to be, our history—even recent history—is filled to the brim with bloody conflicts during which we had to defend our homeland. To speak of the honor and glory of our fight for survival, we commemorate epic poems of lyrical quality concerning the legendary events. It is not uncommon to read off such poetry with a passionate fervor similar to the Downed System."

"System of a Down."

"Yes…them."

"Guess that makes sense, Star," Robin uttered. A beat. "You ought to share with us about that war sometime."

Raven glanced at Robin. So did I.

Starfire blinked. "Yes…," she smiled. "It would feel….good to share such with my friends.

Cyborg and Beast Boy smiled.

'Spiders' came out low and sad through the speakers…then built up. And as it did so, the ghosts from the passing fields reawakened in my dark head. I leaned back, stared up at the pinprick stars appearing above, and took my shades off.

I sighed…inhaling the rushing air in.

"I think I see a place up ahead to eat!"

"Boo-ya!! Good eye, Beast Boy! Let's get to it!"

"Glorious!"

Well…that was short lived.

My head, however, felt eternal….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLASH!!!!_

I struck the blade of a black ninja. Surprisingly, there was no sound of our clashing blades. I didn't even feel the impact of our weapons. But I could easily see the recoil of the attacker from my blow. I advanced on him and another shadowed fighter with Myrkblade at full swing.

On the other side of the clearing, Ana was slashing hard at a throng of ninjas surrounding her. She swung Choral high and low. Each attacker jumped back, pacing around her cautiously. None of them made a single noise. Not even a rush of wind. Ana's sapphire eyes narrowed. She seemed troubled by all this.

My feet churned across the gold-illuminated grass between cedars. I blurred, ran up a cedar tree, bounced off, and swiftly sailed down at three ninja with a heavy swing of Myrkblade. Two escape the blow, but one stood straight in the path of my sword slash.

I gasped.

Why wasn't he moving?

SWOOOSH!!

I clenched my eyes shut—wincing. After landing, I opened my eyes.

The ninja was still standing there…even though I could have sword my sword went straight through his torso.

"Um……y-you allright?" I stupidly asked.

The shadow flew at me.

"YAAK!!" I blocked blindly, barely avoiding the attacker's charge.

Ana squinted her eyes at this. She looked back at her opponents. They paced around her soundlessly.

Soundlessly…

Ana glanced down. She gasped.

The grass blades weren't bending under the fiend's feet.

And—as always—Ana figured it all out. She spun around, abandoned her attackers, and ran at me.

"Jordan!!"

"Ana!! Don't let your guard down!"

"Stop fighting!" she dove at me.

"What—OOF!"

She closed her arms around my, pinning my sword arm down.

"A-Ana!!" I stuttered, sweating as I saw my invaders coming at me. "Let me go!! They'll hack us to pieces!"

"No they won't!! Trust me!! This is all part of the test!"

"But---"

The ninjas dove.

"Trust me!!"

I did. I hugged her back.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The attackers came through us. Their bodies sailed into ours…and emerged on the other side. Their forms warbled like the vapors of a mirage.

I stammered: "Wh-What?"

Suddenly, all the ninjas paused…and disappeared. They flickered out of existence.

I blinked.

_There was a whirring sound._

_Ana and I spun around as the metal sphere lifted up on a cylinder. It flashed white strobes through us. We spun around as the image of our Master appeared in four and a half foot glory atop the blades of grass._

"A hologram……," I murmured.

"Yes, Jordan," Ana leaned in and whispered. "Holograms…"

A speaker was in the cylinder beneath the sphere. It came to life and broadcasted audio in tune with our holographic teacher's moving mouth. He uttered something short and sharp in Japanese.

Ana and I immediately sheathed our respective blades and stood up straight, our hands to our sides.

Our Master sighed exasperatingly. "Why did you take your bandannas off?? Why did you let down your spatial awareness??"

We glanced at each other.

"Speak up!!" he was a short man with a thick, Japanese-American accent. Balding head. Almond eyes made even thinner by aged wrinkles. He was well into his seventh decade.

_Ana—as always—was the braver of the two. She was the bravest of us all._

"Master…we found the sphere. We thought the test was over…"

"It was not over! It had begun!" the Master emphasized with a shake of the holographic finger. "Do you not see what you had done?"

I bit my lip. "Um…I-I did sorta trip over the sphere and—"

"No! You relied on sight!" the 'Master' leaned forward. "How many times have I taught you that sight is superficial? It is the great lie of this world! The impurity that betrays us! We are blinded by seeing itself, and the best way to see things is to not see anything at all. You have the powers of Construction and Destruction inside of you…you have the power to discern what is real from what is fake. You shouldn't have even fought the holograms to begin with! Who are we to know when—someday—we think we are fighting an enemy and it turns out to be a spirit of innocence? Sight is only an idea! Do not let it be the focal point of your actions!"

Ana and I stared down at the ground.

"We understand now, Master," Ana nodded. "We have failed the test."

"No! You do not understand! You never understand!" The Master's hologram lifted a finger. "You learn! Learning is all you'll ever do. Only if you achieve another Plane Beyond…then you might understand. But understanding is not for those whose lives are ruled by sight. And as it is fated, sight is both our greatest deceiver and our closest companion. We must learn to deal with it…always finding ways to sneak around it as it sneaks on us like a thief in the night! We are always fighting…and as such, we are always learning."

The two tutors nodded.

I smirked and stammered: "So…w-we learned well today, right?"

"No!"

I winced.

"Though…not a failing grade. Journey back to the Manor. I anticipate your arrival by supper time tomorrow."

"Hope we find a train going the other way…," Ana mumbled to me.

"What was that??" the speaker crackled in cadence with the hologram.

Ana—flustered—cleared her throat. "We will attempt to be there as fast as possible, sir." She bowed.

I smiled and bowed too.

The Master had a sudden grin on his face only found in old creatures of the human race. He uttered: "Do be back promptly, students. I know how easy it is for you two in particular to spend time idly."

The both of us did double-takes…and blushed.

"Th-That's not true!" Ana protested.

I cleared my throat. "We'll be returning now, Master. Thank you for the lesson."

"B-B-But……," Ana looked at me.

"Cover the sphere with leaves as you go. Farewell." The hologram disappeared, the speaker died, and the cylinder slid back down into the earth. I proceeded to gather leaves and bits of earth and hide the metal object beneath them.

"You're gonna just let him say stuff like that without protesting?" Ana exclaimed.

"What's to protest?" I smirked. "I'm certainly feeling like being' idle'. How about you?"

"…………," she stared at me. She blinked. "Jordan…will I ever understand you?"

I stood up, brushing my hands free of soil. "Am I really that complex?"

"No."

"Hehehehehehe," I chuckled. "So much for my ego."

Thunder rolled.

We both looked up. A drop or two of water padded on our face, and we both flinched cutely at the same time.

We were fifteen.

"When it rains…it pours," Ana smirked, wiping the rainwater from her eyes.

"Ana…did anyone tell you that you're dreadfully literal?"

More thunder. More drops.

Ana grabbed my hand and rushed through the forest, giggling. "Come on! We'll get soaked!"

"Whoah! Slow down!"

"Hehehehe!"

We must have gotten failing grades.

We didn't care…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cracker Barrel…," Raven mumbled. "I cannot believe we are sitting and eating at a Cracker Barrel."

We were.

We sat at a small wooden table in the center of the dimly lit restaurant, an oil lamp between our respective plates and glasses. Tons of families and traveling folk filled the rest of the occupancy, as the place was always busy in every part of the East and Southeast. Every now and then, a random glance or gasp would announce that someone had recognized us—the Titans—outside of our costumes and sitting down to eat at a highway rest stop. Cyborg was usually the dead give-away in such cases. Seeing that all he wears is all he wears—titanium goodness. Cyborg and Beast Boy were having breakfast for supper. Robin and Starfire shared chicken and dumplings. Raven had a steaming mug of tea or two and I had a nice, big plate of salad.

"What're you talking about??" Cyborg grinned. "This is Americana at its best!"

"Yes!" Beast Boy jumped. "I, for one, am making the best that I can of it! 'Always good to fraternize with the local culture', that's my motto!" the changeling grinned, bubbled about, and greeted every waiter and roadster who passed by the table with a smile and a nonchalant wave: "I just want you to know that I greatly respect Redneck culture. Yes, Ronald Reagan was a good president. I firmly believe that. Howdy! God's blessings, one and all!"

Robin chuckled, meanwhile Raven planted a hand over her face.

I was halfway through picking through my salad when the shivers hit.

I flinched openly and gritted my teeth…but nobody seemed to see. The coldness swept down from my center and outward through my body. My metal left hand shook and rattled. I gripped it, swallowed, and tried to wait out the waves of false 'coldness' sweeping through my body and hoping nobody took notice of it.

"So we'll hit the beaches tomorrow?" Robin asked.

"Yup," Cyborg nodded. "Gotta find a place to camp first. But that shouldn't be a problem. This is the countryside we're in anyways."

"You do seem a maverick of the road, Cyborg."

"Yeah…well…it's when we get to the water that I'll leave it up to you to ramp things up."

"Are you adept at the water as Cyborg is to the asphalt, Robin?" Starfire asked, her green eyes twinkling.

"I'm no pro by any means…," Robin smirked and leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "But I've been known to swim laps around Batgirl once before."

"If anyone could beat Batgirl at the 'breast stroke', I'd be surprised," Beast Boy remarked. "Hehehehehe!"

Robin glared.

"Ahem…," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

My teeth chattered. I hugged myself, but tried not to show it.

Shaking, I glanced over—and froze upon realizing that I had the full attention of Raven's gaze.

She blinked at me, returned to her sixth book, and gently slid a mug of warm tea my way without looking up.

I nodded silently with clenched teeth, eagerly took the mug, and sipped from it. Perhaps it was psychosomatic…but it seemed to do the trick. The shivers went away. My titanium hand was no longer 'numb'. Again…I had recovered.

I took a deep breath.

"So…Cy," Beast Boy leaned over. "Got some snazzy trunks to show off to the ladies tomorrow?"

"Pfft! My titanium skin's enough for an ocean dip, thank you."

"Eww….every time you say that, it sounds like you're naked," Beast Boy mad a face.

Cyborg winked. "Only because—technically—I am naked."

"………so…..um…..your skinny dipping tomorrow?"

"Yup."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Nope. Does it bother you?"

"Well…."

"Nothing for me to be ashamed of."

"Sure there is! People will be there! Lots of people—and BABES—on the beach! They'll take one look at you and shriek at the indecency!"

"I'd have to have organic genitalia first in order for that to happen," Cyborg grunted.

Beast Boy winced. "Okaaaaaay. Didn't need to know that. Ahem….Pass the dumplings!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A matter of minutes later, and we were out on the road again. And everything was blurring by as we headed blindly down the asphalt river again. And even though we were heading southward, I still had the feel of the West stirring in my body. Like hair growing back after two or three days of forgetting to shave. My past was sprouting out and blooming ugly in my face. And though I enjoyed the trip and the music and—the company, I felt helplessly alone. Helplessly suspended in the shell of my mind and the constant echoes of friends long disappeared ricocheting off the inner walls of my skull--

"Hello??? Earth to Noir!"

I snapped out of it.

I looked to my right beyond Raven.

I the passing glow of one lamppost after another, I noticed Beast Boy and Robin and Starfire staring at me.

"That's the third time we called your name, dude," Changeling uttered. "You falling asleep or something?"

I smiled and shrugged.

"It's your turn!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"You know…," Robin smirked.

"Share your music with usssss!" Starfire clasped her hands together and hopped in her seat. "Hehehehe!"

I smiled bashfully. I glanced up ahead.

Cyborg noticed me in the rear-view mirror and said: "Well, naturally you brought some tunes of your own, right?"

I nodded. I bent over and reached into a small bag and produced a cd case.

"Starfire, will you do the honor? I'm negotiating our way around two semis up ahead."

"Gladly," she took my CD and ritualistically jammed it into the deck like Cyborg had done so much in the afternoon earlier.

"Lemme guess…Frank Sinatra," Beast Boy lifted his eyebrows.

I rolled my black eyes.

As 'my music' started to crackle forth through the speakers, Raven glanced up from her seventh book suddenly and craned her fair ears.

Robin and Cyborg likewise listened intently.

I leaned against the side of the car and sighed as the memories washed over.

It was folk music…with two voices in perfect cadence with each other. One song would be soft and melancholy, while the other upbeat and provocative. But there was this overall sense of tragedy in the music…like some everlasting epithet to life itself.

"Simon and Garfunkel…huh?" Robin remarked. "I should have guessed."

'Sound of Silence' came and went, having its expected affect on everyone.

"Dude, that's a classic," Beast Boy smirked at me. "Good choice."

I shrugged. I gestured in mid-air.

Somehow—even with darkness falling—Cyborg looked in the rear view mirror and read aloud: "He says that the next song is really close to his heart."

"Fascinating…," Raven smirked slightly as she listened.

Starfire leaned an ear in.

I looked off towards the side.

It was 'The Boxer'. A folk epic that only Simon and Garfunkel could deliver. With its perfect melody of the two singers and the gentle acoustic guitar proceeding onward into softness with a subtle accompaniment of a mouth organ at one point and a foot-beat at another. The Titans seemed overall impressed. But I didn't expect too much from their faces or reactions. Not a single one of them could have known what the song meant to me. How it connected with a time in my life when I reemerged upon the world as a freak. When everything I once loved and believed in had been wrenched away and I was truly, utterly, inescapably alone And all I could do besides eat, breathe, and shit was constantly run away eastward from this aching pain that I felt—in some figurative fashion or another—I was mentally (if not physically) reentering subconsciously on this trip. The voices of the two singers ran through me, echoing in some black, black darkness that matched the smoke in my blood. The smoke that only I shared because the earth and the fire—the wisdom and the passion—had been stolen from my life without any promise of return and every waking day of my living and fighting with the Titans was an attempt to either make up or outgrow that incalculable loss.

I sighed…..

"Beautiful…," Starfire uttered breathlessly as the song came to its crashing end and returned with full force to the soft acoustic guitar before fading away like so many a mortal life does on this bleak, bleak earth.

"Says a lot, Noir," Robin uttered.

I raised an eyebrow. I looked at the Boy Wonder.

"I think so, at least," he said. For a second there, I wondered if he truly knew what it all meant. But I knew he didn't.

"Now's high time I find a place for us to camp…," Cyborg said, eyeing the fields we passed.

"Agreed," Starfire nodded. Everyone was suddenly exhausted by the song, or so I assumed. "Beast Boy's babes will be promptly waiting for him at the shores tomorrow."

"Don't lead him on…," Raven droned.

Beast Boy shrugged. He seemed absorbed by the music suddenly. Music tames the wild beast.

At some point, the track switched to 'Cecilia', and we all felt in better spirits.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The flickering amber light of a campfire danced across Starfire's face. She stared into the flames, hugging her knees.

"The apex of the experience began when the Gordanian ship I was imprisoned in fell hard into the planet's surface. Ironically enough, there was a fierce ground battle taking place in the exact plain where the ship crashed. The Plain of Flight, as it is called today. Sometime shortly following the crash, I woke up and realized I was no longer in the prison cell. There was no stasis field canceling out my powers. So I—and a few other Tamaranian freedom fighters—fought our way to the bridge of the collapsed Gordanian flagship. We acquired the communication signal frequencies of the enemy from the computer stations and then made a dangerous flight towards the besieged capital of Tamaran. We had barely arrived safely, but when we did—the data we brought with us was priceless. It exposed the locations of the Gordanian's Cloaked Squadron. Our starfighters and galactic mavericks forced them to retreat…and the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos took its campaign away from our home planet. A blarthoid and a half later, and the conflict ended with a truce. Things have been tense—but peaceful ever since. I was thirteen Earth years at the time."

Silence.

"Wow." Cyborg uttered, leaning forward and looking at Starfire with wonder through the flames. "That was awfully brave of you to have gone through, Star."

"Yeah…," Robin patted her shoulder with a bare, uncostumed hand and smiled proudly. "Undoubtedly you've seen a lot more action than most of us had at such an age."

"That, I cannot say for sure," Starfire blinked her bright green eyes. "The limits of my extraordinary experience are that of my own life. I hold no pride in the part I played in the relaying of crucial data, but rather I was merely ecstatic to be reunited with my sister."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Blackfire?"

"Yes…before she was treacherous, she was merely a beloved sister of mine," Starfire said. "In fact, my admiration for her has not changed. A sibling's love outshines evilness, I'm concerned."

"Man…Tamaranian family values…," Beast Boy shook his head, roasting marshmallows by himself. "There's a lot right there us earthlings could learn from!"

"Show me a sibling of mine first and maybe I'll consider it," Raven droned.

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out.

"I must admit…," Starfire chuckled and stared at the ground, hugging herself. "I did hug Blackfire quite adamantly that day. War will make you desperate for personal touch. In any fashion. Because there's always so much waste involved—and at the same time, so much sacrifice."

Silence.

I glanced up after nobody had said much of anything anymore. All the faces of the vacationing Titans seemed suddenly weathered. At first, I thought the exhaustion of a full day of travel was wearing down on their bodies and hearts. But there was a definite touch of melancholy there. It worried me up until Starfire tilted her face up through the flames….and looked directly at me.

"Noir….when we last saw Terra…a-alive, that is…," the Tamaranian spoke, "…she proved herself trustworthy to us in the end in one manner and in one manner only."

I listened silently.

Beast Boy sighed and looked at the flames. Cyborg placed a gentle hand of titanium on his shoulder.

Starfire continued, her head cocked to the side: "Terra….s-sacrificed everything for us. Perhaps it was an attempt at subconscious self-obliteration that she turned herself to stone while stopping the volcano. But there is no doubt that she desired our safety and the safety of the entire City. After all of her betrayal…of all the things she had done to us, we needed only one thing from her to earn our everlasting admiration. And that was sacrifice."

The alien girl's eyes fell, and I knew instantly that she—and every other Titan—was finally staring at my left hand after hours of riding in the back of the T-Car and resisting the urge.

"When you sacrificed yourself for us, Noir…..it was more than enough to win our trust. True, we were beginning to suspect your innocence in regards to the situation of the Third Apprentice…but what you did…what it took for you to save all of us…it is something we will never forget. Never."

Robin leaned forward. "We can't ever begin to say thank you….or to apologize."

I lifted an eyebrow.

"To apologize for ever doubting you….," Robin said. "Trust me…such betrayal—on our part—will never happen ever again. For a while there while you joined our ranks…we were so boiling over with pain and distrust and angst—we forgot the sacrifice Terra had performed and the immensity of her action. What you did hammered it all in once and for all. We owe our lives and our continued chance at being brave for the City to forces beyond just us five alone. We needed you, Noir. We always did. We're sorry that we turned our back on you. And at the same time…we're so thankful."

"So very thankful indeed…," Starfire nodded.

I glanced around.

All the Titans were staring at me. Even Raven. Warmth and cold in their eyes all the same.

Melting.

I groaned inwardly.

I stood up and gestured.

'Time for bed', Cyborg interpreted.

Everyone's head hung low as I walked slowly…coldly towards my tent.

I paused.

"………….."

I turned around.

I walked over to Starfire, knelt down, and hugged her.

She seemed a bit startled—but in true Tamaranian fashion, she smiled and hugged me warmly back.

Robin was…….generous in his distance.

After about forty seconds, the hug parted…and the night ended.

Everyone headed respectably to the tent that he or she was sharing with another.

I took a few minutes to stare off beyond where the T-Car was parked at a length of field stretching before dark trees.

I sighed…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Jeez!! We're getting all wet!!"_

"I know!! Hehehe!!"

"Can't we just…ya know…blur our way back to the manor and be done with it?!"

"I don't know my way out of this forest, do you?!"

"Crap……come to think of it……"

"We're lost!"

"We are not!! We're just………okay, so we're lost."

"And soaking! Don't forget soaking!"

"Lost and soaking. Look, heaven awaits us over there!"

"Yes! Good eyes, Jordan!"

"Hurry up! It's starting to pour!"

Ana and I hurriedly ran—hand in hand—into the rotted out cave of a giant cedar tree where it was dry from the sudden monsoon of inclement, Pacific weather drenching us from all around.

We were soaked…shivering…and immaturely giddy. I laughed, wringing the water out of my bandanna and tossing it to the mulch-laden ground.

Ana giggled, her girlish voice echoing in the 'cave'. She ran a few hands through her short, angelic hair and shook the droplets loose from the blonde wisps. Funny—in a cute way—we had almost the same length of hair at the time.

"Man…if we stay here much longer, Master's gonna chew our guts out," I muttered.

"You think he expects us to trudge through the downpour for one hundred and fifty miles?"

"Uh……yeah!"

"Hehe……good point."

"Heheheheh…"

We both stared out into the mist and moisture-laden forest. Even though it was raining heavily, the sun was still out. It was one of those queer thunderstorms when barely the edge of a cloud formation was dumping off all the excess moisture, and there was still plenty of sky being skewered by the sun so that the forest stretching out from beyond was still golden with the solar rays as the water drifted down like liquid platinum and splattered over green leaves and underbrush.

Steam was evaporating about our feet and rising up into a dissipating cloud where our heads bent low to avoid the tree-cave's 'ceiling'.

"Heh……," Ana uttered, her eyes blazing blue into the gold aura. "It's the Big Bang."

I looked at her funny. Every now and then, some stupid little 'unstupid' thing like that would come from her mouth. She was like that.

She looked over at me. She smiled ten religions at once.

We were at eye level. Blue eyes and brown eyes. Temporary lives with eternal destinies.

Nobody took the lead. We both just leaned in at once and our lips made contact. But it wasn't the sort of sloppy, forced kiss of overpopularized sexuality like on every Hollywood production between here and Hoboken. It was a gentle contact. Like reminding each other that we had a thing layer of skin over our lips and nothing more. But oh so warm and soft…and living.

Whatever started as a kiss turned into an embrace. Soaked shirt to soaked shirt and soaked arms to soaked arms. I pivoted my shoulders up and gently placed my hands on either side of Ana's temples as I tilted forward and rested my forehead to hers. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and took a hot breath against my scar-less neck. The steam was rising around us. And yet we shivered. My fingers gently nestled in her stringy-wet, angel hair and I smelled her in. I wanted to cry.

"Hehehe…," Ana awkwardly giggled against my neck. "Something you find absurdly fascinating about my skull, Jordan?"

"Yeah…….," I breathed, "…it talks to me."

She simply smiled at that and retreated into the crook of my neck, as if she was equally obsessed with my throat as I was obsessed with her hair. And we drifted into a gentle rock and sway together in such jigsaw perfection. And I felt honored…for in such, Ana was resting against _**me**__, as if I could support her. And I did the best that I could…for I knew enough for the both of us that a moment like this would be only once in a life time._

And I was so damn right.

And I was so damn right……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was well into two and a half hours of slumber that the sobbing woke me up. Better yet—it woke up Robin, who then woke me up.

"Noir…..Noir!!" he hissed while shaking my shoulder.

The two of us were sharing a tent. Cyborg and Beast Boy were in another. The girls had their own.

I stirred awake, took off my sleeping mask and blinked up at him with naked, black eyes.

"I-I think there's something wrong!" he whispered hoarsely. His eyemask reflected moonlight like the lonely eyes of a Pac-Man ghost inside the tent. "Do you hear that?"

I groggily sat up and craned my neck.

I froze.

Sobbing.

"It's Starfire!" Robin exclaimed. He was sweating. "C-Come!" He motioned as he unzipped the tent and crawled out onto the grass of the night-shrouded field.

I scampered after him.

We both approached the girl's tent. As we got closer and closer—it was obvious. There was a distraught soul inside the tent. A stirring figure tossed and turned.

Starfire's sobs lit the nearby air.

"R-Robin……Robin!" she warbled softly—but still in a haunting tone of slumbering desperation. "Robin…don't give in! I-I won't let him get you!"

The Boy Wonder gulped. "She's having a nightmare." He shook the door flap to the tent. "Star?? Star?! Wake up! It's Robin! Wake up, Star!"

She stirred even more on the inside. Her voice wracked sadly: "No! Slade! How dare you! L-Leave him alone!"

The Boy Wonder sweated bullets. "Raven?! Are you awake?!" No response.

He fumbled at the tent flap for the zipper handle. But bother were securely on the inside.

"Damn it…," Robin shook. He looked at me. "Noir! You gotta help me out! Teleport inside or something so that you can let me in!"

I raised an eyebrow. I glanced at the tent. I mouthed: "Girls!"

"I know it's their tent!!" Robin shook my shoulders. He was desperate. "Please! I gotta get to Starfire!" I stared at him. Slowly, I nodded.

"N-No! Slade!! You fiend!! Do not kill him! I would gladly give my life for him to live!!"

I took a deep breath, concentrated, turned to smoke form, and drifted myself in a blink of an eye through the folds and zipper of the tent flap. Once on the inside, I solidified. I could see the sleeping bodies of Raven and Starfire a good space apart. The tall one of the two was visibly shaking and turning in sleep.

I took a deep breath, spun around, and unzipped the double flaps. Robin practically dove in and crawled past me to Starfire's side.

"Star! Star! Wake up!"

"No!! Robin!! Robin!! Slade is going to torture us and kill you!!"

"Star!!" Robin shook her. "It's okay!! Please!"

"Do not die, Robin! Do not die! DO NOT DIE—" the alien girl shot up, eye wide and glowing green. She was sweating all over and panting.

"Star….," Robin breathed, staring her in the face and strongly gripping her shoulders. "It's okay! We're no longer hostages of Slade's! We got out, remember? Slade is dead and we got out!"

Starfire stared at him. Her red hair a mess. Clinging a blanket to her PJ-covered torso…all shivering.

"Starfire….say something…please….."

"You are….u-undamaged?" Starfire's lip quivered. Green colored tears streamed down her alien cheeks.

Robin took a deep breath and forced a smile for her to believe in. "Yeah, Star! I'm okay! See? I'm smiling! I'm safe! It was just a nightmare. Slade is gone. Gone for good. We're all okay."

"Oh Robin…," Starfire hugged him and sobbed. "I am sorry…I am so sorry I could not do anything….I am so sorry…."

Robin bit his lip and patted her shoulder. "It's…o-okay, Star. I promise."

"P-Please do not die…," Starfire shook, holding him tightly and shivering as the tears sprang loose. "I do not want you to die, Robin. S-So many g-good people died on that Gordanian ship an-and I watched them all go. All friends of m-mine. I do not want my n-new friends to perish as well. Please, Robin…do not die….please do not die…"

The Boy Wonder held her close, gently rocking her to tranquility as the sobs rode their waves through her system.

I stroked my forehead…sighing and swallowing down an exhausted lump in my scarred throat.

I glanced down at Raven and was startled to see the moonlight reflecting off her open, blue eyes.

The dark girl was staring straight at me in the dark. She had been the whole time since Robin and I entered. After a few seconds of emotionless gaze being shared between the two of us, she turned around—faced her haunting gaze away—and settled back into her sleeping bag…falling asleep. Impervious. And it was at precisely that moment that I got the shivers again.


	68. Good Day

**68. Good Day**

I woke up depressed.

It must have been a Sunday morning. I always woke up depressed on Sunday mornings. Even when I didn't have school. The start of a week was always a dull, lazy thing for me. People moving at half-tempo. Incomplete thoughts and incomplete breaths. Waiting for the looming Sun to murder the day so I could sleep again.

But it wasn't really a Sunday. And there was no need to be gloomy. Lord knows, there was every reason in the world for me to be happy and join the awakening enthusiasm of my vacationing companions. But I wasn't the world. I never was.

So I decided—after a brisk breakfast on the skittle—to walk over to a clearing behind a hedge of trees in the field and meditate. I had my trusty Myrkblade stretched out and alert. I spun and knelt into multiple poses. With Construction and Destruction, I tried to wash away the unpleasant emotions from myself when I realized I couldn't. I was merely balance. I was not Wisdom. I wasn't Ana.

And yet, I felt a smoothness inside of me. Like I had felt so many days since the collapse of everything.

And I thought of the Titans. And I thought of their arms. And I thought of their smiles and frowns and just about that time, the sun rose.

And I decided there and then—with meditation inside a meditation—that this was going to be a good day.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey Rae."

"Goodbye, Cyborg…," Raven muttered, meditating off to the side of the campsite.

"Awww…can't I come say 'good morning'?"

"It already is a good morning."

"Oh really? Why's that, Miss Sunshine?"

"Because you're going to be dead in ten seconds if you don't stop interrupting me."

"Hmmmm," Cyborg rubbed his chin. "So I take it you'll be depressed at my absence, cuz then I wouldn't be dead."

"………," Raven was silent.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"How utterly, completely lost my meditative concentration is at the moment."

"Good…," Cyborg sat down beside her. "Then maybe we can chat after all."

"About what?"

"Like what you're running from."

Raven squinted her blue eyes at him. "…where's Cyborg and what have you done to his body?"

"Just listen for a sec…," Cyborg raised a finger and leaned forward. "For a while now…you've been distant."

"Um….okay….," Raven blinked. "Look who's been born yesterday."

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "I mean really distant. The way you're always meditating these days. Digging your nose in a book. Brushing people off."

"That is normal."

"Well, it's been twice as normal lately," Cyborg said. "I think you've been preoccupied with something lately, Raven. Something big."

"Whatever I deal with, I deal with on my own," she stood up and brushed off her jeans and black t-shirt. "It is not the place of you or any of the other Titans to dictate to me whatever actions I must take to overcome adversity."

"Oh…," Cyborg smirked. "So something has been up?"

Raven glared at him. "If you'll excuse me…I have a tent to fold up and shove into a tube."

"How poetic. Think I can hail you down later to talk this out more?"

"Do I look like a cab to you? Besides…there is nothing to talk about."

The dark girl walked off.

The android blinked. "Well…maybe if she wore yellow…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-YEAAAAAAAH!!" Beast Boy echoed, flailing his hands above him in the wind like he was in a rollercoaster.

"B.B.!! Knock it off!! Save the euphoria for once we get to the sand!" Cyborg griped.

"I can't help it, man!!" Beast Boy exclaimed, standing up in the rear and extending his torso into the air above the torso. "We're beach-borne, the sun's warm, and I've got at least three years left till I reach my hormonal peak!! I'm happy!!"

Robin sweatdropped, yanked the changeling down into his seat, and cleared his throat. "You're also one step away from becoming roadkill if you stand up in the car one more time."

"Ya know, Robin…," the green elf smirked and looked over. "For such an agile bird, you really are a mother hen."

Starfire giggled.

I smirked. I extended my metal hand out and twisted it gently on currents of air. Having rounded a cape, we were speeding eastward and eastward alone.

_Eastward…._

I was feeling at ease.

"Friends!" Starfire spoke from the front passenger's sweat, her hands clasped together. "I propose a feast of store-bought Pringles and sandwiches of the peanut butter and the jelliness upon arriving at the mighty strip of ocean-lined sand!"

"Not always a good idea to eat before swimming in the ocean, Star," Robin smirked. "You'd get the cramps and stuff."

"Is that anything like the bends?" Starfire asked.

"Could be…if Beast Boy slips in his tofu jam," Cyborg smirked from the driver's seat.

"Dude! Not funny!"

"I have to ask…," Robin's eyemask thinned. "Just…how do you process tofu into a **jam**??"

"Well…I usually add a preservative."

"What kind of preservative?"

"Well…corn oil is a start---"

Robin winced. "Okay. Continue that sentence, and I'll replace your pancreas with a birdarang."

"Dude. You're harsh! All of you!"

"Cheer up, Beast Boy. We're coming to the beach."

"I was cheering up until Boy Wonderbread yanked me down!! You guys need to live a little!"

"Hey Cy!" Robin smirked up to the driver's seat. "I bet I could live Beast boy into the air further than you can!!"

"You're on!!"

"Eeep!" Beast Boy gulped and sunk in his seat. "No tossing me, please."

"Nonsense…there'll be ocean water below your butt, man!"

"Yeah…with sharks."

"Sharks?!" Starfire gasped.

"Nothing for you to fear about," Beast Boy replied. "You could always zap one away with a starbolt the soonest you see a dorsal fin."

"Awwww…poor aquatic carnivores!"

"Leave it to Starfire to sympathize with the most notorious of life forms," Cyborg smirked at the road.

"Well, she talks to Robin all the time," Beast Boy mused, "….soooooo—"

Robin leapt at him.

"Ack!! Cyborg!! Help!!"

"You're on your own, man! Just no bleeding on the upholstery!!"

"AAACK!! We're almost at the beach, Robin!! At least let me see the ocean before I die!! At least let me see the ocean!!"

"You'll be seeing stars. Isn't that enough?! Rrrgghh!!"

"Boys! Ending each other's mortal lives in the back of Cyborg's car is a sin!!"

"They're only playing, Star," Cyborg said. He looked back in the mirror. "Boys will be boys---HEY!! YO YO YO!! THE SEATBELT IS NOT A GARROTE!! What's the matter with you punks?!?!"

As the rear of the T-Car wobbled, I shook my smirking head and glanced at Raven. I blinked.

She didn't have her nose in a book this time. Rather, she stared off into the passing scenery beside us. She seemed preoccupied.

_Preoccupied indeed._

My mind stumbled over this as the asphalt ended and the sand began.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A horizon of pure, warbling blue…

I'd seen it before…but reverse and on the opposite of the continent.

_I liked it here better._

I stood where the hot, white sand turned to hard, brown mush. Constantly saturated by tippy-toes of the ocean surf's feet.

And in speaking of feet, I was purely without any shoes or sandals or heel-hugging-attire of any sort as I planted myself in the water-kissed edge of the earth. Bare skin stretched up my ankles before being cut off by long, khaki shorts that hung loosely from my hips. I had a light white shirt slipped over my torso. The sleeves were unclasped and flapping loosely around my metal and flesh forearms. The rest of the shirt…unbuttoned and parting up and down my chest that sighed in the sun. The light of a morning glory shimmered down the sky, glittered off the waves, and bounced off my black shades all the same.

There were a lot of people at the beach. Young people. Not heavily crowded, but enough to give evidence that it was summer vacation for many adventuresome souls. They chattered and mingled in various clusters of dots atop the white sand behind me. None of them were ready—in their social cliques—to step out into the waves yet. But I didn't care. I was alone. In my head at least. With two sides of the earth crashing around me. What beach was this? Virginia? North Carolina? I didn't care. This was oblivion. Pure, dimensional chaos. Death romanticized in salt water and seagull cries.

East was paradise…and I wanted to sink my teeth into it and implode.

I took a step out. But not into the water. Rather, onto the water. My feet effortlessly smoked and blurred as I transformed myself into a weightless march out onto the waves. Crests came at me, spraying up at my knees. I simply jumped them and landed-blurring-on the other side like a blue trampoline. Salt filled the air with a primal scent and wafted up into my nose. I kept marching. I imagined the heads of citizens turning my way and gasping at this sudden superpower at work. At this sudden ghost going out to sea as if he was trying to rejoin some phantom ship. I didn't look back. Not yet. I was a good thirty yards out when I realized the limits of my frontier and reminded myself that this was only a vacation. I had been out on the Atlantic once before in my life. It was a frigate suspended in murky waters. And I had killed Slade on it.

I sighed.

I slowly swiveled around…

I looked West.

Land. People. Even the Titans.

I took a deep, painful breath.

_Even the Titans……_

I shook my head and shook **that** out.

It was only vacation.

I smiled as the warmth of the sun finally met my heart with that thought.

_It was only vacation…._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Raven says that the 'seaweed' gets everywhere, and for that she does not desire to join us in our aquatic excursion," Starfire spoke. Despite her height and…..other features….she was dressed quite moderately in a cute one-piece of a bathing suit. The color? Pink, of course. "And I do recall her voice putting an emphasis on the word 'everywhere'. Are you certain it is wise to enter the waters of this beach?"

Robin walked alongside her as four Titans trudged across the sand towards the waves. "No need to worry, Star. No seaweed here. Not this far south…I don't think." The Boy Wonder wore red swimming trunks. He was shirtless. His eyemask stayed on under immortally spiked, black hair.

"I dunno…," Cyborg stated in the titanium buff….as **always**. "Mother Nature can never be predicted right these days. With El Nino around, it could carry seaweed anywhere she wants!"

"Dude…it's La Nina right now," Beast Boy said. He had on green trunks and a short, white t-shirt. "At least I think so. Life's a lot happier when the weather around you is a 'girl' instead of a 'boy'."

"So…is there seaweed to fear?" Starfire blinked.

"Hardly," Robin smirked and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "Besides…if there were any, I'd save you from them."

She blushed. "That is awfully sweet of you to offer!"

"What's this all of the sudden, Robin?" Cyborg smirked. "Boy Wonder Valentino! Putting on the moves on Starfire now that she's got even MORE skin exposed!"

"Dude…she's got less with that thing on. Admit it."

"Now that you think of it---"

"Is not seaweed prone to devouring one's limbs?" Starfire blinked.

Robin jumped. "Excuse me?"

"On my planet, aquatic vegetation has a tragic history of consuming the legs of bipeds in shallow water. Many a Tamaranian infant has perished in such a fashion."

"No way, Starfire!! Nothing but floating grass on this planet!" Beast Boy stated.

"Oh! Glorious! Robin need not protect me after all!" A beat. She pouted and looked his way, "My apologies."

He chuckled.

"First in!! FIRST IN!!" Beast Boy ran into the surf, got ankle deep, jolted at the cold sensation, and ran back out. "First out!! FIRST OUT!!!"

"Ha ha ha!!" Cyborg laughed. "This ain't Miami, little man! Take it slow!"

"Dude! I'm used to the ocean! I've been a whale before!! Look before you leap!"

"Hey B.B."

"What?"

"Think fast!"

"YAAAAUGH!!" The changeling yelped as he was suddenly airborne like a green comet. Cyborg had hurtled him mercilessly into the air, and soon the shapeshifter plunged twelve meters off into deep waters.

SPLASH!!!!

Robin smirked. "Beat me to it."

"Gladly!"

"Beast Boy!" Starfire called out between cupped hands. "Are you damaged?"

The changeling surfaced, panted, and scrunched his face as he bobbed chin-deep in the waters. "I hade id when sald wader goez up my noze."

"I'll remedy that!" Cyborg ran out and leapt mightily into the air…and came down. "BAPTIZE THIS!!! YAUGH!!!"

Beast Boy's eyes became white pixels.

SPLASH!!!!!

"Eeek!" Starfire cowered against a laughing Robin as the Atlantic waters fountained out at them from the titanium meteor.

Beast Boy bobbed back up and gasped again. He glared at Cyborg who was resurfacing. "Just twist the knife…why don't ya?"

"Hey, B.B. You're all wet," Cyborg winked.

"Yeah….that's a lame joke, dude," Beast Boy stood up and batted the water out of his pointy ears. "Even lamer than my jokes. And coming from me, that's pretty darn sincere."

"I think it means you're maturing," Cyborg said as the two tread water. A beat. A blink. "Aren't you gonna take your shirt off?"

"Cyborg!" Beast Boy mock gasped. "But I hardly know you!"

The android rolled his human eye. "I'm just saying…back when I had flesh all over and I wore shirts…I knew how annoying it was to keep one on while in the pool. Everything starts feeling really heavy and stuff. Why're you torturing yourself, man?"

"I'm not torturing myself!" Beast Boy frowned…then bit his lip and trailed his eyes off as he said: "Just….l-like to have a shirt on while swimming is all."

"Why is that, Beast Boy?" Starfire smiled as she and Robin waded out together and joined the other two. "You and Robin are no different, and is it not true that earthling males feel that a lack of mammary glands signifies unabashed freedom in exposing one's chest?"

"I….uh….," Beast Boy sweatdropped into the waters. "I have no response to that."

"Well if this isn't the day?" Robin placed his hands on his submerged hips. "Here we are at the beach and the notorious green casanova of the Titans is afraid of exposing his manly muscles."

Beast Boy frowned. "Allright then, bigshot! Mr. Pects! Here I go!!"

He proceeded to attempt peeling the white, soggy article off of him.

Cyborg imitated a brass section at a gentleman's club.

"Not….funny…in the most….remote…sense!" the changeling's voice came through the shirt in a muffled fashion.

"Need help?" Robin droned.

"Mmmmffmmfmffmff!!" Beast Boy answered.

Starfire giggled.

Cyborg whistled innocently and yanked the white shirt off of Beast Boy.

"YEEP!" the green elf covered his chest and dropped shoulder-deep into the waters.

"Jeez….what's your deal?" Robin exclaimed.

Beast Boy moaned. "Okay! I'm skinny!! I'm skinny and it sucks!! You all happy!!"

Dreadful silence.

"I like 'the skinny'," Starfire nicely said. She leaned her red head to the side and smiled. "Skinniness denotes humility and asceticism. I find it an admirable trait of wisdom among earthling males."

Beast Boy blinked. He stood up, torso exposed. "Really?"

Starfire's green eyes widened.

Cyborg laughed.

Beast Boy sighed and lowered his eyelids. "Knew it…."

"Um….Beast Boy?" Starfire blinked. "Have you been baloonic and not telling us?"

"Bulimic," Robin corrected. He smiled at Starfire and gestured towards the elf. "And no, Star. He's just got a metabolism for us all to die for."

"Yeah…my metabolism and my rib cage are practically sleeping together," the changeling moped.

"You need protein, man!!" Cyborg shoved the changeling in the back and smiled. "Vegetarians don't become body builders!! What were you thinking?!"

"Well, look at tennis players!!" Beast Boy spun in the ocean water and gestured. "And ice skaters! They still get the girls, right?"

Cyborg blinked. "This isn't Europe, man."

Robin laughed.

Beast Boy placed his hands on his hips. "Fine…Mr. Titanium. At least I can still do this." And the changeling morphed into a three-hundred pound gorilla and flailed meaty limbs with a roar in the salt water.

"Okay man…," Cyborg flinched. "OKAY MAN!! Just go back to your normal shape and size before those damn swimming trunks burst and fall apart!!"

Instantly, the gorilla blushed and shrunk down into a safe-sized Beast Boy. "M-My bad," he gulped. "Ya know what? Scratch what I said. I think I like being skinny after all."

"Well now that that's settled…," Robin smiled and treaded around to look at everyone. "Just what the heck did we come out here to do?!"

"Feel the ocean!" Cyborg shrugged with a grin.

"Hehehehe!! Friends! Observe!" Starfire motioned with a smile and her eyes joyously shut. "This is a trick Tamaranians perform on their home planet!"

"Cool!"

"Let us see!"

"Well allright!"

Starfire took a deep breath, ducked under water, submerged for about ten seconds, and jumped back up with a gasp and two hands flailing dancer-like above a wet mop of red hair. "Ta to the daaaaa!"

Everyone blinked.

"Uhhhhh," Beast Boy slurred.

Cyborg scratched his human head. "What'd you do?"

Before his remark ended…there was a boiling sensation. All three boys looked down and saw three glowing spots under the surf between their feet. Simultaneously, three strategically placed starbolts exploded remotely as one.

SPLOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The guys shrieked, thoroughly doused.

Starfire had a good, long giggle.

Beast Boy was the first to regain his breath and laugh. "Hahahahahaha! Nice one, Star!!"

"Did you like the chaotic explosion?"

"Dude…we always like chaotic explosions!"

Cyborg sputtered and grinned. "We should have Tamaranians over at a pool party!"

"Yes!!" Starfire smiled and clasped her dripping hands together. "My family could come visit and drown you all!"

"You think that was a trick…," Robin smirked. "Watch this!" He held his breath, ducked into the water, and came up in what looked precisely like a spinning kick…the type that the Boy Wonder often used to level three or four attacking thugs in the crime-filled streets at once. However, in the ocean surf, it performed as a mid-air sprinkler as his water-soaked body sprayed droplets outward on everyone like a liquid helicopter.

"Awww man!!" Cyborg flinched.

"Hahahaha!" Beast Boy batted the water away. "Awesome!!"

And then Robin came down…

"HIYAAAA!!" He 'karate chopped' the water.

SPLOOOSH!!!

A torrent came and struck Starfire first. "EEEK!!" Then the two boys. "Aaaaugh!!" "Hahahaha!!"

Robin came up finally and gasped. Bobbing in the water, he immediately asked. "Top that, guys!!"

Cyborg smirked. "Allrighty." He switched his right hand into a laser rifle, shoved it halfway down into the waters, and unloaded. "RAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!

**SPLOOOOOOOOSH!!!!**

This time, seawater reached forty feet into the air before coming back down.

It was a good ten seconds before Robin and Starfire surfaced, gasping. They blinked.

"Wow….."

"Glorious…."

They both looked each other…attempting to reason out in their heads the awkwardness of sounding identically exhausted after having experienced uniquely the same thing. And they blushed.

"HA HA HA HA!!! Walking depth charge in the house!!!" Cyborg beamed, leaning back and planting his hands to his hips like a pirate.

Starfire blinked. "Where is Beast Boy?"

Cyborg blinked. He looked up. He extended a hand out.

"WAAAAAAUGH!!!" THWUMP!! "Ooof!!" the changeling landed safely in the android's grasp after having been blown sky-high into the air along with the water. He simpered.

Starfire and Robin together sweatdropped.

"Man…gain some weight for god's sake," Cyborg said.

"Eheheheheh…," Beast Boy dangled from the titanium titan's grasp. "P-People are starting to stare….I-I think…"

Cyborg glanced over at other groups of youthful swimmers gathered in the waters meters away. They were all staring at the vacationing, wave-making superheroes in awe.

"Let them…," the android smirked. He dropped Beast Boy.

"Yack!!" Splash!!!

"Don't mind us!!" Cyborg waved and called out. "Someway…somehow…what we're doing is preserving the polar ice caps!! Y-Yeah!! I assure you of that!!"

Starfire giggled and Robin smirked.

Some high school male from a faraway clique shouted back over: "H-Hey!! Think guys can come over with that laser thingy of yours and show us how you can make the water explode like that?!"

"Kinda doubt it!!" Cyborg shouted. "You'd have to have a membership to make waves with us!!"

A girl called out from the group. "Say…are you the Teen Titans?!"

"Uhhh…," Robin turned around and then called out. "No!! We're….um…we're Brazillians!! Yeah! Come give us a call the next time you're in Rio De Janeiro! We'll kick a soccer ball around and drink coffee straight from the trees!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg laughed.

"That kosher with you, povos? Sim? Okay then! Boa Tarde!"

"Dude…you're evil."

"No, I'm linguistic," Robin spun around. "Besides. They're off our backs. What now?"

"Piggyback wrestling!!" Cyborg shouted.

"Wooohoo!!" Beast Boy jumped, making waves.

"Glorious!!" Starfire exclaimed. A beat. "Erm…wh-what is this 'Piggyback of wrestling'?"

"Well, since there're four of us…," Cyborg pointed. "We get into two teams. Each team has a carrier and a….er…saddler. Y-Yeah. Basically, one person sits on the shoulders of another—riding 'piggyback'—and tries to knock down the other saddler."

Starfire gasped. "Knock down?!?!"

"Into the water," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "It's all in good fun."

"And we're not having any of it yet! Come on!! Piggyback wrestling!" Beast Boy jumped.

"Marvelous," Starfire smiled. "We need only form teams!"

Robin lifted a finger--

"Me and Cy!!" Beast Boy hopped up and landed expertly on the android Titan's shoulders. "Ha!! Lock and load!"

Cyborg held the changeling's dangling legs. "Team One assembled!! Do I hear a Team Two?"

Robin lowered his finger. He blinked. "Ahem." He looked over at Starfire and tried not to blush as he said: "So…guess it's you and me."

"Mmmmhmmmm," she smiled sweetly.

"Well…might as well meet the challenge," the Boy Wonder said…dipping down to his chin in the surf and pointing his back at Starfire. "Go on, Starfire."

The alien girl leaned her head to the side. "Why…whatever do you mean, Robin?"

"You're the saddler! Let's take Team One down!!"

Blink. "But Robin…if you were to equate your earthling strength to my Tamaranian one—"

"Don't be ridiculous," Robin nervously chuckled. "Of course I can carry you! I'm a superhero, remember?"

"I was not going to suggest you were incapable of doing such," Starfire said. "But it would be of greater ease if I were to be the carrier, and furthermore we would have a greater chance of 'knocking down' Team One, wouldn't you agree—"

"Are you guys assembling or not?!?!" Beast Boy cackled from atop the android.

"Give us a sec!!" Robin barked, flushed.

"Better hurry or you'll be disqualified!!" Cyborg smirked.

"Affirmative!" Starfire hummed. She ducked under the water, submerged, and came up beneath Robin.

SWOOSH!!!

The Boy Wonder's eyemask went bug-eyed…and he realized he was sitting squarely on the Tamaranian girl's shoulders.

"Let us do seafaring battle!!" Starfire giggled, clutching gentle hold of Robin's legs and facing Cyborg and Beast Boy—who were both stifling chuckles.

"Uhm….y-yeah….lets…," Robin stammered with a blink beneath his eyemask. "Qu-Quickly…and beyond eyesight."

"Are there any rules to this duel?" Starfire asked.

"Yeah," Cyborg nodded. "YOU GET SOAKED!!!"

"RRAAAUGH!!!" Beast Boy's arms short forward as the titanium carrier below him rushed forward.

"EEEK!" Starfire flinched.

"RRRRGHH!!" Robin's hands flew out.

CLAMP!!!!

The changeling and the Boy Wonder grappled. Waves bubbled around the four. Clenched teeth and sun-glistening skin with salt water and insanity.

"Hey Robin!!" Beast Boy strained.

"Wh-What??" Robin replied through clenched teeth.

"I got a joke for ya!!"

"Oh r-really?!"

"What's teenage…black haired…and wet all over?"

"I give…"

"You!! HA!!!"

Beast Boy's hands turned hairy and primate as he flexed sudden muscles and sent Robin and the alien girl sprawling backwards.

"Yaaaaugh!!"

"Eeeeep!!"

SPLOOSH!!

"Dude!"

"All right, man!!"

Cyborg and the changeling on top of him did a high five and laughed merrily.

Robin bobbed up, spit out some salt water, and sputtered. "Cheaters!" he frowned and looked up at the two from where he tread. "Who said anything about using superpowers---ACK!!"

Starfire lifted up between Robin's legs, once again hoisting him on her shoulders as her eyes glowed green and she sneered: "We shall now strike vengeance in the hearts of our oppressors!!"

SWOOOOSH!!

The 'carrier' of Team Two streaked an emerald path through the waters and straight at Cyborg and Beast Boy. The two shrieked: "Yaaaaaah!!"

Robin himself shrieked. "Yaaaaah!!"

Starfire reached Cyborg, skidded to a stop in the water, and Robin sailed forward with an impromptu shove into the piggybacking Beast Boy's chest. THWUMP!!

"Oof!!" the changeling and the android tumbled back hard.

SPLOOOSH!!!!

"He he he he!!!" Starfire giggled cutely.

Robin panted, balancing himself on the alien girl's shoulders before regaining his breath, swallowing, and chugging his right arm in a cheer. "Allright!! Way to go, Starfire!! You rock!!"

"I do believe we just piggybacked their proverbial donkeys royally!"

Cyborg got up, shook the water off his titanium skull, and evilly smirked. "Oh, it ain't over yet people…"

Beast Boy hopped up onto the Titan's shoulders. "Best out of three, dudes!!"

"You've got to be kidding me…," Robin said breathlessly. He leaned his hands down into Starfire's shoulders…his fingers inadvertently dipping into her wet, silky hair.

The girl blinked. She glanced up. "Robin, are you uncomfortable on my shoulders?"

"I-I'm fine, Star. I'm not uncomfortable at all."

"Then why are you constantly shifting position?"

Robin bit his lip and blushed. "Um….c-cuz I'm…er….t-too engrossed in SENDING BEAST BOY TO THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN!!"

"Bring it, landlubber!!"

"RRRAAAUGH!!"

"YAAAAAAGH!!"

The four charged at each other, grappled, twirled about…teetered…and gradually fell over--all as a quadrupled one. SPLASH!!!!

The four reemerged in the waters from the draw. Laughing and splashing each other and even two of them blushing.

A Tamaranian girl and a hero from Gotham….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When Cyborg finally stumbled back to shore, Raven was fully engulfed in her eighth book. She sat down on a beach blanket with her back half reclined against the cooler. Whatever mysterious bathing suit she may have been attired in was hidden by a light, dark shirt hanging about her figure…unbuttoned. An umbrella rested above her…protecting her from rays too intense or heat too annoying or---

WHUMP!!

Sand flew as Cyborg plopped down, laughing his head off. "Ha ha ha!! Man…you should be out there with us, Rae!! Starfire's kicking our butts at piggyback wrestling!!"

"That is a sight to see…," Raven droned. "I'm sure the other three of you are enough to see it."

"Awwww, come on Rae! Don't tell me you came all the way out here with us to read a book and miss the Ocean?"

"I'm sure the Ocean is doing fine without me. It's taken good care of itself for the last billion and a half years at least."

"Damn, girl. Just what's with you?" Cyborg looked at her with a crooked grin. "Good thing you have this umbrella here or you'd melt from being away from your coffin!"

Raven lowered the book to her lap and sighed. "If this is about the same issue as our anticlimactic talk this morning, I don't want to get into it."

Silence.

Cyborg blinked. "I-I'd totally forgotten about our morning talk, Rae…"

The girl bit her lip. She looked back into her book.

"Raven…," Cyborg leaned over in the sand with his chin on his hand. "What's wrong?" he asked with friendly gentleness.

"Nothing is wrong," she insisted. "I merely want to relax during this vacation."

"But you're so tense and defensive."

"No. I'm frustrated and annoyed."

"Same difference."

"Is this enjoyable to you?" she snapped at him, eyes glaring. "Do you get a high from psychological lectures?"

"No…I get a high from fun in the sun and watching Beast Boy get his head dunked under seawater repeatedly. And we all wish you were there to enjoy our company too!"

"I can't…," she sighed.

Cyborg lifted a human eyebrow. "Can't?"

"What I mean is….," Raven closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. "I'm not in the mood."

"So you admit it."

"**Yes.** I admit **it.**"

A beat.

"….Want to talk abou—"

"No."

"I can see that," Cyborg nodded. "But if I may say something before I leave you alone?"

"Sure…why not? You've said just about everything you've wanted to…"

Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "I think this all started with Trigon gettin' into Noir. Didn't it, Raven? When your daddy tried to consume us all and Noir especially?"

The girl was silent.

Cyborg nodded. "I can take a hint." He stood up slowly and padded away from her in the sand. But at the edge of the spread beach blanket below her feet, he paused. He looked back, his half titanium face obstructed from her view by the umbrella. "But know this, Raven. You're our friend. And we all love you as much as you can't admit to loving us. In that respect…we know there's nothing you would ever purposefully do to hurt us. And, thus, nothing to feel ashamed about."

Raven swallowed a lump down her throat. She stared at the open pages of the book before her, but the words were all blurry. She shook her head, took a shuddering breath and uttered: "Wait…Cyborg….."

No response. He was already gone. Just like she had willed him to be.

Raven closed her eyes and instantly meditated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"She gonna join us?"

"Nah, man," Cyborg waded out into the gently swaying surf where the other four were. "She wants to be alone. As always."

"Pfft!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Some people never change."

"Give her some credit, B.B.," Robin smirked. "She has her right to enjoy the vacation in her own way. Just like everyone else."

"Yes!" Starfire beamed, bobbing in the water with hands clasped together. "And our fashion of enjoyment is gradually getting saturated by a large body of salt water!"

"Dude…I'm so gonna freak if I get all pruned," Beast Boy uttered, looking at his elfin form beneath the waves. "On pink skin, it's A-Okay. But on my emerald beauty…wrinkle skin is just **wrong**. And I have yet to impress some babes!"

"But Beast Boy…," Starfire blinked her green eyes and cocked her head aside. "There are no infants on this beach. Where are you going to find some postnatal infants to enthuse?"

"Wrong babes, Star," Beast Boy slyly winked. "I'm here in town to put the moves on some swimsuited nymphs dropped down from Venus itself!"

Cyborg looked at Star and mouthed: 'Girls'.

"Oh!" Starfire jumped. "Like me!! Hehehehe!!"

"Awwww…but you're one of my best friends, Star!" Beast Boy scratched his neck. "And besides……" He blinked. He looked at Robin. "N-Not you, Star."

The Boy Wonder lifted an eyebrow.

"Ya know…," Cyborg broke in…resting back and floating over the crest of an incoming wave. "This vacation has gotten me thinking."

"About what?"

"A 'T-Boat'."

"A 'T-Boat'?"

"Yeah!" Cyborg exclaimed. "There's a lot of water in the City. It'd help to have some aquatic transit!"

"Dude…we already have a T-Sub! We can go **under** the water? Isn't that enough?"

"No way!!" Cyborg sputtered. "We gotta cruise in style. You get me? Besides…the T-Sub is huge and bulky. It can't navigate all the canals and dockyards of the City. And—is it just me—but are those spots getting more and more action as of late?"

"Good point," Robin nodded.

Beast Boy jumped a wave and pointed: "Okay fine! So maybe we need a Titan watercraft. But don't call it a 'T-Boat', dude!"

"Why not?"

"It needs a cool name!"

"Like the 'T-Speeder'!" Robin smiled.

"But there's a pattern, don't you see?" Cyborg exclaimed. "T-Car. T-Sub. 'T-Boat'. They're all practical names! I can't break that rhythm!!"

"Well, you'll have to," Beast Boy pouted with arms folded. "'T-Speeder' is cooler…and sexier!"

"What do you know about 'sexy', ya wrinkled apricot?!"

"A heck of a lot!! Think about it, dude! How's 'T-Boat' gonna strike fear in the hearts of seafearing criminals and drug lords? 'Uh oh, Mugs! Look out! Here comes the **T-Boat!**'"

Starfire giggled.

Robin laughed.

Cyborg fumed. "It wouldn't be like that, man…"

Beast Boy went on: "'Oh, watch out Bruce!! Ditch the coke, man! The **T-Boat** is chugging along after us! The little dingy that could! Oh, we're doing ten-to-twenty now!'"

"All right. **Fine.** 'T-Speeder'! That sound better to you?!"

"Hell yeah!" Beast Boy bobbed. "That grips my heart in a vice of pure terror! If I was a criminal, I'd be filled with the urge to drop my guns and flee to the nearest chaplain to get my soul straight! Or better yet, I'd just stand in one spot trembling and urinating in utter shock." A beat. He looked over. "Say, while we're on topic, remind me. While in the ocean, is it unethical to—"

"Don't even think about it…," Robin glared.

A fifth figure bobbed up.

Everyone look, and their jaws dropped.

"H-Hey…," Raven blushed…standing half submerged in the water and wearing a modest two-piece of dark blue.

A pause.

"H-Hi there…," Beast Boy blinked. "Wow….you **are** pale."

"Come here to scare the fish away?" Cyborg winked.

"No, I came here to say something," Raven droned.

"What's that?"

"Thanks."

Cyborg smiled.

"Oh…and one other thing."

"Yes, Raven?" Starfire smiled.

"Hold your breaths."

The Tamaranian blinked. "I beg your pardon—"

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"

The dark girl summoned up a telekinetic depth charge of exploding black, and water literally cascaded own onto the four unwitting Titans.

"YAAAH!!" "AAAAUGH!!" "WHOAH!!!" "HE HE HE HE!!"

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Raven hugged herself and tried not to smile. She didn't do a great job.

"Oh, Rae thinks she's Miss Poseidon! I'll take care of her!" Cyborg jumped and slammed the water with a splash.

"Ack!!" Raven flinched as the water splashed her, and the grin finally shattered forth.

The other three joined in splashing her, and she awkwardly returned fire.

The seas were not calm that day.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat in the sand. Facing the edge of oblivion. Oblivion roared and sighed and roared and sighed with blue tranquility.

I shuffled a deck of cards in my hands, flipping cards over and reorganizing them with nimble pointlessness.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

Oftentimes, I would feel like collapsing. Of imploding in on myself. There was a queer sort of comfort in submerging one's self with chaos. White noise. Shadows. In the darkness of my cellar room, in the shower with the water falling down and streaming hot…often I would just sit their on the tile floor…hugging my knees. Drenched. Invisible. On fire and soaked at the same time.

There on the beach, I was achieving that same breakdown. And oddly enough, it was no more and no less therapeutic. The only thing that had changed was the aestheticism of the situation. Oh…and yes…I had clothes on.

My black hair and the loose white shirt flapped in the breeze. I stared out at the glittering waves through dark shades, shuffled, and sighed again.

I glanced to my right to see how my friends were doing.

"Hi." A teenage girl was sitting right next to me.

I blinked. I raised an eyebrow and waved with a crooked smile of confusion.

She waved back and hugged her knees to her chest. Looking at me.

_Okaaaaaaaaaay……_

I looked back out at the waters. I shuffled the cards. I tried to think about _cars……explosions……_

"Is that arm metal?" It was a different voice.

I looked to my right again. There was a second girl sitting next to the first. She too was looking at me. We were forming a line.

I glanced to my left. I held up my titanium arm. I flexed it and glanced at them as if that was to state the obvious.

"Ahhhh….cool." They both blinked.

I nodded listlessly and stared back at the ocean.

_Video games……barbecues……_

"You look famous, somehow. Are you someone important?" A third voice.

This time my head whipped over. There were two more girls. One was talking, the other hiding her face.

Curious, I glanced back behind me. There was a private school retreat of sorts at the beach. Rich-looking teens gathered and commiserated around a throng of umbrellas, beach blankets, and coolers. A couple of adults were around them, wearing t-shirts that displayed: 'NCPrep' or something. I noticed a good percentage of the female half of youngsters had disintegrated, and there were trails of footprints in the sand collectively leading towards where I sat. Four trails.

I glanced back to my right and did a double take.

Make that six trails……

"Hiiii," half of them collectively slurred. There were plenty of blushes, bit lips, and avoiding glances to fill a Catholic lockerroom. The pinball of curiosity bounced between them as one among the pack of estrogen attempted to break forth a legitimate conversation with me.

I realized—in some egotistical fashion—that this was probably supposed to be every guy's dream come true. But I looked right past that detail. All I ever have are nightmares.

"So…like….are you?" the bravest of the girls asked. A redhead. "I could have sworn I saw you on the T.V."

I shrugged. I looked out at the ocean and tried to disguise myself as I took a shuddering breath.

_Vin Diesel movies……choo choo trains…er, wait…choo choo trains?!?!_

I shook my head and shuffled the cards maniacally. They were all still staring at me. I felt my right half of the face melt away in a last stronghold of anti-blushing shields. I suddenly envisioned the heads of all six girls collectively being skewered by divine pikes of serrated metal, leaking blood and hair and swimsuit scraps all over the absorbant sand. But I told myself that such was probably a psychosexual defense mechanism that even Freud would laugh at. I would have laughed too, but my mouth was dry.

"You can't talk…c-can you?"

I looked at them.

All six looked at me.

"Wh-Who are you?"

I glanced at them. I glanced at the cards. I glanced at them. I glanced at the cards again.

I smirked.

_What the Hell……it's vacation…_

I shuffled them and produced the Ace of Hearts. I held it up for them to see.

They looked at it.

I pulled out the deck separately and placed the Ace of Hearts face-down on it. I glanced at them through my shades.

They watched my hidden eyes.

I swiftly shuffled the deck, mixed and mixed the cards, then fanned them out completely and held them in front of the nearest girl.

She glanced and them…then back up at me.

I nodded towards the fan.

The girl pensively took out a card and flipped it face up.

"Um…it's not the Ace of Hearts," she simpered.

The others murmured.

I made a pouting face, took the card back, reshuffled the deck, fanned it out, and held it for her again.

She picked a card out quickly this time. She shook her head.

I made like to 'think'. I shuffled the deck again. Fanned them out. And had her pull a third.

Again, she smiled bashfully and said: "Nope…no look."

I looked stumped. I glanced at her head. I gasped. I reached to her ear suddenly—making her jerk—and when my fingers came back, they were holding an Ace of Hearts.

She almost fainted. The other girls gasped, laughed, and clapped.

"How…H-How'd you—"

I held a finger up.

They quieted down.

I lifted the Ace of Hearts in my right hand. I concentrated murk, and made it disappear in a shroud of smoke.

They gasped and 'oohed' and 'aahed'.

I swiftly clapped my hands together, stretched them out again….and the Ace of Hearts appeared in my left hand with smoke warbling.

"Wowwwww."

"Crazy!"

"He's got powers!"

"H-Hey!" a dark-haired girl leaned over the first one. "I-I know who you are now! You're that Titan! Th-That new one! The one with a sword and stuff!"

I took a breath….smiled…..and disappeared. 'All that was left was an impression in the sand and a deck of cards.

"Whoah!!" '"No way!!"

"He's gone!"

"Can he do that?"

"He just did!"

The girls jumped up—as if caught in a wild wind of panic and euphoria. They initially gasped and spun around in confusion…but collectively their exclamations of surprise settled down into amusement and giggles as many a story to tell when summer vacation ended filled their knowledge banks.

So caught up in such, they six failed to notice invisible footprints treading their way south along the beach and back to where the Titans' gathering location was.

I took my time, and five minutes later I materialized out of stealth mode…chuckling breathily.

_So I had wooed them. So I had exposed myself as a Titan. So what? I disappeared without making any attachments. A cameo appearance with no consequences. And six vessels of sugar and spice left relatively happy in the hot sun._

I felt good. I felt damn good.

Who needs dreams?

'-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'"Yo! Noir!! Where you've been? Come and join us, man!"

I smiled gently and walked up to join the other five Titans in their brisk walk down the surf. It was getting into late afternoon. The sun was heading towards the far end of the continent. The Atlantic Waters to our left became darker and darker as we wandered leisurely south in the warm summer breeze. '"We were starting to miss you, dawg!" Cyborg smiled. "You missed all the good parts of the vacation! Like Raven nearly losing her top when B.B. tackled her into an incoming wave!"

Raven walked next to Cyborg's side and droned. "Yes…and you missed the ensuing attempt at homicide following that."

I winced and grinned nervously.

"It was a most glorious exchange of flying salt water!!" Starfire exclaimed, waving her hands happily. "As a statement of joy, our eyes shall be red for days!"

"Speak for yourself," Beast Boy beamed. "I don't have to worry about dry, human optics! I can switch my eyes to a dolphin's at any time!"

"Is that why you're always such a hornball?"

'"What was that, Cy?"

"Never mind…."

I smiled. I glanced in Starfire's direction. She looked………….pink.

"First time I ever went to a beach…," Robin suddenly reminisced, walking besides the Tamaranian. "…I was on assignment with Batman to stop Mr. Freeze. Turns out the cold villain was threatening to freeze an entire Bay if he didn't get the blackmail money soon enough to reverse his condition. I guess—even for a soulless terrorist—you get tired of being a walking popsicle for so many years."

"But I thought you were born and raised in Gotham!" Beast Boy uttered. "There's plenty of water there!"

"No way, man!" Robin shook his head and smiled. "That's not a beach! Docks are not 'the beach'. 'Urban hell' is most like it. I'm convinced that Hell has its fair share of waterways and estuaries."

"Yeah…probably full of floating, discarded gigapets. Ha ha ha!!"

"The poor gigapets!" Starfire gasped.

I shook my head.

"The first time I saw a beach….," Cyborg spoke, "…it was outside of Metropolis. Right after Superman first came to town. It was in April, and everyone was out flying kites. Even myself."

"The 'T-Kite'?"

"Pfft. I wished. It was a piece of half-cardboard crap that fell to the ground."

"Awwwww," Robin smirked. "Childhood depression is the most rewarding."

"Pfft. It wasn't so bad," Cyborg grinned. "Uncle Simon stepped on a jellyfish! Didn't know he could scream like a girl. HA!"

"'Yo ho ho ho, a jellyfish's sting for free…'," Raven hummed in stoic monotony.

"Heheheheheh!" Cyborg was tickled pink. "That's cute, Rae! Bet you wish you thought that up!"

"………………I did think that up."

"Oh…," Cyborg gulped embarrassingly.

Raven had the tiniest of smirks.

I glanced at her…but she avoided my gaze.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Man…this beach sucks!" Beast Boy wailed.

"Why so suddenly?"

"All the babes are gone!! What, does the beach have a beauty curfew or something?!" Beast Boy sighed and hugged his bare green chest as if he was suddenly cold. "I swear…where did all the chicks go?"

I whistled innocently.

"Robin?"

"Yes, Star?"

"What's a gigapet?"

"Uhmmmm."

"Well I have two words that'll cheer everyone up!" Cyborg grinned. "Well…maybe it's one word but—"

"Just tell us…," Raven moaned.

"BOARDWALK!!"

"Dude!! Yeah!! Woohoo!"

"Glorious!"

I looked up. A wooden structure stretched out to the sea. A ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and other brightly lit items of pageantry stood against the increasingly dark horizon.

"Well…when in Rome…," Robin smirked.

We all pressed forward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'"Here are the chicks. HERE ARE THE CHICKS!" Beast Boy bounced. We meandered humbly down the boardwalk. Wandering groups of teenagers and young adults—many of which were estrogen-endowed—surrounded us. There were small amusement rides whurring and fair-styled games of ring tossing and the like, not to mention one or two quaint restaurants selling hotdogs and all manners of unhealthy American foods. To top it all off, a band was on a wooden platform in the center of the beachside fiasco…playing a gentle tune that made us all feel that we were all the way south in the Florida Keys when we really weren't.

"Cy, you are a genius!" Beast Boy drooled, his eyes turning into pink hearts as two blondes in short shorts and bikini tops wandered by—giggling about some fancy thing or another.

"Love you too, B.B.," Cyborg winked. "Just do us all a favor and don't get married overnight."

"Eek! Don't say the 'M' word!"

"Why?" Starfire blinked. "What is wrong with it?"

"You'll have to take that up with Beast Boy," Raven muttered. She glanced up with half-bored eyes at the ferris wheel looming ahead. "Oh joy…," she droned. "Rides."

"Yes!!" Starfire jumped. She leaned on Robin who was now sporting a white t-shirt over his trunks. "Robin, we must engage the Wheel of Ferrisment!"

"Er…s-sure!" the Boy Wonder blushed. "It doesn't seem any bigger than the one back near the City. You sure?"

"Absolutely! Hurry before the tide envelopes us all!"

"Star. This is a boardwalk. Only if there was a cataclysmic hurricane could the sea level rise up and—WHOAH!!"

The Tamaranian strongly yanked him off as she scurried towards the ferris wheel's booth.

"Well…that does look like fun," Cyborg rubbed his chin and smirked.

"I'll pass…," Beast Boy muttered, suddenly sounding depressed as he trudged off.

"No better way to do this than the gentlemanly way," Cyborg said. He swiveled around. He bowed and motioned towards the ferris wheel. "Miss Raven?"

The dark girl looked at him…at the ferris wheel…then at him again. She smirked slightly. "Sure…why not?"

I did a double-take.

"Thank you ever so kindly, madame," Cyborg uttered a british accent and offered his arm.

She faked-curtsied in her swimsuit and dangling, black overshirt. "Quite a privilege Let us proceed to the engagement at hand."

"Cherrio!"

They wandered off together in such goofy roles.

I blinked. I scratched my head.

"Well, will you look at that?"

I glanced over at Beast Boy.

He had returned. He hadn't chased down the 'chicks' after all.

"Two peas in a pod…er….four peas in a pod. And here the two of us are ditched."

I looked at Starfire and Robin. I looked at Raven and Cyborg. I looked down at Beast Boy below me.

He blinked, sniffled, and jumped me. "I love you maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!"

I fought him off, chuckling breathily.

"Heheheheh!! Come on…let's go wreck an arcade or something!!"

I nodded. But I couldn't help but let my gaze linger on Raven and Cyborg for an awkward second….

'But soon I was trailing after an eager changeling through the crowd towards the indoor arcade.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'"Ah…these huge and bulky wheels are always so rapturous," Starfire sighed on her side of the floating loveseat. "My home planet could do well with its fair share of circular ferrisment."

"I'm sure you've got the heart of the matter on your home planet," Robin smirked. He pointed directly outward as the two lifted up. "Wonderful vistas."

Starfire gasped, her green eyes sparkling.

Starlight rippled across an endless body of water ahead of them as they faced the Atlantic. The rocking of the seat distorted their vision, and for a moment it seemed as if the world and its gigantic bowl of salt water was teetering around them. Then the ferris wheel revolved, and their view was obstructed by a cobweb of metal lattices, and then the shimmering eternity returned.

"The beauty of your world never ceases….," Starfire stammered. "The sights…the landscape…the people. I wish I had come to Earth sooner. I feel that my time here has matured me greatly and taught me much about life itself. If I had been here longer…who knows what greater revelations I might have born witness to."

Robin sighed—retaining a weak smile—and stared out at the waters under night. "I wish I had your eyes, Starfire."

"You like the color green?"

"No…," Robin chuckled and shook his head. "What I mean is….I wish I could be…..c-could be innocent like you again, Star." He looked at her and extended a hand out into the air and towards the edge of the world. "I wish I could see past the oblivion of life and see what's beautiful. I look at the world and all I see is crime, madmen, psychopaths, and the eternally red, gothic night like that which I was born under." He sighed and glanced back out again. "It's because of what I see that I….I can't stop fighting."

Starfire nodded. "I understand…," she said softly, solemnly. "I fight to preserve a universe of good. You fight to diminish a world of evil. We are opposites in such fashion, Robin. Yet at the same time, we are the same."

He smiled slightly. "That's a good analogy Star. Never thought of that before."

She nodded.

Silence.

Finally, it ached inside of him. He shuddered, shook, and turned around. "Starfire…."

"Yes, Robin?"

"Do you remember what happened last night?"

Starfire blinked. "I…..r-remember not being able to sleep well—"

"Do you remember when I woke you in the middle of sobbing in your sleep? And you cried with me inside yours and Raven's tent?"

The girl stared at him. She looked down at two folded hands in her lap. "Vaguely…." It was an affirmative.

Robin's gaze fell to the floor. "You know….I-I was really scared that night in Slade's frigate."

"Y-You, Robin?" she looked up with rounded emeralds.

He nodded. "It wasn't that I was frightened of Slade. And it wasn't that I was worried about what would happen to me. But when you…wh-when you cried out on my behalf…."

A beat.

"You remember that, don't you, Star?" Robin remarked. "You said you'd give your life for me to live."

She slowly nodded.

"And Slade….he a-almost took it from you. It was the perfect setup. Screw everything he said about not 'obsessing over me' and stuff…he still wanted to tear my soul apart. And by doing that…he was willing to remove my best friend from my life."

Starfire swallowed a sore lump in her throat and looked away. "I….I-I should be sorry."

"Why, Star?"

"For the 'setup' that I gave him."

Robin shook his head. "No, Star—"

"I was wrong. I was succumbing to his torture."

"Star--!!"

"And I nearly ruined everything for you and the Titans—"

Robin leaned in and gently raised one of her hands from her lap.

A wisp of breath escaped her. She looked up with trembling eyes.

Robin stared. "Starfire…," he said firmly. "Thank you."

She leaned her head to the side.

He emotionlessly repeated it for emphasis: "Thank you."

Starfire bit her lip. She plunged forward and hugged Robin fiercely.

The Boy Wonder gulped and hugged her gently back.

She hid her face between his chest and her hair. She mumbled against his thin t-shirt: "Our heroics…our line of duty…it is a most treacherous and dangerous one, Robin."

"I know, Star. I know…."

"It would fill me with utter sorrow to ever see my best friend perish. I hope you never die, Robin. Ever."

"Same with you, Star…," the Boy Wonder fought with a breath to keep his voice steady. "Same with you…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'"So…what made you change your mind?" Cyborg asked.

Raven glanced aside. The sea air kicked at her blue bangs. "Change my mind about what?"

'"About joining us in our friendly endeavors!" Cyborg smirked with arms outstretched.

Their end of the ferris wheel rolled up towards the apex and faced the glittering sea beyond.

"It is of little importance…," Raven mumbled.

"To you, perhaps, Miss Stoic!" Cyborg retorted. "But we and the others sure as Hell enjoyed your company!"

"I find that hard to believe," Raven mumbled.

"Why?? Life is happy when you're always here to tell us how sad we should be!"

"How does that work?"

"Simple, we never listen to you!"

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "I suppose I can't blame you." She looked down over the edge of the seats as the boardwalk came back up at them. "All I ever seem to be these days is a total bitch."

"Okaaaaay, now I'm really worried," Cyborg leaned back. "Cuz not only are you cussing, but you're being unnecessarily down on yourself."

"No unnecessary things about it," Raven blurted. "It's true. I don't leave you or any of the other Titans any avenues of friendliness or conversation with me. And that is not fair at all. Just because I have to suffer with an insurmountable burden each time I use my powers, it doesn't mean you all have to as well."

"And I think you've more than understood that since the Titans started out, Rae," Cyborg said. "And it's shown. You've grown less rigid and stuff."

"But it's not enough," Raven sighed. "Sometimes it gnaws at me. But I have no choice. I have to maintain distance. Being too close can be damaging. Not just to myself, but more so to others."

Cyborg nodded. "We all know that. And you know what? We respect it."

"And yet, I still hammer in on all of you no matter how much room you try to make for me and my eccentricities…," Raven mumbled.

Cyborg smirked. "That's a nice way of putting it."

Raven sighed and ran a hand tiredly through her silky blue hair. "I'm trying, Cyborg. I really am. Believe it or not, I'd be lying if I said I absolutely despised the companionship of the Titans."

"I believe it."

"And you were right earlier," Raven glanced at him with a forlorn, blue gaze. "Trigon…he played a big part in the way I've been lately. I always take time to recover from one of his resurfacings."

"Is it all just about **Trigon**?" Cyborg asked.

She looked at him.

He looked at her.

She relented with a nod: "Noir….."

"Doesn't take a Titan to tell there's a difference between you two. Hanging out less…always distant…"

"It's not all me, you know," Raven frowned. "Ever since Slade---"

"Noir's gone through a lot too," Cyborg nodded. "If it's more or less than what you've dealt with in all this 'Trigon' business…I dunno. But one thing's for sure, the combination of both is creating a wedge where once before there was trust and closeness."

"Perhaps so…," Raven nodded. A beat. She glanced back. "You've approached me so vehemently on this topic. Have you talked squarely with Noir about it at all?"

Cyborg shook his head.

Raven frowned again. "And why not?"

"Would you?"

A beat.

"No…I suppose I wouldn't," Raven breathlessly said. "As a matter of fact…I think we're all feeling rather awkward in trying to talk to him and be happy with him on a regular basis again."

"Happened with Robin after Slade coerced him."

"Yes….I-I remember…"

"But we soon all recovered," Cyborg smirked. "We're the Teen Titans, Raven. We always bounce back and form together again. Sure, the pain and hurt may still be there from wounds insurmountably deep. But life is not about clean slates. It's about constantly living to build the 'slate' before we all end up in the dark in our own little ways."

At that…Raven had to smirk. "I was wrong, Cyborg. It's you…it's you who is the most mature of the Titans."

"Well, aren't I special?" He chuckled merrily and leaned back. A blink. "Who exactly was number one on the list before I moved up?"

"Myself, of course."

"Pfft!!" Cyborg tossed his hands. "Why'd I ever question that?"

Raven chuckled.

Cyborg laughed.

The wheel turned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'"Ha!! Looks like you're about to get owned, elf!!" exclaimed a teenage arcade wizard.

"Go own yourself back to your momma, hotshot!" replied our very changeling. "Hiyaaa!!"

On the screen of a lavishly constructed Soul Calibur II machine, Beast Boy's character—Kilik—swung a massive staff around and smacked it square into the chest of his opponent's Knightmare…sending him flying off the windmill and into the polygonal oblivion below.

**'Kilik! WINS!'**

The arcade machine shouted.

There was a fairly large cluster of nightly beachgoers gathered in the arcade behind the combatants. Most of them cheered. A scant few booed for the sake of the loser.

I stood to the side besides a DDR Pad. I smiled and clapped my hands.

"Unbelievable!!"

"That little kid beat five regulars in a row!"

"Is he from around here?"

"Dude, I think he's a Titan!"

"Dude, I think you're right!!" Beast Boy spun around and pointed randomly into the ground with a broad, toothy grin. "On behalf of the big City!! I come in here to thrash and thrash mightily!! Woohooo!!"

"Maaaan," one guy in the crowd sneered. "You like to play as Kilik?! Kilik's gay! He plays around with a big stick!"

Beast Boy expertly retorted: "At least he knows how to, chump!"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!" the crowd chanted.

The one heckler sauntered off into the shadows somewhere. Probably to die.

"I want to challenge him next!!"

"Yo, I was in line!!"

"Dudes…I digress," Beast Boy bowed. "It's been a lovely winning streak. But it has also been my only winning streak. For honor's sake, I now back out of the game. Someone please take control of Kilik before the computer turns him into a punching bag."

One or two wizards dashed up on cue to take over Beast Boy's game…and his quarter.

"For the rest of you!!" Beast Boy waved as he walked through the crowd and towards me. "Rock on!! And whoever the ladies are out there!! You know my number!! Well, maybe you don't know my number—but you know my face!! And that's good enough to kiss, right?!"

Teenagers laughed, clapped, and cheered.

A very smug Beast Boy marched his way towards me, sighed happily, and stood Peter Pan style with his hands to his hips. "Is fame good or what?"

I waved my hand from side to side.

"Pffft," he uttered. "Monk! Come on…let's go 'mingle'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'Beast Boy and I 'mingled' at a table in the corner of the arcade. Somewhere in the distance, the Soul Calibur II 'tournament' went on unabashed. DDR Pads met their makers on a minute-by-minute basis. Various other machines of both modern and retro quality flickered and flashed a strobe of electronic goodness across the crowded, lively interior.

Beast Boy and I faced each other with an intermittent deluge of soda glasses and pizza slices on the tabletop. He sat cutely in a crouch atop his chair. I leaned back, playing with my straw in my drink.

"You know why I hate ferris wheels so much?" he muttered in a suddenly solemn fashion.

I looked at him curiously through my shades. I looked like a Calvin Klein ad with my legs dangly lazily through khaki shorts and my white shirt parting around my chest.

Beast Boy looked tiredly through my head. He said: "I was at a fairgrounds with Terra the night she betrayed us. While my close friends were battling hundreds of robots deep inside the Tower, me and my would-be girlfriend were having the time of our lives. Slade dropped in on us and revealed the truth to me. At the time…Terra and I were in a ferris wheel."

I took a deep breath and nodded.

'_Now it all made sense…_

'"When Sandy from Westhaven brought us all over to Vreeland's estate…I wasn't so happy about the amusement park rides and stuff. You may have noticed it then." A beat. He sucked in some more root beer through a straw, breathed, and added: "I used to like amusement rides. They'd always distract me with the 'danger' of it all and stuff. And for a while…I'd forget that my parents were forever lost or that I don't know what future lies ahead of me. It's all kinda like joking, Noir. You gotta keep the audience involved in the act…or else the show stops dead short. 'Life' is a very good audience, ya know?"

I leaned my head to the side.

Beast Boy suddenly chuckled.

A question mark raised over my head.

"'At least he knows how to, chump'." He looked up, smiling. "That was pretty dang good, wasn't it?"

I smiled.

He chuckled.

So did I.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir! B.B.!"

"Come sit down!"

"Yes! You must join us in the star gazing!!"

Beast Boy and I found the other four gathered at a round table positioned awkwardly on the wooden docks just right before the boardwalk stretched out into the waters. They seemed to have been finished with the ferris wheel a long time ago. Remnants of consumed hot dogs and soda cans dotted the table. They must have been talking for a while before we both got there.

"Star gazing?" Beast Boy quipped, pulling out a chair and sitting in it reversed. "All I need to do in order to stargaze is look for the nearest green energy bolt flying past me!"

Starfire giggled.

Robin, sitting beside her, smiled. "Word has it there's a certain record-breaker burning his way through the arcade."

"Pfft! Record breaker, Candlestick maker!" Beast Boy paused with a joke momentarily to digest the words that came out of his mouth before continuing on. "All I did was work up to the highest score and fall short from there on! I mean, I'm only a visitor in these parts! No need to ruffle the feathers of the natives, I always say!"

"Suuuuuure," Cyborg smirked, his arms folded.

I walked over and sat on a long wooden bench running underneath the boardwalk's railing. I leaned back and shuffled a new deck of cards I had purchased from a gift shop. Smiling.

"And how are you guys doing?" asked Beast Boy in an air of finality.

"Wonderfully!" Starfire smiled. "This vacation is most replete with shimmering water, hot dogs, and projectile vomit!"

Beast Boy and I winced.

"Er….," Robin explained, "…there was a kid moment ago who threw up over the side of the boardwalk. He stumbled off and soon after, some cops came and asked about him. Must be a drug bust or something."

"Imagine it…," Raven muttered. "We're actually sitting back and letting the police do all the work for a change."

"Yeah…heheheheh!"

"Hehehehe!"

I glanced over.

Cyborg and Raven were sitting together.

I glanced away.

"You know guys, I must say…," Beast Boy lifted a finger and dictated, "…even if the Green Arrow and Speedy now had their hands full with—like—a billion thugs, I wouldn't care."

"How fascinating…," Raven droned.

"Why's that, B.B.?"

"It's a matter of karma, Cy," Beast Boy smirked. "Slade kept yapping his head off about things coming full circle. And you know what?! They did!! He got his ass kicked and now we're sitting lazily on our unkicked asses!"

"Checks and balances, eh?" Robin remarked.

"I call it JUSTICE!" Beast Boy leaned forward.

"Nah, man," Cyborg shook his head. "Justice isn't absolute."

"I tend to disagree," Raven said. "Justice exists. But not fairness. The fallacy of human institutions is to try and solidify a relationship between the two incompatible elements."

"Or we could just have a sucky judicial system."

"……that's just what I said."

"Hehehehehehehe!"

"Man, Star. You're nothing but a giggle machine tonight."

"I admire your jocularity this evening too, Cyborg!"

"I think it's the salt water. It's making bubbles in our bloodstream…..er…….or something…."

"Fat chance of that happening, Beast Boy. In order to get the acute state of the bends, you have to first be submerged underwater with a fair amount of pressure exhibited on your—"

"Thank you…thank you…THANK YOU, ROBIN!! MR. WIZARD WITH A CAPE! Thank you….sheesh."

"I left my cape in the T-Car, man."

"I won't accept that. It's on you somewhere. The damn thing never leaves. It's like grafted into your skeletal structure. Your body's got a flesh pouch hiding it or something."

"Whatever you say."

"Hehehehehe!"

"There she goes again!!"

'Raven cleared her throat.

We all looked at her.

I paused in shuffling my deck.

"I think we've been spotted…," the dark girl mused.

"By who?"

"Everyone."

Slowly, the six of us looked over at the body of the boardwalk. Gradually, a crowd of multiple clusters of teenagers, youngsters, and random tourists were migrating their way over towards our table. An unmistakable halo formed. Once you're a national icon, you start to recognize the sights and sounds of mass acknowledgement.

"Uhhhh….," Beast Boy sweatdropped and glanced at the others. "Who phoned in my fan club."

"Dude…**your** fan club?!" Cyborg retorted.

"Hey….the Teen Titans!" some guy called out. "Is it really you?!"

Robin smiled and helplessly admitted. "In the flesh!"

"And **metal**," again, Cyborg fumed.

Murmurs. Gasps. Smiles.

"It's really them!"

"What're they doing here?!"

"Hey look, the Teen Titans!"

"Way cool!"

"This is a most fabulous beach, is it not?" Starfire simpered. "Beautiful waters and beautiful people!"

Chuckles and heartwarming responses.

"What brings you down here??" someone called from atop a bench in the center of the crowd.

"Migration," Robin said. "Two of us in the team are named after birds….so it's only natural!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Robin, you're my hero!"

"Don't make it a habit!" the Boy Wonder responded with a pointing finger.

The crowd chuckled.

So did some of us.

"Seriously! You're on vacation??"

"What does it look like?!" Cyborg responed to whoever. "No wait! We're all dressed casually and are hanging around here because we just found out that Mad Mod is making a British remake of Beach Blanket Bingo tomorrow on this very beach!!" '

"Wow!!"

"Really?!?!"

"NO!!" Cyborg barked. "Sheesh! Mad Mod's been in jail for nearly three quarters of a year!! You telling me you don't read our Magazine?!"

"Dude…," Beast Boy remarked. "We have a magazine?!"

Raven nodded.

Under chuckles and resounding murmurs of cheerfulness, a voice squeaked forth: "Beast Boy!! You're my hero!!"

"Hey, allright! Somebody smart for a change!!" the changeling stood on his chair and pointed out to the crowd. "Whoever said that, you have my eternal devoti—wait!! You're a guy!!"

Laughter.

Beast Boy flushed red and crouched back down to his chair.

More murmurs. A denser and denser crowd.

"Do you think we should disband???" Starfire worriedly whispered.

"Nah…," Robin smirked. "Let's enjoy it a little more….ya know?"

"Yeah…," Cyborg added. "If we need to get away, we can take care of ourselves."

"Shouldn't we worry about the people?" Raven muttered.

Just then, some random stranger walked up, smirked, and crossed his arms. He seemed a good few years older than the teenagers around him. "Well…if this ain't a surprise."

"I know…," Beast Boy nodded. "We can't believe we're here either."

"What're y'all doing with him in your midst?" the stranger uttered.

"I beg your pardon?" Starfire remarked.

"Him!!" the stranger smirked.

All the guy Titans pointed at themselves. Myself included.

The man rolled his eyes and gestured towards me….as if what he was implying was obvious.

I raised an eyebrow from under my shades.

The crowd silenced as the man went on: "Yeah, you! The News kept talking about the trouble you were making in the City!! I thought you and the Titans were enemies!"

"Oh…you mean Wyldecarde??" Beast Boy. "Y-You see….about that—"

"I know what I saw!" the man smirked. "He totally kicked your asses! He even made threats to the people you tried to protect! Heh! Some vacation you're all on! Letting a criminal like that back into your flock shows you're relaxing too good for safety!!"

The crowd conversed in hushed tones of confusion, curiosity, and doubt. Some shock.

I felt dozens of eyes on me. I gulped as I sensed a case of the shivers coming over me. I nervously hid my metal left arm from their gaze…as if suddenly afraid my soul would leak out and get injected with shame.

Raven saw it. Her lips parted….

"You haven't been paying close attention…," Robin frowned. "If you watched all the news and listened to the words of Decker and authorities…Noir's been cleared of all charges. He was only trying to distract us from Slade's—"

"By beating you all up?!" the man chuckled. "I saw footage from that stage by the Bay in your City! I think he thoroughly enjoyed being Wyldecarde!!"

TH-THUMP!!!

Raven's fist slammed onto the table as she stood up, eyes flaring gray. "Shut your mouth before I staple it closed, jerk!! I know your type. You like to rouse shock and anger in a crowd. You sit back in your slab of a house, reading bits and pieces of slanted news sites and filling your head with dramatics to spill forth and stir emotion. And here you stand…accusing the sole person responsible for me and my partners standing here safely today. Noir's done **nothing** but give his mind, heart, and **flesh** in sacrifices to save our hides from Slade's impregnable evil and you have the **gall** to call him a villain for the very act of denying himself?! You…make…me…sick."

Hushed silence.

The man merely smirked and gave her a contemptuous glare. "You don't know me, lady."

Raven's blue eyes squinted. "Neither…do…you…know…my…**friend!!**"

I took a deep breath and looked down. My face stone.

Everyone was gradually staring at the stranger.

The stranger felt their doubtful eyes…and he didn't like it anymore than I did. He wandered off, smiling in some mock manner as if it would preserve whatever faltering ego he had left at the hands of the dark Titan.

And with the spirit of the air so suddenly painful, the rest of the crowd decided to part and amuse themselves with the boardwalk all around.

Raven's hands hung by her side. Fists clenching.

Cyborg gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Very well spoken, Raven…," Starfire quietly commented.

Raven was breathing heavily. Her eye trailed my way slightly…but she couldn't summon the strength to look at me directly.

I swallowed a lump in my throat.

"Excuse me….," Raven whispered. She walked hurriedly off towards the far end of the boardwalk.

The five of us were alone.

Cyborg looked after her. Slowly, his human and red eyes swiveled over to me.

I looked back.

We shared a glance. And as it was so often necessary between the android Titan and myself, we 'spoke' to each other in absolute silence.

I nodded to my pal.

He nodded back.

I got up, pocketed my cards, and shuffled off amidst fresh shivers.

Cyborg sighed and adjusted himself in his seat.

"Heh….," Beast Boy hugged the back of the chair and stared at the wooden planks beneath them all. "Keep forgetting why we're on vacation to begin with."

"A reminder is always good…," was Robin's word to add to that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stood at the very end of the boardwalk. She looked out over the wooden railings at the dark waters. She hugged herself…holding down the thin black shirt that dangled around her blue swimsuit and shook in the wind much like her strands of hair did.

I came to a stop behind her. Staring at her. Staring into the wind.

Silent.

After half a minute, she spoke without looking. "I….I-I guess there's no more avoiding it…," she said.

I blinked under my shades.

She swiveled about and stared at me as solidly as she could. Strands of hair continuously whipped in front of her sockets.

"I am sorry, Noir…," she spoke. Immediately following her words, she took a deep…heaving sigh as if the sentence coming out of her lips took every bit as much strength as Hercules.

I leaned my head to the side.

"You know….," she said. She glanced down. Looking pensive.

I didn't like it when Raven looked pensive…

I stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

She warily looked at my hand…then at me.

I bit my lip.

I took my hand off.

She breathed easier.

"It's because of me that we ever started to doubt you, Noir," she said.

I lifted a finger--

"No. I know what you're going to say. 'You were collectively framed by Jinx, Dagger, and Slade'."

I nodded fervently.

"But I was responsible on our side….," she said. "Maybe the three somehow arranged for Mumbo Jumbo to scatter my emotions and thus free Trigon. But whether or not that's the case…it no longer matters. All I know is that I was utterly and completely horrified by Trigon's possession of you. And when I was pieced back together….I denied that I was so closely hurt at all. I took it out all on you, Noir. I looked for every evil bit of evidence in you that I could find. And I forced Robin in on that search…and he got Cyborg in on it….and…..well….the rest is history."

I slowly nodded. I looked down.

She cocked her head to the side, swallowed, and spoke up at me. "Noir…"

I looked at her.

"What's worse….," she fought herself to say, "…is that I was so bent on proving your guilt…I even tried to get help from my father."

I stared at her.

"You aren't shocked by that?"

I shrugged.

She sighed and looked back to the Atlantic. "Why does that not surprise me?" A beat. "You're so selfless, Noir."

That isn't true………

"But….th-there's something else that I'm sorry about, Noir…," she said.

I looked curiously at her.

She swiveled about, hugged herself, and glanced at me sideways.

"Something else that I'm….very much sorry for…..and I couldn't have been the only one to see it. The truth is—quite simply—Noir….," she looked at me square in the eye. "I cannot…must not…and shall not get close to anyone."

Silence.

She sighed and continued. "It is far too dangerous….far too dangerous than any of us can imagine….for me to get close to anyone. Not Robin. Not Starfire. Not Beast Boy. Not Cyborg." A beat. "And c-certainly not you."

I took a deep breath.

"We were almost…..almost like that, Noir," she said. "And….I-I can't even believe I'm hearing myself say this. But it's true. We were almost more than friends. And that is such….such dangerous territory." She stared into my soul. "We have to keep our trust at the level of friendship and teamwork alone. Anything further….a-and I might hurt you again. I might turn on you again when the first thing you need is help."

I bit my lip.

"D-Do you understand, Noir? It is so very important that we stay as we are. Like this. Safe and…..distant."

Silence. Like an eternity.

I let some mysterious force nod my head for me. My soul was looking away.

Raven's eyes lowered and she swallowed with a shudder. "G-Good….." A beat. "Th-Thanks for listening." She walked forward.

I raised my right hand for some reason.

She drifted right past me.

And I was staring into oblivion again. My black eyes turned twice as hollow.

I sighed.

For a brief instance…the Pacific met the Atlantic in my head.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'The Titans were talking cheerfully about something. Gradually, the four of them were walking back through the night-shrouded sand towards where the T-Car was parked. Robin and Starfire were laughing about something and had their arms locked together. Beast Boy shouted like a maniac and chased crabs in the dark into sandy holes. Cyborg smirked and took the rear.

He heard shuffling to his side and glanced back to see Raven joining them.

"Where's Noir?" he asked.

"He's coming," she droned. "Eventually."

"Okay." He nodded. A beat. "So what'd you tell him?"

Raven stopped. She looked at Cyborg.

Cyborg looked back.

"Exactly what I didn't want to…," she said. "And yet…what I had to."

Some antithesis of a twinkle in Cyborg's red eye confirmed that he silently understood.

The two parted ways in their trek back to the T-Car. Silent while the others enjoyed the levity of the moment.

'-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'I stood at the feet of the tide.

Water lapped up to my bare feet.

Starlight glittered off the waves and up into my naked black eyes.

I had put the shades away.

I took a deep breath.

I thought of the events of the day. The rise and fall of this silly vacation we were all on. The need to laugh and the need to cry….

And I remembered what I told myself that morning in meditation. And with ever fiber of my being, I breathed in the last of the salt air before turning around and facing West once more…telling myself what I told myself then. '_It was a good day……_

It was a good day………

I went to sleep depressed.


	69. Hidden Sun part 1

**69. Hidden Sun part 1**

Suddenly things become unsound  
Stumbling on the shaky ground  
Given arrows to shoot tornadoes down  
Shoot them down, to the ground

Saw a falling leaf, a good luck jump to grab  
Much to our surprise, a butterfly  
Then it sunk in this enduration,  
enduration in our lives

Inside ourselves  
A hidden sun that burns and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone

Shivering madly in the dark  
Like an animal abandoned in the car park  
And she held me and then she showed me the  
Beauty of the human heart

Inside ourselves,  
A hidden sun that burns, and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone  
A hidden sun that burns, and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone,  
anyone, oooh, anyone.

.-~-."Hidden Sun" by Barenaked Ladies

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A puffy white cloud swarmed high overhead, blocking out the Sun.

Starfire looked up. She tilted her head to the side. Her green eyes narrowed.

The cloud passed out from having squeezed out the sun as quickly as it appeared. The warmth was once again filtering down the thin air and making things all nice and toasty again in the noonday.

To the alien girl, it felt like a guiding light from home was winking at her.

The Tamaranian giggled, lowered her head, and continued her trek down the hill. A hill that was one of many hills. And the many hills dotted the side of a mountain. And the mountain sloped to the East side of the Blue Ridge where we had all paused at a rest stop along the winding, elevated roads to collect our wits and fill our stomach. It was many miles and a good many hours from our starting point: our hotel on the beach.

Here we were now, cutting our way gently into North Carolina.

"Friends! Is not the sky beautiful today?" Starfire mused as she came down from a bank of trees up on a higher plateau. "It is like the sky parted into blue around the mountains just in time for our visit!"

"Yeah Yeah, Starfire…we hear ya," Beast Boy nodded absent-mindedly and swiftly returned to the miniature radio in his grasp as he leaned back against the T-Car. "Come on! Drive it to the goal! Drive it to the goal!"

There was a resounding crash of disappointed crowd murmurs through the speaker of the radio.

"Awwwwww! Burn!" Beast Boy frowned. "How hard is it to kick a ball into a lousy goal, for once!"

"I never know you were a soccer fan, B.B.," Cyborg said, polishing the hood to the T-Car a few feet away.

"I'm not…," Beast Boy said. "Up here in these mountains…this is the best station I can get. Everything's in Italian. Only, I recognize 'goal'!"

"How do you know which team to root for!"

"The sexy one," Beast Boy snickered.

"How can you tell that from a radio!"

"Dude. It's all in Italian. I know!"

Another rush of murmurs through the crackling speakers then a stereotypical announcer shouting: "GOAAAAAAAL!"

"YES!" Beast Boy hopped. "Go Sicily!….er…or whoever!"

Cyborg shook his head.

"I see now…," Starfire remarked. "It is customary of Italians to run endlessly around a field and kick a ball into white nets! Perhaps that would explain the transitional government that Robin is constantly claiming that they fail to check up on—"

"I never even knew Italians PLAYED soccer!" Cyborg said to Beast Boy.

"Dude! Duh! It's like Canadians playing American Football! It happens!"

"Yeah…with wyrd-ass fields, they do!"

"What'd you know! You're not Canadian!"

"I've never seen you north of the dividing line, yankee!"

Starfire sighed. She wandered over towards the far side of the rest stop, alone.

Raven and Robin sat on a bench, looking over a map.

"Are you sure you know the way to get to Asheville, Robin?"

"Hey…I was tutored by a detective who runs around the City with twin-peaking cowls over his head. I think I know what it means to acquire a sense of direction!"

"I was not trying to interrogate you, Robin…," Raven blinked. "My only concern is that we've spent two hours on this mountainside's roads alone…and it still doesn't seem like we've made any cardinal progress westward. It would be prudent—I believe—that we construct new means of reaching our destination."

"I'd love to have you and Starfire just…ya know…fly us over the mountains in the T-Car…but that'll probably be breaking a rule or something. I'm strange to this state."

"I couldn't have guessed…."

"Greetings, fellow travelers," Starfire walked up, clasped her hands together, and smiled. "Do you require any assistance with your navigation?"

"Uh….yeah, sure, Star. Just hang on a second. Now look…if we followed this down to the ravine and swung north…we could take an indirect route there."

"I say we should just stop and ask for directions!"

"Not if we don't need to! See! Bam! Instant success if we take that route!"

"Typical guys….."

"Huh?"

"That route will lead us nowhere. You can't make up a solution. I can't make up a solution. I don't see how Beast Boy or Cyborg together could collectively come up with something. We need…to ask…for directions."

"Perhaps if I were to fly up into the air—" Starfire gestured "—and provide reconnaissance from a high altitude, I could be of much help!"

"For the last time, Raven! I can handle it! We all can handle it! And—stop hogging the map! Sheesh!"

"I don't do 'hogging'."

"Suuuuuure."

"I **don't**."

Starfire sighed. She limped over towards the side of the rest stop.

I sat on the ground with my back against the wall of a structure. My head was bent downward. My arms were crossed.

Starfire walked over, leaned back against the wall, and sighed.

A beat.

"How are you fairing, Noir?"

Silence.

"I do not understand what is happening…," she said. "Our friends…all of us…we seem so disbanded."

Silence.

"I know it is customary for earthlings to distance themselves from each other and bicker in order to collect their thoughts, but oftentimes it is most vexing to experience first hand."

Silence.

"I only want for every one of you to understand that I am constantly concerned for your well-being! And furthermore, I look forward to the time of day when we are once again joyously in the communion of social traveling!"

Silence.

"Noir?" A beat. She glanced down at me. "Are you feeling okay?"

I snored.

I was sleeping the whole time. She couldn't see my closed black eyes through my shades.

Starfire sighed and tilted her head up against the structure. She looked up at the Sun.

A cloud had blocked it out again.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The only thing blocking us from careening into aluminum oblivion over the cliffsides was a winding guardrail of alternating blue metal and brown wood. Beyond the constantly twisting horizon was a blue sky. But the sky wasn't atmosphere. It was mountains. Hills. Trees. Beautifully hazy with the distance. The Blue Ridge Mountains…the Eastern slopes, dipping into western North Carolina.

It was in the middle of summer, but the high altitudes thinned the air so much that it felt deceptively like early spring. The rows of pine escalating above and cascading below our curved countour of asphalt filled the air with a freshness that the City streets could only dream about. With every round we made in the T-Car, the continent yawned before us. Ancient and nubile all the same. Flesh of wood and blood of birds. If Thoreau was sitting in the back seat with us, he would have lit a cigarette.

"Seen any ghosts yet, Raven?" Cyborg remarked.

"I only see mine," she muttered. "Forever haunting the gully of this mountain after your speeding crashes us over the side and kills us all."

"Hey! I'm obeying the speed limit!"

The T-Car swerved maniacally around another mountain bend.

Beast Boy gulped and ducked in the back seat. "And whoever wrote the speed limits for these roads must have been a paranoid schizophrenic! Wake me when it's over!"

"Relax, B.B.," Robin said, looking desperately at a map in his hand that was flapping annoyingly in the passing breeze. "Even if we were to go falling to our screaming deaths, at least you could fly away."

"Yeah…and become ashamed with the fact that I survived while my friends became aluminum stroganoff!" Beast Boy shivered in the back seat. "I'd become a hermit and hide out in the forests."

"An elf in the forest? Rather conspicuous," Cyborg smirked.

"I'll turn into a bear or something."

"Man…you know what you'll be doing in the woods, right?"

"Better than what you'll be doing in the afterlife if you DON'T SLOW DOWN!"

"Fine fine," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Just wanted to get us to Asheville quickly, man."

"If we ever get to Asheville at all…," Raven muttered. She glanced to her right. "How lost are you getting us, Robin?"

"Hey…it's a big, fat, mountain range. How hard is that for me to get us around?"

The dark girl blinked. "How lost, Robin?"

"Lost my foot!" the Boy Wonder spat. "I'd say we're a good hour and a half from our destination!"

"You said that two hours and a half ago."

"No…I was referring to **Clingman's Dome**," Robin muttered. "That's further out there."

"What the heck is 'Klingon's Dumb'?" Beast Boy remarked from where he ducked.

"A lookout point where you can see all of the Appalachians around here!" Robin said. He sighed dreamily. "Praise God for altitude."

"Dude…I can just fly up right now and do that!"

"Yeah…why don't you? You're ruining my concentration."

"And what exactly are you concentrating on?"

"Navigation of course."

"Pure…absurdity….," Raven droned.

"Okay…you're REALLY annoying me now!"

"Kids…kids…," Cyborg smiled. "Don't make me stop the car and pull it over to the side!"

"Uhhh…," Beast Boy gulped. "What side?"

"Exactly," Cyborg winked in the rear view mirror.

Robin cleared his throat and returned to his flapping map.

I wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. We were heading **west**. I kept to myself…leaning away from Raven.

She was silent…gazing ahead.

The entire time, Starfire was gazing out to her right from the front passenger's seat. She had the best view of the slopes vomiting down from the guardrails. If she closed her green eyes, she could envision herself sailing innocently over the edge. Taking flight. Bathing in a sea of blue-hazed pine forest and crystal clean air. It was a face of Earth she hadn't seen before. And in spite of the majesty of it all, she couldn't bring herself to smile. Or to gasp in wonder.

There was a strange numbness smothering the Titans. It felt like it had grown overnight. Something stifling the joy. Drifting them apart. Saturating them in monotony.

She couldn't understand why it was happening. And deep down in her Tamaranian heart, she knew it was only a temporary thing. Her friends recovered from such exhaustion before. And the moments they'd experience afterward would be full of the usual joy and camaraderie that she practically lived for. But it hurt. At that very moment, it hurt. If Starfire glanced left and back at her friends, she felt like she was seeing strangers. Aliens. These strange 'terrans' who drown themselves in the fear of drowning and subconsciously blame each other for it. It was an ugliness Starfire had seen among earthling before—especially her friends. But her usual enthusiasm and eye for beauty drowned out the negative skin.

But at that moment, the sunlight had been washed away. As by a puff of cloud. And in the shadows, Starfire saw nothing but the ugliness…and it silenced her. It distanced her from them almost as much as they distanced themselves from each other on occasion. With many light-years boiling behind the psyche of the green-eyed girl, that distance was amplified. And for once her heart was burning hidden and tense with a desire not for communion with these strangers around her, but for a loving touch of Tamaranian hands that never, ever lied or tried to hide their feelings.

The T-Car went around another curve. The pine forest yawned again. Above and below. Starfire twisted her head to the side, lost herself within the blue haze parallax, and sighed.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…so now we've hit a new low…," Beast Boy muttered—two hours later—as the Titans stepped out of the T-Car and onto a parking lot. "Why on God's green earth are we going to Wal-Mart?"

There the huge, blue-painted building stood. A base for a corporate empire. Wandering throngs of multi-colored, bipedal Americana flocked in and out between the crowded interior and the crowded exterior. Everywhere in the parking lot, there was a car. And where there wasn't a car, there was a pedestrian. And where there was a pedestrian, there was a shopping cart. And where there wasn't any of those things, flocks of birds came down to snack on bits and scraps of cheese nachos or hotdog buns discarded on the asphalt before flitting away last second to avoid a semi-truck with 'Wal-Mart' splashed loudly across its trailer rounding the rear of the building to unload more stock.

"Anyone care to answer me?" Beast Boy frowned.

Robin: "Food."

Cyborg: "Batteries."

Raven: "Directions."

Noir: "………." I lifted my left shoe…showed how worn out it was…and smiled slightly.

"Uh….okay," Beast Boy blinked. "How's this gonna get us to a hotel faster?"

"I don't know about the rest of you guys…but **I'm** working on that…," Raven said. She glared at Robin.

Robin glared back.

"Whatever. I'm just along for the ride," Beast Boy said. He dashed ahead of the group. "Hey! I wonder if they have one of those coin-operated carousel things!"

"Aren't you a little old for that, B.B.?"

"Dude…just what do you need **batteries** for? Is your butt running out of juice or something?"

"Okay…that sounded bad…" Cyborg walked towards the entrance.

So did Robin and Raven, in separate paths.

I took an even more separate path.

But all in our own ways…we inadvertently left Starfire behind.

She stood besides the T-Car, in a green t-shirt, a pink cardigan sweater, and jeans.

She sighed.

A breath of wind kicked at her plume of red hair. She hugged herself and stared down the road leading past the parking lot. The asphalt ramped up and down. Lines of buildings, shop fronts, convenience stores and the like rose and fell with it. And beyond the gentle mound of suburban chaos was the pristine steeples of pine trees like tufts of hair lining an old earthling's ear canal. And then rising in the distance—looming like the bald blue crown of some forgotten god—the Blue Ridges boomed.

Starfire bit her lip. She never felt so alone since her arrival on that planet.

She wished she could explain her mood. All the dramatics surging in her heart and in her mind. Like a chemical reaction all gone wrong and snowballing down her spine with ten times the force of gravity.

It was a sensation she hadn't felt since the last time she was awake to see Blackfire in person. Her last true contact with another Tamaranian. The hidden aura inside themselves…like starbolts pulsing in recognition of each other.

Starfire shuddered. It was haunting. She needed a place to meditate and collect her thoughts and be calm.

And…in pure naïve fashion, she walked straight into the garden section of Wal-Mart of all places.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….uh….like what do you need batteries for anyway, dude?" Beast Boy asked.

"I was thinking we might all enjoy a walk on the Appalachian Trail," Cyborg smirked. He looked through dangling, plastic-cardboard packages of batteries along a hardware aisle in the far side of the department store. "Gotta have some light in case the trek goes into the evening time!"

"So why not just use that light on your chest and arm?" Beast Boy smirked. "That's good enough, right?"

"For me, perhaps," Cyborg nodded. "But what if we all get lost?"

"Dude…Noir can see in the dark and I can just turn into a coyote or cat or something," Beast Boy shrugged. "Save your money!"

"Save yourself, man," Cyborg retorted. "Gotta think about Raven, Robin, and Starfire too, ya know. I don't want to take any chances. They should be able to light their ways as much as the rest of us."

"Oooh! Oooh!" Beast Boy hopped. "How about some of those glowy-string-thingies? Ya know…like the stuff they hand out at Epcot!"

Cyborg glanced awkwardly at his changeling friend. "**You've** been to Epcot?"

"Yeah…why do you ask?"

"I guess it's no big deal…," Cyborg shrugged, rummaging through the batteries again. "I just have this habit of castrating anyone I know who's remotely enjoyed the Walt Disney Company."

"Ah, I understand---wait…WHAT!"

Cyborg chuckled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in an aisle…slowly walking sideways. Rubbing my chin. Scanning the labels of line after line of shoeboxes thrugh my shades.

In adjacent aisles, I could hear people rummaging around me. A child or two wailed from the seat of a shopping cart. The myriad of store speakers overhead tried desperately to crackle forth the latest pop-song, but were intermittently blotted out by hauntingly clear intercom messages and Wal-Mart specific advertisements with some Anglo-Saxon voice or another.

My feet came to a shuffling stop on the spongy, blue carpet---cratered here and there with loose staples—and I froze. I smiled.

'11 and 1/2'

I reached in, pulled the shoebox out…and peered into it.

Brown leather.

I made a 'wretching' face, slid it back in, and looked at the next.

Solid black.

I smirked.

I pulled the box out, turned around, looked for a seat…and found one. A tiny horse of a thing with a bright, tan leather seat and an angled mirror facing up. I sat down on it and took my shoes off. I took one of the new, black ones out. I unlaced it…and lifted it up to slip over my foot. I leaned back…

….I miscalculated the shortness of the chair.

I fell back dramatically, shoebox flying.

PLOP!

My black eyes saw stars. I shook my head and was graced with the vision of an upside down kid two rows down, pointing at me with a chubby finger and giggling.

I simpered. I got up, smoothed my black hair back to normal, and sat down to try it again. This time with my back to the aisle itself.

When I was halfway through slipping the shoe on, though…I noticed something and froze. My black eyes blinked.

An extremely colorful font of the words 'Teen Titans' splashed up at me from the side of the shoe. The colors orange, red, blue, green, and dark purple climaxed at an exclamation point following the word 'Go'.

I chuckled breathily. I couldn't help it.

I knew that we were famous…but it still never failed to surprise me whenever I saw what the market had produced. I guess it was that—because we were heroes—I didn't expect for commercialism to exploit our name and legacy. But this was modern America that we lived in. Even if I had 'seen everything', there'd be still more to see.

Though…admittedly…I hadn't see any 'Noir' action figures hanging around yet.

I smiled and turned the shoe over. And then my smile left.

The entire right side of the shoe was dedicated towards displaying one Titan and one Titan alone.

Raven.

For the first time, I noticed the brand name 'Raven Treads' on the shoebox. A rubber formation of the colors black, blue, and gray created a rough image of Raven across the shoe itself. She was in the middle of some heroic pose. Her black telekinesis warbling around her. She seemed so intent on some unknown goal. So courageous.

And it was all a farce. Commercialism at its best. I had been around Raven for so long…and had seen so much of her true self…that the shoe was a slap in the face. People thought they could slap her image on their feet and walk on her. They had no idea of her daily sacrifice…her dedication to her friends…her desperate fight against her own emotions. All they cared about was that she looked 'cool' or 'badass'. And so they worshiped a feminine Doppelganger on their heels.

I felt sick. Sick and depressed.

I dropped the thing, sighed, and put on my own, tattered shoes. I carelessly left the shoebox and discarded contents on the spongy carpet like you always find them in a typical Wal-Mart aisle.

It's the things that life stories are made of.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Uhm….e-excuse me….," Raven waved slightly and walked over towards an elderly greeter by a line of shopping carts. "D-Do you know this area very well?"

The Wal-Mart employee, an elderly stone of a man with stray wisps of gray hair struggling to cling hold to his ivory head, turned around and smiled as gently as could be expected of him. "Like the back of my hand," he replied. "What's left of it…that is."

"Good…I was wondering if you could help me," Raven said. When talking with strangers—dressed as casually and un-Titan as she was—she did her best to lift her apathetic drone of a voice a few decibels up in an attempt to appear modestly sociable. "My friends and I are from out of town, and we're on vacation."

"I can see that…," the greeter nodded. His wilting eyes were fixated on the gemstone set within the girl's head. "How can I help?"

"Well…we're looking for a place to stay just outside of Asheville. But nothing really….you know….popular," Raven bit her lip. She cleared her throat and continued, "We'd like something a little out of the way. Nothing big. Just affordable and…remote."

"Ah…," the man nodded, his wrinkled chin wobbled. "From looking at you…I had a feeling you were someone famous."

Raven blinked.

"But I can't quite put my finger on it…," the man smirked. "Could be Alzheimer's setting in. That's what my doctor thinks. But I don't listen to him much. All I do here is push carts around and check bags. Carts and bags don't give a hoot about Alzheimer's."

"Uhhh…..yeah…," Raven's eyes trailed. She noticed the Boy Wonder gathering a group order of nachos from the dining area for the Titans.

"I know of a place….," the man said.

Raven snapped back to look at him. "You do?"

"Yup," he nodded and pointed through the store. "Take the state road north. Towards Boone. But drop off about ten miles down and head west after a big, white church. You should see an old sign pointing up a hill marked 'Little View'. There're a bunch of cottages there. Kinda like cabins, really. Some people rent them. Some people own them. They're nothing more than retreats, though. So don't expect too much electricity and luxuries and stuff. Still, a great place to 'get away', huh? And it's all up there at the very foot of the mountains. Lots of trees. Even a creek or two. You'll love it."

Raven sweatdropped. "Is it expensive?"

The man smiled and shook his gray head. "No. I promise you that. Check it out."

Raven nodded. "Thank you very much, Mister…."

"Feldman…," the greeter half-bowed. "Jerad Feldman. Tell them 'Jerry' sent you."

"Tell who?"

"The people in the head building of 'Little View' cottages, of course!" he chuckled. "You're from the City, aren't you?"

"Uhmmm…."

"Well that's all right. You take it easy. Oh, and welcome to Wal-Mart."

"Th-Thanks," Raven simpered. "Really, thanks." And she backed away.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Where the warm summer sunlight meandered down into the thin air, there was an enclosed space filled with price-tagged plants, lawn equipment, wheelbarrows, and all manners of plastic and ceramic wildlife and gnomes. In the center of this plastic Eden was a hardwood bench, also pricetagged. But sitting on that bench was a Tamaranian girl who was not pricetagged.

She took a deep breath and looked around her through dangling foliage and the green-filtered fencing surrounding the sides of the department store's garden section.

She could see an island of trees and grass between the Wal-Mart parking lot to the side and a Pep Boys station across the way. Sounds of birds mingled with the distant roar of cars…interrupting both the natural and the unnatural paradise she was submerged in.

A funny thing about earth—Starfire realized—was that it could house an alien world within an alien world. Landscapes could be figuratively recreated all the way down to the most aesthetic detail. But it would all be no more than commercialism, fenced inside and distanced from a mirror world where things were conceptually free. The boundaries of ownership and non-ownership that the humans built—layered into their psyches—confounded the alien girl's perception. She found herself trying to touch things less and less, for fear of stealing something that belonged to an entity she could not name but all the Terrans could. Even if she was out in the mountains that very moment, she wouldn't dare touch a tree.

"Is it wrong…to touch my friends too?" she murmured to herself.

Again…she could not explain the moodiness. The feeling that there was an orb of confusion radiating towards her from some remote location.

Her green eyes darted up and pierced through the mesh of the fence lining the gardens. She glanced out at the island of grass and trees beyond the parking lot…..and noticed something.

Starfire's lids narrowed.

There was a figure…a brown and shrouded figure. It was kneeling by the tree, hidden by a cloak and hood the color of wet sand. A small, thin hand reached out with seed in it. Two or three songbirds floated to the island far away and pecked at the bits of generous food.

The girl's lips parted. She leaned her head to the side.

After a good two minutes, the cloaked figure stood up. For a second or two, it looked like it had glanced the garden's way. Piercing the Tamaranian's soul. But it couldn't have…for it was soon moving off. Walking firmly.

Starfire had seen homeless people before. On walks with Robin or just flying over the City by herself, she familiarized herself with the impoverished, the helpless, the begging wanderers. They wore shrouds much like that person. But usually the shrouds were billowing jackets or raincoats. And whenever they walked, it was a fatalist hunch of the shoulders. With everything sagging outside of them and everything collapsing within.

This figure that she was looking at now was walking firm. Upright. Young and strong.

"Does it belong here?" Starfire murmured.

She stared at the cloaked figure through the fenced sides of the garden until the nose and body of a gnome blocked her gaze.

And then she blinked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…," Robin munched on a nacho and dipped the rest of it in cheese before he swallowed and said: "You got directions, huh?"

"That I did…," Raven mumbled and took a seat across from him on the smooth, blue table. "How about you? Got cholesterol?"

"I already radioed the other Titans…," Robin said between bites. "They should be coming soon. I ordered enough for all of us."

"How nice of you…," Raven muttered. "Meanwhile…I found us a place to stay."

"Oh really?"

"Here. I wrote it down," she passed him a little paper with her scribbles on it.

He took it and looked. "'Little View', huh? Sounds quaint. Who told you about it?"

"A greeter," she nodded…fiddling around with a few chips below her with her fingers. But not eating. "Feldman was his name. He says that if we go and check the cottages out, we should say that 'Jerry' sent us."

"Did he say if the place was expensive?"

"No, Robin. But at this point…it wouldn't hurt to check it out. It's a good way's out of Asheville. We could settle in without people taking too much notice. I never really liked fame."

Robin smirked. "Come on, Raven. I've seen you revel in those online messageboards of yours. Just what is it called again……..'GothNet BBS'?"

"'Where you can step out of physical purgatory and raise electronic hell'," Raven nodded. "Yes. I'm the mod there. But I don't call that 'fame'."

"Just what **do** you call it?"

"Poetic justice."

"Whatever you say," Robin shrugged and put the piece of paper down. "I think we should check it out. I'll suggest it to Cyborg. I don't think he'll have a problem with a little side trip that could be productive. Thanks, Raven."

"And thanks for the food," Raven eyed the chips wearily. "Howbeit gruesome."

"Hey…Wal-Mart's been around too long and too successful for these things to have poisoned someone without the nation knowing it!"

"You'd be surprised," Raven said. "The truth about Jimmy Hoffa's body hasn't been released publicly yet."

"And you know that truth?"

"Absolutely," Raven leaned back. "He was a vampire."

"…………….," Robin stared.

"Sorry," Raven sighed. "Bad attempt at a joke."

Robin smirked. "Any attempt at a **joke** on your part, Raven, is good in my book." He leaned forward. "You seem to be….changing lately."

"Hmmm…fancy that."

"I've noticed Cyborg having these long talks with you. Getting to know each other better or something?"

Raven glared at him. "No." She grunted. "He's been helping me out, yes. Just….," she sighed and looked off towards the busy, loud line of registers in the distance. "I'm trying to set a lot of things straight."

"Like what things."

"None of your business," she blinked. "Not yet at least."

"Ah, okay. I'll keep my distance, Raven," he said.

Raven stared through the nachos. "Distance……..," she hummed.

"Hmmmm?" Robin remarked through another bite.

"All this talk and emphasis on distance lately…," Raven muttered. She shook her head. "Egads…I'm probably just projecting myself."

"No, Raven. Please. I'm listening."

She looked up. "I'm trying to become a better 'friend', Robin. I'm trying to blend in better with the rest of you during this vacation and….now that I'm trying, it almost feels like there's no point. Notice how—ever since this morning---we've been butting heads in the car?"

"We always butt heads, Raven."

"Yes…but…it feels different now. gave her a sideways glance…as if intrigued by her emphasis on something feeling 'cold'.

"Well…Raven…we've been couped up with each other in the T-Car, camping tents, and one hotel room thus far. I think it's only natural for us to rub off against each other…"

"Perhaps so…," Raven said mournfully. "I can't help but feel responsible."

"For what?"

"The distancing."

"Raven….heheh…if I saw you 'distancing' yourself from someone, I'd tell you!"

Raven's gaze aimed aside. She eyed the two bulbous heads of a salt shaker and a pepper shaker. She saw black eyes.

"Yeah……"

A beat.

"Tell me, Robin," she looked up. "Have the Titans even **answered** your 'call to supper' yet?"

Robin paused in the middle of eating. "Uh……no." A beat. "I'll call them soon in a minute."

Raven blinked. She looked around. "For that matter…when was the last time you saw Starfire?"

Robin froze. His eyemask narrowed. As his head tilted up the black bangs over his forehead drooped as if the weight of Raven's intuition was settling down on him as well. "Ah jeez…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

For the fifth time in a row, Starfire mechanically scooped up the three quarters from a dispenser, slipped them back into a coin slot of a vending machine, and pressed the button of her desired soft drink.

Red letters on a tiny black screen flared a up at her.

"'Sold Out'?" the girl tiredly blinked. "But I do not wish to drink 'Sold Out'. Do you not have 'Sierra's Mystery'?"

The vending machine glared at her.

The Tamaranian sighed. She hit the coin release, scooped up the quarters, and stared out at the wind-blown parking lot.

"I wonder if my friends have found their wares yet….," she purposelessly hummed.

There was a loud honking sound.

He green eyes blinked. "Huh?"

She looked out onto the state road.

A semi truck equipped with an eighteen wheel petroleum tank as its trailer slammed on the breaks as an SUV cut sharply across two lanes barely ahead of it. The driver lost control, and the truck dramatically fishtailed and skidded its way into opposing traffic. Starfire gasped in shock as she watched the explosive hulk of a vehicle plow its way across three lanes of dodging, honking cars and then—of all things—collapse straight into the side of a blue-painted schoolbus.

CLANK!

The bus was slammed hard into a metal lamppost, which caused the front side door to crunch in on itself and become useless. The tank of the semi truck burst and started leaking. The driver inside the engine seemed unconscious.

But what made Starfire horrified most of all were the panicked faces of nearly thirty earthling children…shrieking with their heads above the windows of the bus. They were on their way to a summer camp in a national park. Now they were stuck in the jaws of explosive death. As cars skidded to a stop and kept a distance from the flammable site, the children and the bus driver inside scrambled to open the emergency door in the rear of the bus. But it was jammed for some reason.

Nearly half of a hundred innocent, young lives hung in the balance. The thing could blow at any minute.

Starfire clenched her fists and followed the first desperate thought that came to her.

She flew.

SWOOOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven blinked. She stood up, looking out towards the entrance of the store.

"Hmmm?" Robin swallowed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure….did you hear that?"

Robin stood up. He squinted and craned his ears. "Sounds like screams…."

"Trouble," Raven spat.

"Let's check it out!"

They abandoned the nachos.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Children were smacking their palms up against the glass of the bus windows.

Meanwhile, the bus driver and a chaperone inside were desperately yanking at the handle to the rear exit to shake it loose.

"Come on…COME ON!"

They both jumped back and a few children shrieked in surprise as a red-headed teacher zoomed up and floated just outside the glass.

"Do not panic!" Starfire exclaimed. "I shall attempt to get you free!"

"Who are you!" the bus driver shouted.

"I am very concerned!" she replied.

"Get help! Get us out of here!"

"One earth second!" Starfire yanked at the door with her hands. She grit her teeth. With Tamaranian strength, she managed to bend it outward. The metal cracked. The door frame rattled. But the manner in which it was constructed, she realized the only way she could bust it open would be if she literally pounded the structure of the bus at full force. There were children inside, though, and she didn't want to injure or frighten them.

She looked at her hands. She considered summoning a starbolt to melt a hole through the rear door. But with all the gas leaking from the nearby semi truck tanker, she didn't want to risk a fiery doom for those trapped inside. Herself included.

So she resorted to one remaining option. She gripped the frame of the bus with firm hands and uttered through the glass: "Tell the young ones to brace themselves! I shall attempt to move the vehicle out of its dangerous holding!"

The bus driver barked: "What are you! Some kind of superher—WHOAH!"

Everyone stumbled and kids shrieked as the bus jolted forward.

Starfire clenched her teeth. Forcing the automobile further and further with her Tamaranian strength. She lifted her legs off the ground and 'flew' into the bus. It budged slowly…grinding against the lamppost and body of the tanker.

"Hold on, everyone! H-Hold on!" the chaperone gasped and commanded.

Children sobbed. Mommies and Daddies were cried out for.

Starfire pushed with all her might. But the bus could barely move. She sweat. Her cardigan sweater and red hair billowed from the strain of her alien energies.

Overhead, the shattered bulb of the lamppost was starting to spark. Sprays of red embers danced down, landing dangerously close to the leaking semi truck and the driver inside.

The children shrieked. The bus driver murmured.

Starfire's eyes glowed a desperate green as she put all of her strength into it. Any second now, and the entire street would be engulfed in flames. She wasn't strong enough to move the bus on her own. Not with it wedged the way it was. She needed an extra push. An added shove. She needed--

CREEEEEAK!

The bus suddenly lurched forward.

"!" Starfire gasped, almost losing her grip of the rear of the bus. But soon she realized—by some insurmountable force—the vehicle had been yanked in the same direction towards which she was pushing. Suddenly testing a hypothesis, she added the same force as she had been adding…and the bus moved much more freely. It was no longer tightly wedged in. As she wheeled it forward and onto the sidewalk and a fair distance away from the semi truck…she felt something once again tugging along the front of it until it was at the end of the parking lot.

The bus became heavier, and Starfire finished pushing. The cries of distress inside the shell of a vehicle lowered.

The girl let out a huge breath and drifted down to the ground on the side of the vehicle. Instinctively, she looked towards the front.

She gasped.

There was a figure at the front of the bus. A figure with a brown cloak. **The** figure with a brown cloak. Small hands released the aluminum siding, where dents had been formed through some unnatural show of strength. When the figure looked back at Starfire with a jerk, the hood fell away.

Starfire's green eyes widened.

Green eyes were looking back. Narrow green eyes. Firm lips. A frown. Fury. A soft, round face etched in stone. A hedge of very short, disorderly red hair crowned the brow. Like a sea of crimson follicles slaughtered mercilessly with sloppy scissors. And between the green eyes and the red massacre of hair were two scarlet specs. Tiny, elevated eyebrows.

A young, post-adolescent boy. A snapshot of mystery and anger.

And as soon as that split second of hood-falling had taken place, the brown-cloaked boy was gone. Rushing off across the street, past a plaza, and through a line of trees. He moved inhumanly fast…and Starfire could swear she saw a light of green streaking behind him.

"W-Wait!" she called out, a hand stretched forth.

The sounds of those inside the bus reawakened her to where she was and what she was doing. Her emerald gaze lingered on the side of the road for a few seconds before she swiftly flew up, charged two green hands, and commanded: "Stand back! I am going to get you all out!"

FLASH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I glanced down the aisle from where I was shifting through posters on display.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were walking up together, a bunch of batteries in their hands.

Haven't they heard of baskets?

"Dude…this is nuts," Beast Boy exclaimed. "We have enough batteries here to survive the Y2K bug…..or maybe a Game Gear tournament."

"You're about five years too late on the Y2K joke, little man," Cyborg replied. A blink. "And what's wrong with Game Gear? Game Gear's tight, dawg!"

"Hey, Noir! What're you up to, dude!" Beast Boy uttered. A beat. "Noir?"

I was looking at a poster. A little too long for my own good.

Beast Boy sauntered over, nudged me playfully with a battery-cradeling elbow, and murmured: "Ya know…if you just openly admit it…this wouldn't be so awkward."

I glanced at him funny. I looked back at the poster and realized then and there that I was staring at a Supergirl photo. I jolted, slapped the poster closed against another one and frowned at the two.

They laughed.

I hand-signed madly.

"Suuuuuure, man," Cyborg nodded. "'Pure research'."

I sighed and hung my head.

Just then, Robin's voice came blaring electronically through Cyborg's communicator in his arm piece.

"Titans! Trouble!"

Cyborg immediately turned serious. He lifted his arm to his head. "Where at!"

"Front of the parking lot! Tanker truck spill! Kids in danger!"

Beast Boy's eyes widened.

My fists clenched.

Cyborg nodded. "We're on it! Let's move out!" He looked at me.

I nodded and blurred through shocked customers towards the front of the Wal-Mart.

Cyborg dropped the batteries and went in pursuit.

"So much for vacation….," Beast Boy murmured.

More batteries fell to the floor.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, Robin was sprinting in his slacks and t-shirt and Raven was floating overhead in jeans and a jacket.

Screw costumes….

"Looks like Star's got everything under control with the bus!" the Boy Wonder shouted. He headed straight for the tanker. "That thing's gonna blow soon!"

"There's a driver inside still," Raven's eyes narrowed.

"I'll get him out! Clear the street! We'll need your shields!"

"Got it!" Raven soared overhead.

Robin sprinted towards the front engine. The driver inside was still. Unconscious. The Boy Wonder whipped out three spare birdarangs from his pants pocket and tossed them out collectively with a grunt.

SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-SWOOSH-CLANK!

Each respectively struck dead center in the side door's two hinges and handle.

Once Robin reached the truck, all he had to do was simply yank the door completely off.

CLANG!

He dove inside the compartment and shook the driver.

"Sir! Can you hear me!"

The man's breath was shallow…but stable. He was out cold.

Robin yanked at him, teeth gritting.

He had his safety belt on.

Robin fumbled for the release.

He couldn't find it.

In desperation, the Boy Wonder looked around and finally settled his eyemask on the driver's side window.

He gritted his teeth and raised his bare fist. "This is gonna hurt…"

SMASH!

He shattered the glass with a punch, pivoted his wrist, and grabbed a huge shard in midair. He brought his hand back—bleeding in a few places—and swiftly ripped the belt apart with the shard.

SNAP!

He then swung his arms around the driver's body, tensed his muscles, and began to drag him out.

Up above in the air, Raven was directing traffic….literally. With telekinesis, she moved cars, trucks, and even people gently away from what would become the blast radius of the tanker truck. "Move, people!" she shouted. "This thing is going to explode soon!"

People nodded—dumbfounded—and backed up. They mostly obeyed not because of the risk at hand…but rather because they were being ordered to move by a floating girl in blue jeans with a gemstone in her head and a penchant for moving cars with the flick of a wrist.

Raven looked down. Her eyes widened as she saw sparks from the shattered lamppost igniting the corner of a pool of leaking fuel. A trail of flames ate their way up towards the tank.

"Robin! It's caught fire! It's caught fire! Get out of there, now!"

Starfire looked over from the bus. She gasped. She flew over in a green streak.

Robin was just stumbling out of the engine with the man in his arms.

The Tamaranian flew down. "I will take him!"

"Good!" Robin shouted. "Go! Get him out of here!"

The girl flew off, effortlessly carrying the driver.

Robin stumbled forward into a mad sprint as the fire ate up past him.

"Time to drop the shields, Raven! Now or never!"

The dark girl's eyes glowed gray from above. She extended her hands and chanted. "Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!"

A circle of black floated above the tanker truck, warbled outward like mid-air molasses, and formed an obsidian dome blanketing the truck in place.

The Boy Wonder dove forward onto a grass island just inches ahead of the closing dome shield.

The fire streaked up into the tanker and—

**PHWOOOOOOMB!**

Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I were treated with a sudden lightshow and thunder as a black dome turned hot red for a split second across the parking lot and then became a pressure cooker of steam and smoke.

"Dude…not a good time of day for a barbecue…," Beast Boy muttered.

Cyborg ran forward. "Robin! Star! Anyone hurt!"

Starfire lowered the man onto an island of grass, glanced back at the scene, panted, and said: "Negative. Nobody has been damaged."

Robin stood up and brushed himself off. "Now that's what I call quick thinking." He looked up over the dome. "You got it, Raven?"

"Consider it 'got'," she uttered. She relaxed and lowered the shield.

The dome disappeared. Smoke billowed up into the air for emergency crews all around to see. Already we could hear firetrucks somewhere in the distance of the elevated suburbs.

I walked over towards the scene and glanced to the side.

A whole bus-load of children were sitting on the sidewalk as people walked up from all around to see if they were safe.

And they were.

I smiled.

"So….um…what the heck happened?" Beast Boy uttered.

"There was a terrible automobile crash," Starfire said. "The truck swerved to miss a vehicle and loss control. It forced that bus of young earthlings up against a lamppost and burst open."

"Wow, Star…," Cyborg blinked. "Did you move those kids out of danger all by yourself out here!"

Starfire looked at the bus. She glanced forlornly at the edge of the woods and brought a hand to her chin. "I…..I-I…."

Raven landed gracefully down. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe Starfire deserves a standing ovation!"

"Woo! Yeah! You said it!" Beast Boy smiled.

"Well done, Star….you saved a lot of lives today," Robin smiled.

"Yeah, you go girl!"

I smiled and did a thumb's up.

She was staring out at the forest. She murmured aloud: "But…..wh-where did he go?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Who?"

My ears pricked.

I turned around.

A black, four-door pickup truck wheeled in from out of nowhere. Very polished. Very clean and shiny. Also very, very **black**….

It rolled to an eerie stop beside us all, and like clockwork…all four doors opened at once.

Men in dark black suits emerged. They approached us. The first of which was the man from the front passenger's seat. A tall and statuesque man with a crown of black hair. Greased. He looked to be in his middle thirties. He took off his glasses to reveal cold blue eyes…and suddenly appeared to be in his twenties.

With a relatively emotionless face—save for a slight hint of resentment—he glared at us and held out a tag.

"Sergeant Booker. FBI. Which one of you was here at the exact moment of this incident?"

All of us looked at him. Silently. We blinked.

Five fingers pointed at Starfire.

She blushed.

"Ma'am…I have an important question to ask," 'Booker' said. "Do you recall seeing a stranger here before the tanker blew up?"

"A…s-stranger?" Starfire stammered.

"A cloaked figure. About your age…if not younger. Quiet and elusive."

"Uhm…..," Starfire slowly glanced back at the line of trees.

Sergeant Booker's eyebrow rose.

She glanced back. She swallowed. "No," she said. "I didn't see such a figure."

Robin glanced at her curiously. His eyemask thin.

"Very well then," the man nodded and backed up simultaneously with his three, dark suited associates. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Excuse me…," Robin stepped forward. "My name is Robin, and we're the Teen Titans. We happened to be in town and were more than willing to use our superpowers in preventing utter disaster here. If you can, please tell me…….is there something going on here? A lot of children—innocent people—nearly got hurt!"

"It is none of your concern," Booker glared. He slipped sunglasses back on and entered the truck with his companions. "Thank you for your duty performed for these citizens. Have a safe day."

SLAM!

The doors to the vehicle closed. The truck rolled away.

Silently, I lowered my shades.

I got a good luck at the black tires as the truck drove down the parking lot.

Satisfied, I blinked and brought my shades back up.

I was quiet.

The sirens of emergency crews and police cars began erupting all around.

Beast Boy glanced at everyone. "So….um….am I wrong? Or do government officials usually **hang out** at an emergency scene like this until everyone else has assembled?"

"Not unless they had more important things to do…," Raven droned.

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "Looks as though they're after somebody. Somebody important."

Starfire was silent.

She walked off a few ways.

Robin looked at her. He then faced us. "See to it that the firefighters fight the fire…and that the paramedics….er….para the medics or whatever."

"Yeah, whatever, Robin," Cyborg smirked and waved him off. "We know how to keep watch."

The Boy Wonder walked after Starfire.

Raven glanced at them…then at us.

"Does Starfire seem…..distracted all of the sudden?"

"Come to think of it…," Beast Boy nodded, "She hasn't laughed much today. If at all."

I continued staring off in the direction that the truck had went.

Thinking…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire approached the side of the street where the cloaked figure had run off.

She stared into a thick layer of trees…scaling up the hills that lead into the feet of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Robin walked to a stop behind her. "Gonna tell me why you lied?"

Starfire bilnked. She turned around, hugging herself. "I b-beg your pardon?"

Robin gestured. "When that Sergeant Booker person asked you earlier if you had seen a cloaked figure, you said 'no'. That wasn't the truth. I could see it in your face."

She bit her lip and looked to the ground. "I am sorry. It is very complicated…"

"Starfire…," Robin spoke softly. He walked over and placed his hands on her shoulders. "What's wrong? You've been down all morning…and now this!"

"That is also a very complicated matter…," Starfire sighed. She looked at his face with sincere green eyes. "I wish I could explain everything. But as of right now, something else has distracted me greatly."

"What, exactly, Star?"

She turned around and faced the forest again.

"I….I-I did not save that bus of children on my own."

"You didn't?"

"Negative," she shook her head. "I-I had assistance."

"From whom?" Robin asked. A beat. "The cloaked figure…," he surmised.

She nodded away from him. "But what is most shocking is what I saw….wh-what I saw in his face."

"And what was that, Star?"

She spun around and pointed emphatically at her trademark, Tamaranian eyebrows. "This, Robin! And this!" she pointed at her green eyes. "And this!" she pointed at her fiery red hair. "Only…," she sagged, "…it was not like 'this'. He was emaciated…disheveled….and….a-and angry. So much anger…"

Robin leaned his head to his side. "You saw a boy?"

"Not just any boy….I….I-I know it's impossible, but…," Starfire bit her lip. "He was Tamaranian! H-He had to have been! And the way he pulled the bus out of danger with me! His hands…they were bending the sheer metal! And when he ran off into the woods, it was speed unfitting of a human!"

Robin walked over towards the line of trees and faced it alongside her. "You're sure….you saw all this, Starfire?"

"Positive, Robin!" she exclaimed. "With every fiber of my being, I know what I saw! Because….B-Because I felt it…" she clasped a hand over her gut.

Robin looked.

She lowered her head slightly to his eye level and emphasized: "Each and every Tamaranian has a gift, Robin. A secret sense. My people—we relate to one another on a special plane! When others of my kind are near, I can sense it! Because each of us have a green fire inside of us that is stronger than blood! It is…it is…l-like a hidden sun! And it resonates when in proximity to another Tamaranian soul. This same power is what grants us our starbolts. Our righteous fury. Our flight. The very spirit of green that burns within us."

"I-I had no idea, Starfire…," Robin blinked under his eyemask. "As long as I've known you, I've only witnessed one light in your being. And I've always perceived it as an endless bank of warmth indicative of yourself and yourself alone." He smiled. Then he said: "Are you telling me that Tamaranians all share a common spirit energy?"

"It is something to that effect," she murmured. She looked down. "When Blackfire first 'paid us a visit'…it was most difficult for me. I had been separated so long from my very own people. And when Blackfire came…the resonation of her energy threw me off balance. I could not cope with her presence. I became moody…depressed…I-I even considered leaving the Titans!"

"Uhm….I-I thought that was all a matter of sibling issues you had with her," Robin said. "Besides…it took some convincing, but you were also realizing how much we really admired you as both a friend and a teammate. Remember?"

"I suppose that is also correct…," Starfire nodded. "But the powers inside of me were also responsible for what took place."

"Blackfire seemed unaffected."

"That is because whatever honor or glory of Tamaranian energy she once had has died out inside of her," Starfire mournfully stated. "She is no longer a wielder of the burning green…but a thief of purple deception."

"I see now…," Robin nodded.

"Today….I have been feeling…..most distraught," Starfire said…pacing in front of the Boy Wonder. "During the ride here, I could not focus my energies on anything. If I were Raven, I would be in desperate need of meditation right now." She paused. Silently, her eyes trailed tentatively towards Robin. She was tempted to expound upon her anxieties concerning the dissension she had been sensing that day, but instead she uttered: "I-I believe it all may very well be a r-result of my coming into close proximity of one of my kind once again…"

"The boy?" Robin asked. A beat. "D-Do you…..ya know….'sense' him now?"

She shook her head. "He is gone. I did not even get to thank him for what he did to save those children."

"You mean what you **both** did," Robin said. He walked over and placed a hand up on her shoulder. "You're the hero of the day, Star. You gotta believe that. Those kids are alive thanks to you. Even if that stranger helped. Even if **we** helped."

Starfire stared at him. She smiled finally, her eyes shut. "I-I suppose you are right…"

Robin felt a warmth come over him at the first smile in her face for hours.

Together, they looked into the forest.

A beat.

"Question now is…….what the heck would creepy FBI men want with him?"

Starfire swallowed and breathed: "I am uncertain, Robin. But I was not and I am not willing to assist them and find out. Not after what I have so recently felt…"

And she clutched her heart.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWAP!

'Sergeant' Booker slapped down a folder onto a desktop and slumped down into a seat with an exasperated sigh.

He was in an office. Or maybe he was in a laboratory. Or maybe it was both.

Four desks were surrounded by a throng of computer equipment, medical tables, chemicals, and everything you would want from a horror movie.

There were no windows. Merely metal bulkhead lining the walls to some mysterious, shadowed chamber.

A man in a dark suit cleared his throat and slowly approached the desk.

Booker glared up. "He's on the move again…."

"The Titan was lying, you think?"

"Oh, she saw him…," Booker rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And she's too much of a hero for the four of us to intervene. We can screw around with heat, but not THAT kind of heat."

"You think they suspected anything?"

"No. We came in. Did what we had to do. And cleared out," Booker said. "But it still doesn't stop the fact that the little shit is running amok and we can't even track him!" He pointed angrily. "I thought I told you three to look in on the Sandersons again!"

"You know that ain't easy, Booker…," the man shook his head. "Once they caught onto us…they threatened to flag down the **real** authorities if we ever show our faces again! The fact remains that we just can't scoop the kid up from his home again. We gotta trap him when he's on one of his little, nomadic journeys."

Booker groaned. "And the next time we do…it's gonna be permanent isolation."

"Right."

"I'm gonna miss this place…," Booker swiveled around…eyeing the lab/office. "But it'll all have to go 'kaboom' once we're out of here with him. This state is too sticky now."

"In the meantime," the man shrugged. "What do we do?"

Booker was silent. He opened the file. A photo of the six Teen Titans was on top of a thick stack of papers. The face of Starfire was highlighted.

"What are the odds that she and her punk friends would be hopscotching their way through North Carolina for a vacation?" Booker mumbled.

"Not much we can do about it now, sir."

"Perhaps…," Booker nodded. "But now that they're in our hair….," he placed the photo down onto the desktop and tapped Starfire's image. "….maybe we can make the best of things."

The man looked at the photo…then at Booker.

Booker's eyes stared up. He swallowed. "Track 'em."

"On it."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat silently in the rear of the car. Staring out the side as we angled up a thin, dirt road lined with pine trees.

"Uhm….," Cyborg muttered. "You're sure this is taking us somewhere where we can stay for a few nights, Raven? Or stay for eternity!"

"Yeah…I don't like haunted forests, dude…," Beast Boy gulped.

"These directions can't be wrong…," Raven muttered. "The 'Little View' cottages should be just beyond the crest of the hill. We already passed the white church."

I blinked. I looked at the front of the T-Car.

Starfire sat silently in the passenger seat. She had been silent almost all day. Her fingers were toying with a lock of red hair.

I watched her….

"Okay…," Raven squinted her eyes as she sat next to me. "Mr. Feldman has realllllly bad handwriting."

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Feldman? Why's that name sound familiar?"

"Think of a nametag…," Robin smirked.

"That old Wal-Mart greeter when we walked into the store!" Beast Boy cackled. "You got directions to a place to say from a Wal-Mart greeter!"

"His name is **Jerad Feldman**," Raven sneered out of honor.

"Pfft! Some luck we're in now! He's probably a cantankerous old loser who decided to play a practical joke on us! Watch us end up at an abandoned Prozac factory or something!"

Cyborg chuckled.

"Hardy har har….," Raven muttered. "I like to believe there is some decency left in America. People whom we can trust in on the street."

"Why…how very optimistic of you, my lady!" Cyborg quipped.

"Are you going to heckle me too?"

"Nope."

"Scared?"

"Hardly. We're there."

The T-Car lurched to a stop.

Beast Boy jolted forward. "Whoah!" He shook his head. His green eyes turned into white specks as he saw an immaculate, white sign reading 'Little View'. "Oh….."

A quaint path of fresh, black asphalt winded up a hill that was lined with thick, lush pine trees and dangling moss and green undergrowth. The path took an elliptical, elevated shape as it nestled against the foot of the mountains and encircled a tiny, partially cascading pond in the middle. Everything looked clean, ornate, and—yes—old fashioned.

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "I rest my case."

"We're heeeeeeeeeeeeere!" Cyborg turned off the engine and stepped out.

Robin hopped out and stretched his stiff legs while Starfire floated alongside him. "Well…I'll admit it…," the Boy Wonder stated. "Raven does directions better than I do."

"We're nearly three days into this vacation and FINALLY you put that ego of yours to rest," the dark girl said. "Come. We need to get a room."

"J-Just one room?" Beast Boy muttered.

Raven rolled her eyes. "All right…a cabin."

"There's the office right there," Cyborg pointed.

"All right…let's get to it…," Raven said and wandered off with the android.

I jumped out of the T-Car, flexed my muscles, and took a deep breath.

Pine.

I smiled.

I glanced back at the other Titans, waved, and went off for a brief stroll.

"Lucky Noir…," Beast Boy folded his hands. "Must be great being a loner."

"He's a loner?" Robin remarked.

"To me he is!"

"B.B…..to you, Oprah Winfrey is a loner."

Beast Boy looked at the Boy Wonder. He blinked. He smiled. "Say…I think I can take that as a compliment."

"You're most welcome."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A little bell rang over the door to the office as Raven and Cyborg walked in.

An old lady behind a counter stood up from a stool and put down her copy of "Reader's Digest". She lowered her reading glasses that hung around her neck and waddled over. "Well, now……how can I be of assistance---" she paused. "Hmmmm," she smiled in a jolly fashion. "If you two aren't the most peculiar couple!"

The android and the dark girl looked at each other. They blushed.

"Ahem…," Cyborg cleared his throat. He approached the counter. "The name's Cyborg. Teen Titans. Due southwest from the City."

The woman slowly nodded. "Yeah…," she hummed. "Read about you kids in the paper."

"And we were wondering if we could check in with a cabin," Raven smiled slightly and raised the scribbled note. "We were sent her by a man name—"

"Feldman," the woman finished. She smiled a fat smile and said: "And am I right to assume there are four other 'Titanics' checking in as well?"

Raven blinked. "Um….ahem…'Titans', ma'am." A beat. "H-How did you know about Mr. Feldman?"

"Oh, Jerry?" the woman waddled over towards a rack of numbered keys. "He keeps in good touch with me from time to time. It's probably why I married him!"

"………..," the two Titans were silent.

The woman picked up two keys, dangled them from her grasp, and walked around the counter…smiling. "My name is Susan. Susan Feldman. Jerry called and we already have the perfect place for you. Come. I'll show you!"

Cyborg and Raven helplessly looked at each other. Between the two halves of them…a single, confused grin formed.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And you must be Robert!"

"R-Robin, ma'am," the Boy Wonder corrected as he and the other four Titans slowly, lazily sauntered after the waddling innkeeper. "And I must say, this is a surprise. We just came here looking for a place to rent while on vacation and—"

"And you got it!" Susan Feldman turned and smiled. She returned to huffing and puffing her way up the small, asphalt path. Something which she had evidently done many, many times before on a regular basis—only it always showed a case of elderly strain regardless. "We're always looking to invite new guests to this place! Especially the ones who…ya know…really want to avoid the public eye."

"It's not so much that we want to **avoid** the public eye…," Beast Boy said. "Just…ya know…civil camouflage never hurts. Heheheheh…."

"The fact that you can all afford a vacation is beyond me," the woman shrugged. "But however you do it is fine by me. Right, Best Buy?"

"Um…B-Beast Boy, ma'am."

"Aw shucks…I might as well stop trying," Susan waddled. "Say…isn't there a sixth one of you?"

"Yes. Noir."

"Where'd he run off to?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "Oh…he likes to do that from time to time. He's probably off in the pine trees……being………………..dark."

"As long as he doesn't scare away the ducks. Those ducks are my pride and joy."

"Really? Why is—"

"Had a kid here once who chased the ducks around for a full week. They migrated away for two years before returning."

"That's really interesting. Do you think that we coul—"

"Damn Generation X-ers….never cared much for foul. Unless it was communist. HA!"

Cyborg smirked and whispered in Raven's ear. "I like how she laughs."

She batted him away and he chuckled.

"Here we are!" Susan Smith gestured towards the right.

Everyone turned and looked.

It was a small cabin. Not a **log** cabin, of course…but a cabin nonetheless. Its foundation jutted up to balance the house out and keep it from sloping like the hill it was built on. It only halfway succeeded.

"Ah yeah!" Cyborg smiled. "Now this is what I'm talking about!"

"It is so cute….," Starfire blinked…admitting.

Robin smirked.

"Can it fit us all?" Beast Boy said.

"Well….," Susan scratched her head. "It's a tight squeeze. But I'm sure y'all are used to that!"

"More or less, speaking," Robin nodded.

Susan Smith opened the front door and they all stepped inside. There was a main room, a tiny sliver of a kitchen, a back porch room, and a large room parallel to the rest of the cabin that had a fireplace and wooden floors.

"The couch in the main room folds out into the bed. The back porch has glass panels replacing the screen. It's insulated, so it can be used as a sleeping quarters. There're two beds in there. And there're at least three other cots for the fireplace room. More than enough for the whole lot of you, I'd say."

"Cool!" Beast Boy nodded. "Quaint…old fashion…lacking a lot of luxuries—but hey! I'm feeling brave this vacation! Woo hoo!"

"All right," Robin smiled.

Starfire clasped her hands together.

Raven swiveled around and faced Susan. "So…what are the rates?"

The old woman smiled. She handed the dark girl the keys.

Raven looked at the keys in her palm…then back at the woman. "You can't be serious…"

"You have a problem with it, take it up with Jerry!" Susan winked and waddled out of the house.

While the other Titans shared dumbfounded stares, Raven ran out after her and stood in the asphalt street. "And just where is your husband as we speak, Mrs. Feldman!"

Susan pointed without looking. "Oh…by the pond. As usual. Lazy butt!"

Raven blinked. She looked over.

There was a lone man standing in front of the pond with a fishing rod.

A Wal-Mart greeter without his Wal-Mart outfit.

She slowly—dazedly—stumbled towards him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dude! Fresh firewood and everything! We can pop popcorn in this thing, I bet!"

"Gotta find a general store around here, first," Cyborg replied.

"General store!"

"Yeah! That's what they're called out here in the country!"

"How do you know, City Boy!"

"Want me to tell you with my fist!"

"Pfft…that was lame. Oooh! I bet they have a pump out back! Let's go check it out!"

The changeling and the android bounded out towards the front.

Robin and Starfire stood alone in the main room.

"Well…this vacation is certainly looking up," Robin smirked. He glanced over at the Tamaranian. A pause. "You're still thinking about him, aren't you?"

She slowly nodded and sighed. "That I am…"

Robin tilted his head to the side. "I can't blame you, Star. If there's anything I can do---"

"I…I-I was thinking…," she blushed. "Would it be allright if I went out on a walk? L-Like Noir is doing?"

The Boy Wonder's lips parted. He eventually smiled a soft smile and said: "Why, of course, Star. Not a bad idea, either. This place is beautiful!"

"I think I will embark upon that…," she said. She moved to leave—but paused and gave Robin a gentle hug. "Thank you….for everything, Robin. I-I just need time to think."

He patted her back as their embrace parted. "I understand, Star. I'll be here if you need me."

The girl nodded…and gently glided out the doorway.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven stepped over to the pond an stood beside Jerad Feldman.

"Took you long enough," he smirked…casting his line into the pond and slowly reeling it in. "Tell me…do you like the place or hate it? I've poured my heart and soul into it over the past twenty years!"

Raven planted her hands to her hips. "You set this up all along, didn't you?"

"I would hope so!" he said. "You'd feel pretty stupid otherwise, wouldn't you?"

Raven pouted. "We just cannot stay here for free! That is too nice of you."

"Nice! Nice! Niceness has nothing to do with it, little lady!"

"Then what is it?"

"Same reason I'm casting a fishing line into a pond which I've known for the last five years has absolutely no fish!" he looked over at her and winked. "I'm a crazy old man!"

Raven blinked.

Jerad laughed a jolly laugh, his whole body tilting back and his wrinkled eyes thinning.

Raven couldn't help but smirk.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was rounding a bend of dirt road…leading back onto the main asphalt curve of the cottages.

I took another breath of nature….and relaxed.

It was good to be relaxed that far west.

I slowly turned around to head my way back to the T-Car, when something caught my eye and I froze.

I knelt down and lowered my shades.

Having found something I was subconsciously looking for.

There were tire tracks on the edge of the road where the dirt was.

And the tracks were identical to that of the FBI truck…….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire's walk was really a flight.

She drifted higher and higher through the escalating pine and forest.

She took a deep breath. A bird fluttered overhead, and she smiled slightly.

She was floating over a babbling creek when it hit her. And when it hit her, she gasped and clutched her heart. Her green eyes widened.

He was there…

She looked down.

There was a clearing.

And there was a figure.

She took a breath, settled down to the grassy floor weightlessly, and crept up behind a tree. She stared out into the shadowy clump of grass between trees.

The boy had his cloak parted And she could see his thin figure kneeling down…gently offering food for a band of squirrels at the base of the tree. A bird or two were gathered on the branches above. Like a scene out of Disney.

She exhaled.

The sound pricked the ear of the boy.

And he looked up. And his face was not the snapshot of anger and fury that she had seen in him earlier, though she sensed it trailing on the line of his mouth and the curves of his eyes. Rather—in a brand new snapshot—he looked cornered. Like a deer in the headlights. His lips parted slightly and his green eyes narrowed curiously under a jagged halo of sliced, red hair.

The warmth burned from within Starfire…and whatever hesitancy and depression she had felt all morning washed away as she stepped out a few feet into the clearing, basked in the warmth of another, and unabashedly and maternally uttered: "Greetings….f-friend…"


	70. Hidden Sun part 2

**70. Hidden Sun part 2**

Starfire smiled.

The boy frowned. In a blur, he swung the robe over his massacred red hair and dashed off towards the dense oblivion of the forest.

Starfire's curved lips rounded in a gasp. "Wait!" she cried out and ran forth.

The squirrels scattered. The birds flapped away.

The boy's limbs swung like engine pendulums. A glow of green energy was barely starting to form beneath his feet.

He was about to zoom off. But Starfire was older than him. And faster. She discovered this as she caught up with him, spun, and skidded to a stop in front of his face with two hands outstretched. "P-Please!?" she panted. "You must not run off! I desire to talk to you!"

"I don't talk to **anyone**." The boy's voice was too old for his age. The same stone etching in softness that was his face. Something dreadfully wrong. And bitter. Bitter like a dying cat.

Starfire couldn't help but recoil. Still, she managed to keep her wincing face aimed at his as she said: "Why is it that you do not wish to converse with anyone? Why is it that you are constantly running away?"

"Leave me **alone**," he spat and made for the forest again.

"Please!" she reached out and desperately clasped his shoulder through the cloak.

The burning inside of her intensified. A Tamaranian beacon.

She inhaled.

The boy stopped with a jerk, and in so doing…his hood fell back and once again revealed his hectic head of razor-edged red. But beneath that red fury was once again the green eyes of youth…of softness. That face was exposed to her now as the frown momentarily drowned away and he expressed a look of confused apprehension.

Starfire realized he had felt the burning too. Maybe his first time…

"Do you at least know….," Starfire gently spoke, "…why you are running away? I do believe it is for the very same reason that I am running after you."

The boy blinked up at her…and slowly the green eyes thinned and his brow furrowed under the red as the frown returned. "You are a stranger…," he venomed. He shook her hand off his shoulder and huffed off towards the forest. Not a sprint that time. Rather, a frustrated march. "I do not trust **strangers.**"

Starfire looked after him. She clasped her hands together and said: "Not even a bus full of strangers?"

The boy froze. The cloak seemed to droop around him like a cape as he hung his head. Starfire realized there had to have been a very tiny, frightened frame under all that bitter immensity.

"That….w-was different," he said without looking.

"Why was it different?" Starfire leaned her head to the side. "You ran away AFTER you saved those children. After you helped me save those children…"

The boy's fists clenched and he spun around. "**Who are you**?!" his voice was angry, yet full of a vibrating monotony as if he had posed the question many times before.

"I am….," Starfire paused, thought about it, trailed an eye, then smiled presently. "…Koriand'r. Koriand'r is my name."

"No….," the boy shook. "Who **are** you?! What do you want with me?!"

"I want to 'know'…," Starfire gently stepped forward and gestured. "I only want to know you!"

His jaw was tight. "Are you with **them?!**"

Starfire stopped. She blinked. "Wh-Who?"

"The men!! Those bad men!!" his voice rang out against the surrounding pine and up the mountain. "If you are, go back and tell them that I can go anywhere and do anything as I see fit!! You can't scare me and my Mom and Dad anymore!"

"I do not know what people you are referring to. Please believe me when I say that I am merely curious to know who you are." She swallowed and gave a pleasant smile in hope of a positive effect. "Do you not see the similarities between us? Our eyes and our hair. The manner in which we emanate a green glow? Our unique powers?"

The boy's green eyes narrowed. "Powers….??"

Starfire lifted up gracefully, her arms stretching outward and her hair and cardigan billowing.

The boy backed up, his jaw dropping.

"This…," she smiled. "Gifts. Things which helped us save those children in the bus. They are unique to me…and I feel they are unique to you as well."

"How…..h-how do you do that?" the boy stammered.

Starfire's face fell and her breath left her. She clasped a hand over her heart as a soreness permeated her being. "You….y-you do not know how to fly??" She bit her lip. Her eyelids lowered. "You poor thing….your life must be something full of sadness…"

The boy's eyes widened….and then he frowned again. "No…," he clutched his red hair and shook his head. "No…NO!!" He sneered up at her and stomped his foot into the green earth. "I'm alone! Nobody understands who am I! Or what I'm like! Especially an annoying stranger like **you!**" He spun like a hurricane and ran into the dense woods.

"No!! Cease! Desist!" Starfire floated after him. She blurred past bodies and bodies of trees as a green glow emanated from beyond, and then faded away. She had lost all signs of his fleeing figure. She sighed and floated to the ground.

"I…I d-did not even learn of your name….," she breathed. With moist eyes, she hugged herself and weathered a chilling breeze.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mr. Feldman….at least tell me this….would you be so generous about the room if you did not know we were Titans?"

As the patches of sky through the pine above turned gradually more and more orange, Raven knelt in the grass besides Jared Feldman…the old innkeeper who was busily employing himself in fishing a line through a pond that had no fish.

"I believe you have it all wrong, young lady…," Feldman said. A cool mountain breeze pierced the summer air and kicked at his leftover tufts of gray follicles peaking out from under a wrinkled, red cap. "It is not because you are 'Titans' that I have extended financial grace to you. But rather that you are just about as confused and wandering as I am!"

Raven's blue eyes blinked. "E-Excuse me?"

"You know what I mean."

"Er….s-sorry, sir. But I'm afraid that I don't," Raven droned. "What are you trying to get at?"

"The same thing we're all trying to get at!" Feldman grinned. "A better understanding of ourselves! A solution to insanity! Tranquility, zen, all that good crap!"

Raven bit her lip. "Sir….are you feeling okay?"

"I'm old, if that answers your question."

"That's not what I meant…"

"That's allright, young lady. You'd might as well mean that," he winked. "Makes life simpler when you're as young and pretty as you all are."

Raven hid a slight blush---not so much out of embarrassment, but rather something queerly akin to shame. "Well, just know that we're all quite thankful for your hospitality. It's not something we really expected…"

"Funny thing about life…," Feldman said, "…when you keep trying to expect things, the only stuff that happens to you is bad. When it rains, it pours…and there're so many people so deep in their own crap in this world that all they do is put on raincoats instead of jumping into the puddles and laughing. Once you've been where I've been---in the Sun and in the rain---you realize after seeing both sides that you can't live without both. You can't truly experience life as expected shit or as unexpected glory. There's a lot to be said about dichotomy in this ever-complex age of 'post-modern' bridge-gapping. And who am I to dictate? Well, I'm one of those few fossils that are older than post-modernism itself! HA!"

Raven couldn't help but smirk slightly. He had his wife's laugh. "And here I was thinking you were just a simple-minded old fart working as a Wal-Mart greeter."

"Well, you got one part right," he smiled and winked. "I'm an old fart!"

"And what about working for Wal-Mart?"

"Working?? Does an ox work for a plow?" He chuckled so infectiously, the stoic girl had to join him.

He cast the line again into the fish-less lake.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Thanks for joining us in grabbing up some grub, Noir."

I stared at a wall.

"Noir??"

I snapped out of my train of thought and looked over.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were in the same aisle of the general store as me. We had spent the last thirty minutes walking out of 'Little View' cottages and to the nearby store. A shack of a place with its one claim to civilization being the presence of an A/C unit. It was rather adventurous that we chose to go there for foodstuffs to begin with.

"You okay, Noir?" Cyborg smirked and nudged my shoulder. "You seem distracted, man."

I shrugged. The images of FBI tire tracks faded in my mind.

"Pfft!! Probably daydreaming of that Supergirl poster again!" Beast Boy squealed.

I frowned from under my shades and almost dropped what I forgot I was carrying. Two boxes of pop tarts.

"Careful, buddy!" Cyborg said. "That stuff's golden, I tell you!"

I blushed, nodded, and dropped it down in the basket Beast Boy was carrying.

"Dudes!" Beast Boy made a face. "I don't think this general store is all that great. The expiration date on the pop-tarts is two months old!"

I shrugged…I smirked.

"They haven't been open, B.B.," Cyborg muttered as he looked through cereals and syrup containers placed oddly together. "They're fine!"

"Just how can pop-tarts have expiration dates anyways? Do they like—explode in your stomach or something?"

"Nothing for me to worry about," Cyborg smirked. "Titanium-lining to my abdominal cavity. I could belch forth a grenade and be none the wiser."

Beast Boy squinted a green eye of suspicion. "Say….j-just how do you digest food anyways?" He glanced hesitantly at the android's smooth, seamless, metal posterior. "It's not like you have a um……have a……er…."

Cyborg placed his hands on his hips.

I chuckled breathily.

Beast Boy sweatdropped and readjusted his grip to the basket's handle. "Just how do you do it?"

"Quite simple," Cyborg shrugged. He smirked. "Perfected, actually. All solid foodstuffs I consume run down an artificial esophagus, then are sent into a synthetic enzyme application chamber, and finally run through a series of elastic cylinders that extract all of the remaining nutrients and discharges the unprocessed waste in a manner ten and a half times more efficient than a natural human."

"Uhhhh," Beast Boy blinked. "Discharged where, exactly?"

CHTUNG!

A compartment in Cyborg's forearm popped open and an aluminum tube slid out halfway.

"The Multi-Purpose Excretory Tube," the android Titan pointed in perfect nonchalance as he spoke: "Bodily wastes, fluids, battery acid, lubrication…it all comes out of here and—when available—the Waste Depository Chute that's custom built into the walls of my laboratory—"

"Ewwwww!!" Beast Boy flinched so hard, he nearly dropped the basket of goods. "Y-You mean to tell me th-that you poop through your arm?!?!"

Cyborg bit his lip and his eyes trailed. "Well…technically, it's not 'poop' per say. The synthetic enzymes employed by my systems produces a chemical product in the end which contrasts human waste by about twenty-five factors, among which include ninety-eight percent less bacteria, meticulous carbon breakdown, internally supplied dissolving acids—"

"Okay…can ya like….I dunno….put your hand away before you projectile fart or something?!"

"Hahaha!" Cyborg laughed. "I haven't passed gas in over six years, B.B. You gotta learn to be less paranoid."

"Dude!! All the times we've arm-wrestled!! That's freakin' crazy!!" The green elf quivered. "That's it, I am NOT eating these pop-tarts!! I have CLEARLY associated traumatic knowledge with their existence! Noir, put them back. Put them back, **now!**"

I chuckled and shook my head.

"Oh…like you're any cleaner!" Cyborg glared down at him with a smirk. "Tell me, out of all the multiple animal digestive systems you've 'had' over half of your life, name one that is anywhere near clean as my system!"

"Pigeon!!"

"HA!"

There was a dinging sound from the front of the store as Robin entered in his t-shirt and khaki slacks and walked over. "What's this about pigeon bowels?"

Beast Boy pointed. "Cyborg's showing us all his tube!! You gotta stop him, dude!"

"Oh, that thing!" Robin smirked and raised and eyebrow over his mask. "I thought I smelled something."

Cyborg frowned. "Impossible, Robin. I've been through this with you before. The chemical treatment especially singles out odor-causing strings of polycarbons and—"

"Yeah yeah," Robin nodded and looked at us three collectively. "Any of you see Star?"

"Nuh uh," Beast Boy shook his head.

I shrugged.

CHTUNG! "Didn't she go out on a walk or something?"

"Yeah…she did," Robin nodded and scratched his chin. "She hasn't come back yet."

"So she walked out on you…so what?" Beast Boy blinked. "Girls do that."

Robin glared, then said: "I'm serious. She's seemed really down and out today."

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "And just what was up with the near-disaster scene earlier today? After the bus and the exploding truck and all…the two of you seemed rather………how should I put it…."

I gestured.

"Yeah…," Cyborg smirked. "'Conspiratorial'."

"It's got something to do with those 'FBI' guys, I bet," Beast Boy smirked. "You and Star worried about something?"

"Perhaps…," Robin said…his gaze lingering.

"Wanna talk about it, Robin?" Cyborg's human eye blinked.

"Nah. I'll just wait for her and stuff. While you all've been shopping around, Raven's off talking to that Feldman guy from Wal-Mart. I was stuck with nothing to do."

"Well stay here and help us out!" Cyborg grinned. "We're halfway through getting tomorrow's breakfast!"

"Nuh uh! We're starting over!" Beast Boy frowned and shoved the two boxes back into my arms. "I ain't eating no 'poop tarts' tomorrow!"

Robin chuckled and gave into the scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That evening, as night fell and the mountains settled with cold air through the pines, the six of us gathered separately in the large room with the fireplace. A warm flame was flickering from within the mantle. A spark screen was partially unfolded so that an old fashioned popcorn kettle rested in the tongues of heat from the end of a long handle Cyborg gently held steady from a few feet away with pot holders.

Beast Boy huddled behind him. The room was dark, save for the flickering fury of the fireplace that gently warmed us. Outside, the night was pitch black. Dead as the mountains.

"Dude….I'm telling you….those kernels are as old and as expired as everything else that store had!!" Beast Boy hissed. Everyone was in the mood to whisper…including the enthusiastic elf. "No way in a million years are they gonna pop!"

"One of the rules of trading your flesh in for a pile of moving, pivoting junk….," Cyborg whispered, tonguing his lips as he delicately hovered the body of the kettle over the flame. "….is that you learn to respect old and seemingly dysfunctional things. Just because what I'm doing here isn't sate of the art….or just because the corn wasn't exactly born yesterday….it doesn't mean it won't work, man! You gotta learn patience! Before patience learns you…you get it?"

"No."

"Pfft! Why do I even bother!"

"I know! Pop your tube open and aim it towards the flame! That'll make it hotter!! Hehehehehe!!"

Cyborg whispered: "Better yet, how about you turn into sheep and we toss the whole thing in!!"

"Dude! Is that a threat?"

"No! It's a recipe!!"

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "You know…sometimes, I swear, you're like a cruel big brother!"

"Got the 'big' part right," Cyborg smirked.

I smiled from where I sat. Across the way. Barely inside the warm halo of the fire's glow. I had Myrkblade standing between my legs, its bladed tip twirling in the floor. I was gently sharpening and polishing it. Something which—on any other occasion—would have been a dull chore. But that evening…there was something tranquil about it. Something reminiscent. Relaxing. I went about the task quietly…slowly letting my shaded eyes drift about the room.

Naturally, the first thing I saw was Raven. Sitting towards the far end. She was curled up---quite girlishly---into the crook of an easy chair that seemed almost to swallow her. She had a book in her grasp—her ninth, I gathered—and seemed quite pleased. I could read it off her stoic face…like an invisible grin trying not to break out and yet trying to the entire time. Gone was her lotus position…her meditative position of trademark. She was simply…..relaxing.

I had to admit, Raven seemed to have been changing on us. As much as the vacation was concerned. I reminded myself that it was likely only a temporary thing. There was no imminent evil for her to deal with…for her to balance her powers in preparation for. She didn't immediately need to especially select which personality govern which gift or which emotion could most easily slip through or whatever. She was suspended in a limbo of inaction…and all she could do was read and read and read and read.

And be at peace.

But there was one thing about her changes that I knew would not change. And that was the simple fact that—as a result of the curse placed upon her during conception—she simply could not get too close to any of her Titan friends. And as fate would have it, that meant something to me. And she made a point of stating it when we were alone at the boardwalk. And I hadn't realized before how much my respect for her character and my admiration for her maturity made me want to….to know her more. And perhaps….perhaps even to….

I bit my lip.

I shook my head, sighed, and continued with Myrkblade.

Raven was…………..happy. At least, the happiest I've ever seen the dark Titan. Who was I to affect that tranquil balance?

I glanced to my right—more forlornly than I anticipated I would—and looked upon Robin and Starfire. Sitting side by side. Alone on a couch.

I could almost make out their conversation….

"Where was the last place that you saw him?"

"In a clearing of the woods, not far from here….," Starfire mumbled. The two of them were whispering. "He seemed so at peace when I looked upon him. And at the same time…so fearful. So helpless. Much like the creatures he was feeding by hand."

Robin asked: "And when you stepped out to greet him?"

She sighed. "He reverted back to his angry self."

"You keep calling him 'angry'. Is that important? I mean…h-he hasn't been threatening your or anything has he—"

"Oh no, Robin!" she said a little too loudly…then hushed herself. She cleared her throat and continued back on a whispering level: "No. Nothing of the sort has transpired. All I mean to say is….he has a fury that is most striking for his age. And if he is what I think he is, then it is most striking of his type too."

"Not all kids are happy-go-lucky during their preteen years," Robin shrugged. A beat. "You got a really good look at him this time?"

"Yes, Robin."

"And you got close to him?"

"Yes, Robin."

"So…..is he Tamaranian?"

Starfire nodded. Her hand lingered around her heart. "I have no qualms whatsoever about such a suspicion. Only…."

"Only what, Star?"

"I….we….! We, Robin! We must find out where he is hiding! We must track him down! I can sense that he is alone. So very alone. And he is also frightened and sad…though he is not willing to admit. He uses that anger of his as a form of strength. Can you believe me when I tell you that he does not even know how to fly?"

Robin blinked at her from beneath his eyemask. "That's a big shocker with your people, isn't it, Star? The whole 'no-flying' thing?"

"Absolutely!" the Tamaranian girl nodded. "It is an atrocity in and of itself! We must find a way to help him!"

Robin smiled. "Looks like not even you can take a vacation, Star."

She pouted. "Robin…I am most adamant about this boy's safety."

"How do we know that he's in trouble?!" the Boy Wonder whispered loudly with a shrug. "Maybe he's on a fact-finding tour from outer space just like you and doesn't want any intrusions?!"

"Shhhh!" Raven hissed from across the way. She turned back to her book and re-cuddled herself into the crook of the chair.

Starfire leaned in and whispered into Robin's ear. "According to Tamaranian culture…a boy his age has not even entered into the Luukarg dru Thagabork yet."

"The whatsit?"

"Liken unto an earthling's 'Age of Accountability'."

"Oh."

"Unless the laws of my people have changed since I came to earth, there is no possible way he could be visiting this planet on his own."

"Then the only other option—howbeit improbable—is to assume he's either here with someone else…."

"Or forced to be here against his will….," Starfire bit her lip.

Robin glanced down at their legs. Their feet dangling off the couch's edge. Starfire's were closer to the floor. Robin's were trying to catch up….or catch down. Their ankles looked identical otherwise—courtesy of Wal-Mart bought socks.

"I tell you what, Star…," Robin looked up and smiled. "Tomorrow morning…take me to where you last saw him. We'll search for him together. We'll track him down, I promise."

Starfire gasped with joy and clasped her hands together. "Robin! Will you truly assist me in such an endeavor?"

"Of course, Star! Anything for my best friend."

"But where would we start to look?"

"We'll think of it as the situation goes along…," Robin said. "I am the tutor of the Western Hemisphere's greatest detective after all…" He must have winked under his mask.

Starfire's eyes were moist as she literally dove across the couch and hugged the Boy Wonder. "Oh Robin…I am most grateful for your support! My hopes have been lifted now by a marvelous degree! Thank you very much!"

He patted her shoulder. "Don't mention." He coughed. "And do spare me my lungs…I'll need them for snoring tonight."

She blushed and released her loving death-grip. "'My badness'," she chirped. "I will….s-save the hugging for morningtime, I think."

"Works for me."

I smiled at the two of them. I slowly stood up, twirled a good-as-new Myrkblade, and slung it over my shoulder. I gestured with one hand a sentence fragment to Cyborg as I walked over him and Beast Boy.

"Again???" the android remarked. "At this hour??"

I shrugged.

"You're always going on walks, man. I swear," he shook his head. "Oh well. Just don't make too much noise when you come back. Handling the T-Car all day has gotten me pooped…I'm sorry to admit. I'll be hitting the sack soon after the popcorn."

"You mean…the T-Car after a full day has gotten you 'tubed'," Beast Boy corrected.

"Man…you don't know what you're talkin' about!"

"Sure I do! You taught it all to me today! Showed it, even! You're like the Mr. Wizard of fecal matter!"

"Hardy har har."

I rolled my black eyes and headed for the door. Halfway there, I glanced at the chair.

Raven was asleep. The book was spread out against the gentle rise and fall of her petite tummy. Her mouth was slightly open and her bangs dropped around the gem of her chakra that reflected the dancing orange of the warm fireplace.

Even minutes later when I was outside the cabin in the cool mountain air of the dark night…that image stayed with me for the next two hours at least.

I sighed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Well into two hours later that night…

A black body rolled up the asphalt path of the 'Little View' Cottages. It had a low rumbling roar. A truck with its headlights off. Four doors. One driver and one passenger.

The vehicle went up the hill…and ambled to a stop just outside a cabin where a silver and blue convertible was parked.

Cut engine.

Silence.

The two men stared out at the house. Their eyes squinted in the darkness. The nearby mountains blotted out a great deal of starlight.

One lifted a radio: "Found 'em," he whispered while he pressed a button down on the receiver. "Fifth cabin up. The Titans all right. Likely retired for the evening. Over."

He released the button.

A beat.

"Any sign the alien girl is with them?" A voice on the radio. Booker's voice.

"Can't tell," the one replied. "At least we know where to monitor the whole of them. By tomorrow morning, we should have a fix on where she is or where she goes. Over."

A beat.

"What do you want us to do, sir?"

"Bug the place."

"Roger that. We'll return."

"Be quick about it."

The truck hummed to life.

"Well….more babysitting," the driver mused.

The one in the passenger seat smirked.

As the truck stealthily looped around the asphalt, the two men inside were oblivious to a shadow in the line of pine trees to the side. A figure as black as smoke itself. With two black eyes naked and observant. And ears pricked. The entire time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I flew directly over this area of the woods…," Starfire said. The next morning, she and Robin were setting out through the pine forest from the rear of Little View. She walked, climbed, and jumped her way through the foliage. She slowed down every now and then—keeping to her feet—so that the Boy Wonder could stay with her. "It was not long into my midair trek that I stumbled across him," she said. A gentle breeze kicked at her hair and long-sleeved shirt. "I find it rather fascinating that—after such a split in our paths previous—we met each other not too far away from our different destinations."

"Maybe it's that 'Tamaranian Energy' thingy," Robin said, negotiating a log and hopping over to join the redhead's side. "Perhaps it was some sort of force that brought you two together?"

"That is a fantastical assumption," Starfire nodded. Her green eyes trailed. "Howbeit…nothing more than a theory at this point."

Robin looked at her. "Do you….'sense' him now?"

She shook her head. "Here…," she gestured and took Robin by the hand as she hurried forward. "I will show you where we met!"

"Okay…," he nodded.

She led him through the forest. Trailing around trees. Weaving through high grass. Birds and other mysterious living things parted in the air above them. The scene had the making of magic. The hidden capillaries of North Carolina and emerald blood. They were too focused to admit to themselves the electricity in the air.

"Here….," Starfire softly said, releasing hold of Robin's hand and walking gently into the center of the sunlit clearing. "This is where he was…," she spoke, her hands clasped together. "For an instant, he seemed so gentle. He was feeding those bushy-tailed tree rats…"

"You mean squirrels?"

"Yes…those fuzzies."

Robin knelt in front of a pine tree and squinted through his eyemask. "What sort of stuff was he feeding them?"

Starfire thought aloud, her eyes trailing the bright sky above. "It was a fine sort of feed. Almost like seeds. Most ample for birds to consume…."

"Like this?" Robin held a handful of bright yellow kernels.

Starfire gasped and cupped his hand with hers. "Yes! That is exactly the material he was offering them! And it was at this tree too…."

Robin glanced at the forest floor. "There's…..a trail. Not obvious, but a slight trail nonetheless. It seems to tell which way he was headed. Let me guess," he looked up at Starfire and pointed northward. "That direction?"

She nodded. "Though…I-I lost him when he finally sprinted into the forest."

Robin crouched down even lower. He parted blades of grass with his hands and looked at the soil.

"Did you catch the type of shoes he was wearing? Or was he wearing any shoes?"

"Yes….but….," Starfire bit her lip. "I am uncertain as to what type…"

A beat.

Robin uttered: "Hiking boots?"

Starfire blinked. She smiled. "Why….yes! I remember now!" She spun around. "How did you gue---" she froze.

Robin smiled. He pointed at a print he had just found in the soil. "The game's afoot."

"So I have taken notice of…," she blinked.

"Lemme guess," he stood up…dusting his hands off and looking at a scattered trail of boot prints leading into the woods. "You were floating a good deal of the time you talked with him?"

She nodded.

"So…I'm gonna assume they're not your tracks. And if they lead in the same direction as the animal feed….we might be on track with something here."

"Oh Robin, I do hope so…," Starfire sighed.

"Come on," he smirked and walked ahead while gesturing for her to follow. "We've got a prey to quarry!"

She gasped. "Robin! We are not going to skewer and eat any innocent young boys!"

He chuckled. "Not on my quarry, we're not. Just a figure of speech, Star."

And the two scampered off on the trail.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I whistled to myself.

I stood on a tree stump on the side of the hill sloping down from our cabin.

I was fiddling around with an antenna set from the old, broken down t.v. that Beast Boy and I had found inside of an abandoned closet inside the place we were staying. I was using pieces of wire to skewer the gadgetry inside. A mysterious project that—seemingly—only I had an inclination of a meaning to.

"If I didn't know better…," uttered Cyborg's voice from behind me, "…I'd say you were up to something."

I looked up at him, still whistling. I smiled and winked a black eye beneath my shades and continued with my handiwork.

Cyborg smirked and placed a hand on his hip. "Some vacation this has been for you. Ever since we left the Tower, you've been going on walks…meditating on your own…and now you're playing Radar with pieces of tinfoil. What's up with you?"

I shrugged, whistled, and continued my work.

"I never thought you were the type, Noir…," the android folded his arms. "Workaholic. Can't relax unless you're not relaxing!"

I placed my project down on my lap momentarily and hand-signed.

"Robin and Star?" Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "Your guess is as good as mine! They just went off walking into the forest together. Like nothing else in the world mattered."

A beat.

He smirked devilishly and looked at me. "Say….you don't think that those two—"

I made a mock look of shock on my face and shook my head emphatically.

Cyborg rolled his human eye.

I chuckled and returned to my rewiring.

"Man…even Raven's gotten the nomadic spirit. She went walking as soon as she got up. There're too many loners in our team. I swear. But…oh well. Guess as long as we're all having fun or relaxing, then this trip has been well worth it. Makes me wonder if my Uncle's working his ass off at Phaser Labs. Heh…he must be hating me by now."

Silence.

I whistled…working.

Cyborg glanced at me. He blinked. He cleared his throat and uttered: "Uh….Noir. I've been thinking. Things have been changing lately…or so I've noticed. And I don't want to appear like I'm ignorant or something. But……about y-you and Raven…"

**Snnkkt!!  
**  
I pulled a copper wire tightly with a jerk so sudden it even made Cyborg jump.

I took a long deep breath, tilted my head up, and stared at him with a plastic grin.

He sweatdropped…cleared his throat…and stepped back. "N-Nevermind…"

I nodded. My grin left. I stood up briskly, pocketed half of the antenna-thing, and picked up Myrkblade from the earth. Whistling as innocently as I had when Cyborg approached me, I wandered northward…through the woods…along a beaten path.

The android sighed. "Dammit…when will you wake up, Beast Boy?" he mumbled and marched back to the cabin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Raven walked by the pond, a breeze had struck. A few strands of moss and leaves fluttered down and landed on the clear, gray waters. It was like fall three months early.

The girl hugged herself. It was mere minutes after her meditation…and things still operated on a tranquil 'high' in her mind. The universe always looked crystal clear directly following meditation. She never bragged about it to her friends. Because sometimes it was as much of a curse as it was a blessing.

That morning, it was a mix. She was looking for something to break a mold. And that something turned out to be a person.

And that person wasn't there.

The edge of the pond was blank. Empty.

Raven sighed.

"Looking for someone??" an amused voice said from the side.

Raven pivoted around. Her stone, blue eyes noticed a cabin straight across from the part of the asphalt facing the pond. It was a pure white cabin. Whitewashed on the outside. As if Tom Sawyer had operated a convention against the shingles. On the porch a few feet off, two figures sat and lazily swung on a seat. Susan and Jared Feldman.

The two of them waved, elderly grins reflecting the rising daylight.

Raven took a breath. She drifted over…her jacketed hands swinging and her pantlegs swishing as she came to a stop by the railing of the porch and graced the two innkeepers.

"Hi…"

"That all you have to say, child?" Susan smirked, her double-chin scrunching. "I dare say…you're quite the depressing type."

Raven blinked. "You wouldn't be surprised at how many people say that."

"Had breakfast yet, young one?"

She nodded. "We went to the general store near the entrance. The boys found some…..edible things. It was a nice morning. Thanks again for the place to stay."

"My…she covers all bases, doesn't she?" Susan looked at Jared.

The man swung on the seat with her wife. He grinned and squinted his eyes. "That's her job I think, honey. Isn't it, Miss Raven?"

"I do what I must to protect my teammates," Raven said. "It's my primary concern."

"Among saving innocent citizens, no doubt."

Raven nodded. "No doubt."

Silence.

A phone rang from inside.

"Ah!" Susan jumped up onto the porch's patio floor. "Better get it! Could be a reservation. Never know!"

"We haven't had a telephone registration in years…honey….," Jared rolled his eyes.

Raven smirked slightly.

"Well, then maybe it's a beauty consultant!" Susan waddled into the open door of the house.

Jared mumbled something incoherent, snapped out of it, then smirked pleasantly as he motioned for Raven to make herself at home.

She slowly stepped up onto the porch and sat on a wooden stool across from the swinging seat.

"Got something on your mind?" he leaned back and swung…

"My mind….," Raven blinked. "That is something far too complex to explain to my own friends. Much less an average citizen."

"Oh….," Feldman chuckled. "My, how big of you!"

"It's not much to be proud of…," Raven droned. "I would….r-rather not get into it."

"That is fine," he nodded…gazing at her through the corner of clamshell eyes. "Your type is always mysterious, so I'd leave it be."

But she managed to utter: "Basically….I must live with the constant threat of what my powers could do to my friends if I were not to keep my 'big mind' under surveillance."

"How fascinating…," he scratched his rubbery, gray chin. "And am I one to guess that….you've been innocent of this threat so far?"

Raven was silent.

"Or am I wrong?"

"Neither…," Raven exhaled. She rubbed her elbows through her jacket and looked off at the patio floor. "My friends….th-they have come close to seeing the true dangers of my powers. Thankfully, though, nobody has been dreadfully hurt. And yet….."

"And yet…."

She looked up at the man. "Why am I even telling this to **you**?"

He smirked and shrugged. "Could I bite the dust tomorrow? Maybe. Go on with your life story. **I'm** interested, if that means anything."

She squinted.

He smiled.

She shook her head, sighed, and said: "At this point…I feel so relaxed…and yet so tense."

"Vacations do that to you. At least in America they do."

"It's something along those lines," Raven blinked. "And yet something different. Something that's been growing over time."

"A sense of responsibility?"

"Or retribution," Raven nodded. "Everyone these days are telling me to relax. To become friendlier. To get closer to my friends. And yet….to do that, I must keep considerable distance so as not to threaten them with my powers."

The man swung on the chair. "So you've chosen a middle way?"

"Sort of." Her eyes closed.

A beat.

"And are you happy with it?"

Another pause.

Her eyes opened and focused on the old man. "I don't do happy."

He smiled. "Of course you don't."

"…….," she stared at him. A beat. She stared back at the floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He has parents?"

"Or so it sounded like that was affirmative," Starfire nodded.

The two Titans wandered alone along a forested path of obscure boot prints and drops of animal feed. Robin was taking point, observing the clues and taking them both on a winding trail north.

"He specifically spoke of 'Mom' and 'Dad'," Starfire said. "He assumed that I was intending to threaten them. As if I was representing evil people in his life."

"Like…."

"'Bad men' was all that he said," she remarked.

"…….," Robin glanced back. "Was he any more specific?"

"I am afraid not, Robin," she held her fingers together and looked sad. "But whoever it is that he is afraid of, he feels constantly threatened by them. Not just him, but his parents as well. It makes me most concerned."

"Well….you're not alone, Star."

"You too, Robin?"

He smiled. "If there's one thing I've learned from you…it's that when you have a concern, it's legitimate for the rest of us to be concerned about too."

"I see," she smiled. A beat. She blushed, "Is there a second thing y-you have learned from me?"

"Shh!" Robin suddenly hissed. He stretched his hand back and motioned her down.

She silently gasped and crouched down low. "Wh-What is it?"

"A house….," he whispered. A beat. "A cabin…"

She crept up and huddled behind the Boy Wonder. She gently placed her hands on his shoulders and peered over from behind his black head of hair.

Down through a rise in earth and trees, a small house rested and nestled between tall pines. The back yard was covered with a thick carpet of leaves. Gray, craggy rocks from the beginning mountain side jagged up from the ground and made the grass a very sparse thing. The house itself was a brown cabin of aesthetic quality. Next to it rested a shack of a run-down shed. But it was a large shed, and at one time it may have served as a carport for the days when private vehicles were as big and as heavy as tanks.

Squatting in the front of the house—tending to an ornate garden—were two people. A couple in their late thirties to mid forties. They murmured about something in the middle of their hobby's labor. Dark faces exchanged…smiling…chuckling about something or another. It was a pleasant occasion. A bonding moment.

Robin suddenly felt like he and Starfire were spying. Starfire—the emotional alien that she was—was enamored in the romantic scene.

"They….s-seem so happy…," she uttered. "Heeeeee."

"Um….I-I think we should go back and retrace our steps, Star. Star?? Star, you're leaning on me too much—Star! STAR!!"

"ACKIES!!"

"AAAUGH!!"

The two Titans tumbled loudly over the rise in earth, slid down the hill of dirt, and crashed loudly across the front lawn of leaves and pebbles.

"OOF!!"

"Owwwwiee…"

The couple jumped up immediately. The woman gasped and stumbled back. The man stood up, frowned, and marched over. He was still holding a small garden spade in his hand as he approached the grounded Titans and demanded: "What do you think you're doing?! Didn't you see the sign?! No trespassing!!"

Robin disentangled himself from Starfire, jumped up, and brushed himself off. "I-I'm dreadfully sorry, sir. If y-you would allow me to explain, you see….we—"

But the man's startled face cut the Boy Wonder off. He was staring pointedly at the Titan's eyemask with supreme suspicion.

"Listen….who are you?? What do you think you're doing here?!"

The woman walked over and gently gripped the man's arm. "Kevin…p-please…"

"Just stay back, Ruth…," he shrugged her back, angrily pointing his gardening tool at Robin. "Listen…you just go back to wherever you were sent from and tell Booker to stay the Hell off our backs! Leave us and the poor boy alone—"

His voice was cut short as Starfire stood up and slowly….slowly…sauntered forward into the light. An innocent expression on her green eyes as she blinked and looked up at the tall, dark man.

Kevin's eyes were wide. Rich and brown with surprise.

Behind him, Ruth covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh my lord…."

Robin looked at Starfire….then back at the couple. His eyebrows lifted.

Kevin swallowed. He reached out blindly and hooked his arm's with his wife's as he managed a new voice to say: "You're…..You're that girl….aren't you?"

"I am?" Starfire blinked.

"The alien girl. The Titan. From the City!"

Slowly…the Tamaranian nodded.

"Um…..," Robin sweatdropped. "I'm Robin. With the Teen Titans. And this…..this is Starfire. S-Sorry for the nasty entrance. Again, I would love to try and explain—"

The couple walked past the baffled Boy Wonder and approached the redhead.

"Is it….really you?"

Starfire blushed….uncertain. Her green eye watched as Ruth's hand reached out and traced her green eyes and specks of eyebrows without touching them. Just as soon, the woman brought her hand to her lips again and tears formed in her eyes.

"Thank God…someone finally came…"

"I….I-I do not understand…," Starfire stammered. A beat. She gasped. "The boy! You know the boy!"

Kevin smiled a deep, rich smile. "Yes, young lady. We know the boy…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat on a richly decorated couch, a cup of tea in her grasp. She stared with parted lips at a series of photos lining the mantle to a fireplace. Images of a black couple with an amber-skinned boy of varying age and red hair joined with them. Some of the photos were simple posing photos. Photos in which the boy looked so stoical….so mature….so stale. But there was one photo…and Starfire judged it was from when the boy was barely seven…and he was smiling gleefully in a full-on tackle with the man named Kevin over an outrageously small football.

Sanderson. Kevin Sanderson. Kevin and Ruth Sanderson.

And this was their summer home….

"From the very beginning when we saw headlines showing the five Titans in action…," Ruth spoke from a piano bench across the living room, "…we knew for once that he wasn't the only of his kind. The great and heroic 'Starfire' was like a beacon of hope for us. A sign that we could find a future for our little pride and joy. Something that might bring a smile to his face…and ease to our hearts."

"You…..You've known that he's not human?" Robin asked. "That he's not of this earth?"

Ruth nodded. She looked up at Kevin.

Kevin stood at the edge of the mantle, leaning against its varnished body. He took a deep breath and said: "From a very young age…he could do things which normal children couldn't. When was the last time a first-grader could lift up half of a Volkswagen? Or outrun a biplane in the forest even? At first, we didn't know what to think. But…it's not like we had any basis to explain his….his 'talents' by…"

Starfire blinked. She finally snapped her gaze free of the pictures on the mantel and looked up at the couple. "How did he get here? How did he become a part of your family?"

Kevin couldn't help but smirk. "He fell from the sky."

Starfire gulped. "Did he truly….?"

Ruth nodded. "We were in our year-round home in Ohio. While driving on a country road…we saw something glowing in a nearby ditch. Kevin went to investigate. And….we found a vehicle of some sort. At first, we thought it was a fuselage of some crashed plane. But there was something inside. Much rather….someone. Thankfully, we had a truck. We could carry the person to safety. And that person turned out to be a young child…"

Robin couldn't help but smirk. "Sounds like another story I've once heard…"

Starfire glanced at him funny.

He sipped from his tea.

"Anyways….we could have told the authorities about it….but…the truth is, they beat us to the punch. We had FBI crawling all over our premises. Asking questions. Searching every nook and cranny…."

"It didn't smell right," Kevin frowned. "When we found the child, he was still and cold as a dead infant. We didn't want some black-suited punks from the government dissecting his little body apart. So…I took the liberty of hiding him in the old bomb shelter belonging to the family of the house before us. When the investigators left, Ruth and I went down into the cellar to take care of the body with a decent Christian burial—"

"Turns out…the child was alive," Ruth smiled brightly. "He was in…a sleep of sorts. Probably induced by the device he was in. We easily nursed him back to health…and in the matter of days we had a bouncing baby boy to take care of."

At the end of that part of the story, there was a solemn pause.

Robin and Starfire leaned forward.

"We….were not forgotten by the government's men…," Kevin said. "Or so it would seem. There's this one officer…a real mean type. He wouldn't get off our backs. He pressured us to reveal the boy…but we wouldn't give in. We knew if we so much as showed the boy's face to the general populace…they'd react and the FBI would find him. And that man would be leading the pack."

"What was his name, do you know?" Robin asked.

"Booker….," Kevin spat. "A sergeant, no less."

Starfire gasped and looked at Robin.

The Boy Wonder was silent. A poker face. "Please continue…," he said….sipping more tea.

"We home schooled the boy…," Ruth said, smiling. "Taught him everything we wanted to teach a child of our very own. And….well….he is a hard child to raise. I have admitted that before, and I will admit it again. We moved here to our summer home permanently because of how remote it is. But in doing so…we've had to hide him even more. He doesn't get to go out much. And beyond us…his social life is practically none."

"But we had no choice," Kevin said, gesturing. "Who could we ask for help? If the government was after him…"

"Does not leave you many options," Robin nodded.

"But so many things have happened in the last few years," Ruth spoke. "With alien awareness….the advent of heroes and extra-terrestrial citizens among us. Superman. Supergirl. Martian Manhunter…"

"And myself….," Starfire nodded.

Ruth went on, "…it seemed pointless to hide him still."

"Then why still do it?" Robin asked.

Ruth looked down.

Kevin walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. He gently looked over at the two Titans. "Booker….he never let up."

"Even when we considered making a trip to the Titans Tower…," Ruth spoke, "…we knew his men would catch us. With or without the boy….our son would still be at risk of being taken in….again."

Robin lifted an eyebrow. "Again?"

"You must help us…," Kevin insisted. "The boy is growing older. He is nearly thirteen. Soon, these woods and mountains won't be enough to hide him…for he will desire to break free. And Ruth and I cannot blame him. We've done all we could over the last decade to ensure his safety. But his future is not entirely ours to decide. Already we can sense the rugged independence growing inside of him. He longs for getting out. He goes on walks and treks through the forest no matter how many times we warn him not to. No matter how much he risks getting caught by Booker again. Now that you are here—" and Kevin looked more at Starfire than at Robin as he spoke this "—it's saved us the treacherous journey across the eyes of Booker and his men. Maybe we can hand our boy over so that you can take him to the Tower. To sanctuary. Anyplace that will ensure his recognition…and his safety."

Starfire took a deep breath. "His name…"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your son's name….," Starfire spoke. "What is it?"

"Novuhm…," Ruth smiled. "Or at least…that is how the discs pronounced it."

Starfire's green eyes narrowed. "Did you say….'discs'?"

Ruth and Kevin shared glances.

The mother stood up. "We'll show you…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The dusty door to the shed creaked open.

Spiders scurried into cracks in the ceiling.

Light filtered in through a rain of falling needles and leaves as the doorway opened wide by Kevin's hands. The man walked into the shadows as the sun caught up with his feet.

Robin and Starfire slowly stepped in…followed by Ruth in the rear.

Kevin stood by a black tarp of sorts. He glanced at the Titans….paused (as if waiting for their approval)…and swiftly pulled the tarp off.

Robin's eyemask widened. "It….I-It's just like the pod in the cellar of the Tower." A beat. He looked over. "Like the thing you landed in, Star…"

The alien girl walked forward. "It is definitely Tamaranian in design." She ran her hand across the spherical, alien metal. "But….this style. This class of vessel. It is most antique. Something the likes of which my people have not crafted in a long, long time."

"How long?" Robin asked.

She didn't respond right away. She continued running her hand across the brazened metal. There were colorful designs of an impractical nature across the hull. It made her raise her red eyebrow specks. She looked at Kevin.

"Where are the disks located?" she asked.

"Over here…," he gestured to a stack of hay.

Starfire slowly sauntered over. There was a stack of obsidian disks atop the straw. Spherical writings with minute etches around the circumference lined the disks from edge to center and back again.

She picked one up and looked it over. Studying the unmistakable touch of Tamaranian writing. But…

"This is very ancient…," she muttered. "A language I was barely educated upon during my youth at home…"

A pause.

She looked up at Kevin again. "Was there a basin? A black basin of concave nature?"

"You mean the stuff that made the disks 'talk'?" Kevin asked.

Starfire nodded fervently.

Kevin walked over to another tarp and quickly hoisted the canvass off of what looked like a large, black bowl.

Robin and Ruth walked over and peered from behind the hull of the small space pod.

Starfire bent over the bowl, grasped the disk with two hands, and held it over. She took a deep breath. She let loose the disk with a spin. It clanked down onto the bowl and twirled like a thick black tornado. Both the bowl and the blurred etches in the spinning disk glowed a dim green that intensified as a humming vibration uttered forth spoken words in dripping, mechanical monotony:

**"Jeruna da luku bladablock. Hehidana nu Tam'ran si blorkablag da X'hal. Kenkludabarg blork-sah reminardaye nu Tam'ran hremu Cit'del kormerant da vuun."**

Starfire's green eyes narrowed and her ears pricked as she concentrated…trying to make sense out of the archaic babble drifting out. Robin watched her fixedly, his lips slightly parted.

The disk kept spinning…

"**Larka sud. Byranna colderak-blarg nemerodakook si ferevuut nu Tam'ran da vuun ne-da X'hal. El-saman krackisblarg. Nermi di. Haverutuun Nova'm bar nud da Vieveret'm---"**

Starfire exploded into a gasp. Two hands covered an exhaling mouth while her green eyes glowed bright and round in something akin to mix terror and shock.

"Star!!" Robin exclaimed. He'd never seen that look on her face before and it frightened him. He dashed over and grasped her shoulders. "Are you all-right?! What's wrong?! What did it say?!"

But she backed out of his grasp. Pale. Shaking. Glowing hot eyes of green brimming with tears.

"X'hal vree….," she murmured in her native language. "X'hal vree…..X'hal vree nu Tam'ran…."

Kevin and Ruth were speechless.

Robin swallowed. His throat was dry. "Star? Sp-Speak to me, Star. Please…."

"Th-This is sacred ground…," the Tamaranian girl was almost sobbing. She took a swift, deep breath and quickly positioned herself sitting up straight and crossing her arms across her chest in a fashion Robin immediately picked up as being religious or ritualistic in nature. The Tamaranian did something akin to a bow and a curtsy rolled into one, murmuring an ancient chant and hiding back the green tears collecting at her eyes.

"What is it about our boy?" Ruth asked as she and Kevin held each other apprehensively. "What does the disk say about Novuhm?"

"Nova'm…," Starfire pronounced. "Nova'm, the fourth child and first-born son of king Vieveret'm. A prince of valor and beautiful destiny. He was the last male born in the line of the Por'm Dynasty, the reigning monarchy of the Virgin Age of Tamaran. Right before the Citadelians invaded with the first wave of Gordanian mercenaries during the Hundred Year Holocaust of Vega." She looked up with moist eyes of honor and sorrow mixed into a bitter sweet passion. "Tamaranian Legend…spoken down to the youngest of children in the amber household…tells of an intergalactic ark that carried Prince Nova'm as an infant safely out of the Vegan star system in time to avoid the bloody holocaust that ended the Virgin Age that so many of my people look upon with romantic fervor and religious admiration under the exaltation of the goddess X'hal for our deliverance from the Galactic Holocaust."

Robin blinked under his mask. He glanced over at the pod. "You mean to say…th-that this thing here….and their son carried inside of it…..i-is one hundred years old?"

Starfire gulped. "In earth terms…the accurate measurement would be closer to three hundred and seventy five years old."

"Frozen stasis…," Robin murmured. "It had to be the only way that Nova'm….," A beat. He looked at Starfire, "I can say 'Nova'm', right? It's not too sacred or anything?"

She was touched by his caution and respect. She smiled for the first time since she entered the mysterious shed and it warmed her up. "It is a beautiful name for a beautiful prince….," she blinked away a few forming tears and looked over at the Sandersons with clasped hands. "…and a beautiful son."

They were speechless. They held each other.

Starfire took a shuddering breath. "This boy….is a relic. He is an icon of my people. And it pains me…it pains me so much to think…," she closed her wet eyes and drew a hand over her chest. "….t-to think that he is blind to the glory that reigns inside of him."

"We had no idea….," Ruth murmured. "He's just our little Novuhm…"

"You gave him the best thing you could have," Robin said. "A home….and a loving family."

"Indeed," Starfire smiled. A beat. "Where is Nova'm now?"

At the last second, the Tamaranian realized she had spoken too soon. The burning in her body increased. She felt it the hottest from behind her. She was already turning around as bounding feet sounded off against the soft grown and a nubile figure scampered in through the open doorway of the shed.

"Mom! D-Dad! I-I think somebody's here! It looks like two people fell near the s-side of the house----" Nova'm froze.

Starfire was staring straight at him. Her face wet. Her lips parted.

Robin was silent…nervously twitching his fingers.

Nova'm blinked. Bright green eyes. A youthful face. A youthful body. Innocent and strong at the same time. A furious prince and a scared angel. His frown was missing once again as he looked confusedly at Starfire…at his parents…and at Starfire again.

The girl knew of only one thing to do.

She bowed low…low….to the ground.

And Nova'm's face contorted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of the Sanderson's yard…a good twenty feet down the dirt road that led through their chickenwire gate stretching across the forest, the black pickup truck sat. A white satellite/radaresque dish was being aimed out the window by the main in the driver's seat. He had headphones on…and by means of a device being tweaked on by the fellow in the passenger's seat, the conversation of the shed had been clearly picked up.

"Did you get all that?" the headphoned man muttered.

"Yup…recorded down to the whisper."

"Good. Let's get the Hell out of here and report it to Booker so he can get off our asses."

"I swear…he doesn't pay us enough to do this nowadays."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Dunkin Donuts?"

"Nah, man. IHOP."

"Deal."

VROOOOM!

The truck rolled away. And as it did, the sun glinted off a makeshift device that had been stealthily planted in a strategic spot behind the passenger compartment of the vehicle. It was what looked like a half-disected t.v. antenna with copper wires funneling out of it.

Off in the distance, hidden behind trees, I knelt in the undergrowth with ghetto headphones planted securely over my ears. Late morning sunlight glinted off my glasses as I stared at the retreating truck.

I blinked.

It had been easy pirating Slade's signals back in the day…

But FBI agents?

I took the headphones off, stood up, and straightened the scabbard of Myrkblade hanging over my chest.

These men were sloppy. Disorganized. And everything they—and their main man Booker—did was against the rules.

I sighed, turned around, and disappeared through smoke into the air. Invisible.

These men were no government agents….

Not at all…


	71. Hidden Sun part 3

**71. Hidden Sun part 3**

"What do you suppose are the implications of this, sir?" a dark-suited man leaned forward.

Booker stood behind his desk. Laboratory equipment and computer decks flashed behind him in the claustrophobic room of metal. He rapped his fingers on the desktop and eyed a tape deck containing an audio recording of the two Titans and the Sandersons in their heavily wooded home.

The subordinate was silent…waiting.

Booker rapped his fingers a final time, sighed, and looked up. "They've made contact, that's for certain."

"Were you expecting this, sir?"

"To be honest….yeah…," Booker walked over and came to a swinging-still seat in his office chair. "And before you ask…the answer is 'no'. I'm not concerned about the heat."

"These are the Teen Titans we're talking about……..sir," the man's eyes narrowed.

"You think I don't know that?" Booker smirked. "They're punks. Immature vigilantes swinging in from nowhere and expecting the day to somehow save itself around them. So they've bridged the gap between their City and Nova'm. So the little freak is in the hands of 'heroes' who know all about the Extraterrestrial Citizenship Act. There's one key advantage that we have here. An advantage that they have as well—or so they think—to a lesser degree."

"And what's that sir?"

"One of the Titans is also a freak," Booker smiled. "Nova'm's brand of freak. And where two of them are gathered together…there's bound to be a lapse of reason, logic, and sound decision in favor of fantastic emotion."

"And when that transpires…."

"We strike."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sky rumbled.

Raven glanced up from underneath the porch. The bright sky between the pine branches and distant mountains were turning gray.

"A storm?" the dark girl blinked.

Jared and Susan Feldman swung on the chair. "Summer invades even the tightest of mother earth's corners!"

"Jerry! I swear!"

He chuckled.

Raven tried to hide her own. "I suppose I should get back to me and my friends' cabin. I like being dry and all….but….I came into this world in a glob of amniotic fluid…so destiny has it that someday I'll get wet again." She tipped her head and stood up from the stool. "So if you two would kindly excuse me….good day."

She walked off.

"Tis a shame…," Jerad shook his head, stretched, and stood up. "We were just minutes away from meditation."

Raven practically skidded to a stop. Her bulging eyes attempted to return to normalcy as she spun around, cleared her throat, and said: "Y-You do meditation?"

"Damned right I do," the old man straightened his slacks beneath a plaid, button-up shirt with wrinkled hands. "Wouldn't miss it any day for the world! Especially a world full of so much dukkha and obscurity."

She leaned her head to the side. "You're Buddhist?"

"Who isn't?" the old man smirked. "Though I must admit, I'm as liberal as they come. But someone my age—expecting the passage of this life to come into fruition—I realize how important it is to embrace the nature of oblivion, in total and utter faith that there's a greater existence out there….if you can even call it 'existence." He winked.

Raven stared. She glanced down at Susan.

The obese wife smiled. "I just like the stress-relief."

"Ah."

"Did you wish to join? There's a covered garden some neighbors of us made a couple of blocks up the asphalt of the cottages. It's open to anyone. Should be out of the rain too."

She blinked. She smiled ever so slightly. "I think that sounds…..nice."

"Well then!" Susan hoisted herself up. "Let's get to oblivion!"

"It's not as simple as that, honey---"

She waddled away.

"…….love you." He shook his head.

Raven found herself chuckling. She was only half surprised….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nova'm sat in a lazy-chair, his body tense, his hands tightly clenching the arms of the furniture. His knuckles were white. His green eyes thin. His brow furrowed into a frown under a crown of short, jagged red hair.

He was as quiet as death.

Ruth and Kevin Sanderson sat silently in a couch perpendicular to him…but still not too far away. They were also silent…apprehensive.

Finally, Robin and Starfire sat on wooden chairs dragged in from a dining room. They didn't say a thing. Just stared.

Nova'm refused to return a gaze.

A grandfather clock in the distance ticked….ticked….ticked….ticked….

Silence.

Starfire's green eyes never left Nova'm.

The boy drilled his vision into the floor between his tense feet.

Ruth Sanderson bit her lip. Kevin scratched her head.

Robin looked at everyone. He shifted in his seat.

Tick…..Tick…..Tick….Tick…..

"So……….um……….."

Tick……Tick…..Tick…..Tick….

"N-Nova'm….is it?" Robin simpered.

Tick……Tick……Tick…..Tick…..

"I…um….I-I like your hairstyle. It's got a….I dunno….'cyberpunk' look to it."

"I hate my hair," Nova'm spat.

Robin sweatdropped.

Starfire took a deep breath. She was burning inside. From the look of Nova'm's little chest quietly heaving, he was experiencing the same thing.

Though they were both Tamaranians, they felt worlds apart.

Tick….Tick….Tick….Tick….

"Nova'm….honey….," Ruth placed a gentle hand on one of his stuck to the chair. "…these are good people. You've heard of the Teen Titans, right? They're here to be friendly, Nova'm. You don't have to worry about them."

"Why?" Nova'm frowned. His eyes bore through the two, casually dressed vigilantes. "They were spying on you and Dad earlier, weren't they? They're just like any other strangers…"

"But that isn't true, honey. Don't you see the one to the left? The girl?"

Nova'm's eyes narrowed. "Why…do you keep following me?"

Starfire didn't realize it at first, but he was speaking to her. "Eep!" she bit her lip, shook her head, and bore a hopeful smile. "Because—like I mentioned earlier—we are both similar! In background and in blood—"

"You don't like someone who's bled before…," Nova'm said thickly. "What do you know?"

Starfire looked down.

"Now, Nova'm…," Kevin said firmly. It was his part. "You trust us, don't you?"

Nova'm looked down.

"Don't you??"

"Yes sir…," the boy muttered.

"Can you trust us when we tell you that these people mean you no harm?"

Nova'm slowly looked up. His frown was gone. His green eyes were round. Wounded. Fearful.

Starfire wanted to cry.

"I…..I-I guess so….," he muttered.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "'Guess so'?"

"But….wh-what if they're working for **them**??" Nova'm stammered. "Th-They've tricked us before!"

At that, Kevin's eyes trailed off.

Robin leaned forward. "I must ask….who specifically is **them**? That is…the government representatives you keep running into?"

Ruth looked up. She spoke: "A small group that followed us down south from Ohio. They keep…..'paying us visits' from time to time….it never ends." She sighed. "The threats began three years ago…."

"Threats?" Starfire breathed.

The Sandersons nodded.

Nova'm fumed quietly.

"Any names?" Robin asked. "Do these 'representatives' go by any identity?"

Ruth stirred in her seat. "Well….I-I dunno if that's entirely important—"

"**Booker**," Nova'm spat.

Robin's lips parted.

Starfire looked at him, surprised.

Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Is that name familiar to you?"

"Technically…..yeah," Robin nodded. "Tell me…is 'Booker' tall, kinda young looking, slick black hair?"

Nova'm didn't say anything.

Ruth did. "That is exactly what he looks like," she nodded. She leaned her head to the side. "Have you….m-met him?"

"Yesterday," Robin said. "He was the one at the scene of the bus inquiring about Nova'm."

Kevin took a deep breath. "Bus??"

Robin winced.

"He did not tell you?" Starfire remarked.

Nova'm shifted in his seat. Uncomfortable.

"What bus????" Kevin asked firmly.

Starfire bit her lip. "The children…the children he saved from the tanker explosion."

Ruth gasped. "Nova'm?! You were there?! I-I thought only the Titans were there, according to the news!"

"Nobody knows that Nova'm was there,' Robin shook his head. "Nobody but us."

"And **us**," Kevin Sanderson frowned. He turned over and glared at his 'son'. "Nova'm…what did we tell you about going out that far?!"

"I can't help it!!" Nova'm exclaimed. "I-I can't stay in this house forever!! How would you like it?"

"Now son…," Kevin took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Must we remind you about what happened that one time you thought you could trek anywhere in the county where you wanted---"

"Think about those kids!" Nova'm exclaimed with a wave of his arm. "What if I wasn't there?! Th-They would have gotten hurt! Killed even!"

Starfire spoke forth: "But I thought you did not care for strangers, Nova'm…"

He looked over at him. His green eyes blinked…then narrowed as he frowned. "Fine….you wanna come here and mess with my family…go ahead."

"Nova'm….d-don't—" Ruth pleaded.

The boy jumped up, fists clenched. He shook. "I'd like to see what'd happen if one of **you** got taken by them when you were minding your own business in the woods!! And it's happened to me twice!! And it doesn't make me want to sit around and collect **dust!** Those people are mean…but I don't want to be mean! And all you're doing with these 'Titans' is trying to make me weak! Well I'm not weak! I'm not!! And the next time Booker and his men try and—"

"There won't be a next time, Nova'm!!" Kevin exclaimed. "Not if you obey us and let these Titans help you!!"

"I don't need any help!!" Nova'm shouted. He stormed off towards the nearby hallway in an adolescent huff. "Nobody understands!! I'm alone on this!! I'm not gonna be weak!!"

"Nova'm—"

SLAM!!

He was alone in what must have been his room.

There was half of a sigh somewhere between the two Sandersons.

Starfire hugged herself and looked towards the floor. Silently.

"You must excuse him…," Kevin exclaimed. "He's been….through a lot. We couldn't protect him from everything….all the time…."

"It sounds like he's been….in the company of Booker before," Robin said.

The couple nodded.

A beat.

Robin asked: "What happened on such occasions?"

They didn't reply to that.

Robin realized that was a threshold. "Okay…….well, we're here now. We're gonna put a stop to whatever's going on here. You need not worry about your boy any longer."

"He is….m-more than just 'our boy', isn't he?" Ruth managed a weak smile. "What is it that you said, Miss Starfire? A prince of Tamaran?"

"A monarch….a long lost and beloved monarch…," Starfire murmured. She looked up with round eyes of green. "A living legend. I am still in awe of his presence…of his life."

A beat.

"Do you believe…th-that you can reach out to him?" Kevin asked. "In ways that Ruth and I haven't been able to?"

The couple held their hands together softly.

Starfire blinked. She stood up and took a deep breath. "I would be honored….to help Nova'm discover himself."

Robin looked up. He smiled.

There was a low rumbling that shook the inner foundations of the house.

"Wuh oh….," Kevin mentioned. "Summertime….storm's moving through."

"Funny time we chose to visit," Robin simpered.

Ruth smiled. "Do not worry. We are…most glad to have you here. We need your help with Nova'm. This day was bound to come. Kevin and I knew it. And—in a way—so did our boy. He just doesn't realize it yet."

"Then maybe I should assist him in the realization…," Starfire said. She slowly walked out of the room and into the hallway as the other three watched.

The couples blinked.

Robin spoke, gathering their attention: "Has Nova'm always been so…….hard edged?"

"Only around strangers," Ruth said.

"And when we're on his back about going on walks!" Kevin smirked.

The Boy Wonder leaned forward and breathed: "What is he like otherwise?"

The mother sighed. She smiled. "Like an angel…"

"Really…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Knock Knock Knock

Starfire stood in front of a door with a poster of the Andromeda Galaxy on it.

Silence.

"Go back to your masked friend," a voice muttered from inside.

Starfire looked through the door and spoke: "How did you realize it was I?"

"The same way you know that I'm in here."

Starfire took a deep breath. He was right. She was burning deeply inside of herself.

"Please…I only wish to talk with you. I will not force you to do anything else but listen."

"…….."

"I acknowledge the fact that you do not trust me…," Starfire spoke to the door, "…but I can tell that you deeply trust your parents. You love them. But besides them…who are you to trust, Nova'm? You seem most adamant about getting out into the world around you, and yet when a piece of that world comes in the form of Robin and myself, you push away. Are you so afraid, Nova'm?"

"I'm **not** afraid." The voice growled in response on the other side. "To be afraid is to be **weak**."

"What is it that keeps you from wanting to talk to me, then?"

The room was silent.

A few seconds passed.

-click-

Starfire blinked.

It was the doorknob. She wasn't sure if he had locked it or unlocked it just then.

So she reached a hand out, gently gripped the handle, and twisted.

And the door opened…

The redhead slowly stepped in. Her graceful body in a slight crouch. Green eyes blinking. She peered left and right and saw a dark room with walls stickered all over with glow-in-the dark stars. Models of solar systems and planetary structures dangled by homemade string from the ceilings. Besides a gray, translucent window rested a telescope. Against the far wall rested a bed fit for a grownup. Nova'm sat with his back to the headpost, his thirteen year old body swallowed by the stretching plateau of bedsheet. He hugged his knees and frowned into nothingness. He breathed slowly.

Starfire slowly closed the door behind her, rested back against it, and ate the room once again through her eyes.

"You obviously know…..Y-You obviously must know of where your origin lies…."

"I like astronomy…" he pouted. It was an excuse.

Starfire smiled at that. She gracefully drifted over and ran a soft hand over the metal of the telescope.

"On earth….stargazing is almost a religion, I have noticed. For a culture incapable of crossing light years, their focus on the skies is most admirable…"

"Can't see anything from here anyway…," Nova'm mumbled. He hugged his knees tighter to his chest and glared out the gray window. "Mountains and trees pretty much hide all the stars. I don't know why I have that thing."

Starfire glanced at him…at the telescope…then at him again. She took her hand off and clasped it with her other as she tilted her head to the side and uttered: "You have been searching for your home, have you not?"

He looked at her. Two angry pinpricks of green. "I know where my home is."

"Yes?"

"It's right here. Where it's always been." He looked back into space. "I'm not from where you came from."

Starfire thought for a moment. She drifted over and leaned on the foot of the bed. "Would you like to…..know where I come from, Nova'm of Earth?"

He opened his mouth to protest….but just as Starfire predicted, nothing came out. He bit his lip and looked off.

Starfire smiled. She sat down softly on the end of the bed and supported herself with a hand. There was a rise of pitter-patters as a steady rain descended on the mountains, drenched the trees, and splattered gently against the windowglass…trailing down in warbling waves that scattered the already gray light meandering into the star-studded boy's room.

"It is a planet called Tamaran. A most beautiful and glorious planet. Alive with the lush jungles woven from the motherly hands of the great X'Hal herself. The air is warm and moist; alive with the same heated green of life that fills each and every one of my people. Purple mountains rise from the crown of the Jebregor Continent, encircling the majestic golden spires of King Vieveret'm's Temple of Rajador…a monument of the Virgin Age that trails down to the sea with hanging gardens of green life and fuchsia spirit. Then across the Sepia Sea in Triveg'r City, the bay waters glitter against the ivory marble of houses and courtyards and worship centers to X'Hal that rise up out of the liquid like ancient arms piercing through blue satin. There are places where you can walk the beaches of Tamaran and no longer know if you are above or under water…for the air is so much saturated with warmth and flowing life that it is impossible to separate the two mediums. Families picnic on the soft Banks of Emerald Vryae'm…breathing in the aroma of birth and death mixed into one, and children learn from the very first day of their emergence to smile, for they are filled with the joy of expectation for the Great Nebula where all of our souls will gather in time for the Collection of Benevolence, and we will all rejoin the glowing epicenter of Life within the bosom of X'Hal's migrating spirit across the cosmos…"

The girl's eyes were somewhat moist and accompanied with a soft, dying smile as she gazed deeply through the rain-slicked window. The sunlight danced across her amber features. She looked like a projection…something that wasn't really there. A hand could almost filter straight through her.

"A Tamaranian….never truly leaves her home planet…," she went on softly, "….even if there are many places that she might call home—out of ignorance or dedication—the warmth of green never fades away. It stays with her. Like an anchor of predestined purpose. I know….I know….that no matter where I am or where I may go….I know where I will end up. I know where my spirit will return to. And—the truth be told—it fills me wish such happiness. Happiness that no trial or tribulation may come close to vexing my soul free of. For though the dark powers of this world may hold the keys to my death…they shall never, ever…hold the keys to my life."

Silence.

Starfire looked over and smiled beautifully at the boy.

"Earth **is** my home as well, Nova'm…," she said. "But it is not **me**. Love it that I might…fill my days with it as I might…there is a greater purpose—and a greater happiness—that burns inside of me and points me elsewhere."

Nova'm was looking at her. His eyes had returned to a soft jade. The angel was showing through. At the end of her speech, he looked away and tried to frown forth the demon again.

"I….I do not have a burning…," he murmured.

She tilted her head aside. "Do you not?"

He glared at her. "**No**."

Starfire's lips curved. Without moving, her hands glowed starbolts and likewise her eyes intensified.

Nova'm shuddered with a gasp. His eyes illuminated…and the tips of his fingers shimmered like tiny embers. He looked at his digits…shaking a bit.

But soon, the glowing ended.

Starfire's hands returned back to amber and her eyes to softness as she continued smiling at him. A short jet of air escaped her nostrils; the gentlest of giggles.

Nova'm's mouth was dropped. He looked from his now-normal hands and back at the girl. He was clearly and youthfully dumbfounded for a moment before he shook it off, frowned, and swung around so that he sat on the edge of his bed with his back facing her.

"Whatever you're doing to me, **stop."** He muttered. He hugged himself and seemed to shiver as he looked off into the last bit of space he had left to himself: the dusty corner of the room. "I've had enough of people messing with me. Trying to get me….get me…."

"Get you what, Nova'm—?"

He spun at her. "**ANGRY!!"**

She literally jerked back. She bit her lip….

The boy fumed. Heaved. And looked back at the corner from where he huddled on the side of the bed. "It's all the same. That's all they ever want. They want me mad. Mad and **hurt…**"

Starfire blinked. "But it is not my desire to make you angry or hurt, Nova'm! N-Not at all!" She parted her lips with a look of concerned and leaned across the bed. "Tell me….who are these people who do this to you?"

"What does it matter….," he sighed. "They'll find me anyways. And it's all because….because of what I am."

"Huh??"

"A freak!"

"You are not a freak, Nova'm!" she exclaimed emphatically, her voice rising in a sort of anger of her own. But not at him. At whom…she couldn't put her finger on it. "Who could you ever make you think that about yourself??"

"I said it doesn't **matter**." He grumbled.

Starfire blinked. Her eyes rested on his short butchery of red hair. It was so Spartan…so military….so demonic. Too demonic for an angel…or a prince…

"Your hair…," she murmured. She raised a hand and lightly touched his follicles.

The boy flinched…but merely trembled as the burning in both of them intensified with subtle green. He hugged himself and shivered as her hand ran through the red strands.

"Why is it so?" she asked.

"It grows too fast…," he grumbled. "I'm always cutting it. Every week. I hate it."

"You a-actually cut it?"

"Scissors…knife…whatever it takes," he huffed. "I **hate** it…"

"But you must not!" she exclaimed. "Do you not know that it is a beautiful thing? Your hair? All Tamaranians' hair grows extraordinarily! It is a sign of the joy and exuberance of life itself—"

He slowly turned and frowned at her.

She blinked.

He gritted his teeth and batted her hand away. "I…am…**not**…Tamaranian!" He fumed. "I am a freak! Do yourself a favor and take your friend and get out of here! Get out of my Mommy's and Daddy's house! Get out of the forest! Get out of this planet!"

"But…..but….," Starfire breathily remarked, "….you are so alone. What sort of a true Tamaranian would I be if I abandoned you—"

"I am abandoned!!" he shouted, pounding his fist on the bed and glaring at her. "If I am so beautiful and important….then how come I've been alone all this time, huh?!" He shook and he thinned his green eyes until he couldn't bare to look at her anymore. So he covered his face and shuddered, still shouting: "It's always been this way!! I'm just a freak! Always have been! Always will be! Only Mommy and Daddy care, and everyone else is either afraid of me or wants to hurt me!!"

"Nova'm, but that's—"

He lowered his hands as the fury vomited forth. "I don't want your **lies!!**"

Starfire leaned back, holding a trembling wrist up to her lips. She swallowed and softly said: "Nova'm…..y-you are getting angry…."

The boy's green eyes widened. He took a deep breath.

And then…above the dull drone of rain against the household…the low rumbling of a pickup truck.

Nova'm practically flew off the bed.

Starfire stood up, panting. "The……those men…..the FBI??" she blinked. She turned to the boy. Her eyes widened. "Nova'm???"

He was pressing himself tightly against the wall. Panting. Sweating. His green eyes wide like saucers.

For a boy who denounced the act of being fearful…he was the suddenly the living embodiment of utter panic.

"Nova'm!" Starfire rushed over and knelt down in front of him, parting his butchered bangs with a sympathetic hand. "Nova'm…you must calm down! What is wrong?"

"It….It….It's him…." He panted.

"Who is 'him'?" she asked.

He swallowed dryly and hyperventilated. "Booker."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin parted a window curtain. His eyemask thinned as he stared out through the glass and saw the same four darkly-dressed men coming out of the truck and walking up to the front door.

"They must have followed Starfire and here somehow…," Robin said. He leaned back. "Dang it…"

"It's the second time they've been here this month," Kevin Sanderson grunted from behind him. "I doubt your presence here has anything to do with it."

Robin headed for the door. "Well…you and your family aren't alone. I"ll take care of this—"

"No!" Ruth exclaimed from the other side of the room.

Kevin rushed over and gripped Robin's shoulder to stop him before the Boy Wonder could open the font door. "Please, Mr. Titan. D-Don't…"

Robin looked up, raising an eyebrow. "Mr. Sanderson? You've got a new authority here. As a representative of the Titans, I'm entitled by the Vigilante Acts to declare this household a 'zone of investigation'. Imagine it as a sort of sanctuary. If you just allow me to—"

"Please…," Kevin insisted with firm, brown eyes. "These aren't your typical FBI agents. They're corrupt. Pure rats."

Ruth stepped forward, nodding: "If you so much as try to interfere…they might react violently."

"Booker could take Nova'm away from us today. Right now," Kevin said.

Robin stared up at the two. He blinked under his mask. He looked out the peephole.

Booker walked up and knocked on the door.

Robin leaned back. A beat. He took a deep breath. "Okay…I'll hide."

"Th-Thank you, Mr. Titan…."

"But the soonest he so much as threatens you or your son, I'm intervening. You have my word on that."

"P-Please….you must go hide!" Ruth exclaimed. "In Nova'm's room, there is a special place. Go there and warn him! He'll know what to do!"

Robin nodded. "Here…take this."

He handed Kevin something. A small, gray disc. It fit in the palm of the man's hand.

"What is it?"

"Press the red button and put it in your pocket," Robin pointed. "It'll record all audible frequencies over the next forty-five minutes. When Booker is gone, give it back to me. I may make use of it."

The man smiled. "God bless you, Mr. Titan." He slipped the disk away.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson??" Booker's muffled voice.

"Go!" Ruth desperately whistled.

Robin nodded and jogged down the hallway.

Ruth opened the front door.

Booker practically burst in. Flanked by two of his men. He whipped off his shades….blinked…and grinned tyrannically.

"Nice to see you too, Sanderson."

"Why don't you make yourself comfortable?" Kevin frowned.

"Will do…will do indeed," Booker forced himself past Kevin, spun around, and snapped a finger at his three men.

They nodded and walked off in random directions throughout the household.

Ruth held her hands together and said: "Please….you can't just barge in here and—"

"My good woman…," Booker swiveled around and leered, "…we already are. Now where is your….'son'?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stumbled into Nova'm's room. The slick refraction of light through rain danced across his features. He panted and looked around.

"Star?? Nova'm?"

Silence.

He walked towards the bed's side of the room. "Booker's here! Where's the hiding pla—WHOAH!!"

A graceful hand yanked him out from under. Like a wet noodle, the Boy Wonder's body was dragged under the bed and through a crack in the wooden floorboard. A trap door of sorts. He was now kneeling in a dark crawlspace next to a hushed Starfire and Nova'm.

"I believe we must initiate the 'shhh'!" Starfire hissed.

Robin nodded. He swiftly swung his hands up and closed the wall panel above them.

The three shuffled back…staring up. Starfire's green eyes blinked through the cracks in the wood. Nova'm's eyes were clenched shut. He was shaking his head and trembling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Booker…you can't be here…," Kevin frowned. "We've got the local authorities on you. You aren't as ambiguous as you think you are."

"Ambiguity may have been my ally once….," the dark-haired agent wandered past the mantel. He eyed the numerous photos of the amber-skinned boy and his parents while the three associates noisily perused the place. "Today, I have to rely on greater powers."

Ruth wandered over and held onto Kevin's arm while the husband replied: "Yeah? What kind of powers?"

"Oh….I dunno…," Booker spun around and glared. "Let's start with **malice**." He knocked a pair of photos down that crackled with glass shards onto the hardwood floor below. "Where is the little prick?"

"Don't you call him that….," Ruth burned his face with her eyes.

"Oh…and what am I to call him again?" Booker slowly marched towards the couple. He thumbed something through his suit. Something flat and curved. The Sandersons stepped back cautiously… "Your little precious? Your pride and joy? The spawn of your loins? When are you morons ever gonna wake up? He's an alien! A freak! A plague to this planet! One day he's gonna be all big and badass and that nasty little temper of his is gonna blow a green-glowing hole through someone. Who knows? Maybe even you!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Booker's loud, barking words echoed with eerie ambiance into Nova'm's lonely room and filtered into malevolent mutterings through the filtered lines of the floorboards.

Robin was breathing slowly. Poised. A frown on his face.

Starfire's lips were parted. Her breaths came out intermittently. She felt the burning intensify. She looked down…and realized that a trembling Nova'm was clinging hard to her left side, burying his frightened face into her shoulder. Hiding. Trembling into her. A thirteen year old angel suddenly clipped of wings with miles of ground beneath him.

She wrapped her arm around him without saying a thing.

And he didn't protest.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kevin shook. "The only reason Nova'm would ever possibly be angry is because you---"

"I want to unleash the demon inside of him while its still young and easy to stifle," Booker said. "An alien menace is all that boy is. And you two are getting in the way of my protecting the valuable citizens of this county, this state, this country, this planet!"

"What is it you're really after, Booker?" Kevin exclaimed. "How does mangling that poor boy's life bring you glory? It can't be that complex. You're a small man. What does it all amount to?"

Booker frowned. He pointed a firm finger. "You're not in any position to say things you might soon regret, Sanderson. I suggest you think twice before you leap up your own ass."

One associate paused on the way to Nova'm's room. He looked Booker's way.

Booker returned the glance. He nodded.

The associate quickly ducked in through the door with the galaxy poster.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The floorboards creaked and dust fell onto the Titans' faces.

Starfire gasped, but quickly hushed herself. She hugged the shaking Nova'm close to her with one arm and raised a glowing hand up with the other. She looked over and realized that Robin had pulled two birdarangs out and was holding them up at ready in an agile hand.

The shadow of the thug beyond the sides of the bed cast over them in the warbling kaleidoscope of rainwater transfused aura.

Robin breathed silently. He regripped the birdarang.

Starfire's free hand glowed brighter. She again glance at Robin.

His head shifted…as if to signify that he was looking back at her.

As Starfire simultaneously felt Nova'm's body trembling against her, she had the sudden imprint of a family. A transient mother…father…and child. And it was enough of a startling sensation to happily distract her through the tense minute and a half of the dark-suited man shuffling about the room above.

As soon as he came, he left.

Nova'm shuddered into a sigh.

Robin slowly lowered his bidarangs.

Starfire exhaled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gradually, the three associates congregated back into the main room.

Booker glanced at all of them.

They shook their heads.

"Satisfied?" Kevin asked. "We're never handing him to you. Ever."

"He's here somewhere…," Booker said. "I'd tear the place apart to get to him….but…..I'm not ready to make that much noise." He smirked and leaned forward. "You two are frankly not worth it."

"So you're a coward…," Kevin smiled back.

Booker said nothing. He motioned towards the front door. He and his associates stepped back into the rain.

Kevin and Ruth breathed easier…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nova'm?…………Nova'm?"

The boy gasped. He looked up, his lips quivering. His eyes still bright with fear.

Starfire looked down. She smiled. "They are gone now. As flattered as I am to be your 'protector', I will not force you to hug me any further if you do not desire such…"

He blinked. He looked at an impression in the shape of his face in her casual shirt. He leaned back with a gasp, swallowed, and shook on his own…as if he hadn't tried to cling anything or anyone the entire time.

A wave of watershed light fell into the crawlspace as Robin pulled the plank of wood open and crawled out first.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THUD!

Booker's number one man closed the driver's side door, brushed the drops of rain off his coated shoulders, and sighed. He looked over at Booker. He stated: "So….what has **that** accomplished?"

Booker leaned back and smiled. "Keeping them on their toes….of course."

The truck started up. It ambled down the muddy path. "And the Titans?"

"Turns out….I may not be the biggest coward in town after all…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin wandered first into the living room and rushed immediately towards a window, through which he peered out at the rain and exiting truck.

Starfire slowly sauntered out and stood in the back, her hands clasped together.

Kevin swallowed…staring blankly out the window besides Robin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the disk. "You think….your little recording's gonna do anything?"

"Mr. Sanderson…as far as I'm convinced…," he graciously took the disk from him, "…it's already done."

"How could you three have lived under the constant oppression of that man and his minions?!" Starfire exclaimed. "Is this not the 'Freedom of the Land'?"

"'Land of the Free', Star," Robin corrected. "But quite frankly…wherever there're powermongers like Booker…there's injustice." A beat. "But not for long." The Boy Wonder pocketed the disk. He faced the two parents. "I have a friend back at Little View Cottage. His name's Cyborg. Together…we can replicate this disk and then study it for clues as to who Booker is and why he's doing what he's doing."

"But is he not a member of the FBI?" Starfire remarked.

Robin turned around. "I'm beginning to doubt that. I've dealt with the Federal Bureau of Investigations before. They just don't smell the same."

Ruth looked over the two Titans' shoulders. "Nova'm??" A beat. "Wh-Where are you?"

Starfire's eyes widened. She spun around. She crept back into his room. "Nova'm?" He wasn't there. She wandered through the hallway. "Nova'm?" Nothing. She came back into the living room and looked all around. "Where have you departed to---" She froze.

The back door was opened partially…letting in spray from the rain.

Ruth gasped. "Not again!!"

"Huh?!" Robin ran. He burst through the door—with Starfire shortly following. The two Titans stood in the rain. Their bodies seeped with liquid as they spun around and looked for a sign of the youngster amidst the mess of leaves and mountain pebbles.

Kevin and Ruth stood in the doorway, side by side.

"There!" Kevin pointed.

The Two Titans spun and looked up the mountain side.

A panicked, green-trailing figure was blurring up the mountainside.

"Nova'm!!" Starfire exclaimed, a hand reaching forth.

"Booker did it…," Robin gritted his teeth. "That kid's really…really scared. He's trying to get away from it all."

Starfire spun and faced the Sandersons. "How far is he known to traverse when this distraught?!"

Ruth shook her head. "He's called us from a payphone in Tennessee before…"

"Not good…," Robin wetly muttered. He looked at Starfire. "Catch up with him!! You're fast enough!"

"W-What about you?" the Tamaranian replied.

He pointed at his slacks' pocket. "I got a package to deliver. Cyborg and I will get this processed! I promise you of that!" He turned and faced the Sandersons. "All of you!! We're gonna hunt down Booker and free Nova'm! Don't you worry!"

Kevin nodded. "Whatever you say! Just get to it!!"

"Most definitely the affirmative!" Starfire exclaimed and zoomed violently over the treetops.

"Star!" Robin called out for her.

But she was already gone.

He stared up after her. Dripping.

"Just be yourself….it'll all be fine…," he muttered.

He turned and ran through the forest towards the distant Little View cottages.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a garden…

In the rain….

Shaded by a practical, metal overhang…

There were two benches.

And on each bench was a person.

One person was a man well into his 70s with clamshell eyes shut to the sleeping world around him.

The second person was a pale girl with dark blue hair and eyes shut under a red gemstone.

The water trickled down everywhere from the sides of the overhang.

Like liquid white noise.

Constant, droning, lazy ambiance.

Chaos that drowned and was drowned out.

The concentration of the two meditating entities was admirable…especially considering that they had been involved in the act for the last hour and forty-five minutes.

It was with more or less irony that both opened their eyes at the same time.

They glanced at each other from across the spaces between their benches.

Instantly awake…

"Any enlightening thoughts?" Raven droned.

Jared Feldman slowly nodded. "Yes. My stomach's growling."

The dark girl rolled her blue eyes. "You have got to be kidding me. You did not achieve any zen at all?"

"I've noticed that my wife has left us…," he remarked, glancing over at a third and empty bench. "She left her shoes. Unless she's been raptured by her previous religion…I think she just went to use the little relic's room."

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "How fascinating…"

"Tell me, young lady….," Feldman pleasantly spoke over the low roar of falling rain against the metal overhang. "What was your enlightenment?"

She shook her head. "There'd be no point in telling you."

"Then why inquire as to mine? Unless—of course—you expected me to offer no answer."

Raven shrugged. "Simple curiosity."

"Or perhaps…," Feldman went on, "…you are dissatisfied with the answer unto yourself?"

"…….," Raven stared at him. She looked down towards the floor of the garden.

Feldman was perfectly silent….patient…..veteran…..

"I've not been….enlightened in a long time….," Raven blinked. "I've been so…..so self-centered lately. Not so much that I'm thinking about myself all the time….but….thinking about what I am to others around me. In so doing….I've put too much weight on the 'self'. And….I am concerned for what imbalance such focus could create for both me and my friends…"

"Concerned?" Feldman lifted an eyebrow. "You mean you're afraid."

She stared. "I don't do fear."

He chuckled. "But of course."

For a split second, she was actually glaring at him. But she shook it off, sighed, and said: "I'm trying to do two things at once. And in such…I'm creating an ugly dichotomy. Something that rubs up against me the wrong way. I'm trying to conform to what my friends want of me—and thus grow closer to them. At the same time, I'm trying to maintain what a secure life should have of me—and thus I'm distancing myself from my friends. It's an utter paradox…an oblivion all in its own. And I can't get over the feeling that….th-that I'm actually hurting those whom I most respect. I'm hurting them by trying not to hurt them."

"I see…..," he muttered with a slight nod. "And the reason for all of this anxiety to begin with…."

"I've already hurt them….," she said under her breath. "I've hurt them….and I can't ever make up for it…."

Silence.

"Do you know how I came across meditation?" Feldman said.

Raven looked at him.

"It was while stationed in Japan," Feldman said. "Both before and after my duty. A Zen master taught me the basics of finding enlightenment. I've been trying to awaken myself ever since."

Raven leaned her head to the side. "Where did you go to do your 'duty'?"

"Why…Korea of course."

Her lips parted. "You were in the Korean War??"

He nodded. "Marched to Pusan myself. Survived ambushes. Butted heads with Charlie one too many times…barely came back with the toes of my right foot in tact…not to mention my ankle."

"W-Were you….."

"Purple heart after eight months."

"Ah."

"But I had my chance to throw my own rocks…," Feldman said with a crooked smiled. "Ended three lives, I did." His smile faded as he stared off into the rain. "Three boys. Barely my own age. They all were living so much when they died. I did it each time with a bullet, and they just wouldn't go down flat. If they had six legs, they'd all be twitching the whole time."

Raven was silent.

Feldman closed his eyes and breathed in silently. "When I returned to the States…I had no idea how I was to live with myself. Not after all that I did. Whether I was forced to end those lives or not is not what matters. The importance lies in that I knew what evil I was capable of doing. As well as the rest of humanity." His eyes opened and he was staring straight at Raven. "But after I met Susan…I realized that there are people in this world……..worth the risk. And that I have to live with the evil that is in my past and inside of me as well. And though there may not be anything I can ever do to excuse the lives I have taken…it still doesn't keep me from living life to its fullest. I'm a very old man, Miss Raven. I do not have many years left to rob myself of in self-loathing. A pity it would be—indeed—to rob one's self of such life nearly sixty years early…"

The dark girl was silent in response to that. But judging by the slight curve in her lips…she was enlightened.

And Feldman gave a silent reply to silent gratitude.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire desperately eyed every clearing and break in tree canopy beneath her. She soared across the rain-drenched mountain slope, her red hair clinging into a tangled mass of satiny desperation.

Nova'm was not too far off. She could sense it with the hidden fire inside of her. But the chaos of the rain and the emotion of the moment tangled her nerves into a tense bunch, and she could not pull the knot loose for the life of her.

She squinted her eyes…and caught sight of a green glow just ahead by ten meters under the shade of pine branches.

She gasped, stretched both of her arms forward, and performed a spiraling dive down to the floor of the earth far below.

She hovered to a stop, touched down, and spun about on the rainsoaked grass. Panting. Looking. Surrounded by bodies of bark. Branches dancing up and down in the weighted impact of water drops.

"I…..I-I could have sworn he was—"

FLASH!!!

Nova'm all but plowed into her in his blurred sprint.

"Ooof!!" she stumbled back, balanced herself, and stood before him.

Nova'm shook his head, looked up, and gasped at the sight of her.

"Nova'm….please….," she took a step forward with an arm out-stretched. "Cease running…"

"Don't tell me what to do!" he shouted, clenching his fists. "Booker and his men were there because of you! Wasn't he?! S-Somehow he must have sensed it! He must have sensed that there was another freak present! Now my mom and dad are in danger!! I hate you!!! I hate you and wish you would just leave me alone!!"

He turned and ran towards the edge of the clearing.

Starfire swiftly hovered over—soaking—and blocked his passage. "No more retreat!" she said firmly with fair arms outstretched. "You need my and the Titan's assistance desperately! And you are most aware of it, are you not?!"

"I don't need anybody!!" Nova'm shook. His butchered red hair had turned into a thin mat of dripping scarlet over bright, hateful eyes of green. "My Mommy and Daddy and I were just fine until you came along!! Now get out of my way!! RRRAUGH!!"

He swung a fist.

Starfire's hand glowed a strong green and she easily blocked his punch. "You were not fine!" she exclaimed firmly. "Booker and his men….they have gotten to you before!! They have taken you as captive, have they??"

"Shut up!!!" he shouted and swung another fist.

She blocked and circled around him in a hover with charged starbolts. "They hurt you! Only to make you angry! They called you things that you are not…but now you are forced to think these ugly things about yourself because all you know at the hands of them is pain!!"

"Stop it!! STOP IT!!" Nova'm dove at her.

She twirled away in mid-air and floated up high. "They exploited you, Nova'm! They thought they could crush you! They thought they could manhandle the hidden fire of Tamaranian glory that resides inside of you. They thought they could turn it into something furious and angry all the time. But you are not this angry shell that quivers and quakes before me, Nova'm! For I know who you are! You are the Prince of the Virgin Age! Descendant of the legendary King Vieveret'm himself! A relic of glorious, immaculate nature! An unknown martyr and an eternal name of immensity all the same! Do you not realize how incredibly special and innocent you are?!"

He clutched his head. "No….N-No!!" He glared up at her. Eyes glowing green. "I know who I am!! I'm a monster!! So help me, I'll rip you apart and every pathetic living thing on this planet!!" He charged up two small hands and growled. "RrrrrrrrRRRAUGH!!!!" He unleashed a surprisingly large starbolt.

Starfire gasped. She dropped down just before the flying energy field could singe her hair.

FLASH!!!!

Pine trees snapped. Branches flew. A wall of rainwater soared up straight in the air…and settled down with a slosh.

Starfire shook the stringy hair out of her eyes. She panted.

Nova'm was down on his knees in the middle of the clearing. His hands smoked from the discharged energy. He shook and trembled. His face was tense….high-strung….about to collapse.

"This…th-this feeling…..this awful feeling inside of me…." He clenched his eyes shot and held a hand to his chest. "Burning…..so much…..it can't be good….it can't be…."

"But it is, Nova'm…," Starfire gently said as she drifted over and knelt in front of him. "And, truthfully, good things come painfully from time to time." She gently reached a hand out and touched his rain-drenched shoulder. "I sensed from the beginning….that your life is something constantly battling with sorrow. You have had the misfortune of dealing with monsters in this world that would rob you of any chance for boundless confidence or glorious joy. But I assure you….Nova'm…things can change. Once you realize who you are…and what you are…that burning inside of you will turn into an everlasting warmth. Like a hug from the inside out that will never go away."

He shook and flinched from her touch…shaking his head desperately. "No….I'm a freak! A freak!! I-I can only hurt people!"

She smiled with a deep inhale. "Is this the same Nova'm I saw saving a bus full of children? The same Nova'm smiling and laughing with his father over a football on a mantelpiece photograph?"

He bit his lip. He looked up at the Titan.

She raised a hand up and stroked the wet bangs out from his crown. "Do you not see, Nova'm? You are so…so very beautiful. And innocent. This furious 'freak' is not you. It never was you. I am glad to have found you…for now you have someone else besides your parents to show you who you are. Someone who has the same fire as you…the same galactic blood…the same yearning for meaning in a lonely world full of nightmares."

His lips quivered. His eyes started to shake. "I…..I-I do not know what this feeling is….," he trembled. "…it….it feels like anger….but….I-I do not like it. I do not like it at all…."

She smiled and softly said: "Be at ease, Nova'm….be at ease…."

He shook, his eyes clenching shut. "The burning…i-it is rising into m-my eyes….."

"It is called 'crying', Nova'm…"

He hugged himself and started to teeter over. "I'm so sick and tired of being scared….being sc-scared for Mom and Dad….for everyone and everything I don't know…."

She caught him before he could 'fall over' and held him close into a hug identical to the frightened embrace under the floorboards of his room minutes ago.

"Rest assured, Nova'm….," she stroked his back gently and spoke into his ear. "There are plenty of 'everyone and everything' like you and me….waiting to know you. And they will be so….so very happy to know that you exist…and that you are who you are…"

He hiccupped, and green tears streamed out of his eyes for the first true time in ages. He surrendered into Starfire's arms.

"P-Please….I don't want to be alone anymore……d-don't want to be a-alone anymore…."

"Shhhh….and you are not, Nova'm…," she stroked and hugged the cold rain away. "You are not…"

And Starfire felt like a sister again…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CREEEAK!!!

Booker's face appeared as he opened a locker inside his lab from the outside.

Metallic 'sleeves' hung from a mysterious suit in front of him. He picked up one of the sleeves and held it in front of him. It looked like a brace. There were half-spheres of glass and wires equipped all along the framework of the metal.

An associate stood behind him. "Just needs one extra charge, right sir?"

Booker nodded….admiring the device. "Then it'll be a complete prototype. The first bidder will be very lucky indeed. But we'll be even luckier."

"How much luckier?"

"Enough to run our asses around the world four times. That satisfy you?"

"Whatever, sir. As long as you're right about the Titans leading us to the kid."

"Once we finish this thing…not even the Titans will be a threat to us."

"…..were they to begin with?"

Booker was silent. He smirked. "Merely a game…..merely a game."

A beat.

"You and the others got something constructive to do this evening?" Booker asked.

"Not yet, sir."

"Go coast by 'Little View'. Let's see if our visitors are up to anything fishy."

"Sure thing."

Booker hung the 'sleeve' back up…and swung the doors to the locker back closed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the lower areas of Asheville, North Carolina…a lone commercial building of less-than-aesthetic proportion stretched up slick and smooth in the rain-swept afternoon. Three dark-suited men walked out of an entrance lined with black windows. They lethargically filed into a notorious pickup truck and rolled off northward.

Across the street as they left—parting the rain atop a rooftop—a figure materialized in a flash of smoke.

I walked towards the edge of the building top and leaned over. My black eyes narrowed through my shades as I focused in on the building.

Water drops ran down my back and off the scabbard that housed Myrkblade.

I took a breath, vaulted off the rooftop, and crept alone and silent towards the black windows of the suspicious structure.


	72. Hidden Sun part 4

**72. Hidden Sun part 4**

_Black wires._

Green bolts.

Crucified to a wall.

Panting.

Chest cramped by metal shackles.

Shrunken inside a slab.

Wandering bodies.

Panting.

"Ready to juice 'em……"

More green bolts.

A twinge.

A spark of pain.

Gasping.

The man's face slides into view.

Computer equipment and black wires forming a halo.

The forbidden laboratory.

Darkness and darkness.

Panting.

The man grins.

"All good to go, sir!"

"Let's see what more you've got inside of you…little freak."

The green bolts flash upwards.

Tensing muscles.

Banging around inside the slab.

White hot pain.

Everything turns green.

Emerald fire.

Gasping…twitching…

"Yes…"

Writhing…burning…

"Yes………"

A cry for Mommy and Daddy.

Emptiness.

A dark nub of green pain.

Alone in the universe.

The bolts rise.

The man's grin glints.

"Show me that anger of yours………show it all to me……"

The boy screamed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!!!!!"

Nova'm woke up with a jerk. He was sweating all over. But there was more than sweat coating him. He was wet from top down. Like just coming out of the shower. Soft pitter patters echoed around him.

As he came down from the dream's waves, he breathed easier and easier. He hugged himself…flexing arms that were once skewered. Curling a chest that was once electrified. Bit a lip that had once opened wide in a howl.

Trembling, Nova'm looked around with weak eyes.

He was against a rock wall. Shading him like an umbrella was the root structure of an ancient tree. It was hoisted up a meter and a half above the earth where the soil was once higher against the mountain. Rain and crumbling rock had eroded the dirt away, but the tree remained. Like a cross section. The bulk of the trunk hugged the rockface and shadowed Nova'm completely.

Protected him from the soft rain.

Nova'm sniffed. But he wasn't cold. Actually, he was surprised he hadn't caught a bug or something. The last thing he remembered was sobbing in Starfire's arms. Yes…he was able and willing to remember that. He was trying to figure out what happened since then. And why he was so warm.

He gasped.

He was burning. But not like the burning Booker had subjected him to. Rather…it was a burning deep inside. A wholesome warmth.

Nova'm shuffled about on his knees, craned his fair head, and looked out at the forest.

He blinked.

He glanced up.

Sitting up above on a branch jutting out of the very same tree shading him was Starfire. Her feminine legs dangled and her casually dressed body leaned against the trunk as she smiled and looked off into the drizzling forest.

And she was singing…

_"Jiiiruhh lekor-sanaah. Hablorkin-swaye laney-ruh. Tam'ran nu X'Hal de-blork-sinaah. Enflaven da ren may-ruh…"_

Nova'm listened silently, his lips parting in an unconfessed wonder.

Starfire's voice joyfully drifted through the pines in the softest of breaths. She was like a red songbird, descended from the blue threshold of the sky and constellated together by pinprick strobes of a world unknown to him. And yet…burning all at once in his heart.

It pulsed with each note that drifted out of her.

_"Yur. Yur. Yur-clay bragah. Vega nu X'Hal de-fleecee. Dri. Dri. Dri-Flyn senthar. Dri-Flyn senthar da ren kai-ruh."_

Her voice lingered…was swallowed into silence.

A wet strand of hair or two dangled as she slowly turned her head, looked down, and smiled at the boy.

"It is a beautiful day for the sky to cry…," she said.

"The song," Nova'm blinked. "What does it mean?"

Starfire giggled. She said: 'It is a beautiful day for the sky to cry!'"

Nova'm blushed. "Oh. I didn't understand a word of it."

"Did your heart burn when I sang it?" she asked.

"…….," he nodded. "Yes…..I-I guess it did…."

Starfire leaned against the tree while on the branch and looked out into the wet wilderness. "There are….few things on this planet called Earth that reminds me of Tamaran. I suppose it is a blessing. I eagerly embrace every opportunity that I find to be reminded of who I am. And where I am from."

Nova'm hugged himself and looked at the ground. "I envy you…"

Starfire made a mock look of surprise and grinned down at him. "Oh do you, now?"

He was silent.

She jumped off the tree and effortlessly drifted down till she stood up above him.

"I could have sworn you were far too distrusting of what information of my culture I had to offer you!"

"I…..I-I don't know anymore…," he blushed.

She smiled. She knelt down and softly spoke to him: "I do believe that is the most honest statement I have heard uttered from you yet."

He looked at her. "Why are you doing this?"

"Hmmm?" she leaned her head to the side innocently.

"Why are you here? Why are you trying to teach me things?"

She grinned. "Why do your parents take care of you?"

He thought for a while. Then he said: "Um….b-because they love me?"

"Love is something that translates itself in so many different boundaries," she spoke. "On Tamaran…there are at least twenty-seven distinct categories of 'love'. And if you must know…at least three of them I have attributed to you."

He bit his lip. "R-Really?"

She nodded. "Mmmhmmm. Honor…Respect…and….," she lingered. She giggled softly, "…siblinghood."

He looked at her funny.

She reached over and cupped his chin. "You remind me so much of my younger brother. He is only seven harvests old. He lives back on Tamaran with my mother and father. They cherish him dearly now that both I and my sister have taken our trips through the galaxy, and thus are absent." She squinted her green eyes and smiled, amused. "Howbeit…my brother certainly grows his hair long and red like all Tamaranian boys. And—I must admit—you hurl a starbolt with far greater magnitude than he has ever attempted!"

Nova'm felt something slip…and he smiled.

"If you would only see yourself now…," Starfire murmured. "Your joy. It is slipping through. I can sense it."

Nova'm sighed at that and looked away. He hugged himself and stammered: "Joy is only temporary. Tomorrow comes with Booker and his creeps always saying bad things to Mom and Dad. And then…th-they could take me in again…"

"You are afraid?" she asked.

He nodded. "I am….," he clenched his eyes closed as he admitted breathily. "I am afraid."

She laid a hand on his shoulder. "Tamaranians know fear as much as joy, Nova'm. Sometimes….the emotions are interchangeable. I b-believe it is liken unto the cyclic nature of the Oriental Yenna and Yangtze."

"Yin and Yang…," Nova'm corrected her. He was suddenly smirking again.

"See!" Starfire pointed. She giggled explosively. "Joy and fear! Interchangeable! The Tamaranian psyche is not so impossible to grasp, inasmuch as you realize that Tamaranians are just as paradoxical as humans!"

"I don't know any Tamaranians…," he mumbled.

"Do you know yourself?"

He was silent.

She thought aloud. "Hmmm….well, do you know me?"

He looked at her. He blinked. "Kor….Kori….K—"

"Koriand'r," Starfire nodded with a smile. "Koriand'r daughter of Myand'r and Luand'r."

Nova'm blinked. "Are Tamaranian names always so goofy?"

She chuckled. "Only if you think about them so heavily. Your name is Tamaranian. You know that, right?"

He glanced at the drizzle coming down through the pine. "I always knew it was freakish…"

The smile left Starfire's face. "Nova'm…I wish you would not—"

"Sorry…," he shuddered and looked off. "I'm just….I-I…….s-sorry…."

A beat.

Starfire closed her eyes. "I am full of sorrow, Nova'm. I am full of sorrow for you. To think…to imagine…that all your life you have been separated from your own people. And on top of that…you have been forced to think so lowly of yourself…."

"I believe you…," he said.

She opened her eyes. "You do?"

He looked at her. He pointed at his chest. "I can feel it. I don't know how….but I can. Wh-When you feel sorry for me…"

She leaned her head to the side. "Then do you feel it when I am happy for you? Or when I am concerned for you?"

"Maybe…."

"Maybe??"

"What difference does it make?" he grunted, stood up, and paced over to the rock wall. "All that burning and stuff….that green energy….it's evil."

"No! It is not!" she exclaimed. "Whatever would make you—"

"You don't know what Booker has done with it…," Nova'm glared.

"…..," Starfire blinked. She stood up over him. "Nova'm….what has that monster done to you?"

He hugged himself.

She placed a hand on his shoulder. "Nova'm? Has he hurt you?"

He trembled. "I only hurt myself. He makes me angry. When he makes me angry….that stuff burns inside of me and…and…."

"Yes?"

"It hurts," he bit his lip. His green eyes watered. "It hurts me….and s-someday…it will hurt others."

"Nova'm…."

He spun around, frowning. "It's a hidden evil!! Inside of me! A hidden evil!! Booker's got it now! He keeps getting it!! Every time he captures me! I'm such a freak! I should just die and rid the world of the evil energy he keeps gathering!"

Starfire gasped. "No! No, Nova'm! You must not wish for death!"

"Why not?!"

"It is one of the gravest transgressions of Tamaranian being! Life has its joy, and life has its suffering. But life in and of itself is sacred and precious! As exalted as the nature of X'Hal herself! To wish for death is to malign the very sacredness hidden inside each and every one of us!!"

"Maybe for you!" Nova'm shook. "But I've been alone all my life, remember?! How does that make me Tamaranian?!"

She stood over and pressed a hand to his heart. "THIS is what makes you Tamaranian, Nova'm. This burning…it is not a hidden evil. It is a hidden sun….like the Vegan star of Tamaran nestled inside of you all along. It was most unfortunate that you were lost as you were. Forced to know nothing but yourself in this chaotic world called Earth. But this burning inside of you could not stay alone forever. It reached out…and I felt it. And the moment I saw you saving those children—I sensed it and I knew….I knew, Nova'm…you would not be alone anymore."

He bit his lip and shook his head. "I-I can't feel it! I can't feel this like you can! Is it because you're older! That you've been around more Tamaranians?! Why is it?!"

She smiled and held his shoulders. A wave of joy surged outward from her center and nestled itself in Nova'm's burning heart. The two were soon in a communion of gloriousness.

"It is not because I am older, Nova'm. Nor is it because I have lived my life around our own people. But rather…it is because I am free. Like you yourself are free. Only….you need to realize it."

He stared at her, jaw agape.

"Nova'm…," she winked a green eye. "Look at yourself…"

He blinked. He glanced down. "WHOAH!!"

The two of them were well over fifteen feet in the air. Floating together. A green aura about their figures. The wave of joy Starfire had summoned filled them both while she was talking, and a sense of boundless confidence defied gravity in pure Tamaranian fashion.

Nova'm instinctively clutched ahold of her in a death-grip hug.

She chuckled merrily and pushed him back. "I am not the only one flying, Nova'm. You are."

"But….B-But…."

"Relax," she pushed him off.

"AACK!!"

He flinched…drifted…and bumped into a tree in reverse. He gasped. His legs were dangling in mid air still. He felt as if an invisible wind was lifting him up. He hovered effortlessly. Panting. And—as horrified as he was—he didn't fall. He didn't collapse. Because suddenly the flight felt so….so….natural. He felt the burning intensify…and it crossed into every dangling limb he had.

Nova'm looked up at Starfire….flushed and shocked.

She grinned. "Embrace the joy, Nova'm….it is twelve earth years overdue."

The boy blinked at her. His face was blank…but slowly coming into fruition. He muttered: "Mom and Dad….," his voice was soft. Ever so slightly, his lips curled. "They were safe today…s-safe because you and the other Titan was there…"

"Very safe indeed," Starfire nodded.

"Booker…..you guys would have kicked his butt, wouldn't you?"

She giggled. "A good thrashing of the proverbial donkey!"

Nova'm suddenly laughed. A high-pitched, childish laugh that betrayed the man he was forcing himself to be. "And you….you talk funny!!"

Starfire planted her hands to her hips and performed a mock pout. "Now how is THAT something to be joyous about?!"

He laughed even more…hugging himself and twirling in mid air. He drifted to a stop with a long exhale. His green eyes bright and full of life. A smile on his face that could not come off.

"I….I feel like the stars are falling…."

"Here…," Starfire reached a hand over. "Let me show you how to raise them up again…"

He smiled and gently hooked his fingers around hers.

She lifted up into the air…and he followed behind her like a cape.

In a glorious fashion, Starfire weaved them through the drizzle of rain, around bodies of pine trees, up and over branches, and down low to scour the foot of the mountain. It was a gentle drifting, not that of a rollercoaster. But Nova'm was nonetheless thrilled. His free hand floated out like a wing. An angel rediscovering himself. And Starfire reveled in the moment. In giving salvation to a relic of her people and lore.

But Nova'm was not a prince in her eyes. Not anymore. He was something of another plane. Something destined for only her to explore.

She spun the two of them up to the top of the forest canopy and drifted into a 'standing' position in mid air.

Nova'm caught his breath and chuckled. He clung onto Starfire as the girl Titan smiled at him and said:

"I wish to give you my word, Nova'm…"

"Y-Yes, Koriand'r?"

"No matter what happens…no matter how frightening this world may be…," she narrowed her eyes. "I will protect you. I feel it is my duty. I feel it is my place. You are far too precious to drop like the stars and rain. I will do all in my power to assure you of that…"

He nodded. "I-I believe you….I-I really do…."

A beat.

He swallowed and hid his face in her shoulder. His voice was shaking. "Th-Thank you…Koriand'r…."

She smiled. "If you like…..you can call me 'sister'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and Robin stepped into the top-covered T-Car. Rain pitter-pattered against the titanium body and glass windows. With a computer chip, Cyborg turned the computer system of the vehicle on. He kept the motor off. The a/c unit switched on and diminished the warm air of incubated summer vehicle gradually.

"So….you're trying to tell me that those creepy men with the badges from the other day were phonies?" Cyborg exclaimed.

"I'm not looking for phonies…," Robin muttered, shelving the circular disk with Booker's voice in a motorized drawer popping out of the dashboard. "It's villains I'm looking for."

"We're a long way from prison, man."

"So are these creeps," Robin's eyemask thinned as he pushed the drawer closed. "And that's what bothers me."

"You think they were ever legit?"

"Most probably," the Boy Wonder nodded as the computer started to analyze the voice of Booker. Running a match in the T-Car's portable database for a match. An identity. A background. "Unless the FBI got super corrupt since the last time I checked, these people changed somehow."

"When **was** the last time 'you checked'?" Cyborg asked with a curious human eye.

"Back with the Bat."

"Ahhh…back with the Bat."

"Yup, back with the Bat."

"I like the sound of that. Sounds like a sitcom—"

"Did you patch a call through to the Tower?"

"…….ahem. Yes I did, your stiffulness."

"Good," Robin flipped a switch and a screen popped open on a dashboard. It flickered blue and hummed to life. "This is Robin calling the Tower. Has anyone responded yet?"

_"Snkkkkktttkkkt!!!---llo? Hello? Robin? That you, man?"_

"Speedy??"

A redheaded face with eyemasks appeared on the screen…smirking.

_"Hey there, BW. Wanna check on your pets or something? I got news for you, man. You took Beast Boy __**with**__ you!"_

"This is serious, Speedy…."

_"It always is with you."_

"I'm gonna send you a network transmission from the T-Car's computer. I want you to patch it through the mainframe of the Tower."

_"What are we cooking up, exactly?"_

"A search in the vocal audio archives."

_"Whatsit?"_

"Doing a crosscheck on a voice I recorded."

_"Ahhhhh. Ya know, Robin, isn't it simple to just put a glass to your ear and lean against the hotel wall wherever you're staying?"_

"It's a long story," Robin shook his head. "From what it looks like, though, a bunch of people are threatening this local family in North Carolina. They claim to be FBI agents…but something's fishy. And I mean Japanese fishing boat fishy."

_"That's weak, man. Hopefully the computer will come up with something. How'd you follow this one up? Aren't you supposed to be vacationing your butt off?"_

"Starfire met this boy….and we both think he's Tamaranian."

_"And lemme guess…this intrigues these FBI guys…"  
_  
"Like a fetish."

_"Ha ha ha! No shit!"_

There was a voice on the other side of the communication frequency that sounded distinctly like Green Arrow angrily uttering: _"Ward! Watch your tongue before I skewer it with an arrow!"_

_"All right! All right! Please! Not the soap arrowhead!!"_ Speedy shook his head on the viewscreen. _"Sheesh……superheroes…they act as if the world owes them something……"_

"Did you get the signal yet?"

_"Already processing, BW. Hold onto your cape for a few seconds, k?"_

Cyborg leaned in, smiling: "Speedy! 'Sup, dawg?"

_"Hey, if it isn't everyone's favorite clunker?!"_

"How's the City doing?"

"Yeah….good question," Robin managed to smirk.

_"Ohhh……ya know…,"_ Speedy's figure shrugged. _"One bank robbery…runaway Greyhound bus……a burning building. Absolute cakewalk."_

"Glad to hear that," Robin said.

"You lookin' over our stuff allright?" Cyborg interjected.

_"Yup!"_ Speedy smirked. _"Everything in ship shape……shape. All the way down to your lingerie collection, Cyborg."_

Cyborg blinked. "But I don't have a lingerie collection….."

_"Oh……fancy that. Ah well. Must be Starfire's then."_

Robin's eyemask bulged.

_"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Got you there!!"_

Robin slumped back in his seat…panting.

Cyborg was lauthing though.

"You're evil, man."

_"Yeah, I know. No worries. Only lingerie collection I've touched is mine--OH! Hey! Computer analysis is done!"_

"Let's see it," Robin leaned forward.

_"From the City…Live! It's Audio Archive Night!"_

-click-

Speedy's face on the screen was replaced by a file that popped up. Booker's face unmistakably flashed before the two in the T-Car.

"Looks like we got a match," Cyborg said. A beat. "And I think our match takes steroids."

"You mean you didn't see him when he took his shades off and talked to us yesterday?" Robin asked.

"No man…I was too busy basking in the warmth of a Wal-Mart parking lot—WHAT DO YOU THINK?!"

Robin shook his head, squinted his eyemask, and read through the file. "Interesting…."

"I would hope so!"

"You still there, Speedy?"

_"Sure thing, Cy. Got nothing to do here. How do you guys stop from going insane?"_

Green Arrow's voice uttered in the background: _"I've been looking for the poker chips and beer bottles all week! No luck!"_

_"Yeah! Ha ha!"_

"Shh!" Robin hissed. "I think I found something interesting."

"Well…," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Let us know—why don'tcha?"

_"Yeah…we're all ears, since you hid my face—dammit!"_

"Ward!!"

"What?! I said 'cram it'!"

_"You certainly did not, young man! Besides, that is still just as rau—"_

Cyborg flipped the comms switch.

"Thanks…," Robin mumbled.

"No problem."

"Says here…," Robin pointed with an ungloved hand at the contents on the screen, "…Booker's been in the bureau for….for…." Robin paused. "Um….fifteen years."

"So he IS on steroids!" Cyborg remarked. "Or maybe T-Cell research."

"Moving on….," Robin mumbled and scanned down the document. "His areas of work are classified…but he once took residence in Cocoa Beach, Florida."

"Near Cape Canaveral," Cyborg nodded. "NASA."

"He moved up into the Great Leaks Region and went on trips all throughout the neighboring states. Indiana. Wisconsin. Ohio…." A beat. "That's where the Sandersons lived."

"The who?" Cyborg blinked. "Oh right…the foster parents to Starfire's 'kid'."

"They said that they came with Nova'm here to North Carolina…," Robin's voice uttered, "…cuz Booker was on their backs. But Booker followed them, and he's been plaguing them ever since."

"What does the file say about that?"

"It cuts off with Booker's stationing in the Great Lakes Region," Robin said. "But there's something to note here."

"That is?"

"Booker was demoted by the local bureau because of his investigations losing key evidence and valuable materials pertaining to the research at hand."

"What kind of research?"

"Again, classified. But there're incidents in Booker's travels that key in with his demerits."

"Where at?"

"One, a LexCorp warehouse and merchandising district in upper Indiana. Two, a Powers industrial plant in Illinois. And third, he received a reprimand for an unscheduled investigation of a computer software corporate office back in Indiana."

"Sounds like a lot of high-tech blunders," Cyborg blinked. "Okay…so the guy was a klutz. And he did stupid stuff around techhy places around the Great Lakes. What's that mean?"

"No clue…," Robin scratched his chin. "We obviously know he wasn't a snow white kind of guy in the past much like how he's a jerk in the present. But the profile simply doesn't provide enough information to key in…..well…anything."

"The FBI will do that," Cyborg nodded. "Or at least a 'jerk' like him would. You think he had his info blocked? Falsified?"

"Who doesn't nowadays?" Robin sighed and leaned back in his seat. "It's becoming tough to be a detective in an age when information is everywhere."

"Makes you thankful for the lighthearted oafs in this world who don't give a darn, huh?"

-clunk-

A rear passenger door of the T-Car opened and a rain-spotted elf slid in.

Cyborg smirked and turned around. "Speaking of the green devil…"

"Hey!" Beast Boy closed the door behind him and situated himself in the back, shaking the rain water out of his hair. "You lovebirds run out of gas or something?"

"Nah, man. Just doing a computer scan via network with the Tower."

"Oooh! Really? Is Speedy there? Ask him if my latest issue of Justice Leage Chicks quarterly is in!"

"You still collect that stuff??"

"Dude! It's all clean! It's not like the photographers can catch Hawkgirl in anything less than her beak—"

"Um….Beast Boy?" Robin sweatdropped. "We're kinda busy."

"Nuts to you, you are! This is our vacation, dude!"

"Something came up with that kid Starfire met yesterday."

"It's a long story," Cyborg winked.

"Yeah, whatever," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Have any of you seen Noir?"

"Nope," Cyborg shook his head. "Haven't seen Raven either—"

"Who cares about her?! I'm talking about Noir!"

"No show, man."

"Ah well….," Beast Boy shrugged. "He owes me a game of UNO."

"We should all do that one night before we take off westward."

"Oh!" Beast Boy reached into his back pocket. "This thing's been beeping like crazy…."

"What thing?" Robin gave him a sideways glance.

Beast Boy held up a Titan communicator. "It was on your cot. I can't get the dang thing to shut up."

Robin blinked under his mask. He craned an ear to the beeping noises. "It…..It sounds like morse code?"

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "But who—"

"Noir!" Robin gasped. "But….what's he up to?"

"Have fun, man…," Beast Boy tossed him the communicator. "It's all Greek to me. Greek beeping."

Robin eagerly caught the device and held it up to his ear. He translated the beepings in his head and made out a steady string of dialogue…

_'---T-I-N-U-I-N-G—T-O—I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-E ---- T-H-E-R-E—S-E-E-M-S—T-O—B-E—A — L-A-B-O-R-A-T-O-R-Y—D-O-O-R—I-N—T-H-E—B-A-S-E-M-E-N-T — F-L-O-O-R—O-F—T-H-E—B-U-I-L-D-I-N-G—"_

"What's he saying?" Beast Boy munched from a bag of peanuts he magically had.

"He's….in a building somewhere," Robin blinked. "What the heck?!" He looked at Cyborg. "Did he tell you he was goin' on some sort of mission or something?"

Cyborg shrugged.

The beeping continued.

_'---B-O-O-K-E-R—I-S—M-A-K-I-N-G—S-O-M-E—S-O-R-T—O-F—R-O-U-N-D-S --- I—N-E-E-D—H-I-M—T-O— O-P-E-N—T-H-E—L-A-B—W-I-T-H—H-I-S—C-A-R-D—'_

"He's trailing Booker!" Robin gasped.

"Man! How's he ahead of us?!" Cyborg rubbed the human part of his skull and shrugged.

Robin shook his head. "I have no clue!"

"Dude…quiet guys always do the most thinking," Beast Boy said, his mouth full of cashews.

"Gonna say something back to him?"

"Good idea," Robin nodded and began fingering his end of the receiver with a morse code response.

"How about….'get some toilet paper on the way home'?" Beast Boy asked.

"I'm asking him what the hell he's up to!" Robin exclaimed.

_'---W-H-A-T—T-H-E—H-E-L-L—A-R-E—Y-O-U—U-P—T-O---'_

Robin waited.

A beat.

A beep.

_'---S-T-A-N-D—B-Y—'_

"Dang it…," Robin muttered.

"What is it?" Beast Boy asked.

"I have no idea…," the Boy Wonder shook his head. "No idea whatsoever….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in the shadows.

In stealth mode.

I looked down the gritty, marble hallway of the basement floor.

My metal left fingers clicked together—sending an electronic signal up my prosthetic to a built in communicator Cyborg had made for me. In such a fashion, I silently sent my morse code report to Robin.

My right hand gripped tightly to Myrkblade. Smoke danced out from under my shades, covered my body, and masked me against the dark marble behind.

Echoes of footsteps filtered down the hallway as the lone shadow of Booker shuffled towards a huge pair of bolted doors. There was a console in the wall besides the stretching frame. He pulled out a keycard tied around his neck and slid it through the console.

There was a beeping…then a snapping…and finally a hissing as the doors yawned open. Booker stumbled alone into the enclosed laboratory beyond.

My black eyes narrowed.

I slinked forward in stealth mode. Just as the doors were closing, I teleported through the thin passageway and solidified in the shadows on the other side.

I held tight to Myrkblade and got a good look around.

The lights were dim. A person could barely see Booker…no more than he could possibly see me.

I lowered my shades. With naked eyes of obsidian I glared around at the interior. There were wires strewn all across the walls. Computer consoles galore lined the sides. There was a desk in the middle, flanked by two medical beds. And then—across the way—next to a metal locker strangely wired…was a space built into the marble of the wall. The space was lined with metal. And it had opened braces positioned in a 'cross' as if they were meant to hold someone inside.

I narrowed my eyes. I snuck along the wall, looking everywhere for Booker.

No sign.

I glanced at a computer console that I passed.

Across a table full of numerical schematics, a browser window read: 'Level of Energy Intake'.

I passed another console: 'Heat Escalation Factor'.

And another: 'Alien Residual Breakdown'.

I reached the body-shaped space in the wall. There was a myriad of wires strung in and out of it. I leaned my head in and looked at the metal braces. They were stained green.

"….."

I followed the wires. They strung from the body-shaped space in the wall to a set of metal lockers.

The doors to the lockers were hanging open.

I slid over and peered inside.

There were hooks and attachments for suspending something the size of a human being inside. But whatever was supposed to be secured inside the compartment….it was missing.

Suddenly…

FLASH!!

A green strobe of light. I saw my shadow cast upon the locker's body before me.

My black eyes blinked.

_A starbolt???_

WHAM!!!!

A superheated burst of energy struck me in the back.

I slammed hard into the wall.

THUD!!

I winced.

I teleported and solidified so that I was facing the center of the room.

I twirled Myrkblade at ready--

FLASH!!

My black eyes bulged.

I dove to the side, swinging Myrkblade and deflecting an incoming projectile of heated green at the last second.

I landed, rolled, and knelt to a stop.

CHTUNG!!!

The overhead lights flashed on.

I winced as a hot whiteness ate through my shades.

A figure bled into agonizing focus on the other side of the lab. A figure whose limbs were strangely enveloped in metal brace cobwebs, the joints fastened by glowing half-spheres of green. A breastplate housed a translucent dome of emerald. As Booker smirked at me, he aimed two glowing arms and spoke:

"Don't move another inch, punk…"

I frowned at him.

"You're a bigger moron than you think by walking in here without expecting the sensors to detect your invisible ass!" he thinned his suspiciously youthful eyes and thought aloud: "I know you….You're the one that trails smoke and fights with a sword. What's your moniker? 'Norse'? 'Nerd'?"

I slowly stood up, gripping Myrkblade in the standoff.

"You're good…," Booker said. "Or so I hear. But quite inferior amongst the other Titans. Such as Raven…Cyborg….and especially the redheaded freak girl. What's so special about her? Oh yeah…she melts stuff with flying softballs of green shit! HA!!!"

FLASH!!!!

Two starbolts flew at me.

I gasped and dove to the side.

He flung his wrists again and again, the green bulbs of his metal braces unleashing energy in blinding pulses.

FLASH!! FLASH!!

Holes formed in the wall, a computer monitor, and an office chair.

I leapt over the desk in the center, slid across the room, twirled Myrkblade to deflect a starbolt, and charged at him.

"No SIR!!!" Booker growled and extended both hands to the ceiling.

A circle of green power rose around him. It acted as a tense shield of emerald fury as I dove in with my jabbing blade.

CLANK!!!

Myrkblade was deflected back. I flipped from the impact, landed in another slide, and crouched into a ready position.

"Heheheheheh….," Booker grinned. "Like my toy? Well my toy likes YOU!!"

FLASH!!!

A huge starbolt.

I held Myrkblade up vertically. The green energy struck my wooden sword hard and exploded. Trails of emerald fire streaked around me.

I sweat.

"And to think this prototype isn't even complete yet," he scoffed. Pacing before me. "Just a final tweaking is all it needs. Then I'll have constructed a force to be reckoned with…not to mention a force to be paid mightily for."

I eyed him…I eyed the door…I eyed him again.

"I'll admit…the FBI was an amusing experience…," Booker said. "Taught me about all manners of national evils….and—ironically enough—how easy it is to be one of those national evils. Quite frankly, the government isn't a strong enough mountain for me to stand on. I need a fresh new pile. A green one at that." He winked. "Nice, bright, freakin' GREEN!!"

He aimed his wrists at me.

I blurred…

FLASH!!!!

The computer that was behind me exploded.

I rushed over towards the door, twirled Myrkblade, and slammed the hilt into it.

CLANK!!

HISS!!!

The doors slid open.

"Leaving so soon?" Booker smirked. He stomped over on metal-braced legs and lifted two glowing hands overhead. "At least grant me the chance to give you a LIGHT!!! RAAAUGH!!"

FLASH!!!!!

I dove out into the hallway as the air boiled behind me.

Bits and pieces of marble showered down on my figure as I hugged the floor.

I shook it all off, took a breath, and leapt up to my feet. I heard Booker clanking after me.

The hallway glowed brightly at my heels.

I gave him a run to remember…

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the front of the Titans' cabin, Robin and Beast Boy and Cyborg casually stood about. The rain had let up. A gray sky circled above the trees and mountainside overhead. Robin stared at the communicator in his head. Beast Boy finished up his nuts.

"How long's it been now?" the green elf asked with a mouthful.

"Fifteen minutes….," Cyborg said. "Almost exactly."

"I hope he knows what he's doing…," Robin muttered. He repeated his morse code plea for response for the eighth time. "Cuz I have no idea."

"It might explain why he keeps going on those walks of his…," Cyborg said. "He was on the trail of something."

"Or perhaps just insomnia?" Beast Boy uttered.

"What do you know, man?" Cyborg retorted. "You've been sleeping like a brick!"

"A very handsome, sexy brick!"

"Rrgggghhh…"

Suddenly, the communicator beeped.

Robin did a double-take. "H-He's responding!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg jumped over. "What's he saying?"

"Shhh…," Robin listened.

_'---G-E-T—B-A-C-K—T-O—Y-O-U—I-N—A—M-I-N-U-T-E—'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

I jumped through a rear window of the building, sailed down to the ground, and blurred off in a hurry.

Booker leapt out behind me. The metal braces surrounding his legs cushioned his fall with an aura of green power.

"Darn kids!! HA HA HA HA!!" he fixed two wrists together and shot.

FLASH!!!!!

A starbolt ate its way at my back.

I streaked to the right and cut my way through a chainlink fence surrounding a lumberyard on the outskirts of Asheville.

Piles of wood, hacked up pine, and mulch were scattered across a stony field of dirt and pebbles around me.

I had no time for sight-seeing, Booker was soon on my ass.

"RRAUGH!!"

FLASH!!!

Splinters exploded as a starbolt flew into a pile of wood to my left.

I hacked through the sailing debris. I stumbled over a piece of lumber or two and slid out into an open area of dirt.

Booker ran, jumped, landed on a pile of logs, and aimed down at me.

"Knock on this!!!"

FLASH!!!!

I braced myself.

The starbolt landed at my feet.

POW!!!!

I flew back, slammed into a tall stack of lumber, and stumbled to the ground.

I winced from pain all over.

SLUMP!! Booker's metal braced legs landed hard in the dirt.

He clenched glowing fists of green while glaring down at me. "The Titans….each and every one of you…you're nothing but annoying splinters in the skin of some great, giant beast. A monster that runs underground on a hidden stream of criminal power. A crooked system that our worthless government tried to overcome instead of doing the wise thing by emulating it. Now look at the way things are! We have extraterrestrial freaks running all over the place! And it's not like the FBI could let me deal with them as I saw fit when I was with them! Oh no…it's because of a weak-minded society that galactic infidels are allowed into our atmosphere. Look at you, punk!! With those onyx peepers and 'fart powers'….god, you're as ugly and pathetic as the kid who juiced up the suit I'm pummeling you with now!"

I glared up at him, my teeth clenching and body aching.

Robin's morse code vibrated through my metal hand.

_'---N-O-I-R—R-E-P-O-R-T—'_

I took a deep breath.

"I must thank you, freak," Booker grinned wide as he flicked his wrists at me. "Thank you for this test run. I'll be sure to give the Titans a touching eulogy for when they face me to avenge your death. Let's see….ahem….'Dear Titans. He was a moron. The end.'"

He charged up a final starbolt.

I gulped.

_'---N-O-I-R—W-H-E-R-E—A-R-E—Y-O-U—'_

I bit my lip, flung my metal hand to the side, and swiftly clicked a reply.

FLASH!!!

But I was cut short as Booker launched a starbolt.

WHAM!!!

I was slammed back against a pile of lumber…which swiftly collapsed in a torrent of wooden blocks that crushed and enveloped me.

CRUMBLE!!!!!!

Silence….

Booker smiled. He blew the smoke from his metal-braced arms.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What's he saying?" Beast Boy hopped up behind Robin's shoulder. "Huh?? Huh??"

Robin blinked under his eyemask.

'_---B-O-O-K-E-R—H-A-S—B-O-Y-S—S-T-A-R-B-O---------------'_

Silence.

Robin looked up. "He's….in trouble…."

The others stared at him.

All three were oblivious to a black pickup truck cruising down the asphalt road…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

One of the associates stared out the passenger's side window.

The driver hissed: "They notice us??"

"No," the other shook his head. "They seem completely preoccupied with something."

"LOOK!" the third in the back seat jumped up and pointed out the windshield. "Dead ahead!!"

The driver craned his neck.

He grinned evilly. "Just our luck…"

The one in the passenger's seat nodded, pulled out a radio communicator, and spoke into it: "Booker….come in!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Booker stood proudly in front of a smoking pile of lumber.

He smiled.

_"Booker! Come in, sir!!"_

He brought the metal wrist of his brace to his mouth. "This is Booker. What do you have to report?"

_"We spotted the alien!!"_

"Nova'm??"

_"With the girl!! They're walking towards the center of the cottage! They came out of the forest, I think!!"  
_  
"Are the other Titans nearby?"

_"No, sir. They're several blocks down."_

"Take 'em," Booker sneered. "Try and be swift about it. I don't want the heat on our asses just yet. We need the boy one last time, you got it?"

_"Roger that, sir. Over and out."_

Booker lowered his wrist. He smirked.

"Well…looks like the clock is winding in fast forward," he spoke to the collapsed lumber. "See you on judgment day, Mr. Corpse. When the streets of Hell are paved for me in gold!"

He flicked both wrists out….launched a starbolt…and enflamed the lumber in blazing fire.

PHWOOOOMB!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Booker says 'green light'," the man in the front passenger's seat said.

"We heard him, dumbass."

"Heheheheh."

The man in the back unzipped a canvass bag and pulled out a silver laser rifle. "Gotta thank Lexcorp for this sucker!!"

"This is gonna be fast," the driver said. "I stop the car. You aim. And you…you run out and grab the kid."

"Who do I shoot?"

"The girl, of course!! Save the stun for the little freak if you have to. He needs to be alive…at least until the final experiment is complete."

"Let's do this…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Are your friends as nice as you are?" Nova'm asked pleasantly as he and Starfire strolled side-by-side down the asphalt road of the cottage.

"I should certainly believe so!" Starfire smiled. "And do not worry. Once we are with my friends, we will grant you asylum until word of Booker's treachery is spread around. You shall be free at last, Nova'm. I promise you that."

"I-I look forward to that…," he smiled gently.

"And I look forward…," Starfire breathed, "…to telling my people that I have found their most precious treasure. Their most precious treasure in ages."

Nova'm blushed.

The girl titan giggled.

"I….I-I wonder what my Mom and Dad would say…"

"About what?"

"M-My being a long lost p-prince and all that…."

"Oh, but you've always been a prince in their eyes, I am sure!" Starfire winked. "**Their** prince."

Suddenly, a black pickup truck skidded to a stop in front of them.

The two looked up.

Nova'm gasped.

Two doors on their side flew open.

A man in the front stepped aside.

A man in the back lifted a laser rifle. He aimed. "Say cheese, freak!!"

Starfire's eyes bulged.

**ZAP!!!!!**

A blue stream of energy flew from the rifle. It slashed the air apart and soared straight at Nova'm's chest.

The boy's jaw dropped.

"NO!!!" Starfire leapt in the way of the shot before the boy---

FLASH!!!!!!!

The sound of her voice was drastically and utterly severed. She flew off ten feet and tumbled like a pile of smoking meat across the side of the road with a spray of dirt and leaves.

"KORIAND'R!!!" Nova'm shouted, his green eyes wide.

The man in front dashed over, grabbed Nova'm hard from behind, and dragged him towards the truck.

The twelve-year-old boy was kicking and shouting. Reaching futile little hands out towards the girl lying still. "Koriand'r!! Koriand'r!! Please!!"

SLAM!!!

SCREEEECH!!!

The car zoomed off.

Starfire was silent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"How would you and the other Titans enjoy stopping by our place for a bite to eat?" Jared Feldman asked Raven as the two leisurely strolled down the pathway between the lines of cabins. "Susan—bless her heart—she actually prepares a decent dish of tuna noodle casserole which is moderately safe for the stomach lining!"

Raven chuckled lightly. Her lips were subtly curved. "That may be hard to do. Believe it or not, my companions and I do not have it easy when it comes to all agreeing on the same thing."

"Oh?"

"Yes," the dark girl nodded. "Many of the six of us are as different as night and day. It's a wonder that we ever team up to silence evil together."

"I suppose if you were all perfect…there'd be no evil to fight to begin with!"

"……that's an interesting way to think of it."

"But at least there must be SOMEONE in your troupe who's similar to you," Feldman smirked.

Raven's blue eyes trailed. "Well……"

"Am I right on?"

"More or less….it's just that he and I---"

"He?"

She nodded. "He and I…..well…..things can't be **too** similar."

"Why not?"

"Just like what you were getting to. An evil worth fighting against gets in the way."

"Does anyone let it?"

Raven was silent to that.

A few footsteps later, the girl saw something. She froze in mid-pace.

"What is it?" Feldman asked. His wrinkled face tilted up and his lips parted. "Holy shit…"

Raven breathlessly dashed over to the side of the road and knelt by Starfire's side. "Starfire!! Starfire, answer me! It's Raven!!"

She shook the Tamaranian's body. But she was still.

Raven bit her lip. "This isn't good." She turned the girl over. A large, black burnt mark was spread over the chest of the girl's shirt. Raven's blue eyes widened. "Definitely not good!!"

"I'll go get emergency help!" Feldman was about to spin around and dash towards the front entrance cabin where his phone was.

"Better yet….," Raven stammered. She reached into the pocket of her blue jeans and pulled out a communicator…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So what should we do??" Beast Boy asked with a shrug as he sat on the steps leading up to the Titans' cabin's stairs. "Go out looking for some underground laboratory and hope Noir's there?! We don't even know where 'there' is!! It could be clear across the state to the Virginia border or something!!"

Robin looked over. "Cyborg…can't you trace Noir by the sensor in his metal arm?"

"Uh….only when he has the sensor switched **on**," Cyborg replied. "I wasn't about to replace some traceable chip in his lost fleshly arm with a traceable chip in his fresh metal arm."

Robin sighed. "Sorry I even asked."

Suddenly, the communicator in Robin's grasp vibrated with Raven's voice that echoed outward in extreme intensity: _"Robin!! Come to the top of the cottage!! Now!!"_

"Why?? What's wrong??"

_"It's Starfire!! She's hurt! Badly!!"_

Beast Boy gasped and jumped up to his feet.

"Aw man….," Cyborg muttered. "Not good. Wasn't she with Nova'm---"

His voice trailed off as he realized Robin wasn't there anymore.

The Boy Wonder was already running halfway up the mountain side….


	73. Hidden Sun part 5 final

**73. Hidden Sun part 5 Final**

Brain activity's increasing…"

"I can see her start to move. The herb's waking her up."

"Man, Mr. Sanderson…that stuff sure does the trick."

"Well, it should. My father was a town doctor. He taught me everything he knew."

"Starfire? Can you hear us?"

"Try not to stir her."

"Robin! She's coming to!"

"Star! Star!"

"Shhh! Be easy on her, man!"

"Starfire? Wake up. You're in okay shape…"

Her green eyes opened. Weak at first…then an explosion of shock as she gasped and shot up in her seat.

"Nova'm!"

A pair of dark hands held her shoulders and gently lowered her back down. Kevin Sanderson looked down at her. "Easy now…though alien folk like you and my son are resilient…it's not everyday you wake up just hours after a laser blast knocks you out."

Starfire peered around. She was on the front porch of the Feldman's cabin. The Titans were gathered over her…as were Kevin and Ruth Sanderson and Jared and Susan Feldman. It was late afternoon. Gold sunlight filtered down through a misty sky.

"Where….wh-where is Nova'm?" the alien girl panted.

Kevin and Ruth looked at each other. Their faces were hanging off their skulls.

"We were hoping you c-could tell us…," Ruth said.

Starfire swallowed. She breathed: "Men…..dark men….Booker's men……th-they must have him…."

The Sandersons looked down to the floor.

"Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson…," Starfire slowly sat halfway up. "I am so…so sorry. I did everything I could. I---"

"We believe you….," Kevin muttered. He gestured. "Your shirt speaks of it all."

Starfire glanced down. She gasped. There was a huge singe mark on her shirt. Where the laser had burnt into her. She hoisted the article of clothing up until her tummy was exposed. There was a red mark…but nothing worse than a bruise. Courtesy of Tamaranian strength and resistance. It could have been lots worse…especially if the laser rifle had hit someone as young and preadolescent as Nova'm.

"You were lucky, Star," Cyborg's voice said. "Any higher a frequency…you could be having internal bleeding."

"I am unlucky….," she breathed. She blinked. She looked up. "I lost Nova'm. I-I lost him when he needed me most…"

"We searched the entire area," Raven droned from the side. "We looked for a black truck…tire tracks…even tested the air for exhaust. No luck. We have no idea where they went."

"Booker's always hung around in big cities…," Kevin said. "He travels a long distance to heckle us. I'm sure of it."

"Asheville?" Cyborg remarked. "Charlotte?"

"Could be anyplace," Kevin shrugged and shook his head. "I wish we knew him as much as he knew us."

"I'm sorry nobody spotted them coming or going…," Jared uttered. "I never thought I'd see the day….but I just might have to place a gate at the front of the community."

"Should we call local police?" Susan asked.

"We're here," Cyborg said. "That's more than enough help." He spun and faced the Sandersons. "We're gonna find your little boy. At all costs."

The couple stoically nodded and hugged each other.

"I….I-I must get up…," Starfire mumbled.

Cyborg double-checked the health readout on his arm. He nodded. "I understand."

"So is Starfire allright and stuff?" Beast Boy's voice exclaimed.

"Yeah, B.B. She's okay."

"Good!" the green elf dove in out of nowhere and practically tackled Starfire with a hug.

"Mmmph!" Starfire uttered, startled.

The changeling squeezed her tight and smiled. "I was scared, Star. We thought we all lost you."

"I knew she was allright," Raven folded her arms.

Cyborg glared at her. Jared smirked.

"……I did." She repeated.

Starfire managed a tiny smirk and ran a hand through Beast Boy's green hair. "I am glad to see you too, Beast Boy. But you must pardon me, please…." She gently nudged him away. She swung her legs off the table, stood down on wobbly legs, and headed towards the steps leading out of the porch. "With all the powers invested in me…I have no greater duty at the present than to employ them in the safe retrieval of Nova'm."

And that's when she ran into Robin.

The Boy Wonder stood in her way. He took a deep breath and regarded her with an emotionless eyemask as he said: "Starfire…you were just shot. With a laser rifle. You almost **died**. I can't let you risk hurting yourself."

She blinked. She took a deep breath. "Please….Robin…," she spoke softly. Deceptively soft. "Allow me to return to our cabin and suit up for my endeavors."

He simply stared at her.

She bit her lip. Her hands tightened into fists.

"Star…please….the other Titans and I can take care of it. You need to—"

She swiftly reached a hand up, grabbed his arm, and forcibly hoisted him to the side.

He stumbled off into the steadying arms of Jared Feldman.

Starfire marched firmly up the asphalt towards the Titans' cabin.

Robin took a deep breath and stood up straight. He looked over at the other Titans.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head.

Raven looked aside.

Robin glanced back out…clenched his fists…and ran after Starfire.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Star! Just wait up!"

"Do not attempt to dissuade me, Robin…," Starfire said. Her face was in a frown. She wasn't looking at him. Instead, she pressed onward up the elevated asphalt. "I acknowledge the fact that you are the leader of the Titans, but I cannot sit idly while Nova'm is in danger."

Robin ran over and stood in front of her…again halting her. "Then acknowledge me as a friend, Star! Your best friend! Remember?"

"I have not forgotten," she fumed. "Now if you would please—"

"You're practically limping! Seriously, Star. You can't possibly—"

"But I am serious, Robin!" she exclaimed. "I have always been serious about the things I do and intend to do! I am sorry if my example of character has not properly informed you and my other friends of that! Just trust me when I say that Nova'm is in danger and I must assist in his saving!"

"You've done all you could!" Robin said back to her. "All the time we've been here, all you've done is focused your energies on Nova'm! And that is all well and fine, Star. But you're gonna run yourself in the ground if you—"

"I do not care about my own condition!" Starfire retorted. Her eyes were of a brighter green as her fists hung tight at her sides. "My own condition has been assured a second chance thanks to pure fortune! It is now time for me to find Nova'm—"

"I have no clue where he is, Star!" Robin loudly said.

She stared at him.

He shrugged. "No clue! Not one! I tried tracking Booker down! He's a freakin' ghost! The closest lead I even had a faint trace of was Noir's communication through morse code…and we haven't heard from him in hours! I'm facing the facts that right now—in this impromptu investigation—I may already have lost one Titan! I'm not gonna lose you to a blind search as well! I want you safe here with us! I want you by our sides!"

"Will you listen to the words that you are uttering, Robin!" Starfire exclaimed, her voice loud. "Will you not realize that there is more here of importance than what 'you want' or what 'I want' or what 'we want'! What about the will of a little boy who has done nothing on this poor, lonely soil but suffer at the hands of a madman who has haunted him in the past and is once again molesting his spirit in open defiance of all that is good and sacred!"

"Star---"

"I made Nova'm a promise, Robin!" Starfire shouted, her eyes blazing emerald. "I made Nova'm a promise and I fell short of my commitment! But not anymore! I am going to attire myself for combat and set out in flight to locate him and protect him from any further malevolence assaulting his person!"

Robin looked away. He rubbed his temples…like he was stressed.

Starfire frowned at that. "I can see you do not believe in me…," she murmured angrily.

"Star….I just think—"

"You think of a lot of things, Robin…," she said. "And I believe I can predict what some of those thoughts are. You believe that I am naïve. You believe that I am improperly biased in my motivations. Surely, I cannot blame you for your assumptions…in that my performance as a citizen of this planet has not functioned up to par with the idiosyncrasies of your paradoxical culture."

"Listen, Star—"

"No, you perform the act of audible respect!" she pointed. "How often is it that I patiently wait for your explanations of every mundane thing that possesses this confusing Earth! How often is it that I must listen to the etiquette of Terran society and commit myself to it without so much as questioning the lunacy that practically frolics out of everyone's hypocritical mouth!"

Robin bit his lip.

Starfire shook her head and clutched at her red hair as if she was about to explode. She trembled. "It is so very difficult, Robin! You have no mental comparison to the strain it is at times to try and take everything in and…a-and maintain the Tamaranian joy that is hereditary of me!" She looked up, her teeth clenching. Her eyes on fire. "With every fiber of my being, I implore you for your understanding! But that is not what you truly desire! All you wish to do is to continue to dictate to me and conform me into some Terran golem of withheld glory! Thankfully, there is enough grace inside of me to allow myself to be subjected to such procedures in becoming an Earth-defending Titan, but I shall not let you command me in regards to whether or not I must save a helpless being of my own intergalactic ilk!"

She shook, she trembled. She stuttered: "I….I…." She clenched her glowing eyes shut and suddenly broke into: "Naiblorka snotch ribbu munakye glarka-spool!"

Robin sweatdropped. He wasn't used to hearing Starfire frustratingly break into her native tongue. Then again…he wasn't used to her raw and unbridled anger. It frightened the Boy Wonder…

"Threena-kiel nu X'hal!" Starfire spun around, paced, and swung her fists into the naked air. "Emb larna sodoku bren mar! Lada kienatap! Bren mar! BREN MAR!"

"Star…c-calm down…," he nervously reached a hand out.

"RrrrrRRAUGH!" she opened two jade eyes of fire and flung her wrist towards the side of the road.

FLASH!

Robin flinched.

CRASH!

Three pine trees toppled loudly into the woods in a flurry of sparks, flying leaves, and crackling branches as the Tamaranian's starbolt struck the earth.

She panted…sweating. Slowly…her eyes dimmed to normality.

Robin stared down at the ground. He sighed.

Silence.

"I understand now……"

Robin looked up.

Starfire was breathing slowly. A wounded expression hung on her face as she spoke in her trademark voice of softness. "I understand now…..the anger. The completely unfiltered and toxic anger that Booker thrives on." She held a hand over her heart where she felt a glow like a sun melt away. "It is so very painful…and so very evil….and so very primal…," she swallowed a painful lump down her throat and eyed the mist rolling down the mountainside like tears of the sky. "The fire in my people's hearts….it is a very strong fire. A fire of passion and of love and of spirit. It was once a fire of hate. A forger of wars. A poisoned spear of malignance." She looked over at Robin with firm eyes. "But Nova'm…he is of the Virgin Age. Though he feels that primal fury inside of him…he is starting to learn that the hidden strength inside him is a strength that relies on peace of mind and soundness of heart alone. For he is a component of my people…and my people, in the very definition that they are now 'people' and not animals….my people are loving. My people are tranquil. And my people know the necessity of giving all we have for the souls who have not. And at this moment…Nova'm is lost. He is imprisoned. And he has no hope. I must give him back that hope, Robin. I must…at all costs. And if my decision to be Tamaranian gets in the way of being a Titan…then perhaps it is prudent that I stop being a Titan altogether."

"Star….I—"

But Robin was stuck in mid-sentence…for Starfire marched straight past him and into the cabin.

The Boy Wonder stared at the fallen pine. The mist reached them and bathed them in sorrow.

He took a deep breath and stared into the white droplets.

They filtered into an airborne snow before his eyes. Grainy and distorted. And for a split second…he saw once again from the red depths of his mind a projection of the staticky security camera snapshot of a dark-haired girl inside a bus terminal all alone yet surrounded by people.

Dark eyes…a haunting smile….a whispering ghost.

"I understand…." He breathed into the air.

The mist disappeared under the pine….and with it so did the girl's face.

"I understand completely…Star…."

There was a choking sound in his voice.

But she couldn't hear him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg sat on the steps to the porch. He was 'typing' on a small keypad in a compartment of his left arm. White noise poured out of the speaker in his communicator. His human eye narrowed in concentration.

Gradually, Raven walked up behind him and looked down. "Cyborg….I've been meaning to ask…"

"Yeah?" he replied without looking.

"It's a good thing that Starfire made it safely and all….but….where's Noir?"

"……" Cyborg continued with his work.

"I was too involved with getting her to safety and all…I didn't notice amidst all the confusion. But he hasn't shown up, has he?"

"You're right. He hasn't."

She walked down the steps and stood beside the squatting android. "Cyborg, what's going on?"

"I'm trying to find him….," he hummed.

Raven blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Ever since his communication was cut short, Robin and I have been at a loss to---"

"His communication was cut short!" Raven remarked. "Do you mean to say he might be in danger some place!"

"I have no clue, Rae! I'm doing my best to get a response from him!"

"How could you let him just run off like that!" Raven gestured, frowning. "Did he say where he was going?"

"No…," Cyborg groaned and looked up. He was perturbed. "He just walked off. Like he **always** does! You tell me, Raven. Did he tell **you** where he was going!"

"I haven't seen him all day!"

"Well, neither have we!"

"But---"

"Calm down, Raven."

"I am **calm!**" she exclaimed.

Cyborg stared at her.

She didn't realize it unto she saw a slight glint of her reflection in the metal part of his skull. Her eyes were glowing bright gray. She gasped, stepped back, and snapped out of it.

"What's with you!" Cyborg remarked, returning to his console. "Look…I'm a bit freaked out that Starfire nearly bought it today. We're all concerned about her! It's all right! I'm sure Noir knows how to take care of himself just as much as she does!"

"I know…it's just that….," Raven bit her lip. She spun around and hugged herself….staring into the thick woods of pine beyond the cabin. "….I've been doing a lot of thinking lately…."

"Courtesy of Mr. Feldman?"

She glared at him, sighed, and looked back out at the woods. "Not just him, Cyborg. But everyone."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone has me thinking….thinking more than I like to think."

"You always struck me as the rational type, Rae. What's wrong with 'thinking'?"

"It's rather simple when I can control my emotions and not have to explain it to my own psyche."

Cyborg paused. He looked up. "What's goin' on with your emotions, Raven?"

She lowered her eyes. "I've been……c-cleaning house."

"Overhaul?"

"Ever since my emotions came out and leapt into all of you…," she spoke, "…I've realized that I need to structure things better. I can't let myself get so fragile that I can break apart like that again. It's not good for me…and it's not good for the rest of you."

"Trigon….."

"Exactly…," Raven nodded. "And….well….while cleaning house. I can temporarily experience the same fragility that I'm trying to avoid. It becomes prudent during…d-during such times to keep things clear. But not just clear inside of me….but around me as well. I'm worried that…that the Titans don't truly understand that—at the moment—I'm trying to find my place in things again. Like a long term, inside-out meditation. This has been a very important vacation for me. I've been trying to restructure myself."

"I can dig that," Cyborg nodded while 'typing'. "Care to explain why it's got you so gung ho about worrying for Noir?"

"I'm not **worried** about him," she said. "I just…….."

"Yeah?"

She swallowed. "Just want him to have a chance to understand."

"Understand what, Rae?"

"The same thing you already understand, Cyborg."

Cyborg paused. His human eye blinked. He turned to look at him. "The thing you told him on the boardwalk…..you think he doesn't understand it, Raven?"

"I don't even think I understand it…," she quietly admitted. A beat. "All I want….is for all of my friends to be safe. All of them. I want that so much because….I know that I have hurt them. I know I have hurt you…all of you. Noir included."

Cyborg stared off into space. He took a breath. "Raven…," he began. "You've got to quit taking things so seriously. I know it's your place to be so super-serious and stuff cuz you can't just **dive** into emotions like the rest of us. But you gotta understand…we know it! We know you have a hard time…we know you struggle…and we know you need your time to get things situated!"

She glared at him. "But none of that's true."

"You're sure of that?"

"…."

"We're your friends, Raven…," Cyborg said. "And being your friends doesn't mean we have to be hurt by you. But rather….being your friends means we know that being hurt by you is trivial. We're gonna get through all this….just like you're gonna get through all this. Your concern is our concern. That's a battle we fight together. And in a battle like that, everyone gets hurt. If I were you…I wouldn't feel guilty. I'd feel **thankful**."

She took a deep breath. Slowly, she nodded.

"And about Noir…," Cyborg said.

She cut him off. "I know……I know……he understands too. But when I suddenly hear that he might be in trouble…I-I just hope that whatever lasting impression he has of me and my….m-my decisions is a good one."

"You'll have to ask him about that someday….," Cyborg hummed, staring at his arm console.

"Hmmm?" she leaned over and looked.

He smiled and glanced up at her. "He's sending us a message."

Raven was deadpan. And Cyborg realized—in her sudden and secure stoical expression—she had fallen back into place.

"Oh really….," she blinked as if Cyborg's statement was the most obvious thing in the world. "What's he saying?"

"Lemme listen in…," he craned his ear to the beeping sounds echoing out from his communicator's speaker.

'—T-H-E—H-A-R-V-E-S-T-O-N—B-U-I-L-D-I-N-G — S-O-U-T-H-W-E-S-T—O-F—D-O-W-N-T-O-W-N—A-S-H-E-V-I-L-L-E — B-E-S-I-D-E-S—T-H-E—L-U-M-B-E-R-Y-A-R-D — G-E-T—O-V-E-R—H-E-R-E—N-O-W — T-H-E-Y—A-R-E—T-O-R-T-U-R-I-N-G—T-H-E—B-O-Y — F-O-R—H-I-S—S-T-A-R-B-O-L-T-S—'

Cyborg and Raven exchanged glances.

They listened again.

'—T-H-E-Y—A-R-E—T-O-R-T-U-R-I-N-G—T-H-E—B-O-Y—'

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The same old wires went into the same old plugs.

The same old clamps snapped into the same old place.

Bodies shuffling around and feet scraping a marvel floor.

Computer screens flickering and pinprick lights pinpricking.

Nova'm's thin body hung like a crucifix inside the metal compartment within the wall.

They stuck the last of the electrodes into his wrists.

His lungs heaved. His body rose and fell within the compartment.

Three eigures swarmed around a set of computer consoles. A fourth stood still.

Slowly….depressingly….Nova'm looked up. Thin green eyes. A prone prince.

Booker stared. He smiled. "Morning, freak. We've missed you."

Nova'm sighed. His eyes lowered.

"We went through a lot of trouble trying to get you back here again…," Booker said, folding his arms. "I suggest you do us the little trouble of cooperating."

Nova'm's lungs heaved. His eyes were still closed.

Exhausted…

"As you know…," Booker glanced at the metal locker braced all over with wires and blinking green lights. "…it only takes one more round. One more rush. A final outpouring of that freakish alien shit that bubbles inside of you." He grinned a plastic grin. "And then….it'll all be over. You hear me, Nova'm? Finished."

The boy was silent. He breathed.

Booker glared. He slowly turned his head. He faced his associates.

He nodded.

That was the signal.

Two of his men twisted keys in their respective slots. They typed a few keystrokes on number pads….then jointly pressed a dark green button.

**FLASH!**

Nova'm moaned. His body twitched up. Green bands of energy were exploding around him. Flooding the compartment between the metal and his flesh and clothes. His jaw hung open wide. Bolts of green danced between incisors and bicuspids. His throat dried in an instant…the saliva evaporating.

….but the green was a duller green than usual.

Booker narrowed his eyes.

The sparks were jumping as always…the green in Nova'm's eyes glowing as always….but it was far less than normal. Like a faded emerald surface dipped in lead.

Booker lifted his finger.

The associates twisted the keys.

The sparking stopped.

Nova'm panted, hanging loosely in his compartment. His youthful voice squeaked through faintly in the exhalations.

Booker walked over towards him. He glared. He spoke: "Where is it…..you little freak? Where is it? That anger…that anger which flows through you. Which is so….so indicative of you….I want it. Why're you holding back?"

Nova'm coughed. He whimpered.

Booker stared. "………….**WHY!"**

The laboratory echoed.

Even his associates shivered at that.

Nova'm shook his head. His eyes closed. He panted…panted…panted…

Not saying a word.

Booker fumed. He lifted his finger again.

The keys turned.

The button….

**SPARKLE!**

Nova'm's neck arched up and his mouth fell open in a silent scream. But he wouldn't let any sound escape his lips. He wouldn't let any scream fill the chamber. He wouldn't let any inch of teeth snarl or any bunch of fingers clench.

And the bolts bolted and the agony agonized. A maelstrom of struggling green built a wavering aura around him.

But it wouldn't get brighter….

Booker shook. With gritting teeth, he waved his hands again.

The bolts faded. Nova'm shook, twitched, and hung his panting body again.

Booker walked forward and stood with his face mere inches from the boy's. He tilted his head to the side…narrowing his eyes.

There were two green streaks trickling down Nova'm's cheeks.

"What……," Booker traced his finger across the boy's face and looked at the green colored liquid on his digit, "….is this?"

Nova'm hiccupped. His eyes opened. He tilted his weary face up. He sniffed and tried to hide back the sobs as he said:

"I…..am……Tamaranian……"

Booker squinted.

"…..anger…..a-anger is not…..the fire….inside of me…."

The associates looked on. The computers flickered.

"I…..I-I know…..who I am…..n-now…."

Booker leaned forward and hissed into the boy's ear. "You **will** burn for me, freak. You **will** give me your fire…"

Nova'm whimpered: "The fire….is not mine…..to give…..f-for it is not y-yours….to have…."

Booker stepped back. He took a deep breath. "If you will not show me the anger that is your pathetic excuse to exist, then I have no choice but to tear it out of you." He gestured towards the men behind him. "Increase the frequency by twenty percent."

One of the associates gasped. "B-But sir….we've never done it that high befo—"

Booker flashed a glare over at him.

The subordinates gulped.

Booker turned back and bore his teeth at the panting boy.

"Learn your place, you little shit. You're a demon…and it's about time you practiced burning in hell!"

They typed at the number pad.

They turned the key and---

**FLASH!**

Nova'm arched. It was like a steel rod was shoved through his spine.

He had no choice, he…

**"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHHH!"**

Green flashes of light strobed brighter and brighter…illuminating a thin grin on Booker's face.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the bathroom of the Titans' cabin…

Starfire was slipping on her long purple boots…a compliment to her hastily assembled, purple two-piece outfit. She was breathing heavily. Her jaw clenched tight. Her eyes unblinking…

**Knock Knock Knock.**

Starfire was silent. She slipped on the last of the two boots.

**Knock Knock Knock.**

She fumed. Her glaring green eyes flashed up.

"Please relocate yourself to some spot of the cabin far from that door, for I must pass through it soon in my exit from this building!"

"Starfire?" Robin's voice came muffled form the other side. "Open up, please! I want to see you!"

The Tamaranian fumed even more. "Robin…it is not my desire to talk to you, nor hear from you. In case my emotional declaration earlier did not properly inform you, please know that I am still intent on rescuing Nova'm and your will shall not get in the way!"

"Yeah, yeah…I know that! Will you just—"

"Silence!" Starfire stood up, adjusted her gloves, and marched to the door. "For the love of X'Hal!" She unlocked the doorknob and yanked the door open. "Will you please leave me al---"

She froze. Her green eyes blinked.

"About time!" Robin exclaimed. He stood in his full costume, finishing attaching his cape to the back of his trademark garb with green gloved fingers. "Cyborg just informed me that Noir knows where Nova'm's being held. If we hurry now, we might catch Booker in the act!"

Starfire's lips parted. "You…..y-you changed your mind?"

"Yeah….I did at that…," Robin said. "Basically….I'm not about to let you do this alone. So it's up to you, Star. I can help you…or you can go on your own. What'll it be?"

Starfire swallowed. "Let us proceed to the location of Nova'm's trepidation."

Robin nodded. "Southwest district of Asheville. Besides a lumber yard. It sounds like Noir's actually seen Nova'm taken into the building."

"Understood," Starfire replied. She was halfway through exiting the cabin when she froze in place.

"?" Robin gave her a sideways glance. "Star? Something up?"

"Yes….something is 'up'," Starfire nodded, facing away from him. "T-Thank you…..Robin…."

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "No, Star. Thank **you**."

Without saying anything else, the two walked outside.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

First thing, Robin headed towards the T-Car. "Let me start it up…then maybe the others can jump in and we can---"

Starfire reached over, grabbed him by the cape, and soared up into the air.

"WHOAH!"

"We must make haste!" she said with a determined look and bolted southward.

Robin dangled for dear life as the two formed a rocket through the late afternoon sky. Piercing gold in a purple and green aura.

Below…Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven ran across the asphalt and looked up. Gawking.

"So….um….," Beast Boy blinked. "Did the vacation just take off without us?"

"They're going to where Nova'm is…," Raven droned.

"Man…think we should go help them?" Cyborg exclaimed. He looked at the others.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Raven took a breath. "Well, I'm bored."

"Me too, dude."

A beat.

Cyborg smirked. "Let's go."

Raven turned and headed for the cabin. "I was missing my robe, actually…."

"Woo hoo! Back in action, dudes! I'll bring pop tarts!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Star!"

Starfire zoomed southward at a hurtling pace.

"Star!"

Wind and low-lying cloud whisps kicked at her hair. "C-Can you….I dunno….save me from choking!"

The alien girl glanced down in mid-flight.

Robin was dangling from her strong grasp by his cape alone. And by that point in the travels, he had twirled around at least six times. His cape was turning slowly into a thin, twisted rope. Any more turns and she'd be practically hanging him.

The girl bit her lip, blushed, and reached down to hold an arm under each armpit.

"Th-Thanks…," he breathed, quite relieved.

"Do not m-mention it…," she said against the wind. Holding Robin thusly, she soared the two of them onward towards their destination.

A beat.

"I'm sorry, Star…."

"For what, Robin?"

"Treating you the way I have."

"And how have you been in error?"

"Just…t-trying to be so protective and stuff," he shook his head and sighed. He looked down and legitimately gulped at the sight of trees and mountaintops soaring underneath his dangling boots. "I should know that you're more than capable of keeping yourself safe and—"

"Is it truly just a matter of 'safety', Robin?" Starfire inquired.

"……..," Robin looked up towards the alien girl carrying him. "As the leader of the Titans, I feel responsible…"

She nodded and looked off towards the blurring horizon. "And as a Tamaranian…I have a sense of duty toward ensuring the safe recovery of Nova'm. These are the sorts of things we sacrifice ourselves for, are they not?"

Robin limply nodded in the beating wind. "Yeah. C-Can you do me at least one favor, Starfire? It's a favor I'd like to do for you as well…"

"And what is that, Robin?"

"Let's not sacrifice ourselves to death…..o-okay?" the Boy Wonder asked.

Starfire bit her lip. She silently nodded.

He took a deep breath.

The two of them looked down.

Asheville loomed ahead. Shaded by an early evening overcast. The edges of the city were lined with pine and the rise and fall of ridges. On a summit overlooking the nestled spectacle of the town, the Biltmore Estate presided like a weathered judge. And in the southwest corner, a lumberyard…..and a granite, two story building.

The two soared down for a landing…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The keys turned.

The juice was cut.

Nova'm hung limply in the compartment. His limbs were literally smoking.

He panted for breath.

Booker smirked. He looked at one of his associates. "Well?"

The thug smiled. He said: "One hundred percent, sir!"

"Good…." Booker signaled the other two.

They adjusted instruments on computer consoles.

The wires completely stopped sparking.

Nova'm gasped.

Booker walked over to him, thinned his eyes, and grinned evilly: "Now that playtime is over…," he pulled out a gun and toyed the boy's butchered bangs with the barrel, "….it's high time we head on home."

"Booker!" one of the associates gasped.

Frowning, the man spun and sneered: "What!"

The associated pointed at his computer screen emphatically.

Booker stomped over and looked from behind the man's shoulder.

A radar-like sensor reading was showing two blips coming in from the north.

"I think they're Titans, sir! They're heading in here fast!"

"Well then….we'd better lock and load," Booker smirked. "The prototype must be protected at all costs."

"How…..h-how did they know where our base is!"

Booker rubbed his chin. "Now that's a good question, isn't it?"

Suddenly, the radar screen went blank. The computer practically died in a shorting-out.

Booker's brow furrowed.

"I….I-I dunno what happened!" the associate exclaimed. "It's like the sensors just went kaput!"

"Go out and check the utilities…," Booker hummed. He looked at the others. "You two! Arm yourselves! We may have company!"

They nodded and rushed towards a gunrack in the back. They picked up shotguns and pumped them.

In the meantime…the third apprentice rushed past a sighing Nova'm and opened the locked doors to the laboratory….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

HISS!

The huge, double doors to the lab opened and closed.

The thug slithered into the dark, marble hallway of the building's basement. The keycard dangled around his neck as he breathed heavily and groped down to the most shadowed end where a metal cabinet hung on the wall with master power switches. He stopped right before he could touch the thing.

"Huh?"

There was a fresh, sparking slash mark across the wall….severing a few of the pipes housing wiring up into the floor of the first level. A slash liken unto……a sword swing.

"The hell is that?" the man exclaimed.

SLASH!

The man blinked. Suddenly, his shirt fell in two as if cut by giant, invisible scissors. The loop of the keycard hanging around his neck was severed.

He gasped and hugged himself…suddenly cold and exposed to the basement.

WHAM!

A wooden, splintery two-by-four shattered across the back of the associate's head.

"Ugh…..," his eyes rolled back and he fell forward in a meaty slump.

My body materialized behind him. I held a broken half of the two-by-four and grinned. My long black hair was disheveled…my face and exposed limbs covered in bruises, a dozen splinters, and a few cuts here and there.

There were tears in my outfit from the collapsing lumber of the yard falling on me. But before so much as a bone broke, I managed to blur out of the way, cloak myself in smoke, and collapse in exhaustion beyond where the starbolt-empowered Booker could spot me.

I reached down and snatched up the broken loop with the keycard. I swung it around, smiled, turned around, and tossed it down the hallway…..

……just in time to fall into the gloved hand of Robin as he and Starfire came down the stairs.

Both froze.

"………."

"………."

I smiled and waved.

"Er….," Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "Good to see you too, Noir…."

Starfire stepped forward, her hands clasped together. "Nova'm?"

My face turned serious. I pointed a jabbing finger towards the double-doors.

They looked.

Robin saw the keypad. He glanced at the keycard in his glove…then back up at me.

"I have a plan…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Booker and his two other thugs stood in the laboratory.

Breathing…

Anxiously watching the double-doors.

"What the Hell's taking him so long?" Booker mumbled…suddenly sweating.

He glanced over at Nova'm.

The boy was still limp. Panting.

HISS!

The other thugs jumped.

Booker looked over.

Slowly…the doors parted ways.

The man that was sent out stood in a hunch in the middle of the basement hallway. His legs were awkwardly bent. His head lolling…

"Well? What did you find?" Booker demanded.

Silence.

The man…..dangled….

Booker raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong?" The man didn't reply.

The other two were apprehensive.

And suddenly…

"!" Nova'm tilted his head up. He gasped. His eyes glowed a bright green.

Booker's eyes narrowed at that. Then his jaw dropped. "No!"

FLASH!

A starbolt sailed in.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

A birdarang twirled through the doorway as well.

SMACK!

"Ugh!" the first thug was knocked back by the alien blast.

THWAP!

The second stumbled back as the birdarang ricocheted hard off his skull.

Growling, Starfire and Robin dove into the room.

"YAAAAGH!"

"RAAAAUGH!"

Booker gritted his teeth. He raised his pistol and fired.

BLAM!

Starfire skirted out of the way.

Robin dove towards the man.

Booker fired again…and again.

BLAM! BANG!

Robin dodged, twirled, and came up with an extending, metal staff that twirled one and a half times before sailing up to fiercely uppercut the former FBI fiend.

"RAUGH!"

THWACK!

The man dropped his gun and stumbled back.

In the meantime, I materialized behind the 'dangling' man in the doorway. I dropped him, whipped out Myrkblade, and dove into the fray.

Both thugs were wearily getting up. I kicked one into the other and started slashing computer equipment like crazy.

CRACK! SMACK! SPARKLE!

Electricity danced, arched, and burnt out in gray smoke.

Starfire soared straight towards Nova'm's body. With Tamaranian strength, she snapped the clamps free of his limbs, carefully pulled the electrodes out, and reached two gentle arms to cradle the boy as he slumped out of the device and into her embrace.

"K-Koriand'r?" he wheezed.

She hugged him deeply to her chest, palming the back of his head and running hands through his hair as her green eyes watered. "I am so…so sorry, Nova'm. But I am here now. You will be safe. I promise you that…"

"I…I-I felt it….Koriand'r….," he trembled into her grasp as the noise of combat filled the rest of the chamber beyond. "The fire….the g-good fire….I knew you were coming for me. I knew you l-loved me…..I knew…."

"Shhhh…," she rocked him. She looked out at the door. "I-I must get you out of here, Nova'm. Somewhere safe…"

"B-B-But your friends…."

"They can handle themselves…trust me…," and she proceeded to truck him towards the exit.

In the meantime, Robin was advancing mercilessly on Booker, swinging his staff madly. "RAAAUGH!" SWOOOSH-CLANK!

Sparks showered from computer console, desk, and medical bed as Booker desperately dodged the Boy Wonder's metal attacks.

Robin jumped off a chair, spun, and came down with a heavy swing of his staff.

SWOOOOSH!

Booker fell back onto his rear. The staff struck the granite floor hard between his knees.

CLANK!

He gritted his teeth and kicked up.

WHUMP!

Robin stumbled up.

Booker reached into a nearby cabinet, pulled out a taser, and pressed the trigger while aiming at the vigilante.

ZAAA-AAAAP!

Sparks danced out…burning the air.

Robin hoisted himself over a metal railing and leapt over a string of computer consoles.

Booker re-aimed.

The sparks followed Robin…sailing into the computers.

POW! BANG!

The computer fried. The monitors shattered and tiny wisps of flame erupted from the keyboards and buttons.

Robin slid atop a desk, spiraled around, leapt, swung from a hanging bar above, twirled, and sailed down at Booker like a comet with his fist flying.

Teeth gritting….

Booker aimed the taser again--

SMACK!

It was knocked out of his grasp with a green glove.

Robin landed. He gripped the man by his collar and hoisted him up. "You hang from a thin rope now, Booker. Consider your anonymity a thing from the past, torturing creep!"

Booker winced in the Titan's grasp, but managed to grin and say: "All right…so there weren't any job positions in the FBI for torturing pre-puberty freaks from outer space! Where else was I to go!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You can try the seventh layer of Hell for starters, asshole! RrrrRRAUGH!" And he spun, swung, and tossed Booker's limp body across the laboratory.

The man slammed into the metal lockers besides the compartment…denting it considerably.

CLANG!

"Ughhh…."

Robin took a deep breath…that bout of fury satiated. He glanced over at me.

I was demolishing more and more technology….and enjoying it too.

I shattered a monitor and motherboard—fully wrecking Booker's understanding of the Tamaranian powers---and smirked.

There was a glint of something in the shattered glass of the output device.

I narrowed my black eyes.

Someone was behind me……holding something--

SWOOOSH! SLASH!

I blurred around and ripped Myrkblade up through the air, severing the barrel of a shotgun in one of the recovering thugs' grasp.

He gasped as shot spilled all around him. He stumbled back.

I was about to smash his head in with the hilt of my sword when the second associate came in, a shotgun in his very own grasp.

BLAM!

I blurred backwards and into a slide. I scraped Myrkblade into the ground to anchor me still.

The thug aimed again.

I bit my lip.

BLAM!

Robin dove in front of me, twirled his staff, and deflected the blow. Growling, he leapt straight into the thug, kicked the shotgun out of his grasp, spun, and reverse-kicked him in the face.

THWUMP!

"AUGH!" the associate fell back into the wall, wincing.

The other got up, pulled out a dagger, and went for Robin's back.

I blurred forward and slashed the knife out of the man's grasp with Myrkblade.

CLANK!

I elbowed him, pushed him back, and advanced again with my weapon.

In such a manner, the Boy Wonder and I unleashed our punishment on the two helpless thugs. Clanking metal and cries of surprise filled the room.

We were both too busy to acknowledge either the absence of Starfire and Nova'm or the sight of Booker sitting up, rubbing his head, frowning, and reaching to the metal cabinet to open it up….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I…I was weak….Koriand'r…," Nova'm wheezed in Starfire's grasp.

The girl carried the two of them up the stairs from the basement to the first floor of the building where the glass windows of the place displayed the exit in full glory.

The girl Titan gasped and looked at Nova'm. "What do you mean, Nova'm?"

"The anger…..," the boy nestled his face in her shoulder and shuddered tearfully. "H-He got it….Booker got it. It hurt so much…..I-I couldn't help it…."

"Nova'm…I am getting you out of here," Starfire simply said as they rounded the steps and limped down the hallway. "Far away from this torturous place of desecration. Maybe then, I can try to convince you of your innocence."

"M-Mommy and Daddy….a-are they okay?"

"Yes, Nova'm. But only if I get you out of here."

"Th-Thank you, Koriand'r. Thank you…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!

I kicked a thug in the face.

He stumbled back.

I took a breath and swung my sword in a downward slash.

SWOOOOSH—SLIIINK!

He gasped as Myrkblade grazed his left shoulder, leaking blood.

I pivoted forward and smacked him in the forehead with the hilt of my weapon.

THWUMP!

He fell down cold.

I panted.

I glanced over.

Robin's opponent swung at him.

The Boy Wonder jumped back and kicked the man's knees.

The thug was strong…he stumbled only partially, but regained his strained balance just in time to block a swing of Robin's staff and punch the boy back in the chest.

WHAP!

Robin stumbled back, panting.

The thug grinned and made to charge him--

WOOOSH!

I came in from behind, twirled Myrkblade in lengthwise, and hoisted the blunt side of the blade up. I gripped the sword on either end of its wooden length with expertly placed hands…and in so doing I pinned the man's head to my chest by the blade resting against his chin. He struggled and tried to grab me with panicked hands as he struggled for breath.

"RAAUGH!" Robin dove in, swung twice, and fiercely punched the prone man's cheeks twice.

SMACK! WHAM!

The man's eyes rolled back…and he moaned as he fell unconscious.

I lowered my wooden sword, and he slumped to the ground. Robin panted. He looked up at me. He nodded.

I nodded back.

SNKKT! Robin retracted his blade and pocketed it in his utility belt. "Now that that's over with….just where the Hell have you been?"

I smirked and shrugged.

"Yeah….I suppose you were…," he mumbled. He wiped sweat off his brow and looked across the room. "Wait a second…where's Booker?"

I narrowed my black eyes from behind my shades.

"I thought I took him down. Where is he?"

I looked across the room. I saw the compartment that Nova'm was in. I saw the lockers wired to it. I saw that they were wide open and empty.

I let out a sigh and rolled my black eyes.

"?" the Boy Wonder gave me an awkward glance through his eyemask and uttered: "What is it?"

I swiftly dove into him and slammed the both of us into the ground as---

FLASH!

A green starbolt exploded over us, searing computer consoles and causing plastic and metal to fly.

The two of us shuddered as another starbolt struck, this time in the ceiling. Huge light fixtures fell down and pinned us painfully between a desk and the floor.

CLANK!

Booker jumped down before us. His metal braces and suit glowing with an emerald aura of previously unheard of proportions. The last ounce of additional fire that Nova'm had to provide was now surging through the tall, dark-haired man's arms, chest, and fingers. He grinned with the immensity of what he now possessed, and his eyes bloodlusted for our fiery demise.

"I never understood you vigilante wyrdos and your penchant for costumes until now…"

He aimed two glowing wrists at me and winked.

"Allow me to write you a place in folklore."

As a starbolt charged, I gritted my teeth, teleported out from underneath the light fixture, and leapt up at him with an upwards slash of Myrkblade.

I deflected his discharging wrists upwards.

CLANK!

FLASH!

A wave of green energy slammed into the laboratory ceiling. Sparks and shards of granite showered down.

I landed, twirled Myrkblade, and charged at him.

He aimed two wrists at his feet and created a green shield.

I slammed into it, wince, rolled off, and fell across a desk.

He laughed and launched a starbolt at me.

I flipped myself off the desk and dove towards the opposite side of the room amidst a spray of varnished splinters.

CRASH!

In the meantime, Robin got up….kicking the light fixtures off him with a shout. "RAUGH!"

Booker looked his way.

The Boy Wonder jumped to his feet, whipped out a birdarang, and tossed it hard at Booker's forehead.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH--!

Booker raised a green-charged wrist and deflected it.

CLANK!

The birdarang flew up and embedded itself into an a/c unit.

Booker then stretched an arm out and let loose a green wave.

FLASH!

Robin ducked, rolled across the floor, leapt up to his knees, and tossed a bolo at Booker's chest.

TH-TH-THWAP! The weighted cords wrapped around the man's torso. He struggled in a standing position.

Not for long…

WOOOSH-SLAM! I blurred into him, elbow first.

He went sprawling back across the laboratory, metal-braced feet scraping against the metal floor.

I charged at him with Myrkblade raised.

He struck a wall in reverse, grit his teeth, burned the cords off him with a wave of green fire, and aimed at me.

FLASH! FLASH!

I deflected the first starbolt and slid down into a crouch to avoid the other.

In the meantime, Robin—who was running behind me—forward flipped to avoid the second starbolt, pulled out an ice disk in mid-air, and tossed it on the descent. "YAUGH!"

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH-CRUNCH!

"Nnnnghhh!" Booker twitched and groaned as a layer of frost ran up and down his body, encasing him in an icy sarcophagus.

I got up…panting.

Robin got up…panting.

The two of us stared at Booker's translucent, shadow of a froze figure.

We both sighed in relief…..

…….and then the 'ice statue' began to glow green from the inside.

Robin moaned. "Awwwww son of a---"

SHATTER!

Booker's arms shot out with the unleashing of green energy.

I flinched and deflected flying ice shards with my blade.

Robin jumped behind the protective body of a desk.

"You wanna skate, boys?" Booker grinned. "Let's dance!"

In a green blur he tossed himself into the center of the laboratory. He charged up his whole body with unnatural emerald fury and spun around and around and around and around…unleashing random starbolts like a hellish acid sprinkler.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Desks shattered. Computers exploded. Light fixtures collapsed. All of Booker's and Booker's men's work was being demolished. The former FBI agent had achieved the fruition of his dreams in that starbolt-powered suit. Everything else now was just refuse. And he did a good job of showing it.

CRASH! SMASH! SIZZLE!

Robin and I scurried behind furniture and equipment and blockade, shading ourselves from flying shrapnel and falling debris.

Robin shouted something, but I couldn't hear it. I was preoccupied with the blinding sensation of the multiple starbolts' aura screaming through my shades.

Booker laughed at the top of his lungs. His spin came to a grinding stop and—grinning—he enclosed both hands together and aimed a double fist at the Boy Wonder and me.

"It's been fun….but I have greater quarry to catch!"

FLASH!

His blast sent Robin and I sailing hard against the far wall of the laboratory. We were buried by the splinter remains of two desks and three medical tables.

Booker relaxed….sighed….smiled…and spun insanely around to dash out the double doors and run up to the first floor of the building.

Where the two aliens had departed….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire half-carried Nova'm out into the middle of the street beyond the front entrance of the building.

She panted…looking around as if to find an avenue of escape amongst the three hundred and sixty degree avenue of escape illuminated around her by the golden sunset of the North Carolina day.

The twelve-year-old boy was shivering against her…the last waves of pain and aftershock slowly beginning to dwindle away in his system from the torture he had gone through.

"B-Booker….," he said. "Your friends….th-they are in trouble…"

"Robin! Noir!" Starfire looked at him. "What makes you say that?"

Nova'm swallowed his dry throat. "Because Booker has copied my fire….he's strong, Star. Perhaps as strong as you."

She blinked at him.

There was a loud clanking sound.

Both Tamaranians gasped and turned to look at the building's entrance.

Someone or something was struggling to exit…

"N-Nova'm…," Starfire stammered. "Can you fly?"

"I….I…"

"Can you fly, Nova'm?"

"I-I can't….I'm sorry, Kori!"

Starfire took a deep breath. "Then I shall carry you…," she hoisted the boy up in her arms, cradled him, and took off into the gold-littered air.

SMASH!

The glass front of the building shattered behind them.

Booker emerged, his metal joints creaking and green spheres strobing.

He looked up at the escaping two…grinned evilly…and unleashed long-ranged starbolts.

FLASH! FLASH!

Nova'm let out a shriek.

Starfire swiftly dipped, rose, and swayed in mid-flight, avoiding the green traces of fire eating up at them from behind. She and Nova'm made a bee-line towards the elevated treetops bordering Asheville. She pushed her powers into full throttle in a desperate attempt to return the boy to safety.

Booker would have none of it. With superpowered limbs blurring, he ran down the road. Cars swerved and smashed into each other as he rocketed across lanes, through alleyways, over the backs of vehicles, and even through the windows of a shop or two in his furious strive to keep up with the escaping Tamaranians.

Just as the edge of the forest approached…Booker knew that he was running out of room. He charged up two armfuls of starbolt energy. He gritted his teeth. Synthetic sparkles of replicated Tamarania danced from the edges of his youthful eyes. Just as his arm braces reached the limit and he could no longer charge the wave without risk of melting his own bone structure, he let out a huge howl and shot forth a starbolt the size of a person at the distant figure of the two.

**FLASH!**

Nova'm gasped over Starfire's shoulder. "Kori! A big one! A big one, Kori!"

She turned to look over her shoulder and gasped. "Hold on, Nova'm—"

WHAM!

The starbolt practically exploded into them. Starfire's body took the brunt of the explosion. The emerald fire seeped into her, sucked her of her very own livelihood, and stripped her of vitality. She gasped as if invisible lungs had been emptied of all reserves. Her eyes teared green trails as she fought to keep the two of them aloft. But inevitably…they plummeted downward and downward. Twisting and curving in a gradual fall from the height of the air over Asheville. Trees of a mountainside blurred ever the more close to their sprawling figures. And beyond them—in direct opposition—rested the tall windows of the second floor of the Biltmore Estate.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the lengthy Living Hall, a smartly attired woman with a nametag was giving a group of people a pleasant tour across the lavishly set interior.

"And in here we have what was once a common resting area for whenever guests of the Vanderbilts' just happened to drop by…."

SMASH!

The people shrieked and ran back against the wall as Starfire and Nova'm tumbled in through a spray of glass from a window. An antique chair went sailing through a Victorian coffee table, decimating its priceless quality.

Slowly, the two Tamaranians stirred. Nova'm sat and clutched his head, wincing.

Starfire got up, limped to the window, and looked out.

The distant, glowing-green figure of a man in a high-powered suit could be seen soaring up the mountainside under the tree tops.

"What is the meaning of this!" the tour guide stammered. "You can't just barge in here and---wait a second, you're—"

Starfire spun around and waved everyone off. "Please! You must hurry! There is a madman coming to do battle with us!"

People murmured. People trembled.

"I-I'll call the police!"

"Just evacuate the building!" Starfire insisted. "As a Titan and a superhero, I am imploring that you protect yourselves and everyone else on these premises! Go! Hurry!"

Everyone ran off in a panic.

Starfire stumbled over and helped a dizzy Nova'm up to his feet.

"Kori….wh-what'll we do?"

"Just stay by my side, Nova'm," she held his shoulders tightly and walked the two of them through a nearby door into another parlor. "I shall think of something. Just stay by my side…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the Biltmore Estates…in the garden and the entrance area….visitors and attendants filed out in a nervous cluster of chattering, shuddering, murmuring souls. There were tons of workers on cellular phones. Calling in emergency assistance. In the distance—the downtown cluster of Asheville---police lights flashed a trail up the roads and towards the elevated location of the manor.

And unseen by the chaotic populace…a man in a metal outfit was stumbling up an embankment towards the windows of the first floor.

He clenched green glowing fists….and grinned.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!

Starfire kicked a door open and led Nova'm by the hand hurriedly through a hallway and down a set of stairs.

They found themselves in an ornately furnished library. There were walls full to the brink with bookcases for a story and a half to the ceiling. The two Tamaranians descended a small winding staircase and reached the floor. Starfire looked all around an assortment of reading chairs, tables, and sofas. There were exits on at least three sides, and a stretch of windows illuminated the floor with fading amber.

In the distance….Crash!

The two spun and gasped.

Muffled silence.

Heartbeats.

Nova'm swallowed and clung to Starfire.

The alien Titan blinked her green eyes. She spun around. Saw a sofa with its wide back pressed to a corner…and rushed towards it with Nova'm in tow.

She lifted him, dropped him behind the sofa, and then slid in herself. The two hid behind the furniture…scrunched up to the wall. The smell of antique books and old upholstery filled their noses. Nova'm had the urge to sneeze, but Starfire shook him out of it.

They stilled their lungs and squat there….

Waiting…..

Barely breathing…..

Silence.

Nova'm trembled.

Starfire slowly reached a hand over and steadied him by cuddling his neck to her shoulder.

He leaned against her, swallowing and trying to keep still.

But his anxiety was still great.

And she sensed it with the burning.

So she whispered to him: "Do you know how I realized you were a special person, Nova'm?"

He slowly shook his head. "H-How, Kori?" he squeaked back.

She had her eyes fixed to whatever little bit of the rest of the library she could see.

"I felt you, Nova'm," she whispered. "I felt you long before I saw you. In my heart when I entered this place…I knew. I knew without a doubt that there was someone precious in this town. Someone beautiful….and needing warm, warm company for once in his life…"

Nova'm bit his lip and his eyes moistened as he listened and trembled.

There was a secret shuffling at the other end of the library. Starfire sensed it. She clenched her fists and continued whispering to the boy: "When I came to this earth…I felt so alone. The Titans made me feel worthwhile…but they could not eliminate all of the loneliness. Because—like them—I require the presence of others of my kind to truly be happy. I need the fire of my people to thrive and survive. Otherwise, the joy risks fading and falling into nothingness…"

The shuffling came closer. A tiny clanking of metal to tile.

"Out of all the odds…the sheer impossibility of it…," Starfire breathed, "…I found you, Nova'm. I came to one in a million planets….and found you. If that is not the mere whim of X'Hal, I know not what is." She stroked a hand through his short red hair and whispered into his ear. "Nova'm…never forget the angel that you are by birth. That fire inside of you…that hidden sun…its purpose is for joy, peace, and tranquility. It is a fire that burns without a threat to anyone or anything. And it is strongest when you share it with the fire inside everyone else. And I believe…Nova'm….I believe that there are countless blazes bound to be blessed by what you have to offer…."

"K-Kori?" he gasped.

She let go of him, faced the back of the furniture, and the shuffling beyond. She took a deep breath. "I love you like a sister, Nova'm. Now run away…"

His eyes widened.

She grit her teeth and lifted her knees to her chest. "Run away and keep the fire burning!"

WHAM!

She sprung her legs out with Tamaranian strength and kicked the antique sofa away completely.

SWOOOOOSH!

It sailed clear across the library and smashed straight into the body of Booker who was in the middle of charging a starbolt.

WHAM!

"AAUGH!"

He fell down amidst shards and splinters.

Starfire jumped up to her feet and sprinted across the room. Her arms glowed.

Nova'm got up. "Kori!" he shouted desperately.

"Nova'm! Go!" she shouted and thusly dove into the recovering body of Booker.

WHUMP!

"MMMPHH!"

"RAAAAUGH!"

With charged limbs, she shoved him across the tile—SCRAAAAAAPE—through a table—SMASH—and through the wall on the other side—CRASH!

The two were sent sprawling into a thick hallway.

Booker tumbled hard to his back.

Starfire caught her footing, took a breath, and charged him again. She glowed clenched fists of burning jade.

FLASH!

Booker slid across the floor like a hockey puck.

Starfire jumped up, caught an invisible wind, and sailed straight down at him with two starbolts: "RAAAUGH!"

FLASH! FLASH!

He deflected with the metal braces of his arms and suddenly there was nothing but air between the two combatants.

Starfire's eyes widened and she gasped.

Booker reached up with a snarl and grabbed one of her thin arms.

She shrieked as he flipped her over him and straight through another wall.

SMASH!

Her alien body broke through the foundation and emerged inside the wide dining hall. Tapestries hung on the wall. Medieval light fixtures hung from overhead. Monstrous fireplaces blazed heatedly with red glory. A long dining table stretched beyond twenty feet down the chamber, lined with antique wooden chairs.

She hobbled up to her feet, shaking a dizzy head.

"Nnnnnghhh!"

She looked up.

Booker was charging her. He flung a starbolt into her skull.

FLASH!

"OOF!" she flew back, rolled off the top of the dining table, and smashed through a chair to come to a tumbling stop on the other side…moaning.

Booker ran. He leapt. He sailed over and down at her, tossing starbolt after starbolt.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! She rolled left—dodged—rolled right—dodged—and jumped up in an uppercut just as he landed.

SMACK!

His head tilted back unnaturally.

Starfire pivoted her arms back, swung them forward, and double-punched the villain in the chest. "RAUGH!"

WHUMP!

He fell back against the table, gasped, and stretched a wrist at her. FLASH!

Starfire backflipped, flew upside down, dodged the starbolt, and landed upright…sliding backwards.

The tapestry behind her was struck with the starbolt and burned a hole through.

Starfire bumped into a tall candlestick holder: a metal stand about the same height as herself.

Booker stood up straight and charged two hands' worth of starbolts. Frowning.

Starfire grabbed the stand, spun it, and struck it across his hands.

FLASH!

A starbolt exploded in his grasp. His fingers burned. "AAAAUGH!"

She wasted no time in twirling the stand around and shoving it—candles first—into his chest.

WHAP!

He fell back and tumbled atop the table.

Starfire let out a yell and swung the stand down at his body.

He rolled to the side, got up on a knee, and launched a starbolt at her.

FLASH!

CLANG! She deflected with a twirl of the metal stand.

He flung another starbolt.

FLASH!

She leapt the glowing projectile, flipped, and came down on him atop the long table with the stand swinging down. "RAAUGH!"

CLANK!

He rolled out of the way before it could strike. He swiveled up to his feet…sliding a metal-braced leg out and knocked the stand out of Starfire's grasp.

She stumbled backwards, catching both her wits and her breath.

Booker got into a fighting position. He spun his limbs around and rushed her—two fists outstretched.

WH-WHAP!

Starfire slid back across the table, her skidding feet knocking away candles and placemats and empty dishes.

The friction caught up.

She grit her teeth.

She dashed down his edge of the table and lifted a knee.

WHUMP!

He slid down across the wooden surface. He caught himself, took a deep breath, and swung a green-charged fist just as she ran up a second time.

SWOOOSH!

She dodged and elbowed him hard in the sternum.

He held his arms out, took the impact, and wrapped his upper body around Starfire's. He held her in a death grip. Her alien strength tried in vain to match up against his synthetic one. He grinned. Sparks of green danced around his eyes. He increased the energy output of his wrists's metal and gradually burned into Starfire's shoulders.

The girl winced in pain. She angrily snarled and swung her leg up the only part of his body not equipped with the metal mesh outfit.

WHUMP!

Booker's eyes bulged. He hobbled back…wheezing and grasping his groin.

"HAAAA!" Starfire leapt, spun around, and side-kicked him in mid air across the face.

WHAM!

He spun three times in place atop the varnished tabletop.

Starfire landed, clasped together two hands, and flung a starbolt straight into the careening man's side.

FLASH!

His body sailed off like a projectile.

In mid-air, Starfire stared. She focused her energy through her optics and shot two eyeblasts of Tamaranian fury. The lasers struck dead center against the mid-air Booker and knocked him clear across the long dining room…and straight into a blazing fireplace.

CRASH!

PHWOOOOMB!

His body was swallowed up by the flames.

A green burst of light intensified….then died out.

Silence…

Starfire heaved. She slowly marched across the length of the table. She jumped down to the floor. She approached the fireplace.

Frowning.

Her lip was bleeding green blood. Two bruises splotched her forehead under tussled red hair. There was a tear in her purple skirt and a limp to her walk.

She marched up to the hearth of the fireplace and stared in.

Nothing but flames….

She took a deep breath. She hung sad green eyes, pivoted around, and began a funeral walk back to where she last lef--

SWOOOOSH!

Booker's body flew out of the fireplace, slammed hard into Starfire's side, grabbed her by the long red hair, and slammed her skull to the floor with a roar. "AAAAUGH!"

SLAP!

"UNNGH!" Starfire exclaimed, her upper body wracked with pain.

Smoking, he let out another growl and kicked her hard in the stomach.

WHUMP!

She wheezed and curled into a fetus position. Green tears poured out of her eyes and mixed with the blood from the lip.

He let out another growl and kicked her again…sending her tumbling across the dining room floor and towards the stretch of amber-scattering windows.

Starfire coughed…sputtered…and looked up weakly at the villain.

His whole body was trailing smoke. Like he was bathed in ashes and embers. Clearly he had survived the flames through some miraculous means. There were scorch marks all over his skin. But it didn't look natural. The skin was somehow acting as a heat shield. And that very same shield was melting away. Collapsing in on itself. Wrinkling.

As Starfire watched, Booker morphed from a dashing figure in his mid twenties to a wasted soul of the mid sixties. The fire had burned his mask away. It had annihilated the plastic persona. The true ex-FBI agent now loomed before her, panting. Seething. All but foaming at the mouth.

"You realize what this suit will do?" he wheezed, staring wide-eyed at her as his voice also betrayed his true age. "It will give me everything! Everything I need! Money! Resources! Friends in high places! Everything I need to stay YOUNG!"

He rushed down and gripped her by her hair roughly.

She winced.

"The Enoch Project!" Booker hyperventilated. "Have you ever heard about it! Of course not, you alien bitch! You're not even a citizen of this damn planet! And no citizen knows what it is! But I did! I knew so many secrets…so many techniques used in preserving our god damn leaders in office….keys to extended mortality…..an answer to age itself! So I fell in love! So I pursued scientists who were an expert in the field instead of national security! So what! They called me crazy. And you know what I say! Everyone's crazy! Everyone's crazy if they think they can live forever! I had it all! And I can still have it all! But it's freakish pieces of shit like you and that damn kid who don't…show…me…MERCY!"

He let out a warcry, picked her up, spun around, and threw her straight through one of the stretches of window.

SMASH!

Starfire's breath left her as she sailed through the glass and came out the other side in a river of shards. She rolled to a stop on the front lawn of the Biltmore Estate. A throng of employees and tourists evacuated outside gasped and stepped back in a retreating bulge of wide-eyes and dropped jaws.

Starfire's green eyes weakly blinked at them. She tried sitting up—wincing—and turned to look as Booker leapt through the window, landed in a hard squat with metal braced legs, and then marched towards her.

His hair was sizzling. His body red hot. His fake skin sagging. Graying eyes hauntingly saucering out and down at her.

She tried to scamper away—but he clutched her skull hard with one hand and hoisted her face up to face a free, green-glowing hand.

She struggled and strained in his grasp.

He narrowed his fake eyebrows and wheezed menacingly: "I hope in death, you face a pure hell of irony, freak. Your power…your ugly, alien power…it shall be harnessed for the pure obliteration of tons of people at the hands of criminal organizations the world over. And where will I be? I will be in the fountain of youth. And my only regret will be having to admit that I used worthless, foreign species like you to step my way up the ladder! Smile, pretty one….I'm about to send your space back to the galactic shithole you call home!"

His knuckles glowed a bright emerald and sailed burningly at her face.

She closed her green eyes and held her breath.

"**No!"** A small hand reached out and clamped over Booker's wrist.

The man let out a torturous grasp. He looked over from where he held Starfire.

Nova'm stood. Looking up with wet eyes of green. He was holding Booker's burning hand in place in a trembling gasp. The twelve-year-old bit his lip and pleaded: "Please…..d-don't hurt Kori. I-It's me that you want….r-remember?"

"N-Nova'm….," Starfire weakly breathed.

Slowly…..evilly….Booker smirked. "Come to think of it….it isn't her that I want after all!"

WOOOSH-GRIP!

The people watching gasped in fright.

Booker was now holding both Starfire's and Nova'm's necks in one hand each. Both struggled in vain to get free…then simply hung limp in his synthetically strong grasp.

"I want the **both** of you! Because as far as I know…you're the only two freaks of your kind on this planet! I'll be doing myself—and the world—a lot of good by exterminating your sorry asses all at once!"

Starfire gasped for breath.

Tears rolled down Nova'm's grip.

The evening wind from the North Carolina mountains rolled down the side of the Biltmore Estate and kicked at the burning ends of Booker's fake hair, the splotched remains of his fake eyebrows, and the flaking bits of plastic off his fake lips as he grinned and sneered: "Pure irony! The fruit of my efforts! Two pitiful freaks ended by the very same fire that screams inside of them! Some people are dead before they're even born. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Starfire's eyes thinned. Regardless, she looked over at Nova'm.

The boy hiccupped in Booker's grip and looked back.

"……"

"……"

Something in the wind lifted them up. They remembered each other's faces. They remembered the smiles. The glow in their skin. The warmth that caused that glow. The fire that caused that warmth. Burning deep inside of them. Hidden joy. Hidden suns.

And for once, it didn't matter if they came into being centuries apart. With or without suspended animation. With or without billions of miles and billions of zygotes in between them.

They were brother and sister.

And they smiled.

Booker's maniacal laughter was cut short by a red hot sensation. He gasped. He looked down. The half-sphere on his metal breastplate was glowing brighter and brighter. The alien energy inside was surging madly for some reason….

Starfire and Nova'm smiled more and more. Somewhere deep inside, their lungs sighed dreamily.

The sphere started to vibrate. A heat seeped out throughout the length and width of the metal braces strapped to Booker's plastic skin. And it burned. It burned like hell. It burned harder than any grand fireplace or any starbolt or any sparking computer console.

"Aaaaugh!" the man shouted. He hurriedly dropped the two Tamaranians. "Get it off me!" He fumbled with flapping, melted 'skin' to pull the braces off. "Get it off!"

But Starfire grinned. Nova'm even giggled.

"NOOO! AAAAUGH!" Booker shouted. He gripped the breastplate. The surface burned his fingers…producing skin and the smell of melted skin. Fake or not. He popped the thing finally and moaned in pain and gasped for breath all the same.

CLANK!

The breastplate fell to the floor. The half-sphere shook….clanked…and exploded in a fury of translucent polymer.

CRACK!

Booker stumbled back, shading himself with singed limbs.

A tornado of green fire spiraled up into the thin summer air of the Carolina mountains and got lost in the amber sunset. Eaten by mosquitoes.

Booker panted. For once, he wished he had his old sweat pores.

"Our power….it is not a destructive power…."

The man looked back down.

It was Nova'm who spoke. He smiled and helped Starfire up. The two stood side by side, weakly leaning against each other.

"It is a gift….," Starfire said.

Nova'm nodded, "….and you can't handle a gift, Booker."

"You lost your hands a long, long time ago. The rest of your body as well, for that matter."

"And….your soul."

The man's lungs heaved. He frowned. "You…..r-ruined my dreams…."

The two merely smiled.

Booker gritted gnarled, old teeth. He reached into his pocket and suddenly produced a magnum. He aimed it at the two aliens as the crowd beyond on the Biltmore Estate gasped.

"I may not have a future anymore……but I think it's about time you damn freaks learn what it's like to be human. Join mortality with me, shitheads. Lord knows….y-you just invited yourselves."

Starfire and Nova'm took deep breaths…holding each other.

Booker pulled the trigger---

suddenly, a field of black energy encased his weapon.

"Wha---!" he gasped in shock.

The gun lifted from his grasp and flew in the air towards a blue-haired girl with gray eyes and a billowing robe.

Booker took a step towards her--

WOOOOSH-THWUMP!

A green ram charged up out of nowhere and slammed the burnt man's chest hard with sailing horns.

"OOOF!" Booker flew ten feet and landed in the titanium embrace of a tall android.

He looked straight up and gasped.

Cyborg smirked besides the T-Car. "Don't even think about it." And he brought his fists down into the man's face.

WHAM!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

When Robin and I marched up the last of the rise in the road and approached the Biltmore Estate, it was an hour and a half later into the fall of night. Random citizens and pedestrians circled a scene full of police squad cars with blinking lights and investigators discussing the chaotic events of the last day or two that had come into fruition.

Robin and I exchanged glances. Our bruised up and slightly bleeding glances. We both chuckled.

It felt like home…

We hobbled our way to the T-Car, where Starfire and Nova'm could be seen sitting on the hood. They were talking to each other.

Robin stepped immediately up to Cyborg…who stood proudly with his hands on his hips next to a fully costumed Beast Boy and Raven.

A beat.

Robin lifted his eyebrows….smirked slightly….and shrugged. "Report," he said.

"Report yourself," Cyborg smirked. He smiled and folded his arms. "Everything's a-okay over here."

"You're sure of that?"

"Dude!" Beast Boy stretched his arms behind his back and smiled boastfully. "It's vacation! We're all too good!"

Robin blinked behind his eyemask. "You all just came in at the last second after Starfire royally kicked ass, didn't you?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy lifted their fingers and opened their mouths to respond--

"Yes." Said Raven.

The other two glared at her.

She smirked slightly.

I chuckled breathily.

"Well then….," Robin spun around and faced the scene. "Sure beats Disney World."

"Whatever you say, dude. I hate Florida."

Cyborg remarked. "Too many meat-eating tourists?"

"Yeah…that and republicans."

"Ah."

I took my shades off, rubbed my black eyes' lids, and squinted across the way at the two on the T-Car.

Starfire and Nova'm sat together. Content. Lively. Starfire had parts of her shoulder in a makeshift bandage. Nova'm's legs dangled childishly off the edge of the T-Car's hood.

The two Tamaranians watched as Booker was carted off into the back of a squad car, handcuffed. His starbolt emulating outfit of metal was carted off in a separate vehicle. Staring deeply at his weathered face, the alien nomads had no idea how they could not have seen the aged fool under the cool exterior before.

"This is the…s-start of something new, I guess…," Nova'm blinked.

Starfire glanced down at him. "The start?"

"Y-Yeah," he nodded and looked back up at her. "The creep's gone. My parents and I will be safe. I-I won't have to hide out in that boring cabin all the time…."

Starfire smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Is that all that has changed?"

Nova'm blinked. He blushed. "I…..I-I suppose that I'm…..ya know…."

"Hmmmm?"

He hugged his knees to his chest and bashfully looked away. "…..I-I'm happier now….," he murmured.

She smiled. "And is **that** all?"

He looked at her with a flash. "And I'm not ashamed of who I am anymore! Are you happy!"

She giggled. She reached a hand down and ruffled his mat of red hair. "I am always happy, Nova'm. But you know what?"

"Hmmm?" he leaned his cute head to the side and blinked at her with clear green eyes.

She leaned down and whispered I his ear. "You started being this happy and shameless a long…long time ago. All it took was the burning to wake up to it….to embrace yourself….Nova'm."

He took a deep breath. "I-Is it okay if I embrace you, Kori?"

"Hmmmmm," she mock 'thought about it'. Then brightened. "Affirmative!"

He giggled and practically tackled her off the hood of the T-Car in a hug. "You always talk funny!"

"I do my best," she winked and stroked the small of his back in their hug.

A beat.

Nova'm sighed into her. He stared off into space. "It's all…..s-so intense. Me? A prince?"

"A monarch…," Starfire nodded over him. "A piece of our planet's history. Indescribably priceless, Nova'm…."

He bit his lip. "I….I-I don't think I could….face all that. So soon. So suddenly…."

She swallowed…and smiled gently into the night air. "I assumed such of you, Nova'm."

He looked up at her, fearful.

She stroked a strand of hair or two away from over his forehead and said soothingly: "And I know that—although Tamaran lives inside of you—Earth is what you know. And I believe—for the time being—you should get to know Earth a bit more before you venture on the revelation of yourself to our people."

"B-But….Kori….," Nova'm stammered. "Now that you've found me….won't our people be trying to grab me and sit me on a throne and stuff?"

"Hmmmm," she glanced off. "You know what….I just had a wonderful vacation. I went out 'hiking the trail' with my friends, spend evenings performing 'braiding maneuvers' on Raven's hair, and even sat down to a movie with Beast Boy! Oh, what was the title….'Feet and Lounging In Las of the Vegas'?"

Nova'm blinked. "But…..what about me?"

"Who?" Starfire looked at him dumbly. "Who are you? I certainly do not know of any boy named Nova'm, long lost on a planet after years of drifting through space in a time capsule! Oh…all the boring things I will have to report to my contacts on Tamaran! Another uneventful day! But a glorious vacation!"

Nova'm grinned wide. "You mean…i-it's our secret!

"For now…," she whispered with a smile and a wink.

"Oh Kori! Thank you!" he hugged her deeply. "I promise! I will be ready for you! I will be ready for you when the time comes to….t-to go back home."

She leaned in and pointed behind him. "I believe home is just two hugs away…"

His mouth dropped. He spun around to look.

Another squad car had pulled up in front of the Biltmore. Out of the back—assisted by an officer—emerged Kevin and Ruth Sanderson. They looked over…brightened…and reached out for their boy. "Nova'm!"

"Mom! Dad!" the redhead jumped off the T-Car's hood, bounded across the pavement, and practically leapt into their arms. The family of three knelt together. Amber and ebony. Green tears and clear tears. Six arms identically holding…warming…loving….

"Thank god you're allright…."

"We prayed….we prayed so hard…."

"It's over, mommy! Daddy! It's over! You don't have to worry about me anymore!"

"Shhh….it was never worry, Son. NEVER worry…."

Starfire hugged herself and took a deep breath as she watched. The edges of her eyes were moist. She was only half aware of Robin wandering over and leaning by her side. Gradually, she looked over and smiled brilliant teeth at the Boy Wonder.

Robin smirked. "Happy about something?"

Suddenly, she pounced him in a deep hug.

His eyemask bulged. He fought for breath.

She nestled her face into his cape and said with a shudder. "I feel….so complete, Robin. That is all. That is….all…."

He steadied himself, managed a weak smile, and patted her shoulder back.

"It is a good thing that you found Nova'm…"

She sniffed, looked up, and smiled. "It is not all because of Nova'm…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day…

Outside the Titans' cabin in Little View….

Pluck!

I winced. I gritted my teeth. I exhaled and continued sitting—shirtless---on the tree stump besides the house.

Cyborg sat behind me. More like 'squat', actually. He was busy running a dermatological scanner over my bare back and shoulders and using a pair of fingers converted to tweezers to yank out the dozens of splinters still in my skin from the scuffle at the lumberyard.

"Will you relax?" he exclaimed, his lips crooked. "I don't know how you ran into so much wood…but the wood sure didn't like you, man!"

I took a breath and shrugged.

"Found another!"

Pluck!

I bit my lip. My black eyes clenched shut. When they reopened….there was Beast Boy.

With a camera.

FLASH!

Light tortured me through the shades much like Cyborg's administrations did to my back.

I winced all over and frowned at the changeling.

"Hehehehehehe!" he held the Polaroid over his head and did a victory dance. "Gawd! What priceless memories! Speedy's gonna love seeing this when we all get back!"

"Yeah…well, that won't be for a while," Cyborg smirked. "Cuz it's westward ho! after this debacle!"

"Pfft…yeah," Beast Boy pouted and waited for the Polaroid to form. "I'm getting kinda tired of North Carolina. It's so….Northern…and Carolinan…."

"We could have gone to Mammoth Caves together, but noooooo!"

Pluck!

I jolted. I hadn't expected that one.

"Easy, pal," Cyborg's titanium hand patted my shoulder calmly. It felt hauntingly cold. Almost like where my left arm met the joints of my prosthetic. "Really, Beast Boy, I think the key to having a vacation is….having a vacation! This place has been nothing but bad luck! And quite frankly…I haven't gone much further than these woods. I'm getting city-sick."

"Then what's going west gonna do for us?"

"It's gonna get you to fall asleep and shut up for once."

"Huh! Why!"

"Cuz you'll be riding in the car, man! And you always fall asleep when in the car for a long time!"

"Dude! I do not!"

"Heheheheh! And you drool too!"

"DUDE! ALL LIES!"

I smirked and shook my head.

Pluck!

I grit my teeth, shuddered, and looked out across the road. I caught sight of Raven and the old innkeeper walking together. Calmly talking about something.

The dark girl seemed so serene. She was still her stoical self. But her movement was less rigid…more relaxed. About as casual a the vacationing clothes she was wearing.

I sighed.

Cyborg seemed to pause in his administrations behind me.

I heard him say: "Ya know….she was really worried about you when you were gone yesterday."

I shrugged.

"Really…she was." A beat. "Kinda makes a guy envious, you know?"

I glanced back behind my shoulder.

Cyborg wasn't looking back. I wanted to scratch my head about that. Instead, I simply looked in Raven's direction. And again…I felt the death of something.

I shrugged it off as everything else and sighed.

Pluck!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…I hear you folks might be taking off soon!" Jared Feldman smirked.

Raven strolled alongside him up the asphalt. The pine stretched overhead majestically. Shading….

"I'll take life as it goes," Raven said. "That's how I've always done it."

"Do I sense a regression?" Feldman remarked.

Raven shook her head. "No. Reinforcement."

"Do tell."

"I was right the first time," Raven took a deep breath. "I should keep to worrying about what I know about myself and my emotions. Not what others know about myself and my emotion. I protected everyone around me earlier just by focusing on myself. Not by stressing over them."

"So the great emotional experiment---"

"Was worth it," she nodded. "But benign."

"Ah. Is this something you desire?"

"I try to do away with desires," Raven smirked ever so slightly. "As should you."

"Oh…but I'm only a wanna be Buddhist by day!" Feldman exclaimed.

Raven screeched to a halt and looked at him funny. "By day! What else are you!"

"Well….," Feldman scratched his chin. "By night…I am a chip'n'dale dancer!"

"……."

"……."

"……."

"……HA! I'm just kiddin'!" the man chuckled.

Raven gritted her teeth….but tried in vain to hide a smile. "I swear to god…you ARE a crazy old fart!"

"Now THAT!" Feldman grinned a wrinkled grin. "THAT is a religion I've been holding more and more faith in as these days come and go…"

"Want to go fishing?"

"Sure, little lady!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Overlooking the old man and the dark girl—high above—Starfire sat on a branch of a looming pine tree. Dressed again in her casuals and cardigan sweater, she smiled, took a deep breath, and stared off across the tree canopy blanketing the foot of the nearby mountain. The wind blew at her hair and soothed her face from the previous day's battles.

POW! SWOOOOSH-CLANK!

A grappling hook swung around the body of the branch.

Robin hoisted himself up, wearing slacks and a t-shirt again. He climbed and took a position next to Starfire.

"This seat taken?"

"A branch is hardly ever taken, Robin," Starfire blinked. "Unless there is a real estate for trees available in this neck of your country—"

"I was only kidding, Star," he smirked.

She giggled. "I know. I actually do 'know' sometimes."

"Then why do you……ya know….."

"Hmmm?"

Robin sweat. "A-Answer so cutely?"

She cupped her hands together and fluttered her eyelashes. "Because I am a 'cute person'!"

Robin chuckled, sighed, and stared off at the mountain.

A beat.

"Why did you do it, Robin?" she asked.

He looked his way. "Hmmm?"

"Why did you help me?" she blinked. "You said you came along to save Nova'm as a sense of responsibility as the Titan leader…"

He nodded.

"Was that all, Robin?" she leaned her head to the side. "For I greatly sense that there is more."

He swallowed. He said: "There is always more…while you're still alive, Star."

She blinked. "And that is supposed to mean…."

Robin blushed. Instead, he suavely ran a finger across his mouth and said: "'Mum's the Word, Star.'"

"….," She blinked. "Your statement is supposed to mean 'Mum'?"

That was genuine…and it made Robin laugh.

The Tamaranian blushed.

The Boy Wonder helplessly hooked an arm around her and hugged her toward him. "Glad to have you back, Star…"

She smiled and held a hand over her glowing heart. "Sometimes…we never truly leave……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Suddenly things become unsound  
Stumbling on the shaky ground  
Given arrows to shoot tornadoes down  
Shoot them down, to the ground

Saw a falling leaf, a good luck jump to grab  
Much to our surprise, a butterfly  
Then it sunk in this enduration,  
enduration in our lives

Inside ourselves  
A hidden sun that burns and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone

Shivering madly in the dark  
Like an animal abandoned in the car park  
And she held me and then she showed me the  
Beauty of the human heart

Inside ourselves,  
A hidden sun that burns, and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone  
A hidden sun that burns, and burns  
But never does any harm to anyone,  
anyone, oooh, anyone.

-~-"Hidden Sun" by Barenaked Ladies


	74. Go West

**74. Go West**

_I gasped for breath the soonest I felt as if something monumental had left me._

I was alone in a field. Waving sawgrass all around me.

Lying on a stone.

Blood…sleeves of it……

I shuddered.

I was holding onto Myrkblade.

Everything was blinding.

My eyes were being stabbed on all sides. Raw and defenseless.

Tears of blood.

Tears of blood and…

_Where is she?_

Where is she?

I cried out for her name…but there was no voice.

Icy pain like laughing knives in my throat.

I dragged a hand to my neck…and dipped into a river of wet meat.

Something gurgled…and was gone.

I collapsed into the dirt…sobbing…

Her name…

Her name……

In the wind and in the knives…

It wouldn't come out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shot up with a gasp.

Sweating.

Panting.

I put my shades on and look around me.

I'm sitting in the back of the T-Car.

At a rest stop.

Along the hallway.

Outside the tinted windows from where I was sleeping, I see most of my Titan friends commiserating around the convenience store. Pausing to talk about something. Many of them laughing…many of them smiling…

Rested and relaxed.

I gulp.

I look out the windows on the other side.

At the endless horizon of green and brown flatness that is the Great Plains.

In the West, the clouds were dark.

A storm was brewing, undoubtedly.

I slunk back in my chair and sighed.

A storm was brewing…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_As I write to you, I am currently on vacation. That is to say, __**we**__ are currently on vacation. And I'm not quite sure what the etiquette is for the Justice League when it comes to enjoying time off. I can't imagine it being all that extensive. Yet, at the same time, it must be hard to define because of that fact that—for the most part—the entire League of you people is freelance. But that's okay. We're all non profit organizations……right?_

_The intention of the Teen Titans upon setting out on this time off was to enjoy the beach, enjoy the mountains, and enjoy whatever may lie beyond. And right now, what lies beyond is an endless prairie of prairieness. And beyond that, the ever ominous and looming West._

_Why is it ominous and looming? Well…that would be getting into personal things, I suppose. And it's best that I stick to the nature of the Titans during this sabbatical for the best sake of correspondence._

_I suppose that it would be honorable to mention that—despite our leisurely expectations—we've had to keep on our toes during our time on the road. In North Carolina, we ran into the most peculiar of circumstances. Starfire—the resident Tamaranian—found another of her kind hidden amidst the woodlands and cottages of the Appalachians. He's a young boy named Nova'm. Apparently—as a result of advanced time travel and cryogenic freezing—Nova'm has survived the last two hundred or so years before landing here on earth a little over a decade ago. Since then, he had been forced to live a terrorized life with his foster parents at the hands of a ruthless former member of the FBI…a man by the name of Booker who wanted to steal Nova'm's starbolt energy, put it into a battle suit, and sell it for money to increase his lifespan here on earth._

_Yeah…peculiar indeed. Nevertheless, it's worth mentioning that the Titans—especially Starfire—were key in undermining the intentions of Booker and freeing Nova'm from the ruthless man's grasp. As a result, one of FBI's number one suspects has been tracked down. And Starfire has acquired a new friend…a brother of spirit if not of blood._

_We left North Carolina three days ago. Starfire and Nova'm had a bitter-sweet parting. Full of hugs and tears and laughter and all that good stuff. Tamaranians are certainly gifted in their knack for joy and camaraderie. In the meantime, the rest of us said goodbye to the wonderful cottage we had been staying at. Mr. Jared and Mrs. Ruth Feldman—an extraordinarily nice couple—were generous enough to give us a roof to dwell under temporarily without hardly any pay. I think Robin slipped some money under the table to show our gratitude before we eventually high-tailed it out of there. But besides that, I'm flabbergasted. As is everyone else. The generosity of some of these people…it is astounding. They said that we 'earned' it. I suppose it's a part of being a bunch of superheroes and all. But it still doesn't feel entirely right. It's not something we want to make a habit of receiving._

_While on the road, our leader Robin has made sporadic attempts to contact the Tower. Each time he's had even more sporadic successes and failures in breaking through with communication. Our 'house sitters'—the legendary Green Arrow and his ward Speedy—are quite the elusive type. They assure us that they're simply scouring the streets to keep an eye out for wanton criminals and what have you. I whole-heartily believe this, but the Boy Wonder—bless his heart. If you've worked with the Batman, then surely you must be familiar with the age-old vigilante sense of……………suspicion._

_Cyborg is having the time of his life. He was the one who proposed this vacation from the start. Recently (as in 'recently since the defeat of Slade') his Uncle has more or less been 'resurrected'. I'm sure you've heard of the conspiracy theories, Diana, but Simon Stone—brother to the late Silas Stone—is technically now a digital construct made 'real' in our sense solely by his energy-to-matter transformation within the boundaries of Phaser Labs, which contains the computer that his consciousness is sealed safely in. Beforehand, he was an android employed against his will by the late and ruthless Anderson to construct weaponry for the criminal underworld such as Dagger and Slade. But his heart is the thing that's pure, as we—the close friends of Cyborg—are willing to believe. One could argue that Simon Stone isn't technically alive, and in that same respect Cyborg isn't alive either. I know what I see, Diana. Cyborg is alive. The fervor at which he grips the steering wheel of his car and the way his half-metal face smiles and laughs in the rush of wind and summer air…………that's Life._

_Starfire has been having her fair share of life lately too. Suffice to say, the existence of Nova'm is to be a safely guarded secret amongst us heroes. If what Starfire says about his origins is correct, then he might very well be a cultural icon of unimaginable proportions on Tamaran. The boy has undergone enough stress and paranoia as it is on Earth. There's no need to toss him into another setting full of pressures…even if those pressures would be centered around a galactic adoration of his innocent little person……wow. Ahem. Starfire's proud. Very proud. And she has every reason to be. I suppose the rest of the Titans were rather blind to it, but she was feeling really down for a while there. This vacation was only serving to distract her from a really dark mood. But Nova'm helped lift her out of that, I think. Now it's up to us to further remind her that she's as much a 'sister' to us as she is to Nova'm. A fellow hero linked in some sort of invisible bond of blood. Okay…now I'm getting figurative. Anyways, Starfire's smiling a lot. And because of that, we smile a lot. Well…everyone except Raven of course._

_Raven has been having ups and downs of her own. From the sidelines, one may assume that she's developing some sort of definable…… 'character'. But as a Titan, I know—along with the rest—that Raven's personality is merely a muted conglomeration of multiple emotions which she has safely hidden away in the chamber of her subconscious. When Mumbo Jumbo's camera screwed her up—literally—we all saw the complexity of her with our very own eyes. I've long learned that Cyborg and Beast Boy had ventured into her 'mindscape' before and seen the fragility that is Raven's psyche…and no doubt Robin knows quite a bit about her since the two of them founded the group. But what we all got a month ago was an awakening. And it startled us…and we all respect her all the more. And trust her. For she goes through so much. And she's trying to change…she really is, bless her heart. This vacation has been an experiment for her. I can see it. Her mood has been buckling. Shifting. Reorganizing itself from the inside out. But…I think she has found her 'groove', if it were. A retreat back to old things. Good things. Good things……but……seemingly lonely things. She's considered being closer to us…but I think she's realized that in being with us, she's as 'close' as she needs to be. And distance is a safe thing. It may not be a very warming thing…but it surely is very………safe. It's the best for her, and it's the best for all of us._

_It really is…_

_Beast Boy—as usual—is his normal, inflated self. I think he's had quite a bit of a relaxed experience over the last week or two. Ever since Slade's defeat, he's become more and more like the cheery green elf that I first met when joining this team. For a moment there—and I saw this the best through the goggles of Wyldecarde—he was very depressed. Very morose. And constantly vexed by the haunting memories of the same thing that plagues the spirits of all of my teammates…but not myself. Terra. Terra the Titan. Terra the betrayer. Terra the villain and reborn friend. Terra…who is now a stone relic entombed in some awful, abandoned shrine of rock in the center of town. A tourist attraction. An eyesore. Conceptually…all of those things hurt me to think about. But I was never a Titan in those days. I never felt first-hand the pain of treachery that they had felt. I sensed it through the Wyldecarde days of Slade's final retribution, but I wasn't crying with the Titans the day their close friend—their rescued orphan from the desert wastelands and embodied with the confused quaking of Terra Firma tiself—died in their eyes in more context than one…two…even three. And Beast Boy, bless his heart, he was so close to her. The closest anyone has ever been to that isolated soul of pain and confusion. He knows things about her that is up to the speculation of all the others. And when she turned to stone, so did a good portion of his heart. A portion of his heart which he paints and cushions with jokes and giggles and wild dancing on the table at spontaneous moments that makes all of us laugh and roll our eyes. He is the tortured jester. A ghost of something stronger and weaker all the same. And I've seen his tears more than any other Titan. Alone in a sacred room. Clutching a homemade, heart-shaped case to his body and curled up in an immaculate bed. Terra is forever sleeping, and Beast Boy's trying to wake her up through himself. And he's spinning in circles. I suppose it's very shallow to say that 'this vacation is doing him lots of good'. But at this point, it would take a drastic event to shake Beast Boy loose, or perhaps the miraculous rebirth of Terra herself. Which I seriously do not think will happen any time soon…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay, Cy. Tell me this one thing, if you would…"

"What's that, B.B.?"

"Why in God's name are we going to _**Kansas**_?!"

Cyborg shrugged. "It's in the way. In the true spirit of Jim Morrison, we gotta break on through to the other side."

"To where, pray tell?" Beast Boy muttered, perusing a wildly flapping map in the backseat. "DullTown, USA?? What were you thinking?! We should have headed up north and swung by the Great Lakes or something!!"

"We're heading north enough as it is!" Cyborg retorted from the driver's seat. "At first we were heading south…then west…and here we are going all caddywonkus! It happens!"

Starfire smiled. "Is this the 'wherever the road will take us' ideology?"

"Ideologically……yes," Cyborg smirked.

"Whatever…," Raven mumbled from my right, deep into her tenth book. "As long as we don't fall into the ocean."

"Oh please…," Robin muttered. "I'm not in the mood for California. I'm never in the mood for California."

"Dude!" Beast Boy punched the wind-whipped map down and frowned. "Don't be knocking the town that the Red Hot Chilli Peppers came from!"

"Pfft! Don't defend it unless you've been there."

"Um….I Have."

"………………………..oh. Well….I'm still not in the mood."

"Maybe we'll just hit Mexico instead," Cyborg smirked.

There was a resounding "NO!" from three occupants in the car.

Starfire giggled.

I stared out the left passenger side.

Flatness. Then gentle rolling hills. The haunting Plains.

I'd seen them before. I'd been here before. But I was shuffling in the opposite direction. Dragging my feet. Dragging the chains of memories that hung on my wrists like sharp, rusted shackles.

And I was going East then.

But not now….

My mechanical left hand twitched. I got the shivers. I clenched my teeth, hugged my arm to my chest, and prayed silently that nobody was looking at me…

"I hope those thunderclouds clear up…," Cyborg said, glancing up at the dark overcast gradually forming around us. "This day would be a whole lot cooler with the Sun shining."

"Highly unlikely…," Raven muttered into her pages. "It is summer time and we are in the Plain States. It…will…storm…."

"Awwww," Starfire pouted in the front seat. "And how I wished this solstice would be invigorating with its solar goodness!"

"I dunno, Star," Beast Boy smirked. "A good storm might liven this boring place up a bit. Heheheh!!"

"Looking forward to tornados, B.B.?" Robin remarked.

The green elf gulped. "Eep! Okay, Cy. Let's go to Mexico."

The android shook his head. "No doing. But I'll tell you what…there's a civic center coming up soon. Didn't the map say that?"

"Yeah…..and?"

"Well, it's about lunchtime. How about we stop by there?"

"A picnic!" Starfire giggled. "Heeee!"

"Well….**lunch**," Cyborg winked.

"Boys…," Raven droned. "….if it's not sex drive, its hunger drive."

"Hey!" Beast Boy folded his arms and frowned. "I find that offensive! It's hunger drive BEFORE sex drive!"

"It would be for you, wouldn't it?"

He blinked. "Huh?"

Robin chuckled.

Raven flipped a page.

Beast Boy sighed.

The shivers gradually left me. I took a breath and relaxed in my seat. But as I stared West…at the lines coming and receding…I only felt more and more trepidation.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_'How am I doing'? I could play the part of perfect humility and not even broach that topic. But I feel that humility is an abstract concept. Was it humility that saved my friends from Slade? Was it humility that beat them senselessly over and over again to keep Slade from beating them harder? I'm no more or less good a person than my friends. Though I have a lot of faith in the 'less good' part. For good reasons too._

_Ah jeez…I'm rambling. I knew I would be. I just wish I had more to write to you about. But as it is, I'm on vacation. I'm not in the middle of fighting some ambiguous enemy or trying to save a needy populace. There's nothing interesting. Nothing worth to write about. Nothing to think about. Nothing but this scenery I keep seeing blur past me. Like film being wasted by an epileptic camera shutter. And at the end of the negatives is some black and white ghost that keeps burning into me._

_I can't tell the Titans this, but maybe I can tell you. And I'm sorry if this isn't professional or something. But…I can't stand this vacation. I could for a while, but I was distracting myself. Distracting myself from this. This full throttle death throe into Pacific oblivion. I may be sounding fatalist. Heck, I'm even feeling it. But I swear…I'm going crazy. The new hand is making me shiver more and more. The healing scratches and gashes from the fight with Slade and his minions are starting to throb and scream again. It's a sickening sensation…like wanting to fall into myself and somehow hit concrete._

_I know I'm sounding like a raving madman, Diana. But I can't explain it. I don't want to. But one thing's for sure. A vacation isn't a vacation if it isn't being enjoyed. And I'm going to try to enjoy it. I'm going to do my best to be happy with the Titans. But if it doesn't work…and if the shivers only increase and the country only melts before me in the negative pool that I feel dripping into fruition in the well of my heart…then I have one other option._

_To head back home early…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Drive it to the hoop, Cy!! Come on! It's wide open!!"

Cyborg stood in place, dribbling a basketball on a half-court of concrete. Smirking. His green-skinned teammate hopped up and down excitedly beside Robin, who was trying to form a blockade between the changeling and his metal comrade.

On Robin's team, I paced myself in front of Cyborg. Breathing steadily. Sweating.

He met my stance…dribbling…flexing his titanium limbs…ready to go anywhere and do anything. Seeing if I could match.

Starfire stood beside the court, smiling, clasping her hands together in the spirit of the game.

Raven sat on a bench besides a cooler full of 'lunch'. She was well into her eleventh book…oblivious to the game.

A tiny sliver or two of sky broke in the overcast clouds above us, and sunlight filtered down onto the civic center's surrounding recreational facility. With its tennis courts and basketball hoops and squash cubicles.

"Come on, Cy!! We don't have all day!"

"Yeah we do!" he smirked. "Besides, it's first to fifteen points and we're evened out at two!"

"I seeeeeee your strategy!" Robin smirked under a sweat-lined eyemask. "Gonna wear Noir and I out! Long and thin! While that titanium body of your recharges naturally!!"

"You're not counting the fact that my teammate B.B. could wear out!" Cyborg pointed with a free hand.

"Pfft!! Beast Boy doesn't count!"

"Hey!!"

"Ack! No fouling!!"

"Hehehe!" Starfire jumped from the sidelines. "Everyone! Engage in the going of the game!!"

"Ya know, Star…," Beast Boy said from beneath the basket as he struggled with Robin for an open spot. "As a cheerleader, all you need to say is 'Go!'"

"Starfire as a cheerleader….," Raven droned into her book. "How did anyone not see **that** coming??"

"Hehehe!!" Starfire hopped. "I implore the recreational warcry of 'Go!!'"

Raven grumbled.

"Okay, Cy….if you don't drive to the hoop, I'm going to call a shot clock violation!"

"There ain't no rules like that, Robin!" Cyborg smirked. "Only shot clock this game's ever gonna have is in my head!!"

I took a deep breath and reached my hand out for the ball.

He pointed his other elbow at me and dribbled the ball far away.

"Thank your fast enough man?! Huh?! Think you can smoke right by me?"

I smirked.

"Well smoke away!!!" Cyborg's back panels opened, extended thrusters, and shot at me.

My black eyes bulged under my shades. I twirled out of the way just in time to avoid a hulking body of titanium.

Beast Boy shrieked and dove to escape his teammate.

Robin—brave as ever—stood his ground.

Cyborg cut the rockets and leapt up with a ball outstretched in his hand to dunk.

Robin jumped but didn't jump enough.

CLUNK!!!

SWISH!!

"OHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Cyborg just had to hang from the rim and let out a warcry. The actual metal support of the hoop bent and wobbled from his titanium weight. "Whose house did I just bring down?!?! Y'all wanna tell me or should I bring it down again?!"

"Yes, Cyborg!!" Starfire jumped. "Punish that mean ellipse of wrought iron and dangling microfiber!"

As he hopped down, Beast Boy sweatdropped:

"Uh….dude….I think that's traveling."

"How do you know, little man?!" Cyborg smirked, picking up the ball. "Just because I was moving that fast doesn't mean I wasn't dribbling! Besides, you're on my team, punk!"

"Yup," Beast Boy simpered and scratched his neck. "Can't complain about that."

Cyborg tossed the ball.

Robin caught up. "Eh…I think we'll let it count."

"Pfftchya!!"

"Besides…we're gonna score back right away anyways!"

Beast Boy placed his hands on his hips. "So confident, are we?!"

Robin hoisted the ball out. "Check."

"It's not enough that you have to—" BONK! "Owie!!"

The basketball bounced off the changeling's hand, fell into the Boy Wonder's grip, and was then tossed at me with a smirk: "HA!!"

I caught it, dribbled into court, and nearly fainted as Cyborg charged at me with an arm flailing. "Not any further, dawg!!"

I sweat and spun my back to him. Dribbling back into the paint. Backing my way in.

He stuck a hand in to steal the ball.

I dribbled left and right and crouched low to keep him from reaching in. I saw a reflection on the inner curve of my shades. I glanced to the side. Robin was running out on the other side of the half-court with Beast Boy flailing behind him. He held his hands out.

I thinned my eyes, blurred my metal and flesh arms, and bounce-passed the ball between Cyborg's legs and over to Robin.

The Boy Wonder palmed it and was succinctly blocked of his way to the basket by Beast Boy.

"If you think you can just dunk your way to the hole like Cy, you're wrong man!!" He hopped up and down and flailed his arms like a passionate moron. "White vigilantes can't jump!!"

"Uh…then what're you doing hoppin' around so much, B.B.?"

"EXCUSE ME?!?! I'm **green**!"

Robin smirked. "No jumping necessary. There are many approaches to the art of basketball."

With that said, Robin expertly positioned the ball in his head, aimed at the basket, and let it loose with a leap of his body.

Our eyes followed it.

And…

Nothing but net.

Robin was well beyond the three point line at the time.

I smirked and gave a sweaty thumb's up.

Robin returned one. "Just like a batarang….o-only huge, inflated, orange, and goes in a hoop."

"Pffft," Cyborg grabbed the ball and dribbled back to the half court with a smirk. "Show off."

"Okay…so white guys can do basketball too…," Beast Boy gave in.

"Well, of course B.B.!"

"But naturally they only come from those Mediterranean and Balkan countries of East Europe!" Beast Boy cackled. "Ya know. Wyrd places! Like Yugoslavia…Albania…Belgarion…"

"Bulgaria!"

"Whatever…"

"Check."

I snapped out of it. "??"

WHUMP!!

I caught the ball clumsily in my chest, wheezed, snapped out of it, and tossed it back at Cyborg.

He winked. "Thanks." WOOOSH!! The ball went **flying** in a pass over to Beast Boy.

"Think fast!!"

Not even the changeling knew the thing was in play. He caught the ball with a cry. More like a yelp, actually.

Robin rocketed towards him and nearly snatched the ball away.

"EEP!" Beast Boy swiveled, dribbled, moved towards the paint, nearly traveled, and inevitably passed the ball towards Cyborg.

I was in the way. The ball was high, but I reached up for it.

It bounced off the tips of my fingers and eventually into the android's hands.

"Boo ya!!" he drove towards the hoop.

I panted and ran towards him.

"Merrily, boys!!" Starfire shouted through the heat from the sidelines. "Bounce with great felicitation!!"

"RAAAAUGH!!" Cyborg literally flew towards the basket to execute a jam to end all jams.

I blurred up, gritted my teeth, and slammed the ball with my palm.

_Yoink!!_

I blocked…big time.

Cyborg came down empty handed.

The ball soared over to Robin, who caught it, and dribbled it back to half court.

I ran out into the open.

Robin tossed the ball to me over Beast Boy's head.

I caught it before Cyborg could recover from his shock of loss glory fast enough to block me.

I dribbled to the hole.

The android came up to me, his massive chest and raised arms in the way.

I took a breath, blurred, dribbled, swiveled around him, and came to the basket. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Robin coming. I launched the ball up.

CLANG!!

It bounced straight off the rim at a perpendicular angle.

"HA HA!!" Beast Boy pointed and cackled.

I smirked. I had meant to do that.

The ball bounced off the basket and into the charging Robin's hands. He ran around Cyborg who was still trailing me. Swiftly, the Boy Wonder twirled his arms and performed a lay-up. The ball spun in the rim and sunk in.

"D'oh!!" Beast Boy winced.

"He he he he!!" Starfire clapped her hands. "Magnificent, Robin!! You have 'touched down' the pigskin!!"

"Nah, Star, that's Football!"

"Oh…then…m-magnificent 'birdy' on the par!!"

"……"

Robin smiled as he came to me and offered a high five.

I eagerly gave it to him.

Our slapping hands closed together and we bumped elbows before releasing our grasps in two identical, snapping fingers.

"Teamwork!" Robin winked under his mask and smirked at the other two. "Ain't it a female dog?!"

"Noir's absolutely evil on the hardwood---er, concrete!" Cyborg smirked as Beast Boy picked up the ball behind him. "Yanking the ball away from me like that!!"

I blushed and shrugged with a simper.

Beast Boy dribbled to the half court. "Yeah…I've heard of 'Hack-a-Shaq'…but 'Hack-a-Cy'?! That's ridiculous!!"

Cyborg nodded. "You check it in this time, B.B."

"Huh? Why?"

"Cuz you suck at everything else!"

Robin chuckled.

Raven smirked at her pages.

Beast Boy frowned. "Pfft! MVP hog!!" He faced Robin. "Check."

"Heheheheh….huh?" WHUMP!! "Ack!! Jeez!! Little less forceful, Beast Boy!"

"Hypocrite!"

Robin checked the ball back to the changeling.

Cyborg dashed out into the open like a blue comet.

I did a double check, gasped, and ran to quickly cover my man.

Beast Boy passed to Cyborg.

He got the ball before I could block it. He dribbled to the hole. I kept on it.

He faked to shoot.

I kept to my position.

He took a breath and reverse-bounce-passed to Beast Boy.

I spun around.

"!!!"

The changeling was rushing up to the basket, unguarded. Robin had tripped for some reason.

I ran over to defend.

Beast Boy was already in the process of making a lay-up.

We got too close to each other and---

THWAP!!!!

I fell back, stumbled, and crashed on the concrete floor.

FLASH!!!

Everything was blindingly white hot.

I gasped and clenched my naked eyes shut.

My shades had fallen off.

I heard the SWISH! of the basket in the distance. Followed by a chanting cheer from both Cyborg and Beast Boy.

"Boo ya!!"

"Even the score, dude!!"

"You're not so bad after all, little man!!"

"Laugh it up, guys! I tripped while guarding Beast Boy! I swear…he must have snuck out a tentacle or something!"

"Dude! Did not!!"

"We'll edge over you. Just you see. Noir, care to check the ball?? ……..Noir?"

I was on all fours…searching around for my shades. My eyes clenched shut. I felt like a blind man.

"Ah jeez! Sorry, Noir!!" I heard the bounding of titanium boots over the pavement…a pause…then a broad shadow as the plastic black sunglasses were lightly pressed into the flesh of my left arm.

I swallowed, reached over, grabbed the shades, and placed them back over my black eyes. My peepers opened…and everything was gentle again.

I sighed.

Cyborg reached down, "You okay, man?"

I took his grasp and stood up with his support. I limply nodded.

"Need to take five?"

I shook my head, smirked, and gave a thumb's up to Robin.

"So much for forfeit!" Beast Boy muttered.

"Okay…let's get back into action!"

"Yes!" Starfire giggled. "The most active of action!"

I went over to rendezvous with Robin and the ball. I did a good job of keeping myself steady and strong.

I was having the shivers ever since I fell to the ground….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I tried too hard recently. That's all I can say. I tried too hard. I think it's like how Raven tried too hard. I don't know how she manages to…hold it all in. I envy her for that. I really do. Her composure. Her strength. Her ability to hide her emotions and all._

_But why am I writing about her all of the sudden? Come to think of it, I think I'm gonna toss away the bottom half of this paper and start anew------_

…

…

…

…

_Dear Diana,_

_We've entered Kansas City. We've found a hotel. I need to find a laundromat……fast._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir _

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Huh??" Cyborg looked at me funny.

I signed to him again.

"No…I didn't see any laundromats on the way here. What's the problem?"

I blushed. I signed again.

The android rolled his human eye. "Well you should have packed more!!"

Beast Boy giggled.

I scratched the back of my head.

"Going in….," Robin said. He turned a key to the outside door of the third story hotel room. He walked in first from the balcony, and the rest of us entered. I was the last. I stood there for a second, turned around, and glanced out at the nearby highway. The roar of cars. An urban sprawl on the edge of a city and two states.

It felt a **little** like home.

I stumbled inside after the other Titans.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wooo!!" Beast Boy flopped down on a bed and bounced to a stand still. He smirked and stretched his arms behind his neck. "Now this is perfection! Air conditioning! A kitchen! A T.V.! King sized beds!! Who needs a freezing cabin or a stuffy T-Car when you've got this place to crash in!!"

"You're too much of a softy, man…," Cyborg remarked as he paced around one edge of the room in an antsy matter, inspecting the interior. "You get this sort of stuff back at the Tower all the time!"

"Nuh uh!" Beast Boy leaned up and protested with a waving finger. "I get all of this…AND a gaming system!"

"Touche."

Robin came back from his own pacing. "Two bedrooms," he smirked. "Good. His and hers."

"But only three beds…," Raven droned.

"Simple!" Starfire cheerfully hugged Raven's side. "We will sharrrrrre!!"

Raven sweatdropped. "That sounds glorious…….."

Beast Boy and Cyborg were blushing for some reason.

I glanced at them funny.

"Looks like we'll all have to do that in some way or another," Robin nodded.

"No way!!" Beast Boy frowned. He pointed at Cyborg. "I've had to bunk with Tin Man before!! He takes up the entire bed, dude!!"

"He practically **is** the bed," Raven said stoically.

Starfire giggled…still hugging the girl's arm.

"Hey!" Cyborg smirked and put his hands on his hips. "How does the T-Car for three nights in a row sound?!"

"Cyborg is small." Raven hummed.

"Thought so."

"If it's such a big deal, Beast Boy, don't worry," Robin folded his arms and smiled. "I'll sleep with Cyborg. It'll take the stress off you."

Cyborg did a mock gasp. "Oh Robin!! Finally, you agree to jump in bed with me! Lord knows you've been looking forward to it!!"

Beast Boy laughed his head off.

I snickered breathily.

Robin blinked under his eyemask. "Um….I-I didn't mean tha—"

"FOOD!!!" Cyborg shouted so loud, I was afraid the tenants would be complaining a good few hours early. "We must go out for it!!"

"Not a bad idea….," Raven muttered.

"Where shall we commiserate to commiserate?" Starfire smiled.

Beast Boy hopped. "I know!! Somewhere classy! Somewhere dignified! Somewhere sophisticated!"

"Denny's!!"

"YEAH!!"

"Boo-ya!! Let's get going!"

We were caught up in the spirit of things. Well, at least they were. I followed merrily along until I reached the balcony outside the doorway and realized I was staring straight into the setting sun over Kansas City.

Westward….

I sighed once again and followed the enthusiastic caravan along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Do you know what my greatest dream is?"_

_"What, Ana?"_

"It's kind of a scary one. B-But I suppose we can all have freaky fantasies sometimes…r-right?"

"I'm all ears."

"It's like this. When I was a little kid, I watched a lot of horror movies. Really nasty ones. My dad didn't try all that hard to block me from scary crap in film…ya know……"

"Right…"

"Anyways……I grew up with all sorts of scary images on the tube. And they frightened me. They really really frightened me. But at night…when all was dark in my room and I had to imagine what I'd do to protect myself……you know what I would do?"

"What, Ana?"

"I'd laugh, Jordan."

"Laugh?!?!"

"Hehehehe……y-yeah. I'd laugh. I'd laugh and—in my little girl mind—I realized that all monsters were just overgrown bullies underneath. Maybe life treated them bad. Merged them with a fly in a transporter machine or something."

"Heheh…I hear you."

"And…well…monsters are living things. If they exist, that is. They have souls. And they have feelings. And if I was to laugh at them…you know what that would do, Jordan??"

"What, Ana?"

"That's make them feel pretty darned ashamed. I'm sure of it!"

"Heheheheh…you're so cute…"

"I'm serious!! Laughter is a weapon that's mightier than either Choral or Myrkblade!"

"Uh huh."

"……"

"……"

"……I……I can't wait for the day……wh-when I can laugh."

"You can laugh now, can't you?"

"True. But I mean _**laugh**__ and __**mean**__ it, Jordan. To __**mean**__ it so hard…it would become the opposite. It would be a slap in the face. It would be the ultimate warcry. The lasting breath. To laugh in the face of evil. I wanna do that someday…I wanna do that really bad."_

"I'd love to be there when it happens."

"Sure, Jordan! A-As long as I'm not laughing at you!!"

"Heheheheheh……how about _**with**__ me??"_

"That'll do!! Hehehehe!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gulped down the last of the glass, exhaled, and planted it down. I looked up with weak black eyes through my shades.

Cyborg and Beast Boy leaned their heads across the table. Gawking.

Beast Boy whistled. "That's your third glass of Dr. Pepper!! You're insane, Noir!!"

I smiled dizzily and leaned back in my chair. I smiled and hugged myself. There was a vibration running through my bloodstream. The sugar, syrup, and carbonation of the steady chain of soft drinks was pushing my anxiety away.

There's more than one way to get 'drunk'.

"Friends…our nooby is desperate," Robin smirked…sitting next to Starfire in the booth of the Denny's along with the rest of us. He lifted a glass at me from across the table. "I toast to caffeine and Noir's bladder!!"

Glasses lifted.

"**Here here!!"**

I dizzily waved a hand and closed my black eyes…tilting my head back against the seat. I took a deep breath and enjoyed the carbonated 'high' that ran through me.

God I was weak…

"So you never told us, B.B.," Cyborg smirked, looking over at the changeling. "What is the worst joke you ever told?!"

"Yes, Beast Boy!" Starfire smiled. "You must educate us with your lowest form of jocularity!!"

Beast Boy blushed. "Hey…I said I could admit to telling a bad joke once! I didn't say it was 'awful', though!"

"Beast Boy with a rare form of blunt honesty…," Raven mumbled, sucking at a straw. "I find this rather interesting, actually."

Our waitress came by.

"Another round, Noir?" Robin asked.

I opened my black eyes. I looked up at the woman through the shades. I smirked and pointed for her to fill another pitcher of Dr. P.

Beast Boy and Cyborg chuckled.

"Your funeral!!"

The waitress silently complied.

I busied myself with another tall glass of soda.

Beast Boy cleared his throat: "Well….you see…it was months ago. When Terra was still around."

"We hear ya," Cyborg nodded. For a split second, everyone was neither smiling nor frowning. They were considerate with Beast Boy with this one. They were always considerate when one of his recollections had to do with Terra.

I sipped the Dr. Pepper mightily and listened in.

"The two of us were at an arcade…the night she defeated Mumbo Jumbo," Beast Boy blushed. "And…um…w-we were having pizza together……….together…."

Cyborg winked. "And??"

"What was your 'most terrible joke'??" Starfire smiled.

"We've been dying to hear!" Robin said.

Beast Boy shifted in his seat. "It's nothing…."

"Come on!!!"

"Tell us!!"

"Please!!"

"Just get it over with already……."

I sipped the Dr. Pepper until it was gone. I exhaled. Leaned back. Closed my eyes again. I saw stars under my eyelids.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Um….don't ask me how it came up….but, Terra…..sh-she said: 'You must be hung like a horse'. And almost immediately, I looked at her and jokingly said 'Ya know what…that's actually doable'."

Silence.

"………………………….," the Titans stared at Beast Boy.

He winced and slid down till his body practically hid under the table. "I-I knew it was a lousy joke—"

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!" Cyborg and Robin joined in at once. Raven had a hand over her mouth…trying desperately to hide a smirk.

Beast Boy's eyes bulged white. He shook out of it and stood straight up again. "Wh-What?! You actually l-liked that joke?!?!"

"Liked it?!?!" Robin chuckled and wiped a tear of laughter that seeped out from under his eyemask. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in years!!"

"Ohhhh man!!!" Cyborg doubled over and pounded the chair with his laughter. The empty dishes and glasses rattled. "I wish I was there, man!! Pure gold!! HA!!"

Raven's face flushed as she tried to suppress a giggle.

Starfire blinked. "I do not understand." A beat. "Is it not cruel in Earth's modern times to hang a horse?"

"N-No, Star…," Robin chuckled and wheezed. "That's not what he meant…"

The alien girl thought aloud. "Beast Boy desired to hang himself on top of a horse?! W-We cannot have let him do that!!"

"No…it….he…..erhm….," Robin blushed.

Beast Boy had on a proud smile. "Well…didn't know I had it in me!"

"You probably don't," Raven droned. "It was a joke, after all."

Cyborg: "HA HA HA!!"

Beast Boy stuck a tongue out.

Raven slurped from her straw.

I was only half there. I kept thinking about the sunset. It burned in my brain. In my shut black eyes.

After the fourth glass of soda, I had a fifth. And half of a sixth.

The Titans were all laughing and talking about something. It was well into the late hours, and we were the only ones in the Denny's.

The caffeinated beverage was having its voluminous effect on me. But it was working in the opposite fashion. Just like the happiness of the evening was working in an opposite fashion for me. My limbs shook with the constant need to flail about and expend the energy and desire to bounce off walls. But I refused. I sat still. My eyes shut. Resting back against the cushion. Breathing slowly. My blood started to boil. I wanted to explode. To dance on the table. To sail through the ceiling. But I kept perfectly still. Even as my kidneys screamed, I remained in ascetic meditation. Punishing myself.

Thinking of the sunset.

And it was then that it happened. The sugar and the anxiety merged together and melted the walls of my temporal lobes. My black eyes bulged open. Everything around me was a bubble of obscurity. I could see the faces of the Titans. But I was in another age. Another time. And so were they. Their smiling faces turned into sobs and cries. Their round eyes turned into shocked expressions. We were on the rooftops to the City. My fists were sailing at them. I was looking through Wyldecarde's goggles.

Something inside me twitched. In that briefest of jolts, reality returned and I saw the bench at Denny's again. The blushing faces as Cyborg told horror stories of how he first learned to use his tube. Beast Boy cutting in with the usual, comedic interjection. Then everything once again fading as my eyes lowered and I seemed to drift away into my subconscious. It was like trying to stay awake in the classroom. The brain lingers on reality and sub-reality and the pink haze in-between. The carbonated soda bubbled up and pushed me to the surface of some grand lake of rushing water that boiled over an edge. And when I fell over that edge I gasped because Wyldecarde was once again beating his loved ones to a pulp. And that pulp was running red like spaghetti sauce. All around me. On a platform of pure metal. And there was Myrkblade in my grasp and a skeleton shadow in the corner looking at me across a river of black and crimson with the face of a ghostly white and I was laughing and I was laughing and in the corner of the horizon I saw the smile of Ana turn into a howling scream and then everything turned into tunnel vision as I realized Slade's mask was trying to swallow my face alive and the pain in my left arm returned and there was some foreign metal snake trying to squirm its way up my god damn skin and bone with mandibles of shivering cold--

CLANK!!!

All five Titans jumped.

My prosthetic was clamping hard to the table. I was sweating all over. I swallowed a dryness in my throat.

They all looked at me….mouths agape with confusion and concern.

I composed myself. I hand-signed shakily to Cyborg.

_'I have to go to the bathroom'_

"No doubt, Noir," he smirked.

The others chuckled.

It was not as much doom and gloom as I thought.

I bowed lightly, scooted out of my seat, and limped my dizzy way to the men's room.

They continued on laughing and talking and being cheerful behind me…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

By the time I burst in through the door to the men's room, the shivering was at a fever pitch. I felt my legs would snap like icicles beneath me.

I rushed across the room…passed the urinals…ducked into a stall…kicked the door closed behind me…dove straight for the toilet…and threw up.

The vomit came out of my mouth like a torrent. Thick and dark. Like hundreds of miles making up what was left of this godawful continent. The muddy earth. The green algae of the ponds and rivers. The shithole smell of abandoned forests under the panicked feet of a fugitive from himself.

I heaved.

I barely caught my breath.

I threw up again…hunched over the seat.

The smell was awful. Worst than the iciness in my body and throat. It smelled like copper. Like blood. The mush flowed out from my lips like wet scraps of unkosher meat. And I saw my reflection from four years ago. A butchered boy with short black hair and a splotch of ragged skin and exposed flesh for a neck. A slash in the shape of an X that would never go away. My vocal chords melted into a stream of phlegm much like that which was strewing over the toilet and tile then and there.

I hacked.

I coughed and sputtered.

I teetered over from my 'accomplishment' and shivered against the side of the stall. And I was sobbing. I was shaking all over. There was no joy for me that evening. I was a coward. I couldn't go west anymore.

Like a dog that goes 'into a forest'. The furthest it ever goes is halfway. I could go into this vacation…but I could not come out the other side. The rest of the Titans—my friends—could. But not me. Not this ghost. Not this waste of existence.

The tears poured out of my black eyes, danced off the dark plastic of my shades, and fell to the floor to mix with the vomit.

I clutched my skull, curled into a sickening fetus, and shivered all over like I was entombed inside an ice berg.

All those days…I kept trying to avoid it. To outrun it. But every now and then—between the laughter. Between the smiles. It all broke through. The simple truth. The horrifically simple truth.

I was alone. I was so damn alone. And I had done it to myself. Long before I had even joined the Titans…I had done it to myself. They couldn't chase away the symptoms. And they couldn't do away with the cause.

They could only be themselves. Beg for help as I may—even though I wouldn't—no good would come out of it.

I was alone.

I was alone and I needed help.

I needed atonement.

I needed unconditional warmth.

I needed…….


	75. Kara's Visitor part 1

**75. Kara's Visitor part 1**

The teenage girl sat on a bench underneath the hanging gardens of the Temple.

A red-orange Sun shone dimly across the glittering waters of a crystal lake beyond the ravine. On gently swaying grass of pure emerald, families gathered and smiled and laughed amidst the lazy chatter of a holiday.

The girl looked up from a scroll she was reading. Her long, platinum blonde hair dancing majestically in the wind. She smiled across the way at her father and older brother. The two men were sitting on a blanket across the grass. Tossing stones into the crystal surface of the lake. Laughing and talking about the future.

The girl took a deep breath. She saw someone else and stood up.

Her mother walked down from performing her daily prayers at the Temple. With her golden hair pinned up in brass braids and a gemstone set inside her forehead, she was a symbol of power across the lands. Authority and wisdom. She looked at her daughter across the gardens…and smiled.

The girl sighed happily and started to walk towards her.

In invitation, the mother's arms unfolded.

FLASH!!!!

Everyone around the world gasped as if at once.

The mother's eyes widened. She spun and looked out across the waters.

The girl gasped. She looked at what her mother was staring at.

Just as her father and brother were starting to stand up…the girl saw what everyone was seeing.

A bright halo of fire forming against the edge of the sky. Green in the center and banding out in rings of bright, white hotness. For a second or two, the cataclysm faded…then dripped back into existence.

Winged creatures sprung out from their hiding places and migrated to the other hemisphere as a gentle wind started to build up into a tumultuous downdraft. Everyone shrieked and fought to keep their balance. The world was shaking. The sky was turning from its natural red to a sickening green.

The girl's eyes widened. She trembled and cried out the names of her parents and sibling.

But nobody could hear her. Nobody could hear anything.

For a great roar was engulfing the globe. And the atmosphere parted. And the crystal waters rose up in a fountain like the finger of some forsaken deity slicing into the earth and plowing its unfathomable way towards dry land. It was right at the time that the bedrock beneath the ocean was flying skward that the girl ran desperately towards her family…but was brutally knocked back by the planet itself.

And everything came crashing down on her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thirty-three years later….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I woke up early in the morning, though truthfully I had not really gone to sleep.

It's a torture when you have the complete urge to toss and turn but realize that doing so would bother the sleeping body of a bedmate next to you.

I looked boredly to my side, but Beast Boy was nowhere to be found. So, I lifted up the edge of the comforter…and there I found a green cat snuggling itself deep into the mattress. Its fuzzy tummy rose and fell slowly.

I had almost forgotten about that…

Slowly…gracefully…I slid myself across the bed, swung my legs over the edge, and dropped down to the floor. I tip-toed across the room. Looking aside, I saw Cyborg taking up most of the other bed and Robin somehow occupying the far edge. I wasn't sure how those boys accomplished the feat, but both were snoring pleasantly. I let them be as I walked over to my pile of clothes, grabbed jeans, a t-shirt, and a denim jacket, and filed off into the bathroom to shower and change.

When I came out—all dressed—I headed for the door. But I paused. Slowly, I turned and went back to the center of the boys' room. I picked up Myrkblade with its scabbard. I took off my jacket, slipped the scabbard onto my back, and put my jacket back on over it.

I was feeling adventurous…

This time, as I headed for the door, I glanced back subconsciously and caught sight of the girls' bedroom through the cracked door. There was a thin window in the atrium of the hotel room, and it shone enough light in during the wee morning hours that Starfire would feel safe. Somehow, the alien girl had forgotten to equip her favorite nightlight for the trip. Much to our chagrin…..and humor.

I got a piece of paper and wrote a note for the other Titans to read.

'_Can't sleep. Going out for a bit. I have the communicator. Call me for whatever reason.'_

'_Noir'_

I was lonely.

I placed the paper down on the tiny kitchen table and exited. As I had the door half open with my keys, I stopped. I looked back into the bedroom. I took a deep breath.

I could see Raven. But Raven could not see me. She was sleeping as still and as serene as an angel. And for once as in as many times ever, I couldn't figure out how she could ever house a demon.

I sighed.

She was alone…and she was beautiful that way.

And I felt so…so ugly.

I walked outside, closed the door behind me, and left the place in silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Before I met the Titans.

Even before I trained under the Master.

I was deeply in love with what I liked to call 'urban hiking'.

As the forests diminish, the sprawls of urban civilization grow. They are a new frontier. Something grandiose and unique. An organic formation of clustered buildings and exchanges—done by the hands of the most complex organisms we know. Ourselves.

I had no idea what Kansas City was like. And to an extent, I didn't even care. But something pulled me to just…set out on a road and go. And keep going. Not West. Not East. Not North or South. Just circles, zig-zags, broken lines. Anywhere that 'anywhere' took me. My feet ran my memories away.

Throughout the day, I trekked along busy roads. Sweated in the hot sun along the Missouri River. Stopped at a convenience store to grab something to drink. Stepped over into Missouri to have a look around downtown. Then swung south through a park into the Country Club Plaza where locals and tourists were enjoying the commercial sites in the early afternoon.

Not once did any of the Titans ring me through the communicator. I wondered if they were busy on their own or they actually considered that I desired to be alone.

Either way…I was relaxed. And I was thankful.

I was walking slowly through a courtyard of the Country Club Plaza. The mist from a nearby plaza cooled me down in the heat of August summer. I took a deep breath, sighed, and leaned against a nearby wall. In so doing, I felt Myrkblade's scabbard against my back. I smirked.

True…I was feeling adventurous. But that wasn't exactly why I smirked. Though it did figure in.

I smirked because I heard something from around the corner….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nobody move!!" a man in a ski mask shouted. He backed out of a clothing store with a canvass bag full of hastily grabbed money. With a gun, he forced everyone in proximity inside to stay on the floor with their hands over their heads. "The soonest someone screams or says something, I shoot!!" He panted….sweating. He backed out of the store altogether, spun around, and ran briskly down the courtyard.

People gasped and dashed away from his gun-toting figure as he streaked on by. In the distance, the sound of an alarm rang out in the store he had just abandoned.

He cursed under his breath, panted, and ran around a nearby corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Once in the courtyard, the frantic thief looked into the distant street bordering the shops and parking lot and caught sight of his three buddies and the getaway van waiting for him.

He gasped, smiled under his mask, and ran at full throttle--

YANK!!!

He tripped over a foot suddenly outstretched from the back side of a fountain.

"AAAh-"THWUMP!!! He collapsed chest first on the ground. He dropped both his gun and his bag.

I brought my leg back, whistled innocently, and literally walked over the grounded thug with my feet. In so doing one of my boots clamped hard over the outstretched hand of the thug…trying to reach his gun.

Crunch!!

"AAAGH!!" he exclaimed.

I shifted my weight and whacked him quickly in the side of his head with the same boot.

THWAP!!!

He moaned and lay silent.

I looked off towards the van.

The three in the getaway vehicle saw me, gasped, and hit the gas. The tires screeched to life as the vehicle lurched and began to speed away.

I stared calmly.

I looked down.

The man lay silent below me.

I knelt down. I undid his belt.

The van's engines revved and it soared down the street.

I reached to the man's head. I slid off his mask.

The van drove off, a throng of frightened people helplessly watching from the sidewalk.

I stood up. Whistled. Strung the belt through the breathing holes of the mask. Fastened it tightly.

The van was almost to a freeway.

I whirled the makeshift slingshot over my head, braced it with a smoking skin of destruction energy, and flung it for meters on end towards the distant vehicle.

SWOOOOOOSH-POW!!!

With Wyldecarde accuracy, the 'weapon' sunk deep into the rear tire of the van and shattered a part of the axle. The vehicle—already gunning it—careened out of control, ran off the road, over grass, and plowed hard into a fountain.

CRUNCH!!!!

The water drenched thugs inside were shocked into immobility.

The sounds of police sirens from the retail store's alarms rang through the district.

I smirked and stared at the handiwork, my hands on my hips.

Behind me, the groaning robber suddenly stood up, rubbed his skull, snarled, and whipped out a dagger to stab me in the back---

SWOOOSH-WHAM!!!

Without looking, I flung my fist up and smacked him in the face. He slumped down unconscious with a groan.

I swiveled about, headed for the edge of the courtyard, and disappeared with a puff of murk into stealth mode while onlookers around me gasped and muttered in awe.

In the corner of my vision—right as I turned invisible—I could have sworn I caught one pedestrian walking after me. She paused halfway towards the body of the criminal, but was looking in my direction. A flash of a long, brown ponytail, eyeglasses, and a red jacket.

And then she was gone and I was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I realized that there is one chief thing in life—besides my friends with the Titans—that keeps me occupied, distracted, and relatively 'happy'. And that's my ability to kick ass in multiple dimensions of the term. I liked to think that I was very chaste about my 'art'. In stopping the criminal at that shopping complex, I had not ONCE used the sword strapped to my back under my denim jacket. Everything was done with practicality and efficiency. I was in…and I was out. By that late afternoon, as I walked by electronics shops whose front rows of t.v.s were already telling news stories of the 'mysterious vigilante'. Most likely—if Beast Boy or Cyborg were tuning into the hotel's cable tv—the Titans would have known by then of my actions. And they would have seen the interviews with people that were relatively admirable. And they would have been happy with me…or at least I hoped.

Or maybe I didn't care. I was feeling good. I was the furthest west I had been in a year and I was feeling good about things.

To escape the heat, I stopped by a nearby Borders to cool down and check into good literature. And when I mean 'good literature', I mean that I made a bee-line for the manga section and picked out something amusing to read. Perhaps it was enlightening too. I don't remember, actually. All I know is that it had schoolgirls and katanas in it.

For a moment in the middle of my…..'reading'….I paused. I sat back and blinked through my black shades. The reading chair pushed the scabbard of Myrkblade into my back. Bangs of my long black hair waved lightly from an A/C Unit placed in the ceiling, directly over my head.

Sometimes, I find myself at a place or time when—if I pause—I forget how I got there.

I couldn't retrace my thoughts. I couldn't figure out who I was or where I was. It wasn't amnesia. It was something more akin to sleepiness. I knew there were important people in my lives. People who dressed funny and swung around between building tops at night to beat in the skulls of dangerous miscreants. But all of their faces had suddenly turned into photographs on cover stories. They were suddenly as alien to me as the mysterious individual at the Country Club Plaza who stopped a robber and his gang, beat them to unconsciousness, and walked off.

All I was at that very moment in time was a pair of jeans, shirt, and jacket resting around a body of meat in a chair with a manga in his lap. Everyone around me, reading, was blurring into a wall of statues. The music overhead disintegrated and became a low hum.

I hadn't had a single drop of Dr. Pepper that day. I had spent the hours doing the most real thing possible. Walking. Sweating in the sun. Smelling the Missouri River and crossing streets amidst a cloud of busy exhaust.

And I didn't feel any more real than I did the day before.

I had felt this way before. It always struck at random. Like déjà vu. I used to call it 'weariness in the head'. It happened a lot to me in my childhood. A sense of surrealism. Of blatant nonexistence. The sudden fear that the flickering home movie of my life would run out of film and I'd forever be strapped to the shadows of a dark, dark room in some abyss.

I sighed.

The last time I had felt this was shortly before Wyldecarde was born. And just like the other dramatic 'weariness' occurrences that took place in greater frequency during my time with the Titans than any time previous, I was possessed with one tempting thought.

To leave them. To go out on my own again. To run away.

I closed my eyes. I ran the hand over the book I had picked up. Over the pages. The paper. The texture.

I reopened my lids. I stared out through dark shades at the interior of Borders. The individual people. The blinding ceiling lights.

That was all real. And I was real.

With the annoying epiphany once again dashed to the side, I reconvened perusing the contents of the book.

I may have been a coward, but I wasn't going to leave the Titans. Not any time soon. Numb as I could be in angsty situations, even then I couldn't deny how much I needed them. And loved them. And depended on them for the remaining sanity in my head.

Vacations are silly things…

Twenty minutes later, I noticed something.

Rather…..**someone**…

A fair head. A fuzzy sphere of white flesh stabbing me in my peripheral vision at the corner of my shades.

I looked up.

I blinked.

Nothing.

Nobody.

A beat………

I shrugged it off, and returned to my book.

I wasn't really paying attention to the pages. My mind was wandering. I thought about Green Arrow and Speedy. I wondered if everything was going all right in the Tower and the City. I thought about Renee and Daniel. Their baby that they were expecting. Robert Glover…if I had formed a mortal enemy or an eternal ally with him or nothing at all. Ms. Cartwright and her success or failure in continuing the Westhaven Opera House. Sandy and her tenacity for all things that are. The Flash and if he washes those damn tights he's always wearing.

"……"

I blinked. I shook my head. I sighed.

A wandering mind can be a dangerous thing.

I refocused on the manga….and again was taken by surprise by something **out** of focus.

The same old face. The same old figure.

I looked up, my head tilting with a jerk.

There was a jolting. A wincing figure. I had caught her.

_Her??_

I blinked through my shades and tilted my head to the side. Staring.

There was a girl in an aisle of books. She had a thick hardback opened and seemed to be digging her nose into it. But it was quite obvious to all the powers in the universe that she was stealing a glance at me. With blue, spectacled eyes peering over the pages of the book. A pensive look to her face…not so much out of shyness as it was—I assumed—an expression of 'being caught'.

And that's when I noticed….

Brown hair. In a big ponytail running down her back. A pale complexion. A petite figure…yet not 'short'. Clothed in a red jacket and black jeans and a small, white t-shirt underneath.

My lips parted slightly.

It was the same girl from the Country Club Plaza. The same mysterious figure that seemed to know where I was even when I was invisible and exiting the scene.

As I stared, she pivoted innocently to the side and 'looked at her book' at an angle that didn't remotely contain my figure.

I blinked again.

Had she followed me?

I felt wyrd inside. But not so much out of anxiety…but just plain perplexity. Obviously, she had followed me. And she was still….keeping an eye on me. Being in the superhero business, it's only natural for me to expect all sorts and manners of secret evils at play in this world. But I didn't think she was spying on me for some malicious purpose. I just didn't…..get that 'vibe'. There was no natural way to explain it, but I had no reason to believe that she was wishing me wrong.

But whatever she was missing…..that perplexed me. I was filled with the sudden urge to find out. But I didn't seize the opportunity. I was still overcoming the perplexion.

I took careful notice of the fact that the book in the brown-haired-girl's hands had its cover positioned upside down….

I smirked.

And it was at approximately that time—and no later—that the pickup truck drove through the front glass windows of the Borders.

SMASH!!!!!!!

Glass flew.

People screamed.

Rows of magazine stands exploded as bodies scurried out of the way.

I gasped and looked up from my seat.

SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!!!

A white, battered pickup truck was barreling down on me…smashing through book stands and advertisement displays.

I dropped the manga, held my breath, and dove forward.

CRASH!!!

The sofa I was sitting on was batted away into debris behind me.

The tires mangled the manga to pieces as the vehicle spun to a stop in the center of the store.

Almost immediately, four masked thugs jumped out. Their faces were hidden in helmets with glossed-over visors. They held huge, silver rifles and were taking aim at everything and nothing in particular.

ZAP!!!!

ZAP!!!!

ZAP!!!!

Laser blasts were coming out of the guns. A catastrophe of high-tech destruction.

Bookcases fell over. Windows shattered. Holes were punched in the ceiling and floor.

People ran desperately every which way. A few tripping. A few collapsing from a fallen piece of singed furniture. A great wave of panic and horror.

I was pressed hard to the ground. Gritting my teeth. There was a snapping sound from up above. I took a glance through my sweat-stained shades.

A lighting fixture had been severed of its supports and was sailing down at me.

I frantically blurred my limbs, scampered up on all fours, and dove to the side just in time to avoid the inevitable crash of glass and metal.

CLANK!!!

I landed, rolled, and ended with my back pressed against a bookcase. I panted. I craned my ear towards the scene at hand. More screams. More ZAPS! The engine of the truck was still on.

I took a deep breath. I switched my body into stealth mode. I invisibly peered around the edge of the bookcase. Slowly. Conserving my energy.

Three of the dark-helmeted strangers were forming a ring around the truck, aiming their rifles outside the perimeter. The fourth stranger was positioned in the center, by the truck. His body was just as nimble and thin as the others underneath the dark gear…but there was something about his gait. About his manner of movement. It was more than obvious that he was their leader. But there was something very….strong about him. Strong and mysterious.

I narrowed my black eyes.

"Boss?!?! What's taking you so long?!" one thug exclaimed, aiming and firing at the heels of fleeing shoppers and employees. ZAP!!!

"Just keep your bloody lasers at work," the man smoothly uttered. "I'm narrowing in on the Good Stuff…."

He had a very loud voice. One that didn't need yelling to fill a room. And there was a distinct accent to it. Either hereditary or neglected. It tasted like a British flavor attempting to swallow itself into American oblivion, but then lazily settling for halfway. And there was something else lacing the voice like a faded service of lead. A metallic ring that gave the voice a haunting sense of villainy.

I was suddenly under the impression that I was dealing with someone very…very…big in the criminal scene.

A 'bad vibe'.

I grit my teeth. My titanium left hand reached back to the bulge in my jacket that was the hilt of Myrkblade.

But again…I didn't take it any further. I didn't unsheathe the sword. I sat there…in stealth…and watched. Listened. Observed…

I would only use force if absolutely, positively necessary.

"Gotta hurry!!" another thug muttered panickedly from beneath his helmet as he aimed his rifle around. "The heat will be on us soon! There was already an incident with some creeps at the shopping center south of here! The police aren't sleeping anymore!!"

"Don't be so quick to burst a blood vessel," the leader said. He knelt a few feet away from where the pickup truck had come to a stop, feeling the ground. "I do believe I've struck gold."

"Good!"

"Let's get out of here!!"

The leader focused on the floor through his helmet. He raised his hand. A pause. He let out a ringing shout and swung his fist straight down.

SMASH!!!

Carpet shreds, floorboard splinters, and concrete debris flew up in a spray.

I did a double-take.

The man had single-handedly punched a huge, gaping hole in the floor of the book store. Without so much as taking a breath, he punched again…and again…and again.

SMASH!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!!

More debris and shards flew. The hole got bigger and bigger. Deeper and deeper. The unnatural, brute force of the man was digging a vertical tunnel gradually into the earth.

I sweatdropped invisibly. I glanced over…curiously….at where the brown-haired girl in red was.

But she was gone…

I hoped she was all right. I hoped everyone was all right.

I looked back. My lips parted and my black eyes narrowed through my shades.

The pounding had stopped. There was a period of unnatural silence. Then the leader climbed out of the hole he had just made. His black-clad body was marked with white dust and dark brown soil. He was cupping something in his hands.

"Got it??" one of the three gunmen asked.

He nodded. "Indeed I have. And what a pity it is that I can't utilize it right here and now…."

I noticed for the first time then that there was a glow about the man. A green glow. And the green glow stopped as soon as he repositioned his hands around whatever he was cupping and marched towards the truck.

"You know the deal…," another gunman spoke through his mask. "We bring it to him. It's not ours."

"Not yet," the 'leader' replied. "Come on…let's go. God, how I detest being a lackey."

He marched into the truck and climbed into a passenger's seat. The thugs hopped in the driver's seat and the back bed of the pickup truck.

"Floor it!!" one shouted.

_**SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!!**_

The tires burned against the carpet and the truck was careening off towards the front entrance again. The two thugs in the back of the pickup truck fired ahead of the vehicle.

ZAP!!

ZAP!!!

ZAP!!!!!

The glass windows were weakened considerably. The gunmen ducked as the truck sped on through.

_**CRASH!!!!**_

I dropped the stealth of black smoke and ran out to a sliding stop in the middle of the store where tire tracks had stained the floor. I panted and watched the speeding vehicle. It was getting away.

I took a deep breath, hunched over, and let loose a wave of smoke energy.

I blurred out the fresh hole in the Borders entrance, hopping around and over shocked pedestrians.

The truck zoomed down a nearby highway.

I narrowed my black eyes in mid-sprint.

I blurred over towards the side. I kept my speed in check. I followed the truck at a distance. Whenever it slowed down, I stopped and went into stealth form. Whenever it sped up, I streaked a smoking path on the side of the road, around vehicles and obstacles so as to hide the sight of my pursuit.

Gradually, the truck made its way into an area outside of town where warehouses and storage houses converged. The truck slowed down considerably, and I figured that the thugs must have assumed they had averted the police---or any eyewitnesses for that matter. And yet, the men in the back and in the front seats kept their helmets—and their identities—secret.

A good fifteen minutes after the Borders incident, the truck wheeled slowly into a gated area surrounded by thin roads and asphalt. On the other side of the fence was a dirty parking lot, dotted here and there with ruined and rusting automobiles. Three warehouses stood inside. The truck stopped at the side of one. The suspects slowly got out.

I was on the side of the street opposite of the fenced area. I hid out of sight besides a wall in a thin alley. I wasn't in stealth mode. I had to conserve my energy for an inevitable infiltration.

While eyeing the gunmen across the way, I subconsciously pulled out my communicator and prepared to send my leader Robin a transmission---

----when I froze. I blinked.

Why had theses wyrd strangers smashed and blasted their way into the Borders? Why had they pounded a hole into the floor? What did they gain from the chaotic, violent ordeal?? And what were they doing there now?

What was **I** doing there right now?

Most of my days—especially with the Titans—were filled with doing things without thinking. As long as the things I was doing were virtuous and just. I had managed to stay alive so far.

I shrugged it off, punched the buttons on the communicator, and sent a morse code message to Robin through a series of light beeping sounds.

"'_Robin…. There…. Has… Been… A… Dramatic… Incident… Involving… Gunmen… And… I… .Have… Tracked… Them… Down… To… These… Coordinates… Send… The… Titans… Immediately?'"_

I nodded.

A beat.

My black eyes bulged.

I spun around with a gasp.

A girl was leaning over my shoulder. A girl with a dark brown ponytail. A girl with a dark brown ponytail dressed in a red jacket and black jeans.

Her reflection shone in my blank shades as she stood up and smiled. "Nice Communicator! Are you with the Titans?!"

I was breathless.

I looked at her. I looked at the scene across the street. I looked at her again.

My jaw was agape.

How did she get there?!?!?!

"You're with the Titans, aren't you?" she pointed. "Only a superhero could move around town that fast! Not to mention disappear and stuff!"

"Shhhh!!!" I emphasized with a finger over my mouth. I waved my hand emphatically. My teeth gritted and I sweatdropped as I again checked on the scene across the road to see if we had been spotted or something…

"Hey! You just made a sound!" the girl remarked. Her voice was a tad bit lower, but still too loud for my comfort. "You're that new member of the Titans, right? The one who can't talk?! And does breathing count as talking?? I get confused…."

I frowned and pointed a right finger behind her, mouthing 'Go!'

Her soft hand suddenly enclosed around mine.

I gasped. I looked at our joining fingers.

"Hi!" she smiled and shook my hand. It was a strong grip for a seemingly bubbly girl. "My name's Kara! Pleasure to meet you!"

I tried pulling my hand out from her grasp.

'Kara' kept holding onto it, scratching her chin with a free hand…and saying: "Hmmmm…those creeps at the Borders. They can't be up to any good." She smiled at me with blue eyes thinning under her glasses. A very mischievous grin. It suited her. "It's a good thing the Titans have someone fast on their heels, huh?! Lord knows that if those guys get away, there'll be Hell to pay! Hehehe! That just rhymed!"

I strained…gritted my teeth….and finally yanked my hand free. I shook it, exhaled, and looked back out at the fenced area across the way.

The thugs were still gathered around the truck. Their helmets still on. Discussing something….

If there was any time to act, it was then and now.

"Th-Think I can help you out??" she asked with her hands on her hips.

I nearly collapsed at that…

I stood up straight and faced her menacingly….only to find that I was barely taller than her.

She smiled at eye-level. "Well??"

I took a deep breath. I gripped her shoulders…turned her around…and shoved her down the alley.

"H-Hey!!" Kara stumbled a few feet, spun around, and pouted.

But I was gone.

In stealth mode, I crept across the street, snuck up to a lamppost, took a deep breath, angled around onto the sidewalk, tip-toed invisibly along the perimeter of the metal fence, and stopped at a portion of the barrier where a warehouse blocked me from the view of the truck and its suspicious characters.

I solidified…visible once again…and took a couple breaths. I walked up to the chain-link fence and started building up a field of murk energy to teleport through---

"Gonna sneak up on them??"

I jumped. I literally jumped. I teetered on two feet—barely keeping myself from clanging loudly against the metal fence and blowing our cover.

**Our** cover???

I looked over, panting.

Kara stood by my side, playfully leaning back and forth on two feet while holding her hands behind her back. She leaned her brown head of hair to the side and smiled. Her blue eyes magnified by the glasses. "You make it all seem so effortless….well…**mostly** effortless."

I frowned and started mouthing a whole slew of angry words that I was soon reminded of what a crazy effort it must be to have to 'talk'. I gripped my head with a metal hand, exhaled loudly, and glared up at her through my shades. I jabbed a finger across the street…hinting blatantly for her to 'get lost!'.

She merely shrugged. "It's in my nature! I gotta check stuff out!"

I didn't care.

I shuddered, turned, and faced the fence again. I tensed my arms. I concentrated. My body was enveloped in murk…then converted into smoke.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I flew forward, seeped through the chain-link fence, and solidified on the other side.

I took a deep breath and rushed over to the wall of the warehouse opposite of my suspects. I was in the process of sneaking towards the scene….when I noticed something horrifying through the corner of my shades.

I turned…looked…and dropped my jaw.

Kara spit on her hands, rubbed them together, looked up, and **jumped** onto the chain-link fence.

CLATTER!!!

I winced all over.

She climbed up furiously. Her legs flexing through black jeans. Her brown hair dangling in a ponytail beneath her upwardly craned neck.

CLATTER!! CLATTER!! CLATTER!!

The sound practically echoed throughout the complex.

I waved. I jumped. I motioned for her to get down.

She hummed to herself as she ungracefully climbed to the top of the fence, negotiated her way through the rings of barbed wire, and dropped down to the ground…boots first.

I clamped hands over my shades.

CLUMP!!!!

My whole body shook.

A beat.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds….

Nobody came. The sound hadn't caught the foes' attention.

I parted my fingers over my shades.

I could still hear their uninterrupted mutterings of a conversation from beyond the warehouse.

I sighed.

"Geez!! You're a basket case!" Kara loudly exclaimed as she girl-stepped towards me and leaned casually against the building. "It'd probably do us some good once your friends get here! The way you're shaking and stuff…we're bound to be discovered!!"

SWOOOSH!!

CLAMP!

"Mmmmfmmmfmfmmm!!" she exclaimed, her blue eyes glaring at me.

I had my right hand clamped over her mouth.

I frowned.

I motioned with my metal hand for her to walk over towards the edge of the warehouse, sit down, and shut up.

She stared at me.

Silent.

Sapphire eyes soft. Unblinking.

I took a breath of relief.

I released my hand---

"So how're we gonna do this?!?"

I clamped my hand over her mouth again, moaned, and rolled my black eyes towards heaven.

"Something wrong?"

I grinned at her. And shoved her up against the wall.

WHUMP!!

"Ooof!! What's your deal?!"

I waved her off, spun around, and angrily 'crept' my way towards the edge of the warehouse structure.

The sounds of the talking quartet lit my ears. But not so much the words. My mind was in a haze. I couldn't think straight.

That freakin' girl…..

I turned my head to look and check on her.

She was gone.

"………" I blinked.

I turned back---

"Do you hear them??" she said, in front of me.

I jumped back and hit the side of the warehouse. WHUMP!! I rubbed my aching head.

"Shouldn't we get close enough to eavesdrop if we're gonna get any dirt on these morons?"

For a moment, I was graced with the pleasant image of her head skewered on Myrkblade.

I shook that off and motioned emphatically again to beat it. I did not want her life in danger. I---

"Why do we have to put it in those bags for?!" one man uttered from the group.

The two of us froze. We peered out from the edge of the warehouse as one.

We saw the leader facing the three thugs besides the truck. We heard them….

"My good man, what are you talking about?" the Leader said.

"Those bags!" the man pointed at a black satchel in the Leader's grasp. Again, no faces. Only helmets. "Wouldn't they be better off in a safe or vault or something?"

"Conventionally, yes. But I've learned from experience that even I'm not a good enough vessel for this stuff. It gets detected…in some fashion or another. It never ends. Now, our friend. The fellow who's so dominating this. He's provided us with these ugly forms of transportation."

"What for?"

"The canvass is lined with lead. A special polymer of it. It makes the stuff practically undetectable."

"That sort of stuff is only in development!"

"Maybe on our planet…," the Leader had a slight twang of humor in his ringing voice. "Please, gentlemen. No questions asked. Our organization is going to benefit from this in the long run. Just understand that I hate this labor as much as you do."

"Let's just put that stuff away and be ready for our next destination…"

"Agreed."

The two started to wander towards the furthest warehouse in a group.

"Hmmmm….," Kara murmured silently, "…they seem to be working for a cause that they're not so enthusiastic about…"

I nodded. A beat. I bit my lip and snapped myself out of it. I looked at her, frowned, and pointed again at the other side of the complex.

"Uh uh!" she pouted, hands on her hips again. I swear to God, it was a trademark…. "We've gone this far!" she smirked. "Might as well take it all the way."

I blinked under my shades. Was that supposed to have an impact on me?

"What're you waiting for?!" she smirked and stomped towards open sight. "Let's go kick butt—"

I gasped, grabbed the back of her jacket and yanked her towards me.

"Aack!! For crying out loud, don't you want to get anywhere?!"

At that point…my fists were clenching--

"Wait a second!" a voice from the four exclaimed.

My heart fell.

Kara was silent.

I glanced over and saw the Leader's hand raised. He swiveled around. The thugs turned with him. Sunlight glistened off of the visors of their helmets.

"Who goes there?!?!"

Kara bit her lip. "Ooops?"

I looked at her…flabbergasted.

"Show yourself!" the leader exclaimed.

I let out a huge sigh, shrugged, and walked out.

Kara watched me…wide-eyed.

The three thugs unholstered their laser rifles at the sight of me.

The Leader merely held his canvass bag, staring.

I walked towards them.

"Hey! You!"

"Stand back!!"

Three laser guns aimed at me.

I walked faster. I cracked the knuckles of my right hand. I flexed the metal fingers of my left.

"He's….H-He's not stopping!"

"Of course not," the Leader nonchalantly uttered. "Because you haven't **shot** him yet!"

One gunman trembled for the rest of them as his helmet shook and he said: "Fine!! Have it your way, punk!!"

The guns cocked.

Kara gasped from behind.

I squinted my black, shaded eyes.

"DIE!!"

ZAP!!

ZAP!!!

ZAP!!!!

I blurred. I dashed forward across the pavement. I transformed into smoke form, murked around their incoming fire, and solidified a few footsteps away. Half a second later, I leapt, landed between two of the gunmen, twirled, and swept my leg out. I tripped both at once. I crouched low, charged murk through my limbs, and launched my foot against the side of a mid-air, falling thug. His body went sailing directly into the other. I jolted up, vaulted, backflipped, landed on the other side of the second tripped thug, hoisted him to his feet, and kicked him in the rear. He dropped his laser rifle and went stumbling—yelling—into the bodies of the other two who were just getting up.

THWUMP!!!!

All three collapsed on the ground….moaning.

In a blur, I spun and faced the Leader with raised fists.

He regarded me stoically through the visor of his black helmet. His arms folded as he held the canvass bag.

"Hmmmm….interesting…," he uttered.

I took a breath. I rushed towards him. I jump-kicked.

He didn't even move…

CLANK!!!

My foot slammed into his sternum. The jolt of impact ran up my leg, through my body, and exploded me outward six feet in the air before landing me hard on the ground.

WHUMP!!!

My black eyes bulged in pain and surprise. I sat up…rubbing my head.

The Leader hadn't even budged from my blow. He dropped the canvass bag from his grip and raised his fists into a fighting position. "Right then…this should be rather entertaining, I should say. Get up, son. Let's test your metal against mine."

I stood up…winced…hid it away with a grin. Smirking, I sighed and started flexing my limbs, cracking my neck, and tensing my spine. I slowly paced over towards him…shaking my hands…then forming them into fists as I got into a fighting position.

Kara watched from the sidelines. Silent.

The Leader paced around me. "You know…I sensed you earlier. In the bookstore. Yes…you were there during our 'dig'. Did you take pictures? I forgot to bring my camera and I'm feeling downright mushy about the whole lot."

Silently, I paced closer and closer to him in a fighting stance.

I know I should probably have waited for the Titans to arrive before engaging in combat. But I had to distract the creeps from that 'Kara' personality and—besides—this was vacation.

Whatever that means….

SWOOOOOSH!!

I rushed towards the helmeted man with my fist raised.

WHAM!!!

His head turned from my punch…but slowly tilted back.

"HA!!!" he exclaimed, muffled, from his helmet. His whole body spun and he swung a round-house kick into my left side.

SMACK!!!

I tumbled immediately like an off-balance barrel. I landed awkwardly on my knees. Panting. Wincing in pain.

That man's blow was far too strong. Unnaturally strong. And stupidly—right then and there—I remembered the helmeted creep punching a deep hole into the earth.

"Stay right where you are!!" he shouted and rushed at me with a hulking fist. "RRRAAAUGH!!"

_CRAP!!!_

I charged murk, vaulted upwards, and flew out of his punch.

SMASH!!!

Bits and pieces of concrete flew.

I backflipped, landed with my feet against the side of a warehouse, blurred, and soared towards him.

SWOOOSH!!

I wrapped my arms around his neck, swung around, and dangled in a choke hold around his shoulder.

Smoke danced out of my eyes and my teeth grit as I tried to cut off the air to the criminal's lungs.

But he merely laughed. "Ha ha ha ha!! Always the charmer, I bet you are!!"

He reached a hand back, grabbed my shoulders over his shoulders, and yanked me forward with a shout.

"RAUGH!!"

SMACK!!

I was slammed down hard onto the parking lot floor.

I winced--

THWUMP!!

He kicked me in the side to the echoing sound of Kara's distant gasp. I rolled across the lot and ended against the wall of a warehouse.

I stood up, wincing.

My black eyes bulged as I saw the monstrous Leader charging at me.

SWOOOOOOSH—His fist came.

I ducked.

SMASH!!!

A hole was punched in the building side.

SWOOOOOOSH!!

I sidestepped.

SMASH!!!

Another hole.

I slid down, blurred, slid between his legs, came up the other side, and kicked his rear end.

THWUMP!!

He flattened against the building side.

I joined my hands together and—snarling—swung them hard into his back.

But he did a reverse kick at the last second.

WHAP!!

I limped backwards, my pelvis aching.

He spun around, dashed a hand up, and enclosed my neck in a death grip.

I wheezed for air.

He lifted me up above him.

My feet dangled

My empty throat tensed around my scar, hidden by his hold.

Though all I could see was helmet…I swore I envisioned a devilish grin on the man's face.

"My my my…they all do seem to be getting younger these days," his ringing voice sneered. "Allow me to simplify the death rate of modern day superheroes by extinguishing your infantile **life**!!"

I struggled. I was about to reach a hand back to Myrkblade and end this pointless danger when--

"HEY!!"

The helmeted man looked over.

Kara marched out into the center of the lot, clenching her fists. "You leave him alone, you big black turd!"

"Oh, what a rousing speech of sincerity!" the Leader mocked while continuing to strangle-hold me. "I'm beginning to have my guesses as to who this smoking yahoo is. But who in the hell are you, if I may be so unkind to ask?"

"The name's Kara!" she frowned. "And it's gonna be the all she wrote on your gravestone if you don't drop him right now!!"

"Kara, I salute you! In my long days of crime, I thought I had seen all the dumbasses this world had to offer! Well congratulations, young lady! You just turned my world upside down!"

"Yeah, I'm flattered," she spat and pointed at me. "Now drop him!!"

I didn't know whether to kiss her or wring her neck. I looked over with weary eyes and saw one of the gunmen getting up with his laser rifle. If I had a breath left in me, I'd gasp.

"Oh, I will be sure to drop him, Miss Kara. But only after you drop yourself," the man's helmet tilted forward. "Drop dead!"

Kara's blue eyes widened behind her glasses. She barely got the chance to look to her side and see--

ZAP!!!!!

I tried screaming. But I doubly had no voice.

FLASH!!!

The gunman from the side nailed Kara's body hard. The girl let out a streaming shriek as she flew across the parking lot from the laser blast and sailed into a barrel of fuel tanks positioned by the mouth of a warehouse. All it took was a second blast from the rifle to—

PHWOOOOOOOOOOMB!!!

Kara's helpless body was utterly and completely engulfed in a huge fireball.

My dry mouth dropped in a numb look of horror.

"Wooo!! Ha ha ha ha!!" the Leader's body shook and myself as well at his vice-like grip. "Damn, now that's gonna smell in the morning!! Ha ha ha!!"

I glared at him. I barred my teeth. I jabbed a hand back into my jacket, gripped Myrkblade, and---

SLASH!!!! RIIIIIIP!!!!

I unsheathed Myrkblade in a blur. In slow motion, my jacket was torn to shreds and I fell from the man's startled grasp. I inhaled as I fell, spun my body around, and slammed the entire length of Myrkblade straight into his ribs.

WHAM!!!!

Time resumed.

He went flying back into the warehouse behind him. Forming a shattering dent.

The standing gunman gasped and fired at me.

ZAP!!!

I blocked in reverse with a twirl of Myrkblade. FLASH!!

I spun, gritted my teeth, and blurred at the man.

He fired twice more. ZAP!! ZAP!!

I teleported left—dodged—teleported right—dodged—and let out a silent scream as I solidified into a spiraling downward slash of my sword.

CRACK!!!

His rifle shattered.

He gasped.

I dove forward, jabbing.

SLIIINK!!

Blood flew from the edge of his shoulder.

He clutched it, moaning.

I spun and slammed the blunt side of my sword against his chest.

He fell back hard to the concrete, toppled over, and stopped belly first to the ground….out cold.

I twirled around again.

The Leader shook his head through his helmet, recovering from the impact with the warehouse wall. The fires of Kara's cremation reflected in his visor.

I charged at him, teeth gritting. I raised Myrkblade. Smoke trailed from its wooden edges.

He slowly looked up…but I was already there.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Myrkblade came down.

CLANK!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Myrkblade slashed up.

CL-CLANK!!!

THWISH!!!

Myrkblade jabbed straight forward.

SMACK!!!

I came to a dead stop. Panting. Leaning forward. Pressing my blade into his chest.

And exposed chest. The black garb of the leader had been shredded apart in three places. And all I saw underneath it was a sheet of pure, reflective metal.

I gasped.

I looked up at him. My mouth agape.

His helmet tilted down to meet my gaze.

"Cute….," he uttered. He raised a fist.

I was too slow to--

SMASH!!!

He punched me square in the face.

My shades shattered.

The world burned white in my vision.

I was flung into a hot blindness as I fell and impacted with the concrete floor.

The breath flew from my lungs.

I clenched my black eyes shut. Wracked with pain.

"Heheheheh….," the voice of the Leader chuckled. I heard and felt him stomp over and stand over me. "You should get those eyes looked at……and preferably burned as abominations."

I wheezed. I summoned murk energy to arouse my spatial awareness and fight him on another front.

But then--

"HEY!! BULLY!!!"

It was Kara's voice.

"Huh?!" the Leader uttered. Then: "Oh shit almight…"

WOOOOOSH!!!

A rush of air and then--

CLANG!!!!

The sound of heavy fists against metal.

Kara's voice shouted: "RAAAUGH!!"

SMACK!! WHAM!!

The Leader's voice: "OOF!!!"

I struggled to get to my knees. My eyes clenched shut. Leaning on Myrkblade and sweating. Panting.

I tried to sense what was going on with my powers of murk. But everything was happening so fast.

One thing was for sure. Kara was alive. But how?!

And what was happening to that creep?!

CLANG!! WHACK!!!

"Take a hike, assmunch!!!"

"Little girl….you are starting to annoy me!"

There was a ruffling sound. Like a duffle bag opening. I felt an iciness creep over the scene. Like someone had opened a vat of dry ice in the middle of the fenced-in parking lot.

Kara's unmistakable gasp filled the blind arena. She didn't sound in pain, though. Just….surprised. Almost cornered.

The criminal's voice: "You know of this stuff, do you not??"

"H-How did you get that…."

"Never you mind. There's more where it came from. If you know better…you'll keep your distance."

"You won't get away with this, buckethead!"

"Typical of superheroes. So cliché. Well, I bid you adieu to bid you adieu another day. Preferably with a shotgun to the head."

The sound of the bag closing, then pounding feet, a smashed metal fence, and then silence.

"……" I panted. I craned my ear. But for what now? I was uncertain. My shades were completely smashed. I was blind as a bat as long as the Sun was out. Not a good feeling.

There was a soft padding of footsteps…a sigh…and then a warm voice. The voice of Kara. "Hey there, champ. You doin' okay?"

I swallowed and shrugged.

I felt soft arms grip my shoulder. Soft but strong…

She hoisted me up.

I stood dizzily on two feet. I kept my eyes clenched shut as I sheathed Myrkblade and blindly looked in her direction. Keeping in mind that my eyes were tightly closed, I managed a baffled expression.

"What??" she uttered.

I pointed in the direction of her voice.

"Yup. I'm alive. I'm a trouper! Hehehehehe!"

I sweatdropped.

"What about you, though?" she asked. I sensed her drift closer to me. "You're not banged up too bad or anything, are you?"

I flexed my flesh and metal limbs. My legs. My neck. I shook my head.

"Figures," she uttered…and I could sense her smile somehow. "Superheroes are invincible. Right?"

I shrugged. I reached to my communicator.

Her soft hand rested over mine.

"Don't bother…," she said.

I faced her, my face taunt.

"Er….wh-what I mean to say is….I think your friends are here."

"!!!!!!" I spun around. I stretched a hand out into the darkness…smoking. Sure enough, I sensed the T-Car coming quickly.

And…

SCREEEECH!!!

The vehicle came to a quick stop. I felt the doors swing open. Something big charged up towards me: Cyborg. Four petite bodies in comparison swarmed around him.

"Noir!!" Robin's voice exclaimed. "Report!! What's going on….here……………." He lingered.

Silence.

Darkness.

I raised my eyebrows over my clenched eyes.

"Um…..," Beast Boy's voice uttered.

"Eheheh…," Cyborg murmured.

"Fascinating….," Starfire breathily uttered.

"………….," had to have been Raven.

I realized they were all staring. But as I covered their bodies and their heads with my spatial awareness of murk…I realized that they weren't facing directly at me. But rather they all stared to my side at--

"H-Hey there, guys," Kara's voice bashfully exclaimed. "Nice to see ya. I knew it'd be only a matter of time before we met n'stuff!"

More silence.

"Y-Yeah….," Robin's voice uttered. "Um….it's nice to meet you and all…just…."

"Oh yeah…your friend," Kara said. I sensed her pointing at me. "Yeah, he's kinda near sighted at the moment. Or would the term best be 'dark sighted'?"

I motioned blindly in the air, hoping Cyborg was in a position to 'read' me.

He was. "S-Sure thing, Noir. I got an extra pair for you, buddy."

There was a clicking sound of a compartment in Cyborg's upper shoulder opening. The compartment was where he typically carried spare birdarangs for Robin, another pair of shades for me, and even extra gloves for the Tamaranian girl. He pulled out the sunglasses he was carrying, clicked his compartment back closed, and walked over to me with hands outstretched.

"Here you go, man."

I reached out, took the shades, and bowed slightly. I slipped the article over my face….and slowly opened my eyes.

I sighed.

I had an eyeful of my friends. And everything was comfortable again.

I smiled.

But they all five looked blank at me. Or rather **past** me. Beast Boy seemed amused. He hid a snicker.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I-I think you should take a l-look at your 'new friend', Noir," Beast Boy giggled lightly.

"……" I turned around.

I glanced at Kara as if she would have some answers to this sudden case of awkward silence.

And that's when I realized it wasn't 'Kara'. And yet, it was. Only…her dark brown hair had been replaced by long, platinum blonde. In place of her ponytail was a black hairband over her crown. In place of her jacket was a white tank top and a small red cape. And in place of her jeans was a blue tube skirt. The glasses were gone, and sapphire blue eyes looked away as she blushed a shade of red that matched the trademark, emblazoned 'S' on her chest.

"I-I told you we could handle them….," Supergirl said to me. "Guess it took some convincing."

Deadpan, I blinked. And then I did the most comfortable things I had ever done in years.

I fainted.


	76. Kara's Visitor part 2

**76. Kara's Visitor part 2**

"So….um….Supergirl….what are you doing in a place like Kansas City?"

"Pfft…only natural! I live here!"

"You…l-live in Kansas?"

"Well…more or less. Same continent, if that helps."

"Dude….I thought all you 'superpeople' lived in that Fortress of Solomon someplace…"

"'Solitude'. And no, I don't live there…thank gawd. Freakin' butt freezes off in that place. But heck, I've seen it enough to call the place a summer home."

"Are you here on any business?"

"Directly to the point, Robin! You are like they say in legends! Hehehe…I'm here on unofficial business."

"Doing what?"

"Unofficializing. Now tell me….what are you Titans doing here so far away from your Tower?"

"We are enjoying an extended vacation of glorious magnitude!! Hehehehe!"

"Sprechen sie what?"

"We're having some time off. It was Cyborg's idea and we all pitched in."

"Ahhhhh….coooool! But wait…what are you doing in a boring place like Kansas?!"

"Hahahaha! Dude! She agrees with me!"

"I'd agree with anyone. You guys are nuts!"

"On occasion…….we're downright schizophrenic….."

"And you must be Raven. I've heard lots about you."

"………….."

"That's a….um….pretty gemstone on your head!"

"………….."

"…………..Right…..so, um…..am I the only one baffled by whoever the heck those guys in the pickup truck were?"

"All we know is what our partner told us over the communicator."

"Ah, well, you see: it was these four guys with laser rifles and a really strong leader with the wyrdest way of talki—"

"Wait a second. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Supergirl. But before we talk about this situation, can we check up on Noir? I'd like his input too."

"Oh! Sure thing, Robin. Jeez…what got into him anyways? Heat prostration?"

"Heheheheheheh….you can saaaaay that."

"…..Huh?"

"Cyborg? How's he doing?"

"He's been awake for **three** minutes!"

I stopped pretending I was unconscious. Shaking my head with a sigh, I sat up. I looked at everyone around me through my shades. Blinking in response to the blinding light.

Six figures came into focus. Huddled around me and the opened back seat of the T-Car (the top was down). I saw Cyborg by my side, Raven and Beast Boy standing in the distance, Robin and Starfire by the side of the car, and in the midst---

"Hiya, sleepy head!" the Girl of Steel waved with a friendly, neighborhood smile.

And I laid back down to faint again.

"Stay with us, soldier…," Cyborg hoisted my head back up and forced me to sit. "My readings say you're fine. Probably exhausted, but fine. Care to join us?"

I rubbed my temples, flexed my jaw, and shrugged.

"Good to have you back, Noir," Robin nodded. He was in uniform. Everyone was in uniform. The Boy Wonder looked over at Supergirl. "So…you were saying there were four men—"

"In this badass pickup truck!!" Supergirl enthusiastically gestured. "And they were like—WHAM!—smashing into the Borders where Noir and I were! And then-ZAP!-laser guns were shooting everywhere and—SMASH!—they pounded into the ground and got a mysterious rock from the earth beneath the store. And quick as a flash—SMACK!—they drove out of the store and –VROOOOOM!-the entire way here. I followed by air and I guess Noir just….um….ran. We met at the same time and together we sneaked up on them and delivered a butt kicking! It was really cool!"

"And I'm assuming the four suspects got away….," Raven droned.

Supergirl simpered. "Heheh…yeah, well…that wasn't so cool."

"Fascinating story!" Starfire beamed.

Beast Boy blinked. "What were you and Noir doing in a bookstore?"

Supergirl winked.

My brow furrowed. I was about to gesture something when Robin walked in my line of sight.

"You remember all that, Noir?" he asked.

A beat.

I stared at him. I tiredly gave him a thumb's up.

"Well allright…," Cyborg uttered.

"So….like….," Supergirl rubbed her elbow. "Sorry about them getting away and all. You see…they still had their laser rifles and I kinda sorta got tossed like a rag doll into a blazing fire and Noir got his shades punched to bits and stuff. I think we managed well. We make a good team, don't we Noir?! Huh?!"

I had on a plastic grin. My cheeks were torturously growing red, no matter how much I fought it. Perhaps everyone would think it was a sunburn….

Speaking of pale….I felt blue eyes darting back and forth in the corner.

I glanced over.

I saw Raven look at me…at Supergirl…at me again…and then at space.

"……," I looked at Cyborg. I gestured.

He 'read' me. "Nah. We were just loafing around the hotel with nothing to do when you hailed us, man. Not all of us are as crazy as you to walk around in this burning weather."

I gestured again.

"Yeah…we brought bottled water. Hold on."

He pressed a button in the side of T-Car's interior while I stepped out and stood alongside of him. A compartment opened and Cyborg handed me some Aquafina."

"Drink it all up, man. Lord knows you must be parc—"

I unscrewed the cap and ungracefully dunked my head with a fountain of water. I soon emptied the cold contents all over my face, shook the drops out of my long hair, and exhaled.

"…..," Cyborg blinked. "Or that would do."

I wiped the water off my shades. Blinked my black eyes. And refocused the world.

After the ghastly, awakening splash of cold water…it turned out that Supergirl was still standing there.

I sighed and wandered over to the side to sharpen Myrkblade a bit…

"So….," Robin mumbled as he paced across the hot, barren parking lot. "You said that the four men inside the Borders got their hands on a mysterious stone?"

"Uh….yeah!" Supergirl nodded. "It seemed as if it was hidden deep under the floor of the bookstore. Like nobody knew about it but them!"

"You know what the stone looked like?" Robin knelt over a piece of asphalt.

The Girl of Steel thought for a second to herself. "Um……………..heck if I know," she shrugged.

Robin stood up with a very tiny, glowing pebble of green in his grasp. A shard. "Could the stone have been something akin to Kryptonite?"

Supergirl stared….blinked…and sweatdropped: "Oh….well….I-I guess I can sorta…vouch for that."

"You knew it was Kryptonite they were running off with?" Raven asked.

Supergirl turned and nodded. "I **saw** them running off with something green and glowing. That count?"

"Why didn't you tell us that to begin with?" the dark girl glared.

"Hey! I didn't know this was an interrogation!" Supergirl barked back and everyone but Raven flinched. "If you must know….um…..Kryptonite is kind of a touchy subject."

"Oh really…."

"Yeah! For Clark and me."

Silence.

"Clark?" Beast Boy blinked.

Supergirl instantly blushed. "Um…I-I mean 'Superman' and me."

Silence.

I glanced over at Robin. I saw that he was wincing. And wincing mightily. He struggled to hold the pebble of glowing Kryptonite in his glove as he uttered: "Um…..Supergirl? I don't remember exactly how long you've been in the business. But…"

"But what?"

"Be a little more careful about…..a-about….," Robin looked at everyone. He sweated and cleared his throat. "A-About names."

"What's so special about names?"

"Everything!" Robin retorted. "How did you know anyways?"

"What? About Superman?! Pfft! We're practically cousins!"

"I guess that would make sense. You know Superman's secret identity is important to him, right? I-I mean…has that changed in the 'Super' order or something since last time I checked?"

"Oh come on…," Supergirl folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "You ARE an offspring to the Bat, aren't you?! Why can't you be as liberal as Barbara…I swear"

"Dnkkttkkt!!" Robin hissed, his whole body in a cringe. Starfire jumped, concerned.

I looked at him. I looked at Supergirl.

She bit her lips. "Ooops….um…."

"Clark???" Beast Boy again muttered.

Supergirl rolled her eyes. "Clark Kent! He's a journalist. Metropolis. THERE! That wasn't so bad…was it?"

Everyone was silent. Although, I could hear Robin's heart stopping. There was a paleness that swept throughout his eyemask. It was haunting….and kinda funny.

"Clark Kent?" Beast Boy remarked.

"A journalist??" Cyborg added.

A beat.

"Pfft!"

"Who cares."

"Man…how boring."

"As long as he's Superman, I don't care."

Supergirl smiled at Robin. "See? Everyone understands!"

Robin was catatonic.

The Girl of Steel lowered her sapphire eyes to the tiny green sliver in his hand.

"So…um….about that," she pointed.

Robin snapped out of it. "Huh? Oh. This."

"Yeah….that…," Raven droned.

"It must have come loose from the sample the men had," the Boy Wonder said, back in detective mode. "It might not be too wild of a guess to assume there's more around here."

"And that they're after it!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Ah! Now that gives me an excuse to be 'on unofficial business' here in Kansas City! Doesn't it?" Supergirl planted her hands to her hips and beamed. She smiled over at me.

I cleared my throat and looked away. I sharpened Myrkblade studiously.

Raven was silent.

"You said they had laser rifles?"

"Yeah…they should be lying around here somewhere….well…bits and pieces of them."

"Dudes!" Beast Boy waved from the side of a warehouse. "Over here!"

Cyborg, Starfire, and Robin walked over. Robin pocketed the Kryptonite shard away in a satchel on his utility belt as all four Titans knelt besides the remnants of a laser gun.

"That look like pop gun to you?!" Supergirl called out from the sidelines, smiling.

"Hardly…," Robin lifted one. He handed it to Cyborg. "Can you do a quick scan for ionized crystals, please?"

"Consider it done," Cyborg nodded. He held up a cartridge to the laser rifle, opened a compartment in his arm, shone some sort of laser analysis on the object, and nodded. "Done indeed. Positive match."

Robin knelt up. "Well, that settles that." He spun and faced Supergirl at a distance. "You ran into Intergang."

Supergirl's eyes widened. "You don't say…."

"Intergang?" Starfire remarked.

"One of the biggest crime syndicates on the East Coast," Robin said. "A bunch of international criminals working together to create a hybrid of alien technology and advanced Terran engineering. These lasers—howbeit a trademark of their underlings—are petty compared to the big stuff they've got."

Cyborg nodded. "They are situated in Metropolis, mainly. Lord knows I had my evenings full of listening to stories bout them on the news as a kid…"

"How awful!" Starfire exclaimed. "And now they are this far west across your continent?! What could it be they desire?!" Robin tapped his utility belt. "They've gotten ahold of this stuff before. Undoubtedly, they're trying it again."

"But Kryptonite doesn't just hang around all over the place, does it??" Beast Boy exclaimed. "I always thought of Kryptonite as rare Yu Gi Oh cards. Some of them just can't be found…and besides, good riddance!"

"Usually they're scattered across various parts of the world," Supergirl said, regaining everyone's attention. "But….," and her voice lingered as she considered saying it…but eventually did: "Th-There's a very good reason why we might find more than usual in terms of amounts of Kryptonite here in Kansas."

"And what reason my that be?" Starfire asked, her hands clasped together.

Supergirl rubbed her chin. She caught the eyesight of Raven….hesitated…and then said: "I-I'll tell you later! Now…where can this sort of stuff lead us?"

"We can use the T-Car to do a scan for traces of ionized crystal runoffs," Cyborg said. "That might tell us where more of these guns are."

"And more of the gun-toters!" Beast Boy palmed his fist.

I smirked…sighed…and returned to my blade. I tried not to look at Supergirl. I tried…..

"Well…sounds like a plan to me!" Supergirl smirked. "Leave it to boys—tried and true—to have a titanium car and a super computer all rolled into one."

Cyborg hopped into the driver's seat and typed away at the dashboard. He smirked. "Don't you know it…"

"Wait a second….," Raven suddenly said.

Half of us looked over at her.

"What is this 'plan' all of the sudden?"

"We cannot allow these dangerous criminals to escape with the Kryptonite in their possession…," Starfire said.

"Whatever Intergang is after…," Robin spoke, "…it can't be a good thing. With their technology and path of destruction, they tend to move fast and are merciless to anyone in their way. If we are to find out what they're up to and conceivably stop them, then the time for action is now."

"You can learn a thing or two listening to him," Supergirl grinned.

"And we are doing this as a team, right?" Raven asked. A beat. "A team of **six**?!"

Supergirl pouted.

I watched…curious.

Robin glanced at the Girl of Steel. A beat. "Well…her interests in a matter involving Kryptonite are as serious if not more so than ours. I don't see why it can't be a team of seven."

"Yeah…you never know!" Cyborg exclaimed, typing a flurry with his hands. A compartment in the flank of the T-Car's hood opened up and a spinning radar dish of sorts rose up and started to twirl at the sky. "We could need her help! What's better than two supergirls on our team?? Two supergirls and a Supergirl with a capital 'S'!"

"Dude…you could do better than that," Beast Boy muttered.

Supergirl blushed and held her hands behind her back. "I-I don't know what to say. Well I do, but I don't know how to say it."

"Oh please!" Starfire rushed over, her hands clasped together and her eyes bright and cheerful and green. "Please say you will join us on our trip! It would be most glorious and honorable to track down fiends in your presence!"

Supergirl couldn't help it. She smiled. "Well, when you put it that way. Allright."

Starfire beamed. "Oh euphoric felicitations omega!!" and she proceeded to give Supergirl a hug that could bend steel. "I am most elated to share this sudden and spontaneous quest with another of intergalactic ilk!"

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Supergirl suddenly wished she could sweat. Somewhere there was an ounce of breath that came loose and allowed her to pronounce: "Y-Yes…it's quite fortunate that w-we fantastically met each other from thousands of light years apart for you to happily suffocate me!"

Stafire blushed. "Eeep!" She jumped back and held her hands together, biting her lip. "M-My voluminous apologies! Robin keeps telling me I must stop doing that."

"Robin values the life of innocent people," Supergirl wheezed. She looked in the direction of the Boy Wonder. "So…am I hired for the weekend?"

"Consider yourself along for the ride," Robin smirked.

"Woohoo!" Beast Boy jumped, cheering. "The more the merrier, dude!"

"Merriment indeed!" Starfire giggled.

Raven was silent. Either she was in thought or she was turning to stone.

I gave up on Myrkblade. I sheathed it in the scabbard over my shoulder and walked over towards Cyborg in the T-Car right as--

"Got some results for y'all!" he exclaimed.

Everyone flocked over around the T-Car. Raven included.

"Here…," Cyborg pointed at an unnecessarily tiny computer screen on the dashboard displaying a black and green schematic of the local geography. Red flares of light showed up in a path traveling westward.

"Okay…," Beast Boy blinked. "Got something besides an Apple IIE to instruct us with?"

Cyborg glared before explaining the imagery: "This is data of the runoffs being detected by my sensor sweep as I speak. The electromagnetic frequencies being released in conjunction with three modes of benign radiation signatures causes a five fold result on the---"

"Save the explanation," Raven droned.

"Whoever the punks were who had lasers here—Intergang or not—are presently heading westward at the moment. There's a possibility that they may have turned north or something recently, but it won't be until about fifteen minutes from now until I can learn any significant change in their directions with the scanning system."

"They're moving in a group then?" Robin asked from a distance. "That is…the traces of the laser rifles aren't being detected in separate directions?"

Everyone looked over. The Boy Wonder was fifteen feet away.

"Shy, Robin?" Beast Boy asked, eyebrow raised.

Robin nodded towards Supergirl. "I can't get too close to her."

Supergirl made a face. "Why not?"

Robin pointed at his utility belt…at the satchel containing the Kryptonite shard. "Don't wanna make you sick now, do we?"

"Y-Yeah…," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and looked at Supergirl. "This is gonna be a tough chase if they got that stuff—"

Right then, Supergirl drifted over to Robin's side, opened his utility belt in a flash, and palmed the Kryptonite shard casually.

Starfire gasped. Beast Boy winced. Raven stared.

"It's so tiny and cute!" Supergirl mused with a grin, tossing the shard up and down in her grasp. Totally unaffected. She darted her blue eyes down at Robin. "Now what were you saying?"

Robin's jaw hung open. He stammered: "Y-You're not hurt by that at all?"

"What? Something THIS small?" she held it between two fingers for her and everyone to see. "Pfft! It'd need to be a heck of a lot bigger for **me** to be so much as dizzy!" She tossed it at the Boy Wonder, who frantically caught it.

"So…..um….why's it called 'Kryptonite' if it has no affect on a Kryptonian?" Beast Boy scratched his head.

"Duh…cuz I'm **not** Kryptonian, silly!" Supergirl placed her hands on her hips and smirked. "I'm Argosian! Related to Kryptonians by a few centuries…but still different enough to show it. We weren't so awfully affected the Kryptonian Sun as Superman's people were. So when I got to Earth, there wasn't much to get used to. I can speed past bullets, outrun locomotives, leap over buildings and what have you…but my strength is roughly half that of the Blueboy. The tradeoff? I can play marbles with bits and pieces of Kryptonite whereas Superman's suffering a seizure. Hehehe! Life's funny, ain't it?"

I watched her closely the entire time she said this. And I studied her…and found what seemed like a well of pride. It was fascinating…

Raven walked into view. "These men…they had Kryptonite…was it enough to hold you at bay?"

Supergirl sighed. "Yeah. It was like a softball. That's too big in my book. I wouldn't have died, that's for sure. But I'd be on less than equal terms with the leader of the group. Especially considering how strong he was….er….is…."

Raven nodded. "That's something we'll have to consider if you're to be a part of this investigation."

"What? That the leader's a heavyweight?"

"That too. But chiefly because they have a lot of Kryptonite. It would be best if we took the first line of offense in confronting Intergang."

"It would be best if we figured out where the hell they are!" Robin exclaimed. He walked over and leaned on the T-Car. "As I asked earlier. Are our enemies all together?"

Cyborg nodded. "Heading westward. And—get this—they're sticking to the railroad."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "They're on a train?"

"No…it looks like they've got transportation on the roads parallel to the tracks. But they're following the railroad, that's for certain."

"It would seem like they are attempting to meet someone?" Starfire remarked.

Cyborg nodded. "And if we don't hurry…whatever secret—green glowing or not—that they have will be gone in a flash."

"Then what are we waiting around here for?!" Supergirl palmed her fist. "Let's go kick some ass!"

"Yeah!!" Beast Boy giggled. "I like your spirit!"

"I like my spirit too!"

"Ahem….," Raven cleared her throat.

Supergirl sighed and rolled her eyes. "Now what?"

"They must know that we're onto them," the dark girl droned. "I understand the importance of making haste. But as long as Cyborg's scans aren't accurate to the exact second, we must keep a safe distance. And that means we have to…t-to act as a whole. And since you're new to the team…"

"I'll be calling the shots," Robin nodded. "I know that probably sucks for a solo hero such as yourself, Supergirl, but—"

"Hey! It's cool!" Supergirl smiled. "I get to fight with the Teen Titans! I'm not complaining!"

"Glad you understand."

"Oh…and call me Kara if you like," she winked and pointed. "Supergirl is nice in writing…but in the heat of battle, I'm sure it feels long-winded."

"…..," Robin stared from under his eyemask. "I'd rather not."

"Pfft!! Straight-lace!"

"I'll call you Kara!" Beast Boy smirked. "Heck, I'll call you anything and everything until your slap me!"

"And I shall address you as Kara if you so desire!" Starfire bubbily exclaimed. "Hehehe! Imagine the irony! We are both gifted with a real first name starting with 'K'!"

Starfire blinked. "Uhhhhh….yeah."

"First order of business," Robin went on. He looked at Cyborg. "Can you run that scan while we're en route to chasing Intergang down?"

"No problem," Cyborg nodded. "But someone else's eyes better be on it, cuz I'll be focusing on the road."

"We all can't fit inside the T-Car…," Raven said.

"Hey, I'll fly!" Supergirl smiled. "It's not like me to intrude upon your guys' wheels!"

"Awwwww," Starfire cooed. "Then you would be alone! I know! I shall travail upon joining you in the air!"

"Y-Yeah! We'll be like the alien chicks of the sky!"

"Yes! Extraterrestrial poultry indeed!"

"Ehhh….heheheheh…"

Robin smirked at the two. He glanced at Cyborg. He motioned towards Supergirl.

"Huh? Oh…right on, Robin." Cyborg popped open a compartment in his arm, produced an extra Titans' communicator, handed it to Robin, who tossed it to Supergirl.

The Girl of Steel awkwardly caught it. "Whoah….," she looked it over in her grasp.

"You'll need that," Robin said. "It's very simple to use. But for not…just keep an ear ready for our next course of action. At the time being…westward ho!"

I shuddered.

Robin jumped into the front passenger's seat of the T-Car as Cyborg started the engine.

"Wooohoo!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "And to think I saw this vacationing hitting a new low in Kansas!"

"Yeah…," Cyborg chuckled. "Let's punch our way to the Land of Oz!"

"Dude! What's wrong with you today?! You been loading up on the wrong machine oil?!"

"I gave that up a year ago, little man! Hop in everybody!"

Beast Boy practically swan-dived into the back.

Raven and I were…..much slower in our 'loading in'. There seemed something on Raven's mind that made the hood of her robe droop mysteriously over her fair crown.

And I…..

I looked over at Starfire and Supergirl. The two aliens.

"Come, new friend!" the Tamaranian beamed. "The humid air awaits us!!" She soared upwards.

Supergirl stood on the ground, looking up. She took off slowly—paused in mid-air—and looked down at me.

I bit my lip.

She smiled…winked…and blurred upwards after Starfire with her cape billowing.

I gulped.

I looked to the side.

Beast Boy had a devilish look on his face. "Need a new pair of pants yet, Nooby?"

I frowned and was about to gesture something in response when Cyborg hit the gas and I was throttled back into my seat.

_**SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Twenty minutes into it…

"Any idea where this is taking us?" Cyborg exclaimed.

Robin looked at the computer screen on the dashboard for the both of them. His hair blew in the wind of the convertible T-Car. "I have my theories. They haven't let up on following the railroad tracks. There're two possible places they might have an interest in. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

We blurred out of Kansas City, into the countryside, and parallel about half a mile away from the distant railroad tracks.

"Well as soon as you know…try and fill us in, okay?" Cyborg remarked. "Cuz if we have to outrun those punks, my baby can do it!"

"Hang on a sec…," Robin flipped open his communicator with a Star Trek sound and spoke into it: "Starfire. Come in. How're you two fairing?"

I glanced up at two specks flying over us. A white speck and a green speck.

Starfire's voice crackled forth: _"You would not believe this! She is faster than I am! Glorious!!"_

"Uh….yeah….how're you two doing beyond that, Star?"

_"We are following you along diligently! How close are we to the fiends in flight?"_

"About a mile at constant…," Cyborg said.

"About a mile!" Robin exclaimed into the communicator. "As soon as I have a good guess, we'll try and outrun them to the destination!"

_"And what destination would that be?"_ Starfire's voice asked. _"Supergirl thinks that a train station of sorts may be the key here!"_

"We're sorta on the same page, Star," Robin nodded. "I'll keep you informed."

_"Hehehe! Okay!"_ her voice said. And then, aside: _"Kara! I can traverse the wind currents upside down! Can you—"_

Robin cut the communicator off.

"Sounds like they're having fun," Cyborg smirked.

"All fine and good," Robin smiled. He kept a trained eye on the computer monitor. "Can't let a bunch of hi-tech crooks steel the joy of vacation away."

"Man….you sound like a different person."

"Don't try to wake me yet."

"I won't, man. I won't."

There was a chuckling sound to the side.

Lethargically, I glanced over at Beast Boy. He had been suppressing a chuckle for the last ten minutes of travel or so. He finally broke and smiled at me. "Dude….you so should have seen the look on your face!"

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

"Seriously!! You totally got saved by Supergirl, man!! THE Supergirl!!"

I folded my arms and looked away. My cheeks felt red.

"HA!! He's blushing again!! Gawd, Noir! You're like a transparent book cover!! Hehehehehe!!"

I covered my face and sighed. But—so it would seem—even the fingers of my right hand were blushing through.

Cyborg chuckled from the front.

I kicked the back of his seat.

"Hey!! Be cool, man! Be cool!"

"You seriously didn't realize it was Supergirl when you first met her??" Robin asked from the front seat.

I blinked at him.

I gestured to the rear view mirror.

Cyborg said: "Apparently 'Kara' was in disguise. Guess we can't blame him."

"Was she sexier in disguise?" Beast Boy leaned in.

I would have shoved him away…but doing so in my position would have meant elbowing Raven.

In speaking of the dark girl, she had been silent the whole time. At least up till then.

I looked at her…but she was scowling at Beast Boy.

"Give Noir a break…," she uttered. "He had his hands full of gunmen with laser rifles, not to mention his shades were shattered and he was positively blinded when she dropped in."

I swallowed.

Beast Boy looked at her blankly. "Yeah….well…..he still could have been kissed by his fantastical sweetheart!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

Raven sighed and shook her head in exasperation. "So immature…I swear…."

"Dude…you haven't called me immature in months!! It feels like the old Raven's back!"

"Hardly," she droned. "If you want the 'old me', you can have it in how I feel and not what I say…"

"Then what is it that you **feel**, Miss Gruesome?"

"She's way too cheerful to be chasing after Kryptonite…not to mention she wasn't willing to tell us about the Kryptonite to begin with…," Raven stared off into space with her arms folded as she spoke. "I can't help but think that she's hiding something."

"Oh, COME ON!!!" Beast Boy moaned. "When are we EVER gonna have a friend that you're not gonna be suspicious of?"

"You gotta admit," Robin said from the front. "It never hurts to question."

"Yeah, but it hurts to assume!" Beast Boy pointed a finger at the girl. "When Speedy joined us for that short time…how come you weren't so questioning about him?"

"He'd served with Robin before…."

"No, you mean he **fought** Robin before! Master of Games, remember?! They were butting heads, not joining hands! And here comes Supergirl who hasn't raised a finger to spar with any of us in the past and you're all over her like…like….I-I dunno, bloodthirsty termites!!"

"Heheheh! Good one!" Cyborg smirked from the front.

Beast Boy smiled a crescent moon and laid it thick: "And it was the same thing with Terra! She was a girl hero and you doubted her!"

"I had good reason to in the end—"

"That's not the point. How come you're always so….I dunno….female doggish about newcoming female superheroes?"

"Because….," Raven began. She faltered. She barely glanced over at me. "……b-because I am!"

Silence.

Beast Boy blinked. "Huh….funny. That's probably the most intelligent thing I've heard you say."

Raven huffed. "Whatever."

Beast Boy chuckled for some odd reason.

And for an even wyrder reason, I wanted to as well…

"Ah HA!!" Robin cackled from the front seat. He leaned in towards the monitor. "I know where they're headed now!"

"Care to share your love, Robin?" said Cyborg.

"Better yet…I'll share it with everyone!" Robin quipped…stalled at the words coming out of his mouth…shook himself out of it…and lifted his communicator again. "Star. Supergirl. You listening?"

_"Affirmative!"_

"Yup!"

"I think I know where they're headed. There's a roundhouse west of here. In an industrial section. It's where many of the major industrial railroad tracks converge. They house a bunch of train cars there before sending them cross country to the coasts. Undoubtedly, Intergang is trying to meet someone there."

_"Kinda out in the open, don'tcha think?"_ said Supergirl's voice.

"I've read up on this station before. A couple of the roundhouses are old and abandoned. It's easy to get lost in the immense place."

_"Shall we high-tail it there, then??"_

"You and Starfire go on ahead. We could use some good reconnaissance. But mind your altitude. We don't want you being caught."

_"We shall accomplish this verily, Robin! Come, Kara!!"_

"Hehehe…Yes, Missus Kori!!"

Robin shrugged and cut the communicator off. He looked at Cyborg. "Think we can cut ahead of the Intergang caravan?"

Cyborg smirked and pressed a button on the dashboard. "I thought you'd never ask."

With a whurr, the top folded down and braced itself with metal framework over the T-Car.

"And still avoid their sights?"

"We'll take it as it comes." Cyborg's hand then rested over the button for the nitro.

Beast Boy grinned. "Oh yeah!! Time for some tire burning!!" He doubly buckled up.

I nervously scrunched myself in and prepared for the ride of my life.

"How I do hate this part…," Raven muttered.

I looked at her.

She looked back at me. "What have you got left of this day to complain about?"

I wanted to hand-sign something in response to that…but suddenly I felt my stomach being pressed into my spinal column.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!**_

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-YAAAAAA!!!!!"

Robin and Beast Boy likewise cheered as I hid inside the cushion of my seat and did my meager best to not throw up. And I couldn't decide whether it was the impact of G-Force or immortal butterflies in my stomach that were taunting me to do so…

It was a good thing I hadn't stocked up on Dr. Pepper that day.

My black eyes clamped shut as we rocketed down the road and kicked up dirt devils behind us in the late afternoon shine.


	77. Kara's Visitor part 3

**77. Kara's Visitor part 3**

"So….like…..Thomas the Train Engine's summer home??" Beast Boy uttered.

The T-Car coasted to a stop. Cyborg and Robin got out, followed by Raven, Beast Boy, and myself.

We all stood in a line and looked out at the roundhouse through the alleyway we were hidden inside. Six different railroads converged in the distance. They all formed one giant line of rails that headed into a brick, croissant-shaped structure of red. Before the six different huge doors and compartments for engines rested a turntable that governed which railroad went to which compartment. The place had been abandoned long ago, while the rest of the industrial complex surrounding it was still in operation. Or at least…that's what it was supposed to be.

The sun was slowly making its downward plunge into the horizon. The Kansas atmosphere turned a dull orange. The sounds of power plants and distant train horns filled the earth with a dying ambiance.

No Intergang….at least not yet.

"Make that 'retirement home'…," Beast Boy mused.

I blinked through my shades. I glanced at the others. I hand-signed.

"Supergirl and Starfire?" Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "I'm not seeing any sign of 'em, man."

Suddenly, two bodies dropped down from the sky behind me.

"BOO!!" exclaimed the Girl of Steel.

No sooner had I turned around that I fell back on my rear with a startled gasp.

WHUMP!!

I winced, gritting my teeth.

Starfire and Supergirl giggled mightily.

"Please forgive us, Noir," the Tamaranian smiled. "Ourselves could not be helped!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy smiled. "That was righteous! I've never seen Noir land on his butt before!"

I frowned at him.

A hand stretched out at me.

I looked up.

Supergirl smiled. "No hard feelings?"

I blinked under my shades. I took the hand and was hoisted up to my feet quickly.

"So…," Supergirl's eyes trailed on me for a moment before she faced the entire group in general, "…aren't we supposed to be finding some laser-toting creeps here?"

"Not yet," Robin said. He walked over towards the edge of the alleyway and looked out on the roundhouse and railroad tracks as he spoke, "We outran them for a purpose. They're gonna meet somewhere in this spot. I just know it."

"How exactly?"

He turned back and squinted through his white eyemask. "Call it a hunch."

Supergirl smirked and folded her arms. "Riiiiight. Detectives, gotta love em!" she glanced at me.

I shrugged.

"According to the readouts…," Cyborg peaked in on the computer monitor on the T-Car's dashboard and spoke, "…our 'buddies' should be here in a matter of a half-hour. Whatever they're up to…we don't have much time to set up an ambush."

"Should we not choose logical points of observation and readiness?" Starfire uttered.

"Agreed," Robin nodded. "We should split up into small groups and form a perimeter around the roundhouse."

Beast Boy giggled. "Hehehe….'around the roundhouse'…say that three times fast!"

"………….." everyone stared at him.

"Allright….fine….be dismal….," the changeling muttered.

"How shall we go about doing this?" Raven droned.

"Hmmmm," the Boy Wonder scratched his chin.

"As long as I'm paired with someone, I'll be happy!" Supergirl exclaimed. "Sorry….'new girl', remember?"

"We remember….," Raven said dryly.

Supergirl looked at her funny.

"Very well…I've got an idea anyways," Robin said.

I took a deep breath, folded my hands together, and bowed my head.

_Please don't do it………please don't do it………please don't do it…_

"On top of the roundhouse…."

_Please don't do it………please don't do it………please don't do it…_

"The first team will be………."

Please don't do it………please don't do it………please don't do it………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He did it.

"Gee…isn't this exciting?! I'm taking part in an ambush! And with the Teen Titans of all people!" Supergirl exclaimed, her platinum blonde hair waving in the late afternoon breeze.

I nodded listlessly a few feet away from my teammate. I crouched at the edge of the roundhouse's rooftop.

"If only Cla—er---Superman could see me now. He'd flip. In a good way, I hope."

I stared out at the tracks. The sky was growing increasingly dark. The wind lukewarm and relentless. The air smelled of age-old ash and rust.

"Any sign of Intergang yet?"

I shook my head.

"They're sure taking their sweet time, aren't they?" the Girl of Steel looked out onto the industrial landscape. "And….if you don't mind me asking….j-just how does Robin know for sure that this is the place to be anyways?"

I shrugged.

A beat.

"You're quite the conversationalist, you know that?"

I slowly turned to look at her, an eyebrow raised over my shades.

She giggled.

I looked back out.

Silence…..

"Don't take this the wrong way….ya know…," she sauntered up and stood beside me. "But you do seem to put in the whole nine yards when it comes to not looking at me."

I bit my lip. I blushed.

She craned her neck to get a better look at my face.

I looked away some more.

"Hehehehe," she giggled. "What's up with you? You seem so tense and on edge and----I bet it's all a part of being mysterious and badass, huh?"

I looked at her. I mouthed: _'badass_'??

"That's what they say at the local schools," she winked. "That badass new Titan! Noir!"

I blinked under my shades. I looked off into space.

"Don't believe me?"

I shrugged.

"Pffft. You're too modest."

I rolled my black eyes and stared out onto the railroad wasteland again.

Silence.

There was a shuffling sound. I sensed something petite and lightly dressed to my immediately left. I realized rather awkwardly that Supergirl was sitting on the edge of the roof. She was no further than two feet from me.

"Some vacation this must be for y'all…," she remarked, her legs dangling over the side. She looked outward into the wasteland. "Can't even get a rest in Kansas of all places! Pfft! I know I'm enjoying every minute of it, but I bet you're exhausted!"

I scratched the back of my neck. She wasn't entirely accurate in that statement. But it did feel good to hear.

For some reason….

"And look at you," she leaned back on two hands and smirked. "Walking around Kansas City. Tripping criminals. Smashing getaway cars…"

I bit my lip.

"Oh yeah! I saw you!" she giggled. "I-I had to follow you. I couldn't help myself. It was just…..s-so cool how you did it and all! Especially that crook in the plaza. All you did was trip him and step on his hand and he was under! Talk about confidence!"

I cleared my throat and looked away…my face felt red again.

She craned her neck. "What?? It wasn't like I was stalking you or something…"

I let out a nervous, breathy chuckle. "I just….well….I like superheroes," she said with a shrug. "I know that sounds funny coming from a girl that should be a superhero and all….but….."

I glanced at her.

She lifted her knees up and hugged her legs as she looked out into the wind and expanse. "Clark…..h-he's so protective of me. I know girls are supposed to find that chivalrous and stuff…but I see it as downright bossy. He's not my dad or anything! And who cares if he was the one who awoke me from the years of suspended animation on my wrecked planet…."

I glanced at her, curiously. I tilted my head to the side. But Supergirl shook her head. "Bah….what am I doing? You poor thing…you can't talk to me and here I am taking advantage of it by talking my mouth off!"

I shrugged. I was used to it. So I smirked.

She glanced at me through the corners of her sapphire eyes. "Is it…..Is it r-really that you can't talk, Noir?"

I performed a long, winded shrug.

Her eyes lowered a bit.

I glanced at them.

I blinked as her hand reached out and rested lightly on the base of my neck. I could feel my own pulse suddenly.

"This….Th-This scar……does it have anything to do with it?" I stared at her hand…then at her. Some part of my body was shaking a bit. Was I getting the shivers again??

"Sometimes in the images from the news of you and the Titans….it can be seen. But I wasn't sure if it was real…," her fingers lightly traced the 'X' on the base of my empty throat. "…who on Earth could have done this to you?"

I flinched away from her.

She bit her lip, as if hurt.

I felt bad and looked away…sighing.

Silence.

"I…I-I'm sorry…," Supergirl uttered. "I should know better than to pry into someone 'mysterious' and 'badass'." She giggled. "But…it doesn't change the fact that I'm curious."

I nodded without looking. I think I was getting the shivers. I clutched my metal left hand to myself and looked off onto the railyards. I could sense that she was staring at my prosthetic then. I made no attempt to interrupt her. I didn't see a point in trying.

There was a rushing sound. Like the grinding of rubber against a sea of gravel.

I glanced up. There was a white thing coming. A white thing on wheels.

"Hey! I-It's them!" Supergirl stood up and whispered.

I looked at her…I looked at the oncoming pickup truck…I stood up and pushed the both of us back.

"Hey! What are you—oh yeah…we're hiding. My bad!"

I sweatdropped and reached for my communicator.

But Robin was already chiming us.

_"Noir! Supergirl! Get ready!"_

"Is it them??" Supergirl hissed.

_"Affirmative! Cyborg's readings confirm it. And there appears to be another party arriving as well!"_

"Another??" Supergirl remarked.

The two of us looked out onto the railyards beyond the incoming pickup truck.;

"But we don't see another automobile!"

_"That's because it's probably not an automobile…,"_ Robin said. "_Keep your eyes peeled and standby for further instructions! We're gonna give these creeps a few minutes to reveal exactly what they're up to before we jump 'em!"_

I nodded and clicked an 'affirmative' morse code response by the movement of my left metal fingers and its communication device.

Robin's voice cut off.

I crouched low and scooted forward on my chest. I narrowed my black eyes and looked out through my shades. The white pickup truck stopped at the base of the roundhouse. Four familiar men in black uniforms hobbled out, still in helmets. The one I had slashed with Myrkblade was clutching his shoulder. The Leader still had his cuts in his outfit…with the mysterious metal shining out from under. He had a satchel in his grasp.

"The Kryptonite….," Supergirl uttered.

I glanced at her. I pointed.

"I'm doing okay…," she said quietly. "I'd have to be really close to a bunch of the stuff to be affected, remember? Besides…he's got it in a lead bag. I think it's supposed to keep us from sensing it or something with Cyborg's technology…"

I nodded. That made sense.

I looked back onto the scene.

The four men weren't even talking. They all stood as one and looked out towards the west where the railings stretched out and connected the abandoned portion to the rest of the industrial sprawl.

My eyes trailed towards the horizon. And there I saw—chugging along—a short train. It was coming in reverse. Three metal cars, a fourth car of what looked like reinforced, black metal, and a strong engine pushing it all along.

Per the directions of the four from the truck, the hulking train came to a hissing stop right in front of the turntable of the roundhouse. In the setting sun, the four walked forward and greeted six or so men in black (but without helmets) stepping out. They were holding laser rifles on each side. As if they were unsure of each other in spite of being on the same team.

"Took you long enough to get here," the Leader from the pickup truck said.

"You're one to talk. Looks like you got here shortly before we did…," said a member of the train group. "Something tie you up in Kansas City?"

"Oh…nothing important. Just Supergirl and a Titan."

Many of the train group recoiled as if they had been hit by a shockwave.

"What?! How the Hell did THEY get entangled with you?!"

"I think that matters little. What's important is that I easily disentangled them from me," the Leader said. He held the canvass bag up and pointed at it. "And I emerged with the fruits of our labors in the long run."

"Superheroes were not part of the equation!!!"

"Quite frankly, you cackling oaf, the **equation** was not part of the equation. This whole operation was a swan song from the start. Only by sheer stupidity am I willing to go along with it, and—yes—the occasional desperation as well."

"Have you been followed?"

"Most likely."

"……….."

The Leader tossed them the canvass bag of lead and kryptonite. "So be a good fellow and toss that into the magical train car, eh? The important thing is not to lose our cool. We have more to be concerned about than teenage super-punks. Like the survival of Intergang. Or was I just **imagining** it when we were briefed on the importance of this mission??"

"This mission is indeed important…," one of the train group members said, passing the bag to someone to carry into the train cars. "That's why we can't risk any involvement with any vigilantes…ESPECIALLY someone of Blueboy's ilk!"

"Supergirl?? Pfft…putty in my hands. Bruised putty, I assure you."

I bit my lip as I listened to this. The leader of the Kansas City raid was quite sharp. Undoubtedly he knew that there was an ambush to be sprung.

I looked to my left.

Supergirl was gone.

I did a double-take. Frantically, I looked all around for her. The roundhouse. The turntable. The train. The railyards---THERE! Perched on top of a metal telephone pole. Peering intently down onto the train engine and its subsequent cars.

My mouth parted.

_"Noir…are you getting all of this?"_ Robin's voice exclaimed.

Trembling, I clicked my metal fingers.

_"Huh? Where did she go??"_

I gave another morse code signal.

_"What?! Go and stop her! B-But keep in stealth!!"_

I nodded. I charged up a wave of murk…cloaked myself…and blurred out off the roundhouse and through the railyards. I kept a fair distance from the meeting of Intergang members. I circumnavigated the train, hobbled over rails, blurred up the metal pole, and perched alongside Supergirl…panting.

"That's so cool how you go all invisible and stuff," she smiled…still squinting her eyes at the train. "Wish I had that…but lord knows I have everything else."

I hand-signed furiously, my face flushed.

"Shhh!!" she emphasized as if I was 'talking'. "Take it easy. Tell Robin and the others I'm getting a look at the train."

"?????" I looked at her funny.

"X-Ray Vision…silly…."

I mouthed _'oh'_. I clicked a morse code message to Robin.

_"Very well then…,"_ he sighed…more like moaned. _"Keep us informed. But make sure she doesn't go any further than that…"_

I took a deep breath.

"Thanks for babysitting me," she silently giggled.

I glared at her.

"I think I'm getting something…," she muttered. She held up her communicator and spoke hushedly to the other Titans through it. "H-Hey guys! This is Supergirl. The first three cars are lined with reinforced titanium. Very tough to break. Even for me. But the first one facing the roundhouse has a door that's fairly easy to bust through. The next two do as well. It's possible to break one's way through all of them and get to the final car. But that's where things get hazy. The last car before the engine is lined with lead. I can't see a darn thing inside it. I think these Intergang bozos were expecting something like this…"

_"Dude! We could use your X-Ray Vision more at home!"_ Beast Boy's voice offered. _"Especially whenever we drive by that all girl's school on Fifth Street—OOF!!"_

_"Supergirl, this is Cyborg. Are there any defense systems or bombs inside the train?"_

"Nope. But I can't make any guarantees about the fourth one."

_"The one encased in lead?"_

"Right."

_"How about the engine? How's that structured?"_

"Very strong. Reinforced with titanium on the inside. Totally refitted. Expensive stuff. I wonder how long Intergang had it sitting around before they started using it for….well….whatever they're using it for now."

Robin's voice came up over the communication: _"Any other people inside?"_

Supergirl nodded and spoke: "About five. One of them's the guy who just walked in with the bag. So…five on the inside. Five from the train on the outside. And the four dudes from the pickup truck…..Oh! And two men in the engine."

_"Sixteen people…,"_ Robin mumbled. A beat. _"Any weapons on the inside?"_

Supergirl smiled and winked at me as if to poke fun at how much the guys were using her reconnaissance at her new 'perch'. "Yup. A handful of laser guns, but that's about it."

_"If we are to ambush them, we had better use all of our powers at once,"_ Raven's voice said. _"Confuse them. Overwhelm them. And then have a Titan or two run inside to uncover what's inside the train undetected."_

_"Agreed,"_ Starfire's voice exclaimed. _"As long as we do it so nobody gets hurt!"_

"Hey! You got Supergirl here! Who's gonna get hurt?!"

_"Plenty…,"_ Raven's voice droned.

Supergirl frowned and mouthed something that made me sweatdrop.

_"So, like, when do we make our move?"_ Beast Boy's voice uttered.

A beat.

Then… _"Keep an eye out on that leader…"_

_"Of the pickup truck gang?"_

_"Yes. As soon as he gets near to the rear car of the train, we make our move."_

_"Why then, Robin?"_

"Something tells me he's very dangerous. I'm going to swing in and engage him. Supergirl, Noir…you two take out the group from the pickup truck. Starfire, Raven…try and take out the two in the engine. Beast Boy, Cyborg…attack the rest of the group by the train and prepare to back me up for the inevitable charge in on the cars. That goes for the rest of you as well after you've quieted your respective groups of thugs. The prime goal here is to get…inside…that…train."

Starfire: _"Understood, Robin."_

Cyborg: _"Loud and clear."_

Beast Boy: _"Dude, let's rock!"_

Raven: _"Whatever you say."_

Supergirl: "Showtime…"

Me: "……."

_"Wait for my signal…,"_ Robin's voice said.

While Intergang chattered, the leader gradually marched towards the rear train car.

Supergirl cracked her knuckles.

I reached a hand back to the hilt of Myrkblade.

A cloud passed overhead, blocking the setting sun. The railyard and roundhouse darkened. Our teammates were nowhere to be seen, but I knew they were all there. Ready to ambush…

The leader stepped up to the rear entrance of the car. He looked over his shoulder.

I saw a glint of metal.

My black eyes twitched.

_"NOW!!"_

FLASH!!! ZAAAAAP!!! SWOOOOOSH!!!

Starbolts, laser cannon fire, and the sailing body of a green panther converged upon the scene. And in the midst of all the chaos, the Boy Wonder swung in via grappling cord—his cape flapping. With gritting teeth, he lifted his metal boots up, let go of the cord, sailed down, and plowed mightily into the chest of the leader.

WHANG!!!

The two tumbled inside the car.

"Come on!!" Supergirl grinned. "Gotta crash!!" She physically yanked my shoulder.

I gasped as she blurred the two of us forward in superflight. When we met the ground below, my feet frantically went into movement and suddenly I was running. I saw two men from the pickup truck with laser rifles standing with their backs to us. They were aiming at Starfire and Cyborg. Supergirl plowed one down with a fist while I unleashed Myrkblade—CHIIING!!!—and dove into action.

SLASH—CRACK!!!

The laser rifle shattered dramatically. The thug barely had a chance to gasp as I spun in a twirl, shot my foot out, and kicked him hard in the chest. He went sailing back, landing hard against the body of the truck, and forming a dent in the aluminum.

I looked over through my shades and saw three other gunmen from the train and truck aim at us. Suddenly, a spray of black-charged gravel from beneath the tracks flew into their face. They stumbled backwards, crying out in surprise. Raven soared over them, her eyes glowing bright gray. She flicked her wrist and tossed a rail support or two under the crooks' feet as she flew quickly towards the train engine as instructed. In a flurry of green, Starfire soon joined her.

I twirled Myrkblade and ran at the disoriented men. I jumped, landed between them, and swept my leg out. I tripped one completely and forced a second to stumble. I struck him hard across the back with the blunt of Myrkblade. WHACK!!! He went tumbling down.

The third man recovered his laser gun and was aiming at me. ZAP!!!!

SWOOSH-CLANK!! I deflected with my sword in a crouching pose.

Suddenly, two red beams of light flew in and melted the front of the gun.

The man gasped.

I looked over to see Supergirl with her eyes glaring. She cut off the laser stream and rushed in with a fist.

I winced.

WHAM!!!!

The man flew off into the brick wall of the roundhouse and was out cold.

Supergirl giggled. "It's outta here!!"

I had to smile at that.

A stampeding sound awoke me from the right. I glanced over—gasped—and jumped out of the way to avoid a blindly charging Beast Boy in triceratops mode. A very brave—or stupid—thug was saddling his horned cranium and was covering his eyes.

I watched with confused shock and amusement as the green dinosaur smashed his way into one of the roundhouse's gated doors and took the fight inside.

Supergirl flew towards the interior. She waved at me in mid-flight. "I'll help him out!" she exclaimed. "Go assist the others!"

It didn't occur to me that she was suddenly giving me commands. After all, it all made sense. I spun and looked across the chaotic scene. I saw flashes of blue light and white metal in the foreground. A muffled battle going on inside the frighteningly rocking train cars. And the black and green flashes of Starfire's and Raven's efforts in the background. I wasn't sure who I was to assist first….

Then Cyborg's voice crackled on his communicator: _"Noir!! C-Could use a metal hand here!!"_

I gripped Myrkblade and blurred over with a jolt.

The scene of an android Titan pummeling his way through an encircling crowd of thugs flew at me. In a half-second glance I caught one thug eyeing Cyborg and pulling out a spare pistol to fire---

SWOOOOSH—I rushed in, barreled to a stop, and rose my left hand.

BANG!!

CLANK!!

The bullet bounced off my prosthetic.

I frowned.

I spun, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed towards the man.

THUNK!!! The tip of my blade dug into the barrel of his gun. I unleashed a pulse of Murk.

CRACK!!!

The gun exploded in the man's grasp.

He held his wrist and doubled back, shouting in pain.

I uppercutted his chin into silence with a high kick and smacked him into the ground with the blunt edge of my blade.

"RRAAAAAUGH!!" Cyborg shouted from behind me as he punched two Intergang thugs at a time. Another one jumped on his back and performed a choke hold. The Titan struggled to get him loose.

I held my breath, blurred over, and ended with an expert pose upon which I jabbed Myrkblade forward—caught the thug with the blade between his shirt and neck—and swiftly lifted him off Cyborg with an expert toss.

FWOOOSH!!

The man tumbled to a stop across the gravel and rested on the turntable.

Cyborg wiped his brow and smirked at me. "Thanks a million, pal."

I gave him a metal thumb's up.

POW!!!!!

There was an explosion and an entire gate from one of the roundhouse entrances flew at us.

Cyborg let out a shout and dove out of the way.

I stood there.

The gate barreled down at me.

I held my breath, gripped Myrkblade, raised it, and slashed down just as the huge wooden door made contact.

CRASH!!!!!

I made the structure split around me. I stood in a tornado of settling smoke energy…panting. My black eyes narrowed as I spotted Beast Boy and Supergirl retreating from the interior as the bruised thug ran after them with a grenade launcher. I looked past him and realized that the roundhouse was actually a storage base for a weapons cache.

Ahhh….

POW!!!!!!

A grenade went off too close for comfort.

I dove to the side to join Cyborg.

Beast Boy let out an animal sound of panic and ran towards the train.

Supergirl—in the meantime—ran over to the pickup truck.

The man launched a grenade at her.

She gritted her teeth and batted it away with a hand.

It flew off and exploded underneath a telephone pole, causing the structure to collapse loudly.

Supergirl then proceeded to lift the entire pickup truck with her bare hands, swivel about, face the grenadier, and launch the entire vehicle at him. "RRAAAAUGH!!!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!

The man's eyes widened. He frantically took aim with his grenade launcher and--

POW!!!!

He exploded the truck in midair. But through the midair cyclone of fire and shrapnel, Supergirl suddenly flew with a fist that trailed smoke and ashes as it soared its way into the man's chest.

WHAM!!!!!

He flew back hard from the contact, met the earth, skidded with his feet across the gravel, and then backflipped into a knock-out landing against the brick structure of the roundhouse. WHUMP!!

Supergirl touched down and dusted her hands off. "Get a bigger catcher's glove."

Cyborg and I stared. How could we not?

ZAP!! ZAP!!

The android Titan and I ducked as laser fire flew overhead. I dove to the side while Cyborg charged the enemy with his laser cannon firing.

I panted and tried to catch my breath amidst the chaos.

Over my communicator I heard Starfire and Raven:

_"Robin! We have been unsuccessful in our attempts to accost the men inside the train engine!!"_

_"The entrance is sealed tight with emergency metal plating. No matter how much damage Starfire and I exert…we cannot pierce through and get to the Intergang members running the train!"_

"Perhaps if someone with brawn like Beast Boy or Supergirl were to assist us—"

Robin's voice crackled over the line: _"Raugh!!"_ A punching sound. A gasping sound. Scuffling. _"I'm in a bit of a pinch here!! If we can't get to the train engine—"_ (interruption for a round of punches) _"—we'll have to break into the train cars one by one before---"_

The train lurched forward. The four cars jostled behind the engine. Slowly…the entire machine chugged along the railroad and towards the distance.

I watched through blinking, black eyes.

_"They're moving the train!"_ Raven's voice said. _"We're too late!"_

_"Not in my book! Someone get in here and help me!! This one guy is positively_—(WHAP!!)—_AUGH!!"_

_"Robin?!?! Robin!!!"_

I took a breath. I gripped Myrkblade hard and ran towards the rear car of the train moving away. Beast Boy and Cyborg took on the remaining thugs on the turntable. Raven and Starfire hovered along the sides of the engine. A bruised and dizzy thug standing in the rear doorframe of the car was leaning against the wall and on his laser rifle. He took one look at me, aimed, and fired.

ZAAAP!!!

I deflected with Myrkblade. CLANG!!

He fired again.

ZAAP!! ZAAP!! ZAP!!

I ducked, dodged, and deflected my way through the onslaught while running. At the last second I blurred, teleported up to the doorway, smoked through the man, and solidified on the other side of him in mid-air. Before coming down, I used the man as a springboard with a reverse kick that sent him sprawling unconscious out from the moving train and onto the tracks behind.

I took a deep breath and looked through my shades at the interior. Intergang's train car had a narrow passageway lined with mobile computer stations, monitors, weapons lockers, and cabinets full of mysterious equipment.

I raised an eyebrow. I looked beyond my immediate surroundings.

The door to the next car had been smashed open. Birdarangs and scuff marks lined the frame. There was a scuffle of moving bodies in the next compartment.

I ran briskly towards the fray. The closer I came, I saw Robin in fisticuffs with the leader. The Boy Wonder wasn't doing so well. He was getting the first real pummeling in ages.

I gritted my teeth and raised my blade.

Suddenly, a thug twirled from inside the door frame and aimed a shotgun at me.

Ch-CHTUNG! He pumped.

I exhaled and slid down on my back.

BLAM!!!!

Shot flew over me.

I slid past him, vaulted myself up with a current of murk, bounced off the side of the wall with my foot, twirled, and kicked my other foot across the man's cheek.

SMACK!!!

He was stumbling on one foot when I came down, grabbed him by the neck, gritted my teeth, and tossed him with a blurring arm at the back of the leader who was fighting Robin.

SMACK!!!!

The two men went tumbling across the floor.

Robin slumped against a wall, gripping his side and panting…sweating.

I rushed over to him and placed my hand on his shoulders.

"I'm okay," he said through clenched teeth. "Just had my yolk shaken around in the shell a bit."

Slowly, the leader stood up. His helmet was cracked a bit. His stance was strong and unyielding.

Robin got into a fighting pose with a fan of birdarangs.

I twirled Myrkblade and stood at ready.

The train jostled and clanked around us as we gained speed down the tracks.

"Quite the bothersome bunch you are…," the masked man said. "Come to think of it…you two would make a very nice couple."

"………"

Robin and I sweatdropped. We looked at each other. We frowned at the man.

"You're going down." Robin growled.

"Touche'," the man replied.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Robin dove forward.

"!!!!!" I blurred.

The man held his arm out as I slashed with Myrkblade. CLANK!! Somehow, his forearm managed to block. Robin slid between his legs, rolled on his back on the other side, and flung his birdarangs up. CL-CL-CLANK!!! All three stuck into the man's side.

He shoved me off through my sword.

His helmet literally swiveled about, glared down at Robin in reverse, and plucked the birdarangs out.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask bulged.

I was no less shocked.

"You might want to sharpen your beak, bird boy….," the man then tossed the birdarangs down at the caped hero.

"Nngh!!" Robin exhaled and jumped up.

CLANK!!!

His own projectiles fell at his feet.

He landed and was immediately met with the reverse kick of the man. THWAP!! The Boy Wonder went sprawling back towards the far end of the second car.

I gritted my teeth and stabbed Myrkblade again. The inhuman man grabbed the tip of my blade without looking. He twisted.

My arm was wrenched into an awkward position on my side. I gasped and twirled my body to match the movement.

His helmet twirled to face me again. He dove at me with his other fist.

WHAM!!!

I went falling back with my sword.

Then…. SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!!

Another birdarang flew. This time, it landed in the man's helmet. And this time…it had a blinking light.

An explosive.

I gasped and covered my head.

"Oh lovely…." **BOOOM!!!!!!**

The entire train car rocked. Parts of the wall caught on fire.

As the ashes settled, Robin took a bold step forward and growled. "You're not human! And I know you survived that!! Now who are you!!"

I stood up, wincing….dreading what I would see.

Smoke cleared, and there stood before us the very same man. The explosion had torn off the upper, torso half of his uniform. His helmet was completely shattered. I saw one side of his face. Tilted down. Short, short brown hair and thin lips. His eye snapped open.

Robin gasped from behind him. "Corbin!! John Corbin!!"

"Please….how many times must I tell you lot…," the man's head turned to face me…and I saw half of his skin torn away to reveal a metal skull. "It's Metallo now! It's been Metallo for years!!"

My jaw dropped.

"You're still with Intergang?!" Robin exclaimed.

"I work for myself…," the man stood up and flexed his metal arms. "Always have! Always will! Now who do you work for, exactly, Bird Boy? Surely it's not that aging Bat that once had you on a leash! Is it for peanuts?! That'd be a shame to piss your life off over!"

"It's you who's after the Kryptonite, isn't it?!" Robin gritted his teeth and pointed a jabbing finger. "You need fuel for that god-forsaken soul of yours, right?!"

Metallo smiled a half-metal smile. "Please, my good man, there comes a time when one wakes up and realizes some dreams shall never be realized. Every time I put that green crap inside of me, I'm bound to lose it in some way or another. It's only fair I devise another way to power my laborious limbs!"

"Then why are you trying to collect more of it!"

"Correction," he held up a metal finger. "Intergang is trying to collect more of it. And neither is it in my best interests or their best interests."

"Then whose?!"

"What do you know?! Probably your mother! As if you had one!" Metallo bowed…then swiftly picked ripped off the metal door to a cabinet and tossed it at Robin. "RRAUGH!!"

Robin tried to duck, but he was struck hard by the metal. He went tumbling backwards with a cry.

I gritted my teeth and charged Metallo from behind.

The metal man spun around, focused his eyes, and shot a pair of laser beams at my person. I gasped and fell directly backwards, barely avoiding the screaming lasers of heat shooting over my body. As I hit the floor of the train, my head tilted back. Upside down, I caught sight of the lasers meeting a blurred end. Then—magnificently—the streaming body of Supergirl came rocketing through the narrow length of the last car and a half. She zoomed over me, kicking up an invisible wind, and plowed her hard-as-steel fist (and body) into the chest of Metallo.

WHAM!!!!

"AUGH!!!" he cried out as the two soared down the rest of the train's length.

Robin dove out of the way of their sparkling trajectory.

Metallo tumbled. Supergirl continued to shove him. The two rushed through the third car and smashed through the door to the fourth and final car before the engine.

CRASH!!!

Metallo went tumbling inside its dull interior.

Supergirl landed on her feet, frowned, and placed her hands on her hips. "Allright, Corbin! Game over! Surrender or…..or….nnnnghhh," she suddenly and spontaneously collapsed to the floor.

"!!!!!" I stood up, my mouth dropped.

"What??" Robin mouthed as he dusted himself off.

Metallo got up inside the last car and smirked. "'Come into my parlor', said the spider to the fly! Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

The Boy Wonder and I stepped forward. We could see eight—count 'em—eight huge chunks of glowing green kryptonite lined up in the back of the final car. There was so much of the stuff, the entire train reflected an emerald light. Supergirl was down for the count…twitching and moaning at the huge level of Kryptonite that even her Argosian system couldn't counteract.

"Too….m-much…," she moaned. "Hard…t-to breathe…"

"No wonder the car's lined with lead…," Robin palmed his fist. "That's where you're storing everything!"

"Always on the go! It's the only way to be American!" Metallo winked. "Oops…I'm sorry. Is she on your side?" He effortlessly picked Supergirl up with a fist. "You must understand…I've fought her kind before. They're like cockroaches. They'll survive everything." He tossed her with a grunt into the center of the room…closer to the clumps of Kryptonite. "Unless you microwave them!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

"Nnnghhhhhh…," Supergirl moaned and cringed. Her face was a pure expression of suffering. "S-Someone….please…."

I sweated. I looked at Metallo. I looked at Robin.

"You won't get away with this…," Robin growled. "You're outnumbered. The Titans have your men under control. It's just a matter of time before we stop this train too and confiscate all of the Kryptonite!"

"Then I suppose it's time I deal my winning hand…," Metallo made an effort to look at me when he said that. He then opened his trademark chest cavity with the flick of a wrist. But instead of a Kryptonite core inside, there was a metal object of a conical shape with flashing lights.

I was clueless….

But Robin gasped in horror. "N-No…."

"Good!" Metallo beamed. "You recognize a hydrogen detonator when you see one! Before going on this mission, both my partners and I couldn't help but think: 'Kansas. Gee, what a boring state. Wouldn't it be best to take if off the map of America entirely?'"

"That'd mean you would die too!"

"Yes, a pity that," Metallo nodded. "Then again…I've been dead for the last four years."

Just then, Beast Boy caught up with us…running the lengths of the train.

"Hey guys!! Everything's clear outside! Raven's got a plan to get into the engine and---wh-wh-whoah!! Holy Godness!!" he flinched and hid behind me.

"The stakes are simple…," Metallo smirked. "You try to stop me, the earth gets a new belly button. And, suffice to say, that'll cut your pathetic years of hormone spreading utterly short!!"

I was staring beyond Metallo as he said this. At the tortured body of Supergirl.

"So what'll it be, Titans? Surely not **all** of you are mute!"

I sheathed Myrkblade. I got into a squatting position.

Robin looked at me through the edge of his eyemask. "Noir….wh-what are you doing---"

SWOOOOOSH!! I blurred forward.

Metallo's grinning face came at me. Closer and closer. His hand fingered the detonator inside his chest. "Not a wise idea, my good man…I assure you…"

I gritted my teeth. I summoned murk.

FWOOOSH!!!

I morphed around him in the form of smoke. I materialized behind him, slid to a stop, scooped up Supergirl, charged murk energy, soared back at the metal man's back and---

FWOOOOOSH!!!!!

Teleported safely on the other side next to Robin and Beast Boy. I panted and leaned against the wall with a slightly relieved Supergirl draped across my arms.

There was a clapping of hands. Metallo's hands.

"Bravo, dear boy. I so look forward to killing her in a much more sporting way to come. Thank you for giving me that outlet. Now…I must give myself another outlet."

That said, the man yelled at the top of his metal lungs and slammed his foot hard down into the rattling doorframe connecting our car to his lead one.

SMASH!!!!!!

Cracks formed in the car. It rattled louder. Then….

SHATTER!!!!!!

Metallo's impact forced the last three cars to disconnect with his. We braced ourselves as our car rattled, shook, and bounced before losing momentum and slowing down behind the lead car. Metallo leaned casually in his doorframe, smiled, and waved as he chugged along ahead of us…gradually creating distance between us. Raven and Starfire flew down and hovered at our level.

"He's getting away!" Raven exclaimed. "Quick…we must reassemble! I have a plan as to opening the engine compartment with my powers and—"

"No."

Raven and Starfire did a double-take at Robin. "What??"

"That's Metallo in the train that we're dealing with," Robin said.

"So??"

"Right now, he's the walking equivalent of a hydrogen bomb. If we get too close to him, he threatens to blow himself up."

"How horrible!" Starfire exclaimed.

"But we just can't let him get away!" Raven exclaimed.

"We can…and we will," Robin said. Then he pulled out what looked like a gun from his utility belt. "But first…." He took aim.

POW!!!!

A tiny, almost invisible dart flew off and impacted the body of the train from afar.

"A tracking device??" Starfire remarked as the train cars we were on slowed down to a near stop.

"The most powerful in my arsenal at that…," Robin said. He hopped off the train and ran to the side. I heard his distant voice say: "Where's Cyborg? I need his help in catching the frequency of the tracker!"

"He is over there!" Starfire exclaimed. "I will show you…."

The car rolled to a stop. Metallo's ride disappeared on the dark horizon. Night was approaching.

Raven dropped down to the tracks, adjusted her robe, and sighed. "So close….." She looked up at me. Looked at Supergirl in my arms. Then looked at me again. "What happened to her?" she droned.

"Kryptonite…," Beast Boy shuddered. "And lots of it!"

"Wonderful….."

I raised an eyebrow at Raven. And just then, the Girl of Steel in my arms started stirring.

"Nnnnghh….how…..wh-where did he go?"

"You okay there, Kara?" Beast Boy asked.

Supergirl snapped out of it. Her blue eyes opened under a halo of tossled blonde hair. She glanced up at me as I held her.

A beat.

"Well…," she chuckled. "It was good for me. Was it good for you too?"

I nearly dropped her.

Instead, I bit my lip and lowered her gently to the ground.

She dizzily regained her senses and smoothed her hair back. "Well…that was a rush. Don't wanna do that on a Saturday night." She glanced at me. "You know….you blush easily."

I jolted.

Beast Boy snorted.

"Seriously…guys….," Supergirl looked around. "What happened?"

"Metallo happened…," Raven said.

"And he just got away?!?!" she exclaimed. "With both the train and the Kryptonite?! What were y'all thinking?!"

"Uh…..dudette…," Beast Boy scratched his head. "He had a LOT of Kryptonite. We're surprised you're even standing. Even if we were to try and stop him—"

"He would have blown us all up," Raven droned. "You. Me. Everyone."

"Hydrogen bomb," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "He's gone one strapped to his chest."

"Then how did you ever manage to get me out of there?!" Supergirl exclaimed. "If I remember right…he was blocking access to me inside the tube of Kryptonite death!"

Beast Boy pointed at me.

I bit my lip.

Supergirl slowly turned to look at me. "You…..You got me out, didn't you?"

I shrugged.

"You did!" she smiled. "Wow, that was…… you…… I……. how………………," she blinked. "……………..thanks."

I scratched the back of my neck and uselessly tried to sign something when Beast Boy jumped up in front of me and smiled.

"He wants to take you out!! Tell her, Noir!! You want to take h---"

I shoved him off the train.

"WHOAH!!"

THWUMP!!!

He landed with a splash of gravel besides the tracks.

Raven folded her arms. "Now if only we could have done that to Metallo…."

"Glad to be a test subject…," Beast Boy's eyes went googly with dizziness.

Supergirl giggled. She suddenly walked over and hugged my arm. "I scratch your back, you scratch mine….right?"

I swallowed. I was speechless……………..heh.

She blinked and said in a soft voice. "I owe you one…." And then she let go and walked down the length of the train's interior.

I watched her leave. A little too long for my own good. I turned around and once again caught the gaze of Raven.

"She's way too reckless…eventually, she's going to owe each of us favors."

I blinked under my shades.

"In other words…," Raven turned around and walked off, "….don't let it get to your head."

I watched her as she walked off. I mouthed: 'I wasn't'.

Silence.

Beast Boy got up, brushing the bits and pieces of gravel off of him. "I thought it was you who's supposed to be falling head over heels! Not me!"

I rolled my black eyes, adjusted my shades, and jumped off the train car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was very dark about the time we all gathered by the T-Car to hear Cyborg say:

"Well….Metallo's quite sharp for your run-of-the-mill enemy."

"Why is that?" Starfire inquired.

"He's already located and smashed Robin's tracking device."

"D'oh!" Beast Boy winced.

Robin palmed his fist with a growl. "Damn it! Then that leaves us…."

"Right back where we started," Raven droned.

"Not entirely…," Cyborg pointed to the tiny screen on the dashboard. "The train car reached a stationary position on the tracks for about twenty minutes before he found and destroyed the device. Something tells me they reached a new destination of interest."

"In order to find more Kryptonite?" Starfire asked.

"I would think so."

I noticed through the corner of my shades that Supergirl was leaned back and forth. Whistling innocently and eyeing the stars. Very childish. I raised an eyebrow.

"Where was it that they were at last?" Robin asked.

"Smallville."

Everyone looked at Supergirl now.

The Girl of Steel smiled and blushed a bit. "Smallville, Kansas. That's where he has interests at."

"How do you know that?" Beast Boy asked.

"She's right…," Cyborg uttered. He pointed at the dashboard. "That's where they stopped last."

Raven glared at Supergirl. "You know why he's finding all of this Kryptonite around here, don't you?? Wouldn't now be a good time to tell us?!"

"Easy…Easy…," Supergirl smiled and calmly held her hands out. "I'm gonna tell you. But it's gonna take some time to sort it all out and devise a plan. And if y'all haven't noticed—" she gestured to the stars above "—things are getting pretty dark and sleepy-friendly."

"Hey, I'm wide awake!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "……………………………………………….." He yawned.

"I rest my case," Supergirl winked.

"What's on your mind?" Robin asked.

"I told y'all I live around here, right?" Supergirl asked.

"Yeah….," Raven droned, her eyes suspicious.

"Well…Smallville's the place!"

"Smallville?" Beast Boy looked silly.

"Yup! It was Clark's place too! His….um….'parents' live there….a-and they're kinda sorta my parents at the moment too…"

"No kidding!" Cyborg smirked.

"Ah…the unfiltered love of Earthling foster parents!" Starfire beamed.

"It is rather interesting that Metallo would be searching around the hometown of both you and Superman…," Raven spoke.

"And I said—I will **explain** that! But I think you all deserve a safe place to crash for the night!"

"You can't be serious….," Cyborg's human eye bulged.

"Mmmmhmmm!" Supergirl smiled, her eyes shut. She held her arms out. "Let's have a superhero sleepover!!"

Robin sweatdropped. "Um…..Supergirl. Thanks. But…..that's utterly ridiculous."

"Oh, fine!! Pfft!! George Washington, I swear to God….ahem….'Let us have a strategic encampment for the conservation of our energies and the united focus of our concentration in completing the task at hand of accosting Metallo and ending his Kryptonite-finding tour'!"

Cyborg clapped.

"Dude…," Beast Boy smiled at Robin. "She's good." He then smiled at me with thin eyes of mischief. "**Really** good."

I pretended to look elsewhere.

"I dunno….,' Robin scratched his chin. "It would keep us from having to go all the way to Kansas City and back. But would it be trouble? I mean…how would Mr. and Mrs……"

"John and Martha," Kara smiled cutely, her hands folded. "John and Martha Kent. Happiest couple since 'Leave It to Beaver'."

Starfire gasped. "Ooooh!! I loved 'Leave the Beaver to It!' Your foster parents must be very loving to you!"

Supergirl scratched the back of her head. "Yes…well…in between farm chores, they're downright….um…..country."

"But I love the country!! Cobs of corn and Handkerchief Williams!"

Raven pushed Starfire aside and stood in Supergirl's vision. "Are you being absolutely serious about this, Kara? Metallo and Intergang are a force to be reckoned with. If we chase after him and draw attention…'John and Martha' could be threatened."

"Pfft! For crying out loud! We're superheroes! We're not completely stupid, ya know!"

"Most of us aren't…."

"………….uh huh." Supergirl blinked. She smiled, "Well…we got a guest room that can fit two people…and then there's the barn—"

"The barn?!" Beast Boy jumped.

"Yeah! Nice dry loft on the second floor! Good enough to fit four people!"

Both Raven and Starfire said at the same time: _"_**The guys."**

Supergirl giggled. "Exactly!"

"Fine by me," Robin smirked and folded his arms.

"Well alright!" said Cyborg.

I shrugged.

Beast Boy gulped. "But….spiders and bats and stuff!!"

"Come on, B.B.!" Cyborg stepped out of the T-Car and nudged the changeling's shoulder. "Be true to your namesake! If a cow could do it—"

"Dude…I am not a cow! I'm an elf most of the time! Find me Lothlorien or something and then I might be one hundred percent kosher!"

"Do not despair, Beast Boy," Starfire smiled with her hands together. "You can share my bed if need be."

"………………the barn," Beast Boy stammered.

Starfire giggled.

"So it's agreed then?!" Supergirl exclaimed. "We all come to my place?!"

I lifted my hand to 'say' something.

"Great!" Supergirl floated up happily. "I'll go ahead and tell my folks! Y'all just follow along and I'll give you directions along the way through the communicator!"

"Sure thing," Robin nodded.

"Oooh!! Oooh! Can we follow along, Kara?!" Starfire jumped. "I so would not enjoy a laborious ride in the T-Car when I could be flying by your side!"

"Hey!" Cyborg protested with a smirk. "I heard that!!"

"Eek! Now I **must** accompany you!"

Supergirl giggled. "Sure thing, Kori." She looked aside. "Raven, would you also like to—"

"T-Car."

"Very well then. Come, Kori!! Hehehe…I like the sound of that. COME KORI!!"

"Hehehehe! COMING KARA!!!"

Robin blushed for some reason.

The two alien girls soared off into the starlit sky.

"Guess we should follow along now…," Beast Boy said.

"In a minute…," Robin pointed out. "We're still waiting for the police to come by and investigate the weapons cache at the Roundhouse."

"Shouldn't we tell Supergirl and—"

"Soon," the Boy Wonder smiled. "But they do need the head start to let the Kents know about us. And besides…they deserve to have some fun."

"Supergirl's a trip…I tell you what," Cyborg remarked.

"Yes…an absolute tangle-foot," Raven droned and walked off to the other side of the T-Car.

"Uh…..yeah….," Cyborg stared after her. A beat. He looked at me.

Then Beast Boy looked at me. He was grinning evilly from pointy ear to pointy ear. "So…..like….dream come true, huh Noir?"

I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Dude! You're going to her house!!"

"Her barn."

"Well, her barn. But that's titillating enough as it is, right?!"

"Oh please…leave him alone, guys," Robin rolled his eyes under his mask and walked over to join Raven.

"Uh uh!! I'm not leaving him alone!! This situation is too perfect!" Beast Boy wheezed. He smirked at me again. "The way Raven's been acting up…looks like she'd prefer the barn to the guest room!"

"Yeah, who knows?!" Cyborg chuckled. "You could be Supergirl's guest of honor!"

"Have fun sharing shower privileges and stuff!" Beast Boy giggled.

I sighed and gestured something to them.

"You're right!" Cyborg winked. "They DO have to conserve water in these parts!"

"Maybe you'll have to share the shower!!"

"Oh come on, Beast Boy. That's going too far!!"

"Go on, Noir! Blush!! Blush!!"

"Man…it's too fun flustering him for once!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

I shook my head and walked away to be by myself for a while.

"'Ooooh! Thank you sooooo much for saving me from the Kryptonite, Noir'!!" Beast Boy imitated the Girl of Steel in an unnecessarily high voice.

Cyborg joined in. "'What favor could I ever do for you, hero'?!"

"Hehehehehehe!!"

"Ha ha ha!!"

I sighed as I found a quiet place of my own. Inwardly I grumbled at their desperate attempts to fluster me.

Oftentimes I wondered when would be an opportune time to inform my friends that I was castrated…


	78. Kara's Visitor part 4

**78. Kara's Visitor part 4**

A flurry of dust fell in Kansas night air as the T-Car came to a stop.

Robin unbuckled and stood up in his seat, looking over the open gate of a long, wooden fence enclosing the expanse of farmland.

"See anything?" Cyborg asked.

"Y-Yeah….," the Boy Wonder squinted through his eyemask. "House…barn….shed…the works."

"This is where Kara directed us to go, right?"

"Yup. Must be the Kents'."

"Let's just go already…," Raven droned.

"Hey Robin, you see an outhouse?"

"Hold it, B.B."

"I don't have to go, dude. I'm just wondering if they're that primitive."

"Shhh! Shut your beak, man, and let Robin do the talking!"

I smirked.

"Pfft! Fine! I'll just ask Kara."

"Yes, she must be the expert on lavatories."

"Yeah, well, I'd ask you Raven but this isn't your region of expertise."

"Am I supposed to say 'touche'' to that?"

"No, you're supposed to kiss me."

"………touche'."

Robin sat back down, sighed, and put on a brave smile. "Let's go for it…."

"Well alright," Cyborg shifted gears and coasted us up the hill and up a thin dirt path towards the house.

It was a two story thing with red shingles on its rooftop. There was a barn about fifty feet away; and even taller structure. A tractor and a trailer and a few other pieces of equipment rested besides the wooden body. In the distance I saw the unmistakable sight of yellow mounds of hay. There was another long stretch of fence enclosed within the property, and beyond it I saw nearly a dozen cows grazing and sleeping under the night sky. Under the bend in the hill beyond the haystacks were rows of some sort of crop, but I couldn't tell what it was. I wasn't a green thumb.

We came to a stop a polite distance from the house and filed out slowly.

Cyborg was the first to step out…then Robin and I…finally Beast Boy and Raven.

"So…..like….," Beast Boy blinked. "Are we welcomed?"

As if on cue, the screen door burst open and out flew Kara—still in her Supergirl garb. "Hey, y'all! What took you so long!"

"Um….America," Beast Boy smirked.

"Figures," she winked. "Superheroes these days. Always such city slickers!"

There was a gasping sound from inside. "Have my friends arrived?!" Starfire flew out, glowed green, and giggled happily in mid-air. "Greetings, dear companions! We are now dwelling within the Village of Small!"

"Smallville…," Supergirl cleared her throat. "Did you get to see downtown?"

"Not really," Robin smiled. "It was too dark on the way here."

"This place has a downtown?" Raven asked.

"Well….it's got a bank. So I suppose that matters," Supergirl shrugged.

Just then….two voices:

"Is that them, Kara?"

"Let us have a look-see…."

I craned my neck and blinked through my shades as two adults emerged through the open screen door and stood between the hovering forms of Supergirl and Starfire. I saw a strongly-built man with glasses, balding hair, and a tan complexion. Then there was a woman of shorter and more graceful stature, her hair a dyed attempt to avoid graying. They both looked……quaint….

The Kents.

"By golly, it's them!" the man remarked. "In the flesh…..metal and flesh, that is."

Cyborg and I smirked.

Robin stepped forward and proceeded to engage in extreme cordiality while half of us rolled our eyes. "Greetings. I'm Robin. And we are the Teen Titans. This is Cyborg….Noir….Raven….Beast Boy….and you've already met Starfire."

"And quite happy we are to have!" the woman smiled, folding her arms and looking over. "Quite the polite out-of-towner, she is. And what a marvelous story she had to tell of….the Kerblefack?"

"The Kerbolafax from Ooblertron!" Starfire beamed. "The ancient, seventeenth epic poem of Hujunora'm!"

"Yes…that…," the woman nodded and looked back at the other Titans. "Plus she can fly. And we've had no end of that in our house."

Supergirl blushed. "Maaaa…."

"I'm John Kent," the man smiled. He hugged the woman. "And this is Martha."

"Pleased to meet you."

"I….erm…," Robin scratched the back of his neck, "….assume that Supe---Kara has informed you of her proposal?"

"That she has," Martha smiled. "And we couldn't agree more."

I blinked under my shades.

"You serious?" Beast Boy remarked.

"As serious as ever!" Starfire beamed. "Their graciousness is exceedingly….gracious!"

"Believe you me…we're more than willing to help whenever this sort of superhero business comes into fruition," John stated. "Lord knows the number of times we've supported Clark amidst his struggles as Superman. It's the least we can do."

"And our unassuming lifestyle keeps people from suspecting our boy of being the hero that he is," Martha added. She glanced over at Kara. "And the same goes for future generations."

Supergirl smiled bashfully. "A-Aren't they the greatest?"

"So let me get this straight…," Raven stepped forward and spoke, "You are aware of the risk of being found out by both Intergang and Metallo during our operations in Smallville….and you are still okay with our presence here?"

"Absolutely."

"…..," Raven stared. "Well……um…..th-thank you."

Martha chuckled under her breath. "My…you are the pensive type, aren't you?"

"Hehehehe," Beast Boy giggled and pointed at Raven. "She just called you pensive!"

"She will be calling me 'brutal' in about a minute if you don't be quiet…."

"Ahem….sh-shutting up now," Beast Boy turned red and stood up straight.

"Care to come inside and have a bite to eat?" John asked. "From what Kara's been telling us, it seems like y'all've been on the move a little too much as of late."

"First thing's first, Pa," Kara floated down and stood on the steps to the house's porch. "We gotta find an inconspicuous place to put their car."

"Well, by all means."

"That…and….," Kara smirked to herself. "I've been promising them a bit of an explanation."

"Concerning?"

"Why Intergang has been finding so much Kryptonite around here lately."

Raven seemed to brighten at that…if such was possible.

"Ah yes…superhero matters. Always important."

"Thanks for understanding."

"Thanks for keeping us informed!"

Supergirl and Starfire walked over.

"So…I got the perfect place in mind…," Kara said, eyeing the T-Car.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Uhh….perfect place in theory or in reality?"

"Let's find out together, shall we?"

"O-Okay….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We can't seriously be doing this!!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Hey," Robin smiled, his arms folded. "If Cyborg has no complaint about it….it must be fine! Have you any complaints, Cyborg?"

"Uhhh……huh?"

"Any compla—"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Cyborg said blankly. He rubbed the human part of his head nervously and eyed the interior of the hay-strewn barn. The T-Car fit perfectly on the bottom floor of the wooden structure. In fact, that was exactly where they put it. "None of those pitchforks and sickles and stuff hangin' from the ceiling are gonna fall down in the middle of the night, are they?!"

"Nope," Supergirl effortlessly shut the huge barn doors behind us and dusted her hands off. "Unless—of course—a tornado hits in the middle of a storm. Then this place becomes a veritable inside-out grenade of shrapnel and splinters. But don't worry about your car. You'll be sleeping in here too---some of you---so you can keep an eye on it."

"A-And what if a tornado hits in the middle of the night?" Beast Boy gulped.

"Then maybe it will be up to Supergirl to save you!" she smirked.

Beast Boy managed a chuckle. "I don't know about the rest of us…but I'm sure Noir would like tha—"

Robin elbowed him.

"Ooof!"

I mouthed: 'Thank you'.

Robin shrugged.

"So…," Raven eyed a conspicuous rat in the corner of the barn that scurried away. "….you said you were going to share---"

"Yes, I'm 'going to share'," Supergirl rolled her eyes. "As much as I hate to admit it, y'all aren't here just to crash. Hey Cyborg."

"Hey Kara."

"Can I borrow your car?"

"For what?"

"Hopefully something productive," she walked over and peered inside the driving compartment. "This thing's got a computer right??

"Damn right it does," Cyborg smiled. "State of the art processor with twelve times the availabl—"

"Can it show a map of Smallville and the surrounding areas?"

"It sure can. AND! Better yet….," Cyborg sauntered over and tapped a few controls.

A circle opened in the dashboard. A small, silver cylinder slid up and out. The tip slitted and a tiny, bright blue light strobed. There was a flash across the interior of the barn…and then a holographic, topographical map of central Kansas appeared. The floating 'scene' zoomed in on Smallville and slowly rotated for all of us to watch with ease.

"Sweet…," Beast Boy smirked. He looked at Cyborg. "Can it do Area 51?"

"Sorry….no."

Robin smiled.

"This….," Supergirl gestured goofily at the rotating 3-D hologram, "….is Smallville."

"You don't say…," Raven muttered.

"It is quite a beautiful settlement!" Starfire exclaimed with hands clasped together. "Tell me…how long ago was it founded?"

Supergirl smiled. "I'd be happy to tell you all about the history of this town…but perhaps at another time. What's important is what I'm about to tell you now."

"Concerning Intergang's and Metallo's interests here…."

"Right, Raven." Supergirl then turned back to Cyborg. "If I enter a trajectory into the computer, can the model simulate a falling object?"

"I don't see why not," Cyborg gestured towards a number pad in the dashboard. Supergirl leaned over and typed away a few numbers.

"Something falling from the sky??" Beast Boy scratched his green head. "We're not gonna see Bruce Willis and a bunch of stereotypes save the world, are we?"

"You wish," Supergirl mused. She finished typing.

I squinted my black eyes through my shades as a red arrow streaked a curved path downward and ground into the 3-D 'earth' of the hologram. The arrow stopped completely just off of a country road leading towards a farm that looked suspiciously liked the Kents' place.

"About…..oh….thirty years ago or so….the planet Krypton exploded. You all probably know this from pop culture. But what most people don't know is exactly how Superman got all the way here to Earth when his planet went kaboom."

"Yeah….I've always wondered about that…," Cyborg admitted with a nod.

"Well, he's told me some details himself," Kara smiled. "Even for such a good boy scout as he is, Blue Boy keeps some things to himself. I guess I can't blame him. He is the last of his kind. Though he's kind of got a cousin in me and stuff."

"You were saying….," Raven droned.

"Ahem. What I do know is that Superman's parents really loved him and stuff. And they knew Krypton was gonna go kablooie. So they strapped their kid up in a spaceship and shot him out in hopes that someway—somehow—he would survive in some other sentient environment and live on the legacy of Krypton…yadda yadda. Anyways, he ended up here," Supergirl pointed at the map. "After a wormhole spout him and his spaceship out, he crash landed on Earth. In Kansas of all places." She rolled her blue eyes. "And John and Martha Kent found him. They raised him up like a human kid until he was old enough to understand who he was and stuff. And gradually he discovered that the nature of the Terran Sun cancels out the suppressed Kryptonian strength that his natural Sun robbed him of. And thus we have Superman."

Robin subconsciously glanced over at Starfire.

The Tamaranian was gasping. "That is similar to the story of Nova'm!"

"Who??" Supergirl made a face.

Starfire blushed. "Oh….n-nevermind. J-Just someone I know and care for." She simpered.

"Man…," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "There sure are a lot of aliens on this vacation."

"Live and learn, kiddo," Supergirl winked with a smile.

I watched her.

"Anyways….the story of Kryptonite is very similar to the story of Superman," Kara went on. "Through the wormhole went Superman's spaceship. Right? Well so did shards of his exploded planet. Kryptonite. And while his ship landed in Kansas, all the Kryptonite shards went scattering every which way. And that's the sort of stuff crooks like Metallo and others have found over the last thirty-odd years and used against Blueboy."

"Right," Raven nodded. "But why's there so many of it here in Kansas? Because the ship crashed here?"

Supergirl held up a finger. "You're on the right track……I-I think."

"You think?" "There's a theory that Clark's been tossing around for months now…," Supergirl said. She walked over and got Cyborg's approving glance before typing away at the T-Car's numberpad a bit more. "He thinks that the wormhole may have caused some shards of Kryptonite to….ya know….cling to his spaceship during the fall to Earth. But when he struck the atmosphere and the friction heated everything up, the shards went going their own fancy directions…but all more or less fell in the same vicinity."

"Unlike the other Kryptonite pieces that fell through the wormhole independent of the spaceship….," Robin remarked.

"Yeah! Exactly!" she finished typing. A bunch of green specks appeared in a scattered line around the end of the red arrow on the 3-D map. "So….like…imagine a cluster of Kryptonite all around this area! Like…it fell off the ship and sunk into the ground of Kansas—but mainly Smallville. And since they were all superheated, they sunk into the earth and stuff. And over the last few years—as morons actually tried to **develop** in this part of the country, we've had the stuff hidden. But now, there's some sort of 'mining expedition' if you were. Intergang realizes there's all this Kryptonite in the area. And they're swamping in here to collect it all before everyone else. To make sure they beat everyone else to the 'Kryptonite Rush', they have Metallo along with them."

"All that Kryptonite falling into their hands…," Raven muttered aloud, "…it would give them a financial foothold in the criminal underworld."

"They could auction the stuff off and get loads of dirty money," Cyborg said.

"Not to mention spread Kryptonite around into dozens of the wrong hands…," Robin gritted his teeth.

Supergirl bit her lip as she added: "Or they could just put all the many pieces of Kryptonite together to make something so lethal that it would kill Superman on the spot."

Everyone was silent at that.

I gestured in the air.

Cyborg 'read'. "Yeah, good point." He looked at Supergirl. "How would Intergang realize there was so much Kryptonite here? I mean…it's not like they're ones to know that Superman—or Clark Kent—grew up here of all places."

"I….um….I-I have no idea," Supergirl shrugged.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Trial and error, perhaps," Supergirl shrugged. "They must have found one shard of Kryptonite here…then another….and then found a pattern and decided to search the place from head to toe."

"What ways do they have of finding Kryptonite?" Robin asked. "Emissions from the glowing matter?"

"I dunno. I'm no technogeek."

Robin opened his satchel and held the tiny shard. "Well…think of this thing that we've got as a vaccine. If the Kryptonite is a virus, then imagine using this thing here to root out the rest of the strain."

"A closed-net search following the frequency of our sample's emissions?" Cyborg remarked. "That can be done."

"Good," Beast Boy blinked. "Who cares if any of us understand it…."

"We must find the Kryptonite before Intergang does!" Starfire exclaimed. "That is the plan, is it not?"

"It is now," Robin palmed his fist. "I think we'll be doing some hunting for our vacation, Titans. Kryptonite hunting."

"Woo hoo!" Supergirl pumped her right arm and smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere!"

Raven glared at her momentarily before looking at Robin, "How are we to know what amount of Kryptonite is left to be found? And even if we do find the rest that's in this region…it won't make Metallo give up what he and Intergang have rounded up."

"But it will make them realize they're not the only ones on the playing field," Robin said. "As of now, we can't think up of a way to purposefully confront Metallo. He's got a dangerous weapon strapped to his chest."

"Dude, it **is** his chest!"

Robin sighed. "Point being…we gotta do this the round about way. Who knows? If we can find more Kryptonite than what they've got, we could perhaps pressure into giving up part of their scheme."

"Whatever the case….," Cyborg spoke, "…anything's better than sitting around and doing nothing."

"Right," the Boy Wonder nodded.

Starfire said: "Agreed."

I smiled.

Raven stared at everyone, then breathed: "Sounds like we're all in agreement."

"You sure?" Beast Boy smirked at her.

Raven glared.

"She's sure…."

"Cyborg…," Robin walked over with the small green shard. "How long would it take to analyze this and perform a scan of the surrounding counties?"

"Ooooh…even with my computer that's gonna take a while. That is if you want it done right."

"And when do I **not?**"

"Heheh….good point, man. I'm gonna guestimate about eight hours."

"Overnight…," Starfire remarked.

"See?!" Supergirl exclaimed with arms wide. "You need a place to crash after all!"

Robin smiled. "I suppose so." He handed the shard to Cyborg who put it into a compartment inside the T-Car. "I must thank you for your hospitality," the Boy Wonder professionally said. He gestured, "…and perhaps soon it would be a good idea to send a message to Superman in the Watchtower so that he could come by and help out since surely he'd—"

Supergirl suddenly gasped: "**No!!"**

I winced.

Beast Boy jumped.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

Silence…..

"Ahem…," Supergirl gulped and nervously smiled, "…C-Clark is very….um….b-busy with…ya know…the Justice League and….um…….promoting Justice….with his….er….League…"

"How so?" Robin asked, curious.

"Why…h-haven't you heard the news?"

"….."

"The battle with…um…."

"….."

"…..the aliens?"

Starfire gasped. "A battle with aliens?! How horrible!!"

"Yeah…can't imagine the pressures he's going through right now," Supergirl sighed dramatically. "He'd be most grateful if we capable superheroes handled this ourselves."

"…………," Robin stared. A beat. "Okay, then."

Supergirl smiled.

"After all, you know 'your cousin' much more than I ever will…I suppose…."

"Hehehe….yeah. Green thumbs think alike."

"Indeed…," Raven muttered. She was looking into space in thought.

"Well…while you're getting that supercar of yours all…analytical and jazz….how's about coming into the house and getting your fill?"

"Of what?"

"What else?? Food…water…and…um….clothes!"

"But we're wearing—"

"Bah! Uniforms! Don't be so stiff! If you're gonna sleep over—some of you in a barn—at least get comfortable!!"

Beast Boy looked at me.

I looked down at him.

He smiled and spoke to Supergirl: "How comfortable do you want some of us to get?"

I later reminded myself to strangle him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….any of you got secret identities?" John Kent asked from across the kitchen table.

Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I sat with him. Our plates of 'vittles' were half empty. I was the last to clean my plate, the finicky eater that I was that evening. I picked around peas and carrots as I glanced over at Robin only to realize that the other guy Titans were staring at him too.

The Boy Wonder sighed…but put on a brave smile for the host who was generously giving us a place to stay and…er…'munch'.

"At this point…only one of us."

John smiled and leaned his chin on his hand. "Should I guess who?"

"I don't know if Superman has told it to you or not yet Mr. Kent….but…," Robin glanced around at his curious companions He cleared his throat. "It's still very much a 'secret' identity."

John's eyebrow lifted.

"He means he won't tell us!" Beast Boy said.

"Ohhhhhh."

Cyborg let out a laugh.

I smirked and swallowed some more vegetables.

"Who knows how long that's gonna last," John Kent leaned back.

"I like to think optimistically about it," Robin folded his arms. "I have every right to keep it secret."

"Oh, by all means," the man smiled. "Clark has told us all about the ways of the Bat. The secret vigilantism. The masked do-gooder and stuff. It's really an ancient type of practice if you think about it. Something of legend and lore. I find it admirable. No way I'm gonna spoil it for you."

"Hahahahahaha!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "I like how you word it, Mr. Kent. 'Spoil'."

Robin frowned.

"I have my way with words," John said. "Or so my wife claims."

Beast Boy nervously asked: "So…um…..like….are you really Superman's mom and dad?"

"Foster parents. I suppose that's the politically correct term. As far as I'm concerned, he's our boy."

"And Kara?" Cyborg asked.

"Our girl," John smirked. "Big happy family."

"Ever gonna get a superdog?" Beast Boy asked.

"I dunno," John scratched his chin. "Why…are you applying somewhere?"

Cyborg laughed again.

Even Beast Boy chuckled. "Dude…that was a good one."

Robin seemed to be thinking about something else.

I dug around my food some more.

A beat.

After some silence, I glanced up and realized that John Kent was looking directly at me.

"You're the one they call 'Noir'."

I blinked under my shades. Why did people still address me as 'the one they call'??

I nodded.

"Was that your sword I saw hanging off your back when you first stopped by?"

I smirked slightly and nodded.

"Tell me…is that thing really made out of wood?"

I leaned back. My eyes traced the ceiling through my shades as I thought….then extended my hand and twisted side-to-side.

"Somewhat?"

I nodded.

"It's wooden," Cyborg exclaimed. "But Noir's powers make it nearly invulnerable at key moments. He can slash through most things if he wanted to."

"Fascinating," John nodded. A beat. "You seem to both be on the same page."

Cyborg and I exchanged glances.

The android smirked. "Well….kinda. We communicate with each other."

"And that means…."

"Cyborg's the only one who understands sign-language," Robin remarked. "And I understand morse code. That's how we relay information to each other when crime-fighting."

John blinked. "You mean….nobody else can talk to him?"

My male companions seemed a bit cornered. They blushed and scratched their necks.

"Yeah…about that…see…," Beast Boy muttered. "We're thinking of brushing up on our sign language skills."

"When?"

"…………………..soon."

I smirked and shook my head.

"You've seen it all, huh?" John remarked.

I shrugged.

"Guess with the line of work you're all in, it takes more than language to communicate with each other."

"Got that right," Cyborg nodded.

So did I. I took a last bite of food when we heard the muffled voices of the girls in the hallway.

"Something wicked this way comes!" mused Beast Boy.

"Nah, it's just me and Starfire!" Supergirl's voice said.

"I heard that….," Raven groaned.

Cyborg chuckled.

"What's up?" Robin craned his head and glanced out the kitchen doorway. "Are you people hiding?"

Giggles…then: _"On the count of three…one…two…three…"_

Kara and Starfire bounded in—laughing—arm in arm. They were dressed in identical sets of blue overalls and white undershirts. They seemed absolutely humored with themselves as they both attempted a choreographed greetings that resounded with Starfire's voice predominantly over Kara's: **"Hee to the Haw!!"**

I immediately spat out the peas and carrots in my mouth to the floor, wheezed for breath, and chuckled breathily.

Robin had his eyebrow raised and his mouth in a crooked attempt at a smile.

Cyborg and Beast Boy were laughing.

The girls tried to catch their breath, red in the face.

"Oh my god…that's too silly!" Supergirl wheezed.

"Hee to the haw?!?!" Beast Boy wiped a tear from his eye.

"Indeed!" Starfire smiled. "Is it not appropriate?!"

"I swear…I love the way she talks!" Supergirl pointed and hugged Starfire. "Oh man…it's great to have an alien girlfriend to laugh at the absurdity of everything with!"

"If you say so," Cyborg smirked. "Mind if we watch?"

Supergirl frowned/smirked.

Starfire said: "What is it you desire to watch, Cyborg?" she smiled innocently.

Robin had his hand over his face. "Why….are you both….wearing overalls…," he muffledly suppressed a Boy Wondrous chuckle.

"Why not?!" Supergirl grinned wide. "Life is short! Light years far apart! Seize the day and grab a drinking buddy!"

"Look at me!" Starfire twirled around in her country get up. "I am ready to cornshuck, am I not?"

"By all means," Cyborg chuckled. "Cornshuck away!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy 'kicked' the android in the leg with his foot.

"Ha ha ha!!"

"These overingalls are most comfortable," Starfire mused. "Robin, why is it that you never suggested to me that I pursue such an article during our previous encounters with the shopping?"

"Because….because…th-they're overalls, Star!" Robin gestured. "It's all so…so…."

"Country?" Kara raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Yeah…that…."

John Kent chuckled.

"Starfire….I promise," Robin gestured. "We get back to the City…I'll help you find all the overalls you want."

"Truly? Oh thank you, Robin!" she rushed over and hugged him in his chair. "I am elated that you approve of my nubile spirit of cornshucking!"

Struggling for breath, an embraced Robin glanced through his eyemask at the suspicious stretch of bare skin between Starfire's undershirt and her lower body hidden by the overalls. He blushed. "Uh…..y-yeah. Cornshucking is very good…"

"Say…," Beast Boy craned his neck. "Is that Raven I heard in the hallway? What's she hiding for?"

"Raven!" Starfire stood up and spoke to the doorway. "Why are you not hee to the hawing with us?!"

"Simply……pointless….," a dark voice uttered from the hallway.

I smirked with curiosity.

"For crying out loud! Just come on out!!" Kara hollered. "Nothing bad's gonna happen! They're your friends!"

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of…," Raven muttered. She emerged from the hallway. Suffice to say, only her face emerged. Everything from the chin down was veritably disguised in a plaid button-up shirt and blue jeans. To say that it was a very masculine set of apparel would not be lying. "Laugh all you want. I merely wanted to make Starfire shut up about dressing me up."

"I fail to see where the 'dress' part comes in," Beast Boy tried his polite best to not giggle at what was obviously a giggleful scene. "Who knew Starfire was a Mark Twain fan?"

"Oh, but I am!" Starfire exclaimed. "How very much I enjoyed reading the story about life on the Mississippi with Applebees Finn and Nugget Jim!"

"That's 'Huckleberry Finn'," Robin corrected.

Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah, and that's not 'Nugget Jim'. That's 'N---….er…."

Cyborg cleared his throat.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "N-Nice getup, Raven."

"Hey Beast Boy…"

"Yes, Raven?"

"You know this one place called Hell?"

"Yeah."

"Why don't you go there sometime?"

"Okay…."

I chuckled.

Raven glared.

"Oh! That's not the best part!" Kara beamed. She gestured to Starfire.

The Tamaranian giggled and reached behind her and produced something. She handed it to Kara and soon Raven had a straw hat planted on her blue head.

"Oh my gawd…," Cyborg shook his head.

Raven looked about ready to turn to ice like she had been wanting to all those years.

"I'll admit to one thing," Robin said. "The life of a superhero never ceases to surprise me."

"Well while you're enjoying your 'surprise'," Raven grumbled, "Can we go to sleep now?"

"We do have a full day tomorrow," Robin stood up and nodded. "It's best to get some rest before we conduct our searches."

"And hopefully the T-Car will be finished with its analysis," Starfire said…then put further strain in adding: "'_Y'all_'"

Supergirl giggled and hugged Starfire's right arm. "Gosh, you're so cute!"

Starfire blushed. "Am I truly?"

"Might as well give the gentlemen some new clothes to sleep in too," John Kent stood up and said. "Those costumes can't be comfortable after such a long day."

"Hey…," Cyborg did a Fonze shrug and smiled, "…my birthday suit's always comfortable!"

"Okay. Dude. Not in someone else's house!"

"What do you suggest?" Robin asked.

"Hmmmmm…," John rubbed his chin. He looked up and smiled as he called out: "Martha??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Luckily for you…most of Clark's old stuff will fit," Martha said as she rummaged through a closet in the guest room. Robin, Beast Boy and I were using the room one after another to change into some clothes over night. Then afterwards, it would serve as the bedroom for Starfire and Raven. "I don't mean to be brash…but…Robin and the green one sure are small for their age, aren't they?"

I smirked. But then turned straight face as Mrs. Kent offered me a set of slacks and a white shirt.

"Ah…he wore these during his high school years. Casual stuff. Whenever he was around the house and doing homework or what not."

I looked her. I looked at the clothes. I looked at her again.

"Oh…don't be silly!" she smiled. "Robin and Beast Boy reacted the same way! They just couldn't believe they were wearing the same clothes that once belonged to Superman!"

I nervously nodded. That was more or less true.

"Trust me…he would not mind a bit, provided the circumstances."

I gently took the clothes from her. I watched as she walked out of the room and into the doorway.

"You might as well let the two girls of your team know when you're done. They seem rather drowsy as we speak---though I believe the one with the stone in her head isn't gonna admit she's practically sleeping on the couch for the past ten minutes or so. Heheheh…I swear, she's quite a trouper."

I nodded.

That she was.

"I'll leave you in peace. Take your time."

She closed the door.

I took a deep breath and set the articles onto the bed before me. The shirt was like a tank top…or one of those 'wife beater' trademarks. I chuckled to myself momentarily.

I slipped off my boots…then my combat shirt. I slipped on Clark Kent's old shirt, then removed my lower fatigues and went on from there.

I was halfway through jumping into the slacks when suddenly—horrifically—the door to which my butt was directly facing opened wide.

Supergirl's voice: "Raven? Kori? Are you in here yet—Hello."

I gasped and tumbled head-first across the bed and stumbled onto the floor. THWUMP!!!

"Yikes!!! Sorry about that! I thought that the girls were in here already and---hey! They ARE Calvin Klein!!"

Blushing furiously, I poked my head up from the far side of the bed and pointed a furious finger towards the door. My long black hair was tossed.

"Huh? Oh. Right. Privacy. My bad. Cya tomorrow!" she sing-songed and was gone in an instant.

I panted. I came down the rollercoaster of embarrassment and slowly gathered the strength to stand up and pull the slacks up all the way. It was a good minute or two before I actually stepped pensively out of the room with my clothes in my arms. I spent the time pinching myself and dreading the fact that this was all terribly real.

For the rest of the night I counted the seconds away till the day I died…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, this isn't so bad!" Robin mused as he tiredly stretched out onto a makeshift blanket spread over a bed of straw. "I've had to sleep in worse places than this in my day! Heck, this one time I was chasing down Ra's Al Ghul—"

"Yeah yeah, whatever Robin," Beast Boy mumbled. He laid down a few feet away on the hayloft of the barn's 'second story'. Beneath us, the T-Car silently continued its analysis of the small Kryptonite shard. "We all know about your fifty years of experience in fifteen odd years of life."

"**Sixteen**!" Robin frowned. A beat. "At least I think it's sixteen."

"Man, that's sad," Cyborg remarked from where he was already laying down and getting drowsy. "Being so busy fighting crime and stuff that you forget your own age."

"Who're you to speak, Cy?" Beast Boy smirked. "Sometimes—I swear—it's like you forget about the body parts you once had."

"I **never** forget that, man."

"And what about your tube?"

"Leave my tube alone!"

"Okay…that just sounded dirty."

"Can we sleep now?!" Robin growled.

"Oh. Sorry."

"No problem…good night Cyborg."

"Good night, Robin. Good night Beast Boy."

"Good night Cyborg. "Good night Robin."

"Uh….yeah…good night Beast Boy."

"…….."

"…….."

"…….."

"…….good night Cybor—"

"Man!! You already said that!!"

"Did I really?! There's so many people in here it's hard to forget!"

"Just shut up and go to sleep already!"

I whistled.

Everyone looked my way.

I waved and smiled from my blanket.

"**Goodnight, Noir."** All three said at once.

I smirked and did the 'ok' symbol with my hands. Now everyone could be quiet with finality.

The four of us turned over and settled into our exhaustion by letting the silence of the barn and the Kansas night creeping in from outside lull us to sleep.

For a few minutes, my bare black eyes wandered the wooden nooks and crannies of the place…when truly I was only 'looking' at my mind. My shades and Myrkblade rested in the hay besides my blanket. I could barely catch the sight of my reflection in the sunglasses.

I kept thinking about a smile…a smile on a face beneath golden blonde hair kept in place by a black hairband. Ocean blue eyes as Supergirl thanked me for saving her from the trainload of Kryptonite.

I didn't think of the implications of such an occurrence. All I thought about was the occurrence itself. And before I knew it, I was sleeping.

Peacefully….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning came in a blink of black eyes.

I shot up straight in bed as if startled by something. Really all it was was the incredulity of nighttime passing so quickly. The dull gray-blue sky filtered in through the barn door below. Over to my left, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Robin were still sleeping soundly…most of them turned over from having subconsciously moved during the night. All except for the Boy Wonder. Robin always slept on his back. Always ready to move…

I held my metal and flesh hands out in front of my face. I flexed my limbs.

I felt awake….I felt renewed…it was the best sleep I had experienced in days. Not once—even in self-analyzing it—did I again think about the anxious and frightening prospect of moving westward. Old nightmares were gone and in their place was a gentle softness. A relishing of life. The simple curve of a smile and blue, playful eyes.

I blinked.

It was a long time since I remembered both thinking about someone while going to sleep and the thinking about that person again when waking up.

My heart beat faster for a second or two and then slowed down.

I bit my lip…not liking the 'sound' of that.

I obstinately picked up my shades and Myrkblade and climbed down from the loft.

There was one thing I couldn't afford to forget doing….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was meditating.

Surrounded by fields.

The morning wind kicking lightly at my long black hair.

Still clad in Clark Kent's old clothes.

I held Myrkblade out in a painful pose and kept myself locked in such a position.

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

I constantly poured murk energy into my foot…which was not on dry ground.

No…I was standing atop the waters of a pond in the far side of the Kents' farmland. Using my powers, I kept myself balanced atop the liquid surface….in absolute concentration. I felt so much energy that morning…I was willing to go through with the greater level of focus. It was something I hadn't felt since….the days after Fang was done in last.

I took a deep breath, slashed Myrkblade up, twirled in mid-air, came back down, blurred my feet, and balanced myself again on the water.

I froze there. Then…..SWIIIISH!! I jabbed Myrkblade forward and blurred to my other leg, straining to balance on the other foot…and suddenly finding it easy to do.

I smiled slightly…a big 'no no' in focused meditation.

But there are many 'no nos'.

"Wow…."

I blinked. My heart beat increased. I struggled to keep my concentration, and somehow managed to do so. My black eyes darted to the corner of my shades and there I saw Kara…floating casually beside me. Her hands behind her back. Her blond hair waving slightly. She was still in her pajamas…acting as if there was no world to care about her or for her to care about.

"That's pretty dang cool…what you're doing there," she pointed.

"……..," I stared. I looked back into space. Swallowed a lump in my throat, and strained to keep my pose for as long as possible.

"I think Jains do that. You ever heard of Jains? They're a lot like Hindus…only they're willing to go the whole nine yards and stay in one place for a very long time for the sake of honoring God or something….I dunno…but it's kinda like what you're doing. Only on water. Are you into Eastern Religions at all? With that sword and that meditation and all, it seems like you would be."

I wanted to shrug…but that was also a 'no no'. The way she was talking…I suddenly thought of the Messenger. Two things converged into one in my head, and I was feeling suspiciously happy.

"Am I distracting you?"

I had to be honest.

I shook my head.

"Good," she smiled and floated around me as if admiring my meditative handiwork….heh. "What **are** your powers, anyway, Jordan?"

I did a double-take, nearly losing my balance. I looked at her in shock.

"What? Oh…heheh…last night right before you were---um---changing, I got to talk with Beast Boy and he said that 'Jordan' was your real name. That's not a secret identity or something, is it?"

Sometimes….

I shook my head again.

"Well, it's a cool name. Jordan! I like that!"

I swung myself into another pose and made sure to point Myrkblade **away** from Kara as I continued meditating.

"So, what are your powers? They kinda look like Raven's…only built for melee combat or something. Oh…and for zipping around like a godawful mosquito!"

I smirked. Another no no.

"I feel like I'm getting old," she mused. "So many young heroes these days are up and coming…and any one of them could probably take even me on if worse came to worse."

I shrugged. I got into another pose.

"What would happen if—like—you swung your sword with all of your black energy power stuff into my neck?!"

I dared not think of such a thing. Though—funny—I would eagerly have done so about twenty-four hours ago when the two of us first met…

"The world will never know, I guess," she mumbled. "I'm always thinking such pointless things. Even on Argos as a little girl, I did…."

Silence. I continued meditating.

A beat.

"You know, Jordan," Supergirl smiled. "You're looking really sexy right about now."

I plunged into the pond.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

When I resurfaced—with Clark's old clothes soaking wet—my waterlogged ears graced the insane giggles of Supergirl clutching herself and floating merrily above me.

"Some student of the dark arts you are!" she laughed. "I-I'm sorry. But that's just too funny! A jumbo jet would have crashed here without you losing focus and yet—" her voice trailed off into another throng of giggles.

I sputtered and swam my way with Myrkblade to the edge of the pond.

"Hehehehehe!! 'Grab the innuendo from my hand, Grasshopper!' He he he he!!"

I gasped and got up onto the ground. I wrung my black hair out. I looked at her with a dropped jaw.

"What?" Supergirl remarked. "Oh, it's true by the way."

My hands froze in my hair. I blinked from under my shades……and blushed.

"Ha!! There you go again!!" Supergirl shook her head and smiled. "Priceless." A beat. "OH!" she lifted a finger and beamed. "By the way…I'm here to tell you that all the other Titans are awake and the T-Car is finished with its analysis. It's time to get to work!" I looked at the pond, at myself, then at her.

"Well, naturally I visited you to do more than just relay that message!" Kara smiled, floating backwards. "When talking to Beast Boy last night, he dared me to get through the day with the chance to say 'I got Noir to wet himself at the sight of me'."

My black eyes bulged.

"Cya at the barn! Ciao!" she flew off.

I tried to stand up, but tripped on my wet pantlegs and fell to the earth. THWUMP!!

I snarled silently and clutched a handful of earth.

It wasn't until a good minute later—having dried myself and sheathed Myrkblade—that I noticed nobody was nearby to see me. So I laughed breathily to myself.

I slowly whistled my way to the barn over the hill.


	79. Kara's Visitor part 5

**79. Kara's Visitor part 5**

"Now…the accuracy of the results may be in question…."

"Naturally," Raven rolled her eyes.

Cyborg continued as the T-Car produced a 3-D hologram of Smallville just like the night previous. The seven of us gathered around the vehicle in the center of the barn. The morning light and smells of the farm filtered in and out through the open doors to the structure.

"The computer analysis has scanned our shard of Kryptonite and has searched the local geography for similar traces of the green material. So far there are five possible locations within the local vicinity, and…um….eighteen probable sources."

"I'm guessing……w-we're gonna go for the five ones," Beast Boy nodded.

"I would have to agree with the elf boy on that one," Kara remarked.

"Is it possible that these readings suggest where Kryptonite has **been**?" Robin asked. "And not where it presently is?"

"Intergang could have swept them up by now," Raven added.

"Sorry, folks," Cyborg pressed a button and highlighted the five sure samples. "The computer laid out a simple blueprint. It's up to all of us to do the thinking."

"Well…let's see where the stuff may be, shall we?" Kara folded her arms and smiled.

Cyborg singled out each of the five locations as he spoke: "Johnson's Recreational Park…eight miles west of here. August River, nearby a metal bridge three miles north of here. Some farmland belonging to a family called the Brendersons, three miles north. A field right beside the interstate, fifteen miles east, and Jacob's Plaza…just off of downtown Smallville, a mile and a half southeast from here."

"Wonderful," Starfire smiled and held her hands together. "Surely we can attend to each of those locations! Perhaps even in a single day!"

"You're right, Star," Robin nodded. "We can't waste any time on this. I suggest we split into groups."

"One group per location?" Raven asked. "There are only seven of us working together. Isn't that stretching it a little bit thin?"

"We'll attend to three at a time at first. So that means three groups initially. Then we'll form two groups to go after the last two locations."

"Well, allright," Cyborg smiled. "Where to first?"

Robin scratched his chin as he looked at the 3-D hologram map. "Hmmmm….We don't want to attract too much attention. Not from the public, and certainly not from Intergang. So we should probably save Johnson's Park and downtown Smallville for some time after dark."

"That leaves the Brendersons, the August River, and the field by the Interstate."

"I know the Brendersons!" Kara hopped up and down and waved her hand. She smiled and said, "Used to babysit for their kids."

"Did you truly?" Starfire asked.

"Yes. Little Mable and Leslie. Sisters."

"Awwww! They sound adorable!"

"Oh, they are! You should see them at harvest time, riding the back of a hay wagon toget—"

"Ahem," Robin cleared his throat. "Sorry to interrupt but….Kara, could you take on that part of the assignment?"

"What….go to the Brendersons?"

"Yes."

"By all means! It shouldn't be too difficult."

"Um….," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "You're gonna somehow end up digging Kryptonite from out of their backyard, you know that…right?"

"Most likely their precious farmland," Raven added.

"Oh…that….well…," Kara blushed. "I'll work that out. Don't worry."

"……."

"But I'll need some help."

"Well, naturally," Cyborg gestured. "We're talking about Kryptonite. You can't handle that on your own. I-I mean, you **could** perhaps…if it's not to much of it and stuff…you being Arganoid and all…"

"Argosian," Kara corrected.

"Yeah, that."

"One of us should go with you," Robin said. "But even if you are to approach the Brendersons about it, it'd be best not to reveal to them the true thing that you're seeking."

"Why not?"

"Well…you shouldn't reveal yourself as Supergirl and—"

"Why doesn't she just fly in and snatch the stuff from the farm?" Beast Boy interrupted.

"At this time of year?!" Kara remarked. "Pfft! They'll be working those fields! I don't want them to see me! I'd feel like trespassing!"

"That's rather unavoidable…," Raven droned.

"Kara's right about one thing," Robin nodded. "It's best that we not let the public see us digging up Kryptonite. If they realize there's some wyrd plot afoot concerning the green stuff, the word could somehow get to Intergang. And that wouldn't be pretty. 'Loose lips helps the enemy' and all that…."

"Heheh," Cyborg chuckled.

"No problem!" Kara did a thumb's up. "I'll do it…ya know…undercover! I've done undercover stuff before!"

Beast Boy chuckled. "I'd love to have seen that."

"Whoever goes with me should be good at keeping his mouth shut too," Kara said. She blinked. The girl then beamed, hopped over, and hugged my arm. "I think I got my moving buddy!"

I did a double-take.

"Noir??" Cyborg remarked.

"Good choice!" Beast Boy winked. "He made a good Mr. Allenthorpe way back when in Westhaven. Say, those are good memories…ain't they, Nooby?"

I shuddered forth a sigh. I looked at Kara who was hugging my side…then at Robin and Cyborg. I gestured.

"Good point," Cyborg nodded. He looked over at the Boy Wonder. "Noir can go through the Brendersons' farm in stealth form while Kara distracts them."

"Perfect," Robin folded his arms and smiled. "I think that more than settles it. The two of you go and acquire the Kryptonite from the Brendersons then meet us back here at the farm."

"You said the Brendersons would recognize you, am I correct?" Starfire asked Kara.

"I should hope so. I sure changed enough diapers for their offspring."

"How will they react to Noir's new face?"

I looked at Kara.

The girl was still hugging my shoulder. She shrugged. "I'll improvise. I'm good at that."

"I bet you are," Raven muttered.

I glanced at Beast Boy. He had a devilish look of amusement on his face. I blushed and smoothly disentangled myself from Kara's grip.

"Touchy….," the Girl of Steel remarked with a sly wink.

I bit my lip.

"What about the Interstate?" Cyborg asked.

"That shouldn't be too hard to acquire," Robin said. "Let's think about the August River first."

"Ooh! Ooh! Me!" Beast Boy hopped. "I can scour the river like nobody else! Who here can grow scales from his skin on the fly?!'

Starfire smiled. "Well, there was that one time during my Transformation when—"

"No, Starfire," Robin smiled. "That surely doesn't count."

Kara seemed curious…amused.

"Admittedly…I'm a little out of practice in fresh water lifeforms….but…," Beast Boy sweatdropped. He shook it off. "The heck am I talking about?! I'm built for the job!"

"Anyone wanna go with him?" Raven droned boringly.

"How about you and me, Robin?" Cyborg asked. "We'll take the T-Car."

"And leave the girls to the Interstate sample?" Robin remarked.

"It is the furthest target from us," the android Titan replied. "And with their flight, they'd get there much faster than we ever could."

"That sounds like it would be the best alternative," Starfire smiled. "You boys stick to the bridge over the August River. Perhaps if Raven and I are finished with our task promptly enough, we can fly back and assist you!"

"Yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "It could take a while to search the August River."

"Hey!" Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips. "You doubting my searching abilities?"

"No…I'm doubting our constraints of **time**," Cyborg retorted. "Who knows…I may need to help you and stuff. This is an issue of how swiftly we can recover this stuff, after all."

"And we'd benefit from getting it all before dark so we can go after the two more sure targets," Robin said. "Then we can conduct a greater search with the analyses from our bigger samples."

"All right!" Kara rubbed her hands together. "Let's get this plan into action, shall we?"

"Not so fast," Raven said. "Not all of us are Cyborg. How're we going to track down the Kryptonite, exactly?"

Cyborg rubbed his chin. A beat. He turned around. He pressed a button in the console of the T-Car's dashboard. He pulled out three sensors."

"By now…these things should be calibrated to factor in the analyses we just took overnight," the android Titan remarked. He tossed one to Starfire…and another to me. He kept one to himself before slowly handing it to Beast Boy. "When you press the red button, the device should beep and flash its red light. The closer you are to Kryptonite emissions, the faster the beeping and flashing."

"Oh….kinda like in that movie 'Alien'! When the extraterrestrial freak got closer to them, the sensors clicked faster and faster!" Beast Boy remarked. Starfire and Kara glared at him. "What?! For crying out loud, it's just Hollywood!"

"That settles that," Raven nodded. "How soon do we set out?"

Robin smiled. "How soon can you take off into the air?"

I took a deep breath and looked at Kara.

The girl giggled. "Care to go for a walk, Jordan?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car's engine hummed as the convertible rolled on down a dusty road at fifty miles per hour. The rolling hills gradually sloped down and down as they approached a distant river bed that would hopefully house the Kryptonite that they were after. Cyborg was at the wheel, Beast Boy sat in the rear. Robin busied himself in the front passenger's seat with a communicator.

"That's gonna be a long flight you girls take," the Boy Wonder spoke. "Keep in touch with us and let us know if you need anything."

"_I'm sure we'll be __**fine,**__ Robin,"_ Raven's voice responded firmly through the tiny speakers. "_We're called 'superheroes' for a reason, ya know."_

Beast Boy leaned in from the backseat. "Don't ya mean 'superheroines'?"

"_Robin, is that Beast Boy?"_

"Uh….yeah it is."

"Do me a favor and hit him for me."

_**  
**_BONK!

"Owie!!" Beast Boy rubbed his forehead and leaned back.

"_Thank you."_

"Don't mention it."

"Raven out."

Robin pocketed the communicator.

"Sometimes, dude…I swear. You and Raven are joined at the hip."

"Yeah…well…duh." Robin then looked over at the driver. "How close are we, Cyborg?"

"Should have brought a Game Boy, man," Cyborg shook his head. "Gonna be a while."

"All right," the Boy Wonder nodded. He leaned back in his seat and placed his arms behind his back. "I'll admit…..we've been through more pressuresome straits before."

"Uh…dude…," Beast Boy blinked. "You're not pressured at all by a fruity robot running around with a hydrogen bomb strapped inside his chest?"

"Well, besides that…," Robin hummed. "I like to think this is still a vacation."

"Man…I wished I had your tenacity," Cyborg smirked.

Robin glanced at him through his eyemask. "Am I hearing this from the same hero who's had his fair share of 'dying' in multiple contexts of the term and surviving long enough to eat pizza and play Xbox?"

"Yes….well, granted, I'm more tenacious than the two of you combined…," Cyborg chuckled.

"**Oh really,"** Robin and Beast Boy uttered at once.

"What I envy is your spirit—though it's usually a pain in the ass—it's commendable, Robin."

"This must be vacation still," Beast Boy looked out at the passing scenery and wind. "We're getting all mushy and crap. Intergang, do us a favor and ambush the nest intersection or something."

"Man, don't jinx this mission!"

"Uh uh! I ain't jinxing nothing! I'm finding you some Kryptonite under the river if it means my swimming limbs falling off!"

"Yeah, you do that."

Silence.

Kansas blurred by.

"So…," Cyborg began. He glanced at the rear view mirror. "Anyone else beside me notice that Kara's being really friendly…?"

"Sure! She's a nice gal."

"……with Noir?"

"Oh." Beast Boy blinked.

Robin smirked. "So what?"

"So nothing," Cyborg shrugged. "Just remarking…"

"If you ask me," Robin gestured. "It's about time. Noir was due for a girl finding him and stuff."

"Dude, are you being sarcastic?" Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "You were there at the fundraising events! Girls flocked all over him!"

"That's not what I mean," Robin shook his head. "When you become famous…stuff like that is bound to happen."

"No…when you become famous and **handsome!**" Beast Boy cackled. "When was the last time you saw a bunch of girls swooning over….um…Martian Manhunter!"

"What about Raven?" Cyborg lifted a finger from the wheel.

"Yeah….but….she's Raven, dude."

"True…..true…."

"Supergirl is….the first person on Noir's **level**—how about that? The first person his level to….I dunno…am I assuming things?"

"Maybe," Cyborg said. "I don't think Supergirl's the first."

Robin gave him a side glance. "Who?"

Cyborg looked aside. "Never mind," he uttered.

"…….."

Beast Boy moaned and leaned over a seat. "Dude….when's it gonna be my time?"

"Erm….," Robin thought of the best way to say it. Eventually he uttered, "Weren't you and—"

"Besides **that.**" The changeling glared.

Robin cleared his throat.

"How about Batgirl?" Cyborg smirked.

"Dude! She's superhot!"

"And she's superNOT in the equation!" Robin grumbled.

"Why, Robin??" Cyborg remarked. "You got your heart set on her?"

"No! That's not what I meant! She's just—"

"Too Gotham City?!"

"Too old!"

"Dude! I thought she was sixteen!"

"No, she's……….older," was all the Boy Wonder would say.

"Care to tell us how old?" Beast Boy slyly smirked. "Or would that go against your vigilante 'prime directive' or something?"

"She'd be illegal, Beast Boy," Robin said. "Isn't that enough for you to know?"

"Illegal! Cool! All the more adventurous!"

Robin's jaw dropped in a ridiculous show of shock.

Cyborg couldn't help but laugh. "Oh man….B.B., you're evil!"

"Dude! It's just worth it for the look on your face!"

Robin grumbled, folded his arms, and frowned out at the blurring landscape. "I hope you grow up some day, Beast Boy."

"What? So I can take Batgirl without fear of the FBI or tabloids?!"

"That's not what I meant! I meant—daaah, forget it!"

"Hehehehehehe!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Far east of the route the Titan boys were taking, Starfire and Raven were in a hurried flight towards a distant interstate next to which they hoped to find one of the samples of Kryptonite. The wind kicked at Starfire's flaming red hair and the edges of Raven's dark blue hood. The dark girl had the sensor strapped around her on her belt. She embraced the whipping winds of their attitude with thin, bored eyes.

Silence.

At some point in the middle of the journey, a hidden exhaustion seemed to take ahold of Raven. She sighed, shook her head, and lowered herself down.

Curious, Starfire gave her a concerned glance before slowing her flight and descending to join the sorceress.

They floated towards a flock of lonely trees in the middle of an enclosed field by a two-lane road. Raven settled down atop the branch of a tree and leaned gracefully against its trunk. She looked out at the horizon…silent.

"Raven?" Starfire lowered down and sat beside her. "What is wrong? You look suddenly overcome by something…"

"I dunno, Starfire I just….," the dark girl sighed again and lowered her eyelids. "I just want to rest for a minute. That's all."

Starfire leaned her head to the side and placed a gentle hand on Raven's shoulder. "What is the matter, Raven? Do not hesitate to share if need be. I am here for such a necessity."

"I know I don't say it much, Starfire…but I hate to always be the stick in the mud," Raven mumbled.

Starfire blinked. "But…y-you do not resemble a wooden branch suspended within moist soil at all!"

Raven couldn't help it. She smirked slightly and opened her eyes to glance at Starfire.

"You know, Starfire…I may have once considered you annoying. But I think I grew out of that by now."

Starfire smiled. "Do we not all have the capacity to change?"

"I would hope so….sometimes," Raven said. She looked down at the grass far below her dangling feet. "All this business with the Kryptonite….it's really starting to bother me."

"In what fashion?"

"Supergirl is hiding something….I know it!" Raven exclaimed. She bit her lip. "I wish I could explain it. I-I just have a feeling….she's not being honest with us."

"I do not see how she could be deceptive," Starfire gently replied. "What would she have to gain?"

"Heck if I know," Raven droned. "And why am I bring you into this topic? You two have gotten really close to each other within the past few days. It wouldn't be right of me to get in the way of that."

"Raven…," Starfire looked into the dark girl's face as she spoke, "…the friends I choose, I choose through passion. And even the most naive Tamaran will tell you…passion is as easily receptive to fallacy as logic can be. But only if passion is applied with a certain level of diligence so as to see past obscurity. I've learned to hone in on such an art through my exposure to Terra and Noir in turn. I feel I am capable of discerning what is or what is not honest in a person. Even if Supergirl was hiding something…I feel I would have detected by now whether or not she had malignant intentions."

"Funny…," Raven chuckled dryly. "I thought I was the one with empathic abilities."

Starfire giggled. "I am sure you are still most adept at such powers, Raven. But this is 'vacation', is it not?"

Raven looked at the Tamaranian. She said: "Tell me, Starfire. What do you sense in Kara?"

Starfire's green eyes trailed the sky. "I sense….wonder…..energy….enthusiasm….vulnerability…and a strong and remarkable attachment to Noir."

"Yes…," Raven looked off. "…she does seem to be taking a liking to Noir, isn't she?"

Starfire looked at Raven. She tilted her head to the side. "Is that the reason for your supposition into her 'dishonesty', Raven?"

The dark girl looked at Starfire in recoiled horror and uttered: "No!!"

Starfire held her hands up. "I did not mean anything bad by that!"

"What difference does it make if that's the case?" Raven said. She stared off again. Her voice was a bit lower as she added: "What difference does it make if they're falling for each other…"

"Erm…," the alien girl blinked. "I-I wasn't aware that the latter situation was established."

"Oh….um….," Raven blushed.

"Is there something that you know about which I am oblivious to?" Starfire asked. "I do hate it when I overlook things—"

"I think I'm well rested now," Raven stood up and floated off the tree branch. "Come on, Starfire. L-Let's go….um….dig up a green rock." She flew away.

"…..," Starfire blinked. "I wonder if this has something to do with 'that time of the month' that Beast Boy always refers to…," she said to herself.

The alien Titan rejoined her companion and the two were off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The reason why we're walking….," Kara explained, "…is because the Brenderson's isn't too far off compared to the locations the others are going to. Besides…we're pretending we're not superheroes, remember? I'm Kara Kent. And you're….um…..Jordan. How about that?"

I shrugged as I strolled alongside her. I could be 'Jordan'….

Kara and I walked down the country road. The hills making us slowly go up and down. Every now and then a tractor or a pickup truck would cruise past us. The sun bore down warm and inviting. Kansas in the summer time.

Every now and then, there would be a lone cow or horse peering over the edge of a farmside wooden fence stretching on and on and on. I couldn't help but stare at such livestock. Kara—on the other hand—seemed used to it. She spoke on as if this was just an ordinary walk that we were on and not a mission to find Kryptonite.

"When I first came to Earth…," Kara went on…smiling, "…Clark was always telling me to stick to the ground. To not fly during the daytime—'going vroom' is what I called it—or running with superhuman speed. I couldn't understand why he was making me hold back. Why he insisted that I…ya know…hide my powers and stuff. Then I realized that it wasn't a matter of 'hiding' as it was 'preserving'. There's a certain sense of power in keeping one's identity secret from the very world you're trying to protect. As much as I hate to admit it, assumed identities is a good tool in fighting crime and evil and stuff. Robin's not as wacky as he seems."

I nodded listlessly. I never bothered with keeping my identity secret. Well, yes I did—but only to live up to the code of confidentiality that both Robin and Raven insisted be governed at the Tower. If any Joe Blow on the street knew I was Jordan, it wouldn't really matter. 'Jordan' didn't really exist much anymore anyways. I would have happily accepted a life that was as nameless as I was voiceless hadn't Janice at the City apartment complex so wooed me with the possibilities of the name 'Noir'. God rest her soul…

"Anyways…I felt so cooped up in the early days," Kara said. "And in Kansas of all places, I naturally felt like my head was gonna explode n'stuff. But over time…I got to appreciate 'this'."

She twirled around in mid walk, gestured towards the landscape, and smiled. She was dressed in jeans, a white t-shirt, and a cardigan sweater. Her platinum blonde hair was still kept in a hairband. It seemed to be her trademark accessory—in and out of costume.

"It feels good to slow down when you know perfectly well you can scale the landscape in one fatal swoop. I don't mean to brag, Jordan, but I'm practically a goddess on this planet," she lightened up her statement with a smile and a 'Kara' wink as she spoke. "I can plow through stuff and….um….throw cars at people. Not th-that I would do th-that to just any person, of course. Just….ya know…a bad one here or there."

I smirked and nodded. I was wearing Clark's old clothes—dry now—with a denim jacket over them to hide Myrkblade's scabbard hanging on my back.

"Things seem so infinitesimal when you're a 'Supergirl' or a 'Superman'. You start to appreciate the small stuff, ya know? Like doing chores around the farm. Jogging for exercise. All that good stuff. It's like sometimes I **try** to make things harder than they really are to accomplish. And in so doing, I learn to appreciate my gifts. You ever do the same?"

I looked off towards the blue horizon. I thought about the times I tried fighting without the aid of Myrkblade. I was quickly reminded of how soon my ass had been handed to me on a plate. I looked at her and shook my head.

"No??"

I shrugged and simpered.

"Well, that's too bad," Kara said. "Cuz me? I like walking. I like walking a lot. It just feels….nice. I wish you could understand that…"

For the first time since we met, I wanted desperately to tell Supergirl something. Naturally, I couldn't. But still, I wanted her to know. I was in love with walking too. I loved to explore the urban and natural jungles of our world on foot. I was absolutely, positively fond of……..this…..

"We'll get to the Brendersons," Kara mused. "Just a matter of time. Good…lazy…self-sufficient time…"

And silence ensued for a few minutes as we walked. The two of us. Alone.

I glanced at Kara. She was quiet. Peaceful. Serene. Not the blonde chatterbox that she so easily persuaded others that she was. That she so easily impressed upon the Titans that she was. Every cutting remark of Beast Boy's and every glare of Raven's fell into the fire in my head as I saw Kara melt away all stereotypes and morph into what we all really are on the inside.

Aimless, mute souls.

I took a deep breath as the wind kicked at my hair and her hair alike. I never knew it was so windy this time of year. Must have been a Kansas thing. The air brushed away our exteriors and underneath I was the same old ghost afraid of the West and Kara was…..Kara was haunted by something herself. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But something was troubling her. Beneath the extroverted party-goer and the lonesome naturalist was a layer of anxiety. And I wondered—in the suspicious corners of my mind—if the very same Supergirl I was infrequently infatuated with in days of old was truly nothing more than the vomiting-in-a-Denny's-bathroom prisoner to the past as I was.

It was through this fissure of awkwardness that my muteness converged with Supergirl's sudden solemnity and someone's soul braved the chance to squeak through.

Kara's….

"You wanna know how else I'm similar to Blueboy, Jordan?"

I looked at her curiously.

Her blue eyes darted at me. "I'm the last of my kind too."

My lips parted somewhat.

"I'm the only Argosian there ever will be," Supergirl said. "The last of my people. The soul survivor of a planet obliterated by Krypton's devastation."

I swallowed a painful lump in my throat. That was utterly inconceivable…

Kara hugged herself as she walked against the wind with me. "It's not so bad when you start to embrace it," she said. "Putting it into harsh terms…we're all the last of our kind. In that 'our kind' never goes beyond who we are when we are born and who we are when we die." She glanced at me again. "Even if I was to live a life long and happy on my planet and with my family all around me and stuff, I'd still be destined to live and die as myself and myself alone. Nothing would have changed that. Not even the destruction of my planet. I'm the same girl I always was and always will be. And I'm the same girl I always would have been…"

I listened silently. It was what I was good at. I never complained…and with Supergirl of all people—I wasn't about to start.

"I guess it's because I see my life as such a limbo because of what happened to me…," Kara went on, "…that I feel the need to help people. My life may remain static…but by being a hero I can help others along, right? If I can't change myself, at least I can change things so that other people have it better. I-In a way…it kinda sorta makes up for the fact that I was powerless on my dying planet when everyone around me…………….a-around me……."

Her words lingered.

I took a deep breath and politely looked towards the horizon again.

Kara sighed. A beat. "Enough of that." She then smiled suddenly and looked at me. "So how do you like being Supergirl's counsel slave?"

I mocked as if I was 'thinking', snapped my finger, and pretended to hang myself with an invisible rope.

"Oh come on!" she shoved me. Lightly, thank god. She giggled. "That's mean!"

I smirked.

"I know…I know…I can take it," she mused. "I'm Supergirl, after all. The Girl of Steel. Can leap twenty jocks with a single bound. Hehehe! I just made that one up!"

I chuckled breathily.

A beat.

Kara paused in her walk.

So did I.

She sauntered over and sat on a wooden fence. She sighed, took her hairband out, and ran a hand through her platinum blondeness in the relentless wind.

"To be honest….I-I never talk about it much with ayone."

I leaned my head to the side…listening. Paying attention to her.

"I could talk about Argos with Clark and all. But somehow it doesn't feel right. He's lost a whole world of people like me. But he's built his entire life upon it. He's practically a legend. And his parents put so much faith and trust in him and stuff. I think he's too sensitive to talk much of Krypton, much less Argos. And Ma and Pa…th-they're so nice to me, I wouldn't ever want to burden them with my homesickness. Especially with how nice they've been to me and stuff. Besides, I don't think they'd understand."

I was silent.

She looked up, twirling her hairband around in her nervous hands. "Maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing? I don't need to talk about my past. Talking gets a person nowhere. It's action that's important. Action and decision-making. Not lying around and being pointlessly emotional."

I shrugged.

A beat.

She chuckled a bit. "Tell me, Jordan. Do the other Titans do this to you?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"I mean…dump on you all their problems because you can't talk back?"

I smiled. It wasn't a fake smile, but a genuine…knowing grin.

"Heh….I thought so," she uttered. She twirled the hairband some more. "And with such an eccentric group as the five of them, it must be downright torturous."

I shrugged.

Her blue eyes thinned suspiciously. "How could you be that humble?"

I made a face. I never once said I was 'humble'…

"Tell me. Who yaps on the most about his or her feelings?"

I scratched my chin. A beat. I smiled. I held my flesh and metal hands over my ears and made them appear pointed.

Kara chuckled. "Beast Boy, huh? Why am I not surprised?"

I chuckled breathily.

Kara looked down at her hands. "I suppose…after making you listen so much….it's fare to share something interesting."

I blinked from under my shades.

"Hehehe…I know…I bet you've been dying to know why I always wear these things," she held the hairband up.

I looked at it. I looked at her.

She smiled. "Kinda old-fashioned and juvenile, I know. But that's only on this planet."

I raised an eyebrow.

"On Argos….we got something akin to hairbands. But they have….um….religious significance, I guess you could say. Girls wear them as a sign of ascension towards womanhood. Then—once at the right age—they enter the nearby Temple for the first time and have the hairband replaced by a gemstone placed in the forehead. Kinda like Raven's…only god knows what hers is supposed to means."

I nodded. I never truly understood….

"But for Argosians," Supergirl smiled, "It means a central focus of energy….familial energy. The dedication to one's family and kin. A boundless love….almost equal to Tamaranian adoration."

I smiled.

She sighed. She eyed the accessory in her fingers. "But there are no Temples now. And there is no family left. Perhaps…perhaps I am cursed to never reach womanhood…."

I slowly looked down towards the roadside grass.

A beat.

Kara cleared her throat. She gently placed the hairband back on, smoothed her bangs back, and stood up. "Well…enough sappiness. The Brendersons' is just beyond the hill!"

I blinked. I looked down the road. Indeed—over a bend in grass, fence, and asphalt—I saw the top of a silo. A farmhouse was just nearby. I glanced at Kara curiously.

She giggled. "Well, naturally I wouldn't have wasted all your time with reminiscing if I knew the destination was so far away yet!"

I rolled my black eyes under the shades and joined her side as we ventured over the hill, down the slope, and in through the open gate in the nearby fence.

The Brendersons' house was larger than the Kents'. In fact, they had two barns—both of which were larger than the Kents'—and a silo and a plethora of farm equipment. The tradeoff? They had roughly one fourth of the land that the Kents had. But most of that land was chock full of crops of some kind or another. They seemed like a diligent bunch of people.

As we stepped onto the porch of the place together, a shaggy dog barked loudly from the side. I eyed it viciously. It started to growl.

I felt a tug on my shoulder and looked over at Kara.

"Remember…I know the Brendersons," she said in a hushed tone. "So let me just do the talking."

Duh.

"I'll get all friendly and….um….distract them. And when I give you the signal, you go all cloaky and stuff and check out the back for the Kryptonite. You got the sensor, right?"

I nodded, patting a hand over my pocket. I then gestured at her curiously.

"What?" A beat. "Oh….um….the signal will be…um…you'll know it when I give it."

I sighed.

"Hey! Don't worry!" she winked. "I got this under control!" She turned and knocked on the door.

The shaggy dog barked louder.

I bit my lip.

There was a creaking set of footsteps against wooden floorboards, and then the inner door opened and we saw a middle-aged woman's face through the screen.

"Heya!" Kara smiled with a friendly wave.

The woman gasped. "Kara! Kara Kent! Well, a fine good day it is to see you! How've you been?"

"Just fine, Mrs. Brenderson! We were just in the area and I thought we'd stop on by and say 'hi'!"

The woman beamed and looked in my direction. "And who's this with you?"

Kara swiftly hugged my arm and smiled proudly. "What? You haven't met Jordan?"

"Jordan??"

"My boyfriend from out of town, of course!!"

I went pale. Sweatdropping….

"Oh, well if this isn't a pleasant surprise?! Well, why don't you two come on in! I was just about to make some lemonade for the girls!"

"Mable and Leslie?! Omigosh! I haven't seen them in ages!! I wonder if they've grown—"

"Come see for yourself!"

"Awesome!" she hugged me harder. "Come, Jordan!"

I numbly followed her through the doorway, wheezing as if I was about to faint from something…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car rested off the road between the start of a metal bridge and a slope in the ground that sunk down towards a river. The August River, to be exact. Approximately one hundred feet wide. There had been lots of rain recently, and the river run deep.

"I just thought of something…," Cyborg said, eyeing the sensor and its quickly blinking light. They had to have been close. "For a piece of Kryptonite to have settled around here about thirty-odd years ago and yet not have been swept off by the river's currents…it must have dug deep into the earth. Like…underneath the riverbed itself."

"It's not something that can be seen by the eye, no doubt,' Robin said from the back of the T-Car. He looked over at Beast Boy. "The best you can do is locate a spot underwater that's closest to where the sensor detects the Kryptonite and leave a marker somehow."

"What then?" the changeling asked.

Cyborg switched his hand into a laser cannon. "Forced extraction!" He smirked.

"Great….," Beast Boy folded his arms. "Share the spotlight, why don't ya?"

"Don't complain so much, Beast Boy," Robin said. "We're still depending on you. Sure…Cyborg and I could try diving. But we couldn't do it as efficiently as you can."

"Damn straight!" the green elf smirked. "So what are we waiting for?! Lemme go sploosh already!"

"Before the sploosh…," Cyborg held up the sensor. "You're gonna be needing this."

"Oh yeah. Oops…heheheh."

Robin pulled out a cord and gestured for the sensor. Cyborg handed it to him. The Boy Wonder stringed the cord through a handlepiece of the sensor and then promptly wrapped it lightly around Beast Boy's neck.

"There…," Robin said. "The cord's tactile enough that whatever animal you morph into—providing it's not a whale or a dinosaur or something—the neck won't be big enough to snap it."

"Besides," Cyborg shrugged. "Why the Hell would you turn into a whale in a river?"

"Dude…," Beast Boy frowned. "This is **so** like a leash! You know that!"

"Yes."

"Yes."

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Glad Raven's not here. She'd say something off hand that would really really make this embarrassment worse."

"Don't sweat," Cyborg smirked and pointed at his red eye. "I'm recording as we speak."

"**Dude!!"**

Robin chuckled. "Go on, Beast Boy. In the meantime, Cyborg, let's you and I move the T-Car behind those trees. It's best we not reveal ourselves too much out here."

"Sure thing. Good luck, B.B."

"I have all the luck I need," Beast Boy winked. He walked over towards the river's edge, pointed his hands out like an expert swimmer, and leapt outward. He flipped in mid air, morphed into a salmon, and—with the sensor still attached—he plunged deep into the murky waters of the August River."

"Show off…," Cyborg muttered.

"Let him have his fun," Robin said.

The two put the T-Car into neutral and pushed it behind a set of trees besides the base of the bridge's north side.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kara and I sat on stools besides the counter of a well-furnished kitchen. We had glasses of iced lemonade before us. Mrs. Brenderson filed about in the kitchen, smiling and pleasantly going on and on about some local fair going on that very day. Two adorable little sisters—Mable and Leslie—played with dolls in the corner. In the adjacent room and sitting in an easy chair with a newspaper was an old man with a gray beard and an egg-like head. Grandpappy Brenderson…I rightfully assumed. Every now and then, Mr. Brenderson and a young, well-built cousin of theirs wandered in and out of the house and managed a scant 'greetings' and 'good afternoon' before swiftly going back to their farm duties of the day.

"..and they're even having a pumpkin contest! Though this year, it's rather lackluster. From what I hear, that is. The Jenkins' family aren't entering. And you know as well as everyone else how they've been undefeated for the past eight summer fairs."

I stared intently into the glass of my lemonade, trying to stay sane. Snug in my pocket, the sensor clicked muffledly against the material of Clark's old slacks. We were close to the Kryptonite. But not too close. Otherwise, Supergirl would be showing signs of some fatigue at least. Instead, she was energetically playing the part of…..being herself.

"Oh, those Jenkins'! You know they're just boasting about it all!" Kara exclaimed. She cupped her hands under her leaning chin and smiled pleasantly over the counter at the woman. "The only reason they've won the pumpkin competitions so much is because their daughter has married into the Alberts' and their farm!"

"The Alberts?" Mrs. Brenderson remarked.

"Yeah! Ya know…the old lady Albert? She's one of the judges every year!"

"Wow….I never thought of that."

"Word travels around in high school that she's taken a liking to that one Jenkins' girl married to her grandson, and you KNOW what that means!"

"Yes…heheheheheh!"

I looked boringly into the other room.

The old man was glaring at me. Suspiciously. He did not seem like a pleasant man at all.

I gulped. I looked out the window.

The loud shaggy dog was pressed against the pane. Eyeing me. Bloodthirsty.

I took a shaky drink of lemonade.

"So….Jordan, is it?" Mrs. Brenderson folded her arms and smiled. "You've got a lucky catch with Kara! The kindest creature in the world. I swear. She's made us so happy with the way she takes care of little Mable and Leslie…."

I smiled. I gulped. I returned to the lemonade.

"………," Mrs. Brenderson blinked. "Certainly a quiet type, are you?"

I bit my lip.

Kara cleared her throat and said—smiling: "He….um….has made a vow of silence."

"A vow of silence?"

I raised my eyebrow at Kara.

"Y-Yeah!" she hugged my arm and beamed. "He's practicing to….um…..become a monk!"

"Oh….you don't say!"

"Y-Yeah! In….um….Timbuck!"

I coughed.

"Tibet! I-I mean Tibet!"

Mrs. Brenderson blinked. "Oh…..fancy that."

"What's so fancy about it??"

"Oh, n-nothing. Only….I thought Tibetan monks shaved their heads and stuff."

"Oh…y-yeah….um…."

"And aren't they also celibate?"

I sweatdropped.

Kara stuttered: "O-Of course they are! But not Jordan's sect!"

"Oh?"

"Yeah! It's a new wave! Um……Neo Raft Buddhism or something. Started on the Internet. They got a new Dalai Lama and he plays guitar…and stuff."

I gulped down some lemonade eagerly.

"Remarkable….the world is certainly changing," Mrs. Brenderson said. "I sure hope it's not a cult or something!"

"HA!!" Kara barked forth a laugh. "A clan! That's just…just……HA!"

I cleared my throat.

"Ahem…," Kara let go of my shoulder. "Really, it's all very experimental. I tried to talk Jordan out of it…but he was patient when I went through……..um…….military school. So I guess I owe him the figure."

"I didn't know you went through military school!"

"Oh yeah!" Kara beamed. "I can bayonet a sack of potatoes from twenty meters! I swear to God!"

"Pfft!" Pappy Brenderson from the other room ruffled his newspaper and grumbled. "That's not regular army! Bah!"

Mrs. Brenderson sighed and called forth from the kitchen. "Of course it's not regular army, Pa! It's military school!"

"Sack of potatoes my wrinkled arse! When I was in Sicily, bodies were flying everywhere from the Lutwaffe's bombardment and we **wished** they were only potatoes!"

"Pa, watch your mouth! Not in front of the children!!"

"Hehehehe!" little Leslie giggled. "Pappy's cussing!"

"I am not! I have every darn right to say what I want to in this house! Lord knows your momma's just waiting for me to turn over into the grave!"

"For the last time, Pa," Mrs. Brenderson cackled, "—we're not waiting for you to die! I wish you'd wipe that out of your head!"

"Pfft! Fine subject to be talking about in front of a bunch of strangers!"

"They're not strangers! You remember Kara, don't you?"

"Like Hell, I don't! I don't even remember the lines on my right palm! You ever think of that!"

I was horrified. But Kara and Mrs. Brenderson were laughing.

"Ahhh….I miss having him around," Kara said.

"We only hired you at first cuz he couldn't keep taking care of the girls by himself," Mrs. Brenderson said.

"I heard that!"

"I know you did, you old coot!"

I rattled the ice in my jar. I glanced out the window. The shaggy dog was still staring. Evilly. I glared back at it.

It was high time for me to do some digging around…

Kara must have sensed it too. She glanced at me and mouthed something.

I wasn't as good at lip syncing as my friends. I raised an eyebrow.

She pointed at my pocket…where the sensor was.

Was that the signal? Regardless, I nodded.

Kara flashed a look at Mrs. Brenderson. She cleared her throat. "Say…would you mind if Jordan used your restroom?"

I winced.

Mrs. Brenderson glanced curiously at me…then back at Kara. "You're speaking for him?"

"Vow of silence, remember?" Kara smiled.

"But how did you know—"

"Telepathy."

Mrs. Brenderson gasped. "No kidding!"

"Yup!"

"That's just like those books at the supermarket!" the woman breathed. "D-Did you know that the Pope got hit by a meteor for the second time in his life?!"

"No way! Really?!"

"Yes! They say Satan and Osama Bin Laden are launching them from Mars!"

"Well….I suppose we should all get new roofs then," Kara remarked. She swiveled to me and pointed down the hall. "Down that way….honey."

"Trust her," Mrs. Brenderson winked. "She's been here plenty a time before."

I nodded.

I got up.

Kara put a hand on my wrist. "Hey! Pay the toll!"

I glanced at her funny.

"Ya know, honey. The toll!" Kara smiled. Then she leaned in and gave me a light peck on the cheek. "Silly! So forgetful."

"……………..," I stared at her and then….more or less 'fell' towards the next room on my way out. I was blushing like a beet.

"Hehehehehe!" Mrs. Brenderson giggled. "He may have made a vow of silence, but it doesn't take a mind-reader to know when he's in love!"

"Um…yeah…," Kara herself blushed—out of character—and leaned over the counter. "…fancy that…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I teetered into the adjacent room.

I shook my head.

I took a deep breath.

"……."

I glanced over.

Grandpappy Brenderson sat in his easy chair. He glared at me from over the pages of his newspaper.

"Some monk….," the old man grumbled.

I frowned at him…shrugged it all off…and made my exit. I walked well past the obvious door to the bathroom in the hallway and ducked out under the rear of the house and made my way into a cornfield, following the guidance of the madly clicking sensor in my pocket.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Raven touched down in a field just off the interstate. It was a very wide and….flat field. The soil was soft and partially covered with patches of green and white. A less-than-fertile mass of land in Kansas. Perhaps a leftover from the Dust Bowl.

"Forgive me if I say that this is not the most aesthetic feature of your planet I have seen…," Starfire muttered.

"Make that the two of us," Raven droned. She looked around. Then held up the sensor. A beat. She sighed. "Let's dig."

"Dig?" Starfire gulped. She raised her immaculate, girlish hand to her face and looked at Raven with big doe eyes of green. "Are you certain that is our only option?"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Fine…," she said. "Blast."

"Blast?"

"You know…blast!"

Starfire beamed. "Blast!!" She charged a starbolt, aimed at the ground, and let it loose.

FLASH!!

Dust, dirt, and grass flew…and conveniently landed across Raven's cloak and face.

"……..," Raven blinked. "This….will be rapturous…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I took two steps forward and stopped.

I eyed the sensor in my hand.

It was clicking like mad.

I looked up.

Stalks of corn stretched before me.

I took a deep breath.

I walked forward. I stepped in between stalks. Pushing bodies of green and yellow away. Leaves and stringy plant material batted across my arms and face. I gritted my teeth and pressed forward. Row after row. Line of stalk after stalk. Rustling…stumbling. Hoping nobody would see me venturing into this forbidden landscape.

The clicking increased tenfold. I stopped.

The red light was perpetually on. No longer blinking. Slowly, a shrill electric tone filled the air…and I knew that I had to have been at the site.

I pocketed the sensor away and looked straight down. I was standing in between two rows of corn…in the middle of the crop. Stalks stood up all around me. It was like a forest. The earth below was rich, dark, and deep. I pulled Myrkblade out of the sheath underneath my jacket and slowly dug it into the ground. I poured murk out and into the earth. I sensed the soil's contents with a spatial aura. I took a deep breath.

_There……_

About four feet down. There was something. Something the size of a softball. Hard. Smooth between jutting crags.

Kryptonite.

I smirked.

I prepared to jab down and start digging when--

WHACK!!!!

My legs were tripped out from underneath me by a metal rake.

WHUMP!!

I landed hard on my butt, gasped, and vaulted myself up athletically. I landed on my feet and twirled Myrkblade at ready…frowning.

And then I gasped.

"What in the Sam Hell are you doing there, kiddo?!" Grandpappy Brenderson growled. He held the rake at me and frowned with his liver-spotted face and white, scraggly beard. "This here your cornfield all of the sudden?"

I sweatdropped. I slowly sheathed Myrkblade away and sighed.

"What you puttin' your weapon away for?! Can't you see I'm in the fightin' mood?!" he sputtered. His wrinkled eyes narrowed and he breathed; "You ain't Sam'rai…ain't ya?"

I blinked under my shades.

"My brother was over there in Jap country during the Big One!" he trembly said. He brought the rake down to his side and leaned on it. "But me, I was bogged down in Europe with nothing but Sauerkrauts! I didn't get to see all the swords and heads flyin'! So answer me boy! You Sam'rai or ain't ya?!"

I closed my eyes and took a deep, exasperated breath.

"Ah…so you are the silent type after all….must be a monk. I don't know of no Jap monks. Yer must be a chinaman! Lemme see them eyes of yers!"

I stood absolutely still.

"Heheheheh!" he chuckled and hobbled over towards the edge of the cornfield. "Stubborn type! I like that! My family's gone all softy on me! It's a damned shame! But you and me…we people of the earth, ain't we?!" A beat. He scratched his beard. "Say….when you were diggin' here….were you tryin' to find my stuff?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Ya know about my stuff, don't ya?! Well…all you had to do was ask, boy! I could have gotten it for both of us!" He then proceeded to approach the hole I was forming and dig into it with his rake.

I bit my lip. I looked around. I glanced back at his digging.

I couldn't let him find the Kryptonite! But….the way he was talking…could it been he already knew about—

But he stopped digging only half of the way to the green stone. He stood up and with a dry, toothless chuckle held up his treasure in question. A black bottle of…..questionable liquid.

"Kept her safe here for a special occasion! That daughter-in-law of mine…she says I should stop drinkin'! Says it's bad for my health! What does she know about health?! While she's makin' lemonade and changin' diapers and a little bit of both in between, I've been livin' my life to the ripe age of eighty-two! Ain't nothin' wrong with that! And ain't nothin' wrong with this here stuff either! It be my fuel, son! Can't live a good life without fuel, can ya?!"

I gulped and shook my head with a nervous smile.

He sat down with a sigh and popped the cork of the bottle. "Have a seat, boy!"

I anxiously sat down across him.

He took a big swig and handed it to me. "Here…have yaself a sip!"

I eyed the bottle. I was underaged. Besides….it was alcohol. Not my bag.

I politely shook my head and pushed it back towards him.

"Oh right…yer a monk. Well…your loss." He took another swig and exhaled with a wheeze. "Mother of Methuselah! After all these years, she still hits the spot!"

I bit my lip.

His lazy eye dangled down and rested on my left arm. "That some fancy hook you got ther on your arm."

I glanced at my metal arm. I flexed the titanium fingers. I shrugged.

"Mark of the Beast…that's what they call it."

I looked at him funny.

"What?! Yer don't believe me?! It's true! It's what them end time prophecy folks say on the Christian T.V.! Some bad guy in Rome's gonna make us all put chips in our arms n'stuff! Gonna say it helps us by vegetables at the grocery store without carryin' wallets! But no! It's all about fire and brimstone and the anty-Christ and locusts with the heads of men flyin' around and raising Hell! Ha! Just you wait and see!"

A beat….I slowly nodded. I tapped my fingers against my knees and watched as he took another swig.

"Ah…never thought I'd live to see the day…the Mark of the Beast and a monk who acts like a sam'rai! But I'll drink to that nonetheless! Hehehehehehe!"

I slowly eyed the hole in the earth next to the stalks of corn as Grandpappy Brenderson got drunker and drunker…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin yawned and sat straight up in the T-Car. "How long has he been at it?"

Cyborg glanced down at the river. After a little while, the dorsal fin of a sailfish appeared from the waters.

"About twenty minutes…"

"Dear lord…I wonder if we got that sensor fixed right?!"

"Well, man, it **is** Beast Boy after all."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Well…not necessarily bad. I think 'incompetent' is the word for it."

"Pfft…whatever," Robin closed his eyes under his mask and sighed. "The one consolation I have is that no matter how long this may take—we're still beating out Metallo and his crew."

"You can say that again, man."

As if on cue…a mysterious, white van drove up in the distance and stopped at the edge of the bridge.

The two Titans were completely oblivious to it…especially when a half-metal figure stepped out alongside the others.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Underwater in the August River, a green sea otter darted about. Bubbles trailed from its snout. Its beady eyes scanned the floor.

The communicator around its neck started clicking like mad. And the aquatic mammal stopped in the middle of its swimming.

Beast Boy's otter eyes darted down. There was a patch of mud barely seen in the filtered sunlight from above. It was soft and seemingly pliable.

The otter swiftly turned into a green platypus and dove down…beak first. The creature dug into the mud with its teeth, twirled, used its beak like a drill, and jabbed deeper and deeper. As the creature's oxygen ran out, Beast Boy swiftly turned into a gilled lifeform. A grouper. With big fish lips pursing, the changeling eyed its handiwork. There was now a tiny bit of green light streaming up from underneath.

If it's possible to imagine…the grouper smiled. It turned into a sawfish and continued the mad dig.

The Kryptonite would soon be in its grasp…er….fins…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hic!!" Grandpappy Brenderson shook. He leaned from side to side in his seat between the corn and smiled drunkenly. "And so I says….'Sprechen sie shrapnel'! And I tossed the grenade into the pill box and—land of goshen!—you should have seen the helmets fly! I swear…they were like salad bowls of blood when you turned them over!"

I winced and managed a brave smile as I listened to the old man.

"Dawson…my war buddy…he made a game of collecting as many helmets as—hic!—he could. But one day we were ambushed by this panzer division. And you know what he does?! He tosses the damned helmets at the tank and these dumbarse sauerkrauts start running out thinking we were hurling grenades at their hull!! Haw haw haw haw haw….oh h-hey…bedtime."

PLOP!!

He fell over with his bottle and was immediately snoring. His beard flapping from his drunken breath.

I sweatdropped.

I slowly stood up, recovered Myrkblade, and went back to my task at hand. A few minutes passed and I was frantically digging towards the hidden Kryptonite in the Brenderson's crops.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

"Try again."

FLASH!!!!

"Nope…none here. Try again."

FLASH!!!!

"Well shoot…the sensor says it's here somewhere."

Where Starfire and Raven stood, there were now twenty-something holes in the earth of the field. Deep craters from Starfire's starbolts formed all around them. The sensor clicked like mad with each successive burst. And yet….still no Kryptonite.

"Perhaps this is the wrong field?" Starfire panted.

Raven shook her head and eyed the device in her hand. "It's this one, all right. If I didn't know better…i-it's almost as if the Kryptonite keeps moving around."

"But how is that possible?" Starfire pouted. "No mineral on your planet is capable of sentience and animalistic movement!"

"But remember…Kryptonite is not from this planet…," Raven said. A beat. The sensor suddenly beeped and blinked like mad. Raven's blue eyes bulged. "Now! Starfire! Beneath you!"

"EEK!" the girl floated up and unleashed a starbolt.

FLASH!!!

Dirt and grass flew.

Raven shielded herself. She grit her teeth and looked at the fresh hole. Her eyes narrowed. "Starfire…look."

"What? It is another hole, courtesy of my administrations!"

"No…look closer."

Starfire narrowed her eyes. "A….tunnel?"

Indeed, a thin passageway in the white earth was formed beneath the ground. It began at one edge of the new hole and ended on the other side.

"Hmm….," Raven scratched her chin. "Starfire, I have a plan."

"I am 'all the ears'."

Raven motioned for Starfire to step back a few feet. She stood in place and stared at her sensor.

Seconds passed.

A half a minute.

A minute.

The sensor started to click and flash like mad again.

Raven lowered her eyes. She concentrated. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…," she breathed. A beat. Her eyes opened. They were glowing gray. She suddenly aimed her wrist at a patch of soil three feet away. A black dome formed over a spot of grass. "Starfire! There! Now!"

"Raugh!!" FLASH!!

A stream of green flew. The soil around the dome of Raven's black telekinesis exploded. With the soil gone, the two could see a green object rattling inside the body of the black sphere. But it wasn't alone. There was a small orange creature inside. A prairie dog. And the Kryptonite was stuck to its fur.

The thing chattered and clawed at the sides of the black sphere in desperation.

Raven's lips curved ever so slightly. "Get out of there, you little varmint…"

"Awwwwwwww!!" Starfire clasped her hands together. "It was helping us!!"

"Hardly…," Raven droned. She floated the creature into the middle of them. "Okay, Starfire….I'm going to lower the shield and I want you to grab the prairie dog and pluck the Kryptonite off its back. You understand?"

"Affirmative," she nodded.

"Don't try to scare it too much," Raven said. "The poor creature doesn't know that we mean it no harm. Let's just be gentle with it…remove the Kryptonite…and let it go back to the earth."

"Okay…"

"Here we go," Raven lowered the shield.

The creature plopped down to the earth, shook its fur, and with white incisors barred and beady eyes demonesque it pounced at the two girls with a hellish warcry.

Raven and Starfire shrieked. "**AAAAAAAAAAAAIEEEEE!!!!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Maybe I should go and help him?" Cyborg suggested to Robin.

Robin sighed. "He can handle it. Just…give him a few minutes!"

"Man…we don't have a few minutes!! What if Intergang catches up with us?! What if his taking too long ruins everything?!"

A voice from behind: "Well then…"

Robin and Cyborg gasped. They turned and looked out the back of the T-Car.

Five Intergang thugs stood with laser guns drawn. In the center stood Metallo with his arms crossed. He smirked.

"If that be the case, you can just cry me a river and build a bridge over it!"

ZAP!!!

ZAP!!!

ZAAAAP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy surfaced at the edge of the River in the form of a turtle. He had a green, glowing rock in his mouth. He set it down on the river bed, turned into a dog, and shook all the water off him. Then he turned back into elf mode, chuckled merrily to himself, and picked the Kryptonite up. He tossed it up and down in his hands like a baseball and began his climb back up to the T-Car's location--

ZAAAAP!!

The changeling gasped. He looked up and saw the bodies of Cyborg and Robin fly across the bridge and land hard on the ground. The two weakly stood up and faced off against the unmistakable forms of Metallo and his Intergang sidekicks. More laserfire exchanged, and the two Titans in the distance had no choice but to retreat. They hid behind pylons of metal in the bridge's framework as the laser fire streamed around them. Beast Boy noticed a brown van drive up and park besides a white one. More men with laser rifles filed out. Intergang backup. Soon, twelve men and the robot fiend that was Metallo were slowly advancing on the two heroes.

The changeling gulped. He hid behind a nearby bush and reached into his communicator. He desperately held his breath quietly and relayed the only morse code he had ever memorized.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'—S—O—S—'

"So….how long have you and Jordan been together?" Mrs. Brenderson asked.

"Oh…," Kara leaned against the counter and smiled with a shrug. "Feels like only yesterday! Hehehehe!"

"Ah. I know the feeling."

'—S—O—S—'

Kara was becoming growingly aware of a vibration in her pocket. It was the Titans' communicator. She swallowed and looked around.

'—S—O—S—'

Kara could distinctly make out the vibrating morse code. And she understood its urgency…if not the implications.

"Um….hey…c-can I make a call to my folks?" Kara asked.

"Sure thing, dear!" Mrs. Brenderson wandered over to a kitchen phone and pulled it off the hook—

"No no no," Kara waved her hands. "N-No need!" She smiled expertly and pointed in her pocket. "I was gonna call them on the cell, and I need to step outside to get the best reception."

Mrs. Brenderson blinked. "Cell?"

Kara stared at her. "Ya know…a cell phone!"

"Oh…one of those walkie talkies….pfft! All for city slickers, if you ask me."

"Eh heh heh heh," Kara sweatdropped and smiled. "Well…you never know. I'd say there's salvation in just about everybody!"

"Except Methodists."

"Yeah…whatever," Kara jumped up. "I'll be back! Promise!"

"Take your time."

The Girl of Steel scurried frantically….towards the rear of the house.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I dug three last times…sweating.

Finally!

I gasped, smiled, knelt down, and pulled the green chunk of Kryptonite out from the ground. I stood up and looked it over in my hands. It was quite a finding. Very large and whole indeed. It was a good thing Metallo didn't get his hands on it first…

"Jordan! Jordan!!" the stalks of corn parted as Kara bounded towards me.

I turned around from where I stood besides the gaping black hole and the sleeping old man.

Kara jumped out of the rows of corn, panted, looked around, saw me, and ran towards me. "Jordan! Trouble! I just got---nnngh," her sprint suddenly turned into a stumble and she practically flew into my arms.

I jolted and held her by her sagging shoulders as she suddenly leaned against me. Her soft chest to my firm stomach. I blushed. I tilted her head up at me.

She was thin eyed. She smiled. "H-H-How ya doin'?" she slurred tiredly. "Um…I know this feels special and all…but…I-If you don't mind…."

"???" I pushed her back and realized that I still had the Kryptonite resting directly against her tummy and mine.

Crud!!

I gasped and immediately flung the object fifteen feet away between the rows of corn with an expert pitching arm. I steadied Supergirl and looked in her eyes with an expression of concern.

She breathed easier and stood up straight. "Whew…," she shook the dizziness out of her head. "What a rush! Thanks for caring."

I shrugged nervously.

She looked up. "Where was I?"

I looked at the direction of the house…then at her again.

"Oh yeah!!" she jumped. "I got a signal on the communicator! Morse code! 'SOS'!"

My jaw dropped.

"I think the Titans may be in trouble somewhere. It came from Robin's group. So either he, Beast Boy, or Cyborg needs our help! We gotta do something!"

I nodded. I looked at the Kryptonite lying on the ground several feet away. I pointed at it and then at her.

"Yeah…I can't do anything with that close by. And we can't just leave it lying around! I-I know. You….like…take it back to Ma and Pa's place and hide it in the barn! Then you can rejoin me!"

I glanced at her curiously. I gestured.

She didn't have to read me to explain: "Silly! I'm going to go save your friends' butts! Boys these days…never can keep out of trouble!" she winked. "Good luck! Lord knows we all need it!"

And still wearing her casual 'Kara' get up, Supergirl flew north towards the August River.

I mouthed something and waved for her to come back. But she was gone. I sighed. I hoped my friends were okay.

I looked tiredly over at the Kryptonite…

…it was gone.

My black eyes bulged under my shades. I ran over to where I had tossed it. I spun around, panting, looking for the faintest hint of green glow.

A snarling sound….

I spun. I sweatdropped.

The Brenderson's evil, shaggy dog was chewing on something a few rows of corn away. Chewing on something green and bright…

I gritted my teeth and marched over towards it.

The dog paused with the Kryptonite in its mouth. I looked up at me through shaggy hair.

I pointed at it and snapped a finger.

The dog blinked….then promptly ran off with Superman's bane in its mouth.

I mouthed 'hey!'. I whistled. I ran after it through the farmland.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ackies!!"

WHUMP!!

Starfire plopped down—back first—on the earth. She held in her hand a struggling, clawing, shrieking orange rodent.

"This is an unusually fierce enemy than what I am accustomed to!!" the Tamaranian trembled.

Raven stood up and dusted herself off from where she had been grounded from the scuffle. She had claw marks on her pale arms and legs. With a blue strands of hair falling lightly over her frowning face, she uttered: "Allow me…" She marched over, glowed her eyes a bright gray, and lifted the evil prairie dog up with a wave of black telekinesis.

The creature kicked and screamed as it floated over towards the blue sorceress.

Raven lightly plucked the Kryptonite out of its orange fur. She pocketed the green object…then swiftly kicked the rodent hard in the side with a growl.

"Rgghh!"

WHAM!!!

The small mammal shrieked its away through the air and landed with a bounce across a circle of white soil. It shook its head, chattered, and dug quickly into the ground.

"Mangy furball…," Raven groned.

Starfire stood up and straightened her hair. "Effective method, Raven. But I must say…was that not most cruel?"

The dark girl put her robe on and glared at Supergirl. "Let's hope you **never see** 'cruel'."

Suddenly, both of their communicators vibrated.

'—S—O—S—'

The girls gasped.

'—S—O—S—'

"**Trouble!"** both exclaimed…and they simultaneously took to the air.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kara flew like a comet. Her right fist stretched out beyond her like a tomahawk missile. She gritted her teeth against the biting wind over the Kansas air as she raised altitude and 'vrooomed' in an arc that would take her to the bridge….literally.

She didn't have time to waste.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Drooling and panting over the Kryptonite in its mouth, the shaggy dog bounded over farm equipment and lumber and mounds of mulch in the Brenderson's backyard with ease.

I tumbled and stumbled and limped my way through the perilous landscape, trying to catch my breath in my pursuit.

At one point, I dove for the elusive canine but only got a mouthful of dirt.

THWUMP!!!

The dog barked, picked up the Kryptonite, and bounded off again.

Like this was a game.

I stood up, wiped the soil off my face and shades. I made a snarl of my own and leapt up to my feet and sprinted after the damn dog.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAAP!!!

ZAP!!

ZAAAAAP!!!

"Ya know, Robin…," Cyborg exclaimed flinchingly from behind a metal bulkhead of the August River bridge. "Normally I would give you some sonic for your boom…but I don't think either of us are in any position right now to do fancy tricks!"

Robin replied from a bulkhead across the two lanes of the bridge. "Agreed…if we're gonna counteract these creeps…we gotta forego style!"

"How about I sneak out with a strobe of light that'll blind the laser-toting creeps while you swing in with your staff?!"

ZAP!!!

"A flash attack isn't going to blind Metallo any!"

"Duh! That's why you swing in for! While the other thugs are blinded, you take on Metallo one on one. Then I pick off the thugs one on one while they're disoriented and join you in putting down that tin can!"

ZAP!!!

ZAP!!!!!

"Did you see our fight the other day?!" Robin cackled. "He practically leveled me in every context of the term there is!! If we take on Metallo, we gotta do it both! At once!!"

ZAP!!!

"We ain't got no time to do anything but divide our energies! Come on, man!! Let's worry about the whole and work on the center later!"

"Have you no concept of time?! Those lasers are eating into these bulkheads as we bicker! Soon they're gonna melt into us and there's gonna be no more 'later'! Much less a now!"

**ZAP!!**

Metallo's voice rang forth: "Are you boys done flirting?? I can get this sort of mush on T.V.! So if you would do us all a big favor by coming out into the open so that we can blow your bloody heads off, that'll make things a heck of a lot simpler!"

Cyborg gritted his teeth and stared at Robin. "Well….what'll it be man?"

"Okay…on the count of three---"

SMASH!!!!!!

The top support of the bridge shattered and a green triceratops flew down.

THUD!!!

It roared and bore its way down the bridge. Intergang members shouted and either jumped out of the way or were tossed aside by the changeling's menacing horns as it bore down on their metal-skinned leader.

"Ah…," Metallo smiled. "How quaint."

SMACK!!!!

He was pushed mercilessly into the side of one of the group's vans. The metal fiend let out a growl and pushed back on the emerald dinosaur. Soon he and Beast Boy were having a wrestling match.

Cyborg and Robin sweatdropped. They looked at each other.

"When all else fails…," Cyborg said.

Robin smirked lightly and whipped out a fan of birdarangs. "Go berserk!!"

Cyborg switched his arm into a laser rifle and ran growling alongside the Boy Wonder. With the Intergang members recovering and aiming their laser rifles and Metallo and Beast Boy going at it, a maddening fray ensued.

SMASH!!!

ZAAP!!!

ZAAP!!!

FLASH!!!

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!!

"Augh!!"

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The dog backed up against the barn. It shook the Kryptonite in its mouth and reared its body. Snarling.

I marched towards it. Fuming. Panting.

The dog's teeth barred around the Kryptonite. It barked once…twice.

I frowned. I unsheathed Myrkblade in a flash.

CHIIIIIIIING!!!

I pointed it at the dog.

"……..," the canine blinked.

PLOP!!

The Kryptonite dropped to the ground and the dog was soon running off with its tail between its legs, whimpering.

I took a deep breath. I marched over, picked up the Kryptonite, made a face from the dog spit all over it, and sheathed Myrkblade away.

With a deep breath, I ran off towards the Kents. Blurring with the full extent of my power. It wouldn't take so long now.


	80. Kara's Visitor part 6

**80. Kara's Visitor part 6**

"RAAUGH!!"

SM-SMACK!!!

Cyborg's fist flew through two Intergang thugs at once. They fell to the ground with their laser rifles tumbling and firing intermittently into the distances. Z-ZAP! ZAP!!

Cyborg charged a second row of gunmen who immediately took aim and fired on the android.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAP!!

Their lasers bounced off the titanium of his blocking forearm as he charged up a punch with his other arm and launched it at them with another yell.

Two men jumped out of the way, but a third was unlucky as Cyborg's fist plowed into his chest and sent him flying back and impacting the windshield of one of the two vans…forming cracks in the glass.

Cyborg recoiled and took on the remaining gunmen in his area.

In the meantime, Robin swung in by grappling hook under the last of the bridge supports and sailed in with his foot contacting the side of one thug's face. THWACK!!!

The Boy Wonder flipped forward, landed in a crouch, ducked laser fire from four Intergang gunmen in the distance, whipped out his staff, and jumped up to his feet. He proceeded to blitz the four men, twirling his staff about in a fashion so as to swiftly block and deflect each incoming laser blast.

ZAP!! Z-ZAP!! ZAAAAAP!!

CLANK!! CL-CLANK! CLANG!!

"Rnnnghh!!" Robin leapt, flipped through a spectrum of converging laser fire, and landed in the center of the four assailants. He lifted his lower body up into a handstand and spun the rod around in a fan beneath him. The four thugs were tripped instantly. As their bodies fell, he flung himself down and slid with two legs aimed outwards—impacting the airborn ribcages of two thugs and slamming them into the flailing bodies of the other two. THWUMP!!! The Boy Wonder then vaulted back up to his feet and engaged those still strong enough to step up from his punishment.

During all of this, Metallo and Beast Boy were locking arms and horns. Metal limbs met a constantly changing armada of Dinosaur prosthetic, mammalian claws, and reptilian teeth. The two were engaged in a tug-of-war match across the length of the bridge. A match that Metallo eagerly indulged in, as could be detected in the grin on his half-flesh face.

"RNNNNNGHHH!!!!" a green bull throated as it rammed head-on into Metallo.

The metal fiend gripped the changeling's horns and stood his ground. Metal heels dug into the asphalt and shot sparks as he was pushed towards the edge of the bridge but stopped barely before he could go over.

Metallo grinned. Two panels in his ankles opened and a pair of tiny rockets popped out. They aimed towards the changeling's side of the bridge and ignited. POWWWW!!! Metallo flexed his synthetic muscles and pushed against the green bull with his sudden unleashing of kinetic energy. The changeling's hooves grinded with the bridge's surface. The animal snorted and swiftly turned into a giant scaled beast with massive jaws. A T-Rex was suddenly looming over Metallo with a mighty roar.

Corbin cut off his engines and grinned up at the beast. "Skip right to it! I like that! RRRGHHH!!" His ankle rockets aimed directly upward and he was thrusted skyward with a raging fist.

SMACK!!!!

The T-Rex was uppercutted from underneath its chin. Its angular skull lifted and impacted hard with the metal framework of the top of the bridge.

CLANG!!!

The metal crossbeams bent and cracked. The dinosaur went reeling.

Metallo landed, sprung back, flexed his arms, and dove forward with a two-fisted shove.

THWUMP!!!

The jade creature teetered back.

Metallo stood casually, smiled, and charged forth two eye lasers.

ZAAAAAP!!!!

FLASH!!!

The changeling swiftly switched back to elf mode, upon which he moaned and collapsed like a sack of meat. His body was smoking.

Cyborg gasped as he saw it from his corner of the brawl. "B.B.!!!!" He growled and punched down his opponents, then swiftly turned around and ran at the fallen young Titan. He was almost there when---

SWOOOSH-SMACK!!!!!

Metallo blurred over with his ankle rockets and slammed his fist deep into the android Titan's side.

CLANG!!! Cyborg flew up against a metal crossbeam on the side of the bridge and winced. He glared up through a squinting human eye as Metallo stood in the way of him and his fallen pal.

"No playing medic today, Jr. Death doesn't take a holiday on my shift!"

"Has anyone ever told you that you're a real asshole?" Cyborg glared.

Metallo smiled. "Yes." He charged at the Titan with a fist. "RRRGHHH!!!"

SWOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

Cyborg gritted his teeth as he closed his fingers around Metallo's knuckles and swung his other fist at the villain's face.

Metallo ducked, shoved his shoulder into Cyborg's metal gut, then swung his hulking body over and into the other side of the bridge.

CLANK!!

More bulkheads bent. The entire bridge was starting to wobble. Two androids in battle was a recipe for disaster when it came to support structures.

Metallo charged.

Cyborg crossed his arms.

Metallo punched.

CLANK!

Cyborg blocked then swung his arms out. "RAAUGH!!"

Metallo stumbled back from the force.

SWOOOSH!! Cyborg lifted his leg and slammed Metallo hard in the chest. WHUMP!!!

The villain stumbled back, grunting.

Cyborg's leg came down on the ground and the rest of his body's weight catapulted forward.

WHAM!!!!!

A downward fist plowed Metallo's skull so forcefully that his body literally toppled over like a collapsing lever. He rested awkwardly on the ground head-first like a frightened ostrich.

"Assume the position, punk!" Cyborg spun around and swiftly kicked Metallo in the butt like an open invitation.

CLANK!!!

Metallo's body rolled across the bridge like a rag doll. He came to a moaning stop near the edge of the bridge.

Cyborg sighed, smiled, and turned to run towards Beast Boy's side--

ZAAAAP!!!!

Two eye beams flew into Cyborg's back. Forcing him hard to the ground. "OOF!!"

Metallo was chuckling. He stood up from his side, his head aimed in reverse. His body pivoted around to snap his head back into the correct position. He cracked his metal knuckles, unphased, and smiled: "So you are almost the real deal after all! This should be a fabulous fight indeed….my completeness against your half-hearted attempt at cybernetic perfection!"

Cyborg got up, winced, and frowned. "I'm not here to win any trophies…"

"My good man," Metallo winked. "You're about to become one." SWOOOOOSH!!!! His ankle rockets kicked into gear and he was at Cyborg's spot in under half a second with a fist flying up. SMACK!!!

"UGH!!!" Cyborg fell back over Beast Boy's still body and tumbled across the bridge.

Metallo ran, jumped, and flew down in a massive kick. "RAAAAUGH!!!"

Cyborg rolled out of the way at the last second.

SMASH!!!

A hole literally formed in the bridge from Metallo's trademark finishing move off target.

Cyborg got up—but just in time for Metallo to reclaim his footing and rush him with a flurry of punches.

"RRRRGHHH!!!"

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Cyborg blocked each one with a massive titanium arm. He then deflected one punch of Metallo's up high and shoved his fist forward with a snarl.

But Metallo swiftly sidestepped the punch, twirled, grabbed the length of Cyborg's arm, twirled, and elbowed the Titan hard in the face.

CRACK!!!

Cyborg reeled back, and as he did so…Metallo pivoted his body, pulled on Cyborg's arm, and kicked the Titan's torso heavily with a high foot.

SMACK!!

CHTUNG!!!

Cyborg's arm snapped off as his body stumbled back from Metallo's blow and he fell on his rear.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo waved the limb around and laughed. "So much for your love life!!"

Cyborg stood up and frowned. "So much for your **head!**" His red eye lit up.

The detached arm whirred in Metallo's grasp.

"Huh??" the villain looked over at the limb…which had remotely turned into a laser rifle aimed at the metal man's face.

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!

The laser rifle flew to the floor as Metallo's body sailed over the bridge's edge and into the splashing waters of the August River below.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

Cyborg took a deep breath as his arm 'walked' up to him on five fingers. He snapped it back into place, got up, and ran over towards Beast Boy's figure.

In the meantime, Robin was now alone with the dozen or so thugs. And he was making a show of it. He was in the process of flipping over a white fan, twirling his rod, deflecting laser shots in midair, and sailing down in a slide that tripped two thugs in one swish. He immediately spun around, knelt, and swung his rod twice to deflect a pair of laser pulses. He then jumped to his feet, blitzed an enemy, kicked his way through him, lifted his rod to the side to smack the face of another, ducked two shots, and jump-kicked a third thug. He used the impact of his kick to springboard him back, upon which he flipped, dodged three laser rifle blasts, and landed in a kneeling position. As guns were re-drawn at him, he whipped out a fan of birdarangs and flung them at the assailants.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

The guns of the thugs fell out of their pained grips. They recoiled in shock an pain. Robin somersaulted over, leapt up in the middle of them, and spin kicked one across the face. "HIYAAA!!" SMACK!! The thug stumbled back. In the meantime, a mid-air Robin reached into his utility belt, pulled out a taser, pressed the trigger, and tossed it up in the air. When he came down, he smacked the skull of a second thug so that he teetered over face-down. SLAM!! Robin then spun and twirled his rod in time to smack the falling taser into the chest of a third thug. ZAAAAAAP!!! The man convulsed from shock and slumped to the floor. Robin finally spun, twirled his rod, and uppercutted the second thug who was still bent over. SMACK!!!!

All three were down for count.

Sweating, the Boy Wonder looked over. His eyemask widened as a whole throng of laser pulses sailed at him. In a single breath he deflated to the floor and wrapped his cape over his figure.

CLANK!!! CL-CLANK! CLANK!!!!

The lasers bounced off the high-density polymer of his article. He gritted his teeth, waited for the impacts to stop, blew the cape away, and dove at the thugs once again with a warcry. "RAAAUGH!!!"

In the meantime, Cyborg was huddled over a silent Beast Boy in the middle of the bridge.

"B.B.?! B.B.?!?! Come on, man! Say something!" he shook the green changeling.

"Nnnghh…," Beast Boy stirred and moaned. The Kryptonite he had uncovered was safely in a satchel on his side. "Sorry Ms. Stefani…I can't join your band….b-but you can still kiss me…"

Cyborg shoved Beast Boy hard in the side. WHUMP!! "Man!! You're not hurt at all!!"

Beast Boy rubbed his ribcage and winced with a slight smile. "Dude…I am **now.**"

"Get your butt up and help me give Robin a hand!"

"What about Metallo?"

"I already kicked his butt! Now come on!!"

Beast Boy's green eyes lifted and glanced over Cyborg's head. He pointed. "Then how come he's—like—flying down at us?"

Cyborg's human eye bulged. He spun around.

Trailing water, Metallo came down from a massive leap and slammed through the top of the bridge with his feet first. SMASH!!!! "AAAAAUGH!!!"

"EEEP!!!" Beast Boy scurried out of the way.

Cyborg jumped backwards.

SMASH!!

Metallo's feet landed hard, unearthing asphalt. He let out a shout and swung both fists forward at the android Titan.

SWOOOSH—SWOOOSH-SMACK!!!

Cyborg was not able to dodge the last fist. It struck him back against the side of the bridge. CLANG!! A metal bulkhead snapped behind his head and fell down loosely between them. Metallo dove in with an knee flying upwards.

Cyborg jumped to the side.

Metallo formed a further dent in the bridge's structure. The entire road wobbled. He frowned and faced Cyborg. He bent down, picked up the metal piece of the bulkhead, and approached the Titan with the bludgeon held up. "What say I see what you're made of? Then bash it open like a good barbarian?"

Cyborg looked down. He found another broken piece of the bridge's metal structure. He picked it up and faced Metallo at weapon's length. "You talk too much to be worth your own weight in crap!"

Metallo smiled. "Well…you should know my saying by now! 'I speak softly…but I carry your ass ON A TRAY!!' RAAAUGH!!" He charged forward and swung the bulkhead down hard.

Cyborg grunted and blocked with the length of his metal piece.

CLANG!!!

Sparks showered.

Cyborg shoved forward with his piece.

Metallo stumbled back.

Cyborg ran and swung hard from the side.

Metallo ducked his head and jabbed forward with his bulkhead.

CLANK!! It smacked off the top of Cyborg's metal skull, showering sparks. The Titan growled and swung in a downward arc.

Metallo knocked his throw aside with his weapon and spun a three-sixty swoop that caught Cyborg hard in the side.

CLANG!!

Cyborg fell on his back.

Metallo leapt up, yelled, and swung his bludgeon down.

Cyborg rolled to the side, freed an arm, and turned it into a laser rifle aiming straight up at Metallo's skull.

ZAAAAAP!!!

Metallo's cranium recoiled from the blast.

Cyborg grunted and kicked an ankle out from under the villain.

Metallo teetered on one foot.

Cyborg jumped up, held his breath, and swung the full length of his metal piece into Metallo's side without mercy.

WHACK!!!!

Metallo and his bulkhead went tumbling across the bridge, bouncing like a rock against a pond's surface. He came to a groaning stop twenty feet away. As he stood back up, Cyborg was charging at the top of his lungs with his weapon overhead.

Metallo smirked, timed it just right, and uppercutted with his bulkhead right as the teenager came near.

CLANG!!!

Cyborg slid back from the blow, his heels forming sparks against the asphalt. He gritted his teeth, looked up, and gasped as he saw Metallo throw the bludgeon like a missile straight into his chest.

CLANK!!!!

Cyborg fell hard to the ground along with the two pieces of metal.

"Cy!!" Beast Boy scrambled to his side---

ZAAAAP!!

Metallo's eye beams knocked the changeling back.

"OOOF!!"

The metal villain marched over, grinned, and picked up the two pieces of metal.

In the meantime, a dazed Cyborg stood up and rubbed his head. "Nnnnngh…"

A whistle.

He wearily looked up.

Metallo had both bludgeons raised overhead. He smirked. "Nice duel, junior. Glad we could come together."

**CLAMP!!!!**

He sandwiched the android's ribs with both flinging bludgeons at once.

"Ughhhhh!!" Cyborg exhaled and collapsed back on the ground. His red light went out.

Beast Boy gasped. He got up wearily on two wobbly feet…and suddenly was lifted in the air as Metallo walked over and held him by the collar of his jumpsuit.

"You're green enough as it is, Keebler," Metallo grinned. He yanked the satchel with the Kryptonite out from the changeling's grasp. "No need to hog all the good stuff."

Beast Boy frowned in his grasp. "You won't get away with this! We'll get all the Kryptonite pieces before you do and—"

SMACK!!!!

Metallo knocked the elf unconscious with a fist and dropped him to the floor. "Right then….," he tossed the satchel up and down in his grasp and walked effortlessly away from the two downed heroes. "Who's next? Ah yes…"

Robin was panting. His lungs heaved as he fought desperately to knock out the last of the eight or so conscious Intergang thugs. His effort was a flurry of diving around and over laser fire while simultaneously flinging birdarangs and bolos and other desperate tools at fiends till he all but ran out. A half-dozen forward flips, kicks, and dives later…he collapsed against the side of one of the two vans—the white one—and held his rod out at ready. Sweat poured down his brown and danced around the edges of his eyemask. He gulped and panted some more.

"Deaf ears are becoming a high commodity these days…," Metallo uttered as he walked upon the scene with the satchel of Superman's bane in his grasp. "It was only yesterday I recall telling a certain bird-brained yahoo that I could blow up a good chunk of the Heartland if you so much as got in my way. Tell me, Robin, what got lost in the translation? Were you simply distracted by Supergirl's knockers? Or maybe Cyborg's?"

"You won't blow yourself up, Metallo," Robin glared. "You haven't got the guts!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" Metallo laughed. "Please tell me that wasn't a pun, Boy Wonder! How low do your superheroes go nowadays anyhow?"

"Just who is it that you're gathering these rocks for?!" Robin demanded. "Intergang?! Luthor?!"

"Now now, Boy Wonder…you are in no position to make any requests from me…," Metallo glared. His eyes turned read as he trained two laser beams for deployment on Robin's forehead. "…St. Peter, on the other hand, would love to hear from you in about ten seconds—"

CREEEEAK!!!

The surrounding gunmen gasped.

Robin let out a cry as the van he was leaning against suddenly lifted from behind him.

Metallo's eyes returned to normal as he glanced up and his jaw dropped. "What???"

"Rrrrrrrrghhh!!!" Kara gritted her teeth and snarled. She was still in her casual getup, and was presently lifting the entire white vehicle over her head. "You want a ticket to the afterlife?! Open wide, ya fishtank!! YAAAAGH!!!" She tossed its hulking weight at him.

Metallo sighed. "Now this is getting monotonous—"

SMASH!!!!!!

The van plowed into Metallo, converged as one with his body in a shattering of aluminum, and tumbled with a SPLASH! into the August River.

Wind blew at Kara's blonde hair as she dusted her hands off, cracked her knuckles, and faced the eight gunmen.

The Intergang thugs exchanged glances, dropped their rifles, and ran off…screaming like schoolgirls on fire.

Kara glared. She wandered over and gave a struggling Robin a hand and pulled him to his feet. "Sorry I was late. I was busy with lemonade."

"Wish I could say the same," Robin brushed himself off. "Cyborg and Beast Boy got whooped pretty bad. The same would have been so for me hadn't you showed up."

Kara gasped and looked over at the bridge. "Oh no! A-Are they okay?!"

"I dunno. I gotta check."

"You do that," Kara pointed. She marched towards the river. "In the meantime, let me make sure our metal friend is down for the—"

SMASH!!!!

Metallo's body flew up out of the smashed, waterlogged van with his ankle rockets.

Kara winced and froze in mid-step. "--…..count."

Metallo smirked, waved, and rocketed off towards the north.

"He's getting away!!"

"Allow me to 'get away' with him," Kara frowned. She took off into the air.

"Whatever you do!! You must get that Kryptonite!!"

"Oh, like THAT'S gonna be easy!!"

"I'll run and assist you as best as I can!!" the Boy Wonder exclaimed, running to the dilapidated bridge. "Let me just check on my teammates first!"

"Take your time! Make sure they're okay!!" Kara called back as she flew off more and more. "I can handle a small load of Kryptonite by myself!!" She turned and looked at the distant image of Metallo blasting away from her. "I hope….," she muttered.

The wind kicked at her long blonde hair as the bridge shot out from under her and the Kansas landscape turned into a sea of green and brown, teetering beneath her. She took a breath, shot her fist out in front of her, and accelerated her superflight for all it was worth. Roads and farmland and barns blurred underneath her. The flickering flame that was Metallo's rocket thrust came closer and closer. A metal hand pivoted to look back and spot her. Then the flames flared brighter and Metallo increased his speed.

Kara gritted her teeth. "Not today, Joe." Her eyes squinted….turned red….then concentrated a pair of laser streams hot and searing. They soared through the air, zeroed in on Metallo's ankles, and impacted.

FLASH!!!!!!

The rockets on the villain's feet shorted out. Metallo let out a sound somewhat resembling a drowned jackal as he annoyingly found himself plummeting to the earth looming below. His metal limbs flailed and he nearly lost grip of the satchel of Kryptonite.

Kara let out a demented giggle of victory and then promptly gasped as she saw where Metallo was plunging.

The fiend's body twirled, careened, and struck the ground of a grassy knoll. His body slid—dragging a trail of dirt and debris—and crashed through a fence and into the midst of a country fair taking place to the north of town. Rows of crafts displays, tents, game galleries, and other assorted kiosks subtly occupied various spots across a green field dotted heavily with chattering, happy people. Children and parents. Families and friends.

Kara bit her lip. She flew out of view of the people, touched down to the ground when she knew nobody could see her, and slowly crept along the trail of Metallo's impacting body…searching for his elusive hide.

She stumbled through the broken fence and came to a stop behind two tents of crafts and salespeople. The trail in the dirt ended….but Metallo was missing.

Kara gulped. She walked out into the main grounds and found herself looking at the wandering bodies of hundreds of innocent people. Country music was playing from a stage in the center of the field where a few guitarists and violinists exchanged their talents under the angelic voice of a pair of talented, visiting singers.

Kara panted as her blue eyes darted around and about. In this sort of a crowd, a half metal and flesh robot wouldn't survive long without obvious notice. How come nobody was screaming or anything?

"Hey!" a middle-age woman exclaimed, rummaging around the rear of her arts and crafts display. "Where did my jacket go?!"

Kara glanced at her. She then looked back out at the crowd. Her eyes narrowed and—with the use of X-Ray vision—she looked through enough necks and heads to finally spot a shadowed figure with a jacket haphazardly thrown over his shoulder. The hood was up. And it hid a very thin and suspicious head.

Kara's fists clenched. She swam her way through the crowd and towards him. She disciplined herself so as to not to spontaneously exert her powers. To do so would mean 1) the possible injury of an innocent person and 2) the revelation of herself as Supergirl. She wasn't about to do that…not when the Titans had gone through so much to help her.

Kara's pace was nonetheless hurried. She winded in and around people. The jacketed figure appeared closer and closer. Craft vendors rushed by her hasty progression. The smell of fairground snacks filled her nostrils. Makeshift speakers erected and wired to the microphones on the center stage warbled country singing voices into her ear as she snaked through. She breathed intently, trying her best not to lose sight of the man.

And then she bumped into a little kid with a pair of balloons. The boy whimpered. Kara stopped, jumped up, grabbed the balloons by their string, and handed them to the kid. "H-Here you go…I apologize…"

He looked up at her with big doe eyes and took them meekly.

Kara smiled, patted his head, and wandered on again. But then she realized that she had lost sight of the metal man. "Dang it!!" she hoarsely whispered. She broke through the crowd and came out on the edge of the fairgrounds besides a small throng of trees. She sweatdropped and looked around. But there was no sign of him anymore.

"Nnghh!" she kicked an obnoxiously large hole in the ground with her toe and planted her hands to her hips. "Where did he go?!"

SWOOOSH—A body dove in from the trees and clamped a hand over her mouth.

"!!!!!" she struggled for breath and was just about to jab back into the foolish attacker with her Girl of Steel strength….when she realized the hand over her mouth was not metal.

"Mmmmmffff???" she hummed.

"Shhh!" came a soft breath. I turned her around and held a finger before my lips before motioning her into the woods.

"Jordan!" she whispered and huddled next to me. "You got here just in time! Did you return the green stuff to Ma and Pa's??"

I nodded.

"Good! Now you gotta help me! Metallo's nearby, but I've lost him! We can't let him esca—"

I motioned for her to be silent. I pulled out one of Cyborg's sensors.

Kara bit her lip. "Oh….of c-course. We can use that to track him down. He's got the Kryptonite after all."

I handed it to her.

She looked at it in her hand. "You want me to track him down?" She looked up. She blinked. "Jordan?"

I was gone.

She frowned. "Well, if that don't beat all."

She decided to shrug it off. She switched the sensor on. It started clicking rapidly…but not enough for her liking. She started walking out of the woods. Slowly, the sensor clicked faster. She held her breath and jogged alongside the rear of the line of tents and stands, following the faster and faster clicks of the device. She soon was proceeding into the fenced-in areas where contests were to be held for various crops and vegetables. Save for huge radishes, pumpkins, turnips, and the like—the place was abandoned. Everyone in the craft show and the contest were flocking over to the stage as a long-awaited lottery for a new tractor trailer was being given away. And that was all good and fine, for Kara's sensor was practically clicking a steady stream of noise.

"He has to be here…," Kara muttered to herself as she came to a stop behind a scarecrow. "Dang it…where are you??"

Suddenly, the 'scarecrow' swiveled around. A carefully concealed, skeletal robot leapt off of the crucifix-like support sticks and brought both fists down across the Girl of Steel's back.

THWAP!!!

"UGH!!" Kara fell forward into a briar of watermelons. She looked up from where she laid sprawled on her back and gritted her teeth.

Metallo lowered the hood down on his brand new jacket and smiled down at her. "Get a load of those melons!"

"Has anyone ever told you you're not half as bad as you are **lame**?!" Kara growled as she stood up and raised her fists.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Metallo laughed. "And has anyone ever told **you** that you're in over your head?"

Her blue eyes narrowed. "At least I've got a head…," and she proceeded to knock his off…

He smirked and pulled out the lump of Kryptonite from the satchel. He held it straight out in front of her.

Kara stumbled halfway through her punch. She teetered back, gasped, and held her position with ready fists. Panting.

"Heheheheh," Metallo chuckled. "I make it a point to leave a woman breathless."

"Cheater!" she hissed.

"'Cheater'?! Pfft! Whose septuple-teaming who in this grand charade of heroism and villainy across this nation's heartland?!"

"After you leveled Cyborg and Beast Boy…forgive me if I'm not so sympathetic," Kara exclaimed.

"Oh!! So now you notice the damage I've so easily done to them! Tell me, my fair lady, were you born yesterday??"

"Occasionally…," Kara sweat and grunted.

"Well, take one step closer, Missy," Metallo waved the Kryptonite before her eyes and winked a robot eye. "And I'll make sure you die before tomorrow…"

Kara's blue eyes wandered the scene behind Metallo. And suddenly she realized the true nature of her odds. She smiled. "You're too fatalistic, Metallo."

"Perhaps I am. What does that make you?"

"A romantic," Kara blinked. She tilted her head up. "JORDAN!! NOW!!!"

SWOOOSH!! I materialized into a dive with Myrkblade swinging down from above.

CLANK!!!!!

I knocked Metallo's arm down.

He let out a cry and dropped the Kryptonite.

I spun and slashed the broadside of my blade across his face.

CLANG!!!!

His robot head spun and he teetered back through a row of beets and turnips.

I gritted my teeth and flew into his chest with the entire weight of my being. Together we tumbled through a throng of tomatoes. Red juice squirted out beneath us as we struggled. Finally, he kicked me off.

I flew through the air, flipped, impacted my body with the wooden support for the missing scarecrow, blurred, and snapped the structure apart as I sprung off, flipped, and sailed down at Metallo with my sword swinging down.

He raised both hands up and gripped the length of it.

CLANK!!!

I struggled to bring the blade down onto his torso and he struggled to push it back.

Kara watched from a distant, not daring to come too close or else she'd be made vulnerable by the Kryptonite.

Eventually, I blurred the length of my blade, turned it and my upper body into smoke form, and teleported through Metallo's body till I was lying down among radishes behind him. I lifted my feet up and reverse-kicked him in the rear.

CONG!!

"Augh! Dammit!" he stumbled forward and fell through two watermelons. SPLORCH!!! "Yechh!"

I jumped up, twirled Myrkblade, and ran towards him…stabbing down.

He rolled onto his back and lifted his legs.

THWUMP!!

I was vaulted over him.

I twirled in mid air, landed on my feet, and slid down a row of outrageously huge pumpkins.

Metallo was up on his feet and charging me.

I raised Myrkblade lengthwise and braced for impact.

THUD!!!!

Metallo's forearms impacted my sword. I gripped hard to Myrkblade as the two of us slid across the patch and smashed through a large pumpkin behind me.

SPLUNK!!!

We stumbled through an explosion of orange slime and seeds. I nearly slipped and fell, but instead I gripped onto Metallo's shoulder with a free hand and flipped myself over him. I came down—my back to his—and reverse jabbed with Myrkblade.

STAB!!!

He stumbled forward from my thrust.

I immediately spun around and slashed his feet with my blade.

CLANK!!!

He went airborn in a trip.

I spun and jabbed my leg out—kicking his airborn body across the patch and sailed it into a huge contest entry.

SPLORCH!!!!

Metallo sat up in a pool of shattered pumpkin parts and seedlings. He spat some slime out of his dry-metal mouth and glared up at me.

I took a deep breath, twirled Myrkblade, and charged him. He grabbed a handful of slime and slung it at my face.

SPLAT!!!

I skidded across the ground as orange muck covered my shades. I gritted my teeth and tried wiping it off---

WHUMP!!!

Metallo was suddenly kneeling and punching me in the gut.

I exhaled.

He shot up with an uppercut.

SMACK!!

I was sent flying back. I stumbled reversely into a wooden fence. THUMP!! I leaned against it, panting.

Metallo stood up, picked up a huge pumpkin, and held it effortlessly over his head.

"Hey Jack!" he cackled. "It's about time someone smashed you for a change!!" He growled and tossed the ridiculously large crop at me.

I lunged forward with a diagonal slash of my sword upwards.

SLIIIIINK!!!

The pumpkin exploded into shreds and parted from my slash.

Metallo was already lifting an even larger one over his head.

"Strike two!!" He was about to fling it when---

ZAAP!!!!!

A pair of heated laser beams flew in and exploded the pumpkin on the top of his grip. He was instantly covered with blinding orange shards, seeds, and slime.

"Aaaaugh!!"

I rushed forward and slashed Myrkblade hard across his chest.

CLANG!!!

He flew back and smashed through a wooden fence.

I looked back.

Kara stood far away on the sidelines. Her eyes returned from red to blue as she smiled at me. "Couldn't let you have all the credit!"

I smiled, gave her a thumb's up, and charged the downed metal man.

Metallo grumbled and started to stand up---

SMACK!!!

I kicked him back with my boot.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

I struck him so hard with Myrkblade across the head, his whole body spun.

THWACK!!!

I struck the broad side of the blade into his chest.

He tumbled back into a patch of grass full of barrels of fresh-picked fruit. His limbs flailed and his body careened as he smashed through a barrel of apples. CRUNCH!!! He fell amidst a flurry of apple filling and juices.

I jumped down and mercilessly jabbed into his figure.

THUNK!!!

He let out a cry of surprise as my blade stuck into his metal skin.

Gritting my teeth and pulsing murk through my limbs, I lifted him up with a rush of smoke energy and flung him into three barrels full of peaches.

CRASH!!!

He tumbled amidst entrails of fruit. He stumbled up and swiveled around to face me as I came down from another slash.

SWIIIIIIIISH!!!

His mouth opened wide…and clamped shut on the tip of my blade.

CLANK!!!

"!!!!" my black eyes bulged. I was suddenly in the awkward position of attempting to yank my blade out from the mangy machine's jaws.

As his teeth kept firm to the wooden sword's tip, his eyes narrowed and the flesh-like half of his lips curved upwards. He jerked his head to the side with surprising strength.

The entire length of Myrkblade wobbled and I was tossed off and through a barrel of pears. SMASH!!!

I tumbled amidst splinters and fruity mess.

"PTOOIE!!!" Metallo spat my sword out and wiped his mouth. "Bad year for swords…bleahh…" He stood up, cracked his metal knuckles, and smirked. "Let's see how much of a man is in that boy of you." He rushed forward.

I struggled to my feet--

WHUMP!!!!

His fist sailed into my stomach.

I wheezed.

SMACK!!!

He elbowed me in the chin.

My mouth bled and I stumbled back.

GRIP!!! He took me by the metal arm, laughed, and swung me wildly over his shoulder and into the ground like a caveman's club.

WHAM!!!!

I formed a dent in the soft grass of the earth and winced in pain.

THWUMP!!!

He kicked me hard in the side.

I tumbled like a ragdoll over to the side of the wooden fence. I coughed and sputtered. I reached in vain for Myrkblade which was across the patch of grass and splintered barrels.

THUD!!!

His foot stood over my fleshy right hand.

I let out a silent breath of pain and winced. I looked up at him through sweat-stained shades.

He smiled and his eyes glowed threateningly down at me. "Something tells me you're disqualified from this competition, boys. I'll make sure the worms eat you long after you've rotted…"

"H-Hey!"

Metallo looked up. "Hello?"

Kara stood across the patch. Her eyes were thin, her mouth was parted, and her body was limply struggling to stay upright. She seemed almost on the verge of death or a coma. In her arm dangled a familiar satchel with an even more familiar lump inside of it.

"Go on…," she wheezed. "Take it…"

"Oh…now isn't this charming?" Metallo grinned wide. "Now that I have your worthless partner here nearly beaten to a pulp, you finally try to become a brave girl and save his hide!"

"I'm not trying to save his hide…," she hoarsely uttered. "I'm trying to save all these people's. You've got a nasty bomb strapped inside of you…and I don't want to piss you off anymore to the point you set it off…"

"Mmmmmm….oh yes!" Metallo smirked. "The hydrogen detonator." He smiled down at me. "That would be a rather nasty predicament, now wouldn't it?"

I wheezed.

He stepped off of me and loomed over towards Kara. "Now…darling…I commend you for doing the right thing. Though I do admit…I partially enjoyed this little romp through the gardens! I'd enjoy it even more through your headstones….but still, there're many years left to be living and killing all the same, right??"

"Just take it…," Kara was about to collapse.

Metallo snatched the satchel from her. He smiled and slung it over his shoulder. "You were born yesterday, weren't you child?!"

Kara wobbled in her place.

Metallo saluted. "A pleasant harvest to you lot. I intend to visit another day and reap what you sew!"

He tried his ankle rockets. They were back online.

"Live long and fester! HA!!" he zoomed off and soared towards the distant horizon.

I stood up, wincing, and hobbled over to Myrkblade. With a defeated sigh I looked apologetically over at Kara and hung my head.

"Jordan…," she walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Don't be so gloomy. You did the best you can."

I rolled my black eyes under my shades and kicked frustratingly at a clump of shattered watermelon.

Kara shrugged. "Very well. I suppose now we go home." She turned around and walked off. A beat. "Oh…be a good gentleman and pick up that Kryptonite for me, please?"

I gasped. I jolted and looked over at where she pointed. Indeed—in plain sight there rested the same clump of green rock that we had so passionately fought for. I looked at Kara and gestured like mad.

She hugged herself and looked over at me with a sly grin. "Whaaaat? I gave Metallo just what he needs! Just what he needs to stay wholesome and healthy!!"

I blinked…..my body shook….I started to laugh breathily, silently.

Kara brought a hand to her mouth and giggled insanely.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In mid flight, Metallo smiled proudly.

As the Kansas landscape blurred underneath him, he casually reached a hand into his satchel to feel the reward of his endeavors---

His robot eyes widened.

"What?!?!"

He hovered to a stop in mid air and frantically opened the satchel wide in front of him.

"WHAT?!?!"

He reached his hand in deeper and pulled out a large clump of dark green brussels sprouts.

His flesh and metal lips quivered. "N-No….," he dropped the green vegetables and shook angrily. "No!!" He tilted his floating body up to the sky and growled. "NOOOOO!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kara and I ran down a dirt road from the country fair.

I had a new satchel hanging from my scabbard as I blurred into a murk-charged sprint and Kara flew overhead.

The two of us were still snickering like gleeful schoolchildren.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at the country fair, the sun was setting. A large group of happy, chattering locals were walking over towards the fenced-in gardens.

A community spokesperson walked backwards in front of them, smiling and gesturing to the group. "Wasn't that lottery exciting?! Mr. Redford and his family will be blessed indeed! And now, folks! For the moment you've all been waiting for! The Smallville Farming Joy Contest—"

His words trailed off as he heard gasps of shock from the crowd.

"????" the man twirled around. His eyes went as wide as the others.

The scene before them was a warzone of smashed contests entries. Exploded pumpkins, shredded watermelons, squashed tomatoes, and overturned and smashed barrels of fruits galore.

Slowly…gradually…a siren-like wail of pain and mourning erupted from the northernmost part of town….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At sundown, the T-Car was zooming down a dirt road. Robin was at the wheel. Cyborg had himself hooked up to the dashboard via flashy cords and conduit cables. Beast Boy sat in the back of the vehicle with an ice pack to his head.

"Well….I'll say this much," Cyborg managed a smirk. "Our vacation has never been funner!"

"Nnnnngh," Beast Boy moaned. "Why couldn't I have been an armadillo when he last hit me?! Elven skulls are toooooo soft!"

"Man…what're you complaining about?! It's just a bump on the head!"

"Dude! I'm a fragile being! When I'm in my normal form, I'm built for wooing the ladies not wooing the fist of some big bucket of bolts!!"

"Keep in good spirits," Robin at the wheel said. "This night isn't over."

Beast Boy whined. "Is isn't?! Why?!"

"There are still two more major pieces of Kryptonite to be found."

"Remember, B.B.?" Cyborg said. "Johnson's Recreational Park and Jacob's Plaza."

"Can't we do that tomorrow?"

"There's no time to waste…," Robin said. "And speaking of which…."

He pulled out a communicator with a free hand and spoke into it while driving. "Raven. Are you and Starfire close?"

_"We're there."_

"Well allright!" Cyborg smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Downtown Smallville, Raven stood on a sidewalk besides Jacob's Plaza and spoke into the communicator. It was dark and only the single light of a lamppost illuminated her figure. The street behind her was empty…save for the lone figure of Starfire struggling to pop open a manhole cover.

"We think we've zeroed in on the Kryptonite. It's just in front of the plaza. Probably in the sewer system."

_"Is Starfire with you?"_

Raven sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, Robin. We're both working on this together. We're both fine. How are you?"

"_Could be in better shape. Metallo gave us a beating like we had lunch money the size of the Swiss Bank accounts. But we can't complain. Just minutes ago, Supergirl radioed in and told us that she and Noir chased down Metallo and got the Kryptonite back."_

Raven made a face. "Just how was that accomplished?"

"_I dunno. But they did it. They're heading back to the Kents' now to hide away the Kryptonite from both the Brendersons' and the August River."_

"Well…we already got the stuff from the Interstate," Raven said, momentarily glancing at Starfire's struggle with the manhole cover. "After we sweep this stuff away under the cover of night, we'll swing back by the Kents'. Do you need any assistance?"

"No. I think we'll be fine in the Park. There's still three of us……more or less. Though Beast Boy could use some aspirin."

"Dude! Tylenol!"

"Or that."

"Well…whatever you do…be on the lookout for Intergang and company," Raven said.

_"Most definitely. But something tells me we've given them quite enough of a beating today. We may have to worry about them more tomorrow. Will you two be okay?"_

CLANG!!!

"EEEK!! Starfire jumped back and covered her head as she inadvertently lifted the manhole cover up with a jerk. The round, metal object flew into the air and slammed down through a parked car across the street.

SMASH!!!

The car alarm wailed.

Raven sweatdropped. "We're just toasty."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Over and out…"_

Robin held the communicator still and glanced back at the other Titans.

"Looks like this day is slowly coming to a close."

"Can we sleep already?" Beast Boy whined.

"Sit tight, B.B.," Cyborg said. He was getting revitalized by the charge of energy supplied to him through the cables from the dashboard. "Just one more stop and we're back to the barn!"

"Oh how luscious…"

"Think Noir and Supergirl should give us a hand?" Cyborg eyed Robin. "Or just chill?"

"Hmmm…," Robin eyed the road while cruising ahead. "Lemme get back to you on that…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was just finishing tucking away the kryptonite under the bails of hay in the barn's far corner when the communicator chimed. I turned from where I squatted and eyed Kara near the entrance to the barn.

She flipped the communicator open with a Star Trek sound and uttered: "Girl of Steel Hotline. Is this a clean phone call?"

"_Hey Kara. Robin here. Got it all hidden?"_

"What? The Kryptonite or my pride?"

_"Door Number One."_

"Yup! Signed, sealed, delivered…it's ours!"

I smirked and walked over, dusting my hands off.

_"Well, the two of you hang out for a little while."_

Kara raised an eyebrow. "'Hang out'?"

"_The way things are turning out, we're gonna have the last of the Kryptonite in a matter of an hour or two. Just sit tight and we'll be back to rendezvous at the farm!"_

_"Hehehe!"_ Beast Boy's voice entered into the fray. _"Just be good, kids! We don't need any littler kids anytime soon!"_

_"Man! Leave him alone for once!!"_

"Ack! Cy! Don't grab me there!! I'm still bruised!"

"Eww! I'm not grabbing you! I'm just trying to shut you up—"

"Hey! Don't distract my driving!!"

"Why're you paying attention to begin with, Rob—"

SNAP!!

Kara flipped the communicator closed and smirked at me. "Your friends are wyrd."

I nodded with a sigh.

"Come on inside," she motioned as she sauntered over towards the distant house. "I bet you're dying for something to drink!"

The thought of lemonade wafted happily into my brain….among other things.

I smiled slightly and closed the huge barn door with some effort behind us.


	81. Kara's Visitor part 7

**81. Kara's Visitor part 7**

"Kara?? Kara, is that you??"

"Hey Ma! Hey Pa!" Kara bounded into the kitchen as I trailed in after her. She smiled and waved. "We're back! Well…some of us."

John and Martha Kent looked up from where they sat behind a newspaper and a mug of tea at the kitchen table. "Kara! You're back!"

"And in one piece!"

She smiled as I stood beside her. "Today was a real success," she said with her hands innocently behind her back. "The Titans and I really cleaned house. We got to the Kryptonite before Metallo and his creepy pals could!"

"Well, if that isn't wonderful news!" John remarked. "Nobody was hurt, I hoped."

Kara bit her lip, but managed to say: "We're s-still standing! Proud and tall!"

Martha looked at me. "Are the other Titans here too?"

"They're off doing finishing touches," Kara said. "They should be back here in an hour or two, I'm guessing."

"Well, I hope they have a safe trip," John spoke. "Make sure to remind them not to frighten the cows with that car of theirs."

"Hehe….I'll check into that, Pa."

I glanced at the Kents. They seemed so pleasant. So happy. Not worried in the least…

"Any milk left in the fridge?"

"Plenty. Did you want a glass for your friend and yourself? I'll be glad to hel—"

"No thanks, Ma. I got it. Really."

"Oh. Okay. Enjoy your stay, Noir. This is becoming a regular hero's club! Hehehehe!"

I chuckled breathily, but kept my eye on the Kents. I'd never seen adults so…..passive about superheroism in the family before. It was remarkable…

Before I knew it, Kara had a glass of milk poured for herself and I. "Come on, Jordan…," she motioned towards the hallway while handing me my glass. "I don't think I've properly showed you around the place!"

I shrugged, smiled, and followed her into the adjacent room. I felt the eyes of the Kents on my shoulders…and a chuckle or two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Even a Supergirl drinks her milk!" Kara quirped with a wink. "Does a body good. Even yours."

I was halfway through a sip before I paused, gave her a wyrd look, shrugged it off, and continued drinking.

We stood in the living room of the Kents'. And Kara was eagerly showing me pictures of the family in its various stages of life. A greater percentage of the pictures depicted a young but growingly older Clark Kent with the dashing John and Martha. Then a handful displayed Kara with her 'Ma and Pa'. Her age didn't seem to change in the pictures. I soon figured that the life of Kara on earth was just about as old as the legacy of Supergirl.

"And here's a picture of me with my friends Nicholle and Tom. We met on the bus route when I joined the local high school. And when you're on a bus route in Kansas….believe me….you get to know people REALLY well."

She giggled.

I smiled, only half understanding.

"When I first hung out with the two of them, Nicholle and Tom were just friends. But I think I helped persuade Nicholle to make and move and well……she's won bashful Tom's heart. They were together at the homecoming dance last year. They seem so happy together."

I smirked. I pointed at her.

She glanced at me funny. "What about me?"

I looked at the school picture. I looked at her again.

"Huh? Oh….pfft! Tom doesn't appeal to me. He's a wuss."

I nearly spit my milk out at hearing that. I coughed and chuckled breathily.

She smiled. "Just because he's right for my best friend doesn't mean he's right for me. To tell the truth, human males are just so….so…..dull."

I gave her a smug look.

"Th-They are! At least, in this 'America' they are! When they're not flinging their egos everywhere in some 'macho' fashion, they're suffering from cultural pressures to appear stronger than they really are! Guys on this planet seem to have two extremes. Either they're really-really arrogant or they're really-really naieve. There's no go between. No perfection. Just….the poles. You know what I mean?"

I shook my head.

"Of course not, you're a guy," she rolled her eyes.

I shrugged.

She looked at the pictures and spoke to herself: "But….then again. Every guy on Argos was dull too." A beat. She looked at me. "They were all too nice."

I wanted to laugh at that…but I knew it'd be rude.

I was silent…as always.

Kara sipped some more milk and was still staring 'at the pictures' when she asked me. "How about you?"

I blinked under my shades. I glanced at her.

She looked my way. "Assuming you've been only to one planet…," she smirked, "…any earth girls ever hold your interest?"

My black eyes glanced over her. And in the photos I saw a flash of a green field with three sword-slinging apprentices and a master. And one apprentice was an angel with short-short blonde hair and eyes that hung the sky on marionette strings.

I took a deep breath. A breath that said more in its own inhale than any vocal cords could emulate.

And Kara got the picture.

"Oh……," she blinked. "I see." A beat. "I-I won't pry…."

I looked at her. I looked at my glass of milk.

It was half empty.

I drank the rest of it greedily.

Silence…

"H-Hey! I know!" Kara beamed suddenly. She placed her glass down on the mantle and turned to face me. "Wait here! I want to show you something! I know it's a little off topic…but it reminds me of something we spoke of earlier…"

She scampered off down a nearby hallway and up a flight of stairs.

I stood by myself. I tapped the glass in my hand with a metal finger. I ran my tongue over my teeth and leaned back and forth as I eyed the room. The wholesomeness of it all. The quaintness. Quite a tame place for a butt-kicker like Supergirl to be housed in. Or Superman for that matter…

I heard some crazed rummaging through the floorboards above the ceiling, and my curiosity was piqued. Certainly, it had to have been Kara. But regardless of that understanding, I found myself wandering into the hallway, up the stairs, and towards an open door where a light was emanating out into the darkness of the evening settling in. There was a shadow scurrying about inside. And sooner than naught, I was peering into Kara's room as the Girl of Steel frantically looked through the top drawer of her dresser for something.

"I know it's here somewhere….," she mumbled to herself. "…come on, Kara….where did you put it…..?"

Subconsciously, my eyes darted around the room. It looked like just about any teenage girl's room---in that I only knew what a 'teenage girl's room' looked like from t.v. or magazines. Starfire and Raven were hardly your typical teenage girls and—besides—I had hardly stepped into their rooms. Kara's walls were adorned with posters of rock bands of various talents, and the furnishing of her bed and nearby desk were certainly adequately…..feminine.

I thought Kara might want some help, so I stepped inside and--

"Got it!" she held something to the light but turned around before I had a chance to see it and---"YAAK!! J-Jordan, what're you doing—"

I winced. I spun to leave the room in a flash when--

I froze.

There was quite evidently a poster on the wall just to the left of the doorway. Quite evidently a poster meant to not be seen by just about anyone who stepped inside. Quite evidently a poster not meant for **me** to see. And soon, a panic-stricken Kara was rushing up to it and trying her futile best to block the image of the poster with her petite figure and thin limbs.

"Um….it's….n-not what y-you think! Seriously! D-Don't look…."

But it was too late. The picture had already registered into my brain. For a second or two, I tried to rationalize it as just another rock star photo. But I wasn't aware of any famous rock star who wore combat fatigues, dark shades, and had black hair hanging back from a bandanna….not to mention holding a long, curved wooden sword in his grasp.

The fact that I was still able to hold securely onto the empty glass in my hand was a feat all in itself.

Rather deadpan for anyone's liking, I stared at the half-covered photo and then at the girl half-covering it.

Kara blushed more than I thought a living thing could manage. It must have been an Argosian trick…

"Yeah…um….," she swallowed hard. "I'm….ya know….r-really pathetic and……er……jeez!" She 'hit' herself in the head and hoarsely uttered: "Stupid! Stupid! Kara! You should have torn it down! You should have torn it down by now! J-Just one second, Jordan. Allow me to—" she reached to the top of the poster to shred the paper thing off the wall.

But soon my hand was on her shoulder.

She winced. She looked at me. "Please tell me you're not making me keep it up…..it's embarrassing enough as it is."

But I smiled…blushing a bit as I was myself. Well, naturally I was flattered—no matter how wyrd it was. I didn't even know they had posters of me out so soon. God, consumerism is wild….

"I swear…it's less than a year old," she tried to excuse. "It's pathetic. I know it's pathetic."

But I shook my head.

"Why're you so cool about it! Is it that—," she suddenly stopped in mid sentence. She blinked. "Supergirl posters. You have one, don't you? P-Please say you do….it'll make me feel better."

I froze. I thought about the printout the Messenger had made for me long ago. And how I almost put it up…but then shred the thing to pieces. There was something absurdly ironic about it all, and I started to chuckle hysterically.

Kara sweatdropped. "Must you make it worse?"

I waved my hands. I placed the glass down on a nearby dresser and tried to hand-sign something.

"………," Kara watched blankly.

I sighed with a helpless smile and thought aimlessly for a way to convey what I wanted to convey to her. This pathetic confession of my own. That—in my own secret way—I had been infatuated with 'Supergirl'. I was a badass superhero of my own caliber, and yet I had one of those helpless fanboy crushes. Even if I didn't want to admit it.

There was something about Supergirl. Something about how fragile and graceful she looked on the outside, and once that concept was merged with the stark reality of her ability to smash things apart and stop flaming comets with the force of her body alone…I sensed something akin to self-sacrifice in all of that. And the fact that she did it all out of happiness and the pure motive of servitude to the justice and welfare of people instead of some dark, egotistical vendetta…

No, I didn't have a poster of her up on some wall in my bedroom. That wouldn't do her justice. She was plastered on the walls of my mind…the part of my mind that admired the charisma of a woman for merely existing, and left me ecstatic that she existed in the same universe as myself and there was always the risky chance of us meeting. I wished there was some way for me to tell Kara that—in spite of the unlikelihood of it all—I wanted with all of my spirit to meet her once. My mind and heart sang jubilantly with it, as there was not much else in my beat-up body that could anticipate our eventual meeting.

But over the last twenty-four hours, in spite of our meeting, I had held back. I had not leapt upon the ecstasy of having actually met such a fair idol of mine. And I wondered if I was punishing myself for some reason. But whatever the case, I wasn't about to punish her. There's no reason to punish a person for being in the same boat as yourself…howbeit a different sea.

Kara was still staring at me and I was still unable to convey a message.

So I walked over to the poster, placed my hands on my hip, stared at it through my shades, glanced at Kara, pointed at the illustration's butt, and shook my head.

Kara couldn't help it. She giggled. "What are you trying to say?"

I shook my head more fervently.

"There's nothing wrong with it!" she laughed. A beat. She coughed and blushed more. "Okay….so maybe a l-little poetic license on the artist's part…"

I folded my arms and smirked.

"But…if you've **seen** the Supergirl posters," Kara winked. "You know very well they take a license of their own."

I leaned a head to the side curiously.

"Well….you know…," Kara bashfully hugged herself and looked down.

I blinked under my shades.

She leaned her torso forward provocatively. "…..yeah."

I mouthed 'Oh'. I rubbed my chin, thinking.

Standing there with the real deal….I had to admit. The artists' scale is ironically right on.

Not that it mattered to me much……..heh.

I reminded myself to look at myself backwards in a mirror later…

"So….um…..y-you don't think it's pathetic?" she embarrassingly asked.

I emphatically waved my hands, mouthed 'no', and smiled for good measure.

"Whew….," she breathed, winded. "I was hoping you wouldn't see it. I should have took it down or something."

A beat.

Silence.

She looked at me.

I was looking steadily at her. Mute curiosity.

Kara bit her lip. "Um….I-I think it was…..ya know….during Blake Glover's crusade. His mean stuff about you was practically broadcasted across the country. I-I think it got more people interested in you than abhorred…"

I smiled—fascinated. 'Really?' I mouthed.

She went on: "And shortly after that…they started making posters of the 'Sixth Titan'. And websites started popping up. Fansites. There's this one message board called 'The Black Blade' that's like a 'Noir Shrine'. It's actually kinda special, considering there're over four times as many shrines for each of the other Titans. Gawd…you should see the fangirls flocking the Robin Message Board." She rolled her blue eyes. "But hey…your fame is up and coming."

I was blushing again. I wasn't much of an Internet surfer. The occasional e-mail with the Messenger was just about it. But now…..I wondered if I should pick up a new habit….a rather flattering habit. I felt a twinge of guilt as I realized I had never been to many Supergirl sites…much less a message board or a 'shrine'.

'Shrine'…..wow. Wyrd world we live in.

Kara shook her head. "Okay….enough of this. I came up here to show you something."

I nodded. I glanced at her hands.

She bit her lip. "Er….let's go downstairs."

I shrugged.

Whatever.

I chuckled and followed her out into the hallway. I couldn't help but wonder….was I starting to fluster the Girl of Steel for once?

Perhaps…I always had been.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In her hands, Kara twirled what she had rummaged through her room for. Oddly enough, it was a hairband. But not just any hairband. And certainly not like the one she was presently wearing. It was of an alien material. A hard substance not quite plastic and not quite metal. Presently, it was of a dark obsidian color. Shiny and reflective. But with each graze of the Girl of Steel's fingers, something seemed to change about them. And I wasn't sure if I was seeing everything I was meant to see with my limited human (and mutated) eyes. There was something magical about the hairpiece. Something mysteriously Argosian and indefinable.

Only….Kara was presently defining them to me.

"I got this when I was approximately thirteen in earth years," she explained. We sat on the front porch to the farmhouse. It was dark. The moon shone down on the Kansas expanse of farmland. I had my back to the edge of the patio, positioned in a wooden chair. Kara sat on a rocking bench. But it didn't sway one inch. She was perfectly still, her legs in a lotus position. The night wind of the Plains swept in and danced her platinum blonde hair behind her braid like a windsock.

"It was a gift from my mother. Part of my rite of passage. Ceremonial, of course." She was deadpan. Solemn. Reminiscing. "The hairband would mark my age until I was fifteen. And then I would visit the Argosian Temple for the first time. I would be on the path to becoming a Woman."

She held the hairband up and I saw through its frame a much older girl than I knew sitting in front of me.

"I was wearing this very same ornament on that day…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!!!_

The teenage girl gasped and spun around from where she stood at the bench.

Families and picnickers gasped and looked out from the grassy lakeside.

The girl's father and brother stood on wobbly legs.

All eyes were trained to the sky…a sky that was turning from red orange to pale green.

A halo of fire was coming their way…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"When Krypton exploded…," Kara's blue eyes reflected across the black surface. "…ninety-nine percent of my people's population perished. The fact that my family and I lived through the first wave is nothing but a miracle. We were commiserating under the hanging gardens of the Temple. In the very shadows of the gods…we were kept safe."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The girl's body was thrown to the ground as the earth shook.

_Everyone was screaming._

Everyone was running past her.

And beyond the scurrying bodies, the lake was erupting towards the sky in bright blue plumes of chaos.

The girl trembled. She struggled to get up.

Two soft arms enveloped her from behind.

"Kara…we must hurry!"

"M-Mother! B-But where?!"

"No time to think. Just join us!!"

Kala Inze pulled her teenage daughter to her feet just as the rest of the family caught up. Together, the four joined the scrambling bodies towards the sheltering wings of the Temple's interior walls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"As the blast wave came…w-we joined hundreds of others in the Temple. It was the only thing we could think of. The Temple was our place for spiritual support. So naturally it could save us from apocalypse itself. When your world collapses in on you, Jordan…logic and reason are left to the wind. There were no atheists on Argos that day. None in the whole deathbed world…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"I-I'm scared, Mother!! What's going to happen to us?!"_

"Shhh…just stay close, Kara. Stay close."

Kala held her daughter in two encircling arms. Her son and husband were soon by the two's side. They pressed their backs hard into the side of the wall underneath an overhang of rock. The ground shook all around them. Families huddled and whimpered and muttered sobs of desperation.

"It's Krypton!" the brother panted. "It has to be!"

"Everyone…," the father spoke. "Follow along with me…"

The rest of the family nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The Argosian prayer…," Kara's lips moved lightly as she softly spoke, "….it was known in every household. Practiced in every city square. 'Kela d'ral melana th'liel enz—'"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"—ieken b'al. Valaal senzekkel m'ral zi dal sen'lukken. Zel'dul zi sek'al thri." Tears streamed down from Kara's eyes as she clenched them shut and hugged her mother's side desperately. In a wavering voice she did her best to mimic of words of her father. Her mother and brother echoed the words with similar fervor._

The whole Temple full of huddled families murmured the prayer.

The ground started to shake harder and harder… "K-K-Kela d'ral melana th-th-th'liel enzieken b-b'al. Valaal senzek-k-kkel m'ral zi dal s-sen'lukken. Zel'dul zi sek'al th-thri."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"'Kela, give us strength with flowing life. Honor humbly we pay you and to you we submit. Protect and cherish your children'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Kela d'lalathriel ensepzukkun k'lai zi lanakral…," the father continued._

Kara was too overcome with sobs and fear to continue the prayer. Kela would have known by then the sincerity of her needs.

She hugged her mother's side and tearfully looked up.

Kala Inze managed a smile amidst the chaos. And her hand parted the bangs peeking under Kara's hair ornament as she smiled and said: "I love you, my daughter. My young woman…"

Kara's lips quivered.

And the blast wave hit the temple.

_**SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And….," she swallowed a lump in her throat, turned the hairband over, and stared into space. "…when it hit. They were there. And more than any prayer…more than any ceremony…I felt completeness and security in their arms…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Kara shrieked._

Her mother held her close.

The father dove in with a bear hug that incorporated the rest.

The brother completed the picture with his arms.

And somehow…Kara was in the center of the embrace…as if the family subconsciously knew that she was the only one of their numbers to survive this Hell.

The walls of the Temple started to crumble. Unbearable heat bore into the place. A huge section of wall came crashing down on two screaming families across the way…silencing them.

Kara's tearing eyes clenched shut once again and she drowned herself in the warmth of her family's arms.

The entire world was crumbling apart…but for a split second she felt as still as a millennium old stone in their hold.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A tear trailed down Kara's immaculate cheek.

She let out a shuddering sigh.

"I became a woman after all…," she whispered. "…with my mother's blessing and my family's love…I finally entered the Temple. I had my final rite of passage. I graduated beyond the innocence that was my Argosian youth and was prepared for the eventual collapse of Everything that was to follow."

Silence.

My empty throat was sore. I politely looked towards the floorboards of the patio.

Kara slowly started to rock in her bench seat as the wind won over.

"I….I-I haven't been faithful to Kela….or to religion in general since then," she bit her lip. "The destruction of one's entire culture and the relocation to a different planet sorta does a number on reintegrating the 'atheism' factor, ya know."

I had no response.

She blinked back to reality and twirled the hairband once more in her grasp. "But….," she smiled painfully as another tear trailed. She sniffed. "I have my memories. And….nothing in life will ever compare to that experience." She looked up at me with hallow sapphires. "I'd give anything to see anything or anyone try and make me feel as secure as I did in their arms when the Temple and the world beyond it came crashing down under Krypton's blast wave."

I leaned my head to the side.

She took a shuddering breath. She removed her plastic, Terran hairband and slowly—gracefully—slipped the Argosian one on. As if magical, the black converted to a deep blue.

I marveled.

"Reflects emotion," she explained.

I nodded. 'Sadness', I figured… "As much as I am Supergirl…," she spoke, "…I am still and shall always be Kara. And I have always sworn and always will swear….there is absolutely **nothing** keeping me from protecting the ones I now love and care about. I had everything and everyone around me perish in the fire and cold before. I won't see such annihilation happen again. I just won't allow it."

I nodded.

Silence.

Kara sniffed for once last time. Suddenly, the hairband turned a bright orange. And she smiled.

"That's really why we all kick crime's butt, isn't it?" she remarked. "We wanna preserve something?"

I smirked.

"Even if that something is already gone…" Her hairband flashed blue again, but only for an instant. It was back to orange. Just like her face, things were taking a brand new tone. She stood up on the patio. "You wanna see something really cool?"  
I looked at her hairband…then at her face again. I blinked under my shades.

She giggled and the red increased slightly in the orange. "Something else, silly!"  
I shrugged, stood up, and smiled.

Her hand took mine.

I looked at it…then at her.

She winked. "Just trust me, okay?"

I nervously nodded.

WOOOOOSH!!!

My mouth hung open in surprise as she was suddenly hoisting me up off the patio and flying with me in tow over the landscape. She kept low to the ground—to my relief. I looked beneath us and saw pastures and farmland fences cruising by underneath. The night yawned before us. I glanced up and saw Kara's graceful figure with her platinum hair flickering in the wind like a dull flame in the darkness. She looked back at me, smiled, and winked again for good measure.

I bore a helpless, crooked smile and went along for the ride.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A few minutes later, Kara touched down and I in turn. For a second, it looked like we were on top of an ordinary hill like all the others in the rolling Plains. But the Girl of Steel was gazing fixedly at me, smiling mischievously and pointing over the crest of tall grass.

I shrugged and walked over. I came to the crest in the hill and suddenly found myself teetering over the edge of a huge and incalculable drop. I gasped and swung my arms around behind me till I teetered back, panting.

Kara giggled from behind. "Surprise!"

Surprise indeed. I looked straight down. The earth had risen brown and naked and had formed an inexplicable cliffside. It must have been a five story drop at least. I couldn't help but wonder if it was an old impact site from a crater in the middle of Kansas or something.

"Clark says he was here the day he discovered his powers," Kara remarked. "I bet you can't imagine which power it was…"

I nodded, looking straight down.

"Flight!"

SHOVE!

MY black eyes bulged. I was weightless…falling…plummeting down the Cliffside. If I had vocal cords, I would have been screaming.

SWOOOOOSH!!! A certain Kara flew down. She 'stood' in midfall in front of my flailing body, as casual as could be. There was less than a story between me and a crushing demise when she winked, swept me up like a tango dancer, and soared the two of us in a blood-rushing arc back into the air. She twirled, made me dizzy, and set me down on suddenly present—and safe—ground. I teetered as the world spun outside my shades.

"Hehehehehehehe!!" she covered her mouth and reeled.

I shook my head and frowned at her.

"Oh come off it!" she hugged herself and giggled more. "I told you to trust me, didn't I?!"

I folded my arms, looked off, and pouted.

"You gotta admit…," she spoke, her voice suddenly close to my ear. "It **was** exciting…wasn't it?"

I exhaled. I was about to gesture something when I suddenly felt the world leave my feet below me.

I gasped, then realized Kara had her hands under my arms and was lifting me gracefully into the air. And pretty damn high too.

Naturally, I trembled.

"Relax…," she whispered. "Just enjoy it."

I swallowed nervously and nodded.

She smiled. She angled her body horizontally and accelerated forward. Gently at first, and then with greater velocity.

The result: I was stretched out underneath her with her chest to my back. If I closed my eyes and imagined it, it'd feel like I was flying all by myself. The land blurred underneath me so naturally that it was hauntingly relaxing. I breathed easier and let my mouth hang open in awe.

Kara stifled a giggle and said: "Here comes the best part."

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I exhaled a silent scream as she dove the two of us straight down towards the wide stretches of farmland. The ground plummeted up towards us. At the last second, Kara let out a whoop and pulled us up. Blades of tall grass whipped by at my chest. I gasped and then she turned us over and spiraled upwards like a stunt plane. The moon did flips before my shaded vision and then dipped down as she dove us towards Kansas again. We arced sideways and curved about. She playfully dipped us down in the path of an incoming wooden fence and lifted us at the last second. I kept wincing in surprise. She laughed and got braver. She aimed us at some family's barn in the distance. I squirmed and shook my head. She only increased speed. We zoomed straight towards the opening of the second story loft. I squinted my eyes and winced. We sailed in through the small opening, kicking up hay and disturbing sleeping birds and livestock far below. We came out the opening on the other side, the wind once again hammering blissfully on us. Perhaps it was the simple thrill of survival, but a smile came to my face as I whimpered out a breath and suddenly found myself enjoying the winged chaos.

"Welcome to the Troposphere Express!!" Kara exclaimed.

WOOOOOSH!!!!

She sailed us straight up. We spiraled again. The moon did more flips…then disappeared behind a veil of cloud cover. I held my breath. We burst through the thick mist. Moisture licked at our faces. And soon we were rocketing out the top side. Kara hovered us to a standstill with a carpet of silver clouds in the moonlight beneath us. And all around were pinprick stars and the looming sphere of a mysterious night sky.

I couldn't help it. My breath left me.

I felt Kara's chin—soft and warm—resting on the crook of my left shoulder. I felt her chest against my back as she sighed and said: "Always best to go 'vroom' at night."

I whole-heartedly nodded.

Through the corner of my shades, I sensed her blue eyes darting at me.

I turned to look at her face.

She smiled. Her hairband was a deep burgundy.

I blinked under my shades. I smiled with a red face.

She mouthed something.

I leaned my head curiously.

"I said…'grand finale'," she winked.

I gulped.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

The cloud exploded as the Girl of Steel swung us down into a roller coaster plunge straight back to the earth. Kansas twirled suddenly as she spiraled us. I let out an insane, breathy chuckle and extended my hands outward under her hold. Like an airplane or a psychotic bird. Gravity was gone, and so were the Cardinal Points. There was no East or West. Just the two of us. The warmth of two heroes and the cold of a dead world turned suddenly into a carnival ride. There was nothing to regret and nothing to look forward to. No guilt. No rewards. Just a fire in the heart that burned brighter and ate more and more at the heart with the increasing velocity of our plummet.

And maybe my vacation hadn't started until just then.

SWIIIIISH!!!

We were suddenly upright as once again the grass of the earth was less than two feet away and whipping by my chest. I fought for breath, but Kara behind me was giggling like mad and soon I joined her.

She found a lone tree on the top of a majestic hill and set us both down. On wobbly knees, I shuddered for breath and waited for the blood to return to my tingling body. I spun around dizzily and could see the entire horizon of Kansas rolling around me until I came to a stop with Kara standing in my presence. She was dizzy herself—to be honest—but nowhere near as dazed as the rookie bird I was.

Nevertheless, when we both plopped tiredly to the earth…we did so at the exact same time. And we laughed at it.

Tears came out of Kara's eyes as she hugged herself and shook with giggles. Her hairband was a bright orange.

I tried desperately to straightened my black strands of hair back…but eventually gave up. I chuckled with a shuddering breath.

"Ohhhhh man…," Kara shook. "I've soooo wanted to share that with someone." She smiled at me as a touch of burgundy returned to the orange. "Just….n-never had anyone around who could truly understand—" For whatever reason, her voice trailed off. I'm not sure even she 'understood'. But I was glad I could fit the bill.

Somehow…

My laughing gradually ceased as I became aware of how long and fixedly she had been staring at me. Or rather…she was staring at something on me.

"Jordan…," she gently asked with a grin. Almost a whisper. "Let me see your eyes……"

I stared at her. I hesitated.

"Please?" she asked.

I took a deep breath. I smiled warmly and nodded…

She scooted over and sat directly in front of me. Slowly—with trembling hands—she reached up and placed her hands on my shades.

Suddenly my hands came over her wrists.

She gasped…eyeing me.

"………." I stared at her. I smiled. I assisted her fingers in removing the shades and exposing my mutated black eyes to Kara for the first time.

She held the shades folded to her chest and leaned her head to the side with her lips slightly parted. She drank my optics in. Jumping a little when I blinked them.

I was used to that…

"They're so……." A beat. "….awesome."

I bore a crooked smile and lifted an eyebrow.

'Awesome'???

Oh well.

This was Supergirl after all….

She extended a meek finger and traced the edges of my sockets. I didn't protest. She studied how the blackness of my eyes occupied the entire cornea, leaving no room for pupils or irises.

Suddenly, something overcame her. She giggled like mad and blurted: "A squirrel!!"

I did a double-take.

"They're like squirrel eyes!!"

I rolled them. I pouted.

"Th-They are! All beady and bright and yet 'noirish'. Squirrel eyes! They're cute!!"

I chuckled breathily and batted her hand away with the shake of my head.

"I'm serious!" she smiled. "You should have left your alias at 'Squirrel'! It'd make the media less wary of you, for one thing! And also clue people into your soft side!"

I gave her a wyrd, sideways glance.

"Well, you have one, of course," she smiled. "If your friends haven't seen it, surely I have."

I shook my head again.

She giggled.

Silence.

It was my turn to stare at her this time. And without the shades on, I saw every shade, shadow, and tone of Kara's complexion that could possibly have been hidden before. And she was so very alive. In every dimension. Moving. Breathing. Heaving. All while 'being still'. Animated life at its fullest. At its most remarkable. At its most…..

I took a deep breath.

Kara leaned her head to the side. Her hairband turned a light shade of green and she had a softness in her voice as she said: "Do you see somebody you know, Jordan?"

Her intuition was haunting.

I swallowed. I leaned forward.

Kara remained perfectly still as my hands raised to her head. I slowly, gracefully slipped the Argosian hairband off of her crown.

She smiled slightly, patient. Curious.

With a look of focus, I leaned in further and gently cupped my hands around her face. I trailed my fingers upward across her warm cheeks and pushed the bangs out from her temples and forehead. I stroked my hands back up again, and soon I had her long locks hanging behind her ears, and as I cupped her face all I could see was the shortness of her blonde crown, her deep blue eyes of sealike sapphire, and an angelic smile as she looked at me with such sudden adoration that there was no such thing as time or aging.

And somewhere in the distance, some magical thunder rolled and I was once again sparring gently with her in an open field of swaying grass with a cedar forest stretching under a pale yellow sky above. Myrkblade and Choral exchanging blows and showering sparks. And the two of us laughing at our 'might' and 'furiosity'. And how she spoke about her life to me like I was nothing more than her third ear. And how I felt blessed for witnessing the dictation of an angel who didn't even realize her own divinity. I thought of her when I went to bed, dreamed of her at night, and longed for her face when I woke up. Food and water and oxygen were overrated. Life was a pair of blue eyes that never died out, a smile that appeared each time I so much as acknowledge our existence, angelic blonde hair trying its best to dance in the wind. A vessel of innocence. Life blood in a giggle and curtsy. Calling my name across the fields with the Pacific winds blowing in.

Tears were streaming out of my black eyes. They quivered and struggled to stay open. To preserve the memories before the inevitable death of a blink.

Kara's hands came up and wrapped around my wrists. My metal and flesh arms went limp in her grasp. I would have teetered over and died right then if I had to. My breath was shuddering. If I so much as turned my head, I would explode in sorrow.

She leaned in and spoke softly to me: "Are you alone too, Jordan?"

My lips parted. My darted my black eyes to truly look at Kara and Kara alone. Her statement seemed like blasphemy. And she saw it in my face.

"We are not all that different, Jordan," she said. "So what if I've lost all my people? Loss is relative…just as relative as recovery. I can see in your eyes—black as they are—that you've lost a lot, Jordan. And you're still recovering…"

I sniffed and struggled to stay standing upright as she continued;

"You were recovering even when Slade stepped in on you and your friends…"

I gasped. My lips quivered.

"I watched all I could on the news. Gathered all the information I could on the web. Read people chat endlessly about it on the message board…," she spoke. "All those days…those endless hours…doing the Wyldecarde charade. Fighting for your friends by fighting them…."

A lump formed in my throat. I shook my head and clenched my eyes shut to filter her out.

"Shhhh….Jordan…," she placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in so that she was practically speaking straight into my ear: "I could not even begin to comprehend what a sacrifice that must have been for you. To give up your friends to preserve them. It must have been so…..so terribly hard for you…."

I bit my lip and opened my eyes again. Brimming with tears.

"I don't know what past you may have, Jordan," she spoke with a look of sincere concern that nobody needed an Argosian hairband to interpret from her heart. "But I know that it still haunts you. Much like mine haunts me. But one thing's for certain…," her hands trailed down and gently stroked the metal skin of my left prosthetic. "You've given more than enough to prove…you don't have to be alone anymore. You must stop struggling, Jordan. You must stop punishing yourself and embrace what you have." She swallowed a painful lump of her own as she said: "For a long time on Earth, I refused to call Martha and John as 'Ma and Pa'….until I realized that I needed to. I needed that closeness. And it wasn't that they were replacements. No….they really are my 'Ma and Pa'." She smiled and her own eyes watered slightly as she added: "Because life is constantly changing. But love is the sort of thing that always stays true. More true than blood or gold."

I shook. The shivers came back. I fought through them. I lifted my hands and desperately tried to hand-sign something. Anything.

But Kara grabbed my hands and spoke gently: "Rest your hands for once, hero…."

And I broke. I teetered forward and into her embrace. I sobbed without regrets. I soaked her shoulder with my tears and wailed with whatever power a mute soul can wail. For it had never ended. The pain and remorse of the Wyldecarde days were still there. And they never stopped biting at me. And they never stopped poisoning. The words of my friends when they mistrusted me. The looks on their faces when my fists or Myrkstaff flew a them to hold them at bay and keep Slade's iron grip from closing around their throats. How I had to kick against the stone that was the nightly hell of fighting my very own loved ones. The friends…the Titans who had done so much to resurrect the West-spawned ghost that was 'Noir'. But I was too attached by the pains of my past that I couldn't tell them. And I had no voice to weep it to them. That I was so…so alone. That for five years I had so many things stolen from me, stabbed into me, and ripped off of me to possibly have any nerves left to grab their hands and fall into their grace once and for all. It was so impossible. So hopeless. So lonely. So god damn lonely.

But…if only….if only it was all an illusion. If only what Kara said was true and tomorrow I could simply slay the stubborn ghost and smile an honest smile with Beast Boy or meditate thoughtfully with Raven or spar leisurely with Robin or laugh happily with Starfire or ride wrecklessly with Cyborg and do it all like the person I really was: the Sixth Titan. And not some stranger with black eyes born yesterday like I had felt since the day I was first handed a communicator and invited to kick butt along their sides.

All I could dream for—as much as I even robbed myself of it—was the warm, amnesiac oblivion of a pair of loving arms. And I had enjoyed that once with the Titans in full. But I was still too wrapped up in my own depravity to truly enjoy it. And even with Kara there—alone on the hill—I couldn't fly away from myself.

But I was trying…with each tear and sob and heave I was trying….

Honestly, I was the closest I had ever gotten to it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Well over a half-hour later…when my sobs had died down and the field once again returned to its gentle breezes and rural silence…Kara and I were lying on the ground a couple of feet from each other. Gazing at the stars.

My black eyes were barely beginning to dry. My face was slowly melting back to a deadpan stone. My breaths shuddered into relief. It was bitterly relaxing.

Starfire was smiling suddenly as the wind kicked at her hair and she said in the direction of the stars: "You know what was the most stupid thing I've ever done?"

I shrugged.

"I flew my body into a comet…..Oh yeah! And I nearly died too!"

A beat.

I turned my head and looked at her through the swaying grass in the moonlight.

She smiled and glanced back at me through the corners of her sapphire eyes. "Superman carried me over to STAR Labs where I was looked at and nursed back to health. He said it was a stupid thing that I did. I said I didn't care. I had to save the City of Metropolis, ya know. I wasn't gonna let a damn rock show a couple million people who's boss!"

I smiled at that.

She looked back up at the stars. "I did that stupid thing and saved a bunch of people because I've stupidly seen a bunch of people die from a stupid astronomical event before." A beat. She sighed and hugged herself in the wind. "But I also did it for another reason."

I leaned my head to the side. Curious.

"I-I frankly didn't care if I survived the comet or not…," she said. "I saw it as 'going out in a blaze' of glory. After all, everyone I knew died on Argos. If I could join them by doing a bunch of other people a good deed….then….so be it, ya know what I mean?"

I closed my eyes and nodded, biting my lip.

"I've grown out of that…..angsty phase. I no longer see things so fatalistically. When I'm saving people, I'd like to save my butt too. Hehehehehe…….I-I've got things worth living for on this planet now. It's a waste to throw that all away."

Silence.

She looked at me again. Silence. She had a solemn expression as she said: "I wonder…..Jordan…..were you doing something similar when you were Wyldecarde? As brave as your actions were…..perhaps you also were trying to obliterate yourself?"

I took a deep breath. I very well knew the answer to that. But I didn't want to tell her. I wasn't as brave as Supergirl.

I shrugged.

Kara's eyes lowered. "Yeah….it's all so very confusing." A beat. She sat up and hugged her knees. "But…I suppose that's what we have each other for."

I raised an eyebrow. I sat up straight next to her.

"I think about the day of the comet a lot," Kara spoke. "And I look and try to find patterns in life. An-And when I started learning more and more about you, Jordan—on the news, the Web, whatever—I saw it in you. I-I saw myself in you. A lonely soul trying to come to terms with himself. And…….it was just so….." She smiled and took a deep breath. She looked at me with wonder, her mouth trailing open. She blinked. "……I wanted to meet you someday. I wanted to so much…..but……didn't th-think it's actually happen, ya know?" She giggled.

I chuckled.

We both smiled against the wind for a moment…and then we were staring at each other. The moon reflected off the glistening surface of my black eyes and momentarily blinded me as I leaned forward and she leaned forward at the same time.

But then a gust of wind…

And…

We both froze.

Our noses were nearly touching. And something awkward inside each of us made us blush and hesitate.

"Um….," Kara bit her lip. She chuckled once or twice and stuttered: "S-Sorry….I….g-got carried away……I didn't mean t-to…"

I leaned in the rest of the way.

Kara froze. She expected a kiss. She got something different.

I was gently leaning my forehead to hers. And soon my hands were gently grasping her temples, my fingers dug into her blonde locks. I rested our brows together. Our breaths commingled and we shuddered into a still serenity.

Kara breathed: "H-How ya doin'?" She let out a nervous chuckle…then gave in. Her face was flushed as her hands reached out and held me close by my shoulders. And we simply blended in with each other, like two statues with one head. And once we were both warm enough, our necks moved and we rested our chins on each other shoulders. Just….holding each other.

If we were truly so alike as insinuated…then nothing more was needed. I always believed that there are things in this world far too beautiful to totally 'possess'.

A couple of blissful minutes later, we parted from the hug, stood up, smiled, and walked hand-in-hand towards the distant splotch of land that was the Kents' farm under moonlight.


	82. Kara's Visitor part 8

**82. Kara's Visitor part 8**

The next morning….

Raven sat in a lotus position atop a bail of hay besides a stretch of farmland fence. Her eyes were closed. Her fair blue hair drifting gently in a sway of wind or two. She had been meditating since sunrise.

Slowly, a redheaded alien sauntered up innocently behind her. Starfire's hands were behind her back.

"Raven…I do apologize for intruding…," she said. "But Robin desires for the seven of us to gather inside the wooden animal hut."

"The barn?" the dark girl asked without looking.

Starfire nodded. "Now that the five pieces of Kryptonite have been gathered, Cyborg has run a brand new analysis and he thinks he knows where Metallo's cache of the material is."

"Sounds excellent…," Raven droned with her eyes closed. "If you all would grant me just ten more minutes. I am almost complete with my meditation…"

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "You seem considerably less tense than yesterday afternoon, Raven. Has meditation assisted sufficiently in silencing your troubles?"

"Not 'silencing', Star. 'Rationalizing' is more like it," Raven spoke from atop the hay. "It is high time I put my silly suspicions to the side. I feel that—ever since we joined Supergirl—I have been letting my emotions get out of control. It is not a wise thing to let them go unchecked. I am overdue in my meditation. So if you would be so kind as to grant me the ten more minutes that I have requested…then I should be a much more pleasant teammate to deal with come the time I join you in the barn."

"Understood," Starfire nodded. "I shall inform the others that you will be joining us shortly."

"Thank you, Starfire," Raven nodded.

The alien girl turned around, smiled and walked off. "I am most elated!" she spoke to no one in general as she went along. "Everyone seems to be in such good spirits! Especially Kara and Noir. They have been quite cheerful ever since Cyborg saw them walking back to the farm from the open fields last night hand in hand!"

Raven's blue eyes snapped open.

_**POW!!!!!!!!**_

An explosion of black energy occurred in the background and two cows on the other side of the fence tipped over with blood-curdling 'moos'.

"EEK!" Starfire jumped and looked at Raven, panting.

The meditating sorceress sweatdropped. "M-Make that twenty more m-minutes….," she uttered with her trembling back to Starfire.

The Tamaranian gulped. "V-Very well." She scampered back to the barn.

It took a good ninety seconds of struggling for Raven to get her eyes serenely closed again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There!" Cyborg pointed at a 3-D hologram of Smallville. Specifically he singled out a flashing green dot in the northwest quadrant of the schematic. "There was a really big cluster of kryptonite emissions in that specific spot about an hour and a half ago. If the computer analysis assisted by the stuff we found is correct."

"Metallo's train?" Beast Boy remarked.

"Not possible," Robin shook his head. "The one car with the huge load of Kryptonite is sealed off in lead. It's gotta be something else that we were detecting."

"I'm guessing Metallo had found another clump of Kryptonite somewhere…and was in the process of stuffing them into Intergang's train car."

"Which means….," Robin's voice lingered.

"They could be somewhere on the railroad track northwest of here still!"

I scratched my chin and looked over at Supergirl. We were all in uniform. Her included.

"Do you think it's too risky to try and get a jump on them?" the Girl of Steel remarked.

"With Metallo, anything's risky," Robin said.

Beast Boy rubbed a still-aching head. "Tell me about it, dude…"

"But it's worth a shot…at least to scope him out," Robin said.

Raven stepped into the barn and drew her robe over her head. "How do we even know they haven't moved far away from that piece of railroad tracks?"

"Hey Raven," Supergirl waved.

The sorceress didn't respond. She continued speaking to Cyborg and Robin: "They could be anywhere at this point."

"If we are to search for them," Cyborg said, "…just a simple sweep of the railroad tracks will do. We can decide what to do from there. Especially if we actually do find them."

"In other words…," Raven droned, "…it's a perfect shot in a dark."

"A positive shot in the dark, regardless," Robin said.

"…..," Raven was silent.

Supergirl smiled at me.

I smiled back.

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "So….are we gonna go or not?"

"Caution would be advisable," Starfire said. "We have not forgotten about the bomb contained within Metallo's pectorals, have we?"

"Right…this should be an act of stealth," Robin said. He looked my way. "We may be needing a great deal of your assistance, Noir."

I gave a pleasant thumb's up.

"We shouldn't put him in unnecessary danger," Raven remarked, gathering everyone's attention. "I think we should seek out other Kryptonite locations and gather enough material to put the pressure on Metallo in this 'mining' race. After all, that was the original plan."

"I hate to say it, Rae…," Cyborg gestured at the T-Car's computer. "But as big a sample of Kryptonite that we got from yesterday—total—I still can't zero in on those residual signatures. All I picked up was where Metallo and his crew could be. To hunt down anything else would be a wild goose chase, whereas Metallo and Intergang seem to know exactly where to go. God knows what there source is. It's mind-boggling."

"And storming the train head-on is seriously going to help out anymore??" Raven remarked.

"Come on, girl!" Supergirl smiled with her hands to her hips. "Sometimes a little risk is necessary! You want to make progress like the rest of us, don't you?? Well…hehehe…sometimes ya gotta push it to the metal!"

Raven frowned. "I am not so inclined to aggressive, costly tactics." She looked over at Robin. "And usually…neither is any other member of the Titans."

Robin took a deep breath.

Supergirl blinked, her smile fading.

Starfire bit her lip. "Friends…," she remarked. "There will be no progress made if we are at least not in agreement. Should we approach Intergang's train for the Kryptonite or should we not?"

"We shouldn't," Raven folded her arms. "It is bold, reckless, and foolish. A tactic most unfitting of a Titan…but indicative of a more amateur superhero." She glared at Supergirl.

Supergirl glared back.

I sweatdropped.

"Raven, we will be together…all of us," Starfire said. "Are we not all properly equipped as a team for any emergency situation?"

"I, for one, think so," Robin stepped forward. He looked at the dark girl in particular as he spoke: "We're going to the train. It's the only alternative available to us now."

Raven gasped: "But—"

"Do you have any better ideas, Raven?"

Silence.

Cyborg looked at everyone…then at Raven.

The dark girl frowned. "If you are willing to take responsibility for the consequences, then proceed with your command, Robin."

The Boy Wonder nodded. "I always take responsibility. You should know that, Raven."

The girl folded her arms and glared at the ground of the barn.

"Wellllllll," Beast Boy simpered and motioned towards the open barn doors. "What say we….ya know….stop thinking and just start moving?"

"Agreed," Starfire smiled.

"All aboard," Cyborg hopped into the T-Car. Beast Boy and Robin joined him. The android Titan started the engine and proceeded to back the vehicle out of the wooden structure. "We better make haste. Enough time has passed since the time the computer took its reading."

Starfire nodded and floated after the boys. I followed on foot.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Sheesh…," Beast Boy shivered as the blue and white convertible silently coasted out onto the grass of the farmland and past the Kents' house. "I swear….sometimes Raven gives me the willies."

"It happens," Cyborg shrugged from the driver's seat. "She's right in a lot of ways, though. This **is** gonna be a somewhat risky endeavor. She doesn't need to be so cold about delivering that message of warning, though."

"We all have our ways of conveying stuff," Robin shrugged from the passenger seat. "Let's not hold it against Raven."

"Dude! Who says we were?"

I walked alongside the car and slowly stepped into the rear passenger's seat. As Starfire flew over me and we all prepared to leave, I became aware of John and Martha Kent standing on the patio and observing us.

"Gonna go out and kick some more butt?" John smiled.

Cyborg nodded. "Yup! And hopefully bring back more rewards of the chase too!"

Martha chuckled pleasantly. "You kids be careful! You may be heroes, but you're young yet!"

"It's enough we have to look after one super teen!" John gestured with a smirk. "Much less seven of them!"

Starfire giggled in mid air. "You are such a happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kent. It is always a pleasure conversing with you!"

"Same back at ya, Missy!"

I took a deep breath and stared at the Kents through my shades. Again, I was feeling an eeriness about this whole situation. We were on a hunt to find the very stuff that make 'Kara Kent' faint…and yet John and Martha seemed so calm about it. Giddy and pleasant even. Like a slice of a classic t.v. sitcom.

Some things were simply unbelievably good…

That is to say, 'some people'.

I turned around and realized that we were missing two people.

Two girls.

I glanced back at the barn and felt a lump in my throat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Supergirl paused in mid-flight at the door. She twirled about—her blonde hair cascading—and looked at Raven. "What're you standing around for?! Aren't you coming?"

Raven took a fuming breath. Her arms were folded. Her blue eyes were gazing intently into the ground. She was fighting….fighting….

"Okay! I give up!" Supergirl frowned and landed on her feet. She padded over towards Raven. "What is your deal?! You obviously don't like me! Might as well come out with it!"

Raven glared up at her. "I want you to tell me and the rest of the Titans what you are hiding."

Supergirl recoiled. "Huh?!?!" Her sapphire eyes blinked. "I'm not hiding anything!! Why're you so suspicious of me?!"

"I can sense things most heroines can't," Raven said firmly. "Ask any one who's worked with me. I pick up on empathically on feelings. I can detect dishonesty."

"And just what am I being dishonest about?!" Supergirl spat.

"I can't say. Only you can."

"Ohhhhhh ho ho ho!! That's rich! You're accusing me just for the sake of accusing me. Can't you be more creative than that?"

"End the ploy!" Raven stepped forward and pointed a finger into Supergirl's sternum, making the heroine jump. "There's more at hand here than Intergang and Metallo! And you know it!"

"If there was, I would have told you and the Titans by now," Supergirl narrowed her blue eyes. "Not all of us are ambiguous in the way we talk about stuff."

"I'm trying to get right to the point," Raven fumed. "You're the one being evasive."

"Oh really?!" Supergirl waved her arms out the barn door. "Let's take this outside! In front of the other Titans! Let them all hear your accusations, Raven! See if they agree with you!"

"……," the sorceress was silent.

Supergirl smirked bitterly. "Ah….there's the rub. You're more than willing to defame me here. Alone. In the shadows. But you're not brave enough to risk looking mean and bitchy in front of the other Titans. Is that part of your whole 'no feely' meditation habit? Maybe we should get to know each other a bit more Raven so that you can explain these high and mighty things to me!"

"They trust you too much…," Raven shook her head. "They wouldn't believe me. Besides…why dash their feelings into the ground—"

"That's not what you care about!" Supergirl pointed. She grinned mischievously. "Or maybe it's not exactly **all** of them that you're worried about making me look bad in front of!"

Raven gave the Girl of Steel a sideways glance of suspicion. "What are you getting at…..?"

"It's Jordan, isn't it?"

"….."

"Hey! I'm not blind!" Supergirl placed her hands on her hips and smirked. "I see it! Surely the other Titans see it too! You think of him as more than 'a friend'….don't you?"

"……."

"**Don't you???"**

"If the Titans aren't 'blind', then surely they would have seen something that you couldn't have," Raven spat. "Something which you couldn't have seen because you don't know me. You've not been around me long enough to understand it. I can't afford deep feelings for anyone. Not even Jordan. If I was to be open with emotions…I could open a door. A very treacherous door through which a dark entity closely linked to my powers could come through."

"But admit it!" Supergirl jabbed her finger into Raven's chest this time. "If you **could** open your emotions to any of the Titans…you'd choose Jordan first. Wouldn't you??"

Raven bit her lip.

"And it just makes you so sick and angry…," Supergirl winked. "To see how much he and I get along…"

Raven's fists clenched. But regardless, she stuck true to her words: "That doesn't matter. It's not the issue here."

"Prove it!"

Raven continued: "The issue here is that you're hiding something! And even now, as we speak, you're changing the subject by bringing Noir into this!"

"Don't explode this into something it really isn't! Be honest and primitive, girl! You're jealous—"

"**I don't care if you and Noir are close!"** Raven exclaimed. Her voice echoed in the barn.

Supergirl swallowed nervously.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "And if you must know….I….I-I am happy."

Supergirl raised an eyebrow.

"But….," Raven took a deep, painful sigh, "I-I do care for Noir. But only as a friend. And as a friend, I do not want to see him hurt. As much as I don't want to see any of the Titans hurt. And quite frankly—Supergirl—no matter how much you try and change the subject, you're hiding something. And I'm not going to stand by idly and see someone deceive one of my friends to the point he suffers in the end. The Titans have suffered enough lies and betrayal. I have no tolerance left. And I frankly don't give a damn if you're the legendary Supergirl. I care about my teammates too much to ignore this any longer. Now out with it. The truth and nothing but the truth—"

"Something tells me you know enough truth as it is…," Supergirl practically hissed.

Raven gritted her teeth. "I want to know **more**."

Supergirl glared at Raven.

Raven glared at Supergirl.

A rush of wind blew in through the opening in the barn and slightly disturbed their otherwise granite poses.

Tense silence lingered between the two…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car rested by the exit gates of the farm and the whole group of us was prepared to go.

Starfire hovered over us. She looked around anxiously.

"What's taking them so long?" Cyborg remarked.

"Are they still in the barn?" Beast Boy scratched his head.

I turned around again. I blinked under my shades. I watched a figure float over.

"Is everything allright?" Starfire asked Supergirl.

The Girl of Steel flew over and sighed depressingly. "Sort of…."

"Where's Raven?" Robin asked.

Supergirl shrugged. "She says she's not coming."

"Say what??" Cyborg remarked.

"Something about 'foolish tactics' and all that jazz," Supergirl gestured.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Figures….spoil sport…," Beast Boy muttered.

"It's not like Raven to not join us in a mission," Robin remarked, looking sick. He tilted his head up towards Supergirl. "You sure she really meant it?"

"Hey…," Supergirl chuckled helplessly. "I'm not about to cross that lady! Man…she can be downright scary sometimes! Heheheh!"

"This is most distressing," Starfire looked sad and wrung her hands. "Allow me to go back to the barn and speak with her—"

"I wouldn't advise it," Supergirl held a hand up. "She's not in a good mood."

"Lemme guess….," Beast Boy rubbed his chin and smirked. "A little bit of femininity and a touch of the canine?"

"Well hinted," Supergirl winked.

"Man…and what timing too," Cyborg muttered.

I looked back at the barn. I was about to get out and have a talk with the dark girl---

"Let's get a move on…," Robin grumbled. "If Raven refuses to help us out, there's nothing we can do to dissuade her. I've worked with her longer than any of you. Believe me…let's let her just have her way."

"Agreed," Starfire gulped.

"Agreed indeed," Supergirl nodded.

"At least she can guard home base," Cyborg shrugged and shifted into gear. "Ya know…watch over the green stuff."

"Whatever," Robin moaned.

The T-Car cruised along.

"We shall follow closely!" Starfire said from above the road.

"Yup!" Supergirl smiled. She waved at me and blew a kiss. "Cya at the ranch, Jordan!"

I blinked as she flew away.

Beast Boy was looking suavely at me. "Soooooo…..looks like a certain pair of unwitting heroes are getting to know each other better."

But I wasn't paying him any attention. My black eyes were locked on the barn of the farmland that was becoming more and more distant from the rear of the T-Car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was mid afternoon when we reached the Titans. Faint storm clouds lingered in the lower horizon, transforming the air into something hazy with a ghostly presence of faint green. It made me feel twice as sick as I already was.

The T-Car was hidden behind a cluster of trees and hedges in the middle of the Plains. The Titans and I were gathered in a low ditch. We pressed our bodies down into the earth and peered through high grass at a stretch of railroad tracks in the distance. The beat-up train car was there in plain sight. The wrought-iron engine rested still. Silent. The lead-encased car which undoubtedly had Kryptonite was attached to the back of it. Engineers, gunmen, and other Intergang members loitered around the still vehicle on the rails—more or less guarding the site. There was something in their gait that suggested something akin to laziness….lethargy. A total disregard of any danger afoot or aflight.

I took a deep breath, scanning the distant scene with my black, shaded eyes. I glanced at the other Titans. Cyborg, Robin, and Beast Boy were pressed down into the earth on my left. They seemed anxious and impatient. To my right was Supergirl. The wind kicked at her blonde locks and intermittently blocked distant eyes. She was thinking about something distracted. Perhaps distraught.

Starfire was off doing reconnaissance. It was three and a half hours since we left the Kents'. The moment to strike was at hand…if indeed we were going to 'strike'. We just wanted to make sure a certain metal man of mayhem was not nearby.

"What do you suppose Raven's doing right now?" Beast Boy muttered, boredly picking petals off of a wildflower. "Probably sewing stockings….only to throw them in a fireplace."

"Shhhh!" Cyborg hissed. "Not now, man."

"How long has Star been at it?" Robin asked.

"Nearly thirteen minutes now," Cyborg replied.

"Man….I hope she's not going too low."

Cyborg smirked. "If we'd seen her, then we'd have something to worry about."

Robin glanced up at the green sky. "I don't like the look of those clouds she's having to fly through…"

"Dude…she's okay. If she can fling fiery green pieces of crap around she can handle a little lightning!" Beast Boy whispered.

Robin sighed and folded his arms. "I just want to get this over with…"

"Same here, dawg," Cyborg nodded. "You're not alone."

"…..," my gaze lingered on them. I turned and looked at Supergirl.

She sighed…gazing depressingly at the scene far off.

I blinked. I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

She gasped, tense. She looked at me.

I smiled.

She tried smiling back…but it came out with half the energy she initially intended. She then sagged into another sigh and looked down into the grass barely brushing her immaculate face.

I leaned my head to the side.

"Sorry if I'm not so energetic today, Jordan….," she said. "Got a lot on my mind, I guess."

I nodded slowly.

A beat.

She looked at me. "D-Do you trust me, Jordan?"

I raised my eyebrows.

"A-As a friend? As a teammate?" she asked.

I smiled and nodded assuredly.

She swallowed and bit her lip. "As even more?"

"……," I stared at her. I patted her shoulder. I smiled and nodded again.

Supergirl lowered her eyes and sighed. A beat. "Wh-When Starfire comes back….and i-if she gives us a green light….Robin's gonna send you t-to check on the train in stealth mode, isn't he?"

Slowly, I nodded. Most likely, the Boy Wonder was going to…

"Do me favor then, please Jordan?" she opened her eyes. They seemed somewhat moist. "K-Keep safe? Please? No matter how dangerous it may be with Intergang and all…..will you keep safe for me?"

I looked at her sapphire eyes intently. Curious as to the sudden intensity of her concern. I nodded, deadpan. For the first time in a while…I felt concerned for my well-being in the sense that my safety would assure the security of another person.

How good it felt to be self-conscious for once….

It was ironically around that time that Starfire drifted back in.

"Star! You're back!" Robin remarked hoarsely.

Starfire took a deep breath. "I do apologize for the length of time employed in my task. It was most difficult to keep an eye on situation at hand while navigating my way through an increasing thundercloud."

"We're just glad you're back safe," Robin breathed. A beat. He cleared his throat. "R-Report!"

"There are at least ten members of Intergang present," she said. "Two I recognize from our first collective battle with them at the railroad station. The others fit the description of Cyborg from the bridge over August River."

"Then that confirms it," Cyborg said. "Intergang got recruits since our first battle with them. Metallo's getting as much support as possible on this mission."

"Serious crap, dude…," Beast Boy nodded.

"Any idea why they're all just sitting around doing nothing?" Supergirl asked.

Starfire shook her head. "I have no explanation available for that. I was able to get a proper view of the train and those outside of it…but I cannot account for their dialogue. Thus, I cannot understand their motives."

"It's okay, Star," Robin smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You did good. We got a good count of the exterior of the scene thanks to you."

"I accomplished what I could…"

"Any sign of metal head?" Cyborg asked.

Starfire shook her head. "Metallo could not be seen. It does not mean he isn't inside the train car with the Kryptonite."

"And it wouldn't do any good to ask me to have a look," Supergirl added shyly. "X-Ray vision isn't good on lead, remember?"

"Right," Robin nodded. "But we need to get closer."

Everyone looked at me.

I took a deep breath and nodded.

"We're counting on you, Noir," Robin said. "Keep in contact with me through morse code, okay?"

I raised a metallic thumb's up.

"And stay out of sight, whatever you do. Take as much time as you need to get a good look around and report back to us on the fly."

"Dude….should he actually go inside the train?"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Robin said. He looked back at me again. "You ready?"

I nodded. I unsheathed Myrkblade and started summoning murk to cloak my figure.

As I stood up, I felt a hand on my hip. I looked down.

Supergirl looked up at me. "……."

I looked down at her. "……"

She smiled.

I smiled. I lifted my shades long enough to expose a black eye and wink it.

And then I disappeared.

Invisible, I stepped across the landscape. I went slowly, so as to not part the tall grass and form a visible trail. But the wind was growing stronger and stronger anyways, and there was not much contrast between me and the breeze-blown field. A cold downdraft came in from the bottoms of the thunderclouds. My invisible black strands of hair danced around my neck. I almost got the chills. I clenched my metal knuckles and proceeded slowly. The train coming closer and closer to sight. The tracks almost within reach. The faces of the Intergang members becoming discernible. The fleshly fingers of my right hand clutched tighter to Myrkblade. I took cloaked step after cloaked step and soon I was at the gravel lining the railroad tracks…

The thugs were restless. They were also silent. For a good three minutes, I waited silently between three or four gunmen…waiting for someone to say something. I've never been a henchman myself, so I know very little about villainous conversations during offtime. I didn't even know if they existed.

In the case of that group, nothing existed at all. They were hauntingly mute. Standing around with their guns only as if waiting for some cataclysmic boom from the sky. Be it lightning and thunder or a Titan ambush.

They were most likely about to get a little bit of both.

I clicked the fingers of my metal left hand quietly. I signaled Robin a morse code of my anticlimactic findings. There was no response. For there to have been a response, that meant a sound would have to emanate on my side of the conversation. And with so many listening thugs within arm's length of my stealth, that was not a wise thing.

I paced slowly—cloaked—around the entire train. I got a good luck at each thug, and I clicked their descriptions to Robin. Including what they were armed with. Who seemed paired with whom. What task or purpose in the guarding formation they seemed to be assuming. Once or twice in my stealthy circumnavigation of the engine and the lead car, I glanced invisibly over towards the spare patch of grass and trees where I knew my partners and the T-Car were located. I thought of the worry on Supergirl's face. The moistness of her blue eyes. And the color blue painted Raven's face before my black eyes. I shook their images off and continued relentlessly with my task at hand. I couldn't afford to be distracted there and then…

As I rounded the train once more, the rear of the lead car came into focus. And as was the permanent result of Metallo's doing in our first fight at the roundhouse, the back of the car was wide open and doorless. If I was so inclined, I could have a look directly into the interior of the car and its contents.

I carefully paced myself up and onto the actual tracks themselves. I made sure to step directly on the trails and the wooden crossbeams, not disturbing the gravel with my cloaked boots.

I stood at the edge of the train car's opening. I leaned forward on my toes. I tried glancing in. But I couldn't see a thing. I bit my invisible lip. I glanced back out at the field where I knew the Titans were. I saw the guards and their silent backs to me.

I exhaled long and slow. I had gone that far…..

I clicked a morse code to Robin.

I was going in.

With a cushion of leaping murk, I pounced forward and crouched super-silent on the edge of the car's rear opening. I bit my lip, sighed, and stood up.

There was no one else inside.

I crept forward. The cabinets and seats and wall paneling of the car were also made of lead. Dull light bulbs painted an amber path ahead of me. I was creeping invisibly towards the far end…where a huge lead locker stretched from floor to ceiling ahead of me. When I reached it, I noticed a simple lock on the handle. I fingered it gently.

I took a deep breath.

I looked over my shoulder at the train car's opening.

There was no one there.

I turned forward again.

I relaxed my limbs.

The curtain of cloaking murk fell down.

I revitalized myself and refocused my energies. I held a hand over the lock…then murked it into smoke form. The black mist carefully slid into the locking mechanism and fluctuated just right. I popped the locker open and swung the doors apart.

A bright green glow flashed across my shades.

My lips parted.

There were fifteen individual pieces of Kryptonite. Large pieces. Each of considerably large size. The smallest being equal to a golf ball. The largest…a football. They were set neatly on five different shelves of immaculate, gray lead. Metallo was a very neat man…

I took a deep breath and counted my options at hand--

_"Snkkkkt!! Noir!! This is Robin!!"_

I gasped. I palmed a hand over the speaker of the communicator on my belt. Gritting my teeth nervously, I glanced back at the mouth of the train car through which the guards had to have heard that.

_Why had Robin spoken through my communicator?! He was giving me awa--_

_"Grab the Kryptonite and run back to home base!!"_ his nervous voice exclaimed suddenly. I became aware of the sounds of a scuffle through his end of the communication. _"Don't ask! Just do it!!"_

The signal cut off into static.

I heard the startled voices of guards outside of the car. A few cusses and—heads were rushing past the opening and in the direction of the field. At first, I thought they were made aware of me and were rushing in to confront the intruder. But instead….

A chill ran down my spine. Regardless, I looked around. I flung open cabinet drawers. I came across a large canvass bag in one with a tie of synthetic rope. I yanked it out, opened it wide, and started madly scooping the glowing chunks of rock into it. When all fifteen were cluttered inside, I took a deep breath, pulled the rope taunt, and sealed the bag in my grasp. I slung it over my shoulder and bounded numbly outside of the train car.

PLOP!!!

My feet landed, spreading gravel around.

A gunman nearby spun around and gasped. "Y-Y-Y-You!"

WHAM!!!!

I kicked him in the face and he fell down hard.

Panting, I looked off through my shades at the Plains. My heart froze.

A white van had come up the rear of the Titans. A dozen more gunmen than seen before were suddenly dashing about the scenery with laser guns blazing. And leading their assault was a charging hulk of metal and guile. Metallo. I saw Starfire's purple and green streak of a body dodging laser blasts in mid air and flinging starbolts of desperation everywhere. Birdarangs flew amidst the fray as Robin dove through a throng of thugs here and there, joined by Cyborg and his laser rifle. A green tiger was challenging Metallo outright. Supergirl….was nowhere to be seen.

It was so much chaos…and the gunmen from the train were all running as one group towards the fray to joined the bad guys' side. The sky rumbled above, adding to the ominous peril.

I wasn't sure this was a battle my teammates could win…

I all but dropped the bag of Kryptonite, unsheathed Myrkblade, and prepared to blur over and join the combat when--

_"Snkkkt!!! Noir!!"_ Robin's voice crackled as if he knew what I was doing from well over a hundred feet away. _"Go back to home base! Leave this to us!!"_

I panted. Sweating. Fearful….

_"We can handle this!! Let me see that smoking body of yours blurring over the horizon! Get out of here---SNKKKTT!!! AUGH!!!"_

I saw the distant speck of a caped hero engaging Metallo's glinting gray body. Fists were exchanged. Cyborg joined in. Then a convergence of laser blasts and Starfire darting in and out and….the rest became an indiscernible mess.

I gulped. I trembled fearfully. Somehow I summoned the strength to pick the satchel back up, hoist it over my shoulder…and run blurredly towards the southeast.

Towards the Kents'.

I thought about them the entire way.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I arrived back at 'base', it was dark. I couldn't tell if it was because of the setting Sun or thunderclouds. One thing was for certain, the sky was a rumbling thing of potential fury.

The first thing I did was dart into the barn. I had long planned to hide the green bane of Superman, find Raven, and organize an impromptu mission of reconnaissance and rescue. We'd use her communicator as a homing device to zero in on the other Titans if need be.

Whether they truly be in distress or not…

But when I rushed into the barn…I was alone.

I panted and looked all around the wooden interior of hay and sawdust. Nothing. No one. Not even as lighting flashed and illuminated the interior did I catch sight of the infamous dark girl.

I swallowed a lump in my throat.

_Where could she be??_

I rushed over towards the corner, unearthed the hay, and dropped the satchel down besides the other bag full of Kryptonite.

I covered the corner thoroughly and checked the inside of the barn once more. I even ran outside into the growingly cold wind of the incoming storm and rushed around the lengths of the wooden structure.

Still no Raven.

I bit my lip.

I looked towards the Kents' house.

A metaphoric lightbulb went off in my heart. I sprinted breathlessly towards the patio steps while lightning flickered across the ceiling of Kansas. I stumbled inside. The place was dimly lit. Sweating, I looked around. I headed for the kitchen. The Kents were always in the kitchen. When I passed through the final doorway, I was greeted to blinding light. I squinted through my shades and blinked at what I saw.

John and Martha were sitting down to tea and a newspaper. Like they always had. As pleasant as ever. They both looked up at me and smiled in one accord.

"Why…look who's here!" John grinned.

"You look parched, Mr. Noir," Martha beamed. "Would you like some milk?"

I panted. I raised an eyebrow. I swallowed and shook my head.

"Why in such a hurry?"

"You look beat!"

I waved for them to be silent. I gestured a 'gemstone' on my forehead.

"Huh? Who?"

"Oh you mean that girl with the robe. The grim one."

"Isn't she with you?"

I emphatically shook my head. I gestured around the house.

"Well, she certainly isn't here! Is she, Martha?"

"I should say not, John! Where could she be?"

I took a shuddering breath. I bit my lip. I brought my right hand to the metal disc of my left prosthetic. I applied pressure to a few hidden, key sensors and adjusted the morse code device to zero in on Raven's frequency. I proceeded to send her an urgent message…hoping she might respond.

John and Martha leaned their heads to the side.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Noir?" Marta remarked.

"You seem distressed."

I ignored them. I clicked forth a morse code.

John slowly stood up. Lightning lit the window behind his broad shoulders as he slowly drifted over. "What……a-are you doing?"

Without looking, I raised a finger to silence him while I clicked away---

SWOOOSH-GRIP!

I gasped and winced in pain.

John Kent was grabbing the spot on my left arm where the flesh met the metal. His fingers were like a rusted vice. He smiled as he applied more and more unnatural pressure.

"That…is not necessary, Mr. Noir."

"You need not worry so much, Mr. Noir," Martha said from the table.

I looked breathlessly between the both of them. I tried yanking my hand out from the foster parent's grasp. His grip only became tighter…and more painful. I wheezed.

"Now what did we just tell you?" he smiled.

I gritted my teeth and shoved at his shoulders with my right hand.

"He's fighting you, John," Martha smirked.

John shook his head and raised a fist. "I'm sorry about this, Mr. Noir."

WHAP!!! He brought an old, frail set of knuckles into my chest. And in spite of the seemingly weak nature of his thrust…….I was pushed dramatically backwards across the space of the kitchen.

SMASH!!!!!

I literally sailed through the wall amidst a shower of debris, flew across the living room, and landed hard with my back smacking the mantle to the fireplace. The breath left me as I fell to my knees amidst spilled paintings of the Kents and their adopted 'offspring'.

Lightning flashed across the interior from the windows.

I gasped for breath on all fours and looked up.

John walked through the fresh hole from the well-lit kitchen. Shards and pieces of debris crinkled under his steps.

"Now how can you be a polite guest when you keep acting so rude?"

I stumbled to my feet. My black eyes twitched as I watched the man walk forward.

"Perhaps we should show him the door, John?" Martha spoke from the kitchen. Lightning flashed again, and I saw the glint of something cold and lifeless in the teeth of John's plastic smile.

"You're too ignorant, Mr. Noir," he said, unblinking. "Please don't make us resort to this."

I took a deep breath. I slowly snaked a hand back to the hilt of Myrkblade on my back.

He saw it.

"Now that's not niiiiice."

SWOOOOSH!!

He charged forward.

I rolled out of the way.

SMASH!!!

His fist smashed a chunk out of the brick fireplace.

I stopped on my knees, gritted my teeth, and unsheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!!

The man spun around, grinned, and swung his fist down at me.

I flinched and defensively jabbed my blade outward.

SLIIIICE!!!

TH-THUMP!!!

The cold impact of John's right hand against the carpet alit my ears.

I gasped and looked at it. My black eyes widened.

The fingers were still twitching. The wrist jolted. Wires were coming out of it. Sparking. Leaking a sort of….plasma.

I looked up in a mixture of horror and curiosity.

John stood, lurching lifelessly back and forth. His right stub of an arm twitched. Lightning strobed in from the Kansas chaos and illuminated a series of wires and leaking froth from his serrated limb. His neck jerked back and forth unnaturally. Like a gray jumping bean.

I stood up.

I leaned my head to the side.

A beat.

SLASSSSSH!!!! I swung Myrkblade up.

CLANK!!!!

John Kent's head flew off. Exposing more wires. Sparks flew. Plasma leaked. Slowly, the torso leaned back and the whole body collapsed to the floor. Twitching. Shooting out sparkles of white and yellow.

My mouth hung open.

"Come now, John…," Martha giggled in the hole leading to the kitchen. "Your newspaper won't read itself, you know!"

I slowly spun around.

A beat.

I charged murk into my sword, held it over my head like a javelin, and flung it at the woman.

SWOOOOOOOSH-CHUNK!!!

It embedded through her bosom, tossed her across the kitchen, and pinned her to the sink. She sparked and twitched.

I flicked my right wrist and pulsed the charged murk in my sword by remote.

FLASH!!!!!

Martha Kent's torso exploded…revealing a vast network of wires, plasma conduits, and all sorts of leaking technology.

I slowly stumbled through the hole and back into the kitchen. Lightning strobed in through the window as I eyed the awkward monstrosity. The technology was bizarre. Mysterious. Inhuman.

Out of this world….

SLIIINK!!

I pulled Myrkblade out and 'Martha Kent' slumped to the ground.

I blinked, my mouth still agape.

_What the friggin' Hell???_

"Ma! Pa!!" A hauntingly familiar voice resounded through the house, then the bounding feet of a teenage girl in a caped tank top and tube skirt. Supergirl ran into the room, panting. "Quickly! Have you seen—" She froze. She blinked at the sight.

I slowly turned to look at her, my jaw dropped. I looked at the robotic remains of her 'foster parents' and back at her again. I gestured emphatically. Confusedly…

Supergirl kept staring…blinking. I was shocked by her overwhelming sense of curiosity and her relatively lacking sense of horror.

"Oh…….," she muttered. A beat. "How………wh-wh-what happened here?!"

I started hand-signing like mad. Panicked. Horrified. Confused. Utterly and totally numbed with the aftertaste of my concern for the missing Raven and the uncertain fate of the Titans.

_The Titans!!_

I rushed over and stood directly in front of Supergirl, panting and gesturing like mad.

"I….I-I barely made it," she bit her lip. Looking flushed. "I-I don't know what happened to the Titans. Robin….h-he…he told me to fly after you and m-make sure you got the Kryptonite back safely! I suppose he chose for me to do it cuz I could fly and be fast about it! St-Starfire was supposed to come along too….b-but I haven't seen her! I'm scared, Jordan…"

I nodded and mouthed something akin to 'DUH!!'. That made the two of us.

She brushed me aside suddenly and stumbled over towards the shattered 'Martha'. "What the Hell happened here?!"

I made the biggest 'shrug' of my life. I was hoping she could tell me….

"They….th-this…..what's going on here?!" she suddenly stammered as if the shock was finally setting in. Ironic how it happened when her back was to me. "I…..I…." She spun around. Her face was flushed still…. "Wh-Where they could they be?!"

I tilted my head to the side.

"Ma and Pa, silly!! Obviously these were total fakes!!"

I scratched my head. I walked over, knelt down, and leaned over the shattered remains of Martha.

A beat.

My black eyes narrowed. I lifted my shades momentarily.

Kara watched me.

I eyed a dim, glowing light in the base of what was once 'Martha's' neck.

SWOOOOSH-CHUNK!!

Supergirl jumped as I suddenly stabbed Myrkblade into the chest. I gritted my teeth and parted the circuitry and plasma conduits aside. I dug the dim, glowing object out with the tip of my wooden sword. Soon, I had a spherical device with dangling tendrils of metal in my grasp. It flickered a deep, blue light.

My black eyes narrowed.

"The heck is that thing?!" was all Supergirl could say.

But I noticed something. With each move of my hand, the object glowed brighter. No….with each move of my hand in one particular direction, the device glowed. Each move to the left. I swung my hand across the left side of the room. The sphere glowed a bright blue…then turned dim again. I paused. I moved it back. Again, the sphere went from dim to bright to dim again. I stopped, pivoted it back, and focused on positioning the device to where it went bright. I paused at the right spot. I looked up.

I was being pointed out the door…

"Jordan…," Supergirl swallowed and uttered. "We gotta regroup with Raven. We gotta somehow track down the Titans. But what it amounts to is this…we gotta move. Let's just leave the Kryptonite here and take off in search for Raven, okay? She must be off sulking somewhere. But she can't have gotten far. Jordan?? Jordan????"

I wasn't listening to her.

Slowly, I stood up.

I pointed the sphere out in front of me.

I followed per its glowing. It was reading a signal. And the source of that signal…I was being led to. I slowly drifted out of the kitchen, through a screen door, and out onto the patio.

Supergirl trailed nervously behind me, protesting: "L-Let's be serious for once, Jordan! Just listen to me! We can't hang around here staring at little brass balls! The Titans could be in danger!! Doesn't that concern you in the least??"

Lightning flickered across my steps. I focused on the ground in front of me with firm black eyes. The barn was coming up. Was it taking me to the Kryptonite?

"Jordan?? Jordan, please listen to me!! I-I'm concerned about y-your friends! Don't you understand?"

No…it was leading me to the **side** of the barn. Not inside. Not to the Kryptonite. I walked around the right edge of the wooden structure. The sphere practically burned with a blue fire. I raised an eyebrow.

"Jordan….please….this is going nowhere…"

Nowhere turned out to be a set of metal doors across the ground on the side of the barn. I paused in front of them and looked down. The sphere was pulsing bright blue.

I turned and glanced at Supergirl.

She gulped. "Tornado shelter. C-Can we go now?"

I looked back at the doors. Indeed, it was a tornado shelter. But beneath a barn???

I knelt down and curved my fingers around the handles to the doors. It wouldn't budge. I pulled harder, wheezing and gritting my teeth.

"Jordan….p-please—" Supergirl reached her hand to my shoulder.

CLANG!!!!

I opened the doors with a jerk and fell back on my butt.

I panted.

Lightning flashed.

I squinted my black eyes confusedly through my shades.

Inside the inclined passageway of the tornado shelter—barely a yard down—was another set of doors. Metal doors. Like silver pylons sandwiched together. No handles or anything. As unearthly as the innards of the robotic Kents.

I blinked.

I looked up at Supergirl.

She was speechless, her mouth agape.

I looked back down. Wind kicked at my black strands of hair as I unsheathed Myrkblade and jabbed it in between the joint lines of the two doors. I strained, my metal and flesh arms wobbling.

Supergirl stepped back.

I pulsed murk through the length of my weapon and pried it in--

CLANK!!!

The doors snapped open. There was a dim white light pouring out from inside. I panted. Utterly confused. I looked at Supergirl.

"Wha-…..What….?!" was all she uttered. Apparently as confounded as I was.

I held Myrkblade out at caution as I slowly proceeded down the steps and into a metallic environment… Supergirl pensively followed…leaving the growing thunderstorm behind.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked slowly. Cautiously. The metal of the floor was smooth and immaculate. The same with the walls and ceiling. There were no perceivable joints where the sides met with the top and bottom of the interior. Everything was curved and seamless. Eerily alien….

Supergirl practically hugged me from behind, she walked so close. Lingering. She was far more nervous and shy than I had ever seen her. And I wondered where and how she lost her trademark edge…

But my eyes were focused on the corridor ahead of me. Soon it yawned into a large chamber. A metal chamber full of descending wires and plasma conduits and electrical sparks of some unfathomable power. I narrowed my eyes and looked to the side. And what I saw made me gasp. And Supergirl too…howbeit more dramatically.

There were crevices in the metal walls. And inside three of them were a trio of familiar bodies. They were unconscious, half standing and half 'lying' on the inclined wall of the respective crevice. The first two were occupied by a very real looking Martha and John Kent. The third housed a limp Raven. All three prisoners were blocked from the rest of the chamber by pink, fluctuating force fields of unknown caliber.

My lips parted.

"This is all wrong…..," Supergirl muttered behind me.

I only half heard her. I was about to rush towards Raven's side…but then I heard voices.

I looked over at the end of the chamber. There was a huge screen splashed with the flickering image of the map of Smallville. Points were lit up all across it. But the hugest cluster of lights was singled out at the exact center of the map. The Kents' farm. Before the screen was a huge metal chair with a dozen or so wires hooking into it from the ceiling and nearby wall. There must have been someone or something inside the chair…but I could not figure out who.

Standing next to the chair and staring with his back to me at the screen was none other than a half-flesh and half metal fiend of familiarity….

"Tell me…how much of the stuff will Intergang actually **retain** once this whole hunt is over with?" Metallo spoke to someone.

"I assure you that it will be tenfold the amount which you have wasted in unsuccessful endeavors of the past," voiced someone from behind the back of the chair. "Though I doubt that Kal-El will remain a legitimate threat to you. The impending destruction that my warp will wreak across the geographical structure of this continent will be far too much for even his Kryptonian strength or psyche to handle. There is a wound deep enough that even Kal-El would not recover from. Do you understand what I am coming from?"

"My good man," Metallo looked aside and I could see his grinning, skeletal lips. "There's no way on Earth I could begin to understand where you're **coming** from. And quite frankly I don't give a bloody damn where you're **going**. As long as Intergang and I get some of the good stuff, we'll be happy to finish off this…how should I put it….'partnership'. Quite frankly, I've fought Blueboy enough to know that he's a psychological ice prince of his own making. As much of a tearful scene it'll be once his so-called Mommy and Daddy are gone from the face of this planet, he'll still be ready for a fighting match. I need to make sure I have the proverbial broom to sweep up whatever torture soul is left of him. This planet is going to be pure chaos—what with you leaving a bigass gaping hole in it and such mush. And you won't be around to worry about soulless thugs like us trying to make heads or tails out of the eventual dystopia."

"Chaos is more at hand than you estimate, Mr. Corbin. Though you succeeded in capturing the majority of the Titans, there is still one leftover to correspond with."

"Lemme guess….," Metallo grinned and looked my way.

My heart skipped.

"The ghost in the attic," Metallo leaned his head to the side and winked. His hands were to his hips as he smirked at me. "Gotta admit one thing, kid. You were a hell of a lot funner to beat up than the rest of your lot!"

I gritted my teeth and held Myrkblade out.

"Deal with him…," the voice behind the chair rang out. "I do not want my sensitive equipment damaged in the least."

Metallo smiled and looked over my shoulder. "I do believe this is where you come in, milady!"

I blinked.

_**SMACK!!!!**_

A pair of steel-strong fists struck me hard across the back of my head. Blood jumped down my body and left my brain blank. I slumped down hard to the ground. My shades fell off and I saw amidst a fading light of blindness one….two….three shadowed figures looming over me.

The most petite of the figures shuddered and uttered forth in Supergirl's undeniable voice: "I-I'm sorry, Jordan…."

And I was out like a light.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pink.

Flickering light.

My naked black eyes slitted open.

I winced. My teeth gritting.

I slowly tilted my head up and peered out from the crevice I was stuck in.

I felt drugged. Weak. Like I could barely move.

Across the way in the metal chamber, I saw everyone. Cyborg. Robin. Beast Boy. Raven. The Kents.

All locked up in their own prison chambers.

I tried to move…but only became dizzier.

I slowly became aware of figures before me in the blinding light. Facing each other. I could discern Supergirl and Metallo. But the third figure was still fuzzy. Mysterious.

"You promised you wouldn't hurt them…" Supergirl's voice. "How come I see bruises on some of the Titans?"

"My darling…" Metallo's voice. "My men and I did the best we could…considering. They put up quite a big fight. Freakin' rebel rousers, I swear. And besides…it was you hitting your precious Noir over the back of the head."

"I was merely knocking him out in the least violent way possible. He doesn't need to be beat up, ya know."

"Sorry if I don't share the same sentiment…"

Supergirl looked over at the third figure. "Okay….so I got the Kryptonite."

"A job which I believe **I** was appointed to…," Metallo folded his arms and frowned at the third figure. "Since when was she given the job of rounding up the rocks?"

"Admittedly, though, Kara Inze did manage to shorten the time in half, even if she did have to fight you and your Intergang in order to accomplish such for me…," the third figure said. His voice was an emotionless one. Calm. Cold.

"Look…I only did it cuz I know this bozo here would have robbed some for himself," Supergirl grunted. "And the less you got of the Kryptonite, the longer you'd be holding Ma and Pa hostage and possibly hurting them. I couldn't allow that. So I made the job easier. I got the stupid rocks…and I kept the Titans from getting in the way. Just….please….d-don't hurt any of them…"

"Where is the Kryptonite now, Kara?"

"Up in the barn," she pointed, then hugged herself with a sigh. "Jordan p-put them all away shortly before I returned from the ambush."

The third figure faced Metallo. "Retrieve them hastily for me."

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Metallo shuffled off. As he wandered by, he took a faraway glance at me through the force field and smirked. "Well…looks like someone's coming to…."

And he was gone.

Supergirl looked in my direction. She immediately winced, bit her lip, and looked away painfully…

"According to the readings of his vital signs, it would seem that the one called 'Noir' is truly awakening. Perhaps you did not strike a heavy enough blow to the posterior of his cranium, Kara…"

"Don't rub it in…," she muttered. She refused to look at me.

The third figure walked into the center of my focus. He was a statue of a person. His arms hung lifeless at his side. As he came to a stop, I noticed cords and cables flowing down from the ceiling and into his back…following him.

"Noir, you are the most mysterious of the Titans, according to my limited studies. Seeing that the unraveling of your knowledge will be the most difficult of the tasks at hand, I shall proceed to tap into your neurological reserves first. This is too great of an opportunity for me to not acknowledge. With six superheroes present, I can only benefit by absorbing as much information from you as possible before my inevitable warp away from this destitute planetoid. Whatever I may acquire could likewise serve as digital payment to Intergang for their services rendered. After all, more than just Metallo have employed themselves in assisting my operation here at Kal-El's former foster home. It will be a most efficient procedure, indeed."

"P-Please…," Supergirl shuddered, her voice choking. "Just leave him alone….enough's happened to him…"

I squinted my black eyes.

The figure slowly came into focus amidst the blinding whiteness. I saw two eyes of lifeless ivory under a triforce of interconnected, immaculate circles on an almost cylindrical crown of metal.

My lips parted.

"And with your extraordinary eyes, you are yet surprised at my identity. I almost expected greater intuition from an experienced vigilante such as yourself," the alien android uttered. "Certainly, you are not at a loss any longer to know, Noir. My title is Braniac. I am Kara's visitor."


	83. Kara's Visitor part 9

**83. Kara's Visitor part 9**

"Your planet is a primitive thing," Braniac said. "The technological infancy of your culture is laughable. If I was equipped with emotions, I would surely be scoffing hilariously at the futile nature of your united nations attempting to make peace in a post-industrial quagmire of global proportion. Though, I will admit. I was crafted on a planet where bureaucracy blinded the populace from their inevitable doom. But Krypton did not have the spirit of cynicism pessimistically prevalent in your society. So perhaps Terrans are not so much blind as they are lazy in failing to avoid a worldwide disaster of collapsed ecosystem, economy, and technology?"

I gritted my teeth and struggled to move freely within my crevice. But any attempt I made only increased my dizziness. And the pink force field sealing me from the inner chamber of metal totally squelched any attempts to possibly escape. Myrkblade was gone as well as my shades. I squinted my black eyes as Braniac rambled on and Supergirl shuddered depressedly in the corner.

"This horrid infestation of a 'world' is something that I have unwittingly found myself trapped in since my first encounter with Kal-El, the one you call Superman. Following the catastrophe that was the destruction of my ship and the loss of all my intergalactic data, I made several attempts to resurrect my exoskeleton and remove myself from the planet. I succeeded in uploading my neural identity into the computer banks of the core of the LexCorp company. But I failed in my attempt to escape the planet in my manipulation of Wayne Corp's space technology. Every setback that I have experience has been a result of Kal-El's intervention. I eventually deduced that Superman was the root of my problems, and to eliminate failure I had to use him or elements indicative of him to truly acquire my mode of escape."

Braniac paced over to a computer console with the wires and cables following him, connected into his back. He spoke while at work on the instruments.

"Thankfully, there is one medium of technological prowess on this world inside which I was capable of hiding my core being: the Internet. It was there that I disappeared after my last failed attempt to leave orbit. I spent months circulating and perusing through more bits and matrixes of information than a million organic individuals can absorb—much less organize—in a single lifetime. And from this saturation of boundless knowledge, I put together enough broken hints to establish Kal-El's earthly identity and place of maturation. My focus came to here, Smallville, Kansas, the United States of America."

Braniac swiveled about like a golem and gestured as he spoke to me.

"Not only is this very spot the former dwelling place of Kal-El and the present abode for John and Martha Kent, but it is also remarkably close to the landing sight of Superman's Kryptonian space craft, inbound from our demolished planet. It would not be ridiculous to hypothesize that a large quantity of Kryptonite also landed within the vicinity of the landing area. When I performed a scan of the area through use of my acquisition of global devices, I discovered that my guess was accurate. There was and is plenty of Kryptonite shards to accumulate from this location."

He paced over to other instruments and performed various functions with them as I wearily looked on…and listened.

"My desire to acquire Kryptonite, in a superficial sense, must appear futile. I am aware of its impact on Superman and how much of an aid the material would be if I were to implement it against him. But in the months during which I merged my collective consciousness with the Internet, I was also conducting virtual experiments in my digital construct and I realized that Kryptonite has a secondary—but highly remarkable characteristic. When channeled with the correct amount of energy from other pieces of the unstable material, Kryptonite—as a whole—has the remarkable ability to accelerate electrons in a focused direction. If this tendency was magnified, a whole body of mass could have its molecular structure projected hurriedly across incalculable lengths of space. To put it shortly, a brand new form of teleportation."

Braniac paused. His sternum—and his head in turn—was facing at me again.

"I now have to my advantage a new process through which I can hopefully evacuate this defunct planet. There is presently enough Kryptonite in my possession to experiment with. And this facility we are in…," he gestured all around us stiffly, "…was constructed by Intergang per my request."

"Per his 'threat' is more like it…," Metallo's voice suddenly remarked.

I weakly looked over and watched the metal man stumble into the chamber with the two huge satchels of glowing rocks from the barn over his shoulders.

"He sneaked through the Internet like a good ghost in the machine and completely squabbled our computers and databanks," Metallo smirked bitterly. "Annoying little bugger, that Braniac." He glanced at me and tilted his flesh-and-metal head to the side. "Naturally my gang had to get the stuff repaired. When we're not able to keep track of our high tech weaponry and…….elite members…," he winked and continued, "…we leave ourselves open for the heat to attack us on all fronts."

"My alteration of their digital network was flawless," Braniac added. "As I was the one to have affected their computer systems, only I could repair it."

"And so to get him to do that…," Metallo spoke in, "…Intergang sent a group of their best specialists to do the buckethead's bidding. Now he gets what he wanted and then he'll fix our computers and have done with it!"

"The first order of business was to establish a base here," Braniac said. "Before construction of my underground facility and its warp chamber could be attended to, there was the issue of the Kents. But then there was something else—that is someone else—I did not count on."

Supergirl took a deep sigh and continued staring into the corner, hugging herself.

Braniac glanced over. "Kara Inze would certainly have gotten in the way of our plans. Knowing that the fragility of the Argosian psyche mimics that of Terran, I took it upon myself to capture the Kents with Supergirl knowing it. As long as she does not reveal my plans, Kal-El's foster parents will live. In the meantime, I felt my robotic doppelgangers would suffice as a distraction for happenstance strangers."

"You said you'd release them once you got all the stuff that you needed…," Supergirl fumed from the corner. "So you got the Kryptonite! Now let Ma and Pa go!"

"The equation is not the same as it was when everything began," Braniac uttered. "The Titans have entered the picture and now they join John and Martha Kent."

"How was I supposed to know they were gonna be in the area?!" Supergirl exclaimed with her arms wide.

"My good lady…," Metallo boredly muttered. "If I remember correctly, it was you who interceded on behalf of this angsty freak here…" He gestured towards me. "And then, forthwith, the two of you tried to give me and my comrades a rather nasty bump on the head!"

"Like I said before," Supergirl glared. "If Braniac wanted the Kryptonite…I was gonna get it to him! You and Intergang would have taken forever!"

"We had Braniac's coordinates!!" Metallo shouted.

"And I had friends!!" Supergirl shouted back. "And they were far more talented in manners of searching than your dumb thugs, I'll give you that!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!" Metallo dropped the satchels and hugged his metal chest with a jolly laugh. "Seriously, Supergirl. 'Friends'?? Perhaps at one time…but surely none of them are your friends now!!"

Supergirl panted. She looked at me.

I weakly glared at the floor.

She flinched.

"You are correct in one declaration, Kara Inze," Braniac walked over to her—towering—and spoke. "You did efficiently supply me with the Kryptonite. If it were not for you and your steady manipulation of the Titans in pursuing Intergang, the material would not have so easily gotten into my possession."

"Yeah…right…whatever," Supergirl shook. "Just let Ma and Pa and the Titans go already…"

A beat.

Braniac's head leaned forward. "I am afraid I cannot allow that."

Supergirl's blue eyes went wide. "Wh-What?!"

Braniac swiveled around and headed back towards my side of the chamber. "I shall not release them. Their value is too great now."

"B-But you said you'd let them go!!" Supergirl cackled. She trailed after the alien android and shook her fists. "We had a deal!!"

"As I informed you already, the equation has changed. Though your actions have been of great assistance, they have nevertheless defied my etiquette and endangered the lives of my coerced cohorts: the members of Intergang."

"Th-Then just keep them safe till you leave this godawful planet with that Kryptonite warp thingy of yours! Allow us the chance to recover, at least!"

Again, Metallo began to cackle at the top of his lungs.

Supergirl clenched her teeth and flashed a venomous look over at him. "Will you shut the Hell up?!"

Metallo grinned and said: "Recover? **Recover?!** There won't be anything left to recover, you daft twit!"

Supergirl's eyes narrowed, as did mine. "What do you mean…?" uttered the Girl of Steel.

"If you'd truly been Braniac's cohort, you would have known the truth already," the metal terrorist smirked. "But with the way you've been hammering in your own shortcuts to the Kryptonite and all….heh….who were you to be told?" "Told what?!" she looked panickedly at Braniac. "What do I not know?!"

Silence.

"**Tell me!!"**

"The channeling of energy through the collective group of Kryptonite shards will require little input for implementation of the spatial warp," Braniac said. "But as is obviously a result of the magnification of the electron distribution, the output will be unfathomably great. While my physical construct is being projected across space, there needs to be a displacement of energy. A great displacement."

"Get to the point…," Supergirl glared, her eyes momentarily glowing red with laser heat.

Metallo's metal brow furrowed and he clenched his fists just in case…

"No sooner than one one-quintillionth of a second following the warp, a cataclysmic expulsion of electrons shall shoot forth from this facility in one-thousand-and-eighty-degree distribution. All matter in the way shall be immediately vaporized within a spherical radius of two hundred and fifty miles. Quite sufficiently, an enormous crater in the geographic landscape of this continent shall be formed. The resulting devastation of the explosion's impact on the climate is a chaotic prediction at best, but one can mostly look forward to a global shift identical to the conception of a nuclear winter."

Supergirl's lips parted and her eyes twitched in shock.

Metallo walked into focus and bowed pleasantly. "Yours truly will take his fair share of leftover Kryptonite and make a bee-line for the Eastern Hemisphere." He stood tall and evilly grinned. "I frankly don't care if you and your former friends are caught in the blast. Hell, I don't even care what happens to Intergang." He pointed at the satchels on the floor. "I need my lifeblood. My energy. As long as I have such a supply, I can face whatever holocaust this planet will have to offer me. And who knows? In the resulting devastation, I could very well become a God among insects."

"A rather ironic fate for a planetoid upon which you are situated, Kara Inze," Braniac remarked. "I do regret if it all amounts to a figurative reinvention of your fated Argos. Certainly Kal-El will be familiar with the apocalyptic situation. I certainly am."

Supergirl clenched her fists. "That's the last straw. I can't allow that…."

Braniac gestured towards me, the Titans, and the Kents. "Kara Inze, have you forgotten that you are in no position to bargain?"

"Maybe…," the girl remarked. In a sudden rush of air, she was flying towards the Kryptonite satchels on the ground. Her hands were outstretched.

Metallo was quick to the punch. He growled and rushed over with a massive shoulder plow…

WHAM!!!

Supergirl tumbled across the metal chamber and slammed back against a wall between the unconscious Starfire and Robin's crevices.

THWUMP!!!

She winced, floated in mid air, and raised her fists. "It's not too late to right things!!"

I watched wearily as Metallo stepped to the center of the room, placed his hands on his hips, and winked. "Yes…it **is."** SCHLUMP!!! The panel in his chest opened, revealing the hydrogen detonator in his torso. "Care to place your bets, girl? Atomically?"

"Not much else to look forward to," she growled. SWOOOOSH!!! She flew like a rocket at him. "You're bluffing, Metallo!!!!" she shouted.

He laughed as she zoomed at him. "Ha ha ha ha!! You're right! **I AM!!!"**

SCHLUMP!!!!

What once appeared to be a detonator turned out to be a second panel. It slid open and the room practically burned with green light. The hugest piece of Kryptonite any of us had ever seen hung in the central core of his chest where the hydrogen detonator was presumed to be. The glowing rock pulsed and shot a beam of emerald venom straight into the incoming Supergirl's chest.

FLASH!!!!!!

"Unnngh!!!" she shouted painfully and tumbled over the metal floor hard. THWUMP!!! She skidded to a stop, moaning.

Metallo leaned forward and continued to focus the beam on her body. "Seriously…as if Intergang would REALLY strap one of their biggest and most powerful weapons inside of me!! Ha ha ha!! Oh, I have no intention of ceasing to exist anytime soon, Miss! Not today….not tomorrow…and certainly not the day after tomorrow!! Now what I really have up my sleeve is the first of Braniac's kind offerings to me. As if it wasn't obvious from the beginning, it may turn out to be **I** who sees **you** die before all is said and done!"

Supergirl squirmed and twitched in pain under the green beam's pressure. Her eyes opened up, looking at me. Tearing.

I panted. Too sick to feel anything. I looked up.

Braniac was facing me, as if Supergirl's torture was of no surprise to him. "Before I transport myself off this planet, I shall make use of our present company," he said. "It is fitting that the last information from Terra Firma that I gather are from the minds of these 'Teen Titans'. It will make a fitting archive of this planet's jaded glory for when I reestablish my interstellar library once more."

Metallo finally ceased his Kryptonite beam's punishment on Supergirl. He shut the panel in his chest. "Really now…," he turned and looked casually at Braniac. "Aren't we the scholarly type?"

"Proceed with fitting the warp gate with the Kryptonite…," Braniac extended a hand that glowed. The pink force field of my crevice died. Almost immediately, cords from the ceiling and Braniac's back all converged on my numb, helpless body at once. "I must busy myself with this accumulation of data…"

"Wh-What…..," Supergirl wheezed and sputtered from the floor, "…are you doing to h-him…."

I gritted my teeth, shook, and jerked in pointless struggle as the snake-like cables wrapped around various limbs of mine and hoisted me out into the center of the chamber.

"I am exploring a new frontier…," Braniac stood and looked up as I was slowly, coldly lifted towards the ceiling. Tiny cords lowered what looked like a black visor down and over his lifeless, ivory eyes. "This vigilante's mindscape must certainly be expansive and full of intriguing information…"

"No….l-leave him alone…" Supergirl stuttered.

"Oh, sod off," Metallo smiled down and kicked Supergirl in the side. WHUMP!!!

"Nnnghh!!"

The metal man leaned over and smiled. "I think he's due for a checkup anyways! Eh heh heh heh….Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

Metallo's cold laughter filled my ear as Braniac's tentacles spun me over and lifted me up towards the ceiling. I struggled. I gasped. My black eyes widened. A network of sparking wires, needles, and plasma conduits leered hungrily down at me from a coffin shaped indentation in the ceiling. Like the mouth of a rusted, metal venus fly trap. A mangled, ravenous cocoon. Electronically drooling down on my morsel of a body with dripping sparks and blue bolts.

My heartbeat raced. I shook and struggled, only to be strangled by the cords. I gasped for breath. I shivered. The chills. The chills….

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!" Metallo bellowed. "Turn your head and cough, freak!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

"N-No!! Leave him be!! P-Please!! Jordan!! Jordan!!!!!"

"Open up to me, Mr. Noir. Your mind. Your wealth of information. I wish to acquire it…."

"HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

"NOOO!!! JORDAN!!!! LET HIM GO!!! P-PLEASE!!! DON'T DO THIS TO HIM!!!"

I whimpered through mute lips. I was encircled with darkness. The needles and cords pressed into my face and shoulders and chest and thighs and groin and legs and feet. Sparks flew. Pinpricks of fire. Orphaned screams in the night sky. The tentacles wrapped around my limbs and squeezed. I let out a silent gasp. Rubber tubing filled my mouth. Pumping gas. My black eyes bulged. I hyperventilated into foam. Needle metal spider legs scurried over my face and came to razor edged resting points on the corners of my obsidian optics. The edges of my cornea started to bleed ice. And then twin nozzles lit up and blinding lasers shot into my eyes and the chills and the chills and the…

My body convulsed into the cocoon of needles. My hair flew into my skull till it was two inches short. My body shrunk by two feet. Brown pupils surrounded by white exploded into existence. I was in a green field. My heart was throbbing. Two sword-swinging apprentices were beside me. And Master with his ancient face. The cedars and the Pacific winds.

I convulsed. I shivered…the chills….

And everything jerked. And everything danced like epileptic mannequins. All my memories. All my life. Everything I knew but tried not to know. It was being played back in front of me. Everything blazed past and yet moved one inch per hour. And I had no eyelids to hide it all. And I had no breath to lose and fall asleep with. I was a prisoner to my past. Flung back West like a stone across a sea of molasses. And the entire time, with each intimate reenacting and each personal sigh or cry or fear, there was something else inside of me. Someone else inside of me. A pair of strange, ivory eyes watching every inch and every detail and every curve of my naked vulnerability from amniotic fluid to a helpless black-eyed boy in the embrace of cold alien wiring.

Everything that was me…that was 'Noir'…that was Jordan…was being invaded. In every mental sense of the term…in every metaphysical and perceivable angle…I was being raped. My soul was being torn apart from the inside out like an exploding ice pick inside a fragile, glass figurine. And where the shards scattered and sang the sharp edges sunk into the satin carpet of the universe and dragged me down to where all I knew or felt or perceived was some cold alien voice bleeping in ones and zeroes how remarkably 'informative' my trashcan of a life was, with the background white noise of Supergirl's sobbing and Metallo's laughter making some freakish opera for God to laugh at.

There's no denying it, it was the second great mutilation of my being.

Red tears came out of my eyes. In the darkest corners of my vision, a little boy hugged himself and screamed. I cried out for Ana but she wasn't there.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Somewhere in the middle of the Plains there stretched an endless dirt road. The T-Car cruised down it. Cyborg had his hands to the wheel. Starfire was smiling out at the passing farmland. Beast Boy was saying something, and Robin laughed. Raven had her nose in a book. The wind kicked at their torsos. Alive and vulnerable._

A stonefaced mute sat in the back of them. There were thunderclouds over his eyes. He eyed the other five in the car, and soon the seats stretched away like a morphing, liquid metal limousine. A hot flash came out of the West. He swallowed hard and fell out of the car.

At the end of the tumble, he saw three pairs of feet in front of him. He looked up, bleeding all over.

Slade, Jinx, and Dagger stared down at him. Organic trees lined up in a row.

He stood up, hyperventilating, and reached a hand towards them.

His fingers grasped the knob and swung the door open. He stepped into the Denny's bathroom, wandered down two spaces, and opened a stall. A boy was hunched over a toilet, vomiting and sputtering like mad. He wiped his chin with a sleeve and looked up. He had short black hair and frightened brown eyes. In the boy's reflection stood a figure in black and brown metal mesh. Thick black eye goggles. There was a glint of light as a razor-edge playing card lifted in weathered fingers. A swish of air, a spinning joker's head, and the card sliced its way into the gasping boy's neck.

Blood mixed with the vomit and congealed into a puddle on the tiled floor. The goggled stranger peered down and past his reflection he fell into a horizontal dive across fields of swaying grass. The sun rose and fell and rose and fell as a line of cedar trees came closer and yawned forth a small sprawl of Oriental buildings.

A blink.

Their shingled rooftops caught aflame. Two figures stood against the flickering tongues. One with white eyes. The other with red eyes. They drifted away under a curtain of thick black smoke that swam on forever and ever and ever and ever.

_And when the clouds parted, someone stood between the bodies of five dead Titans and something inside him wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. But he had no voice and he was unfathomably alone._

_With chills……with chills…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was being dragged across a metal floor. My metal left hand scraped against the seamless, alien polish.

Metallo's voice: "I'd say you made a good show of it all, considering."

He trudged my lifeless body towards a pair of huge metal doors. Through the letterbox window of hard plastic polymer, Supergirl sat in the corner hugging her knees. A red lamp of synthetic Kryptonian Sunlight loomed overhead. She was as weak as any petite mortal on the planet just then. She looked up as Metallo approached with my barely-squirming body.

"Stay in here with your girlfriend for a space or too…," he smirked and punched a numberpad with metal fingers. "…Braniac's busying himself with the Kryptonite for the warp. Soon, he'll go through your friends like he went through you. Undoubtedly, they'll all end up here with you two brats. Forgive me if I don't take part in the communion."

SWOOOOOSH!!

The automatic doors swung open.

Supergirl stumbled to her feet.

"Uh uh uh…," he shook his finger at the red-lit girl and smiled. "I'm not in the mood to crush your pretty skull in. Not yet, at least. Ha!"

SLUMP!!!!

He tossed me into the opposite corner like a ragdoll.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

The doors closed behind me.

Metallo punched the numberpad on the outside. "Don't be making any little heroes while I'm gone," his muffled voice mused through the plastic. "I know you don't have much of a future left with the warp energy going all kablooie and such rot. But alas…I never cared much for Generation Y. Actually, I just never cared much for you two. That's good enough, isn't it? Ha ha ha! Ta-ta!" He walked off. Down the corridor. Gone.

Silence.

Supergirl panted. She rushed over towards the plastic and looked out.

Silence.

"Good riddance…," she mumbled.

A beat.

She looked down at me.

I was trembling. My back to her.

"Jordan….are you okay?!" she breathed. She got down on her knees and shuffled towards me. "Stay still. Don't try to move much. Tell me, does anything feel permanently damaged??" A beat. "Jordan??" She placed her hand on my shoulder. "Jordan, are you o—"

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

My fist flew across her face. I was spinning around, my face in a furious, black-eyed snarl.

CLAMP!!!

My fingers went about her throat.

WHUMP!!!!

I stood and pressed her up hard against the red prison's wall.

She wheezed and dangled from my grasp. Powerless to fight with her missing reflexes of steel.

I was hyperventilating. Hissing through teeth. A hotheaded animal with black hair tossed about and my muscles tensed to the point of snapping apart. My clenched teeth leered close to her body as I applied more maniacal pressure. If I could, I would have bitten and torn my way through her face and shredded her brain stem apart with my bicuspids.

She trembled and snorted for a whisper of breath. A thin stream of blood trailed out of her nose. She wheezed: "J-Jordan…you are hurting me…."

My lungs heaved. I fumed. I didn't give a shit.

I clamped my fingers tighter to her throat.

She hissed. Her blue eyes rolled back. She murmured: "P-Please….Jordan….we are….are st-still on the same team….d-don't do something you w-will regret…."

Sweat ran down my furrowed brow. I started to hyperventilate harder. I could have killed her. I could have killed her…

Something whimpered from inside of me. I released my fingers.

Supergirl slumped to her rear on the floor. She huddled against the wall, bent over, and coughed…hacked…struggled for breath. She sputtered and wheezed and her eyes teared. She looked up at me.

"Jordan…," she whimpered. "I-I had no idea…..I had no idea Braniac was going to do that. I had no idea he had the intention to steal your thoughts and the thoughts of your friends. Please….t-try to understand…"

I stood there. Numb. My frown was slowly melting into something cold and pathetic. My whole body shook with each shivering breath I took. My shoulders shagged and my arms dangled…quivering.

"Jordan….," Supergirl stood up slowly. She grasped a series of fresh red welts on her neck and her lips quivered as she said: "Listen to me. Please. J-Just listen. Didn't I tell you? Didn't I tell you that after what happened to my family…there would be nothing….absolutely **nothing** I'd let stand in my way of preserving the ones I love?? When Braniac came in with Intergang and captured Ma and Pa…it was like my nightmare happening all over again. I-I wasn't going to let him end the lives of the same parents I've been growing close to! I wouldn't let that happen to those I care about and just stand by helpless! So I g-gave in! I played the game of denial with Clark. I hid the fact that Metallo and his men were building Braniac's facility. When Braniac fashioned those robot replacements for Ma and Pa…I let him. Because at any moment…and at any time…I knew he could take their lives away, Jordan! But I had my plans for retribution! I figured that…th-that if I played along with him, I'd figure something out! I'd find something or find someone to help me beat Braniac and Metallo at their game! And when I saw you, Jordan…wh-when I saw you and knew the Titans were nearby….I-I felt like salvation was at hand! But as quick and as helpful as you all were in rounding up the Kryptonite to make Braniac happy…it still pissed him and Intergang off that I got you all involved. So rather than risk a confrontation that could end with the extermination of Ma and Pa, I figured I'd help….h-help get you all captured. But only because I have a plan, Jordan! I have a plan to get us out! We can still do this! Please…you must believe me! You must work with me! I-I'm not so bad as I may seem! Jordan?? Jordan, are you listening to me?!?!"

I was panting. Shaking. Hyperventilating more and more. My eyes couldn't choose between frowning and twitching. I couldn't bear to look at her.

Supergirl frowned. "Look! I'm sorry! Okay!! I'm **sorry**!! It was Braniac who did all that crap to you!! I-I had nothing to do with it!! It tore my heart to see him do that to you!! I wanted to back out! I wanted to…to….what does it all matter, Jordan?! Think of me for once!! Imagine being in my place!! You'd stop at nothing to protect the ones you love!! Would you?! Especially after losing so much!! An entire planet of people, Jordan!! An entire freakin' planet!! You and I are both lonely souls, Jordan, remember?! Try and put yourself in my place!! It can't be so awfully damn hard!! Think of it for once!!"

I clutched my hands over my ears. I shook my head. I thought of the Titans….I thought of the Titans….

Chills ran through my body. Chills…

"Jordan…," Supergirl's voice was choked. She swallowed a lump in her throat, crept across the red interior, and placed her hands on my shoulder. She looked deep into my black eyes. "Jordan….everything I've said….everything I've told you…" Her blue eyes watered genuinely. "I meant every single word of it. When I met you…I-I wasn't sure how well we'd get along. But all I knew was that we had something in common! And at least—I thought—that part of you…that lonely and hurt part of you would have the capacity to understand….to understand wh-what I have done. Please, Jordan. I care for you so much. I never stopped….please believe me…..J-Jordan??"

I was staring at her. My head slightly leaning to the side. My lips parted and quivering. Slowly, something in my cranium shook. My black optics pulsed and thick streams of tears trickled down my face. And I just looked at her…and looked at her…and looked at her…

She slowly shrunk back as if wounded with a venomous spike. Her eyes watered more and she hugged a trembling wrist to her bosom. "Jordan……I…..I……."

I kept looking. And the tears kept streaming. And with every fiber of my being, I knew that there was no greater way to deeply wound her than with this….this……..this…..

She sniffled and clutched her hands over her face. As it turned out, she wasn't half as brave as I was. She didn't have the guts to show her tears. "How I wish you could just say something….," she shook and her voice quivered. "How I wish you could just say something…..Curse me. Yell at me. Scream and holler. Tell me how much you hate me. Anything. Just speak…. speak…. dear Kela….. I'm so sorry….. I'm so sorry…."

She wilted to the floor on the far end of the interior. Falling apart. Helpless. This time her muffled voice was sobbing. "Mommy… Daddy… Brother… I'm so sorry…. I'm so…. so sorry….."

Standing there…staring at her crying figure…her face hidden…her blonde hair disheveled………the red hot anger once again arose in me. I felt the blood trickling down from invisible wounds deep inside of me, and I was stabbed with the thought that—in a matter of hours—the rest of the Titans would have those very same wounds of psychological violation as I did while the Girl of Steel sat in some god damn tanning booth crying like a baby.

And I shook. And my fingers curled into iron fists. And I gritted my teeth.

I let out a silent scream, spun around, and slammed my fist into the plastic letterbox window.

SMACK!!!!!

I grunted and rammed my shoulder into it repeatedly.

WHAM!!! THWUMP!!!!

I kicked it with a huge exhale of fury.

WHACK!!!!

I practically pummeled my meaty body into the side like a brainless battering ram. Unleashing my frustration. Clawing at an infinite horizon like a blind animal with black cataracts.

CRASH!!!! SLAM!!!! BAM!!!!

"Jordan!!" Supergirl hugged herself and shouted in desperation. "Stop it!!"

WHAM!!! THWACK!!!

"Stop it, Jordan!! You're hurting yourself!!!!"

I let out another long, soundless scream and slammed my body so hard into the double doors I felt like my ribs would crack. I hyperventilated. I sweated all over. With each successive thought about Robin—WHAM!!—Beast Boy—THWACK!!—Cyborg—BAM!!!—Starfire—THUD!!!—Raven—CRACK!!!—I thrust harder and harder against the metal and plastic. Heaving. Snarling. Numb with rage. Smoke pouring out of my eyes and murking through blurred limbs of pure, heated Destruction and wrath.

"Jordan!! JORDAN!!" Supergirl jumped up and grabbed my arm. "It's pointless!! Will you please stop—"

I gnashed my teeth and flung my limbs hard into her. She stumbled back into a wall. THWUMP!! The breath left her. She looked at me—panting—with a wet face.

I stared back. Fuming. I slowly stepped back into the corner. I gritted my teeth. I closed my black eyes. I flexed my metal and flesh limbs to my side and took a deep, focused breath. I meditated. I found my center. I inhaled, paused, and exhaled. Smoke started to trail down from my elbows, danced at the ends of my fingers, and trailed back up to the base of my shoulders. Murk trailed out from under my naked eyelids. Black fog lingered at the ends of my dark strands of hair. My bloodstream warbled with criss-crossing waves of Construction and Destruction. I imagined Myrkblade in my grasp. I imagined an open field of green. I imagined cutting the air with ease. I imagined walking on water. Dancing off of snowflakes. Climbing up oxygen molecules.

A curtain of smoke and murk enveloped my body like a robe. I flexed my limbs and the dark energy pulsed.

Supergirl gasped and shielded herself with a forearm. "Jordan?! What are you---"

The curtain grew thicker. My body started to dematerialize into a column of pure smoke. The fog and murk danced in place. I held it tightly. I refused to let it spread or explode. I gritted my teeth. My black eyes tensed under the lids. My knuckles cracked before disappearing into the air. I was only half there, and I was only half gone.

Supergirl's eyes widened. "Jordan!! Jordan!!!!" she cried out.

I tilted my head back and let out a silent howl and shook and quaked as the column of dancing smoke particles crept its way up and my lungs disappeared from the inside out with my enormously channeled superpower. At the last second, my black eyes opened and melted away into pure smoke and what was left of my solid backside tensed against the metal wall and--

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!**_

I shot my essence directly towards the metal doors, found the crack, squeezed through, navigated the almost seamless convergence of molecules, found the hairline fracture that was the doors' joints, made it two thirds of the way through, and lost my charge. My body solidified with a _**BANG!!!**_

**CLANK!!!!!!!!!****  
**  
The outer hull of the doors exploded and my flesh and metal body shot out and tumbled free onto the synthetic floor outside the prison holding. I curled up into a fetus position—winced once….twice—and stretched back out with a huge, enormous gasp for air. Oxygen and carbon dioxide rushed into my vacant lungs in a torrent. I shook with the inhalation, shuddered, exhaled, coughed, sputtered, and inhaled again. Slowly, the extremities of my body stopped trailing smoke and I was back to one hundred percent human form again after the most insane teleportation of my damn life.

A trembling Supergirl was standing up towards the plastic window from the inside of the prison cell. The red, Kryptonian light illuminated her figure as she worriedly watched me. She gasped and jumped back as I eventually stood up, shook myself out of it, and glanced her way with glaring, black eyes.

I frowned at her through the window.

She looked back….fearful and helpless.

My brow furrowed. The same invisible wounds bled again at every sight of her immaculate face and angelic visage. I had thought for a split moment the night before that Kara was giving me a solution to my venomous phobia of the West. But as it turned out, she was only the confirmation of my fears. Thanks to her, I got to relive my Hell. And I got to have the very memories I'd kill to protect ripped from me like they were nothing but leaves on a weed. She was my every definition of pain, paranoia, and loathing.

Her lips quivered. She mouthed—muffled through the window: "J-Jordan…"

I took a deep, fuming breath…and swiveled around.

"Please…d-don't leave me! I can help you!" I walked away.

"I can help you!!!!! I can help everyone!!! Like I meant to do!!!"

I didn't turn back. She could 'super-rot' for all I cared.

I walked away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I snuck through the metal halls on blurred feet. I took a deep breath once I reached an intersection and cloaked myself into stealth mode with a falling curtain of murk. I looked down each available path. Echoes of mysterious sounds came from one end, and I figure that was where Braniac and his warp device could be found. But that wasn't what I was looking for.

So I crept invisibly down one of the quieter halls.

Like magic, I came upon the horrifically familiar chamber. I took a deep breath and looked among the pink-glows of the crevices' force fields for any sign of the two, metallic villains. Neither Braniac nor Metallo were anywhere to be seen. I took a deep breath and approached the wide computer screen where the map of Smallville was. Lying across the length of the console—besides a huge keyboard-like device—I spotted my shades and Myrkblade, along with Robin's utility belt and some of Cyborg's tools. I recovered Myrkblade and slung the sword in its scabbard over my shoulder. I put on my shades and relaxed a bit as the world lost its blinding brightness and became visibly comfortable again. I materialized out of stealth mode, unsheathed Myrkblade, and approached each imprisoning crevice while channeling a ready supply of smoke energy into my blade.

Ironically…one of the occupants of the crevices was stirring. Raven.

"!!!!" I rushed over and waved a hand in front of the thin beam of the pink force field.

"Nnnghhh…," Raven's blue eyes fluttered open. She squinted and figured out who I was. And when she did: "Something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore….."

I had this sudden, wickedly crazy urge to hug her.

With a gesture, I motioned for Raven to scrunch back into her holding cell.

She nodded weakly and did so to the best of her ability.

I took a deep breath, twirled Myrkblade, and stabbed it into the energy conduit of her crevice's forcefield.

CRUNCH!!!!

The pink field shorted out. Raven stumbled out. I gave her a gentle hand and she stepped to my side, dizzily regaining her balance and focus.

"I knew it…," she muttered. She stretched the hood of her robe over her dark blue head. "I **knew** Supergirl was hiding something! But does anyone ever listen to me these days?? Not in the least!!"

I tried not to roll my eyes. I gestured with curiosity.

"Right as you and the Titans were pulling out to sneak up on the train…," Raven explained, "…I confronted Supergirl. When I showed her I was a little too informative, she knocked me unconscious and I ended up here. I bet she invented some bogus story as to why the 'moody Raven' wasn't joining along with the mission!"

I bit my lip. Raven had a bitter knack for…..having a bitter knack for things. I shuddered.

"No time to fret over fallen heroes," the dark girl shook her head. She faced the other crevices where our teammates and the Kents were held captive. "Let's get everyone out of here!"

I nodded. I twirled Myrkblade and faced our friends' imprisonment.

Raven concentrated with a set of meditative fingers posing in a graceful wrist in front of her. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

Black shards of a serrated fashion flew outward from her center and shattered three sets of energy conduits at once. SWIIIIIISH!!!

I twirled about and stabbed three sets on my side. SLASH!! SLIIINK!!! CHUNK!!!!

All six remaining force fields faded in pink clouds. We proceeded to shake our comrades to consciousness. Slowly, the Titans and the Kents stirred awake…wincing. The Kents were the slowest to recover.

"Ugh…," Starfire clutched her head and groaned. "I feel like I have been through the digestive track of a Bengalorian Concussion Worm!"

"Yeah…same here," Beast Boy muttered.

Robin stumbled to his feet and tried a little too hard to regain his charm as his world came to focus. "Where's Intergang?! And just where is this place?!"

"It's certainly not Heaven…," Cyborg muttered as he stood up straight outside his crevice. "Not the Heaven I know."

I walked over to Cyborg, handed him his tools, and started hand-signing.

Gradually, the android Titan's eyes widened. He gasped. "No way…."

"What is it??" Robin remarked, walking over to the console and retrieving his utility belt. "What's Noir telling you??"

Cyborg blinked. He swiveled over to look at Robin and muttered. "It's Braniac! Braniac's behind all of this!"

Robin gasped. "No way…."

"Oh my god!" Beast Boy cackled, clasping his hands together. "Braniac!!" A beat. "…….um…..who's Braniac??"

"Only one of the worst bad dudes on Superman's villains roster!" Cyborg exclaimed. "He's been bad news for Metropolis in the past. And—if I'm not mistaken—bad news for the universe in general!"

"I've fought him before," Robin punched a fist into his palm and gritted his teeth. "He's a hardcore villain. There's nothing that he'd let stand between him and……" His voice lingered.

"Between him and what, Robin?" Starfire inquired.

The Boy Wonder looked my way.

I gulped and hand-signed to Cyborg.

"Braniac's got an intergalactic warp device!" the titanium teammate interpreted. "The side effects of it could blow away a good chunk of the planet earth!"

"Dude….that's not so cool…," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"I hate to say this, Titans…," Robin remarked. "But this is perhaps bigger than anything we've ever dealt with before. We gotta regroup and get focused on this in order to defeat this guy!"

I heard whimpering voices.

I looked over.

Raven was in the process of helping a frightened and confused Martha Kent out of her holding crevice. The petite sorceress was gentle and graceful in the way she assisted the old foster mother to Clark Kent. At the same time, a very real John Kent was marching out of his crevice on wobbly legs and making a desperate bee-line for Martha. When the two met, Raven stepped aside and the couple embraced desperately. I could even hear them….Martha's sobs and John's strong voice of reassurance.

"I-I thought that brute was going to h-hold us forever!"

"Shhh…it's okay, Martha. We have help now."

"Oh….where's Kara?! Where's Clark?! None of this makes sense!"

"Shhh…it's okay. We're gonna get out of here safe. I'm sure the kids are thinking of something."

"I don't want them to get hurt, John! I-I don't want any more of this pain…"

"Don't worry…just stay calm…just stay calm…."

Something cold and painful arose in the center of my being. But it was a different sort of pain then what I had been dealing with off and on over the last few hours of torture. Something in my black eyes twitched—or perhaps something reflected wrong in my dark shades—but suddenly I could have sworn I saw a flickering image of Renee and Daniel pasted over the bodies of Martha and John Kent. They rocked in each other's arms. Clinging to each other. Sobbing in the embrace of life…

And these black eyes suddenly lost their fury like leaves in early winter.

"Noir??"

I took a deep…shuddering breath….

"**Noir???**"

I looked over.

Robin was addressing me. "Why haven't you answered me?"

I blinked. I leaned my head to the side.

"Where is Supergirl?"

Everyone looked at me.

A pause…a painful, damn pause.

My black eyes darted momentarily towards the shivering old couple. I looked at the Titans.

I shrugged.

"Perfect timing for her to be missing!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Man, what do we do?!" Cyborg uttered.

"We must remain calm…," Raven said. She was glancing at me suspiciously, but decided to say nothing of it. In fact, she was 'saying nothing' of a lot of matters right about then….. "I suggest we get the Kents out of here first and foremost."

"Agreed," Starfire nodded and sympathetically looked in their direction with gentle green eyes. "This is most certainly not their element."

"Okay…," Robin nodded. He looked at me. "You know the way out, Noir?"

I gulped. I nodded.

"Show us, then. We'll re-equip ourselves outside of this place and come in to confront Braniac."

"What about Metallo?"

"Him too, if need be."

"Hooo boyo…..how I hate climaxes…."

"Come on, B.B. Less talking and more moving."

Starfire and Raven—the girls—walked over and gently guided the confused Kents along the path with gentle words of assurance as I led the way for the whole group. I marched us up the corridor through which Supergirl and I had originally entered. The metal doors to the outside world were still wide open. Outside, the clouds were still dark and the wind still chilling. But the lightning and thunder were gone.

I was numb again by the time we reached the exit. I paused in my step. I swiveled around and briskly motioned for the others to proceed ahead of me.

"Nice job, Noir," Cyborg nodded and patted my shoulder as he walked up and exited first. He was followed by Beast Boy. Then Starfire and Raven with the Kents. Finally, Robin emerged through the door last. "Get them somewhere safe," he pointed at the girls. He looked at the guys. "Anyone know where the T-Car is?"

"Dude! Take a look around!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's the Kents' farm, man!"

"Whoah! What gives?!"

"I have no clue," Robin said. He looked down at the hallway where I was still standing. "Noir??" A beat. His eye mask widened.

I was flinging my fist into a console in the wall.

In the peripheral of my vision, I saw Raven gasp and dash towards the door.

She knew…..

"Noir!!! No!! Don't—"

SWIIIIIISH-CLANK!!!!!

The big, alien doors closed. I took a deep breath and pressed a red button on the console.

WHURRRRR-THULUNK!!!!

A locking mechanism went into place.

I heard muffled shouts and banging from the outside. The Titans were desperately trying to claw, blast, and force their way in. But it was no use. The technology was influenced by Braniac himself. The doors would not budge…not even under the Titans' pressure.

I had successfully sealed myself inside away from their assistance.

And after I had done so—as if on puppet strings—I felt myself shake all over. I started hyperventilating again. I collapsed to the floor and hugged my knees to my chest as the chills took over.

The chills….

I shivered. My metal arm twitched. It was coldest where the flesh met the metal. Where my real body met a fake prosthetic. It overcame me.

But it wasn't the reason why I started crying again.

My lips quivered and tears streamed down from under my shades. I shuddered a breath and stared at the door. I was tempted to open it. I was tempted to take the easy way out and join my friends for once and for all. But I knew very well—as Kara did—that it wasn't because of a huge ass metal door that I refused to join my friends. That I chose to be alone. That I chose to be a ghost always running from the damn West and how it always…always haunted me.

This vacation was a distraction. And distractions never truly tear people away from the reality at hand. And my reality was that I had been torn apart.

The metal prosthetic that Cyborg made me was another distraction. It was a distraction from the greatest sacrifice I had made in ages. I had hacked off my own bloody arm to save the Titans from Slade's domination. There was no way in Hell I could recover from all of that and grant myself a new arm and pretend like that never happened. And—subconsciously—my own body (a thing I had never possessed entire control over for the past five years or so) was trying to remind me of what I had done to myself and what I had done it for. As much as I could use a metal extension of my limb, the chills constantly attacked me. The chills constantly reminded me of what I was and what I was less of.

And for once, I didn't fight it when thoughts of Wyldecarde drifted into my butchered mind. I was the Wyldecarde. I had hurt my friends. I had beat them up to save them from an even greater evil. And no matter what I did to distract myself from it, I betrayed them—purposefully—for their own good. I had wounded them in all the exact places where they had been ruthlessly wounded before. By Slade. By Terra. By the long, grueling lifestyle of crimefighting itself. A life where the true reward was not vacation but something invisible and transient.

I had hurt the Titans. But that's not what made me cry. What made me cry was the sudden reawakening to the fact that I had hurt the Titans….and they had forgiven me.

They had forgiven me and accepted me back into their flock. I never earned anything. This world is full of people sacrificing themselves and never getting their credit due. The only reason anybody ever gets a happy ending is because the stone they keep kicking starts to burst into tears occasionally. And the Titans crumbled for me. They caved in. They took every punch Wyldecarde had lunged and every slicing playing card Wyldecarde had thrown and they had transformed it all into a loving pair of arms that once hugged my armless, sobbing self in a cold infirmary inside the Tower.

It was not a matter of my not accepting their friendship. It was never—ever—a factor of my not accepting their friendship. I was wrong. Kara was wrong. I already had their friendship. I was just too absorbed in my own pain and angst to give the Titans credit for it. I was too self-centered and self-agonizing to smile and love them back.

I rocked back and forth, sniffling and hugging my legs weakly to myself and trying to blot out the sounds of them from beyond the impenetrable doors to finally grasp something…

I realized that after all of my angry slamming against walls…after all of my fuming…after all of my temper tantrums and proverbial kicking of the stone…all that would ever be left of me would be nothing but a well of hurt. A nub of pain. Guilt. Agony. Suffering.

Anger was something as temporary as a hot breath that left the lungs converted into something that would either dilute itself in the atmosphere or mingle with the photosynthesis of life all around. But like weighted karma…pain was permanent. And there was nothing I could do—and there was nothing anyone could ever do—to reverse pain and hurt and suffering.

I could never be angry with Kara forever. For once again I was seeing the sorrowful vision of a sobbing little girl on her home planet, huddling with her lingering loved ones as her world crashed down all around her. And I saw a loneliness far, far greater than I could ever imagine. And I saw through the lens of some omniscient camera back-in-time a frustrated, black-eyed freak shoving Supergirl up against the wall of a red-colored cell and I hated it. I bled from it. I bled more from it than I did inwardly from Braniac's mental invasion.

There was a reason why I was sobbing…and there was a reason why I closed the door that separated me from the assistance of the Titans who deserved more than to be caught up in all of this mess.

And it was for the same reason that I slowly stood up, composed myself, turned around, and marched firmly down the hallway to find Supergirl and confront Braniac once and for all.

Because…there are some people on this planet who are too friggin' nice to do anything but care for others and leave themselves in the dust.

For once I realized that things like 'pride' and 'nobility' were nothing but mere words. I was a hero. I had a sword. I had ass to tear. But more importantly, I had things—and persons—to protect.

Everything else—myself included—was negligible.

And for the first time in over a month…the guilt inside of me vanished. I breathed easier than I had ever done so in a long…long time, deep down in those cramped, alien hallways…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Supergirl's cell, the translucent fixture for the red Kryptonian bulb overhead had been removed and was resting like a plastic tray in the corner. The thin, wire supports that once held the sheathe to the ceiling had been taken out. Presently they rested between the Girl of Steel's fingers as she used dexterous digits in picking the lock to the double-doors from the inside out.

She sweated with concentration. Biting her lip. Straining.

For the last twenty minutes—since her companion's departure—she had been hard at work at the task. Using special techniques that her close friend Batgirl had once taught her--

CL-CL-CLICK!!

Supergirl gasped.

CHTING!!!

HISSSSSS!!!

The doors parted with a crack.

"Yes!" she hoarsely uttered. She dropped the wire and pried her fingers in through the crack formed in the double doors. She strained with whatever effort her superpower-less might could summon. Soon, the doors were forced apart. She stumbled out, limped far away from the red glare of the suppressing light, and took a couple deep breaths.

Slowly…as two minutes rolled by…..three minutes….four….she felt her Argosian strength returning to her.

She flexed her muscles. She clenched her knuckles.

She looked aside at a metal wall. With a growl she punched it.

SMASH!!

A small dent was formed. Not the usual gaping hole that she was used to making—but still, a good enough recovery.

She shook her aching fist and fingered it. She smirked.

"Time to take care of business…," she muttered to herself. She floated up in the air and drifted down the nearest hallway. A waking thought struck her at one moment, and she sighed depressingly. "Later…," she muttered. "We'll work it all out later."

She fought for determination and flew down the criss-crossing hallways of alien metal. She followed the direction of a disturbing vibration. The sound of a ghastly apparatus coming to life….


	84. Kara's Visitor part 10 final

**84. Kara's Visitor part 10 Final**

When Supergirl floated into the room…she immediately became dizzy and stumbled to her knees.

"Nnnghh…," she cradled her head in a fair hand and mumbled. "What the Hell??" She looked up. "Oh no wonder….."

The 'room' turned out to be a large metal platform carved into what appeared to be a deep cavern in rock. A thin ledge of metal jutted out over a deep, black abyss…what looked like a bottomless pit. At the far end of the platform—on the tip of the metal 'tongue'—there rested a chair. And in that chair sat Braniac with his back to Kara. And in front of Braniac was a giant metal ring. At over fifteen different points along the ring's circumference, green shards of Kryptonite had been fastened. A current of glowing energy fluctuated through all of them, causing the green gems to strobe with greater and greater intensity. A thin surface of 'something' stretched across the diameter of the ring, like a giant blowing-bubble ring. It was the warpgate. Powered by Kryptonite. Warbling with an energy set to cataclysmically explode a good chunk of the Western Hemisphere if Braniac was to have his way. The alien android presently sat with wires and cords and tentacles from a metal ceiling matching the protrusion of the floor into the cavernous abyss of rock.

To say the least…the intense green aura of Kryptonite was having its adverse effects on the Girl of Steel.

Regardless, she was not about to back down now. Not after all the damage that had been done.

Not after all she felt responsible for…

She looked over at the nearby walls. Huge metal pipes stretched along the seamless surfacing. With her last remaining ounce of Argosian strength leftover, Supergirl kicked a pipe loose. She then bent over, picked it up, and held it over her head like a club as she grit her teeth and approached Braniac from behind. "Here goes nothing…," she quietly snarled to herself.

Braniac's hands were flurrying over numberpads and keyboards positioned in front of his chair. With each keystroke, the Kryptonite strobed in brighter succession and the surface of the warpgate's portal warbled stronger.

"Fascinating…," Braniac rambled to himself. "Intriguing…….Remarkable….."

Supergirl crept on forward. With each successive step, the aura of the large amount of Kryptonite was absorbed into her. Each progressive foot shook more and more, straining. She started to sweat. The 'club' of a pipe wobbled in her hand.

But she pressed on…

She was less than a yard away. She tightened her fingers on her end of the pipe. She took a deep breath, narrowed her eyes, and aimed for the back of Braniac's metal cranium.

SWOOOOOOOSH

WHACK!!!!

With a cry…Supergirl flew back. She landed hard on the metal floor, shook her head, and looked up at the dangling tentacles from the ceiling that had just struck her.

They twitched and coiled threateningly.

"Kara Inze…," Braniac spoke from his chair without looking. "Your spirit of rebellion is most troublesome. I can see now why Kal-El hesitates in promoting your vigilantism."

Supergirl stood up, flexing her fingers around the pipe. Panting.

"I would not advise another attack…," Braniac said. "I am almost finished calibrating my device. I shall then proceed to absorb the information of the other captives. The one called Noir has already given me quite a remarkable plethora of knowledge, howbeit none of it truly holds intergalactic proportion. But it is nevertheless interesting to note the nature of his past. If you were to be made aware of it, I seriously doubt you would retain any further emotional attachment to the boy."

Supergirl swallowed and gritted her teeth. "You're a nerd, you know that, right?" And with that uttered, she let out a warcry and ran back to the chair with the pipe swinging.

The cords rushed down at her again. SWOOOSH!!!

Supergirl dove forward, rolled on the ground, jumped up to her feet behind the chair, and swung the pipe down.

WOOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

Braniac's left hand lifted without him so much as looking back. He grabbed the far end of the pipe and wrenched it from Supergirl's grasp.

She stumbled forward, gasping. Her eyes twitched at the sight of the ring and its Kryptonite shards strobing. She was too close….too close…

Braniac slowly stood up. The multiple wires and tentacles snaked down from the ceiling and connected into his metal back. They snapped free of the ceiling, and soon the Kryptonian robot twirled around with eight distinct tendrils twirling and lashing about from behind his shoulders. His ivory eyes focused on the limp Supergirl and his triforce of immaculate forehead circles flashed with a dim glow.

He marched towards her.

She stumbled back, hoping that—with further distance from the Kryptonite—she might regain her strength.

"You are the foolish one, Kara Inze," Braniac uttered. "Perhaps it would have eased my troubles if I was to somehow exterminate you and the Kents from the first day of this operation."

"It's not so easy to kick me out of a party," Supergirl retorted.

"No, it is not easy," Braniac uttered. The metal tentacles stretched up and loomed at her. "Until now."

SWOOOOSH!!!

Three cords jabbed at her.

Supergirl jumped back.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

The snakelike tendrils struck the metal floor, causing sparks to fly.

Two more of Braniac's tentacles flew at her.

She ducked, rolled on her side, and got up a few feet away. She ran at Braniac in a charge with a fist flying.

"RRRGHHH!!"

CLANK!!!

Her hand struck hard into his chin….and stung.

"Owww!!" she rubbed her powerless fist.

Braniac didn't even blink. He pointed two fists at her. They started to glow.

Supergirl gasped. She dove---

FLASH!!!!!!!

A pale blue stream of energy flew from his wrists and at her feet.

CRASH!!!

A burnt spot formed in the ground.

Supergirl was projected seven feet across the ground. She landed hard.

"Mmmphh!!" she winced. She looked up. SWOOOOSH!!!

Four tentacles flew over and wrapped around her torso.

She grunted as she was lifted high up into the air.

"I have long made a conclusion concerning the worth of a Kryptonian's existence," Braniac uttered as he constricted her petite body in mid-air. "The people of Krypton lived under a cloud of deceit. It was so very simple for me to take advantage of the people who created my program. They had no sense of tragedy. There was nothing that could prepare them for the incredible loss of their world and culture. In the end, a Kryptonian organism in my data banks was filed under categories of 'weakness', 'ignorance', and 'ineptitude'. Now the Argosian is a remarkable creature. For not only does an Argosian fall under the same categories as its Kryptonian cousin, the Argosian complements all of the other similar qualities of 'futility', 'insignificance', and 'inferiority'. In the end, a being who is nothing more than half-Kryptonian is twice as worthless."

Braniac charged a wicked pulse of energy through his tentacles and enveloped Supergirl in sparks of pain and torture.

The girl quivered and cried out. Her mouth opened wide and her burning eyes watered.

"It will never fail to surprise me how pointless the existence of some organisms is."

Without so much as a yell, he spun his body around and—with flexing tentacles—he tossed Supergirl over the edge of the metal platform and towards the gaping abyss below.

Kara gasped in mid-fall. She stretched a hand out and gripped a clump of rock sloping down into the bottomless black beneath her. She clenched her teeth and struggled to keep hold. Up on the platform, Braniac was wandering back to the chair and the instruments of the Kryptonite-charged warp gate. Leaving her for dead.

Supergirl's arms quaked and shook. The room had far too much Kryptonite in it. She had no strength—or will—to fly. One slip, and she'd fall unquestionably into the black mouth of rock beneath her. She had no clue if she'd be capable of reclaiming her superpowers and flying up out of her plunge after falling enough distance. Quite frankly, she was at the end of her rope. A sense of helplessness surged through her. But it was not as big a pulse of feeling as that of the unfathomable guilt shaking through her system. She thought of all the twice-as-helpless Titans that would suffer from the loss of her life and her inability to stop Braniac. And for a split second, it didn't feel like a bad alternative to just let go of the rock and have done with it.

She clenched her teeth and shook her head.

"Stay focused, Kara….stay focused!!" She panted and tried pulling herself up. "Think of Mom. Think of Dad. Think of Brother. Think of…."

The blackness of the room stabbed into her. And for a second, she envisioned a pair of deeply wounded, obsidian eyes.

She gasped. Her muscles quivered and—combined with the sweat on her fingers—it was all enough to loosen her grip. She slipped and fell helplessly back into the emptiness.

"Nooooooo!!!!" she shrieked.

CLAMP!!!!

Supergirl's body lurched still. She gasped. She was dangling in mid air. Her hand stretched up above her.

She looked straight up with quivering blue eyes and mouthed: "What…..what---"

I materialized on the rock ledge. I had Myrkblade stabbed into the earth and was gripping to it with one hand for anchorage while the other reached down and strongly held Supergirl's weight by her wrist.

The girl exhaled. "Jordan…….you…….you……"

I stared down at her through my shades.

And…I smiled.

I smiled warm and inviting.

I thought I had no tears left after that day, but I was wrong.

And I was happy. And I wanted her to know that. I wanted her to see that. I smiled with a surprising gentleness that even my mind reeled from it.

Because I wanted all the pain to go away. I wanted all the anger to disappear. Looking down at the blonde beauty in my grasp, I thought only of the good things. The things that truly mattered. What Kara did for me the night previous. How she tried to free me. How she gave me loving arms to sob in. How she shared with me the vulnerabilities of her path that she wouldn't possibly share with anyone else. How in some twisted sense she reminded me of………

I just wanted peace. I just wanted happiness. And if it took for me to forgive her for her utter foolishness, then so be it. I forgave her with a warm smile as I tensed Murk through my body and summoned the strength to hoist her up and onto the ledge of safety.

For the first time—there with Kara more than I had ever understood it even with Ana in spite of all the things that had happened—I finally started to grasp the true depths of the definition of 'love': the compassion to have compassion and the ridiculous grace of forgiveness.

When Kara stood safely beside me on the rock ledge, she was breathless. Speakless. Somehow she managed to pant and utter: "Why…wh-why, Jordan? Why did you come back for me?"

I merely smiled again. And suddenly, she was the recipient of a deep and all-encompassing hug.

She gasped into me….and helplessly drew her confused arms around my neck. Grateful for life. Grateful for me. Grateful for all the confusion and chaos if only it would mean more of the warmth flushing over her right there and then in my presence.

When I parted the hug, I raised a finger over my lips and pointed up towards Braniac.

It was time to kick ass.

Supergirl swallowed, nodded, and mouthed: 'Right'.

With Myrkblade gripped in my arm, I scurried up onto the metal platform while Supergirl followed.

Braniac sat at his chair again. Tentacles and cords fluttered above and behind him. He keystroked away at the numberpad.

Footsteps echoed behind him.

"Back again, Kara Inze??" Braniac remarked without looking. "Like a true primitive organism, your struggle against death is most futile—"

SWOOOOOSH-SLASH!!!!

CLANK!!!!

Sparks flew from the back of Braniac's head once Myrkblade made contact.

He toppled over.

I jumped, flipped, and then twirled downward with a sailing kick into the square of his back between the tentacles.

WHAM!!!!!!

The alien android's body went ungracefully toppling over and across the small length of metal platform between his chair and the warp gate.

I landed on the chair, twirled Myrkblade, and blurred at him.

He was slowly getting to his feet--

SLASH!!!!!

I drew a sparking blade across his chest.

STAB!!!!

I cracked the metal in his shoulder with a jab.

SWOOOSH-SLAM!!!!

I spun and struck the full length of my blade against his left side.

He went spinning—spiraling—over the edge of the metal platform and into the abyss below.

I panted, gripping my sword and facing the edge.

Supergirl stood a safe distance behind me and away from the portal full of Kryptonite shards.

I gulped. I walked towards the edge. I glanced down--

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!! Braniac flew up with jets on the soles of his metal feet. His eight tentacles warbled from behind his back like a dancing jellyfish. His ivory eyes unblinkingly reflected sparks and flashes from the ends of his metal cords as they all snaked out and rushed at me.

"Jordan!! Look out!!"

I gritted my teeth and twirled Myrkblade in front of me like a fan.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

I deflected the first four tentacles with my sword.

The other four cords rushed at my flanks.

I back flipped, slid to a stop, and jabbed forward with a pulse of murk.

TH-TH-THWUMP!!!!

I dashed the tentacles aside, blurred the rest of the length, and jabbed deep into Braniac's chest.

His natural limbs rose. One gripped my sword and yanked it aside.

I twisted at an awkward angle.

His other hand aimed at me and glowed a pale blue.

I took a breath, released my grip of Myrkblade, and leapt up at the ceiling.

FLASH!!!!!!

A laser beam burned where my body was. In the distance, Supergirl dove out of the way of the streaming energy and rolled to safety.

Braniac looked up.

I was clinging upside down to the metal/rock ceiling with murk powers. Smoke danced out under my shades as I jumped down, teleported, materialized in mid-air by his arm, gripped Myrkblade, and pulsed dark energy through it and exploding his hand out of its grip.

FLASH!!!

I twirled as I fell to the ground and stabbed Myrkblade at his lower legs.

CLANK!!!

His feet jets short-circuited. He started to descend…

I hopped up to my feet in a flash and kicked him hard in the torso.

He fell back.

The tentacles shot out from his back and clamped into the floor and ceiling of rock. His body reeled back, stretched the cords to the extent of their elasticity, and thrusted his body straight at me with a fist.

I flinched.

SMACK!!!! I was plowed back across the metal platform.

I flipped in midair and landed in a crouch.

My bleeding lips snarled.

Braniac crept onto the metal floor with spider like tentacles and he glared at me from afar in the best way an emotionless entity can 'glare'.

"Mr. Noir, your attack was most unestimated. I commend you. But now, you must be exterminated along with Supergirl."

"Oh, go shove it up your muffler, ya damn clunker!!" Supergirl shouted. She smiled at me. "Don't let him dissuade you, Jordan!"

I momentarily glanced at her and smiled. Though I never admitted it, I had always wanted a cheerleader…

"Your survivalist attitude ends now," Braniac's eight tentacles warbled and he aimed two glowing hands at me.

"Careful, Jordan!!"

I took a deep breath.

I waited….

FLASH!!!!!

Two blue streams flew at me.

I let out a silent scream, teleported into smoke form, traveled up the length of his blue lasers, and materialized by his side with a baseball batter swing of Myrkblade across his face.

CRACK!!!!!

His body reeled till his back faced me.

I charged.

….his back was full of threatening tentacles.

I tried to skid to a stop.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Four tentacles rushed at my limbs. My arms and legs were being gripped mercilessly. I struggled. I saw electrical currents rushing up to zap me.

"Don't let him shock you, Jordan!!"

I bit my lips and blurred the ends of my limbs. My body smoked out of his grips just in time to avoid the electrical pulses. I fell to the floor, twirled Myrkblade, and stabbed straight into his back.

CLANK!!!!

Braniac's body jolted.

The tentacles shook and converged at me.

I backflipped and slid out of danger. But not for long.

The android twirled about. The circles on his forehead strobed. A panel suddenly opened in his chest and four more tentacles came out—these with sparkling pinchers.

My black eyes bulged.

Braniac started marching at me with twelve shaking, threatening tentacles and two arms simultaneously stretched out at me and glowing.

I gulped.

FLASH!!!!! SWOOOOOOOSH-WOOOOSH!!!!

Blue streams, tentacles, and electrical sparks all flew at me at once.

Supergirl gasped.

I jumped, morphed into smoke and back, twirled Myrkblade, deflected, dodged, and sidestepped all the projectile lasers and extended attacks that I could. Soon the Kryptonian robot was pushing me across the length of the metal platform and towards the warpgate. His tentacles flew ravenously at me. I ducked and backflipped onto the metal chair. His tentacles lunged. I jumped off it. SMASH!!! The chair flew into pieces and the numberpad and keyboard clattered across the floor. I backed up towards the Kryptonite, panting. Braniac's ivory eyes focused on me as he flashed a final blast of laser fire.

FLASH!!!!!!

I jumped up.

The lasers flew into the surface of the warp between the circumference of the gate. The warbling energy shattered the lasers on impact.

In the meantime, I was flying in midair from my leap…and that's exactly what Braniac wanted. SWOOOOSH!!

All eight of his back's tentacles rushed up and grabbed me. Squeezing and constricting my body. I dropped Myrkblade to the ground—CLANK!!—and wheezed for breath.

"Jordan!!" Kara rushed forward.

Braniac rushed his right hand to the side and effortlessly slapped her hard across the cheek and pushed her Kryptonite-inflicted body across the floor.

"Nnngh!!"

Braniac then brought his four chest tentacles up and clamped them across my chest.

Three….two….one…..

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

I let out a silent scream and arched back into the tentacles constricting my legs, torso, and neck. Electricity coursed through me. Burning my insides. Setting my skin on fire. My long dark hair stood on end. Sparks danced between my black eyes and I clenched them shut in pain.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!_

Braniac watched emotionlessly at my writhing body.

Supergirl got up on her knees and watched…panting…horrified.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

Finally, Braniac relented the electrical punishment. I dangled in his tentacled grasp. My body was smoking…and for once it wasn't because of my powers…

"Quite the resilient Terran you are," he stoically remarked. "But I know your true weakness."

WHURRRRR-ZZZZTT!!! One tentacle snaked free of my chest and opened its mandibles in front of my shaded face.

I twitched and sweated. Looking helplessly into the metal jaws.

The tentacle snaked closer and closer to my face. Tiny sparks danced off of its teeth and zapped into my head. My temples. My brain.

I cringed and gasped. My eyes twitched. And suddenly, I was no longer there. I was no longer in Braniac's grasp underground in Smallville with a dangerous warpgate prepared to blow up half of the continent.

_A cylindrical room loomed. The walls were of a dark brown metal. Ringed with gothic columns of gnarled metal muscle. In the center floated Ana. Fields of blue sparks levitated her above the circle in the floor. She twirled about. Her mouth in an open howl of pain. Ana's blue eyes were gone, and in their place were ghostly white clouds. She looked at me. She begged……she begged…_

**"JORDAN!!! WAKE UP!!!!"**

SMACK!!!!!

Braniac's body lurched and reality rushed up at me like Jupiter's gravity. I gasped and looked down. I saw Supergirl limply standing behind Braniac…so close to the Kryptonite. She had a cracked keyboard in her grasp after having thwacked it hard across the back of Braniac's metal skull. The image of Ana's white eyes faded as I absorbed the panting face of Kara and her worried blue optics staring up at me.

Kara….alive….

My black eyes widened. I took a deep breath and charged up Murk.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

"!!!!!!" I let out a silent scream as smoke exploded out of my body, got absorbed into the tentacles, and swam in black currents up the cords to where they exploded in the Kryptonian robot's back and chest.

CRACK!!!!!

"Nnnghh!!" Braniac's synthetic vocal cords uttered. The tentacles loosened and fluctuated in the air like spasmic lizard tails.

I fell to the ground, scooped up the hilt of Myrkblade, gritted my teeth, and had at it.

SLASHHHHH!!!!

CH-CHTUNK!!!! I severed two chest tentacles in one lunge.

Braniac jerked.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I slashed diagonally upwards.

CL-CL-CLUNK!!!!

Three back tentacles were severed.

Braniac stumbled back towards the warpgate.

I snarled and flew at him with a downward slash.

CRACK!!!!!!

The rest of his chest tentacles exploded and his back ones dropped limply to the floor as his body short circuited.

Something in his ivory eyes faded.

I leapt straight at him, encircled my legs around his torso, brought my upper body up, and stabbed straight down into his forhead with the tip of my wooden sword.

**CHUNK!!!!!**

Braniac's body twitched and became still and stiff as a corpse.

I panted, wresting my weight on Myrkblade into his forehead. It had skewered the bottommost of his triforce of metal circles.

The other two struggled to glow.

His metal jaws opened one last time and a static, electronic voice fought to utter: "All my calssnkkftttculations. SnkkttttAll wrongsnnkkkttyet again. Fascinating. Fasnkktttcinating…."

I gritted my teeth. Smoke danced out from under my shades and---

**CRACK!!!!!!!**

I yanked Myrkblade up and out, shattering and splitting his metal cranium in two. I loosened my legs and backflipped off of his chest. The vaulting of my body forced his lumbering frame backwards until he fell directly into the unfinished warp gate.

**FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

I landed in a crouch next to Supergirl. Panting. She knelt beside me and hugged my shoulders as we both watched…..

The bubble like surface of the warpgate shimmered and warbled around Braniac's twitching body as his metal flesh was slowly, torturously eaten by the energy he had wrought. The Kryptonite shards overloaded and they started exploding—one by one—like firecrackers in a halo of hellfire around the twitching android.

**POW!!! POW!!! P-POW!!!! P-P-POW!!! POW!!! POW!!**

The energy field bubbled out, devoured Braniac's body with plasma, and soon the entire warpgate exploded and consumed the android and the subsequent dust of Kryptonite into oblivion. All that was left was a blinding flash of light and a magical puff of red smoke.

And then the noise ceased.

I took a deep breath and leaned on Myrkblade.

Supergirl, with her strength returned, stood up and hoisted me by my shoulders to my feet. I didn't have a chance to sheathe Myrkblade, for she was hugging me desperately. For a split second, I was fearful that her steel limbs would crush me.

"Thank you, Jordan….thank you…thank you for coming back…."

I wheezed and smiled with a nod.

She looked into my shades, her blue eyes wet. "When I saw what he was doing to you…I-I couldn't let you go through that shit again. I had to do something. I just had to…"

I patted her arms around me and smiled.

I understood. I wanted her to know that.

She took a deep breath and—tugging me by my arm—happily rushed towards the exiting hallway. "Come on!! We gotta go check on the others!"

I chuckled breathily and ran with her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

After a few twisting hallways, we made it back into the main chamber. Supergirl was more or less surprised to find everyone evacuated from the holding cells. She took a deep shuddering breath and looked at me.

"You've been cleaning house, haven't you?"

I silently nodded.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and faced the walkway leading up to the exit beneath the barn. "I suppose I'll have a lot of explaining to do."

I scratched my head and shrugged. As much as I knew…only Raven was truly aware of what Supergirl had done.

"Well…," she put on a brave smile and marched up towards the exit doors. "Let's get out of here."

I smiled and followed her---

**FLAAAAAASH!!!!!!**

A steady stream of green energy flew in from the far side of the room and plowed into Supergirl's side. She let out a torturous scream as she was forced up against the metal wall, her body wracked with emerald venom.

I gasped. My black eyes were wide under my shades.

Kara!!!!!!

The energy stream died.

Supergirl slumped to the floor. Wheezing. Sputtering.

I ran to her side and tried to ease her trembling with firm hands across her shoulders.

She whimpered and moaned: "K-K-Kryptonite…."

I raised an eyebrow.

There was a clapping sound from the far side of the room.

I felt a chill up my spine.

I turned and looked across the way and saw Metallo bringing his hands together. He was leaning against the wide computer screen, grinning.

After a fair amount of clapping, he folded his arms and casually uttered: "Marvelous job done, indeed! The two of you finished off that tin can of an alien just like I expected you to! Now that the dirty work has been done for me, Intergang doesn't have to worry about half of their criminal arena being blown sky high! And I still get the Kryptonite I wanted!" He gestured at a lone satchel of lead polymer by his feet. "Funny how things work out the way you effortlessly plan them too."

I stood up besides the weakened Supergirl. My fists were clenched. I was fuming.

"Well, naturally I was going to betray Braniac!" Metallo swung his arms out and smiled with an innocent shrug. "Dishonesty is built into my nature! Ha ha ha ha!! Just like that blonde sweetheart of yours on the floor there. Tell me, freak, did you beat her up too bad when you woke up from Braniac's torture?? That was partially the reason why I threw you both into the brig together! Hehehehe! A couple of praying mantises in a shaken glass jar!"

CHIIIIING!!!!

I whipped out Myrkblade and pointed it at him from a distance. Frowning.

"Oh come now, must we really do the fisticuffs?" Metallo leaned his head aside and smirked. "Admittedly, it would complete the circle for me to bring your lives to an end!! Romeo and Juliet embraced tragedy with a spirit of stupidity no different than your own. Well, live and let die, kids! This is the final act!"

He spun around and hurriedly keystroked something across the computer console.

My lips parted.

A light flashed overhead and a siren went off.

Metallo smirked. "Indeed…no need to fear a nasty space-warp contraption blowing up half the continent." He swiveled around and faced us with a half-flesh-and-metal grin. "However, it would be prudent to stress over the self-destruct system of this facility's energy core. That'll take out the barn and a good few cows with it. If we're lucky, it'll take out the entire surrounding farmland. Heheheheh…one thing I can give that alien bucket of bolts credit for, he did clue me in to the alter ego of Superman! Pfft…Clark Kent?! Resident of Smallville?! I don't know if the criminal world would recover from laughter and hilarity quickly enough to award me the funds for giving away Blueboy's secret!"

"Metallo….," Supergirl wheezed from the floor, "…y-you're insane. How c-can you possibly stand there and make threats?! We're sealed in here. If this place blows up…we'll all go up in smoke…"

"Correction, Miss Traitor!" Metallo beamed. "I have enough time to beat your pathetic skulls in and leave your hormone-leaking bodies in this expensive crawlspace to be cremated!!" He whipped his hands out and formed a fighting pose, staring directly at me. "Come and take me on, Romeo! But expect for little beyond death! Benvolio's not here to deliver a touching eulogy!"

I whipped Myrkblade up over my head in a position ready to stab.

"J-Jordan….," Supergirl wheezed.

I silently paced away from her, eyeing Metallo.

The metal man grinned demonically and side-stepped to meet my movements across the room. The Kryptonite in his open chest glowed dramatically, pulsing in spastic response to the strobe of the emergency alarm's light in the metal ceiling above.

Supergirl weakly watched from afar. Too burdened by the Kryptonite blast to even move. The aura from Metallo's chest cavity poisoned her with each passing second.

I had to finish this. And I had to finish this soon…

"Heheheheh…," Metallo chuckled. His human and synthetic eye leered at me as he uttered: "Hey batter!! CURVE BALL!!!"

SWOOOOSH!!!

He rushed at me, arced in his charge, and swung a fist deep into my side.

WHUMP!!!!

I bent over. The breath left me.

"HA!!!" he uppercutted with his other fist.

SMACK!!!!!

I flew back and impacted the edge of a crevice. I winced in pain.

SWOOOOSH!! He came at me with two fists joined together.

"RRRRRAAAUGH!!!!"

I twirled out of the way.

SMASH!!!!

The wall shattered from his impact.

I twirled Myrkblade, clenched my teeth, and jabbed into the metal joints of his neck.

CLANK!!!

I blurred smoke energy through my body and jerked forward. My sword acted as a lever that twisted at his neck and spun his head around three whining times.

I pulled my sword out, twirled it, and rushed at his rear with a forward slash.

CLANG!!!!

Sparks flew.

Metallo's spinning head came to a stop, backwards. He laughed. "Ha ha ha ha!!!" He reverse kicked me.

WHAM!!!

I stumbled back, wincing.

He turned around to face me, his swiveling head locking into the right position.

"I see you!!!" His eyes started to glow a bright red.

I gasped and held Myrkblade out lengthwise.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

The two streams of eye lasers struck deep into Myrkblade. I warbled black energy through it and deflected the heated blast. The force of the energy pushed at me. I slid back to the far side of the room. I struggled to ward off his pulsing blast. I sweated. My arms trembled.

He grinned while unleashing the optical punishment. "Teacher! There's something wrong with my eyes! I can't see the board!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

I frowned. With a brave flick of the wrist, I jerked Mryblade at an angle.

FLASH!!!!

I deflected the red streams of lasers up at the ceiling. It exploded directly above Metallo, littering him with metal shards and rock.

"AUGH!!" the man cut his optic blast and stumbled back, waving a metal hand in front of his face.

Through the curtain of dust and debris, I suddenly emerged with Myrkblade swinging at him.

CLANK!!!!!

I deflected Metallo's head aside. He reeled back, growled, and thrusted at me with a hard fist.

I slid to the ground, ducked his blow, and hopped up on the other side of him. I spun and slashed Myrkblade into his side.

SWOOOOSH--

GRIP!!!

His hand gripped around the blade.

"HA!!" he sneered.

WHACK!!!

I kicked him silent with a boot to the face.

He let go of Myrkblade and stumbled back.

I spun around, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed at him with a silent cry.

CLANK!!!!

Sparks flew off his metal shoulder.

I came at his side, twirled around, and slashed at his head.

He ducked. He shoved me across the floor with two hands together.

I slid towards the other wall.

He charged, yelling.

I gripped Myrkblade and took a deep breath.

He swung his fist through me.

I teleported to the other side of him and reverse kicked him in the rear.

WHUMP!!!

He stumbled forward and planted chest-first into a wall. I spun around and stabbed at his back.

His head swiveled around, and his eyes pulsed a short stream of red energy at me.

FLASH!!!

I flew back and landed on my rear.

Metallo swiveled around, ran, leapt, and came down at me with a charged, flying kick. "RAAAAAUGH!!!!"

I summoned murk and streamed myself in smoke form forward to meet his kick. In tendrils of smoke, I slithered up his midair body and solidified in back of him, vaulting myself up off his back.

He went plummeting like a missile straight into the ground.

THWACK!!!

I flew up, flipped, and landed in a crouch.

Metallo stood up.

In reverse, I jabbed Myrkblade behind me and lifted the blade so that it met under Metallo's arm pit and pinned itself there.

The metal man gasped in surprise.

I then teleported in place with Myrkblade free so that my limbs could be repositioned to adequately grip Myrkblade, pull with all my might, and fling Metallo's lumbering body up and over my shoulders like an ax. I sent him flying straight into the computer console ahead of me.

SMASH!!!!!!

Sparks flew, along with a splash of metal and plastic.

I panted, Myrkblade frozen in a forward lunge in front of me.

Supergirl wheezed and watched—painfully—from her prone spot on the floor.

The dust settled. Something emerged from a fresh hole in the computer console.

I raised an eyebrow.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

That something was sailing at me.

"!!!!!"

WHAM!!!!!!

My body literally spun about from the impact of Metallo's fist.

Myrkblade clattered loudly to the floor.

The metal man snarled. The synthetic skin on half of his body was smoking from the burning crash he had experienced. He growled and pummeled me relentlessly with blurred fists of metal. Behind him, a sparking array of erupting energy formed a burning field of chaos that illuminated the entire room and blinded my black eyes amidst the punishment I was receiving.

WHAM!! THWACK!! SMACK!!! POW!!!

I lost breath. I lost strength. I lost blood.

THWUMP!!! CRACK!!! "RAAAAUGH!!!" he brought two hands down into my back.

WHUMP!!!

I fell to my knees. He yelled and kicked my upside the face.

SMACK!!!!!

I fell up…down…and tumbled across the metal floor till I lay next to Supergirl.

My bruised face stared weakly at her.

Her pained expression replied in shocked silence.

GRIP!!!!

Metallo hoisted me up by the collar of my combat fatigues and he held me high in his grasp. Evil dripped out of his eyes and burned like acid to the metal floor below as his smoking face frowned at me.

"Game's over, freak. Why must you always spoil the fun with your….your….your youness?!"

I wheezed in his grasp. Twitching weakly in pain.

His metal and flesh eyelids narrowed. "I've taken down greater warriors than you, my good dead friend! I've made Superman kneel before me! I've trashed my way through Steel's home town! You are of NO CONSEQUENCE to a god like me!!"

"Please…." There was a hand gripping Metallo's ankle.

The man looked down, squinting.

Supergirl had barely managed to crawl over, and now she was touching the man's feet. Begging. "Don't hurt him…he's not the one who deserves it…."

Slowly, a grinch like grin crossed Metallo's face. "Oh really???"

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!!

Supergirl wheezed as suddenly the metal man's other hand was upon her throat. His fingers dug in as he raised her high into the air like he was doing to me.

He grinned wide. "Tell me….Superbitch!! Why should I spare him?!?!"

Kara wheezed. She struggled in his grasp to say: "H-He never meant t-to get involved…..he's just….j-just a visitor…"

"Correction, dearest! He's a visitor WITH A SWORD!!!" Metallo increased the pressure of his grip around her throat. The console sparked behind him and the emergency alarm light kept blaring. At any second, this hellish place would go up in smoke. "He's done his fair share of giving me a headache!! But it was you who did the worst here, I am thinking. And you would agree with me, wouldn't you?!"

"I…I…."

"WOULDN'T YOU?!?!" Metallo exclaimed. "Snkkk—Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Thought you had everything thought out, didn't you girl?! Well rationality will only get you so far!! How will history write of your name now that you've betrayed the pathetic handful of souls who were the only ones vaguely willing to care for you before you betrayed them so blindingly?!?!"

Supergirl's eyes clenched shut. She strained…struggled…and tears formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Awwww….save me the weeping!!" Metallo smirked. "Tell me…after all that you've done to endanger the lives of those around you, what could possibly make you beg for this boy's life?! What is it about him that you---" He gasped as if a startling epiphany struck his fiendish mind. And he smiled wide. "You…..you care about him, don't you?! Ya know…in that special sort of way?!?!"

Supergirl's blue eyes popped back open. Moist. Trembling. She gasped for breath.

"Say it!!" the metal man laughed above the chaos. "Ha ha ha!!! Say it, Juliet!! Say that you love him!!!"

"I….I….," Supergirl murmured.

Metallo leaned his face in. "I want to hear your say it!!! I want the words of true passion to FLOW from your mouth and drown the two of you in rich romanticism!!!"

SWOOOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

"H-Huh?!" Metallo gasped and looked down. I had my metal hand reaching deep into the core of his chest. Gritting my teeth and absorbing the sparking reaction of my effort, I mercilessly gripped the huge lump of Kryptonite and yanked it out…snapping wires and shattering metal braces.

CRACK!!!!!

That done, I let forth a shuddering breath and limply tossed the glowing rock across the floor.

Clank!-Clank!-Clank!-Clank!

Metallo's and Supergirl's eyes bounced with the tumbling rock.

Clank!-Clank!-Clank!-Clank!

The Kryptonite rattled into the smashed computer console, where the sparking energy field short-circuiting from the wall swallowed the rock up and exploded it into oblivion.

SMASH!!!

Green dust rose momentarily, but were melted away by the sparks.

And the superhero's bane was no more.

Supergirl let out a breath…a breath of relief. A sudden warmth of energy was erupting through her chest.

Metallo gulped. His metal neck creaked like the Tin Man as he looked over and stared—horrified—at Supergirl.

The Girl of Steel's lips were firm and red as she smiled and thinned her eyes.

"Juliet's missing her poison…."

Metallo's mouth hung open. "Actually…i-it was a dagger…," he murmured.

"Was it now?" she winked, and punched him square in the face.

**WHAM!!!!**

Metallo let go of the two of us and stumbled back.

Before Supergirl so much as touched the ground, she grabbed the metal villain's shoulders and headbutted him with a grunt.

CRUNCH!!!

Metal shards flew from his forehead as he cried out and stumbled back even more.

Supergirl flexed her neck muscles, cracked her knuckles, and flew in for the attack.

In the meantime, I stood on two feet for a space of three seconds….blinked….and collapsed limply to the floor with a soft sigh.

SWOOOOOSH!!! "AAAAAAAUGH!!!!" Supergirl rocketed towards Metallo and brought both fists into his chest at once.

CLANK!!!!!

He grunted as her blow sent him flying back against a wall.

She pivoted about to a stop and kicked him straight in the metal gut.

CRACK!!!!

A dent formed in the wall in the shape of Metallo's body.

Corbin heaved with lungs he forgot he no longer had.

Supergirl dove in with an elbow to his chest. WHAP!!! Followed quickly by an uppercut. "RAUGH!!!" SMACK!!!

Metallo's body flew—skull first—into the ceiling like a carnival game. SMACK!!! He slumped back down and into Supergirl's steel arms. She growled, spun him around, blurred with her momentum, and let go of him so that he went flying like a titanium mannequin into the wall on the other side.

SMASH!!!

More metal shards flew. Metallo convulsed on his way towards the floor in a slump.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Supergirl was at him again. She growled and gripped his arm. She wrenched his body around over her shoulder, twisted his limb the wrong way, held her breath, yanked, and—SNAP!!!!—broke his metal arm clean off his torso. She spun around and bitch-slapped him a few times with his severed forearm before flinging the entire weight of the limb into his chest like a tomahawk.

THWACK!!!!

Metallo lumbered across the chamber, crying out in shock.

Supergirl looked towards the floor. She clamped her foot down on the hilt of Myrkblade, flipping the sword up into the air. She gripped the middle of its length—impervious to the sharp edge—and twirled it over her head. She marched towards Metallo and spun the weapon like a baton, repeatedly smacking and cracking the edges of his skull and upper body with each twirl of the wooden blade. True, it wasn't the correct way to use my trademark weapon. But who the hell cared?! This was Supergirl.

WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAM!!!! SWISSSH!!! SW-SW-SWOOSH!!! TH-TH-TH-TH-THWACK!!!!

Metallo's body jolted, danced in mid air, and spun around multiple times from Supergirl's punishment.

The Girl of Steel sped her attack faster and faster. Her teeth gritting. Her cape billowing. Myrkblade in her grasp became a literal fan of twirling destruction. Each time it so much as came close to Metallo, the air heated up with red hot friction and sparks flew from his impacting exoskeleton.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!! SMACK!! CONG!!

Supergirl kicked him back, spun Myrkblade to a stop, snarled, and glowed her eyes a bright red.

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!! Two beams of super laser energy flowed out of her optics and plowed into Metallo's chest.

The metal man howled as he was shoved across the flashing room and straight into the sparking computer console behind him. His body convulsed with the electrical energy that had obliterated the Kryptonite. He shook and twitched and gasped up as he saw Supergirl sailing down at him, the wooden sword being stabbed down from over her blonde head and hairband like an amazon huntress.

"RAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

**CHUNK!!!!!**

Myrkblade skewered through Metallo's chest and fished itself into the dancing sparks of the console's belly underneath him. The sparks traveled up the blade as Supergirl let go and stepped back, shielding her eyes.

Metallo screamed at the top of his lungs as electrical madness exploded through him. And then…everything died. Smoke rose from the blade through his metal body and he moaned. The red in his mechanical eye faded. And he lay still.

Supergirl panted, the goddess that she was. Her cape settled still behind her back and her arms flexed with each heave of her lungs. She wiped the sweat off her brown, finished fuming, and spun around. She eyed med, rushed over, and knelt besides my weak body.

"Jordan?? Jordan?! Can you hear me?!"

I wanted to moan. I nodded and slowly—painfully—sat up. My teeth clenched as I winced and rubbed my aching body.

Thankfully, I was ready for when Kara nearly plowed me over in a hug.

"Oh, thank Kela! I-I thought you were a goner for a moment there! I didn't know how badly that bozo had beaten you!"

I wheezed and looked over her shoulder at the smoldering sight of Metallo with Myrkblade stabbed through him. I smirked.

There were worse fates….

Supergirl hoisted me up and—in an air of seriousness—she uttered: "We gotta stop this place from exploding!!"

I nodded.

We rushed over to the console and brushed Metallo's lifeless body away. She bit her lip and looked over the partially smashed computer consoles. "Oh man…it's all wrecked pretty bad!!" She looked at me. "I don't even know how to operate it!!"

I narrowed my black eyes through my shades. I took a swing at it. I walked over and keystroked a few buttons. The machine buzzed in disapproval.

I winced.

"Metallo must have had a password or something!"

I looked at his rusted corpse. There was no point in trying to get that information out of him now.

The alarm lights started to flash brighter. The whole metal facility began to shake around us.

"It's starting!!" Supergirl gasped. She looked at me with round blue eyes of intensity. "If we can't stop the blast, at least we can try and warn the others to go for cover!!"

I nodded.

Together, we rushed out of the chamber and up the thin passageway towards the exit.

The exit that was closed…

"Gang way!" Supergirl shouted. She flew up at the door, shoulders first to knock it down.

CLANG!!!!

She barely formed a dent in it. "What?!?!" she exclaimed breathlessly.

I stood behind her, trembling.

She grunted and swung her fists…elbows…and feet into the door.

WHANG!!! CLANG!!! SMACK!!!

No effect. The thing was tightly shut. Braniac's impenetrable engineering, no doubt.

I sweatdropped. I looked over at the wall console. I fingered all the buttons desperately.

No effect. The doors didn't even so much as whur mechanically…

"When Metallo set off the self destruct…," Supergirl murmured, "…he must have shut down the doors or something too!! That creep!!" She panted and wrung her fingers. "Jordan, what're we going to do?!?!"

I swallowed. I looked back and forth from the doors to the chamber. I ran back into the previous room while Supergirl resumed banging against the door with all her might of steel.

I scoured the room for solutions. I tried every computer console. I rummaged through tools. I even tried once or twice to pry Myrkblade out of Metallo's chest. But it was pinned in good.

**RUMBLE!!!!**

The place shook.

I gasped and fell to my rear.

"Jordan!!" Supergirl cried at as she fluttered into the room. She looked at me from where she hovered and shrugged. Panicking. "We can't get out!!"

**RUMBLE!!!!!!!**

Again, the place shook.

The Girl of Steel shrieked in mid air as chunks from the metal ceiling fell down. Sparks danced in the corners. Flames started erupting out from the walls.

Everything was vibrating. Pure chaos.

Supergirl spun in midair in the center of it. Blinded and confused.

I stumbled up to my feet. I wobbled as the place shook some more. The computer consoles exploded one by one. Our little piece of the earth was going haywire.

I only thought of one thing.

I blurred my legs, ran, jumped, and caught onto Supergirl in midair.

She gasped and embraced me at the last second.

The two of us hovered together in the center of the collapsing facility. Her powers kept us afloat. I clung to her and she clung to me. Our faces barely apart. Our lips parted in desperate pants of fear. The sparks splashed brighter. The fires burned hotter. We hugged each other desperately, our heads over each other's shoulders. She stroked a shivering hand through my long black hair. I wrapped my arms around her petite back. I heaved once…twice….

I arched my neck back and clenched my teeth. Murk danced around us. Covering us in a curtain of smoke. In the nick of time, I extended my dark powers of Construction and Destruction in a bubble around our floating figures. As soon as the ceiling collapsed and the flames erupted, we were shielded by my energy. And we were safe…at the moment.

The moment….

Supergirl gasped. She stared at me up close as I warbled the black bubble around us. The shaking and the noise of everything filtered in through her ears and mixed in with what she saw and her eyes twitched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Argosian teenager clung to her mother as her family hugged her from all angles._

She was in the center of their warmth.

The focus of their desperation.

As her world fell apart all around her…they were safe in the Temple.

Safe in each other's arms.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kara's lips trembled. Blonde strands of hair fell out from under her hairband and blocked her eyes.

But she could not get the vision out. Her past. That one peaceful moment of warmth.

Reflecting off the dark surface of my shades.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"I love you, my daughter. My young woman…," Kala Inze said._

Tears fell from the girl's eyes. She clutched her mother and buried her face into her chest.

And all was warm and all was safe.

Even as the apocalypse rained down on her family…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_On the patio of the Kents' household._

Under a crystal clear night's sky.

I sat silently. There was a sore lump in my throat.

I focused all of my attention on Kara.

She looked up at me with hallow sapphires. "I'd give anything to see anything or anyone try and make me feel as secure as I did in their arms when the Temple and the world beyond it came crashing down under Krypton's blast wave."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Supergirl's breath left her.

There was a twinkle of something secret in her eyes and she all but melted softly into me in the dearest hug anyone had ever given me.

And I held her back as we floated there in a black cocoon surrounded by fire and destruction.

And I didn't care how much she had hurt me. All I wanted was the happiness. The feeling of the moment. And as I held her, I could deny what I once was, focus only on what I wanted to be, and try and forget what I knew I never would become in the future.

And if we died then…than perhaps it would only be fitting.

But life is never that easy…

**SMASH!!!**

Supergirl and I gasped. We parted from our hug and looked over at where the entrance to the facility used to be.

A fresh hole had been smashed open to early morning light. Amidst falling debris and erupting flame, a strong-muscled figure flew at us. Impervious to the destruction. A figure with dark hair, chiseled features, and a billowing cape.

"Clark!!!"

"Hang on!!!" the undeniable Man of Steel throated. Superman flew through our black shield, gripped both of us by our collars, and turned towards the new exit. "I'm getting us out of here!!"

I held my breath.

So did Supergirl.

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

The hole flew at us and--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We emerged from underneath the barn. I could barely make out the waving and cheering bodies of the Titans and the Kents beneath us when--

_**PHOOOOOOOMB!!!!!!!**_

The barn erupted from underneath in a huge plume of dancing flame and flying earth as Superman flew us to safety. The ground immediately imploded in on itself and buried the flame of Braniac's self-destructing facility before the explosion could resound too dramatically into the early Kansas morning. Raven and Cyborg suppressed the flames with black shields and blue energy waves. Beast Boy lifted Robin up by pterodactyl feet as the Boy Wonder launched handfuls of fire-extinguishing darts. Starfire moved John and Martha Kent back towards a safe distance.

By noontime, all the locals would be concerned about was that the Kents' barn had 'burned to the ground'.

Superman slowly floated down and lowered Supergirl and I to our feet.

The two of us breathed in relief.

"I thought I'd never bash my way in there…," Superman muttered. He looked down at us and gestured. "Lord knows it had to have been next to impossible to get out before that thing blew."

"You have a way of stating the obvious, Clark," Supergirl muttered.

The Man of Steel frowned and pointed into her chest. "And you have a lot of explaining to do, Young Lady!"

I winced.

Supergirl blushed and simpered. "Yeah…well…"

Superman suddenly glanced up.

Supergirl blinked.

A shadow was slowly forming over my figure. "????" I looked down at my darkened feet in curiosity.

Supergirl gasped. She immediately scooped me up in her strong arms and jerked me away--

SWOOOOOSH-CLUMP!!!!!!

Metallo's smoking body landed from the explosion. Myrkblade was still stabbed in his chest.

The metal man twitched and moaned. "Nnnnnnghhh….my body…what…wh-what happened?!….c-can't remember….."

"Cute…," Superman uttered, folding his arms.

Supergirl let out a sigh of relief. She realized she was still cradling me as a baby. The two of us blushed and she gently lowered me to my feet. "Eheheheheheheh….uhm….," she scratched the back of her neck before leaning forward and yanking Myrkblade strongly out of Metallo's chest like King Arthur. "I-I-I believe this belongs to you."

I smiled. I retrieved my weapon from her grasp, twirled it by the hilt, and easily sheathed it into my scabbard with a soft sigh.

CHIIING!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I came the soonest I could…," Superman said late that afternoon. He stood before Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy besides the leftover debris of the barn. "But between Metropolis and the Watchtower, I didn't have much of a chance to answer the call until now. If I had known of the seriousness of the situation, I would have been here earlier."

"And yet again…," Robin scratched his chin, "…I honestly don't remember how you could have gotten a message from us! I certainly don't remember commanding one to be sent to you."

"So you didn't try contacting me?" Superman glanced at him curiously.

"Supergirl insisted that it wasn't necessary. And—to be honest—I trusted that the Titans, Supergirl, and I would be enough to tackle Intergang. I still have no clue how Metallo and his men managed to ambush us. But then again…none of us counted on Braniac as being a part of this plan."

"So he's dead, right?" Beast Boy asked. "Braniac's gone for good??"

"Hardly," Superman shook his head. "Braniac exists on Earth in many incarnations. Only rarely does he manifest himself physically outside of his element."

"His element?" a question mark popped over the changeling's head.

Superman nodded. "The Internet."

Beast Boy gulped. "I'm never using any date sites from now on…." He trembled.

Cyborg looked from Beast Boy to the Man of Steel. "And what will become of Metallo?"

Everyone looked over to where the unconscious, metal man was resting—tied up—against the recovered T-Car.

"Deactivation. Maybe even dismantling. I'm quite happy to have my hands on him." Superman smirked somewhat as he faced the Titan boys around him. "I didn't even have to lift a finger against him this time!"

"It's not like we did the job for you," Robin smirked. "Besides…Supergirl and Noir seem to have tackled him in the end."

"But what about what he knows??" Cyborg remarked. "Your identity! Clark Kent! Smallville! All that stuff! I mean…not everyone in this world can be so heavily trusted with a secret like us…."

"Everytime Metallo is stripped clean of his Kryptonite and given the beating he deserves…," Superman explained, "…he undergoes an amnesiac condition. It's like the power reserves to his neural net have been drained with a metaphorical syringe. He'd be hard pressed to remember anything that's happened in the last few days. Or the last few months at that matter."

"That's all well and good…," Beast Boy nodded. "But….dude….doesn't it just creep you out that he and Braniac were situated here the whole time?! Replacing your foster mom and dad with robots and stuff??"

"All water under the bridge, Beast Boy," Robin waved. He smiled up at Superman and placed his hands on his hips. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, sir. As always."

"Dude…you two know each other?!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Naturally!" Superman winked. "What are legends in the business for?" He turned and looked down at Robin. "Tell me….how's Batman doing?"

"Oh….you know….," Robin scratched the back of his head with a gloved hand and shrugged. "He's all…..Dark…..and Knightish…..as usual."

"………..," Superman stared. "……………….right." A beat. He looked at Cyborg and Beast Boy and shook their hands. "A pleasure it is to finally meet the Titans."

"A superb pleasure it is to meet you, sir!" Cyborg beamed.

"Y-Yeah!" Beast Boy smiled. "Way cool!"

"It's the Man of Steel in the flesh, Beast Boy," Robin winked under his eyemask and smiled. "What's he like in person?"

Beast Boy scratched his head and got a good look at Blueboy. "Well……h-he certainly is……………..big."

Superman chuckled. "Boy have I heard that before…"

A few paces away…at the patio of the Kents' household….

"Whew! It's great to have a real cup of tea again!" Martha Kent remarked as she and John sat together on a bench.

Starfire smiled and leaned back in her chair. "Are you both at ease now that you have been returned to your habitat?"

"Tell me this, Miss……," John uttered.

"Starfire," the Tamaranian smiled pleasantly.

"Starfire….how on earth could anyone believe our robot doubles were really ourselves??"

"To be honest…," Starfire cupped her hands together and blushed as she looked aside. "I-I had my misgivings…"

"Oh?" Martha leaned her head to the side.

The alien Titan's green eyes darted up. "The doppelgangers were most pleasant…but I failed to see in them the intimacy most common to Terran love."

John chuckled. "Is that so?"

"When Raven let you out of those holding cells in Braniac's lair….," Starfire uttered, "…the two of you were so sorrowful. So frightened. And when you retreated in each other's arms, I saw it for the first time."

John and Martha Kent took deep breaths and joined their hands together as they bravely listened.

Starfire's face was earnest as she said: "Terrans are capable of embracing sorrow as much as they embrace happiness in their love. In your robot counterparts, I saw all of the joy…but none of the pain. It did not seem like real love."

"Well…look who's the expert on romanticism," John winked and smiled at his wife. "Where do you think this little one's from, honey? Venus?"

"I don't know," Martha chuckled.

Starfire giggled and leaned her fair chin on her hands. "I have been desiring to visit the second planet, actually…"

A couple of paces away, besides a bail of hay, I stood beside Raven.

"Are you certain of this?" the dark girl asked, the Kansas wind blowing at her blue strands.

I smiled up at her and calmly nodded. I was in the middle of zipping up a backpack full of my vacation's possessions and Myrkblade. I stood up and hoisted the pack up over my shoulders.

Raven took a deep breath. "The Titans will be disappointed that you've decided to go back home on your own." A beat. She looked at me with thinned blue eyes. "Or did you tell them already?"

I slowly nodded.

"Fitting," she shrugged and paced around the hay. "You are quite the considerate type, Noir. Just do us a favor and be mindful to watch your step on your way back to the City and the Tower. We've crossed quite a distance on this vacation thus far."

I nodded. I looked at her back.

She was silent.

Slowly she spun back around and faced me. Her robe twirled. Her arms were folded. "Noir….something very…very bad happened to you down there…."

I slowly looked down. I swallowed.

She took a step forward and beckoned for my gaze. "Something very bad happened to you….and….more or less…Supergirl was responsible."

I nodded. I couldn't deny that.

A beat.

Raven leaned her head to the side. "Why…after all that she's done to you…did you go back and try to help her?"

I took a deep breath and stared at Raven.

She held a hand up. "I-I'm not blaming you or saying I disagree or anything…..I am j-just curious, Noir."

I kept staring at her through my shades. And slowly I smiled. And in the reflection of my sunglasses, I knew Raven saw herself. And she saw the figures of the Titans conversing with Superman and the Kents in the background.

The sorceress didn't need empathy to understand….

"I see…," she sighed and eyed the grass below us. "It takes a lot of compassion to forgive someone, doesn't it Noir? A great deal of compassion and….and…."

Her speech trailed off.

Silence.

She sighed. She looked up. "Just know that it isn't the same as the Titans and Wyldecarde. Not exactly the same, at least."

I slowly nodded. I was already there.

Raven swallowed. "As if it isn't obvious to you by now, I was the one who contacted Superman…"

That I didn't know. My lips parted and I leaned my head to the side in wonder.

"It was when we first got involved with Supergirl," she said. "The night we spent here with the Kents…I went to the T-Car and radioed the JLA's Watchtower. All I told Superman in the message was that he was needed back home where he was raised. I didn't tell him the reason for my calling him. I didn't tell him that I knew Supergirl was hiding something. That she was going to betray us all. After all, I've overreacted on senses of 'betrayal' before. And….well….that never went well for you."

I shook my head and gestured--

"I won't go there, Noir. Don't worry," Raven said. "Just know that….the other Titans have no clue what Supergirl has done. Not even Superman. Only we know, Noir. You and me. Supergirl too, of course. But that's more than obvious."

I stared at her in surprise.

"I have no need to tell the Titans," Raven said. "There's no need to gloat about how obviously right I was and how nobody should have doubted me…."

I smirked.

She frowned. "But all it would do is hurt the situation. At least now it would. I won't tell until…..until you'd want me to, Noir."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I'll leave it up to you," she said. "Don't worry, I won't go against my word. This is a promise. I won't tell Supergirl's secret if you won't. I don't think it's what I believe should be done that matters here." A beat. She summoned up the strength to say: "I'm not the one close friend that Supergirl has…"

I took a deep breath. Slowly, I nodded. More like a bow. I was honored…and I accepted Raven's proposal.

"I've seen you hurt enough as it is, Noir," Raven said. "And I know that there's enough pain in your past—though I have no clue as to what it is. But I don't want you to be hurt anymore. And if you and Supergirl achieve some sort of happiness that—in spite of all the wrong as of late brings you solace—then so be it. Whatever it takes to protect a friend of mine."

I smiled proudly at her.

She pouted. "And don't give me that look!! It's only because you're my friend that I'm doing this!! And I want my friends protected! It's not like I **care** or anything!!"

I smirked even more.

She rolled her blue eyes, folded her arms and looked to the side. A beat. "Okay….so….," Raven muttered. "Don't you have a place to go to?"

I nodded.

I waved. I turned about…and sauntered off towards the horizon.

Raven lowered her arms, turned her back to my back, and walked her own way.

But at some point—unknown to me—she paused. She looked over her shoulder at my distant figure. She was biting her lip.

A beat.

She placed her robe over her head, blotting out my image, and walked off to join Starfire and the Kents.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was at the entrance gate to the Kents' farmland.

About to make my exit.

When….

I paused in my step.

Kara sat on the fence besides the gate. Dressed casually in the red and black jacket and jeans. The silly little girl I had seen spying on me in a Borders. She faced away from me, the wind kicking at her platinum blonde hair.

I smiled.

I slowly walked up to her, absent-mindedly gripping a backpack strap over my shoulder.

Silence ensued….one minute….a minute and a half….. Kara finally sighed and spoke: "I was afraid you were gonna do this…"

I leaned my head to the side with a curious expression.

She smiled painfully up at me. Her face immaculate. Her eyes sapphire and moist.

"I knew you were gonna head back East. That someway….somehow….you couldn't go West anymore." She glanced down at her boots. "And….I-I feel that it's all on account of me."

A painful lump formed in my throat and I wanted to tell her….

To tell her that, yes, it was the truth. I was canceling my vacation Westward with the Titans because of recent events. And I was so thankful to her.

Kara suddenly gasped as she felt my arms around her from the side. She bit her lip and smiled with a painful breath as she leaned her temple against my arms and closed my eyes.

"I…I never thought it could happen….Jordan…."

I looked at her from amidst our embrace. She opened her eyes. They were wet on the edges.

"I could….feel more secure than I even did in my family's arms. The day everything collapsed. The day everything on Argos was lost…."

I blinked under my shades. I kept holding her.

She nuzzled my arm and again sighed.

Silence.

"Thank you, Jordan…."

I parted out hug and shrugged. I smiled.

So did she.

"Uhm…," she blushed. She reached down to her side beneath the fence and produced a haphazardly wrapped package. "I….have something for you…."

"????" I picked it up as she held it for me.

"It's not really a gift….to be honest," she hugged her knees to herself and balanced on the edge of the wooden fence. "But….I-I really think it's important…..for me…..f-for us even…."

I slowly nodded. I zipped open my backpack and placed it inside.

She took a breath and smiled. "Y-Yeah…..wait till it's almost dark and…..you're well on your way home before opening it. P-Promise?"

I smiled. I crossed my heart.

She slowly jumped down and stood before me. Again…eye-level. The wind blew at her platinum blonde hair.

"So…..um….I guess this is goodbye." She winced. "Gawd, that sounds so cliché."

I chuckled breathily.

She giggled.

The wind twirled around us.

Silence.

"Uhm…," she blushed and hugger her shoulder with her other arm. "D-Do you think we could meet? Ya know…again sometime? Sometime and some place where there aren't metal maniacs running around to end our lives and that of the world?? Heheheh…."

I smiled and nodded gently.

"Good…," she uttered. "Cuz….I-I'd really like that." She bit her lip. "Can't be anytime soon, of course. Cl-Clark's grounded me. He doesn't take a liking to….ya know….me facing action so close to home by myself. Oh, not to mention Ma and Pa being replaced by robots and stuff."

I chuckled again and she giggled again.

Silence.

We drank in each other's faces before….gradually…we had to part.

I was already walking away.

She stood by the fence to her farm and waved. "Cya…."

I waved. My face firm. I turned around….leaving the West once and for all. And when I was a good distance down the road, I took a happy breath and began sprinting…blurring…forming a black streak against the landscape and soaring across the country.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was well into the setting of the Sun when I approached the western edge of the Appalachians.

I had made good time.

I rested in between throttling bursts of murking blurs across the landscape. Moving at speeds just shy of what the Flash can accomplish. I forgot how much I missed that sort of movement. The last time I had so freely blurred across the landscape like that was during my trip with Beast Boy to Westhaven long ago. It was invigorating. I knew I had to pause to eat and sleep at some point…but I didn't want to stop. I couldn't wait to once again taste the air of the Atlantic Ocean. To see the skyline of the City. To approach the gates of the Tower.

But I did stop at some point. Because I saw that the sun was setting and I thought of Kara and my promise to her.

I nestled myself on a ridge overlooking a brown and green valley.

I dug my hand into the backpack and—sitting crosslegged—I opened the package lightly wrapped for me to tear.

I froze.

I slid my hands in and produced the contents of the package. A reflective, obsidian hairband. Kara's heirloom from her home planet Argos. The same one that changed colors and reflected emotion on the fly.

My breath left me. I turned it over in my grasp. I glanced beneath it and saw a hastily scribbled note attached. I picked it up in another hand and read it.

_'Hey there, stranger. By the time you read this, I bet the land is no longer boring and flat. Do me a favor and find a good place before you chuck this into the wind.'_

I blinked under my shades.

Slowly, I smiled.

I slipped the package away into my backpack, jumped up to my feet, and—with the hairband in grasp—marched up the length of the mountaintop I was on. I found a sharp ridge overlooking the valley. I peered out into the geographical oblivion.

Westward.

I took a deep breath, held the accessory over my head, and flung it out with a gasp.

It spun for a few seconds like a black boomerang before being swept up in an invisible and carried off into the haze of the darkening world. Disappearing. Fading away. And I smiled with the wind against my back, for I realized that the 'West' was as much a word as 'pride' and 'nobility'.

I turned around, faced the wind joyfully, and continued my trek Eastward.

To Home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That evening…as the last of the sunset faded and the Kansas night turned black…Kara sat on the top of the Kents' second story rooftop. She hugged her knees and faced directly westward.

Sighing.

And then…with a sparkle…the first star in the night's sky appeared.

She gasped. Eyeing it with twitching eyes of blue.

The star stabbed into her…winked…and multiplied into pinpricks of boundless space.

At the very moment that a black-eyed ghost was tossing away her family heirloom miles away…the heavens were yawning over her. And Kara Inze got the reminder that she so needed.

Home and Family numbered her life as the stars. There was no absolute. Just a wealth of undeniable warmth that she was starting to feel in the arms of another.

With forgiveness.

She smiled and hugged herself. She was a woman after all.

"Thank you…."

The voice filtered across the landscape to catch up with the benefactor. But she knew he couldn't hear her. Kara's visitor had come and gone. Like the bat of an eyelash. The twinkle of a star.


	85. Sherwood

**85. Sherwood**

Two and a half days later…

During the gentle rise of a Sun in the East…

Golden rays of light crept over the hills of the surrounding wilderness, filtered down to the waters, glittered off the Bay, past the suspension bridge, and onto the mainland of the urban sprawl that was the City.

And stretching above it all like a crucifix was Titans' Tower. With metal 'arms' stretching wide. Dancing a shadow across the calmly rolling waters surrounding the rocky bluffs of the island. It was a symbol of security. Of hope. And of justice.

And just the sight of it completed the serenity of the landscape. Its quaint beauty. Its silent embrace of the warm morning…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

"Aim for the head!! Those bastards are still there!!"

"Son of a—"

**BLAM!!!**

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

In a alleyway with brick walls reflecting the infantile rays of the rising Sun, four gang members held the high ground on a fire escape and took aim from their side of the building at a dumpster two dozen feet away. Behind the dumpster two heroes huddled. One clad in green with blonde hair and a beard. The other—younger—in a dark, sleeveless combat suit with a mat of short red hair. The two vigilantes were identically equipped with a bow and a quiver of arrows.

"Well…," Speedy gritted his teeth and slumped—panting—against the back of the dumpster as bullets ricocheted all around them. "This certainly beats a Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's…"

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Bullets sparked as they impacted the dumpster.

Green Arrow drew another bow. "All part of a balanced headache." A beat. He smirked down at his apprentice. "Exhilarating, isn't it?!"

CLANG!!!

Speedy winced as a bullet bounced off too close for comfort. "Positively breathtaking." He gulped. "We've been chasing these creeps all night. Can't we give it a rest?!"

"Not when we've come this far…," Green Arrow pulled the arrow tight on his bowstrings. "The Titans wanted us to see to the safety of this City during their absence…and we must attend to this mess!! Keep them from getting the briefcase!!"

Speedy glanced bravely around the corner at a leather case resting besides a knocked-out thug in the center of the alley.

"I've played better games of fetch…"

"Indeed," Green Arrow smirked. He leapt up, dodged a bullet in mid-air, and unleashed his arrow into the center of the space between the buildings. PTWING—FLASH!!! It exploded in a sphere of electrical pulses. The gunmen on the fire escape were temporarily blinded.

"Augh!!"

They covered their eyes and stumbled back.

"Go!!" Green Arrow shouted.

Speedy sped. He gritted his teeth and jogged into the center of the alleyway. He slid to a stop and reached his hand out to scoop up the briefcase.

One thug quickly recovered his sight, took aim, and fired.

BANG!!

POW!!!

Speedy gasped as the bullet ricocheted near his boot. He rolled to the side, drew an arrow, aimed up, and fired.

PTWING!!!!!

The arrow struck the gun out of the thug's grasp. CLANK!!! "Dah!!"

"He's getting the goods!! Stop him!!"

One thug leapt down from the fire escape, landed in front of Speedy, and raised his foot to kick the boy in the head.

Speedy growled—"RAAAUGH!!"—and swung the end of his bow up like a staff, smacking the man across the chin. THWACK!! He charged up to his feet and struck the man hard in the chest with his shoulder. WHUMP!!!

The thug fell back.

PTWING!!!!

Green Arrow launched a projectile that struck the falling thug's shirt and pinned him back against the brick wall of the alley.

With adequate cover, Speedy grabbed the briefcase and ran back towards the dumpster under bullet fire. Green Arrow launched a flurry of arrows past his apprentice, holding the thieves on the fire escape at bay and ruining their aim.

The eyemasked redhead rejoined his master and slumped back against the safe side of the dumpster, hugging the briefcase to his chest and panting. "Remind me to practice the shuttle run more often…."

"Yes…we can set that up in training back home," Green Arrow smiled. "With explosions!"

"Oh joy…"

BLAM!!!

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Furious that their precious, stolen money was out of their hands…the remaining gunmen unleashed a flurry of lead.

Green Arrow sheltered himself behind the dumpster and uttered: "Now would be an adequate time to abandon the scene."

"About damn time!" Speedy spat.

The two rushed out of the alleyway. Speedy took point with the briefcase in his arms. Green Arrow ran backwards, unleashing projectiles on the fly.

As the master and apprentice reached the end of the alleyway, an open street lay before them. Bright with the golden rays of the rising Sun.

That is…'bright' until a white van screeched to a stop, blocking the exit. The side door opened up and three gunmen from the thieving gang filed out. They raised pistols threateningly at the running two.

Green Arrow and Speedy skidded to a stop.

"Hmmm…" Green Arrow's eyemask narrowed.

Speedy sweatdropped. "Somehow…I don't think this was in the job description…"

The thugs cocked their guns and took aim---

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

A black shadow streaked in from the background and…

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

The barrels of all three thugs' pistols fell loose from severed edges.

The gang members gasped and…

SWIIISH-THWUMP!!!!

The shadowed figure rushed immediately back in with a kick into one thug's side, spun around, struck another thug in the back hard with the length of a wooden sword, spiraled, and elbowed the third hard across the chin. WHAM!!! SLAP!!! WHACK!!!

All three new gunmen were down for the count.

"………" Green Arrow and Speedy stared….blinking.

I looked up at them….smiled….saluted…and—SLASH!!! I stabbed Myrkblade in reverse, impacting the front tire of the white van. POW!!!!!!

The vehicle lurched. The last two gang members inside the van bailed out and ran—panicked—towards the far end of the street.

Speedy's eyemask convulsed. "Um…..Noir?"

I looked at him.

"I….er……..you……why….?"

BLAM!!!

A bullet ricocheted off the nearby wall.

Green Arrow and Speedy spun around.

"Never mind…," the apprentice uttered.

The two heroes whipped out their bows as the gunmen from the other side of the alleyway rushed in with pistols firing.

I twirled Myrkblade and ran up a wall to approach the gang members' right flank.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Bullets flew.

PTWING!!! PT-WING!!!

Arrows flew.

Some met with exploding shards of lead and metal alloys in the air.

I blurred through this mess, teleported into smoke form, flew through the fray, and materialized in a blink between the three remaining gunmen and jumped straight up with a spiral. I had Myrkblade held directly outward and contacting the weapons of the thugs.

CL-CLANK!!!!

Two guns flew apart from my strikes.

Two thugs gasped.

The third aimed at my airborne figure….

SWIIIIISH-CLANK!!!

Speedy's arrows knocked his gun out.

Green Arrow ran up with a warcry. "RAAAUGH!!!"

He uppercutted the third gunman with his bow. THWACK!!! And spun to trip one of the first two with it. THWUMP!!!

The last man turned to run…as I came down from my leap just in time to jab him in the chest with the hilt of my sword. WHUMP!!!!

He gasped and stumbled back into Speedy's arms. The redheaded archer smirked, took a breath, and body-slammed the crook into the concrete of the alley. WHAM!!!

"Nnnnnghh…."

All the thugs were out cold.

CHIIING!!! I sheathed Myrkblade, took a deep breath, and bowed with a smile.

Green Arrow clapped jollily. "Your arrival here is most surprising, Mr. Noir. But I shall not complain over its punctuality." He smirked.

"Noir! My man!" Speedy walked over. We exchanged high fives with me and smiled. "A pleasure as always!"

I nodded.

He blinked under his eyemask and leaned his head to the side. "Where're the other Titans?"

I whistled innocently. I shrugged. I pointed West.

"You're here alone?" Green Arrow remarked. He slipped the bow onto his back and folded his arms. "Why is that?"

I glanced down at the unconscious thugs. I motioned towards them.

"Thrill of the occupation, huh?" Green Arrow chuckled and scratched his beard. "I suppose some of us are simply heroes to the core. Glad to have you in our presence, my boy!!" He patted me mightily on the shoulder.

I tried not to wince.

"As you can see….eheheh…," Speedy sweatdropped and showed off the briefcase. "Things are slowly returning to normal."

I nodded, eyeing the bulletholes in the walls of the alley.

"H-Hey! While you're here, maybe we can all f-find a way to…..oh….I dunno," Speedy lingered, "…radio the other Titans and ask if maybe they'd l-like to get their butts back over h-here and help us out with a few th—OOF!!"

Green Arrow elbowed him and tried to cover the whole thing with a smile. "By all means! Let them have the vacation they so deserve!! Heh heh heh!!"

"……," I stared at him.

A beat.

Green Arrow swallowed. "Okay, so maybe you can help us…," he muttered.

Speedy coughed. His master glared at him. He simpered back.

I took a breath, smiled, and gestured towards the archers' belts.

"Huh?? Oh, of course…" Green Arrow whipped out a few sets of handcuffs from a Medieval-like satchel and handed a few to me. He and I proceeded to restrain the unconscious bodies of the four gunmen on our side while Speedy went to take care of the three by the white van.

"Terrible gang business…that's what it all comes down to," Green Arrow said. "Drug money. Lots of it. Things were quiet around Town for a while since the death of that 'Dagger' fellow you kids keep telling me about. Then the next minute you know it…everyone of the most vile sort is waking up again from the criminal mire of this urban landscape. Ha!! Just because Speedy and I may not be a couple of locals doesn't mean we can't thrash evildoers mightily!!"

I finished handcuffing a thug and looked at him. I pointed curiously at the briefcase left behind by Speedy.

"That's going straight to the police," Green Arrow nodded. "I'm sure Decker would be happy. In the meantime, we also need to call some police men out to round up these crooks!"

I stood up, nodded, and turned around. I started to walk towards the end of the alleyway.

"Um….," Green Arrow's eyemask twisted in curiosity. He stood up and gestured. "Might I ask where you're going, Mr. Noir?"

I spun to look at him. I smiled and mouthed: "Home!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two and a half hours later, after a breeze by the police department and its evidence department, I found myself up in the Main Room of the Tower. And for once, it smelled different to me. Not that something bad happened in there since the time I had left. But rather, it was that odd sensation of one's habitat seeming to smell different after a long way away from home—if you could call it home—and---

"So….uh…..as far as we know….uh…," Speedy's rambling interrupted my thoughts. He was doing his best to rush around the Main Room and clear the couch and tables and chairs free of potato chip bags and bits and pieces of laundry while trying to distract me from the fact that he was rushing around the Main Room and clearing the furniture free of potato chip bags and bits and pieces of laundry. "…these gang members…..uh….they're all….uh…c-circulating drugs through this one underground kingpin named Harrison….yes….and….ahem…..eheheh….so far we've run into plenty of Harrison's men but not the big H himself…ya know?"

I nodded, breathing in and enjoying the feel of being….'home' again. I smiled and turned about. I still had my backpack on from the long, solo trek home. I felt smelly and dirty all over from days of sweating in the August Sun, blurring and walking Eastward.

I trotted over towards the Main Computer where Green Arrow sat, typing away at a search prompt.

"We've done as thorough a search as we can with your archives…..considering…," his voice lingered.

I eyed him curiously through my shades.

The blonde, eyemasked superhero sweatdropped. "Considering….that….our resources have been…"

"We can't make heads or tails out of your damn computer," Speedy uttered, his arms folded.

I smirked.

Green Arrow glared at his apprentice. "Yes….I suppose that **is** a way of wording it, young ward."

"Ain't it, though?"

I walked over by Green Arrow's side and gestured curiously at the computer screen.

"Well, you see….it's this…," Green Arrow moved the mouse, clicked, and brought up a window in the computer menu. "Every time we access the archives, we put in the password that the Boy Wonder supplied us, but approximately twenty seconds into booting up the criminal records of the local scene, the program crashes on us! Speedy and I have resorted to walking into the police department and begging Decker for a look into his files to find something on Harrison. With no luck of course. We simply can't fix this defunct computer!" "Quite humiliating," Speedy's eyemask winked and he smiled. "Get it?"

I pointed at the chair and looked humbly in Green Arrow's face.

"By all means," He stood up and gestured for me to sit in his place.

I took my backpack off and slung it over the back of the chair as I squatted down, rolled up to the computer console, and cracked my flesh knuckles. I typed blazingly away. Thoroughly used to the prompt.

I entered a search for 'Harrison' and cross referenced it with 'underground drug trafficking' and imputed the query for the past five years. When I was asked by the computer for a password, I entered it in. A few seconds into it—as Green Arrow predicted—the computer system froze.

"See?" Green Arrow removed his green cap and rubbed a frustrated hand through his blonde hair. "Damnedest thing I've had to contend with in ages…"

I blinked through my shades. I glanced down at the computer tower. Gritting my teeth, I effortlessly gripped it, leaned it to the side, aimed, and kicked my boot into its metal side in the precise spot.

CLANK!

The computer hummed loudly for a second, clicked, whirred, and returned to silence. In the meantime, the program unfroze and the search continued unhindered. As a matter of fact, quite an extensive list of search results piled up on the screen in reference to 'Harrison' within a span of half a second.

"………," Green Arrow blinked. "Give me smoke signals and carrier pigeons anyday."

"Heheheh….," Speedy shook his head. "Told you we needed to get a computer of our own."

"I prefer gathering information the natural way."

"Lemme guess…punching people for the truth."

"There's nothing wrong with that, my boy! Not if you punch lightly!"

"Then how come we've been knocking our heads over the computer so long till Noir showed up?"

"It's this blasted City! So modern! So futuristic! So—"

"Shhhh!!" I hissed with a whisper. I finished a keystroke and pointed at the screen.

Speedy leaned over the back of my chair and looked. "You got something?"

I nodded.

Green Arrow narrowed his eyemask and read aloud: "'Charges of drug trafficking were lifted when the court was convinced of Harrison's alibi on June 11th, 2003. The suspect claims that he was in the Eastern District of the City at the time a police chase loss track of what was assumed to be his white van with a matching license plate fleeing the scene of an exchange in Downtown. Specifically, Harrison speaks of overlooking the construction of the brand new storage facility for his City-Haul moving business.'"

I held up a finger.

I took a breath…keystroked….and….

A second pertinent article appeared.

This time, Speedy read: "'On January 14th, 2004, a call to 9-11 brought police officers to investigate the sounds of gunshots in the Eastern District on Billiard Street, a block away from the City-Haul storage facility'…"

I performed another keystroke.

A third article.

"'August 4th, 2004, a man found overdosed on narcotics on the corner of Billiard Street and Bluffside Avenue…'"

I swiveled around, smiled at the two men, and suavely rested my hands behind my dark head.

The archers exchanged glances.

"Looks like we got a place to visit!" Speedy mused.

"…………"

"I said, looks like we got a pla—"

"Yes!! We must disembark!!" Green Arrow emphatically gestured northeastward.

I chuckled and jumped up to my feet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mr. Harrison sir!"

A jittery man of middle-age jumped. He turned around—trembling—and ran a shaky hand through gray and brown hair as he swallowed and wide-eyed his subordinate.

"Bad news. Those two damn archers took away the money from last week's gig. And what's more, one of the Titans is back to help them!"

Five thugs had stormed in on Harrison's office at the City-Haul storage facility. They all seemed paranoid and shifty eyed, but none of them matched the anxiety prevalent in their boss' body and expression. Harrison stood behind his desk in the long and narrow office. Above them all, a wooden ceiling fan circled lazily.

"Sir…they can be breathing down our backs at any second!" another gang member said. He pointed at the metal safe awkwardly half open in the corner and the drug money sloppily leaking out. "I suggest we relocate that stuff and get the Hell out of here!"

"Just one second!!" Harrison barked with a finger held up.

The thugs silenced themselves.

"…….."

"…….."

"…….."

Seconds passed.

Harrison stood there with his finger held up. He trembled.

Silence.

The thugs shifted in their positions.

One bit his lip….and eventually cleared his throat and uttered: "Um…s-sir?"

"Was that one second?!"

"That was quite a few seconds, sir."

"Oh." Harrison blinked his bulging eyes. A beat. "What were we talking about again?"

The thugs sweatdropped.

"Um…..sir….we're in deep trouble."

SMASH!!!!!

The windows shattered as two archers dove in.

The thugs spun and gasped.

Green Arrow and Speedy got to their feet and drew arrows, aiming at the gang members present.

Harrison gasped at the top of his lungs.

"Well, if it isn't this City's highest profiled drug dealing gang assembled with guns ready to be drawn and a bunch of dirty money gathered in the corner?" Green Arrow smiled. "I hope you boys aren't half as bad fighters as you are organizers!"

One thug growled and pointed a pistol as he and the others stepped back towards the entrance to the office. "You can't just barge in here and start busting heads!"

Speedy smiled. "Yup. You're right. But Noir can!"

SMASH!!!!

The door behind the thugs shattered as I kicked my way in, teleported, and materialized with a swing of Myrkblade.

SLASH!!!!!

Pistols shattered. Thugs gasped and were shoved towards Green Arrow and Speedy.

The archers let loose concussion arrows. FLASH!!!!! FLASH!!!! Thugs fell back, unconscious.

Shots were fired. Myrkblade swung and slashed. Arrows soared. Bodies fell and groaned as they went out cold. Shouts of surprise and frustration. Flashes of exploding arrows and a sparking, wooden sword.

Harrison watched from behind his desk. Trembling. Fidgeting. Sweating.

SLASH!!!! I swung Myrkblade so close to a man's back, his shirt flew apart into tatters. He gasped as I twirled around him and struck him across the chest with the broad side of my sword and then uppercutted him with a kick. As he fell back, I spun Myrkblade gracefully into a position, dashed over to Harrison's desk, vaulted over, and restrained him from behind. The man gasped and convulsed in my gasp.

PTWING!!! FLASH!!!

"AUGH!" the last thug fell back and slumped down a wall in the office from the last of Green Arrow's projectiles. The hero and his ward Speedy marched threateningly up to the desk and frowned at the leader in my grasp.

"Harrison, you're to be indicted for drug trafficking and criminal negligence, among a handful of assault charges and illegal weapons possession."

"Just what do you have to say for yourself??"

The man in my hold blinked. He coughed, wheezed, and smiled with thin eyes. "Maaaaaan….I am soooooo stoned right now. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Speedy and Green Arrow stared. They exchanged glances.

I gave them a helpless smile from behind the cackling leader's back.

Speedy scratched his head. "Well…can't say we've had easier stings…"

Green Arrow shrugged and handcuffed the deliriously hysterical Harrison. "The important thing to do in this situation, apprentice, is not ask questions."

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" Harrison shook. "Dudes….a-are you really…..like…..from Sherwood Forest or something?"

"Yeah," Speedy folded his arms and smiled as Green Arrow carted him away. "And you're the merry man."

"Woo hoo!! I'm the merry man! HEY! Can the merry man feel the earth beneath his feet?! Cuz I sure can't!"

CHIIING!!

I sheathed Myrkblade and walked around the desk to Speedy's side.

"And I thought I saw everything….," the redhead mused. I smiled and shrugged. A downed thug to my left started to stir awake. So I kicked him in the head. He went under again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Gentlemen, I just want to make a note of something…," Commissioner Decker began from behind his desk in the office. Outside his door, the hustle and bustle of the police department echoed in and filtered through the man's speech as we sat across from him and listened. "For the last two and a half weeks or so, you two…Green Speedy and Arrow—"

"Actually, it's—"

"Yeah yeah, whatever. Anyways, the two of you have been hanging around our City in the Titans' place. And from what I hear, the two of you are….supposed to be really expert crime fighters and all that jazz. But yet, for the last nine days you two have found it a virtual impossibility to catch up with the drug trafficking case. And within the last twenty-four hours, just ONE of the Titans comes back and suddenly you have Harrison as our man!"

Speedy and Green Arrow looked at me.

I smiled and waved innocently.

"So, what's the freakin' deal?!" Decker cackled. "You gotta work in a committee of three or some shit?!"

The lieutenant rushed in through the door with a file. "Sir, you may like to look at this—"

"Not now!!" Decker barked.

The lieutenant rushed out.

"To put a long story short," Green Arrow smiled and gestured, "…my apprentice and I were struggling to familiarize ourselves with the tools of the trade that the Titans employ themselves with."

"Oh! That's rich!" Decker folded his arms and glared. "And what about transportation, huh? That giving you heroes a problem? Should that black robot Titan come back and give your car battery a jump or something?! Huh?!"

The lieutenant leaned his head back in the door. "Um, sir…about that file. It's important in regards to—"

"NOT NOW!!!"

The lieutenant moaned and was gone.

Decker pointed a jabbing finger at me. "It's all your fault this City's been so on edge until now with the druglords! You and your hormone leaking Titan friends think that it's okay to be lighthearted and lazy. So what do you do?! You go out on a vacation! Having **fun!** There's no time to have fun! Not while you're alive!!"

I smiled and shrugged.

Silence.

Decker fumed.

A beat.

"Now!" he shouted.

A beat.

"NOW!! You moron! I said NOW!"

"Oh…ahem…," the lieutenant rushed in from outside and showed Decker the file. "This was rounded up from Harrison's apartment upon a thorough search following his arrest. It contains at least twelve possible leads into drug gangs in Gotham, Metropolis, Bloodhaven, and a few other cities. We're making calls around to alert the authorities in those districts…but only if you give us the green light, sir."

Commissioner Decker scratched his chin.

A beat. He asked the lieutenant: "Is the coffee machine fixed?"

"Sir??"

"Are you deaf?! Is the coffee machine fi—"

"Last time I checked, yeah. Why?"

"I give it a green light…," Commissioner Decker signed his name and motioned the lieutenant along. "Now go make those damn phone calls."

"Sure thing," the officer walked out.

"And half a cup."

"Excuse me?" "My coffee, dammit! Have Debbie bring me half a cup!! What, do I have to be telepathic?!"

"Right on it."

We four were alone again.

Decker tapped his hands to his desk. He looked at me.

I smiled back at him.

A beat.

"Still got that Wyldecarde outfit, kid?"

Speedy winced.

I slowly shook my head.

"I kinda liked the goggles, actually," Decker said.

Silence.

I leaned my head to the side, grinning curiously.

Decker moaned and shook his head. "I swear….I'll never truly know the definition of 'the good guys' after having dealt with the likes of you." He stood up and offered each of us a hand. "The more butt you kick, the more……th-the City is happy. Keep it up."

We each shook his hand.

Speedy remarked: "Just the City is happy? What about you?"

"I don't get happy. I get pissed."

"Well….heheheh…that's more than obvious."

"Now please leave my office."

"Why?"

"CUZ I'M PISSED!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Green Arrow laughed. "And he looked like he was gonna blow his top at any minute too!"

Speedy drew an arrow and grinned. The three of us were on the edge of the Tower's rooftop at night. "Yeah. I've worked with Decker before. I don't think he'll ever have to worry about an assassin's bullet. What, with that blood pressure of his. Ahem. PULL!!!"

Green Arrow pressed the trigger on the end of a cord attached to a rectangular device. Upon his activation, the device shot out a whirling disc of clay out into the night air surrounding the Tower.

In the moonlight, Speedy squinted his eyemask and aimed before letting loose his arrow. PTWING!!!! SWIIIIIISH-CRACK!!! It struck the clay disc down the center, perfectly shattering it.

I clapped and smiled. I sat cross-legged a few feet away near the edge. I was playing a lonely game of solitaire with a trusty deck of cards.

"Nice one, apprentice," Green Arrow nodded. "But can you handle striking two at a time?"

"Only if you can handle watching me, old man!" Speedy blinked under his mask as he drew two arrows.

"Take your best shot. Lord knows, they're harder to hit than Harrison's brainless thugs!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. PULL!"

Green Arrow pressed the trigger. Two discs shot out into the night. They arched apart from each other.

Speedy gritted his teeth, concentrated, and shot two arrows with a space of repositioning the bow in between the shots. PTWING!! PTWING!!!

CR-CRACK!! The clay discs exploded at almost the same time.

I whistled and returned to my solitaire.

"Showoff," Green Arrow grunted.

"I learn from the best," Speedy beamed.

"I would hope so!" Green Arrow smirked. "I have to say, I've been proud of you the last few days! You've been showing the crooks what-for like a true, blue crime fighter!"

Speedy blushed and tried not to show it. "Just a….ya know….thirst for justice and what not."

"Or is it the desire to kick butt royally?"

"Oh, that too."

"Heh heh heh!! You will do yourself a lot of good as a leader someday! Should you ever join the Titans, you'd give Robin a run for the money!!"

"Oh….th-that's not gonna happen anytime soon," Speedy scratched the back of his head.

"Why? Because you're too shy?"

"No. Cuz you won't let me go, ya old man!"

"Apprentice, how many times have I told you that the decision to mature is up to you and you alone?"

"Not to offend Noir over there or anything…..but….h-how's joining the Titans a 'mature' thing?"

I chuckled breathily and continued with my solitaire.

"Because it's all evolution, that's why!"

"Whatever you say…."

"Seriously, it is!! It is the willingness to change and embrace the future that makes you mature! In the future there are many things. Destiny and optimism as much as there are death and pessimism. Being willing to take and make the best out of anything that comes your way is the key to becoming a hard-edged crime fighter! But only if you embrace that willingness! Do you understand me, ward?"

"No, but I appreciate it anyways."

"Ah…you were always slow on some things. But you do seem to shatter the ever-living-crap out of clay discs!"

"True that, old man. Speaking of which….PULL!!"

Three discs flew out.

Speedy grunted and unleashed three projectiles in a row. PTWING!! PTWING!! PTWING!!!

Again, an almost all-encompassing, simultaneous CRACK!!!

This time, Green Arrow clapped. "Marvelous. Now I—of course—could take two out with one arrow and shatter the third from the sheer concussion of the impact!"

"Suuuuuure you can!"

"Do you desire to see me, apprentice."

"Ahem. S-Sure you can…," Speedy muttered, blushing.

I scooped up my cards, slid them into the deck, pocketed them, and then stood up with a stretch and a yawn.

"Retiring for the evening, Mr. Noir?" Green Arrow asked.

I smiled with tired black eyes under my shades and nodded.

"I suppose it would be best that we….ya know….stayed here still and all," Speedy remarked. "We promised to watch over the Tower and the City till the Titans came back. And…..not to insinuate anything bad or whatnot….but you don't count as all the 'Titans'."

I chuckled breathily and waved a hand.

"We're honored to be tackling crime in your presence," Green Arrow said. He cleared his throat. "And lord knows we can do with all the help we can get in this wacky City."

I nodded with a smile. I headed for the stairwell and waved them good night.

"Sweet dreams and all that good stuff, Noir," Speedy said. "It's about time you crashed."

_'Crashed'….._

I felt a happy sigh flutter through my lungs. I hadn't yet been down to my cellar room since I arrived from the vacation and assisted in Harrison's capture. And I was oh-so-tired.

I more or less hurried down the stairwell, making sure to collect my backpack from the Main Room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Upon descending into my darklit room, I quickly slumped my items down onto the bed, stumbled into the bathroom, stripped, and all but collapsed into the shower. A very warm and relaxing shower. The residual memories of the vacation washed away for a few seconds as I breathed in the steam and let the memories waft back up at me.

And I thought of the wide stretches of sandy beaches in Virginia. The boardwalk under a glittering night's sky. Then I thought of the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains and the endless pine and the wonderful cottages of the Feldmans' resting at the base of a mountain. Then I thought of the open Plains of Kansas and the road leading to and from it. The urban lengths of Kansas City crossed my mind. And finally the farmlands of Smallville rolling on and on and on.

When my mind reached the image of smashed pumpkins, I helplessly chuckled and felt relaxed in the fact that not all aspects of the West were bad. Perhaps, the entire time…I had been overreacting. I could very well have been remaining with the Titans on their vacation at that very moment. But it was easy to think of such things when one was back home. Safe. Secure. Psychologically sound.

Eventually I let out a breath and sat under the warm shower, hugging my knees to my chest. Embracing the warmth, the oblivion, the steam. Closing my black eyes and thinking…

Thinking…

It was great to be home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_It's my first night back from vacation, and I feel more relaxed now than I think I ever did during my short trek westward with the Titans. And perhaps there is a little bit of irony in that. But such is of little importance._

_The reasons for my impromptu return to the City can be debated. Perhaps it's a cowardly move. And selfish too. I just do not desire to head westward anymore. Even if it means being separated from my friends in the time being. In a way, what I'm doing is ever so slightly virtuous. I get the chance to return home and assist the Green Arrow and Speedy in defending citizenry and whatnot._

_Already, the three of us have put an end to recent attempts by a gang to proliferate drugs and dirty money. Some junky fellow by the name of Harrison is in police custody as I write this. It certainly is a good feeling to have put to end the criminal streak of a certain, nasty group of people. Perhaps—since I've been so distracted by this recent travel westward—there have been little chances for me to perform the just action of crime fighting._

_Although…that isn't entirely true. As much as the Titans and I attempted to rest during our vacation, we managed to tackle Booker—the former FBI maniac—as well as Metallo and Intergang, as I'm sure Superman can fill you in about the next time you two meet at the Watchtower. I suppose that when someone is a hero, he or she cannot resist stopping evil in its many forms. In my case, I can't seem to relax unless I'm constantly in the action of protecting this City. So I imagine a vacation is pointless for me. I just hope the other Titans are enjoying themselves for the rest of their vacation's duration now that I am absent._

_The last time I saw my friends, these were the observations I could make of them:_

_Cyborg is still as joyful as ever in leading this vacation forward. To an extent, he has mellowed a bit in contrast to the ecstatic character was upon setting out from the Tower. But he's still got his hands to the wheel and is controlling this time of peace and tranquility for the Titans. He went through quite a bit of struggle in fighting Metallo once or twice. But he didn't seem too phased from that. For that, I am glad._

_Beast Boy has also mellowed a bit. I think the changeling has been a real bundle of energy lately, and this vacation is finally helping him exhaust some of that fervor. When the Titans get back, I think we all expect for the green elf to begin things on a firmer, more mature foot. But then again, pigs might start flying tomorrow. Who am I to guess?_

_Starfire is the most jubilant of us. As if that wasn't normal. But I think the incident with Nova'm really did her some good. She's having less episodes of somberness than she was before the vacation. I think reason loneliness for her planet and her people have been quenched by meeting a boy prince of her own ilk. I look forward to seeing how Starfire and Nova'm get along in the future. For the time being, Starfire is as happy as ever to be in the company of her friends._

_Robin, the leader, seems to be softening up. This is only a supposition on my part, though. I've not known Robin long enough to observe him enough during times of leisure to know how exactly he acts when he's 'at ease'. But I see a bit of the hard edge being slowly taken away from him. Then again, the soonest the Titans all rejoin here at the Tower and engage in battling crime throughout the City, I'll probably be seeing the old Robin again. And, well, I surely cannot complain. I admire his to-the-point attitude when it's most needed._

_Raven seems to be balancing out just fine. She's recovering both emotionally and socially from the partial emergence of Trigon and the trial of Slade. After dipping her toes in a closer circle of friendship with the Titans, I do believe she's settled back for her usual stoicism and seriousness. But don't get me wrong, I don't have a clear perspective of who or what Raven is. I seriously doubt any of us could. She is that complicated. But I do believe she's relaxed in as much as Raven can be 'relaxed'._

_Over time, I suppose I'll learn to realize how much I miss the Titans. The longest I've ever spent separated from them (or most of them) was back during my excursion with Beast Boy to Westhaven. One could count the trial with Slade and Dagger……but…I was pretty much 'with' the Titans in one sense or another during that period of time._

But enough of that. I have some much-needed sleep to catch up on. Then I'll be prepared—hopefully—for whatever challenges may await me and my present companions, Green Arrow and Speedy. If I have any input concerning the two to relate to you, I'll attempt to write concerning such, Diana. I personally think that the Green Arrow could make an excellent addition to the Justice League. But I honestly don't know how kosher Superman and company would be with two 'green' people on one team. Ah well.

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat cross-legged on my bed with the laptop in my grasp. I was clad in casual dark-gray pants and a black tanktop for sleeping. I leaned back with my hands over my head and stared at the letter on the word processor.

Silence.

The enclosed oil lanterns on the wall flickered quietly.

I took a deep breath. The sight of the laptop before me evoked a strangely happy feeling. Like that of mysterious company. I went and checked my e-mail box yet again. But there was nothing.

Nothing from the Messenger.

That meant I could still relax.

Thinking about the Messenger made me think about Diana, Supergirl, Sandy, Speedy, and all the other random individuals outside of the circle of Titans whom I have made friends with.

And then I thought of some more…and I smiled.

My fingers went back to the laptop.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_P.S.: I think I have two people I want to visit tomorrow. How I do miss them……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That done, I saved the file.

I then shut down the laptop, put it away, and switched off the oil lamps. In the utter blackness, I took off my shades. I could still see well enough to play darts if I wanted. I wandered over towards the bed and gripped the metal disk of my left prosthetic in three key places with my right hand's fingers.

CL-CL-CLICK!!! HISSSS!!! WHURRRRrrrrr…..

The metal left hand snapped free. I took it in my right hand and placed it on a mantle that Cyborg had crafted for me on my bedside table. I took a deep breath, gently placed the sleeping eyemask over my black optics, and went to sleep with my one opposable limb.

And…again…it felt good to be home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'll be back with that microwave!" a man said as he was halfway out of the pawn shop. "I swear! It works like a dream!"

"Well, we'll plug it in when you're back with it and test that dream, alright?" Daniel said with a wave. "And if everything checks out, we'll pay you cash for the dream."

"Heheheh! Okay!"

"Have a good day!"

"You too, man!"

Daniel went back to inspecting the CD drive of a new stereo player he had gotten earlier that morning, trying to clear away second thoughts.

"Almost lunch time…," Renee said from where she was straightening the counter.

Daniel smirked without looking. "Uh oh!"

"Uh oh what?"

"That's the first sign, isn't it?" he looked at his wife, eyeing the early visible traces of pregnancy. "I'm not gonna have to go out for late night pickle and ice cream runs, will I?"

"Well, who else am I going to ask?" Renee cackled. "I doubt our little girl is old enough to drive!"

"Little **boy**."

"Pfft! No, it's going to be a girl."

"What, you see the future?"

"I can just feel it."

"Really now…"

"You couldn't possibly understand!"

"Ah! The pregnancy card!" Daniel stood up and leaned over the counter, smiling at his wife. "What'll I ever do with you?"

"Go on pickle and ice cream runs," she leaned over and pecked him on the lips. She leaned back. "Oh, and start saving up college money."

Daniel chuckled. "I think one of those is doable."

"Which one?"

"Lemme think about it."

"Tell me!"

The bell above the door rang, signifying the entrance of another customer.

"Whoop! A potential buyer!" Daniel exclaimed.

"Pfft! Don't try backing out on this one!"

Daniel looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Hey there! How can we help…..you…………t-today….."

Both he and Renee froze.

I smiled, wearing a denim jacket, jeans, and a white undershirt. I waved.

"Erhm…..h-hi," Renee stuttered. A beat. She smiled. "Where've you been?"

I shrugged and casually pointed 'West'. I then smiled and pointed at a clock on the wall.

Daniel glanced. He nodded at me. "Y-Yeah….almost lunch time…"

I grinned wider and held up coupons for Steak N Shake.

The two chuckled.

I mouthed: 'My treat'.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Business is getting better. It's hard to believe," Daniel said over a booth table of steakburgers. "People keep pawning stuff in and buying from us. If I didn't know better, I'd say that we've gotten more popular since our place became the focal point of that one battle between you and Dagger's men."

I leaned my metal hand against my chin over the counter and nodded.

"I think it's sick," Renee muttered. She took a bite of food—interchanging oddly between soup, salad, and fries. "I wish people did business with us for less than brutal reasons than that!"

"I think it's a little different…," Daniel remarked. "I'm scared to think that people are pitying us."

I whipped out a pen and wrote on a napkin. I swiveled the writing around so that the two could read it upright.

"Heheh…I dunno," Daniel scratched the back of his head. "We're not **that** nice. Well, Renee's certainly an angel. But I'm no caliber for a super socialite in these parts."

"Bah…we're both in this together or we're not!" Renee remarked.

I chuckled breathily and smiled at the two under my shades. I wish I could tell them—in ways far nobler than simple scribbles on a napkin—that they were the nicest, damn people on this planet. And no matter how old they'd be, the two would always be cute and precious and God's gift to the human civilization.

Instead, I simply sat there and listened intently to their words:

"But man…things in Town have been so much nicer since Slade went bye-bye," Daniel said. "People are going out more at night. Bayside Plaza is practically filled to the brink. We're getting more tourists in…"

"Oh…hehehe…and if you must know," Renee winked. "You've gotten more popular, Noir."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Heck…we had a solicitor in the shop the other day trying to sell us posters."

I stared at her.

"……..of you."

I mouthed: 'Oh'.

"Doesn't that feel wyrd in the least, Noir?" Daniel asked. "You've got posters of yourself now!"

I chuckled breathily. I was well aware of this fact…

"I think people have finally seen through….ya know….the whole 'Wyldecarde' thing and realized how much you were trying to help out the Titans," Renee said. At the end of her speech, her voice went dry and she tried not to look at my metal left hand, but in so doing she pointed it out immensely.

I smiled slightly and held the prosthetic for them to see better.

Renee winced, but Daniel actually ran a finger over the metal joints. He whistled.

"State of the art…," he said. He glanced at my shaded eyes. "Lemme guess. Courtesy of Cybot?"

I mouthed 'borg'.

"I never watched Star Trek."

I shook my head. I flexed my left hand and swiveled it and its joints around.

"Wow…," was all Renee could manage. "They got you as good as new!"

I smiled. I had only battled the shivers twice that day. It wasn't so bad…

"We're just glad the majority of you made it," Daniel said. "Who else would we have these mysterious excursions to Steak N Shake with? Eheheheheh."

I chuckled breathily too.

Silence.

Renee and Daniel looked solemn.

I leaned my head to the side curiously.

"Do….do they understand you, Noir?" Renee inquired.

I blinked. I was still confused.

"The Titans."

I raised an eyebrow. No reply to that was simple enough. Neither 'yes' or 'no'. I eventually shrugged…but smiled.

"Guess that's not our place to inquire," Renee simpered. "Just…after you stayed with us for that period of time…ya know…during the Wyldecarde days…we could tell. You're never really comfortable no matter where you are. Is this true, Noir?"

I stared at them blankly. Fighting for a reply.

Suddenly, the Titan communicator on my belt vibrated and chimed.

I jumped. I held it up to my ear and clicked a button.

_"Something's up, Mr. Noir,"_ Green Arrow's voice stated. _"I suggest you come and join us atop the old apartments beside Heaven Avenue in the Eastern District."_

I nodded and sent him a morse code response of confirmation. I pocketed the communicator and glanced at the couple.

They stared at me. Silence.

I smiled.

I picked up the pen and wrote on the last area free on the napkin. _'I am comfortable when I am moving'_.

They smirked at that.

"I suppose that's true…," Renee sighed.

I saluted them, stood up, deposited twenty-five dollars in cash on the table, and made for the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

In full crimefighting garb, I blurred over the sunlit rooftops and came to a skidding stop at the edge where Speedy and Green Arrow were silently perched.

"Shhhh!!" Speedy hissed and motioned for me to look down from the eight-story roof.

I walked over with Myrkblade still in its scabbard and squinted down through my shades.

A police car had been turned over viciously on its side in the middle of the street. A huge crowd of impoverished gang members were crowding around a spot a few feet away from the car where two police officers were being hassled at knife point. Two scraggly gang members had pistols.

"Those officers were on a regular beat…," Green Arrow whispered. "Looks like a riot was already underway and the poor saps drove right into it. I don't even think they've had a chance to radio into the main department."

"We're not sure what got the people riled up to begin with," Speedy said. "Perhaps they're experience withdrawal from the drug trafficking we cut off or something…"

"Anyways…," Green Arrow murmured. "We were waiting just in case you could join us. And now that you have, I propose a course of action. My apprentice and I will do our best to disarm the two gunmen with our arrows from up here. Then you can dash in and force the crowd away from the police while we provide cover fire. Once people are pushed back enough, we'll swing down and assist you in the thick of it. Think you can handle that?"

Without hesitance, I nodded.

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

I slowly, quietly unsheathed Myrkblade and started to charge murk energy.

"Okay then…," Green Arrow smiled and drew an arrow. He aimed down at the frighteningly distant gunmen with an expert eye under his mask. "And another leg of the adventure emerges from the wound."

"Whatever," Speedy muttered and drew his own arrow. He trembled slightly. "Must every first volley be from so far away?"

"Need glasses, boy?"

"Nah. Just a psychiatrist."

"Shhh…..on the count of three."

I took a deep breath. Got into a kneeling pose. Gripped hard to Myrkblade.

PTWING!!!

PTWING!!!!!

I blurred down the side of the building while the projectiles zoomed past me and towards the assailants below.

CLANK!!! CLANK!!!! The weapons flew out of their hands.

Everyone around the two, frightened officers recoiled in shock.

I gritted my teeth. I reached the ground, streaked forward, teleported through the ground, and materialized besides the cops. I swung Myrkblade around, knocking daggers out of people's grasps. I dove in with a kicking foot and pushed gang members back. I then twirled about and slammed the gunless gunmen in their knees with the broad side of Myrkblade. Five people total collapsed from my attack. Other gang members, riled up, rushed in to take me on--

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Strobe arrows exploded overhead. I was quick and smart enough to have my eyes clenched shut at this point.

Assailants gasped and stumbled about. I opened my eyes, gritted my teeth, and mowed my way through. Smacking people aside and cutting a path (no, not severing limbs) out from the rioting mass.

SWIIIIISH-CLANK!!!

Arrows with cords at the end sailed into the wall on the other side of the street. Green Arrow and Speedy swung in, jumped to the asphalt, and rushed in with their bows as staffs that held the crowd at bay.

"Boy, are we glad to see heroes for a change!" one officer shuddered above the chaos.

Speedy spoke while swinging his staff at a couple of gang members to push them back. "Take a good long look in the mirror when you get back, man! Lord knows none of us three could have held out that long under such antagonism!"

"Heh heh heh!!" Green Arrow laughed while fighting off thugs. "Speak for yourself, apprentice!"

I smirked and stabbed threateningly at a man with a knife. I scared him off and he went running.

The sounds of sirens grew in intensity from the nearby streets.

"The cavalry's arriving!" the other officer beamed.

"Well, isn't that special?" Green Arrow mused.

The rioters started to run for it. Panicking. Panting.

Soon the street was practically empty. The only thing left was grounded pistols, a few unconscious assailants, and debris from the beat up squad car.

Speedy stood on the sidelines at ease and hung his bow on his back. "Well then…," he smirked and folded his arms. "That wasn't so bad!"

While he spoke, two bleary-eyed men snuck out of the abandoned building behind the redheaded archer and charged at his backside with daggers jabbing down.

I gasped.

Green Arrow pointed and shouted. "Speedy!! Behind you!!"

The teenager gasped and jumped aside.

But he was too late.

The daggers came down and plunged--

SWOOOOSH!!!

WH-WHAM!!!

A dark blue figure rushed in and plowed the thugs aside right before they could even touch Speedy.

Everyone one of us watched in awe.

The two men stumbled back as a female figure jumped up from her flying kick, blurred over to them, and started pummeling the daylight out of their sorry skulls. "RAAAUGH!! HIYAAA!!" Karate chops and judo kicks sailed into the men's bodies till they fell down cold in under five seconds of pure, martial arts fury.

And everything was dreadfully silent.

I gulped and took a step forward.

The woman stood around. There was a sassy smile under a waterfall of blonde hair. She swiveled about completely and struck a sexy pose in a blue jacket, black leotard, and…..fishnets?

"You boys are getting careless," she tossed her hair and uttered in a voluptuous, womany voice. "Good thing I was in town, visiting."

Speedy took one glance at her and muttered: "Ah jeez…what's she doing here?"

Green Arrow—in the meantime—had his eyemasks bulging. He stammered: "Dinah?!?!"

The blonde stranger rolled her eyes. "Pfft!! Please, Green Arrow!" she rested her hands to her hips and half-frowned and half-smirked. "After all these years, couldn't you at least do me the courtesy of calling me by my alias?! It's Black Canary, remember?!"


	86. And Give to the Poor part 1

**86. And Give to the Poor part 1**

Twenty minutes later…

Squad cars and riot police had gathered in the street. Officers and shielded gunmen patrolled the nearby alleyways and abandoned apartment buildings, tear gas at ready. A representative of Decker was standing in front of the two officers who had faced the angry crowd. The couple were given first aid while they made their impromptu report.

The three…..**four** of us heroes stood off on the sidewalk. Speedy leaned lethargically against the entrance to a dark alleyway. He kicked at a few pebbles on the sidewalk while I stood a few feet off and observed a conversation blooming between Green Arrow and Black Canary, the latter of whom was our benevolent visitor. Well….mostly benevolent.

"What're you doing in such a nubile city as this?" Black Canary tossed some blonde hair aside and leaned a hand on her hip. "Gawd, Green Arrow. Are you still doing charity jobs?"

"I'm more of a nomad than anything. You should know that by now."

"Rumor has it that you're house sitting," the blonde martial artist smirked.

"Y-Yes….well…."

"For teenage crime fighting wannabes, no less."

I raised an eyebrow.

Green Arrow glanced at me, cleared his throat, and faced Black Canary. "R-Robin's team has been so kind to welcome my apprentice into their abode before."

"Ah!" Black Canary chuckled in a deep, womany fashion. "So this is a favor for little Red, huh?"

Speedy folded his arms and frowned at the ground. "My name is **not** 'Red'."

"Hey, if the shoe fits, cutie," Black Canary closed her eyes and smiled. She then looked out at the crime scene. "So…is this what happens when resident heroes go on vacation?"

"What are you doing here, Dinah?" Green Arrow asked.

She turned and smirked at him. "I just happened to drop by. I was tipped in by a hacker that there was a terrible drug ring afoot in this part of town and I thought I might go see some action! Butt kicking, not drug taking…of course."

"Too late, I'm afraid to say," Green Arrow scratched the back of his neck and simpered. "When Noir came back, the three of us tackled the crooks without much casualties. We got the job done pretty well."

"Then what's with all the gang stuff going on?"

"Beats me. Criminal underworld is upset at our cleaning house, most likely."

"Then I may be needed after all!"

"Er….f-for what?"

"For joining y'all and helping out!!!" Black Canary waved with her jacketed arms and grinned. "You boys could use with some excitement anyways! Can't be fun plucking your bows all by yourself without someone to run into the action and—"

"Done deal," Speedy interjected.

"……I beg your pardon?"

Speedy gestured at me. "One of the 'teen superheroes' came back. Noir, the Titan. He's helping us out."

I smiled and waved pleasantly.

"Hmmmmm," Black Canary sauntered over with a sway of her hips and gave me a thin-eyed look of gray blue flirtatiousness. "So this is the Wyldecarde I've heard about…."

Green Arrow and Speedy coughed at the same time.

The woman stopped in front of me and curled two fingers under my chin with a pursed-lip smile that made most men weak in the knees.

I wanted to throw up.

"Tell me…are you a bad boy half of the time or all of the time?"

I gave a sarcastic smirk, gently pushed her hand aside, and hand-signed something.

I'm not sure how I knew that she would understand sign language. I suppose it's because I detected in her skills that go beyond the average martial artists. I remembered how people like Batman and Nightwing used one hundred percent of their brains. In the field of action, they had to know every mathematical equation, every historical fact, every criminal detail, every language--

"So it's true!" Black Canary grinned. "You can't speak! And I thought that scar under your neck in the pictures was for show."

Speedy stepped up. "Give it a rest, will ya?"

"Awwww…am I stealing your friend, Red? Not my intention. I'm merely opening negotiations!"

"Negotiations?"

"Yes…ahem…allow me," Black Canary faced me and performed a flurry of sign language. She was proficient in it.

She was asking me if there were any places to stay in Town.

Instantly I knew what she meant.

I sighed, put on a brave smile, and halfway through my response—she twirled around and said:

"Well, how gentlemanly!"

"What'd he say?" Green Arrow asked.

"Why, he invited me under his roof! That's what!"

I blinked under my shades. I looked at Speedy. The red-headed archer had a palm over his eyemask and he was shaking his head.

"Um…..are you sure that's—"

"What?" Black Canary faced Green Arrow and smiled suggestively. "Afraid of sleeping under the same ceiling with me? After all, we've done it before!"

Green Arrow sweatdropped.

"Okaaaaaay!" Speedy remarked too joyfully for his own good. He put a hand around my shoulder and hurriedly guided me southward towards Titan's Tower. "I think we'd better get going!! Master, you coming?!"

"Hehehehe!! He still calls you 'Master'! Sooooo cuuuuuute!" She hooked an arm around Green Arrow's shoulder. "Well come on, Master! Let's get going before it rains on us or something, huh?!"

"Um…..well, if it's okay with Noir!" Green Arrow suddenly beamed.

I sighed.

Speedy looked at me as we walked on. "Are you willing to go through with this?"

I mouthed: 'With what'?

"You'll see."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wooo!!! Wouldn't this make a great party crib?!" Black Canary remarked as she spun about and observed the interior of the Main Room. She looked out the huge stretch of windows from the high floor in the Tower and stared out at the cityscape under the setting Sun. "Why's it that kids these days get all the good stuff!"

"You were once a kid yourself, Black Canary," Green Arrow said from behind a couch.

"Ah….well….thank gawd that's over!" the blonde spun over and slumped down onto the furniture's cushions. "Childhood is so….so….limited," she gestured with a dainty hand before whipping out a cigarette and a lighter while sitting cross-legged with her fishnets. "At least now that I'm an adult I can kick people's butts without having to say I'm sorry."

She flicked the lighter once, twice, and finally produced a flame on the third flick. She leaned the flame in to light the cigarette in her mouth when she realized…there was no cigarette in her mouth.

Pluck!

I materialized from where I had teleported across half the Main Room in smoke form and had retrieved the cigarette from her lips. When she looked up at me, I smiled, waved a finger, pointed at her, motioned 'walking' with my digits, and pointed up through the ceiling.

"Hmmm," Black Canary smiled. "But of course." She winked as she snaked her way up to her feet and extended a hand.

I spun the cigarette a few times in my fingers and tossed it into her palm.

She mocked curtsied.

I mocked bowed.

"I swear…such a gentleman," she walked swayingly towards the elevator doors. "Puritanical…but gentlemanly. You coming, G. A.?"

"Uhm….sure…might as well keep an eye out on you."

"For heavens sake! I'm not like someone's runaway pet or something! I promise, I'll use the sandbox!"

"Now don't be that way—"

"Why not? It makes you laugh!"

"Heheheh…well, that's true I guess…"

The elevator doors closed behind them and they ascended to the ceiling. The Main Room was quiet.

My smile left as I exhaled deeply through my nostrils. I glanced over across the interior.

Speedy stood in front of the stretch of windows with his arms folded. His nose was barely inches away from the glass. He stared through his eyemask at the glint of the Sun off the buildingsides and barely moved.

I slowly sauntered over and stared at his profile. Patient. Waiting…

After half a minute, he took a breath and uttered: "She…..annoys me….."

I raised an eyebrow from behind my shades.

He frowned out the window. "She thinks she's so hot and kickass…"

I scratched my head. I looked towards the elevator doors.

_Black Canary __**was**__ hot and kickass…_

"I swear…I don't know what he sees in her."

I glanced at him curiously.

He looked at me with a furrowed brow. "Do yourself a favor. Give Robin a ring. Make sure it's okay with him to have….another vigilante spending the night here. A vigilante like her…"

That bluntly said, he turned about and walked off. Hurriedly. He was gone down the stairwell before I could so much as take another breath.

Silence.

I leaned a hand on my hip and sighed.

A beat.

I glanced over at the computer console.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy couldn't help himself.

He wandered out of the top door of the stairwell and out onto the rooftop to the Tower. An amber sky graced him from above. All around, the waters glittered with the setting sun. He squinted through his eyemask and glanced around. He saw the green figure of his master standing by the edge of the rooftop.

He smiled.

He was about to walk over when--

"I was just thinking of something, Ollie…," Black Canary's voice uttered, followed by her figure trotting over by the Green Arrow's side and hooking her arm with his. "…what if you and I….I dunno…went out tonight? Take a good look at the place? See the sights that this silly City has to offer?"

Speedy's face fell. He quickly snuck over around the hidden side of the stairwell extension and held his breath. Listening…

"Oh, Dinah…I dunno. Speedy and I just got through tackling an entire gang with Noir—"

"Hey! I was there too! I hard a part in that fight too, right?"

"Well, yes. You did come in the end. You saved Speedy's neck. I gotta hand it to you there."

Speedy frowned and exhaled.

"So…like…don't I deserve a break? Lord knows you do. Pulling double-duty!"

"Double-duty?!"

"Looking after these kids 'house' and Red, of course!"

"My apprentice can take care of himself. He's not a chore to me."

Speedy smirked at that.

"But admit it," Black Canary cooed. "You're happy to see me."

"……"

Silence.

Speedy bit his lip.

"Chyaaaaa! Ha ha ha! I'm always happy to see ya, Dinah!"

"Hehehe! I knew you'd give in sometime, Ollie."

"Who's giving in? I just want you to stop squeezing me that way! It's unprofessional!"

"Take some time for us to get out and get loose, and maybe we can still stay on a comfortable page. Be it professional or not."

"I'll think about it."

"Hmmm…those are the exact same words you said last time I made that proposal to you."

"What proposal?"

"Don't play stupid, Ollie! Of course you remember!"

"…….."

"About us teaming up!"

"Ah…that."

Speedy's eyemask widened. He gulped.

"You HAVE thought about that, haven't you?"

"Yesssss, Dinah. Don't pressure me about it."

"But what's so complicated about it?! We get along just fine! We'd kick butt magnificently alongside each other!"

"I thought you already had found a partner for yourself!"

"Uh uh! Whatever gave you that idea?"

"I thought you had this 'hacker' person that you kept e-mailing with. Haven't the two of you met yet?"

"Oh….beats me who that person is. Never shows her face."

"How do you know it's a she?"

"I don't. I just use common pronouns differently. Misogynist English language! I swear!"

"Heheheheheh…I gotta admit. I've missed having you around, Dinah."

"That makes the two of us, champ. Now….give me a light."

Speedy was already trudging his depressed way down the stairwell…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Snkkkkkk!!!_

The signal was weak.

I squinted my black eyes under my shades and adjusted the frequency on the computer's comms program.

_Snkkkkkkkkk-tssssshhh!! _

_"Beast Boy! You're sitting on the T-Car's radio speaker!!"_

"Dude, I am not—oh wait. Maybe I am."

_"Give it to me!"_

"Okay, Mr. Grouch Wonder!"

"H-H-Hello?? Noir? Green Arrow? Speedy? ………………Batman?"

I smirked. I attached a wire to hidden slot in my metal prosthetic and started clicking two fingers together, transferring a morse code signal.

Robin's voice responded:

_"Yesterday?? Darn, you're fast! You must have been in a real hurry to get going!"_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"When you gotta go, you gotta go!"_

Raven's Voice: _"That's not even remotely funny."_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Just because YOU had to make us stop three times in the last two hours of driving for bathroom breaks doesn't mean—"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"Man! Don't tell Noir that! We were gonna save it for an anecdote, remember?!"_

Starfire's Voice: _"What is there to find humorous in the repetitive application of Raven's bladder?"_

Raven's Voice: _"Grrrrrrrrr!!"_

Robin's Voice: _"Everyone! Cut it out! I'm trying to correspond with Noir!"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"Correspond away, man!!"_

_"Noir…_," Robin began. _"How's the City holding up with you and the archers?"_

I finished sweatdropping just in time to click forth a response back to him in code.

Robin's Voice: _"Really now……" _

Beast Boy's Voice: _"What's he saying?! What's he saying?!?!"_

Robin's Voice: _"Two drug busts and a riot quieting in a matter of two days!"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"Well, allright!"_

Raven's Voice: _"He certainly seems to enjoy……not-vacationing."_

Starfire's Voice: _"Is he undamaged?"_

Robin's Voice: _"Hang on…lemme ask him."_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Hoo boy…heheh…this is rich."_

Robin's Voice: _"Noir, are you 'undamaged'._"

I smirked and clicked a response back at him.

Robin's Voice: _"He's allright."_

Raven's Voice: _"Okay………what now?"_

Robin's Voice: _"Um…what'd you call us for, Noir?"_

I took a deep breath and clicked the situation forth.

Cyborg must have overheard and translated the morse code in his head.

Cyborg's Voice: _"Black Canary?! No way!!"_

Starfire's Voice: _"Fascinating!"_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Dude! No fair! I'm telling you, all the chicks follow him around! Now it's gonna be a stale trip the rest of the way!"_

Robin's Voice: _"What………what is Black Canary doing in the City??"_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Cy! Turn this car around this instant! We're going where the chicks are!"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"Uh uh! No we're not, little man!"_

Starfire's Voice: _"Where is the poultry?!"_

Robin's Voice: _"Shhh!! Everyone, please! Noir, can you respond?"_

I was already clicking.

Robin's Voice: _"Ah…I see. Well, she did save Speedy, so it appears. I suppose we owe her the favor."_

Raven's Voice: _"What are you insinuating?"_

Robin's Voice: _"Black Canary's a respectable crime fighter. She's had her run ins with Batman and Nightwing before, from what I hear. Good experiences in crime fighting, those were. It's an honor to have her staying at our place."_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Dude! Now we REALLY have to go back!"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"No doing, man!"_

Raven's Voice: _"Isn't that a little bit………l-like letting a stranger in through our doors, though?"_

I clicked an interjection in code.

Robin's Voice: _"Noir's just made a good point. He and Green Arrow and Speedy are all there. They have their eye on the place. If need be, they have their eye on her. I mean…it's not like she's done anything to be suspicious. Right, Noir?"_

I took a moment. I thought to myself, scratching my chin. I thought of Speedy's frown. The look of distaste in his expression.

A beat.

I shrugged it off.

I clicked a reply.

Robin's Voice: _"Then it's settled. Everything's looking good! Thanks for keeping in touch, Noir. Give us another call if anything should come up. But I expect the four of you to have things under control."_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Hehehehe! Or if Supergirl visits, under covers!!"_

Raven's Voice: _"Bleah……"_

Cyborg's Voice: _"Man…that was desperate!"_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Hehehehehe!! Wasn't it?!"_

Robin's Voice: _"Allright. Screw it. Snkkkk—"_

Beast Boy's Voice: _"Yeep!! Okay, Robin! I take it back! I won't pick on another teammember like that again—HEY! THOSE ARE MY POINTY EARS—SNKKKKKT!!!"_

The comms went dead.

I chuckled breathily to myself and sighed. I leaned back in the computer chair with my hands behind my neck.

I felt like I could sleep well that evening after all…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So they're okay with her hanging out here and all?" Speedy spoke. He was dressed outside of his outfit and instead wore a training uniform. He ran on a treadmill across the gym from where I sat on a bench and sharpened Myrkblade. "Robin doesn't mind in the least if Black Canary hangs out and stuff?"

I slowly shook my head and continued looking over my sword.

"I guess that makes sense coming from the Boy Wonder and all…," Speedy said while running. Sweating. His eyemasking tensing. "But, he's never….never…..ya know…."

I glanced up at Speedy. I raised an eyebrow from under my shades.

"Been around her."

I smiled.

Speedy glanced at me amidst huffing/puffing. "What? She doesn't disturb you at all? That blonde slice of flirt and recklessness?"

Truthfully…most of the anxiety concerning Black Canary was solely coming from Speedy's words. The little traits I had seen in the woman—the slight social ineptness, the voluptuous attitude—it was all forgiveable. As if there was anything there worth to forgive. Vigilantes are geniuses all in their own right. And what's a genius without a level of eccentricity?

I held a hand out and twisted it side-to-side to suggest a marginal attitude.

Speedy panted. He seemed to be wearing thin with his jogging a lot sooner than I had anticipated coming out of the agile archer.

"I…. c-can… remember….. th-the day….. I first….. impressed Green Arrow…… and joined……… his……. side….." the redhead said. "We…. met at…. an archery…… competition….. and I…… so w-wanted…… to impress him…."

I leaned my head to the side curiously while listening.

"But…. I-I was…… off target with…… my volleys…. and I felt…… so bad. But later…. Green Arrow….. admitted to…. knowing that the arrowheads…. I had… at th-the competition… were magnetized… and thus I didn't….. really miss…. the bull's eye…. because of bad aim."

Beep!

Speedy pressed a button on the treadmill that made the machine stop altogether. He leaned against the framework of the apparatus, breathing desperately for air. He gulped and said amidst a curtain of sweat: "Green Arrow didn't tell me about the magnets in my arrowhead. I don't even know if he was responsible for them or not. He can do practical jokes like that. Really cruel on the surface but…….—as it turns out, he had me join his side because I could draw arrows faster than him. I may have had a lot of improvement to make on my crime fighting as a whole. But I was certainly speedy enough for his liking. Heh….hence the beginning of a pathetic legend."

I didn't know whether or not to smile at that.

He stumbled off the treadmill, reached for a towel, and wiped the sweat away. "Well….I'm beat for the evening….about time I get the heck out of here and get the heck into bed…" He stumbled limply away towards the exit of the gym.

I thinned my black eyes. I had never seen the redheaded archer so….beat before. So utterly exhausted and tired from a little exercise.

He leaned on the doorframe to the exit and paused for a moment. He uttered without looking: "It's great to know people like you, Noir. It's great to know I still have some friends left."

I leaned my head to the side in curiosity.

But he was gone.

I sighed, sheathed Myrkblade, and stood up.

I wasn't in the mood to exercise…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning, I lay in bed like a rock.

At some point, my ears twitched.

I turned in bed, exhaling in discomfort as I winced.

My ears twitched again.

Staring into the utter blackness of my eyelids, I thought of something cute and funny: Starfire smiling and pleasantly uttering a "WREE!! WREE!! WREE!!" Sound.

A beat.

Starfire kept wailing in my head.

My black eyes popped open.

More blackness.

I stood up in a flash and whipped my sleeping mask off.

The one synthetic light in the corner—the Titans' alarm—was flashing. The Tower's siren accompanied it.

I jumped out of bed and flurried to get my outfit on and my sword ready…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHLUNK!!!

The elevator doors slid open.

I dashed out and skidded to a stop.

Green Arrow was already there in front of a computer screen.

"Bank robbery," he uttered above the alarms without looking at me. "Downtown. In the thick of morning traffic too."

I winced.

He seemed to see my reaction in the computer monitor's reflection. "Yeah. I know. This won't be an easy one."

Black Canary sauntered in out of nowhere. "Bank Robbers in the middle of a busy part of the day?! What were they thinking?!"

"Harder for the cops to get there, I suppose. How'd you sleep, Canary?"

"Sexily. How else?"

"………….right." A beat. Green Arrow spun around. "We got to go intervene!"

I nodded.

"Where's Red??" Black Canary remarked with a shrug. "Shouldn't he be here right now?"

Green Arrow looked towards the elevator. He looked back at the woman. "We can't wait too long for him. We must make action!"

I bit my lip.

"Noir? Think you can guide us to Twenty-Eighth Street? We're still a little rusty…"

"Speak for yourself!"

I nodded. I motioned along and dashed towards the elevator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred to a stop on a rooftop under the gray haze of an overcast morning. It was drizzling rain on and off that day. One of the lesser beauties of the Summer.

Green Arrow swung in while Black Canary somehow vaulted up onto the roof from the edge of the building. The three of us looked over the edge of the building at a street jam packed with morning traffic. Vehicles were almost at a standstill. And—frighteningly—a line of half a dozen masked gunmen were rushing down the center lanes of cars with money bags in possession. They aimed their weapons at every motorist they passed, keeping the people in their driver seats and allowing themselves a police squad car-free escape towards the dark alleyways in the distance.

"Well…they certainly seem to be enjoying themselves," Black Canary leaned a hand to her hip and smirked.

I scanned the scene with my eyes. I looked at a line of flagpoles on the building sides opposite of us. I eyed the distance left for the crooks to cross before they'd be free criminals.

"We must think of a plan of action…," Green Arrow muttered.

I waved for their attention. Especially Black Canary's.

I hand-signed. I pointed at Green Arrow. I hand-signed some more. I motioned a 'swing'. I pointed at Black Canary. I hand-signed. I pointed myself. I gestured towards the flagpoles. I hand-signed a last time.

Green Arrow blinked under his eyemask. He looked over at Black Canary.

She smirked. "Got it."

"Good. Care to fill me in?"

"All you need to know is that you're gonna shoot one of those cord arrows across the way then swing the two of us down towards the first three crooks. Noir will take out the rest."

"Okay then!" Green Arrow pulled out an arrow and drew it. "As long as we all know what we're doing…..somewhat."

I nodded. CHIIING!! Myrkblade was out.

There was a plopping sound of someone's weight against the gravel rooftop behind us. Then the sound of Speedy's haggard voice. "S-Sorry! I'm so sorry! I-I came here as fast as I could! Damn, I'm so sorry I wasn't here earlier—"

"It's allright, apprentice. At least you got here, that's what matters," Green Arrow glanced back. He did a double-take. "Jeez, Speedy! You look like hell!"

Speedy winced. "Didn't have time to….to…."

"Never mind. Provide cover fire for us. Will that work out fine, Noir?"

I nodded.

"Good." Green Arrow aimed a corded projectile towards the buildingsides across from the street below us.

I took a good look over at Speedy from under my shades. He looked like he hadn't shaved in two and a half days. A shadow hug his chin. His red hair was unkempt. The short-sleeved outfit he was adorned in was positively 'tossed on'. I think the quiver of arrows on his back was crooked and….was that skin falling off his arm?

I shook my head and snapped out of it as Green Arrow launched his volley.

PTWING!!!!

Cord trailed outward as the arrow struck the brick wall opposite of us.

CLANK!

He pulled the cord taunt from across the way. Black Canary was already snaking up to him for the two to grip each other.

"Does legend speak of Maid Marian wearing fishnet stockings?"

The emerald archer smiled. "History can change!"

Speedy grumbled.

I cleared my throat.

"Ready for your signal, good lad!" Green Arrow said.

I nodded. I stood at the edge. I held Myrkblade in my right hand and in my left hand I held up three metal fingers….two….one….

I blurred over the edge.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I streaked down the building side, Myrkblade trailing behind me. When I reached the sidewalk, I vaulted, landed upright, and started blurring over cars. Speedy's arrows sailed down and knocked out the guns in the grasps of two thugs, disorienting them. I timed my charge just right—hopping from car top to car top—so that the instant I came upon the fleeing bank robbers, Green Arrow and Black Canary had swung in onto the point men.

Green Arrow let go of Black Canary.

The blonde fighter flipped out of his grasp, sailed down, and split-kicked two crooks' chins at once. She landed in a cat-like crouch and launched herself up with a flip that planted her against the side of a van behind the two men. She tensed her legs and dove directly into the crooks, flattening them to the ground.

As Green Arrow himself landed, another of Speedy's arrows came down and knocked the gun out of the hands of the third front man. The emerald archer whipped out his bow, spun low to the ground, and swept the man's legs out from under him.

Before the three in the back could react, I was upon them. I skidded to a stop, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed it straight towards' a man's shoulders. The wooden blade slid easily between the man's skin and shirt collar, pinning him into the metal body of a pickuptruck honking its horn in dead traffic beside us. The other two men charged me. I ducked and dodged their attacks. Free of Myrkblade, I blurred straight at them with a pulse of smoke energy. My arms stretched out and hooked around their chests. They gasped as I throttled the three of us over car tops, towards the long stretch of building sides, up the walls, to the base of the flagpoles five stories up. I vaulted off the side of the building—causing the thugs to scream in terror—and expertly slung them by their jackets over the edges of the poles so that they dangled dozens of feet above the ground. I sailed to the asphalt below, effortlessly cushioned my fall with a fountain of murk, and dashed towards the man pinned to the truck with Myrkblade. I yanked the sword out, causing him to tumble forward. I spun and kicked him hard in the chest. He lost his breath and tumbled over.

In the meantime, Black Canary was pummeling a crook with a flurry of karate chops and two handed shoves. Another thug jumped up from behind her. As she grounded the man in front, she performed a blind-rear-kick that landed in the crook's face. The man stumbled back as she spun around, smiled, and agilely kicked him so hard in the stomach that he flew into a van at full force, denting its side.

Green Arrow—in the meantime—was knocking his thug around with the sides of his bow. He shoved the crook back at one point, spun about, drew an arrow, and let it fly. PTWING!!! SWIIIIISH-SLUMP! The arrow pinned the man by his clothes to the side of the dented van. Green Arrow smiled and drove the end of his bow into the thug's stomach. Knocking him unconscious.

And the flight of escape was cancelled.

People started getting up out of their cars and applauding….cheering.

I smirked and sheathed Myrkblade. CHIIIING!!!

"Great thinking…," Black Canary winked at me. She leaned a hand on her hip. "The kid knows how to draw a crowd too. I like it here!"

"Well, there's still work to do," the Green Archer said above the noise. 'We have to round these men up so that the police can handle them. That means checking on your dangling flies, Mr. Noir."

I nodded and glanced up—amused—at the thugs struggling to remain in the air high above. Their screams of terror were faint.

"Speedy!!" Green Arrow shouted up towards the building tops. "Apprentice! Come down here and give us a hand, will you??"

No response.

"Ward?!?!"

Still none.

I glanced up through my shades.

Speedy was nowhere to be seen.

I blinked.

"Well…," Black Canary chuckled as she grabbed handcuffs from Green Arrow and put them around a thug's hands. "Aren't we bashful?"

"Something tells me we may be needing your help after all," Green Arrow said.

"We'll just see about that."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Three days passed by. An intermittently eventful three days. With Green Arrow, Speedy, and Black Canary by my side, we protected the City from the inevitable rise of crime and violence following the backlash of Dagger's and Slade's dying regimes.

A smuggling incident in the shipyards of the Bay gave us a handful. Black Canary showed off her agility in jumping from moored speedboat to speedboat in pursuing rogue drug traffickers. Green Arrow blocked the escape route with his projectiles while Speedy and I dove in to take on the last of the thugs one on one while Black Canary converged on the rear to sandwich the crooks.

Then another evening, there was a hostage situation on a skyrise not too far away from Kobayashi Tower. Three criminals held the daughter of one of the city delegates at gunpoint. Black Canary and I dove in at the precise moment while Green Arrow and Speedy provided cover. In such, we managed to hold off the assailants long enough for Green Arrow to safely swing off with the daughter in his grasp. The rest of us eventually grounded the other criminals.

Finally there was a bomb threat at a train station. An explosive was being planted by a mad pyrotechnic fiend in the Western District of the City. A layer of guards surrounded the place. Black Canary had the crazy idea of barreling us in on an old, beat up locomotive that smashed through the enemy's barriers and gave us the spring we needed to jump in and clean house. Somehow we managed the feat without sparking off the explosive. Decker was a bit riled—but happy with our efforts in the end.

During all three major battles—and the subsequent robber clobbering in between—I noticed two things happening in opposite relations to each other. 1) Green Arrow and Black Canary were getting along more and more. The greater the length of time in their reunion, the more they remembered how much they had in common and soon—by the third day—there was no moment in which they were either not talking or not laughing or not having a good time in some fashion or another. 2) Speedy was getting more and more….sloppy. His arrows were gradually becoming off target. What's more, his balance was off. He was getting beaten up by thugs in the heat of battle more. And on top of all that, his appearance was becoming more and more haggard. As if he gave up entirely on looking like the princely, young archer that I always knew him as.

Naturally, I had my concerns. But greater concerns—the welfare of the City—overlapped them. I left Speedy to his own devices and kept an eye on Black Canary all the same.

Something was afoot. I didn't know quite 'what', exactly. But Speedy's words of anxiety filtered back through my mind and I couldn't help but wonder…

What was happening to him?

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey Noir!"

One night. A Saturday night.

I looked up from a lonely game of solitaire in the Main Room, still dressed in my sweaty outfit from a grueling crime-fighting session a mere hour and a half before.

"I said, Hey Noir!" Speedy beamed as he walked up to me. He was dressed in an undershirt and boxers, presently in the process of slipping on a snazzy shirt of some sort over it. Dressing for an occasion. "What say you and I hit the town??"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! That's right! Just you and me! Soto's dance club! I hear that place is really hopping tonight!"

I blinked under my shades. I thought about talking with the Messenger that one night. I helplessly chuckled.

"What's so funny? It's an honest proposition!"

I suddenly realized something. Speedy was ungodly cheerful. I glanced at him and realized he was the best looking I had seen the archer in days. Heck, he was probably the best looking I'd seen the archer ever. He had shaved back the shadow, greased his red hair, and put on the most honest looking smile anyone could imagine. He looked ready to kill a few ladies….with looks, of course.

Of course…

But me?

I hand-signed something he possibly couldn't understand.

Instead he walked over and nudged me in the side while buttoning his sleeves. "Come on! Don't you think we deserve it? We've been kicking so much butt over the past few days, and all of it has been thanks to you!"

I made a whistling sound.

His eyes rolled under his eyemask. "Black Canary, Flak Ptooie! It's you who puts the heart and spirit in this team! You're the resident Titan after all!"

I leaned my head to the side.

That was rather flattering…

"So what do you think?! You don't have to dance or anything!"

_I was about to say……_

"Just hang out! See the sights! Become the sights! Heheh!"

There was something utterly ecstatic and easy-going about Speedy all of the sudden. It was like a lightbulb had been turned on inside his chest cavity and was frying its way through an eager, bright smile. Positively glowing. It was contagious.

I gave in.

I smirked, pocketed the deck of cards and stood up. Gesturing for where to go(?).

"Uh uh," he shook a finger and walked off towards a stairwell that would take him to his guest room. "You better go downstairs, shower up, and put on some decent threads!"

I mouthed: _'Decent threads?'_

"Yup!"

I nodded. I headed towards the elevato--

"And none of that denim crap!"

I winced, sweatdropping and freezing in place.

"Something they won't throw you out for waiting! Something rave club worthy! Something sexy!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Black.

Black and….more black.

It was really just a jacket away from being what I wore to the funeral following Viper's rampage through the City. In effect, I had on black slacks, a black longsleeved shirt, and a black belt. Couple with my dark shades, black shoes, and dark hair smoothed back into a ponytail….

Damn…I was noir alright.

Thankfully, Speedy's pants had some reflective material on them so that when the two of us walked across the street to the front of the Soto warehouse/dance club, nobody ran over me over the asphalt. I was a long way from Myrkblade.

This wasn't one of those high profile clubs. It was open to most of the high school scene. Nevertheless, they did have someone whom you could simply define as a 'bouncer'. He took one look at us…noticed our unmistakably trademark shades and eyemasks of heroism….and instantly let us walk by and through the entrance like we were Jupiter-sized comets.

"See?" Speedy smirked. His eyemask reflected flashing lights as the doors parted and we entered in. "We'll be like kings!"

I shrugged.

"Allright….**princes!**"

I smirked.

The flattering thought of our looming popularity in a place like this amused me until I suddenly saw the result of our looming popularity in this place. Dancers and wallflowers parted. Youngsters gasped. Guys pointed and made exclamations. A few girls….well, you know.

I bit my lip, simpered, and waved.

And then the crowding around began. More or less. Utterances above the beat and noise of: "Titans!" "Speedy and Noir!" "Wow!" "Is it really you?!" "Hey there!" "Man, you guys kick ass!" "Word up!"

I sweatdropped and was about to zoom towards the far, darkest corners of the warehouse when Speedy stopped me with one arm and waved his hand to everyone with the other. "Yo, everyone!! Who wants to see heroes get down?!"

Claps. Whoops. Cheers.

"Then let's see you all get down first and we'll follow your lead!"

More cheers. The group more or less reassembled in dancing squadrons. But eyes were still trained on us. Guy whisperings and girl gigglings and overall curious utterings.

"Come on, friend," Speedy winked under his mask and patted me on the back. "Mingle along!"

I happily mingled my way into the far side of the warehouse. I was happy to see everyone enjoying themselves. These citizens of the City. Fans or not. But I would have been happier seeing them without suffocating. But no matter where I went, a crowd gradually gathered. And I began to realize that I was no longer the 'wildcard' of the Titans. That—finally—I had broken free as superhero with my own, special identity. That not only was I a Teen Titan, but I was also a legend just like the rest of the five of them. I could no longer slip through a crowded place like this unnoticed to speak to someone on the rooftop like the Messenger. Not in this Town anymore, at least. And I wondered…if Slade and the 'Wyldecarde' trial was or was not the ultimate catalyst for my notoriety.

Speedy…bless his heart. He danced away. It was like the somber archer I knew for the last few days was nothing but a coiled spring of anxiety. And now he was getting everything out of his system. Relaxing by not relaxing. Just moving and dancing and sweating. A few girls innocently (supposedly) danced their way into a cluster around him and joined him in his rhythmic jumps and steps and…what have you. I'm not a dance expert.

For the most part, Speedy and I were parted from each other. And I almost felt sorry for the enthusiastic archer who himself had invited me along to this occasion which we weren't sharing together. But perhaps it was for the best. I didn't know how old and rickety that converted warehouse was. It was probably safest that we remained apart so that the clustering fans and populace around us wouldn't jointly crush the weight of the structure's foundation from underneath.

I saw Speedy's dance moves in between the heads and arms of gathering young citizens as I sat on a wooden crate and held them at bay with a card trick from my deck. Guys and girls alike formed a halo as I flipped cards around in my grasp, held individual ones for the lot to see, then flicked them in and out of smoking existence with my powers. Many clapped. The estrogen bearing ones giggled and blushed. I cleared my throat and did whatever I could to distract them. I enjoyed having my hands full of a task more than I ever did dancing. So it was a fine evening for me. Flattering, even. Heh.

I looked Speedy's way again nearly an hour into this hazy thunder of an evening and saw him sitting on a wooden crate against the far wall of the Soto warehouse, talking to a few energetically charged young men. I somehow broke myself away from the gathering crowd of fans, pocketed my deck of cards, and cloaked myself into stealth mode. The others around me gasped as I disappeared and invisibly made my way through the jumping, writhing crowd of dancers. I must admit…I had it easy.

When I reached Speedy's side and materialized before I could startle anyone, I could hear him engaged in a speech.

"And so there I was….mere inches away from disaster! I was flattened on the ground, my leg pinned down by the automatic door! My bone felt like it was splitting in two! The alien trans-dimensional monster of Gotham Labs was bearing down on me! My quiver and bow were barely out of reach!"

"Dude…that's harsh, man!"

"What did you do?"

Speedy beamed. He gestured with his hands as he said, "So I stretched my leg up till I nearly tore every ligament in the god damn thing and slipped my boot off! I then used the tip of the boot to catch onto my quiver! I dragged it over, drew an arrow with my bow, and launched a plasma head that obliterated the son of a—" he looked at me "…er…gun! Man, that thing died faster than death can die!"

"Have you no remorse?"

"Nope!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Dude!"

"Awesome!"

Speedy grinned and leaned back against the crate. "Yup…dancing is one thing. But there's nothing greater than the thrill of being a superhero."

"Hey, think you'll kick Robin's ass someday?" one guy asked.

Speedy winked under his eyemask. "I'm working on that, pal."

I smirked and shook my head, humored.

Chuckles. Claps.

Then…

"He ain't beating anyone up…," came someone's lousy voice from the corner.

Everyone froze in horror and slowly looked over his way.

Speedy's grin locked into a thin, glass curve of pursed and dry lips. His eyesight zeroed in on the person in question. So did mine.

A thin-haired, nearly bald organism in a tight shirt and baggy slacks laughed scornfully at the redheaded archer. He stood, flanked by two chump friends. With arms folded, he uttered: "He's a lackey! A right hand man! A backseat driver!"

I bit my lip.

Speedy smiled and took a deep breath. "My dear good heckler….what the hell are you getting at?"

"The hell that you're just a sidekick! Pfft! Speedy! God, whoever heard of a superhero name like that?! You sound like a retired McDonald's mascot! Ha ha ha!!"

He and his buddies laughed.

Speedy scratched his chin and pretended to be casual about it as he uttered: "And just what makes you think I'm incapable of kicking ass?"

"Pfft! You're gay! You're like some fruity elf who runs around plucking bowstrings everyday and doing the bidding of a macho bearded guy in green! Tell me, Mr. Speedy…how many favors does that man make you do for him??"

"Oooooooh!!"

"I bet he enjoys it too!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Loser!"

The 'fans' around Speedy seemed suddenly embarrassed or ashamed. They kicked at the floor and tried to hide in their little universes.

I looked at the archer. And for a split second, the haggard ghost of the past few days resurfaced under a curtain of cold sweat and furrowed brow. But then the plastic dancer returned. And under the strobes of Christmas light and thunder he stood up from the side of Soto, cracked his neck, smiled, and practically dove fist first into the heckler.

SMACK!!!!

I gasped.

WHUMP!! WHAM!!!

The heroic 'role model' was becoming the model of a demon as he beat the living tar of the now wheezing and hacking skinhead. The 'buddies' rushed in to grab Speedy, but the archer was fast as ever in tripping them and knocking their skulls flat. He then returned unleashing his furious punishment on the one troublemaker. His skin was sheen with sweat underneath the flashy shirt and pants. Bumps of an unnatural sort formed on his neck as the muscles flexed in a massive grimace. Eyelids and unseen cornea twitched and fluttered under his white mask. Like a shark's eyes rolling back in its kill.

Naturally, I ran in to break up the fight, but one of Speedy's retracting fists knocked me back. When I blurred to attempt another dive, a huge cluster of raving and cheering onlookers gathered around the fight. The fight itself morphed into the Soto forest of dancing and writhing bodies. And I was sweating cold while trying to find out who was who among the who's and non-who's in the chaos. As naturally as the fight began, it sunk into an osmosis that blended it with the rest of the clubhouse. And I couldn't see either Speedy or the poor sap he was ruthlessly pummeling. I wandered about the noise and thunder and flashing lights for a few minutes of oblivion. I gradually found myself sauntering over towards the entrance. I met one of the 'bouncers'. He looked at me as I approached him. I gestured eyemasks over my shades with my fingers forming diamond openings.

Somehow….he understood. Regardless, I finalized it with a mock 'drawing of a bow and arrow' with my hands. He had seen Speedy and I walked out. Surely he would know if….

"Yeah…he went," the man said. There was a sound of disappointment in his voice.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Do me a favor next time you come in, Mr. Titan," the bouncer grumbled. "Bring a REAL superhero. Not just some chump friend of yours posing as Speedy. Cuz surely that bloodthirsty maniac wasn't the emerald archer's counterpart! Pfft! Freakin' mimics! I swear to God!"

I walked numbly out of Soto, more depressed than I had ever been in a long time…in as much that I wasn't depressed over my own issues for once those days.

That was the real Speedy. The Speedy I knew. Or at least…the Speedy I thought I knew.

I untucked my black shirt, found an open area free of traffic, and blurred my way to the Tower in a path that would eventually streak me over the waters of the bay itself. I wanted to get back in time to talk to Speedy. For I assumed he was going home too…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sighed.

I trudged up a stairwell and out onto the seventh floor of the Tower. Something told me that I would not be in the mood for what I was going to see in Speedy. I wasn't so much mad at him as I was shocked. He had exploded…utterly exploded. And punched a citizen's face in for one thing. Not only was it unbecoming of a hero…it was downright indecent. Inhumane. I had to get to the root of the problem. Before…before his master did. I cared for him too much to let him hurt himself before it was too late.

I was halfway down the cold metal hallway and to his room when an invisible wind suddenly kicked at my black hair.

I froze in my steps.

My black eyes widened under my shades.

Something was fluttering…blurring….**rocketing** towards the back of my head.

WOOOOSH!!!

I squatted to the floor, reached up, grabbed the fist, and tossed the attacker's body over me by use of the stranger's weight.

SWOOOSH!!!

A dark figure flipped in mid-air from my throw, crouched on the floor, and swept a leg that came up at the last second as a kick to my face.

I dodged, rolled to the side, somersaulted backwards, pulsed murk through my legs, vaulted upwards, made contact with my feet to the wall, and shoved off. I blurred like a rocket towards a well-built figure in the middle of the hall.

The figure crossed a pair of jacketed arms.

WHUMP!!!

I made contact with the arms.

The arms parted, knocking me back.

THWUMP!!

I landed on my feet.

One fist came.

SWISH!!!

I sidestepped.

A second fist came.

SWOOOSH!!

I sidestepped.

A leg flew up.

WOOOSH!!

I grabbed the ankle, gritted my teeth, lifted the lower body of the attacker up with a wave of murk and spun around with a karate kick into the horizontally airborn body's side.

WHUMP!!!

The figure went tumbling across the floor and into the wall, upon which she jumped up into a casual lean against the sides of the hallway and smiled at me.

Black Canary. My jaw dropped.

"Wow….you **are** good," she tossed her messed up blonde hair out of her face and grinned seductively. "For such a young pup!"

I blinked.

"Awwww…Dinah! Why did you have to do that to him?!" Green Arrow sauntered in from the shadows, rolling his eyes under his eyemask. "This is his and his friends' place after all!"

"A guy like him's gotta be prepared! What, you think I should just let him become a softy here on his own??"

My beating heart and panting lungs gradually subsided, but an increasing flow of confusion took their place.

"You're not his mother, Black Canary," Green Arrow chuckled. "I'm sure he trains himself all the day. You see him training every morning!"

"And how…," Black Canary meowed.

"Um…isn't he a little young for you?"

"What, you feeling too old?"

"Er…."

"Come on. I want to show you this new exercise of mine I'm working on. The gym's downstairs, right?"

"Right…."

"Let's go then!" she yanked Green Arrow along and marched off towards the distant stairwell with a grin on her face. She glanced at me and waved pleasantly. "You're not bad, kid! Next time, I hope you make me sweat! And sweat lots!"

"For crying out loud! There won't **be** a next time, Dinah!"

"You're not the boss of me!"

"I don't want to see you with your head chopped off!"

"He wouldn't do that! He's about as innocent as they get!"

"Now how do you know that?"

"I don't…that's the fun of assumption!"

"Jeez…"

The two—and their voices—were gone.

I took a long sigh of relief and speculated the necessity of putting **that** on my next report to Robin. I shrugged it off and decided to save it for a letter to Wonder Woman.

I walked down the rest of the hallway's length till I was at Speedy's door. I composed myself, relaxed my flesh and metal arms, and knocked on the door.

…

…

…

No response.

So I knocked again.

…

…

…

I sighed. Speedy was most likely resisting me.

So I overrode the computer console locking the automatic door and walked into the guestroom on my own. I walked into a room of dark. Pitch black dark. The windows had curtains blotting out the starlight of the night. The glittering of the bay waters could barely be seen through the thick, hanging material.

I coughed.

…

…

…

No response.

Nobody and nothing.

So…I took my shades off. With naked black eyes, everything became clear. The empty bed, unkempt. The open bathroom with no one inside. The couches and chairs dotted with various crime fighting equipment, abandoned.

Speedy wasn't there. But his possessions were. The clothes. The accessories. The laptop. The plate of white stuff… I did a double take.

My eyes zeroed in on what I thought I had seen…but hope I hadn't seen. Silence.

I quietly wandered back and closed and locked the door behind me.

A beat. I wandered across the room towards the bedside table. My black eyes narrowed on a reflective plate resting where no wanderer could see it. I sighed and came to a stop. My fingers clenched and a painful lump formed in my throat.

As if Speedy could see me, I nodded a somber affirmative into the night. For I had seen the stuff before. And in some awkward fashion, it suddenly made sense to me that he was taking heroin. But I couldn't help but wonder. For how long? And…furthermore….how did he get it into the Tower?

And…quite selfishly…I wondered in how many degrees Robin would beat me up when I became the first person to possibly tell him that illegal drugs somehow got into the Tower while he was gone.

Then my brain reverberated backwards and the numbness set in.

Speedy was a junky. Speedy was taking heroin. Speedy was sweating bullets and beating up ravers at random across my City.

_What was going on here???_

I didn't have time to form a hypothesis, for suddenly the door to the guestroom opened behind me and the tired, stretching silhouette of the redheaded archer appeared in the slit of blinding light.


	87. And Give to the Poor part 2

**87. And Give to the Poor part 2 Final**

Speedy stretched with a groan and walked into the room.

He was haggard again.

The archer made sure that the door behind him was closed as he entered. Locked too.

There were things inside that he didn't want anyone to look at…

Speedy more or less limped across the dark interior. His dark clothes from visiting the Soto rave scene were wrinkled and even scruffed up in some spots.

Indeed, he had been in a fight for much longer than I had seen.

He stripped his mangled shirt off and stood before the curtains of the window. Looking out across the Bay.

Sighing.

Silence.

He glanced over through his eyemask at the heroin on his bedside table.

As if to make sure it was still there and untouched.

Whether or not he was relieved or distressed, he quickly swiveled about and trudged on towards the bathroom.

I watched. I had cloaked into stealth form at the precise moment he had entered. He had no idea that I was in his room. He had no idea I had seen his secret….and I knew.

Speedy was an addict. Or was he? Even if he wasn't, the fact that heroin was in his room was not going to settle well with me or any of the Titans. I couldn't imagine what would happen if the news media somehow got a hold of this information. We'd be the laughing stock of heroism everywhere. Villains would get their own chuckle in.

Illegal drugs….found in Titans' Tower.

I shivered. But it was a good thing I couldn't talk. My flipflopping ego and embarrassment couldn't empower me to chew Speedy's head off or go running and tattle-taleing to Green Arrow and Black Canary anyways. I had a motive of patience on my side. So all I did was stand back—invisible with smoke energy—and watch Speedy.

And I again realized who it was that I truly had to be concerned about…

The archer stood with his bare back to me in the bathroom. He stared at the mirror. And, remarkably, he kept his eyemask on.

I was glad for that. I knew I was eavesdropping. I didn't want to discover any more of Speedy's secrets than the one thing I had been discovering right before he returned there.

Speedy ran a hand across his chin. It was as if he knew that—following that night out—his face would become as unkempt and full of stubble as it was in the haggard days before his sudden joy.

His sudden high….

_Why had I not seen it??_

Speedy exhaled and started to…….peel something off his arms.

I narrowed my black eyes through my invisible shades and watched with curiosity.

Quite literally, Speedy was peeling the skin off where his elbows met his forearms. And I realized suddenly that Speedy had acquired skin grafts. His fighting outfit exposed his entire arms in the heat of battle. His shoulders and inner arms included. And since he was an archer who had to draw arrows in his bow all the time, it was more than likely that anyone in the archer's presence would at least catch a sight of his inner arms. But the skin grafts apparently masked his true skin. And it made sense to me, for I distinctly remember seeing him arrive late the other day to a raid on bank robbers and his skin seemed to be 'hanging off' of him.

When the beige material was peeled off, I saw why Speedy relied on such camouflage. His skin was cratered with red welts from where the needle had gone in. Many…red welts.

I bit my lip as a sore lump formed in my throat.

He tossed the skin grafts casually and didn't even glance at his arms. He must have been so used to it. It was awful. He wandered off into a part of the bathroom I could not see. I heard the shower faucet turning on, and I knew it was time to stop my observance.

But I couldn't just leave him and everything the way it all was.

After Speedy took his shower, who knows what other casual things he might do…

It was then that a wicked light bulb appeared over my invisible head.

Speedy was Green Arrow's responsibility. Not the Titans'. The fact that Speedy could have been a junkie without Green Arrow knowing (which I greatly assumed was the case) meant that the two had something to hash out with each other. Master and apprentice. Father and son.

But things wouldn't change if they wouldn't change.

And that was what I was there for.

I took a deep breath and—while cloaked—went about my business.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy came out of the shower minutes later.

He seemed a bit more relaxed.

But there was a shaking to his nature. As if he was trembling on the precipice of something. Either anticipating or regretting…

He slipped on some slacks and stood on the side of his bed. He took a deep breath and pivoted about to face the bedside table----

Speedy froze.

His recently dried face suddenly began sweating.

Muscles tensed around his eyemask and his lips parted in undeniable shock.

The drugs were gone. All of them.

Speedy panicked. He searched the drawer of the bedside table. He searched under the messed covers of the bed. He looked under the bed. Under his equipment. On tables. In dresser drawers. In the bathroom. In the trash. He started tearing the room apart in a panting frenzy as cold sweat overran his system and he found himself twitching and trembling in the corner.

"How could I have misplaced it……how could I have misplaced it….."

He stammered. His lips quivered. And for the first time since he left the rave scene, he felt the bruises of the fight he was in. And everything came crashing down.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day…

"YAAAA!!" Black Canary dove down with a flip through the height of the gymnasium and mercilessly attacked Green Arrow with twirling jabs of a metal staff.

The emerald archer paced backwards, deflecting with his own training staff.

CL-CL-CLANK!! CLANG!!!

Black Canary growled and spun around with a heavy swing of her staff's length. "RAAUGH!!!"

Green Arrow deflected vertically. SMACK!!!

He skidded back across the mat, recoiled, and lunged low at her.

She backflipped.

He came at her with a flurry of twirling rod edges.

SWISH! SWISH! WOOSH!

She sidestepped, ducked, dodged, and jumped back.

Green Arrow swung too hard, contacting nothing.

Black Canary grinned. She spun at him and struck hard at his backside. "YAAH!!!"

He blocked in reverse, twirled about, and shoved her back with his boot.

She nearly tumbled. "Hey! No feet!"

"I told you there should have been stated rules for this match!" Green Arrow smirked. He glanced at me on the sidelines. "You remember that, right Mr. Noir?"

I smirked from where I leaned against the gym's wall and shuffled a deck of cards in my grasp. I winked under my shades and lifted an ace of spades.

"Well, if that be the case, then I imagine the gloves are off," Black Canary said.

"Dear, what are you getting at—"

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Black Canary became a veritable flipping demigod of twirling metal fury as she soared at Green Arrow.

The emerald archer's eyemask bulged. He deflected chaotically. His teeth gritting. Sweat running down his face. He neared the edge of the mat more and more. A second more of Black Canary's offense and he'd be out of the ring.

I winced. I pretended to be more interested in my trusty cards than in the match itself.

"You…… seem….. to….. be….. losing…… your…. defense….. 'dear'……," Black Canary winked amidst her blazing attack.

"Merely regaining it, I assure you," Green Arrow managed. He stabbed his staff towards Black Canary's chest.

The woman gasped and hooked the staff to her side with her weapon.

But that was exactly what Green Arrow wanted. He let out a growl and hoisted his staff up, tossing Black Canary's body over his and outside of the mat.

I whistled.

"I do believe that would be a match point!" Green Arrow struck a pose with his staff over his shoulder like a bow.

Black Canary growled and got up. "Rematch!"

"Oh come now…surely one of the world's greatest martial artists can't be that desperate!"

"Surely one of the world's 'greatest martial artists' had a little too much egg to eat this morning and was disoriented in the last round when a punk bearded guy in a merry men cap took advantage of her! Rematch! I'll wipe that damn grin off your face!"

"Well, as long as you wipe something!"

I chuckled breathily.

The blonde fumed at me. "What's so funny, kid?!"

I whistled innocently.

"Hmmph!!" Black Canary folded her arms and tossed her head to the side. "What a misogynist den of thieves I've stumbled into!"

"Oh don't go pulling that card, Dinah! You were the one who wanted to hang out with us!"

"And be glad that I have!" she cackled. "Many a bad thug would be running rampant in this City if it weren't for my intervention! Not to mention Red's backside in tact!"

As if on cue, Speedy stumbled into the gym.

"Speak of the little devil!" Black Canary grinned.

"Hey there, champ!" Green Arrow waved. "It's about time you woke up!" A beat. "Wow, you look beat."

Speedy looked beat.

But it was a different kind of beat than his lackluster performance the days previous, thus the reason for Green Arrow's remark.

The redheaded archer seemed edgy. Frightful. Panicky. Nevertheless, he did look sane. Just a very anxious and difficult-to-categorize sane. He ran a shaking hand through his short mat of red hair, swallowed, and uttered:

"S-Sorry for being in bed so long….I-I---"

"Kid, relax," Black Canary rolled her eyes. "You're young yet."

"Who's asking **you**?" Speedy glared.

"……," the woman was silent.

Green Arrow cleared his throat. "We had no mission or special objective today, apprentice! If there was something planned, then consider the fact that your ear would have been properly chewed long before now."

"But….b-but…," Speedy stammered, "Surely we've got something to do! Some crime to stop! Something to get active with!"

"Heheheheheh! Nothing as of late! Why? Are you eager to start bashing bad guys' skulls in or something?"

"I dunno….just…w-we wouldn't be much of a group of heroes if we didn't do heroic st-stuff while the Titans were away…"

"The multiple robberies and hostage situations we've had to stop over the past week weren't enough for you?!"

"Come on!! Isn't anyone else restless?!" the shifty Speedy cackled.

Silence.

"Uh…….no," Black Canary said.

Speedy growled. "For the last time, I was not asking you—"

The lights flashed above us. A siren filled the Tower.

Green Arrow looked up, then glanced over at Speedy. Smiling.

"Well…don't that beat all? Satisfied now, ward?"

"……"

"Speedy?"

"Huh?! Wh-What?!"

"What's egging you, boy?"

"N-N-Nothing!! I'm absolutely f-fine….in fact….I…er….," Speedy fumbled. His face was flushed. Sweat rolled down his forehead. He shook and trembled, but straightened himself out in time to utter: "L-Let's go! There's a City that needs saving!"

"Speedy, is there something the matter—"

Green Arrow's inquiry was cut short as Speedy ran past me and up the stairs to the Main Room to investigate the situation for the siren.

Black Canary leaned her hands on her hips. "Well….that was certainly interesting." A beat. She looked at the emerald archer. "Are there many girls in that kid's life?"

"You mean besides you?"

"I'm asking about **his** life. Not yours."

"He's a complex kid, Dinah. That's why he wears a mask."

"Now that's a lazy excuse."

"Yup. Want to reschedule the rematch?"

She smirked. "I think a good crook-thrashing will put me back in the spirit of things."

"Good. Then let's get to it." They put their staffs away and made for the stairwell. Green Arrow looked my way. "Shall the resident Titan lead the way?"

I nodded. I was already pocketing my cards away and rushing to equip myself with Myrkblade….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was a fire. A tall, looming blaze of frightening proportion stretching into the thin afternoon sky.

When the four of us got to the scene of the infernal apartment building in the Eastern District, the heat was positively unbearable. Firetrucks were late on arrival. Supposedly the fire had started suddenly and increased with unnatural fury.

Speedy and Green Arrow rushed to adjacent building sides and launched volleys of extinguishing and frozen arrows. Combined blasts of frost and carbon dioxide pushed back the tongues of fire.

In the meantime, Black Canary and I braved the lower levels of the complex. To our relief, the complex was largely uninhabited. It was a newly erected structure. The rooms for rent were of the luxurious type that only the rich city dwellers could afford. However, the one room—and first room—truly being occupied was an apartment on the fifth floor. And that's exactly where the flames were erupting from.

We approached the fifth floor but instead found two figures huddled together in a closet of an empty apartment on the fourth story. A young woman—a babysitter—and a girl from the living space above. Through the flames and chaos, they managed to tell us that they were the only ones they knew in the building. We hurriedly brought them down to the first floor just as the firetrucks arrived.

Two squad cars and an emergency ambulance also arrived, answering to the 9-11 phone call the babysitter had made. Later it was confirmed that the blaze took no lives. The babysitter and the little girl from the apartment were saved from the flames by our combined efforts, though. And that made the trip all worthwhile. Even as the fountaining waters of the firetrucks saved merely a smoldering skeleton of what was once the apartment building.

Eventually, the intensity subsided. The heroes regrouped. And as the last of the ashes stopped flickering, the theorizing began…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Arson," Green Arrow nodded his head. "It has to be."

"How're you so sure?" Black Canary asked. "There were no suspects found at the scene."

"That's still up in the air," the emerald archer exclaimed. "Are the little girl's parents back?"

"No."

"When they've recovered from the shock of this ordeal…I should like to question them."

"Interrogation??"

"No, Dinah. Just an interview. To see if they have any enemies."

"Will that really solve everything?"

"Perhaps not," Green Arrow stroked his beard. He looked at the emergency crews sauntering through the ashes across the street. "Speedy and I will take some of the debris back to the Tower for testing."

"To search for an arsonist's chemicals and what not?"

"Exactly."

"Well, whatever. As long as you do all the boring stuff and I get to handle whoever we beat up," Black Canary shrugged. She looked over at the ambulance. The little girl sat on the rear of the vehicle all by herself, wrapped in a blanket. She was trying her young best not to cry. The babysitter was inside the ambulance, being given oxygen for her duress in bravely rescuing the little girl to safety before we all found her. "Gimme a second, boys," Black Canary stood up and wandered over. "I'll be back shortly."

Green Arrow nodded. "And I'll go get some samples of the arson site." He walked off.

It was just me alone.

Me and Speedy alone.

I looked over at the redheaded archer.

He seemed unphased by the recent fiasco. In that he was being utterly and violently phased by another matter that took precedence in his head.

He was stroking his arms shakily. Leaning like a crooked scarecrow against the wall of a building next to our sidewalk. Sweat was quite obviously sheening his skin. And I could visibly see goosebumps on the surface as he trembled, as if freezing in spite of all the heat we recently battled.

Whether or not he saw me looking at him or not, I didn't know.

But I listened as he suddenly uttered with a shaky voice: "I….I seem to have lost something….N-Noir…."

I leaned my head to the side.

Perfectly ignorant.

As if…..

"Well….lots of things. Everything….e-everything is collapsing……and I feel so bad for once. Like….maybe it was me all this time. And not….and not…."

He swallowed a lump down his throat. Shivered. Sighed. Stammered:

"I'm making no sense. I just….I-I gotta keep things under control. Gotta be the cool apprentice of the bow and arrow that America loves, right??" He smiled bitterly at me. "Heheheheh….I just gotta be me. But things are missing from the 'me' I know I should be. That I know h-he would have me be. I….I…."

His whole body slumped in an exhale. He ran two nervous hands through his hair. "I can't do this. I can't be here. I just gotta go back to the Tower and…an-and shower. Yeah….Green Arrow won't mind. Would he?"

I said nothing.

"Right. My own choice. Talk to you later, Noir."

I watched silently through black eyes as he shot a corded arrow up to the top of a building and climbed out of sight.

A beat.

I whipped out an electronic device from a pocket in my outfit and clicked a button on it.

The device beeped and a little red light on a digital map beeped. The tracker I had secretly placed on Speedy's equipment within the last twenty four hours was working. I had my black eyes on him.

Just in case….

I put it away and glanced over at the scene.

And that's when I saw Black Canary, kneeling in front of the little girl and smiling warmly. The voluptuous vixen of martial arts goodness was gone, and I could have sworn I saw a mother in its place as words softly warbled out in a volume I could scarcely discern from where I stood….

"You're a brave little girl. You know that?"

"I did nothing…," the child muttered. Sad eyes cast aside as she hugged herself inside the blanket. "Becky, she saved me."

"But that's just it," Black Canary smiled. Her teeth showed pleasantly. "People who get saved are the bravest people of all! Who ever wants to be in danger, huh? That's some tough stuff to go through! You should be proud of yourself!"

"I feel bad…," the little girl said.

"Why's that?"

"I let our home burn down."

"Listen to me."

The girl's sad eyes looked up.

Black Canary stroked a loving hand through the little girl's hair and said in gentle firmness: "What happened today. It was not your fault. It was not your fault at all. Now you and your family are going to take a while to recover from this. But none of that is gonna matter if you blame yourself for something that you didn't do! Especially this early on! We already know that you're brave for what you've gone through. Now please be brave again and admit that it wasn't your fault! If not for yourself, then for Becky? Your parents?" Black Canary winked. "For me?"

The girl bit her lip. She stuttered: "I-It was not my fault…" And the tears welled up in her eyes.

"There now…," Black Canary hugged her gently.

The girl sobbed quietly over her shoulder.

The blonde superhero stroked a hand on the girl's back and said: "It hurts so much…when bad things are done to us when we don't deserve it. Believe me. I know what it's like. You shouldn't have to go through it. You're so young and beautiful. But the fact is, that it has. But you're a brave girl. And you'll pull through it. But not by yourself. You still have your parents to struggle through this with."

The girl wiped a tear from her face and looked in Black Canary's eyes. "Thanks, Missy. I will…I-I will be brave!"

"Don't tell me," Black Canary chuckled. "Tell them!"

The little girl looked over with wet, confused eyes.

A rich car screeched to a stop.

The doors flew open.

The parents—dressed regally for a dinner engagement—had returned impromptu. They ignored the wrecked apartment and the ashes and instead made a bee-line for their little girl.

"Rachel!!"

"Rachel!!!! There you are!!"

The girl beamed. "Mommy!! Daddy!!"

Black Canary let go.

The girl hopped out of her arms, dropped the blanket, and ran on little legs over to her parents who knelt and scooped them up in warm, embracing arms.

The three huddled together, sobbing happily for their trifold safety.

"We were so worried…."

"We came as fast as we could…"

"Mommy! Daddy! We're okay! We'll be okay! Won't we?!"

"Y-Yes Dear…"

"As long as we're together…"

"I m-missed you so much, Mommy…Daddy…"

"We love you, Rachel."

"You mean the world to us…"

Black Canary stood up and folded her arms. Smiling.

I drifted over to a stop next to her. I stared at the scene silently.

A beat.

I looked over at the blonde vixen.

She was giving me a knowing smirk. "What??" she uttered in a soft voice that betrayed the adult in her. "It's called 'happiness', if you're wondering."

I slowly nodded.

"Pfft…kids these days…so angsty and apathetic," she brushed past me with a chuckle that only the two of us could hear.

I turned and watched her leave. She didn't know the truth about me.

But I was okay with that. I think I just got a glimpse of the truth in her…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That night and the morning after, Green Arrow brought back samples of ash and debris from the fire. He put Speedy and I on the task of analyzing the material for any chemical that could be used in a purposeful setting of a blaze.

In the meantime, he and Black Canary arranged a meeting with the adult residents of the charred apartment to discuss possible suspects in an act of arson.

The separate groups took the better part of the day to complete their tasks.

I had little knowledge of the strenuous nature of Green Arrow's and Black Canary's interview, but I certainly had my hands full at the Tower. But I wasn't one to complain. I anticipated the trouble.

Speedy was a basket case. He was right. Everything indeed was 'collapsing'. And I knew it. And I watched it. I watched him. Carefully. Being mindful that he wasn't going overboard. Still, the anxiety increased. His nervousness was terribly evident. He was constantly shaking. Losing interest in things. Sweating. Panting. Goosebumps and shivers…

It's safe to say that I single-handedly conducted the experiments on my own. I did so quietly and efficiently, using the equipment in Cyborg's laboratory. Speedy sat on a stool and leaned against the corner of the room. And soon he fell asleep. Either that or he finally blacked out. Whatever the case, I checked his health and gently laid a blanket over him and let him slumber.

He had to have been exhausted. And yet…I knew I had to keep things going they way they were. I had everything planned. And once we started chasing down this mysterious arsonist—as the experiments were starting to support—I would have everything worked out. But as long as Speedy was safe. I made certain of that.

When Green Arrow and Black Canary returned…we all had some interesting information to share…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A blip on the screen, and a schematic of a building in the southwest district of the City appeared.

I typed away and highlighted interior parts of the building and hand signed in the air.

Black Canary and Green Arrow stood behind me in the computer chair of the Main Room.

"He says it's a tiny warehouse owned by a private distributor of paint products," she interpreted. "It's a very old brand of paint, which is why no corporation circulates it."

I nodded. I typed away. A list of information flew up on the screen.

Green Arrow's eyemask narrowed as he read a highlighted section of the screen. "'Highly flammable microtoxins make this one of the most common recalled redecoration item of modern times…'." A blink. "Well, if that doesn't wave a red flag, I don't know what does!"

"But…wh-what's flammable paint got to do with this arson?" Speedy remarked. "Kinda silly to be spreading paint around to burn down a building, isn't it?"

Green Arrow and Black Canary looked back suspiciously at the redheaded archer.

"Say…weren't you examining this stuff with Noir all day?! What are you talking about?"

Speedy blushed and stammered shakily: "I….I-I…."

I cleared my throat. I gathered the two adults' attention and pointed towards the screen as I brought up more information. I hand signed to Black Canary.

The blonde interpreted: "The warehouse and the paint distribution business is owned by……Richard Travis…."

"Well I'll be damned…," Green Arrow muttered.

I swiveled about in the chair and glanced at the man.

"'Richard Travis' is the name of the mother's ex-husband. You know…the woman of the family whose apartment burned down?"

I nodded.

"Apparently, she and Mr. Travis were not on very good terms when they divorced. That was ten years ago. Ever since then, Mr. Travis has been….a n-nuisance. Basically, the poor woman has resorted to getting restraining orders from the local judge and all that good stuff."

"The residents made a point to mention Richard Travis over and over again during the interview," Black Canary nodded and looked at me. "It's more than obvious that they suspect him above everyone else."

"Then th-that settles it!" Speedy jumped up. Anxious again. He waved jittery hands and uttered, sweating…. "We should go to that g-guy's warehouse and….ya know…..look around and stuff!"

"For what, exactly?" Black Canary griped.

"Well….him, for one thing!"

"Hmmmmm," Green Arrow stroked his beard. "Everything does seem to converge on his business…"

"Yeah…," Black Canary nodded. "With the flammable paint chemicals and all…"

"Not to mention that restraining order story!"

I suddenly wished the Titans were here now. If there's one thing you learn from working as a team, there shouldn't be any idle standing around and doing nothing. Especially when the facts are so….freakin'…..obvious!

I stood up.

All three looked at me.

I took a breath, smiled, and pointed towards the elevator.

"Go time?" Black Canary asked.

I nodded. She smiled. "Go time!"

"Allrighty!"

"Move out!"

Finally…

I kept an eye on Speedy as we departed under the cover of night.

It was almost time…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Man…this place is empty."

"Abandoned, perhaps?"

"Shhhh!! Noir…can you get a good look?"

I held a finger up. I took my shades off. With naked, black eyes…I scanned through the small warehouse's interior. The four of us had snuck in through a back window which Black Canary had expertly unlocked. Speedy and Green Arrow made quick to eliminate the security devices with their projectiles. If we weren't so positive as a group of heroes that the owner of this place was bent on burning a former spouse's apartment, then we would have been a regular pair of robbers.

"See anything worthy of us coming into this hellhole to begin with?"

I ignored Black Canary as I focused in on a desk on the far side. I walked past stacks of pant cans on metal racks and graced the desk. I looked it over. A beat. I glanced at the wall. I found a lightswitch. I pulled my shades back on, drifted over, and turned the lights on.

Everyone shaded their eyes for a half second before they glanced at the desk and collectively mumbled in wonder.

There were vials and open paint cans and buckets full of questionable liquid. But what truly sunk the dagger in was scribbles of anger and hate mail in Richard Travis' handwriting across leaves upon leaves of crumpled paper between old photographs of the mother and her child.

Black Canary sweatdropped. "Okay….so….when do we kick his ass?"

"Just wait a second….," Green Arrow muttered. He sauntered over to the desk and looked the stuff over. "Is there any evidence that he might have pursued burning down that one apartment building?"

I glanced over. I pointed at the corner of the desk.

Green Arrow smirked. He pulled a map of the Eastern District out from the piles of junk. There was quite clearly an obsessive highlighting of the apartment complex in the right sector of the schematic.

"Bingo."

"Um….I-I-I think someone is h-here…," Speedy wrung his hands in the corner.

Black Canary smirked at him. "Don't be silly, Red! It's way after hours! What kind of neurotic creep would be hanging out at his place this late at night---"

Another light switched on.

We spun about.

A man stood halfway out of a door from the front of his warehouse. A middle aged, balding man. Richard Travis.

He took one look at us and froze in place. Blinking.

Green Arrow grumbled: "The kind of neurotic creep who would burn his own relatives down…"

"Aw shit, I knew it," Travis spun around and ran towards the front.

"You there!! Freeze!" Green Arrow shouted.

I blurred towards the door.

SLAM!!!

It shut before I could reach it.

I shoved against it, gritting my teeth. I tried the knob.

It was locked.

I took a breath and kicked at the thing.

"H-H-He's getting away!!" Speedy shouted. He leapt out the window through which we entered. "We gotta get him!"

"Speedy!!" Green Arrow shouted. "Wait!! We'll search togther!!"

The redheaded archer was gone.

"He listens to you well," Black Canary mused.

Green Arrow groaned. "Not now. Come on."

The two rushed out the window. Green Arrow looked back at me and pointed towards the front of the store.

"Can you follow him?!?!"

I nodded.

I unsheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIIING!!!

I held it up high and brought it down onto the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

Splinters and wooden bits flew.

I charged through the doorframe and into the front of the warehouse. I leapt over a counter and down aisles of metal where paint rested in endless series of cans. Moonlight reflected off the checkerboard tile beneath my blurring feet. I looked up and saw a stretch of glass doors ahead of me. One was slowly shutting on its own.

I burst through and looked all around the night-shrouded street. My black eyes darted left. A lone van coasted by. My black eyes darted right. Two or three streetlamps flickered desperately to stay alive. Other than that, nothing.

A beat.

"……"

I looked straight across the street. A frighteningly tall apartment building of old mortar and brick stretched up above me. Eleven stories. It had a rusted, old fire escape clinging to the west side. And a lone figure was desperately scurrying up the steps and platforms.

The lone figure of Richard Travis.

I didn't pursue him.

Instead, I took a deep breath and calmly switched into stealth mode.

Cloaking into invisibility.

I wasn't about to be the first vigilante to catch up with him…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Travis panted and panted and panted and panted…

He rounded the last fire escape and ascended onto the rooftop of the eleven story building.

He held a hand over his throbbing heart cavity and leaned on a nearby radio antenna for support.

His lungs heaved. His body sweat like a wet sponge.

He gulped, finally gathered some strength, and limped forwards for a place to find cover.

PTWING!!!

SWIIIIISH!!!

"H-Huh?!?!" Travis gasped as an arrow flew past, arched around him, and wrapped a thick cord around his figure. He struggled where he stood. Gritting his teeth and trying in vain to get free of the sudden bondage.

Speedy walked into view. He trembled, but did his best to hide it. Sweat rolled down his face as he uttered through a half snarl: "You picked the wrong week to endanger an innocent family, punk!"

"Oh, save me the speech, kid!" the man barked back at Speedy. "You would have done the same thing I did if that bitch deserted you after so many years of faking it!"

"Nothing excuses trying to burn someone alive!!" the archer retorted. "And quite frankly…I think the judge will agree with me once we turn your sorry ass in!"

"A hero who cusses!" the man mocked gasped. He then grinned. "You don't seem like you look in the papers, Mr. Speedy! Why, is something wrong?!"

"Don't start with me…," Speedy grumbled. "You're getting a life full of prison!"

"And you're getting a face full of floor! RAAUGH!!" Travis twisted his body swiftly. The cord yanked. And Speedy—his coordination lost—was pulled hard to the rooftop by his own grip.

WHUMIP!!!!

"Aagh!!" he winced. His bones ached all over. It was the worse a simple bump had felt for him in his life. His nerves were on fire. Everything was firing wrong in his synapses. He gasped for breath and looked up only to see Travis—free of his bonds—rushing over and kicking the archer hard in the side.

THWAP!!!!

Speedy's body rolled. He clumsily lost grip of his bow and arrow in the process. He stood up, wincing, and gasped when he realized he was teetering over the edge of the dark alleyway. Eleven floors of death loomed beneath him. The ground shot away as vertigo seized his perception. His body turned into an icicle and melted through his pores.

Before he could back up to safety--

WHACK!!!

He was struck hard in the back.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Speedy screamed. He fell. He….

SCHLUMP!!!!

The archer's body yanked and dangled ten and a half stories above certain death. The back scrap of his outfit caught hard on a jagged edge of the top catwalk platform. The structure acted as a hook, tearing into his clothes and dangling him helplessly far above the hard ground of the alleyway.

The young man's breath left him and his arms flailed about. But he kept them absolutely still the soonest realized that any little movement he made tore the hole in the back of his costume more and more.

Thus, Speedy was paralyzed, with nothing beneath his feet but gravity itself. He panted. Sweating. Shaking. At the end of a string.

Travis' kick had endangered Speedy more than anything else ever had before. Only…it was not Travis who kicked him. The arsonist had run away and leapt to the next buildingtop.

I stood on the catwalk above his dangling body where he could not see me. I slowly…quietly sheathed Myrkblade. I was close enough and attentive enough that—no matter when or how Speedy fell—I would be fully capable with my powers to blur down the buildingsides and effortlessly rescue him.

In essence, Speedy was in no danger at all. But that's not what I wanted him to think.

Before I cloaked myself into stealth mode, I whipped out a communicator and tossed it onto the next catwalk beneath Speedy.

CLANK!!!

The boy gasped. He eyed it through a quivering eyemask.

The red light to the communicator was on.

For all Speedy cared, it had fallen out of his pocket. Regardless, nothing stopped him from shouting at the top of his lungs for someone—whoever—to hear on the other line of the communicator:

"Help!!! This is Speedy!! I-I'm in danger!! Noir!! Green Arrow!! Black Canary!! Anyone!! Do you read me?! I need help!! I n-need help!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Richard Travis scurried down the steps of another apartment building and ran out through the front entrance. He gasped and smiled as he saw stairs leading to an underground subway across the street. He made a bee-line for it, lungs heaving as he sought solace in the one place that could help him get away from these relentless vigilantes once and for all---

SWIIIIIISH!!!

An arrow flew in and skewered the back of his shirt.

"YAAUGH!" He gasped. His body was catapulted into the side of a parked semi truck. He dangled from the vehicle, struggling.

"Scream all you like, punk."

Travis looked up. "Huh? OOF!!!"

WHUMP!!!

Black Canary sailed in with a fist deep into the man's gut. The breath left him…and soon did his consciousness as he blacked out and moaned asleep.

Black Canary dusted her hands off and leaned them on her hips with a smile. "I guess that'd almost count as a roadkill."

"Nicely done," Green Arrow clapped. He tossed her a pair of handcuffs to manacle the arsonist with. "I think we can make a delivery to the police department pretty soon."

"Think if we're a minute late they'll charge us for another thug?" she asked. "We haven't thoroughly beat this one up, yet."

"Just handcuff him, Dinah."

"Pfft. Whatever."

Green Arrow chuckled and whipped out his communicator. He flipped it open and spoke: "Noir! Speedy! You can stop your chasing! We've apprehended the suspect---"

_"Someone!! Anyone!! I'm really high up and I can't get myself out of it!! I'm going to fall anytime soon!! Please help!!"_

Green Arrow's face fell.

Black Canary looked his way.

_"Augh!! I'm……I-I'm slipping!! Someone, please!! This is Speedy!! I'm…I-I'm hanging off the f-fire escape of the apartment building a-across from Travis' warehouse!! I can't get myself loose!! I'm going to fall!! Someone…please help! Green Arrow!! Noir!! Somebody!!"_

_  
_"He's….He's in trouble…," Green Arrow gasped. A beat. He snapped out of it and worriedly exclaimed into the communicator: "Speedy!! Hang on there, my boy!! I'm coming to help you!! Just hang tight! Don't move!!"

"Should I—," Black Canary began.

"No!! Stay here with the suspect! I can handle this!" the emerald archer aimed at a high buildingtop nearby and shot a corded arrow. He ran to the surface of the structure and climbed up in a flurry.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Speedy hyperventilated.

The scrap hooking his costume and his body to the firehouse gave way a little.

He let out a cry and spun in his dangle.

Sweating.

Cold all over.

His life flashing before his masked eyes and other things.

"I….I can't hold on…," he was whispering now. never hold on…..th-there was nothing to hang on to. I thought there was….but there wasn't…..maybe….m-maybe I should just fall…."

"Not while I'm alive!"

Speedy tilted his head up. He gulped. "G-Green Arrow?! Th-That you?!"

CLAMP!!

The emerald archer landed on the top fire escape platform. He put down his bow and arrow and flattened his body down against the surface, reaching down and grabbing the boy's shoulders.

"Keep still!! I'm going to hoist you up!"

"I-I'm gonna slip!!"

"No you're not!! Now work with me!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I perched—cloaked and invisible—on the ledge of a huge window in a buildingside across the way.

My black eyes narrowed through my shades as I watched the master hoist his apprentice up to safety from an inevitable fall.

I calmly took a breath, reached into my pocket, and pulled out a deck of cards.

I leaned back and—still invisible—shuffled through the cards while silently observing the two across from me…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnghh!" Speedy's breath was caught as he stumbled onto his feet on the rooftop. He bent over—hands resting on his knees—and panted desperately.

Green Arrow was also out of breath. He picked up his equipment and leaned on his bow as he stared at his apprentice through his eyemask. He swallowed and said: "Was it Travis?"

"Y-Yeah…."

"How'd you let him catch you so….so…clumsily?!"

"…….."

"You've been slipping lately, Speedy. You've been slipping and speaking out of turn and losing your focus and—"

"Look, you think I don't friggin' know that?!?!" the apprentice snapped at his master.

For some reason, Green Arrow didn't rebuke him for that. As if he felt a boiling cauldron in his ward over the past few days, he silently approached Speedy with caution. He walked over and placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Listen…I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's just that—"

"It's just nothing!!! Don't you see?!?!" Speedy spun and let it all out.

Just like I knew he would….

"It's nothing, Oliver!!! Maybe it was something to begin with, but it sure as Hell isn't now!!"

Green Arrow winced. "Speedy….please….my alias. Use my alias—"

"Screw your alias!! It's you I'm talking to, Oliver!" Speedy fumed. He shook all over. Trembled. Sweat. "What are we these days?! What are we these days than just names!! Names and legends?!"

"The life of vigilantism lacks its luxury," Green Arrow frowned and pointed. "I told you from day one that if you were to join me, you would have to expect that!"

"Yes, Oliver! I wanted to join you!! But it wasn't for this!!! I once thought it was this…back when you and I were the master and apprentice! The inseparable sidekicks!! The archers of justice!! You told me something else in the beginning, Oliver!! You told me that the bond of the teacher and the student was important!! That it couldn't be tainted by anything or else the act of crime fighting itself would be faulty!!"

"Speedy…," Green Arrow leaned his head to the side and remarked breathily, "Is this about Black Canary?!"

"It goes way beyond that, Oliver!! You know as much as I do—hell, maybe even more—that she's totally stolen your life, your attention, and your respect away from me on many occasions!"

"Speedy, now that's not tr—"

"It is!!! Don't' lie to me!! Don't you freakin' lie to me!! For the past four days since she's shown up again you've done nothing but hung out with her!! Haven't you!!"

Green Arrow faulted. "I…..well…"

"**Haven't you?!!?!"**

"Why didn't you say anything if you felt left out, Speedy?! I'm only a human being!! I can't be responsible for your feelings twenty four seven!!"

"It's not my feelings I needed you to be concerned about!!" Speedy spun around and hugged himself. He shook and bit his lip. "I……I…."

"What is it, Speedy?! If it helps at all, you have my attention now. Just tell me!!"

He spun around and I realized—from a long distance—that the red archer's eyemask was gone. They fluttered to the rooftop and in the hero's place stood a teenager with moist blue eyes and the emaciated face of a lonely junkie.

He emotionally vented to his master. "I joined you not so much because I wanted to be a crime fighter…"

"Then why did you let me take care of you, Roy--?!"

"I wanted a father, Oliver!!!" the boy shook. "When Brave Bow died…I felt like I was alone all over again! I looked up to you!! I wanted to be like you!! As long as I wasn't alone!! And those first few y-years were really happy, Oliver! I felt like I belonged to someone! L-Like I was part of a family! B-But slowly…I could see how easily distracted a person you were!! You're no father. You're just a playboy in a costume punching villains around for the fun of it! Like we all are! And you started hanging out with other superheroes and stuff and then there was Black Canary who practically stole all your attention away and…well…I felt like I was nothing but the superhero you tutored! And not the son I always thought I w-was!! And I keep trying to ignore it, Oliver!!" He clenched his skull in two shaking hands and shivered all over. "I walked into this Town and tried to see what life with the Titans would be like! But I couldn't stand a life when I was nothing more than a superhero!! That's all I am to everyone!! Including you now!!" He released his head and sniffed as tears rolled down his haggard face. "You were once a father to me! Or so I thought! But all the time, I was only fooling myself! An-And I thought you were fooling me!! And…and…I'm just so sick of it!! I'm so sick of being alone!!"

He spun about and hugged his trembling self again.

Green Arrow wandered over and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Roy…all of the time, all you needed to do was tell me these things!! I would have listened!! I want to be like a father to you!! I do!! But at the same time, I wanted you to be independent! I wanted you to be strong!! And maybe I have made mistakes. But if so, then I was mistaken to think that you would have been allright with this sort of lifestyle! Tell me, Roy….d-do you no longer want to be a crime fighter??"

"I…..I don't know…," 'Roy' bit his lip and shivered a little less. The tears flowed more though. "Maybe just a break. A break from all this…craziness. We're never truly looking at each other, Oliver. I glance your way and I don't see a father. I see the Green Arrow. It's driving me crazy. I can't have friends. Only partners in battle or the ever so cold and lonesome darkness of the night! I hate it!! I have to get away…e-even if just for a little while…."

"So then…a vacation….l-like the Titans are having?" Green Arrow gave a humored grin.

Roy sniffed and hung his head. He sighed. "I-I'm sorry….there's so much I haven't told you. So m-m-much that I'm sorry for…"

"Like what, Roy?"

"Just how desperately pathetic and stupid I am…," the boy covered his naked face with his hands and shuddered. His voice was muffled as he went on, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault. I just want to wake up. I just want to wake up…"

"Hey….," Green Arrow placed his other hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's nobody's fault if we can just work this out, huh? I promised from day one that I would take care of you as my ward, and I'm not going to abandon you, Roy! Even though it may seem like my attention is elsewhere…I never stop thinking of my commitment to my sidekick!"

"You….y-you came here in an awful damn hurry, didn't you?"

Green Arrow laughed. "Ha ha ha!! I nearly had a heart attack!! What the Hell were you doing hanging up here by yourself anyways?!"

Roy swallowed and smiled a quivering smile. "Just….clumsy….I-I guess…."

"Roy…I know I've been pushing you lately. But I can see that's not what you want. If you want to live a normal life, by all means I'll let you. But you must understand…I have commitments of my own to stop crime in all of its forms. I can be for you the best that I can…but I don't know if that'll live up to your standards…"

"You're doing okay right now…," the boy sniffed. "You're calling me by my real name. I-I need that…I really do…"

"Then it's settled? We'll work on this together?"

"Y-Yes, sir…"

"You can still call me Oliver, you know."

"It feels good to call you 'sir'…," Roy sighed. "It makes me feel….like I belong."

"You've always belonged, Roy. I wish I could tell you tha—"

The Green Arrow's voice was cut off as the apprentice spun around and gave him a bear hug. Rather awkwardly, the emerald archer managed a brave smile and patted Roy's red head of hair.

"Don't get too touchy feely now, eh kid?"

The boy sobbed out a laugh and then said with his eyes closed. "I just want to start over again. Is that too much?"

"Not at all, apprentice. Not at all…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I watched the two from across the building.

I shuffled the deck of cards one last time and deposited them away into a satchel by my belt.

I stood up, took a deep breath, and squinted my black eyes at the two through my shades.

A thought crossed my mind, making me wonder what Robin would say if he saw this. But then, I realized it didn't matter.

I hadn't even 'seen it'.

I made up my mind to that as I blurred down the building invisibly and walked off towards the rendezvous point.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Is the kid allright, Ollie?"

Black Canary sat, smoking, on the edge of the Tower's rooftop the next morning.

The Green Arrow stood, looking out at the sunrise over the Bay.

He took a deep breath and uttered: "There's a lot that the two of us have to hash out. Old old stuff that I thought was buried. I can't help but feel somewhat bad." He looked her way. "As if I've neglected him, you know?"

"Pfft!! If that kid's neglected, then I'm Little Orphan Annie!"

"I'm serious, Dinah," the emerald archer looked back out at the morning scene and sighed. "I have to admit. I've always been scared to be a father. A true father, that is. I never thought I could handle the responsibility of looking out for one of my offspring for so long. When I adopted the boy into my care, I treated him as I saw him on the surface. A crime fighter. A superhero. As long as we both lived in that respect, it was of little consequence to me how his true ego felt. Lord knows, I've abandoned 'Oliver' a long time ago in exchange for the bow and arrow. But…perhaps it's about time I realized that there's more to a person than what's on the surface. There's a hurt, lonely soul in each of us. And that's probably why I chose to raise him the way I have. I was lonely for someone to belong to me as much as he wanted to belong to someone."

"And what about me?" Black Canary slyly smiled.

"You just keep smoking and pray you don't die from it!"

The blonde chuckled. She said: "Heheheh….seriously, Ollie. I'm proud of you."

"What for?"

"For being so soft and round and caring under that kickass exterior of yours!" she smirked. "I find it kind of sexy, actually."

"Heh…lucky me."

"Yes, lucky you."

He looked his way.

She blew a kiss.

He smiled. He shook his head and uttered: "What am I ever going to do with you, Dinah?"

"I dunno…but I'm catching onto the way you're calling me by my first name. I can see why the kid would like it so much."

"I get the feeling though…," Green Arrow said, "…that there's more to this situation than Speedy's telling me. I feel that he is hiding something drastic that's made him so emotional. And I'm afraid to ask what…"

"Well….I'm sure the two of you can work it out," she finished her cigarette and flicked it off the edge. "What's family for?"

"Heh. Exactly. Family." Green Arrow sighed. He smiled.

Black Canary stood up. "Well…if you excuse me. I have a message to deliver."

"Oh?"

"There was a phone call today."

"To the Tower?? From who???"

"Who else?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked into the Main Room, dressed casually.

I paused in my step.

Speedy stood in front of the wide stretch of windows. Looking out onto the City.

He slowly turned to look at me. He was calm. Collected. Smooth. Smiling.

I winced. I was almost afraid that he had found some more--

"I've lost a lot this week, Noir…," he uttered. His eyemask glistened.

I leaned my head to the side, curious.

He glanced aside, his smile lingering. "At least….I once thought it was a lot. But it's really all trivial."

A beat.

He looked back out at the window and the bright morning. "It's really horrible…the things we'll do…the lengths we'll go to distract ourselves from something so pathetically simple…."

I walked up to his side. I stared out with him through my shades.

Silence.

"I'm…..going to toss this mask away…"

I looked at him with well-acted shock.

He glanced at me. "For a while…at least. I need to collect myself. I need to get things together. This whole superhero business is okay and all…but it's not comfortable for me. Not yet. And I'm tired of pretending."

I smiled and nodded gently.

He didn't suspect a thing. And yet, everything was changing for good.

"The Titans and their vacation…….heh…..I've always been envious of you guys," he said. "Except for you, Noir. You're crazy enough to come back here and fight in the streets when instead you could be cruising for chicks in California or something!"

I chuckled breathily and scratched the back of my neck with my hand. I had my habitual distractions too….

"Basically….I need time to think," Speedy lowered his head, sighed, and smiled. Relaxed. "Become a better person, ya know? Give up crappy things and walk a straight line. Then after all is said and done, maybe I'll have a good enough arsenal in my possession to reclaim my title as a legendary crime fighter, eh?"

I nodded. I patted his shoulder as if to utter: 'good luck'.

I left him alone with his thoughts.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was halfway down a hallway to enter the gym when a voice spoke from the shadows.

"You took the drugs from him, didn't you?"

I jerked to a stop. Wincing.

I spun around and sighed exasperatingly at who it was.

Black Canary walked out into the dim light, her arms folded.

"That's why he was acting so jittery the last forty-eight hours. He was going through withdrawals. And because of that, he was emotional enough to let it all out with his mentor. You planned all of that, didn't you?"

I blushed. I was cornered.

Slowly…the blonde smiled. "You know the art of happiness more than I thought, kid."

I simpered.

"And don't you fret," she sighed and strung a hand through her hair casually. "I'll keep it a secret. You're keeping his drug addiction secret for some good reason. So I'm gonna trust you and do the same. It's done Speedy and Green Arrow a lot of good, huh? No harm in that!"

I nodded. I then performed a hand-sign gesture.

"How'd I know?" she responded. She smirked. "Doesn't take a super-veteran crime fighter to detect the signs of heroin addiction, ya know. The only reason Green Arrow didn't see it in his own apprentice is because he looks for the good things in everyone he works with and knows! Ask him yourself! He'll tell you I'm a good kisser."

I didn't plan on asking Green Arrow anything.

"Anyways," she playfully scratched a pair of fingers under my chin as she walked past me down the dark hallway. "Get ready for your little buddies to show up."

My black eyes widened and my lips parted.

"What, you mean you didn't know?" she winked back at me. "They called this morning! They'll all be here before sundown! Vacation time's over, cutie!"

I smiled a very happy smile.


	88. Treehouse

**88. Treehouse**

It was a distant white dot at first. That's how long I watched for its arrival.

The white dot became a silvery blob and then a silver and blue blob and then a shiny bright car as it rolled along the bridge under the noonday Sun.

I smiled and leaned back against the frame of the Tower's garage door. I shuffled playing cards absentmindedly in one hand. The perfect pose to greet my friends with. But whatever…

As long as I got to greet them.

The T-Car rolled to a stop. The top was up…but it came down. And five Titan faces beamed in my direction. Cyborg the brightest of all. "Excuse me, sir! But do you have any Grey Poupon?"

I chuckled breathily, bending over.

He winked a human eye, parked the car, and shut off the ignition.

"We are home!"

"Glorious!" Starfire floated upwards, dressed in a summer frock with sandals and a cute hat—probably from Kansas. I secretly hoped that she didn't fly too high above us with that skirt of hers… "Our habitat is as beautiful as ever!"

"Yeah…it's still standing!" Beast Boy remarked. "Speedy didn't burn it down in a drunken orgy! That's a good thing!"

"Seriously, Beast Boy," Robin hopped out and walked towards the Tower. He looked over his shoulder and smirked at the changeling. "Speedy knows better than to get into that stuff!"

I sweatdropped and managed a smile.

"Noir…great to see you, man," Robin held his hand up high.

I gave him a high five we shook hands before snapping them loose and pointing at each other with a wink.

"How's everything holding up in the City?"

I scratched the back of my neck, simpered, and gestured in the air.

Cyborg interpreted from long distance while heaving suitcases out of the trunk. "Nnghh! He says that not everything's burnt to the ground. Whatever that means…"

"Hmmm…..you and the archers ARE making a report on all of this, right?" Robin inquired.

I gulped.

SWOOOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!!

Starfire hugged me fiercely.

"Hello, mute woebegone friend of darkness!!!"

I wheezed for air, patted her head, and managed a weak smile.

"Let him breathe, Starfire…," Raven droned from the background where she was piling up her books from random locations within the T-Car. "You'll have plenty of chances to suffocate him later."

The Tamaranian girl blushed and stepped back, releasing me. "I do apologize, dear friend. I am still attempting to work on that."

I wheezed and gave a thumb's up.

Cyborg wandered over and patted me hard on the back. "Ha ha ha!! You sooooo missed California!"

I could care less.

I shrugged with a smile.

"Dude! Bikinis galore! But I guess you got your estrogen long before you could have gone that far west with us!" Beast Boy cackled.

I rolled my black eyes and swiveled about to frown at the changeling….and found myself staring down the mouth of a fanged beast.

I let out a silent shriek and fell back on my rear. PLOP!!! I shivered.

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Beast Boy exclaimed, holding what turned out to be a huge lawn ornament of a black gargoyle in his gangly grasp. "Dude, that was so rich!! You're not all that dark, are you man??"

I stood up, dusted myself off, and looked at Cyborg while gesturing at the gargoyle confusedly.

"We ran into an auction on the way home," the android Titan mumbled while rolling his human eye. "In Tennessee. We all wanted to hurry back home, but he just couldn't resist."

"Man, I was bidding like crazy!" Beast Boy hopped with the wretched/retching Gargoyle in grasp. "Heads turned and rolled that evening, I swear to God! I shook the tent off its foundation!"

"It was cheap," Robin explained. "He got it for next to nothing…."

"……," Beast Boy blinked. "Yes….well….a very honorable nothing."

"I still maintain that the vibrantly colored gnome would have been of greater value!" Starfire smiled, her hands cutely behind her back.

"Uh uh! This thing was bought for a purpose!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "And it's going into Raven's room!"

If I wasn't mute, I would have given a good cackle at that. My mouth hung open in a silent laugh as I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

"Yes…it is…," Raven smirked ever so slightly as she walked over.

I did an explosive double take.

The dark girl stood and 'petted' the gargoyle's head. "To be honest…it'd be a nice addition to my room. So what's to complain about?"

"See? I did something smart for a change!"

"Nothing smart about it," Raven retorted. "Just lucky."

"Yeah, whatever," Beast Boy muttered. He shook out of it. "So…um…how's it getting into your room?"

"I'll give the little lady a hand," Cyborg winked and swiped the gargoyle from Beast Boy. "It'd be a shame to carry this and your books up to your room all by yourself, right?"

Raven shrugged. "Whatever. Let's go."

The android Titan picked up Raven's books for her along with the gargoyle and the two marched through the entrance of the Tower. I watched them the entire way. Silent.

Then Beast Boy rose into view, smiling. "So….you got her number, right?"

I blinked at him. Blank. Confused.

"Ya know! Kara's!!"

I mouthed 'oh' and simpered, blushing.

He giggled and pointed at my red skin. "Hehehehe!! So she did leave an impression on you!! You should call her soon!" I bit my lip and scratched the back of my neck.

"You mean….y-you didn't exchange them?!" Beast Boy's eyes went into white pixels. "What's wrong with you, dude?!"

"Eh…nothing's wrong with him, B.B.," Robin walked by with his briefcase and Starfire's. He paused along his way to the Tower's entrance and smirked at us two. "He's just had a good week of sanity lately."

"Yeah? Why?"

"He wasn't hanging around with us."

Starfire giggled as the two wandered up into the Tower.

Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "We're not totally dysfunctional, ya know!" A beat. He looked at me. "Supergirl smoked, didn't she? That's why you didn't get her number??"

I tossed my hands and fled into the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…this your new bedmate?" Cyborg smirked, hoisting the gargoyle under his arm as he and Raven traversed the hallway to her room.

"No," she grunted. "More than likely, it'll be an ornament beneath my bookcase. There's this one spot where the light from the moon at night illuminates the lower shelves just right."

"I'll take your word for it," Cyborg chuckled. "That's not a room you live in. It's an abyss!"

They reached the door to the abode in question.

Cyborg set the stuff down. "Well, this is where I leave you alone. I better go check on the lab and make sure none of the housekeepers messed it up. Sorry to make you carry this stuff in yourself, Raven."

The girl paused. She thought to herself. Then she uttered: "It's okay, Cyborg. You can carry them in."

The android's human eye bulged. "Um…b-b-but Raven…isn't that…**YOUR** room?"

"How perceptive of you. Now hurry and bring in my gargoyle before Starfire decides to turn it into a pony for dress-up or something."

Raven swiftly opened the automatic door with the keypad and sauntered in. A very clumsy Cyborg picked up her things and tip-toed in behind her.

He let out a whistle at the gothic interior of the place.

"What? You've been in here before," Raven droned. She inspected the length and breadth of the room as if suspicious of any changes since she had been gone. "Remember when you and Beast Boy just **happened** to have fallen into my mirror?"

"Yeah…but…," Cyborg placed the stuff down on her bed. "…is that why you're letting me in here? Cuz of a goofup I had made a long, long time ago?"

"No….," she spun about and folded her arms with a tiny smirk. "There comes a time when someone realizes that she obsesses too much over unimportant things."

"I think this is breaking one of your prime directives, Rae."

"Perhaps so. But laws are rewritten. I always wanted a democratic mind."

Cyborg shrugged. "As long as it's a stable mind and all that. Not my territory, though."

Raven nodded, smiling. A beat. She leaned her head to the side. "Cyborg…it is true that you have a photographic memory, right?"

"If I try really hard and juice up my neurological pathways with added power reserves….then 'yeah'."

"And Robin has enlisted you in reviewing profiles of numerous people across the country, both young and old…."

"Heheheh…this should be old news to you, Rae."

"I'm just double-checking."

"What for?"

Silence.

Raven blinked. "I want to show you something. Close the door."

"Well, allright…," the robot Titan walked over and shut the automatic door.

In the meantime, Raven wandered into her closet. A few seconds later, she emerged with a painting.

"Naughty pictures?! Raven, how unbecoming of you!" Cyborg grinned.

Raven gave him a sarcastic smirk. "I want you to take a look at this…," she twirled the painting around for him to see. "And tell me if it conjures up any match in that neurological cyberbank of yours."

Cyborg squinted his human eye. He stared at the female figure in the vest and slacks. Her short, short, boyshort blonde hair. Her angelic smile. The sword in her grasp. The feminine grace, beauty, and wisdom of everything thrown together.

"It's a nice piece. You draw it?"

Raven nodded. "But does it make you think of anything? Anyone?"

He scratched the human half of his head. "I dunno. Sorry, Raven. I've got it recorded in my memory banks though. So if I hooked myself up to the Titan Tower's core, I could run a more thorough search of my archives. Why? Is it really important to you? Do **you** know who she is?"

"I don't…," Raven sighed and stared at the picture. "But I have a feeling someone else does."

Cyborg blinked. He took one last glance at the picture. At the sword in the girl's grasp. He looked at Raven. "Noir, right?"

"Yup."

"Got a vision from him or something?"

"Exactly."

"Well…heheh….if I knew someone like that, I'd be telling anyone! That girl's downright pretty! Beats me what Noir's problem is!"

"I don't think it's a problem…," Raven placed the painting down on a chair. She wandered over and placed the gargoyle somewhere near the bottom shelves of the bookcases in her room. "If it is a problem, it's probably just me. I realize now that I overreact to my premonitions. Even when my premonitions come true. I'm obsessing over them too much." She paused to look at the android. "Just like I obsess over keeping people out of my room. What's the point? Yes, I need my privacy. And lord knows how bad it could be if I get too close to someone. But to threaten anyone who so much as comes close to me…..well….that isn't right, is it?"

"I'm not the expert of that," Cyborg shrugged. "I've been in your head only once and I've gotta say….not a place I'd like to take a cruise to. You're certainly protecting us from something."

Raven tried not to react to that, but ever so slightly she bit her lip and he blue eyes looked away.

Cyborg winced. "Aw man….I-I didn't mean it like that. You see—"

"It's okay. I know people can't understand," she hugged herself and looked off through the distant window. "I bet it's all really wyrd to you and the rest."

"Perhaps…," Cyborg swallowed. He walked forward and stood by her side, smiling bravely. "But….ya know….like I'm always trying to tell you. We may not understand, but we can still be by your side. Ya know?"

"Your funeral."

"So what?" Cyborg shrugged.

Raven gave him a sideways glance. "You're rather brave."

"Hey. You invited me to walk into your room. I just followed along."

She stifled a forbidden chuckle and said: "Maybe I died in the middle of our vacation."

"Were you ever alive to begin with? Ha ha ha!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…dude….like there was this shark out there in a beach south of San Francisco. The rest of the Titans and I could see the poor kid on the raft about to become bait. Other people were running up and shouting for him to stroke to shore. The lifeguards ran out to help him, but they were too far away. So, I thought I might—ya know—spring into action and save the day in the only way Beast Boy can!"

In the Main Room, Speedy and Green Arrow sat listening…mesmerized.

There was a period of silence, so Speedy uttered: "So…….what'd you do? Turn into a bigger shark or something?"

"Nope!" Beast Boy smiled proudly and leaned against the back of the couch where Starfire and Robin sat. "I dove into the water, all right! I swam passed the boy and charged the shark!"

"As a bigger shark, right?"

The changeling winced. "Er….no. As a catfish."

Speedy did a double take.

"Catfish?" Green Arrow hid a chuckle with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah…well…," Beast Boy sweatdropped and scratched the back of his neck. "I figured that—in a desperate situation like that—it'd be best that I try not and kick butt. Seeing that I don't do that very well on my own. Ahem. So I gave the shark something better to chew, and I distracted the big fish from the kid. Later I turned into something else and got away from the shark and the life guards got the kid and everyone was happy."

Speedy clapped, smiling.

"Quite brave of you," Green Arrow smiled. "I think the West Coast needs more superheroes."

Standing in the corner, I tried not to snicker at that. I watched and listened as the conversation went on.

"Well, at least he's honest," Robin smirked.

"Yup!" Beast Boy folded his arms and beamed. "I was certainly brave in leading that shark away from the kid—"

"I mean about the 'failure-to-kick-butt' part."

Beast Boy's face fell and he frowned at a humored Robin.

"Is Beast Boy lacking in his buttocks?"

"No, Star."

"Oh…..you sure?"

"Ahem," Green Arrow interjected with a clearing of his throat and smiled as he said: "Other than Booker, Braniac, Metallo, and…er…the shark….was it a relaxing vacation?"

"As much as heroes relax…sure," Robin nodded. "But what about you guys? Was it that tough of a job?"

Green Arrow and Speedy looked my way.

I smiled at them and shrugged.

"Cakewalk," Speedy winked under his mask. "Absolutely."

"But…now that you're here and all…," Green Arrow stood up and stretched as if he just underwent a long duration of some exercise or another. "I suppose we're due back West where we came from!"

"Can't keep a City of our own waiting, now can we?" Speedy added.

"You ever going to consider joining our team someday, Speedy?" Robin asked quite openly. "I expect us to be around for a while…so…."

I cleared my throat.

Speedy and Green Arrow shifted where they stood.

Starfire blinked. "Are we missing something?"

"I'm…..um…..going on vacation too," Speedy simpered.

"Oh?" Starfire smiled. "Where to?"

"Normalcy."

"………."

"I'm throwing in the mask," he said firmly.

Starfire gasped.

Robin's face went long.

"No way….," Beast Boy uttered. "You serious?"

"Dead serious," Speedy smiled gently and gestured, "Not all of us can stay in it for the long haul." He smiled and bowed his head towards Robin. "Boy Wonder…I tip my head off to you. In the end, you were the winner of the crime fighter game. Congratulations all around."

Robin had a blank expression. He looked paralyzed.

Starfire giggled and clapped. "I sense a wonderful life choice in this endeavor!"

"Yeah…well…that makes you and me both," Speedy blushed.

"You……you're not gonna be Speedy anymore?" Robin remarked. It sounded almost like a whimper.

Beast Boy nearly laughed.

"For the time being," the redheaded archer relented.

"Let's just say…," Green Arrow wandered over and patted his apprentice's shoulder. "Sanity is a precious thing. We both realize that it's best to keep it sacred. I hope that clarifies it….while keeping ambiguity in check."

"Affirmative," Starfire cheerfully nodded. She floated up in her dress and gave Speedy a soft hug. "Oh, dear friend! Do visit us again sometime! Even if your crime fighting days are over!"

Speedy patted her shoulder as he hugged her back. "I'll be back. I promise." He looked at Robin over the Tamaranian's shoulder and smirked. "As long as there're still punk capers in this world looking for a rematch!"

I noticed a glint of rekindled fire behind Robin's eyemask. The Titan leader stood up, smiled, and walked over to give the archer a firm handshake. "I'll be ready for you whenever you're man enough!"

"Challenge accepted!"

"Woo hoo!" Beast Boy cheered. "The unpredictability of life!"

A womany voice dripped into the room. "Now what's going on in here?"

Everyone—including the changeling—glanced over.

Black Canary walked in with her outfit of blue, black, fishnets, and everything. She paused in the back of the Main Room, took a good look at everyone, and smiled with her hands placed picture-perfectly on her hips. "Ah, of course. Should have known. Looks like it's Kid's Day in the treehouse again!"

Beast Boy blinked. Tiny, pink hearts throbbed inside his irises and he started to teeter. "It's greeeeeat to be home." He tipped over. PLOP!!!!

"Awwww," Black Canary cooed. "Did I hurt him?"

"If life is fair, yeah," Robin said.

"That does not seem fair to me," Starfire pouted.

"Am I dreaming??"

"You will be soon, B.B."

"Okay…," Speedy chuckled and shook his head as he headed for the door. "Let's get the Hell out of here."

"Said it better than I could, ward…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dude! How could you just let them go?!?!" Beast Boy cackled to the Boy Wonder. Robin, Beast Boy, Starfire and I were wandering down the hallway. Starfire and Robin carried their suitcases.

"Green Arrow and Speedy have done us enough by keeping the City and Tower safe. Who am I to stop them from going back home?"

"Dude! Not them, the chick! The goddess!"

"The Black Canary?" Starfire remarked. "She served the citizens of this City with equal fervor as the archers. Does she not deserve a discharge as much as them?"

"But…I-I barely got to talk to her! I barely got to know her!" Beast Boy cackled. He sighed and all but slumped to the ground in a wilted pile. "Must I always remain a lonely Casanova??"

"Awwww," Starfire smiled and hugged him with one free hand. "Someday you will find a sweet young lady to cas the nova with!"

"Yeah…well…as long as she wears fishnets," Beast Boy murmured.

Starfire giggled and parted from the hug. In so doing, she accidentally collided with Robin. "Nngh!"

"Ooof!! S-Sorry, Star—"

Their suitcases went falling to the floor.

"Do not distress, merely a circumstance," she smiled pleasantly.

They both picked up a suitcase.

"I dunno about y'all, but I'm pooped," Beast Boy said. "And no, not in the literal manner."

"No need to state the obvious—"

"Hey, Noir, which room did Black Canary last sleep in?"

I bit my lip.

Robin looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you asking?"

"No reason," Beast Boy smiled innocently. He blushed and walked off, whistling innocently.

"He seems…a virtual well of endless energy," Starfire blinked after the departing changeling. A beat. "Is it a sin to covet something so trivial?"

"Starfire…trust me….I'd pay you the day you sin."

I choked on a breathy chuckle.

Robin glanced at me. "What?"

I waved my hands and mouthed 'nothing'.

"…….what's with everyone today?"

"We are home!! Hehehehe!! See you after a good 'settling in', Robin!"

"Later, Star."

She skipped off in her dress. Happy as a bee.

Robin stared. He looked at me.

I smirked.

"And just what are you smirking at?"

I shrugged.

"Sheesh….I think I should sleep too…," he walked off.

I chuckled to myself and went to my room too.

It was great to have the gang back….

I sighed happily.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWISH!!

The automatic door behind Robin closed.

He sighed and slumped the suitcase down onto the center of the bed.

He stood still in place.

A beat.

"I can't believe it….who does Speedy think he is?"

Silence.

Robin grunted and snapped open the clasps of his suitcase.

"He'll be back. I know it. He's just going through a phase. We all are."

He opened the suitcase and rolled his masked eyes to the ceiling while unpacking.

"I bet Noir had something to do with it. The rookie's always making people think twice about thing…"

The Boy Wonder sighed and looked down at his folding of the pink, flowery panties--

"YAACK!!!"

The masked hero flew backwards ten feet in a quarter second.

His heart caught up with him.

He panted.

Slowly….cautiously…he stood up.

He peered over the edge of the bed at the article of clothing like it was a live grenade.

Indeed, the suitcase was filled to the brim with obvious pink and lavender femininity.

Starfire's bag by accident. They had been switched in the hallway.

The Boy Wonder bit his lip. "Aw man." He gulped. "Okay….on the count of three….one….two….two and a half…."

He dove forward. Tossed the panties into the suitcase. And slammed it shut.

"Whew…….whew…..whew….," he exhaled, leaning against the leather pack. He stood up and cleared his throat before bravely snapping the clasps shut.

A beat.

"Well….guess I won't be thinking about Speedy overnight," he blushed. He winced. "Oh man…I hope Starfire isn't half as embarrassed with my suitcase as I was with hers." And he began to sweat as worried thoughts of her horrid reaction filled his head….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hehehehe!"

Starfire giggled as she twirled before the mirror, trying on Robin's yellow cape and belt. "I've always wondered….th-they are short on me!"

A beat.

She glanced back at the suitcase and scratched her dainty chin. "I wonder if I should start worrying about where my 'lingerings' went?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_They're back. And I couldn't be happier. Robin seems so relaxed. Starfire is twice as joyful as normal, if that can be perceived. And Beast Boy is the same as always. And I suppose one cannot complain for a return to normality. There's safety in the familiar. But I'm sure you're well aware of that. Even in as exotic a lifestyle as crime fighting can be._

_Cyborg and Raven—I haven't seen much of them. But I look forward to what tomorrow brings. I truly love being around the Titans. I really do. Even though there're times I need to be alone. It's all a matter of balance, I suppose._

_Green Arrow and Speedy went home. Black Canary joined them too. You may start hearing rumors Diana, but as a first-hand witness…let me give it to you straight. Speedy is retiring. At least temporarily. And it would be best to keep things ambiguous enough and just state that he 'needs' it. Green Arrow won't be without his support, though. I get the feeling that Black Canary will be joining his side. Now how's THAT for a rumor?_

_Other than that, I have very little to say. There's more to come later, of course. Once the experiences worthy of corresponding about come to light. And lord willing, they'll be good experiences. Until then, peace be unto you and the JLA._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on my bed with the laptop over my legs. I had finished typing, but my fingers lingered on the keyboard. Lantern light flickered off my dark shades as I sat still. Trembling.

A beat.

My metal fingers twirled.

Another beat.

I put the laptop down on the bed and stood up.

I paced around.

Silence.

I looked at the computer.

More silence.

I sighed.

I walked towards it—paused—paced back. Another pause. I started-stopped-and started again.

After one last round of frustrated hesitance, I eventually gave in with a smile and—wincing—picked the laptop up with a flurry and quickly typed:

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_P.S.: Would you be so kind to inform me of—_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I winced.

I bit my lip.

I hit the backspace key.

I took a breath.

I typed….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_P.S.: Would it be okay if you related to me—_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I struggled.

I fought my own hand.

I had a wrestling match with myself until my fingers typed for me…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_P.S.: Do you know of a way I can contact Supergirl by phone??_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I hit the 'send' key on the e-mail before I could stop myself.

As if striking revenge against my hand, I dove for myself and toppled over the bed.

When I fell on the floor, I couldn't help it.

I laughed breathily till I was red.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy entered his room.

He yawned and headed for his bed.

But something caught his eye and made him froze. He glanced at the calendar on the wall.

The last day of August….tomorrow….

"Oh man….," he suddenly uttered in a depressed tone. He sighed and leaned against the wall. "I almost forgot….."

On the day in question was a huge letter 'T' in red marker. There was a heart around it.

The changeling bit his lip. He sighed.

Better late than never.

Before going to bed, he set his alarm for as early as conveniently possible.

He'd be waking up the other Titans the following morning.

It was the 'anniversary'….


	89. Give to the Earth

**89. Give to the Earth**

Beast Boy didn't sleep that night. Though he spent a good part of the evening and early morning curled alone in bed, he couldn't even wink once. Eventually, the changeling sauntered up when the digital clock on the bedside table flashed '6:59'. He switched the device off a minute before the alarm he set hours ago would go off.

Sighing, he limped into his bathroom to change into dayclothes. They were strangely dark that day.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was a knock on the door to Robin's room.

The Boy Wonder yawned, got up from bed, and shuffled to the door. In his eyemask and bed clothes he blindly reached for the wall panel and opened his door with a SWISH!!!

"Y-Yeah….," he mumbled.

"H-Hey…," Beast Boy stuttered. He stood in a black shirt and dark blue jeans. He waved nonchalantly and bit his lip.

Robin stared at him. "…..hey what?"

"Um…..it's today, Robin."

"What is?"

Beast Boy looked down. His eyes trailed.

Suddenly, the exhausted Boy Wonder gasped. "Ohhhh…..oh jeez. Yeah. Of course. I'm so sorry, Beast Boy. Totally slipped my mind."

"S'ok. You coming?"

"Y-Yeah. Wait for me, all right? I'll be with you in no time."

"Cool. Thanks. See you in the Main Room."

They parted ways and the door SWISHed closed between them as Robin hurried to put some casual attire on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy was walking down the hallway when he ran into two figures.

He brightened ever so slightly.

"H-Hey dudes….what're you doing up?"

Raven and Cyborg walked to a stop. Raven had on a black turtleneck and jeans. Cyborg had accentuated his blue glow into a darker hue.

The android Titans smiled ever so slightly. "What do you think, man? We're all in this together."

"I-I was about to go and wake you—"

"What for?"

"Well…Robin was sleeping in."

Raven rolled her blue eyes. "Not everyone's perfect."

"I suppose…," Beast Boy shrugged.

Silence.

"Come on…," Cyborg patted Beast Boy on the shoulder and swung him around to move towards the elevator. "Let's go meet up."

"B-But….what about Star?"

"Don't you worry about that, man. Trust us."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Star??"

Starfire looked over from the kitchen. She was putting together sandwiches for the road. Edible, earthling sandwiches. "Greetings, friends," she smiled pleasantly…but softly. "I hope I am not late in my preparation."

"Hardly, Starfire," Raven said.

"You….you remembered t-too, Starfire?" Beast Boy blushed.

"Hehehe….how could I not?" she smiled, wrapping the last of the sandwiches in tinfoil and putting them into a protective cooler. She was dressed in a modest, ankle-long dress of dark green. "I would not be much of a Tamaranian if I forewent tradition. And I would not be much of a friend if I forewent today. I am happy to be a part of this."

Beast Boy nodded. "Th-Thanks…all of you…."

"Today's important for all of us, B.B.," Cyborg said. "It'll always be important to us…"

Beast Boy sighed. "I just hope 'always' isn't forever…."

Silence.

Robin hurriedly entered the scene, still adjusting his dark polo shirt and slacks. "I swear….I set my alarm! I-I knew about today, it's just that—"

"It's okay, Robin," Beast Boy smiled weakly. "It's cool. Lord knows we're all tired."

"I made witches of sand!" Starfire smiled.

Everyone chuckled lightly at that. A slight level of tension was peeled away.

Then silence.

Beast Boy bit his lip. He looked up at Cyborg. "Um…..wh-what about Noir?"

More silence.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his skull.

"I thought we all decided this on our way back from California…," Raven muttered.

"That is correct," Starfire somberly said. "And yet…is it too late to go back on our decision?"

Nobody had an immediate response to that. So everyone looked in one accord at Robin.

The Boy Wonder sighed. "We….d-don't need to bring Noir into this. That was what we agreed upon. And it's what we're sticking too. Right?"

Silence.

"Right???"

"Yeah, man."

"Affirmative."

"Yes."

"Sure…."

Robin took a deep breath. "Allright then…." A beat. "L-Let's go, Titans."

The five shuffled off like a funeral possession. At some point, Beast Boy looked over his shoulder and uttered: "Say…the t.v.'s on. What were you doing in here?"

"Oh…..uhm….I-I was viewing the D of V of D…"

"A DVD? Which movie?"

"One of our recorded ones…..from…."

"Oh…."

"P-Perhaps we could all view it later? T-Together?"

"Let's take it one step at a time, Starfire," Raven said. "And not rush."

"Understood."

And they were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My alarm went off.

Dreamy images of Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Arrow laughing at my e-mail while dressed in pirate costumes faded from my black eyes. I suddenly wondered if superheroes hired psychiatrists…

I got up and the first thing on my mind was meditation. I showered up, suited up, and gently lifted Myrkblade and its scabbard from the mantle in my room. I took a close look at my weapon…smiled…and rested it over my shoulder as I exited the cellar, whistling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I exited the base of the Tower and sauntered out past the bluffs to the small patch of grass, I noticed something glinting in the morning sun. A bright ray of light shimmered in the distance and stabbed its way through my dark shades…piercing my black eyes.

Wincing slightly, I glanced over with squinting lids and noticed something.

The T-Car was rolling down the bridge towards the City at a casual speed.

I leaned my head to the side, stared at it for a while, then shrugged it off.

I soon was relaxing and meditating….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat in the front passenger's seat. She pressed her face to the glass and smiled pleasantly at the familiar skyscrapers and buildings streaming past the whole group of five. She let out a long sigh and genuinely smiled.

"It is ever so glorious being back home. I wonder…if I choose someday to permanently reside on Earth…would I choose this City to dwell in?"

"I had no idea you were here temporarily, Star," Cyborg said from the driver's seat.

The girl bit her lip. "Well…hehehe..," she giggled and sweatdropped bashfully. "The 'temporary' nature has turned into something much lengthier indeed. I must say…I am addicted to this planet."

"If Earth was a drug, I'd need therapy by now," Cyborg chuckled. "Ain't that right, Raven?"

"Right it not ain't…," the dark girl droned.

"Now that's the spirit!"

"Eh…I've been to better cities than this," Beast Boy muttered. He looked at his feet on the floor of the car. "There're some quaint places in Africa. When I was a kid, I saw a ton of really cool villages. Small places. Not many people."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder…," Rave uttered.

"I admire the beholder who possesses an eye for this City!" Starfire beamed from the front.

"Yeah…whatever…," Beast Boy hummed.

Robin looked his way. "This day bumming you out too much, Beast Boy?"

"Don't let me ruin your conversations," Beast Boy sighed and leaned his chin on his hand. "I thought I'd be more cheerful. But I'm wrong about a lot of things."

"We won't force you to talk or anything," Robin shrugged. "Just….try and cheer up, okay? We're all with you on this. We're all together."

Beast Boy looked up and raised his eyebrows over unenthused eyes. "You sure Noir doesn't need to be with us?"

"No, I'm not," Robin shook his head. "But….well…." The Boy Wonder lingered.

"You want to be the first to invite him?" Raven said.

Beast Boy winced. "No. Guess not."

Silence.

"Well…we're almost on the bridge," Cyborg said. "Won't be long now."

"Take your time," Beast Boy mumbled and calmly shut his eyes. "Take your time."

"Ooh! Water! Can you count the fishies with me??" Starfire uttered.

The carpool couldn't help it. They chuckled again.

And the T-Car rode over the suspension bridge, passing westward across the Bay…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I felt content after meditation. As usual.

I walked back into the Tower and made a bee-line for the Main Room to get something to drink. I was well winded from the exercise and felt like cooling off.

It struck me as interesting that nobody was in the hallways or elevators as I ascended. But such isn't too odd of a thing. Six teenagers aren't enough to fill a huge building shaped like a 'T'. Sometimes it would feel downright lonely and depressing inside that place.

And I liked it.

But at that moment, I was confused. Especially when I entered the Main Room, and nobody was around. Beast Boy and Cyborg weren't gaming. Raven wasn't reading. Robin wasn't…wasn't….doing whatever he does. Not even Starfire was around.

I took a long sip of orange juice and surveyed the interior with my black eyes. Thinking.

_Did they all leave in the T-Car?_

Was there a mission? An emergency in Town somewhere?

I sauntered over to the computer. I typed blurriedly and checked the alert program.

Nothing.

Speedy and Green Arrow might as well still have been there.

I sipped some more orange juice from the mug in my metal hand.

A pause.

I looked around the room.

I noticed something on the kitchen counter, which made me feel stupid because I had just walked from over there.

I sauntered back and noticed the remains of someone making sandwiches.

I blinked.

_A picnic?_

I scanned around the kitchen area. My eyes settled on a calendar. There was something noticeable on the last day of August.

Today…

I walked over and stared up close.

The day was highlighted. In bold, black ink…the letter 'T' was splashed across the day panel. Cyborg's writing. Very straightforward and noticeable. Intense pressure of his titanium penmanship.

There was something special about that day.

_But what?_

Curiosity got the better of me. I went back to the computer. I typed a flurry. I brought up a map of the City on the huge screen and activated the tracking device of the T-Car.

And my eyebrows rose.

There was indeed a blip on the screen showing where the T-Car was. The vehicle was parked across the Bay. Besides a dry ravine in the tiny desert south of Town.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

About a dozen feet away from the T-Car, the Titans had spread a blanket and were all sitting in a circle…enjoying Starfire's sandwiches. Things seemed a slight bit more lively right there and then. The food was hearty and the conversation was lighthearted.

The view…was magnificent. A canyon stretched beneath them. Not a huge drop by any means, but definitely one of God's finer carvings in the yellow, granite earth.

"She was always a tough cookie," Cyborg mused after finishing another bite of bologna. "That's what I liked about her. She could be as cute as the dickens, but she knew how to rock. Heh…no pun intended."

"Pun accepted, regardless," Robin winked under his mask.

"Hehehe," Starfire giggled. "She was certainly huggable, was she not?!"

"Don't look at me," Raven droned.

Robin smirked. He took a bite of his sandwich and swallowed and said: "Ya know…sitting here…thinking back to the first day we met her….I can't help but think. How does a scorpion GET that big?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Lexcorp genetic engineering leakage?"

"Whatever the case…Terra could squash it," Raven said.

"Squash she did," Robin nodded. "I don't think we'd have faired so easily against the creature."

"That sounds rather pessimistic, Robin."

"I'm not saying we couldn't defeat it. Just, it wouldn't have been easy."

"Hey….um….," Beast Boy bit his lip. "Can I ask something?"

"Shoot."

"Were you and Raven….like….not so thrilled about her visiting the Tower that first time?" Beast Boy asked the Boy Wonder and the dark girl.

"I didn't see the point of it at the time, to be honest," Raven said.

Beast Boy winced.

"Ahem," Robin cleared his throat. "I agreed that she needed a home. And I also saw the potential in her powers being contributed to the Titans in crime fighting. But, truthfully, I was doubtful that she could be a permanent member. That doesn't mean I didn't appreciate her company or anything. Just, I saw that she needed room to grow. Her powers needed to be worked on. I made mention of that…..er….u-unfortunately."

"Yeah….r-right…," Beast Boy simpered and scratched his head.

Silence.

"I am happy that she enjoyed my cooking," Starfire said, still cheerful. "Even if technically thirty percent of the Tamaranian diet I shared with her is incapable of being digested by human stomachs."

"Whoah," Raven blinked. "Is that true?"

"She did not swallow all of it," Starfire blinked innocently.

"Is that why the toilet was clogged up?" Robin asked.

"I do not understand."

"Sounds realistic to me…," Raven muttered.

"Can we…I dunno….talk about something other than Terra's vomiting?" Beast Boy remarked.

"Allright, man," Cyborg grinned. "Was she a good kisser?"

"Er….b-back to vomiting," Beast Boy blushed furiously.

The others chuckled. Raven smirked.

Beast Boy eventually smiled himself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I finished a keystroke.

A photocopy of a newspaper clipping appeared on screen.

It was dated 'September 1, 2003'.

The article spoke of a raid by Slade and his minions on a diamond mine southwest of the City. Rumors spread of a 'Sixth Titan' present when Robin's team confronted the enemy.

I scratched my chin. Curious. Studying.

I thought of something.

I returned to the root program of the newspaper files. I scrolled ahead by three months. I paused. I looked at a random headline.

"Titans and Sixth Member Capture Mumbo Jumbo".

I squinted my black eyes through my shades.

The photocopy on the page displayed a grainy photo of the five Titans that I knew. But floating above them and emitting a gold aura was a figure I could only imagine in my head.

'The Sixth Titan'.

My lips parted in wonder. For I had never seen her before.

The real…Sixth Titan.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans had returned to the City. They took the bridge back forty minutes into the 'picnic' and were heading towards the center of Town. But instead of drive the entire way, Cyborg parked the T-Car a mile away from the destination so that the Titans could walk.

That way…they could stop by the flower vendor on the roadside…

"Roses? You sure about that?"

"What?" Beast Boy glanced at Raven wyrdly as he handed a handful of coins to the seller. "Too romantic or something?"

"Well…they're….um….," Raven sweatdropped.

Cyborg elbowed her gently.

She cleared her throat. "R-Roses are fine, Beast Boy."

"Just as I thought! Terra would have loved them. You better not choose lilies!"

"Don't worry," Raven rolled her blue eyes. "I won't." She approached the vendor and pointed at a bundle of blooms. "Tulips, please."

Beast Boy wandered over where the other Titans stood with their own bundles of flowers in ritualistic fashion.

"Well…," the green-skinned Titan simpered. "Now for the silly apart."

Cyborg remarked. "Man…if anyone's watching. It's because we're the Teen Titans. Not because we're walking down a city street with flowers in our hands!"

"Still….f-feels kinda fruity," Beast Boy blushed and scratched the back of his neck.

"It's for a good cause though," Robin smirked slightly. "Right?"

"Yeah…r-right…"

Starfire gently stroked lavender petals in her grasp with a finger. "I have always enjoyed this part. I am quite certain she would have been happy with our open merriment!"

"Or bravery…," Raven droned as she walked in with her petals. "Don't we have someone to visit?"

Beast Boy took a huge breath. "Yeah. Tally ho, everyone."

"After you, B.B.," Robin gestured.

"Why, thank you."

"Okay…so maybe this **is** fruity!"

"Dude!"

"Hehehehehe!"

"Can we please just go???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I performed a keystroke and a photocopy of the newspaper flashed into view displaying satellite photos of the City under Slade's controls. The headlines vomited: "Sixth Titan Actually Apprentice of Slade's"

I bit my lip and quickly exited the program.

I didn't want to focus on that…

I leaned back in my chair.

_Were the Titans doing something in honor of their memory of Terra?_

And if so, why is it that her eventual betrayal didn't make them hesitate in doing so?

And while on that topic…why wasn't I invited in this?

I wasn't so much feeling angry or envious as I was confused….and concerned.

But heck, I'm always concerned for the Titans.

I swiveled around in the chair, thinking to myself. A beat. My black eyes scanned the edge of the Main Room near the windows/t.v. monitor. I saw a line of DVDs inside a bookcase-like structure. One of the DVD cases was loose.

I raised an eyebrow.

_Maybe I have an answer to one of my questions…_

I got up and gently sauntered over to where the case was sticking out. I picked it up and held it before my vision.

It was a recording of some sort. The label on the case was written in Beast Boy's handwriting, but decorated with pretty markers of joy in numerous colors by Starfire. It read: "December 2nd, 2003. Terra's Birthday Party."

I smirked.

Feeling exploratory, I popped the DVD into the player, shut the door, sat back on the sofa with the remote, and pressed play.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Snkkkttt!!_

Snow.

Snkkkkttt!!

A familiar carpet floor.

Snkkkktt!!

Someone's green face: _**"How do you turn this damn thing o—"**_

_Snnnnnkkkktktkktt!!_

The kitchen unit of the Main Room.

A young, blonde person is sitting at the end of a table. Before her is a birthday cake. A silly party hat is placed over her crown. The edge of Cyborg and the clasped hands of Starfire edge in on her as the camera zooms in on her blue-eyed face and tries to focus in. She looks flattered to be there and wounded all the same. Her smooth blonde hair melts around her as if a secret fire is burning above the bashful creature.

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Allright! Now I got it to work!"**_

_Cyborg: __**"About damn time, man! The candles are liable to melt!!"**_

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Dude, shut up!! This is Terra's big day!"**___

_The Girl: __**"S-Seriously, guys. This isn't r-really necessary. Just h-how did you know it was my birthday to begin with?"**___

_Robin's Voice: __**"Hey, you filled out the information sheet when you became a Titan, didn't you?"**___

_The Girl: __**"Well…I-I…"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Just blow out the candles, Terra! The camera's waiting!"**___

_The Girl: __**"Well, okay. Here goes—"**___

_The blonde's lips purse and she leans forward—_

_Cyborg: __**"Yo yo yo!! Wait, girl!"**___

_The Girl: __**"What?! Wh-What?!"**___

_Starfire: __**"You must make a wish first!! Hehehe!! It is Earth custom!"**___

_The Girl: __**"Uh……y-yeah! Sure!"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Better make it a good onnnnnnne!"**___

_There is a pause. The girl smiles bravely._

_The Girl: __** "Okay…I-I think I've thought of something."**_

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Blow away!"**___

_Cyborg: __**"Man…that just sounded wrong."**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Who asked you, Cy?!"**___

_The girl leans forward and blows the candles out. The flames flicker. Her eyes glow yellow for a split second and she jumps with a gasp…then blushes._

Starfire giggles and Cyborg claps in tune with two sets of clapping off camera.

_Robin's Voice: __**"Way to go, Terra!"**_

_Cyborg: __**"A little shabby. But Hey! Who's keeping score?"**___

_Starfire: __** "That was a mighty show of sportsmanship over the miniature waxed torches!"**_

_The Girl: __** "Ah jeez….you guys are too much. I don't deserve this party."**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Why not? You're certainly pretty enough!"**___

_He either creeps in or zooms in with the camera. Whatever the case, the image is bobbing as the blonde giggles and waves her hands up in the air to push him back._

_The Girl: __**"Okay! Okay, B.B.! Not in the face!! Hehehehe…Not in the face!!"**_

_Snkkkkkkkttt!!_

_Cyborg and Robin are standing against the windows of the Main Room in the background. They're both eating cake slices rather greedily from paper plates._

_Beast Voice's Voice: __**"And what are the alpha males of Titan's Tower up to? Two hundred calories at least, I bet!"**___

_Robin gulps down his bite and his eyemasks glare at the camera._

_Robin: __**"Beast Boy…what'd you process this stuff with?"**_

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"What?! You'd think I'd use real milk and eggs?!"**___

_Cyborg begins to wretch._

_Cyborg: __**"Ah man!! I knew he was gonna be poisoning us with that soy stuff!!"**_

_Robin: __** "Beast Boy!! Ptoooie!! You no good son of a b---"**___

_Snkkkkttt!!_

_Carpet and ceiling and lens flare twirling around._

_Robin's Voice: __**"Gimme that camera!"**___

_Cyborg's Voice: __**"We're gonna beat you over the head with it!!"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"What?! No!! Jeez! Hey!! Stop it!! Terra's party, remember?!"**_

_Snkkkkkttt!!!_

The blonde and Starfire pose besides the kitchen counter with party hats placed goofily about their noses and ears. They wave and try not to break up laughing.

_The Girl and Starfire: __**"Hiiiiii. Greetings from the Citadelian Empire! Do you like our noses?!"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Oh….my….androgenous….God. Like…totally…"**_

_The two girls start giggling their heads off._

Beast Boy's Voice: _**"That's about the closest you get to girl-on-girl action in this Tower!!"  
**__  
__The Girl: __**"Hey!!!"**___

_Starfire: __**"Girl-On-Girl? Does Beast Boy wish us to play piggy back?"  
**__  
__Robin's Voice: __**"Beast Boy!!!"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Daw crap!"**_

_The camera nose dives._

_Snkkkkktttt!!!_

An extreme closeup of Raven reading a book above an uneaten slice of cake.

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Duh duh duh duhhhhhh!! Who knew I was filming a horror story?"**_

_Raven: __**"Cute."**_

_The dark girl doesn't even look at the camera._

Beast Boy's Voice: _**"Look out, ladies and gentlemen!! It's…ATTACK OF THE KILLER CHAKRA STONE!!!"**___

_The camera zooms in and out rapidly on Raven's bejeweled forehead._

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Wreee!! Wreee!! Wreee!! Wreee!!"**_

_Raven: __**"Aren't you supposed to be filming your girlfriend?"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Whatcha talkin' about, Raven?"**___

_Raven: __**"I'm giving you to the count of ten…"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Wree!! Wree!! Wree! Wree!!"**___

_Raven: __**"Ten."**___

_She reaches a hand out without looking and glowing streams of black zoom down below the camera._

Flash!!

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Ah jeez!! My pants!!"**___

_The camera tilts and—_

_Snkkkkkkttttkktt!!_

_The blonde girl is curled up cutely on the couch and seemingly trying to hide from the camera._

_The Girl: __**"Beast Boyyyy!! Stoppp! Aren't I embarrassed enough for one evening??"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"But you're smiling!"**___

_The Girl: __**"Soooo??"**___

_The camera scoots in horrendously._

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"And you're blussssssshiiiiiiing!!"**___

_The Girl: __**"Hey!! I am not!!"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Yes you arrrrre!!"**___

_The Girl: __**"How about I turn your bedroom into a sinkhole?"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"All the girls are threatening me today. It must be their way of flirting!"**_

_The Girl: __**"Hehehehe…well, so are the guys threatening you. You ever think of that?"**___

_Beast Boy's Voice: __**"Eeek!! Gross!!"**___

_The camera tilts downwards._

_The Girl's Voice: __**"Hehehehehe!!"**___

_Snkkkkkttkkkkkkttttkkkkttttt!!!_

Snkkkkkktttttkkktttttkkkkktt!!!

Snkkkkttktkkkkkktkkktttkktt!!!

_Something black and fuzzy is blocking the camera's lens at point blank. Probably a couch or something. Two voices speak in muffled tones. The camera is likely recording by accident._

_**"So what did you wish for, Terra?"**___

_**"I can't tell you that, B.B."**___

_**"Why not?"  
**__  
__**"Ya know…it ruins the wish!"**___

_**"Well, if you had another wish. Like…for a second cake. What would it be?"**___

_**"What's the point me in me telling you that?!?!"**___

_**"That's just it!! There is no point!! Because there is no second cake!!"**___

_**"Well….."**___

_**"Come on! I'll keep it a secret! I promise!"**___

_**"Okay. If I could have any wish at all…it'd be…it'd be…."  
**__  
__**"Yes, Terra?"**___

_Silence._

_**"I-It'd be for you guys to stay my friends forever."**_

_**"Pfft!! Terra, I said a wish! Not a reality!"**_

"Awwww….B.B. You're too sweet."

"Sweet…as in soy milk and tofu eggs cake sweet?"

"Well……er….I don't want to insult you…."

"Oh come on!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!"

"Hey Terra?"

"Hehehe—yeah?"__

_**"Happy birthday."**_

"Th-Thanks, Beast Boy. Thanks….v-very much."

_Silence._

Silence………

Silence………………………………

…………

_SNkkkktktkkktkkktttt!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The DVD of the camera recording went to permanent snow.

I took a deep breath and drowned in an undying grin.

She was so adorable. Utterly innocent.

_How could……could…_

I shook the invading thoughts out and resubmerged into the aura of what I just saw. The warmth. The friendliness. The joy of it all.

And then when I realized how easily all of that collapsed, I couldn't help but wonder more.

_How badly were the Titans hurt?_

I took a deep breath as a lump formed in my throat.

It was awkward because….having watched that, I wanted to meet Terra. I wanted to see the girl that made Starfire so giggly and Beast Boy so debonair and Cyborg and Robin so calm.

And yet…I knew who she was in theory. And what she had become.

What I myself had almost become…

I took a deep breath.

In theory, I knew something else. Something of greater permanence in regards to Terra than a simple DVD record.

I jumped up and swiftly grabbed my shoes and jacket from various places in the Tower. If I hurried….If I hurried…

I may have still had time….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

One by one, the Titans wandered down into the hollow cave. Their eyes fell onto the figure at once and they all froze. Side by side. A cluster of empty souls.

Terra's stone figure stood before them. Her mouth in an eternal exclamation of strain and shock. Her arms stretched out like a savior.

Beast Boy bit his lip. And naturally he was first. He wandered over and laid his roses down at the statue's feet. Remnants of the Titans' last few visits were still there. The wind hadn't reached in far enough during their absence to have disturbed the scene. The plague still designated Terra as a 'true friend'. And it was upon such an epitaph that Beast Boy leaned and sighed and said:

"It was one year ago that we first met you, Terra. And my life hasn't been the same since. And before you stop worrying, the answer is 'no'. It's not because of…b-because of the way things ended up. But rather, I-I'll always remember you for your smile and way of making me laugh and stuff. Of making me feel….making me feel like the attention of the world didn't matter. For once in my life, there was me and there was you. And I didn't have to be some macho dude or some kickass superhero for you to l-like me. I just had to be myself. You're the truest friend I ever had, Terra. Truly….truly truly…."

Silence.

The boy heaved, as if he had spent the entire day (and the night before) gathering the strength to say that. He stumbled to the side and gestured towards the other Titans.

Starfire walked up next. She curtsied gracefully in her green dress and said: "I do truly miss you, friend. I miss hugging you and performing braiding maneuvers on each other's hair, and playing goofy games of jocular nature. But what I truly miss the most is you yourself. For you are so innocent underneath all of the hardness and razor edge anger that Slade painted on you. I truly believe that, Terra. I like to envision a little bit of good in everyone. And more than once, I have let the pain of betrayal blind me to the righteousness of good, good people. On Earth as well as in this wondrous galaxy we live in. Jablarkaan leeneosaad blibberoda karkablub. 'My heart and green fire go out to you'. May X'Hal look after you." She knelt and placed the lavender flowers by the stone girl's feet. She stepped back beside Beast Boy and sighed, biting her lip and trying to keep her green eyes dry. Beast Boy hugged her side and she hugged him back.

The android Titan stepped up. "Yo yo, Terra! Remember me??" Cyborg smirked, holding a bundle of daisies like a football under his arm. "I sure am missing your spunk around here, girl! The Tower's a soft place without you around to toughen things up a bit! But I'm not letting my guard down!! Nuh uh!! I trust in my family…and my family's all around me. But not just B.B. and Rae and Star and Rob. But you too, girl. You too." A beat. Cyborg kept smiling…but slowly that smile faded into a weak grin as he sighed and said in a subtler voice: "I've lived through enough physical crap and hardships to know that death isn't as easy to fall into as everybody thanks. You may not be doing jumping jacks anytime soon the way you're all stone and all, but 'Terra' is deep inside of you somewhere. Maybe it still hears us. Maybe not. But you do me a favor, girl. Whether you hear it or not. You don't give up, you hear me?? That's an order. You're tougher than this! I know it! And you're gonna pull through! You're a role model for all of us, Terra. And we all look forward to your next ass kicking!"

A few of the others chuckled lightly at that.

Cyborg smiled, knelt down, and laid the daisies out onto the feet of the statue. He walked to the side and folded his arms, staring resolutely into space.

Raven stepped forward.

"Look…I'm not good at speeches and I'm certainly not good at handling other people's emotions, especially not mine. So I'm gonna make this short, okay?" A beat. The dark girl said, "You surprised me, Terra. You really did. On more than one occasion. I find myself….a b-better person because of you. Truly, I do. And it's not because of the…..well….unfortunate things that you played a part of. When you gave your all to save us and the City after Slade's disappearance, it shocked me. It truly did. For it was not a selfish act. And—as much as you were probably fed up with the crappy things that happened to you—it was pretty brave of you too. I knew that you valued your life. I could sense it. It's the only true thing I've ever sensed from you. All else was ambiguous. Terra, you truly loved life. And a big part of your life was us, the Titans. I am…………flattered by your respect. As much as I have a hard time showing it. I'm still learning how to manage that these days. When I think back on you and your legacy, I realize that you're something I wish I could be. I wish I could make decisions so monumental and yet so simple, and still be relaxed to know that my friends would live in spite of how much….I-I indulged." Silence. "I….I-I guess that's all I have to say."

She placed the tulips down below the statue and stood over besides Cyborg. She glanced at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. The android Titan looked down, managed a brave smile, and took a breath and watched as Robin took center stage.

The Boy Wonder held a collage of different types of flowers representing all of the Titans' contributions in one bundle. He took a long, good look at the statue and spoke:

"Terra, for your life and your fate…I feel responsible. No, I am responsible. As a leader of the Titans, I should never have let this happen to you. But alas, I failed. You're here not because of Slade. Not because of 'betrayal'. You're here because of me. Because of us. The Titans—I believe—are their own worst enemy. And we gave up too easily when we should have been finding ways to appeal to you and relate with what you were going through with Slade. The Titans were there for me when I was coerced. And yet…we fought you mercilessly when you were under his influence. And as if that wasn't the worse, we repeated history….l-long after you ended up like this." A painful pause. "B-But I'm not here to cast woes. I'm here to make a promise. And—if necessary—it's the last promise I'm ever going to make you. It's that ultimate and precious to me and the rest of us, Terra. We…are…going…to…get….you…out…of…this. Someway. Somehow. There is a cure for what happened to you. It may lie in your power. It may lie in technology. But before I so much as become an adult, I swear, you will be out of this rock and back in the flesh where you belong. And—if you're willing—we would love to be your friends forevermore. Keep fighting, Terra. We certainly are."

He placed the flowers at her feet and stepped back.

And once again, the Titans were more or less forming a straight line.

Silent…..

…………….

………………….

Raven coughed once or twice.

Starfire sniffled and fought tears in her eyes.

Robin breathed heavily through his nostrils.

Silence………

Until…a good handful of minutes later….Beast Boy spoke softly for them all.

"Th-Thanks, guys. I-I think we can all g-go home now…."

Everyone dazedly nodded. Slowly, sorrowfully, they all turned around from the statue and headed up towards the mouth of the cave. Robin wandered over to a teary-eyed Starfire and offered her a shoulder to lean on, which she gladly offered with a shudder. Cyborg and Raven exchanged silent glances as they walked side by side…as if somehow alleviated by each other's company. Beast Boy walked alone…ahead of the group. His thin, gangly form seemed awkwardly strong all of the sudden.

And in such somberness, the Titans were gone.

……

……

……

……

I slowly materialized.

I was standing silent as a piece of the cave itself in the shadowed corner.

My black eyes rested on the blinding exit of the cave. Where my friends and partners had departed.

A beat.

I looked back over at the statue and took a painful breath.

I had watched the entire thing. On blurring feet, I rushed effortlessly to the sight where the statue allegedly was. I beat the Titans to it. I kept hidden and invisible as they performed their ritual, not showing myself in the least. I didn't want them to know I was there. Just like they purposed for me not to be there.

And…I wasn't angry at them. Not in the least. They had every reason for me not to be there. For this girl meant as much pain to them as she meant joy. And being a person with his fair share of pain in life, I knew it was only foolish to dictate the decisions of others' in dealing with heartache. Even if I wasn't entirely clear as to why they kept me outside of this visitation on the anniversary of meeting Terra. I would respect the Titans. After all, they had boundless respect for me.

I walked up to the statue. Breathing gently through my nose. My hands dug into my denim jacket's pockets. My black eyes were round. Sorrowful.

I couldn't just 'leave'. I had to give something. For I was a Titan myself. Like Terra was. Like she is.

So I reached into my pocket and pulled out my deck of cards. I stared at it. I stared at the statue. I knelt and nestled the entire deck with the flowers. With magician's fingers, I squeezed the package of the cards just right and made the ace of hearts poke out the opened flap and grace the soft petals of the flowers before turning around, walking away, and cloaking into a shadow of murk.

If I hurried…I could make it to the Tower before my friends. It helped to run on water.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And I did get to the Tower first.

I sat in the Main Room for a good twenty minutes, thinking, before the elevator doors swung open and the Titans sauntered in. Much livelier than before. They were in the middle of some reminiscing conversation.

I stood up—put on a casual smile—and gestured to Cyborg in the distance.

"Huh?" the android 'read' as the Titans gradually wandered my way. "Oh….we were going out for a drive. Thought we'd leave you to your meditation, ya know?"

I nodded cheerfully. I took a deep, knowing breath. Somehow satisfied--

I was suddenly being hugged. Being hugged by Starfire.

I was truly shocked. I looked down at the Tamaranian head of hair against my chest. She hugged me for a good twenty seconds…amazingly not crushing me in her stereotypical fashion. Thus, it was a very meaningful, respectful hug.

She looked up at me with moist eyes and said: "It is most glorious to see you, Noir…" That murmured, she wandered off.

I didn't have a time to watch her walk away when Cyborg was suddenly there and giving me a high five. "Looking good, Noir," he said with an incredibly forced grin.

He walked off to some distant part of the Main Room as Beast Boy wandered over.

"Hey there…d-dude…," he gave a thumb's up. But gave up. He quickly walked to the nearest stairwell as his face started to grow long.

I felt a painful lump in my throat.

Robin walked by and saluted me. "Good job holding the fort while we were gone, N-Noir."

I waved back and shrugged.

Then Raven stood before me. She took a deep breath and barely muttered: "Always good to have you around, Noir…"

And she was gone. Everyone was gone. Diffusing upon contacting me like nothing had happened. And yet, in each back of their shoulders as they shuddered off—I noticed hesitancy. Longing. Nervousness.

And it hurt. It hurt so much—in a bitter sweet way—to realize how much of a blessing I was for the Titans. How much I had become their 'Sixth Member'. How I had taken their entire painful construct of betrayal and turned it around with the sacrifice of my limb. How they once had a girl that they seemingly lost forever and they desperately needed someone to make them feel sane in spite of all their sorrow. It hurt so much to be so much of a healing.

I quickly excused myself to visit the bathroom so no one could see tears pouring out from under my shades. But—to my surprise—I didn't cry. For it wasn't my pain that I was dealing with. And though it hurt right then and there than anything I had bee personally put through, I didn't have the tears of the Titans. If there be a God, they welled with salt water clarity from the eyes of some innocent statue somewhere empowered by their hope in a future when all wounds would be sealed and the dead would walk once again among them twice as alive.

I felt so proud…so very proud to be the stepping stool for my new friends.

I once again felt like a good person.


	90. For the Queen of Strings part 1

**90. For the Queen of Strings part 1**

Control Freak's remote.

Killer Moth's gloves.

Slade's mask.

Mad Mod's cane.

In the dim glow of cold blue lights overhead, the trophies of the Titan Tower's evidence room reflected off a pair of googly white eyes.

After an eternal silence, the rest of the lights flickered on. The eyes remained motionless as a thin, graceful reflection sauntered up and came to a stop.

A thin finger pressed a button, and the glass case surrounding the Puppet King's lifeless, wooden body slid down.

"Greetings and belated good will to you, oh catatonic miniature golem of dead trees!" Starfire gleefully exclaimed. She giggled and took the wooden figure down from its rack and held it before her. "I apologize for my absence as of late! Vacation was most soothing, and ironically enough I was fortunate enough to meet two beings of intergalactic ilk besides myself! But regardless of such new companions, I have not neglected my commitment to your upkeep. I assured Robin well over a year ago that I would attend to you during your stay here inside of the Titans' evidence room. I do not understand his protests against the matter, but after convincing him that even the soulless body of a mind-controling powermonger deserves attention and love, Robin could not help but surrender to my benevolent ideology! You are most fortunate today, little friend, for look at what I have acquired during my trip back here from the West!!"

She propped the Puppet King's body up onto a glass display and whipped out a ridiculously cute, small sailor suit…the sort of which would be found on little boys in the Victorian Age.

"Ta to the da!!! Is it not the most adorable article you have graced your vision on?"

Googly white eyes reflected the tiny blue outfit. Silent. Unmoving.

"Hehehe!! I do believe it will fit you most adequately. Raven presumed that you were engaged in a funeral burial when I was shopping. When I inquired as to her meaning, she said that the Puppet King would 'only be caught dead in that'. I assume she was referring to this outfit, but even still that confuses me. For certainly you would want to be young and vibrant and alive in a cute uniform liken unto this, no?"

Silence.

The Puppet King started to teeter over.

Starfire caught the body and giggled. "I so do miss attending to you. The last outfit I got for you…the 'Prince Charming' one sometime last month…I do not believe that it truly suited you. Please do not take offence to that. It is only that your size and proportion suggests youth and infantile joy. But I suppose any outfit is better than that one 'biker' costume. Beast Boy suggested I get that for you. As of now, I believe he was merely being jocular and not serious in his fashion advice."

She casually started to dress up the Puppet King I the cutesy little outfit while smiling and chattering on and on and on…

Like normal.

"Like I was about to deliberate…I met two fantastic people while on vacation. The first was Nova'm. Can you believe it?? Nova'm! The fourth child of the legendary King Vieveret'm! He was adopted by a wonderful couple in North Carolina. I swear…he is such an adorable, sweet little boy. Quite the fiery temper he had, though. I am happy to say that I was capable of reaching out to him. And I feel like I have a new little brother now! I so do desire to help him in his accumulation of Tamaranian culture and tradition! But all in good time. It is my foremost desire for him to feel safe and secure. And since our combined efforts resulted in the defeat of his antagonistic foe, Booker, we can now work together on helping him cope more fully with life on earth as an extraterrestrial entity. No sooner had I enjoyed the felicity of such a meeting with a Tamaranian youth, I was quickly coming face to face with none other than Supergirl herself! The last of the Argosians!! Hehehe!! Such grand friendships I have been forming lately!! She and I……."

Starfire's rambling went on and the only one to hear was the one who always heard her ramble on alone in the evidence room. A lifeless wooden puppet that was gradually turning into a sailor. Its googly eyes shook all throughout its dangling positions while being dressed.

It was a rather routine thing….in the morning time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_A thirteen-year-old Robin gained his balance._

He was on a catwalk stretched over a sea of mud.

Everything was churning.

A red sky peaked down between rusted tears in a metal ceiling above.

Panting, the caped hero looked up.

She stood, hunched, on the far end of the platform. Wounded. Panting.

Slowly, Robin moved towards her. He walked. He ran. He sprinted.

She looked up.

Something flashed. Something tore apart.

Cracks formed in the girl's immaculate face, and she fell apart into crumbling bits of black and brown.

Robin sweat. He stretched a gloved hand out. "NO!!!"

The catwalk shattered underneath her pile of flesh. Everything fell into the quivering sea of brown. And the red fell laughing through the ceiling, bathing Robin in scarlet molasses so that he couldn't so much as dive in after her.

"Nnnghh!!" he shouted. "Why did you come here?!?! WHY?!?! Look at you!! It's all my fault!! It's all my fault!!!"

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Boy Wonder shot up in bed, gasping. Sweating.

His breaths came quickly…but gradually subsided. He brought a shaking hand to his eyemasked face and sighed.

A beat.

"I….I-I guess vacations don't amount to much in the long run…"

Silence.

He glanced over at the bedside table. At the forbidden picture inside.

He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.

"Not today. Not today, I'm not…"

He tossed the covers off the bed, jumped to his feet, and sauntered over to a locker to get attired in his fighting costume.

In the middle of getting the tights on, he couldn't help but think aloud: "Did I sleep in?" He glanced over at the alarm clock. It was shut off. "Hmmm….must have shorted out. Th-Then why didn't anyone knock on my door to wake me?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg….Beast you turn that down please?" Raven uttered in full garb. Her temple artery was throbbing. She looked back from where the two of us stood at the computer station, observing a tracking signal on a monitor. "Noir and I are trying to go over some important mission information."

"And just what mission is that, Miss Sunshine?!" Beast Boy mused while hammering away at an Xbox controller in his grasp. "I haven't heard about any crime or whatnot today!"

," Raven bit her lip. "For important reasons, I assure you."

"You and Noir are going out on a date, aren't you?!"

My black eyes went bug-eyed.

"No!" Raven hissed. "I assure you, it's an important mission! Just take it like it is."

"Oh, okay. Does Robin know?"

"Go back to your gaming."

"Pffft! Whatever!" the changeling grinned. "Got your back, dude."

Cyborg retorted while hammering his own controller. "Got my back?! I was surrounded by nearly ten Grunts and you were off somewhere chucking grenades at the sky!"

"Uh uh!! I was going after an Elite, man!"

"You mean that Elite?"

"Huh?? WHOAH!!!"

"I got him!!"

"Hey! Lemme pick up a Needler!! DIE!!"

"No!! Moron!! You're hitting me!! Get the Elite!!"

"WOOOOHOOO!!! GO RED STUFF!!!"

"YO YO!!! Stop firing!!!"

The t.v. speakers crackled an explosion and the sound of a dying Spartan.

"Oops…," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

The screen flashed and the changeling's soldier was struck hard by an alien from behind.

"Great….back to the last checkpoint," Cyborg's head swiveled around and glared at the elf. "Stick to human weaponry, ok?"

"Whatever. Lemme drive the jeep thingy this time."

"In your dreams."

Raven shook her head. I focused on her as she pointed at the monitor.

"According to this, our man has just entered the small town of Barrymore forty miles west of here. Barrymore is a tiny place along a major country road heading through the mountains. I think we took the route at one point when heading out for vacation."

I nodded. I gestured like I was reading the open pages of a book.

"Perhaps I was reading at the time, but I'm pretty sure we headed through there."

I smirked.

She gave me a shifty glance. "Anyways," she looked back at the screen. "Knowing his personality from the last time the Titans battled him, he should be raising plenty of royal heck by now. His antics since escaping from prison have to have reached the news channels by now. I wouldn't expect any less from him than burning houses and slain cows."

I winced.

"Yeah," she nodded and glanced at me. "That's why you and I must get there as soon as possible. I already talked to Cyborg. He's letting us borrow the T-Car. Trust me. We'll need it."

I whistled a songbird sound.

"Robin?" Raven lifted an eyebrow. "I've already told you. We can't tell him about….th-this mission. It wouldn't help anything."

I shook my head. I whistled again and pointed over her shoulder.

She sighed. "What are you babbling about?"

"A mission that I don't know about," a strong voice said from behind.

Raven closed her eyes and grumbled. "Trust us, Robin…," she turned around to face the Boy Wonder who stood with his arms crossed suspiciously. "You should just stay here," the dark girl said. "I don't want you coming on this mission."

"And just what gives you the authority?" he frowned. "If I recall correctly, I was the leader of this troupe of crime fighters. Should I….ya know…be **informed** of breaches in the peace?"

"'Morning, Robin," Beast Boy smiled from the gaming. "Did you sleep well?"

"NO I DIDN'T!!" Robin turned and shouted.

Beast Boy and Cyborg chuckled.

Fuming, Robin faced the two of us.

"First of all, I slept in cuz my alarm was on the fritz and nobody thought to wake me up!! Now this?!?! Forgive me if I'm not so cheerful!"

"You must learn to control your emotions better," Raven said coolly, not breaking a sweat. "You're in no condition to tackle this enemy with the way you're blowing up at everyone."

"I'M NOT BLOWING UP AT EVERYONE!!"

I winced.

"What's going on here?! Sheesh!! I'm not that much of a nutcase, am I?!" Robin exclaimed. "Can anyone here trust me or what?!"

Suddenly, Beast Boy shrieked like a girl and looked at his watch. "Dude!! We gotta continue this game later!"

"We do?" Cyborg made a face.

"Yeah! There's this movie I wanted to record!! Sorry man, I gotta switch the game off!"

Beast Boy's finger switched to the auxiliary switch button of the t.v. remote.

Both Raven and Cyborg simultaneously gasped from separate parts of the room: "**No, Beast Boy! Don't touch that--!!"**

He did.

The t.v. switched from the Xbox to a network channel showing 'Late Breaking News'. And yes, it was helicopter footage of the village of Barrymore. Smoke was rising from a building at the far end of the town's quaint 'main street' beneath the feet of a two mountain ranges. A black speck was streaking back and forth across the street, causing more plumes of smoke. And that black speck was on a larger black speck. A ruthless rider on a killer motorcycle.

The News Reporter's Voice filtered itself over the footage:

"Information is still sketchy, but it's believed that Johnny Rancid started his rampage approximately ten hours ago after his dramatic escape from a prison car transporting him to a court hearing in Bloodhaven where he's wanted for heavy vandalism charges. Electronic contact with the sparse residents of the small town of Barrymore has been lost since his arrival, and law enforcement have been late in arriving on the scene due to the remote location of the village within the mountains."

"Johnny Rancid?" Beast Boy made a face. A lightbulb went off in his head. "Hey!" he beamed. "Isn't that the really mean motorcycle guy who got Robin really pissed off that one time?"

Silence.

Everyone was staring at him.

He looked at Cyborg.

The android's human eye thinned as he frowned in the changeling's face. "Yes."

A beat.

"Oh….," Beast Boy blinked and looked at the rest of us three. "Eheheheheh….my bad."

Robin's glaring face slowly swiveled about to face us. "Well…..?" he murmured.

Raven sweatdropped. "Just two of us can handle him. I assure you. Noir and I are going to take the T-Car in a matter of minutes to confront the criminal and put him back in the hands of authorities. We don't need you to—"

"You don't need me?!?!" Robin practically spat. He jabbed a finger into his chest. "You don't need me?!?!?! Who else here knows Johnny Rancid's notoriety more than anyone else?!?!"

"Well—"

"And who here has dealt with him one on one and had his arm practically broken and name insulted by that inflated, pompous punk of a roadster?!?!"

"Uhhh—"

"Nobody here is more fully equipped to take on Johnny Rancid than me!!!" Robin shouted. "Anyone else—and he'd tear through the Titans like tissue paper!! I've been hardened by facing him!! I know what makes him tick!! I know how empty headed and pathetic he really, truly is!!!"

"But, Robin, you're—"

"JUST HOW IN THE WORLD COULD ANY OF YOU POSSIBLY THINK I WASN'T CAPABLE OF DEFEATING HIM, HUH?!?! THAT JERK OF A NEFARIOUS CRIMINAL WANNABE!!! HE'S TOTAL SCUM!!! NOTHING BUT A WASTE OF BREATH!!! WOULD I ACTUALLY LET HIM GET TO ME?!?!?!"

His voice stopped, but it took a good few seconds for the sound waves to stop bouncing against the walls. Some of us sensed a drinking glass or two cracking in the dishwasher over the counter.

I simpered, stuck a finger into my ear canal, and flexed my jaws wide.

"Hmmm…..," Raven coolly hummed. "Cyborg and I could have just settled on letting you yell yourself into unconsciousness and then maybe that would have worked just as well."

Robin blushed. A beat. "Wait…," his eyemask narrowed and he pointed. "What are you trying to sa---" His face dropped. He frowned. "It was YOU who sabotaged my alarm clock!"

"Actually….heheheh….m-me…," Cyborg waved from the couch where he sat and Beast Boy pensively hid. "Hands like a clockmaker, ya know!"

"This is a conspiracy!!" Robin tossed his hands. "I can't believe it!! Nobody thinks I can keep it cool while fighting Rancid!! Noir, were you in on it too?"

I smiled innocently.

"Robin, quite plain and simply," Raven droned, "You need to sit back on this one. Remember our first climactic battle with Slade? It's like that now."

Robin gritted his teeth. "This is NOT like Slade. NOTHING is like fighting Slade."

Raven was silent at that.

Robin raised a finger. "I'm leading this mission. Raven. Noir. It's YOU two who are coming along. Got it?"

I nodded panickedly. I looked at Raven.

She stood still, frowning and folding her arms.

I cleared my throat and reached a hand over to her chin…forcing her to 'nod'.

"Good. We're going. Now."

Cyborg watched him head towards the elevator. "Can I have the T-Car back then—"

"No."

"Awww….you better not wreck it, dawg!" Cyborg gestured. "You know what they say about driving while angry."

"Yes. It should be done more often."

SCHLUMP!!!

The elevator doors closed behind the three of us.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "He better have been joking."

Beast Boy beamed and pressed 'record' on the digital vcr. "Yes!! Just in time for my movie!"

"Hooooooooo boyo," Cyborg spun about and looked at the t.v. screen. He made a face. "'Moonstruck'???"

"That's amore!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire had the Puppet King—sailor mode—sitting on a counter in the evidence room and was busily polishing the tiny mannequin's wooden body while bubbily speaking on:

"And so, when I sit down and think about it, it is most amusing. After all, the name 'Robin' on earth is not necessarily indicative of gender or sex. Raven has told me on a couple of occasions how there are many girls on this planet named 'Robin'. At least girls of the anglo-saxon persuasion. It is in light of such confusion that I wonder…does Robin feel uncomfortable about his title? It is quite common for earthling males to worry about the accuracy of their gender roles. The male terran ego is quite strict in its adherence to an invisible rule for patriarchy. All men and young boys are encouraged to hide their feelings to the point that they must not even cry in public! Perhaps Robin is the greatest manifestation of this scenario. For not only can he not express tears, he can not even express his eyes. I imagine he must be quite proud of his masculinity. Then would that make Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Noir 'effiminate' for exposing their eyes on a regular—or infrequent—basis? Then there is also the act of chivalry. It is both touching and amusing the number of times Robin—and the other boys—have tried to ease my supposed 'discomfort' by rescuing me from dangerous plights in battling crime or allowing me to access simple luxuries first like the passage of my body through a door or sitting inside of the T-Car and other idiosyncrasies of that nature. But, in returning to the topic of the title of 'Robin' itself, I do giggle at it from time to time…as if I am labeling the leader of the Titans with an earthling girl's name from time to time. It is something I am surprised Beast Boy has not made a jocular comment about by now. Can you believe it?? I am actually predicting the conversational persuasion of my partners by now! Could it be that I have so easily positioned myself into this setting after all of this time of alienation?"

She paused in her polishing and smiled at the dead puppet.

The Puppet King's googly eyes were cross-eyed. Still. Unmoving.

Starfire giggled and resumed her treatment.

"You are the most polite listener! I do not know what ever possessed you to pursue an unethical manipulation of other people's cognitive functioning. In a lot of ways, it makes me think of the traitorous actions of my sister. Do you know that she once attempted to trick my brother into believing that a Jackablorgian Mud Worm was edible?! I had to assist him to the anti-gravity lavatory to throw up because we—my family—were on an intergalactic cruise to the event horizon of the interstellar Temple to the Final Nebula of the Great Collection and all the other facilities were being occupied by pilgrims from other Vegan planets cleansing themselves and—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The garage door opened loudly.

Robin lowered the remote to his belt and snapped the yellow satchel closed. He twirled the keys Cyborg lent us into his grasp and unlocked the T-Car with the push of a button.

Chirp!

He looked at Raven and I.

"Let's hit the road."

"Just don't let the road hit us," Raven glared. She walked over to the rear passenger side and waited at the door. "Keep focused while driving, okay? No need for you to be distracted by stray thoughts of anger or revenge and send us all throttling into a tree."

Robin unlocked the doors and got into the driver's seat. "Raven, I'm the leader of the Titans. When you and I founded this group, even you agreed that I needed to lead this team because of the maturity that YOU yourself said you saw in me."

"I had barely even met you…," Raven muttered.

"The point is, I'm more than capable of handling myself during this mission. Right now, all I'm really concerned about is the poor people of Barrymore and how much Johnny Rancid is possibly threatening their innocent lives right now."

"Noble…but still an excuse," Raven sat down in the rear seat.

I sat in the front next to Robin.

"I'll be keeping an eye out on you," she said. "For your safety."

"Uh huh," Robin turned the key in the ignition.

The T-Car roared to life. The front shook from the strong engine. The A/C turned on and filled the interior with a fresh scent.

Cyborg's car was always 'fresh'….

SNAP! Robin snapped his gloved fingers. "Shoot! I forgot!"

"What?" Raven gave him a suspicious glance.

"Tire strips! Like the type police toss in front of speeding suspects! It's essential in flattening Rancid's tires. Thus, it's essential to stopping him."

"Did you bring some?"

"No. I forgot. They should be in the utility shed in the rear of the garage."

"Then let's bring them."

"Noir?" Robin glanced over at me. "Would you mind grabbing two of them and putting them into the trunk?"

I smiled and volunteered with a nod.

"They're kinda heavy, though," the Boy Wonder warned. "Put your legs into lifting them and don't strain yourself…."

"Don't bother," Raven muttered and opened the door. She got out. "If they're heavy, then I should get them. I do have telekinesis, you know."

"That works," Robin shrugged. "Fine by me."

Thwump!

Raven closed the rear door and walked towards the back of the garage.

I took a deep breath and leaned forward.

"Feeling rested?" Robin asked.

I nodded.

"Good," he shifted gears. "Cuz with Raven, we'd be overstocked. It's just you and me."

SCREEEEEEECH!!!!

I gasped as the car rocketed forward. I was pressed back hard into my seat as I scrambled to get my safety belts on.

VROOOOOOOOM!!!!

The T-Car was already halfway down the land ridge when Raven walked back with a twisted look on her face.

"Wait….," she mumbled. "Didn't Cyborg equip the T-Car ITSELF with deployable Tire Strips---" Her blue eyes bulged. "He didn't."

He did. And we were nearly over the suspension bridge by then.

Raven gritted her teeth. She clenched her fists. She shook…her face went red.

….

She relaxed into a sigh before she could blow. The girl stood straight and breathed calmly. Like melted ice.

"Oh well," she muttered. "Boys….."

She swiveled around and walked quietly towards the stairwell.

"At least now I get to catch up on some reading…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…and I was so amused to find out that Kara felt the same way!! Whoever on earth invented brassieres must have been of the sadistic persuasion. But then again, even Kara and I had to digress and realize that Terran people do not commonly enter space with the absence of gravity and thus it may be more pertinent for women to support themselves in such fashion throughout all of their years in spite of the perpetual annoyance of the feat."

Starfire smiled. She glanced at a clock on the wall.

"Eeep!" she cutely cried out. "It is almost time for me to prepare lunch for my friends!"

She swiftly placed the Puppet King back on his mantle and pressed a button. The glass case flew up and surrounded him once more atop the pedestal in the center of the evidence room.

"I do apologize for the brevity of our meeting. I will have more to talk about tomorrow, no doubt. But as is usual, my friends hold precedent in my expectations." She cupped her hands together and pleasantly leaned her head to the side. "I had heard rumors of Noir and Raven going on a mission to track down Johnny Rancid. If they are gone upon my arrival upstairs, I will be truly saddened. But I trust that their return will be prompt and safe! X'Hal be with them! Hehehe! Have a good day!"

She sauntered out of the room, flipped the switch, and dimmed the lights as the automatic door closed behind her.

Silence.

The various weapons and tools of victims reflected off the white, googly eyes of the Puppet King. That is…until the eyes darted over to look at where Starfire had just left….and blinked.


	91. For the Queen of Strings part 2

**91. For the Queen of Strings part 2**

Robin glared coldly over the dashboard as he steered the wheel and careened us around a semi-truck on the shoulder of a two lane country road. Trees, telephone wire posts, and junctions flew past us like the shutter of an old silent picture camera. Honking cars of other drivers on the roadway shrieked past us like irate sirens clinging desperately to their rocks from the backblast of our rocketing down the road.

To say the least, I was adequately pressed back into my chair and as pale with fright as a ghost during the two-hour plunge across the state to the ravaged town of Barrymore. My fingers clenched so tightly around the Jesus bar that my knuckles were tight. I gulped.

"Johny Rancid….," Robin mumbled. "If there's anything about him that I hate, it's his attitude."

HONK!!! HONNNNNNNK!!!

We barely swerved to miss a white minivan.

The T-Car's wheels squealed and regained traction as we barreled down the road.

"He can't settle for beating back me or any of the other Titans. He has to yell in our faces and try to make us feel lower than dirt in the process. While—at the same time—he burns around with no respect for human life."

SCREEEECH!!!

We pulled out of the way of a pickup truck and nearly ran off road.

Robin calmly jerked the wheel back.

We lurched to the left.

I cringed.

We rocketed onward.

"Anyways…," he coolly went on. "It's not so much that I hate his guts, but rather I hate what he could be doing to people if we don't get there in time to put an end to his rampage. A person like that wouldn't mind if he ran over a kid with that monstrous motorcycle of his. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how he kicks so much butt while riding a harley. Hang on a sec—"

He yanked the wheel to the left.

I covered my black eyes under my shades.

The world twirled around us as he spun the T-Car into a sharp turn towards the west. A mountain range loomed on the immediate horizon.

I moaned.

"Relax…," Robin said. "I'm going to need you. Rancid has never fought you or your sword before. You'll come in handy big time."

He pushed the throttle further, if that was even possible.

The speedometer read '120'. And still he wasn't satisfied.

"Hmmm…we're a bit slow. Guess I should hit the nitro."

And he hit the nitro.

The sky practically fell through the windshield.

If I had vocal cords, I would have been whimpering.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!

A mother and her child ran across the street, shrieking. An old man held the door to a hardware store open and frantically slammed it shut after the two scurried in.

Elsewhere, three teenagers were running for their lives and diving into the back of a pickup truck that took off towards the far end of Main Street.

Everywhere, people in Barrymore were fleeing from the street and taking cover in buildings and on top of vehicles and anywhere else away from a two-wheeled death machine swirling about, kicking off dust, and thundering the air with the heavy noise of an obscenely massive engine.

"YEAAAAAH!!! HA HA HA!!!!" an adequately drunk Johnny Rancid waved a beer bottle in one hand and revved the engine of his black metal motorcycle with the other. He wore faded blue jeans, a leather belt, and a black wife beater shirt that clung half-heartedly to his rippling muscles. His dark, shadowed eyes were bloodshot and his scraggy black hair twice as much out of order as he shook his head and let out a wild cry. He kicked his legs up and throttled forward. He sailed like a black bullet down the middle of main street. He leaned hard to the right and skidded his cycle to a stop. The vehicle slid up onto a curve and its rear smashed effortlessly through two newspaper vendors and a post office drop box. SM-SM-SMASH!!!! "WOOOHOOO!!!" He took a big swig of his drink and wiped his mouth with his forearm and hiccupped. "Hic!! Barrymore?! Who the crap named a town 'Barrymore'?! Maybe I should just rename this dump 'blood gulch' and have done with it!" He glanced over and saw an old couple scurrying across the road. He sneered. "But gotta **make** this town a namesake first. HA!!" He revved the engine, skid, and barreled down after the two senior citizens.

The old man and woman gasped. They tried in vain to scurry over a fence.

The motorcycle bore down on them.

Townsfolk shouted from windows of two story building fronts down mainstreet.

The two citizens clawed at the fence.

The wheels flew up gravel and asphalt dust a few yards away…closer…closer…

"HA HA HA HA!!!" the punk laughed maniacally and waved the bottle as he flew in on their backs like a missile. "Allow me to burry your bones for free!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Something white and blue swerved in his way.

"Huh?!?!"

CLANK!!!!

Jonny Rancid's motorcycle struck the side of the parked T-Car so hard that it literally flipped forward and over the fence that the couple were trying to climb over.

"WAAAAAAAH!!!" the man shouted pathetically.

CLANK!!!!!

He landed in a junkyard on the other side.

The windows to the T-Car rolled down.

Robin peered through one at the old couple. "I'm sorry, is this spot taken?"

The two oldfolk smiled and bowed in thanks to us.

Robin smirked. "Stay clear!"

He put the car in reverses and swung us around. He then throttled us forward and circumnavigated the fence. We entered through the front of the junkyard via a dirt road off of Barrymore's main street and approached Johnny Rancid.

The villainous roadster was just finishing setting his motorcycle upright and 'saddling' up again when we skidded to a stop between two piles of abandoned, rusted appliances.

"Hey!! Idiots!!" Johnny Rancid hiccupped and frowned as he gripped the handles to his bike. "You made me lose my bottle!!"

"Be thankful we didn't make you lose your head!!"

WHURRRR!!!

Robin swiftly lowered the convertible top to the T-Car. He put the car in part, unbuckled, and stood up with one foot on the dashboard—standing like a pirate—before pointing with a frown at the cyclist.

"The joyride is over, Rancid! You're coming with us in one piece….or you're coming with us in one really nasty, bruised up piece!"

"Oh! It's you!" Johnny Rancid grinned evilly. "I've been thinking a lot about you in prison, bird boy!"

"Been without a girlfriend that long, punk?"

Even I had to snicker at that.

"It was the likes of you, stupid kid, who threw me in the slammer!! How about I slammer you back to your mother's womb?!"

"Sheesh," Robin made a face with eyebrows raised sympathetically. "You **are** drunk!"

"And you're roadkill!!! RRRRRAAAUGH!!!"

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

Johnny Rancid zoomed his motorcycle straight at us.

Robin folded his arms. He frowned.

"Take the wheel."

I did a double take.

WOOSH!! Robin pulled out a fan of birdarangs.

"Take the wheel and go in reverse….**Noir!!!**"

I gasped. I nervously unbuckled and dove into the driver's seat—still warm from Robin's piloting—and shifted us in reverse. I slammed my foot on the gas.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!!!

The T-Car barreled backwards through the junkyard.

"AH HA HA HA HA!!!! BACK OFF!!!" Rancid bellowed as he approached us, front tire first.

I looked behind me, teeth gritting, as I struggled to steer us safely around the piles of junk while in reverse.

In the meantime, Rancid's motorcycle was almost grinding the front of Cyborg's Baby's hood.

And also in the meantime…Robin was letting out a growl and flinging the discs at the approaching villain one at a time.

"YAAUGH!!! RRRGHH!!!"

SWIIIISH!!! WOOOOSH!!!

CL-CLANK!! CLANK!!

The discs embedded in the metal structure of Rancid's motorcycle. Barely missing his limbs.

"HEY!!!" he shouted. "Get your own dartboard, brat!! Yaugh!!"

He throttled an extra burst forward.

WHUMP!!!

The T-Car lurched as Rancid's front wheel made contact.

I jolted.

Robin held his breath and leapt forward in mid-impact. He flipped over Rancid's motorcycle and landed agilely on his feet. No sooner had he landed that he unleashed a grappling hook that swirled around the back structure of Rancid's motorcycle and pulled taut. Robin gritted his teeth and held on tight as he was dragged behind Rancid on his feet, his boots grinding dirtily into the ground.

The tad extra weight of Robin set Rancid off balance.

"Whoah!!!"

SCREECH!!

He gained control of his bike and careened off and past the T-Car. I yanked the wheel to the side and shifted gears. The T-Car swirled to a stop, and I watched—panting—as Rancid zoomed off past a pile of junk.

Robin—dragged by the grappling hook cord—somehow managed to vault himself upward from the blurring ground. He positioned his swinging pendulum body sideways, 'ran' along the side of a junkpile, and leapt again…this time sailing outward and landing with his legs wrapped around the back of Rancid's seat. His chest to Johnny Rancid's backside, the Boy Wonder reached his gloved arms out from behind and wrestled with the driver.

"Nnnnnghhh!!"

"Waaaah!! Get off me, you little monkey!!"

"Hurt me more!! I can take it!! Now can **you**?!?! Rrghh!!" Robin yanked hard to the left with his arms.

Rancid let out a shout and the motorcycle veered violently. He barely maintained control—and balance—as the two wrestling 'riders' meandered in and around mountains of waste and degrading metal.

I swallowed, shifted the T-Car into gear, and sped off to catch up with them.

In the bobbing vision of the junkyard beyond the dashboard, I saw the two careening around a mountain of rusted car parts. I slowed the acceleration a little, eyeing the landscape cautiously through my shades. Then---VROOOOM!!!—Rancid's motorcycle swerved around from the other side. The dark haired punk and Robin fought and struggled atop the bike as it came directly at me.

I bit my lip. I looked at the myriad of buttons on the dashboard.

The bike roared towards me. Closer.

I saw a button marked 'front shield'.

The world shook as the bike came on me. The grunting voices of Robin and the motorcyclist entered my ears.

I jammed my finger over the button.

CH-CHTUNG!!!

The bumper descended and an iron sheet protruded out from the front of the T-Car at an angle.

CLANK!!!

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

The bike ramped over the T-Car.

I gasped and spun around, looking at the vehicle flying overhead.

Robin leapt off the bike in midair.

Rancid let out a blood-curdling squeal as the bike swiveled horizontally in its flight, bounced off the top of a pile of discarded appliances, and miraculously landed more or less upright.

CLUMP!!!

"Nnnnghh!!" Johnny Rancid jolted from the impact of landing. His whole body tensed and his eyes clenched shut. A beat. He blinked his dark eyes open. He relaxed. "Wow…I…I-I made it!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Robin swung in via grappling cord.

WHAM!!!!

He kicked Rancid off his bike and the motorcycle tumbled to the ground on its own.

"Augh!!" Rancid shouted as he rolled on the ground.

Robin landed in a crouch, gritted his teeth, and whipped out his metal staff.

Rancid stumbled up to his feet. "You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?"

Robin's eyemask thinned. "Sorry if I don't kiss it and make it feel better." Robin then charged with a growl. SWOOOSH!!! The metal staff kissed the air.

Rancid ducked.

CLANK!!!

The staff struck a pile of junk behind him.

The biker kicked his leg out.

WHUMP!!!

Robin jumped back and slid to a stop in a fighting pose.

Rancid grinned and reached—almost blindly—behind his shoulder and took a huge, metal baseball bat out from the pile. "Well then, you little turd…," he stood up and palmed the bludgeon smugly. "Let's see what your skull's made of on the inside."

"Try me."

"RRRRAUGH!!!" Rancid ran forward and swung the bat so hard, it formed a crater in the earth.

Robin leapt up just in time, flipped over Rancid, and landed in a kneel on the other side. He jabbed backwards at the biker's feet.

The biker fell down, tumbled, rolled onto his knees, and stood up in time to meet the Boy Wonder's next jab with a horizontally blocking bat.

CLANK!!!

"RRRGHH!!!" Robin growled and attacked ruthlessly.

Metal struck metal as Robin went on the athletic offense and Rancid provided the steady defense. The Boy Wonder pushed him back and back through the length of the junkyard. The nature of the conflict was becoming increasingly obvious. Robin was panting and sweating in his merciless attack. Rancid was unaffected. In fact, he was grinning.

Robin swung one too many times, and Rancid twirled his baseball bat up and clipped Robin's jaw.

The boy grunted and stumbled backwards.

Rancid laughed: "Ha ha ha ha!!! This one's going to left field….in HELL!!"

He swung full force at Robin's skull.

The Boy Wonder winced.

SCREEEECH-CLANK!!!!

I drove the T-Car in the way. The bat struck the paint job.

Rancid's shadowed eyes bulged. "Wha—"

I pressed a button.

The side door flew open.

WHAP!!!!

Rancid was knocked back five feet and his bat went tumbling away.

Robin winced. "Cyborg's not gonna like that."

I sweatdropped, but shrugged with a smile.

"Keep backing me up," the Titan Leader said as he vaulted over the T-Car and rushed the villain.

I closed the door, twirled the wheel, and shifted into gear as I rolled the Car around for another pass.

Meanwhile, Robin charged Rancid with a jab of his staff.

The villain pushed himself up by his bat and looked up—WHAP!!!—into the edge of Robin's rod. He stumbled back with a bleeding nose.

"RAAAUGH!!" Robin shouted and swung downward.

Rancid gritted his teeth and gripped the end of Robin's staff. He jabbed his bat with the other arm and contacted the Boy Wonder's chest.

WHUMP!!

"Ooof!!" Robin let go of his grip on the staff and stumbled back.

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Rancid sneered. He spun the bat in one hand and the staff in the other while getting into a threatening pose. "Don't you stupid wastes of pituitary glands ever learn?!"

Robin practiced his poker face. With two hands concealed behind his belt, he pulled a grappling hook launcher loose in each.

"You gonna teach me a lesson, Rancid?"

"I think I'm gonna teach you a concussion!"

"Sober up, jerk." SWOOOSH!! Robin stretched his arms out, took aim, and criss-crossed to grappling hook launches at opposite limbs of Rancid's. POW!!! POW!!!

Robin's right cord wrapped around Rancid's right wrist. The left cord wrapped around rancid's left. An X in the strings formed between them. Robin grunted and yanked both grappling hook launchers back. "Nnnghh!!"

As a result, the bat and staff in Rancid's grasp both converged as one on his cranium. CRUNCH!!!!!!

"MMPHH!!!" he painfully echoed.

Robin dropped the launchers. He ran. He jumped. He growled in a mid-air, kung fu kick.

WHAM!!!

Rancid cried out as he flew back in the air and--

SCREEECH!!!!

WHUMP!!!

He landed in the rear of the convertible T-Car as I swerved by.

The aching villain gasped. He sat up—unbuckled—and looked at me panickedly.

I looked over my shoulder while driving, smiled, waved, and latched a cord around his upended angle. A cord that—Rancid visually realized—was connected to a compartment in the rear of the T-Car.

He uttered: "Hell, no!!"

A light twinkled reflectively off my shades as I grinned and swerved the car hard to the side and slammed the breaks.

SCREEEECH!!!

He shouted as his body tumbled out of the vehicle, flew out half the length of the cord, and slammed hard into a wall of junk. CLUMP!!! He slumped to the ground, groaning.

I shifted gears. Pressed hard the gas. Spun the tires, and zoomed forward.

VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The cord wrapped around Rancid's ankle lost its slack, yanked, and--

SCRAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!" Rancid's voice vibrated as he was dragged roughly across the length of the junkyard. His butt bounced across the soil, grinding and tossing dust every which way. He struggled with his versatile strength to grab the cord around his ankle but could only shout out in pain and utter frustration: "STUPID KIDDDDDDDDDDDDS!!!!!"

I chuckled breathily and swerved left.

SCREECH!!!

The T-Car slung Rancid's dragged body into a pile of rusted trucks.

WHAM!!

"OW!!!!"

I swerved right.

SCREECH!!!!

He ramped over a stack of shopping carts.

CLUNK!!!

"AUGH!!!"

I held my breath and jerked the wheel hard to the side as the largest mountain of junk loomed ahead of us.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!" Rancid screamed like a baby as he was slung like a slingshot one hundred and eighty degrees, up off the ground, and towards where the T-Car was originally aimed at.

I shifted into park. Turned around, and unsheathed Myrkblade…snapping the base of the cord with one swing. SLASH!!! POP!!!!

"!!!!!!!!!!" Rancid's mouth hung open in a silent howl and---

**CHUNK!!!!**

The entire upper half of his body was embedded into the junkpile. His lower legs kicked and struggled as he let out muffled cries.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-CLANK!!!!

A perched Robin atop a rusted refrigerator flung an explosive birdarang into the pile right above Rancid's butt.

Beep-Beep-Beep!-**BOOM!!!!!!**

Junk flew into the air in a fountain…..then adequately sailed back down to bury Rancid's twitching body.

And all was silent.

….

Robin looked over at me from atop the fridge. He gave a thumb's up.

I smiled and returned an 'ok' sign from the T-Car--

**CRASH!!!!!**

Robin gasped and shielded himself with an arm as junk and debris flew outward. The two of us stared in disbelief as the notorious biker climbed his way out of the crater he had made. Growling, Rancid shouted and tossed more and more junk off of him before stumbling out onto the top of the postindustrial mountain. Bruised…..and pissed off.

"You can't defeat me….." (Pant! Pant!) "I'm bigger than you…" (Pant! Pant!) "I'm stronger than you…" (Pant! Pant!) "I'm **older** than you!!"

"You're also drunker than us," Robin groaned.

"Robin, I've had enough of you!!" Rancid's muscled heaved. "Like a bird, you squawk too much!! You fly too much!! It's about time you fell down to the earth for good!"

"Uh…yeah…whatever," Robin smirked. He'd found Rancid's achilles' heel. Indifference.

I had to smirk at that.

"Shut up and die!!" Rancid picked up the first thing he could find in the junkpile. An ironing board. He flew it at Robin like a broad javelin.

Robin grunted and dove off the fridge.

CLANK!!! The board bounced off the bridge and flew at me.

My black eyes bulged beneath my shades. I ducked--

SMASH!!!

The windshield shattered and the board clattered in the backseat.

I sweatdropped.

"YAAAUGH!!" Rancid picked up a sewing machine and tossed it.

Robin ran, rolled along the ground, dodged the junk, and caught sight of his rod on the ground. He dashed over and picked it up.

Rancid picked up a huge, metal toaster. He spun it by the cord over his head like a slingshot and tossed it down at Robin.

The Boy Wonder growled and upended his rod to deflect the small appliance. CLANK!!! It ricocheted off and flew at me.

I shifted gears and drove the car away before the paintjob could be ruined anymore.

CLUMP!!!

"Dodge this, pigeon sucker!!" Rancid growled and with monumental strength—and to our dumbfounded shock—hoisted a motherload of a port-a-potty over his head.

Robin sweatdropped from where he stood. "Must be his day job…"

"EAT IT!!!" Rancid chuckled the structure at Robin.

Robin dove out of the way, barely.

SMASH!!!!

He stumbled onto the ground, wincing.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin rolled over onto his back and looked upward. His eyemask widened.

"HAAAAA!!!" Rancid had jumped and he was presently flying down at the Boy Wonder, knee first.

Robin frowned and lifted his legs….

THWUMP!!!

"H-Huh?!" Rancid gasped. His descent had been halted by Robin's legs catching his chest. The Boy Wonder's knees bent and Rancid lowered to his chest till he was face to face with the grounded hero.

"You're right, Rancid," Robin grumbled. He whipped out a taser and wrapped it around Rancid's neck with a taut cord. "It's about time I gave up the flying to you." SWOOSH!!!! He grunted and kicked his legs out. Rancid's body was launched up and outward like a catapult.

"WAAAAAAIIEEEEEEE!!!!" he shouted.

In the meantime, I swerved the T-Car to a stop at the end of the biker's flailing trajectory. I glanced up at the falling figure, glanced over at a switch on the dashboard, and hit it.

Click!!

The rear trunk of the T-Car yawned open just in time for--

CLUMP!!!!!

Rancid's body flew in. The T-Car jolted. The door to the hood slammed shut. And deep inside, the taser went off.

_**ZZZZZZZZZAP!!!!!!**_

Rancid's voice bellowed from inside as the taser shocked the living heck out of him. Sparks danced out from the cracks of the hood. I winced and shaded my eyes. So did Robin as he stumbled over towards the T-Car, staff in hand. Eventually, the sparking stopped…and Rancid's screaming with it. All that was left was a groaning sound, still muffled. Then silence.

Robin took a breath. He shrugged. He looked at me.

I hesitantly flipped the switch again.

The door to the trunk yawned open.

I hopped out of the T-Car and stood next to Robin. Glancing in.

"Nnnnnghhh….," Rancid groaned, smoking all over. He twitched. "I-I'll have another one—HIC—on the house….bleahh…."

He was out cold.

"Well…," Robin scratched his dark hair and looked at me, hands on his hips. "Guess that rules out the electric chair." He smirked.

I wanted to laugh. As did Robin. He had the voice to.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour later, a ring of squad cars converged on the junkyard and armed guards were leading a hobbling Johnny Rancid into the back of a prison truck. His precious bike was being impounded.

An officer stood beside Robin and I next to the T-Car.

"I've got to hand it to you Titans…," he scratched his head. "You certainly came quickly enough. This City would have been in blood and rubble by the time we got here without your help."

"We've dealt with the creep before," Robin smirked with arms folded. "It was the least we can do. Especially after we were the ones who turned him in last time."

"All I can say is," the officer pointed. "You boys did a great job taking the action here and not duking it out in Barrymore's Main Street. Ya know…where there were innocent people around and stuff."

"We sorta—" Robin shrugged "—took it where it naturally fought out."

"Well, good initiative, is all I'm saying," the officer walked off. "We won't be needing you two anymore. You've done your part. Have a good day."

We were alone.

Robin sighed a relatively happy sigh. And all the angst and all the frustration that I had seen inside of him faded almost instantly. He looked pleasantly at me. "That's what all of this is worth, ya know. Satisfaction like that."

I smirked back.

"Wanna drive us home?"

I shrugged.

"You handle the T-Car pretty well, ya know that?"

I glanced at the paintjob and smashed windshield. I sweatdropped.

"I-I'll take responsibility for that…trust me," Robin simpered.

He got into the driver's seat and brought the ceiling down.

Robin got into the front passenger's seat and kicked back. "Sorry you didn't get to use your sword much."

I chuckled breathily at that and drove us out of the scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were reaching City limits. The sun was setting. The air was calm and inviting as two relaxed heroes welcomed the ride home with the windows down and the wind beating its way in.

I didn't like driving as much as I liked walking, but today it felt…strangely tranquil. Perhaps I simply enjoyed listening to Robin and his nonchalant ramblings on the long way back.

He certainly did seem relaxed….

"…and so Batgirl and Nightwing dove in at the last second, knocking Killer Croc out and giving Batman and I a chance to jump off the speedboat before it could explode! Killer Croc turned out to have survived about a month later, but it was still a case closed—and a close shave on account of B&N. Naturally, I thanked them for diving in and saving our asses. But Batman kept insisting that he could have gotten us both off the boat and safely into Gotham Harbor before they arrived. For such a good mentor, he certainly is full of himself. But not like me. You agree, right?"

I absolutely nodded my head with a helpless smile.

"Anyway. Nightwing got all pissy and swore never to come back to Gotham City again. Ya know. Keep his beat to Bloodhaven and stuff. But that didn't stop Batman from going to Bloodhaven and saving Nightwing's neck when Ra's Al Ghul was in the area trying to chop off Nightwing's head and give it to his daughter Talia or something. I dunno. That Ghul guy always struck me as wyrd."

I made a face at that and nodded off….deciding not to say anything. We turned off onto the land ridge leading to the Tower. The waters of the Bay glistened on either side of us as we bore down on our familiar home.

"I bet Raven and the others will be mad at me when we get back," Robin said. "But don't you worry. You were merely following orders when I had you come along with me."

I shrugged. My black eyes squinted through my shades as I thought I saw flashing lights ahead of us.

"Heh! Raven was wrong! I could handle Rancid!! And you saw me handle him! I handled him up to a couple hundred volts and a concussion!! Heh heh heh. He's gonna think twice about breaking out of jail and running that loud mouth of his!"

Red strobes illuminated the inside of the T-Car.

"What the—" Robin sat up straight.

There was a road block. A line of police squad cars. Their lights were flashing on top. Police officers frantically waved their arms at us. But it was too late.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

We drove past them at the last second and continued down the land ridge.

Robin looked back through the rear of the T-Car. "What on earth are they doing there?!?!"

I gasped.

Robin looked ahead. His eyemask widened.

The two of us watched as huge panels in the side of the Tower opened and the gun turrets of the Titans' base's defense system let loose volleys of laser blasts at us.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

I slammed on the breaks.

SCREEEECH!!!!

Craters formed in the earth where our vehicle would have been. The land ridge exploded ahead of us by a few mere feet.

BLAM!!!! POW!!!! BOOOM!!!!

"Back!! Back!!" Robin shook my shoulder and scrunched in his seat. "BackBackBackBack**Back!!!**"

I shifted gears into reverse. I pressed the gas hard.

SCREEEEECH!!!

The car burned rubber in reverse.

The lasers zoomed down on us, barely missing us by a few inches off the hood.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

I gritted my teeth and yanked hard on the wheel.

SWOOOOSH!!

The T-Car spun around.

The lasers came down on us.

I shifted into drive and rocketed us back towards the roadblock. Out of range.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!

Craters formed behind us as we floored it out of the reach of the laser fire. Once safely away, we met a single police officer on a motorcycle coming toward us. The two of us stopped side by side on the land ridge. Robin rolled his window down, panting, and uttered: "What the Hell is going on?!?!"

"We were hoping you'd know, sir!" the police officer uttered. "Didn't you see us?! We were trying to keep you safely outside the defense perimeter!!"

"Defense perimeter?!?!"

"We've been trying to contact you, sir!!" the officer gulped. He seemed weathered. Nervous. Shaken from events untold…. "Ever since the Tower's defenses turned hostile to random traffic and the hostages were snapped away to its foundation, the law enforcement has been scurrying to establish a base of operations and—"

"Wait wait wait!!" Robin chanted. "What hostage situation?!" He gripped the police officer's shoulders and nearly snarled. "What's going on with the Tower?!?!"

"Sheesh, you really are in the dark, aren't you?! The other Titans, they---"

I glanced at the rear view mirror. A panel opened on the rooftop of the Tower in the distant reflection. A missile appeared on a launcher, aimed at us, and fired.

PHOOOOOOM!!!!

I gasped. I yanked at Robin's cape.

He glanced at the rear view mirror. Without so much as a waisted breath, he yanked the cop off of his bike—"WHOAH!"—and clumsily halfway into the passenger's side.

"PUNCH IT!!!"

I slammed my foot onto the gas.

The T-Car's wheels squealed and we rocketed ahead.

SHOOOOOOOM!!!!

The missile sailed in after us.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!" the cop shouted, his legs flailing outside the T-Car.

The missile slammed into the ground where the motorcycle was.

**BOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

I yanked at the wheel—teeth gritting—and stopped us roughly in the middle of the road block. Safely out of range. The three of us panted. Sweating. Confused. Horrified. I poked my head out of my window and looked up. I first became aware of police and news helicopters zooming overhead. Searchlights from the edges of the City's bayside scouring the ever-darkening air of the early evening.

"Oh jeesh…oh jeesh…," the trembling cop whimpered. "Oh jeesh oh jeesh oh jeesh—"

"Shhh!!" Robin hissed. He literally climbed over the cop to squeeze himself out of the T-Car and approached the other officers in the area. "How long ago did this all start??"

"At least ten hours ago, sir."

Robin sweatdropped. "Right after Noir and I left…"

I got out of my side and looked at Robin worriedly, then at the distant Tower. A forbidden, threatening object now.

Robin palmed his fist. "Damn it…what's going on?!"

"We're just about as confused as you are, sir."

Robin glared at them. He uttered: "I want to see Decker! I want answers!"

They shifted in their stance.

One stepped forward and said: "Decker was one of them."

"One of who?"

"The ones taken by the Titans."

Robin did a double-take. "The Titans?!?! You mean…th-they've been taking hostages?! That's impossible!!"

The one officer looked to the side. Everyone seemed perplexed…uncomfortable.

Robin spun around and looked at me.

I shrugged.

A beat.

"Then who exactly **is** in charge?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The Commissioner was taken away by a violent raid on the police department eight and a half hours ago," Decker's trusty lieutenant said.

We stood with him under a tent assembled on the Bayside across the waters where helicopters and searchlights converged on the Tower in the middle of the night's falling darkness. All around us, SWAT teams assembled and city workers were quickly setting up computer equipment and all the makings of a mobile base of operations. Even members of the Army were arriving from the Suspension Bridge into the City.

The Lieutenant directed us to a miniature television atop a standup table. "Beast Boy arrived in the form of some huge, winged beast and snatched him away before we could do anything about it. If you doubt my words, you can see for yourself."

Robin and I watched in shock as camera footage from a pedestrian on the street caught a green pterodactyl carrying a thrashing, struggling Decker away in its clawed grasp and heading southward towards the City on a current of air.

"Almost immediately after he was snatched away…," the Lieutenant spoke, "…many of the City's famous citizens were snatched away by the Titans. Veronica Vreeland. Blake Glover. Benjamin Powers. Phil Garrison. And along with them were a handful of City Officials. Allen Bringham. Frederick Smith. Warden Kerry. Not to mention well over three dozen police officers, prison guards, and office workers from the City Hall!!"

As if to confirm his words, amateur footage splashed across the t.v. from the News. Quite clearly we saw Cyborg bursting through a wall with citizens over his shoulder….Raven levitating across the waters with struggling city officials in floating, black nets. Starfire hoisting the city secretary in her grasp and soaring towards the Tower along with all the others.

Robin narrowed his eyemasks. "Wait a second…"

"You notice it too?" the Lieutenant remarked.

"Their eyes…they're all—"

"Glowing," the man nodded. "That's not normal, is it?"

Indeed, even I saw it. The eyes of the Titans—Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and Beast Boy—they were all glowing a pale blue. Unearthly. And as if that wasn't enough, their expressions and body tones were lifeless and limp. Like zombies. Golems.

"They….they look like they're…..," Robin's eyemask bulged. "No way…."

I glanced at him wyrd.

"What is it?" the Lieutenant asked.

"It's impossible!" the Boy Wonder rambled to himself, his head shaking. "He's soulless!! He doesn't have a breath of life in him!!"

I scratched my head.

Suddenly, the image on the television flickered. People around them gasped as computer monitors and other output devices were taken over by the sole footage of a googly-eyed creature with a polished wooden face and a small crown of gold. Something akin to a puppet….

My eyebrows rose.

"Quick!" Robin pointed. "Turn it up!! Put it on all the speakers!!"

The Lieutenant nodded over towards a technician.

He and an assistant went hard at work. Soon the voice of a villainous Lilliputian echoed throughout the surroundings—as it similarly filled the homes of t.v. viewers all throughout the City as a result of the Tower's overpowering signals.

**"Citizens of this ignorant City. Behold. Your King…the Puppet King speaks to you now."**

Everyone paused in their flurry around us and stood—watching and listening—mesmerized.

Robin and I were similarly glued to the screen.

**"You may notice that the most esteemed of your society are now missing. Do not despair. They are merely guests to the greatest event to grace this pathetic land of meat and arrogance! A revolution of sacredness! For I, the Puppet King, am to be wed! And the lucky hand for which I shall forever be bonded to belongs to that of the fairest maiden ever to grace this destitute world. The lovely and innocent Queen of Strings! Together we shall branch forth and start a new kingdom! Where magic and flesh converge as one! The ultimate stage in the sky! And if need be, I shall burn this City to squalor in the wake of our honeymoon! I could explain myself more, but frankly you citizens do not deserve it! And I am not about to deign and ruin my festive mood of love and swooning for my new beloved! So farewell, City of infidelity! My destiny lies in the stars."**

Snkkkkkkttt!!!

The t.v. signal turned to snow.

Voices muttered and gasped all around us.

"The Puppet King is back…," Robin grumbled. "And somehow he has taken the Titans under his control right from underneath them!"

"And not only that, he's got a bunch of hostages in there that we need to get out!" the Lieutenant said. "But we can't get close enough to send a team in! He's got his finger on the defense systems of that Tower of yours!"

I blushed and scratched the back of my neck. We'd noticed that….

"Sir!" a technician rushed up and handed the Lieutenant a printout. "Here's the latest sensor reading on the Tower. It doesn't look good, sir."

"What is it?"

"Fusion emissions are increasing from the center of the Titans' Tower at an astonishing rate! We've never had this kind of reading from that building before!"

Robin bit his lip.

"What???" the Lieutenant looked at him wyrd.

"The Tower runs on a fusion reactor," Robin said. He took a breath. "A sudden increase in the power generation means one thing."

"It's going to blow, isn't it?" the technician murmured.

I gulped.

"It's merely being set to blow," Robin clenched his gloved fists and looked at the searchlit Tower. "Whatever the Puppet King has planned, he's most likely planning to self-destruct the Tower and take away this City with it."

"How long would it take for the Fusion Reactor to overload?"

"Approximately twelve hours."

"Good Lord."

"Don't despair just yet," Robin said. "Noir and I are here. Not all the Titans are gone."

"Yeah…at least their leader's still sane."

Robin looked at me. "It's crazy. The Puppet King shouldn't be alive! His spirit left him and he became a normal puppet when his control fell into the cauldron over a year ago!"

I shrugged helplessly and stared at him.

A beat.

The Robin took a deep breath. "If all else fails…a raid on the Tower is what you and your men will have to do," he said as he faced the Lieutenant. "But that could cause many casualties and set off the fusion reactor prematurely."

"Got any alternatives?"

"I do," the Boy Wonder nodded. "There's a secret entrance into the Tower. A backdoor, if you will. Noir and I can enter in, provided we're given the right equipment."

"Write it up and we'll have it for you two ASAP."

"In the meantime…," Robin paced out from under the tent and motioned for me to follow. I did. "Since we can't tap into the Tower's Computer archives from here, we're gonna have to use some other means of acquiring information…"

I gave him a wyrd look.

He glanced at me through the edge of his eyemask. "Why, to find out what the Hell is making the Puppet King sentient again, of course!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The P-P-Puppet King?!" the nightshift worker gulped.

Robin and I stood in the center of the huge, dimly lit City Library. It was a humongous, six-story facility with banks of information rivaling many of the largest universities in the North East. We were lucky Titans indeed.

"Come on! You're a full-time worker here!" Robin exclaimed. "Nothing comes up in your head that could be in the computer or the written archives in regards to the Puppet King?!"

"I-I'm not an expert on the rogues gallery!" the man stuttered. "I-I know we have one…b-but I'm new here! It'd take days to bring up stuff on the Puppet King!"

Robin and I exchanged glances.

The Boy Wonder frowned. "We have **twelve** hours!!"

I hand-signed: 'Less than'.

"Hold it….just a second," the jittery worker held his hands up. "A lot of changes have been going on in the library. Many of the old employees were….w-well…j-just that. Old! They've either retired to out of town or passed away!"

"Well, is there anyone who could help us?!"

The librarian bit his lip. His eyes trailed the ceiling as he thought aloud. He indeed was an intelligent person, and a silent 'ding!' of a cash register sounded off in our collectives minds as he brightened and exclaimed: "Th-There is one person who can help."

"Who?"

"A volunteer. A young lady from Westhaven. She's been working on and off at this library over the past five years. Dedicated little soul, she is!"

Robin did a double-take.

He glanced at me.

I slowly grinned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The roar of rotary blades filled the air as the helicopter touched down onto the landing pad atop the City Police Department. An officer or two with plastic ear muffs rushed over and opened the door.

Clumsily, Sandy bounded down to her feet and steadied herself by gripping one of the officers' hands.

"Well…that's certainly the quickest I've ever been waken out of bed and flown to a nearby town!!!! Heh!!!" she blushed, and looked at the officer. "Aren't I supposed to go somewhere?!?!?"

"Follow me, ma'am!! The Titans need you at the library!"

"Oh, that place!! Haven't I done my community service by now?!?!"

She rushed off with them to the stairwell that would take them down into the street and into a police caravan waiting below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The formalities of greeting were skipped, and a mere thirty minutes later the three of us—Robin, Sandy, and myself—were huddled besides a dimly lit desk in the fourth floor of the library. We crowded around an old, dusty book which Sandy had effortlessly located with her photographic memory of having worked at the place. She sat on a stool with her hands spread across the giant, yellowing leaves of the manuscript. It had to have been eight years old at least…

"'The Curse of the Puppet King', it says here…," Sandy read, "'Is an Italian American story about a boy who was so disobedient that his stern grandfather hired a dying gypsy on Ellis Island to plant innumerable curses on him. The first curse was that the boy would turn into a wooden puppet the soonest he forgot about his native hometown. The second curse was that he would be destined to humiliation in front of the masses for his ill-fated ways'…."

"What does that mean??" Robin asked. His voice loudly echoed above hers throughout the library.

"Shhh!" the spectacled volunteer hissed.

"Er…sorry," Robin blushed.

I raised an eyebrow and glanced around the lengths of the dark library. We three were alone….

"It means…," Sandy explained, "…if this book is right…that the Puppet King would be seen on stage. Used as a real puppet. As long as a bunch of people got to see him."

"Must have been a really wicked boy indeed."

"There's more to the curse."

"Go on."

Sandy read: "'The third fate of the Puppet King is that—in spite all of his evil—the one thing that could ultimately control him was perfect, unblemished love'."

Robin made a face. "Love?"

"'If the Puppet King was to meet a lady of his dreams, that lady would become in his eyes the 'Queen of Strings'. No power could stop the Puppet King from rising to the occasion of wedding her. Even if the source of his curse was to be cut off from the beginning'."

"Which explains why he's up to no good right now in spite of how his control was destroyed," Robin sweatdropped.

"Er….I-I guess."

"Who would this 'Queen of Strings' be??"

Sandy shrugged. "I dunno." She adjusted her glasses and scanned the pages. "Perhaps a girl from his past. An old crush. Someone he sees regularly now as well. Whoever it is, he's obsessed about her. And now he's determined to turn her into his bride to be or something."

"He sure is acting wyrd," Robin scratched his head. "Last time he took over most of the Titans' souls with his curse, he was trying to take over the City. Not blow it up with a fusion reactor."

"Perhaps the curse is taking over his consciousness. The Titan teammates of yours aren't the only ones being controlled by some unknown force."

"Then we have more at hand here than just the Puppet King and his villainous ways…," Robin thought aloud.

Silence.

I bit my lip and shivered. The library was cold and ominous. So was this topic.

"How old is this Puppet King legend?"

"How old is the Puppet King, you mean?" Sandy smirked.

"That too."

"Again…eighty or so years. From the early twentieth century."

Robin scratched his chin with a gloved hand and stared at the dimly lit pages. "Then….perhaps….the second part his curse….ya know, the one about the humiliation?"

"Yeah??"

"Could it have been done on something besides the stage?"

I beamed and hand-signed a 'motion picture camera'.

Sandy blinked. She gasped and snapped a finger. "Of course! Now I remember!"

"Remember what?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sandy stuck the old, bulky VHS tape into the VCR.

The three of us sat—huddled—in the dark corner of the huge library's audio-video section in the basement floor. Our bodies glowed with static until a very old and staticky image of an even older and nastier silent picture displayed on the small t.v. It was a black and white, half-eaten film copy of a two-reeler called 'The Puppet King Goes to Town'. There, before our eyes, the undeniable image of the Puppet King on strings was seen dangling against an incredibly fake backdrop representing a Jazz-Era, Victorian-perfect neighborhood. Complete with an illustrated picket fence and house. The Puppet King 'frolicked' along in a goofy fashion by strings until it met a pretty-damsel-puppet on the other side of the tiny set piece. The Puppet King's wooden mouth moved and then a black slide with white, goofy font displayed: _"Oh my! It's Mary Lou! My heart flutters at the sight of her!"_ The image reappeared of the he and she puppets and the girl puppet's mouth moved while its wooden legs dangled a basket of flowers in her dainty grasp. Then a slide: _"Hello there, Puppet King! You're looking handsome today! Tee hee!"_ Another image of the Puppet King facing the camera and talking with a hand dangling by its fake mouth. Then a slide with font indicating that the Puppet King was 'whispering': _"If only I could make her the Queen of Strings! Oh what a wonderful life with Mary Lou I could have!"_

"Okaaaaaay," Robin uttered. A beat. He blinked under his eyemask and looked at Sandy. "And this his helping…..how?"

"Don't you see??" the brown-haired girl pointed and ecstatically uttered. "This could be the answer!! The silent pictures of the Puppet King!! It was the enactment of the second phase of his curse! This is playing out exactly what the situation is at the Tower!"

I made a face and mouthed: 'Exactly'????

"Well…figuratively."

"So you're saying…," Robin began, "…that if we watch this silent picture….we can figure out what's making the Puppet King tick??"

"And what exactly it is that he plans!! Isn't it wonderful?!"

As if on cue…the VCR started smoking.

"Ackies!!"

"Oh crap!!"

Robin dove for the tape. But it was too late. The device melted the contents inside and the wall panel sparked. The t.v. died out and a nasty smell entered our noses as the library went dark all around us. I could finally see with comfort…that is…until Robin whipped out a flashlight and annoyingly blinded me in attempting to find Sandy's face.

"That's not good, is it?"

Sandy groaned. "That was the only copy! The ONLY copy in the whole stinkin' library of his silent pictures!"

"You're sure of it?"

"Positive!! And good luck finding any copies elsewhere! That stuff is as rare as Antarctic gold!"

"Well…..y-you've watch them, haven't you?" Robin remarked. "You seemed to know a lot about it—"

"Only from what I've read with you just tonight!" Sandy exclaimed. She gripped her head and sighed exasperatingly. "I-I'm a good researcher as much as I'm a librarian! I know where to find things! I just don't hunt them all down and read them! No, I haven't seen his silent picture, nor have I seen all twenty of the Puppet King's other two-reelers!"

Robin's eyemask bulged. "T-Twenty?!"

"Even if we had them to watch…it'd take way too much time to view them all to get an idea of what's going on in that wooden, pint-sized golem running the show up in your Tower!"

"Precious time that should be spent infiltrating the place and saving hostages," Robin nodded.

"There's gotta be someone on this god-forsaken continent familiar with the silent pictures of the Puppet King!"

"H-How hard can that be to find?" Robin simpered with a shrug.

"Are you kidding?! That stuff is ultra, mega, super rare!!" Sandy cackled.

"Shhhh!" I hissed and motioned around at the library.

"I'm serious here!" she pouted. "The only person capable of knowing those silent pictures has got to be someone with absolutely NO life!! Someone pathetically obsessed with the Mundane and Ludicrous!! Someone with enough time on his hands to waste on endless, unabashed, T.V. viewage!"

Silence.

Suddenly, I was wincing. I gulped. I looked over at Robin and gestured.

"What??" the Boy Wonder looked at me wyrd.

I smiled nervously and pretended to be 'clicking a button' repeatedly with my finger.

Robin stared at me.

A beat.

His lips parted.

He shook his head.

"No…."

He waved his gloved hands.

"Ohhhhh no no no no no no no…."

He cringed. "No way!! No way on earth!!"

I bit my lip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a lonely cell of the City Prison, an obese, hairy organism in red was slouched on his cot beside a pile of sanctioned comic books.

"Hah hah hah hah!!!" the tubby villain warbled as he thumbed through the pages. "I swear to God!! Whoever draws this crap must be an idiot-savante!! This stuff looks like crap compared to the awesome glory that is Bruce Timm's artwork!! Just to think that these morons believe that the canon cartoon show's title is enough to carry on the greatness of the saga onto paper—"

CLUNK!!!

The sound of a key turning in the cell door's lock echoed in the tiny room.

"What in name of Bespin?!" Control Freak looked upside down. He sat up on the side of his cot and scratched his butt curiously, placing the comic down. His cruddy eyes thinned and his dual chins flapped as he gasped. "What's this?!?! Do I finally get my own convention???"

Sandy and I shifted nervously where we stood.

A royally frowning and very disgusted Robin stepped past the protective line of jail guards and stood before fat, nerdy villain. He sneered through clenched teeth the words he did not want to utter: "Get up off your rear, Control Freak."

"What for?"

"We….we…..n-n-need your help."

Silence.

Slowly, the fat fanboy grinned. "Ohhhhh ho ho ho ho!!! This is gonna be **rich!**"


	92. For the Queen of Strings part 3

**92. For the Queen of Strings part 3**

"'The Strung-Up Adventures of the Puppet King'…" (munch) "…a series of short, two-reel films between 1914…" (munch) "…and 1921." (munch) "Directed, written, and produced…" (munch) "…by puppeteer Gregory Mullins." (munch) "A Joe Schenk production until…" (munch) "…it was eventually bought out by MGM…" (munch) "And the rest is history."

The fat fiend known as Control Freak squatted at a metal table in the center of a cramped, dimly-lit interrogation room. The book, messed up video tape, pictures, and other scant documents related to the Puppet King that were recovered from the City Library lay spread before him beneath a rainbow snowfall of bits and pieces of cheese puffs and other assorted junk foods of the crunchy type.

"You said Gregory Mullins wrote the series of silent movies…," Robin spoke. He leaned against the metal table and stared directly at Control Freak's crusty eyes. "Was he directly responsible for the entire production of the Puppet King's movie career?"

"Well if that isn't the biggest understatement of the world, I don't know what is!!"

Sandy stood next to me by some guards on the far side of the room. "Er…that wasn't even a statement. It was a question—"

"Thank you very much, Miss Deconstruct-The-Hell-Out-Of-Grammar-Like-A-Half-Life-2-Pirate!!" Control Freak spat. "It so happens that Gregory Mullins was an Irish-American punk who found the Puppet King in an alleyway at New York City—urban legend says—and he swiftly decided to make money out of the little wooden piece of Bantha fodder!"

"Um….why?" Sandy remarked. "I-I mean…to just up and grab a puppet from a dumpster or something and start making pictures—"

"Er….Gergory Mullins was a pyromaniac or something…heh!!" Control Freak shoved his hand into the bottom, empty corners of his plastic bag of cheese puffs and scarfed them into his mouth. "He just so 'accidentally' tossed the wooden thing into a fire. He was a poor waste of Victorian blood and he wanted to keep warm in the streets!! But legend has it that the Puppet King survived the fire by magic alone and the very same magic that preserved him also consumed Mullins and the man had no more desire but to take the Puppet King into stage and pictures!"

Sandy gasped and glanced at me. "The second phase of the curse being enacted!"

I slowly nodded.

Robin spoke: "Could Gregory Mullins have been under an outside influence?"

"Possibly."

Robin's eyemask narrowed with a frown. "Possibly?!?!"

"If I get a few more bags of cheese puffs, I may remember," Control Freak gave a pudgy grin.

Robin gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He eventually signaled a guard who nodded and temporarily walked out of the room.

"What we're mainly concerned about is just what the general plotline of the Puppet King movies are. They might be an allegory for what the villain is up to now with the Tower, the Titans, and the hostages!"

"What I'm mainly concerned with is just what I'm going to get in return for helping you Tribble Heads!" Control Freak folded his arms, leaned back, and smirked. "Cheese puffs will provide fuel for the brain, but only as long as the brain sees amusement and perhaps even parole in the future!!"

"If you could possibly think that anything you do to help us can right the wrongs of your criminal career—" Robin sneered.

"Oh, I don't expect much!! Not from you!! You and your stiff concepts of mercy that'll make Andorian ears jealous! And it's rather amusing to think that all this time, you and the other Titans have been under the assumption that I've regretted my actions and hated my stay in here!! Well, I'll inform you of this, my finely feathered fruitcake: I've never had a better opportunity to brush up on my Dark Horse comics and Japanese Manga than right here in prison with the stuff I've ordered!! Oh yeah!! Believe me!! A bored mind goes places!! I can honestly insult you vulgarly in fifteen ways in Japanese—which is quite a feat in that the language doesn't even have cuss words………..bastard!"

"Look….I'm sure we can arrange some way for you to get……..er……..g-get more stuff that is pointless and is what you want to get," Robin stammered. "But right now there are dozens of innocent people stuck in that Tower under the Puppet King's threatening heel and if we don't find a way to cancel out this curse of his in less than ten hours, this City will go 'kaboom' and you won't have any lovely wardens wandering into your cell and giving you comics. As a matter of fact, you won't have eyes to read the comics with because you'll be kind of sort of dead."

"I'll be kind of sort of pissed and unreasonable if I don't get my god…damn….cheese puffs!!" WHAM!!

A guard walked up right as Control Freak pounded the table. "Here you go."

"Thank you!! Sheesh….about time we had someone smart here. I thought for a moment that Bird Boy was running the show."

Robin frowned.

Control Freak ripped open the first of a new batch of plastic bags and munched while talking with a muffled, pasty mouth: "So…anyways. Basic plot of the stories is this. You got the Puppet King. Regular wooden Joe on the block. Then you got Mary Lou. His love interest. She's basically an identical twin to Puppet King that Mullins fastened at the last second. Minus the incest, of course."

"Of course…."

"Anyway—" (MUNCH!) "—then there's this big bully of a puppet. Big Dog. That's his name. Cuz he's a walking, bipedal dog. Real dog fur on his puppet body. They didn't skip a beat in those days. In various cliché plots, every two-reeler was about Big Dog stealing Mary Lou's affection and then trying to take advantage of her or kill her or something. Then the Puppet King rides in and saves the day because he's apparently the most badass puppet ever made. Unlike the Popeye cartoons, they never really explain the source of the protagonist's power. Must have been the Pre-War 'American Dream' or some shit." (MUNCH!) "At the end of each movie, Mary Lou and the Puppet King embrace happily—la la la—and he names her the 'Queen of Strings' and asks that they be married."

"The Queen of Strings….," Sandy murmured.

"The plot was the same in every episode?" Robin asked.

"Pretty much," Control Freak munched. "Boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy turns out to be king of something or the other. Girl gets whisked away by Big Dog. The Boy king chases Big Dog down. Wails on his butt. Saves the Girl. Then makes the Girl his Queen. I think it was some sort of really trippy allegory for aristocratic propaganda. The idea that only a select few people are born with the ability to ascend."

"Ascend?"

"I've seen all of the Puppet King silent movies, okay?" Control Freak munched and wiped his chin with a red, prison sleeve. "But the best one by far was the last one. It's the one Gregory Mullins retired with. 'Strings in the Stars'. There were tiny bits of sound imbedded into the final print. Expensive stuff in those days. In the end of the two-reeler, Big Dog is defeated once again. And to celebrate, the Puppet King and Mary Lou get married and have themselves catapulted on a honeymoon trailer to the stars. Kind of a primitive concept of rocket propulsion. Heh. Anyways, at the end of the film, the Puppet King says, 'Now…my Queen…we shall be one with the stars'. And then they're gone."

Sandy leaned forward. "What happened to the land after they left. Anything?"

"Ha! Funny you should mention that, 'Thelma'! Big Dog had set up a bomb and everything beneath the catapulting honeymooners is blown to smithereens!! The entire puppet wedding ceremony dies! It was Mullins' disgruntled view of Jazz Era society and its self-destruction."

"……"

"……."

"…….."

"Naturally, 'Strings in the Stars' didn't sell well in the theatres," Control Freak chuckled and ripped open another bag of junk food. "But it's considered Mullin's greatest artistic achievement….by whatever crazy critics are out there to give an arm or leg about a silent picture series about a puppet. Heh."

"Uh huh," Robin swiftly turned and faced Sandy with his arms folded. "This is getting us nowhere."

"Is it?!" Control Freak munched with a smirk. He pointed a yellowed, cheesy finger. "I'll have you know that there are enough motifs, underlying innuendos, and production stories regarding 'The Strung-Up Adventures of the Puppet King' to not only give you plenty of parallels to the situation at hand, but also to counteract it! That is what you want, isn't it?"

Robin glared at him from over his caped shoulder. "And you're not about to give that information up, are you?"

Silence.

Slowly, Control Freak stood up. He leaned on the table with two chubby hands, disregarding his snacks. The guards became uneasy. I fingered Myrkblade just in case….

"In the last two-reeler, 'Strings in the Stars', there was one big difference that differentiated Big Dog from the Puppet King in Mary Lou's eyes."

Robin leaned in. "And that is….?"

"A kiss."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "A kiss?"

"The Queen of Strings would respond to a kiss. The finale of the marriage ceremony. Whoever kissed her, she would know that he was her hero. The two would go to the stars together. Or so that's what destiny seems. For the Puppet King stole her lips—and her heart—and took her to the sky as the world went royally Alderaan behind them."

"So you're saying…"

"This is not about a countdown to the Tower's fusion reactor overloading," Control Freak hissed forth a chuckle and smiled. "It's all about who makes the Queen of Strings swoon first. That's what matters here. Not the Puppet King. Not the hostages. And certainly not this City at risk of a nasty explosion. It's everything for the Queen of Strings. Whoever that is…the fate is in her embrace tonight, in regards to whoever reaches her first."

"And if someone was to…..hypothetically….find whoever this 'Queen of Strings' is before the Puppet King…," Sandy murmured.

Robin scratched his chin. "Then the curse might be broken. Even the Puppet King would be subjected to his own spell!"

A beat.

Robin eyed the fat villain.

Control Freak grinned. "You wanna bet I know more?"

"I'm willing to bet."

"You're willing to find out?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On you."

"Oh really."

"You have a price, don't you?"

"Are you one to interrogate me? Make me scream forth all I know?"

"Don't tempt me…"

"Then it's settled," Control Freak sat down to his snacks and munched.

Robin frowned. "**What's** settled?"

"You'll be needing me."

"You don't mean---"

The villain's eyes darted up. "Infiltrating the Tower."

Silence.

I sweatdropped. My black eyes glanced under my shades at Robin…at Control Freak…and at Robin again.

"……………………………………well?"

"No way in the world!!"

"Sheesh!! You're more stubborn than wookie!"

"I've never met a villain that I liked!" Robin frowned and folded his arms. "And you're one of them, lard butt!"

"Oh! Good one!! Love you too, Robin!! Let's see…..you've got the backbone of a 2000 year model Playstation 2 after a couple of tumbles in the drier!!"

"Are you trying to say I haven't got courage?!"

"Haven't you?! You're the Great Boy Wonder!! All I can do by tagging along is help you save your precious Tower—which I might add is most definitely a tackier feat of engineering than Dennis Rodman's pubic hair!"

"Just what purpose would it serve you to venture into our home base?!"

"Ah…but that's just it!" Control Freak lifted a hand and grinned. "It ain't your home base anymore, you brainless hobbit! It's now the puppet show of a Chucky wannabe with one too many termites up his—"

I coughed.

"Anways….think of it as a reward for my gracious assistance to you," Control Freak 'bowed' from his chair with an evil grin. "As if it wasn't enough to be inside the very walls of the legendary Titans' Tower….but to see the star of the silent two-reelers in person." The fat fanboy gasped and stars formed in his eyes as he girlishly cupped his hands together besides his head like someone else we knew and flutterly breathed: "Ah…..my life is becoming more and more complete."

Robin sweatdropped. "You're not going to give up…are you?"

Control Freak smirked again. "And good luck finding any deconstructive information on the Puppet King anywhere else, pal!"

Silence.

Robin sighed and scratched his head.

A beat.

He looked at me.

I shrugged.

"The things I do for this City…," Robin mumbled.

"Woo hoo!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…," Sandy smirked as she stood next to Robin under the tent where police and law enforcement were establishing a base of operations. "I bet your mentor is turning in his grave."

Robin filled his utility belt to the brim with tools and gadgets for the task at hand. Similarly he had a satchel or two strung along his back under his cape, full of items. His staff was half-retracted and strapped to his shoulders. I was a couple of feet away, equipping myself in similar fashion.

"Batman isn't dead," Robin muttered. "Nor shall he be any time soon."

"Her's certainly gloomy enough," Sandy smiled.

Robin gave the spectacled girl a sideways glance. "You certainly seem cheerful."

"Got to be in the best of spirits for what's ahead," Sandy shrugged. "We'll all need it."

"I suppose so," Robin sighed as he fitted special censors and tiny flashlights to his gloves. "Forgive me if I'm not so cheery on the night that my best friends have been taken over by a deranged marionette puppet bent on having a shotgun wedding."

"No one can blame you," Sandy said. She reached into the trunk of equipment next to Robin and started fitting herself with tools and satchels of….more tools. "I tried to be optimistic when I found out Killer Moth was threatening the Westhaven Opera House. You can ask Noir about that. I wasn't exactly cheerful, but I was calm enough to keep my cool. You're a lot like Raven in this matter, Robin. I've learned a lot about her…and you're both very similar in the way you coolly deal with things."

"Perhaps so. We did found the Titans together---" Robin froze. He raised and eyebrow and his head swiveled about to glance at the girl. One beat. Two…. "What…….are you doing?"

"Getting equipped."

"For what?"

Sandy shrugged. "For whatever lies ahead!" She winked.

"Oh for the love of Ray Charles…NO!!!" Robin grumbled and his thin arms dangled.

"What???"

"You are NOT coming with us!!" Robin shouted. "It's enough that I'm going through the effort of dragging along that tub of a trekkie without having to worry about your safety!!"

"Are you saying that I'm fat?!" Sandy frowned.

"NO!!! I'm saying that you're….that you're…..," Robin shook his head and cackled, "THIS IS NOT A CARAVAN!!!" He spun around and faced my distant position. "Noir, tell her!! Is this a caravan?!"

"No way!! There were only **three** Magi!!" replied a pudgy voice.

"I WASN'T ASKING YOU!!!!"

Control Freak laughed from where he stood beyond me.

"Listen…," Sandy loaded some more equipment into a satchel tightly strapped to her back. "Control Freak's not the first expert you asked to arrive at the scene."

"Yes, but—"

Sandy raised a finger. "I've been reading the information from the library very carefully. I even have printouts from the book. I can research and assist you during the infiltration."

"But you can assist us over wireless communication just as well!"

"And leave you two with your hands full of him?" Sandy pointed at the fat and temporarily freed Control Freak across the way. "As much as you and Noir are a one man army….heck, TWO one man armies…..you can't possibly babysit for him while possibly kicking butt!"

"This is a very dangerous stealth mission through what is now 'enemy territory'," Robin emphasized. "The risk here is too great for an average citizen like you."

"Robin, I'm a volunteer," Sandy smiled. "I never think about myself."

"………."

"In case you've forgotten, I've been through tough straits with you and your friends before. I-I think I'm up for the challenge. You yourself said you'd induct me into the team---"

"—if only you had superpowers," Robin smirked.

"But look at you! You don't have superpowers, and yet you're the leader of the bunch!"

Robin bit his lip.

"My superpower is up here," Sandy pointed at her skull. She blushed and smiled. "E-Even I'll admit that from time to time."

Robin sighed and ran a hand over his face. "……….you'll promise……to stick close to us……..and do whatever I command you to….."

Sandy saluted cutedly. "Yes, sir!"

"Then start by doing one thing."

She blinked. "What's that?"

Robin swiftly grabbed her glasses, flung them off, reached into a trunk, and slapped on a pair of rubber-reinforced, clear goggles over her eyes. "There. Less likely to go blind on us."

Sandy suddenly had fish-eyed lenses that blinked. She bit her lip. "Tell me….are the Titans fans of photo shoots?"

"Not tonight we aren't."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Robin, we'll keep in communication as much as we can. But we'll have to respond to your signal first. Once you enter the Tower, it's possible that the Puppet King with his access to your computer systems could detect your location. The first thing you need to do is find a way to disable part of your security inside the Tower so that we can communicate! The rest is up to you! It's your home turf! We're all counting on you! Good luck!"_

The lieutenant's voice clicked off on the speaker.

I took a deep breath. Under the cover of darkness, I turned around and looked at Robin over a crag of rock.

The Boy Wonder nodded. He signaled behind his shoulder at Sandy.

The four of us were nestled amidst a set of rocky bluffs on the Bayside. Across from the Tower. Far away from the Tower, in fact. In the distance, searchlights and helicopters illuminated the taken-over building in question.

It was here that the Titans had a secret back entrance. A back entrance that only Robin knew about. Even I was in the dark…

Literally.

"Okay…I can understand the handcuffs…," a fat and fully-dressed-in-his-trademark-fanboy-suit Control Freak stumbled over by Sandy's armed guidance. His hands were manacled. And also…. "But what's with the 'Chronicles of Riddick Experience'?!" He grunted and shook his head, as if that would somehow shake off the taut, black blindfold over his eyes. "It'd do me a lot of good if I could see what I'm not seeing."

"It's what you're not supposed to see," Sandy whispered. She looked over through her goofy goggles at Robin and I. It was like a toad blinking. "Are we there yet, Robin?"

Robin and I tried not to snicker.

"What's so funny?"

"I told you this would be a tough excursion," Robin hid his smile…not very well.

Sandy frowned. It came out as a pout. She had been attired in a black ensemble befitting a Navy SEAL or assassin. The bookkeeper of DEATH! "I suppose my bruised ego is supposed to be recompense for my stubbornness?"

"Said it better than I could. Right, Noir?"

I simply smiled. She looked utterly cute.

"Mrmmmmmm," she hummed frustratingly to herself.

"Who's vibrating?" Control Freak asked.

"Shhhh!!!" Robin hissed. He scanned the rocks of the bluffs. "Aw sheesh…where is it?"

I gave him a startling glance.

He sweatdropped and simpered. "It's….um…..been a while since I had this thing constructed."

I folded my arms and tapped my toe.

"Ahem….," he pointed. "Noir…mind taking a look at those rocks over there with your peepers?" he whispered.

I whipped off my shades and squinted my eyes. The endlessly black night became an effortlessly bright day to me. My black optics trailed the rocks. The crags. The curves. The cracks. _The cracks……_

I wandered forward and ran my hand along a hairline fracture. I leaned my head to the side. I traced what appeared to be an outline to a door of some sort. Impossible to see at night. Most likely difficult to root out in the daytime. As if anyone would be looking for a 'door' to something out here…

I turned and looked over my shoulder.

Robin stepped forward.

I pointed.

"Ah!" he grinned. "That's where it is!!"

"Where what is??" Control Freak cackled.

Sandy elbowed him.

"Ow!"

"Gimme a sec…," Robin whipped out an electrical device and planted it against the 'rock'. It beeped…flashed…then hummed.

CRUNK!!

The rockface popped like the lid of some tiny box. Robin gritted his teeth and pulled at it. He was straining.

I stepped in. CHIIING!!! I whipped out Myrkblade and used it as a lever, prying the long-sealed door open. Cold air rushed up from a metal-lined tunnel leading down with immaculate steps. The back door had been opened.

"Open sesame…," Sandy grinned.

"Pffft!! How cliché!" Control Freak smirked.

Sandy elbowed him again.

"Ow!!"

"Allright, people," Robin turned around. He paused. "…and nerds."

"I heard that!"

"We're going in." The Boy Wonder tightened the packs and satchels strung around his figure and clenched his jaw. "I'll take point. Noir, you've got the back."

"Ha ha ha ha!! Sounds like someone's the caboose!" Control Freak heckled as I walked past him.

Sandy frowned at the handcuffed and blindfolded fiend. "Are you here to help us out or annoy us to death?"

"Hey! A little less conversation, a little more action in our lives, Missy!"

I chuckled.

Robin frowned.

I cleared my throat. I motioned along.

Robin sighed and stepped forward into the dark, metal hallway. "Here's praying we de-mindcontrol the Titans soon….and the first one is Raven."

I couldn't argue with that. I closed the door to the 'rock' behind us with a SLAM!!!

And we were in the dark.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Click!!

Robin shone a pale yellow flashlight ahead of him as he trudged the caravan along slowly, cautiously through the dark hallway. Our footsteps echoed against the cold surfacing…and so did our voices.

"So….um….," Sandy looked through her fish-eye goggles at the watch on her wrist as she tugged Control Freak along with her. "We only have nine and a half hours or so, right?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Robin said while shining our spot ahead of us. It was a long, long passageway. "I know the place like the back of my hand. This will lead us to the underground compartments of the Tower where we keep things in storage in the old chambers surrounding the iron supports of the building."

I winced with a gulp.

Robin glanced back over his shoulder. He smirked ever so slightly. "You remember that place fondly, don't you Noir?"

I wheezed and nodded.

Sandy shrugged that off.

"Can someone….I dunno….take these blinders off me already?!" Control Freak complained. "Even Lieutenant Commander Geordie Laforge had more decency than this!! Even as a red shirt!"

"Sandy, will you take that blindfold off him now?" Robin moaned. "If it means he'll shut up about it?"

"Roger, Robin," Sandy said. She suddenly giggled. "Hehehe!! I like the sound of that! 'Roger, Robin'!"

"…….."

"Ahem…..taking the blindfold off now."

And she did.

Control Freak blinked and shook his head in mid-walk. "Whoah!!! Sweet nectar!! This place is like the Death Star Trench—"

A gloved hand pointed at his throat. "Don't you even start."

"Does this…..lead all the way to the Tower?" Control Freak gasped.

"Yup. Straight under the Bay."

"Dude! That's like one bigass marvel of engineering!!"

"Nuts to you if you ever see it again," Robin replied firmly. "This trip is a one-way ticket. Once we've done away with the Puppet King and freed everyone in danger, you're back to prison."

Control Freak grinned. "With my consolation prize, right?"

"H-Has he even named his terms yet?" Sandy remarked.

Robin sweatdropped and continued leading the way. "That's still in debate."

"HA!" Control Freak gestured with his handcuffed wrists. "The reality of the matter is that I'm leaving you in suspense!! You have no idea what my demands are!! But—as a superhero—once all of this is over with you'll have to stay true to your word and grant me whatever it is that I ask for!"

"As long as it isn't the blood of a virgin."

"Who says we were gonna prick you anytime soon, Boy Blonder?!"

Sandy giggled.

Robin gritted his teeth. "How'd you like your hand crushed so that it can't do the Vulcan gesture ever again?"

"And just how do you plan to do that?"

"Cyborg has about five Xboxes in his room. We'll stacked them on top of you…Puritan interrogation style."

"Pfft!! You're bluffing!"

Silence.

Control Freak gasped. "Cyborg has five Xboxes?!?! Dude!! That's awesome!! We could have a Halo Lan party—"

"We are not here to play GAMES!!!" Robin shouted, his voice echoing through the hallways. "There are people hostage…a whole City in danger…and Titans under mind control!! I'm not so kosher about leisure time during an instance such as this!!"

"'Kosher'?! What, are you circumcised?!"

"I've got plenty of sharp objects in my utility belt right now, Control Freak. Don't give me any ideas!!"

"Sheesh!! Ha ha ha!! Okay!! Man, you're more unruly than a lobeless Ferengi!"

"For the last time, will you please shut—"

There was a sharp whistle.

The three ahead of me winced.

I simpered.

I pointed up.

"????" Robin glanced up. A drop of salt water dribbled onto his forehead.

"Um….," Sandy bit her lip. "This is a structurally sound underground tunnel, isn't it?"

"It has to be!" Robin smiled. "Don't worry! Probably just condensation or something!"

More water started trickling down. This time behind me. I nervously spun around and walked away from the forming puddle on the ground.

"God??" Control Freak blinked. "I thought you left me in Sunday School….."

"Hang on a second," Sandy thought aloud. "Could it possible that this thing hasn't been depressurized?"

"What do you mean?"

"This tunnel has been closed for a really long time, right?"

"Right."

"Don't you see?" Sandy gulped. "The pressure change of opening the rock has shifted the air in this tunnel and—"

"Sandy….," Robin held a gloved hand out and smiled. "Cyborg oversaw the construction of this thing. I really don't think he would have overlooked such a possible structural hazard as—"

**RUMBLE!!!!**

The entire tunnel shook.

I gasped and braced myself with a metal hand against the wall. I panted and looked at the others.

Control Freak whimpered: "Fishy time?"

"Nonsense!" Robin cackled.

**SMASH!!!!**

Several feet down from which we came, the wall burst in and a fountaining wall of water surged at us in the glow of Robin's flashlight.

Sandy's bulbous goggles bulged.

"Fishy time!!!" Control Freak shrieked.

Robin blinked under his mask. Still as a frozen statue. "Then again….Cyborg did once tell me he sniffed glue as a kid…."

"RUN!!!!" Sandy yelled.

"Forget running!! SWIM!!!"

The two practically tackled the Boy Wonder over in rushing towards the far end of the metal corridor. I was dashing right behind them. Panting. I glanced over my shoulder. Black waters surged and thundered after us. Filling the metal hall with loud chaos.

"Holy….Yoda….Holy….Yoda…." Control Freak puffed while jogging. "PRISON DIDN'T PREPARE ME FOR DROWNING!! I DIDN'T EVEN TAKE ONE STEP NEAR THE SHOWERS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!"

Sandy shouted: "WHAT WOULD **YOU** HAVE TO FEAR ABOUT???"

"Noir!!!" Robin shouted in mid-run. "We're almost there!! And when I say 'almost there', that means you can clear it in less than twenty!!"

I did a double-take and glanced at the back of his head.

He turned his bobbing face to glance at me over his heaving shoulders. "Time for shuttle run practice!! Take them both and go!!"

My jaw dropped.

"**Come back** for me **after**, got it?!"

I didn't even want to waste time protesting. He was the leader.

I blurred my feet with a wave of murk and short forward.

Robin dashed to the left to make room.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted Sandy and Control Freak up by their collars.

"Eeek!!"

"Whoah!!"

I carried them forward with a burst of smoking energy. I glared through my shades and scoured the corners of the darkness with my eyes. And I managed to catch the end of the walkway before I could run us smack into it. My feet skidded to a stop right before a metal series of ladder rungs. There was a hatch overhead.

CHIIING!!

I whipped Myrkblade out and tossed it to Sandy.

"Uhm….wh-what for?!"

I hand-signed: 'Can-opener'. And—SWOOOOOOSH!!!! I throttled back the way we came.

Sandy looked at the sword in her grasps. Like a giant's toothpick. She glanced up at the metal hatch leading to some dry compartment in the base of the Tower. Her goggled eyes blinked. "Oh…….l-lordy."

In the meantime, I was blurring like a rabid bullet back towards the distant speck of Robin in front of the distant warble of rushing water in the distant frame that was the far end of the corridor.

"Now would be a good time, Noir….," Robin sweatdropped as the water kissed at his ankles.

I gritted my teeth. I spread my legs. The heels of my boots dug into the corners of the walls to the floor in time for me to grab Robin's glove.

"Tag!! You're it!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!! I pulsed murk in time to avoid--

SPLASH!!!!!!!!

The two of us scurried down the hall…..and towards light.

We both gasped at once.

Sandy had opened the hatch.

She dangled her arms down. "Grab ahold!!"

I tossed Robin up like a football.

"WHOAH!!!"

She grabbed his arms and yanked him up.

I vaulted upwards with a pulse of murk, flew through the hatch hole, and landed in a dark chamber besides a very sweaty and drunkenly smiling Control Freak.

"Shinobi's Back!"

I gave him a wyrd glance. I found Myrkblade and picked it up.

"Think the rest of the Tower stands the risk of collapsing in on us or something?" Sandy panted.

Robin gripped a top hatch and pushed it over to seal the water in the flooded corridor beneath us.

"After everything that's happened today….I'd welcome the sky falling if it would."

CLANG!!!

We were in.


	93. For the Queen of Strings part 4

**93. For the Queen of Strings part 4**

"All right, people," Robin's voice echoed against the bulkheads. "There's no turning back now. Let's stick together and follow me."

"A little obvious with the 'no turning back now' part, Lieutenant Redundant," Control Freak griped. "If you're scared, just say so. Don't try dragging us into your little paranoia."

Robin frowned. "Did I say you could speak?"

CF smirked. "No."

Robin groaned and ran a hand over his head.

I walked past Control Freak, nonchalantly elbowing him in the chest. Whump!

"Ooof!"

"Hey!" Sandy complained, her goggled eyes blinking. "Stop taking the fun from me!"

"Mommy always said I had the body of a punching bag," Control Freak said. A beat. "I think that would explain some things."

"Shhh," Robin hissed with a hand raised and approached the middle of the corridor ahead of us.

We were in the bowels of the Titans' Tower. A huge, blue-slate of metal wormed around to form a labyrinth in the rock of the Bay island's bluffs, and erected within the artificial caverns of this place were huge, pointless expanses of space. Perhaps Silas Stone intended for the area beneath the Tower to be a bunker of sorts for storing gargantuan pieces of equipment. Otherwise, it was nothing more than a huge 'cave' of cold emptiness interrupted here and there with the occasional, suspicious trickling of water from the ceilings above.

And it was all hauntingly familiar…

"Do you actually know your way around this place?" Sandy whispered.

Robin nodded without looking. "Like the back of my hand. Which is the least I can say about Noir. The poor guy was lost in here during his rookie days."

I blushed.

"Were you really?" Sandy asked.

I hand-signed.

She giggled. "You were doing laundry, huh?! You must have been cold!" A beat. She suddenly blushed.

"So that's why you were chosen to escort me!" Control Freak smirked at the volunteer. "For every fanboy, there's a fangirl!"

"Not for you, there ain't," Sandy upturned her nose and folded her arms.

"Wow, I think I'm aroused."

Whump!

"Oof!"

I smirked.

"If we proceed forward down two corridors, we'll come to a path on the left which will take us to a set of doors leading to the Tower's basement level," Robin said, leading the group forward again.

"This isn't the basement already??" Sandy remarked with a crooked look on her face.

"Nope," the Boy Wonder shook his head. "Just the start of things."

"Wow….you could store a lot of gizmos in here," Control Freak marveled.

"None that you should be concerned about."

The fat fanboy smirked and gestured with his handcuffed wrists. "Think you took my blindfold off a little too early, bird boy?"

"If I'd known there was anything classified to your eyes down here, I would have had Sandy leave them on. Besides, if you notice too much, I could always conk you over the head with my staff and have done with it."

"Cuz I'm already seeing stuff," Control Freak remarked and glanced to the side— "WHOAH!!! Is that….Is that…."

"Is that what?" Robin raised his eyebrows. He looked to his right. "Oh. That. It's Starfire's space pod."

Resting silently beneath a partial cover of canvass was the Tamaranian craft which Starfire used in arriving at Earth. It had been untouched since Cyborg, Robin, and Speedy used it to contact the C.S.A.I.T., which turned out to be an artificial construct reprogrammed by Blackfire.

"Sleeeeeeeeek," CF drooled. "Can I touch it?"

"No."

Control Freak hobbled over and touched it. "Very sleek!"

Robin clenched his gloves. "What part of 'no' do you not understand?"

"Both letters. Now do you have a camera?! I want to be snapped standing next to this thing!"

"In case you've forgotten…," Robin couldn't help but smirk slightly. "That belongs to the same redheaded superheroine who beat you within every inch of your life last time we did you in."

"Yes…well…love hurts."

Robin sighed. "We really must get going—"

"Pleeeeease!!! Can I just at least sit in the cockpit?"

I glanced at Robin.

Robin glanced at Sandy.

"Okay, Sandy. The Switch. Now."

Control Freak's crusty eyes bulged. "The Switch?"

Sandy pulled out a tiny black remote from a special satchel and bit her lip. "This is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you." A pause. "Okay, maybe not." She clicked it.

_ZAP!!!_

"OWIE!!!" Control Freak jumped as his handcuffs momentarily shocked him. "Holy Jawa!!"

Robin smirked. "Music to my ears."

"Hey!!" Control Freak winced and stepped away from the spacecraft while frowning at Robin. "Is that ethical treatment of a prisoner?!"

"Probably not."

"Pffft!! This is going on my report."

"Since when were you writing a report?"

"Since when were you shocking me?"

"Sandy…"

_ZAP!!!_

"DAH!!! JEEZ!! SON OF A DECEPTICON!!"

"Now where were we?"

Control Freak cleared his throat. "Uhm…," he sweatdropped and rubbed his manacled wrists against his thigh. "W-We were heading down the corridor."

"I thought as much."

I looked to Sandy and gave her a thumb's up.

She winked and pocketed the tiny control away.

The four of us proceeded along the cold, dank halls. I caught up with Robin as we walked side by side. I let him lead. I sure as hell didn't know how to move around that place…

"Something's wrong…," he whispered to me.

I craned an ear closer to him.

"Things are missing," the Boy Wonder hissed. "There were once a bunch of lattices here…."

I raised an eyebrow over my shades.

"Metal crossbeams. Light ones. And when I say 'light', I mean ninety pound iron slabs built for concrete reinforcing. They must have been left here by Silas Stone's construction crew during the erection of the Tower. But they're gone now."

I scratched my black head of hair above my bandanna and glanced left at the empty metal crevices bordering the corridor.

"All that it amounts to is…," Robin spoke, "…they've been down here. The Titans, the Puppet King, the hostages—whoever. They were down here and doing stuff before we arrived."

I swallowed.

"We should be extra cautious…"

I nodded.

Our arduous journey was merely a three minute long silent romp through the corridors—a few twists and turns—till we got to the sealed doors Robin had prophesied. Typically such a trip would take less than a minute, but the Boy Wonder insisted on our slow and careful speed. I couldn't agree more…though I was getting rather edgy about the presence of a certain convention fodder:

"So….like…why have doors here if they're gonna be sealed all the time?! The flooding water is BENEATH US right now!"

"If I were you, the last thing I'd wish for was water," Robin muttered as he knelt and examined the doors. "Those electrical inhibitors on the handcuffs wouldn't be so friendly with it."

Control Freak blinked. "You mean….if that wave of water would have hit me—"

"Yes, my conscience is very clear on what would have happened," Robin grumbled as he continued examining. He opened a satchel on his left shoulder and produced primacord. He stretched it all along the groove of the door while talking. "Be happy and secure in the fact that we're not the types to leave you to dead even when certain teammates of ours neglect certain construction issues when building an underwater tunnel…." The end of his speech was stressed with a minute growl.

Sandy smiled cutely. "I won't say anything if you won't!"

"Control Freak, Will you?"

"Pfft…what's the point?"

"Will you say anything, Noir?"

I blinked.

"Allright then," Robin stepped back, wiring the primacord to a detonator. "Stand clear!"

We kept a safe distance.

He switched the detonator.

PHWOOOMB!!!!!

A ring of fire ate through the cord and the seals in one of the doorframes in turn. The metal reinforcement melted away and slowly the door fell loose of its holding and CLANKED! to the floor of the basement on the other side.

Sandy winced. "You think we made too much noise?"

Robin said, "You think that it's gonna matter at all anymore soon?" He looked towards me and motioned with a glove.

I nodded and followed him slowly through the melted doorframe…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin peered around one path of the hallway while I looked down another.

There was silence, darkness, and absolutely no one.

"Hang on a sec…," Robin whispered. He reached into another pack and pulled out infrared goggles. He flipped them over his eyemasks and tapped a button. A tiny whining sound hit our ears and our ears alone. The tips of the lenses glowed green and he looked both ways down the tunnel.

I couldn't help but feel neglected with my useful black eyes for a moment there…

"All clear," he said.

I motioned for Sandy and Control Freak to come along.

"Don't mind me saying this…," the fat one uttered, "…but this is about as exciting as watching Patrick Stewart's hair grow."

_ZAP!!_

"DAH!! She did it without asking this time!!"

"Sorry," Sandy blushed. "Finger slipped."

"Well, you're both going to have to draw back soon," Robin said as he lead us up a metal flight of stairs in the basement towards another door. "Admittedly, I was a bit too cautious on the last door we opened. But this is where the going will get tough."

"How so?"

I hand-signed to Sandy.

"Ohhhh," she nodded. "Security systems. Gonna take a while?"

"It's not an issue of time," Robin said as he reached the door and I with him. "Howbeit…accuracy."

"Accuracy?"

"We have sensors to take out…sensors that we can't sense very easily. If you pardon the pun."

"I'll pardon anything as long as Thelma here doesn't go Green Mile on my ass again!"

"Shh!! Enough talking," Robin motioned the two back as he approached the door. "The two of you hold back and keep your mouths shut or else this mission is a bust!"

Sandy nodded and drew herself and the amused fiend back down a few steps.

Robin slowly gripped the door handle with his glove. He reached into a pack with another hand and brought out a sensor with wires attached to tiny pliers. He placed the pliers over the edge of his glove—not contacting the skin. He eyed the meter on the sensor for a minute before looking at me. "Thermal sensors are offline."

I nodded. I remembered that Robin's gloves were resistant to temperature change, but also served as great readers for fluctuating heat or cold.

He put the sensor away and grabbed another, different one. He planted it against the wall a few inches above the handle. It slowly started beeping.

"Magnetic trigger," he whispered. "He put the sensor away. He held a glove out. "Hand me the destabilizer."

I reached into a satchel on my right chest and plopped it in his grasp.

He pressed a button and waved it around the area where the sensor had beeped. A green light flashed.

"Great. It's dead now," he said. He handed me back the destabilizer. We could now open the door without the magnetic system registering an entrance from the basement and setting off an alarm to alert the Puppet King. It was something Cyborg—in all his limited genius—set up. And we knew just how to move around it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeeeeak!!_

Robin and I slowly—together—opened the door to the first floor of the Tower.

His eyemask squinted and I peered through shades at the dimly lit hallway. Everything felt eerily normal. It was quiet. No hostages. No Titans. And certainly no Puppet King.

Neither of us spoke.

Robin reached into his utility belt and pulled out a flat, metal dish. He unsealed it and blew gently against its side. A fine powder floated out into the air close to the ground. Red lasers were criss-crossing through the room. Finely tuned to trip at the slightest movement of an arm or a leg.

Robin put the dish away and pulled out a gun and an EMP Dart.

"Spot for me, Noir…," he whispered gently.

I pulled my shades off and glared upwards. The red lasers were blinding…but they were only partially visible due to the powder in the air. I followed the crimson lines till I found a single source of them. There was one of many chargers in the top corner where the wall met the ceiling across from the door a few feet. I pointed directly at it.

"Ah….I see it now," Robin whispered. He loaded the dart into the gun, twisted it, and charged it. He took a deep breath and aimed with both hands around the base of the gun. He squinted one side of his eyemask. "Better make it count…"

I took a deep breath.

Robin aimed.

I sweated.

Robin aimed…….

Pfting!

Swiiiiish-Clink!

The dart struck dead-on, sparked, and died. The laser charger shorted out. Tiny sparks of electricity branched outward and soon all of the chargers linked to the struck one on the ceiling shorted out in turn. The lasers shown in the powder disappeared. The hallway was clear.

"Whew…," Robin admittedly exhaled. He pocketed the gun away and looked at me with a weak smile. "You'd think we were doing all this to enter Raven's room or something."

I wished.

Robin hissed: "Pssst!" and motioned towards the other two on the metal stairs.

Sandy and Control Freak tip-toed to join us in the hallway.

"I don't get it…," Sandy muttered. "There's nobody here."

"They must be on another level," Robin remarked.

I hand-signed.

Sandy read me and looked at Robin. "Don't we have to settle communication with the law enforcement outside?"

Robin nodded. "Indeed. Let's just hope that the fact we haven't triggered a response from the Puppet King already is a good sign that we'll get there unhitched."

"Where is 'there'?"

"Third floor. Cyborg's room."

"Let's get to it then…."

"Follow me," Robin gestured and dashed down the hallway towards a stairwell.

I let Sandy and Control Freak go ahead while I covered the rear.

The fat fanboy smirked: "Cyborg's room! Now I'll finally get to know if the rumors are true that he's run by a Macintosh!"

_ZAP!!!_

"AUGH!! DAMMIT!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWIIISH!!!

The automatic doors to the lab opened.

Robin and I dashed in. Him with his staff. I with Myrkblade.

Nobody was there.

We breathed easily.

Robin motioned for the other two to come.

Sandy hurriedly led Control Freak inside.

Robin pressed a button and the doors slammed together shut and locked.

"Okay….so far so good."

"So far….so little," Sandy remarked. She pulled her goggles off a bit and rubbed her eyes. "Just how many people supposedly were capture?"

"Dozens," Robin said. "Well over one hundred, total, if you count the Titans too."

"Then they all must be jammed up somewhere!" Sandy exclaimed. "I'm not seeing a single one of them!"

"There may be a way to get some answers…," Robin's voice trailed. He walked over to a wall of computer consoles along the length of a wall in Cyborg's room. He scratched his chin and attempted imputing commands through the keyboard.

"Whoah….did we just fall onto the set of Tron?" Control Freak beamed.

"Hardly…," Robin hummed. Typing. "I'm attempting to tap into the main computer and locate where the Titans and the hostages are."

After a few more keystrokes, the computer emitted a buzzing sound.

Robin gritted his teeth and pounded the computer console. "Dammit! Just as I thought!"

"What is it?" Sandy walked over.

Robin typed in another flurry. "By controlling the Titans, the Puppet King controls the Tower's computer. He's bypassed most of the command prompts."

"Well, you're the Titan leader, right? Can't you override them?"

"It'd take time. Even with Noir here to provide a secondary identification."

I simpered.

"Oooh! Oooh! Start a self-destruct sequence and then call it off at the last second!" Control Freak exclaimed. He smirked at me. "I've always wanted to see that up hand."

I sweatdropped.

"Shut up…," Robin grumbled while typing. "If I'm right, then I should still be able to access some of the more intermediate commands without much hassle."

"Like what?" Sandy asked.

Robin finished a keystroke. There was a pleasant beeping sound. He smiled and looked at the rest of us. "Communication systems have been freed. The Tower's defenses can no longer access transmissions to and from an outer source."

"Excellent!" Sandy smiled.

Robin flipped open a communicator with a Star Trek sound and spoke inside: "This is Robin. We're in. Can anyone copy? Over."

A pause.

Staticky sound.

Then….

_"Snkkkkt!! Robin, glad you could make it,"_ replied the voice of Decker's Lieutenant. _"You're making good time."_

"Let's save that judgment till **after** the hostages are freed," replied the Boy Wonder into the communicator. "Right now, the four of us are in Cyborg's room—which doubles as the technical hub of the Tower. Apparently, most of the computer access has been refused to me. I can override it, but I'd rather take a chance and look for the hostages on my own before something bad may happen to them. As of now, we've ascended to the third floor of the Tower—and yet we still haven't seen anyone. I'm beginning to think that the Puppet King has who we're looking for on the stories above us. Tell me…do you or your men spot any lights or any activity through the windows on the upper floor?"

_"Negative. There is a dim light on the third floor from the Tower's top. But no sign of anything going on in there."_

Sandy seemed curious.

I looked at her and hand-signed: _'The Main Room'_.

She mouthed: "Oh."

"Lieutenant," Robin spoke, "…I'm going to try and keep in touch with you as I continue this infiltration. Any information I find about the hostages, the Titans, or the Puppet King—I shall make it known to you."

_"Affirmative, Robin. I must ask though: Has he been of any assistance to you, yet?"_

"Who?"

_"The prisoner."_

Robin glanced over at Control Freak.

"Ooooh!! Get a lode of this!" the fat fanboy stood besides an electronic eye-scanner that hung from the ceiling on metal levers and supports. He pulled it down with his forearms and manacled hands so that the two socket pieces faced us. "'Johnny Five….Alive!!'" he impersonated, then giggled his head off.

Robin sweatdropped.

"All in good time, Lieutenant. Robin out."

The Boy Wonder flipped the communicator closed. He began typing away on the keyboard and staring at the screen. "We may have a bit of a deterrent in our trip upstairs," he said—as if he was reading the computer screen the entire time he was talking over the communicator.

"What's that?" Sandy asked.

"According to this," Robin pointed at the screen. "The stairwell above the fourth floor have been sealed tight. And I don't mean something as flimsy as what we've burned through already. These things were built to withstand the fiercest of Slade's attacks….or a earthquake. Whatever came first."

I smirked.

"So what'll we do?!" Sandy exclaimed.

"Halo Lan Party--??"

"**Shut up!!"**

"Heheheheh…"

Robin cleared his throat. "I can still get up there."

"How?"

"Easily. I'll just need some help."

I nodded and walked forward--

Robin held a hand up. He bit his lip. "Um….sorry, Noir. Not you."

I raised an eyebrow.

Robin reached into his utility belt. He whipped out a taser and an extra, retractable rod. He tossed both at Sandy.

The girl awkwardly caught them with a gasp. She looked at Robin with wide eyes. "M-Me?"

"Yeah…," Robin nodded. "Just like me…..y-you're kinda small."

"Pfft! Barely!" Control Freak scoffed.

I looked at him.

Whump!

"Ow!!"

"We have to take the ventilation shafts," Robin said. "They're the only way."

"Jeez….you'd think Slade would think of that," Sandy remarked.

"True," Robin nodded stoically. "That's why Cyborg had the plasma fields installed to burn any robot crawling through them alive."

"Er…..," Sandy gulped.

"It's okay. I know how to disarm them."

"I would hope so," Sandy took a shuddering breath, pocketed the staff and taser, and pulled the goofy goggles back down over her eyes. "Well….I-I'm not one to back down from a challenge."

"I'd say not!" Control Freak said. "The soonest I'd try climbing through one of those chutes, I'd get royally stuck!" he glanced over at Robin and smirked with an obscure pride. "That's not something I regret, mind you."

"Well aren't you special," Robin muttered. He spun around and typed a few strokes on a nearby computer console. "To be honest, it would relieve me to have you stuck some place where I can't hear your cheese puff saturated voice. But as gruesome a truth as it is, I'm going to need your input and wealth of silent movie knowledge."

A wall opened automatically, and inside were extra communicators. Cyborg's room was stocked.

Robin grabbed one. He tossed them at me.

I caught them.

"That's for Control Freak," the Boy Wonder pointed a gloved finger. "There'll come a time when we'll need him to yap off about the Puppet King. In the meantime, you can contact either me or the Lieutenant through the morse code signals in your metal arm."

I nodded.

"Lords knows I'm going to need you badly, Noir," Robin said. "But at the moment…you're on babysitting duty."

I sighed and limply nodded.

"Hey! It isn't so bad!" the pudgy villain walked over and nudged me with his shoulders. "We can talk anime! I bet you're a real Rurouni Kenshin fan!"

I glared at him. I turned my body just right so that he could see the threatening hilt of Myrkblade in my scabbard.

Control Freak gulped and simpered: "Or I could yap off about Leonard Nimoy's narrative exploits through the latter decades of twentieth century television."

I sighed, shook my head, and desperately hand-signed to Sandy: 'Come back soon'.

She giggled with a nod. "Hang in there, handsome." She then hooked an arm playfully around Robin and led him to the door. "Come on, Boy Wonder. We have a marriage ceremony to crash."

"Um….," a flustered Robin nodded in tow. "Yeah. Exactly." He pointed back at us as they unlocked the door and stepped out. "If anyone comes knocking on the door….cut their strings first and ask questions later!"

SWIIIISH!!!

They were gone.

I walked to the door and locked it from the inside. I took a deep breath. I turned and forlornly looked at my 'partner' through my shades.

Control Freak rubbed his chin. "Tell me, shinobi, am I the only one disturbed by that boy's tights?"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I jolted.

I unlocked the door.

SWIIISH!!

Sandy.

"Here…take this…," she tossed me the tiny black remote. "Might come in handy," she winked.

SWIIIIIISH!!

They were finally gone.

I held the remote…..and glanced at Control Freak. Bravely, he smiled. "I mean…..Robin's pants are practically screaming 'good morning, world!'"

_ZAP!!!_

"DAUGH!!! BRING IT ON!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Sandy ascended the only stairway they could, and soon they were on the fourth floor.

"Just around this corner, and we'll find one," Robin muttered as they snuck down a dim hallway.

"Find one what?" Sandy blinked through her goggles.

"An entrance to a ventilation shaft."

"Oh yeah," she nodded. A beat. "And the plasma?"

"One step at a time."

"You're a very pragmatic Titan."

"I have to be."

"I bet the Titans all admire you for that."

"Well, actually they get rather annoyed," Robin sighed. A beat. He smiled faintly. "Except Starfire."

"Oh?"

"Yeah…she's rather………..tolerant of how stiff I can be."

"Hehehehe."

Robin paused. He glanced at Sandy. "Something funny?"

"You said 'stiff'."

"Yeah??"

"………..never mind."

Robin rolled his eyemask and motioned her along. "Come on…," he whispered.

The two rounded the corner….and froze.

Robin: "………."

Sandy: "………."

Both blinked at the same time. Or at least one can assume that Robin was blinking in tune with Sandy.

"Uhm….forgive me for being the one to make an outburst but….," Sandy slowly looked over at the Boy Wonder. "Please say this is one of the girls' doing."

Robin slowly shook his head. His mouth hanging open in dumbfounded shock. "I didn't even know there was a **doing**! What the heck is this?!?!"

The walls of the corridor were decked with sashes of velvety material. Fake plants had been situated against the wall, surrounded by glittery decorations above an assortment of rugs and wooly spreads across the floor. There was a definite air of pageantry in the Tower's interior now. It looked and felt like some bastard child of a Victorian house and an Arabian harem.

"Did Silas Stone have a knack for designing church lobbies?"

"Give me a second…," Robin flipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound. "Lieutenant, this is Robin. Come in."

_"Go ahead, Robin. We hear you."_

"If I recall right…the mind controlled Titans also robbed from various businesses in the City. Am I correct?"

_"Yes, unfortunately so."_

"Were any of the businesses…," Robin winced, "….er….a craft store or something?" A pause. "Make that a warehouse…"

_"Why….um….yes, Robin. Didn't you read the report?"_

"Refresh my memory."

_"The Crystal Petal. It's a huge arts and crafts warehouse southeast of Downtown. Near Bayside Plaza. There was a huge break-in there shortly after the City-wide kidnappings."_

"Was…..like….a good deal of their inventory grabbed?"

_"Indeed it was. Almost half of their stock."_

"That would explain it…."

_"Explain what, Robin?"_

"Let's just say that I'm starting to get in touch with the Puppet King's interior motives…..over and out."

Sandy sweatdropped. "I-I suppose the Puppet King wants to have a marriage ceremony in style."

"Yeah, well…," Robin pocketed the communicator away. "You and I are here to deliver the divorce papers forcibly."

Sandy chuckled. "Okay…now that was pretty lame. Do you actually say that sort of stuff all the time??"

Robin gasped. "Holy Shadow Puppets!"

Sandy giggled. "See! There you go again—"

"No!" Robin hissed and pointed at a shadow against the decorated wall from around the corner. "I seriously mean it! Someone's coming!"

"…………," Sandy blinked. "Wow."

Robin looked all around for solutions. He glanced directly up. Luckily, a ventilation shaft grate was directly above them. He took a breath, jumped, bounced sideways off a sashayed wall, and reached up in mid-air to grab the edge of the grate. CLANK!! It swung loose. Robin dangled. He gritted his teeth, grunted, and swung his lower body up. Effortlessly, the Boy Wonder snaked up into the shaft.

The shadow loomed closer from around the corner. It was large and hulking.

Sandy gulped and wrung her hands. She nervously looked up and whispered hoarsely: "D-Don't leave me!!"

Already, Robin was stretching an extended metal staff down from his grip high above.

Sandy jumped and grabbed firmly to the lower end of it.

Robin lifted her swiftly and closed the shaft's grate behind her.

They rested—cramped together and panting—as the dark figure passed underneath them.

Robin's eyemask squinted as he leaned his head down slowly to peer through the gaps in the grate.

With a zombie like march of titanium feet, Cyborg walked hulkingly down the length of the hallway. He was……..clothed. Clothed in a dark, shiny suit of sorts….fitted big to accommodate his metal immensity. It almost looked like a tuxedo…complete with a bow tie. His human eye glowed a frightening, pale blue. Under his arm were three or four of the missing metal lattices from the cavernous underground of the Tower. He was transporting them…

"This is bad," Sandy whispered and looked at Robin. "The Puppet King is dolling up your friends."

"He did a nice number on the coattails…"

"Huh???"

Robin shook his head. "Never mind. It's best we avoid Cyborg. Obviously our villain of the night has him doing some awful bidding. Most likely wrapped up in this whole 'marriage' theme and crap."

"You don't suppose **he's** the Queen of Strings, do you?" Sandy nodded her head towards the grate.

"Um…….wh-what???"

"Never mind…."

"Come on, let's go," Robin said, scurrying down the ventilation shaft. His voice echoed against the thin, metal cramping them in. "We're limited on time, and our main concern is finding the hostages."

"Just how do we know when we're close to them?" Sandy asked, hobbling after the Boy Wonder on her hands and knees.

"I've got a hunch…," Robin said. "If Cyborg's getup is a clue…then all we have to do is follow the rice."

"Huh?"

"The frillier the hallways beneath the shaft, the more decorative, the closer we'll be to the center. And besides," he smirked bitterly. "If I was to throw a wedding reception in this Tower, there's no better place than one spot in the entire building."

"The lavatory?"

"The gym."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dum… dum… dum… dum de dum… dum de dum… dum dum dum… dum da dum… dumdum da dummmmmm."

Control Freak hummed.

I stood by the door. Absent mindedly tapping the end of Myrkblade against the floor of Cyborg's lab. Breathing stressfully. Feeling anxious….

"Budum… ba da… daa da da da-du-dum… ba da… daa da da da-du-dum… ba da dum dada… dum dadaa."

A beat.

The fat fanboy chuckled. "Heheheheh. John Williams… gotta love him!"

I gritted my teeth and slowly glared over at him.

"Oh….I'm sorry, am I getting on your nerves?"

I slowly nodded.

"Great!" he smiled. ""Dum… dum… dum… dum de dum… dum de dum…."

I groaned. My fingers tickled the plastic surface of the tiny black switch in my pocket. But I refrained…..

Miraculously, CF ceased his humming on his own. He was glancing at me sideways. "So…like…is that really a cybernetic prosthetic you have there?"

I looked at him curiously. A beat. I mouthed 'oh'. I held up my metal left hand and flexed the titanium knuckles. I shrugged.

"Looks fake," he spat.

A red artery in my forehead pulsed vividly.

"Now Skywalker…," Control Freak leaned casually against a computer console on the far side of the room and smirked. "…that farmer boy had a prosthetic to die for. Of course, it was only his hand that was chopped off and not a huge chunk of his forearm like you. But he had it covered with fake skin. Couldn't they have—I dunno—at least done that with you? Cuz that's not gonna win any girls, I tell you what!"

I gritted my teeth. I had the sudden urge to show him how 'real' those metal knuckles of mine could be. But I restrained. I restrained…

"I once this girl at a convention before my first run in with the Titans. Her D&D name was Havielle Moon. She was a dark elf ranger, but at the convention she was dressed as Seven of Nine and nobody would know the difference. Anywho, she had a prosthetic left hand because she was born with only three fingers and---" Control Freak paused. He blinked. He looked at me and smirked. "Hey, is that arm of yours water proof?? Otherwise….that's really gotta suck, dude. Ha ha ha!!"

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and attempted to meditate.

"I hear they're recreating the Adams' Family for t.v. They need a new, realistic hand to convincingly play 'Thing' in modern day. You don't think you could…I dunno….get some fake skin and volunteer for that, perhaps? They'd kill to get a big name like you cameo starring on their pilot episode. Not to mention the fact that—come two years from now when they allow middle fingers to be expressed on network prime time without mishap—you could be a regular media astronaut—"

_ZAP!!!!_

"AAAAAAH—HA HA HA HA!!! IT WAS ABOUT TIME, YOU GUTLESS CARDASSIAN!!!"

I smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Um….please tell me this is where Santa comes down…," Sandy whimpered.

"No," Robin shook his head and stood up straight at the bottom of a tall, vertical shaft leading upwards. "This is where **we** go **up**."

"W-Would now be a good time to tell you that I'm afraid of heights?" Sandy murmured.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook. "Actually, now would be a good time to remind yourself why you volunteered to join this effort in the first place."

The girl sighed and closed her goggled eyes. "Y-You're right. I know exactly why I tagged along, Robin…"

"Good…then explain it to me sometime," the Boy Wonder aimed the grappling hook up and fire. POW!!!!

SWOOOOOOSH

The hook flew on the end of the cord for a good five seconds of eternity before striking the distant ceiling of the vertical chute above.

CLANK!!!

It was almost to the end of the cord's length.

Sandy whistled. "That's a long way for one's life to flash before her eyes on the way up."

"Don't sweat it," Robin smiled persuasively. "Grab onto my back. We'll go up together."

"Er….," Sandy bit her lip. "Are you sure th-that we can both fit on the ascent?"

"Positive," the Boy Wonder pulled the cord taut, checking its integrity. "I'm as thin as a rail."

"………………and myself?"

"We'll fit."

Sandy sweatdropped. "Yeah…."

Robin grabbed ahold of the grappling hook handle tightly and scooted around in the cramped base of the chute. "Okay. Get on my back. The gym's waiting."

"J-Just how sure are you that the gym is the place we're looking for?" Sandy stammered while wrapped her arms around his torso.

"About as sure as I am that I can carry us both up this chute!" Robin smirked.

"A-And remind me…h-how sure are you again?"

"We'll find out in a sec." Robin's gloved finger clicked a button on the handle.

"Lovely—EEP!!" Sandy cringed and hugged tightly to Robin's back as cord retracted and the two swiftly ascended via the pulley-like cord.

Robin felt her trembling. "Relax! I do this sort of thing all the time!"

"This is not like the data entry and math tutoring that I'm u-used to!" Sandy exclaimed, muffled into his shoulder.

"We'll be fine," Robin smiled as the two approached the top of the vertical ascent. "Just as long as there's no sudden jolt or violent vibration to cause us to—"

"ACHOO!!!!"

Robin's body shook from Sandy's biological exclamation and his gloves slid out of grip from the grappling hook. "DAAAH!!!"

His nimble body fell like an anvil.

"AACKIES!!!" Sandy vaulted off of his plummeting body, spun her arms like a pinwheel, and somehow managed to grab onto the grappling hook—howbeit with her finger pressing the button that caused it to lose slack.

SWOOOOOSH!!! "AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Robin fell.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!! "YAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!" Sandy followed a few feet above with the grappling hook launcher.

Robin was always prepared. He gritted his teeth and spread his legs. His metal-tipped boots scraped into the sides of the ventilation shaft. SCRIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!! Sparks flew as friction took over. Soon Robin was planted still in the middle of the shaft with his feet in either wall, Sam Fisher style. He looked up, panting.

Sandy fell, flailing. Terrorized, fish-lensed eyes pulsing down at the Boy Wonder through her goggles.

"Don't worry!!!" Robin shouted and spread his arms up. "I got you!!!"

She bit her lip and--

WHUMP!!!!!

"!!!!!!!"

Robin's boots skidded down a few extra inches as he came to a stop……………..…with Sandy collapsed in such a position atop him that his face was directly in her chest.

Any sudden movement would mean the collapse of both teenagers down the length of the vertical chute.

A beat. A very dreadful and horrific beat.

Sandy bit her lip and blushed furiously. Even as she looked down, she couldn't see Robin's eyemask nor his nose beyond herself.

Slowly, the Boy Wonder's voice came forth…and it was succinctly muffled as he uttered: "The less I….…have to…….explain this, the less……..I have to move……...my lips……Understand?"

"Uh huh," she blushed even more.

The Boy Wonder pointed up blindly. "See….the red button….on the grappling…..handle?"

"Y-Yeah…."

"Hold on…..to the handle….and press….the red button….firmly…." There was an awkward stutter to the way he said 'firmly'.

"Okay….I-I think I can d-do that."

"Then please do it……..right now."

"O-Of course….ahem…"

-Click-

Whurrrrrrrrr.

Sandy slowly ascended via the mechanism.

"I-I'll pass the thing d-down t-to you when I'm at the t-top….okay?"

Robin gasped for air once he was 'free' and nodded with a red face.

"Y-Yeah….," he panted. "Good idea."

A beat.

He looked up the shaft with a crooked expression.

"You're not wearing a bra??"

FWOOOSH!!

The lone handle to the grappling hook dangled fiercely down and bounced off the top of his head.

BONK!!

"OW!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….why didn't you keep the goggles?"

I looked up from a computer console at Control Freak. I lifted an eyebrow from under my shades.

"From Wyldecarde!!"

I grumbled and shook my head.

"Seriously! That was way killer cool!" the fat fanboy gestured from where he sat on the edge of a medical bed. "You looked like what would happen if Vin Diesel and Fabio had a lovechild….with a sword!!"

I sighed and faced the computer. I tried typing…once.

It buzzed at me.

I gritted my teeth.

"It must pay to be a bad guy, right?" Control Freak smirked. "Man…you should leave the Titans and join me. Wyldecarde and Control Freak. We'd be fighting multiple fronts!! At Vegas hotels, you'd be slicing into money vaults with your gambling cards and I'd be waltzing into the Star Trek experience, holding people for ransom!"

I looked at him funny. I mouthed 'ransom??'.

"Yeah. To be paid in Magic the Gathering Cards! What else?!"

I brought a hand over my face and wished for Armageddon….

"But only if you wear the goggles, man. And if you wanted, once I get one of my remotes back, I'd zap it and make it—like—sentient and stuff. Your goggles could talk to you! Tell you if a bad guy's hanging around a corner!! Sentient eyewear can do that. I zapped a pair I bought from the Sunglass Hut one day and—I swear to God—every department store I walked into practically turned into a Victoria's Secret right before me! Ha!!"

Silence.

"Th-That's what I got arrested for first…," he muttered, a little embarrassed. "Sunglass shoplifting."

More silence.

"You don't talk much, do you?"

_ZAP!!!_

"ARGGH!!! I'M SERIOUS!! And just what is it that you're hiding with them shades anywho?? And don't you dare say optic blast beams!!"

I stared at him. I suddenly smirked. I waltzed over…whipped off my shades…and snarled with monstrous black eyes.

Control Freak turned pale as a ghost. "Mother of the Matrix…." WHUMP!!! He slumped over on the medical bed. Unconscious. Stiff as a board.

I chuckled breathily, slipped the shades back on, and resumed typing on the computer keyboard.

It buzzed at me again.

So I hit it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin paused amidst scurrying through the shaft.

"What is it?" Sandy asked breathlessly from behind.

"I hear voices…," Robin stated. "…lots of voices."

"The h-hostages?" the girl remarked.

"Better yet…," the Boy Wonder smugly smiled back at her. "We're almost at the gym."

"Okay. You're good at your hunches."

"That has yet to be seen," he said and motioned with his head. "Come on. Let's get a good look."

"How?"

"One of the grates."

"Y-You mean…we're in one of those lonely ventilation tubes hanging h-high above the gym and st-stuff??"

"That's an accurate way to put it."

Sandy gulped. "It's only a few dozen feet of a drop, r-right?"

"Don't worry," Robin insisted. "I won't make you look down if you don't want to," he said. "Just be ready to hand me the communicator."

"Okay…," Sandy nodded. "Just stay here with me, please? Don't be pulling a Dustin Hoffman."

"Uh….y-yeah. Whatever."

A pause.

"Get it? C-Cuz this is a wedding we're sneaking up on—"

"I said 'whatever'."

"Oh. Right."

The two sneaked ahead. But just as Robin reached the grate, he paused and looked back at the goggled girl.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you. Just what made you sneeze in the vertical shaft down there?"

"I dunno. I think I m-must be allergic to boys or something."

"I see. Well….thanks for giving me something to be proud of."

"Anytime."

And with that done, Robin peered down through the gate at the proceedings of the huge gym below.

….

And his eyemask bulged.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

If one were to combine the sets and art designs of "Moulin Rouge", "Amadeus", and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" and somehow combine them into on conglomerated meatball of color-vomit pageantry, that would come close to the equivalent of the Titan gym's appearance on that evening.

Rich, ornamental rugs were splashed across the floor where—once—exercise equipment used to reside. The walls were splashed with windowless curtains and tapestries galore. There was no electric lamp in use in the entire place. Instead, huge brass stands supported candlesticks and torches with flickering flames of amber aestheticism.

The hostages….were dancing. Ballroom dancing. With happy glowing eyes of blue. Man and woman. Across the floor. Elegantly dressed. Attired in such a fashion as to suggest something akin to late eighteenth century France. The men had frilly suits with coattails. The women had huge hoopskirts and powdery complexions.

The décor, the dancers, the entire vomit bag of brainless elegance circled like a hurricane around a focal point in the center of the gym. A luxurious throne atop a mountain of furry throw rugs. And sitting on that throne—looking almost as dazed as those truly being mind-controlled—was the Puppet King himself. He held a scepter one hand and danced the finger of another one around stoically. It was like some bland attempt to achieve something akin to musical felicity. It hardly worked, for the Puppet King's eyes were just as lifeless and googly as ever. The only legitimate sign of life was the eerie bobbing motion of his wooden chin.

And hanging above everything…above the chaotic, zombified merriment, were the missing metal lattices from underground. They hung on tense aluminum strings from the ceiling and glowed in rainbow colors, representing the souls being manhandled by the Puppet King's reawakened power.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well…," Sandy remarked while glancing down through the vent. "I suppose you can add 'costume warehouse' to the day's thievery list."

Robin's eyemask thinned. "The last time we faced off against him, he only had one control to steal our minds with. Now he's turned ordinary slabs of metal into dozens of them. But…..how…" A pause. He glanced at Sandy. "From what you've read…is it possible for the third phase of the Puppet King's curse to grant him power to control minds once again?"

"I'd say so," Sandy nodded. "Until the whole 'Queen of Strings' thing is acted out."

"And when is it acted out?"

"That's nerdboy's department. Not mine."

"Right," Robin nodded. He pulled out his communicator. "I think it's about time I make a collect call—"

Suddenly, Sandy gasped. She pointed down through the grate. "Look!"

Robin did look. And also did gasp. "Oh what the Hell is this…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg walked in. Perfectly tuxedoed. Carrying more lattices under his arm.

But he was not alone. There was a dark figure, robed in black with a dark top hat topping the ensemble.

"Everyone!" the Puppet King's wooden body lumbered up to his feet atop the throne and he waved his scepter. "Cease the festivities momentarily! The magician has arrived!"

The mind-controlled mass stopped and swiveled about. Ladies cooed and gentlemen applauded.

Cyborg—his human eye glowing—looked up towards the ceiling.

His emotionless voice droned with a sterile, stoic 'act': "Now presenting!! The marvelous mistress of the dark arts!! In full dedication to the entertainment and enlightenment of his glory's kingdom…the Magnificent Raven!!"

Sure enough, the dark robed figure parted her garmet and tipped her top hat off. A very pale and tackily suited Raven (to make Mumbo Jumbo jealous and consider a 'gothic' streak) curtsied to the crowd and adjusted her sleeves. "Abra cadabra!!!" she exclaimed in perfect un-Raven fashion.

A dark sphere rose up out of the decorated gym floor. Encased in this dark sphere were four hostages. The last to be brain controlled. Two cops, a city official, and the rich and famous Veronica Vreeland.

"!!!!" Ms. Vreeland gasped and looked all around at the people. "What's going on here?!?! Where have you taken me?!?!"

"Silence while the magic act is in session!" the Puppet King growled. He pointed down with a threatening scepter from the throne. "Do you dare disgrace the sanctity of this ceremony?!"

While Cyborg attached aluminum strings to a blank lattice and pulled it up to the ceiling via a pulley, Vreeland looked around I fear and uttered:

"You can't be serious!! Since when did Howdy Doody pull an Al Qaeda?!"

"I am the Puppet King!!" the wooden thing cackled. "Reawakened from the depths of silence by the sheer power of love itself!! You, my dear….you **will** respect the Queen and join us in festivities!! And then you can worry later about the exorcism of your diseased society of ignorance and disprespect!"

"N-No!! I've heard of you on the News before!!" Vreeland shook and quivered. "You t-take people's bodies over and try and destroy their souls!! You can't take me!! I-I'm…..t-too important!!"

"In the aura of my bride to be….," the Puppet King's googly eyes settled menacingly on the woman, "…you are nothing but a peasant! Embrace the glory that is the destiny of the stars!!"

The wooden puppet waved his hands to the sky.

The latest metal lattice started to glow with the curse's magic.

Vreeland gasped. "N-No!!" She jumped up to her feet and tried desperately to run away. "Y-You can't do this!!"

The magician Raven flicked her wrists. Her eyes glowed a bright gray-blue and Vreeland was held in place by telekinesis, along with the other three struggling, protesting prisoners.

The lattice shook. Four streams of multiple colors shot down towards the prone bodies of the soon to be mind-controlled.

"Someone!! Anyone!!" Vreeland entreated the people and the Titans. "HELP!!!" Her cries fell on deaf ears.

FLASH!!!!!!

The four bodies jolted as the colors made contact…and then they settled, as if suddenly soothed or relaxed. Dumb smiles lit their faces as their eyes glowed a gentle blue. Vreeland looked the most serene of the bunch.

The Puppet King pointed to a few offhand 'partygoers'.

"Take them to the powder rooms," he said. "Tell them to get properly dressed for the ceremony. I won't have this sacred evening dishonored!"

The few zombie-like, uniformed citizens nodded and made off with the new four.

Cyborg walked over firmly—bouncer like—and stepped up to the Puppet King's throne. He leaned over and whispered something into the wooden figure's craned ear.

A beat.

The Puppet King nodded, his googly eyes twirling. "Go take care of it…," he gently said to the android Titan.

Cyborg's glowing eye pulsed. He bowed, turned around, and slowly walked out the door.

Then the Puppet King stood up. "Ladies and Gentlemen! The moment you've all been waiting for!!" A strange warmth seemed to come over his wooden complexion—if that was even possible. He gestured gracefully with a hand over at the double door entrance to the gym on the far side of the interior. "My bride to be. My precious. The soon to be Queen of Strings! Pay homage, for she appears before you now!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin gripped the grating as he stared down from above. "Now we're getting somewhere."

"This should clear some things up," Sandy nodded with a whisper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Magician Raven floated over towards the doors. She did a curtsy, flicked her wrists, and slowly pulled them open with black telekinesis. What appeared on the otherside was a stagecoach. That is to say, it was a stagecoach insomuch as it was hastily assembled by bits and pieces of haphazardly scavenged tools from the entirety of the Tower. A rickety metal platform on rickety wheels ricketily rolled into the entrance of the gym. A canopy of overlapping curtains and veils hid a gracefully thin and feminine figure inside. The 'coach' was enflanked by four citizens dressed like medieval, Spanish guards—complete with glowing eyes of possession. And drawing the 'coach' was a blatantly green Clydesdale horse. Beach Boy the equine gracefully pulled the wheeled platform in. His horse nostrils flared and his beady eyes glowed a bright blue. He came to a stop and reared his hooves with a glorious neigh while the ballroom dancers clapped and cheered in robot-like fashion across the floor of the gym.

The Puppet King took a dashing step off the throne and extended his wooden hand in a pose befitting a midget prince charming. "My darling….my treasure…my one and true love…show your heavenly self so that we all may marvel at your greatness and beauty!"

The guards flanking the coach pulled the veils loose as the figure inside stood up in a shimmering gown of white and glittering blue that matched her glowing, cyan eyes. In fluid, watery motion Starfire stepped down. She lifted the hem of her skirt as she reached the floor then held her hands to her side as she swiveled prettily over and stood by the Puppet King's proud side.

She smiled liquidly and leaned her head to the side. It was Starfire's voice that came out…even if it sounded like Starfire's voice being filtered through a sheet of breakable glass.

"I am so very much anticipating our destiny together….my beloved…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………………………………..," Robin stared.

"Er….," Sandy bit her lip. "Not good."

"Tell me about it," Robin droned emotionlessly. With a tight jaw, he reached a hand back to a satchel and pulled out a handful of flammable throwing discs. "Give me some elbow room."

"Wh-What for?"

"I'm going to kill the Puppet King."

"Uhh---Huh?!?!?"

"It'll only take a second," he reached a gloved hand to open the vent's grate.

"Robin!! For crying out loud, hold it right there!!" Sandy gripped his wrists.

"I'm going to kill him. Simple as that." He finally looked at her, perplexed, like she was suddenly an animal struggling with him. "Sandy, what're you doing?"

"What are **you** doing?!?! You can't just **KILL** him like that!!"

"Why not?? I sure can!! I can kill a hundred of his splintery asses!! Blindfolded and with my knees deep in peat moss!!"

"Well…let's at least make sure that whatever we do—violently impulsive or not—we make sure that it'll definitely cancel out the curse and stuff."

"Meaning…"

"Let's make that call to Control Freak," Sandy begged, staring into his eyemask. "Please?"

He sighed, glaring down through the vent. "Very well then."

"Whew….," she breathed.

He pocketed the discs back and whipped out his communicator. "We'll get some of Control Freak's advice and free the curse."

"Exactly what I was thinking!"

"Then I'm going to kill the Puppet King."

Sandy sweatdropped. "L-Let's just take it as it comes, okay?"

"Whatever…," Robin angrily muttered. "Noir. Come in. This is Robin."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Noir?! Are you there?? Come in!!"_

I jumped. I whipped the communicator out and clicked a morse code response. I smiled, happy to hear from my leader--

_"Give the communicator to Control Freak. We need his information. __**Now**_**.**"

My black eyes blinked. I bit my lip. I looked over to where the fat villain still lay silent…unconscious on the medical bed.

_"Noir?? This is important!! Give Control Freak the phone now!"_

I rushed over and gently slapped the fiend's pudgy cheeks.

He didn't even budge.

I slapped harder…wincing.

Nothing.

I whistled in his ear. Waved my hand over his face. Snapped my finger over his eyes. Sweated….

_"Noir??? Noir??"_

I spun around, looking for something. I gasped. I ran to a wall panel, opened it up, picked up an extra communicator, rushed back over to the bed, and held the communicator over by Control Freak's ear.

I flipped it on with a Star Trek sound.

Instantly, Control Freak woke up with a gasp. "Uhura?!?! Who's hailing us?!?!"

I snapped and pointed at the first communicator that Robin was squawking through.

"Huh???" the chubby villain blinked his crusty eyes. "Oh yeah. Evil puppet and stuff. Ahem." He snatched the phone from my grasp and cradled it with a smile between his shoulder and double chins. "Control Freak Hotline. Is this an obscene phone call? I hope it is!"

_"Cut the crap, Control Freak. I need help."_

"Oh do you now?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin peered down through the grate while speaking hoarsely into the communicator. "It's about the last silent two reeler of the Puppet King."

_"'Strings in the Stars'?"_

"Yeah, that one. Was there anything in that short movie that resembled a bunch of marionette string holders hanging from the ceiling??"

_"Is this a trick question??"_

"No, you inflated Doritos whore!! I mean every word of it!!" Robin snapped, frightening Sandy with the possible giveaway volume of the exclamation. "Was there anything in reference to the actual puppet strings evident in the silent movie?? Especially regarding the 'celebrators' of the Puppet King's and Mary Lou's wedding?"

_"Puppet strings? No. The story and plot was cheesy enough to pretend the camera wasn't catching those godawful things. However…"_

"Yeah???"

_"A lot of reference was made to stars being overhead the characters…,_" Control Freak's voice explained. _"It was a running motif in the last movie."_

"Care to be more specific?"

_"Well, there's the honeymoon in the stars. Ya know, with the Puppet King, Mary Lou, and the catapult?!"_

"You already told us that one."

_"Hmmmm………Here's something interesting then."_

"I'm listening…."

_"The Puppet King in the story—after beating Big Dog—invited the entire townsfolk to the wedding ceremony. But not all of them came. The ones who failed to came never got to celebrate the marriage. The Puppet King griped and said it was because they were 'ignorant' and 'arrogant'. He believed that the royal townsfolk too wrapped up in themselves to possibly see the stars couldn't share in his and Mary Lou's glory."_

"So….you mean….," Robin eyed the multicolored, mind-controlling lattices hanging from the gym's ceiling, "….the ones who did attend the marriage—"

_"Knew about and saw the stars."_

"'Stars'…..," Sandy breathed.

Robin narrowed his eyemask. He uttered: "Did the attendees of the wedding see stars overhead?"

_"Most definitely. Great effects they had in that short movie to simulate it too—"_

"Were those stars of many different colors??"

_"Ha ha ha ha!!"_ Control Freak's voice guffawed. _"Robin, it was a silent picture!! You think there'd be any color?!_"

Robin groaned.

_"But……"_

The Boy Wonder brightened.

_"There were colored __**slides**__ of the stars. Three different colors. A green slide. A blue slide. And a red slide."_

"Hmmm…," Robin stared out the grate. To his half-surprise, the lattices were glowing exactly those three colors and nothing else. "Well I'll be damned…."

_"Damn you!! Hehehehe!"_

"………they're the exact same colors."

_"I'd imagine so. It's all fitting in with the curse n'stuff!"_

"Any parallel motifs of the colored slides and the celebrating townsfolk?"

_"Not really. But it's safe to say that you never see those townsfolk in the movie until the marriage scene. And that takes place at night!"_

"Point being…."

_"The 'ignorant' townsfolk had a single moment in a deleted scene of the last two-reeler. And in it, the setting was at day."_

Sandy gasped. "Don't you get it, Robin??"

Robin sighed and put on a brave smile for her. "Enlighten me. I dare you."

"The hostages are the townsfolk!! They're the partygoers of the wedding ceremony and the lattice 'controls' with their multiple colors—"

"Are the stars. Right," Robin nodded. "And the ignorant townsfolk—"

"Are those outside the Tower threatening to die as well when the fusion reactor goes critical!"

"They're ignorant because they're not in here….," Robin thought aloud, "….seeing the stars. Or in this case, the lattices…"

A beat.

Robin brightened. "What would happen if the hostage 'celebrators' were made to think it was no longer night??"

"So….we destroy the lattices?" Sandy exclaimed.

"Nah….," Robin stroked his chin. "Can't be that simple…."

Control Freak's voice broke in: _"Just because the stars are gone, it doesn't mean it's no longer night!! Night is relative!!"_

"Except by one definition," Robin smirked. "When it's nighttime, the sun is below the horizon."

_"Unless you live in Alaska during—"_

"Shhh!! Stop complicating it," Robin hissed. He rolled his eyes under the mask. "Robin out."

_"But—!!!"_

Robin flipped the communicator off and looked at Sandy. "If we were to somehow….simulate the sunrise so that the mind controlled hostages were to believe—according to the Puppet King's cursed scenario—that the Sun was rising—"

"Then we'd free them of the curse!" Sandy grinned. "They'd be just like the 'ignorant' people outside the Tower! Completely in control of their thought processes!"

"The Titans too," Robin nodded. He looked forlornly down through the grate. "And that means Starfire," he sighed.

Sandy raised an eyebrow.

Robin once again realized that the lights of the gym were out and the only thing lighting the place up was firelight and glowing lattices. "We've got to get to the Main Room."

"At the top of the Tower? What for?"

"I can control the lighting systems from there. With a bright enough pulse of the gym's lights—or any lights for that matter—we might be able to turn the tables on the Puppet King."

"And outnumber him succinctly so that we can win back the Tower and stop the Fusion Reactor's overload!" Sandy remarked.

"Yup," Robin said. He motioned for Sandy to follow as he crawled over the grate and down the chute. "The solution's in sight if we just hurry. All it means—though—is more vertical climbing adventures."

"Hehehe," Sandy giggled and followed Robin over the grate. "How about letting you go first this time—"

SNAP!!!!

The grate fell out from underneath her.

"AAAAAH!!!" Sandy shrieked and plummeted--

"SANDY!!!" Robin dove back and grabbed for her.

He missed her ankle.

Zombified patrons looked up. So did the Puppet King and Starfire—their hands clasped together.

Sandy's goggled eyes twitched as she howled in terror all the way down---

POW!!! SWOOOOOSH-WHIP!!!!!

"NNGH!!!" Sandy grunted as she was saved a mere foot from smashing into the ground. Robin—high above in the hole formed in the chute—was holding Sandy by a taut grappling hook. He strained and gritted his teeth….sweating with the last minute effort.

The 'guards' and Magician Raven walked over and menacingly approached Sandy's figure. The upside down girl simpered and waved at all the glowing blue eyes fixed on her. "Eheheheheheh….h-how's it hanging?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Control Freak blinked at the communicator. He handed to me. "Got disconnected."

I took the device from him and looked at it. I had a worried expression on my face.

"So what if they're in danger?!?!" he shrugged and chuckled. His chins warbled. "Better them than us, right?!"

SMASH!!!!!!!

A hole was punched through the double doors to the lab.

Control Freak gasped and hid behind the bed, covering his face with manacled hands. Eventually, he peaked through his parting fingers…trembling.

I took a step forward and unsheathed Myrkblade. CHIIIING!!! But I froze and my jaw dropped upon seeing who it was.

A tuxedoed Cyborg peered through the fresh hole. In a stoical fashion befitting the Terminator, the blue-eyed android uttered: "You were not invited to this wedding."

"Uhm…..," Control Freak gulped and smiled up at me. "I believe this is your department, shinobi."

I reminded myself to give him the 'Vulcan' finger later.

SMASH!!!!!!!!

Cyborg possessively growled and punched/kicked his way through what was left of the door before charging at me with full, titanium force.


	94. For the Queen of Strings part 5

**94. For the Queen of Strings part 5**

Cyborg rushed at me with his hulking fist flying at me.

"Um….," Control Freak hid behind the medical bed and gulped: "This doesn't mean I like you or anything….but….GET THE HELL DOWN!!!"

I gritted my teeth and splashed to the floor.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Metal knuckles almost grazed my nose as I fell back.

The possessed Cyborg's blue eye flashed and he brought his right foot down to smash over me.

I gasped and rolled to the side.

SMASH!!!

A crater formed in the floor.

I vaulted up from my roll with a pulse of murk, teleported, materialized on the wall, and kicked off to fly over Cyborg's body.

He reached a strong hand up and gripped my leg.

I gasped.

He growled in a possessed voice and swung me like a golf club to the floor by my foot.

I held my breath and switched my torso into smoke form.

FWOOSH!!!!

My upper half warbled across the floor, and Cyborg's swing ended up going in an upwards arc towards the ceiling as I solidified my torso again, gripped Myrkblade, and slapped him hard in the metal elbow.

CLANK!!!

He released me.

I landed on the floor in a kneel.

He joined two fists together and brought them down.

I dove forward between his legs.

SMASH!!!

Another crater formed where I was.

I rolled to a stand on the other side of him and reversed kicked his rear.

WHUMP!!!

He stumbled for—WHANG!!!!—into the wall.

I spun about and twirled Myrkblade into a flickering pose. Smoke danced out under my shades for a moment….then settled back as I panted and reminded myself that this was my teammate. Possessed by the Puppet King or not, I couldn't—and wouldn't—bring myself to hurt him.

With a metal creak, Cyborg swiveled about. He was frowning. He adjusted the bow tie of his ridiculous tuxedo, narrowed a blue human eye, and cracked his knuckles.

"Dude…," Control Freak said from behind the bed. "I don't think he's here to strip."

I gave him a sideways glare.

WOOOOOSH!!!!

Cyborg came at me.

I gritted my teeth and flipped backwards, dodging a punch. I stood up and stumbled backwards in time to miss a kick and an uppercut. Cyborg threw another heavy punch which I easily ducked, twirled about, and struck up with a slash of Myrkblade. CLANK!!!! The android stumbled. I twirled Myrkblade again and struck it hard against his chest. WHAM!!!

He stumbled back. Behind him I saw a pile of metal tools and conduits and decided it was a good thing to collapse him into.

So I ran and performed a flying kick--

GRIP!!!!

He had me by the upper thigh.

My black eyes bulged.

I let out a surprised exhale as he flung me over—using my own momentum—and flung me into the pile of junk.

CRASH!!!!

"Ooooooh," Control Freak winced. "Just like where my iPod ended up."

SWIVEL!! Cyborg spun around. His blue eye flashed. He stomped towards the fat fanboy.

The obeseling bit his lip and cowered with his hands over his head. "N-No!! Don't kill me!! Not till I have the entire DS9 dvd collection!!!"

Cyborg raised his huge fist and--

WOOOSH!!!

I jumped with a silent snarl and landed on his shoulders. I wrapped my legs around his neck tightly and proceeded to pummel his metal skull repeatedly with the hilt of Myrkblade.

Bonk!! Bonk!! Bonk!!

Cyborg struggled for a second, then he reached his hands up and succinctly grabbed my ribs.

I winced.

He tossed me off of him.

I spun in the air and grabbed a laboratory viewfinder that hung from the ceiling on a track. My momentum caused the hanging metal contraption to slide down the track towards the far wall. Dangling by one hand, I kicked my legs back upon reaching the wall and slid myself back forcibly with a twirl of Myrkblade in my free hand and--

SWOOOOOSH!!! (I swung).

WHACK!!!!

Cyborg's head spun to the left.

I kicked myself off the hanging support and impacted my legs into the robot's chest first.

CLANG!!!!

He stumbled back.

I grounded myself and immediately uppercutted with the broadside of Myrkblade.

He fell back—and down like Goliath.

CLUNK!!!!

He lie still on the floor.

I stood with Myrkblade. Panting. Sweating.

Control Freak's face peered up over the bed. He gulped. "Would now be a good time for 'Klaatu Barada Nikto'??"

I stared down and took a few steps forward---

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

Cyborg suddenly had a blue laser cannon firing off in my chest.

I flew off with a grunt past Control Freak.

"Whoah!!" his head turned to watch me streak by with a smirk. "Get the license plate on that shinobi, will ya?!"

CLANK!!!

I struck the wall hard. I winced.

POW!!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I gasped under my shades.

One of Cyborg's arms had ejected and was sailing at me.

I twirled to the side at the last second--

SMASH!!!!

The metal appendage formed a dent in the wall. I let out a sigh of relief--

SMACK!!!!!

His second arm flew on its own into me.

I wheezed and slumped to the floor.

"Sorry, Noir. Looks like he's got the winning hand. HA!!!"

I gritted my teeth at both him and the pain. I looked up weakly as the tuxedoed Cyborg came to bat. He stood menacingly still as his detached hands 'walked up' his body on nimble figures and reattached to his forearms with separate hisses. He cracked his metal neck and—blue eye pulsing—raised his leg to kick me again.

I took a deep breath. I summoned murk and gripped the handle of my sword.

WOOOSH!!!

His leg came down.

SWISSSH-CLANK!!!!!

I jabbed the tip of my blade directly into his soul. With a pulsing wave of smoke powers alone, I was successfully holding his foot at Myrkblade's length and keeping it from squashing into me. I gritted my teeth. My arms struggled. The blade started carving a tiny dent in the metal of Cyborg's heel and--

FLASH!!!!!

I unleashed a huge pulse of Murk that drew him back.

I hardly had a breath left as I dove forward and rolled past him. I desperately sprinted towards the side of the lab. Anything to get away.

He grabbed for me.

I ducked his reach and plowed clumsily into the medical bed Control Freak was hiding behind. WHUMP!!!!

I tripped and collapsed on the other side of it.

"AACK!!" Control Freak warbled. "Not here!! Don't run to where I'm hiding!!!"

Cyborg stomped over loudly like a T-Rex.

Control Freak shrieked like a girl and jumped up on the bed.

SMASH!!!

Cyborg's foot came down where the fat boy was.

I jumped to my feet, gritted my teeth, and jabbed Myrkblade forward.

Control Freak—on the bed—flattened himself the best he could and gasped as my sword stretched uncomfortably close as it jabbed over him.

SMACK!!!!

Cyborg struck the blade aside. He lunged a fist at me from the other side of the bed.

I dodged and swung my blade down with an exhale.

Cybrog's arm withdrew and I struck the bed uncomfortably close to CF's leg.

"Whoah!!!" the fanboy fiend exclaimed.

Cyborg growled and swung at me again. I pinned his arm to the bed where Control Freak writhingly dodged.

"Stay on target!!"

Cyborg tried to headbutt me. I jumped back and slashed downward, grazing Cyborg's metal skull and showering sparks before ending the blade an inch from Control Frek's neck.

"Stay on target!!!!"

Cyborg reached two hands over to grip my neck. In so doing, his titanium body leered dangerously close to Control Freak's head. The rotund fellow gasped and his manacled arms nudged a control panel on the bed's side.

WHUURRRRRR!!!

The bed spun about ninety degrees---simultaneously knocking Cyborg and I back.

"OOF!!!"

"!!!!!!"

"Whoah!!!" Control Freak gasped and dizzily shook his head.

Cyborg got up, growled, and ran straight for the bed this time.

Control Freak panicked. "Uhhhh…," he sweatdropped, looking all around. His crusty eyes fell on the bed's control panel again. He struck a switch with two bound wrists.

Beep!!

CHTUNG!!!!

The foot of the bed shot up—succinctly uppercutting Cyborg's chest just as he approached.

CLANG!!!!

"It's not made yet!!" Control Freak exclaimed.

Cyborg stumbled back. He shook his head and glanced up just as I ran, vaulted over the bed, and flew at his possessed figure with Myrkblade slashing.

SWOOOOOSH!!! CLINK!!!

He deflected with his metal forearm.

I landed in front of him, gritted my teeth, and slashed and slashed and slashed and slashed and slashed with lightning quick precision. He deflected well for a zombified Titan, but had to back up from my constant offense. I made a desperate attempt to push him up against the far wall of computer consoles. From then I would consider my options. Whether I could knock him unconscious. Whether I could push him into the electronics and short him out. Or perhaps whether I could just distract him long enough for me and my negligent friend to make an escape.

He didn't give me much time to think. With a shoulder, he shoved through a set of my thrusts and pushed me into the center of the room.

In the meantime, Control Freak scurried over to a nearby wall. He panted and held his manacled hands out. "At least let me help you, you selfish jedi!!"

I made a face at the villain—then gasped as Cyborg suddenly rushed forward and I had to block. I slid back a few more feet and slashed at him. The possessed android side-stepped my swing. CHH-CHIING!! My blade sliced through a series of pipes on the wall which came falling down from my severed swing.

Control Freak eyed the brand new 'staffs' on the floor, smirked, and held his wrists up again. "Come on, Shinobi! Trust me! Consider it like our Khitomer Treaty---"

SWOOOOOSH!!! I rushed at Control Freak, snarling, swinging my sword.

His crusty eyes bulged. He wet himself and raised his hands up in last second defence--

SLASH!!!!!

My blade went in between his wrists and cut the manacles off. Control Freak was free.

No sooner, I shoved him out of the way as Cyborg rushed in and pinned me to the wall. I struggled. I gritted my teeth. He pressed me harder and harder to the side of the laboratory. I gasped for my lungs…but couldn't feel them anymore. I felt like my head was about to pop--

CONG!!!!

Cyborg shook his head, let me loose, and rubbed his sore scalp.

I somersaulted out of the way, gasping for breath. I leaned limply on Myrkblade and glanced at my right.

Control Freak fatly twirled a long, severed pipe like a two-edged lightsaber and got into a fighting stance that seemed unnatural for an obese warrior. He winked at me as we stood side by side, ready to attack. "Now…you gotta admit, man. This is friggin' cool."

I blinked at him. I bore a sickly grin…

Cyborg swiveled around.

I gripped Myrkblade and got ready.

Control Freak smirked and spun his pipe nimbly.

The robot charged at us.

We both dove in. Control Freak yelling. Me with my silent warcry.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

WOOOSH!!!

CLANG!!!

Wood struck metal struck metal struck metal struck wood.

Myrkblade, the pipe, and Cyborg's metal arms deflected against each other in a three-fighter spiral of madness in the center of the laboratory. Control Freak and I gradually worked it so that we were on either side of Cyborg, fighting him from opposite angles. Control spun in with a twirling attack. Cyborg pushed him back. I jumped in and jabbed into the square of his back. Sparks flew and he spun around, knocking me away. Control Freak came in with a smack to the head. Cyborg grabbed his pipe and flipped his fat body over effortlessly. I eagerly dove out of the way as the obese fiend fell to the floor. I then charged, teleported, materialized in mid-air, and descended with a heavy slash that knocked Cyborg back about ten feet.

He stood dizzily under a huge light fixture.

I looked at it. I whistled at Control Freak.

The fanboy dizzily sat up and saw the fixture. He smiled. "Bring it down!!"

I smirked. I twirled Myrkblade and ran at Cyborg.

As predicted, the titanium Titan grabbed for me.

I blurred, pulsed murk, and flipped up and out of his grasp.

"She's all yours, kid!" Control Freak tossed me his pipe. "Now let's blow this thing and go home!!"

I grabbed the pipe in mid air, uprighted myself, landed on Cyborg's shoulders, and locked him in place with the pipe pressed back up against his throat. He struggled to get me off of him. I repositioned myself, held the pipe with one hand and one knee, and flung Myrkblade up with my free hand.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

SNAP!!!!

The blade sunk into the ceiling, cutting off the support to the light fixture, but not its wiring. The glaring object sailed down heavily. I took a breath, winced at the thought of what was about to happen, and leapt off my android friend.

The possessed Cyborg finally yanked the pipe off his neck, flung it to the floor, and slowly looked up with a twitching blue eye--

SMASH!!!!

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

Cyborg's body convulsed as the light fixture exploded over his metal cranium and shot bolts of electricity all throughout his body. I landed behind him, panting, squinting my black eyes under my shades.

The ends of his bow tie sizzled as he fell down to his knees, groaned, and collapsed face forward on the ground. Still.

I rushed over and felt his pulse just to be sure. I sighed with relief.

He was down for the count…nothing more.

"Woohoo!!" Control Freak jumped and cheered. "Man!! That was so cool!! Never before was there a greater union than the Dominion and the Cardassians!! I tell you what!!! Control Freak and Wyldecarde could clear ANY room—"

-click-

Control Freak blinked. He looked down at his hands which I had just refastened swiftly with one of Cyborg's spare handcuffs. "Awwwwwww chocobo poop."

I smirked. I turned around and looked at my blade pinned into the ceiling. I decided to leave it for then. Instead, I walked over to the communicator that had gone dead and picked it up. I thought of Robin….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!" Robin was tossed down on his rear end next to Sandy against the cinderblock wall of the gym.

Spears pointed at them close up from six 'guards'….citizens under the Puppet King's control. The Puppet King hobbled forth in a 'march', pacing before the two captured infiltrators. The richly attired 'guests' of the ceremony stood in their frills and dresses and powdery expressions in the background of the 'ballroom' gym. They watched with concerned blue eyes, as if they were truly shocked at the sudden interruption of their controller showing off his bride to be.

The Puppet King's googly eyes settled evilly on the Boy Wonder and the goggled volunteer for a few seconds. Then he swiveled around without blinking and waved at two leftover guards besides the coach. "Take her back to her chamber. My beloved must not despair at the awkward events transpiring before her."

The guards nodded and guided a zombielike Starfire towards the coach. She gracefully stepped up into her seat and smoothed out the wrinkles in her shimmering white and blue dress. The green horse neighed and trotted off through double doors which the guards closed upon exiting.

The Puppet King turned around and stared at the two. His wooden block of a mouth bobbed open and he uttered: "I will not let you defile my beloved's evening!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Robin spat. His eyemasks narrowed. "You're not the one here who really knows Starfire."

"Oh…but I do know her," the Puppet King said. He waved his scepter as he stumbled into a dramatic swoon. "And I love her. I love her truly." He tilted his head down into a 'glare'. "It is you who does not understand. It is you who truly neglects the woman I love!"

Sandy slipped her goggles off and glared. "Um….j-just what makes you so certain she is the Queen of Strings??"

"Simple! I woke up to her lovely voice!" the Puppet King exclaimed. He paced and spoke, "She cared for me. Almost every morning. Speaking to me of her days. The most **insignificant** details of an angel's life. And I couldn't help it. I fell in love." He sighed in as trademark a way as an animated, wooden puppet can sigh. "Her soft voice. Her breathy giggle. Those sparkling green eyes and that unblemished smile. The way that she does not think of herself, but instead puts the weight of the world—the universe on her shoulders. She is so cute and so simple, and yet so exotic and mysterious. And she's alone on this destitute rock of a world called Earth. A world full of ignorant warmongers and evildoers. She does not deserve this infidel culture! She deserves a destiny in the stars. Much like what her home planet once offered her."

He pointed an angry wooden hand at the two.

"It is you!! People like the Titans and so called 'do-gooders' who pin her down on this forsaken planet and force her to fight a daily battle that is unbefitting for her grace and beauty! I will not let you taint her any longer!! I shall wed her and take her far away from here. As King and Queen, she shall be free. **We** shall be free!"

"Starfire volunteered to join the Titans," Robin frowned. "I did not talk her into doing anything she didn't desire. I would never do that! If you're so concerned about her being manipulated…why don't you turn your damn magic spell off and let her look at you with her real eyes and say what she feels?!?!"

"I told you already," the Puppet King said firmly. "I **do** know my beloved. And in such, I know how she feels. She is confused. Lonely. And perplexed by this harmful macrocosm that she's forced to fight crime in! How could she love to be anywhere but with me in the stars?!"

"Starfire has always been willing to deal with the culture shock of living here after a long life of Tamaranian experiences!" Robin retorted. "We knew that! We always knew that! And yet we've given everything we could to help her! To assist her! For we're her friends. And to show how we love her, we promise to be there for her no matter what! Not whisking her away to some god-awful fate like you're so selfishly intending!!"

"Enough!" the Puppet King stomped the end of his scepter down into the gym floor. "You have no say in this matter. You were never truly her friend to begin with. My beloved deserves my attention and my attention…as she has done nothing in the past year but given me attention when all else seemed lost…"

Sandy leaned in and muttered into the Boy Wonder's ear: "Boy….someone seems smitten!"

"What was that?" the Puppet King leaned in.

"Er….n-nice mittens! Hehehehe…"

The Puppet King pointed his scepter. "Silence! You **will** honor this ceremony. The Queen deserves it." He raised his hands towards the ceiling. One of the many lattices with room for two more glowing spots shook and warbled. Streams of energy started to branch down towards the two captured infiltrators.

Sandy and Robin grunted and squirmed in their seats.

"Unfortunately….you are not properly attired," the Puppet King glared. "But do not fear. We will take care of that soon enough. We will give you the last suits you shall ever wear…."

Sandy grunted. "Now would….be a good…..time for….Boy Wondrous stuff…."

"Tell me about it…," Robin struggled to reach his utility belt. But he was quickly losing his will to fight. "If….only…."

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

A dark streak zoomed in.

THWACK!!!!

The Puppet King was knocked back into a guard.

"Ooof!!"

The crowd of possessed dancers gasped.

I skidded to a stop, my body trailing murk and calming down. I panted with Myrkblade in my gasp. I jerked to the side.

Six guards stared at me with blue eyes blinking.

I swiftly jabbed at them. Knocking one back by his blocking spear into another. I then leapt into the center and swept my leg out, tripping the last four in one strike.

WHAP!!!

THWUMP!!!!

Robin took a breath and jumped up. "That's more like it…," he grinned and whipped his metal staff out…extending it. He rushed by my side.

In the meantime, Sandy slipped her goggles on and cowered against the wall. "N-N-Not my department!!"

Robin and I stood side by side with Myrkblade and the staff.

The guards got back up.

We took our respective breaths and jumped them.

CLANK!!! CLINK!!! WHANG!!!

Wood against metal. Metal against metal. The guards may have been possessed citizens…but they were merely citizens. It didn't take very long for us to break through their defenses and knock them—safely—unconscious against the throne in the center of the gym.

"Woo!!" Robin spun his staff and struck a pose while facing the Puppet King. "Easier than I thought! Consider this wedding crashed, ya damn Muppet!"

The Puppet King was helped up by a few guests and twirled his scepter. "If you're so willing to fight, Titans…then fight all you like." He stretched the scepter to the ceiling.

The dozens of lattices glowed. Soon, the blue eyes of the guests were glowing too. Their faces turned into nightmarish frowns and they started marching at us like a scene out of the Dawn of the Dead and Great Expectations combined.

"But if you came to crash a wedding…you must crash the reception as well. Painfully, I might add."

Robin sweatdropped. "This….is not a good idea."

I slowly nodded with a weak face.

The first in line to lunge for us was Commissioner Decker. His usual badass face was contorted in a ghoulish howl as he swung at us with his richly sleeved arms.

Robin jumped back. Another arm snagged onto his cape but he spun free. Not willing to crush any innocent souls, he dashed towards the far side of the gym and motioned for me to follow.

I nodded. I blurred over towards the wall.

"Is it over??" Sandy looked up. She saw the wall of oncoming wedding zombies. "Eeek!!"

I blurred by her, yanked her up by the collar of her black jumpshirt, and ran towards the double doors with her in frightened tow.

The Puppet King watched, chuckling, amused with his wooden self.

Robin approached the doors first and shoved against them. Growling. They wouldn't budge. "Damn!! Sandy! Help me out with this thing!!"

"O-Okay!"

Robin fumbled for adequate tools to pick the lock as Sandy joined him. "Noir!!" he shouted. "Hold them off long enough for us to get through!!"

I spun around.

I saw the wall of innocent flesh approaching me.

I glanced at my wooden blade.

I bit my lip.

I sheathed it, cracked my knuckles, and got into a martial arts pose.

The body wall came.

I took a deep breath and rushed forward.

WHUMP!!!

I chopped one chest.

WHUMP!!!

I chopped another chest.

Bodies fell back harmlessly into others, knocking the advancing line down like bowling pins.

WHUMP!!

I knocked a woman into two gentlemen and another lady.

WHUMP!!

I kneed a city official back into a bunch of police officers.

The mass of bodies was picking up on my right.

I rushed over to shove them back—but paused.

My black eyes blinked.

Blake Glover hobbled towards me in his lacy, eighteenth century getup. His zombiestep was perfect…right down to the drooling.

I leaned my head to the side and smiled a sickling smile before shoving him extra hard back into the crowd…knocking down literally a dozen people at once.

WHUMP!!!

"Almost got it!!" shouted Robin as he and Sandy picked the lock.

I nodded at them.

FLASH!!

My metal left hand was suddenly encased in black telekinesis.

I gasped and looked over.

There stood Raven. In a magician's costume. Complete with the top hat and robe and tuxedo-leotard…thing.

It was the first time I had seen her and I didn't have a time to laugh hysterically (or sob miserably).

She uttered: "As the King's magician, I cannot let you escape. Watch. It's all in the wrist."

And that said, she succinctly began twisting my metal arms in ways that Cyborg had not engineered it to be twisted. I gritted my teeth and struggled in place as the dark girl pulled and pulled at my prosthetic. The wall of possessed bipeds lumbered closer. I could smell their hot, ragged breaths. Sparks of pain shot up my left arm and throttled the shivers into my being out of nowhere. I felt a wall of arctic proportions settle through my system. Arms of zombie guests reached my scarred throat. I let loose a gasp and desperately reached my right hand to my forearm. I pressed the right points in the metal disc and—SNAP!!! HISSSSS!

The metal hand popped loose. Freed, I ducked out of the grasp of the masses just when--

"THERE!!"

CHTING!!!

The double doors were unlocked.

Robin kicked them open.

WHAM!!!

He shoved Sandy through, who got the idea and scurried down the hall.

The Boy Wonder looked at me and waved. "Noir!! Come on!!!"

I wasn't about to complain. But as I started to run, more dark energy enveloped me. This time my ankles.

"!!!!!"

I spun about.

Raven's blue eyes were glowing over with gray. The 'magician' had me caught once again.

One handed, I unsheathed Myrkblade—CHIING!!!—twirled it—SW-SW-SWISH—and struck the floating arm of blackness hard with the length of my blade. CRACK!!!

It sailed straight out of the dark bubble of Raven's powers.

SWOOOSH!

And it struck her hard in the face.

CLANG!!!!

"Ooof!!" the possessed girl fell down. Her top hat rolled to the floor and she saw stars with a red welt on her nose.

I winced at that…but was nevertheless free of her manipulations. I dashed away from the last line of marching crowds as the ones I grounded began standing up and joining the molasses pursuit.

Watching from afar, the Puppet King shook his googly eyes and looked towards the dizzy magician. "Call for my steed! I will need his help in tracking those infidels down!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I caught up with the sprinting Robin and Sandy.

"You made a good rescue," the Boy Wonder exclaimed. "I hope you had a good escape plan too!"

I nodded. I pointed down a right turn with my existing hand.

"The elevator?!"

We rounded the corner.

"The elevator!!"

Indeed, the double doors to the elevator were open. Inside sat Control Freak, handcuffed to the far wall and away from the buttons.

"Going down?" he grinned.

The three of us rushed in.

"Um…cl-close the doors, please," Sandy whimpered.

Robin flipped off the lock switched and the doors closed just as the shadows of our lumbering pursuers appeared around the corner.

Sandy sighed. "I don't mind community service…but so much as long as the community doesn't try to eat your brains out while dressed to celebrate Bastille Day!"

I reached my right hand to press a button for a lower floor….but Robin smacked it away.

I winced and rubbed it against my right side with a pout.

"S-Sorry…," he stuttered. He pressed the third highest button. "But since we're in the elevator…we're going up."

I raised an eyebrow.

"We need to get to the Main Room," Robin explained. The elevator shook and vibrated gently as we started to rise up the floors. "From there we can operate the lighting system."

"And then make the possessed people think that the Sun is rising!" Sandy nodded. She slipped her goofy goggles back on over her eyes while still regaining her breath. "That'll stop their end of the curse!"

"Indeed it will," Control Freak grinned. "Now do you mind freeing me from this wall support? I may be composed of 75% syrup inside of my belly…but I'm no T-1000!"

"Oh…it's you…," Robin grumbled and marched over. "I guess it's unethical to kill you or something…right?"

"Love you too, Robin."

The Boy Wonder undid the villain's handcuffs, freed him from the side of the elevator, and fastened them again.

"Now that the adrenaline is slowly fading…," Sandy gulped. "H-How'd you guys get into the elevator to begin with?"

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "I thought they weren't working because of the Puppet King's manipulation."

Control Freak smirked. "We blew our way to the fifth floor and accessed one there."

"Blew your way?" the Boy Wonder raised an eyebrow.

A rattling sound.

He and Sandy looked down at the loose metal hand of Cyborg in the form of a laser cannon.

"Oh…..," Sandy bit her lip. She looked up. "Guess you ran into an old friend, huh?"

I shrugged. I raised my arms to hand-sign….then remembered I only had one hand.

"Eeep!!" Sandy gasped and jumped back. She blushed. "Th-That's not a good thing."

I blinked through my shades then grumbled as I shook my wristless left appendage.

Robin walked over and gently gripped the disc where the prosthetic was missing. "Raven?"

I nodded.

"We'll get it back….somehow."

I chuckled breathily.

He glared up at me. "In the meantime, let me get this straight…."

I gulped.

"You beat up Cyborg…..apparently….."

I nodded.

"Started blasting through sturdy, expensive FIREWALLS throughout the Tower to get to the fifth floor…."

I nodded again.

"Left Hillbilly Yoda over there alone in this elevator with a dangerous laser cannon…."

Control Freak bore a cheesy grin….literally.

"And you rushed in on the scene at the gym to rescue us, specifically disobeying my order for you to stay down in the laboratory all this time?!?!"

I sweatdropped. I smiled nervously.

A beat.

Robin stared at me. "Thank you." He said.

I gave a thumb's up with my right hand.

"If he could hand-sign right now…," Sandy folded her arms and smirked, "…I think he'd be saying 'don't mention it'."

"Or 'hey Robin', nice Titan Batch."

Sandy elbowed Control Freak.

Whump!

"OW!!"

Robin turned around and faced no one in particular as he punched his fist. "Ergghh!! Once we free the curse from everyone…I'm going to beat that little wooden stump for all the grain he has in that blockhead of his!!"

I leaned my head to the side with a curious expression.

Robin swiveled around and explained to me as if he telepathically knew of my confusion: "Starfire is the Queen of Strings."

I mouthed 'oh'.

A beat.

Robin blinked under his mask. "Th-That doesn't surprise you in the least?"

I scratched my long head of hair and shrugged.

"……well it should," he grumbled and folded his arms. "And you should want to kill him too."

I sweatdropped.

"It's okay, R-Robin," Sandy stuttered. She smiled bravely. "It's not like Starfire can't handle herself till we save her!"

"I don't care if she can handle herself or not!!" Robin rambled. "I just….just…..I'm going to kill the Puppet King!!"

Silence.

I cleared my throat.

"Someone has issues…," Control Freak smiled.

"And someone has teeth," Robin glared. "But not for long!"

The fat fiend gulped.

**SHAKE!!!!**

The entire elevator jolted.

We all stumbled, gasping.

A beat.

Sandy blinked under her fish-lens goggles. "Wh-Wh-What was that?!"

Control Freak sweated. "Every Turbolift. It never fails."

**SHAKE!!!**

The elevator jolted again. There was a sickening CLANG!! and CRACK! sound…and suddenly we were no longer moving.

"Oh what the Hell…," Robin grumbled. He pressed the numbered buttons.

Nothing.

He pressed the 'open' button.

Nothing.

"We're stuck," he gritted his teeth. With strong gloves he forced the panel beneath the buttons open. CRACK!!! Wires spilled out. He stared inside with squinting eyemasks. "Power's still on! It's not a shutdown from the computer system."

The elevator started shaking as hallow sounds like upside down footsteps clattered along the sides and top.

Sandy gulped. "I-I think something else has stopped us."

"Like what?" Control Freak frowned. "Mighty Mouse?"

**SMASH!!!!**

A hole smashed open next to him and a piercing, green beak of a pterodactyl poked through.

Control Freak gasped and dashed over by Sandy's side. "Please be Mighty Mouse! PLEASE BE MIGHTY MOUSE!!!"

The beat retracted. An animalistic shriek. SMASH!!! SMASH!!! Green dinosaur claws pierced through the outer shell of metal. The entire elevator car shook as the claws trailed up with an ear-grating sound of skewered metal.

Robin gritted his teeth. "The Puppet King fetched his new puppy after us."

The claws retracted. A beat. A green snake slithered down on the outside and peered in with a cock of its scaly head. The tongue darted out once…twice….then turned into a razor sharp set of teeth as a green crocodile tried climbing in.

I clenched my fleshly fists and bit my lip.

Robin, on the other hand---"RAAAUGH!!" He charged forward, whipped out his staff, and smacked the green changeling out. WHACK!!!

The crocodile fell, turned into an emerald toucan in mid air, and floated up the shaft…disappearing above the top of the car.

"Hey! Isn't that your teammate you're hitting?" Sandy exclaimed.

"Beast Boy can take it when in animal form," Robin sweat. "Besides." He looked back at us. "Undoubtedly—in a matter of seconds—he's gonna be sending us plummeting to our deaths! Do you want that?"

**SHAKE!!!!**

The elevator lurked.

Two of us gasped.

Metal twanging sounds could be heard echoing throughout the hollow shaft outside.

"H-He's biting through the cables above us!" Sandy gasped.

Robin nodded. "That he is."

The elevator lurched again.

Control Freak winced. "If only Keanu Reeves was here!"

I elbowed him hard.

WHUMP!!

"OW!!!"

"Noir…," breathed Robin, poised on the gaping hole.

I looked his way.

"You and Sandy try and get that door opened," the Boy Wonder pointed with one hand while whipping out a grappling hook launcher with another. "I'm gonna go up there and distract him!"

"Alone??" Sandy whimpered.

"I have to."

"Whatcha gonna do?" Control Freak scowled. "Feed him raw fish? We're a long way from Seaworld, man!"

"Just let me deal with it! You deal with the door!"

I nodded and saluted with my one arm.

Robin aimed the grappling hook up the shaft. POW!! He fired and away he went.

I turned and looked at Sandy.

She simpered. "Need a hand?"

I smirked. I rushed down on my knees beside her and the controls as the three of us reached into our pouches and satchels for the right equipment to 'hack' into the door mechanism.

Control Freak stood by the obviously closed doors. "I'll…um…keep watch in case any of Puppet King's minions come." He smirked.

"Yeah…," Sandy sweat and frowned during her work. "You do that…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swung up onto the top of the elevator card via the grappling cord. He panted and looked through a thinned eyemask.

A green beaver was eagerly gnawing through the cable supports of the elevator. Slowly, the metal 'string' lost more and more of its structure. The elevator heaved with each lost strand of the support.

Robin held his staff out and slowly paced across the roof of the elevator car. "Okay….Beast Boy….easy…easy…."

The green-furred rodent paused in its task and glanced sideways at Robin with beady, blue eyes a-glowing.

"No need to fight…," the Boy Wonder softly said. He held his empty hand out non-threateningly. "We can just…..ya know….work this out. You're only being controlled by a puppet that wants to elope with Starfire. You can't be anymore badass than normal—"

"RRRRRRGHHH!!!" a hulkingly huge green bear rushed over and clawed at Robin's chest.

SLASH!!!

"AAUGH!!' Robin tumbled over, three red cuts in the front of his uniform. He winced, gritted his teeth, and sat up halfway. "Then again…." WOOOSH!! He jumped up and uppercutted the green animal with his steel-tipped boot.

WHACK!!!!

The bear stumbled back.

Robin charged. "FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE!!!"

WHANG!!!!

The staff struck the changeling across the chest.

SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Robin twirled the weapon, bopping the green mammal twice in the head.

Beast Boy flew across the roof in bear form.

Robin leapt at him.

Suddenly the fur shrunk into scaly skin and a green velociraptor shrieked with claws and teeth waiting.

"Whoah!!" Robin reached a hand out, grabbed what was left of the support cable, and swung his lower body around before the green dinosaur could bite his ankles off. SNAP!!

Robin swiveled to a stop in a sideways perch.

The raptor came at him.

He whipped out a weighted bolo, held his breath, and dove into a forward-flip over the raptor. While upside down, he flung the bolo. The cords wrapped around the torso of the dinosaur and grounded him on the roof. WHUMP!!!

Robin came out, twirled his staff, and rushed over to knock the changeling unconscious.

But even as he brought his weapon down, the dinosaur shrunk into a snake that easily slithered out from under the bolo and the throw of Robin's bludgeon.

CLANK!

"Rrrrrgh!" Robin groaned in frustration.

The snake darted towards the center of the elevator, circled up the cord, and left off it and directly at Robin in the form of a kicking kangaroo.

SMACK!!!!

The Boy Wonder bounced off the edge of the elevator. He grabbed a hold of the edge and hung on at the last second. Panting.

The elevator car wobbled. A green gorilla towered above. It snarled down at the boy.

Robin gritted his teeth, planted his boots against the side of the elevator car, and tensed his legs with a cry. He vaulted up and over the gorilla. He landed on the other side of the changeling and swept a leg out.

WHUMP!!!

The gorilla fell over.

The elevator car shook.

The support cable gave a little and more strands snapped off—flying like tethered bullets and striking the sides of the shaft above and below. CLANG!! CL-CLANG!

Robin sweatdropped.

The gorilla stumbled up into a lion, growled, and pounced on the Boy Wonder.

THWUMP!!!!

The green feline pinned Robin down. The hero held a flimsy metal staff between him and the ravenous paws of the killer cat. He dodged his masked head around to avoid clawed swipes. Finally he let out a grunt and kicked at the beast with his legs.

WHUMP!!!

It struck the support cable.

More strands snapped off the fragile system.

The whole elevator car shook.

Robin jumped up to his feet, didn't give time to sweat, and rushed in for the attack.

"RAAAUGH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sandy let out a nervous sound as the elevator car groaned and shook all around us.

I gritted my teeth, sweated, and picked more and more at the wires in the wall console with my one hand while Sandy assisted with her own two limbs.

"Th-Think we're close to opening the doors?" the volunteer uttered.

Sparks flew.

Speakers above us crackled and suddenly there was an emanation of previously-mute elevator music.

We froze for a moment, groaned, and went on with the task at hand.

"Need a different tool?"

I nodded. I withdrew my hand and pointed to a pouch on the far right of her utility belt.

She dropped one of the tools she was handling and reached into her pouch with the free hand.

The elevator lurched from the combat taking place above…

We struggled to remain on task. Sandy handed the instrument to me and we went back to work.

In the meantime, the shaking elevator caused the dropped tool to roll over and collide with Control Freak's boot. "Hmmmmm," he bore a grinch grin, bent over, and picked it up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASH!!!!

A huge, lumbering sloth threw a paw full of claws at the Boy Wonder.

Robin ducked and backflipped into a fighting pose.

The sloth crept forward.

Robin grunted and sprung with a jab of his staff.

POKE!!!!

The Sloth let out a groan as it got a black eye. It shook its head painfully.

Robin winced. "D'oh! Beast Boy, I-I'm sorry—"

WHAM!!!!

A green ram slammed its horns into Robin's chest.

The hero grunted and flew straight into the cable supports to the elevator.

WHANG!!!!

The car shook and swayed beneath him.

He collapsed to the ground, wheezed, and got up on his knees.

"Guess I should save the apologies for later."

The ram morphed into a bull, ground its hooves into the roof, and came charging.

Robin spun up to his feet and twirled with his staff vertically blocking.

CLANG!!!

The bull struck the metal bludgeon head-on and kept pushing.

Robin's metal-laced boots scraped against the roof. He was pushed towards the edge. The huge yawning esophagus of the Tower's central elevator shaft stretched beneath him. He gritted his teeth and backflipped. The Boy Wonder flew off the elevator car, contacted the far wall of the shaft with his feet, and bounced back. He flipped over the bull, landed, spun, and struck the animal hard against the butt with his rod.

WHUMP!!!

The ox howled, spun around, and turned into a snarling triceratops.

Robin's eyemask bulged.

**LURCH!!!!**

He gasped as the humongous weight of the dinosaur brought the precariously hanging elevator to the limit of its strain. More strands snapped and peeled off of the main cable support. Metal echoes and reverberations warbled down the shaft. The car wobbled offensively.

Off-balance, the Boy Wonder was helpless to dash away as the triceratops charged forward and rammed him across the rooftop with his trifold horns.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

More sparks flew from the console.

The doors opened slightly. A centimeter's width apart. Inside was a cool and inviting hallway.

"There!" Sandy gasped. "Now maybe you can teleport us all through—"

Another spark flew.

WHURRR!!!

CLUNK!!!

The doors shut.

I sweatdropped. "Uhm….," Sandy bit her lip, sweating. "J-Just keep jiggling it like you were. We h-had something there."

**LURCH!!!**

We all winced. "If anything…we had sanity…"

Unknown to us, Control Freak was busily—happily—picking at the lock to his handcuffs in the corner with the dropped tool….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The elevator lurched again.

The support cable started to snap more and more. Strands flew off. Wires snapped.

Robin was pinned to the door-side wall by the green dinosaur's horned head. He struggled to get free. The weighted animal caused the elevator to constantly wobble and strain. Loud groaning sounds filled the shaft.

Robin gasped. With his hands free, he repeatedly bonked the soft forehead of the dinosaur between the horns. "Turn into something lighter!! Lighter!!!"

Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!

The dinosaur shook its lumbering head, groaned, and morphed into an emerald octopus.

With his body no longer sandwiched, Robin breathed easily. "Whew. Thanks, Beast Boy. Maybe you're not half as possessed as you loo—"

WHUMP!!!!

"MMMMFFFFF!!!!"

Robin struggled as he suddenly had a face full of octopus. Green tentacles wrapped around the back of his head as the soft body pressed forward to envelope and suffocate the boy.

"Mmmmfmmfpphhhff!!" Robin struggled. He desperately swung the rod around and—two handed—whapped where his nose would normally have been but instead made contact with a full hide of mollusk.

Whap!! Whap!! Whap!!

The Boy Wonder eventually stumbled down hard onto the rooftop with the tentacles gripping him.

WHUMP!!!

He snaked an arm out desperately, felt around the wall of the shaft, and fingered a cable strung to one of the shaft's floodlights. He yanked it out. CRUNCH!!! Sparks flew from the end of it, which he lightly grazed against the mollusk's green skin.

Z-ZAP!!!!

The octopus shrieked—if or if not that's possible—and eagerly slithered off of Robin with its squishy hide smoking.

Robin sat up and shook his head. He groaned and rubbed his cheek—spotted with red marks from the suction cups.

The octopus writhed for a few seconds before turning into a huge, raging tyrannosaurus rex. "RRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!!!"

Again, the elevator lurched and wobbled under the weight of a huge green dinosaur. The cable began to split and shatter.

Robin gritted his teeth. He jumped to his feet, ran between the dinosaur's leg, and swung his staff up into the beast's groin. "QUIT IT!!!!"

The blue eyes of the dinosaur bulged and the creature howled. It fell over—causing the elevator to lurch like mad. CREEEEAK!!!

Robin gasped and leaned on the gradually breaking cord for support. "Why does something tell me that that was a bad idea…??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gritted my teeth. I focused. I sweated…

"H-Hurry!" Sandy trembled. "Gravity's flirting with us more and more!!"

Sparks flying and---

SWOOOOSH!!!

The doors flung themselves wide open.

Sandy gasped happily. "Praise God!"

Sparks….

The doors whirred together.

Sandy's goggled eyes bulged. "Qu-Quick!!" she squeaked. "God is leaving!!"

I gritted my teeth, blurred forward, and whipped out Myrkblade at the last second.

CHHHHING!!

CLANK!!!!

I had Myrkblade stretched horizontally and pinning the walls open down the center. The doors struggled and strained to close in on my doorstop-of-a-blade. I summoned murk with my one hand and pulsed it into my blade, desperately reinforcing it with my powers. It was a struggle, a struggle I couldn't win forever.

I looked over at Sandy through sweat-stained shades and motioned towards the hallway beyond the doors with my head.

She swallowed and nodded. "R-Right." She got up and headed my way---

Cl-Click!

"Huh??" Sandy gasped and looked at her wrist. It was suddenly handcuffed to a metal fixture in the elevator wall. "H-Hey!!" She struggled to get loose, but to no avail.

**LURCH!!!**

The elevator car shook and teetered downwards. The floor of the hallway was now one foot higher than the floor of the elevator interior. I gritted my teeth and sweated while straining to keep the door open. I looked desperately at Sandy. Sandy looked desperately at me. Together, we both looked at--

"Thanks for holding the door open, Jeeves," Control Freak smirked. He tossed the tool into my straining chest as he effortlessly walked past me and down the length of the hallway with his free wrists. "I've enjoyed this little tour. But it's a little too much excitement to me. Next time I get a vacation from prison, I'm going to Risa. Sniff you jerks later!" He left around the corner. A beat. He peered around it at us again. "Oh, and incase you all bleed to death instead of a quick end…meditate on this. Natasha Yar died because she was a moron of a security woman. Live long and glut!"

And he was gone.

Sandy looked at me.

I looked helplessly at her.

**LURCH!!!**

I scrunched down to my knees. It became harder and harder to keep forcing the doors apart.

"I"ll be going down with the rest of this thing in any minute," she gulped. "You go catch Control Freak, sir. We can't let him get away!"

I vehemently shook my head.

"Do it!" she exclaimed. "Your life's more valuable than mine!" And with that said, she bravely lifted her lower body and kicked me hard in the chest.

WHUMP!!!

Even the tiniest of jolts would have loosened me. I fell out onto the hallway floor with my blade spilling by my side.

SCHLUMP!!!

The doors slammed shut on their own.

I gritted my teeth, dove in, and swung Myrkblade.

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!!!!

I tried forcing…prying…spreading the two doors apart with my sword. I strained and I strained. No use. I jumped back, panted, and wiped the sweat from my brow with one forearm.

Sandy…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRGH!!!" Robin swung his gloved fist into the leathery side of a green rhino.

WHUMP!!!!

The beast stumbled back, ricocheted off the cable support.

CLANK!!!!

A dozen strands snapped off. The elevator lurched violently. About to collapse.

In the meantime, the green rhino literally fell over the edge of the elevator car's roof. Its horn dug into the side of the metal shaft. The changeling morphed into a toucan, which then flapped its wings madly and tried to yank its beak out of the wall.

Robin gathered his breath. He heard a desperate, struggling sound from beneath him in the elevator car.

"Sandy??" he breathed.

He knelt and pried a roof panel open with his staff. He peered in. "What happened?! Where is everybody?!"

Sandy struggled with the handcuffs pinning her to the metalwork. "I-I'm stuck!!! Control Freak got away!!"

Robin bit his lip.

**LURCH!!!**

"Eeek!!"

Robin spun and looked up silently.

The cable was about to snap.

He took a breath and snaked down into the elevator car.

He landed besides Sandy, pushed her chest back, and said: "Hold still."

She did her best, trembling.

Robin raised his hand….focused….and karate chopped the thin, metal chain.

SNAP!!!

Sandy exhaled. She was free. "Thanks, Robin. Noir…h-he…"

Robin gripped her wrist, pulled out a grappling hook, and rushed towards the hole Beast Boy had smashed through the elevator car's side.

"Don't panic," he said.

Sandy panicked. "What are we—"

Robin hugged Sandy close and dove the two of them out, plummeting down the depths of the elevator shaft.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Sandy would have shrieked if she had a breath available.

Robin concentrated, staring fixedly at the spraypainted floor numbers whirring up past them.

Meanwhile…

**SNAP!!!!!**

The cord to the elevator above them finally snapped and a green toucan fluttered away.

WOOOOOOSH!!!!

The elevator hurtled down after them.

Robin gripped tight to his grappling hook launcher.

The bottom of the shaft gradually appeared.

The Boy Wonder hooked the arm with the grappling hook around Sandy's chest. With his other arm loose, he whipped out an explosive birdarang. He flung it with a grunt down at the second to the last door.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!! It embedded into the doors. Beep-Beep-Beep-**BOOOOOOM!!!**

The resulting explosion blew a hole into the doors.

Robin twisted their two bodies around in mid air, aimed at the wall, and fired his grappling hook.

POW!!!—SWOOOOOSH-CLUNK!!

The hook dug into the wall.

The cord dangled between it and the falling couple.

The elevator throttled downwards after them.

A fountain of sparks rained, catching up with their bodies.

Robin pressed a button down hard on the launcher.

The cord stopped dangling. It grew tight between them and the hook.

YANK!!!!

Their bodies dangled, swung back, and then forward right at the blasted door frame.

Robin grunted and let go of Sandy.

"Yaaak!!" She tumbled safely onto the hallway floor.

Robin bounced back, hanging.

The elevator scraped its way down to where the hook was. Robin swung forward.

SMACK!!!

The hook was knocked off the wall by the chaotic elevator car. Robin half-fell/flew towards the doorframe, his arms flailing.

"OOF!!!"

He hung off the side. Struggling. Wincing.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The elevator came down on him.

Sandy gasped, dove forward, and grabbed Robin's wrists with her hands.

Robin planted his feets into the shaft wall and—using Sandy like a weight—pulled himself up and into the hallway.

Sandy yanked him safely out of the shaft---

**WOOOOOSH!!!!**

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!

The elevator crashed loudly and explosively beyond the doorframe.

Dust rose, fell, and silenced into oblivion.

Robin and Sandy panted where they lay apart from each other on the cold hallway floor of the lower Tower level. The Boy Wonder gradually sat up and shook his dark head.

"Next time…we're taking the stairs."

Sandy wheezed and nodded.

"Come on…," he stood and helped Sandy dizzily up to her feet. "I've got an idea."

"Wh-What idea is that?"

"Did Noir get off on the level where I fought Beast Boy?"

"Y-Yeah. I sorta kicked him off…," she blushed.

Robin looked at her strangely for a moment but shook it off. "Okay….well, I think we can still do the Main Room Light Control thing."

"How?"

"Gotta make a pit stop first," Robin tugged her along the way with him. "Come on!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through a dark hallway…one armed…alone.

And yet, I smiled brilliantly when I heard--

_"I'm depending on you, Noir!"_ Robin's voice said through my communicator. _"Secure the Main Room and input the master authorization code. Since you'll be using a central computer station, you should be able to override the Puppet King's commands. First of all, I want you to unlock all of the firewalls in the hallways. Especially all doors blockading the stairwells!"_

I punched a morse code into the button system of the communicator.

Robin responded: _"YES, Sandy is __**fine!**__ Yeah, love you too, Noir!"_

I smirked.

_"Just go to the Main Room, do that one little thing, then wait for us. Okay? We'll um………be joining you shortly."_

I raised an eyebrow.

_"Robin out."_

I nodded and replied a short morse code message of affirmation before switching the communicator off. As I reached the darker shadows of the hallways, I whipped my shades off, smoothed my hair back beyond my bandanna, and cloaked my body into stealth mode….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Main Room had a soft pink glow to it. I remembered barely the Lieutenant telling Robin over the communications that there was a light seen shining from the Main Room of the Tower. Perhaps I was about to find out why. It soon struck me that there was an entire City of people worrying over the mission of Robin, Sandy, and I. We had to do this very carefully…or else the Puppet King's ludicrous plan would be acted out and the Fusion Reactor would go off and…

I winced as I invisibly sneaked into the Main Room. I thought about the lives at stake. My friends who were possessed and inevitably beaten by their own kind trying to 'save' them'…and then the stains of cheese puffs on the Puppet King's lips. And I felt suddenly angry.

I clenched my fists….remembering that I only had one at the time.

I gulped and pressed on.

The Main Room was……..sashayed all over the place with white sheets and off-pink curtains. I blinked from under my shades and stood still to observe it all. For the femininity of the Tower had jumped by about three hundred and fifty percent.

I felt depressed.

I wandered stealthily through the forest of white linen and shimmering satin, trying my best not to touch or graze the material with my invisible limbs…thus giving myself away.

I soon became aware of three bodies forming shadows in the center of the room. Translucent figures of two women converged on yet another female in the center of the room. They seemed to be…fitting a dress-shaped shadow on her.

I blushed. This was the 'bride's room'.

"You look absolutely marvelous…," droned a random citizen, most likely mind controlled to become a hand maiden.

"The groom shall be so very pleased." The other hummed, just as stale and eerily emotionless at the first.

"I must not be too vain," Starfire's unmistakable voice uttered in zombie beauty. "It is the Puppet King who shall make me Queen and thus make me happy. Not myself."

I wanted to wretch. Instead, I snaked my cloaked way around the perimeter of the Main Room till I found--

I gasped happily, smiled, and rushed over.

The computer console rested in front of me…

"Shall you assist me with the attiring of my corset?" Starfire's voice asked the handmaidens.

I tried to ignore that…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ceremony in the gym had more or less returned to normal. The possessed dancers gathered once again and performed a gentle waltz throughout the richly dressed interior.

But the Puppet King—sitting on his throne—seemed hardly at ease. He leaned against his scepter and tapped his free fingers against his wooden face.

Silence, save for music filtering out from the speakers of the place.

Suddenly, a green songbird fluttered down. Its wings morphed arms and its beak turned into the face of a elf. Beast Boy stood up, eyes a bright blue. He seemed bruised in a few places.

The Puppet King sat up straight. "Did you extinguish them as asked?"

Beast Boy slowly shook his possessed head. "They got away. But they were disbanded."

"I see….," the Puppet King slurred. His googly eyes shook. The dances swayed behind them. "Where has Robin gone?"

"I believe he and the strange girl are presently on the first level of the building. Heading into the garage and supply station."

"A dead end…," Puppet King tilted his head forward. "Unless they were attempting to escape. And if that be the case, they'd surely know that the Tower's defenses would obliterate them if they so much as showed themselves." A beat. He stood up. "Send my finest guards to seal them off."

The green elf nodded. "Aye, sir." He turned to go.

"Wait!"

Beast Boy stopped and looked at his 'master'.

The Puppet King stepped forward. "Let me accompany you. Cyborg is incapacitated and Raven is on an errand for the Queen. I'll be relying on you despite your shortcomings."

The green elf slowly nodded. "Anything I can do to please you, Master."

The Puppet King's eyes shook. "First….I'll need a saddle…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I typed slowly at the computer, trying not to make a noise that could possibly alert the 'Queen' Starfire and the two 'handmaidens'. I hacked my way into the master programs of the Tower. I stared at the screen with naked black eyes. Once the window for the hallway security system stabbed into my optics, I performed a flurry of a keystroke and switched the firewalls off.

I took a deep breath of relief.

And then the reflection of a black top hat appeared in the monitor's reflection.

I glanced at it.

My lips parted---

FLASH!!!!!

Black energy encased my shoulders and flung me back.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I shredded through layers of white silk and linen. I couldn't help it. As I crashed, my stealth mode shattered and I lay visibly bruised and dizzy on the floor.

Two soft feet settled before me. Raven in a billowing magician's coat glared down. I saw my metal left hand tied to the bet around her leotarded waste.

"Come for your other hand, outsider?" she remarked with blue eyes glowing. "Or are you a peeping tom?"

I gulped, sat up, and waved. _'Hi Raven'_ I nervously mouthed with a smile.

"You are defiling the King's beloved by being here. I think it is due time I make you disappear."

And she flicked her wrists--

I winced.

FLASH!!!

Black energy encased me.

I gasped for breath.

And I was thrown across the prettied-up room.

SWOOOOOSH!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the bottom floor of the Tower, seven 'guards' rushed down a hallway with glowing blue eyes and threatening spears. They stood in front of the door to the Titan garage.

"Hold back…," the appointed leader of the possessed company commanded. "The two infiltrators are just inside. We must collectively assault them."

"Aye. For the Queen of Strings!"

**"For the Queen of Strings!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the garage, Sandy heard the chant outside. She turned her head and sweatdropped with an apprehensive blink of her goggled eyes.

"W-We have company…"

"Good," Robin walked past the T-Car and held out a small, red remote. "I love to show off my wheels." He clicked the remote.

Chirp-Chirp!

The R-Cycle lit up.

Sandy walked over and leaned apprehensively against a pillar in the garage. "Um…..wh-what are we doing exactly?"

The Boy Wonder walked over to the Cycle. "I thought I hinted to that earlier." He put on a helmet and tossed another one to Sandy.

She nervously caught it.

Robin smirked. "We're taking the stairs."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…prepare yourselves, men," the possessed citizen guard spoke. He stepped up towards the door to the garage. He shouted. "Come out of there at once, infidels!! The Puppet King requests of us to break down this door if we have to!"

**SMASH!!!!**

VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!

The R-Cycle burst through the door, smashing it to bits. Robin gripped the handles and grinned evilly while Sandy clung to him from behind. The wheels spun and burned rubber as the vehicle righted itself and the Boy Wonder zoomed it forward. Some guards were knocked unconscious. Others dove desperately out of the way as Robin laid on the horn-**HONNNNNK!!!-**and throttled down the hallway like it was a compacted, underground interstate.

**VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!**

Recovering guards shouted and tossed their spears at the two's rear.

Sandy flinched.

Robin swerved to avoid the bludgeons.

CLANK!!! CL-CLANK!!!

The spears struck the walls and clattered to the floor.

Robin reached a corner and swerved hard on the bike.

**SCREEEECH!!!**

He planted his feet to the ground, pivoted the bike some, and forced it down the new turn and towards a distant stairwell.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!!" Robin couldn't help it. "I'm some showoff, huh?!?!"

Sandy gulped. "Yeah…my bladder can feel it."

"Hold your breath!!"

Robin aimed for the stairwell. He switched the R-Cycle's one floodlight and—**VROOOOOM!!!!!** The two drove up the bumpity stairs of the passageway, ascending to the next floor…and the next…and the next….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!!

I slammed into a potted plant, my one arm flailing.

I winced and hobbled up to my feet.

I glanced up—panting—as magician Raven floated down in front of me. Her eyes were a chaotic gray-blue. Her fingertips flickered with wisps of black magic.

"You do not know when to quit," she uttered. "No wonder Raven has respect for you."

I raised an eyebrow.

She aimed her wrists at me again. "Forgive me if this is painful. I must strip you of your skin now. It is the easiest way to make you bleed to death."

I bit my lip. I looked in the general direction of the Main Room's windows beyond the shadowed forms of Starfire and the two citizens.

Raven may have been badass as a possessed magician, but she still wasn't Raven. Her only purpose at that time and place was to eliminate me. As long as I distracted her from Starfire and the computer consoles…then I could wait for Robin's and Sandy's arrival and we could all settle together with our combined strengths.

So in a blink, I whipped my shades back on, gripped Myrkblade, and dove/tore a way through the sheets of drowning linen just in time to avoid a launch of Raven's obsidian energy.

I shredded my way through the curtains and suddenly tripped into the center of the room.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!!"

I stumbled up to my feet, wincing, and glanced up. I blinked.

Two dazed 'handmaidens' looked my way. So did Starfire…with her underwear visibly showing.

She stoically blinked her glowing blue eyes. "Is this not an intrusion?"

I blushed furiously and covered my shaded eyes, wincing.

Bad idea. The magician came back.

FLASH!!!!

I was knocked clear out of the center of the 'chamber' and towards the windows of the Main Room. At least it was 'some' progress.

Though I'd never forgive myself….

"Leave the Queen's presence!" possessed Raven snarled. "NOW!!!"

I was only happy to obliged. I gripped Myrkblade with one hand, got up to my feet, blurred, and leapt through the windows--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!!

I sailed out into the dark night, but not without twirling about and stabbing the solid wall of the Tower with Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!

I dangled as shards of glass fell and littered the distant ground below me.

The waves crashed against the bluffs. The searchlights swarmed all around from the security outposts of the surrounding baysides. The sounds of helicopters and police sirens swarmed into my ears.

I gulped.

FLASH!!!!

Black energy streamed out and towards my dangling body. I took a breath, summoned murk, and vaulted myself up with an outward pulse that sent me flipping skyward and landing more or less nimbly on the rooftop of the Tower.

I regained my breath.

FWOOOOSH!!!

I sensed a shadow against the stars behind me.

I spun around.

The dark blue magician hovered against a backdrop of golden searchlights and blinking helicopters. Not to mention moonlight and celestial obscurity.

"Do you wish to see the secrets behind magic?" she uttered. Her wrists aimed at me. "Death shall be waiting with the answers for you."

I took a deep breath. I clenched my fingers around the hilt of Myrkblade.

I had only one honest and true option….

I turned and ran with my tail between my blurred legs.

She grunted and flicked her wrists. Talons of dark black energy soared after me, scooping up huge clumps of rooftop.

CRUNNNNNNNNCH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**VROOOOOOOM!!!**

The R-Cycle reached the end of that particular stairwell and evened out into a hallway of the third floor.

The motorcycle vibrated loudly, filling the cold metal hallways with echoing, engine madness. Robin turned the vehicle about and throttled down the hallway towards a stairwell that would lead them higher up the Tower.

Sandy exclaimed: "Look out!! Twelve O'Clock!!"

"I see 'em!" Robin shouted through his helmet.

Two possessed guards with spears ran to a stop in the hallway and lifted their weapons overhead.

Robin used his freehand to whip out a birdarang and fling it ahead while driving.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

CLANK!!!!

The spear of one guard was knocked out of his grasp. He gripped his hand and winced. The second guard flung his weapon.

Sandy clenched her goggled eyes shut.

Robin shifted his weight back. "HA!!!" He pulled the bike into a wheelie. **VROOOOOOOOOM!!!** The uplifted chassis deflected the spear. DINK!!! Coasting on the rear wheel alone, Robin drifted by the second guard and lifted his left leg just in time to uppercut him unconscious. WHACK!!!

The man fell down and--

WHUMP!! SCREEECH!!! Robin's front tire came back down and he gunned it. **VROOOOOOM!!!**

The two screeched around a corner and rocketed towards a stairwell in sight.

"Almost there!" Sandy exclaimed, smiling again for once.

Just then, the automatic doors on the side wall flung open and a dazed, one-armed Cyborg crawled out.

Sandy gasped.

Robin gritted his teeth and swung hard to the side.

SCREEEEEECH!!!

There was barely a foot left to clear between Cyborg's metal skull and the far wall of the hallway, but Robin cleared it. As he zoomed along, though, Cyborg's human eye glowed an angry bright blue and he stretched his remaining arm as a laser cannon and fired.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

As Robin reached a turn, he swerved the motorcycle so hard that it skidded sideways and pivoted towards the incoming laser at a sixty-degree angle, effectively—and barely—managing to have the two infiltrators duck the blue laser blast that smashed apart a wall beyond them as the Boy Wonder kicked the throttle and the two soared up the stairwell. Wheels bumpitying up stairs as they ascended in such gloriously ghetto fashion.

"So much for b-banisters…," Sandy murmured.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RIPP!!!!

FLASH!!!!

An A/C unit tore off the rooftop in a black bubble and soared at me.

I flipped its flinging flight. I landed, skidded along the Tower's rooftop, and twirled Myrkblade with one hand just in time haphazardly 'bat' the A/C unit away on its second incoming dive.

CLANK!!!!

Raven floated around me, flexing her arms and ripping up a t.v. antenna this time.

I spun, panting.

The metal skeleton flew at me.

I flung myself down onto the floor, back first.

SCRAAAAPE!!!!

The sharp branches of the antenna trailed the floor around me, barely missing my limbs.

Immediately once it had passed, I jumped up to my feet, spun Myrkblade, and jabbed backwards.

CLUNK!!!

I smirked.

Just as I thought, the antenna was making a return trip and I had just impaled it. With a pulse of Destruction, the thing shattered to shrapnel. SMASH!!!!

Raven the magician gritted her teeth. She then flew up and let out a long, feminine growl as she waved both hands around. Her eyes pulsed blue and gray.

I raised an eyebrow over my shades.

Suddenly, the ground beneath me shook. A black shadow exploded beneath me, and a huge slab of concrete roofing shot apart.

"!!!!!"

I was flung like a rag doll towards the edge of the rooftop.

I held my breath, teleported closer to the edge in mid-air, and barely grabbed onto the side.

I panted…then realized I was staring point blank at one of the defense cannons of the Tower.

WHUUUUUR-CLINK!!!

It's double-barrel eyes stared at me.

I stared back.

Blink.

POW!!!!!!

Laser fire exploded where my body had been half a second before. I was in the process of vaulting/flipping back up in the air towards the center of the rooftop. Searchlights and twinkling stars silhouetted me on the reentry. I landed in a crouch that too closely resembled a split. I wheezed—though I had seriously meant to whimper.

SWOOOSH!!!

Raven floated down in front of me, cape billowing.

"You are a most annoying audience….," the 'magician' grumbled.

I looked at her painfully. I took a breath. I hoisted Myrkblade above me in a blink of an eye and threw it like a javelin.

Raven had no cognitive ability to 'gasp'.

SLASH!!!!

The blade ripped through her black magician's cape and threw her back, pinning her snugly against the concrete protrusion of the top most stairwell doorframe.

I clenched my fleshly fist, blurred at her, planted my feet against the wall on either side of her legs, grabbed my metal hand from her belt, and vaulted myself off with a backflip. I landed three yards away, satisfied with my fetching.

I smiled.

Suddenly, my metal hand came to life in my right hand's grasp. The middle finger presented itself to my face.

I did a double-take.

WOOOSH-GRIP!!!!

I wheezed and struggled for air as the loose limb was suddenly possessed by black energy and strangling me by remote.

Raven—pinned to the wall—had an evil look on her face as she manipulated my metal hand and forced it to squeeze the air out of my scarred throat.

"If you have a problem with the royal performance….I suggest you take it up with the theatre."

I wheezed and struggled, gripping the metal fingers that were gripping me with my right hand. I fell to my knees, rolled my black eyes, and summoned up murk. I teleported through my own hand's grip, materialized on my feet, kicked it up like a hackey-sack, then smacked it with Myrkblade like a golf club.

SWOOOOSH-BONK!!!!

It struck Raven hard in the forehead.

"…….ow." She hung limply from the wall. Unconscious.

I took an exasperated breath and slumped to the rooftop floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**VROOOOOM!!!!**

Robin's R-Cycle exited the stairwell so quickly, the motorcycle literally flew into the hallway before landing on squealing tires and zooming ahead.

"W-We're almost there!" Sandy joyfully exclaimed.

"Y-Yeah!" Robin nodded with his helmet. "The Main Room should be just up ahead—"

ZAAAAAAAP!!!

A bolt of quivering electricity flew at them.

"YAAAK!!!"

"Hang on!!!"

Robin swerved to the side. The electricity bounced off the chassis, barely avoiding the limbs of the two teens.

The cycle came to a stop.

The panting duo looked in shock.

Out from the shadows of the hallway emerged a snarling green panther with blue eyes. And riding him—saddle and all—was the Puppet King. His scepter was sparking in his grasp. A taser of biblical proportions.

"This is as far as you go. If you wish to be with my Queen. You must duel for her."

"Oh for the love of Saved by the Bell," Robin grumbled. "Can't you leave us alone?!"

"NO!!" the Puppet King's midgety wooden body shook. "You leave US alone!! This marriage does not concern you!!"

Robin gritted his teeth. "Like Hell it does…"

The Puppet King whipped the reins and the panther trotted closer. "Why is that?"

"Because nobody….manhandles….Starfire….."

"Um…R-Robin?" Sandy murmured. "You're not gonna lose it are you---"

**VROOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

"AAAAIIIEEEE!!!!"

Robin zoomed full-throttle at the Puppet King.

The Puppet King whipped the reins and charged his electrical scepter. The panther hissed and ran at full fury.

Robin whipped out his metal rod and held it like a jouster.

The Puppet King held out his scepter.

Sandy hid her helmeted face in Robin's back.

The panther's eyes glowed a bright blue.

Warbling engine met pounding paws and---

"YAAAAH!!!" Robin's staff swung. SWOOOSH!!!!

"RRRRGHH!!!" The Puppet King's scepter shocked. ZAAAAAP!!!!

Electricity exploded in the center of the converging duelists.

Robin skidded to the side and the two teenagers ducked the electricity.

The King's panther leapt, bounced off the wall, and re-footed itself in the center of the hallway, snarling.

Robin swung the R-Cycle around in the thin hallway. VROOOOOM!!! Teeth gritting, he revved the engine once…twice…and throttled back towards the King.

The panther went into full gallop.

Metal rod twirled.

Scepter flashed.

Sandy's gasp echoed against the hallway walls and as the two combatants converged--

CLANK!!!!

Robin smacked the Puppet King hard across the head. His wooden cranium spun a few times as his panther steed came to a stop and he had to stop it with his own puppet hands.

Robin swung the R-Cycle to a stop, smirking. "Hey Pinocchio?! Need some aspirin for your kicked ass?!?!"

The googled eyes glared. "Your ignorance ends NOW!!!" He charged the scepter up full blast.

Sandy murmured. "You're getting him maaaaaad."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "That's the whole point."

The panther roared and the King was in full gallop.

"Starfire…here we come…," Robin murmured. VROOOOOOM!!!

The two came at each other from a length.

The R-Cycle's headlight glinted off the floors and walls.

The fangs of the panther showed.

The Puppet King raised his scepter, flared with anger, and stretched it outward. "YAAAAAH!!!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!

A blue wave of electrical fury burned through the hallway.

"Grab the scepter!!" Robin shouted and flipped open the safety cap of the cycle's nitro switch.

"What?!?!?!"

"You'll see!! Just do it!!"

He flipped the red switch.

POWWWWWW!!!!!

A rocket erupted in the back of the R-Cycle.

VROOOOOOOM!!!

Robin blurred the two of them ahead.

The wave of blue electricity came.

He held his breath and jerked the handles to the side.

The R-Cycle literally ran up the wall, onto the ceiling, and down the other wall—agilely avoiding the blue stream.

The Puppet King gasped.

"I challenge YOU!!" Robin swiped his rod—CLANK!!!—off the King's blockhead. "Wooden bastard!!!"

"AUGH!!!" the King fell off his feline steed. His scepter flew.

Sandy gasped and reached her hands out.

She caught it.

"Yes!!" she beamed.

"Hang on!!" Robin throttled towards the double doors leading into the Main Room.

The Puppet King dizzily sat up on his stumpy behind and stretched a wooden limb out, shouting: "No!!! The Queen's room!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

The R-Cycle burst through the double-doors and came to a stop in front of the walls of linen and off-pink silk.

Robin planted his feet on the floor on either side of the motorcycle, whipped off his helmet, caught his breath, and uttered: "Starfire!! We came to lift the curse!!" A beat. "Starfire??"

Flanked by two handmaidens, the redheaded bride spun around. She wore a flowing, expensive wedding gown of satin and silk ivory. Flowers hemmed the dress and neckline. A veil stretched behind her head and ran alongside the red strands of Tamaranian hair.

Blue eyes traced with green eyed Robin strangely from afar.

Robin was breathless….but he couldn't figure if it was from her beauty or from fear for--

"Star….," he murmured. "Star….c-can you hear me?"

The zombie bride blinked. "I am sorry…," she calmly uttered. She raised two glowing hands of green. "But I cannot allow you to ruin this wedding."

Robin's eyemask bulged.

Sandy dropped the scepter.

And the starbolts flew. FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

**FLASH!!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downstairs….

In the familiar, darkened evidence room….

An automatic door flung open. A fat figure entered. He flicked on a light.

-Click-

Electric blightness flooded the interior.

Control Freak whistled. He grinned like a fat kid in a tiny candy store as he walked down the aisles of captured villain stuff.

"I could spend a day in here!! A Romulan New Year, even!"

After a short stroll—however—he stumbled upon what he was there for.

"Ah!! At last!"

He bravely smashed a glass display open with his fist. He reached inside and pulled out a Klingon, red and black remote control. He cradled it to his face like a baby and cooed: "I told you I'd get back to you…didn't I?"


	95. For the Queen of Strings part 6

**95. For the Queen of Strings part 6**

My left, metal hand gripped the window frame.

In stealth mode, I leaned my invisible head upside down and peered into the Main Room 'chamber'.

Beyond the gaping hole in the glass window, the place was empty of all life. Cold night winds rippled inward and caused the veils of hanging linen to flap and quiver. All the lights were out, and a sense of emptiness practically screamed from the inside.

I agilely snaked in and swung to my feet inside of the window. I took my shades off and covered the dark corners with my black eyes as I sauntered forward.

And yet…there was still nobody.

I reached the entrance to the Main Room. To the left of the elevator, a pair of double doors had been smashed down and there were……tire tracks on the floor.

I raised an eyebrow.

I spun about.

A beat.

I headed for the computer console.

I stopped in my tracks and gasped.

The console was completely smashed. Burnt at the edges. Charred beyond use.

I rushed towards it and desperately tried the keyboard and other input devices. No luck. It wasn't even on anymore.

I gritted my teeth and flexed my flesh and metal knuckles. _How were we to operate the light controls now??_

An exasperated exhale escaped my lips. I slowly turned around with tired black optics.

_What was left of 'we' anyways?_

I again turned and looked at the computer console. My eyes narrowed. I walked forward and ran my hand across the thick layer of ashes burned into the surface. I rubbed my fingers together.

A beat.

It seemed like……..the work of a starbolt….

I bit my lip.

Starfire was just as much under the Puppet King's command as all the other victims in this Tower.

I looked back at the tire tracks. Where they had ended, there was another charred circle from a flung starbolt. And I recognized what the tracks belonged to finally…

_Did Robin and Sandy meet their end here while I was on the roof?_

I paced a bit. Paused. Thought.

I took a breath.

_No. The Queen of Strings wouldn't kill anyone. And the Puppet King wouldn't have her kill anyone. That wouldn't be anything like the silent movies Sandy and Control Freak have shared with us._

I rubbed my chin.

_But what happens now? And if Robin and Sandy are alive…would they be under his control too?_

A beat.

_What's important now is where Robin and Sandy are. Under control or not, I have to at least rescue Robin so that he can help me operate the lighting controls and create a pulse bright enough to symbolically cancel out the curse holding these people hostage to the Puppet King's magic. But where would they be?_

I sighed.

A pause….then…

I brightened.

_The Puppet King and the Queen of Strings have their 'destiny in the stars'. What if that has literal meaning in regards to this night? We may have brought Control Freak here for absolutely no reason. If the Puppet King desires a honeymoon in outer space. Then the only place on this island where he might be now is…_

I punched my metal fist into my flesh hand and smirked.

_I've always wanted to see it up close……_

I looked at a watch I was carrying that night along with everything else. I estimated that I had seven and a half hours left before the fusion reactor went biserk. Surely it was nothing to be utterly panicked about. But still, I had no idea (in regards to the overloading reactor) how soon the Puppet King was going to take off with Starfire. It was best that I hurried with all of my might. If Starfire had left the chambers by then, the ceremony was about to be complete. And if the Puppet King's idea of a wedding was relatively 'normal', then it would be just a matter of time before the curse was finalized between the two newlyweds with….

A kiss.

I winced.

I blurred down the hallway and made for the stairwell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin….."

"……….."

"Pssst! Robin!"

"………."

"R-Robin! W-Wake up—"

"I am awake."

"……….oh. Um. In case you haven't noticed, he hasn't brainwashed us yet."

"I've noticed something else, though," Robin grumbled.

He and Sandy were tied with their backs to the opposite sides of a slender, metal, support pole. It was one of many poles that formed the lattice/spider-web titanium of the rocket booster support system in the underground launchpad of the Titans' island. Looming heavily overhead was a giant upside-down 'cone' that made up the rocket thruster of one of the two boosters. Attached to the boosters was the Titans' legendary T-Sub, a veteran to space travel….a 'veteran' in that it had gone to space only once before.

It was prepared to go there again. But this time, not with the Titans. Unless one counts Starfire or the electrons discharged by the burning bodies of Robin and Sandy upon liftoff.

"All my life of crime-fighting," Robin muttered. "It never fails to amaze me. Crooks are always taking the impractical way out in trying to kill me and my companions. It doesn't matter why we're here. Maybe we pissed off the Puppet King so much that he couldn't bear to mind control us and make us blend in with the other 'royal subjects'. Maybe it's part of his curse to torture those whom he captures. I frankly don't give a damn. I've been here a million times before. It's all the same."

"Were you able to escape those million times, s-sir?" Sandy gulped.

"I dunno. You tell me."

"Think you can…..perhaps….have us escape this time?" she simpered with a sweatdrop.

"If I had my utility belt and all the other lovely tools given us on this mission, then yeah," Robin said. His eyemask gazed forlornly at his barren costume and he sighed. "Kinda late for that now."

"That's—like—your weakness, isn't it? Having or not having your utility belt?"

"That and root beer and redheads."

"H-Huh?"

"Sorry," Robin grumbled and tilted his head down. "Lame attempt at a joke."

Sandy bit her lip. "You seem down, s-sir."

"Yeah….well…," Robin glanced up at the obvious rocket booster looming overhead. "I'm not exactly in the mood to be all 'fired up' at the moment."

"We've been through some pretty tough scrapes on this mission before now," Sandy remarked. "Why were you not so glum then as you are now?"

"I wasn't in so helpless a fix before," the Titan Leader remarked.

Sandy tried glancing at him through the corner of her goggles and over her shoulder. "Or perhaps it's because you hadn't directly run into Starfire before then?"

"……"

Sand's goggled eyes blinked. "Robin??"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I've noticed that you're………very sensitive."

"About…."

"What the Puppet King is doing."

"……."

"To Starfire."

"She's my teammate."

"Well, that's obvious."

"It's only natural that I care about her."

"Yes," Sandy looked off across the barren launchpad crater and smiled to herself. "Only natural."

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "Why are you smiling?"

Sandy tilted her head back. "You can't see my face. What makes you think I'm smiling?"

"………"

"You're one heck of a mystery, sir. But there's one thing that I can see through when it comes to you. And that's your level of compassion."

"I'm the leader of the Titans," Robin grumbled. "I'm supposed to be compassionate at times."

"Correction, s-sir," Sandy replied. "You're the leader of the Titans…who learned his stuff under the Batman in Gotham City. Am I correct?"

"Uhhh…..yeah."

"How does one manage to wield 'compassion' after such tutelage?"

"You don't know anything…."

"Perhaps not. But think about it. I bet you're nicer a person now than when you started this legendary team!"

"I……"

"Well?"

Robin shook his head. "Why are we even having this conversation?"

Sandy glanced up. "Can you think of a better thing to talk about prior to your cremation?"

"I……," Robin sighed and slumped against his restraints. "Starfire came to this planet seeking understanding and companionship. She's just an innocent creature from another world trying to make peace. And for her fate to be in the hands of some possessed little piece of furniture wearing a crown and bearing Cookie Monster eyes…..well….I-I just don't think that's right. And I can't do a damned thing about it. Moreso now—this very second—than ever. And yes…**that's** why I'm glum."

"You make things sound so simple…"

"And why shouldn't they be?!?!" Robin barked. He gritted his teeth and frowned off into nothingness. "Starfire had a home and friends before the Puppet King stepped into things. That was simple enough. Why did he have to get in the damned way?!"

Silence. The faint lingering of an echo.

Robin groaned. "It's….it's all my fault," he muttered. "Me and my ego. My knack for keeping things. For exalting in myself at the administration of justice and its fruits. When the Puppet King was defeated, I decided to keep it in our evidence room. It didn't occur to me that the thing might come alive again someday. And it has. Because of me, Starfire's got a demon of an unimaginable curse forcing her into some nuptial Hell. Even if we were to bring Starfire back from the Puppet King's spell……what…..wh-what would she think of me?"

Sandy thought for a moment. Then smiled and said: "I think she'd believe you were brave."

"Brave??"

"Yeah. Brave for nearly being drowned to death by flooding Bay waters in a cramped tunnel. For fighting s-suffocation in a ventilation shaft. For almost having your soul stolen in front of a bunch of citizens by an irate muppet. For testing your brawn against a big green animal atop a crumbling elevator. And for putting your life on the line on a motorcycle and….er….a l-launchpad. All for her."

"Pfft…for the City."

"Sure…for the City," Sandy smirked.

"………"

Silence.

"I think Starfire would be so very happy for what you have done, Robin."

"Heh….she's always happy."

Sandy raised an eyebrow from where she sat, facing away from him.

Robin continued under his breath: "So happy, she almost hurts herself." Another sigh. "I don't want to end up with my only memory of the girl being a loss. Not like before…."

Sandy leaned her head to the side. "'Before'??"

"Forget about it," Robin grunted. "There are more pressing things at hand."

Sandy blinked. "…………L-Like…..?"

"How quickly we are going to burn alive," Robin looked straight up again. "I theorize that if we exhale right before the boosters blow, there'll be less oxygen in our lungs and hopefully less of the sensation of being a living inflammatory grenade."

Sandy gulped. "Lovely. I should keep that in mind."

"You just might have to—" Robin's speech was cut short by his own….cutting of his speech.

Sandy seemed Maybe both. "Robin?" she remarked. "You oka—"

"Shhh!!" he hissed and seemed to crane his neck. "Listen!"

Sandy's goggled eyes darted every which way. "T-To what?"

"Tilt your head up!"

She did. BONK!! Her head struck the pole. "Owie…," she whined.

"Shhh! You sense it??"

Sandy was silent….still.

There was a rhythmic tapping reverberating straight down the length of the metal pole they were attached to. A tapping with a pattern. Morse code.

"Noir…..," Sandy breathed.

Robin squinted his eyemask and leaned his skull against the vibrating pipe.

"What's he saying?" Sandy asked. "I'm good at sign language, but I'm rusty with this stuff."

"Something about the computer system," Robin remarked. "Hang on a sec…."

He positioned his bound wrist and started racking his knuckles against the metal to which the two were bound. Clanking sounds echoed off the surrounding walls of the launching pad crater.

Sandy winced…hoping nobody heard them.

But Robin was relentless. He delivered his message expertly…swiftly.

'_Can you get inside the launch bay.' _

Silence.

Sandy waited nervously.

Then…

Robin gasped, "He's responding!"

"What now?" Sandy said.

Robin listened.

'_I was hoping you could tell me.'_

The Boy Wonder groaned.

"Please don't tell me that's a bad thing," Sandy murmured.

Robin listened as the message continued.

'_I am on the outer lattice of the launchpad above the closed bay doors. The inner doors to the launch preparation room are also locked and the Puppet King and his victims are the inside preparing to approach the pad.'_

"That's a long message," Sandy remarked. "Good news? Bad news?"

"Shh!" Robin frowned. "Be patient for once!"

Sandy glanced at her restraints…then at the booster rockets directly above. "I think I'm doing a good job, considering…."

"It would appear that the Puppet King and those under his control are about to enter this place…," Robin said. "Noir's on the other side of the doors, locked out."

"Can't he teleport through?"

"I'm sure he's tried that already," the Boy Wonder replied. "Besides…," he glanced her way over his shoulder. "…the inner doors are just as airtight as the huge bay doors above. Prevents oxygen from being burned by the combustion of launch of course."

"Of course…."

"H-Hang on…," Robin leaned his head back against the pipe. "He's sending another message."

"Oh joy."

_'The computer console in the Main Room is fried. Is there any other way I can abort the launch then through the master control program.'_

"Damn…," Robin grunted.

"Uh oh."

"Uh oh indeed. The Main Room's computer is smashed. Noir can't interfere with the launch from there."

"Much less access the light settings of the entire Tower…," Sandy said in a depressed whisper. "Then again…the bright plume of the rockets' launch might simulate the 'Sunrise' for the cursed citizens…but what's the point?"

Robin suddenly beamed. "I know!!"

"You know what?"

"This could still work!" Robin smirked. He started striking his knuckles rhythmically against the pipe again. "Just gotta remind ourselves that this is our Tower….not the Puppet Dunce's!"

"'Our'?" Sandy smirked. "Gee, I'm flattered."

"Shhh!"

"Heh."

Robin's message: _'The fusion reactor. Overload the energy banks. It will cut off the power to the entire Tower and the launchpad.'_

Almost immediately, a response: _'What of explosion.'_

Robin chuckled slightly and tapped. _'Not if this early. Forces of the Puppet King are elsewhere. Now is the time to take care of the reactor.'_

'_And you two.'_

Robin bit his lip.

'_We will take our chances. Besides. We should be fine if you cut off the fusion reactor in time.'_

Silence.

'_How do I do it.'_

Robin groaned. He tapped back.

'_Use something that Sandy and I do not have.'_

'_And that is.'_

'_Your sword.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The wind kicked at my hair as I perched on the metal lattice emerging up through the metal structure of the launch bay doors. Smoke was pouring heavily out of my eyes. My fleshly, right hand was gripping hard to the metal structure. By running a current of smoke down the lattice and into the launch bay itself, I had sensed the presence of Robin and Sandy. And I had thoroughly received Robin's last message.

I took my right hand off.

With my naked black eyes, I glanced over my shoulder at the hilt of my blade.

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

_Never one of those easy nights……_

I whipped my shades on, spun around, and blurred back towards the Tower before the defenses could spot me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I sent him on his way to the fusion reactor," Robin said to Sandy. "It's a bit of a stretch…but if he shuts the thing down before the launch…we may still have a chance."

"Is it just me…," Sandy bit her lip, "…or does Noir save our butts a lot."

"Y-Yeah….," Robin blushed. "He's good at that. At least tonight."

Sandy smirked.

A beat.

Her smirk fell. "Wait….if the Puppet King is relying on the Fusion Reactor to explode and repeat the contents of his last silent movie….th-then wouldn't he have the reactor heavily guarded?"

Robin shrugged. "So far, we've all pretty much incapacitated Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Raven. What cards could the stupid doll have left up his sleeve now?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FSHHHHHH!!!!!

The huge metal doors to the reactor room slid open.

I dashed in one or two steps, Myrkblade raised high.

My shaded eyes darted about.

Silence…save for an annoying alarm and the hiss of an overheating fusion reactor.

Nobody was there.

I raised an eyebrow….feeling uneasy.

Still, I slowly shuffled ahead with my weapon in grasp.

I was in an atrium. A chamber before a chamber. Before me stretched a smooth, reflecting set of doors. Translucent and shiny. Something fit for a sci-fi film. And according to the warning insignias across the panels, the fusion reactor lay beyond in the chamber.

_Ahh…the mysterious depths of the Titan Tower a newbie like me has yet to see…_

I walked to a stop, Myrkblade raised.

A beat.

I looked over at a wall console.

I pressed a green button on it.

_Buzz!_

_'Access Denied!_'

I gritted my teeth and hit it with Myrkblade's hilt.

SMACK!

FSHHHHHH!!!!

The doors opened automatically with a spark or two.

'_You are entering the structural containment chamber to the Tower's Reactor core. Warning. Presence of biological elements may cause contamination in the engine's containment field.'_

I glared up at the ceiling as I tip-toed through….reminding myself to smash the speakers later also.

The chamber to the reactor core was a circular….thing. Like the interior of an upside down dome with ridges all converging upon the center. And in that center—nestled amidst a wreath of rising and falling steam—was the glowing yellow reactor core, which was fluctuating with an amber hue at a tempo surely faster than 'normal'. Nestled in the ceiling from ridges identical to the six or seven that met on the center of the floor, flexible metal tubes arched downward and came together on a metal nub directly above the core.

I had no freakin' clue what all of that stuff meant. But in some fashion or another, I was to shut it down. In some sadistic fashion, all I wanted to do was smash it.

I took a slow step forward and paused. I glanced at the obsidian surfacing of my wooden sword.

Robin had suggested I use my blade somehow in canceling the reactor core's overload. I just hoped the solution at hand was obvious enough a thing for him to so purposefully mention it to me.

I was about to approach the reactor when—at about my second step—a ruby red aura emanated from behind me and drowned the chamber's shadows with crimson.

I narrowed my eyes under my shades and frowned.

"I've been waiting for this….shinobi…."

I groaned and turned around. I gave Control Freak an annoyed look, leaning my hand to my hip.

He stood in the doorway between the atrium and the chamber. Smirking. Holding a very familiar, double-sided lightsaber in one hand. In the other hand was his vicious remote control.

"Oh, we duked it out before. That was just a sneak preview! Now it's opening night! The greatest show in town! And I'm ready and rearing to go all Wichowski Brothers on your ass!" he pointed with the unearthly blade and bore a cheesy grin. "But of course you know I've been working for the Puppet King all along! Pfft! Like I was of much help being your psuedo-friendly-off-and-on-annoying-ally! I swear….those subplots are so predictable! It's like a Kevin Costner movie…..or the Italian Government!"

I sighed and leaned on Myrkblade.

"What?? Not surprised?" he cackled. "If you were Robin, you'd be cussing your head off at me by now! Surprising how such a heroic bird-brain got such a potty mouth. Maybe it's because everything he had to say with his tongue was utter crap! HA!"

I shook my head and twirled Myrkblade into a ready position.

"Awwww…must we end this so quickly?" Control Freak leaned his hairy head to the side and coiled the lightsaber behind him. "You know, you're like Battlestar Galactica. You only last for one season and you're full of funky hair!"

I slowly approached him across the chamber with my blade.

"Have it your way!" he fatly sing-songed and paced across from me. "Once I finish you off, the wooden munchkin will grant me a gift of post-modern value one hundred times better than the Boy Wonka could! But one miniboss stands in the way, and I'm chock full of phoenix down. In the spiritual sense of course." He winked a crusty wink. He twirled his lightsaber at ready and sneered: "There can be…only ONE!!"

I sweatdropped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the preparation chamber to the launch bay, a finely constructed layout of metal displayed five space suits hanging in chambers for instant fitting. Just a few feet away were wall consoles that could slide open and present spacefaring tools at the press of a button. Then in the ceiling and floor were special plasma sweepers designed for cleansing Titan astronauts of all contaminates before entering the final frontier.

All of these fine necessities of space travel….were being ignored.

A flock of mind controlled people stood numbly in rows across the cramped interior. Their eyes were blue and bright….but not in the lively way. Finely dressed men and women—victimized citizens of the City—faced the shut door to the actual launch bay itself, still dressed in the fashionable tastes of the eighteenth century that sharply contrasted the slate gray and blue of the futuristic, metal chamber.

In front of them stood a line of the Puppet King's 'guards'. Equipped with spears, they blue-eyed the brainwashed crowds and protectively circled the Puppet King himself. The wooden despot was busily working away at a mysterious device on a work bench along with two mind-controlled 'engineers'. Though it was the most awkward timing, the King persisted in his construction. After a few minutes of intense effort, the midget of magic stood up and took a paranormal breath. If his wooden skin had pours, he'd be sweating a sea of sap.

"Alas…I was not sure if this royal treat would be completed in time…," he uttered. He and the two engineers stood back as a curved, silver, hover platform lifted up from the ground between them with a fancy hum of deep-throated technology. "But as fate would seem, the Queen of Strings is to be granted every bit of honor this evening."

"Does it serve to your liking, your honor?" the engineer mumbled in a zombie fashion.

The Puppet King's googly eyes rattled in his direction. "My liking matters little, waif!!" He whipped out his sparking scepter and jammed-pressed a button on it. CLICK.

The blue in the engineer's eyes fluctuated. He gasped, writhed, and suddenly slumped in an awkwardly sedated fashion.

"It is for my beloved first and foremost," the Puppet King sneered. "I shall whisk her away to our honeymoon with it. Only if absolutely necessary will it serve 'my liking' and my liking alone! Are all the infidels working at Phaser Labs as presumptuous as you?"

The engineer merely drooled.

"It matters little…," the Puppet King aimed his scepter at the floating platform. The craft drifted over and he stepped onto it. "You and the other guests have been so…..kind to assist me in my expenditures. I promise you 'sunrise'….you will know nothing but peaceful sleep. In the meantime…," he forced the platform to twirl about and face a corner where two 'handmaidens' flanked a mesmerizing beauty in veils of white satin. "….join me, my beloved. We have our destiny in the stars…"

The redheaded bride slowly nodded. The Puppet King hovered over and offered her a hand.

She took it and gracefully stepped up with no more than a slight ruffle of her skirt.

The Puppet King warmly stroked her hand, then turned his googly face towards the doors to the launchbay. "Let us proceed to the end!"

The guards pressed two wall consoles simultaneously. The doors hissed open. Awash with the zombie applause of the richly attired guests, the bride and groom floated angelically out to where the T-Sub rested on the huge, looming rocket boosters.

Aimed at the stars…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Control Freak and I circled each other.

The center of our circle was the fusion reactor core.

The rising mists around the apparatus covered our footsteps.

Dangling metal tubes from the ceiling blocked our eyesights intermittently.

And between all of this was the constant, warbling glow of Control Freak's red lightsaber.

The two crimson beams throbbed and illuminated his fat, grinning face.

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades.

Myrkblade was held high.

I wasn't about to strike first.

He was.

"Engage!!!"

He jumped at me with that impossibly acrobatic twirl of his blubbery body.

I gritted my teeth and held Myrkblade out vertically.

FL-FLASH!!!

The two beams bounced off my wooden sword.

Control Freak ended his twirl by kneeling down, letting out a happy gasp, and sweeping his leg out at my feet.

I backflipped, reached a metal hand up, grabbed a dangling tube, swung back, swung forward, and leapt towards him with a downward stab.

SLASH!!! CLANK!!!

My blade struck metal floor.

Control Freak rolled to the side, jumped up, and twirled the double-blades.

I stood up straight, took a breath, and charged.

He got up, twirling, blocking—FL-FL-FLASH!!!—and jabbed at me with a desperate lunge. "HA!!!"

I blurred murk, turned weightless, leapt off his thrusting arm, jumped over him, and twirled in mid-air with a hard slap of Myrkblade's broadside against his spine. SWACK!!!!

He stumbled forward and landed face-first against the glowing reactor.

SMACK!!!

"Mmmmfff!!"

I posed into a ready position, my legs instinctively flexing and flexing as I hobbled in place…ready for another agile strike.

He got up slowly, rubbing his fat cheek. "Nnnghh….I just KNOW that's gonna mutate in the morning!"

I furrowed my brow.

"Where were we? Oh yes. ASS TEARING!!!"

He ran at me and performed a flying, belly-jiggling jump kick.

I gritted my teeth. _What could this fat freak not do?!?!_

SWOOOOOSH!!!! He came at me like a missile.

I held my breath. I tossed Myrkblade up into the air. It spun near the ceiling. I blurred my arms. Grabbed the fat fiend's incoming ankles. Tossed him past me. And grabbed Myrkblade on its descent.

CLUMP!!!!

Control Freak landed on his feet and skidded towards the far wall.

SW-SWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade into a fighting position, charged CF, and stabbed low.

At the end of his skid, he blocked in reverse, stabbed both of our swords into the ground, ran up the wall, flipped, and spun—unearthing his lightsaber and flinging it at my face with a twirl. "HA!!!!"

I ducked with backwards bend. The red ruby hotness of the beam blade streaked just an inch or two above my nose.

I sweated.

SWOOOSH-FLASH!!! One of the blades of CF's weapon stuck into the wall from the swing.

I tilted back up and tried to stab him.

YANK!!! Control Freak pulled the sword out with its reverse blade coming at me.

I twirled out of the way, but had the back of my shoulders skimmed straight through the shirt by the saber. Burning the skin.

SLASH!!!!!

I exhaled in pain and stumbled towards the reactor in the center.

"Ha ha ha!!" Control Freak cackled. He twirled the lightsaber mightily above his hairy head and smirked. "You're not half the Titan that you used to be, shinobi!! Allow me to amend that!!" With such succinctly said, he slashed one of the lightsaber blades directly at my waist on a cutting path.

I gritted my teeth and summoned murk at the last second.

SLASH!!!!!!!!!

Control Freak's blade went through me……and I was still standing.

"Er….," Control Freak sweatdropped.

My waist materialized back to a solid from smoke form. I took a deep breath and effortlessly uppercutted CF's double chins at the vulnerable end of his swing.

SMACK!!!

He flew back five feet and struck the wall of the circular chamber hard.

WHAM!!!

He winced. His crusty eyes reopened to see me running towards him.

"I wonder what else is on…," he smirked. He whipped his remote out and aimed at me.

I skidded to a stop—gasping—and scrambled awkwardly to leap out of the way.

**CLICK.**

A red beam zapped the floor where my feet were. The metal instantly melted.

I landed in a squat before a wall console.

"Hahaha!! Electrifying!!" he aimed again.

**CLICK.**

I dove out of the way.

The wall console was zapped and exploded in blue, electrical fury.

I rolled on the ground, leapt another remote control zap, flipped, skidded to a stop on my feet, teleported to the side to miss another zap, and charged full force at Control Freak.

The fat fiend thinned his eyes and aimed with a smirk. "Ya know, those sunglasses of yours are just _da bomb_!!"

**CLICK.**

I was too slow.

The remote control zapped my shades….and the eyewear suddenly started to flash with a deep red strobe.

I gasped, came to a stumbling stop, and desperately flung my glasses off of me and towards the far corner of the reactor core's chamber.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The shades impossibly began to smoke and—

**BOOOM!!!!**

I dove away from my….er….grenade lenses. Panting, I got up halfway into a sitting position and realized I had dropped Myrkblade. I reached over to grab it—but a Klingon boot stomped down and blocked my reach.

I looked up—squinting through naked black eyes--and then had to lie back down straight as a red lightsaber blade was aimed down directly to my throat with its burning tip warming the scar.

Control Freak smirked. "The force is strong with you, shinobi," he said. A beat. "Or maybe it's just that you're dead sexy." He laughed his fanboy head off and then threateningly pointed the glowing blade of burning energy at my crotch. "Not for long, however! Ha ha ha!!"

I frowned. That wasn't funny. Especially to me.

So I kicked _him_ in the groin.

WHUMP!!!!

His crusty eyes bulged. He dropped the lightsaber in unJedi fashion and flopped to the floor a few feet away. "Ohhhhhhh Mommy….my phaser banks!!"

I ignored that. I rolled to the side, snatched Myrkblade's hilt, and agilely leapt up to my feet.

"Seriously….man….," the fanboy writhed and whimpered with tears streaming out his eyes. "How'd your foot even manage to **find** it?!"

I snarled and angrily brought my sword down the center handle of the double-bladed lightsaber. SMASH!!!! The uncanny device shorted out and died.

"For the love of Mark Hamill!!!' Control Freak sat up, frowning. "One bruised ego is enough!! Why'd you have to take it out on all three?!?!" He whipped his remote out and aimed at me.

**CLICK.**

I gasped and side-stepped.

The red beam struck one of the hanging metal tubes…..which promptly came alive and twirled viciously towards me like a ravenous snake.

My black eyes bulged and I ducked the offensive tentacle.

Control Freak laughed. "Oh ho ho ho!! That's rich!!" He zapped all of the tubes hanging above the reactor in quick succession. "Here come the snakes, you'd best be sure!"

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.

I sweatdropped…..

The tentacles shook, swarmed together, and all converged as one huge flagellum that whipped about and swung at me.

I backflipped with a blind swing of Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!!

The mass of converging tubes were deflected back.

I landed.

The tentacles recoiled and swung back as one.

I winced.

SMACK!!!!

My body flew hard against the wall.

Before I had a chance to regain my lungs---**GRIP!!**

All of the tentacles were circling my waist at once.

I gasped for breath…but was suddenly lunged across the room in the tentacles' grasp.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I flew straight at Control Freak's fist.

"This one's for Ensign Crusher!!"

WHAM!!!!!

A red welt in the shape of the fiend's knuckles formed in my cheek as I flew back from the impact.

The tentacles flexed.

I was swung at him again.

"And this one's for Jar Jar Binks!!"

WHACK!!!!!

Red saliva flew from my mouth as I swung back from the impact.

Then at him again….

"Raiden of Metal Gear Solid 2!!!"

THWACK!!!!

I flew back with the tentacles again. My lips bleeding.

Control Freak cracked his knuckles and smiled. "All lousy characters of the sci-fi world!! And just like you…"

The tentacles swung my battered body at him as he raised his fist again.

"….they should all end up dead!!"

At the last second of the swing, I held my breath and flung my legs up. I wrapped my ankles around Control Freak's torso.

"Wha---?!?!"

Smoke danced out of my black eyes. I snarled with reddened teeth and pulsed a wave of murk down my lower limbs and enveloped him.

FLASH!!!!

I switched us both into smoke form and teleported each other so that he solidified in the grasp of the tentacles and I was then standing where he was.

He blinked. "Uh oh."

I frowned, twirled Myrkblade, and swung it directly into the metal nub in the ceiling where the metal tubes were all attached.

CLANK!!!!!

My sword embedded into the conduit, and electrical sparks flared—ZZZZTT!!!!!—and coursed brilliantly through the metal 'snakes' encircling Control Freak all at once.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!

"MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He convulsed, literally glowed, then slumped with a groan as smoke rose from his dangling body.

Silence.

I finished fuming and took a peaceful breath. I stepped up, yanked Myrkblade out of the ceiling conduit, and then knelt over the core…attempting to find a way to forcibly shut off the overload of the fusion reactor.

…..

Unknown to me…Control Freak's eyes slowly fluttered open. He wearily glanced at me from where he hung and grinned. Slowly, quietly, his hand pulled out of the tentacles' grasp and clutched his remote. He aimed at me….and pressed the red button.

CLICK.

A red halo of light glowed above my head.

My breath left me. My naked eyes darted up in concern.

SWOOOOSH!!!

My very own red bandanna came alive, snaked down from over my brow, and encircled my scarred neck like a quivering eel. And it began to squeeze….and squeeze….

I dropped Myrkblade and clutched my neck, struggling. Panicking.

Loss of air.

Wheezing.

I collapsed to the floor and writhed.

My black eyes saw a quivering world of mist and semi-darkness. In that teetering world, a fat villain was stumbling out of the entanglement of metal tubes from the ceiling. The combatant limped to a proud standstill and folded his arms.

"Do yourself a favor and buy yourself a tricorder, shinobi," he cackled. "The Control Freak never dies! He merely gets reruns! Surrender to the darkness, Noir. Just hope your next leap will be your leap home! Ha ha ha!!"

I sputtered and gasped. The bandanna constricted hard around my neck. The last of blinding light faded and my black eyes rolled back in my head.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Sandy were anxious.

They looked eagerly up from their bottom position on the launch bay.

For the last few minutes, the zombie cheers and claps of the Puppet King's royal guests could be heard.

The last rites of the marriage ceremony were about to go underway.

And after that….takeoff.

"So….um….," Sandy gulped. "Do we speak now, or forever hold our peace?"

Robin frowned. "There is no peace." He tilted his eyemasked, frowning face up and growled: "STARFIRE!!! LISTEN TO ME!!! YOU MUST SNAP OUT OF IT!! YOU MUST WAKE UP FROM THAT SPELL!!!"

"Y-YEAH!!" Sandy joined in. "Y-YOU CAN'T GET MARRIED TO SOMEONE ELSE WHILE ROBIN'S ALIVE!!!"

The Boy Wonder snapped at her: "Hey!! Shush!!"

"Wh-What?! I was in the spirit of things!!"

"Yeah…well…," Robin blushed furiously but tried to hide it….even though Sandy couldn't see his face. "Try on another spirit for a change."

"Shhh!!" the volunteer uttered. "I think they got the message!"

Indeed, the sounds of the 'services' were ceasing. Amidst the eerie quiet, a soft padding of footsteps announced the silhouette of the Puppet King standing above the edge of the main platform besides the rocket boosters. Flanked by two guards, he glared googily down at the two captives and snarled: "How badly do you two want to burn….?"

"I swear…," Robin fumed, "….Starfire is no more your damn 'Queen of Strings' then you are the pimp of termites!! Or whatever it is you strive to be!! Let go of her now! Or else!!"

"You are hardly in the position to threaten me, infidel…," the Puppet King pointed with his scepter. "Right now, I control the entire population of this Tower with this rod alone. If you so much as interrupt this precious night for the Queen again…I could send a dozen so-called 'innocent' civilians to their death. And I'll make you watch."

"What's it all gonna matter to make a threat like that?!" Sandy shouted. "They're all gonna die anyways when that rocket of yours blasts off!"

"Sandy, you're not helping," Robin muttered.

"What?!?!" Sandy exclaimed. "Jeez!! Am I not aloud to talk at all?!"

"Silence!!" the Puppet King sneered. "You have nothing to fight for!! My beloved is totally on my side!!" He glanced over beyond the edge. "Isn't that right, precious??"

Starfire shuffled over into sight atop the platform in her shimmering gown. Her blue eyes swirled as she droned: "Yes, honey. I desire my destiny in the stars with you…"

Robin's eyemask wilted. "Star….," he breathed. "Don't you see who it is?? It's Robin. Your best friend! Please….for your sake….for….for m-my sake….wake up. This is all just a nightmare. A terrible nightmare. You can't run off with this madman! I-I won't let you!! Your life is…..is….t-too precious to be wasted away like that."

"Enough!!" the Puppet King shook his wooden fist. "You're not the judge of what is or what is not precious about the Queen!"

Robin frowned. "The most precious thing about Starfire is that she exists, asshole!! But you're too wrapped up in that curse of yours to possibly do anything but obsess over her and turn her into something she's not!! I swear…once you find yourself grounded, I'm so going to escape from this holding and turn you into mulch!!"

"What are you talking about….??" his googly eyes glared speculatively.

Robin smirked. "Just as we speak…your overloading of the fusion reactor has failed!! In case you've forgotten…we have a ghost on our side. And turns out his poltergeist has cost you your honeymoon and your big 'kaboom' in the end!!"

FSHHHHH!!! The sound of sliding doors echoed throughout the height of the launch bay.

Puppet King turned and gestured towards the unseen part of the launchpad. "Do you mean the ghost that has just been exorcised by my secret, winning hand?"

On cue, Control Freak waltzed into view with me slumped over his right shoulder and Myrkblade and its hilt on the other. He grunted and tossed me—hands bound—to the launch bay below.

THWUMP!!!!!

I winced and landed in front of Robin and Sandy.

They stared at me, dumbfounded.

I simpered with a sweatdrop.

"Well, if this isn't one tubular convention!!" Control Freak spun his remote in hand and smirked at the Puppet King. "How's about a round of cheese puffs on the house, boss?"

"Address me as I am."

Control Freak rolled his crusty eyes. "Sorry…'your majesty'." He looked down at us three and winked, humored. "I swear! He's like an anorexic Hutt!"

Robin blinked. "I wonder……"

"Wonder what?" Sandy stammered.

"What my excuse should be when I meet St. Peter in about half an hour…"


	96. For the Queen of Strings part 7 final

**96. For the Queen of Strings part 7 Final**

"You're loyalty to me as a royal subject has been most admirable, obese one," the Puppet King nodded towards Control Freak as the two stood besides the richly attired Starfire on the edge of the launch platform. "Though it pains me that I had to choose not to mind control you, I am rather amazed by the success of your supportive endeavors regardless."

"Yeah…well…," the fat fiend shrugged and smiled aside towards Robin, Sandy, and I down below. "I only sent him about fifty billion fan mail letters. If George Lucas was a mind controlling despot, he'd be helping me take over the world too!"

Robin frowned and Sandy sighed.

I struggled in my restraints.

"The last of the infiltrators has been accosted…..," the Puppet King paced slowly towards his 'beloved'. "And as such…the ceremony shall now complete itself." He gently took Starfire's hand, and she responded to him. "My precious love, I shall soon take you far away from here. You will no longer feel tainted by this blasphemous world. Is this not tempting??"

"I am happy to join you in the destiny in the stars…," Starfire droned. A zombie Titan. A doomed bride.

"Whatever happens…," Sandy whispered from her side of the bar they were tied to. "We must not let them kiss!"

Robin gritted his teeth, "If you were any more obvious, I'd have him kiss you instead."

All that time, I was squinting. The lights were murdering my unshaded eyes. It was a hassle to keep my lids open, much less worry about my hands being tied. I tried on a couple of occasions then and there to morph my limbs into smoke form and swiftly teleport out of the restraints. But I was too beaten and worn out from my battle with Control Freak in the reactor core chamber to do hardly half of anything.

Control Freak held Starfire's hand in one grasp and then he pulled out his scepter in another. With a click, he summoned the hovering platform which he and his mind controlled subjects had forged at the last second. It throttled over on quiet jets and stood in mid-air while the bride and groom stepped onto it and rose higher and higher into the air. But they didn't ascend completely to the loading dock of the T-Sub strapped to the boosters. Instead, they hovered over the zombified 'royal subjects'. The Puppet King raised his scepter into the air and it glowed.

There were cheers and applause. Richly attired ladies and gentlemen clapped and chanted: "Long Live the Queen of Strings!!" The guards rhythmically clanked the blunt ends of their spears into the floor, creating a rich pounding noise that accompanied the fanfare.

"The Destiny In the Stars is most sacred and special!!" the Puppet King preached. "For far away from this world, the cold justice of space leaves very little for ignorance and sin!! I respect the Queen with all my heart!! And there…the two of us shall know no pain, no suffering, and surely no people! Our departure shall be followed by a rising sun! And that sun shall bring to you your retribution!"

Zombie cheers. Vocal admiration. A throng of blue-eyed golems cheered the newlyweds on.

Except for one who cleared his throat rather rudely.

"A-A-Ahem….."

Robin and Sandy sweatdropped.

I craned my neck, curious.

The Puppet King's googly eyes zeroed in on the fat fanboy and glared. "What is it…………ally?"

The obese one obscenely grinned. "Doesn't the one hundred and thirty first Rule of Acquisition entitle me to a consolation for my recent efforts."

"I do not know of such a rule…."

"Me neither," Control Freak chuckled. "I've been in prison too long and haven't been able to collect all my DS9 dvds." His face then turned serious as he uttered: "I would like my reward now. And when I say 'now', I mean 'no more than a nanosecond after the last time I freakin' said 'now'."

Groaning, the Puppet King shook his googly face. "You are most persistent in your greed. Very well. I shall grant you that which you have earned."

We all watched as—in an eerie fashion—the Puppet King reached a hand to his chest, pulled open a 'hatch' of sorts in his torso, and dug deep into his very own body. He fished around, clasped his fingers around something, and then tossed that something ten feet down at Control Freak.

Beaming happily, the fat fanboy caught the object and held it before his eyes with a satisfied sigh. "The heart of a wooden boy. The unseen wooden organ of the silent film marionette of old! So polished and pure…like the 'Puppet King' was always meant to be in his endless pursuit of Mary Lou's royal happiness!"

"You are quite the enthusiast of my wide screen exploitation," the Puppet King remarked. "While I find your level of interest fascinating, it matters very little to me now. Take your 'prize' and leave the Tower. Leave the City, in fact. Go as far away as you need to before the 'sun rises'. Then and only then can you enjoy the fruits of having captured my 'heart'. For now I grow a new heart with my beloved Queen. A new life and a new, royal destiny."

Control Freak laughed.

Puppet King narrowed his eyes. "What is so amusing?"

"For the love of Boba Fett! I didn't need to **keep** your stupid turd of a heart!" Control Freak cackled. "All I wanted to do was hold it up close for once! It's antique, you moron!! That means a cheesy fingered nerd like myself can't possibly keep it in my house…..or jail cell."

"But…."

"But nothing!" the fat one smiled. "Don't get me wrong, Chucky. I've gotten the best reward I could have gotten in a long time!" He flung his arms about, smiling. "I got to waltz around the inside of the Titans' Tower!" He gestured towards the doors leading to the hallways. "I got to see the evidence room firsthand and be reunited with my tools of the trade!" He walked over to the edge of the platform and pointed down at me. "I got to wail royally on my favorite shinobi's butt!"

I sweatdropped.

Control Freak turned about and smiled up at the Puppet King. "And I got to hold a piece of the greatest icon of silent movie obscurity ever to slither out of the supernatural spawning pool," he palmed the wooden 'heart' and sighed happily. "Yes……y-yes….I do believe my work here is done." He raised a finger. "But….," his cheesy teeth showed in a ridiculous grin. "What use would these happy thoughts be if my head has been evaporated and I'm kinda-sorta not able to think them?"

With that said, he whipped out his remote, spun it a few times, then zapped it towards the lights overhead. "HA!!!"

A ruby light shot up into the electric lamps.

The Puppet King gasped. "No!!!"

_**FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **_

The lights overloaded. A huge pulse of blinding proportion flooded the launchpad and spread with a huge strobe throughout the rest of the Tower, covering all interiors.

I clenched my black eyes shut as tightly as I could. I wanted to scream. The edges of my lenses burned so badly. And yet, I was able to weather it. If not for the last-second way through which I preserved my optics…then for the feeling of elation that quite possibly meant…..

When the brightness died back down, Control Freak stood in an outrageously heroic pose with his remote twirling in his grip and a grin on his face.

The blue-eyed citizens….were blue-eyed no more. That is to say, the glowing signature of the Puppet King's possession left their optics. They groaned and sighed collectively and shook their heads, gradually snapping out of it. The guards dropped their spears, the engineers dropped their tools, and the royal guests blushed at the modes of suits or dresses that they were wearing.

"No….," the Puppet King muttered. His googly eyes rattled as he perched next to Starfire on the hovering platform and looked down at his slipping grip of the hundred or so souls. "No…no…no…no…no!!!"

"Yes…yes….yes….yes…yes!!" Puppet King laughed.

Sandy was speechless.

Robin and I exchanged glances.

"You….you betrayed me!!" the Puppet King growled.

"Yeah…I do that," Control Freak winked a crusty eye. "It's like the Khitomer Massacre. Only, more wood finish. I couldn't allow you to just run off and marry that chick of an alien girl. Heck…even I could make her my bride with one good zap of my remote at the right time and place! But I wouldn't want that either. Since when did married superhero babes have posters of them still made and sold at Suncoast?!"

"Infidel!!"

"You know…that's starting to get really old," Control Freak sweatdropped. "And that means a lot coming from **me**."

"You will not survive the rising sun!!" the demonic doll exclaimed.

"Oh….what?! You mean the overloading reactor core??" Control Freak raised a hairy eyebrow. "Pffft!! Like the one I zapped back into normal functioning parameters soon after I took shinobi to school?!?!"

I blushed and chuckled breathily.

Puppet King's jaw was dropped. "All along….you were merely deceiving me…."

"Hey…what can I say?" Control Freak shrugged.

Over a ways, Commissioner Decker stood with Robin's utility belt slung over his shoulder (as it was his possessed duty to look after it). "Nnnghhh…where am I?" he shook his head. He glanced down at his eighteenth century frills. "And what in shit's name am I wearing?"

SNAP!

Control Freak grabbed the utility belt. "A gown to the main event!!" the fanboy exclaimed. He marched over towards the edge of the launchpad. "The Titan Underdogs versus the King of Warped Wood!" He simultaneously kicked Myrkblade over and tossed the utility belt down before zapping the remote control at us and freeing us of our restraints. "A battle for a pretty alien redhead who makes Project Bluebook look like a waste of time and sperm!"

We stood up, gathered our tools, and looked up at the fat fiend in astonishment.

He smirked and folded his arms. "What?? Didn't I say I'd help y'all for a reward?!" He smiled and winked down at us. But the wink was especially cast down at me, the 'shinobi'.

I stared up at him with a dropped jaw. I thought of how he got here….and how he beat me up royally in the reactor core room. All for this…or all for nothing? I had a stupid grin on my face as I slowly shook my head in frustrated awe.

POW!!! CLANK!!!!

Robin fired his grappling hook. He raised himself and Sandy safely onto the main platform. Frowning, he whipped out his staff and extended it as I blurred up onto the platform from below with Myrkblade unsheathed.

Sandy joined us in an angry march towards the hovering Puppet King and Starfire.

"Your pageant is over," Robin snarled. "I'm sure there's a good wood chipper out their with your filthy name on it. But I'll go with just arresting your splintery ass and calling it even." The Boy Wonder's frown dissipated slightly as he glanced over with his eyemask and addressed his Tamaranian companion. "Star…you can come down now."

"…………"

"………S-Star??"

No response. The redhead's eyes were still blue. Still glowing. And she was still standing next to the groom-to-be.

Robin gasped. "Starfire!!! You're---"

"She is MINE!" the Puppet King growled. He lowered the two of them to the ground twenty feet away. Starfire stepped gracefully off the hovering platform as the Puppet King centered himself on the device. "You infidels were far too reckless to assume that you could just steal her out from under my loving gaze!!" His scepter glowed. The hovering platform glowed. Everything about him glowed. Suddenly, in bizarre Transformers style the metal joints and limbs of the platform shaped themselves around the Puppet King so that—suddenly—a cybernetic marionette terminator loomed before everyone. He now stood the average height of the human, with heavy arms and threateningly thick skin of metal.

"Um…..," one of the citizens possessed to be an 'engineer' gulped. "D-Did we just help him build that thing??"

"And am I wearing a **hoopskirt**?!?!" gasped some random lady from the crowd.

"Why is Starfire still possessed?!" Robin gasped.

Sandy's goggled eyes blinked. "She was the first to be mind controlled…."

"Huh?!?!"

"In the Evidence Room, remember?! She was the first to be mind controlled and it wasn't by normal means of the Puppet King's manipulation!"

"So she's still bound by the second phase of the curse!!"

"And that means her only way of being freed is…."

_"By a kiss."_

Robin and Sandy looked over.

Control Freak smirked. "Funny how life throws a curve ball…WITH ARSENIC!!"

"YOU!!" Puppet King pointed with a bark. "Ignorant whelp!! You will be the first to taste the King's fury!!"

The mechanized Puppet King got into a crouched position. Thrusters erupted in his brand new limbs' structure and throttled him through the crowd of gasping, shocked citizens and straight towards the fat fiend with a metal fist flying.

Control Freak smiled. "Dude…..that suit of yours is !!!"

SMACK!!!!!

The fanboy fell down hard and cold. His remote flew out of his hand and slid across the platform floor. Two richly attired ladies looked down at it, uncertain.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The metal-suited Puppet King flew over and landed with his foot sailing through the remote. CRACK!!!!

"EEEEK!!" the innocent ladies shrieked and fled towards the doors.

Puppet King's googly eyes shook. His mech body spun around and--

POW!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!! A grappling hook cord encircled him.

Robin gritted his teeth and pulled the grappling hook launcher and the cord tight. Without looking he told Sandy: "Go to Starfire! Keep her safe!!" A pause. "Noir?!!?!"

CHHHHING!!!

I gritted my teeth, ran alongside the length of the cord, and struck the anchored Puppet King hard with Myrkblade at the end of his anchorage.

SMACK!!!!

Sparks flew. The metal body was tough.

"Pull your own strings!!" the wooden soul exclaimed. He twisted his body mightily with a mechanical whur. The cord was yanked. Robin's body was flung towards mine.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"

WHUMP!!!

The Boy Wonder and I went tumbling. Myrkblade slid away on the floor.

The Puppet King flexed his metal-reinforced limbs and was about to turn towards Starfire---

SMACK!!!!

Decker's fist flew across the metal body and actually managed to punch the Puppet King towards the ground.

"Not bad for John-Freakin'-Hancock!!" Decker flexed his aching fist and glanced down at us. "As much as I'd like to know why I'm at a Paul Revere look-a-like contest…I think it's best that we leave the explanations for later, huh brats??"

I smirked tiredly at him.

Suddenly a hand reached out and offered me my sword.

"I believe this is yours, son."

I glanced up.

Blake Glover handed me Myrkblade, hilt first. He was flanked by two smiling citizens. "Go kick some butt for us. I think it's your department."

I couldn't help it. I smirked. I grabbed Myrkblade, blurred up to my feet, and streaked over at the Puppet King.

The mech-bodied doll was dizzily getting up--

SWOOOOSH-SLASH!!!

Sparks flew off its metal body from my attack.

I let out a silent scream and spun at him with a twirling slash of Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK!!!!

He deflected me back with a growl and a shaking forearm.

Then Robin swung in from some mysterious location via grappling hook and struck his metal-tipped boots into the reinforced puppet's gut.

SMACK!!!

Robin dropped to the platform floor and whipped out his staff. He lunged at the Puppet King with a growl. "YAAAUGH!!"

I joined in with Myrkblade, and soon the King had two agile heroes flipping and sidestepping and stabbing and slashing with rod and blade on either side of him. The Puppet King swung and spun his loose metal limbs. He kept us at bay. Delivering a punch or a kick or a thruster-induced shove here and there. The scepter in his grasp sparked randomly. The aura of his cursed nature could be felt by all. The crowd of post-possessed citizens watched from afar. Some cheering us on. Others trembling.

In the meantime, Sandy desperately shook Starfire's arms and shoulders.

"Miss Starfire?! Miss Starfire'm?!" the volunteer's goggled eyes blinked nervously and she bit her lip. "Wake up!! Snap out of it!!"

Starfire droned. "Are you the ring bearer?"

Sandy sweatdropped. "I-I'd end the curse right now if only I didn't like Orlando Bloom so much."

Amidst the fight, the Puppet King saw his 'beloved' so close to Sandy and gasped. "No!! You will not interrupt the ceremony!!"

"We're having a little ceremony right here!!" Robin shouted amidst kicking the Puppet King's metal legs and trying to trip him. "My foot getting married to your ass!!"

"ENOUGH!!" the Puppet King growled and flexed the suit's metal arms. "I have no time for this conflict!!" He shoved Robin back with a hard foot.

"OOF!"

I growled mutely and slashed Myrkblade down. SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

I struck nothing but platform floor. The Puppet King had jumped back. He lunged with two fists.

WHUMP!!!

I was pushed back, where I tripped flatly over Robin's back.

"Nnngh!!"

"!!!!!"

I collapsed atop the Boy Wonder.

In the meantime, the Puppet King let loose his suit's thrusters and rocketed towards Starfire.

"Eeek!!" Sandy exclaimed and tried desperately to pull Starfire away.

SWOOOOSH!!!

The Puppet King blurred over and shoved the volunteer aside.

THWAP!!

"Ouchie!!" Sandy landed on her butt.

"My beloved and I have a destiny to make!!" the doll barked. He scooped Starfire's shimmering form in a metal arm and literally ran up the side of the support structure of the lattice holding the T-Sub and its rocket boosters in place. "In the stars!!"

Robin and I stood up.

"We must not let him get away with her!!"

I nodded. I charaded a 'rocket taking off' with my hand.

"No, stupid!!" Robin retorted. "He might kiss her!!"

I recoiled…thought about that….then gasped in horror.

"Come on!!" Robin shot a grappling hook and soared upwards towards the spiderweb of metal works.

I twirled Myrkblade as onlookers gasped and muttered. I blurred my legs and ran up the structure in a fashion identical to the Puppet King.

The mind-controlling despot in question carried the alien girl up the lattices and landed firmly on the metal gantry leading to the loading zone of the T-Sub.

"We must make haste, my love…"

He ran straight ahead.

CLANK!!!

Robin landed in front of him from his grappling hook. He narrowed his eyes, spun his staff at ready, and snarled. "I'm thinking you're gonna remain celibate."

The Puppet King's googly eyes glared. He set down Starfire, flexed his metal prosthetics, and charged Robin atop the gantry tower with a fist. "RRRAAUGH!!!"

Robin gritted his teeth. He ducked one punch, sidestepped two more, and backflipped out of the impending stomp of the Puppet King's foot.

CLANG!!!!

Robin slid back a few feet, gripped his staff, and came charging back at the mech-suited marionette with a shout and swing of his rod.

SMACK!!!

Robin's aim was dead on. His jab lunged through the opening in the metal framework of the suit and clunked against the wooden skull of the puppet. A tiny splinter or two flew.

Robin retracted his staff, spun, and struck low to the Puppet King's metal legs.

THWAP!!!

The villain was knocked down to his metal rear end.

CLANK!!

Robin jumped up, flipped in the air, and came down with a heavy slash of his staff. "RRRRAAAUGH!!!"

The Puppet King's metal extensions gripped the support rails of the metal gantry as he lifted his legs up and met with Robin's boots. He pushed off.

Robin was sent flying backwards. He flipped and landed in a perch on the side of the T-Sub.

SWOOOSH!!

In the meantime, I blurred up finally and landed on the far side of the gantry besides Starfire. I took a breath and tried coaxing the shimmering beauty back down a tall stairwell to the launchpad platform.

But the Puppet King swiveled around, saw this, and gasped. The thrusters to his suit went into gear. He soared at us with metal arms outstretched, red with friction in the air. "You will not touch my beloved!!"

PHOOOOM!!!

I gasped and was knocked aside as the Puppet King swept up Starfire, reached the edge of the gantry at the end of his thrust, and leapt into the spiderweb lattices of the support structure. He climbed and scurried up the metal beams like a cockroach.

Robin held his breath. He whipped out another grappling hook, let loose-POW!!CLANK!!-and swung over the gantry and into the lattices just a rung or two above the Puppet King. CLAMP!!!

The mech-suited villain looked up.

"HIYAAA!!!" Robin slid down with a kung fu kick.

SMACK!!!

He knocked the Puppet King free of his grasp.

The villain gasped and grabbed a piece of metal framework with one metal hand.

Starfire went falling to the launchpad far below.

Robin kept sailing down and snatched her up in mid air.

He shot one hand out and grabbed onto a metal cross beam.

The Puppet King glared. He let go of his grip, fell, back-flipped in his descent, and flew into Robin and Starfire.

WHUMP!!!!

"AUGH!!!" Robin shouted and went flying down to the distant launchpad floor below.

The King snatched Starfire back up and went clamoring into the depths of the support structure, swinging from one metal beam to another.

The falling Robin rummaged desperately for another grappling hook.

YANK!!!!

He gasped as suddenly he was no longer falling.

He looked up.

Myrkblade had skewered through the back of his costume, between his neck and cape. I was perched on the side of the lattices with my sword stretched out in the knick of time to 'catch' him.

Robin gulped. "Do you make house calls?"

I blinked at him with my naked black eyes and simpered.

He pointed towards the Puppet King with his thumb. "Going up?"

I nodded. Straining, I 'flung' him into the metal structure. He flew free of the sword's skewer and grabbed ahold of the metal beams. Immediately he was climbing and scurrying after the metal-suited villain.

I followed with a blur of smoking limbs.

The Puppet King was three-fourths of the way to the top of the structure. From there, he could leap down and reach the T-Sub. And the liftoff could take place without a hitc--

SMACK!!!

A foot flew into his back.

He stumbled forward. The metal halo to his skull struck a bar. CLANG!!!

He grunted and lost grip of Starfire.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blurred to a perching position beneath him and gently caught the blue-eyed girl.

From where he dangled halfway over a cross-beam, the Puppet King glanced over his metal-laced shoulder.

Robin hung over him by a bar directly above.

"Wouldn't you be safer with **strings?!**"

SWOOOSH!! The Boy Wonder dove.

WHAM!!!

The two went spiraling downwards through the metal webbing. They pinballed off a few bars roughly—CLANG!CLANG!CONK!—then sprawled over a thick beam running the diameter of that height of the support structured.

The Puppet King lay precariously on his back.

The Boy Wonder knelt atop his chest and started pummeling his gloved fists into his wooden face inside.

WHAP!! WHAP!!

The Puppet King's metal legs flung up.

Robin was tossed off him with a cry. He raised his hands, grabbed a bar overhead, and swiveled up so that he perched on it. He looked over his shoulder down at the Puppet King.

The villain stood up, gripped a nearby bar fiercely, broke it off—SNAP!!—and flung it at Robin with a grunt.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin jumped straight up as the bar clanked off the metal with a shower of sparks. He twirled around in midair, whipped out a fan of birdarangs, and flung them down at the villain.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!

The Puppet King growled and swung his metal laced forearm.

CLANK!!!

He deflected the birdarangs.

Two flew back at Robin.

Three sailed back down at Starfire and I.

Robin flipped out of the way. The birdarangs struck the bars all around him.

I held my breath and turned the girl in my arms and myself into smoke form just quickly enough for the birdarangs to sail through.

Robin ran along a beam, grabbed a vertical bar, swung around on it, let go, and went sailing boots-first into the Puppet King.

WHAP!!!

"OOF!!"

The Puppet King plummeted through the sea of metal bars. He flew down past Starfire and I. At the last second, he reached a blind metal extension out and gripped onto a bar two rungs beneath us.

He struggled to keep his suit hanging in its grasp. But when he saw me and Starfire in my arms, he snarled and flipped his mech-suited body up with an impossible forward flip into a jump kick.

I held my breath, held Starfire close to my chest, and jumped onto another beam.

CLANK!!!

The Puppet King landed where I had been and pounced again.

So I jumped again.

From beam to beam we chased each other.

A huge, vertical beam blocked my path ahead.

I held my breath, blurred both Starfire and I into smoke form, and teleported through the metal.

CLANK!!! The Puppet King wasn't so lucky. He growled and punched a dent in the vertical beam so that he could continue climbing after me.

And that's when I reached the edge of the lattice.

I teetered over the edge, gasping for breath. Trying not to lose grip of Starfire's body. Trying not to plummet over--

WOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!!

The Puppet King sailed in from behind and kicked me hard into the open air. A half-blink later, he shot his hand out and grabbed Starfire by her wrist. Her blue eyes remained unblinking and unemotional as he yanked her back into his grip and spun around to find his way back to the T-Sub--

SWOOOSH!! CLANK!!! Robin swung in and kicked the Puppet King hard in the chest.

Again, Starfire went flying as her holder plummeted out into empty nothingness.

Robin swiftly—gently—grabbed her and teetered back safely onto the metal lattices. "Whew…."

In the meantime……..I was falling.

"!!!!!!!"

I twirled in air. My black eyes squinted as my bandanna-free hair whipped about.

I stabbed Myrkblade into the metal structure blurring past my side.

CLANK!!! SNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! Sparks flew as my blade dug harder and harder into the metal. Friction slowed me down to a standstill. I panted. I looked up.

The Puppet King's flailing body fell down along the length of the booster rockets.

I smirked.

……and then one of his metal limbs found a metal tube hanging from a service device attached via crane to one of the rockets.

I frowned.

CLANK!!! SWOOOOSH!!! The Puppet King's end of the tube snapped free. He swung down, across the length of open air, up, and launched his body back onto the metal spiderweb roughly twenty feet below Robin's current position. He started laboriously climbing back up to try and regain his 'bride'.

I groaned, rolled my black eyes, and dug out Myrkblade so that I could scurry up and try and finish this fray once and for all.

In the meantime, Robin jumped and leapt from beam to beam with the neutrally compliant Starfire in his arms. He couldn't help but hold her a bit tighter than I ever would, as his very actions was determining her ultimate destiny; either with a cursed partner or with the freedom of her soul.

The Boy Wonder was approaching the metal stairwell…when right on cue, the Puppet King jumped up and uppercutted his face with a metal 'foot'.

SMACK!!!!

"UGH!!!" Robin stumbled back but bravely kept his balance despite the weight of Starfire in his arms or the pain from a bruised nose.

The Puppet King raised his metal fists and growled. "Give me my beloved back…"

"She's not yours, freak."

"Nor is she yours!!" the Puppet King snarled. His googly eyes were practically red. "All of these months she's thought about you. She's admired you. She's worried for your very well-being. And did you once return her affection??"

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "What in the Hell are you babbling about?!"

"I am not babbling!!" the Puppet King pointed. "My dearest Queen took care of me every morning! She showed me boundless affection in the very prison you tossed me in! And did I feel sorry for myself once?! Not at all! I felt sorry for her! Because there was nobody in this ignorant City that she could talk to but me! Even when surrounded by so-called-friends, I was the only one she could truly confide in! I was precious to her! While YOU and your FRIENDS were apathetic and selfish!"

"All you know about Starfire you know from some wyrd-ass doll dressing session she invented as a pastime," Robin grumbled, holding the Tamaranian closer and glaring at the supernatural maniac. "You were never there with her and her TRUE friends! You were never there to see her smile! To see her happy! To see her triumph over adversity! And to even see her experience pain or getting mad at us and everyone working it out!!"

"I don't believe you….," the Puppet King hissed. "This is all about you and her!!"

"What?!?!" Robin cackled. "She's my best friend!! I just want her to have a safe future! Away from you!!"

"And with YOU instead, infidel!!" the Puppet King took a threatening step forward on his beam. "Isn't that right??"

Robin stuttered. "I……I-I…."

"Well?!?!" the villain raised his metal fists.

Robin gulped. A bead of sweat fell down his forehead. But when he looked over the Puppet King's shoulders, he saw a figure in the shadows coming to life. A ghost in the attic.

"I'm not possessive like you….," Robin sneered. "In fact…Starfire's not just a best friend to me. But to everyone. Everyone good. That doesn't count you, asshole."

"You have blasphemed our royal matrimony for the last time….," the Puppet King growled.

Robin snuck a hand into his utility belt and pulled out a grappling hook. "Damn straight." He grinned. "Noir!!!"

I took a breath and blurred over bars and beams and rungs towards the back of the Puppet King.

Robin stretched his arms out with Starfire and the grappling hook. "Tradeoff!!!"

Smoke danced out of my eyes.

I tossed up Myrkblade.

I leapt into the Puppet King's backside.

My body teleported murkingly through him while my sword soared overhead.

Like black steam, I soared towards Robin's body.

He paused his own breath and held up Starfire.

I solidified just enough to snatch her and the grappling hook. Together, we teleported through Robin, materialized on a bar beyond him, and leapt off the metal support entirely. POW!!! I shot the grappling hook out and swung to salvation with the alien girl in my arm.

….and Robin caught Myrkblade.

SW-SWISH!! The Boy Wonder twirled it, smiled, and charged at the Puppet King. "HA!!!"

SWACK!!! He swung my weapon across the metal suit of the villain like a baseball bat.

"AUGH!!!"

He then spun and more-or-less jabbed the point of the blade deep into the metal thigh of the suit.

CLUNK!!!

He gritted his teeth and twisted the wooden blade.

A wire popped free and sparked.

The Puppet King lurched to his left.

Robin pulled out Myrkblade and brought his own leg up in a twirling high-kick.

"HAAA!!!"

SMACK!!!

The wooden head of the Puppet King rattled around inside his suit.

Robin held Myrkblade horizontally and shoved his entire weight into the villain's chest.

WHUMP!!

The King fell and pinballed off the rungs and bars beneath them violently. C LANG!! SMACK!!! WHANG!! WHAM!!

Robin twirled my sword, jumped, and performed a plummeting jump kick down through the vertical tunnel of lattices. "HAAAAAAA!!!!"

SMACK!!!

His metal-laced boot struck hard into the villain's chest. And he started pummeling the fiend senselessly.

In the meantime…

SWIIIIIIIIISH!!!!

I lowered Starfire and I down the height of the launchbay with the grappling hook. As I let loose the full extent of the cord's slack, we twirled awkwardly in our descent, making me dizzy. Though I was gripping the grappling hook launcher with my metal hand, I couldn't help but feel a great deal of strain in supporting the weight of both myself and the 'bride'. I almost wished I was half as good with Robin's grappling hook as he was with my sword on this impromptu exchange.

I looked down beneath my dangling feet and saw Sandy, Blake Glover, and Commissioner Decker gathering about with a few others beneath us. They waved their arms and cheered me on in the descent….to bring Starfire to safety.

"A-Almost there, sir!"

"Come on, Mr. Noir!!"

"Almost got her, kid!!"

I smiled.

YANK!!

My black eyes bulged. I looked up at the reason for my sudden lurching. The grappling cord had reached the extent of its slack.

I bit my lip.

So did Sandy…looking up through her goggles. "Do we have a booboo?"

I glanced at her funny. I was in no position to hand-sign.

"You're not too high!" Decker said. "If you drop the alien broad, we might be able to catch her!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't worry! We'll catch her!" Glover nodded.

I glanced at Starfire. Her blue eyes glowed and stared right through me. I bit my lip…again.

There had to have been another option….

Meanwhile, back up in the lattices…

Robin was continually beating the termites out of the Puppet King. He raised Myrkblade and prepared to pry the wooden puppet out of the metal suit like walnut fillings.

The Puppet King growled and kicked up with his metal limbs.

THWUMP!!!

Robin flew off of him. The Boy Wonder flipped in mid air and landed with a slide across the length of a beam across some space. He growled and leapt at the Puppet King with a downward slash of Myrkblade.

The villain got up and blocked with a metal forearm.

CLANK!!

Sparks flew.

The Puppet King punched with his other hand. "NNNGH!!!"

WHUMP!!

Robin backed up dizzily. Myrkblade lingered beneath him.

CLAMP!!!!

The Puppet King stuck the blade to the metal beam beneath them with his foot.

Robin pulled and tugged.

Myrkblade wouldn't bulge.

The Puppet King's googly eyes rattled as he raised two arms together to crush Robin's skull.

The Titan leader frowned. He stretched his other hand out. SNRKKKT!! His metal rod suddenly extended.

"….." the King froze.

SWOOOOSH-WHANG!!!

Robin struck him hard across the metal helmet.

The villain backed up, his foot coming off of Myrkblade.

Robin twirled both the sword and his staff and spun at the Puppet King across the beam with rapid jabs and slashes of both bludgeons interchangingly.

CLANG!!! SNKKKTTT!!!! SMACK!!! CRACK!!! WHANG!!!

The Puppet King's metal suit shook and jolted from each impact. Sparks flew and the wooden soul on the inside rattled about violently.

At one point, Robin swung both Myrkblade and his staff onto opposite sides of the metal helmet's 'neck'. The Puppet King was pinned in place. Robin gritted his teeth, anchored himself to the pressure of the bludgeons to the metal cranium, and swung his legs up to encircle the suit's 'waist'. He then released his weapons, acrobatically bent backwards, and stuck both the sword and rod into the ground. They acted as a fulcrum as he bent his entire body and swung the Puppet King with his legs over him and plunged the villain madly down the support structure.

SWOOOOOOSH-CLANG!!!

The Puppet King hit a beam hard.

The scepter flew out of his grasp.

He gasped in horror. "N-No!!"

Robin sweated and looked with mixed confusion and fear.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The scepter flew down.

I was slowly lowering Starfire with my free hand down by her arm towards the group of people below with their hands upstretched.

"We got her!"

"You can drop her now!"

"You can—"

BONK!!!!

The scepter ricocheted off my skull, sparking.

If I had pupils, I'd have gone crosseyed.

Needless to say, both my grip of both the grappling hook handle and Starfire was utterly lost.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

Decker, Glover, and a few other men awkwardly caught the alien girl in her shimmering garb.

"Noir!!" Sandy exclaimed.

I was twirling awkwardly towards the floor at a wrong angle. I drifted with murking limbs towards the support structure. RIIIIP!!! My combat fatigues got caught in a sharp piece of metal jutting out. I gasped and found myself hanging upside down by my pantleg. The blood rushed to my head and my black hair hung like a horsetail.

CL-CLANK!!!! The scepter fell hard to the ground. It cracked a little and sparked.

The Puppet King's wooden jaw shook.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

Sandy gasped. "Uh oh!!"

"Uh oh what?!?!" Decker asked, sitting Starfire down on the ground and dusting his hands off.

Sandy pointed at the scepter. "Th-That wand of the Puppet King's!! It's in tune to the spiritual energies in this room!! With it damaged and yet still running on power….that means…."

"Huh?!?!" Decker looked at the wand. His face fell. "Ohhhhhh you've got to be shittin' me—"

_**FLASH!!!!**_

I blinked.

Things were no longer bright. And what's more, I was no longer hanging upside down.

I looked at my hands. They were older. Drier. And the sleeves I was wearing had eighteenth century frills. I gasped….and when I did, I smelled day-old cigarette fumes coming out of my mouth.

I was in Decker's body.

Switched.

There was a loud rise of panicked commotion among everyone in the room as they undoubtedly found themselves undergoing the same transfer. Innocent citizens of the city suddenly ghosts in other people's bodies. Courtesy of the Puppet King's ruptured mind-controlling power.

I looked up—feeling the first touch of arthritis in Decker's neck. Above me, my body writhed with fright from where it hung upside down. Whoever was inside me suddenly realized that he or she couldn't speak. Much higher on the lattices alongside the rocket boosters was the body of Robin, clutching to a metal bar and shrieking in some strange woman's voice: "H-Help!! G-Get me down from here!! I-I'm afraid of h-heights!!"

I raised Decker's eyebrow.

"Robin?! Noir?!" Sandy's voice exclaimed from behind.

I spun around and did a double-take. I was looking at Glover.

"Which one of you is which?!" the aging journalist exclaimed in Sandy's tongue.

"That's exactly what I want to know!!"

The two of us looked over.

Some random, city official with graying hand marched up and placed his hands on his hips like a Titan Leader I knew. "Why's this happening?! It has something to do with that scepter, doesn't it?!"

"Exactly!" Glover—er….Sandy said. "One of us has to turn it off or else we're gonna keep switching bodies and—"

The scepter started to glow.

Glover/Sandy gasped. "AAH!! Look out!!!"

Everyone shrieked.

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

I winced. I discovered I had arms raised over my head. African American arms. I glanced curiously at myself and realized I was standing in the thick of the crowd of citizens on the launch pad. I had no idea who I was.

I panicked and pushed my way through the gasping bodies and reached the scepter just in time to meet up with a random woman and a guard.

"I assume it's you two," Sandy's voice said through the guard.

"This is just not my day…," Robin groaned through the woman.

I waved and pointed at the scepter.

"It's gonna do that again in a matter of seconds!" Sandy said.

"We gotta stop it without damaging it. We need it to get me back." A beat. The woman blinked. "To get us ALL back!"

"I dunno, Robin," the guard folded his…er……..its arms. "I think your name suits you no matter who you are."

The woman frowned.

I hand-signed with ebony fingers.

The two did a double-take at me.

"Good point," Sandy said through the guard. "Where's the Puppet King?"

"Right here."

THWOMP!!!!

The metal-suited villain landed hard from above. The vibration from his grounded figure sent the three of us reeling. He stood up, his googly eyes rattling, and he snarled: "Malfunctioning or not….it is still my power." He rushed over and scooped up Starfire's body. "And while you all are incapacitated, I can achieve my beloved's destiny. Farewell, you waifs!!"

The woman growled and pointed a hand like it should have been gloved. "Stop him!!" Robin shouted.

I gritted my teeth and ran at the villain.

The scepter started to glow.

The guard gasped. "Guys!!" Sandy shouted. "Don't look now, but it's about to—"

_**FLASH!!!**_

I continued running.

"Hey!! What are you doing?!?!" Glover's voice shouted behind me.

I realized I was in a different citizen's body and running directly towards the edge of the launchpad floor.

I skidded to a stop and teetered on the side. My thick, muscular arms flailing.

Some random woman rushed up and caught my shoulders…dragging me back.

"You almost killed yourself!" Glover said.

I nodded breathlessly…..till I realized the voice was coming out of the woman saving me and I fell on my strange butt with a gasp.

"He's getting away!!" Robin's voice shouted from…..somewhere in the crowd.

I looked towards the rocket boosters.

The Puppet King was running towards the stairwell of the support structure.

The African American I was just a few seconds ago was fast at his heels.

"I'll try and get the scepter powered down!" a random citizen exclaimed in Sandy's voice, running over and kneeling by the object.

In the meantime, Robin's new body had succeeded in grabbing the Puppet King's leg and tripping him.

WHUMP!!!

Starfire's body rolled a feet or two across the launchpad floor. She was precariously near the edge like I was.

I dashed for her.

"Sandyyyyyy!!" Robin's voice exclaimed as he wrestled with the Puppet King, trying carefully to not damage the limbs that weren't his.

"I'm trying!!" Sandy replied. "But it's too fragile! It's----LOOK OUT!!"

I gritted my teeth, leapt, grabbed Starfire, pulled her and myself safely away from the edge, and prepared for the worst—

_**FLASH!!!!**_

The world looked strangely grainy.

I blinked…and realized my eyes were being covered in a mask.

I raised two hands up and saw green gloves on them.

I gasped. I flailed my arms until I found a metal beam way up high to lean on. I panted in Robin's body and looked down.

Those closest to the Puppet King were obviously not any of my closest allies. The body by the villain and Starfire trembled as the villain got up, scooped the safe Tamaranian in his arms, and charged up the stairs.

"Noir!! Sandy!! He's getting away!!" Robin shouted through Glover….or maybe it was Decker. Aw screw it.

I was properly equipped for this job at the moment….

I clenched my gloved fists and stood up atop the beam. But when I did so, I couldn't help but….pause. Awkwardly.

Everything was…….tight.

_Heh……miss that feeling..._

I fumbled through random pouches in Robin's utility belt, found his last grappling hook, took aim…….somewhere above me…..and let loose the trigger. POW!!! CLANK!! I swung Robin's body into the center of the support structure, pressed the release button, and gave slack so that I soared down till I was parallel with the Puppet King charging upwards. I leapt off the cord with Robin's insanely agile frame and struck a metal-laced boot across the villain's wooden cheek.

SMACK!!!

He tumbled back.

I grabbed Starfire and flipped off the stairwell.

I landed nimbly on the floor and ran towards the crowd with the Tamaranian in my grasp.

"Heads up!!" Sandy shouted.

_Crud…_

_**FLASH!!!!!!!!**_

I tripped on a hoopskirt and fell flat forward. WHUMP!!! Pain shot with surprising intensity through my chest. I had no idea why until I realized I had breasts. I writhed in pain and tried standing up. WHUMP!!! I tripped again on the ridiculous eighteenth century skirt. I groaned and looked at my arms…at the tons of rich jewelry on my fingers.

Veronica Vreeland.

A pair of klingon boots appeared in front of me.

I looked up.

Control Freak panted. "Where was Starfire last?!" he asked in Robin's voice.

I broke out in breathy chuckles.

The fat….'Titan' placed his hands on his hips. "Shut up!! Where's Starfire?!?!"

I cleared my throat and looked towards the stairwell.

The Puppet King had come down and was scooping her up again. But this time he was carrying her to the double-doors leading into the Tower. "Must plan an alternate route to the T-Sub!!"

"HEY!!!" Control Freak/Robin waddled after him. "Not so fast, punk!!"

I hoisted up my skirt and scampered awkwardly after the villain too. Robin and I practically were tripping over each other.

But just before the Puppet King reached the doors, they opened before him. He gasped and carried Robin to the side as Cyborg appeared—forcing the doors apart.

"Aw man!! What in the heck is going on in this place?!?!" the undeniable Cyborg said.

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

I blinked….only to discover that I had one human eye. Everything I saw through the left one was coated in a red glow and full of cybernetic schematics. Ironically enough, I tilted my titanium skull down and saw Veronica Vreeland staring up at me.

"Um…..okay…," she said in Cyborg's voice. Then looked down at her/his prettied body. "Ah Hell no…."

"Cyborg!!" Sandy's voice shouted.

I looked over.

Robin's body was looking at me and pointing across the crowd at the Puppet King's scurrying finger. "If you're all cognitive and stuff again, we could really use your help!!" Sandy's voice said.

I hand-signed back.

"…….or Noir. Whoever. Nobody cares."

I clenched titanium fists and looked over at the fleeing villain.

In his metal suit, the Puppet King knelt with Starfire and tried prying open a maintenance hatch to escape…

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!

A blue stream of energy knocked him back and free of the Tamaranian girl.

"OOF!!" the King struck a railing over the launch bay hard.

I marched towards him, my right arm cannon smoking. I narrowed my human eye and fired again.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!

The Puppet King leapt over my laser blast and flew at me with a jump kick of his metal leg.

I clenched my teeth and readied a thick fist of metal.

CLUTCH!!!!

I gripped hard fingers around the neck of his helmet. With gritting teeth, I started to squeeze….

_**FLASH!!!!**_

Starlight.

"!!!!!!!"

Everything felt strangely………soft?

"Nnngh…"

I sat up and shook my aching head. I was suddenly on the roof of the Tower.

A strand of blue hair or two fell before my eyes.

I gasped and raised a gentle hand to my forehead. I felt the chakra stone.

I blushed furiously.

**"Waitttttttt a seconddddddd……"**

My indigo eyes bulged.

**"You'rrrrrrre notttttttt Ravennnnnnnn……"**

I panicked.

**"It's you, bbbbbbbboy!!!! Hahahahahaha…..welcccccccome back to my clutchesssssss!!"**

I quickly tried to figure out how Raven's meditation worked.

But before any fire could build up in my…her head--

_**FLASH!!!!**_

I blinked.

Goggles.

Short height.

I looked down at Sandy's arms and legs.

_Heh…why do I suddenly feel smarter--_

SMACK!!!!!

I flew back from the strike of the Puppet King's metal arm….whom I was supposed to have been fighting…I guess.

I stirred painfully on the floor.

Control Freak lifted me up. "Is this your bad dream too?" Cyborg's voice said. "Can you help me?"

I gave him a goggled glance of stupidity. I then spun and looked at my attacker.

He was running to the maintenance hatch with Starfire again.

"Relentless sonofabitch, isn't he?" said Vreeland/Decker.

I took a breath and ran after him. I was soon joined by Decker's body in full sprint.

"Rrrgh!! This is annoying!!" Robin's voice said. "Where's Sandy?!"

CLANK!!!!

We both looked up as a ventilation shaft's grate popped open and a green lion flew out of it.

WHUMP!!!

The green-furred mammal knocked the Puppet King back, freeing Starfire.

"Sorry…," Sandy's voice said as the green elf posed into a fighting position above the grounded villain. "I was sidetracked…"

_So was I…_

"Don't you see it's all pointless?!" the Puppet King growled as he got up on metal feet. "You'll keep switching till you forget who you even are!! How could you possibly stop me?!"

Decker's body pointed with a frown. He almost looked like the real thing. "Whatever body we have, the spirit remains the same!" Robin's voice exclaimed. "We never give up!! But maybe you should!!"

"Hey guys!!" Control Freak picked up the scepter and shook it while uttering in Cyborg's voice: "Anyone notice this glowing doohickey over here?!"

Beast Boy was the first to turn around and gasp. "No!! Don't touch that—" Sandy blurted.

_**FLASH!!!!**_

I suddenly felt very…….small.

I looked down.

A green elf's costumed body.

Figures….

I looked over and saw Sandy. I immediately hand signed.

'Sandy' raised an eyebrow. "What in the Sam Hell are you trying to say, broccoli head??"

I rolled my green eyes.

"Uhhh…duude…," Glover spun around. "Like….I'm trying to find the Puppet King….but I can't even find myself!"

"Shut up, B.B.," Decker….Cyborg….somebody. "We're all together in this….in that we're all split apart."

Control Freak's eyes were thin and sarcastic. "Somebody care to tell me what I'm doing down here…….and why I smell like Cheetos and armpits?" Raven's voice.

I about gave up then and there.

"I got it!!" Cyborg shouted in Sandy's excited voice. In his/her grasp was the disabled scepter. No longer glowing…sparking…or switching.

"Um….Okay." Raven.

I smiled a toothy grin and did a thumb's up…..then sweatdropped at how 'Beast Boy' I looked.

"So….that means we're not going to switch again?" said Vreeland/Somebody.

"Dude!! That's awesome!!" Glover exclaimed. A beat. He looked at his old body. "D-Dude! Not awesome! Not awesome at all!!"

Control Freak spun around. "But where is Robin….?" A Raven blink. "And the Puppet King?!"

A shuffling of feet on the stairwell once again.

The crowd of switched people—Titans and citizens alike—swiveled to look.

The Puppet King stood with Starfire under his arm.

"Things hardly ever happen as they are written. You did your best to break the pattern. The only thing that matters is that you failed. My destiny with my beloved Queen of Strings was final from the beginning!! I leave you lot to deal with your own confusion! May Babel burn down underneath you!"

"Yeah…um….sure, dude," Glover sweatdropped.

Cyborg pointed. "You're not going anywhere fast, Puppet King!!" Sandy exclaimed.

The villain's googly eyes rattled. "Is that so?"

"Pretty damn 'so'….," Robin's voice echoed from under his armhold.

The Puppet King gasped.

Cyborg smirked.

Starfire—her eyes no longer blue—wriggled herself free of the Puppet's metal extension. With bright optics of a fiery green, the Tamaranian girl incorporated the spirit of the Boy Wonder by agilely flipped the huge hulk of the villain's metal suit up and off of the stairwell.

"AAAAAAAAAHH!!!" the Puppet King shouted in mid air.

Starfire/Robin gritted teeth and aimed a flurry of starbolts. Then let them loose….FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASHFLASHFLASHFLASH!!!!!!!

Stream after stream of energy struck the flailing body of the King and his suit. The metal melted off. The wooden body inside fell amidst a shower of sparks and ashes before slamming hard to the floor and groaning into unconsciousness. Smoking.

"Woohooo!" Glover.

"Boo ya!" Decker.

"Um…congratulations." Control Freak.

Cyborg stepped forward. "He's down for the count," Sandy said. A red eye and a human eye squinted at Starfire. "Um….that is you, right Robin?"

"Barely…," stammered the Boy Wonder's voice. Starfire shuffled down the stairwell awkwardly in her shimmering gown and sighed with a heavy exhale. "Well…some way or another…I saved Starfire." The Tamaranian girl bore a crooked, bitter sweet grin.

"Awkward sensation having your body switched, isn't it?" Raven's voice said from Control Freak.

"But…duuuuuude!" 'Glover' whined. "We can't stay like this forever!" A beat. He looked over at Sandy. "Can we?!"

Sandy's body pointed at Cyborg. "Talk to the refrigerator, dumbass."

Glover blushed. "S-Sorry, sir."

"Yo, since when was she the Puppet King expert?!" Cyborg's voice said from Decker's body.

"Since she volunteered and put her life on the line to help save this Tower from….oh forget it. Long story," Robin groaned as Starfire's body turned about and faced Cyborg's body. "Any way we can fix…….this???" Starfire's hands pointed at her center.

Cyborg's face twisted. "Umm….y-yeah. Through the scepter and all. In theory."

"In theory?!?!"

"But even if we could, it'd take forever!" Sandy's voice said. "There may be a quicker way!"

I scratched my green head of hair and looked over at 'Starfire'.

Tamaranian eyes narrowed. "What quicker way….?"

FSHHHH!!!

The doors to the launch pad opened from the Tower and Raven's body stepped in, smiling. "A kiss….," said Control Freak's voice.

Control Freak's…..body looked over. Crusty eyes flared. "**Uh uh**," Raven firmly throated. "**No.**"

"Shhh!" Starfire hissed. She looked over at the entering individual as the crowd around them gasped. "What're you getting at, Control Freak??" Robin asked.

"A kiss, Boy Wonderbra," Raven's face smirked. She looked over at Control Freak's body. "Say Raven, there's this guy in your head that sounds like Linda Blair. You know 'em?"

"Uhhhhh…"

"Anyhow, what was I getting at……OH YEAH!" the dark girl struck a Klingon pose and grinned unnaturally. "You gotta remember, Robin. Just like in the last silent movie of the Puppet King of olde…a kiss seals destiny. The curse that's enveloped the Puppet King is pretty much kaputzy! You did a good number of beating him senseless. But that doesn't stop the curse from working its way on us! We're still in each other's bodies! And all of this evil, confusing energy is being channeled through one thing alone!"

"That being…."

"Starfire's soul," Raven's head leaned to the side and winked. "And it needs a kiss from a 'person of destiny' or some crap to either complete or erase the curse. A kiss by her groom-to-be Puppet King would have sealed the curse. Anyone else….and…well…she's scott free. And so will the rest of us be. Cuz the curse will fall all at once."

"Then all that needs to be done is for someone to kiss Starfire!" Glover said with Beast Boy's voice. "That ain't so hard…………i-is it??"

"Question is…," Decker/Cyborg looked around. "Which one of us is Starfire?"

"Duh!!" Control Freak barked through Raven's lips. "Whoever is the only person here unconscious cuz of the Queen of Strings zombie spell thingy!"

A beat.

Nervously, the Titans and the citizens started looking around. But as far as we could tell, everyone was standing and accounted for.

"It's not me…"

"Don't look here."

"Where's the Tamaranian?"

"Starfire?!"

"She's asleep! She can't hear you!"

I looked around in Beast Boy's body. Even I couldn't find anybody sleeping. _Maybe I can turn into a dog and hear for low-level snoring sounds or something………heh…_

"Wait a second!!"

Everyone froze and looked Starfire's way.

The alien girl held her pretty hands out. Green eyes blinked. "Has anyone seen….," Robin stammered, "…..m-my body?"

A beat.

Cyborg swiveled about. His lips smirked and a finger pointed down. "There you are, sir."

Murmurs.

Starfire gulped. She walked over while the other misplaced Titans and Control Freak followed.

A crowd of people gathered around the dazed, unconscious form of Robin's body. He was completely limp and powerless. A rather obvious glow of hypnotic blue emanated outward from the edges of his eyemask.

Starfire moaned with Robin's voice. "You have got to be friggin' kidding me…"

"Somebody had better pucker up!" Glover snickered.

"Don't look at me," Control Freak droned.

"Are we just gonna leave her like that forever?!" Cyborg exclaimed.

I hand-signed a bunch of things nobody could possibly understand.

"Are you kids going to argue about this forever?" Vreeland/Somebody/Jimmy Hoffa frowned and folded her arms. "I've got an important business meeting tomorrow!"

"Pfft! Hey, let them argue away!" Raven beamed. "I do so enjoy watching heroes split apart like factions in a Blizzard RTS campaign!"

"Look…it's just a matter of someone kissing her…," Decker said. A beat. He rolled his eyes. "Fine. You're all a bunch of whimps. I'll do it, dawg." He walked forward.

Starfire stepped in his path, frowning. "No you don't!!"

Decker froze. A beat. He grinned wide, "'No I don't'…Robin?"

Starfire bit her lip. "I…..I-I'll do it."

"Really now…," Control Freak stared.

"She is my best friend after all."

"Yeah…that explains it," Glover chuckled. "Dude….this is gonna be rich."

I shook my head, grinning.

Cyborg's arms folded. "Get it over with, Robin. We might all be staring…but think of it as we're all staring **through** you."

"Pfft! Baloney!" Raven laughed.

Starfire moaned. She gently scooped Robin's limp body in her arms. She looked down into his eyemask. The blue aura continued to glow. Starfire sighed exasperatingly. "Th-This is just to save you and the rest of us. Okay? J-Just to……s-save…………us……" And she was already tilting her head down.

A few of the mixed up Titans stood on tip-toes. Humored.

I could barely watched. Even I was blushing.

And under the gaze of a hundred witnesses, the Tamaranian's and the Boy Wonder's lips made contact for the first time.

A blue light emanated around them. An invisible wind picked up.

And….

_**FLASH!!!**_

FLASH!!!

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!

Cyborg was Cyborg. Beast Boy was Beast Boy. Raven was Raven. Sandy was Sandy. Control Freak was Control Freak.

Decker, Glover, Vreeland, and everyone else in the launchpad gasped and cheered with joy. At first, they cheered for the safe return of their souls to their fleshly shells. But then when whoops and whistles joined in, it turned out to be a pair of obligated heroes at the center of their appraisal.

Slowly, Starfire's eyes fluttered open. Innocent green eyes. She blinked. Then stared point blanc into Robin's masked face. "Robin….," she remarked. "…what am I doing here and why were our cranial orifices connecting so………s-succinctly?"

Robin gulped. There wasn't a single piece of his face that wasn't red. "It's g-great to have you back, Star."

"I ," she glanced around at everyone staring. "And yet at the same time….awkwardly elated and warm."

"Ahem…..I'll explain it all s-soon, Star. C-Can you just…..I dunno……put me down now?"

"………," Starfire stared. She realized she had Robin in an extremely masculine, swooping embrace liken unto a dozen cheap books she had seen at the checkout corners of earthling supermarkets. "EEK!!!"

THWUMP!!!

"Oof!!" Robin grunted as he fell to the metal floor, wincing.

Starfire turned scarlet and sheepishly smoothed the folds in her dress. "Um…..h-hello random Terran citizens. I am dressed quite ornately right now. Would someone k-kindly inform me as to the special occasion?"

A round of light chuckles filled the air. Sandy and the Titans all ran in and gave Starfire deep hugs and pats on the back. Raven merely saluted her with a tiny grin.

Robin stood up, dusted himself off, and glared over at Control Freak.

The fat fanboy smiled back and gave a loyal wave of the hand.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. "You're a fat bastard."

"Even though I pretty much saved your sorry asses more than once?"

"No. **THAT** is why you're a bastard."

"Heheheh…and the fat part?"

"Start with your ego and work your way down," Robin mumbled and walked off.

Control Freak planted his hands on his hips. "Then why are **you** so skinny?"

The Boy Wonder was gone.

"Pfft!" CF chuckled. "Stiffer than a Tholian toothbrush!" A beat. He spun around. "Wait!! Shinobi?! Where's shinobi?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I waved my hands dramatically, snapped my fingers, and even whistled loudly.

But everyone was so busy with the happiness of the curse lifted off themselves and Starfire that nobody looked up to notice me.

_All in good time._

I sighed and pouted with my arms crossed as I hung upside down from where my pants were caught on the metal beam.

Waiting…….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Puppet King awoke from his beating two hours later. He had no recollection of the recent events that transpired. He didn't even remember an iota of his romantic feelings for Starfire, the 'Queen of Strings'. As the curse lifted from him and Starfire, so did his memories of the entire fiasco. He was dubbed as a sentient being and arrested by police upon the lowering of the Tower's defenses.

While the Puppet King was carted off to prison, the hostages were all freed and welcome to return home. Beyond a few scrapes and bruises, nobody was seriously hurt. Though many an ego was shattered beyond measure. For the next week following, there wasn't a single day that Commissioner Decker didn't yell at his subordinates…or that Blake Glover hid around the office….or that Veronica Vreeland hid about her mansion (though she typically did that all the time anyways).

The defense perimeter constructed around the City was disassembled into the morning. During the rising of the Sun. The true rising of the Sun.

–T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the Sun rose, Starfire stood by the edge of the Tower's rooftop. She was still in her wedding dress. The early winds kicked at her scarlet hair as she stared out on the land ridge. City buses and trucks were carting the hostages away towards the sun scarred horizon. She watched calmly…as graceful as she was beautiful.

Robin saw her like this as he walked up the stairwell, took a long breath, and uttered: "H-Hey…"

Starfire looked over her shoulder. Instantly she smiled warmly…as always. "Greetings, Robin. It is ever so nice to see you."

Robin smiled…blushing a little. "You seem to be thinking a lot about something."

"Is it because of my thoughtful expression or my eloquent attire?" she remarked.

"A little of both and a little of neither."

"Regardless….," the Tamaranian giggle and curstied dramatically in her dress. "Ta to the daaa! How am I looking??"

Robin shook his head and chuckled. "Star….you're as pretty as ever. But aren't you forgetting that an evil kidnapper had that thing made for you?"

"Please do not be so quick to reprimand the Puppet King, Robin."

He raised an eyebrow.

"No, I do not sympathize with his villainy," Starfire said. She hugged her shimmering self and looked off towards the distant sunrise. "I have merely borne witness to his circumstances first hand. He is far more complex than most of us can understand. I hope that in some fashion or another he will have a change of heart and rethink his ways."

"Have you thought about yourself at least, Starfire?"

"How do you mean, Robin?"

"Well…," he sighed and sat on the edge of the rooftop with his legs dangling. "You were in quite a fix, Star. A fix that….th-that I feel responsible for." He leaned back with two arms and stared blankly out into the morning light. "If I hadn't kept the Puppet King's body in the evidence room, he wouldn't have come to life and tried to take over your soul the way he did. It's….it's not a nice thing to put my best friend in such jeopardy. And for that I'm sorry, Star. I'm really, truly sorry."

Silence.

Slowly, gracefully, Starfire deflated down so that she sat next to Robin…staring out alongside him at the horizon.

Quiet.

"I could not help but feel that…something wonderfully beautiful happened today."

"What's that, Star?"

"I feel that I was educated….in the Terran concept of commitment and matrimony."

Robin glanced at her…at her dress. He smirked. "Star…," he sounded humored. "The Puppet King had a lousy example of what a marriage should be."

"I do not speak of the Puppet King's example."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

She hugged her skirted knees and smiled bashfully at him. "I….I-I believe that you were most brave in what you underwent, Robin."

"How do you mean….?"

"Surely it is a struggle for a human male to so….publicly insist upon the safety of a companion possessing a different gender."

"Uhhhh….."

"W-With the application of one's cranial orifices…," she blushed.

"Oh….the kiss," he blushed too.

"Yes, the kiss."

A beat.

"I…didn't want you in any predicament whatsoever that you wouldn't feel comfortable in, Star," he said.

She leaned her head to the side. "What is this about a lack of comfort?"

Robin looked at her strangely.

She smiled a crooked smile then hid her face in her shoulder.

Robin gulped. "Yes….well…..um…..anyplace besides in the Puppet King's hands is safer…..I-I believe."

"Is that the entirety of your belief, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder chuckled and hugged her to him with one arm.

"My head is a big place, Star. Feel free to toss in ideas and make a wish."

She giggled. "But a Queen is someone who runs out of wishes and finds herself full of dreams come true."

"If you say so, Star. But you know what? No matter how much that Puppet Freak obsessed over you…you're no Queen."

"I-I'm not?" she pouted.

"Nope. And neither are you a princess."

She looked hurt.

He smiled. "You are you, Star. And that's far more precious in my eyes than any royal lady would ever be."

She smiled brilliantly at that and hugged the Teen Titan leader.

"Thank you, Robin."

"For what?"

"You know. I shall leave it at that."

"Er….okay." A beat. "I'm just worried."

"About what?"

"How the others are reacting."

Starfire giggled. "What is there to react wrongly to?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy ran the fiberoptic tubing from Cyborg's metal cranium to the viewscreen in the Main Room.

"Okay! Okay! Now play it back!!"

Cyborg smirked and focused….

The visual perspective from Cyborg's position of Starfire and Robin kissing was played back effortlessly.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh man!!"

"Wooooooooo!!!"

"Hehehehehehehe!!"

"That some hot stuff!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

"Wait! Wait! D-Do it again! This time in slow motion!"

"Gotcha, dawg!"

The visual recollection rolled back, stopped, and went forward at a sluggish speed. It was almost sinful how long and moist the kiss between the Tamaranian and the Boy Wonder looked that time.

Beast Boy turned into a wolf and howled mockingly.

"Ohhhhhhhhh man! I'm gonna make copies of this! Send it to Speedy!"

"And Aqualad!"

"And Supergirl!"

Raven sat on a couch with a book. "You two……………..are so immature."

"Come on!! Raven, isn't this the most hilarious thing you've ever seen?!?!"

"They were only kissing to cancel out the curse of the Puppet King. And might I add that if Robin wasn't so gung ho about leaving to take on Johnny Rancid alone with Noir, then I could have assisted in the infiltration of the possessed Tower where my powers would have been greatly benefi—"

"Yeah yeah…whatver…we know…WE KNOW!!" Cyborg cackled. "Sheesh! Miss-I-Am-Always-Right-And-Male-Pigs-Are-Always-Wrong!!"

"Pffft…have it your way," Raven said. A beat. Her eyes darted momentarily up from the pages of book and looked at the screen. She cleared her throat and flipped a page like nothing had happened.

"Dude! Play it backwards!"

"What for?"

"I'm studying Robin's lips."

"Don't you mean Starfire's lips?"

"Y-Yeah….I think our leader learned how to break curses in France. Hehehehe!!"

"Yeah! Tell me about it!! Ha ha ha!! Oh man, my titanium side's splitting!"

Sandy chuckled and shook her head. The two of us sat on stools in the kitchen unit of the Main Room.

"Why's it that every time I visit the Tower, the Titans go through embarrassing stuff?" she remarked.

I shrugged. I continued polishing Myrkblade. It was pretty scuffed up after Robin's murkless use. I was really anal about it…

"So…I suppose you're tired. You mustn't have slept a wink between Rancid, the Puppet King, and Control Freak."

I shrugged. I put down Myrkblade and hand-signed before pointing at her.

"Me??" Sandy shrugged. "I couldn't feel better! I'm more than happy to help….plus have my regular glasses back!" She smiled. "………………………………………………………….." She yawned.

I chuckled breathily and returned to my polishing.

"Say….you remember when we were switching through each other's bodies and stuff at the end of all that chaos?" Sandy asked.

I nodded emphatically. _How could I have forgotten? It was a mere three hours ago…_

"So…..like….y-you were in a bunch of other people's flesh, right sir?"

Again I nodded.

"With….vocal cords, ya know."

I paused. I looked at her funny.

She leaned her head to the side. "How come you never talked or anything while you were 'Decker' or 'Robin' or even me?"

My black eyes widened under my shades. She had me there…

I honestly shrugged with a grin.

"I suppose….y-you're just used to it," she simpered.

_I get used to a lot of things…_

"Guess…I-I'm a little confused," she leaned forward, smirking. "Just what _was_ the reward to Control Freak? What did he go through all that stuff for? Or was it that he simply enjoyed infiltrating the Tower with us?"

I scratched my chin. I smirked and hand-signed something to Sandy.

She blinked. "Er….no….I haven't read that novel yet that you asked me to." She blushed slightly. "Besides….why're you changing the subject?"

I gestured.

"Oh….yeah….I suppose it 'doesn't matter'," she relented.

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the prison, in the Omega Wing, three cells rested side by side. The middle one housed the Puppet King in specially-tailored, shrunken prison clothes. On either side of him was the cell for Johnny Rancid…and the cell for the Control Freak.

"I'm glad they finally granted me my request and placed me here!! I've been meaning to discuss with you the positive possibilities of designing a bike to look like Robin's!" the fat fanboy said as he lay on a cot with one out of a million comic books.

"What? So you can ride around and look like the punk brat that the Boy Wookie is??" Rancid growled across the Puppet King's cell at Control Freak.

"'Boy Wookie'! Ha! That's hilarious, man!" Control Freak beamed. "You a Star Wars buff, man?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah…," Rancid grumbled with a raised eyebrow. "Once designed a bike to look like one of them speeders in Tedi."

"Tedi??"

"Yeah. Ya know. The third film? The shitty one??"

"Ohhhh! Return of the Jedi! You call it Tedi because…..lemme guess…"

"Those goddamn furballs."

"You know…they were gonna be wookies at first."

"Seriously, dude??"

"Yeah!! But it'd been crazy for Henson and company to make all of those big fur rugs for extras to wear! So they chose midgety Ewoks instead!"

"Yeah!! The furballs! God, I hated them!"

"You're not alone! Now tell me, what's that speeder bike looked like? Imperial or Rebel??"

"Pfft! Imperial, man! There ain't no Rebel speeder bikes in Tedi!"

"Ah…but in the Star Wars continuum, speeder bikes are universal! Are you familiar with the novel Jedi Frontrunner by Alexander Hingleton?!"

"I don't pay attention to the novels, man! The movies are where it's at!"

"But this story's got lots of bikes! Bikes and stormtroopers!"

"Seriously?!"

The Puppet King gripped his wooden skull and grumbled. _"Rrrrrrrrrrrghhh….shut up…."_

"Man…there was this wonderfully written piece with a bantha stampede and a bunch of swoop gang riders on Tantoine trying to run each other over the side of a cliff and going full throttle at it too!"

_"Shut up!!"_

"Did they describe the engines on those things?"

"Heck yeah! Turbogas engine cyclones!! Best in the galaxy!!"

"How's that applicable in zero g??"

"You don't want to go into Zero G, dude! That's where the damn bike-eating Mynocks live!!"

"_**PLEASE!!! INFIDELS!!! SHUT UP!!!!!!!!"**_

The Puppet King's agonized yell echoed through the halls of the prison….and remained unanswered.


	97. Sand in the Tower

**97. Sand in the Tower**

"I propose a toast! To the one girl who made this weekend so fantastic and educated me on just how much a gender bender truly sucks…," Beast Boy winked and lifted his cup of root beer up high. "Starfire!!"

"Boo ya!! To Starfire!"

"To Starfire!"

"To Starfire."

I smiled and lifted my glass.

A pause.

Five of us glanced over.

Sandy simpered. "Um….t-to Starfire!"

"Hooray!!"

"Heh."

Our glasses clinked over the table atop the balcony of the Bayside pizza parlor. The six Titans and their special guest Sandy gathered together for a slice to eat the day after the Puppet King fiasco. And all of us couldn't help but feel……at ease.

Six of us sat down, rejoining a blushing and smiling Starfire.

"But I insist!" the Tamaranian exclaimed. "I have done nothing to deserve such exaltation! The Puppet King had me under his control throughout the entire incident, and I was unable to assist in the safe retrieval of the hostages and—"

"Starfire…," Robin placed a gentle glove on her shoulder and smiled. "What matters the most to us is that you're alive and safe. Dying on us or being swept away by some obnoxious, wooden stalker would have been the opposite of your goodness. If that makes any sense…"

"It….it m-might," she bit her lip bashfully and lifted her root beer. "I consider myself….toasted?"

The Titans chuckled.

Sandy was rather quiet.

"Well there, little Missy," Cyborg leaned and winked a human eye. "You look rather glum."

"Not glum," Sandy smiled. "Just tired."

"Well, I pity you!" Beast Boy beamed. "I'm rearin' to go anywhere and do anything today! Nothing like a brush with a destiny as an old, balding journalist to give you a new outlook on life!"

"What's there to save you on the 'bald' part?" Raven droned.

Beast Boy fumed.

The dark girl looked over at Sandy. "I have to admit…you do look exhausted."

"Yes….well…," Sandy simpered. "Don't get me wrong. I'm very….h-honored that you all invited me here and stuff. I mean….this is pure, Titan tradition. Isn't it? Pizza and root beer?"

"Not to mention waffles!" Beast Boy interjected.

"Hehehehe," Starfire giggled. "We are equally honored by your presence," she said across the table to Sandy. "Your assistance in the villainous puppet's defeat has been most timely."

"Don't I know it," Sandy blinked heavy eyelids beneath her glasses. "I'm used to last minute, nocturnal volunteering jobs…but usually they involve data entry or senior service…not swordfights and explosions."

"I didn't want to bring you too far into it," Robin pointed with a repressed smirk. "You insisted on coming into the Tower, remember?"

"Ah….yes….so it comes back to bite me," Sandy yawned and tried her polite best to keep her leaning figure awake over her half-eaten pizza. "I've hung out with you guys before and I think each and every one of you is great. So when I hear about any of you being in danger…..well……"

"It's like being part of a family…," Cyborg said. His face seemed strangely emphatic as he uttered: "Isn't it?"

"Heheh….," Sandy sleepily nodded. "Exactly. Family."

Silence.

I slurped from my root beer.

A beat.

Raven glanced at Cyborg.

Cyborg glanced at Robin.

The Titan leader slowly nodded. He stood up from the table.

"Sandy…you have proven yourself on three major occasions to be an asset to us above and beyond that of the common, citizen volunteer. At Westhaven, your secrecy and interior support was just what Beast Boy and Noir needed to stop Killer Moth. During Mumbo Jumbo's last excursion through town, your support and sanity helped Raven collect her emotions and her teammates together. And just last night—when all was stolen straight from under our nose by the Puppet King—I don't know where we'd all be now without your intelligence, charisma, and bravery. I've told you before, Sandy, that if only you had superpowers…I would gladly accept you as part of the team. And well….together the sixth of us Titans agree that you do have a superpower. You have the uncanny ability to help us when we need it most, by going where no human being would normally go. And oftentimes we find out that you do your best to protect us as we do to protect you."

Robin produced a brand new, sparkly Titan communicator and held it for the volunteer girl to see.

He smiled proudly.

"We would love to extend to you an invitation. An invitation to become a Titan initiate. True, it does not hold the same high ranking as that of the sixth members of our team. But it means that we will willingly from now on offer you the resources, security, and training necessary whenever you would choose to bless us with your assistance in the future. And then—if your guardians approve—we have all agreed to help you out in even becoming a Titan—"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." Sandy was out cold in her seat the whole time.

I bit my lip.

"Snkkkktttt," Beast Boy covered his face and did his best to suppress a snorting chuckle.

"Awwww," Cyborg smirked. "Poor thing." He glanced at Robin. "And you. You worked on that speech a lot, didn't you?"

Robin sweatdropped, his glove still holding the communicator out. "I sort of….ya know….half-assed it, really."

Starfire giggled.

"You always half-ass it, dude," Beast Boy chuckled. "This is rich! When are we gonna tell her? I mean, really tell her?"

"Later," Raven muttered, her arms folded. "Let her sleep already."

"Out here?"

"We gotta get her to the Tower, man," Cyborg said.

Starfire smiled, stood up, and shuffled over to the girl's chair. "I shall volunteer to transfer the volunteer home."

"Yeah, you do that," Raven droned.

"Fly safely," Robin said.

Starfire gave him a humored look. "I do believe I have my flying greatly lacking of turbulence after so many Terran years of practice, Robin."

"Heh…flying first class with Starfire," Beast Boy grinned. "I'm jealous."

Cyborg whacked his head.

"Ow!"

"I shall take my time," Starfire said. She cradled the sleeping Sandy and drifted off towards the Bay and the Tower.

I waved them 'good-bye'.

"Well…Sandy took it well," Raven uttered.

"She didn't take it at all!" Beast Boy frowned, rubbing his head. "And for crying out loud, isn't that just fate?? We need more people hanging around the Tower. It's big, empty, and lonely inside that thing! Especially with Raven around."

"What part of 'broken nose' do you not understand?"

"I was taught by mail!!"

Robin cleared his throat. "Come on, guys. It's not like we all are making her a Titan or anything! She's just too helpful for us to pass up! She doesn't even have to be at the Tower to help us as long as she can access a computer station in tune with our systems' programs…"

Silence.

All of us shifted in our seats or looked to the side.

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "What am I missing here?"

"She kinda deserves more than that, dude," Beast Boy said. "Don't you think?"

"Seriously," the Boy Wonder looked concerned. "We can handle the City by ourselves. Just the six of us."

"Oh, we know….we know…," Beast Boy nodded. "It's just that sometime….."

"Yeah?" Robin leaned his head to the side.

A beat.

"Think of it like this, Robin…," Cyborg pointed. "I dunno what kind of a social life you had before you became the Boy Wonder…."

Robin stared at him blankly.

"…………," Cyborg blinked. "Or before you were born, whatever."

Robin smirked.

"But I for one remember a day and age when I went to high school. Hung out with my pals. Did the whole weekend thing. Ya know. That good old normal stuff."

"'Normal' is such a relative term…"

"Oh, we know, Robin. We know. But….you see……with Sandy…….."

A pause.

I looked at everyone. I suddenly sat up straight and hand-signed.

Robin and Beast Boy looked at me….then at Cyborg.

Cyborg smiled. "Noir's right. Sandy's like…..our one true friend from outside the Tower. Our fair link to reality…if you were."

"Reality…heh," Raven mumbled. "We could all use more of that."

"Tell me about it," Beast Boy added.

"I was especially talking abut yo—"

"I KNOW!!!"

"Heheheh," Cyborg chuckled. "Think of it, Robin. What we all want with a person like Sandy…what we all really want is a friend. Someone outside of the Tower who isn't quite as…..wyrd as the rest of us."

Beast Boy giggled.

Cyborg frowned at him then went on. "Someone who is like the face of very people we save. And who tolerates us as we are no matter what body parts are missing, or lasers we shoot out of our eyes, or freaky robes as a fashion statement…"

Raven glared.

Cyborg gulped and simpered: "Don't you understand that?"

"I suppose I do," Robin nodded.

"And to do something that could possibly make Sandy a Titan someday….well….that kinda sorta undoes all of that."

"I know what you mean," the Boy Wonder said. "But at the same time, I'm gonna extend the invitation all the same."

"Of course. As you should."

Robin gestured. "Sandy's far more valuable than she initially appears on the outside. Normally I'd consider her a citizen outside of superhero affairs…but…do I need to explain?"

"It's okay, Robin," Raven droned. "We all know that the only way for you to trust someone is to put a mask and an alias on him or her."

I chuckled.

Robin sighed. "Ah…and so it comes back to **this**."

"Hehehe!" Beast Boy giggled. "The old secret identity debate! Hey! You suppose Raven's on our side now?!"

"It's a miracle!!" Cyborg slapped the girl on the shoulder. Whap!! "Look what vacation must have done to ya!"

Raven blinked and exhaled after Cyborg's backslap. "Excuse me while I internally reset my spinal column with telekinesis. Then I am going to shove this chair down your tube."

"I think she means it, dude."

I gestured towards Robin.

"Yeah! Before the subject changes," Cyborg nodded at me and smiled at the Boy Wonder. "Who's gonna bet that Robin's some member of royalty or something?!"

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask. "Royalty??"

"Yeah!" Cyborg leaned forward. "Who else can have so many rich tools up his sleeve and yet be so smooth with the ladies."

"What….?" Raven lifted her eyebrow this time.

"Don't be daft, Raven!" Beast Boy winked. "You're a girl! Tell us why the entire population of this City age thirteen to twenty carry pictures of the Boy Wonder in their school notebooks and paste his posters in their lockers!"

Robin blushed. "Th-They do?"

"Um….DUH!! What…you weren't looking around at the girls that one time we had to stop Plasmus from wrecking that High School football game?"

I glanced at Robin.

"I was kind of sorta distracted by the BIG OOZING MONSTER we had to pummel!" Robin grunted. He folded his arms and smirked suspiciously. "Besides, I remember you being knocked around extra hard that night. Where were YOU looking when Plasmus gave you that sloppy right hook?"

I glanced at Beast Boy.

"Sheesh, Robin! For someone so stiff, you're one wet noodle! You gotta live a little! If I had that many worshipped posters of me hung up in girls' lockers, I'd be the happiest man on the face of the earth."

"'Boy'."

"Shut up, Raven."

ZAP!

"Ow!"

Raven smirked slightly.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg looked at me. "Say what?"

I smirked and emphatically hand-signed what I 'said' again.

"Pfft….sure, Noir," Cyborg chuckled. "You've got a poster of yourself out already. Riiiight."

I folded my arms and frowned.

_I suppose the world is twice as incredulous about things after one experiences stepping in and out of Supergirl's bedroom…_

"Hehehe," Beast Boy rubbed his shoulder. "I'd pay to see them make a poster of Noir by now!"

"They do have a poster of Noir nowadays," Raven said.

Robin glanced over. "They do? How'd you find that out, Raven?"

"Oh, I….I……….," the dark girl coughed and her cheeks were rosy. "J-Just heard about it somewhere…."

I glanced at her curiously.

"Well…," Cyborg stood up. "Never thought I'd say this in my android days, but I'm full. I'm gonna go for a walk. Anyone want to join me--"

"I will," Raven quickly shuffled out of her seat and headed towards the exit. "Let's go."

"Hey!! Goose-step a little slower, lady!" Cyborg chuckled and trotted after her.

I watched them both silently.

"Well……"

I looked over at Robin.

He twiddled his gloved funs. "Who's got the check?"

"You do, dude," Beast Boy pointed at him. "You're a prince under that mask…remember? Hehehehehe!"

Thwap!

"Ow!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…you shaken up in the least about all this?"

"I don't do 'shaken up'," Raven droned.

Cyborg smirked as the two walked down the city sidewalk.

"Not at all? I tell you…wooden puppets and possessions don't go well with me. I've been through it twice!"

"And you were not alone…," Raven glanced at him. "And in case you have forgotten, I have experienced transition into another body on two major occasions now. That succinctly outweighs your detriment."

"Since when was this a contest of inconvenience?" Cyborg chuckled. "You act as if the whole world is trying to…..out-depressed itself or something."

"It's always important to think before you engage into conversation with me."

"Why? Because you're complex?"

"No, because I say so."

Cyborg smirked. "Always the see-saw, Rae."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I could have sworn that—just days ago on vacation—you were practically willing to smile. Heck, you even let me in your room!"

"What of it?"

"Nothing of it! Just what happened to the happy-go-lucky Raven I was beginning to see?"

"Forgive me…but in the last twelve hours I have found myself inhabiting a handful of strange bodies including that of a fat, greasy, comics whoring psychopath who has spent more hours of his life playing Everquest or watching Dr. Who than growing sex organs."

"Boo ya!" Cyborg beamed. "Now that's the Raven I know! The Raven that I like!"

"Congratulations…," Raven muttered. "Where's the T-Car?"

"Just two blocks down."

"Take me home."

"Oh, really now? Is this something I owe you?"

"No, it's something gentlemanly to do."

"Charming. Quite charming." Cyborg smirked. Then as they approached the T-Car in the alleyway… "Oooh….well this is nice."

Raven's blue eyes squinted. She groaned. "How wonderful."

Gathered around the safely locked T-Car was a crowd of youngsters. Teens and preteens of both genders and multiple ethnicities. The citizens glanced over and gasped. "Whoah!! Forget the cool car! It's them!"

"Wow!"

"The Teen Titans!"

"Raven! She's awesome!!"

"Hey!"

"Cyborg! Dude!"

Naturally they flocked over.

Raven grumbled. "This is why I fly…."

Cyborg looked at her. "Then why come along at all?! Surely the T-Car can't fly!"

Raven's gaze fell to the sidewalk.

"Coool!!" a little girl exclaimed with bright eyes. "You guys are my heroes!"

"Please don't say you're going away somewhere!!"

"Tell us about the Puppet King!"

"Yeah! How'd you beat him up?!"

Cyborg scratched the human side of his head. "Ohhhh….we switched around our talents some…"

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Wow!"

"Teamwork! Just like it says in your guys' magazine!"

Cyborg glanced at Raven. "There it is again. Just when am I actually gonna sit down and read one of them things?"

Raven spoke to him under her breath. "We have to go….."

"Cyborg…Raven…what are you doing here today?!"

"Is there a crime scene nearby?!"

Cyborg shrugged. "Well…w-we were just heading on back home."

"Home?"

The android Titan dramatically struck a pose. "TO THE TOWER!"

The kids cheered.

"Where were you going, then?"

"Just….h-hanging around?"

"Well, yeah!" Cyborg said. Raven hid behind him.

"Whoah…heroes get to 'hang out'??"

"Heroes can't hang out!"

"We can too!" Cyborg smirked. "After we've just kicked ass!"

"Coooooool!!"

"And wh-where're the other Titans?!"

"Around…," Raven droned.

One girl leaned her head to the side curiously and sweetly uttered: "Hey…..are you two going out?"

The two Titans twitched. Blue, brown, and red eyes wide.

Another girl gasped. "Cyborg and Robin…the Titans….are dating?"

"**No!!!**"

The Titans looked at each other.

They pointed.

**"You thought we were---?!"**

They performed a double-take.

**"How could we---?!"**

A blink.

A beat.

They both faced the kids incredulously again.

**"We are not going out!"**

The girls giggled. The boys shrugged. The T-Car beeped and flashed.

"Raven, let's move," Cyborg pointed the remote in his arm at the car and dragged Raven behind her, sweatdropping. "Before these kids get the wrong idea."

"Yes, Cyborg," Raven rolled her eyes while being a human trailer. "Taking me by the hand is really helping."

"Won't you stay and talk to us??" a kid pouted.

Cyborg opened and closed the door for Raven before twirling about….pausing…then heading to the driver's seat. "Oh, we'll talk. Later. When we appear at the First Annual TITANS SUMMER CAMP GETAWAY NEXT YEAR!!!!"

The kids started cheering maniacally. And in such a spontaneous hysteria, they neglected to get in the way of Cyborg and Raven as they revved the engine and took off smoothly down the road.

"What's this…," Raven narrowed her blue eyes while riding in the passenger's seat, "…Summer Camp Getaway thingy?"

"Heck if I know," Cyborg said. "And heck if they know too! At least it got them to leave us alone."

"Yeah……good thing, that."

"Yeah…"

"Yeah……….."

Silence.

The T-Car hummed along.

Buildingsides and lampposts passed by the windows.

"Kinda silly….ya know….," Cyborg chuckled nervously. "Them….thinking…."

"What?"

"You and me…"

"Oh….utterly pathetic."

"Sick, even."

"Impossible."

"Frightening."

"……."

"……."

"…….Frightening?"

"Um, yeah."

"Er…y-yeah! Right! Frightening…"

"Yeah……."

"……….."

"……….."

"………..."

"God! Let's turn the freakin' radio on already!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Main Room of the Tower…

A petite form rested under a blanket on the couch with pillows.

After a short period of time, the hump in the blanket stirred.

"Nnnnghh…"

Sandy turned over and slowly raised her head. Blinking. Tired.

A shadow passed over her from a distant source.

Sandy stumbled, stretched her arm to the table besides the couch, and picked up her glasses. After putting them on, the fuzzy world became unfuzzy, and she saw Starfire mingling quietly about the kitchen unit of the Main Room. The Tamaranian girl was humming quietly, pleasantly while gently preparing a traditional Tamaranian beverage for the Titans when they came home.

Sandy blinked some more.

Starfire looked over. She smiled pleasantly and waved from over the counter. "Greetings! Did you have a pleasant slorvax?"

Sandy chuckled. "I now know why we went through so much trouble to save you from the Puppet King last night, Starfire."

"And why is that, Miss Sandy?"

"You're just about the most adorable organism in this galaxy."

Starfire giggled. "Such is what all of my Earthling friends say about me. I have yet to grasp an understanding of their words."

"Why's that, Starfire?" Sandy sat up.

Starfire stirred a plastic pitcher of juice. "I have not been perfectly 'good'. I show anger from time to time. And…j-just two days ago, I found my favorite boots marinating in Beast Boy's bathtub—which I must inform you is very much full of bits and pieces of leftover pizza fragments."

"Er…..," Sandy had a disgusted face.

"Still," Starfire looked guilty. "I did rather obscenely call him a Yugalornian Kablagark."

"And just what is that, exactly?"

"The Vegan equivalent of a…..'booger brain'??"

Sandy mock gasped. "Oh Starfire! It's Hellfire and damnation for you for sure!"

Starfire winced. "Ohhh….is it really?"

Sandy giggled. "I was just joking…."

"If it h-helps…," Starfire gulped. "I did give Beast Boy twenty hugs and a dish of homemade glork to amend my unfair insult."

"Awwww…well there you go, Starfire. You're sweet to the core."

"Perhaps so. Though Beast Boy vomited the glork two hours later. I believe it has now joined the bathtub with my stained boots and his pizz—"

"I get the picture," Sandy raised a hand and urped.

"Excuse me while I finish my task at hand," Starfire politely said with a smile and continued stirring.

Sandy raised an eyebrow. "Um…..how exactly did I…………….get here?"

"I carried you."

"…………."

"…………."

"………….across the City?"

"Yes, Miss Sandy."

"And I was asleep the whole time?"

"You were quite busy with your slumber, yes."

"Well…..that was awfully………thoughtful of you," Sandy blushed.

"Is there something the matter?"

"No….just….," Sandy ran a hand through her cowlicked hair. "This is all so crazy."

"How so?"

"Waking up here….in the Tower and all…..," Sandy remarked quietly. A beat. "I almost feel like……I-I'm at home."

Starfire leaned her head to the side and paused in stirring. "Like this place is familiar to you?"

"Isn't it?" Sandy blushed. "I-I don't mean to be bold, ma'am……but……..how did I get here?"

"From what I understand, Robin and Noir summoned you to be transported here by a helicopter in order to assist in—"

"No no no…," Sandy chuckled and waved her hands. "What I mean is…….In all my life……I-I never thought I'd get to be so……so close to superheroes like yourselves. I-I'm just an average girl. Well, that's a little flattering of myself. Heh. I'm a nerd. I spend more time in a library than I do in my bedroom. How did someone like me end up here? With such….a-amazing people treating me as a close friend. Letting me kick bad guy butt with them. Even inviting me out to pizza! Something sacred that only the six of you share!"

Starfire's green eyes trailed. A beat. She set her pitcher and stirrer down and walked over.

"Oh! M-Ma'am….I-I'm sorry," Sandy bit her lip. "Please, go back to your….um…alien juice or whatever---"

"Shhhh," Starfire smiled and sat gracefully down next to Sandy on the couch. "It can wait for the time being. You have just relayed something that triggered a common thought from inside myself."

"I-I did?" Sandy said.

Starfire nodded. The green-eyed Titan swallowed and gently said: "I am not of this world, Miss Sandy. I am a Tamaranian citizen. 'Average' by my own standards…and ironically—like yourself—I too have spent the better part of my young life visiting the Literary Archives to X'Hal."

Sandy giggled.

Starfire held up a finger, smiling. She continued: "As an educational expedition, I came to this planet to root out facts about Terra Firma. The exciting thing about this planet, Miss Sandy, is that the people of Earth are just barely starting to make first contact with aliens. Superman was one of the first famous icons of the galaxy beyond this solar system. But soon there came new representatives. Martian Manhunter. Supergirl. And though it was most likely one of my dreams to be an example of my people on this planet, I desired no more than to find out about the idiosyncrasies of Terra Firma. I wanted to blend in with the people and understand an entirely different culture. And especially this culture, for it is so extremely rich with detail and—yes—contradictions. Quite a fancy world indeed."

Sandy smiled and nodded.

Starfire went on: "Never did I imagine myself being inducted by those whom earthlings call 'superheroes'. When I met Robin and Cyborg and Raven and Beast Boy, I was merely intrigued by their service to society and pursuit of justice. It had always amazed me how physically weak and fragile human beings are. To see the likes of a powerful few sacrifice their very own freedom and sanity to protect those who might not even understand or accept them…..well…I was thoroughly amazed, honored, touched all at once! I felt an incessant pull to join in their efforts and assist them. All I was thinking about was the same motive they all had! Understandably, I was quite flabbergasted when they asked for my permanent participation within the Teen Titans. I suppose that….th-that I indulged at first mainly to be around them. I kept putting off my date of return for the next earth month…and then the next…and then the next. Until finally, my field trip became a permanent stay and here I am at present!"

Sandy hugged her knees to her chest on the couch and smiled. "And the rest is history…"

"I do suppose…," Starfire looked off with blinking green ovals. "But what it all amounts to is…," she looked back at the spectacled girl. "…never have I once felt caught up with the reality of my presence here. And I am what you all call a 'Teen Titan'!" Starfire tossed her arms and sighed. She smiled. "I do wish someone would explain it to me. But I am just too busy…"

"Busy with what?"

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "Why…loving my friends, of course."

Sandy nodded. A beat. "Especially Robin, right?"

Starfire's smile left. She blinked. "Uhm…."

Sandy chuckled and pulled a hand over her eyes. "Ohhhhhh…..people!"

"How do you mean….'R-Robin'…."

"Don't tell me you've got it too!"

"'Too'??"

"Denial!" Sandy laughed helplessly. "Everyone sees it!! Even you must see it?"

"Er….what is this….'it'…that you insist that I should be seeing?" Starfire cleared her throat.

"You were….very glad to be with Robin last night, Starfire. Admit it."

"……."

"You know……."

"……."

"When the curse lifted…."

"……."

"Um….the 'succinctly connecting orifices'."

"Oh!" Starfire said. She blushed furiously. "I….uhm…..er…." she ran a shaky hand through her red bangs and turned an abominable red. "…..I am….thankful as always for Robin's to my rescue….and…."

Suddenly, a giggling Sandy was hugging Starfire.

"Eeep! What is the occasion?"

"I can't help it," Sandy laughed. "You're too freakin' cute not to be hugged."

Starfire blushed even more, as if that was possible. She returned the favor bashfully with two arms around Sandy's shoulders. "I am…..proud to be huggable to you."

Sandy leaned back and shook her head. "Someday, Star….you should give in."

"Oh, okay." Starfire blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

"You'll know someday. If this world is fair….you'll know someday."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So what was it like, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder sauntered stiffly down the sidewalk. His eyemask hung towards the concrete.

"Hellllllllo?! Earth to Robin!!"

"Hmmm?" Robin looked up. "Oh…sorry. What are you talking about?"

I chuckled and dug my hands into my pockets.

Beast Boy grinned as he walked between us. "What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Kissing Starfire!"

Robin's eyemask bulged. He immediately frowned. "Just drop it, man."

"Come on!! Nothing that'll ever happen to you is gonna change the fact that you kissed her!"

"It was to relieve the curse," Robin said. "Plain and simple."

"I imagine kissing girls is a way to relieve a lot of things," Beast Boy smirked. "So go ahead and spill!"

I made a face.

So did Beast Boy. "Okay….now that was just plain gross on reevaluation, dude. Someone get this gutter off from around my head. I'm stuck."

"Is there no end to this torment….," Robin moaned.

"So what if you and Starfire got a little romantic?!"

"For the last time!!" the Boy Wonder cackled. "It was to stop the freakin' curse!! There was nothing romantic about it!!"

"Well…pretend for once that it was romantic!"

"No."

"Come on! How'd it feel?"

"I can't afford to get too close to anyone…," Robin grumbled.

"Why not?!"

Robin pointed at his eyemask.

"Oh right….forgot," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Prince charming doesn't have a horse to fall off of."

"You all can fall in love with as many people as you like," Robin said. "As Titan leader and a world-renown vigilante………any attempts on my part to get close to someone would only be a complication and an endangerment."

"Yeah….well….sounds like a hands on job." A beat. Beast Boy laughed his head off. "Ha ha ha!! Get it?! Hands on job!! Ha ha ha!" He nudged me. "That hilarious or what?! Hands on job!! Hahaha….heheh……ahem. Someone shoot me, please."

I smirked.

"If only I didn't abhor guns….," Robin moaned.

I hand-signed something.

"Cyborg's not here, dude."

I slapped Beast Boy's shoulder and made him look at me. I repeated the hand-sign….which was a simple charade of a 'telephone' by my ear.

"Need to make a phone call??"

I nodded.

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Er….what for?"

I charaded 'driving' and pointed at a spot along the sidewalk. A spot where the T-Car used to be. A spot where the T-Car wasn't presently…

"Duuude….," Beast Boy moaned. "They totally ditched us!"

"I wonder where Cyborg and Raven would have to go in such a hurry…," Robin rubbed his chin in thought.

"I can think of one possibility," Beast Boy said.

"And what's that?"

With ruffling feathers, the changeling morphed into an emerald pigeon and fluttered off into the sky towards the Bay. "I'll be sure to tell you it later tonight."

"Oh come on…BEAST BOY!!!" Robin cackled.

The bird flew the coop.

The Titan Leader groaned. He looked at me. "A long time ago….I asked Batman if he ever wanted the superpower of flight. You know what he said?"

I shook my head and shrugged. I looked at him curiously.

Robin's lips smirked tiredly from under his mask. "He looked at me straight through his cowl and said: 'Who needs to fly when you can fall upwards?'"

I smirked.

"Come on…," he motioned with his neck and led us down the street. "Let's go home."

I chuckled breathily and casually followed him down the alleyways.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Friends!" Starfire beamed as Cyborg and Raven walked out of the elevator and into the Main Room. "You are back! It is good to see you!"

"Yeah….well…my titanium was getting too much of a tan outside," Cyborg gestured. He crossed the length of the Main Room and saluted Sandy. "Well…look at the sleepyhead! How's it hanging, girl?"

Sandy smiled bashfully. "Hanging quite well, sir. Sorry about earlier."

"What are you sorry about?" Raven asked.

"Sleeping on the job."

"Job?"

"Pizza job."

"Hehehe!" Starfire giggled. "She is most modest, yes?"

"Positively a nun," Raven droned. "Any word from the boys?"

"Did you leave them behind?" Starfire asked with a lean of her head.

"Er….," Cyborg bit his lip. "We couldn't help it. We were mobbed."

Starfire gasped, her hands cupping together. "Mobbed?!?!"

"That's a hyperbole on Cyborg's part, really," Raven droned. "He and I…..we……these kids……" She looked at Cyborg.

Cyborg looked back.

Raven sweatdropped and nodded at Starfire. "We were mobbed."

"Oh, how dreadful!!"

Sandy snickered. "I-I hope Robin won't be too mad."

"He'll deal with it," Raven droned. "He's good at doing things like that."

Starfire blushed for some reason.

"Watcha makin', Star?" Cyborg walked over to the kitchen.

"Eeek! Do not sip of it yet! It has not yet been harmonized for human stomach linings!"

"Well, what is the stuff?"

"Home-made Tamaranian Star Juice! It is quite the delicacy!"

"An edible delicacy, right? Cuz—I gotta be honest—I was never down for that pudding of sadness jazz."

"Oh, I assure you! This is most delightful!"

The two's voices dwindled as Raven sighed and turned to face Sandy.

Sandy looked back.

A beat.

"Still sane?" Raven remarked.

Sandy smiled. "As long as you are. I'd base myself on that."

"How flattering."

"I would hope so!"

Raven shook her head. A beat. Her blue eyes looked at Sandy through the corner of her sockets. "I don't believe I ever…..ya know……thanked you."

"For what, Raven?"

"Helping me out when my emotions were scattered among my teammates," Raven said. "Nobody asked you to pitch in and help me pull things together and—well—you saw a lot of things about my character that I'm….pretty vulnerable about. Something that even my teammates themselves can barely chance to grasp. And when I finally pulled things together---thanks to your help---I acted like a total, self-absorbed bitch and didn't show you my gratitude or anything. And the rest lead up to accusing Noir falsely…blah blah blah…The long and short of it is that I'm sorry. And I'm really glad….for what you did."

Silence.

Raven bit her lip and slowly started to turn away to head to her room. "So….um….I-I guess I should be leaving you to rest asleep again or something---" The dark girl's blue eyes suddenly bulged. Raven's mouth went stiff. She droned: "Sandy…..why are you hugging me?"

The spectacled girl winked. "Because I know you won't **ask** for it, silly."

"Oh……………………………………………..g-good point."

"And you're welcome, by the way," Sandy whispered.

Raven cleared her throat and eagerly changed the subject…..awkwardly relieved. "I wonder when the boys will be here already."

SWOOOSH!! THWAP!!!

A green pigeon slammed into the Main Room window besides them.

"Dang it!!" Beast Boy murmured through a crooked beak as his feathery body slithered down the splattered window. "Why do I keep doing that?!"

THWUMP!!!

The pigeon fell out from view.

Sandy bit her lip and shrugged with a smile. "At least he'd make a great carrier pigeon."

"Now there's a lucky wife in the future," Raven managed a smirk. "Tampon runs from heaven."

"EW!!! I heard that!!"

Raven and Sandy giggled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was about sunset at the time Robin and I were halfway across the land bridge leading to the Tower.

The Boy Wonder stopped for a second and balanced himself on a bluff over the rippling Bay waves.

I paused and swiveled around….looking at him curiously.

"Can I tell you something outright, Noir?" the Titan Leader asked. "And promise not to say a word about it?"

I ran a hand over my scarred throat, smirked, and shrugged. I nodded.

He sat down on the bluff in a crouch. Sighing, he picked up a pebble and tossed it into the golden, sunsetlit waters. "I was scared as hell last night."

I leaned my head to the side, listening curiously.

"Sandy kinda knows about it. I'm sure Raven sensed it. But I'm telling you outright," Robin said. "Starfire….she almost bought it. In more ways than one. And it freaked me out."

I slowly nodded.

Robin tossed another pebble out to sea. The wind kicked at his black, spikey hair.

"I'm so glad that you were there with me, Noir. You and Sandy. Hell, even Control Freak." He tossed another pebble. "I would have gone insane by myself. With all of my worries. My freakin' obssessions."

A beat.

He glanced over at me. "It kinda…..hurts when everyone teases me about my best friendship with Starfire. Because none of them know. None of them know just how…..how precious she is like I have."

I folded my arms and nodded. I didn't exactly believe that Robin's statement was one hundred percent true. But that didn't matter. What mattered is that he believed it whole-heartedly.

"Starfire is……is……," Robin sighed and looked out to the Sea. "……..she is such a beautiful soul. And beautiful souls…..when they die……they die so painfully…."

There was a sagging to his eyemask. And to his lips.

I raised an eyebrow.

But as soon as the Boy Wonder so much as started to appear emotional, he snapped out of it and hopped back down onto the land ridge.

"Never mind. Everything's good now." He brushed himself off and smiled at me. "Starfire's safe. She's secure. The other Titans can tease all they want to. As long as she's…………….safe."

He walked off towards the Tower ahead of me. After a short while he paused and raised a finger with the back of his head to me. "Oh….and that kiss is STILL not a romantic thing that I did!"

I chuckled breathily and followed after his distant figure.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to Starfire's room opened and in walked the Tamaranian girl.

"Now where did I put it…," the redheaded alien hummed to herself. She floated about the interior of her room, tapping her chin with her finger. "Surely I am not slovenly enough to have misplaced the juice recipe—Ah!" She beamed happily and swiped up a booklet from a bedside table. "Glorious! I shall make haste to finish…..the……………….juice………."

Her voice trailed off.

The girl was eyeing the shimmering, wedding gown that the Puppet King had hypnotized her into wearing the previous evening. It lay prettily over the back of a plush chair besides a dressing mirror.

"Mmmmmmmmmmm," Starfire hummed. Rubbing her chin. She bit her lip. She glanced at the door….at the dress….at the door…and at the dress again.

Slowly…….pensively…….she smiled a girlie smile.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A couple of minutes later…a blushing starfire hovered to her feet in front of the mirror. She was fully attired in the wedding gown and was observing herself. Her cheeks were red as she cleared her throat, curtsied and clasped her nervous hands together in front of her skirt.

"Wh-Why hello there…..Robin," she breathed. The volume increased as she smiled and bashfully spoke into the mirror, "Thank you for s-saving me from the Puppet King." A beat. Her eyes trailed the floor. "But…surely the ceremony must not end now."

Silence.

She giggled and presented her hand out in a dainty fashion towards the mirror. "As the stiff old Terran male with gray hair and the white collar directs me, I hereby agree to the havingness and the holdingness till the inevitable death doing us partingness." A beat. She blushed and turned her body to the side cutely. "Is this surely not the moment when you are so privileged as to engage the bride in the application of cranial orifices?" She laughed girlishly, sighed loose the silliness of it all, and spun about—"EEP!!!"

I stood in the doorway, staring.

She had her white-gloved hands over her mouth.

I cleared my throat, waved, and pointed 'upstairs' at the main room.

Starfire blushed a beet and uttered: "Y-You have returned? Everyone is assembled for….erm….assemblage?"

I nodded slowly with a soft smile. My black eyes helplessly darted at the dolled up scene from under my shades.

"I will…..join you shortly," Starfire stammered. "Please m-make sure that Beast Boy does not attempt to consume the Tamaranian beverage yet in that it will surely break down the structural integrity of his esophagus without the final application of the recipe I have yet to make…."

I winced, but nodded with a grin. I spun around and headed down the hallway.

"N-Noir! Pause momentarily!" she scampered out into the hallway with her dress and held her hands together as if praying. "Will you be so kind as to….n-not travail upon relating what you have just seen with anyone? Especially anyone brave, wearing an eyemask, and in authority of the Titans?"

I pretended to think about it….then nodded pleasantly.

"Oh….th-thank you most gratefully," the alien blushed. She looked down at herself, realized she was standing out in the hallway with the wedding gown—"Eeep!"—and rushed back into her room. The door swished shut behind her.

I walked into the elevator…trying to shake stuff out of my head and finding myself wanting to either die or giggle.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….um……is this gonna be worth it?" Beast Boy morosely asked.

"Let it go…," Raven groaned. "Starfire wouldn't let us drink this if it was still harmful."

"Indeed, friends," Starfire smiled. She stood over the table at the end of the Main Room where the other six of us sat. She began pouring the pitcher full of juice into our cups. "There are no adverse effects to fear. Imagine this as a celestial rendition of Lem On the Ade."

Cyborg chuckled.

"Hmmm?"

"Nothing, Star. Pour away."

"Whoah…," Sandy uttered. "It's…..green!"

"Just like the spirit of our people!" Starfire smiled with her eyes clasped shut.

"As long as it's the spirit," Beast Boy eyed his glass suspiciously. "Cuz if you told us that we were drinking the 'essence' of your people…I'd be royally freaked."

"Always happy to be blessed by your culture, Star," Robin held up his glass.

Starfire blushed before pouring him his share. "Likewise….Robin."

He raised an eyebrow.

I cleared my throat and stood up, raising my glass.

"Dude…we already had a toast today, remember?" Beast Boy said.

"Yeah…," Sandy chuckled innocently. "Flattering memory, that."

I sighed. I placed the glass down, smiled, and hand-signed.

"He says…," Sandy interpretted, "….that this toast is to…..friendship from outside??"

Every Titan seemed to understand that. Especially Cyborg and Beast Boy. A few people glanced at Robin.

The Boy Wonder took a breath. "I'd surely drink to that!" he raised his glass.

"Amen," Raven clinked her glass to his.

Then Starfire with a giggle. "To friends!"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy.

"Well allright!" Cyborg.

Then Sandy and I.

We all sipped at the same time.

We all swallowed at the same time.

We all waited at the same time.

Silence.

Starfire eagerly eyed each and every one of us.

And it was Beast Boy—of all people—who was the first to brighten up and utter: "Um….this stuff…….is……"

"Yes???" Starfire trembled.

"Freakin' awesome!"

"…….th-that is good, right?"

"Right, indeed, Star!" Cyborg chuckled. "It's like Kool-Aid with….I dunno….a touch of chocolate milk."

"I sense herbal tea," Raven smirked slightly.

"Wyrd…," Sandy smiled. "I'm thinking of cherry coke."

"That is the magic of the beverage," Starfire smiled. "The natural chemicals inside of it respond microscopically to the signatures of endorphins in the brain and produce the desired taste of the consumer's favorite drink."

"Wow."

"Awesome!"

Robin said: "Should I be worried then if my glass tastes like blood?"

"………."

"………."

"………."

"Pfft!! I'm just kidding!"

"Ohhhhhhhh."

"Hahahahaha!!"

"Good one, dawg!"

"'Tastes like blood'….dude, that was a trip!"

I simpered and took another sip.

_Apple Juice._

I thought of Ana's face…….

"I guess I should…….um…….," Sandy's eyes looked aside.

"Think you should what, girl?" Cyborg asked.

"Call home, ya know?" Sandy simpered and politely explained: "I know my parents were relieved to hear from me hours ago the last time I called and all…but…I-I really do need to get back. There're some volunteer stuff I've got to get ready for and……." Her voice trailed.

Cyborg seemed distracted.

Beast Boy depressed.

Raven as stoical as ever.

Starfire sad.

Robin defeated.

And I wounded.

A beat………………

Sandy bit her lip, but happily smirked. "Oh what the heck. I can stay another night, can't I?"

"Dude…sweet!"

"Boo-ya!!"

"Glorious!"

"Sounds okay to me…."

"You're more than welcome, Sandy."

I smiled and looked at Robin. The sparkling new Titan communicator rested in his utility belt. And I wondered if Sandy remembered from her slumber his speech at all. But most likely she didn''.

Regardless...the communicator was never showed to her. We spent the night staying up late with a DVD, playing cards, telling hero stories, and generally laughing and sipping Starfire's home-made juice until we were all too tired to stand up, much less think.

And that's when not only did I know but I was happy with the fact.

All we wanted was a friend.


	98. Sides of the Fence

**98. Sides of the Fence**

BANG!!!

A woman shrieked and flattened herself further against a wall next to a string of hostages.

The gunman walked halfway across the bank lobby. Frowning under his ski mask: "One part of 'stay put and shut up' do you not understand?!"

"I-I….!"

BANG!!!!

"AAH!!"

The crook shook his head, aiming a smoking gun to the ceiling. "For the love of pete…." He turned around and hollered at two accomplices by the safe. "Get your asses in gear!!"

"Hey! Our asses are gearing enough as it is!" one snarled. "What's up with you?! Stop standing around and giving orders and help us!"

The gunman grumbled. He rushed over the counter—kept a gun carefully aimed at the hostages—and assisted in hoisting one of the money bags from the safe. "Neal!!" he called to the fourth robber keeping watch. "How's it look?!"

A masked man stood by the glass doors of the bank with an uzzi. "All clear!"

"We better split for it…," another one muttered.

"Yeah…we got what we came for!"

"Hardly. But it'll do for now," the self-appointed leader aimed his gun at the trembling citizens as the three joined their companion by the door. "If I hear so much as another shriek from you, the floor's gonna get a new paintjob!"

Silence.

"Yeah….now that's right," the gunman grinned. He stepped out of the bank first and bumped into a pair of folded, Titanium arms. He looked up at a grinning Cyborg. (gulp!) "Now that's wrong!!"

"Right!"

SMACK!!!!!

Metal knuckles flew into the robber's face. He stumbled back, his nose bleeding.

The four accomplices gasped and started firing madly at the metal Titan.

"Smoke him!!"

"Aim for the skin!!"

"Damn freak!!!"

POW!!! POW!!! BANG!!!

Cyborg pivoted so that a metal forearm raised and deflected the streaming bullets. "Hey!! Why the hot temper?!"

PLANT!! Beast Boy perched on Cyborg's shoulder and grinned down at the gunmen. "Looks like you guys could use some fuzz therapy!" WOOOSH!!! The green changeling dove forward, flipped, landed in the middle of the three robbers, and swiftly morphed into a kimodo dragon that spun around and tripped each with a writhing tail. WH-WH-WHUMP!!! Beast Boy jumped into a collapsing thug in the form of a kangaroo.

WHAP!!!

The thug flew backwards into Robin's grasp.

"Hey there. Where's your head at?" WHAP!!!! The Boy Wonder smacked him hard in the top of the head. The robber fell unconscious with a groan. Robin dusted his gloved hands off. "You won't know until the morning."

One of the two remaining, awake crooks stood up. Growling, he aimed a gun at Beast Boy and Robin.

FLASH!!

"H-Huh??" he gasped.

Black telekinesis encased his gun, yanked it out of his hand, and shattered it in mid-air.

The man shielded his masked face…then looked with bitter shock at Raven, floating overhead.

"I have news for you. Bullets are officially outdated."

The man panicked. He spun around and tried running…..

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

His legs came off the ground.

He gasped…then found himself pinned to the wall by a curved, wooden sword. He struggled and cussed, trying to get free. He looked down.

I smiled up at him, saluting mutely.

The last crook was scampering to his feet now. He tried running back into the bank for some stupid reason…when a pretty figure who had snuck inside came flying out through a revolving door, scooping him up in amber arms, and carrying him into the sky. The man cried out in fear, but was soon sat atop the junction of three telephone wires at the corner of a street. Petrified of heights, he hugged himself and trembled as Starfire hovered a few feet away.

"I do apologize for the inconvenience," she smiled with a cute wave. "But I have found perpetual fear to be a wonderful deterrent to escaping the scene of a crime….not to mention exploitation of human bipedal limitation."

The crook blinked at

Beast Boy called up from down below: "What she means is, we royally kicked your ass and you suck!!"

"Ha ha ha!!!" Cyborg laughed.

Robin and I gave each other high-fives.

Starfire floated down to the streetside as the sound of police sirens picked up in the distance. "Our task here is complete, is it not?"

"Just about…," Raven uttered as she walked into the bank. "Let me double-check on the hostages…."

"Dude!!" Beast Boy jumped over to Robin and I. "Just in time, too!"

I mouthed: 'For what?'

Robin glanced at me and folded his arms. "You mean you forgot?"

A beat.

I inhaled and remembered….and I wasn't sure whether to be happy or not.

-T-T-T-T-T-

"Good-bye, Sandy!"

"Sorry we couldn't make it earlier, girl. We got caught up with a bunch of hoodlems."

"Hehe…I know," Sandy smiled pleasantly at the base of the Tower. She stood, half-inside a taxi cab. She had a black satchel over her shoulder for her return trip home. "It happens."

Starfire flew over. "Hehehehe! As Beast Boy likes to put it….'can I have one for the roadness'?"

Sandy giggled. She hugged Starfire and the Tamaranian eagerly returned---without crushing her.

"You're always the sweetest, Star. I'll miss having your……cute way of speaking in my ear."

"Does it not define me?"

"Oh, believe me, it does." Sandy winked. She waved at everyone. "So long, Titans! Ma'ams! Sirs!!"

Robin smirked and waved. "Hope to see you again soon, Sandy. Remember our offer."

Beast Boy: "You rule, girl! Peace!"

Cyborg: "Tell your folks we said hey!"

Raven: "Take care of yourself."

I hand-signed a salutations.

Sandy stepped inside and shut the rear door. She tapped on the back of the front seat. The cab's engine started and the car started cruising down the land ridge. At the last second, the rear window rolled down and Sandy stuck her spectacled face out. "Oh! Noir! Remind me….what's the name of that novel?!?!"

I tried gesturing it to her…..but she was gone.

Vrooooooooooooom……

Silence.

"Well……," Cyborg slowly swiveled around. "Parting is such sweet suckage. I think I'm gonna drown stuff out with Halo."

"Dude!" Beast Boy hobbled after him. "Let me drown with you!"

"If only you don't shoot me in the back this time!"

"Would I do that to you?"

"Yes."

"Er…..well….would I do that to you two times in a row?"

"**Yes.**"

"Come on!!"

"Ha ha ha…."

Raven floated silently up the height of the Tower where she could meditate on the rooftop…I suppose.

I glanced over at Robin and Starfire. As I somehow expected…the two were sauntering off together for some reason or another.

"Robin…now that we are alone, would not be a good time to talk about what you promised we would discuss?"

"You mean 'Las Vegas'?"

"Yes! How can people engage in matrimony upon such short notice?! And while attending areas of worship modeled after genres of eccentric design?"

"Well…this isn't really an **Earth** issue, Star."

"It isn't?"

"Nope. More like an American thing."

"I thought 'America' and 'Earth' were the same thing…."

"Oh…..hahahahaha….no, Star. Luckily….no."

"There is still so much I have to learn."

"Nah….more like, so much we have to talk about!"

"Hehehehe. You are too kind, Robin."

"If you insist….."

The two were gone, walking around the far side of the Tower.

I was alone.

I took a deep, half-pleasant sigh.

I was neither smiling or frowning.

I felt mellow….and I loved it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Greetings. This is the Local News. I'm Marilyn Chen. As of today, the public consensus is almost unanimous. The Teen Titans are on a roll. Having recovered from a recent inside-invasion of mind control in the Tower, they have still managed to foil the plans and rampages of the Puppet King, Johnny Rancid, and three violent bank robberies in the last week alone. Polls show a ninety six percent approval rate by the City's population, compared to the ninety two percent prior to their sabbatical, the dismal eighty two percent during Slade's terrorist bombings, and the more positive ninety percent average for the last six months prior. Inside sources interviewed Commissioner Decker earlier today for a reaction to the recent surge in popularity for the Titans' performance and vigilantism:"_

_"'Get those [bleep]ing cameras out of my face you dip[bleep]s! Can't you see that I'm still dressed in that god[bleep] fruity stuff that the Puppet King hypnotized me into wearing! I got a mother [bleep]ing load of military and defense workers to direct back to their stations since—like always—the Titans somehow miraculously saved the City without so much as a finger being lifted by our all important, multi-million dollar [bleep]job of a civil defense program—"_

_  
__ "Ahem. (Steve, that was the wrong tape--)Oh!! Er…l-later today, I had the chance to sit d-down with Blake Glover of the newspaper and interview him about the Titans' soaring approval rating. And this is what he had to say:"_

_"'I've been so lucky as of late to witness—first hand—the peace-loving fights of these brave youngsters. I can hardly believe I was ever the unruly doubting Thomas I once sold myself as. Quite simply, unless you've seen the Titans do what they do best up close, it is impossible to truly appreciate them. If these recent polls are accurate…I'm surprised! But in a good way. There're seemingly a lot of content people whose dreams of having heroes that they can rely on is more than one hundred percent likely of coming true! Let everyone in the City meet the Titans…then run the poll again! You'll see a change…even more to the better, if that's plausible!'"_

_"When asked about the Titans, the mayor expressed his sincerest gratitude to the Titans for those whom they saved. Especially in regards to the hostages held at the Tower by the Puppet King two days ago. One of them, the rich and famous Veronica Vreeland, has volunteered to open a trust fund for constructing a counseling committee for hostage-survivors City Wide. Vreeland was stated as believing supervillains to be on a rise, and the likelihood of frightening situations like that with the Puppet King taking place is more and more common."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Snkkkkkt!!!

Beast Boy shut the t.v. in the Main Room off that afternoon.

"Blah blah blah. I am sooooooo interested," he lethargically uttered and continued eating a banana snack.

"Man…," Cyborg frowned, retrieved the remote, and turned the T.V. back on. "…you should be more thankful!"

"Thankful?! To a T.V. set?"

"The news, B.B. They're saying GOOD stuff about us! That's….um…..ya know…GOOD."

"Don't you ever get bored of good stuff?" Beast Boy muttered. "It's just so….so….."

"So what?"

"Like playing light side in Knights of the Old Republic!"

"You're comparing our legacy to an Xbox game?"

"And your right eye is made of ruby quartz. Shut up!"

"Heheheh…."

"Don't you ever wanna….I dunno…..just fantasize for once, Cy?"

"Fantasize what? Is this a conversation too mature for you, Beast Boy?"

"Oh hush. Seriously!" Beast Boy sat on the coffee table, swallowed the last bite of banana, and tossed the peel behind him. "Ever imagine what it's like to be evil?"

Cyborg raised his human eyebrow. "A subject like that hardly ever goes far very well in the Tower, man…."

"I'm not serious," Beast Boy smiled. "Again…this is only fantasy. If you were a villain…what would your powers be? What would you do?"

"Well….," Cyborg rubbed his chin while leaning back on the sofa. A Pepsi commercial played on the t.v. screen at low volume. "I think I'm pretty much stuck with these powers. If you even called them powers."

"Good point," Beast Boy blinked his green eyes. "What exactly are you, Cy?"

"I've got prosthetics….that'll MAKE YOUR MOMMA CRY!!!!"

"Hehehehehe!!!"

Cyborg chuckled. He raised a finger. "If I was a villain though, I'd probably have…..ya know….a flame thrower."

"Dude!!"

"Roast people's capes off, man."

"Sweet! What else?"

"Well…I wouldn't be 'bad' per se," Cyborg smirked, leaning his head aside. "I'd just be misunderstood."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Ya know. I'd like…..be this badass android who wants to strike revenge against some evil corporation," Cyborg gestured. "Tin Man With an Axe!"

"And PMS!"

"Nah….I'd still be male."

"I wouldn't."

"……."

"……."

"…….you sure this isn't THAT kind of fantasy, man?!"

"Hey! Helps hide the identity away more!" Beast Boy remarked. "Think about it! All of those villains and heroes out there! All of the ones with secret identities! Who says both the real person and the vigilante share the same gender?"

"That's crazy, man."

"But wouldn't it throw the authorities and the mafia off?!"

"So you're saying that Clark Kent would be better off fighting Lex Luthor in drag."

"Pfft! Nonsense. It could go the other way around."

"Like…."

Beast Boy giggled his head off. "How do we know Robin's really a guy?!"

"Oh shit. Oh no, man!!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Oh no!!! Man, that's just freakin' wrong, dawg!!"

"Or….O-O-Or maybe Raven's a guy?"

Cyborg folded his arms. "I'd hope not."

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "Eh??"

Cyborg bit his lip. He cleared his throat and looked across the Main Room. "Hey Noir buddy!!"

I looked up from a table and my lonely game of solitaire.

"Transgendered aliases. Good or bad?"

A beat.

I smirked.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg blinked…then laughed.

"Dude….what'd he say?"

"Noir said: 'That'd explain Granny Goodness!'"

Beast Boy blinked. "Excuse me?"

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Man….I forget. Not everyone's lived in Metropolis."

"I get confused with that whole Apokolips stuff."

"Yeah well…..you're better off."

"So what'd your name be if you were a villain—"

"Enough with that subject, dawg," Cyborg said. He cleared his throat and looked back at me. "Yo, Noir. You seen Raven around lately?"

I looked at him curiously. I shook my head 'no'.

Cyborg shrugged and turned the t.v. volume up. "Ah well. She said she'd be up for walking earlier."

"………"

Just then, the phone rang.

All three of us jumped.

"Sheesh!" Beast Boy hopped up and trodded towards the phone. "Why don't we get that thing disconnected?! It always freaks me out when we actually get phone calls!!"

Cyborg smirked at the t.v. "You never know, B.B. It could have been one of those obsessed girl fans you've always wished for."

Beast Boy reached the phone. "Okay…let's not have a ladyfan conversation so quickly after a transgendered conversation."

"You poor thing…."

"Ahem." The changeling picked up the phone, held the receiver to his head, and happily chimed: "Titans' Tower. Beast Boy speaking. How can I help you?"

A beat.

His eyes blinked.

Another beat.

He grinned wide and giggled like a girl. "Oh jeez!!! Hehehe!! Of course. Dude, this is perfect. Hang on….h-he's right here."

Beast Boy cleared his throat, held the receiver away, and craned his neck about dramatically as he cooingly sing songed: "Oh Noirrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

I looked at him funny.

"It's for youuuuuuuuu."

I leaned my head to the side….as if it was a completely and utterly ludicrous thing for me to receive a phone call.

_And it was!_

"Well don't just sit there!" Beast Boy scowled. "Come on over and take this thing over before the blood runs out of my forearm!"

"I'm surprised you're not used to it."

"Oh hush up, Cy."

"Heheheh…."

I confusedly got up, brushed myself off, and shuffled over across the Main Room. I took the receiver from a winking Beast Boy and mutely held it up to my ear………….still and confused.

_"Hey Jordan!"_

_"……………"_

"………………"

_"……………."_

_"…………how're you doing?"_

_"………………"_

_"………………….um….it's…..i-it's Kara!"_

A light glinted twinkly off my shades as I gasped happily, smiled, and dumbly tried to hand-sign something with one hand. But then hit myself when I realized she couldn't understand sign-language. And then I hit myself again when I realized she couldn't see my hands gesturing. And then I hit myself a third time when I suddenly remembered I couldn't talk.

"Hehehehe," Beast Boy chuckled like a stoned junkie. "He looks excited to hear from her."

I frowned at him, cradling the receiver to my ear.

_"It's so great to be talking to you!!"_ her youthful, warm voice exclaimed. A beat. _"Er……I __**am**__ talking to you. R-Right?"_

I sweatdropped.

_"I have an idea that can fix this quickly. Tap once on the receiver for 'yes'. Tap twice for 'no'. Simple binaries! You got that?"_

I nodded. A beat. I hit my forehead, cleared my throat, and tapped on the receiver once.

_'Yes.'_

_"Hehehe! See! That works! Unless……"_

I raised an eybrow.

The girl's voice on the other end cleared its throat and said: _"Ahem……the last time we met, did we talk a lot?"_

I tapped once.

_'Yes.'_

_"Did we kick Metallo's and Braniac's butt?"_

_'Yes.'_

A pause.

_"The hairband was alone in the package?"_

_'……………' _

_"……………"_

_'No.'_

A sigh of relief through the code and plastic. _"So you got the letter…"_

_'Yes.' _

_"I didn't call to talk about that. I just wanted to say 'hi' to you!"_

I suddenly wished she could understand morse code….

_"Surprised that I got this phone number?"_ Kara exclaimed over the phone. _"Well…a couple of things. Clark's officially 'ungrounded' me, I guess. And with his connections……well……he got the feeling that we wanted to chat."_

I raised an eyebrow from under my shades.

_"Well, it's no biggie, really."_ There was a touch of….something in her voice. Something happy. Proud even. She uttered: _"One of the JLA members……um……hehe……got the feeling that you were………requesting my phone number?"_

I blushed and bit my lip.

_Wonder Woman……  
_  
I glanced sideways.

Beast Boy was staring at me. When he saw my reddened face, he grinned even more.

I frowned and motioned for him to get lost.

_"--…and I guess they thought it'd be best if I called you instead of you calling me. Poor Jordan. You're really just a shy boy underneath, aren't you? I bet everyone sees it."_

I blinked.

A pause. _"……Jordan? Don't you agree?"_

I gasped. I scratched my head.

_This wasn't fair. If only I had a tapping signal thingy for 'I don't know' instead of just 'Yes' or 'No'. I felt that I had been successfully pinned up against a wall of some sorts by Supergirl. Or was it Supergirl and Wonder Woman? Some superheroine conspiracy?_

I wasn't even paying attention when I tapped: _'Yes'._

_"Hehehehe……at least you're honest." _

I wanted to laugh.

_"Clark says you and Wonder Woman have been……'corresponding' or something." _

_'Yes.' _

_"It must be an honor to actually write about the Teen Titans with the legendary amazon."_

_'Yes.'_

A sly giggle. Then: _"You flirted with her yet?"_

_'No no no no no no no no.'_

Supergirl laughed on her end. _"I wouldn't blame you if you did, Jordan. How many posters of her are around compared to yours or mine?"_

I chuckled breathily. It seemed as if we already had an inside joke…

_"So um……look, I'd so much love to go visit the Tower. I'm sure even you'd agree that'd be awesome."_

_'Yes.'_

She paused….as if flattered…..then went on: _"But even though I'm not really grounded anymore, Clark's got me stuck here until the barn is repaired and stuff. I guess it's his form of punishment or something for my getting everyone so involved with……stuff recently. Especially since I'm prohibited from using my powers while helping to construct the thing."_

Even I had to wince at that.

_"Don't worry. Hehehe…I'm not asking for you to run all the way over here and help me and stuff."_

I smirked.

_"You've done enough as it is, Jordan. And……sometimes I wonder…"_

I raised an eyebrow.

_"I wonder if…ya know……if I've done too much for you to………ever want to see me again."_

I could almost sense her biting her lip across the wires.

An awkward pause.

She said: _"The last thing I ever want to do is hurt you, Jordan. And if you're mad at me, then it's okay. We don't have to—"_

_'No.'_

_"……………………"_

_'……………No.'_

A sigh of relief on her end. _"I……um……I'm glad…hehe…"_

I smiled. I loved how she…….fumbled for words.

_What was wrong with me?_

In the background, elevator doors opened. Raven shuffled out. She and Cyborg made eye contact.

"Oh…still up for it, girl?"

"What's there to back out of?"

"Let me just get my walking shoes on…."

"'Ha ha ha'….very funny."

"I knew you'd laugh."

"You must be positively thirsty for sarcasm."

"Enough of the chatter and more of the charity walk."

"Whatever…"

Cyborg and Raven wandered out of the Main Room together.

And I barely took notice….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…and what bothers me most about the films is that none of them is truly accurate enough to receive laud," Raven stated. "Heathcliffe was in love with the first Catherine, true. But she died before the first half of the novel was complete, and it was her daughter—also named Catherine—that Heathcliffe constantly pestered and emotionally abused. But by the second half of the novel, the focus of the story switches mainly to that of the second Catherine and Heathcliffe's effeminate waif of a son."

Cyborg nodded as the two walked around the quaint bluffs, sand, and sawgrass around the Tower. If one paid enough attention to it, the area seemed positively aesthetic. Especially on a day with a cool breeze blowing in and causing the surf in the background to calmly ebb and flow.

"Films are always trying to brainwash people into believing that a true romance must be something portrayed by two living entities under the son. But literature has proven—to more or less 'intelligent' audiences—that love is an emotion so complex that it can be greatly magnified through situations as glum as an antisocial old man's bitterness over his deceased infatuation and the way he tries to let loose his aggravations in themes highly suggestive of incestuous and necropheliac tendencies as the madness of obsession take over during the passing of years. I assure you, there's nothing greater than the gothic romance. Emily Bronte was a genius."

"Yes…," Cyborg smiled. "I'm sure. You know what else is a good book? Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Raven gave her a sideways glance. "You're not taking this conversation seriously….are you?"

"And what makes you think I'm not?!" Cyborg gestured. "I tell you….Douglas Adams was a genius! Who else could succinctly magnify the absurdity of existentialism and the question of the transient divinity of essence with an illustration of a bowl of petunias falling randomly through a planet's atmosphere?"

"………," Raven blinked. "Okay……someone actually lost **me** for once. Congratulations."

"I'm flattered, Miss."

"I'll admit that it's not been so bad walking with you as I imagined," Raven droned.

Cyborg laughed. "Am I that frightening?"

"You hang out with Beast Boy a lot. So….yes."

"Forgive me if I can't help you center yourself or anything, Raven," Cyborg winked a human eye. "All I am is just a bucket of bolts. If you wanted sanity, you should go back to meditation."

"I've already meditated today," Raven groaned. She paused in her step and folded her arms, "Besides…I could use the exercise."

"What? Imagining a theological bowl of petunias? That's gotta work out the brain…"

"No. I mean walking."

Cyborg glanced down. "Uhm….Raven. I'm sorry to break it to you. But you're thin."

Raven gave him a cynical look. "I'm also one of the physically weakest members on the team."

"You're a sorceress. It happens," Cyborg smirked. "If I could move furniture around with my head as a kid, I wouldn't have been so buff as you see me now."

"You can move furniture around with your head," Raven said. She resumed walking. "Just run straight into a couch while bent over."

"Oh ho ho ho!!! Was that the great and almighty Raven trying to tell a joke?!"

"I don't know what it was. But it sure as heck wasn't great or almighty."

"You sound like you're confusing yourself," Cyborg pointed. "Which is okay. Cuz you're confusing me."

Raven sighed and looked up at the partly cloudy sky. Wind kicked at her blue hair. "I am worried about a few things."

"Don't you mean 'afraid'?"

"**Worried**," Raven all but growled.

Cyborg chuckled. "Okay. I can take a hint. But about what, Raven?"

"It's about Robin, mostly."

"Oh?"

"I feel that he may be…..slipping."

"Slipping?"

Raven looked Cyborg's way as the two paused in their walk. "I founded this team with him, Cyborg. I very carefully took measure of his resolve and motive when establishing the Teen Titans. He is a different person now than he was the day he and I set things up."

"People change, Raven….believe it or not," Cyborg smiled. "Not everyone is as steadfast as you in…..er….their steadfastness."

"Robin was once an outsider," Raven went on. "He knew the value in distancing oneself from allies…no matter how much they could be trusted. From the Batman's training, Robin learned what it meant to second-guess everything and keep issues and suspicions to himself. He and his own secrecy were his best secret weapons. He had a secret identity for a reason, to hammer in that dividing line. But….ever since the Titans began….and especially in the last few months….he's started to………slip. And I think he's doing it on purpose. Either that, or he's not aware of how much he's becoming vulnerable to people around him. The Robin I first met would never have considered letting Sandy become an 'initiate' and future possibility of a Titan. And the Robin I first met would never….never….."

Raven's voice trailed…as did her indigo eyes. They glanced liquidly across a space in the bluffs.

Curious, Cyborg glanced to follow her gaze.

Starfire and Robin sat on the edge of a huge rock, looking out into the waters, chatting pleasantly. Robin smiled as he said something and Starfire giggled.

"Well….all the better, I'd say," Cyborg smiled. A beat. He beamed over at Raven. "Are you jealous??"

The dark girl's eyes bulged. "No!! If Robin and Starfire…..if those two…..No!! That is not the case at all!" Raven folded her arms. She sighed through her nostrils and muttered: "And besides….."

"Besides what?"

"……..y-you know….."

A beat.

Cyborg looked down. "Yeah…….that…….."

"But don't pity me," Raven said.

"I didn't say I was going to."

"I know…but if there's anything I learn about the Titans, there's not much to 'saying' things anymore. A word is such a relative thing."

"But what if you can't talk?" Cyborg smirked.

Raven glanced at him. A beat. "That reminds me…..I'm worried about something else."

"What?"

Raven hesitated. She pensively bit her lip and glanced off towards the horizon.

"What is it, Raven?"

"It's about Noir…."

"Naturally."

"…..and Supergirl."

"………….oh." A beat. Cyborg sat down on a rock. "I'm all ears."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Fighting crime while going to high school at the same time? Yeah…it has its drawbacks. But it also has advantages! Can you believe it?"_

I smiled. I relaxed on the sofa with the phone to my ear. I tapped the phone once.

_"You can? Then allow me to share…_"

That's all I wanted.

_"All the guys. And I do mean ALL the guys dig me."_

_'…………'_

_"Er……'Supergirl', that is."_

I mouthed an "oh" which she couldn't possibly see and chuckled breathily.

_"Kara, on the other hand…she has to remain undercover. And you saw me the first time, right?"_

_'Yes.'_

_"Right. Dark wig. Glasses. Dresses like an early nineties reject……"_

I raised an eyebrow.

_What did an Argosian know about the nineties……?_

_"I've got a few guys who have their eye on me. The really quiet and sweet type. Kinda like you."_

I rolled my black eyes….but smirked.

_"But all of them—as well as the jocks and alpha males—I swear, they've all made some comment about Supergirl or another. 'Dude, she's so hot!' 'Angel of Metropolis'. 'Foxy alien chick'."_

I snickered.

_"What??"_

I cleared my throat.

_"Is something funny?" _

_'No.'_

_"Hmmmm……a-anyways. I hear that stuff—like—everyday. Especially in shop class. There're like two billion guys sitting around me. And……like……isn't that the wyrdest thing to live with??"_

_'Yes.'_

_"Just……hearing how cool and kickass you are by the word of tongue all around you and not being able to do anything about it. Rrrrgh. It's frustrating and flattering at the same time. I-I know I can't complain…but…ya know?"_

I smiled.

_"I bet all the girls around town talk about you all the time."_

My eyes trailed the corners of my shades. I couldn't honestly respond to that….

_What was my life outside of the Tower………?_

_"That's all bearable in a high school situation. But it's crazier when you hear the call while you're in the middle of class."_

I bit my lip.

_"Er…the call of duty that is."_

I sighed with relief.

_"This one day, I was in the middle of gym when I heard a police siren from beyond the lockerrooms. And it sounded like it was speeding by really quickly. Which—on these country roads—seems pretty normal. But these cops were REALLY booking it! So, since I was in the process of changing, I whipped out the tank top of Steel---hehe—and tore on out of there to kick some butt. Er……the butt ended up being a cow stampede two miles away. But…I-I made it there pretty quickly, at least!"_

I chuckled breathily and nodded.

_"When I came back, gym class was completely over with. So I scurried into the gym to change back into 'Kara' so that nobody would notice me and I would get in trouble just for a one-class absence, right?"_

_'Yes.'_

_"Well, I had my clothes……my backpack……but my locker wouldn't open. So I forced it open with my powers and promised to fix it later………until I realized that it wasn't my locker at all!"_ A dramatic pause for effect. Then she said: _ "I was in the guys' lockerroom!! And just then, I could hear the football team coming! So I hid in a utility closet and prayed for it all to be over…"_

I covered a hand over my mouth and curled over. My breath was trying to find vocal cords to laugh through.

_"I made it out of there safely, of course. To this day, I don't think anyone knew that I was in there. But………to say the least………I didn't sleep at all much that night."_

I swallowed.

_"Dang, it feels cool being able to share these stories with someone for once. I wish I could hear all about you, Jordan!"_

I gulped. I sighed slightly. My mind wandered…but soon returned without much hesitancy.

Regardless….I tapped once.

_'Yes.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I have promises to keep," Raven told Cyborg. "But it's no secret that I had a difficult time trusting Supergirl when we met up with her in Smallville."

"Oh, you mean Kara?" Cyborg smirked.

Raven glared. "Supergirl…that's right." A beat. "Anyways…I won't go into any incriminating detail, but I saw a potential there for Noir to be hurt. Really, really hurt."

"By Kara?"

"Yes," Raven nodded. "Don't get me wrong. She's an exceptional hero and she has done much to prove herself worthy…."

"I'd say!"

"….but….if I were Noir, I wouldn't understand exactly what he sees in her that's so redeemable. I don't see the point in being an emotional person like Noir and yet allowing yourself to be….potentially hurt by someone. There's no logic in it."

"Well…of course not, Raven," Cyborg rubbed his human head and pointed. "Even if Supergirl is capable of hurting Noir—which I frankly don't understand—a human being like Noir is more than capable of accepting that."

"Accepting pain?"

"Uh huh. When you live by emotions, Rae, you deal with pain just as much as you do when you live without them. People like Noir…they accept the pain and risk of socialization and friendship because there are benefits along the way too. While you restrict the mental luxuries of your entire life on account of pain, Noir must accept all that life has to throw at him. They're two different sides of the fence, really."

"I know that…," Raven said, her blue eyes trailing. "At least…I think I do."

Cyborg placed a hand on her shoulder and caught her attention. He seemed on the border of solemnity and cheerfulness. "Rae," he said, "…it's okay to be worried about your teammates. I'm sure it's not breaking some prime directive of your brain/emotion/meditation stuff. As mature and sound in yourself that you are, Raven….you can't possibly understand everything. N-No offence."

"No, Cyborg…you make perfect sense," Raven sighed.

A beat.

"And besides….you can hate Supergirl for stealing Noir away," Cyborg winked.

Raven's eyes burned holes in him. "Now you're de-evolving."

"Suit yourself."

Raven stood up, smoothed her robe, and headed down the path. "I don't think Robin's the only one changing."

"Hey…," Cyborg stood up, shrugged, and followed her along. "I'm not complaining!"

"….."

"……"

"……Cyborg?"

"Yeah, Rae?"

"Thanks……ya know."

"Thank yourself, girl."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"…and that's how you make an Argosian Sundae. Though I must admit, trying to make it here on Earth is nowhere near as nice as the real deal back at……home. Ahem. You see……cows here make nice milk, but it's nothing like the cream processed from herds of Brown Field Scur'lalen from the Upper Continent. When there WAS an Upper Continent, that is. That stuff could possibly give a Terran a buzz who's never experienced Argosian Sundaes before. Hehehe!"_

A bit of a pause.

Kara sighed on her end.

_"Do you think we can really……truly meet again someday?"_

Silence.

_"Jordan??"_

'Yes.'

A breath. Then: _"Just like in person…so quiet."_

I smiled.

_"Look……um……I-I gotta go. Hang up, ya know. Before I get grounded again……and this time for the phone bill."_

I sweatdropped.

_"I wish there was a……way to converse from both ends. Ya know? Instead of me yapping my head off."_

I looked around hurriedly. I saw Robin's laptop. I held the receiver over to it and tapped a button on the built-in mouse.

-tap-

**"You've got mail!"**

I held the receiver back, smiling proudly.

_"Hehehehe!! Of course! Duh!! Okay……okay……you ready?"_

I raised an

_"For my e-mail address, silly!"_

I breathed. I tapped once.

_'Yes.'_

I rolled my eyes and wrote it down with a smirk.

_"I'd love to find out yours. But I guess you could just e-mail it to me and that'd be simple. And if we can't get talking online to work, then I could just learn morse code. Hehehehe."_ A beat. _"You…d-do enjoy this………phone stuff, right?"_

_'Yes.'_

_"Hehehe…really quick on that response."_

_'Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.'_

She giggled some more.

I felt proud for some silly reason.

_"Oooh…um…anyways, I gotta go. It's………r-really nice…to talk to you, Jordan."_

_'Yes.'_

"Until…later………"

I waved at the open air.

-click-

I put the phone down, sighed happily, and leaned back with my hands behind my head.

A beat.

"…………."

I slowly looked up.

Raven, Cyborg, Starfire, and Beast Boy had paused in what they were doing—some of them having just reentered the Main Room—and were staring at me. Silent. Humored.

I blushed furiously. I cleared my throat, stood up on wobbly legs, and hand-signed nervously.

"What is he saying?" Starfire asked.

Cyborg smirked. "'The phone is free for grabs now'."

"Right….," Raven droned.

Beast Boy started snickering. Evilly.

I clenched my fists and pondered on eighteen different ways to teleport, blur, or dash over there via murk and punch him out when Robin suddenly rushed in from a stairwell.

"Titans! Trouble!" he exclaimed.

The five of us looked over.

"What is it?" Raven asked.

"There's been a breakout from the prison. A high-risk criminal is now loose in the City. I have with me here a printout of security cameras taken at the breakout. Sent to me by the new warden himself!"

"Well, who is it?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

I walked over, curious.

Robin's lips were firm as he held up the photo.

"Eek!" Starfire cupped her hands together.

"Aww man…not again," Cyborg groaned.

Beast Boy seemed most winded. "Dude….this is not gonna be clean."

I shrugged. A challenge was a challenge.

Robin placed the photo down on a coffee table. "If reports are correct…he should still be in Town! Let's go track him down!"

"Right!" Cyborg nodded.

"Teen Titans! Go!"

Raven and Cyborg headed for the elevator.

Robin went down the chute.

Starfire and Beast Boy floated towards the window.

I paused before blurring towards the windows. I looked down at the security photo.

In black and white obscurity of a smashed jail cell, the rampaging Fang looked royally pissed.

_So much for supper tonight……_

I sighed and exited the Tower.


	99. Those Black Eyes part 1

**99. Those Black Eyes part 1**

_"Ahhh…my latest masterpiece…"_

_"Okay…that's really obsessive of you. I mean…we're all part of a club and all…but is that really necessary?"_

_"It's called a creative application of one's love."_

"Love??"

"One of these days…I'm going to meet Robin…and I'm going to make him mine."

"Hehehe……that's gonna happen soon."

"Right…"

"I'm serious! He'd drop dead for me. Lord knows I'd drop dead for him."

"Ever heard of fantasies, Tiffany? Stick to them. They'll make you much happier than real life will."

"Listen to you, Janice. You're one true friend. Pfft!! Like…can't you see I'm desperate here?? Pass the glue, Hope."

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

"Don't think that you can make yourself appear any less pathetic by admitting to desperation, Tiffany. How many letters have you sent to the Tower?"

"Er……I……"

"Hehehe! She's sent in four, at least! I know! I helped her postmark them!"

"Shhh!! Shut up, Hope! Like…you promised not to say anything!!"

"Tiffany, you realize that they never really answer that stuff in person, right?"

_"That's exactly what I was trying to tell her! They get people in the Tower to scan through them and stuff."_

"That's where you're wrong, Hope! You too, Janice! Only the Titans live in the Tower! All six of them!"

"Point being……?"

_"It's so cool! Just six teenagers running the show in that super huge building of theirs! And fighting crime to boot! Like…if I could go out on my own at my age, I wouldn't spend time chasing crooks all around the City! That's a little too boring, you know what I mean? They've got guts! That's what the Titans have got! Just a little fan mail won't scare them!"_

"Just a little?"

"Tiffany…you put lipstick on and kiss the letters before sending them to Robin."

"Yes……well……"

_"And you perfume them too—"_

"Okay, HOPE! Let's hear all about your own obsession before you continue to blast mine!"

"What do you mean?"

"How's the Beast Boy Rocks Message Board going online?"

"Oh……that…hehe………one hundred and fifty two members."

"And climbing?"

_"Yup. We've got this really popular role playing section of the forum. Nearly fifty posts a day! We've got this really cool endless story in full swing. Nearly twenty members portraying real and made-up characters."_

"And just who do you role-play as?"

"Well……um………'B-Beast Girl'."

"Oh my gawd……hahahaha!!"

"Ha ha ha ha! Beast Girl?? Boy, that's original."

"Hey! Shut up! She has a really cool background story!"

"Do tell…"

"Really! She's this girl from South America who had experiments done on her and the only way that she can live is after being taken to the Tower and sharing an injection of Beast Boy's plasma so that she too can become animals or elves and avoid being human. Cuz…ya know…being human is what kills someone with the powers of Beast Boy."

"Uhhhh……"

"Okay."

"I…I-I try to give Beast Girl a low profile in the role playing story. There're so many other characters to balance and—"

"None as good as the Webmistress' Mary Sue, I bet!"

"Hey! She's not a Mary Sue!"

"Hehehe! She sure issssss!"

"Grrrrr."

"I think it's really cute, Hope. Really. I've read your fics before…I bet your RPing would be just as good."

"Thanks, Janice. It means a lot, really."

"I think you should just cheer up and keep it going as it is. You've got a great following for your writing after setting up that Beast Boy message board and all, right?"

"I……er……"

"Ahem…well, good luck is all I can say."

"And how's your fanfic going, Janice? I heard you've started on another one."

"Ah yes. The latest in my series of Starfire and Raven slash."

"Like…ew!"

"Ah, those. I read one of the ones you sent me, Janice……and I haven't gotten arrested."

"How can you write stuff like that? I mean…it doesn't even make any sense!"

"It sure as Hell does! Don't you see? Raven and Starfire…the only girl Titans…completely opposite types of powers and personalities…forced to endure the immature egotism of the males………They have no alternative BUT to flock into each other's arms and weather the burden of their disassembled lives!"

"Yeah…b-but…the slash part?"

"Well, no reason for them to be bored."

"Ewwwwwwww."

"I think it's cute………in a frightening way."

"Heheheh…yeah. What do you think, Lisa?"

"………"

"Uhm……hello? Earth to Lisa?"

I was interrupted from shading in an eye with a dark pencil. I immediately closed my writing pad and looked up. I was a bit confuzzled…

"Uh……y-yeah?" I uttered.

Janiced looked straight at me. A tall and narrow girl as always, with black Cher hair that angled her neck better than a spine ever could. "Off in Picasso world again?" she smirked at me.

"Pfft…I wish," I opened the sketch pad and began shading the eye again. I was a bit embarrassed, so I kept the paper out of sight of my friends. It was early morning. Ten to fifteen minutes till the warning bell of first period at West City High. The first week of school. Sophomore year was feeling stale. But at least I had these girls to remind me how ludicrous last year was…and how ludicrous the future can be. "This is the sort of stuff that keeps me awake," I said. I momentarily raised my writing hand to move a dangling lock of brown hair up and over my right ear. "Not to mention sane."

"You're sketching a Titan, aren't you?" Janice smirked.

"What of it?"

"You're almost as bad as Tiffany over there."

I momentarily glanced over at Tiffany. The blonde thing that was my closest link to 'normal' society. A pink laden creature with curls, Tiffany was busily hunched over her edge of the picnic table…where she was gluing together her latest in colorful Robin collages. Newspaper prints, magazine photos, and computer printouts flocked together to create a casserole of testosterone with colors of red, green, and yellow mingling with black. The girl cooed and dreamily sighed…almost oblivious of my sudden awareness.

"There's a major difference between her and I," I droned. I looked at Janice. "I'm an artist."

"Ah…that you are," Janice winked.

Hope giggled. "We're all so helpless."

"Glad for it."

"Need more glue, Tiffany?"

"I think I need a shower break."

"Okay…someone woke up on the wrong side of the pituitary glands this morning."

"How're you doing, Hope?" I asked across the table.

"Thanks for asking, Lisa. I'm quite fine. You?"

I managed a short-lived smirk and returned to my shading.

Hope was a little angel. And I do mean 'little'. She looked more like a middle schooler than a sophomore in high school. I think she went through some sort of eating disorder when she hit puberty. I don't know how else to explain her tiny frame that contrasts with her explosion of auburn hair. But she was a sweet thing. And creative too. And did I mention she loved Beast Boy?

_"Where're you gonna put that vomit piece of yours this time, Tiffany?" _

_"In the sleeve of my notebook."_

"But you already have your four notebooks completely full of Robin stuff."

"Then I'll get another notebook!"

"What's the point in getting another notebook?!"

"Fine! Like……I'll get another class!"

"Pfft…whatever," Janice rolled her eyes. She smirked at me. "It's like kicking a stone."

"Are we all still on for tonight?" Hope asked.

"Hell yeah!" Janice grinned wide. "Seven O'Clock at my place!"

"Will your stepparents be at home? They didn't seem so happy last time."

"Nah, they don't care. They just get angry about little things without meaning to. You're all gonna come, right?"

"I will," Hope smiled. "Can I b-borrow your computer once so I can check on e-mail?"

"Sure thing, girl."

"I wanna see if any of my fellow RPers have responded to my latest string in the story."

Tiffany sighed dreamily while cupping her hands and looking all over the collage. "Oh Robin……you are the door that turns my knob……"

"Er……"

"How about you, Tiffany?"

"Hmmm?" the blonde cooed at the collage.

"Are you coming??"

"And how!"

"…………"

"…………"

"…………I mean to the club meeting at my place tonight, you hornball!"

"Oh! Um……s-sure!"

"Sheesh, I swear to God," Janice shook her head. "How about you, Lisa?"

I looked up from my masterpiece. "S-Sure. I've got nothing else to do."

Janice chuckled deeply. "Surely that's not the only reason you're coming?! Cuz you're bored?"

I stared at her. I was deadpan.

"Okaaaay," Janice slid out of from under the table and stood up. "If you'll all excuse me, I've got an English class to snooze through, and I can't be late." She hoisted her backpack up and sauntered off. "Ta ta, estrogen. See ya tonight."

"See ya, Janice."

"Bye, Janice."

"Later."

The girl walked off.

"Rghhh," I mumbled like a dying locomotive and put my sketchpad away. "I'm too bored to not be bored. Come, Hope. Let's go to Chemistry already."

"Isn't that rather redundant? We've got enough chemistry with Tiffany here! Well…potentially…"

"Leave me alone with my Robin…"

"Whatever, Sister."

_West City High is a rich school. Or that is to say, a bunch of prep kids fornicate their imaginations, sports cars, and fashion statements all across the campus. I knew I hated it when I was born. I was born because my mother was asleep when I was conceived. Or at least that's what she told me. I suppose enough blows to the head with a boyfriend's fist would put me to sleep too. That 'boyfriend' was my dad. He had already ditched my Mom a year or two before she died of some sort of aneurism. Probably from all the blows she took from day one in her bummed life. Somehow I fell into the arms of a sister I didn't even know I had. She had some money……well…enough for an apartment in the West side of the City nice enough that there were no yelling voices or domestic wargames through the neighboring walls. I entered what turned out to be a pretty-okay life feeling all the piles of shit that made up this thing called 'me'. Which makes it absolutely ridiculous what I'm doing in a public school full of so many preppy kids to begin with._

So, naturally I felt left out. I hung around by myself a lot. I turned to sketching. Sketching is a bitterly beautiful thing. You don't like the world? Boom. You draw your own. You can sorta exhaust your maternal instincts by being an artist. Sketch a kid…an unborn fetus…anything you want. You invent your own future. Then you paste it up on the wall and—viola! Everything real is fantastic and everything fantastic is real. There's no need for a family. I'll be an old maid at age sixty if I can help it. As long as I can still draw. That's all that matters. That's all that really matters.

But to humor myself, I joined this club. It's a Teen Titans' Club. Who the Hell knows why I decided to do something as stupid as deign to be part of a fangirl…clique thing. But that's just it. It's an innocent cliques. Full of people just about as moronic and shitty inside as myself. Well, maybe not Tiffany. She's just a dumb blonde. But we all love her.

It was Janice that got me into the group. She invited me to one of the meetings….back when the fanclub had more groups in it. All girls, of course. Janice wouldn't have it anyway else. The first night I attended, I figured I was just her pity friend. And then I realized Janice was flirting with me. But that's all right. I don't swing that way…but then again, I don't swing the other way either. All I do is draw. So when I was propositioned into attending the club another night, I said 'sure'. I never really paid attention at first. I just went through my drawing pad while everyone else yakked off. But then I grew genuinely interested. Ironically, the club thinned down to a total of four girls. But that's all right. I couldn't imagine partaking in anything bigger. A person like me who already feels small doesn't need to feel smaller.

Why do I like the Titans? Why do I think about them night and day? I suppose it's only natural in this City. If I was in Metropolis, I'd be thinking of Blueboy all the time. But that's not the case. I'm just going with the flow…as long as the flow deals with six teenagers who chase down criminals with wild abandon. And they've gotten darker as of late. Which I know Janice loves.

And I do too……

_So I became a fangirl. So I'm pathetic. So I'm twice as shitty as I was when I started going to this high school. But it's cool. I'm dark. I'm very dark. I can live with the shadows of my head…or whatever you'd find in one of Hope's poems. There's not much else in my life that thrills me. Besides drawing of course. But I suppose things are blending. Blending like all the colors of the sun…only absorbed._

Black.

_"Don't forget to write your findings down! Everything you see! Your observations! It's all a part of the experiment! Failing to be detailed will result in one of five points deducted!"_

I grumbled: "An awful lot of damn work for measuring the volume of a turd."

"Shhh…," Hope hissed quietly while eyeing the water level inside a tiny vial.

I sighed and wrote a few meaningless words on the sheet. I paused. Beside it I drew the Teen Titans logo.

My lips curved ever so slightly.

"Must…get this……exactly right…," Hope stammered while scribbling away on her sheet. We were 'lab buddies' in the middle of Chemistry class. At our school, periods lasted nearly an hour and a half each. It was Hell.

"You work too hard, girl," I muttered.

"Not all of us are kosher with just a 'C'."

"_**'B'**__," I corrected. "Besides, I'd be kosher as long as all of this was actually relevant to my future."_

"Well, it's relevant to mine. I wanna be a Science major."

"You have my condolences."

"And just what do _**you**__ want to pursue, Lisa?"_

I smirked. "I want to be a bounty hunter. I get to punch people's faces in without asking."

"Ooooh…Miss badass," she giggled. Scribbling with her Hello Kitty pen on the lab clipboard besides the vials.

God, I loved Hope.

"Blah…"

"You really bored, Lisa?"

"I'm just thinking………"

"About what?"

"Do the Titans have homework?"

"I don't even think they go to school."

"Oh…like that's really fair and shit."

"Seriously! I bet they all cram in between crime fighting."

"With what? Textbooks on tape?"

"I don't think it's that simple."

"They're probably all child geniuses and stuff."

"Cyborg could probably store stuff in that electronic brain of his."

A beat.

I scratched my chin.

"But…what if they did go to school?"

"You mean……"

"As alternate identities!"

"Robin could pull that off. Maybe Beast Boy too. If he had skin paint."

"Cyborg and Raven?"

"I dunno……the titanium and chakra stone would be a dead giveaway."

"Maybe they're in this class right now and we don't know it, Hope!" I performed a mock gasp.

She giggled. "Please, you're distracting me."

"Come on…you'd love to have a seat next to Beast Boy, wouldn't you?"

"Not as much as Tiffany would love a seat next to Robin. Heck, she'd take his seat at the same time."

"Ugh."

"What?"

"Just thinking about that one fic Janice sent me," I blushed and looked at my petite friend. "Ya know…the one in which Starfire and Raven end up going to school and—"

"—they do it in the broom closet. Yeah. I know. And I'm traumatized."

"I like Janice's writing style………it's just……"

"I wonder if the Titans read her stuff," Hope smirked. "Janice posts that stuff on the Net, ya know."

"Ooh…what if Beast Boy's an active member of your fan club?"

Hope blushed furiously. "That would be……………nice."

I smirked. "I bet." I liked it when Hope was happy. I liked it when all of my acquaintances were happy. Lord knows it was good for them. Myself…that's another matter.

_Janice and I sat across from each other in a table at the library. We were from different classes…but ironically researching at the same time. The day was nearly halfway over. And we were more or less focused on our assignments at hand………with an emphasis on the 'less'._

_"So here is what I think…," Janice smirked at the pages in her encyclopedia._

_"Hmmm?" I uttered. I sketched Raven's chakra stone on the corner of my periodical. It was vandalism. So what? "Go on. I'm listening."_

"The reason why there are so many fangirls online obsessing over a possible love relationship between Robin and Starfire is simply the sadistic whim of karma!"

_"Meaning……"_

"Starfire and Raven are destined for each other. It's more than obvious."

"Janice……you should write for the tabloids."

"I'm serious! What other pair of people in the Tower could benefit the most from an intimate relationship?"

"Hmmm………I dunno……Cyborg and Beast Boy?"

"……………………wow………I never thought of that."

"Pffft!! I was just kidding!"

"You kid with great wisdom!! I'm gonna write a Cyborg-Beast Boy fic when I get home. Just you wait and see!"

"Will Beast Boy be slitting his wrist and chanting depressing poetry like in your last story with Raven—"

"Hey! I was going through a phase!"

"So were your readers," I rubbed my temple and shaded in the chakra stone. "Don't you get creeped out by writing that shit?"

"You try it someday. It'll vent emotions."

"What? Slitting my wrists?"

"Writing, silly girl!"

"Pfft…I already have a hobby."

"And that is?"

I smirked and lifted a pencil.

"I see." A beat. Janice leaned forward with a smile. "It's great to see you grin. If even slightly, Lisa."

"How do you mean?"

"You've been so……quiet lately. And glum. Like the weight of the world is on your shoulders or some puppy died in your womb or something. You get where I'm coming from?"

"No………thankfully."

"I'm just……concerned about you, Lisa."

I felt her fingers on my writing wrist. But they were cool and inviting…not warm and demanding.

I looked up and saw a concerned look on her face.

"Your eyes lately are glazed. Lifeless. Like you've seen something die in front of you each morning upon waking up."

I sighed. "If my eyes are glazed…it matters little. They're my eyes…not anyone else's."

"Nobodies placing any bets, girl," Janice smiled slightly and leaned back. "I just hope you're not living in depressville without telling anyone."

"I grew up with my own fair share of crap, Janice," I muttered. I folded my arms. "Besides…it could be worst. I could be Alan Merrington over there."

"Huh?" Janice turned and looked across the library. "Ah. Good Goddess alive…don't they ever let up on him?"

The two of us stared as a small, brown-haired, martyr of a young boy was being heckled by a bunch of tragically familiar jocks from the nearby hallway. The boy—the 'Alan' in question—tried his futile best to perform his Algebra studies. But between the chuckle-filled shove to the back or the stealing of an important notebook off the tabletop, he was having very little success. Regardless of the oppression, he remained deadpan and calm throughout. I knew his patience was the thing of depression.

The hissing 'shhhh' of the library dispassionately quieted the jocks, who merely shrugged, laughed, and tossed Alan's books every which way on their way out of the library.

"Is it just me…," Janice smirked sadistically, "…or does life choose its scum pawns at random? Hahahaha…"

I stared at him silently. I sighed.

_I noticed Alan Merrington on the first day at West City High. And perhaps it's unfair that I ever became…fixated with him. I was merely taken back by his depressing state of existence, rather than the person he was himself. Which is just as well. I was never truly infatuated with him or anything. At least……I don't think I was._

I have this thing for obsessing with people who are either depressed or dark. And since Alan wasn't the latter, I started thinking about him for the former. Hell, I even dreamed about him. He became my nightmares. Some poor sap of a kid who only tried to conform intellectually with the world, and all that was ever returned to him was a laugh or a knuckle sandwich.

Alan wasn't so much of a nerd as he was……well……the scapegoat for the world's cumulative dark energies. I suppose that is the best way to sum it up. He didn't have any friends. And he didn't seem to want to try and have any.

I started talking to him that summer. We both were volunteering at a police department for scholarships. I never told him about the times I saw him being tormented by bullies and whatnot in the hallways. But I suppose it wouldn't have made a difference if I had. He was a shell of a person now. If Janice wanted to talk about people with glazed looks in their eyes…she should have rethought it through in her head and focused in on Alan. Hell, maybe if some other girl took it upon herself to obsess over the poor boy…I wouldn't be so………occupied.

It gave me things to sketch about. More surreality. More pretend. More pretend……

_"Hey, Alan."_

"Hmmm?" the boy looked up from his locker. He was shorter than me. "Oh…hi Lisa." His voice sounded so full of disappointment. But it was normal. "How are you today?"

"You seemed to have your hands full in the library earlier. You okay?"

"Huh? Oh………that. You were there?"

"Kinda sorta. I was studying with Janice across the way."

"Janice??"

"You know…the girl with the dark hair? Always dresses in black?"

"Oh right. The lesbian."

"Well……she's actually sorta freelance lesbian. But…yeah. Close enough."

"How's the Titans club going?"

"Oh……the usual. Just four of us these days."

"No kidding?"

"Yeah……numbers dwindle."

"What ever happened to that Heather girl?"

"Heather? Oh……I slit her throat, gutted her, and stuffed her in my closet," I joked blandly.

"I see," he nodded and stuffed his backpack with study materials. "Fascinating."

That was why I liked Alan…I guess. He could take a baseball bat to the head and shrug it off like Commander Spock.

_"Look…," I gestured, "…you wanna walk home together? We're only a block apart."_

He sighed. "I don't need a chaperone."

"Not a chaperone. For crying out loud…I just want someone to share my shadow on the way home. These streets get positively nasty this time of year. I bet you'd benefit from a walking buddy yourself, Alan."

"Yeah…I suppose. Two days ago, some punks on bicycles kicked me into the curb."

"Is that why your elbow's bruised?"

"No. That was Walter Paige in first period gym class."

"Alan…why the Hell do you let these kids pick on you so?"

He shrugged. "It happens." He closed his locker with a bit of force: the only hint of his inner frustration. "I'm not one to dictate fate."

"But you can always talk back."

"I never talk back. I talk with," he said. "As rare as it is…I'll talk to people who talk to me. Not talk against or about me."

"Want to talk about nothing while we walk?"

"Sure."

_I've walked with Alan before. It was no biggie. We were a lot alike. Or so I thought at the time._

"I can understand why you girls like the Titans so much…," Alan rambled as we trodded down the sidewalk. Mid afternoon traffic roared past us. Pigeons hovered around awnings and businessmen and women filed in and out of hotel fronts of the City buildings towering above us. "Four of the Titans are guys. And supposedly handsome guys. It must be lucky to be a fangirl in this day and age."

I shrugged while walking. "That's not the way it works for Janice—"

"But the others. That blonde and the midget."

I smirked slightly. "Tiffany likes Robin and the midget—Hope—likes Beast Boy. Yes. It happens."

"Who do you like?"

"First off," I redirected, "…what about you?"

"I'm not much of a Titans fan."

"But surely Starfire and Raven are to die for."

Alan shrugged. "I guess."

I glanced at him sideways.

"It doesn't really matter anyways."

"Does it hurt to have an imagination?" I asked.

"Sometimes."

I winced.

"I hear some of you write and some of you draw."

"I draw," I nodded. "Hope and Janice writes."

"And Tiffany?"

"She does other stuff with her fingers. Hardly creative."

"But not all of us have to be creative," Alan said. "And not all of us have to like the Titans. They're just…lucky people is all. I'm sure some of us can obsess over them and find ways to distract ourselves from our own lives. But that's all the heroes are good for when they're not stopping crime. Distraction. Fantasy."

I took a deep breath. Everything Alan said, I believed in. But he was so destitute a soul that he would actually speak it out loud. All I could ever do with life was stare dispassionately at it and draw colors that didn't exist.

"But if I had to choose……um………Supergirl?" Alan's eyes squinted.

"Um……she's not a Titan."

"She isn't?"

"Nope."

"Well…screw it then," he grunted. "She'd might as well be."

"You sound so down, Alan. Do you always get this despondent when we talk about girls?"

"Perhaps."

I glanced at him curiously. "You are……um………ya know……"

"I like girls, Lisa," he grumbled. "Just……don't have time for them."

"Don't be shitting me. Of course you do."

"No, I don't," he emphasized. "School takes up too much of my time."

"With what? Head-In-Toilet-Bowl 101?"

"That isn't funny……"

"I'm sorry," I sighed. "I just don't see why you let those punks constantly take advantage of you."

"Life is all about being taken advantage," Alan said. "The whole point of existence is learning to be humbled."

I thought about my mother. I wanted to punch something. The nearest person was Alan. So I restrained myself for later…

"It's a hot day," Alan wiped the sweat from his brow.

I glanced at the familiar building front coming up to our right.

_"Wanna step up to my place momentarily?"_

"What for?"

"I got lemonade," I said. "It may be Fall soon, but it's still hot."

"Pavement ocean will do that."

"So how about it?"

"Well……I suppose I'm in no hurry this afternoon."

"Good…maybe you could go cruising for girls right away."

"Up to your apartment we go…," Alan grumbled and walked in through the entrance.

_I opened the door with my key and walked in._

Alan trailed me.

"Is your sister in?" he asked.

"Nah, she's working."

"What's her job?"

"She's a waitress by day."

"And by night?"

"An even sexier waitress."

"Heh. Lovely."

"Naw, I'm just kidding," I closed the door behind us. It was a good apartment. And when I say 'good', I mean two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and an awkwardly large living room. There were two wide windows leading to a fire escape. We were on the eighth floor of the building. Beyond the edge of the adjacent building, one could look out and see a piece of the Bay. It was……'good'. "I was just trying to get a reaction of you, Alan."

"Well it didn't' work."

"Didn't think it would. Lemonade?"

"Yeah, sure."

I shuffled over into the kitchen and poured the two of us a glass. Homemade lemonade. The best stuff. I was glad Alan could trust me. _"My sister does urban real estate," I said as I handed him his glass and picked up my backpack again. "She keeps telling me that some day she'll be investing in the really bigass, rich skyrises and earning enough for us to move to Westhaven or something."_

"Do you look forward to that?"

"I look forward to a day when one can get a buzz off of lemonade."

"I see. Fine."

I sipped from my glass, hoisted my backpack, and headed for my room. "Follow me. I wanna show you something."

"Whatever." He sipped some. "I never got to ask you. Who's _**your**__ favorite Titan?"_

I opened the door. One window was dimly lighting my room, but not enough. So I flipped on a bulb overhead in the ceiling.

"Guess." I uttered.

_-click-_

_Alan blinked._

The wall of my room stretched besides the bed was covered from ceiling to knee-level with sketches. Black and white pieces of art that I had carefully shaded and constructed by hand. Some were in anime style, some in classic western comic art style, but most were the most accurate and flattering portraits I could muster.

And they were all of one Titan in particular……

_"Ah…," Alan sipped from his glass some. "I should have guessed."_

"Yeah……I'm a dark freak."

"So……did the fact that he once was a bad guy phase you at all?"

I tossed the backpack onto my bed with a fwomp! "No." I folded my arms and observed the dozens of Noirs splayed across the wall like a shrine. "Besides…Robin was once a 'bad guy', and all the girls still swoon over him."

"Touche'," Alan nodded. "I hear all the girls swoon over this new guy too. Decided to join the flock."

"I don't see him in that manner," I said. I fingered the edge of one printout I had neglected to sticker down to the wall like all the others. "It's rather complicated……I guess. Noir just seems so……so……"

"Depressed?"

I looked at Alan.

Alan looked back.

"He………smiles……ya know," I remarked. "Ever seen photos taken at public gatherings?"

"I guess it's just that he doesn't talk and he wears shades all the time."

"It's like he's keeping a secret," I murmured…staring at the multiple images like a psychedelic fly's eye.

"Wait……crap…," Alan suddenly uttered. "You drew all of these?!"

"Um……duh."

"I'm sorry, Lisa. I didn't realize," he gulped. "They're certainly………beautiful."

"Beautiful?"

"Yeah. Must have taken you forever."

I shrugged. I reached into my backpack and pulled out the sketch I had worked on at the picnic table that morning.

_"I work whenever I'm not busy breathing and stuff. It keeps me sane."_

I can only imagine.

"This is my latest work," I taped it on the wall above my bed alongside all the other sketches. "I don't know whether to be proud or scared."

Alan leaned forward curiously.

"Hey……Noir's sunglasses are off."

"Yup," I nodded.

"And his eyes………they're…"

"Black," I pointed at the dark shading I applied across the entire optics. "Solid……black……"

"I thought that was only a rumor."

"There's this one photo on the Internet," I said. "Supposedly it was taken by one of the police officers who was there the night Viper bit the dust."

"Ah yeah…the old desalination plant."

"It's a little grainy…but it shows Noir without his shades off."

"Is it his secret identity?"

"I have no idea," I twirled a lock of brown hair besides my ear and stared at my creation. "But it certainly……intrigues me."

"I can only imagine."

"How'd those eyes get that way. Does it hurt him to have black eyes? Are they useful in some manner that makes them equally a curse?"

"I suppose only he could tell……and yet still," Alan pointed. "The guy can't talk."

I nodded. "Yeah……sad that."

"I see you draw the scar on his neck well in all of these pics," Alan said. "Any news camera could catch that a mile away."

"Is it just me…or is the latest Titan to join the team the most……badass and mysterious?"

"I still have my chips betting on Robin in that department."

"Fine by me. Just don't develop a crush on him."

"Why…cuz that'd make me gay?"

_"No…cuz it'd make you cliché."_

"And who do you have a crush on, Lisa?" Alan suddenly asked.

I bit my lip and twirled my hair more.

"Robin or Noir?"

I breathed. Relaxed. Then said: "Noir, of course."

"Of course?"

I gestured stupidly at all of the sketches.

"Need you say more……," he mused.

"Nope," I shook my head. "Noir is……fantasy and fantasy alone."

"All the way to the black eyes."

"I'll admit that there's reality in that," I said. "And I intend to find out more."

"How?"

"Hell if I know," I sighed. "All I'll ever do is draw more."

"Yeah, I suppose."

A beat.

"Well…now it's time I kick you out," I gestured for Alan to follow me back into the atrium.

He stumbled along. "Have I offended you already?"

"Hardly," I reply. "I'm just late for a very important date."

"With who-----ohhhhhhhh right."

I almost smiled.

_The door opened._

Janice hopped out with a Frankenstein's Monster mask.

"Rrrrraugh!! Hello, glazed one!! Now give me your braaaaaaaain!!"

I stood in the apartment doorway, rolling one of my eyes.

"Hey there. Where's your girlfriend, Janice?"

Janice ripped the mask off and frowned. "Can't you take a joke?"

"I thought I just made one," I countered.

"That's cruel!"

"What, that your boyfriend would be Frankenstein's monster?"

"No, that I'd _**have**__ a boyfriend period!" Janice then smirked and motioned. "Come on in!"_

_I shuffled into her apartment. It was a loft on the very top of a building three blocks down from mine. Still in the same district. She led me up the ever-so-familiar stairs that opened to the rooftop of the fifteenth story. We walked across the stretch of roof under a glow of amber sunset as a crystalline, rooftop greenhouse rested before us. Warm and inviting._

"What's that satchel you got there on your hip?" Janice asked.

"Oh. Sketches. I made some fanart per request of you morons."

"Hehehehe……lovely. The girls are gonna dig them, I just know it!"

"Are they here already—"

"Yup! And now you! Club ready and assembled!"

Janice opened the glass door to the greenhouse. Under the shade of hanging plants and foliage, a picnic blanket stretched out and there sat the beautifully wilted forms of Tiffany and Hope. They looked up, bright and bushy-tailed that early evening.

Janice spread her arms out. "Ta to the daaaa!!"

Hope giggled. "Why, Miss Starfire! What strange clothes you're wearing!"

"All the more to eat you with, my dear," Janice winked. She gestured at me. "Have a seat, toots. Fangirl patheticness shall commence…but first lemme go grab some Pepsi for the stagnant road."

"Be back soon, pilgrim," I droned. I shuffled over and gave the two girls a mediocre gaze of glazed serenity. "So…Beach Blanket Bingo and Annette's not invited?"

"Well…the bean bag chairs were kinda yucky from last time," Hope blushed.

"I liked them!" Tiffany beamed. She was hugging a Robin plushie to her chest. Heh. "So what if Janice's dog slobbered all over them??"

Hope shuddered. "Ew. I hate dog. Dog is evil."

I smirked. I loved Hope. "You should get a cat, Hope."

"Eviler. They claw your eyes out."

"You know…for a girl who likes Beast Boy so much," Tiffany winked. "You sure are fickle with your animals."

_"It's not the same thing."_

"Tell that to your fantasies."

"I don't have any fantasies…"

"Sure you don't," Tiffany stuck her tongue out. "I'm the sane one. At least I know Robin wouldn't spontaneously turn into a wolf in the middle of—"

"SODA!!" Janice bounded back in. "I only had diet, that okay?"

"Like…whatever," Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Nutrasweet doesn't bother me."

"I'll give it a shot," Hope said, reaching out as Janice handed her and I one.

I flipped the can open and took a sip. "So…what's the first order of business?"

"Fan art! Fan art!" Hope chanted.

"Uh uh uh," Janice waved her finger. "Opening ceremony."

"Egads…," Tiffany grumbled. I don't even know why we do this still…"

"Come on! It's tradition!"

"Well, allright. Who wants to start?"

"I will!" Hope cheered. The nutrasweet must have already been kicking in.

"Take it up, girl."

Hope stood up, cleared her throat, and held her hand up. "All Titan admirers of the Titan Loft Club commune."

"_**Aye."**___

_Everyone collectively chanted in more or less passion._

_**"We members of the Titan Loft Club do hereby solemnly swear this week as every other week to support the Titans in their vigilantism and spread the word of their good deeds far and wide. So be it."**_

_"Gawd, that's corny," Tiffany grunted._

"So what?" Janice smirked. "It builds character."

Hope giggled.

"Allright then…fan art," I droned. I pulled a sheet or two out and handed them to Tiffany and Hope respectfully. "Hope you like it, Tiffany."

She was already drooling. "Oh…..dear Robin….where'd you get those abs….?"

"Eeek!" Hope remarked. "What type of picture did you make her?"

I stared. "Robin's body-building in the gym. Sorry, Tiff, I got sorta lazy with the background. I don't honestly know what the Titans' training room looks like…."

"Who cares about a background….," Tiffany murmured.

"How do you like yours, Hope?" Janice asked.

"It's great!" the girl smiled.

_"Can I see?"_

Hope hoisted the picture I drew up. One of the rare times I used color pencil. All six Titans were posing on a street corner. But there was a seventh member. It was Hope's physical description of 'Beast Girl', and I decided to take up the challenge and actually sketch her. She stood next to Beast Boy, of course. Her skin and hair were green—like his—but her hair was done in a long, braided ponytail like Hope told me she had always wanted it. I had fun doing her outfit…which looked like something stolen out of a cross-breed between Power Rangers and Tomb Raider. Don't ask.

"She's so cute!" Hope remarked, pointing at 'Beast Girl'.

"Gee, I wonder who Lisa drew inspiration from?" Janice remarked.

"Yeah…I wonder," I murmured.

"Seriously…she's awesome, Lisa," Hope said. "Thank you."

"I was hoping you'd like it." I then cleared my throat and looked at Janice, "Janice…sorry, but…I'm still working on yours."

"Oh, that's okay."

"I'm about halfway through it though. I'm having a hard time figuring out what Raven's wrist looks like….before I even start to draw blood coming out from it."

"It shouldn't be hard," Janice smirked. "Pale skin meets scarlet river."

"Ick," Tiffany mumbled.

"Hey…you gotta love the angsty and gothic nature of passion!" Janice grinned. "Wouldn't you love a vampire Robin for once, Tiff?"

"His teeth are good for smiling. And that's it."

"Robin smiling?" Hope giggled.

"Oh hush! He'd smile for me."

I tried not to laugh at that.

"So!" Hope jumped. "I had an interesting e-mail from one of my forum members tonight!"

"Oh really?"

"Do tell."

"Okay…he said that he heard from a website that they're coming out with an animated t.v. show."

"And animated t.v. show?"

"About the Titans."

"No way!"

"Whose permission would they have to get for that?"

"Beats me. The Titans' legend is pretty much public domain, I think."

"What I wonder is…how're they gonna speculate on the inside of the Tower and the secrets of the identities and whatnot? I mean…ARE they going to speculate at all?"

"I'm sure some creative license can be used."

"Who're they using for the art department?"

"They should hire Lisa."

"Hehehe…yeah! That'd be great!"

I rolled my eyes. "Not gonna happen. Not in this lifetime."

"Why not?"

"Best not to put one's hopes up for stuff like that. I draw because I'm as obsessive as you kids."

"Kids?! I'm the oldest one here, toots!"

"We all know that, Janice…."

"And that brings up another thing. How do you make a cartoon show about the Titans?"

"Uhhhhh—"

"With all the battles with Slade, Viper, Wyldecarde—you think that'd be too violent for a kid's show!"

I cleared my throat.

Janice chuckled. "My bad…Miss dark-lover over here."

"Thank you very much."

"Oye…what do you see in that Noir dude anyways?" Tiffany hugged her Robin plushie closer. "He's so….freaky."

"He's hot," Hope interjected.

Tiffany nodded. "Yeah…well…..hehe…."

"With all that long hair, what's he trying to do?" Janice remarked. "I think he's flirting with the wrong crowd!"

"He's not flirting with anyone," I droned. "All he does…is do his job."

"You mean…fight crime."

"Yes…but I think it's more complicated than that."

"How so?"

I leaned back, sighed, and thought aloud: "Noir is….not your typical superhero. We all know that, right?"

"Right."

"Right!"

I continued: "Plus…he joined the Titans really late into the timeline of the fighting team. Right?"

"Uh huh….."

"On top of that, his actions and his silence and his way of kicking ass and everything comes together---"

"What are you getting at, Lisa?"

I folded my arms. "Noir is….very alone." A beat. "And hiding something."

"Something….something bad?"

I smirked ever so slightly. "I think he's proven already he has very little to hide that's dangerous to his teammates."

"You mean the whole Wyldecarde thing?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "Robin had to do that too to defeat Slade. You remember that, right Tiff?"

"Gawd, yes," Tiffany nearly fainted with her swoon. "Robin was so hot in that dark jumpsuit…"

I tried to ignore that.

"You like Noir, don't you?" Janice eyed me, amused.

"Well…yeah," I nodded. A beat. "Not that I'd toss my underwear at him if he were to appear." I glared at Tiffany.

Tiffany glared back.

"Everyone has their quirks," Hope simpered.

"Do you ever…draw him?" Tiffany asked.

My lips curved. That was the most fateful question of that evening.

I pulled out something I had prepared. The sketch I had showed Alan earlier. I held it up for the girls to see.

"Ooooooooh."

"Wow….."

"Freaky…."

"It's not freaky, Janice!" I retorted. "It's based on fact!"

"You think his eyes look like that?"

"I _**know**__ they do!"_

_"Like….did you see a photograph?"_

I bit my lip. "Kinda sorta. It's mainly based on eyewitness testimony."

"Why do you suppose he has eyes like that?"

"Was he born with them?"

"Man…they'd freak me out."

"Why's that, Tiff?"

"Just look at them! God didn't make those! Heh…if he saved me from a bunch of crooks in the middle of a dark alley, I wouldn't know who to be scared of most!"

"He ain't Robin—"

"You can say that again! He ain't Robin! Whatever eyes Robin has, they've got to be angelic for sure!"

"Hehehe…when Beast Boy turns into an animal, they often say his eyes turn gray. But black? Brrrrr…hehehe."

"I hope he doesn't hit on Raven any. A boy with peepers that scary, he'd see right through her and Starfire! Hahaha!"

The three companions of mine giggled and chattered on. And slowly the sketch wilted from my grasp. I gazed at it longingly and sighed. Who was I to think I could understand something I wasn't sure was….sure?

The rest of the evening we talked about Cyborg's T-Car, the implications of Raven and Starfire on the gay community (which I thought was exaggerated), rumors about Raven and…um…demon stuff, and then we had a long and outstanding argument/debate thingy about what type of underwear the guy Titans wear. It got evened out between boxers and briefs until Janice stepped in and won it over to boxers….though most of us seriously doubted that Raven and Starfire wore boxers. Then Janice insisted that she once found (and lost) a pair of boxers that just _**had**__ to have fallen out of Raven's room in the Tower and that it had the blood stains on it with her DNA. Then Tiffany said that was the grossest thing she had ever heard and Janice replied by emphasizing that it was blood from Raven's nightly wrist-purging because of her angsty life and around that time I nearly fell asleep, so I asked to go home early._

"How can you be asleep with your eyes wide open as they are?" Janice smirked on the way out the door with me.

"I'm tired in the head. Not in the sockets," I mumbled.

"I swear…I haven't seen you blinked those depressed peepers all night."

"Good night, Janice."

"Heheh…until later, Lisa."

_When I got home, my sister was already in. She was talking on the phone in her bedroom. The T.V. was left on._

_'Citizens of the Western District have been advised to stay calm and keep their loved ones indoors while police continue their investigation as to the runaway suspect Ferdinand Creed, otherwise known by his mutant alias 'Fang'. He escaped from prison earlier today and has been declared a potential threat to security in all areas of the—'_

_-Click-_

I turned the t.v. off and headed into my room.

My mind wandered……

_Fang?_

Sounds like a job for the Teen Titans………heh.

Go get 'em, Tigers.

I was tired that evening. I gathered my bedclothes and headed straight into the bathroom. I left the main light out. Only the nightlight besides the sink was on. I always showered in the 'dark'. It helped me think my way through Obsession Land.

_I leaned on the sink and faced the mirror._

That same glazed look. The depressed stare that nobody understood or tried to. And—I couldn't help but think—that perhaps Alan understood. His face sang it like a Blues guitar. It haunted me in my dreams more than the Titans ever did.

I just remembered I had laundry to do before showering.

I sighed.

Nonchalantly as always, I opened a drawer beneath the sink and pulled two things out. The first was a plastic case with a puddle of sanitary fluid. I reached a hand up to my left eye and swiftly pulled it out. I placed my glass eye in the case. I then reached into the drawer and pulled out my eyepatch. The one I slept with every night. Covering my missing optic from childbirth, I glanced back up at the mirror.

And, yes, I saw myself. But I also saw my bored self trying to remain sanity at school, on the way home, and at Janice's for the club meeting. Everyone but me—it seemed—was afraid of Noir. Sure, it was easy to love Robin for his good looks and bravery…or Beast Boy with his kind nature and perseverance……or any of the other Titans for their debonair or beauty. But why did people have to see nothing but scariness in Noir?

I saw nothing but good in him. His darkness. His frightening aura.

Nothing but good……

Right?

I sighed at myself.

I had to distract my mind. Keep myself focused on more important things. School. College scholarships. Community service.

I thought of Alan…and I thought of the Lisa he knew. And I saw the 'assassin' staring back at me in the mirror.

Who am I kidding? Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll see Noir some day and we'll strike up a conversation. Badasses could walk in pairs, after all.

I stumbled my way out of the bathroom door and to the laundry machines set up in the kitchen closet.

_Dark hair appeared. Straight. Slick. Running down the neck._

"I don't know what to say about Alan. He's like one in a million of hard-luck cases out there. Hell, even I'm one. So what' s the point in pitying him?"

_A pale neck. A pale face. Dark eyebrows. An air of sickly menace._

"Well…maybe it's not exactly 'pity' as it is something else. What exactly? I'm not sure. I feel bad for Alan. And yet, I feel 'with' him. You know what I mean? Like we're in the same boat. Not always the same seas…but both at risk of being tipped over. I guess that's why I think about him so much. And……it's not like I've ever put myself out on a limb to rescue him for pity's sake……"

_A slender nose. Firm, set lips. A slightly angular chin. A touch of cheekbones._

_"I don't think of Alan ALL the time, of course. He's a sweet kid…in his bitterly sullen way, that is. But if I was to get to know someone………like REALLY get to know someone……it'd be someone who truly understands pain. Someone who deals with hurt instead of trying to strive past it. Cuz being hurt is a part of life. Whether you're good or bad. Good or bad……"_

_A tight bandanna. An opened collar. The touch of camouflage beneath the neck._

_"I can't stop thinking about you. Pfft……I feel as bad as Tiffany. But unlike her…I actually think about my infatuation. And unlike you……I have to admit……though you probably know it already……I've hated you. I've hated you so much. And yet……"_

Lids. Lashes. Eyes. Black eyes. Black, black, black eyes. My pencils came to a stop and I looked at the face.

_"……I would do anything to understand. Why they are like that."_

I traced a finger around one of the two freshly drawn optics.

"Did you get them……the same way I lost one of mine?"

Silence.

I sighed.

I was sitting in bed with the covers halfway up.

I closed the drawing notebook, slid it closed in my bedside table drawer, and flipped out the lights.

Moonlight kissed its way through my window as I turned over in bed and laid my eyepatched head to rest.

Sighing……………

_It was nearly half an hour till midnight when I heard the thumping._

I stirred in bed and slowly sat up, rubbing my one right eye. I squinted and looked across the bedroom.

Pale sketches of a black eyed swordsman rested on the wall. The white of the paper reflected in the moonlight.

And at once…they all blinked.

I gasped.

Something was clamoring up the fire escape.

The clanking followed loosely behind the shadow…as if the thing was moving faster than sound.

_CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!_

I bit my lip.

A beat.

I kicked the covers off me.

I slipped out of bed in my pjs.

I reached under the bed.

I pulled out a baseball bat.

I slowly……slowly……approached the window.

I parted the curtain slightly.

I looked out onto the naked fire escape.

The moonlight was positively blinding.

Stabbing……into my one eye.

I took a breath.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Something dark streaked past my window.

I let out a shriek and limped backwards, holding a wobbling baseball bat out at arm's reach.

Trembling.

Silence.

I swallowed a large gulp.

I stepped forward again.

I peered upwards through the top of the window frame the best I could.

Something was happening on the rooftop………

Somehow, the fear dwindled. The darkness of the night enveloped me. Curiosity rose up out of the ground and I was moving out of my bedroom and into the living room where the one large window would let me escape……

_Out onto the fire escape._

_A cold, late August wind was kicking at my chocolate brown hair._

I came up the last platform of the fire escape. One hand gripped a railing. The other held my baseball bat.

Still wearing my eyepatch, I spun around and looked at the City Streets below me.

My right eye narrowed.

I could have positively sworn I saw……Starfire?

I blinked.

Starfire!

A green streak of energy in a female form rocketed down the street beneath me. Trailing behind were the T-Car and the R-Cycle. And I could have sworn I saw a green falcon as part of the group. At some coordinated point, the four distinct groups of travelers split and headed down four separate paths at an intersection. Branching out.

"Searching the City……," I murmured into the wind.

I brushed a dangling strand of hair out from my eye and took a breath. I turned around. Facing the rooftop. The wide and darkly lit rooftop.

_With a brave breath, I hoisted myself up by the railing of the fire escape and slowly padded barefoot across the rooftop. The world felt cold in my PJ pants and long-sleeved shirt. With……er……Princess Jasmine on them. Gawd…why'd my sister have to shop at the Disney Store???_

_I was about halfway across the rooftop when I realized I had no idea what the Hell I was looking for. And when it occurred to me that there was something—or someone—out in this area that the Titans were more than likely looking for, I started to feel shivers run up and down my frame._

_I bit my lip and stumbled backwards. A stairwell jutted up out of the rooftop. I figured that I could take the stairs down to my apartment's floor and knock on the front door for my sis to let me in. I'd have to explain the Disney pajamas and baseball bat to her later._

As I marched towards the stairwell, a cold amber light flickered on before me.

I gasped and nearly fell in my step. The fuse must have been dirty. The light strained to stay on.

I sighed with a touch of relief and sauntered forward.

And that's when the huge shadow of an eight-legged freak appeared in the light.

I gasped.

I looked up.

FWOOOSH!!!!

Something with flailing limbs.

I stumbled back, but was caught by a pair of strong, human arms around my shoulders.

Human???

I looked straight up and dropped my jaw at the sight of an arachnid face perched upon a human body.

The mandibles twitched and drooled as some ghastly voice muttered: "Stay right where you are!!"

"Daaah!! Walking shitstain!!" I raised my bat to strike his face….thorax…the hell was that thing??

CLAMP!!!

Two jaggedy arachnid legs came down from his……neck?……and clamped over the bat.

I grunted, jerking.

He shoved me with his human arms.

"Aaaugh! Oof!" I landed hard on my butt. I winced.

It was Fang. And Fang was sinister. He walked on two human legs and tossed the bat away with a few spider limbs while glaring down at me with his multiple eyes.

"Where did you come from, just now??"

_"What's it to you, circus rag?!"_

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!!

I gasped for breath.

I was lifted harshly in the air by four spider toes poking into my neck from all sides.

The multiple eyes of Fang narrowed. "You…are…a…witness!"

"To what??" I wheezed. "Charlotte's Harem?! I live here!!"

"Not any longer…," he glared.

He started carrying me over towards the edge of the rooftop. The light from the stairwell flickered like a strobe behind him. Glaring off the stray hairs jutting out of his spider butt behind his neck.

"You know why I was sent to prison?" he snarled. "Because I always lose control. I lose control of my composure. I lose control of my temper. And I lose control of my _**grip**__."_

That said, he prepared to toss me down seventeen stories with a single lunge of his legs.

I gritted my teeth and sweat coldly…

"As much as I'd enjoy sucking the juices out of you for strength in getting out of town. I need you as bait," he uttered. "The Titans are looking for me. And it'd be just my luck to snatch one up in my web. I WILL have revenge for being in the slammer!!"

Just then, the stairwell light died. A shadow was perched atop the structure. A pair of sunglasses glinted the moonlight like wolf eyes.

I gasped.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

The shadow streaked over.

CHIIIIING!!!!

Sparks flew and a wooden sword appeared out of nowhere.

CL-CLANK!!!!!

Two spider limbs were knocked away and freed from me.

"RAAAUGH!!" Fang growled.

I gasped for breath.

The spider freak dropped me, spun around, and raised his limbs threatening at the shadow.

_But the shadow was gone._

"The Hell??" Fang remarked. Then he groaned. "Oh crap…not THAT Titan!!"

Something appeared beside me.

I wanted to shriek—but felt a cold metal hand over my lips. Then a flesh hand took me by the shoulder and swiftly moved me towards the center of the rooftop and away from the monster. I looked at my savior. I saw a pair of glossy lenses looking back. A fountain of black hair and---

I gasped.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The shadow let go of me and instantly pounced upon the spider mutant.

SLASH!!!!

A wooden sword swam through the moonlight.

SLIIINK!!!

"AUGH!!!"

Fang spun around, his legs flung at the Titan in a twirl.

The Titan ducked, rolled across the ground, and came up with a leaping uppercut of his sword.

CLANK!!!

Fang blocked, pushed the Titan back with his spider legs, and opened his mandibles wide.

SPLORT!!!!!

A stream of web fluid flew at the Titan.

A raise of the sword caused the fluid to split. And the Titan was stabbing into the villain.

As the two struggled, I panted and looked across the rooftop.

I found my bat.

I ran over, slid, scooped it up, and dashed in to assist.

_As I charged the rear of the beast, I saw deposits of webbing across the rooftop. The Titan had his boot stuck in the fluid and was struggling to get loose. Fang lifted his four spider limbs to poke the boy to death._

I held my breath, swung the bat up, and brought it down hard on the arachnid abdomen.

WHAP!!!

"OW!!!" Fang shouted lamely. Two legs shot back and swept my feet out from under me.

I fell hard to the ground. My bat rolled a foot or two away.

Fang spun about. His mandibles quivered angrily. "How about I give you a new airhole, bitch?!" He stabbed his sharpest spider toe down at me.

_I winced._

SWIIIISH!!!!

CLANK!!!

A wooden sword was suddenly blocking the stab.

_I gasped._

The Titan now stood before me. One of his boots was missing. He struggled to hold the beast back. A metal hand reached down towards a communicator on his side.

"No you don't!!!!" Fang shouted. He swung his human fist across the hero's cheek.

SMACK!!!!

_CLACK!!!_

A pair of black-as-night shades flew off over the roof's edge.

_The boy spun clumsily towards the stairwell. His eyes blurring black…_

………and it was exactly then and there that the light flickered back on.

FLASH!!!!!

_"!!!!!!!" the Titan exhaled and gripped his face tightly._

I gasped.

He spun around, his eyes clenched shut. His mouth tense with pain.

ZAP!!!!

A magical bolt of energy flew from Fang's mandibles and struck the Titan dead-center.

The boy twitched once…twice…then became as still as a statue. His arms in a catatonic pose. Stiff as a board.

_"HA!!!!" Fang flexed his limbs and hungrily twitched his mandibles. "You are a newbie after all!!! Heheheh…I think I'll suck your blood out and spit it out as ink for the Titans' ransom letter!!!_

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

"Huh?!" Fang looked over.

A baseball bat flew at his skull like a missile.

SMACK!!!!

"OOF!!!" he shouted as the projectile sent him flying back and plummeting directly over the edge.

I ran over and looked down the dark alleyway.

CLUMP!!!!

Sound reverberations rose up and announced the thunderous impact of Fang's mutated body with the ground far below. He seemed out cold…but judging from what I've heard and read on the news…the freak would be up and at it in mere seconds.

I panted and spun around.

The Titan's body was frozen still in place……and then started to teeter.

I gasped and ran over in time to grab him. I grunted and used all of my strength to hold him in place.

"Hey!!" I hissed. "Pssst! Hey!!"

No response.

His eyes were clenched shut.

His lips pursed immortally.

His limbs unmoving.

I bit my lip. I snaked a finger up and felt his pulse. I sighed with relief.

_He was still alive._

"Rrrrghhh!!" a grumbling sound emanated from down below in the avenue.

I gasped. "You're…you're paralyzed! He'll tear you apart if he comes up here again and you're like this!!"

A beat.

I looked around for solutions. I took a deep breath.

"Lisa……what are you getting yourself into???"

_It felt like an eternity, but it was only five or six minutes later._

Summoning all of my strength, I managed to drag the boardlike body of the Titan down the fire escape and to the level of my apartment. I could hear Fang coming to life from down below. Searching around. Starting to climb……

I wiped sweat from my brow and tried to drag the Titan's body down one last flight of stairs.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

His one boot and one sock clattered down the metal steps.

His body all but collapsed on top of me outside my window. The unmistakable yellow roundness of the Titan's communicator fell free from his fatigues and fell loosely to the distant alleyway floor below.

"Shit!!" I winced. A beat. I took a deep breath, gripped his shoulders, grunted, and pulled him towards the open window. I needed more anchorage……so with a touch of hesitancy, I pulled at his long black hair and practically yanked him in with me into the living room.

CLUMP!!! TH-THWUMP!!

We collapsed together over a couch, against a coffee table, and onto the floor.

"………………ow," I grunted.

I jumped up, scurried over to the window, pivoted his lower body down onto the couch, slammed the window shut, and pulled the windows closed.

I then rushed over and knelt on the floor besides the paralyzed Titan's body. Panting. Watching the window.

Silence……………

"……………………"

Silence……………………

………

…………

……………_a shuffle._

An echo.

I bit my lip.

I saw a freaky shadow against the alleyway walls creeping up. Like multiple limbs……

"Crud……," I whispered. "Crud crud crud crud crud……"

I looked at the window……then at the body. I sensed a thin breath coming out of the boy's nostrils and against my arm.

"Gotta get you somewhere where you can't easily be seen."

_"Nnnnnghhhh!!! And……stay………in………there!!"_

I finished shoving the Titan up on his feet into my closet.

"S-Sorry about the smell. Too much leather………ahem."

I shut the door on him.

_"I'll let you out soon! I promise!" I exclaimed. A beat. I wrung my hands and sweat. "Hopefully th-that paralysis thing will wear off." I shook my head. "Just hang on!!"_

_I ran to my bedroom door and considered sneaking past the living room window to tell my sister……when I stopped myself._

No……what good would my sister do? She'd call the police or something and draw attention. And surely Fang would watch the police come, follow them to this apartment, and nab the Titan away for his 'revenge' or whatever. A bunch of policemen are no match for a mutant like that!

And there was no way I could contact the Titans. Even if I tried……Fang was circling that apartment just about now—I bet—and he'd find me and follow me down and……do lord knows what.

I leaned against the wall. Squinting with my one eye. Thinking………

A beat.

I glanced over at the dozens of sketches of Noir. The irony of it all.

I gasped.

"I know!"

I rushed over to the phone. I dialed a number.

I waited.

"………………"

After a couple of rings, there was a response on the other end.

_'H-Hello?'_

"J-Janice??"

_'Lisa???'_

"Janice! Thank goodness you answered! Look, I'm in a real pinch."

'Lisa……it's like…midnight. What's going on?'

"Did any of the girls spend the night?"

_'Funny you should ask that…yeah…Both Hope and Tiffany. They were gonna ride in to school with me in the morning.'_

"Do me a favor. Wake them up. Play carpool. Come over to my place……now."

'What?!'

"Just do it, Janice! Trust me! I……I-I need your help?"

'What for?! What's going on??'

I gulped.

I looked over at the closet.

I hugged the phone's receiver nervously to my cheek.

"You'll never guessed who just dropped on by……"


	100. Those Black Eyes part 2

**100. Those Black Eyes part 2**

_Creeeak!_

The apartment door opened.

Janice and a bleary-eyed Tiffany and Hope behind her looked up.

"Allright, Lisa. We're here. What's up—YEEP!"

I yanked Janice in and then the other two.

"For the love of casserole, Lisa! What's going on—"

"Shhhhhh!" I hissed. I quietly closed the door and shoved the three towards my bedroom. "My sister's home……"

"And…like…what? Is she recording her latest album or something?! Why're we whispering—"

"Just get the Hell in there!" I grumbled, shoving the three in through the doorframe. I held the doorknob, looked cautiously out the wide window of my living room, then dashed in behind my three friends. I locked the door behind me.

"Not that I mind being locked in your room and stuff……," Janice folded her arms and smirked. "But what's gotten into your brain pan?"

I wrung my hands and looked at them nervously. I had my glass eye back in—of course—but the old glaze was back. "Did anyone see you on the way over here?"

"Not many people look for an outdated Volvo under the shade of midnight, Lisa……"

"Did YOU see anyone, then?"

"Uhm……," Tiffany blinked. "Where're you going with this, Lisa? Surely you didn't wake us up this late at night for an eye exam."

"Oooh! It's an impromptu club meeting!" Hope bounced. "You're ready to show your pic of Beast Boy and Beast Girl kicking Slade in the posterior!!"

"Starfire and Raven making love with razor blades?!"

"NO!!!" I quickly covered my mouth after my outburst, winced, and tried to go on nonchalantly. "Haven't you heard the news?"

"I had the radio on while brushing my hair out," Tiffany said. "Couldn't hear music for crap. Janice's reception is just about as bad as her fashion statement."

"Love you too, Tiff."

"I'm serious! Did you catch any of the news?"

"Yeah…something about someone escaped from prison."

"It's Fang," I droned.

The three fangirls murmured.

I wandered over to the one window in my room and peered out nervously through the edge of the curtains. "I saw him. He's wandering the buildingsides around here and the Titans are after him." I spun and looked at the three. "Are you SURE that you didn't see anything?"

Silence.

"I……um……er……"

"What, Hope??"

The girl simpered. "I-I could have sworn……I thought there was a spider in the car. Ya know? Like a second sense. Then I realized I was gazing tiredly up out the rear window. I-I could have seen Fang on the side of a building and just didn't interpret it right in my head. Brrrrrr……is he really out of jail already?"

"Worse than that," I took a deep breath. "He's almost got one of the Titans."

The girls gasped.

"Who??"

"No way…"

"That……meanie!!"

"Look," I held my hands out. "I'm sorry to get you all into this. But if I contact the police, I could draw too much attention and Fang could find the Titan! And there's no way to get in contact with his teammates and—"

"Lisa??" Janice's eyes narrowed. "Just what are you talking about?"

I gulped. I ran a hand through my chocolate brown bangs. "I……I-I've gotten a bit involved in this whole mess……"

"What whole mess?"

I glanced at the sketches of Noir along the wall. I glanced back at my friends.

""Fang, for one."

Janice's jaw dropped in concern and shock. "You met Fang?! D-Did he hurt you or anything?!"

"No…I-I'm quite alright. Luckily."

"That's crazy!" Tiffany remarked. "If you ran into Fang, you couldn't possibly have survived unless…"

"A Titan saved your ass."

I sweat and bit my lips. "Y-Yeah……and about that—"

"Really?! Who?!"

"Was it Robin?! Please tell me it was Robin!!" Tiffany rushed over and grasped my wrist. "Did he touch your hands?! If so…m-mind if I lick your fingers?" Her eyes were pleading and glistening.

"Ewww!! Screw off!"

"Pleeeeeease?!"

"It's not like that at all!! It's m-much more complicated! Just listen—"

Suddenly…

"Hey Lisa," Hope smiled pleasantly and pointed at the closet. "Your closet door is out of place."

I looked at her. I gasped. "No, Hope! Don't—"

She was already opening it to set the door…and naturally it happened.

FWOOOMP!!!!

Noir's stiff, paralyzed body fell down chest-forward and pinned the poor Hope to the floor.

"AAAAIEEEE!!!" she shrieked and writhed under the weight of him. "Molestation!! Molestation!!"

"Actually, Hope, it's 'rape'," Janice uttered.

"Rape!! Rape!!"

"Shut the Hell up! It's not rape!!" I scurried over and literally rolled Noir off of her.

Hope panted, jumped over the bed, and hid with her eyes poking up from the other side. "How……how……who……"

_I sat on my knees and boredly explained: "So I went up to the rooftop when I thought I smelled something funny. Turns out it was Fang. Fang attacked me. Noir dove in at the last second and saved my life. A fight happened. And……um……his shades fell off and just when he was blinded, Fang paralyzed him. I somehow was able to knock Fang out and I brought Noir here. But more than likely, Fang's back and he's looking all around this building to find Noir. And when he does…it'll be a sad day for a Titan."_

"Whoahhhhh," Tiffany exclaimed. She bent over and looked at the paralyzed boy. "So……like……is he dead?"

"No! He's paralyzed! Didn't I say that?!"

Tiffany looked up at Janice and smirked. "I hear that guys are erect when they die."

"The hell do I care?"

"HE'S NOT FRIGGIN' DEAD!"

"Hey…," Hope stood up from behind the bed. "It's Noir!"

"It IS Noir……cool."

A beat.

"Um……what's he doing here again?"

I smacked my forehead. "Didn't I just tell you?? I went up on the rooftop and—"

"But how'd you get him down here?" Janice asked.

I bit my lip. "I kinda sorta dragged him."

"Dragged?" Hope asked.

Tiffany was running a hand through his hair. "Man…look at his do!"

"Tiff!!"

"It's so silky……"

I all but kicked her off of him. "Knock it off, will ya?! He's alive and breathing, ya know!! He's aware of just about everything that's going on as we speak!"

"Just……he's paralyzed."

"Duh!"

"How long does that stuff last?"

Hope searched her mental databanks. "Less than a day, for sure. Remember when Francine Winters and Charlie Kent got zapped by Fang at the 'Date With Destiny' prom? They lasted about seven hours."

"It's rumored that Robin was zapped by the stuff at some time," Janice said. "But he was supposedly back on his feet in under three hours."

Tiffany beamed. "That's my boy!"

Everyone groaned.

A beat.

We suddenly realized that when 'everyone' groaned……it was all _**five**__ of us._

_Hope trembled. "I think he just did something…"_

I rushed over and pulled at Noir's shoulders. I turned him over.

His lips were open in a pant. Desperate for air. The fall must have knocked his lungs out.

"He's coming to!" Tiffany remarked.

"You dolt!! He was always coming to!! He's just now getting control of his lips back!"

"Oooh…"

"Knock it off."

Janice leaned over me. "Hey there, champ. How's it going?"

Noir's teeth grit. His clenched eyes flinched. But they remained tightly shut.

"Well……most of his nerves are still fried," Janice said. "That or he's really enjoying something right now and he's not letting us in on his secret! Hahahaha!"

I frowned. "Not funny! Someone help me get him off the floor."

"And where should we put him?!"

"Somewhere decent."

Tiffany blinked. "The bed?"

Silence.

"M-My reading chair will do," I blushed.

"All right…"

"Gimme a hand here."

"Gladly—"

"Not you, Tiff. Janice."

"Oh. Sure thing!"

"Heave…"

"Ho!!"

Together, Janice and I hoisted the boy to his feet and sat him in the chair. Well, we didn't 'sit' him per se. He was too stiff with Fang's paralysis to have his legs bent. It's more accurate to say that he was leaning against the back of the reading chair with a huge space between his butt and the chair seat.

Silence.

"Well……at least he's 'comfortable' now," Janice smirked.

"Oh hush. It'll do for the moment."

"So…like…don't you guys think this is way too creepy?"

"How do you mean, Tiff?"

"Look!! Can't you see?!"

"Uh………yeah……"

"It's a Titan! A true, flesh and blood Titan!"

"Hello, Mr. Noir," Hope blushed. "Sorry about earlier. Don't worry. We won't hurt you. We're big fans."

I looked boredly at Hope. "I think he got that part, girl."

Tiffany walked forward and narrowed her eyes. "Why doesn't he talk? His lips are moving, right?"

"Duh. Noir's the mute Titan. He slashes with his sword and asks questions later!"

_"Poor thing. He can hear us, right?"_

"Uh……I think so."

"HEY MR. NOIR!!" Tiffany bellowed, making us plug our ears and wince. "IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT WE'RE SAYING, CLICK YOUR TEETH TOGETHER ONCE FOR 'YES' AND TWICE FOR 'NO'."

"I don't think that's necessary, Tiff," Janice groaned. "Just wait for his hands to get better and—"

"His hands? What for?"

"He does sign-language, you dunce!"

"I know that!! But does anyone here understand it??"

"I do," Hope raised her hand. She blushed. "I took some classes in high school."

"Hey…you were there at that Titan autograph thingy in the field day!"

"What? So were you, Tiff!"

"And I never got to see Robin! They stopped the session when I was the third in line!! Pfft!" Tiffany folded her arms. "I could almost……smell his musky scent." A beat. "What sort of aftershave do you suppose he uses?"

"Pfft!" Janice cackled. "You've seen Robin!! He's a small fry! He'd be lucky to have to shave, much less have a grown up man's—"

"Ahem," I cleared my throat. "In case you nutcases haven't noticed…we have a situation here."

"Quite a handsome situation too," Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"A little less nymphomania and a little more respect, please," I grumbled.

"Fine, Lisa. Speak your peace."

"While we ramble on and on…there's a mutant creep outside this building trying to find Noir as we speak!"

"Eeek!" Hope exclaimed. "I hate spiders…especially when they've served prison time!"

"What do you suggest we do?" Janice asked. "Drive Noir out of here or something? Get him to the police department or even the Tower?!?!"

"No," I shook my head. "Fang's too smart for that, I'm sure. He'd spot us and try to take Noir away."

"And just why's it so important that we keep Noir and Fang separated?!" Tiffany remarked.

"I heard Fang," I said. "He kept going on and on about revenge! I think he wants to make Noir suffer in order to get back at the Titans for imprisoning him!"

"Come into my parlor, said the Fang to the Noir……"

"Exactly."

"It's probably best that we keep him here," Hope said. "He's been safe so far, right? And once his paralysis wears off…then he'd be in the condition to fend for himself! L-Like before!"

"Perhaps," I nodded.

"Wait a second…," Janice pointed. "Isn't he missing something?"

"His shades?" Tiffany asked.

"His sword."

I glanced over at Noir against the chair. His empty scabbard.

"Aw shit…," I palmed my fist. "How could I not notice……"

"What?"

"He dropped it on the rooftop. When he was paralyzed." I bit my lip. "I think I remember seeing it dropping somewhere besides the stairwell top. Where this annoying light flickered."

"What are you suggesting?"

"Well, poor Noir wouldn't be……so badass without his sword, right?"

A beat.

"Uh uh…," Tiffany shook her head. "Nobody's going up there for that thing! Not with Fang present and……er…somewhat accounted for!"

"But wh-what if Fang comes inside and we don't have Noir's sword?" Hope stammered.

Silence.

Then……

Footsteps.

Tiffany gasped. "Fang!!"

Hope shivered. "A mutant freak!!"

I craned my ear. I frowned. "Worse. My sister!"

_Everyone jolted._

A beat.

"Hide him!!"

"Quick!!"

_"Can't let my sister in on it!"_

"Why not—"

"Trust me!!"

Janice and I tilted Noir up, spun and pivoted him into the closet, and stuffed him inside.

"What about us?!"

"Good point," I nodded. I grabbed Hope first—the tiniest—and shoved her into the boy's chest.

"Eeek!!"

Then went Tiffany…and then Janice.

Three fangirls and a superhero entangled with school clothes.

"If I hear so much as a breath…," I pointed, "…there'll be an impromptu clitoridectomy tonight..."

Tiffany blinked. She pointed at Noir. "B-But what about him—?"

THWUMP!!!

I slammed the closet door shut and brushed my hands off.

"_Whatever…"_

Right on cue, there was a knock on the bedroom door.

I took a deep breath. Opened the door to my sister. And smiled innocently. "H-Hey there, Sis."

She looked at me funny. Then at the lights on in the room.

A beat.

"What's up?" I asked, my head leaning to the side.

"What are you doing?"

"Exercises." I blinked.

"Whatever. Look, I got a phone call from a business partner."

I pouted. "Aww…not the Kobayashi Suites thing again."

"You hush up about that! This thing's important! With that last skyscraper of Kobayashi blown away by Slade…the businessman's willing to dig into his pockets and assure himself a final foothold in this City. We're lucky that I've been chosen to deal with it. I'm sorry to make these late night exits…but it's for the best of us. You and me, Lisa. We deserve better than this apartment."

"_I understand," I moaned. "So…like…does that mean you're leaving?"_

"Yeah, I'm leaving," she sighed, struggling to hold up a coat and fiddling around in her purse. "I should be back by noon. You'll stay out of trouble, right?"

Th-Thump! (From the closet).

I winced.

My sister froze. A suspicious eye trailed up.

"What was that?"

I swallowed. I took a breath. I leaned against the doorway and said: "Well……Sis……truth is, I ran into a giant spider person on the rooftop who was after a Titan whom I now have presently hidden in my closet squished up against my three best friends after dark."

"………"__

"………"

"………pfft!!" she shook her head and headed for the apartment door. "You and your wyrd dreams."

I smiled pitifully. "I get it by being sarcastic."

"You didn't have to tell me," she opened the door and waved. "Get to bed soon. Sisterly advice. The world wasn't built on exercising."

I suddenly blurted: "Be careful…"

She looked at me funny. "For what?"

I gulped. I shrugged. "Raccoons?"

She rolled her eyes and was gone.

I sighed.

I closed the bedroom door and headed back to the closet. I opened it up and my friends practically spilled out, Janice first.

"Gawd!! Like…it smells like a tannery in there!!"

"Gee, Lisa. What's with you and leather?"

_"I dunno…I rather like it."_

"Hush up…all of you…," I reached inside and pulled the stiff-as-a-board Noir back out. "There's more here at stake than my fashion statement."

"Why'd you have to play the charade with your sister?"

"Shouldn't you have gone to her first?!"

"You don't know here like I do," I muttered. "She would have shrieked at the sight of Noir and gone straight to the police."

"And the problem with doing that is……………?"

"Duh! If police come here…Fang will follow them to the Titan!"

"Oh."

"Well, he could fight Fang off!!"

I let Noir fall on the bed. "Not yet, he can't," I said. I walked briskly across the room and put my shoes on. "And furthermore……not without his sword."

"Oh, wait now!" Janice gripped my shoulder. "Girl…girl…girl! You can't be serious!"

"I'm never serious."

"That's a lie."

"Damn right it is," I nodded. I went over to the door. "You prissies stay here and watch over him. If any part of him starts to move again…lemme know. We can then gauge how soon it is till the paralysis wears off."

"HEY!!" Janice barked.

I paused. I looked at her.

She had her hands on her hips. "I'm not a prissy!"

::::::::::::

"_I said I wasn't a prissy," Janice whispered. "I didn't say I was Sigourney-Frickin'-Weaver."_

"Shhhh!" I hissed. "I need to get a good look…" I slowly raised my head up and looked from the fire escape across the gravel of the familiar rooftop. There was no shadow. No disturbance. No Fang.

"So…you see the sword or not?"

I elbowed her.

"Ow!!" she uttered hoarsely. "Jeez…whack the lesbian, win a prize!"

"I've got to do this quietly. Or else I'm gonna have a lot of quiet from here on out."

"You're gonna volunteer at the library?"

"I'll be dead."

"Same difference."

"There!" I pointed with a hiss.

The light was flickering on again besides the stairwell. A familiar black sword rested on the rooftop.

I took a deep breath.

"Janice?"

"Yeah, Lisa?"

"Before I do this……I just want you to know."

"What?"

"I used Winona Ryder as a body type model for my Raven and Starfire commission I'm doing for you."

"Hey…no harm done. There'll be plenty of years left to kill you, right?"

I bit my lip. "We'll see."

I rushed out.

I power-walked.

I crouched like a panther.

I panted.

I reached the stairwell.

_  
__I flung my arm down._

I scooped up the sword.

I exhaled.

I swiveled around.

I scurried back to the fire escape.

I stumbled once…

I recovered.

I hopped and skipped and--

"Whew!!" I nestled myself besides Janice on the metal platform and hugged the wooden sword to my heaving chest. "Groucho Marx, eat your heart out……"

The light to the stairwell top flickered off in the distance.

"_You look like you just completed the Tour de France with one too many testicle."_

"Stuff it, Janice. We gotta get back down."

"Gladly…"

She was about to descend—

"Wait!" I gripped her shoulder, gasping.

She froze.

A beat.

"Wh-What is it?" she whispered.

_My glazed eyes darted towards the adjacent rooftops. "Don't you hear it?"_

Her eyes narroed.

Silence.

"I'm afraid I don't—"

"Shhh!!" I insisted.

Janice craned her ear.

This time she too heard it. The sound of a pitter-pattering. Like tiny pebbles down a water spout.

_Waterspout……_

"_It's him…," I murmured._

Janice slowly turned around.

She and I both saw an eight-legged shadow one block down against a buildingfront.

"Jumping Josephus!" Janice exclaimed. She yanked me by the collar.

"Ackies!!"

"We're going!!" she descended with me hobbling along behind with the sword. "We're going…we're going…we're going…we're going…we're going!!"

"Wait up!! My feet aren't as…er…footful as yours!!"

We rushed down.

The spider shadow hopped from building top to building top. Casually coming closer. Searching…

"Go go go go go go go go go!!" Janice chanted.

I whined, sweated, and rushed on her heels.

We reached the platform by my apartment window. We dashed in.

_::::::::::::_

_I shut the window closed behind us. We crouched besides a couch. Watching. Waiting._

"…………"

"…………"

"…………"

"…………"__

A shadow passed on the opposite side of the avenue.

Loud pitter patters. Clamorings. And--

WOOOOSH!!! CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!! Fang scurried down the wall of our building. And he was gone.

I sighed.

"That was close…," Janice shuddered.

"Thanks, girl," I remarked to her with a slight grin. "You were really hoofing it to get us away from that creep, weren't you?"

"Yup!" Janice hobbled up to her feet and ran across the apartment. "Gotta go to the bathroom BAD!!"

"Whaaat?! Why you selfish little pri—"

CLUMP!!!

The door was closed and I could hear her using the toilet beyond with a satisfied sigh.

I rolled my one good eye and made for the bedroom.

"I swear…one of these days I'm gonna rip out her bladder and shove it down her—"

I opened the door.

_  
__I immediately froze._

My right eye blinked incredulously.

Tiffany and Hope turned to look at me. Between them stood the paralyzed Noir, his lips expressing displeasure. He had a sunhat with flowers atop his head and a pink blouse draped around his shoulders.

"Um……," I droned, "…okay. What the Hell?"

"Well…you see," Tiffany played with her fingers and blushed. "It started out like this—"

Hope pointed, "Tiffany said that with his long black hair and stuff he kinda sorta looked like Liv Tyler. And I said 'fat chance of that'."

"And so we found some stuff of your sis and thought it would help prove my point."

"And then we started thinking: 'You know, he'd look good in pink and—'"

"You morons!!" I rushed forward.

"I tried to talk Tiffany out of it in the beginning!!" Hope exclaimed. "And it's not like he's in the position to complain!!"

"I mean…," I stammered and yanked the articles off him. "You went through my _**sister's stuff**__?!"_

"Hey, your sister has good taste!" Tiffany retorted.

"Gotta admit," Hope giggled. "He looked pretty good with the fur coat."

"You kidding?? I'd throw paint on him if I saw him in the streets without a coat!! That hair looks positively like he ripped it off of a horse's rump!!"

There was a shrill whistle.

The three of us jumped.

We looked at Noir.

The Titan's lips pursed. With his eyes still stuck closed, he moved his neck…motioning for one of us to step closer.

My jaw dropped. "He can……move his neck??"

"_Oh yeah…," Hope blushed. "And some of his fingers. I found that out when I was putting on the dance gloves."_

"That's a good sign, right?" Tiffany remarked. "He can walk a straight line pretty soon, can he?"

"I dunno," I remarked, staring at him in awe. "Is there anything else he can move?"

WHOOOSH!!! His left leg suddenly twitched upwards, kneeing Tiffany in the rear. WHUMP!!

"AAAIEE!!"

Hope giggled.

Tiffany growled. "Why you fresh little wookie!!"

Noir's lips curved into a smile.

"Well, he has a sense of humor at least," Hope said.

I did something I hadn't done in a long time. Not even when talking with Alan.

I giggled.

Tiffany and Hope looked at me funny.

"Um……is Lisa still among us?"

I cleared my throat…blushing. "Um…he seems to be……vastly improving."

Janice walked into the room, shaking still-wet hands from washing them. "Hey there, guys. Did a bird just get run over or something? What the hell's going on?"

"Lisa was giggling."

Janice gasped. "The fourth and a half horsewoman! Lisa laughed! Locusts are supposed to fly out of God's butt and destroy us all or something!"

"He's getting back to normal…slowly," I uttered. "That's a good thing."

Again, his neck moved…motioning for one of us to step closer.

"I think he wants to say something…," Hope said.

"_He can't move his hands yet," Tiffany remarked. "So no finger language."_

I stepped forward. I spoke quietly: "Hello, Mr. Noir. Um…i-is there something you're wishing to tell us?"

_He swallowed. His lips moved dramatically…slowly._

I raised my right eyebrow.

His lips repeated the same motion. His mouth turned small as if he was saying 'moo', then grinned wide with a lapping tongue like he was doing a fonze impression.

"The Hell……?"

Tiffany blinked. "'Moo' 'gay'?"

"'Money'?" Hope remarked.

I shook my head. "No…I don't think so."

Noir repeated. I could hear a breath coming out of his lips. Pure air. No voice whatsoever. There wasn't even a flexing of his skin where the 'X' shaped scar was……

"'_Myrkblade'……," Janice remarked._

Hope's jaw dropped. "Of course! The name of his sword! That's what the magazine says it's called!"

"Good going, Janice!" Tiffany beamed. "Lucky guess?"

Janice smiled proudly. "I have a way with lips."

"Oye……"

Noir summoned some gargantuan effort and nodded his head.

"So…he wants Myrkblade."

I stared at him.

"………………………Lisa?"

"Oh! R-Right……ahem," I blushed and slowly handed him the blade, hilt first.

His fingers slowly closed around it…brushing up against mine.

I looked at him.

His closed-eye face tilted in my direction.

I cleared my throat and stepped back, letting him have his swords.

His body still stiff, he clenched his fingers tightly around the hilt. He leaned what he could of his head back and breathed in through his nostrils. He seemed to shake and strain for a second…and then relaxed. Suddenly, a dark mist like smoke oozed into existence around the contours of his wooden blade.

Hope gasped and jumped back, hiding behind Janice with a childish tremble. God, she was adorable…

"Looks like he's enjoying himself," Tiffany smirked.

"He's……," I narrowed my good eye. "…………meditating."

"How do you know?"

"Well, what else could he be doing?"

'I dunno…," Janice shrugged. "Getting one Hell of a buzz?"

I turned from the half-smoking Titan and faced my friends with a sarcastic glare of glaze. "If you were in his position right now, would you be so pleased?"

"All stiff and helpless and surrounded by fangirls?"

"………"

"Eh."

I turned and looked at him again. Even though we all knew he was paralyzed, there was an awkward optical illusion of his stance being that of strength and vigor as he leaned upright against the bedpost with the sword in his one good hand. His head tilted back and he breathed slowly as he let the smoke course slowly up his body…rejuvenating his muscles I guess……

"I think he's doing some self-repair thing," I said. A beat. "And I think it's gonna take a while."

"Yeah," Tiffany nodded. She blinked. "Anybody got popcorn?"

_::::::::::::_

_Later…_

_Much later…_

We had a candle or two lit. The less light that Fang could see from outside the window, the better—I thought.

All four of us girls sat cross-legged on the floor in a line. We all stared at the dark Titan. And—yes—Tiffany had popcorn.

The smoke energy had crept up Noir's arm and over his torso and down to his knees. His entire body was almost covered. The sword would gradually fluctuate as if it was a dancing flag of obsidian in some unseen wind. Subtly, limbs and body parts covered by the smoke would begin to flex and move. It was a process that went over a long period of time…but somehow seemed to be the fastest any of the Titans could possibly manage, given the circumstances. Noir was quite obviously the master of his domain.

"_Wow……," Hope muttered. She stared across the dimly lit interior at the smoke covered figure. "What do you supposed he's thinking right now?"_

Tiffany munched. "Baywatch? Underwear catalogues?"

"I'm serious! It's like he's doing some sort of zen meditation stuff!" Hope glanced at me. "You know what I mean, Lisa?"

I snapped out of it. I looked at her funny. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Cuz you seem to be into that sort of stuff."

"Eh??"

"Well aren't you?"

"I'm not into anything spiritual. Give me a Bible and I'll give you a football punting record."

"You gotta admit," Janice smirked. "What he's doing looks pretty freakin' cool."

The smoke slowly drifted down his legs. He breathed slowly, and with each heave of the lungs the smoke field warbled.

"Most artistic fart I've ever seen," Tiffany smirked between popcorn.

"Tiff!"

"What?! Just look at it!"

Hope sighed and leaned a smiling chin on her hand. "It's just so……so cool."

"What is?"

"To have a superhero. I mean, right here. This is the guy who slew Slade, ya know? At least that's how the rumors go."

I nodded listlessly. "He's also the guy who went psycho, called himself 'Wyldecarde', and tried hunting down all the Titans. You remember that?"

"Yeah…I do," Hope hugged her legs and rocked back and forth. "But I don't care."

"You don't?"

She giggled. "Lisa, does he strike you as a bad guy?"

"…………"

"_Cuz he looks A-Okay to me!"_

I took a breath and leaned forward. My one good eye squinted and I scanned the features and characteristics and quirks of this Titan who just happened to fall into our midst. I eyed the dark strands of his hair. The dark shadows around his clenched eyelids. The dark smoke encircling him like a body shield.

_He was almost one with the shadows. Only the faint rays of light emanating from our candles broke through his figure. And everything beneath his razor-edged blackness was soft and vulnerable. He was a human being. Flesh and blood. Tears and sweat._

I could almost smell him from far away. And it was a smell I recognized before. A smell I tried to blot out with pungent orders of nightmares layered one atop of the other throughout the years. The smell of goodness…

I sighed. The socket around my glass eye suddenly felt irritated. I gritted my teeth.

The world was annoying. It was full of morons. Cheaters and beaters. The dozens of despots that had murdered God in my eyes on countless occasions. I was never much of a religious girl. Instead of God, I worshiped heroes. Heroes like the Titans. Like Noir.

But I didn't always worship him. Like God……like God…I truly hated him.

I thought of that fateful moment hours ago on the rooftop. I thought of how close I was to dying. Furthermore, I thought of how close Noir was to perishing. And if need be…I could have been the one to finish him. I could have been a God myself, once. A Goddess. But here I was. Here he was.

He was peaceful. He was serene and tranquil. He was paralyzed. Never once did he try slashing our heads off. Sure, he kicked Tiffany in the butt—but that was just saving me the trouble. None of our lives were threatened once by the Wyldecarde. And it angered me. I wanted to run up, grab a candle, and stab him in the eye. But I did no such thing. I just sat there and sulked.

And sulked……

"_I wonder if he has a family…," Hope murmured. God, she was such a romantic. "Of all the stuff that happened to him…you think he'd need people to fall back on."_

"He's got the Titans, doesn't he?"

"I know, Janice. But…even the other Titans. I wonder if they have families."

"Who would let their kid jump around the City and kick bad guy ass?"

"Well, if parents let their kids go to public school……"

'Good point."

Suddenly, Noir's body lurched.

Hope gasped. Tiffany nearly choked on a popcorn kernel.

Noir's mouth clenched tightly. His head shot back. Smoke warbled around his limbs, covered his entire body, constricted, and then exploded.

FLASH!!!!

Our hair flew. We flinched. The candles flickered.

Silence……

"…………," Noir exhaled and fell to his knees. He then slumped back against the side of the bed, his hand dropping Myrkblade. THWUMP!!! He collapsed…no longer stiff.

Hope and I scurried over and held him up into a partial sitting position.

Janice walked over, folded her arms, and smirked: "Well…………it was good for him. Was it good for us too?"

"Is he hurt??" Hope asked.

"Hardly," I muttered. I ran a hand across his forehead and down his neck. "He just……freed himself of the paralysis with that dark cloud meditation thingy."

"I was gonna say…," Tiffany munched and smirked. "Cuz if he spent all that time just to pass a kidney stone, then this has been a waste of a night!"

"Seriously, Tiffany—why don't you take that mouth of yours and shove it up your—"

Something happened suddenly between Hope and I. Two orbs snapped open. Black orbs.

"Eeeep!!" Hope gasped and fell back.

I held my breath and caught the weight of Noir. I looked down. Panting.

Two black eyes were looking up at me. Twitchingly human. Moist and real.

My lips parted.

The black eyes narrowed. Then blinked. Then thinned as Noir stirred in my grasp.

I helped him up and sat him with his back to the bed.

He gasped for breath and winced. He looked like he was on the verge of something either very painful or very exhausting. But at least he wasn't a living corpse of a numb Titan.

"That smoke meditation thingy of his must have been like a marathon!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"M-Mr. Noir," I fumbled for words. "Can you move?"

He looked wearily at me. Two black pearls. Tired pearls. He gulped, panted, and raised his hands. Limply he motioned something.

I bit my lip. I glanced over at Hope. "Hey. Beast Girl. Do your paw-reading."

"Uhhh……"

"……"

'Oh! R-Right……," Hope nervously stepped over and sat in front of Noir.

Noir hand-signed.

Hope watched.

"Well?" Janice leaned over. "What's he saying?"

Hope narrowed her eyes. "Either he wants to use a phone or he's telling us that he's full of duck meat."

"Wonderful," Tiffany rolled her eyes.

"The phone part……," Janice glanced at me. "Perhaps he wants to contact the other Titans?" A beat. "A communicator!"

I winced. "I-I kinda sorta dropped his from the fire escape while bringing him here."

Noir took a deep breath.

"Lemme see if I can reach him," Hope said. She hand signed something with fidgeting fingers.

Noir looked at her dazedly. He raised a confused eyebrow.

Hope bit her lip. "Then again…"

"Okay, little girl. You're obviously of no help here," Janice said. She walked forward. "Mr. Noir?"

He struggled to lift his head and look at her.

"Do you understand morse code?"

He slowly…difficultly…nodded.

"Well, that sucks. Cuz I don't," Janice smirked.

Noir seemed annoyed.

I frowned. I grabbed his hands, bent all but his middle finger back, and held his wrist reverse towards Janice.

The girl laughed.

"More constructive stuff, please," I grumbled.

"Hey!" Tiffany brightened. "His sword! Muckblow!"

"_**Myrkblade**__."_

"_Whatever," the blonde pointed. "Put it in his hand. It helped him earlier, didn't it?"_

I looked at Noir. "That sound like a good idea to get you back on your feet, Mr. Noir?"

He just stared at me. Glazed.

Glazed…

I seemed entranced…

"I don't think we're seriously communicating here," Tiffany murmured.

Noir struggled to regain control of his hands.

I shifted his arms upwards to give him a boost.

He swiftly hand-signed something.

"Got that, Hope?" Janice asked.

"I think so…," Hope blinked. "Something about 'me' and 'outside'."

"Huh??"

"He wants out of here," Janice remarked.

"But what good will that do?!" I exclaimed suddenly. I gathered everyone's attention, including the boy's. "Fang's out there, remember?! If we dump you outside…he could pounce on you and stuff! Not good!"

He gulped his scarred throat.

He hand-signed again.

"Again…," Hope said. "Something about 'me' and 'outside'. Though there was a bit of 'you' and 'danger' involved."

"We chose to protect you!" I exclaimed.

Tiffany blinked. "We did?"

I continued: "Don't think that just because you're a Titan that you can order us around! Look at yourself! You can't fight! You're like a wet noodle!"

"Typical," Janice smirked.

"Who asked you?!?!"

Noir reached a hand up and gripped my wrist.

I looked at him.

His black eyes narrowed. Those eyes that I had been so right about. And suddenly I wished I wasn't.

He struggled to lift his other arm. He pointed at Myrkblade.

I looked at Tiffany. I nodded.

The girl picked up the blade and handed it to Noir.

Noir stared……………

A beat.

Tiffany blushed. She turned around so that the hilt was at his fingertips.

He 'bowed' his head and limply gripped the weapon. He took a deep breath. He summoned smoke back up his limbs. Slowly—with shuddering muscles—he stood up.

I let go of him.

He hobbled on one leg…on two…then collapsed across the floor.

THWUMP!!!!

He winced, his teeth gritting.

Janice bit her lip. "Wow…I swoon."

I moaned and knelt besides Noir. "Look…are you stubborn or what?! I already told you!! You're in no position to go anywhere or fight anyone!!"

He took a deep breath as I helped him back into a sitting position. He looked at me strange.

"And don't give me that look!" I barked, trying not to shy away from my own angry reflection in his shades. "You're gonna have to trust us! We're not some obsessed fan girls! We're human beings—the citizens of this City—and whether you like it or not we're gonna protect you!"

He blinked at me. He slowly turned his head and pointed at the wall.

"Uh oh…," Tiffany hid a giggle.

I looked at my wall. I saw the dozens of Noir sketches on it. I bit my lip.

Slowly, he tilted his face and looked at me.

I blushed furiously. "Well…ahem………y-yeah……not _**too**__ obsessed at least."_

He looked at me. "……………………………" He smiled.

I raised my good eyebrow. Should I have felt touched?

"!!!!" suddenly he flinched.

Hope clasped her hands together worriedly.

Noir cringed and shook against me. He shivered for some awkward reason. His black eyes closed.

"He looks…………," Tiffany blinked, "…………cold??"

"There're goosebumps on his arms," Janice remarked.

"Are you okay??" I asked. "What's wrong? Fang's paralysis seeping back in or something?"

He shook his head furiously. He clenched his teeth so that they stopped chattering. Struggling against the numbness, he raised his right hand over to his left arm. To where the flesh met the metal.

I looked at his arm. I looked at him. "What's wrong??"

He tried gripping the metal disc where the prosthetic was attached. He was squeezing his fingers and trying to twist. But nothing was being accomplished.

"He wants it off, I think," Tiffany said.

I gulped. I reached a hand down and gripped the metal disc.

He shook his head. He pointed to the far side of his prosthetic.

I moved my fingers accordingly.

He nodded.

I squeezed in.

He squeezed in.

CL-CLINK!!! POP!!! HISSSSSSSSSsssssssss………

Hope gasped.

The hand came off.

Noir's shivering stop.

He relaxed against me and the side of the bed with a sigh. He shook his long-haired head once and seemed to have quite a bit of strength returned.

"Okay……," Tiffany stared. "Wyrd……"

I held the hand out like it was a dead rat and dropped it to the carpet. PLOP!! "How come I never thought of sketching that…," I murmured.

"No good," Janice shook her head. "Nowhere on the wrist to slit!"

"Go to Hell, Janice."

"Hehehe…love you too, Lisa."

Noir tried getting up again.

"Hang on…," I helped him up.

He sat on the edge of the bed. Gathering his breath. He wiped his brow with his right hand, then flexed his fingers. A beat. He looked across the candlelit room. His black eyes scanned the desk.

"So…what do we do now?" Tiffany remarked.

Hope shrugged. "Pass the time till he can swing his sword and call it a night?"

"I know how we can pass the time!" Tiffany beamed. She rushed over and all but smothered her grinning smile in Noir's face. "Tell me…do you and Robin share the same lockerroom?"

Noir had a confused, disgusted look on his face.

"If you do…got any towels of his you could—I dunno—donate to a good cause—"

Hope reached up and planted her hand over the girl's mouth. She simpered. "Don't mind her. She hasn't been fixed yet."

Noir smirked bitterly. He looked over at me. He pointed at the desk and charaded a 'pencil' in his hand.

"He wants to write something down," Hope remarked.

Janice had his metal hand in her grasp and was looking it over. "With our luck, he's probably right handed," she smirked.

"Hang on…," I walked over to the desk.

"Heaven forbid Lisa should run out of pads of paper and pencil!" Tiffany smirked.

"Nuts to you. I'm always prepared."

"I can see that. And I pity you!"

"Hehehehe!"

I frowned at the girls. I looked over at Noir and tossed over the pad and pencil. "There. Eat your heart out."

He 'bowed' his head. He whipped out the pencil and scribbled on the paper.

All of us girls craned our necks to see. Janice too.

He finished writing. He looked at us with his black eyes. He held up the pad.

_It read:_

'_**Can I have help using the bathroom?'**___

_All of us winced at the same time._

A pause…and then he removed his thumb, uncovering the last piece of scribbling:

'_**j/k'**_

_"Ohhhhhh."_

"Whew."

"Lordy."

"Heheheheh…"

He smirked.

"The kid's a regular jackass," Janice smirked. "He'd look good in blood."

"Anything SERIOUS you'd like to convey to us, Noir?" I asked.

He looked directly at me. He scribbled. He held up the pad.

_**'Thank you.'**_

_I blinked._

Tiffany playfully poked me in the back while Hope smilingly chanted: "Awwwww."

"Pffft," I glared at him and folded my arms. "Sappy little dick."

He smirked proudly.

"You thirsty, Mr. Titan?" Hope asked.

He blinked at her. He looked at me.

I raised my eyebrows.

Silence.

Noir scribbled. He held the pad up.

'_**Absolutely'.**___

_"Poor thing," Hope sulked. She brightened and looked at me. "Hey Lisa! Where's your sis' lemonade?"_

"In the refrigerator, silly. Why?"

"Why do you think?"

I groaned and rolled my good eye. "Fine. But not too much. Who knows what liquid intake could do to his body so soon after recovering from Fang's touch."

"I'll go with you," Tiffany said. "I'm thirsty too!"

"After all that popcorn, who could blame you?!"

"Let me follow along!"

Janice looked at me. Then smirked. "Uhhh…me too, girls." She followed the two out the bedroom door. "Somebody's gotta watch over you two munchkins."

"And be quiet about it!" I hissed. "Fang's all around the buildingsides, ya know!"

Janice looked back at me and Noir. "I don't think we're the ones that need to be in control of things." She winked. She shut the door behind her.

Noir and I were together. Alone. In a bedroom. With candles lit. And adoring sketches strung up along the wall.

Naturally, I blushed. And naturally, I cursed the name of Janice inside my head.

"Just what is she insinuating?" I shook my head and looked at Noir.

'_**How did you lose your eye?'**___

_I recoiled with a gasp. I looked unbelieving at his pad…then him._

Noir stared. His black eyes curious…innocent.

I frowned. "None of your damn business!" I spat.

He blinked. He scribbled.

'_**None of theirs either?'**___

_My lips parted. I narrowed my good eye._

_How did he know?? How could he possibly have known……?_

As if reading my mind, he scribbled and held up another sheet of the pad.

'**I make a habit out of careful observance. Robin taught me many tricks.'**

_I took a breath. "Well……wouldn't you and Tiffany have a lot to talk about?"_

He smirked.

I smirked.

A beat.

I frowned.

_"Look. I saved you. Remember that? Don't think you can be all…all………I dunno……vigilante and aloof and stuff."_

He shrugged.

I folded my arms.

"I bet you feel pretty flattered right about now."

He raised an eyebrow.

I smirked. "Surrounded by fangirls. Physically helpless. One of your freakin' hands is missing, for crying out loud."

He shrugged.

I took a step forward, eyeing him suspiciously.

"_You know……you've always been a mystery to this City. Especially after Wyldecarde's reign……"_

He took a deep breath at that.

"Tell me," I smirked. "How can I know you're even more trustworthy than Fang?!"

_A pause._

He looked at me for a while.

Then he scribbled.

Then he held the pad out before me:

_**"What's the sound of one hand clapping?"**___

_I did a double take. "The Hell is that supposed to mean?!"_

He kept holding it up.

I looked at his missing left hand. I uttered: "Oh, what?! Is that some godawful, holier-than-thou truth that somehow YOU know?!"

He smirked.

"Stop smiling, dammit!!" I stamped my foot down like a little girl and sighed. I murmured: "It makes it so much harder……"

I lowered my eye. I took a deep breath. When I looked back, he had another pad up and out:

"_**Why do you hate me, Lisa?"**___

_My lips parted. "I……I………I……"_

He stared quietly. Patiently. There was a gentleness all about him. As if—through the blades and darkness—there was something worth hugging.

I gulped.

"It's too complicated. Even for a strange hero such as you……," I hugged myself and faced away. A beat. "Your arm…"

He glanced at his metal prosthetic. I was on the floor from where Janice dropped it.

"……just because it's like that doesn't change anything."

He looked at me.

"For me, that is. Maybe not for the Titans."

He smirked slightly. It was more out of confusion than anything, I guess. He looked at the dozens of sketches of himself. Sketches that—even to my surprise—were remarkably accurate.

I bit my lip.

"I know…," I answered him as if telepathically prompted. "I've done a lot. And I don't know why." A beat. "I don't know why I keep drawing and thinking of you……"

A beat.

I spun around hard and glared at him. "Just the same……I don't know why you ever even lost your arm. You didn't need to. Why?!"

He stared at me.

Silence.

I sighed.

"I'm sorry, Noir. I rescued you from Fang and all you get is some bitchy girl with a shitty life and nothing to give you but confused angst and remorse," I rubbed my shoulders as if I was suddenly cold. "Not much of a welcome party for a hero like you. Forgive me if I don't applaud your presence or something…even if I have two hands of my own."

A beat.

Suddenly, Noir jerked up in his seat.

I looked at him, curious.

He furiously scribbled on his pad and held up for me in ugly, rushed handwriting: _**'I must leave you. He's here.'**_

_I gasped. "Who's here?"_

Suddenly, the bedroom door flew open.

Hope bounded in, followed by Tiffany and Janice.

"Lisa! We've got a problem!"

I narrowed my good eye. "What sort of problem??"

Tiffany hurriedly blew out the candles while Janice and Hope rushed over and shoved Noir and myself to the ground.

"Ackies!!"

WHUMP!! THUMP!!

All five of us hid amidst the shadows over the carpet. Huddled. Silent.

The scurrying figure of an eight-legged fiend wandered past the bedroom window.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

The multiple footsteps rattled across the wall from the outside and came to a stop……just besides my bedroom window.

I gulped and looked at Noir.

"Sorry……but……gotta save the how-do-you-dos for later……maybe even the afterlife."

He reached his right hand across the carpet and gripped Myrkblade.

And……damn it…for a second there, I actually felt safer……


	101. Those Black Eyes part 3 final

**101. Those Black Eyes part 3 Final**

_We waited._

We listened.

Silently……

……………

………………

…………………

_Cl-Clunk…_

Hope gasped.

Tiffany shivered.

I bit my lip.

Janice narrowed her eyes.

Noir gripped his sword. Staring with firm black eyes. He wasn't moving or shaking the slightest. He sat like a slab of granite.

…………………

……………………

………………………

Cl-Clunk……CL-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CRASSSSSH!!!!

_Tiffany and Hope practically fell into each other, white as ghosts._

My mouth went dry.

Janice blinked. She looked at me. "He's….crashing into the room above us!"

A shriek or two through the ceiling. A thunderous pitter-patter towards the far side of the invisible apartment, then--

CRASH!!!!!

More gasps and shrieks. But none of the utterances were being caught up. There was momentarily a split-second pause, then the pitter patter resumed (more distant now) and another loud: CRASH!!!!!

"Fang's searching the rooms one by one…," I muttered.

"Looking for Noir," Janice said.

Hope and Tiffany trembled.

"I don't suppose that if we toss him flies, he'll leave him and us alone??" Tiffany remarked.

Noir struggled to get up.

"What are you doing??" I asked above the sudden chaos emanating from upstairs.

He gritted his teeth. He fell down. He struggled and tried to get up again.

"You're in no condition to take on that creep!" I exclaimed. I rushed over and gripped him by his shoulders. "As long as he doesn't find you, he won't beat anyone up! I'm sure of it!!"

"But if he finds us with him…..," Hope murmured.

I looked over at her.

She gulped and looked at me. Her eyes said it all. So did Tiffany's. So did Janice's.

I frowned. "Fine."

_I hoisted the boy up with his right arm around my neck. He hobbled by my side. If he stood up straight, he'd tower over me. But he was numb and weak with traces of Fang's shock still trying to leave his system. He dangled beside me, panting like a winded motor._

_"I'm getting him out of here. Anyone want to join me?"_

_"Just where are you taking him, exactly??" Hope asked._

I thought on that. My good eye traced the ceiling. I took a deep breath. "Downstairs."

"Downstairs?"

"To the parking garage in the sub level," I said. "Somewhere in the storage spaces down there, I might find a good spot for him to hide."

Tiffany exclaimed: "Till when?"

"I don't know!!" I retorted loudly above the surmounting noise. "But staying in one place is not gonna help things!! We need to get him out of harm's—Fang's way!"

"Agreed," Hope nodded. "We gotta move fast!!"

I was already dragging him towards the front of the apartment.

"Um…," Janice pointed. "You dropped something."

I realized at the last second that Noir was desperately pointing at the same thing on the floor. I looked down…saw his metal hand…and blushed.

"Yeah….we might need that."

"'We'?"

Tiffany handed it to me with an icky expression on her face like it was diseased.

Noir seemed bitterly humored.

"Okay…," I held loosely onto the arm and supported him as we hobbled out the door. "Here we go."

"What about the rest of us?"

"What _**about**__ the rest of you?!?!"_

_Most of them seemed nervous…hesitant…_

Hope—bless her heart—she clenched her fists and rushed with me. "What the heck?! It's what Beast Girl would do!!" She rushed over and opened the front door to my apartment for us. "After the King and Queen!"

I tried to hide a smile. "Thanks and all for your bravery, Hope…but shut the Hell up."

"Hehehehehe!"

Janice and Tiffany exchanged glances…then ran after us.

"Hey!!"

"Wait for us!!"

"Operation Titan Loft Club Rescue in action!!"

"Yeah! What she said!"

I didn't know whether to feel grateful or stupid.

"Yeah……," I blinked my good eye. I looked over at Noir. "They're normally not this brave."

He seemed preoccupied with clinging to my weight.

_When we stumbled out into the apartment building hallway, we all had a good wake up call. People were rushing through the hallways in their pajamas. Some shrieking. Others carrying guns and murmuring about a 'giant bug' to kill. Some even had cell phones and were squawking desperately to contact city authorities._

The four of us and Noir sweatdropped.

"Well….at least we don't have to worry about waking anyone."

"Come on!" I exclaimed, tugging Noir along with me down the hallway. "The stairwell is this way!!"

My friends scampered to keep up.

"How close is he to being badass again?"

"I have no clue," I uttered. I looked at the hobbling boy beside me. "How're you doing, Noir?"

He tripped—causing me to slump down. I gathered my balance and pulled him up. He gritted his teeth.

"Yeah……..," I murmured.

A shriek from behind.

We turned and looked. So did Noir.

A pudgy woman—a neighbor of mine—scurried down the hallway, waddling with each jogging step. I didn't know she could move so fast. "It's the end times! It's the end times!! Giant spider!! Body of a man!! It's the end tiiiiiiiiimes!!"

She ran past us.

Janice watched her. "Menopause?"

"We would be that lucky," I muttered. "Come on!! The door's just over here!"

I led us around a corner past a few fleeing citizens and then towards the metal door in question. It was obviously marked for 'stairs'.

Tiffany rushed forward and turned the knob. She froze. She looked back at us. "It's locked!"

I made a face. "Locked?!"

"That's not good….is it?" Hope murmured. She spun around and watched an even larger group of people dashing past us and down the hallway. "Definitely not good!"

"I don't get it…why's it---," I then groaned.

"What??" Janice looked my way.

I shook my head. "They close it on the top floors. Only from ground level or the rooftop can you access the stairwell."

"The Hell?!?!"

"What morons thought that was a good idea?!"

"The same ones who invented a FIRE ESCAPE for emergency exits!" I growled.

The others blushed.

Tiffany panicked: "But we can't take the elevator!! Everyone's rushing towards it and by the time we get to one, Fang will probably be—"

Suddenly, Noir gripped my hand.

I looked at him, startled.

He shared the holding of Myrkblade's hilt in his right fingers and mine. Together, we pointed the sword at the door and placed the tip in the crack.

The girls watched curiously from behind.

He closed his black eyes. Smoke trailed out through his clenched eyelids…trailed down his shoulders…down his and my arm both…and warbled into the sword. For a split second, it felt like the very bone of my forearm was vibrating….then--

FLASH!!!!

A pulse of…energy soared through the wooden blade and into the door, splitting it open and revealing the yawn of a cold stairwell leading downward.

I blinked. "Wow…."

"Need a cigarette, Lisa?"

"Can it, Janice. We gotta move."

"Right, girl. Shake it off."

Noir took a breath and opened his eyes. He looked at me and motioned down the stairwell.

"Right beside you," I returned.

We started to hobble down the stairwell. That's when I realized that the two of us were alone. I paused and turned around. Noir also looked—squinting his naked black eyes at the light coming in from the apartment hallway.

"Hey! Girls!! What's holding you?!"

The three seemed to be in an impromptu huddle. They looked down my way.

"Hope has a bright idea!" Tiffany smirked.

"We'll provide distraction!"

I gasped. "What?!?!"

"Go take him down to the basement!!" Janice pointed and exclaimed above the noise of panicked neighbors. "We'll make sure Fang doesn't take this stairwell down and follow you!!"

"Don't screw around!!! That freak's dangerous!!!"

CRASH!!!!

CL-CL-CLACK!!!!

Spider footsteps from the hallway.

Voices shrieked.

"Get your asses in gear!" Janice pointed. "Just save some of his for Hope and Tiffany later!!"

"Wha---you morons!!"

"Later, girl! He's almost here!" Hope exclaimed, shutting the door behind us.

CLANG!!!

We were alone in the dark, cold stairwell.

_  
__Noir took a deep breath. The gaze of his that lingered on the door seemed concerned…remorseful…_

I hated him for it.

"Forget them," I grumbled. "Think they can play heroines without me being angry at their stupidity…" I yanked him with me as I hobbled down the stairs, supporting our weights clumsily. The noises of the chaos above us grew more and more distant. "This night's shot to shit. Perfect. Just perfect."

He numbly did his best to catch up with his scampering feet. He grunted and panted. I could care less if he was competent enough to assist in this escape….

_"What's wrong, Hero?!" I found myself uttering. "Aren't you strong enough for this?! Do I have to carry you or something?! Do me a favor and get paralyzed on somebody else's rooftop next time!!"_

Naturally, he had no response to that. Verbal……and I suppose not mental either. And I hated him for it. I hated him for his neutrality.

"You're something, you know that??" I grumbled. "But don't delude yourself! Not every hero can remain good forever. It just doesn't happen. Not in this frickin' world. Not in this—ACK!!"

I tripped.

One step on the stairwell had been partially worn away…or chipped…as if an elephant or something jumped on it. Noir and I fell forward. Somehow, I twisted my body just right so that I wouldn't damage any vital piece of myself upon impact. And in the same way, Noir escaped physical damage of his own too.

_The loud clatter of his loose metal arm falling onto the ground echoed in my ear._

I winced.

I sat up and shook my head.

We were haphazardly collapsed on a slab of concrete platform beneath and above two sets of descending stairs.

There had to have been at least a dozen floors to go as of yet. A mutant spider-person was at our heels. And I suddenly had no strength to do anything anymore.

Why was I doing this? Why was I trying to protect him? What was the whole point of anything anymore?

Why did I ever get obsessed with him and the Titans to begin with? Why did I sketch everyday when I should have been paying attention to schoolwork or my future? Why the constant attempts to escape reality?

I sighed.

"You're right, Noir……," I quietly stated. "I've hated you. I've hated you a lot…"

He winced, sat up straight, and panted. It was still an effort for him to so much as move.

_"But you're not alone in my silly hatred," I muttered. I stared off into space. A glazed look. The same glazed look. "All the Titans………the Justice League………even policemen………I hate them all. I hate them for being good."_

He stared at me, panting. He swallowed and leaned his head to the side. As if curious.

I tried to avoid his gaze. I hugged my knees to my chest and took a deep breath.

"If you must know, you must know……," I weakly gave in. "My dad took it from me."

He blinked his black optics.

"My eye," I spat. "I was only five years old. He came home one night and like any little girl, I wanted to hug him or play or some shit. Of course, I didn't understand yet what 'piss drunk' meant. I was so stupid. I merely hugged his leg, and he lost it. And as if using the back of his hand to slap me silly wasn't enough, he grabs a screwdriver from a nearby table and goes to town. I've later been told that he claimed he only meant to hit me with the handle. But I remember. He stabbed me. Straight in the eye. You don't stab your kid with screwdriver handles. And furthermore…you don't twist them after your kid's already screaming and bleeding all over the place…"

Noir's eyes glanced down at the floor. For once, he was avoiding my gaze.

"So…I was marked at a young age. I had to get used to being laughed at in school for being the only girl not pretty because she wore an eyepatch to kindergarten. Even when middle school came and I settled into a foster home that had guardians sane enough to give me a god damn glass eye, I knew it was too late. Life had destined for me to be a freak. There's no escaping that. But that's okay. I've gotten used to that. There's just one damn thing I can't seem to get over. And it bugs the Hell out of me."

He looked back up at me. Silent. Patient.

My fingers were clenching into fists and shaking.

I gritted my teeth, fumed, and uttered: "My dad practically raped my mom for me to be here. Then he battered her up and scarred me for life…and I still _**loved**__ him." I shook my head. I wanted to explode. Instead, I rambled: "I missed him each time he went away to cheat on his family and spend his life on beer and shit. I loved and longed for my daddy when the cops took him away after nearly killing my mom one night after a drunken rage. And I hated the __**cops**__. __ And when I went to school, I hated all the good kids and all the guidance counselors and everyone good. Because they took things away from me. All the terrible shit that I loved because it was all that I knew. And when I grew up and learned about Batman and Superman and Robin and Wonder Woman and all the other dicks in capes I learned to hate them too."_

_I wrung my hands together. I sighed again. My left eye socket felt more and more irritated. I missed being able to 'cry normally'._

"Into High School…I started to wake up," I shuddered. "I moved in with my sis and I learned it was okay to hate my dad. It was okay to feel bad about my missing eye, dead mom, and screwed up childhood. But still it was hard…ya know? To switch everything around in my head and…I guess…'conform' to what the world says is good and what the world says is bad. And this one day Janice comes to me and invites me to this club that worships heroes…and I gave in because—if anything—it'd at least be a way to punish myself. And on first glance, I looked through all the Titans and I saw you. And I saw how badass you were. And how dark. And how……how you seem to dance on the border of it all, Noir…"

I looked at him. Taking a deep breath. I bit my lip.

"I got obsessed with you because of the potential bad I saw in you, Noir. Not the good. And every time the girls yapped on and on about how much they wanted to sleep with Robin, or how much they wanted to shake Starfire's hand, or how sleek Cyborg's car is, or how much they'd give to fight alongside Beast Boy or Raven…all I could think about was you. You were the darkness I could fall back on. I could retreat to in my head. The safe haven of evil. And when there was nothing about you on the news to reflect on, I went to my one talent. Drawing. I sketched what I believe you to be. And those dark eyes…those black eyes that reflect nothing but the murk of the world…they drew me in. I fell into their rumored gaze in this screwed up head of mine and felt secure."

I swallowed. I looked away from him.

"And when you became Wyldecarde…naturally everyone in the City was glued to the News. But all I could think of was your eyes. And how they were always black…whether you were a traitor or not. And when you turned out to have been on the Titans' side all along and the City authorities vindicated you……I was totally and utterly shocked. You had saved the Titans…and yet…I felt that you had betrayed me. For that proved once and for all that you were a hero. That you were good. The very thing I hated since I was a five year old drama queen. And I looked at all the sketches I had made and all the obsession I had had and I hated myself. And I hated you. I never told anyone. And I believed that I was getting over it. But now here you are. Real. Black. Obscure. And I can't escape you, Noir. And I realize…I realize now…you're the lingering residue of my screwed up morality complex. You're the last thing that holds me to myself and I hate you for it. I hate you so much……"

Silence.

Noir stared at me. No emotions.

And that's just what I needed.

I exhaled and stretched my legs out. My throat was sore.

"I can never……ever……figure myself out." A beat. I shivered suddenly as if **I** was cold. "And who are you to bear the brunt of what I am?"

Silence.

I ran two gnarled hands through my hair and groaned. "In spite of all that I said…I don't know why I'm doing this, Noir. I don't know why I'm saving you. I wish you could frickin' talk. Then maybe you could tell me everything I've always needed…………wanted to know."

CL-CLICK!!! Hisssssssssss.

I glanced over.

Noir had his right metal hand reattached. He flexed his metal fingers a bit, getting reconfigured with his nerves (I guess). He looked at me.

I took a deep breath. I managed a small smile.

"I suppose we all have our own things that we lose……and must get over……"

He merely stared. His black eyes blinked.

I took a deep breath. "Think you're ever gonna tell me what happened to **your** eyes?"

He quickly charaded a 'spider' with his metal hand.

I sighed. "I know," I nodded. I stood up and walked over to him besides the stairs. "We have nearly a dozen flights of stairs to go and we're all out of Raid."

I helped him up to his limping feet. He held Myrkblade with his right hand and wrapped his metal one around my shoulder as I gave him something to lean on.

Quietly…we hobbled down the stairwell together. Gradually, we hurried ourselves. The apartment felt much taller than normal. 

_CLANG!!!_

I kicked open the bottom door of the stairwell.

I looked around.

The parking garage stretched before us. Full of cars. Vans. Trucks. Black from the many layers of night piled up above us and the apartment building. Flickering lights of dying amber attempted to illuminate the underground concrete and aluminum forest where moonlight could not reach. Far beyond the lines of cars—where my one eye couldn't discern in the darkness—was certainly the line of storage compartments that I knew had to be there. But…again…I couldn't see worth shit.

Noir—on the other hand—seemed right at home. He gazed out with his black eyes and took a good scan of the place.

"We need to find the storage compartments," I panted as he leaned on me. "A-128 is my sis' and mine. I can get that thing opened and we can hide inside if need be. But I……er……kinda sorta forget where it is."

Noir's head tilted towards the right. He pointed past a brown van and an old Honda.

I shrugged. "Any place is better than here."

The two of us pressed on. We hobbled side by side like runaways from a chain gang. We swam past the walls of automobiles and made for the far wall which only half of us could see. Our pace was desperately quick.

"One thing's for certain," I huffed. "I'm gonna be scheduling myself for P.E. next instead of waiting for the Senior Year."

Noir smirked.

Then……

Clack-Clack-Clack-Clack-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-SWOOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!!!

Noir's breath left him, and soon so did his body. I gasped as the hero by my side was slapped by an arachnid leg and sent flying fifteen feet away into the side of a pickup truck…significantly denting it.

CLANK!!!!

Noir slumped to the ground with his blade…visibly shaken. He groaned and tried numbly to stand up.

WOOOSH—CLUMP!!!

A huge black shape that turned out to be Fang leapt over and perched himself in front of the Titan. He kicked his human foot up into Noir's gut.

WHUMP!!!

The breath left the Titan's lungs.

Fang then let out a shout and flung down two of his spider limbs. The sharp feet clamped around Noir's scarred neck…lifting his dangling body up into the air and strangling him.

"Looks like you've been caught…," Fang grumbled. He shook a human fist. "There are two things you're likely to find in a basement, punk. Ghosts…and cobwebs. I knew you'd come down here eventually, Titan. To the dark that makes you feel 'secure'. But you couldn't escape me. I'm going to make the Titans pay for all those months spent in the slammer. And if it takes sucking the guts out of their reckless rookie, then so be it. I'm in the mood for something dark anyways!!"

THWACK!!!

My foot kicked hard into one of his spider legs in the ground.

Unphased, Fang's arachnid head swiveled around and the six eyes glared at me.

I gulped, summoned strength, and raised my fists.

"Let go of him, you waste of 'freak'!"

His mutated eyes narrowed. "Or you'll do what, bitch?!"

I frowned. "Well, normally I'd threaten to kick your ass all the way up to your head, but in your case---"

WHUMP!!!!

He knocked me back with the simple flick of a spider foot.

"Right………"

He glanced at Noir.

"Of all the Titans…why is it that I have to capture the one heartthrob whom all the stupid girls swoon for??"

WHACK!!!!

A baseball bat slammed against his head.

Fang dropped Noir as the spider freak collapsed to the floor.

Tiffany walked into the light, palming the bat. "Correction! I'm a stupid girl who loves ROBIN! Pig!!"

"Grrrrrr," Fang tried to get up--

WHACK!!!

A tennis racquet struck him hard in the eyes.

"OW!!!"

Hope jumped up, holding the racquet. "And I'm a girl who respects Beast Boy!!!"

Fang's spider limbs pushed against the ground as he tried to scurry into a more open area--

SWACK!!!!!

A golf club batted him back towards the other two girls.

Janice stepped into the light, smirking. "And I play golf!!"

"RrrrrrrRRAUGH!!!" Fang sprang up and shook his human fists. "Pathetic whelps!! Back off or else I'll—"

WHACK!!!

SMACK!!!

WHAM!!!

"OW!!" Fang recoiled under the punishment of the three girls and their haphazard weaponry. "JEEZ!!! SHIT!!! DAMMIT!!! AUGH!!!"

"What's the matter, Fang?! Can't handle some fan MAUL?! HA!!"

SMACK!!!"

"Tiffany, that was some lame. Less joking and more hitting."

WHACK!!!

"Hey! Hey girls! Check this out! FORE!!!"

THWACK!!!!

Fang toppled over once…twice…and landed with his abdomen against a concrete pillar. He groaned and looked dizzy.

I gasped: "What're you three doing here?"

"The first plan didn't work," Hope blushed.

"And this is the second plan?"

"More like the fourth…eheheh…"

"It's best to say that we got bored and decided to join you, toots," Janice winked.

"Jeez, I'm flattered."

"Go check on Noir! We'll squash this punk!"

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

"Be bloody, bold, and resolute! But most of all, be all over HIS ASS!!!"

WHACK!! SMACK!! WHAM!!!

"Augh!!!" Fang got up and attempted deflecting each bludgeon's swing with his many legs.

In the meantime, I ran over to the truck where Noir was collapsed.

"Mr. Noir?! Mr. Noir!!" I shook him. "Speak to me—er…wriggle your fingers or something."

He wriggled them. He got up—an exasperated look on his face—and stood leaning against the truck.

I suddenly realized that he must have been used to the sensation of being tossed up against vehicles.

"Now's our chance to get you out of here," I said. "Come on!!"

I tugged on his arm. But he wouldn't budge.

He had a stiff look to his face. A set jaw and glaring eyes. He was staring right at Fang on the receiving end of the girls' punishment. He glanced at me and pointed at the scene with his sword.

I gulped. "You still don't have all your strength back!! Leave them be! I'm sure they're more than capable of handling—"

"RAAAAAAAUGH!!!!" Fang shouted suddenly and batted all three girls away. "I will not die at the hands of SCHOOLGIRLS!!!"

He lashed one hooked toe out, grabbed Hope by the collar, and tossed her—shrieking—across the parking garage. While she was still in mid-air, he let loose a stream of web silk from his mouth that encased Hope and stuck her to a pillar.

"Hope!!" Tiffany shouted.

She was next. Fang grabbed her, tossed her, covered her in web, and stuck her to a piece of the ceiling.

"Hmmmmm," Janice smirked. She held her golf club up like a samurai warrior and got ready to stupidly charge the beast. "Something tells me this is gonna get the blood rushing."

Fang snatched her, flung her across the garage, and stuck her in a web between two pillars.

_All of my girl friends struggled and groaned in vain to get out of their sticky restraints._

_  
__The spider freak then turned at me. Six eyes glaring._

I gulped. "Noir…now's a good time to run………………Noir???"

I looked to my side.

Nothing.

I spun around, looking everywhere.

He was gone.

"Shit……," I breathed. I looked up. A shadow in amber light encased me. Fang had marched up and was now leering over me.

A beat.

I waved with a crooked smile. "Not so itsy bitsy…are ya?"

THWUMP!!!!

He pinned me to the pickup truck with two spider legs. His mandibles leered threateningly close to my face and he drooled as he uttered: "Where…is…he…?"

"Um…," I gulped. "Went on to vacation in Venezuela. He should be back—considering he doesn't die of malaria."

GRIP!!!!!

A spider foot clamped around my neck.

I gripped it with two weak hands and gasped for air.

His mandibles were practically brushing with my nose. I smelled something in his breath that was reminiscent of crushed maggots and rotten apples.

"Tell me where he'd be hiding in this parking garage of yours……or I will suck you of every bit of essence you have. And I _**don't**__ mean in the good way!"_

I frowned and wheezed: "I bet you say that to all the girls…"

"They don't last long. Believe me," he applied pressure on my neck. "And neither will you! WHERE IS HE?!?!"

I coughed…I sputtered. My glazed gaze lifted upward. I caught something with my one good eye. A pair of barely reflecting orbs on the ceiling.

My lips parted.

"WELL?!?!" Fang growled.

With a warble of smoke, Noir appeared. He was clinging magically upside down on the ceiling. He slowly snaked Myrkblade out and pointed it at Fang.

I grinned. "Oh Hell yeah…"

Fang's six eyes widened.

Before he could turn around--

SWOOSH!!!!

Noir pounce down, flipped, landed on Fang's spider head, and flung Myrkblade down so that he brought it up lengthwise under the freak's chin. He gripped the hilt and the tip of the blade with two hands and pulled hard. His teeth grit. Smoke coursed in waves through his arms and suddenly he was flipping Fang up and over his shoulder in a reverse throw.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

CRUNCH!!!!!

Fang's impact sent a van toppling over. The spider fell to the ground, his four arachnid limbs twitching in the air.

Noir panted. He dizzily teetered back and forth, nearly falling down. He shook out of it, twirled Myrkblade into a badass pose, and charged Fang just as he was getting up.

"Go Noir!!" Hope shouted.

"Do what Robin would do!!"

"Kick that black widow in drag's ass!!"

I watched wearily…gathering my breath. If I had a mirror, I'd be only half surprised to see the smile on my face as--

SWOOOOOSH-SLASH!!!!

Noir ended his charge with an uppercut that sliced a scar across Fang's right, human arm.

SLIIIINK!!!

Mutated blood flew.

"AAAUGH!!" Fang shouted and flung all of his spider limbs at Noir simultaneously.

Noir swiftly blurred, slid down under the limbs' throw, came up the other side of Fang's human body, twirled Myrkblade, and spun with a bat-like swing of the weapon hard against the creep's back.

SMACK!!!!

Fang fell forward on the concrete.

Noir leapt up, jabbed Myrkblade down, and sailed towards Fang's back.

Four spider legs lifted, grabbed Noir, and flung him across the parking garage.

Noir smoked in mid-air, twirled himself about, and landed in a sliding crouch along the ground.

"Don't let him toss you around, Noir!!"

"Yeah!! Show him who's boss!!"

"Wow…this is like the Titans' Magazine……only in 3D!"

"Worthless little punk!!" Fang shouted as he got up and shook his human legs. "I can still devour you. I'll have a Noir pancake!!"

Noir stuck his tongue out.

Hope giggled.

Fang roared and picked up a Volkswagen Beetle with his spider limbs.

"Oh shit…," Janice exclaimed.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Fang tossed the car at Noir.

"Look out!!" I shouted.

Noir's black eyes widened. He dove to the side as the vehicle flew by.

CRUNCH!!!!! SNKKKKKKKTTTTTT-CRASH!!! It landed on its roof and slid fifteen feet into a minivan.

Fang then picked up a sports car and flung it like a missile at Noir. "RAAAUGH!!!" 

_SWOOOSH!!!_

Noir rolled along the ground and flatted himself to the concrete the best he could. The body of the sports car barely grazed his face as it soared over him and slammed into a concrete pillar beyond.

Fang reached for another automobile.

Noir hopped to his feet…panting…and charged.

Fang lifted an entire van with all his strength.

Tiffany gasped. "Not good!!"

Fang twirled around.

Noir ran at him. His sprinting body was encased in smoke.

Fang shouted and launched the van at full force.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I gasped, a hand over my mouth.

Noir grit his teeth, blurred, and jumped---

SMASH!!!!

_--through the careening vehicle with his sword swinging._

SMACK!!!!!!

He struck Fang hard across the mandibles with the blunt side of his blade. He then twirled, stabbed his weapon in reverse, got it entangled in the monster's twitching limbs, and swung Fang hard into a pillar.

SMACK!!!

Noir then twirled his blade and prepared to perform a knockout blow to the top of Fang's head when the monster gripped the pillar with his spider legs and kicked his human legs outward.

WHUMP!!!

Noir was forced back.

CL-CL-CL-CLACK!!!

Fang ascended onto the ceiling by his spider legs. He gripped Noir with human hands and raced across the parking garage. Noir's body dangled as the ceiling-scurrying monster zoomed over cars, forcibly knocking Noir's body into one and then another like a human pinball.

WHACK!!! WHAM!!! SMACK!! THWUMP!!!

Hope gasped.

"He's hurting him!!" Tiffany exclaimed.

"No shit, Sherlock!!"

I bit my lip. I looked over on the floor. I spotted Janice's golf club. I ran over, scooped it up, and dashed to intercept Noir's helpless gauntlet run. I held the bludgeon over my head like a spear, grunted, and tossed it at the scurrying spider legs.

CLANK!!!!

It's best to describe it as 'Fang tripping upside down'. The golf club got entangled in his two front legs. He lost his grip of the ceiling and teetered over like a half-unhinged chandelier with his screaming head flying right into my fist.

And…yes…I did punch the sonofabitch.

SMACK!!!!!

He twirled from the impact and fell hard onto the back of a truck. At the same time, he dropped Noir who rolled to a painful stop by a pillar.

I ran to his side. "Are you all right--?!"

SMACK!!!

A spider leg swept over and slapped me across the face.

"Nnngh!!" I fell back against a pillar.

SPLORTCH!!!!

Web silk encased my chest and pinned me against the concrete.

I struggled to get out. My body ached.

CL-CL-CLACK!!

I gasped. I looked up.

Fang limped towards me in the best manner that an eight-legged freak could 'limp'. His six eyes glared as his mandibles twitched hungrily. "I think I'll bite that smartass mouth of yours off first!!"

He lunged at me.

I flinched.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Noir slid blurredly to a stop in front of me with Myrkblade held high.

CLACK!!!!

"Mmmmphhhh!!" Fang exclaimed, his mandibles clamped accidentally over the tip of Noir's sword in an obscene manner.

Noir meditated and launched a pulse of smoke up the length of the blade.

FLASH!!!!

"AAAAAUGH!!" Fang was launched back—head first—into the side of a van. CRUNCH!!!

Noir ran at him.

_  
__But Fang was ready. He slashed with two spider limbs._

Noir dodged both…but wasn't ready for Fang's human foot.

WHACK!!!!

Noir was kicked upside the face. His nose was bleeding explosively.

WHAM!!!

One of Fang's limbs smacked him across the cheek.

Noir spun.

"RAAAAUGH!!!!" Fang shouted and slashed two spider feet down at once.

SLIIIINK!!!! SLIIIIINK!!!

Noir howled silently in pain as blood flew from his skin. He stumbled forward and trembled in a weak stance. He looked up, his black eyes wide. And I could tell by my helpless, webbed reflection in his glazed black eyes that we were merely a foot or two away from each other.

And that's when it hit me…as a trickle or two of blood ran down the Titan's shoulders…he was scared. He was in pain. And he was human.

And I felt bad and relieved at the same time to know that everyone in this world goes through pointless shit. And all this time, it wasn't me. And there was no such thing as good and there was no such thing as bad. For enemies are ghosts that we dream up for ourselves when nothing goes our way.

And nothing ever……truly…goes our way.

Perhaps this is something Noir already knew. After all, he was a hero with his own fair share of shit. But whether or not he was new to this knowledge, he saw it in my eyes as much as I saw it in his just the same.

Black eyes and glass eyes.

There really is no difference.

But Noir saw something else in my glazed gaze. He saw the approaching figure of Fang behind him like I did. He saw the freak's arachnid limbs lift up to slide the hero apart. And he also saw the look of horror in my face.

And that's when the black eyes narrowed and danced with fiery smoke. And he let out a silent scream……and stabbed Myrkblade straight through his own heart.

I gasped.

But Noir was still standing…still breathing…still living.

Myrkblade was in smoke form, and it was presently teleporting through Noir's body and teleporting halfway into Fang's chest.

"What the Hell?!?!" the freakish villain cackled.

Noir exploded with smoke, turned into murk, teleported, and materialized so that his body was in reverse and stabbing Myrkblade all the way through Fang's heart. But the sword still wasn't solid. At any moment, it could materialize…and Fang would be a living pincushion.

And he knew it.

"Please……p-please……,"Fang's mandibles trembled. "Don't teleport it! I-I'll do anything!!"

Noir stared at him. He glanced at me.

A beat.

I smirked.

_  
__He smirked._

SWOOOSH!!!

In a flash, Noir yanked his smoking sword out, solidified it, spun around, and slapped Fang hard across the human body.

WHAM!!!!!!!

Fang went flying fifteen feet from the charged impact. No sooner had he landed on the concrete that Noir was dashing over to a motorcycle of all things. The Titan hopped onto the vehicle, gritted his teeth, and jammed his metal forefinger through the key ignition. CRUNCH!!!! Sparks flew up his metal arm and stopped at his prosthetic disc attachment. He flexed his metal fingers and bizarrely throttled the electricity back into the vehicle. I don't know how in the Hell he did it exactly, but he hotwired the motorbike and kicked it into gear.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!!! VROOOOOOOM!!!!

The parking garage warbled with the echo of his acceleration.

Fang was slowly getting up—and dizzily realizing that the Titan was zooming the bike straight into his chest.

"Awwwww f---"

SMACK!!!!!

Noir shoved Fang across the parking garage via the motorbike. He approached a line of cars on the far side. He stuck the acceleration the highest it could go, summoned smoke, and backflipped off the seat of the motorcycle.

VROOOOOOM!!!!

"AAAAAAUGH!!!!"

The bike pushed Fang deep into the body of a black van.

CRUNNCHH!!!!

The fuel tank bit it.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!**___

_Noir landed in a crouch, his body a silhouette against a fireball in the far corner of the garage. Fang twitched and squirmed inside the flames before falling out into the open. His body was smoking. His mandibles were groaning. A freak like that could take an atomic bomb blast at point blanc and still manage to freakin' survive._

But he still knew what pain meant.

Fang was out cold.

Noir panted…his lungs heaving. He did just what he was deserving to do that entire fight in the garage. He collapsed to the floor and wheezed.

The fire sprinklers erupted. A spring rain was taking place in the parking garage. The water dissolved the webbing around us. Soon the three girls and I landed on our feet and brushed the last of the stickiness off of us as the rain soaked our bodies.

"Woooohooo!!" Tiffany cheered. "Definitely good with or without the popcorn!!"

"Did you see how he practically took Fang to school?! I wish Beast Boy was here!"

"Hey…there was blood," Janice shrugged. "I'm happy."

"Hey Lisa, you allright??" A beat. "Lisa?"

I had crossed the distance from where I was stuck to where Noir was collapsed. The flaming van was smoking as the sprinklers took good care of the fire. I knelt down and shook the exhausted boy's shoulder.

"You okay?"

He coughed, panted, and did a thumb's up with his metal hand.

I sighed with relief…then smiled playfully. "So……would now be a good time to ask for your autograph?"

_Outside the front of the first floor of my apartment building, I sat on the steps with a mug of warm tea in my hands and a blanket over my soaked shoulders to warm me from the effect of the sprinklers._

Tiffany, Janice, and Hope hovered nearby…chattering crazily about the fight.

Noir—interestingly enough—was sitting beside me.

Police squad cars and fire crews and the like had gathered throughout the blockaded street. A team of special forces members were carting the beat-up body of Fang into a prison car to be taken to the prison…most likely with the infirmary being the first destination on his list.

City officials were doing their best to calm the panicked squabblings of my neighbors—a few of which had found their car kinda sorta crunched or blown up.

"I've always wondered about the issue of the Titans and collateral damage," I smirked. I looked at Noir. "You have absolutely no conscience, do you?"

He shrugged. He was squinting his black eyes and holding a metal hand up to shade himself from the pulsing police squad car lights and streetlamps.

I felt bad for him.

"It must be tough living like that…," I said. "Only being comfortable in the dark. Being forced to wear shades all the time."

He squinted at me. He pointed at my left eye.

"Yeah…well…," I smiled and sighed. I sipped from the tea and spoke, "I have an eyepatch for it. And I think I manage to draw well for not ever being able to grasp parallax ever again."

He smiled at that. Softly. There was a rosy touch of pride.

"You should request a commission someday," I said. "Lord knows I've sketched you in every manner possible as it is."

He raised an eyebrow and amusedly mouthed: 'every??'

I bit my lip. "Yeah…well…," I sipped from the tea. "I'd sketch something clean for you. After all, it'd be your commission. Not……like……Raven's……"

Noir then did the wyrdest thing I had ever witnessed. He laughed. The best that a mute person can laugh. With a shuddering breath that resembled a gattling gun attached to his lungs.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

He shook his head.

"It's true, isn't it?" I asked. "Hope says she sees it on all the message boards. You and Raven. Hell, I think someone even put up a shrine about you two."

Again, he shook his head with a chuckling smile. But there was an edge of iciness to the smile…and he cleared his throat and pointed curiously at me.

"What?"

He stared.

"Oh…," I blushed. "Myself……well……" I hugged the blanket around me more. I smiled softly and stared off in my trademark glaze. "There's this……this boy."

He raised an eyebrow.

"His name's Alan and he………I………"

A beat.

"I don't know anything about it," I blinked. "I could know so much……start so much……but……"

Noir scratched his neck. He raised a finger.

I looked at him.

He pointed at his hand. Then at my left eye.

A beat.

_"People lose things all the time," I muttered. "I suppose……we're always at a risk of losing more."_

Noir nodded.

I looked at my feet. "I could……lose someone I never even had………with Alan. Just because I'm so stuck up on myself."

He shrugged.

I glanced at him funny. "You're disastrously modest, you know that?"

He smiled.

"And what does that make me?"

He motioned 'crazy' with his finger besides his temple.

I frowned and shoved him. "Jerk!!"

He chuckled.

I smirked and sighed. "You're not so dark after all, Mr. Noir. I think…I think I was all wrong about you."

He stared.

"I was……sketching the wrong eyes."

Noir smiled slightly.

Silence.

_Suddenly, Hope gasped. "Look!!"_

"Oh wow!!"

"Omigod! Robin!!"

"Starfire! Raven!!"

I looked over. Noir and I stood up at the same time.

On a raised highway two buildings down, the Titans had clearly gathered. The roof of the T-Car could clearly be seen. Beside it stood a strong and gigantic half teenager half robot. Beside him was a nimble athlete in tights, cape, and a mask. Hovering over them was an alien girl with fiery red hair and a figure robed in dark blue. Atop the T-Car perched a green elf. All five were staring our way…Noir's way.

I took a deep breath. I glanced over at my friends.

Janice and Hope were doing their best to hold up a swooning Tiffany.

And I smirked.

I looked over at Noir. "Well……I guess this is when you rejoin your flock."

He slowly nodded, facing the Titans. He turned and looked at me.

I looked up into his black eyes.

A beat.

He smiled. He extended a hand.

I blushed and eagerly shook it. "Guess you save the 'good-bye kisses' for girls with superpowers, huh?"

At the sound of 'kisses', he made a mock face of disgust.

I giggled for the second time that night and perhaps the third time in my life.

"Go spread your wings, hero. Lord knows I'm sick of your silent treatment."

He smirked at that, saluted, and blurred off like a dark comet towards the highway. A few surrounding people gasped as if they hadn't noticed the Titan amongst them before he suddenly used his superpowers.

I stared across the asphalt expanse.

_  
__Noir ran up and came to a blurred stop before the Titans on the raised interstate._

Robin said something to him.

Noir listened…then nodded…then performed sign language.

Then Cyborg looked at the others and spoke.

_A few of them nodded._

_  
__Beast Boy said something, and a handful laugh._

The Tamaranian flew down and gave Noir a quick hug before taking off into the air.

She was joined by Raven and Beast Boy in falcon form.

Cyborg got into the T-Car, started the engine, and cruised away.

Then Robin whipped out a grappling hook, shot it, and swung forth.

They were all headed towards the Tower. Towards home.

So was Noir. But the swordsman paused. On the edge of the highway, he looked my way. I caught a glimpse of two coyote-like embers reflecting moonlight.

A blink…and he was gone. Blurring off the highway, across the Bay Waters, and towards obscurity beyond.

I was gloriously alone again.

I hugged the blanket tighter around myself and sighed happily.

Happily…

"Did you see Robin?! Oh gawwwwd! I swear, he blew a kiss at me!"

"He did not! Besides, he was over a hundred feet away!!"

"Did you see how Beast Boy just morphed like that?! I never knew he could do it so quickly! I swear…I'm updating Beast Girl as soon as I go home!!"

"That's nothing! I clearly saw Raven and Starfire flying off together!! If that isn't a sign of true love and commitment, I don't know what is!"

"Nuts to you, Janice! I didn't see any scars on their wrists!"

"They were wearing gloves and sleeves, dumbass! They hide it from the public! Nobody can know the true lengths of their passion!"

"Hehehe……you said 'lengths'."

"I did not!………oh wait, yes I did."

"Hehehehe!!!"

"Shut up!! This was a crazy night!! I'm not my usual self!!"

"You are flustered! You are flustered!"

"I am not!!!"

"Oh Robin!! You complete me!! Under silken sheets!!" 

_  
__The door opened._

Alan looked up. "H-Hey……"

"Hey," I waved with a soft smile. "I didn't think you'd actually come."

I let him into the apartment that following afternoon.

_"Yeah…well…when a girl asks me over it usually means I'm needed to cheat on some take-home quiz or I'm about to become America's next trademark punching bag."_

"Ha ha. Very funny."

"Sarcasm…how could I have guessed," he sighed and looked up at me. "What'd you want, Lisa?"

"Come here," I motioned him along and walked into my bedroom. "I want to show you something."

"Whatever it is, I hope it's sterilized."

"Sarcasm…how surprising."

"Touche."

_The window curtains were spread out and a bright white light filtered in. The usually dark room was bright and inviting. Especially since the walls were……bare._

"Hey……," Alan blinked. "They're gone."

"Hmmm?"

"All your crazy Noir sketches."

"Oh yeah…I filed them away."

"What for?"

I shrugged. I opened a drawer. "Felt I had gone through that phase enough to write a book about it."

"And the club? You still hanging out with those girls?"

_"By all means. They're like sisters to me."_

"Heh…didn't know you had a soft spot in you."

I murmured: "We all tend to surprise ourselves."

"…………Huh?"

I spun around, holding a piece of paper to my chest. "Sit down. Close your eyes."

"Um………why?"

"Does it matter to ask? Just do it!"

Alan sighed. "Fine…whatever."

He sat on the bed and closed his eyes.

"Just so you'll know……I'm not the legal age yet."

"Neither am I, numbnuts. Now be patient."

He was…sorta……

I placed the paper in his lap.

"Okay……now look."

Alan opened his eyes. He glanced down and held the paper for himself to see. His eyes squinted.

It was a sketch. Black and white. Of Alan. And Alan was crying. All the pain daily bottled up inside of him—as I had known and seen—was being released in a fantasy of pencil shading and shadows. And behind him, hugging his shoulders, was a mysterious figure. Feminine. With long, dark hair. And an eyepatch over the left eye.

Alan took a deep breath.

"I was inspired as of late…," he heard me say. "I sketched this thing this morning. Took me three frickin' hours. I tried to imagine what your face would look like sobbing. But it's hard. Cuz you're always so angry and deadpan all the time—"

"What the Hell is this, Lisa," he breathily asked. His face shook as he looked at the drawing. "I mean…it's a nice drawing and stuff as always. But…what the Hell? Is this some kind of joke—"

"No, Alan. There's no need to be angry. Heck, I'm one to talk. I'm always angry. Always mad. Always wanting to beat the world to a pulp. But I don't. I stay neutral. I sit back and I draw silly heroes all day. But there're more heroes out there then black-eyed ghosts. There're people just like me. They get mixed up about what 'good' and 'bad' is and they refuse to change. They refuse to find happiness because they're so angry or so afraid of everything around them."

"Can it," Alan grunted. His voice shuddered as all but crumpled the sheet of paper up and frowned. "I don't need a pity friend, Lisa." He looked up. "The next time you draw a piece of crap like this you can just—" He stopped in mid speech.

I bit my lip and looked down, blushing. I had removed my glass eye and put the eyepatch on. I was my true self.

Alan's mouth was agape.

"I……I'm still learning about life, Alan," I said. I swallowed a lump down my throat. My one good eye started tearing. "And……I realize that I've wasted so…so many years being angry. And I'm still young. I-I just can't let it go on any further." I struggled and finally managed to look at him. The tears flowed. "It's not you who needs a pity friend, Alan. If it's anyone, it's me. I'm tired of trying to hide it, Alan. I think about you all the time. I think about you…and wish I could be by your side. Feeling your pain with you. Being picked on as well. Because at least then I wouldn't be so damn alone anymore. And I'm sick and tired of being alone…and I'm sick and tired of seeing you alone, Alan."

I pointed a shaking finger at the sketch as I quivered.

"Th-That's not a drawing, Alan. It's a prophecy. A prophecy as long as……as you're willing to accept me. And in that…you're willing to accept yourself."

He stared at me in awe. Blinking. But slowly, those angry eyes of him started to glaze over. And I saw in them a glistening reflection of myself as he fought ancient tears.

"I…I'm not ready for anything like that, Lisa," he murmured. He shook his head and clenched his eyes shut. But we both knew that I had punched a hole through. "I'm not ready to……to give in……"

I shuffled over, sat behind him, and hugged him. We were a perfect mirror to the sketch in his grasp.

"I'm not ready either, Alan……but I think that's what makes us so perfect. If love is such a stupid thing…and we're nothing but a bunch of stupid people…then would you mind it if I say it right now? I love you, Alan. I love you and I want to love you."

That's when he shuddered and quaked into me. Two streaks ran down his cheek.

"I'm……I-I'm afraid, Lisa………I've never been one to…t-to have and share good things……"

I hugged him gently and managed a strong breath to utter into his ear: "You and I, Alan…we're a couple of broken halves. It's so easy to lose things…even as young and as confused as we are. But together, I-I would want to make sense of it all. Surely that in itself is a good thing……don't you agree?"

He sniffed and a voice squeaked from him in final admittance: "Yes……"

I held him close and stroked his back. "We…we don't have to be alone anymore, Alan…"

"I know……somehow, I've always known……I was just afraid," he said.

"Afraid?"

"Afraid you'd hate me like everyone else."

I took a deep breath. "Even heroes are afraid, Alan. Even heroes…"

We sat there on the threshold of something warm and painfully rapturous. Our tears mingled and pitter-pattered on the fresh drawing, smearing the graphite streaks and turning the eyes from black to gray.

Sometimes all that life needs is a clean slate.


	102. Wynken, Blynken, and Noir

**102. Wynken, Blyken, and Noir**

"Noir!!!!"

"…………."

"Noir!!! Wake up, dammit!!!"

I snapped out of it.

My black eyes fluttered open.

A stream of purple goo was flying at me.

I gasped and raised my blade at the last second.

SPLORCH!!!!

The mud spread from my deflecting blade.

There was a resounding "RAWWWWRRRR!!!" across the pavement, and a second stream of purple slime was flying at me. Too great for me to block.

I gritted my teeth and sweatdropped.

SWOOOOOSH!!!! Starfire flew in and safely plowed me out of the way. We went tumbling onto the sidewalk, upon which the girl got on her knees and panted. She looked at me with bright eyes of green. "You must be more perceptive!!!" She took to the air and soared back towards the enemy.

I shook my head, stifled a yawn, and weakly stood up.

_God I was tired…._

"Rrgghh!!" Cyborg shouted from…somewhere in the street. "God, I hate fighting Plasmus!!"

"You're not alone, dude."

I blinked my black eyes back to focus and looked through my shades at the muddy monstrosity of a freak wreaking havoc in the street. My Titan teammates surrounded the monster under the overcast sky of early afternoon. Starbolts, laser cannon fire, and whirling discs of flame flew into Plasmus' pliable body. In the meantime, Raven hovered above and tossed road signs and newspaper stands into the creature while Beast Boy busied himself in the form of a triceratops and attempted to ram vehicles into his liquid hide.

The whole battle turned into a wild haze in my black eyes. I shook my head again, and everything became clear once more. It was hard to keep my eyes open. Regardless, I charged forward, leapt over a car, and sailed down at Plasmus with Myrkblade stretched directly outward.

SLKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!

I landed on my feet.

I shook my head and looked up. I let out a breath.

The beast had been split in two writhing masses of purple slime.

"Way to go Noir!!" Cyborg chanted.

Then…

SLPPPPPPPP!!!!

The two halves merged together.

Raven droned from above: "Way to go adhesion……"

I let out a long, winded sigh.

SMACK!!!!!

The restored Plasmus kicked me hard in the stomach.

I flew back and landed in an abandoned fruit stand. Crushed apples, oranges, and bananas went flying amidst splinters of wood.

I groaned.

No sooner had Plasmus dished out his punishment on me, the other Titans flew in.

Starfire unloaded a huge charge of starbolt fury. FLASH!!!!

Plasmus was lifted up in the air above a fresh crater in the asphalt.

SMACK!!!!

A green triceratops rammed his midair figure across the street.

Raven flew in, grabbed Plasmus' warbling mass with her telekinesis, and flung him around like a slingshot towards Cyborg.

Cyborg raised both arms, gritted his teeth, and unloaded two merciless laser cannon pulses.

ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!

SPLORCH!!!!!!

Plasmus blew up into a hundred pieces. He littered the street from head to toe in mucousy slime.

I tried stepping out of the fruit stand. I slipped on a random banana peel and fell hard on my butt. I groaned again.

Robin swung over onto an awning on the side of the street overlooking the battlefield. He surveyed the area from a crouching position. "Is he down for good??"

A beat.

SLPPPPPP!!!!

The scattered slime all around started streaming towards the center of the road, reforming once again.

"Oh, come on!!!" Cyborg whined.

Robin looked around.

I tried getting up again…slowly…my foot made contact with a crushed pear. I fell down again, the back of my head hitting the side of the fruit stand. I rubbed it and sighed….trying to keep my eyes open.

"The fire hydrant!!" Robin pointed and shouted. "Beast Boy!! Smash it apart! Raven…direct the water at Plasmus!!"

"You got it, dude!"

"On it."

A green t-rex stomped across the street, snapped a fire hydrant in his massive jaws, and ripped it out of its foundation.

CRACK!!!!!!

SPLOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Water soared straight up in the air.

Raven floated over. "Azarath…Metrion…ZINTHOS!!!" She encased the water in black telekinesis and aimed it like a huge water pistol towards the nearly reformed mass of Plasmus.

Right as the water made impact, Robin whipped out two freezing discs and flung them across the street with a grunt.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SP-SPLASH-FLASH!!!!!!

The two discs struck the water while it enveloped plasmus and turned the entire collision of elements into a frozen statue of ice. Raven let go of her telekinesis and floated towards the ground. She walked across the asphalt and stared up close at the ice pillar. The purple goo inside disintegrated and the sleeping human being that was the heart of Plasmus lay dormant inside.

"He's down…," Raven said.

"Boo-ya!!"

"Glorious!!"

"Dude! Awesome!!"

Robin smiled proudly and hopped down to the street. "Good job, Team. I don't know how he got out of prison…but he's sure as heck not on parole for long. Let's all get the fire hydrant and sidewalk cleaned up before the law enforcement arrives……"

Robin's voice turned into hollow echoes in my head. I was leaning my head back against the fruit stand. Relaxing. I took a deep breath. Everything felt soft and inviting. _Cool…yet warm. Like meditation, only no struggle. No strain. Just silence……peace…..tranquility….._

"…just in time. Say, where's Noir? Noir??"

_Like a river. A babbling brook. Trickling into smooth serenity…_

"Hey Noir! Wake up, man!"

I snapped my eyes open. I blinked a few times.

Squad cars were all around. A special crew were loading Plasmus in a containment vessel up onto a truck. Police lights flashed through my shades and I noticed the silhouettes of my five teammates standing more or less around me.

Cyborg waved a hand. "Earth to Noir….you all right, dawg?"

I blinked again. _Had minutes passed? I must have been asleep…_

I weakly stood up, used Myrkblade as a cane, and positioned myself on wobbly feet. I managed a weary smile. I felt like my joints were melting.

"Noir, what's wrong with you?" Robin asked, his arms folded. "You nearly black out when attacking Plasmus. Then just one strike of his mud collapses you for the rest of the battle. You okay??"

"What do you think??" Raven remarked. She gestured at me. "He's been awake for nearly three days straight…what, with the bank robbery and Fang and Plasmus' escape and this 'Buzzard Gang' flying around the City and wreaking havoc."

"Noir, I thought you got some sleep since that paralysis incident with Fang," Robin pointed a gloved finger. "Is this not true?"

I shrugged. _How could I tell him that ever since I got back from battling Fang in the parking garage, there was nothing but one heroic call after another to answer? And while the other Titans were getting their cat naps, Robin—in his sleepless ways—was drafting me for research and detective work that helped us track down Plasmus in the first place. How could I tell him that every fiber of my freakin' being wanted to sleep and yet I couldn't for the good of the City?_

Sometimes…the clock of life doesn't work in one's favor.

"He is exhausted!" Starfire exclaimed. She looked compassionately at me then at Robin. "He must go back to our Home and rest so that we can utilize his strength in tracking down the 'Buzzard Gang'."

"Good idea," Robin nodded. "Noir. Go back to the Tower. Catch some Zs. But keep your communicator with you. I want you up and at it when I call for your assistance. No need for you and your sleep deprivation to be a liability. You understand??"

I nodded, my eyes barely open.

"Dude…I so envy you," Beast Boy interjected.

I waved him off…though I could just as well have been waving Raven off. I didn't care.

"Um…," Raven blinked. "How's he going to get home?"

Robin was just about to scratch his chin and 'think' when---

"Titans! This is urgent!" a police officer ran over.

"What is it??"

"Commissioner Decker believes he's got a lead on the Buzzard Gang. He wants to see you all on the double. And it's important that you all come!"

Beast Boy looked at me. He looked back at the police officer. "How do you mean 'all' of us?" He sweatdropped.

The cop nodded: "When Decker means it…he means it…"

I bit my lip. I looked at Robin.

_Please don't…please don't…please don't…_

Robin cleared his throat. Paused. And glanced at me. "Better come along, Noir."

_He did……  
_  
I smiled a plastic smile. I started to teeter over.

Cyborg caught my shoulder. "Take it easy, man," he smirked. "I'll give you a ride."

I Cheshire catted in response. I started to hobble towards the T-Car.

"Hey…what about me?" Raven remarked.

"Oh yeah, sorry Rae. The back of the T-Car's full of anti-Plasmus equipment. Stuff that I didn't get to USE, by the way—ROBIN!"

"Sorry, Cy. But we found our own way of handling him."

"I wasn't exactly in the mood of flying all around town tonight," Raven pouted.

Cyborg smirked. "You wanna sit in Noir's lap?"

"…………to the air I go," Raven droned.

"Hehehe! Join me, dear friend! We can share battle victory stories along the way to the Department of the Police! And maybe even do mid-air braiding maneuvers on each other's hair and—"

"Starfire. Not now. Not ever."

"……….Oh………….at least the braiding maneuvers??"

"Rrrrgh…let's just go!"

Raven took to the air. Or at least I thought she did. I wasn't exactly sure. I was sitting in the T-Car's passenger seat suddenly. Cyborg was at the wheel. The A/C was going full blast and I was shivering. Vibrating all over. Shaking into…submission.

_So cold…warm….like an Ocean. Forever flowing. Gentle. Relaxing._

My eyelids weighed a ton.

Cyborg was talking.

"…and so I told Robin: 'It's just a bra! Besides, it's not like you were shopping for yourself! You were there to help Starfire! They don't have brassieres in outer space. You ever talked to Supergirl?!' And Robin didn't say anything. I swear…undies scare him like…."

_Um…okay. Whatever._

I was vaguely aware of street signs passing by and an amber sky of waning sunset through the glass and the freezing A/C and hairbands.

_Hairbands??_

_Oh yeah…Supergirl loves hairbands. Er, that is Kara does. I should call Supergirl 'Kara' in my head from now on. After all, she calls me Jordan. It's only respectful. I wonder what someone would do with so many hairbands? How about a whole freakin' mountain of them? Just…dive in. If hairbands are soft, they'd make a nice bed. Mmm……bed. It's been a while. God, I must smell like a barn. My hair itches so bad. I must shower. But……mmm…bed………I missed it so much. And…wait…this bed is hard. And why's the blood rushing to my butt?_

"And so I think that this isn't a hoax. The "Buzzard Gang" is staging an assault on some spot in the Bayside Plaza and possibly even a bank in the Central District. If you kids can help, that'd be a load off my ass."

"What would you have us do, sir?"

"Recon. Sting operation. Camp around the Bayside Plaza and look for those flying sonsofabitches and take them down."

"Certainly, sir! Those offsprings of female dogs shall not prevail!"

"Okay, Miss Starflame—"

"Starfire, sir."

"What's with your goofy talk?! Sprechen sie normal?!"

"Ahem…I think we should get to the matter at hand. You want us to do a sting operation?"

"Yeah…use your best stealth teammates. Like tall dark and snoring over there……..hey….is he okay?"

"Noir?"

_Yes? Can you wait? My bed is being wyrd for some reason…_ "Noir, snap out of it!!"

_Hehehe…Robin said 'snap'. Snap dragon Robin!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!_

"Pssst! Noir!!" a hand shook my shoulder.

_Whoah…there's my blood. Who's shaking me? Such a thin wrist. Soft hand. Like Jinx. Jinx??_

"Noir??"

_JINX!!!_

My black eyes popped open.

CHHHHING!!!!!!

I leaned forward with Myrkblade stretched out.

I panted. I looked around. I was half-sitting in front of the desk in Decker's office. The other Titans were cringing. Decker himself was leaning back with his arms folded and his eyes wide—most likely in an impromptu move to dodge the swing of my blade….which had succinctly lopped off the top half of his desk lamp.

PLOP!!!!

The light fixture fell onto his desktop with a spark or two.

I still had my sword stretched out from the back swing.

I sweatdropped…simpered….and sheathed the sword.

Silence.

"……….," Decker stared. He raised a finger. "That's exactly what I want on this job…..only…..try and have your ghost kid aim his sword at the Buzzards and not at me."

Robin cleared his throat. "We'll……um….try to….sir."

"Splendid. Now get the Hell out of my office."

I was suddenly standing out in the main room of the upstairs Police Department offices. I soon realized why. Cyborg had practically hoisted me out.

"Are you crazy, man?! You nearly took his freakin' head off!!"

I leaned against him. My eyes fluttered close.

"Whoah!! Whoah whoah whoah whoah!!" he gripped my shoulders and shook me. "Wake up, man!! Noir, you're falling all over yourself!!"

I grinned stupidly. Dizzily.

"What you need is a pick-me-up, dawg! Didn't you hear Robin and Decker?! They're gonna need you to catch the Buzzards in the act at Bayside Plaza!"

I blinked my black eyes. I nodded. I teetered back, caught my balance, and hand-signed to the android Titan.

He blinked. "Right now? The ten bucks I owe you?"

I nodded.

He shrugged. "All right…don't know what good it's gonna do that sleepy head of yours…but sure."

He pressed a pad on his chest. A tiny compartment opened up. Cyborg's 'cyberwallet'. He pulled out a ten dollar bill.

"Here you go…"

I raised a limp finger. I tiredly shook my head.

"What??"

I rubbed my fingers together, then held out all of them twice.

"You need ten singles?! I don't have that much on me, man!"

I groaned. I gestured lethargically.

"Well…I have four singles on me right now. That gonna help?"

I smiled dazedly and did a thumb's up.

"Here you go, man."

I held my palm out. I dropped them.

"Er…."

I shrugged. I bent over to picked the four ones up. I started to teeter over.

Cyborg nonchalantly hoisted me back to my feet.

I blinked, yawned, and hobbled towards the elevator…waving nonchalantly at desk workers that I passed.

I stepped into an elevator, pressed a button for the first floor lobby, and leaned back as the doors closed.

-Ding!-

I yawned and closed my eyes.

-Ding!-

I snapped out of it.

My eyes opened up.

I was on the first floor.

"………."

_That was quick._

I stepped forward slowly, squeezed through the closing doors, and headed across the lobby. My boots echoed against the floor.

"Good evening, Mr. Titan," a secretary said from behind a glass booth in the wall. "And good luck on your latest case!"

I waved blindly at her and limped over towards a Pepsi vending machine. I pulled out the first single. I slipped it in. I pressed the button for Dr. Pepper.

The secretary looked up from a form she was filling out.

I pulled the Dr. Pepper bottle out. I set it on the floor. I whipped out another single. I slipped it in. I pressed the button for Dr. Pepper.

The bottle rolled out.

The secretary paused all that she was doing and watched.

I put the bottle down besides the first. I whistled a Simon and Garfunkel tune. I slipped in the third single. I limply pressed the button again. A third bottle came out.

The secretary blinked. Staring fixedly.

I whistled as I slipped the last bill in. As it accepted, I looked at the secretary across the way. I winked under my shades and dizzily smiled. The bottle rolled out. I picked it up and set it on the floor.

A beat.

I snapped my finger and brightened. I remembered that I had four quarters in one of my belt pockets. I pulled them out, slipped them in the vending machine, and pulled out another bottle.

The secretary watched……

I unscrewed the first cap. I gulped it down. I gulped and gulped and gulped and gulped. I tilted the back of the bottle straight up. I only took two breaths….and…..

The bottle was empty.

I exhaled. Wiped my mouth with my sleeve. And tossed the bottle in a nearby can.

I reached for the second bottle. As the secretary watched, I gulped down its contents with considerable ease and speed. On the third and fourth bottle, I glanced through the corner of my shades and made eye contact with the woman. I gave a thumb's up, finished my fourth, and then unscrewed my fifth.

I gulped it all down and tossed it into the growing pile in the can.

I took a deep breath.

I flexed my arms.

I bounced in place.

I cracked my neck.

I felt the energy inside of me…rising…rising…rising…

An unnatural energy.

A sick energy.

Like a freakin' bullet squirming around in my temples.

_If my black eyes had irises, they'd be enlarged by now._

A stupid grin formed on my face. I clenched my fingers into fists and warbled murk like two obsidian torches. I let out a demonic, breathy chuckle. I started to twitch as my insides vibrated. I spun around, took a shuddering breath, and sighed happily. In jittery fashion, I looked over at the secretary, performed a vibrant bow, and faced the exit doors.

I teleported across fifteen feet just for the Hell of it.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

I was outside.

The sunset was beautiful.

The City lights swarming and forming like pixies.

I giggled.

I looked over.

The Titans.

My friends.

Gathered by the T-Car.

_A briefing? Slumber party?_

_HA!_

SWOOOOSH!!

I blurred over and perched on the hood of the car.

"And so my plan is that we form a circle around the Bayside Plaza and---," Robin stopped in mid sentence and did a double-take at me. A pause. "Er…..hi, Noir."

I smiled wide.

I waved.

I leaned back and forth.

I waved again.

I smiled.

"I was….um…just telling everyone the plan," Robin pointed out. "You'll get the shadowed spot atop the theatre. You understand?"

I nodded.

I saluted.

"And then the others will…will…Noir…h-hey…wait, Noir….NOIR!!!"

I was already running away.

I had a job to do.

_A job to freakin-la-di-do-di-do._

_Ha ha ha ha ha…oh man, I'm running so fast._

Who cares if I'm barely catching the voice of Raven uttering: "He shouldn't be doing this with us right now."

_I'm perfectly fine._

Hell, I'm heavenly!!

I can leap a building!

_Well, almost._

Here…I'll do my best!

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred up the side of Kobayashi Tower, leapt over the satellite dishes on the top, made contact with the other side using my blurred feet, and zoomed back down to street level.

_WOOOOOHOOO!!!_

Superman, eat your heart out!!

Man…it's gotta be really icky to eat a heart out.

All of those tendons and muscles getting caught in between the teeth.

I burped in mid sprint.

_Ah ha ha ha ha!! Man…too bad Beast Boy's not here to have heard that---BAYSIDE PLAZA!!!  
_  
I screeched to a stop before I could possibly run into traffic or crash into a group of young pedestrians.

I zoomed up to the top of the theatre in record time.

I sat at my perch.

I sighed happily.

I rocked back and forth.

I whistled more Simon and Garfunkel.

I changed my mind and whistled Eiffel 65 instead.

I thought of how proud Robin would be of me for my punctuality.

I thought of Robin's cape and how silly it must have looked on him when he was younger.

I then thought of how funny it was that Robin actually kept the Titans except for Cyborg from watching rated R movies for a short time before I joined the team.

I then thought of the movies playing at the very theatre where I was sitting.

I then looked at the wandering after-school teenagers in the courtyard.

I took note of fashion statements I'd never seen before.

Ugly skirts and painful looking sandals.

And I wondered if Starfire thought it was all rather pointless.

And I felt it was due time for all of us to go to a mall again.

And I rocked back and forth.

And I whistled on through Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.

And I realized how pointless it was to whistle Led Zeppelin.

And I giggled.

And I twiddled my thumbs.

And---

Starfire flew down.

I smiled wide and waved a hand.

She waved back. "Greetings, Noir! Now we must stay quiet or els—"

SWOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

I gave her a big hug.

"Oh….um…," she blushed and stifled a giggle. "How very generous of you, Noir. But right now it is important that we focus our collective energies on—"

I jumped back.

I nodded.

I crouched on the side of the theatre's rooftop.

I peered out with two hands cupping my shades like a Native American stereotype in some old Western.

I eyed every group of people passing beneath us, paying extra special attention to the slightest of shady characters. High school students and romantic couples and afternoon families blurred into a myriad of pleasant faces. And I couldn't find a frown or a mug shot stereotype among any of them because the eyes and mouths and teeth kept blurring that they formed a pink shadow in my head that enveloped my vision and soon enough my black eyes were closed and _I was drifting through a current of people like logs down a Yukon river and I was drowning--_

Starfire's communicator opened with a Star Trek sound.

I snapped out of it, blinking.

"This is Starfire," she obviously uttered into the device. Her voice was soft and whispery. "I am positioned to the north of the Bayside courtyard with Noir. We are scanning the crowd for any sign of the Buzzard Gang."

"You beat us to it, Star. Good job," Robin's voice said. "How's Noir fairing?"

"He is…..most energetic."

"…………Really?"

"Are the other Titans assembled?"

"Just about. Raven should be there, right?"

"She's taking West point."

"Beast Boy should be joining her shortly. In the meantime, Cyborg and I are coming around for an Eastern position."

"Understood. Starfire out."

I heard the communicator flip close.

My eyes were on the plaza.

I could feel the blood pulsing in my brain.

A freight train was thundering down my cerebral cortex and splashing into a billion chirping dolphins in my brain stem.

I grinned.

My black eyes throbbed under the shades.

My teeth chattered.

But I wasn't having the shivers.

My entire body was vibrating from the inside out.

My knee bounced.

My fingers flexed, twiddled, and cracked.

And I was breathing, breathing, beating, breathing, beating…

A dark form.

My black eyes twitched.

A trenchcoat.

A hesitant figure in the crowd.

Two hesitant figures.

Two trenchcoats.

My nostrils flared.

The freight train circled my cranium and flew off like a slingshot towards the slowly forming group of shifty strangers.

My chest shook.

My heart rattled in the rib cage.

"I admire you for your vigilance, Noir," Starfire whispered from behind me. "But are you truly feeling up to this task at hand?"

I panted.

I was too dry on the outside to sweat.

Too full of Dr. Pepper on the inside to freeze.

Bubbling…vibrating…

Carbonated blood.

My eyes twitched again.

There were four dark figures wandering into the center of the courtyard.

My teeth grit.

I envisioned sparks in my mouth.

"Noir??"

_They're heeeeeeeere._

Starfire looked over my shoulder. She gasped. "Now that is most suspicious!"

The four figures huddled in the center of the courtyard…besides a fountain.

Shifty eyes looking around.

Hands and arms in trenchcoats.

One second…two seconds…three seconds…

I giggled.

Starfire glanced at me. "Dear friend, what do you think of this development---"

I looked at Starfire.

She transformed magically into a redheaded My Little Pony in my head.

I giggled some more.

BANG!!! BANG!!!!

Shots were fired into the air.

The trenchcoated strangers were aiming machine guns into the air.

Swarms of people on the edge of the courtyard ran screaming.

Those within the inner halo of the chaos huddled and froze in the fear as more bullets streaked into the air.

And the leader of the gang shouted: "All right!! This is not a drill, you Yanks!! The Buzzard Gang is here to stay!! Here's a message for your bedwetting police! We don't take kindly to the heat breathing down our necks as we make our foothold here!!"

Starfire gritted her teeth. "Such terrible miscreants! I must radio Robin and suggest an all-encompassing, Titan ambush---Noir?? NOIR!!"

I was already leaping and diving towards the scene.

Grinning.

Air flew past me like current.

Carbonated current.

Blinking horizons all around me.

A glass world outside the shades…rushing…

CLUMP!!!

I landed on the ground.

I took a breath.

My legs blurred.

I zoomed in between bodies and sailed in towards the Buzzard Gang with their guns. The leader rambled: "That's right!! The Buzzard Gang!! We shall strike terror into the hearts of you lot like the hand of G—"

SMACK!!!!!!

My foot sailed into his face. Bloody teeth flew.

_Whoah!! Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!_

The other three thugs looked at me. They gasped.

I grinned wide.

_Hi!!_

CHHIIIIING!!!!

Myrkblade was out.

I pounced.

_RAWWR!!!_

One thug screamed in terror and shot a stream of machine gun bullets at me.

I twirled Myrkblade in descent, deflecting the bullets into the sky. CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

I landed, blurred around him, and slapped the broad side of Myrkblade against his ribs.

SMACK!!!!!

The gun flew out of his grasp.

I stuck my leg out and kicked the weapon back into the air.

I twirled Myrkblade and smacked the back of the thug's head forward so that his forehead came down onto the lifting metal bulk of the weapon.

CONG!!!!!

He groaned and was out cold.

The two thugs behind me fired.

I blocked in reverse, blurred my feet, and vaulted upward.

The world spun.

The carbonation exploded in my arteries.

_Ooooh!! So many pretty lights!!!_

I landed between them. I spun with my leg swept outward.

Both fell down to the ground hard.

_Bowling pins! HA!!!_

I grinned and spun around.

The leader was back up. His mouth bleeding. He ran towards the far side of the courtyard.

_Hehehe…no you don't, ya old fart!!!_

I happily ran towards him, sheathed Myrkblade, and leapt high with blurring legs.

I flipped, grabbed his shoulders, wrapped my legs around a horizontal pole of a lamppost, and swung in such a fashion so as to fling him over the heads of cowering citizens and through the glass display of an ice cream shop.

SMASH!!!!!

I swung up, jumped, and landed back down in a perch atop the lamppost.

I cracked my neck.

Chuckled.

And dove forward.

I landed on the ground, rolled, and jumped to my feet and began dashing into the ice cream shop.

A few patrons inside ran into the far corner and cowered as the Buzzard gang leader stood up and met my attack with blocking fists.

WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP!

I was a flurry of punches, knees, and kicks.

He gritted his teeth, finding it an effort to meet my every attack.

I grinned like a muppet and jumped back. I bounced in a kung fu ready position. I held my hands up, fingers positioned meditatively, and motioned him to come at me with a wave of my head.

"Why you unruly little snotball!!" he snarled.

I winked and grinned wide.

"RAAAUGH!!!" he came at me.

I twirled, spun, grabbed his arm, twisted it, and elbowed him reversely in the face.

WHAP!!!

"Nnnghhh!!" he stumbled back, grabbing his nose.

I held my breath, jumped in the air, and performed a spinning karate kick across his cheek.

SMACK!!!!

He stumbled back against the glass displays of an ice cream freezer.

Wooo!! Ha ha ha!!

I cracked my knuckles and bounced over to perform another flurry of attacks when…. suddenly…… everything………….. started………………………….. to………………………………………………… implode……………………………………….

I gulped.

I was sweating.

My brain was melting.

The carbonation in my blood was turning to ice.

The Dr. Pepper was wearing off. The soda was diffusing under my skin. The vibration slowed to a minor clicking and then into a dull thumping as my exoskeleton muffled everything that wanted to explode in my being and suddenly wanted to just drift away on thunderclouds.

Rain…….rain…….

Softness…..

Gentleness…..

Just to sink in all of it….to cease to think or exist…..

To sleep……

My eyelids thinned over my black eyes.

My charge stumbled into a drunken hobble.

I dizzily teetered left…right….backwards…then fell into an awkward stance.

I felt sick. Disoriented.

And sleepy.

And sleepy…..

My eyelids gained twenty tons in two seconds.

I shook my head.

I groaned.

The gang leader looked at me funny. He blinked once….twice…

I blinked a few times myself. I ran a hand through my hair, let out a sigh, cleared my throat, and raised my fists limply as I marched towards him.

Experimentally…the crook met my advance and swung a fist.

I barely blocked it. He growled and brought his knee up.

WHUMP!!!

I bent over, gasping for air.

He joined his two hands together and struck me hard across the cheek with his elbow.

WHACK!!!

I stumbled into a wall.

I winced.

The wall felt firm.

Still.

_Nice……_

I rested against it and sighed.

THWAP!!!!

A foot to the small of my back.

I winced.

Snarling, I spun around and swung a blind fist.

WHAM!!!!

I contacted the gang leader's cheek.

He stumbled back.

I stumbled forwards with a fist.

But halfway through the punch, I blacked out. I sighed.

THWACK!!!

I was punched…somewhere on my body. Anyways, I landed across a table.

"!!!!!" I gasped for air. "You're not even half as badass as they say on the news, you little punk!" the gang leader said from behind me.

I suddenly became aware of an impregnable driving force throttling through my being. I winced. I stood up weakly. My legs wobbled.

I had to pee like there was no tomorrow. God could have invented the bladder just hours ago, for all I was concerned.

I sensed a rushing set of feet behind me.

I spun around and shoved the gang leader back.

I cleared my throat and tried walking straight. The Dr. Pepper's fickle ways were starting to plague me. I could practically have exploded any second.

The gang leader came to my side with a fist.

I blocked it away and kicked him upside the chin.

WHAP!!

"OW!! Son of a—"

He swung his leg up….and struck tragically close to my groin.

"!!!!!"

_Ah jeez!!!_

I wheezed and bent over, wincing.

Even some of the innocent onlookers groaned.

_Hold it…hold it………hold it in!!!_

"DIE!! RAUGH!!!" the crook came at me again.

I gritted my teeth.

_Give me a second, you mother f--_

CHHHHHING!!!!! CHUNK!!!!

"Waaah?!" the gang leader gasped. In a flash, Myrkblade was out and he was pinned helplessly to the wall of the ice cream shop by his trenchcoat.

I fumed. I held up a finger for _'one second'_.

I hobbled around and limped into the bathroom.

I closed the door behind me.

Silence.

The gang leader's eyes narrowed in confusion.

The bystanders craned their necks.

Silence.

A trickling sound.

A loud, long trickling sound.

The gang leader made a face. He struggled and grunted to pry himself loose of Myrkblade.

The sound from the bathroom went on……and on…….and on……

The crook paused. He couldn't help but just…….listen.

….and on…….and on………and on……

He sweatdropped.

…..and on…..and on………………….silence.

A beat.

The sound of a flushing toilet.

A pause…then….

The door to the bathroom opened.

I walked out, sighing.

I was halfway towards the crook when I paused, hit my head with a groan, and walked back into the bathroom.

The sound of a faucet running.

A soap dispenser.

Rippling paper towels.

A beat. I walked out again.

I cracked my knuckles. I gripped Myrkblade's hilt.

YANK!!!!!!

I pulled the sword out and the crook fell to his feet.

"Nnngh!!" he raised his fists.

THWACK!!!!!

I popped him good aside the head with Myrkblade's broad side.

He teetered across the ice cream shop, toppled over the glass freezer display, and was out cold…no pun intended.

I sighed and sheathed Myrkblade. I blinked tiredly and hobbled through the sea of broken glass. I waved tiredly at the bystanders in the corner and hiccupped.

Once outside, I glanced over and took notice of two of the Buzzard gang members fighting my Titan teammates. Starbolts and laser cannon fire and green animals and black telekinesis and yellow capes streaked left and right along with bullet fire.

I yawned. I looked to my right.

The thug I had knocked unconscious earlier was stumbling up to his feet.

I sighed.

I sauntered towards him tiredly.

He took one look at me…stripped of his trenchcoat…and revealed a rocket launcher on his back.

I paused in my step. I blinked.

"Sod off, you stupid do-gooders!" he shouted and took to the skies…..loudly.

PFFFFFFFFFFHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I watched as he rocketed high into the air above the Bayside Plaza and throttled a stream of fire and smoke over the rooftops.

"He's getting away!!" I heard Robin shout amidst the Titans' scuffle. "Someone go after him!"

I inwardly groaned.

I shook my limbs…gathered some strength…and blurred my body. I ran up the front of the theater, over the rooftop, and began sprinting through the City with my power. It was all a rather numb exercise.

I bounded from one rooftop to another. The wind whipped at my long black hair and whistled around the smooth surfaces of my shades. It was cool and relaxing.

My black eyes thinned. It became harder and harder in my already-bobbing vision to keep sight of the flare of jetpack exhaust ahead of me in the distance. I knew that the flying thug couldn't go far. The model of his means of transport wasn't the type to handle a lot of fuel.

Hopefully I could outlast him. But I was at the end of my tank already. In fact, I'd been empty for nearly two and a half days.

I started running up buildingsides, darting around neon signs and fire escapes in my vertical ascent. And then I rounded rooftops and kept on bounding forward.

My body was like ice. I was controlling my sprint from the outside through puppet strings.

And then it dawned upon me…

_Power Rangers was a total ripoff of Voltron._

I mean…sure…they used many different prehistoric beasts instead of a bunch of giant mechanical tigers.

_But the plot and meat of the story was practically the same._ _Though Power Rangers would have been pretty cool if it had a princess at the operations of one of the mechs._

But wait…Voltron didn't have any of the karate stuff going on outside of the mech action.

But then again…maybe Power Rangers got the permission from Voltron to do its crap.

Still, that doesn't make sense. I'd give away my arm before I sold such an idea as Voltron……oh wait……

I became aware of a glowing aura approaching me.

I snapped out of it.

My black eyes flew open.

A neon light was in my way. I was running up some random building side.

I gritted my teeth and twisted my blurring body to the right. I streaked up the building side at a diagonal angle. Before I could literally run off the side, my feet literally fell 'through' an open window and I found myself tumbling quite awkwardly and loudly into a ninth story apartment.

KLUMP!!!

Two middle-aged women on a living room couch jumped up, gasping.

There was a bright light overhead, intermittently strobed by a ceiling fan.

I winced and shook my head.

"Stop making noise, honey!" a man uttered. "I'm trying to concentrate!!" He stood in front of the apartment's entertainment system. He was in the process of trying to insert a rented video into a VCR…but each time he attempted to do so, the video inserted halfway in and was immediately ejected back out. "Carn sarn it…….Honey, what's all the commotion?" He turned around and saw me sprawled across the floor. "Oh…hello."

I waved. Yawning, I stood up. I shook my head, cleared my throat, and bowed apologetically.

One of the women stammered: "Q-Quite allright. Were you going somewhere, sir?"

I craned my neck and squinted through my shades. I could barely see outside the window on the other side of the corner apartment loft. The rocket pack figure was thundering off down the street. I pointed out the window.

"Huh??" the man looked. "Oh….but of course." He opened it for me. "Go get 'em….I guess."

I smiled weakly and hobbled towards the window.

The man went back towards the VCR. "Now….if you could only friggin' work!" He pushed the video in two more times…and two more times it was immediately spat out. "Dammit!"

I paused.

I turned around.

I walked over towards the VCR. I held up a finger.

The man stepped back.

I inserted the video…but while doing so, I carefully applied pressure downward on the front of it. The video slipped in without a hitch and the VCR started playing.

"Wow….great!" the man beamed. The women behind him clapped and cheered. "Thank you, Mr. Titan!" I shrugged, simpered, saluted, and sashayed out the window.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!

My feet started moving, blurring, and catching up with the wall speeding up beneath me.

I blurred down the buildingside, across the street, and bounded over a few more structures.

Gradually, I was catching up with the evil rocketeer again. I yawned. My black eyes strained to stay open.

I swung my arms in the sprint. I found myself swinging pleasantly. Almost rocking myself to serenity while at a full-blown jog. I smiled.

_I was in a cloud_…..actually, I was in mid air.

My eyes snapped wide open.

I had run off the edge of a building without realizing it.

I flailed my arms. I summoned murk. I glided myself down, bounced off (more like ricocheted off) a building side, and landed hard on a long, aluminum roof. Like a portable home.

CLANG!!!!

I winced.

I shook my head and held my skull.

I looked off in the distance. The jet pack Buzzard gang member was shooting around a bend.

I sighed.

At this rate, I'd never catch up to him. Not with how exhausted I was.

Perhaps all I needed was to catch my breath.

So I sat there, cross-legged.

Heaving.

Breathing in…..breathing out….

Slowly.

And at the time, I felt it couldn't be of much harm to close my eyes.

So I did.

Breathing in……..breathing out……

_Breathing in………breathing out….._

_And……wow………this sure feels comfortable……_

_If only I could do this while running, I'd outrun a whale with warp engines._

_Cyborg would be so envious of me……or maybe he just doesn't like running. The only piece of me that's titanium is my left hand, and that can't compare to trying to get a whole torso and set of legs to do a shuttle run._

_"Heya! Whatcha doin', Jordan?"_

_'Oh, hi Ana. Just hanging out. What're you doing here?'_

"Bored. Hey…you look beat."

'Yeah. I had a nasty run-in with Fang, and then Robin had me doing detective duty for the last two days and—whoah, where'd this penguin come from?'

_"__**Putrid, Paperhanging, Porpoises! What are we sitting on, a giant laser pointer?!"**_

_"The heck if I know, hehehe! He's not my penguin!"_

_'Well, he sounds like Trigon trying to do a Burgess Meredith impression.'_

_"Burgess Who?"_

_'Say Ana, what did you do to your hair?'_

_"Is that a trick question?"_

_'You know what? I'm not sure. I'm really frickin' tired……'_

_**"Waaa! Waaa! Waaa!!"**_

_'No one asked you, buddy!!'_

_"Yeah, you tell 'em, Jordan!"_

_'Ha ha ha ha ha!!!'_

_"Hehehehehe!!"_

_"Howdy, y'all!"_

'Oh my god! Kara! What are you doing here and why are you dressed like that fruity kid in 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape?'?'

"Who's for a hayride?!"

"I am!!"

_**"The more the merrier, my fine feathered farmgirl!!"**_

_'Hell yeah! Hayride to the max!'_

"All aboard!!!"

"Faster! Faster!!"

"Can you feel the wind?!"

_'Yes!! I can feel the wind!! I can feel the whole god damn universe!!'_

_"Jordan! You swore! How come?!"_

_'Well you see, Ana…there's this guy I've met named Decker and—'_

_"Everyone hang on!! Woooohooo!!"_

_"Weeeeeeeee!!! Hehehehe!!"_

_'Ack!! Kara! Not so sharp on the turns!'_

_"Actually, I'm Sandy now."_

'Oh……er………okay. That's wyrd. Um…Ana, are you still Ana?'

_"Dude!! Check it out!! The penguin is totally flying!!"_

_'What's that, B.B.—WHOAH! You're right! He's practically soaring!'_

_**"I need you, Rocky! Can't you see that?! Look at this cauliflower ear!"**_

_'Kara…Sandy…Goliath…whoever…slow the hayride down!'_

_"Send me your strongest soldier!"_

_"Go to Hell, you philistine!"_

'Beast Boy! Be nice to Goliath! He's on prozac!"

_**"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"**_

_"Uh……why does the penguin suddenly sound like a railroad crossing bell?"_

_'That's a good question. It shouldn't mean anything…………unless…………'_

"!!!!!!"

My eyes snapped open.

I gasped.

Buildings were sailing past me.

Third story windows.

I blinked.

The wind was kicking at my hair. I glanced down. The long, aluminum rooftop of a portable home turned out to be the top of a rapidly moving, elevated train car. All the time that I was sitting asleep on top of the train, I must have been taken halfway across the Eastern District of the City.

I blinked again.

_Well……that sucks._

I yawned.

I stretched my arms.

I glanced upwards….and my eyebrow raised.

Miraculously, the train had caught me up with the crook on his jetpack. He was merely a heroic pounce away.

I shrugged.

_Works for me…_

With wobbly legs, I stood up on the speeding train car. I shook my head, fought another yawn, and instead started charging murk into my ankles.

I waited….I waited….

The train drew closer, running parallel to the crook with his rocket pack.

I waited….I waited…. I could almost taste his foul breath…or foul butt…whatever.

I leapt at the last second, impacted a billboard with my feet, vaulted off with, blurred, flipped, and landed on the crook's flying shoulders.

WHUMP!!!

"WAAAH!! What the heck?!?!"

I unsheathed Myrkblade—CHIIING!—twirled it, and stabbed it down into his rocket pack.

CRUNNNNCH!!!!

The jetpack shorted out. We lurched in midair and started to spiral down into the street.

"Augh!!" the man struggled. "Get off me, you bugger!!"

I yawned.

SWOOOOOOSH-CRASH!!!!!

We fell on something…………well, whatever it was…..it was hard. And it hurt…kinda.

Anyhow, we rolled off it and collapsed across the concrete ground in the middle of a bus terminal in the middle of the Eastern District. All around us were at least a hundred people busily trying to get on their diesel commutes. At the sight of us, they recoiled in shock and gasped.

I jumped up and held my sword at ready…..then realized I was facing nobody.

I glanced about.

I spun around and mouthed _'oh'.  
_  
There was my enemy, stumbling to his feet.

I twirled Myrkblade at ready….my eyelids heavy.

He shook off his smoldering leftovers of a jet pack and growled. Then he smirked and pulled out something at the end of a cord. "Nuts to you, you bloody imbecile!! To take down a Buzzard, you have to take down the whole bloomin' City! I have the equivalent of half of Hiroshima strapped to my chest! That'll make you piss in your knickers for sure!!"

I glanced at him wyrd. I looked at his chest….and sure enough there were ringlets of explosions wired around his bosom like a girdle.

He snickered evilly.

Women shrieked.

Men murmured in fear.

Children sobbed.

I yawned.

"See this trigger in my hand!!" he held up what looked like a hand exerciser in his palm. It was attached via wire to his bomb-girdle. "The soonest I let release the trigger, we all get blown to the Devil's Summer home!! Think you're so tough now, eh Yank?"

SWOOOOSH!!!

His eyes bugged.

WHUMP!!!

He was shoved down onto his butt with his back against the wheel of a bus. He gasped. I had tackled him, and now my hand was over his hand which was over the trigger. I had a vice like grip…assured by the murk encasing my knuckles—which in turn encased his.

I stared at him, point blanc in the face.

He stared back. He tried one last time to growl evilly: "Sure!! Try to be play hero, Titan!! Even your grip won't last forever!! I'll regain control of the trigger and one way or another all these people here will burn!!"

He grinned.

Silence.

Silence…….

Silence…………….

The helpless citizens around the bus terminal started to shift uncomfortably.

Slowly, the grin on the man's face fell. He cleared his throat. "Um……ahem……T-Titan?"

I was snoring.

His eyes were wide.

My head leaned over and rested in the crook of his neck. I held his controller while asleep. My weight was pressed against his as my lungs slowly expanded and contracted.

And I snored more……

The crook sweatdropped. He tried stirring and getting out from under my weight. But he suddenly froze as fear gripped him. One little move…and the two of them could lose grip of the trigger. My hand was latched vice-like onto his. The only way he could get up and get out of there was to drag me along with him. The only way to get me off of him was to release my grip of him. The only way to release my grip of him was to release his grip of the trigger.

'Kaboom'.

The Buzzard bit his lip, turned white as a ghost, and simply sat there……

As I snored.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Easy….Easy…..that should it…."

"Almost….."

"And……….."

Snip!

"There!"

I awoke to the sound of cheers and claps all around me.

I shook my head, yawned, and blinked thin black eyes through my shades….looking up.

Cyborg had the trigger in one hand, the explosives in another, and the wire previously connecting them draped over his shoulder. City officials standing alongside a ring of barricading emergency vehicles around the bus terminal clapped and smiled at the successful bomb diffusal.

I soon realized that all the other Titans were there too.

Not to mention---

"Get him off me! Get him off me!!" the last of the Buzzards writhed and shouted. "The lad's bloody insane!! Catatonic creep!! Get me out of here! Get me to jail!!"

"Gladly…," Raven muttered. She lifted the crook over into the arms of police with telekinesis. They handcuffed him and hauled him off.

I embraced the tire that the crook was occupying happily. I snuggled up to it and sighed with a smile. Drifting away……--

"Noir! My man!! Good job!!"

Cyborg hoisted me to my feet.

The blood rushed from my head. I nearly fainted. I shook my head and dizzily looked at him.

He patted me annoyingly hard on my shoulder. SLAP. SLAP. "That took some guts, dawg!"

Robin walked up and offered me a gloved hand to shake. "You just saved over a hundred tourists from a fiery death…not to mention helped nab the last of the annoying Buzzard Gang members. Way to go."

I gripped his hand, smiled, and tried to shake. I was only halfway successful, and then I was teetering over and practically leaning over Robin's petite shoulder. I was almost snoring.

Robin bit his lip and sweatdropped.

Starfire floated over and steadied me on my feet. "Noir…are you damaged?"

"Dude…you are so seriously wasted," Beast Boy smirked.

I teetered back and forth. My black eyes blinking shut under my shades. I hand signed something.

Cyborg…tried to read it. "'Tell Kara to finish the primary incision…'---what?!?!"

I shook my head, yawned, smiled, and nodded.

Cyborg's human eye blinked. "Wow."

Robin scratched the back of his neck and simpered. "Well….Noir….good news is, Fang's back in prison. Plasmus is in custody. And the Buzzards are no more. Our job tonight is done. Now's a good time for you to get back to the Tower, shower up, and rest. How's that sound?"

I smiled wide, my teeth showing…….and fell forward like a stiff, wooden board.

FLASH!!!

Raven extended a wrist and caught me with a cushion of black energy. She effortlessly hovered my near-dead form into the passenger side of the T-Car…upon which I was gently placed into the seat.

I yawned and stretched subconsciously.

Raven whipped off her cloak and draped it over my chest. I smiled and curled up in the seat…..snoring away.

"Wow, Raven. How compassionate of you," Cyborg folded his arms.

She shrugged. "I suppose it wouldn't kill me to fly home."

Cyborg looked at her and scratched her chin.

She raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"What?"

"Ya know….you look kinda cute in nothing but that black leotard."

An artery pulsed in Raven's forehead as she glared at him. "I am **not** cute!"

Beast Boy giggled insanely.

Robin shook his head.

"Suuuuure," Cyborg winked his human eye as he passed her and stepped into the driver's seat. "Whatever you say, girl."

"I am not!" Raven stamped her foot.

SWOOOSH!! Starfire flew over and hugged Raven from behind.

"Oooof!!"

"Hehehe!"

"Tell me why you're hugging me this instant and maybe I'll make your death a quick one…."

"Because you're so cuuuuuute."

"I am not cute!!!"

Robin fired a grappling hook. "Titans…let's go home. The cuties can catch up." He winked under his eyemask and swung away.

Beast Boy and Starfire joined him as the T-Car rolled off.

"Rrrrrgh….," Raven—alone—shook and fumed. "Okay….where's that bomb?"


	103. Dear Diana, Revisited

**103. Dear Diana, Revisited**

A shower faucet was running.

Then stopped…

The bathroom door leading into a darkly lit room opened.

As the steam settled, Raven stepped out in a bathrobe. She had a towel wrapped around her head.

She walked to her closet and pulled out some casual day clothes…and paused.

She blinked in thought.

Instead, she reached a hand out and grabbed one of her trademark black leotards on a hanger.

She walked over in front of a mirror and posed with the leotard held in front of her bathrobe and over her figure.

She turned her head from side….to side…..

Looking at her reflection.

Silence.

"'Cute'…..," she uttered.

A beat.

She grumbled, shook her head, and tossed the leotard away before proceeding to hook up the blow drier.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_It's been a busy week. The prison saw a simultaneous escape of both Fang and Plasmus…for reasons we are still unsure of. And to top it off, there was this nasty group of miscreants from overseas called the Buzzard Gang. Somehow in a span of three days, all of such crooks have been disbanded. I say this NOT in an attempt to brag, but merely to point out to you as much as to myself that there's every reason to feel utterly exhausted._

_I often wonder how you Justice League people do it……fight huge hoards of evil on a regular basis, that is. I hear that you and Superman and Green Lantern and the bunch go after innumerable aliens and mutants and giant robotic creeps and such. I cannot imagine what level of expertise empowers you and your partners to take on such monumental foes. But the more you prevail, the happier the world is. Trust me…sometimes even I can take on the 'perspective of the world' and stuff._

_A Titan's life is an exhausting thing too, Diana. And when it comes to my team, everyone has different ways of dealing with the time we have and don't have off in between combat. And as a part of this correspondence, I'm sure you're dying to know about who does what and what has an effect on who. Or something._

_Anyways, Robin's been a busy bee lately. If he wasn't doing detective work or sniffing the trail of Plasmus (eww) he was training in the gym. I was more or less a tired little ghost in trying to keep up with him, but now I feel pretty rejuvenated and I think it's about time I pay him some……combative respect._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And in this corner!!!" Beast Boy spoke dramatically into one end of a tiny dumbbell while gesturing across the mat inside the gym. "The Bodacious Bird!! The Ass-Kicking Athlete!! The Boy Wonder of Wickedness!! Robin!!"

"Oh please, Beast Boy…," Robin grumbled as he adjusted his white gi. He jogged in place and flexed his fighting arms…striking the chest of an invisible opponent and clenching his fingers. His eyemask thinned in focus. "This isn't some sort of competition. We're only sparri—"

"Shhh! You ruin the moment," Beast Boy winked. He spun and gestured towards me. "And over here!! The Malicious Mute himself!! That Smiter of Smoke!! Noir!!"

I smirked. I wore a black gi and had on a black bandanna around my bangs to match. I wore lighter, more aerodynamic shades for the spar.

I flexed my arms around like two windmills and then craned myself into a meditative pose with the tips of my fingers aimed at Robin.

"Showoff…," Cyborg smirked from the sidelines. He glanced over at Robin. "You think you two are gonna keep it simple this time?"

"Why, Cyborg, whatever do you mean?" Robin smirked.

"Well…the last time y'all sparred one on one, we spent nearly a week trying to clean up the gym. And it didn't help that Control Freak distracted us and half the Titans got sick with bronchitis."

"We'll try not to get sick this time,' Robin smirked.

"Ugh……I swear……I'm gonna blast y'all with a sonic cannon if you're not careful."

"Yeah…," Robin flexed his arms and spun them into a fighting pose. "You do that."

I cracked my knuckles and stood still…facing directly across from Robin on the map.

My eyes narrowed under my shades.

His eyemask was thin.

Beast Boy gulped and stepped backwards off the map. "Allrighty then. Eheheh…you dudes got the rules down in your head, right?"

"Mmmmhmmm," Robin nodded, staring at me. "Get the other person down on the mat. First person down three times loses. Best out of five. You got that, Noir?"

I merely smiled.

"Somebody's gonna get hurt," Cyborg muttered.

Beast Boy giggled. "Yeah…ain't it cool??"

"Start us off, B.B."

"Ahem….r-right. Fighters!! Ready…..set….fight!"

And……………nothing happened.

That is to say, neither Robin or I charged. Instead, we slowly paced ourselves around the mat…keeping the same distance between each other. Eyeing each other's limbs. Not taking any chances…

"Well, allright," Cyborg smirked. "Looks like this is gonna be an intelligent, strategic spar."

"Don't count on it," Robin smirked. "I'm just waiting for Noir's impatient face to fly into my fist."

I smiled mockingly back at him.

"I don't mean to be a party pooper dudes," Beast Boy uttered, "…but you're not seriously gonna hurt each other, right?"

"Depends….," Robin uttered.

"Depends on what?"

"On how strong Noir's skull is."

"Ugh."

"Come on, Noir," Robin smirked and bounced in place with a fighting stance. "You scared? I know you're not scared."

I paced around, facing him. I had all day.

"Cyborg…lemme know if he hand signs anything," Robin spoke without looking back.

"Um…okay. Like what?"

"Like crying for his **Momma!**" Robin dove at me.

I braced myself.

"Waaaaa-WaCHA!" Robin dove in with a karate chop to my side, but swiftly brought it up towards my face at the last second.

I held my breath and tilted my head to the left. I barely dodged the slicing hand as it beat away at my hairs.

And somehow…this was exactly what Robin wanted. For my body's weight had shifted in such a fashion from the dodge so as to give him easy access to my center of gravity, which he struck with a spinning kick.

THWAP!!!

I toppled over.

At the last second, I flipped and landed on crouching feet with a slide across the mat.

Robin came at me with two rapid punches. "WaCHA!! HAA!!"

I deflected both and pushed him back with a shoving foot to his chest.

He repositioned himself with fists raised and legs flexing….as he panted.

Cyborg whistled. "Close, man."

"Almost got him, Robin," Beast Boy said.

"Hardly," the Boy Wonder smiled. "I was just playing."

I smirked.

Two can 'play'.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I was in back of him from a forward flip.

I reached behind, gripped his neck, clenched my teeth, and flipped the Boy Wonder forward over my shoulder. But in the middle of my toss, he somehow spun his upside body around and flipped down with a kick to my gut.

WHUMP!!!

I stumbled back.

Robin landed in a crouch, leapt up, spun in the air, and slapped me aside the face with his foot with a growl. "RAUGH!!"

SMACK!!!

I teetered.

He dove into me.

PLAP!!!!

He planted me back-first into the mat hard and vaulted off with his hands, flipping and landing on his feet in a fancy pose.

"One point, Robin!" Beast Boy grinned.

"Was there ever a question of it?" Robin twirled about and bowed.

I stood up, chuckling breathily….sarcastically.

"You know, Robin…," Cyborg raised a finger, "…I thought this was training. Not some tournament."

"You have any problems with this sparring session, Noir?" Robin asked me.

I smirked. I rushed at him fist first.

"Guess not…."

SWOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Cyborg used to be a very depressed person. That is to say, during the first month or two that I was here…I saw a somber individual in him. And I suppose it's only fitting concerning the things he has been through this year. What…with his Uncle turning out to be a deconstructed android once under the control of an aging madman._

_Yeah……_

_But I'm convinced that things have taken a turn for the better in Cyborg's case. He's got his Uncle back…sort of. Simon Stone's construct now occupies the computer databanks of Phaser Labs. Using their energy transfer buffer thingies…he can literally distribute himself molecularly into a limited space supplied by a special grid. Cyborg can shake his once-dead Uncle's hand again. It's quite the miracle, and everyone—Titans included—can benefit from Simon Stone's scientific prowess. We treat him like a member of Phaser Labs itself…always ready and willing to assist the fight against crime and evil._

_But beyond that, Cyborg has found his family in us, I do believe. We're his brothers and sisters…even if Robin comes across as a mother hen at times. Heh. Anyways, it's great to be there for Cyborg. Lord knows he's always there for us._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"How long's this gonna take, old man?? I can get done with half as much time as you're taking!"

Simon Stone's hologram rested on a pedestal nearby while robotic arms snaked about and treated the joints and titanium exoskeleton of a seated Cyborg in the corner of Phaser Labs.

_"What you're getting is lazy, Vic! Self-diagnostics are an important thing for sparkers like us! They're not short little run throughs that we can accomplish in thirty seconds! They take time and effort and diligent observation!"_

Cyborg smirked. "I kinda sorta thought that the days of checking myself for mysterious lumps and growths ended when…..uh….I lost 80% of my fleshly body mass."

_"Pfft! Despicably sarcastic. Just like your mother at times. Forget cancer, Vic! There's always the risk of a virus implanted in you by some terrible, criminal hacker! Or signs of rust and acid burns! Fractures within the metallic framework of your exoskeleton!"_

"Aren't you being a little paranoid, old man?"

The metal arms retracted and the little hologram shrugged.

_"I was a goner for a while there, kid. I can't imagine how terrible it was for you to have lost me. So I don't want to lose you any time soon."_

"I assure you, I'm fine," Cyborg stood up. He faced the hologram and smiled. "You've been cooped up in these labs way too long. Everything's ones and zeroes to you."

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

"You've given into technical paranoia! HA! Don't you remember what it means to have a hunch or an educated guess?!"

The hologram planted hands on his hips.

_"I'll have you know…I'm still as human as they get! I miss sleep…food…and I still have longing thoughts for……well……ya know……"_

The hologram's eyes followed a blonde lab assistant in her early twenties walking by.

_"Hey there, Cecilia. Do you double as a nurse? Rowwr!"  
_  
She rolled her blue eyes. "Get a body first, Mr. Stone…then we'll see about getting you sick."

_"Heh heh heh…she's a feisty one, ain't she??"_

Cyborg shook his head. "She's too young for you, Simon."

_"And what about you? Who're you seeing lately?"_

"Huh? Oh….pfft….I thought we were done with that topic long ago."

_"Somebody's gotta pass on the Stone name, kid!! What're you doing sitting around on your butt?! Fixing up the T-Car and playing Xcube?!"_

"**Xbox**. And I don't sit around on my but all day. I fight crime and crap, ya know?"

_"Oh, I know. Beating up crime and being beaten up. All the reason to have a little missus at home to patch your wounds. Eh, Vic?"_

"Okay, Simon…I give up," Cyborg chuckled and waved his hands. "You find me a girl at least eighteen years old who wouldn't mind pairing up with a pumped up steroid freak with more metal than heartstrings and a few key pieces missing throughout the years….then you let me know."

_"Don't be so bitter about it, Vic."_

"I'm not being bitter! I think it's funny that you're still on my ass about this stuff! Metaphorically speaking, that is."

_"Be honest with me. If you have an eye on some lucky girl…who is it? Huh?"_

Cyborg scratched his chin and smiled slightly. "Hmmmmmmm."

Simon's hologram winked. _"It's true, ain't it?"_

Cyborg walked away. "I'll get back to you on that."

_"Hey! Don't think you can walk away like that!"_

"I can too! You're stuck in this building!"

Simon's hologram folded his arms. "Pfft……if I had a body right now, it'd be turning in my grave."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WAAA-CHA!! HuWAAAI!!"

Robin dashed at me with more karate chops.

I blocked and blocked.

I bird-kicked him in the chest.

He stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth and performed a spinning, karate kick that pushed him towards the edge of the mat.

He teetered.

I rushed towards him.

I slid on two feet with my elbow jutting outwards.

GRIP!!!

He grabbed it with one hand and shoved his hand into my face with the other.

I ducked.

I reversed his grip so that I was grabbing **him**. I let out a gasp and spun him around like a slingshot and let go….successfully tossing him out of the mat.

WHAP!!

"Ooof!!" Robin tumbled to a stop. He growled and punched the floor.

"Ha ha ha!!" Cyborg laughed.

Beast Boy raised his arms. "Noir…one! Robin…one! Even match!"

Cyborg helped Robin up. "I think you're trying too hard, man. And what's with the Bruce Lee knockoff shouts?"

"Hadn't you ever notice before?" Robin brushed himself off, panted, and smiled. "Helps me concentrate."

"Suit yourself, man. You sound downright goofy."

"It's a good distraction, then," Robin sauntered back onto the mat and raised his fists again. "Okay then…round three…."

"Say, I wonder…," Beast Boy scratched his head. "Noir can't make those sorts of sounds. I wonder what he does to concentrate."

Cyborg smirked. "What else? He thinks of Supergirl."

I frowned at him.

SWOOOOSH!!

Robin flew at me.

I gasped and blocked at the last second.

"WAAAA-HAI!!"

WHUMP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Kara……Kara……Kara……_

_I suppose I should thank you, Diana. You did manage to…er…hook us both up over the phone. And don't feel bad when I say this, but…it's downright silly. I mean…Kara can talk all she likes, but the best I can do is listen and perform some really wyrdass morse code 'tapping' thing that we made up._

_But hey…I'm not about to complain. Hearing her voice is………………really nice._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"……so Jimmy and I walked into the abandoned arcade and—FLASH!!—there was Granny Goodness and a bunch of hired hands. Teenagers from the street. She was sent from Apokolips to educate young earthlings into becoming the new form of Intergang. Basically, imagine a bunch of sixteen to eighteen year olds with laser cannons and flying platforms menacing Metropolis. Not a good thing. Right?"_

_'Yes.'_

_"Well, naturally I was ready to kick butt and stuff. Jimmy freaked out when I started talking Granny Goodness down. But that's because he thought I was still human at the time. There was no Supergirl at the time. Ha. Poor, cute sap."_

_'………'_

_"Anyways. As soon as I revealed myself and started wailing on Granny Goodness' ass, she gets the boom tube and calls in three Female Furies from Apokolips. They kick me out into the middle of the street and poor Clark---er, I mean Superman has to rush in and calm everything down. Of course he doesn't succeed. You know what happens next?"_

_'No.'_

"Hehehe…just seeing if you were paying attention. Ahem……Supermans gets knocked silly by the three amazons. Naturally, they carry him off to Apokolips and NATURALLY I have to go and save him. Isn't it funny how things work out? I never meant to be a sidekick and all……but……my first adventure as Supergirl involved saving Superman's butt. I wonder if Robin saved the Batman before he could so much as swing through Gotham City."

A beat.

_"Jordan?"_

_'Yes.'_

_"You think that sometime…you could tell me about your first adventure?"_

_'………'_

_"………"_

_'………'_

"………Jordan?"

_'Yes.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_It's a little hard to give Supergirl my e-mail address when the only way we can communicate right now is over the phone. I suppose she __**could**__ send me snail mail. But, honestly, we get so many fan letters in the mail that hardly anything ever spills through of great importance. We're hotwired to the police department and a few other key facilities of the City, but that's about it. I suppose when the Tower was set up, nobody expected the Titans to truly have a social life._

_But oh well. I am—in the very least—not someone to complain. Life with the Titans—aside from its stressful job description—is a merry thing. Or at least, I'm inclined to believe so. There is a change going about. A change that has been going underway for quite some time, but only as of late have I been witness to it. Robin is still his badass self as always. But some of his stiff borders around his character are fading. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I dunno. But it sure seems good. Cyborg—like I said—is extra cheerful nowadays with his focus on his 'new family' or whatnot. Starfire's had her ups and downs (especially the ups), and it's fair to say she keeps going up, up, up. Beast Boy is………Beast Boy. And Raven……_

_Raven……_

_She's not quite so alone anymore……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….."

"………….."

"………….."

"……………your move, Rae."

"I know. Don't hurry me."

"Just letting you know I moved is all," Cyborg smiled.

She nodded, leaning her chin on her hand and staring at the chess table. "I know. I'm strategizing."

"Strategizing?"

The two sat in a corner of the Main Room. The chess game was fifteen minutes into the making. The two lines of pawns were almost equally dispersed, and a bishop or a knight was missing on either side of the players' board.

"Yes, Cyborg, strategizing," Raven droned as she eyed the playing grid. "You're actually someone I have to think in order to beat."

"My my…I am so flattered."

"If anyone's gonna flatter you, it's not me," Raven said. "I'm just trying to play."

"Play to win."

"Yes, and you're distracting me."

"Heheh…sorry, Rae."

Silence.

Silence.

Silence…..

Raven gently moved a rook forward and blocked the incoming path of a bishop.

"Wooo…gonna take a rook to stop Cyborg, huh?" the android Titan remarked.

Raven shrugged. "Just counter it any way you wish."

"Sounds like a challenge."

"Whatever….."

Silence.

Cyborg scratched his chin. Thinking. Planning.

And then Raven spoke: "I'm not, by the way."

"Not what?"

"Cute."

"Ah…..suit yourself."

A beat.

"Well I'm not……."

"You are smart though. This game's giving me a headache."

"Do you normally talk your head off when having a headache?"

"You're talking your cute head off too, Missy."

"……"

Silence.

Cyborg moved a knight over to counteract the rook.

"Your turn."

Silence.

Raven fingered her queen. She paused. She looked up at Cyborg.

Cyborg smirked.

She stared.

"…….."

She took her finger off, and instead took a pawn out with her rook.

Cyborg said: "You know…that was a waste of rook. My pawn right there's gonna take him out."

"Sacrifices are sacrifices."

"Why didn't you use your queen—"

"I'm not cute."

"Okay….okay….whatever."

Cyborg quickly…..moved his knight over across the board.

Raven blinked. She raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you take out my rook?"

"Just like you said. You're not cute," Cyborg smirked. "Oh, and besides. Check."

Raven looked at the board. Indeed, with the rook repositioned, Cyborg's knight was able to take out the king in the next move. But Raven had one option and one option only left.

She groaned and took out Cyborg's knight with the queen.

And immediately after—as she predicted—Cyborg took out her queen with one of his bishops.

"To those who are given," Cyborg winked his human eye. "Much is required."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…someone your age doesn't stay 'cute' forever."

She was about to grumble--

"In other words. Use it or lose it."

"………," Raven stared at the chess board.

"You know what I'm saying, girl?"

"Go to Hell."

"Ha ha ha ha!!"

Raven moved one of her own knights into position.

"Checkmate."

"Ha ha ha—what?! Awww shit."

Raven smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SW-SWOOSH!!!

Robin's feet jabbed upwards at my chin.

I dodged, sidestepped, and caught his next kick with two hands.

CLAMP!!!

I twisted.

He spun horizontally over the map, landed in a crouch, and dove at me.

I caught his weight and lifted up with all my strength.

Robin spiraled upwards, flipped, and came down with a massive kick. "RRRRGH!!!"

I jumped out of the way.

WHUMP!!!

He landed hard where I was.

I spun and blindly kicked at where he was kneeling.

He raised a forearm and blocked. WHAP!! Then he charged at me with his other fist.

I deflected his blow upwards and slammed my palm into his chest.

He teetered backwards, grunting.

I stepped forward with a hard, metal left hook.

He ducked and grabbed my forearm from below.

I struggled to get loose.

Robin grinned. He pulled at my upper body over his shoulder and added his foot in propelling me towards the edge of the mat.

I flipped, landed upright, and teetered on the sparring field's edge.

Robin came at me, spun in mid sprint, and flung a merciless kick at me. "Waaaa-HYA!!!"

SWOOSH-CLAMP!!

I swung my left hand back and gripped his foot before it could strike me square in the back of the neck.

Robin hobbled on one foot and tried to shake his leg loose from my grip.

I took a deep breath, twirled under my grip of his ankle, and lifted up as I was facing him.

SWOOSH!!

Robin upended.

I gritted my teeth and knelt in a forward step, bringing my elbow down against his flailing side.

WHAP!!!

He was down on the mat. Shaking his head dizzily.

I smirked…sweating.

"Woohoo!!" Beast Boy jumped with a cheer. Heh. "People should PAY to see this, dude!"

Cyborg stood up with folded arms and smirked. "Guess that makes it Robin….one. Noir…two. One more fall, Rob, and Noir will ruin your record."

Robin swiftly vaulted himself to his feet and shook his hair back to his preferred messiness. "Ain't gonna happen. Sorry, Noir. But the gloves are off."

I smirked. I hand-signed.

Robin looked Cyborg's way. "Well?"

Cyborg was already chuckling. "Heheheh….'By the time I'm finished with you, Robin, you'll wish that gi was off'."

Beast Boy snorted.

"Ew," Robin made a face and stepped back from me to form a sparring's distance. "You sure you didn't switch bodies with Speedy while I wasn't watching?"

I saluted.

"Whatever," he cracked his neck on both sides and hopped into a fighting position. "Sorry for whatever aneurisms this might cause."

I stuck my tongue out.

Beast Boy held his hands up. "Round four….FIGHT!"

We charged at each other.

"Waaa-taaaaaa!"

"!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_There's something that worries me deeply, Diana. As long as I've known Starfire—as long as any of us have known Starfire—she's informed us that her stay on Earth is merely that of a temporary field mission. I suppose that—for Tamaranians—field trips to other solar systems is all part of community service for college credit………or something._

_But if that be the case, the Starfire's more than earned her volunteer hours. Heck, she should honestly have gone back to her home planet long ago. From what I gather, she still has a family. Her mom and dad are still around. And even though her sister is an evil criminal in Centauri prison, at least she still has a little brother at home to look forward to meeting again._

_As much as it would be good for her to go back to Tamaran, it frightens me. Because I fear that we all may never see her again. And a life without Starfire is……well…less hidden in its dismal ways._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Thank you for assisting me in attending the 'mall of shopping', Noir," Starfire smiled as she and I walked down the aisle in the department store. We were dressed casually. I in my denim. She in a cardigan sweater from our trip to North Carolina. She seemed happy…as always. I wondered if this foreign stigma of femininity was some exotic element for her to relax in. "For you and your masculine nature to not be bored during my seeking of new garments, shall I continue my narration from the walk here?"

I smiled pleasantly and nodded.

She perused a wrack of silk blouses as she spoke: "Like I was saying, departing from the crashed Gordanian spaceship in the Plain of Flight, all I could think about was my sister. I have always, truly loved Blackfire—even in spite of her evil ways as of late. And at the time of the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos, the two of us were nearly inseparable. You can imagine how torturous it had to have been to be split from her while I was captive aboard that crashing ship…"

I nodded.

She pulled out a blouse and examined it closely while speaking: "When I found Blackfire at the Capital, I was more concerned with hugging her than I was in getting the communication signal frequencies to the military authorities of Tamaran. Thankfully---hehehe—I was not in charge of the flight to the Capital, and others were able to take care of the task at hand. I know I may seem brave presently in my life as a Titan, but at the time of the battle on my planet I was only thirteen years old and quite easily was I shaken up by the tides of war!"

I nodded with a soft smile. My eyes trailed a rack of hats by a mirror. I scratched my chin and wandered over, trying on a baseball cap and looking at my reflection.

She went on as she perused a couple of skirts hung on another nearby rack. "I am so very fortunate that my family and I survived the battle. It was one thing for myself to have been stranded on that dreadful prison ship…but to be separated from my loved ones all the same! But…no matter, it is over with now."

I tried on another cap. I looked at myself. Tilting my head from side to side. I reversed the cap. A beat. I took it off and tried another before the mirror.

"I have those who were with me during the flight to thank," Starfire paused to reminisce with a gentle smile. "Those who helped me escape from the crashed ship and escape into the Capital. Many gave their lives for young ones like me to continue existing peacefully…"

I tried on the next article…which was a black cowboy hat. With a double-take of horror in the mirror, I swiftly tore it off my head and tossed it back on the rack.

Starfire turned and smiled at me. "Can I ask you something, Noir?"

I looked at her curiously.

She smiled bashfully. "Would you mind embarking on a task that Robin has declined as of late?"

I scratched my chin. I shrugged with a smile.

"I told him I needed to get another sling, and he seems most hesitant to assist me…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!!"

Robin's fist flew.

I gripped it with both hands while it was a centimeter away from my shades.

I gritted my teeth and twisted.

"Augh!" Robin lurched towards me.

I elbowed him in the chest and shoved him back with a kick.

I then prepared a roundhouse punch.

He twirled into a side step, dodged me, and kicked at the back of my legs.

I stumbled…..almost fell.

Robin pounced.

I met his leap in reverse and tossed him over my shoulder.

He landed near the edge of the mat, spun around, and brought his kicking foot near my face. I ducked and jumped back in time to avoid a downward punch, and then braced myself as he came at me with both fists flying.

He punched and punched.

I blocked and blocked.

Our spar gradually trailed across the width of the mat.

Cyborg and Beast Boy sat on a bench beside the mat. They watched…mesmerized.

Just then, Starfire floated into the gym.

"Friends, have you seen—?!"

"Shhhh!" Cyborg insisted.

"Spar time!" Beast Boy drooled.

"Huh??" Starfire blinked her green eyes. She glanced over at us. "Oooh! How exciting!" she cupped her hands together. "Have they talked into microphones and taken the brawl into rooms with urinals, yet?"

"This is martial arts, Star. Not professional wrestling."

"Oh…my the bad."

"Woo! Go Robin!" Beast Boy cheered. "Give him the old one-two……..three!"

"Man, I thought you were rooting for Noir!"

"I'm a hypocrite."

"Yeah….and?"

"WAA-TAA!!" Robin blurred a hand into my chest.

WHUMP!!!

I stumbled back, wincing.

His backhand went across my forehead.

WHACK!!!

I tilted back…teetering.

He twirled his hands around like a dancer and brought them both towards my sternum.

WOOOOSH!!

GRIP!!!

I hooked my entire arm around his joint hands and pinned them in place like the Club in a steering wheel.

I cracked my neck…then lifted.

"Yaaah!" Robin's petite body rose with my grip.

I brought him down hard.

WHAP!!!!

His legs buckled with shockwaves running up his femurs.

He winced.

WHAM!!!!

I unhooked my elbow, clipping him across the jaw.

He twirled away.

I gripped him from behind with an elbow lock.

He grunted and struggled in my grasp.

I held on tighter, my chest to his back.

"Dude…..heheheheheheh," Beast Boy smirked and blocked his face with his hand. "That does NOT look good."

Cyborg called out: "Get a room!!!"

"Not…..," Robin hissed through clenched teeth, "…..funny….!!!"

Starfire gasped. "Oh! Now I remember the reason for my travailing upon this location! Noir! Would you mind going back to the Mall with me later? I must return the sling. The one we got is too big for me."

I glanced at her, blushing.

"HA!!" Robin reached down between his parted legs, grabbed my ankle, and lifted.

"!!!!" I teetered back at a forty-five degree angle…letting go of Robin.

"RAUGH!!" Robin leapt straight up and reversed kicked my falling figure in the chest.

WHUMP!!! WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP!!! I tumbled across the length of the mat like a log. I rolled to a stop, moaning and shaking my dark head.

"Eep!" Starfire blushed. "I am fearful that my sling interfered."

"Your sling can interfere anytime," Robin chuckled, cracking his knuckles victoriously before walking over and helping me up.

"What the hell are you people talking about?" Beast Boy

Cyborg patted his shoulder, smirking. "Nothing for you to be concerned about, kid."

"Hey…just because I'm Beast **Boy** doesn't mean I'm naieve!"

"Then what's your excuse?"

"Um…well…I…..HEY!!"

"HA HA HA!"

Starfire giggled.

I was just about finished shaking out the cobwebs.

"That was getting pretty hardcore, Noir," Robin smirked. "I liked it."

I gave him a sly smirk and spun into a fighting pose.

"Ohhhhh…so raring to go, are we?"

I motioned him to come at me.

"This is the last bout…ain't it?" Robin got into a fighting pose. "Isn't that right, Beast Boy?"

"……"

"Beast Boy?!"

"Huh?? Oh….ahem….right. Robin…two. Noir…two. Final Round."

"…….."

"…….."

"AND?!?!"

"Er….FIGHT!!!"

Robin charged.

I charged.

Starfire covered her eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Did you know that Beast Boy used to be an actor? For all I know, he still is one. As a child—predating his Titan years—the green changeling wandered from t.v. studio to t.v. studio, doing all sorts of bit jobs. Granted, some of his most common jobs were animalistic cameos. After all, the kid can do things a normal pet actor can't do. The only problem is, neither Lassie or Mr. Ed were green. So apart from reptiles and invertebrates (which Beast Boy hates doing), the poor guy was useless as an animal performer._

_It's safe to say he had better luck in…er…elf form. We call it 'elf' form because there's nothing better to call it. I mean, Beast Boy has pointy ears and it's technically not a human identity. In fact, if ever Beast Boy was to revert back into a human state…he'd die. Plain and simple. The reason he's able to change in the manner that he does was the result of a miraculous chemical formula that his parents injected him with so that he couldn't succumb to the human-specific ailment he had picked up as a kid in Africa. I think a monkey bit him….or a tourist guide. Something like that._

_Anyway…the fact that I even __**know**__ this about Beast Boy's past proves something. The Titans are opening up to each other. Granted, Beast Boy's much more social a person than the rest of us…but he wasn't the only person to prompt such communion. Starfire and Cyborg are in on it. And even Raven's shown signs of social camaraderie. Cyborg tells me that she's been opening up to him to some extent. He won't go further into details…which I take as a sign of true friendship. And that's really admirable._

_The Titans are already a 'family'. It's important to be 'friends' as well. A balance of distance and intimacy seems to be at play here. And—honestly—I wonder with some regret and fear exactly what my role in this inevitable revolution is going to be._

_I may no longer be a rookie in the presence of the Titans…but I sure am still a ghost._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where is it…where is it…where is it…AH!!! Here we go!!" Beast Boy beamed. He slipped a cruddy old vhs tape into the VCR of the Main Room and hopped back onto the couch besides the rest of us. "You're gonna love this!"

"What is this and why are you showing it to us?" Raven droned.

"Just you wait and see!" Beast Boy danced his eyebrows and played the tape. The tracking was screwed up, but he fast forwarded through it and sped past a barrage of commercials.

"Television is such a peculiar phenomenon…," Starfire uttered. She blinked and glanced at Robin. "Why do Earthlings insist on sitting for hours on end in front of an electrically charged box?"

Robin smirked: "Because this electrically charged box has ESPN 1 and 2."

I chuckled breathily.

"B.B….," Cyborg gestured towards the screen. "Just what are you trying to show us?! You've sped through two commercial breaks already—"

"HERE!!!"

Beast Boy jammed his finger down over the pause button of the remote.

"Look! Look!" the changeling pointed at the screen.

Starfire squinted her eyes. "It looks like a crew of some fictionalized spacecraft's operating room standing for a photograph."

"Yup! Can you see the people on it?"

"Hey…I recognize that," Robin pointed. "'Space Trek, 2022'! It was a show they were trying out on NBC!"

"Yup! Heheheh!"

"………wasn't it canceled before the first season was over, though?"

Beast Boy's forehead throbbed with an artery. "Look…closely….to…the…far…right…."

"No way…," Cyborg was already walking up to the huge screen. He pointed at a fuzzy image of a small, green 'alien' person to the far right. "That pointy eared science officer guy…that was you, B.B.?!"

Beast Boy had on a proud smile. "My character could scan for lifeforms in thirty seconds flat!"

"What's a science fiction t.v. show doing with a green elf?" Raven asked boredly.

"I wasn't just a green elf! I was a shape-shifting science officer! I was scheduled to die and come back to life in Season Two."

"Someone zapped you with a laser pistol?"

"Close…Alien Acid Concubine from Ceti Five."

"………….."

"It was gonna be TV14 at least."

"I can see that."

Starfire remarked: "There are no caustic wenches from Ceti Five. However, one can fine male prostitutes around the Deblarkan Nebula with venomous fingernails…."

"……."

"……."

"……."

"……."

Starfire blushed and hugged herself. "Or….O-Or so I've read in galactic history books…"

The rest of us chuckled merrily.

Robin patted her shoulder. "We believe you, Star. We believe you."

"Eh heheheh…"

I hand-signed something.

Cyborg smirked: "Noir says 'You can find them in Los Angeles too'."

More laughter.

"And just how does HE know that?" Beast Boy looked at me.

I showed him my fingernails.

He drew a blank…staring at them. He looked at me.

I winked.

"Ohhhh…you were pulling my leg again!! You son of a---"

He pounced on me.

I chuckled and wrestled him to the couch and gave him a dutch rub while Cyborg laughed.

Raven rolled her eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!! SWISSSSH!!!

I flung my fists at Robin.

He backflipped both swings, landed, and sprung at me.

I took his weight and spun him off me.

He slid across the mat.

I charged, swinging.

He blocked and pushed up.

I teetered past him.

He karate chopped at my side: "WAAA-HA!!"

I barely twirled out of the way and ended my spin with a wide kick at his head. SWOOOSH!!!

He ducked and sauntered back as I came at him, fists flying.

He blocked and blocked and blocked and then deflected me harshly to the side, leaving my ribcage vulnerable to his knee.

WHUMP!!!

I winced.

Robin attempted to finish me with an elbow to the head.

I ducked it and hopped back.

He panted.

I panted.

A twitch…and…

We dove at each other and grasped our grappling hands together. Struggling. Forcing against one another.

"Someone finish this thing already…," Cyborg groaned.

"As long as they're both still alive, it's all fine by me, dude," Beast Boy uttered.

Raven walked in. "There you all are. I've been looking all over---oh great."

"Heheheheh."

"Come join the show, Rae!"

The dark girl folded her arms and watched the two combatants with a bored glare. "I always thought training was a cooperative effort."

Robin grunted while wrestling me. "This is no longer training….this….is….war!!"

"How original."

"What're you here for, Rae?" Cyborg smirked. "Thought the gym wasn't cute enough already—"

FLASH!!!

She knocked him back ten feet off the bench with a flick of telekinetic power.

WHUMP!!!

"OOF!!"

"……..right," she uttered. She walked over and gestured, "I just came here to alert Robin that I saw something strange on the Tower's sensors."

"Strange??" Robin grunted. I started to overpower him. His limbs wobbled amidst their strain. "Do tell…."

"There was an electromagnetic disturbance around the Tower. Localized. Rotating around us counterclockwise. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was some……presence circling our home."

"How fascinating…," Starfire remarked.

"We can't have another ghost, Raven," Beast smiled and pointed. "Our first one is battling Robin as we speak."

I gritted my teeth, and shoved hard against Robin.

"Ooh! Ooh! Here we go!" Beast Boy hopped.

"What?! What?!" Cyborg hobbled up to his feet. "What'd I miss?"

I shoved Robin towards the edge of the mat.

He growled and grabbed tight to my limbs.

"!!!!!" I realized he was pulling me with the same weight that I was pushing him.

So I pushed harder.

And he pulled harder.

And…

SWOOOSH!!

We both toppled in mid-air and--

THWOP!!!!!

Landed hard outside the mat.

Cyborg's and Beast Boy's jaws were agape.

"It's….it's….a tie?!"

"After all that?!"

"Congratulations…," Raven droned.

"Augh…no way!" Robin disentangled himself from me. "That wasn't fair!"

I hand-signed something that even everyone besides Cyborg knew meant the equivalent of Robin's outburst.

"Rules are rules, man," Cyborg smirked with his arms folded. "You both won, you both lost….it's a tie."

"Hehehe," Starfire jumped giddily. "They're equallllll."

"We are NOT equal! I'm the Boy Wonder for crying out loud!!" Robin exclaimed. A beat. He simpered nervously at me. "Er…no offence, Noir."

I wheezed and shrugged exhaustedly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Of course, even though I may not be a rookie anymore, I know that I can't carry all the weight of superheroism on my shoulders. I have the others to look up to and lean on as much as they have me to…er…do the same. The Justice League has always struck me as a bunch of independent masters coming together. With the Titans, however, the team itself creates the heroes. I don't know what we'd all be without each other. Socially, physically, mentally, spiritually……_

_Our lives are one big test of each other's endurance. It's amazing that—in spite of all of our differences—we manage to survive. Beast Boy's still alive, Raven hasn't gone insane, Starfire's still on this planet, Cyborg's still ticking, Robin's still kicking butt, and I………_

_Well, I don't feel quite so evil anymore._

_Other than that, Diana, there hasn't been too eventful of a time since the Buzzards were done away with. Unless—of course—you count that really wyrd-ass thing that happened in the evening after our training session…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…dude…what do we do?"

"Rematch?"

"No way…that'll take all night!"

"Besides….Robin and I are pooped. Right, Noir?"

I nodded and wiped my brow.

"Who in X'Hal's name would defecate on you?!" Starfire exclaimed.

"No, Star, that was just a figure of sp---" Robin was in the middle of explaining when a bright light—like a halo—was cast over him.

In fact, it was cast over us in the gym.

I immediately squinted my black eyes and made a face.

"Uhhh…..dudes??" Beast Boy gulped.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

The light pulsed brilliantly and every single one of us collapsed to the floor…….


	104. Mad Movie part 1

**104. Mad Movie part 1**

**Darkness.**

**A crash of brass instruments.**

Explosive and ecstatic.

Then a cool, low jazz.

**And from the edge of the darkness there streaks a gun rifle barrel looking out onto an expanse of pure white.**

The barrel catches up with the walking image of a green elf in a tuxedo.

As he walks from the right to the left, the elf pulls out a gun and aims the barrel's way at the last second.

BLAM!!!

The barrel stops…shakes…and teeters towards the bottom of the blackness, while something akin to blood covers everything…and fades away.

The rifle barrel--now a white circle—stops at the edge of obscurity and opens up to reveal…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was hanging somewhere and slowly coming to.

I groaned and shook my dizzy head. I stared down at a fuzzy grayness below.

I suddenly realized I was dressed in….an oriental dress shirt? Dark green. Silk. And below that, matching slacks. And below that….

Things came into focus. And I realized I was multiple stories above the ground. I was hanging along a buildingside….._Big Ben?!?!_

I gasped. Indeed…stretching beneath me was the full height of Big Ben and the rooftops of Parliament. I looked southward and caught sight of the River Thames and the rest of London stretched beyond. The sky was overcast…and a noonday Sun tried its best to break through the cover as rain gently drizzled down the air and ran along the clockface.

_Clockface……wait a second…where am I?_

LURCH!!!!

I gasped. I had just risen by…a foot or two.

_What the heck?!  
_  
I looked up with an expression of horror.

I was tied with my back to the minute hand of Big Ben's clockface. And it was rapidly approaching high noon. The hour hand stretched straight towards the sky. In approximately…five minutes, I would be squished between the two hands.

I snaked a hand back and tried to loosen my holdings.

No use.

And Myrkblade's sheath wasn't on me. And as a matter of fact….

I blinked.

I didn't have my shades on.

I glanced upwards at the overcast sky.

_Why wasn't I blinded?_

I squinted my eyes…but it made no use.

Everything felt…….normal. And that meant…

I flexed my fingers. I took a deep breath. I concentrated….meditated….

Nothing happened.

I gasped.

_My powers………they're……they're……_

I bit my lip.

_Gone!_

I looked back at the sky. Again, unphased by the brightness.

_How in the Hell did I get here?! And where're the others?!_

**LURCH!!!**

I gritted my teeth and yanked and yanked at the cables holding me to the minute hand. But no matter how much I struggled, I couldn't get myself loose.

And I was starting to panic…

Then----

_"CUT!!!"_

Everything froze.

Everything.

The huge minute hand kept still.

The drizzling rain stopped in mid-air.

Cars came to a complete halt in the streets below.

The Thames River stopped flowing.

It was like the universe suddenly turned stale.

Even the oxygen going through my lungs felt empty and fake.

I squinted my confused eyes.

An…….orb floated down. A metallic sphere colored in bull's-eye circles of red, white, and blue…and not the American kind.

I blinked.

The orb came to a stop and…..spoke to me in a very British accent.

_"Smashing job, chap! I'd say this scene is sorted! You did pretty well for a bloke who just woke up. All the others took for bloody ever to do their first scenes! Now hang in there just a tick and we'll chivvy along with the next segment. This is where you're hanging by your death right before----oh, what am I pissing around about?! You're most natural when you have no bloomin' clue what's going on, eh lad? Ha ha ha!! Scene Two, Take One!"_

There was a loud snapping sound, like a huge invisible clapboard.

Then the multicolored orb disappeared…or no, it didn't.

Three identical orbs teleported into existence around me. Just hovering around the tall clock face.

At the same time, someone faded into existence above me. Someone tall…heavy muscled and……African American.

I did a double-take.

_Cyborg?!?!_

_But…where's all his…………Titanium……?!_

_"Uh uh uh!!"_

That same old voice.

I looked at the spheres.

One of them flashed: _"Over here, chap!"_

I faced the one in the center.

_"No looking at the 'villain' till I shout 'Action!', got it?"_

I blinked.

_"Good………………Action!"_

I struggled. I looked helplessly up at the large figure.

A very….human Cyborg in a dark shirt and dark slacks leaned his head down from where he stood—his right knee propped up—atop a jutting structure of Big Ben above the clock face.

"So…Noir…you left the Hong Kong criminal underground to assist a royal bedwetter in protecting England?!"

I gave him the wyrdest look in my life.

Cyborg grinned….evilly. His voice was extremely unnatural and forced. Everything about him seemed fake.

"We at Skull Corp don't believe in second chances. So while Agent Sixty-Four may have given you an easy break…we're just content to **break** those who have turned their back on their own kind."

**LURCH!!!**

I gasped as the minute hand drifted closer to the hour hand.

I had two minutes left…

I struggled.

Cyborg chuckled loudly. "Struggle all you like! It'll make the footage we send Madame Moonflame all the more pleasant to indulge in." He winked, brought two fingers to his lips, and whistled.

Via ropes, two strange 'henchmen' shimmied down and stood on either side of Cyborg with camcorders…..recording me.

The strange, multicolored spheres were rotating about and orbiting the awkward scene at different trajectories and angles.

I looked directly at Cyborg, gulped, and hang-signed something.

And at that….Cyborg bit his lips.

_"CUT!!!"_

The henchmen disappeared.

I blinked.

SWOOOOSH!!!

One of the orbs flew into my face.

_"Keep your hands still, you bugger! Your character's not mute! He's taken an oath of silence! That means he won't bother to chatter with his hands, much less with his kisser!"_

"Be easy on him, man," Cyborg spoke to the spheres in what had to have been his genuine personality. "Can't you see he just woke up to this mess you have us in?"

One of the orbs flew to Cyborg's side.

_"And did I ask you to say something outside of the take?!"_

ZAP!!!

"OW!!" Cyborg rubbed his shoulder and grumbled angrily at the nearby sphere, which had extended a taser from its exoskeleton.

_"Right then…,"_ emanated the voice from the spheres. _"On with the Scene from where we left off! And give it some wellie, will you?! ACTION!"_

FLASH!!!

The two henchmen with recorders were back. The spheres circled. Everything was back in motion again.

Cyborg summoned his evil persona back. "Smile for the cameras, Noir. We'll need a model for when we take what's left of your peeled body and stuff you up in Madame Moonflame's trophy room."

I sweatdropped.

And then…

A red laser drifted down over the two henchmen.

It rested over the heart of the one on Cyborg's right….and….

BLAM!!!!

A red spray, and the henchman groaned. His chest yawned open from bulletfire. He teetered over and fell down the edge of Big Ben.

Cyborg gasped dramatically. "A sniper!!" He snarled down at me. "Who'd you send?!"

I bit my lip helplessly.

"Where is he?!?!" Cyborg growled. "Agent Sixty-Four, I know you're here!!"

"Sir!" the other henchman gasped. The red laser was settling over his forehead---

BLAM!!!!

His head was no more.

He fell down past me, staining the clockface with red.

I cringed.

Cyborg thought aloud: "Of course…he's not sniping from across the Thames. He's…." He looked up.

I looked up.

Two of the spheres looked up while another shot higher into the air.

My eyes widened.

A glare….and then a metal glint….and then a pair of dangling legs in dark slacks. A very familiar green elf descended upon the scene with a rocket pack and holding a sniper rifle. He turned out to be wearing a gentlemanly suit just a tier or two below a full-blown tuxedo. It was the first time I'd ever seen Beast Boy appear……

Debonair……

"Today just isn't the day for the Friendly Skies," the green one smirked suavely.

Cyborg growled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Agent Sixty-Four…," the well-built thug exclaims.**

**"The name's Logan….," Agent Sixty-Four replies from where he hovers. "Gar Logan."**

"Your true name is hardly spoken of in the Underground."

"Say it one too many times and you just might wear it out," Logan winks. He hovers closer and aims a sniper rifle at the man's bald head. "As for you, Mr. Vic Stone, care to tell me who you're working for and what he wants with my sidekick's death? I'd be inclined to blow your brains out instead, but I'm not in a hurry for Her Majesty to have her clocks cleaned so soon….literally."

**Vic Stone smirks. "The woman I work for is above answering your petty interrogations, Mr. Logan." He reaches a hand behind his back. "Now, there's no need for threats. We're all being a bit loony in squabbling across the top of Big Ben, now aren't we?"**

**Gar Logan raises a green eyebrow. "Loony indeed."**

"RAUGH!!" Stone whips out a grappling hook and fires at Logan.

POW!!!

Logan aims his sniper rifle.

**  
****But it's too late. The grappling hook wraps around the barrel.**

Stone yanks.

BANG!!!

The rifle fires blindly into the overcast sky.

**Logan hits a switch on his controls and his jetpack thrusts towards Stone.**

Noir flinches on the clockface.

**SWOOOOSH!!!**

Logan flies into Stone, feet first.

WHUMP!!

Stone grunts. He recoils from the impact, teeters on the edge of Big Ben, and lunges a fist at the hovering Logan.

SWOOSH!

Logan blocks effortlessly and swivels/hovers out of the way of Stone's followup punch.

Stone leans dangerously over the ledge, arms flailing.

Logan runs a suave hand through his hair, cracks his knuckles, and knocks Stone hard in the jaw.

WHAM!!

"Nnngh!!" Stone slumps back against the buildingside.

LURCH!!!

Noir gasps as the minute hand approaches noontime.

Logan looks down. He descends on his jetpack.

"Hold on, buddy! I'm gonna get you out of this—"

Vic Stone growls and jumps….wrapping his arms around Logan's hovering body.

"Augh!!"

SWOOOOSH!!!

The combined weight of the two drags Logan and Stone down past the clockface. The jetpack spurts and smokes in the strain of attempting to hover the two safely.

**The height of Big Ben flies above them.**

Logan grumbles and knees Stone once—WHUMP!---twice—WHUMP!—and then elbows him—WHAP!!

Stone bears it all and grumbles: "You're gonna have to do better than that, Agent Sixty Four!"

"Perhaps so…," Logan sweats. He smiles and reaches a hand to a special red switch on the jetpack. "If the Soviets could get a dog in space, then surely I can get your arse into the stratosphere!"

**-click-**

PHOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The rockets explode with thrust.

Stone gasps and is too distracted to notice Logan unbuckling, holding onto the jet pack with his hands only, and tying the restraints around Stone's wrist.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The jetpack throttles straight up in the air and past the clockface.

Logan salutes. "Get some fresh air."

"What?!" Stone finally realizes he's fastened to the jet pack. "No!!!"

Logan backflips off the jetpack.

Stone shouts as he soars up through the cloudcover.

Logan's body sails down towards the clockface.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The spheres followed Beast Boy.

In unnatural finesse, he landed on the clockface and winked at me.

"You're doing great, Noir," he whispered.

I looked at him…shocked and horrified.

"Trust me…Cy's okay," he winked with a smile.

As the spheres leveled up with him, he cleared his voice and returned to his persona:

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"My dear friend, have you got the time?" Logan quips. "I'd say it's high time we punch you out."**

**He grabs onto Noir's body and yanks him out towards the open air in front of clockface.**

Noir is thusly positioned so that his body is outwards and his restraints are in between the minute hand and hour hand just as--

LURCH!!!!

**--the clock strikes noon.**

SNAP!!!

The cords break apart.

The bell tolls.

Logan and Noir topple over and fall down the grand height of Big Ben.

Noir gasps.

Logan hooks an arm around him. "Never fear, old chum! We'll be fine as long as we just hang in there!" That said, he aims his hand up and launches a snazzy grappling hook from his watch.

POW!!!-SWOOOSH—CLANK!!

**The grappling hook wraps around a jutting edge of the building's framework.**

Logan holds onto Noir and the two descend safely to the ground below.

**Once on their feet, Noir shakes his dizzy head while Logan brushes himself off—despite his unrealistically immaculate shape—and the secret agent smiles.**

"Well…..it's about time something exciting happened at Parliament."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Cut!!"_

One of the spheres flew down to meet the two of us.

The same old voice emanated from it.

_"Smashing! The Critic will be chuffed to bits with this material! Great work, my duckies! Just a few more introductory sequences with the two of you and we'll have Cyborg back for the club scene!"_

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Uh….dude….how long is this film gonna be, anyways?"

I looked at Beast Boy and the sphere quizzically.

_"Bah!! Impatient spotty youth!"_ the sphere shook, blinked, and strobed. A tiny, holographic figure appeared on the top of it. A tiny, holographic figure wearing the most ridiculous, 60s mockup of a pantsuit splashed with stripes from the British flag. Mad Mod's undeniable image shook a bejeweled cane and grumbled: _"Here you are diddling me with your superb acting when in the end all you want to be is a no-good, cheeky pillock! Mind me that I made you the star of this little picture, bloke! I won't have your lips gallivanting just for the sake of making me brassed off when you got more important things to do!!"_

Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips. "Like what?"

ZAP!!!

"OWIE!!" Beast Boy jumped.

_"Hah hah hah!"_ Mad Mod's hologram laughed. The sphere retracted its taser while the projected image leaned on his cane. _"You've got bugger all against me, wally! Remember that! I call the shots! After all, I'm the director…and we must make everything hunky-dory with the Critic, mustn't we?"_

Beast Boy frowned.

_"Mustn't we?!?!"_ Mad Mod's hologramy leaned forward with a spectacled glare.

Beast Boy griped. "Yessss…."

I looked at him funny.

_"Cherio, then! Off to the next scene—"_

"Just who is this 'Critic' you keep talking about…anyways?"

_"Never you mind, nancy boy! Right then, off to headquarters, shall we?"_

The hologram disappeared. The sphere flew off.

And suddenly….

FLASH!!!!

The setting dissolved around us. Suddenly we were standing a few blocks away from Parliament in London. A sidewalk stretched beneath us. People, citizens, tourists in mid-step teleported into existence all around us. Just like once before…everything was frozen.

Five spheres appeared all around us. And then…a BMW faded into existence in a parking space.

I did a double-take.

"Oh yeah, the car," Beast Boy drooled. "I actually like this part, dude."

I hand-signed madly at him.

"Just calm down. We'll have our chance to talk, I promise," he said. Then he sweatdropped. "Trust me…it's best not to piss that guy off."

I mouthed: _'What guy'_?!

"Why…Mad Mod, of course. He's calling the shots. We've not been able to find a way to stop him."

I wanted to know where all of 'we' were.

"Shhh….the director's about to speak," Beast Boy insisted.

I wanted to growl.

SWOOOSH!!

One of the spheres floated up.

_"In case you haven't gotten things all sussed out, I figured it'd be smart to remind you what your motivations are…"_

The sphere jutted itself in Beast Boy's face. _"You…are Gar Logan. Agent Sixty-Four in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Your name is infamous among the criminal underworld and evil overlords trying to wield power over the conspiratorial playgrounds of the modern physical and digital world. You have at your arsenal a huge cache of government issued gadgetry for getting the job done. And right now, that job is getting down to the bottom of Skull Corp and simultaneously finding out what connections it has to 'Madame Moonflame'."_

The sphere then spun over and 'faced' me.

_"You are simply known as Noir. A former member of a crime gang in the bad streets of Hong Kong. Five years ago, Gar Logan ran into you while on a mission and enlisted your help in tracking down the evil Chinese crime lord known only by his code name Red Dragon. Since then, you've been Gar Logan's faithful sidekick who specializes in the martial arts. You have taken a vow of silence in respect to your dark past and have sworn to protect Her Majesty at all costs."_

I blinked.

_"Right then. On with the show! Beast Boy, be a good chap and follow the holo-prompter if ever you get snookered over your lines."_

"Um….yeah….okay."

_"Scene two! Take one!"_

"J-Just follow my lead," Beast Boy mumbled to me.

I nodded.

_"Action!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"It was a good thing I happened to drop by, old chum," Gar Logan smirks as he strolls down the sidewalks of London with his companion. "That unruly git Stone almost knocked your block off, didn't he??"**

Noir nods nervously.

**"Well, stiff upper lip," Logan smirks as the two come to a stop besides their sleek car. "We'll go and report this to MI6. Then we'll get down to the bottom of Skull Corp and maybe you'll have a chance to bash some skulls in with those wonderful karate chops of yours."**

**Noir again nods nervously with a simper.**

**"But the ultimate question is….," Logan scratches his chin in thought. "Just who is Madame Mystery?"**

Noir scratches his chin too.

A beat.

"All in good time, I suppose," Logan winks. He turns and aims a remote at the car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-chirp chirp-

The BMW's headlights flashed.

Beast Boy grinned a little too long for his own good. He cleared his throat. "Ahem…let's get going, Noir!"

I nodded and followed along.

He got into the driver's seat (right side) while I took the passenger's seat (left side).

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Logan slips in his key.**

Turns the ignition.

Shifts gears.

And presses the gas.

SCREEEECH---VROOOM!!!!

Agent Sixty-Four's engine roars and his car throttles down the streets of London.

A low, jazzy music accompanies the scene.

Extras walking past the cruising vehicle gasp at its sleekness and design.

Inside the car, Logan drives effortlessly and speaks: "I think the world underestimates heroes like us, Noir. The only people who know my name are either trying to kill me or sleep with me and kill me. Heheheh…how's that for global, neighborly love?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I glanced at Beast Boy funny.

I looked ahead through the windshield and saw one of the spheres floating at a constant distance from the vehicle's front. A tiny hole like a camera lens aimed at the changeling at the wheel. Above it, a holographic projection of words read: 'But who are we to complain? We have sworn---'

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**"---our dying allegiance to the Queen and the Queen alone," Logan says. He then smirks and glances at me while driving. "It's a good thing the Queen has honored us with a license to romance as much as she has given us a license to kill, eh?"**

He chuckles.

Noir chuckles.

Logan chuckles.

Noir chuckles.

And.

**  
****Sigh………………..**

A beat.

Logan blinks. "Um…the prompter's done. Was there something else I needed to say—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Cut!!"_

Beast Boy winced.

Everything outside the car froze. Even the engine died. The world stopped on a dime.

A sphere teleported before us, floating above the dashboard.

_"That's a wrap! We got all we needed from this scene, I fathom. You duckies just sit here and squawk all you like while I take a gander at the print and we'll take it to the Agency from there."_

"Yeah….um….whatever, dude."

The spheres disappeared.

I glanced at my left. Out of curiosity—if nothing else—I reached over and tried the door handle.

We were locked **in** the BMW.

I sighed and slumped back in my seat.

"Yeah…it sucks, doesn't it?" Beast Boy remarked. A beat. He brightened. "But ain't this part pretty damn cool?!" He ran his hands over the steering wheel and leather interior of the car. He sighed long and happily. "Why would anyone want to lose his virginity when he could fly around on a jetpack and drive kickass cars instead?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. I charaded 'driving' and pointed at him.

"Right," Beast Boy nodded. "I never did get a driver's license. Heheheh…ain't that funny?"

I sweatdropped.

"And yet…," his green eyes trailed over the dashboard. "I've been handling this baby like a dream. Wyrd, huh?"

I nodded. I looked out at the streets of London. At the people and pigeons in a nearby square frozen in movement. My mind wandered…..

"A lot of things have been like a dream…you noticed that, Noir?" the tuxedoed changeling asked me. "I know you've only been awake for a short time. But….don't things seem fake to you?"

I glanced at him stupidly…then motioned out the window at the frozen London.

"Yeah….I know…..'duh'…..," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "But I mean other things. Like….how perfectly I can flip about and toss around and shoot bad guys and stuff…none of which seem real either, I mind you. I'm not one to truly snipe people in the chest or head."

I thought about the deceased henchmen. I remembered how—at one point—they disappeared and appeared again like puffs of smoke. Teleporting souls….

"And you saw how…different Cy looked, right?"

I nodded vehemently.

_What was up with that??_

"And…erm…," he blushed. "Eheheh….have you looked in a mirror lately?"

I looked at him strange.

"Noir….," he reached over and yanked down a mirror from the car's ceiling. "Your eyes, for one!!"

I glanced at my reflection. I gasped.

Brown eyes. But….not just that. Oriental eyes. **Short** black hair. And the scar on my neck was gone.

It was almost a likeness of my former self….but_…..Asian??_

If I didn't know better, I'd say that I had suddenly transported into the Messenger's Body.

"I don't mean to pry and stuff….but…..were you once…..ya know…..?"

I gulped and shook my head.

"Okay, just curious," Beast Boy scratched his neck. "I've always thought those eyes of yours were normal from birth or something."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I hadn't and didn't intend to tell him everything….

I looked at the mirror more. I turned my head from side to side. Held my hand behind my neck where long, black hair normally was. Gripped my throat where the scar was…

_Hmm………_

"Still missing vocal cords?"

I glanced at Beast Boy……then back at the mirror. I took a long breath….and exhaled.

A beat.

I nodded.

"Well, that sucks," Beast Boy groaned. "Sorry dude. But….like…what's up with this?? Did you and Cyborg undergo surgery overnight or something??"

I shrugged. I had no real clue. But if Beast Boy was right about earlier—

"None of this seems real…."

_My thoughts exactly……_

"But…can't complain too much, right?" he winked. "Your eyes are no longer super sensitive and stuff. Cyborg's got his body back. And me? I kick ass in a tuxedo! I wonder if some masochistic part of us should be thanking Mad Mod, ya know?"

I gave Beast Boy a sarcastic smirk. I mouthed: _'The others?_'

"Oh, I've talked to them," he replied. "You'll get a chance to hear them out too, I bet."

I raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, I felt a tingly sensation all over my body and gasped.

Beast Boy must have felt the same thing…but he seemed accustomed to it. His body and mine started to fluctuate with pinpricks of light.

He smirked. "Speak of the devil. Hang on, Noir. This is quite a rush."

I gulped.

"Just a tick while I load the bureau for you lads!" Mad Mod's voice said from a nearby sphere that was suddenly there.

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_There was……something oddly familiar about this place._

A huge expanse of pure white.

Like obscurity.

And it wasn't blinding…because I wasn't technically seeing.

_But I could hear……and what I heard were voices._

_"Hey dudes! We're back!"_

_"We?"_

"Yeah…Noir's woken up finally. I guess Mad Mod was saving him for last."

"Noir, are you there?!"

"Robin, even if he could hear you, how do you expect him to respond?"

_"Raven…Robin…you've got my word! He's here! We just filmed that Big Ben scene that Mad Mod said would be in the beginning. Cy was there. You remember that, Cy?"_

"YES!! Now shut up and help us figure out what's going on!!"

"Sheesh! Sorry for being born!"

"Robin…Raven…any of you see anything?!"

"Negative. Howbeit, I seem to have undergone a……makeover."

"Me too. Jeez, this is too wyrd! What did they do to you, Raven?"

"I don't want to talk about it…"

"And you, Cyborg?"

"I'm totally human now. Every circuit of my bionic body is missing. It's a virtual impossibility of a surgical procedure!"

"You woke up from surgery?!"

"No, man, I just woke up! It's the most confusing thing ever!"

"Okay, what does everyone remember before we got here? Robin, you go first."

"Well…um…the Tower! Noir and I were training in the gym. Then you came in, Raven, and talked about something circling the Tower and before we knew it—"

"ZAP!! Here we are in London Land!"

"What about you, Cyborg?"

"Same thing. I was there at the gym, remember Rae? You knocked me off the bench when I said that you were c---"

"And you, Beast Boy?"

"I was kinda distracted at the time."

_Groans._

_"Friends! I have returned!"_

_"Star! Where were you?!"_

"I do not know, Robin. But I believe wherever it was, Mad Mod was preparing me for my first 'scene'."

"Just what's going on here? Robin and I haven't left this plane once. But I keep hearing things from you, Cyborg, and Beast Boy about movie-making and scenes and such."

"Something tells me Starfire is about to undergo the same thing Noir, Cyborg, and I have. Mad Mod is pulling us out of this white-void-space-blank-world-place-thingy and putting us into what seems to be………well………a really nasty ripoff of a James Bond movie."

"The Hell?!"

"And just what is he planning on doing with us in there?"

"Well…we're playing the parts of the characters, or so it seems. Ya know…secret agent…sidekicks…henchmen…"

"Bond Girls?"

"Oooh………that'll be interesting!"

"………"

"Er……d-did I say interesting? I meant 'terrible'. Absolutely 'terrible'."

"How do you know all of this, Beast Boy?"

"I…uhm………I-I'm Bond."

"Bond?"

_"Logan, actually. Gar Logan. Mad Mod's scrypt is making me use my real name."_

"Yeah……and the prompter said I was Vic Stone!"

"And what of Noir?"

"Simply Noir. No Jordan in the house."

"While we're on the topic, I'm playing a villain. And that doesn't sit well with me, dawg."

"Beast Boy is the protagonist……Cyborg is the antagonist……"

"_**AN**__ antagonist! There was word of some 'Madame Mystery' person. And also Death Corp and a bunch of other crap."_

"Can we please stop talking about this 'movie' thing and figure out a way to get out of here?!"

"That's just it, Raven. Mad Mod is a complete and total psychopath and whatever crazy things he does must be tied in directly with his agenda."

"The plot of the movie is the plot of his plans?"

"Exactly. Think about it. Mad Mod's kidnapped us before. His theme then was something of a mean school teacher ordering us 'brats' around. We may have beat him, but not without him playing out the various catastrophic spinoffs of shop class, chemistry, library visitation, gym…"

"I remember gym……"

"Hehehe……bet you do, Rae."

"Cyborg……go rust."

"Dudes……aren't we forgetting something?!"

"Like what?"

"Last time, Mad Mod used some really wyrd holodek house of mirrors place thingy on board an abandoned oil rig to make his 'school'. But this place……even if you can call it a 'place' is unlike anything I've ever seen! It's like we're really in London! And Mad Mod has the ability to teleport us anywhere we want! Even to freeze time!"

"Yeah…and I tried calling out for help from random people around me while Mad Mod teleported me to the top of Big Ben for Noir's first 'scene'. But it was like everyone had deaf ears or simply didn't want to pay attention to me!"

"Raven…do you sense anything?"

"It's hard to say, Robin. This definitely isn't like the last time we were in the clutches of Mad Mod."

"How so?"

_"Beast Boy's right. Last time it was just a place of illusions. And yet…at this point, I can't help but feel there's a bit of mind control at work."_

"Liken unto the books of meanness and swirls that he forced upon us previous?!"

"Almost, Starfire. But this isn't hypnosis. Right now…we are all under some sort of influence. Some sort of grand illusion that is consuming us and pretending that we're in an expanse of white chaos at the moment when truly we are not."

"Dude…you mean everything I'm hearing and seeing right now is fake??"

"Most of it…if you can even_** call**__ it 'hearing and seeing'. But our voices are real. I can sense your presence in each of your voices. I even sense Noir. We're all here."_

"But where exactly is the 'here' of our location?"

"I don't know. The answer has got to lie with Mad Mod. Cyborg…Beast Boy…did you all try escaping while you were out……'filming'?"

_"Oh yeah."_

"Big time."

"The old fart's got these spheres that float around and do all sorts of crap."

"Spheres??"

"Yeah. They project his holograms, give you the lines you're supposed to speak, and zap you when you so much as argue against him."

"A simple taser's gonna stop you, Cyborg? Come on!"

"Uh……Robin…these are tasers from _**hell."**___

_"Yeah, dude! They're about the only thing real-feeling in this place! Those spheres are bad mother---"_

"How shall we travail upon escaping now, Robin?"

"Let's wait it out. I want my first chance outside of this whiteness to see what we're all going through. I have a feeling that—the more we play along with Mad Mod's 'movie'—the closer we'll get to an answer. Let's just hope that the tasers are the only real thing in this fiasco."

"Why's that?"

"Cuz I've seen my fair share of James Bond and Mission Impossible. And if one thing's for sure……people die."

"Oye……"

"I have a theory.

_"What's that, Raven?"_

"It's about how we got here. And I think it has something to do with the Tower's readings right before our kidnapping."

"And that is?"

"If you remember, the signal read gave off a—"

"Ah jeez, it's happening again!"

_"He's teleporting us back out, dude!"_

_"Ackies! I feel like there is a meteor shower inside my bosom!"_

"Starfire! Don't worry! Just ride it out!"

"See you on the set, Star."

"Eek! I am not a good actress!"

"Hey! Why am I being teleported out?! Didn't my character just buy the farm with the rocket pack over Big Ben?!"

I too felt the familiar tingling sensation in my body and then—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

I blinked.

I glanced to my right.

Beast Boy stood beside me. In his suave attire.

We were inside a stuffy office with brown furnishing of wood and leather.

Before us sat an elderly Briton behind a desk adorned with hodgepodge and photos from a life of service to Her Majesty.

Beast Boy leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"I bet you ten bucks you can't go for a minute in England without thinking the word 'shag' at least once in your head."

I snickered.

He laughed.

SWOOOOSH!!!

A multicolored orb flew in out of nowhere and shocked Beast Boy.

ZAP!!!!

"OW!! SHAG!! Er…I mean SHOOT!!"

_"Belt up or I might get shirty with you, Beast Sprog! It's acting time for you and your mute mate, here. A rather simple scene if I do say so myself. And leave it to our Critic to find the plot development scenes rather boorish, so we'd better get a move on and get it over with, right?"  
_  
"Uh….."

_"What now?!?!"_

"Do we get bathroom breaks?"

_"Hah!! You really think there's a loo loomin' in your future here in my world??"_

"Okay, man. Talk English."

_"I am, you meddlin' squat!"_

"OUR ENGLISH!!"

ZAP!!!!

"AUGH!! SHAG IT AGAIN!!"

_"You better mind your manners. You're the star of the show, ya know!"_

"Don't stars get better respect than th—"

I elbowed Beast Boy. Whump!

"Ow!! Dude…what the—"

I hand-signed an 'eyemask' around my Asian optics.

Beast Boy blinked. "Yeah…you're right. Follow Robin's suggestion," he grumbled.

_"Eh???"_

"Nothing, you limey Robert Zemeckis. Now let's get this show on the road," Beast Boy cracked his knuckles and winked. "Gar Logan's got an evil corporation to catch up to….um….'cheerio'?"

_"That's the spirit, my duckies! Scene Five! Take one!………ACTION!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Gar Logan…you were doing well and fine until you ruined your cover!!" the old man grumbles from behind the desk. "We gave you a sniper rifle! What in Bloody Hell were you doing with a rocket launcher?"**

**Logan leans back in his chair and smirks. "Do you want a job done right, Guv'nor? Or do you want it done right and SMASHING?!"**

**"Ugh…what am I going to do with you, Agent Sixty-Four??" the man shakes his head.**

"Hmmmm," Logan thinks aloud. "Giving me my very own harem in the Italian Alps would be nice."

"You know your occupation wouldn't allow that, Agent Sixty Four. Now look alive. Since you reported Vic Stone's involvement in Skull Corp, we've send some of our inner ears out and about London to find connections."

"And??"

**  
****"And we've zeroed in on this one flat on the southside of the Thames. It's a posh place…converted into a dance hall. One of those rave scenes kids are into these days."**

**"And just what are we going to find there? Refreshment drinks?"**

"Don't be cheeky. Word is that Vic was once a bouncer at the place. But his specialties went far beyond roughhousing with a bunch of hard blokes getting pissed up. He was keeping an eye out on a fair lass named Corina Anderson."

"And who might this pretty bird be?"

**"Pretty?? Heh…don't go arse over elbow on this, Logan. We know about Miss Anderson in name only…and somehow she has connections to Madame Moonflame."**

"Hmmmm," Logan scratches his chin. "Something tells me Miss Anderson is low enough of a profile to approach for questioning…."

**"She is very important to this investigation, Logan," the man leans over and emphasizes. "She is the link between Madame Moonflame and Vic Stone of Skull Corp. She may have answers useful in bringing Moonflame down and filling Her Majesty in on what the villain is up to for the ruination of England…Hell, maybe even the entire world."**

**"First thing's first. How're Noir and I going to enter?"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'd like this part a lot more if I had my powers!!" Beast Boy shouted over the roar of plane propellers and rushing air.

I nodded as I fastened my parachute onto my back.

"Lemme guess…you can't do your Titan stuff either??"

I nodded.

"Well….look on the bright side," Beast Boy shrugged. "We could be void of all powers, forced to act out a wyrd movie, and stripped of dignity…..in FRANCE!!"

SWOOOSH!!!

A sphere floated over.

_"Time to get a move on! Less skiving and more skydiving!"_

Beast Boy pointed: "Are you ever gonna tell us the plot ahead of time? I mean…that's typically the normal etiquette of a director and stuff—"

The sphere poked out a sparking taser.

Beast Boy gulped. "R-Right." He looked at me. "Who's up for a round of Whose Titan Is It Anyway?"

I smirked bitterly.

_"Of you go!"_

"But where are we jumping too—"

_"Never you mind! Just get your arses off the plane and let the air do the work! Such contemptuous snots, I swear!"_

Beast Boy looked out the opened door. He fidgeted. "You don't suppose that we get stunt doubles do you—"

I kicked him off. WHUMP!!

"WAAAAUGH!!!"

I jumped after him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SWOOOOOOSH!!!!**

Logan and Noir descend through the wind-whipping altitude of the London sky.

It's nighttime. And searchlights from a raving nightclub apartment below them are piercing the air.

Logan sails down before Noir. His face squints against the wind while the sleeves of his dark blue jumpsuit flap about and he utters: "A beautiful day for falling, eh chum?"

Noir doesn't respond.

"On the count of three….one…..two…."

FWOOMP!!!!

FWOOMP!!!!

Logan and Noir release their parachutes. They glide down to the rooftop of the nightclub, undetected. Upon landing, they unhook themselves from their harnesses and Logan leads the way across the roof to a glass ceiling fixture jutting upwards above a darkened room. He punches a few buttons on his watch and produces a laser which cuts a hole in the glass. Noir moves the cut-out circle of glass away and the two snake down into the room.

**Thwump! Thwump!**

**They look around, their fists raised to take anyone inside.**

But it's dark and there's nobody in sight.

**"Well…," Logan brushes himself off. "Too bad nobody's here to welcome us as we drop on by."**

**Noir simpers.**

"Come, Noir. We have a lady to woo……..for Her Majesty," he winks.

Noir barely nods back.

Simultaneously, the two strip of their jumpsuits. They're wearing perfectly fashioned dress shirts and slacks underneath.

Gar Logan adjusts his tie while Noir smooths out a silk, Chinese dress shirt.

"Tell me…did you have any sweethearts pining on you in Hong Kong, Noir?"

Noir winks with a knowing grin.

"Ah…the spoils of youth."

Noir blinks.

"Let us make haste!"

They dash towards the nearest door to the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy and I were standing besides a balcony overlooking a raven scene that was frozen in still motion. We were waiting for our cue…

"So…uh….Noir….," Beast Boy simpered and scratched his neck. "You think I'm…..ya know….a good actor?"

I looked at him blankly.

_He was one Hell of a better actor than I ever could be……_

"I really hate what's going on with the Titans and all because of this….but….I gotta say," he chuckled. "I haven't had this much practice in years."

I gave him a thumb's up.

"You think I'm doing a good job? Distracting Mad Mod while Robin and Raven think us up a way out of here?"

I gave him a second thumb's up.

He chuckled. "You're always like a good, big brother. Though….you're not so big anymore."

I nodded. Indeed, I was…..shorter than him. Or maybe Beast Boy was taller. In this world…..

_What was going on here??_

I decided to do the 'thinking' later. I had to play 'keep-up' with Gar Logan. And being that I was not really an actor (and I missed Myrkblade) I had no problem playing second-fiddle.

SWOOOOSH!!

Seven spheres this time faded into view as one of them hovered before us.

_"Entreant Corina Anderson! Don't mess this up, Beast Bloke! The Critic expects a leading lady as much as he looks forward to your acting!"_

"Show me what you got," Beast Boy smirked convincingly. "Unless of course you're scared."

A hologram of Mad Mod's spectacled face appeared with a scowl. _"You're a right fox, aren't ya? Nevertheless, I have no time to go snooping up your sleeve! Scene Nine! Take One! ACTION!!"_

The rave scene came to life with strobing lights and pumping music and—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Stand aside, Noir…," Logan smirks as he saunters down the stairs and onto the dance floor with gentlemanly finesse. "…and watch the master at work."**

Noir rolls his Asian eyes.

**Logan smirks and scans the scene. He looks through the writhing bodies of young night-goers. The mist of fog machines intercepting laser shows. The tables of romancing couples. And over at a bar he sees….**

"Ah…," Logan gasps, then smiles. "But of course…"

**He holds a hand up. "Stay here, Noir. Scope out the place. The soonest you see any sign of trouble, hail me." And then he wanders over to the bar.**

Noir stands there, his hands behind his back. Shifting uncomfortably. Trying in a forced way to look 'casual'.

**In the meantime, Logan walks up to a lady in red. A red lady in red. A young woman with fiery, scarlet hair cropped short but elegantly braided so that a single lock comes around her left ear while soft green eyes gaze into her martini. She takes one look at Logan and swishes about in her long, elegant dress of shimmering red silk.**

Logan takes her hand and kisses it. "Miss Anderson, I presume."

Miss Anderson blinks.

A beat.

The rave goes on.

Logan keeps holding her hand.

A beat.

Noir starts to sweat.

Corina Anderson keeps gazing at Logan.

Logan raises an eyebrow.

A beat.

Finally, the lady utters: "Beast Boy…I do not recall the impromptu script requiring your lips to have been placed so deliberately on my knuckles."

Logan sweatdrops.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"CUT!!! For the love of Queen Mum!!"_

A sphere rocketed over between the two 'actors' and zeroed in on the lady.

_"You had a line!! Didn't you read your line on the holo-prompt?!"_

"I most certainly did!" the girl exclaimed with bright green eyes. "And…erm…the line is most difficult."

_"And what in the Bloody Hell is difficult about it?! All you've got to say is, 'Well, aren't you the bold type, Mr. Logan!' What's so hard about that?!"_

The girl bit her lip and blushed. "I am most……troublesome when it comes to Earthlings and their English habits of word contortions."

_"'Contractions'! They're called 'Contractions', love!"_

"Just pretend that 'are' and 'not' are all one word, Star," Beast Boy nodded. "It doesn't have to make sense. Just make it up!"

"Beast Boy…you dare assist this miscreant in his vile scheme?!"

"What choice do we have, Star?! This guy will zap the ovaries right out of you if you don't do what he says!"

"Would that not be a martyrdom acceptable to a Titan??"

I narrowed my eyes and gasped.

_Starfire?!?!_

But……

_She has human eyes! Her Tamaranian eyebrows and amber skin color are replaced with a red hairs and peach texture. And her hair…her gorgeous long hair has been………shortened……_

I suddenly wanted to follow Robin's plan to the last page.

_"You talk some sense into her, mate,"_ Mad Mod's voice grumbled through the sphere. _"I'd hate to singe her face after her long visit to the power room!"_

"Star….just play it out….PLEASE," Beast Boy held his hands together. "It's what your friends would want from you. It's what Robin would want from you…..from all of us…" Beast Boy winked.

Starfire's green eyes (which were human pupils and cornea as well) narrowed. She stared at Beast Boy quizzically.

So the changeling forcibly winked again.

Then Starfire leaned her head back and mouthed: 'ohhhhhhh'. She nodded. She faced the sphere. "I sh-shall endeavor to assist you in the creation of this irrelevant string of photonegatives and sound bits for entertainment purposes. But on one condition."

Mad Mod's voice groaned: _"And what's that, love?"_

"My persona shall verbalize without the use of contortions."

_"'Contractions'!!"_

"Yes….those…," Starfire bit her lips.

_"Fine. Very well. No use pissing ourselves over unwashed milk, I always say."_

"Dude…when did you ever say that—"

ZAP!!!

"OWIE!!"

_"Cherio. Take Two! And don't blush this time when he kisses your hand!"_

"I shall do m-my best," Starfire said………….flushed.

The sphere groaned and zoomed away. It glanced at me.

I shrugged with a smirk.

It glanced back at the two.

"ACTION!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Miss Anderson, I presume," Gar Logan kisses the woman's hand.**

The woman gives the secret agent an indignant glare. "Well, are you not the bold type, Mr. Logan?"

**"How did you know my name?"**

"What lady of the underworld does not?" Anderson smirks.

Logan leans on the bar. "You seem……far too beautiful to be a crook."

"A crook, I may not be," Anderson turns and swishes around her martini with her back daintily facing Logan's face. "But I have those who 'protect' me…and I am quite sure they fit your bill."

"Like who?"

"It is not in my authority to inform you."

"Then whose is it?"

Corina turns around and stares firmly into Logan's eyes. A pause. She utters coolly. "You are quite the nosy type, Logan. If you seek any information…there is only one thing I can give you."

"Can it be in public?" Logan smirks.

"A warning," Anderson leans in and whispers coolly into Logan's ear. "They have seen you…."

"They?"

"Yes…and if you and your partner wish to get out alive…now would be the time."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I smirked…hopefully out of camera view.

Starfire makes……a pretty good actress.

And that red dress of hers……

I snapped out of it.

Sighing, I glanced over at the 'entrance' to the rave club. I did a double-take as I saw Cyborg and at least half a dozen armed henchmen enter the scene.

"Well, well, well…if it isn't flyboy?!"

Beast Boy spun around. He gasped and darted his eyes to a holo-prompter just in time to read and then act out: "Mr. Stone! You've not become pavement pizza yet! I find that most…..amusing."

The ravers gasped and parted from the space between Beast Boy and Cyborg's 'henchmen'. The music died. Guns were cocked and aimed.

I read a holo-prompter and obediently hid amidst the crowd….'out of sight' from the villains.

"I'm in charge of keeping this nightclub clean, Logan," Cyborg grumbled. "So how about we take this outside and shed blood the decent way?"

Starfire gasped dramatically: "No! No! Mr. Stone! If you end this man's life, you will have a far greater weight on your shoulders! From Her Majesty herself!"

"Stop defending him, Corina!" Cyborg growled and lifted a machine gun. He smirked. "We don't keep you here to be romanticizing with government lackeys. Besides…this is personal. So kindly step out of the range of bulletfire."

Starfire's eyes widened.

Beast Boy honestly gulped.

Nervously, Cyborg tried to keep a straight face as he and his 'henchmen' raised their weapons.

I wrung my hands. I didn't know if those bullets were real or not. But….if Beast Boy was the protagonist, why would he die so soon?

And just then, a sphere levitated before me. And the holo-prompt had one simple command: _'Jump them.'_

I blinked. I took a deep breath, cracked my scar-less neck, and dove at the group of gun-toting thugs…kung fu style.


	105. Mad Movie part 2

**105. Mad Movie part 2**

**SWOOOOSH!!!!**

Amidst a spray of bulletfire, Gar Logan's trusty sidekick Noir dives into action.

In slow motion, his body flies through the incoming spread of air-warbling projectiles that barely miss his limbs. He rolls across the dance floor of the nightclub, gets up on his knees, and spins around with a flurry of lightning-fast martial arts kicks and punches and grabs as seen from rotating angles of dazzling proportions.

SMACK!!

WHAM!!

POW!!!

WHAP!!

THWACK!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I spun to a stop.

Panting.

My Asian eyes squinted shut.

Silence……

I gulped.

I opened my eyes.

Every one of Cyborg's 'henchmen' were down for the count. Their guns were tossed and dropped everywhere.

I blinked.

I smiled nervously.

And then a sphere prompted Cyborg to--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"RAAAUGH!!!"**

Vic Stone runs across the higher tier of the nightclub, firing his uzzi nonstop.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Noir gasps and jumps out of the way. He cowers behind an upturned table and uses it as a shield. He sweats with gritting teeth.

In the meanwhile, Gar Logan pushes Corina Anderson back gently with a hand.

"Stand aside, Miss…this is for your eyes only."

"What are you going to do---EEK!"

**  
****Logan whips out a silver pistol, smiles, and takes aim.**

"Marquis of Queensbary, please."

POW!!!

CLANK!!

"Wha—?!" Stone gasps as the uzzi is shot out of his hand.

Logan smiles a flashy grin.

"Rrggggh—TAKE HIM OUT!!"

The thugs get up, pick up their guns, and take aim.

Corina lets out a cry.

Logan grabs her and pushes her behind the bar counter and dives over it at the last second.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets ricochet and fly off the outside of the counter from four gunmen at once.

Logan and Corina hide behind the protective barrier, wincing from the bullet shots.

"Your friends seem to care little about your safety, Miss Anderson."

"They are not my friends."

POW!!!

A bullet flies off close to their heads.

"Then why do you live in their domain?" Logan asks as he screws on a laser sight to his pistol.

"I go by the old phrase, Logan. 'Keep your allies close, but keep your enemies closer'."

PING!! POW!!

More bullets.

Logan smirks as he pops the sight of the gun into place. "I am your enemy, am I not? Care to hold me closer?"

Corina looks at him.

He winks and presses a button on his watch.

Meanwhile…where Noir is hiding.

Beep…Beep…Beep…

He looks at his watch. Logan's signal is reaching him.

Noir looks over the table he's hiding behind.

He sees a gunman with his back to him.

He takes a breath, vaults over the table, and charges the thug.

The gunman looks over at the last second.

"Huh---?!"

TH-WHACK!!!

Noir gives him a one-two chop in the side, then an uppercut across the face.

SMACK!!

Noir gets into a kung fu fighting position.

Stone and the gunmen pause shooting to see him.

At that precise moment, Logan stands up from behind the counter, eyes a light fixture above the distracted men, takes aim with his laser pointer, fines the chainlink support, and fires—BLAM!!!

CLINK!!!

The heavy half of the light fixture swings free and---SWISSSSH-SMACK!!!

Stone is knocked harshly into two of his thugs.

WHUMP!! "OOF!!!"

The last man standing gasps.

Noir dashes at him.

The man ducks cowardly with his chin barely peeking over a table top as he takes aim and fires.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

In slow motion, Noir vaults off a railing to a tier of the nightclubs, flips in mid-air, twirls and dodges the streaming bullets, uprights himself on the descent, and lands with his feet planted against his side of the tabletop.

WHAM!!!!!

The tabletop upends, clipping the gunman's jaw upward. THWACK!!! The man shoots up like a pinball.

Noir leaps over him, grabs his shoulders upside down, lands, and flings him over his neck with a silent cry.

SWOOOOSH!!!

**  
****The thug's body flies across the nightclub and lands through a dinner table where a few citizens cry out and scurry away.**

CRASH!!!!

Logan jumps over another table and runs into the center of the nightclub to join Noir. He fires a few shots at Stone and his remaining two men.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

**  
****The men crawl behind metal railings and take cover.**

Stone angrily stands up, faces the bulletfire, and returns with his own volley.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

**Noir and Logan jump and hide behind an overturned table.**

Bullets ricochet all around them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy reloaded his prop gun…or maybe it was a real gun…or maybe--

"Dude…the next time I say we go to Bolivia….we go to Bolivia…," he said.

I looked at him strange.

He smiled crookedly above the noise. "A joke, man! Come on…isn't this fun in some crazy sense?!"

PING!!!

A bullet bounced off beside my head.

I winced and put on a brave smile.

SWOOOOSH!!

A colored sphere floated up to us and Mad Mod's voice warbled: _"What in the bloomin' hell are you scabs up to?!"_

"Nightclub shootout scene!" Beast Boy cackled.

_"But you're not SHOOTING anyone, lad!! You should aim better with that boomstick of yours! Gar Logan wouldn't hold back!!"_

"Dude…you don't know me…"

ZAP!!!!

"OW!!! I'm not a murderer, dude!!"

_"And do you really think either those bullets or those henchmen are real, you twit?!?!"_

"………."

I looked at Beast Boy.

_"Go out there and bullet their arses off before I make you repeat the entire scene!!"_

My green elf friend grumbled. "Thanks for the license to frag."

He jumped up.

I jumped up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Gar Logan and Noir spin into view from behind the table.**

BLAM! BLAM!!

Logan's bulletfire sails across the echoing nightclub and into the chest of one of the recovering thugs. THUNK!!

**  
****"Augh!!" the thug dramatically throws himself over a railing and across the floor with a twitch or two.**

Noir charges Stone and the last thug.

Logan expertly shoots past Noir's shoulders.

BLAM!!! BLAM! BLAM!

The bullets knock the guns out of their hands.

The thug gasps as Noir charges up to him, grabs his shoulder, and flings him across the nightclub.

Logan takes aim and—BLAM!!—shoot's the man's back as he flies through mid air.

"PULL!" Logan smirks.

Noir takes a breath and dives into Stone.

Stone grabs Noir—growls—and throws him into the wall.

THWUMP!!!

Noir goes bug-eyed.

Stone brushes his hands off and turns around--

WHACK!!! Logan's pistol smacks across his face.

"OW!!!" Stone grunts. "Why you stupid green el—"

Logan coughs suggestively.

"Er….Gar Logan!! CURSE YOU, GAR LOGAN!!!"

Stone swings his massive fists at Logan.

Logan smirks and effortlessly backsteps and dodges each attack.

**Stone stomps forward with a kick.**

Logan twirls to the side, grabs a plate from a dining table, and smacks it across Stone's forehead.

SHATTER!!!

"Ughh…," Stone topples over across the table….still.

Logan twirls his pistol and aims into the man's skull. "As much as I would love to end your scummy life right here and now…," he hangs the pistol neutrally down by his side. "Her Majesty would prefer a more modest morality at the hands of her valued agents---"

THWACK!!!

Stone's fist suddenly flies up into Logan's chin.

The man flies back.

GRIP!!!!

Stone grabs him by the throat, then turns him around and puts him into a headlock.

"A little message from Madame Moonflame…," Stone sneers. "I've been granted the great privilege of adding another bag of bones to Skull Corp's trophy room. And guess who's the lucky corpse?!"

Logan looks up, gritting his teeth. He sees a throng of four extra henchmen run over and line up alongside the railing of the second story overlooking the dance floor. All of the men whip out uzzis and aim down at Logan in Stone's wrangling arms. Logan blinks over to his left and sees Noir dizzily recovering from his last toss. The secret agent twists his free hand around and produces a sparking taser from his trusty watch.

"I'm willing to take a gamble…," Logan grunts. He shoves his taser into Stone's thigh.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

"AAAA-AAAA-AAAAUGH!!!!" Stone twitches and vibrates with sparks. He stumbles—smoking—and lets go of Logan's body.

The henchmen take aim.

Logan stretches his legs and backflips mightily. He lands behind Stone's twitching bodies.

The henchmen fire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Stone—still recovering—flinches and barely dives out of the way of the bulletfire.

In the meantime, Logan slides behind a tabletop for cover and calls over to Noir. "Stairway to Heaven, old chum!!"

Noir snaps out of it and looks up. He holds his breath, runs, jumps off a tables, bounces against a pillar support, and flips up nimbly onto the railing of the second floor besides the henchmen.

**  
****The men pause in their firing to regard the martial arts sidekick.**

Logan spins his pistol out, takes aim, and fires---BLAM!!!!

PING!!!

A gun flies out of the first henchman's hand.

Noir charges him, karate chops his neck, and kicks him twice in the chest before tossing him to the side.

The next henchman in line takes aim.

Logan fires a second bullet upwards. BLAM!!!

PING!!

The gasping henchman is defenseless as Noir jumpkicks through him and rushes the third on the balcony.

BLAM!! PING!!

The man shouts in terror as Noir grabs him and flings him off the balcony and to a nasty fall below.

There's one gunman left. But before Logan's bullet or Noir's charge could reach him, he tosses his gun over the side, holds his hands up, and dives suicidally over the balcony edge for them.

"AAAAAAAH!!" THWUMP!!!

"………"

"………"

"Heh…," Logan chuckles and spins his pistol. "And it's usually the women who fall head over heels for me."

Noir rolls his eyes.

Logan smirks. He turns around.

Stone is missing….

Logan raises an eyebrow. "The devil???"

**"AIIIIIEE!! HELP!!!"**

Logan gasps and looks over at the bar counter.

Stone has Corina Anderson in a harsh grip and holds a gun to her head from behind.

"You win this battle, Logan. But soon there will be a war…a war that you will not win."

Logan grits his teeth and points. "You let her go!"

**"The soonest I let her go, she'll be dead with a bullethole in her head," Stone smiles evilly. "Consider this nightclub yours. But Skull Corp has many battlefronts. Far more than you can conquer. And Madame Moonflame's confidence in us is far too important to give up. And I know very well that this girl here is your only way to possibly finding her!"**

Noir looks nervously between Logan and Stone.

Logan clenches his fists….but sighs and holsters his gun. "Fine…don't hurt her. But the next time I find you when you're alone, coward…Hell will be waiting."

"As I'm quite sure," Stone winks. He whips out an explosive and tosses it at a nearby wall where it sticks, beeps a few times, and--

BOOM!!!!!

A hole to the street is blown. Stone drags a frightened Miss Anderson along and into a car swerving into a parked position outside. He tosses her in, jumps in himself, and the car screeches off.

**  
****Noir hops down and joins Logan in jogging out into the open street. They watch as the car throttles off.**

Noir pants.

**But Logan is cool. He cracks his knuckles and straightens his hair.**

Noir looks at him, unbelieving.

"What??" Logan smiles. "Take it easy." He whips out a data pad and clicks a button on it. "I fixed a tracking bug on Miss Anderson's lovely dress when the two of us stumbled behind the bar counter. We should be able to follow Hanzel and Gretyl as long as we're and—hopefully—they're alive."

Noir wheezed forth a nervous smile.

"How many times do I have to tell you to relax when I'm on the job?" Logan smirks. He gestures. "Come on. Let's get some smashing transportation…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Cut!!"_

The world around us froze.

I blinked and glanced around.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I jumped—startled—as the colored sphere came up and flickered forth a hologram of a relatively happy Mad Mod.

_"Ace!! Brilliant!! The Critic must be off his trolley if this film doesn't excite him in the least!!"_

"You know…," Beast Boy raised his hand. "I've been curious. What's this film gonna be rated?! Cuz Robin says I can't watch rated R movies until I'm---"

ZAP!!!

"DAH!!! Okay…dude…I need an agent, PDQ."

I bit my lip.

Mad Mod's hologram narrowed his spectacled eyes. _"You'll get sweet fanny adams if you're lucky, wazzock! Now you lot hang a tick and we'll chivvy along with the next scene. I have to edit what we have of the print so far for the Critic! And I'm no grotty busker! He chose me as the Director for a reason! And you're the star of the show, don't forget that, ducky!"_

Beast Boy folded his arms and mumbled. "Aren't I lucky."

_"Now don't be a big girl's blouse! Smile and be dashing! That's Gar Logan for ya! Cheerio!!"_

The hologram and the sphere disappeared.

A familiar tingling sensation coursed through our bodies.

"Ah yes…," Beast Boy smirked at me. "Back to nowhere land."

I groaned.

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"—and at the moment I can't remember any time in recent history when an electromagnetic pulse of that great a frequency appeared around the Tower."_

_"Could it have been distributed at long range from a distant source?"_

"I don't think so, Robin. I'm inclined to believe that the pulse WAS its own source."

"A self-supplying pulse of electromagnetic energy…but what could it be?"

"I can't help but think that it has something to do with our imprisonment here by Mad Mod……whatever and wherever 'here' is."

"Hey dudes. We're back."

"Beast Boy!! Report!"

"Um……more filmmaking, Robin! And…erm…say…are Cyborg and Starfire here?"

"Yeah, man. We're here."

"We are presently accounted for."

"Are you guys allright?! None of you got hurt or anything?!"

"No sweat, B.B."

"Though I am willing to admit that I was surely as frightened in reality as the character I was attempting to portray."

"You did a good job, Star. All of us did. Nobody choked."

"What do you mean? Titans, what's going on out there?!"

_"Nightclub scene. Gar Logan—the Bond ripoff—sneaks in with Noir to find Corina Anderson—"_

"Played by meeeee!! Hehehehe!"

"………"

"Anyways, there's some conversation…then Stone—Cyborg's character—stomps in with a bunch of henchmen. A gunfight takes place. Cyborg—er, I mean Stone kidnaps Corina at gunpoint and runs off. And now Logan and Noir are gonna chase him down cuz they have a tracking device on Corina's dress. I think we're gonna see some cool Bond toys next!"

"Man…that's awesome! A tracking device on her dress?!"

"Yeah, dude! Gar Logan doesn't miss a thing!"

"Think it can record audio conversations??"

"Oooh…that'd be a cool plot device to figure out the mysteries behind Skull Corp, right??"

"Hold on just a minute, guys…"

"Ahem. Yes, Robin?"

"Starfire was in there during the nightclub gunfight sequence??"

"Er……yeah. But it's allright, dude! She was behind the counter the whole time………er……that is, until Cyborg's character forced her head at gunpoint. B-But Mad Mod's told me on several occasions that the bullets aren't real and that the henchmen that were shot weren't real either and with all the time freezings and teleportations and scene shifts—I'm inclined to believe him. So Starfire wasn't in that great of a risk—"

"No no no no…I mean…she's a BOND GIRL?!?!"

"Hah hah hah…that she is, dawg."

"Don't get the wrong idea, Robin. Sure, she's a Bond Girl. So…that should mean she avoids most of the gunfight sequences to the end, right—"

"Starfire is a Bond Girl……do you know what that means??"

"Why is everyone insisting that I am a female indicative of special adhesion??"

"No, Star. Bond…James Bond."

"I must mention something while we are on the topic. Something horrible—terribly, terribly horrible has happened to my hair!"

"What?"

"It is short!! And my Tamaranian eyebrows and skin tone are gone and---"

"You're not alone, Star. All my Titanium parts are gone, remember? I'm completely human. Not that I can complain but----it's the wyrdest thing in the world."

"And have you seen Noir lately?!?! Hehehehe…Bruce Lee has entered the building!!!"

"Noir's Asian??"

"Well, right now he is, Raven and---hey! How come you've been silent up till now?!"

"I'm listening…"

"Uh huh……"

_"………"_

_"Will we ever get our true bodies back?!"_

"I dunno, Star. I can't help but feel like this is some really nasty game that Mad Mod has us playing."

"But to what ends?? The last time he had abducted us, the theme of his torment was aligned with that of a Terran scholastic institution. This present situation seems like a major change in his villainous style."

"That's just it. He's not working for himself. At least I don't think so."

"What are you getting at, Beast Boy?"

"He keeps yapping on about this 'Critic' person. At least now I know that the Critic's a guy. Mad Mod called him a 'he'."

"And………???"

"And Mad Mod's the 'Director' of this crazy movie world."

"I think we got that idea down, man."

"But think about it!! If Mad Mod is the Director…it doesn't necessarily mean he's the Producer."

"Meaning……he's not really the one behind this?!"

"Exactly!"

"Fascinating. Then perhaps there is another nefarious foe in the works! Someone who would have gladly wanted us in this situation…playing out ridiculous roles…………and getting our hair cut!!!"

"Starfire………is a Bond Girl……?!"

"Yoohoo. Earth to Robin."

"Uhhhh---huh?"

"You listening, man?"

"Ahem…enough to know that Mad Mod needs to be taken down."

"You weren't listening! Mad Mod may not be behind this, we think! Sure, he's playing a big part, but—"

"As smart as Mad Mod is, he couldn't generate the technology to do whatever he's doing now. And if that electromagnetic pulse we keep brainstorming about has anything to do with this, I don't see how Mad Mod could have come up with that too."

"Good point, Rae."

"I think we should be foremost concerned with this 'movie' thing that Mad Mod is putting us through."

"Why's that, Robin?"

"True…there may be a lot about this world I keep hearing that is fake. But the one real thing is the plotline. Not only is it being filmed in chronological order, but the roles we're playing are integral to its structure. Now, if this 'spy epic' is like your typical Bond epic…then it can't be a good thing for all of us."

"How so?"

"Well, you've seen a Bond film, right? Bond survives everything. But all the villains die. And in the end, he and the Bond Girl…they………they……………"

"They what, Robin?"

"Rghhh……I can't wait to play my part. I want to see this 'movie world' first hand. Then maybe I can figure a way to censor the film before it ever hits the shelves!"

"Agreed. Mad Mod may be here to play games, but we're not."

"Dudes…I thought the idea was to play along until we figure out a plan."

"And it is. But we can't do that forever, Beast Boy. While you and Noir may be having the time of your lives…the clock it ticking down on Cyborg and perhaps even the rest of us. Who knows how serious Mad Mod may be when it comes to a death scene! Or a love sc—er…"

"???"

"Well, Robin…look at it on the bright side!"

"What bright side?"

"The film can't be that far into it!"

"Why not?"

"We've only had two action scenes and there're still two Titans left to make their first appearances!"

"Um……I think you'll have to play your cards differently, Beast Boy."

"Why's that, Robin?"

"I'm starting to feel that 'tingly' sensation the rest of you keep describing."

"Uh……darn it, me too dude."

"Me three."

"Myself included."

"………"

"Unless I'm mistaken, that means Raven's not joining us."

"You all have your fun."

"Hey! Who knows! Maybe Noir will be staying here with you!"

"Oh joy. Won't we strike up quite the conversation……"

"I hope her character isn't nearly as sarcastic."

_"Fat chance."_

"………………Fat?!"

_FLASH!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blinked. I looked around.

It was nighttime on the foggy edge of London.

Beast Boy and I stood beside a warehouse on the docks of a boatyard along the Thames.

He looked at me and grinned. "So you came after all. Lucky you." He winked.

I raised an eyebrow.

He giggled.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

A sphere flew in and the hologram of Mad Mod appeared, spinning his cane and then leaning on it. _"Next scene, my duckies!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Inside a dark warehouse, the echoes of the low sounds of lapping waters bounce against the old, crackling walls of wood. A tiny slight of light appears as a creaking sound fills the chamber.**

Gar Logan walks in with Noir in tow.

Logan adjusts his suit and smirks at Noir. "The tracking device says that they've taken Miss Anderson through the North Sea and along the western banks of Norway. But at this moment, they've stopped approximately twenty-five miles off of the land. Which means they're either stuck out in the water….or something else. And considering this time of year, I think I know just how to be prepared."

He whips out a remote and clicks a button on it.

Something large and black rises out of the waters in the center of the warehouse docking bay. A miniature submarine…a sharp contrast to the technologically lacking building.

"Shall we go for a swim?"

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**The next day…twenty five miles off the coast of Norway…**

A huge ice sheet stretches across the landscape. Every now and then, a patch of water breaks apart the ice of the frozen wasteland. But the region is mostly a realm of white thickness floating above the northern Atlantic. And on a patch of the rigid ice there lies an encampment of tents and portable buildings. Shady characters guard the establishment. And one of them—standing outside a tent and squinting his eyes across the brilliant reflection of white light—is Vic Stone.

"Sir…," a henchman walks up and salutes. "Word is from Razor that the icebreaker is less than an hour away."

"They're certainly taking their damn time," Stone grumbles. "I'm not a babysitter. Doesn't Razor know that?"

"Should we give any message to Madame Moonflame?"

"No point," Stone sighs. "We're getting nowhere…and we ditched Logan back in London. Go back on patrol…I'm going to have a word with Miss Anderson."

"Very well, sir," the henchman walks away.

Stone turns around and ducks into the tent. He peers across the shadowy interior and sees Corina Anderson huddled in a makeshift chair, bundled in blankets. Trembling.

Stone sits on a cot across from her, pulls out a gun, and starts polishing it.

**"Tell me…Miss Anderson…have you always been loyal to Skull Corp and Madame Moonflame?"**

The redheaded girl looks at Stone. She blinks her green eyes. She says:

"Cyborg…were you always that muscular?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"CUT!!!"_

Cyborg was cracking up laughing as a sphere flew up and shook in Starfire's face.

_"What is wrong with you, lassie?! Can't you handle a blooming line?!"_

"Please forgive me," the Tamaranian (human-looking) blushed. "But I cannot help but wonder why you have chosen such outrageous exoskeletons for us to occupy."

_"Huh?? What in bloody Hell do you mean??"_

"She's got a point, man. I know we need to meet the quota of these characters and all…but…," Cyborg scratched his fully human head. "If the Critic knows we're Titans—and I'm assuming he does—what's the point?"

"And why is it that Beast Boy has remained green and elvin while the rest of us have seemingly changed?" Starfire added.

_"Never you mind, buggers!"_ the sphere turned and zapped Cyborg.

"OW!!!"

_"Well, I had to blast someone before I went off, didn't I?"_

"I don't see why the colonies didn't revolt against you from the get-go, dawg."

_"Righto. That's the spirit! Bitter villainy! Keep that in mind, 'Victor Stone'. And YOU, 'Miss Anderson'…you'd best be thankful that I made you the leading lady!"_

Starfire blinked. "But who am I leading?"

The voice from the sphere groaned. "Just read your lines…"

"Minus contortions—"

_"SURE!! WITHOUT CONTRACTIONS!! JUST BLOOMIN' READ THEM!!"_ A groan. _"Action!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Madame Moonflame is of little concern to me. All I ever wanted was a life of luxury…not a life of crime."**

**Vic looks over his gun as he polishes it and smirks: "Be thankful to Skull Corp that—in this day and age—you can have both."**

"But what if it turns out that I want neither?"

"Eh??"

The woman runs a hand through her short, scarlet bangs. "I want to be free, Mr. Stone. Not a prisoner to past sins."

"Trust me, Miss Anderson," Stone holsters his gun and points. "At this point, the only redemption fiends like us can ask for is death."

Suddenly, there is a huge quaking. The ice slab beneath the tent and the whole camp shakes.

Stone gasps.

Corina smiles ever so slightly. "What would you know of redemption, Mr. Stone?"

The man gets up, teeth gritting, and rushes out of the tent.

He joins a collective group of panicked thugs outside the encampment. Together they look desperately out across the blindingly white landscape.

Slowly…the shaking and crumbling stops.

Silence…

Two thugs walk out onto the ice with machine guns in trembling grasps. A beat. They look Stone's way. "Could it be the Ice Breaker, sir??"

CRASH!!!!!!

The ice shatters upwards from beneath them. The two thugs tumble over—screaming and dropping guns that fire madly on their own.

Stone and the other remaining henchmen gasp as a black, freight-train-engine sized submarine rises up from beneath the ice with its top half breaking through.

Stone grits his teeth and grumbles: "Logan…"

CLUNK-WHURRRRRR-CHTING!!! A door to an interior compartment opens in the top of the submarine.

**The henchmen all cock their guns and aim.**

Stone shouts: "Come on out of there, you gutless limey!!"

VROOOOOOOOM!!!!!

A black snowmobile ramps out of the submersible and onto the ice. Logan is steering at the front with Noir seated behind him. Logan smirks and throttles the snowmobile into higher gear. It slides across the ice while Noir cocks a machine gun and takes aim.

"Don't just stand there, you morons!!" Stone shouts. "FIRE—"

Noir beats them to the punch.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!

As the snowmobile skids by, a string of bulletfire ricochets off the ice making tiny potholes. When the string reaches a handful of henchmen, red spray covers the ice and the men fall down with cries. Stone and the rest duck, only to be covered with white powder as the snowmobile scrapes by.

**While driving, Logan tilts his head back to Noir and remarks: "Skiing season is early this year!"**

VROOOOOOOOM!!!!

The snowmobile plows through a pile of crates—SMASH!!!—sending splinters flying everywhere and forcing thugs to dive out of the way. As the two heroes zoom through the base, guards recover and angrily fire volleys of machine gun fire at the circling snowmobile, but somehow keep missing the agile driver's crafty maneuvering.

**"Quick!!" Stone shouts. "Grab the hummer!! I'm getting the Anderson woman out of here!!"**

"To where, sir?!" one guard asks.

"I'm going to meet the ice breaker before Logan gets to her!!" Stone motions for two thugs to follow him as he runs to the tent."

In the meantime, the black snowmobile doubles back and comes in for another attack run. Thugs line up behind protective barriers and fire. BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BANG!! POW!!!

Logan grits his teeth and ducks his head as bullets whiz above.

Noir holds his breath, takes aim, and fires expertly as they streak by.

VROOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets exchange in the air.

A few ricochet off the body of the snowmobile.

A few guards fall, groaning.

Logan grins and jerks hard on the controls.

SCREEEEEEEEE!!!!

Ice flies up in a powder as the snowmobile spins into a turn and throttles on straight towards a group of thugs besides a tent.

The thugs cry out and dive to avoid the merciless vehicle.

THWAP!!!!!

The tent is shredded apart as the snowmobile blows through.

Noir reaches a hand out and grabs a handful of canvass from the shredded tent.

Logan drives them both towards a throng of aiming gunmen.

Noir grits his teeth and tosses the canvass as they plow on through.

THWUMP!!!!

The guards are covered with the blinding sheet and thrash about helplessly from underneath.

Logan chuckles as they come in for another turn.

In the meantime, a hummer skids awkwardly to a stop on the ice by a tent as Stone drags Corina Anderson out. He takes one look at the snowmobile and angrily orders his right hand men to hoist the woman into the vehicle as he hops into the rear. He taps the rear of the driver's seat and the hummer's wheels squeal as the vehicle accelerates across the ice.

Noir points.

"I know!!" Logan says while steering. "I see them! Hang on!!"

He soars the snowmobile through the base in pursuit.

In the meantime, a group of thugs shout random orders to each other while rushing over to a metal shack. They pop the lids open and inside of them are three gray snowmobiles of their own.

Back at the chase, the hummer gains whatever traction it can and speeds over the expanse of white, icy wasteland.

Anders flinches inside as each slight indentation in the ice slab causes the vehicle to bump and lurch.

Stone and another thug in the meantime crawl into the rear compartment of the hummer and look through the rear window. They see the snowmobile of Logan and Noir approaching fast. Stone shouts an order to his thug. He pulls out a suitcase while the thug cocks a machine gun and kicks at the rear window.

CRASH!!!!

The glass shatters and a whole gap is formed in the rear door of the hummer. The thug takes aim through it with his machine gun and fires.

**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**

Logan grunts. He steers to the right and pulls the snowmobile out of the line of fire. Ice shatters in a string of tiny explosions behind them.

The thug fires more from the rear of the hummer.

Logan steers expertly, while Noir returns fire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Bullets ricochet off the rear bumper of the hummer. Sparks fly. Startled, the driver loses a bit of his touch and the hummer slides for twenty feet before regaining traction and zooming right along as usual.

"Try and take out the tires!!" Logan shouts. "Remember, Miss Anderson is in there and we don't want to hurt her!!"

Noir nods. He takes aim with his machine gun and fires one bullet at a time with greater accuracy. BLAM!! BLAM!!

Bullets fly off the ice just an inch or two short of striking the tire.

Noir grits his teeth and reloads his clip.

**The thug ducks just as Stone pulls out the weapon he has assembled from the suitcase……a grenade launcher.**

PHUMPHT!!!!!

A canister flies out and bounces across the ice twice towards the snowmobile.

Clink! Clink!

"Mother fiddlesticks!" Logan swerves madly to the side.

BOOOM!!!!!!

Ice shrapnel shoots high into the air.

Noir covers his head.

Logan grips hard to the steering and angles himself back along with the rear of the vehicle.

Stone reloads and fires another.

PHUMPHT!!!!!

Logan raises one hand. "Gimme a gun!!"

Noir tosses him a pistol.

Logan spins it, aims, and fires upwards—BLAM!!!

The bullet flies up and succinctly hits the grenade in mid-air.

CLANK!!!!

The grenade twirls, smokes, and trails off to the side.

BOOOM!!!!!

It strikes the ice to the left of the two heroes. Logan and Noir duck as they cruise under a spray of snow and ice shards. Once through, Logan revs the engine and they catch up to the hummer.

Stone pauses in aiming to smirk.

Logan raises an eyebrow.

The sounds of three new engines alight his ears.

He glances behind him.

So does Noir.

Three gray snowmobiles are in pursuit. Two thugs are on each. Three machine guns are cocked and aimed at the two heroes.

Logan grits his teeth and faces forward again.

"When it's a snow day, EVERYBODY'S out of school. Hang tight!!"

He swerves hard to the right.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bulletfire from three separate riders trail after the careening, black snowmobile.

Logan swerves left and right, eyeing the tiny rear view mirrors on either side of the vehicle's front.

Bullets ricochet off the hull of the snowmobile.

**Noir hangs on tightly. He reaches into a compartment and pulls out a shotgun.**

More bullets.

More ice flying.

Stone watches from the hummer, grinning.

Corina wrings her pensive hands.

Noir swings the shotgun in one hand, cocks it, and aims back at the pursuing snowmobiles.

BLAM!!!!!!

Shot sprays back at the thugs.

They swerve out of the way.

**Noir jerks the gun with one hand—cocking it—and swings it back into position to aim again.**

BLAM!!!!!

A huge chunk of ice explodes before one snowmobile, causing it to swerve out of the way and fall by the wayside. The other two gain momentum and its riders fire madly at the heroes.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Logan swerves while Noir reloads.

In the hummer, the two in the front seat are looking back. They glance back forward through the windshield and gasp. "WHOAH!!!"

The drive swerves just in time for the hummer to barely avoid a chunk of ice dotting the flat landscape. Stone grunts and hangs on to the Jesus bar as the hummer regains traction and speeds along.

Logan sees the chunk of ice and heads for it.

Noir balances himself and grabs the shotgun with two hands this time while aiming.

One of the gray snowmobiles bravely steers close to them. The rear thug on it aims at Noir with his machine gun.

Logan readies himself and decreases the acceleration just as they reach the ice chunk.

**  
****The gray snowmobile speeds over the ice chunk at the same time and---**

THWUMP!!!

VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

In slow motion, the two snowmobiles are ramping up in the air. But the enemy's vehicle was going at a greater speed. As a result, the gray snowmobile zooms straight overhead of Logan's and Noir's mid-air vehicle. Tiny pelts of ice from the rear tires of the gray snowmobile fall down and litter Noir's face as he carefully squints his asian eyes and gets to shots off into the undercarriage and engine of the high-flying, enemy vehicle.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!

Sparks fly. Fuel leaks.

Logan's vehicle lands from its shorter vault.

THRUMP!!!!!

Time resumes.

The thugs' snowmobile twirls at an awkward angle, bursts into flames, and lands fifteen feet ahead of them.

KABOOOOM!!!!

**The vehicle explodes dramatically.**

Logan swerves to the left at the last second.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The two heroes barrel through the edge of the flame and smoke from the deadly explosion and emerge unphased.

**The second closest gray snowmobile throttles over and rams into the left side of the heroes' vehicle.**

CLANK!!!!

Logan and Noir grunt.

The thugs lean their weight over and ram into their side again.

CL-CLANK!!!

Logan and Noir veer to the right. The left side of their vehicle upends for five seconds before falling back down onto the ice as the vehicle speeds on.

Stone takes the opportunity to load another grenade into his launcher.

Noir aims his shotgun at the rear thug.

The rear thug aims his machine gun at Noir.

Click!

**  
****Click!**

**  
****Both Noir and the thug widen their eyes.**

Out of ammo.

Noir twirls his shotgun, holds it by the barrel, and uses it like a baseball bat against the thug's head.

THWACK!!!

"UGH!!" the thug falls back and tumbles hard across the ice.

The driver growls and rams into the side of the heroes' vehicle again.

CLANK!!!

The ski plants of the two snowmobiles get entangled with each other. The vehicles lose their momentum and start grinding the ice as they 'drive' into each other.

Logan grits his teeth and yanks at the steering to get them free.

The enemy driver similarly struggles.

Stone aims his rocket launcher. "Small price to pay…" He points it at both Logan's vehicle and the thug's vehicle.

The thug sees his boss aiming and gasps.

While the enemy is distracted, Logan raises his foot and shoves it down at the ski plants with a growl.

THWACK!!!

He frees both vehicles from each other.

Taken by surprise by the jolt, the thug loses momentum and drags behind the black snowmobile.

Stone fires.

PHUMPT!!!!!!

The grenade flies.

Logan ducks.

Noir holds his breath and jabs the butt of the shotgun high into the air.

CLANK!!!

The grenade bounces off the gun and tumbles back through the air, landing into the thug's lap on the vehicle behind.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA—" BOOOM!!!!!

Stone angrily slaps the hull of the hummer with a grunt.

Logan smirks….then gasps.

The hummer skids to a stop.

Stone rocks around in the back of the vehicle. "What the Hell?!" he frowns at the driver.

"It's the ice breaker! We're here!"

Stone looks up and smiles.

On the black snowmobile, Logan and Noir gasp.

A huge freight ship is barreling through the icy wasteland, smashing through the ice sheet with its razor-edged bow. A river of frigid water is formed in an impromptu canal behind it. A huge horn goes off, and throngs of evil henchmen lining the railings of the deck march to a stop and aim guns down at the heroes beyond the hummer.

Logan gasps: "Fall back!!"

Noir nudges his shoulder.

"Ah…right, I'm driving. Nicely put, old chap."

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

A veritable wall of machine gun fire flies down at the snowmobile.

Logan swerves them out of the way and drives back across the ice beyond their fire.

In the meantime, Stone grabs Miss Anderson and drags her out of the hummer. He and his henchmen rush towards the edge of the ice breaker as the ship slows its crashing through the ice and lowers a platform via metal cables down its hull for the group of escapees to step on board.

Logan swerves the snowmobile around and to a stop. He grits his teeth and looks at the distant ice breaker. He looks the way in which the chase came.

The third snowmobile that had fallen behind was catching up.

"I have an idea, friend," Logan smirks. "How about we get to know these henchmen a little closer?"

He revs the engine.

Noir gulps.

"No worries…just don't choke."

VROOOOOOOM!!!!!

He throttles straight towards the oncoming vehicle.

The two enemy riders crane their necks out of curiosity.

Logan and Noir zoom straight towards them.

The driver of the enemy vehicle nudges the rear seater, and the rider whips out his machine gun.

Logan takes a deep breath…then… "Take over for me."

Noir's almond eyes bulge.

VROOOOOOOM!!!!

The vehicles approach each other across the wintry expanse.

Logan slowly climbs over the front of the vehicle while Noir nervously grabs the steering in his place.

Balanced precariously on the front of the snowmobile, Logan pulls out a pistol and cocks it. "When I give you the signal, drive straight towards me and hit the nitro! You'll understand when the time comes!"

Noir gulps.

The vehicles rush each other head on.

The pairs of occupants can see each other's hair color.

The rear thug fires.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Miraculously, the bullets stream past the two heroes.

Logan holds up his left arm and aims the pistol with his right hand over it.

BLAM!!!!

A bullet sails out and hits the steering of the enemy vehicle.

The driver gasps and loses control.

The gray snowmobile swirls to the left at the last second.

Logan grunts and jumps…

**(A heartbeat.)**

…**onto the other side of the enemy vehicle.**

He grabs the steering swings, and slams his legs into the rear gunner.

THWACK!!!

The thug falls off.

At the end of his swing, Logan seats himself and headlocks the driver from behind.

Noir sails past them and looks behind…curious.

The driver gasps for air.

"Sorry…no time for cab fair!" Logan shouts and slams the driver's head repeatedly into the dashboard of the vehicle.

WHACK!! WHACK!! WHACK!!

He then tosses the driver out onto the ice with a grunt. He grabs the man's belt and yanks off a grenade at the last second.

He then plants the grenade hard above the engine and speeds on towards the ice breaker.

In the meantime, the platform on cables rises up to the deck.

A curious Stone and a concerned Corina Anderson watch from where they ascend onto the ship itself.

Logan sails towards the freight ship at full speed. He grits his teeth as the thugs on the side of the ice breaker's deck fire madly down at him. Somehow, he drives the gray snowmobile so fast that it makes the thugs overshoot his throttling figure. At the right moment, he yanks the pin from the grenade and backflips off.

Noir watches from where he cruises towards the scene.

Logan lands on the ice with a slide. He falls to his knees and steadies himself—panting—as the loaded snowmobile cruises towards the freight ship.

The thugs take aim at his figure.

Logan runs a hand through his hair and winks.

**Fiendish fingers to triggers….**

The grenade ticks.

**3…2…1….**

BOOM!!!!!

**The enemy snowmobile explodes.**

**  
****A huge crater forms in the ice, with frigid spray flying upwards and reaching as far as the deck itself.**

The gunmen beside the railing recoil from the icy wave and lose their aim.

Logan spins around and waves his arms at Noir.

Noir smiles and nods his head. He grips the steering hard and snakes a hand over to an obscenely red button on the dashboard.

-click-

**FWOOOOOOOOOOOMB!!!!!**

The nitro ignites.

The snowmobile practically flies over the ice.

Logan jumps and grabs onto Noir's shoulders as he streaks by, miraculously holding on.

Noir drives the black snowmobile to the fresh crater where the blasted ice on the outer rim has formed an angle shard pointing straight up at the freight ship's edge.

And they hit it.

CLANK!!!!

VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Trails of ice and flaming nitro follow the two heroes as they ramp up with spinning rear treads, fly over the railing, and come crashing down onto the top deck of the ship itself.

SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!

Sparks fly and thugs leap out of the way as the snowmobile spins to a stop against a bunch of netted crates.

Stone and a few other guards recover from flinching and reach for their weapons.

"Not so fast…," Logan whips out his pistol and Noir holds out two uzzis. They march up off their smoking snowmobile and approach the fiends. "The lovely Miss Anderson comes with us…and the rest of your lives will be spared………..for now."

Corina smiles.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Mr. Logan?" Stone smirks.

Logan chuckles. "Like what?"

A suave voice from above: "When Madame Moonflame chooses her allies, she supports them the whole way through."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy and I looked up while holding our props.

A layer of thugs were on an upper tier of the ship. Aiming machine guns down. Outnumbering us.

And in the center knelt an athletic figure with a dark head of hair, a devil-may-care grin and two black lenses over his eyes. Like cybernetic implants. Masking….

"Dude…no way…," Beast Boy chuckled with a whisper. "Robin?!?!"

"I'm the one they call Razor. I'm sure you might remember me, Noir. We were fighting companions for Red Dragon in Hong Kong. You betrayed us the first day you ever joined Mr. Gar Logan. Now it's time I have my revenge…and I have Vic Stone and Madame Moonflame to thank for the opportunity."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Dude….no fair….," Beast Boy pouted. "I wanted to see his eyes…."

"Mr. Logan?"

Beast Boy cleared his voice and spoke audibly in his persona: "Just what does Skull Corp want with Miss Anderson?"

"Quite simple. Her father built the Ragnorak Machine. And she is the living, biological key for it."

"Ragnorak Machine?"

"Nothing for you to think much about," Robin—Razor—waved. A thug walked over with a revolver and pointed—smirking—at Beast Boy. "Unless of course your ghosts decide to hang around and watch the final product."

Beast Boy looked around.

No spheres showed up.

"Cue!!" he hissed in a low breath.

Nothing.

He sweated and looked at the revolver aimed down. "Cue! Cue! Cue!!!"

A sphere appeared to my left.

I looked at it. My eyes twitched.

The holo-prompter read: _'Dive in front of Beast Boy_.'

I bit my lip. I looked up at the revolver. I looked at Beast Boy.

The show must go on…

SWOOOSH!!!

I dove.

BLAM!!!!!

Starfire gasped.

Cyborg's jaw dropped.

Robin bit his lip.

"Noir!!!!" Beast Boy shouted.

THWUMP!!!

I fell to the floor beneath him…gripping my chest where blood was leaking. The bullet had hit me….and it felt absolutely, positively real….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-


	106. Mad Movie part 3

**106. Mad Movie part 3**

"Noir!!!" Robin shouted from atop the higher tier.

_"Cut!!!"_ A sphere flew in with Mad Mod's hologram. _"Boy Wazzock, why did you interrupt the scene?!"  
_  
"Listen, you overdressed fruitcake!!" Robin pointed angrily at the sphere. "I'm not going to stand here—playing your mock film while my teammates bite the dust!!"

_"His time was coming to him!"_ the hologram scratched his fingernails on his elbow and examined them. _"The Critic said he was hogging the attention from Beast Brat's character so I had no choice but to rewrite the script! So take your blimey ego and sod off!"_

Starfire stamped her foot. "But you need not truly extinguish him!! Noir has done nothing but ensure the fulfillment of your media project!! What sort of heartless monster would you be to treat him so cruelly?!"

I was quivering on the floor. Gasping. Blood was leaking out of my chest. Beast Boy knelt beside me, holding my hand.

_"Don't get your knickers in a twist, lass! Whether or not he's meeting St. Peter is none of my business. I'm the director, not the technical advisor!!"_

Cyborg gritted his teeth. "Why you lame-ass, son of a—"

The hologram pointed his cane and frowned. _"Take one more step out of line, lad, and more of you will bite the bullet. Noir's character is done for, and I'd be thanking my lucky stars for the rest of the you staying in this gig. Do anything to halt the production, and you WILL be fired…in every sense of the term that you can possibly comprehend."_

Cyborg glared.

The hologram (and the sphere) turned to face Robin. _"Do I make myself clear?"_

Robin clenched his fists and stared out of dark, glass lenses. "As soon as we figure a way out of this 'world' you've stuck is in….we….will…make…you…pay…"

_"Oh, I'll be counting down the hours, mate. Surely I will. Ha ha!"_ Mad Mod had a good chuckle. _"Now stand aside!!"  
_  
He pointed his cane.

I twitched once or twice before fading away like a cloud.

Beast Boy gasped. He jumped up to his feet and shook his fists at the sphere. "What did you do to him?!?! Bring Noir back!!"

"He's right where he should be!" the hologram exclaimed. "Who knows…in a second or two, a few of you may go and join him."

Starfire gasped and looked at the others. "The void!"

"Then he must be with Raven!" Cyborg said.

"But how'll she know he's there?!" Beast Boy remarked. "He can't say anything in that place!!"

"Can he die in that place?!"

"Mad Mod!!" Robin shouted. "This isn't over?!"

_"By all means, my duckies!! The climax is a good way's off!! Now, commence with the scene! On your bike! The whole lot of you!! No time for breaks in this business. You should have inquired about acting unions at the front door! Ha!!"_

Beast Boy looked down. He took a shuddering breath.

Starfire walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Compose yourself, Beast Boy. We shall take care of Noir as soon as we find a way outside of this absurd imprisonment."

"It's all my fault….somehow….," Beast Boy sniffed. "For being the star of this 'show'. For having Noir as my co-star."

"What?! No, Beast Boy! Do not feel guilty! It is not your—"

_"Hey!!! Into positions!!"_

Starfire bit her lip. She quickly gave the green elf a tender hug before shuffling back besides Cyborg and collecting herself.

Robin tried to settle down his shaking muscles of anger. He cracked his neck and took a deep breath, transferring the emotion into his villainous role.

Beast Boy himself was breathing heavily. His eyes were watery. He looked like he wanted to roll over and cry. But like the good actor that he was, Gar Logan flexed his arms, put on a fake look of bravery and---

_"Action!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"You shot Noir, you heartless bastard!" Logan growls at Razor.**

Razor lets out a fiendish laugh. The reflection of white from the surrounding ice shimmers off his cybernetic eyeglasses. "He had it coming to him. He's nowhere near the expert spy that you are, Mr. Logan. He should have known he was in over his head."

"And now you know that you are completely and utterly surrounded," Vic Stone grins. He grips Corina Anderson harshly from behind. "The girl is not yours to steal. She's going to go meet Madame Moonflame. And with her body as a key, we shall supply power to Ragnorak Machine."

Logan leans back and smirks. "If I was to say that you were completely and utterly wrong about 'all of the above', would you hold it against me?"

**Razor's smile fades. A chopping sound. He looks up in the air.**

So does Stone.

Corina Anderson gasps.

A squadron of British Royal helicopter gunships are flying in from the far horizon. They're armed to the teeth with hellfire missiles and they collectively zero in on the freight ship.

**"Just like Noir…we agents of Her Majesty understand the value of comraderie. I may be a one-man army. Heheh…what less can you expect of Gar Logan?? But an army—no matter how small—has its shadow. And right now, that shadow's coming to blind you. There's nowhere to hide, Razor. Hand over Miss Anderson now…or you shall pay."**

The guards shift nervously.

Corina glances back and forth between Logan and the villains.

A beat.

Razor smiles. "I've never been one to flee from a battle lost…" He whips out a huge, curved dagger with the flick of a wrist. He flings it down with a growl.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

CLANK!!!

"Nnngh!!" Logan grunts, being pinned to a cargo box by his suit. He yanks at the blade to free himself.

Razor bows from atop. "But I'm more than happy to run along and finish a war won."

That said, he flips off from the upper tier, lands, and runs across the platform.

Logan frees himself from the blade.

SMACK!!!!

Razor karate chops him across the face like a lightning bolt. He jumps, lands next to Stone and Corina, and forces them behind a rise in the ship's structure. A few henchmen follow.

The others circle around and assault Logan.

Logan grunts and tries to punch, kick, and shove his way through the rampaging crowd and get to the two leading villains.

The royal helicopters close in and fire at the deck.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The guards attacking Logan cry out and fall to the ground, holding their hands over their heads in surrender.

Logan dashes—panting—to the rear of the ship.

He stops in his tracks just before he could possibly fall over into a huge gap.

A launch bay has opened and yawns before him. A puff of bright light and then---

SHOOOOOOM!!!!!

A rocket containing a capsule with the faces of Stone, Razor, and Corina inside sails through the air and heads towards the southeast horizon.

Logan pants, watching helplessly as the ballistic zooms off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy turned around.

He looked at the spot on the 'deck' where the body of Noir used to be. Before he disappeared.

He gulped down a painful lump in his throat.

_"Cut!! Beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!! Print it!!"_

Beast Boy closed his eyes and shuddered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Rae?! Raven?!"_

"Cyborg?! You're back already?!"

"Raven! It is urgent!"

"Have you heard from Noir?!"

"What?!?!"

"Noir, Raven!! He's been shot!! I think Mad Mod sent him back here!!"

"What do you mean he's been shot?!"

"It was part of the scene. Nobody expected it. One of the cues prompted him to jump in the way of a bullet. The martial arts sidekick character to Gar Logan is dead."

"And it looked like a real bullet too! Noir was bleeding pretty badly."

"Did he come here, Raven?! Are you alone?!"

"I……I-I have no idea! I…I haven't heard anything!! This place is like a lonely dream! You don't know if someone else is here unless they talk or something!"

"Have you heard…I dunno…labored breathing or gasps of pain or something?!"

"Ohhhh…I am most terrified that our friend is no longer with us!"

"Again, I haven't heard anything! I've been here…alone…trying to meditate. Trying to figure out a connection between Mad Mod and the electromagnetic pulse signal and—"

"Understood, Raven. Now everyone…be quiet."

"Yes, Robin."

"Noir?!?!"

Silence.

"Noir?!?!?!"

Silence.

"Noir, if you're here…please give us a sign!! Breath heavily!! Chatter your teeth!! Do something verbal to let us know you're here!!"

"I know you have to be in pain, man. But you gotta give us a sign!!"

"Please, Noir! We are your friends! We are concerned for your well-being!"

Silence…………

"He's not responding."

"How can he, man?! He's frickin' mute!!"

"Or he's dead………"

"No, Raven!! You must not say that!! Are you not concerned in the least?!"

"I am concerned, Starfire. As I would be concerned for all of my friends. But let us not panic. Noir has been through some pretty tough scrapes before. Even without us. I'm sure he's doing fine."

"Then why is he not responding?!"

"Well, it's not like we ever heard him before…"

"Besides…if I were him, I would be meditating right now. That means focusing all energies on resisting the mortality of the wound. Even his energy to talk—which he can't do."

"Noir, this is Robin. Hang in there, you hear me?! We're……w-we're gonna figure something out!"

"Where's Beast Boy?"

"I think he's still in the 'movie'."

"Mad Mod insinuated that the Critic felt Noir was taking up Beast Boy's spotlight as the story's protagonist, and for that reason Mad Mod rewrote the script. I feel that Beast Boy unjustly accuses himself of causing Noir's demise."

"Hmmm…the Critic isn't very mature or patient…is he…"

"Robin……man……the Critic had Mad Mod shoot Noir. The guy's a creep in my book. He should be in yours!"

"Did you gather anything from your first time in the 'movie' world, Robin?"

"Plenty, Raven. This place is fake."

"I thought as much."

"Fake?!"

"How do you mean, Robin?"

"I can't quite explain it. But it's not real."

"But Noir! He—"

"—was shot. Yes. I know. And as much as he and the rest of us are concerned, he is some very REAL danger. But it's a danger only relative to this fake world that we are in."

"Are you trying to say that some ambiguous wool is over our eyes?"

"Yes. That's Mad Mod's style. Director or school teacher or stigmatic Briton—it doesn't matter. He likes to screw with people's minds. Ours especially. Looks like—this time—he's got some 'Critic' to help him out."

"So you're saying that everything's in our heads?! Including Noir's gun wound?!"

"More or less, yes."

"Then what shall we travail upon doing?!"

"The only way to beat the system is to blend with the system…then shatter it from the inside out."

"Meaning……"

"We must find a way to sabotage the film. And right now, the film's bent around one thing. The Critic's will."

"And the Critic loves Beast Boy!"

"So if we get Beast Boy to……ruin his own role."

"This whole project will crumble on top of itself."

"Like a strike!"

"Exactly. But Beast Boy can't do it alone."

"We must do it……together??"

"Yes. Then Mad Mod won't have any material or resources to go back on."

"And the Critic will be angry. What do you think he'll do to us?"

_"What worse could he do than what he has already done to Noir??"_

"Noir……I do so worry for him……"

"Uh oh."

"What is it—aw crap."

"!!!! We are being summoned back to the 'movie' world!!"

"Raven!! Do you feel it?!"

"No!! I don't! He keeps taking you guys, but not me! Why am I being held back……"

"Stay here. Try to contact Noir. We're going to spread word to Beast Boy! We're going to work this out!"

"Good luck, Robin."

"The name's 'Razor' for now. I'm going in."

"Good luck……er……Razor……"

"……………"

"……………"

_"……………"_

_"……………"_

_"……………"_

"……………Noir?"

"……………"

"Noir……listen to me. You must keep focused, Noir. Keep ahold of your center."

"……………"

"Concentrate. Narrow your thoughts on your survival and your survival alone. I……I-I know we don't share the same meditation techniques…but you have a gift, Noir."

"……………"

"You have a gift to separate the destruction and construction that forms the synthesis of this world. You know Death far greater than most of the Titans…and at the same time I truly envy your knack for Life."

"……………"

"Don't. Die. On. Us. Be brave. Keep focused. Meditate. Meditate. Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos. Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos. Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…"

Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…

Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos………

………………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy sat on the frame of a helicopter's side door. The sun hung low over a horizon of pure white ice.

He took a shuddering breath as spheres fluttered about over the shoulders of soldiers and 'extras' frozen in still motion.

Between takes, he looked up at the sky with watery eyes and hugged himself.

"You know…I…I've not been the same since Terra. I think I've….grown up. Really. I have. I know what it means to lose people as old as I am. It's not quite like when and where I was when you guys left. But that's okay. I….I really couldn't be myself without it all. Without loss. After all, it's loss that sorta makes us…strong or something. Cuz we fight for ourselves in the end, ya know?"

Silence.

He looks down at his dressed-up legs dangling over the edge of the parked helicopter.

"Terra taught me that friendship is more a matter of what one does to preserve something good…not what others do. Because no matter how good or nice of a person I was, she still hurt me and the rest of the Titans. And in the end…I realized I was far more of a friend to her than she ever could have been to me. And…maybe…maybe it was meant to be that way. Maybe I was…I dunno…meant to be a sacrifice. Because—Lord knows—Terra lost so much of her own. Quite possibly…even her own life."

Beast Boy sniffed and dangled his arms to his side, sighing.

A beat.

"After Terra left…I think I became even MORE annoying to the other Titans. If that's possible. Heheh…they're always telling me that I'm immature and that I should leave them alone and do more creative things. But that's just it. I can't leave them alone…"

He gripped his head and shook it while clenching moist eyes shut.

"I'm so pathetically desperate…to not lose anyone again. I don't care if they hate me or are using me or what. I just want to be with them. I want to have someone…anyone…on my side. Someone who could never leave me. And if that means annoying the heck out of them by telling jokes or being a total goober…then so be it. I just…don't' want to be alone. I don't want the loss to be all around me."

He sniffed and opened watery eyes. The landscape before him was blurring.

"But it's happened again. Noir was like a big brother to me. And by now, he's probably….he's probably…."

A beat.

Beast Boy sighed.

"I never told you guys this…but I always wanted to be an actor. I didn't tell you when I was a kid…cuz…I thought it was silly then. Heh…I was a little boy and even then I thought my desires were goofy and pointless. I had no reason to act. Cuz I had nothing to hide. But when you two…went away. When that boat sank in the river and I was all alone…I didn't want anyone to know my pain. Not even myself. So I took on a life of acting. You would have been proud of me. Well…of the good stuff I did. I was only a little-known child actor before taking up the superhero business. But even now…the actor's guild calls to me."

Silence.

"But…it doesn't work anymore. Not like it used to. No amount of acting…will ever bring back Terra or Noir. Maybe…maybe I should just strike…..but…..that wouldn't be brave of me. I have very little else left to lose."

He ran a hand through his hair and shuddered. "Mom…Dad….someday, I hope you forgive me for being so pathetic."

He slowly stood up as the spheres gathered and a holographic Mad Mod appeared with a chuckle and ordered forth the next scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Helicopters take off, carrying arrested henchmen towards international penitentiaries.**

Logan marches across the gathering of royal airforce and navy around the stranded ice breaker.

He speaks into a communicator in his grasp.

"So…tell me what you found, Guv'nor."

_**"Well, Gar, the rocket has some sort of sensor cloaking device on it. We could only guess its destination judging by its trajectory to half of the northeast hemisphere."**_

**"Charming…"**

_**"But while you were out chasing Miss Anderson on the ice, we lads back home have been working around the clock to find data that could possibly connect the woman to Madame Moonflame."**_****

**"And was that a successful breakthrough or are you wasting my eardrums again?"**

_**"Just be patient, Gar."**_

**"I'm trying."**

_**"Madame Moonflame has been on the lookout—we believe—for a mysterious device called the Ragnorak Machine…."**_

**"Which was built by Corina Anderson's father…," Gar states.**

_**"Why…how did you know that, Agent Sixty-Four?!"**_

**"Moonflame's latest lackey, Razor, is quite the chatty type."**

_**"Well, Mr. James Anderson was attempting to create a new prototype for a fusion reactor. But the project only yielded unsuccessful results. It was later labeled 'project Ragnorak' because of its apocalyptic repercussions if ever it were used."**_

**"That's a case for having something mothballed, if ever I heard one."**

_**"He had a failsafe. Only people with his family's unique DNA could use the device."**_****

**"So the machine's still in existence?"**

_**"He died before he could have it destroyed. And as of right now, only one member of the Anderson family is alive and capable of accessing the machine's operations."**_****

**"Miss Anderson……."**

_**"And I feel that Madame Moonflame has already found the Ragnorak Project's machine and is planning on using her to flip the switch."**_

**"To what ends??"**

_**"The nature of the Ragnorak Machine is still a mystery. But it's assumed to be something of pure, destructive capabilities. In the hands of Madame Moonflame, that could mean utter devastation to society in the very least."**_****

**"And in the worst case scenario?"**

_**"Well, the name will speak for itself. It'll be a battle that the force of life will lose in."**_

**"Hmm….that'd make me a bit late for tea."**

_**"Logan, you must stop Madame Moonflame from starting that machine!"**_****

**"I would love to help out. But at the moment, I only have a QUARTER of the globe to search."**

_**"Don't sweat it. Our boys think we have something."**_

**"And that is???"**

_**"James Anderson's laboratory while working on Project Ragnorak was a platform in the Black Sea off of Turkey. An undisclosed location."**_****

**"Oh?"**

_**"And you might find this also of interest. Red Dragon of the Hong Kong mafia circles has sent a few operatives into Turkey. We're inclined to think that they're on a search and find mission. And it's confirmed that Razor was part of the group."**_

**"Hmmmm….," Logan scratches his chin. "Where exactly in Turkey?"**

_**"Istanbul."**_****

**Logan smiles. "Ahhh…..Istanbul."**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SHOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

A jumbo jet soars in over the rooftops of Istanbul.

It touches down and Gar Logan, incognito, steps off the plane and wanders through the airport along with hundreds of normal travelers.

Thirty minutes later, he's taking a cab through the streets at sunset. An amber glow covers the brown buildings.

**He's dropped off at a warehouse, upon which he slowly/casually makes his way to the rear while watching his back.**

After a pause, a huge door to the warehouse opens and a previously-hidden BMW cruises out with Logan inside. He drives away from the dropoff point and heads for a run-down part of the City in the West.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Inside the lounge of a rusty old building, a light-skinned man sits at a desk with his feet propped up. His eyes scan a newspaper while an old electric fan tries its lingering best to spin next to him.**

A wooden door creaks as a shadowy figure steps in.

"Well, aren't you the good little infidel??" the man utters in a British accent as he flips a page. "Ain't it evening prayers right now or something?"

Th-Thump!

A hand plants a pistol into sight against the desktop.

The man eyes it…then trails his gaze up.

Gar Logan removes his shades and glares: "Hello again, Arthur. I'll be needing your help in this part of town."

"Don't you mean this part of the 'world'?" Arthur smirks. He flips a page of the newspaper again. "Business is slow these days…but I'm still on the job. And that means I'm 'busy'. Be a good chap and chivvy along out the door, won't you?"

"Would it impress you enough to take some time off and help me if I started addressing you by your Internet name, Falcon Three?"

Arthur glares over his newspaper. "We'll be having none of that, now…"

"Wanted all over the world for digital espionage and hacking into international defense systems. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what are you up to now….eighteen life sentences?"

Arthur puts his feet down and sits up straight on his stool. Sighing, he tosses the newspaper away. "I suppose it'd help me if I could actually read Turkish." He folds his hands together and smiles tiredly up at Logan. "How can I help you, Guv'nor?"

"I'm going after a man. A man working for Red Dragon."

"Oooh…Hong Kong blood. Those are most smashing!"

"He goes by the name Razor. He has some kind of cybernetic implants over his eyes. Can't be hard to miss in a crowd…but something tells me the only reason he'd be in the crowd would be to assassinate someone."

Arthur smirks. "Well…why don't you ask your good friend Noir?! He'd be most helpful in this case….unless….haha…he wouldn't happen to have bitten the bullet, would he?"

Logan frowns.

SWOOOSH!!!—GRIP!!!

Logan has Arthur hoisted up by the throat.

The man hisses and wheezes for breath. "Nnnnghhh!!! Aye…just a joke, lad!"

"I'm…..not…..laughing."

"N-No…I suppose not. Sorry about the kung fu bloke. He would have been of great use here. Lots of roughnecks want to do me in good around town."

Logan drops Arthur to his feet. "There's only one roughneck you have to worry about, Falcon Three. And you're looking right at him."

Arthur rubs his neck. "Yes…well…that can be amended, I'm sure."

"I'm sure…."

"What information do you need?"

Logan leans forward and waves his pistol. "Razor. Have you heard of him? And if so…where's he been located?"

"Bayside. By the docks. He seems to be using water transport an awful lot. Heading north too."

Logan raises an eyebrow. "Into the Black Sea?"

"I would think so."

"What for?"

"Bloody Hell if I know. Reports are in of a huge crash off shore to the north of the country. Like a meteor landed or something."

"Or a rocket?"

"Perhaps."

"When did Razor appear?"

"Shortly after that. He's been wandering around town ever since."

"In Istanbul? Why?"

"I dunno…probably looking for something."

Logan narrows his eyes in thought. "Like what….?"

"Perhaps you, Mr. Logan," comes a voice from above and behind.

Logan turns around.

BLAM!!!!

A shot. A bullet whizzes past his face and slams into Arthur's chest.

"UGH!!!" Blood splatters and the man falls down hard.

Logan jerks to the side and aims his pistol up.

**  
****An open window on the second floor balcony of the old building is occupied by Razor's crouching form. The black-lensed eyes of the villain glare down through a sniper sight at Logan as the Hong Kong fiend chuckles: "You came here to find me, Logan. But let's see how good of a job you can do of CATCHING me!"**

He drops the sniper rifle like it's useless and bounds out the window.

Logan fires. BLAM!! BLAM!!

Razor is gone.

"Bugger!!" Logan runs out of the building and into the dusty streets outside. He pants and looks all around with his pistol raised. Random citizens gasp in Turkish and go running. There's no sign of Razor. Logan sweats and glances back at the building. "So long, Arthur. Give my regards to Beelzebub. I owe her lunch right about now."

The sound of crumbling…

Logan's vision darts up.

The heels of a fleeing ninja appear at the rooftops of a four story building.

Logan holds his breath and blurs across the street. He scurries up the fire escape in pursuit. He gives into huffing and puffing as he reaches the top. Once at the ceiling, he whips out his gun and aims straight across the shingles. Gritting his teeth.

The head of Razor ducks down as he jumps to a lower building top across the way.

"Cram it…," Logan grunts. He takes off in pursuit.

**He leaps down to the next building top and spots Razor darting around an A/C unit. He fires.**

BLAM!!!

PING!! A bullet bounces off the a/c unit.

Logan pants. He gulps and creeps forward towards the unit with his gun outstretched. He reaches the metal structure, takes a breath, and blurs around the side of it…aiming.

Nobody….

Logan's eyes narrow in confusion.

A rustling…

He glances up.

Razor pounces down from atop the A/C unit.

"HAAAA!!!"

Logan shifts his weight.

WHUMP!!!

Razor lands—torso to torso—and slices downward immediately with a curved dagger.

**  
****Logan raises his pistol in one hand.**

CLANK!!!!

Dagger meets gun barrel.

Logan twirls his body with a growl.

Razor is thrown off. He lands and slides across the rooftop to a stop.

Logan spins his pistol, kneels, and aims.

BLAM!!!!

Razor backflips—smiling—and sails down over the edge of the building.

Logan rolls into a standing position and dashes to the edge. He looks down and aims with his pistol. His eyes widen.

SNNNNkkkkKKkkkkttttttt!! Razor shimmies with a staff down a telephone wire, flips off at the end of the cord where it reaches a pole, flips, and lands on the back of a speeding commuter train across the street. As the cold metal train car beneath him throttles off, he stands with the wind kicking at his hair and salutes Logan with a smirk.

Logan frowns. He holsters his gun and rockets down the line of buildings in full sprint. He jumps from building top to building top. Huffing and puffing. Darting his head to the left to keep an eye on the train he's running parallel to.

But the train is obviously ten times faster than he is. Logan is quickly losing his target.

In mid-run, he reaches a hand to his watch and punches a few buttons. A series of beeping sounds emanate and fill the air below his pants.

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**In a faraway street, the headlights to the BMW light up.**

The engine roars to life.

The tires start to move as the car rolls on by itself.

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**Logan clicks a final set of buttons on his watch.**

He reaches the edge of a rooftop with a taller building stretching up beyond it.

He lets out a shout and jumps across it.

SWOOOOSH-CLING!!!

He grips onto an edge of the fire escape steps at the last second. With teeth gritting, he pulls himself up and climbs onto the metal platform. He rushes up three flights of stairs towards the rooftop.

The train starts to get away…

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**People shout and run out of the street at the last second.**

VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The BMW barrels down the road, squealing around turns.

Invisible hands turn the wheel.

A whirring sound, and the sunroof on the car's roof opens on its own.

**-T-T-T-T-T-T-**

**"Nnghh!" Logan jumps onto the top of the roof.**

He gasps for breath and blurs straight ahead.

**A wide avenue yawns before him.**

His sprint turns into a bound.

He reaches the edge of the rooftop.

He lets out a cry and leaps.

**  
****In slow motion, his body soars over into open air.**

He flails his arms.

Inhales.

And stretches his limbs straight down.

**  
****He plummets to the street below like a mortar shell.**

**Headlights glare.**

The BMW ramps over a turn and sails down the street.

Logan falls.

The BMW speeds under him.

Logan's body slips down through the sunroof.

**  
****POOF!!!**

The driver's seat explodes thickly like a huge cushion.

THWUMP!!!

Logan lands with a jolt, but is safe.

**Time results.**

**  
****He takes a breath.**

He presses a button.

The cushion mode of the seat cancels and the material retracts in on itself

PWOOMP!!

Logan grips the wheel, places his hands on the gas, and presses a button.

Manual control is regained.

He throttles hard and swerves to the left down a street.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!!!

The car smashes through a fruit stand and zooms on through a spray of loose produce.

Logan shifts into higher gear.

The BMW burns a path towards the railroad tracks.

Logan swerves to the right.

SCREEEECH!!!-VROOOOOOOM!!!

He drives the dusty road parallel to the tracks. The train cars are a fair distance ahead, but not out of range.

He swerves around trucks and cars and catches up to the vehicle on the railroad.

He stays on the median of the left lane.

At high speed, the tires bounce and the whole car bounces vibratingly.

Logan grits his teeth and rolls his window down…staring at the car parallel to him.

Razor is no longer atop the cars. But there's a hole in the top two cars down from the engine.

Logan whips out a grappling hook with one hand while steering with the other.

He eyes the telephone poles flying between him and the speeding train.

He bites his lip.

He looks ahead.

He spots an intersection coming up.

Logan holds his breath.

He grips the grappling hook with sweaty fingers.

**He aims out.**

He counts the seconds until the intersection—and the gap in telephone poles—arrives.

Cars honk and screech to a stop all around him.

He reaches the intersection.

The clanging sound of a railroad crossing fills the air.

POW!!!!!

The grappling hook fires out, strikes the side of the middle train car, and pulls taut.

Logan grunts and pulls the trigger.

YANK!!!!

He flies out the car---

SWOOOOOSH!!!

--barely missing the telephone pole on the other side of the gap.

Logan inhales, twirls his body around, and lands barely with his two feet planted against the side of the train. A window is 'beneath' him.

He holds onto the grappling hook with one hand and whips out his pistol with the other.

BLAM!!! BLAM BLAM!!!!

SMASH!!!!

He shoots out the glass, kicks the rest away, and snakes his way in.

Women and children passengers shriek once he's inside.

Logan brushes his suit off and looks at all the citizens staring at him.

He clears his throat and smirks…motioning out the window: "Traffic is a nightmare. Thought I'd take the train."

**The sound of a crashing BMW from outside echoes through the window.**

Logan winces, sweats, and refuses to look back.

Instead, he cocks his pistol and rushes into the next train car.

**One through the sliding doors, he pauses with his gun.**

People see him, gasp, and duck in their seat.

The train car wobbles.

The clankity-clank of railroad cars vibrate beneath him.

A strobe of passing shadows shoot across the window spaces.

Logan narrows his eyes.

He slowly creeps forward down the aisle between the seat.

He glances left.

He glances right.

Cowering citizens.

Mother and children.

He looks forward.

A rattling door to the cargo car.

Slightly ajar…

He raises an eyebrow.

A pitter patter.

Logan gasps.

He spins around.

Razor blurs towards him.

Logan's pistol raises.

**SWISSSH-CLANK!!!**

**  
****BLAM!!!!**

Razor's downswinging dagger knocks the barrel towards the floor.

**  
****POW!!!**

The bullet explodes a hole in the carpet.

A woman screams.

Razor shouts, grips Logan's wrist with one hand, and swings up with his dagger.

SWISH!!!

Logan ducks his head, lurches back, and lurches forward with a head-butt.

THWAP!!!

**Razor stumbles back.**

Logan smacks his dagger hand aside and aims at his forehead.

BLAM!!!

In a blur, Razor forward flips impossibly from his bent position. In slow motion he vaults over Logan's body and lands with his legs in Logan's rear.

THWUMP!!!

Time resumes as Razor leaps off his foe.

Logan falls chest-forward to the ground.

Razor lands, twirls around, and flings a curved dagger. "HAA!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!! The blade twirls down at the hero.

Logan splits his legs.

CLINK!!!!

The jagged blade imbeds between his thighs.

Logan growls, spins up like a break dancer, and kicks the dagger off the ground with the heel of his boot.

CLANK!!!—CONG!!!

The blade spins up I the air, deflects off a metal support pole on the side of the train, and twirls at Razor's head.

The ninja ducks.

SMASH!!!!

The glass of the sliding door to the next car shatters behind him.

**  
****Logan is on his feet, growling, charging.**

THUMP!!!!

He shoves the two of them through both doors.

SM-SMASH!!!!!

The sliding doors shatter off their hinges.

The two tumble harshly into the cargo hold. Crates and luggage jiggle all around them in the bouncing car.

**  
****Razor flips up to his feet and gets into a fighting pose.**

Logan stands up and raises his fist.

A breath…two breaths…

SWOOOOOSH---Razor rushes.

Logan raises elbow.

WHAP!!!

Razor's incoming chin flies up with a spray of saliva.

Logan twirls and slams his fists into Razor's chest.

The ninja slides back.

Logan runs, jumps, kicks---

Razor grabs him leg first and flings him through a pile of crates.

SMASH!!!!

Logan dizzily rolls to a stop amidst splinters of wood.

"YAAAAAH!!!" Razor jumps high, pushes down from the ceiling, and sails down at Logan's prone body with a descending kick.

Logan raises his legs. He meets Razor's kick flatly with the soles of his feet. He flips the fiend over him.

SWOOOOSH!! Razor slams hard against a wall. THWAP!!!

He slumps to the ground, clutching his side. Sweating.

Logan gets into a kneel and grits his teeth…also exhausted.

"You…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The holo prompter urged Beast Boy along.

The green elf in his smashing suit had a hard time complying. Regardless—as the good actor as he was—he forced himself to hiss across the train car at Robin's character:

"…you killed Noir, you heartless bastard."

"Temper Temper, Mr. Logan," Robin sneered under his dark lenses. "It isn't typical of a secret agent to lose his cool."

"I've had a very…very….atypical week," Beast Boy growled.

"Awww…I suppose I'm a vacation, then?" Robin smirked.

"Yeah…," Beast Boy nodded, following the prompter. He reached back to his concealed pistol. "A real tip-toe through the tulips."

Robin shrugged with a devil-may-care grin. "Poppies….." SWOOOSH-PFFT!!! He whipped out a tiny pistol and shot a dart lightning-quick into Beast Boy's neck.

The changeling blinked. "What did you just do to me?!"

"Consider yourself a guest of Madame Moonflame's brand new home," Robin said as his image got fuzzier and fuzzier in the green elf's vision. "Why else would I have let you catch up with me unless it was an invite??"

Beast Boy wheezed. He pulled his gun out…but it dropped to the floor as he slumped down like a ragdoll. Heaving.

A pair of helpless green eyes looked up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder did something out of character. He mouthed compassionately: 'Don't worry, B.B. Just sleep.'

And Beast Boy was down for the count.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Easy….easy…."

"Awaken, Beast Boy! You are undamaged!"

"You okay, B.B.? Speak to us??"

"Wha-….what??" Beast Boy's eyes fluttered open. He gasped and sat up straight. "Where am I—Noir?!"

"Shhhh," Starfire lowered him back down.

"Still unaccounted for, man," Cyborg sighed. "None of us have been back to that void place or whatever.

Beast Boy's eyes tiredly eyed his surroundings. "Where are we?"

"On the set for the next scene," Robin said. He gazed up at the lights reflecting off his black lenses. "Some sort of….base or something. Typical James Bond cliché."

"Wonderful…," Beast Boy tiredly looked at the frozen set. A metal maze of platforms and computer equipment with aerodynamic ceiling and elliptical windows looking out into…..dark blue obscurity. A handful of guards and henchmen and evil scientists were frozen in the middle of whatever they were doing. The spheres were nowhere to be seen.

"How long till the curtains rise…?" Beast Boy asked, rubbing his temples.

"No way of knowing," Cyborg shrugged. "It's been a good ten minutes since we all came here. Mad Mod seemed agitated…but not with us."

"What was it, then?"

Starfire clasped her hands together: "He seemed to be most frustrated with meeting the Critic's demands. It would seem that the Critic is becoming impatient and demanding. I feel that Mad Mod's directing skills are not living up to the standards set out for him."

"This show might hit the bottom without us even lifting a finger," Robin shrugged.

"Well, that sucks. We put so much into it," Beast Boy said. He then smiled slightly. "Thanks for not kicking my ass too much back there, Robin."

The Boy Wonder folded his arms. "I was playing my role."

"Suuuuuuure," Cyborg smirked.

"You know….I'm beginning to think more and more about it," Beast Boy sat up. "Cyborg….you got no metal left."

"Uh huh."

"Starfire, you look human and your hair is short."

"That is correct."

"And Robin……..er……..you look like an anorexic Robocop."

"Your point?"

"And Noir was an Asian kung fu guy with short hair! And look at me!!" Beast Boy pointed to his chest. "I'm still green and with pointy ears! What's up with that?!"

"Perhaps Mad Mod felt that your true form was most suitable to Agent Sixty-Four?"

"Or maybe the Critic is playing favorites?"

Everyone stared at Beast Boy. "……"

"Come on! I'm not bragging! Think about it…all I've ever been so far is myself! An actor! I'm the only one that's had acting experience! And I'm the star of the show! The center of attention! The Critic even had my sidekick……..he even had Noir shot…"

The Titans hung their heads at that.

Beast Boy took a deep breath. "I'm the star of the show…and I don't like it. I want answers now."

"Well…maybe we'll get some soon," Robin said. "Soon, we'll all be together and we'll get to Noir pronto."

"Together???" Beast Boy made a face. "I don't see Raven anywhere, do you guys?"

"She should be hear soon."

"What makes you say that?"

Robin stared at him through his lenses. "Because this is 'Madame Moonflame's lair'."

"…..," Beast Boy blinked. "Dude……this is gonna be rich."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…………_._

…………_._

…………_._

…………_.._

…………_.._

……………_"Jordan?"_

_I gasped._

Pain.

Shearing pain.

I doubled over, wheezing.

It felt like my chest was melting apart from the middle.

Tears poured out of my eyes.

_"Jordan……"_

I gasped.

I looked up.

She smiled at me. A blinding light was melting the sides of her golden frame. And yet she stood there. Resolute. She extended a hand.

"It is not real pain……"

I panted, staring at her.

My whole chest throbbed.

_My lips parted._

She leaned over gently.

"You……you know what real pain is………"

I gulped.

"Construction and Destruction……merging as one……you can see the dividing line. You can feel it."

I took a deep breath. A warmth spread through my system. Flooding the throbbing ache away.

My eyes enlarged.

The pupils sunk into blackness.

My hair grew long and hung down my back.

I grew inches taller.

Ana took my hand and helped me to my feet. She walked backwards into the light.

"And if you know real pain……then you can know real joy……for you know me, Jordan. And I still……know you…"

She melted away finally into the brightness.

I called out for her name…but the scar on my neck was back.

_I panicked and plunged through the brightness._ _Ana!!!!  
_  
-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLAMP!!!

My metal hand palmed something smooth and cold above me.

I gasped.

Everything was bright.

I narrowed my black eyes.

I panted.

I was in an enclosed space.

I was still dressed in my sweaty, training gi from the spar in the Titans' gym.

And glass….glass stretched above me.

There were wires in my arms and legs….and head.

Attached to sensors.

Tiny, sparking sensors.

I squinted through the brightness and saw a circular chamber outside the glass tube.

Six other glass tubes stretched along a wall beside me.

And outside a thin stretch of windows, I saw blackness….and stars.

Twirling and twirling.

I exhaled.

_Where in the Hell was I???_


	107. Mad Movie part 4 final

**107. Mad Movie part 4 Final**

Robin twirled one of his prop daggers uneasily.

Starfire hugged herself.

Beast Boy paced back and forth across the floor.

Cyborg leaned against a nearby wall, whistling.

A beat.

Cyborg glanced over. He blinked his two human eyes. "Sure takin' the creep long enough."

"I don't like this," Robin grumbled. "Not one bit."

"You don't like a lot of things, Robin," Beast Boy mumbled while pacing. "At least you're not responsible for Noir's bad shape."

Robin frowned through his eye lenses. "I am always responsible! I'm the leader of this troupe and I hold myself accountable for what happens to my teammates!"

"Hellllloooo?!" Beast Boy paused and waved his arms dramatically. "Dude…Mad Mod casted me as the main guy. And because of my spotlight, Noir bit the dust!! Stop trying to drag the attention to yourself, man! I'm the guilty one here!"

"No one among us is tainted with guilt!" Starfire exclaimed. "Do you not realize that this is all on account of Mad Mod's wrongdoing?!"

"And that 'Critic' guy…," Cyborg huffed. "Pfft….wait till I get my hands on him. Now there's a show that'll sell more box office receipts than this piece of crap."

"Is it truly such a segment of fecal matter, Cyborg?" Starfire smiled pleasantly with her hands together. "Apart from the tragic moments, I have rather enjoyed this bizarre adventure."

"Yeah…well…at least you got casted as the Bond chick," Cyborg gestured. "Look at me!! Just take one look at me and tell me I'm not the token black guy!! Come on! Try it!!"

"Nothing matters right now except our getting out of here and Noir's safety," Robin remarked. "We must all work together to bring this filming project down!"

"Agreed," Starfire smiled. "I propose sabotage."

"Why Starfire," Cyborg smirked. "How unbecoming of you."

The girl smiled and ran a hand through her short, human hair of red. "I am not my usual self today!"

"Nothing's happening till Raven shows her pretty face, dudes," Beast Boy said.

Cyborg chuckled. "And when did that ever happen before?"

"Beast Boy's right," Robin said. "Whatever we do…it has to be a joint effort. Let's wait for her cameo."

"But how long will that be?" Starfire inquired.

Cyborg glanced up and smiled. "Not that long, I reckon."

The others turned.

A sphere flew over…'trembling' in mid air (if that was possible). A hologram of a very jittery Mad Mod appeared above it.

_"Look alive, you little brats!! We've got to make another print! Pronto!!"_

"Hold your horses…," Cyborg raised a hand. "What's the junkie act all about?!"

The hologram sweated and wrung his shaking hands. _"No time to explain, ignoramus! I swear! I'd bite your arm off for you to just shut up and do as you're told one of these days!!"_

"Care to tell us what's got your nerves so off kilter?" Robin asked, folding his arms and smirking. "I thought directors were supposed to maintain composure."

_"Well aren't you a blinkered little twit?!"_ Mad Mod snarled. _"You know nothing of what I'm going through!! I need you to act in line or else I'll thrash your arse for every centimeter it has left to spare!"_

"It is the Critic, is it not?" Starfire remarked. "What is he putting you through this time? If you were to tell us, maybe we could assist you in freeing yourself from him! Then we can be freed ourselves and provide assistance to our friend Noir!"

Mad Mod ran a hand over his holographic face and moaned. _"It is not that simple. He won't settle for anything but a holocaust of a film and_----" The hologram blinked. It looked up suspiciously at Starfire. _"How did you know I was being forced into this?"_

"Erm….," Starfire bit her human lip.

Beast Boy took a step forward. "We can see right through you, dude!! This film is already a bust! Cuz no matter what you do, the Critic can't be pleased! Now give it up!! Noir is in danger!!"

_"You'll do what the prompter says and perform your acting as cued and finish this film to the end and Bob's your uncle!"_ the hologram warbled. He shook his cane. _"And let that be the last squawking I hear from you snots!!"_

Robin gritted his teeth. "You won't be able to shake your cane at all of us at once, you know."

Mad Mod's spectacled eyes narrowed. He merely twirled about as the sphere flew off. The hologram disintegrated and a brand new light rose across the scene of the metal-laced lair.

_"Quiet on the set!!"_

Beast Boy moved over and laid himself down in position. "Robin…from here on out, you're the director. You give us the cue and we'll go on strike, you got it?"

"Don't look at me for a cue," Robin said, sheathing his Razor dagger.

"Then who?"

"Guess."

_"And ready!! 3…2…1…ACTION!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Gar Logan comes to.**

He groans and looks about.

His eyes pop open.

Vic Stone stands over him, a gun pointed to his face.

The villain smirks. "Wakey wakey."

Logan narrows his eyes.

Stone motions for him to stand up.

Logan does so, awkwardly. He brushes his suit off and looks around him.

"Welcome, Mr. Logan…"

Agent Sixty-Four turns around. He sees Razor perched on a railing, nimbly. He has a dagger to Corina Anderson's throat. She struggles in his grasp. He smiles wickedly and taps his finger to the blade's hilt.

**"Move out of place just once and she won't have any skin on her neck to save."**

Logan tries to remain calm. He clenches his fists, frowns, and utters: "Have you already used her for the Ragnorak Machine?"

"Of course not," Razor sneers. "She's still alive, isn't she?!"

Corina murmurs: "If you want to do the right thing, Gar Logan…you'd shoot me now. I'm too dangerous alive!"

"Quiet, you!" Razor hisses. He smiles back at Logan. "As you can see…she's quite valuable in this condition. As are you."

"What would you want with me?" Logan remarks. "Anderson's father crafted the fusion reactor to be activated by his own DNA. That runs in Corina's blood as we speak. But me…you could have finished me off long ago."

"Pfft…if only I could. Don't flatter me, Mr. Logan. You have a secret….you have many secrets. And Red Dragon would be most happy if I personally dragged them out of you."

Logan folds his arms and smirks. "So I'm your trophy, then?"

"No more than this chick is," Razor points his dagger at the girl in his grasp. Light reflects off of his cybernetic lenses as he grins. "Merely business, Mr. Logan."

"I'm sure…."

Razor looks up. "Ah…she approaches."

Stone fiercely grips Logan's shoulder and forces her around. "Show your respect! Madame Moonflame approaches!!"

**Logan looks across the lair…**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Flanked by 'guards', a familiar figure who was taller than normal marched into view. Black boots met leather pants met a leather bodice met a dark black cloak draped beneath a neck of a dark-haired femme fatale with an eyepatch and a stoical stare.

She placed her hands on her hips with a casual, fiendish lean and stared lethargically the other Titans' way.

Beast Boy gulped. "Dude…..," he murmured.

"So…Gar Logan…welcome to James Anderson's old laboratory," Raven uttered. "Now my secret lair."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Logan clears his throat. "Madame Moonflame, I presume."**

**"All you ever do is presume, Mr. Logan," Moonflame's one good eye narrows. "And now it has ended you up here."**

**"Just what do you intend to do once you activate the Ragnorak Machine?"**

"That is for me to know and for you to find out…if you live long enough to see it."

"Tempted to end me so soon?" Logan smirks. "I just got here."

Moonflame marches over and places her fingers under Logan's chin. Her eye narrows. "You are….smaller in person."

"Didn't know you thought of me."

"I didn't. Only of your death."

"I'm flattered."

"As you should be…," Moonflame paces around, her black cloak ruffling. "As an operative to her Majesty's service, you are the witness of your dying society to the revolution of a new age."

"What do you intend to do?" Logan asks. "Blow the world into halves and party in between?"

"Something like that," Moonflame folds her leather-sleeved arms and gazes his way. "Do you believe in a higher plane of existence, Mr. Logan?"

"If you count some of the times I've binged on Dr. Pepper, sure…eheheheheheheh," Logan chuckles.

"……………..," Moonflame stares.

Logan clears his throat. "Ahem….why do you inquire?"

"Because I do believe in such," she says. "This world we live on is a two-dimensional environment full of suffering and the search for vain pleasures. Human beings everywhere murder each other and perform heinous crimes when all the while there is something much, much grander to fight for."

"Nirvana with a shotgun?"

"The Fusion Reactor….the Ragnorak Machine…," Moonflame gestures with a wave of her cloak. "Once overloaded, it will absorb the life energy inside each of us…hence consuming our very souls. Including those of everyone within this very hemisphere. The result will be containment within an implosion of limitless energy. The only thing our souls will know is endless, infinite warmth. True and everlasting joy."

Logan runs a hand through his hair suavely and smirks: "It never fails to amuse me…"

"And what is that, Mr. Logan?"

**"The lengths and widths of disturbed society's romantic associations with suicide."**

"Not death, Mr. Logan. Ascension."

"Insanity," he spits.

Stone shoves him in the back of the neck. "Show some respect!!"

"Let him ramble on, Mr. Stone," Moonflame waves a dainty hand. "Once he is joined with the rest of us, he will no longer be doubtful."

"I thought the deal was for him to go back to Hong Kong with me," Razor frowns.

Moonflame looks his way. "Answer me this, Razor. What good will Red Dragon's bounty do for you when all of the money is evaporated by the resulting heat wave stretching around the globe from Project Ragnorak's initiation?"

"………"

Moonflame looks Stone's way. "Mr. Stone. Have the scientists prepare for inserting the 'key'."

"Yes, Madame."

**Moonflame walks up a set of steps towards a higher tier.**

**  
****Logan grits his teeth. He steps forward and shouts: "You know, not everyone on this planet feels the same way about your whole 'ascension' rubbish!"**

Moonflame freezes. Slowly, she turns around. She glares down at Logan with her one good eye, and—in a menacing tone—she utters: "Then I suggest you strap on a safety helmet and eat some banana split ice cream."

Logan blinks.

Stone stops what he's doing.

Corina and Razor both raise an eyebrow at the same time.

"Uhm….p-pardon me?" Logan stammers.

"You know what I mean…," Moonflame says. "Or maybe you can go to Disney World instead."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Cut!! CUT!!!"_

A multi-colored sphere zoomed over to Raven and a holographic Mad Mod was already shaking his cane. _"What the devil do you think you're doing?! Those lines aren't in the script, you sassy wench!!"_

Raven rubbed her chin. "Hmmmm…it's too bad there aren't any conspicuously rainbow-colored spheres flying around today or else I'd have to respond to them. Isn't that right, Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy blinked. He slowly grinned. "Right….now would be a good time to talk to one…but too bad there's none in sight. You see any, Cyborg?"

"Uh….nope. None around here, dawg."

Starfire giggled. "I fail to see any levitating spheroids myself!"

Robin lowered the dagger and smirked. "Spheres? What spheres? In fact, I just woke up!!"

Mad Mod's spectacled eyes bugged. His hologram jumped up and down. _"Stop this!! All of you!!"_

"Where was I?" Raven pondered aloud. "Ah yes. And do share some of your banana split with us, Mr. Logan. It is quite tasty."

Beast Boy shrugged. "Only if you don't mind eating invisible dessert!" He gestured as if he was spooning something in mid air and eating it. "Mmmmm….turkey. My favorite flavor."

_"Are you listening to me?!?!"_ Mad Mod growled. He pointed his cane. The sphere floated over and zapped Beast Boy.

The changeling winced…but more or less ignored the electric shock.

Mad Mod gasped. He zapped again.

More sparks.

The green one shook once or twice….but was bravely unaffected.

"Hey Beast Boy!!" Robin waved an invisible spoon in his grasp. "I bet my invisible banana split is bigger than your invisible banana split!"

"You're on, bug-eyes!!"

_"No!! No No No NO!!!"_ the sphere flew from Titan to Titan, zapping and sparking and shocking. _"Obey, you meddling farts!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**"Uh oh!! I'm getting a buzz off of my banana split!!" Gar Logan states. He starts running around with his 'wings' outstretched and making childish propeller noises with his tongue and lips. "Neeerrryooooo---plblblblblblblb!!!"**

**"Hey! I just turned into a first generation Playstation One!" Razor utters as he suddenly flips over and stands acrobatically on his head. "I have to stay upside for two hours in order for Ridge Racer to work on me!"**

**  
****"Hehehe!" Corina giggles and waves her arms happily. "And I am suddenly possessed by the incessant need to impersonate rurally-raised earth fowl! Bok! Bok! Bok!"**

Logan and Corina exchange positions as they fly and cluck past each other while Razor stands on his head in between them.

In the meantime, Madame Moonflame whips off her cloak and waves it at Stone. "Toro! Toro!!"

Vic Stone grinds his heels into the ground, bends his head over, and barrels through Moonflame's cape.

She whips it out at the last second. "Toro!!"

Vic Stone strikes a pose. "Feliz Navidad!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"What are you----……how dare……but……crikey!!! Please……PLEASE work with me, my duckies!!!"_ the hologram got on his knees and pleaded atop a dismally spinning sphere.

Robin folded his arms upside down. "Why Mad Mod….you look rather pale."

Starfire clucked by. "And distressed!!"

_"You've gotta help me out here!! Just do your lines!! I'm begging you, honest I am!"_ Mad Mod was on the edge of sobbing. He looked over his holographic shoulder as if something or someone was looming right behind him. _"The Critic…you don't know what he'll do to me. He wants this film. I NEED to make this film!! And I need to do it right! Please behave!!"_

"You're always asking us to behave…," Cyborg ducked through Raven's cloak again and ground his heels into the metal floor. "But by whose rule book do you refer to? It's always your code. Always your concept of manners. Well, I think it's about time the whole bunch of us rewrite the actors guild, man!"

"Yeah!" Beast Boy flew by. "Less lip and more liberty!!! Plblblblbllblblb….!!!"

_"Listen, yanks, this isn't about morality or sod all! I just need you to act right or else I may have my neck!!"_

"Geee…," Raven droned, batting her cloak. "Wouldn't that be a shame."

_"You lot are heartless!!"_

"We learn from the best," Robin yawned upside down.

Suddenly, Mad Mod's hologram jerked. He reached a hand to his ear. His eyes narrowed. _"Y-Yes??" _He responded to the air as if he was talking on some unknown frequency. A beat. _"O-Of course, sir. I haven't stop filming."_ A beat. _"Right now, I'd say six hours would do—"_ He stopped in mid sentence and bit his lip as an electronic voice squabbled in his ear. Then he replied: _"But……b-but I can't do it that fas—"_ His spectacled eyes widened. _"Bollocks!! You want the rest of it done live?! I……that's impossible!! I'd have to rewrite the entire program's subroutine to come up with anything spectacular enough right on the dime—"_ He went even more pale. _"No, sir."_ A beat. _"No, no sir. No need for that. I'll……uh……I-I'll do the best I can!!"_

The hologram lowered his hand, gulped, and trembled as he rattled forth: _"Okay…everyone…………um……into positions!!"_

"What positions?!" Beast Boy flew by.

_"Never you mind. I'll b-be taking care of that!"_

The sphere disappeared. The setting around the Titans resumed into fluid motion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Razor sits upright and shakes his dizzy head. He glances at everyone.**

Vic Stone shrugs. "What now?"

Moonflame places her hands on her hips. Suddenly, she's being lifted into the air. She looks up. "Umm….."

Logan flies to a stop and gasps. "Dude!! What the—"

Fang is hanging from the ceiling. Upside down. He has Moonflame by the shoulders in two of his spidery limbs. He drools and hisses at the Titans: "Found you, dirty no-gooders!!"

Razor points and grunts: "Titans!! Go!!"

"With wh-what?!" Corina trembles.

"Your fists!! RAAAUGH!!!"

"YAAAH!!!"

"DIE!!!!"

All the characters converge on Moonflame's suspended position.

The woman flinches, covering her head.

Suddenly, Fang disappears.

Moonflame drops to the floor and lands in Stone's arms. WHUMP!!!

"Ooof!!"

Stone blinks. He looks at Razor. "Ooookay."

"HA HA HA HA!!!"

The group looks over.

Control Freak stands besides a bunch of disoriented henchmen. He laughs his head, spins his dual lightsaber to a stop, and smirks. "Can I buy a ticket to this showing?!"

Stone drops Moonflame.

THWUMP!!!

"Mmmff!!"

"It's that fat bastard! Get him!!"

Razor raises an eyebrow. He stretches an arm out. "No. Wait!"

"Dude…we're surrounded!" Logan points.

The others turn to look.

Corina gasps.

Killer Moth lands from the ceiling and bears his clawed gloves.

Beside him, Mumbo Jumbo appears in a puff of smoke, spins his wand, and grins. "Alla kazaaam!!"

"Don't you see??" Razor exclaims.

Moonflames gets up, dusting herself off. "They aren't real. None of this…is real."

"The Critic's grown impatient! Mad Mod's doing everything he can to entertain a bored audience! He's ditching the spy story and reverting to the Titans!"

"Then what do we do?!" Stone remarks.

Razor smirks. "Sit back and watch the show!"

"Grrrrrr!!!" Killer Moth shakes his fist and growls. "Come on!! Fight us!!"

"Dude…," Logan smiles and folds his arms. "You are so not worth it…"

"Eeek!!" Corina shrieks and points. "Squirrels!!"

Razor sighs. "For the last time, Star. None of it is r---"

"GET DOWN!!!"

Corina shoves Razor down to the floor and the other characters duck as a herd of killer squirrels leap and barrel through the evil lair, knocking down supervillains and shredding metal bulkheads apart with rabid incisors.

Moonflame peaks up from under her arms and grits her teeth. "That real enough for you??"

"Game's over, Mad Mod!!!" Razor shouts. "Give us our bodies back…our REAL bodies…and maybe we'll be a little soft in kicking your ass!"

The whole place starts to shake.

Logan sweats. "Like….was seismic activity part of the 'game'??"

**"I'm still not buying it!!" Razor shouts.**

"Me neither!!" Stone exclaims. He kicks some squirrels away. "Gotta do better than that, you limey old fart!!"

A dog appears in the center of the lair. It barks once….twice….then turns into a robo pooch. Rocket launchers extend from its hairy backside and aim at the Titans.

Logan snorts. "Okay….now that's just wyrd, man."

And then the dog starts to flicker.

"Something is happening!" Corina exclaims.

More flickering.

The entire landscape shakes and flashes a grainy white.

"We're leaving!" Moonflame exclaims. "I can feel our consciousnesses returning to us!"

"This is it!!" Razor says. "Ooof!!" He gasps as a shivering Corina plows him over in a desperate hug.

The world starts to shake and dissolve all around. The tingly sensation turns into a full throttle plunge through the gut of the body.

"WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!" Stone ecstatically shouts. "Wild stuff, man!!"

"Yeah…," Logan crams his eyes shut. "This is why I don't do drugs, man!!"

FLASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy gasped. His eyes bolted open. He was in an opened capsule. Wires were being yanked off of him one sensor at a time. Then a metal hand reached out towards him.

The green elf blinked. He took the hand and was hoisted up to his feet.

"N-Noir??"

I smiled. I waved.

"DUDE!!!" He leapt and hugged me hard.

I chuckled breathily and patted his back.

"You're okay!! You ARE okay!!" he nuzzled his green head into my chest. A beat. His eyes flashed open wide. He jumped back, blushing, and coughed. "I like you as a friend, dude. You know that, right?"

I pretended to 'think about it'.

He simpered. "Look at you. You're all back to tall, dark, and noir." He looked at my chest. "The bullet wound…it was fake after all…."

I shrugged.

A beat.

He gasped. "The others!!" His head darts around. "Wh-Where are we?!"

I turned and gestured.

Beast Boy squinted his eyes.

He saw a circular interior. Aerodynamic bulkheads. Huge, colorful panels that looked like computer consoles. And a curved stretch of windows that showed….stars. Spiraling stars. And at the edge of the exterior horizon…

Beast Boy gasped. "Earth…….." He blinked. "W-We're in outer space?"

I bit my lip.

"And yet….it all seems so familiar….," he muttered.

I walked casually past him. I peeled open Robin's capsule. I started pulling the wires and sensors off him as he slowly stirred awake. Beast Boy got the idea and did the same with Starfire's and Cyborg's capsules. I opened up Raven's last.

"Nghhh….what the…," Robin's eyemask was thin. He too was still in his gi from our training spar. "Are we…are we out of the movie?"

I hand-signed to a groggy Cyborg.

He rubbed his head and replied: "Gee, Noir. Coffee would do." A beat. "………N-Noir??"

"Friend!!!" SWOOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!! Starfire flew over and engulfed me in a strong hug. "You are undamaged!! Hehehehehe!!!"

I wheezed and nodded.

Raven smoothed out her cloak and stood up. "Well then. At least I don't look like a nazi anymore."

Beast Boy blushed. "Er….yeah."

Raven looked at him funny.

"This place…," Starfire let go of me wandered into the middle of the chamber. "It is not of this earth!"

"Yeah, Star," Cyborg stood up and scratched the human part of his head. "Looks alien to me."

Starfire turned and looked at us with bright green eyes. "That would explain the technology utilized in creating that synthetic void and movie universe, would it not?"

"Whatever's going on…there's something missing….someONE actually," Robin palmed his fist.

"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy nodded. "Like….where's Mad Mod?"

Raven walked up and droned: "Am I the only one who realizes there's an extra capsule being occupied in this room?"

Everyone looked at her…then glanced along the wall.

Indeed, there was one capsule left at the end of the line of the first six from which we exited. Inside it was the discernible shape of a human figure…thrashing about as if in some epileptic figure.

Starfire gasped. "Could….Mad Mod have been part of the same illusion as the rest of us?"

Robin frowned and marched over. "One way to find out…."

The Boy Wonder yanked open the capsule and popped the sensors off.

A sobbing, disheveled figure of an old man—the true blue, liver-spotted Mad Mod—murmured louder and louder as he woke up.

"Nnngh….bloody hell…can't find them…..where are the little brats?!…..can't….find…."

Robin yanked him up by the collar.

Mad Mod gasped and his faded eyes popped open. With a shaky hand, he reached into a shirt pocket and pulled out bifocals. "It's…..you!"

"It's **us**," Robin growled.

"You mean…..we're out?! You got us out?!" Mad Mod seemed precariously balanced between joy and horror.

"Is that a good thing?" Cyborg remarked.

A blink or two….Mad Mod collapsed back in the capsule, wailing: "Ohhhhhhhhh why did you have to do that?!?!"

He jumped out and all but leapt upon Robin. Soon, the elderly Mad Mod was on his knees before the boy. He had his hands folded in a plea of a prayer. "Now everything is truly sixes and sevens!! He's gonna know that I'm out! He's gonna know that I've lost the film and his leading star is gone and everything is all to ruin and—"

"Who??" Robin frowned.

"The Critic??" Starfire remarked.

Mad Mod's teeth practically chattered. "You don't understand!! I never meant to escape from prison! Not at first!! When he gave me a ticket out, I had no choice in the matter! All I could do was play along and accept his bargain!"

"You mean…," Raven's eyes narrowed, "…you didn't arrange our abduction??"

"He sent some transport probe thingy to grab you lot! That was not my idea either! But once you were all gathered, I gave in and decided to do everything he told me to! Like h-he was the Producer!! And if I did a satisfactory job, I'd get parole from life!! It seemed so promising!! Why'd you all have to go and ruin it?!"

"So I was right," Raven looked at the others. "The electromagnetic pulse around the Tower. It must have been the probe!"

"Where is this……Critic??" Robin inquired.

"He'll be here any second…," Mad Mod trembled.

**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**

Mad Mod gasped. He clung to Robin's cape. "Here he is!! He's gonna pulverize me!! Plant my head on a bloody pike! I know it!!"

"Calm down!! He couldn't possibly be anything we can't handle!"

**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**

"But you don't get it!! He's like a child!! He's a giant-arsed brat!! He's---"

**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**

**"WHERE………IS……..SOTO'S………MOVIE?!?!?!"**

I sweatdropped as a huge, granite slab of an organism marched into the chamber we were in. He was a giant toddler of an extraterrestrial, with a chubby….set of pajamas for a spacesuit (complete with the buttoned compartment in the back). His eyes were pure white and his lips were merely two stone-like prosthetics that somehow formed a 'mouth'. He reminded me of that wyrd-ass granite monster from 'The Never Ending Story'….only, on LSD.

And imagine my surprise when Beast Boy's face fell and he moaned: "Holy Vishnu…..not him again…."

I looked at him with bulging, black eyes.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Soto???"

The monstrous….toddler-thing paused in mid stomp. His face turned from red to gray and he gasped with a cartoonish voice upon first sight of……Beast Boy. **"It's the star!!! New Doggy!!!"**

"Eep!!" Beast Boy immediately ducked and hid under Raven's robe, trembling.

An artery pulsed in Raven's temple. "Get….**out.**."

"You'll have to kill me first," was the trembling Beast Boy's muffled reply.

"That can be arranged…."

Soto stomped forward, his arms gesturing outward. **"Doggy!! What?! You're not happy to see Soto?!?!"**

Robin and Cyborg stood in the alien's way, their fists raised.

"Yo!! I thought you left this planet for good!!" Cyborg shouted.

**"You no like Soto?! What bad did Soto do?!"**

Robin frowned. "We don't take kindly to kidnappers of our own teammates."

I glanced over at Raven.

She sighed with exasperation. "It's a long story---Beast Boy, get OUT!!"

"MmmmfffNO!!"

**"You still don't like Soto…,"** the alien sniffed melodramatically. It then spun around and growled at Mad Mod. **"You!! This is all your fault!! Soto smash you!!!"**

"YAAACK!!" Mad Mod slumped to his knees and covered his head.

"**RRRRGHH!!!"** Soto swung his granite arms down at the man.

FLASH!!!!

A starbolt shoved him back before he could break the old man in two.

Starfire floated…frowning with hot, green eyes. "You are a shame to extraterrestrial culture!! For once, think not with your brute force and selfishness!!"

**"Grrrr!! Don't tell Soto what to do!! Soto can take care of Soto!! I want my movie, NOW!!!"**

RUMMMMBLE!!!!

All of us Titans gasped and tumbled about as the ship shook.

Raven fell forward and Beast Boy tumbled across the floor.

Mad Mod gasped. "What the devil?!?!"

"What's going on?!?!" Robin shouted.

Starfire flew towards a window, looked out, and gasped. She looked back at the rest of us. "We are being boarded!"

"Say what?!" Cyborg remarked.

"A red and yellow ship! Much like the one we first encountered Soto in! It is latching onto our craft!!"

"This should be interesting…," Raven droned.

Robin stood up and straightened his cape. "Quick! Where's the airlock?!"

Mad Mod pointed with a trembling finger. "Over there…I think."

"Okay! Noir! Cyborg! Follow me!!"

The two of us nodded and joined Robin in dashing across the interior---

**STOMP!!!!**

Soto landed in our way, growling. **"Soto says stop!!! Where do you think you are going?!?!"**

"Listen, you oversized cabbage patch kid!!" Cyborg switched his hand into a laser cannon and aimed it directly at Soto's chest. "As much as I hate to spank kids…."

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The airlock behind Soto opened and a huge gust of air blew out from behind.

**"WAAAAAH!!"** Soto toppled over.

In the alien's huge shadow, Robin's eyemask went bug-eyed. "Titans! Move!!"

The three of us dove out of the way---

**SLAM!!!!!**

Soto's body fell hard—chest first—against the floor.

"**Ohhhhh…Soto's fallen and he can't go to hyperspace!!"**

"Look!!" Starfire pointed at the airlock.

I stood up and squinted my bare eyes against the naked light.

Three alien shadows stood in the aura. Slowly, they stepped out.

Robin and Cyborg got up.

I watched….mesmerized.

The aliens trotted out….and turned out to be three small, green dogs.

"Soto….tsk tsk tsk," the center green dog shook his hairy head and sighed. "I should have expected this inevitable outcome. Just how CAN I leave you alone for one millisecond these days??"

Soto got up and gasped happily. **"Doggy!!!…….OLD Doggy!!!"**

"I thought we've been through this, my obese acquaintance. I am the MASTER now! It is you who are the beastly plebeian destined to serve me from hereon out."

**"But Soto only wanted to go out on a walk! You would not let Soto do it!!"**

"I told you!! Upon the time of your request, there was a spontaneous meteor shower transpiring within the vicinity of our space station!! But, as is natural, you are hardly responsive to my verbal commands and you had to travail upon escaping in our vehicle without asking for my express permission."

I looked dumbly at Raven.

Raven rolled her eyes.

I looked dumbly at the scene.

**"But wait till you see what Soto has made!! Soto hired a director to make him a movie! Starring the new doggy!! Haaa!! Haaa haa haa!!! Haa!!"**

The center dog frowned. "Regardless, your unruly disobedience is impermissible. You must be dealt with." The dog looked over at the rest of us. "Unfortunately for you—Terran heroes, and Tamaranian—I cannot allow this scene to go on beyond that of what you've visually born witness to. We will promptly escort you into our spacecraft for immediate mental redistribution."

Starfire gasped.

"Mental redistribution?!" Robin remarked.

"You mean….," Cyborg gulped, "….you're gonna lobotomize us??"

"Would I have any other choice? It is the only sane thing to do," the dog said. "Our race of intergalactic symbiants have dealt enough as it is with embarrassment from Soto's sort. As the master of such a creature, I must take responsibility and—in turn—take your memories away."

"Now wait just a damn second---!" Robin growled, shaking a fist.

"There is nothing to argue. Soto, you will be the first to be subjugated." That said, the three dogs opened their mouths at once and their green, prehensile tongues flew out twenty-feet long each and slapped Robin and Cyborg aside before blurring past me and latching onto Soto's thrashing arms.

I dodged and rolled out of the way of the rope-like tongues at the last second. I lay on the ground—panting—watching in bizarre horror.

**"No!! Soto don't want to go home!! Soto want to go out for a walk!! Now!!"**

The two flanking dogs held him at bay while the middle one slapped his face senseless with a whipping tongue. The huge alien toddler was unconscious.

The dogs let go and their tongues retracted.

Soto slumped to the floor.

The four dogs faced us. "Now that such an ordeal is over with…we must travail upon your lobotomy."

Starfire….Mad Mod….Raven….all of us collectively glanced over to the left. The middle dog's eyes narrowed. He turned and looked at the fourth green dog curiously. "Hmmm…. intriguing. I could have sworn only three of us went on this mission---"

CHOMP!!!!

The fourth green dog bit its mouth over the talking one's snout.

The victim howled and whined in pain.

The fourth dog let go and spun with two feet kicking donkey-style into the middle dog's body.

WHUMP!!!!

The green pooch went sailing hard into a nearby wall and falling down cold.

The other two dogs opened their mouths and lashed their tongues out at the doppelganger.

The fourth dog was entangled in alien tongues. It swiftly morphed into a green hedgehog.

The alien canines' eyes bulged. They retracted their tongues and spun in circles, whining.

The hedgehog rolled into a panther that effortlessly swiped the two alien mutts away with a growl. WHAP!! WHAM!!

The panther snarled before 'standing up' and morphing into a grinning, green elf.

"Showoff…," Raven muttered.

"Noooooo," Beast Boy gave a thumb's up. "I'm an actor!!"

"Should have sticked with the pet tricks before Space Trek," Cyborg winked.

"Yeah….well….beats a day of smooth-talking my way around a virtual London."

"Okaaaaaay," Robin cracked his knuckles and walked towards a set of controls on the side of the UFO's interior. "Anyone think he or she can fly this thing back home?"

Mad Mod simpered. "You know…I-I was once a bit of a leatherneck myself in my younger days—"

**"NOT YOU!!!"** the non-mute Titans shouted.

Mad Mod pouted. "Spoil sports…."

Starfire giggled. She floated over with a pleasant smile. "Allow me, Robin."

"By all means, Star."

I was still scratching my head. I looked at Beast Boy.

He looked at me. He simpered. "Um….let's just say I have some really obsessed fans."

I continued scratching my head…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at the Tower…..

"What do you have there, Cyborg?" Raven asked.

Cyborg was busily hooking up an array of cables and sensors from the t.v. set to a futuristic metal sphere on top of a platform. "Well….after we landed the space craft and took Mad Mod back to jail, I got ahold of this thingy here. Supposedly this contains all of the data taken from the virtual filmmaking."

"The movie?"

"Whatever editing Mad Mod did before the inevitable anticlimax…..yeah."

Raven rolled her eyes. "And lemme guess….you're trying to hook it up."

"Most definitely! I wanna see how convincing of a character I was!"

"You're quite the character, Cyborg," Raven droned. "That's normal. Whether or not you're convincing on the other hand…."

Cyborg smirked at her while fumbling with the devices. "I'll show you yet!"

"Whatever…."

Starfire glanced at them across the Main Room, then turned to look at Beast Boy. "Am I correct in noticing that the canines and Soto returned to space?"

"That's what the authorities said," Beast Boy shrugged. He stood behind the counter, cooking up tofu….something. "Soon after we left, the two ships took off. They seemed in a hurry too. Running off with their tails between their legs! Hahahaha!"

Starfire bit her lip. "I do surely hope that our confrontation with them in orbit of earth does not spark an interstellar war between Terra Firma and their symbiotic race."

"Bah….I wouldn't worry about that," Beast Boy waved. "Besides…even if they did invade, all we'd need to do is arm the U.N. defense forces with baby formula and rolled-up newspapers…and everything would be peachy-keen."

Starfire giggled.

Robin smirked. He looked at me across a table where I was playing solitaire. "So, Noir. How'd you do it?"

I looked up at him through my shades and leaned my head to the side curiously.

"You know…..how'd you wake up?"

"….."

"From the virtual 'movie' world?"

I mouthed 'oh'. I shrugged with a smirk.

"It must have taken some guts to bear the brunt of that digital bullet…and somehow manage to separate fantasy from reality," he folded his arms and smirked under his eyemask. "Sometimes I envy that smoking power of yours. So mysterious and badass. You got the guy-thing all planned out, don't you?"

I simpered.

Ana was a tomboy…but………

"Hey!! Yo yo yo!! I think I got it working!" Cyborg chanted.

"Dude! Really??"

We all crowded around the sphere. The t.v. monitor lit up and started showing various angles from the different spheres that circled us in the virtual James Bond ripoff.

"So they WERE cameras!" Robin exclaimed.

"Fascinating."

"Pfft…Mad Mod's art style," Raven droned. She glanced at the rest of us. "Personally, I'm not all that interested in watching the crappy home movie made by a maniac who nearly had Noir killed and nearly drove us insane."

"Understood," Starfire nodded. "It would be most out of taste to find any enjoyment in this thing."

Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah….really stupid and nasty…."

"….."

"….."

"….."

"….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A half hour or so later….

"Dude!! That's so awesome!!!"

"HA HA HA!!!"

"Look at me!! My hair is short and pixie like!! Heeeee!!"

"Can't wait to see when Beast Boy and I go at it," Robin smirked.

I smiled and watched from the sofa where the six of us were huddled. The rough edit of the movie played on. Gar Logan said his dashing (but cheesy) one liners. Noir kicked ass with martial arts. Corina Anderson stood around and looked pretty. Vic Stone loaded and unloaded a grenade launcher. Razor flung daggers and flipped about. And Madame Moonflame……wore leather.

"Oh!! Dude! I love this part!! This is the part with the BMW and the train!!"

"Man….I'd kill for a car like that. Virtual or not!!"

"You were too busy kidnapping Starfire's character to give a darn!"

"Oh yeah, well…I got to hang around Madame Moonflame's lair!"

"Excuse me," Raven grumbled.

"……"

"……"

"……."

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "Admittedly….I do like the eyepatch."

"Hehehehehe!!"

"Awesome…."

"Dude, we gotta make copies of this!!"

I smiled, leaned back, and wished for popcorn………..and a British slang translator.


	108. Charley Horse

**108. Charley Horse**

"This just in. Breaking news from the Eastern District of the City. A three-alarm fire is consuming the Venderson Apartment complex on Eighty-Second Street. Most of the families were evacuated prior to the heavy blazes. But city officials and eyewitnesses claim that there may still be some residents trapped in the upper stories above the blaze. At present, the City's Eastern Fire Department is busying its entire crew in the elimination of the fires. Jason Llevenson is at the scene right now, reporting. Jason?"

"Thank you, Marilyn. Right now I'm standing two blocks south of the apartment highrise on Eighty-Second Street! The police have erected a blockade keeping citizens away from the firefighting, being that the flames are so intense. Look at the shot behind me and—as you can see—the entire fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are absolutely engulfed in fire. The plume of smoke is rising higher and higher and can certainly be seen by any open spot in the City. They've got up to four firetrucks out here right now and are attempting to hoes the inferno down. And reports are in that there may be families on the top levels. But at this moment, the City is unable to send in any form of air support for rescue. All the firefighters can do now is hope to cool down these raging fires quickly enough so that there'll be solid enough of a building left to lift a ladder to and rescue some suffocated citizens. This is a very old apartment building and it wasn't built to support fires of this magnitude---wait!! What was that?! Was it---Starfire!! The Titans! The Titans are here!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!

In a green streak, Starfire flew over the blaze and smoke. She dipped down into the blackness in the air and narrowed her green eyes. As she flew forward and the fogginess cleared, the distinct figures of nearly two dozen panicked individuals atop the apartment building's roof came into view. They waved their arms at her and cried out for help.

The Tamaranian girl gasped. She pulled out her communicator in mid-flight. "This is Starfire!! I have performed reconnaissance! Families are present on the top of the building!!"

"Good job, Starfire! Wait for my signal!" Robin's voice exclaimed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Boy Wonder stood perched on the ledge of a building across the way. He spoke into his communicator. "Beast Boy. Where are you??"

"Closing in on Starfire's location!"

"The two of you are gonna have to make a lot of trips. You can carry a little more than Starfire if you plan it right. But in order to get the people out, we're gonna need Raven. How many did you see, Starfire?"

"Nearly a morthag!"

"What??"

"Two earth dozens!!"

"Er….okay. We're definitely gonna need Raven."

SWOOOSH!!!

I blurred up the buildingside and flipped to a landing on the rooftop. I stood and looked at Robin.

He nodded back at me and continued talking into the communicator.

"Raven. You read me?"

"I guess you could say that."

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask.

"Traffic sucks."

"Yeah, well fire sucks. Get over here quickly so that there's no more 'suck'."

"You're talking to the wrong Titan."

"Cyborg??"

"On it, man!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven glared at the android Titan. "I told you that you should have taken Fifty-Eighth avenue…"

Cyborg gritted his teeth while gripping the wheel of the T-Car. "Sorry. I didn't invent soccer moms and their incessant need to drive caravans down the streets of downtown when there're three-alarm fires raging." HONK!!! HONK!!! "MOVE IT, WOMAN!!! IT'S NOT LIKE YOUR KID'S GOT A WELL-KNOWN LEAGUE TO TRY OUT FOR WHEN SHE GROWS UP!!!"

Raven sweatdropped. "Perhaps….I should drive."

Cyborg chuckled. "Girl, you haven't got a license!"

"Perhaps not…," Raven raised her fingers to her temples. "Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…."

"Uh….Rae?? What are you chanting for—WHOAH!! Rae!! Ask before you lift next time!!"

The T-Car's wheels spun in the air as the vehicle was lifted up and 'flew' via dark telekinesis over the crowded streets and towards the distant plume of smoke and fire blocks away.

"Relax…," a gray-eyed Raven droned. "I won't scratch your car against an oxygen molecule."

Cyborg scrunched back in his seat, protectively stroking the leather interior of his 'baby'. "The only thing scratched up is your head! This has GOT to be violating some sort of code of city no-fly-zone ordinance or something!"

"And walking around shopping when fully aware that your arm is a living weapon of mass destruction is any safer?"

"Touche'," Cyborg shrugged. He pointed up out the windshield. "There's the apartment complex!"

"Good, we're on time," Raven said. She extended her wrist forward. "I'm taking us in."

"You're what?!?!"

"Let Robin know. We can't waste anytime while carting people off when there's a building that can collapse beneath them at any second."

Cyborg bit his lip as he whipped out a communicator. "Better not get any soot on the paintjob…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The T-Car hovered sideways through the smoke and embers. A flock of citizens gasped and parted ways as the Titan vehicle settled down on the rooftop. Cyborg rolled his window down and grinned outward.

"Got exact change??"

"The Titans!!"

"We're saved!"

"Please…help us!!"

Cyborg raised a finger. "One at a time! I can maybe take four in the first trip. Er…make that five. Who's first?"

"Mr. Titan!" a man took a little girl by the hand and pushed her ahead. "Our children first!"

Cyborg bit his lip. He looked over at Raven. "But….I-I don't have any child seats!"

She whapped his skull with her hand.

"Ow!!"

"Let them in," Raven nodded to the adult citizens.

Cyborg opened the rear doors as a bunch of frightened children filed into the back.

Raven spoke into a communicator. "Robin…we're making our first trip. Let Starfire and Beast Boy in!"

"Roger that! Star! B.B.! Move!"

Cyborg closed the doors and looked at Raven. "Gas, please?"

She glared. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and---

SWOOOSH!!!

The T-Car floated off on a curtain of black. As it glided away, Starfire and Beast Boy flew in. Beast Boy turned into a pterodactyl and grabbed two adults at once. Starfire picked up and old woman and rescued her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Makin' our rounds!" Beast Boy's voice managed to utter over the communication lines. "Come fly on the Beast Boy express!!"

"Robin…how does the building look from where you and Noir are?!"

"Still standing, Star. Though I wouldn't give it more than ten minutes left," Robin replied through the communicator.

I took a deep breath and watched anxiously through my shades. My head turned as I followed the drifting motion of the airborne T-Car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The kids in the back of the T-Car wailed and wailed.

"Waaaaaah!!"

"We're scaaaaaared!!"

"I want my Mommmmmmy!!!"

Raven gritted her teeth, trying her best amidst the squealing to concentrate.

Cyborg sweatdropped. He put on a brave smile and turned to look back at the kids. "Don't worry, little squirts!! Everything will be allright! The Titans are here!!"

"Waaaaaaaaah!!!!"

"Mommy!!! Daddy!!!!"

Raven grunted. "Make them…….be quiet……"

"Hey kids! How about a song?! The wheels in Raven's head go round and round! Round and round! Round and round! The wheels in Raven's head go round and round! All the live long—"

The T-Car lurched.

Raven turned red.

"That **isn't** helping!!"

"**WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Starfire flew back for the next citizen to be picked up.

Beast Boy was right behind her.

"Are you okay, girl?" and old man inquired as the Tamaranian touched down. "You're carrying an awful lot of weight."

Starfire smiled. "More than capable of doing so, sir. My natural Tamaranian strength affords me the ability to—"

CRUMBLE!!!!

A huge crack broke in the rooftop's structure. Smoke poured up out of it and glowed orange from below.

Starfire and a handful of citizens gasped.

Beast Boy momentarily turned into elf form. "Less lip and more launch, Star!!" He turned back into a pterodactyl and carried two trembling residents off.

"I apologize for the brevity of our conversation!" Starfire said. She picked up the old man and hoisted him away as the T-Car made its second trip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin looked through a pair of….er…..'bird' binoculars or something.

"How many left??" Robin asked.

"We've got the last of them. Raven's bringing us back. We kinda had to cram the backseat of my baby…but whatever sacrifices are needed, ya know?"

The Boy Wonder lowered his binoculars, grinning. "Well done, team! Consider this day in the bag!" He smirked over at me. "Should have just called it a barbecue."

I simpered.

Then Cyborg's voice: "No! Wait!! There's one left!!"

Robin gasped. "No way!" He leaned over and glanced the buildingtop's way. He looked through his binoculars again as I rushed up and stood beside him.

A soot-covered man hobbled up the stairwell on the far side of the building. He gripped his chest. He leaned over and wheezed. Dramatically, he limped across the rooftop and waved for help.

"Star?! Beast Boy?!?!"

"We're kinda busy in transit at the moment!!"

Robin looked at the T-Car. It was only halfway towards its destination and moving slowly.

"M-Maybe one of them will have time to go get him…," Robin sweated.

As if on cue, a huge crack formed in the rooftop. The man gasped from afar and slumped down to his rear. Flames ate up from the sides of the rooftop and smoke billowed upwards like mad. A commotion of shock and worry rose from the firefighters and onlookers below.

This was definitely bad….

"Then again…," Robin immediately whipped out his grappling hook. But he didn't even need me to hold him back. The Boy Wonder looked around…but there was absolutely nothing nearby for him to swing off of to get to the buildingtop. And the man had to be rescued. Immediately.

"Crud!!" Robin exclaimed.

He looked at me.

I spun around.

I looked at a huge radio antenna on the top of our building beside us. I took a deep breath, motioned at it, and pointed at myself…then pointed at the burning building.

"Can you make it?!?!" Robin asked.

I nodded furiously.

"It's gonna be a blind jump with all that smoke!" he exclaimed. He whipped out a fan of arctic-white discs. "I'll try to clear the way for you some!"

I nodded and started to pulse murk through my system.

"Go!!!"

He didn't need to tell me twice. I blurred. I ran up the antenna. I reached the tip. I pulsed murk and bounced off. Flipping, I flew through the air and across the street. I sailed at the smoke-covered rooftop of the apartment below.

"Nnnngh!!" Robin shouted and flung three discs at once.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!

The projectiles soared past me and sunk hard into the raging fires creeping their way up.

POW!!!!

FFFFFFFFFFTTTT!!!!!

A puff of white mist kissed me with icicle lips.

I gritted my teeth and sailed through the crystal veil.

The smoke danced past me as if it was my own murk and suddenly there was a stretch of black rooftop.

I landed with a grunt and rolled forward.

I heard a coughing noise.

I looked up.

The man was on his knees, hacking his lungs out from smoke inhalation. He took one look at me with watery eyes and managed: "Just my luck! They sent a ninja!" he smiled weakly.

I smiled back.

CRAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

I gasped.

The ceiling beneath was breaking in two. It was hot and orange underneath.

"There goes home sweet home," he hacked.

SWOOOOSH!!

I blurred over, scooped him up in my arms, and leapt the two of us over the side of the building just as the structure began to shatter.

We fell down the length of the building. Our fall was racing against the crumbling heap.

I twirled our bodies about in mid-descent and unsheathed Myrkbalde with a free hand.

CHIIIING!!!

I jabbed it into the building side.

CRUNCH—SNKKKKKKKKKKKKKT!!!!

Sparks flew as I slowed our descent.

The crumbling started to catch up with us.

I gritted my teeth and kicked off the blurred building side with my feet.

WHUMP!!!

W-WOOSH!!

We flipped off the building side and plummeted to the asphalt street below.

I twirled Myrkblade in my arm, held my breath, and launched it downward like a javeling.

SWIIIISH-CLANK!!

It stuck in the asphalt and exploded upward towards us a fountain of murk.

I absorbed it into our legs and flexed my free fingers.

Concentrating, I manipulated the fountain so that it lowered us smoothly to the ground.

Once we contacted asphalt, I yanked Myrkblade out and dashed the two of us outside the range of the falling debris as the flaming building finally collapsed in on itself.

**CRUNNNNNNNNCH!!!**

I lowered him to his feet besides a couple of paramedics beyond the line of firefighters. As they carted him off for a checkup and treatment, I leaned on my sword and panted heavily for breath.

Starfire touched down beside me while Robin swung in from the nearby building.

"Hehehehe!! Glorious performance!"

"Great job, Noir," Robin patted my back. "You have good legs."

I stopped panting.

I looked at him funny.

His eyemask twisted. "Er….," he raised his gloves. "I didn't mean it like **that**!"

I smirked mockingly and limped off Tower-borne.

"I didn't! I didn't—aww for crying out loud, you're worse than Beast Boy!!"

I chuckled breathily and waved without looking.

Robin folded his arms and pouted.

Starfire blinked. "He does have nice legs…."

Robin glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wooo! Man….I'd say this grants us the rest of the day off!" Cyborg remarked with a stretch as they entered the Main Room.

"Nothing's ever guaranteed, Cyborg," Robin said. He trotted over to the Main Computer and sat down. "In any event of an emergency it's our duty to—"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Cyborg waved a hand and marched straight to the fridge. "Who wants a sandwich??"

"Oooh! Oooh!" Beast Boy hopped over. "I do!!"

"……with bologna?"

Beast Boy froze. He sunk into a limping frown and marched away. "Meanie…."

"Heheheh…"

I moved my neck around, snapping and popping my joints. I flexed my jaw and sighed. A beat. I smiled. I hand-signed across the way.

Cyborg eyed me amidst gathering preparations for his snack. "Don't ask me. Ask Robin!"

"Ask me what?"

"He says he's going on a walk."

"Fine by me," Robin gestured with a single hand. "Just keep a communicator with you, allright? Lord knows we all don't want a repeat of the laundry incident."

I blushed.

"Man…must you always mention that?" Cyborg chuckled with a shaking of his head.

"Where are you travailing on going, Noir?" Starfire asked pleasantly.

I shrugged and spun my finger around.

"Anywhere the finger takes him," Raven droned.

"Man….you sure do love going on those walks of yours," Beast Boy scratched his head. "Must be a lone ranger type of thing. You always strike me as a solo dude, Noir."

I smirked.

And then….

"May I go with you, Noir?" Starfire asked.

Robin swiveled around curiously.

I looked at her. I smiled and nodded.

"Okay….maybe I was wrong about the 'loner' part," Beast Boy smirked.

"You two just gonna take a walk together?" Robin asked.

"We have done it before! Around the City!! Hehehehe…you remember that, do you not, Noir?"

I nodded…remembering how we ended up at the funeral home. I sighed.

"It is most interesting to see the City from a….," Starfire paused for thought. Then she spoke, "….miniature perspective."

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "You mean…as not a heroine?"

Starfire beamed. "Yes. Indeed."

"Sounds pretty relaxing, actually," Cyborg was already munching a hastily prepared sandwich. He gulped and smiled. "Hey guys…mind if I come along too?"

I looked at Cyborg. I shrugged and nodded with a smile.

"Three's a crowd," Beast Boy chuckled. "'Loner' is about halfway down the toilet now."

"Ever since I built the T-Car, I've missed hoofing it," Cyborg gestured. He took another bite, swallowed, and patted his stomach. "Heck…I'm practically out of shape with all of this driving around on my butt that I've been doing as of late!"

Raven eyed him. "You look okay to me."

"Don't I, though?"

"………"

"Heheheheheh."

"Glorious!" Starfire clasped her hands together and smiled. "I shall enjoy this walk! A most wondrous threesome!"

Beast Boy cleared his throat.

Starfire looked curiously at him.

"What?"

"Where will you all go exactly?" Robin asked.

Cyborg and Starfire looked at me.

I sighed.

"Didn't he already answer that question?" Raven asked.

"So all you want to do is wander around aimlessly in the City just for the sake of wandering around aimlessly in the City?" the Boy Wonder asked.

I bit my lip.

"Just what type of pastime is that?" he further inquired.

"….."

He stood up, smiling. "I think I'd like to find out."

"Hehehehe!" Starfire smiled. "A foursome!"

Beast Boy cleared his throat again.

Robin cracked his knuckles then leaned his hands on his hips. "I used to walk around the streets of Gotham all the time. I had the place down like the back of my hand. I still don't have this City one hundred percent memorized, and I feel like it's a crime!"

"This isn't a field trip for college or something, man," Cyborg gestured.

"Then what is it?"

Three Titans stared at me.

I gestured crazily at them, helpless.

"Well, I hate to be the last one to join a party," Beast Boy smiled and hopped into the center of attention. "I'm in too!"

"Hee!! A fives---"

"Star, we get the picture," Raven droned.

"This is certainly a friendly endeavor!" Starfire held her arms out. "Will you not join us, Raven?"

"Why do that when I'd be assured of a possible hour or two of pure, peaceful quiet to meditate in here at the Tower?"

"Probably four hours," Beast Boy winked and motioned at me. "Figuring how slow this guy can be when he winds down."

"All the better."

"Come on, girl! You know you wanna join us!" Cyborg nudged her with a smirk. "Even you yourself once told me you wanted more exercise!"

"If I wanted to walk, I'd get a treadmill," Raven hissed.

"Pffft. Always impossible to motivate a floater."

"Say Raven…," Robin scratched his chin and smiled. "Since you're the only one who'll be here at the Tower, perhaps you wouldn't mind filing the report on the fire rescue for me."

"…………….," Raven stared. "…………….I'll go get my walking shoes." She headed for the door.

"Whoah whoah whoah wait!" Cyborg gestured.

Raven stopped and spun around. "Whoah whoah whoah—what?"

"We need some new threads, people."

"Say what??" Beast Boy smirked incredulously. "What's wrong with what we're wearing??"

"We'll be recognized, little man! Everyone in the street will flock around us like always!"

"So what's wrong with a little fan service??" the green elf beamed. "It happens all the time!"

"Not this time, it won't!"

Starfire stepped forward. "Agreed," she nodded. "The point of Noir's expenditures into the City is to have some escape from being a Titan." She glanced at him. "Is it not?"

I scratched my head and awkwardly nodded with a simper.

"You mean….incognito?!" Beast Boy went bug-eyed. He pouted and spun around with folded arms. "Then count me out, dude! Not my style!"

"Good!" Robin smiled again. "Because my report is realllllllly needing to be don—"

"Okay! Count me in! COUNT ME IN!!" Beast Boy cackled. "Sheesh. So….like….what are we going to do, exactly?"

"We must accumulate apparel that will conceal our trademark appearances," Starfire said.

"So then……covering my pale skin?" Raven asked. "……and my chakra stone?"

"Not to mention my pointy ears," Beast Boy pointed.

"And my eyemask," Robin nodded.

"And boy am I going to have a fun time…," Cyborg examined his metal limbs.

A beat.

Everyone looked at me.

"………"

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"For the lovely Starfire….," Beast Boy pranced around and gestured dramatically at her figure like a fashion designer. "A lovely, lavender sundress—per her tastes---complete with sandals on her feet and velvet gloves on her hands to draw attention away to the extra amber in her Tamaranian birthday suit!"

The girl giggled as Beast Boy snaked behind her and plopped an article on her head.

"And to complete the look! A pink sunhat, folded down with the rim shading the forehead and casting shadows over her dark red eyebrows and vibrantly green eyes!"

"Thank you, pleasantly, Beast Boy," she smiled. She tucked her long, red hair into the sunhat and let a few bangs prettily drip out along the front. "Hehehe! Do I not look death-of-the-drop uber? Taa to the daaa!!"

"Super…," Raven droned.

I smirked from the corner of the gym. I pointed over at Robin.

Per my direction, Beast Boy dashed over to him.

"And over here—"

"Touch me and you got a black eye."

"Thanks…but Noir already has all the friends he could ask for."

I stuck my tongue out, chuckling.

"Ahem…and OVER HERE!!" Beast Boy went on. "The Boy Wonder looking like---well---like a boy, thank god!"

"Thank god…"

"A red and black American Eagle shirt over a white undershirt. And completing the look are a pair of khaki, corduroy pants—love the chain watch by the way, Robin, it's super—"

"Um…."

"And brown deck shoes and short white socks. Hell, it might scream PREPPY—but I guess Noir couldn't think of anything less. Now could you, Noir?"

I shrugged.

"Would it be fair to say that I'm used to it?" Robin simpered.

"Oh, are you now??" Cyborg smirked.

The Boy Wonder coughed. He changed the subject: "And what of my eyemask?"

I whistled to Beast Boy and tossed him a pair of shades. A spare of mine."

The green changeling planted them over Robin's trademark concealment.

"Viola! Perfect!"

Raven suppressed a smirk. "Can you see well with all of that, Robin?"

"I'll be fine," the Titan Leader said. "As long as we don't go tightrope walking or something."

WHUMP!!!!

"Heeeeeee!!" Starfire was hugging the Boy Wonder. "Look at us!! We are dress to inflict mortal damage!"

"'Dressed to kill'??" Robin wheezed. He smiled awkwardly while gasping for breath. "That depends on if I'm not killed by lack of oxygen, first."

"Eeep! My the bad…"

"Uh uh uh…the look ain't complete, dawg."

Robin caught his breath and swallowed. "Huh?"

"Your hair, dude," Beast Boy smirked. "Cyborg's right. It'll have to go."

Robin's eyes glanced up at his spiked crown. "But….but…..my spikes! I-I can't get rid of my spikes!"

"If you can wear pants, you can lose the spikes," Raven said.

"Allright, fine," Robin grumbled. "Someone give me a comb—"

"Here you go!!" Beast Boy tossed one.

Bonk!

"Ow!!" Robin rubbed his head. He frowned. He bent over, picked up the comb, and applied it to his hair. "Your days are numbered, elf."

"Love you too, dude."

Everyone watched Robin and how—in ten seconds flat—he had his spiked hair rearranged into a simple, short-haired look. Like an anchorman.

"There," he said, dropping the comb somewhere. A beat. He realized everyone was silently staring at him. "What??"

"Nothing, man," Cyborg smirked. "It's just….um……interesting…."

"What's interesting?"

"How fast you did that," Beast Boy grinned slyly. "I wonder if that's the hairdo of your alter ego."

"Truly??" Starfire looked at him.

The Boy Wonder sighed and rubbed his face around his new shades. "That information is confidential…."

"Hehehe!! It is cute!!"

"It's confidential!"

"Your alter ego must be cute—"

"CONFIDENTIAL!!"

I snapped my finger at Beast Boy.

"Okay…," Beast Boy drifted over to Raven. "Now for the main event!"

"Drop dead."

"Mmmmhmmm. Raven! The lovely dark sorceress herself! Sports fan look! Jersey pants! A long-sleeved, white undershirt with a red t-shirt on the outside with the insignia of the local baseball team. Complete it with Reeboks and long white socks—"

"What about her chakra stone?" Cyborg pointed.

Beast Boy beamed. "Baseball cap!!"

THWAP!!!!

The article was slapped over Raven's crown.

"……..," the dark girl glared out from underneath. She turned towards me. Her forehead hidden by the cap's visor. "Couldn't you have been more creative?"

I smirked and tried to hide a chuckle.

"Ahem….," she gracefully twirled the cap so that it sat on her head backwards. The rear fastener of the cap strategically dipped down and covered her chakra stone. She closed her eyes and tucked a few strands of blue, silky hair up and hid them away. She sighed. "Play ball." A beat. She looked back at us.

"……."

"……."

"…….."

"……..cute."

Raven's temple pulsed. She growled and flicked a wrist.

FLASH!!

"Augh!!" Cyborg fell to the ground. "Ha ha ha ha!"

"Rrrrrrrr," Raven fumed.

"How about you, Beast Boy?" Robin asked.

Beast Boy looked at me.

I looked at him.

"Welllllll," Beast Boy beamed. He posed dramatically, "Dark blue jeans. Dark green sweatjacket with long sleeves and—" WOOSH! "---and hood! Ya know…to hide my gorgeous head of handsome hair and pointy ears. Chicks dig the pointy ears."

"Man…," Cyborg stood back up and brushed himself off. "Are you coming out of the closet yet?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind…."

I motioned towards Cyborg.

"Last but not least!" Beast Boy zipped over. "The bionic bruiser himself!! Also a sports fan! Football jersey covering his broad frame! Long, dark jeans! Military boots! I tell you what….this guy can kick ass! Score a touchdown too!"

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Aren't you forgetting something?" He pointed a hand at his half-metal skull.

"Noir??"

I pointed to a bench.

Beast Boy chuckled and handed an article to Cyborg. "Here you go, dude."

"Awwww man….," Cyborg's face went crooked. "A do-rag? I don't do these things anymore."

"Yeah…I see you're into metal. EVERYBODY CAN SEE that you're into metal."

"Fine…fine…," Cyborg effortlessly fastened it around his head. "How do I look?"

Robin smirked. "S'up, homie?"

"My foot and your ass," Cyborg winked.

"Uh huh…."

"One question," Raven raised a hand.

I looked at her.

She gestured, "Any reason why you have Cyborg and I both dressed as sports fanatics?"

I blinked. I mouthed: 'Should there be?'

Raven blinked. She blushed.

Cyborg cleared his throat. "So are we doing this thing or what?"

"What about Noir?" Starfire asked.

"I think he speaks for himself," Robin mused.

I smirked.

I stepped forward and cracked my knuckles. I was in the usual jeans and denim jacket with a white undershirt. My black hair was in a ponytail that slithered down my neck and hid partially in the jacket.

"Dude…the eighties are dead," Beast Boy smiled.

"And just what do you know about the eighties?" Robin asked.

"Come to think of it…what does ANYONE here know about the eighties??"

"Heh…," Raven nodded. "Good point."

Starfire blinked. "The 'eighties'…are they important people I should know about??"

We all laughed.

"Let's get going, Starfire."

"Um….okay."

"Woohoo! Walk in the park!!"

"You're not going to squawk like that out in the open, are you? People are bound to recognize us."

"Just keep your chakra stone to yourself, girl."

"That won't be hard…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were walking slowly down the bridge leading from the Tower to the main land of the City.

"So….um…," Robin scratched his neck. "What do we do exactly?"

Leading the pack, I gestured into the air.

"'We walk'," Cyborg said.

"Ah….I see."

"………….."

"Can I sing a song?" Beast Boy asked.

**"No."**

"Awww….nuts."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We ended up on a sidewalk down Main Atreet. The overhang of a bank building stretched momentarily above us. From our vantage point, we could see the spires of Kobayashi Tower in Downtown.

"Well…so far so good," Cyborg mumbled, looking around with hands in his pockets. He smirked. "This incognito thing is working perfectly. Good job, Noir."

I sauntered playfully along on the sidewalk ahead. Stepping only on the cracks. I smiled.

"I have always been fascinated by these towering structures you earthlings erect," Starfire said as she trotted along in her summer frock.

"Don't you have tall buildings on Tamaran?" Raven asked.

"Indeed. But such construction is saved merely for residential and religious significance. For Terrans—I see—commercialism is an important part of urbanization. The lives of your people are centered companies and corporate entities. It is most fascinating."

"Most boring is more like it," Beast Boy yawned. "The only reason I ever come to downtown is for the nightclubs!!"

"Since when have you gone clubbing, little man??"

"Allright…only in my dreams, maybe."

"Heh…thought so."

"I never thought of it much, really….but…," Robin scratched his redone head of hair and looked at Starfire. "…are you not used to such tall buildings all around us?"

"Hardly, Robin," she smiled pleasantly. "Tamaran has its fair share of skyscrapers. And I in fact have lived—and fought Gordanians—around the spires of our capital City. Quite a majestic battleground, I must say."

"I can't imagine."

"Hehehehe…perhaps not. Someday, I should let you see my capital!"

"You mean like….taking Robin to Tamaran?" Beast Boy remarked.

"Er….," Starfire bit her lip. "Captured images would do just as well."

"Photographs?"

"Affirmative. But…..the previous idea does sound inviting," she blushed.

"I've….um…..never been the guest to an alien culture before," Robin remarked nervously. "I wouldn't know what to do."

"Heh…well if you ever find yourself on Tamaran, do what Starfire does!" Beast Boy smirked. "Run around and hug people and talk without contractions!"

"Hehehehe…I am sure that differences and culture shock would show…but in a different fashion if one of you were to visit my planet."

"How so, Star?"

"Well…for one thing," Starfire looked at me and Robin interchangeably. "While there are many female Tamaranians with dark hair…the number of males with such are far smaller and rarer."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Meaning what, exactly?" Robin asked.

Starfire blushed. "It is a most….attractive feature in Tamaran culture. Whether or not it be an exaggeration, I may be forced to—as Beast Boy would put it—beat the stick against the females to keep them at bay."

"Hold them off with a stick?" Beast Boy grinned. "Are Noir and Robin really that drop-dead gorgeous??"

"That…and I am quite certain my people would find the repressive nature of earthlings rather awkward."

"Repressive?"

"Wh-When it comes to emotions, of course."

"That would make sense…," Raven nodded. "Everyone on the planet would be hugging us endlessly."

"Yeah…," Robin chuckled. "While we hide in the corners like there's a plague."

"Are all Tamaranians so….open and free with their emotions?" Cyborg asked.

"Is there any reason why they should not be?"

"Just curious. I guess humans are…..pretty uptight in this universe."

"Hehehe…I think humans are precious, regardless."

Robin simpered. "Hope your people all feel the same way."

"As I'm sure they do, Robin."

"Hey Star."

"Yes, Cyborg?"

"Any black people on your planet?" he smirked.

Starfire bit her lip and her green eyes scanned past the rim of her sunhat. "N-No, unfortunately. Not in the Terran definition."

"Heck, Cy…," Beast Boy smirked. "You think anyone on Tamaran is white?? They all got amber skin, dude!"

"Point well made."

"Not all of us," Starfire simpered. "There is a small fraction of Tamaranian youths who are born with purple skin color."

"Purple?" Raven smirked ever so slightly. "Now that is interesting…."

"Indeed," Starfire nodded as we all continued walking. "I do believe it is the Tamaranian equivalent to Albany individuals on earth."

Robin chuckled. "**Albinos"**

"Y-Yes….my the bad," Starfire blushed, her cheeks rosy.

"Hehehe…," Beast Boy smiled. "Amber indeed."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We found ourselves walking across Bayside Plaza. It was nearly an hour after we started with our trek.

"Well….still no sign of….adoring fans," Cyborg said.

"You sound like you're missing it."

"It's the do-rag, Robin. The do-rag's driving me insane. Wouldn't it drive you insane?"

"I dunno…I don't do rag….er…."

"Heheheheh!" Beast Boy almost doubled over. "Ohhh man! I wish I'd thought of that!"

"Then it would have been lame."

"Pfft."

Raven looked at the theatre marquis.

"There a movie you wanna see, Rae?" Cyborg smirked.

"Hardly…," she droned, adjusting her reversed cap. "I just can't help but think that….we end up here a lot."

"How so?"

"Stopping crime. Doing public service. Everything in general."

"Centers of popularity become centers of importance," Robin remarked.

"Whatever that means…."

"It means that the Titans must come here and save the day because a lot of people like to mingle here."

"Thanks for the interpretation, Starfire. But not really necessary."

"I was only desiring to help."

"Hey Noir….I've got a question for you," Cyborg remarked.

I swiveled about and walked backwards. I raised a curious eyebrow.

"How long were you in town before….ya know….."

"Before what?" Robin broke in.

Cyborg gestured. "Before he joined the troupe." He looked at me. "Well?"

I smiled and spun around.

"Awwww…come on, man!! You've got to tell us!!"

"You know he has secrets, Cyborg," Robin smirked. "Some of us…..keep secrets."

"Says the dude who's got two sets of things blocking his eyes," Beast Boy murmured.

"Which was Noir's idea, I might add."

Cyborg scratched his chin and smirked.

"Oh please….," Raven rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, dawg. How long were you here?"

I gestured into the air.

Cyborg's human eye bulged. "Four months?!?!"

"Dude…you barely came after Slade's second major scheme!" Beast Boy remarked.

"Don't you mean 'after Terra'?" Raven said.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Everyone was silent.

I cleared my throat. I turned around—walked backwards again—and smiled while hand signing.

Cyborg chuckled.

"What'd he say?"

"He said he was a big fan of the Titans before we invited him in."

"That's not how I remember it exactly," Robin smirked.

"Care to enlighten us?" Raven remarked.

"We were rather spooked ourselves of the 'black eyes' that haunted the city streets…terrorizing crime."

"Yeah…fancy that," Beast Boy scratched his head. "I forgot all about those days. Dude, you were quite the badass before we softened you up, eh Noir?! Ha ha ha ha!"

I shrugged and swiveled back to face where I was walking--

WHAP!!!!

I bumped straight into a telephone pole. I winced and rubbed my nose.

Starfire gasped: "Noir, are you damaged?!"

Cyborg laughed.

I shook my head and gave a dizzy thumb's up.

"Well…you have many years yet to lose all your charm."

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Um….where are we exactly?" Beast Boy asked.

The six of us stood on the outer remnants of an abandoned complex by the dockside. There were no barriers. Just…a run down road of cracked pavement and a pile of rubble with a wretched wood and stone building beyond that. It was an asphalt island in the center of open fields of sandy brown dirt and dust. The ugly side of town….eye candy wise.

"I like it…," Raven said.

"No kidding."

I walked up to the rubble. I leaned my head to the side while scanning the area.

A beat.

I walked over the rubble.

"Hey! Wait up!" Robin scrambled behind me.

Starfire wrung her hands nervously. "Are we…..allowed to venture into such an inhospitable spot??"

"Yo…I didn't see any signs saying 'keep away'," Cyborg smiled and climbed after the two of us. "Did you?"

"I suppose I did not."

"Hey! No flying! That's cheating!"

"May I at least hover, Beast Boy? These sandals will not work well on the rubble."

"Eh….I'll give you that at least."

"Many thanks…"

Raven sauntered in last. "Come into the parlor said the spider to the fly…"

Robin and I came to a stop at a broken door frame. We looked in on a dusty and ruined interior of the bottom foyer of a three story-apartment building. It was dark and cool inside.

Robin stepped in first and I followed. Our shuffling feet echoed against the hard parts of the floor. Dust and debris crinkled under our weight.

And then.

Silence….

"Ya know….old buildings have character," Robin said.

I simply nodded.

His breath echoed against the nearby walls as he spoke: "This place must have been made in….nineteen twenty-eight or something. Not many buildings in this post-modern City are that old."

I nodded again. I walked over to a corner behind a collapsed desk.

"I used to see many people who lived in places like this nowadays."

I paused and looked at Robin.

The Boy Wonder sighed. And beneath the shades and the eyemask, I wondered if he looked sad or bored. Either way, I could tell—though I didn't say anything—that Robin was very……familiar with the sort of thing we were presently surrounded by.

"It's tough, Noir. Really….really tough." A beat. He looked at me. "We're lucky. You know that?"

I slowly nodded. I looked back at the corner.

Cyborg and Beast Boy shuffled in.

Cyborg whistled. "Certainly not the Leave It To Beaver residence."

"This place is old and boring," Beast Boy rubbed his arm. "We fly and drive by it all the time. What's so special about it anyways?"

"Only the fact that it's not 'special'," Robin smirked the two guys' way. "There're things to appreciate in….how should I put it…."

"Crud?"

"Yes. Good crud."

"Heheheh."

"Eep! Most inhospitable indeed!" echoed Starfire from the entranceway.

Raven gazed around. "Why don't we make our base here."

"You and this apartment complex need to get a room," Beast Boy groaned.

She smiled slightly.

I picked something out of the dusty corner and stood up.

"What you got there, Noir?" Cyborg asked.

I walked over and pointed at what was in my grasp.

The others crowded around.

"A photograph?"

"Apparently…."

I held in my grasp an old fashioned photograph of a family. The paper was yellow and fading. The corners eaten by moisture through the cracks in the glass plate of the frame. The family looked deadpan…serious. Signifying a long pose for an old-fashioned camera.

"I wonder who they are…," Beast Boy rubbed his scalp.

"Oh do you now?" Cyborg smirked. "I thought this place was boring."

"They look really……European," Robin said.

"What makes you say that?"

"The hairstyle. The beard on the old guy. I have a feeling these people are first generation immigrants."

"Perhaps they have relatives still living in this area?" Starfire remarked.

"Families have been known to stay in Cities for long periods of time. Generations and such. I wouldn't doubt it," Robin said.

"How curious…."

I shrugged. I dropped the photo onto the worn desk and wandered to the far side.

"Is this your idea of treasure-hunting, Noir?" Cyborg asked. "Looks like you've done it before."

I paused before an entrance to another room. I looked at him. I smirked…and continued walking.

"Well….one thing's for sure," Beast Boy folded his arms and smirked. "He's still go the 'mysterious' part down pat. If not the badass part."

"What is so dreadful about his proverbial donkey?"

"……Huh?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was beginning to set. We walked along the shipyard. Seagulls collected on abandoned boats and buoys. The wind was picking up and the sear air cool and crisp.

Beast Boy played with the strings of his gray jacket as he walked along. "You know….I wonder what it would feel like to live an unexciting life."

"I beg your pardon?"

"For the last two and a half hours, we've been walking across the City and—not one person recognized us. It's like we're back to being normal people again!!"

Raven grumbled. "I was never 'normal'."

"Well…you weren't always a popular heroine, admit it!"

"What are you getting at, B.B.?" Robin asked.

"I wonder if we have anything to complain about….being that we're heroes and stuff. I mean…even if a mugger was to jump out and try and rob us right now as we walk…we'd have enough superpowers to kick his ass."

"Or her ass."

"………..y-yeah." A beat. "Ahem. Anyways…imagine the citizens of this City! They had to have been trembling every time Slade made a terrorist threat over the air! Or when Control Freak threatened the City with his swarm! Or—"

"We get the picture."

"B-But do we really?!?! I don't think any of us realize how scared the people we protect are. Heck…I know I don't."

"Just what do you mean about 'us complaining'?" Robin inquired.

"Well….the life of a superhero is certainly…..hectic."

"Uh huh….."

"And you gotta put the safety of others above that of yourself and stuff."

"Yes. Quite the inevitability."

"But just what makes a hero? Not someone by birth! I mean…sure, you could be born with starbolts and whatnot like Starfire or get a chemical reaction in your bloodstream early on like me….but does that necessarily mean that all of us are destined to risk our butts over the safety of the City?? Or the world? I mean…it's a thing of choice, dude. We don't have to be such protectors of justice. We could be sitting on our couches watching the news reports of super villains at large just as much as anyone else! And in such an event…would we be just as scared? Just as frightened??"

"I think you're looking for a reason to be paranoid, man," Cyborg said. "I had plenty of time as a flesh-and-blood kid to remember what it's like to sit back in Metropolis and worry over Superman stopping the latest invasion of Apokolips or Intergang while I could do nothing."

"That must have been awful for you…," Starfire said. "Dealing with the Apokolips situation at ground zero."

"Nothing like what you've been through, Star," Cyborg smiled. "You war veteran you."

"Eh?" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"Remember?" Raven droned. "She had to deal with Gordanians and Citadelians."

"Oh….them."

Starfire smiled. "And my family and I survived. I have nothing to be sympathized for."

"If you insist, Star," Robin planted a hand on her shoulder as they moved along. "Still….it had to have been tough."

"I do not like to measure life and one's character by her or his ability to withstand trials and tribulations," Starfire said. "But rather, I admire a person for the will and desire to support others during such cases."

Beast Boy scratched his head. "So…a coward is okay in your book as long as he means well to others?"

"Funny you should ask, B.B.," Cyborg said.

"Hey! Screw you!"

"Ha ha ha ha!!"

"But we left the screwdriver in the Titan garage!"

"No, Starfire. He didn't mean that. He meant---"

"Say, who's hungry?" Raven asked.

We all looked at her.

"What? I'm only thinking of everyone else."

"Hehehehe!"

"Suuuuuure."

"Uh huh."

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were dining in a Chinese restaurant.

It was Cyborg's idea…and we all loved him for it.

"Was that your third trip to the buffet table, Star?" Robin asked.

She sat down with a plate of noodles and rice. "Why? Do you fear that I may be eating too much?"

"Er….not exactly," Robin scratched his neck. "It's just that….Chinese food is pretty………exotic. And on your stomach—"

"Robin…," Raven blinked from across the table. "She comes from the Vegan system. A cluster of stars and planets that is multiple billions of miles away. I'm pretty sure that an order of cheeseburger and fries is just as exotic to her as Chinese chicken and rice."

Robin bit his lip.

Starfire giggled. "Robin…I admire you for your concern. But fear not. Tamaranian stomachs are most versatile."

"Yeah….if you can stomach glork, you can stomach anything," Beast Boy said amidst a mouthful of duck meat. A beat. "Ewww…I'm gonna make myself throw up!"

"Well…remember that time Starfire ate pizza for the first time?"

"Eek! How terrible!" Starfire gasped. "I did not realize that two cartons of such delectable cuisine would stimulate horrific forms of REM sleep!"

"Well…it was two hours past midnight when you went on your first pizza binge, Star," Cyborg said. "You only hurt yourself."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Long story."

I nodded. I continued eating.

Beast Boy eyed me. "Dude….where'd you learn to master the chopsticks?"

I looked at him. I smirked and continued eating, unabated with my wooden utensils.

"Something tells me that Noir is quite familiar with ways of the Orient," Robin smirked across the table. "Just look at some of his fighting moves."

"What about 'em?"

"Well, I've recognized at least five types of Eastern Martial Arts that he uses at the same time. It's some wyrd combination of multiple talents, heightened by his dark…erm….smoke power stuff." He swallowed a gulp of food and looked at me. "Isn't that right, Noir?"

I shrugged and nodded slightly with a small smile.

"Leave it to Robin to preach forth his observant nature…," Raven droned.

"I'm only describing our good friend here!" Robin replied with a pointing finger. "Not everything about him is a secret!"

"Is that so? Well maybe the tables should turn!" Cyborg said. He looked at me. "Noir, buddy. Tell us something special you've learned about Robin? Cuz we're lost."

I gulped down some food, put down my chopsticks, and hand-signed.

"What does he say?" Starfire inquired.

Cyborg snickered. "Briefs. Not boxers."

Beast Boy laughed, gathering curious glances from other patrons.

"Huh?" Starfire blinked.

Robin was blushing. He cleared his throat and glared at me through his shades and eyemask. "Noir….you're evil."

I blew a kiss and returned to my food.

"At least he has a sense of humor," Raven said.

Cyborg looked at her. "And you would know this…….how?"

"……."

"Heh…that's what I thought."

"Who knows! Maybe Mad Mod was right!" Beast Boy smirked.

"How do you mean?"

"Maybe Noir's Asian."

"Asian?"

"Y-Yeah. That'd explain a few things."

I shook my head, smirking…and ate some more.

"If he was Asian, would that mean he was born in Japan or something?"

"How about Hong Kong?"

"Pfft…he's American, dude."

Raven looked up. "How about the West Coast?"

Robin cleared his throat.

Everyone else was silent.

I froze in the middle of my meal. I slowly chewed and smiled calmly at Raven.

She hesitantly averted her eyes.

Starfire simpered. "Friends….let us…..t-talk about something else!"

"Hey! I just heard this wonderful joke the other day—" Beast Boy began.

"**Something else."** Raven growled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nighttime.

Stars hung overhead.

The six of us had doubled-back and now we were traversing the beach along the Bayside. We looked out at the starlit waters calmly. Relaxing in our walk across the sands.

"And I'm telling y'all….we should have a theme song," Beast Boy began.

"Theme song? How would we use a theme song, dawg?"

"Simple! We could play it on the megaphone of the T-Car when we spring upon criminals or something!"

"Nuh huh!! We ain't putting no blowcone on my baby!"

"Not a blowcone, Cy…"

"Well, whatever the Hell it is!"

"Wouldn't it be more prudent to actually THINK of a theme song FIRST?" Robin asked.

"Hmmmmmmm," Beast Boy hummed. "Something catchy."

"No duh," Raven spat.

"Rock N Roll—NO! Punk! Something punk!"

"There is this commercial for honey mustard that has the most adorable tune," Starfire beamed.

Robin looked at her strangely.

I hand-signed.

"Heh…," Cyborg chuckled as he kicked at a small dune of sand. "I don't think the Beastie Boys take request, Noir."

I shrugged.

"Hey! Everyone! Check it out!" Beast Boy did a little dig. "We are the Titanssss!! We are the Titansss! The mighty-mighty Titansssss."

"Holy Vishnu….," Raven murmured.

"Okay…man…stop that. Now."

"No! Seriously! I sing the first part and someone else does the echo! Ahem. We are the Titanssss!! Raven! Echo!"

"……"

"Psssst! 'We are the Titanssss'."

"Someone give me a violin to hit him over the head with."

"Would a steel rod do?"

"Sure thing, Robin."

"Eeep! Okay. Shutting up now," Beast Boy blushed.

I hand-signed again.

Cyborg made a face. "Huh? Who's 'Puffy Amiyumi'???"

"Is not the Bay most beautiful??" Starfire remarked.

"It's always beautiful, Star. What….you never looked before?"

"Hehehe…beautiful things are always worth looking at closely," and as she said that, she draped cuddlingly along Robin's shoulder.

The Boy Wonder blinked under his shades. He looked over at the others, biting his lip.

Cyborg smirked and shook his head. "You got yourself in a pretty nice hole there, dawg."

"Uhm…."

"Robin….did anyone tell you that your shoulder is most comfortable?"

"That's because you're taller than me, Star."

"Heheheh…," Beast Boy smiled. "My kingdom for a camera." A beat. "Oh wait! Better yet! We got Cy! Hey, light up your red eye, Cy! Hehehe…triple rhyme!"

I smirked.

"Pfft…go take a hike, B.B."

"I thought that was what we're doing."

Cyborg moaned. He looked Raven's way. "Hey Rae. Wanna cuddle?"

"Wanna get disemboweled?"

"Heheheh….I thought so."

"We're lucky to have such a nice beach," Beast Boy said. "I've been to Florida once before. Pffft. I don't remember what was worse. The tourists or the hurricanes."

"Hey!" Cyborg lifted a finger. "Remember last month when—like—on Friday the thirteenth, two storms hit Florida at once?"

"Um……no."

"Oh……well then……me neither."

"Florida…the phallus of this great nation…"

Everyone did a double-take and looked at Raven.

She blinked back at us. "What? Did I make a noise?"

"Only the best kind, girl."

"Whatever."

Starfire giggled.

"Ack!!" Beast Boy jumped. "I'm getting sand in my shoes!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gradually, we made our way back to the land ridge that took us to the Tower.

"Everything is always over so fast…," Cyborg remarked.

Raven walked alongside him. "Cyborg…that sounded very bleak and fatalistic."

"Is that why you're walking next to me and not Robin?"

"Robin's got an anchor right now," Raven glanced back. So did Cyborg.

Robin walked with Starfire leaning against him. Her eyes were closed. He glanced at us and mouthed: 'Could she be sleeping???'

"I dunno, man," Cyborg quietly murmured with a shrug. "If Tamaranians can spontaneously fall into a coma as a part of puberty…I'm sure they can walk in their sleep."

"Or drool in their sleep," Raven throated. "Be sure to wash that shirt by the end of the night."

Robin bit his lip.

"Well….if nothing'll shut the team leader up….it's a sleeping chick," Beast Boy looked at me and laughed. A beat. "I wonder if that explains why I'm always talking a mile a minute."

I smirked.

"Dude…I so envy you. When's Kara ever gonna visit?"

I thought about that. I scratched my chin. I shrugged.

"Do you even care?"

I hand-signed.

"Cy!! Translate, please!"

"Translate yourself, man. I'm going straight to bed!"

"D'oh!" Beast Boy looked at me. "Okay….so…I know! Show us what you'd do if Kara was to visit tomorrow and she's standing right before you!"

I had a disgusted look on my face.

"If necessary…use Raven as a template! Hehehe!"

"Don't even think about it."

"Come onnnnn! Show us!"

I scratched my chin. I gave in with a nod.

"Oh goody!"

I pointed beyond Beast Boy's shoulder.

He turned around. "Huh?"

I grabbed him from behind and gave him a murderous wedgie.

"DAAAH!!!"

Robin laughed out loud, waking Starfire.

"Nnnmghhh," the girl's green eyes fluttered open. She gasped with a hand over her mouth. "Good gracious! Beast Boy's underwear is attacking his spinal column!!"

Raven held a hand over her face and shook…not letting us see her forced repression of a chuckle.

Good 'ol Cyborg got a belly full.

"Okay…I must admit," Beast Boy's frown melted into proud smile. "That was to die for."

"Then do us a favor and die already."

"Ask that of Noir. I'm gonna stuff his sword sheathe with tofu in the morning."

I folded my arms with a suspicious smirk.

As Beast Boy readjusted…..himself, Robin remarked: "We should thank you, Noir. Now we know why you do this sort of stuff often. It's….relaxing."

I hand-signed something.

And this time, Cyborg did translate: "'It's relaxing not because of the walk…but because all of us are together.'"

Starfire giggled. "True. Very true."

"Well…let's retire," Robin said. "There's training to do tomorrow."

"Oh joy…"

Beast Boy caught up with us. "Dude! Noir, why'd you have to hack Slade into pieces that one time! You should have just given him a wedgie and he'd be twice as defeated!"

"I dunno, Beast Boy," Cyborg spoke. "Nothing rides an average villain than a good stretch of Myrkblade."

And even I had to laugh at that.


	109. Collapse

**109. Collapse?**

Robin sat up with a gasp.

He was sweating all over.

He pushed the covers off his lower body and panted for breath.

As he slowly calmed down, he ran his hands over his eyemasked face. There were hard lines pressed into his skin.

He inhaled long and hard…then sighed.

Silence.

He glanced at his bedside table.

He opened the drawer.

The same old photograph was inside. The faded snapshot from a bus terminal's security camera. An obscured figure, pixilated and monochromatic.

His fingers traced the edges of the picture frame with something akin to jaded longing…

"It's always hardest this time of year….."

A beat.

He gazed over at a half-filled duffel back waiting for him on a desk chair.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Autumn was coming.

I could smell it.

I stood atop the roof of the Titans' Tower.

A wind was kicking at me.

A cool wind.

I smiled into the air of late September.

There was something I terribly adored about the coolness of this region. Here in the northeast, coolness spoke of a different sort of relaxation. It was the crispness of Fall and the fruits of death. Far from the sensations that the Pacific winds had to offer.

I felt at ease.

I turned around and walked the small length to where my scabbard lie. I had finished morning meditation and laid it there for the time being.

As I strapped it back over my shoulders, I heard the throttling of an engine. Curious, I walked back to the edge and glanced over.

In clear view, the R-Cycle was zooming down the land ridge and towards the main land of the City. I watched as a familiar motorcyclist took off towards the suspension bridge.

I scratched my head and wandered over towards the stairwell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And in such a manner, you can amplify your sonic cannon by about tenfold!"

Cyborg beamed. "Wow…that's awesome, Star. Now where did you say one could find these acoustic crystals at?"

She smiled and held her hands behind her back. "On the Phonbar Moons of Vlenedock, of course!"

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Er….I think that's kinda outside of my driving range, Star."

"Hehehehe. You need not worry. I can acquire them for you sometime in the future."

"Well, allright! That'd surely help out in the battlefield! Thanks a bunch, Star."

"I welcome you."

I walked into the Main Room from the stairwell. I glanced Cyborg's way and hand-signed.

He looked at me from the couch. "Hmm? Robin? Yeah, he left minutes ago."

Starfire flashed him a look like she had no clue of that. "Did he truly?"

"Mmmmhmmm," the android nodded.

I raised an eyebrow. I hand-signed some more.

"Oh, I dunno. Back to Gotham, probably. He does this once every few weeks or months or whatnot?"

I still seemed confused.

Cyborg blinked at me. "Well…of course you know…………..he's got another life, man."

I mouthed: 'oh'. I nodded, but my black eyes were trailing under my shades.

"Heh…I know. It's always wyrd for any of us the first time we see it," Cyborg smirked. "But we gotta respect it, ya know? Heck, if I had an alternative identity…I wouldn't want everyone nosing in on my business or whatnot."

I glanced over at Starfire. She was staring off into space. She said:

"Did Robin say when he may be back?"

Cyborg glanced at her. "You mean he didn't tell you?"

"……"

"Er…..well…..can't be all that long. A few days at most. Remember last time? He was only gone for a weekend."

"Yes, that is true," Starfire said. Her gaze lingered on the floor….but suddenly and spastically lifted back up to chest level as she smiled: "Well…there are tasks around the Tower to attend to, are there not?"

"Um….sure."

"I shall quickly employ myself in such. Hail me on the communicator if I am needed for any eventuality."

"Take it easy, Star."

The Tamaranian floated away.

I looked in the direction that she had left.

Cyborg whipped out a remote and started flipping through channels on the t.v.

"You okay, Noir?" he spoke. "You look comatose."

I shrugged.

"Tired?"

I wasn't. But I yawned anyways.

"I know the feeling. You'd think summer would last forever and let us sleep. But nah….things have to get cold….eventually, that is."

I nodded.

"You seen B.B. around at all?" the android Titan asked.

"He's in the gym," Raven said.

I turned and saw her floating cross-legged besides the windows with a book. I hadn't realized she was there.

"What's he doing there?" Cyborg asked.

"Don't know. Don't care."

"Thanks for the extra info." Cyborg looked at me and smiled. "Wanna sit here and watch the tube with me, Noir? It's an all day Graham Kerr marathon on the Food Channel!"

I made a face and shook my head. I walked off.

"Heh heh heh…I'll call you when there's some sort of samurai special on, dawg." And he clicked the remote some more.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnghh!!" SWOOOSH!!! "Hyaa!!" SWISSH!! "HAA!!" SWOOOSH!!!

I stepped into the gym.

I froze………staring.

Beast Boy was pacing across the sparring mat with what was quite obviously a wooden training sword. It would appear that a certain green someone had been down to my room. And now everyone's favorite changeling was decked up in a white gi and a ridiculous red bandanna (actually, it was mine but it looked big on him) and was proceeding to practice some….inaccurate sword moves.

I smirked and leaned with a hand on my hip. Watching.

Beast Boy sliced the air, spiraled once, twice, caught sight of me—and lost his balance. "Waaaah---whoah!!" THWUMP!! He landed hard on his rear. The wooden sword clattered to the floor besides the mat. He winced.

I walked over.

"Er…..eheheh….hey there, dude," he uttered. I offered him a hand and he stood up, brushing himself off. "Um….I was just….er….ya know…."

I pointed at the sword.

He simpered. "I-I was gonna put it back."

"…………," I stared.

"R-Really!" he sweatdropped. "I w-was…"

"………," I smirked.

He breathed easier. "So….I was sorta…..ya know….."

I leaned my head to the side.

He swallowed and gestured. "Ya know…it's so cool how you and Robin swing those staffs around and I thought---'Dude, it'd be awesome if I could do that myself!' I mean, you never know when someday I might lose my power—though I seriously doubt that would ever happen cuz if it did then I'd be dead cuz I'd be reverted back into human state and I can't handle human state because of the age-old venom in my bloodstream and---"

I held a finger up. I walked over. I picked up the sword. I handed the hilt to him.

"……..," he hesitantly took it. "Dude….does this mean you're gonna show me how to use it?"

I smirked. CHIIIING!! I whipped out Myrkblade and held it in a specific pose. I pointed at myself then gestured towards him.

He blinked. "Oh!" he exclaimed. With a giggle, he twirled the blade into position. "L-Like this?"

I walked over and adjusted his limbs so that he took the proper stance.

"Er….this is rather uncomfortable….," his knees began to wobble beneath him.

I nodded. That was the whole point.

I then gestured towards myself and slowly pivoted Myrkblade around as I stepped forward stealthily.

He did his best to mimic me.

I then twirled the blade in slow motion, jabbed in reverse, then gradually brought the blade around from the side towards an invisible head.

Beast Boy followed along—but in the 'spinning' process, he all but fell down. "Whoah!!"

I caught him before he could collapse.

He blushed. "I look like a frickin' idiot, don't I?"

I smiled. I was patient with him. I guided him back into the starting position and we started over again.

I never meant any wrong to Beast Boy, but I highly doubted he'd be capable of learning anything from that 'training'. Much less overnight. I think all he wanted Especially from an 'older brother'.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg flipped through channels…..and flipped through channels……and flipped through channels…….

…….

"Do you ever stay on one station?"

Cyborg smirked without looking. "Is that book too boring?"

"You're a distraction."

"Okay. For one thing, I have the volume down super-low. For another….your back's turned away from the screen, girl!"

Raven groaned. She flipped a page in her book from where she hovered. "Distraction invades many, many dimensions."

"Yeah. I bet it does. Did it ever occurred to you that—with my cybernetic implants—I am ten times more receptive to audible and visual acuity?"

"Could have surprised me."

"Anyways, what's your deal?"

Raven closed the book. She 'swiveled around' in her hovering position.

"Why is it that you're always quick to assume that I have a 'deal'??"

"Aren't I always right on?"

"………"

"Just saying, girl….! I'll keep my mouth shut, if necessary."

Raven glanced at the far side of the Main Room. "Far be it from me to pry…but Robin really ditched this place pretty quickly."

"Far be it from you to pry…."

"….."

"What are you getting at, Rae?"

"I remember the same thing happening around this time last year."

"Yeah, me too, actually."

"Last year, it was late September when he left without much warning. It was like he was really adamant on going…..to his other life."

"Or maybe he just wants to be in Gotham," Cyborg shrugged. "Something tells me there's something about this time of year that makes him…..want to go back 'home'."

"How so?"

"Well, I can't explain it, Rae. I just feel it. Like from one guy to another. When you don't talk about anything but just do it…it means that there's something important about it. There's something very important to Robin about being back in Gotham this time of year. That's all."

Raven took a breath and nodded. "I sense something too. Robin is hiding something."

Cyborg laughed.

Raven glared.

"Isn't Robin ALWAYS hiding something?! Ha ha ha!"

"Duh," Raven droned. "But it's different with this. With today. With this same time last year."

"Yeah??"

"Robin's secret….his identity…," Raven said, "….it's always the fulcrum of his secrets. It's the last line of respect that he has for himself. Beyond ego. Beyond selfishness. He would give up his identity in a heartbeat if it meant protecting or saving any one of us in some bizarre circumstance that would require it. This I know as well. But there's something else he's hiding."

"Like what?"

Raven shook her blue head. "I don't know, Cyborg."

"Well…you think it's dangerous or something??"

"No, not dangerous," Raven said. A beat. She sighed. "But certainly….very painful….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy bit his lip.

He was sweating.

I effortlessly posed the meditative stance that he was supposed to mimic. I stood on one leg with my other brought to my knee while I had Myrkblade held out with a tilted body. I was so at ease, I could have been whistling.

Beast Boy in the meantime looked like he was having a seizure. He struggled to keep the pose for as long as I was. Three minutes.

I looked at him and realized he was about to die.

"I think samurai's school is outside of my scholarship, dude," he wheezed.

I nodded.

I trudged forward on one foot and lunged with my sword, twirling it and hopping back into a pose identical to the one we had at the beginning of the lesson.

No later than three seconds into the mimicry, Beast Boy collapsed.

"OOF!!"

I winced….then repressed a chuckle.

He shook his head dizzily and sat on his rear. "Well….maybe next time we can work on the 'slicing people's organs out' part."

I smirked and sat down beside him.

He panted for breath.

I patted him on the back and winked.

He looked at me. "All that posing and meditative exercise stuff…..it looks so lame on the outside, but it's really pretty freakin' hard!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Er…..lame in a good way?"

I shook my head.

He unraveled his bandanna and stared at the floor. A beat. He took a breath: "Who do you think Robin is, Noir? I mean…in real life?"

I took a deep breath.

I shrugged.

"I mean…..he can't be anything bad, right?" he looked at me with round, green eyes. "Robin wouldn't hide something from us that would mean we'd have to….I dunno….do him in or something?"

I smirked. I slowly shook my head.

He didn't smile back. He stared down at the floor. "It kinda….bothers me, sometimes. Ya know?"

I leaned my head to the side.

"Just….the whole secret identity thing. Who needs it? We sure don't. What's got Robin so stuck up? Why's he still using it and stuff? It's so….so stupid…."

A beat.

He sighed. "But….I'm not Robin. I should…respect his 'anonymity' and jazz." A beat.

Beast Boy looked at me.

He said: "You……y-you would tell us, Noir, if there was something in YOUR past that would be bad, right?"

"……." I stared at him.

"I mean….so that'd we help you and stuff if you needed it?"

"…………." I blinked under my shades. Slowly, I smiled and nodded weakly.

Beast Boy smirked at that a little. "Awesome, dude. It's nice to….be able to lean on each other, ya know?"

I looked off towards the far side of the gym.

A beat.

"Robin….I think he's a lot more alone than he needs to be…."

I had no response to that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"If Robin had something really bothering him…he wouldn't tell us, would he?"

"You're rather accurate, Cyborg."

The two stood across from each other with a cushion and a half separating them on the couch.

Raven's book was on a table.

The t.v. had been turned off.

"Sometimes, that guy really drives me up the wall," Cyborg admitted with a moan. He rubbed the human part of his scalp and spoke: "I mean…I understand he's seen a lot more action in the field of crime fighting than the rest of us. But it gets rather testy having to follow the commands of a little runt who's not only smaller and younger than me, but has his own egotistical thorns that brush up against the rest of us."

"Everyone has rough edges," Raven droned. "You should learn to deal with it."

"And I do!" Cyborg exclaimed. "And believe me—I trust Robin and all that he stands for. And in no way am I challenging his authority! I only mean to say that….well…having to do whatever he says and live up to his standards while he holds so many secrets from the rest of us seems—"

"Unfair?"

Cyborg looked at Raven. Slowly, he nodded. "Yeah….exactly…"

"I believe it is an illusion of modern society that fairness is indicative of life," she said. "I'm sure you—as much as myself—can relate to the absurdity of such a principal."

"Pretty grim, Raven," Cyborg smirked at her. "You still got secrets like Robin to hold?"

"I've never had secrets," she uttered.

Cyborg did a double-take at her. "What?! What are you talking about?"

She glanced at him. "What you see is what you get. There was never anything worth knowing or learning about me."

"But all those times Beast Boy or I ever pried—"

"I maintain that it is not **important** to know about my past," Raven said. "Our personal lives never have and still do not matter in the long run when it comes to our crime fighting."

Cyborg smirked. "Then why the sudden concern over Robin's 'painful secret'?"

"………"

Cyborg sighed with a slight smile. He folded his arms and looked off out the distant windows of the Main Room.

A beat.

"I've come to realize that—at this point in my life—all I should ever expect from life in terms of stability is the warmth of my friends around me. Not necessarily intimate friendship….but….just 'family'." He looked Raven's way out of the corner of his human eye. "And I wouldn't enjoy that sort of…camaraderie if I realized that my very same 'comrades' weren't wanting to do the same."

"What are you getting at, Cyborg….?"

"Well…it's sort of an off-topic way of my saying….," he smirked, "….you've been opening up a lot, Raven. And I'm proud of you. And if it helps at all to know….it makes me feel good."

"Feel good?"

"To be there for you, ya know?"

"……"

"When you and Robin first approached me about forming the 'Titans' and using this Tower that my dad built and all….I felt like life was gonna suck big time. Cuz I was stuck with a pair of dry sponges!!" He laughed. "You and Robin were so stuck up—if you pardon me—and just afraid to do anything but frown or kick bad guy butt. And….yeah…that's cool and badass and all, but I felt like I had no hope in supporting you all and being supported. Cuz when you fight for justice, you put your whole life into it. Your whole life and your whole emotion and….just everything. Too much than an average person an repress."

"Are you calling me average?" Raven glared.

Cyborg chuckled. "No, Raven. I'm calling you versatile." He smirked. "Cuz in the long run….you broke, girl. Don't think of it as a bad thing. Just think of it as a gradual way of….of….."

"Going insane?"

"That too," Cyborg smiled. "But more like…….learning to collapse. And liking it."

"…………"

"Am I going way over your head or something?"

"No…," Raven sighed. "I just don't…..agree with a lot that you're saying."

"You don't have to. Hell, you never HAVE to."

She nodded. "I'm guessing you're expecting Robin to collapse."

"Oh yeah. Heheh."

"You think he will?"

"You tell me, Raven."

"………..I believe that he will."

"And would you like that?"

"It is not an issue of my liking it or not liki—"

Cyborg held a hand up. "Let's try this. Would you feel like Robin's more trustworthy and acceptable if he were to spill his guts?"

"…………"

"Well?"

"Yes."

Cyborg gestured. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"But Robin's wishes are what matter most," Raven said. "As do mine."

"Of course. I know that quite well."

"Though, I must admit…..," Raven said, "….it is rather remarkable that Robin has maintained his secret identity for so long."

"What makes you say that?"

"With my empathy and your cybernetic detective skills and Beast Boy's senses—"

"He could be anybody in the world," Cyborg smirked. "As could you!"

"I already told you, I have no secrets," she droned.

Cyborg chuckled. "You mean…you don't have a secret identity??"

"No, I do not."

"No family or household with a dog and a big green yard waiting for you in Florida or something?"

"I don't have a family."

"……..," Cyborg blinked. "You…..you don't, Rae?"

She stared off into space.

He leaned forward. "Raven?"

She looked at him. "What?"

"You're…..without a family?"

"It depends on your definition of a family," she said emotionlessly. "I was trained by the granddaughter of Azar in the dimension from which I came, and in a way she served as my female guardian. But I was more-or-less foster-cared for by multiple priests and priestesses in Azarrath before arriving in this world. Most of those whom I knew in my childhood are either dead or exist in a posthumous state that defies all natural law on this plane."

"……..," Cyborg stared. His mouth slightly agape. "I….I-I had no idea, Raven. I mean….I….I-I assumed some things but……damn…….damn, that's tough."

"It is the past from which I come," Raven spoke. "It is a part of me, and I am not ashamed nor am I regretful for whatever perceivable 'tragedy' may have transpired in my past. I take that which is in my memories and make the best of it. As I'm sure you do."

"Yeah….," Cyborg nodded and took a breath. "I do."

A beat.

The android reached a hand to her shoulder. "Ya know….if you ever want to talk about it—"

"I don't."

He winced. He swallowed, "Well……just know that you have people you can talk about it with."

"You mean….to collapse with?" Raven asked.

He nodded silently.

She smirked a bit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Typing fingers.

Wires and code and plastic.

A brilliant white glare against dark shades.

I blinked my eyes. I had the laptop's monitor on its lowest brightness. Still, it was rather murderous to stare at. But I was used to such. Just walking outside on a summer day brought the same….minor 'discomfort'.

I sat cross-legged on the bed in my room, dressed casually in a black undershirt and black slacks. My other favorite color….

My fingers typed across the laptop, which was wirelessly 'connected' to the mainframe of the Tower's Computer.

I was presently searching the archives and coming up with .pdf files of the Gotham City Review. Multiple splash images of front pages flipped across the screen. The date of the newspapers….years going back and focusing on approximately that time of the year…

Late September.

Nothing of special interest crossed my black eyes, apart from the random robbery stopped by Batman.

But nothing pertaining to Robin.

And then I struck it.

My fingers froze amidst typing.

My black eyes narrowed.

Four years ago exactly—from the day following in September—was a cover page that detailed the capture and containment of Matt Hagen, a.k.a. Clayface. And sure enough, Robin was at the scene. But as the headline detailed, there were no specific information regarding how much of a part Robin played in the incident.

I narrowed my eyes and centered the file on the photo taken at Clayface's location of capture.

What I saw was the fuzzy image of a dark factory, plastered against Gotham City's nightmarishly trademark sky of blood red. And in the background of the picture—slender and haunting—was the shimmering visage of a lighthouse.

I took a deep breath and leaned back. I rested my arms behind my back.

A beat.

My eyes trailed towards the ceiling of my 'room'.

I had the entire height of the Tower above me.

I felt like such a hermit…and for the first time in ages, I felt bold enough to compare myself to Robin.

And I pitied the both of us.

A sigh.

I shut the laptop off and exited my room.

Heading upstairs…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through the elevator doors and into the Main Room.

I trotted towards the kitchen area with the thought of a sandwich on my mind….when I froze.

Starfire was sitting by herself besides the Window. Lonely and still. Staring….northward.

I stared at her.

"…….."

I leaned my head to my side.

For a moment there, I couldn't understand why she was so lonely….so still….so bored…..

And then I realized it was because her best friend wasn't there.

I took a deep breath.

A beat.

I forwent the sandwich and walked across the Main Room.

At the last second, Starfire turned and looked at me. She held a hand over her heart. "Oh! Noir! Excuse me….your quiet manner is still rather startling to me."

I simply smiled.

She giggled a little…then sighed. "I am out of things to do." A beat. She blinked and looked back out the window. "It is not that I desire chaos in this wondrous City, but a call to action would be most….time consuming."

I nodded. I slowly sat down on the side of the couch closest to her. I whipped out a deck of cards and started spreading them across the table for solitaire.

Starfire kept staring out the window.

I silently went about a game.

"……….."

"……….."

"……….."

"…………"

"…………the sunset on your planet is a strangely beautiful one."

I looked at her.

She glanced back at me from the windows. "No green. Only red and gold."

I smirked and mouthed 'green???'.

She giggled and nodded with her eyes pleasantly closed. "It has something to do with the air molecules and the way they refract the natural hue of our sun along the horizon. It is a similar equation as how your sunset is red and gold. Only, a different result."

I nodded.

A beat.

"The first time I ever truly sat down and watched a Terran sunset….I was told of how much I belonged here," Starfire spoke towards oblivion. Her hand reached up and pushed a lock of red hair over her left ear. She breathed in and continued: "I was told that nobody could ever take my place."

I stared at her from behind.

She hugged herself. "I….I wonder….am I lucky? Are there people around me who…..are unfortunate enough to not truly understand the solidarity of their 'place'?"

I swallowed and stared back at my cards. We both knew who she was talking about. Just….neither of us admitted it.

I continued setting up my game.

Starfire turned and looked over her shoulder. She blinked. She said: "Soul of the tear?"

I chuckled breathily and nodded with a 'somewhat' gesture.

She giggled. "It seems so simplistic a game. I wonder what the secrets are to enjoying it?"

I shrugged.

"Would you mind if I………watch you, Noir?"

I shook my head with a smile. I pointed to the chair across the way.

She slowly shuffled over and sat, smiling.

Pleasantly, she watched me as I went through a game. I tried my mute best to show her the simplicities of placing which card where. And at some point or another—she all but ignored the 'lesson' as she rambled on and on about….silly things. Silly things, like the 'idiosyncrasies of Terran vernacular' or the 'hallucinogenic properties of mustard' or 'the exaggeration of the process of capitalistically acquiring a sling' or many of Starfire's other little whimsical curiosities which she daily and emphatically shared with Robin.

Only, I was not Robin. But I was happily there to distract and absorb Starfire's isolated ramblings for the period of time it took for the true Boy Wonder to reappear…..and that ended up being only two days.


	110. Angel Spear Four part 1

**110. Angel Spear Four part 1**

I froze in mid step.

I gasped.

_Where was I??_

With bulging black eyes under my shades, I spun around to gather my bearings.

I was standing at the end of a long, metal hallway.

Everything was dark.

The walls were a dull, stone gray.

And it was cold.

I took a deep breath.

My breath wafted outward in a steamy haze.

My eyelashes felt frozen.

I hugged myself, teeth gritting.

Blinking…..blinking…..

I had my shades on. My uniform. Myrkblade was in its scabbard over my shoulder. My boots. My combat fatigues. My bandanna….

I was equipped to be somewhere and do something…

_But what???_

I looked around.

I saw the dead end. A solid wall of black at the end of the metal hallway.

_If I was walking forward all this time…did I come from the wall?_

I blinked.

I ran a hand through my black bangs. Everything felt cold…stale….numb.

Frozen.

_What was I just doing exactly???_

I squinted my black eyes. I stopped hugging myself. My metal fingers flexed on my left hand.

I took a shuddering breath.

Robin had come back from his time back in Gotham. Beast Boy was making tofu brunch. Raven had her nose in her latest vampire novel. Starfire was sending a transmission home to her family. Cyborg was calling me on the communicator…telling me about a drive he wanted to make that afternoon in the T-Car. It was a sunny day.

I blinked.

I looked around.

Darkness.

A thin hallway.

Dull…gray….stale….

Leading down towards some faint glow.

I took a deep breath.

I clenched my hands into fists….and walked forwards.

I felt drawn to something. But I didn't know what. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know what was happening.

All I knew was….it was dark. It was cold. It was stale…

I walked forward.

One boot at a time.

My breath floated in the air more and more.

My limbs started to get used to the sensation, despite the goosebumps.

I knew this was a strange place. I knew that I was aimless and clueless in this environment. But I also knew that….for some reason…..I was there for a **purpose**.

But I couldn't describe it. Neither could I describe the other awkward feeling gnawing at me.

_I wasn't alone……._

I bit my lip.

I furrowed my brow.

I approached what I had at first sensed was the end of the hallway.

But it seemed to….extend further. There was a faint, tip-of-the-tongue glow of dull gray light at the far end of the corridor. With each step I took, it drew away from me. It's not fun to play a game of hide-and-seek with light beams.

I took a deep breath.

I held my flesh right hand out.

I concentrated.

I warbled murk out from my fingers.

It swam in a current along the walls. It snuck down the hallway and covered the contours of the slabs of metal.

I felt for shadows that didn't belong in the darkness. Hidden figures. Shrouded masses.

But my extra senses picked up nothing.

Regardless, there was that slight inclination…

That feeling of not being alone.

I kept my walking at a cautious pace….

_Was I drugged and then just woke up? Perhaps this was a hallucination? Or was I transported somewhere?_

My world had become a little pocket floating around my ears. My own footsteps and my own shufflings echoed back into me. It was almost a deafening sensation. Unnerving.

_Were there any enemies of the Titans capable of……doing something like this to me? We just did in Mad Mod. And it couldn't have been Control Freak. I wonder if this had anything to do with that 'Master of Games' person that Beast Boy told me about…_

I took a deep breath. I was used to fighting enemies alone and doing things solo. But for some reason, I couldn't help but wish the Titans were there with me.

Regardless, I trudged forward.

The hallway stretched on and on. And after quite the trek, I truly did reach the end. Or at least, the end of one thing.

I stood at the opening of a tunnel into a corridor with multiple other tunnels beginning.

_A labyrinth??_

I sighed.

Even if I was to hypothetically get lost in a place like this…my one concern is how long it'd take to get out of there. And…would someone or something find me before I could?

As if on cue, there was a loud scraping/shuffling from my right.

I gasped and spun to look.

I extended my right hand.

I felt along the currents of murk with my spatial sense.

A body was coming…

There was a hissing sound. Something animalistic and chilling.

I gritted my teeth. With a huge inhale, I covered my body with smoke and disappeared into the shadows. In cloaked, stealth form…I flattened myself up against a wall and waited….waited….waited….

The scraping came louder….closer….

I didn't dare risk sacrificing some of my stealth to extend my spatial senses again. After all, I knew the….thing was closing in fast. I merely stayed cloaked in hopes of the stranger creeping by.

And as it came closer, my black eyes squinted across the interior. I slowly snaked a metal hand up and slipped my shades down a bit so my naked optics could get the best view amidst the obscurity.

And something……hairy came into focus. Shuffling across the hallway. With sinewy limbs under curtains of shifting white and brown fur. And I saw catlike fangs and slitted eyes of a deceptively bright blue. And claws that reflected in some unnatural light that wasn't truly there.

My brow furrowed. I bit my lip and pressed myself further against the wall.

The creature brushed by me. My nose tickled with the very edges of its whiskers. My insides shook in response to a deeply rooted vibration from the creature's being. Like an earthly purr. Deep and low.

I breathed slowly.

With a swish of a tail, the creature passed by with pantherlike grace.

And I was alone again.

I sighed with relief. I shook my head and ran a cloaked hand through my hair.

I turned about and aimed myself for the furthest tunnel to the right---

"RAAAAAWR!!!!"

With a glint of shiny claws, the feline creature pounced back down the hall…and right at me.

I gasped and ducked.

CL-CLANG!!!

Sparks flew from the cold walls of metal, illuminating the nearby vicinity.

The creature shrieked and flung two paws of serration down at me again.

I rolled out of the way.

SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!

Strips of metal ribboned off the floor from the strikes.

I ended from my roll in a crouched position.

The creature pounced again: "RAWWWAWWWR!!"

CHHHHING!!!!

I gritted my teeth and held Myrkblade out horizontally above me. CL-CLANK!!!

Six inch claws met the wooden obsidian of my blade. My eyes bulged.

I pushed against the monster.

It reared back with a hiss.

I stood up and spun into a fighting pose.

The giant, bipedal cat paced around me. There was a very…sentient grace about it. I could sense an expression of hatred and carnal hunger in its furry face. It stood on the full height of its rear paws. The thing towered eight and a half feet. Its pointy ears were nearly to the ceiling.

I slowly rotated to face the creature. I kept Myrkblade at ready. Breathing steadily….

It moved.

I moved.

SWOOOSH!!!

"RAAWWWWR!!!!"

The creature dove at me with both murderous paws of shredding power lunging.

I held my breath and---

SWOOOOSH!!!

--teleported behind it.

THWUMP!!!!

The creature collapsed against a wall. It shook its furried head and shrieked angrily.

But I was long gone.

_Screw that!!_

I blurred down the hallway on rushing feet. I took a right at a sudden turn and came to a large, enclosed room of metal leading off to three or four other passages. I snaked around the end of the hallway and pressed myself against the wall, panting. I craned my ears.

The creature was gaining distance on me. But my blurred movements must have….obscured my scent or something. The creature zoomed down the hallway I was just previously in. I heard its furious hissing and the shuffling of its mighty, furred limbs as it rushed down the corridor and on into obscurity.

I breathed easier….relieved….

And then a green circle of light encased my figure.

I raised an eyebrow.

FLASH!!!!!!

I was nearly blinded—but was too busy gasping for breath. A force field of bright green light had circled around my torso and--

WHUMP!!!!!

I was slammed back hard against a wall. I gasped for air. The energy field constricted. I tilted my head back in a silent scream. I twitched.

CLANK!!!

I dropped Myrkblade and all but collapsed into myself from the constriction.

A figure floated down in mid air.

A female figure.

She had furious, furrowed eyes of bright, glowing green. Her outfit was…a solid black jumpsuit with green shoulders, sleeves, and boots. And over her chest was the plastered image of….of….

I winced and strained to look with my exposed black eyes.

_Green Lantern??!!_

"Kalasistro denui?!?!" her alien voice thundered commandingly like a soldier or drill sergeant. There was immense power in her being. I finally took notice of the tiny ring on her right hand from which the constricting energy was circulating. "Makme remora thua?!"

I sweatdropped. I looked helplessly at her from my point of bondage.

Her glowing eyes narrowed. Dark black bangs dripped around her temples. I was too busy being strangled to take note of her beauty. She spoke again…slowly this time….and with a different dialect. "Madak-kakun heveretten nikkuka-na?!?!"

I struggled to get loose.

She constricted the green beam.

I was at my rope's end.

She gritted her teeth and—this time—snarled: "Who are you?!?!"

I reacted to that with a gasp.

Her eyes opened a bit. "You are from Terra Firma??"

I bit my lip.

"But you do not look Terran!!"

I wheezed.

She dropped me to the floor, but kept a 'picket fence' of green lantern light erected around me.

"Who are you and what do you know about this place?!" she demanded. "**Answer me!!**"

I rubbed my side and merely winced.

She eyed Myrkblade on the floor. She parted her beam and lifted it into the air with green tendrils. "Is this your weapon?! What were you going to do with it?!?!"

I sighed.

"Why don't you talk?!?!"

In a fury of frustration, my wrists blurred a set of hand-signs. She raised an eyebrow and touched down to the floor on her feet. "You……you…..can't talk?"

I fumed. Frowning, I yanked down the collar of my fatigues and pointed at the 'X' shaped scar around my neck.

She took a deep breath. "Well…that's just perfect." She mumbled and eyed the darkness of the interior around us. "Not only did I somehow end up in the belly of some god-awful beast, but I had to have a mute punk like you to run into."

I planted my hands on my hips and pouted.

She looked at me again and pulsed her ring, causing the green energy field to fluctuate threateningly. "Do you know anything about this place?? Yes or no??"

I shook my head.

She sighed. "Fitting. Let me guess….you were suddenly transported here without any warning?"

I leaned my head to the side with wonder. I gradually nodded.

"So was I…," she said in a low voice of thought. "I was in the middle of patrolling sector one-four-one-seven when I found myself between these accursed walls. At first, I didn't think much of it…but suddenly this hideous beast of fur and claws came in from another hallway and nearly tore me to bits!! I would have ripped it in half with my ring…but I need to find answers first. I need to know what this place is. And naturally the first sane person I find can't help me!!"

I clenched my fists….

….I relaxed.

I eyed Myrkblade on the floor.

I eyed the woman.

"Can you at least show me where you came from??" she asked. She gestured one hand while still holding me at bay with the other's ring. Behind her, a dark and furry object suddenly loomed. "Maybe if we compare our points of origin, we can uncover some of the mystery behind this place—"

I gasped. I tensed.

She tensed.

I teleported.

She closed the green field in a dome.

But she was too slow. I blurred through the temporary cracks in smoke form, materialized by Myrkblade, swept it up by the hilt, and jabbed behind the woman's neck.

She winced.

CLANK!!!

My blade stopped a paw-full of claws just behind her neck.

"ROWWRRRR!!!!" the feline monster shrieked.

The woman spun around. She gasped for a split second before forming a solid wall of green and shoving the monster back.

FLASH!!!

I jumped back, panting.

The creature roared while slashing and biting at the solid energy field. The green energy warbled and distorted at every bit of contact.

The woman grit her teeth and grabbed me by the shoulder. I gasped as she flew and dragged me along the corridor at a hyper speed with the shield of green trailing behind us. Half a minute later, we were several twists and turns away from the monster. We rested against a wall and caught our breaths.

"That's the second time I was nearly sneaked on from behind by that thing!! I swear…this labyrinth is putting me off balance!!"

I nodded, heaving for breath. She looked at me. She was ever so slightly shorter than I was. But she was quite obviously…..adult. Perhaps in her mid to late twenties. "Do you sense it as well? A stale feel to the air? Like everything is frozen and cold….yet not?"

I nodded. I sweated. I pulled my shades off and wiped my brow. My black eyes blinked open for a second or two.

"……," she stared at me. "You are Terran. And yet….you are not like the Earthling occupants of sector two-eight-one-four." I merely panted. I slipped my shades back on and shrugged.

She looked down the hallway and sighed. "Thank you. Apparently, you are quite gifted. I should have expected enough from you to nearly lose my head." She smirked at that.

I smirked as well.

She took a breath and said: "I am Katma Tui of the Green Lantern Corps," she said. "Sentinel of Sector One-Four-One-Seven. Is there any name that you have which you can give me?"

I scratched my head. I mouthed my name. But she obviously wasn't good at lip syncing.

"I see that this is going to be difficult….," she nodded. "Very well then. Your name is 'hey you' until I can learn anything else. Got it?"

I bit my lip.

"Good. Now follow me. The furthest we get from that creature…the best."

I couldn't help but nod.

We traversed down the dark metal tunnel. It was still cold. It was still stale. It was still….unnervingly paranoid.

"Whoever constructed this structure that we are imprisoned in…I sense a malevolent force at work," she thought aloud. "I have every reason for someone wanting to capture me and end my life. A member of the Corps is an easy target in ANY part of the galaxy."

I went bug-eyed at that. It suddenly occurred to me that where I was—however I got there—it had to have been space. As in outer….space.

Kansas was very far away.

"Any reason why you would be teleported somewhere??" Katma asked.

I scratched my head in thought.

_Mad Mod?? Control Freak?? Auugh…how many people have I met that actually have the ability to do this sort of thing to me?!_

_'You must not have a lot of enemies! Pretty amazing for a knight such as yourself!'_

I froze in mid-step. Blinking.

Katma crept on a few feet ahead of me.

_'What? Did I startle you? Ohhhh…I do apologize. Such was not my intent!'_

I spun around. Question marks formed over my head. My black eyes trailed the walls through my shades.

Katma paused in her step and looked back at me. "Um…..hey you????"

_'Do you happen to know where we are? I was enjoying an oh-so-heavenly sip of Nebula Tea on the veranda when suddenly I was in this gloomy habitat. Are you a resident of this domain?'_

"What's gotten into you?" Katma asked with a curiously raised eyebrow. "You seem like you're…hearing something…."

I glanced around some more. I blinked.

_Uh………h-hello?_

_'Hehehe. Hello there! My, aren't you the bashful type!'_

I jolted visibly.

"Hold on…," Katma raised her unringed finger and looked towards the ceiling. "I…..I-I hear it too…."

_'Ooooh! It is another one!! A woman! Hello, how are you doing today, ma'am?'_

I looked helplessly at Katma.

"A telepath…," Katma grumbled. She looked at me. "Guard your thoughts!"

_'Awwww……but I mean truly no harm! I only wish to meet with someone in this dreary place! It is awfully cold and dark in here! Would one of you please help me??'_

I stared into space.

_Tell me what you see around you._

_'A dark corridor. Gray walls. Everything's metal!'_

Katma grit her teeth and looked at me in response to that. "Are you….'talking' to her?!?!"

I held a finger up.

I concentrated.

_Any……thing other than walls and darkness?_

_'Um…I see many corridors branching off into many locations. Do you know where that is?'_

I smiled.

_I think so. Hold on._

"Sounds like she's in the spot that we both ran into the creature…," Katma mumbled.

I looked at her funny. She looked at me funny.

A beat.

"So you ARE hearing her??" she uttered.

I nodded.

"And….are you talking to her? I couldn't 'hear' you…but I could hear her…."

I shrugged.

"I suppose she's capable of one-way telepathic communication with non-telepaths…"

I started marching towards the direction from which we came.

"Hey you."

I stopped and turned around.

"Are you certain….you wish to go back?" she asked.

I nodded. I gestured something she couldn't possibly understand…but ended up just simply pointing in the direction of where the female telepath had to be.

"Then at least let me go with you…," Katma held up a glowing ring for emphasis and took the lead. "Punk kids think they're invincible these days. Especially Terrans!"

I smirked helplessly and followed her along.

As we trudged backwards, we kept an eye out for a furred demon. Neither of us were in the mood for a nasty confrontation.

_'You are both……heroes, are you not?'_

Katma glanced at me.

I glanced at her. She spoke aloud to the air: "Um…I suppose you could say that I am. I dunno about 'hey you' over there."

I stuck my tongue out.

_'You are both benevolent souls. I can sense it.'_

"If you're so good at sensing things and talking to people with your head….whoever you are….," Katma spoke as she illuminated the hallway with her ring, "…then maybe you can tell us how to get out of this infernal trap!"

_'But this place is not a trap!'_

"How do you know?"

_'I…I cannot explain that.'_

"Why not?"

_'I do not know how.'_

Katma groaned.

_'But…I sense that this is not a trap. It is like a place I have never been inside before. But it is a gathering place, is it not?'_

I narrowed my eyes.

_A gathering place??_

_'There are many diverse souls in this place. There are you two. And there is myself.'_

"And there's this hideous beast as well," Katma mumbled as she cautiously lead the way. "You ever sense that??"

_'Are you referring to Lidikins??'_

Katma and I exchanged glances.

A beat.

"Lidikins?!?!"

_Lidikins?!?!_

_'Hehehehe! Lidikins is my yeoman! She is most precious!'_

"You mean….that giant tiger thing is your….your servant??"

_'And pet, I suppose you could say. I brush her fur everyday. She is absolutely darling, is she not??'_

I made a wyrd face.

"Yeah…," Katma nodded back at me with a weak smile. "…just what I'm thinking." She turned around and bumped into a petite figure.

"EEEEEEEEK!!!!"

"HEY!!" Katma jumped back and aimed her glowing ring.

CHIIIIING!! I had Myrkblade out.

We froze at the sight of a teenage girl…cowering in a shimmering gown of lavender and ivory silk. At finding out she was not damaged, she lowered her trembling hands and looked up at us with a glowing, angelic face. She was a young looking thing—deceptively—dressed in the most absurdly feminine piece of attire. Frills…bows…lace…you name it. Estrogen splashed morbidly around her in a thin gown that accentuated ten times more beauty than she already (legitimately) had. If anything looked foreign in that place, it was that misfortunate child with her long, auburn hair and slitted eyes of alien amber. She blinked at us and uttered with a trembling lip the voice of the telepath:

"I…I d-do hope I have not offended you two greatly! Please….do spare my life! I will do anything!!"

Katma sweat. She panted and lowered her ring. "Malathastra menu yornui…." She snapped out of it. "In case you haven't noticed….yes, we are heroes. But we are heroes with WEAPONS and EDGY nerves!! Do NOT sneak up on us like that again!! We almost treated you as that unruly beast of yours!!!"

The girl bit her lip. Slowly, her amber eyes started to water. In a mew-like sound, she started to sob and covered her eyes with lace-gloved hands.

Katma furrowed her brow. She pushed a bang or two away and simply looked at me. I shrugged. I walked over and gently rested a hand on the sobbing girl's shoulder.

She hiccupped and leaned into me weakly. Dependently. "I….I-I'm sorry….it's just that….I am so very far away from home…and this place is so somber and frightening…and…and I c-can't find Lidikins for the life of me!! Oh…she'll never do well by herself in this awful, awful maze! She'll not do well at all!!"

Katma cleared her throat.

The two of us looked at her.

"Um…wh-what's your name, miss?" Katma asked.

The girl sniffed. She rubbed the tears off her rosy cheeks and squeaked: "Minnae….Minnae Metharsia."

Katma did a double take. "You don't mean…of the Royal Metharsia Family of the Outer Centauri Cluster?"

The girl blushed and wrung her hands in the hem of her skirt. "I….yes….I suppose my proper title is Princess Minnae of Metharsia-Centauri….but….it is not ladylike to b-boast!"

"Girl…ambiguity is hardly ladylike!" Katma grumbled. "Look. We're all stuck in here together. I'm trying to find us all a way out and the last thing I need is for a little prissy like you to get your royal telepathy stuck in our heads and confusing things!!"

"But I was only trying to reach out and find Lidikins—"

"I'm sure your….cat-beast-yeoman thing is quite fine!!" Katma cackled. "I'm Katma Tui of the Green Lantern Corps. I'll do everything in my power to protect you as a sacred member of the Metharsia-Centauri royal bond. In the meantime, Lidikins can wait. Follow my orders and I'll assure you safe passage outside of….where the Hell this place is!"

Minnae blinked. She glanced over at me. "And who is this gentleman???"

I looked at the girl. A beat. I looked at Katma. I looked at the girl again. I smiled.

_Noir. Noir from Earth._

"An earthling!" Minnae cupped her hands together and gasped with a happy smile. "I have always wanted to meet someone of your species and planetary ilk!" She leaned her head to the side prettily. "Are all males from your planet possessing in such…..luscious hair?"

I blushed.

"Eeep! How improper of me! Ahem….," she curtsied. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Noir." She then curtsied at Katma. "And you too, Madame Tui."

"Uh….yeah…," Katma glanced at me. "'Noir'???"

I nodded.

The female Green Lantern blinked. "………….yeah well…..whatever." She spun around and looked down the hallway. "Since we had to haul ass to get back here to you…we lost track of where we were going to begin with. Now I've got to start out all over again. Hey you—er, I mean Noir? Care to help me?"

I nodded. But as I took a step--

"What of the other?" Minnae remarked.

The other two of us stopped and looked at her.

Katma made a face. "Other?"

"Mmmhmm," Minnae nodded. "….," I looked at her. I looked at Katma. "You mean your giant cat thing?" the green-eyed guardian asked. "Don't worry. We'll find the furball later. Right now, we gotta get our bearings."

"No no no," Minnae shook her pretty head. "I am referring to the **other**."

"Other what?"

"Other hero inside this labyrinth."

My jaw dropped.

"There's someone **else** in this place?!" Katma remarked.

"Yes," Minnae nodded. A beat. She blushed and cupped her cheek with a laced glove. "Er….th-that is to say, he is not exactly a hero."

"Please explain…."

"Every time I try to reach him telepathically….," the princess frowned, "…he retorts with the most vulgar of words! I do believe he is displeased both with being stuck here and hearing from my constant, mental inquiries."

"Then maybe….um….you should give him a rest," Katma said. She started pacing off and the two of us followed her down the dark hallway. "Who knows, he may be the answer we have to understanding this place. And if that be the case, we want him in the best of spirits."

"I understand," Minnae sighed. She smiled at me. "I do suppose Miss Tui I our leader."

"**Captain** Tui, thank you," Katma emphasized. "And if you'll excuse me, princess….but it's only natural that I take the lead. I am with the Corps, after all, and it would do you and….Mr. Noir here a lot of good to learn from my experience in survival. Now…follow me this way."

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

Katma glanced back at me suddenly, frowning.

I put on a plastic smile.

She turned back and continued walking.

I sighed with relief.

As we three trailed down the hallway—Katma ahead of us and Minnae and myself trailing—the princess looked at me and I looked at the princess.

A beat.

She smiled.

_'I see that you are unable to talk. That is most unfortunate.'_

I winced. I simpered.

_I……uh……please excuse me. It's been a while since I've………'talked' to someone so instantaneously._

_'I understand.'_

She smiled at me and nodded her head silently. Her lips were closed in a pursing grin.

_'You are one defined by silence and patience. I can sense that from you.'_

_Uhhhh………y-yeah……_

_'You have also supplied me with an alias.'_

I made a double-take at her.

_How did you know—_

_'Your real name is Jordan, is it not?'_

_Yes. Yes it is. Jordan._

_'And Noir is……something you fight by?'_

_I suppose you could say that._

She looked concerned.

_'I am most sorry. I feel that you are……wounded.'_

_Not wounded…just…_

_'You feel that I am prying?'_

_Yes, to be honest._

_'I see. I shall refrain from now on. I see that you are someone of many secrets………and much pain.'_

I bit my lip and looked away from her while walking.

_'………but I must assure you of one thing.'_

_And what is that, Princess Minnae?_

_'Do not despair. Though you, Captain Tui, and myself may be in a rather dismal predicament…I do not sense that our friends—and your friends—are in peril. You need not worry about your companions. I sense that they are on the foremost in your mind right now.'_

I sighed heavily. I smiled.

_Thanks……seriously._

_'It is only my pleasure, Jordan.'_

_Noir._

_'I'm sorry. Jordan Noir.'_

I chuckled.

Katma looked back at me again.

I cleared my throat and looked serious.

"…..," she looked ahead while lighting the way with her ring. "Tell me, your highness….," she spoke without looking to Minnae. "What is it that you last remember before appearing here?"

"Before this dismal place??"

"Correct."

Minnae cupped her pretty gloves together. "Like I stated earlier, I was having tea in the veranda. I was planning on dressing up in the dresses given to me by the second daughter of the Grand Centauri Clan last night…when suddenly I found myself here. Were you both similarly interrupted during leisure?"

"Well, I was in mid-transport between planets….," Katma stated. "…but I suppose you could call it leisure."

Minnae looked at me. "And what of you, Mr. Noir?"

_I was just…walking through the Tower._

Minnae leaned her head to the side. "Tower??"

"Tower???" Katma glanced back and made a face.

I simpered.

_On Earth………on Terra Firma, I belong to a group of crime fighters called the Teen Titans. Our base of operations is the Titans' Tower._

Minnae looked at the Green Lantern. "He says that he works alongside the 'Teen Titans' on Earth. He must have been about to meet up with his companions when he came here."

"Hmmmmm," Katma furrowed her brow in thought. "John once told me of another group on Earth like the JLA called the Titans…."

I raised an eyebrow.

Katma shook her head. "Well…we're a little hard pressed to find a pattern here."

"I feel like there is a slight link," Minnae said.

"Like what, your highness?"

"Besides the fact that neither of us were preoccupied at the time of transportation…," the princess smiled, "…we are all people of relatively noble stature. I am a princess. You, Captain, are a sentinel. And Mr. Noir here is a vigilante!"

"Extremely contrasting occupations in my book," Katma said.

"Would you not agree that there is similarity in our varied strengths?"

"No offence, Princess….but I can level entire space dreadnoughts with my power ring. 'Noir'-somebody here seems pretty adept with a sword. But yourself? Unless you wish to sick this 'Lidikins' pet on someone…your strength is anything but brutal."

I looked at Minnae.

"Strength comes in many forms," Minnae pleasantly replied. "Would the Green Lantern Corps expect any less?"

I looked at Katma Tui.

The woman bit her lip "You may be right. Whoever brought us together had a reason. And as it seems—unless one of you is hiding something—"

"I would sense it," Minnae interrupted.

"…….." Katma continued, "…….none of us is responsible for this labyrinth, nor our being here."

I glanced at Minnae.

_What of the fourth person?_

Minnae looked at me.

"The fourth person?" she spoke aloud. "Why do you not ask him yourself?"

Katma froze in her spot. She turned around and looked at Minnae. "What do you mean by that?"

The girl pointed a dainty finger. "He is merely beyond that wall…."

Katma and I turned and faced a section of metal bulkheads. There was a light, clanking sound echoing from the other side. Katma illuminated the section of wall with her ring. She growled.

"Dammit….it won't let me open a portal through. I can't figure out the configuration of this metal!"

I walked over silently. I gently placed my flesh fingers over it. I rested my ear against the cold, stale material. I concentrated.

And almost as soon as I started 'listening' closely….the pounding from the other side stopped.

A beat.

We all looked at each other.

"Um….," Katma leaned her head to the side. "…what on earth could he be d—"

_**BLAM!!!!!!!!**_

SMASH!!!!!_  
_  
I gasped as my body flew back from the exploding metal and ricocheted off the wall on the other side.

Minnae shrieked and hid behind a startled Katma.

A low, deep-throated voice rumbled from the other side: "Fraggin', yellow-bellied rats!!! Wait till I get my hands on your cruddy behinds!! Nobody locks up the Main Man!!!"

SWOOOOSH!!!

SLAM!!!

A huge, muscular figure of pale-skinned and red-eyed testosterone landed in the hallway after having jumped through the hole from the adjacent corridor He jerked back his head—spikey black hair exploding everywhere—and in a flash he had a gun raised and aimed at the first target he could see.

Minnae.

"Eeep!!" the princess quivered.

The zombie-like monstrosity—decked from head to tow in an outfit befitting a punk biker from Hell—smiled a deathlike grin. "Wow! Look how pretty that thing is!!" A beat. "I want to shoot it!!"

He pulled the trigger on his mammoth gun.

SWOOOOOSH-SLASH!!!

I charged in with an upswing of Myrkblade. CLANK!!!!

POW!!!!

His gun blew a hole it the ceiling.

"What the tap-dancing Hell?!?!" the monster-man gasped. He growled at me. "Ya little bat fart!!"

BLAM!!!! I gasped and barely jumped out of the way as his lightning-fast draw struck the floor beneath me.

I dove, rolled on the ground, and stood up in the middle of the hallway a couple of yards down with Myrkblade posed to block.

"HA!!! It's always fun when they're too fast to hit on the first round!!" he smiled psychotically and aimed again, yelling in his pro-wrestler voice: "Hope you're not lead intolerant, asshole!!"

BLAM!!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

I blocked. CLANG!!!!

I slid back six feet from the impact. My boots burned into the floor. I panted for breath and desperately blurred and teleported—barely avoiding the secondary blasts. "HA HA HA HA!!! Hey, this is fun after all!!" the alien beamed. He fired at me constantly. "What's wrong, Shadow?! A long way from your Peter Pan?! DANCE!!"

FLASH!!!!

A cylinder of green encased him and squeezed the gun from his grasp. "Awww what the f---"

SWOOOOSH!! WHAM!!!

He was slammed up against the wall.

"OOF!!" he winced, his solid red eyes glaring inside of black sockets. "Frag it!! There's always a demigod in the mix—whoah!!! Rowwwwwr." He grinned as Katma flew before him, restraining him with the energy field. "Hey there, cutie," he winked. "What's the ring mean? You married to anyone I haven't killed yet?"

Katma Tui snarled. "Lobo….the entire galaxy is looking for you…"

"Pfft!!" the wicked albino cackled. "And what good will it do for the galaxy to find me?!?! Heaven and Hell took their picks…and I was tossed back into the sea of destitution!! And speaking of which, wanna spawn with me like a good little fish, baby??"

I stood up, panting. I looked over at the restrained alien man in a mixed feeling of exhaustion, confusion, and shock.

Katma leaned forward towards the captive. She was frowning. "Just what is a scumball like you doing in this claustrophobic nightmare?!"

"Hey!!" Lobo sneered. "I was hoping you were gonna tell me, toots! The Hell that I know…it's you creeps that built this place and lassoed me in like a frickin' king of the bovine!! Well, shit on you morons!! The Main Man doesn't do house calls—NRKKKK!!!"

Katma constricted the green energy around him like a huge, emerald fist.

"Spill your beans!! Tell us what you know!! NOW!!"

"I…. don't…. know…. a…. single…. frickin'….. thing!!" Lobo wheezed. "All I know is that I'm stuck here in this oversized closet with the rest of ya!! I'm in the middle of a bigass bounty right now!! I can't afford to go on field trips in closetland!! Not to mention the fact that my hog is missing is really starting to piss me off!!"

"Worthless piece of filth!" Katma growled. And she flicked her wrist, causing the green energy field to close in all the way. The chamber echoed with the sickening snapping sound of Lobo's shattering ribs within his body.

"WAAAUGH!!!" he wheezed and vomited out a torrent of blood.

Minnae shrieked. I gasped.

"Don't worry…," Katma dropped the bloody carcass of Lobo and leaned her hands to her hips. "He'll get up. Just watch."

I stared in horror.

The mangled body of Lobo slumped to the floor. After a few seconds, he twitched all over. The snapping of his ribs resounded again….but this time in some sickeningly odd reversal. Soon he was hacking and coughing but altogether regaining control of his lungs. He stumbled up to his feet and shook his head as if he had merely taken a dive into his own blood and needed to shake dry like a dog.

"Heh…I love a girl who collapses my lungs on a first date."

"You're lucky I don't just rip your head off," Katma snarled. "Even as a bounty hunter, you must know how valuable your ass is in over two hundred intergalactic nations."

Lobo smirked. "Is that a come on?"

Katma pointed a glowing finger of green. "Millions have died thanks to your infamy. It'd do me a lot of good to kill you right now."

"But you won't because you can't," Lobo shrugged. He walked over—constantly under the Green Lantern's eye—and picked up his gun from the floor. "And also…maybe in some really bogus fashion…you actually need my friggin' help in getting us all out of this cockeyed mess!"

Katma stared. "Plus…you are more valuable alive in the intergalactic halls of justice."

"Sweet cakes….I've not been alive for a long time. Read a history book….then tell me all about it. I never did learn to read. Ha!"

"Right now—as much as I hate to admit it—the important thing is to find a way out of this mess," Katma groaned. "Regardless, that means certain necessary precautions." She aimed her ring.

SNAP!!

Lobo's gun fell into pieces.

"HEY!!! What's the big idea?!?!" he snarled and held up his fists. "Why you stuck-up, dominating, she-skunk!!!"

CHIIIING!!!

Lobo stopped in place. I held Myrkblade to his chin, glaring.

He smirked. "What's with the overrated phallic symbol, pipsqueak?! I was only playing!! Was merely gonna suck her ovaries out with a straw. Ya know. Fun times!!"

Katma side-glanced at me. "Stay out of this, Noir. You have no idea who we're dealing with here…."

I glared at the female Green Lantern.

_I deal with threats as I choose……_

Minnae spoke up: "H-He says he deals with threats as he so chooses."

I smirked.

Lobo went cockeyed. "Who said what?! I didn't hear anything!!"

"He thought it," Minnae explained, blushing.

"Okay….look….," Lobo pushed my sword away and held up his hands. "As much as I love a leisurely game of charades and all, this is all seriously crappin' me!! What in Satan's underpants is going on here?!?!"

Katma began: "We were hoping you—"

"—would tell us!" Princess Minnae finished with a giggle.

Katma glared at her.

"Looks like I have myself here a couple of winners," Lobo smirked.

"We were all transported somehow into this place spontaneously," Katma explained. "Tell us…were you doing anything of any major importance at the last time you remember before appearing here?"

"You mean besides sitting on the Krapper?!?!" Lobo laughed. "Ha ha ha ha!!"

Katma shook her head in disgust.

"Nothing special, Missy," Lobo gave a thumb's up. "Again…I had a bounty to take care of. But I was just starting on that. Been a good long time since I smashed someone's sorry-ass face in. And now that I'm cooped up in this hellhole and my hog's missing…I think it's due time I started breaking craniums into talcum powder!! Someone give me a cigarette."

"Cigarette?" Minnae made a face. "Do you mean a death tube?"

"Call it what you want, chick," Lobo snapped his finger and pointed. "Whatever burns my lips will do just fine!"

"I don't know WHY in the universe I thought you might have something productive to tell us!" Katma moaned.

"Oh, and you think I'm here for shits and giggles myself?!" Lobo frowned. "While we're at it…how about trying to answer some of MY frickin' questions?! Like why on earth am I stuck here with Minnie Mouse, a Samurai Ray Charles, and a talkative member of the Green Lantern Corps?!?!"

"I do believe we are all here for a purpose!" Minnae cupped her hands together and smiled pleasantly. "We are completely different in our natures. And yet we are very similar in our uniqueness!"

A beat.

Lobo raised an undead eyebrow. "Say what??"

"Don't ask," Katma groaned and rubbed her temples. "She is full of ideas…"

"Mr. Noir! At least you agree with me?"

I scratched my head. I sighed. A beat. I smiled.

"What's with you, squirt?!" Lobo looked at me. "Cat got your tongue?? That's never supposed to happen until the honeymoon, ya know. HA HA HA!! You get it?!?! Ha ha! Honeymoon!! Cat! He—"

FLASH!!!

Katma shoved him against the wall with a frustrated 'anvil' of green energy. She looked at Minnae and I.

"I honestly have no idea what we are to do now…"

"Companions!" Princess Minnae emphasized. "What matters is that there were four of us to begin with and now we are collected!!"

"What is she babbling about??" Lobo groaned, standing up.

"She's a telepath," Katma said. "She's detected four entities inside this place from the get-go. With the exception of her furball, of course."

"Sprechen sie what?!?!"

"Lidikins!!" Minnae giggled. "My companion!!"

Katma's green eyes narrowed. "A beast of a guardian. Like a giant, two-legged tiger."

I charaded 'fangs' with my fingers.

Lobo scratched his spikey head. "Uh huh…….dude, did I land in the fraggin' looney bin or what??"

**"Incorrect. This is a sanctuary."**

The four of us contrasting characters gasped at once.

"Okay…," Lobo looked straight up. "Who invited God??"

**"You have all finally passed the initial test. We shall proceed on to phase two."**

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

I blinked. I watched incredulously—along with everyone else—as the walls of the labyrinth around us faded away and a whole new….'plane' of existence rushed up underneath us like a whole new world on visible strings and--

FLASH!!!

I spun around.

We stood in a bright-gray interior. A room of sorts. Circular, aerodynamic, futuristic.

Alien.

Katma Tui narrowed her eyes.

Minnae pensively clasped her fingers together.

Lobo scratched his head. "Um….so who invited us into boredom factory??"

**"I am responsible for your being here."**

The four of us spun around.

Minnae gasped.

Katma stepped back, her ringed hand raised subconsciously.

I squinted my eyes as a bright white aura emanated from the center of the room. The bright gray cloud fizzled in on itself and the brilliant fury dimmed to reveal a tall, graceful figure standing in our midst. It was extremely….difficult to describe the entity before us. I saw its skin…yet, I didn't see its face. And what piece of it I could see appeared to be there and not there at the same time.

I suddenly felt very….very insignificant.

**"Welcome, brave ones, to the Great Implosion."**

"The Great What?!?!" Katma made a face. "Who are you?! Where is this place?!?!"

"Not where…," the figure leaned his…hers….its head to the side. "When."

"Duaaaah??" Lobo shook his head. "This sure as Hell better not be a pop quiz in math! I skipped right after third grade. Heh…kinda hard to attend school after blowing it up."

**"I cannot explain in any of your native tongues the identity of my essence. It is safe to say that I possess nothing. And I am not I. We are we."**

"Er….okay….," Katma nodded. A beat. She looked over at Minnae. "You getting anything, your highness?"

Minnae shook her head. "I sense a great power from this entity!! But I am far too weak to gain any alternative thoughts from within! We are merely subject to what it tells us."

**"And we shall endeavor to explain the situation at hand. For as destiny determines it, you four are needed for a very important mission."**

"Mission?" Katma exclaimed. "Excuse me….but none of us chose to be here to begin with. And we're not mercenaries for hire!"

"Heh…," Lobo smirked and cracked his knuckles. "Speak for yourself, sweet cakes."

**"If there has been any defining moral precedent throughout the whole universe, it is that to those whom are given…much is required."** The being held a hand out towards us as it spoke. **"You four have been bestowed with great powers—whether or not you have chosen to accumulate such. But regardless of your desires, there is great responsibility to be had. I am certain that each of you understand this."**

I took a deep breath and slowly nodded. I slowly glanced over at the others through my shades.

Minnae seemed to understand.

Katma hesitantly folded her arms and looked off.

Lobo was chuckling. "Responsibility! Heh! That's a rich one!"

**"Lobo. The last of the Czarnians. Though your reputation has had its fair share of heartless murder and terrorism, your brute force and penchant for directly confronting the opposition will be priceless in the task at hand. Your powers defy the laws of life and death. To you…mortality is a game. And you have the ability to play it well for the sake of good."**

"Heh…why thanks a lot! You wanna come over to my place sometime?!" Lobo winked. A beat. "Er….you are a 'she', r-right???"

The being's 'head' turned and faced Katma.

**"Katma Tui. Native of Korugar. Elite member of the Green Lantern Corps under the Guardians of Oa and in charge of the protection of sector one-four-one-seven. Your strength and proficient use of the power ring is exceptional. But your leadership skills are far more magnificent. You shall be the authority to oversee the accomplishment of this mission. Your maturity shall be the stability upon which this task shall lie."**

Katma leaned a hand on her hip. "Sounds simple….do we have a choice??"

But the being went on. To me this time.

**"Noir. Agile Earthling. The latest edition to the Teen Titans. Your vigilance against crime is praise-worthy. And your fighting is nearly unmatched. Your speed and agility in combat is what the team shall need in overcoming surprising obstacles. But far more valuable is your honor and diligence. You are the perfect servant. And in this case, you shall be the perfect soldier."**

I blushed a little and bowed. I looked pensively at the others.

The being faced Minnae next…

**"Princess Minnae Metharsia of the Metharsia-Centauri Royal House. You are famous and revered throughout your galaxy. Your beauty is exceeded by nothing, save your wisdom. Let no expert fool you. Your telepathy is the finest in your nest of the stars. Your intellect and perception will be the guiding light for your three companions. And your withheld strength shall be the wildcard for any emergency situation."**

Minnae bit her lip. "But…I-I am not equip for conflict with any force whatsoever!! I have always have yeomans or guardians to protect me! I-I'm too sc-scared to imagine what would happen t-to me on my own!

The figure's head tilted. **"Your gifts are far more expansive than you are willing to admit."** A shimmering hand stretched out. **"All you must do is wake up to them."**

Suddenly, bolts of bright blue from the ceiling flew down and zapped the princess.

She shrieked and rubbed her arms as if she was burnt.

Katma growled. "Hey!!! Ass!! Leave her alone—" In a green streak, she flew towards the being….only to be knocked back by a wall of light. "Ooof!!"

**"Please. Merely observe."**

I ran over to Katma's side and helped her up. We both watched in horror.

The girl twitched and winced. "Eeek!! Please!! Stop it!!" She gritted her teeth and clenched her amber eyes shut. "Don't!! That's not nice!! You're making me angry!! You are **making me angry….**"

FLASH!!!

Minnae's eyes opened. Tongues of flame energy vomited out of her optics, and soon she had cat eyes. Fangs shot out from her teeth. Then---

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

Sparks shot out from Minnae's body this time. The effeminate dress and accessories were gone. In the princess' place stood a very familiar, burly beast of white fur and snarling jaws. It shook and growled with feline ferocity. "ROWWWWWWWR!!!!" It glared at us with blazing cat eyes of fire and pounced with drooling jaws.

SPLASH!!!!

A white energy field kept the creature at bay.

The two of us flinched.

Lobo merely whistled. "Bad pussy!!"

"Lidikins…," Katma mumbled. "She and the Princess….they're—"

**"The same,"** the being spoke. **"A mutagen in the bloodline of the Metharsia dynasty assures them of instant devolution into the beastly, feline identity of eons passed."**

As the being spoke, sparks of yellow shot from the ceiling and penetrated the pantherlike monster's body. It started to thrash and fight less. Sedated, it panted and crouched on the ground.

"All that time it was her…," Katma smirked. "Heh. The princess has a bite after all."

"It's a good thing I didn't kill that cat when it first pounced me," Lobo folded his arms. He smirked. "It's a lot funner hearing the babe shriek when she dies! Hahaha!"

Katma flung a green, translucent mace into his chest.

WHAP!

"OOF!!"

The last of the sparks danced over the beast. A dome of bright light encased it. Magically, Minnae reappeared. Panting. Sitting on the floor in her shimmering gown like a deflated flower.

I walked over and knelt by her side. I placed a concerned hand on her shoulder.

She blushed. "I….I suppose I have some explaining to do…"

I smiled.

_Naah……you're pretty much covered._

She smiled bashfully back at me.

Katma Tui walked up. "What is it exactly that you want from us? What is this mission?"

**"It is a task that you have all been finely chosen for. It has not been an easy or simple process. We had to go through many rigorous trials to bring you four to where you are now."**

"Care to give us the geographical low-down, Mrs. Flashbulb??" Lobo grunted.

**"Again. You are at the Great Implosion,"** the being extended its limbs while speaking. **"It is an infinitesimal moment in time. An eternity in a single instance. And that single instance is securely located at the crunch point of the two fluctuating halves of the universe."**

"Eh….huh?" Lobo seemed to have a brain melt.

**"The universe—in definitions of the third and fourth dimensions—is a constantly folding and flexing entity. Time and space curve to the full extent of its elasticity. When there is no more room left to move, the curve bends back in the other direction until mass is no longer capable of being contained. Because of this principle, mass expands outward once again and the entire fluctuation is repeated in an endless loop."**

Katma gasped. "The Big Bang. The Time Loop. So it is true…"

**"Time is as tangible as space. It goes backwards and forwards. Identically in each throe. And just like space, there comes a point when time becomes too dense for it to remain stable within one frame of existence. At such a point, time and space collapse. But the collapse cannot happen in a frame that is infinitely dense. A paradox results, and the final outcome of differentials is a repetitive expansion. But within the paradoxical crunch, there exists—in as much as one can call it 'existence'—a realm not defined by time or space. This is that point in paradoxical non-time. This is the Great Implosion in the fulcrum of the Universe. You four stand now in the Sanctuary, built between the flexing of the endless loop of all that 'is'. And the reason that you four stand here…is because we have called you."**

I leaned my head to the side and thought of that. It made some sense. The cold. The staleness of everything. The out-of-my-element paranoia. This was a place outside of time and space. No wonder it made my skin crawl…****

"And who are 'you', exactly?" Katma asked.****

**"Nameless and bodiless….we are the combined spirits of all identifiable forms of sentient life within the border lying dimensions upon which even you four exist,"** the being said. **"We do not know who created us. We do not know how we began. And we do not know how we will end. All we know is that we are. The only element that truly defines us is Life. And because of that, we have dedicated ourselves to the protection and preservation of all that Life stands for.**"

"Heh….," Lobo chuckled. "Doesn't sound like my type of crowd. You sure you hired the right errand boy, Casper??"

**"The fact that you are here speaks for itself,"** the being nodded. **"You have all been selected from your specific pocket in space and time for a purpose. A purpose that shall be fuilfilled. For that purpose is absolute. And that purpose is to counteract the elements of Death. For Death—and its agents—are the true enemy to what we are."**

"How fascinating….," Minnae blinked. She stood up to her feet beside me. "We are to….fight Death itself?"

**"Death is as mysterious an entity as we are. For as long as we exist…Death also exists. And Death is constantly fighting to snuff out Life, which is our prime element. To answer the call to fight Death, we have chosen to oversee to the preservation of all that is. Even the realms of mortality that abound within infinite layers outside of the Implosion."**

"Oh, I see…," Katma smirked slightly. "In a way…you too are guardians…."

The being nodded. **"We are—in such a cause—the Sentinels to the Angels."**

"Angels??"

**"You. You four are the chosen Angels of this mission at hand. A most noble mission. A mission to preserve a specific event in history. A history with an outcome for the most part favorable to the elements of Life, in spite of the cost and sacrifice needed at hand."**

"Sorry, bub. But we're no angels," Lobo smirked. "Well…maybe Miss Strawberry Shortcake over there. But I seriously don't want a part of some dumbass history lesson! I want my hog! I want my weapons! I want out of here. Now!!"

**"Lobo. Even if you so desired to leave. You would not be able to. There is no perceivable 'space' outside of this Sanctuary. And there is no 'time' for which you could possibly leave in an instantaneous fashion as you so desire…"**

"Er…," Lobo's red eyes bulged. "You mean….there's no space and there's no time right now? Dammit…I left my Rubik's cube at home!!"

**"I know this is all quite hard for the four of you to perceive. But please understand that you are right where you should be. And everything is thusly as it should be. The twenty million four hundred thousand and seventy eight times we attempted this meeting prior to now all failed. But finally we have achieved a successful meeting with all of your lives in tact and have no need for a complete reversal."**

"Whoah whoah whoah….wait a second…," Katma held her hands out and blinked her green eyes. "You mean to say that the four of us have…..b-been here in this very same labyrinth and room over twenty million times before?"

The being nodded. **"And on each occasion, your abruptness and confusion caused the deaths of each other. It was thusly necessary to repeat the meeting until all of your successfully survived in an outcome that promoted piece and common understanding. Such a goal is now realized."**

Minnae bit her lip. "I've….just died a bunch of times and didn't know it??"

I felt chills up my spine.

**"You have…but not in any facet in which you could possibly perceive it…,**" the being explained. **"You are yourself. You are alive. And you have been drafted for this mission." **The entity looked at everyone and spoke on: **"On this mission, you four will not just be angels. You shall be Angel Spears."**

"Angel Spears??" Katma remarked.

**"Yes. For—as much as you are preservers of life—you are required to deal as much force as possible to accomplish the means set before you. Even forces of lethal nature."**

"Ooooooh," Lobo rubbed his hands and grinned. "I may like this idea after all…"

"You're asking us to kill people???" Katma remarked.

**"I am asking you to fight a battle for us. A battle against Death."**

"But how does death counteract death?! Two wrongs don't make a right!!"

**"A common misunderstanding of mortal beings is that life is aligned with 'right' and death is aligned with 'wrong'. Though Death may be our common enemy, it does not prove that Death is an ill thing for the universe. Dichotomy is the endless parallel upon which the perceivable dimensions hinge. To deny this is to corrupt the balance of the universe. As Angel Spears…you are to protect this balance. You are to fight the forces of Death and its agents, the Demons. For you four, a specific time and place in the very same galaxy and relative time that you share has been chosen. Do not fret…for this is happening everywhere and all the time all at once. The forces of Life against the forces of Death. Angels and Demons interceding on their elements' behalf. Sometimes we win for Life. Sometimes they win for Death. As Angel Spears, you must not concern yourself with the likelihood of victory. You must instead focus on accomplishing your task with all of your strength. It is imperative that you do so."**

Minnae looked back at Katma and me. "I….I-I guess we have a job to do…."

Katma sighed long and hard. "I've always been a protector of the peace. And this is all way beyond me. But something tells me….even if I had a choice…there is something transiently necessary about my involvement here." A beat. She groaned and lowered her eyelids. "I do concur. I'll help out the best that I am able."

Minnae spun back to face the being and smiled. "And I shall endeavor to assist as well!"

I took a deep breath, smiled, and nodded.

The being looked at the last 'Angel Spear'. **"Lobo. You seem hesitant."**

"You're damn right, I'm hesitant!" he pointed at himself. "What's in it for me after all of this crap?! The Main Man's busy, ya know!!"

**"You may fear not…,"** the being spoke. **"…you shall be greatly rewarded for your assistance."**

Lobo raised an eyebrow. "Rewarded??"

**"Indeed. Voluminously."**

Lobo grinned evilly. "Well allriiiiiight. Heh." He smirked at me and pointed at the being with his thumb. "And to think I was just seconds away from fraggin' this dopey Nirvana dump to Guacamole with my spare plasma boomstick!!"

I sweatdropped.

**"Then it is settled. Allow me to briefly explain the mission."**

"How briefly exactly?" Katma raised an eyebrow. "Certainly we are entitled to know the nature of our actions?"

**"To the extent that you understand what you are to do,"** the being said. **"We shall be transporting the four of you into the middle of a planetary invasion on a sphere not too far from your galactic habitats…and not too long ago previous to your chronological signatures. As some of you may be somewhat familiar with each other and realize…you are both from the same plane in time and space. Angel Spears have always been drafted in such a fashion."**

"Okay," Katma Tui nodded. "So what are we getting into?"

The Being waved a graceful hand.

A huge map splashed against a curved wall. It showed a line of forests at the edge of a huge set of canyons. In the Northwest was an urban sprawl with giant spires of alien nature. Slowly moving specks of armies and battle machines could be seen as if through the fish-eye of a satellite camera.

**"Evil invaders are raiding this planet from orbit. The natives' have technology and warrior fury competent in defending their home. But the drive of the villains is far too strong. They have broken through the galactic defenses, and a contingent of warships have entered the atmosphere and are joining a battalion of invasionary ground forces surrounding the Capital City of the planet's culture. As history dictates, one of the enemy ships is being shot down in the canyon region just outside of the jungles to the south of the Capital. Inside of that ship are a handful of prisoners native to the invaded homeworld. Historically, they shall rise up and escape from the spacecraft. And with them shall be computer data stolen from the ship itself that are pivotal in bringing down the galactic armada of invasionary spacecraft. Your mission, Angels, is to protect these escapees. You must assist them in their flight from the crashed ship, through the jungle, and into the Capital City where they can process the data and bring the invasion to a hault. To do so, you must protect them in traversing through the ruthless infantry of the enemy…along with the line of artillery that the forces have assembled around the City…and finally the occupation around the spires of the Capital itself."**

Minnae gulped.

Katma flexed her fingers. "Sounds simple enough. When do we move?"

**"It is not that simple in reality…,"** the being said. It looked at us firmly. **"As history dictates, this occurrence takes place over a span of six hours minimum. For that sake—and in order to conserve our precious time-jumping energy—you are being given only six hours to see to the safe passage of these escapees."**

Katma's jaw dropped.

I went bug-eyed.

Lobo smacked his forehead. "You've got to be friggin' kidding me!!"

**"You are Angel Spears. And as proven, your powers are more than enough for the task at hand. Even given the time constraints."**

"Yeah, I know….but…," Katma murmured, "….only SIX HOURS?!?!"

**"You shall accomplish this. History demands it. And as it stands, the forces of Death are on the invasionary force's side. Expect Demons at every turn as you push on through. And do not lose track of the fact that the safe delivery of the escapees and their data is the sole purpose and point of victory in this mission. All other lives are necessarily expendable and second to the need to accomplish this mission. No matter how many enemies or allies may get in your way—as Angel Spears you must break through and fulfill the objective. For such you will be heroes…as much as you shall be reapers. It is your destiny."**

The being flicked its wrist.

Four cylinders rose up from the metal floor and rested among us. On each was a silver bracelet, perfectly shaped to fit our arms.

**"Garb yourselves with these. They are your failsafes…"**

Minnae and I slipped our bracelets on without questioning. Katma and Lobo were a little hesitant.

"What are these fruity things anyways??" Lobo mumbled, fingering a red button on it.

**"Do not press that!"** the being exclaimed.

Lobo glanced up at it.

The being leaned its glowing head to the side. **"It is meant for a last resort. For each of you. When or if your own powers happen to fail you, press the red button on these sleeves once in such a time of need."**

"What will happen?" Katma asked, finally slipping hers on.

**"You shall be imbued with the essence of the Angel Spears. You will become the fiery sword of justice incarnate. But only for a limited time. And each of you can only use them once. Again…they are for last resorts. Trust us when we tell you that you shall be confronting many foes. And many enemies at once shall have you as targets."**

"I don't need no friggin' button of joy to kick ass!" Lobo spun a spare pistol in his hand and posed for some invisible camera, grinning. "Just give me something to shoot!"

"I do hope we are together in this….," Minnae shuddered. "As much as Lidikins may try to help me…I-I'd still be helpless alone…"

I gave her a reassuring smile.

**"You all shall be dropped in close approximation to each other besides the canyon. From there…you must regroup and infiltrate the crashed prison ship. Assist the escapees inside. You shall be prompted from thenceforth what to do."**

"Everyone…," Katma breathed in and faced the rest of us. "Follow my lead. I've lead people into the hearts of battles before. I'll know what I'm doing."

"What if we get lost?!?" Lobo grumbled. "Not that I mind of course…I'm a one man Main Man!! I'm just in it for this 'voluminous reward' babe. Hah hah!"

Minnae wrung her hands together. "I-I feel that it is my duty to….t-to provide communication for us all?"

"Can you relay our thoughts to one another?"

"I-It might take some concentration, but y-yes…," Minnae blushed.

Katma smiled. "Glad to have you on our side, your highness." She looked at me. "Think you're ready for this, kid?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. I flexed my flesh and metal fingers.

FLASH!!

I was suddenly blinded when my shades came off.

I flinched and squinted my eyes.

"Whoah….you're some wyrd freak under all that dark exterior!!" Lobo exclaimed, holding my glasses.

With a blurred hand, I snatched my shades from his grasp and—frowning—planted them back over my black eyes.

"You look like a black-eyed pea. No…better yet! A squirrel! Heh! That's what you are from now on, Mr. No-Talk! Squirrel!!"

I pouted.

_Only Kara can call me that!_

_'Oooh! Who is this Kara??'_

I gasped and looked at Minnae.

_Hey! No peaking inside my head!_

"Hehehehe…sorry," she giggled.

**"Prepare to be dropped in…,"** the being said. It drew away into obscurity. The room darkened. The staleness around us turned into a wyrd tingling sensation. **"…let the fury of the Angel Spears guide you."**

Katma took a series of deep breaths. It seemed like some sort of focused battle meditation.

All I could do was tremble. I was still young…

"You think they give tour guides on this planet we're going to?" Lobo asked.

"Cut the jokes," Katma snarled. "You report to me now. If I give you the signal—or Minnae relays my mental commands—you obey. Got it, zombie-butt??"

"Hey hey hey!!" Lobo shrugged and grinned. "If you wanted to flirt with me, babe, all you needed to do was ask!!"

"You'd better wave to me the first time we meet on the battlefield," Katma glared. "Or else I may be tempted to squash you and call it a 'war casualty'."

"Heh. Not on a first date!"

"I-I can feel it!" Princess Minnae gasped. "We are descending!"

I gasped as I felt the universe rise up through my bowels and shove up into my head.

"Something tells me this is gonna cause underwear stains…," Lobo groaned.

And we were……gone.

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**T-Minus: Six Hours.**

Location: Thick Jungle.

Humid air.

Distant explosions.

Mortar fire.

Shouts and pounding and cries echoing in the branches.

I gasp.

My black eyes open wide.

I'm standing under a green canopy.

Thick branches of tropical leaves dance before me in a hot wind.

Something soars overhead.

I look up.

A trailing object. _A rocket?_

A scream---

BOOM!!!!!

An explosion mere meters behind me.

The ground shakes and I fall hard to my chest.

WHUMP!!

I wince.

Branches and rocks fall all over me in a shower.

Then something streaming, warm, and wet.

Th-Thump!!!

I look to my right.

I gasp.

A chunk of someone's arm has rolled off of me.

I jump up to my feet.

My torso is drenched in green liquid. Thick and warm.

Blood.

I pant.

I spin around.

What's left of three exploded bodies pile up behind me.

I step backwards…hyperventilating.

Something soars overhead.

And…

BOOOM!!!!

Closer this time.

A tree falls over.

Splinters fly past me in squishing streams, almost piercing my cheek.

I stumble into a low-hanging branch and unsheathe Myrkblade instinctively.

CHHHHIIIING!!!

I pant.

I look around.

My black eyes dart about my shades.

_Where are the others?!?!_

_'I am attempting to contact them now, Noir!'_

_M-Minnae?! Where are you?!_

_'I do not know! I am surrounded by foliage and there are explosions all around me!'_

Same here. We're both in the jungle that the glowing person told us about. Katma and Lobo have to be close by.

_'Are we supposed to regroup by the crashed ship??'_

_Yes…but where is it?!_

_'Look!'_

I glance around. Panicked.

_What?!?!_

_'On your wristband! The one with the forbidden button!'_

I hold my right hand up. I do a double-take.

Numbers and letters in perfect Terran text splash before me across the elastic material. It is like liquid crystals of an LCD screen. There is a flashing arrow pointing me to the right and marked **'East. Distance: 0.38 miles.'** And beneath that I read the ominous text….**'T-Minus: Five Hours, fifty-eight minutes.'**

I gulp.

_The person was right. We don't have forever to do this._

_'What should we do?!?! I still haven't contacted Captain Tui yet!'_

I take a deep breath and look up at the sky.

A beat.

_She would want us to regroup at the ship. Follow the arrow on your wristband. Meet at the crash site!_

_'And th-then what??'_

_I have no clue. But something tells me that we'll find out. Holler if you need anything. I'll come and help you out if necessary._

_'Understood. Thank you Noir!'_

_Hurry!_

I turn about until the arrow flashing on my wristband points me eastward. And I start running.

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, fifty-seven minutes.**

**Location: Jungle—Rough Path**

I sprint down aisles of trees upon trees.

My lungs heave.

Everything is hot.

Sweating.

Humid.

I can still feel the blood on my jumpshirt and fatigues.

Soaking through.

Sticky…

I grit my teeth. Cries all around me.

War cries.

A native tongue.

I pant and pant.

I glance upwards.

In my bobbing vision, I see something beyond a late-afternoon sky. Tiny pinpricks of exploding light puff and splash in random spots along a halo-like cluster surrounding the planet.

_A space battle………  
_  
The armada is colliding with the planetary defenses high above us as I run……

_But aren't I supposed to run into ground forces??_

I hear a moaning sound to my immediate right.

I skid to a stop.

I look over, panting.

There are two figures against a palm-like tree. One is injured…lying on his back and clutching what's left of his lacerated stomach. His green eyes are thin and leaking with green tears. His flaming red hair is shredded and tossed about. He's on the verge of death.

The second figure huddles over him, holding his hand and sobbing. Another male. His leg is injured. He takes one look at me. Green eyes brimming with tears. After a beat, he registers my image and frowns…two specks of red, elevated eyebrows furrowing. He jumps up into a hovering position and his hands glow a furious green as she sneers: "N'gul thratta!! L'menal bakta thatsu'm!!"

I gasp.

My lips part.

_Tamaranian……_

A shadow over me.

The man looks directly upwards and gasps. "Nu X'Hal!! Gord'n thretta'm!!!"

ZAP!!!!

A bolt of bright blue sails through his body.

Green blood flies.

The young soldier lets out a sputtering shout and falls dead to the floor before me.

I jump back.

I look up.

A reptilian creature with a jet-pack of red metal hovers down and glares down at me. Dark eyes narrow and sickly yellow teeth show as it lets out a shriek and points a glowing spear at my body.

ZAP!!!!!

A blue stream flies at me.

I grit my teeth and twirl Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!!

The energy beam flies off into the jungle canopy.

The creature shrieks and fires again.

ZAP!!!!

I blur to the left, run forward, teleport, and solidify in a spiraling swing of Myrkblade.

SLASH!!! CH-CHIIIINK!!!

I slice off one of the metal wings.

The invader gasps and hovers unevenly.

WHUMP!!!!

I kick him hard in the chest.

He goes flying into a tree across the clearing.

WHUMP!!!

He shakes his head, groaning.

A whistling sound.

I look up.

A missile is sailing down.

With a gasp, I charge out of the clearing on blurred legs.

I hear the creature behind me shrieking long and shrill and then--

BOOOM!!!!

The ground shakes.

I wince.

The creature sounds off no more.

I keep running straight ahead. I spot fallen bodies of Tamaranians and the reptilian creatures all around me. Scattered randomly throughout the forest.

The sounds of cries and explosions becomes louder and louder.

I look at my wristband.

Text flash: **'Distance: 0.03 miles.'**

I look up.

The end of the line of jungle is approaching…

I pierce on through.

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, fifty-two minutes.**

**Location: The Plain of Flight**

I emerge from the line of trees.

Everything goes into slow motion.

I am panting.

My black eyes twitch.

I see a brown plateau sloping into a canyon.

Fallen spacecraft and burnt artillery lie smoking in piles all around.

And scattered throughout are reptilians and Tamaranians fighting.

Bodies streak through the air, shouting in their native tongue and launching starbolts at invaders in their jetpacks. Soldiers battle hand to hand on the ground. Mortarfire and laser cannon fire exchange from rock ledge to rock ledge. The battle is disorderly. Every man for himself. Bodies strew the floor. Burnt flesh and mysterious alien blood fills the air with a pungent odor.

I want to throw up.

And then…

A rumbling sound.

Time resumes.

I come to a stop, panting.

I look straight up, clutching Myrkblade in a trembling hand.

It is coming.

It is falling.

Burning on the sides with hot-red friction.

The battling pairs of invaders and defenders look up and shout in shock and surprise.

A huge dreadnought of a spacecraft plummets to the ground. The air shakes with its arrival. The air heats up. It reaches the edge of the canyon first…and….

I flinch….

**PLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Earth and dust fly up in dual fountains as the cutting-sharp head of the elongated spacecraft strikes the ground first and slices its way through solid rock. Bodies in the way are either obliterated or tossed aside. Huge lumps of rock and stone soar into the air and become gargantuan hail that rain down on desperately fleeing soldiers—crushing their bodies like juicy insects.

I turn and run.

I blur.

I take on as much form of smoke and steam that I can. But it's still not fast enough.

The dreadnought rumbles over me.

Then—in utter horrifying proportions—it upends. The backside tips up and over. A huge metallic groan fills the air like some giant ancient god from the seas and a huge metal lever is lowering down on me.

I look around.

I spot a crevice.

Three or four shellshocked Tamaranian soldiers are already huddled inside it. They look helplessly at me.

A shadow covers my figure as I dive forward and teleport-fly into the crevice just as everything comes crashing down.

**RUMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!**

And all is dark.


	111. Angel Spear Four part 2

**111. Angel Spear Four part 2**

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, thirty-two minutes.**

**Location: The Plain of Flight – Crash Site**

"…….."

Cr-Crumble….

"………."

Crummmmmmble!

I grit my teeth.

I strain.

I push the small boulder out of the way.

CRUMP!!

It crashes down into a tiny crevice of rock.

I pant

My lungs heave.

I wipe my brow and look around.

Pitch black.

I take my shades off.

With black eyes firm, I peer around.

I am in the shadow of the crashed ship.

The tiny crack in the ground has protected me at the last second.

On either side of me is solid rock. Walls of a thin, little ravine.

I look straight up.

Almost in jumping distance is the belly of the settled ship. The roof—actually—for as memory serves me right, the spacecraft flipped and teetered over before finally collapsing on top of us.

_Us……_

"N'tal nu jereblorg thatta…."

I peer around. Black eyes blinking.

Four Tamaranian soldiers creep out of the hiding place where we remained safe from the thunderous crash. They peer in shock and horror at the predicament we are in. They also stare uncomfortably at me…and my eyes.

I take a deep breath. A beat. I simply turn around and creep towards the end of our little 'ravine'.

"Havork j'nu ferabloggan lu!"

I ignore whoever it was. I reach a flesh hand up and feel the surface of the crashed dreadnought's hull. It is cold an alien. An invading body from the frigid depths of space.

I groan.

I lower my eyes and concentrate.

_Minnae?? Minnae, are you there??_

Silence. Audible and mental.

_Princess Minnae?! It's Noir! Please respond!!_

Nothing….

_Dammit……_

I grit my teeth.

I hold my right hand out and peer down at the Angel Spear wrist band.

**T-Minus: Five Hours, thirty minutes.**

I bite my lip.

I lower my wrist.

With a sigh, I unsheathe Myrkblade.

CHIIIIING!!!

Green lights. Four of them from behind me. Illuminating the ravine.

"N'Torrak liin!"

I look back at them.

They eye me apprehensively, starbolts at ready.

I wave a metal hand and mouth: _'It's alright.'_

I turn around, raise Myrkblade, and slash into the hull.

CLANK!!!!

I try it again, more force this time.

CLANG!!!!!!!

I take a breath. I close my eyes. I meditate. I charge my limbs with pulsing murk. I let smoke course through my fingers and into my blade.

I open my black eyes. Smoke dances out of my optics as I twirl Myrkblade, bring it back, and blur it forward in a slash.

CRAAAA-AAAACK!!!

I form a huge tear in our piece of the hull.

I take a breath and swing another charged slash with Myrkblade.

CRACK!!!! CRKKKKK-CKTING!!!

Sparks fly. Black shards of the hull litter the floor beneath me. A strange light from the other side starts to seep through.

I pant, leaning on my blade.

One of the soldiers walks up past me. He kneels and feels the crack that I made. His fingers feel the laceration.

A beat.

He looks back at me. "Hakka thorgan blub. Nu saat." He smiles.

I simper back.

He looks over my shoulder. His face is firm. "Vordan'm." He motions with his red head.

Another Tamaranian walks up. He brushes me back with his arm.

I take a few steps in reverse and stand by the others.

The two soldiers stand side by side. The first utters something in command to the second. Both set their feet firmly in the ground and aim at the crack I made in the hull. Their hands glow bright. And….

FLASH!!!!

A huge hole is made in the hull.

Immediately, all four Tamaranians dash in…floating.

I make a double-take, gulping. I blur in last.

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, twenty-nine minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Outer Walkway**

The four soldiers hover in a circle, starbolts ready. The dark hallway glows a bright green as they aim down both ways, eyeing the interior for enemies.

Silence.

They relax.

They touch down to their feet and continue looking around.

"H'jaataal nimerole ti…" the leader of the four utters. "Nisu…"

I saunter into the hallway, squinting and blocking the light from the starbolts with my hand. I slip my shades on and peer down both sides of the interior. The Tamaranian soldiers start talking to each other in hushed tones behind me. Probably organizing their thoughts. Strategizing.

I glance down at my wristband on my right hand.

The arrow points me diagonally towards the wall of the hallway passageway to my right.

**Northeast. Distance: 0.01 miles.**

I take a breath.

_I'm close………but to what exactly?_

Or who?

Regardless, I hold Myrkblade up at ready and start wandering down the passage way.

Then from behind me….

"Nu!! Nortakka h'tal vurugait?!"

I pause and peer over my shoulder.

All four soldiers are looking at me. Perplexed….

"Nu lathlorg basu fera??"

I waved them off with my metal hand and continue walking.

"Der sakka!!"

I sigh. I swivel around--

They're practically in my face.

I blink.

_They're following me…._

"Havork guden'ni san."

I raise an eyebrow.

The leader points a finger over me in some obscure direction which I felt figuratively represented: 'the ship'.

"Gord'n thretteraat."

I bite my lip.

The leader points at himself. "Tamr'n." He points all around. "Gord'n." He points at me. "Nu???"

I exhale and shrug. I mouth something indistinguishable and point at the scar on my neck.

The leader leans his head to the side. He fingers my neck….then groans. "Siss'm thrie…" He turns and looks at the others. "Ni cadda vorg'n thriett."

The others nod, looking at me.

ZAP!!!!

A blue pulse of energy slams into a wall besides one of the soldiers.

They gasp and shout in Tamaranian. They aim starbolts past me.

I spin around with Myrkblade raised high.

My black eyes widen under my shades.

Three reptilians with the same trademark jetpacks and red wings of metal rush down the hallway with sparking war spears. They hiss and charge mercilessly at us.

"Gord'n threttu!!" the leader of my little squad shouts.

_Gord'n???_

I narrow my eyes.

The reptilian faces become distinguishable.

They aim their spears.

I gasp.

_Gordanian!!_

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAP!!! ZAP!

I spin Myrkblade, deflecting two of the blue beams.

The four Tamaranians dodge the third and let loose their starbolts.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!! FLASH!!

The Gordanians shriek and run for cover.

More starbolts fly.

I dash forward, moving almost as quickly as the green pulses of energy. My feet blur and I drag Myrkblade along the floor. Sparks fly. I grit my teeth. I reach the first Gordanian and swing the broadside of my sword into his chest.

WHUMP!!!!

He bends over, hissing.

I twirl and slash off his metal wings.

CH-CHTING!!!

I kick him in the rear.

WHUMP!!!

He teeters forward and collapses into another Gordanian soldier.

Hisses. The third one fires at me.

I duck the blue laser, gasping.

SWOOOOOOSH!!! One of the Tamaranian soldiers flies in with a heavy fist.

WHAM!!!!!

The Gordanian recoils from the blast.

The Tamaranian flies naturally behind him and grabs the Gordanian from behind with wrenching arms.

The Gordanian struggles and twitches in grasp.

The Tamaranian hovers and pivots the two so that the Gordanian's chest is facing the other three soldiers.

All of them charge up starbolts.

I gulp. I dash out of the way.

"Nu forblogger!!!!"

"YAAAAH!!!"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!

All three starbolts impact in the Gordanian's chest. Purple blood flies in a huge splash. The Gordanian croaks and falls limp in the one Tamaranian's arms. The soldier drops him, heaving and panting in some sort of righteous bloodlust.

Then…

More hisses from down the hallway.

The four soldiers hover up with starbolts charged.

The leader brushes the sweat and purple blood off his brow. He shouts loud and thunderously: "Thrack'n de X'Hal!!!"

"De X'Hal!!!"

"De X'Hal!!!!"

"RAAAAUGH!!"

They soar down the corridor in four bolts of green fury. Charging the enemy.

I pant.

I look down at my wristband.

The arrow is still pointing northeast…which happens to be where our passageway is taking us.

I shrug. I twirl Myrkblade and dash down the hallway after the four Tamaranians.

_When in Rome……_

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, twenty-two minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Junction Corridor**

I rush out.

I skid to a stop.

There are…bodies moving everywhere.

Reptilian and Tamaranian.

I glance around. I count mentally.

Four Tamaranians…..

_Eight Gordanians!!_

The Tamaranian soldiers shout at the top of their lungs, entangling themselves with and exchanging starbolts with the overwhelming Gordanian onslaught.

_Warriors to the core…_

_They're not going to survive this!!_

I look at my wristband. I eye the illuminated arrow pointing me into the core of the spacecraft. I look at the claustrophobic, airborne battle. I bite my lip.

SWISSSH!! I twirl Myrkblade and rush at the first Gordanian-Tamaranian coupling I see.

I jump…and…

SLASH!!!!

CRACK!!!

The enemy's spear flies apart.

The Gordanian hisses in shock.

The Tamaranian soldier fighting him growls and socks him hard in the face.

POW!!!

Meanwhile, I land and blur towards another fight.

A Tamaranian and a Gordanian are twirling in mid-air near the ceiling. The Gordanian grabs the soldier in an awkward position and prepares to bite down on his neck with reptilian fangs.

I blur my feet. I run up the wall. I leap off it with a mid-air slash.

SWIIIISH!!!!

I sever the Gordanian's jetpack in two. Its body lurches downward. The Tamaranian takes control with his natural flight and flings the enemy into the wall.

I land in a crouch.

Panting.

_I don't want to kill…this is not my war……this is not my war……_

I look across the way.

Two Gordanians are overcoming a third soldier.

I rush over.

The fiends raise their spears at the struggling defender.

I clench my teeth.

Smoke dances out of my eyes….

FLASH!!!

I teleport on a curtain of smoke and solidify in front of the two. I slash Myrkblade out in a horizontal arc.

CL-CLANK!!!

Their spears snap apart.

They hiss and--

FLASH!!!!!

With two hands outstretched, the Tamaranian behind me sends a starbolt into each face of the offenders.

I pant and look at him.

He smiles and nods his head. "Caclutta firm'n dyet!" He flies off and joins the others four in combating the last four.

I charge murk to blur over and join them when—

_'Noir?! Are you there?!'_

I gasp.

_Minnae!!_

_'You are safe, Noir! I am elated!'_

_Where's everybody??_

_'I cannot say. Things became confusing ever since the ship crashed!'_

_Tell me about it……_

_'Did you see the ship crash land?'_

_Yeah. I was beneath it._

_'Beneath it?!?! Were you all right?!?!'_

Uh huh. Hold on.

I twirl Myrkblade. I blur forward into an attack.

A double cluster of four Tamaranians and four Gordanians has formed to the far side of the interior. Two Tamaranians are shoved back, forming an opening.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I dive through it, Myrkblade swinging.

The Gordanians hiss and--

CL-CLANK!!!

I smack Myrkblade hard across both helmets like a ricocheting stone over a pond. I kick one in the stomach and smack another hard in the side with the broadside of Myrkblade, sending him plunging into a third Gordanian. The Tamaranians quickly make mincemeat out of the forth.

And all is quiet.

I pant, leaning on Myrkblade.

The Tamaranians cheer.

Two of them even pat me hard on the shoulder, smirking.

I simper.

_'Noir, what is going on?? Are you okay??'_

_I'm inside the ship. More or less battling my way to the prisoners. The place is crawling with Gordanians._

_'Gordanians??'_

_Well, this is Tamaran isn't it? Or some Tamaran world??_

_'That, I have noticed. But I have not seen a Gordanian close up. They only meet other races to obliterate them!'_

_I think they're the invasionary force. The prisoners must also be Tamaranian._

_'How do you suspect all of this so much?'_

_I……I have a very close friend who is also Tamaranian……She's told me a lot about her planet and………I-I think I might know when and where we are._

"Nu! Vablorg de j'nal frat!" the leading soldier points and commands to the other three. They start creeping down the hallway. One or two glance at me.

They are still heading in the way I need to go, according to the Angel Spear prompt. I can't tell if they are taking this mission up spontaneously or if they too are trying to find the prisoners. But then again, we had all been caught underneath the ship when it collapsed.

_'Perhaps then you will be of further assistance to this mission?'_

_It all depends. Where are you?_

_'I am with a small contingent of……I suppose Tamaranian soldiers.'_

_You suppose?!?!_

_'They possess long red hair and green eyes.'_

_You suppose right…_

_'We are approaching the space ship. They judge me to not be a threat. They're keeping me along as a way to protect me, rather than abandon me on the battlefield.'_

_How do you know all that?_

_'I can interpret what they're saying.'_

_You understand Tamaranian??_

_'No. My telepathy reveals the intention of their verbalizations.'_

_Oh……_

_'I may likely be seeing you soon, Noir.'_

_What about Katma and Lobo?_

_'Captain Tui is in the ship somewhere. That at least, I know. Mr. Lobo…I am unsure of. He won't respond to me. He is most stubborn.'_

_I could really use his help right now._

_'With what?'_

…………_Reptile stomping._

_'Huh??'_

_Never mind. Keep in touch…as much as a telepath can keep in 'touch'. The group of soldiers I'm with is more or less heading towards the destination. I may get to the prisoners first, if I'm lucky._

_'As long as we all stick to the mission, I feel that everything shall be fine. But we must make haste! Almost an hour has been elapsed!'_

_I know. Crashing ships sorta do that._

_'Take care, Noir.'_

_Take care, Minnae._

I focus my attention on my surroundings.

I realize that the doors of the corridor rise three feet from the floor. The Tamaranians that re walking have to hop over the ledges.

I raise my eyebrow in confusion….then I remember that the ship we are in is upside down. I smack my forehead.

"Nella j'ttaden vagaglorben thrie…" a soldier utters.

"Yut!" the leader raises his hand.

All of them hault.

I freeze as well.

Silence.

My black eyes dance about under my shades.

A long, metal door stretches along our left side from the ceiling/floor.

The leader Tamaranian holds up a glowing green hand.

"N'mal….," he mutters.

A beat.

**KABOOOM!!!!**

The wall is blown down.

I cover my eyes from debris. I hold Myrkblade at ready and peer through the settling dust.

The dust settles.

But instead of charging forward with starbolts flying, my 'comrades' smile and let out a cheer.

I blink at them curiously. I glanced through the smashed door.

A line of nearly a dozen Tamaranian soldiers stand in the hallway on the other side.

I sigh with relief. I smile--

FLASH!!!!

I gasp as a bolt of green slams into my chest.

SWOOOSH-WHAP!!!

I fly backwards into a wall, wincing.

Two of the soldiers from the other side soar in and push me harshly against the wall. They raise glowing hands of fury at my face. A third floats over, barking: "Nu heverak!! N'jat kemina!!"

I wince from the burning heat of the starbolts up close….

Suddenly, the four soldiers from my party rush forward and push the others back.

"Haaka h'nala dielin sae!! N'kal rivet'n!"

"J'vern thrutt!"

"Vu lie cackli'm vanasun!"

The soldiers look at each other.

I'm dropped from being pressed to the wall. I breathe easier.

The four walk towards me and pat my back reassuringly.

I wheeze and simper.

A pair of boots.

I look up.

A somewhat elderly Tamaranian stands before me. Under his armor, his skin is just starting to wrinkle. Strands of a pale brown form in his red hair. With firm green eyes, he stares down at me. Every Tamaranian is magnificently tall. I can't help but feel dwarfed in contrast.

"Hre'vort li nablorg that…," the elderly soldier speaks. He must be a special officer or something. There are medallions on his breastplate. I eye the equipment and relatively good shape that he and his men are in and figure that they must have just recently poured into the crashed ship from the outside. He eyes me with emerald orbs and points a finger: "Nu Noir?"

I do a double take. My lips part.

"Nu Noir??"

I slowly nod.

He turns around and whistles…then waves for someone to step up. "Avaark'n nieblum plathorg cutte!"

A figure steps up from the other hallway. "Solada kun. Embraka'm mineterod si taka." It is a feminine voice. A glow of green emanates from the person's hand, but it isn't a starbolt. It is a power ring. Katma Tui stands before me.

I gasp, smiling happily.

"Finally I run into you," she leans her hands to her hips and exhales. "Minnae 'told' me that you were okay. But I had a heck of a fight on my hands with a bunch of Gordanians outside. You haven't seen Lobo, by chance?"

I shake my head.

"Figures," she grumbles. "Stupid waste of DNA…."

I hand-sign dramatically.

She doesn't understand what I'm 'saying', but she understands my confusion.

"I'm a member of the Corps," she explains. "I need to be adept in many languages. Including the prime dialects of the Vegan system, such as Tamaranian."

I nod. I scratch my neck….still trying to catch my breath.

"Hablaarkan n'miaow sembel arkan thremerog," the elderly soldier utters.

Katma turns and nods at him. "Hem'na thri…"

He nods. He looks towards the other soldiers and motions them to follow. The company marches down the hallway. The four soldiers I had entered with join the other ranks and become one with the officer's regiment. Katma takes up the rear. I hastily follow along.

"This is the climactic battle to the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos…," Katma explains quietly to me as we move along. "When the Gordanian invasionary force reached Tamaran, a sudden leak in information revealed the location of the cloaked vessels of the Gordanian armada. Also, there was a relaying of shield modulator data to the Tamaranian side of the front. The result was an utter penetration of the Gordanian forces. The invaders were forced to retreat."

My lips drop.

_I've heard this story before……_

"But this isn't ancient history…," Katma remarks. "I'm rather surprised. The representative of the Angel Spears sent us to an event that happened a mere six and a half Chronometric Units ago. The equivalent to four of your earth years into the past!"

I freeze.

It's an effort to not stumble in the middle of my march.

_If it's only been four years, then that must mean……_

I bite my lip.

_Holy cow……_

"When I was dropped in…," Katma continues in spite of my sudden revelation, "…I quickly had to defend myself from a whole squadron of jetpacked Gordanians. This officer's company helped me out. And in return, I gave them safe passage to the crash site and helped them infiltrate the ship. Tamaranian soldiers are always glad to see a member of the Corps like myself. One thing that worries me is—because of a bizarre contract predating the Second Gordanian War of the Reformed Cosmos—the Guardians of Oa could not send any reinforcements to aid the Tamaranian cause during the planetary invasion. I'm not even supposed to be here. If word breaks out of my action here as a mercenary—Angel Spear or not—then it could mean devastating political repercussions all along structure of the Vegan system!"

I gulp a lump down my throat.

_I am not the only one concerned about 'history'…._

"If we play my cards right…the forces here will keep silent about our involvement as a way of saying 'thank you'. I don't think we have anything to be worried about as long as we achieve victory. After all…there's nothing in the archives saying that the four of us were here….right?"

I look at her blankly.

She sighs.

"Listen to me. I sound like a sap."

I shrug.

"Wherever Lobo is, he'd better get his ghost-sheet ass over here and help us," Katma grumbles. "I've had a long talk with the captain here. The first priority on his and the soldiers' list is to get to the engine room of the spacecraft and shut it down to prevent an emergency launch. THEN they're going to go for prisoners. Judging by our time…we can't afford to wait. So while they're making their way to the rear of the ship, the Angel Spears have to go to the core. Where the prisoners are. You understand?"

I nod with a shuddering breath.

"Good. Minnae?"

_'Captain Tui?'_

"Report."

_'………'_

"Tell me where you **are**."

_'Oh. I do apologize. I am in the process of entering the ship with the soldiers escorting me. I do believe they are attempting an entrance through the hull of the ship opposite of where you entered.'_

"Any word---or thought from Lobo?"

_'None at all, I am afraid.'_

"Okay…well…Noir and I are making haste to the prison holds. Once we get a firm location, we'll report back to you and see if we can't guide you to where we are or not for a combined attack."

_'But Captain Tui! What could I possibly do to help in combat?? I am far too weak to attack a soul! Much less a Gordanian!'_

"I'm sorry, your Highness, but as the leader of this mission I have authority and I must command you to do everything you can to regroup with the rest of us!! Remember, you are not of this world nor this time. None of us are. The only way we can truly be safe is if we are together."

_'Angel Spears in numbers?'_

"Yes. I'd like it VERY much if we could make the flight to the Capital City together with the prisoners."

_'Understood. We must aid history.'_

"Over and out."

_'Oh! Wait!!'_

"What is it??"

_'Mr. Noir, what is troubling you??'_

Katma glances at me.

I do a double-take to the air. I blink under my shades.

_Troubling me??_

_'Yes. You are heavy-hearted right now, are you not?'_

_We're in the middle of a bloody war._

_'But it is something beyond that.'_

_I'm not sure exactly yet. I can only let time tell._

_'Do not feel afraid to confess whatever it is that's troubling you.'_

_Right. Catch you later……er……'your highness'._

Katma's green eyes narrow. "Why do I have the feeling that we were set up with a counselor and not a warrior telepath?"

I snicker.

"Shhhh," Katma slowed her steps quietly.

I sneak along the wall and halt beside her.

The company marches on…without us.

"Better to keep our good deeds secret…," she whispers. "Where's the prison cell relative to us?"

I glance at my wristband. I eye the flashing arrow. I point….downwards.

"Ugh…," Katma groaned. "We'll have to spelunk our way."

I raise an eyebrow.

"Ventilation shafts."

I mouth _'oh'._

"Over here…," she drags me over to the side where a huge grate rests along the metal structure of the wall, upside down.

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, thirteen minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Ventilation shaft**

FLASH!!!

CRKKKKK-CLANG!!!

The female Green Lantern rips the grate free with translucent, emerald fingers of energy. She slides in and starts crawling down the narrow corridor. I slip in and scurry close behind her.

"We have to hurry…," she mumbles. Her voice bounces against the metal walls. "The more time we waste, the closer we get to the point in which the prisoners have to be at their destination. For all we know, history could be unfolding without us if we don't get to where we need to be fast enough. Those prisoners may be brave in escaping this ship, but they're gonna need protection. They're gonna need us."

I nod with a shuddering breath.

She glances back at me momentarily while crawling.

"You seem on edge, Noir. Is war too intense for you?"

I shake my head. I simply sigh….

"Well whatever's gotten into you, keep it together. You've proven enough as it is that you've got invaluable strength as a part of this mission." A beat. She chuckles. "Heh…listen to me. I hardly know a thing about the people employing us in this time traveling debacle, and yet I'm head over heels for following them."

I crane my head to the side as I follow her.

"I'm a sucker for rescue missions. I suppose it makes up for…people I can't rescue anymore. You know….in the corps…"

I take a deep breath.

"It seems so….so spectacular to be able to 'rewind' time and ensure that things go right in some part of history for the sake of Life, doesn't it?"

I smile ever so slightly.

We reach a bend in the ventilation shaft…then a drop. We navigate our way into a descent (or ascent??) slowly. With stealth, we reach another junction in the crawlspace. We pause. I scratch my head. Katma Tui looks at her and my wristbands. The arrow points in a direction that one of the turns is more or less facing. We take that route, hurrying our movement.

At some point, Katma speaks again: "I want you to do me a favor, Noir. As a subordinate under my impromptu command…"

I nod from behind her.

She speaks without looking back: "If I fall in combat and we haven't achieved victory…do not go out of your way to save me. You understand?"

I bite my lip.

"The being told us outright…triumph is more important than anything. The lives of people that we see around us in this war are expendable. One crucial detail that the being left out—I'm sure—is that we're expendable too. Angel Spears or not…we're merely parts of the equation. If I must give myself up so that Life itself can prosper…then I am prepared to do so. I want you not to forsake the mission if my life is in peril. You understand?"

I nod.

She glances back at me for a moment. She looks ahead and resumes crawling. "As for Lobo and Minnae….well…I'll lave their lives up to you. Don't tell them this to their faces….but I believe everyone in this mission is expendable. Including yourself."

I understand that….

"Pssst! I think we're almost there…."

A dark corridor through a grate appears up ahead….

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, ten minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Ventilation to Prison Compartment**

Katma snakes up to the grate. She peers through. I peek from behind her.

Our eyes narrow respectively.

The prison corridor is a long, dark thing. A spinal column of metal sorts. Like rivets, prison cells line the sides with obsidian indentations in the wall. Even upside down, the cells look like perfectly aligned crevices of an onyx bee hive. Six or seven Gordanians patrol the ceiling which is now the floor. They grunt and hiss at the faint shadows of bodies inside each cell, obscured by white-staticy blazes of force fields.

All of this we see through a metal grate. We can only assume if the passageways at the end of the corridor lead to more prison compartments or not. We need more time to access the nature of the situation, determine how many guards are present, and perform a legitimate raid on the prison cells.

_But we don't have more time…_

"So few guards…," Katma speaks quietly. "They are no match for a Green Lantern. I'm going to charge in. Guard my rear in case any reserve guards come in from behind." She holds out her hand and the ring starts to glow. "The last thing we need right now is—"

**POW!!!!!!!!!!!**

An explosion from one of the cells.

Katma and I freeze.

Gordanians shriek and run towards the blast.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!!!!

Starbolts fly out of the one cell and the Gordanians collapse from their heated fury.

Two adult male Tamaranians rush out, flinging starbolts at everyone and everything they can. There are no manacles on their wrists. Somehow they have managed to escape.

Katma blinks. She glances at me. "History unfolding! They would have fought their way out of here without us!!"

I unsheathe Myrkblade—CHIIIING!!!—and nod towards the grate.

"Right," she smirks and charges up her ring. "History is our story…."

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**T-Minus: Five Hours, eight minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Prison Compartment**

SMASH!!!!

She bashes the grate down and lands just as three reserve guards rush in from an adjacent passageway junction beneath us. Katma growls and produces a floating, green javelin which she uses to bash in the skulls of the Gordanian fiends.

I snake out, roll, and lands with Myrkblade outstretched. I look up…panting.

Yet another Gordanian rushes out from the adjacent corridor.

I charge him.

He hisses and raises his spear.

ZAP!!!!

I dodge, dive, and slide belly-first along the metal floor/ceiling. I slip past the Gordanian's legs, vault upwards in a flip, and come down with Myrkblade slapping the back of the Gordanian's head like a staff.

WHACK!!!

THWUMP!!! He falls down hard.

I spin around.

Katma has her hands full of three guards. But not for long. She forms a broadsword out of green energy and hacks off an arm of one of the reptilian fiends.

The creature howls in pain and stumbles back as the other two charge.

Katma morphs her broadsword into a giant 'hand'. Shouting, she extends two fingers from the huge emerald wrist and uppercuts the two Gordanians back against the wall to join their bleeding companion.

She spins around—panting—and points. "Help them!!"

I turn around.

The two Tamaranians are being drawn into a corner by the original six guards. Two more Gordanians rush in from a nearby corridor and overwhelm them. Starbolts and blue beams exchange furiously.

I hold my breath. I blur across the room.

As I speed towards the scene, my peripheral vision beyond my shades catches the frightened, amber faces of Tamaranians. Young and old. Weathered. Fearful. Pressed against the forcefield.

The weak mosaic of green eyes fill my head and explode through Myrkblade as I attack a line of unsuspecting Gordanians from the rear.

SLASH!!!!!

CRAA-AAACK!!!!

I sever two spears at once.

Gordanians gasp and turn--

WHAM!!!

I kick one upside the chin. I spin and--

WHACK!!

Smack one hard across the skull with Myrkblade.

The guards break off from surrounding the Tamaranians and hiss at me with weapons raised.

I charge.

They fire.

ZAP!! ZAAAAAP!!! ZAP!!

I deflect. My teeth grit. The impact of lasers to my sword push me back on two scraping boots.

And then…

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

I look up.

My black hair waves wildly as Katma soars over me. Extending from her ring is—quite literally—a Terran bulldozer in energy form.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!

She slams four Gordanians at once into a wall, causing cracks to spread crazily through the metal structure.

The other Gordanians reptilian eyes bulge.

The two Tamaranians and I take advantage of them, sailing in and attacking by sword and starbolt.

SLASH!!!

FLASH!! FLASH!!!

The last of the guards groan and fall down hard.

I stand with my sword. Panting.

_I still haven't killed anyone……the others, sure. But I can't……I just can't……_

I swallow. I look over at Katma.

She lowers and dissolves the energy back into her ring.

"Could have been a little less loud about it…but……..," she shrugs. She turns and faces the Tamaranians. "Nu!! Jakka n'mal Tam'ranz wri mar frakkablorg thinno leet sude Gord'n!!"

They wipe their brow and point down an adjacent corridor. "Haratta n'tal heru thretta! S'dan fri leet calla drun!"

"Bevorana kun!"

The two soar down the nearby corridor.

Katma holds a hand out. "Devraat!!" They don't pay any heed. "Dammit….," she grumbles.

I look at her curiously.

She glances at me. "They're going to try and access the prison's main controls and shut down the force fields from there to free everyone."

I scratch my head. I look back down the corridor of prison cells.

"I'm going to go give them a hand," she says. "They'll need it. In the meantime, Noir…I need you to free these people the hard way. At least SOME of them have got to be the group that takes the data to the Capital in the Flight. I'll rejoin you shortly. If Lobo or Minnae catch up with us…tell them to join you until I return."

I raise a finger and part my lips.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

She flies away in a green streak.

I groan.

I turn around, twirl Myrkblade, and rush towards the nearest prison cell.

_Free them the hard way……_

I come to a stop in front of the cell. I eye the force field. I see a Tamaranian woman and three children on the other side. They're pleading and murmuring something in their native tongue. I looked at the cell. I scratch my head. I twirl Myrkblade and---

The family winces.

---CHTUNK!!!!

I stab Myrkblade deep into the metal device. Sparks fly and shoot up my blade.

I grit my teeth and pulse smoke down the weapon, pushing back the sparks and exploding into the apparatus.

CRACK!!!

The console explodes.

With a fizzling sound, the force field dissipates.

I pant and motion with my hand.

Timidly, the woman and children saunter out.

I smile slightly. I blur over to the next compartment. I hold my breath. I stab into it.

CLACK!!!!

I twist. I send sparks and metal shrapnel flying. I pulse murk into the device and--

SHATTER!!!!

Another force field collapses.

Half a dozen Tamaranians march out…some of them limping. They mutter in mixed confusion and elation. They eye me strangely.

I don't waste a second. I rush over to another compartment. As I stab Myrkblade in again, I hear the sound of starbolts behind me.

I glance over my shoulder.

Some of the freed Tamaranians are blasting the force field devices apart on the other side of the corridor, gradually freeing prisoners along with me.

I smirk.

I finish my job on the present prison cell and move onto the next.

As I stab into the apparatus of this one, I glance inside. I blink.

All four Tamaranian bodies inside are lying on the floor. Still. There are bloody burn marks of laser blasts on their necks.

_Dead….  
_  
I take a deep breath. I continue to break the force field, unphased.

_I'm just playing my part in history……_

With that cell taken care of, I rush towards another one. More and more chattering voices in Tamaranian fill the chamber. I soon realize that—with the greater multitude of escapees comes the chance for more confusion. I suddenly wonder if releasing all of these people so suddenly was such a good idea.

_But some of them have to be the destined ones to carry the data to the capital. But which ones?? Which ones…_

_'Any luck, Noir??'_

_Minnae! So far, so good. Katma and I are already in the prison section and—_

_'I'm in trouble here!'_

I pause in what I'm doing.

_Minnae?? What's wrong?! Where are you??_

_'I-I was following the soldiers infiltrating the North Side of the hull and all the men have either run into a bunch of Gordanians or they are deceased! I had no choice but to run for my life and try and find the rest of you! But now I am lost and there are Gordanians closing in all around me! I'm scared, Noir! I'm scared!'_

I take a deep breath.

_Okay, Minnae. Try to stay calm. As soon as Katma gets back, I'll dash out and try to find y—_

_'Eeek!! They are here! They have found me, Noir!!'_

_Minnae!!_

_'Help me! Someone please!! EEEP!!'_

Minnae?!?!

………………

_Crud……_

I spin around, panting. I rush towards the passageway where I last parted with Katma. I push and shove my way through crowded clusters of frightened escapees.

One emotionally relieved Tamaranian rushes over and hugs me in a deadly vice grip.

I gasp and desperately pinch her shoulder.

She releases me.

I pant and teleport through the crowd.

On the other side, I scamper to regain my balance and rush to meet Katma and the other two--

BLAM!!!!!

The corridor is full of shrieks and gasps.

I skid to a stop, panting.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!

Huge plasma blasts sail into the wall of the adjacent corridor.

Three shadows….a green blur….then--

SWOOOOSH!!!

Katma Tui and the two first escapees soar around the corner. Katma creates a huge, medieval shield out of her Green Lantern power. She hovers above me at the end of the corridor.

"Not good!!" she pants. She looks down at me, her black bangs tossed. "How're the prison cells going??"

I look over my shoulders.

The escapees have finished blasting away the last of the force fields.

I face Katma and do an 'ok' symbol with my hand. I then wince. I want to tell her about Minnae Metharsia's ugly fate. But we're suddenly short of a telepath…..

"Push 'em back!!" Katma shouts. "We ran into some company! Some company!!"

I go bug-eyed. I look down the corridor.

A series of stomping sounds, then two metal legs. Then two huge gun-arm plasma rifles. A twelve foot, two-legged assault droid stomps into the corridor. Flanking its sides are six Gordanians with massive laser spears. The robot positions itself at the end of the corridor and reloads the plasma rifles. They aim at us and start to glow a bright orange. In the meantime, the Gordanians aim burning spears.

I gulp.

"It's about to get really damn hot in here!!" Katma snarls. "Push them back! Go!! I'll hold them at bay!!" She looks over her shoulder at the Tamaranian crowd and shouts: "B'maka thi!! B'mak! B'mak!!"

The crowd gasps and cries out. They start to run, walk, scurry, hover, and fly in one huge surge towards the other end of the corridor.

The plasma rifles vibrate…pulse…and--

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**

Two plasma fireballs throttle down the corridor in midair.

Katma clamps her left hand around her right fist and explodes a solid sheet of green energy—stretching from wall to wall and from ceiling to floor.

**SPLASH!!! SPLASH!!!**

The plasma blasts absorb into the body of the green 'wall'. The translucent energy fluctuates wildly. Sparks fly from the friction made with the metal surfaces of the corridor.

The Gordanians start firing their laser spears while the second round of plasma blasts go off.

ZAP!!! ZAP! ZAAAAP!!

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**

Katma's body tenses in mid air and her right arm shakes and quivers. "Nnnnnnghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!" She grunts and struggles as she maintains the focus and power of her ring.

In the meantime, I'm streaking so fast on blurred legs that I run up the wall near the ceiling (floor?) and leap down onto the other side. I lead the charge, motioning for the fleeing Tamaranians to give each other room and not trample each other. I take one look at where we're heading and skid to a stop, gasping.

At the entrance of two separate hallways, eight Gordanians have emerged. They hiss and aim their laser rifles in a phalanx.

The Tamaranians shriek. The brave ones in the crowd are too slow to draw starbolts to fling back in a return volley.

In a split second, I take a deep breath, pulse murk through my lower body, and teleport to the left wall.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I materialize with my right side to the floor. My feet meet the wall. I kick off.

ZAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!!! ZAAAAP!!!

I slide across the width of the room, twirling Myrkblade straight up with my metal left hand, effectively deflecting each laser in the row of deadly energy.

Time resumes as I slide into the far wall and vault off in a dive.

I sail at the right most two Gordanians.

They aim at me.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAP!!!

I twirl in mid-air, dodge their blasts, and land in a crouch between them. I immediately sweep my leg out, tripping the two nearest me.

WHUMP!! THWUMP!!!

As they collapse, the next two aim at me.

But I beat them with a blurred charge ending with an upswing of Myrkblade.

SLASH!!!

CL-CLANK!!

I knock the laser spears out of their grasps.

I kick the first one into the second.

THWUMP!!!

The last four aim at me….but are too distracted to fend off an enormous volley of starbolts from the escapees lined behind me.

FLASSSSSH!!!!!

The Gordanians hiss as they burn to death and collapse in a smoking heap.

I take a deep breath, panting on my knees as the escapees momentarily cheer.

The least I have to kill…the better……

I hear Katma growl louder.

I look across the corridor.

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!!**

More plasma blasts splash into the energy field. The wall starts to lose its shimmer. Katma is being pushed back by the robot's and the Gordanians' punishment.

"I…..c-can't hold it for long!!!" she grunts. "Get…them…OUT!!"

I nod.

I whistle and motion for the Tamaranians to follow.

But as soon as we reach the exits…

"AUGH!!! LOOK OUT!!!" Katma shouts.

She falls down hard as her energy field explodes from a huge pair of plasma blasts.

**FLASH!!!!**

The Tamaranians gasp.

I look with wide eyes under my shades.

The robot takes a huge, stomping step forward. Its plasma barrels reload. The Gordanians on either side hiss and their spears sparkle.

I bite my lip.

I turn around---

**CRASH!!!!!!!!**

The wall between the two exits explodes outward. Debris and dust flies in a fountain.

The Tamaranian crowd and I jump back, startled and gasping.

Katma shakes her weary head and looks from her grounded location.

"WOOOOO BABY!!!" a pale, muscular figure stomps out of a fresh hole in the wall. "So that's what that button does!!" Lobo grins. He has a petite body hanging over his shoulder. "Sorry I'm late to the party, assholes!!"

I mouth his name.

"Hey Squirrel!" he smirks at me. "Special delivery!!" He tosses the body at me.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Minnae shrieks as she flails in mid air, her pretty skirt and gloved hands waving about.

I drop Myrkblade and catch her with a gasp.

WHUMP!!!

She blinks her amber eyes and looks at me. "G-Greetings…," she blushes.

I simper.

"Lobo!! Fine timing!!" Katma hisses.

"Hey!! The Main Man makes his own entrances!!"

ZAP!!!!

A Gordanian laser blast strikes his head. His face turns charcoal black and his hair splits at the end…smoking.

"………….," Lobo blinks. "And the Main Man doesn't do a 'fro!!!" He snarls and whips out a pistol. BLAM!!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

In an instant, three Gordanian skulls on the far end of the tunnel beside the droid splatter into purple mist. The remaining, living Gordanians hiss in terror and flee. The robot shifts annoyingly and aims its plasma rifles at the undead bounty hunter.

Tamaranians shriek.

"EEEEK!!" Minnae plows her face cowardly into my shoulder, upsetting my balance and plunging us to the floor. PLOP!!!!

"Oooh!" Lobo smiles and blows out his pistol before spinning it. "Something that'll explode!! Bastardly!!!"

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!**

Two plasma missiles sail at the alien.

In a flash, Lobo holsters his megapistol and whips out a chain. He spins the metal links around and expertly deflects the two blasts to the far corners of the corridor.

CRASH!!! THRAP!!!!

The Tamaranians duck and cover. Dust and debris scatter around us.

"You idiot!!!" Katma shrieks, covering her head. "You should have just stayed outside of the ship instead of coming inside and getting us all killed!!!"

"Sorry, babe! Just following your orders!!" Lobo shrugs. "Kinda got stuck when a Gordanian space fighter fell on me. Heh…boy did that hurt. Took my body a good ten minutes to rejoin the spleen to the esophagus….not to mention putting together some other vital organs."

In the meantime, the robot reloaded its plasma cannons.

"Do us a favor and HELP!!!!" Katma shouts. She sits up and aims her ring at the droid. She launches a huge, green mace at the machine.

The robot merely bats it away with an arm gun and raises its foot over Katma.

The Green Lantern rolls out of the way in the nick of time.

WHAM!!!

"HEY!! Nobody gets to nail the chicks but the Main Man!!" Lobo frowns. He stomps over towards the fresh hole in the wall and picks up what appears to be a huge, seven-foot-long skeleton of a phaser bank's innards.

My jaw drops.

"Lobo?!?!?!?!" Katma shrieks. "Is that the gun turret of a Gordanian dreadnought?!?"

"Yup!! Twenty Billion Killowatts of electrified pulse magnification!!" Lobo smirks as he 'sets' the weapon over his Lilliputian shoulder and aims down the corridor, one red eye squinting. "Which comes down to the fact that you probably want to move, sweet cakes."

Katma scrambles out of the way.

I teleport madly and shove the Tamaranians on either side of the corridor as--

**BLAM! BLAM!!**

The robot fires.

Lobo laughs his head off: "HA HA HA HA HA!!! DANGER DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!"

**ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!**

A solid wave of blue fire rockets down the corridor. The metal on the ceiling (floor?!?!) literally melt as the energy streams down, absorbs the plasma blasts, and totally eradicates the upper torso of the robot.

**PHOOOOOOOM!!!!**

The metal legs twitch until they realize there's no more 'pelvis', and with a rusty groan they fall in opposite ways onto the floor.

Silence.

A huge sigh of relief among the crowd.

Lobo smirks. He drops the smoking gun turret.

CLANK!!!!

He marches the whole way across the corridor until he stands above the melted robot. He kicks it with his boot.

Clang!

"Heh…," he dusts his hands off and smirks at me. "Guess he's not Lobo-compliant."

"Rrrrgh!!" Katma stumbles up to her feet and stomps over toward him, angrily. "Of all the brash….stupid….pig-headed strategies—"

"Hey…hey…HEY!!!" Lobo shouts.

"WHAT?!?!?!" Katma glares at him.

"………….," he smirks. "Anyone tell you that you're beautiful when you're a bitch?"

FLASH!!!!!

"OOOF!!!"

Katma knocks him back with a green energy baseball bat.

She growls. Fists clenched, she spins around and motions at both ends of the corridor. "Between your explosive entrance, the robot's plasma cannons, and the backblast of that damn gun turret you picked up, all exits have either collapsed or have melted!!"

"Then we'll just smash our way through!!" Lobo saidsays sitting up and shaking the cobwebs out of his ringing ears. "That's how I took my merry romp in here!! No way like the heavy-fisted way…I always say! Ha!!"

"Do not be too harsh on him, please," Minnae says, brushing herself off as I help her up. "He did rescue me from a battalion of Gordanians when all seemed lost." She smiles and cups her feminine hands together. "I do believe there is an ounce of good in him yet!"

"Heh…," Lobo mutters. "Should have sucked her brains out when I had the chance…"

I glare at him.

"We must get moving!" Katma declares.

I glance at Minnae.

She utters: "At l-least let us account for the prisoners present! It would be wrong of us to force them into a flight that only we know about!"

Lobo folds his arms.

I glance at Katma.

The Green Lantern sighs. "Very well. We DO need to attend to these people. Angel Spears…check all the prison cells. Make sure everyone is accounted for." A beat. She emphasizes. "Everyone ALIVE."

I nod.

"Hoo boy…," Lobo smirks and marches off. "Body harvest!"

Minnae ignores him.

Katma speaks Tamaranian to a few escapees. I can't tell what she's saying…or how much of the situation at hand she's explaining, but I take notice of the prisoners nodding in acceptance of something and then joining her in a thorough search. In the meantime, the whole group of escapees gradually calms down. Women and children are gathered in a corner, where they comfort and hold each other in an emotional fashion that only Tamaranians are so adept at. Many of the adult, male Tamaranians start inspecting the collapsed exits and take note of ways to make a path. The two first Tamaranians are speaking the loudest, issuing commands and hurried orders that everyone in general seems to be obeying.

In the meantime, I take on the dreary task of inspecting the prison cells where bodies are lying. Still bodies.

I turn Tamaranians over just long enough to feel pulses that are gone. I then roll the bodies back over, sighing. Men. Old. Young. Women. A child or two.

I take a deep breath.

Behind me, Minnae stands in the middle of the corridor…wringing her laced hands. She's biting her lip.

I don't hear a mental peep from her…

At some point, Katma joins me in inspecting one room. There're a lot more bodies in here. All of them female. The Tamaranian women's clothes are tattered and torn. But mostly in the conspicuous spot where their lower limbs meet.

I bite my lip.

Katma steps over and kneels beside three bodies ahead of us. She inspects closely. Her shoulders rise and fall.

"Yup….rape…..," she turns the head of one Tamaranian. Inspecting claw marks on the necks. "Gordanians got to these women and most likely tortured them long before finally sinking their fingers into their necks. Terrible way to live before dying. Expect nothing less of Gordanians….god damn savages…." She stands up. She pauses. She turns around and walks past me. "This place is a holocaust. There's nobody alive in here…."

I watch the Green Lantern walk past me. Her face is emotionless.

She's seen this before. Perhaps on countless occasions.

I groan inwardly and brave a look at the battered, cold bodies beneath me.

A beat.

I raise an eyebrow.

_I could have sworn I saw one body moving…._

A petite ragdoll of a redheaded girl over in the corner.

"……."

I saunter over, stepping over the violated women. I stand by the body. Slowly, I kneel down and reach to its neck to feel a pulse--

Bright green eyes flash open.

I gasp.

WHUMP!!!

The little girl pounces on me, hugging the breath out of me. Trembling.

I fall on my back. Surprised.

I feel cold limbs shivering all around me. Chattering teeth over my shoulder. A hand entangled with my long black hair.

I swallow. I reach a metal hand up and stroke the girl's back. I don't know how to comfort her….

A series of footsteps.

It's Katma.

"What's this??"

I try to look over my shoulder, but the little girl's red hair is in my face. I can smell her every follicle…

Minnae walks up besides Katma and gasps: "One is alive!!"

Katma glances at her. She glances at the girl.

Minnae bites her lip. She walks over.

A beat.

"She….she was spared….," Minnae murmurs. "She somehow managed to lower her body temperature and play dead just long enough for the Gordanian soldiers to ignore her."

"Amazing…..," Katma utters. "Only Tamaranians with families expertly skilled in the combat arts can lower their temperature to feign death. She must have warrior's blood in her."

"She also had to have been witness to everything that happened in that cell…," Minnae gulped. "The poor child…"

But I know who this 'poor child' is. The smell of her hair. The feel of her limbs…

I've been hugged by her before.

I pant.

_She can't see me……_

Minnae cranes her neck.

_'What? Why not, Mr. Noir?'_

_I said, she can't see me!!!_

I stand up and carry the trembling girl over to Minnae. I set her down. In a flash, I whip off my upper combat fatigues so that I'm stripped down to my black tank top. I wrap the shirt around the girl's body and rush away before she can see my face. Minnae kneels down and takes the girl into her arms, hugging her and gently relaxing her.

I rush over and plant my back against a bulkhead, panting.

_I can't interfere with History……I can't! It could ruin the future! The future for me and my friends!_

'She is…she is frightened, but…she is calming down…'

I gulp. I nod, panting.

A trembling, Tamaranian voice in the background.

Like a frozen songbird.

_'……she says her name is Koriand'r.'_

_I know……_


	112. Angel Spear Four part 3

**112. Angel Spear Four part 3**

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**T-Minus: Four Hours, forty-two minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Prison Compartment**

"Blah blah blah blah blah," Lobo grumbles. "What do they keep blathering on about?!"

"Shhhh!" Katma hisses.

The two stand to the side as the whole group of Tamaranian escapees talk hurriedly amongst themselves. A ring of elders have formed. The native tongue flies between them. Many nod heads in agreement or understanding as everyone comes to a center.

"Don't you get it??" Katma quietly remarks. "They're doing it!"

"Doing what??"

"They're making the decision to infiltrate the bridge of this Gordanian ship and try and acquire the data analysis and frequency modulation of the cloaked armada surrounding the planet."

"Why can't we just….ya know….shoot around their feet and herd them towards the destination?!"

Lobo suggests. Katma frowns.

"Imbecile. We are merely ASSISTING in history. We're Angel Spears, remember? Not the real Tamaranian heroes of this day!"

"Heh…well I dunno what that shimmering popsicle was thinking back at the 'Great Implosion', but I'm no angel!" Lobo twirls his megapistol and hangs it over his shoulder, grinning. "If I was smart, I'd become a demon and join Death's side. Hell was always more benevolent to me than Heaven. I think we both kinda like the same sort of music."

"With all of your brash ways of smashing through walls and nearly melting the very same people we're trying to SAVE….I'd might as well go on and let you join death for all we care," Katma huffs.

"Babe….I'm just in it for the treasure," Lobo winks. "If that semi-omnipotent dweeb that sent us here can usurp time itself, then shit knows what good she or he can do for my banking account!"

"I swear….you are a selfish, pigheaded waste of DNA…"

"Well, you ain't gettin' none of this DNA. So don't even try." Lobo chuckles.

"Why, I never---rrrrrghhh…if you weren't such an important part of this team, I'd rip off your third leg with a pair of green sheers."

"Then I'd have to take this pistol here and shut your third mouth!!!"

Katma raises a finger. "That's it! From now on, I don't want to hear another word from----" She blinks. She looks across the corridor finally and remarks: "Noir?! What in the Hell are you up to?!?!?!"

All of this time, I have been rummaging through a utility compartment built into the metal framework of one of the corridor's walls. I toss armor and equipment and laser spears behind me until every now and then I run into the occasional helmet when I try over my head—either discover that it's too big or not fit for a Terran skull—and toss it into the pile behind me before continuing on with my rabid search.

"Bad time for the Squirrel to be foraging," Lobo smirks.

Katma marches over and plants her hands on her hips. "Excuse me?!?! Noir?!?!"

I look at her. I pant. I furiously hand-sign something which she can't possibly understand. I return to scouring the compartment.

Katma sweatdrops. "Whatever could you possibly be looking for?!?!"

"Something to hide his face…"

Lobo and Katma look over. Princess Minnae walks up.

"There's someone here that Mr. Noir knows," she murmurs. "Someone whom he'll meet in the future. Approximately four and a half earth years from now."

"What??" Katma makes a face. "A Tamaranian?!?!"

Minnae nods. She looks my way. "And you are paranoid of her seeing you and thus remembering you in the future, right Mr. Noir??"

I rummage through more equipment. I pause to hand-sign something anxiously. I continue along in my rummaging.

"But how could he possibly know someone on this planet?!?!" Katma exclaims.

Lobo smirks. "Mail-order bride?"

"I could sense from his mental frequencies earlier when he told me of his predicament…," Minnae explains. "He says that the girl found alive in the last prison chamber will later go to Earth and become a Teen Titan."

"Teen Titan?"

"By the alias of 'Starfire'."

"Pfft…pretty original," Lobo rolls his red eyes and decides to inspect his gun.

"This is crazy!" Katma cackles. She turns to me. "How could you have a Tamaranian contact from the future and not tell us?!?!"

I frown over at her.

"I do not believe he could have foreseen this!" Minnae exclaims.

"He was chosen by surprise by the founders of the Angel Spears along with the rest of us! We did not even know the true nature of the planet or the war we were descending upon until after our teleportation!"

"Regardless of that…the fact that he knows someone who will….w-will eventually KNOW HIM in the future jeopardizes everything! This mission! History! The future…"

"Surely the Being who sent us here was aware of this…," Minnae remarks, laced hands cupped together. "I do not believe that such a wise and benevolent entity would have placed us here…knowing that the course of history would be put at risk…"

"Everything that lives is capable of error…," Katma grumbles. "Wise Entity that sent us here or not…precautions must be made…"

I am way ahead of her. I finally find a decent helmet. It is a curved, brown piece. Something small enough to hug my skull. The top portion is ribbed and reminds me of those helmets the Rebels wore in Return of the Jedi. The piece that covers the brow is low-hanging, and a tail of leather hangs down where the back of my neck would be. But most important of all is a dark sheet of glass hanging down the front. A visor. I take a breath. I squint my black eyes as I take off my shades and put the helmet on in its place. I then tuck my long hair (rather uncomfortably) up into the back of the helmet. From long distance or even close up, I look like an average, short-haired soldier. My black eyes are hidden and the only recognizable parts of me are---well---my sword and the scar on my neck. But those can be dealt with in time. I turn and look at the others.

They stare back.

"Besides the fact that you look like total frag fodder in that Gordanian issue head-banger….," Lobo does a thumb's up. "I'd say it's a snug fit!"

I simper.

Katma walks forward to me. "Good thinking, Noir. Seriously." She tries on a smile. It doesn't last long. "But you may not need it throughout the entire mission. Your friend…St-Starfire……she's only a child. She can stay here with the military regiments while the rest of us help the escapees with the data rush to the Capital."

I gulp.

I know better.

I look at Princess Minnae.

_Starfire will be coming with us._

_'Koriand'r?? How??' _

_I just know it, okay?!?!_

_She'll be coming with us, no matter what we do._

_'But what for?'_

_It is history._

_'You know of this……'_

_She told me._

_'………'_

_On more than one occasion._

_'Mr. Noir…how could she possibly be with the escapees transporting the data?? I spent a good deal of time comforting her after the poor child was found. Koriand'r only wants to be reunited with her family. Kormand'r especially.'_

_Yeah, I know. Blackfire._

_'Blackfire??'_

_Listen…I know we can't shape history. But you gotta keep me away from her. Starfire's my close ally. At least, in the future she is. Anything we might do today to affect her could send ripples of distortion through time and—_

_'Mr. Noir. Do not despair. Perhaps the tales Koriand'r told you in the future were in error. Maybe she merely wished she could be with her family and thus psychologically established the false memory in her mind of having taken part in the brave transportation of data across the battlefront.'_

I sigh.

_Let's just hope you're right about that, Your Highness. Still…I gotta be careful. I gotta keep my distance._

_'Understood, Mr. Noir. Completely.'_

"Hey!!" Lobo calls out.

We look at him.

"You two done making mental love?? Cuz I think those redheads have made a decisions."

We wince. We look over at the group of Tamaranian escapees. A group has broken off from them and are assembling around one of the piles of rubble. Most of the group are able-bodied men and women. Would-be warriors. And among them are the first two escapees that somehow orchestrated an explosive springing them from their jail cells.

The heroes of the Flight…… Katma listens in close by to the final conversation of the two groups. She walks over.

"They've made a decision."

"You think???"

She glares at Lobo…then continues. "One group will head for the bridge. The other….for an exit from the ship. They're trying to get the innocent prisoners out of here at the same time."

"There's a group of Tamaranian soldiers somewhere in this ship still!" Minnae exclaims. "I can help out! I can reach them telepathically and unite the helpless with the helpful!"

Katma gives her a skeptical look. "As Angel Spears…we've been assigned to see to the Victory of this mission at all costs. That means protecting the prisoners going after the data, not the—"

"—others, I know. But what good would I be on an assault to the collapsed ship's bridge?!?!" Minnae exclaims. "I can still keep in mental contact with you three if I assist this group. Besides…I can rejoin you once they are safely under the guard of the Tamaranian soldiers! Surely it won't take you three much longer to get to the bridge and attempt an escape?"

Katma sighs.

I look at her through my helmet visor….silently.

A beat.

"Very well…," Katma grumbles. "Do your duty, Your Highness."

Minnae Metharsia beams. "I shall not let you down, Captain!"

"Lobo….you're with me."

"Rowwwr."

FLASH!!

"OW!!" She glares, holding up her power ring. "I need your brute strength. Who knows what juggernauts await us on the bridge."

"If I can survive you, I can survive anything…sweet cakes."

Katma looks at me.

"Noir. You're coming with us."

I nod.

"Besides….you must stay away from your lady-friend….right?" she smirks.

My brow sweats.

The Tamaranians chatter on about something. They unite in two separate groups. Katma Tui floats over and assists them in burrowing through both collapsed hallways one starbolt at a time. Even Lobo walks over—casually whistling—and begins pummeling the walls with his fists.

I stand to the side. Silent. Breathing slowly.

"……….."

A petite figure appears on my left.

"………."

I blink.

I glance through my peripheral vision from under the helmet.

A bright-green eyed Koriand'r looks up at me. She leans her head to the side and blinks. Cute and curious. Her hair is much shorter at this age. Her eyebrows, less prominent.

I pretend to not notice her.

I look straight ahead.

Silent. Still.

Not daring so much as to look at her.

A beat.

She creeps forward another step or two. She clutches to her shoulder the top half of my combat fatigues which I had given to her earlier. She no longer appears trembling or frightened. She leans her head the other way and….

"Nu jaat sli m'bla X'Hal??"

I grit my teeth.

I try not to move.

"Vral kiblorg satta'm niul?"

I sweat.

My feet want to move.

I try to ignore.

_I try to ignore…_

She shuffles over.

A tiny hand reaches out and envelops the part of me that is metal.

"Thriel katta'm mhal…"

Swiftly, I walk a few steps away. My boots plod thunderously for moving with such lightness. After a yard or two, I come to a stop. I sigh.

A beat.

I give in.

I look over my shoulder.

She is clutching the shirt, but has her eyes to the floor. She's so lonely….so helpless….

And it's hard. My heart aches. I feel every painful inch of my inner ribs with each breath as I force myself to stay there even while giving her that forbidden glance from afar.

For Starfire isn't alone. I want to look at her and touch her too. Because I feel so far away and so lost from my friends. My true friends.

But I can't. I mustn't let anything sacrifice the order of events for the future. Even though—paradoxically—the Angel Spears are here to change the future to the better.

_Or are we merely preserving history in its truest form?_

I sigh and clutch my head through my helmet.

I wish to wake up.

_I wish to wake up…._

A wave of light.

I glance over, squinting.

The collapsed passageways have been cleared. A handful of Tamaranian citizens cheer before quickly being silenced by hissing emphasis. Katma ducks out into the hallway to the left…then reenters, signaling that the coast is clear. Minnae marches over, salutes the Green Lantern, and escorts the innocent group through the ship to meet with the soldiers. In the meantime, Katma and Lobo meander towards the right hallway with the small crew of elite Tamaranians. Katma looks back while hovering and motions me along. I nod.

I glance to my left.

Koriand'r is gone.

I sigh and blur over to go on with the mission.

While running, I glance down at my right wristband.

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**T-Minus: Four Hours, thirty-seven minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Prison Level Corridor**

There are about a dozen of us. Almost divided by gender straight down. As a huddled mass of able-bodied vigilantes, we creep down the dark corridors of the Gordanian ship's inner core. Katma hovers at point with the two first escapees. She shines a ray of green lantern light ahead to spot enemies or sentries ahead of us. Lobo and I take the rear. The movement is agonizingly slow, especially with the amount of time we know that we have left. But as it stands, we're letting the Tamaranians dictate the pace. This is their story, not ours. We're just helping out.

For all we know…they think of us as miraculous benefactors. But in the eyes of each Tamaranian—as I notice now—there is nothing but burning, emerald resolve. This is their war. This is their planet. Whatever help they can get, they leap upon. They must save their planet from this hideous onslaught. And the answer—they know—lies in the databanks of this ship's computer.

"Tamaranians…," Lobo grumbles in a safely low voice. He leans his head to me and mumbles without looking. "I've never truly gotten these bozos…"

I give him a wyrd look through my helmet's visor.

"A well-built Tamaranian will rip your arms off and beat your ears in from both sides in a second if he needed to…," he glances at me. Red eyes round. "And yet, they choose to hug the stuffing out of you and sing ungodly amounts of poetry instead…"

I blink.

_This is not news to me…._

He smirks. "Good for us, we're seeing their badass side, huh??"

I groan.

He pats me hard on the back and surprises me with an arm around my shoulder. "You need to cheer up, Squirrel!! Today may be a good day to die…but it's an even gooder day to make other people die!!"

I grit my teeth and shove him off.

"Whoah ho ho!!! You don't need the spare the sword if you're mad at me, squirt! I'll gladly grow an arm or two back to bitch-slap you!"

I sigh and march on ahead to leave his presence.

"What? Do I smell? Sorry…I haven't taken a bath in two hundred years."

I groan.

Something catches the corner of my vision.

My head turns and I peer out from under my helmet.

Nothing.

Just my imagination…._or was someone following us from the shadows of the hallways?_

I continue on with the march as we round a bend…

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**T-Minus: Four Hours, thirty-five minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Lower Gantry Junction**

"H'valak…." Katma utters, a hand held up.

The entire party of Tamaranians freeze.

Lobo and I similarly halt our movement. Silence.

She slowly steps out, green eyes thin and gazing. I crane my neck to look past her and over the Tamranians' shoulders.

We've reached what—when rightside up—must have been an elaborate junction of multiple hallways on multiple tiers. Four separate floors converge with metal walkways and ramps and steps and the like. The result is a long, one hundred meter lattice or skeleton of criss-crossing bulkheads and catwalks. The railings hang underneath, where people would most likely be expected to walk. A dead Gordanian or two is scattered in a few random places, tossed to their death from the crashing and careening ship. A dim, twinkling red light barely illuminates the interior from three sporadic sources. Inside this huge chamber, we can hear the groaning of settling metal and latent crash damage. The Gordanian ship suddenly feels like a huge monster slowly trying to digest us inside its ulcerous stomach.

All of us stare, silent.

"N'mal……," one Tamaranian male quietly murmurs.

Silence.

"This is too open….," Katma grumbles. "Too much of an invitation." She glances back at us. "I don't like it."

Lobo glances at me.

I blink at the two of them.

I shrug dramatically.

Katma sighs. She turns and looks across the length of metal labyrinth. "We may have to do this one at a time."

"Why?"

"In case there's an ambush---"

Cl-Click!! Lobo arms three grenades at once.

I lose my breath.

Katma goes bug-eyed. "WAIT!!!"

"PEAKABOO!!!!" Lobo tosses all three explosives at once. They dance and scatter across the platforms like stones on pond water.

Clink—clink—clink—BOOOOOM!!!!

Katma and the Tamaranians shield themselves, gasping in shock and horror.

"HISSSSSS!!!!!"

I peer through the chaos.

Seven Gordanians dash out of hiding, hovering about and waving off fumes or clutching arms wounded with shrapnel.

"Woo baby!!!" Lobo grins and whips a pistol out. He spins it. "Duck Hunt!!" He takes aim.

BLAM!!!! BLAM! BLAM-BLAM!!!! BLAM!! BL-BLAM!!!!!!

The Gordanians groan and drop like flies in purple puddles.

Silence.

"………," Katma blinks. She glares at Lobo. "I….hate…..you…."

Lobo grins a crescent moon. "Hate means never having to say you're sorry."

"Pffft." Katma turns and motions the Tamarians ahead.

I sigh with relief.

A beat.

I notice a shadow beneath me.

I glance up.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Five Gordanians sail down at me from a ceiling (floor?) compartment with laser spears glowing.

I gasp.

SWOOOOOSH!

"HISSSSS!!!!!"

I pull out Myrkblade. CHIIIING!!!!

I grit my teeth and spin in a circle, deflecting all five attacks at once.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!!

The Gordanians fly from my sword blocks, disoriented, and collapse in a ring around me.

"Whoah!! Dropouts!!" Lobo aims---

ZAAAAAP!!!

"AAAAA-AAAAUGH!!" an electrified Lobo flies across the room and collapses a couple of tiers below as six more Gordanians sneak into the corridor from the hallway behind us and start unleashing blue-streaming punishment en masse.

ZAP!!!! ZAA-AAAP!!! ZAP!!

I gasp and jump back, deflecting a dozen blasts in one and a half seconds.

I land on my back and tense my body as a few streams of energy soar over my chest and face.

Katma grits her teeth and extends a force field of green.

The lasers splash off against it.

She retracts the shield and unleashes a stream of green 'knives' that soar out and impale two Gordanians while the others duck.

As I get up, I take notice of an additional EIGHT Gordanians sailing in from both sides.

_An ambush indeed._

"Oh yeaaaaaaah!!" Lobo climbs up, his body smoking. He grins and aims his pistol at anything and nothing in particular. "About time recess got called frickin' cancelled!!! Let the lead out, mother-fraggers!!!!"

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!

Katma shouts out a command. The squad of Tamaranian escapees yell bravely at the top of their lungs. With green eyes glowing, they take to the air while Katma runs across the platform with her power ring sparking discharges of death.

What results is a three-dimensional battlefield full of zig-zagging Gordanians, blue lasers, Green Lantern streams, starbolts, and potshots of Lobo's pistol throughout the lopsided lattice of metal platforms.

I sweatdrop….....

I jump to my feet, panting---just as a Gordanian dives in and plows into me.

WHUMP!!!!

I'm scraped along the bottom floor on my back by the jetpacking Gordanian.

"HRESSSSH!!!" his serpentine tongue snakes down at my helmet.

I grit my teeth.

I kick my feet up.

SWOOOSH!!!

The Gordanian is flipped off of me and against a bulkhead.

I vault, spin in mid air, and land with a twirl of Murkblade before----SWOOOOOSH----blurring over and slashing across the Gordanian's helmet.

CLANK!!!!

Sparks fly.

The reptile groans and shakes his head, dizzily--

SMASH!!!

I kick him hard in the face.

He groans and slumps down…silent.

I take a breath and spin around to face the chaos--

ZAP!!! CLANG!! I deflect a laser at the last second.

Two Gordanians charge.

I hold my breath. I back flip—contact the bulkhead behind me with my feet—and push off with a pulse of murk.

WOOOOOOSH!!!

I hold Myrkblade out horizontally by the center with my metal hand.

WHUMP!!!!

I fly between the Gordanians, catching each's shoulder with the hilt and tip of the sword on either side of me. I land, flex my muscles, and yank back on my blade. The Gordanians shriek as they're flung into the open sight of two flying Tamaranians, who blast them unconscious like rag dolls with their starbolts.

I pant.

I look to my left.

Lobo is spinning around on a lower platform, his feet tense, his hands holding his mammoth pistol with both hands. He squints one red eye and aims—laughing his head off as he pivots around and blasts multiple Gordanians out of the sky.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

Suddenly, a huge Gordanian flies up from below and grabs him by the leg—flinging him against a wall.

CLANG!!!

"Whoah!! Pull another tiger by the toe, will ya dipshit?!" Lobo pivots his weight to his upper back and kicks the Gordanian hard in the chest with his big boot.

WHAP!!! The Gordanian stumbles back, hissing.

Lobo gets up and starts whalloping him bar-brawl style with his fists. "WHAP!!! POW!!! WHAM!!! Don't mind me while I do my own sound effects. It makes your death that much cooler. HA!!"

I tense murk through my limbs to blur over and join him….when--

WHAM!!! A Tamaranian body slams into me.

The two of us go flying off and sprawling across a lower platform.

"Blorfarker!!!" the escapee curses in his tongue.

The two of us jump to our feet at the same time.

We look up, panting.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Two Gordanians soar down, laser spears aimed.

ZAAAAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

The Tamaranian ducks.

I deflect two blasts.

The first of the two reptiles dives, swinging his spear.

I slash his weapon in two and smack him across the skull.

WHACK!!!

But the second Gordanian plows into me head-to-chest. WHUMP!!!!

I lose grip of Myrkblade and tumble backwards, entangled with the hissing beast.

Myrkblade slides to the edge of the platform.

I roll to a stop. I wince. I look up.

Through my helmet visor I see the Gordanian hover up and stab down at me with his spear.

CLANK!!!

I roll out of the way.

He stabs down again.

CLANK!!

I roll the other way.

"HRESSSSHAAA!!" he shrieks and fires his laser this time. ZAAAAP!!!

I vault up with a pulse of murk, run two steps up the platform's vertical bulkhead, leap off it, and kick him across the face in mid-air. WHAP!!!!

He spins from the impact of my boot.

I land. I take a breath. I twirl my hands into a Tae Kwan Doe pose and charge forward with a flurry of three rapid punches.

THWAP!! WHAP!! WHAM!!!

I finish with a roundhouse kick to his skull. WHACK!!!

He falls down, and as he does so…two more Gordanians with spears land down with jetpacks.

I take a breath. I switch to kung fu and start hopping in place.

They hiss and slash at me with their spears.

I absorb the attacks and deflect away with an exhale. I jumpkick an uppercut across one's chin while backhanding the second.

I suddenly feel scaly arms from behind.

My mind licks into judo, and I'm quickly pulling his weight over me with three expertly placed hands and launching the Gordanian across the platform.

More hissing.

I spin around.

Two Gordanians fly at me, spears ready. A random starbolt flies in and knocks one to the floor. The remaining one stabs his spear at me at full force.

With a touch of aikido, I grab the spear, further its momentum with a yank, and force the invader's skull into my waiting fist. CRUNCH!!!!

I toss his dazed body to the side.

The thunderous sound of bootsteps announces a charging Gordanian from ahead of me.

A big one.

I pant.

Then from behind: "Nu!!! B'mal threttana!!"

I spin around.

The one Tamaranian waves Myrkblade. He tosses it at me.

I grab it by the hilt and immediately spin around with a silent scream.

SWOOOOOOSH—THWACK!!!!

I slam my blade into the attacker's chest.

His body sails off like a cricket ball and smashes straight through the vertical support of a metal platform. CRACK!!!!

The catwalk groans and falls down just in time to block the incoming dive of two Gordanians trying to attack a helpless pair of Tamaranians. CRASH!!!!!

I turn to the one Tamaranian…and salute with a smile.

He smirks and waves back. "X'Hal nyuvatta nu!" He flies off in a green streak.

I take a breath and look across the battle scene. Two Tamaranians soar past my sight, flinging starbolts at pursuing Gordanians with spears. Another Tamaranian is wrestling with a reptile somewhere near the ceiling (floor?). Down below, Lobo is still fist-fighting with the one giant Gordanian. They almost seem to be having fun. I look across the platforms of my level and see Katma wielding a green axe and cleaving heads of one Gordanian or two. I wince and glance to my right. I see a male Tamaranian being beaten down harshly by three, encircling invaders.

_There I go……_

I take a deep breath. I leap. I blur my legs. I run up the wall. I teleport through a set of railings onto the top of a platform. I leap again. I bounce off the ceiling. I sail down towards the scuffle—spiraling—and swing Myrkblade.

SL-SLASH!!!

I rip into the fuel cell of one Gordanian's jet pack.

The device drips and sparks. The reptile shrieks and pries at himself desperately to get loose of the explosive pack.

In the meantime—I've taken the space of half a second to roll across the ground and leap up with a swing that deflects two spears at once of the Gordanians double-teaming the Tamaranian.

I slide between them and slam the hilt of Myrkblade into the face of one before jerking my hand back and skewering the other with my blade safely under his tunic and barely grazing his skin.

With a pulse of murk I grit my teeth and lift the sword, flinging the reptile off like a catapult.

The first Gordanian flings his flaming jet pack. He breathes, relieved---WHAM!!!—and receives the sole of my boot into his face. THWAP!!!!

He sails off in one direction while his jetpack tumbles the other way and explodes in the distant floor alone by itself.

BOOOOOM!!!!

The catwalk that the Tamaranian and I are on rocks from the blast.

I gasp and support myself on a vertical support.

"Squirrel!!!" Lobo barks up from his ongoing fistfight below. "What are you doing?! Shed some blood, man!!"

I pant, wincing.

"This is war for Crisco's sake!!! Make sacrifices already!!! RAAAUGH!!" he grabs the huge Gordanian in a strangle-hold and gets into a bloody wrestling match. I bite my lip.

_I can't……I can't……_

_Not again……………_

FLASH!!!!!

I blink.

I turn around.

The Tamaranian is hurriedly tossing starbolts at something.

_But what??_

I look.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

One Gordanian collapses from a starbolt blast—but its flying companion nails me directly. WHAM!!!!

This time, I think quickly and grab onto the hurtling body.

"HRESSSSSH!!!" the Gordanian drools in protest.

I grunt. I whip my legs up. I twirl my body up and around and hang onto the Gordanian's back.

His jetpack throttles between us. Our combined weight send us wobbling and twirling madly about in mid-air as the reptilian pilot tries his insane best to compensate. I grit my teeth as the air rushes around the contours of my helmet.

We sail up and around catwalks, between criss-crossing Tamaranians and zig-zagging Gordanians. Starbolts and energy streams soar around us.

Then the world turns into a pinwheel as my opponent desperately spirals our flight in a vain attempt to throw me off.

I hold on, clenching my eyes shut tight.

And then….

_'Noir!! Noir, this is Minnae!! Can you hear me?!'_

_I'm a little busy here, Minnae……_

_'We're safely out of the ship! We're heading into the jungles! Both the citizens and the soldiers!!'_

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!! The claustrophobic world spirals around me. I grit my teeth. My stomach flies into my chest.

_Can't say the same about ourselves right now!!_

_'There's something important you must know, Noir!!'_

_Better make it quick!_

I let loose of my metal limb and pound mercilessly into the back of the flying Gordanian.

WHAM!! WHAM!! WHUMP!!

"HRESSSSSH!!!" it protests.

The Gordanian veers hard to the right. Half of my body comes loose and I'm dangling wildly off the creature's side.

My lungs empty as the walls and catwalks blur beneath my dangling feet.

_'Everyone of the prisoners that went with me are present and accounted for……'_

_Well, good! You could have told me later—_

_'……except one!'_

I blink.

SWOOOSH!!

I'm yanked mercilessly and hold on by one arm as the Gordanian takes a sudden dive through the streaming bodies and maze of lattice work.

_Which one?!?!_

_'I-I couldn't help it, Noir!! She ran off before any of us could stop her!! Her head is full of nothing but her sister!! She thinks that if she stayed with your party then she'd more easily—'_

_**WHICH ONE….MINNAE?!??!**_

_'………your friend……K-Koriand'r, M-Mr. Noir. I-I'm sorry……'_

I grit my teeth.

WOOOSH!!

I poke Myrkblade out.

CLANK!!!

I blindly catch a vertical bulkhead with my blade.

"HREESSSSHA!!!"

The reptile hisses as my body—anchored to the bulkhead by Myrkblade—spins the jetpacking Gordanian around and tosses him off with the flick of a wrist so that he sails across two catwalks like a living pinball. CLANG!! CONG!! THWUMP!!!

I perch to the bulkhead, panting.

Sweating. I have the sudden instinct to look straight down.

I do so.

My black eyes bulge.

The nubile body of Koriand'r—having followed us along the entire flight—is now in the center of the combat. She wrings her hand and cowers at every nearby collapse of a body, strike of a laser, or impact of a starbolt. She lets out a shriek and cowers as a murderous Gordanian across the bottom floor (ceiling?) spots her and sails in at full force with his jetpack. The monster raises a spear to impale her.

I summon murk, teeth gritting.

RIIIIP!!!

I pull Myrkblade out of the bulkhead.

I tilt back.

Time slows down as I flip backwards and swan-dive in reverse with my arms outstretched.

Starbolts and blue lasers and green streams of Green Lantern energy fly and criss-cross all around my molasses-plummeting body of trailing murk.

I plummet down past one floor…two…three…and converge upon the cowering girl and charging monstrosity just as--

"HRESSSHA!!!!" the spear lunges at her belly.

I point Myrkblade straight up to the floor just an inch before the Tamaranian girl's chest.

CLANK!!!

I freeze—balanced upside down on the embedded sword's hilt like a swan.

CONG!!!!

"?????" the Gordanian looks up at his blocked spear.

I bend impossibly forward with a kick straight down the Gordania's skull.

SMACK!!!

He stumbles backwards, dazed.

I cartwheel my feet to the ground, rip Myrkblade out of the floor before Koriand'r, snarl, and swing like I've never swung before.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH-**THWACK!!!!!**

The Gordanian's body ragdolls across the floor, sailing so hard into the metal wall across the room that his body forms a dent that holds it in place. He groans and is out cold.

I pant….pant….pant

I swallow.

I look down.

"……" Koriand'r looks up at me. Green eyes glistening.

A beat.

She smiles.

A beat.

I simper…… _SMACK!!!_

A Gordanian fist sails into my side.

I stumble across the floor, wincing.

The Gordanian hisses and pounces at me.

I spin my body like a break dancer and come up with an upward thrust of Myrkblade just in time to chop the Gordanian's spear in half.

The Gordanian stumbles back.

I jump to my feet directly in front of Koriand'r. I hold Myrkblade up defensively…threateningly….

Frowning….

The Gordanian's reptilian eyes narrow….then bulge.

"……," I raise an eyebrow.

"……….," suddenly, the Gordanian's head rolls off.

Koriand'r gasps and hugs me from behind.

I don't stop her.

I watch as the Gordanian's body slumps down and behind it stands Katma with a green energy sword dripping with purple blood. A great deal of her torso is liberally stained with the same color as she pants, her chest heaving. Her face is plastered with some queer smirk of victory.

"We've taken out this crowd…," she pants. "We're victorious…for now…."

I look at her.

I look up throughout the corridor.

Gordanian bodies litter the scene. Most dead. Others unconscious. All twelve Tamaranians are miraculously alive. Some are limping and being helped to hovering positions by companions as a strong pair or two finish the last of the bloodthirsty reptiles.

I take a breath. I sheathe Myrkblade. CHIIING!!!

"Probably just as well we took so many out now…," Katma clutches her side, panting. "Takes some of the pressure off of infiltrating the bridge."

I look at her side.

There is a slight stain of crimson.

My lips part.

"Don't worry…," she smiles weakly. "Just a scratch. Believe me. I've taken worse wounds than this for the sole sake of surviving. I know how to not get too damaged."

A beat.

She glances at the girl cowering behind me. "Hmm…looks like your friend is back, Noi—"

I make a snarling face.

"!!!!" Katma bites her tongue. She clears her throat. "Er….I mean….'Angel Spear Four'."

I raise an eyebrow.

Her green eyes narrow.

"How'd she get here exactly?"

Koriand'r blushes. "N'myer thrattal jereblarg wi Kormand'r…"

_'She strayed from the group I was leading out. I am oh so sorry, Captain Tui!! I would have stopped her if I could, but it's enough as it is to keep one telepathically honed in on nearly thirty Tamaranians—much less trying to contact the soldiers and—'_

Katma groans. "Understood, your highness. None of us our Superman…"

I mouth: '_Four????'_

_'The poor child thinks that if she follows your group around, she'll find her sister Kormand'r who's possibly under captive of other Gordanians.'_

"Well, whatever she came for…she only got trouble," Katma walks over and ruffles the girl's hair.

Koriand'r giggles, relaxing a bit.

My lips curve ever so slightly….but then I sigh with a pain in my heart.

"Whether any of us like it or not…she's stuck with this team. We can't leave her alone to fend for herself. We need to protect her."

A beat.

Katma looks at me and plants her hands on her hips. "Especially when her future turns out to be so damn important, huh N—Angel Spear Four??"

I again mouth: _'Why am I __fourth__??'_

The Tamaranians gather around Katma…ready to move from the scene.

_'Captain Tui! The officer of these soldiers is guiding us towards the center of the jungles beyond the Valley! He claims that there is a temple there that doubles as a hangar bay for hover barges!! They're willing to wait for us to rendezvous with them and perform a flight towards the Frontline surrounding the Capital! But he is only giving us forty minutes to get there!!'_

"Just as history books maintain…," Katma mutters to herself. "We need to get to those hover barges at the temple in the jungle, pdq! Lobo?!" A beat. "Lobo, get your ass over here!!"

A shuffling.

Katma and I look over.

We grimace.

SLUMP!!!!

The……..skin of the entire huge Gordanian that Lobo was fist-fighting is tossed to the floor before us. A Tamaranian or two behind us start to wretch.

"Hah!! Now that's one Hell of a trophy!!" Lobo folds his arms—covered in purple blood. "Whaddya think I should do, sweet cakes?? Make one bigass trenchcoat? Or about two dozen purses??"

Katma frowns. She produces a huge buzz saw out of green energy and chops the skin into indistinguishable bits. Lobo pouts.

"Awwwww frag it. Why'd you have to go and do that?"

"Fur is murder."

"Scales."

"Whatever. Get your rear in gear."

"What for?"

"We have exactly less than forty-minutes to catch a ride on history or this mission is bust," Katma spins around and speaks a few commands to the Tamaranians.

They nod back and lift off….flying down the hallway at the other end of the corridor. Katma hovers up to join them. She looks back at us and calls out, "Next stop, the bridge. Then we run like Hell through the jungle to get to a temple where Minnae and the other Tamaranians are."

"What it all comes down to is…you fly…Squirrel and I run."

Katma smirks. "Makes it all the more enjoyable for you, I'm sure."

And she's gone.

Lobo groans. He looks at me.

"Hey Squirrel…never trust a woman who wears a ring before meeting you."

I nod.

A beat.

"Pfft…Hell…never trust a woman period! HA!!"

That said, he starts climbing up the metal lattices like a huge gorilla and then runs down the hallway to catch up with the Tamaranian crowd and Katma.

I blink.

I look to my right.

Koriand'r looks at me.

She smiles.

With a sudden warmth washing over her, the pre-Titan girl floats up and zooms down the hallway like a pixie.

I take a deep breath.

_So what if she has seen me??_

I run a metal hand over my helmet and visor.

_It's not like I'm Noir or anything……_

I pulse murk through my legs and leap up—Jedi style—onto the platform. I blur my lower limbs and streak down the hallway last.

_I'm Angel Spear Four._

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**T-Minus: Four Hours, eight minutes.**

**Location: Crashed Ship – Bridge**

FLASH!!!! CRAAACK!!!!

A pair of huge, metal doors explodes.

Three Tamaranians with glowing wrists hover through. They peer around. Starbolts aimed. They breathe easier. They lower their limbs.

As the other Tamaranians peer through the fresh hole, Katma hovers through in a green aura. Lobo stomps onto the bridge after her and looks around, hands on his hips.

"Hmmm………"

Bodies of Gordanians are flung against upside computer consoles and steering devices. All dead. A thin, metal platform stretches above us. Below us are two stretches of windows meant to be on the 'top' of the bridge where—undoubtedly—commanding generals looked out onto the galactic battlefield. Now all that can be seen through it is the darkened brownness of the yawning ravine below the crashed ship.

I walk forward and gaze upon it. I suddenly remember that the ship is half leaning over a huge ravine or canyon.

I wince.

"Worst case of DUI I've ever seen," Lobo chuckles.

"Shut up."

"Yes, sweet cakes."

Katma walks over. She glances around. "Now where's the central computer—?!"

"Getta thri!!" one of the first two Tamaranian escapees points and floats up to a wide-stretching, upside down computer console. The other eleven Tamaranians float up and join him…a little girl included.

Katma smirks. "Well…they certainly know they're way to the data, don't they?"

"Hey….makes our job easier," Lobo utters, nonchalantly licking the leftover purple goo from his face and reloading the clip to his massive pistol. "Hell…it's not even our job to begin with."

"Oh can it, Lobo. We're here for an honorable purpose."

"Honorable?! HA! I'm in it for the reward and nothing more, Toots!" he winks and cocks his pistol before spinning it and slipping it inside his jacket. "Besides….what's so honorable about killing every scaley thing that moves for 'Life' or some shit?! Heh…ask Squirrel. He's the goody-two-shoes who believes in non-lethal butt kicking!"

I look at him through my helmet's visor.

"……"

He smirks. "What? Caught in the headlights? You're a pansy!! You're hardly helping this mission!"

I frown, my arms folded.

"Lobo's right, Noir….," Katma says quietly.

I look at her, shocked.

My jaw dropping….

She looks at me seriously. "This is a War. This isn't like fighting crime back on your Terra Firma. There are as many lives at stake as there are lives to sacrifice. Somewhere in that balance—even you must realize—lethal force is necessary. While the rest of us are ending the lives of these Gordanian scum quickly, you're spending all-too-precious time assuring they survive your assaults. That may be honorable in and of itself, but even the Being who sent us here had to admit that there'd be expendability on both sides in order to maintain triumph—which is most important of all."

I take a deep breath. I'm registering her…but….

"I know you're young," she nods. "And this is all probably new to you. It's only natural that you find killing to be a….terrible and strange thing…."

I frown at her…thankful that she could not see my black eyes then and there.

The glistening color of white in the peripheral…

_She simply has no idea……………she has no clue……_

_No one does._

"Jakorg rembetta thriel'm sie!!"

I snap out of it.

I turn and look up at the computer console. I raise an eyebrow.

The Tamaranians are holding out their arms as one of the first two escapees floats from one to another with what looks like….a syringe. With a spark, a strange glowing serum is teleported at point blanc into the wrists and forearms of each amber-skinned alien.

"Remarkable….," Katma remarks with a helpless grin.

"What??" Lobo makes a face. "Looks like they're getting' tore up."

"It's a nanomachanical data dispenser….," Katma speaks. "They're literally injecting the historical secret data they've found into their bloodstreams."

"You mean in tiny, floating robot thingies?"

"Exactly. That must have been how the Tamaranians got the information through the frontlines!" Katma folds her arms. "Simply incredible. We're witnessing the very secret of a legend."

I watch…mixedly amazed and horrified…as the last Tamaranian to be approached is none other than Koriand'r. She extends her tiny arm out and barely winces as the syringe teleports the nanomachines into her bloodstream with a spark. She rubs her arms, take a proud breath of glowing-green, and glances our way. I gulp.

_It's official……she's a part of this…_

"Hresshaaaa….."

Katma gasps. She spins and looks.

So do I.

A dying Gordanian coughs, hacks out blood, and presses a button on a computer console with his last breath.

**PHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

**LURCH!!!!!!**

The Tamaranians gasp and float towards the center of the bridge worriedly as the entire ship shakes and careens around us.

A well-timed Starbolt sails over and incinerates both the one dying Gordanian and its computer console.

FLASH!!!

"G'vork forblarker lenn'glok!!"

"Okay…..," Lobo grunts. "Who farted??"

"It's the ship!!" Katma exclaims through clenched teeth as the entire interior starts to shake and teeter. "It's resting precariously on the edge of the ravine! That Gordanian momentarily set off the thrusters! Just enough to send this whole dreadnought collapsing into the ravine below!!"

**GROAAAAAAN!!!!**

I brace myself as the ship starts to lean over.

The Tamaranians look at each other, at the Green Lantern, then at the ceiling (floor?).

Katma gasps. "Okay!! We're breaking through this clamshell!!"

She floats up in a blur.

Lobo looks up.

So do I.

A few Tamaranians join Katma's side.

The Green Lantern tosses a few black bangs out of her hair, grits her teeth, and charges up her power ring. Her body glows a hot emerald as she builds up a full-chested yell and flings her ring finger towards the ceiling.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!"

**WHURRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!**

A huge, green drill of pure energy forms in front of her and spins menacingly into the inner hull.

**RRRRRRRRIP!!!!!!!!**

Bits and pieces of shrapnel litter downward in a spray. The worried Tamaranians hover out of the way while the ones by Katma's side start flinging starbolt after starbolt in a spiraling fashion around the edges of Katma's 'drill'

In such a fashion, a gaping tunnel is formed through the hull and a green-red, alien sky starts to peer through.

I squint my black eyes under my helmet.

Lobo makes a face.

"Ewww….sunlight."

Katma gasps and pushes the 'drill' upwards with a grunt.

"NNGHH!!"

**CRACK!!!!**

She's through.

"V'mana!!"

The Tamaranians start sailing up through the hole, one at a time. The ship lurches more and more. Gordanian bodies rattle around like pebbles in a jar. Katma only has enough strength to pull one of the remaining Angel Spears….Lobo.

"Jump, number Four!! Jump!!"

I pulse murk through my limbs. I take a breath. But just as I leap, the ship lurches again. I gasp. I fall short of my goal. I jab a metal hand up and barely catch ahold of the 'lid' of the burrowed hole. I grit my teeth and dangle.

The ship lurches again.

I gasp…slipping.

Then a petite figure floats back into view. She stares at me.

I sweat.

SWOOOSH!! A small pair of hands grab around my wrist. Koriand'r grunts…strains…and hoists me up enough to grab with my other hand.

I smirk.

_I guess her strength comes with puberty……_

WOOOSH!!

I vault up through the rest of the hole with murk….

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**T-Minus: Four Hours, one minute.**

**Location: Plain of Flight – Crashed Ship's Hull**

I land.

Squatting.

Panting.

"Come on!!"

"Nu vlinna thrait!!"

"Better hop to it, Squirrel!!"

I look up.

Everyone has descended the hull already and are standing on the brown earth of the planet. Koriand'r floats a meter ahead of me backwards…beckoning me as she would any life form.

The entire ship beneath me lurks.

I grit my teeth.

I get on my feet.

I blur.

I jump just as the ship starts to slide…

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**T-Minus: Four Hours.**

**Location: Plain of Flight - Canyon Side**

**CRUMBLE!!!!!!!!**

The entire ship kicks up dust in a monumental flurry as it slides off and down into the huge, gaping ravine below.

I sail through the air and land on solid ground in a tumble. Grunting. I roll to a stop….and take a huge breath.

**CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

A thunderous echo rises through the air from the impact of the dreadnought with the canyon floor. The ground shakes. Distant shell bursts are drowned out.

Silence.

I slowly get up, breathing heavily….that is until Lobo swats me hard of back.

WHAP!!! WHAP!!! WHAP!!!

"HA HA HA!!! Great escape there, Squirrel!! A living soul couldn't have moved faster save by the force of propulsive urine!! Which is pretty damn close to what you did in my book!!"

I whimper.

"We have no time to sit around," Katma exclaims, pointing towards the distant line of jungle. "We have half an hour to rejoin with Minnae, the citizens, and the soldiers!! We'll take hover barges together and then—"

"Wait just a cotton-picking second….," Lobo raises a finger.

Katma pouts. "**What?!**"

Lobo points up at the sky. "Uhhh….we've got a peeping tom………………on Mt. Olympus."

Katma blinks.

She and a bunch of other Tamaranians look up.

Koriand'r gasps.

I glance up. My black eyes twitch.

From one of the many specks that are the Gordanian invasion fleet, there is a brilliant flash of light. Then—like a comet—a huge pulse of light thunders toward us.

Nobody has a chance to scream as a galactic ion cannon blast converges on our location.

**BOOOM!!!!!!!!!**


	113. Angel Spear Four part 4

**113. Angel Spear Four part 4**

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**T-Minus: Three Hours, fifty-nine minutes.**

**Location: Plain of Flight - Canyon Side**

Tamaranians around us shriek.

Lobo's entire body tenses.

Koriand'r covers her little head and squints her eyes shut.

I pant, wincing.

I glance up.

Katma Tui is the only one of us not crouching from the ion cannon blast.

She stands up tall with her right hand stretched violently upwards.

And she is panting.

A green shield fades around us, revealing a huge crater formed around the blast zone. The rock and smoke is literally smoking on either side of our huddled mass.

"That's just the first volley...," Katma Tui exhales. "They've spotted us and zeroed in their cannons on this location."

"Heh...Sniper with a lightning bolt," Lobo grins.

I squint through my helmet's visor.

A pulse of light blinks beyond the dome of the hazy atmosphere.

"T'hal Threattum!!" an escapee shouts.

"Here it comes!!" Katma exclaims. She points directly behind us. "To the forest line!! Hurry!!"

"That's a little bit in the.....uh......nuke loogey zone, don't ya think?!?!" Lobo remarks, scratching his head.

"I should have just enough power left in my ring to shield us till we get to the forest!!"

"Then what?!?! You think they're afraid to nuke trees?!?!"

"Just go!!" Katma shouts and starts to glow her ring brighter. "They won't see us in the trees!! They're not about to waste precious ion charges on pot shots!!!"

The bolt of destruction from the sky throttles down at us.

I wince.

"GO!!!!"

"N'mberatta!!"

The Tamaranians start hovering close to the ground in a maddening streak towards the jungles in the distance.

Koriand'r gives us a forlorn glance and joins the mass in its hurried exodus.

Lobo stomps past me.

"Move it or lose it, Squirrel!! Assuming you have some to lose in the first place! HA!"

I frown at him.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The ground shakes.

I start to sprint.

I look behind me.

Katma soars straight up into the air. She forms a bright ball of green light with her ring, and then shapes it outward like a giant concave spoon.

**PHOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

The fiery ion charge impacts her shield.

Fire and bright energy splash about.

The Green Lantern's ring absorbs it all and vomits it back out in something akin to a miniature mushroom cloud.

**FLASH!!!!**

As a result, Katma falls twenty feet and lands on her rear.

"Oof!!!" She winces, hobbles to her feet by superhuman strength alone, and hovers backwards behind us at a relatively shorter speed.

I take a breath. I look ahead through my shades.

We are almost halfway to the trees. I find it remarkable that none of the Tamaranians are flying up and over into the canopies. Everyone is either running on their feet or hovering low, close to the ground.

"Here comes another!!" Katma pants.

"How about we use some of the slower redheads for a meatshield??"

"Shut the Hell up, Lobo!!" Katma growls. "Don't even joke like that!! These people ARE the data!! We need them alive by the time we get to the Capital!"

"Couldn't we just toss one up into a blast??"

"I swear to god, I am so going to---"

"Six o'clock, sweet cakes."

"What?!?! Son of a—" Katma leaps, hovers, raises her ring, and produces a shield again.

**  
****PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

**  
****FLASH!!!!!!!!!!**

"NNNGH!!!" Katma barely keeps hovering as she deflects another blast.

I skid to a stop from running and pant. I consider helping her....

"No!! Keep going!!!" Katma shouts.

I bite my lip and continue running.

'_Mr. Noir?! I sense fear and panic!! What is going on??'_

_We're kind of in a hurry to get to the temple with you and the soldiers._

'_But you have yet fifteen minutes at least to make it here!!'_

_And it takes only fifteen seconds for an ion cannon from space to turn us into ashes!!_

'_GASP!! You can't be serious!!'_

"AAAAUGH!!!" Katma raises another shield of green energy.

**PHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

**FLASH!!!!!!!**

Flaming embers settle all around us as a shockwave breaks through Katma's weakening power ring and forces a dozen of us to collapse to the ground.

I grit my teeth...

_This is about as serious as it gets........._

'_Oh dear...do please hurry to safety!'_

_That's our foremost plan, your highness......_

I jump back up and blur forward.

I reach the head of the pack with my smoking speed and reach the line of jungle first.

I unsheathe Myrkblade.

CHIIIIIING!!!!

I swing at the line of foliage.

CHUNK!!! SLASH!!!! THWACK!!! CRACK!!!

I bore a hole through.

The first Tamaranian sails through just in time.

"Mekle'm hoka nu!"

I salute back with a weak smile.

The rest of the dozen Tamaranians fly through. Koriand'r included.

I turn and look out at who's left in the Valley of Flight.

My black eyes widen under the visor.

Katma limps on her feet. Her ring sizzles. She lifts her right hand...but the glow is gone. Her eyes widen...no longer green, but rather specks of dark brown. The black and green jumpsuit of the Green Lantern fades away, and in its place is the simple alien garb of dark brown pants and a gray tunic. She bites her lip.

I look up.

She looks up.

Another ion cannon blast is sailing down at her.

**PHOOOOOOOOM!!!**

She lets out a breath and simply......slumps to her knees.

I blink.

Suddenly...a muscular, pale mercenary is standing over her.

"Lobo?!?!?!" Katma pants.

"Shhhhh," he narrows his red eyes. "You're through with being catcher. I'm putting you in the dugout."

The ion blast sails down.

"Lobo SMASH!!!!" the undead creep rears his fists and literally punches the ion blast back up into the air.

**FLASH!!!**

I shade my eyes...my lips parting in wonder.

Katma is similarly stunned....until a cold, meaty hand yanks her up by the collar.

"Yaagh!!"

Lobo literally drags her while running towards me and the fresh hole in the line of trees.

"Y-You r-realize th-this d-doesn't ch-change th-the w-way I-I f-feel a-about y-you, r-right?!?!" Katma's voice grumbles, distorted by the bumpy ride.

"Nope....I'm hoping it makes you hate me more," Lobo smirks. "Squirrel! Special delivery!!"

Lobo tosses Katma at me.

My eyes bulge. I sheathe Myrkblade and hold my arms out.

WHUMP!!!

Katma lands awkwardly in my grasp.

She blinks.

I blink.

"This must be some sort of fantasy of yours, eh kid?" she utters.

I simper.

_Not really......_

"Haul ass!!" Lobo points at me and runs into the forest. "Preferably hers!!"

I look up.

I wince.

A last ion blast sails down at us.

I turn around and sprint into the forest with the powerless Green Lantern in my grasp.

And the blast hits....

**PHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!**

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**T-Minus: Three Hours, fifty-seven minutes.**

**Location: Jungle – Outer Rim**

**BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

The ground burns into floating ash.

Trees uproot and fly into oblivion.

A wall of fire and energy discharge trails behind us.

I blur my feet and soar us past the event horizon of the blast.

Branches and leaves and questionable shards of organic matter litter all around like snowfall.

I hop over logs, ditches, and even a Gordanian body or two from a previous battle.

And then everything quiets down...save for the distant thunder of shelling.

I pant and run to a still walk...realizing that I have caught up with Lobo, Koriand'r, and the dozen Tamaranians.

And still...we've all managed to survive.

I let out a sigh of relief.

A beat.

I glance down.

Katma Tui is clutching to me.

Silence...

I clear my throat.

Her eyes open up.

She glances at me...at the others....and then hurriedly jumps down out of my grasp. She brushes herself off, coughs, and swallows before speaking quite authoritatively:

"Well....um.....er....w-we made it through. Yes. Y-Yes we did....and....um.......m-my Green Lantern energy is sucked dry at the moment but....I-I'm sure it'll return in due time and....um....I-I can be of one hundred percent efficient assistance such as before....."

Lobo stifles a chuckle.

A Tamaranian woman or two snickers.

Katma glares.

'_Mr. Noir! Captain Tui! D-Did your party make it?!?!'_

"Yes, your highness...," Katma rubs her head and sighs. "We're all okay."

'_Magnificent! Now you need only track us to the temple!!'_

"And where is this 'temple' exactly?" Lobo asks.

We all look at him.

"What?" he shrugs with a helpless smirk. "I'm on the party line too, ya know!"

'_I'll guide you to it! There is little time left! You must hurry!'_

"Heh...can't be so bad now that we're in the jungle right?" Lobo shrugs.

"Vefera Gord'n thretta y'alla thri!!" one of the escapees points and shouts.

We all look up.

A pair of Gordanian dropships descends through the atmosphere and start to hover above the canopy. Huge doors on the bottom of their hulls slide open.

"Think again....," Katma groans.

I gulp.

"Habbla menablorg fenkaka si corkla di Tam'ran!"

"They're here to finish the job that the ion cannons failed to do...," Katma utters.

"Ever the perfectionists, these snakes," Lobo folds his arms. A beat. He smiles. "I like the Gordanians!"

I kick him in the shins.

"Ow!!! Not you too!!"

_'Captain Tui! You are not alone!'_

"We know that!!"

'_Hurry to the temple!!'_

"Knack for the obvious as always."

"Gotta love her for that.

"Shut up and run!!"

"Yes ma'am, Brown Lantern!!"

"......"

Anyways.....we're running. And those of us who are capable of hovering are doing so. I suddenly realize that the anti-air cannons of the dropships and other patrolling Gordanian vessels must make Tamaranian flight a suicidal choice at this point. The jungle literally IS our cover.

I'm in the middle of the hurrying group of escapees at this point. The bulk of the Tamaranians are ahead of me, while a few stragglers are behind me with Lobo and Katma. Without her Green Lantern energy, Katma's still quite an athlete. But her sprinting still can't compare to the low-to-the-ground floating of the Tamaranians or my blurred agility. Thus, she's stuck running back alongside Lobo.....heh.

A pain of worry shudders through me. I quickly look ahead of me. I see the small, floating figure of Koriand'r. Safe in passage.

I sigh with relief....

BLAM!!!!!!

A tree splits in half twenty meters ahead of us from laser fire.

A few Tamaranians gasp and nearly run into each other, frightened by the blast.

I grit my teeth and glance up in mid-run.

The first dropship has more or less spotted us and is unleashing a heated punishment from its laser banks.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!!!!!!

Craters form in the jungle floor. A tree or two fall down. A Tamaranian escapee falls down with a gasp. Another Tamaranian helps him up to his feet and they're fleeing forward again, ducking under tree branches and avoiding falling debris from the sporadic laser bombardment.

"This is too dangerous!!" Katma exhales while sprinting. "Minnae!! Can you hone in on all sixteen of us individually???"

'_It may take some concentration, but yes, Captain!'_

"Guide us all to the Temple! We're going to split up!"

"Famous last words....it never fails....," Lobo smirks.

Katma glares at him before barking to everyone who can hear above the blasts: "Blagorg'n weddulock nui seratta'm thrui!!"

To my awe, every Tamaranian instantly understands and the whole group splits within a blink. Amber bodies dart every which way through the forest. Everyone fans out...imbued with a homing beacon of sorts in my head. And I can feel it too...the gentle pull of Minnae Metharsia like a soft hand through the ragged and crumbling jungle.

But there is one Tamaranian who is anything but calm and collected, and she seems terribly overwhelmed and confused by the exploding jungle around her. She pants and darts in random, awkward directions...trying to find a solid path through the forest. A glowing aura surrounds her, and she collapses with horror and shrieks as a laser blast sails down at her petite figure.  
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**T-Minus: Three Hours, fifty-three minutes.**

**Location: Jungle – Forested Path**

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

I dive in, snatch her, roll, and leap back up to my feet and sail through the forked branch of a short tree as----

BLAM!!!!!!

A hole explodes in the earth from the heated blast. Tree limbs, leaves, and strips of bark litter down all over. I grit my teeth and beat my way through the entire mess. Koriand'r clings to me from under my left arm where I'm holding her.

A rumbling sound lights my ears. I look up, panting. Bright lights glisten against my helmet visor. Koriand'r also looks up and bites her lip.

The gunship hovers directly over us. It's an angular, flying amphibian of dark Gordanian metal. Its thrusters vomit forth light-distorting vapors as it lowers so close to the canopy that the treetops start to smoke. The bottom doors in the hull open wider and bright white puffs of light can be seen from inside. The puffs turn out to be the exhaust from dozens of jetpacks as Gordanian after Gordanian descends down into the jungle, armed with laser staffs.

And a handful of them are coming straight for Koriand'r and I.

I grit my teeth.

I quicken my blurring feet.

"HISSSSS!!!!"

"HRESSSHA!!!!"

Three flying reptiles rocket down and pursue me close to the ground. Laser rifles mercilessly assault me from behind.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAP!!! ZAAP!!!!!

I leap, duck, side-step, and dive a couple of times in mid-sprint to avoid the blue blasts which explode in the jungle all around me.

"N'mala v-vorblorg thri!!" Koriand'r stutters.

I gasp and look straight ahead.

A branch is in my way.

I tilt us both back and slide in a limbo-move that barely avoids the wooden appendage brushing past my face.

A pursuing Gordanian isn't so lucky. He slams head-on into the branch and collapses. His two companions hover around the obstruction and take aim again.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAP!!!

I unsheathe Myrkblade---CHHHHING!!---and spin the weapon behind me like a fan.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

I deflect all the blasts. I see a tree up ahead. I jump, twirl in mid-air with Koriand'r in my grasp, and slash hard across the solid trunk of the tree. SLASH!!!!! I land and sprint ahead as the tree loses its solidity and teeters over. CRUNNNNCH!!!!

"HRESSSSHAA---" THWACK!!! A Gordanian slams hard into trunk, sending splinters flying. The last of the three pursuers soars after me, growling with reptilian drool. He fires.

ZAAAP!!!

The laser blast strikes close to my feet.

I gasp.

I fall forward hard. Before collapsing, I toss Koriand'r high into the air.

Like any good Tamaranian youth, she hovers herself upright in mid air. She twirls about—panting—and floats above my downed figure.

The Gordanian charges directly at her, swinging his sparking staff.

Koriand'r shrieks.

"!!!!!" I vault up with a pulse of murk and collide with the incoming Gordanian's body.

WHAP!!!!

Together, we sail up nearly thirty feet to the top of the jungle canopy. As we touch the leaves, we grapple with whatever limbs we have free and start mercilessly pummeling each other on the long.....way....down....and....

WHUMP!!!!

We land hard on the leaves-covered earth.

I roll one way.

The Gordanian rolls the other.

We both get up at the same time.

Panting...

We charge each other.

Koriand'r covers her green eyes.

WHAM!!!

I elbow the reptile across the chin with a snarl.

He recoils and then springs at me with a knee to my stomach.

WHUMP!!!

I bend over, wheezing.

Hissing, the Gordanian grabs me by the shoulders and tosses me into a nearby tree.

SLAM!!!

I shake my head...dizzy.

The reptile picks up his spear, cracks his neck, and aims at me.

The weapon glows.

I frown and run at him.

He fires.

ZAAP!!!!

SWOOOOSH!! I teleport through the blast...through him...and materialize on the other side.

I reach blindly backwards with two hands, grip his neck, and fling him over me with a silent yell.

WOOOOOSH-WHAM!!! He slams into another tree, causing the bark to crack.

I run over to the middle of the clearing, end in a slide, scoop up Myrkblade, twirl it, and dash back over at the Gordanian just as he gets up and raises his spear.

CLANK!!!

Sparks fly from our impacting weapons.

I press down against him.

He presses up against me.

Struggling....struggling....

He lifts his leg and kicks me back.

WHUMP!!

I stumble backwards.

He hisses and swings hard with his spear.

I duck it.

He lunges at my gut.

I twirl to the side, dodge, and swing hard at his back.

SLASH!!!!

His jetpack shatters and sparks.

He snarls and kicks me in the shin.

I hobble off, wincing.

He twirls his spear, aims, and fires---

ZAAP!!!!

My black eyes twitch as the blinding light consumes my vision---

SWOOOSH—WHUMP!!!

Koriand'r little body safely pushes me out of the way. We both lay on the ground, gasping for air.

The Gordanian jumps down and swings his laser staff at us both.

Koriand'r clutches to me.

I raise Myrkblade with one arm, gritting my teeth.

CLANK!!

I deflect one swing.

CLUNK!!

I deflect another.

As the Gordanian attempts a third jab, I swiftly swing Myrkblade down and at his legs.

THWUMP!!!

He falls to the ground.

I force Koriand'r off me, dash to my feet, and charge the Gordanian.

He gets up---

SLASH!!! CL-CLANK!!!

I hit him hard across the helmet with my sword.

He dizzily grips his head.

WHUMP!!!!

I punch him hard in the gut with my metal fist.

He spits out some blood and wheezes with a foul breath.

I take a breath...and....

THWACK!!!!!

I uppercut him harshly with the blunt side of Myrkblade.

He literally flies up eight feet before falling and landing hard on his rear.

"Jagorgan Gord'n threatta!!"

I spin around.

I grit my teeth.

Two more Gordanians hover down from above the canopy and approach a trembling Koriand'r.

I twirl Myrkblade and blur straight at the scene.

They aim staffs at her cranium.

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I streak through, grabbing Koriand'r with a hooked left arm. I run up the nearest tree, blur up its side, and toss Koriand'r safely into a net of low-hanging vines. I then vault off the tree trunk and backflip with my arms spread out.

"HRESSSHAAAA!!"

ZAAAP!! ZAP!!! ZAAAP!!

Try as they might, the Gordanians fail to hit my figure as I twirl about, sail down like a reverse diver, and land in a squat between the two. I immediately spring up with a spiraling uppercut of my sword that severs one staff in half. CRACK!!

I land on the disarmed Gordanian's back and vault off him, forcing him to plant into the ground.

WHUMP!!

"HRSSSH!!"

I flip, land behind the second Gordanian, and stab in reverse with my sword.

CHUNK!!!!

Myrkblade embeds itself into the reptile's jetpack.

He flails about dramatically as I snarl and spin—flinging the fiend straight into the other as he just starts getting up.

WHUMP!!!

The two collapse on the far side of clearing...out cold.

I let out a sigh.

Then there's a loud rumbling.

"Y'norga Gord'n hemma suut!!" Koriand'r points.

I look up and behind me.

One of the gunships is flying low....sweeping by with laser cannons charging.

I take a breath and dash back up the tree. I snatch the waiting Koriand'r back up and leap off the trunk just as a laser blast sails down from the vessel.  
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**T-Minus: Three Hours, forty-eight minutes.**

**Location: Jungle – Middle Canopy**

BLAM!!!!!

The Jungle explodes beneath and behind me.

I sail through the air from my leap.

I sweat under my helmet.

In slow motion, my black eyes peer out from underneath my visor and I can see the turbulent world of Tamaran.

A huge green sea of jungle canopies stretch out for miles before a crystal blue ocean and beyond that a strip of brown yawns with numerous puffs of bright yellow and red light exploding, signaling to me from afar the location of the Capital and its surrounding Battlefront. And stretching majestically above it all is a dome of chaos; green-laden sunset of the Tamaranian world, with specks of darting dreadnoughts and battleships in some galactic ragnorak between the atmosphere and the stars.

And time resumes and the two of us are plummeting back towards the green sea and a trail of exploding laser blasts eat their way up my heels.

BLAM!! BLAM!!! **BLAM!!!**

I hold my breath.

I position my legs.

I land just right and vault off a tree branch and land and vault off of another and proceed on springing from section of canopy to section of canopy in a hopscotch from Hell.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Tree parts and jungle splinters fly up behind me and trail my streaking form.

Koriand'r trembles in my grasp.

The thrusters of the pursuing gunship rumbled louder and closer and louder and closer.

Bubbles of sweat formed on my skin.

'_Mr. Noir!! Why're you trailing behind the others?!?!'_

_Do you EVER ask questions when I'm not about to get fried?!?!_

BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!!!

I gasp and leap just as a tree explodes beneath me.

I'm hard pressed to find a tree branch.

I actually sail down through the canopy.

I stab Myrkblade at the last second and half-slice through a branch.

My body swings around the branch by my sword, and I pull my weapon out on the upswing.

SWOOOSH!!

In such a manner, I sling-shot my body up and out of the canopy and back into the jumping pace of branch-to-branch navigation.

'_Mr. Noir! Head due northeast of where you are now!!'_

_Will that take us to the temple?!?!_

'_Yes! And more!!'_

_More???_

'_Just hurry! Please!! The rest of us have assembled! That is except...'_

_I have Starfire here._

'_Magnificent! Wow...for being so paranoid about the future, you certainly are saving her out of a lot of scrapes---'_

_Could you get out of my mind for JUST ONE SECOND?!?!?!_

BLAM!!!!!!

An explosion of splinters and fire behind me.

I grunt and leap forward.

"Jukuna havutt Tam'ran clee!!" Koriand'r gasps.

I look ahead.

A clearing appears in the jungle canopy below. A dark brown structure of stone stretches up out of the earth where the trees disappear.

The temple....

But before I can dive down there for safety...a thick figure suddenly rises directly in my way. A thick albino figure....

"Hey Squirrel! Out of the trees and heads up, kid!!" Lobo stands atop a tall tree on the clearing's edge and whips out his megapistol. He cocks it and takes aim at my head.

I gasp....until I realize that he's aiming at what's behind my head.

**POW!!!!** He fires.

I teleport into a dive and streak past and beyond him as his flaming bullet sails straight into the cockpit of the Gordanian dropship and explodes.

**SHATTER!!!!!!!**  
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**T-Minus: Three Hours, forty-six minutes.**

**Location: Jungle – Temple Clearing**

The dropship falls like a burning comet and explodes chaotically in the jungle two hundred meters away.

THWUMP!!!

I land in the middle of the clearing.

I look up, panting.

A huge stone door in the temple's side yawns open. The old Tamaranian officer from earlier in the crashed ship is there. Beside him stands a phalanx of the soldiers and—behind them—the freed citizens from the prison cell. A line of Tamaranians charge starbolts and launch them over my head.

I hear hissing from behind.

I turned and see charging Gordanians falling from the air with starbolt burns on their chests and armor.

"Quickly!!"

I look back at the temple.

There Minnae Metharsia stands...immaculate in her flowing skirt and princess silk. She waves a laced hand. "Over here!!"

I nod. I set down Koriand'r and push her towards the door. She hurriedly hovers into Minnae's protective arms. The amber-eyed monarch escorts the young Tamaranian safely into the temple.

"Took you long enough to get here!!"

I look to my right.

Katma backs up, a confiscated Gordanian laser staff in her grasp. Still in her regular garb, she stands beside me and zaps at the coming onslaught of jetpack reptiles.

"Still too scared to shed blood with that sword of yours?!?! I thought I told you that you're wasting time with your benevolence!!!"

I frown.

_Will you please......let it......go?!?!?!_

"Hurry on into the temple before-----," Katma's voice lingers. "Awwww shoot."

I raise an eyebrow under my visor. I turn and look up.

Another dropship approaches. Slowly. Dangling on metal cords beneath it is a huge, metal 'box' of sorts. The box shakes unnaturally in mid-air as the dropship approaches the clearing.

"Whatever they're delivering....it can't be pretty...," Katma gulps.

Lobo drops down. "Hey?! Isn't anybody gonna kiss me??"

"Got another one of those mega-pistol rounds of yours, Lobo??"

"Sorry, Sweet Cakes. All down to the bare minimum lead," Lobo shrugs. He turns and looks up. "Whoah....didn't know UPS delivered to the Outer Rim!"

I blink.

"Believe me...it's not something we want," Katma mumbles. She turns around and shouts at the line of soldiers including the last of the dozen escapees making it to the temple door. "Haclana b'tal mran!! Gallablorg hisrinnu di Gord'nok!!"

"W'mal batok!!"

"De X'Hal!!!"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!!!

Volley after volley of starbolts fly up at the hovercraft. Katma Tui joins the fray with her laser rifle and Lobo whips out an uzzi and starts unloading machine gun fire just for the Hell of it.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!!!

ZAAAAP!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I watch, helpless.

The dropship absorbs most of the fire. One of its thrusters starts to smoke and the hull cracks in one or two places...but besides that, the armor survives the onslaught and it manages to swing in and release the huge metal crate before zooming off over the jungle.

Katma winces. "Not good...."

The Tamaranians at the temple door murmur worriedly.

BANG!!! The metal box rocks and shakes from the inside. BANG!! CLANG!!! "HrrrreSSSSHAAAAaaaaa!!" Something huge and menacing snarls from the inside in a distorted form of Gordanian tongue.

"F'vork betta carnablorg!!" the Tamaranian officer calls out from the Temple.

Lobo sweatdrops. "M-Maybe now would be a good time to....ya know....skedaddle into the Gift Shop."

"No good," Katma shakes her head. "What they have in there can be nothing else but a Gordanian Rook."

"A whatsit??"

"A very strong, brutish member of the Gordanian gene pool!! Even if we fled into the Temple, it'd smash the doors down in one charge!!"

BANG!!!! The box shakes and dents outward from inside. The snarling increases. BANG!! BANG!!

I get into a fighting pose. Breathing slowly through my nostrils. Myrkblade held high.

Minnae and Koriand'r watch together from the Temple....fearful....

The box shakes some more...starts to crack...then....

CRASH!!!!!

The lid blows off.

A giant, green beast of plated scales, beady emerald eyes, and three-foot long claws jumps out. It drools from its ivory fangs and stands up a full fifteen feet. "HRESSSSSSSSSSSHAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

"Whoah!!" Lobo laughs. "Ha ha ha!! Since when was Kermit the Frog on steroids?!?!"

The Gordanian Rook promptly bounds across the clearing on all fours and slams its razor-sharp hand into Lobo's chest with one single swoop.

WHAM!!

"Frag it!!!" Lobo sails across the clearing and crashes into a tree, forcing it to topple over.

Katma gasps and ducks as the Rook snaps its jaws barely over her torso. THWAP!!!

I let out a silent scream and charge with Myrkblade.

CLANK!!! My blade bounces off its scales.

I sweatdrop.

"HRESSSH!!!" The rook snarls and spins, batting me harshly across the grounds with a thick green tail.

WHAM!!!

I ragdoll across the grass, groaning.

Minnae gasps. "Mr. No—er...Angel Spear Four!!"

The Rook spins around. Its fangs drool and its feet stomp loudly across the soil as it charges the door to the Temple.

The officer shouts. The Tamaranians let out warcries and launch a steady stream of starbolts.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!

The Rook covers its head with two thick forearms. It absorbs the starbolts and only gets angrier. The green eyes turn a blood red and the beast lets out a huge shriek before charging the phalanx of soldiers.

"HRESSSSSSHAAAA!!!"

The Tamaranians ready themselves.

YANK!!!

"?!?!?!?!?!" the beast snarls and looks over its shoulder.

Lobo has him by the tail with two meaty hands.

"When I'm done with you, you fraggin' salamander, you're gonna be nothing but space guacamole—"

WHAM!!!!!

The Rook back-kicks the mercenary back against another tree.

Lobo wheezes: "Okay....m-maybe I can settle for apple sauce...."

THWACK!!!!

"OOOF!!!"

The Rook slams its foot down Lobo's lower body and snarls down at him...drooling.

"HRESSSHAAAAAA!!!!"

"Now...that's....playing...dirty.....," Lobo raises two fists together and slams them down onto the Rook's big toe.

THWAP!!!!

"HRESSSSH!!!!"

The Rook stumbles back.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blur up its backside, jump off, flip, come down, and swing Myrkblade across its neck.

SLASH!!!!

CLANK!!!!

Myrkblade bounces off again.

I grit my teeth as I slide down from my ineffective strike and let myself open for---

WHAM!!!

The Rook's heel side-kicks and knocks me across the clearing.

The beast bounds over and raises one of its sharp hands.

I gasp and roll out of the way--

CRASH!!!

The earth beside me sinks from its plowing fist.

I jump up and raise Myrkblade just in time to deflect its second swing by the claws.

CL-CLANG!!!!

I backflip as the Rook stomps over, bearing down on me.

In the background, I spot Katma Tui standing up and trying desperately to bring back the power in her ring.

"Nnnnnnghhh.....," she strains. The ring barely sparks. Then it shorts out. She sighs. "Figures...." She twirls the laser spear, runs up, scales the backside of the Gordanian Rook, and stabs down into the base of its neck.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

"HISSSSSSSS!!!!!"

The Gordanian Rook thrashes about, trying to shake the brave Green Lantern. Its neck twists left and right. It reaches a sharp hand up to grab her, but Katma is too nimble to be caught. Finally, the Rook does something no one else would....it charges its head straight into a tree.

WHAAAAM!!!

"Augh!!" Katma falls off from the jerk. She tumbles to the ground.

"HRESSSHA!!!!" The beast brings its foot down over her.

Katma flinches.

SWOOOOSH!!! I blur over and raise my blade.

CLANG!!!!

Through murk power alone, I manage to deflect the massive limb. I grit my teeth. My whole body straining.

The Rook raises its foot and tries to squash me again.

Just then, Lobo swings in from a nearby tree-branch and lands on the creature's back. He whips out his metal chains and wrap it around the Rook's neck. "Giddyup to Hell, Mr. Ed!!" He then proceeds to tighten the 'reins' viciously...cutting off the monster's air supply.

"Hrkkkk!!!!" The Rook wheezes. "Kkkkshhhhhesshaa!!" It stomps around madly, nearly stepping over Katma and me.

Katma dives to the left.

STOMP!!!

I dive to the right.

I roll into a standing position.

I twirl Myrkblade into a pose and charge...charge...charge....charge....charge murk.

My black eyes narrow under my visor and focus on the wrestling duo.

_Come on..._

The Rook bucks and trembles before me.

_Come on......_

Lobo tightens the chains even more and forces the Rook to rear back. "Yeeeee-haaa!"

_Come on........._

Smoke energy courses through my blade. In warbling tendrils of obsidian. The murk dances down out of my visor. I take a huge breath.

"N-Now may be a good time, Squirrel---," Lobo grunts. "Um....what the Hell are you doing anyways???"

"Jump off, Mr. Lobo!!!" Minnae shrieks.

"You said it, Princess!! Yaugh!!!"

The pale mercenary hops off.

I let out a silent scream and fling my sword forward in a heavy slash. All of my power is unleashed in a whiplash of swirling darkness.

SLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

The earth parts like a knife to butter in a trail running towards the Rook's legs---

And the creature hobbles out of the way at the last second.

CRAAAAACK!!!!

The trees of the jungle collapse at the edge of the clearing from the power of my blade.

_Shit!!!!_

I all but collapse, panting.

The Rook regains its breath, snarls, and charges at me.

I moan.

WHUMP!!!

It headbutts me hard. I fly back and land in the underbrush of the jungle.

Minnae gasps. "A-Are you okay?!?!"

"What does it look like?!?!" Katma growls and charges the beast with her spear.

"HRESSHA!!!!!" It bats her away with a scaley fist.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Lobo pounces from the side.

SWOOOOSH-GRIP!!!

The Rook literally grabs him in mid-air.

"Oh Jebus...."

WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!!

The Rook slams him repeatedly in the ground before tossing him against the side of the stone temple.

SLAM!!!

"Ugh....."

Again, Minnae gasps...cupping her chin with laced gloves. "Nooo!! My friends!! Please get up!!"

All of us can only manage to groan in pain.

Minnae pouts. "You....you....," but her pout turns into a snarl as she glares at the huge, drooling Rook. "....you are hurting my friends. I do not like it when my friends....are hurt......."

The princess starts heaving. Her amber eyes start to flicker with a magic fire. "Because.....I....l-like.....my.....friendsssss...." Her hissing voice turns into something akin to a panther growl and fangs emerged from her overbite. The other Tamaranians—Koriand'r included—step back and gasp as a series of bright lightning bolts shimmer around the Metharsian's pretty, feminine body and then--

FLASH!!!!!!!

Lidikins stands among us.

"ROWWWWRAAWWWWR!!!!!!!!" The huge, gray cat roars.

The Rook looks over. Its green/red eyes bulge. It frowns and snarls. "HRESSSSHAAAA!!!"

"ROWWRRRAAAAAA!!!" Lidikins bears its teeth. It charges across the clearing with raised paws of ferocious claws.

Stomp...Stomp....Stomp!...Stomp!...**Stomp!....Stomp!...STOMP!!!....STOMP!!!!**

**SLASH!!!!!!**

Lidikins' claws slash straight through the Rook's skin in a single instant. Purple blood spurts out in a fountain across the clearing, half drenching a flinching Katma.

"HSSSHAAAAA!!!!!!" the Rook shrieks in pain.

WHAM!!!

Lidikins' socks it one across the cheek before gripping the reptile's shoulders and body-slamming the beast into the ground. Lidikins then straddles the monster and starts pummeling its skull at point blanc.

WHACK!!! WHACK!!! WHACK!!! WHACK!!!

"AH HA HA HA HA!!!!" Lobo cackles as he limps back into the thunderous clearing. "Princess PMS Turbo Time!!!!"

I watch, sweating. Wincing.

"ROWWWRRAAWWWWR!!!!"

WHACK!!! WHACK!!! WHACK!!!!

Lidikins pauses in her pummeling just to hoist the Rook's face up and prepare to bite down---

WHUMP!!!!

The reptile lifts its legs.

The huge feline shrieks as it's flown across the clearing....and towards me.

I gasp and dive out of the way.

SMASH!!!!

A few trees snap and crackle under the weight of the big cat.

I tremble on the ground.

The Rook gets up. "HRESSHAA!!" Trailing purple blood, it stomps across the clearing....and over me.

I gasp and roll my body just in time to avoid the stampeding feet of the beast.

STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!

Lidikins gets up, picks up a tree, and swings the entire fifteen feet of wooden length at the incoming fiend.

THWACK!!!!

"HRESS!!!!" the Rook stumbles back, clutching its skull.

"ROWRRAAAA!!!" Lidikins cat-eyes flicker and its tosses what's left of the entire tree at the beast.

CRASH!!!!

Splinters and hunks of logs scatter and careen everywhere. Lobo, Katma, and I run for cover.

The Rook teeters on its feet.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

Lidikins bounds over and pounces.

SWOOOSH!!!

WHUMP!!!!

The two beasts entangle, their paws and hands gripping and wrestling claw-to-claw.

Furry and scaley muscles ripple.

The Rook pushes against Lidikins with a hiss, sliding the two of them against the framework of the temple's door.

WHAM!!!!

The Tamaranians and Koriand'r jump back to safety.

"ROWWRRAAAAR!!!" Lidikins shrieks and knees the Rook between its legs.

THWUMP!!!!

The reptile's beady eyes bulge. It moans.

"ROWRRAAA!!!" Lidikins hoists its entire body up, stomps three feet forward, and pile drives the Rook into the center of the clearing—forming a crater.

SMASH!!!!!

Lidikins then goes to town on the sprawled Rook's body. She slashes and bites and rips and shreds the scaley skin of the fiend apart. Purple blood and scraps of muscle fly through the air in wet, soggy trails.

"HISSSAASHAAAA!!!!!!!!!" the Rook's cry is high-pitched this time, torturous.

Lidikins lets out a final panther growl before rearing its fangs...and snapping them down taut over the Rook's neck.

"!!!!!!!" the Rook's body jerks. Blood squirts out its nose and eye sockets.

"RRRRRRRR!!!!" Lidikins growls and....twists its jaws.

_**SNAA-AAAP!!!**_

The Rook's body goes limp. Dead air escapes its bag of lungs and then nothing...

A beat.

Lidikins slowly releases her fangs. It gets up on wobbly legs, pants, and rears its body up in a victory shriek.

"ROWWWWWWWWRAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Bolts of light dance outward from her body as she shrieks and twitches.

Flash!! Flash!! Flash-Flash-FLASH!!!!!!!

Suddenly, Minnae Metharsia stands in the huge feline's place. Clean and immaculate. Her amber eyes settling with their fiery glow. She pants...until her cat-eyes roll back. And she falls limply to the ground.

I rush over and embrace her.

I hold her up, breathing hard, feeling her pulse.

She's perfectly fine....only passed out.

"Nnngh....," she moans.

I bite my lip. I glance up over the carcass of the Rook, over the smashed tree parts, over the clearing. I see scores of Gordanian dropships headed our way.

"NOW can we go??" Lobo grunts.

"Er......," Katma blinks. She looks at her ring. She concentrates. FLASH!!! With a green aura, her Green Lantern outfit reappears. She smirks and looks up. "Sure can!!"

The three of us rush in through the Temple Door as the Tamaranians can now safely seal the entrance.  
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**T-Minus: Three Hours, thirty-two minutes.**

**Location: Temple – South Corridor**

WHURRRRRRRR-CLUNG!!!!!

I stand in the darkness of the temple, panting. Minnae drapes daintily across my arms. Anxious Tamaranians stand on either side of me. Glowing hands and a power ring of green illuminate the dim interior.

"Beratta thinu clak'n thrui....," the elderly officer utters. His green eyes narrow and he points down the black corridor. "Kielette sinzun wratta kun, favoraat si Gord'nz. Drundarg matta klin ti deradda wet'l veraat thri fiblorg daaka si Tam'ran. Xiel'm, Mackan'r, Diedr'm...forsata!"

"Uln, Dredsu!"

"Uln, Dredsu."

"Uln."

Three Tamaranian soldiers bow halfway to the officer and rush to escort the group of citizens and escapees at point, middle and rear positions. The rest of the soldiers spread out evenly on the outer rim of the crowd, enclosing Koriand'r and the rest of the innocent escapees. The dozen with the data that we rushed with to the temple entrance fill in the gaps where soldiers are thin. We are officially a ragtag team of military refugees.

I take a deep breath as we slowly start moving down the Temple corridor.

Katma walks—not hovers—along my side. She inspects her ring and speaks without glancing at me. "Whew...for a second there, I thought all the energy was gone. It's a good thing I visited my Lantern just before the Being brought us Angel Spears here. It may be weak now...but just some meditation is all it needs to get back to full power again." She looks at me finally. She breathes in. "You pulled a lot of stunts to ensure the safety of the rest of us on multiple occasions, Noir," she said.

I glance ahead.

Koriand'r is beyond hearing distance.

I glance back at Katma.

"But I gotta emphasize," she sighs, "...you're holding back. I'm proud of what you've done so far. But when it comes to it—this is war—and how can we depend on you unless you—"

WHUMP!!!

Katma stumbles in mid-step. She blinks and realizes that she's holding the tossed body of little Minnae.

I frown at her and walk forward along the group in a huff.

"..........," Katma blinks. "Guardians of Oa....protect us all...." She repositions Minnae's unconscious body more comfortably and walks on.

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**T-Minus: Three Hours, twenty-nine minutes.**

**Location: Temple – South Hallways**

The group of Tamaranians moves around a corner. The point man shines a glowing hand about...chasing away all hiding shadows with an emerald aura. He signals for the rest of the group to follow, and it does so...pensively. Nervous family members hold hands and children murmur fearfully in the arms of a few maternal escapees. Koriand'r is silent. She's seen a lot. She glances back at the rest of the group to follow.

I walk adjacent to a few soldiers. I peer through my helmet visor with my black eyes. I know that I can see a heck of a lot better with the headpiece off, but I refuse to take it off. Not with Koriand'r nearby.

At this point, I don't hesitate to look at her. One advantage of having to wear shades all the time is the ambiguity of where I'm directly 'looking' in relation to other people. I can spy on things more...observe traits that normally I wouldn't notice in other people had they been able to see where my eyes were pointed. Because of this, I've picked up greatly on many of the physical characteristics of the Teen Titans I fight and live with. And it also comes in handy when scouring a scene for enemies or out tricking a foe during combat.

Right now, I'm using this cheat of mine to look at Koriand'r. And already I see so much of Starfire in her. The way she floats about in a fashion in which she looks like she's 'standing upright' save for the slightest bend in her knees. How she cups her hands all the time, whether it be behind her back when relaxed or up in front when apprehensive or pensive. The way she absent-mindedly pushes a lock of red hair away over her ear or lets out tiny sighs when too shy even to express her own exasperation at a nervous situation.

I take a deep breath.

I know that this innocent thing will one day grow to become the ass-kicking, starbolt-throwing Amazonian of Terran notoriety. I know that someday she will win the hearts of all of her Earth friends (even though not all will admit it) and that she will bring joy and retribution to everyone and everything around her. I know that she has always been and shall always be a thing of beauty. Something far too virtuous to exist. And I know that it will only be a matter of time before....before Robin becomes the luckiest man on the face of the planet.

I exhale. My black eyes blink with melancholy.

At least....all that is **supposed** to happen.

_What am I doing here?_

Since when did I become an Angel Wing??

_This is not my war. This is not my concern..._

I look again at Koriand'r. I see the dim glow of green around the extremities of her limbs.

_But this is my friend. What is she doing here? What is the connection??_

I look up in the air as if I can somehow catch sight of the shimmering being that has transported us to this war-torn time and place.

_What did you want from me?? Why send me here?? I'm a liability with knowing Starfire in the future? Aren't I???_

Absolute silence.

I shut my eyes in exasperation.

_Aren't I?!?!?_

'_Are you what?'_

I blink my eyes open. I glance back at the girl in Katma's arms.

_Minnae???_

'_Yes, Mr. Noir?'_

_Aren't you unconscious?_

_Am I?_

Er......well, yeah. You passed out.

'_You mean, my body is asleep.'_

............

'_The mind exists on many different boundaries, Mr. Noir. Even if I am asleep, I am not necessarily inactive.'_

_Okay......um......hello._

'_Hehehe, greetings, Mr. Noir.'_

Silence.

'_Why AM I unconscious???'_

_You mean you don't know?_

'_I'm afraid I am greatly confused. What became of that huge, brutish Gordanian that was being mean to the Angel Spears?'_

_Lidikins made a cameo appearance._

'_Oh, she did?!?! Heeee! How magnificent!! I've been looking for her all day!!'_

...............

'_Was she okay after meeting the Gordanian Rook?'_

_Yeah......it was a regular tea party._

'_I do wish I was there.'_

_Oh, you were. In our hearts......or something._

'_I see.........'_

...............

'_W-We......we are surrounded, you do realize......'_

_Are we?_

'_Y-Yes. Gordanians. Well over a hundred. They're circling the entrances of the temple at the cardinal points.'_

I glance at the walls. At the thickness of the stone. I envision lasers and ion blasts blowing through them.

'_Would it not be prudent to inform the rest of the company??'_

_Something tells me that we're all gonna find out real soon......_

THUD!!!!

Everyone froze in their places. Echoes shuddered through the empty corridors of the temple.

Silence.....

Then.....

THUD!!!!!!

The citizens gasp and murmur.

The soldiers look up everywhere and charge green energy in their wrists.

THUD!!!!!!

Katma looks up, holding Minnae firmly.

Lobo's red eyes blinks.

THUD!!!!!!

He looks my way. "Nobody answer the door...."

"Humani slaat'm Gord'n threatta cacla thrul....," the Tamaranian officer mutters.

"They must have surrounded us," Katma remarks. "It's only a matter of time before they burst their way in and start flooding these hallways to nab the Tamaranians with the data in their bloodstream."

"But there're hover barges somewhere in this wyrdass pagoda, right?!" Lobo shrugs. "I mean, I don't mind laying it thick on a couple billion of those things, but I'd at least have to regenerate my body five times and I just got this skin last week!"

"Granat, Dredsu!!" the Tamaranian point man shouts.

The officer turns and gestures, "Vremana thriel!! Jurkan'm liekosan bar gorglay!!"

"Uln, Dredsu! Vremanaz! Vremanaz!!"

The Tamaranian group picks up the pace. Everyone starts running, hovering, and sprinting down the hallways northward. The pace is hurried, desperate. Like a race.

And a race it is indeed....

"We're hurrying to the center of the temple!!" Katma exclaims as she jogs with Minnae in grasp.

"What for?!?!" Lobo utters. "I'm a couple hundred years behind on Communion!!"

"It's in the Center that the remote controls for the hover barges are!! If we can get there and input the right codes, we can have the barges fly to the loading deck on the roof directly overhead and take off for the Frontline!!"

THUD!!! THUD!!!!

Sounds of the angry invaders outside echo throughout.

I look about while blurring down the dark corridor.

"Everything's down to the wire....," Lobo smirks at me from across our dual sprint. "...what'd I tell you, Squirrel?? Never cross paths with a woman."

I smile crookedly.

"Rrrrghh," Katma grumbles. "The last thing I need from you two punks is jocularity!! I'm the one here with my arms full and—YEEP!"

Lobo is suddenly carrying Katma who is carrying Minnae.

"The Undead Express!! Hauling ass twenty-four seven!! Care to kiss the conductor???"

Katma glares. "I now officially have twenty-two ways that I want to kill you before this mission is over."

"Duly noted. Now we have an Alamo to protect!!"

THUD!!! THUD!!! TH-THUD!!! SMASH!!!!!

Light pours in from behind us.

Tamaranians gasp.

I peer back.

A flood of Gordanians stand and hover where a door in the distance has been burst down. They hiss and aim laser rifles from afar.

ZAAAP!!!! ZAP!! ZAAAAAAP!!!

Blue lasers streak towards and past us.

I grit my teeth, duck a blast, and deflect another with my metal hand. CLANG!!!

The Gordanians shriek a war cry and all come throttling after us on their jetpacks in unison.

"Gordn' Threatta!!"

"Vremanaz!! H'vorna thriel!!"

While hovering, the rear guards turn launch volleys of starbolts back. The green energy pulses streak past us and sail bloodily into incoming Gordanians. Purple blood flies and the reptiles get angrier. They launch a full wave of laser blasts.

I skid to a stop. I let Lobo run past me with Katma and Minnae. I grit my teeth and slash as much across the width of the hall as I can.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

I deflect all energy bolts at once. They impact the ceiling and cause a curtain of rocks to fall and momentarily block the path.

The Gordanians hiss angrily as they must stop to plow through the rubble with their spears.

I take a breath, spin around, and follow the group dash around a corner inside the corridors.

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**T-Minus: Three Hours, twenty-three minutes.**

**Location: Temple – Central Corridors**

The entire group meanders around the corridor at high speed. The central room of the Temple can be seen down a final stretch of corridors.

"Numeraat keylo haddakun!!"

THUD!!!!!

Tamaranians shriek as a nearby wall bursts down.

Gordanians lumber through...hissing and raising their spears.

"Straighten your body, sweet cakes!" Lobo grunts.

"What are you blathering about---YAAUGH!!"

Lobo swings his arm and slides Katma on her back—with Minnae in her arms—across the smooth stone floor and into the Central Room. His hands free, he pulls out two uzzis and riddles the Gordanians with lead.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!

Purple spurts fly. The Gordanians groan and slump to the ground.

I blur past—momentarily slipping on the bloody floor—and eventually I'm joining the breathless Tamaranians in the central room.

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**T-Minus: Three Hours, twenty-one minutes.**

**Location: Temple – Central Room**

"Lower the fraggin' door!!" Lobo grumbles as he stomps in. He walks in reverse, aiming his uzzis down the hallway.

The Gordanians who were blocked momentarily by the collapse of rubble regain their pursuit and soar down at us en masse.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

"ROAST IN HELL, YOU BUTT STUFFERS!!!" Lobo shouts. On either side of him, Tamaranians are cranking stone devices with their glowing hands...slowly causing the vertical slab of a door to the South Hallways to lower.

CREAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!

Lobo keeps aiming and firing down what's left of the space between the floor and the door....mowing down the offensive line of Gordanians.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

An incoming wall of flying, purple blood barely reaches the chamber RIGHT as the door closes shut.

CLAMP!!!!

THUD! THUD! THUD! The Gordanians pound madly inward from the other side.

Katma pants. She turns towards the East Hallway. Her semi-green eyes widen and she points. "There!! Gord'n!!"

The Tamaranian soldiers rush over to lower the slab to the East Hallway as a fresh wall of raving Gordanians surge down.

"Wooo doggy!!!" Lobo reloads. Empty clips fall to the floor. He restocks ammo on his uzzis and slumps sideways to the floor, firing down the thin sliver of space left between the door and ground.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Again, the offensive line becomes a splattering of pink blood and hot lead. Starbolts join Lobo's onslaught intermittently, creating a hallway of veritable flame. The Gordanian rush is succinctly slowed enough to prevent an entrance as the Eastern Door to the dark, round chamber is closed.

CLAMP!!!!

In the meantime, Tamaranians—under authority of the old officer—are quickly shutting the Northern and Western Doors as more Gordanians rush down the hallway. The Northern one has no trouble closing. But the Western one stalls. Nervous citizens inside the chamber murmur in fright. One of the Tamaranians trying to crank the apparatus panics and looks at the rest of us.

"Numeraat cling'm fartbogger!!"

ZAAAP-THUNK!!!

A laser plows hard into chest, spurting green blood out onto his partner. "YAAUGH!! MEN X'HAL!!!"

Gasps.

I blur over and take his place as two escapees cradle his twitching body.

I push and pull on the crank. Straining. I pulse murk through my limbs. I rotate the crank...again....again...again...again---

The shadows of the Gordanian loom over the crack between the door and the floor.

A woman shrieks.

Lobo rushes over, whips out a grenade, yanks the pin out with his teeth, and tosses it under and through the crack right before slamming his fist down on the broadside of the crank I'm operating.

CLAMP!!!

Gordanian shrieks on the other side....then--

BOOOM!!!!

Purple blood seaps—hot and steaming—in from under the doorframe on the other side.

I stumble back, panting.

Lobo grumbles something and cracks his necks. He turns around. Eyeing the walls.

I turn around slowly, similarly eyeing all the stone walls bordering the room.

THUD!! THUD!!!!! THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!!!!

All around us, Gordanians are pounding in through the walls. Hissing. Firing their lasers at the stone structure. The stone slabs—as resolute as they may be—start to shake and quake from the pressure on the outside.

The innocent citizens start to crowd together. Murmurs of adults and the sobs of children fill the claustrophobic interior. A great sense of panic and hopelessness fills the chamber. We are totally and utterly surrounded by hundreds of bloodlusting, crazed Gordanians.

I sweat. My body twitches and I gasp as I realize that my metal arm is choosing now as a time to malfunction. I grip my titanium wrist as dark shivers run up and down my spine. My teeth chatter endlessly. I clench my black eyes shut and try to meditate. But everything is pounding in on my ears. The shaking chamber. The monsters on the outside. The chaos eating its way in.

And underneath all of that, a dreadful silence...

"Hey!!" Lobo whistles. "Yo Yo Yo!!!"

Everyone looks his way.

"Snap out of it, creeps!!!" Lobo points at three consoles hanging out of the ceiling outside of a ring of collapsible rooftop. "Ain't there a way to call in those hover craft thingies of yours?!?! Now would be a friggin' good time!!"

Katma takes a breath. She lays Minnae down and turns to face the other Tamaranians. "Juranna thrak'm sur thiel voveraat!"

The officer nods and signals to three of his signals.

The Tamaranians hover up to the consoles. One man to a computer station each. With glowing hands, they access security protocols and start the arduous process of summoning the hover barges by remote.

THUD!!! THUD!!! THUD! THUD!!!!!!!!

"How long does it take for those buggers to be turned on and dragged over here, exactly??" Lobo asks.

"Not quickly enough," Katma says. She flexes her right hand and the power ring pulses a brighter green. "We'll have to hold them off as long as we can."

"Yeah...those doors ain't gonna last forever, sweet cakes."

I look across the floor, shivering uncontrollably. I stroke my metal arm. I try to will the coldness to go away. But my nerves won't obey me and I can't risk 'rebooting' my prosthetic. Not at a time like this.

I see the wounded Tamaranian in the arms of the others. A pool of lukewarm, green blood puddles beneath him. His eyes are glowing desperately with emerald tears streaking down. His hand twitches in the grasp of a comrade and his lips quiver....then quiver no more. The green fades from his eyes and he's as still as ice. Those tending to him bite their lips and look up at the officer...shaking their head.

I take a shuddering breath.

I face the nearest doors to me. The Northern and Eastern Doors.

THUD!!! THUD!!!! THUD!!!!!! THUD!!

CHIIIIIING!!!!! I unsheathe Myrkblade and hold it at ready. I take deep breaths. I flex my limbs and move my neck around.

The pounding continues.

Tamaranian boys and girls are weeping.

The adults trying to comfort them are sobbing.

Wails of fear and sorrow and dread fill the tiny chamber surrounded by pounding doors.

Minnae stirs awake. She rubs her eyes with dainty hands and blinks her amber optics. "S-So it is true....we are surrounded...."

"I say let them come!!" Lobo cracks his knuckles and whips out a shotgun. He fits shells into it. One at a time. Almost meditatively. "Nothing like a good holocaust to make you feel glad to be alive.....or dead. Depends on how you look at it...or what side of the bed I get up on in the morning! HA!!"

"Memberutta key'n throsta kun thiel...," the officer says firmly.

"Uln, Dredsu."

"De X'hal..."

"De X'hal!!!!" a squad of soldiers exclaim. They charge starbolts in both hands and face every surrounding door evenly in a protective circle with the citizen escapees in the center and the three console workers up on top.

CH-CHTUNG!! Lobo pumps his shotgun and winks in my direction. "Yeah! What they said!"

I exhale.

Koriand'r trembles. Minnae reaches over and touches the little Tamaranian's shoulder. Koriand'r eagerly hobbles down to her knees and sinks in the Princess' comforting embrace. They sit—like wilted flowers—on the floor with the other innocents.

"Do not despair!" Katma speaks aloud. She holds up her right hand and stares at it. As her eyes thin, they become more and more vibrant in their green hue. The power ring starts to pulse as she meditates and gradually recovers her missing Green Lantern energy. "I have been in worse scrapes than this before! And I swear to you! We shall prevail! Emberatta thrakkan bytul'm hortablorg in kaan!! Menederod de X'Hal! There is no greater power than justice!! There is no greater force than serenity!!"

THUD!!! THUD!!!! THUD!!!

The doors bulge. The hisses on the other side grow louder. The room gets hotter and my skin gets colder as I sweat and sweat and shiver....

I gulp. I glance at my right bracelet. The one given me—as to every Angel Spear—by the Being. I stare at the red button on it. The one needed to save for dire straits. It's so tempting. So promising. Bright and red. My finger traces it. But I pause. I shudder. I look across the way.

Katma's staring at me. Somberly, she shakes her head.

I take a breath. I nod shakily. I follow the Captain's order.

I save the 'essence of the Angel Spear' for another time....

"Hoorjana-blorg n'meran de Kraato...," Katma drifts by the soldiers and the citizens as she speaks. She rests a hand on a shivering child's shoulder and eases him slightly. "Do not lose hope. This is a glorious time for us all. Minaakan sule banark'm havassi kun. You must remain calm. You must remain in control of yourself and your emotions. For all of us...every single one of us is a piece of destiny. A history that shall preserve justice. Absolute...absolute justice. Caclasaad de X'Hal. Center yourself...you are in control of the elements. Wield them and defeat evil in all forms. No matter how dark. No matter how obsidian."

THUD!!! THUD!!! THUD!!!

I take a breath. I close my eyes.

I hold my arms out.

I grip Myrkblade closely.

_I imagine the sawgrass field outside of the Tower._

The blades dancing in the breeze.

The shimmering waters of the Bay.  
  
_The crystal blue sky._

Chaos and Serenity.

Construction and Destruction.

Coursing through me.

The perfect vessel.

Black Eyes......

_Black Eyes......_

Katma holds up her ring from the center of the room. The item glows a bright green as she meditates.

"In brightest day, in blackest night...."

I run my hand across the blunt side of the blade.

I focus murk deeper and deeper into the black wood.

My fingers are like an ice sculpture.....with a paradoxical, black fire burning inside.

"....no evil shall escape my sight..."

_I see Beast Boy and Cyborg wrestling each other on the beachside over a football game gone wrong._

_Laughing and tossing sand on each other._

Raven meditates above a rock ledge, floating in a lotus position.

_Robin and Starfire take a stroll in the surf. Their feet dip into the water. It's warm. It's warm......_

"...let those who worship evil's might..."

Lobo aims his shotgun at the wall. One red eye squinting.

The old officer charges a starbolt form the center.

The soldiers hold out glowing hands.

Combined with the increasing ferocity of Katma's ring, the room full of shivering souls and pounding doors is covered in emerald fury.

All the darkness is gone.

"...beware my power...."

I take a shuddering breath.

_Renee and Daniel wave from behind the counter._

Sandy looks up from a book she's reading and smiles.

Kara cups a hand against my cheek from across a star-lit farmland.

Three figures in a field. Meditating. Drawing swords. Being watched by the Master.

My eyes open.

Murk shimmers down from under my visor.

"Green Lanter's light!"

Katma Tui's eyes open. They're glowing green.

THUD!!!

"East Side!!!" Lobo shouts.

Every soldier turns and aims their starbolts.

"De X'hal!!"

"DE X'HAL!!!"

THUD!!! THUD!!!!!!!!!

Koriand'r shudders.

Minnae strokes her hair.

I swivel about with Myrkblade raised high.

THUD!! THUD!!! TH-THUD!!!!!

I inhale sharply.....

A beat.

**THUD!!!!! CRACK!!!!!**

The East Door is the first to go.

CL-CLANK!!!

"HRESSHA!!!!!!!"

"HISSSSSS!!!!"

"HRESHHSSHAAA!!!!"

A wall of blue light soars in at us.

ZAAAAAAP!!! ZAP!!! **ZAAAAAAAP!!!**

Fire and convulsions and shrieks and---

"YAAAAAAUGH!!!!" Katma furiously thrusts her hand forward.

FLASH!!!!!

A wall of nearly opaque-green energy forms between us and the doorway. The dozens of blue lasers disappear into the wall.

FLASSSSH!!!!

The green dissipates.

The Gordanians are reloading.

Lobo shouts while aiming. "SMILE FOR THE CAMERA, YOU MOTHER F---" **BL-BLAM!!!!**

SPLORTCH!!! Two Gordanian heads in a row explode in purple mess.

A solid phalanx wall of Tamaranians launch their starbolts all at once.

_**FLASSSSSH!!!**_

The first five charging Gordanians literally melt from the heated discharge. Others fall down, screaming and clutching scrags of burnt-off skin. The lucky ones still whole in the second wave come rushing in with their jetpacks, shrieking. "HRESSSSSSSSSH!!!!"

Katma shouts. "YAAAAUGH!!!"

The Tamaranians: "RAAAAUGH!!!"

Lobo grits his teeth and leads the charge with every Tamaranian rushing in to meet the Gordanians and the Green Lantern right behind.

I take a huge breath and dive, slashing into the hell with a blur. SWOOOOSH!!!!

The invaders and the defenders meet in a convergence of laser staffs, starbolts, shotgun pellets, claws, fists, and wood serration.

BLAM!!!! FLASH!!!! CL-CLANK!!! SLASH!!!! ZAAAAP!!! SWIPE!!!

Grunts and impact sounds and laser blasts and starbolt explosions litter the air above the incessant poundings of the other three doors behind us.

Before me, the backsides of two Tamaranians stand firm as the warriors fling starbolts into the heated mass of reptilian flesh before them. One Gordanian charges ahead and bravely bats both Tamaranians aside with a staff. THWACK!! WHUMP!!! He now stands open for my charge.

SLASH!!!! CRACK!!!

I rip his staff in two and kick him hard in the chest. He falls back into three other Gordanians and the entire group plummets into a huge pile. I twirl Myrkblade and move in for a second strike--

WHAM!!

Another Gordanian rushes in from the right of the one hundred and eighty degree chaos. He rams me in the side. I tumble to the ground and try hopping up. Two Gordanians rush at me with laser staffs pointing.

BLAM!!!!

A chunk of flesh explodes outward from behind one.

The second shrieks and looks behind him.

Lobo is punching the faces in of two Gordanians with his right fist and aiming at the reptiles in my direction with his left hand.

BLAM!!!!

Another Gordanian is hit. Purple blood sprays. Two others duck.

I charge the squatting pair.

SLASH!! WHACK!!!

I strike their skulls hard with the broadside of Myrkblade. They fall down, unconscious.

_Unconscious._

Screams and flashes to the right.

My blood pumps.

I look over, sweating.

Katma hovers at the top of a pyramid of writhing Tamaranians, batting away incoming Gordanians in a sem-circular formation. The Green Lantern produces a huge, green sledge-hammer in mid air and uses it to smash in the purple-leaking helmets of the fiends.

Just as a clump of hoverjetting reptiles converge on them, I rush in with a jab of Myrkblade.

SWOOOOSH-CHUNK!!!

I drive my sword into the jetpack of one and fling him like a cricket ball into the third wave.

SWOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

The Gordanians tumble over each other. The skewered jetpack comes loose and slides out into the Eastern Hallway...where it sparks and--

KABOOOOM!!!!

-explodes. The resulting concussion blast sends three Gordanians flying—limbs flailing—into the room.

Lobo takes aim with his shotgun and shoots two in mid-air.

BLAM!! BLAM!!!

The aliens land with huge globs of violet.

I pant.

I look up.

"Squirrel!! Shed some blood for fraggin' sake!!" Lobo grunts before pumping his shotgun—CH-CHTUNG!---and spinning around to land lead in a wall of rushing Gordanians.

I grit my teeth.

_I'm knocking them out! I'm......_

I rush forward.

I vault over Lobo's body.

I flip forward with a wave of smoke energy and land with a downcut.

SLASH!!!!

The force of my unleashed destruction send five collapsing back into the Eastern Hallway. I sidestep and give Lobo room to rush forward, aim down, and mercilessly finish off the shrieking, helpless enemy.

"HRESSSHAAA---"

BL-BLAM!!!!

"Nighty-Night, precious!!"

I wince and rush back over towards Katma's side when----

THUD!!! THUD!!! TH-THUD!!!!

**CRACK!!!**

Hissing and laser blasts from the left.

"Wanvlav!! Gord'n Threatta Wanvlav!!"

"North Side Door's down!!!" Katma shouts.

Available Tamaranians surrounding the innocent in the center of the room pivot and launch starbolts at the entrance from the Northern Hallway. Waves of green energy melt the first in the wave, then the next line of bloodlusting reptiles charge in. They hiss and fire volley upon volley of blue lasers.

ZAAAAP!! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

One beam flies through two Tamaranians at once. They fall down with green rivers pouring out. Screaming.

I hold my breath. I teleport across the round room. I materialize in a slide. I glide on the ground under the feet of the front line of Gordanians before leeping up with a spin that contacts the helmets of five reptiles surrounding me. CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

Sparks fly. Disoriented, the reptiles face me and raise lasers.

FLASH!!! FLASH! FLASH!!!

Starbolts strike the five just as they're vulnerable.

I leap up high and backflip out of the ring of burning, Gordanian flesh.

I land in a squat, panting.

The third wave of North-Door Gordanians shove their half-melted-alive comrades aside and charge me and the standing Tamaranians, shrieking.

I grit my teeth.

I charge the attack.

I blur smoke into my limbs and phase my body in and out of smoke form. As a result, I make myself capable of multiple, rapid-second strikes and blocks and deflects and jabs with my wooden blade.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

I single-handedly push back the bulging invasion of Gordanians with my lightning-fast strikes of blurred fury....but it only lasts five seconds and no more. The mass of Gordanians recoil, reload, aim their laser staffs, and--

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

I take a breath.

I blur my hand and fan Myrkblade right in front of me so quickly it resembles a pure circle of smoke energy for a split moment there.

FLASH!!!

I deflect all the lasers at once. But the force of such shoves me back three feet on my rear beside the bleeding casualties.

WHAP!!!

I wince.

I look up helplessly through my helmet's visor.

The Gordanians dive down at me, hissing.

"RAAAAUGH!!" Katma dives in with a huge, swinging, green-energy mace.

SWOOOOSH!!!!! THWACK!!!

There's a sickening snap as three pairs of ribs shatter in the first two Gordanians struck by the Green Lantern's blow. They fly back and into the scooping cylinder of green now being distorted by remote with Katma Tui's ring.

"Hit to make it count, Angel Spear Four!!!" Katma snarls. With a warcry, she twists her fingers and the cylinder slams up into the ceiling—rattling the skeletons of the hapless reptiles caught within.

In the middle of the chaos and the screaming and the streaming projectiles, the three Tamaranians at the console struggle to keep focused on summoning the hover barges.

And then---

THUD!!! **THUD!!!!!**

Minnae shrieks. "The South door!!! THE SOUTH DOOR!!!"

"TAKE IT!!!" Katma shrieks to me, focusing all her energy on pummeling back a barrage of Gordanians with her Green Lantern energy.

I spin around. I squint my eyes.

Through the glow of the flying starbolts and blue lasers, I see the South Door bulging obscenely.

I take a breath. I grip Myrkblade and get into a pose.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blur straight across the room, teleport through the shivering and shrieking citizens, and emerge on the other side just in time to solidify with a murk-warbling upswing of Myrkblade that meets the huge stone door just as it smashes in from the Gordanian onslaught outside.

CRAAACK!!!

SLASH!!!!

The two halves of the slab scatter harmlessly on either side of the centered mass of innocent prisoners.

I look down the hallway, panting.

My black eyes bulge.

SWOOOOSH!!! A sparking blue laser staff sails at my skull.

I lean back dramatically at the last second.

The weapon slides over my cranium. The Gordanians converge on my figure.

I summon murk. I cartwheel backwards. I stand up right and twirl Myrkblade—deflecting three laser blasts—and swing hard outward to draw the impossible wave back.

The Gordanians jump back momentarily before recovering and lunging at me all at once.

PLOW!!!!

I fall back hard on my back.

WHAP!!!

Three spears stab down at me at once.

I roll to the side.

Laser streaks zero in on me.

I roll backwards, get into a squatting position, and raise Myrkblade vertically just in time to block an incoming jab of a Gordanian spear.

CLANK!!

"HRESSSHA!!!" he drools on me.

I grit my teeth and push back with all my force.

He collapses backwards into two other Gordanians. Their tumbling bodies force three more to collapse. The rest—about a dozen in this wave alone—rush at me across the claustrophobic interior.

I'm already pushed back nearly to the huddled masses of innocent civilians on the South Side.

_Not a good thing......_

FLASH!!!!

I look up, gasping.

The elderly officer and two flanking soldiers stained in purple march forward, launching starbolt after starbolt at the Southern onrush...finally giving me a break.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!! FLASH!!!

Gordanians start to drop like flies. But then the second and third wave come at once. A solid wall of reptiles and sparking staffs fill our vision.

I vault up to my feet, twirl Myrkblade, and rush in.

But there're too many of them.

ZAAAAP!!!

A blast close to my feet shoves me back.

I tumble over Minnae and Koriand'r.

The two girls go sprawling. "Yeeek!" "WAAH!!"

I hobble to my feet.

Two Gordians rush me.

The first stabs with his laser staff.

I block his swing upwards with Myrkblade, sweating.

I then swing my metal fist into his gut.

WHUMP!!

He coughs and sputters.

I kick him away.

The second swings.

I barely block. CLANK!! I shove against him.

He expertly twirls my blade down to the ground.

I'm open for a blow.

My black eyes twitch and I pulse dark blood on the iside.

Gasping...sweating....

An instant...a glint of alien metal---

FLASH!!!!!

My chest is burning.

I stumble back, a huge red scar eating through my black tank top.

STAB!!!!

I barely duck my head in time.

The Gordanian's spear strikes my helmet hard, forming a noticeable scratch.

I stumble from the impact.

The world is dizzy.

The screaming and the pounding and the bodies falling everywhere.

Everywhere...

My black eyes thin....then pop back open.

I see the Gordanian rushing at me....but somehow I see **through** him. A fading mirage like the Tower on a beautiful sunset. Serene. Red....

_Red......_

SWOOOSH!!

SLIIIIINK!!!!

The Gordanian jerks to a standstill. He freezes in mid-swing of his weapon.

In slow motion I blink at him.

His beady eyes are wide. He slowly looks down...sputtering. I follow his eyesight down his armored chest...to his purple-oozing gut where Myrkblade has skewered him straight down the middle.

I pant...staring at him.

He slowly looks up at me. His reptilian mouth drools...pleading.

He knows just as well as I do that—with one twist of Myrkblade—his hear will be ripped open fatally.

So I twist it....

SKRRKKKK!!!!

The Gordanian's whole body twitches. His chest jerks up at me...and a river of purple blood literally follows the blade up and squirts out across my torso.

I pull the blade out coldly.

SCHLUMP!!!

The Gordanian falls down. Like cold, raw meat.

Purple blood trails down my visor and face.

I pant...and as I do so...some of the warm liquid enters my mouth.

And I have no choice....

I taste the alien essence...and it's almost.....almost....

I blink. Something reflects off my eyes. Like the cold white calcium of bone.

_Almost sweet........._

Time resumes.

I glance down.

Koriand'r is looking up at me. Trembling. As if she knew that this moment was coming as much I did.

And in her eyes, I see the reflection of a Gordanian rushing up from behind me and swinging his staff at the innocent masses.

And in my visor, I see the glint of something vaguely clear like the edges of a shark's eyes and---

SWOOOSH—I jab my blade in reverse—CHUNK!!!!!

Myrkblade pierces through the Gordanian's shoulder blade. Pinning him in place.

He shrieks and convulses around my wooden weapon.

I start panting heavily...but it gradually comes forth as a snarl.

_I am an Angel Spear......_

Dark clouds of smoke warble around my limbs.

_And I have come to spear the shit out of you, murderers!!!!_

I let out a silent scream, teleport so that I'm gripping Myrkblade in reverse, and then I slash the blade towards the ceiling with all my might.

RRRRRRRRRRRIP!!!!!!!

The Gordanian's left limb falls off him from shoulder to collar bone. What's left of his torso sprays purple out in a torrent as he screams his head off.

SLIIIINK!!!

His throat explodes from the tip of my blade.

WHUMP!!

I kick his body down.

Gritting my teeth, I blur twenty feet in two seconds and charge a crowd of Gordanians triple-teaming a wounded soldier.

SWOOOOSH—I spin with a blur of smoke---SLASH!!! Myrkblade flies up.

SLIIIIINK!!!!

A purple ravine suddenly appears in the chest of a reptile.

Before he has a chance to scream, I twirl Myrkblade about and stab straight through his gut.

CHUNK!!!

I let out a silent howl and pulse Murk into my blade.

SPLORCH!!!!

His torso loses half of its mass. Chunks of flesh and muscle fly into the eyes and faces of his comrades. They shriek and flail about blindly long enough for me to blur forwards---rip through the body of one of them—impact my feet with the wall—push with my legs—blur back—and chop off the leg of the second thigh-down in my dive back towards the center of the room.

Purple fluid trails me. No sooner does my dive end that I roll up into a leap over Katma's shoulders and into a fray of four Gordanians. My body spins vertically in mid-air like a helicopter with Myrkblade outstretched.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!!

I land in the center of the four reptilian attackers in such a fashion.

SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!!

I wind down into a crouch position, hyperventilating.

The four Gordanians stand still all of the sudden....until in perfect synchronization all of their detached heads roll off their shoulders and their bodies slump bloodily to the floor. THWUMP!! TH-THWUMP! WHUMP!!

Katma blinks.

My black eyes blink white and black again as I take a huge breath and leap up onto the nearby, curved wall of the heated room. Blurring my legs, I run vertically along the perimeter to the North and West sides of the room. From my lightning-quick movement and position, I catch the backs of the Gordanian heads.....literally.

SLASH!! SLASH!!!! SLAAAASH!!!

Purple rivers splash outward from their necks.

Over a dozen reptiles grip their throats and wheeze for breath, spitting up and sputtering forth purple ooze. They slump down one after another as I pass by.

"Keep it up, fraggers!!!" Lobo shouts. "We almost have them---" He suddenly catches sight of me. "....holy shit."

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!!!

I down four more Gordanians before leaping down into the midst of them on the South End.

I chop off the arm of one rushing the family members, then jab forward---skewering two at once with the full length of my blade before pulling the weapon out in a fountain of purple and twirling to meet the charge of another suicidal reptile with a murderous laceration across his belly, spilling his guts out.

I hop over the body and twirl Myrkblade into a pose as three more rush at me.

"HRESSSSHA!!!!!"

I grit my teeth. Shivering all over from my metal limb. Purple streaks down my helmet in a torrent and I blink black then white then black again and let out a silent scream. "!!!!!!" I rush at the first one.

He swings with his laser staff.

SLASSSH!!

I chop through it and then chop straight down his head, splitting it in two.

SLIIIINK!!!

I shove his brain-leaking body away and hold Myrkblade up as the second attacker comes.

His staff swings.

I blur my body into smoke form just in time for the staff to fly through me.

I snarl and slash Myrkblade up high.

CHOP!!!!

His head flies off.

I pivot back and raise my foot, literally kicking the loose head into the chest of the third and final attacker.

WHUMP!!!

The Gordanian backs up with the trophy, horrified.

SWOOOSH—SLASH!!!!

I swing Myrkblade halfway into his torso from his ribs' side and then yank the blade out before his insides can fall out.

SCHLUMP!!!!

I spin around.

Three Gordanians look at all the bodies on the floor and realize they're alone.

I march towards them....fuming...nostrils flaring...

They shriek and aim at me all at once.

ZAAP!! ZAP!! ZAAAAAP!!

I flick my wrist and deflect each shot without so much as flinching my advancing body.

The two in the rear hobble back, shivering.

The first one lets out a blood-curdling hiss. He charges me.

I charge him.

He raises his spear.

I twirl Myrkblade and point it straight ahead.

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

In a quick-as-wind blur I teleport through him and finish with an upswing of Myrkblade.

One beat....two....

The Gordanian's stiff body falls apart behind me.

I stand up, panting.

The last two stumble back to the wall, trembling like mad.

My teeth are clenched. I march towards them. My boots dip into puddles of purple.

The one on the left lets out a whimper and aims his laser spear at his own throat.

ZAP!!!

His front face implodes and he falls to the ground with a sickening THWUMP!!!

The last one trembles and watches my every move.

I march up to within a yard's distance from him. My black eyes twitching.

Shivering....

Throbbing.

_White..._

"HRESSHAAA!!!" the Gordanian drops his spear and slumps down against the wall, clutching his head in horror. "HRESSSSSSHAAAA!!"

SLUNK!!!!!

I silence the creature with the tip of Myrkblade through its throat.

I take a huge breath....

....

....I exhale.

FLASH!!!

The Gordanian's head explodes from a single pulse of smoke down the wooden sword.

And save for the painful moans of a handful of wounded Tamaranians, all is silent.

The onslaught is over.

Lobo stares at me from behind, absent mindedly wrapping his fingers against the butt of his sniper rifle.

Minnae and Koriand'r hug each other.

The other soldiers and citizens are silent.

I pant...pant....pant...

CL-CLANK!!

Myrkblade falls to the floor.

I slump to my knees.

Surrounded in purple blood.

Like rust.

A taste of horror fills my throat.

My black eyes smoke.

Like fire....

Bolts of lightning.

White hot.

_White..._

I thrust my neck back and hold my arms to my side.

I let out a silent howl.

FLASH!!!!!!!

A pure sphere of smoke and murk energy pulses out from the center of my figure...surrounds my kneeling body for a second or two...and then implodes straight back into my chest like a collapsing submarine.

"!!!!!!!!" I gasp for air. Pure air. My black eyes are no longer flickering. My metal arm is no longer causing me to shiver. My lungs heave and my shoulders give way. Soon, I'm leaning forward on my hands. Panting. Coughing. Sweating all over....salt water mixed with Gordanian blood.

"...................."

I hear the padding of bootsteps right behind me.

A beat.

A soft but firm, feminine hand on my shoulder.

Panting, I look up wearily through my stained helmet visor.

Katma Tui has on a small...proud smile. "I dunno how, Noir...," she whispers. "...but you single-handedly just saved history." A beat. She bites her lip, then admits: "Now we all know why the Being selected you to be here....."

I let out a breath and stare at a dry spot on the floor. I don't know whether to feel wounded or relieved....

I feel Katma's fingers tighten on my shoulder.

"???" I weakly stand up and look at where she's looking.

About five Tamaranians have perished, and two more are injured. Among the deceased are three soldiers and two escapees...data escapees.

But there is also a sixth fatality. And he lies in the arms of innocent and soldier Tamaranians alike. The body of the noble, elderly officer. A laser burn covering his throat. His firm eyes...still forevermore.

I gulp. I look away. I catch sight of Koriand'r and the other children. I see the tears forming in their eyes. Solid green rivers running down their cheeks. And I hear the Tamaranian howl of sorrow. And it's so haunting inside the acoustics of this claustrophobic Hell-hole. Like a beautiful symphony and a pressure cooker full of dying cats all at once.

The Tamaranians minding the ceiling consoles pause to join in the traditional wail of sorrow and loss. It will only be a matter of time before they're back on the task at hand and getting us an escape. They're more than halfway through with it by now anyways.

Katma walks over and stands between the gun-polishing Lobo and the wilted Minnae. I'm within earshot too as she crosses her arms and utters with a deep breath: "No matter what happens...we're getting the data to the Capital. We must do whatever it takes. The only option here....the only conceivable option....is victory...."

"Heh....you're telling me, Sweet Cakes," was all Lobo says. I think it's all he wants to say.

Minnae is silent.

So am I.


	114. Angel Spear Four part 5

**114. Angel Spear Four part 5**

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, forty-two minutes.**

**Location: Temple – Central Room**

CHTING!!!!!

CL-CLUNG!!!!!

WHURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-TNK-TNKLING!!!!

The room fills a dying green light. Not the same as the starbolt fury that once inhabited it. But rather, this is the aura of a Tamaranian sunset.

I squint and hold a hand over my visor as I barely manage to look up through the circular door in the center room of the Temple. Two giant, black shadows hover over us. Thrusters hissing. Rocket boosters at ready.

The noise of their rumbling propulsion and hovering apparatuses vibrate the place that we're in.

Lobo shouts above the noise. "I know I should be jumping for joy and crap, but why is it that I suddenly get the feeling we're about to become nothing more than twin kamikaze torpedoes?!?!"

"You got one part right," Katma nods. "We're heading over water. And with the meager time we have left, we have to make it count. We're going to suck every bit of propulsion that's left hiding away in these vessels."

"My kingdom for my hog....," Lobo mutters. A beat. "Heh! My kidney for a kingdom!"

"What of the fallen?" Minnae asks, her hands cupped together. "Surely we cannot desecrate them by leaving them here!"

"Nuja'n thriul canclatta v'mere si wedsaye," one of the Tamaranian soldiers happens to walk by and utter. His eyes are firm, much like the deceased officer. "Feratta siel de X'Hal...benverada nemo sye."

Katma takes a deep breath. "Vlatta kun...," she remarks.

"When you're done speaking Chipmunk...ya mind translating, sweet cakes??" Lobo grumbles.

Katma glares. "They understand the importance for the flight. For us, getting the data to the Capital is a part of history. For them, it's imminent necessity. There world is in peril. Those who have fallen have given their lives for a great purpose. Now they—and we—must move to ensure that their sacrifices were not in vain."

"Oye....," Lobo rubs his head. "Forgive me if I sound dumb. I don't do the whole 'honor and glory' thing. Hell, I look at those bodies and think that they're simply going to waste! I know! Go on and ask the Tamaranian dopes if any of them are hungry."

FLASH!!

"OW!!!" Lobo falls down from a green boxing glove. WHUMP!!!

Katma sighs. "Right...." She looks over. "We're going. Now."

Minnae gulps. "The Frontline?"

"Straight over the Sea to the Mainland surrounding the Capital," Katma declares. "We have to make like the wind."

"And that's just what them cruisers are gonna do, huh??" Lobo rubs his head and mutters. Looking up. "Break wind?"

"Something to that extent," Katma turns and speaks to the one Tamaranian soldier. "Vramanaz thriul!"

"Uln!"

The Tamaranian starts motioning and calling out to the others in the room.

Everyone lifts up as one body and they ascend to the two hover barges. The citizens hold the hands of the children as they ascend. Koriand'r flies by herself. She glances down at me as she exits the roof section.

I'm staring at the ground. Clutching Myrkblade. Breathing in and out slowly.

"........"

"Noir?"

"......"

"Noir..."

A hand on my shoulder.

I look up. I glance around.

Katma stands behind me. Minnae's by her side.

"It's time for us to go, we can't waste anymore seconds," the Green Lantern says.

I take a breath. I nod.

Minnae smiles.

'_Mr. Noir......'_

I look over at her.

'_You do realize we're all in this together?'_

I stare at her.

_Has any of the blood stained your dress yet...............your highness?_

She bites her lip.

I hear nothing further in my head.

"Okay. Let's move!" Katma exclaims. She holds out her ring and three green platforms materialize beneath the feet of Lobo, Minnae, and myself. The Green Lantern effortlessly airlifts us up and towards the two hover barges above the temple...

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, thirty-nine minutes.**

**Location: Jungle – Roof of Temple**

The hover barges look like big, brown cigars with the top one-fifth chopped off and flattened length-wise. The things would be perfect cylinders if it weren't for the thrusters jutting out obviously on many locations along the bottom hull or the big boosters erected on the rear. Metal 'awnings' of sort cover two locations on the vessels. One awning covers the piloting spot near the front of each barge, and another awning covers the top deck halfway down the length of the top. Each barge has a gun turret on the back, capable of focused phaser bursts in a firing direction of at least three hundred degrees. Two laser cannons flank the bow of the ship, and two small turrets mark the side down the middle of the vessel's hull.

"Hey hey hey....," Lobo smirks. "Ready to rock n' roll!"

Minnae giggles.

I sigh.

"Noir...you're with me," Katma declares as she floats the two of us over to the ship on the right. "We're going to have the data carriers on our barge...which means that they're going to need the most protection for the sake of victory. My shielding and your quick-reflexes should do the trick in the case of any attack or ambush while en route."

I nod silently as I'm lowered onto the deck of the one hover barge.

"What about the innocent civilians?" Minnae remarks from her floating platform. "Do they not need protection too?"

"By all means," Katma nods in mid-air. "But none of them are carrying the data necessary for bringing the Gordanian invasion to a hault. The rules of humanitarianism apply differently here. The data carriers take priority. But don't worry. You and Lobo shall guard the other ship."

"Great...," Lobo rolls his red eyes. "I get babysitting duty."

"Meditate upon it in this fashion, Mr. Lobo," Minnae smiles daintily. "With Captain Tui and Mr. Noir on the other ship, you have total reign over who you kill or don't kill while on our ship. Do you not?"

Lobo smirks. "Hey...I never thought of it that way. Heh. You ain't so half bad for a virgin mega-pixie."

"Errr....," Minnae blinks.

"Just guard your posts...okay?" Katma groans, depositing the two on the left hover barge with her Green Lantern energy. She pauses in thought, then calls out: "Princess Metharsia...is Noir's little friend with the other citizens?"

I glance up.

"Y-Yes...that she is, Captain Tui."

"She's a data carrier. Tell her to join our ship."

"Understood."

I narrow my eyes under my helmet's visor and think.

_The data carriers would be at better odds of safety if they were spread evenly on both barges..._

I glance at the Green Lantern.

_Unless of course......Katma totally expects this ship to survive for some reason._

Katma's green eyes glance at me for a moment...but quickly dart away.

I inhale.

I hadn't seen that from Katma before. Not directly.

_Fear......_

I sigh again and find a quiet part of the deck to sit down and collapse. I lean my back to the support beam of the middle awning. As escapees file around and get organized all around me, I suddenly remember the deck of cards in my combat fatigues pants pocket. I pull them out and start shuffling casually. My black eyes gaze into nothingness.

_Maybe it's not fear......maybe it's disgust......_

_But what can I say? She got what she wanted. Everybody got what they wanted._

I twirl a joker card

I take a breath....staring at it.

_Everybody wants to use the wildcard...but nobody loves it in the end._

I hide it away with teleporting, black fingers.

_Not even myself._

I glance up at Katma Tui.

She's still motioning people around and giving orders. To Tamaranians and Angel Spears alike. The perfect Captain.

_I hope you got what you wanted......cuz there's no going back to Noir now. Not on this mission._

I look at my metal hand. I eye the purple blood caking its joints. Like rust.

I wince inwardly.

_Angel Spear Four......at your service......the wildcard reborn._

"Gromaadul v'ran si b'ala nortblorg!" a Tamaranian escapee manages a smile as he floats over and mans the controls. He was one of the three that summoned the hovercraft over here by remote. "Nuhani slaat'm fortnorb!" Per his touch, the apparatuses that control the ship come to life. The gun turret at the back included. He turns and points at the 'crew'. "Hornablog fietven leeder n'rai! Vra! Vra!"

The escapees and soldiers mumble 'uln' and nod. Half of them descend below deck...to armored safety. The rest of them say on top. Including Koriand'r...who has just floated over and is now standing on the deck. She looks around—scanning the place with her pixie green eyes—and sees me. She blinks.

I stare at her. I gasp and hide the playing cards, wincing. Hoping they didn't resonate in her optics.

_Dammit...me and my friggin' trademarks!_

"Nu di'jaat!" a Tamaranian shouts.

I glance up.

VRUMMMMMMM!!!

The hover barge starts to shake.

Koriand'r gasps and rushes over to take a secure seat across the deck.

I take a deep breath.

_Here we go......_

FFFFFFFSHHHHHHH!!!!!

The thrusters fire up. The two barges lift up side by side. The tree canopy of the jungle drops out of vision from either side of me.

I hear Lobo's voice cackle forth from the other ship. "Hey! Anyone for travel bingo?! How many rotting reptiles do you spy?! HA!"

I glance at my Angel Spear wristband.

The illuminated arrow is pointing due north.

And that's exactly where the barges point themselves.

**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!**

And we rocket away from the temple.

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, thirty-six minutes.**

**Location: In Flight – Central Jungle**

The rushing wind is warm. Humid. The planet is just as tropical as it looks. I never knew Starfire's world was so stifling.

I welcome the rushing air as the two hovercraft throttle over the green canopies. Eventually, I get up and creep over to the edge of the deck. I look out onto the landscape blurring beneath us like an emerald mess. I envision dozens of lost Tamaranians and Gordanians somewhere in the lush landscape, battling each other. Unaware of whatever victories or losses could be transpiring around and above them.

_Speaking of which......_

I glance up. From around the side of the metal awning, I see the same old specks. The flashing pinpricks of light. The tiny puffs of explosions that are huge splashes of chaos taking place thousands of miles above us and beyond the atmosphere. Some dramatic space battle indicative of all history books save those found on Earth.

_The universe is a gigantic place. With cultures warring and loving each other left and right. So much of the chaos of the cosmos has even stretched its tired arms into the midst of Terra Firma. But why....why are we so left out? Whey are we still in a galactic stone age? People and things out here bleed and die as much as Earth's fodder does. What's the difference? Why the separation?_

I run a hand along the back of my neck. I find a few long strands of hair that have somehow escaped from under my helmet amidst all of my fighting and violent acrobatics. I hastily tuck them all back in and under before anyone—especially Koriand'r—can see me. I take a breath and hug myself...balanced on the side of the deck...looking out onto the passing foliage and wilderness.

A beat.

I glance to my right.

Katma is staring out over the bow. The one Tamaranian soldier is piloting the hover barge. Five more soldiers patrol the deck.....

....

Koriand'r sits on the side of the craft opposite of me. Her cute legs dangling from her seat. Her hands placed nimbly down as her red hair dances in the passing breeze. She's the only one looking vaguely in my direction. And most likely, she's pretending that she's trying not to.

I raise an eyebrow under my helmet's visor.

_Why??_

Silence.

I sigh.

_Why...why is she so...so......fixated on me?_

She looks away from me suddenly as if noticing my gaze through my visor. The trick of mine doesn't seem to work anymore.

_Was she always so curious? So......so interested in everything?_

I reach a hand up and rub the sides of my face under my helmet.

_Was it because I was the first to reach her inside......inside that horrible prison cell?_

She gazes out onto the passing landscape. She reaches a little hand up and pushes a lock of hair up and behind her ear.

I blink under my visor.

_She's so......so quiet. So alone........._

I lean my head to the side.

_Is she thinking of Blackfire right now? Is that why she's so.........so deadpan? And yet...there is a strange sense of hidden joy. Nestled in between her trusting and innocent nature. I recognize Starfire in that. But........._

'_But what, Mr. Noir?'_

I blink.

I turn around and look across the whipping winds.

Minnae sits on the side of the deck facing me from her and Lobo's hover barge. Even from afar, I catch the compassionate gaze of her amber eyes. She holds a laced hand up and waves...then tries to smooth down her whipping, auburn hair as she smiles at me across the safe distance of speeding air.

_Forgive me if I'm not so talkative. I'm kinda sorta mute, ya know._

'_Your head says differently.'_

_Is it ever possible to put you on 'mute'?_

'_I couldn't help but overhear. You are so very concerned for your young friend, aren't you?'_

_I thought that had been made obvious before._

'_Oh, indeed. Though I do not possess an entire understanding of your life of working with the said 'Starfire', I do know you feel greatly responsible for her.'_

_Uh huh..._

'_You wonder if she's thinking about her sister...Kormand'r. Is that true?'_

_I do believe you heard me right._

'_Well, you are correct. But.........'_

_But what, your Highness?_

'_Do you wish to know what else she's thinking, Noir?'_

...............

'_She is.........most thankful...for our presence.'_

_Is she now......?_

'_Indeed. She understands that—as much as the four of us are outsiders—we're helping give this flight to the Capital the boost that it needs. History may do a good job of taking care of itself. But we are greatly a part and shall always be a part of this event.'_

_And is it just my imagination that she keeps......keeps........._

'_Paying attention to you and you alone?'_

..............._yeah......_

'_I'm sure that there are many reasons for that.'_

_Reasons that you know?_

'_Hehehe......well, for one......when she first saw you, there was quite a bit of long, dark hair showing?'_

_Your point?_

A beat.

I wince as I remember.

_You've got to be kidding me........._

'_Young men on Tamaran with black hair are quite rare.........and considered very handsome!'_

_I don't like this........._

'_And—Tamaranian or not—the girl there is at THAT age......the threshold, at least......'_

_Are you trying to tell me that Starf--......Koriand'r has a crush on me?_

'_I am merely teasing you, Mr. Noir. True......one can't ignore that factor. Any Tamaranian girl would find you a sight to behold.'_

_Wow......boy am I lucky......_

I chuckle to myself. I then think of Robin in the future. And Starfire....

I smirk.

'_But there's far much more to it than that.'_

_Like what?_

'_My my...you do seem so curious for my explanation now! Hehehe!'_

_You have me hooked, your highness._

'_Koriand'r is......thankful, yes. She's thankful for our presence. But you......'_

_I was the one who first rescued her. Physically, at least._

'_True. But it's not so much about that as it is......something she perceives in you.'_

_Like?_

'_I cannot explain. How much have you been around Koriand'r in the future?'_

_Well......all the time. I mean...we fight alongside each other. As Titans......_

'_Then you are commonly in her aura?'_

_Huh??_

'_Her aura. All Tamaranians feel a mysterious burning in their hearts. An empathy for other beings. It most strongly reacts to other Tamaranians. Like a hidden fire. Did Starfire ever tell you of this.'_

_I......I-I remember something to that extent. Yeah......_

'_It is possible that she detects......something from the future in you.'_

I bite my lip.

_Like what? You think she knows the truth?_

I see Minnae shake her lead from afar. She smiles.

'_No. But she knows the emotions. The positive ones.'_

I take a breath.

_Like??_

'_Trust. Friendship. Honesty.....................a-and sacrifice......'_

I instinctively grip my metal hand with my right one. I sigh.

'_Mr. Noir.........your heart is suddenly so heavy!'_

_Yeah......I'm used to that._

'_But...it is a glorious thing. These emotions that Koriand'r recognizes. What she sees and feels burning within herself the closest she is with you. And everything you've done to save her...it's only reinforced this positive feedback.'_

_Then I've done exactly what I didn't want to do._

'_And what is that??'_

_I affected her too much. Perhaps......p-perhaps the future is in jeopardy after all._

'_Hardly, Noir.'_

_How do you know that?_

'_For as much as you've intercepted with her life today, your transported emotions are making her think more about the now.'_

_Blackfire......_

'_And her family. Her parents. Her sister. She watches you fight and massacre the evil enemy...and she doesn't see a monster. Don't you realize that? She sees exactly what you are, Mr. Noir. What we all are for taking up this haphazard mission. Angels. Angels in disguise.'_

I take a painful breath. I grip my metal arm. I sense a touch of the shivers again.....

'_You have given her hope, Mr. Noir. The fact that you know her from the future. The emotions and the aura that you have taken back with you. She has consumed them. And her pain from that prison room is gone. For as terrible and tragic the whim of Death and all its Demons are, you have brought the flaming Spear of Life in and carved for her an impervious path. You have given her hope. You've done the exact opposite of harm her future...or your chance of being her friend in the future. In fact, I do believe all the Titans can rejoice. Starfire is most likely what she is tomorrow because of your blessings these days. And your further sacrifices......'_

I bite my lip. My throat is swore. I swallow and smile weakly across the way.

_You know...for a sheltered animorph who takes fashion statements from the Disney Princess collection, you're rather bright._

'_Hehehe...I'll take that as a compliment, Mr. Noir.'_

I look Koriand'r's way again.

Just like before, I barely catch the girl's gaze before it hurriedly leaves me and 'inspects' the passing landscape.

_Perhaps it was just a schoolgirl crush after all. Good thing my hair's hidden._

I flex my metal fingers. The shivers go away before they come. I sigh with relief.

_Your Highness........._

'_Yes, Mr. Noir?'_

_Does she......really have hope? Is she really happy right now?_

'_I have never known my telepathy to lie to me. Though I do have the most awful time locating Lidikins on multiple occasions.'_

I smirk.

'_I'm curious though, Mr. Noir......'_

_Hmm?_

'_If you could speak—and may the stars bless your poor heart for not being able to—what would you tell her right now? What would you say to Koriand'r......I suppose......as a reaction to her own thoughts?'_

_You can't figure it out on your own with that head of yours?_

'_I would greatly desire to 'hear' your opinion'.'_

............

'_Please?'_

_Well........._

I look at the Tamaranian girl. I rest my hands on my knees. I sigh and smile gently.

_Starfire, I.........I welcome the sight of you. It makes me feel almost as if I'm back home. I never knew just how intense your life was before you became a Titan. I-I mean...you told us and everything. It's just that......seeing it for myself. With my own black eyes. Chopping through it and tasting the leaking horror that is your planet's fight for survival.........I wish I had known before. And I almost wince to think of all the pleasant things you've said and all the kindness you show. For going through so much horror, you are remarkably innocent. It's such a wonder to behold. And I......I don't know. I want to protect you. But I want to do more than that. I think I want to hug you...or maybe just shut your eyes so that you can wake up from all of this. But what it all comes down to.........i-is that I want to get you back to your family. Your sister. Your brother. Your parents. Everyone that you've vaguely told us Titans about. But most of all......I want to see you with us again. With your friends. And I think that's because I want to be there right now. Not in this war. Not in this nightmare. I want to take us both away to safety so that all this will be is a passing dream. A memory. A fading photonegative. But I know that I can't do that. Noir is four or five years in the future right now, walking around the Titan's Tower. Carrying on with his life before it comes time to answer another call. Right now...you're trying not to stare at a ghost. A ghost with a flaming sword. Angel Spear Four. And like a good angel, I'm going to see to it that you live through this thing. That you feel as comforted and as satiated by whatever emotional aura you need until the killing is over and the Demons of Death have retreated. This is your history...your life...and I'm proud to see you through part of it. So very proud. I just......I just can't look at you straight. I can't touch your hand to guide you to safety. I have to remain distant. Please......understand that. It's for your own good. For your planet's good. For the Titans' good........._

......

.........

............

'_I think I can see why you're so concerned for protecting your future with her and your other friends. It must be a beautiful companionship indeed.'_

I take a shuddering breath and look in the direction of Minnae's barge.

_You get a little melodramatic when you're so far away from............family._

There's a nodding, auburn head in the distance.

'_I understand......'_

I smile.

There's a rumbling sound in the distance.

_'What's that?!?!'_

I narrow my black eyes.

I glance down past the stern...southward.

I slowly stand up.

Koriand'r and the other Tamaranians murmur around me as I walk slowly to the gun turret. I lean on it and peer out. Katma Tui floats over and lands by my side, also peering.

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, twenty-nine minutes.**

**Location: In Flight – Northern Jungle Perimeter**

The tree canopy becomes less and less dense beneath us. Swamplands form as the landscape's topography lowers to sea level and we gradually approach estuaries leading into a strait that is part of a huge ocean.

On the green horizon of the jungle blurring behind us, four gray/black specks appear. They have bright thrusters blaring at their rears. And they're coming in fast.

"Gordanian...," Katma mumbles. "Dropships. Just like the ones we faced earlier."

I grit my teeth.

"These barges are made for atmospheric transport only. But those things the Gordanians have...they're built for both air and space. They'll catch up with us in a heartbeat." She glances over at the gun turret. "We're gonna have some heat on our hands. And soon!"

She quickly rushes against the wind towards the bow of the ship, shouting to everyone on deck while I stand by and watch the incoming bogeys.

"Gord'n threatta!! M'neraat thrun leever cunne siel!!"

"Kieterrat'm mortablog!"

"Cedu vrenaz wiwer'm!"

"Uln!"

Tamaranians are scrambling and hovering everywhere. A soldier rushes over and gently escorts Koriand'r below deck to a safer position. The pilot of our barge cranks an apparatus. The laser guns on the bow charge up and glow a menacing blue. The two gun turrets on the side wobble to life as Tamaranians inside the barge man them.

Katma oversees all this. She looks towards the other bard. She sees Lobo standing out in the open beyond the metal awnings, waving a pale hand at her.

Katma takes a breath and concentrates with a finger placed against her temple.

"Minnae...tell Lobo and everyone else on that ship to prepare for the worst."

'_Whatever seems to be the matter?'_

"Due south of us. Four Gordanian ships are approaching."

'_An armed pursuit?'_

"Undoubtedly. We're gonna have some trouble on our hands. But between the two of us, I'm sure we can shake them off."

_'We had better hurry! We're approaching open water ahead!'_

"And once we're past it, we should be okay on the other shore. That's where the Tamaranians are historically setting up their assault on the Front Line surrounding the Capital. The Gordanian dropships would be cannon fodder in the air."

'_I do not like the sound of 'cannon fodder'!'_

"Your highness, I was only referring to the Gordanians---"

"HEY!!!" Lobo cackles loudly from across the rushing air on his barge with a voice that only the undead mercenary can manage. "Less brain tonguing and more Gordanian popping!!!"

Katma grits her teeth.

A chuckling sound.

She looks my way.

I clear my throat and look innocent.

She glares.

A beat.

"I almost like you more when you're badass.....," she mutters.

I shrug.

"Feveraat! Niel threatta!"

I look firmly southward. I take a breath.

"Here they come...," Katma clenches her fist and hovers three feet above the deck. Her power ring glows brightly.

On the other barge, Minnae cowers under a metal awning. Four Tamaranians hover at ready, their hands glowing. Lobo whips out his shotgun in one hand and a revolver in the other. He reloads both and spins them at ready. Grinning.

"Avast ye, crum-suckers!!"

My metal fingers tighten.

The four Gordanian dropships accelerate. The windshields of the cockpits and the pivoting thrusters can be seen against the hull. The steady roar of their advance starts to mingle with the chaos filling our ears from our own barge.

A Tamaranian rushes over and mans the gun turret of our ship's rear while another soldier does the same on Lobo's and Minnae's ship. I spot the laser banks and turrets against their hull getting ready as well. We've all seen enough battle today. We're more than prepared for this...

CHIIIIING!!!

I unsheathe Myrkblade and watch the incoming steadily.

The Tamaranian glances at me.

I glance back at him.

He looks at my purple-stained sword...then at my face.

".......," I smirk.

"This is ridiculous....," Katma utters, her green eyes narrowing.

I glance back at her.

"This full frontal assault...they must know we have proper defenses at the rear! Why would they send so many vulnerable gunships to our backsides unless....," the Green Lantern gasps. She spins around. She looks up, northward. "Nuru! Gord'n threatta di j'namalan!"

Everyone turns around at once in a flurry of exclamations and gasps. On both barges.

We look up.

My black eyes twitch.

Out from the murderously bright shimmer of the setting sun streak two more dropships from above. And they're opening fire.

**BLAM!! BLAM!!!! BLAM!!!!!!**

Dark black bolts of energy soar at the ships' bows.

Katma floats up, growls at the top of her lungs, and stretches a green shield in front of our ship.

"RGHHHHH!!!!"

FLASH!!!!!

The dark projectiles splash against the energy projection.

POW!!! POW!! **POW!!!**

Quicker than a blink, Katma yells furiously and flings whatever shred of energy is left from her projection over into the front of Lobo's and Minnae's ship.

FLAAA-AASH!!!

**POW!!!!!**

The projectiles shatter apart in smoke.

The two barges shake and tumble in mid-air.

The Tamaranians grunt and gasp in surprise.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The two frontrunning Gordanian ships swoop down past us.

I grit my teeth.

I turn around.

SWOOOOSH!!!!!!

The ships from the rear are upon us.

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!**

Katma rushes to the back of the ship with a ready shield while the Tamaranian gunners on either barge let loose phaser punishment.

**ZAAAAAP!!!**

ZAP!! ZAAAP!

The four Gordanian ships spread apart. Two rocket between us. The other two arc around us. Between Katma's shield and our return fire, only one of the enemies' blasts get through. It singes a lower portion of the rear hull of the other ship.

"Gorgablag'm slie! Favlaata Gord'n hiyatsun!" Katma shouts.

"Uln!!"

The Tamaranian pilot jams a trigger on the controls.

The laser banks positioned on the front of the ship fire.

**ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!!**

The other barge follows suit.

**ZAAAAP!!!!**

Two twin streams of blue-hot energy soar at the four swooping Gordanian vessels as they come around for another pass. One of the dropships is struck hard. It starts smoking and slows down on its return...letting the other three advance upon us as once again.

I turn and look to our rear.

The two ambushing dropships are returning at the same time.

We're being sandwiched.

"Princess Minnae?! Are you all okay?!"

'_The rear gunman on our ship has taken a nasty fall! There's a terrible bump on his head!"_

"Crud....W-Well who's mining the gun turret now?!"

'_Erm.........I-I am, Captain Tui......'_

Katma bites her lip.

I look at her.

She looks at me. "I hope for her sake they built seatbelts for that thing..."

I point madly at the incoming dropships.

Katma clears her throat and spins around with power ring outstretched. "Gord'n threatta!!"

"De X'Hal!!!"

"De X'Hal!!!!"

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

**BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!! BLAM!!!! BLAM!!!**

The dropships swoop by from both sides. Laser cannons, gun turrets, and side turrets fire all at once. Chaotically. Starbolts stream into the insanity as well. My darting eyes catch sight of Katma's green energy soaring out like a huge, green sword and severing off one of the dropships' thrusters. It's the only damage done to the enemy, whereas a few craters form in our hull...causing the ship to shake and the putrid smell of burnt metal to fill the air.

The thruster-less Gordanian vessel lunges and descends slowly to the jungle floor below. It starts to regain its hovering potential and lift up again. That's exactly when a familiar, gruffy voice shouts above the noisce: "HOT POTATO!!!" and a grenade from the other barge sails down and makes contact with the Gordanian ship's hull.

CLANK-**BOOOOOM!!!**

Cracks form all along the dark-gray ship and fire eats its way inside. The ship spirals and plunges down with a comet tale of flames and leaking plasma.

Cheers rise up from the Tamaranians all around me. Even Katma smirks.

I look over and see Lobo twirling a hulking grenade launcher in his grasp and doing a 'raising the roof' gesture.

I don't know whether to laugh or whimper.

"Hana thrakka saat duramna hiyn'm!!"

I turn around again.

The two remaining dropships from the first cluster of four turn about. But their speed is slower and their altitude is climbing. They rise above us, thrusters thundering.

"????" I raise an eyebrow. I turn around and look past the front of our barge.

The other two ships take their sweet time in coming back around. As if the first two would be in their line of fire.....

"They're gonna board us...," Katma exclaims, her teeth gritting.

I blink.

Giant metal doors in the bottom hulls of the two ships open. Gently, they start to lower down at us.

Katma turns to the rear gunmen. "Havaakan soruut! Niel!"

The Tamaranian shakes his head helplessly as he looks up. "Emblattorg ke sidaartaat colod'm!"

_'Captain Tui! They're too directly above us! None of our guns can aim up to hit them!'_

"Then there's always the ghetto way...," Katma groans. She raises her power ring.

The other Tamaranians get the idea and charge starbolts.

I grip Myrkblade and I glance at Lobo from afar...standing on his ship and aiming his shotgun and grenade launcher directly upwards.

And just at that precise moment....we reach the ocean.

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, twenty-three minutes.**

**Location: In Flight – Oceanic Strait**

SWOOOOSH!!!

The line of trees end and the water trickles in the crystal blue mass that is the Tamaranian waters stretching between shore to shore. On the other side of the sea is freedom. Yet, no matter how much the thrusters of the two barges flare...the velocity stays the same and the Gordanian vessels descend closer and the Frontline feels ever so far away...

"Femana laak'm saye!!" a soldier shouts.

As if on cue, two dozen jetpacking Gordanians leap out from the lower doors of the two ships over us.

"De X'hal!!!"

Starbolts stream upward in a torrent. Katma extends a wall of serrated energy. Lobo launches one grenade...two...

FLASH!!!! FLASH!!! POW!!!!

These Gordanians have amazing coordination. They snake together as two separate entities and avoid the projectile assault with twirls and barrel rolls before piercing through the defense with just one or two reptiles dying. They sail in towards the rear of each vessel with laser staffs aimed and their drool-laden teeth gritting.

The Tamaranian gunman pivots the turret to face them. I dash over and perch beside it, charging up Murk and snarling at the incoming.

ZAAAP!!!! ZAAAAAP!!!

Blue lasers lead their advance.

I deflect one...two...and dodge a third.

Six other streams bounce around the turret.

The gunman on our barge flinches once, but pivots slightly and fires---**BLAM!!!!**

Two Gordanians are instantly vaporized by the blast. The other nine rush at me just as I bring Myrkblade down.

SLASSSSH!!!!!

I slice off the arm of one hissing reptile and smack a second to the side with my hilt. The rest blur over me and knock me to the ground before collapsing against the Tamaranians and Katma throughout the rest of the barge's deck.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Starbolts and blue lasers fly every which way. The sound of clashing Tamaranian fists and Gordanian fists fill the air surrounding the barge.

I grit my teeth.

I jump to my feet with a pulse of murk and twirl Myrkblade, ready to strike. Anything.

I glare across the deck from under my shades.

I see two Gordanians immediately to my right. They're in the process of stabbing their spears straight through the quivering gut of the unlucky gunman.

I gasp.

I blur over.

I swing Myrkblade up at the end of my spring.

SLASH!!!!

"HRESSSHA!!" the right Gordanian shrieks and clutches the bloody stump that was once his wrist. "HRESSS---"

THUNK!!!

I plow my metal fist straight into his skull. I clutch ahold of brain matter with digging, metal fingers and—exhaling—swing him by the cranium like a ragdoll into the other reptile.

THWUMP!!!

"HRESSH!!!"

The two entangled bodies bounce off the rear of the barge and fall into the blast range of the engine thrusters. The two invaders melt instantly.

I pant. I rush over to the Tamaranian, who's covered in green liquid. I feel for a pulse.

None.

I bite my lip.

"Noir!! Head's up!!"

Katma's voice...

I jerk and look over.

A huge, hulking Gordanian body is stumbling towards me.

SWOOOSH-SLUNK!!!!

I raise Myrkblade just in time to impale him through the lung cavity.

He lurches forward towards me on the blade. Purple oozes out of his mouth.

My black eyes twitch.

"YAAAUGH!!" Katma comes up from behind him with a heavy downswing of a green axe.

CRUNCH!!!!!

The Gordanian's skull loses half its volume and becomes twice as dense in an instant. Purple sprays everywhere.

Katma pants, looking at me. "Good work," she breathes. Then with a warcry, she spins and rushes over to assist the Tamaranians on the other side of the ship.

I stand up and flex my muscles....preparing to dash over there and help them--

SLASH!!!

SLIIIINK!!!

I let out a silent howl and clutch my left shoulder. Red leaks down from a nasty slice. I grit my teeth and look up.

"HRESSSHA!!!" A bleeding, partially wounded Gordanian takes me on with a forward slash of his spear.

SWOOOSH!!

CLANG!!!

I block with my metal hand. Sparks fly.

I frown.

I jab forward with Myrkblade.

SLASH!!!

The Gordanian barely sidesteps. He kicks me in the side.

I grunt and roll across the deck. I nearly bounce over the side...but catch myself at the last second with my right hand on the edge.

The Gordanian hisses and swing his staff down at my hand.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

I vault up, release myself from the side in time to dodge, flip in the air, and land in a squat behind him. I then hold my breath, stand on my left hand, and use my flesh hand to sweep Myrkblade out like a homicidal broom.

CLUMP!!!

I trip the Gordanian.

He falls to his butt and rolls backwards till he slumps against the side of the gun turret. WHUMP!!!

I roll down from my hand stand and dive with a suicidal Myrkblade lunge.

SWOOOSH!!!

The Gordanian gasps and activates his jetpack...rocketing up and above my dive.

The vision of the hard, metal gun turret fills my visor.

I wince.

WHANG!!!!

I slam directly into it. I wish I could groan.

The Gordanian hisses, humored, and aims his laser staff down at me from where he hovers.

The end of the spear starts to glow.

I grit my teeth, swing my upper body towards the sky like a break dancer. My right ankle makes forceful combat with a control lever on the gun turret.

CLANK!!

WHURRRRRRRRRRRR!!

The gun turret starts an endless, clockwise rotation. The result...the jutting gun barrel slaps the Gordanian upside the back.

CLANK!!!

"HRESH!!!!"

He sails down at me.

I meet him with a metal fist.

POW!!!

He literally topples over and collapses against the rotating gun turret.

I vault to my feet, twirl Myrkblade, and charge him.

With his back to the floor, he raises his staff and deflects my attack.

CLANK!!

Through a shower of sparks, I parry and try to stab straight into his chest.

He rolls to the side and jumps to his feet, hissing.

I take a breath. I lunge at him.

He blocks.

I twirl his staff aside. I make for his lower pelvis.

He twirls, side steps, and swings his staff at my skull like a club.

I kneel, deflect, and push back against him. I stand back up and walk towards him.

He walks back.

I raise my sword.

He raises his spear...

WH-WHUMP!!!

Stupidly, the rotating gun barrel catches us both off guard on its return trip. The turret knocks us to the floor, with the hulking Gordanian on top of me.

CL-CLANK!!!

His spear and my Myrkblade tumble alone across the battle-strewn deck.

I reach for my weapon.

He reaches for his.

We both realize that we're reaching for something and instead switch into a wrestling mode. Terran nimbleness against Gordanian brawn.

It wasn't a pretty sight.

"HRESSSH!!!" WHUMP!! WHUMP!! The Gordanian plows my head into the floor.

"!!!!" I wince. I knee him twice in....well...the spot I imagined all universal genitalia to be. WHAM!! WHAM!!

No effect.

_Go figure......_

"HRESSHAA!!" he drools down at me and threatens to bite into my neck.

I swiftly roll us over so that he's beneath me. I start to pummel him mercilessly with my metal fist. I hear ribs cracking and moans of pain. I keep plowing my titanium knuckles into his side, panting.

Despite his pain, he eventually shoves me up and off of him. Throwing in the towel...for a split second.

I hobble back and rub my neck, wincing.

The Gordanian limps up and pants at me. Angry. He pulls out a grenade object of sort and fingers a clip on it.

I take a breath and back up apprehensively.

In the best way a reptilian biped can...the Gordanian snickers.

I walk up...then sense something behind me. A rotating gun turret.

The Gordanian smirks.

I smirk back.

"...."

SWOOOOOSH!!!!!

In a rush of smoke and murk, I teleport backwards through and over the body of the rotating gun turret. My timing is impeccable. I now stand right at the controls right as the gun turret rotates to directly face the Gordanian previously threatening me.

His beady eyes blink. ".....HRESHA??"

I smile, wave, and hit the red button.

**BLAM!!!!!!**

The Gordanian's torso dissolves in the air with a flash of purple. What's left of him gets caught up in the wind and free-falls like a lopsided weight to the choppy seas below.

I hold my breath. I push at the lever. CLANK!! The turret stops rotating on its own.

I rush over and pick up Myrkblade. I glance down towards the bow of the ship.

Two other Tamaranians appear wounded. Katma and the three left standing on top do battle with two last Gordanians from the initial flock.

A thought hits me. I gasp and look across the way at the other barge.

I see Lobo on the distant craft being surrounded by three reptiles....three reptiles that are soon dead by either uzzi fire, strangulating chains, or the simple old fashion right hook of death.

"YEAH!! ASSES!! THE MAIN MAN DEMANDS HIS CAB FARE!!"

I blink under my shades.

_Minnae??_

'_Mr. Noir??'_

I sigh with relief.

_You're okay......_

'_I cannot confirm such in our case for long!'_

I blink. I glanced forward.

Two of the four remaining ships are coming in for another run. Their lower hulls also yawn open and more Gordanians start to hop out.

I wince. I look at the gun turret. I take a breath and hop in it. I reactivate the controls via the levers.

CL-CLANK!!!

WHURRRRR!!!

I pivot about. I aim at the open doors of one of the ships. I finger the red button...

**BLAM!!!**

The whole barge shakes.

I gasp and everyone else battling on the deck almost lose their balance and fall off. I glance back as the previous two dropships come by our rear and punish us with focused phaser fire.

_That same damn sandwich!!!_

**BLAM!!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**

I pivot the gun turret madly around.

We're hit once more.

The hull starts to smoke.

I cough and try aiming through the smoke.

I can't see.

I reach a free hand out and meditate.

The digits of my fingers pulse murk.

I part the blast fog with my powers just long enough to get a clear shot at the fragile bottom thrusters.

Click!

Silence.

I gasp.

I press the red button again with my trigger hand.

Click!

And again.

Click! Click! Click!

I lean back and look down.

Sparks are dancing across the weapon's computer console. A direct result of the enemy's blaster impact.

I bite my lip. I reach down stupidly--

ZAP!!!

I jolt back and wave my finger, wincing.

I glance up.

The dropships leer closer. Their phaser and ion turrets glow threateningly.

I take a deep breath. I sheathe Myrkblade momentarily and reach my flesh hand to the prosthetic joint of my left arm. I fit my fingers around the joining disc and squeeze at just the right spots.

FHSSSS!!!

CL-CLANK!!!

I detach my metal arm and shove it into the console.

THUNK!!!

The metal fingers connect the damaged circuit. The sparks dance across my detached limb and recharge the trigger device.

I take a deep breath, aim, and---

Click—_**BLAM!!!!**_

A bright stream of energy soars from the turret and straight into the belly of the foremost gunship before it has a chance to fire again.

The hull glows red and orange inside out before--

_**PHOOOOOOM!!!!**_

The spacecraft shatters apart and whatever smoking hulk of metal is left plummets down between our two barges and splashes explosively inside the crystal blue sea.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

I gasp. More sparks fly along my metal arm. I pivot the gun turret—WHURRRR—and aim likewise at the second of the close gunships--

"HEY!! SUNDAY DRIVER!!! YAAAAH!!!"

I turn bug-eyed as I spot Lobo literally pouncing off the edge of the other barge's deck and planting himself on the front nose of the Gordanian gunship. Through Herculean strength alone, he clenches his fist and smashes the front turrets to bits.

"RRRGGH!!!"

SMASH!!!

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

CRASH!!!!

He then smirks, spins his shotgun by the trigger with one hand, and utters: "Headlights are out, buddy! Lemme come in there and see your license!!" He ends the shotgun's twirl by aiming it one-handed through the windshield.

BLAM!!!!

Glass shatters and obvious purple streams of liquid splort out the front as the undead mercenary dives into the ship, which is now veering left and right.

I bite my lip.

_How can I shoot it down now??_

'_Where'd Mr. Lobo go?!'_

_Didn't you see, your Highness? He just dove into that ship!!_

'_Is that man insane?!?!'_

I groan.

_Please tell me something I need to know! You did that so well earlier!_

'_You're about to be overwhelmed?'_

_H-Huh?!_

From behind: THWACK!!!!

I exhale a lung full of forced breath from a spear struck hard against my breath. The whole gun turret shakes from the impact and I and my detached arm go tumbling across the deck.

Two Gordanians leer over me with spears, hissing. I spot a second wave of jetpack wearing reptiles. It must be from the other two dropships.

_Son of a bard!!!_

I sneer and try to jump up--

CLAMP!!!

A Gordanian boot forces me down.

"HRESSHA!!! The fiend shoves his spear down at my face.

Instead of reach back for Myrkblade, I blur my one good arm up and clamp my fingers around the staff itself...forcing it away from my forehead at a breath's length. I sweat...straining.

The second Gordanian takes the opportunity. He aims a blue laser at my heart.

My black eyes twitch...

_WH-PHISH!!!!!__****_

A green, glowing 'tentacle' of sorts rolls in from beyond and slaps the laser staff out of the Gordanian's grasp.

The two reptiles gasp and look over me.

I glance upside down at the same thing.

The first wave of Gordanians defeated, Katma and three other Tamaranians hover across the deck and stare down the two assaulters on top of me.

Katma has her Green Lantern energy transformed into a massively long bullwhip. It glows and settles around her legs like a coiled, radioactive snake.

"You want to shed blood??" Katma hisses. She whips the sparking, green tentacle of fury. _WH-PHISH!!!_ "Come spill it!!"

The Gordanians stare at her. Blinking. They growl. They hiss. They charge at her.

The Tamaranians do the wise thing by ducking.

Katma holds her breath and spins around, tossing the whip of energy like a giant weed whacker. She meets the reptilian rush with serrated accuracy, whipping through their limbs and snapping bone and muscle joints apart with the flick of her wrist.

_WH-PHISH!!! WH-PHISH!!_

The Gordanians shriek and clutch spouting wounds of purple ooze before Katma puts them out of their misery with a lashing cord shredded through their hearts.

I pant as I watch the scene. I glance over. I see my detached arm. I grab it.

In the meantime, the Gordanians that are flocking around Minnae's ship (greatly unguarded with Lobo's absence) suddenly regroup and head towards ours...undoubtedly challenged by the Green Lantern's dance of death.

Katma Tui eyes them all. She smiles sexily, whips the green tentacle to a stop and motions them to charge.

And charge they do, flying down via jetpacks with laser staffs firing.

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!! ZAAAAAAP!!

Katma flicks her wrist and spirals the Lantern whip from her ring at them, deflecting each shot.

They close in.

She retracts her wrist, gasps, and lunges forward heavily with a terrifying swing.

_WH-PHISSSSH!!!_

The tentacle rips two Gordanians apart in one slash. The whip draws back and bounces forward again in time to slice off the head of a third, circle around the ankle of a fourth, and draw back with the helpless creature in tow.

Katma twirls to the side and flicks her wrist.

The Gordanian hisses as he's flung far off towards the sea below.

The three Tamaranians take aim at him from afar, pelting him to death with burning starbolts.

In the meantime, I refasten my metal limb. I squeeze the right parts of the prosthetic disk. A sharp chill runs through my body...and I'm back to normal again. I flex my titanium knuckles, sigh, and glance Katma's way.

She continues whipping the corded energy around her like a constantly revolving shield of elastic Hell. One Gordanian tries to dive and come at her from behind. She merely grabs him with one hand, whips her ring power around with another, and flings him violently across the deck...where he lands against the ship's controls with a fountain of sparks.

CLANK!!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!

The whole ship lurches.

The Tamaranians below deck shriek and cry out in surprise.

I fall down, grunting. I look up and gasp as I see Myrkblade tumbling off the uneven deck's side and plunging towards the ocean below.

In a split second, I'm on my feet...blurring towards the side.

I stick two fingers in my mouth and whistle at Katma.

She glances over at me amidst her combating. Sweating.

I point over the side a half second before diving over.

She grits her teeth, swings the Green Lantern 'whip' around her head, and launches it at me.

I reach my right hand out.

GRIP!!!!

I grab ahold of the very end of the whip.

I swing down.

I grab Myrkblade with my metal hand.

I reach the end of the energy whip's length.

I swing up.

My feet blur in mid air and make contact with the ship's hull.

Taut on my end of the cord, I use Katma as an anchor as I run up the side of the ship, slashing two flying Gordanians bloodily along the way, and launch myself up into the air above the careening vessel. I let go of the whip, flip, and fall. My feet land on the metal awning. I slide down effortlessly, switch Myrkblade to my right hand, and dive onto the deck straight at two landing Gordanians.

SLASH!!! SWISSH!!!

I rip through the chest of one reptile, pull Myrkblade out, and slash into the shoulder of the second. With a silent growl, I lift the Gordanian's body up and flip him in reverse over his shoulder so that his bloodied carcass flings off of Myrkblade.

_WH-PHISH!!!!_ _YANK!!_

Katma flings the whip up and circles the end of it around the neck of the bloody Gordanian. She uses his dead weight as a mace as she now swings the tendril around madly and slams his carcass into oncoming Gordanian jetpackers.

SWOOOSH—WHAM!!! _WH-PISH—_SLAP!!! SWIIIIISH-THWAP!!!

She spins the body around her head one last time before flinging the dead Gordanian mercilessly into three remaining fliers.

WHUMP!!!

"HRESHSAAAAaaaa...." The quartet plummets to the ocean floor.

Again, the three standing Tamarians let out warcries and take aim with their starbolts.

FLASSSSH!!! FLASH!!! FL-FLASH!!!

Whatever's solidly left of the falling Gordanians easily dissolve in the rushing waters below.

Katma pants and retracts the green energy back into her power ring. She gulps and looks at me.

"You suppose they enjoyed that?"

I shrug.

'_Captain Tui! Your ship!'_

Katma grunts. "What about it??"

'_It is careening towards the ocean!!'_

Katma goes bug-eyed. She looks at me.

I nod.

She looks over the deck.

As smoke pours up from the hull, the crystal blue ocean rushes towards us from below.

"Great Galactic Shit!!" Katma twirls around and runs towards the side of the barge facing our sister ship. "Only one thing to do!!"

"H'valt!! Nuneraad'm deru thiel frye?!?!" a Tamaranian exclaims.

I nod. I can't agree more.

_Hasn't she done enough?!?!_

"The beach is just up ahead!!" Katma exclaims. "We're gonna make it or die trying!! To the Frontline!!"

I glance over the bow of the ship.

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, twelve minutes.**

**Location: In Flight – Edge of North Shore**

The brown line of the shore South of the Tamaranian Capital comes into view under the red and green sunset. Fiery explosions and smoke line the close horizon just beyond it.

_The Frontline......_

Katma meditates, takes a huge breath, and utters: "Brace yourselves!!"

I look at her. I see her at the side of the ship. I reach a hand out, gasping--

SWOOOSH!! She leaps over. She glows a bright green and shouts at the top of her lungs as she reaches the rushing air between our plummeting ship and Minnae's safe ship. Katma shoots her fist out and a thick stream of green energy shoots out of her knuckles before splitting into two 'tree branches' that wrap around both vessels with gnarled roots of emerald brightness. Through her powers...Minnae's ship supports our ship like a tether. However—to accomplish this—Katma has become a literal anchor. And it looks oh...so painful.

"Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn_nnnnnnnnNNNNNNN__**NNNNNNNGHH!!!!!**_" Katma strains visibly...audibly....mentally.

I pant. Worrying. Wringing my flesh and metal fingers.

The Tamaranians watching beside me sweat and murmur in concern.

Katma's body flexes and she barely manages to hold our ship up above the waves as we barrel closer and closer towards the dry shore.

"**NNNNNNNNNNGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"**

Dancing waves lap at the bottom of our hull. We barely skim over the surface. Ocean spray already starts to kiss at our limbs. The thrusters of our ship sputter and smoke and threaten to die.

Katma's body is nearly at the breaking point. Every artery in her muscles is bulging. Her hair tossed above a glowing face of green sweat.

And as if that isn't enough, the two stable Gordanian ships are presently coming back down at us. They adjust their thrusters in mid dive and aim their gun turrets and phaser banks at the tortured Green Lantern.

I bite my lip. I panic.

_This is nuts! We need backup! We need help! We need---_

'_SNkkkktt!!'_ a radio of sorts crackles forth from the piloting area of the ship I'm on. _"Hahaha!! Look what the Main Man found!!"_

The two wounded Tamaranians look at the 'radio' wearily.

My three companions blink and glance at me, confused.

I scratch my head.

"_Oh Hell yeah!! This was worth the whole god damn trip!!!"_

From a distance: SMASH!!!!!

I gasp and spin around.

_I forgot all about the one smashed ship Lobo's on!!_

A hole explodes in the back of the Gordanian vessel in question. As the ship starts to careen into the ocean—smoke pouring out of its smashed cockpit and windshield—a red dot approaches us. As the dot gets closer, it turns out to be a sleek and speedy hoverbike. Much like the crossbreed of a Jetsons' cartoon police bike and a Harley Davidson. And who else is riding it?

"YEEEEHAA!!! Look alive, sweet cakes!! I feel born again! HA! Just listen to me! I'm delirious with diesel!!"

Katma squeals from her floating prism of strain. "Don't...you....dare....!!"

I watch.

I glance right.

The incoming gunships fire at her.

**BLAM!! BLAM!!!**

I glance left.

**VROOOOOOM!!!!**

Lobo skims the hoverbike over the water, ramps up off a sloshing wave, and snatches her up with a burly arm in mid-air.

SWOOOOSH!!!

The ion blasts from the Gordanian vessels sail through where Katma Tui previously was.

I and the Tamaranians gasp with relief.

FWOOOOOOSH!!!

Lobo settles the hoverbike back down over the tide and whips out what looks like a confiscated, Gordanian grenade tied to the end of his chain. "And look at this!! Someone threw in an air freshner!!" He spins his chain and slingshots the suddenly-flashing device up towards the first of the two gunships.

The Gordanian vessels try flying out of the way...but it's too late.

CLANK!!!

_**BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The first one's front half explodes from the detonator.

Lobo cackles as he squints through the brightness of the blast. "Whoah-ho-ho-ho-ho-holy shit!! Merry Christmas, children!! HA HA HA!!!"

The huge, hulking debris from the vessel collapses dangerously close to our careening ship.

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!!

The Tamaranians and I duck out of the way as boiling water splashes against our hull.

On the hoverbike, Lobo winks at the dazed Katma. "See? I'm reliable for an absolute creep after all!!"

"You imbecile...," she coughs and wheezes. She points a weak hand at our ship. "Now it's got nothing to keep it from sinking into the water and drowning half of the escapees." She coughs again.

"Say what??" Lobo glances up. He looks our way. He sees our loss of altitude and sweatdrops. "Ooops. Er...that's gotta suck."

I bite my lip.

The Tamaranians murmur.

I rush towards the front of the ship.

Panting, I peer at the distant shore.

Only....it's not so distant now.

"Bem'braat devora'm!!" a soldier exclaims behind me.

I shrug it off and vault over the bow of the ship with a gasp.

The Tamaranians go bug-eyed.

I slide awkwardly down the nose of the slowly plummeting hovercraft and murk my legs at the last second, clinging me to the hull. The ship starts to make contact with the water, skimming the liquid surface sharply. Rock-hard splashes of water eat up at the space between my parted legs.

I pant and meditate. CHIIIIIING!!! I whip out Myrkblade. I eye the length of water between the falling ship and the shore.

"Hablaa korka'm threebo!! Vrana! Vrana!!" The Tamaranians plead for me to return to the ship.

I ignore them. I grip Myrkblade hard in both hands. I start to pump smoke energy up my limbs and through my weapon.

'_Mr. Noir!! Mr. Noir, what are you doing?!?!'_

_Saving the ship. The Angel Spears must get the data carriers to the Capital!_

'_But how!! How can you possibly—'_

_Shhhh. There's a famous book on Terra Firma called 'Exodus'......_

'_What in the Centauri Nebula does that mean?!?!'_

_Watch and learn._

I close my black eyes. I concentrate. I merge Construction and Destruction in my head. I find the balance between the two. I exploit it. Like a gun throttling hot lead up my spine and into my arms.

FLASH!!!!

My body dances with smoke. My blood pumps obsidian again and again and again and again--

My eyes open. Smoke dances out. I raise my flickering blade.

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!!

The nose of the ship starts to plow into the water.

"!!!!!!!!!!" I exhale a silent scream and slash down my smoke-charged weapon with all my might.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!

A huge stream of onyx energy warbles ahead.

The waters part.

Two huge walls of liquid spout up on either side of us.

A last-second depth of dry air is formed just in time for.......

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**T-Minus: Two Hours, eight minutes.**

**Location: In Flight – Northern Beach**

....us to grind into the sand of dry land.

_**SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!!!**_

Muddy sand flies up in pellets.

I flatten myself back against the sloping hull of the ship.

Panting.

We reach the dry sand. Huge plumes of white mist-like sediment splashes up and outward.

The ship grinds into the dry ground. Friction takes over. With a mournful groan, the burnt and smoking hover barge comes to a peaceful 'crash landing'. And just then, the engine dies off.

I let out a huge breath and lie against the hull, regaining my breath.

**VROOOOOOM!!!**

Lobo skids his hoverbike to a floating stop on dry land. "Yeah!! Yeah!! For a Squirrel, you sure know how to make one Hell of a reverse roadkill!! Ha ha!!" He revs the engine in applause.

I smile weakly.

The second barge hovers to a stop and starts to gently lower. I see Minnae and a couple of Tamaranian soldiers on the side of the deck, peering down.

The princess waves happily.

'_Hooray!! Nicely done, Mr. Noir!! Very nicely done—"_

**BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!**

Everyone gasps.

An ion charge flies in from over the water and slams into Minnae's ship, disabling it.

I sit up straight, mouth wide.

_NO!!_

Thankfully, the length left between her ship and the ground is about fifteen feet. The drop is a painful one...but undoubtedly everyone inside survives it.

CRUNCH!!!!!

Cries of fear from the citizens inside the ship ring out as the smoking vessel rocks to a dented position in the sand.

Lobo grits his teeth. He and Katma look up.

So do I and my fellow Tamaranians.

The one last Gordanian gunship hovers loomingly over us. Its gun turrets are smoking.

"Oh yeah...," Lobo chuckles. "Forgot about that one."

_'Oh dear!! We are doomed!'_

I bite my lip. I clench hard to Myrkblade's hilt.

The Gordanian ship aims its weapons at the ship full of citizens. The barrels of the weapons glow.

"No!!!" Katma hops to her weak feet and shouts.

**BLAM!! BLAM!!!!!**

Everyone freezes....but the blasts do not come from the Gordanian ship. Rather, they emanate from behind us...and slam into the enemy vessel, which bursts madly into flames.

**PHWOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Lobo and Katma shield their eyes. They turn around.

I spin about too.

I suddenly hear the Tamaranians on both my crashed ship and the other crashed barge cheering proudly.

On the horizon just above the beach, the mounted guns of a Tamaranian artillery division rear their heads. Dozens of amber-skinned, redheaded soldiers hover about the machines and a dozen more. And just over their horizon is an entire field full of Tamaranian guns, Tamaranian hovercraft, Tamaranian infantry, and Tamaranian war drums. Huge volleys of amplified starbolts sail in a constant, deafening bombardment against a string of Gordanian shield batteries surrounding the huge spires of some enormous City in the distance. Full of spires and ruby-red towers. Like porcelain.

Katma must be gaining her strength back...for she smiles and says: "The Frontline."

I exhale. I sheathe Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!

_About damn time......._


	115. Angel Spear Four part 6

**115. Angel Spear Four part 6**

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**T-Minus: One Hour, fifty-four minutes..**

**Location: Frontline – Artillery Line**

At least seven of the original data carriers are still alive...Starfire included. While the other escapees (especially the citizens) are rushed by Tamaranian artillerymen into bunkers of safety at the time being, the rest of us are marching our way in a straight line down the line of tanks and gunships positioned on the high ground. Every gun turret and every ion cannon and every starbolt amplifier is aimed directly at a huge, blue sprawl of Gordanian shield batteries erected in a ring around the Capital City of Tamaran. Though the Gordanian army has situated itself nicely in a line of defenses behind the force fields, the fact that there are rebels and freedom fighters en masse in the Capital is evident. A second battle beyond the front is taking place. And it's eating the City from the inside out.

Nearby, Tamaranians shout out commands and tanks sporadically fire huge ion blasts loudly towards the segmented sections of the battlefront.

**BLAM!!!!!**

BLAM!!!!!

BLAM!!!!!

"There are five layers that we have to pierce through," Katma breathily announces as we march along the line of tanks. Every red-haired native is too busy arming the weaponry and assaulting the shield batteries to pay much attention to us. "First off, we have to get a mode of transport from this artillery section. Secondly, we have to make a flight through the infantry zone...where lots of Tamaranians and Gordanians are battling as we speak. Third...there's the no man's land. It's a section of cratered landscape empty of everything except shellfire as the Tamaranians are undoubtedly attempting to lower the frequency of the shield batteries by constant, artillery bombardment. Once through the energy shield—however we're gonna accomplish that—there's the Gordanian line of defense. They've been spared battle damage for quite a while with their shield up...so crossing that barrier is going to be the hardest yet. Then finally there's the core...the Capital itself. Even though the Gordanian forces have focused on a ring of defense surrounding the City, the interior is filled to the brim with fights and brawls between the invaders and Tamaranian resistance. It may not be as thick a barrier to slice through as the Gordanian defense line, but it'll be chaotic enough to warrant caution."

I walk alongside her, nodding.

VROOOooooOOOOOoooom...

We both glance over.

Lobo cruises gently beside us on his Gordanian hoverbike. He hasn't gotten off since stealing it. "So when do we start smashing heads?"

Katma frowns. She turns around. "Your Highness."

"Y-Yes, Captain Tui?" Minnae replies.

"Is everyone assembled?"

"Everyone with the crucial data written in their blood."

"And do they know of the danger ahead of us?"

"Completely able and willing to face what's in store..."

"Hmmm...," Katma smirks slightly. "Sometimes it's easy to forget the true heroes of this day."

I blink.

The Green Lantern eyes an assault craft up ahead. It hovers low to the ground on six thrusters, contains an open back for troop and supply units, and houses two side laser cannons.

"Now if only we can persuade them to lend us a means of transport..."

"I have a better idea...," Lobo utters.

"Hmm?"

Lobo throttles ahead on his bike and comes to a stop besides the open cockpit to the vehicle. There are two Tamaranians doing last-minute checks on the hardware.

Lobo calls up to them: "Hey! Yahoos!!"

They both look down.

"H'mor li jaat?"

SWOOOOSH!! Lobo whips his chain out and slings it up wards. He bats one Tamaranian off the vehicle with the metal object—WHAP!!—and then lassos it around the second before swiftly yanking him off and onto his butt. WHUMP!!

"OOF!!"

"LOBO!!!!" Katma growls.

"Get in, sweet cakes!" Lobo cackles.

Katma shakes her fists...but Tamaranian escapees are already piling in. Followed by myself—grinning—and Minnae and Koriand'r. Katma herself reluctantly floats over and onto the cockpit.

Lobo throttles to the head of the vehicle to lead the way.

"Venduttaa threatta!!" one of the two upended pilots shouts. "Vortucal! Vortucal!! Hamniel ru fener s'rm nala!!"

Nearly three dozen Tamaranians rush over from nearby artillery units and aim glowing fists at us.

They shout orders in Tamaranian tongue most likely an equivalent of "FREEZE!"

I gulp.

"Bor'nan derakka thrye!!" one of the escapees shouts to his sisters and brethren. "Harra'k nymial b'tal!!"

A Tamaranian officer raises another starbolting wrist and frowns. "S'rmnalt kavortakun threenu! X'Hal vasaak siel benta nu rar'me!"

The escapee points at Katma. "Deveren'm cacla nul Gr'n Laant!"

The officer's green eyes narrow. He looks at Katma. "Baveratu nu??"

Katma glares. She holds up her ring finger. FLASH!!! The three-dimensional growing facsimile of a Green Lantern's power source appears."

Starbolt charging soldiers gasp and murmur. "De X'Hal....Gr'n Laant viye...."

The officer clears his throat. "Nulz seclakran Gr'n Laant ni Tam'ran a dredsuut??"

The escapee nods. "Uln..."

Silence.

The officer takes a deep breath. He motions with two fingers at the other hovering soldiers.

The Tamaranians move to give our transport easy access to the Frontline.

"N'manya thrutful ziett...," the officer says. "Jurka thretsan thriel Gord'n..."

The escapee smiles. "De X'Hal...."

The officer manages a smirk of his own. "De X'Hal!"

The escapee proudly looks at Katma. He points forward. "Vral thrielz."

Katma smiles. "Way to go..."

I sigh with relief.

Koriand'r sits up straight in her seat. Minnae fidgets beside her.

Katma takes a deep breath and throttles forward. "And here we are....the last stretch..."

FSHVVVVV!!!!

The transport cruises along on gliding thrusters.

Lobo follows behind on his hoverbike and waves at the soldiers. "Thanks a million, punks! Next time...introduce us to your subtitles!"

The officer raises his eyebrow.

And we're gone...the tanks and artillery shooting over our heads and blasting the distant path before us.

**BLAM!!!**

**  
****BLAM!!!!**

BLAM!!

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**T-Minus: One Hour, fifty-one minutes.**

**Location: Frontline – First Hill**

FSVHHHH!!!!

Katma handles the piloting instruments.

The Tamaranians grip to the sides of the open vehicle, looking all about at the battlefront. The wind across the fields blows at their red hair.

Koriand'r sits next to Minnae who sits next to me. I rest a hand back to Myrkblade's hilt behind me, keeping the weapon sheathed but still.........apprehensive.

But something is missing.

"I'm going to go have a look-see!" Lobo exclaims. VROOOOOOOM!!! He throttles ahead and his image ducks down beyond the crest of the hillside dip before us.

"V'goten freder ronnikun li'm!" a Tamaranian escapee exclaims.

"I don't get it!" Minnae nods. "Where's the battle? Where're the Gordanians? Isn't this the Frontline?"

"Hang on...," Katma remarks.

She accelerates the transport. We reach the edge of the hill and dip down. The horizon flies up and we see the extent of the valley as we rush down towards it. The fields are filled to the brim with clashing Tamaranian tanks and Gordanian hoverbikes. Starbolts and blue lasers stream back and forth over the heads of natives and invaders in close combat, forming a humongous melee of nearly five hundred thousand combating souls. The entire ground looks like a living, squirming entity from all the bodies rushing back and forth in bloody furor. Soon we're enveloped by the Sound...and the Sound is an ambient howl made up of thousands upon thousands of warcries, yells, hisses, bludgeonings, shrieks of pain, and dying breaths. The air smells like rust, and the ground beneath us becomes increasingly soggy with green and purple mayhem. It's like a whole new world comprised of the leathery body of War beneath a red and green sunset and before a ruby-red City drenched in miniature explosions and firefights.

My jaw drops.

The Tamaranians murmur prayers and exclamations to X'Hal.

As we rush down the hill, Lobo decelerates enough to hover just beside our transport and utter: "I think we're late for Happy Hour."

Katma takes a breath. She looks at her Angel Spear Bracelet.

**T-Minus: One Hour, fifty minutes.**

She looks up. Her green eyes narrow.

"No...we're right on time."

FSVHHHH!!! She accelerates our downhill plunge.

Lobo smirks. He throttles his hoverbike and joins us. VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Katma charges her ring with a free hand.

Tamaranians all around us charge starbolts.

I glance behind me.

Minnae looks back. She wraps her arms around Koriand'r from behind. Protecting her. The little Tamaranian girl doesn't protest....trembling.

Minnae looks at me. She blinks her amber cat eyes.

'_I've got her......'_

I smile at the Princess. I turn around.

CHIIIING!!!

I hold Myrkblade out at ready.

I take a deep breath....two.....three.....

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The wind kicks at us and the sounds of Hell rise in a tumult as we plunge down the last lengths of the hill and glide across the field straight into the melee sea.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, fifty minutes.**

**Location: Frontline – Battlefield**

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The first thing we approach is a battalion of Tamaranian infantrymen hovering together and charging a starbolt attack on a nearby cluster of Gordanian melee grunts.

Katma grits her teeth and steers hard to the right.

FSSVHHH!!!!

The transport streaks around the natives at the last second, barely avoiding them.

A crumpled, smoking Tamaranian tank sits in our way now.

Katma steers back to the left.

SWOOOSH!!!

We barely miss it. Those in the back of the hover truck (myself included) have to duck as the burnt-out gun turret looms overhead.

Finally, as we enter the thickness of the chaotic battle, a line of Gordanian laser gunners stand in our way.

This time...Katma doesn't steer away.

"Up ahead!!"

The escapees shout out loud and launch a line of starbolts.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!! FLASH!

The Gordanians hiss in confusion, look up, and promptly have their faces splattered by red-hot streams of green energy.

FLASH!!!!!

Over a dozen of the reptiles fall down. The rest are victim to Katma's throttling of the transport.

SWOOOSH-THWUMP!!!!

Bodies fly. Katma grinds the thrusters over the dead Gordanians.

A path is open ahead of us, but Gordanians start backing into our way, firing laser spears at surrounding Tamaranians.

VROOOOOOOM!!!

Lobo suddenly swings in from our side and drives his hoverbike in front of us. He twirls a pistol in one hand and steers with another. BLAM!!! He shoots off the head of one Gordanian. BLAM!! BLAM!! He shoots holes in two others. VROOOOM-WHAM!! He pivots the hoverbike and kicks another reptile out of the line of the transport. THWACK!!

"HRESSHA!!" the Gordanian hisses as he tumbles off to the side from Lobo's impact.

As we hover past him, two escapees load starbolts and pelt the grounded reptile to death. FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

And we keep moving surrounded in a sea of ear-pounding combat.

I take a deep breath. My black eyes dart around. My fingers grip tight to Myrkblade.

I see snapshot images of Tamaranians melting Gordanian chests. Gordanians gutting Tamaranian stomachs. Enemies falling dead in each other's arm. Green and purple mixing in a mad glob of rainbow death.

I try counting the bodies I see lying beneath us. But for the life of me, I can't tell who's winning or who's losing. Or if—at this point—one can determine a winner by death count. I hope to myself quite desperately that the Tamaranian generals know what they are doing. But then I remember that this is a war that the planet of Tamaran wins.

Or do they?

I look at Koriand'r...trembling in Minnae's arms.

I take a deep breath.

_We are the silver bullet........._

"Threatta!!"

I look up.

An airborne squad of Gordanians appear to have found us and singled us out. They soar in, spanning five in number, and aim their laser spears.

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAP!!

Blue streams fly down at us.

The Tamaranians flinch.

Katma grits her teeth and holds up her power ring with one hand while driving with the other. FLASH!!!!! She produces a green shield. The lasers all splash into it.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!

The Gordanian squad leader hisses loudly. The fliers span out and extend their formation outside of the blocking field of the green energy. ZAAAAP!!! ZAP!!

Katma growls and concentrates, trying to widen the energy field.

But a few lasers eat through and invade the back platform of the hover truck.

Tamaranians gasp.

I hold my breath and twirl Myrkblade just right.

SWISH-CLANG!! SWOOSH-CLANG!!

I deflect the shots.

Katma glances at me.

I glance at her.

With a flick of her wrist, the Green Lantern shrinks her energy shield into a sphere...then splits it out into two tentacles that wrap around the legs of two Gordanians. She captures their momentum and flings them mercilessly in my direction.

I hold up Myrkblade....ready...

SLASH!!!!! SLASH!!!!!!

What was once two flailing Gordanian bodies turn into four pieces of meat on the other side of me with a splash of purple. Their remains flop soggily into the soiled battle field.

"HRESSHAAA!!" the last three shriek and come around angrily for another turn.

The Tamaranians stand up and face the rear with starbolts charged.

"Frakka sliy'm de X'Hal!!"

"De X'Hal!!!"

The Gordanians come in, aiming.

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!!

I deflect the two shots.

The Tamaranians let their starbolts fly.

FLASH!!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!

One Gordanian bites the dust, his body smoking. The other two fly low, avoid the shots, and take aim again.

VROOOOOOOOM!!!

Lobo appears—decelerating on his hoverbike and swerving over. He rams his shoulder into one low-flowing Gordanian. WHAM!!!

The reptile tumbles into the middle of a winning battle of eight Tamaranian soldiers who quickly pulverize him.

Lobo whips out his chain, spins it, and wraps it around the head of the second low-flier. The Gordanian hisses in horror as Lobo twirls his tethered body and flings him hard into the rock-hard hull of a passing tank to the left. WHACK!!! The Gordanian's body explodes in purple and quivers as Lobo yanks his chain off of him, salutes us with an undead smirk, and throttles ahead to take lead again.

Katma takes a breath and focuses on her driving.

A full line of Gordanians appear up ahead. They're firing at a cluster of Tamaranian soldiers to the far left. The defenders don't stand a chance, off guard.

"Sweep the sidewalk...," Katma grumbles. She flips open a panel and slams her fist down on a huge red button.

FFFFFFFFH-**ZAP!!!!!**

The laser guns on the sides of the hover transport charge up and fire explosively. Two green streams of fire sail into the Gordanian crowd and explode.

**KABOOOM!!!!**

Reptilian bodies go flying everywhere like organic shrapnel. A smoking crater is left of the scene.

I hear Lobo's voice laughing from his hoverbike.

I let out a shuddering breath.

CL-CLAMP!!!

I glance to my left. My eyes bulge.

A Gordanian has landed on the side of the hover truck. He hisses and stabs his staff down at into a Tamaranian's skull.

I lunge over.

SWOOOOSH!!! With Myrkblade jamming forward by two hands, I position the blade so close above the Tamaranian's head that I actually rip a few strands of red follicles. Myrkblade is in just the right position to serrate the entire length of the plunging, Gordanian spear. The staff literally splits in two around the Tamaranian's head, and soon the reptile realizes that it has no weapon.

"HRESSH!!!"

SLASH!!!

And now it won't be able to realize that it has no head.

I grit my teeth and kick the headless carcass off.

Tamaranian escapees around me cheer.

"HRESSHA!!!"

'_Behind you, Mr. Noir!!'_

"!!!"

I spin around.

WHUMP!!

Two Gordanians are pushing down on me, drooling. They've jumped in from the other side of the truck as I was slaying their brethren.

I wince and struggle to get loose from reptilian pressure.

A laser spear aims at my skull.

I sweat.

FLASH!!!!

A nearby Tamaranian escapee flings a starbolt into one of the attacker's face.

"HRESSSSH!!" The Gordanian reels, clutching its cranium.

I grit my teeth and headbutt his melting forehead.

THWUMP!!!

The creature stumbles back.

The second Gordanian hisses and whips out a futuristic grenade.

"Hakka'm threatta!!"

Katma spins around in her seat and extends her right hand.

FLASH!!!! A green lasso wraps around the Gordanian's torso.

YANK!!!

She pulls him up high into the air with a whiplike motion, but not before he drops the live grenade.

The Tamaranians gasp.

I jump to my feet, twirl Myrkblade, and bat the grenade like at a home run derby.

CLANK!!!

The grenade sails into a Gordanian on a hoverbike.

BOOOOM!!!!

Purple body parts splatter the hull of the hoverbike, which smokes and grinds into the ground besides a pair of battling infantrymen.

SWOOOSH!!

Katma flings the Gordanian victim high up into the air...where he his miraculously struck dead on by one of the shellings from the line of Tamaranian artillery.

**BLAM!!! SPLORCH!!**

Other streams of focused ion pulses rocket towards the energy batteries that appear closer and closer.

**BLAM!! BLAM!!!! BLAM!!!**

"They're not punching through!!" Lobo shouts from beside us on his hoverbike.

"We're going through that shield one way or another!!" Katma shouts, and as she does so she's already punching the red button.

**ZAAAAAAAP!!!!**

A Gordanian troop carrier before us explodes in a huge plume of fire. Two low-flying Tamaranians cheer at us with waving hands as they join a company engaging hand-to-hand with a cluster of Gordanians on the right. Katma drives us through what's left of the exploded troop vessel.

I pant. I spin around...three hundred and sixty degrees.

I see nothing but writhing bodies, flying streams of energy, and explosions.

We are officially in the center of the Frontline battle. Tamaranian and Gordanian bodies surround us. Tanks are burnt out and hoverbikes lie, abandoned. The bodies are piled higher. The ground is wetter.

I pant.

Cries behind us.

I turn around.

Five Gordanians team up on a lone Tamaranian soldier. The redheaded defender flings his last starbolt before he is impaled to death and imploded by laser spears. Green flies up from his riddled body.

An escapee in the back of the vehicle lets out a cry and madly tries to scramble out of the truck and wreak vengeance. Two others hold him down with strong arms around his shoulders. He wrestles and screams in frustration.

Minnae bites her lip. She then looks up. "Uh oh...."

"????" I look at her.

_In the middle of a war this bloody, it has to be pretty serious for someone to say 'uh oh'......_

I glance directly upwards.

My black eyes widen under my visor.

Three Gordanian dropships have managed to pierce through the anti-air of the artillery line and are flying in. They swoop down and drop bombshells in a stream. Explosions follow along on the ground, sending Gordanian and Tamaranian bodies alike flying apart.

Boom! BOOM! **BOOM!!**

"Hakla thriel!!" an escapee shouts.

Every Tamaranian in the back of the car launches starbolts—even at long range—at the incoming fliers.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!! FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

But the starbolts merely bounce off the distant hulls of the craft. They keep flying closer and closer. And the exploding shells fall and impact nearer and nearer.

**BOOOM!!! BOOOM!! BOOM!**

"Hakla fraksu de X'Hal!!"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!

"No, morons!!" Lobo shouts as he parks the hoverbike momentarily and aims two uzzis at the incoming craft. "Aim for the payloads!! Aim for the payloads!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Bullets ricochet off the shells in mid-air. They start to gradually explode before hitting the ground, saving the necks of scores of Tamaranians fighting close to us.

BOOM!!! KABOOM!!

The Tamaranians in the back—as well as nearby soldiers in general—get the idea and follow Lobo's lead.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Starbolts and laser blasts stream in, exploding eighty-percent of the explosives in midair.....ninety percent...

Lobo suddenly squints his eye, aims carefully at the first craft, and fires.

BANG!!!!

A single bullet hits a payload before it even drops from the low-flying dropship.

**BOOOOOM!!!!**

The Gordanian ship shudders in mid-air as a shockwave runs through it, then a chain reaction of multiple shells within the payload exploding.

**B-B-B-B-B-BOOOOOM!!!**

The entire right half of the ship explodes in a huge fireball. The remaining in-tact thrusters spiral the ship off balance and it spirals into the second dropship.

**SHATTER!!!!**

The second vessel 'implodes' from the impact and both flaming hulks of metal spin into the ground in the center of a contingent of Gordanians who had ironically survived by the previous shelling eliminating most of the Tamaranians in the distant area.

**KABOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Reptilian bodies fly over a hundred feet into the air and litter the battlefield.

A loud tumult of cheers fill the air. Tamaranian tongue.

"HA!!" Lobo shouts and blows the smoke out from the barrels of his uzzis. "Back at ya, assholes!!"

"Don't celebrate yet!!" Katma shouts.

SWOOOOOSH!!

The third and final dropship sails through the smoke. Its gun turrets glow red like a pair of angry eyes and let loose phaser pulses.

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!**

The blasts sail into the ground in a stream and form craters all around us, barely missing the transport.

The Tamaranians and I wince.

"Think you made them mad?" Katma grumbles.

"Hell yeah!" Lobo throttles his hoverbike into gear and drives off to face the slowly-turning dropship. "Hey!! Come back here, coward!! You want a piece of the Main Man?!"

"Lobo! Stick close! Stick cl----dammit!!"

I momentarily consider hopping out and nabbing the undead mercenary when I suddenly hear a stampede like sound from our right. In fact, we all hear it.

Everyone—Katma included—glances over at the side of the battlefield.

Tamaranian bodies out of the fighting crowd suddenly go flying every which way into the air. SWOOOSH!! SWOOOSH!!!

An escapee amongst us gasps. "X'Hal...."

Minnae narrows her eyes. A beat. She gets a mental reading and gasps. "Not another one!!"

I look at her. I look back at the scene.

"Another one what?!?!" Katma remarks while driving.

Stomp! Stomp! _Stomp! Stomp! STOMP!! STOMP!! __**STOMP!!!**_

Tamaranians are knocked left and right and reptiles triumphantly cheer as a Gordanian Rook bounds out of the crowd—wounded and burnt in many places—and charges in our direction. With beady red eyes of bloodlust, it shrieks a warcry and attacks anything amber-skinned and redhaired in sight.

As it turns out, our hover truck is full of that.

I gulp.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!!" Katma shouts. She desperately flings a huge block of green energy at the giant, reptilian beast.

FLASH!!!!

The Rook easily bounds through it.

SMASH!!!

"HRESSSSHSAAAAA!!!!"

Stomp! STOMP!! _**STOMP!!!**_

Koriand'r clutches to Minnae.

I uselessly stab Myrkblade into the incoming forehead.

CLANK!!

_**WHAM!!!!!!**_

The escapees shriek.

The hover truck overturns.

Katma flies out of the driver's seat.

I gasp at the momentum. It's too much for us to simply _turn sideways..._

So as our left side hits the ground, I grab every fallen escapee that I can by their limbs and drag them inward.

**CLUMP!!!!!**

The world turns dark as the hover truck turns over completely and all of us are trapped underneath the inverted bed at the same time.

A breath...then...

SWOOOSH!!!

The truck lifts off us and the vehicle settles violently on it's right side beyond our bodies.

Everyone pants, their bodies numb.

I immediately jump up. I look around.

The Gordanian rook stomps around mercilessly beyond the truck, judging by its footsteps and hissing. Katma is nowhere to be scene. I glance right---

ZAAAP!! ZAP!! ZAAAAAAP!!!

A solid wall of blue lasers soar at us as a line of over twenty Gordanians rush in—unbroken—with spears aimed.

I gasp and fling Myrkblade about in a blurring fan, blocking most streams.

But not all...

ZAAAP!! ZAAAP!!

THUNK!!! A Tamaranian is shot in the leg. Green splatters. He grabs it, wailing in pain.

THUNK!!!!! Another escapee is hit in the heart and dies instantly.

"Bavratta'm!!!!!!" a female escapee shrieks.

"S'dladda vrala vienze kun!!" Katma's voice shouts a command from...somewhere.

Minnae, Koriand'r, and the surviving escapees drag the leg-wounded Tamaranian with them as they rush to the side of the hovertruck shielded from the incoming Gordanians. Some of them provide starbolt cover fire while I block incoming strings. The one female—however—is kneeling by the dead escapee's side and desperately trying to revive his dead corpse.

I linger on the top of the overturned hover transport. I look at her, sweating. I whistle and point towards the safe side.

She ignores me. She clutches the dead body to her chest. She sobs...wails. "Bavratta'm!!! Finuhli thrul ni X'Hal!! Ni X'Hal!!!!!"

I whistle again.

The Gordanians rush in.

"HRESSSH!!!"

ZAAP!! ZAP!!

TH-THUNK!!!

The woman shrieks as she's burned alive by lasers. Her body slumps down—smoking—and joins the fallen comrade.

I grit my teeth and dive onto the safe side of the truck just in time to avoid a volley of blue energy.

ZAAP!! ZAP!!

I land on the other side...crouching with my back to the crumpled vehicle. The Tamaranians huddle with me. The wounded one continues wailing in pain, being tended two by a female escapee with what looks like an alien first aid kit.

I glance straight up...expecting a Gordanian to vault over at any time along with the rest of the pack. I grip Myrkblade with sweaty palms.

"De X'Hal!!!"

**"DE X'HAL!!!"**

Thirty fresh Tamaranian soldiers rush in on the flyby and streak over our truck...over our heads. I hear the exploding sounds of combat between them and the incoming Gordanians.

I exhale.

"Where's Captain Tui?!?!" Minnae shouts with Koriand'r in her hold.

I subconsciously hand sign: 'I don't know'. I look around.

I finally spot her. The Green Lantern is holding up a green shield of energy and blocking laser streams from a huge fight going on forty feet from us. Gordanians fall from starbolts while—at the same time—the Gordanian Rook barrels through Tamaranian infantrymen...hissing madly and tossing screaming bodies high into the air. "HRESSSSSHA!!!!"

"Dammit...why can't they go EXTINCT?!?!" Katma shouts while blocking the incoming fire. "We need another transport!! I wish Lobo would get his ass over here!!"

I summon up courage, jump up to my feet, and rush out into the fray.

_'Mr. Noir!!'_

I turn around and point at Minnae where she is.

_Watch Starfire!!_

'_Okay!!_'

I blur into a nearby cluster of advancing Gordanians.

They hiss and fire at me.

ZAAP!!!

ZAP!!

ZAAAAP!!

I grit my teeth and deflect each shot.

CLANG!! CLANG!!

I reach them with a spin and a high slash of Myrkblade.

SWISH!!! SWISH!!

A head falls off, another's throat is slit.

I kneel and jab down low at the last of the three.

CHUNK!!!!

I rip into his groin.

"HRESSSSHAAAA!!"

I yank up hard.

RIIIIIIIP!!!!

A purple stream flies up into his bowels.

I yank out with a clump of guts entangled around Myrkblade. I shake the entrails off and spin the blade back to slash the Gordanian's throat.

The creature falls down dead.

I pant and look Tamarnians in the middle of battle pant and look at me. A beat. They look at the dead bodies. A beat. They cheer.

"Vranna Dredsite!!"

"Brakka de X'Hal!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

I simper.

WHAM!!!

A Gordanian spear clips my head from behind.

"Gord'n trorfarker!!!"

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Starbolts fly over my downed figure and pelt the reptile to death.

I grit my teeth and vault to my feet. Just in time.

A Gordanian flies down with a jetpack.

I sidestep, twirl, and slash downward.

SL-SLINK!!!!

The reptile's legs come off in a purple spray.

Laughably, the shredded torso of the creature sails off on the jetpack before bloodily careening into the earth. Its body is soon shredded apart by the low-to-ground thrusters of an incoming Tamaranian tank. Its turret aims dangerously close to my body and glows.

I gasp. I dive out of the way.

**BLAM!!!!!**

The ion pulse soars past me...and into the body of the Gordanian Rook.

WHAM!!!!

"HRESSSSSHA!!!!" the creature's rock-hard hide smokes. It snarls and bats two Tamaranians away before charging the tank like a bull.

The turret glows again.

The Rook rushes in, waving its scaley arms and shrieking.

**BLAM!!!**

The turret fires.

The Rook angrily deflects the blast and comes in with a fist.

WHANG!!!!!!

The surface of the tank is dented immediately.

"HRESSSHA!!!!"

The Rook grabs the lower portion by the thrusters and upends the tank.

THWUMP!!!

"HRESSSSSSHA!!!!!"

WHANG!! WHANG!! WHANG!! The Rook mercilessly pummels the metal hull of the war vehicle.

I take a breath and rush towards the creature with Myrkblade.

The thing growls at the last second and backhands me massively.

SMACK!!!

I fly twenty feet in the air and tumble across the battlefield, rolling off two dead bodies.

I groan.

"Heads up!!!" Katma shouts.

I look up.

I gasp.

The gunship is swooping down at us again.

Firing.

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!**

The hot streams of phaser fire zero in on the overturned truck.

Minnae shrieks and runs off with Koriand'r in tow.

The other escapees shout out and fly every which way.

**BLAM!!!!!!!!!**

What's left of the hover truck explodes in flames and shrapnel.

I shield my face from the brightness of the blast. I stand up, teeth clenched.

_Shit!!!_

I hear cries. Minnae's cries. Koriand'r's cries.

I look around, panting.

All I see are foreign aliens fighting, hand to hand. Explosions. Blood. A huge scaley beast pounding into a tank.

But no signs of anyone...anyONE.

_SHIT!!!_

I hear Koriand'r's cries again.

I twirl Myrkblade and run in the direction of the sound--

WHAM!!!

A Gordanian body sails into me via jetpack.

I roll along the ground, grunting. I jump up—snarl—and slash blindly at the body.

SLIIINK!!!

A now-armless Gordanian hisses in pain.

WHAM!!

I kick him in the face and move on.

I rush down a narrow avenue formed between two fighting groups of infantrymen.

More cries.

I look to my left.

There's a smoking piece of one of the downed Gunship's wings. A petite Tamaranian girl is huddling underneath it, trembling.

There's sixty feet between us.

I hold my breath.

I rush towards her.

SWOOOSH!! "HRESSSHA!!!" Two flying Gordanians rush towards me.

I leap, blur, and half-teleport through them with a spinning slash.

Purple liquid flies into the air. Maybe I'm only grazing them. Maybe I lopped off a limb.

_I don't care._

Forty feet.

My black eyes are on Koriand'r.

A Tamaranian Tank careens through. RUMMMMBLE!!!

I hold my breath and dive forward, ending in a roll that barely streaks past the hulking vehicle.

I jump to my feet and continue springint.

Twenty feet.

A Tamaranian body falls dead in front of me.

I leap over the carcass.

The Gordanian that has killed him flies up from behind me via jetpack and snatches my shoulders.

I grunt, put pressure on his weight, flip my lower body up, saddle his neck, and stab straight down through his helmet and skull with Myrkblade. I yank forward, ripping the head off like it was a cork to a bottle. CRACK!!!!

The body falls to the ground.

I flip off, land on my feet, and rush towards Koriand'r.

Ten feet.

She looks up at me.

Her green eyes widen and she smiles.

I smile...

STOMP!!! _STOMP!! __**STOMP!!!!**___

The same damn Rook rushes over and shakes its head...disoriented by too many starbolts to the skull. It stands dangerously close to a frightened, shrieking Koriand'r. At the sound of the girl's cries, the massive creature looks down. It grabs the metal wing and effortlessly flips it off.

Koriand'r scrunches back on all fours, panting.

"HRESSHA!!!" the Rook reaches for her.

SWOOOSH!!! SLASH!!!! I dive in, standing between it and Starfire and swinging Myrkblade up into its wrist.

CLANK!!!

The Rook grabs its arm and shrieks in surprise. It glares down at me, drooling.

I stand before Koriand'r. I grit my teeth angrily as smoke pours down from underneath my visor.

_Not today, shitbrains......_

"HRESSSHAA!!!"

The creature marches towards me.

**STOMP!! STOMP!!**

It flings its fist down.

**SWOOOOSH!!**

I charge murk explosively and let out a silent scream as I meet his punch with the broadside of my blade.

FLASH!!!!!

Smoke pours down all around me. I anchor to the ground and resist the force of the huge scaley fist. A temporary shield of obsidian.

Little Koriand'r winces.

"HRESSSHA!!!!" The Rook shouts in frustration and pushes against me.

I grit my teeth...straining to maintain the warbling murk shield. My feet grind trenches in the earth as I'm shoved back

The huge lizard hisses and raises both fists.

I lower my blade, take a breath, and roll to the side.

**SM-SMACK!!!**

The rook's hands slam into the earth.

I jump up. I run at his side.

The creature hisses and swings its arm at me.

I dive beneath the swing, roll, and end in a crouch beside its leg...which I stab with a pulse of murk.

SWOOOSH!!!

THUNK!!!

So much smoke energy courses through my sword that I actually produce blood this time.

"HRESHAAAAAAA!" the hulking beasts lifts its bleeding leg to squash me.

I pulse murk through my legs and vault upwards.

**SLAM!!!!**

I fly up past its foot, flip in the air, and land on his back.

"!!!!"

I straddle the Rook's neck with my legs and raise Myrkblade. My teeth grit. I stab down.

CLANK!!!!

Sparks literally fly from my wooden blade against his leathery scalp.

"HRESHHHAAAARESH!!!!!!" the rook stomps about madly and tries to reach up and fling me off.

I struggle to stay on and stab repeatedly into the creature's skin.

CLANK!!! CLANK!!! CLANK!!!

Finally, the rook bends down low and grabs me by the pelvis.

I gasp.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

He flings me off.

THWUMP!!!

I land in a tumble besides Koriand'r....wincing.

**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**

It comes at us.

I gasp. I grab Koriand'r by her wrist and roll away with her.

**THOMP!!!!**

The Rook's foot slams through where we once were.

I pulse murk through my arms and literally toss the girl high into the air.

She gasps and floats safely, a few feet off. She wrings her finger and watches....

"HRESSHA!!!!!"

The Rook snaps its jaws down at me.

SWOOOSH!!

I teleport on a carpet of murk and solidify behind him. I slash repeatedly at his backside.

CLANK!! CL-CLANK!!

The Rook swings around with a fist.

I duck it, roll to the side, and raise my blade just in time to meet his next swing with a shield of murk.

**SLAM!!!!**

But the impact is too great this time. I tumble backwards. Myrkblade tumbles out of my grasp against the earth.

CLACK!!!

I struggle to get up--

**CLAMP!!!!**

My breath leaves me.

The rook's left foot is pinning me to the ground.

It leans over and drools, its beady eyes glaring. A snakelike tongue slithers along its razor-sharp jaws and then its mouth lunges at me.

I wince...

FLASH!!!!

A starbolt sails into the monster's face, blinding it.

"HRESSHHHA!!!"

The rook steps off of me and clutches its smoking optics.

I sit up, panting.

I look to my side...up a bit.

Koriand'r hovers above me. A hand outstretched. Glowing.

She pants and looks at me.

I blink under my visor....I smile slightly.

**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**

The rook bounds around, clutching its head.

I rush over, pick up Myrkblade, and stand up beside Koriand'r.

A humming sound...

I look to my right.

The dropship flies by again, but this time it's lower to the ground and seems to be snagged by something. There's a thick metal chain wrapped around its left thrusters. And holding onto the other side of the chain is a struggling Lobo riding his hoverbike...which is presently being dragged at an awkward angle across the bloody, explosive battlefield.

"Frag it....Frag it....Frag it....FRAG IT!!!" the undead merc growls. "Be a good kite and fly into a damned tree already!!"

I whistle.

Lobo looks my way.

I point at the Rook.

"Just what I'm looking for!! A paperweight!!" Lobo swerves hard on the hoverbike with one hand while hanging onto the chain with the other. He produces some slack by driving over to the Rook, hopping off the bike, saddling the creature, and tying his end of the chain around his neck. "Trust me! It looks good on you." He hops off, picks his bike back up, and drives back into battle.

"HRESSH???" the Rook fondles the dangling slack of chain around its neck.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

The dropship flies overhead.

The chain goes taut.

Then.

**YANK!!!**

"HRESSSSHAAAA—URKKKK!!!"

The Rook clutches its neck desperately as its dragged across the battlefield, squashing through three victim Gordanians, and smacking another Gordanian off of a hoverbike—which goes flying off and tumbling onto the ground.

The dropship lurches heavily to the side with the anchored weight of the Rook.

The creature grinds its scaley heels into the earth and pulls at the chain, growling.

The dropship yanks still and tries desperately to fly away.

The Rook struggles and struggles to get itself free.

A Tamaranian streaks by and flings a dead Gordanian's carcass into its chest, plowing the creature over.

WHAM!!!

"HRESSH—URK!!!" the creature struggles for breath again, now that it lies on its back.

And just then, Lobo rides over on his hoverbike. He parks, hops off, and whips out a grenade.

"Dr. Lobo at your service, sir...," he yanks the clip off with his teeth, rushes up the Rook's belly, and tosses the explosive down the monster's gasping throat. "Open wide for your fraggin' vitamin!!"

Lobo jumps off.

Just in time too.

**BOOOOM!!!!**

PLOW!!! The Rook's stomach literally explodes outward from inside its chest. Purple sprays the air like rain. The Rook would be howling in pain, if only its lungs hadn't dropped out and tumbled naked and glistening onto the ground.

YANK!!!!!

With a fraction of the Rook's carcass' body weight gone, the dropship with its blaring thrusters manage to lurch ahead forty feet or so before the rest of the 'anchor' grinds into the ground and finally sets the ship off balance. With the chain taut, the dropship curves and dives straight into the rock-hard battlefield.

**BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Gordanian bodies fly in a ring around a huge plume of erupting flame.

"Exercise twice a day and eat your guacamole!" Lobo smirks as he mounts his hoverbike again. He revs the engine. "Cuz that's all your stomach is now!! Guacamole!! HA!!"

VROOOOOM!!!

He swerves around and...comes straight at me.

My eyes twitch.

WHUMP!!! SWOOOSH!!

He forcibly grabs me and flings me—tumbling—towards the other unmanned hoverbike lying on its side a few feet away. Koriand'r flies over and hovers over me. We both look at Lobo as he throttles by.

"Get on and drive!!" he exclaims. "It's the only way you'll stay alive! Trust me!!"

He rockets down between rows of fighting, combating aliens.

I hold my breath. I rush over. I turn the vehicle upright. Rather awkwardly...I get on it...gripping the handles.

Koriand'r gets the idea, and she flies over and settles herself on the seat behind me.

I look down. I kick at a lever beneath me.

VROOOOM!!!!!

The thrusters of the bike go off.

Koriand'r and I lurch forward.

I gasp.

She shrieks and clutches to me hard with her arms around my waist.

I grit my teeth and expect for us to fall over, unbalanced. And then I realize that some thruster system in the vehicle itself is causing me to stay upright for an inexperienced biker. I actually smile...

"See?! Easy as pie!! Follow my lead!!" Lobo shouts.

I throttle forward.

**VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

Koriand'r and I streak past battling Tamaranians and Gordanians as we pursue the undead mercenary. Fallen tanks and flaming patches of ground rush down our left and right sides. Shellfire zooms over us and splash into the energy field ahead.

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!**

Lobo whips a pistol out in one hand and takes potshots at flying Gordanians along the path.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!!

Bulletholes splash purple from the throats and chests of the jetpacking fiends. Their bodies tumble from Lobo's punishment.

I swerve the hoverbike awkwardly, avoiding each tumbling carcass.

TH-THUMP!!

WHUMP!!!

Suddenly, a huge line of Gordanians loom ahead of us. Lobo swerves hard to the right and drives past their line as lasers fire.

ZAAAAP!!! ZAAP!! ZAAAAAAAP!!!

I'm not so good at swerving. I duck my head down low. Koriand'r does the same.

ZAAAAAP!!

Blue lasers streak over us.

I throttle forward.

**VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

"HRESSSHAAAA!!"

TH-TH-THWUMP!!!

We plow through the line, three bodies flying off like ragdolls.

Gordanians turn and fire at us.

ZAAAP!! ZAP!!

Koriand'r gasps as the lasers come near.

**VROOOOM!!**

Lobo swerves over directly behind us. He spins out a shotgun and fires once.

**BLAM!!!!!**

The shot sprays through the lasers and riddle the bodies of four Gordanians at once with its massive stream of lead.

Lobo spins his shotgun, pumps it with one hand, and spins it back in time to aim......at us.

"Down in front!!"

I gasp and swerve us out of the sway of the shotgun barrel...just in time to give Lobo open view of two incoming Gordanian biker that I didn't know were there.

**BLAM!!!!**

The first biker takes the load of the bullet spray. He bloodily flies off his bike and into the seat of the second driver, causing both of the Gordanians and their hoverbikes to collapse and tumble across the bloody ground.

**VROOOOOOOM!!!!**

Lobo and I swerve around the mess and proceed forward.

I pant.

I look around.

'_Mr. Noir??'_

I gasp.

'_Where are you?!?!?!'_

_I'm going for a drive._

'_What?!?!'_

_More importantly, where are you?! I have Lobo and Koriand'r safely with me.........for now._

'_I'm all alone!! But I see Captain Tui!! I can't be too far from her!'_

_And where do you see Katma?!?!_

'_Look for her green energy!!'_

I grit my teeth.

_We're in the middle of a battlefield, your highness!! How's that gonna help---_

FLASH!!!!!

Nine—count 'em—nine Gordanian bodies tumble high into the air from the sweep of a huge, green axe to our left.

My jaw drops.

A beat.

_Never mind............_

'_W-Would it be ever too much trouble that you come by and.........er......SAVE ME?!?!'_

_On it!! Don't sweat, Minnae!_

I motion for Lobo to follow and swerve left towards the green explosions.

"Heh...," Lobo smirks. "A detour I can do."

**VROOOOOOOM!!!!**

I accelerate through the thickness of the battle. With last-second swerves, Lobo and I steer madly around tumbling Tamaranians and Gordanians alike. We have no time to stop and help every single soldier. Koriand'r trembles into my back the whole way.

Four Gordanians block our path to where the battling Katma has to be.

Lobo fires over my shoulder with a pistol.

BANG!! BANG!!

Two drop.

The others hiss and rush me.

I grit my teeth.

Lobo is reloading. "I can't take them all down, Squirrel! You gotta help!!"

The Gordanians raise their spears.

I exhale.

CHIIIIING!!!!

I hold Myrkblade out with my right hand while steering with my metal one. I wooden blade cuts through the air, whistling.

"HRESSHAAAA!!!"

ZAAAP!! ZAAP!!

I swerve around both lasers. I twirl Myrkblade, let out a silent yell and swing the weapon in a merciless uppercut.

SLASSSSH!!!

I rip clean through the torso of the Gordanian on the right. Whatever's left of him sloshes over the second one. Both body masses go sprawling.

**VROOOOOOOOM!!!**

Lobo and I speed ahead.

We reach a circle of Gordanians, obviously circling a very fierce Green Lantern warrior.

"RAAAAAUGH!!!!" Katma shouts out loud and flings green maces, axes, and spears left and right.

FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!!

I swerve on the bike so that Koriand'r and I screech in...sideways.

WH-WHUMP!!!

We knock down two Gordanians with our bike alone.

SLASSSSH!!!

I slice off the head of one in the line ahead of me.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Koriand'r ducks as I swing backwards and slit the throat of another behind me.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Lobo has his uzzi out as he rides in.

Five more Gordanians drop, riddled purple with bulletfire.

"YAAAAUGH!!!" Katma—sweaty and with her dark hair stringy—takes advantage of her allies' surprise entrance by smashing the distracted Gordanians to bits with a huge, green hammer. She pants and looks at us from where she hovers. "Tell me you have at least ONE escapee with you!!"

Lobo smirks and points at Koriand'r. "Well...we can do 'one'!"

Koriand'r and I simper.

"You have the fastest transportation! You must take the one carrying the data to the Capital!!"

"Where're the others, Sweet Cakes??"

"Scattered and unaccounted for!!" Katma growls. She produces a huge whip of green energy out of her ring and slashes at attacking Gordanians on her flank while managing to speak. "It'll take too long to try and find them all!! At least one must get through!! And you have one!!"

"Yeah...lucky us."

"As Angel Spears, we must combine our efforts and get her through!!"

I look over my shoulder.

Little Koriand'r gulps.

I look ahead. I stab Myrkblade into the ground right beside my bike. With my hands free, I gesture 'cat whiskers' with my fingers.

"Minnae?!?!" Katma utters. She points over with one, sweaty arm. "Over there!! Besides the dead tank!! Take her! She's helpless on her own!"

"What about the badass cat?!?!"

"JUST TAKE HER!!" Katma shouts and decapitates at Gordanian with her 'whip'. "Break on through the barrier!!"

"And the shield batteries!"

"I'll find a way to get you four through!! I promise!! Just GO!!! RAAAUGH!!" she hovers into battle. Her green aura disappears amidst the chaos and entangling bodies of combatants.

I take a breath. I yank Myrkblade out of the earth and hold it tight.

"YEEK!!" PLOP!

I glance over and see Minnae forced onto the back of the seat of Lobo's bike, behind him.

"Sorry, but I ain't got a cushion...princess."

"Q-Quite allright," the immaculate girl trembles. "Anywhere has got to be safer than he—"

**VROOOOOOOOM!!!!**

"ACKIES!!" Minnae shrieks and clutches onto Lobo as he throttles ahead of me.

I hold my breath and Koriand'r holds tighter as I kick us into gear and follow closely behind.

**VROOOOOM!!!**

Again, we're streaking past hand-to-hand combat and underneath flying aliens.

I don't realize how far we've progressed until I notice something...

The number of Gordanians on the battlefield are increasing.

"HRESSHAAA!!!" four rush up from a battalion and fire.

ZAAAP!! ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAAP!!!

Minnae shrieks as lasers bounce off Lobo's bike.

"Shut your yapping!!!!........your highness," Lobo coughs. He whips out a pistol and shoots off a Gordanian's head with one pull of the trigger.

BLAM!!!

SPLORCH!!!

The others shriek cowardly and dive to the floor...trembling.

I raise my eyebrow at that. I realize that these are fresh recruits.

_Meaning..._

I glance behind my shoulder and see the field of battle stretching long and hard behind me.

_We're at the edge of the second line........._

"You heard sweet cakes!!" Lobo reloads his pistol and regrips the handles of the bike as we approach a full line of Gordanians. "Break on through!!!!"

I take a brave breath. I hold Myrkblade up and accelerate by Lobo's side.

**VROOOOOOOM!!**

The line of Gordanian recruits march towards us.

We speed towards them.

The wind kicks at our face.

They raise their spears up.

Lobo aims.

I grip tighter to Myrkblade.

Glaring eyes.

Reptilian eyes.

Red eyes.

Black eyes....

And....

**VROOOOOOM!!!!!!**

"HRESSHAAAAA!!!"

ZAAAP!! ZAAAP!! ZAAAAAP!!

We meet....

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Lobo sails through the madness, firing his pistol like crazy.

BANG!!! BANG!!! B-BANG!!! BANG!!!!!

Gordanians fall in a straight line.

Blue lasers stream at us.

I swerve madly in front of Lobo, my hoverbike leaning in the partial turn. I twirl Myrkblade ahead of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

I deflect the shots just as Lobo reloads and—

BANG!!! BANG!!! B-BANG!!!

More Gordanians fall.

Lobo reaches the end of his clip.

Whatever reptiles are left standing directly in front of us take aim again....

....and I swerve towards them. I daringly toss Myrkblade into my metal hand and steer with my right just in time to hold the weapon out and slice off all of the immediate Gordanians' legs in direct succession.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-**SLASH!!!!!**

The hacked-up villains fall to the ground, bleeding purple ooze and clutching ragged limbs while shrieking.

I hold my breath, even myself out, and throttle forward while Lobo fires back behind us at defending Gordanians.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

**VROOOOOOOM!!!!**

And then.....silence.

Horrible...horrible....silence.

The landscape rushing around us is empty.

"Hey....what gives?!?!" Lobo turns and looks ahead of where we're driving.

I blink. I glance at him from my speeding bike.

Minnae gulps.

Lobo's eyes thin. "Uh oh....."

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**T-Minus: One Hour, twenty-six minutes.**

**Location: Frontline – No Man's Land**

The ground is open and empty of all soldiers, save a fallen dropship or two. The land is cratered with smoking holes. Beyond it—across an innocent stretch of emptiness—are the shield batteries. Green energy splashes between them. And beyond the translucent energy is a heavy line of Gordanian troops...complete with hoverbikes, leashed Rooks, and heavy artillery.

But that's not what we're worried about......not at the moment, at least.

"I usually don't say this...but....," Lobo grunts, "...I have a very bad feeling about this..."

**BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**

Koriand'r gasps.

I wince and turn around to look while driving.

Those are the sounds of the Tamaranian tank shells. But everytime they shot previous, we Angel Spears had been either right next to the tanks or directly underneath the fire as they were launched.

Right now...we're in No-Man's-Land.

A shrill whistle fills the air....

SHHHHHHHHHHHHWISHHHHHH!!!!!!

"HERE THEY COME!!!" Lobo shouts.

He swerves hard to the right.

I swerve hard to the left.

**BOOOOM!!!!!**

A huge crater explodes from a tank shell in between us.

Two more ion charges streak in like comets.

**BOOOOOOM!!! BOOOOOM!!**

Fried earth and flaming dirt showers down at us.

"Hot!! HOT!!" Minnae shrieks.

"Will you shut up?!?!" Lobo spits. "YAAAAAAUGH!!!"

**VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

More incoming...at our rear tires.

SHHHHHHHHWISHHHHHHH!!!!

**BOOOOM!!! B-BOOM!!! BOOOM!!!**

The earth explodes on either side of me.

Koriand'r shrieks.

I struggle hard to keep control of the vehicle.

**BOOOOM!!!!**

Without warning, an extra shell explodes in the ground directly in front of us.

I gasp.

I pull up hard into a wheelie.

**VROOOOOOOOM-WHUMP!!!**

Koriand'r and I ramp up into the air, soar through the smoke, and sail down on the other side.

**WHUMP!!!!-VROOOOOM!!!**

Amazingly, I keep our balance.

Lobo swerves in front of me. He pulls out a high power rifle and awkwardly aims with it one-handed.

"Cover me!!" he squints one red-eye and aims at a single, distant shield battery ahead of us.

I gawk at him.

_Cover you?!?!_

_'Behind us. Mr. Noir!!'_

I glance behind.

Three shells are incoming.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHWISHHHHH!!!

**BOOOM!!! BOOOM!!**

Two explode in the ground directly behind us.

The third.....

I let out a silent yell and impossibly blur Myrkblade into a reverse swing behind Lobo's back.

**CLANG!!!!!**

I deflect the last shell mightily to the side.

**BOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Dirt and soil spray at us.

I nearly lose my handling, but regain in the nick of time to throttle behind Lobo who's presently aiming at the distant battery and--

**POW!!!!**

A red-hot bullet streaks ahead.

CLANK!!

It bounces off the shield battery.

"Come on...."

Lobo aims and fires again.

**POW!!!!**

CLANK!!!

"Come on!!"

**BOOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOOOOM!!**

Shells explode on either side of us.

We speed closer and closer to the energy field.

Dangerously close.

**POW!!!**

CLANK!!!

The bullet fails to even damage the shield battery.

"Frag it....if we don't break that shield soon we're all gonna turn into guacamole!" Lobo grunts. "We need something stronger! We need something big! We need—"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"

"?!?!?!?!?!" Lobo, Koriand'r, Minnae, and I look over our shoulders.

The two of us bikers gasp and swerve. We part just in time for Katma to soar through.

The Green Lantern's eyes are glowing. The arteries in her muscles are throbbing visually. She's yelling at the top of her lungs and glowing a bright emerald.

All of this because she's dragging an entire, fifteen-ton Tamaranian tank behind her by a green net and flinging it at ninety-miles per hour at the centermost shield battery ahead of us.

"**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"**

**SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!!**

**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**

The shield battery practically liquidates from the massive, heated impact. Shockwaves ripple down the shield, causing the next two batteries in the line to short-circuit. As Katma soars upwards like an upside comet, a huge gap in the force field forms seventy meters wide.

Gordanians in the defense line hiss in shock and frustration.

And at the same time, a huge roar thunders over the landscape. Like a herd of stampeding, invisible buffalo. And I realize that it's the sound of well-near-a-million Tamaranian voices cheering both on the battlefield and in the Capital.

Lobo grins, his teeth showing. He tosses his rifle away and pulls out an uzzi.

"BREAK ON THROUGH!!!!" Katma's voice hollers down from above like a supernatural intercom.

"Oh HELL yeah!!!" Lobo throttles forward into the line of defense.

I roar aside him.

The Gordanians scramble to their weapons...trying to ready ourselves.

And we're on them....

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**T-Minus: One Hour, twenty-two minutes.**

**Location: Frontline – Gordanian Line**

**VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

**  
****VROOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

Lobo and I rush through the gap. Firing and slashing like mad.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

SWISSH!!!! SWOOOOSH!!! SLASH!!!!

Gordanian heads, shoulders, and torsos pop from bullet fire.

Limbs and heads and neckflesh fly.

Purple everywhere.

Lobo and I pierce on through. Onstoppable. Hover thrusters blaring.

The Gordanians hiss and fire like mad to hit us...but instead they more accurately hit each other.

ZAAAP!!! ZAAAAAAAP!! ZAP!!

"HRESSHAAA!!"

"HRESH!!!"

And faster than we expect, we've zoomed through.

Lobo aims back and fires a few potshots at Gordanians as we streak past their artillery.

"It's a m-miracle!!" Minnae gasps.

"Not really," Lobo smirks. "It was a MASSACRE!! HA!!"

I glance back while driving, panting. So does Koriand'r.

The Gordanians rush about and try aiming at us. But something overcomes them. Thousands upon thousands of rushing bodies and a huge, multi-throated yell thundering forth: _**"DE X'HAL!!!!"**_

In massive splendor, the entire Tamaranian infantry fly through the tiny hole made in the energy field and start springing upon the Gordanians mercilessly with solid walls of burning starbolts. The ground army of the Tamaran pours in on the invaders almost completely in less than two minutes. Caught off guard, the reptiles flee every which way...only to be pelted, shelled, and burned to death by the most pissed-off group of defenders in this part of the galaxy.

"Heh...," Lobo smirks at me. "Looks like we screwed Gordanian up their rear!!"

I smile crookedly.

"M'berrat de Tam'ran!!" Koriand'r points over my shoulder ahead of us. "Thriel!!"

All four of us look ahead.

The spires of the Capital City loom before us.

"Come, Squirrel!! Burn time!!" Lobo throttles ahead.

**VROOOOOOOOOM!!!**

I follow him.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, nineteen minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Outskirts**

Lobo and I cruise down a hill and down a dirt road surrounded by dome-shaped houses made out of quartz and stone. At the sight of us, doors open and huddled Tamaranian families peer out. They wave and cheer.

I smirk.

Lobo swerves and goes down a dirt road adjacent to a crystal-blue river stretching East-West along the southern border of the City.

Ahead of us on the left is a bridge.

A battle is taking place on either side of it. Tamaranians on the South side, hiding behind rubble and flinging starbolts. Gordanians on the North side with their laser spears and barriers.

Lobo throttles towards the structure.

One Tamaranian freedom fighter taps the other on the back and points at us. They panic and aim starbolts at our incoming figure.

CL-CLICK!! Lobo aims his pistol at them. "Don't even think about it...."

The two defenders tremble.

As I ride by them, Koriand'r waves at the men and cutely utters in a voice fitting Starfire: "Caaveraat nu feemleblorg de X'Hal!!"

The two Tamaranians seem to relax.

I want to hug her....

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**T-Minus: One Hour, eighteen minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – River Bridge**

**VROOOOOOOM!!!!**

Lobo ramps in the air, flies down the bridge, and fires left and right with his pistol.

BAM!!!

BANG!!!!

Two Gordanians drop.

Another hovers up, surprise.

As I streak over the bridge, I twirl Myrkblade and slash hard at his back.

SLINK!!!!

"HREESHAAA!" the invader clutches his bleeding neck and topples over into the river. SPLOOSH!!!

Lobo and I zoom down onto the ground North of the River.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, seventeen minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Outskirts**

Dirt gives way to stone and concrete-equivalent surfaces as we streak down a space of urban ground between tall, dome-topped buildings of red ruby. The courtyard is randomly scattered with fighting pairs of Tamaranians and Gordanians.

Lobo casually steers left and right, kicking a Gordanian to the ground with a spare boot. WHUMP!!! SLUMP!!! THWAP!!

The grounded Gordanians are helpless as the Tamaranians take advantage of their lowered guard by pelting them with starbolts. FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!!!

Cheers erupt as we streak by with the one data carrier in tow.

Behind me.....

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**T-Minus: One Hour, sixteen minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Lower Streets**

Lobo guns it.

I take his example and accelerate too.

As we throttle down denser and denser lines of buildings, I realize why.

Gordanians line the rooftops. At sight of us, they take aim and fire.

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!!! ZAAAAAAAP!!!

Blue lasers rain on the ground, forming scorch marks.

Lobo twirls his pistol, aims with one hand while driving, and fires.

BLAM!! BLAM!!!

Gordanians hiss painfully and fall from the rooftops to the hard street below. PLOP!!! THWUMP!!!

Two Gordanians swoop down on jetpacks and reach gnarly hands out. They trip gripping Koriand'r and plucking her up and off of me.

"YAAAAH!!" she shrieks.

I snarl and swing Myrkblade in reverse.

SLASH!!!!

A Gordanian hand flies off.

"HRESSSSSHAAA!!!" it shrieks and tumbles to the ground, clutching its bloody stub.

The second reaches for me with razor-sharp claws.

I stab directly into his face.

SPLORCH!!!

His body—neck first—is skewered on my blade.

I yank and yank with my sword...but with his weight and my momentum, I can't do anything but have him dangle behind me by my sword.

"HRESSHA!!"

I look ahead.

Three Gordanians stand in my path.

I let out a silent howl—blur smoke into my right arm—and force the skewered Gordanian body up, around, and forward like a jousting spear.

And I throttle directly towards the three invaders.

THWAP!!!!!!!

I slam the Gordanian carcass into them.

WHUMP!!!

They fall to the ground.

RIIIIP!!!

I slice Myrkblade out of the fleshy mess and twirl it to shake the blood off it.

Koriand'r sighs with relief.

I take a breath.

I follow Lobo—swerving hard up an ascending alleyway.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, fourteen minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Courtyard**

The buildings yawn open to reveal a huge clearing of concrete and beautiful fountains spread everywhere.

Lobo grumbles.

I gasp.

The courtyard is otherwise filled to brim with the heaviest of the inner-city combat. Gordanians and Tamaranians wrestle and fist-fight and fling energy at each other in a frenzied mass rivaling that of the battlefield itself.

"Keep it up!! Keep it up!!!" Lobo shouts as he merely throttles through the mess, not bothering to assist any soldier or pay particular attention to any Gordanian. He does—however—blow the head off of a reptile or two in his path with his pistol.

I'm content to follow Lobo on through the safe path he's making.

A rogue Gordanian biker—however—isn't.

The reptilian pilot throttles up alongside me like any other resistance fire and swings his laser spear. "HRESSHA!!!"

"!!!!" I duck the swing.

I kick against him.

WHUMP!!!

We part ways in our momentum.

A fountain sails past us...between us.

He swerves over and rams into my side.

CLANK!!!

I wince.

He jabs into me with his spear.

I grip it with my left hand....and realize that I shouldn't because now I'm not steering with anything.

**VROOO-OOOO-OOOOM!!!**

My hoverbike nearly loses balance three times.

Thankfully, this causes to ram twice into the Gordanian's hoverbike twice. His balance is ruined and he flounders to the left, trying hard to keep a grip to his spear.

I grit my teeth.

I do something desperate.

"YEEP!!" Koriand'r exclaims as I grip her arm.

I fling her to the left.

PLOP!!!

She lands on the back of the enemy's bike.

"......," the Gordanian blinks curiously at her.

SLIIIIINK!!!!

Myrkblade slides through his neck, leaking purple.

"SNKKKKK-KKKTTT!!!"

I exhale and fling his body off with my blade.

I then hop onto the bike on the left and take over from the dead reptile.

CHIIING!!

I sheathe Myrkblade to free my right hand, which I stretch out and grip onto my hold bike by the handle.

I spot a Gordanian tank up ahead besides an alleyway leading up towards the taller buildings.

I grunt, swerve just right, and swing the fully-accelerated former bike of mine like a spinning top into the vehicle as it aims at a helpless cluster of Tamaranian resistance fighters.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH—**BOOOOM!!!!**

The turret erupts in flames...and the whole vehicle lurches as a thruster gives way and the huge gun barrel fires awkwardly into the ground.

**BLAM!!!**

**PHOOOOOOOOM!!!**

A huge fireball erupts, engulfing nearby Gordanians that run about with melting limbs flailing.

WHUMP!!!

I plow over one and catch up with Lobo as we both exit the courtyard and ascend to the next tier, driving deeper and deeper into the Capital.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, eleven minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Upper Streets**

"Princess Sissy!!!" Lobo cackles above the speeding noise and mayhem to the girl clutching behind him. "Can you tell us exactly where in the Hell we're supposed to take this brat?!?!"

Minnae holds a laced hand to her temples. "Hold on, please...."

"I need an answer, kiddo!!"

**VROOOOOOOM!!!**

We sail up ruby-granite steps. Gordanians and Tamaranians wrestle on either side of us alongside buildingfronts.

"I'm concentrating....," the girl closes her amber cat eyes and focuses. "Searching....searching...searching..."

Lobo whips out a shotgun and takes aim at a line of Gordanians ahead of us. **BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BLAM!!**

Repeatedly, huge sprays of lead smash down through three or four reptiles with each blast...knocking them down like meaty zombies.

**VROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

We ride over their carcasses and continue our ascent.

The red buildings tower higher and higher over us. And above that is the furious red/green sunset with specks of the ever-ominous space battle flickering beyond.

And everything down here is echoing chaos still...still...

I pant and concentrate on driving as everything blurs past us.

Koriand'r clutches to me....

"Found it!!!" Minnae gasps, her eyes popping open.

"Where at?!?!" Lobo shouts as we round the top of the ascent.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, ten minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Upper Courtyard**

We come into an opening in the urban sprawl. A huge 'ledge' of sort stretches before us. Bridges of the same red huge stretch immaculately into the air, forming majestic crossbeams between and connecting with the towering skyscrapers of scarlet beauty and aestheticism. The sky stretches above us, full of flying aliens and midair wrestling matches and the occasional dropship or two. But straight ahead of us at the end of the bridge is a huge, thick tower. Like a giant cylinder with a huge domed top.

"The most obscene thing I've ever seen...," Lobo muses.

"In there!!" Minnae points. "That's where the Tamaran resistance is situated!! I can sense their brave souls residing within!!"

"And why do we need to go there?!?!"

"Ha'm blorgan caclo throttica!!" Koriand'r exclaims from behind me.

"Say what?!?!?!"

"They'll have a secret transmission device to send a signal of the crucial data to the defending space armada!!" the Princess explains. "If Koriand'r's the silver bullet...that's the gun where we need to load her in!!"

"I love your analogy, Missy Prissy!!!" Lobo grins. He throttles forward. "CHAAAARGE!!!"

I take a breath and accelerate behind him.

**VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

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**T-Minus: One Hour, nine minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Upper Bridge**

We swerve around fallen carcasses, hoverbikes, smouldering ruins.

Lobo takes a pot shot at two Gordanians on the ledge.

BLAM!!!

They fall over, hissing bloodily...plummeting to the ground floor of the City hundreds of meters below.

Our engines echo across the expanse as we cross the bridge and cruise down towards the courtyard at the base of the huge tower.

A Gordanian line of tanks have formed.

"Perfect...," Lobo grunts. He holsters his shotgun and pulls out three grenades at once. He bites off all three pins.....somehow.....then flings them.

They rattle to the ground beside the tanks.

Nearby Gordanians hiss and jump/fly out of the way.

**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

The explosion actually burns off an edge of a tank over from the force of it.

**VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

Lobo sails through.

**VROOOOOM!!!**

I follow behind, ramping over a piece of debris and flying over the tanks to land on the other side.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, eight minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Base of Tower**

Lobo and I steer madly around a huge throng of Gordanians, all shooting lasers blindly at us and hissing like mad.

ZAAAP!! ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!

The energy blasts strike the ground around us.

Minnae flinches more than once.

Lobo manages to whip his pistol out and fire while steering left and right.

BLAM!! BLAM!!!

Gordanians fall beneath me as I deflect blasts with twirls of Myrkblade.

CLANG!! SMACK!!!

Suddenly, a huge swarm of jetpacking Gordanians loom ahead of us. Numbering well over thirty.

"EEEK!!" Minnae shrieks and covers her eyes. "Must think of something happy!! Lidikins' fluffy tail! Lidikins' fluffy tail!!"

"Hold your breath, princess.....," Lobo smirks.

"Huh?? OOF!!"

She gasps as Lobo's sweaty back leans flat against her on the seat.

Before my twitching eyes, the undead mercenary leans back heavily on his bike. He lets go of the handles. His hands grab an uzzi each. He lifts his legs from the pedals and plants the soles of his boots against the handles. In such awkward fashion, the reclined Lobo manages to steer the vehicle with his legs while firing up and outward with two hands full of uzzifire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!!!!!

SPLORCH!!! SPLOT!!! TH-THUNK!!! SPLORCH!!!

Gordanians splash purple and purple and purple as the heavy spray of heated lead sail into the whole mass of flying reptiles and knock the life out of their bleeding, ragdoll bodies.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

"DIE MOTHER FRAGGERS!!! DIE!!! ALL OF YOU!!!! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Nearly the bodies of all thirty in the flying squadron litter the floor around us.

I desperately swerve—gasping—to avoid them all.

"Hallelujah!" Lobo grins as he slams his feet back down on the pedals and regains total control. "It's raining morons!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

I wince...flushed.

**VROOOOOOOOM!!!**

The four of us rush up a curved, stone slab of steps leading a windingly up towards the entrance doors of the huge, skyscraping tower.

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**T-Minus: One Hour, six minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran Capital – Base of Tower**

The path is thin and narrow. Gordanians are presently trying to storm the doorfront of the building—which is heavily guarded by Tamaranians launching starbolts back out at them. With us coming up the rear, the reptiles are now sandwiched in a crossfire. When they realize it, they turn around and hiss only to face our charge at the last second.

BLAM!!!

Lobo blasts a head off one and swerves left to follow the curved steps up, up, up....

ZAAAP!! ZAP!!! ZAAAAP!!

Lasers stream down at us.

CLANG!!! I block a blast and drive up side-by-side with Lobo. CL-CLANG!!!

The reptiles hiss in horror.

We're unstoppable.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!

Lobo offs four more with pistol fire.

Their bodies tumble over the sides and litter the distant streets below.

Lobo shouts out in trademark ferocity: **"CUT ON THROUGH!!!!"**

I sneer as I throttle forward and jerk left with a swerve an upswing of Myrkblade up the middle of the next Gordanian.

SLASSSSSH!!!

Two halves fall both sides, allowing Lobo to drive on through the purple mess.

I swerve and slash again.

SWOOOOSH!!!

A Gordanian head flies.

BLAM!!!!

Lobo fires a hole through a reptile flying at us.

We break through invader after invader.

Blood shedding.

Limbs flying raggedly.

From on high, the ferocious sounds of the battle-filled city....the battle-filled land....the battle-filled solar system come thundering in on our ears from everywhere and it's so loud that it almost sounds deafening enough to be _silence_ itself.

SLASH!!!!!

I rip through the torso of another Gordanian, swerve, and climb up the last few meters.

I gasp.

A dropship that floats down. At first, it aims at the door to the huge building. But it swerves around at the last second and aims glowing turrets at us.

I glance to my right.

I see three Gordanians struggling to erect a rocket launcher of sorts to blast down the Tamaranian-guarded door with.

I stab Myrkblade out.

SLUNK!!!

The Gordanian's body jerks as my blade goes through him.

I lift him up. His stiff body clutches onto the rocket launcher.

I motion my head over at Lobo behind me and whistle.

He notices my prize and holds and arm out. "Hot potato!!"

SWOOOOSH!!

I toss the body back at him.

He grabs the rocket launcher, drops the body, and spins the huge weapon into position. "Steady this for me, princess!!"

"H-How?!?!"

"Use your head or your hands!! Choose now, dammit!!"

Minnae gulps and steadies the rest of the launcher's length with her hands.

Lobo lets go of the handles just long enough to handle both triggers.

"Hot loogey!! Coming right up!!!"

The dropship's turrets fire.

**BLAM!! BLAM!!**

I swerve to the side.

SWOOOOSH!!

The phaser charge streaks hotly past me.

**BOOOOM!!**

The steps explode.

I gasp.

.....

.....

.....**VROOOOM!!!**

Lobo's bike ramps through the fire and smoke. He aims in mid-air and—

**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**

The rocket sails out of the weapon...past us....and into the cockpit of the dropship.

CRASSSH-**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

The inside of the ship catches fire.

Lobo's bike violently spins in circles from the backlash of the rocket propulsion. He digs his feet into the ground and steadies it. Minnae's dizzy-eyed as Lobo sweats and hollers: "BLOW!! BLOW!! BLOW ON THROUGH!!!"

I grit my teeth and gun it with both hands.

**VROOOOOOOM!!!**  
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**T-Minus: One Hour, four minutes.**

**Location: Tower – Front Steps**

SWOOOOOSH-CRUNCH!!!

The dropship lands on the ruby concrete, front first.

I accelerate the bike and ramp over the nose.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Koriand'r and I sail through the air in slow motion just as the craft explodes.

**BOOOOOOOM!!!!**

We sail through smoke and burning embers.

Through my murk-stained visor....I pant and see an opening above the singed door. Two Tamaranian resistance fighters gasp and duck out of the way.

I reach a hand back, grab Koriand'r by the back of her neck, and vault off of the flying bike with a pulse of murk.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I plunge us through the thin opening.

The bike slams into the door itself and explodes.

**KABOOOM!!!**

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**T-Minus: One Hour, four minutes.**

**Location: Tower – Inner Atrium**

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Koriand'r and I plummet—spiraling—into the front room. Tamaranians run and hover away to avoid our bodies.

I summon murk and cushion our bodies as I twirl and land us on my back first.

WHUMP!!!

I slide along the ground, hugging Koriand'r closely to my chest.

THWUMP!!!

I land against a wall...still....

I pant.

Silence....and then....

Rushing footsteps.

Hovering bodies.

Rushing all around us.

"V'ratta kun!!"

"Nablorgan thriel hatsay!!"

"Crads!!"

A green glow covers us. My helmet's visor reflects the angry faces of over two dozen resistance fighters bunkered inside the Tower. They hold up glowing starbolts threateningly and prepare to toss---

"Laymnu dreyhu ni X'Hal!!!" Koriand'r shoots up into a sitting position atop of me. She pants and holds out a desperate hand. Her green eyes are wide. She gulps and continues. "Draaceratsu m'nyol faaverot feelin ni Dredsu Naanr'm seedlana!!"

The Tamaranians around us grow silent.

The sounds of firefights and shelling emanate around us from the outside.

Flickering amberlight from the downed dropship settles against the walls.

Breathless, a senior resistance fighter hovers over and kneels before the redheaded girl. "N'mal fredin.....Dredsu Naanr'm?!?!"

The girl nods her head. She murmurs...trembling. "Uln. Daadlayt val'm si Gord'nzi sarakka." She points at herself. "Nrablan Koriand'r nu Myand'r! Slaata v'mal thrieye si naanrak kliel cayclan! Thrieye!" She holds up her arms and points at the mark where that data was injected into her bloodstream.

The Tamaranians gasp. And right before me, a good number of them shed green tears.

"Kliel!! Li kliel thrieye!!"

"Hanrasa ni X'Hal!!!"

"X'Hal salavar'm!!"

The senior officer grabs Koriand'r and the adults hoist her onto their shoulders, cheering like victorious Arabs. Grins and smiles and gasps of joy and cries of victory and howls of relief fill the room in a warm glow. The senior officer and a few others rush her into an adjacent room leading down a series of steps to where the transmission systems must be.

I sit up...panting.

A few Tamaranians huddle around me and pat me strongly on the back so much that it hurts.

"Nu capranna m'yel jaat!!"

"Ha ha ha ha!! Ronner cayk'm hedsu Gord'n!! Ha ha ha!!"

"De X'Hal!!"

"DE X'HAL!!!"

I continue panting. I glance at my Angel Spear wristband.

**T-Minus: One Hour, one minute.**

Time to spare....

_Time to spare?!?! How is there time to spare?!?!_

I forget about it...and with an inward moan I collapse back and stare at the ceiling through my visor.


	116. Angel Spear Four part 7 final

**116. Angel Spear Four part 7 Final**

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**T-Minus: Fifty-two minutes.**

**Location: Tower – Central Chamber**

I lean against a wall, absent-mindedly shuffling playing cards in my metal hand.

Lobo sits—squatting—with his back to the wall across from me. He polishes the barrel of his pistol.

Minnae sits on a bench, her hands folded in her lap. Looking apprehensive.

Katma paces back and forth down the corridor. Her hands folded behind her.

Silence...save for the last of shelling echoes from outside as the Tamaranians gradually regain control of the City and chase the Gordanians away.

A beat.

I glance down the corridor.

There's a haphazard electronics station set up, hooked to numerous bundles of wires running up the ruby inner walls of the broad corridor and the basic structure of the Tamaranian Tower itself. Gizmos, computer consoles, monitors, and various flashing instruments stretch about in a corner. Koriand'r sits on a stool of sorts, her inner arm 'wired' to the apparatuses. Three Tamaranian specialists huddle around her, checking on her vital signs and performing checkups on the computer system as they gently process the data from the nanomachines in her bloodstream. The redheaded girl looks over at us....and smiles.

I smile slightly...then look Katma's way.

She stops in her pacing. She sighs.

A beat.

She looks at Minnae. "Is it just me....or is our work here done??"

Minnae gulps and utters: "I've been...'listening in' on the Tamaranian Resistance Fighters. Already, enough data has been acquired from young Koriand'r to relay information to the planetary defense fleet up in space. We are most likely twenty minutes away from experiencing the greatest counterattack the Vegan System has ever seen. The Gordanian ships will lose cloaking ability and shields. They will be utterly helpless to fend off the onslaught of the Tamaranian armada...and the invaders will be forced to retreat. But not before many losses on their villainous side."

"So it's true then...our work here is done!" Katma exclaims, her voice echoing up and down the corridor. She tosses her arms. "Why are we still here??"

"You think they're gonna be passing out party favors or somethin'?!" Lobo grumbles. He continues polishing his gun.

I flip cards in my metal palm.

"There must be some catch....there must be something we haven't done yet...," Katma thinks aloud.

"But what?!?!" Lobo grunts. "We fraggin' did everything!! I busted a few heads!! You flung tanks around!! Squirrel there did his gymnastics!! And Miss Sissy turned into a she-pussy!!"

Minnae blinks. "Er???"

"We better not be double-crossed!" Lobo pounds his fist into the ground. WHAM!!! Cracks form in the stone. "Cuz that would REALLY tick the Main Man off!! That floating cotton candy goddess person thingy at the Great Implosion think I was sent to massacre an entire invasion force?! Heh!! She hasn't SEEN genocide yet if I don't get my reward for this!! And I'd _better_ get my reward for this..."

"That's all you can think about??" Katma frowns. "A reward?? Don't you see what you've done today?! You've played a part in history!! You helped save an entire civilization from global destruction!!"

"I'll see it only if in the reflection of gold and silver, sweet cakes."

Katma groans.

"The Being seemed adamant in relating the fact that time travel is still not a perfect artform," Minnae remarks. "Even after eons of civilization existing back and forth along the infinite timeline. When we were sent here and given a six hour deadline...perhaps it was just that? A six hour deadline!"

"Or maybe the Being knew that—whatever we have to do—it will take exactly six hours. I don't think that lifeform is exactly stupid. It must know a lot more than it's giving in about our purpose here."

"Okay then...," Lobo shrugs. "So there's one more errand to do?! Big deal!" He cocks his gun. "Let's get to it!!"

"Hold on," Katma holds a hand out. "Maybe we're doing it right now?"

"Eh???"

"Being here. So close to her...," Katma points at Koriand'r. "Maybe we're meant to guard her. Or the Tower."

"Until the armada way up high goes kablammo??" Lobo remarks with a face. "How boring is that?! Feh!"

Minnae suddenly bites her lip.

"What is it, Your Highness?" Katma asks.

"I do not know....," the cat-eyed girl nervously wrings her laced hands. "But...there is definitely something not finished here...."

"How do you mean?"

"Here...in this Tower....," Minnae murmurs. "Something is.....wrong....and very, very evil...."

Katma narrows her eyes.

Lobo clears his throat. "Thank you, Queen Ambiguous."

I look at everyone. I stand up straight and pocket my cards away.

_I'll go have a look-see........._

Minnae turns to face my way.

'_How do you mean, Mr. Noir?'_

I straighten my helmet and glance around.

_This Tower......it's dark. Dark is my element._

'_How do you even know what to look for?'_

_I don't. But if the Being sent us here for a purpose, I have a feeling that something will find me._

"Okay....what are you both mentally walkie-talkying about now???" Lobo exclaims.

"He wishes to look around. I think he gets the same bad feeling that I do."

_More or less......_

Katma sighs. "Fine...just....just stay in touch, allright? Keep in contact with Minnae or something. I'm pretty sure we've achieved victory. It's just that........everything we've done here today had better mean something in the long run."

I nod. I wave to everyone in general and walk down a dark corridor.

I feel the curious eyes of Koriand'r on my back as I leave....

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**T-Minus: Forty-Nine minutes.**

**Location: Tower – Shadowed Chambers**

I stroll slowly through the dark corridors. I untuck my black tanktop and stretch. Sighing.

One would imagine it difficult to lie to a telepath...but not in Minnae's case.

I didn't have any 'evil premonition' like she did. I just had to get out of there. Away from everyone else. Away from.....people. Souls. Eyes.

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

_So many eyes I've seen today. So many of them fading away with the fall of my sword._

I take a deep breath.

My fingers flex.

_I hope Robin never finds out._

Awkwardly, I smile at that. And a tiny spark of warmth leaps in my hearts.

_Robin......Cyborg......Beast Boy......Starfire.........Raven........._

I sigh and hug myself as I lean against a wall in the darkness.

_I'll be seeing them all again soon._

A beat.

I glance down at my wristband. The red button I never had to press. The essence of the Angel Spears never made known unto me. The countdown timer flashing like an LCD screen:

**T-Minus: Forty-Eight minutes.**

I stare at it.

............_Did I ever have to??_

Voices....

Hussed and echoing upwards like reverse rain drops.

I freeze.

I raise an eyebrow and lean my head to the side with an ear craned.

A beat.....

More .....silent.....

I bite my lip.

I rest a hand on Myrkblade behind me and slowly creep down a declining corridor towards a dim patch of amber light.

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**T-Minus: Forty-Eight minutes.**

**Location: Tower Cellar – Rafters**

I come to an opening overlooking a huge, open chamber beneath me. The path leads to a drop of well over fifty meters. A huge, Tamaranian-made chasm of sort yawns beneath me. Like a huge cellar. Or a basement. Or a storage chamber.

I'm not exactly sure what it is.

At the moment, I'm concerned with finding the sources of the voices. For—though they be in a foreign tongue—they do not sound like Tamaranian...or Gordanian....or anything I had heard uttered before. At least....not on this 'mission'. I cautiously take the last two steps forward that I can...and peer down into the scene.

My black eyes narrow under my visor as I try to pierce my gaze through the amber light.

Steam rises from various parts in a red, cobblestone floor overlooking what looks to be an underwater aqueduct or sewage system. A red bridge crosses a stone canal with a rushing stream of gray liquid. Torchlight illuminates the far sides of the cavernous interior where dark passageways enter into the domain.

Fourteen distinct shadows stand on the solid ground. Twelve of them are well built. One of them is petite. The last one is stocky and....darker than the rest.

_I don't know how......_

I lean forward.

My black eyes focus and.....I gasp.

The twelve well-built shadows are—in fact—Gordanians.

_Gordanians!! Inside this very Tower?!?! But how........._

The voices that drew me into this vantage point to begin with start murmuring again. It's the petite shadow talking to the darker one.

"Shys-shesszk slakynykk frishakkyn kki fry-shaak klakana-kyk liss. Fen-fravykk lyk-kissin vly-vyvykk therasskik sy-l thra-ssin ly," the petite shadow speaks. It is a girl's voice. A young, teenage voice. She leans a hand to her hip and the bizarre language rolls off her tongue like poison. "Meth'yssk wryss'aka sly'vyk kik lynni sli'kak vykikk frie. Verykykk-y slin. Saatethryk Tamaran slykik-sy lynin vy."

There is a pause.

The darker figure turns about. And I see a black cape or robe surrounding a stocky frame. And if that isn't cliché enough, the fellow is garbed with a pale mask covering his features. He speaks with a chilling sound that makes my heart murmur and my spine tingle

And I don't know why.....

"Vrykklyn havyk-ly mava-rykk ik synd-ly viverykk y kyklikkin saka-lylk. Mymlykik sl-kikk nynsyk kykk haak-klakyk kilinikk sly. Syll-kin Tamaran saat-syk lyk," the dark one with a pale mask stares at the petite figure from across the bridge. The Gordanians watch on. The one continues with fists clenched. "Hen-rykk klatta-klykk sly y kikkik vryn..."

The petite figure steps forward, standing halfway across the bridge. She takes on a defensive posture and practically barks in anger: "Vender-rykk vattaklykk ik sank-lyk!!!!"

The Gordanians hiss.

The masked one raises a finger.

The reptiles are silent.

A beat.

The stranger breathily utters: "Sa-klykk in lyka-klak ik sinkk benk-ak. Tamaran lykk myni-klikk."

The petite figure fumes for some reason. And I see a green glow about her arms. And as the glow intensifies, I make out long read hair and firm eyebrows.

My lips part.

_A Tamaranian.........Girl?? Barely fourteen-looking!! Who the......what's going on here??_

'_Mr. Noir??'_

_Your highness! What are you—_

'_You sounded confused. Distressed, even. What is transpiring?'_

_You wouldn't believe me if I told you......but.........there are Gordanians inside this Tower!!_

'_What?! Oh dearest be!!"_

_And......there seems to be some kind of wyrd exchange taking place. Down here in some...sewer or something. There're a dozen Gordanians, and Tamaranian girl, and some tall guy with a mask and a wyrd language and I have no idea what the Hell's going on. Where's Katma??_

'_Captain Tui?? She and Lobo went searching.'_

_Searching??_

'_For Koriand'r."_

What?!?! Where'd she—

'_We don't know. Koriand'r suddenly seemed excited by something and flew off. Her amber skin was glowing a bright green. I think she's picked up on something in a manner that only Tamaranians can!'_

_Can't you locate her??_

'_I was working on it when I detected your distress. Tell me......what do you see exactly, Mr. Noir?'_

_W-Well......um......a dozen Gordanians just standing around as a Tamaranian teenage girl and some tall guy in a mask speak in some wyrd-ass language......_

'_What sort of language?'_

_It's hard to explain. Can you listen in?_

'_I do believe that is possible. Please be silent and I shall attempt to eavesdrop.'_

I take a breath try to........'silence' my head.

The masked one is speaking again...as menacingly as always. With the same chills being sent up my spine and the same goosebumps covering the parts of my limbs that are flesh.

"Havrakykk-slykk menaklykk syn! Sikka-lykk ikk menblakyk Tamaran klykak ssyk thratkk," the one folds his arms as his cape ruffles. His voice is like audible blood, dripping out of his pale mask. "Mykka slyk-kik venyyk kakla-nykk vensykk ly."

I hear a gasping sound...then I realize that it's Minnae's shock exploding through my head. And it hurts.

I wince and grip my skull through my helmet.

_Your Highness?!?!_

_'Citadelian!! Citadelian!!!'_

_Excuse you???_

'_That entity! That man! That thing! It is Citadelian!! __**True**__ Citadelian!'_

_What's a Citadelian?!?!_

'_The most ruthless species in the Vegan system. Cloned descendants of the deformed offspring of X'Hal's force labor!'_

_Wait a second......X'Hal had kids?!?!_

'_It would take volumes of information to explain. Not to mention priceless lengths of time!! Just know that—in the history of the Vegan Wars—the Citadel Empire has been responsible for the greatest, most ruthless bloodshed in their conquest to beat the Psions to ultimate supremacy and control of the galaxy!'_

_All I see is a masked wyrdo......_

'_Is he tall? And does he speak the language which I am hearing??'_

_Yeah, he's tall. Wearing a pale mask. And.........I have to be honest, he's freaking me out._

'_I sense an evil in him. A great evil.'_

_Well, apparently he's 'Citadelian'. I suppose that comes in handy._

'_It is more than that. The fact that a Citadelian is here sheds light on history that very little are privy to. It is not official that the Citadel were involved in the Invasion of Tamaran during the Second War of the Reformed Cosmos. This entity's presence here may very well upend all of that assumption.'_

_So...the Citadelians were helping the Gordanians attack Tamaran??_

'_Perhaps commanding them. I cannot tell. Again, there is a great evil about this one Citadelian in particular. He is so dark that he clouds my attempts to scan him, and----EEP!!'_

I raise an eyebrow.

_What is it, Minnae---_

I myself am cut off as wave of agony courses through my system. My whole body shudders. My metal prosthetic acts up. Chills shiver up and down my body. My eyes flicker murk subconsciously and my teeth chatter. I clench my fists and squint my black eyes down at the scene.

The Tamaranian girl is flinching.

The Gordanians are stirring uncomfortably.

And the Citadelian....

'_M-Mr. Noir............'_

My black eyes twitch.

From atop, I see the dark figure raise a hand.

And it's smoking....smoking like murk....

'_That Citadelian............'_

A chilling laughter echoes through the chambers.

I feel my bones rattle.

'........._he is not normal. He is not even of this world......'_

The Tamaranian girl murmurs in her native tongue as he backs up, her green eyes wide. "Hraman'r femblorg nuil m'hal?!?!"

"Heh heh heh.....enblykkik frykk-kikk shysskiss'ly....," the Citadelian makes the smoke dance and his dark shoulders shake with laughter.

'_Mr. Noir......I sense terrible things.'_

_Tell me about it..._

'_Disgust. Revenge. Hatred. Seething, seething hatred. And most of all.........'_

_What??_

'_Betrayal.'_

_Betrayal??_

'_You said there was a Tamaranian girl there??'_

_Yes._

'_She is not true to her people.'_

_Huh?? You can sense that??_

'_Yes. Whatever conversation is taking place in there......it is not the first of its kind. I knew that I had sensed an evil when we finally settled in here less than a half-hour ago. This villainy has been seeded here. Like a cancer. And I have a feeling that the Tamaranian soul you're bearing witness to has played a part in it.'_

_A traitor........._

'_Exactly, Mr. Noir.'_

_But why? What would she gain? She hardly looks old enough to be anything but......but innocent......_

'_I do not know, Mr. Noir. I do not know. Oh my......I sense the evil!! It......It is intensifying so!'_

_I......I feel it too. It's crazy. But......_

I take a deep breath. I feel the smoke dancing in my system. And it's upsetting...because only Destruction alone is being aroused.

"Haklykk-sykk sly link ik vren-dykk y sykkak-ly...," the Citadelian leers over the suddenly-cowering girl. The smoke dances more. "Kikykk-sykk thryn bablikk."

The girl trembles. She folds her hands together. "Lamanorg freyl slanna ful'm dredsye camcla!! Nien'r rivlessa!!"

FLASH!!!!

The Citadelian stretches out a hand and envelops the girl in a warbling fountain of smoke.

The girl shrieks as tendrils of blackness envelope her figure. It is not like the murk I know. It possesses blue hues, like the skin of a week-old corpse at the bottom of an icy river.

I grit my teeth. My whole body jerks and I hold my hand to Myrkblade. But I don't jump down into the chamber. I don't leap.

_But the girl's a traitor. If Minnae's right. But still......can I take on these creatures alone?!?! That's amazing power that the Citadelian wields. Such intense evil. What can I do??_

_What can I do............?_

And to my utter shock, that's when the Citadelian lifts his head while torturing the girl atop the bridge and speaks into the open air of the chamber.........in perfect English.

"Angel Spearrrrrrr......I know you are herrrrrrre."

Naturally, I go bug-eyed. My body shivers more.

"How hypocritical of you. You would kill so many helpless soldiers today. But for a little girrrrrrrrl, you don't move an inch to help her!!"

I grit my teeth. I slowly unsheathe Myrkblade.

Still apprehensive...

The girl sobs in pain.

The Citadelian hisses forth a chuckle and continues into the air through his mask: "What did the Protectors of Life promise you at the Great Implosion? Gold? Silverrrrrr? Better health?? Assistance in the cause of vigilantism? Welfare to friends of yours on yourrrrrrrrrr god-forsaken planet?!?!"

I bite my lip. I scan the edges of the scene. I try to plan out a way to blur down the walls and spring upon the mysterious enemy.

But I'm stuck to my position among the rafters. As if frozen....

_Fear???_

"You are farrrr too numerous, Angels. Farrrrr too cowarrrrdly. A single one of my kind could burrry you all in an instant!!! For I am not afraid of destruction!!! I do not cowerrrrr behind pathetic morals and senses of honorrrr!! I usurp. I deceive. I destroy!! And I serrrrrve Death!! How perfect that the mutated living carcass of a Citadelian be my vessel for this historrrrical moment!! A moment which—I admit—you have succeeded in winning for the Tamaranian side...."

His masked face turns and glares at the shuddering, quivering girl under the dome of smoking torment.

"This girrrrrrl thought she could hand overrrrr her planet on a silverrrr platter to make things easier on the futurrrre. But all she managed was death. Such wonderful and glorious Death!!! It stains the fields of her planet today. The Gordanian forrrrrrces she helped usher in with herrrrr knowledge of her people's defense frequencies have done their part. And you—Angel Spears—have done your part!! And in the end—victory or no victory—it is still a jubilant day for Death!! For in every conflict, the Demons win!!!!"

I gasp.

_A Demon......_

_An agent of Death!_

_  
__What the Being spoke of!!_

"And there is oh so much Death to be had today!!! So much spirrrrrit to suck out!! To drrrrrraw forth like venom and leave the rest impotent and jaded!!! HRAAAAAAAA!!!"

FLASH!!!!!

The smoke dome around the girl pulses.

She lets out one final scream before slumping over.

I bite my lip.

The dome disappears.

The girl's green aura fades.

And her body pales...and the amber Tamaranian skin sinks away.

And her red hair loses its color before my eyes. It becomes something burnt. Like the color of mold. Pure black. As do her alien eyebrows.

And what was once green in her eyes turns obsidian.

And what was once an emerald power surrounding her arms and body becomes something twisted and bizarre. A violet-pink. The color of a tainted, Tamaranian heart.

And that's when I discover all over again just who and what Blackfire is.

"The Tamaranian heart is a most amazing thing....," the Demon Spear utters. "It'll turn the body into an exotic color when stripped of all good. As well as it'll explode forth a fiery aura of empathy when under duress. And it's something that acts like.....a warning beacon to all souls closed to the tortured one."

I gasp at that.

_That means......_

SWOOOOSH!!!

As if on cue, Koriand'r sails into the room. She hovers to a stop in mid-air. Her glowing, green eyes go wide. But not so much as a reaction to the Gordanians under everyone's noses. Not so much because of the Citadelian standing tall and demonically before her. But rather because---

"Kormy!!!!!!" the young Starfire shrieks. She flies lightning-fast down a line of hissing Gordanians and kneels on the stone bridge, cradling her sizzling sister's darkened body. "Kormy!!! Kormy!!!" she sobs, green tears streaming down her cheeks. She buries her face in the groaning teenager's shoulder. "Sam'ran linnu de X'Hal!!! Sam'ran linnu haameraat de X'Hal!!! Kinlan'm forborg hassan, Kormiand'r!!!"

"K....K-Kory??" the sister coughs. Her eyes glow a sickening purple as she reaches up and desperately touches her sister's head of hair. She winces in pain and appears genuinely regretful. And yet, it's painfully obvious that the redhead has no idea as to Kormiand'r's secret treachery. "Hinsu'm methur kun. Frest'm.....frest'm sedsu..."

A dark, smoking foot stomps down on the far side of the bridge.

Koriand'r looks up, teary eyed. She grits her teeth and angrily spits forth at the towering Citadelian: "Hablakorg minner'm thretsu nuil horfarker!!!!"

A chuckle wheezes out from the Demon's masked face. "Charming. But as much as I'd like to kill you quickly...," he stretches a smoking hand out. "...you're bait."

SWOOOOOSH-SLASH!!!!!

"AUGH!!!" the Citadelian steps back and grasps an arm, leaking black demon blood.

I crouch from the impact of my long, plunging drop. I slowly stand up and twirl Myrkblade back to face him. Frowning. I stand between him and the two Tamaranian sisters. I hear Koriand'r gasp...perhaps glad to see me. I don't give her so much as a glance. My black eyes are trained directly on the Citadelian.

And he stares at me.

And....

He laughs.

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh...."

And he laughs.

"Hah hah hah hah hah....."

And he laughs...

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

I raise an eyebrow.

The Gordanians—aiming laser spears at me—twitch uneasily.

"I had a feeling it was truly you, Noir...."

My lips part and my breath escapes me.....

The mask leans forwards. "Death is a great Strategist. He weaves the most intricate web. Even I can't calculate the pattern in His handiwork. I knew from the start that my mission here today on this god-forsaken planet would be a failure. But I didn't care. I just had to run into you.....that's all I cared about."

I cleared my throat. I slowly marched towards him with Myrkblade outstretched.

FLASH!!!!

My body jerked. My breath dissolved. My torso quivered and shook like an epileptic fit.

He had me in a web of black energy. It tortured my limbs by chasing the Contruction inside me away and intensifying the Destruction.

Pure Demon power.

I had the sudden urge to reach and instinctively press the red button on my bracelet....but I could barely move from where he held me.

So much strength....

"I meant what I said about the triumph in destruction, Noir. I may not be able to win the war for the Gordanians...but I can at least make Death happy---make myself happy, by ruining the life of an Angel Spear itself. Especially one who's friends with the Teen Titans!!!"

I sweat as I dance from his smoking onslaught. I bite my lip till it bleeds. I struggle for breath as I listen to him...

"In another time....in another place....I was randomly plucked by Death much like you and your three friends were grabbed by the Protectors of Life. But what makes me so much smarter at this game than you, Noir, is that I know all about time travel. And I especially know that someday both you and the Teen Titans will be the ruin of me. And I can't WAIT to make you suffer...to make your 'angelic' life a living Hell for what you someday intend to do. And I shall do it by taking from you the only shred of LIFE you have left in the middle of this grand chaos!!"

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

He shoves me back...back...far back across the open space of the chamber.

THWUMP!!!

I land hard on the ground. Myrkblade clatters to the floor beyond me.

I cough and sputter for breath.

Two Gordanians—hissing—rush over and hoist me up to my feet.

I struggle in their grasp. Not able to get loose.

Koriand'r shrieks as the Citadelian marches over and mercilessly hoists her up over his shoulder.

I snarl and try desperately to blur, run, leap, do-anything to burst out of my scaley restraints.

But I'm helpless to do anything but watch as the Demon walks backwards out of the chamber, chuckling. "You have lost a precious friend today, Noir. And as much as I know Time...what I am about to do is inherently impossible. But it is also impossible for a mere mortal like myself to be imbued alone with the power of Death itself. So ta-ta, you pathetic piece of history!! I hope this sends shockwaves of Destruction down your pathetic remnants of memory and well-being!! As if you'll ever see the Titans again even IF the Protectors of Life send you back!! Ha ha ha!!"

I struggle and strain some more.

The Demon marches away, Koriand'r wailing in fright over his shoulder.

The Gordanians huddle around me. They raise glowing laser spears and hiss with bloodlusting delight. They must know how many of their brethren I've offed today.

I grit my teeth.

_I'm more than willing to kill more if it means catching up with that no good son of a---_

Princess Metharsia rushes in.

"Mr. Noir!!" Minnae gasps. "Koriand'r!! I think she flew down here!! I---"

"HRESSHA!!" **GRIP**!!! A Gordanian grabs her from behind.

"EEEEK!!! Unhand me!!" the silken princess struggles in vain.

The Gordanian forces her into the circle of reptilian soldiers.

The fiends hiss at each other in their own vile language.

Their spears glow brighter and brighter.

Even Minnae sees our fate at hand. We're about to be skewered and bludgeoned to death by pathetic grunts.

She gasps. "Oh no...how terrible!! How utterly, horribly terrible!! Mr. Noir, save us!!"

I struggle. My black eyes linger on the passageway where the Demon exited. I'm powerless to reach Myrkblade. I'm too sucked of my energy to blur far enough to attack anyone reasonably. The Demon power affected me so....

"Someone!! I do not wish to perish!!" Minnae squirms as the Gordanians close in around us and our captors. Spears start to make our hairs curl from the heat. "We were so near victory!! So near victory!!" she looks at me, panting. "Mr. Noir!! Do something!!!"

I pant. I sweat. I look at a laser spear next to me in an adjacent Gordanian's grip.

"HRESHAA!!!"

"HRESSSSHA!!!"

I look at the spear.

The reptiles drool.

The surrounding air turns blue.

Heat and glowing...

Minnae pants. "Mr. Noir....please!!"

I let out a silent scream.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I blur my body into smoke form in a half second just so that I can grab the nearby spear--

GRIP!!!!

---and toss it at the princess.

"!!!!!!" Minnae goes bug-eyed.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!

CLANK!!!!

The spear sticks into the ground...wobbling to a stand-still.

"........," the Gordanians stare.

"........," Minnae blinks. She looks down at her dress....a dress that was once immaculate. It now has a huge-ass rip straight down through all four layers of petticoats, exposing part of the princess' stockings.

I take a deep breath.

"........," Minnae looks up at me. She blinks. "You......r-ruined my dress...." Another blink. The cat eyes start to flicker. Amber fury. She clenches her teeth...teeth that grow fangs. "HoW dArE yOu RuIn mY DrEsS?!?!?!?!?!"

I grin like a joker.

"**rrrrrrrrRRRRAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"**

**FLASH!!!!!!!!!!**

The Gordanians jump back and let go of me. "HRESSHA?!?!?!?!"

Lidikins stands in the midst of us. Fuming. Lungs heaving. She tosses her feline head and shrieks into the air.

"**ROWWWWRAAAAAAAAAAWRRRR!!!!**"

SWOOOOOSH!!!! A huge, serrated paw flies in my general direction.

The Gordanian holding me stumbles back and I duck---

SLASH!!!!!

The entire torso of the reptile is ripped asunder in a purple splash.

SWOOOOOSH!!! A furred leg soars over.

I roll under it.

SMACK!!! "HRESSHAA!!" a Gordanian is kicked into a wall on the far side with a SPLAT!!

I dash along the ground, slide, pick up Myrkblade, and leap out of the circle of death.

Lidikins starts thrashing about in animalistic rage, taking on practically everything in the nearby vicinity. And unluckily for the Gordanians, that turns out to be them.

THRASH!!! THWACK!!! SLASH!!! "HRESSSSSHAAA!!!"

Scaley skin shreds in ribbons and purple pools form around tumbling limbs and skull fragments. Bloody hisses echo throughout the underground arena as I smirk like a madman and then scurry down the hall on blurried legs in pursuit of the Demonic stranger.

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**T-Minus: Forty-Three minutes.**

**Location: Tower Cellar – Corridors**

I run down a dark hallway.

My feet slap echoingly against the stone.

I pant and come to a stop, looking around.

Black eyes wide under the dark visor.

A shriek...

_Koriand'r's shriek......_

I look to my right.

A shadow ducks out of view at the edge of a hallway leading towards a dim, strobing light. A far-off room.

CHIIING!!! I slide Myrkblade along the wall while drawing if forward and rush down the corridor like a one-man jousting competition.

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**T-Minus: Forty-Two minutes.**

**Location: Tower Cellar – Pod Room**

I run straight into a bright, narrow room stretching up, up, up....

**PHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**

I'm blinded. I gasp and skid to a stop. I clutch a metal hand over my visor while I grip tightly to Myrkblade with the other.

Teeth gritting, I force myself to look at the hot light.

Hot wind blows at my face.

I gasp.

A.....rocket of sort is launching. Right before me. It takes me a second or two to realize it, but it's the same model as the sort of pod that brought Starfire to Earth in the first place. But during that same second or two, the craft in question is throttling up a long chasm leading towards a pinprick of green light....the sky.

_Starfire......_

I clench my metal and flesh fists.

I look to my right.

Another pod sits besides the smoking launch pad that the previous one shot up from.

_An open invitation......_

I glance back up at the speedily exiting pod in the chamber.

_He wants me to follow him. An Angel Spear on the tails of a Demon._

I take a deep breath.

I jump towards the remaining pod.

_Well......he's got one......_

"Noir?!?" a strong voice echoes from the adjacent corridor. A half second later, Katma floats out. "Noir!!! There you are!! I just found Minnae lying unconscious on the floor in the center of a bloody ring of Gordanians!! Did she transform again??"

A beat.

The floating Green Lantern blinks. "Um....Noir? What the Hell are you doing??"

I strap into the pod, finger a green button, and press it.

CLICK

WHURRRR-CLUNG!!!

The door seals me tightly in the craft.

"Noir?!?! Noir!!!" Katma rushes forward and presses her face to the porthole from the outside. Her voice is extremely muffled. "_Are you crazy?!?! What on Earth could you be going into space for at this time?!?! We have nearly thirty minutes till transportation!!"_

I click a few controls...remembering the one time Starfire gave me a tour of her craft. I finger the last of the switches. I stare out the porthole through my visor.

_I know what my last mission objective is. I know what my purpose as an Angel Spear is. There is one last piece of Life to save._

My lips mouth: 'Starfire'

Katma's mouth is agape. Her green eyes blink.

I flip the last switch.

**PHOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

She lets out a cry and jumps back, staring in disbelief at me...her head tilting up, up, up.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

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**T-Minus: Forty minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran – Capital City**

THWOOOOOSH!!!

My pod rockets out of the Tower's spout.

I press back into my seat, holding my breath. The G-Forces momentarily kick in before the alien counteractive technology takes effect and I feel like I'm practically gliding like an airborne knife into the green sky.

Out the portholes, I spot Tamaranian hovercraft flying to and fro. Smoke trails from burning skyscrapers and crashed Gordanian dropships flutter past me. Finally, the tops of the Capital's towering spires drop off and an increasingly dark green sky envelopes me.  
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**T-Minus: Forty minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran – Upper Atmosphere**

Clouds stream by the portholes.

The transparent material fogs one last time...then clears.

The turbulence dies down.

The green aura gives way to darkness.

And then...

Puffs....plumes....splashes of brightness.

I lean forward...upwards.

Sparks reflect through the portholes and off my dark visor.

As the beautiful awkwardness of zero gravity overcomes me, I should be astonished.

And I am.....but by something else....

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**T-Minus: Thirty-nine minutes.**

**Location: Orbit of Tamaran**

My pod plunges—spiraling—into the event horizon of an enormous space battle. Geometrically intricate ships of red and burgundy hulls form a protective line around the green planet. Assaulting them in streams of ion bursts are hulking, green dreadnoughts.

The Tamaranian and Gordanian armadas....fighting for this section of the galaxy.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

My pod shakes as space flak explodes around me.

I grit my teeth and realize that—the entire time from launch to orbit—I've not been controlling the vessel. My head darts around.

I find steering mechanisms.

I grip them and try to move the ship.

They don't budge.

I take a deep breath.

I concentrate.

I look around.

I see a red light on the steering mechanism. A button rests beneath it. I press it.

Click!

The steering mechanism gives way.

I sigh with relief.....then gasp with horror.

SWOOOOOSH-SWOOOOSH-SWOOOOOSH!!!

My pod dives, arcs, twists, and spins on three major axes. I grit my teeth and try to regain control.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Gordanian fighters explode right next to me as three Tamaranian crafts speed by and swing in formation along the length of a homefront battlecruiser. I see a huge plasma cannon on one of the red ships glow and unleash a charge of green fury. The energy stream sails into a Gordanian vessel and blows off a chunk of titanium that crumbles and rotates toward me.

I steer down into a dive, barely avoiding the huge shrapnel. I find myself utterly lost, tumbling in the black emptiness with lights shimmering all around me. I sweat as I try to regain control.

HUMMMMM!!!!!

I'm suddenly engulfed in a green aura.

I gasp and look out the closest porthole.

My black eyes widen.

Katma is outside the window, encased in a green cocoon. She aims her right hand at me, encasing the ship in emerald. It's amazing that she's surviving the cold vacuum of space.

I blink.

_Oh yeah.........Green Lanterns can do that......_

She reaches her other hand to her face within the green field, and I spot a communicator in her grasp.

A speaker inside my pod crackles forth: "_I should have guessed that you would pull a cockeyed stunt like this over that little girl!!!'_" Katma's voice grumbles. _"You are an incredibly stupid and dangerously headstrong young man, Noir..."_

I stare out at her.

She stares back, frowning.

A beat.

She grins.

"_And I figured you needed someone expert in space travel like me to drag your sorry ass to the right destination!!"_

I smile back.

"_Hang on!!!"_

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The ship rotates about and angles itself right towards the Gordanian armada. The female Green Lantern streaks ahead, dragging me behind her in a green net.

"_Minnae?! You awake yet?!?! Come in!!"_

'_I-I am here, Captain Tui! What happened?! Where is Noir and Koriand'r?!'_

"_Don't worry about Noir. He's with me. I need you to do something that only you can, Your Highness."_

'_Wait a second...what happened to me?? Was Lidikins here? I do miss her so......'_

"............"__

_'Ahem......y-yes, Captain Tui???'_

"_I need you to focus on the life force of Koriand'r. She is missing and we have only a handful of minutes left before we can't find her anymore."_

'I shall assist the best way that I can! Where has she been taken to?"

"_Um......Space."_

'Eep!! Most difficult!'

"_I need you to try, your Highness!! Something tells me our black-eyed-friend's future is in jeapordy!"_

'_The Demon?!?!'_

"_Huh??"_

'_Allow me to concentrate!! I must project my empathy beyond that section of orbit!'_

"_Can you do it?"_

'_At the expense of a terrible headache...'_

"_Sorry......but......g-get to it!"_

'_Yes, Captain!'_

Katma glances back at me through the porthole.

"_Hang ten, Noir!! The way things look...everything is down to the wire for a purpose!!"_

I see a dramatic unveiling beyond her in the space battle. I point with a gasp.

She turns around.

The two of us watch....

All of the Tamaranian ships are pivoting about and facing an open patch of empty space to the left of the grand cluster of Gordanian vessels. In one accord, the cannons of the battleships charge and focus a huge stream of energy. A sphere of emerald destruction forms. Pinpricks of light like a million dancing starbolts swarm around the growing blob of chaos. Then—in one brilliant and blinding flash—a plasma stream of green warbles out past the first line of Gordanian dreadnoughts and explodes with a mile-wide splash. Streams of green bolts shatter outward at hundreds of angles. In quick succession, dark silhouettes are pierced by the emerald light. Soon, invisible Gordanian battleships and troop carriers appear where they were once cloaked.

Katma lets out a cheer.

I smile.

_The data has been sent through........._

FLASH!!!

FLASH!!!

FLASH!!!

Every Tamaranian ship fires at will.

Miniature fighters swarm through en masse and concentrate their laser fire.

Huge gun stations on the planet send ion blasts up through the atmosphere and into the fresh formation of victim vessels.

The Gordanian shields are useless to the energy frequency being matched by the incoming charges. Huge pulses of plasma sail into the metal hull, producing fireball explosions that shatter the floating structures to bits.

FLASH!!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! **FLASH!!!**

Gordanian vessels start rupturing from the inside out. The smaller ones explode immediately. The larger ones crumble and collapse into each other.

The Tamaranian war vessels continue pelting the invasion fleet...burning it into space dust.

Gordanian fighters and dropships immediately retreat. Or at least they try to. Tamaranian fighters come around and blast the small craft into ash. Sprays of fire vomit back and forth across space and dissipate into the cold expanse forever.

"_Hopefully your Starfire isn't on one of those ships......,"_ Katma somberly states out loud.

I gulp and nod.

'_Found her!!'_

My heart skips a beat.

"_Where, Minnae?!?!"_

'_On the Gordanian Flagship of all p-places!! It's the only logical place for that person to have kidnapped her too!'_

"_But are you sure Koriand'r is there?!?!"_

'_Positive, Captain!! But you and Mr. Noir don't have much time!! I sense many souls perishing! Quickly! It is horrible!'_

"_Yeah I know. Maybe the two of us can subtract one of the losses. Over and out."_ Katma glances back at me. _"We're going in!!"_ She points at a huge, hulking Gordanian ship. A big, black-green thing of mechanical, jagged fury. It looks twice as mean and threatening as the reptilian bloodlusters that pilot it.

I take a deep breath and nod to the Green Lantern out the porthole.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Katma drags me along in a speeding, swishing, spiraling path through space. We zip in and around criss-crossing streams of lasers and ion blasts. We meander around fighter formations and exploding dropships. At one point, we trail along the aft side of an exploding Gordanian dreadnought and zoom off before its flaming shrapnel could engulf us upon spreading.

Finally we angle along the retreating Gordanian front and speed towards the hulking frame of the Flagship. Bright specks that I assume from my position to be windows stretch before us.

"_I'm taking you in, Noir!!! The only way to do this quick is to let you go in alone!! I've studied Gordanian architecture, and I'm pretty sure I can take you to where you can access any part of the ship that Minnae directs!! But you're gonna have only a spare few seconds to do it!!"_

I raise an eyebrow.

She glances back at me momentarily through the porthole. _"You'll understand it when you get there!!"_

I nod. I shrug.

I take a deep breath and clench my fists.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

She streaks us straight towards the hull of the ship.

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

Closer.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Closer.

I bite my lip and sweatdrop when I realize that she's not stopping.

In fact.....

"_RAAAAUGH!!!" she yells and literally flings my pod forward like a lifeless, slingshot rock._

My black eyes bulge.

I sail straight towards a wide, stretching window. Rushing Gordanians on the deck inside peer out...see my incoming missile of a space pod...and hiss mutely in horror.

I brace myself as I see my own reflection---

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**T-Minus: Thirty-three minutes.**

**Location: Gordanian Flagship – Outer Walkway**

_**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!**_

A green pulse of energy shoves me forward as the glass shatters.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

My pod shakes and vibrates from all the air pushing out into the vacuum of space.

The Green Lantern energy alone manages to push me against the rush of air and debris and Gordanian bodies. I plunge towards the far side of the room.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!!!

Sparks fly as my pod spins around, metal grinding against metal.

CLANK!!!

I end with a jolt.

My body bounces in the pod.

I grit my teeth and shake my head.

I look out the port.

The pod is facing directly outwards through the window I had just smashed through....only the glass has been replaced by a green shield of translucent energy. With a last bit of strength, Katma Tui hovers outside...extending her ring finger and forming a band of emerald fury to seal in enough air for me to hop out and do my job.

I exhale.

CLANK!!! My fist slams over a button.

HISSSSS!!! The door unseals.

SMASH!!! I kick my way out. I hop onto the floor. I look around, panting.

A straining Katma points with one hand towards the right side of the room.

I twirl and look in that direction.

An emergency seal is slowly closing over the doors to an elevator as a red light blinks and a siren wails.

I salute her before rushing over, blurring, and teleporting into smoke form to slide in just as the doors close----

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**T-Minus: Thirty-two minutes.**

**Location: Gordanian Flagship – Elevator Lift**

CLANG!!!!!!

The seal closes outside the lift.

SWOOOOSH!!

I solidify and slam into the wall of the tiny chamber with a grunt.

THWUMP!!!

I land on the ground, panting.

I'm sealed in...safe...

I hobble up to my feet.

_Minnae?!?! Minnae, are you there?!_

'_I hear you, Mr. Noir!'_

_I'm in!!_

'_Thank goodness!'_

_Where do I go to find Koriand'r?!?!_

'_First off, have you seen Lidikins recently---?!'_

_PRINCESS METHARSIA!!!_

'_A-Alright!! I am most sorry!! Ahem......somewhere.........um......'above' you......'_

_Above me??_

'_You're far away in space. I cannot be more specific.'_

I quickly look all around beside the door.

I find the controls.

Ugly Gordanian text splash across the buttons.

But I distinctly see an arrow 'up' and an arrow 'down'.

_I guess no matter where you are from the universe, people know where to point......_

'_Huh??'_

_How 'above me' is Koriand'r?? Like, in regards to the rest of the ship??_

'_The summit...it's safe to say!'_

_Then that must be the bridge. I'm going._

CLICK!!!

I jam my fist over the button.

HUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

The elevator lift vibrates as I ascend.

I pant.

**RUMMMMBLE!!!**

The ship shakes as Tamaranian cannonfire blasts it from the outside.

I grip onto the wall and steady myself, gritting my teeth.

'_Mr. Noir......that Flagship is a strong vessel. But its shields are no longer impervious to Tamaranian fire. You too will be victim to the impending destruction!! Have you a plan to return safely with your young friend?!'_

_I dunno........._

CHHHHING!!!!

_Guess I'll have to make an escape route........._

I hold Myrkblade with my right hand. Trying to breathe steadily. Trying to meditate.

_First thing's first......I've got some incubus ass to kick._

'_But......c-can an Angel Spear truly kill a Demon?!?! I do not believe the Being briefed us on that!!'_

_We weren't briefed on a lot of things, Your Highness......_

I pant.

I look at the time on my Angel Spears bracelet....

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**T-Minus: Thirty minutes.**

**Location: Gordanian Flagship – Top Corridor**

Ding!!

"HRESSHA??"

Three Gordanians turn around from where they patrol a long, fully-windowed walkway leading towards the bridge on the far-side of the Flagship. The trio walks over to the slowly opening doors of a dark elevator.

It's empty on the inside.

"????????" one reptile scratches its head. A beat. It looks at the others.

"..........."

"............"

SLASH!!!!!!

The first one's head flies off.

SLASH!!!!!!!

The second loses its throat.

SLASH!!!!!!!

The third is impaled by an invisible blade and thrown against the nearby window with a splash of purple.

SPLAT!!!

All three groan....dead.

In a falling curtain of smoke, I materialize from stealth mode in front of the elevator.......panting.

I twirl Myrkblade to shake off the blood and blur down the walkway.

I run past pane after pane of glass windows through which the explosive final moments of the battle can be seen at multiple degrees around the top of the ship. Stars twinkle in the distance, and the green sphere that is Tamaran looms bright and majestic with the shadow of its rotation eating the side of the planet.

Reptilian figures on jetpacks spot from a distance and fly my way with laser spears armed.

"HRESSSSHA!!!!'

"HRESSH!!!"

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!!

I grit my teeth. I slash Myrkblade in front of me while sprinting.

SWOOOSH-CLANG!! CL-CLANG!!!!

I deflect the blue lasers. I leap. I meet the dive of the first Gordanian and slice Myrkblade halfway down his cranium.

CRUNCH!!!

I vault off whatever's left of his plummeting carcass, flip, and spin like a helicopter with a horizontal slash meeting the next two jetpackers.

SL-SLASH!!!!

An arm and a leg fly off....from different hosts.

The reptiles shriek and fall to the floor in purple streaks, clutching their stubs.

I land in a crouch.

**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**

The ship shakes again. The lights inside flicker and the windows rattle.

I pant.

SWOOOOSH!!

I blur forwards.

The door to the bridge appears closer and closer.

There're three things lastly in my way.

Two Gordanian grunts....and a Rook leashed between them. Guarding the door.

"HRESSSSHA!!!!" the Rook rears its arms and shrieks.

I grit my teeth.

I pulse murk through my limbs.

I blur faster and faster and faster andfasterandfasterandfasterfasterfasterfaster---

ZAAAP!!! ZAP!!!! The grunts fire at me with free hands.

CLANG!!!

I deflect a laser into the left reptile's skull.

CLANG!!

The second into the right's leg.

Both fall down.

The Rook growls and charges me.

**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**

I grit the last of my teeth that hasn't morphed into smoke form.

_Try stopping the wind, asshole..._

"HRESSSSSSSSHAAAA!!!!!"

I blur..............through him.

SLASSSSSSSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I solidify behind his back in an upswing.

I inhale lungs back into my lungs. I feel warm liquid trickle down my forehead....arms...legs. I glance myself and see that I'm covered with purple blood.

I turn around and realize why...

What was once a flesh and blood reptile beast has suddenly become the ship's new.......wall paper.

I bite my lip, turn around, and approach the Bridge doors.

_I don't even want to know how I did __**that**__........._

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**T-Minus: Twenty-eight minutes.**

**Location: Gordanian Flagship – Bridge**

SLAM!!!!!!

The doors fly open.

I stomp through, twirling Myrkblade into a fighting position.

Glaring through my helmet's visor.

The bridge is like the inside of a huge metal monster's ribcage. A thick, metal walkway stretches from the doors to the very end. Pits on either side of the walkway serve as the piloting and system stations. The ceiling is comprised of slabs of glass windows looking out onto the firecracker space battle.

Small, reptilian underlings turn around and face me from the pits. They're unarmed...mere bridge crew. They hiss and shiver in fright. Novices of battle.

I glare across them....for none of them are whom I'm looking for.

'_Right in front of you, Mr. Noir......'_

I follow Minnae's advice.

I look straight ahead.

My lips apart.

His dark figure is facing away from me. With a shuffling of a cloak, he turns around. His pale mask the same as before. His hands planted on the shoulders of a trembling Koriand'r standing in front of him.

A Gordanian crew member reaches for a pistol of sorts sitting on a console.

The Citadelian....Demon....Whatever raises a finger and shakes it.

The Gordanian hesitates.

The pale mask faces me at an angle.

"So......you followed through. How like a Titan....."

"Menlay'm friel...," Koriand'r murmurs with a trembling lip. She looks at me in concern. Wishing me out of this situation. This danger. "Henlakka kiel fennsa'm de X'Hal...."

The Demon wrenches her shoulder. Black smoke oozes down.

She flinches in pain.

I grit my teeth and step forward.

"Hold it!!" he shouts.

I stop in place.

The ship rumbles beneath us. Explosions outside illuminate the distant shadows of our forms.

His voice hisses through, amused. "I know that she will live, Noir. I brought you up here with full confidence that—someway or somehow—you will save her life. Do you know how I know that??"

I stare....fuming.

"Because I will face her in the future...a future that is in the past. At least...yours and mines past."

I raised a confused eyebrow.

"Heheheh...time is such a worthless illusion. And yet we let it devour us. We let it consume us from the inside out. But I....I know that time is a blindness. I will die some day. Yes. But I will perform many feats of destruction and power before that. And in so doing—in such imperviousness to the dynamic fluctuations and whim of fate—I have strength. Starfire will defeat me someday. But I shall also defeat her and the entire Titans in revenge. But you......you.....Noir...."

He stretches a hand out and points at me with smoking hatred.

"You will try your best to be the ruination of me. And I will hate you for it!! I know...because I already met you. Not by the hands of Angel Spears or Demon Spears...but by my own dance around the columns of Time itself!! You would do your very best to get in my way!! And I want to make you pay for it!! I want to make you suffer!! For right now...you and I.....hehehehe...we are not the same persons!! We are elements of Life and Death personified!! Maybe we'll die!! Maybe we won't!! Maybe we have already died a few thousand times but don't realize it!! Right now, I have the opportunity---with the extraordinary power granted me by Death and its Demonic agents—to end you when I could never end you before!! Not in the past!! Not in the present! Not in the future!! But here...on this ship...in this nightmare!!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

With that cackled, he reaches a hand up and takes off his mask.

I narrow my black eyes.

The facial barrier comes off.

I blink a few times....then a random memory strikes me. A memory from scanning over the rogues gallery of the Titans Tower Mainframe. Of all the dozens of faces of all the dozens of fiends I had never had the chance to meet....

Thus, it's understood how I'm completely baffled as I look at the man and mouth with total confusion: 'Warp?!?!'

He is a lot younger than the picture I've seen of him. But he still has the same smug grin. The same sharp mustache. The same sadistic grin. He is the perfect, youthful, sporting image of the time-jumping villain I had so often read about.

_But I had never met him!!_

I let out a breath.

My heart beats.

_Or maybe.........I-I just haven't met him __**yet**__.........__****_

"Is it destiny or simple irony that brings us here, Noir?!?!" Warp states in his natural voice. Smoke dances out of his eyes. Something the Warp that the Titans met never had. "Quintillions upon quintillions of earth years pass between both ends of the expanding and collapsing universe. And you and I have been brought together by the powers of Death and Life to fight here. To shed blood for the most biological incantation of Morals that there'll ever be!! Yes....this is my chance. This is my chance to wreak revenge on you!!" He fumes and he shakes, smoke billowing around him in a way for me to be envious of. "I shall not let you get away with ruining the Gaia Sphere!!! You shall rue the day you EVER got in the way of the Sons of Apokolips!!!!"

I make a face.

_What the Hell is he rambling about?!?!?!_

He waves his arms dramatically and bellows: "Revenge!!! Revenge down the annals of time!! Revenge beyond the barriers of mortality!! Revenge beyo---"

SWOOOOOSH--SMACK!!!!!! I rush over and slam the broadside of Myrkblade hard across his skull.

"OOF!!!" He falls to the ground. THWUMP!!!!!

_Shut up......_

Panting, I spin about and grab Koriand'r. I start to run with her towards the Bridge doors---

FLASH!!!!!

A curtain of icy pain splashes against my back.

I let out a silent howl and barrel across the floor.

WHUMP!!!!

Koriand'r shrieks, a hand over her mouth.

I lie on the ground...streams of smoke drifting off me.

I wince in pain and get up...facing an irate, smoke-encircled Warp across the way.

"That wasn't very **NICE!!!!**_**"**_ the human villain extends his hand out. Imbued with Demon Spear power, he sends a swirling tentacle of smoke at me.

I stand up straight, grit my teeth, pulse forth a wave of murk through my limbs, and raise Myrkblade just in time to contact the incoming trail.

FLASH!!!!!!

The whole Bridge shakes as the lights flicker.

Warp applies more and more dark force.

I struggle to hold the obsidian mist back with my own murk.

My black eyes dance.

His dance as well. But he's also laughing. And he's also _wincing._

Koriand'r gasps.

I sweat and stumble backwards. My arms holding up Myrkblade start to quiver.

Just like before...the Demonic power is sucking away at Construction. Only Destruction remains...and it shatters my blance in two.

FLASH!!!!

"!!!!!"

I fly back ten feet and land with my back against a console.

CLANG!!!!

I wince in pain.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!" Warp laughs and raises his hands with smoking tendrils.

The ship shakes beneath us. **RUMMMMBLE!!!**

Panting, I glance at my bracelet.

**T-Minus: Twenty-one minutes.**

Warp marches across the metal platform towards me. Grinning menacingly. "How does it feel, Noir?!?! Oh....you can't possibly know, can you?!?! We haven't met yet!! Well allow me to introduce myself!! I am called 'Legion'...for I am all over your PATHETIC HIDE!!!!"

FLASSSSSSSSH!!!!!

I gasp and hold out Myrkblade at the last second.

FLASSSSSH!!!!!!

I part the incoming smoke.

I struggle to maintain the shielding that keeps his Demon power from eating me alive.

As the tendrils of obsidian splash against my limbs, I envision dark alleyways. Maggots. The four red eyes of Trigon. Blood gurgling out of Slade's mask. Dagger falling into an eternal abyss. Bleeding Gordanians. Agonized screams. The bellowing pain of billions upon billions upon billions of civilizations being ripped out of the mortal coil all in a simultaneous instance all over the universe and everywhere in between.

I start sweating.

Gasping for air that I already have.

Trembling.

Shivers run up my metal hand and match the warbling insanity that is Warp's Demonic laughter.

"Suffffffer!!! Suffffffffffer, Noir!!! Suffer and know what true mortality is!!" Warp's eyes dance darkly as he continues the obsidian punishment from afar. "Tell me what Death truly is!! Is Death an instant?? Or is it an agonizing Eternity?!?! I think your days of being an Angel Spear has lost its wings!!!"

_Angel Spear........._

I pant.

The smoking punishment creeps closer to my chest.

My heart feels icy fingers gripping it.

Death incarnate...hissing down my brain with snake tongues and spider legs.

_Angel Spear............_

'_Fear not, Jordan......'_

I gasp.

My black eyes pop open wide under my helmet.

_M-Minnae??_

'_Hehehe......no.........'_

My mouth hangs open.

Things ooze into slow motion.

It no longer matters that a Titan villain in Demon form is drowning me in Death smoke. I don't recognize the beady Gordanian eyes watching me in mix shock and horror. I look past Koriand'r's trembling, worried body. I look beyond the windows. Beyond the exploding and burning ships. Beyond the blood-stained planet of Tamaran. I look through the darkness and see a green field. And I see three figures with swords exercising in perfect coordination. And one of them has a white blade. And blue eyes. And angelic blue hair.

_Angelic......_

She smiles.

_Ana............_

'_You always blew things out of proportion, Jordan.'_

_I......I am forgetting something......_

'_Only natural. You've spent the last few years of your life forgetting.........'_

I gulp.

The world spins into her smile.

_I......I have the power......to defeat this madman......_

'_That you do.'_

_How could I be so stupid?_

'_Hehehe...so silly. Relax, Jordan. Some angels never leave you......'_

I sigh.

The edge of my black eyes water.

There is almost even a smile to my lips.

_Some......S-Some angels are the only t-true angels......_

And she fades away....and in her place I see the Angel Spears bracelet. I've been looking at it. And I know what to do.

SLASH!!!!!!

Time resumes.

With a last breath of my own strength, I shove against the black stream of smoke.

Warp hobbles back. "Yaaugh!!" He snarls and clenches his fists. "How badly do you want to die---!!!!" he suddenly gasps.

I have jumped to my feet....and now I'm fingering my bracelet.

Fingering the red button.

"Your....your essence!!!" Warp sweats visibly.

The man stumbles backwards, shaking.

The Gordanians appear uneasy.

Koriand'r looks back and forth. Curious.

"You....Y-You haven't used it yet?!?!" he stammers. "Six whole hours of Hell down on that battle-strewn planet and NOT ONCE did you press that button?!?!"

I glare at him.

_Not all of us have the __**time**__ to be cowards......'old nemesis'......_

CLICK!!!!

Something happens.

My insides are on fire.

Warp turns white as a ghost. His Demon smoke fades away. "No!! Th-The Fire!!!"

_The Fire......_

My black eyes clench closed. I clutch my head through my helmet. I flinch. My hairs stand on end. My metal left hand glows red hot. Then my fingernails. Then my own human skin.

The Gordanians hiss in utter panic.

Koriand'r backs off, safely.

Warp stands ....

I tilt my head up. My mouth opens wide.

Crkkkk.....

A hairline fracture forms in my helmet's visor.

Crkkkkkk!!

Another.

CRACK!!!!!!

My visor shatters completely.

I gasp.

My eyes pop open...and white flames are licking out.

_**FLASH!!!!!!!!!**_

My body jerks back as a sphere of dancing flame forms naturally around me. Brightening the Bridge tenfold. SLIIIIIINK!!!! SLIIIIIIINK!!! Huge rods shoot out from the right side of my back. SLIIIIIIIIINK!!!! SLIIIII-IIIIINK!!! Rods shoot out from the left side. CL-CLANG!!!!! The rods expand into branches of smaller, more slender rods. CL-CLANG!!! On both sides. CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!! **CLANG!!!** FWUMP!!!!! Suddenly, huge 'wings' have grown magically from my shoulders....forming skeletal fibers like the fossil of a long-dead bird. They are neither metal nor bone. They are nothing but Might itself. PHWOOOOOOOMB!!!!! 'Feathers' of flame spout out from the skeletal wing frames. FWOOOOSH!!!!! Columns of fire extend from my legs and act as giant feet. I stand ten feet taller than the simple, agile Terran I once was. A halo of burning plasma rips into the air and overs above my head. And when I glare down at the Demon, my once-black eyes dance a ferocious furnace of white and red and yellow while Myrkblade is enveloped in flickering heat.

_**STOMP!!!!!**_

The metal platform melts in a crater from the landing of my 'foot' as I march towards the Demonized villain.

_**STOMP!!!!**_

Titanium hisses in the air as I move closer.

"HRESSHAA!!! HRESSHAA-AAAA!!!" the Gordanians scream pathetically in horror.

I snarl and merely 'flex' my wings.

**SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!**

The flaming limbs smack the Gordanians into melted goo.

**SWOOOOOOOSH!!!**

Smoldering carcasses of reptilian waste litter the far corners of the bridge.

_**STOMP!!!!!**_

I leer over Warp like a huge, Eternal Phoenix and raise my sword.

"RAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!" He shouts and flings two arms of Demon smoke up at me. **FWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!**

**FLASH!!!!!!!**

The Powers of Light and Death meet in the center of the Bridge.

Koriand'r covers her eyes.

Flame and smoke dance together.

I press my flaming wings down onto him.

He aims his arms up at me.

I glare.

He strains.

A few seconds of infernal heat...then....

"UGH!!!" he stumbles back.

**FLASH!!!!**

I extend my wings back, take a flaming breath, and 'flap' them forward.

**PHWOOOOOOMB!!!!!!**

A wave of righteous fire sails at him like a burning wall.

He weakly tries to shield himself.

WHAM!!!!

He falls back, smoking. His cloak melts into ashes. He gasps for air. His eyes flickering black and back to normal again.

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**_

I charge over, swing my body, and bitch-slap him with a wing full of fire-spouting metal.

THWAP!!!!!

His body ragdolls across the bridge, down into a pit, and smashes through a console.

CRUNCH!!!!

He wheezes for breath.

I jump.

_**STOMPPPPPP!!!!!**_

I land before him.

He wheezes and spits out blood. He looks up at me...leering. "You....were lucky....your Angel Spear Essence.....you PRESERVED IT, YOU STUPID HERO!!!!"

_**GRIP!!!!!**_

I wrap the edge of my left wing around Warp's neck and lift him up. The hot-wing-structure melts his skin into steam as I hold him mercilessly before me.

"Nothing you can ever do....," he wheezes through the pain, "....will undo the blood and death I have caused by doing my part for Death today!!! Nothing you can do...will take back the lives I HAVE TAKEN!!!!"

With my human arm, I raise Myrkblade.

_Stole the words from my mouth, pal......_

He grins with whatever gall he has left. "The Demon inside of me CURSES YOU, NOIR!!!!" his face unnaturally stretches as black fangs sink out from his lips.

_Okay...that's it..._

SLASSSSSH!!!!

I rip straight up his abdomen, up his torso, and up through the top of his head with my sword.

"RKKKKKKK!!!!!!!" smoke pours out of him.

My 'wings' go to work. They grip either side of his carcass and _pullllllll._

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!!

There is no blood underneath. No guts. Nothing left that's remotely human. Inside of the shell of the Demon Spear is a bodily shape of pure obsidian. And as I rip the skin apart, the smoking figure in my grasp jabs a screaming 'skull' at me.

_"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_ The murk skull howls like a banshee and its eyes flash a hypnotic, ghostly pale. _"SKREEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"_

I let out a long, silent scream and plunge the burning form of Myrkblade into the Demon Spear's chest.

FLASH!!!!!!!!

The skull fades away. The smoking body fades away. A dancing plume quivers between my flaming wings...and is gone.

_I've killed a Demon Spear......_

I pant....pant....pant....

_Is it hot in here or is it just me?_

**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!**

I grit my teeth as the whole ship shakes.

A red alarm flashes at the top of the bridge.

Ion blasts from the Tamaranian ships outside can be seen pelting the Flagship's hull through the windows. I feel explosions rocking through the vessel. I know this thing's about to blow.

Eyes flaming, I turn with a flap of my wings and look at Koriand'r.

The girl wrings her hand. She looks at me...trembling. And yet—in the fact that she's managing the courage to 'look' at me—I know that there is still the trust. The understanding.

_The aura......_

**RUMMMMBLE!!!!**

"Eeek!! De X'Hal!!!"

I pant.

I look out the front of the Bridge. Down at Tamaran.

A beat.

I look at the young Starfire.

".........."

_**STOMP!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!**_

I rush over on Angel Legs.

CHIIIING!!!

I sheathe the flaming sword.

I scoop her up.

I hug her gasping body close to my chest.

I turn around.

I take a heated breath.

I run down the long end of the Bridge's walkway.

_**STOMP!! STOMP!!!! STOMP!!!!**_

Towards the windows....

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**_

The nose of the ship....

_**STOMP!!!**_

I leap......

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**T-Minus: Eleven minutes.**

**Location: Orbit of Tamaran**

SMASH!!!!!!!!

I sail out into the cold emptiness of space.

My flaming wings encircle Starfire and me.

The flames create a supernatural cocoon around us. Resisting the vacuum. Making breathing a pointless thing. Preserving us...._preserving her......_

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

I hug the girl close to me as we fly away from the Flagship.

Koriand'r watches breathlessly over my flaming shoulder.

The Flagship flashes heavily in two spots....three....then....

_**KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**_

The core erupts. The hull explodes outward in all directions. Flaming hulks of titanium sail our way. A blast wave of fire meets my shield of flame. We're propelled forward.

Koriand'r looks the other way. She bites her lip and clutches hard to me.

We sail directly down towards Tamaran.

Where the bright green of day meets the dull emerald of night.

Pieces of debris stream past us.

They start to catch fire.

The atmospheric layer approaches.

We hold onto each other closer.

I clench my flaming eyes close.

My face tense.

My teeth clenched....

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-**FWOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Fire splashes all around us from the friction.

Re-entry.

Like a burning comet, we trail a mile-long tail of plasma and heated glass.

Down...down...down into the sphere of the planet.

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**T-Minus: Eight minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran – Upper Atmosphere**

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Only my angelic wings alone protect the two of us from burning.

My hands grip into her red hair.

She buries her head into my chest.

I pant....I think about the Tower....I think about my friends....I think about....

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

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**T-Minus: Five minutes.**

**Location: Tamaran – Troposphere**

The clouds burst into steam from our plummeting.

A huge valley on the edge of a war-torn City appears beneath us.

Washed green and red from sunlight.

Already, a few hulking pieces of the Flagship zoom ahead of us and impact the ground. Forming freckles of craters against the face of the planet.

Koriand'r mumbles something softly.

I can't hear her.

I'm spreading my swings.

FWOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!

Ashes and embers fly as the two skeletons fan out on either side of me.

Our descent slows dramatically.

My whole body strains.

I usher us down slowly....slowly...

Koriand'r looks at my shut-eyes the entire time....

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**T-Minus: One minute.**

**Location: Tamaran – Plain**

Thwump!

We land gently in the center of the craters.

I let go of Koriand'r.

She stumbles backwards...standing on trembling legs.

I hunch over....shiver....strain....and let out a huge breath.

TH-THUMP!!! My helmet rolls off and rolls on the ground till it stops against Koriand'r's foot. Tap!

She glances down at the helmet. She looks back at me.

The wristband on my right arm flashes....beeps....

And.....

The fiery feathers burn out.

FHSSSSS!!!!

The skeletal branches fall off limply...one by one.

CLANG!!!! CLACK!!! CL-CLACK!! CLANG!!!

Finally, the two support wing structures detach cleanly from my back.

THWANG!!!! CLANG!!!!

My torso and black tank-top are smoking. But my skin is unharmed.

I pant.

I look up.

I open my eyes.

A tiny flame flickers once...twice...and is gone.

My optics are black again. And they are open.

And Koriand'r sees them.

".........," I blink.

".........." she stares. She leans her cute head to the side.

"..........' I gulp.

I hear voices.

I look over her shoulder.

She turns around and looks.

A hovercraft full of concerned Tamaranian soldiers spot the little girl from the far side of the City and are currently speeding over to investigate and help out.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I look down at my wristband.

**T-Minus: Zero.....Zero....Zero....**

FLASH!!!!!!!

Koriand'r turns and looks at me again.

Her lips part.

For I am gone.......

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A cold sensation.

I opened my naked black eyes.

I blinked.

Lobo, Minnae Metharsia, and Katma Tui looked at me from across the circular room of cold metal.

"Sanctuary.....," Katma quietly remarked.

"Mr. Noir!!" Minnae clasped her pretty hands together and worriedly asked. "D-Did you succeed?!?!"

I sighed. I rubbed the bridge of my nose tiredly.

"Did you manage to save your friend?!?!"

I looked over at her with thin black eyes.

A beat.

I smiled. I nodded.

Minnae beamed happily. "Hooraaay!!! Hehehehe!! It was a victory, yes??"

"It sure as Hell better be!!" Lobo grumbled. He punched his fist. "I want my MOOLAH!!!"

FL-FLASH!!!!

The shimmering Being appeared before us. It gestured nonchalantly with a hand as if six hours hadn't really passed. "Yes....it was a Victory. Death claimed many victims that day. But the War was won by Life. Angel Spears...you have succeeded in maintaining the peace and the prosperity of the Vegan Quadrant. As it was destined for you to do."

"Wait a minute....," Katma held up a finger. "You mean to tell us that you knew about the outcome all along??"

"Naturally," the Being nodded. "Was that not the impression we made??"

Katma helplessly chuckled. "Whatever. I just do my job. Heheheheh."

As if choreographed, there was an undeniable....shared sigh felt by the entirety of us. It was as if all four of us suddenly felt then and there the reality of our actions sink in.

We had become heroes.

And Lobo....

"Well great!!! Then give me the fraggin' reward promised of me!!" he smirked with hungry red eyes. "I think a little recompense is in order!! Being an omnipotent fruitcake, surely you can afford me a life's fortune or two!!"

There was an uncomfortable pause of silence that—seemingly—only the other three of us took notice of. Otherwise, Lobo didn't argue as the Being hesitantly faced him and nodded. "Yes....we have your reward waiting for you. In little time, you shall be reaping it, Mr. Lobo."

"HA!! About time!!" the undead mercenary did a little jig. "Not that I didn't enjoy crushing so many reptilian heads....I did!! It's just that....well...even for a guy who...can't die....a day spent....without being.......p-paid.....can be a waste..... and..... even.... a..... creep............ l-like..... me..... understands.... th-that.... a waste.... is.... er.... wasteful...and.... I....... errrrrghh...." Gradually, Lobo became intoxicated with slumber. His red eyes thinned and—in mid speech—he slumped over and was out like a light. In fact, he was even snoring.

And it didn't take a genius for the three of us to know that the Being was responsible for that.

"......," Katma stared silently at the mercenary. She looked up at the Being. "There is no reward for what he has done....for what any of us has done.......is there?"

Minnae and I were silent.

"No....there is not," the Being shook its head. "The only reward for your heroism today is the act of heroism itself. You have all saved countless of billions of lives. In established concordance with the Prime Directive of Chrono Intervention...we must return you back to your homes and timelines without any added interference in your lifestyles."

Katma bore a weary grin. "That means....in many contexts, doesn't it??"

The Being somberly nodded. "None of you four must be allowed to remember what has transpired here. Sadly...that includes the Act you have done. It could horrendously damage the rest of History."

Katma sighed. "I understand completely." She hung her head. "As a Green Lantern....I understand that the cost of the few is necessary for the needs of the many. Egotism shouldn't play a part." She looked across at Minnae and I, grinning softly. It was the most feminine I had seen her. "Being a hero....it's not always a big-headed job."

Minnae and I both nodded.

"I am more than pleased to have undergone all of this...celebration or no celebration....," Minnae held her hands together and spoke, "....knowing that I have blessed so many lives. That so many families shall live on thanks to the part that I have played."

"Lobo....he cannot understand that....unfortunately....," the Being gestured.

Minnae looked my way. "Mr. Noir....you....y-you are in agreement?"

A beat.

I sighed and slowly nodded with a weak smile.

_Believe it not......I'm the type to welcome mind-erasing whenever I can......_

She smiled back at me.

'_Somehow......I believe that, Mr. Noir......'_

"We shall be returning you shortly......," the Being said...its image flickering. "And though you will not remember what has happened here....we shall forever be grateful. We shall pass on your legacy in stone here at the Great Implosion." A wave of the hand....and.....

Magically, statues formed in the circular wall around us...joining many that we had never truly noticed before...as if they too had disappeared. Or maybe all of these effigies had always been there. As well as all the Angel Spears were in one place and every place at the same time. The protectors of Life and Heroism across the entire Universe and Time.

The Being gestured from one stone likeness to the next as it spoke. "Katma Tui....Angel Spear One....Green Lantern....leader of the mission to save Tamaran from Gordanian defilement. Your strength and command was the glue that held not only the team together...but countless of innocent lives. Lobo....Angel Spear Two....merciless bounty hunter....born with the paradoxical impulse to protect his own honor....his forward-mindedness stared down the face of Death without fear and assisted the team in the spearhead operation. Princess Minnae Metharsia....Angel Spear Three....telepath and negotiator. On countless occasions did your optimism, compassion, and secret strength preserve the spirit of the operation. Noir.....Angel Spear Four.....Teen Titan....your insatiable quench for preserving friendship forced you to cross miles and fight down countless enemies—even a Demon himself—to preserve the life of one dear to you."

The Being turned and looked our way.

"The essence of an Angel....it is love for Life. All four of you—meaning to or not—possess this nature. And for that, you were chosen. And for that....you were victorious."

I smirked.

Minnae curtsied.

Lobo snored.

Katma saluted.

"We wish you serenity and long-life in your own worlds and your own time....."

The Being faded away.

Katma took a deep breath. "Well....I'd say it's been fun.....but I've got a migraine the size of a New God's helmet." She looked my way. She stared....

"????" I looked at her.

"Ya know....you're not half bad, kid," she smiled. "I know that we're about to lose our memories and all.....but anyhow, if you're ever hanging around during an off day on Terra Firma....pay a visit to John Stewart for me."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Tutor of mine," she winked.

I smirked....shrugging.

"I never did find Lidikins....," Minnae blushed. "Oh well! I suppose she'll be back home waiting for me at the palace!! Hehehehe!!"

Katma and I sweatdropped.

"Yeah.....sure thing, Y-Your Highness."

"It's been a pleasure serving with you, Captain."

"I'm sure I'll return the favor," Katma shrugged. A beat. "Er.....if I haven't already."

"Hehehe!" Minnae smiled. She looked at me. "You know....she's very pretty, Mr. Noir."

I lean my head to the side....a question mark over my head.

"The girl.....the one with blue eyes.....in your head....."

My jaw drops. A beat. I smile.

"You are..........loved deeply. Do you know that?"

I take a deep breath.

And as I feel icy waves wash over my mind like a cold broom against an organic sidewalk...

I close my black eyes and relax.

_I know........._

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"Noir??"

".........."

"Noir!! Yoo hoo!!" A shrill whistle. "Earth to Noir!!!"

I stumbled forward.

I caught my balance.

I blinked.

Cyborg gave me a funny look. "S'up, dawg?? Where've you been?" He sat on the couch across the Main Room. The game he and Beast Boy were playing was on pause while the two turned in their seat to look back at me in front of the open elevator. Raven was in a corner....hovering......reading a book. Robin stood behind the kitchen counter, pouring himself some lemonade. Starfire sat on a stool next to him.

All eyes were on me.

"You deaf, man?? Ha ha ha!!"

I opened my lips.

I paused.

_Where was I??_

I blinked again.

I started to hand-sign an answer....but fumbled.

_I.........I don't remember......_

My black eyes traced the sides of my shades.

_I.........was just walking in......from the elevator......_

_Meditating........._

I was meditating, duh!!

I hand-sign to him finally.

"Meditating?!?!" Cyborg made a face. "Wow....must have been pretty intense practice!!"

"Dude...even YOU'RE not that hardcore!!" the changeling cackled.

I simpered....blushing for some reason I didn't know.

"Where were you, Noir?" Robin asked.

I looked his way.

He gave me a look through his eyemask that was somewhere in between sternness and concern.

"I kept calling you and calling you through the communicator!! You were gone for nearly six hours! What's the deal??"

I fumbled. I scratched my head. I chuckled breathily and honestly shrugged.

"Time flies when you're meditating, huh?" the Boy Wonder asked.

I hesitantly nodded.

_Sounds logical.........heh......I bet I honed in on my powers pretty good then......_

"Next time...do us a little courtesy and respond??" Robin asked.

"Yeah!! Ha ha!!" Beast Boy laughed as he and Cyborg continued their Xbox game. "Who knows!! Noir could be stuck in the cellars again!!"

"HA HA HA!!!"

"Hehehehehe!!"

I folded my arms and frowned.

"Just give him a rest already.....," Raven droned...her nose in a book. "He's back now. Isn't that enough?"

"We're just pulling his leg, Rae," Cyborg said. "Come on, Noir! Sit down! Join us, man! I just rented this game today!"

"Yeah! And it rocks, dude!"

I smiled. I slowly walked forward.

Starfire the whole time had been watching everyone curiously. Listening in. As I passed, she suddenly stood up from the stool and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Noir.....are you.....doing well?"

"......," I stared at her. I raised an eyebrow above my shades.

"Your meditation....," she murmurs. Her face straight. "It was.....most strenuous?"

I shrugged....then nodded.

"And because of the meditation...you were gone for those whole six hours?"

I smiled...confused. I nodded again and patted her hand on my shoulder.

She smiled slightly. "J-Just curious. I-I suppose that I'll never understand just how....t-time consuming such practice may be."

I shrugged.

_Neither did I......I guess......_

I walked away from her and across the Main Room.

Starfire stared at me from behind.

A beat.

She turned and headed towards the elevator. "I shall be back soon, Robin. I just need to do something momentarily."

"Hurry back, Star!" Robin smiled. "I'm dying to hear more about you and your childhood stories of homecooking!"

She giggled cutely and entered the elevator...the doors closing behind her.

In the meantime, I sat on the couch beside Cyborg and Beast Boy.

I sighed and smiled.

"Comfy?" Raven asked without looking.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

"Awwww man!!!" Cyborg frowned. "That's so cheap!!"

"Not my fault you let me pick my own characters this time!!"

"Still, man....there should be a law against that!"

"Hehehe!!"

I smiled, leaned forward, and hand-signed: 'My turn next!'

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHWISH!!!!

The door to Starfire's room closed behind her.

The Tamaranian girl took a deep breath.

She floated over towards the far corner where a blanket lay over something.

She gently removed the blanket.

Underneath the blanket was a trunk.

Slowly, Starfire opened the trunk and started rummaging and rummaging and rummaging....

And....

She paused.

She swallowed.

With gentle hands, Starfire pulled out an old, beat-up helmet. It was curved and brown, with a top piece of ribbed texture. Slash marks and burn marks and stains of purple crossed the crackling surface. But most noticeable of all was the missing visor...shattered off like broken glass where a soldier's eyes would have been guarded.

The redhead bit her lip. Green moisture formed around the corner of her optics. She sniffed once...twice....but finally smiled painfully as she hugged the helmet to her chest and sighed relaxingly forth....

"Thank you..........."


	117. Everyone Loves a Sleeping Bird

**117. Everyone Loves a Sleeping Bird**

In a dark room, a lone metal table sat under the dim glow of a white light. A two mirror rested against one wall of the small interior, reflecting the emptiness contained within. There was a door on either side...cold and metal like the table itself.

After an interminable period of silence, the door on the right side opened.

CREEEAK!!!

Two gray-dressed guards marched in. They ushered a petite figure between them. A figure with dainty, pale wrists shackled in handcuffs and her pink hair drawn back in a ponytail. With her head hung and eyes firm...a sullen Jinx was guided to the table. A chair was dragged over from the corner by a guard...who gestured towards it. The girl sat down. Not saying a word. Not even sighing.

A beat.

The two guards stood in a corner on either side of the room behind the table. They waited.

".............," Jinx sat silently.

The handle of the door on the opposite side turned.

Light poured in momentarily...blocked by a short, thin shadow crossing the rays and shuffling into the room. The door closed behind.

Click!!

Jinx dazedly looked up. Her cat-eyes were thin. Her lips taut.

Beast Boy slowly shuffled over to the table. He paused...staring at her.

"........," Jinx quietly looked away.

A beat.

Beast Boy slowly opened his mouth and spoke: "Ya know....how long have you been here in prison? Two months now??"

"................."

"I've talked with the chief Warden. He says the guards only report perfect conduct from you. Not once have you shouted or acted out of order. You've not caused a disturbance inside or outside of your cell. You haven't tried escaping. I don't think you've even used your powers....not once in all this time."

"................."

"And....well....Robin did some research for me. And he says that---before when you were with HIVE---your wreckless behavior while in custody was well over two hundred percent greater than anything you do now."

A beat.

Beast Boy paced a bit and continued: "What that all boils down to is....you're not the bad little girl you used to be, Jinx. Yes....I know that---by working with Slade---you've settled yourself for at least thirty years in this place, and even that's an iffy grace period. But....in spite of whatever little hope you have of getting out of here because of the things you've done....you practically live like an angel. Or better yet...a statue."

Beast Boy stopped. He walked over and leaned against the table, facing the sitting girl at eye-level.

"You've changed. And I think you know that too. And seeing that the last time you ever spoke or said anything was back in the day when we were all fighting each other....then maybe now that one of the Titans is standing before you and stuff....you'll start talking again? You'll maybe start....I dunno....explaining just....just what your wishes are now that you've gotten yourself here?"

"............," Jinx stared through the table.

"Jinx.......," Beast Boy leaned his head to the side. "....none of the other Titans would come here. I think....I think they're afraid of you. I know they won't admit it. Heh....Raven would rather kill people then admit fear. But...when we think of you, we think of Slade now. You're no longer the punk girl who fought us just because she was part of HIVE. You remind us of what it means to feel pain....betrayal....and....and evil. But I know that there's more to it than that. The Titans....all of us....we've been blinded before. We know what it's like to be so obsessed with pain that we try to push the cause of it far away like smelly garbage. Heh...you even helped us with that when Noir was framed for all our bad luck and stuff. But...I know that we weren't the only ones hurt by Slade. Slade hurt you a lot, Jinx. I think....no....I know that it's because of him that you're here. It's because of Slade and all the evil things he did that you're stuck in this place for the rest of your foreseeable life. It's not the first time he's ever ruined a young girl's life....."

"It's not me that you're here for....," Jinx bitterly muttered. Her cat eyes burned through the table. "You and the Titans are merely overseeing the transfer of another crook...."

"..............," Beast Boy stared at her.

"Why don't you go and help them......," she droned. "I'm not here for one of your personal....'field trips'...."

"Jinx.....," Beast Boy leaned over further and spoke quietly....gently.... "Your sisters.....Slade had to have been lying about them. Won't you give the Titans a chance to help you? We have the resources! We can track them down with your help! We can—"

Jinx's head flashed up at him with glowing eyes of furious pink. "I said **leave me alone!!!"**

Her wrists glowed hot pink in the shackles.

The guards marched up to the rear of her chair, tasers ready.

Beast Boy held up a hand.

Silence.....

Jinx fumed....and slowly the pink fury died away. She took a deep breath and frowned down at the tabletop again.

"..........," Beast Boy sighed. He slowly turned and marched towards the door. "Guess I'll...ya know...try again in another two months."

The door opened....closed...and the room was silent again.

Jinx sat at her table. Her lungs heaved. Eventually, she bit her lip and hid her wet eyes in shackled palms.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Allright!! Bring 'em out!" a warden hollered through a doorway leading into a glass chamber in another wing of the prison. He turned and faced us. "You kids ready?"

"Ready," Robin nodded.

"Well prepared," Starfire added.

".....we're not 'kids'," Raven droned.

The warden stepped back.

A shadow appeared in the doorway.

Robin held his metal staff out.

Raven and Starfire floated in the middle of the prison hallway.

Cyborg and I stood side by side besides a huge, plastic cart for special prisoner transport. He fingered the trigger to his sonic cannon. I held Myrkblade by my side...cautiously....

The shadows in the doorway increased, and four guards emerged. In between them was none other than Fang in orange prison garb. He walked on human feet. His human wrists were shackled heavily. His four 'spider limbs' were stretched up above his head and all bound together by a single steel ring. As if that wasn't enough, a 'muzzle' of sort was firmly planted over his fangs and mandibles. Beady, arachnid eyes blinked in freakish multiplicity across his dimpled, spider head.

Starfire shuddered with clattering teeth...visibly disturbed.

Raven concentrated. Her violet eyes were a solid glow of gray. She held a meditative hand out...ready to fling any sort of telekinetic power at the unruly prisoner if anything out of the ordinary were to happen.

"Gawd....," Cyborg muttered in a whispering breath aside to me. "...with that many feet, it'd be only natural to lose some socks in the wash!"

I snickered breathily.

The four guards led Fang towards the plastic transport. The beastly villain was to be escorted to Metropolis for a court case regarding a museum theft five years previous. With the history of Fang's escapism, the new chief warden felt it necessary to ask for special help during the moving process. None of us could blame him.

"No sudden moves.....," Robin muttered.

Finally, the guards brought Fang to the transport and prepared to shut the translucent door behind him.

"Well....," the warden walked over and stood amongst us. He smiled and planted his hands against his hips. "...that was certainly anticlimactic! The creep didn't even bother talking his mandibles off this time!"

"Yeah....," Fang suddenly growled, muffled. "....cuz if I did, the words from my lips would be '**DEATH TO THE TITANS!!!!!'**"

CRACK!!!!!!!

The metal ring broke as the villain somehow got his limbs free.

Starfire gasped.

I grit my teeth.

THWAP!!! SMACK!!! WHAM!!!

"WAAAH!!!"

"AAAAUGH!!!"

"AAACK!!"

The guards around Fang cried out as his arachnid limbs tossed them against the walls of the room. The spider-person brought his mutated arms about and snapped off the muzzle. He reared his ugly head and showed his fangs. "RAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

"Titans!!" Robin twirled his staff and charged. "GO---"

WHAM!!!!

Fang suddenly rushed over and headbutted the Boy Wonder. "OOF!!"

CHHIIIING!! I swung Myrkblade at him in a charge--

THWACK!!!

He uppercutted me with a hooked foot, slamming me against a wall. WHUMP!!!

"Okay, pal!!" Cyborg shouted and aimed his sonic cannon. "Migraine for you!!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

Fang dove out of the way from the blast, which sent cracks running rivers up a wall.

Starfire bit her lip and flung a flurry of starbolts. FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FL-FLASH!!!

Fang's legs scurried and he hopped each green blast before climbing onto the ceiling with his spider legs, grabbing Starfire by the shoulders with his human feet, and literally flinging her straight into Cyborg.

"EEEEK!!!!"

WHUMP!!!

"DAAH!!"

Four Titans lay on the floor, groaning.

THWUMP!!!

The spider-freak landed to the floor. It turned and faced the warden.

The man in question stumbled backwards...trembling....teeth chattering....

"Yessssss....heheheh....," Fang's mandibles glistened as he skittered over and leered above the man. "You.....I think I'll be sucking your bowels in through a straw tonight!!"

The warden flinched.

Fang hissed and dove at him.

"Azarath Metrion **ZINTHOS!!**"

FLASH!!!!

Fang floated in a mid-air bubble of obsidian. "Awwww shoot."

SWOOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

He was flung by telekinesis into a nearby wall.

Raven floated before him, frowning. Her eyes glowing bright and gray. "One of these days, somebody should squash you..."

"You think you punk kids are enough to stop me?!?!" Fang convulsed with as many of his limbs as he could manage. "I've broken out of this pathetic glass jar of a prison dozens of times and I'll do it again if I have to!! You damn Titans think you're so cool......ONE OF THESE DAYS, I'M GONNA BE EATING YOUR HEARTS OUT---"

**Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!!!! WHAM!!!**

A green rhino charged in from the hallway and slammed its massive horn into the mutant's prone body.

Raven let go of her energy field as Fang's body ragdolled into the plastic container.

WHUMP!!

"OOF!!!"

The guards got up to their feet—a little dizzy—and quickly managed to shut and lock the door behind the creep.

"RRRRAAAAAUGH!!!" Fang angrily shook and banged his way around the transparent cube on wheels, shouting in rage.

The warden wiped the sweat off his brow as Cyborg and I stood up beside him. "Taser 'em."

ZAAAP!!!

"DAAH!! JEEZ!!" Fang winced. His multiple eyes narrowed and he stood still...growling like a caged animal. But slightly sedated.

"Sorry I was late," Beast Boy said, brushing himself off in elf form. "Got a little jinxed."

"You should have been here earlier," Raven droned.

"You missed me that much?" he grinned.

"Hardly...."

Robin straightened his cape and helped Starfire to her feet. "Well....mental note. Expect anything when dealing with Fang. No matter how little the circumstance."

"I wasted that sonic blast for nothing!" Cyborg pouted. "Sheesh...you turn into a mutant arachnid punk and you think you can walk on water or something."

"Hey!!" Fang pounded on the side of the transport. "I was born this way---"

ZAAAP!!

"DAAH!! Okay!! Okay!!" He grumbled.

I glanced his way.

He glanced my way. His mandibles flared threateningly.

I stuck my tongue out, grinned, and sheathed Myrkblade. CHHHING!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"My...weren't you cool about Fang and everything, Noir?" Beast Boy mused as the six of us walked out of the Prison and towards the T-Car. The sun had just finished setting. Stars started to form in the night's sky.

I shrugged, smirking.

"I think Noir considers himself king of the spiders since that one on one battle they had beneath that apartment building," Cyborg said. "Y'all remember that?"

"Heheh....yeah," Robin nodded.

Raven said: "I also remember that—just thirty minutes ago—Noir was the second to be slammed to the ground when Fang nearly escaped."

I sweatdropped.

"I stand corrected, Rae," Cyborg winked down at her. They were walking side by side, actually. "You were the coolest of us all just then."

"Dude...she's ALWAYS the coolest of us all!" Beast Boy rolled his emerald eyes.

"It comes with meditation," Raven numbly said. "Momentarily occurrences of shock fail to fluster me."

"Is that a boast?" Cyborg asked.

"It's a fact."

"Suuuuure it is."

"........"

"Ahem.....moving on."

"Brrrrrrrr!!!" Starfire hugged herself while walking along and clenched her teeth nervously. "I do not enjoy fighting the one called 'Fang'! I do not enjoy fighting him at all!"

"Why not, Star?" Robin asked.

"He is far too dark and hairy and possessive of multiple, jagged legs."

Robin raised an eyebrow above his eyemask. "You're arachnophobic, Star?"

"Eh???" she looked at him. Her green eyes blinked. "I am afraid I have not yet acquainted myself with that term."

"It means afraid of creepy crawlies!" Beast Boy hopped. "Mainly spiders."

"ONLY spiders, actually," Raven said.

"Why, thank youuuuuu Mrs. Wizard!!!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Once you've fought one monstrous freak, you've fought them all," Robin said. "I'm surprised that—as many planets and alien creatures you've encountered and had to defend yourself against—you choose a spider-human hybrid of all things to be freaked out by."

"It is not so much 'being the freaked of the out' by Fang's ilk....," Starfire stammered. "It is difficult to explain. Why must such exquisite creatures on Terra Firma be so....so....."

"Squirmy?" Beast Boy asked, smiling.

Starfire shivered again.

Robin placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. We're going back to the Tower now. You can get a good night's sleep and forget all about spiders and their multiple eyes and hairy fangs and twitching legs and—"

I coughed.

Robin and Starfire looked my way, curiously.

"What's that, Noir?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"He says 'shut up'," Cyborg shivered.

Beast Boy giggled.

We got inside the T-Car...and drove off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I couldn't sleep that night.

I could tell just by guessing that it had to have been eleven thirty or so in the evening and no amount of tossing or turning could wear me out enough to finally black out. Everytime my dark eyes closed and encased myself in blackness, I envisioned all sorts of squirmy legs running all over me and under the covers of my bed. And....no....it didn't help that I was wearing a sleeping mask for my sensitive eyes and couldn't see even a fraction of light with my lids open anyways.

At some point, I finally became a man about it and....gave up. I tossed my eyemask off and sat on the edge of my bed. Frustrated....exhausted....but insomniac.

I sighed.

I picked my shades up off my bedside table. In a white bedshirt and gray shorts, sauntered through the darkness to the door of my underground room. Once outside in the dimly let, metal 'cellar' of the Tower...I put my shades on and scaled the stairs to the first floor.

_Why am I getting déjà vu???_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHWISSH!!!

I walked out into the Main Room.

I paused.

"Ah jeez...you too?" Cyborg asked. He sat in one of the kitchen booths to the side. He was typing on a laptop wired to.....himself. "It must be an epidemic, man."

I blinked under my shades. I hand-signed to him.

He replied from long distance while typing. "Heh....even I get the willies from time to time. Man....why doesn't any other villain do this to us?? It's always Fang. Always that spider creep. You can never get a good night's sleep after dealing with his sort. Pfft. Unlucky heroes, us. I guess. Hey....mind grabbing me a Dr. Pepper from the fridge?"

I smirked. I shuffled over towards the kitchen and grabbed myself one too. I walked back.

"Sit down, man. I'm lonely here."

I sat across from him and slid his bottle across the counter for him.

He caught it and unscrewed the cap.

So did I.

We both drank as precisely the same moment.

_Caffeine at midnight......not like we're sleeping much anyhow......_

He finished his sip and exhaled. He continued typing and spoke nonchalantly while doing so. "I don't see why I have to be afraid of spiders, to be honest. Even if the most poisonous black widow was to slide down and bite me in the neck or something, my synthetic enzymes would resist the venom thanks to the overhaul of my immune system since my operation. It's the same story with snakes and....er...I dunno....lionfish and other 'no touchie' stuff. No point in pumping venom into a body that's more metal than it is blood. Eh?"

I gulped some Dr. P down and hand-signed.

He glanced up from his laptop just enough to read. He smirked. "Man, shut up!!! I still have to breathe, dawg! So yeah....knock out gas still affects me!"

I smirked.

"Though....to be honest....all Mad Mod had to really do that one night was just fart in our general direction and I'd be down for the count."

I rolled my black eyes. I sipped some more.

A beat.

I looked at Cyborg.

He continued typing. ".................." He stopped. "..............." He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

Another beat.....

"I bet you're wondering what I'm doing....aren't you?"

I slowly nodded.

He bit his lip....hesitated...then smiled. "Just.....er....a hobby of mine, man..."

'Hobby??' I mouthed.

"Yeah......pretty much....."

I craned my neck to see his screen.

He defensively pivoted the laptop so I couldn't see. "Hey!! Who said you could peak??"

I raised an eyebrow. Suddenly, I chuckled breathily and did a 'shame on you' gesture with a metal and flesh forefinger.

"Huh?! N-No!! It's nothing like that, man!!"

I chuckled some more.

"Fine!! FINE!! I'll tell you what it is!" the android Titan barked. A beat. He bit his lip and sweatdropped. He cleared his throat. "It's a....er.....m-my latest fanfic...."

I raised an eyebrow.

"It's lame, I know! Worst way to waste my time. But I can't help it. I'm addicted."

I nodded. A beat. I hand-signed: 'What's a fanfic?'

His human eye bugged. "Erm....eheheh....n-never mind."

I smiled and leaned forward...genuinely interested.

"It's...I....that.....argh....Star Wars. Okay?! Star Wars!!" he shook his head and chuckled at himself like some insane jester. "I think all the prequels suck. So I decided to....erm...write my own."

I mouthed: 'Really??'

"Yeah. The way I think they should have gone."

I leaned my head to the side. I look at the labtop. I look at him. Silently. Curious.

"Okay...for one," Cyborg suddenly and emphatically spoke with a raised finger. "There ain't gonna be no sissy-ass little munchkin Vader. I'm sorry, kid Anakin. But you gotta go. I'd make the young Vader....I dunno...older and more badass as a dark lord should be. And he should be black too!"

I blinked.

"Hey!! James Earl Jones did his freakin' voice, man!"

I nodded, smiling.

"So anyways....black Vader.......heh.....yeah, he grows up on Tatooine. But he doesn't take part in any lame-ass pod race or something. Nope. He hunts Sand People!"

I leaned my chin on my hand, listening.

"Right. He's a mercenary! Sand People killed off his parents when he was just a toddler. So he's already imbued with the Dark Side. He's not some goody-goody-two-shoes that turns evil. The evil's always been in him. Kinda like real life..........right?"

I raised a finger to say something--

"Anyways. Things start heating up when a ship full of Sith crashlands on Tatooine, and Vader goes there to investigate. The Sith ask him for help in fighting the Jedi of the Republic, who's scouring the desert planet to capture the Sith. Vader agrees...but he turns on the Sith and—like—kills off their master in the Force. So he becomes the new master now, get it?"

I nodded.

"It'd be perfect! Vader's a dark lord from the get go! And when he fights Darth Fett---Boba Fett's a Sith in my fic," he interjected with a wink.

I shrugged.

"---Vader gets his body chopped to bits by the bad dude. So he has to get all of these mechanical enhancements to complete the limbs and organs that he's lost so that the series can have a tie in to the cybernetic mask that he wears all the time and---" A beat. Cyborg's voice lingered. He looked at me.

I looked patiently back at him.

"You don't think I'm doing a self-insertion, do you?" he whispered.

I give him a wyrd look.

"Ya know....tons of fanfiction writers do it....," Cyborg sweatdropped. "They put too much of....er.....th-themselves into........the body of the work."

I smiled and politely shook my head no.

"You don't think so?"

I shook my head some more.

"You're not just saying that to make me feel good?"

I frown.

"Okay!! Okay!!" he chuckled and leaned back. He rested his titanium arms behind his back and smiled. Proud. "Ah man...fifty pages and counting. I swear...this thing will be an epic by the time I post it."

I mouthed: 'Post??'

"Er....on the Internet, of course. That's the whole point of fanfiction, ya know?"

I nodded.

He looked at me curiously. He smiled. "I bet you'd make a great writer, Noir."

I pointed myself incredulously....then with a humored grin I shook my head.

"Sure you would!! You write to Wonder Woman all the time."

I rolled my black eyes.

"You could just do it for fun! Fanfiction....like me." A beat. He leaned forward. "Name at least one show, movie, or cartoon show you really like...."

I scratched my head.

A beat.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg blinked. "MASH???"

I blushed. I nodded.

"..............I liked the crossdresser on that show."

SCHWIIISH!!!!

Cyborg and I looked over at the elevator. And we were hard-pressed to visually locate someone.

"Uh.....hello?" Cyborg uttered.

Silence.

I sipped some Dr. Pepper. I swallowed. I lowered my shades and peered over the lenses with naked optics. Still, I couldn't see anyone.

Cyborg could. He planted a finger to his left forehead. The red light of his synthetic eye blinked as infra-red kicked in. He smiled. "It's okay, Star. You can come out. There're no spiders here."

There was an adorable, muffled murmur. Then an amber-skinned teenager in her pajamas sauntered out one barefoot at a time, hugging a Tamaranian glork plushie to her chest. She bit her lip and quickly covered the distance between the far side of the Main Room and our booth with one, sweeping glide. She plopped herself down and curled next to Cyborg, trembling.

"Your earth spiders....they are all the more terrifying to envision in the absence of a great multitude of solar or synthetic light.....," she breathed.

"Awwww," Cyborg smiled and hugged an arm around her shoulder. "Don't fret, Star! Seriously...spiders aren't that bad. Nothing to be frightened over!"

"Th-Then for what reason are the two of you sitting here, so awake?"

Cyborg bit his lip.

I cleared my throat.

"Erm....," Cyborg uttered. "We uh.....needed Dr. Pepper."

"Doctor.....of the P-Pepper??" Starfire's blinking eyes looked at the bottle. "It is a distracting elixir, yes?"

"Well...'distracting' in that it could keep you wired and awake and far from having to fall asleep and experience arachnid visions in your sleep---"

"Eep! Then I desire some of that healing quaff! As soon as legitimately possible!......P-Please?"

Cyborg chuckled. "Sure thing. We've got plenty to share, Star." He started to get up.

I waved him down and got up for her.

"Ah...well thanks, Noir."

I shrugged. I teleported up and over the kitchen counter with a blur of smoke. Reached into the fridge. Grabbed another bottle. And teleported back.

I handed Starfire a bottle.

"Drink your troubles away...," Cyborg mused, chuckling. He started typing away again.

"Gladly....I thank you very much," Starfire bowed her head.....and bit over the bottle-cap. CLANK! "Owie...."

"Um...no, Starfire. That's not how you drink a bottle of soda—"

"Do you not pour it into a 'glass' first?" Starfire winced, rubbing her jaw.

"Just drink from the bottle, Star. It's okay. That's what they're made for at that size."

"I will not be punished for applying my cranial orifice to the instrument---?!?!"

"Just drink it!! Damn....," Cyborg chuckled.

I smiled.

Starfire simpered, unscrewed the bottle, and took a sip. She swallowed. Blinked. And shook all over.

"Now what?"

"The bubbles are always so unique to get used to," the girl managed a giggle...calming down some. She still hugged the glork plushie to her side as she held the bottle in the other hand. "I remember when Blackfire first planned her trip here to visit me—before the treachery of course—she seemed so intent on ingesting one of these carbonated beverages."

"I'm glad to hear that soda is Terra Firma's one major cuisine of the cosmos," Cyborg said, typing. "As long as we have something to be proud of."

"Earthlings have so many things to be proud of!" Starfire exclaimed. "Your culture is so full of richness and diversity! Of brave souls in the past and philosophes carving a better future for civilizations to follow in spite of their bleak mortality and—"

"Starfire??"

"Y-Yes, Cyborg?"

"You're almost spilling your soda."

"Eeek!!" Starfire carefully balanced the bottle. "Doctor of the Pepper, I do apologize!!"

I giggled breathily.

The Tamaranian girl looked at me curiously. "Noir, greetings."

I waved.

"You are also.......forced awake by recent events?" she blushed.

I hesitantly nodded. I scratched my head. I gestured.

Cyborg glanced up just long enough to read: "He says 'some things a shower and a good sleep can't fix'."

"I suppose not," Starfire nodded. A beat. She sipped some more soda, she spoke: "I am amazed that I do not possess random, unpleasant images of Slade or Killer Moth in my sleep. But this one miscreant of mutant nature with whom we often entangle with is most......disturbing."

"I suppose it's an instinctive thing," Cyborg leaned back on his arms and stared at his glowing masterpiece momentarily. "No matter what planet you're from, you've evolved from one thing or another so as to be ultra-sensitive to tiny bugs with fangs." A beat. He looked at us and grinned. "Or God just made us with an 'Ick Meter'."

Starfire giggled. She lifted the jar triumphantly. "I do believe this beverage is accomplishing its said goal of Peppering me!"

"Well good for you. For a second there, I almost thought I said something funny," Cyborg mockingly pouted.

"Eeep! By all means, Cyborg! You are most amusing! Do accept my sincere apologies!" Starfire smiled pleasantly and hugged him strongly. "Heeeee!! It is so very pleasant to possess insomniac friends such as yourselves!"

"Daah! Star, watch it!! You're almost spilling syrup on my disk drives!!"

"M-My the bad....," she withdrew.

I leaned back in my chair and sighed. My mind wandered.

"You seem distracted, Noir....," Starfire uttered.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. I hand-signed simply.

"He just wishes he could sleep."

"Awww. I know, let us do something to distract ourselves from.....erm.....unpleasant organisms in Creation!"

"Like what?"

A third voice in our midst uttered: "How about a game of Twister?"

Starfire jumped, clutching her plushie. She blinked. She looked at Cyborg: "Did you—"

"No," Cyborg glanced up. "Knock it off, Beast Boy. We know you're here."

Starfire and I looked up.

A green bat perched upside down on the ceiling flapped itself upright and hovered down before squatting in elf form on the edge of the kitchen counter.

Beast Boy yawned cutely in his PJs and leaned a tired face against his chin. "Hiya, folks. How's the weather."

"Beast Boy! You have joined us! How ironic, concerning the great deal of exhaustion on your face."

"I know, Star. It's torture. No matter how pooped I am, I just can't sleep."

"Because of Fang, right?" Cyborg asked.

Beast Boy blinked. He hesitated. He then spoke: "Y-Yeah....because of Fang. That's it."

I looked at him...curious.

"Grab a Dr. Pepper and join the party," Cyborg grunted, trying to concentrate where he was at. "The more the merrier....or something."

"Yeah...sure thing, dude," Beast Boy yawned. He blinked. "Where's it at?"

"The fridge."

"Where in the fridge? You practically fill the thing to the brim with sandwiches you never eat!"

"Nuh uh, little man!! I swear, your tofu practically overflows on two counters!"

"Self-inflicted wound, dude! I can take it!"

"Argh....Noir, will you please show him where the last of the 'carbonated beverage' bottles are?" Cyborg muttered.

Starfire giggled....sipping some more.

_Hoo boy......_

I slowly sauntered up and hopped over the counter this time. I opened the fridge and rummaged around for the last bottle.

Beast Boy swiveled around and dangled his legs on the side of the counter facing me.

"Hey, Noir."

I waved blindly at him.

"Crazy day, huh? Usually, a trip to the Prison is a boring one but....heh....not this evening, huh? Craaaaazy day...."

I could tell he was lingering. When I pulled the Dr. Pepper out and handed it to him, I made sure to stare at his face for a few seconds....ten....fifteen....

He was halfway through his second sip when he finally looked back at me and recognized the fact that I was 'staring'. And...just like always...he gave in. They almost always gave in.

_Works like a charm._

"Okay....so it's not Fang, dude," he spoke in a hushed voice as if Cyborg and Starfire weren't allowed to listen in on us. "It's something else. I could go to sleep at anytime. But....I-I just don't feel right, ya know?"

I leaned my head to the side. Curious. Listening....

"I....had that talk with Jinx....like I told everyone I would," Beast Boy sighed. A beat. He sipped again, wiped his mouth with a sleeve, and continued: "I know it may sound crazy, but I feel sorry for her. You think that sounds crazy?"

I merely shrugged.

"Slade....he screwed her head up really bad. Him and that Dagger creep. And now Jinx is nothing but some really bitter soul locked up in prison for practically the rest of her life. It just doesn't seem fair, ya know? Like....Like maybe everyone should have given her a second chance. She was only manipulated...."

I bit my lip. I tried not to show it away.

But Beast Boy saw it.

"Yeah....I-I know....," he sighed. "She h-hurt you most of all, didn't she, Noir?" He looked at me with concern and sympathy. "She beat you up senseless and made you look bad in front of us, didn't she?"

I looked aside.

"Er....s-sorry, dude," he sweatdropped. "Not trying to open up old wounds or anything. Not you...not me....not anyone."

I leaned my head to the side.

He simpered. "I'm really pathetic, that's all. Pfft...I don't have a crush on Jinx or anything.....but.....I-I think I kinda liken her unto Terra in my head. Ya know? A girl with a tough life...called in by Slade...made to do bad things...."

"......," I look towards the floor.

So does the changeling. "Only.....where Terra is pretty much as g-gone as Slade and Dagger are....Jinx is still here. She's still alive. She still....has some sort of hope in life yet, despite everything. Cuz she's alive, you know?" He glanced up at me. "And....I-I tried reaching to her today. I thought that maybe since we crossed paths back at Westhaven, she'd be willing to open up to me or something. But there's no use. She's so....so full of loss and hate right now. I don't think even her sisters could reach her right now....er....if those sisters of hers truly were real."

I bit my lip.

"Well....heh....," he lifted the Dr. Pepper up as if to say 'cheers' and smiled like the changeling of old. "At least we got you and Robin back, huh? N-Not that you were ever really apprentices of Slade and all....but you sure did look badass wearing his style of outfit. Heheheheh."

I smiled for the heck of it.

FLAAAASH!!!

A black portal emerged from the nearby wall.

A startled Beast Boy spit out his mouthful of Dr. Pepper and sputtered. "Raven!! Sheesh! Don't burst in on us like that!!"

The dark girl solidified from her wall-phasing. She was dressed in her blue robe...as always. She gave all of us—Beast Boy most of all—a dejected look...barely blinking.

"Hi....."

She ruffled over towards a cabinet and pulled out a teacup and saucer.

"Ah....so the game's afoot....," Cyborg types without looking. He smirks. "Or in this case, the game's atentacle."

"Nice to see you too, Cyborg," Raven droned.

"Raven! It is pleasant to see you," a Peppered Starfire hiccups. "Do you join us in order to escape the nightly visions of spiders and—"

"Herbal tea....," Raven grunted. "It is a craving of mine..."

"Raven?! Craving?!" Cyborg mused. "Beep! Beep! Cyborg does not compute!"

"Compute what you like. I need herbal tea. There is no other reason as to why I am presently awake."

"Wow, Raven," Beast Boy sipped and smirked. "Even I lie better than you do."

Raven paused in acquiring her mixings for tea. She glared over at the changeling. "Would you like to put your tongue to the test? As a matter of fact...would you like to put your tongue in a bottle of formaldehyde?"

"Ahem," Beast Boy coughed and hid behind his bottle of soda. "Boy do you love your tea, Raven."

She smiled ever so slightly—I swear—and resumed her task.

"Training tomorrow," Cyborg said.

I blinked. I looked over his way.

"I hear Robin wants two of us to have a sparring session," the android grinned evilly. "I wonder who should it be this time."

"It's been a while since you and I went at it!" Beast Boy said.

"You still recovering from the bruises?"

The changeling momentarily turned into an aardvark to stick his tongue out.

"I have yet to be 'sparred' against Robin," Starfire blinked. "I wonder why the two of us have not been assigned to such training yet?"

"Gee....I wonder why...," Cyborg's human eye trailed and he hid a smirk.

Beast Boy giggled.

Starfire's green eyes narrowed. "Eh????"

"Ahem...nothing."

I sensed Raven to my right.

"???" I glanced at her.

".......," she stared directly at me. A beat. "You're in my way...."

I mouthed 'oh' and moved so that the petite sorceress could have access to the drawer with teaspoons. I scratch the back of my neck bashfully.

"Whoever is up for training tomorrow....," Raven began, "...I seriously doubt any one of us could properly guestimate. It is all Robin's prerogative."

"Whatever that means...."

"It means that he wants to surprise us, B.B."

"Thank you, Cy, analytical guru of the century."

"You're welcome."

"It would be nice to learn ahead of time," Starfire said. "I would greatly need to exercise in the morning in such an event."

"You should exercise regardless," Raven interjected, stirring a small cup of tea. "I always meditate each morning just in case....."

"Yeah...Buddha could come down from the Promised Land and try to wail on our asses with nunchaka!"

"Yeah!! Ha ha ha!" Cyborg raised a hand.

Beast Boy high-fived it and giggled.

Raven groaned.

I shrugged, smirking.

SCHWISSH!!!

The elevator doors opened again.

Starfire stood up straight, dropping the glork plushie and happily cupping her hands together. "Robin!!"

"And the night is officially crucified....," Cyborg muttered while typing. He smirked.

"Allright! Robin! Just the person we were wanting to hear from!" Beast Boy waved at the dark-haired boy.

".............," Robin stood limply in front of the elevator doors. He had on a white tank-top shirt and black slacks. "His hair was tossed and his eyemasked looked a little crooked from sleep. "..........."

"Robin...if I-I may be so bold as to inquire whom you desire to engage in 'the spar' with each other tomorrow?" Starfire asked.

"..................." Robin leaned back and forth.

"...........R-Robin?" Starfire blinked.

One hobbling step....two.....Robin shifted forward on dizzy legs. He seemed really out of it. Zombielike.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Heh....," Beast Boy smirked. He whispered to Cyborg and Starfire. "Not in a good mood. Testosterone and insomnia...not a good mix."

"How would you know, little man?"

"Grrrrr."

Robin limped past us.

"Robin," Starfire smiled pleasantly and watched him come closer. "If I could spare a second of.......y-your..................time....." She blinked.

Robin passed us.

He bumped into a table.

He dizzily leaned back and forward. He muttered something incoherent. He walked around the table.

"................," Raven quietly watched from behind the teacup as she sipped.

Cyborg peered up from his laptop writing.

The Boy Wonder wandered over towards the shelves beneath the huge monitor. He started pulling out DVD cases and stacking them up one on top of the other on the coffee table. "Nnnghhh," he muttered under his breath. "Every zone....e-every zone occupied....mnnnngrhhh....."

Once ten cases were stacked on top of each other, he turned around and shuffled towards the other side of the room.

"Uhm.......," Beast Boy held up a finger. "R-Robin??"

"Nnnghh....," the boy literally walked over a couch and gently hobbled down the other side. "I danced....Lucky Charms Holocaust....mmmm....."

"............" All of us sweatdropped.

Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances. They grinned wide. SWOOOSH!! They rushed over and stepped backwards in front of the hobbling Robin.

"Dude...is he doing what I think he's doing?"

Cyborg waved a titanium hand in front of Robin's eyemask.

No effect. The Boy Wonder kept hobbling across the room.

"Holy crap, man!! He's doing it!! He's sleep walking!!"

"Dude!! Hehehehehe! That's too rich!!"

"We gotta wake him, man—"

"No! Wait! Let's see what he does next!!"

"Shhhhhh!!"

"Snkkkk—hehehe!"

I watched from the kitchen unit, unbelieving.

Robin shuffled across the Main Room. With his eyemask blinding...there was no practical way of telling if his lids were opened or not. Thus—as far as any of us were concerned—he practically looked fully awake in his awkwardness.

He bumped into a computer console on the right side of the room.

"Nnngh....," he shook his head. He reached a hand across the counter and moved a tiny, invisible object. "...checkmate..."

"Hehehehehehe!!"

"Duuuuude....hahahaha!!"

"Shhh!! Watch what he does next..."

Robin turned around. He walked some more. He bumped into a table. He gritted his teeth. "Darn it.....smurfs....take care of it, Alfred.....mmmm.....Plasmus again......" He continued walking.

A humored Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances.

"Who's Alfred?!?!?"

"And PLEASE tell me he's not having some hot dream about Plasmus or something."

"Ewww....man!!"

"Hehehe!"

"I think you should wake him up," Raven droned. She sipped some more tea and added: "He wouldn't like it if you all let him say too much in his sleep. It could be a giveaway to his secret identity."

"Nah, Rae! We're not that mean."

"Aren't you finding this the least humorous, Raven?! I mean come on....he's SLEEP WALKING!!"

"The Boy Slumber!"

"Hahaha! Dude, that's awesome!!"

"Heheheheh!!"

"Not humorous in the least.....," Raven said. "........................." She twitched.

I held a hand over my mouth, trying not to laugh.

"Robin is.......diseased????" Starfire asked, hands clasped together in worry.

"No, Starfire," Raven side-glanced. "He's a somnambulist."

"Huh???"

"It's a Terran condition. Commonly called 'sleep walking'."

"Sleep walking???"

"Uh huh."

Starfire gasped. She looked Robin's way dramatically. "Do you mean to say that---even though our Robin is walking and talking—he is actually in a state of sleeping and perhaps REM???"

"That's the way it works for humans. Yup."

A beat.

"............," Starfire beamed. "That is sooooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuute!!"

SWOOOOSH!!

The Tamaranian girl floated over and hovered in front of Robin with a big grin on her face. She waved. "Greetings to you, walking automaton of the unconscious Robin!"

The Boy Wonder paused, teetering. His nostrils flared. Sniff!! Sniff!!

THWUMP!!!

"EEK!!" Starfire went wide-eyed as Robin spontaneously and explosively hugged her.

"Starfirrrrrrrrrrre shiny hairrrrrrrrrr," Robin practically gushed in an unearthly voice.

Cyborg and Beast Boy went bug-eyed.

_"PFFFFTTTTTT!!!!"_

I jumped as Raven next to me practically spit out a mouthful of tea. She coughed, cleared her throat, and wiped her mouth with her sleeve before hastily turning around and dropping the cup and saucer into the dishwasher. "That's it. I'm going back to bed."

I smiled crookedly.

Starfire awkwardly blushed a firestorm and tried to disentangle herself from Robin's embrace, but he merely hugged her closer and in a betrayingly childish manner the unconscious Boy Wonder nuzzled his face into her shoulder. "Mmmmm....starbolt at Slade....pronto....."

"Slade's dead, Robin," Beast Boy tried hiding a chuckle as Raven walked off towards the elevator.

"Hug her harder, Robin!" Cyborg hissed.

Beast Boy elbowed him.

"What?! Heheheh!!"

"Hehehehe!!"

"This is certainly not a situation that you two are h-helping!" Starfire wheezed. Her face was beet read as she tried getting Robin loose once more. "R-Robin....I must insist that you return to b-bed at once where there are......erm......less organic things to hug in such a delusional state!"

"Nnghh.....no belly buttons on Tamarack...."

"Tama**ran**," Starfire corrected.

A beat.

She blinked and lifted the top of her pajamas just far enough to glance at her midriff...and she bluffed subconsciously. Biting her lip, she looked at us. "Friends....will you not assist me? I fear for Robin's....Robin's.....I fear for his....."

"_Ego_," Raven filled in from the far side of the room.

Cyborg turned and looked at her. "Yo...I thought I said you were leaving?"

"Huh? Oh....uhm....of c-course I was.....j-just leaving.......ahem.....," she turned and 'left' again.

Cyborg shook his head, smiling.

Starfire whimpered.

I hand-signed something mischievously at the other boys.

Cyborg read: "'Looks like the tables have turned'."

"Erg??" Starfire blinked at me helplessly. "What do you mean by that, Noir?"

I whistled innocently and sauntered towards the stairs.

Cyborg and Beast Boy joined me.

"Come on, dawgs....let's do some Xbox till we drop dead of exhaustion."

"Sounds like a plan, pal."

I nodded.

"But....wh-what of Robin?! What am I to do with him?"

The Boy Wonder draped on her shoulder. "All the....nnghh....all the little penguins..."

"And what of all his little penguins?!?!"

"Hey, if you want to wake him up...all you need to do is shake him or make a loud noise!!" Cyborg said from the elevator. "Ciao!"

The doors closed and the three of us descended.

Starfire stood with Robin in her grasp. She bit her lip. She looked at him.

He quieted down and simply lay against her...snoozing. He could fall at any second.

The Tamaranian girl took a breath. She reached a hand to his head to shake him awake......

........

She stopped.

She stared at him. His tossed hair. His usually hard-edged features soft and relaxed....

"................," she smiled gently. "Ah....'to the purgatory with it'...."

She floated him over to the couch and gently laid him out. She sat on a chair across the way, leaned her chin on her hand, and simply watched him slumber......smiling.

It was a hobby that she was enjoying more and more.

So much so...that all memories of an eight-legged villain gradually left her head...and she was out cold much like him in under a half hour.


	118. Wonder Why

**118. Wonder Why**

"Now Noir, I do not desire to hurt you. But please know that I intend to use my powers to the extent of my ability...as well as you should use yours...."

I nodded.

Starfire took a deep breath. "Do you feel prepared to begin?"

I slowly unsheathed Myrkblade. CHHHHHHING!!

The Tamaranian floated up and charged her hands a glowing green.

My brow furrowed.

Her emerald eyes narrowed.

We faced each other on opposite sides of the Tower's rooftop. The early morning sun brightly illuminated half of our bodies while on the rise.

Raven and Cyborg stood on the Northern edge of the Tower...watching.

Beast Boy and Robin stood on the side.

"Nnnnnghhhh," Beast Boy yawned and blinked tiredly. "Man oh man..........what I wouldn't give for an eclipse right about now just so I'd have an excuse to get back to bed."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Robin remarked, bright and bushy-tailed. His eyemask was round and his lips curved as he folded his arms and said: "I swear...I rested last night like I've never rested in ages. How could anyone miss sleep?"

"Yeah....tell me about it," Beast Boy grumbled, refusing to look at the Boy Wonder.

Robin glanced at him curiously...but shook it off. He cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Ready!!"

Starfire glowed brighter. Her red hair billowed behind her as she hovered.

"Set!!"

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade. My legs parted...ready to spring. My metal left fingers posed meditatively....

"Go!!" Robin's hand fell.

Starfire's body shot up in the air and launched down a huge, pulsing starbolt. "RAAAUGH!!"

FLASH!!!!

I dove under the blast and rolled into a kneeling position.

Starfire launched two smaller pulses. "RAA! YAAH!!"

I twirled Myrkblade from where I crouched, deflecting the blasts. CLANG!! CLACK!!

I bolted up to my feet, blurred across the ceiling, and leapt up towards her.

Starfire grit her teeth and spun her body to the side in midair.

SLASH!!!!

My sword missed her.

She grabbed my side and tossed me over her shoulders with Tamaranian strength.

SWOOOOOSH!!

I flipped, flailed for a moment, and extended tendrils of smoke from my inner torso to guide my fall and land myself barely on the edge of the rooftop. I teetered on the side, panting.

"RRRRrrrghhh!!" Starfire soared straight down at me with her shoulder in a ramming position.

I took a breath.

FLASH!!!

I teleported backwards in a stream of smoke.

"!!!!!!!!" Starfire gasped as she 'skidded' to a stop in midair where my body was.

I gripped her shoulders from behind and used agility as my weapon. I tossed her swiftly over my body like a missile towards the center of the rooftop.

"EEEK!!" she righted herself at the last second.

I twirled Myrkblade and dashed towards her low-hovering figure.

She gritted her teeth, charged starbolts into her wrists, and blocked my sword-slashes with the energy around her hands. CLASH!!! CLANG!! THWACK!!

Sparks flew from the contact of my sword and her shielded fingers. In such a fashion, the two of us deflected and parried across the length of the Tower while Cyborg and Raven watched on.

"This isn't a fair sparring...," Cyborg muttered.

"Why not?" droned Raven.

The android Titan gestured with one hand. "Come on!! Even if they were fighting to the death, one good swing of Noir's sword and Star's head would be off!"

"....and Starfire could strike Noir's torso with a well-timed Starbolt and liquidate his internal organs on the spot. What's your point?"

"Eh heheheheh...," Cyborg sweatdropped. "Never mind. I like your point better."

"You mean you 'respect' my point better."

"Y-Yeah....that."

".................."

".................."

"................."

"..........I wonder when you and I get to spar."

"Hmm?"

"You and me, Raven," Cyborg smirked. "Duking it out."

"Pffft. Heaven forbid."

"What? Afraid you'd lobotomize me before Robin even declares the match started?"

"I'm not **afraid** of anything..."

"So you would lobotomize me just any day of the week, hmmm?"

"If you so tempt me...."

"Heheheh....well I won't spare my sonic cannon, then!"

"Do whatever you wish," Raven droned. "Robin has never assigned me to engage in a sparring lesson before. And I doubt he ever will."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Training is fine. But sparring is a manner of competition. And competition evokes many emotions....frustration, anger, humiliation, joy, sadism—"

"The no-touchie fruits of the spirit, right?" Cyborg smirked.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. The stuff that's not part of my......mental diet."

"Good analogy."

"I wasn't trying to make one."

"But you did," Cyborg pointed. "And if I may be so bold...I think you should give it a shot."

"What? Analogous statements?"

"Well, that too...but I mean sparring."

"I thought I just told you---"

"I know what you told me. I may have a bunch of metal between these ears of mine but I can still hear things, can't I?"

"........"

"You only learn by trying. Training is one thing, but sparring helps simulate the real deal, ya know? Give it a shot sometime. I could even spar against you just so you can start out slow or whatever. Not that you'd need to....you're a kickass crimefighter. Probably the most kickass on this team! But it doesn't hurt to play out scenarios ahead of time. That way, you can learn to be better prepared so that legitimate competition with criminal baddies out there don't REALLY bring out the bad in you. Rage and whatnot...."

"..................I it, Cyborg," Raven eventually nodded.

"Well, I hope you do!"

"After all........I am kickbutt, apparently."

"KicASS."

"I know what I said."

"Heheheheh..."

Meanwhile....

"Raaaugh!!" Starfire grabbed me by the arm and threw me towards the side of the Tower again.

I planted my feet into the ground and skidded to a stop. I spun around.

SWOOOOOOSH!!! Starfire soared at me. She charged a starbolt.

I gripped Myrkblade tightly. I inhaled. I surged murk energy throughout my body.

Starfire came upon my position and unleashed a huge, green pulse.

FLASH!!!!!!!!

The starbolt flew through me......and I was gone.

"!!!!" Starfire's green eyes flashed open wide. She gasped and flew to a stop. She spun around, panting. "Noir?!?!" she darted her head every which way. She panicked. "Noir!!!"

Beast Boy snickered.

Robin cupped his hands on either side of his mouth and shouted out: "Noir's allright, Star!! You're letting down your guard!! You're letting down your guard!!"

"I'm what?!?!" the Tamaranian cackled.

SWOOSH!!!

A curtain of smoke materialized as I came out of stealth mode, standing right behind her. I smirked, grabbed her upper body with both hands, spun her like a top, and let her go in the direction of the buildingtop's edge.

"AACKIES!!!" Starfire spiraled like a rocket but floated herself upright at the last second before possibly plummeting out of bounds. She floated in place and clenched her hands tightly. "Ooooooh!! That was most dishonorable and wretched and trademark of a Morwilk Vorgrablarf!!!"

I chuckled breathily.

"RAAAUGH!!" Starfire flew at me like a missile.

".........," I sweatdropped.

WHUMP!!!!

She plowed me to the ground and soon, the two of us were wrestling mercilessly across the rooftop.

"Nnghhhhh!! Your Terran strength is holding out.....stubbornly!!" Starfire strained as she tried to force my hands behind my back.

I gritted my teeth, blurred murk, and teleported so that I was in back of her. I pressed her chest-first into the ground and tried to get HER hands behind her back as we struggled and struggled....

"Yeah!! You go, Noir!!" Cyborg winked his human eye from a distance. "Now let me just get a rope so that you can hog-tie her!!"

I gave him a double-take.

Distracted....

"HA!!!" Starfire reversed kick me in the chest.

I wheezed and toppled over.

She pounced on top of me, charging a starbolt threateningly into my face. "NOW who is in possession of the hand of the upper?!?!"

I struggled beneath her, wriggled my hands down and..............tickled her.

"WAAAH!!" the Tamaranian flinched on top of me. "No!! NOO!! EEK!! What—hahahaha---what manner of Terran guerilla warfare is this?!?! Hahahaha!!"

Twitch and flinch and shake as she might, she couldn't block my fingers from tickling all over her midriff.

"Hehehehehe!! Ack!! This sparring---hehehe—match is---hahahaha---c-coming to a close!!!"

I grinned helplessly.

She finally batted my hand away and tried wrestling me into submission again....but was caught unaware by my metal left fingers onto the small of her exposed back. Cold and tickling.

"EEEK!! Treacherous—hehehehehe!!"

"Oh for crying out---," Robin smacked his forehead. "No!!! That's not how you practice for combat!! How in the blue Hell can that be practice for combat?!?! Damn it all!!"

Beast Boy was laughing his head off. "Hehehehehehehehe!!! Fight to the death, you savages!!"

"Beast Boy...."

"Cry havoc!! And let slip the feather dusters of war!!!"

"Beast Boy, you're not helping!!"

"Dude, you gotta admit...that would have soooooooooooo caught Slade unawares."

"Hehehehehehe!!!" Starfire finally gave up in a fit of blushing, endless giggles as she curled into a fetal position besides me. I smiled and bent over her...tickling...tickling. "Stop it!! Cease! Desist!! An end to the mammalian digits of fury, I beg of you!! Hehehehehe!!"

"Good lord....," Raven blinked. "If that's what sparring's gonna have from now on, I don't think you and I should take part in it, Cyborg."

"Uh.................yeah."

Robin groaned. "Okay. Game's over. I think you two have practiced enough."

"Hehehehehe!!" Starfire shook all over. "Y-You heard his command, Noir!! Hehehehe!! Please abort the sparring!!"

I chuckled and kept at it.

She shook and giggled more. "Hehehehehehe!! Please abort the **sparring!!**" As if on reflex, Starfire shoved her hand into my chest. But at that particular time and moment, she let slip the fact that she was well over eight times stronger than myself.

WHAM!!!!!!!!!

My body flew back from her blow and I was sent flying clear over the edge of the Tower Rooftop.

Starfire and Robin gasped.

Cyborg's and Raven's eyes went wide.

"Noir!!!" Beast Boy called out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

I plummeted down towards the Earth.

"!!!!"

I reached a hand back to my sheathe....and realized I didn't have Myrkblade.

I gasped into the rushing air.

_I must have dropped it during the spar!!!_

I pivoted my body about. I faced the wall of the Tower blurring up past me. I summoned a wave of murk and covered my limbs with smoke. I gripped the speeding structure with black, elongated 'talons' or 'fingernails'.

SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAPEE!!!!!!!!!

I gritted my teeth.

Sparks flew.

SWOOOSH!!!

I slipped loose.

I fell back.

I twirled and twirled helplessly in mid-air.

All in a matter of seconds...I found myself falling to the point of impact face-down.

My black eyes saw nothing but a quarry of rocky, cragged sea bluffs through my shades. Sailing up at my face.

I winced---

GRIP!!!!

**YANK!!!!**

I stopped suddenly. The blood rocketed down into my head through centripetal force before boiling back over through the rest of my body. My shades were a mere three feet away from the hard rocks.

I panted.

And then...a strong womany voice uttered: "So.....Mr. Noir....is this the sort of stuff you don't write to me in your letters??"

"????????" I dangled upside down and looked up.

A woman with full, dark black hair looked at me....upside down. With the sunrise behind both her and the Tower, it was next to impossible to detect any features right away.

"Like spending time tickling poor alien girls and falling to your death for me to save you?" the woman smiled.

I ....helpless....

I was gently lowered to the ground.

Plop!

I sat upright and shook my head...chasing the dizziness away.

"I'm only teasing of course," the stranger chuckled. "But still...it worries me if Titans are this clumsy."

I finally glanced up and got a good look at her. And once I did, I bounced to my feet with a jump as if standing at attention.

"At ease, Noir," said Wonder Woman. "It's typically the Man of Steel to enforce authority over other superheroes on this continent. Though we share some of the same colorful fashion statements....we don't share the same ego." She winked.

I simpered. I didn't know whether to salute her, bow down, hug her, or what......

Thankfully...that was exactly when Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy settled down in various forms of flight to join us.

"Noir, dude...," Beast Boy murmured. "How on earth did you---" He stopped in mid-step and went bug-eyed. Blinking.

".......," Raven stared.

"Friends? Why the sudden muteness? Is Noir damaged---EEP!!" At the sight of her hero, Starfire immediately blushed and hid behind Raven's cape. Her wide green eyes peered up over the blue shoulder. "Mmmmmmmm??" she whimpered.

"Well...if I expected a warm company, I would have knocked on the front door," Wonder Woman mused. Her hands on her hips....trademark style "But honestly I wasn't sure if the Titans would be up at this hour. So I waited around the island and meditated till I thought I could approach the Tower. Little did I expect to find myself catching falling swordsman."

I blushed, still trying to catch my breath.

"Regardless...," the Amazon continued, "I'm impressed with your diligence in training this early."

"We weren't aware that you needed to be impressed," Raven droned.

"Ah...and you must be Raven," Wonder Woman smiled. "Co-Founder of the Titans and powerful young sorceress. Noir's quite accurate in his letters. You **are** wise beyond your years."

Raven glanced at me.

I sweatdropped.

She glanced back at the woman. "I am what I am. But I'll take your words as a compliment."

"I do hope you do. I meant it as one," the superheroine said.

Beast Boy cleared his throat, broke the ice, and jumped forward with a hand outstretched. "Howdy! I'm Beast Boy!" A frozen....uncomfortable pause. His entire face fell. He let out a frustrated groan and clutched his head of hair. _"Rrrrrgh!! Idiot!!_ _You meet Wonder Woman finally and the first thing you say is '__**howdy**__'?!?!"_

"I hear you have unique talents," Wonder Woman says, unaffected. "Capable of mimicking the form of all animals that have ever existed. Tell me....have you ever given a minotaur or a gorgon a try?"

"I b-beg your pardon........Wonder Ma'am??"

"Why....the creatures of the world's distant history. Classified as 'mythological' they may be....but I assure you, they do exist." She leaned forward and gently uttered: "I would so enjoy seeing one of those long lost wonders of creation again..."

Beast Boy stared in her face. ".........." His right nostril bled. "Eheheheh....I-I'll see what I can do. SNIFF. Excuse me...." He walked off, flushed

Wonder Woman glanced over at the sound of shy, Tamaranian murmuring. She blinked. "Am I missing someone?"

"Only Starfire...," Raven said.

Wonder Woman glanced at me.

I shrugged.

She glanced back at Raven. "Have I....offended her??"

"Hardly...," Raven sighed. She stepped aside, fully exposing the cowering redhead.

"Eeek!!" Starfire clasped her hands together and blushed. She bit her lip and backed away from Wonder Woman as if she was the Sun up close.

"Starfire, I presume," Wonder Woman spoke. "Whatever seems to be the matter?"

"She is.........a big fan," Raven droned.

Wonder Woman glanced at me. "And here I thought you were joking!"

I shrugged with a crooked smile.

"You need not be afraid," Wonder Woman gestured to the Tamaranian. "We are both superheroines. I consider us all equals."

"But....but....h-how can I compare to the magnitude that is Princess Diana, Wonder Woman of the Amazons?!"

"Flattering....heheheh," Wonder Woman chuckled. She rested her hand on her hip. "I assure you, Miss Starfire. I do not want to be considered by you as more than a friend or a comrade in the battle against evil everywhere."

"As....a f-friend???" Starfire blinked.

"Mmmmhmmm," Wonder Woman nodded.

Raven and I winced simultaneously.

"Wait, Wonder Woman," Raven gritted her teeth and held a hand out, "....look out—"

SWOOOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

Wonder Woman's eyes bugged as Starfire hugged the stuffings out of her.

I covered my shades with my hand.

"Hello new friend!!! Hehehehehehe!!!! I am elated to be in fellowship with her most respectful Queen of the Lasso!!"

"Queen of the Lasso....that's a new one...," Wonder Woman wheezed. She pried the giddy fangirl off of her and took a deep breath. "Well then....now that's over with...."

"Let's get down to business," Robin's voice said.

All of us looked over.

Cyborg and the Boy Wonder emerged from the front door of Titan's Tower. From the look and sound of it, they must have been running in a hurry.

"Looks like Noir made it all right," Cyborg said. He smiled suggestively. "Soft landings?"

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Wonder Woman.....," the Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed.

"Robin....," she smirked back at him.

He folded his arms. "This is rather......impromptu."

"Yes, I do believe it is."

"I assume you came here for something important."

"Otherwise I wouldn't have come at all," the Amazon shrugged.

Starfire glanced from caped crusader to femme fighter and gulped.

Robin leaned his head to the side. "Couldn't you have at least sent us a message first?"

"I've been a little busy as of late. All of the Justice League has. I'm sorry I couldn't......'warn' you about my visitation."

"If it was so necessary for us to meet, we could have invited you."

Then and there, Wonder Woman let out a belly-full laugh.....with whatever 'belly' she truly possessed.

Raven and I raised eyebrows.

Cyborg rubbed his human head.

Beast Boy modestly sauntered back into the ring of conversation.

Wonder Woman caught her breath and sighed with a smile. "So like your mentor, Robin. So like him in many ways...."

Robin frowned. "Get to the point."

Wonder Woman held up a fan of.....envelopes.

We all blinked at her.

"For Noir....," she clarified.

"Ohhhhh," Cyborg smirked. He looked my way. "Looks like you've had a belated pen pal, dawg!"

I simpered.

I felt a handful of papers shoved into my hands.

I took them with a slight bow.

"You're welcome," Wonder Woman mused. "I thought it would be rather impersonal to simply mail all of those responses to our correspondence late. So I came here in person."

"As we can see....," Raven said.

"And in the meantime.....I thought I might get to see you brave young souls in person. For even though I've had a difficult time responding to your e-mails, Noir---"she faced me as she went on "—that didn't stop me from reading what you had to say. And quite interesting your reflections were, too."

"I bet....," Raven droned.

"Yeah....he's sorta the......'listener' of the group," Beast Boy suggested, scratching his head. "Then again, we did kinda sorta dump it on him."

"Oh.....really?" Wonder Woman raised an eyebrow. "I would have imagined he volunteered---"

"He was more than happy to communicate with you," Starfire pleasantly said, her hands joined together. "I myself would have been most happy to do so too....but....I-I have not gotten used to Terran keyboard equipment, not to mention that my fingers shake when I am nervous and---"

Raven stepped in between the two. "Was it a tour that you expected?" Raven asked the Amazon. "Because we were rather busy when you came."

"Training?"

Raven nodded.

"Well then, I do apologize," Wonder Woman shrugged. "Next time I shall arrive late when your companion here is falling to his death."

I winced.

Raven stared at her....unphased.

"Speaking of which, butterfingers....," Cyborg smirked. He tossed me something.

GRIP!!

I caught it. Myrkblade. I smiled. I twirled it about and sheathed it.

CHHHIIING!!!

Wonder Woman eyed my sword. She eyed me. "Fascinating."

I raised an eyebrow over my shades.

Beast Boy cleared his throat.

"Well.....," Robin sighed. "You came this far. I can't just tell you to turn around and go back to the Watchtower or Metropolis or wherever. The Tower is an abode for heroes and heroines. Young and old alike. You're welcome to stay here."

"Heh....and to think I'm never invited to the Batcave. Not once."

"Okay....if you're going to pay us a visit," Robin pointed, "...you gotta stop doing that."

"Doing what?" Wonder Woman asked innocently.

"Yes, Robin?" Starfire giggled. "Doing what??? Hehehehe."

".............," the Boy Wonder stared. "Never mind....." He turned around and walked up towards the Tower door with a sigh. "Everyone follow me...."

"Oye....," Raven rubbed her temples and ventured forth. "This is going to be a long day."

"Best spent together, eh princess?" Cyborg nudged Raven.

"Don't touch me."

"Love you too."

Beast Boy chuckled. "Oh man...this is rich."

Starfire floated around like a happy dragonfly as Wonder Woman and I were the last to ascend the Tower.

"It must be a real challenge, Mr. Noir...," Wonder Woman said.

I glanced at her.

She smiled. "To manage a team with so many......hormones....."

I blinked. I looked off into space.

_I never thought of that......._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clack!!

The birdarangs extended to full length.

Robin narrowed his eyemask. He gritted his teeth. He flung them---

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CRACK!!!!!

All three severed a wooden target each. The objects hung on metal supports from the top of the training gym's corridor.

"Next batch!" Robin shouted.

"You got it, dude," Beast Boy winked and pressed a remote.

WHUUUUUUURR-CHUNG!!! Four fresh targets descended from the ceiling, further spread apart and at random.

Robin grunted and flung with two flicking wrists.

CRACK!!! C-CRACK!!!

The targets shattered. A perfect strike again.

"Next!!"

Meanwhile, Starfire stood in front of a metal slab across the way. A robotic laser-pointer stood beneath her. It flashed a red strobe in various places on the wall. Wherever the strobe appeared, Starfire concentrated her energy into her eyes. Frowning, she let loose stream after stream of green optic blasts with righteous fury. It was a relatively new talent of hers, and there was no time like the present to exercise it. ZAP!! ZAAAAAAAAAP!! ZAAP!!!!

Over in another corner, Raven was doing.................sit ups. She had her cape off and was sweating in her tights as she bent up over and over, her hands folded across her chest.

"...forty-seven.....forty-eight.....forty-nine...," Cyborg counted. He was kneeling in front of her, holding her feet down. Spotting.

"This is.....pointlessly.......strenuous...," Raven huffed and puffed. "....I should be.....exercising my.....mind, and not.....my abs...."

"Come on, Rae. Just a little more. It was you yourself who said you need to get in more physical shape," Cyborg winked. "Though I have to admit...I like your shape the way it is."

"You're quite.....the cunning.....robot....."

"How so?"

"Waiting till.....I'm out of.....breath to.....make me want.....to in the family."

Also meanwhile.....I was at the far side of the gym from the others. I had a stretch of mat laid out before me. Piercing the map in nearly a dozen places were thick metal bars pointed up at the ceiling. I held my breath at one end of the map. Crouched down. Concentrated....and.....

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred forward, turning into smoke form, and teleported through the metal bars before solidifying on the other side.

I panted.

I turned around.

I flexed my limbs.

I took a breath.

I knelt down.

"....................."

I did it again, the other direction.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I solidified on the other side, breathing heavily. I wiped my brow.

A clapping sound.

I looked sweatily to the side.

"That must take a lot of effort," Wonder Woman applauded. She rested her hands to her hips. "Are you actually going _through_ the bars? Or just running around them really quickly?"

"..............," I blinked under my shades. I glanced at the bars. I scratched my head. I looked at the Amazon, shrugged, and mouthed: 'I don't know'.

She chuckled. "I suppose that's an honest answer. Let me see how you do what you write about. The 'pulsing murk' as you call it."

I nodded. I held my right hand out. I concentrated. Trails of smoke started running down my wrist in a current. Tendrils of murk danced off my fingers and dissipated into the air. Eventually, it was hard to tell if my hand was still solid or gaseous.

I glanced over at Wonder Woman.

She watched, mesmerized.

I smirked. I showed off by slowly moving my hand 'through' a nearby bar. The smoke simply parted and remolded on the other side. After a few times of swaying my limb, I materialized it back to its true form.

"So....you're a smoke elemental?" she asked. "Or something in that vein?"

I shrugged.

"And here I was thinking that you were simply in possession of something indicative of the Flash," she smirked. "I suppose being able to move fast is just a side-effect."

I tapped Wonder Woman on the back of her shoulder.

She blinked. She turned around and jumped with a hand over her heart. "Great Hera!! You almost do that as good as he does!"

I grinned. I shook my head.

"True. There is only one 'fastest man alive' on this Earth." A beat. "So the smoke is how you make that sword of yours....so strong?"

I nodded. I started to hand-sign.....

".............," Wonder Woman blinked dazedly at me.

I winced. I cleared my throat. I walked over and picked up a dumbbell from a weight rack. I pointed at it. I began to concentrate and extend Murk from my right hand over the object itself. I released my concentration and the smoke drew away, returning the item to normal. I shrugged.

"So you can do that with any item?" she asked. "But your sword is your weapon of choice."

I grinned proudly and nodded.

"Hera forbid I see what that power could do to my lasso...."

I scratched my head at that. I put the dumbbell back and returned to the bars...teleporting back and forth through them.

Wonder Woman continued to watch silently.

By the time I was out of breath again, I slumped down on a nearby bench and sipped some water from a cup. I took a deep breath and rested....

"............"

I blinked. I glanced through the side of my shades.

Wonder Woman was still staring....but a little lower. I followed her eyesight to my metal left hand.

I smirked slightly. I wrapped the titanium fingers.

She winced. "Forgive me, I was.......only curious...."

I glanced at her curiously.

"I know that you wrote about the loss of your arm to me in the letters but....I was not aware that you had lost so much. It's almost half of your left limb. Not just your hand."

I shrugged. I held my left hand out and with my right hand I unsheathed Myrkblade---CHIIING!!!---twirled it, and brought it down hard across the metal wrist.

CLANG!!!!

The Amazon winced.

I smirked.

There was no damage.

"Well....I suppose there are some advantages to be had," she smiled awkwardly.

I nodded.

"I do not believe you ever wrote to me exactly why you lost it....," she said.

I blinked. I had forgotten about that.

My gaze fell to the floor.

And she saw that.

I think I shall....go see how your team leader is doing," she hesitantly uttered. Within seconds, the goddess was on her feet and sauntering away.

I watched her walk off.

A beat.

I looked at my left hand. I flexed the fingers a bit....and sighed.

I sheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And this..."

Click!!!

The lights to the garage turned on. The R-Cycle and T-Car glistened in the electric light.

"...is where we keep our rides," Robin said. He smiled proudly and leaned against a wall near the doorway leading in. "We're strictly a local team of crime fighters. So our missions are mostly limited to just the City and the nearby counties. But when we need to get around, we can get around."

Wonder Woman stood, nodding. Cyborg and I were behind her.

"How pleasant...," the Amazon said. A beat. She glanced at Robin. "You Titans are old enough to pilot these?"

Robin bit his lip. "Barely....but in a good way."

"I don't see how I couldn't pilot my baby!!" Cyborg practically frolicked over and gestured at his T-Car. "Isn't she a beauty?"

"Baby??" Wonder Woman made a face. "You're a father?"

Cyborg blinked.

I snickered breathily.

"Wow...haven't heard that once since the early Starfire days...," Cyborg muttered. He shook it off. "Ahem. Anyways this is my pride and joy! Streamline titanium body!! Advance polymer plastic windshields! Fire resistant, super durable tires---"

"What does this do?" Wonder Woman asked, picking something up from a nearby bench.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Um.....that's a 'screwdriver'."

"The world of Men is so complicated...," Wonder Woman remarked. "On Themyscira, my sisters never worry themselves over the detailed subordination of machine and fuels. However your society keeps managing this way of life is a wonder to behold."

"Uh huh.......," Cyborg nodded. A beat. "Sisters?"

"Don't you know, Cyborg?" Robin gestured. "Wonder Woman comes from an island comprised entirely of women. Sisters and relatives under the culture of the Greek Gods. More or less."

"Ohhhhh," Cyborg pointed. "Sorta like the island of Lesb—"

I cleared my throat.

Cyborg winced. "Amazons. Right...I heard of them. Heheheheh...."

I simpered and looked Wonder Woman's way.

The princess glanced at all three of us strangely. "You........youths have spent far too much time breathing engines, I'm tempted to believe..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And where are we now on my.....'tour'??" Wonder Woman asked with a smirk.

"Thissssss is none other than the villains' lame-prop-o-rama museum!!" Beast Boy dramatically entered the brightly-lit room and gestured towards all the glass displays.

"I beg your pardon?" Wonder Woman and I stood in the doorway.

"This is the evidence room....," Beast Boy paraphrased. of Robin, of course. All the wyrd-ass gadgets collected from our infamous villans! Eep!" the changeling blushed. "I-I just said 'ass'....I'm sorry, your highness."

"Oh please....I don't know what the newspapers and superhero critics tell you...but I'm getting over the whole 'princess' part." Wonder Woman rolled her eyes, strolled forward, and patted Beast Boy's head. "But it was sweet of you to care, nonetheless."

Beast Boy blinked. His nose started bleeding again. "Er.....sniff....e-excuse me...," he sauntered alone into a corner.

I shook my head.

"What exactly do you do with all of these things by keeping them?"

I simpered, shrugging.

"I do suppose they could become good sources of research and information....providing you possibly run into these said villains again," Wonder Woman remarked, strolling through the room and between the displays. "But otherwise it seems a tad bit obsessive to me." A beat. She glanced over at me. "Allow me the pleasure of guessing....but about the way you describe Robin in your you also describe him as 'obsessive', 'dark', and 'workaholic'."

I blinked at her from under my shades. I nodded dazedly.

"Heheheheheh," Wonder Woman chuckled. "Would it surprise you that his mentor is quite similar in those respects?"

I smiled. I shook my head.

"Gaia only knows if Nightwing is like that as well," she said. A beat. She turned and looked at me. "But....I would be wrong to generalize. There is more to Batman and his 'family' than meets the eye. In fact...underneath the darkness of most men—I find—is something very endearing and worthy of being cherished. From your letters and the media's portrayal of you as the sixth Titan, Noir, I've always assumed that you were quite the dark personality. But I think you too have secrets. Secrets that....are not necessarily as forboding as any exterior you may possess."

I leaned my head to the side, curious.

"Is it really that hard to believe?" Wonder Woman asked. "In general, the world of men has turned out far more redeemable than I was ever taught. Day after day, I see how truly beautiful unassuming things are. These infamous 'vigilantes' with whom I combat evil....they are also multi-layered and revealing. You couldn't possibly be ignorant of this. Your letters speak volumes of how you've discovered this about your Titan teammates," she smiled.

I grinned slightly....blushing.

Beast Boy walked back into the immediate area.

"Ahem....so...wh-where were we?"

"What is this about a Titan Computer?"

"Ah yes!! The very best in electronic databases!" Beast Boy winked. "If we hurry up, we'll catch Raven doing a profile check on the latest bank robbers."

"Then let's make haste!"

"Righto!!" Beast Boy swiftly changed into a green stallion. "Need a lift?"

I elbowed his mane.

"Ow!!" he shrunk back into elf form and rubbed his shoulder. "Jeez, Noir. Get off your high hor---oh wait....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You mean to tell me that this apparatus was not constructed by Batman?" Wonder Woman remarked in awe.

Raven shook her head as she sat at the computer in the Main Room. She absent-mindedly shifted through multiple images of robber suspects. The computer's hard drive worked at the speed of light. Starfire stood besides Raven, leaning her hand against the back of the chair. Watching.

"This computer, this meeting room, this whole Tower....it was all constructed by Silas Stone," a busy Raven explained.

"Stone....," Wonder Woman rubbed her chin. A beat. "The forbearer of Victor Stone."

"Cyborg," Raven nodded. "It sounds like you've done some research."

"It was Batman's suggestion that we keep ourselves knowledgeable of other superheroes in the region," Wonder Woman leaned a hand on her hip and smiled. "Superman—however—went the distance of suggesting that the Justice League and the Teen Titans maintain some sort of correspondence."

Starfire smiled. "I have always admired the Kryptonian spirit of friendship and heroic camaraderie." She then hung her head with a sad face. "How tragic it is that his people had to perish so...."

"I'm sure he would be honored by your sympathy," Wonder Woman said.

"He is a stranger to this planet much like myself," Starfire gestured. "I suppose it is only natural that I feel drawn to his kind. I often wonder about the life and wisdom of the Martian Manhunter too."

Raven suddenly blushed....pausing in her task at hand.

"Raven? Is there something the matter?" Starfire asked innocently.

"Ahem.....n-no...nothing," Raven spoke. "I was just....uhm.....about to explain the intricacies of this state-of-the-art criminal profiler..."

"I can definitely see how the software is............more friendly to the user than the interface Batman has set up," Wonder Woman hesitantly admitted.

"Hehehe!! That is rather amusing!" Starfire giggled. "Robin vehemently hates this machine!" She turned and looked my way. "Is that not right, Noir?"

I smiled from where I sat on the sidelines. I was leaning back, relaxed.

"He has been quite the good little boy," Wonder Woman uttered. "Accompanying me on the visitation of this Tower in almost every room."

"Hmmmm...," Raven hummed while going through the system. She was deadpan as she blinked at the monitor and uttered: "Perhaps you should save him the trouble by lassoing him to your pelvis."

Wonder Woman and Starfire giggled.

I frowned.

Suddenly, my communicator chimed.

I jumped momentarily before holding it up and into sight.

_"Noir. Could you help us with something??"_ Robin's voice uttered.

I attached the communicator to my metal arm and clicked a morse code response with my fingers.

The Boy Wonder's voice replied: _"We're downstairs in Cyborg's laboratory. Come as soon as you can."_

I nodded and clicked one last response.

I stood up, saluted the girls with a smirk, and walked off.

"Work on the scarlet pigmentation of your skin, Noir!!" Starfire mused.

I did a double-take at her as the elevator doors closed and I was gone.

"...........," Wonder Woman looked at where I had left. She turned and faced the two girls as they focused on the computer. "Sisters, I'm very curious about something...and I hope you won't take offense in my asking."

"We're heroines...," Raven droned. Perhaps seriously. Perhaps not. "We can take it."

Diana took a breath. "Do you know how....he lost it?"

The two froze. Raven slowly swiveled around while Starfire bit her lip.

"You mean Noir's arm?" the sorceress asked.

Wonder Woman nodded. "Is it a secret?"

"I....do not believe it is a secret," Starfire uttered. "Only....we are rather surprised."

"Noir didn't mention it in his letters?" Raven asked.

"He may have hinted to it....," Wonder Woman spoke. "But....I'm afraid to interpret too much from ambiguity."

"......."

"Then I suppose that it is a prudent thing that you inquired the reason from us," Starfire simpered.

Wonder Woman listened....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I feel.....unease....," Robin muttered, his arms folded as he leaned against a wall.

"You're always feeling unease," Cyborg chuckled. He was busy hotwiring a spare sonic cannon, attempting to fix a few internal glitches. He sat a titanium work station on the far side of the bedroom/laboratory. "I think they should have named you 'Goose Feathers' instead and let it be."

"Just think about it...," Robin looked our way and gestured. "First the JLA wants to do correspondence, then they send Wonder Woman in here as a surly reminder that we should be 'buddy buddy'...I tell you, I am not cool with such intimidation."

I nodded off, my face blank. I shuffled playing cards in my metal hand as I stood between the two in the center of the room.

"Okay, Robin, two things...," Cyborg lifted a spare hand while hotwiring. "One...I'm inclined to believe that the JLA didn't send Wonder Woman. She came on her own accord. And for another....she sure as Hell ain't surly!! S'up with that, man?!?! Hahaha."

I chuckled breathily.

"Rghhh," Robin pressed his palm into his forehead and grit his teeth. "He's behind this....all of this....I just know it..."

"Who're you obsessing over now?? Slade's dead, man..."

"Batman," Robin spat. "He's never trusted me with this team. I can bet you a billion dollars on that."

"Heh...as if you're the son of a billionaire...."

"......."

"Robin, stop being paranoid. The last thing we have to worry about on this god-forsaken planet of scum and villainy is a team of superheroes." A beat. He swiveled about and faced me with a bright grin. "HA! I should include that in my latest fanfic chapter!"

I smiled.

He swiveled back. "Darth Vader monologue ULTRA!!"

"What the Hell are you talking about?"

"Nerd stuff. Now on with your rambling."

"I almost wish I was writing to her instead of you, Noir," the Boy Wonder looked my way. "No offense to you or anything. But...I just don't see how the JLA could ask so much from you and not give any in return until NOW. I mean...all of those replies being nearly three months late?? It hardly seems professional. Especially when Wonder Woman is concerned. You understand that, don't you Noir?"

I nodded gently. I took a deep breath.

"Something's being hidden....by someone....," Robin rubbed his temples. "...and if it has to do with Batman and his egotistical....er.....egotism, then I don't know what I'll do."

"Not like you can beat him up, man."

"Yeah, good point—H-HEY!!"

Cyborg chuckled.

I smiled slightly.

Robin's communicator chimed.

He blinked under his mask.

He flipped the device open with a Star Trek sound.

"Robin here."

_"Sad news, dude...,_" Beast Boy's voice said. _"She's leaving."_

Cyborg glanced over with a human eyebrow raised.

"Wonder Woman?" Robin asked blandly. "Where to?"

"_Says she got a call from the JLA. Some Ghul guy is raising havoc in Europe and they need her help in tracking him down."_

Robin seemed to understand that somehow. "Gotcha."

"_Gonna come down and help us see her off?"_

"Sure thing. Thanks for telling us, Beast Boy."

"_No problem......"_

"Try not to cry too hard, B.B.!" Cyborg uttered.

"_Man, shut up!!"_

Snkkkkt!!

Robin switched the communicator off. "Ahem....," he coughed. "How did I not expect this?"

"You happier now?" Cyborg put his instruments away, smiling.

"Not really," Robin sighed. "Come on, Noir. Gotta say bye to your pen-pal."

I shrugged and pocketed my cards away.

'Bye', I mouthed to the air.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg, Robin, and I emerged from the front door of the Tower.

Wonder Woman and the other Titans were already assembled, in the middle of a conversation.

Beast Boy dramatically waved his arms with a cute frown: "Dudes!! What took you so long?! You kept her royal highness waiting!!"

Starfire giggled.

"Robin...for the last time, she's—"Raven began.

"I think I've explained it enough today," Wonder Woman pleasantly smiled.

"Just making sure you get the respect you deserve!" Beast Boy folded his arms and smiled proudly.

"......," Wonder Woman stared at the changeling. "You know, Beast Boy, if you're attracted to me...I don't mind you saying so out loud."

"!!!!!" Beast Boy's eyes went wide. "I....er....."

"Maaaaan," Cyborg laughed. "Ha ha ha ha! Straight for the jugular!"

"I....er......ehm......," Beast Boy blushed and scratched his head. "Wh-Wh-Whatever gave you that idea....your highness??" He blinked. "................." His nose bled. He winced and sped off over the edge of the bluffs.

"Disastrously adorable," Wonder Woman remarked, shaking her head. "He must be amusing to live with."

"I will admit," Raven held the tiniest of smirks. "He makes good fodder."

"For what, pray tell?"

"**Everything**," half of us uttered.

"Hehehe!!" Starfire uttered.

I smirked.

"I'm sorry if I.....'tease'," Wonder Woman's face scrunched up. "The Flash says so all the time. But I believe he's merely hoping for much. Besides...I'm celibate."

"Go figure...," Raven droned.

"She's what?!?!" Beast Boy's panicked voice uttered from the other side of the bluffs.

"SHE SAYS SHE CAN'T MARRY YOU!!!" Cyborg cupped a hand over his mouth and yelled.

"Hey!! I didn't ask---STOP PICKING ON ME!!!"

Robin cleared his throat. He stepped forward. "I'm sorry we didn't get to show you everything here."

"Oh, don't worry," Wonder Woman winked. "I've had the rest filled in regarding this place."

Robin glanced back at me. "I imagine so...." He looked back at her. "So...we'll be—er, I mean Noir will be hearing more from you from now on."

"Indeed," she nodded. "And I apologize for my inability to correspond earlier. I volunteered for this task because I felt that I had to pull more of my own weight as a Justice League member. I did not realize how complicated it can be to send notes across great distances according to the laws of men. With so many papers flying every which way these days, you'd think the weight wouldn't stack up to much."

"Um......yeah....," Robin blankly stared.

Starfire and Raven exchanged confused looks....shrugging.

"Well, we'd love to have you back sometime!" Cyborg went out and happily exclaimed.

Robin winced.

"Wouldn't we...**Robin?**" Cyborg elbowed the Boy Wonder.

"Ow!!" Robin frowned and rubbed his upper arm. "What's your deal??"

Beast Boy wandered back, clean. "What's anyone's deal?? It's not like Wonder Woman's dead! Let's let her leave in peace already..............er.....i-if that's okay with you, your highness."

"Heheheh....don't be so modest," Wonder Woman smiled. "You Titans are far more entertaining than I believe you give yourselves credit for."

SWOOOOOOSH-THWUMP!!!!

Wonder Woman wheezed under a familiar, Tamaranian hug.

"Oh, do please....please....please come again!!!" she exclaimed, her eyes happily closed. "I will deeply miss your virtuous aura of goddessonica!!"

It took the other five of us—one in green gorilla mode—combined to pry the redheaded alien of joy off of her.

"I-I'll keep your....admiration in mind," Wonder Woman wheezed. She snapped out of it, smiled and bowed her head slightly. "But now...I must be off. The other League members need me." A beat. She smiled over at me. "Noir...care to escort me off the premises?"

I did a double take. I glanced Cyborg's way.

He winked and smiled suggestively.

I stuck my tongue out at him and indignantly walked off to be joined by the Amazon.

Robin watched silently.....taking a slow, quiet breath...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I am impressed, Noir....you're quite the honest person..."

I glanced curiously at the heroine.

The two of us walked towards the land ridge leading towards the City....or in Wonder Woman's case, an airborn takeoff.

She explained to me: "Practically everything you have written about in your letters...they are most true and accurate to the things you live around. Your friends....your City....your lifestyle...."

I nodded.

"I can only hope my responses are similarly satisfying...," she said.

I smiled.

A beat.

She looked off. The wind of the waning afternoon kicked at her full, black hair.

There was something on her mind.

I knew it. I leaned my head into her vision.

She hesitantly looked at me. But she appeared more wounded than suspicious. She sighed and braved a smile as she said: "Noir...there is a reason why I didn't reply immediately to your letters. And it is not because of laziness or my being occupied fighting the forces of evil. But rather.....I felt it was best for myself—and the league—that I see the things you've written about for myself."

I blinked. I was curious.....

"One of your earliest writings......they were.....they were orchestrated when you were not exactly 'yourself'. But rather, you had assumed the personality of 'Wyldecarde'...."

I mouthed: 'ohhhhhh'. I slowly nodded.

"I remember you emphatically asking me not to respond to that letter. And I abided by your words. But that's not the reason why I've hesitated until now to respond," she explained regretfully. "I....wasn't sure that I could trust you, Noir."

I took a breath. I nodded again...somber.

"And I was not sure if I could trust you with the knowledge of life with the League. But regardless, I didn't want to give up on you. So I wrote responses to all of your letters that I read. I just didn't go about sending them until....I could be sure that you were as virtuous as I felt hinted to me. And today....I...."

A beat.

She continued, "...I expected good news. And I got it. But it pained me to hear it. It would seem as if you didn't trust yourself either, Noir, because of Wyldecarde. You had to do something to prove to yourself and the Titans that you were a man of virtue and honor. Nothing less."

I felt a firm hand gently grasp my metal fingers and lift my prosthetic hand up. I stood still as Wonder Woman held her palm against my Titanium one and clasp my wrist.

She said: "The girls truly informed me of your sacrifice. Of what you purposefully lost to save your closest loved ones. Nowhere in your writings did I truly grasp the nature of what you've done and what you've gone through. But I do understand now. And I only hope that—as truthful as you are—you do not hesitate to admit your good over that of your bad, Noir. For I do believe the good things about you—as always the good things about all of us—shall always be remembered. And not what we perceive as the 'bad'."

".......," I slowly smiled. Thankful.

"Hold onto the virtue that you have, Noir," she said. "Do not blind yourself to it like I have. It is a shameful thing to do to someone as brave as you. Embrace that which is good inside of you. To obsess over anything else....that will only destroy what is already a precious and noble soul."

I nodded. More of a bow, really. _Heh......_

She let go of my hand, smiled, and uttered: "Until later, Noir. Oh....and you are welcome, by the way."

I raised a curious eyebrow.

She winked. "For connecting you to Supergirl's phone number, of course."

SWOOOOOOOSH!!! She flew off.

I bit my lip, blushing.

I sensed a shadow to my right.

I glanced over.

"Correct me if I'm wrong....," Raven droned, "...but why is it that whenever we have a famous or heroic female in our presence...she always has a private word to say with you?"

".......," I stared at Raven through my shades. I scratched my head. I suddenly smiled and walked over.

"........," Raven watched.

SWOOOSH!! I reached my hand to her ear.

She flinched.

THWIP!! I suddenly produced an ace of hearts 'from her ear lobe'.

"........," she stared at the card. "Am I supposed to say 'cute' now?"

I grinned like a clown and nodded.

She rolled her eyes. She turned around. "I wonder where Cyborg is...."

I shrugged. I pocketed the card away back from where I teleported it into my hand. I strolled lazily back up towards the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That night, I lit the lanterns in my dim room.

I shuffled about with my shades off, drying from a comforting shower.

I slipped the last of my nightclothes on and sat cross-legged on the bed with a pile of envelopes before me.

I rubbed my hands together, smirked in a humored way, and opened the first envelope.

I had prepared myself for a diligent, all-night reading of what the Amazonian Princess had to inform me as to the social and technical lifestyle of the world-renown Justice League.

_Riiiiip!!_

_  
Ruffle!_

I cleared my throat and scanned the first page.

"_Dear Noir,............"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

About forty-five minutes into it, my head nodded for the last time and I fell asleep.


	119. If God Wanted Man to Fly

**119. If God Wanted Man to Fly**

He glided through the air like he had invisible wings. The red-stained sky bathed his caped silhouette, and for a second there it looked like he was back home.

By his grappling hook, Robin swung up and onto the rooftop of the southern buildings to the City Nuclear Power Plant. Twin massive exhaust stacks stretched upwards before him. And a huge, shadowed figure stood resolutely in the center of the facility's rooftop. With hulking fists, the stranger started pummeling down into the concrete structure.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. Frowning, he stood up and extracted his staff. CLACK!!! He dragged it by his side and held his communicator up to his face in his other glove. The sunset glowed red against his figure as he signaled the other team members.

"Titans....I've found him....," he practically snarls. "Center of the Plant. The rooftop. He's trying to break his way in."

_"We can't let him rupture the facility,"_ Raven's voice said. _"The repercussions would be beyond disastorous."_

"Didn't need to tell me that," the leader muttered. "Just get here. And fast."

"_We got you covered, Robin,"_ Cyborg's voice said. Snkkkkt!!

Robin pocketed the communicator away. In a breath, he then pulled out a birdarang and tossed it at the figure with a shout. "Yaugh!!"

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!

"Rghh!" the figure deflected the puny projectile and glared Robin's way.

TH-THWOOSH!! Robin spun his staff at ready. "Alright, Atlas. We can either do this two ways. One...we take you to prison. Two...we rip you into pieces and take the pieces to prison."

"You talk big, human...," the robot stepped threateningly into the red light of the sunset. "You talk far too big for what you are..."

He (if you can call him a 'he') was a pure war machine. An android with more weapons on him than circuitry. He stood eleven feet tall with titanium muscles and a hard, rigid body shape. At a long distance, he looked like an oversized fire hydrant with the weapons cache of a Middle Eastern country. At close up, he didn't look like much of anything because a person wouldn't last long enough to look at him.

"How about I give you some stimulations of my own, meatbag...," Atlas attempted a 'grin' as he stomped forward and towered over Robin. "Either you let me have the pleasure of tearing you apart limb from raggedy limb....or I'll have to make it an instantaneous death. Just by coming here, you've already chosen one of those two options."

"What are you up to, Atlas??" Robin sneered. "I almost hoped that your power reserves would have died by now."

"A concern that we both share, mortal," Atlas gestured a metal hand towards the stacks of the Plant behind him. "There's enough plutonium in there to power me for thousands of your lifetimes. All that stands in my way are layers of fragile concrete and a handful of fuel rods. Then I shall be unstoppable..."

"You fool...," Robin held his staff out at the hulking villain. "You so much as mess with the reactor core and you could trigger a meltdown!! Thousands of people....no, MILLIONS could suffer from the effects."

"What a pity...," Atlas switched his right arm into a huge blaster and aimed it....glowing.

"Nngh!!" Robin leapt up high.

**BLAM!!!!!**

A fireball struck hard, carving a crater from the concrete rooftop below.

Robin flipped forward, spun in mid-air, and threw three explosive discs at once.

SW-SW-SWOOOSH!!! CLANK!!!

All three stuck to Atlas' titanium body and beeped.

He simply stood there, smiling.

**BOOOOOM!!!!**

Atlas' body was engulfed in flames and shrapnel.

"Mmmf!!" Robin landed hard in a squat from his leap. He knelt across the rooftop, panting, watching the plume of fire he had just made.

"............."

He swallowed. He stood up.

A beat.

"RRRRAAAAAUGH!!!" Atlas charged out of the flames, unharmed.

Robin grit his teeth and twirled his staff.

SWOOOOOSH!!!! Atlas' fist flew at the Boy Wonder.

"!!!!" Robin dove beneath the swing. He rolled on the ground.

"HAAA!!" Atlas stomped his foot down at the boy.

CRUSH!!!

Robin barely knelt and backflipped out of the foot's path of destruction. He fell back down, perched on top of Atlas' foot, and ran up his leg. He leapt into Atlas torso and swung the staff up high with a shout. "RAAUGH!!"

CLANG!!!

Atlas' metal face turned sharply to the side from the impact.

Robin flipped over and perched himself on the robot's massive shoulders. He shouted and swung down hard atop the titanium skull.

WHANG!!!

"RAAUGH!!"

CLANG!!!

"RGGGH!!"

SMACK!!

SWOOOSH-**GRIP!!** Atlas' left hand flew up and gripped Robin harshly by his torso.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

With a rusty creak, Atlas' head tilted straight up and peered at the hero upside down. He grinned—which to Robin looked like a frown.

"I hope you had your fun, human. For now it's my time to kill you."

SWOOOOOSH-**SLAM!!!!**

"AUGH!!!" Robin shouted as he was planted hard into the concrete rooftop chest-first. Atlas' applied pressure into his palm, slowly curving the Boy Wonder's spine more and more in a way that a spine shouldn't curve.

"Nnnnnnnnnnghh!!" Robin winced in pain, struggling to keep his breath and composure.

"You are a fool, young hero....," Atlas sneered. "Not just for trying to face me....but trying to face anything in this explosive World of yours. For you are only mortal. And that makes you a relic in an age of freaks and gods!! RAAA!!"

He fiercely hoisted Robin up by the cape and flung him hard across the buildingtop.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

Robin's ragdoll body sailed through the air.

SMACK!!!!

He crashed hard into the inner curve of the eastern exhaust stack. Wincing, he slid down and collapsed—wheezing—on the rooftop beneath it.

Atlas stomped towards him, titanium fists clenched. "What's the matter, boy? Too small to do any good? Because that's exactly the way I'm seeing it. Ah ha ha ha ha!!"

Robin hobbled up to his feet. He panted, bleeding on his right cheek and left shoulder. He reached a shaking hand into his utility belt and pulled out an EMP disc---

SWOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

Atlas' foot sailed into Robin's chest.

"!!!!" Robin tumbled back like a paperback caught in a hurricane. He collapsed, stretched out across the roof.

**BLAM!!!**

Another fireball flew his way.

".....," the Boy Wonder took a deep breath and vaulted himself into a somersault.

**PHWOOOM!!!**

The roof beneath and behind him exploded.

Robin tumbled to the side, the sides of his cape flaming. Burn marks on his skin. He awkwardly rolled three feet, put out the flames, and limped to his feet.

"Ha ha ha ha....your courage is laughable...," Atlas aimed his smoking blaster at the masked hero. "No matter how hard you fight...no matter how much you push yourself beyond your limits...you can't change the fact that you're weak. You're powerless. You're mortal..."

Robin forced his bruised self into a fighting stance. He held his staff out, panting. "Let me.....be the judge...of how mortal....I am....," he wheezed.

Atlas' electric eyes thinned. "So be it........."

The blaster glowed brightly....and....

**BLAM!!!!**

POW!! Robin shot a grappling hook at a stack high above and behind Atlas. He flew up on the cord, swung over the blast, and tossed his body with a spinning swing of the staff straight at Atlas' face. "RAAAAAUGH!!!"

SWOOOOSH!! In a split second, Atlas had his right forearm raised to block....grinning.

CRACK!!!!! Robin's staff shattered completely. The Boy Wonder gasped in midair as his ribcage was the next to cross the distance---WHAM!!!!

He flew flat against Atlas' limb. Before he could fall down--

"HAAAA!!!" Atlas gripped Robin and threw him like a human softball.

"OOF!!" Robin landed and tumbled six feet across the rooftop, rolling to an exhausted stop.

Atlas stomped over, cracking his titanium knuckles. "Thank you, human. Thank you for the sadistic pleasure of squashing your pointless existence..."

Robin had no strength left. He wheezed...helpless.

"RrrrrRRAUGH!!" Atlas' brought his fist down.

CLANK!!!!!

".............????" Atlas' robot eyes widened as he realized his fist was stopped halfway before it could squash the Boy Wonder. He saw a blue, Titanium arm blocking his punch. He looked up.

"Remember me, punk?" Cyborg frowned. **WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!** His fist practically teleported in how fast it flew across Atlas' cheek.

The hulking robot flew back a few feet.

Cyborg swiftly switched his forearm into a sonic cannon—KLAK-KA-KLACKA—and took aim at the flailing figure. "AAAAAUGH!!" **ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!**

"OOOF!!!" Atlas' winced as he was propelled forty extra feet across the plant's buildingtop. He grind to a sparking hault in between the stacks.

"Teen Titans!!" Cyborg shouted. "Go!!"

At that moment, Starfire, Raven, and a green pterodactyl swung down from the air and rushed into action.

Robin—wincing—hobbled to his knees. "Cyborg...wait till we're all together before we attack! I can provide cover---"

"Relax, Robin," Cyborg gestured at the Boy Wonder without looking. "We can handle him!!"

"But I'm the l—"

"It's too dangerous," Raven droned as she floated by and charged telekinetic energy. "Stay here before you're hurt anymore."

".............." Robin stood still as a statue. A half of his shattered staff hung in his limp grip.

In the meantime, the other Titans charged in.

Starfire was at the head of the charge. Her red hair flapped wildly behind her like a mane as she throttled through the air and unleashed a flurry of starbolts with a snarl. FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Atlas' got up on wobbly legs. The starbolts pelted him mercilessly. He stumbled backwards.

The green pterodactyl landed on the floor, turned into an elephant, and charged trumpeting into the teetering robot...emerald forehead first.

WHAM!!!!

"Augh!!!" Atlas stumbled back into one of the stacks, which caught his titanium weight. THWAP!!!

The robot 'groaned' and shook his head.

From above....

SCRAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAPE!!!!

"?????" Atlas peered straight up.

I came sliding down the inner curve of the exhaust stack on a curtain of murk. Smoke danced out from under my shades as I glided down and swung Myrkblade into his cranium.

SLASH!!!!!!

From the force of my power, cracks formed in his metal skin.

Wincing, Atlas stumbled outward.

"Azarath...Metrion...ZINTHOS!!!!" Raven enveloped his skull where I had cracked it and surged a huge sphere of explosive, black telekinesis.

CRACK!!!!!!!!

"AAAUGH!!!" Atlas trembled and shook as a huge chunk of titanium shattered from the robot's frame and littered the rooftop. The villain dizzily stood now with his inner circuitry exposed.

I spun from where I sat and gave Cyborg a grinning thumb's up.

"All yours now, dude...," Beast Boy said in elf form from the side.

Cyborg cracked his knuckles and grinned. "Android migraine coming up!!" He charged across the buildingtop. "RRRRGHH!!!" SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!

His fist slammed into Atlas' skull.

"MMMF!!" Atlas' body contorted as his forehead sparked. His robot eyes flickered. He angrily charged the android Titan. "Play cheap with Atlas and you play DEAD!!!"

Cyborg readied himself for the charge. "Go ahead. Keep talking trash, ya huge garbage can!!!"

WHAM!!!!

The two met. Atlas charging. Cyborg blocking.

The metal combatants grinded across the rooftop, their titanium feet making ravines in the concrete and kicking up dust. Near the edge, the two shoved against each other and took part in a gargantuan fist-fight of metal against metal. WHAM!! CLANG!! SMACK!! SLAM!!!

Starbolt circled about, providing coverfire with a well-aimed starbolt that appropriately caught Atlas off guard when Cyborg needed it. Beast Boy turned into t-rex form, ready to charge in and assist in ripping the robot madman to shreds if need be. I clung hard to Myrkblade while Raven meditated for all of us.

From the sidelines, Robin watched the combat. He panted...still hurt from the bruises, wounds, and burn marks so quickly inflicted upon him. Regardless, he saw an opportunity. Or at least...he _made_ an opportunity for himself. He produced a bolo and started tying explosive discs to each weighted end with wrapped-around tensile wire. He sweated during his task...momentarily flashing his gaze at the fight at hand.

Atlas was gradually starting to slow down. But the battle would be a harsh one. With everyone contributing his and her power. Except Robin....

Unless......

He took a deep breath as he finished his impromptu weapon. He looked up. Composed himself. And charged.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! "RAAAUGH!!" SLAM!!! Cyborg pummeled Atlas hard.

"Ughh...," the red robot stumbled backwards....right in Robin's way.

"Rgggghhhh," Robin spun the bolo above his spiked head.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Atlas shook his head.....and turned the Boy Wonder's way.

I glanced over...my black eyes widening under my shades.

Flying overhead, Starfire gasped. "Robin!! No!! Stay back!!"

Atlas frowned and aimed a glowing blaster.

"I got him!!!" Robin shouted. He flung the bolo forward. "YAAUGH!!"

SWOOOOSH-THWAP!!! The bolo wrapped around the gun barrel of Atlas' weapon. The explosives on the weights banged against each other just as the blaster fired---

**KABOOOOM!!!**

Altas screamed as his body fell back into a plume of fire.

In the meantime, the greater half of the explosion surged outwards in a discharge of energy straight at Robin.

The Boy Wonder skidded uselessly to a stop, his eyemask wide as the bright fire illuminated his figure.

"Robin!!!" an elvin Beast Boy shouted.

PHWOOOOOM!!!!

The firewall exploded into the caped crusader.

"AAAUGH!!!" miraculously, he fell back from the blast and out of the path of burning. Regardless, the edges of his costume smoked.

He tried to sit up, wincing--

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Atlas' burning body stormed out of the fire. His metal arm was completely shattered. His robot eyes glowed red. "If Atlas is to be defeated then you—mortal—are TO DIE!!!!!"

Robin tried to jump out of the way.

THWAP!!!!!

Atlas' foot caught the Boy Wonder hard in the side.

"UGH!!!" Robin tumbled across the buildingtop.....and flew over the edge.

"No!!" Starfire shrieked.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! Suddenly I was blurring over and sliding across the rooftop like a baseball runner in smoke form. I solidified at the edge and shot my metal arm out.

GRIP!!!!!!

I caught Robin by his cape.

CLANK!!!

I dug Myrkblade into the concrete, anchoring myself in place and holding Robin...barely...dangling.

"RAAAUGH!!" Cyborg charged Atlas from behind. WHAM!!!!

A heavy blow to the back of Atlas' exposed circuitry knocked him out for good. CLANK!!!! ZZZTTT!! Sparks flew from the robot's head. His eyes stopped glowing. His huge, hulking body teetered over...and fell towards Robin and I.

I gritted my teeth...watching the massive weight collapse on top of us.

FLASH!!!

Black telekinesis shielded the android before his shell could flatten us.

A green rhinoceros then stomped over and shoved the mass out of the way with a powerful horn...pushing the body well out of danger.

I let out a sigh of relief. I glanced down. I gasped again.

A tear had formed in Robin's costume...right were the cape attached to his jumpsuit.

I tried to warn him, but I had no hands free to hand-sign or impute a morse code.

"Is everyone okay?!?!" Cyborg spoke through the haunting silence.

Raven's eyes narrowed as she floated down to the ground. "Something's wrong...."

I resorted to letting out a shrill whistle.

The other Titans looked my way.

Robin glanced up too...and the weary noticed the latest predicament for the first time.

"N-Noir....??"

I panted.

He swallowed. "D-Don't let me fall? Please?" It was easily the most painful thing the Boy Wonder had ever said to me.

And because of that, I was numbed for those three or four precious seconds it took for his cape to finally tear loose.

RIIIIIIIP!!!

"Aaaaaaah!!" Robin shouted as he plummeted to the hard floor below.

"Crud!!!" Beast Boy shouted from the roof's edge.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! A green streak soared down.

The rest of us watched.

"!!!!!!" Robin met the merciless earth head on.

**GRIP!!!!**

He panted...dangling.

Starfire held him by his leg at the last second. She let out a breath of relief and repositioned him right-side up before gently lowering the two of them to the ground.

"Thanks...Star......," Robin said, panting.

"What were you doing?!?!" Starfire suddenly and explosively demanded.

"..............," Robin stared blankly at her. He swallowed, caught his breath, and said: "I was...doing my job. I couldn't let you face Atlas alone. I had to intervene—"

"You had to intervene with nothing!!!" Starfire exclaimed. She gestured dramatically towards the boy's fresh wounds and bruises. "Look at you! Do you not see yourself?! You are damaged and undoubtedly weakened by what that brute has done to you!!"

"I'm a Titan, Star!!" Robin exclaimed. "I can't just....just....sit by while you all do the work!!"

"Our powers could have sufficiently stopped him!!" Starfire's face was firm...but not for long. Gradually it started to melt from the center outward as her lip quivered and she uttered with a stomping of her foot. "You need not put yourself needlessly into danger!!"

"...............," Robin stared off into space.

Starfire brought a hand up over her mouth. She shook once...twice...and closed her eyes tightly. "I....I am sorry, Robin. I.....I-It is only that I do not desire to lose you. You are so fragile and you could perish any second that you put yourself in harm's way. I would not desire th-that at all...."

"It's okay, Star....seriously...," he smiled weakly in an attempt to solace her. It only worked slightly. "I've been through worse scrapes....I promise."

She suddenly hugged him, but not in her trademark bone-crushing style. She was sobbing this time. Green, Tamaranian tears squeezed out from under her lids as she trembling held the Boy Wonder tight, her neck bent around to rest on his lower shoulders.

"P-Please...do not th-threaten yourself l-like that again!! I entreat y-you whole heartedly.....please, Robin..."

He stroked the small of her back and breathed. "It's okay, Star. Trust me. I can take care of myself. I won't get into that sort of situation again. I promise...." But as he said that, his smile faded and he looked blankly towards an air of nothingness behind her quivering shoulder. His face was somewhere between a frown and a wound.

At about this time, I had finally managed to climb up and sit myself on the edge of the rooftop. I sat, panting, holding Myrkblade in my grip.

"Man oh man...," Beast Boy scratched his head as he and the other Titans stared at the emotional couple down below. "Talk about close shaves...."

A beat.

Beast Boy winced. He looked down at me, simpering. "Uhm....You okay too, dude?"

"............." I looked up and glared back at him.

Beast Boy sweatdropped and waved his hands. "Okay man....it's cool. Everyone's...safe and stuff. Heheheh..." He rushed over to Atlas' body and prepared to move it off the building in dinosaur form.

I shook my head and sighed exhaustingly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day at Titan's Tower....

PLOP!!!

A copy of the City Newspaper lands on a coffee table in the Main Room. The headlines read: '_TITANS ROCK ATLAS' WORLD'_

Raven glanced over the pages of her book at it. She set her literature in her lap and looked up from the couch. "Feeling a certain sense of pride?"

"And how!!" Cyborg beamed. He practically jumped backwards and landed in the reading chair opposite of the sorceress. "Maaaan, I feel so damn good everytime that creep has his clocks cleaned!" he grinned wide, resting his arms behind his back.

"I suppose that enthusiasm should be shared by all of the Titans...," Raven droned and returned to her book. "After all, it was the whole of us that defeated him before he could reach the Nuclear Reactor."

"Good point," the Android Titan nodded. A beat. He glanced with a suspicious human eye at her. "Are you enthusiastic, Rae?"

"No."

"HA!! Knew it. More pride for me then," Cyborg chuckled. "And means a lot."

"Explain."

"Well...technically...I'd say it was only five of us that really whipped him."

Raven flipped a page. "Are you referring to Robin's clumsy explosion and near-death fall?"

"Don't get me wrong, that stuff really sucked for him and all of us," Cyborg gestured with a serious expression. "I'd hate to have anyone get hurt on my watch." He then smirked some. "But you have to admit. Last night wasn't exactly his best night."

"The same can go for today too, you do realize....," Raven droned.

"How so?" Cyborg leaned his head to the side curiously.

"Robin has barely showed his face around the Tower today," Raven said.

"Come to think of it...," Cyborg glanced around "I haven't seen the squirt." He shrugged. "You know where he's at?"

"Not exactly."

"Man.....I hope he isn't cooped up in his room or something...."

"Why not? It's fun being cooped up in a room."

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Not everyone digs that like you do, Rae. Robin...he stands for something."

"Let me guess....leadership?"

"Esteem. Courage. Endurance. He seemed pretty down after Starfire's little outburst last night. I better go and check on him or something...," the android Titan stood up and prepared to walk off.

Without looking up from her pages, Raven spoke: "You won't find him in his room."

Cyborg stopped and glanced at her. "But I thought you said that you didn't know where he was??"

"And I don't. But I do know that you're right about one thing."

"That being...."

She finally glanced up. "Not everyone is like me. If something is bothering Robin, you have to know of one place where he'll be."

".............," Cyborg stared. He smiled. "Got it. Thanks, Rae."

"What? I'm just reading..."

Cyborg walked across the Main Room, entered the elevator, and pressed the button for the floor where the gym was.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Cyborg strolled down the dim hallway, he could already hear the tell-tale sounds of grunting, shoe-shifting, and punching bag impacts echoing down the corridor. Along with the sounds walked a dazed Beast Boy. The green elf was shaking his head as if recuperating from a day-long reprieve inside a ringing church bell.

"S'up, little man? What's Robin up to?"

"Heh....yeah....about that," Beast Boy simpered. He leaned towards Cyborg and whispered 'aside'. "Just...stay out of there, dude...."

"What's going on?"

"About ten gallons of sweat and Robin's blood pressure," Beast Boy gestured. "Just trust me. He's in one of his...ruffled feather moods."

"Pfft...nothing I can't handle."

"Take me seriously for once!" Beast Boy cutely pouted.

Cyborg winked. "I think I can handle him. We're his friends, remember? Besides...I'm a titanium heavy-weight. What's the worst Robin could do to me even if he was that angry?"

Beast Boy gulped. "Uhhh....I-I think that's sort of the point, Cy."

"Of what?"

"Everything."

"............"

"Your funeral....," Beast Boy shrugged and walked off. "Or better yet....Robin's. Heh."

Cyborg scratched the human side of his head. He shrugged....then walked on and entered the gym.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrgh!!! Haaa!! Yaugh!!! Mmmf!!" Robin sweated and shouted with each punch, chop, kick, and elbow-plant into the punching bag. He was shirtless with the lower half of his outfit covering his legs, save for his boots, for he was barefoot. Perspiration streamed down his face and danced around his eyemask. He continued pounding, spinning, and acrobatically striking the padded cylinder before him.

Cyborg whistled innocently. He stood to the side, took a deep breath, and attempted pleasantly to interject: "So....you think that punching bag is gonna talk soon? Or do you need to keep pummeling him for information?"

Robin panted in between punches. "You don't know the half of it...." He resumed his punishment.

"????" Cyborg looked down at the ground. There were two other punching bags on the gym floor. Ripped open by fist marks and spilling their insides.

"..............whoah."

"What do you want and make it quick!" Robin grunted in the middle of a spinning kick.

"Ahem....," Cyborg cleared his throat. He subtly gave Robin an intellectual stare and said: "What..........are you doing?"

"I already gave Beast Boy the lecture," the Boy Wonder grumbled. "You can ask him."

"Yeah, but he sugar-coats stuff."

Robin paused momentarily to give Cyborg a death-glare, and then he continued his punishment on the punching bag. "You saw me last night, Cyborg."

"Yeah...what about it?"

"I couldn't so much as phase Atlas. No matter what I tried." He punched and swung his elbow.

"Funny. I could have sworn I saw you bust his gun arm apart."

"Heh...some good that did," Robin gritted his teeth and karate-kicked the punching bag hard. WHAP!! "Nearly blew myself up and the rest of you in the process."

"Oh, come on....man....you didn---"

"But that's not half as bad as I did beforehand...," Robin paused momentarily....panting. Sweat running down his bare torso and limbs. "He nearly pulverized me. Every attack I made fell short. I was nothing but mince meat....and I'm supposed to be the leader of the Titans in combat..."

"Robin...you're taking it too hard," Cyborg walked over and stood behind him, shrugging. "So Atlas gave you a few conks on the head. Big deal. You'll get over it. I got over it!" Cyborg smirked. "You remember how crazy I was the first time I went against that metalhead freak! He practically drove me insane. He made me doubt myself...and because of that, it took me a few times to wake up and realize that I could beat him. Atlas is the sort of creep who'll rile you up. And it looks like you fell for it just as I did. But just like history...I know you'll look back and realize that....last night was a victory! It was a victory, Robin. No matter how goofy."

Robin turned around slowly. He was fuming. "You forget one thing about history, Cyborg. The first time the Titans faced Atlas...it was you at the front of the pack." He turned around and faced the punching bag again. His fists clenched. "Last night it wasn't you....it was me. And I'm not built out of titanium. I'm not equipped with sonic cannons or rocket thrusters or laser-guided reflexes."

Cyborg leaned his head to the side, confused. "What're you getting at??"

"I'm weak, Cyborg!!" Robin plowed his fist into the punching bag. "RAAUGH!!" WHAP!!! The bag swung off and teetered back into him. He gripped it and leaned forward, panting. He swallowed and managed in a bitter tone: "Atlas was right....the rest of you guys were right...I'm weak and powerless...."

"Say what?!?!" Cyborg frowned. "Look, man...I dunno what the hell Atlas was yappin' off about to you when we weren't there, but us Titans sure as heck weren't telling you these things! Where do you get that idea??"

"I don't expect you to understand....it's allright...," Robin sighed.

"No, dawg...it's not allright!! I don't understand because you don't TELL me!! Now you can punch crap in this gym all day until your damn knuckles bleed, but I promise you it ain't gonna do any difference! I know! I've been there before!"

Robin glared at him. "As opposed to where you are now? Cyborg...that's some place I will never be...."

Cyborg gave Robin a suspicious stare. He blinked his human eye once. "Robin...does this have anything to do with Starfire last night?"

"........," Robin started punching the bag again.

"Robin???"

"Have a nice day, Cyborg...." And that was that.

The android Titan sighed, shook his head, and walked away under a cloud.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Pfft!! Typical Robin stuff. That's all it is! Every once and a while, he runs into some bad guy or some creep who actually clips HIM in the jaw for once and the Boy Wonder completely loses it!! Thinks his career is coming to an end. Blah blah blah. Ugh...I went and talked with him earlier to try and cheer him up and I might go and do it again—as suicidal as it is. But I don't see how I can do any good! I mean...he's Robin, for crying out loud!" Beast Boy sighed in exasperation and rested his chin in his palm as he squatted atop the couch in the Main Room. "You'd think he'd wake up and realize just how...godly he is. How much he kicks butt. How much he makes me look like a lameass from time to time. I wonder if THEN he'd be so quick to whine and complain the soonest something awkwardly goes wrong for him???"

".........," Raven turned a page. "You know....you two are like one huge revolving door."

"Who? Me and Robin??"

"No, you and Cyborg."

"Oh.....um.......huh?"

The elevator doors opened and Cyborg limped out.

"And now you're leaving...," Raven droned.

"Actually, I was thinking of staying."

"Well.....fancy that."

"Hrmph!!"

Cyborg walked up and sighed. "Hey guys..."

"Dude...I so warned you," Beast Boy chuckled.

"What's with him??" Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "I swear...he's like a brat sometimes!!"

"Tell me about it!"

"Not bratty...," Raven corrected without looking. "....emotional."

"Huh??"

Raven sighed, put the book down in her lap, and glanced at the two male Titans. "Robin isn't quite the mystery that you and the other Titans keep falling for. He's just as see-through as anyone else...no offense."

"None taken," Beast Boy smiled. He craned a pointy ear. "Actually, I'm intrigued. Go on and explain..."

"Robin hides who he is behind a secret identity. He wears a utility belt fitted with gadgets made to give a person abilities that just are.....not tailor-made for humans to do. And on top of that, Robin pits himself up against creatures and villains far more powerful than he could possibly handle."

"Yeah...we all know that........I think...."

"Anyways...don't you see?" Raven spoke. "Robin denies himself who he really is. Everytime he's with us, he's this vigilante, former-sidekick, legend of Gotham City manifested in our Town. He has a bar of exceptional achievement to live up to. Something above that of average human capacity. When he puts on that mask and cape, he believes he's more than something he really is. He becomes the 'Boy Wonder'. The free-flying, butt-kicking acrobat worshipped by the masses."

"Okay..."

"Go on..."

Raven took a breath and continued: "But all of that still does not change who Robin truly is on the inside. The Robin that neither of us truly know. And when reality seeps in on the Boy Wonder in the form of Atlas—or any other crook that gets really close to beating him—that's when we see the true identity of the caped crusader rise to the surface. And it is not a pleasant or easy thing to see. The fact that Robin has propelled himself to somehow eliminate countless, inhuman foes is a very dear quality to him. When he sees that threatened, he starts to crumble away. He starts to lose it. His ego and his psyche are _that_ fragile. The instant I joined with him to create the Titans....and after having heard of his background with Batman in Gotham City...I knew I could only expect an eventual breakdown."

"You mean....Robin's gonna go nuts on us???" Beast Boy gulped.

Raven shook her head. "Robin may be superficial, but he's far too strong to let himself become that weak..."

"...so instead...," Cyborg thought aloud, "...he tries to make himself become stronger."

"But how can he 'become stronger'???" Beast Boy exclaimed. "He's Robin!! He's only a normal human being!"

Silence.

Raven stared at the boys.

Suddenly, they winced.

"Ohhhhhh....."

"Yikes...."

"What is it that we told Robin last night?" Raven asked.

"Something to the extent of 'stand back, we'll take care of this'," Cyborg agonizingly admitted.

"Even I told him it was 'too dangerous'," Raven nodded. "In the heat of the moment, I was more concerned with taking down Atlas."

"We were all concerned with taking down Atlas!!" Beast Boy cackled. "I mean...you saw how bad he whipped Robin as soon as we got there!! Had we been any later, how could Robin have survived?!"

"Nah, man...," Cyborg shook his head. "He would have taken care of himself!"

Beast Boy gulped. "Would he?"

Silence.

No Titan had a comment on that at first.

"Come on, guys....," Beast Boy simpered. "I just mean that....I mean...he was really beat....and......uhm...." A pause. "It's not like we can't trust Robin to take care of himself.............right?"

"He has considerable disadvantages in battle," Raven says.

"But he's always had some!" Cyborg said. "Only now........" His voice lingered.

"Nah....d-don't think of it that way," Beast Boy shook his hands and emphasized, "...we're letting Robin's sour mood get to us. Just because he's losing faith in himself doesn't mean we should lose faith in him."

Raven nodded. "Beast Boy's right."

The changeling did a double-take at her. "I-I am??"

"What Robin needs right now are his friends," Raven said...unemotional as always. But still.... "At the same time, he does need his distance. Versatile as you 'men' are...you do take an awful long time to get over rough scrapes."

Cyborg simpered. He scratched his neck. "Yeah....well....I-I suppose I didn't help things much."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Why not?"

"Guy thing."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Dudes.....," Beast Boy raised a finger. "If all of us aren't getting to Robin...then there's one person who can."

Cyborg smiled slightly. "Starfire..."

"She's the last resort when it comes to grabbing Robin's attention!" Beast Boy said. "If anyone can drag him out of his funk, she can!"

"We can't just force her to talk to Robin," Raven said. "She's been.....preoccupied lately too."

"Preoccupied??" Cyborg asked. "How so?"

"As in....'in her room' all day."

Beast Boy made a face. "Starfire? In her room? Instead of flying all around outside and chasing puppies and kittens and 747s??"

"I don't think it's as bad as it sounds," Raven said. "If she was in distress or in a sullen mood, I would sense it."

"Woo hoo!! Empathic Ice Queen to the rescue..."

Raven looked Cyborg's way.

He waved his hands. "Wasn't me!"

"Yeah...right...."

Cyborg chuckled.

"Well...how about I go talk to her?" Beast Boy hopped up, smiling, rearin' to go. "I don't know about Robin...but Starfire can't resist 'the face'!"

Raven blinked. "No."

Cyborg and Beast Boy looked at her strangely. "No?"

"I'll go."

They blinked.

Raven stood up, shutting her book closed.

FLAP!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down in my room, I was busying myself with two things.

Firstly:

Organizing Diana's letters of correspondence in a little filing container of mine...and I attempted to do so chronologically.

Secondly:

Focusing my attention on my laptop...where an IM conversation was taking place.

A window had been popped up for the previous forty minutes or so.

**InzeUltima**: **you sure you can multitask?**

I typed back.

**SpSquirrel****: Positive.**

I momentarily went back to filing, meanwhile eyeing the screen of the laptop through my shades.

"......"

The window....

**InzeUltima****: gr8t! :D this is a whole lot cooler than my just blathering in on the phone and you being forced to listen without responding! ;)**

**SpSquirrel:**** Ah...the multi-faceted dimensions of a long distance relationship.**

**InzeUltima:**** is that really how youd talk in person? :O its cute! :D**

**SpSquirrel:**** You use a hell of a lot of emoticons, Kara.**

**InzeUltima:**** hey i just got this thing so im still new to a lot of it**

**SpSquirrel:**** Not many internet hovels in Kansas?**

**InzeUltima:**** there werent any on Argos either**

**SpSquirrel:** **Oh....good point.**

I shuffled a few more letters, organizing them. I whistled to myself as the conversation went on and I divided my focus back and forth.

**InzeUltima****: so I hear that you had a visitor to the tower recently :/**

**SpSquirrel:**** Besides the occasional evil sister or possessed puppet?**

**InzeUltimate:**** try a higher bra size :P**

**SpSquirrel:**** Hmmmmm....Orson Welles?**

**InzeUltimate:**** huh???**

**SpSquirrel:**** If you're referring to a certain Amazonian, yes. She was here. And she was a.....wondrous woman.**

**InzeUltima:**** lol youre silly when youre lame**

**SpSquirrel****: I'll take that as a compliment.**

**InzeUltima:**** whatd she do while she was there?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Besides not advance on me?**

**InzeUltima:**** :P thats not why I asked and you know it.**

**SpSquirrel:**** Not much. She ruffled Robin's feathers a bit. But he's okay now. Mostly.**

**InzeUltima:**** mostly??? Oo**

I took a deep breath. I shuffled through the papers a bit. Hesitated. Sighed. And typed....

**SpSquirrel:**** I don't know what to say. It's probably not a big deal.**

**InzeUltima:**** what??**

**SpSquirrel:**** Ya know what? Answer me this...**

**InzeUltima:**** Shoot.**

**SpSquirrel:**** First off, how long have you been a superheroine?**

**InzeUltima:**** About two and a half years now.**

**SpSquirrel:**** Allright....now....have you ever once doubted yourself during that time? You know....had second thoughts?**

**InzeUltima:**** Over being Supergirl? **

**SpSquirrel:**** :nod:**

**InzeUltima:**** well....yes, to be honest. who doesnt have doubts now and then?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Good point.....**

**InzeUltima:**** you think your leader is going through an identity crisis? hmmm?**

**SpSquirrel:**** That's the funny part. He's got more than one identity.**

**InzeUltima:**** lol**

I leaned forward and stared past the laptop.

Thinking....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven's hand gently knocked on Starfire's door.

A pleasant voice from inside sing-songed. "Please announce yourself!"

Raven bit her lip, deigned to sigh, and uttered: "Starfire....it's me....."

Whatever shuffling sounds there may have been inside, they completely and utterly stopped. A beat later...the door flung open and a wide-eyed Tamaranian girl blinked out into the hallway.

".......hi," Raven gluttered.

"Raven.....," Starfire leaned her head cutely to the side. "Is it you??"

Raven glared. "What does it look like??"

Starfire simpered nervously and giggled. "Hehehehe!! I must apologize. I was not expecting any visitors to my interior abode."

"Funny....," Raven droned. "Everyone else in the Tower has been expecting you throughout the rest of the Tower."

Starfire pointed. "And yourself?"

Raven ignored that. "What are you doing in here, anyways?" she tried craning over the alien girl's shoulder. She was unsuccessful.

"Oh.....," Starfire shrugged. "A Tamaranian hobby. Would you kindly like to step in?"

"Sure...why not...."

Raven shuffled forward and Starfire closed the door behind her. The blue sorceress stood and blinked at what looked like....an octopus of red silk sheets stretched all across the room. Needles and pins were stuck in various spots. A chaos of craftwork.

A drop of sweat ran down Raven's temple. "This is almost frightening...."

"Oh??" Starfire asked. She cupped her hands together and smiled bashfully. "I suppose it should. It is the Tamaranian method of....of.....oh, how is it called on earth? Suing??"

"Sewing?!?!" Raven almost cackled. "Starfire...unless you plan on fitting a sock for Cinderblock's corpse or something.....this is rather too big for you. It's more like a blanket."

"Did I not say that it was the Tamaranian method?" Starfire smiled. She walked over and continued placing pens strategically throughout the stretch of fabric. "It only works with forgawool....a textile available in the Vegan system and indigenous of Tamaran. When in a raw form, the application of heat makes the material compact itself with a glorious discharge of energy."

"Really....," Raven boringly hummed. "Imagine that..."

"I am nearly complete with my latest handiwork. Observe!" She finished putting the pins in. She pushed herself and Raven back. A beat. Starfire charged up a low-level starbolt. With her eyes a bright green, she took a deep breath and tossed the energy pulse.

FLASH!!!

The orb flew into the center of the fabric, between the pins. The segment of cloth glowed for in an unearthly manner for a few seconds before constricting with a huge YANK! into the middle. The lines of cloth segmented from the pins ripped cleanly and melted for just the instant required to form adjoining pieces of cloth. In general, the entire process was both too complicated and too instantaneous. Regardless, when Starfire then floated over into the center of the room, she proudly held up what seemed to be a brand new sweater.

"Ta to the daaaa!" Starfire beamed. "Is it not most resembling a turtle of the neck??" She giggled. A beat. Her face fell and she gasped, holding the article to her muffled mouth. "Eeep!!"

"........," Raven's eyes glared into space. Pin shrapnel and sewing material scattered from the starbolt blast had lodged into her cloak and hair....barely missing her face. "Wise idea, Star. Keep your hobbies to your room." She plucked the offensive objects out of her person and dropped them to the floor. "Anyways...I came here to check on you."

"Check on me??" Starfire leaned her head to the side curiously. She gasped. "Oh, what horrible forgetfulness I must have!! Do we have a training session today that I have let slip my mind?!?!"

"No....no, Starfire," Raven waved her hand. "I just wanted to see if....ya know....."

"Hmmmm?"

Raven griped. "If you were all right..." She looked away.

Starfire blinked. "Raven? You for me?"

"Now don't go jumping to conclusions---"

"Oh glorious!! You admitted your feelings!!!" Starfire pounced her with a sweatered hug.

"YIPE!!" Raven grit her teeth and struggled in the Tamaranian's embrace. "Let me go!! I am merely....wanting to see....if you were.....stuck in your room....with worry!!"

A little perplexed, Starfire loosened her hug and looked Raven in the face. "Worry? But what would I be worried about?"

Raven pried herself from the alien's grasp, straightened her hair, and managed: "Last night, Starfire. You remember last night, don't you?"

"Oh....that is affirmative...," Starfire hung her head. She clutched the new sweater in her grasp...rubbing her thumbs across it. She paced across the room, paused, and looked back up at Raven. She was smiling. "It is only natural of Tamaranians to show their feelings so openly. However, I know that on this planet there are many perceivably ambiguous restrictions against doing so. If I offended you or any of my other friends, then I apologi—"

"No, Star. No. That's not what I'm getting at," Raven spoke. She sighed and rubbed her temples before giving in finally and saying: "Robin's been in a bad mood all day. And before you say anything—this isn't because of something you've done. The rest of us really think that Robin's taking his beating last night really seriously. He's been spending the last five hours practicing endlessly in the gym. Every time Beast Boy or Cyborg has stopped by to try and talk him out of his funk, Robin has given them the usual cold shoulder. Now, I know that—in the past—when Robin has been like this, we just let him be and things pass. But today he seems really, really beat, Star. And as much as I understand—and have already explained to Cyborg and Beast Boy—what Robin is going through....I wouldn't be any luckier than the boys if I were to try and reach out to him. However....." Her voice lingered. She glanced Star's way. Silently.

The Tamaranian girl nodded her head. "Yes.....I was.....fearful that this would happen. Robin takes to heart his vigilante occupation to levels that Terrans and extraterrestrials alike would call extreme...."

Raven—in all of her repressed nature—almost smiled at that.

"I suppose I have been cowardly," Starfire mumbled.

"How so?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"I know how Robin has a penchant for being angry. And....after I stepped out of line and let loose my emotions last night...I am afraid that he will be quite mad..."

"At you?"

"Indeed."

"But that's just it, Star..."

Starfire looked Raven's way.

Raven droned: "Robin is never mad at you."

A beat.

Starfire giggled softly. "Hehehe....I-I suppose he isn't."

"I for one hope you don't hate yourself for what you said last night," Raven said. "With Robin—all of us Titans are still trying to come to terms regarding his safety. True, he's proven multiple times again and again that he is just as competent as the rest of us—if not more so—without possessing superpowers. But sometimes, Robin DOES push the envelope too far. It threatens his own life...and arrogantly toys with our concern for a teammate. You were right in being angry at him, Starfire."

The Tamaranian blinked at Raven. "I was.....'right'?? Are you so certain that you approve of my...._emotional_ outburst, Raven?"

"...................," Raven looked like a deer caught in headlights. The funny thing was, she was driving. "I.....uhm.....er....." A beat. She shook her head and regained focus. "I'm giving advice for **you**, Starfire. Not for myself. Emotions are dangerous for me...but for you, they are quite the opposite. And just because I repress emotions, doesn't mean that I can't understand them. Robin does a lot for you as he does for the rest of us. He's supportive. He's protective. And he's informative. But just like everyone, he has faults. He can overlook his own words and actions when he means the best. And sometimes too much ignorance simply cannot be excused. For his best friend—you manage nicely on occasion to deal with Robin's tactlessness. From the way I see it, last night was a release for you. Incurred by an intense concern for his sudden well being."

Starfire smiled. She said: "Thank you for your words of wisdom, Raven. But please do not take offense if I tell you that I have thought every single asset of them in my head already while working alone this morning. In much of the same way, I have done what Robin has done. I have avoided the direct issue at hand. I get the sense that both he and I are afraid of each other...."

Raven nodded. "The only way you can deal with a fear is to confront it directly."

"I know....," Starfire sighed and hugged the sweater to her chest. "Do you wish to know what the greatest concern I have is in talking to Robin about it?"

The sorceress listened.

Starfire looked his way. "If he were to seek solace concerning his fragile safety in battle.....at th-this point....I could only make him feel worse."

"What makes you say that?"

Starfire closed her eyes. "Because I am so...so afraid for him."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAUGH!!! HIYAAAA!!! WA-TAAA!!!" Robin shouted.

SWOOOSH-THWAP!!! WHAM!!! CRACK!!!!

There wasn't much of a punching bag left.

The Boy Wonder fisted, kicked, and rammed the training device until its leathery hide was beginning to split....and...

"RAAAAAAAAHH!!" Robin spun and flung his foot hard into the bag's side.

WHAP—**CRAAACK!!!**

The support structure for the bag shattered.

Robin gasped and fell down, ducking a flying piece of broken metal and chain.

CLANG!!!!

Rattle-Rattle!!

A rise and fall of dust.....

".........," Robin winced after having fallen hard on his rear. He sat up, panting. Fuming. His knuckles sore. His legs numb...then on fire...then numb again.

"Rrrghh...," he pounded his fist into the ground....then wish he hadn't. "Ow!!!" he rubbed his knuckles. Panting still.

His half of the gym looked like a warzone in Kosovo.

"It's not enough....," he wheezed. "I can't test myself.....until a crime or something......" A beat. His eyemask thinned and he rubbed the sweat off his brow while thinking aloud. "Unlesss....."

Robin glanced over at a communicator on a bench. He hobbled over and picked it up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SpSquirrel:** **Can I ask you something stupid, Kara?**

**InzeUltima:**** you can try! **

**SpSquirrel:**** You do know that I'm human......right?**

**InzeUltima:**** er. human or humanoid?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Homo sapiens. No mutant gene. No cybernetic enhancements prior to my arm. No telekinesis. No shape-shifting abilities. Just....blood and DNA and my head.**

**InzeUltima:**** are you trying to ask me if youre 'normal'?**

**SpSquirrel:**** ......**

**InzeUltima:**** lol now who has the identiy crisis? ;)**

**SpSquirrel:**** Robin has gotten me thinking.**

**InzeUltima:**** and??**

**SpSquirrel:**** I've always considered myself a lot like him. I mean, we both rely on acrobatics and martial arts to take out our enemies. Only, he has a handful of gadgets and I have my sword.**

**InzeUltima:**** but Jordan, Robin doesnt have any superpowers.**

I sighed.

I nodded and typed back.

**SpSquirrel:**** Yeah. He doesn't.**

**InzeUltima:**** Im sorry, did I ruin some sort of silly idol worship or something?**

**SpSquirrel:**** No. I guess I've always taken them for granted.**

**InzeUltima:**** whats 'them'?**

**SpSquirrel:**** My superpowers.**

**InzeUltima:**** I see. We are in the same boat, my friend. ;)**

**SpSquirrel:**** Are we really?**

**InzeUlitma:**** I wont hesitate to admit that during my first days on earth I started to get fearless and stuff. I knew that I had so many cool powers and because of that I became daring and headstrong. at first I always thought Clark was only babbling when he said I was brash and impatient or whatever. the truth is, Clark was trying to tell me something. my powers are a responsibility and not some godlike gift. im still trying to get used to that today.**

**SpSquirrel:**** Sounds like that must be hard to deal with.**

**InzeUltima:**** lol listen to yourself, Jordan! are you that bashful or are you just playing with me?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Huh???**

**InzeUltima:**** you got superpowers too, remember? you just said so! **

**SpSquirrel:**** Oh.......right.**

**InzeUltima:**** hehehehe :) i think youre the opposite from me. its not that you take your powers for granted....they just arent the most important things in your life.**

**SpSquirrel:**** I wish I could tell myself what are the most important things.**

**InzeUltima:**** You mean you don't know??**

**SpSquirrel:**** Er.....**

**InzeUltima:**** Duh! your friends of course!! :P**

I smiled at that.

Suddenly, my communicator chimed.

I jumped in bed.

Fumbling, I reached for it and flipped it on with a Star Trek sound.

"_Noir. What are you up to right now??"_ Robin's voice asked.

"........," I glanced at the laptop. At the monitor. The text message.

A beat.

I replied with a clicking of morse code: '_Nothing.'_

_"Can I spare you for some training?"_

I took a deep breath.

'_Sure thing Robin'_

_"Good. Meet me outside the Tower. Between the beach and the bluffs. The training course."_

I nodded and clicked an affirmative back at him. I flipped the communicator closed and leaned forward to the computer with a sigh.

**SpSquirrel:**** I g2g. Practice Spar with Robin outside the Tower.**

**InzeUltima:**** awwww :(**

**SpSquirrel:**** Thanks for listening to me.**

**InzeUltima:**** lololololol**

**SpSquirrel;**** ?????**

**InzeUltima:**** nothing...that just 'sounded' funny, is all.**

**SpSquirrel:**** Oh....heheh.**

**InzeUltima:**** i really enjoyed this, Jordan. when can we chat like we have again, do you think?**

I scratched my head.

I typed....

**SpSquirrel:**** Barring Darkseid or a hurricane...I'd say tomorrow would be find.**

**InzeUltima:**** hehehe. k. cya then. :**

**SpSquirrel:**** Say, what's that last emoticon mean? I forget?**

**InzeUltima:**** you do? oh.....well, maybe I should come visit and remind you sometime.**

"......................"

I logged off.

I closed the laptop and stared across the darklit expanse of my room.

As the blush set in, I jumped across the room and slipped into my combat fatigues.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You made it...," Robin said, just slipping on his utility belt and completing his fighting costume. "Good."

I walked across the windblown sawgrass and into the clearing of sand between the rock bluffs. I smiled and waved.

Robin didn't so much as smirk back at me.

I bit my lip.

The afternoon had drawn late. A yellow sky stretched over us. The sand looked like gold.

"I hope I didn't interrupt you in anything....," said the Boy Wonder blankly.

I shrugged.

He walked over into the center of the clearing and gestured for me to join him. "Well then...I hope you're up to some fast action. I don't know about you, but after last night I could sure use the warm-up."

I nodded. I reached back and started to slide Myrkblade's sheathe off my back---

"Don't...," Robin held out a gloved hand.

".......," I looked at him in mid-stretch.

"No holding back," he said simply. "**Use** it."

".......," I blinked under my shades. I shifted the sheathed back in place.

SWOOSH-RKK!! Robin flung his staff out into its full extension. He spun it out into a pose and motioned for me. "I don't want you holding back, Noir. I want you to give me all you've got for this one."

"........."

"**All** that you've got...," he emphasized, his eyemask narrowing.

I took a deep breath.

CHHIIIIING!!!

I pulled Myrkblade, twirled it, and held it at ready.

Robin and I stared at each other across the sand. The wind blew at his spikes and my long black locks. The sawgrass danced around me.

_But this was not meditation......_

The Boy Wonder inhaled. "Okay....Noir....best out of nine...."

I went bug-eyed.

_Nine?!?!_

SWOOOOOSH!!!

He came at me.

_Whoah!!!_

"RAAAUGH!!!" SWOOOSH!!! His rod flung at my ribcage.

I gritted my teeth and nervously blocked with a vertical blade.

CLANG!!!

Sparks flew

I literally grinded back in the sand from the impact.

"HAAAA-TAA!!" Robin spun and kicked at my head.

I ducked.

He charged at me like a minotaur.

"!!!!"

WHUMP!!!

I tumbled backwards on the ground.

SWOOOOSH-PLOP!!!

An explosive disc landed in the sand besides me. It blinked a few times and flashed.

I gasped.

**BLAM!!!!**

Sand flew into the air. And so did my body. I tumbled like a wet sack twelve feet away. I groaned and sat up, rubbing my head.

"Dammit, Noir!!" Robin cackled. He leapt over and helped me up—more like 'forced' me up—to my feet. "When I tell you to give me all that you got, I mean it!! Don't be afraid! We're both experts! We won't hurt each other!!"

I panted. I gulped.

He stepped back, twirled his staff at ready, and took a deep breath.

"Okay. Score. Me, one. You, zero. Round two of nine."

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade.

_I think I get it now......_

I thinned my eyes. I concentrated.

Smoke twirled down my limbs and into my blade. Soon my whole weapon was a flickering mass as smoke danced out from under my shades.

Robin took a firm breath. "That's it..." SWOOOSH!! He charged at me with his staff.

I snarled and slashed upwards with my superpowers.

SLASH!!!!

A stream of murk sailed at the Boy Wonder.

He vaulted over them and came down at me with his staff swinging down.

In a blur, I raised my metal hand and blocked.

CLANK!!!!

I blurred my wrist around, grabbed Robin by the neck of his shirt, and tossed him over me.

He twirled in the air, planted his boots against a rock bluff, and leapt off straight for me. He pulled out a flung a bolo at me in midair.

TH-TH-THWOOSH!!!

The weighted cords struck and wrapped around me a few times. My arms were pinned to my chest and Myrkblade forced downward. I struggled as if in a straitjacket.

Robin landed from his dive, rolled, and charged up at me with an upswing of his staff. "Rrrrrgh!!"

I gritted my teeth.

_If I'm not holding anything back......then neither is he!!_

SWOOOOSH!!-His staff throttled murderously towards my forehead.

I swiftly teleported into smoke form.

Robin's staff went 'through' me and secondly came his body. "Augh!!!" he trudged through the murk and smoke and emerged, entangled in the bolo that had once encased my solid body.

I materialized, spun around, and jabbed at his sprawling figure from behind.

Myrkblade slid between his skin and his costume.

I hoisted him up like a lever.

Robin was flung over me. He twirled in the air and managed to land in a crouch. Upon impacting the sand, he reached a hand into his belt and flung two birdarangs at once. "Nnngh!!"

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH!!!

I held Myrkblade up.

CRACK!! I shattered one.

Smoke trailing, I spun Myrkblade into position to block the second.

CRAA-AACK!

Robin sprang forward and charged me with his staff again. It was only a short distance to cross, and it only took him three seconds to cross it.

And in those three seconds—while holding Myrkblade—I saw the perfect opportunity to bring Myrkblade down and cleave his head in two. But I didn't.

I did nothing....

SWOOOSH-THWUMP!!!!

My breath left me as he elbowed me hard in the stomach.

SWIISH-SLAP!!!

And struck his staff hard against my side.

I tumbled with a splash of white into the sand. Down....

Robin stood over me, panting and wiping his brow. on!!! You're still holding back!!"

I winced. I was hoping he'd overlook that. I exasperatingly got up and tried to compose myself.

"You should use every power available to you!! Do your teleportation!! Streak around super-quick!! Do everything that Noir does!! I'm doing everything that Robin does, after all!!" he pulled out a fan of birdarangs and held his staff out at ready. "Now come on!! Are we sparring or not??"

I failed to see how this was 'training'. And for once it bothered me that Robin could be that superficial. But then again—judging from last night—he hadn't been in the best of moods.

Yes...I would play along. But I couldn't go all the way. I knew that. And so did he, I think.

Regardless, nothing stopped him from exhaling: "Round three!" and charging at me with weapons flinging. "YAAUGH!!" SWISSSH!!! TH-TH-THWISH!!!

I couldn't hurt him. So all I did was....defend.

CL-CL-CLANK!!

CLANG!!!

Across the massacred sand....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin has always been so kind to me. So gentle. Understanding. Tolerant....," Starfire said, sitting on the edge of her bed and hugging her glork plushie. She looked off with forlorn green eyes as she spoke to a patient Raven sitting across the way in a funky, alien chair. "He showed me personally that there are souls kind enough on this planet to accept me no matter how awkward and strange I may be outside of my own element. And I suppose that....over time...I have grown to see him as more than a friendly benefactor. I truly...truly admire him. I find him precious for so many reasons that....well...sometimes it seems silly."

A beat.

Starfire glanced up. "Raven.....do you think that I may be....infatuated?"

The dark girl blinked. Suddenly and without warning, her blue hair twirled and a whole row of cabinets in the walk-in bathroom behind the two Titans opened simultaneously with a burst of telekinesis.

FLASH!!!

"Eeek!!" Starfire jumped in her seat and hugged her plushie tightly. "Raven!! Wh-What was th-that??"

"Ahem....sorry....," Raven rubbed her temples as her magical hair settled down. "Usually when my emotions urge me to laugh out loud, I'm able to control it. But right then and there....."

"Hmmm???"

Raven cleared her throat. "Starfire...everybody knows."

"E-E-Everybody knows what??" the girl murmured innocently.

"Everybody knows that you.....that you 'like' Robin," Raven said.

"........," Starfire stared.

Raven blinked. "Do Tamaranians have a verbal equivalent for the word 'smitten'??"

"Ohhhhh.....yeep!" Starfire blushed. "Is it that obvious??"

"I wouldn't be so worried if it was...," Raven smiled ever so slightly. "Again, when I say that 'everybody knows'....I mean to hint that we've had a long time to know about it."

"How so?"

"As much as I can remember, Star, you and Robin have been close. Robin can be pretty dense sometimes. But you....you let your feelings show all the time. It's part of who and what you are. And reading of f of you...it's extremely evident how much you admire Robin. The way you got mad the first time Killer Moth's daughter forced the Boy Wonder into a romantic excursion. How you violently thrashed Slade's robots ambushing us in the diamond mine when Robin was nearly shot by laserfire. How strongly you urged that we give a second look to Robin's forced role as the First Apprentice of Slade. They all point out to the truth at hand. But at the same time, Starfire....they are.........'noble' characteristics of your appreciation for Robin. And nothing to be ashamed of."

Starfire took a trembling breath and smiled gently. "I....I suppose then...I am not thought of in low regard for such an infatuation?"

"Why should you be? It is your life. It is your feeling. Don't let us 'earthlings' judge you."

Starfire looked to the side. Her eyes were a dull jade. "Robin......I do not believe he is.......so adamant about our closeness.....a-as I am...."

"................," Raven had no response to that.

"But...such is not new," Starfire looked up. Grinning again. "And it would do Robin well to know that....th-that I am not so distressed over him so as to think his talents are empty. I trust in his own 'powers' as much as everyone else in the team. I should not let the occasional worry or fret of mine to take hold."

"So...."

Starfire stood up. "I shall go and speak with him. Before he damages himself with his egotistical asceticism."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Raven stood up, dusting her hands off.

"Raven....," Starfire plopped the glork plushie back down on the bed and faced the sorceress while the two walk to the door. "Tell me if you may.....why is it that you are so incredibly receptive to my emotions and supportive in my approaching Robin to make amends of his self-conscience of trepidation? Are you truly in fear for Robin's well-being?"

"Hardly....I never fear," Raven droned.

"Then what is it? Please, I would gladly like to know!" Starfire smiled.

Raven opened the door and glared with a look of exhaustion. "I want the other Titans to stop having a reason to interrupt my damned reading."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAUGH!!!!" Robin spiraled down at me with a spinning staff.

I held a smoking Myrkblade up and rapidly blocked.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

Robin landed on the sand in a squat and swept his leg out from under me.

THWUMP!!!

I fell, teleported in mid-air, and materialized upright two feet away.

I had a chance to blur forward and smack Robin hard across the skull with a murking blade.

I didn't take that chance...

"WA-TAAA!!" Robin spun at me with a kung fu kick to the face.

SWOOOOSH!! I brought my metal hand up to my china and blocked his kick at the last second.

And there I had a chance to pulse murk through my titanium fingers and slam Robin hard against the rock bluffs with one baseball-bat-swing.

But I didn't want to hurt him...

"Nnghh!!" Robin let out a breath. With his one foot gripped so high, he vaulted the rest of his body up and swung it over his leg with a metal boot across my face.

WHAM!!!!

I groaned and fell to the sand hard. Down.

Robin landed besides me, standing. Panting.

"For crying out loud!! Stop it!!" the Boy Wonder uttered. "The score is me, four.....you, one. Stop giving them to me, Noir!! Fight me with all you have!! Your powers and everything!! I can take it, dammit!! I can freakin' take it!!"

I groaned and slowly got up to my feet. I made it look more laborious than it really was.

_Or did I??_

Whatever the case, it pissed Robin off just looking at it.

"Drop the act!! Now, as leader of the Titans I'm ordering you to try your best!! I know this is just sparring, Noir! But it's important!!" he stepped back and posed with his staff at ready. "Okay....match point. Round six of nine...."

I took a few deep breaths.

_Just lose three more times and it's over......_

He charged me.

I held up a smoking blade.

He ran, coming closer and closer.

I staid in that pose....not moving...not attacking...

"Don't just stand there!!" he hollered as he reached me.

WHUMP!!!

He plowed me to the ground.

We rolled.

I kicked him off me.

He flipped in the air and landed with a slide across the sand. He twirled his staff and came at me again.

I stood up and barely blocked his maniacal jabs in time.

STAB!!! THRASH!!!! CL-CL-CLANK!!! SMACK!!!!

He pushed me closer and closer towards the rock bluffs behind me.

"Come on, Noir!! Come on!!" Robin panted. "How can I be dominating you this much?!?! Whatever happened to our heart-stopping martial arts fights??!! Your quick agility against my headstrong domination!! Show me your powers!! Don't let me hurt you for no reason!!!"

I gritted my teeth and sweated as I defended...defended...defended...defended...

CLANK!!! CL-CLANG!! SMACK!!!

THWUMP!!

I was pressed back against the rocks.

Robin dove in with his staff.

I blocked horizontally with the broadside of my blade.

I struggled as he pressed our weapons against my chest and leaned in so close our noses nearly touched.

"Why won't you do it, Noir?!?! Why won't you answer me at least that simple request?!?! Why can't you be the fearless badass when I need one?! Be ruthless, Noir!! Like.....Like.....L-Like Wyldecarde!!"

I froze. My lips parted.

"Wyldecarde never held back!! That was the ultimate test!!" the Boy Wonder rambled insanely. His brow covered in sweat. "Wyldecarde would have killed me faster than he killed any of the other Titans!! Where'd he go off to, Noir?!?! At least he would have the decency to try and break my ribs!! I need a challenge!!"

I frowned then and there. Angrily....

_As if it ever was to begin with......this matchup sure as hell wasn't fun anymore......_

FLASH!!!!!

With a wave of exploding smoke, I effortlessly shoved the caped hero off of me.

"Nnghh!!" he stumbled back.

I leaned forward. My limbs blurred Myrkblade down.

_**THWACK!!!!**_

My smoking blade snapped Robin's staff apart in a single instant. I could have easily done it at anytime.

Robin blinked under his mask....

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

He tilted back and gulped.

I head the Myrkblade outward, frowning. The warbling tip of the blade clung barely to the inner curve of the Boy Wonder's throat.

As smoke danced out under my shades, I kept my gaze venomously on him. Without gesturing or mouthing a word, I aimed Myrkblade to the my right...and stabbed it into the surface of the rock bluffs.

CRACK!!!

The blade stuck in about four inches.

I pulsed murk down into it and—

FLASH!!!

CRUMBLE!!!!

The dark energy released formed a gaping hole in the rock. Like the point blanc discharge of godly lightning. Trails of smoke filtered up into the air from the shattered stone as I brought the powerful blade back forward.

I pointed the sword at 'Robin'....and slowly shook my head before lowering it.

".............," Robin stared at me. Suddenly, his fists clenched and his shoulders shook. He grit his teeth to the point that I imagined sparks would fly.

Then...

THWUMP!!!

He shoved me hard in the chest...like a spoiled bully at a playground.

THUD!!! I landed hard in the sand, barely wincing.

"Yeah, Noir. I know. I freakin' know it, okay?!?! You can make my torso explode in half a second if you wanted to. Well I think you should have gone ahead and attempted it without the pansy warning, you lame ass!!! Did it occur to you that I wouldn't have let you do that to me?!?! I'm a superhero for crying out damned loud!!! But if you don't believe that, then fine!! Nobody believes that anymore!!! Not the criminals! Not the press!! And worst of all not my _teammates!!"_

And he stomped off, breathing heavily. Frowning. Away from the Tower....

I rested my hands on my knees, stared down into the shadowed sand, and sighed....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As I walked into the Tower, I found Starfire and Raven walking out.

I came to an abrupt stop...blinking.

"Noir, greetings," Starfire smiled. "Cyborg told me that you would have seen Robin last. That the two of you were having a training spar. May I inquire...is Robin still out there?"

"........," I bit my lip.

Raven caught it. "What happened?"

I sighed. I smiled weakly and motioned for the two girls to follow me along into the elevator.

"Where're you taking us?"

I mimicked a 'red eye' with my fingers over my face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg finished reading my hand-signs. "And also according to Noir, Robin had all of his equipment on him when he left. It looks like our leader's ready to do some personal damage."

"Eeek!" Starfire clasped her hands together. "To himself?"

We all stood in the Main Room. The sun was setting outside. Night gradually fell.

"No, Starfire...," Raven spoke. "It's a Robin thing. Even before you and the other Titans came along, Robin has had a habit of going out on the Town solo."

"T-To do what?"

"What else? Fight crime."

Cyborg nodded. "Robin told me he used to do that all the time in Gotham. Mostly right before he left Batman's wing and settled here in the place my dad built."

"There's always a rotten apple in the bunch," Beast Boy grumbled from the sofa.

Raven, Cyborg, and I glanced at him strangely.

"What???" the changeling shrugged. "Every team has its super-angsty, dark character!!"

"You forget, dawg," Cyborg smirked and pointed. "That's Raven."

FLASH!!

"Ow!!" Thwump!!

"Perhaps we were wrong...," Raven spoke to all of us as she lowered her hand. "Last night with Atlas has had a greater impact on Robin than previously assumed. Maybe it's best to keep our distance."

"Unacceptable!" Starfire pouted. "I will not let your hour-long counsel go to waste!" she spoke directly to a sweatdropping Raven at this point. "You pointed me in the right direction, Raven. I have made my decision and I wish to intercede on Robin's behalf!"

Cyborg stood back up from the ground and smiled. "What's this all about?"

"It's nothing....," Raven groaned.

"You played counselor with Starfire, didn't you?!?!"

"I said, it's **nothing.**"

"You did!! Awwwww, maaaan! That's so cute!!"

FLASH!!

"Dah!!" Thwump!!

An artery pulsed in Raven's forehead. "Ahem...do what you wish, Starfire....," she lowered her hand again. "But how are you even going to find Robin?? He's quite elusive when he's on his own. I'm sure you can imagine. He's as mysterious as it is when 'working with the team'."

Even I scratched my head at that one.

"Duh, dudes....just follow the path of butt kicking," Beast Boy said.

All of us turned and saw him sitting in front of the Main Computer.

"I beg you for the pardon??" Starfire remarked cutely.

Beast Boy typed away and brought up a map of the City. Blinking lights appeared in a snake-like string through the Central and West Districts.

"Check it out!" the elf beamed. "These are the latest reports of police arrests in the last hour and a half!!"

"They're happening so....quickly," Cyborg stood up and blinked. "One after another...."

"And in a path too," Raven droned.

"Yup. I'd say we've got our bird-brain," Beast Boy blinked.

"Robin....," Starfire murmured.

Raven turned around and glanced at her. "It's up to you."

The Tamaranian nodded. "And it is so...." She swiftly hovered up in the air and flew across the Main Room and into the elevators.

"........," I watched her from over my shoulder. A beat. I glanced over at Cyborg.

He was smiling at Raven. "So...decided to be a girl scout today just for the Hell of it?"

"Yeah....sure....," Raven rolled her eyes. "Just for the Hell of it."

Cyborg chuckled.

"Okay, enough of this crap," Beast Boy exited the map program and cracked his knuckles. "Everquest time!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In an alleyway that night...

THWUMP!!!

"UGH!!!" a scraggly bearded thug gripped his chest where Robin's knee had contacted.

His partner rushed in from behind the caped Titan with a knife. "Rrrrrr!!!"

"WA-TAAA!" Robin spun and kicked him across the face.

A bloody tooth and saliva flew. The crook fell to the floor and dropped his knife. CL-CLACK!!!

In the corner, a woman and her little girl were shivering. They looked up and saw the two assaulters on the ground, moaning and twitching in pain.

SWOOOSH!!

Robin landed in a crouch. He slowly stood up and marched over towards the woman.

"Are you allright, Miss?"

"Yes!!" she clutched her shivering daughter and smiled tearfully. "Oh thank you, Mr. Titan. We...I....I-I don't know what to say..."

The sounds of police sirens filled the air. Flashing lights drifted down the alleyways as a few squad cars pulled up to the edge of the scene.

"You can try saving it for the authorities...," Robin smiled ever so slightly to the citizen. "They'll be glad to hear of any testimony you have to give. Other than that...I suggest taking the bus from now on instead of walking across this part of Town."

"I hear you...," she nervously smiled.

Robin aimed a grappling hook high. POW!!!! "Take care!!" He hoisted himself away just as officers rushed down into the alleyway and started apprehending the pained suspects.

The woman knelt down and embraced her child closely. With tears of joy....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin swung over the streets. Between buildings. Across the urban canopy.

The wind beat into his face, and something possessed him. And as his eyemask thinned and he aimed another arm out with another grappling hook to sail towards another rooftop.....

Time slowed down. He was no longer a part of the Earth. He was primordial. Like a spirit. A forgotten god. A Titan.

But eventually, time would resume. He came at the end of his last swing and leapt off.

He flipped in the air for a moment, his yellow cape flapping like the tailfeathers of a golden bird.

THUMP!!

He landed in a squat on a rooftop.

He stood up.

A beat.

He sighed.

He walked over and perched on the ledge of the building top's side.

He stared down into the streets. The cars streaming by. The red-bricks of older buildings. Honking sounds and the music wafting upwards from a nearby café. A scarlet aura that filled the nightly domain.

Red....

Robin sighed. "Empty night and an empty head....," he mumbled aloud. A beat. A bitter smile. "Feels like home."

"How tragically amusing....."

Robin turned around.

Starfire stood on the ledge across the rooftop. She stood tall in the wind, shyly resting her right hand on her dangling left arm. The wind blew at her scarlet hair and she fought the urge to avoid the Boy Wonder's gaze. "...when things feel like home for me, I am filled with glorious joy. Is your home a memory of sadness, Robin?"

The caped crusader sighed and looked back out onto the streets. "Nah, Star. I'm just.......not in the best of moods today."

Starfire floated over and hovered gently beside him. "Would it be fair to say that I share in such a sentiment?"

He glanced at her...blinking under his mask. "You don't seem down."

"Because my mood is not exemplary does not necessarily qualify me as being 'down'," Starfire tried her best to articulate. She put on a brave smile. "I find it best to converse with friends around me. And indeed, it is most glorious to have others to depend on in times of trepidation."

"Heh....," Robin looked off. "Is that your subtle way of telling me you want to talk?"

Starfire bit her lip. "Robin...I only....," she paused....then continued: "—I-I only wish to ease that which troubles you."

"You can't help a person who can't help himself, Star."

"And I am aware of that Robin. But if it is possible, I would like to push 'yourself' into providing the aid that you need in this case."

"Ever the nice one....you're too good of a person, Star," Robin said.

"I merely am that which I am."

Robin sighed. He sat down on the ledge of the building. His legs dangled over the side.

Starfire floated down and sat beside him.

They were almost shoulder to shoulder. Silent. Staring out into the wind and City life tiredly taming below.

"............."

"............."

"............."

"............."

".............," Finally, the Boy Wonder gave in. "Things were so much simpler in Gotham."

"Were they truly, Robin?"

"In a manner of speaking," he shrugged. "Gotham is Hell. In the daytime, the City is covered in smog that drifts in over the impoverished squalls from power plants and incinerators along the polluted river. Then at night—when the urban demons come out—the sky is unnatural. It's a blood red. Red everywhere. You go to bed with the red and you wake up with the red and—unless you're lucky—you grow up with the red coming out at you from a bunch of ambushing muggers...."

Starfire gulped. "I-Is that how you grew up, Robin?"

"I grew up knowing that life was a struggle. And only the strongest survived. And being the 'strongest' meant crushing everyone and everything in your path," the Boy Wonder said. "But when I became strong....and when Batman found me and endowed me with his talents and tricks....I realized that power was something you wielded to save others much like me. People who knew nothing but the eternal read of their impoverished, Gotham routine. Power to me was something that I had. Something like a treasure. And I used it to shine by preserving the lives of those around me. I hoped that I could give them an easy break. I could just...dive in like some songbird of salvation and make their lives happier so they wouldn't have to go through all the struggle that I did to get to where I am. I thought I could break the cycle. And I learned to respect myself for what I did."

The Boy Wonder leaned back and stared at the relatively black, natural sky.

"When I came here, Star....I had that same Power leftover from Gotham. Or at least...I thought I did. Lately, I've been trying to make myself realize that.....th-that I'm not the same little crime fighter who swung around like a flying daredevil, saving every pour soul in his eyesight by happenstance. In this City....in this time in my life and in all superheroes' lives, the toughness of villains is getting tougher. Stronger and stronger bad guys are stepping up to the plate. Mutated, supernatural, and celestial cards are being thrown into the deck. An old-fashioned pupil to Batman like myself is having to realize that so many things nowadays are out of my league. I can no longer be the savior I once was."

He sighed and turned his head to look a the listening Tamaranian.

"And lord knows I've tried, Star. I've tried to measure up to my foes. I've tried to remain equal to you and Raven and Beast Boy and Noir and Cyborg with all of your superpowers combined. And it's so godawful insane, the limits I've pushed myself too. Everyday, I'm fighting gravity and human endurance to push my fighting abilities somewhere close to one hundred and fifty percent....only to wake up tomorrow and find a greater threat that requires one hundred and fifty-**one** percent!! I feel like.....I-I feel like no matter how hard I try to improve myself by such an insignificant factor each and every day, something new and terrifying rears its ugly head and I'm back to the drawing board again."

He groaned. He bent over and clutched his dark head of hair.

"I have no idea why I keep doing this, Star. I seriously don't....."

His voice was muffled. Exhausted. Even torturous...

"Every night I try to sleep....I can't. I keep thinking....keep thinking about how well I'm going to perform tomorrow. I keep tossing and turning and agonizing over the stuff I can't do....._much like the stuff I could never do......_"

Starfire leaned her head to the side, curious.

He looked up and took a deep breath. His eyes sought some familiar red in the sky. He was empty-handed.

"I'm afraid, Star...," he managed to say. He gulped and continued. "I'm afraid of many things. But lately....I'm realizing those fears are....are probably arrogant and blind." He hesitantly gave her a side-glance before continuing: "I know what I should be afraid of. And I'm so sorry for not thinking about it....for being so full of myself." He ran a hand through his hair shakily and uttered: "I should....be afraid....of what would happen.....to my friends....if I was to die on them...."

Starfire took a deep breath.

Robin stared down the buildingside. He inhaled strongly. "I.....I'm throwing myself into the fire. Earlier, I blew up at Noir for no reason. He didn't do anything bad. In fact, he was trying to make a point to me. At any moment and at any second, he could have ripped me to shreds with that sword of his. But when I asked him to give me his all cuz I was selfish enough to want an unnaturally dangerous spar, he refused. He did the right thing. He spared my pathetic, weak self....and I treated him like shit for it."

His fists clenched momentarily....then relaxed.

"Just like the rest of you....," Robin looked up at Starfire. "He's worried about me. And it's my fault that he's worried. Because as time passes by and criminals get stronger and stronger and challenges get crazier and crazier.....all I'll ever be is normal, Star. A normal human. A pint-sized Napoleon who can't shoot lasers....who can't lift cars....and who was not meant to fly." He chuckled bitterly. "Despite what my 'name' implies....."

Silence.

The wind stirred a bit, and died down.

Half of the two felt naked.

Starfire broke in with: "Perhaps.....y-you are right, Robin...."

The Boy Wonder's shoulders sank.

She placed a hand on them. She smiled as he looked her way.

"You were not meant to fly...," she smiled gently. "But—X'Hal be praised—you were meant to do other things. I know for a fact that you were meant to greet me the day I first landed here on Earth. You were meant to teach me what it is to be a hero. And you were meant to be with me every step of the day as I acquainted myself with your people, culture, and customs---as well as your nightmares. I feel so much more competent and—yes—powerful now that I have had the chance to serve under your leadership. But most importantly...I feel glorious for having been graced with your freedom."

Her hand stirred...for she suddenly had the desire to trace her fingers under his firm chin yet strangely smooth cheeks. But she refrained.

She steadily said: "I know you do not have superpowers, Robin. But I do know that you are powerful in and of yourself. Because....b-because you are a paradox, Robin. You are ever-so-strong and courageous. But also—if I may say so—you are immensely precious..."

He lifted a humored eyebrow above his mask.

She smiled. "So very strong...and yet so very fragile. Somewhere in there, you manage an equilibrium. You defy death, injury, extortion, and all other pestilences that Terra Firma threatens you with. And you do it all selflessly....with no primary concern for your own safety or your own needs. And—yes—I have been greatly upset by such recklessness on your part. But that is because I am mostly not like you, Robin. I am so, very selfish. Because.....B-Because every time I so much as see you, I am filled with the urge to hug you and fear you all at once. I-I know it sounds strange. I cannot explain it in simple words. But I know that you are an intuitive soul. And you must understand that after what Atlas did to you last night, I was upset because I was frightened. And for a split second, I forgot about your competence. I forgot about the paradoxical power so indicative of you and I panicked. I cried. I broke down because I felt like I had almost lost you. For that lack of faith—however momentary—I am gravely sorry. Today I have faired better, for I have reminded myself that many times in the past have you similarly suffered in spite of your mortal strengths...and yet you survived. You survived because.....b-because you are you, Robin. And who am I—who are any of us to dictate to you what you should or should not be??"

"I'm....I'm just weak, Star...," Robin shuddered. He bit his lip and looked away. "I'm....I-I'm flattered by what you say, but—"

"Then be flattered by this...," Starfire gripped his hands in hers and caught his sole attention as she gazed emerald into his eyes. "I envy you, Robin."

His lips parted some. "Star???"

"I **envy** you," she said firmly. "Believe it or not, Robin. You _do_ have a superpower. It is something of courage, endurance, and limitless expertise in the face of all obstacles. I was granted with my powers at birth. I have nothing but experience alone to boast of. And time after time again, I must deal with the exhausting duty of repressing my strengths so that my Tamaranian passion will not incite me to burn hapless suspects alive in fury."

Robin gulped at that.

"I can only imagine—no, I **wish**. I sincerely **wish** I could understand what it is like to have to fight for that power. To have to deny the limitations of my own being so that I may bring salvation and glory to innocent people everywhere. Robin...you have the greatest superpower I have ever seen in that respect. Greater than any of the other Titans can imagine. And it hurts me....it hurts me dearly to see you be so ruthless to yourself by denying that talent."

Robin looked down. His eyemask seemed to wilt some. His fingers clung to Starfire's.

The Tamaranian felt them and took a sharp breath. It was the first time she had ever felt _desperation_ from the Boy Wonder.

"Star??"

"Yes, Robin?"

"........I've been such a damn, whiny brat lately."

"Hehehehehehe!!!" Starfire shook, smiling. "I am not one to complain. But poor Noir...he has a great quantity of sand to remove from his underpants!"

"Heheheheh," Robin chuckled. He ended the laugh with a long sigh. And something inside him melted, revealing a painful core that stung and healed all at once.

And then he _truly_ felt like he was back home.

"I'm......I'm really sorry about last night, Star," Robin said. He scratched the back of his neck. "I....I guess I could have backed down when you all told me too. I mean....it was just bad luck, that's all."

"Indeed."

"Eh...I got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning."

"Uh huh."

"I would have kicked his ass if it was any other day of the week!"

"Hehehehe!!"

"Heheheh."

Silence.

"You are forgiven, Robin," Starfire winked.

He sighed with relief.

A beat.

"And I am also sorry," Starfire said. "If I ever made you feel......inferior."

"Nobody can blame you, Star," he said. "I was in over my head."

"Not entirely," she shook her head. "You would have flown from that power plant before I caught you, Robin. Only...at the time....you had forgotten where you had placed your _wings......_"

Robin looked at her. He whipped out a grappling hook. He smiled. "You mean these?"

She giggled. "That does seem properly analogous." She stood up, smoothing out her lower costume piece. "Now...would you wish to find out who of us has a chest composed of hair?"

Robin glanced up at her with question marks popping above his head. "You mean....a race?"

"Hehehe. Indeed."

"But there're only two of us, Star. The way the saying goes, 'third' is the one with the hairy chest!"

"Then you had better move quickly so as not to be behind enough to be labeled 'third'!!" And with that awkwardly spat out, the Tamaranian flew off the buildingside.

"Hey!! No fair!! Earth rules say you can't have a head start!!"

"Hehehehe!! 'My the bad'!! Hehe!!"

Robin grinned. He pulled out his grappling hook and fired it. POW!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked in from the bathroom, wearing a towel around my waist and using another to dry my long, black hair. I sat on the side and opened the laptop.

I logged online.

And.....soon enough....

**InzeUltima:**** hey there :D**

**SpSquirrel:**** Greetings.**

**InzeUltima:**** back so soon from sparring? did you shower?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Drying off as we speak. Now there's a penny for your thoughts.**

**InzeUltima:**** lol dont flatter yourself.**

I smirked.

**InzeUltima:**** howd it go?**

**SpSquirrel:**** It's safe to say I let him beat me.**

**InzeUltima:**** you didnt kick his scrawny ass? :O why??**

**SpSquirrel:**** I wanted to experiment and find out how many masculine orifices sand can invade.**

**InzeUltima:**** :P seriously.**

**SpSquirrel:**** Seriously...where's your imagination at now? Eight cents?**

**InzeUltima:**** whyd you toss in the towel to Robin?**

I thought silently for a moment. I scratched my chin. I smiled and typed.

**SpSquirrel:**** It was not my place to help him come to his own senses this evening.**

**InzeUltima:**** oh? whose was it?**

**SpSquirrel:**** Oh....another bird.**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Someone with wings to share........._

The world was back in slow motion as Starfire flew through it and Robin sailed along beside her from grappling hook to grappling hook.

The two smiled at each other. The City yawned hundreds of feet below them.

But they drifted on and on as if they didn't care. Chuckling and grinning the eon seconds away.

For as long as it would last into the endless night.


	120. Fear the Black Tempest part 1

**120. Fear the Black Tempest part 1**

THUD!!!

His body was slammed against the metal hull of the infernal machine. Bubbles rose through the currents as he gasped in pain. He gripped his side and looked over weakly at the solid line of overwhelming thugs.

One growled and swam towards him like a torpedo, first streaming.

WHAM!!!

The young man's face spun from the impact. He tumbled down to the coral besides the machine. A gigantic underwater city loomed over the nearby crags of rock.

The line of thugs started taunting. Waving tridents. Sneering. One swam over and kicked the boy in the chest.

THWAP!!!

His mouth hacked and a thin stream of blood filled the water.

_"Garth......,"_ the thoughts of a menacing individual reached the young man. A darkly-clad gentleman drifted over in the water and smiled sadistically down at him as underlings swam nearby at ready. _"What did you think you could accomplish?? Atlantis will never welcome the return of the Idyllists. There are too many of brave, noble warrior-bloods such as myself who oppose that action!_" He drifted over and treaded water above the tortured boy. _"Besides...even if you were to succeed in returning your worthless people back to the oceanic collective......how long would it last?? They would find out about your secret, Garth. You'll be branded as a traitor and sent to the abyss to implode."_

The dark-haired teen stared up, teeth gritting. Like his oppressor, his lips didn't move as he communicated: _"What happens to me will happen to me. My people—brave and strong as they are—can no longer live as nomads. We need unity. We need the blessings of King Orin! Never before under any incarnation of the Atlantean Dynasty could our prayers be listened to!! All I want is for my people to be safe. And I am willing to accept any fate necessary to accomplish that!!"_

The old man grinned evilly. _"Rest assured...your people are safe enough __**on their own**__. And as for you......I do believe your fate will be promised today."_

The man snapped his finger.

Two guards with tridents swam over. They grabbed Garth from under his arms. The young man could barely struggle as they rushed him back up to the machine and shoved him into a thin chamber with a force field. The boy's body tumbled through the flashing forcefield and through the hatch of a strange, small pod inside the machine. The hatch to the pod closed behind him.

"_As head of the Fourth House of Currents......I, Senator Chasma, hereby banish you from the seas. Garth, son of King Thar......may whatever death the dry world offers you be quick and painless. Though......heheh......I would be disappointed to hear of the latter."_

The old man turned towards a pair of swimming guards besides a console jutting out of the coral. He nodded his head.

The guards saluted. They pulled a few levers on the controls.

The machine started to hum. Thugs swam backwards, cautious. Infernal bubbles rose hotly from the coral.

And....

SPLOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

The machine shot forth a pod like a cannon. The container with Garth inside soared up through the water like a bubbling torpedo. The transport rocketed up higher and higher until it broke through the surface of the Ocean. Trailing water droplets like a comet tail, the pod arched up and over....sailing through the star-lit clouds until it came thundering down towards a huge land mass.

The North American continent.

SHOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The pod landed in a forest, splitting trees apart and unearthing huge mounds of earth as it grinded to a smoking stop.

The hatch collapsed open, and a dizzy...beat-up Garth stumbled outside. Weary, bleeding, and dehydrated...the seaman fainted. During the last few seconds of consciousness, his limp hand let go of a necklace he was clutching. Hanging on the chain—glowing with a magical gold—was a pendant in the shape of a starfish...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning, outside the Tower....

"Here's the wind-up....and the pitch!!" Beast Boy grinned and flung the baseball with all his might.

SWOOOOSH!!! It practically whistled in the air as it flew over the sand.

I stood on a mound in........a lower mound of sand. I held the bat at ready. I smirked under my shades and---SWOOOSH-CRACK!!!!

As I swung, the ball went sailing far out into the ocean.

Beast Boy watched the impossible home-run. He sweatdropped and glanced at me. "Well then...four in a row. How on earth do you do it---DUDE!!!"

I blinked. I glanced at the bat and realized that it was still warbling with murk. I quickly 'extinguished' the smoke and hid the bat behind my back, smiling innocently.

"You cheater!!" Beast Boy cackled.

"You should have outlined the rules at the beginning of the game," Robin smirked. He leaned against a rock crag on the edge of the beach clearing where we were at. "Besides, now that you've caught him in the act....you can reciprocate on your own."

"What do you mean???"

"I've always wanted to see a gorilla fast-pitch."

"Dude. We're all out of balls. They're scuba diving in the Ocean thanks to Jo DiMurkio here."

I smiled proudly and leaned on my bat like a cane.

"Pffft. He's not a baseball player. He's just good at swinging at things and watching them fall down," Robin walked in and produced a spare ball from his utility belt. He tossed it up and down in one hand. "Lemme show you how simple it is for a superhero to 'assume' the job of athlete."

"Dude!! You were hiding that ball from us the entire time!" Beast Boy cackled with an accusing finger.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Beast Boy," Robin winked under his mask. "Did you want some of my balls?"

"Yes, I d---oh wait. Uhm.........dude??" Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Robin easily took Beast Boy's place on the pitching......mound on a mound. "Allright. Watch and learn."

"Gonna perform the dance of the egos??"

"Something to that extent. You ready, Noir?"

I cleared my throat and held the bat up again.

Robin smirked, concentrated, got into a pitcher's throw, and--

SWOOOOSH!!

The ball came at me.

I coated my bat with smoke and prepared to swing---

THWISSSH!!!

The ball curved towards my head at the last second.

My black eyes twitched under my shades.

I plopped down to the ground.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!! The ball rocketed over where my head would be.

I panted like a hunted animal.

"Hehehehehehehe!!" Beast Boy fell back in the sand, giggling. "Serves him right, dude!! Robin, how'd you do that?? Despite the fact that you nearly ripped Noir's head off....it was a perfect curve!"

"Birdarang finesse...," Robin placed his hands on his hips and smirked. "I **always** throw a perfect curve."

"Well, that explains it then. Noir? No hard feelings, huh?"

Both boys gasped as I suddenly pounced on them from a full sprint.

THWAP!!!

"Oof!!"

"Hey!! Noir!! Cut it out!!"

I smirked and pressed both of them into the ground.

They growled and turned on me.

We laughed and got into a three way wrestling match, the baseball bat tossed aside. Sand flew and each of us—at some point or another—was piledriven into the beach.

Naturally, Robin won the most. But nobody else cared.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ball that Robin had pitched rolled to a stopping point right at the spot where the waves lapped up against the sand. After a while, a titanium foot came down beside it.

Cyborg bent over and picked the ball up. He played with it in his metal hands while strolling leisurely towards the surf.

There Raven sat, cross-legged, her eyes closed.

Meditating.

Cyborg didn't say anything. He just perched himself a few feet away from her and turned the ball around in his grasp. He took a deep breath of the Bay air. His gaze fell on the suspension bridge across the waters.

Silence....

".....................are you going to talk or just sit there and poison me with carbon dioxide?"

Cyborg didn't glance at her. "Keep on meditating. Don't mind me."

"Cyborg....if you're so much as within _thirty feet_ of me these days, I end up finding out that I have to mind you for some reason or another."

"No problem. I"ll go ocean-gazing somewhere else then."

"No, you don't have to."

"Well, alright."

"I was nearly done anyways...."

Cyborg bit his lip.

Gradually, Raven's eyes fluttered open. She took a deep breath and relaxed from meditation.....if that's even possible.

"Now then.....what are you here for?"

"Nothing, Rae. I was just sitting down and enjoying the view."

"Seriously, Cyborg...."

"Seriously, Raven! You should have kept on meditating! I was merely minding my own business!"

"................."

"Unless of course....," Cyborg smirked. "....you looked forward to seeing me or something and **chose** to stop meditating?"

"Of course not," Raven practically grunted. "Like I already told you, I was almost done when you came by here."

"Oh, okay," Cyborg shrugged.

"........................I was," Raven muttered.

"I believe you."

"No you don't."

"Listen, Raven," Cyborg sighed and bore a tired grin. "Does it really matter in the long run? What matters now is that I'm here and you're here and the ocean's here and it's a beautiful day. If we want to talk, we can talk. If not....well....great time to meditate."

"You're always the one wanting to talk," Raven said. "I don't know how you could think differently."

"A few days ago, you wanted to talk," Cyborg smiled. "To Starfire even. And from the looks of it, you helped her feel better...and in turn she helped Robin feel better...and in turn he helped all our heads feel better."

"Most of our heads....," Raven grumbled.

A beat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cyborg blinked.

"I'm starting to get tired of you pressuring me to live up to your opinions," Raven said. "So maybe I got Starfire and Robin to talk something over that was bothering them. That was just one occasion. What difference does it make to me? It makes none to me."

"Raven, all I ever want from you is friendship," Cyborg said. "Just like all the other Titans. And one part of being a Titan is...well...accepting the 'youness' that is you." He smiled. "After Slade's last defeat, you've been....changing. Kinda sorta. Going back and forth between a more uppity person and your old self. I noticed this fluctuation. And I wanted to help. But I didn't want to help you become either the former or the latter. Instead, I wanted to help you understand perhaps a bit more what you truly wanted to be. And that still is the case, Rae. Heheh....I'm not trying to mold you into something you're not. Consider me as just the announcer to some psychological sports event. And—heck—anytime I can put down the microphone and walk out of the stadium seat the soonest you think I'm annoying you. And I mean ANNOYINGLY annoying you. Cuz lord knows I love to give you a headache every now and then along with B.B." He winked.

She glared at him suspiciously. "Never....never once did you _want_ to try and make me into an emotional, open-hearted Raven?"

"Well...what I 'wanted' is different from what I 'did'," he smiled, sweatdropping.

She blinked.

"But...I know one thing, Raven. You're a strong and capable person. So mature and just....I dunno....magical in your mysticism, or something."

"Heh."

"And if you felt like you were changing into someone more relative....well...don't look at me."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

"What I mean is....you've been the one making decisions in your life. You've always been making the decisions. If you changed or not over the last month and a half, it's been you doing it. Sure as heck not me."

"..............," Raven stared out at the waves.

Cyborg turned the baseball about in his hands. "Well, I dunno about you. But I think it's a damn pretty day. I'm gonna go out for a drive."

"Lemme guess," Raven droned. "You're gonna ask me to join you?"

Cyborg stood up, brushed the sand off his titanium legs, and glanced down at her. "Should I?"

"......."

He smiled. "Catch you later, Rae."

"Do me a favor, Cyborg," she cut him off.

He was halfway through turning to leave. "Hmmm?"

"Brace yourself."

He blinked.

ZAP!!

"DAH!!" he was blown back into the sand from a blast of telekinesis. He shook his head and looked up at the girl.

She smiled ever so slightly. "Stop thinking you're so sly....."

"I-I wasn't!"

"Sure...."

He blushed. "Okay, maybe a little."

She nodded. She looked off into the waves. A warm wind blew at her soft bangs.

Cyborg got up and dusted himself off again. He smirked. "Besides....I'm not only sly, I'm cunning!"

ZAP!!

"DAH!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnghhh..."

"Rrghhhh...."

"............."

Beast Boy, Robin, and I were entangled in three unsuccessful attempts at shoulder, head, and arm locks. Struggling in a crater of sand, we resembled a black-eyed, green haired, and yellow-caped pretzel.

After a while, Beast Boy uttered: "Truce?"

Robin panted: "Truce..."

I nodded: "......."

THWUMP!!!

We disentangled and flew our separate ways. We gathered our breaths and sat up in the sand.

"Heheheheh...," Beast Boy chuckled and scratched the back of his neck while sweatdropping. "Kinda got carried away there, didn't we?"

"Isn't that how the baseball strike back in the nineties got started?" Robin remarked.

I shrugged.

"Dude....for someone as big as Noir with his gangly limbs, he's pretty good at wrasslin'!"

Robin chuckled.

I frowned at them both, smirked, and kicked a fountain of sand with a murking lower leg.

FWOOOSH!!

"Yak!!" Beast Boy hopped up and hobbled over to a wall of rock. He leaned on it, panting...then noticed a huge tear in the stone. "Say...what happened here? Did lightning strike?"

Robin got up. His eyemask wilted and he blushed a little. "Er.....n-no. That's where.....uhm....Noir and I were sparring the other day."

"Whew!! Dude...did one of you break a limb or something? How could one of you kick a huge chunk of rock out like—"

"We were using our powers. Remember???"

I stood up and pointed at myself.

"Oh right, you told us, Noir. My bad," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Man...that had to have been a fight to see."

"Not really," Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Besides, it ended anticlimactically."

"So you won again. That's what you're saying, Robin?" Beast Boy smirked, his hands on his hips.

"No!!" Robin folded his arms. "It....I......I don't want to talk about it."

"But I was only--!!"

I walked in front of Beast Boy and put a hand on his shoulder. I slowly shook my head.

He quieted down. "Got it," he sighed. "Well.....um......did y'all make up and stuff?"

Robin and I exchanged glances. A beat. We both looked at Beast Boy.

"We're still gonna kick each other's asses from time to time," Robin said.

I smiled.

"Dudes....whenever you're selling tickets, let me know."

"Besides....," Robin spontaneously whipped out his staff and started spinning it about acrobatically as if practicing. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! He locked into a grinning pose. "What better way to learn how to 'safely' risk my pathetic neck then fighting a neck-cutter like Noir?"

I smiled bashfully at that. I didn't know whether to feel flattered or ashamed.

"I dunno what Starfire would say about that...," Beast Boy said, clearing his throat.

"Starfire's not here right now."

"Oh? Where's she at?"

"Where else?" Robin retracted the staff and put it away. "She's off in the forest giving our little visitor some training!"

"Pfft!" Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "I swear...ever since he came to stay the past few nights, the two of them have been practically inseparable!! I wonder if they're gonna be inviting us to a Tamaranian wedding anytime soon..."

I rolled my black eyes.

"Okay, Beast Boy," Robin counted his gloves. "One...he's like twelve years old. Two...Starfire's mostly a sister to him. And Three....heh...I don't think Starfire with her Victorian morality statutes would ever feel right if she hit on a _prince_....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Bay.....on the Southwest side....a lush forest of green trees hugged a mountain slope in the wilderness bordering the City limits. A few branches here and there bore colors of a slight, fading hue. But for the most part, the landscape felt that autumn was a long time away. Everything was still emerald and rich with life.

Under the late morning sun, two shadowed figures floated in a clearing surrounded by trees. A series of bulls eye targets were assembled on metal stands and faced the east. The smaller of the two figures—per coaching of the larger—held up his hands and struggled just long enough to produce a green orb of light. With a youthful shout, the figure flung the orb forward. It struck fairly close to the bulls eye's center and exploded in embers of emerald.

FLASH!!!

A green-eyed preteen boy settled down to the earth, gasping happily. "Wow!! That one was much better!!" Smiling wide, he looked up at the other figure. "Did you see that, Kory?? I...I-I think I'm improving!"

"Hehehe," Starfire floated down and patted his shoulder. "That was quite remarkable marksmanship, Nova'm. But do not think that you have mastered the starbolt yet. You have to combine accuracy with finesse. It is something that shall come naturally to you in time, I do believe. You are yet young and novice."

Nova'm took a deep breath. Smiling softly. "I'm happy that you brought me here to your City finally, Kory. It just....It just feels so right. For once I feel like maybe I can be out in the open. Maybe I can learn to help people and stuff like you do!"

She leaned her hands on her hips and smiled sisterly down at him. "All in singular steps, young prince. I brought you here for many reasons. True, I wanted you to know what it feels like to be free of the fear and oppression that forced your foster parents to hide you from the public eye. But I also wanted you to grasp what the power inside of you are." She bent over and looked at him closer to eye-level. "Starbolts and flight are most powerful. And they can also be most frightening. But they are gifts from X'Hal herself, and being that they are gifts—they must never be used for evil. Especially among those incapable of properly defending themselves from Tamaranian fury. Terrans especially."

"But....I-I've never seen you mad at anyone, Kory," Nova'm blinked his green eyes.

She smirked. "Actually, I believe you would. Do you not remember my encounter with that horrible Booker person?"

Nova'm winced. "Oh.....y-yeah..."

She giggled and stood up straight again. "Tamaranian fury is meant to be a righteous thing. And the opposite of righteousness is wickedness. They meet time and time again, such as when I had to fight the wicked Booker. It is a core belief of Tamaranian ethic that everything around us is a righteous domain. But at times, that domain can be tainted with elements of evil. And it is against evil only that we show fury. It is against wickedness that we hone our passion into the fiery starbolts. To deal righteous fury against righteousness would be a travesty in multiple dimensions of mind, body, and spirit."

"So....erhm....," Nova'm scratched his head and looked across the clearing. "Are those bulls eyes 'wicked'??"

Starfire giggled. "We shall label them as 'neutral' for now. You need not worry being furious against neutral tools made innocently available to us."

She ruffled his hair.

He giggled and smiled up at her. Since they last met, he had tried to relax and give into his Tamaranian bloodline. It showed quite obviously. Nova'm was smiling more and more...fully engaged in what 'happiness' meant. He still had his moments of deadpan solemnity and sorrow, but they seemed drowned out now that he and his parents had fear taken out of their lives and Starfire provided her guidance. He had even stopped butchering his hair on a weekly basis. And—naturally—the Tamaranian genes caused his red follicles to practically explode in growth, so now that he had long, scarlet locks hanging the back of his neck and his temples. He almost looked like a Tamaranian, male initiate in some outer space school like Starfire had grown up in. As a result, her blessing on his life had come full circle and brought a greater piece of home back to her there on Earth.

"Shall we practice the starbolts some more?" the girl asked.

"That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. Though I am quite certain we are frightening the poor, innocent populace of this section of the wilderness. But we need not worry. We are not going out of our way to harm them."

"I should say not...," Nova'm focused. His hair danced magically and his eyes started glowing a bright green as he brought two hands together and tried producing a starbolt in the center of his palms. "The bulls eyes are suffering our wrath! Not them!"

"Careful!" Starfire knelt down and repositioned his charging hands. "Extend the fingers AWAY from your torso! You do not desire to strike yourself with the starbolt, do you??"

"Whoah! I-I can do that??"

"Most certainly!! It is a very common error committed by many initiates. And safe to say, it is quite embarrassing also."

Nova'm took a breath and sweat as the starbolt formed larger and brighter. "Um....Kory??"

"Yes, Nova'm?"

"It's getting bigger."

"You are capable of handling it."

"But it's hot--!!"

"Aim away from your body. Keep focusing your passion into the centralized energy. If you find it too hard to meditate on a solitary form of fury, then try another emotion."

He shuddered, straining to keep the starbolt growing. "L-Like what??"

"Hmmmmm," Starfire thought aloud. She brightened. "I know!! Choose something recent!"

"R-Recent??"

"Something positive that you have felt strongly since your time at the Tower!!"

"That green-skinned guy slobbered on my hand in dog mode...," Nova'm muttered.

His starbolt started to shrink.

Starfire gasped. "No, Nova'm!! Not a Beast Boy thought!! Something of...erm....g-greater significance!!"

He concentrated. His brow furrowed. Suddenly, he relaxed with a grin...and....

FSSSHHHH!!!!

His starbolt bubbled out insanely.

Starfire's eyes bugged. "Okay, Nova'm!! Discharge the starbolt!! Discharge it immediately!!"

Nova'm gasped as he found an orb of emerald distruction practically the size of his torso. He gasped. "Aack!!"

Starfire flew in, grabbed the orb form his hands, and flung it herself with a grunt. "Nnnghh!!!"

SWIIIIISH!!! It flew into the center of the bullseyes. FLASH!!!!!! All targets fell across the clearing from a smoking crater.

"...........," Starfire stared.

"...........," Nova'm panted.

Starfire looked his way. "Dare I ask....what was your passionate thought that produced that??"

Nova'm gulped. He wiped some sweat from his brow and uttered: "Well...um....y-you know that one Titan? The one who wears the blue robe all the time and looks really angry all the time?"

Starfire's eyes thinned. "Yes......"

Nova'm blushed and looked away. "She's......um.......kinda sorta.....ya know......pretty."

"..............," Starfire blinked.

Nova'm looked ashamed. He gripped his head and shook it. "Ughh...stupid!! Stupid!! You nearly killed yourself!!"

Starfire started giggling like mad.

Nova'm shuddered even more. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even said—"

Starfire hugged him, smiling. "No fears, Nova'm. You are just......adorable. Have I told you that?"

He blushed and tried to break free of her embrace. "Ick!! Cut it out!!"

She patted his shoulder and led him out of the forest, floating above the treetops. "Let us travail upon returning to the Tower. I believe training is.....sufficiently done for the day."

"But I still can't control my starbolts!!"

"How can you control your starbolts if you cannot control your eyes?" Starfire teased with a wink.

"Hey!! I only looked at her once!! Besides...she looks like she could kill me!!"

"Raven does appear quite homicidal to most gazers, yes."

"Okay....maybe more than once. Does it count if she wasn't looking back at me?"

"Hehehehe!!"

"It's not funny!!"

Starfire flew at a faster speed with Nova'm following her. He was still new to flying, so the Tamaranian Titan made sure she wasn't too fast that he couldn't catch up.

"Seriously....," Nova'm pouted cutely in mid-air. "It wasn't funny..."

"I am only attempting to grasp your femur and apply outward pressure," Starfire beamed.

Nova'm blinked. He chuckled. "'Pull my leg'??"

"Yes. That's it."

"Kory...you're cool and all that..........but why do you sometimes talk like a Japanese exchange student?"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Starfire asked. She glanced down at what they were passing in their flight. Something in the forest caught her eye and she gasped dramatically. "De X'Hal!!"

"Well, I only mean to say---whoah!! What is it, Kory???" Nova'm 'jumped' in mid-air.

"Excuse me for one dire second!!" Starfire soared down into the forest.

Nova'm watched from above....blinking in concern.

The Tamaranian girl soared down into a small crater of crushed trees. At the very end of a plowed ravine of destruction was a dark, metal pod. It still smoked along the edges as if some friction had caused the nearby landscape to burn with its impact.

"It....it does not look recognizable of all spacecraft I know....," Starfire hovered above the crash and thought aloud. "I wonder....is it Terran?"

Nova'm hovered down behind her. "What is it, Kory?"

"Stay back, Nova'm! I do not know yet."

He bit his lip and hovered at a safe distance.

Starfire floated around. Her green eyes ran down the black hull, darted over the opened hatch, and rested on a lifeless body dangling out onto the rickety forest floor.

"!!!!" Starfire gasped. She flew down and knelt beside the figure. "Aqualad!! Aqualad, can you hear me?! Are you damaged??" She leaned her head to his chest. She placed two fingers on his neck. She sighed in sudden relief. "Aqualad...something terrible has happened and I fear for your well-being. I shall contact my friends over the radio and see how we can assist you forthwith!"

"Y-You know that guy, Kory??"

Starfire pulled out her remote and nodded to the boy. "Yes. This is Aqualad. An Atlantean."

"Atlantean??" Nova'm made a face.

"A sea-dweller with biological components slightly variant from Terra Firma's Homo sapiens. He helped the Titans and I prevent an ecological disaster and an underwater war one time and right now he appears gravely injured!"

"What's that necklace thingy with the gold starfish?"

"Never mind that! I must contact my—"

GRIP!!!

Starfire gasped.

A weak and wheezing Aqualad gripped her wrist with his hand. He opened crusty, half-dead eyes and parted caked-dry lips as he breathed: "Water.....must.....get back.......t-to.....water. My people....the Idyllists....the Atlanteans....th-they......n-need.............help...."

He fainted.

Starfire gulped. She stood up.

"Kory, what'll we do?!?!"

"We must not waste time...," the girl said firmly as she bent over to pick the unconscious boy up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg stood at the kitchen counter in the Main Room, preparing himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "And then what happened, Robin?" he smirked.

Robin took a final bite of his own sandwich, swallowed, and sipped down some apple juice. He sat at a table with Beast Boy (also eating) and Raven (her nose in a book). I stood across the room on the couch, playing solitaire on the coffee table.

"Well...," Robin smiled. "Batgirl dove in and started wailing on the Scarecrow's ass. In the meantime, Nightwing and I are handling those gothic looking thugs with the machetes. Both of us are thinking: 'Gee, where's Batman?'"

"I'd say!" Beast Boy grinned.

"Teacher's day off....," Raven droned without looking up.

"Well...it seems okay, cuz Batgirl's there and she has Scarecrow pretty much covered. That is until he whips out a remote control device and tells us that he's already filled the sewer gutters of Gotham with his latest gas, and after one more offensive move on our part...he'd poison all of the citizens with insanity!"

"So you did the batarang thing, right?" Cyborg blinked. "Please tell me that someone did the batarang thing!"

I smirked.

"No way," Robin shook his head and folded his arms. "Too much of a risk."

"But he could have been bluffing," Raven said.

"He could have. But when you're dealing with Gotham City bad guys, you realize that if you give them enough time they'll turn out transparent. So we let him turn the tide on us and hold us at knife point as he blathered on and on about his villainous plans."

"And.......?" Beast Boy uttered.

"That's when one of his very own thugs came in from behind him and smacked his skull hard with the blunt side of the machete!!"

Raven glanced up.

Robin smirked. "The thug grabbed the remote and the rest of us three whipped on the other baddies good."

"But why did that one thug turn on Scarecrow??" Cyborg asked.

"Because he was Batman!" the Boy Wonder said. "He whipped off his gothic hood and—sure enough—there was that trademark cape and cowl underneath!"

"You mean Bats was pretending to be on Scarecrow's side??" Beast Boy blinked. "The entire time you were fighting all of the villain's goons??"

I leaned forward, curious.

"Yup," Robin nodded. "He knew that we gathered enough information to guide us to that hideout. So ahead of time, he knocked out a thug and dressed up as him. The garb was so ridiculous that Batman could hide the bulk of his outfit."

"But what for??" the changeling cackled.

"No matter how much we fought Scarecrow, we couldn't move to stop him. He had the remote that could trigger all the gas in the City."

"So he chose a covert role, knowing that it'd be the safest and easiest way to get the trigger from the fiend," Raven said. She smiled ever so slightly. "Brilliant."

"Yeah....he's THE detective," Robin shrugged.

"Dude...remind me to follow you into Gotham City someday."

I winced.

Beast Boy winced.

Raven stared.

"Er.....s-some day in which you're still wearing your cape, of course," Cyborg simpered.

Robin smirked. "Of course."

The other three of us sighed....at east.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

We all jumped.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

"Where's that coming from??" Cyborg asked.

Robin looked over. The window....

I turned around. My black eyes widened under my shades.

Starfire was floating outside the stretched glass between the frames. She had her arms full of a dark-haired Atlantean. Nova'm was there too, and he was knocking on the glass for her. It got our attention.

Beast Boy jumped up with a gasp. "Aqualad!!"

Cyborg and Robin rushed over. They slid the window open.

Starfire floated in with Aqualad in her arms. Nova'm followed suit.

"What happened to him??" Raven floated over.

"I am uncertain!!" Starfire panted.

"She found him lying in the forest besides a crashed capsule thingy!" Nova'm exclaimed, his green eyes like saucers. "He doesn't look too good!"

Cyborg was already in the process of performing a biological scan. He said: "He's dehydrated. His kind can't survive well in dry conditions for over an hour."

"How long do you think he's been above water?" Robin asked.

"I'd say about half a day!" Cyborg exclaimed. "Come on!! Get him to the infirmary!!"

"Awwww man!!!" Beast Boy pulled at his hair as Starfire and Cyborg trucked Aqualad towards the elevator. "Is he gonna be okay?!?!"

"I dunno, B.B.! If you wanna help, then come along!!"

"Dude...I would so kill myself is something bad happened to Aqualad, dude!!" Beast Boy ran alongside Robin to the elevator. The doors closed behind them.

I scratched my head. I exchanged glances with Raven.

"I sense something dark here...," she said....of course. "Aqualad's alive. I can feel his spirit torn asunder. Something bad has happened to him....but whatever it was, it wasn't accidental."

Nova'm walked up between us. "I'm confused! Is Aqualad a good guy or a bad guy?? Who would do this to him??"

A beat.

I glanced at Raven. "?????"

She took a deep breath. "We couldn't possibly know. Aqualad is.....virtually a stranger to us...."

Nova'm gulped. "Well after today, I hope **I'm** not a stranger...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the metal-walled infirmary, a huge basin was filled with steaming water.

Aqualad's limp body was draped inside by Starfire.

Robin attached wires and water-proof sensors to key parts of the Atlantean's body.

Beast Boy switched on the nearby computer stations and synced with Robin's sensors.

Cyborg modulated the temperature and solvents of the water in accordance with Robin's and Beast Boy's readings.

When Raven, Nova'm and I stepped in, the room was filled with a carefully choreographed chaos. Four Titans rushed back and forth from computer console to water control valve to instrumental sensor and in repetition until a crescendo overcame the entire event and everyone breathed with a general sigh of relief as we all realized Aqualad's condition was becoming stable.

"But he can't move from the spot. Not for a long time," Cyborg said. "It's amazing that he survived as long as he probably did on dry land. From reading S.T.A.R. Labs files taken from LexCorp's Aquaman project, I remember it being said that Atlanteans require constant contact with water to....er....remain constant."

"Alive," Raven droned.

"Exactly."

Nova'm drifted over by Starfire's side. The girl rested a hand on his shoulder while the two stared at Aqualad's condition.

Bubbles liken unto that of a Jacuzzi rose from vents in the bottom of the basin, applying to Aqualad's body from almost all angles.

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades. I had read up about Aqualad. I knew about his previous adventures with the Titans. But my grasp of him was—at the time—just as hazy as my perception of Terra. At least Speedy I had the pleasure of meeting......more than once.

Aqualad had a look that screamed 'hero'. His body was lean and well built—the product of a life of endless swimming. His face was thin and angular...not fatty in the least. His hair was slick and black...relatively familiar. Though his exhausted eyes were closed, I sensed something coming from them. Like a hidden strength. The seals of a soul that had seen its fair share of action and horror alike.

"Dude...at least he's okay, right?" Beast Boy asked, wringing his hands nervously.

"Yes, B.B.," Cyborg moaned. "I promise you. He's gonna make it through. Just had to have his feet wet." He smirked slightly.

Beast Boy let forth a shuddering sigh.

"Well....now that the nail-biting is over," Robin cleared his throat. "It's time for the brainstorming." He wandered over towards Starfire. "How'd you come across him?"

"I was returning with young Nova'm to the Tower," Starfire said, shaking. She swallowed and continued: "W-We had just finished our present moment in training. While flying over the forests south of the Bay, I happened upon a crater in the line of trees. A pod was crashed and poor Aqualad's handsome body was spilled outward from the interior!"

"Pod??" Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Handsome??" Beast Boy raised another.

"It is of a design that I cannot recognize," the Tamaranian girl said. "But perhaps it is something Atlantean??"

"Atlantean make pods??" Raven remarked. A beat. "That end up on dry land, no less?"

"It's worth taking a look into," Robin gestured. He turned and looked at Cyborg. "You sure Aqualad's stable enough at the moment?"

"_**Yes!!"**_

Robin cleared his throat. "Ahem....good. We should retrieve that pod."

"I'll go!" Beast Boy hopped and raised a hand. "I can fly and carry huge loads!" He looked Starfire's way. "Do you know where it is?"

"Due Southwest of the Tower on the far side of the Bay," Starfire nodded. "It is less than half a mile from the forested training clearing. It cannot be missed."

"On it!" Robin jumped to action, sprinting out of the room.

"Lemme go with you, Beast Boy!" Robin gestured. He was halfway out the infirmary when he looked back at Cyborg. "Keep me filled in over radio as to his progress."

"Understood. Be back soon, man."

"Oh, we will."

The two boys left.

"So....um....," Nova'm scratched his little head. "What's Atlantis anyways? A world of water people??"

"Putting it simply, sure," Cyborg placed his hands on his hips and exhaled. "None of us have ever seen it. When we met Aqualad, he was a loner. Though he did have a snazzy mechanic as a sidekick."

"So.....he isn't Atlantean?" Nova'm blinked. "I mean...if he wasn't with his own people..."

"Oh, he's Atlantean all right!" Cyborg said. A pause. He narrowed his eyes. "Er....a-at least I **think** he is..."

Nova'm sweatdropped.

"At the time being, it is most important to grasp exactly who or what could have done this to him!" Starfire exclaimed with both sympathy and fury.

"I believe the answer is simple," Raven tilted her head to the side and droned. "Aqualad's enemies may be closer to him than we think. If he even has enemies. I don't think we have to look much further than the Atlanteans themselves."

"You know this all by just **seeing** him?!" Cyborg cackled. "What makes you so sure?"

"Aqualad is barely awake right now as we speak. For all we know, Atlanteans may even be capable of listening in on conversations without conscious thought. Because of this great passageway of comprehension, I can see straight back into his soul. He is feeling torn asunder from the inside. It is a very painful feeling."

"Like what? Shame?"

"Betrayal."

Starfire bit her lip.

I walked to Cyborg's side and gave Aqualad a close look.

Aqualad's lungs weren't moving. But instead, I could have sworn I saw something at the base of his neck fluctuate.

_Gills.........?_

"Man....," Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "I just hope the dude's allright." A beat. "Heh....now I'm starting to sound like B.B."

I glanced at the Titan curiously.

Cyborg looked at me. "In case you're wondering, Beast Boy and Fish Man are close friends. They've had a respect for each other since their....er....eventful meeting back when the eco-terrorist Trident was on the loose in the open seas. I guess you could say Aqualad's something of a big brother to the green guy."

I raised an eyebrow.

Cyborg smirked. "What? You jealous?"

I frowned and emphatically gestured in denial--

"Idyllists.....," Starfire thought aloud.

Interrupted, Cyborg and I glanced over.

"Say what??"

"The Idyllists....," the green-eyed Titan glanced our way. "Aqualad was rambling about them and the Atlanteans. They sounded like two completely different groups of people."

"Y-Yeah....I remember that!" Nova'm nodded. "And he kept asking for our help!"

"Our help??" Raven raised an eyebrow.

"It's not like Atlanteans to ask surface-dwellers for help....," Cyborg spoke.

I scratched my head. I gestured something.

Raven, Starfire, and Nova'm looked at Cyborg.

"Noir's just in the dark," Cyborg shrugged. "He doesn't know hardly anything about Aqualad...."

I nodded.

Raven took a deep breath. "From the looks of it...we could all learn something about him."

All five of us gazed somberly at the limp body in the water basin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you make of it, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder stood halfway inside the craft, scratching his black head of hair. "I don't know what to make of it yet, Beast Boy. It's definitely made for underwater transit, though."

The changeling perched on the opening of the craft. "How so?"

"Well. Airtight compartment door. Thick porthole polymer plastic. Angular body for sleek movement....."

Beast Boy's eyes went crooked. "Um....e-exactly why would an Atlantean need to have an airtight capsule?"

"My thoughts exactly...," Robin nodded. "It's almost like they wanted to transport earth dwellers with this thing."

"Or maybe send water people on a trip of no return??" Beast Boy looked behind his shoulder at the edge of the crater's clearing in the middle of the forest. "How'd the heck did this thing get here anyways, dude?"

"Looks to me like it was either dropped or propelled," Robin suggested. "This is definitely an impact point. I don't think this pod landed here softly."

"Heh....if it landed at all, what are the odds of it stopping so close by the City? The _Tower_ no less??"

Robin was silent for a moment.

"Robin??"

"Let's get this thing back to the Tower, B.B. We can run some tests on it and maybe come up with something more definite."

"How're you gonna get back, dude?? I carried you all the way here, now I gotta take this thing!"

"Air balloon basket, Einstein!"

"Huh??"

Robin smirked and sat leisurely inside the pod. He pointed with his thumb. "Let 'er rip!"

"Oh. Heheh....got it." Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl, gripped the pod by the top of its hull, and flapped away on green leathery wings. Slowly, the Boy Wonder and the mysterious craft were both airlifted back across the Bay and towards the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg...."

The android Titan glanced over.

Nova'm and I looked up from the wall we were leaning against on the side.

Raven shuffled across the room, presenting a tray of bottles and pills.

"I have here some antidotes and vitamins for in case Aqualad wakes up in a fever. It wouldn't do him well after all he's been through to be sick."

"Uh....thanks, Rae. Just set it down. I'll ask him about it if he—"

Starfire flew over. "And I have with me towels! Yes, I do know that it serves little purpose for Aqualad to be dry—but if he should suffer a cold, would it not be prudent to have available tools capable of removing the freezing moisture from his---"

"He's _Atlantean_, Star. Just like the legendary Aquaman, his body's built withstand all sorts of extreme temperatures—"

"A thermometer," Raven handed Cyborg the instrument. "Just in case. I know it's old-fashioned, but in case those gadgets of yours attached to him don't do the job—"

"What?!?! Now wait just a second, Ra—"

"And a teddy bear and bedtime stories!!" Starfire flew in again with the said materials. "His soul must be most despondent and weary after all he's been through—"

"Girls...Girls....GIRLS!!!" Cyborg barked. "Cut it out!!!"

Raven and Starfire jumped back.

Cyborg composed himself with a sigh. "Look. I know Aqualad's our friend and all and we should be concerned with his well-being, but he's fine! I assure you that he's recovering! It may be a slow and steady process—but he's recovering!!"

"How can he be in the process of recovery when he looks so....so....maligned?" Starfire cupped her hands together and gazed lovingly on the sight of Aqualad. "The poor thing."

"Yeah....," Raven droned in a zombie like fashion. And one could almost spots heart-shaped spots in her eyes identical to those pulsing in Starfire's as she whispered: "Such fair skin....thrashed by the ignorant whelps of his own domain...."

"...............," Nova'm and I exchanged glances.

The little Tamaranian gulped and simpered: "Y-You think Starfire will start making starbolts soon?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Sooooooooo peaceful looking when he's............wet.....," Starfire cooed.

"Y-Yeah....," Raven awkwardly stuttered. "Very....wet...."

"Ahem....," Cyborg cleared his throat and shoved the two girls to the opposite side of the room. "Give him some breathing room, please."

"But Cyborg....his gills are underwater! We are not harming him—"

"Then give him some estrogen room!! Damn!!" Cyborg walked back, shaking his head. "I swear. Look at Noir over there! He's handsome! But I never see you two pouncing over him all the time?"

I blushed.

"Noir??" Starfire glanced my way. "But he's so......so......."

"Here.....," Raven said. Once gain, she glanced Aqualad's way. And once again, her eyes pulsed.

And so did Star's.

And both girls sighed dreamily.

Cyborg covered his groaning face with a hand.

Nova'm looked at me and whispered: "If this is what it likes to be grown-up....I want nothing of it."

I smiled.

SCHWISH!!!

Cyborg turned.

I glanced over.

Robin and Beast Boy walked in.

"Got it parked in the garage," Robin gestured with a thumb.

Cyborg raised his human eye. "Not too close to my Baby, I hope."

"Yeah, right on top of it, dude!" Beast Boy chuckled.

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!! Cyborg had the changeling by the throat. "SAY WHAT?!?!"

"H-Hey!! I was only kidding!!"

PLOP!!! Cyborg dropped him to the floor, frowning.

"You're signing a death warrant, little man."

"Eheheheheheh....," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"What did you two learn, Mr. Robin?" Nova'm asked.

Robin glanced at the prince strangely before speaking: "It's definitely made for the water. But as to its purpose, only Aqualad can explain that to us."

"Did his craft seem placed there by extraordinary means?" Starfire remarked.

Robin nodded. "I can't help but estimate that it was....I dunno....forced there by some sort of awkward propulsion."

"From the Ocean, I'm guessing," Cyborg smirked.

"Yeah. But....there's not a single drop of water inside the craft. I don't see how it would be practical for Atlanteans."

"Unless it wasn't made by Atlanteans afterall," Raven remarked. She glanced at Cyborg. "Was Lexcorp's experiments ever officially scratched?"

Cyborg shrugged. "That's inconclusive. Conspiracy theories arise, I'm sure. But everyone in the superhero business pretty much believed that Luthor's stuff ended with the breakout of Aquaman."

_"Orin......"_ a voice weakly stated.

All of us gasped and glanced at the basin.

Aqualad stirred inside. He gritted his teeth and 'sat up' so that his chest rose above the water level. "His name is King of Atlantis." His eyes open. And they were.....black. Black eyes with white specks. "And I-I'm desperate to s-see him...."

My lips parted. I leaned forward...staring through my shades.

In the meantime, Starfire and Raven gasped dramatically.

"Aqualad!!"

"You're awake!!"

"Glorious!!"

"How do you feel??"

Two bodies of estrogen zoomed over—and were promptly shoved back by a hulking Cyborg.

"Nnnghhh....back off, ladies. No tackling an invalid on my watch!"

Robin sweatdropped. He shook it off and walked over to the basin. "Aqualad. Seriously...how do you feel?"

"Mmmmff," the dark-haired Atlantean rubbed his head with a drenched hand. "Like the rocks of Gibraltar banging together..."

"Starfire found you inside a collapsed pod of sorts in a forest just south of our Tower," the Boy Wonder explained. "Since then, we've brought you hear for rehabilitation and we've also retrieved the pod. We're trying to make sense of it all, Aqualad. But the simple truth is, we can't. Care to fill us in??"

"Mmm.....pod.......Titans' Tower......," Aqualad rubbed his head like he had a migraine. He hissed, almost. "Dear Poseidon....I can hear it already. The fish in these areas...they cower and murmur in fear. There's more at hand than just the Atlantean Juncture..."

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask. "Pardon me?"

"I....I wish I could explain....just.....," Aqualad groaned. "So tired. It's like my entire body's numb....."

Beast Boy rushed up, pushing Robin aside. "Aqualad!! Dude, I'm so glad you're okay!!"

Aqualad smiled slightly. "Hey there, green guy...," Aqualad reached a wet hand out and ruffled the elf's hair. "Didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"Yeah...unlucky you," the changeling smirked.

Aqualad ....then winced a bit. He took a deep breath (underwater...came back up) and uttered: "I.....I would like to explain things.......cuz.......oh man, I'm so desperate. I'm so desperate now. I didn't think Chasma would go as far as he has...."

"Chasma??" Beast Boy made a face.

"It's....a long story....," Aqualad said. "A story......Atlantean business. It won't be easy to understand...."

"Oh, but we are willing to try!!" Starfire cooed.

"Yes....do inform us..." Raven added.

"..........," Aqualad glanced at them. He looked back up at us. "Um.......how about boy-talk?"

Cyborg smirked. "That can be arranged." YOINK!!!

"EEK!!!"

"Hey, Cyborg!!!"

Starfire and Raven complained as they were forced out of the room.

"Very well, we can take a hint," Raven droned.

"Yes, indeed," Starfire nodded with a pout. "Come, Nova'm—"she yanked the young man out by his arm.

"Yaak! H-Hey!! But I'm a b-boy!!"

"No you are not! You are _my_ boy!!"

"Awww...Koryyyyyyy---"

SLAM!!!

The doors closed behind them. Cyborg walked away, dusting his hands off. "Much better."

"Okay......," Aqualad blinked. "Are all land-dwelling women so.....so......so....."

Beast Boy lifted a finger, smiling. "Primal?"

Robin elbowed him.

"Ooof!! Sheesh...touchy...."

I cleared my throat.

Everyone was silent.

Aqualad shifted in the basin and began: "Can anyone here....tell me....what Atlantis is?"

We Titans exchanged glances.

I gestured to Cyborg.

Cyborg shrugged.

Beast Boy was about to speak---

"An underwater civilization comprised of humans capable of breathing underwater and communicating telepathically with marine life," Robin said in a nutshell.

"........," Beast Boy frowned.

"Good answer," Aqualad coughed. "But typical. So very typical of land dwellers."

"How're we to know more, man?" Cyborg pointed. "Atlanteans aren't exactly talkative about their lives. Not that they don't have any right to be reclusive and stuff.....just....you can understand why we don't know much, right?"

"And part of that is my fault....," Aqualad wheezed. "I could very well have told you more about myself and my culture, but I haven't. But still, sound travels far underwater. After you Titans selflessly assisted me in stopping Trident, my people learned of it. And they were most happy."

"Yeah...well....good to be making friends with Atlantis, right dudes??" Beast Boy simpered.

"I'm not talking about Atlantis......"

I narrowed my eyes. I glanced at Robin.

Robin folded his arms. "Wait....you're not Atlantean--??"

"Not yet."

"Whoah....so what are you then?" Cyborg asked. A beat. He blushed. "Er...didn't mean for that to sound so...wyrd."

"It's okay," Aqualad nodded. "I'm the same in physical nature as my Atlantean brothers. But I belong to a completely different political and social group called the Idyllists."

"Oh.....," Cyborg nodded. "The Idyllists."

"Y-You've heard of them before??" Aqualad remarked.

"Starfire and her little friend Nova'm were telling us of how you kept rambling on about 'the Idyllists' or something-er-rather."

"As I said....I'm desperate," Aqualad coughed. He ducked down in the water and re-emerged, refreshed. With a breath he continued: "The Idyllists are a group of people with a completely different social mindset than that of the urban-dwelling Atlanteans."

"So.....like.....underwater rednecks??" Beast Boy suggested.

"No. It's much more complicated than that. The Idyllists began when members from the original founders of Atlantis broke off. The core of Atlantean beliefs was that of a militaristic standpoint. The Ocean—as a land suitable for cultivation—is something worth warring over and defending with the trident. But a few of the elders didn't agree with warfare. They were pacifists...and all they wanted was a life of simplicity and peace. So they branched off and founded a civilization in a place called the Hidden Valley. Since then, Atlantis and the Hidden Valley have remained in sparse diplomatic relation. This has lasted for nearly four thousand years....a long time, during which biases and prejudices have arose among my kind. Atlanteans and Idyllists see a warped sense of history. They believe that our people split because of bloody conflict, as opposed to theological debate."

"Damn....," Cyborg muttered. "That's a bummer."

Aqualad nodded. "But today....under the reign of King Orin...many of the stigmas of our once-superstitious culture are being done away with. An Oceanic Renaissance of peace and understanding is taking place throughout Atlantis and all surrounding cultures. The Senate—comprised mainly by a record number of party members loyal to Orin's side—is proposing a great Junction."

"Junction?" Robin remarked.

"As in a political unity among all kingdoms that have been broken apart by war and social friction under the sea. Miraculously, almost all of the rulers of these ancient separatists are agreeing to this Junction. And the largest of these are my people. The Idyllists. After four millennia of solitude, our people are willing to swim back to the school. We will unite with Atlantis, and under Orin's wise rule....we will become a democracy of such peace and prosperity that we might even consider forming truces with the land dwellers...."

Cyborg whistled.

"Dude...that sounds great!" Beast Boy remarked.

Robin, of course, said: "Kinda sounds too good to be true, though.....don't you think? People are bound to oppose a political event that impacting, no matter how benevolent."

Aqualad took a deep breath. "Oh so very true, Robin. People are opposing it." He suddenly gnashed his teeth. "And...curse it all....such wicked people they are."

"Wanna fill us in?" Beast Boy gestured.

"Better yet," Cyborg spoke. "How do you fit into this, dawg?"

"I.....um....," Aqualad actually seemed _sheepish_. "I'm sorta representing my people."

"You're the ambassador of the Idyllists?" Robin asked.

"Dude! Way to go!"

"It's not something to simply rejoice over," Aqualad remarked. "It is a very important—howbeit stressful responsibility." He groaned and ran a hand through his slick black hair. "I am more or less a descendant of King Thar...a deceased monarch of my people. Because of that, I've been chosen as the representative of the Idyllists. I'm to appeal to the Senate of Atlantis and—if necessary—King Orin himself, for which I am very much honored."

"I bet."

"There is a blockade, though. A very bloody...evil blockade. And his name is Senator Chasma."

"Who exactly is this guy?"

Aqualad's white-on-black eyes narrowed. "He represents one of the higher houses of Atlantean elite."

"Lemme guess...aristocracy...."

Aqualad nodded. "He and his political companions have never been trusting of ancient separatists. The Idyllists especially. He belongs to a party that opposes the liberal majority now at play under Orin's leadership. At first—upon some of my early excursions to Atlantis—I felt that Chasma was merely trying to intimidate me for being on what was looking to be the winning side of the political debate. But the further I associated with him, the more I realized that he had a lot of tricks up his sleeves. Even now....Chasma is using dark means to achieve a victory against an impossible political opponent."

"How do you know?" Robin asked.

Aqualad gulped. "He is the one whose men beat me up and launched me here with the Expulsor."

"Expulsor?"

"A machine built in the days of fighting Trident's hordes," Aqualad explained. "The King at the time was of cruel and vindictive persuasion. He ordered captured enemies to be placed in a capsule and launched to their doom onto dry land. The device is illegal today under Orin's command. Regardless, Senator Chasma's party has a stockpile of them....undoubtedly for use in political purging."

"That's horrible," Cyborg frowned. "Want we should go punch their gills in?"

"Hold on...," Aqualad raised a hand. "I.....I'm glad for your enthusiasm....but I'm at a loss as to what to do here."

"Well...we can see what's going on, can't we?!?!" Beast Boy cackled. "This Chasma creep is upsetting the political Junction taking place rightfully among your people! The mean dude thought he could get rid of you. But instead, you fell into our laps....heh. Maybe we can—like—get the T-Sub fired up and bring you back to your Idyllists buds and work something out??"

"Chasma is.....powerful...," Aqualad said. "In a very dark manner. I could only taste a piece of what evil he has to offer. But I have no doubt: Chasma is more than just a hardcore, political activist. Not only does he desire to ruin the Junction....but something tells me he seeks the ruination of Atlantis itself."

"How so?"

"He........I-I felt the dark touch of Slizzath in him and his men...,"Aqualad hesitantly uttered.

In the rolling of the word 'Slizzath' off Aqualad's tongue, I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. I didn't understand why...and yet it felt completely natural. I exhaled helplessly...and I swear that I spotted a haze coming out of my breath as if the temperature had dropped in the room by tenfold.

"Who is....um...th-that guy?" Beast Boy asked, trembling.

"The brother to King Thar of the Idyllists and a notorious dabbler in the dark magics. When King Thar usurped him to the leading seat of my people, Slizzath went mad with jealousy. He became a full-blown sorcerer to make Thar suffer. Thar battled Slizzath for the protection of my people. But Atlanteans—looking in on the outside—thought Thar was insane. As history proved, Slizzath had won the respect of many Atlanteans. So when the sorcerer turned evil, outsiders refused to believe anything except that Thar himself was evil. They intervened, and Thar barely had the strength to seal Slizzath away in a magical dimension before he himself passed away. Legend says that the evil essence of Slizzath pours through that hidden dimension somewhere...feeding those of evil heart in the form of hideous, untamed magic. I happen to be....sensitive to forces of this dark nature. When I was accosted by Chasma's men...I felt the evil aura stronger than I had ever done so before. I believe there is a hidden menace in the political maze of Atlantis, and it threatens to show its ugly head on the night of the Junction's coronation...which is just a few days from now. Right now, I am hard-pressed to accomplish two things. I must rejoin with my Idyllists and ensure their high standing in the political movement. At the same time, I must pursue this mystery to its very heart to find out what Chasma's plans are, root out the essence of Slizzath, and report to King Orin. But I am far too weak and far too weary to do either."

"Basically....even if we were to help you...," Robin gestured, "...you'd have to be in two places at once."

"Exactly...," Aqualad swallowed and spoke. "I'd have to be back in Atlantis to perform investigations....and I'd have to be in the Hidden Valley to warn my people." He reached a trembling hand up and grasped the necklace about his neck. The golden starfish pendant dangled in his grasp. "This pendant...it is an Idyllist heirloom. It is a part of me. Anyone who wears this thusly represents who I am and the power that I hold in ambassadorial standing. My people would surely recognize this...and so if I were to send messengers in my place, they would listen to whatever they'd have to say."

"Well...that's one positive," Robin smirked.

"But still...," Aqualad slumped wetly back in the basin and sighed. He floated and faced the ceiling. "I would have to be in the other place."

"Atlantis...."

"Right. And I would have to present myself."

"But you can't move anywhere, dawg," Cyborg gestured towards the computer monitors. "I'm afraid to even drop you in the Titans' training pool. You could practically break apart into dehydrated dust!"

"But time is of the essence!" Aqualad exclaimed. He coughed, sputtered, then moaned. "I....must do something...."

Silence.

All of us were stumped.

That is...until the averaged stumpee had a lightbulb appear over his green head. Fatefully, a green elf mischievously rubbed his hands together........and looked over in my direction.

"........," I glanced his way. "????????" I mouthed: 'What??'

"Or maybe.....," Beast Boy grinned. "'Another you' could go to Atlantis..."

"????" Aqualad slowly turned and looked at me. "Um....h-hey. Gee, you're knew...aren't you?"

I simpered.

"He's not so new....," Beast Boy rushed over and stood up on a stool behind me so that he was slightly above my head. "He's pretty much every mirror you've ever seen!" He gripped my shades. "You mind, Noir buddy?"

I bit my lip. I shrugged.

"It's gonna get a little bright. Hang in there."

He lifted my shades.

I squinted my eyes instinctively, wincing a little. I forced myself to adjust to the bright pinpricks of light across the computer consoles in the room....and opened my optics wide enough for Aqualad to see.

And his jaw was dropping. "Whoah......."

"Yeah, dude," Beast Boy grinned proudly.

"Man oh man....," Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head as he looked me over like I was some stranger and familiar all at once. "I never noticed it before."

"It's uncanny...," Robin rubbed his chin. "Hey Beast Boy...take his bandanna off."

I looked at Robin wyrd.

"Trust me," the Boy Wonder smirked.

YANK!!!

Beast Boy pulled hard and nearly snapped my neck as the bandanna didn't give way.

I gritted my teeth.

"Er....," the changeling sweatdropped.

I batted my hand away, rolled my black eyes, and undid the red article.

My black hair hung naturally down to the base of my shoulders.

"Now....like....pretend that it's slicked back...," Cyborg suggested....a bit awkwardly.

_What's this? A salon??_

I brought my metal hand up and pulled my bangs up over my forehead and let everyone see.

Robin chuckled. "Dang....they're like twins."

"Except for the eyes. No irises there."

Aqualad shakily stood up in the basin, dripping.

"Whoah!! Take it easy--," Cyborg rushed over.

Aqualad held a hand up without looking Cyborg's way. "It's okay. Hold off."

Cyborg did so, hesitantly.

Aqualad motioned for me to step forward.

I did so.

We were practically nose-to-nose as he inspected me.

"............"

"............"

"............by Poseidon....," the Atlantean murmured. "It.....it could work...."

Beast Boy slipped up, smirking. "Think about it. He can be 'Aqualad'. He'll assume your spot in Atlantis until you're well enough to go there yourself and replace him!"

"That sounds very risky....," Robin said from behind us. "We'd have to account for a lot of things!"

"Like what???" Beast Boy cackled. "It's perfect!!"

"We are running out of options right now...," Aqualad said. He looked at me directly and smiled slightly. "Most of all, how do you feel about this?"

"........................."

Aqualad's black eyes blinked. "Um....what, are you shy?"

"Er.....," Beast Boy sweatdropped and scratched the back of his neck. "Actually....he kinda sorta can't talk."

"He can't talk???"

I simpered. I pulled the neck of my shirt down and pointed obviously at my X-shaped scar.

Aqualad bit his lip. A beat. "Well....um....." He looked at everyone. "Can he swim?"

I blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that afternoon, everyone assembled in the Main Room. Everyone except Aqualad, of course...who was still doused in the infirmary and trying to recover.

Raven and Cyborg sat on the couch. Beast Boy and Starfire across from them in chairs. Nova'm sat on the edge of the coffee table. Robin and I stood next to each other in front of the main monitor with a detailed schematic of the Atlantic Ocean and its mountainous, undersea floor.

"Allright, Titans....," Robin took a deep breath and spoke. "Here is the plan. It will work on two major fronts, for which we're going to need two teams."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Cyborg's laboratory, Beast Boy stood in front of a mirror, comically flexing and exercising his muscles before morphing into various animals of multiple shapes and sizes. Most of the animals were aquatic in nature. He was quite obviously planning on engaging in some deep-sea adventure. He glanced over across the laboratory at a stool where three Titans were huddled in front of yet another mirror.

_"Team Archimedes will consist of Beast Boy and Noir. Beast Boy will provide the marine power necessary to get the two of them into the depths of their oceanic destination. Noir shall be...the wildcard of this operation. He must pose as Aqualad and keep the political weather nominal in Atlantis long enough for Aqualad's legitimate return, or the arrival of the Idyllists. Whichever comes first."_

"How ya doin' over there, hotstuff??? Hehehe!!" Beast Boy giggled.

I frowned at him.

"Cease from moving your head!!" Starfire commanded, fiercely pushing my cranium to face the mirror.

I groaned as Raven and Starfire......'groomed' me. On either side of me they clipped at the ends of my hair, provided ample amounts of gel, and touched my skin so as to look more exact to the Atlantean in question.

"I never thought I'd say this...," Raven blinked. "But this is rather enjoyable."

"Tell me about it!!" Beast Boy cackled. "Tell me when his head is flammable enough to put a lighter to it!!"

"We are doing this solely for the mission," Raven droned. "As similar to Aqualad as Noir appears, it takes our finishing touches to assure that he is identical to the marine hero in question." The dark girl looked at the mirror and....paused in her duties. "Oh wow."

"Huh??" Starfire looked. Her eyes melted. "Oh to the wow, indeed....."

My black eyes went crooked at Aqualad's—er, I mean _my_ reflection. It was something rather transparent that both girls were suddenly drooling over.

And contrary to my expectations.....I didn't enjoy it.

I coughed.

"Oh....erm....r-right....," Raven blushed.

"We must finish him so that he is....swimmable?"

"Or don't you mean just plain waterproof??" Beast Boy suggested.

Raven tossed him into a nearby garbage can through telekinesis.

"Whoah!!" CRASH!!!

"Right.....hand me more gel, Starfire."

"Affirmative."

I groaned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Bend with your knees when you dive...," Aqualad said from the shallow side of the gym's pool in which he was partially submerged. "If you're me...you realize that you're gonna shoot awful far into the depths of the water from just one plunge. You shouldn't look like you're afraid of what lies beneath you."

I stood on the side of the pool—decked out in Aqualad's blue and black gear. I sweatdropped.

"Um....," Nova'm hovered from above. "This pool only goes as far down as twenty-five feet."

Aqualad's dark eyes bugged. "What?? What kind of Titan hovel would have....I dunno...so little water??"

Nova'm shrugged as he settled down on the poolside. "I dunno. I'm not a Titan."

Aqualad tilted his head to the side. "Then who exactly are you?"

Nova'm smiled proudly and pointed at himself. "Koriand'r says that I'm a prince!"

"Really now...," Aqualad chuckled. "Small Sea. So am I."

"No way! Really??"

I cleared my throat.

"Oh....um...r-right....saving-Atlantis stuff. Ahem," Aqualad snapped out of it and pointed at me. "Try it again. With more force this time."

I bent over, concentrated, and plunged at the last second into the water.

SPLOOSH!!!

_"Noir will work exclusively with Aqualad to hone down on how to portray him in every aspect. It will become crucial...especially later on when Noir must portray himself as the Idyllist representative himself. There will be many people that he will meet that already know who and what Aqualad is and represents. We can't risk any slipups here."_

I swam to the surface. I took a deep breath.

"Okay...you gotta work on that," Aqualad immediately pointed out.

I gave him a wyrd, wet look.

"Don't be so desperate to gasp for breath when you reach air," the young hero pointed out. "Remember...if you're Atlantean, you 'can breathe' underwater. There's no point in needing oxygen the soonest you leave an aquatic element. You'll have to pretend like that's true. Control your breathing. _Meditate._"

I nodded, smiling a bit.

_I could do that......_

"Now let's test your endurance some more," Aqualad pointed. "Two hundred laps."

My black eyes bugged.

"You heard me!!" the boy cackled. "Even a 'minnow' Atlantean can swim four times that much in his third year!"

I groaned and went about my task...with a good use of murk for the long run.

"So hardcore....," Nova'm shook his head. He grinned Aqualad's way. "The poor sap's fingers will be prunes."

"Huh?"

"Land-dweller thing," Nova'm said. He blushed. "Erm...Tamaranian thing too....I s-suppose."

Aqualad smirked.

"_Cyborg is already working on a temporary implant for the inner base of Noir's throat to extend his oxygen capacity. Though it would be prudent for him to avoid having to swim throughout the duration of his 'portrayal', it would be nice nonetheless for emergency situations. Then there's the fact that Noir can't speak or communicate telepathically. To account for that, we're not going to conceal Noir's scar. Undoubtedly, Aqualad is officially 'missing' among his own people—the Idyllists—and Atlantean politicians alike. Our excuse is that Aqualad underwent 'an incident' that injured him, damaging both his larynx and the part of his Atlantean brain responsible for telepathic sensitivity. This excuse may see part of a stretch, but Aqualad himself assures us that there are inner ears inside Atlantis that may be able to help assist Noir in his charade."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Otherwise, he's entirely in my hands," Beast Boy proudly beamed. "I'm the perfect actor!! I'm gonna be directing Noir entirely through this!!" He jumped off of his chair and leaned on my shoulder besides Robin. "Consider me your agent, bro."

I covered my shades with my metal hand and groaned.

"How will they endeavor on reaching Atlantis?" Starfire asked. "We only have one submersible."

Robin folded his arms and smiled. "Well...now we have one and a half..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_According to Aqualad, the pod that he was propelled here in by the Expulsor can serve as a safe, airtight hold for Noir on a return trip. Of course, the thing has no propulsion of its own. That's one reason why Beast Boy is part of Team Archimedes. In whatever animal form he needs to change to for accomplishing the task, he'll set on 'moving' the pod—with Noir in it—to Atlantis."_

In the garage, Robin and Cyborg huddled all around the pod. They shielded their faces and used sparkling, welding tools to fix all fissures in the hull and also repair the airtight hatch.

Nova'm floated nearby and handed tools to both of the Titans as they requested them.

Robin walked over and tugged at some metal 'reins' freshly fixed to the front of tiny submersible.

"You think these will fit Beast Boy?"

"That twig of a teen?? He could practically fit inside one of them damn things!!"

Robin laughed.

Nova'm smiled. "Is he naturally that thin?"

"He's an elf. None of us really know for sure."

"I see...."

"Pass me another steel plate, will ya small fry?"

"S-Sure thing, Mr. Cyborg."

"_Of course...Noir and Beast Boy can't go to Atlantis right away. The people of the sea are very private about their dwelling places...and that means the location of the cities in particular. Naturally, we're going to respect that decision. So, in order to finally get to Atlantis, Noir and Beast Boy must take a detour......a pit stop as you were...somewhere close by in the northern Atlantic. There Aqualad insists they will find close allies to the Idyllists who—when rightfully persuaded—will provide Team Archimedes with the necessary transportation."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Tram...," Aqualad gestured from the basin in the infirmary. He held his arm out while Cyborg gave him a syrum through a shot. "You remember him, right?"

"And how," Beast Boy nodded, rummaging through a note hastily made for him by Aqualad. I stood next to the changeling, looking over his shoulder. "So...we're gonna meet up with his people, right? The Ren....Ren-suck-ack?"

"The _Renzukka_," Aqualad sighed. He jumped a bit at the prick of Cyborg's needled but tried to hide it. "Ahem. The Renzukka are basically the merchants of the underwater world. They ship goods back and forth between the different cities of Atlantean and Idyllist prestige. Though they act under an independent government, they're welcome by all groups of my kind...and a good number of them should be present in Atlantis during Junction as Ambassadors. Now I know for a fact that Tram will be there for both a shipment and....well....he just likes hanging around at ports and stuff."

"Heh...typical sailor," Cyborg smirked.

"So....this place where we're gonna meet him and the other Renzuk-people.....it's off the coast of Newfoundland?"

"If that's what you call that peninsula, then yes," Aqualad said.

"Dude....you don't know much about our geographical names either, do you?"

"Hey," Aqualad frowned. "Same back at ya, kid! You go on and tell me about the Sedna Valley! Or the Charon Ravine!!"

"Pffft! What's so special about those places??"

"......they house well over twenty-million oceangoers combined."

Cyborg snickered.

I chuckled.

Beast Boy blushed. "Erm.....okay, so you'd be good at trivia. What's the point?"

Aqualad sighed. "Look...just practice practice the lines I have written down."

I looked at Beast Boy.

In the spotlight, the 'actor' cleared his throat, squinted his eyes, and read off: "Ven....Venrexxka lavvuuk saklorkavokkik xed." He twisted his tongue and nearly choked on it. "Ugh....please tell me there's a Hooked on Phoenix course for this."

"Phonics."

"Whatever."

Cyborg snickered again.

"You're gonna have to say exactly what I have written down there," Aqualad said. "Otherwise...none of the Renzukka are going to help you find Tram. And without Tram, how are you two to get to Atlantis?"

"Did the Little Mermaid have a little crab friend?"

"Huh??"

"Er....never mind. Now how do I say 'Where's the nearest restaurant, I'm starved'?"

"Nnghhhh...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The other team will consist of me and Starfire," Robin explained. "And we shall be called Team Nautilus."

Nova'm glanced over at the Tamaranian girl.

She blushed slightly but tried to hide it.

The prince looked back at the Boy Wonder.

"Our task will utilize the T-Sub. And we're going to be going straight to the Hidden Valley."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Of course, the Hidden Valley is just about as secret and sacred to the ocean dwellers as Atlantis itself. But from what I understand, the path to be taken there will be bringing us far...far away from the Renzukka establishment. But regardless, Aqualad has provided us with a......beacon of sorts."_

"All heirlooms of my people...," Aqualad spoke. He sat shirtless on the edge of a medlab table with a blanket over his shoulders while Raven took measurements of his body and facial features for the mimic that was to be prepared of him. "...they are possessing of a magical beacon that hones in on our place of belonging. White magic, I assure you."

"Of course...," Raven droned.

"Shhh!" Robin insisted.

Aqualad cleared his throat. He held the golden starfish pendant up. "If you hold this in your hand long enough...the warmth from your grip will cause it to pulse and fluctuate with intense energy." He gripped it similarly as he said this. The pendant started to glow with a strobe. Bands of light suddenly pointed in a southeasterly direction. "As you may guess...the Hidden Valley is located somewhere southeast of the Atlantic Seaboard of this 'continent' of yours."

"But even that's too little information," Robin gestured. "I assume there's more here that meets the eye."

"And for good reason too," Aqualad nodded. "I've worked out a plan with Cyborg to attach this pendant to the T-Sub's navigational system. If you put your watercraft on autopilot, the pendant's energy should drive the sub to take you to the Hidden Valley on its own accord." He handed the golden starfish into Robin's gloved hand. "I.......t-trust that you and Starfire will be prudent enough to somehow block out your vision of the transit."

Robin nodded. "You have my word. I will hold true to the secrecy of your people, no matter how long it takes."

"Once you reach the Hidden Valley, this very same pendant should be enough to convince my people of your good intentions. The rest of the plan to enact—your persuading them to go to Atlantis and appeal King Orin regarding Senator Chasma—is up to you. Hopefully Team Archimedes will get there at the same time and you can work it out with Noir for...er...'me to be there' to represent my people."

Robin smiled and nodded. "If everything goes according to plan." He looked at Starfire. "You got all that, Star?"

"............"

"Star???"

She stopped staring at the shirtless Aqualad. "Hmmm? Oh, yes, Robin. Smooth sailing. Very.....smooth sailing."

".......," Robin sweatdropped.

Starfire bit her lip. "Erm....what was the topic of our discussion again?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey, what about the rest of us?" Cyborg remarked.

Robin pointed. "You and Raven stay here and keep watch over Aqualad. Right now, he needs sanctuary."

"Sanctuary???" Beast Boy remarked with a wyrd look.

"Don't you get it??" the Boy Wonder leaned forward. "He has political opponents out there against him. Heck, they already tried to kill him with that dramatic pod-cannon Expulsor of theirs. He could still be at risk." He looked at Raven. "He needs protection." He looked at Cyborg. "And good care."

"Right....nannying," Cyborg saluted. "Thanks, Robin."

"Yeah.......," the Boy Wonder blinked under his mask. He glanced at the other Titans. "As for the rest of us...we move out at twenty-one hundred hours."

Nova'm raised a shy hand.

"Yes??"

He simpered. "Do I.....g-get to do anything?"

Starfire spoke out: "You shall stay here, Nova'm."

He protested: "But---!!"

"You are not a Titan," Raven droned. "You are merely a guest here at the Tower per Starfire's and your foster parents' request. The fact that this issue with Aqualad has come up is completely incidental."

"It is best that you stay here. Who knows?" Starfire smiled pleasantly. "Cyborg and Raven may need your assistance!"

"With what?" Nova'm folded his arms in a pout. "Changing Aqualad's sheets?"

"...........," Starfire blinked. She looked up at everyone. "Who here has corrupted my precious prince with earthling sarcasm?"

Raven smirked ever so slightly.

Robin cleared his throat. "Anyways....we mustn't forget that this is a coordinated effort. All three of us must keep in contact. That's why I've equipped us with special communicators. Beast Boy has one that'll fit in his ear. Starfire and I will have ones fitted to our gloves...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"..._and Noir's communicator will simply be a speaker in his ear and a morse code function in his metal fingers. And speaking of which, there are final touches to be made."_

"There....," Cyborg finished tracing the micro tool across my left fore-arm. "Beautiful. Take a look, dawg. Tell us what you think."

I blinked my black eyes. I held my left hand up. And it was perfect flesh. Or at least, it was meant to look that way. Metal hid beneath the surface. And yet—as I twirled the fingers and eyed the knuckles—it looked absolutely perfect.

"And before you ask.....yes, it's waterproof," Cyborg winked.

I looked at him across the laboratory and smiled. I looked at my hand again and flexed it some more.

"Ya know....we could always keep it like that," Cyborg gestured. "When....ya know....you're back from this adventure. It doesn't have to look "

I looked at him. I gestured something brief and simple.

Cyborg sighed. He smiled slightly. "Yeah....you're right, man. Would I want to hide my titanium nowadays? Nah....I'm no pansy."

I smirked.

"And now....," Cyborg picked up a tiny pair of dishes from a nearby, metal tray. "The final touch...."

I took a deep breath. I took the dishes. I reached in and—slowly—applied the contacts over my solid black eyes. I blinked them hard...then lightly. I looked Cyborg's way.

His lips parted and he shook his head....slowly......

"That's just too creepy, man. But don't take my word for it..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHWISSH!!!!

The doors to the infirmary opened open.

The room was dim. Candles were lit, giving the room a relaxing atmosphere.

Sitting in the basin—half awake it seemed—was Aqualad. He simply wore swimming trunks, having sacrificed his trademark bodysuit...

....the very same bodysuit that I wore as I walked across the room and stood before him. Hands to my side. Hair slicked back. And black eyes speckled with tiny, white irises.

A living mirror....

Aqualad slowly opened his eyes. He looked up at me through the candle light. Blinking.

"...........hi there, shadow," he grinned slightly.

I smiled back.

"And your arm?"

I showed it to him. Pure 'skin'.

He shook his head. "Cyborg's a genius...."

I nodded.

_I know......_

"Sit down....," he gestured towards a metal stool.

I dragged it over—winced at the grating sound it made on the metal floor—and gently sat down from across the basin.

He cupped some water and poured it over his face, letting the liquid stream down his cheeks. He sighed...absorbing it all. Trying to rehydrate himself...slowly....

"...................."

It was silent.

I breathed slowly. Thinking about the mission at hand. Absorbed by the candlelight. The softness of chaotic movement of time.

"You can't be wondering too much why I asked you to come in here....," he said quietly. His voice sounded like my head. We were already connecting as one, and it was freaky. "You're going to be me for the next few foreseeable days, Noir. I think it's best that.....that I share some things with you that I can't possibly share with the others."

I leaned my head to the side in a trademark 'listening Noir' fashion. I almost regretted it.

But he didn't seem to mind. He leaned back in the water just far enough to not submerge his face and he spoke: "You're.....you're not going to be alone in this, Noir. And I don't mean Beast Boy or Tram....but once in Atlantis, there is someone....someone that I trust dearly. And you will be needing all the help that this person can give you. For if anyone can understand the trouble that I'm going through...and the true threat that Chasma presents....it's her."

I raised an eyebrow. I mouthed: 'her???'

Aqualad bit his lip. "Yes. Princess Tula. She sits in for one of the Royal Houses of Atlantis. Almost as powerful politically as Senator Chasma's Fourth House of Currents. Only...she is loyal to King Orin's resolve. And not only that, but she is quite adamant in supporting the Idyllist role in the Junction. There is more to her...but I cannot divulge. Only....I wish you to make contact with her at all costs. Everything rests on this mission...and her partaking in it will more than likely make it a success."

I nodded.

"Provided one thing," Aqualad said.

I listened.

He slowly sat up. He dripped all over as he leaned forward and glared at me viciously. Beady eyes to beady eyes.

"You so much as make a move on her in my place....and I assure you...there is no fish in the sea too small that can't swallow the pieces of you that I'll rip asunder."

"......," I gulp and nod with a smile and sweatdrop.

"Good....you understand. That is very wise." He leans back.

I sigh with relief.

"And one more thing...."

I look at him.

He shuts his eyes. "Right now....you may look like 'Aqualad'....you may be dressed like 'Aqualad'....and you may even be taught to swim like 'Aqualad'. But as soon as you ride that pod beneath the surface of the ocean...as soon as you're underwater....you are no longer 'Aqualad'. Do you understand me?"

I look at him.

He opens his eyes and looks at me firmly from afar. "You shall be 'Garth'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Koryyyy!! Come on!! I-I've been training for a reason, right??"

"That is correct," Starfire nodded as she paced around her room and gathered up a few tools and belongings for the underwater trip. "I desire to teach you in the ways of defending the innocent. Not just on Earth, but 'abroad'."

Nova'm followed her around frantically. "And....like....I-I know 'abroad' for you probably means the galaxy and Tamaran and the Vegan system and stuff. But how about the underwater culture of this planet?! Wouldn't that count too??"

"Indeed, it would," she smiled.

"So why can't I come along and help you??"

"Because Raven was right earlier," Starfire glanced at him amidst her rummaging. "You are not a Titan."

"But I-I'm just as powerful as one, right???"

"Hehehehe," she giggled. "You are in the process of becoming a righteous wielder of your power. But I must sadly admit that such a time is a distance away."

"But...think about it, this would be a great way for me to train and—"

"Nova'm, I must implore....," Starfire sighed and looked down at him. "Why are you so adamant about coming along for this dangerous mission?"

"I...I dunno, Kory...," Nova'm hugged himself bashfully and looked off into space. The further he spoke, the more his little eyes lit up in a green passion. "Ever since Mommy and Daddy agreed to let me spend a week here, I've felt what it means to be a hero. I see it in all of you guys! In Cyborg! Beast Boy! Robin—Robin especially. In you, of course. Even in that dark, quiet guy Noir. And....erm," he blushed. "...in Miss Raven as well. Ahem. B-But....it's just so cool! I never realized how using your powers all the time could do.....so good. And I remember that—at one time—I did good too. Back home, I tried to do it whenever I could. Even though Booker....h-he tried to make me feel bad for what I could do."

"Ohhhh...Nova'm," Starfire knelt down and gave him a hug. "Please do not try and focus on such dark times. Booker was very mean to you. And, yes, indeed he hurt you for things you did not need to feel bad for. But now that he is gone and you have the full potential to wield your gifts, I feel that it is my responsibility to limit you so that one day you can understand maturely what the limits for an individual Tamaranian is. Our people will not want a prince who follows whim and whim alone."

Nova'm suddenly giggled.

Starfire made a face. "What???"

"You are almost sounding like Miss Raven!" Nova'm giggled. "That sounds so boring! Whatever happened to going along with Tamaranian passion and the 'burning inside us all' and stuff?"

"Oh....erhm....," Starfire blushed. "They have been....erhm....temporarily set aside for the time being."

"Awww...for how long??"

"Until Robin, Beast Boy, Noir and I return from this mission!!"

"Oh come on, Kory!!" Nova'm visibly pleaded. "Pleeeease?? Can I come along for the mission?? I'll do whatever you say!!"

"Then heed my words when I insist that you stay here at the Tower!" Starfire said. She smiled for good measure. "I want you safe, Nova'm. I did not go through so much trouble back in the North of the Carolina to save you...only to have you hurt yourself in a risky mission such as that we are about to endeavor on!! You are quite brave and strong in spirit...but you are still small!! So long, Nova'm. Do take care."

She flew out of her room and down the hallway.

Nova'm stood in the frame, pouting. "I'm a prince, ya know! You forgot that?!?"

Nothing. Just echoes.

"Blah....," he kicked at the ground.

Silence.

He suddenly smiled. "But you are right about one thing, Kory...," he devilishly whispered. "I am still _small_. Which means I can fit in tiny places!" That succinctly said, he flew off in some forbidden direction.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You're gonna be careful with her??"

"Yes, Cyborg...," Robin insisted. He and Cyborg were on a dock to the southwest side of the Tower's island, loading stuff onto the buoyed T-Sub. "I won't even get a scratch on her."

"I can't understand why you won't let me come along and pilot the thing," the android Titan said. "I built the damned thing. I'm best at it."

"Like I said before," Robin explained, "...I need you and Raven here to watch over Aqualad."

"Pfft...Raven can do that by herself, man!"

".....," Robin paused. He looked up at Cyborg. "You're willing to leave that poor sap here at the Tower alone with one of the _girls_???"

Cyborg made a face. He sweatdropped. "Ooo. Didn't think about that."

"Yeah...you stay here, Cyborg. We'll keep in radio contact. I'm sure I'm going to need your audible help with one thing or another in operating this....'other Baby' of yours."

"Hey....it's all one big Baby," Cyborg shrugged with a smile. "T-Car...T-Sub....all the same entity. Kinda like the Matrix."

"Yeah, whatever. Is Starfire here yet?"

Cyborg looked down the dock. "No sign of her man." A beat. He smiled Robin's way. "Ya know....I think I finally understand why you chose for her to be the other half of Team Nautilus."

Robin's eyemask when crooked. "Huh?"

"Lord knows how long it's gonna take you two to get to the Hidden Valley," Cyborg pointed out. "It's just gonna be the two of you.....alone.....in that cramped sub."

"Pfft....cut it out, Cyborg."

"With nothing to keep warm with except for y'all's body heat—"

Robin whistled. "Allright. Joke's over. Go home. Nothing to see here!"

Cyborg laughed.

"What?!?!?!"

"Nothing. They should have just called you the 'Blush Wonder' instead."

Robin stuck true to that sudden name. "Er.....dammit, Starfire. Get here already."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gently, I rested Myrkblade on its hilt.

I stood back in the lantern-lit interior of my cellar room.

I stared at the blade....sighing.

Beast Boy walked up and put his hand on my 'Aqualad' shoulder. "Gotta leave it behind for this mission, dude. Aqualad may be an undersea badass in his own right....but he won't be caught dead with a samurai salad slicer."

I slowly nodded. With forlorn, white-specked eyes I looked down at Beast Boy.

"Don't fret it, man!" he smiled. "It'll be like old times!! You and me going undercover!! Kinda like Westhaven, remember?? That went well, didn't it?"

I winced.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Yeah....well....at least it 'went'. You know what I'm saying?"

I smiled. I held up my hand.

He gave me a high-five.

Slap!

"Come on, dude. Let's get wet. Hehehe."

I rolled my black eyes and followed him out of the room. I glanced back at my blade one last time before sighing and closing the door behind me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin and Starfiiiiiiire. Sittin' in a Sub...."

"Rrrggh...Cyborg, I swear, if you don't stop that right now I'm going to stick my staff so far up your—"

"Live a little, man!!" Cyborg leaned against a post on the side of the dock and smiled. It was dark out. Barely after sunset. The murky waters danced beneath them where the T-Sub and the Expulsor pod bobbed up and down. "You're gonna be cramped inside an underwater tin can for hours on end. Now don't pretend you're not gonna miss my good humor during those hours."

"Pfft...I'll hardly have to think about that."

"I know, cuz you'll have a head—and face—full of Starfire...won't you??? Heheheheh!!"

"Knock it off!!" Robin frowned. He suddenly smiled. "What if I joked that way about you and Raven??"

To that, Cyborg nonchalantly remarked: "It don't work both ways, man."

Robin blinked under his mask. "Oh....my bad. I-I was starting to think—"

".....at least," Cyborg's human eye trailed the sky curiously as he thought aloud. ".....I don't think it does."

"It doesn't," Raven marched up the dock.

Cyborg smiled. "Oh....hey there, cutie."

ZAP!!

"DAAH!!" SPLOOSH!!!

".....right," Raven lowered her wrist and looked at Robin. "Here they come."

"Good," Robin nodded.

Starfire floated over. Beast Boy scurried up. I walked over.

"Aqualad...greetings," Robin smiled and extended a hand.

I put on a gentle smile and extended a fist.

Robin got the idea and we 'punched' our knuckles together.

Beast Boy smiled. "He's good." He planted his hands to his hips. "I trained him well."

"Well done," Raven droned. "In a matter of days, he can use the litter box."

"Hehehehe!" Starfire giggled.

I smirked.

Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Cyborg climbed back up onto the dock, dripping. "What am I missing?"

"The sendoff," Robin said. "Noir...Beast Boy...take your positions. Let's not waste anymore time."

"And I shall board the T-Sub," Starfire obviously said as she floated into her seat of the craft.

Cyborg looked at the T-Sub...then at Robin. He smiled and extended a dripping, Titanium hand. "After you, Casanova."

Robin sighed. He wandered into the sub.

In the meantime, I got into the pod....and realized how cramped it is.

I sweatdropped.

"Awww....don't worry, dude. You won't be so lonely," Beast Boy said as he started to lower the hatch. He smiled through the porthole. "I may not be able to talk to you and stuff...but at least you get a good look at my green, fishy butt the whole way!!"

I made like to wretch.

"Hah!! Sweet dreams with that, 'Aqualad'! Hehehe!"

SCHLUNK!!

The hatch was closed and I was bathed in silence.

I leaned back and closed my specked eyes with a relaxed sigh.

In the T-Sub, Robin took the forward compartment while Starfire minded the middle one.

"I do believe we are secured....," Starfire spoke into her communicator.

"Right....," Robin nodded, flipping a few switches. "Go for launch."

The T-Sub started to hum to life.

In the meantime, Beast Boy leapt into the water—SPLOOSH!!—and surfaced, 'tying' himself to the metal 'reins'. "Allrighty!! Renstimpy bound!!"

"_Renzukka!!"_

"Whatever. On Comet! On Cubit! On Donner—hehehe...get it??"

Raven glared.

Beast Boy gulped. "Goingy Fishy now." He morphed into a sailfish and dove underwater...tugging me and the pod behind.

At the same time, the T-Sub submerged with a splash. The waters besides the dock bubbled mightily.

"Almost looks like they're having a race," Cyborg smiled at Raven.

Raven sighed.

"Or having a bloody battle to the underwater death. Geez, girl...imagine a little!"

"Not in the mood," Raven uttered. She pulled out a communicator. "We're monitoring you as we speak, Robin. Have a safe trip."

"_Thanks, Raven."_

Starfire's voice interjected: _"Watch out for Nova'm, please!! He is most.........adorable and alive!"_

Cyborg chuckled.

"We'll do our best," Raven said. "Lord knows we're already nannying."

"Um....the mic's still on."

"I know."

"Oh."

-click-

She holstered the communicator away, drew her cloak around her, and spun around towards the Tower. "If you don't mind....I have a book to read."

"You always have a book to read."

"So long as mortality always has a life to claim."

"Yeah....um.....very true, that. I guess," Cyborg scratched his human head. He slowly began to catch up with Raven. He glanced around the dock and uttered aloud: "By the way...where _is_ Nova'm anyhow?"

"Beats me. Probably anchored to your Xbox like he was yesterday evening."

"Hahaha! I tell you what, that boy plays Morrowind like a god!"

"Morrow-who??"

"You never played Morrowind?"

"No."

"It's the phattest RPG out there!! It's got—"

As the two walked off and conversed, the dock behind them was left alone. The murky waters danced up against the sides and....splashed up against 'something'. That something took on a humanoid form. A puff of steam appeared, like living mist. A pair of glowing eyes peered out from the mist. Narrow. Vicious. Then...the mist became invisible again and a dark silhouette plunged into the water with a tiny, chilling splash.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The murky depths of the ocean streamed past the portholes on either side of me.

It was frighteningly dim inside that lonely pod of mine. Though I knew that all that covered my black eyes were shaded optics with Aqualad's trademark, ghostly-white irises....I couldn't help but feel immensely alone and shrouded in confusion.

_Sometimes I wish the Titans would realize......I don't exactly enjoy being the 'wildcard' anymore......_

I sighed. I was tired. I didn't want to stare at Beast Boy's wagging fishtail through the front porthole the entire time.

So I leaned to the side and tried to catch some 'shuteye'...or at least meditate on what I had to do.

Remembering I wasn't Noir....

Remembering I wasn't Aqualad....

_I was Garth._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The pendant was placed on a pedestal at the front of the pilot's dashboard. It glowed in pulsing waves.

"Okay...," Robin breathed. "Engaging autopilot...."

He clicked a few buttons. The dashboard started to glow along with the pendant.

Robin and Starfire braced themselves as the T-Sub changed heading and cruised in a southeasterly direction.

"And.....last step...." Robin pushed a final switch.

Whurrrrrrrrrr-Chtung!

Metal 'shutters' drew closed across the curved windows of the five individual piloting stations. It was one hundred percent impossible to see through the windows now, unless one had X-Ray vision. And even still...the metal was comprised of a high, lead alloy.

"Oh......um....," Starfire blushed. "I wasn't aware that we were going to utilize _those_ to mask our movement from ourselves..."

Robin's voice replied through the speakers of her console. _"Well, yeah, Star. I mean...it's not like we're gonna gather much from looking through the windows anyways. But I don't want to risk anything. Navigation schematics are also down. We're subject to the magical pendant's guidance."_

"I understand," Starfire nodded. "But still......m-must I only hear your voice for the entire trip."

_".........er....no. We can still see each other, Star. Remember the crawlspaces?"_

"Which ones?"

_"I-I'll show you."_

There was a clicking sound....then a hissing sound throughout the T-Sub's hull.

_"Star...see the hatch below your feet?"_

"Y-Yes."

"_Open it and take a look through."_

"Okay."

She unbuckled from her seat, crawled down, and opened the hatch.

HISSS!!!!

She peered through with glowing eyes.

Down a tiny tunnel of metal—lined with supply cabinets and drawers (like the interior of a space station capsule)—Robin's face smiled at her. He waved.

"Ahoy there," his voice echoed down the dim chamber to her.

"Ehehehehe!" she giggled. "How ingenious! Since when did Cyborg have such corridors installed??"

"Since always. One of these even has a pressure chamber for scuba divers to exit. Or Beast Boy when we're using him for underwater missions in which we need his marine expertise."

"Ah, I understand now. Which compartment leads to the exit of this sub in such fashion?"

Robin bit his lip. "Um....ahem....let's pretend that we don't have to come to that part."

"Oh.....affirmative, Robin."

"Feel better, Star?"

"Absolutely. I now have every reason to believe that the pressure chamber you speak of is responsible for the incessant, clanking sound that I hear."

".......????" Robin made a face. "Pardon?"

"Do you not hear it?" Starfire remarked. "It resonates throughout the T-Sub. Well, my side at least."

"Um.....there shouldn't be any clanking sound, Star."

"Eeep!!" the Tamaranian jumped. "Robin...there is something horribly wrong."

"You say you hear it on your end??"

"True! Oh Robin...what could it be??"

"Hang on, I'm coming up there."

"Coming up where?"

"Into your cockpit. Hang tight!"

"But Robin...it is rather...erhm...cramped in here..."

He was already scurrying up the crawlspace.

Starfire bit her lip. "But then again, your metabolism does make you rather thin and I am quite of the skinniness myself so I suppose enough room for examination will be made available—"

Robin poured through the crawlspace....and when he sat up, he was nose-to-nose and chest-to-chest with Starfire.

"........."

"........."

".........."

"It.....is right behind me....," Starfire pointed...blushing....not moving an inch.

Robin swallowed. "Er....right....," his face was red as he slithered awkwardly around Starfire and planted his ear against the back of the cockpit.

"..........................................."

Silence.

Then......

CLANK!!

"EEK!!!" Starfire jumped and hugged Robin instinctively.

"Aack!! Starfire, let go! We're gonna fall over—"

"The clanking! It is evil!!"

"Star!! Wait—"Robin grabbed onto the handle of an interior compartment to balance himself.

Starfire fell over.

Robin fell over.

The compartment door yanked over.

CRACK!!!

"OOF!!"

"Umph!!"

"Oops!!"

Starfire and Robin—on top of each other—doubly went googly eyed at the sound of a third voice. They both jumped up, brushed themselves off, and looked into the compartment.

Starfire gasped.

Robin frowned. "You...."

Nova'm was curled inside the passageway, his shirt's cloth stuck on a bolt inside the metal linining.

"Eheheheheheh....," the little redhead simpered. "I'm caught."

**"Yes,**" both the Boy Wonder and the green-eyed Titan uttered in simultaneous scorn. **"You are."**

Scorn....because the autopilot could not be cancelled at this point...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Princess Tula stood on a balcony of pure pearl. She leaned on a glistening ledge and looked out on the shimmering spectacle that was Atlantis. Its spires shot up into the 'air' produced by a pocket dome at the bottom of the ocean floor. Columns of water magically warped about as solid bodies of mass. Everywhere else, waterfalls and fountains filled the cityscape. The place was in a roar as literally millions of ocean dwellers migrated in to oversee the Junction...a revolutionary time for Atlanteans everywhere.

The girl sighed. She ran a hand through her short, black hair and spun about to walk back into her chambers with a ruffle of her sapphire gown. Tiny canals trickled beneath her and a floor made of glass. Inside her chamber, Tula ran into a handmaiden who curtsied and relayed:

"Your Exellency...Senator Chasma wishes to pay you respect."

Tula's eyes narrowed. There was a heavy sense of disgust and hesitancy in her face. Regardless, she relented with a sigh. "Show him in."

The handmaiden turned around and motioned to the door.

Two guards—armed with tridents—parted ways at the entrance.

Then a tall, graying figure marched in. He had a somber expression on...but it seemed painted on. With ocean-blue eyes, he stood before the princess—not bowing—and spoke in a forced shudder: "Still no sign of his body, your excellency. I fear it is the final siren song for the Idyllist ambassador."

"Garth is still alive, Senator Chasma. You should know that far better than I do."

"I beg your pardon, your highness," the man adjusted his dark tunic and spoke: "We must accept the facts at hand. He has left us. If we mourn now, we can elect for the Idyllists a new ambassador. One fitting to replace the late Garth's role before the Junction is over with."

"And whom did you have in mind, Senator?" Tula glared. "That sniveling underling of yours? Bryn?"

The man smiled innocently. "'Underling'?? Your highness, you insult one of this kingdom's finest politicians—"

"Who isn't even an Idyllist himself, but a victim of bureaucratic hypnosis," Tula breathed. "If Garth is indeed dead...at least one piece of him lives on. And that's the respect for brutal honesty. If necessary, it will be up to me to find a replacement for his ambassadorial role. Not yours."

"But, your highness, I am properly equipped for the job—"

"Equipped with what, Senator?" Tula smirked. "Arts of the....dark sort?"

Chasma's opal eyes narrowed. He spoke quietly and with great menace that only she could hear: "You get this straight, you prissy little brat.....there is nothing you can prove. And even by the time you managed to...it would be too late for this pathetic 'Junction' at hand."

"I know what you're up to, Chasma....," Tula sneered back. "And so did Garth," she added with a sour note.

Chasma grinned evilly. "And because of that....he is being replaced. Be sure to remember that." He smiled. He turned around and walked towards the door.

Just then, Tula called him from behind his back. "Oh Senator....by the way...."

He glanced back and looked at her.

She grinned slyly. "Be sure yourself to remember something as well. Two years ago when the Crustacean Queen attacked the Valley of Neptune, well over forty-thousand eyewitnesses were there to see me personally track down the beast and ruthlessly stab the Silver Harpoon of Poseidon into its acidic brain cavity. And if you were to ask any of those forty-thousand Atlanteans, I assure you that not one of them would testify to seeing a 'prissy little brat' at all that day...."

Chasma glared....spun about...and ducked out of the door.

The guards followed him...the handmaiden too....

And Princess Tula was alone.

She snorted with a smirk, turned around, and slumped down on a chair of pure pearl. She sighed and leaned her chin on a lacy glove.

"Garth.....where in the seven seas are you.......?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOSH!!!!

Chasma leapt up into the underground chamber with a dramatic fountain of water. He was flanked by two underlings with tridents. The three of them marched menacingly through a black cave with torchlights reflecting the dancing waves of cold puddles on either side of them.

The unnerving sounds of tortured screams and howls echoed against the craggy walls of the natural, obsidian interior. The three made their way down a series of steps and into a round chamber with four slabs of stone set around a chaotic arrangement of torches. Dark-gowned guards surrounded the chamber...silent and mysterious. On three of the four slabs were young, humanoid figures strapped in by rusty chains shackling their wrists and ankles. And in the very center of the slabs and torches—glowing in an unholy aura—was an orb of fluctuating violet brightness.

Chasma walked straight towards the orb...but something appeared in his way. White steam in the shape of a human figure.

"Boo!!" the steam 'talked'.

Chasma jumped back, startled. He frowned. "Miist. You are not excused to do that."

The steam laughed and took on the form of a flesh-and-blood human wearing an ivory-white jumpsuit. "You are an old man underneath, Chasma-Cat. I can't resist."

"Miist...you have my favor in that you're actually _loyal_ to me," Chasma glared. "Do not test my patience too much."

"Got it...," Miist held a thumb's up and smirked. "_Too_ much...heheheh..."

"Tell me what you saw....," Chasma spoke as he paced around the slabs. "Did they enact a plan?"

"They sure diiiiid....hehehehe," Miist giggled. "I saw them leaving the Tower! Two groups of them!"

Chasma passed by a green-haired girl in an emerald jumpsuit shackled to one slab. "And does one of the two teams have....an impersonator?"

"Yes, Big C. Hehehe....the one who can't talk. The swordsman."

"Without his sword, I imagine....," Chasma brushed his hand along a slab housing a dark-haired boy in a blackjumpsuit.

"Yes. It's not like Garth-Fart to have a blade, now is it?? Not goody-goody. Hehehehe."

"Lightning quick as you are, Miist...do you have an estimate on how soon they'll be here?"

"On converging paths...I'd give them a two days. A day and a half at the quickest. One of the groups is looking to hook up with some Renzukka, and you know that _alwaaaays_ leads to trouble. Hehehehe."

"Indeed. But either way, they're falling into our hands. If we can't wield the Lord's corruption in Atlantis...at least we can ensnare these 'heroes' and poison the surface world...." Chasma lingered as he came to the last slab.

A blonde girl was shackled to it. Her jumpsuit was a bright blue. She shivered and hyperventilated constantly.

Chasma traced his finger deliciously along her chin. "Fraust....what troubles you so??"

She shivered. Her eyes were welling up with tears. And as soon as the tears formed, snowflakes scattered from them in wisps of white and blue. "I...I...I-I don't w-w-want to h-h-hurt anym-more...."

"Relax, child...," Chasma grinned. "The pain will only be temporary as we summon the Lord's strength to refill you..."

"N-No...," she clutched her frosting eyes shut and bit her lip. "N-Not that....I-I don't want t-to hu-hurt others anym-more...."

"Stupid Fraust....hehehe!!" Miist pointed and giggled. "You never diiiid!! Hehehehehe!!"

Chasma growled. "Take your place, Miist. Besides Acyd and Fryte. You are as much a part of this ceremony as she is."

Miist shut up. Regardless, he had a jack-in-the-box grin as he bounced over and slid onto his slab. He didn't need shackles...

"P-P-Please....d-don't.....," Fraust wept.

"Shhhh....," Chasma trailed a finger along her neck. There were no gills. None of the slab-teenagers had gills. "...you have a purpose for the Lord to fulfill..."

She shuddered as the Senator walked into the center of the chamber. He approached the orb and raised his hands.

"All hail the mighty Lord...."

"**All hail the mighty Lord!!"** bellowed the darkly-clad congregation surrounding the underground chamber.

The violet aura of the orb pulsed greatly as Chasma approached it.

"Preparer of the way to cleansing darkness!!"

"**Preparer of the way to cleansing darkness!!"**

The violet shook and danced. The orb vibrated. A flare of purple exploded in Chasma's eyes, replacing the blue.

He snarled loudly.

"Give birth to the magic-spawn that shall pollute the seas and bring back the land!!"

"**All hail the mighty Lord!!"**

Streams of purple now danced from the orb and coursed through the Senator's pulsing body.

He arched his head back and bellowed: "Refill!! Refill!! Refill the Children of the Black Tempest!!!"

**"For the Children of the Black Tempest!!"**

FLASH!!!!!! Purple tendrils exploded outward and engulfed each slab.

The children screamed and shouted in pain.

Acyd's head twisted from side to side and she vomited out green fluid while emerald juices oozed out of her fingernails and toes. The slab started burning beneath her with vile corrosiveness.

Fryte bucked and writhed. Swirling entities of black exited his chest and danced around in the shape of howling skulls.

Miist had a twisted face of pleasure as bright streams of white hotness bulged out of his body, transforming him in and out of steam.

And Fraust sobbed and sobbed as her entire body turned a pale blue. Her eyes shot open and translucent, glasslike daggers shot out. At the top of her lungs she screamed and her entire body—the entire slab—exploded in a chunk of steaming ice under the streams of burning violet and the hellish chant of the dark Atlanteans.

-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!" Garth shot up straight with a splash from the basin inside the Titans' Tower infirmary.

He panted...sweating all over. He ran a hand over his face as his beady, black eyes flickered with violet flame. He looked at his fingers and saw the purple embers melting off them.

His lip quivered.

"Sl...Sl-Slizzath....."

The Atlantean was dead silent. He submerged himself deep into the small tub of water, curled into a fetal position, and shivered.


	121. Fear the Black Tempest part 2

**121. Fear the Black Tempest part 2**

"_First of all, Robin, even when we first noticed that the little shrimp wasn't with us anymore...you were already calling us and complaining your butts off! Sorry that he got in the T-Sub when he wasn't supposed to! I was outside on the dock the entire time, and Raven was busy tending to Aqualad. If any of us was in the position to spot Nova'm in time, it was me. I honestly can't figure out how the little bugger did it. But then again......if he has all the powers that Star has, I bet he could have found a way. How much have you been training him, Star?"_

"A little too much, I am presently inclined to believe," frowned the Tamaranian girl. She folded her arms and glared across the tiny cockpit at Nova'm...who was sitting on the back of a chair.

He shrugged with a simper. "Wh-What??"

Robin faced the speaker system inside the T-Sub. "My first thought was to turn us three around and return Nova'm. But from the way I judge things, if we interrupt the autopilot system now with Aqualad's pendant...we may not be able to get it right again."

_"My thoughts exactly. Raven and I both agree that you should stay on course. I think the little prince is along for the ride."_

"And what of Aqualad?"

"_Dead as a doornail. He's been out cold since you guys left."_

Starfire gasped. "Dead?!?!"

"_Figure of speech, Star. He's okay......just unconscious. We'd better let him keep rehydrating."_

"Good idea," Robin nodded. "Until then, keep in touch. Robin out."

-click-

He switched the speaker system off, sighed, and looked Nova'm's way.

"So...um....is that R-Raven lady mad??" Nova'm scratched his head, blushing.

"Raven lady?! Raven lady?!?!" Starfire cackled. "Does it not occur to you to suffer the wrath of myself and Robin, and instead you think of Raven lady?!"

Nova'm flinched. "Well...when Miss Raven gets mad...things blow up, right?"

"And when I get mad," Starfire spoke with a melting frown. "I get very sad. And sadness is one of the worst of the Tamaranian emotions. So cold and painful. Was it your desire to make me sad, Nova'm?"

"N-No, Kory!! I....I-I just wanted to help! This mission sounds so important and stuff. I couldn't let you go on it alone! Unprotected!"

"I have my protection," she gestured towards the Boy Wonder.

Nova'm giggled. "What? Him??"

Robin gave the redhead a cold death glare.

"......," Nova'm gulped and scrunched back in his seat. "So....um...wh-where're we going....anyways?"

"The Hidden Valley. The home of Aqualad's people, the Idyllists," Robin exasperatingly explained. "Hopefully when we get there, they'll be willing to help us out for the lost ambassador's sake."

"'H-Hopefully'??" Nova'm muttered.

"Assuming they don't blow us out of the water first," Robin firmly said. "In case you haven't paid attention, continental civilization isn't exactly on good terms with ocean dwellers."

Nova'm gulped again. "I think I picked the w-wrong bus ride...."

"Indeed you have," Starfire huffed. "Did I not tell you that this excursion would be of considerable danger?"

"Huh? Oh...I-I know that....just...fear is a motivation, right?? Ha ha! I laugh at fear!!" Nova'm cackled.

Robin stared him in the face.

Nova'm shut up.

"Let me get this straight....," Robin grumbled fiercely. "Now that you're here for the ride, you will not do anything unless I tell you to...understand? That means no talking...no fighting...no starbolting...and pretty much no breathing. Got it?"

Nova'm nodded. "N-No breathing. Got it."

"For if you so much as do ONE THING to screw up this mission, I swear by all that's holy in Abrahammic, Vedic, and Mail-Order religions that I'll take that once and future crown of yours and make you swallow it!!"

"But....I-I didn't want Kory to be so alone in this dark, watery trip!" Nova'm murmured.

"Awwww," Starfire cooed. She wandered over to hug him. "You poor thing, that is so gloriously sweet—"

"Star!! No!!" Robin cackled. "You're letting him trick you!!"

"Er, I mean---what atrocious wrongdoing!!" Starfire snapped out of it and frowned. She pointed a shameful finger at the preteen. "This shall not be a ride of joy for you!! There will be much toil and hardship in persuading these sea-dwellers to respect us as Aqualad's messengers."

"Okay, Star," Robin nodded.

"---and if necessary, we shall force you to get outside of this craft with a reasonable apparatus for submerged respiration and motivate you into replacing whatever propulsion we may lose—"

"Star, I think he gets the picture—"

"—and I shall also fill your nose with....um...glakaforks of the most corrosive type and force you to sit into the corner and—"

"Starfire!" Robin placed a hand on her shoulder. He leaned in and whispered. "Remind me never to have you baby-sit for Beast Boy."

"Erm....," she nodded innocently. "I see. I shall refrain." A beat. She blushed and looked Nova'm's way. 'Too harsh??' she mouthed, face red.

Nova'm trembled and shook her head.

"Nnngh...," Robin sighed. He ran a hand over his eyemask and bent down. "I'm going to the front compartment." He crawled through the tunnel of the humming submersible towards the bow. "If I find a leash or something, Star, we're putting it on him."

"Uhm....okay."

Silence.

Starfire looked Nova'm's way.

"So....when do we start kicking people's butts?" the boy simpered.

Starfire shook her head with a toss of her hair. "I am not speaking to you, Nova'm."

"Awww....Kory, why not?"

"Because.....Because....J-Just because you are not to be spoken too!!" she hrumphed and opened a door to the tunnel leading into the right cockpit.

"F-For how long?"

"For as long as it takes for you to understand the detriments you have caused by your stowing of the away!!" she ducked into the tunnel and was gone. A beat. Her head reappeared and she was biting her lip. "Erm....o-or maybe just half an earth's hour?"

Nova'm simpered and held a thumb's up.

She sighed with relief and ducked away.

Nova'm was alone.

He laid back in the seat, letting out a breath. His green eyes blinked. He ran a hand up and traced the glass bubble gently. He stared at the curved, metal shingles blocking the view from the inside.

"Um......h-h-how long are we gonna stay inside this....c-cramped place anyways?"

There was no response from either Titan in the T-Sub.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back.

Forth.

Back.

Forth.

Back.

Forth.......

My specked eyes blinked. There was something....hypnotic at staring at the swishing tail of the huge green fish through the portal in front of me. I was lying back inside the small, cramped pod....decked out in Aqualad's gear and made to virtually look like him. My solid black eyes—thanks to contacts—weren't solid black anymore. I had tiny, fake irises in the center to mimic that of the Atlantean's optics. And my hair was now a hundred percent slicker and.....more solid than it had ever been previous in its 'lengthy' life. Beast Boy and I were on a mission to infiltrate Atlantis with help from 'Tram' of the Renzukka people. Once at Atlantis, I'd have to contact Princess Tula so that I could easily represent the political subgroup known as the Idyllists by pretending to be Ambassador Garth on the eve of the underwater culture's biggest political Junction in the history of that millennia.

It didn't help that I was seasick.

I groaned and twitched as my stomach boiled inside of the annoyingly tight bodysuit...or wetsuit....or whateversuit.

I sweatdropped.

I couldn't understand how Beast Boy or Robin could handle tights. Compared to them, even Speedy's outfit looked breathable.

But Aqualad's garb......

I shifted in my seat.

_Well, I suppose it's not so bad......for my case......_

I bit my lip.

I looked out the front porthole again.

Back.

Forth.

Back.

Forth.

Back.

Forth.

I sighed. It wouldn't do me well to tell everyone that I stared at Beast Boy's transmogrified butt for nearly six hours.

There wasn't much to entertain myself with. And I wasn't about to sleep. Not inside a little tin can hundreds of feet underwater and traversing the North Atlantic.

It was cold. I shivered half the time. At some moments, I assumed it was just my metal arm or something to that extent. But it's hard for the imagination to imitate freezing conditions. Gradually, the portholes on my left and right side started to fog up. I could see my breath in the air, and I hugged myself. I opened the first of the heat packs that Cyborg had supplied me. I wasn't entirely sure how they worked, but breaking a certain spot caused a chemical reaction that made the pack warm to the touch. And it sufficed for the time being.

The long ride's duration was enough to make me start thinking. And when I thought, Aqualad was in my head.

That is to say....'Garth'.

I knew very little about the Atlantean hero. And from what I gathered, my teammates knew very little about him too. That didn't help the mission all too much. But unless Aqualad was a short-sighted individual, I was trusting that his faith in me was sound...and that he informed me of all I needed to know.

Besides...there was a princess to be seen just in case....

My dark eyes narrowed.

_When Garth spoke of Tula......he seemed far more passionate before. True, he was quite emphatic in expressing his desperation over Senator Chasma and the Junction and Slizzath......but......when he practically ushered me into the infirmary to 'speak' to him one on one...there was something special about it._

He trusted me. He trusted me...in spite of the fact that I was a perfect stranger to him. I wonder if it's my silence that makes me seem innocent and benevolent. Not that I ever minded giving that impression, but it occurred to me that people's faith in my potential may have been far too headstrong. Yes, I was a hero...but I wasn't perfect. I could only do so much.

And that's another major reason why I hated being the wildcard again. As much as I was flattered by my friends' respect...that wasn't exactly what I needed then and there.

I hugged my knees and breathed out steam.

_I just needed my friends......_

Thus, it was probably somewhat understandable that I bore a weak smile at so much the slightest sound of Beast Boy's presence.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

A green swordfish tapped on the front porthole. He 'waved' his snout ahead and continued pulling my pod.

"........." I narrowed my specked eyes. I crawled forward and placed my face against the porthole. I watched with interest as a mesh of rusted shadows appeared on the cold floor of the ocean.

A....'tower' of sorts rose beneath us. But it wasn't a solid structure. Rather, it looked like a bunch of hulking pieces of metal pressed together. And the closer Beast Boy dragged us, the more I saw bulkheads and bolts and metal plating and recognizable structures until I realized that the mesh was actually a handful of sunk battleships, cargo craft, and airplanes forming a huge conglomeration of postindustrial, aquatic waste.

And as alien-looking submarines and marine-life drawn 'carriages' swarmed around and to and fro from the huge 'tower', I soon realized....

_This is a Renzukka settlement......_

I blinked.

_Crafty little buggers......_

Beast Boy drew us in. Tiny underwater craft streamed past and around us the closer we got to the structure. Some of them were streamlined. Others look like they were built by broken, rusty shingles from a collapsed shed. A few water-breathing pilots glanced at me. And I saw for the first time—though Beast Boy and the other Titans were likely knowledgeable already—what a Renzukkan looked like. Approximately one fourth the height of a human being with crustaceous skin, fish eyes, nimble hands, and haunting grins.

_Or perhaps their jaws were just permanently that way...  
_  
I snapped out of it.

_Gotta stop looking confused. I'm Aqualad—er—Garth for crying out loud._

I took a breath, leaned back, and tried meditating. And I again realized how much I missed Myrkblade.

In the meantime, Beast Boy the fish brought us down and under an upside battleship hull jutting out from the main structure. What looked like a pocket of air loomed above us. And like a homing missile, the green changeling aimed for the spot and brought us up...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!

Tiny figures—startled—jumped and rushed back from a haphazard pool/entrance in the center of a lanternlit room of rusted steel. Vibrating throats warbled indistinct words back and forth from little person to little person as they all marveled at the small, black pod floating in a bobbing motion in the center of the water.

Just then, a swordfish hopped through the naked air and landed on the steel poolside in the form of a green elf. Beast Boy shook the water off him in a fashion similar to a dog. He took a deep breath of oxygen-air and glanced around.

Nearly two dozen pairs of fish eyes were set on him.

The changeling blushed. "Eheheheh.....knock knock."

"..............." the Renzukka stared.

"Ahem.....one second....," Beast Boy turned and pulled the pod to the metal surface. He pried at the hatch from the outside while the pod's occupant pushed from the inside. And soon---

THWOOOSH!!!

The hatch flew open.

PLOP!!!

I fell out awkwardly on the ground. I gritted my teeth in pain.

"Dude! Get up!!" Beast Boy hissed. He dragged me to my feet.

I stumbled dizzily.

"Play it cool, man!" the elf insisted. "Remember...you're not Noir, the landlubber spaz...you're Aqualad the badass...er....shark-killer or something!"

I shook my head, refocused my eyes, and noticed all the strange humanoids staring up at me as if for the first time.

_And maybe it was the first time for me._

_  
But not for Garth......_

I cleared my throat. I stood tall and strong. I stepped forward.

The Renzukka started to mutter and mumble in wondrous commotion at the sight of 'me'. A few walking along the perimeter and adjoining hallways of the room stopped in the middle of carting various sea junk around to pause and look at me.

I stood in front of them, still.

Silence.....

A Renzukkan or two made a sound....probably coughing.

I bit my lip. I raised my left foot and promptly kicked the shin of the green elf besides me.

Whap!

"Owie! Dude, what gives—oh right," he snapped out of it and whipped out his little sheet of scribblings. His jade eyes fluttered down the paper and eyed all of the strange, foreign words and sounds. "Uhm....h-here goes.....ahem.... Rowzzbkkrunzz e-e-eg zinZUKguuuuuuuuuuuuu.............. uuuuuu....... uhm....... uuu."

"..............," the Renzukka stared. Blinking.

I sweatdropped.

"Uhm...lemme try some more....," Beast Boy cleared his throat...flexed his vocal cords...and went it at like a dead cat. "Wurrkorrrazzkenbrukka s-s-szi enzborrakzuuuuuu zato!"

"................." Like the seafood aisle of a grocery store.

I glanced nervously at Beast Boy.

He scratched his head. "Gee...I don't understand. Why aren't they—" He suddenly blushed. "Ah....uhm....I-I was reading it upside down. Eheheheh."

I ran a hand over my face.

He spun the paper around. "Okay....let's try this again—"

I walked past him.

Beast Boy looked up, blinking.

I smiled pleasantly, knelt down less than two feet from the little people, and pointed at my specked eyes. I then pointed at the scar on my neck. I then mouthed 'Tram' and shrugged emphatically.

One of them leaned his head to the side and stepped forward. "Garthzza??"

I smiled and nodded.

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

The Renzukkan jumped up and down emphatically with a few bouts of gibberish coming out of his mouth and soon he was grabbing my left hand and leading me down a rusted, bent hallway with other, energetically curious Renzukka flanking us. I smiled and crouched in my walk to accommodate for the short one's grip.

Beast Boy stared dumbly and numbly at this. He eventually let out a sigh, pocketed the sheet of paper away, and uttered with a slight grin: "Well, that's one less thing for a wise actor like myself to teach him. Pantomime!"

Beast Boy cracked his knuckles and followed from behind.

I was lead by the anxious, odd, and....fairly pleasant creatures through metal walkways, over rusted gantries, and across inside-out hulls of downed wreckage. Throughout the course of the trek, Beast Boy and I glanced around and saw the walls and doors of human industry turning upside down and sideways. I soon came to realize that it didn't matter in what shape or position the ships and sunken vessels were placed together, so much as they created a hollow abode for these Renzukka people to occupy.

And as to its purpose....I deemed it to be something of mercantile nature. Like a trading port of sorts. Kiosks and 'bazaars' comprised of rough metal huts and tattered awnings lined the hallway, where chattering Renzukka negotiated product and barter. In a small enclosed cove of metal, three Renzukka 'smithies' huddled around tiny bulkheads which they were welding together and turning into submersibles. There were even whole families...males and females with children almost too tiny looking to be called 'sentient'; running around and making clicking noises that must have been the Renzukka equivlanet of giggles.

Quite the nifty civilization...

_Where in all of this was Tram??_

"It begs the question how Aquadude became a friend to all of these critters," Beast Boy mumbled to me. "But, I suppose he is the Dr. Doolittle of the underseas."

I glanced at Beast Boy curiously.

"You do know that he can telepathically communicate with marine life, r-right?" the green elf remarked.

I grimaced....sweatdropping.

"Eheheh....don't sweat it, dude. I'm sure we'll come up with an excuse for you being....um....brain dead. Didn't Robin say we could connect your throat scar to it and all?"

"Shhh!" I hissed.

"What?? Tired of my voice already??"

I nudged him and pointed straight ahead.

We had reached our destination....or so I judged by the Renzukka escort stopping at a tent-flapped metal crevice and pointing emphatically inward....hopping.

I nodded. I ducked under the short entrance, passed through the flap of leather, and stood (crouching) in a small metal room with curved walls. At the far desk sat a well-built Renzukka (still short of course) on a stool. He had on ridiculously bulky goggles and was busily applying sparking tools to a slab of metal that did Lord-knows-what.

I stood there silently for a while until Beast Boy stepped up and cleared his throat. "Ahem.....Mr. Tram??"

The sparking stopped. A humongous pair of fish eyes turned and blinked at us. A beat. Tram lowered his goggles and the fish eyes became smaller. He leaned his crustacean head to the side and droned: "Garthzza-ruzz??"

I simpered.

Silence.

Tram looked Beast Boy's way. "Mooorguuuu zenzezukken thrazzazuck??" He dropped his tools onto the desk and hopped down. He scurried over and looked up at me. Sniffing. Sniffing.

I raised my eyebrows.

Tram's eyes hardened in suspicion. "Venzikzkz?! Z-Z-Zuuuu rorzarorkenzzik vrenzuruuuuken Garthzza zlibenzaarg!"

"Oh!" Beast Boy jumped and scrambled for his sheet of paper. "My bad. I had something prepared for this part....ah, here we go. Ahem. Um.....Zuuuuuuu-click-click-click....uh....vroom vroom zaggle...zig....um......zug zug?"

Tram winced as if someone was drawing fingernails across chalkboard.

I was likewise disturbed.

"Er.....let's try this....zeeble vorgun zlabba...um...zlabba dabba doo??"

"Vrenzykk!!" Tram hissed as he swiped the sheet from Beast Boy's hand. He grumbled before holding the paper in front of his eyes and scanning the page. His crusty lips vibrated as he read the text mentally. A beat. He bent over laughing. "Vrg Vrg Vrg Vrg!!! Garthzza gorgobrazzg zu-u-u kaboom?!?!? Vrg Vrg Vrg!!!"

Beast Boy and I sweatdropped.

Tram crumpled the paper, dropped it, and glanced up at us with a shellfish smile. "Venzlakkak zizkz zu Atlantizzzz??"

Beast Boy brightened. "Um....yeah. Whatever you said, it had 'Atlantis' in it. So...um. Yes. Yes very much, please," the changeling nodded.

Tram cracked his knuckles. "Zenkukk ruzzaraazaa." He turned and signaled to a few other Renzukka. "Zekluck! Zekluck!! Venzurrak kli vazzak u-u-u!!"

"Hazzakli!!" a few responded.

"Zukzuk."

A nod.

Shrill whistles.

Then...

Over a dozen Renzukka rushed in under Tram's command and started gathering supplies.

"So....um....," Beast Boy scratched his head. "Do we follow the yellow-brick-gulf-stream?"

I shrugged.

"Zurrarak e-e-ekza," Tram casually walked to a far wall where a huge curtain of leather hung on the side. He gripped the cloth and held a finger up. "Vrakzaaklin vreezuuk kli!" He yanked at the cloth. The curtain fell free.

My specked eyes bugged.

Beast Boy nearly pratfalled. "You gotta be kidding me..."

Through a sheet of glass, we saw something docked to the side of the structure's conglomerated 'hull'. Something comprised of what looked like forty different pontoon boats tossed together and fitted with propeller blades.

And as we saw the grin of boyish pride on Tram's fishy face, both of us Titans knew....it was our ticket to Atlantis.

"They better have a first class on that thing....," Beast Boy said. A beat. He winced. "That _doesn't_ smell like shrimp!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile....

Back at Titans' Tower, Cyborg and Raven sat in the Main Room. The sun was rising and neither of the two Titans had gotten much sleep. Between alternating checkups on Aqualad's health and communicating with team Archimedes and Nautilus, they could only sit for sparse moments of rest and contemplation. After all, being a home-alone Titan during a big mission can be a restless thing.

But Cyborg busied himself with writing on his laptop. And in the meantime, Raven sat cross-legged besides the gradually brightening windows towards the Bay. She had a steaming cup of herbal tea and seemed almost to be.....'half meditating'.

It was a silent peace...save for the intermittent typing of Cyborg's titanium fingers.

And then....

"Who's turn is it next?" Cyborg mumbled.

"Mine...," Raven droned. A beat. She sipped from her tea and looked out gracefully upon the Bay.

Silence.

"I can go next instead if you like," Cyborg said.

"I'm fine, Cyborg. I'm just as concerned over Aqualad as you are."

Typing. Then....Cyborg smirked over at the girl. "Or maybe you can go check up on him from here on out. I bet you'd like that, too."

"..........," Raven glanced back over her shoulder. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you know. Don't act like you don't."

She shrugged numbly and turned back to the window. "You and I can alternate shifts, Cyborg."

"Boy is that taking a lot of will power!"

"Hardly. I can control my emotions."

"Then how come everytime Aqualad so much as shows his face, you and Starfire start going—"

"Sometimes even my own powers of repression cannot resist the responsiveness to sudden and startling stimuli," Raven textbookly said.

Cyborg's human eye blinked. "You're calling Aqualad a stimulus?"

"Yeah........," Raven said....and it wasn't until five seconds afterwards that she suddenly realized her utterance was coupled with a dreamy sigh. She cleared her throat and drew her hood over her head just in time to hide the red skin of her face from Cyborg's peripheral vision. "Ahem. It serves no purpose to explore this topic."

"Why not, Rae?" Cyborg leaned over his laptop, grinning. "Haven't you heard of teasing?"

"Yes, I have....," she turned and glared daggers at him from under the hood. "**You** do it all the time!"

"Heh...you got that right."

"Aqualad is a.....very noble hero. He thinks of his people first, and forces himself to live long days and nights alone and without contact from any of his own kind in order to get the task of defending Atlantis or the Hidden Valley done. The fact that he's trusting Robin, Noir, Starfire, and Beast Boy to act in his stead for the sake of this Junction says a lot...especially for an ocean dweller. He's sacrificing his defenses....lowering them so as to afford his own people a chance in as risky an endeavor as possible. For that alone, he is brave beyond words."

"And the point of all that is-----???"

"He's very admirable, I admit that," Raven nodded.

"And is admiration a no-no in the Book of Azar?" Cyborg asked.

"Hardly...."

"But what if it's not so much admiration as it is.....ohhhh....," Cyborg shrugged...then grinned: "A schoolgirl crush??"

"I assure you, Cyborg," Raven stared coldly at him. "There is no such thing as a 'schoolgirl crush' in the Book of Azar. Similarly, the Book of Azar contains little to no commentary on shoving a tea mug down an android African American's throat."

"Sounds a little bit like the definition of 'malice' to me."

"Sounds to me like you should start worrying about your epiglottis," Raven's eyes flamed.

"Sheesh! Fine! Miss Serious-Panties, I swear! Okay then, Raven....let's talk about something serious---though I'm inclined to believe that just about anything can be seriously funny. But anyways...this whole deal with Aqualad....I agree with you when you say it's admirable for him to trust in us so much and stuff, but I wonder exactly why he's so willing to do so? I mean....sure he and the Titans worked together successfully to put an end to Trident's plans way back when, but the fact of the matter is that Aqualad's an OCEANDWELLER....and it's—like—a cardinal sin for oceandwellers to deal with our kind so flippantly. But even if that's excusable, keep in mind that Aqualad's put the bulk of this mission on the shoulders of a perfect stranger amongst us...Noir. He's never met Noir before, and yet he's willing to believe that Noir will faithfully perform the role of mimicking him between now and the time that Robin and Starfire can drag the Idyllists into Atlantis. I mean...there's gotta be some serious desperation in Aqualad's decisions there. Something that he's not telling us, Rae."

"I'm inclined to believe that he's told us everything...," Raven shook her blue hooded head. "Just....he hasn't detailed the full extent of the situation at hand."

"How do you mean?"

Raven hovered and 'swiveled' about to face Cyborg in a lotus position by the window. "I think Aqualad's a lot like me."

"Snkkkt," Cyborg chuckled. "You're kidding, right?"

"I'm serious," she said. "We're similar insomuch as....we have a great weight on our shoulders. Something so heavy that it plays an integral role in everything around us."

Cyborg narrowed his human and red eye. "You think Aqualad.....has to control his emotions like you or something?"

"Not exactly his _emotions_," Raven said. "But something else. Something else that is in essence a huge piece of 'Aqualad'. It's something he's terrified of. And this situation with the Junction and the Senator Chasma person are only arousing his fear and struggle. I don't believe he's placed Noir and the others in charge because he's been dehydrated by the Expulsor machine...but rather because he doesn't feel he's capable of facing the threat at hand."

"How do you pick this all up??" Cyborg asked. A beat. He shook his head. "Wait...forget I ever asked that. That's practically rhetorical in your presence...."

Raven smirked ever so slightly.

"So...maybe I was wrong??" Cyborg thought aloud. "If what you say is true—and by heck it usually always is—then Aqualad may not be so much 'trusting' us as he is _using_ us?"

"Even if that was the case....," Raven spoke, "...depending on the severity of what he's been up against lately, who would we be to blame him?"

Cyborg scratched the human part of his head. "That's a shot in the dark if I ever heard one, Rae. Whatever Aqualad really wants from us, I can only hope the Titans deliver."

Raven nodded. "And I am faithful that we will. But first....we must extract more information from Aqualad."

"So that we can all be on the same page or whatnot, huh?"

"Yes."

"Something tells me that you'd be better at that than me," Cyborg spoke. "I'm not so tactful when it comes to getting delicate information form people."

"You can say that again," Raven uttered.

Cyborg frowned. "Har har har."

"I was expressing the truth."

"Yeah, I'm sure you were."

Raven floated down to her feet, ruffled her cloak, and headed towards the elevator doors on the far side of the Main Room. "I shall test my hypothesis. Something tells me that—by this point—Aqualad may be relaxed enough to cooperate."

"Gonna take advantage of him?" Cyborg suggested, with a wink to hint a double-entendre.

"I wish you would cut that out....," Raven grumbled. "I'm a Titan. I'm more mature than you give me credit for."

"Heheh. Raven, 'you' and 'mature' are inseparable things in my book. That's why I fear for Aqualad's life—and decency—by letting you go check up on him."

Raven reached the elevator. She turned around and pressed a button. Her violet eyes blinked at Cyborg across the way. "Or could it be that you're jealous?"

Cyborg blinked. "Jealous of what??"

SCHLUMP!!! The elevator doors closed.

Cyborg jumped up, fists clenched. "Jealous of what?!?! Augh!! Dammit, girl!! You're evil, Raven! You hear that?!?! Evil!!"

Silence.

Cyborg slumped back down to his chair and laptop with a sigh.

"I'm not jealous of anything....," he gumbled. He stared at his computer. A beat. "Well....save maybe George Lucas...." And he resumed typing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the T-Sub...somewhere underwater where the sunlight didn't reach....

It was triply dark inside the vehicle itself. The metal shutters outside of the cockpit 'bubbles' made sure of that. Only the dim, blinking lights of the computer consoles lit the interiors. It was rather haunting....and hypnotizing all the same.

Starfire yawned. She sat limply in the right cockpit. The hum of the remotely moving T-Sub under the many currents was starting to lull her to sleep. She rubbed her green eyes and forced herself off the cockpit chair with a groan. She crawled down on her hands and knees and traversed the tunnel towards the central cockpit.

After twenty seconds, she emerged in the central compartment. She looked up at the seat...blinking.

"......................," Nova'm lay still in the cushions. His mouth hung open. His light green eyes were shut closed and his red hair fluttered from the nearby vent of the sub's air conditioning.

"Hehehe.....," Starfire quietly grinned...looking at the stowaway with helpless admiration. "My ever-vigilant 'protector'," she mused.

A beat.

She opened a nearby compartment, pulled out a brown blanket, and draped it across his frame. He curled up in it and continued slumbering.

Starfire quietly closed the compartment, gazed at him a little more, and glanced down at the tunnel leading towards the front compartment.

A dim red glow came from the space.

".........." Starfire bent down and crawled through the 'tunnel'.

She emerged in the front cockpit.

Robin sat in the seat with his black-haired head facing away from her. His gloved hands ran over knobs and levers and various computer switches. The blinking lights and monitor glare bounced off of the inner curve of the metal shingles through the glass above and reflected off his white skin.

Starfire cupped her hands together and leaned over his shoulder. "What are you doing, Robin?"

"Last minute diagnostics on the T-Sub....," Robin said. He sighed in mixed exhaustion and exasperation. "It's about the only thing I can do on a ride this long." He slumped back in the chair. A beat. He swiveled to face her up close. "How're you doing, Star?"

"I am doing well," she smiled as she gently uttered. "Though....if I may be honest---"

"And you may."

"The triviality of this constant, claustrophobic submersion is rather.......irritating."

"Heh....I'm getting bored myself," Robin swiveled about, smiling. "I almost always get cabin fever."

Starfire gasped. She immediately planted her hand across the Boy Wonder's forehead...and then paused upon doing so. "But Robin...your forehead is nowhere in the least bit scorching!"

Robin chuckled. He gently took her wrist and removed it from his brow. "Just a figure of speech, Starfire. I'm not really sick or anything."

"...........oh. Typical Terran dramatizing?"

"Er....I suppose."

"Quite hard to understand. But nevertheless, I am glad that you are in good health."

"Yeah....uh.....me too....."

Silence.

"Um....did you want to sit down or something?" Robin gestured.

"But Robin, there is only one seat in this cockpit—"

The Boy Wonder graciously stood up and offered the girl the chair.

Starfire swallowed. "A-All right...."

She gently sat in the chair while he leaned back against the dashboard behind him, folding his arms.

She rested her hands in her lap.

He looked off into space.

It was cramped in there, and yet the two were keeping as much distance as possible.

Silence.....

"Robin?"

"Yes, Star?"

"May I ask something? And I do hope you are not prone to find it overbearing of me."

"Shoot."

Starfire charged a starbolt---

"N-No, I mean...go on and ask."

She extinguished it. "Very well," she took a breath. "Why did you choose for me to go along with you on this mission?"

"You mean, you and I as Team Nautilus?"

She nodded.

"Well.....," Robin scratched his chin and thought aloud, "I know that the people we're dealing with—Idyllists or Atlanteans or whatnot—they're gonna be a challenge to convince that we're on Aqualad's side. I'm a surface-dweller....born and raised on Terra Firma...and I just bet they're going to sniff that out immediately and not trust anything I have to say. Even if I have the pendant that Aqualad gave us."

"And that led to your motive for choosing my assistance?" Starfire inquired, leaning her head to the side.

"Sort of. You see, Star.....er.....how can I explain it.....?"

"Shoot," Starfire smiled...then giggled. "Hehehehe."

Robin smiled. A beat. "You're very......"

She stared at him. Her eyes green and glistening. "Yes?"

".........," he blinked beneath his mask. ".....believable."

Starfire raised a Tamaranian eyebrow. "Believable?"

"When you say things....people tend to believe them. You're kind, honest, innocent, dependable, and downright.....well...sweet."

"......," Starfire blushed. She cleared her throat and looked away. "So....for these.....erm....a-amiable qualities alone, you chose for me to come with you...."

"Correct..."

She stole a shy glance at him. "Just so that I could help you persuade the Idyllists in fighting for Aqualad's cause and escorting us from the Hidden Valley to Atlantis?"

"Yeah...um....," Robin scratched the back of his neck. "....I brought you along....for that purpose. That's pretty much it. In a nutshell, Star."

"I see.....then the nutshell dictates that my presence is merely for the best of the mission alone?"

"Oh...well...."

"Well what, Robin?"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Is there another reason why you brought me?"

"Starbolts," he spat.

Starfire went cross-eyed.

"Starbolts would be good against.....huge sea beasts that tried to eat us."

Silence.

Starfire let out a nervous giggle. "Hehehehe!"

Robin bore a wyrd face. "Um...."

"I am most sorry...it is just that....hehehehe....."

"What's so funny, Star?"

Her giggles cut off like a decapitated head and she murmured: "I am uncertain...."

Dead silence.

She glanced up at Robin. "I....would be honored to protect you, Robin."

Robin chuckled. "Star....I didn't ask for you to 'protect' me—"

"Yes you did!" she smirked. "Did you not just state that my ability to provide starbolts upon contact with an animalistic miscreant would be invaluable??"

"Yes, but—"

"But what, Robin?" Starfire remarked.

Robin hesitated.

The Tamaranian girl went out on a limb. "Robin....do not think that my desire to protect you is a sign of your weakness or something to that extent."

"I wasn't going to say—"

"Think of instead as retribution," she said.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Retribution?"

"The tit for the tatness," Starfire smirked. "Or as Beast Boy words it."

"More or less."

"You have done quite a lot to protect me in recent history, Robin," she said. "It would only be fitting of me to return the favor."

"Since when?"

"One example that happens upon my mind is my recent plight under the hypnosis of the Puppet King."

"Oh yeah...that....," Robin stammered.

Starfire smiled gently and hugged herself. "You were.....quite brave in seeking my release from his evil clutches."

"Yeah....uh....I s-suppose I was..."

"Even to the point that you deigned to apply your lips to min—"

"All in a day's work, okay Star???" Robin grinned nervously and held a thumb's up. "No problem. I got it done...and you were saved."

"But....surely it was of great worth to you to accomplish??" Starfire remarked. "After all, Terran males seem most....hesitant in such a field."

"Er....what are you talking about?"

"Your kind....you are so.....so paranoid of....of...."

Robin leaned forward. "Of what, Star?"

She bit her lip. "I am afraid to choose the wrong vernacular in attempting to explain it to you," she murmured. "I-I know—hehe—that my constant slipups in Earthling vocabulary is rather humourous....'cute' even...but I do not wish to slip now."

"Why's that?"

"Because....it feels too precious to me...."

Robin gulped. "Precious?"

"Yes....," she breathed. She stared at him. The white of his eyemask seemed greater all of the sudden. Like an ever expansive cloud of oblivion. It drew her in. She leaned forward. "The....subtle eccentricity of Human frailty and Tamaranian fervor....they combine to create quite the remarkable reaction...."

"I...um....h-haven't noticed any 'combining' in my lifetime..."

"Most certainly you have, Robin....," Starfire murmured. "Or else I would not be so bent on retribution..."

Robin was leaning forward. "R-Retribution....yeah....that....."

"Yes....," Starfire leaned forward. "That....."

And for a split second....alone in the dark sub...something silent and numb passed between the two. Like a bolt of lightning that blinded them and all they could sense was approaching....approaching body heat---

"KORY!! ROBIN!!" Nova'm leapt in between them.

"Waaugh!!" Robin fell back and banged his head against a hanging console. CLANG!!!

"EEEK!!" Starfire collapsed in the chair.

Nova'm stood, panting...shivering. "There's something wrong!! Something wrong with the T-Sub!! I can feel it!! Like something banging on the hull!!"

"Nnnghh....Nova'm....," Robin rubbed his disoriented head. "Could you just....ouch...hang on....." He winced as he felt a fresh welt on his cranium.

Nova'm gulped. "Aren't you guys listening?!?!"

"Nova'm!!" Starfire gasped. She leaned forward with a frown. "Would it not have been prudent to travail upon relating this startling revelation of yours.....erm.....two minutes from the present??"

Nova'm's green eyes narrowed in disgust. "What were you two doing anyways?"

"Get to the bottom of it," Robin grunted.

"I heard a noise! From outside!! There's something surrounding the T-Sub!"

"It's called the _Ocean_," Robin growled. "You should read a book sometime."

"Nuh uh! Something else! I-I'm scared!"

"Nova'm, I am certain that—Ackies!!"

Nova'm pounced on Starfire and clutched to her, shivering in fright.

"Awwww....," Starfire instantly switched her Tamaranian sympathy to him as she stroked his hair lovingly. "Do not be so full of fright. I am certain we are dealing with nothing of dire concern." A beat. She glanced across the cockpit.

Robin had a drooping look on his face.

"What??" the maternal Starfire chirped.

Robin sighed. "Nothing....," he spun about and flipped a switch on the sonar. He raised an eyebrow. "Funny...."

"Wh-Wh-What's funny?" Nova'm trembled.

"Unless the Sonar's messed up....there's something blocking the sound waves."

"Where?"

"Everywhere...."

**LURCH!!!!**

Starfire and Nova'm gasped as the T-Sub rocked back and forth.

Robin gritted his teeth and braced himself against the consoles.

"There it is!!!" Nova'm shivered. "Y-You guys should have been paying attention! Lucky me, I stowed away on the Love Boat!"

Starfire glanced at him funny. "What is this 'love boat' you speak of?"

"Hang on guys....I'm gonna check something out," Robin reached for the switch to the metal plates surrounding the window-bubbles to the cockpit.

Starfire gasped and grabbed the Boy Wonder's glove. "But Robin!! Aqualad desires us not to see where we are headed—"

"There's something obviously wrong with the T-Sub, Star," Robin said.

**LURCH!!!**

Everyone shook as the submersible rocked again.

Robin continued with emphasis: "I gotta get a look at what we're up against."

Starfire nodded, gulped, and hugged Nova'm to her chest.

"Okay now....," Robin flipped the switch.

WHUUUUUUUUUUUUR-CHTUNG!!

The metal shingles retracted....

And....

There was nothing but blackness outside.

Nova'm's lips parted. "Um.......did we just land in a closet?"

Starfire hugged _him_ this time. "Ooooh....I d-do not like the dark!!"

Nova'm wheezed for breath. "K-K-Kory...."

"We couldn't possibly be _that_ deep....," Robin remarked, his eyemask narrow. "The T-Sub isn't built for such depths. It could be night on this part of the world still. But I'd better check something."

"Check what??" Nova'm gasped.

Robin flipped a switch. "Floodlights.......on."

With a hum, the front lights of the T-Sub burned brightly. A spongy ground extended beyond the hull. The red, muscular ceiling of a cave stretched overhead. The ground met the top along a curved structure that looked conspicuously like the inside of two rows of huge, razor sharp teeth.

The three divers were silent.

"........."

".........."

".........."

"Wh-Where are we?" Starfire inquired breathily.

"Better to ask...," Robin gritted his teeth. "In _whom_ are we..."

"Daaah!! Please say that's not good!! That's not good!!" Nova'm twitched.

Starfire moaned.

"Shhhhhh!!" Robin hissed, his hands full of two freaked Tamaranians. "Just....calm down. We're safe as long as we don't do anything rash and I can think us up a way out of this....this.....whatever the Hell this is."

"Whale??"

"Sea serpent??"

"Whale _shark??_"

"Hyblorgranian cliffworm???"

"SHHHHH!!!!" Robin practically drooled. "No sudden moves.......no sudden sounds......"

"...........," Nova'm was silent.

"...........," Robin was silent.

"...........," Starfire sneezed. "AchOOO!!!!"

FLASH!!!!!!

A starbolt spontaneously exploded inside the cockpit.

Nova'm went flying against the inside of the bubble. CLANK!!!

Robin fell against the controls.

THWUMP!!!

The propellers started rotating faster.

_**GRRRRGGRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!**_

A huge, throaty voice groaned loudly around the submarine. The spongy 'floor' started to twitch and dance up and down. The teeth grinded against each other and the whole 'cave' shook as the humongous, questionable beast attempted to swallow all three heroes whole.

And it would have.....

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"


	122. Fear the Black Tempest part 3

**122. Fear the Black Tempest part 3**

With a hiss, a sliding door opened and the light from the hallway filtered quietly into the dim infirmary. Raven shuffled in, her cloak hanging over her shoulders like wilted flower petals. Her shaded eyes darted about the room.

"............"

Aqualad was not in the basin....he was not in the medical bed....he was not in the room.

Raven's eyes slowly, patiently searched about.

She noticed steam wafting in from an adjacent room. A low, red light glowed behind it.

Raven quietly walked over and passed through the thin frame. She was in the lavatory. One ninety-degree turn to the left and Raven was staring into the shower stall.

Aqualad—clad in swimming trunks and a soaked white shirt—sat on the tiled floor of the shower stall. He rested his hands on his knees and hug his dark head. The shower faucet was aimed hotly at him, drenching him from head to toe. Rivers and streams of water ran endlessly down his clothed limbs and puddle into the drain on the floor. He looked like some granite statute that belonged to a fountain. He must have been there for nearly an hour.

Raven made an effort to concentrate on the water more than Aqualad's skin. Once meditated, she fought back a flush and moved her lips: "Keeping dry?"

Slowly, Aqualad glanced up at her. His draping mat of wet hair was hung blackly over half his face. In an exhausted manner, he chuckled and shrugged into the stream pouring over him. "I'm helpless....I know..........I-I can't seem to get enough water. But....I-I feel a lot better than yesterday, if you're curious."

He reached a trembling hand up, gripped a handle on the side of the shower stall wall, and twisted.

The faucet lessoned to a trickle. It was quiet enough to talk in reason. The warm, red-reflecting steam remained.

"You don't have to do that on my account," Raven said.

"I could use a break, I suppose...," Aqualad sighed. He leaned back with his shoulders against the tile wall. "I may have gills...but even I come up for air every now and then."

Raven pulled her hood down and sat on a bench across from the stall. "So, you are feeling better?"

"Kinda sorta...."

"Do you have a more definite answer than that?" Raven asked. "Or am I to draw my own conclusion?"

"Well...can't you?" Aqualad remarked, glancing at her. "Beast Boy has told me in the past that you're empathic."

"And you're telepathic," Raven droned. "Small world."

"Yeah....small ocean," Aqualad smirked. "Tell me....am I healthy?"

Raven hesitated for a moment. Swallowing. "Yes....you're very......healthy."

Aqualad smirked. "It never fails...."

"What do you mean?"

"What, you think I've been blind?" Aqualad chuckled. "Every time I'm so much as in the same room as you and the alien girl, I can't help but think that you're not your true selves. It's like...I intimidate you or something."

"Ridiculous," Raven glared. "I do not know about Starfire...but I know for a fact that I'm very capable of controlling the things I say and do under pressure---"

Aqualad slowly, sensuously, drew his wet, black hair back from over his head and shook some of the drops of water loose so that they streamed down to his smooth chest beneath the soaked shirt.

Instantly, Raven blushed. She looked away, biting her lip.

Aqualad smiled. "Right....good control...."

"I did not come down here to be......provoked...," Raven mumbled.

Aqualad raised an eyebrow. "Provoked?"

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, Ms. Empath...I suppose I do," he hung his head again and sighed...resting his arms on his knees. "You and Cyborg—all the Titans for that matter—you've been very kind to me. And I know that I haven't done much to deserve it."

"Need I list the many ways you saved our necks during the underwater quest to stop Trident??" Raven inquired. "Or the manner in which your companion Tram repaired the T-Sub?"

"We were seeking the same goal...the same outcome...," Aqualad remarked. "I helped you for my own sake."

"I can understand that," Raven nodded. "Perhaps it would help you to think that—in assisting you on the eve of Atlantean Junction—the Titans are looking out for themselves too."

"Heheh," Aqualad shook his head. "How could that be?"

Raven stared. "You tell me."

"...............," the ocean dweller glanced at her with his dark eyes.

"...............," she kept staring.

"Ever the empath," he smirked. A beat. He breathily insisted: "Raven, there is nothing that you need to know that I haven't either told you or the rest of the Titans. There was an attempted execution on my life. Senator Chasma wishes to prevent my people—the Idyllists—from reuniting with Atlantis...."

"And an evil sorcerer by the name of Slizzath is regaining power," Raven added. "In what may be a supernatural-political conspiracy to threaten King Orin and the central structure of Atlantis itself."

"...........," Aqualad nodded. "Uh.....yeah....I told you that too. So you remember, good. But where are you going with this?"

"I think it's important to know where you are going with this, Aqualad," Raven said. She leaned forward. "Or better yet...where you were intending to go with this."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"I sense much...much fear in you."

"Fear??"

"Terrible...paralyzing fear....about everything that's going on. About what has brought you here."

"Pfft...I'm no coward!" Aqualad spat.

Raven blinked. "I did not say you were, Aqualad," she gently remarked.

The dark-eyed Atlantean bit his lips. He turned his gaze from her this time.

Silence.

Raven took a deep breath and said: "There's been one constant thing that all of us—the Titans—have marveled at since you arrived here. You have....trusted us so easily. True, you worked with us before. We discovered together how priceless our combined strengths can be. But that's no base for what's recently transpired, Aqualad. No ocean dweller puts his future's fate in the hands of my kind that easily...that quickly."

"I....I-I have reason to....," Aqualad awkwardly said.

"I'm sure you do," Raven said. Her violet eyes appeared glassy...cold...and strangely soft all the same. "A reason that you're hesitant to tell us."

"If I choose to be."

"Perhaps...but I'm sure you would find victory in this mission much more attainable if you were to share with us the nature of your concerns."

Aqualad sighed and closed his eyes. "I assure you...everything will work out. I just....I-I just need distractions to hold Chasma and his goons at bay until I'm better enough to face him and the Atlantean Senate on my own."

There was a hand on his shoulder.

He opened his eyes and traced the wrist to Raven's arm.

The girl knelt over him and stared into his eyes. Not once did she blush this time....

"Aqualad....if you trust the Titans....if you TRULY trust the Titans...it isn't enough for you to send us on blind missions to your homeland. You must also share with us the _truth_. Otherwise...nothing will become nothing. A victory is not a victory if we don't know what the potential defeat is at the same time."

"..........," Aqualad looked off. "I.....I can't tell you.....not right now......"

"Because of fear?" Raven asked.

"Because of guilt," he force himself to say. His jaw was clenched after that was uttered. He hugged himself against the wall of the shower stall.

"..............," Raven stood up. She took a firm breath. "Though I would have wished for your confession, I'm likewise glad that you related that to me just now. I'm here to help you, Aqualad. And if you're wondering, I'm not much of an expert on fear. But guilt.....guilt I can understand _completely_..."

He looked up at her, his lips slightly parted.

But the girl was already turned around. She placed the hood of her cloak over her head and shuffled out of the room.

"...............," Aqualad stared. He reached a weak hand up and turned the knob. The warm shower streaked down on him again. He hugged himself and hung his head while thoroughly drenched. A shuddering sigh filtered out of his soul...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"EEEEEP!!! We have become a morsel!! WE HAVE BECOME A MORSEL!!!"

"Starfire!! Stay calm!!" Robin barked. He gripped hard on the controls of the T-Sub and pushed the thrusters into full gear, struggling to pull the vehicle out from the swallowing throat of the mysterious beast. A gigantic tongue shook and quivered beneath the bouncing sub. The submersible rattled back and forth, its hull clanking against the wrap-around row of gigantic, pointed teeth.

"Nnnnnngh!!!" Nova'm trembled, clutching tightly to Starfire. "I don't like being a morsel!! Oh, please save us....please save us......erm....Kory, what's the name of our people's goddess again??"

"X'HAL!!!" Starfire shrieked as she and Nova'm tumbled over with a huge lurch of the monster's jaws. They collided with Robin at the controls.

THWUMP!!!

"Nngh!!" The Boy Wonder's gloves slipped loose of the controls.

The T-Sub slipped towards the esophagus.

"RAAUGH!!" Robin let out a warcry as he leapt up and grabbed the controls with an iron grip.

**LURCH!!!**

Nova'm and Starfire went sprawling the other way as the T-Sub got caught in the back of the creature's throat.

**Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!**

A deep moan shook through the vehicle, rattling the occupants' bones. Drool and saliva streamed in currents across the outer surface of the cockpit bubbles over their heads.

"Robin, I implore you!!!" Starfire quivered. "If there is a birdarang somehow fashioned for this exotic situation, do not hesitate in employing it!!"

"I've got a better solution!!" the caped hero shouted. He freed one hand and wrenched it over towards a communicator built into the vibrating dashboard.

-click!-

**Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!**

"AAAAIIIIEEEE!!!"

"Keep it down!! Both of you!!" Robin sweated. He leaned his masked face towards the communicator. "Cyborg...come in! Cyborg! Do you hear me?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Boo-ya!!! Feel that rocket grenade up your tailpipe?!? That's Cyborg's greetings card! HA!!!"

The android Titan sat before the big screen of the Main Room. He had a remote headset on and was busily playing Unreal Tournament on Xbox Live.

"Oh yeah!! Nobody's messing with me, dawg!! I'm the king...and this king's reign is full of lead rain!! HA!! Just try and---"his human eye bugged at his character's death on screen. "What?!?! Oh, I'm so gonna pawn your ass now, fruitcake!! Get your red butt over here!!"

Cyborg's built-in communicator started to chime.

"Uh uh...don't be taking my flag now!! I'll rocket launch your head to the rings of Saturn so fast, your mom will suffer an aneurism from long range!!"

The communicator chimed some more.

"What?? Aw Hell...brb guys...," Cyborg said. He switched the Xbox Live headset off and lifted his metal arm up, flipping open a compartment. "Hello, Robin. Can you be quick? This is kinda important---"

_"Cyborg!! What button initiates the sonic blaster?!?!"_

"Whoah! Take it easy, man. Can't you see I'm in the middle of a game—"

_"Dammit, Cyborg...tell me how to use the sonic blaster or as soon as I get back I'm taking you to Radio Shack!!"_

"Okay! Okay!! Jeez," Cyborg frowned. "It's the orange button underneath the three gray knobs."

"_What three gray knobs?!?!?!"_

"To the left of the auxiliary thruster control."

"_Has h-he informed you of the thing that goes 'zap'?!?!"_

"K-Kory, you're squishing me!!"

"Nova'm, get off my grebnaks!!"

"Oops! I'm s-sorry..........wait, your 'what'???"

"_Quiet the both of you!! Cyborg, are you SURE that'll do it?!?!"_

"You'll be good to blow, man," Cyborg said. A beat. "Um....I AM talking to Robin now...right?"

"_Over and out!!"_

"Aaaack!!"

"It is swallowing us—"

-click-

"...................," Cyborg blinked. He shrugged. "Who cares what they're doing. They're way outside international borders anyways. Now, where was I...." He grinned evilly and switched the headset back on. "All right!! I've got a frag with your punks' names on it!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This should do it!!" Robin swung his hand over and jabbed on the orange button.

Beep!!

Whurrrrrrrrr-CHTUNG!! A huge cannon emerged from the top of the craft's hull.

"Do pr-proceed upon firing it!!" Starfire trembled.

**LURCH!!!**

"Ackies!!" Nova'm tumbled again.

Robin gripped hard to a random joystick.

Whurrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The photon cannon swung about by one hundred and eighty degrees. It aimed point blanc at the huge, red uvula of the monster's throat.

A warbling sound wafted painfully upwards from the monster's vocal cords.

Robin fingered the trigger, teeth gritting. "Here's hoping the sonofabitch has a gag reflex."

-click!-

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!_

A loud blast of energy rocketed into the creature's throat.

**LURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

All three pilots gasped as the T-Sub was rocked back and forth inside the huge mouth and....

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Water rushed in as the jaws opened. The rows of sharp teeth parted and the T-Sub shot out into the bright, blue sea like a missile.

Bubbles rushed all around. The T-Sub spun a few times before drifting calmly backwards.

"........................," Robin, Starfire, and Nova'm panted. Their eyes were firmly planted on what swam before them. A huge eel of sorts. Pale, rubbery skin. A giant-scale model of a salamander's skull. The lizardy monster writhed about, coughed up painful air bubbles, and then shimmied down towards the ocean floor with a huge sweep of its kicking tail.

Silence....

Nova'm and Starfire stared at the exiting beast. ".......................................did we hurt it?"

Robin glared at them.

ZAP!!!!!

Something brightly flashed in impact against the hull of the ship. The T-Sub shook. Robin and the other two nearly tumbled again.

"What now?!?!" Nova'm cackled.

"You enjoying this yet, kid??" Robin growled. He stood up tall—leaning against the seat—and looked around. "If that wasn't the monster just then...then what—"

ZAP!!!!

Another flash.

The T-Sub shook.

There was a burn mark on the right side of the hull. Fresh.

Robin looked beyond that. And he gasped.

Three shapes were coming straight at the vehicle. And as they got closer, they turned out to be humanoid figures riding underwater cycles. Each figure gripped tightly to a spear with a free hand while steering with the other. On the approach, they let out bubbly war cries. The spears charged up. And...

ZAP!!!

Z-ZAP!!!

ZAAAP!!

They discharged...

Three shimmering bolts of destructive energy soared at the underwater craft.

Nova'm and Starfire sweatdropped.

"I don't suppose they're animal rights activists?"

"I do suppose you can shut up!!" Robin grunted.

"Brace yourselves!" Starfire shouted.

And they did....

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in a nondescript part of the Atlantic, a tiny cargo submarine chugged along through the waters. It was an unusual ship, constructed from what looked like a bunch of small dinghies welded together. However ugly, it swam at a remarkable speed and made good time....Atlantis bound.

Inside, dozens of small Renzukka merrily lined the interior like drunken dwarves in a mead hall. By lanternlight they chattered and minded the piloting instruments. They were all tradesmen, merchants, and deliverers. Nets hanging along the inner walls held in dozens upon dozens of crates and junk and odds and ends. A door in the rear led to an even thicker cargo hold.

The ship was passing off as a cargo vessel. Nothing more. The perfect thing for an ousted Idyllist Ambassador to ride covertly back into his destination.

Tram proudly piloted the ship from a tall stool placed goofily high in front of three portholes. He clung his crustaceous fingers to a makeshift wheel made out of a hubcap and pushed on screwdrivers and beer bottles that acted as gear shifts to the propellers. He looked back and winked a fish-eye at Beast Boy. "Venzrykk zu-u-u vlyn zug!!"

Beast Boy simpered. He turned back to face a Renzukkan cook who was just putting the finishing touches on two dishes which he happily held up for the changeling. Two piles of unscaled fish and raw mollusks. "Luzzuki zuki zugzenraak!" the cook grinned.

Beast Boy gulped, took the plates, and smiled as best as he could. "Th-Thanks....um....I'll be going now before I throw up on what I'm about to eat...."

The cook merely smiled and said: "Vrenzzak e-e-ezem gorg!!"

"Yeah.....," Beast Boy hobbled his way down the crowded, small interior. He nearly tripped over a Renzukka or two. They laughed merrily and tried to invite the changeling to sing to a melody or two with instruments that looked like.........shark livers. But the Titan politely refused as he hobbled on through the low door and entered the cargo bay.

Thwap!! He shut the door hard behind him.

I looked up from where I sat inside the thin corridor full of crates and materials.

"Yeesh....," Beast Boy exclaimed. He walked over, holding the plates up like a waitress. "I'm telling you...these guys are starting to creep the Hell out of me." He handed me a plate and scooted himself over into a corner. "I swear....they're pretty much Ewoks with all the fur shaved off."

I simpered. I looked at the food available....the parts that weren't moving.

"But...guess we can't complain, ya know? They're doing us a lot of good--not to mention Aqualad—by giving us this free ticket to Atlantis," he said. He picked through his plate and held up a small fish. "I can handle sardines." The fish twitched and thwapped Beast Boy in the nose with its tail. His face scrunched up. "Only...when they're kinda sorta dead." He looked my way. "You think we'll starve or something---" He stopped, blinking.

I finished slurping up a tentacle, burped, and looked his way curiously.

".............................," Beast Boy sighed. He placed his plate down. "Not all of us are that brave, man......or stupid."

I shrugged. I smiled and went after clam mussel.

He scratched the back of his neck and looked around. "What do you suppose they're shipping in all these boxes anyways? Dreamcasts?"

I smirked, having my fill.

"Man...," the changeling groaned. He hung his head towards the floor. "I feel like things have been nonstop since yesterday....s-since Aqualad stopped by." He glanced up at me with a genuine look "As soon as I saw the poor sap in the condition he was in, I couldn't think of anything but....but doing my best to help him, ya know?"

I nodded. I smiled slightly.

"Heh....it's freaky talking about Aqualad while you're standing there before me looking like the real deal."

I glanced down at my wetsuit. I shrugged.

"I guess....he's always been like a big brother to me," Beast Boy said. "N-Not that I want to make you jealous or anything."

I gave him a silly look.

"Well....I think you're cool, Noir," Beast Boy had a crooked smile. "I think you're really cool. Sorry if that sounds wyrd or something..."

I shook my head.

He sighed and scratched his neck again. "I.........I was never really nice to Aqualad. At least, not the first time we met. I was so big-headed and stuff...I kept trying to prove myself as better than him. There was a mission we were on—the Titans—and I thought I could show off all my shape-shifting powers. And—of course—Aqualad's a badass and stuff. I had no chance of looking better than him. Kinda the same story with you."

I rolled my specked eyes.

He giggled. "Hehehe...anyways. The cool thing is, Aqualad didn't care about who was best and stuff. He just wanted to get our mission done—and that meant keeping Trident from causing an ecological disaster and invading Atlantis. And once we worked together—guess what? I think he ended up liking me a little. Heh...I don't know why. I'm a pipsqueak compared to him."

I blew him a kiss.

"Oh put a sock in it."

I chuckled breathily.

"Girls don't dig the pipsqueak," Beast Boy folded his arms and grumbled. "Instead, they like angsty, tall, dark, and nimble guys with athletic bodies..........." His voice trailed off. He winced and barely glanced at me.

I whistled innocently.

"Ugh....," Beast Boy grunted. "I'm depressed now. Please stop eating like that so I can throw up for the both of us."

I smirked. I finished a bite or two before putting the plate down. I stood up, stretched, and let forth a relaxed sigh. A beat. My eyes trailed the cargo holds around us. I scratched my chin. I thinned my eyes...then brightened as I spotted something. I walked across the interior, reached in through some netting, and yanked out a golden harpoon.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! I spun it around into a pose. I looked it over...up close. I gripped the end of it like a swordhilt. I started twirling the weapon and parrying invisible blows and jabbing at transparent enemies.

Beast Boy watched.....amused. "Do you ever NOT train, dude?"

I smirked and continued trying out the weapon. I didn't have Myrkblade with me. I would have to make due with.....whatever Atlantean materials I could find. But only as an emergency.

_Garth isn't a swordsman......_

"Dude....you so look like a buccaneer right now or something," Beast Boy chuckled.

I gave him a look.

"Any others where you found that?"

I glanced around. I reached besides a crate, pulled out a miniature trident, and tossed it at the changeling.

He flinched...but caught it awkwardly. Blinking, he sighed with relief, and stumbled up to his feet. He tried twirling the weapon in a fashion identical to myself....but failed.

I merely smiled and held a hand up for him to pay attention.

He looked at me.

I slowly made a pose for him to emulate.

He did so...

I slowly twirled my harpoon with one hand.

He slowly, cautiously mimicked me.

I nodded. I held a finger up. I twirled, then ended with an upswing and a jab.

"Okay...can do...," Beast Boy summoned some courage and started the twirl---

I let out a shrill whistle.

"Ack!" Beast Boy lost his concentration, slipped in mid-jab, and dropped his trident.

CL-CLANK!!!!

Beast Boy's forehead sizzled.

I chuckled breathily.

He growled and pounced at me.

I tossed the harpoon off at the last second--

WHUMP!!!

"You dirty cheater!!" He tried to grab my neck and put me in a choke-hold. "Some big brother you are!!"

I smirked and pinned him down to the ground. I encased my right hand in murk.

"Okay....no murk rubs....NO MURK RUBS!!!!"

I gave him a smoking dutch rub. He squirmed all over.

"Aack!!! Hahahaha...KNOCK IT OFF!!!"

I didn't.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!

The T-Sub shook again.

A warning alarm went off and some of the lights inside started to flicker.

SWOOOOOSH!!!! The Atlanteans streaked by, riding their underwater bikes. As they arched around for a second approach, their raised tridents started to glow brighter and brighter.

"They are attempting to give us the zap again!" Starfire cackled.

Nova'm gulped. "Shouldn't we....like....fight back or something?"

"No...that'd only make things worse," Robin breathed.

"Then what'll we do?!?!"

Robin clenched his fists.

The Atlanteans came charging the front of the T-Sub. The tridents became three glowing orbs, shimmering through the murkiness of the deep.

And it was then that Robin realize how dark it was there and then. His eyemask widened. He turned and looked at Aqualad's pendant on the dashboard.

It had stopped glowing. It now rested still and dull atop the autopilot mechanism.

"It is.......dead??" Starfire murmured.

"I don't think so," Robin shook his head. "In fact...I bet it can't wait to get a good view out the window."

"????" the two young Tamaranians seemed confused.

SWOOOOSH!!! The Atlanteans charged. Their tridents started to spark as they took aim....

GRIP!! Robin grabbed the pendant. He stood straight up and held the golden starfish against the glass.

Suddenly...the starfish exploded with light.

FLASH!!!

Starfire and Nova'm covered their green eyes momentarily.

Robin squinted and kept holding the pendant up.

Bubbles arose in the middle of the water as the three biking Atlanteans came to a stop. They seemed to 'gasp' underwater. They regarded the pendant with shock and marvel as its gold aura refracted through the bubble of the cockpit and reflected off of their figures.

Gradually....one by one....their tridents stopped glowing. The threat was over.

Robin took a deep breath. Not once did he lower the pulsing item in his hand.

"I don't get it....," Nova'm muttered. "Why aren't they pulverizing us?"

"And for what reason is the pendant glowing so magnificently?" Starfire asked. She hovered up and besides Robin's shoulder.

Robin pointed down through the bubble with a free hand. "Because it's home....."

Starfire looked. She saw for the first time beyond a downward slope in the ocean's floor a beautiful assortment of buildings carved into coral with lit windows and spiraling towers and accommodations of all shapes. Between the buildings, humanoid figures swam or rode bubbling bikes in a spirit of hustle-and-bustle business.

A pure, underwater community. And as Starfire squinted her green eyes, she could see similar settlements scattered abroad across the flat, oceanic plain. And they numbered in the hundreds.

"The Hidden Valley....," she murmured.

Nova'm took a peek, his jaw dropping.

Robin watched as one biker—presumably a guard—rode over till he was within arm's reach of the T-Sub. With a firm face, he glared at Robin and then motioned for the Boy Wonder to follow. All three bikers holstered their tridents and cruised downwards towards a large settlement in the center of the valley.

"Well then....," Robin smiled slightly as he sat down into the cockpit and grabbed the controls. "Let's see if the Idyllists live up to their names."

Nova'm gulped: "After that welcome....I'm not so sure."

".........."

The T-Sub chugged along through the water towards the cluster of buildings.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So....I'm thinking that Atlantis has gotta be really old fashioned," Beast Boy gestured. "I mean...they've got a king for crying out loud. I know Orin is Aquaman and stuff...but to live under the absolute rule of a monarch is only asking for trouble, I don't care WHAT ocean you crawled out of!"

I nodded. We sat across from each other in the thin corridor of the cargo hold. Our backs to the crates.

"I mean....I'm only assuming it's an absolute rule. I know Aqualad talked about a Senate and stuff, but that could always be for show...you know? Maybe Orin _thinks_ he's making a democracy, but in fact he's only trying to create a bluff to distract the people so he can continue....um....iron fisting."

I smirked.

"Okay...so....," Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck. "...I give in. I don't really know anything. But I guess that's what frightens me. We're going into a dark, dark rabbit hole here and Aqualad's expecting us to half-ass forth a charade as him until Robin and Starfire get here? He better be right about how important his ambassador presence is...or else this is gonna be a long, seasick trip for nothing."

I casually looked at my left hand. I made sure the fake skin still blended seamlessly in with the non-metal part of me. Nothing seemed disturbed. I sighed.

"Of course you know, Noir...."

I looked up at him.

He smiled gently. "I'm with you in this. You shouldn't have to feel pressured. Even when or if you're doing covert stuff, I'll just hang out in a pocket as a lizard or something and we can work on the mission together."

I thought of a green parrot. The fair face of Ms. Cartwright flashed before my eyes. I winced.

Beast Boy's face sank. "What??"

Suddenly, the door flew open.

A Renzukkan rushed in, hopping; "Zykzykalorenz zakka vik!!"

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "Sprechen sie what the hell??"

The Renzukkan bore a fishy smile. "Atlantizzz!!"

The changeling brightened. "Dude! About time!"

The little person ran out.

Beast Boy and I hopped to our feet and followed him down into the front of the awkward ship.

On either side of us, huddled Renzukka looked out of portholes and murmured in excited gibberish. Tram leaned back casually in his chair as we arrived. He glanced back at us with his bulbous eyes and pointed a twig-like finger out the front porthole. "Kuzazorenz zu-u-u-u blenzaaavagraat!"

"Yeah, you and me both, pal," Beast Boy muttered. "Now lemme see." He leaned in and peered through the window.

I too got a good view. My specked eyes widened slightly.

Before us—beyond a stream of criss-crossing submersibles—was a huge, glass dome covering a majestic city of towering buildings of various shades of cyan, blue, and gray. Inside the dome, huge fountains of water stretched impossibly high in the air like solid bodies of tubing, rippling and quivering in aquatic glory. There were lights shimmering all around, creating an artificial 'daylight' inside the submerged urban environment. Smaller glass domes surrounding the city were clustered with huge, Atlantean submarines. Sleek and beautiful. I saw large crowds of people of all shapes and sizes swim between submarines and domes and other structures. And I wondered if Atlantis was always this busy....or if in fact—because of the political Junction in the next few days—the entire world's oceans-full of civilizations were gathering at this very spot as I breathed.

"Snazzy....," Beast said. He smiled at me. "Can anyone say....'Zanarkand'?"

I gave him a wyrd look.

"Vyku....," a random Renzukkan muttered. "Bendykdyk zorruruzik."

"Zaki??" Tram uttered. He looked out a nearby porthole. He suddenly sighed: "Zu-u-u-uy...."

"??????" Beast Boy and I glanced out.

I squinted my eyes.

A lone, small submarine of Atlantean design was streaming our way. It was dark with shaded windshields. Red lights blinked on the front frame.

"If I didn't know better.....," Beast Boy gulped. "...I'd say it looks like a squad car!"

I glanced at him. I glanced back out the porthole.

_More like a customs officer......_

The submarine slowly chugged to a stop above us, beyond view.

"Zaklakkan vrezorrak....," a little one uttered.

Everyong glanced up.

So did the two of us Titans.

We noticed the boarding hatch at the top of the craft. The same way we entered. There was a loud THUD!! and the whole ship shook from the top hatch down to the floor.

Beast Boy and I stood on wobbly knees as the shaking stop. Then metal scraping sounds could be heard through the hatch.

"Zeyorraganzziut!" Tram barked.

I gritted my teeth.

_We were being boarded......_

"Dude...I'm not kosher with this at all," Beast Boy gulped.

Tram spun around in his seat and waved at us. "Zakal! Zakal!!"

The other Renzukka crewmembers started tugging at our limbs and urging us to the back of the craft.

I grabbed Beast Boy by the shoulder and swiftly yanked him back with me as I rushed into the cargo hold.

"Ackies!!"

I closed the door shut behind us and motioned for him to find a place to hide.

"Dude....but where?!"

I squished my two hands together for emphasis, then pointed at the crates again.

"Oh....heheh...guess I could blend in." Beast Boy simpered. He shrunk down to the floor and became a chameleon. On scurrying lizard paws, he zipped up over a box and hid inside a metal crack.

I....on the other hand.....would find it next to impossible to hide in a crate. So I stood by the door and peered through the thin crack between the frame so that I could have a look in on what was going on in the front of the ship.

As I squinted, I could see the Renzukka parting to form a distant circle around the hatch. Tram stood at ready with his back to the seat. He seemed to be prepared to face whatever came out of that passage way first.

Clank! Clank! CLANK—CREEEAK!!!

The hatch opened.

A tall, well-built humanoid dropped down...followed by a second. Both Atlantean men seemed to be armed with miniature tridents. These tridents sparked threateningly...like high-powered tasers. The two looked around with firm expressions till their eyes set on Tram—who they rightfully assumed was the pilot. The first stepped up and uttered to him.

"You there!!"

"Zykall zree?"

"Can you speak Atlantean basic?"

"Zakla rorunzig threezag ruzuk e-e-ezak."

The other Atlantean craned his neck. "He understands basic, he just can't speak it."

"Ugh....," the first one ran a hand over his face. "Poseidon, how I hate having to listen to these little lobsters' gibberish." He stood up straight and glared down at Tram. "Ahem. Listen to me, little one, and do listen straight. By order of Senator Chasma and the voting party of the Transportation Council, all entering cargo and transport ships must be subject to an immediate customs search. Being that we are in the midst of a thick, political atmosphere...it is important that all submersibles and passengers follow a strict screening."

Tram looked perplexed. He leaned his head to the side and uttered: "Gazykk?? Zenzorak zi-i-i-i vakazukzu ze Orinz zlakka??"

"Look...I don't want any arguments," the first Atlantean frowned. He palmed his trident and uttered: "This is a decree by the council. Certainly King Orin would have approved of it. It doesn't matter if it's breaking normalcy!"

Tram's eyes went firm. "Zeklykzak venverorraz klazavazyk!"

"NO, I'm not going to radio in the Transportation Council!! What I told you is what I told you!! There's no need to bother the Council Authorities with King Orin's statements at this time, and I'm not going to let a sniveling piece of shell fungus like you tell me different!!"

The Renzukka grumbled all around them.

Tram folded his arms.

The second Atlantean smirked. "He's quite the precocious little bugger, isn't he?"

"Yes," the first turned and nodded at him. "I think he's missing a few lessons on respect...." That said, the Atlantean spun around and kicked Tram hard across the face. THWACK!!

"Znnnkk!" Tram fell back with a grunt.

I gritted my teeth.

Renzukka gasped and rushed to him.

ZAP!!!!

The Atlanteans' tridents sparked.

"Nobody move!!!"

The little people cowered and drew back.

The one who kicked Tram grinned. "Now we're going to search your ship whether you like it or not. But....if you were to ask me, you pieces of hermit crab droppings have no real business in Atlantis anyways. Good luck achieving anything at the Junction. Heheheheh....our civilization really doesn't need more....'appetizers'."

The other laughed.

Tram looked up, rubbing his shell of a jaw.

"Heheheh," the leader turned around, smiling. "I'll check the cargo hold—"

WHAM!!!!

He flew back from my fist and slid across the floor, groaning in pain.

The other gasped. He raised his sparking trident. "Allright!! Who goes there---" His eyes went wide and he gasped.

I marched firmly towards him, glaring.

"P-P-Prince Garth....," the Atlantean guard stammered. "You're....y-you're alive!!"

I narrowed my specked eyes.

_Prince?? Now that's a new detail._

But no time for that now......

GRIP!!!!!

The cowering man was powerless as I brought my hand around his throat and harshly shoved him against the wall of the interior.

He gasped. "I-I'm sorry!! I-I-I'm so sorry, my lord! In whatever way I have offended you, I offer my deepest apologies!!"

I grimaced in anger.

_How could be so dense??_

I glanced down and noticed Tram getting up, rubbing his aching joints.

I fiercely grabbed the man and forced him to face the Renzukkan pilot.

The guard gulped. He uttered: "I ask you for your forgiveness of our mean and cruel actions..." He took a shuddering breath. "Any friends of the Idyllist ambassador are surely innocent and granted passage to the city of Atlantis."

I smirked.

The other guard got up, groaning. He rubbed his chin and glanced at me. His eyes narrowed.

"Lord Garth....y-your throat...."

I looked his way. I looked down.

Tram blinked. He cleared his throat, shrugged, and casually uttered: "Zuuklaa-aakan vrazzyk e-e-eklenzorraganzraat."

The guard I was holding gasped. "What's this?!?! A murder attempt??"

I let go of him with a shove.

He shyly turned around and faced me with a half bow. "I am deeply distressed to hear of this, my lord."

The other guard murmured: "And what miscreants would have done that to your throat??"

I glared at him.

He backed off like he had been wounded.

_Okay......I think I got the 'pissed prince part done right'......_

I looked at Tram. I gestured something....anything.

Tram pretended that he 'understood'. He nodded. He faced the two men and spoke: "Zaaklakkan venzraaksi claatazuk."

The guard I punched scratched his head. "Well...by all means, this is something to bring to the Senate."

"We understand now why you employed your Renzukkan friends for transport," the other nodded. "You must make your return covertly."

I blinked.

_These must be pure underlings of Senator Chasma. Either he hasn't informed them of his personal attempt on Garth's life, or it wasn't Senator Chasma at all._

But......whatever it takes to get out of these morons' hair......

"Do you desire an escort into the City, my lord?"

I shook my head.

"Very well...we wish you luck on your journey. Be careful on your way to the Embassy, Lord Garth. If whoever tried to end your life is here...then who knows how great their presence—and awareness—may be."

I nodded.

_Heh......indeed......_

"Zykal vree!" Tram pointed and shook his head. "Cacklazzyk vruunanak clun!"

"We will keep this meeting a secret," one guard said. He gulped and his face turned read as he simpered: "I assume you shall do the same??"

I smirked at the loser and nodded.

"Whew..."

"Let's move," the other said.

They both shimmied up the hatch.

I sealed it shut behind them.

A beat.

The submersible shook as their craft detached from us and throttled off.

And that's when all the Renzukka cheered.

"Vree!! Vree!! Vree!! Zazukaaaa!!!"

I smirked as they all gathered and danced around me.

I glanced at Tram.

He gave me a fishy thumb's up.

I returned the gesture.

The door in the back creaked open as Beast Boy sauntered out. "Whew man...that was close. Too close."

I shrugged.

He scooted through the happy Renzukka and put a hand on my shoulder. "Dude....I so wouldn't want to be a member of the paparazzi if you're the new prince in town."

A funny thought struck my head. I chuckled breathily.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "What??"

I managed to gesture something. But he couldn't understand.

"Whatever...dude. Tram, let's get this bucket of bolts to Atlantis already."

"Vryk-zan!!" Tram saluted and hopped into the cockpit seat.

I continued chuckling. Shaking my head at myself.

_Artist formally known as Noir......_

I let out a crazy sigh and slumped to the ground with my tired back against the wall.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the two guards' submarine....

The Renzukka ship got smaller and smaller as it chugged away towards Atlantis.

The guard at the controls of the ship let out a whistle. "Man....we almost had our necks scaled there. Damn....it's tough what happened to Garth, isn't it?"

"Tell me about it," the second in co-pilot's seat nodded. "What do you think this means for the Junction?"

The driver shrugged and flipped a few switches. "I don't know. I only hope Garth does the right thing and warns the Senate. Otherwise, I'd be tempted to go tell the authorities myself. But so much for that. We made a vow, right?"

There was no response.

"Hey....you listening??" the pilot looked over. His eyes widened.

The other guard's body was twitching. His mouth hung open. His eyes wide. Something was poking out through his chest. It looked like a white sword. Only...the whiteness was like steam.

"Holy Poseidon....," the pilot murmured.

RIIIIIIIP!!!!!!!

The 'sword' slashed up through the chest of the guard and came out the shoulder. Warm, red blood sprayed out and stained the windshield.

"AAAAAAAH!!!!!" the pilot shrunk back in his seat and howled in terror. "AAAAAAA-AAAAH!!!!"

The bloody carcass of his former colleague slumped over. The white sword hovered in the air. And as the terrified guard's eyes followed it, he realized that it belonged to an 'arm' of a human figure shaped entirely by white steam. The figure lunged forth and grabbed the guard's throat with whispy hands. A face materialized into flesh and blood. A devilish grin took up the guard's vision.

"And you know what the funny thing is??" Miist giggled. "I'm still thirsty....unless of course, you'd do me and my master a favor and share everything you saw on that ship just a moment ago....."

The guard trembled. With a quivering lip, he nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Sub broke the water's surface inside the old hangar bay of the Hidden Valley building. The front cockpit bubble peeled open. Starfire and Nova'm flew out while Robin hopped onto the metal deck surrounding the pool. The building was carved into an ancient coral formation and the floor and walls of the inside looked like smooth marble. Electric lights were nestled in curved grooves in the wall at each four corners, reflecting off of the pool's waters in a kaleidoscopic fashion.

Three loud splashes.

The Boy Wonder and the two Tamaranians looked over as the three biker guards surfaced. They tethered their vehicles and hopped onto the deck. Dripping, they walked over towards the youngsters. The guard in front gestured with a frowning face. "Let me see the pendant, surface-dweller."

Robin held the glowing starfish up for the three to see.

The two guards in the rear murmured. The front one reached for it.

Robin held it away from him. "It was entrusted to us...," he said, eyemask thinning.

"By who?" the guard glared.

"He goes by the name of Aqualad," Robin said. "He is the ambassador of the Idyllists."

Gasps. From the guards as well as all around.

Nova'm looked around, suddenly realizing that a crowed of curious Atlanteans had gathered inside the cargo bay and were looking at the three strangers in wonder. At the sound of the 'ambassador', they seemed filled with concern and dread.

"You speak of Prince Garth...," the guard uttered. "...but no word has been heard of him in two days."

"I can imagine why," Robin nodded. He firmly added: "He was sent to the surface-world against his will."

"What???"

"Propelled through an Expulsor."

More gasps.

"Are you trying to say....," the guard leaned his head to the side, "...that there's been foul play at Atlantis?"

"Not only that, but Aquala---Garth is alive," Robin said. "He sent us on an important mission for him...for he is presently too weak and dehydrated from his experience to bear this burden by himself."

"What burden?"

"Before I go on, I must speak to an authority here," Robin said. "For the sake of the Idyllist ...

"You are surface dwellers," the guard spoke. "We found you nearly choking one of the native leviathans to death. Why should we trust you?"

"Leviathans??" Nova'm blinked. "So is that what you call one of those maniacs that swallowed us—mmfmfmfmf!!" His mouth was covered by Starfire's hand.

Robin glared at him, then looked back up at the guard. "We did what we could to keep from being _eaten_." He emphasized. "Now...as to trusting us, you should have every reason to. Garth trusted us. More of 'us' than you see here. And all surface-dwellers too."

Silence.

The guard took a deep breath. "Follow me...," he said. He walked off towards a nearby pair of doors that lead into a grand, ivory-colored hallway.

Starfire leaned in towards Robin. "G-Garth??" she murmured.

Robin nodded. "Apparently. And a prince, no doubt."

"Heeeee," starfire cooed with hearts in her eyes. "Even better."

She floated off on a cloud.

Robin blinked under his eyemask.

Nova'm scratched his red head of hair. "What's her problem?"

"Kid....I wish you could tell me."

The three walked off together, following the guard....watched by many Atlantean eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Your honor...the surface dwellers from the rogue submersible. They claim to be on a mission sent by Prince Garth himself."

"Send them in..."

A huge pair of coral-carved doors yawned open. Starfire, Robin, and Nova'm were lead down a long hallway fitted with an elliptical table with over three dozen chairs for seated council members of the Idyllist colonies. On one side of the lengthy room was a wall plastered with hanging banners of Idyllist families. Opposite of that and on the other side of the table was a huge array of large, glass windows looking out upon the ocean floor. Submarines, underwater bikes, and swimming Atlanteans could be seen at random from the displays. As the three visitors approached, a tall, white-haired man stood from the far end of the chair. Scrolls and other manuscripts littered the tabletop, suggesting a last-minute review of political materials.

As Robin emerged at the head of his group of three, his eyemask narrowed.

The Boy Wonder saw the man's eyes. They were black with tiny white irises. Much like Aqualad's.

"You've come a long way, young strangers," the man uttered. The escorting guards stood protectively around him. The man's face was firm, with prominent cheekbones. He looked a bit more weathered and exasperated than he did suspicious. "Surely you would have expected nothing more than bitter resentment upon your arrival here."

"We don't even know where 'here' is, sir," Robin spoke. "We set our craft on autopilot and let its guidance system take us here blindly."

"Guidance system? How?"

"Through this...," Robin held up the golden starfish. It shimmered brightly.

The man's dark eyes narrowed. He reached a hand out for it.

Robin didn't move it this time.

The man held the pendant up. He murmured: "Garth....."

'Yes, sir," Robin nodded. "Your prince is alive. I am Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans. We fight for truth and justice among the world of the surface dwellers. On one occasion, toxic waste from a tanker sunk into the sea...and Trident—a villain of Atlantean notoriety—attempted to salvage the material for his own evil purposes. But with Aqualad's help, we were able to defeat the villain and quarantine what we could find of the waste. Since then, we have remained in relatively good terms with your prince. We're thankful for saving our necks way back when...and he's shown his thanks to us just recently, since he was near-death from his expulsion to dry land. He has given us fair warning about a possible conspiracy to pressure the Idyllists out of the Junction...and other hints of danger that would take a while to explain."

"So he is alive.......," the leader murmured.

"Yes, sir."

The man looked at Robin. "The name is Ivan, young man. Praetor Ivan."

"Ivan...Garth is undoubtedly gaining his health back as we speak," Robin spoke. "At the same time, we have sent one of my teammates—Noir—into Atlantis, posing as your prince. The plan is for Noir to steal the attention of the Senate and King Orin long enough for us to coordinate an effort on the part of your people to intercede on Garth's behalf and unlock a conspiracy that could undermine the future of the underwater world as everyone knows it."

"And just what threat are we talking about?" Ivan asked.

"Chasma...," Starfire spoke up. She hovered forward and clasped her hands together while gently emphasizing, "Senator Chasma. That was whom Garth claimed was responsible for his expulsion."

Robin glanced quietly at Robin...then at Ivan.

The Praetor stared at the girl. The firmness in his face seemed to melt away some...as if the gentle honesty of the alien girl broke the tension. "Chasma....I would not doubt much coming from him. There has to be a threat far greater than that."

Starfire nodded. "Yes, Praetor. Garth speaks with concern about an evil force emanating from a being named Slizzath."

The guards behind the leader shifted uncomfortably.

Ivan took a deep breath. There was something akin to a flicker in his eyes. "Slizzath......"

Starfire nodded.

Robin stared at the man.

Praetor Ivan took a deep breath. He placed the pendant on the table. He closed his eyes. "I......cannot help you..."

Robin's lips parted. Starfire blinked.

Ivan slowly turned around and walked towards the end of the room. He opened a door, walked through it, and closed it behind him.

Silence.

"But.....but......" Starfire murmured.

Robin's fists clenched.

Nova'm scratched his neck. "So....um....does this mean we swim all the way back home?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Zaa-aaclacan thru zezug vrakazyllenzorragz zu-u-u," Tram said as he stood with us before the side hatch.

I blinked. I looked at Beast Boy.

"Beats me, man," he handed me a cloak. "But if I were him, I'd be telling him the same thing I'm telling you."

"......."

"Gotta be inconspicuous, man!!" Beast Boy smirked. "Lookin' all Aqualadish...you're far too noticeable and princely and handsome to NOT be recognized on the streets of Atlantis. We gotta get to the embassy, right? Well let's get , dude."

I nodded. I donned on the cloak. There was a hood in the back.

Tram smiled. "Zuruukuk rororazzarick ryiz." He handed me a sheet of paper.

I took it from him with a slight bow. I opened it up. My specked eyes thinned.

It was a map...a very complex and chaotic one with Renzukkan scribbles all over it. But I could pretty much make out a red line leading from the docking bays (where we were) to the embassy (where we needed to go).

"Way cool, man," Beast Boy gave a thumb's up. "Next time I see you...hopefully I'll learn enough gibberish to say thanks. Until then..." Beast Boy held a hand out for Tram to give him a high-five.

Tram eyed the palm....shrugged...then leaned up and licked it with an amphibious tongue. SLUUUURP!!!!

Beast Boy tried to hide his grimace. "Okay.....g-guess I'm not eating with those fingers for a while."

"Vrg Vrg Vrg!!"

I smirked and turned towards the door.

"Hey!" Beast Boy whistled.

I glanced back at him.

"Alley-oop!!" Beast Boy jumped, turned into a squirrel in mid air, and perched on my shoulder. The green rodent whispered in my ear: "Let's get to foraging, black eyes."

I rolled my optics. With a grin, I pulled the hood over my head and hiding the changeling. I waved back at the Renzukka and marched on through the doorway....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We stepped out onto the courtyard. The width and breadth of the city yawned open before us. My mouth dropped as I looked up and up....careful to not drop the hood covering my head. I knew that at any moment...at any second...the slightest unveiling of my cloak and everyone around me would likely drop dead in shock at the 'returning prince'.

A furry Beast Boy crawled forward parallel to my chin and looked out. Together we eyed tall, opal skyscrapers. Arching tendrils of solid water. Bridges with fountains and hanging gardens. A huge, urban spectacle of beauty...and beyond it—above the huge dome sky—was the flickering atmosphere of pure, uninterrupted ocean.

"Whew....," Beast Boy whistled. "Sure kicks Seaworld's ass."

I nodded.

All around us, crowds of excited, politically-charged people wandered the streets and courtyards. Families on pilgrimages from afar were there to see the unification of an underwater globe. Religious groups and secular institutions alike had gathered. Atlanteans, Idyllists, Renzukka, and other. This was the eve of something great and grand.

And I was playing a central role in....all of it.

_Nothing to stress over......right?_

I sighed.

"You okay, dude?" the green squirrel breathed into my ear. It tickled.

I chuckled breathily.

A citizen walking by me glared with suspicion.

I cleared my throat, adjusted the hood firmly over my head, and marched off where the map would lead me.

"That's right...less hyperventilating and more walking."

I couldn't agree more.

And yet...as we progressed...we were completely ignorant of a body of white steam perched on an overhang above us. After seeing what he had waited for, the stranger bolted off in a streak of frothy, ivory air.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a huge, spiraling chamber...elaborate seats lined the many floors like layers to a bee hive. Every five seats had a special chamber that was separated by gold bards and synthetic mockups of coral formations. But all of it was ornate and richly constructed.

No expense was spared in the architecture of the Senate room.

Over eighty-percent of the delegates were present, and all had their Atlantean ears tuned in to one who stood near the top of the spiral...facing the center podium far below.

Senator Chasma....

"I insist—dear sons and daughters of Atlantis—that now is not a time for mourning. The tragic disappearance of Prince Garth is untimely. But to let it constitute as a setback in this time of great unification would be the truest tragedy. We owe it to the people...we owe it to our great and mighty King—who has done so much during his rule to invite peace onto our lands—we owe it to all who have fought and died for this moment to come to fruition....we owe it to them all to pursue Junction at all costs. And as it is so...I propose we vote to accept new candidates for the Idyllist ambassador. For time is of the essence, my fellow Atlanteans. We cannot delay Junction. We cannot delay the future!!"

There was standing applause in response to the fervor of Chasma's speech. Most seemed in agreement. The others were simply swept up in the political passion. It was like a maddening renaissance. Pathos ruled supreme.

Chasma smiled. "And to continue on with today's proceedings, I gladly hand the chair over to the representative from Poseidonis...Princess Tula."

More applause.

Across the spiral....on a lower level...Princess Tula stood up from her seat besides her two fellow senators. While being applauded, she cast a distrusting glare up at Chasma. A glare that only the old man saw. Undaunted, she took a breath and spoke to the Senate.

During the speech, Chasma sat down besides his fellow delegates. He leaned his head on his hand and smiled gently to himself.

Behind his booth, a curtain opened and a messenger briskly walked in. He knelt besides the Senator's chair and whispered into his ear.

Chasma listened...his eyes tracing the corner of his vision. He grinned.

"Is he certain they're here??" he asked.

The messenger nodded and whispered something else.

A beat.

"Tell him go enact Phase Two...," Chasma said. A beat. He scratched his chin and thought aloud: "And if they're here...then the other Titans must be at the Hidden Valley by now." His brow furrowed. He leaned in to the messenger. "And while Miist performs his duties....send Fryte to the land of the Idyllists. He'll have some.......test subjects there."

A beat.

"You may go," the Senator said with some indignity.

The messenger nodded and quietly hurried off.

Chasma leaned forward, smiling wickedly. He eyed the majestic Tula in her mid-speech.

His lips moved. "So....princess....let's see what little faith is left in you now. Sooner or later....you too will become a child of the Black Tempest...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Zazzyk venderryk!" Tram uttered to the other Renzukka crewmen. He stepped up to the cockpit as the other little people rushed to their stations. They were preparing to pull out of dock. "Vazzyk cattarorizarak."

"Vrygyt!"

"Vrygyt ziul vaza Tramzz."

Tram pulled at some controls and flipped a few switches. "Zattarag venzorarak." He looked over and pointed at an open hatch. "Kazzaklik zu-u-u klizaak! Zaz! Zaz!" He barked.

"Vrenzyk," a Renzukkan handyman nodded. He marched over to the hatch to push it closed. But just as his fishy hand reached the frame---

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Steam exploded into the tiny ship.

"ZZZAAZZ!!!" the Renzukka cried out in shock and pain as a human figure in the shame of white gas flew amongst them, banging their hard skulls into bulkheads and producing blood.

"!!!!!" Tram gasped, his fish-eyes gleaming in horror.

The steam spiraled into a pillar....then morphed out with legs and arms. Flesh and blood appeared, and soon Miist stood before the little person. He grinned like a devil while six foreboding Atlanteans filed into the small ship, clad in black robes and shawls.

"Z-Z-Zenkerorz...," Tram stammered.

Miist teleported over towards him in a puff of white and grabbed him by the collar. He lifted the flailing Renzukkan up off the cockpit. The young fiend licked his lips and stared the fish-person in the face. "It's gonna be so....so delicious sucking those warm, squirmy guts of yours outside of that pathetic shell you call a body..." He held his left hand out and turned it into a blade of burning steam. "...but first, I need some help here. You see....I can zip back and forth across the Ocean as fast as I care or don't care to! But these friends of mine...hehehehe...they need to carpool the Grand Pool of the Atlantic."

THWUMP!!!!

The villain dropped Tram to the floor. He aimed his foot at him, which turned into a steamy trident that glistened.

Tram trembled.

Miist's eyes narrowed. "Heheheh....you know what I want. Take us to the Tower...._Titan's Tower......"_


	123. Fear the Black Tempest part 4

**123. Fear the Black Tempest part 4**

The old iron door to a dank cell opened.

Fryte dangled...chained to the wall. He gasped at the sliver of lantern light crossing his figure. His eyes were round and twitching under a dangling mat of damp, black hair. His lips quivered and he hyperventilated: "N-No.....No....please.....I can't.....I won't...."

Darkly robed Atlanteans shuffled inside, numbering four. They gripped Fryte's limbs and disentangled him from the rusty shackles. They dragged his weakly struggling figure out into the main corridor of the dark cave.

"Please....don't make me do it...," he sobbed. "I can't stand to see their faces....I can't stand to see their faces!!"

The Atlanteans were silent. They trudged him past cell after cell of wrought iron doors. Through the barred windows, moans of anguish drifted outward. Water dripped from the craggy, uneven ceiling and formed puddles in the corners of the ground. Slugs and dirty crawfish scurried from the advancing feet. Soon, the robed figures dragged Fryte into the round room with the four slabs. The violet orb in the center shimmered brightly.

SLUMP!!!

They tossed Fryte onto the hard floor before the orb.

He sat up on trembling knees. His teeth chattered. He held up hands with raw wrists from the shackles and breathed: "Please.....P-Please, Slizzath....grant me death....at least it would ease other people's suffering....."

The orb fluctuated. The temperature in the room dropped suddenly. Wisps of breath visibly emanated from the hoods of the robed figures.

A sickening voice slithered through the air like worms on bone marrow. _"You are a child of the Black Tempest......your purpose is to serve me......death will not reward you until my bidding is done......"_

"I won't give in anymore....," Fryte bravely uttered. He gulped and breathed erratically. "I am not afraid of you, Slizzath...."

The voice let out a shrill laugh. Then whispered: _"Foolish boy....how can you possibly fear when you are fear itself?"_

FLASH!!!!

Purple tendrils shot out and absorbed themselves into Fryte's chest. His torso shot up and his head marched back in a howl of pain. Soon, his dark brown eyes were replaced with a violet flicker. His fists clenched. Slowly, he angled his head back to the invisible horizon. His jaw set tight. He gradually stood up on numb legs.

"_Go, my child......,"_ the orb spoke. _"Quelch the wretches who are doing the prince's bidding. Infinitesimal as they are, they still stand in the way of my eventual release. Nothing......absolutely nothing must stand up against the tide of the Black Tempest......"_

In zombie fashion, Fryte lethargically slurred: "Yes......My Lord......"

The robed figures watched on.

Fryte marched into the pool of water that lead out into the Sea. As he stepped into the liquid, a purple shield of light enveloped his figure. Protecting his lungs with black magic. Crabs, fish, and crawfish scurried out of his way. A few of the creatures were unfortunate enough to brush up against his purple limbs...and immediately they turned over, twitched, and died....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Say what?!?!"

"_I'm not kidding, Cyborg. It's annoying me to no end. After we came all this way to help out Aqualad's very own people, they turn out to be a bunch of prune-fingers with seas sponges up their—"_

"Ahem...," Raven cleared her throat. She looked across the Main Room from where she stood. "What exactly did they say?"

Cyborg glanced at her, then back at the computer station where he was sitting.

Robin's face displayed on the huge screen...staticky from the distance and oceanic interference.

"_He didn't say much of anything! Praetor Ivan just simply said that the Idyllists couldn't be of help to our cause, and he marched out of the meeting room. Kinda rude, if you ask me."_

"Kinda?" Cyborg smirked. "Robin...nobody can expect ocean-dwellers to be so happy to assist people like us."

"_Tell me something I don't know."_

"Aqualad is hiding something," Raven said.

"......_.???"_ Robin's eyemask raised.

Cyborg brought a hand over his face and sighed.

"_You don't say......"_

"I had a talk with him, and it confirmed my feelings," Raven droned. "There is something he is hesitant to tell us. Something he feels guilty for. And furthermore, it's something that deals heavily—if not directly—with the dual missions at hand."

"_You said he feels guilty??"_ Robin asked.

"I'm sure he feels a lot of things, Raven," Cyborg spoke. He suddenly smiled evilly. "Was his emotions ALL you felt the last time you checked up on him?"

ZAP!!!

"Daah!!" THWAP!

"......," Raven held out a magically charged hand. "Right. As I was going to say....yes, Aqualad seems to be dealing with a sense of guilt or shame. He wasn't very happy the last time I checked. I feel that there's a major reason for his Expulsion that points at more than just Senator Chasma's apparent villainy."

"_Because I swear......,"_ Robin spoke, _"Praetor Ivan looked very depressed and......I dunno......just plain 'down' when he walked out on us. I'm no empath, but I would say he seemed regretful too. I wonder if there's any connection with the eyes?"_

"The Eyes?" Cyborg asked, struggling back up into the chair.

"_They're the same type as Aqualad's. White irises on black cornea. No other Idyllists or Atlanteans that Starfire and I have seen so far possess the same type of eyes. It could be some sort of relation......"_

"Yo, I thought Aqualad didn't have any family," Cyborg said. "I thought he was a loner."

"He's the ambassador of a whole group of people," Raven shrugged. "Surely there is more for us to expect or not to expect."

"_Well, I'm not giving up. Not yet,"_ Robin said. _"I think we're in agreement when I say that Ivan is hiding something. I intend to persuade him towards his people's own good."_

"And what about Aqualad?" Cyborg asked.

"_How's he fairing?"_

"Ever gradually better," Raven said. "But where the flesh is willing this time, the spirit is weak."

"_See what you can do about that. In the meantime, check in every now and then on Team Archimedes. All eyes are on them......or at least, they shouldn't be......Robin out."_

-blip-

The screen fizzed out.

Cyborg sighed and swiveled around to face Raven. "Now you've done it. By now, even ROBIN is asking you to be 'counselor'."

Raven adjusted her robe and headed for the elevators. "Come on...we're going to have another meeting with Aqualad. This time together. Come."

Cyborg nodded and followed her along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Have you come to a decision?" Starfire inquired.

Across the guest room, Robin holstered his communicator and sighed. With a ruffle of his cape he turned about and gestured: "I have. We're going to bring this to Praetor Ivan."

"Again?" Starfire remarked. She clasped her hands together and leaned her head to the side. "But Robin, he seemed quite closed off from our proposals earlier. What makes you think he has the impulse to change now?"

"Then I'll give him an impulse," Robin grumbled as he sauntered across the room. A huge, curved window faced out towards the body of water that was the Hidden Valley. As typical, various submersibles and ocean-dwellers could be seen skirting about outside. "There is a real danger here for the entire culture of his people. Whether it be his nation or the Idolaters."

"Idyllists."

"Whatever," Robin wandered over to a sofa of sorts where his utility belt was draped over. He picked it up and attached it around his thin waist. "I eavesdropped on some of the guards in the corridors with my microphone half an hour ago. According to them, Praetor Ivan has hidden himself in his quarters and won't come out. Well, I'm not about to wait around while every justice-loving Atlantean on the frickin' planet sulks in some dark room, having a pity-party. If I don't contact Ivan and set things straight right this second, this mission is bust."

"I understand, Robin," Starfire nodded. "But...should you be successful in finding him—"

"And I will," Robin interjected.

".........," the Tamaranian continued: "I implore you not to use force of a malignant nature. In review of the political friction between the surface world and the ocean world of your planet, it would not be wise to incite panic or distrust."

"Hey...," Robin shrugged with a smile. "What's the worst I could do, Star?"

The Tamaranian girl bit her lip.

"........," Robin blinked behind his mask. He sighed. "Forget it. I"ll be careful."

There was a squishy....bouncing sound from the other side of the room.

"............." Both Titans glanced over.

Nova'm hopped on a plushy, vanilla-colored bed. "Hehehe!! Check it out!! I just KNEW that these people would have a waterbed! I just KNEW it!"

"................"

Nova'm came to a stop, sitting down. He blinked while his legs dangled. "What?"

Robin pointed with an exasperated look. "If you can, leash him."

Starfire blushed. "I-I'll see what I can do...," she smiled.

Nova'm pouted.

Robin turned, walked to the doors, opened them to the hallway outside, and---

ZZZZTT!!!!!

The Boy Wonder tilted his head back as two sparkling tridents were held up to his Adam's apple.

The guards outside frowned at the caped crusader. "Where do you think you're going, surface-dweller???"

"...............," Robin swallowed. "Um.....once around the park?"

"You must not leave your room," the guard firmly said. Glaring. "Not until Praetor Ivan bids you permission to exit our underwater domain."

Robin's jaw clenched. "And what if I want to have a word with your Praetor?"

"What of it??" the guard smirked.

SLAM!!!

The doors closed.

Silence.

Nova'm winced. "I guess the park's off limits...."

Robin spun around, his fists tight. He stormed past the water bed. "Did you have a love affair with Beast Boy while we weren't looking or something?"

"Hey?? What's that supposed to mean---"

Nova'm's exclamation was cut short when Starfire's hand rested on his shoulder.

The girl's eyes followed Robin. She uttered: "What are you travailing upon now??"

"Plan B," the Boy Wonder muttered. He approached the door to the lavatory in the rear. He pressed a console's button. The door slid open, revealing a small chamber with an even smaller (but identical) curved mirror like the one lining the 'bedroom'. Robin eyed the framing of the glass carefully. Water bubbled outside. The depths of the Ocean were very real just a half-meter away from where the viewer's nose resided. Robin then traced a glove along the edges of the frame. Next he looked over the huge basin, the sink, the floor, and finally the frame to the door he entered through. "Yup....all water type. These people live by the sea...and build by the sea."

Starfire and Nova'm wandered over and stood in the doorway.

"Um....any special reason besides the obvious reasons why everything here in this underwater city should be water type?" Nova'm asked.

"Mmmhmmm...," Robin nodded as he started drawing various instruments out of his utility belt: a strange mask, laser applicators, and red-colored cord. "Gotta make sure it can withstand a surge of liquid pressure."

"Why, whatever for, Robin?" Starfire asked.

"I'm gonna go for a little swim."

Starfire gasped. "But Robin, that is extremely dangerous!! Dangerous in so many degrees that one surely cannot begin to list them!! How do you plan to withstand the cold temperature and oxygen deprivation?!"

"I have tools and tricks of the trade, Star," Robin said. He started setting things up for his latest stunt. "And I plan to use them when I have to. And for the sake of Atlantis and all that Aqualad's people hold true and dear....I really have to."

"Then allow me to make the trip instead!" Starfire insisted. "Surely I can survived the peril of seeking an aquatic route to Praetor Ivan!"

"Yeah, man," Nova'm nodded. "You're only human."

The Boy Wonder merely smirked at that. "Thanks for reminding me....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Far away in Atlantis, a crew of two was quickly setting up their cargo ship in a docking bay for exit from the domed, underwater city. The two Atlanteans—alone in the facility—were walking along the hull of the ship besides the metal platform attached to the rest of the hangar.

"I still can't believe we've got to shove off at a time like this. I wish I could stick around here. See what all the hubbub is about."

"Me too," the other seaman nodded. "But I promised my wife I'd be back in the Western Trench in two days. It's the anniversary of our youngest daughter's birth...and you know how that is."

"Heheh....not even Neptune could prevent you from meeting that appointment," the first patted the other's back. "Let's get a move on, then. We're the last people to pull out of here and the shipping magistrate wants to close this place down for inspection prior to the Senate debates."

"Gotta love our lord Orin's security," the other said.

The two were unaware of a lonely, dark figure until he was marching up their hull like he owned it.

The first man stood up from what he was doing. Blinking. "Ahoy there....can we help you?"

The figure kept on walking.

"Um....sir? We're about to shove off. If you wanted us to make any deliveries, you should have given us a fortnight's notice."

The stranger approached. His dark head of hair hanging. His limbs loose at his side.

The second crewman walked over. "Who is this guy??"

"I dunno," the first frowned suspiciously. "But I don't like the feeling I'm getting..." He marched over to the stranger and gripped his shoulder. "Hey! Kid! Can't you hear us?!"

".......," slowly, Fryte raised his head. Dark brown eyes glared.....then flickered a darkly-magical violet. FLASH!!!!!!

"!!!!!" the crewman stepped back. His eyes went as wide as saucers and he stared at his hand as if something was wrong with it. "I.....I-I'm on fire!!! Oh Poseidon help me!! I'm melting!!! Aaaaah!!! Put it out!!! PUT IT OUT!!!!" He stumbled madly backwards, flinging his arms and screaming in agony.

"Juvall!!!" the other crewman rushed towards him. He spun around with fists clenched and charged the dark stranger. "What have you done to him?!?!"

Fryte glared at him. His eyes flickered violet.

FLASH!!!!

The partner stumbled. He gasped. He felt his chest. "I....I think.....I think I swallowed something...." He started hyperventilating. His eyes twitched and sweat ran down, streaming over his hidden gills. "Oh dear god....Havael...did she poison me?!?! Havael, I'm so sorry.....please....I don't want to die!!! Oh Neptune, I don't want to die!!!" He fell to his knees and clenched his stomach, bending over in a fetal position and sobbing. "Aaaaaugh!!! I can already feel them bursting out of my chest!!! The worms!!! The worms!!!! Oh Neptune!!! Aaaaaugh!!!"

Fryte didn't so much as glance at him. He walked into the open hatch under the noises of the two howls of terror. The young man ducked down inside it with as similar a slow pace as he had ascended the hull and closed the doorway behind him.

Once inside the submersible, Fryte's zombielike figure marched into the cockpit. He sat down, swiftly adjusted a few controls, and set course for the Hidden Valley.

"For the Black Tempest....," he stoically hissed. His eyes flickered a gasp of violet as he sunk the craft and left the terrorized bodies of the Atlanteans to dangle in the salt water by the docks.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay....why do I suddenly feel like a goldfish?" uttered the exhausted marmoset into my ear.

I let out a sigh and wearily looked straight ahead of me under the hood of my cloak. The huge dome that was Atlantis stretched tall and majestic above me. Tiers of walkways and bridges wrapped around towering spires of coral-like colors. Below that, Atlanteans gathered on balconies on buildingsides and engaged in a merry fanfare that marked the beginning of the Junction's celebration of....er.....Renaissance or something.

For all I knew......Atlanteans were this 'happy' everyday......

In the shadowed street that I strolled in, ocean-dwellers walked past and alongside me at different rates of hastiness, and scattered amongst them was the occasional Renzukkan or two.

I looked all about the street.

"............"

I looked at the sheet of paper in my grasp.

"............"

I made a face.

"Are you behind or what, dude?" Beast Boy uttered into my ear with small primate breath. "We've been lost for two hours. I don't think we're ANYWHERE on that map where the red line is drawn."

I groaned. I adjusted my cloak and made sure that the hood staid over my head. I didn't want to suddenly bump into someone, have the cloth fall, and reveal to everyone my 'Aqualad face'.

Not yet at least......

"I don't get it....," the green changeling—now a gerbil—uttered as he read the sheet over my shoulder. "It's like the directions to the embassy are asking us to tunnel under the streets or something!! How can Tram—or anyone—expect us to do that anyways?! There's gotta be some secret that we're missing here!!"

SPLOOSH!!!!

Beast Boy and I jumped. I looked over with blinking, specked eyes.

An Atlantean had just hopped out of....a pool in the ground. He casually walked—dripping—across the street and dove straight into a pool on the other side.

SPLASH!!!!

".................," we both blinked.

"Um......," Beast Boy droned. He craned his furry neck. His beady eyes squinted towards the pool that the Atlantean came through. He switched into hawk and focused his sharp, avian eyes. His beak moved: "No way.....it's.....a channel."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

The bird of prey under the hood looked at me. "And it follows the map to a dime!"

SPLOOSH!!!!

An Atlantean mother and child jumped out of the pool. They smiled pleasantly, held hands, and trotted off down the street.

"..............," we both sighed.

"Well....hopefully it's not a long channel. Heheheh....," Beast Boy turned into a snapping turtle.

I gave him a jealous glare. I walked towards the edge of the pool, looked around, made sure nobody noticed me, and took a gigantic, mammalian breath. The green turtle's jaws held the rim of my hood down as I filled my lungs and dove in.

-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLASH!!!!!

The world turned into an ambient tunnel. I strained to keep my specked eyes open. A blurry haze of light flickered before me. But at least the light seemed reachable. I deemed the passageway not too long that I couldn't handle it. So I kicked my legs and pushed myself forward in a frog-like stroke towards the opposite side. A few tiny bubbles filtered through Beast Boy's reptilian nostrils and shimmied past my vision. I concentrated on preserving my breath as I pressed forward. We passed an Atlantean swimming in the other direction. As casual as ever, he smiled and saluted us. I smiled plastically under my hood and waved back...fighting the urge to burst. Once we passed each other, I kicked harder with my feet and shot for the wavering light....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOSH!!!!

I emerged into dry air.

I was about to gasp deeply, when Aqualad's teachings shot into my brain.

I winced, struggled, but managed to meditate.

I breathed in slowly....filling the gap in my lungs.

Blood rushed to my head.

My vision blacked out.

Nevertheless, I stepped out of the pool as casually as I could....my entire outfit dripping.

Beast Boy shook the drops off him in Chihuahua form on my shoulder before morphing into an iguana. "You allright, dude?"

I nodded weakly...the strength slowly returning after the great exertion.

"Good," he simpered with scaley lips. "Cuz we got at least eight more to go."

".......," I glanced at the soggy map. I looked at where the Embassy was painted at. I glanced at our approximate location.

And he was right......

"Start breast stroking!"

I moaned...but tried not to show it. I walked casually past another Atlantean, approached a pool, and repeated the same process as before....hoping the tunnel wasn't too lengthy.

SPLOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the embassy...on the third floor....

Princess Tula sat on a plush hair. She was reading over a recently-processed scroll bearing transcripts from recent Senate meetings.

There was a knock at the door to her lush chamber.

"Come....," she uttered.

The doors opened via guards outside.

A familiar, dark-clad elder marched in.

"You asked to see me, your highness?" Senator Chasma smiled.

Tula stood up. Frowning, she tossed the scroll to the ground and shuffled over to him. "You're quite the stuntman, Chasma."

"I do beg your pardon??"

"Attempting to put me on the spot earlier today in the Senate," she practically hissed up at him. "You know very well that I'm going to fight your appointing of a new Idyllist ambassador at all costs. Prince Garth cannot be replaced....because Prince Garth is not really dead."

"Well, you certainly made quick about garnering the Atlantean people on your side, your highness," the man slyly said. "Or is it rather ironic that you speak with such passion when we're in private and yet do little about barking off to the people whose votes will count?"

She clenched her fists and tried to remain calm. "If there's anything you've proven yourself to be, Chasma, it's that you're a man of most ruthless talents. If I were to defame you in front of everyone now for your crimes...I would be labeled as mad. You've made sure of that."

"Yes." He nodded firmly. "I have." A smile. A glare. Then: "For your sake, I suggest you be a good little tadpole and go with the flow. This revolution of Orin's is coming to a halt, your highness. And in its place there shall be a change of greater magnitude. Something that will grant Atlantis more power than it could ever dream of."

"Power???" Tula smirked. "Chasma, you are a fool to think that by serving Slizzath you are anything more than a mere puppet. You had your chance to listen to prince Garth's warnings about the wicked sorcerer...but you chose corruption as your path. Don't expect me to be merciful on you once the prince returns."

"If the prince returns...he'd be too smart to challenge the Black Tempest," Chasma grinned. "After all....he—more than anyone else—knows the true power of Slizzath."

Tula took a heated breath.

"Have I struck a bard cord?"

"You strike many mean things inside of me, Chasma....," Tula uttered angrily. "And one day, they will all strike you back."

"When will you realize it's hopeless?" Chasma paced around a fountain in the center of the lush chamber. "Garth is beyond finding. You have no major support in Atlantis except for the fleeting ambassadors of Poseidonis. And what's most important....my agents have begun to move into place. Soon, an operation will take place that will eliminate Garth just as he and his allies think he's going to make a comeback."

Tula's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean??"

"You should have faith in the right places," Chasma's eyes thinned as he reached a lustful hand and caressed the princess' chin. "I will be your future, Tula. In.....many ways."

"...................," Tula glared.

Chasma smiled. "Lemme guess....this is the part where you slap me, right princess?"

SMACK!!!!!

Tula's fist flew across Chasma's cheek. The man flew back five feet, collapsed through a coral piece of furniture, and tumbled among splinters across the floor.

The doors flew open and the two guards rushed in, concerned. They eyed the sprawled-out senator.

Tula cracked her knuckles and firmly spoke: "Guards....escort the Senator outside of the Embassy again. A man of his age and stature should know better than to nearly....trip to death."

Chasma glared. He rubbed his chin and stood up, eyeing her in a lingering fashion. "I'll show myself the way out...." He sauntered off. The guards followed him.

Tula smirked.

The doors closed behind them.

Tula's smile left her. She sighed and walked a few steps towards the window. She leaned against the chair that she was previously sitting in.

"............"

Her fists clinched. "By Poseidon...if I weren't wearing this damned dress, I'd shove my foot up his butt and out his gills..."

She stepped furiously forward, pushed the window-doors aside, and stood on the balcony. Leaning against the marble railing, she glanced out of the third floor towards the streets, canals, and fountains of the Atlantean courtyard below.

She moaned.

A beat.

There was a splashing sound.

The girl narrowed her eyes and looked across the street.

A strange figure had just jumped out of a pool and seemed to be....stumbling across the street. Low on air.

And it was a strange figure in a soaking wet cloak.

Tula's eyebrow raised.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, we're here...," Beast Boy murmured in my ear. A beat. "And we're dripping."

I clenched my teeth to keep from chattering. Atlantis suddenly felt very......cold.

I wonder if Atlanteans are cold-blooded?

I shrugged it off and took the time to look up...up....up....

The Embassy towered before us. A nine story thing that spoke volumes in its height alone. I wondered if such a politically charged structure had anything to risk in being.....so conspicuous.

I glanced down.

A wrought iron gate surrounded the Embassy. The front gate had two heavily-armed guards. Random citizens gathered in clusters in front of them. As if socially charged by the Junction about to take place.

"Something tells me that we have two options here...," Beast Boy said. "We reveal you as 'Aqualad' and try and walk through the front entrance freely. Or we do your cool-ass murk stuff and sneak in like all get out."

I nodded.

At the sound of a cry of distress, I sharply glanced to my left.

I saw two gangs of Atlanteans confronting each other for some reason. A woman had just been tossed to the floor. Angry ocean-dwellers on both sides started waving their fists.

The guards were growing anxious and citizens around us made double-glances of concern.

"Or....we could do both....," the furry creature on my shoulder sweatdropped.

I took a breath and marched over to the situation.

On one side of a dividing line of angry citizens, two people helped the woman up and barked: "How dare you push her around like that?!"

A bearded man on the other side merely folded his arms and frowned. "She was defiling the sacred name of Atlantis! She must learn proper respect!!"

"And how can she respect a nation where solving differences is shoving one another to the floor??" a man on the other side shouted back. "She was merely defending the Junction!"

"The Junction is an atrocity!" someone on the other side retorted. "Atlantis must remain true to its original ideals! King Orin is a radical nut to allow the Idyllists and the Posedonissians to join our Union!!"

"Don't defame the King!!" barked the other side as more and more people grew angry. "After all he's done to bring us peace and prosperity in the last civil war and the conflict with the surface world, you dare blaspheme his wisdom??"

"This Nation needs a new leader!" the bearded one on the other side exclaimed. "One not persuaded to follow worthless ideas of political renaissance!! Four thousand years have passed with nothing but prosperity in the way things have been! Why do we need to change?!?!"

"The way things have been?!?!" one on the other side snorted indignantly. "You want a life full of needless political friction with differing societies outside of our collective? The prosperity you so speak of has been an era of wars following war."

"Wars that we have WON!" cheered the opposite side. "We don't need sniveling neo-modernists telling us how the next millennium of future history must be written!"

A guard walked up. "All right, folks. The political debate will be at the SENATE building tomorrow. Not in a public square! Break it up!!"

"Did you not just see these conservative freaks?!?!" a young man exclaimed. "They just shoved this woman to the ground like she was some passing part of the scenery!!"

"And fighting is not going to make it any better, I assure you...," the guard frowned. "Now go back to your own business before—"

"You want to see a fight?? We can have one right now!" the bearded one faced the other side and shouted: "If you radicals aren't too cowardly to engage in true conflict!!!"

Angry shouts and bickering explosively ensued. The two lines of debaters surged towards each other. The hapless guard was caught in the middle.

The front of both lines met. And in a fit of fury, a fist from each side flew.

GRIP!!!

GRIP!!!

Both fists ended in mid-air, caught by a pair of blurring hands.

I stood in between the crowds.

"Huh???" one side's man uttered.

"Hey! Let go!" the other yanked his arm away. SWOOSH!!!

From the jolt, my hood fell down.

Both crowds sank back, gasping.

"Look!!"

"By Poseidon!!"

"It's.....It's....."

"It can't be....."

"He's alive!!"

I kept my eyes firm. My jaw set. I glared at the whole crowd as I slowly turned about in a circle. Portraying a righteously angry prince.

The looks in their eyes lost their fury, and instead I saw orbs of Atlantean shock and—yes—even fear.

The guard trembled and knelt before me. "Prince Garth....," he murmured. "We.....you...."

I stared down at him. My specked eyes blinking.

He looked up and uttered: "You are alive.....it is.....a miracle??" I saw his eyes fall down and meet my scar. He swallowed.

"It IS a miracle!!"

"The child of the Idyllists lives!"

"King Orin will be so pleased!!"

Then a strong, feminine voice uttered from the sidelines: "King Orin shall find out in due time."

Everyone turned and looked.

Myself included. I sensed a green lizard hidden in the neck of my shirt taking a peek.

Both of us seemed intrigued.

A dark-haired girl dressed in a regal gown of shimmering satin shuffled towards us, flanked by two guards who—at the sight of me—were starting to lose their stoical resoluteness. The girl held her hands to her side in a strong manner and looked at me.

"Though, if I had my way, King Orin would never have been told of Garth's supposed death to begin with. For Garth was never 'dead', no matter what Senator Chasma insisted. But Garth was in danger. A danger that he is out of now. And here he is...," the girl looked at me and smiled firmly. "For I have sent for him."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Dude....," the green reptile whispered from the neck of my shirt. "...do you remember Anne Hathaway giving you an invite??"

"But of course, your highness....," the guard in the street stood up and nodded. "And it is fortunate that he made it here in time. I could not control this crowd on my own."

The princess faced the group of people. "You are noble to have paid heed to the prince's presence. If only some of you were as resilient as him when it came to pursuing ocean wide peace, this near-violent situation would never have arisen. Let us not squabble over the past or the future, dear Atlanteans. Let us focus on the present. For if we do not make this very hour peaceful now...what can we hope for hours—or days—to come?"

Silence. A great deal of the crowd hung their head.

"Come, Garth...," the princess spun around and headed for the gates of the embassy. "Quickly. We must make like the thermal currents."

I nodded. I glanced at the crowd with my specked eyes, brought my hood back up, and followed after the young lady.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the embassy...

To the side and near the rear...

Senator Chasma stood on a rise of concrete and marble.

From there, he had easily seen the entirety of the near-confrontation at hand.

More than that, he saw what was bound to be a rumored 'reappearance' on behalf of the missing Prince Garth.

And he smiled.

Turning briskly around, Chasma headed north through the under water dome...flanked by personal servants.

He spoke to one: "Send word ahead to the Protectors of the Orb. The first team of Titans are here. It's now time that we enact the second half of our plan...providing the right ones for the job are ready."

The servant nodded. "Acyd and Fraust will be in position within an hour, my lord."

"Excellent....," he smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

After quickly ascending three sets of marble stairs and rushing down a hallway, we reached what must have been the girl's chambers. Everything was lush and ornate....truly spared no expense. Save for a smashed piece of furniture in the center of the room. Everything about the movement was rushed and panicky. As if invisible eyes were watching us, and the lady somehow knew it.

As soon as we were in the chambers and the doors behind us were closed, the girl spun around and uttered with glaring eyes: "Okay, punk. Who are you?"

I did a double-take. I put on my best royal smile and gestured at myself.

"Drop the act," she spat. "Tell me where Garth is."

I gulped...but I still tried to keep it up. I put on a look of confusion. Classic ignorance.

The girl folded her silken arms and smirked knowingly. "All right. I guess we'll have to do this the hard way.

Suddenly, she grabbed the front of my robe and--

THWUMP!!!!

The cloak came off. There I stood in Garth's jumpsuit.....with a green iguana clinging to my neck.

"...............," I blinked.

The iguana sweatdropped. It hopped off of me, landed on the floor, and morphed into a green elf.

"Boy, lady....," Beast Boy scratched his neck and simpered. "You sure don't miss a beat. Don't you?"

"So it IS you....," the girl remarked. She looked at Beast Boy strangely. "The green changeling that Garth spoke about. The Teen Titan."

"How'd you know that I was here??" Beast Boy uttered.

"Some of us Atlanteans are gifted," the girl said. She added: "....with the ability to communicate with animals."

Beast Boy blinked. "Oh yeah. That. Heheh....always thought it was a goofy power myself. No offense."

"An explanation would be nice right about now."

"Yeah....um.....," Beast Boy bit his lip and looked at me. He looked at the girl again. "And...um....funny that I should be here. You see, Garth—"he pointed at me "—or Aqualad as we like to call him is in real need of help. He was shot out of some Expulsor cannon thingy and had his throat damaged by shrapnel. So he can't talk. See the scar? Yeah...and...um....oh, his head's hurt too. So he can't do his mental telepathy thingy...."

I nodded and smiled bashfully.

".............," the girl stepped up and looked at me. A beat. She slowly shook her head. "You're not Garth....," she said quietly. "You've got his eyes...his hair...his body....but you're no more than a doppelganger are you?" She leaned her head to the side. "Strangely mysterious.....but not in the same way as him. I know Garth....and you're not him."

Beast Boy gulped. "S-Sure he is! I mean...look at him and try and pretend he's not the same Garth! I-I mean, how c-could you?? He's tall, dark, and badass."

The princess looked at Beast Boy. ".........." She looked at me. "..........." She suddenly and quite surprisingly grabbed my crotch.

GRIP!

I jolted and my eyes widened. "!!!!!!" I batted her hand away.

She chuckled as she stepped back. "Nope.....just as I thought." She winked. "You ain't him...."

I blushed furiously.

Beast Boy blinked. He looked at me...then her. He raised his hand, a little red: you check if I'm not the real Garth too?"

"Enough with the antics," she spoke. "I'd better introduce myself to you......foreigners. I'm Princess Tula of Poseidonis. I'm here as an ambassador to represent my people at the senate. Prince Garth and I are...."

"Friends?" Beast Boy smirked with a knowing raise of his eyebrows.

Tula smirked back. ".....political partners."

"Uh huh."

"We both met during our first trip here to Atlantis," she took a deep breath. "That was seven years ago. Since then, we've worked together on representing our separate peoples in scant political venues of Atlantean importance. Since King Orin came to power, we've had the chance to achieve that which our generation has been looking forward to over the last fifty years. Union with the rest of the Ocean. Because of our steady commitment to our dreams, the two of us became close. You see...I knew you weren't him from the get-go...," she faced me as she said, "...The two of us have a link. Something deeply rooted in the hearts and mind of Atlantean senses. That's how I knew he wasn't dead. He had departed from this realm on account of Senator Chasma. But if he had been killed, I would have known it. And I would have grieved accordingly."

She turned around and paced towards the windows with her back to us.

"But now is no time to grieve or worry," she spoke with a sudden energy. The sides of her lips curved upwards as she looked out onto the wavering ocean light of the Atlantean dome interior. "It was never a time to fret. I had always known that....and now your presence...." She spun around and smiled. "Your presence here confirms my hope. Garth has help....the Idyllists have help...and because of that, all of Atlantis has help."

Beast Boy smiled proudly. "That's what we're here for, heh...."

Tula looked from him to me. "You.....you don't speak much, do you?"

I shook my head. I pointed at my scar.

"He.....kinda sorta can't," Beast Boy simpered.

Tula's eyes narrowed. More out of confusion than disapproval. "And yet you stuck him in the act of playing out Prince Garth's role??"

"Aqualad was desperate at the time," Beast Boy said. "Heck, all of us Teen Titans were...and ARE. We're supposed to meet up with Team Nautilus."

"Team What?"

"Robin—our leader—and Starfire. They're taking some heirloom of Aqualad's to the Hidden Valley in hopes of coaxing them into coming here and defending the Junction until Aqualad himself is physically able to make his true debut. Until then...Noir's at the helm."

"Noir??"

"The guy who's crotch you just felt up. HIM!"

She looked at me. "Rather brave of you, Mr. Noir. But also rather headstrong. Thank goodness I'm here to set things straight."

I shifted where I sat and hesitantly nodded.

Her eyes fell to the floor. She sat in a chair with a sigh. "But for your other friends....I don't expect much success."

Beast Boy folded his arms. "Why not?"

"The Idyllists....those in charge at the Hidden Valley.....," Tula looked up. "They won't help us."

Beast Boy blinked. "They won't? How come?"

"Because they already sent help."

"And what's that?"

"Not 'what'.....'Who'," Tula corrected. She looked at me. "Garth."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin finished placing the last rotary laser against the glass of the lavatory via a suction cup. He backed up and examined his job. Five other rotary lasers were similarly placed across the glass in a spread-out fashion. In the center of the array, Robin attached a small explosive disc to the glass and set it for remote detonation.

"This should do it...," Robin said. He smirked at the other two. "And as for the rest of the task..." He pulled a mask over his head and hung it below his chin. "I'm gonna have to do some exercise. This thing will help me breathe underwater for a duration of twenty minutes....more than four times the length it'll likely take me to get to a cargo bay and then sneak through the building and into Ivan's chambers."

"And what're the red cords for?" Nova'm asked.

"Thermal wear. They respond to my body heat. The colder I get, the warmer they get. Very high-tech stuff...but basically, it'll prevent hypothermia at water this deep and remote."

"You will be....careful, Robin?" Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder.

He patted her fingers and nodded firmly. "I gotta do this, Star. Somebody's gotta talk some sense into the Praetor." He pointed at the door frame. "You just seal this place tight with your powers and everything will be peachy keen."

"What about me?" Nova'm asked.

"You wanna make yourself useful? Allright....distract the guards in case they get too suspicious or something. You seem to be good at....distractions."

"Hehehe...yup!" A beat. "W-Wait....were you flattering me or—"

"Time for me to get going," Robin said. He started taking deep, meditative breaths. He motioned out the door towards the bedroom. "Go on. I'll meet you soon. I promise."

Starfire slowly nodded. She took Nova'm by the shoulder. "Come, Nova'm...." The two quietly exited the lavatory and stood on the other side. They pressed a console on the wall and closed Robin in.

The boy took a few more deep breaths. Flexing his arms. Concentrating. He pulled out a remote. He pressed a yellow button on it.

With a whine, the lasers on all of the tiny rotary equipment glowed and came to life. Red streams of pin-thin energy started burrowing into the thick glass and piercing towards the other side.

Where the water was...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the other side of the door, Starfire charged up her hands. She focused and—with Nova'm watching—fired a long stream of green starbolt energy at the frame of the door.

FLAAAAA-AAAAAAASH!!!!

The emerald heat started melting the material and welding it firmly shut and solid around the frame of the passageway.

Nova'm nervously glanced at the door to the bedroom where the guards were and then back at the Tamaranian Titan's task.

Starfire finished welding the last bit of surfacing and released her energy. She panted and held a hand to her heart. "I do hope that suffices."

"I'm sure it's okay, Kory."

She glanced down at him. "Y-Yes....but Robin?"

Nova'm was silent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in the lavatory, Robin continued his steady....heavy breathing.

With the welding finished on the other side, all sounds from the rest of the building were cut off. The ambiance died out, and it suddenly felt hauntingly quiet and lonely in that Atlantean bathroom.

Robin took a deep breath. Through his eyemask he stared at the job of the tiny lasers.

The red energy seeped through the glass and towards the other side. Soon, six razor-sharp streams of water were shooting through. The glass started to crack in mighty spiderwebs. The window wouldn't last another ten minutes.

But Robin didn't need ten minutes.

"Okay......okay......," he whisperingly coached himself. He turned his body around...positioned his limbs to the wall, and wrapped the titanium alloy cape around his scrunched-up body protectively like a shell. He drew the breathing mask over his mouth. He gripped the trigger. His finger hovered over a red button.

The explosive on the wall blinked a steady crimson.

Robin eyed it.

He fingered the trigger.

The spiderweb cracks in the glass spread evenly throughout the window, no longer localizing the inward pressure in one spot.

Water started spraying in more and more.

Robin took a few sweet breaths from his breathing apparatus. Just as the water started spraying off his cape, he ducked his head safely behind it, hid in the dark, and jammed his gloved finger over the red button.

-click-

BOOOM!!!!

The glass chattered.

CRASH!!!!

The water rushed in.

PHOOOOOOM!!!

A wall of glass shards and salt water surged all over Robin's cape-laid body.

THWOOOOOSH!!!!

The liquid ferociously filled the lengths and breadths of the tiny compartment.

The water murderously surged back.

Robin anticipated it.

With a grunt, he undid his cape and kicked off the wall. He rode the outward surge and bolted through the water like a torpedo. It was numbingly cold. The red cords around his body glowed warmly and calibrated the temperature of his person.

It was a shuddering sensation at first, but Robin soon compensated. The Boy Wonder took a breath from his mask, smirked underneath it all, and swam a red and black streak forward...skimming the surface of the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Nova'm bit their lips.

The jolt of the rushing water into the lavatory was louder and heavier than expected.

Naturally, the doors to the bedroom rushed in.

"What was that??" one of the two guards demanded.

Starfire instantly stood in front of the bathroom door, attempting to hide the welding job.

Nova'm swallowed and gestured: "What was what??"

"That shaking just now?"

"Oh....nothing important," the little redhead shrugged.

The guard's eyes narrowed. "Where is the human boy?"

"Huh?"

"The one with dark hair."

"Oh, you m-mean Robin?"

"Yes."

"He's in the bathroom," Nova'm pointed.

Starfire bit her lip.

The guard looked. "What's he doing in there?"

Nova'm made a dramatic face. "You don't want to know."

"He's planning something, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's planning—no—hoping to live through the night."

".........," the guard stared.

Nova'm cupped a hand over his mouth and whispered: "Surface-dweller indigestion. Not a pleasant thing." He smirked. "I hope you have good janitors down this deep."

The guards raised their eyebrows...then seemed suddenly uncomfortable. They stepped back. "Well...we wish him......uhm.....better luck with his.....intestines."

"Yeah, we feel the same way. Don't we, Kory?"

"Erhm....oh yes....may Robin's entrails rejoice in glorious rapture after his present....um....battle with bowel iniquity."

The door closed.

The guards were gone.

Starfire sighed with relief.

"See?" Nova'm smiled. "Robin was flattering you!"

"Practically pulverizing....," Starfire hunched over and moaned.

Something swam unpleasantly close by from outside the window.

"Eeep!!" Starfire jumped and looked out with hands clasped together at a breast-stroking Robin. The masked Boy Wonder glanced in through the window and gave her a mute thumb's up. He continued swimming down the structure of the Idyllist building.

Nova'm stepped up, arms folded.

"I think they should have called him 'penguin' and stuck to it..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swam like a tiny frog at the bottom of a deep well. The ocean water appeared blacker and murkier when faced up against it. But the Boy Wonder's eyemask was water tight. His mysterious optics were rightly guarded and shaded just right so as to pierce through the confusion and give the caped crusader necessary bearings in navigating the haze and chaos of the ocean floor.

At one point, a pair of guards on submersible bikes streaked by.

Robin kicked his feet and dashed his body over so that he hid in a shadowed undercurve of the first 'floor' of the building. He breathed steadily through the mask, the plastic polymer fogging up with his exhalations. Bubbles rose above his wavy head of black hair. The red cords warmed his torso while his limbs clung nimbly to the buildingside.

The bikers passed.

Robin took a deep breath from his mask.

He kicked off the buildingside and skirted down and deep under the structure through the freezing water. He headed straight for a splotch of dancing light on the underside....a hint that there was a pool above that opened into a hangar bay.

Robin slowly swam his way up towards it...and broke the surface.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was slow in his ascent. Water cascaded smoothly off his head as he treaded water and peered up into the dry air. His eyemask narrowed.

Footsteps.

He ducked with a tiny splash.

The ripples in the water's surface disappeared just as two Idyllist guards wandered the metal deck, talking hurried about something. They were gone just as quickly as they appeared.

Robin came up again. He slowly drifted towards the side—cautiously looked around—and then pulled his dripping body back up and onto the dock. He stripped his mask off and took a deep breath. He looked around again. He rushed—dripping—towards the side of the hangar and found a crate. He stuffed the mask and the cords inside. He then approached a door, and straightened his wet hair.

"Now for the real business....," the Boy Wonder smirked.

He slid the door open....and expertly crept through to the hallway beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so Aqualad keeps yapping on about Senator Chasma and some conspiracy to stop the political Junction thingy of your people and all...and quite frankly, I think it's one really huge-ass mess," Beast Boy cackled as he paced the chambers before Princess Tula and I. He looked at the royal young lady and said: "But what matters to us is that this is very...very important to Aqualad. And the Titans and I owe the dude as much as he owes us. We're helping out to the best of our abilities. And about Robin and Starfire.....eheheh....I'm sure they'll pick up the pace. I mean...how hard can it be to convince the Idyllists about something really important?"

Tula took a deep breath. "Was Senator Chasma all that Garth talked about?"

I shook my head.

"What else did he mention?"

I glanced at Beast Boy.

"Oh yeah...," Beast Boy scratched his head. "Some 'Slizzath' the evil sorcerer stuff."

Tula stood up and paced slowly across the chambers. "So I wasn't alone in my suspicion. If Garth sensed the Black Tempest....then so did I...."

I leaned my head to the side.

"The Black Tempest???" Beast Boy blinked. "Erm.....wh-what's that?"

"Up till now...it was a rumor," Tula murmured. "The suspicion that somewhere....somehow....people are trying to resurrect Slizzath from his interdimensional imprisonment."

"And...I-I'm guessing that's a bad thing," Beast Boy remarked.

Tula gave him a glare. "It is the most horrific thing to happen to the world of the sea—and inevitably the world of the surface as well. Try to imagine...," she slowly stepped towards us and spoke with emphasis, "...the blackest of black evils. Like oil. Spreading through the water like some invisible monster's venom. It never mixes with the purity around us, but it's so invisible that it's impossible to notice. All it takes to make the ever-present evil malignant is a catalyst. A pulse of dark energy...combined at seven points. Slizzath was once locked away along with his mighty evil when King Thar eliminated him. But his magic remained. And it has spread its seed into seven distinct elements of darkness. Mist. Tempest. Fright. Plasma. Acid. Hate. And Frost. These are the abominations of the sea-world. And their manifestation—combined—is all that's needed to channel a force strong enough to rupture space and bring Slizzath back into our domain. Slizzath possessed the magical arts of old. And even King Orin in all of his strength cannot solely face against the obsidian wrath that such a sorcerer would harness."

"So...you get all of this from a hunch on Garth's part?" Beast Boy inquired.

"It is not a mere hunch....," Tula uttered. "It's far more complicated than that."

"Care to explain?"

A beat.

She looked at us and smirked. "There is something I wish to show you. We must make a trip." She turned around and walked off.

I scratched my head.

"What?!?!" Beast Boy cackled. "Now?!?! But...what about evil sorcerers and watery apocalypse and stuff??"

"I shall attempt to explain on the way...," Tula walked over to a fountain in a wall. She reached her hand underneath a shadowed crevice and hit a hidden switch. The water stopped trickling. With considerable force, the princess pushed at the fountain and it swiveled open like a door...revealing a concealed corridor with a ladder running down into darkness. "Come. It's a long journey...but I'm sure you men can handle it." She flippantly waved and shimmied down in unladylike fashion.

I shrugged and followed Beast Boy towards the passageway.

He bent over and stared down the dark descent. "Dude....," he whistled. "So I wonder if this is Victoria's Secret."

I kicked him in the rear.

"Waaa!!" He fell into the corridor.

I climbed down after him, sighing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two female figures stood in a dark alleyway.

The shadow of a tall building overhead cast a shroud over the two...hiding their figures.

They leaned on walls at opposite sides of the passage. Like dummies. Slowly breathing. Slowly.

A robed figure in black wandered suddenly into the alleyway. It came to a stop between the two and held out a crooked hand.

"Chasma orders you now. Enact Slizzath's plan immediately. In a matter of minutes...the targets will surely be traversing a half dozen meters below us. Remember...the princess must live. Kill the other two." With an eerie incantation, he hissed: "For the Black Tempest!"

Two sets of eyes appeared...glowing with slits of dark, flickering purple. The set of eyes on the right was laced with blue steam....like mist off of an iceberg.

The figure on the left glowed a bright violet. Green hair and a green jumpsuit momentarily could be seen before the girl stretched her hands down towards the floor. With concentration, a stream of oozing, green liquid trickled from her fingernails. As soon as it made contact with the cobblestone floor, a burning smell filled the air and the rock-hard ground started to be eaten away. Acid gradually bore a hole in the solidness, tunneling straight downwards.

The other figure watched. Sweating ice. Cold steam formed out of her panting mouth in a blue aura.

The black-clothed figure wandered away as silently as he arrived.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at Titan's Tower....

Aqualad stood limply in the center of a dark hallway. He leaned against a window looking out onto the Bay. The evening was gray with the approach of dull thunderclouds. Rain threatened to sweep the waters, forming a dismal mist.

"We're not trying to get on your back, dawg. We just want to help!"

Aqualad shuddered. With gritting teeth, he spun about and frowned at Raven and Cyborg.

"For the last time....I'm not concealing anything. I don't ask you about all the secrets of the surface-world. So don't try prying anything out of me!"

"Man, listen to yourself!" Cyborg pointed. "This ain't the normal you! At least...not the Aqualad that we know! You've always been trusting of us, and we've treated you the same way! Try and remember that, man! Remember that and ask yourself....are we really trying to drag something out of you that you wouldn't want from us?"

"I already talked this out with you, Raven," Aqualad said. "What more do you want from me?"

"It's not what we want that matters as much as what you want," the dark girl droned. "We're in on this mission with you, Aqualad. We know what Atlantis means to you. We know how important it is that—"

"You couldn't possibly know what's important to me!!" Aqualad frowned. "Why don't you just leave me alone?!?!"

"Yo, listen man," Cyborg frowned. "This is no reason to get all angsty and shit."

"You want to know a secret?! Fine...here it comes!" Aqualad barked. "I deserved to be shot here in that pod!! I deserved every bit of what that creep Chasma did to me!! I frankly can't stand it!! I am completely unfit to serve the Idyllists in the Junction!!"

"And why is that??"

"Because I am possessed!!!" Aqualad shouted, and his eyes suddenly flickered with a purple haze that startled the two Titans. "I'm possessed with a terrible, betraying evil that could only poison the ones I live my life to support!! This mission is bust from the start of my life—much less just yesterday!! How could you Titans POSSIBLY understand??"

Silence.

Cyborg and Raven were calm in their reaction.

"Listen, man....," Cyborg gently said. "It's cool."

"We can understand," Raven said.

Aqualad was flabbergasted. He narrowed his eyes in disbelief. "H-How....."

"What you see standing before you, Aqualad....," Raven held her arms out as if to embrace someone behind him. "....is a demon. A demon in waiting."

"...........," Aqualad blinked.

"My father....Trigon....," Raven gently spoke, "....he is an evil being from an alternate dimension. As much as I live my life for good and enforce justice for the sake of promoting peace....I cannot shake his evil essence from my soul. He is and shall always be a part of me. I must live with the fact that—some day—I could very much lose control."

Cyborg walked over to her side. "And that's why she has friends that she can trust. So that we'll be there to keep that from ever happening."

"Wouldn't it help you to trust us too, Aqualad?" Raven spoke.

The Atlantean took a deep breath. His dark eyes were rounder.....softer than before. He hugged himself and looked out into the grayness as the clouds drifted in closer and closer.

He hesitated....but only for a moment....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Hidden Valley capitol, Robin crept down a hallway in perfect stealth.

Every now and then he would find a shadowed crevice to hide in just as a guard crept past.

He eyed the passing Atlantean, took a deep breath, and wandered further down the hallway till he came to a turn. He slithered around the curved, ivory wall and took a careful look down the corridor.

A pair of double doors stood in the frame that led to Praetor Ivan's abode. Two guards stood at ready with tridents before it.

Robin reached into his utility belt and pulled out a small, silver pill. He flicked it down the corridor.

It landed in between the two guards and exploded in a puff of brilliant white steam.

"Aaaugh!!" one guard was engulfed in the smog.

The other jumped out of its cloud. "A raid!! Who is—"

SWOOOOSH-THWAP!!!!

Robin planted himself into the man's back from ten feet with his knee. He slammed the man into the ground, performed a hand-stand, and helicopter kicked the second Atlantean in the gut.

WHAP!!! THWAP!!!

"Ugh!!" the man bent over.

Robin somersaulted and vaulted himself upwards with an uppercut. "Yaaugh!!"

WHAM!!!

The guard flew back from the impact and landed on the floor cold.

Robin stood as the mist cleared. Two unconscious bodies lay beside him.

He cracked his knuckles.

He spun with a ruffle of his cape and faced the doors.

Slowly...he pushed one of them open and slipped inside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The room was dark. The only light that came in was pouring through the kaleidoscope of water hugging the contours of a huge, curving window of thick glass. A desk rested at the edge of the room. A figure sat in a chair. A pair of old hands gently cradled the golden starfish. The rest of Ivan's body could not be seen.

"Praetor....we need to talk," Robin firmly said—howbeit hushed—as he crept across the room and approached the desk. "Here're the facts, plain and simple. Aqualad was nearly killed by Senator Chasma and his followers. The Titans and I are nursing him back to health. In the meantime, we've split up into two teams sent to distract the Senate and get his Idyllist brethren into the position to stop what could be a highly dangerous conspiracy with many threats to the future of Atlantis. Now—as leader of your people—what are you going to do?"

Silence.

"Sir?!?" Robin frowned.

Sickeningly, Ivan's voice drifted from behind the chair and fell into the Boy Wonder's ears. "Those aren't all the facts....young Titan....."

Robin raised his eyebrow. "Praetor??"

Ivan slowly turned about in his chair. He had a look of sadness in his face. And his eyes....they were flickering violet.

Robin's lips parted.

"Prince Garth and I....we cannot do anything to help our people in the long run....," he spoke miserably. "For in the end...the worst enemies are not Chasma and his people. They are us......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I am a descendant of King Thar....," Aqualad quietly spoke.

Cyborg and Raven listened.

"Thar had many children. He and his wife raised quite a family. But he was gone most of the time in his many battles with the evil Slizzath."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"One day, King Thar was misinformed as to Slizzath's next plan of offensive," Princess Tula explained.

She led Beast Boy and I down a dark, dripping corridor that tunneled its way underneath the spread of Atlantis. Haphazardly-placed electric lights lined the corridor at the floor and ceiling.

"As it turns out, Slizzath was targeting Thar's very own palace. His wife and family weren't nearly as well guarded as they should have been for such a surprise attack."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Slizzath's dark minions outnumbered Thar's best guardians," Ivan explained.

He sat with his back to the Hidden Valley and turned the golden starfish over in his hand while Robin listened.

"Though the fight against the evil sorcerer was valiant, his evil could not be held back forever. His dark hand of ill-will reached in and tainted the occupants of the palace just as the queen and her and Thar's children were making their escape."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"They were cursed with Slizzath's essence," Aqualad sighed. His dark eyes narrowed. "The children had the warbling, violet pool of black magic in their heart. Though it was benign...it meant terrible destiny for the future."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Their descendants and their descendants' descendants would have to live with a great inevitability..."

"And what's that?" Beast Boy asked.

Tula replied over her shoulder. "That one day...at least one of them would be part of the key to resurrect Slizzath. Even if against their will."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Prince Garth and I are of that same, tainted bloodline," Ivan explained. His eyes sorrowfully focused on the Boy Wonder. "The only reason we were not killed off through our forefathers long ago is because the Idyllists adopted our strain into their society."

"Do they know about the essence of Slizzath in your blood?" Robin asked.

"Yes," Ivan nodded. "And their admiration for us is remarkable. They have pledged their lives to honor the purity we once were. As much as the Idyllists admire us and select us as our leaders...it still does not erase the darkness possessing our souls and threatening to burst."

"And that's why you think you're unfit to lead the Idyllists against this conspiracy??" Robin remarked. "You've had your entire life to deal with this! Why the sudden hesitancy now?"

"I've always hesitated," Ivan said. "It was Garth that was brave enough to fight against who and what he is to repay the Idyllists for their centuries of service to our royal kind. Even still...there's one great obstacle that stands even in Garth's way."

"And what's that?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Atlantis....," Garth spoke. It pained him to do so. "The people of Atlantis don't know that the same authority leading the Idyllists into the Junction is directly linked to the sorcerer wanting to reclaim the land."

"Does King Orin even know?" Cyborg asaked.

Garth slowly shook his head. "No. The secret is mine. But.....n-not exactly mine alone...."

"Who else knows?" Raven asked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Garth told me a long, long time ago about his and his family's 'curse'," Tula spoke. She smiled slightly. A weathered expression. "I think it's one reason I started to trust him so much. He told me the most painful thing about himself early. The thing that I would be most likely willing to detest him for. He didn't try to hide it from me, though he had to hide it from everyone else..."

I nodded, listening.

"What did you all plan to do about it?"

Tula glanced back at us. "I have a few secrets of my own. Which is partially what we're doing down here in these tunnels."

"Heh....good. Cuz I was wondering...."

"I pledged Garth to give him the support of Poseidonis," Tula said. She looked ahead firmly while she trudged us along. "At first, he was reluctant. He thought I was doing it for him. In a way, perhaps I am. How could I not? But more importantly, I'm doing it for his people."

"The Idyllists??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ivan nodded. "They're all that matter to us now. Once this Junction is complete, Garth and I will step down from our rule and let their people lead democratically in the Atlantean Senate. And we will have made our peace." He lingered and looked out the grand window behind him.

"Or so you thought.....," Robin remarked.

Ivan sighed. "Senator Chasma......we've gravely underestimated him...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He is undoubtedly leading a cult," Aqualad explained. "Perhaps he's the leader of the Black Tempest itself."

"The Black Tempest?" Raven asked.

"Heh," Cyborg smirked and folded his arms. "Sounds like my mom's old protest group."

Aqualad gave him a wyrd look and said: "The Black Tempest seeks to unite the seven essences of Slizzath's evil magic. If Senator Chasma is responsible for triggering a resurrection of the evil sorcerer...then those seven essences must be alive and present today." A pause. Aqualad hesitantly added: "And I can vie for two of them...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Say what?!?!" Beast Boy remarked. "You're saying that Aqualad—"

"—is one of the essences, yes," Tula nodded. "He cannot avoid it. The black magic of Slizzath has awakened inside of him. He was given it from birth. And now that Chasma is enacting the Black Tempest, Slizzath's power threatens to rupture its hold."

I blinked.

"But Aqualad is a good guy!!"

"Duh! Of course he is!" Tula barked. "But that still doesn't hold back a potential darkness residing inside of him."

"And just what is that?"

"Well....," Tula took a breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I have been imbued with the power of Plasma," Ivan explained. His eyes flickered a bit. "I can control it now. The element bends to my power. But if all of the other essences of Chasma were to be combined in one place and at one time...I could not control myself. That is another reason why I'm hesitant to go to Atlantis...especially alongside Garth."

"Because he is an essence himself....," Robin remarked. "You two are as weak together as you are strong...."

"Exactly," the Praetor nodded.

"And what exactly is Aqualad?" Robin asked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I am Tempest itself...," Aqualad remarked. His fists were clenched...the only part of his body not weak and reeling still. "The demon essence of water. Chasma knows that my Tempest is part of what he needs to resurrect Slizzath along with Acid, Hate, Frost, Mist, Fright, and Plasma."

Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "Then if Chasma needed you there....why the heck did he shoot you in that pod thing way outside of Atlantis' boundaries?"

".........," Aqualad looked disturbed. He turned around and limped down the hallway. "I....I don't know. I just feel so helpless."

"Man....what you're telling us, we want to help you with it—"

"Just let me be..."

Cyborg stepped after him.

Raven held a hand out. "Let him be."

"But Rae, can't you see he—"

"—needs to be alone," the dark girl said. She looked up at Cyborg with lonely eyes that only Raven could afford. "Trust me."

The android was silent. He nodded in somber understanding.

The two walked the opposite way.

Outside the window, the rainclouds finally gathered over the Bay Waters. A curtain of rain formed a shadow over the rippling waves around the Tower's island. But there was one dark spot beneath the water that didn't belong...and it was heading like a silent, black head towards the rock bluffs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The tunnel Tula led us through opened up into a huge cavern. The water was ankle deep. For some reason, the princess didn't bother hiking up her skirt as she trudged through the stuff.

"I don't mean to sound wyrd...but....," Beast Boy held a finger up. "Why're you trusting us with all of this?"

Tula paused. She looked back at us. "Because....Garth trusted you with Trident, and now he's apparently trusting you with this mission. And when my boyfriend trusts somebody with the burden that he carries....he means business."

Beast Boy and I exchanged glances. We both looked at her.

"Boyfriend???"

"What, jealous?" she chuckled.

"Pfft. No. But believe me...there're these two girls at the Tower who'd go ga-ga over him."

"..........," Tula stared.

"Erm....," Beast Boy turned red and nervously scratched the back of his head. "Not that they've....um....gotten anywhere with him or anything...."

"My Garth? They wouldn't come close."

"Well....that's the best insurance policy I've ever heard of."

Tula smiled. She looked my way. "Though I must admit....his doppelganger is almost......convincing......"

I didn't know whether to blush or kill myself.

The three of us were oblivious to a burning circle of foam forming in the cavern ceiling directly over our heads.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"But it all doesn't add up!" Robin remarked. "If Chasma is trying to resurrect Slizzath...he's doing everything the wrong way. He should be doing stuff to bring all the essences to Atlantis! And—that begs the question—who besides you and Garth are the other five elements of black magic?"

Ivan took a deep breath. His eyes searched the ceiling aimlessly. He fingered the starfish pendant.

Silence....

"The children...."

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask. "The children?"

Ivan stared at Robin. "Possessed by some dark vessel provided by Chasma himself to bridge the gap between this world and ours. The Children of the Black Tempest...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the buildings of the Hidden Valley, a guard rode patrol on his submersible bike.

He gripped tightly to his trident while scanning the land with his aquatic eyes. He caught sight of a dark shape approaching through the murky currents.

He throttled his bike into gear and cruised up and over a rise in the coral to meet a strange craft head on.

"You there!! Halt!!" he held a hand up.

No response. A submarine was barreling towards him. The speed stayed the same.

The guard charged up his trident with a threatening glow. He frowned. "Stop in the name of Neptune!!" He suddenly gasped.

He could see through the front windshield of the sleek craft.

He saw a dark-haired pilot.

He saw glaring, eyes.

Eyes that flared purple.

FLASH!!!!

Hissings sounds.

Red bubbles.

The guard looked down.

Ragged, green snakes were slithering out of his steering mechanisms and encircling his lower body...biting him everywhere with red teeth.

"AAAAAAH!!!" The Atlantean shrieked. Bubbles flew out from his mouth as he twitched and vaulted himself off from the bike. He strangled with the seasnakes. Burning from the inside out from their poison. Feeling his skin being ripped apart by their teeth. "Get them off me!!! GET THEM OFF!!! AAAAUGH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fryte glared out of the windshield.

He saw the insane guard squirming about in the water, wrestling with nothing.

He paid him no more attention.

However, Fryte did steer the vehicle close to the bridge of ancient coral.

He held a hand out in zombie fashion. His eyes flickered purple as a violet aura covered his body.

An eerie hiss liken unto the voice of Slizzath himself wisped out of his lips...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the submarine cruised down towards the structures of the Hidden Valley settlement, a purple haze stretched from the craft towards a huge hole in the coral...like a cave.

Silence.

A stirring.

Then.....

Sliiiruuuuuuuaaaath.........

A forest of pale tentacles emerged from the cave...followed by two bulbous bodies of pulsing flesh.

Two ivory colored giant squid swam alongside the submarine. Possessed by dark, Atlantean telepathy...they closed in on the capitol building of the Idyllists.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It has begun, my Lord...," Chasma drunkenly smiled as he knelt before the purple orb in the center of the concrete slabs. Torchlight from the corners of the cave's central chamber danced off his dark figure. "The pathetic waifs from the surface world shall be eliminated. In the meantime, your faithful children shall retrieve the last two essences that belong to you. I have also given a command to have the upstart princess accosted. Perhaps she shall finally be persuaded to cease her foolish insolence."

"_Your work is most calculated......,"_ the orb 'spoke'. _"I only hope your results are just as firm."_

"My lord...," Chasma boasted. "This is the greatest time for our triumph. The Junction has casted confusion over our battlefront. And our opposition cannot face off against an attack from three sides at once."

"_For your sake......I hope you are right, Chasma......I grow tired of this obscurity......I need to break through."_

"And you shall, my lord...," Chasma nodded. "If even you must break through me..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of Titan's Tower, the dark shadow beneath the water broke the surface.

The sky seemed to suddenly turn grayer and wetter. The rain clouds collected over head and drizzled down on the rock bluffs, cascading into the surf as the haphazard, Renzukkan submersible bobbed up. A hatch open, and six dark figures with tridents nimbly leapt out. Following them was Miist. He looked up at the Tower, smirked evilly, and pointed straight towards it.

The figures rushed like amphibious ninjas. They approached six sides of the structure and started to climb, using the razor sharp teeth of their tridents to ascend.

Miist proudly cracked his knuckles, turned into steam, and blurred towards the center of the Tower.

All sounds from the inside of the hollow submarine were quiet...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where's Aqualad?" Cyborg asked.

Raven hovered in a lotus position at the end of the Main Room. She faced the rain-streaked windows with her eyes closed in meditation. "In the pool," she droned. "Having his alone time."

"Guess that's where I'd be if I were him," Cyborg spoke. "In my own element............" He winced at his own words.

"Why don't you go drink some lemonade....," Raven muttered.

Cyborg sighed and wandered towards the kitchen unit. "Something tells me this is gonna be a fun evening...."

Thunder rolled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ripples of water.

Splashes.

Gentle reflections against the walls of the indoor pool.

Aqualad slowly backstroked across the surface of the pool. He was shirtless and in swimming trunks. His body was limp and yet graceful. Like the streams of liquid themselves.

He shut his black eyes and focused on the drifting itself.

And the world seemed an ocean away.

And yet...he couldn't ignore the stirring in the corner of his mind. Like the rumbling of thunder outside the walls. He sighed. His drunken lips murmured: "I wished you were here, Tula..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Praetor....," Robin stumbled to his feet and looked at the leader sideways. "Do you....sense something?"

Ivan shook in his seat, uneasy. "It's....it's a trap! Of course!" the man gasped. "He is extracting his opposition! He is sending us out so that he can gather us unaware!"

Robin stared at him, his mouth agape.

Ivan stood up on shaky legs. "Your friend....they are in trouble."

"Wh-Which ones?"

Ivan gulped. "All of them...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wait a second....," Beast Boy held a hand up and aimed his pointy ears towards the ceiling. "You hear that?"

Tula and I stopped on the far side of the cavern and looked his way.

"Hear what?" Tula remarked.

"...........," the changeling's green eyes narrowed. A beat. He gasped and looked up. "Look out---"

SSSSSSS_SSSSSsssss!!!!!_

A fountain of acid burned down through the rock and boiled the water between us and the green elf.

FLASH!!!!!!! CRKKKKKK!!!!!

A wall of solid ice suddenly shot down. Blue crystal separated Beast Boy and the other two of us in a torrent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir!!!" Beast Boy shouted. He ran towards the ice wall.

SSSSSSS!!!!

He gasped and skidded to a splashing stop as a stream of green liquid fell down and burned a hole in the stony floor. The water spiraled down in a whirlpool to make up for the sudden, caustically-created depth.

Beast Boy looked up.

SWOOOOOSH-SPLASH!!!

A green-haired girl in an emerald jumpsuit landed in a crouch. She slowly stood up and glared at the changeling with purple-flickering eyes.

Beast Boy bit his lip. "Um....I suppose you're not a fan of mine."

"My Lord has a bone to pick with you....," Acyd murmured. She stretched a hand forward. "But there is an awful lot of flesh in the way...."

Beast Boy gasped and ducked as a glob of caustic juices was launched at him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran up to the sheet of ice and started ramming my shoulder into it.

WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!!

I panted, seeing dancing, combating shadows on the other side of the cavern. I was just about to summon murk through my limbs to shove hard against the crystal when---

SMACK!!! "Ugh!!!" (from behind me)

I spun around.

Tula lay on the floor...seemingly out cold. A blonde figure stood above her. The pool of water around her feet turned solid outward from her in a ring of cold whiteness. She looked at me and her eyes danced purple while blue mist fell down her shoulders and glowed brightly around her wrists.

"You know that I must hurt you....r-right?" Fraust murmured.

I bit my lip and stepped back. I reached behind my shoulder, but Myrkblade wasn't there.

"Maybe....," Fraust held two misting hands up. "....maybe you can end my sorrow before I finish you."

I tensed my limbs.

She pointed her hands at me and a sapphire stream of snow surged at me.

FWOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven's eyes popped open. She hovered around and dropped to her feet.

"Cyborg!"

The android Titan looked up from over the counter. "Rae?? What is it??"

"I don't know," she stammered. "Something's wrong."

"Wrong?"

"Very....very wrong..."

SHATTER!!!!!!

Raven cowered and covered her head as the window shattered completely behind her.

Six dark figures leapt up, whipped out tridents in mid-air, and stabbed down at the two Titans on dramatic descent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad gasped. He treaded in water. His eyes streaked with purple.

"N-No....," he murmured. "It's....it's...."

"The Black Tempest, hot stuff."

Aqualad looked up.

A puff of steam materialized into a human figure perching on the rafters to the interior.

Miist smiled and winked. "Thanks for testing the water for me. Cannonball!!! Hehehe!!" He morphed his arms into two serrated 'blades' of steam and pounced down at the drifting Atlantean's figure. "YAAAAGH!!!"

Aqualad braced himself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Ivan spun and faced the window.

Ivan gasped, his purple/dark eyes wide.

Robin rushed forward and froze.

A submarine was streaking straight towards them. There was less than thirty meters between it and the building.

"Who is that??" Robin murmured.

"Fear.....," Ivan slurred.

The submarine kept barreling in.

"Move...."

Robin looked up at the man.

The Atlantean spun around, grabbed the Boy Wonder, and shoved him towards the doors on the other side. "I said MOVE!!!!"

Fryte drove the submersible in.....and through the glass.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPLOOOOOSH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere....

Deep underwater....

In a dark cavern...

Senator Chasma was laughing.


	124. Fear the Black Tempest part 5

**124. Fear the Black Tempest part 5**

Praetor Ivan's room imploded from the crashing submersible.

Water rushed in like a wall of concrete.

Robin barely had a chance to dash towards the doors.

Ivan rushed over and gripped the Boy Wonder's body in a blink. With his hydrophilic, Atlantean body he took the brunt of the torrent's impact and guarded the boy's limbs.

But the water and debris were unstoppable. They shoved at the dark-eyed ocean-dweller's back and forced the two men into the wall.

SMASH!!!!

SPLOOOSH!!!!

Frigid waters exploded all around them.

Robin gasped for the half second he still had oxygen available. In a bubble of air, he surged violently outward and into the murky body of the great abyss of the Hidden Valley.

And this time he didn't have a breathing mask or thermal bodywear.

Ivan saw the Boy Wonder's drifting body and gasped with an explosion of bubbles. He made to swim towards him--

WHAM!!!!

Fryte pushed forward on the controls and slammed the bow of the banged-up sub against Ivan's chest, forcing him hard against the interior wall of the now-submerged room.

Ivan struggled with his Atlantean strength, but he couldn't get himself free.

Gritting his teeth, the Idyllist leader looked through the front windshield of the craft and saw the child of the Black Tempest inside.

Fryte glared with zombie furor. His eyes flickered purple.

FLASH!!!!

Ivan squirmed. He looked down at his arms and saw himself bleeding in two dozen places at once. Slowly—like protruding fangs—bone marrow started ripping out of his flesh. He let out a bubbling howl and tightened his entire body. His eyes clenched shut, and when they reopened there was a flickering of violet energy. The blood and compound fractures were gone.

"_Your mind tricks don't work on me, Fryte!!"_ Ivan telepathically projected—though he knew full well that Fryte couldn't respond. He decided to speak with his hands. _"I am of the same pathetic spawn as you!! Let us commune!!"_

Ivan tightly gripped the hull of the submarine shoving up against him, let out a scream into the murky depths creeping in, and glowed his eyes a bright orange.

Fryte gritted his teeth, glowing violet.

_"RAAAAAUGH!!!!"_ Ivan melted the front of the submarine and pushed it away with a pulse of pure Plasma.

FLASH!!!!

The submarine drifted back against its rear propulsion.

Ivan turned his right hand into a flaming fist. Water boiled around him as he streamed towards the cockpit with a heavy strike.

CLANG!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire gasped. She stood up from the bed and floated across the room, wringing her hands nervously. "What is that dreadful shaking?? It is as if the whole building is quivering upon its foundation!"

Nova'm floated after her. "M-Maybe Robin was discovered and....um....they're having a fight?"

"I would greatly hope not!" Starfire exclaimed. She floated besides the huge stretch of window. "Besides, surely he is more than capable of looking after himse—" She glanced through the glass at something and her eyes went wide as saucers. "Robin!!!" she pressed against the window. Further down along the building, debris was flying outward from a fresh crater in the structure's side. And Robin's limp body could clearly be seen drifting away from a writhing submarine against the side.

His body was all alone....unprotected....dead adrift.

"Oh man!!" Nova'm uttered as he too saw the peril. "Not good!!" He looked up at Starfire, sweating. "How could he have---??"

She interjected: "I cannot remain here!! I must go out there and save him—"

Just then, a beady black eyes of gigantic proportion rose against the window outside.

"EEEP!!" Starfire jumped back. She and Nova'm hugged each other instantly.

A gigantic, pale squid hovered outside. It leered menacingly at the two Tamaranians through the window, drew its body back, and lashed forward with a forest of writhing tentacles.

WHAM!!!!!

The entire half of the building shook.

The window started to fracture instantly.

Criiiii-iiiiick!!!

"Wh-Wh-What is that?!?!" Nova'm stammered.

Starfire protectively held him as she hovered the two back from the window. "A creature of terrible malice, I sense! It does not mean us good!"

WHAM!!!!

The squid rammed the window again.

Craaaaaa-aaack!!"

"You think?!?!"

The door to the bedroom flew open.

The two guards rushed in. "Danger! Our building is under attack! We fear the Praetor may be---GREAT POSEIDON!!!"

_'Sliiuuuaaathhh!!!'_ the squid squirmed and whipped its tentacles against the window again.

WHAM!!!!

The room shook.

The Atlantean guards stumbled and nearly dropped their tridents.

"What'll we do?!?!" Nova'm quivered.

Starfire looked past the squid at the free-floating figure of Robin. She glanced at Nova'm. She glanced at the two helpless guards. She glanced at Robin again.

She bit her lip....

"We must make haste!!!" the Tamaranian girl exclaimed. With a firm expression, she held onto Nova'm with one hand, flew towards the doorway, hooked her arm out, and caught the two Atlanteans by their wastes just in time to swoop them out of the room and down the hallway.

And that was when the squid finally broke through.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!!!

Starfire grit her teeth. Her eyes and limbs glowed bright emerald.

The guards shrieked in horror and Nova'm clutched tightly to her in fear a she flew down the hallway like an asteroid in a dark alleyway. Behind her, an increasing torrent of blue and green foam thundered. The mind-controlled squid's rupture caused an endless cascade of water to burst through the ensuing chambers of that wing of the building.

"Locate for me a pressure hatch!!" Starfire shouted.

One of the two guards in her grasp nervously spoke above the chaos: "Up one tier! The central residency ring!!"

Starfire zipped around a corner in a jerk, taking a sharp left turn. The water slammed into a wall behind her, denting it. It splashed at her like liquid fire.

A set of stairs shot up.

Starfire took a breath and hoisted all three bodies with her up...up....up....

SPLOOOOOSH!!!! The water thundered into the stair steps.

The alien girl made it to a thick doorway. She tossed the two guards through and dropped Nova'm down onto his feet on the safe side.

Nova'm spun around. "Kory!! What about Robin??"

"I shall attempt to attend to him....," she said firmly. "But first...."

She slammed her fist into a console on the wall.

CRACK!!!!

The door's air-tight hatch started to close in on itself.

Nova'm gasped. "Kory!!" he rushed at her. "No---"

She forcibly shoved him hard into the hallway.

WHUMP!!!

He landed on his rear, winced, and looked up at her with jaw agape.

As the last of the gap was closed by the door, Starfire managed to look at him and say: "I must attend to this beast. Do your best to protect yourself....prince."

"Kory!!!"

SLAM!!!

HISSSSSSsssssss...

The door was shut.

"Nnghhh!!" Nova'm ran towards the door and slammed his fists into it. Wham! Wham!! No effect. He hadn't honed in his Tamaranian strength well enough. He slumped against it and sighed, his green eyes shut against the thunderous vibrations of the torn building. "Kory....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire turned around and looked down the stairs.

Bubbling, frothy seawater climbed up the steps at a jogger's pace. The lights of the ascending hallway started to flicker. Frightening, ambient noises emanated upwards from below.

The girl Titan took a deep breath. She momentarily closed her green eyes and clutched her graceful hands over her chest.

"Imbiveret'm salme sedsu niul Robin de X'hal...."

And with that uttered, she ran, dove, and plunged into the rising pool.

SPLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven crouched and rolled across the shard-littered floor of the Main Room in Titan's Tower. Rainwater rushed in from a high altitude wind, pouring through the window and splashing off the backs of the six darkly-clad assassins.

The Atlanteans brandished a pair of miniature tridents each. CHHIIING!!! CH-CHING!!!

Three of them acrobatically spun across the soaked carpet and pounced at Raven from three different sides at once.

Raven exercised great speed and verbal dexterity in spitting forth: "Azarath-Metrion-ZINTHOS!!!" She gritted her teeth and practically exploded a dome of black telekinesis outward from her body. FLASH!!!

TH-TH-THWUMP!!! The three leaping attackers were knocked back.

ZZZT!!!

Raven's last-second telekinesis flickered into nothingness.

The girl stood, panting.

She was open for two nimble attackers from behind her.

SWOOOSH!!! They leapt, flipped, and came down onto her shoulders with tridents searing--

"RAAAAUGH!!!" WHAM!!!! Cyborg rushed in with a hulking, titanium fist.

The two oceanic ninjas tumbled off as one.

The sixth attacker leapt and perched himself on Cyborg's back. He silently stabbed down with his miniature tridents.

SWOOOSH!! Cyborg lightning-quick reached a hand up and gripped one wrist. He swung his head to the side just in time for the other wrist's trident to deflect off the metal half of his skull with sparks. CLANK!!!

"Next time try ringin' the doorbell...PUNK!!!" Cyborg gripped the throat of the man on top of him. "YAAAUGH!!" He flung him hard into a faraway wall. WHAP!!!!

Raven stood to her feet and raised a streaking wall of black energy in time to block the flurried stabs of a pair of assassins. FLASH!!! Cl-Clank!!!

"These are Atlanteans!!" Raven exclaimed, panting. She backed up and kept rapidly deflecting the razor-sharp advance. "They've come a long way! I can sense it!!"

A third assassin jumped back up and dashed towards Raven's blind side.

The dark girl freed one of her deflecting hands, pointed it at the coffee table, and telekinetically flung the splintery object at the incoming offender.

SMASH!!! He fell back hard across the Main Room floor.

"Why didn't the Tower's Security system detect them?!?!"

Cyborg gritted his teeth as he punched one of his three opponents and blocked the jabbing of two others with his forearm. "Let me get back to you on that, Rae," he gritted his teeth and charged with a heavy elbow of metal. WH-WHAM!!!

Two Atlanteans sprawled across the floor.

The punched one jumped, flipped, and landed in front of Cyborg.

Cyborg swung hard to pummel his face.

The attacker nimbly slid underneath the android's legs, vaulted up into the air behind him, and reversely tossed a trident into the Titan's power cell like a shuriken.

CLANK!!! ZAAA-AAAAP!!!

"AAAUGH!!" Cyborg's body sparked all over. He fell down onto his knees. Rainwater struck his short-circuiting limbs and broke forth steam.

Raven gasped and turned to look. "Cyborg!!"

Just then, a silent attacker crept up stealthily and slashed at Raven's shoulder.

SLIIINK!!!

The trident broke blood which flew in the air from the girl's limb.

"Augh!!" her eyes glowed as she winced in pain.

Cyborg saw it out of the corner of his eye, and his flesh boiled red.

"RrrrrRRAUGH!!" he pointed his arms out. His robot eye flashed. Beep-Beep-Beep—**P-POW!!!!!** Both of his arms detached. Tiny rockets flew out of the elbows, guided the limbs around like missiles, and sailed them with kamikaze fists flying into the chins of two of Raven's attackers.

WHAM!!!! THWACK!!!

The two fell down hard, their faces leaking blood.

Raven clutched her shoulder and stumbled to her knees.

A pitter-patter of footsteps.

She looked up and saw an assassin charging her.

She winced and flicked the wrist of her wounded arm.

FLASH!!!

Black energy encased the floor beneath the assassin's legs and lifted up. CRAA-AACK!!!

The man was flung into the ceiling—WHAM!!!—and fell down with littering tile. THWAP!!!

In the meantime, Cyborg's arms were circling the room and returning back to the android Titan just as two of his attackers rushed him.

Cyborg stood up. He saw the incoming sea-ninja with his glinting trident. SWOOOOSH!!! The blades went for the teen's head.

Cyborg dodged.

His arms returned.

He held out one shoulder.

SWOOOOSH-CHTUNG!!! The first arm reattached.

The ninja swiped again.

Cyborg sidestepped the swing.

The second arm rocketed in.

Cyborg pointed his shoulder away from the thug.

SWOOOOOOSH-CLACLINK!!! The second reattached in time for Cyborg to grit his teeth and bitch-slap the assassin across his skull. THWACK!!!!

The man tumbled across the floor like a spinning toy. The other two hopped over him and pounced on Cyborg.

WHUMP!!! THLUMP!!!

"Nnnnghh!!" Cyborg wrestled with them. He stumbled backwards across a sofa and all three bodies sprawled across the floor. WHUMP!!!

Lightning flashed from the wind and rain outside the shattered window.

Cyborg sat up, panting.

The two ninjas jumped up. They bore down on the Titan.

Cyborg aimed his right arm at them like a gun. "Guess what, kids?! It's feeding time!!" KL-KLACK!! KLACK-K-KLACK!!! His sonic cannon was alive and ready. "Eat blue shit!!" he snarled.

The assassins pounced on him, relentless.

He squinted his human eye and fired.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

One ninja took the brunt of the impact. The sonar blast propelled his ragdoll body straight out of the shattered window and out into the churning waters of the storm outside.

The blast also propelled Cyborg's awkwardly grounded body across the floor, grinding on his metal rear, and tumbling into the open elevator. CL-CLANK!!

"Mmmff!!"

Cyborg shook his head.

Raven was in the middle of telekinetically wrapping a towel around her shoulder as an impromptu pressure bandage. She glanced over at Cyborg just as two shadowed bodies rushed past her, causing her blue hair to toss in the wind.

She gasped.

"Huh???" Cyborg looked up.

Two Atlantean ninjas were pouncing at him like tigers.

He gritted his teeth and aimed his sonic cannon again---

ZAAAAP!!!

The first of the two nimbly twirled around the blast in mid-air, sailed down, and rammed his trident straight through Cyborg's robot eye.

CRKKKK!!!!

"AAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg's human eye clenched shut as his cranium sparked like mad. He fell blindly onto his back....not once cutting off his sonic cannon. The blue beam shot straight up into the roof of the elevator car, violently snapping it from its hinges. CRACK!!! CL-CLANG!!!! Cyborg and the two attackers plummeted thunderously down the shaft.

"Cyborg!!" Raven ran across the main room. She skidded to a stop just as the remaining three attackers hopped up to her knees and surrounded her.

She frowned. She chanted. With an invisible wind whipping at her body, she lifted herself up in the middle of the room and held her black-charged hands above her flowing robe. "If you strangers were wanting to 'meet the Titans'...then prepare yourselves to meet every bit of us....starting with me."

The guards silently readied their tridents.

Raven gritted her teeth. Her eyes glowed a hot gray. "Haaaaa-AAAAAA!!!!" she stretched her arms out wide like an x-shaped crucifix and flying shards of black serration flew at the ninjas.

They dodged to the best of their ability and charged at her with blades glinting in the rain.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrrrrghhh!!!" Cyborg struggled to hold the wrestling attackers at bay. It was difficult enough that he was half blind now. It was even more difficult knowing that the elevator car that they were in was presently falling and careening like mad into a gravity grave.

But just then, the shaft's breaks went to work.

SCRAAAAA-AAAAAPE!!!!!

Sparks flew all around the car as it grinded to a gradual, trembling stop halfway down the Tower's descent.

As it finally rocked still, Cyborg flexed his metal limbs—"RAAAUGH!!!"—and tossed the two thugs hard into the walls.

THWUMP!! THAP!!!

He jumped up and charged them with a heavy fist. "RGHH!!!"

WHAM!!! He dinted the wall.

They ducked, twirled nimbly around him, and kicked him in the already-pierced power cell.

CRACK!!! ZZZZT!!!!

Cyborg sparked all over. He grunted in pain and anger before spinning around and sailing his fist into one hapless attacker's chin.

CRACK!!!

He fell back, bleeding.

The second gripped the android Titan's titanium arm, swung up it like a parallel bar, perched, and swiped his leg across the Titan's face.

THWACK!!

"Mmmff!!" Cyborg exclaimed, tumbling back.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!

Cyborg fell backwards through the elevator doors and landed haphazardly on the tile floor of a hallway.

The thugs regained their composure. In coordinated motion they twirled and dove at the android.

Cyborg raised his two feet just in time and kicked them back against the doorframe of the elevator.

WHUMP!!!

They quickly regained their footing.

Cyborg stood onto his feet. Shoulders heaving.

He frowned with clenched teeth, reached up, and yanked the sparking trident out of his shattered red eye.

CRACK!!!!

He tossed it onto the floor and spit on it. He then wiped his chin with a titanium sleeve and put up his dukes. "That all you got, fruitcakes?!?!"

The athletic assassins coiled their bodies like two springs and dove at the Titan, who was ready for them with a metal fist.

"RAAUGH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!!

Miist toppled onto the water-treading Aqualad. Aqualad grunted from the impact as the two plunged deep into the pool. Miist's body morphed into underwater steam. He twirled the two and somehow managed to get the Atlantean into the position to be propelled out of the body of water with a merciless kick.

SPLASH—CRACK!!! Aqualad's weak body flew out of the water, smashed through a section of the fiberglass siding, and tumbled painfully across the floor.

Miist leapt out of the water and landed—dripping—before the Idyllist prince.

"Too freakin' easy...hehehehe," Miist evilly chuckled. "Chasma's cannon really did its trick, didn't it??"

Aqualad propped himself up on his knees. He sputtered up blood and wiped his chin.

Miist eyes were wide and hungry. "I was expecting extra-credit for following Lord Slizzath's bidding in this department!! But some effort! Pfft...you're no stronger than a tadpole now! Where's the fun in that?"

Aqualad stumbled to his feet. He smiled tiredly. "Congratulations. You caught me with my shirt off."

A blink.

SWOOOSH—Aqualad lightning charged Miist and—SMACK!!! Uppercutted him with a flying fist and—THWACK!!—punched his gut with four knuckles and—SWOOSH-WHAM!!!-spiraled kicked the Black Tempest child across the cheek.

Miist's body literally spun vertically three times before crashing through a poolside bench. CRACK!!!

Aqualad landed from his kick. He wobbled a bit...but straightened his balance in time to get into an athletic fighting pose. "So what's your elemental power granted by the 'almighty Slizzath'?? Passing gas?"

Miist glared. He rarely got angry. He rarely had his fun spoiled. "The name is Miist...," he finally bore a smirk as he licked at the blood trickling out of his own lips. "...and I've come to steal a prince. Even if it means skinning him of his flesh as a trophy. Hehehehe...I so do love trophies..."

FWOOOOSH!!!!!

Miist blurred at him.

Aqualad's dark eyes twitched. He sidestepped--

SWOOOSH!!! A fist materialized passed his cheek.

Aqualad ducked.

THWOOOSH!! A cloud-blade ripped through the air above his head, severing a few long strands of hair.

Aqualad backflipped.

CHIIIING!!! Miist's steam blade flew forward.

Aqualad stood up and bend backwards. His eyes widened as the blade barely stopped between his eyes from the villain's lunge.

Miist smirked. "Tell me, prince...is your blood boiling yet?"

Aqualad blinked at him. He twirled, fell to the floor, and shot his leg out in a sweeping kick.

WHUMP!!!

Miist fell to the floor.

Aqualad nimbly dove at him.

The two bodies grappled, spun, and ended with Miist flinging Aqualad off of him in a blurred explosion of energy.

Aqualad slammed hard into a pair of metal lockers besides the pool.

WHANG!!!

"Auugh!!" he winced...but not because of the impact. Instead, he fingered red, scalded skin...burned by the proximity to Miist's steaming limbs.

Miist materialized into a laughing stance across from the Idyllist. "Ha ha ha ha!! Once burned...twice screwed!!"

Aqualad frowned and raised his fists. "I'm not going to fall to a pathetic lackey like you."

"'Pathetic lackey'?!?!" Miist grinned like a joker. "You forget. You're the same as me!!" His fists turned into steaming blades as he hopped into a fighting stance. "Use the gift of black energy given to you as well....and you might even be a challenge worth fighting!"

Aqualad sneered: "I do not play with toys of evil."

"And that is why you're going to be ACHING in the morning!! HA HA!!!" Miist dove at him.

Aqualad readied himself. Some hidden flicker of purple fought to dance across his eyes. But he resisted. And while resisting, he was open to Miist's plunge.

WHUMP!!!

The two flew through the air from the collision and fell into the pool again.

SPLOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a cavern underneath Atlantis, Beast Boy dove across the expansive pool of water besides the wall of ice. He leapt back up in time to dodge a glob of acid landing at his feet...boiling and draining the water as the rock gave way to corrosion.

The changeling panted and looked fearfully at the green-haired girl pacing across the cavern from him. Her hands dripped with burning juices. Her eyes glowed an angry violet as she snarled. "You are in the way of Slizzath's plans. You must perish! Every waking piece of your flesh must go!!" She shrieked and flung another stream of ooze.

Beast Boy jumped into the air, morphed into a dove, and flew away from the blast. He perched on a stalagmite and reverted back to elf form as the rock wall behind him burned with a brand new hole.

"Who are you?!" the Titan panted. "What do you want with us?!?!"

"The name's Acyd...," the girl stomped forward menacingly. Her hands still raised. "And I work for my lord Slizzath."

"You're on his side?! Come on....the dude's long dead!! Just face it! At least back when I was Presbyterian, I believed in a God who was _alive._"

"Silence!!" Acyd hissed. Her eyes flickered violet. "Your insolent existence ends now!!" She charged up two more globs of corrosion.

Beast Boy sighed. "Just my luck with the ladies."

SLOSH!!! SLOOOOSH!!!!

Beast Boy leapt, turned into a mongoose, dodged the two blasts with a furry twirl, struck the ground, morphed into a snake, and slithered agilely towards the Black Tempest child.

"Raagh!!" Acyd shrieked, flinging glob after glob at the morphing animal. "Raagh!! Haaa!!"

The snake spun around—avoiding fresh, smoking craters of impacting acid. It leapt up in the air, morphed into a bat, and glided around Acyd's body just in time to avoid a point blanc blast of burning goo.

SLOSH!!!

Beast Boy dropped to the ground behind her, morphed back into elf form, and raised his fists. "Don't make me hurt you---"

Acyd spun around and opened her mouth wide. The corner of her jaws quivered with green foam.

Beast Boy's eyes bugged. "Eeek!!" He turned into an armadillo and rolled away in the cavern's water.

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!! A thick stream of green acid vomited forth out of Acyd's mouth. It struck the ground where Beast Boy was, cutting a deep, smoking ravine.

The jade armadillo leapt onto the wall, clung—trembling—to it, and returned to elf form.

Beast Boy groaned. "Heh...I bet Noir's fighting some Snow Goddess, and here I am stuck with Linda Blair..."

Acyd wiped her chin like it was merely drool. Her skin seemed immune to the juices. She frowned with narrow eyes of violet. "Soon you shall be alone...cold, hopeless, and alone..."

"Something you're familiar with?" Beast Boy cackled. "Just what good does Slizzath do for you?? Do you even know or care?!?!"

"Quiet!!! RAAAUGH!!" Acyd flung her hands to the floor. She spewed a stream of acid from her fingernails that cut a burning canyon deep I the cavern floor and rocked the foundation Beast Boy was clinging to.

"Wh-Whoah!!!" he slipped and fell into a freshly made tunnel. "WAAAAAaaaaaaa-aaaaaaa!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The tunnel was splashing all over with water cascading down from the burnt cavern above. Beast Boy shrieked and cried out as he spun and tumbled all around the smoothly cut corridor like a slip-n-slide. When he rocketed out of the bottom, he splashed into a pond of an underwater lake.

SPLOOSH!!!

He came sputtering to the surface. He looked around, gasping.

The many different holes Acyd had burned cast light from the cavern above. Flickering rays danced off of cascading waterfalls lining the interior...like a secret spring.

Beast Boy had no time for sight-seeing. He began desperately breath-stroking towards a dry cliff on the far side.

"YAAAAA!!!!" a warcry sounded from above.

The soaked elf looked straight up.

Acyd came sliding down after him. She dove out of a hole, flipped, and charged two handfuls of acid as she plummeted down at his bobbing figure.

He gulped. "When it rains, it pours......acid."

He swiftly turned into an emerald porpoise and dove into the currents just as she was upon him.

SLOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred my feet and ran up the wall, backflipped off, and twirled in the air just in time to avoid a stream of blue energy.

FLASSSSH!!!

The ray struck the wall and exploded in a veil of ice.

I slid to a stop across a thin pool of water and balanced myself on the surface with murking feet. I raised my fingers into a meditative stance...panting....facing my enemy across the way.

Fraust stood, panting. Wisps of snowy breath filtered out from her lips. Though the violet was strong in her eyes, the natural blue sorrowfully dominated as she paced her way across from me. Each step she took in the water produced a clump of surface-ice.

"I will not spare you....you know that....you must know that....," she uttered coldly....very coldly. "The princess must come with me. But you must perish."

I glanced across the wet cavern at Tula's grounded body. Not moving.

I glanced back at Fraust.

"You have powers of your own...," Fraust murmured. Her hands glowed blue. "Surely you can escape with your life and leave her to me."

I clenched my fists. I wasn't about to do that.

"Or maybe you can do me the favor....by ending my life," she whimpered. Her eyes burned violet and—"Rnnnnghhh!!!" she pointed both wrists at me.

A spiraling flurry of snow and ice flew at my body.

I pulsed murk through my legs and vaulted upwards.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Ice solidified beneath me.

I flipped and landed on the horizontal column. On nimble feet I slid towards Fraust.

She gasped and backed up with hands ready.

I took a breath and teleported forward off my slide—SWOOOSH!!!

"Ynnnghh!!" she flung a shard of ice at me.

I blurred through it and solidified in the air beside her with a jump-kick across her chest.

WHAP!!!

She stumbled back.

SPLASH!!

I landed—took a breath—twirled and flung my leg at her head.

GRIP!!!

She grabbed my ankle.

I stood, balancing awkwardly on one sole. "!!!!"

"I-I'm sorry—"She grunted. She slammed her palm in my chest.

CKKKK!!!! A wring of ice formed around my torso in an instant, pinning my arms to my side.

SMACK!!!

She elbowed me with the other arm.

SWOOOSH!! I went sliding across the cavern floor and landing against a wall.

I shivered and struggled to get out of a frosted strait jacket.

Fraust reluctantly raised her hands and charged an orb of blue destruction. "Rnnnnghhhh......"

I gritted my teeth and tried to break loose.

She flung the orb at me. "RAAA!!!!!"

The walls of the cavern were laced with frost along the path of the incoming pulse of energy.

I meditated, summoned murk through my upper limbs, and--

SHATTER!!!!!

Flung my smoking arms out.

The pulse was upon me.

I took a cold breath and rolled out of the way.

SPLASH!!!!!

The orb slammed into the cavern wall and leapt out onto the pool of water. Frost shot everywhere like crystal spiderwebs. I found myself outrunning a solid sheet of ice trailing my blurred feet.

It didn't help that Fraust was constantly tossing chunks of fresh, blue ice at my feet during my sprint. "Raaa!! Nnghhh!!"

I leapt, dodged, and side-stepped the projectiles while running. I met the wall of the cavern on the far side, ran up it, flipped, and deflected a last chunk of ice with two blurring arms criss-crossing outwards.

SMASH!!!

Tiny ice cubes shattered and flew across the air at Fraust like frozen shrapnel.

"Aaaak!!" she shielded herself.

I landed in a crouch, took a shivering breath, and sprinted towards her in a blur.

She held her hands up with a sad expression and produced a three-foot long 'club' of ice.

My specked eyes bulged. I tried to come to a complete stop, but I was sliding across the cold floor helplessly.

"Slizzath....," she whimpered. "H-He will consume us all..."

And she swung the chard at my incoming chest.

WHAP!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRRGH!!!" Ivan shouted again into the water. His eyes flickered violet and he flung a burning fist at the hull of the submarine.

WHANG!!!!

Fryte pulled at the controls.

The submersible backed up, propellers bubbling.

Ivan treaded water, his shoulders heaving. He glanced over and saw Robin drifting alone towards the ocean floor. He tried to swim towards the helpless land-dweller.

Fryte saw it. He fingered the controls on the submarine's dashboard.

WHURRRRRR-CLING!!!

Two mechanical arms came to life. With loud, electronic whirring they stretched out and clamped down onto Ivan's legs.

The man let out a bubbling gasp.

Frowning, Fryte flicked a switch.

Electric currents coursed through the metal limbs of the submarine...shocking the life out of Ivan.

ZZZZZZZZTTT!!!!

A blue aura surrounded the Idyllist leader's agonized body.

"NNGHHHH!!!!" he twitched and cringed. He opened his eyes....flashed violet...and aimed two hands at the front of the submarine. _"Dark spawn......leave my land ALONE!!!"_

FLAAAAAASH!!!!!!

A stream of burning, orange energy splashed out from Ivan's wrists like churning lava.

SSSSSSSsssssss!!!

Fountains of bubbles exploded upwards towards the distance surface. The hull melted more. Water began squirting in at half a dozen pressure points all around Fryte's cockpit.

The Black Tempest child gritted his teeth and yanked at the controls.

The submarine spun around. Ivan was flung like a stone against the building side.

WHAM!!!

Before he could recover--

The submarine backed up against him in reverse. The propellers spun in a deadly fashion towards his cranium.

Ivan focused and—with superhuman Atlantean reflexeds—grabbed a propeller and held it still just an inch from his nose.

The submersible lurched and rocked in its effort to spin the blade.

Ivan struggled...grunting...forming bubbles. He looked helplessly across the currents at the Boy Wonder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

All that time, Robin had been conserving his oxygen with one huge breath. He calmed himself down the best that he could and reached a hand through the freezing water to his utility belt. He pulled out a remote device and clicked a few buttons on it. His chest felt like lead was pressing in on it at all sides. Cold lead. He wanted to implode.

Still...he meditated. Spinning in the water, he clenched his eyes shut under his mask and focused on fingering the remote....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the hangar of the ship, an alarm was sounding. Red lights flashed over the docked T-Sub. Atlanteans panicked and rushed from station to station, trying to combat the depressurizing of the building on multiple decks. Children and families rushed about—sobbing—under the steady guidance of guards and other Atlantean authorities.

Amidst all this chaos, the bright lights of the T-Sub turned on in the inside. Slowly, the craft submerged as if on its own...and chugged away through the water.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyes bolted open under the mask.

In a hazy fog, he saw a set of headlights coming his way.

The water churned up as the T-Sub approached.

Robin's chest shook....ached...

He fingered the remote but his hands were turning numb under his gloves.

Bubbles started streaming out of his lips.

He jammed his thumb onto the remote.

A chamber in the T-Sub slid brightly open.

The craft thundered his way.

The boy twirled in the water.

His vision blocked out.

The T-Sub arrived...the chamber yawning open.

And Robin—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWUMP!!!

The Boy Wonder tumbled inside.

He jammed on the control once.

The door closed—WHURRRRR-CLANK!!!

He was stuck inside the claustrophobic, brightly-lit interior.

He jammed on the control again....

FWOOOOOSH!!!!

The water was sucked out and air rushed in.

Robin opened his mouth and practically exploded in air intake.

"!!!!!!!!!!!"

His body twitched. He curled up. He straightened out. He curled up again.

He heaved and heaved, oxygen invading his lungs. And once all that was done, he wetly sputtered and coughed salt water out from his throat and wheezed.

He shivered all over. Nearly freezing to death. He reached over and pressed a console with a shaking hand.

Beep!!

SWOOSH!!!

The door to the interior cockpits opened.

Robin began the arduous process of climbing inside. The first thing he reached for was the heating system....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire surged through an underwater corridor. Currents were still rushing inward from the building's hull rupture and kicking at her wet mop of hair. The girl used Tamaranian endurance to survive submerged with one single breath, and with glowing green eyes she peered around for a safe exit to the Hidden Valley beyond.

Unfortunately....she had gotten lost.

Starfire hovered to a stop in a junction of three hallways.

She looked around. The electric lights all around her were flickering against the currents. Shattered pieces of wall structure and debris danced all around her in the ambient chaos.

"..........."

A rumbling noise.

Starfire spun to look.

She stared down an empty hallway.

Nothing.

"............" Her green eyes narrowed.

Then....

SMASH!!!

From behind her.

The girl spun around. She nearly gasped—an act that would fill her throat with water.

The wall beside her had broken apart. A myriad of tentacles jabbed through and squirmed towards her, followed by the bulbous body of a hissing, possessed squid.

'_Sliuuuuattth!!!'_

Starfire bit her lip and streaked down the hallway in a rush of green-lit bubbles.

The squid streaked after her.

Tentacle after tentacle jabbed, lunged, snapped, and twirled after her ankles.

Starfire throttled herself down the hallway. She spun around a bend in a green blur.

SMASH!!!

The squid dented the hallway walls as it barreled after her.

Starfire glanced back.

Three tentacles were flung at her neck.

She 'ducked' in mid air, spun about, and tossed a starbolt beyond her legs.

FLASH!!!

Water boiled as the green pulse flew into the forest of tentacles and singed a handful of spongy limbs.

'_Sliuaaaathaa!!'_

The beastly mollusk shrieked and slowed down some.

Starfire blinked and looked ahead. Her eyes twitched.

An iron door was in her way.

She gritted her teeth underwater, charged a starbolt with two hands, and launched it at the last second.

FLASH!!!

SMASH!!!!!!

The door burst apart.

Starfire soared on through...and found herself in a dead end.

WHAM!!! She flew into a wall. She spun around.

The squid—and its ring of tentacles—was upon her.

Starfire held her hands out defensively.

CLUMP!!!

The squid closed around her.

She grabbed two of its tentacles.

It grabbed four of her limbs...and her waist...and her throat...and her thighs....

Starfire twitched and struggled under water...under the pressure of the tentacles...under the churning currents.

The squid churned and quivered and tightened its gnarled grip. The flesh at the center of the converging tentacles opened up. A razor sharp beak appeared....snapping hungrily at Starfire. CL-CLAP!!! CLAP!!!

Starfire bit her lip.

CL-CL-CLAP!!! It snapped more and more ferociously. The tentacles started to drag her in.

Starfire struggled some more. She eventually straightened her body. Her eyes glowed a bright green and--

FLAAAAAA-AAASH!!!! Two streams of emerald fire shot out and burned into the creature's rubbery hide.

_'Sliuaaaath!!!'_

The squid hissed and drew back.

Starfire pulled herself free of the tentacles...and suddenly realized she was in desperate need of oxygen. At the limit of her Tamaranian lungs, she merely tensed her body and skirted straight up.

SPLOOOOSH!!!

She met the ceiling of the submerged room...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!!!!!

Starfire broke through the floor of the room above, a darklit science facility with windows facing the Hidden Valley. Starfire flew to the ceiling, gasping for air. Water spurted up in a fountain from beneath her. And up from the fountain shot two tentacles.

GR-GRIP!!! The limbs wrapped around the Tamaranian's ankles.

"Eeek!!!"

The squid pulled itself up after her. Its limbs spread. The beak reappeared.

'_Sliuaaath!!'_

CL-CLAP!!!!

Starfire grit her teeth and flew straight up, pulling the tentacles taut.

The squid kept retracting its muscular limbs, dragging its body—and its hungry beak—up towards the girl's legs.

Starfire snarled, lifted her arms, and grabbed ahold of a pipe above. "NNNNGH!!!" She pulled down hard with alien strength.

SNAP!!!

A sharp section of the pipe broke free. She let the squid pull her down to his beak. At the last second she spread her legs, anchored herself against the width of the squid's body, and jammed down hard into its mouth with the pipe.

"YAAUGH!!"

CRAA-AACK!!!

The beak snapped bloodily apart.

The squid shrieked and quivered all over. Its twitching limbs painfully tossed Starfire across the room.

"AAAAAUGH---" WHAM!!!

Starfire flew hard against the window, cracking it slightly from the inside out. She groaned, rubbed her face, and looked out.

The girl gasped.

She could see Ivan wrestling with some damaged, foreign submersible.

But there was no Boy Wonder...

"Robin....," she murmured...dripping.

_'Sliuuaaaath!!'_

CRASH!!!

Starfire spun with a gasp.

In murderous vengeance, the squid pulled itself into the dry room. The floor split open wider and water gushed in from below as the giant mollusk closed in on the girl, tentacles whipping forcefully. WH-PHISSH!!! WH-PISHH!!!

Starfire charged to starbolts--

WHAM!!! A tentacle flew across her face.

"Aaaugh!!" she fell to the floor.

The squid hissed and drew upon her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nova'm ran through the hallway of another level in the building. He panted. Idyllist ocean-dwellers all around him were panicking, flooding to evacuation rings, trying to meet up with family members. Guards barked orders to each other while children sobbed in their rushing parents' arms. And beyond it all was the constant, never-ceasing rumble of a building being flooded one floor at a time.

The redheaded boy skidded to a stop, catching his breath. He held a hand over his heart and swallowed.

_The burning......he could still feel it......_

"Kory.....you're still safe...."

A beat.

"But what about Robin?" he murmured to himself.

CRASH!!!!

Nova'm gasped. He looked across a corridor and saw a burst of shattering debris in a room full of Atlantean children. They had been huddled there, waiting for an armed group of guards to escort them to the nearest hangar....but suddenly the wall had collapsed beside them. A piece of the floor also shattered explosively. The two adults minding the children pushed them back against the wall and faced something beyond with terror.

Nova'm's lips parted. "Why isn't there water rushing in...."

A flurry of tentacles rose from the ground and wall, twitching dangerously in the people's direction.

Nova'm's green eyes widened. "What?!?! A-Another?!?!"

The children shrieked and the adults vainly raised their fists and tried to bat the tentacles away. The squid's limbs merely struck them hard across the torso and knocked them back against the wall. The beast was blocking the gap over which the group barely had a chance to escape over. It closed in on them with rubbery malice.

Nova'm sweated. He looked around for guards.

There were none nearby at the time. Just panicked, rushing citizens.

Nova'm glanced at something glinting at him from across the floor.

A battered trident lay on the ivory ground. Alone.

Nova'm took a deep breath. "Think, Nova'm....what would a Titan do?"

He rushed over, scooped up the trident, held the huge bludgeon awkwardly in his tiny grasp, and dashed towards the scene.

He charged the rear of the squid just as it began to encircle a little girl's leg with its tentacle...causing her to scream.

"Nnnnghh!!" The young Tamaranian boy jabbed the weapon into the squid's back.

SLASH!!!!

_'Sliuaaaath!!'_ the beast angrily flung a tentacle back and struck the boy hard across the chest.

WHAM!!!

"Mmmf!!" Nova'm fell against the door frame of the shattered room. He winced and blinked his eyes open. He gulped.

The tentacles rose high above him—towards the ceiling—and curled with menace.

"Um.....," Nova'm blinked. "X'Hal???"

SWOOOOSH!!!

The tentacles converged on him.

"Ackies!!" He rolled across the floor.

WHAM!!!

Bits and flakes of tile flew into the air.

Nova'm panted. He reached across the floor. He grabbed the trident by the long end.

Another tentacle slapped towards him.

He rolled again—with the weapon this time—and jabbed upwards with the trident in question.

SLASH!!!!!

He ripped a nasty tear in the rubbery skin.

'_Sliaaauuaath!!'_

The tentacles swept the ground.

Nova'm bravely leapt up, forced a joyful thought in his young mind, and flew with a green aura near the ceiling.

The shivering children and two adults watched helplessly with wonder.

The tentacles drew back, coiled, and whipped up at Nova'm. SLASH!!!!

The boy winced and held the trident out at arm's length.

GR-GRIP!!!!

The tentacles wrapped around the metal weapon. They shoved against him.

"Aaaugh!!"

WHUMP!!!

Nova'm was planted against the wall. He lost his hold on the trident as well as his hold on flight. He slumped down hard to the ground. THWUMP!!!

"Nnnghh," he winced.

WHIP!!!!

"Snkkkkttt!!" Nova'm wheezed as a tentacle spun tightly around his neck. It slowly, mercilessly constricted while lifting him up towards the ceiling.

The boy gripped the appendage around his neck with shaky hands. His legs thrashed about beneath him.

The rumbling and the shrieks continued behind him in the corridors.

The endangered children shivered as they watched his plight.

Nova'm reached out beyond his mental constraints. Again, he sensed Koriand'r. The burning in his heart intensified. He gasped for breath. His eyes lit up. His hands started to grow.

"You.....," he wheezed into the air. "....are harming....inn-innocent children...."

The tentacle tightened.

"Nnnkkkkt!!" Nova'm winced and squeaked. "And that means.....you are evil...."

A huge starbolt glowed in his hand suddenly. Brighter than the Sun.

The squid suddenly began to quiver.

Nova'm's teeth clenched. "And K-Kory....taught me what to do....with evil things...."

He raised his hands over his head, focused the energy, and flung it at the bulbous bulk of the squid's body.

"Yaaaaugh!!!"

**FLASH!!!!**

Three of the tentacles melted away in an instant.

_'Sliuuaaaath!!!'_

The squid bloodily dropped Nova'm and quivered in the gap in the floor through which it had emerged.

Nova'm stood up. Grinning. His eyes on fire. "Woo yeah!!! Feel that righteous fury?!?! There's plenty more where that came fr—"

WHAM!!!!!

A fresh pair of tentacles slapped Nova'm into a nearby wall.

THUMP!!!

A few children gasped.

He fell to his knees, wincing. "Okay....," he stood up and readied another starbolt. "Let's do this one tentacle at a time, sushi breath..."

The squid angrily lunged at him.

He even more angrily tossed a volley of fiery fury at it. "YAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!

"NNNGH!!!" Ivan was thrown hard into a mountain of coral. Wearily, he tried to swim away--

GRIP!!!!

The metal arm of Fryte's submersible once again clamped around his torso.

Ivan panted underwater. He tried charging another pulse of bright orange plasma...but his old strength was leaving him.

Through the windshield, Fryte's eyes flickered violet. He knew that just as much as the dark-eyed Idyllist that Ivan would be unconscious in a matter of minutes from this endless, mechanical punishment.

The second arm raised and sparked with dancing electricity.

Ivan wheezed...expecting the finishing blow.

The arm reached towards him and--

BLAM!!!!!!

Fryte grit his teeth and balanced himself as the entire submersible rocked back and forth from a torpedo blast.

Ivan's eyes widened. "_What???"_ He glanced over.

Fryte looked through a side porthole.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

A dripping, shivering-wet Robin pushed hard at the T-Sub's steering mechanism.

The underwater vehicle lunged at Fryte's craft.

Robin snarled through clenched teeth: "Better buckle up, asshole."

He throttled it.

_VRRMMMM!!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Sub barreled in.

Fryte attempted evasive maneuvers, but it was too late.

WHAM!!!!!!!!

The T-Sub rammed hard into the submersible's side.

The arms shattered off.

Ivan was freed.

He flinched and swam away from the thunderous collision.

CRUNCH!!!!!

The hull of Fryte's craft dented violently inward from the impregnable metal of Cyborg's engineering. Robin hit the thrusters, grinding the T-Sub harder and harder into the submersible.

Soon the two crafts were being pushed across the coral and into the buildingside.

SCRAAAAAAA-AAAPE!!!!

Shards of ivory flew everywhere. Sparks danced in the water.

Fryte shook violently inside his craft as it twirled about and crunched up from the increased pressure on its battered hull. The submersible spun off into the open ocean. Fryte covered his human body with a protective layer of violet energy just as---

Robin jammed his gloved fist over a button. The sonic blaster emerged from the top of the T-Sub, charged brilliantly in a blink of an eye, and fired on the spiraling enemy vessel.

ZAAAAAAP!!!

The blast struck dead on.

SCHRUMP!!!!!!!!

The submarine imploded. The fuel tanks ruptured. It then _exploded_...sending shrapnel and plasma everywhere.

PHWOOOOOM!!!!

Robin shielded his eyemask inside the T-Sub.

When the smoke and underwater flame dissipated....the Boy Wonder had to gasp.

Ivan the same...

Fryte was still alive. He treaded water, his body glowing violet. His eyes most of all. He glared at the T-Sub hideously.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Three bikers finally rode up from behind Fryte.

Glaring, Fryte turned towards them.

The bikers swooped in on their underwater craft. They let out a warcry and aimed glowing tridents.

Fryte merely waved a hand. His eyes flickered.

FL-FLASH!!!

The bikers suddenly gasped—all three of them—and clutched their heads, screaming in terror underwater. They tumbled off of their bikes—which careened explosively into the coral around them.

SMASH!!!

BOOOOM!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the T-Car, Robin winced as shockwaves flew through the water and rocked his craft.

He looked up and gasped.

Fryte was swimming blindingly fast towards him.

The Boy Wonder jammed the blaster again.

ZAAAAP!!!

ZAAAAAAAP!!!

Fryte nimbly swam around the energy streaks with violet force.

Robin gritted his teeth...uncertain...

Fryte swam directly towards the windshield of Robin's cockpit and perched on it.

CLAMP!!!

His eyes flickered.

FLASH!!!!!!

Robin twitched.

_Fryte was sailing through the windshield in a cloud._

Only, he wasn't Fryte anymore.

He had a metal face of bronze and black.

One emblazoned eye stared Robin down.

"_Robin......it's been a long time......you disappoint me......"_

Robin gasped. "You......n-no.........you're......you're dead......what are you doing here?!?!"

"_I've come to collect my prize......," Slade spoke as he sat before Robin. He stared the Boy Wonder in the face. "And you are such an excellent prize, my apprentice."_

Robin clenched his fists. "I am NOT your apprentice!! You're dead!! What is thi—"

"You've served me well, Robin," Slade spoke. "Leaving Starfire and her brattish little friend behind to fend for themselves in an underwater building overrun with giant squid and pressure-implosions. Your tenacity for getting the job done is priceless. They are good as dead now."

Robin gasped. "N-No......they can't be......"

"But they are. You know it. Deep in your heart," Slade's one eye narrowed. "And you _**enjoy**__ it......"_

Robin was hyperventilating. Images of Starfire's bloated carcass bobbing at the ceiling of some submerged room filled his eyes. Then Nova'm's throat being ripped apart—meaty tendon by meaty tendon—from a tentacle full of suction cups. Tamaranian blood floating in the water.

"No......"

Slade extended a gloved hand. "Come with me, apprentice......"

"_No!!" Robin looked at his hands. They were no longer gloved in green...but instead black and brown metal mesh._

"......and we shall finish off the rest of the Titans......as naturally as you finished off the aliens."

Robin sweated cold bullets. He looked in the shiny surface of the dashboard. In the reflection he saw himself in the apprentice outfit. The eyemask Slade gave him.

The apprentice.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Robin clutched his head and screamed into the T-Sub.

And outside....Fryte glared through the windshield...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Leave this Tower....NOW!!!" Raven shouted as she flung a handful of black energy 'daggers'.

SWIIIIISH!!!!

Two assasins ducked.

A third twirled about the telekinetic projectiles and pounced upon Raven.

WHUMP!!!

"Nnghh!!" the girl was shoved towards the shattered window of the Main Room. Lightning flashed and rain flew in around her dark figure as she wrestled with the Atlantean ninja grappling her from behind.

CHHIING!!! He brandished a trident and threatened to slit her throat.

The dark girl's eyes glowed. Her body morphed into the silhouette of a black bird. The darkness enveloped the assassin and dramatically 'spit him out' with a cawing, black beak.

His body flew towards the open window. He grabbed onto the frame before he could fall out.

Raven materialized, panting, staring at him.

SWOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

The other two charged from behind and kicked her hard in the rear.

"Ugh!!" she plummeted out the window.

She fell amidst bullets of rain. Lightning flashed, illuminating the hard rock crags below.

Raven remained calm. She held her hands together and spoke into the biting wind of the world rushing up to her petite figure: "Azarath....Metrion...Zinthos!!"

FLASH!!!!

Black wings extended from her person. He cape billowed as the wings 'flapped' and turned her body upright. She pivoted into a vertical position and slowed her ascent.

SWOOOSH!!! SW-SWOOOSH!!!

She looked up with quivering, violet eyes.

The assassins were suicidally diving down towards her.

She braced her midair body....

WHUMP!!!

All three grabbed onto a separate limb and dragged her down.

Raven grunted and strained.

Her telekinetic wings broke apart in the plunge, one energetic 'feather' at a time.

And soon, all four bodies collapsed hard in a cleft of sand between bluffs.

THWUMP!!!!

Raven immediately shouted and unleashed a pulse of black energy from her torso. "Nnngg-YAAH!!!"

The three thugs were thrown back.

Two slid across the sand into a standing position.

One planted his feet against a rock bluff and vaulted up into a flip, landing behind Raven and grabbing her shoulders.

"!!!!"

The ninja flung her hard against the rock-face.

WHUMP!!

"Oof!!" she slumped halfway to her knees.

She looked up, eyes glowing fiercely through a tangled curtain of soaked, blue hair.

The three ninjas blurred towards her, tridents brandished.

CHIIING!!! CH-CHING!!!

Raven meditated. She held her black-encased hands up and pulled a Terra.

The rockface behind her cracked in three places. Black energy circled three large shards of granite...which she flung at the charging figures.

"YAAAAAGH!!!!"

THWUMP!!! WHAM!!! Two figures fell.

The third leapt over the last boulder, flipped, and dove trident first at Raven.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Raven held her hand up at the last second.

As if having air-breaks, the last ninja froze in mid-air. His jabbing trident barely touched the chakra stone on Raven's forehead.

The Atlantean attacker blinked....showing fear for the first time.

Raven glared at him as she held him at bay in mid air. "That was not a good idea....," she droned. A flick of her wrist downward and---

**WHAM!!!!!**

The assassin is plowed violently into the sand.

Raven raised herself into the air like a goddess.

Her hair whipped about and her cloak danced in the soaking wind as she lifted her arms and raised the soggy sand of the beach in two funneling tornados of concentrated telekinesis.

The two dizzy attackers got up and gasped as wet dirt devils churned murderously towards them.

Raven snarled under glowing-gray eyes. "You had better stick to the _ocean_...."

She raised her hands with a shout.

THWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The Atlanteans didn't have a chance to shriek. They flew high into the air with exploding puffs of sand before plummeting far out into the churning waters of the Bay.

A last roll of thunder...and Raven calmed down. She landed gently on the sand and straightened her soaking wet hair in the rain. A gentle sigh. She glanced at the last unconscious thug beneath her...then at the exposed parts of her arms from the recent scuffle.

"Hmmf," she huffed under the gray clouds and rain. "I think I'm getting a tan."

A beat.

She spun around and cast a concerned glance at the Tower....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOSH!!

SWOOOSH!!

CL-CLANK!!!!

The two assassins dove across the hallway with miniature tridents swinging, but to no avail.

Sparks merely flew off of Cyborg's titanium skin and made the android defender more and more pissed.

"Oh no you don't!!" he snarled and shoved them back with a fist. "I just buffed myself this morning!! RrrrAAAUGH!!" He flung his wrist out. A panel opened up, shooting out a grappling hook that wrapped around the ankle of one thug. Cyborg yanked back hard with a growl. The assassin was flung hard into the ceiling and then slammed down into the ground like the unlucky end of a tether ball.

The other ninja rushed in, stabbing at Cyborg's fleshly side of his face.

Cyborg retracted the cord and side-stepped just in time to avoid the sharp jab.

The ninja kept lunging menacingly, forcing the android to back down the hallway.

At one point, Cyborg crossed his arms in a 'shield' in front of him. Jets opened up in the back of his shoulders and fired.

PFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cyborg's body was propelled forward in a bright orange streak. He slammed into the body of the main attacker. Sparks flew as the sliding android shoved the thug back towards the smashed elevator doors.

The other ninja on the ground stood halfway up, twirled his trident, and flung it into the ground. CLANK!!!! The blade embedded directly in the path of Cyborg's rocketing feet.

CLAMP!!!

"Augh!!"

Cyborg tripped forward.

The thug he was entangled with shifted his body and used the jets on Cyborg's uplifted back to vault him across the hallway and through a nearby wall.

SMASH!!!!!

The android Titan plummeted into a bathroom, collapsing onto the floor.

The two nimble Atlanteans flipped through the fresh wall and dove at him.

Just as Cyborg stood up, he had a massive kick to the chest—THWAP!!

Followed by another thug's uppercut to the metal chin. SMACK!!!

Cyborg teetered back from the last blow.

One of the two thugs jumped him again.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and raised his hands, catching the airborne thug. He growled and spun around, slamming the ninja's body through a toilet.

SMASH!!!

White ceramics littered the floor. The plumbing was smashed and a fountain of water gushed into the air.

The second thug charged Cyborg, trident first. CHIIING!!

Cyborg ducked.

CRAACK!! The trident embedded into the wall mirror, shattering outward in spiderweb fractures.

Cyborg lunged forward and punched the Atlantean in the chest. WHUMP!!! He grabbed his shoulders and tossed him harshly through the doorframe of the shower stall. CRUNCH!!!

The other thug got up, strung a garrote around Cyborg's metal ankle, and pulled with a YANK!!

"Augh!!" Cyborg fell hard to the floor.

The thug perched on his body and prepared to stab down onto the Titan's face with his trident.

Cyborg tensed his ankles. Two compartments in the soles of his metal boots opened up and rocket thrusters appeared. PHOOOOOOM!!!!

Awkwardly, the thug 'rode' Cyborg's body as it soared along the bathroom floor, smashed through another wall, and tumbled out into the main atrium of the building. The two fell three stories down the deep entrance before tumbling madly onto the tile floor.

THWUMP!!

WHUMP!!

The two stood up at the same time.

The Atlantean brandished two more tridents....lungs heaving.

Lightning flashed from outside.

Cyborg cracked his knuckles as he murmured: "Gonna help us redecorate after this??"

They charged each other.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad and Miist wrestled in the pool.

The Atlantean was nimble in his underwater element.

But the human—imbued with dark powers—was godlike.

Miist's steaming body seemingly slid between the water molecules surging all around them. Consequently, he slipped from Aqualad's grappling grip and flung himself at the Idyllist's body, slamming into him repeatedly. WHAM!! THWAP!! SMACK!!

Aqualad cried out in pain, bubbles rising from his mouth. He swung bravely with his fists and kicked with all his might, but all he could do was send ripples of water through the indoor pond.

In the meantime, Miist was unrelenting. And it was only a matter of time before Aqualad sought a desperate escape from his combatant.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Body streaming with water, Aqualad leapt desperately onto the dry poolside. He immediately collapsed to his knees....heaving for breath.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Miist's white essence shot out from the water and clipped the prince from behind.

THWACK!!!

"Aaaugh!" Aqualad fell forward hard across the concrete.

Miist solidified into a proud, condescending pose. He smirked down at the battered Atlantean and giggled. "So in the end...this is what you choose to be! Hehehehe! A fish out of water!!"

Aqualad coughed and sputtered. "Do not tempt me...."

"To do what??" Miist bent over, smiling. "Wanna fight on equal terms now? Or should I just beat the daylights out of you and get it over with?! Face it...in either defeat or victory, you're nothing more than the spawn of Slizzath!! You serve my master in strength and in weakness!! Hehehehe...you should just be like me, Garth! Embrace that which empowers you!"

"My power.....," Aqualad raised his head. As he glared, his dark white-on-black eyes turned to a burning, purple haze. ".....My Power is mine to choose and mine to choose alone...."

Miist's smile faded.

"You want a Tempest, Miist??" Aqualad stood up and raised his hands. With a violet glow, the entire body of water from the pool rose magically behind him like a giant, warbling sea-wyrm. "You'd sure as Hell better grow gills _quick!!"_

Miist gritted his teeth and raised two 'blades' of steam.

"RAAUGH!!!" Aqualad flicked his wrists.

FWOOOOSH!!!! The water magically shot forward, parted around Aqualad's body, and converged like a wall of transparent stone on Miist's figure.

WHAM!!!

"OOF!!" the human flew up against a wall.

Aqualad dramaticly flung his hands back.

The water flew as a giant blue blob in the air. It coagulated at the far end of the room.

Aqualad's eyes flickered and he lunged his body forward.

The water blob turned into a giant, rectangular solid and rocketed at Miist.

The boy had barely recovered when the torrent struck.

SPLOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The entire length of the watery 'rectangle' pummeled into him. As it splashed off, it broke back into two 'tentacles' that wrapped around and turned into a giant liquid mallet that slammed mercilessly into the Slizzath-Spawn's body.

WHAM!!!

Miist tumbled across the floor. He got halfway up to his feet and then collapsed, moaning.

Aqualad leapt into the air. As he did so, he commanded the water to surge towards him. The Atlantean's body flipped and plunged into the airborne mass of water. SPLASH!!! A huge 'leg' shot out from the water blob. The rest of the water congealed over it and stretched wide around Miist with Aqualad bobbing inside like a cell's nucleus. At just the right moment, the water surged forward and Aqualad leapt out of the liquid wall with a torrent-propelled flying kick.

SWOOOOSH-SMACK!!

Miist's body spun through the air and smashed through a set of double-doors.

CRASH!!!

He tumbled onto the floor of the nextdoor room, the Titan's gym.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Aqualad slithered mercilessly after him inside the belly of a liquid snake. The huge rope of pool water wrapped around Miist, enveloped him, then 'spit' him out across the gym.

SMASH!!! "Augh!!!" Miist slammed through training bars. He stumbled painfully to his feet, frowned with clenched teeth, and turned his arms into blades.

"I am Lord Slizzath's most loyal subject!! I SHALL NOT LET YOUR WRATH WIN HIS RESPECT OVER MINE!!!"

Aqualad broke surface at the top of a water 'pyramid' and smirked. "Everybody hates the teacher's pet..."

"Rrghhhhhh...," Miist's body blurred as he flew hotly towards the Atlantean. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Aqualad ducked down into the water pyramid, which morphed into a dome just in time to duck Miist's leap.

Miist contacted the wall, teleported his body in reverse, and kicked a fresh pair of feet against the structure...propelling himself directly into the blob of water.

SPLOOSH!!!

Aqualad swam in a jerking motion, twirling his body to barely avoid Miist's plunge.

Miist splashed out of the other side, rolled across the floor, jumped nimbly to his feet, turned half of his body into steam, and blurred back towards Aqualad again. "HAAA!!!"

SWOOOSH!!

Aqualad darted across the dome of water.

Miist pierced through the liquid body.

As the villain emerged on the other side, a violet-eyed Aqualad flicked his wrist.

A tentacle of water reached out and—with perfect timing—wrapped around Miist just as he solidified against the wall again.

"!!!!!!!!"

The tentacle flexed, slamming Miist up...down...up...down...and plowing him through a weightlifting bench.

SMASH!!!

"Nnnghh...," Miist stood slowly up to his feet.

"Unlike you....I'm not bloodthirsty....," Aqualad broke surface and spoke from the watery shape. "I'm giving you and whoever you brought with you one last chance to leave the Titan's abode."

Miist's eyes glared.

Aqualad frowned. "I may have Slizzath's essence....but I don't have his treachery. I do not wish to destroy you."

Miist merely grinned. "Yes....," he winked. "You do."

SWOOOOSH!!!

Miist charged.

Aqualad ducked into the water and floated in a 'ready' stance.

"HAAAA!!" Miist ran into the water, charged up blades of steam, and started hacking...slashing....ripping...shredding...and altogether lacerating the body of water with burning arms of white.

SPLASH!!! SP-SPLASH!!! SPLOOSH!!! SP-SP-SPLASH!!!

Aqualad 'rolled' the dome of water back...but the dome was getting smaller as more and more sprays of liquid were being shredded off by Miist's relentless jabs and swipes.

And in such a fashion, the hysterical Miist carved his way deeper and deeper into the watery apple to get at its Idyllist core.

"Hehehehehe....," the fiend giggled. "Come out of the pool, Garth. Your time is up!"

Aqualad grinned. _"I'm not done yet."_ His eyes flickered purple and he raised his hands to the ceiling.

"H-Huh???" Miist glanced up and slowed his attacks.

One by one, the emergency sprinkler pipes started the wobble and the sprinkler heads popped off. Pow!! P-Pow!! Clank!!!

Wide sprays of emergency water rained down, coagulated in mid-air, and then streamed towards Aqualad like a long, long, flying snake. At the same time, puddles of water slashed off from the liquid dome by Miist started rising in the air and floating magically back to Aqualad.

The Atlantean's floating body glowed a furious purple. His body heaved as if his lungs were breathing while the various floating streams from every water and plumbing source in the room surged into his dome and made the blob of water nearly twice as large.

Miist stumbled back, panting.

Aqualad glared at him. _"There is......no second chance."_

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

The Atlantean and the body of water surged straight forward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOSH!!!

The green swordfish leapt out of the water, morphed into a wet-streaming otter, twirled to avoid a sailing glob of acid, and plunged back into the pool in the form of a penguin.

Agilely, Beast Boy dove and swam and thrust and plunged all around the cavernous pool, avoiding the burning streams of juices coming from the stationary Acyd's limbs.

The green haired girl treaded water in the center of the underground lake. Pinpricks of light shimmered down on her as she panted and struggled to perfect her aim as she launched stream after stream of acid at the Titan changeling.

At one point, Beast Boy leapt again out of the water and clung to a low-hanging part of the ceiling. He reverted to elf form and panted: "Come on!! Can't we just talk it out?! What is your deal?!?!"

"You don't deserve to know the truth, infidel!!" Acyd hissed. Her eyes danced purple. "Slizzath's days of imprisonment are to end!! After many millennia, his destiny shall be made known!! RAAUGH!!!" she flung a green glob.

Beast Boy leapt into the air and flew with eagle wings across the cavern as the rock burned behind him. He perched on a wall on the other side and returned to his elvin look of concern. "Look....it's that Senator Chasma guy you work for, isn't it?!?! Do you _really_ think he's gonna benefit this world?? Or Atlantis for that matter??"

"Nothing matters to me...," Acyd heaved. "Save for the honor of Slizzath!!"

"Just listen to yourself!!" Beast Boy shouted. "It's almost as if you're....as if you're....." He blinked as his own words lingered between his lips. "....hypnotized. You're hypnotized, aren't you?"

"I.....I......," Acyd sweated.

"Look...j-just calm down," Beast Boy gestured with a hand. "We're Titans! We're good guys!! I've fought people before who were.....f-forced to be evil." He gulped at a painful memory that stabbed his brain stem like a dagger, but continued: "You don't have to be so angry. Just calm down, lower your frothiness, and let's talk—"

"N-No....," Acyd had a look of pain. She clutched her head and shook all over. "NO!!!!!" She again bore a violet glare of anger as she snarled up at the shape-shifter. "Stop trying to deceive me with your lies!! That is Fryte's job!!" She pointed a shaking figure and frowned. "You should DIE for trying to emulate the awesome power of Slizzath!!"

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Eh heheheh......g-guess that bombed..."

"RAAAUGH!!!"

SPLOOOOSH!!

A wave of steaming acid fountained up at the changeling.

He had no choice but to dive back into the waters and resume the battle.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!!

I fell back and slid to a stop across the fresh ice.

"!!!!!!!" I winced all over. My nose was bleeding, ruining the immaculate 'Aqualad' façade. My skin was too numb to feel it.

"Nnnnghhh!!"

A bright blue aura.

I gasped and vaulted upwards with a flip of murk.

FLASH!!!

A horizontal cylinder of smooth ice materialized where my body was.

I twirled in the air and landed in a low, nimble crouch on the cylinder. I took a breath—my limbs smoking—and blurred at Fraust.

SWOOOSH!!!

She flung an ice beam at me.

I teleported through it and ran over the water with blurring feet.

She flicked her other wrist and flung a huge chunk of ice.

I sidestepped it, twirled, and charged her.

Fraust flinched and held her elbow in front of her petite body...forming a 'shield' of ice.

SMASH!!!!

I collided with it—and thus with her.

"Aaaugh!!" she fell back.

I tumbled to the side.

Shards and shattered ice crystals littered the floor around us from the impact.

Slowly, we got up to our knees...facing each other.

I was shivering...quickly catching cold from the frosted battle.

And Fraust was....

"You....d-don't underst-stand....," she sobbed. Snowflakes fell from her eyes. Mist wafted out from her lips. "Or if you d-do...you are as misfortunate as I am to kn-knowow the truth...." She slowly stood up and her hands glowed sapphire as she approached me. White flakes of snow clung to her short blonde hair. "The world as w-we know it...is a cold, frozen place of death. And it's about to get a lot c-c-colder. Nothing that we can do will stop Slizzath's reappearance. I only wish...I only hope...you have the st-strength to do the cold-hearted thing...and kill me before I'm so c-cursed as to see that world."

She slowly raised her hands. Sharp icicles rose large and threatening out of the wet floor all around her like a halo.

"So then...mimic who doesn't speak...," Fraust sniffed and formed a tiny frown of bitterness. "Embrace whatever warmth you have left. It is but an illusion..."

Crnkkkttt!

I blinked. I looked beneath me.

I saw a tip of an icicle raise from the floor between my feet.

Fraust's fists clenched. "Start freezing. HAAA!!!"

CHIIING!!

The icicle shot up at me.

I backflipped just in time to not get skewered.

Fraust's eyes danced purple and she flicked her blue wrists again and again. "Nnnghh!! Yaah!!"

Icicles magically shot up all around me where I stood and leapt.

CHIIIING!!! CH-CHIING!!! **CHIIIIIING!!!**

I acrobatically jumped, dove, and spun about all across the cavernous floor...barely avoiding the icy spikes shooting up all around me. I eventually resorted to running the length of the cavern. As a result, an entire line of icicles shot up behind me like a serrated backbone. CHIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIING!!!

I blurred my feet and ran up the wall.

Fraust flicked her wrists.

The icicles shot out horizontally.

CHIIII-IIIING!!

When I reached the ceiling, I teleported momentarily, throwing Fraust's aim off.

The icicles shot across the rocky solid overhead by themselves.

I materialized right-side-up in midair. Before I could fall, I grabbed onto a low-hanging icicle besides the wall with one hand, twirled my feet, and kicked at another hanging shard of ice with a grunt.

SMACK!!!

CRAAACK!! The icicle snapped and flew with murk-propelled ferocity down at the girl. SWOOOSH!!

"!!!" Fraust grunted and barely shielded herself with a sheet of ice. CRACK!!

SNAP!!!!

The icicle I was hanging on broke. I fell to the floor, landed on my feet, and found myself holding an icy-blue bludgeon. Without thinking, I twirled it expertly like a sword and charged at Fraust.

The girl recovered at the last second.

I reached her, crouched low, and swung.

SMACK!!!

The icicle cracked halfway.

Fraust fell onto her knees.

I swiped my foot up to her head.

THWAP!!

"OOF!!" she fell down onto the ground.

I took a deep breath, jumped to my feet, and swung down at her.

SWOOOSH

She palmed the icicle like it was merely a toy and shoved back at me. "Nynnghh!!"

I stumbled back, nearly slipping on the fresh ice.

Fraust jumped to her feet. She shivered and hoisted her arms to her side. FL-FLASH!!! Two curved and very-sharp scimitars appeared in her grasp. She spun them around like double nunchaka and rushed me. SW-SW-SWISH!!!

I gritted my teeth and blocked with my ice shard held horizontally.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!! Fraust's spinning scimitars of ice deflected off of my weapon. She spun around, twirled the blades, and sliced at my neck with two converging swipes.

I blurred out of the way.

CLANK!!! Her blades truck each other.

I fell on my rear and kicked up with both feet.

WHUMP!!!

Fraust stumbled back. The scimitars in her grip loosened.

I rolled forward, stood up from my somersault, and slashed upwards with my icicle club.

THWACK!!!

I knocked one 'scimitar' out of her grasp.

Fraust gasped.

I immediately spun around and swung the club at her head like a bat.

CHUNK!!!!! She stopped it with her scimitar embedded into its center.

I winced.

She frowned and pointed her free hand at me.

FLASH!!!!!!!

A rush of snow, ice particles, and frost slammed into my chest. The breath left me with a shuddering chill. I fell back and slid across the frozen water, landing in a pond of bone-wracking sleet in the far corner. The whole cavern was covered with falling, downy flakes of snow by now. I was numb all over....shivering.

Fraust ripped her scimitar out of the club and tossed my impromptu weapon away across the ice. She stepped menacingly towards me...and yet with a sag of her shoulder that suggested the boundless melancholy of her personality. She sniffed a huge inhale and pouted.

"You.....Y-You have disappointed me...."

I shuddered to breathe. I looked helplessly at her, hugging myself. I missed my normal combat fatigues. _It's downright freezing in a damn jumpsuit!!_

"At least Chasma would have had the gall to end my life if he wanted to...." Fraust murmured.

I raised an eyebrow.

"I wonder if this is what 'good people are like'.....," she spoke. A wisp of blue or two from her lips....then: "....how depressing......now go to sleep." She pointed a glowing hand of sapphire at me.

I prepared for an eternal refrigerator existence.

WHAM!!!!!

"Ugh!!!" Fraust exclaimed as she was clipped sharply from behind with an icicle to the head. THWUMP!!!! The Black Tempest child collapsed on the ice.

I panted. I glanced up.

Tula stood above the fallen mage, her hair tossed and her silken dress soaking wet. She took a deep breath and palmed the icicle. "And I thought **I** was the ice princess of Atlantis..."

I smirked crookedly.

Fraust limped onto her feet, clutching her head and wincing. "Pain!! You are so qu-quick to inflict it!!"

"Uh.....yeah," Tula blinked. "You need therapy or something?"

"What I need....I will never get," Fraust panted. "If only you could understand!!!" She aimed her hand at Tula.

I whistled.

Tula jerked her body at ready, expecting anything---

FLAAAASH!!!

---but that.

"Whoah!!!" Tula's body vaulted.

To my undeniable shock, her Atlantean strength sent her spiraling upwards at a height of fifteen feet. She agilely dodged the blue stream of ice, landed behind the girl, and elbowed her hard in the back.

THWUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Fraust stumbled forward.

Tula spun her body around and—skirt twirling—she raised a foot and gave Fraust a fierce kick in the shoulders.

THWAP!!!!

Fraust ran into a wall.

Tula twirled the icicle and ran towards her. "Pin the tail on the party pooper!!"

Fraust spun around suddenly and aimed a wrist at Tula's upper body.

The princess gasped and barely came to a sliding stop.

FLASSSSH!!!!

A cylinder of ice circled Tula's torso and chest.

Tula shivered and grit her teeth. "Okay....okay....one corset is enough, girl. NNnnnghhh!!!" With a burst of strength, she spread her shoulders and snapped the circle of ice off of her. She marched forward and flew a fist across Fraust's cheek.

WHAM!!!!

Fraust fell down, rolled in reverse, hopped up, and launched a huge chunk of frost at the princess.

Tula dove out of the way.

CRASH!!!!

Bits and pieces of ice showered down on her.

She lay across the floor in her wilted dress, wincing.

Fraust parted her fingers and formed four crystal shurikens. "You are almost a blessing..."

FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!!!!

The spinning stars of icy death flew down at Tula.

The princess winced.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred between the two girls.

In slow motion, my smoking fingers gripped all four shurikens in mid-air. I then blurred up to the wall, stepped up it, jumped off in a twirl, and flung the four projectiles directly back at Fraust.

The ice girl gasped.

Time resumed.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!! The shurikens gleamed.

Fraust formed two protective 'bracelets' of ice around her wrists. She twisted her upper body and fanned her forearms around, deflecting one—CLANK!!—two, three—CL-CLANK!!!—but missing the fourth projectile.

SLIIIINK!!!!

Blood splurted out from her shoulder.

"Aaaugh!!" She gripped her wound. Blue frost drifted out of the gash. She winced and looked at me with instant tears. "Please....don't torture me."

I hesitated. My only downfall. I panted and looked at her with sudden concern.

"All the others do....."

I gulp.

".......," Fraust blinked. SWOOOSH!! She had her hands aimed at me.

I gasped---

FLAAAAASH!!!!!

A huge beam of blue energy caught me directly in the chest. I was blown back halfway across the cavern until the ice collecting around my body met the ceiling and floor. Soon I was encased in a solid column of crystal. Frozen solid inside.

Tula gasped. "Noir!!"

No response. Not even a twitching arm. My Aqualad-garbed body rested inside a translucent prison.

Fraust spun to face the princess. She took a deep, sad breath and shuddered: "He isn't cold enough..."

Tula frowned, picked up a nearby shard of ice, and paced across from the snow mage threateningly. "You're lucky he wasn't my _real_ boyfriend. Or else I'd tear you limb from limb."

"And now??" Fraust asked.

"I think I'll settle for disemboweling you," Tula growled and charged with the sharp icicle. "YAAAAUGH!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Fryte!!! Let him go!!!"_ Ivan telepathically projected. Teeth gritting, the dark-eyed Idyllist soared through the waters and charged a huge pulse of plasma to incinerate the dark-haired mage on the hull of the T-Sub.

Concentrating on Robin inside the craft, a violet-glowing Fryte flicked a free wrist towards the side.

As Ivan rushed in through the water like a torpedo, he became vaguely aware of a shadow to his right.

He glanced over. He gasped and tried to pivot his underwater flight--

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!!

A huge, white shark plowed into his side. Its eye rolled back and glowed violet from Fryte's telepathic manipulation. The creature bit down at Ivan's hands.

The Idyllist snapped his arms away and wrestled with the mad fish. He tried shoving it off him, but the flicking of the shark's tail kept pushing the carnivore harder and harder into the man's chest. Ivan lost his control of plasma and was plowed into the coral below. He could only look helplessly at the Titan Leader's tortured battle as he fought with the heavily-teethed creature in the Hidden Valley.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!!

Nova'm tiny body wracked with pain as he was tossed against a nearby wall.

He winced in pain.

GRIP!!!!

Two thick tentacles wrapped around his neck.

He gasped for breath and was lifted his hands. They glowed brightly green. He charged tiny starbolts and flung them like burning daggers rapidly up the two tentacles gripping him.

The squid squirmed in pain and lowered through the hole a bit....then burst on through, shoving Nova'm hard against the wall.

SLAP!!!!

Nova'm quickly—agonizingly—learned the extent of his Tamaranian resilience and physical prowess. He could withstand pain....lots and lots of pain....

And he didn't exactly like it.

"Nnnnnnghhhh!!" he winced. Out of desperation, he charged a basketball sized starbolt and flung it into the bulbous body of the squid.

FLASH!!!!

The squid's limbs shook an dropped Nova'm to the floor.

He grabbed a piece of debris and flung it at the tentacles. THWACK!!!!

The squid backed off a bit.

"Go!! Save yourself!!" an Atlantean adult guarding the children called out from the shattered side of the room beyond the giant mollusk. "You can't ward him off!! You're only human!!!"

SW-PISSSH!!! A huge, waving tentacle smashed down at Nova'm.

He dove out of the way. His eyes glowed a bright green.

"I am not _human......_"

The tentacles angrily converged on him.

Nova'm's whole body flexed. An orb of green fury exploded from his figure. "YAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

Nearby Atlanteans shaded their eyes at the birth of a hero.

_'Sliuuuuuaaaath!!!!'_ The squid shrieked as it started to burn from the furious green aura....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HAAA!!! YAAAGH!!! RrrrrRRRGHH!!!"

FLASH!!! FLAAAASH!!! FL-FLASH!!!!

Starfire flew backwards across the science wing, flinging starbolts behind her at the perusing beast. Tentacles thrashed at her. She held them back with pulse after pulse of green desperation. Water spurted up from the damaged floor below. The darkly-lit interior danced from light filtering in through the chaos outside. Starfire was too busy with the giant squid and the flooding torrents to so much as glance outside and see the T-Sub....or Robin....

Slowly, the Tamaranian began to get exhausted. Her lungs heaved. Her wet red hair tossed before her eyes and distorted half-black vision. A sense of dread overcame her as dwindling adrenaline mixed with the sickening pit in her stomach at the thought of a waterlogged Boy Wonder and--

GRIP!!!!

The tentacles wrapped tightly around her neck.

Starfire wheezed and gripped at her throat.

The squid yanked her towards a table full of vials and glass containers.

SMASH!!!!

It then whipped her towards the ceiling.

THRASH!!!

Finally it began to slowly squeeze the life out of her.

Starfire merely dangled and wheezed: "X'Hal......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I always knew you were capable of it, my apprentice. It didn't have to take brute force. But simple negligence was enough."_

Starfire bobbed at the surface of some hidden pool. Her eyes were bulbs of ivory. Her face bloated blue and frozen.

"You were never fit for being a leader. It is in your veins to be a thief. To steal away the lives of your dearest friends when they were least expecting it......"

_Nova'm fell to the ground, his loose neck bouncing after a steady string of suction cups snapped his vertebrae apart._

"And that leaves you with one option. To serve me. To serve me as you truly wish to do. As you always wanted to do. In bloodlust of your friends lives."

"_**I.......I don't believe......I-I don't believe it......"**___

"Say it, Robin. Say that you're my apprentice. Give in and serve me......and I shall give you a quick death the soonest you ask for it......"

"_**I know this feeling......."**___

"Cease with your tangents! Obey me!!"

"_**The Scarecrow......."**_

"_I'm warning you......!!"_

"_**The Mad Hatter......"**___

"Must more of your friends die from your pathetic existence, Robin?!?! OBEY ME!!!"  


"_**It is all a trick......"**___

From the corner of obscurity, dark forms flitted in. Like a throng of leathery bats. Shrieking off into the blackness of night. Murky......currents......everywhere......

"_**The wind.....where is it??"**___

Flying between buildings. Tethered to a cord. A red sky.

"_**I know who I am......"**___

"You're my apprentice, Robin. You are evil to the core. You are—"

"_**No!! NO!!! I am not!!!"**___

"Silence----!!!"

"_**You are dead, Slade!! You hear me?!?! Dead!!! It took the loss of my dignity, the trashing of Terra's life, and the mutilation of Noir to rid you from our lives forever and you...are....not....REAL!!!!"**___

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!" Robin howled as he broke through the psychic mold.

SWOOOOSH-SLAM!!!!!!

His green-gloved fist plowed onto a red switch on the dashboard.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CHTUNG!!!! CL-CLANK!!!!

The front cockpit portion of the T-Sub in which Robin was seated detached from the rest of the craft in a flurry of bubbles. Thruster rockets extended from either side, glowed, and exploded in hot-orange propulsion.

SHOOOOOOOM!!!!

"!!!!" Fryte flickered purple as the detached vehicle flew off the body of the T-Sub and knocked his submerged body aside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghhhh," Robin sweated and gripped the controls....panting heavily. Moisture clung to the edges of his eyemask like a freshly squeezed orange.

The Boy Wonder jerked hard at the controls.

The tiny submersible skirted about acrobatically.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"......." Fryte glared at the distant image of the soaring submersible.

FLASH!!!!!

The magically-charged human looked aside.

A burned, bleeding shark drifted past him.

"..........," Fryte glanced down.

Ivan swam up to him and charged two bright fists of plasma. He frowned. _"Hello, Fryte."_

Fryte angrily grit his teeth....eyes flicker---

FLAAAAAASH!!!!! A stream of fire struck his body and plowed him into the building.

Ivan rocketed after him mercilessly in a flurry of bubbles. "RAAAAUGH!!!!"

In the meantime, The tiny sub Robin was in spun around and balanced itself in the currents.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin panted.

He was shaking all over.

He clutched hard to the controls...very hard.

Underneath his gloves, his knuckles were blue.

He still hadn't stopped shivering from the freezing sensation of the ocean.

And then Fryte....

The Boy Wonder gulped.

His eyes under his masked opened....and the first thing he saw was a Tamaranian girl battling a giant squid through the long, stretching windows of the capitol's science wing.

Robin gasped. "Starfire....." It was practically a whimper.

Starfire's body twitched helplessly under the grip of the giant mollusk.

Robin panted. He glanced all around. He looked at a compartment in the dashboard. He punched it, forcing it open. CLANK!! He pulled out a yellow communicator and jammed his finger over the switch.

"Starfire!!!" he shouted into the device. "Do you hear me??" While holding the communicator up with one hand, he pulled at the controls with the other...lining the submarine up with the stretch of glass looking in onto the science wing. "Starfire, it's me!! Robin!! Listen to me....when I tell you to, I want you to fly out of the way, got it???" He charged up the rear thrusters of the tiny T-Sub detachment."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_You got that, Starfire??_" Robin's voice filtered through the communicator on her chest. _"Star?"_

Amidst struggling, the Tamaranian's glowing green eyes opened and she gasped. "R-Robin...." Her voice whispered.

After an initial wave of perplexion, a strong bolt of strength rose in her being.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin kept charging the thrusters.

He flipped a few switches, buckled up, pressed two buttons...and braced himself.

A strong breath.

"NOW!!!"

He unleashed the thruster.

FWOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire—her breath thin—glanced over the bulbous body of the squid in front of her and saw the incoming reflection of Robin's watercraft across a slate of glossy metal.

She bit her lip, grunted, and lifted her lower body upward...clinging to the body of the tentacle strangling her from above.

'_Sluuuuuaaaath!!'_

The squid shuddered in surprised.

Its blubbery black eye darted towards the window.

The front cockpit of the T-Sub was screaming straight towards the room.

The black eye twitched.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glass and water formed the cape of the vehicle as it soared its way in—beneath Starfire's fetal body—and slammed bloodily into the mass of mollusk. RIIIIIIP!!!!!

Dark, inky blood splashed everywhere.

The squid screamed...if that was even possible...

The tentacles snapped loose in a dozen places, and Starfire floated freely...her breath back.

She hovered close to the ceiling just as the split-second rush of ocean water surged in and collapsed on top of Robin and the bloody beast.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Like a horizontal fountain, the wall of water shoved the vehicle and the squid across the science wing and through a nearby wall.

SMASH!!!!!!!!

Lights flickered as the chaotic mass of mollusk flesh, metal, and foaming water pierced through a nearby hallway—SMASH!!!—a living quarters—CRACK!!—and a commissary.

With a loud CREAAAAAK and sickening GROAAAAN, Robin came to a battered stop atop the silent corpse of the sea beast. Water was still rushing in like indoor rapids.

Alarms sounded.

Lights flashed.

Two water seal doors were gradually closing behind the path of destruction, succinctly sealing off the oceanic rupture from the rest of the dry building....but not before Starfire safely flew on through and landed—panting—in the commissary. The doors closed behind, and the waters stopped rising at about Starfire's ankles. The liquid was ever-increasingly stained with dead squid blood...turning a dark crimson.

The Tamaranian girl panted, shakingly parting wet strands of hair from her forehead.

In the meantime....

THWACK!!!!

Robin broke his way out of the collapsed cockpit hatch of the tiny sumbersible detachment. He knocked the glass away further with his staff and agilely leapt out. He stood halfway on the dead carcass in the center of the commissary and panted.

A beat.

Both Titans looked at each other.

"..............."

"..............."

To Starfire's surprise, Robin was the first to beat her to the punch. He ran over to her and hugged her so dearly, the girl had to fight for her own breath this time.

She eventually encircled the Boy Wonder in her arms and murmured: "Robin...I am so glad that you are safe. How did you ever get in such danger?? And where did these tentacled beasts come from?"

Silence.

Starfire blinked. She nudged his head. "R-Robin?"

He was holding to her desperately...with such intimacy that the Tamaranian had never known before.

"St-Star.......," Robin managed. Suddenly his voice sounded very shakey. "Please tell me.......have I done anything to hurt you??"

The girl leaned her head to the side. "N-No, Robin. You have not hurt me in any way. Why do you inquire?"

He shuddered against her....then sighed long and hard.

"Robin??" she felt worried now. "What is it—"

"Just stay for a moment, Star. Please...."

"Stay where, Robin?"

His arms seemed to be tighter. "Here......"

With a soreness in her throat, the Tamaranian girl gladly oblidged. The two Titans remained in embrace for a good thirty seconds before Robin finally parted the hug and uttered: "Okay....," he managed a weak smile.

Starfire's eyes thinned. She could have sworn she saw moisture at the edge of his Eyemask.

"We gotta get going," the boy said, the leader having returned. "There are people who need our help in here! Where'd you see Nova'm last?"

"I sent him to the interior of the building—"

"We gotta check on them all! Come on!!"

Robin ran, tugging her. Starfire floated in tow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Miist found himself ducking and dodging the attacks of a veritable mountain of water.

And floating in the center of that water was a demonically glowing Aqualad.

Prince Garth's eyes flickered as he flicked his wrists and shot out two tempests of water.

SPLOOOSH!!!!

"Mmmf!!!" Miist flew back across the gym.

The blob of water stretched out and slithered towards him.

Miist gritted his teeth, formed two blades of steam, and leapt into the liquid mass.

SLAAAAAAAAAASH!!! He sailed at Aqualad, arm first.

".............," Aqualad blinked. He jerked his body to the side magically inside the water blob.

Miist flew past him.

Aqualad 'flipped' inside the water and slingshotted himself at Miist's rear with a heavy kick.

WHAP!!!!

Miist spiraled through the water, swam around, and propelled himself with Steam with a huge bludgeon of white foam.

Aqualad acrobatically ducked the swipe, bent back, twirled around, and added to Miist's propulsion with a punch to the back of his neck.

WHUMP!!!

"Oof!!!" Miist shouted bubbly into the water before rocketing out of the liquid 'wall' and sailing through a punching bag.

SMASH!!!

Aqualad squirmed his watery 'mountain' into the center of the gym.

Miist rubbed a bleeding cheek, shouted a war cry, and blurred at the Atlantean.

SPLOOOSH!!! He dove back into the water and swam murderously towards him.

Aqualad's eyes flickered. He treaded backwards and pointed a finger.

Water torrents rose around a benchpress. The magical waves picked it up within the 'cytoplasm' of the watery mass and flung it at Miist.

Miist twirled in mid stream and slashed the bench in half with his blades. CRACK!!!

Aqualad floated backwards past a balancing beam, which lifted up from his controlled currents and surged towards Miist.

The fiend ducked it and approached Aqualad closer.

Garth smirked. He raised his hands. A rack of dumbbells behind him exploded, gathered in the currents like a stream of metal meteorites, and soared rapidly at Miist.

Miist snarled and slashed repeatedly at the incoming weights with his outstretched blades. CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACK!!!

But he couldn't stop the two one-hundred pound weights on the lifting bar.

WHAM!!!!!!!!!

Miist twirled back painfully through the currents.

Aqualad flattened the water mountain, stretched his hand up, snatched a faraway basketball with the currents, and sent it soaring through the medium and across Miist's skull.

WHAP!!!!

Miist floundered.

Aqualad charged at him, reloading his cache of dumbbell shards, bench splinters, and punching bags. He flung all of them at Miist in an armada.

SPLOOOSH!!! SPL-SPLOOSH!!! SPLOOOOOSH!!!!

The various objects slammed repeatedly into Miist from different angles until a heavy swing of a metal locker knocked Miist up and entirely out of the body of water.

SPLASH!!!

He tumbled towards the dry, gymnasium ceiling.

Aqualad grit his teeth and focused his violet energies.

The entire blob of water formed into a huge 'hand' that grabbed Miist and tossed him straight out the gymn doors and into the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!!!

"Ugh!!" Miist tumbled bloodily onto the hard floor.

He struggled to get up.

He heard a rush of deadly water behind him.

He spun around, gasping in horror. The grin was long gone.

SPLOOOSH!!! Aqualad sank through the door....the blob of water morphing thin and low to accommodate for the new interior.

Miist grit his teeth.....and ran. He sprinted down the hallway as fast as his human legs could take him.

"_Cowardly waste of breath!!!"_ Aqualad frowned.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!! Aqualad soared after him.

Miist found a churning, wrathful waterfall literally chasing him down the dark corridor of the Tower. Splashing currents foamed outward and recollected in an endless, self-propelled current.

Miist panicked and blurred his feet. He became the epitome of steam, speeding down the dim avenue. His flesh turning into white fury.

Aqualad wasn't about to let him get away. He churned the waters surrounding his throttling figure as if they were mist themselves. He flicked his wrists and whipped tendrils of water out towards the target.

THWAP!!

WH-PHISSH!!

Miist yelped and tried to avoid the liquid tentacles.

Aqualad gained the distance. He readied himself with a condensed stream and exploded outward. SPLASH!!! The Atlantean soared out of the front of the torrent and landed with his feet on Miist's shoulders.

THRUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Miist half-stumbled and desperately tossed the prince off him.

Aqualad flipped back and caught himself with four 'arms' of water reaching telekinetically out from the torrent behind him. He ran his legs in mid air and kicked them along the sides of the hallway with a hand stretched into the water. Thus, Aqualad was practically 'running' along the wall with one hand grabbing a watery tentacle like a merry pole flag. When he was again close enough, jumped out on the liquid bungie cord and kicked Miist hard in the rear.

WHACK!!!

"Mmmmff!!!" Miist finally tripped, grinded along the floor, and came to a stop in front of the Tower's elevator.

Aqualad slowed the water to an immediate stop. He settled down to the floor on an extended platform of liquid while the rest of the watery body surrounded him and Miist's body before the elevator like a hollow cocoon, allowing no exit.

"I gave you your chance for retribution....," Aqualad glared. "You decided to laugh it off. What am I to do with you now?"

"Heheheheh........," Miist laughed again. The jester had returned.

Aqualad raised an impatient eyebrow.

Miist looked up weakly and grinned at him. "You could try cutting my throat and ripping my heart of my shell.....like my friends and I did with your Renzukka buddies on the way over here......"

Aqualad's eyes widened. A breath escaped him.

"Heheheheheheheh," Miist demonically laughed and held his fingers up. "Could have used some butter dip though....ahahahahahaha—" WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aqualad kicked Miist upside the chin. A bloody tooth or two flew. Miist gargled warm blood in his mouth while Garth seethed.

"You want to see the essence of Slizzath, Miist? Well guess what...I have it reserved for you and only you, you murderous worm!!!" Aqualad hissed. He raised his hands and the water closed in. It encircled Miist's cringing body. It pushed him into the elevator shaft.

Aqualad still wasn't mad enough. He raised his body up in a vertical torrent. His black hair waved in the water. He stretched his hands out like a crucifix. He started to glow brighter....brighter....and brighter violet.

The walls cracked.

Pipes burst through and vomited water in his direction.

Emergency sprinklers exploded and streamed down on him.

Every source of water on that floor of the Tower and the adjacent floors squirmed towards him like a huge army of gravity-defying ants.

And Aqualad kept glowing...glowing....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of the Tower...alongside the beach....the Bay Waters churned. The tide came early, with surf rushing up the beach, over the dry sand, and 'cascading' uphill towards the body of the Tower itself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAUGH!!!" Cyborg jetted forward and punched the last waking attacker hard.

THUMP!!!

The Atlantean ninja fell back. He struggled to his feet and clutched strongly to the trident in the center of the atrium.

Cyborg raised his scraped metal fists, panting.

The assassin was about to charge one last time when the huge doors of the Tower gave way behind him. He looked around. "???????"

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The door burst down and a wall of water surged in.

Cyborg gasped and dove out of the way.

The attacker wasn't so lucky. The rocketing stream caught his body dead on and slammed him into the stairs as it rushed up the next floor of the Tower.

Cyborg watched from the sidelines...confused to see a river-worm of water slithering up a narrow path up towards the high point of the room.

"What the Hell??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven floated to a top of the nearby rock bluffs. What she saw made her freeze.

Underneath the torrential rainfall, six separate streams of water were gathering at the base of the Tower and slithering inside like worms to an apple.

A creaking sound.

Raven looked up.

Rainwater started collecting exclusively over the top of the Tower...rushing in through the top elevator hatch....bending the metal structure apart.

And then the rainwater...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Bayside Plaza of the City, two pedestrians walked out with umbrellas and pointed at the Titans' Tower in the center of the Bay.

"Look!!"

"Oh my god..."

"What's happening??"

Dry people under the protective awnings of storefronts murmured with awe.

Their eyes were wide.

Lightning flashed as the rainwater over the distant Tower bent and curved inward to rush inside both the top and the front of the Tower. It was like a giant magnet adjusting clear iron filaments to both poles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!" Aqualad angrily warbled. The pool water, the plumbing water, the Bay water, the rainwater....it was all surging together in one magnificent Tempest about his figure and plummeting murderously into the elevator.

Miist was drowning...thrashing about....overrun with fear and madness.

Aqualad's head arched back with a last howl, and he shot himself into the elevator shaft. One gigantic fist of water shoved himself and Miist up, up, up the elevator shaft.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miist screamed, shrieked, banged around the inner lining of the elevator shaft.

They smashed through the collapsed elevator car, sending debris flying. The cables whipped around—somehow avoiding Aqualad from side-tentacles of water and hitting Miist with each quake instead. And sooner than the hellish moment could prophecy, they were smashing through the top of the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!" Aqualad screamed as he came to a floating stop on the rooftop. But his punishment didn't end there. He surged the entire collected arsenal of water up _through_ him and high into the gray air of the storm....carrying Miist with it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Tower vomited the Tempest upward like a pulsing laser beam of blue and gray. The spectacle could be seen from miles around.

And on top of it was Miist's body. He never stopped flying skyward. And he never stop screaming. Not when he pierced through the lightning-dances of the thunder clouds. Not when he soared on the watery fist above the storm itself. His voice began to leave him as the air thinned and turned drastically cold. The steam of his body started breaking down. He gasped and his eyes widened...what ever was left of them.

"Oh Lord Slizzath!!!"

Frost crawled down the mage's face as he pierced the upper troposphere.

"My Lord...my Liege...save me!!! SAAAVE MEEE-E-E-E-E-e-e-e-e------" His shrieking voice turned into the crackling sounds as his body broke into a thousand tiny clouds of mist, which promptly froze into ice flakes in mid air and scattered outward and back down towards the earth.

They melted into oblivion on the descent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad panted.

The rushing water dissipated around him. His eyes returned to the normal white on black.

With one last sigh, he lowered his arms.

There was no more fountain to lift him upward...and he fell.

FLASH!!!

A black hammock caught him and gently lowered him to the soaking rooftop.

Raven floated over and knelt by his side. "Aqualad...."

The Atlantean winced and rolled over on the ground, coughing. Sputtering. The violet glow within him died.

"Are you injured?"

He clenched his eyes shut and grimaced. "Unfortunately.......no......"

CLANG!!!

Cyborg burst through the top door of the stairwell. Panting, he ran out onto the rooftop. "Raven!! Are you okay??"

"Of course I am," she droned. A beat. A sigh. "And so is Aqualad...it seems..."

Cyborg squat down beside them. "Man....how did you do that?"

Aqualad didn't answer.

Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head. "Well...it tore up the inside of the Tower pretty bad....but we got rid of those creeps."

"Miist is dead."

"Who??"

"Miist...," Aqualad coughed. He turned back over and reopened wounded eyes. "One of the carriers of the elements of Slizzath. He was sent here, but he's gone now. Were there any others?"

"Yeah, assassins," Cyborg nodded. "Real badass guys. Atlantean tumblers...heh. We had a handful of them and couldn't get to you."

"How did Miist die?" Raven asked.

Aqualad swallowed. "By me...."

Raven bit her lip.

Aqualad stumbled up on his feet. He looked around at the storm, which had stopped raining....as if the Atlantean had stolen all of the moisture out of it.

"Cyborg," Raven gasped. "Your eye---"

"Nothing I can't repair," Cyborg gestured at his smashed, red optic. He looked at the two of them. "Well I did a quick diagnostic after the last of the ninja dudes were taken down. Someone was definitely here before to sabotage our security. Could that Miist guy use stealth?"

"Most definitely," Aqualad nodded. He hobbled tiredly towards the stairwell. "But there's another way that they all got here."

Raven squinted her eyes. A beat. She sensed something. "N-No....," she gasped.

Cyborg looked at her...then at Aqualad. "What??"

"I have to go see something." Garth ran down the stairwell.

The Titans followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWISSSH-SWISSSH-SWOOOSH!!!

Beast Boy agilely twisted and turned under water as a sailfish, avoiding the burning streams from Acyd's fingers.

The girl was beginning to tire. Her angry resolve was fading and her corrosive arsenal was thinning. As the rough exterior faded away, a sense of dread came over. It melted her face and sagged at her green hair. She treaded up at the surface of the underground pool one too many times, giving Beast Boy ample liquid volume to move around in underneath her.

And it was about time that he took advantage of it.

He morphed into a sea lion and throttled towards her from below.

She shouted and streamed two squirts of acid out of her toes.

Beast Boy skirted past the water, morphed into an octopus, darted behind her back, flung green tentacles around her from behind, and morphed into elf form. The two bobbed in the water with Beast Boy hanging from her shoulders. In such fashion, the two combatants struggled.

"Let me go!!!"

"I don't want to hurt you!! How many times do I have to tell you that?!?!" the soggy changeling uttered as they splashed about. "I'm not so kosher about taking out kids my own age!! There's gotta be a reason why you're doing this!! There's gotta be someone making you!!!"

"Let me go!!!" Acyd shrieked, trying to shake him off. "I'll burn you in half!! I'm **evil**!!"

Beast Boy put her into a heavy headlock and hissed into her ear. "None of us are _born_ evil!!" He swallowed and added breathily: "We only choose to be!!"

"N-NO!! SILENCE!!!" Acyd growled. "I mustn't disappoint Lord Slizath!! You have no idea what h-he'll do to me!!!" That said, she flung her hands straight towards the ceiling and shrieked: "YAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!" Two huge splashes of green acid surged towards the top of the cavern.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

SSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!! Steam exploded everywhere. Pebbles and tiny crags started to litter the pool around them. Then.....

"!!!!!!!!" Beast Boy gasped.

The ceiling started to give way.

The changeling was distracted just long enough for---

"NRRGHH!!" Acyd gripped him hard and tossed him off her body.

"Aaack!!" Beast Boy flew hard into the wall on the far side. WHAM!!!

A watery shadow appeared in the currents around Acyd.

She looked at it....gasped...and looked up.

Her eyes widened. She covered her green head. "Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

Beast Boy covered himself.

RUMMBBBBBBLEEEEE!!!!!!!

A large splash of water from the center.

Then..........

Silence.

"...........," Beast Boy looked up. His heart fell.

Where Acyd was, a huge clump of boulders now rested heavily in the pool. There was no sign of the girl.

Beast Boy sighed painfully. ".............." He slowly morphed into a giant sloth and climbed up the rock face to the snowy cavern above. He stopped once to glance back at the morbid scene.

"It always ends in stone........"

He was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NNGHH!!!" Tula twirled across the floor and elbowed Fraust hard.

WHUMP!!!

"Augh!!" Fraust stumbled.

Tula added in a side-blow of the icicle club in her grip.

WHACK!!!

Fraust slid across the ice.

Tula rushed her, lungs heaving.

Fraust balanced herself, frowned, and ponted a hand down.

FLASH!!!!!!!

She shot an ice chunk.

Tula hopped it.

Fraust shot another.

WHAM!!

It clipped Tula's side.

"Ugh!!" the princess merely winced and continued charging.

Fraust spun, produced an ice sword and slashed it down hard at the combatant's legs.

Tula dove out of the way, the sword ripping a huge tear in her skirt.

WHUMP!!

She tumbled across the ground, panting. "Nngh....I need to have a word with Chasma about his employment these days..."

SNKKT!!

"........" Tula was silent.

Fraust held the ice blade to the royal girl's throat.

Tula frowned up at her. "So.....cry baby....will kidnapping me make Slizzath love you any more?"

Fraust rowned....but suddenly her face exploded in a look of transient pain and horror. "!!!!!!!" she gasped and cupped two frosting hands over her lips. CL-CLANK!! The ice sword fell to the floor as Fraust stumbled backwards. "The essences....m-my companions.....they're dying..........th-they're all dying.........," she hugged herself and sobbed pitifully. "Fryte....Miist...Acyd.....what have they done to you???" Violet flickered across her face, slowly being replaced by snowflake tears as Fraust shook and heaved. "The pain.......it has caught up. It is hurting us and everyone else at once.....oh why are you dying?!?! Why can't I join you?!?!"

Tula watched. Panting. Confused.

Across the cavern, the cylinder of pure ice rested. A dark figure inside of it gradually blurred. A slight vibration—then—SHATTER!!!!!!!! I flexed my arms outward with a silent howl, my body covered with murk from head to tow. I fell to my knees amongst the shattered remnants of my icy prison. I shivered and gasped for breath. I looked up and saw—with great concern—the cowering, sobbing figure of Fraust.

"Oh friends............you are gone...............you are all gone............," she fell to her knees. Blue mist rose all around her. She was like a melting ice sculpture. "I can't do this alone........I-I can't do this alone........."

Slowly, Tula stood up. She clutched hard to the icicle club and walked towards Fraust.

Fraust collapsed on the ice...seemingly out cold.

".............," Tula took a deep breath. She gritted her teeth and raised the club to smash over the girl's head--

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!

"Huh???" Tula looked over. She gasped. "Noir!! You're out!!"

I nodded, shivering. I held the club in mid-descent.

"What are you doing??" the princess exclaimed. "Now's our only chance to---"

I put a finger over her lips. With a soft gaze, I slowly shook my head.

Maybe it was from seeing her 'boyfriend's face' up close....but for whatever reason, the strong-willed Poseidonisian relented.

We dropped the club down together and looked at the exhausted body of Fraust.

"Why did she just give up??" Tula remarked. "If she and the others are working for Slizzath...they shouldn't be hesitating to end us!"

I scratched my head.

"If they were Atlantean, we might all be dead now."

I gasped. The both of us spun around.

Beast Boy climbed through a melted hole in the ice wall that first separated us. He walked our way. "But they're not Atlantean...."

"...........," Tula glanced down at the body.

I walked over. I knelt beside Fraust. I fingered along her neck. It was cold and covered with a sheen of ice...but somehow she could handle it. But that wasn't what confirmed what I needed to know. No matter from what angle I examined her skin...even Tula and Beast Boy could see.

"She's....a surface-dweller....," Tula remarked. A beat. She gasped in sudden horror. "Oh Neptune.....can it be? Could Chasma be so heartless to have used _them_???"

"Huh???" Beast Boy panted. "Who??"

Tula took a deep breath. "I'll explain in due time." She managed a slight smile and looked at me. "I think it's d-due time that I show you gentleman the reason I took you down here to begin with..."

I nodded. With Beast Boy's help, we hoisted Fraust's frail body into my arms...and followed Tula down a dark corridor underground.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The alarms inside the Idyllist Capitol had ceased. People were no longer running about and screaming, trying to get to emergency stations. Things had reached a level of safety, balance, and normalcy.

Except for a huge cluster of onlookers encircling a space in the central ring of the underwater building. Bodies of Atlantean citizens, families, and guards alike flocked around a spot of interest.

Starfire and Robin walked in on this, dripping wet.

"What is going on??" Starfire asked.

Robin shook his head. "I don't know." A beat. "Hey...I think I see Ivan's head!"

Starfire gently grabbed Robin's shoulders and flew the two of them over and into the center of the crowd.

At sight of them, the ocean-dwellers humbly parted for some reason.

Robin and Starfire raised their eyebrows at that....but once they reached the center of the crowd, their attention was stolen by a body lying on the floor.

Ivan turned to face him. His expression was sad...regretful, with a touch of fading violet.

"I....h-had no choice......," he spoke. "As a leader of my people...and as a soldier....."

Starfire clasped her hands together nervously.

Robin walked over and knelt besides the body lying limply on the floor. "................," Robin stared. He blinked under his mask and asked in a bizarre balance between firmness and gentleness: "Who do you work for?"

The body of Fryte twitched. He had plasma burns all over. A few of his limbs were broken. With his dying breaths, he turned his head towards Robin. His eyes were no longer violet....but instead a deep and very human brown. He shuddered with a dry throat and said: "I....I have been 'made' to work....w-work for Slizzath....and his second c-coming...."

Atlanteans around the circle murmured and gasped in fear.

Ivan urged them silent.

Robin took a breath and spoke: "Did Senator Chasma send you??"

Fryte twitched. He uttered: "Yessssssss.........."

More murmurs...quieter this time....

Robin leaned in more. "What is the next plan of his? What does Chasma want to do on the day of Junction??"

Fryte gasped. His whole body convulsed. His time was short.

People twitched uncomfortably.

Starfire held a hand over her mouth.

Fryte convulsed again. He gritted his teeth and jabbed a hand up, gripping the neck of Robin's tunic.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed.

Fryte slowly raised his head. Shaking...blood drippling from his mouth....he managed: "My name.....i-is not Fryte.....My n-name is Wesley.....an-and today I shall be leaving this dry and wet world to its own devices. For wh-when Chasma has his way.....it won't b-be me that you must be afraid of." He coughed. More blood. His eyes thinned. "Fear.....F-Fear the Black Tempest........Fear the Black T-Tempest.......it will consume you all......." His pupils rolled back. His mouth hung open. His body slowly drifted back and his hand stiffly fell away from Robin's tunic.

"...........................," Robin stared. He ran a hand over the boy's eyes.

Fryte's lids closed.

"...........," Robin then ran a hand down the boy's neck. ".............no gills." A beat. He looked up at Ivan.

The dark-eyed man folded his arms and looked off into space. He sighed. "I am....never going to change. The essence of Slizzath...the threat of evil....it shall always live inside of me and my closest kin." He glared Robin's way. "I will go with my strongest men to approach the Senate at Atlantis. And I will take you with me." He bit his lip. He added: "Before any more horrors taint our beautiful land........"

Robin nodded. He slowly stood up and walked past Starfire. "Come on....nothing left to see here...."

She sadly nodded and hovered with him out of the crowd.

The people gathered around in muted fear as they bagged Fryte's body up and carted him away.

In the meantime, the two Titans drifted across the interior until Starfire gasped:

"!!!! Nova'm!!!"

"What? Where??"

Starfire flew over towards a small group of people and two children. They were huddled about the red-headed Tamaranian boy. He sat with his shoulders to the wall. He hugged his knees and rocked back and forth.

Starfire landed beside him. Her lips parted in concern. She looked up with round green eyes at the Idyllists, young and old. "What transpired here??"

"There was a second squid," one of the adults said in some sort of somber pride. "This young man here fought bravely against it. We owe him our lives......"

Robin walked into a shattered little room and saw the burnt carcass of a huge mollusk. His fists clenched.

Starfire turned to look at Nova'm. She pressed a hand on his shoulder, gently holding him still. "Nova'm....Nova'm, it is Kory. What.......wh-what are you feeling right now?"

Silence.

Nova'm swallowed and shakily spoke: "I-I had to k-k-kill it......."

Starfire's eyes fell. She saw black blood on the boy's hands.

Nova'm smiled weakly and looked up at Starfire. "G-Guess that makes me a hero now....r-right?"

She bit her lip.

Emerald tears welled up in Nova'm's eyes. His lips quivered.

"Oh Nova'm.....," Starfire gently held him tightly to her chest and stroked his red hair. "You were _always_ a hero........"

He shivered and sobbed quietly against her.

Robin walked over and stood above the two.

Silence.

He slowly dropped down to his knees and joined the embrace.

Starfire sniffed and held Robin close as the two of them solaced the sobbing little boy. She leaned her head against the Boy Wonder's shoulder and closed her moist eyes.

The three were silent like that together.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad's feet stopped at the end of a long spring.

He panted, staring ahead of him.

Cyborg and Raven haulted beside him.

Silence.

Aqualad swallowed a sore lump down his throat. He jumped off the rock bluff and onto the top of the Renzukkan watercraft. The hatch on the top was still open and eating rainwater. In a flash, he jumped down inside of it.

Silence.

Raven and Cyborg exchanged worried glances. They slowly crept over and entered the hatch after Aqualad.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg dropped down first. He held a gentlemanly hand upwards and helped Raven down to her feet. He then switched on the shoulder flashlight and swept the light beam across the interior.

Raven gasped.

"No....," Cyborg breathed.

The bodies of the Renzukka lay in pieces...scattered abroad the interior. Dried blood in the shapes of Miist's steam blades splashed across metal crossbeams, seats, portholes, and control consoles.

Cyborg's light finally crossed over Aqualad.

Prince Garth knelt, cradelling Tram.

As the light illuminated him completely.....it turned out to only be the severed head of Tram.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Raven was silent.

"..................," Aqualad seemed to be staring more _through_ the remains in his hand than at it. He barely breathed as he droned: "Raven.....you once told me.....that you understood what it meant to be liken unto a demon......"

She gently nodded.

"................tell me....," Aqualad's gaze rose to meet her. Like stone. "If you are possessed with evil.......whose responsibility is it.....to make good of it?"

Cyborg glanced at Raven.

The dark girl said: "Nobody's but my own......."

Aqualad slowly nodded. "I have....a great responsibility to live up to.......," he gently set the skull down. He stood up, his arms resting to his side. He said: "And that responsibility will take me to Atlantis........and straight into Chasma's twitching heart......."

Cyborg was about to verbaly object, but a glare from Raven stopped him.

Aqualad glared the Titan's ways. His dark eyes flickered a distant violet as he said: "We leave....tonight."


	125. Fear the Black Tempest part 6

**125. Fear the Black Tempest part 6**

"This is it," Tula said.

Beast Boy scratched his head. "What exactly is 'it'?"

The dark corridor underneath Atlantis yawned open into a humongous cavern, the size of a giant lake. The ceiling to the cave stretched high and wide. Hundreds of electric lights pinned to the rock glowed brightly and together they created an illusion akin to daylight overhead. The underground acreage was covered with very....recognizable buildings, both short and tall. Among them were three or four huge glass domes filled with vegetation, much like greenhouses. And between the structures walked men, women, children, families....

A small, glowing community underground. Very happy and sunny for a place where there was no sun.

I walked out of the corridor with Fraust's limp body in my arms. I squinted my specked eyes and took everything in from where I stood beside Beast Boy and Princess Tula.

After a minute or so, Beast Boy looked the princess' way and spoke: "I entreat thee humbly, your highness.......but.....................what the Hell???"

"This is sanctuary," Tula said.

"Sanctuary?"

She looked down at the changeling and smiled in a betrayingly soft manner. "The Sub-Lands. It is a secret most precious."

"So.....um...," Beast Boy blinked at the community. "Where's all the water?"

Tula chuckled. "The people here don't need it quite so much."

"How come?"

"Follow me. We have to get this girl to the infirmary. My people here will tend to her."

I nodded.

Tula descended down a tall set of stone stairs. I followed with Fraust. Beast Boy took the rear.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This sanctuary was constructed in a joint effort by both Poseidonisians and Idyllists," Tula spoke. We walked between buildings and past a garden. "It's proof of our loyalty to each other. I've been here many times...and so has Garth."

"Do the Atlanteans know they're living above this place??" Beast Boy asked.

"King Orin does," Tula confessed. "But it wasn't until three years ago that we told him. As you can imagine....he was a bit miffed at the news at first. Especially since the news hasn't been too---well—'new'."

"How long has this place been here?"

"Well over a hundred and fifty years," Tula said. "There are many places identical to this one all over the sea, and many of them much older. There's one under the city of Poseidonis...and another under Mount Sedna, or what you people call 'Easter Island'."

Two kids ran past the path, chasing each other, giggling.

I watched them, smiling slightly. I leaned my head to the side, startled by the sound of _songbirds......_

"Feel like you're at home?" Tula smirked.

"Well...y-yeah! Actually....," Beast Boy nodded. "These people are---"

"Not Atlanteans," Tula shook her head. "They're surface dwellers. All of them have lived their entire lives down here. According to rumor, though, some of the other sanctuaries house people of your present generation. But for the most part, it's a self-contained society."

"But....like.....how'd they all get here??" Beast Boy cackled.

"Quite an unfortunate irony of fate," Tula sighed. We walked up a hill towards a contrasting building of white metal and Atlantean architecture. "A long time ago, before Paleo-Poseidonis sunk into the sea and became the first city of Atlantis, there was an ancient race of nonhuman ocean-dwellers who set up a far-reaching civilization under the world's oceans. In our history books, we call them the Syrens. The Syrens were a people of fierce power-mongering and advanced technology—many of which we've found relics of and have adapted into Atlantean civilization. The Syrens died out by their own hand before our culture had its four millennia to flourish. Much of the Syrens' tragedy falls in the hands of their war technology. In three strategic places in the sea, they constructed Obsidian Crystals for powering a weapon so big that it feasted on the electromagnetic field of the earth to deal magical blows of ferocity against whatever foe they chose. According to legend, the aura of evil that these Crystals forged brought the Syrens to their end. The Crystals' energy faded, but they never truly lost their wicked luster. In the last four thousand years, the three structures have randomly fluctuated...causing all sorts of global repercussions. About two hundred years ago, the Crystals pulsed and caused a terrible volcano to shudder a good fourth of the Earth. A century later, they accidentally caused a gigantic explosion in the lower atmosphere over the northeast hemisphere. Even now, the ferocity of these sleeping Crystals cannot be predicted. We guard them with extreme apprehension."

"If you know where they are, why not just simply destroy them?" Beast Boy asked.

"It would not be wise to attempt such a feat," Tula shook her head as we ascended the last lengths of the hill. "The Obsidian Crystals are too deadly and mysterious to tamper with, and besides...they would still pollute the oceans in some fashion or another if we were to dismantle them. I believe it's much like surface dwellers and their problems with the endless array of nuclear weapons."

"Eheheh....yeah, that," Beast Boy sweatdropped with a simper.

"Nevertheless, the Obisidian Crystals are in our seas...and there are a few of us who feel very much responsible for what they do to the Surface World," Tuls explained. "And there is one thing that—over the last three centuries—have been a constant side effect of the ancient weapon."

"And that is?"

"Innocent surface-dwellers, traveling in various different ways over the ages, have been subjected to the Crystals' dark energies. Specifically, this seems to take place within the area of ocean set between the three Crystal points. Humans started losing their lives to the waves when their vessels fell out from under them by the wicked pull. So much of a waste of life this was, Atlantean secret societies flocked to the rescue. We have since been saving the lives of the sunken surface-dwellers with our submersibles and bringing them to these sanctuaries to live out their lives instead of tasting death. For as much as we wish to uphold their lives, we cannot—at the same time—give out the secrets of our underwater civilization. Secrecy has been a way of ocean-dwellers' culture for as long as we've been that which we've been. But now...young torch-bearers of the sanctuaries are hoping for a change. People like Garth and I are doing our best to impress King Orin with the job our societies have accomplished in preserving these innocent people all these years. If Junction goes well—and groups like the Poseidonissians and the Idyllist are allowed back into the Atlantean collective, then releasing these people back onto dry land may be the next step. And if we're willing to do that...what will stop us from finally reuniting? All of us! The surface-dwellers.....the ocean-dwellers....the entire world?"

"Whoah....sounds like big stuff...," Beast Boy scratched his head. "How does Senator Chasma and Slizzath's dark energy fit into all of this?"

"Chasma is a man who wants power, and he uses conservative parties and radicals to back him in the Senate," Tula said. As she reached the top of the hill, she paused and sighed. "But Chasma is also a fool. He thinks—or at least he once thought—that using Slizzath's black magic is the key to dominating the power that he desires. He probably figured that the only way to stop someone as powerful and revitalizing as King Orin from ushering Atlantis into a new age of social integration would be to wield fear and darkness. So he dabbled in Slizzath's sealed essence, and the Senator's mind was polluted. Now Chasma is nothing more than the mere puppet of Slizzath. He tried to make his final move to shut us up with the dark assassins. And if indeed we've fought off that attack, Slizzath will be angry. The retribution would be fierce and merciless. We must be prepared for anything, and work the hardest we can to ensure political Junction. Once that is done, all of Atlantis will be united...and the oceans will be strong enough finally to silence Slizzath's reemergence for good."

"So let me get this straight....," Beast Boy held a hand out. "All of this is tied together. Garth's near-execution. Chasma's conspiracy. Slizzath's reemergence. The blonde snow chick in Noir's arms...."

I simpered.

".........and now these surface dwellers living underground," Beast Boy blinked. "So....like....if these humans can be granted safe return to the surface world, that'll mean happy times for once between both of our peoples. But in order for that to happen, Atlantis first must reach the Junction. But in order for THAT to happen, Chasma has to avoided in all of his death traps and whatnot. But that won't be easy, because Slizzath is empowering Chasma. And while we're trying to let Junction take place, we're also trying to fight back Slizzath under the political radar so that Atlantis will gather together AFTER Junction to kick his magical butt. And the keys we have to doing that is Garth and his essence-ties and Noir's masquerade as the Idyllist prince in the meantime!"

Tula nodded. "Yup. That sounds about right."

"Ha!" Beast Boy proudly planted his hands on his hips and smiled my way. "And who says I don't pay attention to the plotline?"

I whistled innocently.

"But still....," Beast Boy simpered. "There is one thing I'm curious about."

"Mmmhmmm?"

"Where'd you say these Crystals were? The ones sucking up these people that you've brought to live here?"

"I'm sorry....I'm not well-versed on Surface geography," Tula remarked. "All I can say is that it's low in the Northwestern Hemisphere. And the vessels that they sank in....," Tula motioned towards the other side of the hill, "...they are preserved in part here."

Beast Boy's eyes thinned curiously. He marched to the top of the 'hill' and looked down the other side of the huge cavern. His breath left him.

"???" Curious, I walked over and stood by his side. I gasped and tried my best not to drop Fraust.

The cavern floor on that side was devoid of houses and terrariums. Instead, there were seaships. Yachts. A huge tanker. And then airplanes. Retro fighters from the 40s. Sections of a jumbo jet. And dozens of small, propeller planes.

Beast Boy gasped and pointed: "Dude!!" He emphasized an old-fashioned cargo ship across the way. "It's the _Cyclops_! The U.S.S. Cyclops!" He looked around excitedly. "Holy crap! Look at those bombers!" he pointed at a group of planes. "That....th-that's Flight 19!!"

I looked at him funny.

His eyes were wide as he glanced back at me. "Bermuda Triangle, man...." He grinned drunkenly. "Bermuda-tapdancing-Triangle!! Hahaha!!" He pulled at his hair and beamed. "'Three Obsidian Crystals' indeed....HA! Dude...this is so cool!"

I simpered. I looked back at Tula. I motioned with my head at the girl in my arms.

"Knees getting weak, handsome?"

I smirked sarcastically.

"In here," she pointed to the infirmary building. "Come on."

I nodded and walked with her.

Beast Boy stood alone on the hilltop, gaping in awe. "Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude."

A beat.

Tula marched back, sighed, and yanked him towards the building by the collar.

"Yaaah!! Just lemme stare a little longer, please???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There were two Atlantean nurses helping me lower Fraust down to a soft bed inside a darklit patient room.

"Y-Your highness...," one of the nurses stammered. "This girl....sh-she has powers. She must be working for—'

"We know," Tula nodded. She glanced at me. "But....we think we can still salvage her. There's time to fix the damage Chasma has done yet."

I smiled softly at her.

"We shall do our best to tend to her, Your Highness," one nurse curtsied.

The other was examining the blonde specimen. "She's burning up. Her body temperature is one hundred and two. Not good by human standards."

"Was she ill when you fought her, your highness?" the other nurse asked.

"Perfectly fine......er....f-for a black magic assassin."

I knelt by the bed. I squinted my specked eyes. I ran a hand across the girl's bangs. I felt moisture leaking off them. I rubbed my wet fingers together.

"................."

_Melting........._

I parted my lips. I looked up at one of the nurses. I charaded 'shivering' and pointed all around the room.

The nurse smiled. "Good idea." She placed her instruments down, stood up, and rushed over to a console on the wall.

"What're you doing??" Beast Boy asked.

"Making things more comfortable...," the nurse said. She accessed the console—which served as thermostat of sorts. She turned it down....all the way down.

Gradually, it got very cold inside. All of our breaths turned visible.

Beast Boy hugged himself and his teeth chattered.

I shuddered, steam coming out of my lips.

The Atlanteans seemed rather oblivious to the drop. When it reached fifty-five (the room's limit), the nurse turned around and pointed at her assistant. "Check her vitals now."

The other nurse picked up the instruments and examined Fraust. A beat. She smiled. "She's becoming stable." She looked up. "It's like her element."

"Right now it is," Tula said. She pointed. "You two see if there's anyway to undo the effects Chasma has put her through."

"But, your highness, if it was truly Slizzath's power that manifested—"

**"Try**," Tula uttered.

"Yes, your highness."

Tula shuffled over and stood between us. She spoke quietly while all three of us gazed on Fraust's figure.

"As you both know....this girl is a surface-dweller. But I don't think that's as far as it goes. She's a surface-dweller who was acquired because of the Obsidian Crystals."

"You mean....she's Bermuda Triangle victim like all the rest? Beast Boy cackled.

"Most likely a descendant of one," Tula said. "We—and when I say 'we' I mean the Idyllists and Poseidonissians—cannot account for every surface dweller who suffers submergence and isolation because of the Crystals. We try to save and provide habitat for as many as we can...but that doesn't mean we're the only ones who get to them first."

"Meaning.......?"

Tula took a deep breath. "It's quite possible that Atlanteans of evil persuasion—like Chasma and his men—have been stealing these humans and using them for dark purposes."

"Like kidnapping?"

Tula nodded. "We've lost nearly sixty people in the last twenty years. They could be anywhere among the secret societies of Atlantis..."

"What would Chasma do if he got his hands on such people?"

"Neptune help them is all I can say." Tula sighed. "I think we're looking at a product of Chasma's dabbling in the dark arts." She gestured. "Fraust...the essence of Slizzath's frozen magic."

I looked at the blonde girl. The blood inside of me began to boil.

"Whoever would have done that to her would do anything to screw up Junction for sure," Beast Boy said. "I'm beginning to hate more and more the creep that we're up against."

"You're not alone. In the meantime, I gotta go somewhere," Tula spoke.

"Where to?" Beast Boy asked.

She smiled. "I've got my own element, ya know."

Beast Boy blinked.

"Noir?" the princess spoke.

I looked at her.

"Care to come with me? We have much to talk about for the coming day."

I nodded.

"I'm gonna stay in here," Beast Boy said...despite his shivering. "You never know when you'll need a Titan handy," he smiled.

I rolled my specked eyes and gestured with my hands: '_It is because of the nurses, right?'_

He merely blinked at me.

I sighed.....I wished Cyborg was there.

"Well, let's be off," Tula spoke. She ruffled out of the room.

But I hesitated. I turned and looked sympathetically at Fraust's silent figure.

The nurses were tending to her. Preparing a hospital gown. Fixing her scrapes and bruises. Their arms brushed against her fair skin and short blonde hair.

I inhaled painfully.

_Funny......she almost looks like her......_

"Noir??"

I snapped out of my memories, spun around, and followed after the princess.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula walked into a round room with a wide, shallow pool in the center. The pool was in the shape of a pure circle, and the only light from the room was from a ring of illumination under the water. The dark blue walls reflected with dancing, kaleidoscopic beams. There were doors on six places in the walls, and it was in the center of the Atlantean building. It must have been a public pond or something.

"Ah...finally...," Tula murmured. She hoisted her shredded skirt a bit and sat herself in the pool, dress and all. I came to realize that ocean-dwellers got their clothes wet as a rule of thumb, and the cloth was woven accordingly to accommodate such.

The princess slowly lowered herself and sat in a submerged 'seat' that wrapped around the interior of the pool in a ring. She sighed long and hard as she did so, very much relaxed.

"Don't mind me...," she chuckled a bit and glanced at me. "Atlanteans and water........it's a thing as old as blood."

I shrugged with a slight smirk.

She rested her head back on the dry surface behind her and just let herself............soak.

A beat.

I shifted where I stood.

Silence.

I narrowed my eyes, waiting..........waiting............waiting............

Then.........

"I don't know why I'm trusting you two so much.......to be honest, Noir......."

I looked at her curiously.

Tula still had her eyes closed. She took a deep breath. Her torso was resting comfortably under the rippling surface. "I mean....two surface dwellers have just dropped in my lap upon the eve of the greatest political function of my life....and here I am treating you as allies in the most crucial moments ever....."

Silence.

I bit my lip.

She opened her eyes and looked at me: "I think it's because you look so much like him........"

My specked eyes fell to the floor.

"Those eyes...."

I winced.

Tula twisted around and wrested in the pool with her chin propped up on her hands as she looked at me. "Only Garth's family has it," she spoke. "He and Praetor Ivan are the last ones left with the trait. Tell me.....are they your real eyes?"

I chuckled breathily.

She raised an eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

I shook my hand...and my head. I smirked....then sighed.

Tula blinked. Her gaze narrowed. "The scar....."

I waited for her to say it:

"It's how you lost your voice, isn't it?"

I nodded exasperatingly.

"It must be hard being a hero on the surface-land when you can't talk." A beat. "Or maybe," she smiled. "It's absolutely easy?"

I twisted my hand from side to side.

"Garth has always been the quiet type...," Tula turned around again. She hugged herself, half submerged. "And lonely type too. I wonder what scars _he_ hasn't told me about..."

_Here we go......_

I sighed. I sat down on the edge of the pool and leaned my hand against my head. 'Listening'....

"At first, I thought it was just an act," the princess confessed. "Like he was playing tough or 'hard to get' or something. But as it turns out, he's had a pretty tough past. I think it has a lot to do with the curse on his forefathers. But—pretty much—he has no family."

I listened....

"He gets nervous around lots of people. Heh....I can't imagine why he decided to become an ambassador for the Idyllists. But then again, maybe he didn't have much of a choice."

A beat.

She added softly: "Garth thinks he has no future. As long as Slizzath's power looms, Garth will blame himself for the evil essence that he carries. And he's told me......h-he's told me that he would rather live life alone and rejected till he dies rather than share it with someone and possibly spread the curse to her as well...."

I took a deep breath.

Tula looked my way. "If only he knew....if only he knew that I'm so happy for all the things he's done for me and the Poseidonissians that I would gladly use whatever's in my power to release the curse from him..."

I smiled slightly.

"It's not very fair for you that I ramble on about Garth in your presence, Noir," Tula said. "Everytime I look at you, I see his face. And I think of him. And I know that—like always—he's far away and battling demons on his own. Only this time...the demons are everywhere. I'm battling them myself, but he's not here. And it's such a sick....sick feeling...."

I scratched my head and my eyes trailed off. I suddenly longed to be home at the Tower inside my room with my laptop and the instant messenger program....

"Don't mind me, Noir. Heh....if you're anything like Garth, you're bound to have girls pining over you somewhere too," she winked. "That true?"

I chuckled. A soft grin.

"Heh....thought so."

I blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in the southern Atlantic...

An armada of submersible craft were soaring mightily through the currents.

There were four of them. One was of amazing girth, practically an aircraft carrier underwater. It took point with two medium submarines the size of surface-dwellers' nuclear potential flanking it. Following at the rear was a smaller craft roughly a third of the size of the large one taking point. All four vessels cruised through the depths in perfect coordination. Atlanteans rising water bikes numbering in the dozens circled all around the four submarines, acting as guards and watchmen.

It was the Idyllist excursion to the Atlantis. The large ship at point housed Praetor Ivan and most of the higher delegates from the Hidden Valley. The two medium sized ships held passengers wishing to take part in the Junction. The small ship to the rear acted as a mobile command post for the guards on their sumbersible bikes.

The bottom of the large ship with Praetor Ivan had a huge docking bay at the bottom of its hull for accepting and deploying smaller submersibles...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stood on a metal walkway inside the large vessel's docking bay. The T-Sub hung beside him, suspended by steel bracers in the ceiling of the hangar. Pools of water gathered above the closed bay doors below.

"What are you trying to say, Cyborg?" Robin spoke into his communicator while pacing the catwalk. "Is Aqualad feeling better or something?"

"_It's not that simple anymore, Robin."_

"Explain."

"_I wish I could. Did you ever know that Aqualad wields some of Slizzath's magic because of a curse?"_

"Not until recently. Why?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg was gathering various tools into a huge 'backpack' of sorts that only him and his titanium girth could hope to carry. Weapons, explosives, computer equipment...it all went into the collection.

He went about his task at the far side of his laboratory while talking into a headset. "Well, he really cleaned the clocks of one of Slizzath's sorcerer guys, not to mention one or two of the minions sent with him to attack the Tower."

"_Miist, right?"_

"Well, he **was** Miist. Now he's nothing. Kinda like that Fryte guy you told me about. Though—from the sound of it—Fryte wasn't all too gung-ho about trying to attack you guys. Am I wrong?"

"_No, I think you're right on the money. But enough about the magical assassins. Where are you people going?"_

"Atlantis."

"_How??"_

Cyborg shrugged. "Aqualad's got some means of getting us there."

"_Did he explain—"_

"No, he didn't, Robin!" Cyborg barked. "I'm sorry, but things haven't been so pretty here. The Tower got royally beat up and waterlogged by the attack we had. Raven got shook up. I had to spend four hours repairing my body. And to make things worth, Aqualad's Renzukkan friends are dead."

"_Which ones?"_

"**All** of them," Cyborg paused and exhaled. "Tram too, man. The little dude was practically butchered by Miist and his clan."

"_I......I had no idea......"_

"What damage did Fryte do over there?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin cleared his throat and spoke while pacing the catwalk:

"Besides nearly implode the entire freakin' capitol building of Idyllist?? No deaths reported...but there are at least ten Idyllists stuck in their hospitals undergoing extreme anxiety and duress. I wouldn't doubt it if Fryte's mental manipulations turned them insane for life."

_"That's gotta suck, man."_

"Well, it makes the fight against Senator Chasma and Slizzath all the more important," Robin said. "Praetor Ivan snapped out of his funk and now he's taking Star, Nova'm, and I—along with a bunch of his most trusted allies—to Atlantis. If luck is on our side, Chasma will have more than he can chew....or at least more than his magical minions can chew, what's left of them."

_"How's the T-Sub, man?"_

Robin paused. He bit his lip. "The T-Sub?"

"_Yeah, dawg. Tell me that at least my baby survived in one piece."_

Robin looked at the T-Sub to his side.

The entire craft was dented, scratched, and scarred in numerous places. The front cockpit submersible was still partially detached from the rest of the vessel. With a swift kick of his steel-tipped boot, Robin awkwardly snapped the compartment into place—CRAACK—with a resonating crack down the already shattered cockpit of the front.

"Yup!" Robin pleasantly uttered into the communicator, sweatdropping. "All in one piece!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"..........," Cyborg's eyes scanned some unseen horizon. He frowned. "It'd better be."

"_How is Aqualad doing? Is he letting anger take control of him?"_

"What do you mean?"

"_Miist's attack. Tram's death. Is Aqualad taking you two to Atlantis out of vengeance?"_

"I dunno, man. But if you were to ask me—"

"And I am."

"---I would say let him do what he needs to do. This is his nation, man. This is his future. Raven and I are going to trust him from hereon out no matter what. And it's a good thing that we'll have Raven there too."

_"How so?"_

Cyborg smirked slightly. "I think the two are on the same page about many things."

_"You okay with that?"_

Cyborg frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"_Never mind. I need to go check up on Star and Nova'm. We're on route to Atlantis ourselves. I have a feeling that—if you guys leave now—we might meet at around the same time."_

"I bet that'll make Noir and Beast Boy happy."

"_We'll know eventually. Robin out."_

-click-

Cyborg shuffled the headset off. He held up the last of the items going into the pack before him.

Myrkblade.....

"_We're coming for you, buddy,"_ Cyborg smirked. He put the blade away, fastened the pack closed, and exited the laboratory.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad's face reflected against the waters lapping up against the rock bluffs of the Tower's island. It was still overcast from the evening previous. The sky still stained with the gray somberness.

He took a deep breath, his dark eyes thin. He reached hand down and dipped it into the water. The ripples spread everywhere, distorting his reflection into chaos. And into that chaos he peered and entreated a dozen images....

But mainly one...

"Tula....you're all I have left...."

Silence.

A voice from behind him cleared.

Aqualad slowly stood up and looked around.

Raven looked up at him stoically. "Cyborg's ready. He radioed me to let me know that he's coming with all of our equipment."

"Good....we'll be going soon."

A beat.

A cold wind kicked against them. Summer mist mixed with autumn chill.

The year of the surface world was slowly dying and even an Atlantean like Aqualad could sense it.

"May I ask you something, Raven?"

"You may try."

Aqualad looked at her. "Are you alone?"

She paused for a few seconds before answering that. "I once was. Before the Titans."

"What's it like to be alone?"

"I'm surprised you wouldn't know," she droned. "With the life you live."

He smiled slightly. His face faded to stone as he glanced out onto the ocean. "Idyllists believe in something that we call the Principle of the Crying Brill. I think it's something very similar to what surface dwellers call the 'butterfly effect'. My culture maintains that—if plankton had tear ducts—a single sobbing one of them would add teardrops into the ocean that could be felt thousands of miles away by the king of Atlantis itself. The ocean is one huge unit of matter, in our eyes at least. We share the same water to breathe, sleep, live, die, sob, and laugh. There is no single thing committed by one Atlantean that can't—in some remote way or another—affect the life and habitat of another. It's the basis of Idyllist ideology to believe that the only way to keep the same ocean everywhere for everyone remotely safe and sound, people must live a life of peace...and not of war. The city of Atlantis did not share this belief. In their minds, the Ocean was something to segment politically. And whenever you divide the Ocean up—just like land—you set things up for war. And Atlantis has always been a culture of war. My people didn't want tears of anguish to flood the Ocean, so they broke off and settled in the Hidden Valley. Even today, every Idyllist boy and girl is taught by his or her household that the best way to confront a dangerous situation is to minimalize it...to put peace above one's own aspirations or will. Well...I was born with the evil of Slizzath in my being. I grew up knowing that I may very well be the proponent of some wicken reincarnation of an imprisoned sorcerer. And, much like you Raven, I took the beliefs I was given and determined that the only way I could bless the world was to forfeit it. I never stayed in the Hidden Valley for more than a week since my later childhood. I've always been on the move. Doing my best to stop the likes of Trident, Black Manta, you name it. I've met a select few in my life with the strength and capacity to understand who and what I am....but even still, I can't stick with them long. I have to keep moving. I have to be alone. Because of what I am."

Silence.

Raven stared at him.

Aqualad ran a hand through his long black hair and sighed.

"Tell me....do you think someone like you....someone like me....someone like any of us...can find a time and place to sit down, make a home, and no longer be paranoid?"

Raven inhaled, then said: "Paranoia never leaves you, Aqualad."

He glanced at her.

She added: "And for me...fear is a dangerous emotion. I cannot admit having paranoia over the evil potential inside of me. At the same time, I cannot deny its presence. So I found an alternative way of solving my own concerns."

Aqualad leaned his head to the side.

She smirked slightly: "I am a far more frightening individual than what my fears are. If evil were to sink its claws into my throat, I would give it Hell to pay. Not just for myself...but for my friends. Because—when or if you finally decide to settle in with a family, Aqualad—you realize that you are worth more than you ever thought possible. And you are definitely worth more to innocent people who care about you than you would ever be worth to some powermongering demon desiring the essence that sleeps inside of your person."

A beat. Aqualad smiled slightly. "I envy you, Raven. You know the truth so....well."

She droned: "Truth is relative."

"Yeah.......it is.....," he sighed.

"...........," Raven looked to the side.

So did Aqualad.

Cyborg stepped up to the water with the pack. "Allright.....how're we gonna do this?"

"We'll need something to stand on," Aqualad said.

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Something to stand on?"

"Something firm," Aqualad said. He glanced at the rock bluffs. He glanced at Raven and Cyborg. "How about it?"

"Step back...," Cyborg said, switching his right arm into a sonic cannon.

Aqualad stood out of the way.

Raven floated above Cyborg.

"Ready, Rae?" he asked, aiming at the rock bluffs.

"Shoot."

He did.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

The cannon blasted the rocks. A huge, square chunk fell loose.

Raven meditated and extended her fingers. She floated the rock above the waters, the flat part up.

"Good," Aqualad hopped off the bluffs and onto the floating rock. "I'll take it from here. Come on."

Cyborg jumped and landed beside him.

Raven floated above the rock, still floating it telekinetically.

Aqualad concentrated this time. His eyes flickered purple.

Water rose up in a column and 'cradled' the rock from underneath....supporting the weight.

Raven released her powers. She landed down between Cyborg and Aqualad. The two Titans watched Aqualad do his thing.

Prince Garth concentrated. He sunk the rock the three were on into the waters. But instead of drowning the three in the sea, he extended a force above them. Manipulating the water, he formed a dome of air smoothly over the rock. The three sunk deeper and deeper into the Bay beside the Tower's island.

Raven and Cyborg watched in wonder as the seawater bent over and around them.

"Whoah....," Cyborg breathed. "It's like 'The Abyss' The Ride!"

"Hang on...," Aqualad said. "I'm taking us to Atlantis...and I can't waste any time."

"What do you mean---WHOAAA!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

The rock streamed through the waters like a meteorite. Aqualad—in his concentrated magic—spread and parted the rocketing waters constantly to keep the 'riders of the rock' safe and dry.

"This could be rather hectic...," Raven blinked.

"Don't worry," Aqualad said while guiding the waters. "I know what I'm doing."

"I sure hope you do!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "What if one of us fell off and into the ocean?"

"Then hold your breath till I come around back for you."

"And just how long would that have to be?"

"At the rate I'll soon be going," Aqualad spoke, "Four minutes to slow down and go back."

"Four minutes?? I sure don't like your passenger insurance!"

Aqualad smirked slightly. "I knew you wouldn't."

Cyborg frowned. "Sheesh....I don't know whose more ambiguous. Noir because he can't talk, or you because you don't talk enough."

Raven said: "At ease, Cyborg. He's getting us to Atlantis much faster than the T-Sub ever would."

"Oh go make love to him already!"

"......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Schwissh!!!

An automatic door swung open.

Robin stepped into a passenger compartment and paused.

The seats were full of Idyllist men, women, and families migrating to Atlantis to witness the Junction. Most were still shaken up by the recent attack on the Hidden Valley. Gradually, they were all calming down as the voyage went on its way. Dim lights kept the corners of the room shadowed, and portholes warbled with passing, oceanic scenery from beyond the hull.

Robin gazed over to the right. He caught sight of two familiar figures by the far wall.

He walked over to them.

Starfire sat on the floor with her back against the wall. Nova'm sat to her side, asleep. His head was leaning against her shoulder gently. She rested a hand on his side, softly half-hugging him into her as he slumbered.

She glanced up at Robin.

"Hey....," he quietly uttered.

She smiled gently. "Greetings to you too," she whispered. A beat. She glanced at Nova'm. "He is quite...exhausted from our recent adventure." She sniffed forth a slight giggle and looked back up at Robin. "It is safe to assume that his fervor outshoots his physicality."

"He's kinda small for his age, don't you think?" Robin scratched his head.

"Tamaranian children—in a sense—experience growth from puberty later in their lives than Terrans," Starfire quietly explained. "But as soon as they do start to grow, such growth is in earnest. Hehehe." She leaned her head to the side pleasantly. "Blackfire is at the head of my family's offspring. She should be taller than Cyborg in about a year now." A beat. She bit her lip. "Providing they properly nourish her in prison."

Robin cleared his throat to leave that topic. "So...I guess that explains why you're so...uh...."

"Tall?" Starfire giggled.

"Yeah, I guess," Robin scratched his head. A beat. He raised an eyebrow: "Say...how old are you anyways, Starfire?"

She answered: "Thirty-two fliggemborgs."

Robin's eyemask bugged. "Th-Thirty-two?!?!"

Starfire giggled. "More eloquently put: seventeen of your earth years."

"Oh....heheh...," Robin sweatdropped. "I was gonna say...."

"You were going to say what, Robin?"

"Um....."

"........."

"Never mind...," he sighed and sat down beside her. He stretched and rested his back against the wall.

Silence.

"Cyborg, Aqualad, and Raven are going to Atlantis," Robin said.

"And is it true that they have suffered casualties?"

He nodded somberly. "Tram and about seven or so other Renzukka are dead."

She bit her lip. "I....I-I see...."

Silence.

"This mission has turned out to be of greater magnitude than we have imagined," Starfire said.

"Pretty much, yeah," Robin nodded.

Starfire gently stroked Nova'm's hair as he slept. "I am....glad, now, that Nova'm did the 'stowing of the away' with us. I do not think I could have beared being departed from him during the attacks on the Hidden Valley and the Tower." A beat. "Were Noir and Beast Boy similarly assaulted?"

"I dunno," Robin grunted. "I was unable to contact them."

Starfire looked at him, concerned. "Do you have reason to believe that they are in danger?"

"Their communicators are still on," the Boy Wonder explained. "There's just interference keeping me from reaching them." He gestured: "With so much ocean and rock and stuff in the way, I wouldn't doubt it. The key is to keep trying and—hopefully—I can get them to set up a meeting point so that we can wait for Cyborg's crew and swap Noir out with Aqualad." He took a long breath. A beat. "Besides, I'm sure Noir and Beast Boy can handle themselves."

"I do hope so," Starfire nodded. A beat. "It is not so pleasant to be away from our friends during times of peril."

"You're right about that," Robin nonchalantly said.

".............," Starfire glanced across the room.

Robin looked at her curiously. "Star?"

"Yes, Robin?"

"Is there something on your mind?"

She hesitated...but eventually uttered: "My mind has been vexed by something."

"Okay."

"....something which you have said."

"Um.........o-okay."

She glanced at him. "You told me that you hired me for Team Nautilus in hopes that I might be essential in convincing the Idyllist people to move on behalf of Aqualad."

"That's correct."

"And yet...Praetor Ivan was motivated into action not by my part in the diplomacy, but rather in retribution of the recent tragedy befalling his Capitol."

"True."

"Did you not anticipate this, Robin? Usually your mission plans are much more thought-out in expectation of any eventuality...," she looked aside meekly as she added: "I feel as if you were in the error regarding my potential on this mission....or...."

"Or what?"

She blushed, as if ashamed to question the Titan leader. "....or perhaps....th-there was another reason for your asking me to team up with you after all...."

Silence.

Robin cleared his throat, simpered, and said: "Well....you see, Star....I......uhm....that is to say.....we....."

She stared at him.

He bit his lip. He looked at Nova'm. He looked at her again. With a new bout of confidence he spoke: "You just said you were glad that Nova'm stowed away, right?"

"That is correct."

"And....i-it would hurt you and make you worry if he was---I dunno---in the Tower instead? Like...when it was attacked and stuff?"

"True."

Robin leaned his head to the side. "That's....kinda sorta the same thing with me, Star," he said.

"How so, Robin?"

He winced. He tried to explain: "Because.....well....." He looked around the passenger deck. "This submarine...this sea....this mission...." A beat. "It would really suck for me to be here and......well...."

"......"

"....a-and not have you be here too."

"Why is that?"

"The same as Nova'm, Star."

"???" she glanced at the boy. She glanced at Robin. "You would....be worried for me if I were at the Tower or with Team Archimedes."

"Yeah....," the Boy Wonder scratched his black head of hair. "Something like that."

"...........," Starfire blinked. "So, am I to assume that you chose for me to be on this mission with you so that you would not have to worry about me?"

"I guess...."

"And it was not because of my abilities as a superheroine to assist you in diplomacy and action?"

"N-No, it's not that!" Robin gestured emphatically. "Second to Beast Boy, you're great underwater and...um...I was being honest about the diplomacy thing..........a-and the way you handled that squid......uhm......"

Starfire stared at him.

Robin sighed. "You're mad at me now, right?"

Slowly, Starfire shook her head. "No, Robin. I am not mad at you."

"But....I-I wasn't so honest about telling you why I wanted you with me," Robin said. "I didn't mention that I would be worried—"

She rested a hand on his shoulder and smilingly said: "And I have been on Earth—and in your company—long enough to realize, Robin, that telling me what you did tell me about this mission was your roundabout way of _being_ honest."

"..........," Robin blinked under his eyemask.

She leaned her head to the side and softly grinned. "There are aspects of you that are not very mysterious after all, Robin," she said. A beat. She seemingly looked beyond him and said in a deflated breath: "And still, parts that are."

"I hope I haven't hurt your feelings, Star."

"On the contary, Robin," she looked back at his eyemask. "I am........glad."

"What for?"

"The fact that you selected for me to accompany you on this mission," she explained. "I have no reason to fear or be concerned. For you and I are not apart. And....a-and I can feel safe that you yourself....are undamaged."

"Yeah....fancy that," he chuckled.

A beat.

They looked at each other. For the first time, they realized how close their faces were.

And in the descent of two and a half seconds, their faces became even closer.

Then...

"Nnnghh....," Nova'm stirred in his sleep against Starfire. "Raven....," he murmured.

"..................." Robin and Starfire snapped out of it.

They both looked at Nova'm.

The sleeping boy had a drunken grin on his face.

"........................," Robin stood up. "I'm going to go visit the mess hall......see if they have ice water."

"Yes...," Starfire dazedly nodded. "Please acquire some for myself as well."

The Boy Wonder walked away.

The Tamaranian girl blushed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy rubbed his hands together and blew hotly into them. He stood at the far end of the patient room, shivering. Three times already he had morphed into a snow hare, a polar bear, and even a penguin. But he kept reverting back into elf form—despite the cold—to most properly grace Fraust if she were to finally wake.

The snow mage lay in a hospital gown on the bed...completely relaxed in the low temperature of the room. After a good hour and a half, her eyes fluttered open. Frost flaked off of her lashes. After a second or two, she sat up with a gasp. "!!!!"

"Whoah, there...easy...," Beast Boy rushed over. He didn't touch her—for fear of arousing the black magic of Slizzath's frozen fury—but he stood a mere foot away, smiling gently. "You're with the good guys now. We're not gonna hurt you or anything."

Fraust trembled—but not from the cold. That was impossible. She clutched the bedsheet to herself and stammered: "Wh-Who are you??"

"I guess you could say I'm a tourist," Beast Boy said. "My flight was supposed to land in the Denver International Airport and I ended up here instead."

"..........," Fraust stared with a twisted expression of confusion.

"Yeah...," Beast Boy breathed vapors and scratched the back of his neck. "I-I get that look a lot when I tell jokes." He waved. "The name's Beast Boy. Don't mind the green skin. It won't bite, but the pointy ears might. Eheheheh...."

She relaxed a little. Her blue eyes looked all around the dim room.

"What's your name, if I may be so gentlemanly to inquire?" Beast Boy winked.

She stuttered: "F-Fraust.....F-Fraust, imbued with the power of—"

"N-No...not what that jerk Chasma gave you," Beast Boy said. "Your real name...."

"............," Fraust took a frozen breath. "Amy.....Amy Sm-Smith...."

"Pleased to meet you, Amy," Beast Boy smiled. "I've always liked girl names starting with the letter 'A'. Must be some fetish that the Internet hasn't documented yet."

"Why are you so curious as to my real name?" the girl asked.

"Well.....um....it's your name. That's important. R-Right?"

"........," Fraust leaned her head to the side. "None of _them_ ever asked of my real name."

"Who're we talking about?"

She bit her lip. "Ch-Chasma. He says that I am Fraust. Now and forever."

"And do you wish for that?"

"................"

"Allright...," Beast Boy sighed and put on a weathered smile. "Let's do this slowly. After all...you collapsed big time, from what I've been told."

"I....I-I do not understand," she uttered. "I was....I was enacting Slizzath's will....I was inflicting harm and.........wh-why was I spared?"

"Um...."

Her eyes welled up with icy tears. "I....do not understand.....why they could not just free me...."

"Free you? Listen, Fr-er...Amy. You don't need to die!"

"Oh but I do!" she hiccupped. She brought her hands to her face and bent over. "You do not know of the evil contained within me! You do not know what I am capable of! What I have been granted by Slizzath's essence—"

"Amy! Just a second!" Beast Boy reached a hand out and grabbed her wrist.

She gasped and looked at him.

His green eyes were firm. "I can imagine all sorts of things....and you know what? None of us cares. You were once happy and safe, weren't you? Living in some underground City? Tended to by Atlanteans?"

".........," Fraust slowly nodded, her quivering lips agape.

Beast Boy said: "What Chasma and his goons did to you was very wrong. But the last thing you should be thinking was that it was your fault. People.....evil, bad people....they manipulate the innocent youths around them and make them do things that they don't want to. And in the end, those young, innocent people think that they themselves are evil when they shouldn't have to. I think you're one of those people, Amy. But—I think all of your friends are too. That Acyd girl for one. She's not evil either. Just...torn apart against her will. I bet all of you have been looking for a release...some salvation. And guess what? You've got it now..."

"..........," Fraust looked down at Beast Boy's hand.

So did he.

A thin sheet of wet ice had naturally spread from her skin and surrounded his knuckles. With a snap! he broke his fresh ice glove off and held it up close to his eyes.

"Heh...cute touch you've got there."

"I-I'm sorry," she shuddered.

He smiled at her. "Don't be. I like a good chill every now and then." He morphed momentarily into a crab, spread his claws, cracked the glove apart, and returned to elf form. "So I guess you're naturally cold and stuff. Bet you own a lot of bras," he winked.

She narrowed her eyes. "You talk funny," she said. "And you have powers." She glanced at his green skin and pointy ears. "A changeling. Do you also work for Slizzath?"

He rolled his eyes. "No, I don't. And neither do you! Come on...open your eyes!" he gestured and smiled. "Just because you have powers doesn't make you a component of evil. My friend and I brought you here because we know for a fact that having special abilities means you can change the world for the better. And I think that—if you had a choice—you'd do the same too."

"Your friend....," Fraust blinked. "Who is he?"

"Noir........," Beast Boy said. A beat. He winced. "Erm....dressed quite obviously as Prince Garth right now. Eheheheh," he simpered. "But you knew that already....d-did you?"

"According to Chasma....Prince Garth hardly possesses the powers that your friend 'Noir' exhibited," Fraust said. "Garth is one of us....but it's because of the family curse on his side. He is Tempest."

"Right, and you're frost. And then there's Acid...Mist....blah blah blah. I got the speech," Beast Boy said. "Princess Tula gave it to Noir and I."

"Princess Tula....," Fraust shuddered. "Surely....surely she will seek my execution."

"I don't think so," Beast Boy shook his head. "She's willing to work things out. You see...she's working her tail off to get things all peaceful and stuff for Atlantis. And that means the whole Ocean, if you're wondering. Anywho...all that's standing in the way is Chasma and his Slizzath-suck-up philosophy. And it so happens that this is a philosophy that bloodlusts. So—you can understand—things have been a little hectic lately, and it would all be a bit easier if we knew a lot more about Chasma. Like—for instance—where his little hive of pro-Slizzath punks are."

"........," Fraust clutched the sheet tighter. Her blue eyes cast aside. "And since I am here...and since I am in one piece...I-I can supply you with information as to how to find such a place..."

Beast Boy slowly nodded.

Silence.

"Is that....the reason why you have not granted me my wish?"

"What wish is that?"

"To die."

A beat.

Beast Boy said: "I wouldn't grant that wish even if I was forced to at gunpoint," the changeling said firmly. "I believe—as do my friends—that life is inherently precious and not something to dash away, no matter how grim the situation may be. I would never want to kill you, and I do not think you would ever want death as a solution yourself."

"How would you know?"

The green elf smiled. "Because this entire time since you woke up, you could have zapped me with that freezing touch of yours and turned me into a dead icicle." He leaned forward. "But you haven't...," he whispered.

Fraust stared at him. She took a deep breath: "If anything is to be accomplished...I must have Princess Tula present."

Beast Boy stood up straight. "That can be arranged."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula walked down the infirmary hallway in a new, clean dress.

I followed close behind.

We were both answering the call of Fraust and Beast Boy.

"You may be yourself when you're in our presence, Noir," Tula said. "But I want you to hammer 'Garth' back into your head. You're going to be needing his persona for the time to come...for now that Fraust is working with us, I have a plan."

I nodded. I was giving her the reins of this operation by this point. I knew Beast Boy wouldn't protest.

"It's gonna split us up, and we're going to have to rely on our own independent strengths. And for you...that means you won't have others around to interpret what you have to 'say' all the time. And it may be most stressful. But I'm sure that—at the start of this mission—you've been quite prepared for this."

I smirked.

She glanced back at me, then up ahead. "Ah...the foolhardy, Terran confidence."

I made a face.

"Here we are..."

She ducked into the patient room.

I walked in behind her. My lips parted slightly at the sight of Fraust...standing tall in the corner. She had her blue jumpsuit back on. And yet—somehow—she no longer looked bitterly threatening like she had during previous battle.

"Before we go on," Beast Boy smiled proudly winked and smiled. "Her name's Amy."

Tula looked at him...then at Fraust. "Pleased to meet you, Amy."

Fraust timidly backed away.

Tula smiled. "Scared of me?"

"Yes'm."

"Don't be," Tula said firmly. "I'm saving all of my bitchiness for Chasma and Chasma alone. There's a soul that'll know no end of suffering."

Fraust smiled ever so slightly...the first time I had seen an upper curve to her lips. It felt painful.

"Okay...," Tula clapped her hands together and rubbed them. "Here's my proposal." She pointed at Beast Boy. "You can change into all sorts of underwater creatures, true?"

"Absolutely," Beast Boy grinned. "Though I'm rather fond of vertebrates."

"Uh huh....well you're gonna do some swimming," Tula pointed. "If you're able, I want you to pay a visit to Senator Chasma's place of hiding. He's got a secret spot where he and people are most likely accessing Slizzath's evil. Once we know where that place is, we can strike when necessary to end his cult and save the victims of his experimentation."

"Aye, my queen!" Beast Boy saluted.

"Princess."

"Close enough."

Tula glanced over at Fraust. "Now he's never going to get to that place if he doesn't know where it is..."

Fraust nodded. "Y-You wish for my guidance in that...." She murmured.

Tula nodded. "Only if you're up to it."

Fraust gave her a surprised look.

"What??" the princess uttered.

"You mean....I-I have a choice??" the girl uttered.

"Well...yeah!" Tula smiled. "Not everyone in the sea enjoys forcing people to do stuff."

Fraust bit her lip and looked away.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I feel the need to go back there," the freezing girl said. "But......I'm scared of what Chasma will do to me. For such an act would be treachery to him."

"Hey, I'll be with you," Beast Boy smiled. "I'm a genuine superhero! I'll kick butt so you don't have to!"

"Or you could just team together," Tula muttered.

Beast Boy glared at the princess.

I snickered breathily.

"In that case, I"ll do it," Fraust breathed. "I....I think there are people there who desire the same I do...but don't know of the hope that makes that desire negligible."

"They're the first and foremost on our minds," Tula said. "I've lived my whole life protecting surface dwellers...I'm not about to stop for Chasma." She looked over at me. "And you, Noir. You're coming with me up to the City of Atlantis itself."

I leaned my head to the side.

"We're gonna appear at the Senate," she said. "When King Orin precides!"

My lips parted somewhat.

Beast Boy gasped. "You're gonna reveal Noi—er, Garth to the Senate??"

"At the same time that you're infiltrating Chasma's hideout," Tula said. "The Senator can't be at two places at once. There'll be a great deal of commotion in Atlantis when 'Garth' is revealed to be alive. Chasma—who has been suggesting a replacement of the Idyllist ambassador the entire time—will have his gills full of confused and angry politicians making a complete turnaround on his recent policy. It'll be the most opportune time to attack on his other front."

"Dude...that's so awesome!" Beast Boy grinned.

I nodded and saluted Tula with a grin.

"Thanks...it's the least I can do," she mock curtsied. "Garth would have thought of something better—I'm sure—but he's not here right now."

"Yeah....he's at the Senate in less than an hour," Beast Boy smiled. He looked over at Fraust. "And you and I got some sneaking to do!"

"Yes....I-I suppose....," Fraust nodded.

"Noir," Tula faced me and spoke. "King Orin is a very straight-forward man. When he witnesses you—alive—at the Senate, he will most likely wish to speak with you.....in private. The entire operation will then revolve around the convincing impression you give. He may be King...but not even he can know of Garth's true condition until everyone has reunited in Atlantis. Do you understand this?"

I took a deep breath. I nodded.

"All right then...," Tula spoke. "It's a go...."

"Oceanic Revolution A-Go-Go! Yeah!!" Beast Boy jumped and cheered.

I shook my head with a helpless smirk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOSH!!!!

A green porpoise dove into the ocean water. It swam out of a rocky tunnel and glanced back...squeaking.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Fraust dove in after him. A violet aura surrounded her figure. An encasement of magic protected her from drowning. She smiled nervously at Beast Boy and reached a hand out—gloved this time.

Beast Boy lent her a flipper and skirted off, carrying the both of them speedily towards where Fraust gestured.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Senate was a loud place. Twice as many delegates and ambassadors had gathered in the spiraling room than previous. Wild rumors had been flying through Atlantis. Tales of black magic. Of hooded figures and rumbling noises in the deep rock beneath the City. And then there was a tale of an incident in the Hidden Valley...

Senator Chasma was present. He had been calm and contrastingly serene amongst the chaos of the political noise. That is...until now.

A messenger was whispering something to him from his elevated seat. Words that made the Senator's eyes widen.

"What do you mean you haven't heard back from them yet?!?!" the Senator practically snarled. "I mean...Acyd and Fraust, I can understand...but surely Miist would have a report by now!!"

The messenger bowed: "I'm sorry, your honor. But none of the four have shown up at the Orb. And rumor has it that Princess Tula has appeared in the Legislature Building."

"What?? Impossible..."

A voice boomed out throughout the spiraling Senate room.

"**All rise for the great and mighty King Orin!"**

Everyone shuffled up to their feet in massive cadence.

Chasma spared a moment to say: "Send acolytes out to check on each. I want a report immediately!"

"Yes, sir...," the messenger stepped out.

Chasma stood up straight and stared at the top seat.

There was a pulpit of sorts on a balcony to the very top of the spiral. Flanked by guards, a muscular man approached the podium. He was robed in a tunic that parted and showed off a great deal of his muscular, Atlantean chest. His wavy golden hair matched his full and thick beard.

**"All hail King Orin!!**"

The King raised his hand. He uttered in a strong voice: "My people...ALL people...be at ease. Junction is near."

Applause. Cheers. A thunderous ovation from the entire Senate.

Chasma flinched nervously.

"First thing's first...," Orin's eyes narrowed. "There is a great shiver of uncertainty running through our kingdom. Something which is most likely vexing your hearts and minds as I stand before you today. I do not know where the rumor started as to the sighting of Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley, but the fervor of such statements have even concerned me."

Murmurs. Commotion. A tirade of voices.

"I do not like to let things bother my people unnecessarily," King Orin said. "If I can clear up any drastic rumors, I will. And I shall." He extended a hand towards a lower seat along the spiral. "Princess Tula of Neo Poseidonis...I summon you to stand forth and speak, as you have volunteered to do so on behalf of this great commotion sweeping through our Capital!"

Senators spun around and faced the seat of Poseidonis.

Princess Tula stood up. She shuffled to the front of her balcony and spoke—her voice echoing—to the entire Senate. "Citizens of Atlantis and Seas Abroad! I understand that your spirits have been troubled! The disappearance of Prince Garth has been an incident that has hurt us all! We have been fearful of his fate and confused as to the Idyllist issue....until now."

Senator Chasma's jaw had dropped about fifty centimeters....or at least it would have if he could manage it. He stared with eyes—twice aged—as the princess spoke and gestured:

"Did Garth disappear? The answer is yes. Is Garth still alive?"

A beat.

Tula took a deep breath. "The answer is **yes**."

The Senate roared in shock, amazement, disbelief, curiosity.

It became deafening loud.

"Order!!" Orin shouted. "Order!!!"

The noise died down.

Tula's eyes were firm and glaring on Senator Chasma, but nobody knew it but her. "Garth is alive by mere miracles. For—indeed—he was nearly lost to us. Not by accident...but on purpose. The result of an assassination attempt gone wrong! I now present to you...for better or for worse...the prince and ambassador of the Idyllist people!"

I stood up. I stepped into view. Specked eyes and slick black hair. Pale skin under a blue, Aqualad jumpsuit.

One giant gasp fell through the entire building.

The Idyllist delegates jumped up and cheered from their balcony immediately, some of them sobbing with joy.

Tula smiled as she pointed at me.

Chasma practicaly pulled at his hair...and King Orin's eyes narrowed with crucial examination.

I took a deep breath. Over four hundred eyes were on me...and though I knew that there was no backing out of this now, it still didn't feel any bit comfortable.


	126. Fear the Black Tempest part 7

**126. Fear the Black Tempest part 7**

A tiny flurry of bubbles rose to the surface. Chaotic but quiet.

Slowly, a green crocodile's head broke thewater. Two reptiles eyes blinked and looked around the dry pocket of air.

A dark cave lead towards a corridor where torchlight flickered.

The crocodile emerged from the water and beached itself. It morphed into a green dog, shook the water off, and then stood up as Beast Boy. He stood over the waters and waved to someone beneath the rippling surface.

A body rose from the waters, covered in a violet aura of protection. Fraust stood onto the dry rock. With a breath, she lowered the shielding of black magic. Natural cold mist descended from her face and the drops of water around her froze white and blue.

"If we're lucky, Senator Chasma's too busy being recorded by Atlantean CSPAN right now," Beast Boy winked with a smile. "We may yet have a chance to really get a bearing on this place. Er...n-not that you don't have a 'bearing' of your own by now..."

"It isn't that simple," Fraust murmured. "The followers will be here...."

Beast Boy made a face. "The followers??"

"Y-Yes...," Fraust hugged herself and trembled. "Slizzath's minions under Chasma's rule. The children of the Black Tempest...."

"Hey...," the Titan reached a hand up and placed it gently on the girl's shoulder. "Don't you worry, allright? You've got a hero with you now. If any of those goons so much as try to put their hands on you, I'll bite them with over a dozen species each! And believe me, I can do it!" he winked.

Fraust bit her lip nervously still. She uttered: "W-Would you mind if.....I-I walked behind you?"

"Not at all," he smiled. He turned around. "Just keep your voice low and stick behind me. When I signal to you, wait behind and let me patrol ahead. Simple as that. Okay?"

She nodded with a shuddering breath.

"We're only visiting this crib. We're not spending the night. Now let's make like the wind.....i-if you can even have wind inside a cave..."

Fraust smiled ever so slightly. She took a cold breath and crept along behind the changeling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At least two and a half minutes after the revelation of 'Prince Garth', Senator Chasma had settled through the cracks of shock and was well into the ocean of bitterness. He sat, leaning forward in his chair, his hands propped together beneath his tightly set jaw. The graying man glared down at the Poseidonissian balcony where Princess Tula was making her speech.

Both she and the doppelganger were....very much alive.

"Prince Garth was subjected to bludgeoning and laceration!" Tula spoke. "The latter of which was responsible for the gravest of his injuries; a slash across the throat that has damaged his vocal cords beyond known repair. Consequently, the bludgeoning stole from him his telepathic sensitivity. Those of you with rich Atlantean blood; you may try and communicate with him as you wish. But alas, the Prince cannot respond. Even the creatures of the sea treat him as a stranger now."

I stood tall and resolute as she spoke this beside me. I stared out at the Senate with the same resolve I imagined Garth would manage. My legs were beginning to feel numb, and I feared that at any moment and at any time I might collapse from nervousness or blood loss to my lower body.

"And still the conspirators were not finished with him!" Tula continued. "They wished to banish him from our lands—without proper authority from the Senate or King Orin himself. They acquired one of the most infernal instruments of our bygone days of darkness—an Expulsor Cannon—and launched him to die on dry land."

Gasps.

Shocked murmurs.

A complete uproar from the entire, spiraling Senate.

Sentator Chasma's teeth grit....

"It is by sheer strength and Idyllist stamina alone that the great prince has returned to us!" Tula spoke. "I put him in my care a day before revealing him before you now, for I still fear for his life. We have great reason to suspect a certain group as the conspirators, but we shall not name them before you. Not until the Senate comes to the conclusion that a terrible wrong has been done here...and even more wrong can be done in direct opposition to the Junction that we hold so precious." Tula's gaze was firm and her voice unrelenting. "I propose a commission to look into the gathering here at Atlantis! An examination of every group of delegates! I implore the Senate to consider advocating a search of all parties here—even Poseidonissian and Idyllist—so that we may find the root of this problem independent of my party's presumptions. This is for the best of the Junction, and I can only imagine that all groups involved and anticipating the new era of Atlantis would gladly agree to proceed along with this plan!"

Indeed—caught up in the enthusiasm and fervor for Garth's case—the Senate gradually stood up in one accord and cheered, supporting the move. For all parties in attendance felt no wrong in their heart or suspicion that their closest allies might be linked to Garth's experiences. All except Chasma, who eventually stood up and 'joined' the applause so as not to look conspicuous. The entire time he applauded, he was shooting daggers with his eyes and muttering under his breath.

In the meantime, my gaze lifted up to the top of the spiral, and I saw King Orin staring directly at me. His face was somewhere between speculation and concern. It was hard to tell that he was anything but brazened edge at all times.

Tula turned and spoke hushedly under the roar of the Senate to a royal subject. "Have my attendants move from the palace to the Sanctuary," she spoke. "They may be in danger if they stay in the Embassy today."

"Understood, your highness," the attendant bowed and ducked out of the balcony. As she left, in came an Atlantean guard.

"If your highness would be so kind," the guard spoke...then faced me. "King Orin would like to have a word with Prince Garth in private. In his throneroom."

Tula gave me a sideways glance as if to say: 'I warned you'. She turned and nodded at the guard. "You will have to get the Prince's permission. Not mine."

The guard looked at me.

I smiled slyly and walked past him. I motioned for him to 'follow'.

"Y-Yes sir!" he exclaimed and hurried to escort me along with four other guards outside the balcony.

I gave Tula a last glance from behind my shoulder.

She tried not to smile. She tried to keep her hard-edged façade in check.

I bowed my head slightly, spun around, and headed up the corridor along with the guards. I couldn't hear my own footsteps from the echoing noise of hundreds of passionate, raving Atlanteans.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the end of a winding corridor of rock, there was a circular chamber illuminated by torchlight.

A green lizard clung to the rock ceiling. It peered around the room. At the torches. The four beds of rock. The tunnels leading elsewhere.

Not a soul could be seen...

The lizard morphed into a bat, flew upside descended to the floor, and returned to elf form. Beast Boy stood up and motioned forward from the corridor behind him.

Fraust walked up, wringing her hands together.

"So far so good," Beast Boy smiled. "Try not being so nervous."

She merely gulped and stammered: "This is his room."

Beast Boy had a wyrd look. "Whose room?"

"Slizzath's," Fraust said.

Beast Boy jumped. He spun around, looking. "Y-You mean....Slizzath in the flesh?? He's already resurrected and un-re-antidead now??"

"N-Not Slizzath himself," Fraust breathed. She gestured as she tried to explain: "His essence....i-it is in an orb of sorts. I believe it is the gateway through which the evil sorcerer communicates from his imprisoned dimension. I kn-know because I've seen it from where I was...."

Her voice lingered.

"From where you were what?" Beast Boy quietly asked.

Fraust trembled. She stared at the four slabs of rock surrounding the center where the purple orb would normally be.

Beast Boy bit his lip. "We'll save it for a rainy day, allright?"

She nodded shakily. "O-Okay...."

"Now where do you think we might find more humans like you?"

Fraust pointed down a tunnel past one of the slabs.

"Okay...let's go. Nice and easy."

They crept along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Senator Chasma and a few of his flanking followers marched hurriedly through down a lush hallway in the Senate building. The leader had a look of anger that would kill his own mothers. The pacing of his feet was furious, and it took all of the political partners' stamina to keep up.

"Sir, we must slow down and think. Just because Garth has returned doesn't mean we can't still round up supporters for our Idyllist ambassadorial nomination."

"Chasma, aren't you listening?? You're overreacting!"

"Slow down and think! Princess Tula could very well have orchestrated the 'disappearance' and 'reappearance' of Garth as a propaganda device. Her story is the most melodramatic thing I've ever heard, and all of the liberal pro-Junction radicals are falling for it!"

"You...don't...know...anything...," Chasma sneered without looking at his comrades.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Chasma groaned. "I must be excused. I have matters to tend to."

"You always have matters to tend to! Ever since we gathered together for the Junction here in Atlantis you've been disappearing on 'errands' every other second! It's not making you look good, sir."

Chasma stopped in his tracks, spun around, and stared menacingly in the face of one of his compatriots.

"Do you see a mere man standing in front of you? I tell you what, I am more than an Atlantean fledgling. I am of an essence far greater and far stronger than this entire Senate combined and if you so much as anger me—"his eyes flickered violet hungrily "—I will make sure that the _last_ thing you have to worry about is some outlandish commission!"

The man managed to frown. "Chasma, is that a threat?"

GRIP!!!

The other partners gasped as Chasma's hand suddenly seized the man's throat.

The Senator's voice was unearthly. Violet glowed faintly in his eyes as he snarled in a hissing voice: "It is an inevitability..."

Before anyone could gasp or shout--

"Ahem..."

".........," Chasma slowly turned around.

Tula smiled. She stood alone, elegant in the middle of the hallway facing the party.

Silence.

Chasma released his grip of the man, who wheezed.

"You boys run along home," Tula smiled. "I think Chasma's dying to talk to me."

The other members of the Senator's party looked at Tula, glanced fearfully at Chasma, then shuffled off.

The princess and the man were alone in the hallway.

Chasma's lungs heaved. He fumed as he looked at her and said: "I don't know how you survived...but your reverie won't be for long."

"And what do you know about reverie, Chasma?" Tula raised your eyebrows. "Strangling your closest allies. That's a little extreme. Even for you. Or is it?"

"Quiet..," Chasma hissed. He shook his head and ran a gnarled hand through his gray hair. "I have no time for this..."

"You have quite a nasty temper," Tula stepped fearlessly towards him. "You need to get it under control."

"Shut up...."

"Or maybe it's that you have no control," Tula grinned. She came closer. Closer. "Maybe you're no longer half the man you used to be. Maybe you're just a puppet. An element in some other soul that isn't your own. An essence of mind-numbing evil."

"I said....SILENCE!!!" Chasma bellowed.

"How can you expect to contradict that which you have become, Haetryd??"

"YAAAAH!!" Chasma's face became animalistic. His eyes became flickering embers of violet as he lunged carnivorously at her.

Tula stood still as a statue. When the Senator's ravaging fingers were a mere two inches from her throat, she uttered: "He's seeing King Orin as we speak..."

Chasma froze as if on a bungie cord. He panted, his fingers twitching threateningly close to the girl's larynx.

Tula blinked. She said: "In a matter of time, 'Garth' will have won Orin's entire confidence. And any harm you so much as hint about inflicting on me or any other innocent members of this Junction...you will have to pay for it dearly. And they will scour the seas and find your damned Black Tempest hive."

Chasma stumbled back, sweating coldly all over. He pointed a shaky hand. "Th-That boy is not Garth!!"

"And neither are you Chasma," Tula leaned her head aside and glared. "Of course, you were once him. But Slizzath made sure that faded away. You wanted the evil sorceror to give you power. Instead, he turned you into this. A flaming, demonic bigot. All you can think about is destruction and desecration and anihilation. You are no longer a being of reason...but an entity of hate. And in such a light, Slizzath bestowed a fraction of his seven essences upon you. You became Haetryd. A puppet of endless stupidity and beserk bloodlust. But instead of running into battle and shredding all opponents in sight, you stand behind a veil of cultish leadership. You torture human surface-dwellers and turn them into minions of Slizzath. Probably because you know that surface dwellers lack telepathic sensitivity...so that way nobody in Atlantis could hear their mental cries of anguish seeping out through the endless depths of the ocean. And you thought that you could get away with it. But it's okay...it's only natural for you to overlook things. Hatred should never run for politics."

Chasma sneered. His eyes flickered purple as he uttered: "Why are you so resolute, princess? Surely you know that anything that goes up against Slizzath's is doomed entirely. His power is something that stretches beyond the conceivable magnitude of Atlantean understanding. It is not the Junction that will usher in a new age for the seas. It is the all-encompassing power of the fallen sorcerer."

Tula smirked. "If Slizzath is so powerful...how come he became 'fallen' in the first place?"

Chasma's eyes narrowed. "I do not know how you survived the onslaught of the four essences, but the battle is not over. Fright and Mist. Frost and Acid. They shall be reborn, if necessary. And need you forget that Tempest and Plasma are seeded among your closest friends?"

"I know that quite well, Haetryd," Tula nodded. "And I'm proud....I'm proud because—tainted as they may be with the black curse—they know only good. They fight for a righteous cause." She smiled. "The peaceful reunification of our people...and perhaps even the entire world."

"The world is overrated," Chasma smiled. "Slizzath's power will reach to the far ends of the universe. Like a sea serpent that knows no boundaries, he'll swim on for eternity. And hatred may be his driving force...but mark my words, princess..." Chasma leaned forward. "When hatred's thirst is quenched...the hatred may die out for a time, but what a feast it would be....what a feast it would be indeed...."

"That's what I'm here for, Chasma," Tula replied. "To drown out your hatred......for good."

There was silence between them. Then Chasma twirled about on his heels and marched towards the exit of the Senate Building.

Standing alone, Tula took a deep breath. Her mind was in two....three places at once.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I don't remember exactly how long I waited outside the throneroom. It must have been somewhere in the ballpark of forty-five minutes. Then again, it could have been two hours.

_Whatever......_

I sat in a plush chair inside a towering room in the royal palace. Outside the yawning windows of the interior, I could spot the looming scrapers of the city of Atlantis. Fountains of water shot up and cascaded over the sides of countless structures. Beyond that, the wavering blue 'sky' of the Ocean beyond the dome.

Two guards stood beside the door to the throneroom.

I sat as still as possible. I felt like twiddling my thumbs. I subconsciously wished for a deck of cards to shuffle around in my hand nonchalantly.

But I tried to snap out of that.

_I wasn't Noir. I was 'Garth'._

I bit my lip.

_And right now, 'Garth' is about to enact the most crucial part of the mission yet._

The door opened and a messenger summoned: "King Orin will see you now, Prince Garth."

_Working the king of Atlantis......heh......_

I stood up and marched past the guards and through the huge doorway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Orin wasn't even sitting on his throne.

The King of Atlantis stood halfway down the length of the room. He stared at me as I entered. His arms were down to his side and his muscular shoulders set. It looked almost as if he put the effort of his entire physical frame into that stance...just for me.

I had it all planned out in my mind. I would march to a stop about fifteen feet from him and bow low to the ground. After all, he was the King of Atlantis.

But I noticed something as I walked in. While Orin's entire body was resolute, his eyes weren't. They moved lower than they should have been if they were looking at my face.

Of course, I was used to this. Having a scar on my neck called for that everyday of life. Even with the Titans—Beast Boy and Starfire still cast glances at the 'x' on my throat.

If I was 'Noir' then and there in the throneroom, I would reacted all the same. But I remember who I was portraying myself as. Surely King Orin would have noticed the scar on my throat like everyone else had in the Senate Room. And he wouldn't have asked me into his throneroom **just** to see the wound up close.

_Unless......._

I focused my vision on his eyes.

There was a tiny twitching to them....then they rounded, losing ferocity.

_Unless Garth was a close friend......_

I didn't bow.

King Orin had no negative response to this. He merely waved to the servant behind me.

The man exited.

King Orin and I were alone.

A beat. Terrible, cold silence.

I thought that a young, Idyllist ambassador with impatient desires for a revolutionized Atlantis would want to break the mold.

So I took a deep breath.

King Orin seemed to shudder. I almost flinched as he quickly crossed the distance with stomping feet....

.....and hugged me fiercely.

"!!!!!" my eyes bugged over his shoulder from the pressure of his arms. I thought of Starfire...

"Ha ha ha ha!!" he majestically bellowed, parted the hug, and patted me strongly on the shoulder. "Garth, you little runt!! I thought you were a goner for sure!!"

I wheezed, but managed a friendly grin. I shrugged, as if the 'danger' I had gone through was of no consequence.

"Let me look at you...," he tilted my chin up with a finger and gazed at the scar. He took a deep breath. "What an atrocity. I thought all of the miscreants of Atlantis had been chased out from the last civil war. I see now that I have been negligent in my security. And look at the price that has been paid."

I saw in the strong leader's face a sense of sorrow and responsibility. It felt very fatherly...and at first I couldn't wonder why.

And for some reason I remembered that the King standing before me was once simply known to the surface-world as 'Aquaman'.

And I thought....

_Aquaman......Aqualad......Aquaman......Aqualad......_

I nearly gasped.

_Oh my god......Garth was a sidekick, wasn't he??_

I blinked.

_He......he was a sidekick to Aquaman, now King Orin. He must be like a son to him._

I was thusly well psyched for the 'role' I was playing. I raised a hand and dared to pat the King's shoulder with a look of friendly assurance, to forgive him of whatever guilt he felt at my 'ill-fortune'.

He seemed relaxed at that, as the relief for my well-being washed over him. There was no ill-response to my casual, hand-contact.

_We were old friends......_

"I always thought that you were never meant for politics," Aquaman...er...King Orin said as he paced across the throne room.

I followed along close by and listened to him.

"But I am not one to judge. Being an ambassador for the Idyllists is in your blood," he said. "And besides! Look at me...the hypocrite!" He laughed merrily for a moment...something I sensed that he wouldn't do so jovially in the presence of anyone else but 'Garth'. "We put ourselves in the line of danger many times before, Garth. And we're both doing it now—in our own separate ways—on the eve of destiny."

He gestured as he said this. Something glinted in the light.

I glanced and nearly lost the contacts in my eyes at sight of his...harpoon. To put it simply, King Orin had no left hand. A jagged metal prosthetic served at its replacement.....a testament to Orin's...erm....badassness?

I quickly cleared my throat and looked back at his face as if nothing was awry.

_After all, Garth wouldn't be surprised...would he?_

I flexed my 'skin' covered metal fingers subconsciously.

"This City....it is so beautiful," Orin said. The two of us walked over and came to a stop on a balcony, overlooking the glory of Atlantis. "And yet, it is but a piece of the flourishing of life. All life." He turned and looked at me. "Ever since the birth of my son...I have come to an awakening of sorts, Garth. Your people were right all along..."

I blinked my specked eyes and looked at him curiously.

"The Idyllists...they couldn't live in Atlantis anymore millennia ago because my forefathers were a race of warriors," King Orin said, running a hand along the hard metal of his prosthetic. "And it is evident in myself as well. In the ways I have purged the kingdom of my treacherous brother's militants and challenged the oceanic supremacy of the surface world." His fists clenched. A fire surged in his eyes...but died out with a sigh. "But I realize I have only been cursing myself with the same bloodlust that has plagued my ancestors for generations. I do not want my son to live in a world where war is imminent between this world and the dry land above. And yet I have challenged all that would be so much as different from Atlantis on the grounds of militaristic intimidation. Well I have enough of it...as much as your forefathers had, Garth."

He looked at me firmly.

"This Junction...it is not a 'new age'. It is not a unique revolution for its time. It is a rebirth...a renaissance of intelligent, peaceful people with ideas so far ahead of their time that they were ostracized." He placed a hand on my shoulder. "If I had my way in the entire Senate, Garth...I would call it the 'Idyllist Retribution'. But that would not be true to the code of your people, would it? For peace is not something acquired through personal merit or power. Peace is something of the people...the entire people. And if there is to be a happy future for my son—for all of our sons and daughters—we must unite together without friction and without hatred. Your family line shall be an inspiration for all of us....finally...after four thousand years of separation."

I took a deep breath. This revelation was a passionate one, even for my ears. I didn't know if Aqualad was capable of crying, but if he was truly there now...I imagine he would have been balling his dark eyes out.

My look of earnest gratitude—howbeit subtler—was apparently enough for King Orin to buy.

"As terrible as your fallout has surely been--," Orin spoke, "—it is for the good. It has reopened my eyes to what I desire for Junction. And it has made me aware of a great evil seeded amongst us." He narrowed his eyes and spoke gently/firmly in some odd combination. "Garth...will you confide in me the identity of those who did this great harm to you?"

"..........," I looked at Orin. I thought about Chasma. I thought about the possible resurrection of Slizzath. So many dark and crazy things swam through my head, but throughout it all was the stern and resolute face of Tula. And I knew that in this foreign and dangerous place under the sea, it was best to trust her overall.

So—with a shaking of my head and a somber closing of my eyes—I quietly refused to inform Orin of the conspirators.

He took a deep breath. "I do not understand your restraint, Garth. But I shall respect it." He spun around and seemed to speak to the wall as he said: "I swear...as King of Atlantis...the fate of those ripped your throat asunder and tried to undermine the very spirit of unification will rue the day they ever did such." His body trembled ferociously. His beard shook like an angry entity. "This may be an age of peace...but it is not one of cowardice either. There has always been...and shall always be a banal evil to be reckoned with."

I took a deep breath.

_I could certainly agree with the king on that..._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy and Fraust crept down the black, stone corridor of the Black Tempest's cove.

Torches from the wall licked tongues of flame on either side of them.

Beast Boy lead the way, his green eyes peering into the winding corridor. His green ears lifted suddenly and he stopped. He held his hand up, motioning for Fraust to keep still.

".........."

".........."

Murmurs and footsteps echoed louder from the far side of the corridor.

"I hear voices...," Beast Boy whispered.

Fraust trembled. "It's th-them!"

"Shhh!" Beast Boy looked around. He found a dark crevice in the tunnel wall to the left. He shoved Fraust into shadowed hiding and dashed in himself.

They huddled together for a few seconds before the green Titan said: "Okay...I'm gonna go check it out. You stay here."

"B-But—"she uttered.

"Don't worry. They pass by this place all the time. I don't see why they're gonna look inside this crack in the wall. If anything bad happens...just zap them with your ice power and scream or something and I'll come along pouncing to kick butt. Got it?"

She nodded. "D-Don't let them hurt you...."

Beast Boy blinked at her. "Awwww....anyone tell you you're pretty when you're miserable?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind," he shook his head. He morphed into a mouse and uttered in a high voice: "Keep it real." He scurried off down the tunnel.

Fraust took a shuddering breath and hugged herself...alone....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The small green rodent hugged the lower corner of the tunnel. It scurried down some rocky stairs. The voices became louder.

A shuffling of feet...

Then...

Beast Boy turned into a chameleon and hugged a dark corner of the wall. It took some effort, but his green skin momentarily turned a dull brown.

Four hooded figures in black shuffled past him. They were either muttering under their breath or chanting something all at once. Beast Boy couldn't tell.

He didn't care...

Once they were gone, he turned into a snake and slithered into the next portion of the corridor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Faraway across the seas...

The four Idyllist submarines were continuing their massive exodus towards Atlantis.

And on board the largest ship—Praetor Ivan's vessel—a huge uproar was in progress.

People were dancing around. Others were sobbing with joy. Guards jubilantly cheered and clashed their harpoons and tridents together in noisy celebration.

Starfire, Robin, and Nova'm were walking towards the bridge when the flurry of noice and happiness flooded down the corridor they were in.

"It's true!! It's true!!" voices shouted.

"He is alive! Thank Neptune!!"

"Long live Atlantis!!"

Nova'm blinked. "Um......so did Elvis get cloned or something?"

"What is transpiring here???" Starfire exclaimed. "I am glad to witness such massive felicitation, but surely there must be a reason for it!"

"Let's get to the bridge!" Robin shouted. "Ivan should know..."

The two ran/floated up the corridor and past cheering crowds.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A guard escorted Robin and the two Tamaranians through the bridge of the main flagship. Even the ship operators and tactical crew were taking the time to cheer as a random radio frequencies from Atlantis fervently filtered through the air of the room. While everyone was moving around happily, Ivan—standing at the helm—seemed strangely still.

"Got any idea what's going on?" Robin asked.

Ivan glanced at Robin. "Yes....good news. Genuine good news," the Idyllist leader said. But still, his voice lingered.

Robin's eyebrow lifted above his mask. He glanced around.

"Haven't you heard, surface-dwellers?!" a random crewmember exclaimed. "He is alive!! He has returned!"

"Who has?" Starfire asked.

"Prince Garth!! Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley is alive and at the Senate!!"

"Hooray!!!!"

"Blessings be from Poseidon!!"

Nova'm bit his lip.

Robin and Praetor Ivan shared a knowing glance. They gently nodded their heads in understanding.

Starfire saw it..and breathed a sigh of relief. "Hehehe...," she clasped her hands together and smiled. "It is good news indeed..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood at the balcony to the throne room. My eyes were gazing at the distant waters beyond the dome. My mind was elsewhere.

King Orin kept speaking from where he stood beside me. "Garth...do you remember the time we faced Black Manta in the Thermal Rift?"

I concentrated on a convincing 'nod' of my head.

"We were chained to the rock where lava was about to stream down," he said. He twisted his metal harpoon-hand and spoke: "It was one of your first real adventures. I could tell that your little eyes were crying...heh...but you wanted to be a big kid. You wouldn't admit to it."

I blinked. This was all news to me. But I smiled and pretended to recollect...

"But after we got out of there—I don't remember if it was a telepathically contacted school of sharks or just pure luck—I realized that you were crying about something else. There was this girl you had met recently...and you were just getting to know her. To have died then would have been a cruel twist of fate for you, Garth. For once in your life, you almost had something to look forward to outside of your lonely wonderings."

I took a deep breath, looking off into the distance.

Orin faced me directly. "I never told you before, Garth....but I almost asked you to stop being 'Aqualad' then."

I glanced at the King.

His eyes narrowed. "And yet...even when I moved on and assumed my rightful seat on the throne, you kept going. You never stopped swimming the seas, trying to stop evil in all its forms. Trident, Black Manta, whoever. You've purposefully enslaved yourself to a rogue marshall's existence...even if it means being twice a loner from your separatist colony in the Hidden Valley."

I took a deep breath and looked off.

"If only you could still speak to me...," he said sorrowfully. "Why do you do it, Garth? You've never told me why you punish yourself so. You have every right and reason to settle in and rule your people as a true king. Instead, you let that Ivan fellow run business...as if you don't deserve the title of leadership yourself. And I can't help but think that you're secretly hiding something away from me. Something that—if I knew about—surely I would understand."

I realized then and there the true extent of Garth's burden. Not even Aquaman/King Orin knew about the curse of Slizzath on his family tree. If Orin realized about Tempest...would he be so trusting of his former sidekick?

I gathered that King Orin would accept me—er, Garth—in open arms no matter what. But it was not in my judgment or decision to reveal the deepest of Garth's truths.

_We all need secrets. Lord knows......the Titans have happily accepted me into the Tower in spite of all my own..._

I remained silent.

"...............," King Oring looked off.

A beat.

"About that girl, though....," King Orin drifted back on the topic. He smiled suggestively. "She grew up to be quite a princess, didn't she?"

I understood then that the girl Garth cried about in the Thermal Ravine was Tula. I smiled at that.

Orin took that as a response. "Tell me...is she quite so fierce and undaunting _everywhere_?? Ha ha ha ha!!"

I blushed at that, but eventually gave in with a nervous chuckle of my own.

Orin laughed more.

As I snickered, the truer half of me glanced off with specked eyes towards the liquid horizon and—with a sick feeling—I worried about the others of my 'team'...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a crimson part of the cavern—made red by the chemicals in the claustrophic chamber's torchlights—two robed figures stood beside a rugged, wooden table. They were muttering incantations and cleaning off mysteriously sharp equipments with rags. Dripping water in the corners of the place mixed with their voices and a scant few other sounds to create a sickly chorus that lingered low in sound frequency...creating an uneasy, paranoid feeling about the place.

The two robed figures were intensely oblivious to a green shew shuffling up, stopping under the table, and suddenly exploding upwards in the form of an emeral velociraptor.

"Skreeee!!!!" THWACK!! SLASH!!!

"Mmmmf!!!" the two robed figures fell down hard.

Silence.

The dinosaur morphed into a panting Beast Boy between the sprawled bodies. He gulped and shuffled over to the first door that he could find. He stood on his tip-toes and peered in through the barred windows in the wooden frame.

He could see nothing but shadows.

"......"

He stepped back. He flexed his arms...morphed into a gorilla...and smashed the door down with a heavy fist.

CRUNCH!!!

The door splintered and fell off its frame.

Beast Boy turned back into elf form. He looked to his left, found a torch, and picked it up off its rusted brace. He walked into the stone-carved cell. "Hello??" he called into the echoing chamber. He peered around as he waved the torch. "Is anyone in here??"

The torchlight caught the legs of someone lying against the wall.

Beast Boy smiled. "Hey there! I'm here to get you out—"

He raised the light.

His green eyes widened.

The body of a teenage girl lie against the wall. Her torso was singed knuckle-deep into the flesh. Her arms were severed clean off. Her scalp was missing. Worms crawled in the fresh meat of her wounds.

Beast Boy gasped and stumbled back. He dropped the torch, which fell in the center of the room and lit up the entire cell.

A pair of human legs hung on the wall from hooks. Three heads rested in the corner. Something that looked like the flesh off of a human wrist sat beside a red stain like a leather glove.

Beast Boy stumbled backwards, shaking. "H-Holy...."

He turned and looked at another door. He ran towards it, morphed into a ram, and plowed it open. He crouched in elf form and stared—swallowing a lump down his throat.

Four bodies were piled on top of each other. Their skin stabbed in multiple places. The same singe marks on them. The same rawness and worms...

Beast Boy stepped back into the main corridor, his fists clenching.

"T-Torture....," he muttered. He glanced at the blades that the unconscious, hooded figures were polishing. They were stained with surface-dweller red. "...cult ritual....whatever.......God in heaven, no wonder the ice chick's so screwed up..."

As if on cue, he heard murmuring sounds from another door. He gasped. He ran towards it—yanked it open in bear form—and peered in. "Anyone in here???" He asked. A blink. "Alive??"

Three...four...six figures trembled against the wall. All about the Titan's age, if not a little younger. They cowered at the sight of him.

"P-P-Please....," a girl sobbed. "No more...don't hurt us..."

"Don't worry," Beast Boy raised his hand. "I'm a good guy. How many of you guys are here anyways??"

A boy leaning on the wall hobbled over. He had one leg. "Who knows?? We stopped counting the screams the second night." His hollow eyes twitched and he swallowed nervously. "Y-You've gotta get us out of h-here..."

"Will do...," Beast Boy said. "Just sit tight! I gotta think up a plan!" He marched back out into the corridor. "Also gotta find out if there're any others ali—"

SSSSSSSssssss!!!!

A green stream of liquid surged at the changeling.

He barely had time to dodge.

Acid grazed his elbow. His skin burned.

"Aaaugh!!!" Beast Boy slumped against a wall, clutching his steaming wound. With clenched teeth, he looked up.

The children inside the cell shrieked and were quiet.

Acyd stood...in the flesh. She had a frown on that could kill a saint. Bruises marked her bodies in numerous places and she was leaning limply on a bad limp. Still, she had her dark magic of corrosive projection...and at least four hooded cult members were flanking her figure.

"You're....Y-You're alive...," Beast Boy murmured.

Acyd's eyes narrowed. "Unfortunately...." Her hands shot forward.

Beast Boy dove out of the way.

SSSSSSSSssss!!!!

The wooden table wilted into ashes.

Beast Boy rolled across the ground and kicked one of the metal blades her way.

Acyd hopped the sliding projectile, knelt, and shot two more streams.

SSSSSSSsss!!!

Beast Boy flipped out of the way.

The rock steamed from the juices.

The changeling landed in a fighting pose across the chamber and panted.

"You were a fool to come here...," Acyd sneered. She stood up menacingly again. "Especially when I'm pissed. And I don't act as an acid elemental use the 'p' word lightly."

"You shut your face!" Beast Boy cackled. He frowned. "I was wrong about you! You're nothing but bad eggs in the end, aren't you?? Nobody...no matter HOW brainwashed...could walk around freely in this torture chamber and not feel remorseful!!"

"You have a lot to learn about perspective...," Acyd sneered. "I was one of these mangled children once. I spent hours on the slab...being carved, jabbed, pierced, invaded in every orifice imaginable..." Her jaw was firm as she hissed her last words out. "And there comes a time when you realize that you were born only for suffering...and your suffering alone. And if serving Slizzath means having to outlive all these young pups being ripped apart around me...then so be it." She raised her hands at him again. "After all...the screaming tends to get boring..."

"You want to do this the hard way??" Beast Boy flexed his limbs and readied to morph. "You want to battle it out and see how much subjected to suffer you **still** are???"

"Hardly...," Acyd said. She then looked at someone behind Beast Boy. "Now would be a good time."

Beast Boy's eyes widened.

Before he could turn--

FLASH!!!!!!

His back was covered in frozen fury.

He cried out, but felt his lungs empty of all air from the frigid contact. He collapsed on the ground, his body numb. A chunk of frost enveloped his figure. He barely manage to turn his head and glance at the intruder in question.

Fraust walked up, her hands misting blue. A sad look in her face.

"Y-You....," Beast Boy's teeth clattered. "Amy......I thought you had changed...."

She took a deep breath. Her somber eyes glowed purple. "I'm sorry, Mr. Titan......but in the end...I work for Lord Slizzath..."

Acyd smirked.

The children inside the smashed cell sobbed.

Beast Boy winced as Fraust held her hands toward him one more time and--

FLASH!!!!!

All was white.

Then all was black.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Princess Tula stood in the royal atrium.

For once that day, there was dismay splashed across her face. She nervously wrung her hands and stared out a window onto Atlantis.

A loud creaking sound...

Tula turned and looked.

I walked out of the throneroom on a cloud of ease. I had finished my 'meeting' with King Orin, and nobody could have asked for a better reunion. As far as the ruler cared, I was Garth and always had been Garth.

However, I felt like a helpless Noir again as Tula walked straight towards me with a worried lok and uttered: "Something's wrong..."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Beast Boy and the ice girl...," Tula muttered, glancing aside. "They haven't come back yet."

I bit my lip. I glanced back at the throne room then at the young lady again.

Tula's eyes narrowed. "What could be keeping them? They'd better get back soon." She ran a nervous hand through her short, dark hair. "Chasma will be heading back there by now...and it doesn't help that I ticked him off the last time we met." She simpered. "Not much is worse than the epitome of hatred being angry."

I blinked my specked eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!!

Senator Chasma shot out of the tunnel of water. His mat of gray hair dribbled liquid streams down his frowning face as he marched through the corridor.

A darkly clad servant walked alongside the irate man.

"Sir..our acolytes have returned from their search. The assault on the Tower has been pushed back. Miist is nowhere to be seen. Prince Garth and the Titans are no longer present there."

"I can only imagine...," Chasma grunted.

"The attack on the Hidden Valley went as planned, but Fryte has perished. As we speak, Praetor Ivan and four transport vessels full of Idyllist diplomats are headed towards Atlantis. The other team of Titans may very well be with them."

"Let them come...," Ivan hissed. "The Black Tempest shall deal with them."

"B-But how, sir?? With the alleged return of Prince Garth, mustn't we work to summon new bodies for the two lost essences?"

"This is no job for the spirit of Slizzath anymore," Chasma grunted as he stormed along. "This calls for our Lord's brute force. A direct blow to the infidels opposing us."

"But sir, how are you going to—"

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!

Chasma spun, his hand going directly to the underling's neck. The man's eyes flickered violet as he snarled into the servant's face: "If you want to keep your life....any semblance of your 'life'...you will swim home, **now**."

He dropped the messenger to the floor, spun around, and stomped away.

The young man rubbed his neck, shivered, and ran the opposite way towards the tunnel waters.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy stirred.

Tired green eyes fluttered open.

He flexed his arms and realized they were chained to a wall.

An awkwardly sloped, rock wall.

The changling gritted his teeth and sneezed. The cold sheen on his skin was slowly fading away, and yet he felt chills.

When his gaze fell upon the room before him, he realized why.

Well over fifty black-robed figures gathered in a circle around the center of the room. The circular room with the four rock slabs. All of the figures chanted in malignant unison. The cavernous room vibrated with their deep, resonating voices.

Beast Boy coughed and flexed his arms again. He knew that—with just one thought—he could morph into a gorilla or an iguanadon or some other creature of considerable mass and break out of his restraints in an instant. But he restrained...especially since two deadly mages stood by his side.

"..........," Acyd glared menacingly up at him. She had her arms folded, but a twitch of her fingers caused her digits to steam and warned the changling that any wrong move would summon a corrosive splash sailed at his figure.

Beast Boy tiredly glanced to his other side.

Fraust stood, her arms held together in front of her. She felt the gaze of Beast Boy and shifted nervously.

"Why??" he asked. "What are you gaining?"

She bit her lip and tried to avoid his gaze.

"Amy...," Beast Boy murmured. "I saw the cells. I have an idea what you've gone through. Don't....do....this........You'll only get more of the same."

"Quiet," Acyd grunted.

Beast Boy sighed. He gazed tiredly at the cultish proceedings.

Senator Chasma walked through the chanting crowd. His usual senator outfit was replacd with a robe of shimmering gray and black contrast. He had a hood hanging down behind his neck like loose flesh. He approached the center of the slabs where a gothic pedestal rested. The man's eyes flashed purple with hatred as he raised his hands and summoned:

"Descend...oh voice of our Lord!"

The dark figures chanted.

Beat Boy's gaze lingered upwards.

A circle in the rocky ceiling slid open. A purple orb of fluctuating light hovered down and rested on the pedestal. A violet glow shimmered through the place.

Beast Boy shivered...as if something indescribably wretched and cold was squirming through his porous green skin.

Senator Chasma spoke to Beast Boy without turning around. "Funny that your foolishness is so great that you've found yourself stuck here, Mr. Titan," he said. "I must give you thank for returning one of our children back to us. But I've come to realize that children will only take the Evil Father's plans so far. It is time for the Black Tempest itself to become realized."

Chasma turned and faced the orb on the pedestal. "Our Lord...we come to you now to ask for your awesome presence. You promised to consume the world...now consume us as only you can..."

The orb fluctuated. A hideous voice rang out:

"_My children.....my children are bleeding........._"

Acyd shifted uncontrollably.

Fraust said nothing.

"Your enemies, oh lord," Chasma said. "They are merciless. They have shredded your children apart. Fryte and Miist have fallen. We desire to avenge them. We want to bring your plan to fruition. For the new age of the seas...the new age of the universe..."

"_Haetryd......you are fearful......I will not extend myself into the oceans for your petty feelings..."_

Chasma winced.

The orb pulsed.

"_I will send the Black Tempest out to crush this onslaught and this onslaught alone......"_

Chasma took a deep breath. "And so it is your will...," he waved his arms. "Consume your followers! The carriers of your force!"

**"Consume. Consume the seas!!"** chanted the robed figures.

The orb started to glow brighter and brighter.

Beast Boy's eyes thinned.

Fraust and Acyd stood still and unflinching.

Chasma held his hands out, basking in the evil aura of Slizzath. The violet hatred in his eyes flickered. His teeth clinched and in a flash he was grinning at the immensity of abomination growing before him.

FLASH!!!!

Tendrils of purple lashed out from the orb. It ran through five figures at once like a piercing ribbon.

"!!!!!" the black-clad figures jerked in place.

FLASH!!!!

Another purple tentacle. Twelve more figures spasmed and shook.

FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!!

Soon, the entire room full of cult members were being pierced with the purple hue. An invisible wind kicked up in the cave, causing hair and cloth and skin to warble about like a rippling pond of onyx.

One by one, the figures cringed. They bent over or arched back as tortured screams and sickening sounds of crackling sinew issued from each and every one of them. Soon, dark shapes started to emerge from their robed figures. Jointed shadows like batwings or spider webs. The agonized shrieks of fifty to sixty Atlanteans morphed into nightmarish howls and banshee wails. Cloth was shredded and fell away. Humanoid faces contorted to having huge jaws full of dagger-like teeth. Eyes turned white and bulbous. Hands burned into fins. Skin melted away to scales.

Beast Boy watched—panting—as half-a-hundred demons scampered around the orb, howled, and plunged as one giant train of murderous bodies into the water outside the tunnel.

"Who shall they consume first, my lord?!?!?!" Chasma shouted above the mayhem.

The orb pulsed purple. The voice hissed.

"_Plasma.........Plassssmaaa.........eat his heart and every breathing soul around him. Turn life into death..."_

With a few lasting howls and shrieks, the demons were gone. Chasma stood in the center of the cleared room. He laughed his head off maniacally.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!!!!!!" Garth gasped.

Raven and Cyborg, standing on the rock that Aqualad was plunging into the depths of the sea, looked at the Atlantean in concern.

"Dude...you okay??" Cyborg asked.

"It's Slizzath...," Garth murmured.

"What?? He's being resurrected already??"

"It's not _him_," Garth spoke. "Safe to say...it's half of him. The Black Tempest incarnate..."

"What do you mean?" Raven asked.

Garth took a deep breath. He refocused his glowing hands and spoke with purple-flashing eyes. "We have to hurry."

With the powers of Tempest, Garth accelerated the plunging rock into the depths of the sea.

Cyborg and Raven helplessly went along for the ride.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Rest easy, Haetryd......,"_ the voice hissed at Chasma. _"Your pathetic hold over the Senate will be realized. But it means little to me. My power shall be greatest in all the universe. The next age shall be defined by myself and myself alone..."_

Chasma slowly lowered his arms, panting. "My Lord...," he grinned drunkenly. "Nothing matters to me now....save for that princess bitch's head on a plate..." He let out a wheezing chuckle.

Beast Boy frowned.

FLAAAASH!!!!!

Beast Boy gasped.

A stream of blue energy shot out and encased Chasma's lower body. The torso of Haetryd flinched and groaned as a chunk of ice traveled up his body and surrounded his frame into frozen solidity.

_"What?!?! Acyd!! Compensate, my child!!!"_

Acyd spun, her eyes wide in shock.

SWIIIIISH-CHTINK!!!

Beast Boy gasped as frozen daggers flew across the air and severed the chains hold him. He landed numbly on the ground. Fraust stepped over and stood protectively over him, facing Acyd.

"Fraust.....," Acyd murmured. "You...betray us??"

Fraust took a deep breath. She managed to pierce her melancholy exterior and produce a bitter frown. "I am merely helping the one person in my life who ever stepped up to preserve me....," she held two misting hands of blue out at the green-haired girl. "And now that Slizzath's minions have left this domain...I can finally work on saving my brothers and sisters. My **true** brothers and sisters."

Beast Boy managed a shivering grin. "You're not a natural blonde afterall, are you?"

Fraust timidly added: "Vera...you are free to join me....free to join me in freedom, if you want."

But Acyd frowned angrily. "The name's not Vera anymore," she hissed. Her fingers started steaming. "It's Acyd. And I think it's about time you melted for good, snow witch!!!"

_"Eliminate her!! Destroy my bastard child!!!"_

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Acyd ran towards Fraust.

Fraust shoved Beast Boy out of the way, charged up a huge pulse of blue, and launched it at the charging agent of corrosion.

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Praetor!! Praetor, come look!!"

Robin and Ivan looked over. The Idyllist later stomped over and leaned over the crewmember's console on the bridge.

"What is it??"

"I don't know, sir. But there're dozens of them. And they're closing in on us fast!"

"How soon till we get to Atlantis?"

"About a half-hour."

"Close...but not close enough," Ivan groaned. "Any idea what those objects are?"

"Too small to be submarines, sir."

"An Atlantean infantry division?"

"They're not in any standard formation I've been trained to recognize..."

Ivan marched up to the front of the bridge. "Then what in Neptune's name are they?" he thought aloud.

Starfire floated in with Nova'm. "What is the commotion about? Is there something amiss?"

"I have no clue," Robin shrugged. "But I've got a bad feeling about it."

"Sir! They're closing in! Visual sighting imminent!"

Ivan and a dozen other crewmen turned and stared out the front window panels of the bridge.

Robin craned his neck to look.

Rising over a bed of coral like a flock of underwater bats came over fifty shrieking, muscle-rippling entities of demonic hate. They glowed a communal aura of unsettling purple. Their shrieks warbled through the water as they soared straight at the submarine fleet.

"Poseidon....," Ivan murmured. "Sea Wraiths...."

"Sea Wraiths?!?!" Robin exclaimed.

"Spawn of ancient Leviathans. Hatred and Death rolled into one, carnivorous being...and now we have a whole school of them charging us."

"What in the Hell are Sea Wraiths?!" Robin barked.

"Not something to be happy about," Ivan said.

"............," Robin drew a blank.

The dark-eyed Idyllist glanced down at him. "Doesn't your surface-culture believe in vampires?"

Robin gasped. He looked out the window.

Starfire and Nova'm hugged each other.

The crewmembers were numb, their eyes wide.

The shrieking creatures closed in.

"Battlestations," Ivan muttered.

Silence.

He spun around and shouted: "Battlestations!!!"

The bridge went into a flurry of activity. People intercoming the decks of the ship. Other people radioing the other submarines. Weapons charging and harpoons and tridents glowing...

The Black Tempest rushed in on them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WRIEEEEEEE!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

What was once a group of sane, cultish Atlanteans had morphed into water demons of obsidian ferocity. They spiraled about in a thick black haze and descended maddeningly upon the four submarines.

The underwater bikers watched in horror. In honorable fashion, they gathered around in an attack formation around the forward left side of the submersibles and charged up their tridents and harpoons with bright energy.

The demons flocked towards them. Huge, yawning mouths of glistening fangs howled open. Claws at the ends of razor-sharp fins opened wide and flexed.

Black flesh met Idyllist metal.

"RRRRAUGH!!!!" the bikers shouted and zapped, stabbed, and swung their tridents with all they could muster.

Obsidian wings blocked the first barrage of energy discharge. One or two demons shrieked in a fountain of black bubbles. The rest converged on the ocean-soldiers like Hell's pirahnas.

The Idyllists were helpless. Screams warbled through the soup of seawater and black fins. Three demons latched onto each biker and gnawed, clawed, and bit into a pulsing center. A cloud of red formed—through which the surging school of death broke through and rocketed towards the first and largest of the submersibles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Praetor Ivan, the Titans, and the crewmembers watched in horror. A murk of black and red fountained towards them from the outside and--

CLANK!!!!!! A half-chewed Atlantean body slammed against the glass.

A few crewmembers screamed.

Nova'm let out a cry and hid behind Starfire.

The Tamaranian girl watched with round eyes.

Robin stepped forward to the window...

RIIIIP!!!

The shredded body exploded through the center. A demon pierced through the flesh and bit into the glass.

CRACK!!!!

Robin jumped back.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

Its silvery mouth of fangs rattled into the window, forming the tiniest of cracks. And startlingly quickly that crack became less tiny and less tinier.

"Are the weapons online?!?!" Ivan grumbled.

"They are now, sir!! The guns are armed and ready!!"

"Fire at will!!"

A flashing light pulsed on every computer console. A siren blared.

Ivan took a deep breath.

Robin's fists clenched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At a dozen spots on opposite sides of the main ship's hull, manhole-sized gun turrets extended outward, rotated, aimed at the attacking cloud of demons, and took fire.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

Energy and ballistic blasts streamed through the deep seawater, spewed bubbles in a spiral, rounded out, and struck hard into the obsidian flesh of a handful of demons.

TH-THUNK!!!! THUNK!!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!!" the bleeding creatures shrieked. They retreated outward from the hull of the main ship, regrouped, spiraled together in the water, and advanced back in a huge, snake-like attack. Their bodies swarmed to create a Hellworm lined with claws and gaping mouths of metallic teeth. In such a manner, they spun around the ship like an electron cloud to its nucleus and miraculously dodged most of the ensuing cannonfire.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BL-BLAM!!!!

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" the spiraling school of demons squirmed to miss the shots. The rope-like entity warbled towards the ship while in rotation and 'bit' into passing turrets.

CRACK!!!

Water seeped into the gun chambers, crushed the bodies of the Idyllist gunners inside, and imploded in a flurry of bubbles and blood before so much as a scream could be uttered into the air vacuum.

SMASH!!! POW!!!! CRASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Everyone on the bridge wobbled as the ship shook.

Ivan uttered through clenched teeth: "Status report!!"

"Nine out of twenty-four gun turrets destroyed!! Three more abandoned. We can't fight off something this close-ranged!!"

"Why aren't the other ships giving support fire??"

"Commander Jeanne's reporting in and saying that it's impossible to shoot the creatures and not miss the flagship!"

"Captain Gaston says that they're under close attack as well."

"Praetor, they're all over us!!"

Ivan spun about to another crewmember. "Any of the bikers left?"

"None, sir......they're all gone."

"............," Ivan took that in.

BLAM!!!

Another turret blew.

The entire ship lurched.

Robin panted, supporting himself up with a computer console. He looked up...his eyemask brightening. "We can help!!"

Ivan spun to look at him.

"The T-Sub. There are four remaining components to it in tact!" Robin exclaimed. "Each of them can be manned independently and used as combat submersibles!"

"How're the maneuverability and firepower?" Ivan asked.

"Enough to shake off a pursuing sailfish or heat-seeking torpedo!" Robin exclaimed. "As for firepower...approximately thirty microtorpedos for each, including sonic blasters for minimal damage."

"They won't hold off a demonic hoarde such as this!!!!" Ivan gestured.

The ship shook again.

Robin gritted his teeth, trying to stay balanced. "No, sir. But they might distract them long enough for the main subs to get to Atlantis! There's still time!!"

".......," Ivan stared. The sounds of shrieking demons and exploding turrets shook through the water and echoed chillingly through the bridge. The dark-eyed Idyllist took a deep breath and said: "Very well. Let's go."

Starfire floated over. "Robin, I am going with you."

The Boy Wonder smirked. "Thought you'd never ask. Come on!" he ran down a corridor leading towards the hangar bay.

"I'm going too," Ivan said.

Robin stopped. He glanced back. "Sir??"

"I'm going to protect my people at all costs," the man said. "Besides, you said you have four submersibles available, and it would be a travesty to not use all of them." He glanced around. "I need one last volunteer to pilot the miniature attack sub!"

Nova'm raised a nervous hand. "I-I will..."

Starfire floated over. "No, Nova'm. You will not."

"But Kory—"

She knelt down and immediately hugged him—to his surprise.

"Do you wish to be a _hero_ still, Nova'm??" she murmured into his ear.

He shakingly nodded.

"Then live long to become a **great** one!" she stroked his back. "I shall return. I promise you that. Venvuraat memor'm niul de X'Hal...." She stood up and flew quickly down the corridor while Robin ran alongside her.

"Sir!" a guard rose to the occasion and saluted Ivan. "I'll go with you."

"You a good pilot?"

"I'm a proud one."

"Good enough. Go!!"

The four dashed towards the hangar by as the submarine shook.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!—SMACK!!!

"Nnnghh!!" Fraust winced as she was slammed up against the rock wall. Gloves of ice were steaming as flakes of acid melted away at them.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Acyd flew in with a hand strewn with green juices.

Fraust clenched her teeth. Mist poured out and her eyes glowed violet as she charged up a beam of blue and shot it at the charging mage.

FLASH!!!!!

Acyd's arms flung forward. SLOSH!!!! Two acid streams flew just as the ice beam struck her in the chest and plowed her back. "Mmmmf!!!

SSSSSSSSSSsssssss!!!!

The acid struck on either side of Fraust's blonde head, burning through the rock.

The girl gasped, dove, and rolled out of the way just as Acyd regained her foot and shot a huge stream of juice at her figure.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSssss!!!! In a straight line, the acid burned through the rock and cut a slab of rock in half like butter.

Beast Boy—who was hiding behind the slab—shrieked and dove out of the way as more globs of green death scattered his way. He morphed into a lemur and purched on a wall far away in the circular corridor.

The orb projecting Slizzath's spirit warbled dark and violet in the center. _"Punish her, Acyd!! Punish your sister of abomination!!!!"_

Acyd hissed as she paced across the mist-trailing Fraust. "You've been poisoned. You've been poisoned the infidels who oppose our Lord!!!"

"Because you can burn things alive does not make you the expert on poison, Acyd," Fraust spat back. Her face was full of disappointment. "You and I are the same...for we are veterans of _pain_."

"We are not the same...we once were...but not anymore...," Acyd retorted.

"Are we so different?" Fraust murmured. She took a shuddering breath and tried to frown again. It didn't work. "What more do we both desire besides death itself??"

"Shut up....SHUT UP AND DIE!!!" Acyd's eyes glowed purple. She screamed and ran a burning path towards Fraust. Her fists coated with acid, which she swung at the ice girl.

Fraust ducked.

SWOOOSH-SSSSSSSS!!! Acyd's fist swung through the metal brace of a tourch and melted it in half.

She shrieked and swung again.

Fraust jumped back.

Acyd's fist grazed another rock slab, carving a smooth canal through it.

Fraust held her hands back, charged blue, and brought them back....holding two icey clubs. She took a breath and spun at Acyd, spinning both bludgeons.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Acyd stepped back, ducked the first two rounds of swings, then jet a burning hand up to melt one apart in an explosion of steam.

FWOOOSH!!!

"Nnngh!!!" Fraust stumbled back into a wall.

Acyd lunged at her.

Fraust rolled away.

TH-THUNK!!!

Both of Acyd's hands melted into the wall.

Fraust spun and swung her last club into the back of Acyd's neck.

Acyd's head spun to the left and her shoulders turned. At the last second, she opened her mouth and bit onto the stick of ice. Green ooze poured out from between her teeth and coated the cold bludgeon.

SSSSSSsssss!!!

Fraust gasped and jumped back, shaking her hand instinctively.

The ice club in Acyd's mouth disappeared. She spat out the last globs of acid, tilted her head back, swallowed, and opened her lips to exhale a blue wisp of steam. She wiped her chin off with her shoulder, yanked her steaming hands out of the burnt wall, and marched menacingly towards the ice mage.

"You cling to warmth too much..."

Fraust took a deep breath and frowned. "Do not dictate to me."

"Hypocrite...," Acyd sneered. She formed two globs of acid and charged the girl with a scream. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Fraust readied a shield of ice and drew back as handfuls of corrosion were launched at her like softballs.

_"Show no mercy...my child...,"_ Slizzath's orb fluctuated. Its violet light reflected off the frozen statue that was Senator Chasma....Haetryd. "_Consume the traitor and digest her treachery. Make right the defiling of my perfect will!!"_

Beast Boy watched hopelessly at the dangerous fight at hand.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The four submarines sped desperately towards Atlantis. They blurred over reefs and coral formations and rock crags on the ocean floor. All the while, the black Sea Wraiths spiraled and spun around the vessels. Shrieking. Clawing. Gnawing at the hull of the main ship repeatedly.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

ScrAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaAAPE!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ship shook.

Robin stumbled against a wall, grunting.

SWOOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew easily past him and snatched his arm.

"Yaack!!" Robin was along for the ride as the Tamaranian easily flew the two of them down the hallway splashing with red alarm lights, sirens, and the frightened screams of huddled passengers.

The two Titans plowed their way through the doors to the hangar in desperation. They found the T-Sub remnants bobbing in the pool of water. The bay doors beneath it and the water were dented slightly from the outside. Demonic shrieks and hull-banging sounds echoed eerily through the chamber.

"Starfire!" Robin called out as the girl dropped him. He ran immediately down the metal deck and jumped onto the T-Sub's hull. "You and I will get the lateral cockpits! The rear and center ones will go to Praetor and the other pilot!"

"Understood!"

Ivan and the last pilot ran in last—having to manage the scurrying by their feet through the hallways.

"Are they good to go??" Ivan asked.

The ship shook.

Robin struggled to get his cockpit open from the outside. "Almost! We have to get in first! Then separate!"

The fourth pilot jumped down, followed by Ivan. "What type of controls does she have?"

"There's an automatic algorithm that incorporates a joystick and lateral thrusters—"

"You've got to be kidding me," Ivan grunted as he took one of the cockpits not being occupied by the two Titans. "Is there any watercraft you surface dwellers make that ISN'T complicated!!"

The ship shook again. More demon shrieks.

Robin gritted his teeth. "Try really hard to define 'complicated' right now...I dare you..."

"Gentlemen!" Starfire exclaimed. "We must make haste!!"

"I'm in!" the fourth pilot took the rear cockpit and exclaimed.

Ivan took the center.

Robin and Starfire were in the side ones.

The glass cockpit containers sealed them in.

"Taking control of the T-Sub!" Robin radioed in to the others as he strapped into the seat. "Diving into the pool...now!"

With a flush of water, the T-Sub submerged into the pool above the docking bay.

"I'll give the orders to the bridge to open the hatch!" Ivan spoke. "Let's separate first!"

"Affirmative," Starfire fitted a headset to her red head and flipped a flurry of controls. "Initiating separation sequence."

"I've programmed it to disregard the front cockpit," Robin said. He grimaced. "Since it's missing..."

"Let's get on with it already!" the fourth pilot exclaimed.

Starfire spoke: "Separation in three.....two.....one...."

CH-CHLUNK!!!! Whuurrrr-CL-CLACK!!

Four distinct submersibles came out of the separating T-Sub. The rear vessel with the fourth pilot extended its 'tail' further outward with extra thrusters. Ivan's middle capsule protruded propellers on either side. The lateral subs of Starfire and Robin pivoted about so that the main thrusters of the T-Sub became the main thruster of the tinier crafts...while two additional, support thrusters appeared on the new sides making the two craft appear like Star Wars B-Wings.

"Okay....ready!" Robin exclaimed.

"Prepared!" Starfire said.

"All clear!" spoke number four.

Ivan took a deep breath. He radioed in the bridge. "This is Ivan! Open the bay doors!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Aye, sir!" a crewmember at comms nodded. He quietly signaled another Idyllist at a computer console.

Hands traveled in a flurry across the instruments.

Nova'm watched them, then turned his head out the window that he was pressed against.

His fingers curled anxiously against the glass.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CH-CHTUNNNNNGGG!!!

The huge bay doors opened to the yawning depths of ocean beneath the speeding vessel. Coral peaks and black streaks of evil flew past underneath.

Some of the four pilots gulped.

Robin signaled to the others through their cockpits window.

In all one accord, the four T-Sub components rocketed downward in a rush of bubbles.

FWOOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nova'm watched as four metal bodies shot out from under the nose of the ship and drifted off towards the spiraling, black madness of the demons...arching back for another return.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin held one hand to his controls and set his weapons with another glove.

He spoke into a headset. "Allright! Everyone stay together! Switch on the—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_automation formation compensators located to the left of your joysticks!"_

The fourth pilot nodded and pulled the switches in question.

Starfire's voice: _"Are we to—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—engage en masse with our combined firepower?" she readied her tactical and targeting systems as the four roared along through the water. "The enemy is quite numerous and fearsome!"

_"Fire with the sonic blasters from a distance. Everyone prepare to fire with a moderate salvo upon my command!"_

"Affirmative!" the Tamaranian nodded.

"_This is Ivan to the—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—main flagship!" Ivan spoke firmly into his headset as he maintained current speed. The black bodies of the sea wraiths spun about and surged towards them. "Maintain course and heading! We're gonna try and shake these creeps just long enough for you to reach Atlantis! There, the city defenses should take out whatever wretched spawn is left!"

_"Affirmative, Praetor. Poseidon be with you!!"_

"_For the Hidden Valley!!"_ the fourth pilot's voice shouted.

Ivan smiled and locked his sonic cannons into position.

-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyemask squinted.

Through the cockpit window he saw the the body of black demons squirm straight towards them.

"Allright...ready sonic blasters.....and......fire!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The four seacraft sped through the water in a 'cross' formation. Bubbles boiled behind them and in scattered spurts ahead of them as they shot streaming beams of focused sonic energy ahead of them.

ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!! ZAAAAP!!

The energy streams sailed into the surging mass of death. Explosions bubbled out from the bulbous swarm. Shrieks of demonic pain followed mists of black murking out into the waters. The Black Tempest angrily charged on.

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!! ZAAAAA-ZAAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire kept jamming the triggers repeatedly.

Her cockpit and figure flashed brightly with each discharged shot.

"It is useless!!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth. "They are not relenting!!"

"_Keep firing, Starfire!! This isn't the—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—beginning of the punishment yet!" Robin sneered.

He jammed the trigger with his left glove while he prepared the salvo with his other hand.

"Get your salvos ready!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ivan frowned and readied the micro-torpedos. He kept firing into the black school of demonic flesh bubbling towards them.

"_Hold.........hold......,"_ Robin's voice uttered.

The demons came closer......closer......

_"Hold...............Hold........."_

The creatureds clawed at the open water.

Their fangs became visible.

Ivan began to sweat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Hold......Hold........."_

The fourth pilot panted.

The creatures started to reflect off the glass of his cockpit.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

"Now would be a good time, Mr. Titan!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NOW!!" Robin shouted and hit his torpedo switch.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire grunted and jammed her fist across the button.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

All four submersibles opened side panels. Clusters of explosive torpedoes drifted out into the streaming water in clumps.

On cue, every individual torpedo in a clump let loose plasma jets.

Each cluster fanned out wide and deadly...exploding into the bulbous wall of shrieking demons.

POW!!! P-POW!!!

BLAM!!!!

"WRIEEEE-EEEEEE!!!"

Ten demons fell in an instant in fountains of exploding obsidian.

P-P-POW!!! POW!!!!!

Bodies toppled away, but the line of demons was still solid. It streamed at the four subs mercilessly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyemask widened.

He gasped.

"Starfire!! Evasion Pattern Delta!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Ivan!! Follow me!!"_

"_I'm with the Tamaranian!!"_

"_Starfire, now!!"_

Starfire held her breath and yanked hard to the left with the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!

Bubbling paths crisscrossed.

Robin and Ivan's vessels jerked right.

Starfire's and number four's ships streamed to the left.

The ships parted from formation and the line of demons streamed down the middle.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

SLOOOOOOOOOSSSSHH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" the fourth pilot grunted as he swerved long and hard.

A solid wall of shrieking demons surged past his vision through the glass cockpit.

The entire seat of his craft shook and vibrated in the bubbling torrent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin gritted his teeth and evened his vessel out.

"Starfire! Everyone!!" he barked into his headset. "Decelerate...now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOSH!!!

The four vessels arched around.

Starfire's and Robin's craft returned to formation....following the 'tail' end of the surging body of demon wraiths. Ivan's and number four's craft compensated alongside the Titans' craft.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ivan eyed the inviting sight of the unguarded rear of the demon onslaught surging towards the four huge ships.

"Please tell me we're going to shoot now..."

_"You'll get your chance, Praetor."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Starfire!" Robin spoke as he flipped at controls like mad while simultaneously piloting the craft to chase the worm of the Black Tempest. "Get your sonic cannons ready. The rest of you, unleash fifty-percent of your remaining torpedo solvos!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Starfire and I will provide cover and keep the demons in the blast zone with our sonic blasts!"_

"Got it," the fourth pilot smirked, readying the missiles.

_"Ready......NOW!!"_

The pilot jammed onto the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWIIIIIIISH!!!

The missiles streamed from Ivan's and the fourth pilot's crafts towards the back end of the swimming wraiths.

Demons shrieked and tried to swim out of the way.

That's where Robin and Starfire took over, blasting the abominations back into the surging crowd they had made.

And verily the torpedoes made contact.

P-POW!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!! POW!!!!!

"WRIEEEEE-EEEEE!!!!"

The demons flew out in a huge 'flower' of spreading motions. Their huge mass—what was left of them—fanned out and came on the return attack...flying in four separate tendrils towards the different vessels with streaming murk of demon blood.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

The fourth pilot blinked.

"You think they're mad?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I think we've done the best that we can together!" Robin exclaimed.

He flipped a new set of controls.

"Everyone!! Split up!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We're better off with these creeps broken apart instead of facing all of them head on!!"_

Starfire nodded and gripped the controls. "Agreed! Keep safe, everyone!!"

"_More importantly...,"_ Ivan spoke.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...get them as far away from the four ships as you can!!" the Idyllist leader exclaimed. His dark eyes narrowed. "I'd rather them distracted than dead at this moment!"

"_Aye sir!"_

"Robin! You take the lead!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Move out!!" the Boy Wonder shouted and yanked at his controls.

The ocean floor pivoted before him like an altitude reader.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles trailing, the four vessels parted ways.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!" the demons parted into four 'snakes' of pulsing mass. They swam at the tails of the four crafts, snapping their jaws and clawing their fingers at the metal hulls.

Robin's and Ivan's craft streamed towards the ocean floor.

Starfire's and the fourth pilot's rocketed upwards.

Behind them, the scarred flagship and its three flanking runners chugged through the seas on course to Atlantis.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile...

WHUMP!!!

Fraust and Acyd grappled.

Before Acyd could burn Fraust's skin through, the girl encased her arms in sleeves of ice and slipped free. She then fisted a hard chunk of ice around her right knuckle and punched the corossive mage back.

SMACK!!!

Acyd stumbled.

Fraust formed a scabbard of ice in her left hand, twirled it, and charged Acyd with it lunging forward. "Nnnnghh!!"

SWOOOSH!!

Fraust held her palms outward with a coat of acid.

SSSSSSSSSSssssss!!! The entire length of the ice sword disentegrated into Acyd's hands.

Acyd then sprang her arms back, twirled, and launched them forward towards Fraust's feet.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

The ice girl leapt acrobatically from the glob, backflipped, and produced a spike of ice in time to embed her backwards into the rock wall of the cavern. Hanging by one hand, Fraust gritted her teeth and zapped a blue beam trailing at Acyd's feet.

FLAAAAASH!!!

Acyd held her breath and jogged past the ice beam. She rolled across a miniature lake of ice and ended propped on her knees. She flung two coats of acid upwards.

SSSSSSsss!! CHTINK!!

Fraust's ice spike snapped apart with a puff of steam and she landed awkwardly on her knees.

Both half-bowing girls stared across at each other, panting.

"_Do not delay, Acyd...,"_ Slizzath's spirit hissed through the pulsing orb. _"Strike her down! I want to hear her scream for her betrayal—"_

Swoooosh-CLANK!! A softball sized rock flew across the cavern and ricocheted off of the orb.

_"RrrrRRRAUGH!!"_ Slizzath's voice angrily warbled. The orb pulsated and cast a violet 'searchlight' across the room.

Beast Boy stood—perched on a slab of rock. He juggled another rock in one hand like a good ballplayer and frowned. "Okay...I am getting SICK and TIRED of that. Why don't you shut your cakehole, you stupid nerf ball?!?! Nnngh!!" He flung another rock.

Swoooooosh-CLANK!!!

The orb shook again and hissed in anger. "_Infidel......prepare to be consumed!!"_

FLASH!!! A tendril of heated, purple energy shot out towards Beast Boy.

The green elf's ears fell. "Eeep.....gotta quit stand-up after this."

CR-CR-CRASH!!!!

The torches between Slizzath's orb and Beast Boy cascaded like dominoes.

The changeling turned into a bullfrog and leapt out of the way.

SMASH!!!

The purple tendril struck the rock slab like a supernatural whip. Rocks and debris flew.

The orb spun around.

The purple tendril streaked across the room, lashing at the leaping green frog, kangaroo, marmoset, and squirrel. Beast Boy barely ducked and dodged the sweeping energy from the angry sorcerer spirit. Soon, a second purple tendril warbled out...joining the fray as torch holders, rock slabs, and segments of cave rock were shattered in the imprisoned villain's attempt to snuff out the Titan's life.

In the meantime, Fraust and Acyd were getting to their feet slowly.

They faced each other from a distance...their strength gradually returning.

"I wish I could make you understand...," Fraust spoke. For the first time since her 'freedom', she looked on the verge of tears again. "I wish I could save you. At the same time, I do not wish to hurt you...but after what we've been through, I do not know any alternative besides hurt..."

"You can do me the favor by losing your heartbeat," Acyd snarled. Her fingers started steaming as acyd boiled up in her arteries.

Fraust held her breath. She clasped to hands together in front of her and glowed a bright blew aura.

Acyd charged green juices.

Fraust charged blue snow.

Acyd charged.

Fraust charged.

Two flickering eyes of purple twitched across from one another.

A gasp and a shudder....

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" Acyd pushed her two arms out and launched a sewer-sized spew of acid.

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Fraust's fingers curled and a sphere of ice bloomed in front of her.

SLOSSSSSSH!!!!!!

The acid stream struck the ice and froze on contact.

Simultaneously the sphere of ice exploded into mist.

Fraust stumbled back—gasping—as frozen green daggers embedded in the wall in a star-spangled mess around her silhouette.

Acyd charged, growling, with a hand reaching out.

Fraust readied herself with a hand of her own.

The two girls met.

CLAMP!!!

CLAMP!!!

The two girls froze, gasping in pain.

Acyd's eyes bulged.

Fraust's eyes teared.

Beast Boy came to a panting stop behind a safe boulder. He glanced over at the fight. His eyes widened.

Even the purple tendrils lessened in their sweeping destruction from the orb.

"..........."

"..........."

Acyd hand her hand over Fraust's heart.

Fraust likewise had her hand securely over Acyd's chest.

Acyd's fingers burned slowly into Fraust's skin.

Fraust's ice digits stabbed into Acyd's flesh deeper and deeper.

The two girls heaved as they gradually wounded and scarred each other. The pain was excrutiatingly mutual. The purple in their possessed eyes faded to green and blue. Wounded and round.

Fraust managed a shakey voice through the wall of pain as she stared at her companion. "V-Vera......this is us.....this pain..."

Acyd shuddered. He lips quivered. Blood rain in thin rivers down her chest.

"This is all we've known...and this is all we will know...," Fraust grunted. Steam puffed up from her acid burns. She bit her lip then strained to utter: "As long as we keep hurting......e-each other....and others...."

Acyd trembled.

Fraust shook. "Give it up....." a crystal tear formed down her cheek. "As I.....h-have given it up....."

"I....I c-can't..." Acyd began to sob.

"Neither can I...," Fraust shuddered. "N-Neither can I....."

".........."

Silence.

Acyd bit her lip. Steaming tears rolled down her cheeks. For the first time, she was burning herself. "NnnnnNNGHH-AAAUGH!!!" she released her hands and clutched her face. She fell to her knees, sobbing madly.

Fraust clutched her and fell to her knees. They hugged each other...wounded chests touching...sobs mingling.

The orb pulsed quizzically.

Fraust hiccuped. She trembled into Fraust embrace. Her teeth clenched as she sobbingly hissed: "I hate you....I hate you.....I hate you!!" Her eyes flared. She spun around in Fraust's hold, shot a hand out towards the orb of Slizzath, and screamed: "I...HATE...YOU!!!!!!!!!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!

The orb fluctuated with a warbling shockwave of purple and violet intensity that must have been a dead sorcerer's equivalengt of a gasp. "_No!!"_

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssss!!!!!

The acid coated the figure in a torrent of corrosive fury. Steam rose from the purple entity. A demonic hiss of pain and frustration filled the room.

Incidentally, at precisely that moment...the 'head' of the Senator Chasma's ice encasement melted away. As soon as his eyes fluttered open, he saw the acid bath enveloping Slizzath's embodiment and screamed. "No!!! My Lord!!"

Beast Boy shouted from where he cowered. "Find a new religion, bucko!!"

"NOOOOOOO!!!!" Slizzath shrieked.

Acyd stopped screaming...and consequently, she stopped spewing acid out of her hand. In one last exhale of a sob, she fell limply in Fraust's cold embrace.

The ice girl panted, looking towards the center of the room.

Beast Boy peaked behind the rock slab he stood behind.

The smoke and steam cleared...and standing on the pedestal was a dull, purple stone. The pedestal behind it melted, cracked, and crumbled. The dull stone plummeted to the floor.

**CL-CLUNK!!!**

The rock had to have been smaller than a basketball, and yet its impact with the cave floor was enough to cause an earthquake. Tremors swept through the cavern. The ceiling shook and chunks of rock started to fall.

"You fools!!!" Senator Chasma shouted and tried in vain to shake loose of his ice entrapment. "You defilers of all that is powerful!!! Nnngnnghh!!! The insolence! How dare you?!?! HOW DARE YOU?!?!"

Fraust trembled and tried standing up with the limp Acyd in her arms.

"Even he had to learn...what pain is..."

Senator Chasma howled in anger.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Robin's craft streaked down towards the ocean floor.

Bubbles trailed on the descent towards coral formations.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" a flock of stroking demons spiraled towards him.

Robin jerked the craft back and forth to evade a cluster of them. He duckd down and skimmed the surface of the coral. As his craft came upon a peak in the reef, he charged the cannon blasters and fired a volley.

ZAP!!!! Z-Z-ZAP!! ZAP!!!!

The coral exploded upwards.

Robin jerked at the controls and spun the craft through the cloud.

Immediately as he pierced through, he pulled back and twirled the craft around.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The demons streaked into the coral debris-cloud beneath him.

Robin rounded out, descended, came on their rear, and fired a burst of torpedoes.

SWOOOOOSH-POW!!!!!!

The demons shrieked as they flew apart, limb from limb. A cloud of black murk rose bloodily upwards as Robin sailed off in his craft.

A split second later, Starfire's craft skirted down.

Trying to lose the demons on her tail, she meandered around towering spires of coral. She brushed past one—grazing the left thruster of her craft—and fired a cannon blast at another tower. Z-ZAP!!! The top half of the tower snapped off and plowed heavily through the swarm of demons on her tail.

Starfire pulled up and rocketed towards the surface just as the fourth pilot streaked by, firing sonic blasters at the remnants on the Tamaranian's vessel's tail.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Black Tempest wraiths exploded with shrieks. The rest stopped chasing Starfire and instead pounced onto the fourth pilot's vessel.

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Atlantean gasped and flinched as demons started clinging onto his lateral propellers.

"WRIEEEE!!!" CRA-AACK!! They started biting into the hull and the cockpit window from multiple sides.

"Th-They're on me!!!" the fourth pilot grunted and tried jerking the controls. "I can't shake them!!!"

_"Hold on!!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin spoke into his headset while gripping his controls.

"I'm coming around!!"

He steered hard to the left.

"Nnnnghhh!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles trailed as Robin plunged downward—spinning—towards the fourth pilot's rear.

The Boy Wonder's craft stopped spinning, angled itself just right, and fired sonic blasts at the ship's sides.

Z-ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

"WRIEEEE!!"

"WRIEE—" FLASH!!!

The demons were shot off of the fourth pilot's fins.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"You're clear!!"_

The pilot jammed a button to his right. "Get out from back there!! Missile launch!"

"_Gotcha!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

A cluster of missiles released from the fourth pilot's ship, drifted backwards, and exploded like depth charges into the mass of wraiths tailing the submersible.

POW!!!!!!!

The demons shrieked and exploded in a flurry of murk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Good one!" Robin shouted.

He looked straight ahead through the cockpit.

"Whoah!!"

His eyemask bugged and he jerked hard at the controls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin's craft spun out of the way barely in time to avoid Ivan's ship streaking through.

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Bubbles and demons trailed the Praetor's vessel. A greater amount of demons than bubbles, however.

A black trail streaked after Ivan as he darted towards the ocean's floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I do not understand!" Starfire exclaimed as she looked out a side porthole of her submersible. "I am nearly clear of all demonic pursuers and yet—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_---so many of them are chasing Praetor Ivan's vessel! And with a passion!!"_

Ivan took a deep breath. His eyes flickered purple as a realization washed over him.

"That's because it's me they want..."

_"Praetor??"_

"I'm the essence of plasma!! Slizzath sent his Black Tempest after me! Of course!!"

He grunted and dove the ship hard towards the center of the earth.

_"Ivan!!_" Robin shouted. _"What are you doing??"_

"Keeping my people safe....," the Praetor said through clenched teeth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHOOOOOOM!!!!!

Ivan's ship surged down towards a deep ravine cutting into the ocean floor.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" the demons shrieked and surged after him in a huge mass encompassing at least ninety percent of the remaining attack force.

Ivan plummetted his craft lower and lower into the black depths yawning before him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Praetor!! Praetor!!"_ the fourth pilot's voice shouted. _"You're going too deep!! A Terran vessel isn't made for that type of depth!!"_

"I'm not Terran.....," Ivan shouted as his entire ship shook. Cracks started to form in the cockpit's glass window as he throttled the pressure-beaten capsule towards the ravine. "I'm Ivan of the Hidden Valley!! Imbued with a tainted power of darkness!! I'm neither human nor Atlantean!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The crew on the bridge of the flagship listened numbly as the crackling intercom shouted out their Praetor's voice.

_"For years I have attempted to serve my people while denying the very evil that resides within me!! I have carried this burden of guilt for so long that I have forgotten the true burden that I must be responsible for!! The lives of my people!! The future of the seas and the serenity of the dry lands!!"_

Nova'm took a shuddering breath and wrung his hands.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"These accursed demons are after me...," Ivan slurred.

As if on cue, demons caught up with the cracking ship and started clinging madly to its hull on all sides.

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!"

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Ivan eyed them remorsefully as he spoke: "Everything that has happened is because of me! Myself and Garth!! The children of an unlucky household!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin took a deep breath as he listened.

He cruised through the waters above, shaking off a few lasting wraiths.

_"But my people must not be imprisoned by a past that does not belong to them!! The Junction is their future!! Atlantis is part of their future!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"No more hiding! No more nomadic loneliness!! Find Prince Garth! Achieve reunification!! I beg of you!!"_

Starfire bit her lip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!!!!

A bulkhead popped above Ivan's head.

The lights of the ship flickered.

Water started spraying in.

Ivan took a deep breath.

"...fear nothing but the taint of black blood..."

He ripped his headset off.

"WRIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

The demons' voices became increasingly more audible as fissures in the glass cockpit multiplied.

Ivan grinned as his eyes flickered purple and his hands charged up a pulse of hot-orange plasma.

"You don't know what Hades is....imps....."

He gritted his teeth and flexed his muscles until his entire body fluctuated red-hot.

"RrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRR**RRRRRAUGH!!!!!"**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin watched outside the edge of his cockpit as the Ivan's ship plunged deep into the ravine, covered like a cluster of grapes with writhing, black demons.

Between the cracks formed by the converging wraiths' limbs, a hot-orange glow emanated. Then a sphere of bright energy. Then...

FLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!

Robin shaded his eyemask as the submersible exploded brilliantly. The demons dissolved in liquid fire. Those still bloodily lingering were crushed by the shockwave of Ivan's plasma explosion causing the ravine to collapse around the massacre...sealing the evil away permanently.

_"Praetor Ivan!!!!"_ the fourth pilot's voice screamed.

Robin took a deep breath.

"Gone..."

CLAMP!!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!!"

"Augh!!" Robin shook as his entire ship jolted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire gasped. "Robin!!!!"

From her cockpit, she could see the last handful of demons converging on his ship, clawing into the hull on all sides.

"Robin, wait for me!!!"

Starfire jerked her controls and dove in.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in the cavern, everything was collapsing.

Chasma kept screaming his head off from his icy restraints. "You fools!!! Worthless, dishonorable fools!!! You will not survive the ensuing Wrath!!!"

"We have got to escape!" Fraust exclaimed.

"Nuh uh!!" Beast Boy shook his head and pointed down the shaking corridor. "What about the kids?!?! The prisoners?! We gotta go back for them!!"

"But how???" Fraust trembled. "This place shall surely crush us all if we wait any longer!!"

Already, crags of rock were collapsing across the escape route.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

"Nnngh...," Acyd murmured, stirring in Fraust's grasp.

"V-Vera...."

"I can....tunnel us....all out...," Acyd struggled to say, flexing her fingers.

"Are you sure you are strong enough too?"

"Would you not be?"

Fraust smiled ever so slightly.

Beast Boy gasped. "I've got an idea!! Come on, let's go!!"

He rushed over and helped Fraust drag Acyd across the trembling interior.

"How can we get all the prisoners out at once?!?!"

"Let me take care of that!" Beast Boy winked.

They stumbled down the torchlit corridor, rocks falling behind them.

Chasma grunted, flexing his muscles. Gradually, he shattered the ice around him and pulled one limb out at a time.

"M-My lord!!!"

He stumbled towards the dull rock.

"My lord!!!!"

He limped towards him.

A wall of rocks fell over head.

"Yaaaaugh!!!"

RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Augh!!!" Robin struggled inside his cockpit. Sparks shot out from his consoles as the demons on the outside bit into the hull from numerous spots.

"WRIEEEEEEEE!!!!"

CL-CLANK!! CLAMP!!!

"WRIEEEE-EEEEEEE!!!!"

"Nnnghh!!" Robin tried to fire his cannon blasters, but the trigger had shorted out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Starfire fired at the creatures.

She shot a few off of Robin's ship.

Suddenly, four of them flew off his hull and converged on Starship's cockpit.

CL-CLANK!!!

"WRIEEEEEE!!!"

"EEK!!" Starfire squirmed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire's ship slowed down and toppled in the middle of the water.

Hers and Robin's craft were barely twenty meters apart...covered by Black Tempest demons...and being eaten from the outside in.

Robin's craft started cracking and breaking to the point that implosion was imminent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire knew this.

She watched with horrified eyes between the converving jaws and limbs of the demons across her cockpit glass.

Suddenly, the Tamaranian girl's eyes glowed green. With a fit of strength, she charged a starbolt in one arm and gripped the headset in another. She shouted into the communicator.

"Robin!! Robin!! This is most desperate!! Hit your eject button!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin struggled.

The ship short-circuited all around him.

Sparks flew.

His voice shaked: "B-But Star—"

_"HIT YOUR EJECT BUTTON NOW!!!"_

He took a deep breath, unbuckled, shut his mouth, then--

CLAMP!!!

His fist flew over a red button.

The cockpit window opened.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

Water surged in.

LUNGE!!!

Robin's ragdoll body exploded through the cockpit window and past the veil of demons into frozen water.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire yanked off her headset and launched the starbolt straight into the glass of her cockpit.

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!—CRACK!!!!!!

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!

In a bolt of green, she surged out into the depths of the ocean.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dull silence.

Robin's body drifted forward.

Starfire's body drifted forward.

They met in the center...between two submerged vessels torn apart and covered with wasp-like demons.

Starfire held her arms out and grabbed ahold of Robin. She held him tight and encased the two of them in a green aura in a desperate move to protect the two.

Robin's entire body shook helplessly as he tried to contain his air and keep his mouth shut.

Starfire stared nose-to-nose at him. Her eyes wide.

Slowly...Robin's eyemask began to thin.

Starfire's lips parted. Bubbles rose from her mouth in an inaudible gasp.

Robin's arms slowly became limp....

....

SPLOOOSH!!!!

The Boy Wonder and the Tamaranian suddenly tumbled onto dry rock.

Robin gasped and sputtered desperately in the fresh air.

Starfire sat up, blinking. "Caclaata de X'Hal!! Where are we—"

Two firm hands grasped their shoulders.

Starfire looked up.

Raven's eyes glowed. "Hang on...."

Starfire's gasped. She looked past the submerged platform...past Cyborg...and saw Aqualad standing with his arms stretched about.

Garth's eyes flickered purple as the rock came to a stop from its emergency plunge. He gritted his teeth and snarled as his wrists flinched.

"Nnnnnnnnnghhhh-----!!!!!!"

Two heavy torrents of water boiled behind the two demon-covered craft and shoved them murderously together.

"RRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" the Tempest in Aqualad screamed.

The ships collided, the plasma conduits ignited, the demons never saw it coming...

_**BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!**_

An intense fireball exploded in the middle of the ocean, imploded, and faded in murky black blood....

Aqualad's eyes returned to dark specks as he panted.

And all was silence.

Cyborg took a deep breath and crossed himself religiously. "She was a good ship..."

FWOOOOSH!!

The fourth pilot's craft drifted by.

The android smiled. "Hey! One piece of her survived!"

Raven glared at him. "Typical....," she knelt down beside Starfire and Robin. "Are you two all right?"

".....," Starfire looked at Robin and stirred his shoulder. "R-Robin? Are you undamaged?"

The Boy Wonder sputtered...winced...and managed a weak smile as he looked up at her. "Starfire....why do you--," he coughed, "—insist on reminding me over and over again why I brought you on this mission."

She smiled bitterly and tackled him with a squeezing hug.

Robin didn't protest.

Starfire stroked the small of his back and let forth a shuddering sigh into his chest.

Raven stood up and pulled her hood over her head. She glanced at Aqualad.

The Idyllist prince was staring down at the collapsed ravine.

Silent.

"..............."

"No....," Raven shook her head. "He didn't survive."

Garth slowly nodded. "I know." He looked stoically back at the dark girl. "And neither should I."

"......."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula rushed ahead towards an underground 'shore' just outside of the sanctuary.

"Hurry up!!" she hoisted the hem of her princessy skirt and motioned towards me and a handful of servants. "If Beast Boy's radio transmission is accurate...they should be here at any moment!!"

I huffed and puffed as I tried to catch up.

We all came to a stop at the edge of the waterline in the yawning cave. We ached from the dash there.

I wiped my disguised brow...my mind lingering on a green elf that I sorely missed...

"Why would they have been gone for so long...?" Tula asked nobody but herself. She wrung her hands in a level of anxiety I had never seen in the young lady before. "Surely he sounded rather pleasant over the communique—"

SPLOOOSH!!

Two figures leapt up through the water's surface.

The servants jumped back, startled.

My lips parted.

It was Fraust and.......another girl.

Tula's eyes narrowed. "Acyd??"

The green-haired one leaned on Fraust's arm weakly. She managed a weak smile as the violet aura around the two magically faded away.

"Vera....," she corrected. "Vera Stone..."

I glanced at Tula...then back at them.

The princess cleared her throat. "Amy....wh-where's Beast Boy?"

Fraust stuttered: "W-With the others...."

"The others?"

The two girls turned to face the waters.

Tula and I glanced up.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

The head of a huge, green whale beached onto the surface.

The Atlanteans behind us gasped in shock.

Tula blinked.

The white eye of the whale winked at us....and the huge mammal opened its mouth.

Sitting, standing, and squatting on its tongue were two dozen, safely-dry human children. Though many of them had quite visibly undergone varying levels of physical brutality...there was no denying the look of joy in their faces at gracing dry land....and friendly people.

Tula smiled wide and clasped her hands together.

"Praise Poseidon...."

I grinned and shook my head in amazement.

The servants rushed forward and guided the children safely out onto the cave's surface.

When they were all gone, the wave miracuously shrunk into a green elf that shook the seawater off him and danced towards me with his arms held up high. "Ha ha ha ha!! Free Willy my ass!!!"

I chuckled breathily.

"Noir!!! You're alive too! That means I can tackle you!! Rrrrrrnghhh--!!!" he ran and plowed into me.

I nimbly countered his weight and wrestled him into the ground, trying to give him a dutch rub.

"Hehehehehe!! Dude!! Cut it out!!!"

Acyd had a look of confusion.

Fraust hugged herself and her lips curved somewhat.

Tula shook her head.

An extra servant ran up.

"Your highness....a secret message from the Idyllist fleet!"

"What???"

"Prince Garth and the other Titans!!" the man exclaimed with wide eyes. "They've arrived in Atlantis!!"

"Dude!!" Beast Boy spoke from my wrestling arms. "The family's all together!!"

Tula planted her hands on her hips and grinned. "Well then...who needs a plan B now??"

"Hehehehe!!"

"To the Sanctuary!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep in a dark, collapsed cave...

With whatever pocket of air was left...Senator Chasma dragged himself across the cold surface of crumbled rock. His legs were numb from the ice...which was probably a good thing because it kept him from feeling the crushed bone in his ankles.

He shuffled over to the center of the collapse room and—with trembling hands—cradled a dull stone before his face.

"My L-Lord....," he practically wept. "My Lord....please.....arouse yourself.....speak to me...."

Slowly...dimly...the dull rock emanated a purple glow.

_"Ssss.........sssacred power.......fffffading............cannot......keep hold....of thissssssss dimensssion......much longer....."_

"I'll do anything for you, my Lord...," Chasma murmured. "Take anything I have to give...my soul my strength....my........m-my body...."

_"Ssssss......your......y-your body..........."_

Chasma panted.

The dullness faded to a stronger glow of evil violet.

"......_Haetryd.........if all that'sssssss leffft to conssssssume is you.........then that ssssshall be my final claim to dessssstiny........"_

"Th-Then it is true??" happy tears ran down the man's shattered face as he lovingly caressed the stone. "I am the final and most trusting child of the Black Tempest??"

"_Mosssssst trussssssting.....yess.......but not the final..........not the final, Haetryd............we sssssshall both deal with the final child...........we ssssshall consssssume him together......then Atlantissss will be oursssss......"_

Chasma weapt happily. "Let it be so, My Lord. Your Will. The Prince's death. The death to the age of the serene seas!!"

_"Haetryd........y-you are the leviathan.........SSSSSSSlizzath incarnate in Haetryd.........Haetryd incarnate in SSSSSSlizzath....."_

The rock glowed and started burning Chasma's skin to ashes.

"_MY FOOTHOLD INTO THIS PITIFUL WORLD!!!!!"_

Chasma howled in pain, and yet he couldn't keep his blind...graying eyes off the burning orb. "AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

The light exploded and filled the shadowed edges of the collapsed cavern.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later....

On the outskirts of Alantis...

Two high Atlantean guards rushed towards the peak of a coral ridge with harpoons drawn.

Telepathically, they communicated with each other.

_"We're coming out here for just one sighting??"_

"_It is an unauthorized entry on Atlantean territory. Orin's commander wants us to investigate!"_

They stared out across the murky abyss.

One pointed with his harpoon.

"_There!!"_

A lone, Atlantean figure slowly walked across the expansive surface.

The two guards swam towards him.

They stopped in front of him, brandishing their harpoon.

_"You there!! Stop!!"_

The stranger's body came to a hault. His head was pointed down to the seaweed.

His arms hung by his side.

One of the guards' turned his head to the side.

"_S-Senator Chasma???"_

Silence.

He drifted forward and again asked telepathically: _"Senator Chasma...what are you doing out here??"_

Slowly, the old man's eyes opened. His eyes glowed violet. He smiled....with serrated teeth.

With an unearthly howl, Senator Chasma lifted his arms. The flesh over his ribcage opened up and two impossibly massive, reptilian arms emerged mucousy and encrusted with serrated scales. CHIIIIIIIING!!!!! One hooked its was forward and stabbed the first guard through the chest.

THUNK!!!!!

The Atlatean's body jerked up. Blood poured out of his chest in red bubbles.

Chasma hissed and grabbed the guard's legs with his other 'claw'.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!

He pulled both halves of the man apart, dangling the entrails between.

The other guard screamed out loud. He raised his harpoon.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Chasma leaped upon him and held the man to his chest.

The Atlantean twitched. His eyes were wide as sauces as he gazed up into Chasma's glowing eyes. _"Wh-What are you?!?!?!"_

Chasma grinned. His mouth stretched opened four times its size with a ring of twelve-inch long teeth that extended and bit over the guard's head. Chasma chewed off the man's face, tossed the body away and swallowed.

When he opened his mouth, red bubbles rose through his lips and nostrils towards the high water above. "I am hungry....," he hissed in Slizzath's voice.

SCHLUNK!!!!

The reptilian arms slid back into him through his ribs as he stomped a demonic path towards the domed city of Atlantis...


	127. Fear the Black Tempest part 8

**127. Fear the Black Tempest part 8**

"Here you go, Robin...," Cyborg whipped out a fresh utility belt from his pack and shoved it into the Boy Wonder's grasp. "Fresh from the Tower's womb."

Robin tossed off his old belt and—dripping—put on the new one. "Thanks. You guys came in the nick of time."

Cyborg smirked. "Always the one to state the obvious."

Starfire was wringing the water out of her long, red hair in ropes. "So this is the true manisfestation of Aqualad's power??"

"Yup, pretty much," Cyborg nodded and glanced over at the dark Idyllist.

Garth was slowly waving his hands about, guiding the boulder and the pocket of air up towards a pool of water gathered at the bottom of a docking bay. They were at the outer boarding ring of Atlantis. Around them, the four mammoth submarines from the Hidden Valley attached mechanically to loading clamps. Metal, undewater bridges sealed themselves to lateral airlocks and started unloading Prince Garth's people from his homeland.

"It took us nearly an entire day," Cyborg explained. "So you gotta understand if Aqualad's a little stiff-legged."

"Well I hope he's well enough to move once we surface!" Robin exclaimed.

"I am....," Aquala replied shortly. He magically guided them up...up...up towards the surface of the docking bay's pool. "It's taken far too long for us to get here. It's only a matter of an hour before the first proceedings of the Junction begins in the Senate."

"Should we find Beast Boy and Noir??" Starfire remarked.

"I seriously don't think there's enough time for that," Raven droned.

Aqualad nodded. "They've done their job. They've kept the spirits at Atlantis building. I trust they'll be fine for me to step up and take my rightful place now."

"You got ESP or something??" Cyborg asked.

The rock broke the surface. Aqualad's air pocket mixed with the interior of the shipyard. Work crews gasped and mumbled in amazement at the sight of the surfacing heroes.

"Better yet," Garth took a deep breath. "I've got a girl."

Cyborg smirked. He winked at Raven.

She rolled her eyes.

"Noir and Beast Boy can't be in any better hands than Princess Tula's," Garth said. "As for the rest of Atlantis..." He hopped onto the docking platform. Robin and Cyborg also hopped up and the two girls floated besides them. "...that's where I come in. You're right, Cyborg. I do have extra senses. The oceans are telling me that this isn't over. The demons that attacked my people and ripped Ivan's life away....," he paused in a burning sneer....then calmed down enough to say, "...they were but a taste of the true evil to venture upon this land."

Aqualad began running across the docks past awe-stricken Atlanteans.

Robin ran up alongside him. "How do you expect to get to the Senate Building on time?"

"I know my way around Atlantis," Aqualad simply replied.

"But it's so far away! Surely on foot or by flying—"

"I **know** my **way** around **Atlantis**...," Garth sneered in mid-sprint.

".........," Robin blinked under his eyemask at that. He lingered a bit behind Aqualad. He uttered: "We're all coming with you."

Aqualad froze in his sprint. He spun around and narrowed his specked eyes. "You're what??"

Cyborg ran up and Raven and Starfire floated around.

"I'll join you in the Senate...like a bodyguard. Starfire and Raven will circle the Building from a high vantage point. Cyborg will be our one man infantry."

Cyborg smirked and palmed his titanium fist. "Rise of the machines, baby!"

"You're surface dwellers," Garth gestured. "You won't be allowed into the heart of Atlantis!!" He paused as he glanced around at the gaping Atlanteans around him. "It's amazing that I've even let you come in this far!"

"But I am from beyond the surface," Starfire smiled pleasantly.

"And I come from Azar," Raven added.

"I'm more circuitry than you give me credit," Cyborg winked.

Robin folded his arms proudly and smiled. "We're not just 'surface dwellers', Aqualad. We're your friends. And Poseidon help you....the need for them is greatest right now."

Garth was silent. Robin's words easily struck deep. They always did.

He took a deep breath. "Fine...but you'd better keep up," he said. He pointed at Cyborg. "And you'd contact Beast Boy and Noir if you know what's good for you!"

"Don't worry, dawg," Cyborg smirked. "I'm pretty sure your girlfriend's okay..."

"........," Garth took a deep breath. "Th-Thanks...." He spun around and ran on ahead.

Robin glanced at all of the Titans. "You guys got your positions mapped out in your head?"

"Positively photographic," Raven uttered.

"Good! Titans, move!"

Raven's eyes glowed and she floated ahead.

Cyborg ran and popped open the communicator in his titanium forearm. "This is Cyborg to Beast Boy!! Beast Boy, can you read?? Cyborg to Beast Boy—"

Robin ran after Aqualad.

Just as Starfire took to the air...

"Kory!!"

She spun to look. She gasped forth a smile. "Nova'm!!!"

The redheaded boy flew in from a nearby corridor attached to a loading sight and practically plowed her in a hug. The two spun in the air two times before hovering still in an embrace.

"Are you o-okay??" Nova'm asked.

"I am undamaged," the Tamaranian girl smiled sweetly. "You need not be dismayed."

"I-I saw what you did from the sh-ship!" the boy exclaimed. "The way you nearly sacrificed yourself to help Robin....it was so brave...."

"A Tamaranian will find herself doing anything for a friend," she said. She parted the hair over his forehead and added: "Or a brother..."

Nova'm blushed.

Starfire floated up in the air. "Nova'm, I must apologize...for time is of the essence and in order for Aqualad's cause to be achieved, I need to make haste—"

"Lemme come with you!!"

"Nova'm, this is a dangerous culmination of political friction and demonic evil in a single instance!"

"I-I didn't come all this way with you and Robin just to worry my head off anymore!" he floated up to her level. "You say all of our people should be boundlessly confident, right? I have boundless confidence in you, Kory. But in myself as well! I want to fight by your side. I-I want the honor of being there for my friends too!"

"............," Starfire took a deep breath. She brightened. "Very well, little hero..."

Nova'm beamed.

She winked a green eye and shot towards the distant corridors. "Then your boundlessness had better be prepared!! For the two of us are gravely behind in the chase!!"

"I'll catch up!! You'll see!!" the prince streaked after her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City of Atlantis yawned open from the side of the huge dome. Fanfare and noises and colorful exploding lights echoed throughout the submerged, urban environment. A festive spirit was jubilantly marking the beginning of Junction...the oceanic renaissance of cultural unification.

The streets were flooded with Atlantean families, ambassadors, nomads, guards, and parades.

The only quick way to make it to the Senate Building was through the alleys.

"I have the credentials to get us in...," Garth spoke. "...I only hope Tula used Noir adequately by now to break the political ice."

They headed straight for a submerged avenue.

Robin reached into his belt and whipped out a breathing mask. He fitted it on while running. "Will King Orin be there??"

"Oh dear Neptune...," Aqualad groaned. "I hope so..."

Prince Garth and the Boy Wonder dove into the water at the same time.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"......_and to the best of my understanding, Noir isn't needed to do his charade anymore. Aqualad's here. He and Robin are going straight to the Senate. They get to do all the boring stuff. Convincing the political parties there of the Idyllist plight. Revealing an intra-government conspiracy. Blah Blah Blah...meanwhile, Star, Raven, the flying shrimp and I get to watch the parade and hope nothing bad happens."_

"............."

_"B.B.???"_

"Dude, I am SO happy to hear your voice, man!! Noir, check it out!! It's Cyborg—WHOAH!!"

I shoved Beast Boy aside and hammered a morse-code signal in through the communicator as the green changeling and I hurried up the hill inside the underground sanctuary. We approached the doors of the Atlantean infirmary on our way to inform Tula of the Titans' plans.

Cyborg received my morse code message and replied: _"Yeah, we're all in one piece. But it's not so fun of a story, man."_

I raised an eyebrow. Beast Boy leaned against my side.

"_Tram......he's dead."_

I gasped.

"No....," Beast Boy's pointed ears drooped.

_"Along with all the other Renzukkan in Tram's vessel. Not to mention well over two dozen Idyllist soldiers and Aqualad's distant relative and compatriot—Praetor Ivan himself..."_

I bit my lip as we entered the infirmary, marching.

_"This has been a very black week. And the freaky part is...it ain't over yet..."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg stood outside the gates to the Senate Building where he was gently lowered by Raven. The dark girl hovered and 'perched' on the stone corner of the gate above him. Her cloak folded around her like a stately gargoyle.

Cyborg looked off down the street at parading crowds of jubilant Atlanteans as he spoke into his arm communicator.

"You two just reunite with that Princess Tula person and see how fast you can get your butts over here! Everything looks calm and peaceful now...but you never know!" He glanced straight up and caught sight of two figures flying overhead...figures with red hair and green auras. They circled gently around the tower of the Senate Building. "I mean, we're keeping sentry....only thing is, we don't know what we're keeping sentry **for** exactly!"

Raven's hood fel down. An invisible wind blew at her aqua-colored hair as she gasped.

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Images of bloody scales._

Claws in the murk.

A giant, angular snout screaming wide open.

_Black hairs and ghost teeth._

_  
Red bubbles streaming to the surface._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!!

Raven's eyes twitched. She blinked.

Cyborg looked up at her, concerned. "Hey Rae....you allright?"

She folded the hood back over her head. "I'll be back...," she lifted up into the air, her cloak billowing.

"What?? No-wait! Rae?!?! Where're you going??"

"To find something!" she floated off over the building tops. "Unless I'm wrong, I may know what Garth's sensing!!' She floated due north-west.

"Rrrrgh...," Cyborg shook his head and gave up. He lifted his arm communicator. "Listen, guys...Raven just flew off against Robin's orders. If it's anything—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_---like normal, then she can't be picking up on something good. Y'all be prepared, all right??"_

"You got it, dude!" Beast Boy hoisted the communicator in my hand towards his face. "We'll be over there PDQ! With our fists clenched!"

"_Don't trip on any princesses along the way!"_

"Oh shut up—"the changeling flipped the communicator off and pocketed it. He lead the way down the metal corridors towards Tula's special room. "I'm gonna miss this extra-special freedom you and I have had down here, what do you think?"

I shrugged.

"Pfft...ascetic..."

I smirked.

We reached the room.

Beast Boy's hand went to the computer console to open it.

I smacked him atop the head. Whap!!

"What?!?! Dude--!!! Oh...ahem....my bad," he simpered. He politely knocked on the door. "Your Highness??"

_"Yes??"_

"Titans-o-gram!"

"_Come on in!"_

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out at me and fingered the console.

SWOOOSH!!

The door flung open.

Beast Boy and I walked in......and froze in our path.

Our eyes were wide....blinking.

".......," Tula finished straightening the top to a new outfit. She was quite casual in the manner in which she 'fitted' herself too. Princess Tula wore a green, two piece wetsuit that clung dangerously tight to her skin. Now, it wasn't Sports Illustrated fodder by any means. The top piece was more adequately a tank top just a few inches smaller than the upper piece that Starfire wore. And, indeed, the bottom piece prudently covered some of Tula's thighs and erased 'bikini' out of our brainwashed minds. I suppose what was so surprising was that there was just so much.......skin. Atlantean princess skin...perfect for diving right into the waves, which she must have done often when we weren't there.

It's not like we really knew this person anyways...

"What???" she uttered in perfect perplexity.

"Erhm....," Beast Boy blushed and scratched the back of his head "You Sure you should have answered the door?"

Tula rolled her eyes. "Of course you know, this ordeal with the Black Tempest isn't over."

"Y-Yeah....," Beast Boy raised a finger. "Funny you should mention that. Cyborg just told us that Raven took off for—"

"There's something to tackle yet, I just know it...," Tula went on. She trodded over in her wetsuit and whipped out two blades from atop a metal table. CH-CHIIIIIING!!! She spun two golden harpoons in her grasp. They were the lengths of half her arms. "And it's about time I went on the hunt again. Cuz quite frankly...I'm getting sick of all this sitting around on my royal tush and waiting for Atlanteans to wisen up to the evil all around." SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! She rotated the harpoons behind her and slid them both simultaneously into a leather sheathe sticking out of the small of her tanktop's back. CHIIING!! She cracked her knuckles and struck a—yes—sexy pose with her weapons hanging out from behind her. "But while we're all here...we might as well work as a team."

I nodded.

A beat.

I raised an eyebrow and slowly looked at Beast Boy.

There was the wind-up....and the pitch....

"YES!!!" Beast Boy hopped with a cheer and practically tackled me as he laughed insanely. "Haha!! Dude, I sooooo love working with you! We always get some hot girl to kick butt besides us!!"

I rolled my specked eyes.

Tula smirked. "Save the gawking for later. We gotta make haste 'upstairs' to Atlantis."

"What'll you think we'll find there?"

"What do you think your Raven will find there?"

"Gotta love a mystery," Beast Boy shrugged. He scratched his hair and drank her in. "So...um...what do we call you now, your highness? Aquachick or something?"

I ran a hand over my face.

Tula rolled her eyes. "Please...," she stuck her tongue out and marched towards the door. "If you so insist...I guess 'Aquagirl' would do..."

"Yeah...uh huh...whatever. Can we go kick butt now??"

I shoved him along into the corridor after her.

"Aack!"

I stepped out last.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula marched down the hallway of the infirmary.

"The Junction will begin at any minute. You say Garth and the others are at the Senate now?"

"They should be," Beast Boy glanced at the watch on his communicator. "They rushed in just moments ago with the Idyllist fleet and stuff."

"Any word on Praetor Ivan?"

I bit my lip.

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "He....H-He didn't make it, your highness..."

Tula froze in her step.

We waited behind her.

A beat.

She sighed. Built up some strength. And smiled boldly in spite of herself. "Well....sure as Hades can't waste time now. Come on."

She ran ahead and I followed suit.

Beast Boy hesitated. He was peering down a nearby hallway where two familiar figures were seated.

Fraust sat on a bench, her cold shoulders to the wall of the infirmary. Acyd lay exhausted with her lap on the ice witch's lap. Behind them, nurses could be seen quickly tending to a score of half-concealed bodies of youths behind the hospital beds....the injured lot Beast Boy and the two former essences of Slizzath had rescued from the Black Tempest's cave hideout.

Fraust's blue eyes met Beast Boy's gaze. The same old melancholy was back. Like part of her couldn't stop melting.

Beast Boy couldn't help himself. He trotted over and leaned by her ear. "H-Hey....you all right?"

She bit her lip...then murmured: "D-Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"I always have somewhere to be...man of zoological mystery, that's me!" Beast Boy struck a comical pose.

Perhaps something inside of Fraust wanted to smile....but the girl refused it.

"What's on your mind? You look as though a little bluebird has just died.............again."

"I cannot help but think...," Fraust took a deep breath and gently stroked the slumbering Acyd's green hair. "When she wakes up....will she still find herself as the new person she's become?"

"How do you mean?" Beast Boy asked. "Don't you have faith in Vera?"

"It is not an issue of faith," Fraust shook her head, sighing. "At least I do not think so."

A beat.

She looked up sorrowfully in Beast Boy's eyes. "Will she be happy that she's free? Or will she feel a new pain identical to our old one? W-Will she look back and sense nothing but the evil she was forced to do under Slizzath's heel?"

Beast Boy leaned his head to the side. "Is that what you feel, Amy? Guilt?"

The girl bit her lip. She gazed off longingly for something she couldn't mentally grasp.

"Hey...," Beast Boy smiled gently and placed a hand on her stroking wrist. "Listen to me. You have nothing to feel bad about, Amy. You were tortured...you were practically ripped to shreds. And when Chasma pried a big enough hole in you, he shoved in the dark magic of Slizzath. You didn't ask for it. You sure as heck didn't wield it happily. But the fact of the matter is—you survived long enough to resist it. And in there...in that cave...when you could have turned your back on me and your future, you instead did the just thing. Because of you...Chasma is royally screwed and Acyd has a new chance at existence. That is a very brave and noble thing, Amy. You have everything to be proud of...not guilty..."

She murmured: "I......I wish it felt as true as you made it sound......"

Beast Boy bit his lips. He couldn't solve that....

She looked deeply into him with blue embers, melting.... "I wish I could right all of my wrong..."

The changeling took a heavy breath.

An impatient voice echoed down the infirmary walls to grab his attention.

He stood up reluctantly and patted her hand before dashing away. "I gotta go save the world...again!" he exclaimed. "Just sit tight and stay safe, Amy!! I wanna talk to you more about this!! You'll see!!"

And he was gone.

She slowly let her gaze fall on the sleeping Acyd.

"I want to save the world too...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tula and I stood at the mouth of a watery tunnel.

We turned around and caught sight of the green changeling catching up to us.

"What took you??" Tula asked.

"I got cold feet."

"Well, it's go-time!" Tula spoke. "Supreme go-time!"

"Where's this tunnel lead?"

"It's an underwater shortcut to the central square of downtown Atlantis," the princess replied. "By now, the streets should be full of spectators and political celebration. We shouldn't be too conspicuous."

"And...um....," Beast Boy scratched his head and glanced at me nervously. "How're we gonna get Mister Landlubber there? I mean, I'd love to do the 'whale-swallowing-college-students-trick' again, but I don't think I can squeeze through those tiny corridors."

"If we go fast enough...," Tula said, "We can get there in two breaths. There's at least four pockets of airs in dry junctions along the way."

I felt relieved at that.

"You hear that, dude?" Beast Boy leaned in and smirked at me. "Just exercise those pretty lungs of yours and hope you don't get the bends—"

THWUMP!! Tula shoved him away and grabbed my hand. "Let's just do this."

I nodded as she lead me to the underwater tunnel.

I hear Beast Boy giggled.

I glanced back at his toppled figure.

He pointed at me and the waterclad princess standing hand in hand.

"Wait till I tell Supergirl about this!"

I frowned.

Tula dove.

YANK!!

"!!!!!"

SPLASH!!!!!

And the 'intestinal' voyage began.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was no wind under the massive dome that was the Atlantean 'sky'. But Raven's speed of flight was fast enough to simulate currents whipping at her blue hood and violet hair. With eyes glowing bright gray and dark hands charged with blackness, she glided over spires of pearl, ivory, and coral. Beneath the skyscrapers...the city streets danced with surging crowds, glorious parades, and a continuous roar of celebration and promise.

Everything was dangerously joyful.

A possessively dark feeling pulled her forward as if with silver strings. She squinted her eyes and stretched her charged hands forward. She felt for the obtrusive aura...like a black candle in the center of chaos. It stabbed at her heart and rang through her mind with a relatively familiar feeling of pain and coldness...

_Father......_

Her brow furrowed. She glided under a magically arching blob of water between two skyscrapers and looped around a building's spire before perching on an Atlantean flagpole.

"What....," she murmured. "....is that??"

Her eyes stared northwestward...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the thunderously loud and celebratory dome of Atlantis, four guards parked on the ocean's floor with their aquatic bikes.

They leaned passively against the vehicles and stared in through the thick glass at the parades in the dry interior. They chuckled forth bubbles of levity as they telepathically remarked on the event happily taking place on the other side of the barrier.

They were utterly oblivious to a dark-gray figure marching slowly...menacingly towards them and the dome from the nearby hill of coral...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Nova'm orbitted the towering summit of the Senate building. They heard the surging crowds from all around. The gala occasion was deaffening. It took extra effort for the Titans to speak through their communicators.

Nova'm rested on the buildingtop and Starfire floated besides him.

She looked out onto the ceiling. A beat. She looked at the boy.

"I feel......uneasy," she said.

"What's wrong, Kory?"

"There is so much joy....it is so succeptable to tragedy," she spoke. She swallowed and emphasized: "Especially in this time of great deception."

Nova'm bit his lip. "But...all the bad guys have been killed.....r-right? Ivan gave his life for that..."

Starfire gazed off towards where Raven last floated. "I do not believe our antagonist in question is desiring of so little a quantity of losses...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the spiral of the Senate...everyone had gathered. Every ambassador. Every delegate. Every representative of every major sect under the seas. Atlanteans, Neptunians, Poseidonissians, Renzukkan, Idyllists, Atrahasians, Pacificans, and scores of other oceanic nationalities were finally gathered. And with the exception of a missing individual on the Poseidonissian and Idyllist side, it was a complete whole.

And all of them were silent....until the booming voice of the Senate Speaker uttered: "**And now...the most honorable...King Orin of Atlantis!!!**"

All at once, everyone stood. Applause filled the air.

King Orin appeared on the high balcony. He held his hooked hand up and smiled regally...proudly.

Poseidonissians bowed.

Renzukkans let out a warbling cheer.

The commotion took a long time to die out...and the king managed to speak before the crowd in his booming voice:

"Children of Poseidon!!" he stretched his arms out. "We have found our home at last!! In the warmth of each other's honor!!!"

A roar of applause and praise. The ovation nearly shook the spiral off of its foundation.

Orin took a deep breath. His eye momentarily glanced at the Idyllist balcony.

Prince Garth was nowhere to be seen....

The former-Aquaman took a deep breath, again bore his grin and boomed: "At last! Junction is upon us! May your minds be true...your hearts be tolerant...your strength be united..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!!

SPLASH!!!

Two figures leapt out of the center pool inside the Senate's courtyard.

Four guards gasped and ran over towards the rippling waters with tridents and harpoons aimed at the strangers.

"Hey you!!!"

"That tunnel was closed off from the Senate's undercarriage!!"

"How in Neptune's name did you swim.....here........"

The guards lingered, their jaws dropping.

Aqualad stood up straight, tossing his dripping black hair. He glared at the guards while Robin whipped off his mask and breathed.

"Is the Senate in session already??" Prince Garth asked.

The guards murmured...stuttered...

"Y-Y-Yes sir......"

"K-King Orin is presiding..."

Garth took a breath and marched over with Robin towards the doors. "Good. I may not be too late."

"Y-Your honor...your voice...how are you able to—"

"Another time, soldier," Garth retorted.

"And who is this surface-dweller??"

Robin glanced over. "The new Secretary of Ass-Kicking."

The guards blinked as the two boys entered the building.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Orin's opening speech thundered through the political arena.

Underneath it, the members of Senator Chasma's party shifted in their balcony seats uneasily.

They nervously eyed the empty chair reserved for their head speaker.

The usual messenger ducked his head in and whispered to the lead delegate presiding. "Sir...about the Idyllist fleet—"

"I hope you've been suppressing information being sent in about it per Chasma's orders..."

"Yes...but sir, they're _here_!"

The other delegates looked over, shocked.

The one leading delegate's brow furrowed. "They're here??"

"Yes, sir..."

"But I thought Chasma said that they wouldn't possibly reach the docks—"

"And there's more, sir."

"What is it?"

"Prince Garth. He's arrived in Atlantis."

"Yes, I know," the delegate nodded as he replied under the King's echoing voice. "His injuries from the Expulsion show—"

"Sir...it's _another_ Prince Garth..."

".........."

The delegates glanced at each other.

"A fraud," one said.

"A trick!" another hissed.

The lead delegate half stood up as he commanded hoarsely: "Intercede on the guards' behalf! Tell them....s-say that an invading doppelganger is in the Senate Building! Have him stopped at all costs!"

"B-But—"

"Do it!!!"

The messenger rushed back out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad and Robin hurriedly marched through the halls of the upper Senate's floors.

A huddled group of desperately conversing guards appeared overhead.

Aqualad leaned down towards Robin. "This isn't good...," he murmured in mid steps.

A servant messenger looked the boys' way. He gasped and pointed in front of the guards, mouthing: "Them!!"

The guards turned. At sight of the two, they whipped out harpoons and miniature tridents. They marched forward.

Robin spoke aside: "Get to the Senate. I'll handle them."

"**All** of them??" Aqualad muttered.

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "It's unfair. These saps shouldn't have gotten out of bed this morning."

"Good luck."

"You'll need it," the Boy Wonder emphasized. He whipped out his combat staff and extended it.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Aqualad majestically leapt forward and over the guards' craniums.

The soldiers turned to assault him.

That's when Robin dove in.

"HI-YAAAA!!!" THWACK!!!! He struck a guard in the side, slamming him into another. He landed on his knees, swept his leg out, and tripped two more soldiers. TH-THWUMP!!!!

A guard gasped and jabbed down with his harpoon. SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

Robin rolled along the ground, hopped up, bounced off the wall, spun, and performed a diagonally down-ward jumpkick across the soldier's shins. WH-WHAP!!!

He fell painfully to his knees.

Robin spun, twirled his staff, and slapped it hard across the kneeling soldier's back.

THWACK!! WHUMP!!!

Three soldiers with harpoons ready faced the Boy Wonder nervously.

Robin glared at them. He held his staff out with one hand and motioned the guards towards him with his other glove.

The soldiers reluctantly charged.

Robin gritted his teeth and spun—staff swinging—into the fray. "YAAAUGH!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...for millennia we have been divided not so much by wars as it has been the tolerance of war," Orin spoke majestically to the listening crowd. "My ancient forefathers believed that a world dominated by strife would be a world of honor and dignity. But I need not refer to history itself to shed light on the utterly worthless wastes our nations have made of life. For in our very own lifetimes we have seen what evil could spawn. And I am sorely regretful to have once fostered the raging fist of distrust and paranoia. Now I am happy...for I realize that I have the strength and courage to resist the barbaric urges inside of myself. And I trust that every Atlantean...every _person_...has that divine insight that preserves life and tranquility above all other things..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Orin's voice filtered through the curving hallway of the Senate building as Aqualad sprinted down it.

Two guards with spearguns ran to a stop far ahead in his way.

"Hault!!" they shouted. Their speartips glistened.

Aqualad gritted his teeth. His dark eyes spotted two elegant acquariums built into the walls on either side of them. He held his arm out while running. His eyes flickered.

CRASH!!! CRASH!!!

Both acquariums burst open. Fists of water surged into the sides of the men, collapsing them into each other. THWUMP!!!

"OOF!!!"

Aqualad jumped. "Nnngh!!" He landed with his agile feet on the colliding soldiers' necks and vaulted himself off.

SWOOOOSH!!

He flipped in mid-air and landed beyond the splashing pool on the tile floor.

The two guards fell down wetly.

Aqualad exhaled and was back on his feet

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...the world we live in is an ever-changing one. Horizons of blue are meeting horizons of white. The dry land is no longer a hazy space of emptiness. Nations and peoples of alien sort are brushing up against us like never before. It cannot be ignored that—before long—the surface world and the ocean world will have to come to a head. And whether that meeting be beautiful or bloody depends on the great Experiment that stands before us now in Atlantis...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrgh!!" Robin spun and rammed the end of his staff into a collapsing guard's forhead. CONG!!!

Two guards leapt at him dramatically with tridents searing the air. SWIIII-IIIISH!!!

Robin backflipped in a reverse cartwheel, spun his staff, and deflected both blades---CL-CLANK!!! He pivoted both ends of the rods, smacking the soldiers in the ribs, then shoved hard into them with a two-armed jab.

WHUMP!!!!

A guard came up at his side, swinging a spare dagger.

Robin upended the left side of his rod, knocking the dagger out of the guard's grasp. CLANK!!! He then stuck his metal rod into the ground, bent it, and vaulted with a flip over the soldier's staggering body. He landed on the other side and reverse kicked him into the opposite wall of the corridor. THWUMP!!!

Robin found himself glaring at Chasma's messenger....who was trembling visibly and hiding behind a pillar as he regarded the Boy Wonder in fear.

Robin glared at him with a thinned eyemask.

Suddenly, a guard rushed up from behind Robin's shoulders--

WHACK!!! Robin backhanded the man in the chin without so much as turning his head to look. The soldier slumped to the floor.

"..........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...the key to our future is to realize that there is no key at all. For there is no door closed to the glory before us. Unification has always been within reach. It has always been fear and paranoia that kept us under the illusion of a padlocked treasure to be had. Poseidon in all of his fearful strength inadvertently instilled within us a fear of the sky beyond the ocean's surface ever since our city of birth was swallowed by the waters and we had no choice but to bow before the awesomeness of our new domain..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven meditated on the building top. Suddenly, her eyes flew wide open and she gasped.

The breath left her mouth. It mingled with her eyesight...which shot on an invisible lightning bolt straight forward.

_Raven's vision rocketed through the air, swerved around arches of water, swam over the dancing crowds of celebrating Atlanteans, and pierced through the outer glass of the city's dome..._

And there a handful of bodies floated in red clouds. Limbs and heads bobbed upward. Standing in the middle of a slaughtered pool of guards was a gray figure. Lungs and gills heaving. Violet eyes thin and smile stretched to the breaking point as he practically melted his hungry vision through the protective structure of the domain.

Raven blinked. And once again...all she saw was the north end of the City of Atlantis stretched out beneath her.

She set her jaw tight and clenched her draping fists.

"There it is..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...already I am hearing from critics fearful of this Junction that it will usher in an age of idealism. And I must say...they are right. But it is not right to assume that this idealism is foolish! For idealism with fervor and commitment to back it up is nothing short of a reality!! And the reality at hand is calmer seas...duller blades....healthier families..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the far side of a crowded street, a loose slab of 'concrete' lifted from the ground and slid to the side.

Princess Tula poked her dark head up. She glanced up. She leapt out in a flurry of droplets and reached a hand down. She helped me crawl up onto the solid floor behind the line of celebrating Atlantean bodies. The two of us reached down and lifted a wet green elf up.

Beast Boy shook himself dry. "So...um...which way to the Senate?" A beat. "Or the nearest Turkish Bath?"

I scratched my head. I looked over at Tula.

"I'm not sure the Senate is where we need to be going right now...," the princess uttered.

A voice from above. "Correct. You need to be up _here..._"

FLASH!!!

Black circles surrounded our waists.

Beast Boy gasped.

Tula struggled.

FWOOOSH!!!

We were lifted telekinetically up onto a building top where a meditating Raven with glowing eyes awaited us with flexing fingers.

"Raven!!" Beast Boy beamed. He ran towards her with open arms. "It's great to see you!!"

"Hug me and die."

"Thatta girl," he froze in his path and spun to face Tula and I. "Friend of ours."

"........," Tula glanced at me.

I smirked and gave a thumb's up.

Tula looked at Raven. "Thanks for the lift," she said. "Where're the other Titans?"

"That's not important right now...," the dark girl replied...seemingly in a trance.

Tula made a face, leaning one hand to her hip. "Excuse me...but we have a very dangerous situation here and—"

"Shhhh...," Raven raised a finger. "Your 'situation' is about to show his ugly head..."

"???" Tula made a face. She followed Raven's glowing eyesight—as did the rest of us—over and past the surging, celebrating crowds beneath us towards the far edge of the City's domed exterior...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Senate spiral, the partners of Chasma took turns looking back uncomfortably towards the rear of their balcony.

As if looking for someone to be there.

Or not be there...

They turned back around eventually and pretended to be listening to the King's speech.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad panted. He rounded the last corridor. He saw the rear doorway to the Idyllist balcony.

He bit his lip.

Four guards were positioned there.

They immediately saw him and rushed to intercept.

Aqualad's muscles tensed. He dashed straight towards them...through them....the balcony...

GRIP!!!

"Hold it right there—"a guard grabbed him.

WHAM!!!!

Aqualad elbowed him hard in the chin.

Two other guards seized his limbs.

Prince Garth nimbly spun out of their grasps.

The last guard stabbed at the boy's torso.

Aqualad dove as the trident grazed his skin. SLIIINK!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad plunged into his balcony, toppling over two of his seated compatriots as he pearced through the back curtain.

THWOP!!!

"Waaaaait!!!!!" he shouted echoingly into the spiraling chamber.

Politicians gasped and shot up from their seats.

King Orin's eyes widened.

Chasma's balcony exploded in gasps and frightened faces.

A stir of unease and shock flew up the spiral and reverberated in the Senate room's ceiling.

"Wait...hear my words!!" Prince Garth stood up, clutching his bleeding shoulder as he panted desperately. "All is not peaceful in Atlantis!! Not all have pledged their true hearts to the Junction!!"

The lead delegate from Chasma's party pointed and exclaimed loudly: "Imposter!! Guards, seize him!!"

The stumbling soldiers rushed in through the rear of the curtained balcony and seized Aqualad—

"No!!" Orin spoke boomingly.

Everyone froze at the thunder of his voice.

The King's eyes narrowed. "Let him go..."

Silence.

The guards stumbled back.

Aqualad trembled where he stood, clutching his wound.

"Prince Garth.......," Orin remarked. His eyes were all the same. "You speak??"

"I speak, my lord!!" Garth managed to utter. He took a deep breath and said more assertively. "For the first time in months, I speak! I speak on behalf of my people—the oppressed and tortured Idyllists—who have limped their way into the harbors of Atlantis after multiple, nefarious attacks on our masses!!"

Exclamations of shock and disbelief ran through the crowd.

Garth spoke above it: "I...Prince Garth...descendant of the line of King Thar...bring to you news of great treachery and deceit!! Until now, I had a mimic of myself serve in my place so that I could gather the strength to return to the seas after an illegal Expulsor cannon landed me on dry soil! During such a time...crimes of horrid magnitude were committed, ending the lives of many Idyllist men of valor including the esteemed Praetor Ivan himself! The innocent lives of Renzukkan and human populations have also paid the price for so much as crossing a hideous conspiracy that threatens to tear apart the fabric of Atlantean Junction itself!!"

Aqualad frowned. With glaring ferocity, he whipped his head over and pointed a fiery hand at one balcony in question.

"A conspiracy orchestrated by Senator Chasma himself!!!"

A huge roar of surprise and outrage filled the chamber. The delegates of Chasma's party shifted uncontrollably...looking at each other...too weak to stand up against Aqualad's accusation.

"Preposterous!!"

"Who is this impersonator??"

"Where is the real Prince Garth!!"

"I am the ill-fated prince!!!" Garth shouted. "I have suffered at the hands of Chasma. But Chasma has not been acting on his own will alone!! He has become a puppet of pure evil...beant on an evil plot to do nothing short of summon the Black Tempest!!"

The Senate silenced with a frightful cheer.

Orin's voice weakly broke the ice: "The Black Tempest......."

"The resurrection of Slizzath himself!!" Garth exclaimed. "To challenge the greatest age in Atlantean peace!!"

Murmurs. Hushed this time. Fearful.

A delegate from the Pacificans uttered across the spiral: "And how can we trust you, prince???"

"Yes!" another ambassador remarked. "How can we know that your claims are valid??"

"Because....," Garth spoke....hesitated.....shuddered. He closed his eyes—practically sobbed forth an inhalation—and reopened his optics in a bright violet fury. "_Because I am touched with the essence of Slizzath himself!!"_

Garth raised his arms.

Blood rose in floating red drops from his shoulder wound.

Waters in drinking cups all throughout the balconies lifted up and orbited the spiral with black magic.

The Senators gasped and muttered in utter shock...horror...

Garth panted as he stripped himself bare...the dark part of himself. A violet aura surrounded his jumpsuit as he displayed his power for everyone and all to see...

"The Black Tempest...," he managed to utter while struggling to maintain his spiral-wide meditation. "...it is as dangerous as ever!! In some fashion or another...Slizzath walks among us!! I know...I know because I am the Tempest itself!! I am one in seven of his evil graces!!" He flexed his arms and all the liquid floating in the room converged in a huge, pulsing blob in the center of the Senate while everybody gawked. "The result of an age-old curse on my bloodline!! The sons and daughters of Thar have faithfully served the Idyllists...ever-knowing the evil inside of their blood...an evil that has survived to this day through me, as it was also in Praetor Ivan before he selflessly gave his life to ensure the Idyllist pilgrims reach the Atlantean gates just an hour ago!!" He lowered his arms and the blob dropped to the center of the floor with a dramatic SPLASH!! "For my taint....I kn-know that I am unfit for the glorious kingdom of Atlantis. I warn you of this evil for the sake of the people I have grown to respect in spite of my outcast heredity! And moreso...I come here to hand over the seat of rule to my people—the Idyllists—who have been ever loyal and honorable to my cursed and vexed family for so many generations." A moistness briefly came over the boy's dark eyes as he uttered this last part with heaving lungs. "I come here to leave...so that my people may stay...and safely perform Junction for the future stability of the seas...the world...of all life."

The Senate had quieted to a dull hum of awe.

Chasma's delegates shook nervously.

Garth gazed weakly up.

He saw the eyes of King Orin. The ruler's face was half-melting in sorrow and sympathy. He looked longingly on the image of Aqualad and telepathically messaged: _"Why didn't you tell me??"_

Garth took a sorrowful breath. _"I was afraid.........I am afraid."_ He hung his head. _"I fear the Black Tempest.........I-I fear myself......"_

Orin's lips parted. Unconsciously he stretched a hand out as if he could touch the tormented young lad from afar...

And it was then and there that half of the Senate's telepathically sensitive delegates reeled in pain as their heads practically exploded with:

_**"ATLANTISSSSSSSSS, THE AGE OF HATRED HASSSSSSS COME!!!!!!!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Aughh!!!"

Robin froze in mid-battle as half of the guards he was fighting fell to their knees and desperately clutched their heads.

Their companions quickly lost interested in the Boy Wonder and instead rushed to the aid of their fallen comrades.

Robin panted....an eyebrow raised above his mask.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnghh!!!"

"Ughhh!!!"

"Poseidon!!!"

Hundreds of Atlanteans celebrators in the street collapsed and twitched as if struck by massive migraines.

Cyborg gasped. He spun around and watched as a more and more men, women, and children fell down randomly throughout the crowd.

"What the Hell???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look!!" Nova'm pointed.

Starfire's green eyes narrowed.

In a solid line washing westward, a literal wave of bodies in the cluttered streets fell down as if dealt with a mighty gust of wind. Screams and painful shrieks filled the thin air.

Nova'm hid—trembling—behind a floating Starfire.

The Tamaranian Titan's lips parted. "X'Hal....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rghhhh!!!!" Raven's face tightened and her teeth clenched. She gripped her head tightly and fell to her knees.

I gasped and held her up gently at the last second. I looked at her concerned.

Cries of pain and aching agony lifted up towards us. Bodies in the parading streets fell to the floor, writhing.

I looked over and saw Beast Boy similarly bracing a collapsed Tula.

"The voice....the hatred....," Tula groaned.

"It's time...," Raven managed to hiss in my arms. "The demon of the seas is springing his trap...."

I looked over through wide, specked eyes at the side of the dome.

As if pulled in by spider limbs, I suddenly caught sight of a lonely, submerged Senator Chasma standing at the glass' edge. Two specks of violet light twinked. Then a silvery pale grin. Then....

His sides opened and impossibly large reptile limbs sprung out and squirmed murderously fast towards the transparent barrier....

.....and broke it.

**CRAAAAA-AAAACK!!!!**

**SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOSH!!!

Robin landed in a crouch on the Senate Building's upper outcropping. He ran outward on the pearly extension and came to a stop at the edge. From where he perched, he saw the entire western half of the City.

His eyemask widened.

A huge tidal wave was exploding inward from a gigantic fissure and was flooding the streets full of ragdoll Atlantean bodies.

"We're too late......," the Boy Wonder murmured.


	128. Fear the Black Tempest part 9 final

**128. Fear the Black Tempest part 9 Final**

The tidal wave of inrushing Seawater loomed over us from the giant crack in the dome.

Hundreds of Atlanteans screamed and panickedly ran in maddening surges through the streets beneath Tula, Raven, Beast Boy and I.

Ocean dwellers they may have been...but no living biped—no matter how aquatic—could survive a cascading force of that size and intensity.

Beast Boy gasped and Tula's breath left her as the wall of water stretched fourteen stories above us.

The air shook with hundreds of screams and millions of gallons of rampaging water.

I bit my lip. I glanced aside at Raven.

The dark girl stood calm and still in spite of it all. Her eyes were thin and meditative. Her fingers started to emanate black energy as she prepared a viciously strong shield to wrap around her...us...anyone...

The water wall plunged.

A bulbous shadow encompassed our figures.

Tula clenched her fists.

Beast Boy instinctively turned into a cowering sea turtle.

I flinched....

FLASH!!!!!

Suddenly...the wall stopped.

It slowed to a stand-still in three startling seconds. The wall of water rested above us as if in slow motion...and then turned a brilliant, crystal-white from the inside out. Flakes of snow fell from the frozen summit and littered our figures.

I breathed with shock and relief. Wisps of visible air fluttered out my mouth...as they did out of Raven's and Beast Boy's and Tula's.

The changeling morphed into a cowering green elf and looked up.

In the meantime, my gaze fell down. With specked eyes I followed the cascading inner curve of the frozen wave down to the city floor. A good two stories were still submerged in icy waters rippling speedily towards the center of Atlantis. But the effect had been obvious. The disaster was cancelled at the last second. The Atlanteans found themselves treading water en masse at depths they could handle. The casualties seemed heavenly minimum...if at all existent. Where the glass had shattered, a worm of frozen water ate into the Atlantic currents outside and acted as a huge, supernatural cork of frost. Emergency Atlantean crews were rushing over with fine engineers and erecting force fields and other whimsical devices for stabilizing the water pressure...much like how the arching fountains of water throughout the City were magically stabilized.

"Interesting....," Raven droned.

"H-How....?" Beast Boy uttered.

"How do you think?" Tula pointed at a third story balcony two blocks down.

Beast Boy and I squinted our eyes.

Standing on the building side was the undeniable, blue form of Fraust. The ice mage had her hands pointed at the once raging mountain of liquid. With steam rising from her body, she lowered her arms...panted...and glanced over at us, demurely running a melancholy hand through her blonde hair.

Beast Boy smiled.

"She's cute," Raven uttered.

I looked at her strangely.

SMASH!!!!!

Fraust stumbled and half of us flinched as the figure of Chasma came sailing through a block of ice and landed on a building ledge. Ice and sleet dribbled behind him. His body tensed and a demonic chuckle shook through the man's upper frame. He shook the icicles off of him and stood up striaght with arms flexing. His eyes were pure violet. His cultish robe was tattered in and shredded many places...chiefly the sides of his torso.

"Wonderful day for a swim...heheheheh..."

Tula frowned....practically snarling. CHIIII-IIING!!! She had both harpoons unsheathed from her back.

I gasped.

"Tula!!" Beast Boy stretched a hand out. "Wait---!!"

She dove into the flooded street beneath us furiously.

SPLOOSH!!!

Raven and I rushed to the side and watched the princess' green streak rocket under the rippling currents like a mermaid. Tula cross two blocks in five seconds flash. A true Atlantean. Upon reaching the pool beneath Chasma's ledge, she shot herself out of the currents like a polaris missile.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Streaming with water droplets, Tula flew up, twirled her harpoons over her head, came down, and landed with both harpoons impacting the opposite side's of the possessed senator's neck.

CL-CLANG!!!!

Tula grunted with the effort...but soon stood there panting in shock.

".............," Chasma smiled at her. The harpoons had pierced through his epidermal layer...but it was as if a second set of skin beneath his outer flesh kept the bleeding weapons from slicing all the way through and lopping his abominable cranium off. "Such a typical little princess...," he hissed with glowing purple eyes. "Always trying to get ahead..."

"What have you become??" Tula growled.

"I didn't become anything, my dear....," the Senator drooped a surpentine tongue out of his mouth and licked a sudden front row of razor sharp, silver teeth. "I merely merged two things close to me. Lord Slizzath...," the tongue slipped back into his evil mouth and he smacked crusty lips. "....and hatred."

SWOOOOOSH!!!

He pounced on her. Two reptilian paws ripped demonically out of his ribcages and grabbed for the girl. "HRKKKK!!!!!"

Tula backflipped, dodged the pounce, and raised her two harpoons in defense.

Chasma's body lurched as he twirled to the side—swinging clawed appendages at her.

She deflected one blow barely—CL-CLANK!!—and swiftly ducked the last two. Tula then ran up the side of the wall, arched around, and vaulted off in time to dodge another swing. Her body plowed into the water, looped around submersibly, and launched her back up towards the platform on which Chasma was standing. In mid leap, she dragged her two harpoons through the air towards him.

Chasma spun and took the brunt of the cutting blades on his demonic, extra limbs. SCRAAAAAAAAPE!!! Sparks flew as metal ran along scales. As Tula flew over him, Chasma reached a natural hand up—gripped her shoulder—and strongly swung her like a caveman's club into the stone wall of the building.

SMASH!!!!

Tula winced.

Cracks formed in the rock and tiny pebbles of debris rained down on her and pitter-pattered into the currents below.

Chasma chuckled and tossed her wincing body away like a discarded lobster tail.

SPLASH!!!

Tula plunged into the waters and tried to regain her strength.

FLAAAAAASH!!!!!

Chasma flinched as a solid beam of icey blue sailed into his frame from across the street.

Fraust focused her energies towards the possessed senator. Her teeth clenched and her cold brown formed icey sweat with the effort.

Chasma merely laughed. "Not this time, you silly waste of flesh!!!" One of his reptilian arms 'batted' the beam away. With the other appendage, he ripped a section of stone wall out from the building beside him and tossed it mercilessly at her.

SWOOOOSH!!

Fraust gasped and dove in time to avoid the shattering impact.

SMASH!!!

The waterlogged street beneath us shook and warbled. Helpless, swimming Atlanteans gashed and stroked away to desperately avoid Chasma's destruction.

"Okay...we've seen enough," Raven uttered. She signaled to Beast Boy and I and pointed Chasma's way. "Titans! Engage him! Now!!"

"Amen to that, sister," Beast Boy frowned. He leapt into the water and morphed into a great white shark.

Raven floated across the street on a piercing cloud of black.

I summoned murk into my lower limbs, ran down the buildingside, and blurred across the surface of the water.

All three of us charged the possessed figure on three fronts at once.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" Haetryd sneered, his violet eyes fluctuating. "Fight if you must, surface-bastards! This is Atlantis! It's not your war....but it _can_ be your funeral..."

"Don't talk to me about _funerals......_," Raven glared. Her eyes glowed a dangerous gray. She raised her graceful hands and summoned half of a nearby building front to tear off its siding and hurtle itself threateningly towards the man.

Beast Boy dove up out of the water in the form of a hissing, clawing lion.

I held my breath, vaulted up off the watery surface on a fountain of smoke, and sailed down at the man in a desperate high kick.

And Chasma merely laughed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aqualad rubbed his head tiredly. His brain still reeled from the telepathic blast of evil. He got up on wobbly knees and looked around the half-toppled Senate people.

King Orin had also stood up. At just about that time, a messenger rushed in and spoke desperately above the murmuring voices of vexed politicians. "Your Lordship! A terrible disaster is at hand! The western district has been breached! Water was reported seeping in from the Great Atlantic!"

Orin's eyes widened.

Other delegates and politicians exclaimed: "What?!?!"

"Great Poseidon...."

"The people!"

"What could have caused this??"

Orin raised his hand. He spoke above the panicked air. "Has any flooding been contained?"

"Aye, sir. But not by us."

"Huh? And what is that supposed to mean?"

"There is a great fight occurring at the edge of the City, sir. I think it would be safe for you to see with your own glorious eyes."

Murmurs.

Orin frowned. He turned about and stared at the ceiling. "Switch on the holo-projector!"

Almost everyone else looked up towards the ceiling.

Prince Garth included.

Fzzzt!!!! A floating orb glowed to life. It casted a holographic image of the Western District on two sides of a concrete slab hung by ornamental chains from the top of the spiral. Atlantean Security feeds zoomed in on the mutilated figure of Chasma...fighting off five flurrying heroes on a building over a flooded streeth sprinkled with snow.

The commotion rose even higher. Dubious faces sagged in disgust and shock.

King Orin's face was the most distraught of all.

In the meantime, Aqualad squinted his dark eyes. A cold breath left him as he recognized one of the five figures assaulting the hideous incarnation of Haetryd.

"Tula......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghh!!!" Tula growled as she dove at Chasma from behind with both harpoons swingin. CHIIII-IIING!!!

Chasma blocked in reverse with one demon arm. He spun around and uppercutted the princess back with the other appendage.

WHAP!!!

She plunged back into the water...and Beast Boy wrestled Chasma from behind in the form of an octopus.

Chasma merely smiled, grabbed one of the changeling's green tentacles, and tossed the entire mollusk away into the flooded street.

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred up to him and rapidly kicked a shadowy foot constantly in his face. SW-SW-SW-SW-SWAP!!!!

Chasma merely backstepped, blocked, and grabbed my uplifted ankle.

"!!!!!!" I struggled to wriggle out of his stone grasp.

He smiled. "You're only half of what Prince Garth truly is....and that makes you double of nothing."

YANK!!!!

He slammed me into the wall by the foot.

FLASH!!!!

Raven dove in immediately with a pounding, bird-shaped forcefield 'flapping' into the villain, beak first.

Chasma was shoved back a few feet. But before he could be shoved off into the waters, he parted his fleshy and inhuman arms in a yelling explosion of fury.

FLASH!!!! Raven's force field shattered. She grunted and stumbled back.

GRIP!!!!

Chasma lifted her up by the cloak's hood. "There's only room for one demon in this sea," He sneered.

SWOOOOSH!!!

He tossed her effortlessly into the waters below.

CHIIING!!!

Chasma looked over.

Fraust had landed behind him and was producing a sword of ice.

Chasma's violet eyes narrowed and he smirked. "And just what do you hope to accomplish, traitor??"

Fraust shivered. "Nothing....which is more than I can say I would have accomplished working for you."

"Child...you were never 'working'," Chasma smiled. "You were _born_. And what a worthless thing that was to do..."

Fraust took a painful breath, blinked, and charged the possessed man with ice sword swinging. "Nnnnghhh!!!"

SWIIIIIIISH!!!

Chasma raised his unnatural arms at ready.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Call in the Atlantean guard!!" Orin shouted as the senate room shook and quivered in fright and panic. His voice reissued a good deal of order...but could not resurrect it entirely. "The entire Northern Brigade!! Accost Senator Chasma at all costs!!"

The delegates in Chasma's party tried sneaking their way out...but were cut off by half a dozen angrily-glaring guards. The group of politicians simpered uneasily as they saw their fates before their eyes.

"This City was built by Poseidon the Great!" Orin growled. He shook his harpoon hand. "I will NOT let a snivelling cultist such as Slizzath's essence blacken this....civilization...." He glanced down a ways.

In the Idyllist booth.....Prince Garth was gone.

King Orin took a deep breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin spun around on the ledge.

Aqualad sprinted out towards him.

"Have you seen?!" Robin exclaimed with a single glove pointing.

"Yeah.....," was all Aqualad had to say. He dove off the building side, fell multiple stories, and plunged miracuously into an underground tunnel's entrance below. He began to furiously swim his way across the City...to the fray...

To Tula....

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. He glanced up and saw two familiar specks. He flipped open his communicator with a Star Trek sound.

"Star! Nova'm! Do you see—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_what I see??"_

Starfire nodded and replied into the communicator, her gaze fixed westward. "Affirmative! The enemy has been engaged! The danger seems imminent far across the City and not at our present location!!"

_"Meet up with the rest of us there! Don't wait for me to kick Chasma's ass!! I feel that he's stronger than all of us can imagine...so we can't waste any time in bringing him down!!"_

"We shall approach the battle scene verily!" Starfire said. A beat. She glanced back at Nova'm. She blinked. She added into the communicator: "All of us heroes!"

Nova'm smiled.

_"Hurry!!"_

Starfire pocketed the communicator and flew out. She spoke to Nova'm without looking. "Follow me, Nova'm...and do whatever I instruct of you. We shall face this evil together."

"Righteous fury, eh Captain Kory?"

"Very...Very Righteous Fury...," Starfire's green eyes burned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Need a hand??" uttered Cyborg into a communicator from down below.

_"Probably a sonic cannon!"_ Robin's voice replied. _"Try and get over there any way you can!!"_

"Uhhh...," Cyborg looked around at the street full of panicked, stampeding Atlanteans. "Ten-Four, Robin...but I'm not promising pizza delivery speed."

"_Whatever! Just move!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin holstered his communicator, leaned on the edge of the building ledge, and whipped out the first of many grapply hooks from inside his toolbelt.

"Somehow I knew I was gonna lose the feeling in my arms by the night's end...," He muttered. Dauntless, the Boy Wonder fired a grappling hook, swung out at a distance of three blocks, shot out another with his other hand, and swung forth again...only to repeat the process acrobatically across the entire Western Half of the City towards the flooded streets and wall of ice.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg ran through the crowd awkwardly, bumping into people and struggling to make headway.

"Yo...pardon me....excuse me...HEY! Watch it!! Lemme through, people...come on...lemme through....hero with a cannon....hero with a cannon here...!!!"

The crowd surged through and around him, unrelenting. The water level in the street started to rise to the knee level...and for Cyborg's knee, that meant a wet stride for just about everyone.

"Nnngh....this will take forever," he groaned.

He looked over to the side of the street and caught sight of a guard directing crowd control from the back of a waterbike.

"When in Rome.....," the android Titan murmured.

Cyborg cut through the crowd and stood in front of the trident-bearing officer.

"Excuse me?? But can you give me a lift?"

".............," the guard stared at him.

"There's some crazy stuff going on in the West Side of Town, in case you haven't noticed—"Cyborg pointed over the screaming heads of the crowd. "—I gotta get to my friends there and battle off the evil dude that's wrecking your place!! Can I have a ride?"

"..............."

Cyborg sighed, rolled his human eye, and uttered: "Yeah...enough of this shit."

SMACK!!!!

He clotheslined the guard into a puddle of the ground, hopped on the water bike, and throttled westward down the street. The guard shouted angrily for him to hault.

"I'll buy you a bag of seashells later, I promise!!!" Cyborg shouted, and he was off.

VROOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRRRAAAAR!!!!" a green velociraptor leapt upon Chasma.

The possessed senator held Fraust in a strangling grasp with one paw and used the other rippling appendage to slap the pouncing changeling away. WHACK!!!

Tula dove out of the water, vaulted over Beast Boy's flailing body, spun, and dove at Chasma with both harpoons swinging. SWIIIIIIISH!!!!

They deflected off of Chasma's free limb. CL-CLANK!!!

He growled and lashed a whip-like tongue at the princess.

Tula side-cartwheeled with a grunt, rolled forward, and jumped up with an upward slash.

Chasma held Fraust up by the neck while dodging one swing and then suddenly stretching his mouth hideously wide with barred teeth that caught the second harpoon.

CLANK!!!

Tula's lip dropped.

Chasma's monstrous lips curved. He yanked his head back.

Tula lost grip of the sword, toppling forward.

Chasma lowered his jaw to human standards, simultaneously 'spitting' the harpoon back at Tula.

The princess stumbled back and akwardly deflected her returning weapon with a raised harpoon.

CLANK!!!

The spat-out sword spun the air.

I blurred in from the submerged street just in time to snatch it and end my lightning-quick charge out of nowhere with a heavy SLASH!!!!

RIIIIIP!!!

A red slice in Chasma's chest appeared, parting his robe and dripping crimson.

"Nnnnghhh!!!!" he shuddered, hissed, and angrily tossed Fraust's cold body into me.

I gasped, dropped the harpoon, and held both arms to cradle-Fraust's impacting body. WHUMP!!!

Chasma's sinister arms gripped another chunk of the buildingside and flung it at us.

Fraust's breath left her. She forged a shield of thick ice in front of us at the last second--

CRACK!!!!

Shards of snow exploded everywhere from the impact. Fraust and I tumbled to the platform ground with a grunt.

Tula cartwheeled over us, snatched her other harpoon, and dove at Chasma with both weapons again.

CLANK!!! He deflected with one arm and swung—hissing—with the other.

Tula slid under the blow, jumped up the other side, bounced off a wall, and perched herself on Chasma's shoulders. She locked her legs around his neck and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed down at his torso repeatedly.

CL-CLANK!!! CLANK!! SCRAAAAPE!!! CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Chasma's strong as steel skin hid bloodily under her blows.

"Heheheheheh," he shuddered. "I am deeply in love with your hatred right now, princess." He reached a clawed demon appendage up, snatcher her by the neck, and held her—dangling—in front of him. "Feed me....," he hissed.

Tula saw something reflect in his violet eyes. She acrobatically lifted her legs up...

SWOOOOOSH-WHAM!!!! A green rhinoceros flew into the man's chest, courtesy of black-glowing telekinesis.

"OOF!!!" Chasma dropped Tula as he flew back across the ledge.

Raven floated above and let go of her hold on the changeling.

THWOMP!!! Beast Boy scruffed his heavy hooves into the stone floor and charged—snarling—into Chasma, horn first.

SLAM!!!! The horn didn't pierce through, but a miniature crater was formed by Chasma's body against the building side.

The changeling pushed mercilessly, shoving Chasma harder into the solid foundation.

Chasma roared—his huge mouth gaping with demon teeth all of the sudden again. He pumped what looked like extra mass into the area between the skin and the bone of his demon arms and gripped the changeling's rhinoceros body. With a growl, the huge green animal was tossed to the side.

No sooner...a black-encased crossbeam floated over and slammed itself into Chasma's skull repeatedly.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! THWAP!!!

Chasma's cranium spun with the merciless impacts.

Raven floated above, controlling the huge metal pole from afar with her flickering wrists of telekinesis. Her glowing eyes flared as she flung the beam hard this time, plowing deep into the former Senator's stomach.

WHAM!!!!!

Chasma wheezed...but seemed to feed off some sort of demonic respiration to summon back his breath. "Enjoy the moment...," he sneered. "...your time for being the ragdoll will come!!" He growled loudly, gripped the metal beam, and shattered it into two shrapnel-littering halves with his claws.

Raven winced, floating back.

"RAAUGH!!" Chasma flung one half of the beam at her.

The floating sorceress winced.

FLASH!!!!!

A green bolt flew down from the sky and melted the steel before it could hit Raven.

The dark girl glanced up.

Chasma twitched.

SWOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew down. Emerald fury glowed in her eyes as she unleashed a flurry of starbolts.

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!

TH-TH-THWAP!!!! Green explosions littered the ground and wall around Chasma like giant firecrackers. The blasts eventually caught his legs from under and lifted him up violently.

"Now, Nova'm!!" Starfire shouted towards the diving figure by her side. "Coordinate your assault with mine as I have instructed you!!"

"Okay!!" Nova'm gasped and dove with a rapid flurry of starbolts while Starfire let loose the stronger blasts and optic beams.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!

FLAAAASH!! FLAAAASH!!!!

The alien explosions sent Chasma's body chaotically tumbling into midair above the submerged street.

POW!!! CL-CLANK!!

A grappling hook shot over head, and suddenly Robin swung in and bitterly slammed his legs into the airborne former-senator's body.

SLAM!!!!!

Chasma flew through a huge panel of glass against the face of a towering building.

SMASH!!!!!

Robin came at the end of his swing, flipped, and landed in a perch on the glass-encrusted window sill.

Tula stood up, re-sheathing her harpoons. "Robin, I presume...," she uttered.

The Boy Wonder whipped out his rod. "Pleased to meet you, your highness...." CRKKK!! "....later." He growled and ran in a full sprint at the toppled body of Chasma. A flying jumpkick of a steel-capped boot and--

SMACK!!!

Chasma tumbled, rolled, and toppled out of a window on the other side. He slid bloodily across a ledge and dizzily stood up.

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Robin let out a warcry and sailed in with a golf-club swing of his staff up Chasma's skull.

THWACK!!!!

Blood flew.

The possessed man's body tumbled back. His huge, reptilian arms shrunk partially into his sides.

Robin spun and struck hard down Chasma's face. "RAAUGH!!" SMACK!!

Chasma's body teetered on the edge of the buildingside.

Robin twirled his staff, shifted his weight, and jabbed it violently into the man's shredded chest--

CLAMP!!!!

The Boy Wonder jerked.

Chasma's claws were around the rod, holding it still like a sideways pedestal. He looked up...his eyes twinkling violet...and he smilingly sneered: "Don't fight a god..."

TWHOOOSH!!! Chasma shoved against Robin.

The Boy Wonder stumbled back.

SWOOOOSH!!! Two demon arms came down.

Robin backflipped.

SMASH!!!!

A crater exploded beneath the Boy Wonder as his toppling feet planted against the building side and tensed.

Robin held his breath and 'flew' over Chasma's head. He twirled his staff while upside down—deflecting the clawed blows. CL-CLANK!!! He landed with his back to Chasma's back and shoved his staff down in reverse...lifting it up harshly between the former senator's legs.

THWUMP!!!

"Snkkkkt!!!" Chasma's entire body jolted.

Robin panted through clenched teeth...not looking at his foe. "Don't piss off a Titan...."

He shouted with the effort it took to pull at the staff with all of his force and fling the man's body over his shoulders like a catapult.

TWHOOOOSH!!! Chasma sailed into the submerged street beyond.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Robin deflated on the buildingtop. He leaned precariously on his staff and stared down at the marinating body...panting.

The body wasn't floating for long. Magically, a whirlpool formed around Chasma's body. The water in the street parted...and the man sat—sputtering—on his knees. He looked up...and grinned.

SPLOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! A waterspout formed around the graceful body of Aqualad. He touched down onto dry land like a floating crucifix and marched menacingly towards the possessed villain. Garth's eyes danced with identical violet as he frowned at the old man and kept the water around them at bay with his dark magic alone.

"My dear prince....," Chasma chuckled. His body twitched. Fangs showed momentarily and shrank back..as did his demon arms into his meaty ribcages. "I've been waiting for you."

Garth's eyes narrowed. "With baited breath??"

"Something like that...," Chasma stood up completely and cracked his gnarled knuckles. "...you are the last one. The last child. Obstinate from the beginning. But such is pointless. You shall join me...you shall make the Black Tempest complete."

"I've got one last thing to do first..." Garth sneered.

"Oh? And what's that?"

"This...," Garth raised his hands. The waterspout behind him warbled. It cascaded downwards, splashed outwards, and exploded upwards...enveloping both him and Chasma. The bodies of the two Atlanteans were carried upwards in a giant, reverse esophagus of pure water. The Tempest in Garth contorted the cold water into a giant tentacle arching high above the spires of Atlantis. It merged with the arch of a self-contained blob of water and drew in greater strength. Garth swam up the length of the flailing tentacle of water and slammed his fist hard into Chasma's chest.

WHAM!!!

SPLASH!!!

Chasma flew a dozen feet through the naked air.

Garth dove after him. In mid-air, the prince flicked his wrist.

A tentacle rose magically upwards like a flowerstalk from the pools below and 'ate' Chasma's flying body.

SPLOOOSH!!!

Garth plunged right after him in a well-coordinated dive. He swiftly swam down into Chasma's body, repeatedly punching him in an underwater swim of violent proportions, batting the former senator's body straight down the giant, liquid snake. WHAM!! POW!! SMACK!! THWUMP!!! WHACK!!

When the two bodies reached the street below, Garth bolted himself up in a mountain of water and stretched his arms out to either side of him. Two gigantic hands of water reached out and 'clutched' the building fronts on opposite sides of the street. Garth's eyes glowed a bright violet. He strained visibly...arteries pulsing in his temples. He let out a bubbling yell into the column of water surrounding him...and managed to rip the structures off of their foundation so that they tumbled heavily onto the sprawled, floating body of Chasma.

SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water splashed out in huge lakes of rippling outercurrents.

Garth slowly lowered himself on a hill of liquid and treaded in a pool above the collapsed debris.

He panted with his lungs above the liquid surface. And yet...the burning in his eyes—the violet madness was still there. He winced inwardly.

RUMMMMMBLE!!!

The debris below the waves shook.

Bubbles started to form.

A demonic boiling...then...

FLASH!!!

Purple light.

Surging waters.

A body---

SPLOOOSH!!!!

Chasma exploded upwards from the currents. In a violet aura, he backflipped and perched on a building's windowsill above the prince. Happily bleeding, Chasma laughed a demonic laugh that seemed to freeze the thin surface of the waters.

The prince shook as he looked up at him.

"Yes........," Chasma grinned a crimson crescent moon. ".....yes....this is what we've been waiting for..." His violet optics flickered. "...this hatred...this seed that has been growing inside of you all your life, Chasma..."

Garth panted...treading water...exhausted and clouded....

"It's not the Junction of Atlantis that we've been waiting for...," Chasma vibrated and chuckled. "It's been the union of our battered souls....my blood...and your spirit. Both equally thick in water..."

"Don't....lecture....me....," Garth hissed.

But Chasma went on, reeling drunkenly from where he perched. "Hatred...it's what guided you from the beginning, isn't it Garth?"

"Quiet...."

There was a distant splashing sound. A block away, Tula leapt majestically up from the water and perched on a building top. She looked around desperately for Garth. When she found him, a breath escaped her throat. She crept down the building tops and rested on a ledge overlooking the conversing two above the currents.

"The taint...the touch of the great Lord's power...it was in you from the very beginning," Chasma hissed. He grinned bloodily. "Your family knew it...your mother knew it...."

"Shut up...," Garth seethed in the waters. The bubbles around him literally began to boil.

"...she wanted to kill you....your own mother...," Chasma uttered. "...she abandoned you to be shark food instead....Ivan—your mother's brother—found you...he spared your pathetic life. But from early childhood...you knew....you knew that you were a waste. You couldn't live with yourself...and so you took to the seas. A loner...a pathetic waif who calls himself a hero..."

Garth clenched his teeth and clutched his hands tightly over his ears. His whole face tensed. He seemed at the breaking point.....panting...

Tula observed. A look of pain and sorrow ricocheted through her expressions.

Chasma's purple eyes narrowed. "Don't you see, prince? You have every right to be hateful...hateful of your own kind. All these years you spent on your own...it was all denial. Denial of the darkness inside of you...and of the plain and simple fact that you and your dark essence belongs to me. Together....together we will make SUCH an age for Atlantis.......you can shed blood....heheheh...you can kill your own mother twentyfold among the helpless who will bow before you..."

Garth shivered. He muttered at first—low and cold. "I...am not...a murderer....." He shook. "I...am not...a waste..." He looked up and his violet eyes were gone. The usual cold specks on black optics remained. Sad and lonely. The true prince. "As hard as it may be to believe...as impossible as it is with my curse...I have found love and meaning in this world...and she's taught me that even the most pathetic life has warmth to it..." His fists clenched. "I am not the monster that your lord Slizzath made my forefathers to be...I am a prince of righteousness by my own choice...my life's own design......"

Tula's lips parted. She felt a soreness in her throat.

Chasma merely laughed. "Yes...you are the prince...and I..._Haetryd_...am the king." He stood up straight on the platform and stretched his humanoid limbs out dramatically. "If you won't bow down to me now...I will have to consume you and force you on my knees through acid and fire....." Flickering violet. "_This entire pathetic City along with it!!!"_

Chasma's head twisted back. His mouth yawned open...open...open. Daggerlike teeth squirmed out, but they didn't stop there. His eyelids rolled past his glowing violet and his skin started to slide off and around his mouth. The two demon arms squeezed out of his ribcages again, but they kept going...and going...and going. The demon arms had greater and greater girth to them. It was like meat was being pumped into the bulbous balloons of his extra appendages. Arteries and veins showed at the stretching point. Chasma let out a scream that turned into a bloody curdle that shook the waters and rattled the building frames all around him. Slowly, the man exploded until his outer shell of flesh was either non existent or stretched beyond recognition. A mass of twitching and quivering flesh inflated upwards and outwards. The demon arms became giant, sinewy front paws. Two thick legs stretched out like concrete pillars. A spiked tail lashed into existence, plated with bone and brown leather. Blood and sticky fluid congealed and splattered everywhere as the 'head' was the last to snap out into the open...and it was a giant, angular thing of bone and tendons that resembled a giant, half-decayed rat's skull. Barred teeth lined a long snout. The eyes were evil slits of burning purple. From the forehead, a dozen thrashing tentacles with knifed ends squirmed out at lengths of four-to-six meters each. Finally standing the length and girth of two humpback whales...the reptilian thing—specked with coarse black hair—reared its demon head and let loose a shriek, its forked, man-sized tongue lashing wetly into the air.

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**

Tula gasped, her eyes quivering. "Slizzath's second incarnate form...the Leviathan..."

Garth bobbed in the water under the thing's shadow...paralyzed.

The Leviathan stood ankle-deep in the flooded street, occupying the entire block. Its bony snout leered over the prince. A deep-throated snarl echoed from the entity. Purple steam flew from its nostrils, and then it let out one lasting shriek—**"VRAAAK!!!"**—before snapping its jaws down and over the Tempestuous prince's body.

SNAP!!!

"No!!!" Tula shrieked, drawing her harpoons. CHIIIIING!!! She watched in horror.

The Leviathan whipped its head around, reared back, then dove forward with a howl.

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!"**

The demon monster spat Garth out. The prince flew down the lengths of ten buildings before slamming into a structure and collapsing painfully down onto a ledge. His clothes steamed from the scalding hot saliva of the creature's mouth. Wincing, the Atlantean youth tried to get up.

There was an intense pounding sound, combined with violent splashes and sprays of floodwaters.

Aqualad looked up.

The Leviathan was charging straight down the line of buildings. Wet craters exploded in the street beneath its impregnable limbs. It shrieked, reared its head, and made to ram the prince with a forehead full of quivering tentacles.

Garth held his breath and dove into the flooded street at the last second.

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The upper three stories of the building shattered in a cloud of debris and dust. The Leviathan pulled itself out of the crumbling mess, turned, and shrieked at Garth's submerged figure.

Garth gritted his teeth and swam desperately down the street like a torpedo.

CRUNCH!!!! Leviathan smashed through a building front, leapt, and landed in the middle of the street. WHAM!!! "**VRAAAAAAK!!!**" The lumbering beast chased after Garth, gradually picking up seed. POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND! POUND!!

Garth felt the turbulent shaking of concrete and water behind him. He quickened his swimming, darting left and right in an attempt to shake the beast. The waters parted at his heels as the Leviathan's razor-sharp jaw dipped into the water and swept after the prince.

There was an intersection in the Atlantean street. A tall, eight-story building loomed straight ahead.

Garth charged dark magic into his lower limbs. The water's kinetic energy increased around his body in a spark and gave him an extra boost. SPLOOOSH!!! Garth sailed up and out of the water. His body flew up four stories, kicked against the wall of the building at the intersection, and flipped the prince backwards.

**SMASH!!!!!!**

Leviathan plunged sharply into the building, his snout smashing well over halfway through the shaking structure's circumference.

Garth twirled about and landed on the creature's leathery back. He panted and sprinted down the spine to leap off the back.

At the last second, the careening beast's tail whipped up and struck Garth from underneath.

**WHAP!!!**

"Augh!!" the prince flew sideways into a buildingside. SMACK!!! Bricks crashed loose from his impact and littered the submerged street below along with his limp body. SPLASH!!!! Garth came back up, sputtering. He clutched his side and treaded water awkwardly.

**"VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........,"** the Leviathan growled. It clutched a huge piece of the crumbling scraper, lumbered about, and tossed it mightily at Garth.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Garth pulsed a wave of magic through his body in a violet flash. He cascaded the water upwards, softened the descent of the flying structure, and gave him ample time to swim out of the way.

CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dust and shattered bricks flooded the water. Garth barely had enough energy left to keep himself at the surface.

The Leviathan shrieked again, grabbed another chunk of collapsed building face, and tossed it at Garth.

The prince flinched.

Suddenly, a dark figure plunged into him and the water from above.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

Raven treaded in the water with her arms around Garth's waist. She charged up a black sphere around the two so that when the second wall of debris met them, they shattered invulnerably through it.

CRUNCH!!!!!!!!

**"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!"** the creature screamed in frustration.

Garth gasped as the two teenagers bobbed at the surface. "Raven!! Leave me be!!" he exclaimed. "It's my demon...so it's my responsibility, remember!!"

With her eyes glowing, a wet Raven merely replied: "Turns out I'm a hypocrite."

"........."

"Rae!! At your six!!"

Garth and Raven turned to look.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!! Cyborg rode in on the water bike, skimming the surface of the submerged street. He skidded the bike to a stop with a spray of water and switched his arm into the sonic cannon. Kl-Klak-Ka-Klik-Klik!!!! "Duck and cover!!!"

Raven clamped her hands over Garth's ears from behind and suddenly dove the two of them down with black telekinesis.

Cyborg squinted his human eye and aimed at the creature.

**"VRAAAAAA-AAAAAK!!!"** its rat-skull shrieked.

"You are soooooooooo gonna die," Cyborg charged and--

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The sonic cannon exploded at full force. The water spread down the street like butter. The energy thundered past a safely squatting Raven and Garth in a protective shield. The blast found itself mercilessly sailing into the Leviathon's chest, shoving it back into three crashing buildings at once.

**SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

Cyborg lowered his weapon.

Garth winced.

"We have to get you somewhere safe," Raven lowered the shield, moved her hands to his shoulders, and hovered him through a shattered storefront.

The water ran back from where it had parted as Cyborg looked over and smiled. "You do know I was saving _your_ neck and not his, right Rae?"

No reply.

He shrugged and turned to climb up a building front away from the rising tide. "Just kidding..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven set Garth down in the center of an Atlantean temple of sorts.

Garth caught his breath and smoothed his wet hair away from his forehead. "Thanks, Raven. The...um...the sonic blast didn't hurt _your_ ears any, did it?"

Raven blinked. "What??"

At the other side of the temple, Tula jumped up into view. "Thanks, Raven. I'll take it from here."

The dark girl looked her way. "What??"

Garth slowly stood up, his lips parted.

"........," Tula swallowed and sheathed her harpoons slowly. She smoothed some of the water droplets off her immaculate skin and waved....

Garth blinked. He subconsciously reached his hands out.

A beat.

Tula sprinted over and all but dove into him with a fierce hug.

Garth encircled his arms around her, digging his fingers into her dark hair as she pressed her head into the crook of his neck. She muttered something deep and unintelligible, then leaned back. The two Atlantean youngsters gazed at each other's faces as if to see if they were real...then quickly they leaned in for a passionate kiss, stroking each other's temples and then hugging again, heartbeat to heartbeat.

"By Neptune....," Tula murmured, her moist eyes shut. "I never thought I'd see you again."

Garth took a shuddering breath as he gazed in melancholy fashion over the girl's shoulder. "It's all crashing down, Tula. I don't know what to do. I have no clue what to do..."

She gulped and said: "I'm glad..."

Garth looked at her. "You're....glad?"

"Because I know what you would do if your thoughts were together," she spoke. Her face was firm, but her eyes were threatening to break. She summoned her fiery spirit and said: "You'd punish yourself, Garth. You'd run off into the darkest depths of the ocean and make Leviathan follow you to complete the holocaust of your life in some ghastly tragic fashion. And I won't allow that. Not anymore...."

"Tula, I—"

"You are too precious to hurt yourself anymore, Garth!!" she shouted. "All these years I anguished over the secret pain that vexed your heart. You could have simply told me and I would have understood!! I knew about the Tempestuous black magic inside of you! And I didn't care, did I??" She cradled his face with her hands and spoke in a shaky voice: "You know it's true, Garth. You told Chasma yourself. There are people in this world who love you. Not everyone is your mother...not everyone is so selfish and wrong to have thrown you away as garbage!!"

Garth bit his lip. He clenched his dark eyes. "You don't understand, Tula. You just don't know. Everything I am...everything that I'm bringing into being...it's so hideous..."

"It's not you that's hideous, Garth!!" Tula said. "I'll tell you what's hideous!! A life lived short because you let unnecessary guilt and haunting demons rule your days for you!!" She pointed out the shattered walls of the building. "Out there as we speak is the embodiment of all of your fears and self-loathing. But it is not just yours, Garth! It's all of ours! It's the spirit of Atlantean hesitancy to embrace a peace that was ours from the beginning of the oceans!! There comes a time when all of life must wake up and realize that as much as the catalysts of death rule our fate, they do not rule ourselves!! Wake up, Garth! Wake up and realize that you are strong...you are precious...and I love you! Neptune so help me, I love you more than you could ever hate yourself!"

Garth shuddered. He merely hugged her and murmured: "I just want it all to stop....this damn curse...the deaths...my people...Ivan...Tram......"

Tula stroked his back and let out a painful sigh.

Raven watched on stoically. Her communicator vibrated. She opened it up.

"_Raven!! Where are you??"_

She blinked.

"What??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was perched on a buildingtop, frowning, shouting into the communicator. "Raven! We need to rendezvous and unite our powers if we want to defeat this creep!!"

"_What??"_

Robin sighed, gave up, and holstered the communicator.

Beast Boy dropped down onto the rooftop as a falcon. He returned to elf form and walked towards the Boy Wonder. "So...um...who hired Toho Productions to film here?"

"The creature can't be dead already," Robin said.

"Where is it, exactly?"

Robin pointed across the block. "Just beneath that row of crashed buildings."

"This is a job for well-trained professionals!" Beast Boy said firmly. A beat. He glanced at the leader. "You go look first."

Robin glared.

"Oooh! Here come the others!"

Starfire and Nova'm flew down from above.

At the same time, I blurred down from a rooftop and Fraust jumped through a nearby window and joined us.

Robin looked at me. "................" He looked at Fraust. "......................."

Starfire and Nova'm likewise stared.

Fraust bit her lip and hid behind Beast Boy.

"............," Robin glanced up. "Someone you know?"

"Thankfully," Beast Boy smiled. He gestured: "Amy, meet Titans. Titans, meet Amy."

Fraust demurely waved. "H-Hello, Titans..."

"Greetings, fair Amy," Starfire smiled pleasantly. "Do you possess superpowers?"

"Like frozen Hell she does!" Beast Boy cackled. "You can thank her for stopping the floodwaters!!"

"So that was her??" Nova'm beamed. "Cool!" He winced. "Um...no pun intended."

Robin squinted his eyemask. "That purple glint in your eyes........did you know Fryte?"

Fraust gazed sorrowfully towards the floor.

"Uh....," Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Enough said, dude."

Starfire looked sympathetic.

CLAMP!!!

"EEK!!" Starfire jumped.

A Titanium palm clung desperately to the ledge. "Nnnnghhh--!!" Cyborg tried climbing up onto the roof. "A little help here!"

Robin and I rushed over, gripped the android's arms, and helped hoist him up and onto the ledge with a little bit of strain.

"Whew!!" Cyborg wiped his brow and stood up on wobbly knees. "Don't mind me. I tend to only like flash floods of the dry kind."

"What took you so long in getting here??" Robin exclaimed.

"Well excuse me!" Cyborg motioned behind him. "But crowds and walls of water count as 'impediments' in my book. I kinda sorta had to borrow one of those jet-ski looking things."

Beast Boy giggled. "Fancy you on a cycle. You must be rather desperate without the T-Car, dude."

The android Titan shrugged. "I have enough trouble as it is trying to hail a taxi cab in Metropolis, much less in this underwater powder town." She glanced over....blinked. "So...who do we have here? Meg Ryan's baby sister?"

"Say hello to Amy," Beast Boy motioned. "Everyone's friendly neighborhood snow sorceress."

"Well, as long as she's friendly," Cyborg shrugged. "Where's Rae and the two aqua-kids?"

"Taking a breather, thanks to you," Robin said. "Your sonic blast really took that monster out."

"Didn't it, though?" Cyborg proudly smirked. "Speaking of taking out..." He looked at me and reached into the pack he was carrying. "Hey there, Noir. I got a present for you." He pulled out Myrkblade in its sheathe and tossed it at me.

I grabbed it.................and smiled wide.

I looked over at Fraust.

She blinked.

I nodded.

I swung the scabbard around my shoulder and in a blink of an eye—CHIIIIIIING!!! I held the wooden blade in front of me. I concentrated. It danced with black vapors. I sighed.

_Oh Hell yeah......_

Beast Boy had the chills. "Okaaaaaay...so what next?"

"The creature has not departed?" Starfire asked.

Finally....a shaking.

A rumbling.

Ripples of water in the streets below...

**"VRAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!"**

Raven flew in from the surroundings. She glided down and droned: "It has gained strength again. From what I gather, it seeks to consume Aqualad at all costs. Prince Garth is the last surviving member of his cursed family alive. As far as Slizzath is concerned, he contains the last untapped remnant of his essence, Tempest."

Robin palmed his glove. "That means the creature will only get stronger if Aqualad dies. We have to finish _it_ off before it so much as has a chance to touch our friend!"

The creature stood up, shook dust and debris off its rat's skull head, and shrieked.

Nova'm gulped. "And....um...h-how're we supposed to do that??"

"I'm a little juiced out on my cannon here," Cyborg raised his hand. "Besides...that thing's once bitten...so I think it's twice pissed."

Robin turned to Fraust. "You....Do you know any weakness to Slizzath's power?"

Fraust bit her lip. "I....I-I believe it is more Ch-Chasma than Slizzath right now..."

"Meaning.....?" Beast Boy asked.

"Chasma was th-the essence of hatred," the girl spoke. "Hatred only l-lasts as long as it takes f-for its own anger to be quenched."

SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone flinched as the beast madly tore through another ring of buildings in its search for Garth.

"Doesn't sound easy," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"What's to calm the angry beast down when the beast doesn't have a head left to be angry with???" Robin remarked.

"Slaying time!!" Cyborg raised his fist.

"Then we must exterminate the abomination?" Starfire remarked.

"I-I'm afraid that might not work...," Fraust trembled.

"At least it'll buy us some time," Robin said. "Something tells me it'll be up to Princess Tula and Prince Garth to save their own people's fate. All we can do now is protect Atlantis the best way we can! Together!"

"Indeed!" Starfire cheered.

I smirked.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook, fired, and swung. "Titans!! Go!!"

Starfire and Nova'm soared off.

Beast Boy turned into a green pterodactyl and lifted Cyborg towards the Leviathan.

Fraust and I leapt off the building side.

Raven floated alone. "What??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He's hatred, Garth."

"I know, Tula."

"He won't stop until his passion is met."

"He won't stop until I'm dead."

"But if we work together—with the Titans—we may be able to bring him down!" she exclaimed. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "It took only a day to sink this City into the seas, and yet our ancestors survived! I seriously doubt this Black Tempest conspiracy is enough to ruin our days forever!!"

"Even if we are to defeat the Leviathan containing Chasma...," Garth hung his head. "I will still have the essence of Tempest inside of me. I shall forever be tainted, Tula. And as long as I'm alive or have offspring...the threat of Slizzath's return shall always be there."

"Still, you mustn't give up hope," Tula said. She looked him straight in the face. "Please, Garth. For me..."

The prince took a deep breath. He ran a hand through her bangs and tried on a weak smile. "Let's go slay us an overgrown Senator..."

She smiled.

They hugged desperately for a few seconds. Then—hand in hand—they bolted out of the building and dove into the water-strewn streets below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POUND!! POUND!! POUND!! POUND!! POUND!!

The Leviathan thundered down the street, angrily swinging its snout left and right into any building it could find.

SMASH!! SMASH!!!

Debris flew like hot rain. The water level in the streets got gradually lower in the monster's path as it headed out of the Western District. At the same time, this meant that it would soon be stomping over the bodies of the innocent people who had fled from the hull breach and flooding.

But that wasn't about to happen.....

FLASH!!!!!!!

A huge green orb slammed down onto the monster's skull.

"**VRAAAK!!"**

The creature shrieked. It growled and lifted its sharp snout up and around.

Starfire hovered in mid air, her hands glowing. "Greetings, Mr. Monster...if you would be so kind as to stop demolishing this underwater city, then we might travail upon fixing the situation!"

**"VRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."**

The Leviathan swung around—tale lashing—and stomped towards the girl.

Starfire drew back.

**"VRAAAAK!!"**

The monster leapt up and snapped at her.

SNAP!!!

Starfire expertly darted backwards in mid-air, her starbolts at ready. She looked up.

Unbeknown to the creature, a green pterodactyl loomed directly overhead with a titanium Titan.

"Anchors away!!" Cyborg shouted.

Beast Boy let go.

Cyborg plummeted down. He swung his heavy fist straight down upon impact. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" WHAM!!!!!

The creature lurched painfully, its bony snout rising.

Beast Boy hovered over, morphed into a green triceratops, and dive-bombed onto the monster's uplifted nose.

SLAM!!!!!!!!

Rather than let its neck snap, the creature plummeted straight down with its belly to the wet street.

SPLASH!!!!!!!

The tentacles on its forehead warbled and lashed out at Beast Boy--

FLASH!!!!!!!

Small starbolts beat them back as Nova'm flew overhead, providing coverfire.

The creature's huge tail lashed up to bat Nova'm out of the air and sweep Cyborg off his back.

Raven flew in and—with great strain—concentrated a black field of telekinesis around the monster's tail, pinning it to the wet ground.

Fraust stepped up in waist-deep water. She raised her hands and managed to utter: "Stand cl-clear!!!"

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!

A blue wave of ice shot out from her hands and the water ahead of her. Frost and snow flew up in a flurry as the white sheet spread towards the huge, writhing body of the pinned-down beast. Cyborg and Beast Boy stayed on its backside as long as they needed...but eventually leapt off as the sheet of ice covered the creature's length like a huge sculpture of crystal.

Robin landed from a swing on a nearby rooftop and peered down.

I blurred over and stood besides him, looking.

Fraust finished her job and lowered her arms, panting...trembling.

Starfire, Nova'm, and Raven hovered above the hill of ice.

Beast Boy and Cyborg stood before it...mist wafting out of their throats.

"So...is it microwave dinner yet?" Beast Boy asked.

_**CRUNCH!!!!!!!!!!!**_

With one, body-sized twist...the creature broke free of the ice. White shards flew every which way like ivory shrapnel.

Nova'm gasped and hugged Starfire while Raven shielded all three of them.

Beast Boy and Cyborg ducked and dashed for cover.

Robin and I fell to the rooftop and covered our heads.

Fraust winced.

**"VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!!!!"** the Leviathan angrily shrieked. It stomped forwards, chasing Beast Boy and Cyborg.

Fraust dove out of the way before she could be trampled on. The creature thundered by, splashing her coldly. She shivered and hugged herself. In a depressed murmur she uttered: "No matter what...I'm made to be harmful..."

In the meantime, Beast Boy wailed his head off while running at full speed. He desperately converted into an apatosaurus when the water level got too unbearable. With his added weight, he stomped with similar ferocity to the Leviathan chasing him.

"Hey!! Yellow-belly!! What about me?!?!" Cyborg shouted.

The changeling's tail dragged in the water.

With a grunt, Cyborg leapt and grabbed onto the appendage. He was tossed up and onto the green dinosaur's back, which he road bumpily. As soon as he got his awkward seating, he turned back and aimed a medium laser cannon.

ZAP!!! ZAP!!! ZAP!!!

The Leviathan swung its head around and deflected the blasts from the laser fire, as it also deflected the incoming starbolts and telekinetic charges from the three fliers trailing him from above.

In the meantime, Robin and I were running along the rooftops of the City parallel to the chase taking place in the street.

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade and looked for a good moment to pounce upon the scene. I couldn't find any yet...

But Robin could. "I think this creep his hungry for something...," he whipped out a bolo and strapped it to an easily accessible part on the outside of his utility belt. That done, he held a grappling hook launcher in one hand and a fan of explosive discs in the other. He took a plunged out into the open air.

"!!!" I watched in mid sprint.

SWOOOSH!! Robin descended. He fired the grappling hook in mid air. POW!! CL-CLANK!! He swung straight across the path of the incoming Leviathan. Just as it shrieked its mouth open, Robin tossed all three explosive discs into its mouth.

The beast swallowed them.

Robin swung into the building fronts on the other side.

The Leviathan skidded to a stop and tongued around its own mouth for the foreign objects.

Robin met the structures first with his feet, kicked off with a grunt, twirled around, swung back, and reached his free hand to the bolo.

The Leviathan prepared to spit the timed explosives out.

Robin spun the bolo over his swinging head and tossed it at the monster's head with a grunt.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The bolos contacted the creature's snout and wrapped securely around it...shutting the Leviathan's mouth before it could spit out the bombs.

**"VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**

There was a sickening, muffled TH-THUMP!! as the discs detonated inside of the creature's throat. Blood splurted out hideously from the sides of the monster's neck...enough to make it moan in demonic pain. It slumped down to the street again. The body was paralyzed, but its tentacles and tail thrashed violently upwards towards the dangling Boy Wonder.

Robin winced.

SWOOOOSH!! Starfire flew in and snatched Robin up just in time. The appendages smashed into the buildingsides behind him.

I skidded to a stop—saw the creature's stationary position—and took advantage of it. I perched on a leg, pulsed murk through my legs, and vaulted off the buildingside in a diving flip. I sailed down and charged murk through my whole body. Smoke boiled up into my head. The Aqualad contacts popped out during descent and my naturally-solid black eyes reemerged with dancing vapors of black. I landed nimbly on the creature's nose and stabbed down hard with the charged blade.

THUNK!!!!!!!!!

**"VRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!"** the mute creature writhed and groaned.

I stabbed down again and again and again into the monster's hide. I shed demon blood. Ripped iron hide.

Just as a sickening purple splotch of blood dribbled down every angle of the creature's snout, it shook its head and furiously snapped its jaws open...shattering the bolo's cord.

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!"**

Its neck reared up. I tumbled once and slid—legs first—toward the forehead.

I gasped.

A forest of curling tentacles rose up, flashed razor sharp ends, and all lunged at me simultaneously.

I gritted my teeth and blurringly twirled Myrkblade in front of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!!!!

I shoved back the multiple, stabbing tentacles and backflipped safely away from their lunges...however not safely away from the subtle moves of the creature's head.

"**VRAAAK!!"**

The Leviathan's neck snapped back.

I was vaulted towards the spine. I deflected a few tentacles upside down, twirled about, and landed with my feet on the hide. I slid down the spine all the way to the tail and leapt off as the creature limped up and shook its bloody head.

WHAM!!!

"**VRAAAAK!!!"** the creature hissed in frustration as debris in black clouds of telekinesis flew into its body.

Raven floated directly overhead. She looked like an orchestra conductor as she waved her wrists about and directed multiple projectiles into the vile beast's body.

The Leviathan angrily reared its head. It lifted its upper arms and clung to a buildingside. CRUNCH!!! In such fashion, the creature stretched up and snapped its jaws at Raven.

The dark girl was too busy lowering her telekinetic fields to get out of the way. She gasped.

"Raven!!" Nova'm flew in a green streak and shoved the two of them out of the way.

SNAP!!!!!!! The jaws closed over naked air.

The two tumbled across a ledge across the street, with Nova'm collapsing on top of the sorceress.

The young boy blushed. He jumped up. "Eheheheh...ahem....," furiously red, he extended a hand to her. "Need help getting up?"

She glared past him. With a flick of her wrist, she shoved him telekinetically to the ground. FLASH!!

"Whoah!!" he tumbled.

SMASH!!!!!!!!!! The Leviathan's tail slammed into the building where the Tamaranian prince was.

Nova'm gulped. He looked across the floor at Raven and simpered. "H-Has anyone told you that y-you're a goddess?"

"Grow up," she droned. She floated up and slammed a black field of telekinesis into Leviathan's body as she ascended.

FLASH!!

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!"** the creature stumbled back.

WHAM!!!!!!! A dinosaur's head rammed harshly into the uplifted creature.

The Leviathan toppled over completely. SPLASH!!!!!!!

Beast Boy—now a Tyrannosaurus—growled and stomped through the watery street towards the tumbling monster. Cyborg still rode the changling's back, firing with his cannon.

ZAAP!!! ZAP!!

"Go for his jugular, Yoshi!! HA!!"

The dinosaur charged.

The Leviathan's twitching leg smacked the tyrannosaur harshly across the cheek.

WHAM!!!

Beast Boy stumbled back while Cyborg reeled.

"C-Close enough...."

WHAM!!!

The Leviathan righted up and howled at the smaller opponent. **"VRAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAK!!!"**

The changeling bravely roared back and charged in.

STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!

Both creatures grappled and wrestled with each other in the wet, debris-littered street. The green one shoved forward. The demon countered with its weight and brought a sharp-clawed paw up.

ZAAAAP!!!

The hand was knocked back by a blue beam. **"VRAAAK!!"**

Cyborg sat, saddled, aiming his cannon and smiling. "Hands off!"

The Leviathan growled and charged mightily.

WHAM!!!!!!!

The Tyrannosaur jolted. Its feet's claws scraped madly through the street beneath the water before it was slammed into the wall. CRUNCH!!!

The dinosaur strained.

The Leviathan's teeth readied to sink into the changling's neck.

"Time to up a size, B.B.!!" Cyborg grunted.

The tyrannosaur roared as a fan sprouted out of its back and its snout stretched twice as long. Consequently, Beast Boy's mass increased as he morphed into a spinosaurus and charged thunderously into the demon monster's body. Cyborg clung to the dinosaur's neck as it rammed mercilessly into the beast and knocked it into a huge building.

SMASH!!!!!!!

Debris littered down. Water splashed up the sides.

The demon lashed about. It shoved against the dinosaur.

Beast Boy slid back, growling.

The Leviathan's snout lowered slowly and strained to snap over both the changeling and the android Titan.

"Come on, man!!" Cyborg groaned at Beast Boy. "Don't you have anything bigger??"

The snout opened wide...and something inside glowed a hot purple.

The spinosaur's eyes widened. Beast Boy swiftly turned into a shrieking cat that clung to Cyborg's chest. "Meowrrrr!!" Consequently, both Titans plunged to the water below.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!!"

The purple glow in the demon's throat reached a high point and--

FLASSSSSSSSSSSH!!!!!!!!!

A beam of Slizzath's enemy shot out from the Leviathan's mouth in a warbling, violet tendril. The energy beam exploded through four solid blocks of buildings.

SMAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!

Robin gritted his teeth. He hung from Starfire's grasp as she circled them around the blasting monster.

"Now it's getting dangerous...," Robin muttered. He looked up. "Let's go for the attack, Star!!"

"Affirmative!!"

She dove down, holding Robin by one hand.

With a glove free, Robin reached into his utility belt, whipped out three explosive birdarangs, and flung them simultaneously as the two Titans glided by the creature's hide.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!!

All three embedded into the demon's skin and flashed.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

**BOOOOM!!!!**

A fountain of fire and blood opened a gaping wound in the monster's side as Starfire safely flew the two Titans away.

**"VRAAAA-aaaaaaaaa-AAAAAAAAAK!!!!"**

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!! I blurred down the street—my murking feet dancing over the water—and dove straight for the wound with a stab of my smoking blade.

CHUNK!!!!

The creature shrieked and lashed at me with its tail.

I teleported to its back and stabbed down again.

A shriek.

Two tentacles.

I teleported back to its side and stabbed a third time.

Finally, its foot found me.

WHAM!!!

I flew across the street and over the water-treading Fraust's head as she swam up.

"Nnnnnghhhh!!!" she charged two blue-glowing hands and produced a dozen chards of skin-ripping ice. She launched them all into the deep, gaping wound of the creature's side.

THUNK!!! TH-TH-THUNK!!!

"**VRAAAAA-AAAAAAAAK!!!!"** the Leviathan groaned, twitched...and seemed to tire.

Starfire and Robin touched down on a ledge. They watched, jaws dropped.

Cyborg and Beast Boy treaded water in the middle of the street, panting.

Nova'm and Raven floated overhead.

I swam over by Fraust's side.

Before our eyes, a purple glow curtained over the creature's hide. Magically, the Leviathan's wound sealed itself up. Similarly, the cuts and blood from its head and snout disappeared. The demon was made whole again—and the way in which it hissed seemed to suggest a humored victory at that.

Nova'm gulped. "No way...."

"Way," Raven spat.

"It ain't dying!!" Beast Boy cackled. "What gives??"

"It is a demon...," Fraust trembled. "Death is merely an illusion to it."

I looked at her.

"I...I-I've only fed it with more hatred...," Fraust sniffed in a sudden mood swing and swam off desperately. "I-I'm sorry!! I knew it!! I can't defeat him!! Not when I'm practically a demon myself!!"

I gasped and silently reached a hand out to her.

She swam away.

"Amy!!!" Beast Boy gasped.

I bit my lip.

**"VRAAAAK!!!!"**

The creature shrieked.

I re-gripped Myrkblade, narrowed my black eyes, and faced the lumbering beast alongside my Titan companions...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOSH!!!

SPLOOSH!!!!!

Tula and Garth leapt simultaneously out of the water and perched on a building ledge above the submerged street.

"I don't get it...where is he???" Garth exclaimed.

Tula tapped his shoulder and pointed down a few blocks.

Both watched.

With a stream of purple energy, two buildings were blown down.

"Home is where the hellfire is," Tula mused.

Garth winced. "He's going to tear the entire City down. We gotta get there...NOW!"

"But how??"

Garth looked around.

A beat.

He looked up.

He caught sight of one of the magical arches of water stretching over the City. The huge snake of liquid shook with the vibrations running through the ground and shaking its two molecular anchorpieces two dozen blocks apart.

Conveniently, the far side of the water 'rainbow' was in the center of the heated battle.

"There's our ticket!!" Garth grabbed Tula's hand and hoisted her up. "Come on!!"

The two nimbly climbed up the buildingfront and onto the rooftop where the anchorpiece was. The two of them dove horizontally into the giant column of water.

SPLISH!!!

SPLOOSH!!!

They swam 'up' the water arch, their feet kicking furiously. The Tempest in Garth summoned heavy currents that pushed the two of them up through the structure. When they reached the crest near the domed ceiling of Atlantis, Tula bubbily unsheathed a harpoon from her back. CHIIING!!! She tossed it up to Garth and unsheathed the last one for herself.

The two then plunged like wet roller coasters down the floating tunnel of liquid. Tula stayed in the center, while Garth swam up.

SPLASH!!

He dove up out of the top of the watery worm, flipped, and landed with his feet contacting the liquid body. Through violet-glowing magic, he solidified the water contacting his feet. In such a manner he slid down the rest of the plunging arch's length like gym socks to a steep banister. Water splashed around him, parting the way between himself and Tula as they soared down at the steaming battle of criss-crossing Titans and a thrasing demon.

-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLASH!!!!!!

Tula leapt low.

SWOOOSH!!!

Garth leapt high.

They let out a singular, passionate warcry as they both landed on opposite shoulderblades of the Leviathan and stabbed their harpoons straight down deep.

CHUNK!!!

THUNK!!!

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!"** the monster twitched and squirmed beneath them.

In perfect synchronization, the two aquachildren wrenched their blades like bloody levers towards the outersides of the monster. There was a sickening crunch of ligaments and bone underneath the scaley skin. The Leviathan lost all feelings in its upper arms and it collapsed with a red splash into the half-submerged street beneath it.

Tula and Garth yanked their blades out. They spun and leapt over the swaying tentacles, slid down the snout, and plunged into the water beyond the skeletal nose. They swam back up to the surface, tread water, and slashed their harpoons harshly into the creature's jaw.

SLASH!!!

SLIIIINK!!!

The monster groaned...unable to move.

Garth held one hand out. He gritted his teeth. A violet aura fell down from his eyes to his chin to his torso to his waste to his toes. The water began to boil and surge.

SPLOOOOOOOSH!!!!

His Tempest power caused a geyser of water to erupt beneath the beast. Its lumbering head tilted up. Its vulnerable neck and underbelly were exposed.

"Now!!!" Garth shouted.

Tula swam forward with her harpoon. She dove down, built up Atlantean speed, and dove directly upwards at a height of about fifteen feet—the entire time during which she held her blade out and slashed a huge, bloody gash along the creature's jugular.

SLIIIIIIIIINK!!!!

Blood oozed out in a dramatic fountain.

Tula flipped backwards and landed with a splash besides Garth's panting body...and yet as far away as they were the blood still sprayed out towards them.

The Leviathan groaned, twitched, and rolled over coldly in the pool.

Tula wheezed. "Think the bastard will miss his trachea?"

"Lord knows I don't use mine much," Garth said.

"That won't do it!!" cried a voice from above.

The two Atlanteans glanced up.

Robin stood beside Starfire and Nova'm on a rooftop overhead. "It's going to restore its health!! Just attacking him does nothing!!"

Tula bit her lip.

A hissing sound.

Both treading Atlanteans looked in front of them again.

The monster was turning over. The red ravine ripped into his neck and belly were morphing into a healthy whole before their eyes like liquid metal. Cluttering sounds announced the rejoining of severed tendons and ligaments in the beast's arms as it stood up in the water on all fours.

Garth's teeth grit. "Demons...I hate demons...."

"Look out!!" Beast Boy shouted from another rooftop.

"**VRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!"**

Garth and Tula braced themselves.

The growling beast opened it's mouth. The purple aura shimmered from its throat.

Beast Boy gasped. "Okay...REALLY look out!! I mean really-_REALLY_ look out!!!"

"Down!!" Garth dove into a shrieking Tula.

FLAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!

The steady stream of purple fury shot over them. The first layer of water was boiled instantly. The rest churned and shot back from the force of the demon focused beam. Tula and Garth tumbled like loose leaves on a hurricane-blown pond. They scattered down the street and smashed through the front windows of a building being pounded by demon energy and tidal waves.

CRASH!!!!

Tula and Garth stumbled onto a water-streaming stairwell at the end of some cavernous library. Groaning, they stood up. Tula shook her head dizzily. Garth placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You allright?"

"Kinda missing those Psuedonissian thermal currents back home...but otherwise yeah..."

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Tula and Garth blinked at each other.

They glanced out the window and gasped.

STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!!

Garth grabbed Tula's shoulders and tossed the two of them into the library. "Move!!"

SMASH!!!!!!

The Laviathan came charging into the library, snout first. It burst through the building, shrieking. The nearby wall shattered to bits.

Garth and Tula dashed across the library.

Bookcases and archive displays toppled over at their feet.

The two Atlanteans dove through a huge, ornamental window.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHATTER!!!!!

The two plunged into a pool in a small courtyard surrounded by building faces. The water level had risen there from what amount of the Ocean had swept in through the cracks. They found themselves cornered by the walls...a dead end.

Tula sputtered as she treaded up at the surface. "Tell me this is where you think up of some grand plan to save our butts from impending doom..."

Garth looked up.

"**VRAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!"**

STOMP!!!!!

The Leviathan leered at the cornered two.

He gulped. "Ask me another time..."

Tula bit her lip.

**"VRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr....."** the demonic beast growled. Its violet eyes glowed and a surpentine tongue danced across its fangs before it plunge downward at them in a jaw-wide lunge---

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAP!!! ZAP!!!!!!!!

Dozens upon dozens of energy beams shot down and pelted the demonic creature from all sides.

The beast roared, stumbled back, and cringed from all the heated shots.

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!!! ZAAA-AAAAP!!

Tula and Garth looked up, eyes wide.

A solid circle of lined-up Atlantean soldiers were positioned atop the buildings. They aimed charged tridents and fired continous shots of bright energy down at the beast. At the same time—the commanding general leapt down from above. He tossed off the top half of his robe and stood muscular and forboding with his left arm's harpoon glistening in the light.

Garth stammered. "Y-Your lordship..."

"Garth...cut the formalities," Orin grumbled. He bore the slightest of grins. "Now you know this beast more than I do...tell me how we can slay it."

"I....I'm not sure how...," Garth said. "Tula says Chasma was Haetryd...the essence of Slizzath's hate..."

"If that hatred can be quenched, then the transformation may end!" Tula spoke.

"Well...let's see what three great souls can come up with, shall we?" Orin flexed his muscles.

"But sir....is it wise to aid me??" Garth remarked, glancing back and forth between the former Aquaman and the energy-pelted beast. "Does the Senate know that you're—"

"I am still the King of Atlantis and because of that, I can take executive action," Orin winked. "Besides...the soonest you see the intruding Prince Garth, you'll let me know...right, Aqualad?"

A beat.

Garth smiled.

Orin smiled.

Tula twirled her harpoon at ready. "Well then...that's a good an excuse as ever to kick ass."

"We need more princesses like you," Orin said.

"Yes," she nodded. "I know."

Garth smiled and readied his blade.

SW-SW-SWISH!!!

All three Atlanteans faced the monster. King Orin in the middle. Tula at his right. Garth at his left.

The soldiers relented their trident blasts to recharge.

The pelted and steaming Leviathan groaned and tried to reengage its senses.

"For the Junction!!!" Orin shouted. He ran forward throught he knee-deep water and raised his serrated prosthetic. "AAAAAAAAUGH!!!"

"RAAAAAUGH!!!" Tula ran in.

"RGHHHH!!" Garth sprinted.

All three sharp-swinging warriors rushed in and hacked, slashed, and ripped at the lower limbs and snout of the monster. Blood flew in tiny fountains. Flesh and bone fragments littered the area. The monster shrieked and stumbled backwards through the crater it had formed in the broad side of the library. King Orin advanced the demon incarnation of Haetryd head on while Tula and Garth took the sides. Dozens of wounds appeared from the blurred strikes as if from invisible, acid rain. As soon as the guards recharged their weapons, a solid wall of burning energy soared in and burned at the creature's flesh...pushing it even further into the street beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the second volley of attacks ended, Orin, Garth, and Tula had the creature backing out into the flooded streets.

SP-SP-SPLOOOSH!!!!

The three warriors dove into the water and swam all around the creature like possessed electrons to an undeserving nucleus. They dove in, struck with their blades, and bounced off repeatedly in merciless fashion.

More Atlantean soldiers lined the buildingsides and let loose energy blasts worthy of toppling down the front line of an army. Soon, the flesh of the Leviathan started to burn away. Whole chunks of skin would be burned by the trident blasts then severed off expertly in ragged folds by either Tula's harpoon, Garth's blade, or Orin's appendage.

Garth circled around the beast and extended a free hand. His eyes glowed violet and a torrent of water surged underneath the living carcass' girth.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

With tremendous effort on the part of Tempest, Garth shoved the lumbering beast high into the air above some of the buildingtops.

It was then and there that the Titans caught up and joined the trident fire.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! Starfire and Nova'm launched an endless barrage of starbolts.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!! Cyborg supplied his sonic cannon.

SWOOOOSH-SMASH!!!! Beast Boy in gorilla form tossed huge boulders.

FLASH!!!!! Raven sent slicing slivers of black telekinesis flying.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK-**BOOOM!!!!** Robin's explosive birdarangs did the trick.

Clank! I threw a skipping stone....or something....

The Leviathan's mutilated body danced in mid-air from the multiple blasts.

Orin and Tula watched on.

From where Garth tread, the prince raised his arms and—with a shout—enveloped the creature in a worm of water and slammed him back down into the street.

WHAM!!!

SPLASH!!!!!!!!

Water fountained everywhere.

Orin held his fleshly hand up.

The soldiers held their fire.

The Titans withdrew.

All eyes were on the bulbous spot of red cloudiness in the center of the battle arena. Building debris circled the bloody site like a giant seat turtle's nest in the urban sand.

Silence....

Garth panted...panted...panted....

"**VRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr..."**

Garth's heart fell.

The body slowly started to get up.

Tula gulped.

Orin's teeth grit.

Leviathan reared his mutilated head. Slowly, the flesh started to crawl back into existence across the creature's body.

Starfire gasped.

"No....," Nova'm murmured.

Robin punched his gloved palm.

I clenched my fists...

The skin returned to all surfaces of the monster's skin. The Leviathan only seemed....more powerful from absorbing our combined attacks. Its huge eyes pulsed purple.

"Uh oh....," Beast Boy murmured.

The creature turned about, faced King Orin directly...and opened its snout.

Purple aura filled the air.

"Look out!! It's gonna pull the same damn stunt again!!" Cyborg shouted.

Garth gasped. He dove at his king. "Orin!! Down!!!"

"OOF!!!" The two former teammates tumbled into the water.

FLAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!

A burning stream of purple flew over them. It plowed into buildings, sending scores of screaming Atlantean bodies flying.

BOOOOOM!!!!

Four buildings in a row loudly toppled over.

The Titans and I winced and tried to keep balance as a whole quarter of Atlantis shook.

Orin and Garth drifted together in the water...but not for long. A huge, red tongue darted into the street's pool like a giant tentacle and wrapped tightly around Garth's body. The boy gasped with a flurry of bubbles underwater and was dragged up into the air.

Orin reached a hand out for him. _"No!!!"_

SPLOOOSH!! "YAAAUGH!!!" Garths truggled in the lashing tongue of the yawning beast.

Tula bobbed at the surface. She shrieked: "Garth!!!"

The prince struggled in the creature's grasp. He gritted his teeth and prepared to stab down into the tongue muscle with his harpoon...when the tongue jerked and thusly tossed the item out of the boy's grasp.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!! The harpoon stuck into a shallow piece of street.

"Titans!! Free him!!" Robin shouted, flinging a handful of birdarangs as he said so.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The birdarangs flew at the tongue...but the Leviathan turned its upper body around at the last second and deflected the projectiles.

Cyborg, Starfire, and Nova'm pelted the creature mercilesly from the back.

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FL-FLASH!!

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

FLASH!!! FLAAAASH!! FLASH!!

The Leviathan ignored the blows and merely dragged the helpless Garth towards a dark, shattered corner of fallen buildings.

Raven flew overhead with flying debris of black momentum while I blurred over the water with Myrkblade ready.

SMASH!!! CRUNCH!!! Raven's flying structures slammed into the creature's back.

The Leviathan merely grunted and slapped its tail back at us.

WHAP!!! Raven was hit hard. She flew overhead and plummeted into a nearby fountain across the line of buildings.

I teleported past the twitching tail, streaked up the creature's backside, ran along its spine, and prepared to perform a leaping lunge of Myrkblade through its fountain of forehead tentacles when the beast's entire neck reared and batted me backwards like a ragdoll into the tiny waves.

SPLOOOSH!!!

"Garth!!" Tula shrieked.

The tongue curled more and more around his helpless body.

"Stand back!!" he shouted. "Nnghhh—Slizzath's wrath shall burn severely! Do not get caught in it!!"

"By Poseidon...," Orin clenched his teeth. He charged across the shallow water with his harpoon arm swinging. "This is not your fate, Garth!!! RAAAUGH!!"

SWOOOOOSH-CLANG!!!!

The harpoon shed sparks from across the creature's hide. Half of the Leviathan lifted up. Its tongue uncurled.

Garth fell to the debris-littered street.

SPLASH—WHUMP!!! "Ooof!!"

Orin shouted and prepared to plow his prosthetic again into the creature's body.

THWAP!!!!! A sweep of the tail smacked hard into the king of Atlantis.

Oirn slammed into a building front. CRACK!!! His harpoon shattered apart.

SWOOOSH!! Robin swung in by a grappling hook while Robin dropped down and charged at full force.

"RAAAAAAUGH!!" Cyborg swung a titanium fist into the skull piece of the monster.

WHAM!!!!

The Leviathan lurched.

Robin flung two electrical discs.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLAMP!!! ZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!

Sparks flew crazily from the monster's hide. The smell of burnt, demon skin filled the air.

Cyborg readied another fist while Robin swung a staff.

WHAM!!!! SWACK!!!!

The sparks died down. The smoking skin twitched...then flew at them in the shape of a serrated paw.

THWACK!!!

Robin and Cyborg flew back.

I streaked past them and pounced on the creature with Myrkblade raised.

SLASH!!!!!!

I cut a deep gash...a gash that I knew would only regenerate in time.

_Where is this going???_

The paw swiped at me.

I jumped the attack, spun around, and slashed at its neck.

The tentacles from the forehead surged at me.

FLASH!!!

A black shield blocked them all. Raven floated overhead while I unleashed my murking punishment.

The Leviathan shook its body, hissed, and broke through the shield with a swing of its head.

The exploding obsidian energy sent a shockwave into the dark girl's head. She groaned and plummeted towards the street.

I gasped, sheathed my sword, and ran over to catch her--

WHAM!!!!

A huge tail smacked the two of us mercilessly into a mound of debris.

The Leviathan shifted about.

Garth lay on the ground besides his embedded harpoon, breathless.....

SLAM!!!!

The creature's clawed paw fell down over him.

"AUGH!!" Garth exhaled, his face contorted in pain as he was pinned to the wet street.

"**VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr......"**

The monster lowered its razor sharp jaws closer and closer to the Idyllist prince's helpless form. Soldiers ran up to nearby buildingsides and fired useless birrages of trident energy blasts into the monster's body. Starfire and Nova'm floated overhead, launching all manners of starbolts to no use. Beast Boy kept ramming senselessly into the monster's side as an African elephant. King Orin was barely able to stand, his left arm ending at a shattered stub. All other Titans were either too exhausted or too beat to move again.

All of this Tula observed from a building ledge above where she was perched. She held her harpoon in a shaking hand and looked back and forth from the brave but ineffective heroes to the all-consuming monstrosity. Her eyes narrowed and her lips parted as she breathed lightly with the incoming view of something that—seemingly—only the Psuedonissian princess could see....

The Leviathan was a hideous abomination. And yet...in the corners of its bloody scales and bony features...she could see Chasma's essence. She could see his face. His arrogant gait in the hallways. The indignant glare and the all-knowing sneer. The angry way he looked at her in the Senate and Embassy...

Tula shivered...not so much as a result of the horrid contemplation ricocheting through her, but rather the simple righteousness that her decision would bring. To Garth, to Atlantis, and perhaps even to herself...

Tula closed her mouth tightly. She took a deep breath and chased the shuddering moistness in her eyes away. She pounced off the buildingside and ran across the watery surface to the absolute center of the battle.

The Leviathan's jaws were mere inches from closing around prince Garth's head.

He took a deep breath and lowered his black eyes.

His limbs went limp.

And...

Tula dove in. She growled and swung her harpoon against the monster's teeth.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

Sparks flew.

**"VRAAAAAK!!!"**

Tula twirled her weapon behind her in a ready position and pointed her other hand out. She panted. "Hey!! Chasma!!"

The creature shuddered. Its purple eyes fluttered, as if refocusing.

Tula grit her teeth. "Remember me?? The princess bitch!!!"

The purple eyes narrowed.

SPLOOSH!!

The serrated paw lifted up and off of Garth's wheezing body.

Garth twitched and murmured: "T-Tula...."

The monster stared at Tula. Purple steam rose from its nostrils and lips.

Tula gripped hard to her harpoon.

Orin watched over wearily from where he barely stood.

The Leviathan's paw lifted up, flexed, and slashed down with a huge front claw.

Tula stopped breathing. She closed her eyes.

Garth's life turned in slow motion.

Tula's fingers unclenched...deliberately dropping the harpoon to the street.

CL-CLANG!!

"TULA!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

**CHUNK!!!!**

The princess' body jolted. Her arms stretched outward like a half-deflated crucifix. Her eyes shot open. Her lips quivered.

The Leviathan sneered, its front claw imbedded clean through the Princess' center.

I looked up from where I limped with Raven in my grasp. My jaw dropped. Raven looked up and gasped.

Starfire and Nova'm drifted through the air numbly, their green eyes wide.

Cyborg and Robin looked over from where they stood up and froze.

Beast Boy deflated into elf form and seemed to dangle on strings.

King Orin was speechless.

All in a matter of two seconds, Garth's vision was on everyone and everything at once. But the very center of his twitching vision....the very center of his vibrating universe was on her....

And the claw emerging on the backside of her....

Tula gurgled once, a thick stream of blood spurting out from her lips. She shut her mouth and slid off of the sharp claw.

SPLOOOSH!!!

She lay in the shallow water, turning it heavily red.

And then..

Eyes were on the Leviathan...which had suddenly become a stone-still Leviathan.

The creature seemed to pause. It didn't breathe. It didn't twitch. It didn't even move a single forehead tentacle. It stood like a giant, breathless granite sculpture...until finally something changed. The purple light in its eyes faded. The beast seemed to shudder and then—with melting agony—it shrank. The tentacles receded. The scales sank into blubbery flesh. The claws disappeared and the teeth vanished. The mass of flesh then performed the disgusint act of un-ballooning into something humanoid and recognizable.

Chasma........Haetr_yd with its anger quenched..._

Garth hobbled up to his feet. CLANK!! He yanked his harpoon out of the ground. SPLOOSH!! He scooped up Tula's weapon.

The monster was now a large man becoming increasingly smaller.

Garth hyperventilated. His jaw was clenched. He gripped the hilts to the harpoons tightly.

Everyone watched as the monster disappeared. Soon, a naked gray body stood on trembling knees before the Idyllist prince. Shivering, Chasma looked fearfully up. The violet disappeared from his eyes...and he was alone. Without Slizzath, without dark magic...

Garth sneered.

_Without protection........._

"N-No....," Chasma murmured.

Garth twirled both harpoons over his shoulders.

Chasma flinched. "Nooooo--!!!"

"AAAAUGH!!" Garth screamed and swung both harpoons together.

CHUNK!!! CLANG!!!

Both blades collided with sparks after cleaving equally through either side of the Senator's neck. The bloody cranium spun half a turn on the harpoons before both they and the body slumped lifelessly to the shallow pool of water below.

".................." Garth heaved. CL-CLANG!! He dropped the harpoons. He spun around. He dropped to his knees over Tula. Panting....

The princess was barely alive. Twitching. Sputtering...

Garth's dark eyes narrowed. He leaned down. He bit his lip. He raised a shaky hand and parted her soiled bangs. "Why......Wh-Why.....??"

She shook, gurgled, and managed a quivering smile as her eyes rounded. "F-For the same r-reason......," she coughed, sputtered. Spoke: "Peace....J-Junction...." Her eyes thinned and her lips curved a little more. "....a s-second chance....for you..."

"No...," he shuddered.

"...always so selfless, Garth....I-I've envied it..."

"No...no no no no no," Garth cradled her head to his and shook. His shoulders quivered and his face scrunched up as tears practically exploded outward. "I'm not worth it....I'm not worth it, Tula..."

"Could h-have fooled m-m-me...," she uttered. A smile. A shake. "Crrrkkkk....nnghh....I....I-I..." she raised her hand.

Garth strongly gripped it. He stared as strongly as he could into her eyes, while all the time shaking from his own sorrow and hyperventilating.

Orin, Titans, and soldiers formed a ring around the scene.

Tula quivered. She managed to say: ".....I-I can...feel it...," she shook. "....the hatred is gone...the evil aura is fading....the oceans are calm again...." She looked the prince's way. She sputtered. She wheezed: "You m-may have his essence, Garth....b-but you have the power to silence it...a-and be productive..."

"Not without you," he sobbed and held her hand tighter. "Not without you, Tula!!"

"Shhhhhhhhh," she raised a weak, bloody hand up to his cheek and smiled angelically. "There're plenty of fish in the sea, Garth. There're plenty of.....f-fish in the sea......"

Garth was speechless.

Tula's eyes oozed aside. She gazed beyond the dome of the City. Her lids widened a bit. "I....I-I feel...." Her lips widened. A beat. She sighed.

Her hand fell limp.

"................," Garth looked at her. Through her. He started to shake. He clenched his eyes shut and hugged Tula's body closely to him. He rocked. He sniffed. His torso shook and caused the tears and blood to trickle down both of their bodies.

Starfire had a hand covered over her mouth. Uncontrollably, her Tamaranian eyes shed. Nova'm was no less affected. He trembled and hugged the older alien's side.

I took a deep breath. I slowly sheathed Myrkblade and looked away. I felt the same damn chill from my metal left hand.

Raven was silent. Deadpan. She glanced over at Beast Boy and Cyborg. The two shifted nervously where they stood, trying not to look at the scene.

Robin drifted over and stood resolutely besides Starfire and Nova'm. Subconsciously, he allowed himself into their embrace. Starfire sniffed.

King Orin's head was hung. At the sound of Garth's voice, he looked up.

"She was always the true peace keeper...."

Garth gently lowered Tula's body to the shallow floor of water. He crossed her arms over her chest.

"I....I was only a pawn," Garth said in a stoic way. With his teary face and melted expression, he resembled a rock that had fallen from the sky right after a terrible hurricane. He sniffled once or twice as he ran a hand over her face and shut her eyes. "But the Poseidonissian Princess......it was not her destiny to be involved with the demonic powers at play. It was all a matter of choice. Of bravery. Of initiative."

He stood up straight over her, his arms hanging by his side. He gazed at her silent figure.

"The fate of our Ocean....the fate of the entire _world_...it will not be won by legislation or ambassadorial acts of 'good will'...," he looked up at every Atlantean in the surrounding area. "It will be won by sacrifice. Sacrifices like Tula's." He took a deep breath. He continued: "Our ancient forefathers were right. The only way to have a stable society is through strife. Through bloodshed. Through pain. Conflict may be what banalizes us...but it's also what makes us mature. A life without pain...and Idyll life..." he glanced aside at Chasma's headless corpse "...is something of dreams. For four thousand years, my people tried to avoid the fact that—there are demons in this world that must be dealt with. And many of those demons are in ourselves." He gripped his own heart. He sighed. He shuddered. He said: "The Junction is not so much a Revolution of peace...as it is a Retribution of souls." He looked up at Orin and everyone else. "For peace after all these years is something earned. Because even though conflict and pain is necessary, we may finally have done away with those who center such in their very lives."

A beat.

He turned around and clenched his fists. "But I am living proof that...no matter what toil...no matter what strife...no matter what s-sacrifice...," he shook, hesitated, then sighed: "...that evil lives on. And it lives on in me. Whether I like it or not. Only.....only now I am truly alone. Far more alone than I ever pretended to be..."

He slowly limped away by himself.

The guards were silent.

King Orin gripped his stub of an arm, glanced at Tula's body, and sighed defeatedly.

I took a deep breath. I turned myself and immersed myself in the obscurity of the wrecked, urban landscape.

In the meantime, a depressed Beast Boy sighed. His eyes wondered up. They then narrowed at the sight of something.

A purple-glowing figure was swimming quickly across the underwater landscape.

"..........," Beast Boy stared. Suddenly he gasped. He glanced around, then ran down a waterlogged street for the nearest entrance to the Atlantean docking bays...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green swordfish skirted desperately out into the open currents. It morphed into a dolphin and spun around, emitting sound waves in every which direction.

It picked up the body of a figure over a hill of coral.

The green dolphin looked over.

A blonde girl was swimming towards something beyond the rise in the sea floor.

The dolphin turned into a shark and swam desperately towards the site.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The dome of Atlantis was now a distant thing.

The green shark rounded the hill and glanced around.

In the shadows of a huge mountain ridge there sat a mysterious, metal structure. The structure had a huge 'snout' of sorts aimed upwards. The bulk of the object was a chamber of sorts, loaded with a capsule accessible through a door with a water-separating forcefield.

The green animal's white eye widened.

_It had to have been an Expulsor......_

And swimming besides the door to the machine was none other than Fraust, protected by her magical glow of violet alone.

The shark 'jumped' in the water. It desperately morphed into a squid and skirted towards the girl.

Fraust glanced over sadly. She winced and held a blue-glowing hand out.

FLASH!!!!!

A thin shield of ice appeared, blocking the changling's way.

The squid turned into a crab, sea turtle, basking shark, seal, and various other marine life as it tried desperately to bash through the shield.

Tula shuddered. She spoke through the violet glow of magic. Her voice came wavering awkwardly through the currents so that Beast Boy could barely understand her saying:

"I-I'm sorry, Titan. But...But I know who and what I am...," she hugged herself and drifted some. "Even when I'm using my power for good...I feel _him_. I feel _his_ claws sinking into me. Maybe Vera can tame her powers...but I can't. I must punish myself. I must save you and everyone else alive from the torture of trying to save me..."

The green changling shuddered. Its white eyes were pleading.

"Good bye....may you never suffer from demons like myself ever again...," Fraust sniffed. She entered the pod inside the chamber and the door shut behind her.

Beast Boy desperately turned into a whale, spun, and slammed his tail into the ice wall.

CRASH!!!!

WHURRRRRRRR!!! The machine pointed northward.

Beast Boy swam over. He morphed into elf form and held his breath as he drifted to the porthole looking in on the chamber and pounded on the glass in desperation.

Inside, Fraust was sobbing. She momentarily recovered in time to finger a switch and...

BLAM!!!!

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

With bubbles violently streaming, the cannon shot the tiny pod with the blonde snow mage in it far, far away.

The green elf shuddered. It hung its head...twice saddened by that day. Before he lost his breath, he turned into a barricuda and slowly drifted back towards Atlantis...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley. Please rise."

The Senate Room was hushed as the Idyllist prince in question stood from his balcony. The young man was tall and resolute. His dark eyes firm...yet softly awaiting the words from the Senate Speaker.

"The entire body of Atlantis applauds you for your efforts in preventing the onslaught of Slizzath's Black Tempest," the elderly man spoke from the high pontium. King Orin sat beside him, cold and silent. "And we are regretful of the loss you have suffered with your people. The lives of Praetor Ivan and many soldiers of the Hidden Valley shall forever be mourned. Before we proceed with the deliberation, do you have anything you wish to say to the delegates of the Seas?"

Slowly, Garth nodded. "Only this. I have transferred all of my governing power to the hands of the Idyllist circle of council. They shall provide you with the necessary delegates to represent our faction. This decision is not something done hastily in lieu of recent events. Rather, it was prepared for...well in advance. My people have always anticipated the implications of my royal family..." His voice lingered off, try as he might to be strong.

A slight murmur rippled through the crowd, then silence as the speaker went on:

"Very well. Prince Garth, it is a heavy heart that we present this decision to the Senate. Your service to the Oceans has been impeccable. Your faith in Poseidon and pursuit of justice everywhere has saved our people on multiple of occasions from the likes of Black Manta, Trident, and now the Black Tempest. But while you are a hero, it is also understood that you and everyone in the family line of King Thar possess the curse of the evil sorcerer Slizzath. While this is greatly unfortunate, it is still a risk to every soul you may come in contact with—or so we have deemed after two solid days of intense scrutiny. Our only solution is to grant you life...but at the same time, Prince Garth, you are forever banished from the principalities of Atlantis."

Commotion. Gasps. Mutterings.

Garth took a deep breath and hung his head.

Orin shifted uncomfortably, visibly ruffled.

"As you may understand—from the implications of Junction—'Atlantis' now constitutes a great deal of the inhabitable Ocean. We shall do everything in our power to show you our respect by providing safe quadrants of residence if you so des—"

"I understand," Garth said gently, but solidly. He looked up and took a deep breath. "I understand completely."

Silence.

The speaker nodded. He didn't have to go on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Garth walked alone down a corridor of the Capitol building after the Senate hearing.

He watched his feet.

"........."

"Garth!"

The boy froze.

A beat.

He turned around.

Orin stood before him.

Silence.

"I just want you to know...," the King of Atlantis began. "I fought with all of the power granted me to—"

Garth held a hand up. "Orin....I know......I kn-know...." He gently lowered his arm and smiled weakly. "To make the Senate choose otherwise would go against what Atlantis stands for today. A democracy instead of the crater from someone's iron fist."

Silence.

Orin uncontrollably lurched forward and hugged Garth hard.

Garth hugged him back.

The King took a deep breath and cradled the boy's head to his chest like he would his own son. "You will be sorely missed, boy. And I promise you that—no matter what evil may threaten us—your honor shall be preserved. For there is no force in this world too great that I won't strive to give you the uttermost respect, admiration, and faith that you deserve..."

Garth shuddered. He bit his lip and spoke: "I know...and th-thanks, Orin." He parted the hug. He looked up. "But I must learn to have faith in myself before I find out if I deserve it or not..."

Orin nodded.

Garth held his fist out. "Poseidon be Praised...."

Orin smiled. He collided his fist with Garth's. "Poseidon be Praised..."

Their fists spread into open palms that gripped each other tightly. A warrior shake.

Garth took a proud breath. "I always knew that you'd become a man before long...."

At that, Garth's sad eyes darkly fell to the wayside. "My life as a man died yesterday, Orin..." He slowly sauntered off. "...it died in her sweet heart...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you think they're gonna do to him??" Nova'm asked.

"Banishment, most likely," Raven droned. "It's the only logical thing for the Senate to do. He may be a hero, but he still has a dangerous essence within himself. When I was younger, there was a time when I had to leave Azar. I had no choice but to leap upon it."

We sat in a lounge near the bottom floor of the Senate Building.

Starfire and Robin leaned against a wall. Nova'm sat on the armrest of a couch beside them. Raven was nestled gracefully in a reading chair. Cyborg leaned against the back of Raven's chair and gazed off, apparently in thought. Beast Boy sat beside a window and gazed out on the cityscape of Atlantis where repairs were already being made to the Western District.

I stood against a nearby wall, blindly sharpening Myrkblade. My ears tuned in to everyone else. My black eyes were hidden under the usual shades, which Cyborg had provided for me from his pack after the bloody battle.

"It would be most cruel for Aqualad's own people to do that to him," Starfire remarked. She sadly clasped her hands together. "And yet, terribly understandable."

"What I don't get is why Tula had to die to begin with!" Cyborg remarked.

Raven turned and looked at him. "Chasma was the living embodiment of Slizzath's hatred. When Slizzath extended the limits of his powers out of his trans-dimensional imprisonment and into Chasma's body, the result was a monstrosity similar to Slizzath's spirit incarnate...but with an inherent flaw. Once the being's hatred was exhausted, its purpose was complete. Slizzath receded and Chasma was subjected to Garth's finishing blow."

"But still...why'd Tula—"

"It could have been anyone that Chasma held a grudge against," Raven spoke. "For all we know, if Orin had died...the spell may have ended too. But if the Leviathan had killed Garth, it would have inherited a great power that Slizzath had long-needed."

"So Tula threw herself in the way so that Chasma inside of Leviathan would kill her..."

"And end the spell."

"I wonder....," Starfire's mind drifted as she thought aloud, "...if any of us were to have sacrificed ourself in Tula's place, would the same result have been acquired."

I glancd up at that.

"Possibly," Raven said. "But I don't think Chasma knew us as much as he did Tula."

"Then again...," Robin muttered, "...who here would have been strong enough to have done what Tula did?"

Silence.

I sighed. I continued sharpening Myrkblade.

"She's gone..."

We all looked Beast Boy's way.

"Who?" Cyborg asked.

"Amy....," the green one stared out the window. "Fraust...the snow girl."

"Oh....her."

Beast Boy looked over. "She found one of Chasma's cannons...perhaps the very same one that launched Garth towards the dry land and started this whole fiasco."

"Could she survive such a chaotic flight???" Starfire exclaimed.

"Depends...," Robin scratched his dark head. "Where was the thing aimed, B.B.?"

"Due north."

Robin glanced at Cyborg.

The android Titan shrugged. "Hard to tell. Wish I knew where we were exactly. But I think we're still in the Northern Hemisphere though. So 'north' of Atlantis could be...," he rubbed the human half of his head "...Gulf of Mexico? Mediterranean? Maybe even the polar ice cap."

"Who was she anyways?" Nova'm asked.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg read me. He said: "A...human girl from Chasma's prison?"

"I told y'all about it already," Beast Boy said. "There are these places around the world---er—the seas. They have humans who have disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. The Atlanteans took care of them...but Chasma got his hands on a few of them---"

"And turned them into the essences of Slizzath...," Robin nodded. "Less easily to telepathically detect in underwater communities." He glanced at Starfire. "Fryte had no gills, remember?"

"Indeed...."

Silence.

"At least....at least there's a future for all of Amy's kind," Beast Boy hugged himself. He glanced up. "Am I right?? Acyd...Vera and all the other kids and families in these places...they may see dry land now. And with Junction..."

"It sounds like a promising time for Terra Firma's different factions," Starfire remarked.

"Yeah...but...," Cyborg shrugged. "Why doesn't it feel like a victory?"

"Why do you think?" Raven said.

Silence.

I looked towards Robin.

Not that it was in response to my gaze or anything, but right then and there the Titan leader spoke as I expected him to: "I agree with Raven about banishment. I don't think Garth can easily 'go back home'."

Starfire smiled as best as she could during a time such as this. "And you are—perhaps—thinking that he could acquire something liken unto our home?"

Robin nodded. "Think of it. He's done so much for us...we've put in our part for him...we have quite the grounds for trust."

"Do we, Robin?" Cyborg remarked. He gestured. "You're the decision maker on inductions. Remember?"

Nova'm listened intently.

Robin folded his arms. He looked my way.

I looked back at him.

Silence.

"And you were the decision maker on the acceptance, right Noir?"

I nodded.

A beat.

"I honestly don't know if he'd accept...but I'll give him the invitation," Robin spoke. "It looks like the Tempest power is forever a part of him. That could be invaluable in our City. You yourself said once—Cyborg—that we needed a way to master the waterways."

"Yeah...but one little thing," Cyborg held a finger up. "The dude's got a cool way of bending water and stuff...but don't forget that's attached to the soul of an old, old sorcerer of evil!"

"Meaning?"

"That's a real threat to the team! What if Slizzath made himself manifest in our midst or something? How'd we be prepared for that?"

Silence.

Everyone was staring at Cyborg. A beat. Everyone was then staring at Raven.

Cyborg looked around—glanced down at the dark girl—and winced. "Oh....right...."

Raven frowned. "Right."

I bit my lip.

"Let's have a vote," Robin said.

Beast Boy's hand rocketed up in an instant. "A million yays right here, dude."

Starfire's hand then went up.

Then mine.

Raven's.

A pause....then Cyborg's.

Robin had his glove raised the whole time.

Nova'm simpered and raised his hand as well, nervous...

Starfire giggled.

The other Titans smiled at that.

Nova'm blushed. "A-Anything I can do to help you guys..."

Starfire ruffled his red hair. "And what a help you are indeed..."

"Hehehehe."

The door creaked open.

We all looked over.

Beast Boy stood up.

Garth stood before us.

His dark eyes were weak. It was frighteningly depressing. He glanced away...as if to avoid everyone's visible eyes.

So—expertly—the masked Titan among us walked forward.

"......," Robin leaned his head to the side. "Still a teenager?"

A beat.

Garth sighed through his nostrils, smiled, and uttered: "Y-Yeah..."

Robin smirked. He held his gloved hand out. "Welcome to the Club, Prince Garth."

The Idyllist shook it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A blindingly bright, white landscape.

Wind gently blurred whisps of white mist over huge icy sheets.

Resting on the edge of a broad glacier was a black, metal object at the end of a deep ravine carved into the snow. An impact site.

A young, blonde figure lay beside the yawning door of the collapsed pod. The cold winds bathed her figure and fluttered her strands of golden hair. And yet...her skin didn't turn blue. No sign of frost or hypothermia infecting her body could be detected.

Silence.

Crunching sounds in the snow.

A thin shadow stretched over her.

A beat.

A figure knelt down beside her. A pale-white hand gently shook her shoulder.

Silence.

The hand shook her again.

"Nnnngh...," she stirred. Her blue eyes opened. She gasped and shot up straight.

She saw a stretch of icy water specked with blinding glaciers reaching towards the horizon.

The girl bit her lip.

"Are you cold...?" a voice gently asked from behind her. Gentle but emotionless.

"H-Huh??"

"Are you cold, girl?" the voice stoically asked again.

"I'm....I'm.......," she blinked. She held her hand up. She looked at her fingers. She slowly shook her head. I'm n-not.......I'm not c-cold....."

"............."

Silence.

"Here...."

Something was placed in her hand. A pair of wide-rimmed, black shades.

"What are these for?"

"There's still lots of daylight left," the figure said simply behind her. "Those will protect you from ultraviolet radiation blinding you. There's almost nothing to reflect light here but pure, white snow."

She breathed. "Yes.......Y-Yes....that would make sense. Thank you..." A beat. She looked up. "But....how did you get—"

Fraust's voice ended in mid sentence. Her blue eyes narrowed.

The man looked to be in his late thirties. Perhaps older. His skin was immaculately pale and without a hair. She knew this because he had an awful lot of skin to show for a human in such cold weather. He wore a gray tunic and gray shorts, but just like her...he seemed unaffected by the cold. Rather...he seemed perfectly comfortable.

Fraust couldn't help but gaze at his smooth, bald cranium.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"I......," a beat. "......no....I suppose there's not."

"Do you feel injured?"

"N-No, I'm fine."

He gazed at the pod. He gazed at her again. "If you wish...I have a shelter. I even have food. It's difficult to survive in this environment alone. Even if it is cold...."

Slowly, the bald stranger stood up and walked away...scaling the lengths of the ice cap.

Fraust jumped up to her feet. "W-Wait!"

The man paused. He turned around.

She hugged the shades to her chest, trembling. She swallowed and said: "Do I......scare you?"

The man slowly shook his head. "You do not. Do I scare you?"

"N-No..."

His cold eyes narrowed. "What's your name?"

"I am Fr---," the girl lingered. A beat. She smiled. "Amy. My name is Amy Smith..."

A beat.

The man bore something vaguely resembling smile. Whatever the case, there was something bizarrely trusting that she perceived in him as he said: "You can call me Victor if you like."

He walked on alone through the snow.

Amy...feeling warm and secure for the first time she could remember...eventually followed him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Garth treaded in the water. His eyes were thin.

Over an oceanic trench and besides a ravine, the richly decorated coffin of Princess Tula was being lowered with wreaths of sea orchids into the murky depths. Delegates from all over the seas were present. Their tears mingled with the sea water and created a queer cloudiness that drifted over the melancholy scene.

Garth lowered his eyes...and then his head.

A beat.

H turned around and faced the rock where his seven companions resided within a pocket of air supplied subconsciously by his power.

Raven, Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, Nova'm, and I watched on.

Garth sighed a flurry of bubbles. He gave Atlantis—and Tula—one last glance before swiftly swimming over and joining us on the rock.

"_I used to live my life constantly punishing myself."_

A few words were exchanged.

Garth nodded.

He extended his hands and—eyes glowing—lifted the rock up and drifted it far away from the sea floor.

"_I knew what my mother had done to me as a baby. I knew what curse my family bore."_

Somewhere in a large, cavernous sanctuary...recovering children from the prison joined other human youngsters, running and playing happily around greenhouses and artificial parks.

Acyd sat on a bench, talking to an Atlantean nurse.

She thought about something and looked off towards the distance. She ran a hand through her green hair and smiled hopefully...

"_So I chose a life of loneliness as some sort of recompense for the waste I was and the danger I could be."_

King Orin stood on the balcony of his palace with his wife.

The ruler's mind seemed elsewhere. But when his wife lovingly leaned against him with an embrace, he smiled and kissed her forehead.

Holding her close.

Sighing....

"_Aquaman granted me a life of hope and idealism. Tula showed me what true love meant, and in the end it was her that truly freed me."_

The air-contained rock holding the eight of us floated towards the surface of the ocean.

Beast Boy said something and a good few of us laughed.

Including the pilot....for the moment.

"_But as much as I tried, I couldn't esape my fate. Slizzath's evil lashed out and took away those most precious to me."_

On the North side of the Titans' Tower...where soil actually flourished...a memorial had been constructed. Eight graves were dug and commemorated to the memory of the deceased Renzukka.

Garth knelt and placed a wreath of flowers over the stone inscribed with Tram's name.

He sighed and hung his head.

Robin placed a hand on his shoulder while the rest of us somberly looked on.

"_I have learned from the past indeed...then why am I here? Why am I joining the Titans?"_

Upstairs in the Main Room, most of us were assembled.

Beast Boy was making waffles...the traditional meal for a new member.

Robin said something with a smirk, and we all laughed.

Cyborg the loudest.

I snickered breathily and looked over at Aqualad in the guest-of-honor chair.

He seemed legitimately amused. A warmth covered over him...but I saw the coldness in the corners of his dark eyes. He couldn't be there for long. And I expected such.

After just one helping, he politely excused himself and headed towards the elevator.

"_I figure that...as long as I think of it as their needing __**me**__, then it will be all right. Besides...these people are heroes. And—as much as I may deny it—I am one too."_

Gently, Garth drifted through the waters of the Bay besides the bluffs of the Tower's island. He rested on his back, gently kicking himelf along.

The Sun was setting and it cast rippling waters of gold and amber across the Atlantean and his closed eyes.

Slowly...the boy submerged himself into the depths.

From there...nobody could see his eyes glowing purple.

"_There will be no more denying who and what I truly am. Aqualad was a helpless quest for a new identity. But I only have one identity. And it's as dark as it is virtuous."_

Slowly, schools of fish, plankton, and jellyfish moved in the same current as the drifting Atlantean.

In perfect synchronization from everywhere.

Like an underwater parade.

The boy's dark eyes opened...bright violet. Strong and piercing.

"_I am Tempest. It's all that's left of me. It's all I have to give the Titans. And Poseidon help us all......Tempest will become a person worthy of pride...... free of guilt......and free of fear......"_


	129. Fish Out of Water

**129. Fish Out of Water**

_Dear Diana,_

_Before I first joined the Titans, I was living alone in a one-room, broken down apartment at least five stories above the streets of the most impoverished districts of the City. I worked full time at a funeral home, acting as security and ushering services for families' deceased loved ones. I earned enough money to acquire one day meals...which I had to divide among two days each to remain secure. Every evening there was always an incident of robbery or mugging or domestic violence to deal with on the way back home. I decided to make the best of things by taking the vigilante's role. With Myrkblade by my side, I leapt out into the blackness of night and battled all manners of disturbances. Thieves, murderers, and molesters fell from my wielding of justice. I was 'black eyes', the noirish angel of good. But no matter how hard I worked, I could not meet every manner of horror and evil. I watched people bleed to death from knife attacks I couldn't stop quickly enough. I saw zombies to Dragonflare wander the street, broke and emaciated. Shelters were jam-packed with families from the street, and living conditions were filthy and unsanitary. Once I was sick for an entire month, with no time or money to go see a physician. My life had become the epitome of destitution as much as it had achieved the epitome of valiance. I simply could not be a vigilante on my own...and that was when the Titans and I met._

_In hindsight...I realize that I was so, so very lucky._

_The Titans have a new member. Prince Garth of the Hidden Valley. Batman and the Jusice League probably has him listed under 'Aqualad', as surface dwellers are prone to call him._

_Aqualad has joined us at the tail end of a disastorous chain of events. Truly, it may be unfair to call it 'disastorous'. With the combined actions of Aqualad, the Titans, and Princess Tula of the Poseidonissians, an evil sorcerer by the name of Slizzath was prevented from emerging once again into the undersea kingdom. His evil presence would surely have brought harm to the entire world, especially on the eve of a major political reunification underway in the City of Atlantis. Today, the seas are a safer and more promising place...and King Orin's nation may be a prospective ally to all of us in the future._

_The disaster—of course—embodies itself in the sacrifices made to achieve such a victory. And Aqualad is in the center of all of it. His closest relative, his best friend, and his lifelong love all perished to defeat Slizzath. Yet Aqualad survived. And in his survival, he carries a curse linked to the very evil that snuffed out his companions._

_We all sense a great weight of guilt in him. It manifests itself gloomily in the way he walks. His thinned eyes of dismal darkness. His quiet sighs and brooding pace. The Titans have on their hands a very cold, weathered Tempest._

_And as much as we would desire otherwise...there seems to be no calm after this storm..._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hiiii-YA!!!" Robin countered and swung his fist backhanded. "Wa-taaa!!"

Beast Boy blocked, his teeth gritting. He stepped back across the mat.

Robin paced himself—the soles of his feet dancing—and then he spun in with a high kick. "YAH!!"

Beast Boy ducked. He pounced forward.

Robin expected this. He dove over, swung his glove down, hand-stood off of Beast Boy's head and vaulted himself off.

"Whoaah—AUGH!!" Beast Boy stumbled.

Robin flipped, landed, and spun around with a heavy kick. "YAUGH!!"

"D'OH!" Beast Boy tumbled down across the mat. "Ugh...."

Robin straightened his cape. He looked across the gym to where Aqualad, Starfire, and Nova'm sat. "And that...," he breathed, "...is a taste of the sort of thing you'll see in the field."

Garth blinked.

Starfire cleared her throat. "Assuming—naturally—that Beast Boy was acting the part of a criminal."

"Not a very smooth criminal," Nova'm added.

Beast Boy sat up. His eyes swirled. "Dude...we gotta throw that kid out..."

Nova'm simpered.

"You did quite an awful lot of.........flipping," Garth said.

"That's my expertise. Of course, every Titan has a different way of combatting an attacker," Robin said.

Starfire held a finger up. "Robin is a prime example of how to eliminate an enemy in absence of powers."

"Really now...," Garth's white on black eyes narrowed. "Just why're you holding back, Robin?"

"I never hold back," Robin smirked. "What I do is my gift."

"So......you mean you don't have any superpower?" Garth asked.

"He's like an ultra-cool, handicapped hero," Nova'm said.

Robin glared from afar, his arms crossed.

Nova'm sweatdropped. "Um....'handicapped' as in very handy at capping off bad guys?"

"He is human," Starfire said. "All of his abilities are learned."

"Okay...," Garth nodded. "So you're like any other surface dweller..."

Robin smirked. "Now that's a matter of opinion."

Garth glanced at the still-dizzy Beast Boy. "And he's acting like any other surface dweller attacker."

"Precisely."

"What if he had a weapon?"

"Good point. B.B. Get up again."

"Another round?? No can do, dude!"

"Why not??"

"I'm embarrassed enough as it is!! You wanna teach Aqualad stuff, then have him come in there and spar with you!"

"Eep!" Starfire remarked.

Garth's eyes twisted. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Beast Boy simpered. He scratched his neck. "Just that...sparring with Robin is like trying to resist gravity."

"I can resist gravity," Nova'm blinked.

Starfire thwapped his shoulder.

"Ow!! Kory!!"

"X'Hal! You are liken unto a little brother!"

"I thought that was a good thing!"

"Er...yes well....at this present moment it is not!"

Robin cleared his throat. He gestured: "Aqualad, if you'd like...I can train you for street combat. Fighting thugs on dry land is very different from underwater battle."

"I've had my fair share of fist-fighting outside of the water," Garth said. "And without using my magical powers. I think I'm pretty much set."

"I don't think you are," Robin said.

Garth raised an eyebrow.

"Here on the surface, you've got all manners of dangers to deal with. I'm sure the underwater world is more than enough to tackle...but that's a completely different world entirely. I have every bit of confidence in you, Aqualad...but even for a veteran hero such as yourself it's important to be _prepared......_"

Silence.

Nova'm and Starfire looked at Garth.

A beat.

"Alright, Robin...," Garth stood up and marched over towards the mat with fists raised. He smirked. "Prepare me..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg's fingers typed away to the console of the Tower's computer in the Main Room.

He finished a string of alphanumerics and hit 'enter'.

Beep!

'_Net Five Through Eight operating at efficient parameters. Initializing system scan of primary structure. Estimated time till completion, thirty-eight minutes."_

Cyborg sighed and leaned back in the office chair with a bowl of pretzels. He yawned, his human eye thin. "Keeping our children safe...." He nonchalantly tossed the snack food into his mouth.

A swishing sound announced the opening of elevator doors. Another swishing sound announced Raven's trailing cloak.

"What are you up to?" she droned.

Cyborg munched on a pretzel. "Performing a system diagnostic scan on the Tower's security." He munched on another.

Raven thinned her eyes. "Glad to see you tackling such strenuous work."

"You and me both, cutie."

FLASH!!!

The next handful of pretzels exploded in the android's palm.

POP!!

A beat. He blinked...then smiled and bent his head back to look at Raven upside down. "Nice one, Rae."

"My aim is deadly...," she uttered. She walked around the counter of the kitchen unit. "Remember that the next time you try and fix your zipper."

"I don't have a zipper."

"Fancy that," she got out a mug from a cabinet.

"And just what are YOU up to?"

"Herbal tea..," she uttered, gathering the items necessary. "It always relaxes me following meditation."

"I thought you were in your room all morning."

"I was."

"Oh......so that's what you do in that place all day!" Cyborg remarked.

Raven looked up, blinking. "Why...what did you think I do?"

Cyborg smiled to himself and ate another pretzel.

The dark girl shook her head. "You're wyrd."

"Proud of it."

Raven filled her mug. She spoke: "How is Aqualad fairing along?"

"Don't know," Cyborg munched. "Robin's had his hands full of the new-newbie all day."

"Really....with what?"

"They're in the gym. Bet they're sparring by now."

"Lovely...," Raven heated her tea. "Does Robin want to kill _all_ of our newcomers?"

"It's not that bad, Rae," Cyborg smirked. "Remember the first time Robin and Noir went at it?"

"I'd rather not..."

"Heheheh...man oh man...I'd never imagined the gym mat catching on fire."

"Physics leaves no room for the vigilante at heart," Raven said. "I think we can all appreciate Noir for his...patience."

Cyborg munched. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Raven leaned against the counter and gestured. "Noir had what can honestly be described as a rough experience in joining us. If Robin's training didn't nearly bust his skull, then there was the difficulty with memorizing the layout of this city for special missions and the constant pestering by Beast Boy and—well—you...."

"Heh."

"There were a few weeks when Noir faced nothing but the pure chaos and perplexity of becoming a new Titan. He took it all in remarkably—both from the ugly villains of this City and from his new companions' standards. By the time he and Beast Boy went on that mission to Westhaven, Noir had finally gotten the hang of things."

"That's also the time you developed a crush on him....," Cyborg raised his human eyebrow. "Right?"

Raven performed a long-winded, sluggish rolling of her eyes. "I did not have a crush on him...," she breathily spelled out.

"Hey...," Cyborg shrugged. "It's allright that you did! He was new and fresh and...well...Noir! I'm frankly surprised that you and Star didn't gobble him up the first week he was here! Heh...I'm surprised that you girls aren't trying to sweep Aqualad off his feet now that he's with us!"

Raven's eyes were firm as she said: "Given the circumstances—even if we were under that inclination—would it truly be appropriate given the circumstances?"

Cyborg had no response to that....until after an uncomfortable half-minute of silence later. He rubbed his head, sighed, and said: "Come on, Rae....you gotta lighten up a bit."

"I don't do 'lighten up'," Raven droned. She acquired her steaming mug of tea and walked over to a reading chair behind Cyborg to sit down. "What's happened to Prince Garth as of late has been an unfortunate thing. He's had to deal with the deaths of Tram, Ivan, and Tula...not to mention the fact that he's banished from the Atlantean seas for the next foreseeable future. Given those circumstances....if I was in his place I would be more than capable of handling my emotions with meditation. But in Garth's case, the best way he can survive pain is to escape from it. To punish himself by living a hermit's life. Now he can do neither. He's stuck with us and we're stuck with him. However he plans to deal with the recent tragedies in his life is to deal with them in our presence. I don't know about you, but it does not look to be a pleasant situation."

"Well if you're feeling paranoid, you're not alone...to tell the truth," Cyborg relented. He gestured towards the flashing icons on the computer screen as the program went through its system check. "I've been doing nothing but security screenings since we came back from the seas. Guess I can't get the image of that glass dome around Atlantis cracking open and letting the water rush in like all get out."

"For emotional people, I suppose obsessive tasks keep the mind off of traumatic things," Raven sipped from her tea. "It's healthy."

A beat.

Cyborg leaned over the back of his chair and smirked. "Ya know, Raven...if you were a psychologist, I'd pay you in diamonds."

Raven lowered her mug and looked up. She knew where this was going. "And where would you get these diamonds, pray tell?"

Cyborg smirked. "Straight out of my---"

"But you don't have one...," she pointed.

"Yeah....well....I'll find someone else's!!"

"Oh, please," she rolled her eyes and sipped again.

"How about Beast Boy's?! I'd drag him in here and make you watch! How'd you like that?"

"Don't make me destroy you."

A beat.

"You really think Aqualad's gonna have a tough time?" Cyborg asked.

"You're asking the psychologist?"

"I'm asking Raven."

She leaned back in her chair, holding the tea mug up daintily.

"Aqualad already has had a 'tough time'," she said. "If he's looking for a chance to recover....if we're _all_ looking for him to recover, then the Titans aren't right for him."

"Then just what is?"

Raven looked at him. "I don't think that's the issue here. At least, it shouldn't be."

"How so?"

"Aqualad's here to help out the Titans," Raven said. "That's what Titans do. We support each other and stick together. Titans have to purposes. The first and foremost is to protect society. The second is to protect each other. Oftentimes, these two purposes merge into a confusing one. But—safe to say—the second purpose tends to get too much focus at times. And when that happens...the first purpose—to protect society—gets into question and in such an occasion it's important to sit back and think if the reason why the second purpose became so inflated was legitimate or not."

"We didn't accept Aqualad in out of pity," Cyborg frowned. A beat. He blinked. "D-Did we?"

"I know I didn't," Raven sipped.

"He's an imporant asset to the team!" Cyborg gestured. "I mean...this City is a Bay Town. We need him to get a jump on the drug trafficking arenas and the sewer hideouts of criminals and all other stuff around the water ways. The Titans must make good on the land, sea, and air. And so far...we've done well on all parts except the 'sea' one. Granted, Noir does a good job running on water and the T-Sub....," Cyborg winced at having to spell that word out, "...that ship was awesome. But nothing matches Aqualad's expertise. I mean, it's all in his name! And now that we realize he has this....erm....black magic fountain-controlling stuff...there's no telling what he can do! I mean...he's like the next wildcard! Heh!"

"But unlike our last wildcard...," Raven pointed. "There is a difference of self-confidence."

"Really?" Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "You sense that in him, Raven?"

She stared. "And you don't?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWUMP!!!

Garth winced as he fell down on the mat, facing up. He inhaled the breath back into his shocked lungs and stared at the gym ceiling.

Starfire and Nova'm bit their lips.

Beast Boy scratched the back of his head.

Robin stood over Garth...having barely broken a sweat. "Okay....," he sighed. "That's the fourth time now. Try slowing down, Aqualad. Concentrate. Think of where I'm trying to strike and counter me."

"How can I slow down??" Garth stood up, panting. "You're way too fast!! It's like your fists are moving a mile-a-minute!"

"Actually...," Robin simpered. "I was h-holding back.....some...."

"..........," Garth blinked.

Beast Boy cleared his throat. He smiled exuberantly and uttered: "Hey! I know! How about we get out those giant, padded ear-swab looking combat tools! Ya know...like they used to joust with in American Gladiators??"

Garth and Robin glared his way.

The changeling simpered and stepped back. "Or...just pretend I wasn't born so that I didn't just say that...heheheh..."

Nova'm leaned in to Starfire's ear. "Beast Boy makes me feel good."

She nodded.

Garth looked over at Robin. "One more round....."

"You sure you don't need a brea—"

"One more round!" Garth swung his fists into a ready position. "I-I'm just rusty...I can handle this...I can handle you. Okay?"

A beat.

Robin sighed and held up his gloved fists. "Allright then...let's try one more time---"

"And don't _hold back_!" Garth said.

Robin blinked under his eyemask. "Now look, Aqualad—"

"Don't insult me!!" Garth charged forward. "Rrrrrrrghhh!!!" he swung his fist.

Robin gasped. He swiftly stepped back, raised a gloved hand, deflected Garth's punch, hooked his forearm around the Atlantean's shoulder, pulled inward, flipped his body over Garth's back, twirled on descent, planted his knees on the mat, gritted his teeth, used his lower body as a fulcrum, tensed his upper body, and---

"YAUGH!!" flipped Garth over him.

SWIIIISH-WHUMP!!!

All in a span of four seconds....

"Nnnghhh..," Garth groaned. He slowly sat up with some strain.

"That....," Robin dusted his gloves off. "....is 'not holding back'." He narrowed his eyemask and pointed. "You need to train, Garth. Not because I want to wail on your ass any more...but because I don't want you getting hurt..."

At those last few words, Garth glanced over and frowned. His dark eyes were narrow. He stood straight up, adjusted his wetsuit, and marched towards the doors.

"Dude....wh-where're you going?" Beast Boy asked.

"Where else?" Garth griped. "To go dunk my head in the Bay."

He stomped out of there...and was gone.

A beat.

"I do not believe....," Starfire said, "...that he is afraid of being hurt."

Robin sighed and ran a hand through his spikey black hair. "Tell me about it..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!!

I slashed Myrkblade forward.

The blades of sawgrass danced in the late morning light.

I stepped back, coiled my limbs, and sprang sideways into a horizontal swipe of my blade.

SWIIIIISH!!!

Smoke danced out from underneath my shades.

Clad in combat fatigues, I twirled about and went into an awkward pose with my weapon. I meditated...coursing murk through my arms and into the length of the sword. I held my breath, then sank forward in a jab.

More blades danced. Sand rippled on the beach beyond.

_I missed doing this......_

Smiling, I twirled Myrkblade, stepped back, spun myself around, and prepared to charge up a monumental swing--

"Whoah!!" Garth's body flinched in the path of my blade.

"!!!!!!!!"

I froze in mid-swing....something only constant meditation like this could have trained me to do.

The smoke-flickering sword ended right at the new Titan's neck.

He sweatdropped.

I simpered.

I stepped back, cleared my throat, and extinguished the dancing powers of Construction and Destruction around Myrkblade. CHIIIING!! I sheathed it, took a breath, and waved.

Garth shakily waved back and swallowed nervously. "H-Hello....you come here often?"

I shrugged.

"Just what were you......swinging at anyways?"

"......."

Garth looked around at the sawgrass, rock bluffs, sand, shoreline. "Just swinging, eh?"

I nodded with a wyrd smile.

"Well, don't mind me. Swing away...," he said. That done, he simply headed for the shoreline.

I couldn't help it. I watched him.

The Atlantean walked effortlessly against the waves of the surf and dove in.

SPLASH!!!

A few seconds later....a half minute later....a minute....two...

SPLOOSH!!!

He came back from the shallow depths, tossed his wet black hair out from his eyes, and sighed in satisfaction.

"I missed doing this...," he said.

I smirked...

He treaded water in a circle. "So...what's your name again? Necrid? Noir? Noir! That's it...my bad, Noir..."

I held an 'okay'sign and unsheathed Myrkblade. CHIIIING!! I took a breath...I concentrated my power into the blade and began slowly exercising again.

"Sorry I had to move in to the Tower," he said.

I glanced at him curiously.

"You're no longer the baby of the household," he smiled.

I chuckled breathily and continued with my exercise.

He dove under again. A minute later, he came back. He seemed more depressed than before.

I couldn't help but glance at him through my peripheral vision while going on with my sword maneuvers and poses.

Silence.....

_Wait for it..._

Silence..........

_Wait for it..._

Silence..................."I just don't understand...ya know?"

_Ah-HA!_

I paused in the middle of my meditation and paid attention to him.

"I mean...everyone should know that I kick ass, right?" Garth released. He swam on his back and sighed into the clouds. "I beat up Trident really good the first time all of us met. And then when Mist and his crew attacked the Tower..."

I nodded. _I almost wish I was there._

"I can be pretty strong," Garth frowned. "I don't know what Robin's trying to do with his whole training thing, but it's just making me look stupid!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"I mean...that guy's insane! Who could possibly be fast enough to combat him??"

I whistled innocently.

Garth looked at me.

I cleared my throat and motioned for him to move along.

He trailed a suspicious, dark eye on me and continued: "If we were underwater....I'd so teach him a thing or two."

I slowly balanced myself in an awkward pose with Myrkblade.

"But........," Garth sighed. "He....He's right......what's to fight underwater? I can't go underwater. Not while I'm banished...."

I was silent. I listened to him while slowly bending my limbs and moving about in impossible exercise.

"If Robin...a kid with no powers...could finish me in four seconds flat...then how good can I measure up to someone like Cyborg? Or Starfire? Or any of you guys?"

I glanced at him.

Garth's dark eyes closed. He took a breath with his half-submerged shoulder gills and spoke: "I just...I just don't understand why you people invited me on your team. I was glad at first...because I needed a home. But as much as I need a home, you people need a Titan. Wh-Where's the fair exchange in that? This place provides me with a shelter from the banished waters around it...and I can't even land a punch..."

".......," I looked off past the Bay...the Suspension Bridge...the galaxy....

"I tell you what, Noir...it doesn't look good," Garth said, drifting. "It feels good, but it doesn't look good at all." He glanced over at me. "You had that sword and smoke-stuff before becoming a Titan, right?"

I nodded.

"Bet you had no trouble fitting in."

I simpered.

"Actually, he suffered two concussions in a row and once we thought he was going into a coma," said Raven's voice.

I blushed at that. I turned and watched as the dark girl stepped onto the beach.

Garth treaded water upright. "Good morning to you."

"It depends," Raven came to a stop and planted her hands on her hips. "How are you feeling?"

"Beast Boy tells me you're not one to be concerned about feelings," Garth said with a suspicious look.

Raven replied: "Beast Boy has suffered at least nine permanent bruises since he first ever tried talking to me." She leaned her head to the side. "I doubt he's gotten close enough to know enough about my 'concerns'."

"Did Robin send you out to coach me or something?" Garth asked.

I glanced between the two.

"No," Raven blinked. "I sent myself. I think it would help you to know a few things."

"Like what?"

"Robin can be extreme sometimes. He trains people with near-Spartan ferocity and expects them to be ready to save the world tomorrow."

"Tell me about it," Garth swam over and sat in the shallow surf. "Did he do the same thing to you?"

"Actually, I'm one of the Titans' two founding members," Raven said simply. "When Robin and I met, I was more concerned about my ability to _destroy_ the world."

"Interesting....," Garth leaned his head to the side. "But what does this have to do with me?"

"If I'm not mistaken...you just got done saving a world already," Raven said. "Your world. A world you were born in...a world you were raised in...a world where you proved your heroic abilities."

"A world where I can't return to...," Garth said. He rested his folded arms on his knees and looked off down the beach.

Raven nodded. "Indeed. And now that you're in this world, it would be wrong of us to assume you capable of understanding the planet surface overnight...as much as we have wishful thinking."

"Yeah...," Garth scratched his head. "I think Robin's the dreamer of your group."

"_Our_ group."

"Whatever," Garth sighed. "What I mean to say is...you seem understanding of my awkwardness here and all, but Robin wants to make a soldier out of me. Well...I was a soldier once, but I was self-employed and—um—underwater then."

"Robin isn't quite as narrow-minded as he seems."

"What, you mean he's more so?" Garth asked.

I chuckled breathily at that.

Raven glared.

I cleared my throat and stood quietly.

Raven looked at Garth. "When Starfire joined our group, she was unimaginably incompatible with the nature and functions of Earth. She was an extraterrestrial full of questions, full of confusion, and full of helplessness. To be honest...Cyborg, Beast Boy, and I wanted to vote her out."

My jaw dropped.

She merely nodded. "It's true. Starfire seemed to be merely a burden. None of us wanted to give her the attention she needed to...'adapt'. It was an utter calamity."

"Why'd you all keep her, then?"

"Because while the rest of us were dubious...Robin didn't give up on her," Raven said. "He hung out with Starfire. He taught her all the idiosyncracies that she perceived in our culture. From table manners to currency to public etiquette to politics. They had extensive talks about the silliest and most ridiculous things. Like teacher and student. Robin even forewent his own training and criminal investigations to assist in her induction. He did it because he saw the power and potential in her. He knew that—when properly grounded—Starfire would be a Titan warrior to contend with. And he was right. Today, Starfire is quite possibly the most powerful Titan and strongest fighter amongst us. She is also the most reliable and most trust worthy...and on the side of things, she and Robin have an inseperable bond that helps hold this team together."

I smiled, shaking my head. I had never heard it explained that way before...

_Maybe I still am a newby..._

Raven strolled a few steps towards the surface and added: "Robin may be a real pain in the butt right now, Aqualad. But he's pushing you for a purpose. He may be short, egotistical, and overbearing...but he's still the leader of the Titans and none of us ever seem to understand where he's going until he takes us there and impresses us. I'm sure that whatever he has in mind for you—however ambiguous—is still a way to point you in the right path."

"The right path to what?" Garth sighed. "I thought I had power and potential...but Robin's showed me flat-out that they mean nothing in this environment." He looked into the surf somberly. "I just don't think I'm here for the right reason. I feel like....like....like a seventh wheel."

".........," Raven stared.

I bit my lip....then my communicator vibrated.

"????" Raven ran a hand to a pocket under her robe. Hers was vibrating too.

The New Titan didn't have his yet. He stood up in the water.

"What's going on??"

"Trouble....," Raven stared at the device. "...in the downtown."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BOOM!!!!

The brick wall to a bank blew open with flame and smoke.

Debris flew, raining down on the police barricade formed in a semi-circle around the building.

Officers in the City Street flinched behind squad cars, holding arms over their heads.

"Heads up!!"

"Ugh!!"

"Watch out!!"

Nearly a dozen armed men dashed out onto the City street. Half of them were hoisting money bags over their shoulders. And the other half--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Uzzi fire streaked over the asphalt, pelting the squad vehicles.

The cops hid behind the aluminum bodies.

PING!!! PING!! CLANG!!

"Return fire!!"

BANG!! BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!

One crook fell, clutching his ankle and groaning.

The others focused fire on the center of the barricade and overwhelmed the cops there...forming a hole in the defense.

"Let 'em have it!!'

"Send for backup!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEEECH-VROOOOOOM!!!!

The T-Car rounded a corner. It throttled down into the heart of the City's central district.

Inside, Cyborg gripped tightly to the wheels.

Raven sat in the front passenger's seat, reading off of the dashboard's computer. "We're closing in. The firefight is five blocks away. To the right."

"Unless they're out of bullets by now," Cyborg muttered. He looked in the rear view mirror. "How're you doing back there, Flipper?"

"Uhm...," Garth fidgeted. "What exactly is this synthetic leather strap supposed to do?"

"Er...that's a seatbelt. You're supposed to have it on ya."

"What for?"

"To keep you safe when we crash."

Garth's eyes widened. "You intend on wrecking this vehicle??"

Cyborg's human eye widened too. "You mean you haven't been buckled in all this time??"

"'Buckled'???"

"Jeez...," Cyborg winced. "We should have left him back at the Tower with Nova'm!"

"Cyborg....."

"What??" he glanced at Rae.

"........," she pointed. "We're at the turn."

"Huh??" Cyborg snapped. "Aw shit!! Hang on!!!"

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!

The T-Car nearly spun as it wildly swerved into a turn and veered down the street heading east.

"Whew! Prompt navigator. Gotta love you, Rae."

"Whatever."

Cyborg glanced back again. "No hard feelings, eh Aqualad?"

".............," Garth blinked. He was lying upside down between the seats. "I think I finally understand the importance of being 'buckled'."

_"Cyborg! Raven! What's your location?"_

Raven held up her communicator. "Heading due east to the site on Vicksburg Street."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin sat perched on a rooftop over the battle.

"We're here," he said into the communicator. "And the gunfight is out of control!!"

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred to a stop beside him, holding Myrkblade.

He glanced at me slightly through the edge of his mask. "Noir and I can't wait for you guys on this one. We have to dive in before anyone else gets hurt."

_"Just look after yourselves."_

"Yeah...."

Robin holstered the communicator and whipped out a grappling hook.

"Got anything to say against immediate action, Noir?"

"........."

"Thought so." POW!!! Robin shot his grappling hook and swung out onto the scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!!

The lead thug took out the windshield of a squad car from long range with his pistol.

B-BANG!! BANG!!

"Hahaha!! These guys are too weak! Hey Karl! Think I should shirt them the bird while I'm at it??"

WHAM!!! Robin swung into him.

"OOOF!!" the thug tumbled into the front of the bank building. THUD!!

The others looked over and gasped.

"The Teen Titans!!"

Robin extended his staff. Snnkkt!! "Thanks," he smirked. SWOOOSH!! He dove in. "RAAAUGH!!"

WHAM!!! He sent his staff flying across the chin of one thug, pivoted, and slammed the blunt end of it into another crook's chest. WHUD!!

"Smoke him!!!" the other gunmen shouted. They all aimed their pistols and uzzis.

BLAM!! BL-BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred in, anchored myself in front of them, and spun Myrkblade in the blink of an eye. CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!! I deflected the bullets. Smoke danced under my shades. I teleported forward, materialized between two crooks, and slashed the broadside of Myrkblade in a circle underneath me, tripping them both. TH-THWUMP!!!

In the meantime, Robin was plowing through two more thugs. THWACK! SLAM!!

The ones left over stumbled back with guns raised.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Starbolts pelted around them, knocking a few of the guns out of their grip. They looked up.

Starfire flew down at them. Her teeth grit. Her eyes glowed.

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

Green eyebeams tore through their ranks. The ground split open, shaking the street's foundation.

"Augh!!" one of the loot-holders fell down on his rear, dropping the heavy money bags. While he dizzily groaned, a green mouse scampered in from a gutter and perched on his belly. The thug eyed the mouse curiously. The mouse twitched its whiskers.....squeaked...then morphed into a huge gorilla.

Crunch!!

"Ughhhh!!!" the thug twitched as the breath left him.

"Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!" Sitting on the man, the emerald primate effortlessly lifted both money bags in each of its paws and flung them at the crowd of thieves.

SMACK!! CRASH!!!

Two other thugs fell from the exploding money bags. The ones leftover shouted and let loose a birrage of uzzi fire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Starfire and a green cheetah dashed over behind a remotely parked van while Robin and I strategized a way to attack on the flank.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Looks like the party's going on without us," Cyborg said as he saw the upcoming street battle through the windshield.

"I don't like parties...," Raven said.

"Don't worry...we're here to crash it!!"

Garth finally sat up straight in the back. "Crash??" he remarked. He parted his messed up hair. "Is now the time for 'buckling'?"

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Cyborg laughed as he slammed on the brakes. SCREEEECH!! "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Starfire!!" He parked the car harshly, kicked his door open, and rushed out. "Teen Titans! Go!!"

Raven teleported out.

"Hey! Wait!!" Garth stumbled into the front seats and fell out the open doors. "Ooof!!"

Raven floated upwards with a protective shield while Cyborg readied a sonic cannon. "Hey! Punks!! Listen and learn!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!

Garth ran up, huffing and puffing. "What do I do??"

"You just stay around here and keep safe for now," Cyborg said, lost in the moment.

"But—"

"Don't worry! We can handle this!!" he ran forward with his titanium fists clenched. "Raven! Come on!"

Garth winced. He looked up at Raven.

"...........," the dark girl glanced at him before quickly hovering into action.

BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

ZAAAAAAP!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

FLAAAASH!!!

Garth stood still on the sidewalk.

He watched.

He blinked.

His arms dangled at his sides.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

CLANG!!!

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

FLASH!! FL-FLASH!!!

ZAP!!!

Garth took a deep breath.

He rested a hand to his hip and boredly leaned to the side.

His eyes were thin.

He tongued the inside of his cheek.

SM-SMACK!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!

FLASH!!!!

Garth groaned and tossed his arms.

"This is hopeless...," he exhaled.

SMACK!! "AUGH!!!" SLAM!!! Beast Boy's body fell hard onto the sidewalk.

Garth gasped. "Beast Boy!!!" He rushed over to his side. "Are you alright?"

"Urghhh...," Beast Boy groaned. "I wonder if there's gonna be blood in my throw-up this time?"

A cocking sound.

Garth looked up.

An angry, panting thug reloaded his pistol and marched over.

Garth frowned. With thin eyes of darkness, he stomped towards the thug.

The gunman raised his pistol.

Garth kept incoming.

The gunman pointed the weapon at the teen's chest.

Garth kept marching, regardless.

Floating nearby, Starfire caught sight of this and gasped. "Aqualad!!!" she zoomed down in a green streak.

The gunman fired. "BLAM!!!"

SWOOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!! Starfire shoved Garth and herself out of the way of the bullet. The two heroes collapsed in the front display of a garden shop.

"Umfff!!" Garth grunted. He shook his head. "Starfire?!?! What are you—"

"The man had a gun, Aqualad!! He could have damaged you!!"

"A gun??"

"Terran weapon," Starfire explained. "Much like the magical tridents of Atlantis, only they launch ballistics instead of energy bla—"

"Look!" Garth pointed behind her.

The both glanced.

The thug came around the store display and pointed the pistols at their forms.

The two flinched.

SWOOOOOOSH!! I blurred in out of nowhere with a slash of Myrkblade.

CRACK!!!! The pistol shattered into halves in the man's hand.

"Augh!!" he stumbled back.

I slammed the hilt of Myrkblade into his chest.

He bent over from the blow.

I twirled and slapped his back with the broadside of my weapon.

"OOF!!" the man fell down chest first...out cold.

I took a deep breath and looked over through my shades.

Starfire blinked.

I motioned for her and dashed back into the chaotic battle.

Starfire nodded and flew out.

Garth stumbled to his feet. "Wait---!"

The Tamaranian gestured back at him. "Stay clear of hazards!!" SWOOOSH!! She streaked into battle.

FLASH!! FLASH!! FLASH!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

ZAAAAAAP!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

Garth sighed. He jogged out onto the sidewalk and observed the battle.

Starfire was flying everywhere.

I was blurring everywhere.

Raven was floating everywhere.

Cyborg was smashing everywhere.

Beast Boy was lying on the ground....

And Robin was in the foreground, swinging his staff and beating back two thugs at once. The goons looked like they could overwhelm the Boy Wonder at any second. Inevitably, Robin would need assistance.

And Garth found it as the perfect opportunity to make a good impression.

"I've gotta help out...," he muttered to himself. He nervously wrung his hands and looked all around. "There's gotta be some water around here somewhere." He took a deep breath and extended both hands out. His eyes flickered violet. The digits of his fingers pulsed purple. "Come on..." He waved his hands across the cityscape from afar. "Come on........!!!!" He gasped as his magic sensed something. "There!!"

Garth's hands were pointed at a fire hydrant a good twenty feet away.

"There's some water in that thing!! Now.....nghhhhhh!!" he concentrated as he fisted his hands and focused in on the liquid before him. He pulled his hand up...but felt an incalculable strain. "Rghhhh....what....gives?!?!"

The fire hydrant started to shake and vibrate.

Garth wrenched to hands together and intensified the purple magic. "It won't....let loose...the water!! Why's it being....so.......st-stubborn?!?! NghhhhhhhhRAAAAAH!!!"

CRUMBLE!!!!!!!

WRKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!

The fire hydrant lifted up by fifteen feet. Consequently the water pipe that it was attached to ripped upwards through the asphalt and parted the street in a growing mountain ridge of concrete and dirty debris that streamed over......and under the police barricade.

CRASH!! CRASH!!! "WAAAAH!!!" Two police cars and an officer went flying in opposite directions.

Garth gasped. "Neptune damn!!!" He released his magical 'grip' too quickly.

CRAAACK!!!!

The pipe burst down the center. Water spewed out in a freakish torrent and cascaded Robin's way.

"All right!!!" Robin held the thug leader up by the collar and frowned in his face. "Listen up, creep! You're going to tell me who hired you or else I'm gonna—ACK!!!!" The water slipped under the Boy Wonder's boots and tripped him into the thug's chest. "OOF!!!" The two tumbled across the sidewalk like passionate lovers while the water rippled down the street and swept up a police detective. The detective floated down the street, flailing his arms and crying for help. Two patrolman rushed after him, hands outstretched.

Garth winced.

The gunfight was over.

Water trickled and splashed everywhere.

The police, the Titans, and even a few of the captured thugs stared the Atlantean's way. "....................."

Garth blushed. He walked backwards and tried to hide behind a streetlamp.

Beast Boy stood up. He took one look at the shattered street, running water, and floating detective. "Um....," he sweatdropped...then simpered. "Hey!! Not bad for a first day!!" he patted Garth's back. "Beginner's luck, huh?"

Garth frowned down at him.

".........," Beast Boy smiled nervously. "Eheheheh....I-I think I'll be going back to lie down on the sidewalk now..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Prison vans carted off the crooks.

The money bags were recovered.

Emergency crew started taping off the area.

The Titans gathered around the T-Car a few meters down the road where an alleyway opened into an artificial water canal running through the northern end of the Central District. Cyborg and Beast Boy leaned against the side of the car together. Raven and Robin stood behind it. Starfire sat cross-legged on the hood next to me and a streetlamp.

Garth seemed alone. His feet were in the side of the street. He folded his arms and looked away from us.

After a sigh, he glanced over his shoulder and said: "Look...I saw Beast Boy hit the ground and I couldn't let that one creep get to him. And then when I saw Robin tackling those two crooks at once....well...I had to do something! How can I just stand idly by while you all put your lives at stake?!"

"We weren't putting our lives at stake," Robin said.

"We had a handle on it," Cyborg said. "This was a bank heist. It happens all the time in this City! It's normal business!"

Garth spun around, his dark eyes wide. "You mean that sort of chaos happens all the time here?!?"

"Indeed, it is most trivial....and unfortunate all the same," Starfire nodded.

"It's been a boring week, actually!" Beast Boy grinned. "Man, I envy you. We had a bomb threat and a hijacked airliner the very _day_ that I joined!"

"Yes...that was quite enjoyable...," Raven muttered.

Beast Boy burned red.

"Then if it was routine...why didn't you let me fight by your side??" Garth asked.

"We had it covered. We didn't need you."

Garth frowned. "You didn't need dead weight. That's what you mean!"

Cyborg's human eye twisted. He held a hand up. "Now wait just a damn second—"

"I'm not really a Titan am I?? I'm just some annoying, pointy sea urchin in the way!!"

"That's not what I meant, man! And you know it!"

"No! I don't know it!" Garth pointed. "I know nothing about this place! The only blasted thing I do know is that the only times you guys actually let me lend a hand is when I'm bound to do something screwy! Why can't you trust me??"

"But we do trust you, Aqualad," Starfire clasped her hands together and expressed a sincere face. "It is only that you are not fully ready."

"Meaning...."

"Like I said earlier," Robin gestured. "You need training. We know this place is really exotic and new...especially for an Atlantean. But you have talents, Garth. You have power that we can't use without!"

"........," Garth looked at Raven.

Raven was silent.

Garth looked at Robin again. He grumbled: "Yeah? Well I don't believe it."

"Then what do you believe, dude?" Beast Boy uttered.

Garth folded his arms and looked away. "I don't believe you need me at all. At one time you did, but that was on my side of the spectrum. Now that we're not undersea and we don't have Trident or some other Atlantean creep to deal with...the best I am is a fish out of water. What's to believe in that?"

"Garth, you just have to realize that things take time—"Robin began.

Garth interrupted: "Like it took any time for you to ask me into your Tower??" Garth pointed towards the afternoon horizon where the Bay was. "That place is the only home I have now! Everything I've been through has tossed me in that place!! I have nowhere else to go!! You knew that!! You invited me along with the excuse that I was becoming a Titan when all I really am is your poor, tragic house-guest!!"

I whistled without looking.

Garth frowned at me. "What? Think I'm overreacting?"

I looked up boredly at him.

"Not all of us are perfect little soldiers like you, Noir!! Some of us have a voice to talk back with!!"

I clenched my fists.

Raven held a hand out in front of me. I had no idea how she got there all of the sudden...

"Garth...control your emotions," Raven said, looking over at the irate Atlantean. "Be patient. You'll have your time to improve your knack for dry-land battles. Sooner than you think, what happened this afternoon will be but a fading memory—"

"Listen to yourself!" Garth shook his head and sighed. "You're treating me like some kid! Heck...I guess I can't blame you. Any surface-dwelling kid of even an _infantile_ age could have grounded a crook better than I have!"

Raven was about to say something else when suddenly Robin walked past her and faced Garth up close. "You know what Aqualad? Ignore what Raven said. Forget about controlling your emotions. Cuz you're right. We're treating you like a baby. But we have a damn good reason to."

Cyborg bit his lip. "Um...."

"Dude??" Beast Boy tapped Robin's shoulder.

The Boy Wonder batted the changeling's hand away without looking. He frowned at the Atlantean. "Ever since you got here, Aqualad...you've been nothing but a big whiny infant. If you can't be around enough water, you cry that we're starving you. If you have too much water, you cry that we're pampering you. When are you gonna be satisfied?"

"What's this all about??" Garth narrowed his eyes.

Robin walked up to him and planted his hands on his hips. "You really are a Prince, aren't you?? Expecting everything served before you?? Well welcome to the real world, Aqualad. This is the place where you fight hard to become something great. And ever since we've inducted you, you haven't been fighting hard!!"

"Only because you guys haven't let me!!" Garth barked back.

"Ha!! Some excuse that is!!" Robin smirked and folded his arms. "You only ruin yourself, Aqualad. I'd imagine that after all you've been through, you would be showing a little more guts!"

Garth glared. His fists clenched. "You're walking a thin line...man..."

"Am I now?? What are you going to do to me? You can't even lift a damn finger against me in training!! You try and stop a bunch of crooks and end up sending our collateral damage factor a mile high and nearly hurting the law enforcement here!! You're a total wreck, Aqualad!!"

My lips parted.

Raven's eyes were wide.

Starfire had her hands over her mouth.

And Robin went on: "You know what I think? I think it's that curse that's been on your family for generations!! You've waken up to the fact that you're nothing but a demon's half-spawn and it's gnawing at your potential!!"

Garth's teeth showed. "Shut up...."

"Why should I???" Robin was nose-to-nose with the Atlantean. "I'm the leader and you're my responsibility!! You're the young pup that landed in my team and already I can see that you're nothing but a has-been!! Why on earth would Tula ever give her life just to burden us with you?!?"

Garth's eyes exploded. He let out a shout and socked Robin hard in the jaw.

WHAM!!!

Robin teetered back.

"HOW DARE YOU?!?!" Garth growled. He pounced. "RAAAAUGH!!!"

The Titans gasped and parted ways as Robin and Garth tumbled across the top of the T-Car and collapsed onto the other side. After a fit of wrestling, Garth kicked Robin off of him. The Atlantean got up and charged the Boy Wonder.

"Tula gave her life to save me and all of Atlantis!! Even when I loved her to the bottom of my heart!!" Garth charged in with a fist which Robin ducked and sidestepped. "How dare you insult the sacrifice that she made?!?!?"

Robin jumped back, whipped out his staff, and spun it. He motioned with his free hand. "Some sacrifice!! You can't even hit me!!"

"RAAAAUGH!!" Garth charged. He swung his right fist.

Robin blocked it with pure metal.

Garth swung his left fist.

Robin spun his staff and met it.

"YAAUGH!!" Garth shouted and lifted his foot.

WHUMP!!! Robin stumbled back from the blow to his mid section.

"I thought you were a true Titan!!" Garth heaved.

"What would you know about a true Titan??" Robin spat back.

"Nothing as wretched or dishonorable as you!!!" Garth charged.

Robin flipped over him.

Garth spun to the ground and swept his leg out.

THWUMP!!!

Robin tripped. He spun in mid-air, handplanted off the ground, and backflipped to safety. He spun his staff, shouted, and dashed at Garth with his staff jabbing everywhere.

SWISH!! SWOOSH!! SWOOSH! SWISH!!

Garth ducked and dodged expertly, his face tense in anger, his adrenaline pumping. Robin chased him with the staff into the alleyway. The other Titans and I followed nervously at a distance...watching...

"Tula trusted you to live out your life to your fullest!!" Robin shouted as he constantly jabbed and attacked with his staff. "And you call _me_ dishonorable?!?"

"I will not have you judge my life!!!" Garth blocked one jab and shoved Robin back. "Yaugh!!!"

Robin countered and swung hard low.

SWOOOSH!!!

Garth leapt the blow, bounced off the alley wall, spun in mid-air, and acrobatically kicked Robin across the cheek.

WHAP!!!

Robin stumbled back.

Garth landed. He cracked his knuckles and rushed in. "Nnnnghh!!!"

WHUMP!!! He head-butted Robin in the chest.

"RGHHH!!!" he gave Robin a right-hook. SLAM!!

"NNNGHHH!!" he gave Robin a left hook. WHAM!!!

Robin stumbled back into a chain-link fence bordering the water canal. He panted.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Garth charged.

Robin held his staff out horizontally.

SWOOOOSH!! Garth jump-kicked.

CRACK!!! Robin's staff broke in half from Garth's foot. WHAM—CLANG!!! The Boy Wonder was plowed straight through the chain-link fence, breaking it.

WOOOSH-SPLASH!!! Robin landed knee-deep in the water of the concrete canal.

SWISH!! Garth flipped forward and landed before Robin. He gripped the boy's shoulders, growled, and flung him into a nearby wall of the ravine.

SLAM!!!

Robin groaned.

"YAAAAH!!!" Garth raised his arms. His eyes flickered purple. Tentacles of water rose from the bottom of the ravine and snaked around Robin.

"Nnnghhh," the Boy Wonder struggled in the liquid grip. He was raised up...then slammed back down by the tentacles.

WHAM!!!

Again.

WHAM!!!

Again.

SPLASH!!!

The Titans and I watched—horrified—from the edge of the ravine.

"Nnnnghh!!!" Garth twisted his wrists.

Robin gasped and sputtered as he was lifted mightily towards the Atlantean by the magic, watery arms.

Garth's eyes were on fire as he raised a fist and flew it mercilessly at Robin's incoming face.

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!!

Robin's gloved hand seized Garth's wrist just inches before it struck his nose.

"Aqualad!!!"

"RAAAH!!" the Atlantean swung his other fist.

Robin gripped it too.

"GARTH!!!" he emphasized.

The boy panted. The purple faded in his round eyes.

"Look at everything!!" Robin said.

Garth blinked. He saw the Boy Wonder's face. Robin had the same eyemask....but the wicked expression of the young man taunting him was gone. In its place was something akin to the sympathetic Titan leader who had inducted him. It melted something inside of Garth, and his eyesight fell to see the fresh bruises on Robin's skin and the menacing tentacles of water encircling him and how his fists were about to pummel the Boy Wonder's daylights out.

Something inside of Garth wanted to whimper and shout at the same time. He didn't know what to do. So he trembled and looked up at the prone Titan Leader in front of him.

Robin leaned his head forward and spoke firmly in a low voice:

"Garth...you are a Titan. You ARE a Titan. Like the rest of us, you've gone through unimaginable pain and suffering to get you to where you are now. It was never out of pity that we inducted you...but out of _respect_. We respect you because we know that the very pain that has ripped you apart is the very same thing that mends your talents together. Learning to find a balance amidst it all is part of what being a Titan is. It's not something that lasts only through the end of training or your career...but your entire _lifetime_, Garth. And I promise you, from now on, you won't be alone with it!"

"I....I....," Garth swallowed a lump in his throat. "I-I almost beat the crap out of you!!"

Robin slowly nodded. "And you always could have. Only—unlike me—you weren't giving your all. And a lot of times, Garth, for all of us....it _hurts_ to give our all."

Garth shuddered. He returned the color of his eyes to their white on black. The watery snakes wrapped around Robin melted away. He let the Boy Wonder down on his wobbly legs.

Robin took a deep breath and patted the Atlantean's shoulder.

"Did I hurt you?" the Titan leader asked.

Garth looked at him. He gulped. "N-No...," he simpered. "Not really...thanks." A beat. "D-Did I hurt you??"

Robin blinked under his mask. "Almost."

Garth chuckled.

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask.

Garth cleared his throat. "C-Can I be happy?"

Cyborg walked over from behind. "You can be proud," he smiled.

Starfire flew down and hugged Aqualad. "Hehehehe!!"

"Woohoo!!" Beast Boy hopped over. "Go Aqualad! Pure badass!!"

I smirked and folded my arms.

Raven was silent.

"I'm.....I-I'm a little confused....," Garth said, hugging Starfire back.

"So was I when Robin did it to me," Cyborg said.

"You m-mean...," Garth stepped away from Starfire and looked at the android Titan suspiciously. "He got on your bad side too?"

"Yup," Cyborg nodded.

"Same here...," Raven droned.

Garth made a face. "How could he have done that to _you_??"

Raven glanced Robin's way.

Robin scratched his head and sweatdropped. "I-I'm still getting the burn marks off from that," he smirked.

Garth ran a hand over his head. "I...I-I feel so stupid...I can't believe I lost control like that..."

"It's a good thing...in part," Raven said.

"A _good_ thing, Raven?"

"Now that you know what power and focus you're capable of...," Raven walked up and spoke, "...you can work on separating it from the anger and pain that courses through you. All of us, Garth, in some way or another have pain that we deal with. And ironically, our powers are related to that pain. But being a Titan means taking that power and using it for good. It's a slap in the face of the evil that threatens to bind and control us. True heroes must conquer themselves before conquering villainy around them."

Garth took a deep breath. "Slizzath's curse...my banishment from the seas..." He clenched his fists. "How am I ever going to forget about all that?"

"You don't ever forget it, Garth," Robin said. He raised a gloved hand. "You use it."

"How?"

"As a reminder. In time...when you're properly trained and pointed in the right direction...you'll look back at yourself and be proud of what you've become. Believe it or not...being a vigilante can be personally rewarding."

"But only if you give it a try," Starfire said. "And stay with us. Please?"

"Yeah, dude!" Beast Boy hopped. "Please??"

"..................," Garth sighed.

I leaned my head to the side.

A beat.

Garth smiled. "A-Alright..."

"Yes!!"

"Boo-ya!!"

"Allright! Dude!!"

"Come on...," Robin led Garth limpingly back up to the street. "Let's go home...your real home."

The others followed.

I was the last. I smiled with a happy breath.

_Did I mention how much I love being on this team?_

I walked up the side of the canal.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Woo hoo! So glad I recorded that!!" Cyborg 'blinked' his red eye and laughed as he gripped the wheel. On the ride home in the T-Car, the looming Sun started to hint of its descent towards the horizon. He and Raven were riding alone. Garth had decided to stay a little while in the City with Robin and Beast Boy while Starfire went back to check on Nova'm and I strolled off for a walk.

"Sure, Robin may have been egging him on...but you gotta admit that Aqualad sure has sweet moves to dish out!! Ha ha! Man oh man, it's gonna be cool fighting alongside him after he's gone through some training simulators and all!"

"............"

Cyborg smiled. He glanced aside. He looked back through the windshield again.

"You've been awfully quiet the whole way back, Raven," he said.

She droned. "Is that anything unusual?"

"I dunno. But then again, what's not unusual about you?"

"..........."

Silence.

Cyborg glanced aside again. His smile faded.

There was something peculiar lying underneath the stoicism in Raven's expression at that moment.

"Rae??" Cyborg uttered. "You okay?"

Raven took a deep breath and scrunched back in her seat. "I don't think what Robin did was wise, that's all."

"What? Getting Garth to show his true potential?"

"It's the _way_ in which he got Garth to show it."

"Well, the Boy Wonder did it to you and I as well, remember? It sure got us out of our funks!"

"Perhaps," Raven sighed. "But....it's been so soon after what Garth's been through and—"

"Raven??" Cyborg smirked a little. "Sorry to interject, but you're sounding 'concerned' and it's scaring me. Heheheh."

"............well perhaps I am concerned," Raven said.

And something about the way she said it stabbed Cyborg hard.

"Uhm...I'm sorry, Rae. I must be missing something. I—"

"Don't mind me, Cyborg," she said.

"You know I never do that," he winked.

She glared momentarily. Then spoke: "All of us Titans—in some fashion or another—were there in Aqualad's life to witness the tragic deaths of three of his closest companions. And all of those friends and relatives of him died as a direct result of the evil curse set upon his household.....the touch of the demonic Slizzath."

"Yeah........and.....?"

"And.......," Raven bit her lip. She looked a hundred percent less graceful. "A-And it reminded me of how quite possible it is for....f-for my curse to get loose..."

"............"

"......and end the lives of everyone and everything I know."

"Come on, Rae...," Cyborg said gently. "It's not the same, ya know? Aqualad, he...."

Silence.

"It's...it's not the same!" he re-uttered.

Raven merely hugged herself.

Cyborg gulped. He felt a heaviness in his heart. The fleshly part of his throat went sore.

Silence.

Then....a startling thing....

"Cyborg?"

"Yeah, Rae?"

"............"

"............"

"...............can you do me a favor?"

Cyborg raised his human eyebrow at that. He glanced over. "S-Sure! Just ask, Raven."

"Talk?"

"About what?"

"Anything....will you, please?"

A beat.

"Y-Yeah...," Cyborg smiled sweetly. "I think I can do that."

Raven let out a shuddering sigh.

Cyborg cleared his throat. He looked at the road as he nonchalantly blabbered: "There's this fanfic I'm working on lately that takes place in between A New Hope and Empire Strikes back. It's a story about Luke Skywalker obsessing over clues as to his mom's possible existence while he and the Rebellion are relocating to planet Hoth. Everything goes fine until Luke and Leia discover that they have identical birthmarks on their ankles and though they're not sensible enough to realize they're twin siblings, they still try and solve the mystery of Luke's mother together. And then........"

Raven nodded while Cyborg spoke. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as they road along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that evening, I came back home from my walk. It was evening time...with the sunset in full, crimson effect.

I returned early.

I took the elevator up to the Main Room. I stepped out and sought to access the Main Computer and log onto my account.

_A Titan needs his e-mail._

I smiled to myself.

"'Slade'...."

I froze.

My black eyes darted around under my shades.

Finally my gaze settled on a dark figure sitting in the computer chair with his back to me.

"'...nemesis to the Teen Titans. Guilty of murder attempts, violent conspiracies, bomb threats, and political upheaval'," Garth read off of the bio on the computer screen. He swiveled around so that his body half-faced me as he continued reading. "'Coerced Robin into being his apprentice using nanoprobes and death threats against his friends. Used a girl named Terra to do his building and spread ruin throughout the land. Tricked the former H.I.V.E. member Jinx into performing his dirty work during the last bombing runs of the City. Throughout Slade's frightful career, he released over one hundred high-level felons from prison, robbed a diamond mine, blew up at least four skyscrapers, killed well over five hundred innocent people, and nearly brought the end to the Teen Titans'."

Swiftly, Garth turned and faced me.

He spoke: "And you killed him...."

I took a deep breath. I nodded.

Garth glanced back at the computer screen...then in my general direction again. "How does the Sixth Titan before me turn from Newby to Villain-Slayer in nearly two and a half months??"

I smiled and shrugged.

"Heh....humble to the end. I'm sorry about my comment earlier...ya know, about you not being able to talk back and stuff?"

I waved him off.

A beat.

"Starfire suggested I catch up on some reading," he said, gesturing to the computer. "You gotta hand it to the Tamaranian. It's helping me get caught up. Though....it would seem..." he looked at the ill-fated portrait of Slade. "The fun's been had."

I coughed.

"Huh??" he looked my way.

I shook my head.

"Whatever. I've got a lot to learn, is all I know."

I nodded...smiling.

Garth got up. He paced before the wide windows bordering the Main Room and sighed. "I guess it's not so bad being dry all the time. Kinda makes me like water more, ya know? And it's not like this Tower runs out of it. You've got these 'showers' everywhere that do me just fine. Honestly...with so much plumbing and sanitation equipment lying around...I don't know why surface dwellers bother to stay out of the ocean when they love water so much."

I chuckled breathily at that.

Garth kept his back to me.

I lifted an eyebrow. I walked over and stood a few paces behind him.

The Atlantean stared out of the windows. He took a deep breath. "I......d-didn't mean to blow up like I did. I mean...I'm glad I got out of my stupid rut for a moment at least, but still. If that's what it takes to wake me up to my true potential...then I've got a lot to worry about." He glanced back at me. "The rest of the Titans....you all seem so focused. So calm and collected. I can't imagine what level of meditation it must take to...achieve that sense of balance. That order."

I leaned my head to the side.

"Especially Raven...," he added. His dark eyes drifted off. "She's just like me. Of all the people I know now....I wonder if she can best understand........"

His voice lingered.

Silence.

He gazed out the window again and ran a hand through his upper hair. He sighed...his whole body sagging. "For once......I have what I've always wanted. So few people to choose from. So few to trust. Banished from the seas...."

A beat.

His hand ran down to where it covered his face and his shoulders started shaking. And soon that shaking turned into a gentle weeping as he shakingly muttered: "I don't want to be here......" He sniffed. He shuddered. "Why'd you have to d-do it, Tula?? I don't want t-to be here....I want you to be in that palace of yours. Where you deserve to b-be. Where you were born to be." His arm quivered and he sobbed intermittently into his palm.

I couldn't see his tears from where I stood. I shifted uncomfortably...my throat was sore.

I don't know whether he sensed it or not, but he waved without looking. "You don't have to stay here, man....," he wheezed. "I'm sorry for b-being such a wuss. I....I-I just need to be alone is all....I always n-need to be alone..."

He took a whispery breath and limped over to a couch in the far corner of the Main Room. He slumped down and sat alone with his tears.

I slowly turned around and walked out of the room down the nearest corridor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down in my cellar room, I had already stripped out of my combat fatigues and put on casual wear. White shorts and a black tank top. I sat at the front of my bed with the laptop before me. I squinted my black eyes—the shades off—and typed.

**Spsquirrel: Do you have a moment?**

**InzeUltima: sure! whats on yur mind Jordan?**

**Spsquirrel: Actually...I was wondering if you could do me a favor.**

InzeUltima: oooh...how mysterious. hehehe. ;) go ahead and ask.

**Spsquirrel: Can I call you?**

**InzeUltima: u mean on the phone??**

**Spsquirrel: Yeah...**

InzeUltima: uh sure but didnt we both agree that this was the easiest way to communicate with each other?

**Spsquirrel: I'd like to hear your voice.**

InzeUltima: By all means! When did you want to call?

I immediately dialed the number on the cell phone in my hand.

A dial tone.

A pause.

_Click._

"_Well hey there! This wouldn't be an obscene phone call, would it?? Hehehe."_

Kara's voice.

I took a deep breath. I leaned back against the headboard of my bed. In the lanternlight, I stretched my hand out and typed.

**Spsquirrel: Hey...**

"_Hehehe! Hey! What's up?"_

I cradled the phone to my ear.

"_I must say...thanks for taking the initiative to call __**me**__, Jordan. I mean...not that Ma and Pa don't like me calling you or anything...but the long distance seriously slaughters us unlike you guys and your Tower's bottomless wallet. Heh. You see, this one time—back when I was talking to a kid named Jimmy Olsen a lot—a huge-ass phone bill stacked up and Clark nearly clobbered me!! Oh man, I've never seen him that mad! It's a funny thing, seeing the evil side of Superman. A lot of people aren't gifted with that perspective. It's a once in a lifetime thing and..................... Jordan??..................... Jordan, are you okay??"_

I was hugging my knees to my chest. With one hand I held the phone to my ear. With my other hand, I covered my black eyes. They were moist around the corners. I took a painful, shuddering breath...swallowed...and typed.

**Spsquirrel: Never been better, Kara. Never been better.**

I bit my lip, sniffed, and desperately held the phone to my ear.

Listening....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I have a very painful past, Diana. Long before I joined the Titans, I learned what true pain is._

_You know true pain the moment that you give up on life. And at one point, I did just that. It is only by a miracle that I ever survived, headed west, and landed in this Town. Now that I fight alongside my friends...now that I'm a Titan...I realize that pain is merely that. Pain. It's everywhere and it's everything. But life as a Titan demands that I go on in spite of what I have gone through and what I will most likely go through in the future. Everything is constantly moving and changing and exploding into surprises and I have no time to have a pity party or beat myself up about the past. Sure, I may cry every now or then or sleep past the sunrise to chase it all away...but I've since become a legend and I can only think about others. It's like a platinum rule of bravery...and I'm sure that—as a superheroine—you yourself can relate._

_It's very easy to want to take pity for Aqualad. It's very easy to want to offer him a place to stay and let it rest at that. But Titans don't do the easy thing. We accept people not for what makes them...but for what they make themselves. And a long time ago, Prince Garth became a symbol for strength against adversity....perhaps a long time before Robin ever fought by Batman's side or Starfire ever fended off an alien invasion or Raven ever confronted her father face-to-face._

_I can only imagine that—in time—Aqualad himself will realize that he is the hero that he strives to be and nothing less. It's inevitable...for it's part of his becoming a Titan. The induction—influenced by pity or not—was just the introductory phase. Now...the rest is up to him._

_Though he can afford a little motivation..._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I opened the door.

I flipped on the switch.

Garth shaded his eyes. "Wh-Where are we?"

I smiled at him and motioned for the Atlantean to step in.

He did so....hesitantly. He looked around and found himself surrounded by glass casings and wall racks exhibiting an array of odd props, tools, and weapons.

"Um.....interesting....," Garth's dark eyes narrowed. He strolled past Mumbo Jumbo's camera, the Puppet King's hovercraft, Viper's sword, Johnny Rancid's helmet. "Do these belong to anyone in particular?"

I nodded. I pointed at an example.

"Hey...that's a piece of Slade's mask...," Garth recognized. He smiled at me. "This is like......a showcase of villains' stuff?"

I nodded with a grin.

"Lemme guess....Cyborg's handiwork."

I shook my head.

"Robin's?"

I nodded.

"That makes sense. He'd keep trophies, wouldn't he?"

I chuckled breathily. I walked along and motioned for him to follow.

"I suppose that this means the Titans have offed a lot of bad guys—hey! It's Trident's.....trident."

I led him past that.

"What are you trying to show me?"

I brought him over to a glass-encased rack in the corner. I motioned towards an array of stuff.

"Hmm...," Garth leaned forward and squinted his eyes.

There was a battered outfit with Slade's insignia, along with razor-edged playing cards, and finally a pair of dangling, onyx-black goggles.

"What's this all about? Looks sorta like Slade's stuff."

I pointed at a newspaper clipping framed amongst the array.

Garth read from the bold headlines: "'Wyldecarde Stages Explosive Attack On Phaser Labs'." A beat. "I don't get it."

I pointed to the front page's photo.

Garth glanced at the figure in the snapshot. A very familiar figure.

A pause.

He glanced at me. "No way...."

I slowly nodded.

"You turned against the Titans?"

I leaned my head and waved my hand from side to side.

"But.....then why are you....how............I-I'm confused..."

I raised a finger...a metal finger. I kept my left hand up and with my right wrist trailed down the forearm to the disc keeping the prosthetic in place. A trademark chill ran through my body as I grasped the disk, squeezed just right, and--

POP! HISSSsssssssss....

The limb detached.

Garth's jaw dropped.

I held it before him.

He took it in unsteady hands and looked the metal hand over.

A beat.

"So...it is completely fake...," he glanced up. "I've never had a chance to see it this up close." A beat. He glanced at the hand...at me...then at the hand again. His eyes narrowed. "You....lost it somehow. And that's why you're here today?"

I nodded with a slight smile. A knowing smile.

"Heh....things make sense when you have someone as King Orin for a friend," Garth said.

_I hadn't thought about that._ I chuckled breathily.

He handed me my metal arm back and sighed. "You've given a lot...to remain a Titan, haven't you?"

CL-CLICK!!!

I reattached the arm.

A chill.

A bigger chill.

I recovered and sighed.............I nodded.

"But....I guess that was always bound to happen," Garth said. "Before or after joining this team."

I looked at him.

He turned and stared at the display of Wyldecarde material. He was either looking at the newspaper clipping or his reflection. Maybe both.

"I can never lose anything greater...than I lost Tula," he said. "What would she have me do now that I can have a second chance at making a difference?"

Silence.

He thought aloud: "She would....have me bring the essence of our people with us...," his lips trailed open. A beat. He continued: "She'd want me to remember all the happiness of the seas I could have had. O-Of course!!" He snapped his finger. He looked at me with a wide grin. "I know how to make a difference on dry land now!!"

I scratched my head, looking at him strangely.

"Seriously! Oh man...I gotta go see Cyborg...P.D.Q.! Pardon me," he rushed on by and out the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two days later...after strenuous hours of overhearing the endless toil of an android Titan and his new Atlantean partner working away in a laboratory...the whole of us were grouped in the indoor pool next door to the gym.

"And so I thought...'Damn! That's a fine idea!'" Cyborg uttered. He patted Aqualad's shoulder. "I provided the goods, of course. But this here dawg had the creativity. You tell 'em, Flipper."

"Gladly," Garth smirked. He was equipped with a streamline metal container strapped to the back of his wetsuit. Finely-crafted cords stretched like pipelines from the container to clear blue metal 'sleeves'on each of his wrists with tiny pipes at the end of them, like nozzels. "There's no name for this thing yet...but it solves the problem of my not having any water in the nearby area. Observe..."

He faced the pool. While the six of us and Cyborg watched...Garth pointed both arms out, aimed, and controlled the water pressure with a focused pulse of his violet-glowing magic. High pressured torrents of water streamed out of both sleeves with the power to knock over a large group of thugs....much less one man.

Applause...Starfire clapped the most.

"Glorious!!! Hehehe!"

Robin smiled. "Very nice."

"So...it's like a water gun of doom!" Nova'm said.

"More than that," Garth smiled. "Naturally...I can control it, see??"

He cut off the jets of water and flicked his hands out. Before the spray of water could settle into the pool, it magically congealed into a floating, clear sphere above the surface and became more and more dense.

"And when controlled just right...," Garth spoke, "...it becomes pretty damn powerful. Wanna help out, Cyborg?"

"Just like we practiced, dawg," Cyborg palmed his fists and held both hands out at ready.

Garth concentrated...and swung his arms. " Nnnnghhh!!!"

SWOOOOSH-SPLOOOSH!!!!

The sphere of water flew across the pool room and contacted hard with Cyborg's palms.

Cyborg was ready, and the blow sent him in his stance sliding teen feet across the tile.

"Whew!!" he lowered his hands and flexed his fingers. "If I still had flesh for fingers, they'd be totally pruned by now!!"

"That's so cool!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "But...that water can't last forever in there. What if you run out?"

"Simple as taking a baby's first breathstroke," Garth winked. "Observe."

He backflipped and dived with barely a splash into the pool.

Robin and Starfire craned their necks to see.

I stood beside Raven. We crossed our arms separately.

Garth swam back up to the surface. He took a breath and pointed at his new, trademark apparatus. "All I need to do is dip into a body of water and recharge the thing. It'll handle almost any liquid...and works great out on the field, I bet. If I conserve my usage of the water between trips...I should be just fine to assist you all!"

"Not bad...," Raven smirked ever so slightly. "Looks like you can take a little piece of home with you anywhere you go."

"Exactly what I was thinking," Garth stepped out of the pool, shook some drops off of him, and breathed. "Someone very special to me assured me of that right..."

Silence.

Everybody nodded.

"Well, Aqualad...I'm impressed," Robin stepped forward. "You've not only proven yourself to be badass...but also ingenious."

"I knew you'd wake up to that sometime," Garth winked.

"Suuuuure."

"Oh, by the way...," Garth raised a hand. "It's not Aqualad."

"Huh?"

"Say what??"

"It isn't?"

"Why, whatever do you mean?"

Garth explained. "That was my old name. Before I was a Titan. Before I learned to embrace that which scares me as much as it empowers me." He took a deep breath. "The name's Tempest from now on."

A beat.

"Well I like it," Nova'm simpered.

I nodded.

"Tempest it is, then," Robin held his hand out. "Welcome aboard."

Tempest chuckled and shook the Boy Wonder's hand. "When're we gonna stop with the introductions already?"

"Depends."

"Which reminds me....," Tempest's eyes wandered. "Beast Boy said that you guys have a tradition that pretty much defines the 'Titans'."

"Oh?"

"Yeah...he said something to the extent of...," Tempest's face twisted a bit. "....'going out for the pizza'..."

"Hehehe!! Yes!" Starfire clapped her hands merrily. "The pizza!!"

"Hehehe!! Good idea, dude!" Beast Boy smiled. He faced everyone else. "How about it, guys?"

"Well alright!" Cyborg planted his hands on his titanium hips. "I've been dying to get out of the lab anyways!"

I held a thumb's up.

"Sure, why not?" Raven droned.

"Titans!" Robin chuckled and pointed a gloved finger. "Go!"

Tempest put his new tool away and lead the charge.

"Hey! Hey! Can I come too?" Nova'm hopped.

"I dunno, little man," Cyborg shrugged.

"You're not a Titan!" Robin pointed.

"Awwww....no fair!!"

"Oh do please let him come...," Starfire innocently pleaded.

Robin laughed. "Of course he can. He's our guest this week, isn't he?"

"Besides...I'm a prince," Nova'm boasted.

"Heh...," Tempest smirked without looking. "Small world."

Beast Boy laughed...and we were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_To be honest, Diana. Having Tempest here now is a unique experience for me...as I'm sure it will vicariously be interesting for you. As the sixth Titan, I was never a witness to viewing a newcomer teammate from the outside. I was always the one last to arrive at the scene of a crime or having trouble with the Main Computer or getting lost in the hallways._

_Which reminds me...I do hope that Starfire gives Tempest a generous tour of the basement levels of the Tower before allowing the Atlantean to do all of our laundry someday...._

_But hey...certain moments in history only belong to a select few of us. The rest—thankfully—can be shared. And I am happy to be sharing this piece of it...complete with both the things to mourn over and the things to smile over. I wouldn't be proud any other way._

_I'm hoping that—even though I'm no longer the newby—Robin will allow me to continue with this correspondence. I feel almost selfish in saying this—but—I've gotten quite used to and pleased with writing back and forth with you, Diana. I feel that the Teen Titans and the Justice League share a unique future with each other. And hopefully it will be on peaceful terms that ever require us to meet._

_I look forward to whatever you may have to say on the recent run-in with the Royal Flush Gang. It still amazes me just how many villains Batman has on his 'nemesis' list._

_Until then, good luck I sense the cool, refreshing breeze of Autumn wafting down from the North during this fresh, October month. I wonder if the Boy Wonder believes in opening the Tower windows during the afternoon. I would hope so._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_


	130. Autumnal

**130. Autumnal**

**  
**"SNIFFFFFFFFFFFFF.....ahhh...isn't this weather lovely, Craig?"

"What?? Zach, for crikey's sake!!"

"Huh? Oh r-right." SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The thug swerved hard on the wheel. The getaway convertible veered around an intersection, nearly clipped two innocent motorists, and burned rubber down Main Street in the Central District of the City. The sky was a cloudless, crystal clear manifestation of the first true-blue day of autumn's coolness. Everything felt light and crisp...except for the exhaust fumes and scent of gun powder as the careening criminals continued their blaze of destruction.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!

The criminal in the small backseat fired like mad with his machine gun. Bullets streamed down the road at a red-haired Tamaranian pursuing them at high velocity. Every bullet the alien Titan merely dodged and skirted around. Her eyes glowed a bright green and she seemed to snarl as she gradually crossed the distance between her and the crooks.

"Shit...," the gunman reloaded his weapon. "She's closing in..."

The convertible throttled over a manhole.

The bag of stolen goods jostled.

"Dammit, Zach!! Keep it smooth! It took us three months to set up this heist! I'm not letting you lose the loot in a fart-span!!"

"Well excuse me," the driver huffed as he gripped tightly to the wheel, jerking left and right every now and then. "Smooth becomes a transitory term at one hundred and ten miles per hour."

"Just shut up and drive!!" The man aimed his gun at Starfire. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!! "LEAVE US ALONE, ALIEN BITCH!!"

"Now that's just plain mean....

"I said CAN IT!!!"

"Come on, Craig...relax!" the driver glanced in the rear view mirror. "We can outrun that lady! Besides...not all of luck is on the Titan's side. The sky doesn't fall for human beings, ya know—"

THWUMP!!! Robin landed on the hood via grappling hook.

The driver's eyes widened. "Oh snikeys!"

"End of the road!!!" the Boy Wonder growled.

The rear crook took one look and—"RAAAAAAAAAWR!!!!!!!"—he spun and aimed his gun directly through the windshield.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

The front driver ducked his head and Robin flipped off the hood as glass shattered everywhere.

CRAAAASH!!!

"Craig!! Stand down!! I swear, you're positively stressing me out!!"

The rear thug hyperventilated, his eyes wide. "They're everywhere!! Everywhere, I tell you!!"

The driver glanced back. "Get a hold of yourself! We're almost on the highway onramp!" He glanced forward. Two explosive batarangs were stuck in the hood. "Hmmm...."

Beep-Beep-Beep-BOOM!!!!

The engine exploded.

The car lost all momentum....then it lost its front wheels and axle. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH-CRUNCH!!!! The convertible slid and crashed into a streetlamp at an empty intersection.

"Nnnnnnghh....," the rear crook shook his head and dizzily stumbled out of the steaming vehicle. "Remind me to punch you good when this is all over."

"How about now?" grunted a response.

"Shut up and help me with the goods!!" he grabbed at the bag.

The driver hopped out and rushed to help him.

They both strained.

"Rmmmmmm....it's stuck behind the seat!!"

"I can see that, dumbass!! Help me pry it out with something!!"

A voice uttered from behind them: "How about flushing it out?"

"????" both men glanced at each other, then behind their shoulders--

SMACK!!!

An agile foot flew across the driver's face.

WHUMP!!!

A quick fist shoved the other back.

The man tumbled for a second before whipping out a shotgun from a satchel hung over his shoulder. He cocked it, gritted his teeth, and fired at a blue figure. BLAM!!!!

SWOOOOSH!! The figure leapt over the blast of shot, flipped, and landed behind the man's shoulders. He rear-kicked the man and spun to face the driver.

".............," the driver blinked. "H-Hello..."

Tempest smirked. "Hi." He whipped out his arm—stretched it—and unleashed a spray of high-pressure water.

SPLIIIIIIIISH!!!!!!!!

THWAP!!! The driver was tossed back hard onto the ground.

The other man lay on the ground, groaning. He saw his shotgun lying across the asphalt. He reached for it--

FLASH!!!! The weapon was encased in black energy.

The man gasped.

"Don't even think about it..."

The man looked up.

Raven floated overhead with glowing eyes, telekinetically levitating the gun and 'bending' it into an unusable shape.

The man gulped.

TH-WHACK!!!

"AUGH!!" the man tumbled as he was struck hard by a 'whip' of water.

Tempest flung his arms. Solidified streams of water gushing forth from his hoses struck hard like bullwhips, knocking the strength out of the man.

The driver stumbled up and made a run for it.

Starfire flew in. "A runner!! We have a runner in our midst!!" she pointed.

Tempest spun around. He aimed with one hose-sleeve and fired a high-pressured shot of water. SPLOOSH!!!!

The wet stream solidified into a hard sphere in mid-air and flew at the man's back.

The huff-puffing crook glanced back. He ducked.

SWOOOSH!!! The water sphere flew over him.

Tempest gritted his teeth. "Ahem....Raven?"

"Already on it...," the dark girl stretched a black-glowing hand out.

SWISH-SWISH!!! The blob of water turned around in mid-air, surrounded by a dark aura.

The man didn't see it coming...

SPLASH!!!! The water struck him hard in the chest.

"UGH!!" he spun—WHAM!!!—face first into the gloved fist of Robin, who had just descended to the street via grappling cord.

"Duaaaaah....." THWUMP!!!

Both men were grounded.

Robin glared through his eyemask. He looked Tempest's way.

Tempest sealed his hoses....and gave a thumb's up.

".............," Robin smiled and returned the gesture.

Starfire giggled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We interrupt this broadcast for a special bulletin. From JCN News, this is Marilyn Chen. At around two o'clock Eastern Standard Time, the Teen Titans foiled an armed robbery on a jewlery store in the Central District of the City. Howbeit—according to official and amateur eyewitness testimony—this was not the usual crime sting compared to many of the other Titans' interceptions of the month. Of the four Titans present at the scene, three were identified: Robin, Starfire, and Raven. Howbeit, a fourth and critical figure in nabbing the suspects was also spotted, and his descriptions do not match that of any of the crime fighting teens made famous in our region. At first glance, the stranger appears to be male with a body build and hairstyle identical to composite sketches and footages taken of Noir—the former Wyldecarde. But the super powers reported at the sound—essentially an elemental control of water—has eye witnesses scratching their heads. When questioned as to the nature of this strange appearance, Commissioner Decker had this to say:"_

'_Honestly I cannot tell you who the new squirt is. I wasn't even aware that there was some sort of 'incident' worth worrying about today at all! We've gotten so used to them Titans spreading their vigilance and hormones all over the criminal underworld—and feeling safe about things to boot—that I barely send backup to scenes of petty theft when I know the crazy youngsters are rushing there ahead of time. If the punks have a new rugrat on their roster, then so be it. As long as they don't go crowding the streets with their costumes. I swear to Jes—'_

"_Ahem. No other City officials were available for questioning, but this pedestrian onlooker was across the street at the moment that the thieves were apprehended and here is what he had to say:"_

'_Yeah, he looked like the freakin' swordsman! Only...no sword! I could have sworn I saw him flipping around and beating people up with water. How do you figure that out? Also...this kid was wearing blue spandex. Or at least it looked like spandex. And since when did the sword guy wear spandex? I tell you what, that smoke-guy is real badass! But this one...heh....he looks like a total fruitca—'_

"_Anyways, as it would seem from evidence gathered at the site, the stranger in question is indeed a water elemental and thus—as much as can be assumed—lends proof to a possible new member to the Titans' roster. What good could this mean to the City? Join us at seven o'clock as we present to you "The Weekly Table", a round-table discussion hosted by Phil Garrison and featuring Frederick Smith, Allen Bringham, and—of course—Blake Glover. Tonight they shall discuss today's events in light of further developmens that JCN News shall bring you over the course of the next few hours. Until then, this is Marilyn Chen. Now back to the regular broadcast."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You're back!" Nova'm jumped up. He floated across the Main Room and gave Starfire a strong hug as the four returning heroes emerged from the elevator.

"Hehehehe," Starfire ruffled his hair. "You seem too eager to see me these days. You were worried, perchance?"

"He was watching the news," Beast Boy said from the kitchen unit where he was making tofu....somethings. "He kept bouncing around and shouting his head off saying 'she kicks butt! She kicks butt!' whenever you showed on the camera."

"I supposed I should be flattened!" Starfire said.

Nova'm cleared his throat. "'Flattered'."

"Who is the older one, again?"

Nova'm giggled.

Raven drifted by. "Beats me," she droned. She made a bee-line for some herbal tea.

In the meantime, Robin immediately led Tempest over to the Main Computer. He typed a green-gloved-flurry on the keyboard and soon a list of text splashed across the screen.

"And here is where we have fresh police reports to cross-reference our accounts with. Once a testimony of the attempted crime and vigilante interception is formulated, we write it down and put it under my archives for both secret storage and general Titan access in the future."

"Whew....and you gotta do this every time we foil a crime or capture a bad guy?" Tempest asked, making a face.

"Two corrections," Robin held his fingers up. "One. _We_ 'gotta do this'. Not just me." He gave a knowing glare. "I'm not gonna be pulling the slack for everyone in this Tower. Every Titan involved in crime-fighting—at some point or another—has to do this."

"Okay....what's number two?"

"Number two...we do this after every _attempt_ to stop a crime. Even when we're not successful."

Tempest's dark eyes contorted. "You mean....you accept failure?"

Robin winced. "We accept the chance of success in the future, even if it means sacrificing meager accomplishments of the present."

"That's a bloated attempt at optimism if ever I hear one."

"For your information, the Titans have a ninety-five percent success rate in battling evil."

"Quantitatively or qualitatively?"

"Both."

"How does that work?"

"It works," Robin grunted. He switched the program off and swiveled to face Tempest. "Believe it or not, we have an order to the things we do here."

"Oh, I believe it," Tempest winked.

A beat.

Robin smiled. He held a hand out.

Tempest shook it.

"You're doing nicely, Garth," Robin said. "Great first week."

"Better not love on the newby too much, dude!" Beast Boy cackled from where he was cooking. "Noir might get jealous! You weren't so soft on him!"

"You're using your imagination," Robin turned to face him. "Noir was very hard-edged from the beginning, so I had to be hard back. Isn't that right, Noir?"

Silence.

Robin blinked under his mask. He glanced around. "Noir?"

"He isn't here, evidently...," Raven poured herself some tea.

"I think I saw Mr. Noir at the beachside," Nova'm said. "By himself."

"He is meditating at this hour??" Starfire asked.

"Does he usually meditate in denim on denim?" Nova'm made a face. "That's soooo 80s."

"Oh that's right," Beast Boy snapped a finger. "He said he was going out."

"Out where?" Robin asked.

"Ya know him...," Beast Boy shrugged. "'Out'."

"Ah."

"Only figures," Beast Boy nonchalantly gestured as he cooked. "It's downright wyrd for some of us to stay here in the Tower during a crime, dude."

"Indeed," Starfire nodded. She smiled and leaned her head to the side. "But now we can afford such lax tactics."

"Excuse me?"

Robin pointed. "I've always planned on the Teen Titans being a fairly large club of superheroes," he explained. He smirked and folded his arms. "Not until now has it started to more or less resemble my original concept. Now I'm trying to have us experiment with dividing our efforts. Since there are seven of us now, we don't need _everyone_ out of the Tower on a mission at once.....especially if it's just for a jewelry store robbery or single, runaway suspect."

"Heh...," Tempest simpered with a shoulder-shrug. "G-Glad to be of help?"

"However, if something of dire necessity was to arise---"Starfire began.

"---then we'd need all the Titans in on it." Robin finished.

"You two sound like two halves of the same mouth," Beast Boy said.

"....................." Starfire and Robin blinked.

Tempest cleared his throat. "So....what? Do we rotate or something?"

"Rotate what?"

"...........crime duty."

"Oh, that," Robin shook his head. "Sorry, phased out for a second."

Beast Boy chuckled.

Robin glared his way, then pleasantly faced the Atlantean. "Yeah, I suppose we could do that. The day looks pretty safe from hereon out...but if there's a robbery or something, you can sit it out if you want.....unless it was a drug run on a speedboat or something by the docks—"

"Hey, my specialty," Tempest smiled. He flexed his sleeved hands, sighed, and said: "That decided...excuse me while I go get wet."

"Man...," Beast Boy shook his head and smiled at his tofu preparations. "...I have a full list of jokes for that already."

"Excuse me?" Tempest's eyes narrowed.

"Ahem....go ahead. Get wet on my part. By all means."

Nova'm snickered.

"...................whatever," Tempest walked to the elevator.

"Which reminds me...," Robin turned back to the computer and sat down. "I gotta finish my report on the Atlantean adventure."

"Slacker!!" Beast Boy barked.

"How does the idea of cleaning the North Side of the Tower sound to you?"

"Back to tofu," Beast Boy muttered.

"You're welcome," Robin said...before silently typing away the latest of his technical magnum opuses.

Nova'm and Starfire drifted towards the far side of the Main Room.

Raven sipped from her tea....uninterrupted...until--

"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Beast Boy glanced Raven's way. "Say Rae—"

"Speak your peace."

"Uh huh.....mind delivering something to Cyborg pdq?"

"Do I work for Dominoes Pizza all of the sudden?"

"I don't think they hire vampires. Look....," he held up a plate of freshly grilled, tofu-cheese sandwiches. "I told Cyborg I'd make these for him. He's down in his lab at the moment. Mind just taking them there?"

"I've known Cyborg for nearly two years now," Raven muttered over her teacup. "During that time I've earned his respect and trust. It would be of great detriment to our friendship if I was to spontaneously end his life with such poisonous lunch as that which you hold before me now." A sip. A pursing of the lips. A raised eyebrow. "Besides...why can't you take it to him yourself?"

"I still got one last meal to make," Beast Boy winked. "Nova'm says he loves my scrambled tofu eggs."

"There's a tragedy if I ever heard one."

"So you're not gonna be a good Samaritan?"

"I contend that the priest and the Levite had some good sense."

"Fine. You can help me with the tofu ham and bacon," Beast Boy scrambled for utensils.

Raven set down her cup, stood up, adjusted her robe, and took the plate of grilled sandwiches. "I'm going."

"Heheheh."

She walked away. "But be mindful...there will be a _reckoning......_"

The elevator doors closed behind her.

Beast Boy blinked. "'Reckoning'....why do all half-demons say that?" He sighed and went on with his obsessive preparations.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I took a deep breath.

I sighed happily, sitting cross-legged on a rock bluff overlooking the waters of the Bay from the Titan's island.

I could have stepped out and started my walk into the City an hour ago...but I was too swept up in the cool crisp air of Autumn mingling with the moist comfort of the Bay Waters lapping up against the sand just a few feet away.

This was a different sort of meditating...a happy meditating. I felt like I was in between incomprehensible debacles of adventurous scale...something which had become the chaotic pattern of my life ever since I joined the Titans.

And yet...I had gotten used to it. And I was glad. For sitting there by the Bay........I felt that there was nothing better. Nothing calmer. Nothing more...._serene._

_And Fall...the descent of cool weather as death and winter were invited lovingly......_

_Blah......I'm not poetic. What am I doing?_

I closed my black eyes under my shades. The cool air kicked at my long black hair. It soothed the 'x' of my neck's scar.

I took a deep breath.

_Ocean and falling leaves......a queer combination. I can't believe that I'm trying to feel it...but I am......_

My eyes tensed a bit.

I bit my lip for a second or two.

Then....

Relaxed.

I embraced it.

Rushing up my being like blood on the freeway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I gotta admit," I chuckled. "My tongue's tied."_

Ana looked my way. "About what?"

"Ya know...," I shrugged. I leaned back on my hands. "......the first girl I ever liked."

"Oh, that. Hehehe."

The two of us were squatting atop rock bluffs on the edge of Port Angeles, overlooking the waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was barely Fall, and yet the air was near freezing. The moisture clung to our exposed skin and made us shiver. But we withstood it. We were trained to withstand it. At the moment—however—we were resting comfortably. Myrkblade and Choral rested beside us in their sheathes.

"_It can't be that hard to remember," Ana winked._

"Oh, it's not that I can't remember," I smirked. "I have a wonderful memory. I never forget anything."

"Then......--"

"I merely said I was tongue-tied," I uttered. "So...mum's the word."

"Awww...that's unfair!"

"Why's it unfair?" I chuckled. "You haven't said anything!"

"I know...," her eyes trailed.

Silence.

"Why'd you ask?"

"Huh?"

I looked at her. "I said, why'd you ask me?"

"Just wanted to know is all."

"Mere curiosity?"

"Sure."

"'Sure'?"

"Absolutely! Pfft...what answer do you want from me, Jordan?" Ana stuck her tongue out. "You're so evasive, I swear."

"I'm not evasive," I leaned back with my arms rested behind my short head of hair. "I'm just looking after myself."

"Well, you can trust me. Who'm I gonna tell anyways?"

"What about the other students?"

"Even if I told them, I don't see how'd it matter," Ana said. "None of us ever knew each other before we started training!"

"Which supports the need for ambiguity."

"Ah...well, Mr. Reclusive...sorry I ever tried to break the social barrier," she rolled her blue eyes. "Gawd...I hope that if I'm chosen as one of the Three, it won't be with you."

"Am I that frustrating?"

"You're just......you're just you, that's all!" she pouted, her arms folded. "You talk a lot and yet you don't talk enough. I mean......remind me, which spectrum are you being trained for anyways?"

"Duh...Construction," I chuckled.

"Really......"

"Yup. I think the best world is an ordered one."

"Well, I know for sure that I'm a Construction Trainee," Ana pointed at herself. "And I can tell you right now that it isn't your expertise."

"Then what am I geared towards?"

"Balance."

I raised an eyebrow.

"'Balance'??"

"In that Balance is a pure limbo!" she giggled.

I groaned. "All right......all right......so—like—to be more similar to Construction student I have to be Constructive?"

"Absolutely." Her sapphire eyes thinned, humored. "Not your usual 'go-nowhere' tactics."

"Well, lemme see if I can alter my spectrum...," I dramatically brought my hands to my temples as if to concentrate. "Mmmmmmm.........the first girl.........I ever had a crush on........."

"Yeah??"

"In my life........."

"Yeah???"

"That I can remember......"

"You can do it! Just talk!"

I took a deep breath and uttered out: "She had ovaries!!"

THWAP! Ana shoved me so hard that I nearly fell off the bluffs.

"You sure it's not Destruction?" she folded her arms.

I chuckled. "I seriously doubt the master grades us on our past infatuations."

"I just wanted to see if I was alone, is that such a big deal?" Ana said.

I cleared my throat. "Uhm......how do you mean?"

"You know......," she shrugged. She hung her legs out over the edge of the bluff and dangled her feet. "......our families......our homes......our schools......we had to leave it all behind to start training."

"Yup. Everyone did."

"I-I.........I know we haven't been too long into it or anything.........but it still gets to me."

I looked at her sideways.

"How can life be constructive or destructive if life is so restricted?"

"Training requires great meditation and concentration to—"

"—summon the spectrum of life that's hidden beneath us," Ana nodded. "I know. Jeez......you must have written notes down or something."

I smiled proudly.

"But life is something......that needs to be enjoyed. That needs to be experienced to its fullest......," the angel smiled. She hugged herself and sighed. A beat. "I hope that—if I'm one of the three—I'll get a chance to do just that. And maybe someday—I dunno—become a mom or something."

A beat.

She bit her lip. "I think I'm radically Constructive, don't you think?" She laughed nervously. "All I can think about is life."

"Better than the death freaks that live behind the green dojo," I said.

She laughed. She sighed.

Silence.

My brown eyes were trailing towards the waters. I gradually uttered: "She's like that."

Ana looked at me. "Who?"

"The one with the ovaries."

She raised an eyebrow. "Your first crush?"

I nodded. "She's always so full of life. She positively glows. Like she was baptized in gold after birth. Everytime I think of her, I realize that—no matter what I've left behind to come to where I am now—it's all worth it. Because no matter how gifted or no matter how wanting or no matter how chaotic.........life is inherently precious. There is nothing so powerful or so great that it would minimize that absolute. Life is a sacred thing......and whether she's meaning to or not, she's teaching me that. I guess......I guess the reason I think I'm so Constructive is because I want to be more like her. I want to enjoy life like she does........."

A beat. Ana leaned her head to the side. Looking at me, she ran a hand through her short blonde hair. "Has she ever met you?"

"........." I kept my eyes off her. I swallowed and managed a smile: "I'll be sure to let you know about that some day."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"....................."

I took a deep breath. The wind blew gently at me. Cold.....

"........................you look so calm right now."

My eyes opened and I saw......black eyes.

Black eyes with white specks.

Tempest blinked. He was bending over and peering at me through my shades. "Whoops...," he jumped back. "I'm sorry.......I just I......"

I leaned my head to the side.

".............wow.......you make a habit out of that?"

I looked out onto the waves. I saw the City and the suspension bridge.

_The Tower's island........._

I shrugged.

"Beast Boy says you and Raven do that stuff a lot," Tempest said. He turned around and walked into the surf nonchalantly as he spoke. "He says your powers are linked to meditation. It must be frustrating to maintain." Sploosh!!! He bobbed in the water....relaxed. "But who am I to judge?" he sighed, then smiled. "We all have our necessities.....right?"

I smiled gently and nodded.

He ducked under water once...twice...thrice....

He came back up, took a breath, and said: "I gotta admit...this is the most relaxed I can ever get." He splashed some water around with his arms. "Which is both good and bad. Robin—bless his heart—he gave me a guest room to use until I can have a place to sleep of my own. Problem is........it's freakin' dry!! I mean....how do people ever sleep _dry_?!?! Robin has to understand...I don't grasp 'pillows' and 'covers' and 'bedsheets'. It's all dry to me!"

I nodded. In the corner of my mouth, I bit my lip and glanced aside.

_Guess this beachside won't be so private anymore......_

"Hey, you going somewhere?"

I snapped out of it and looked his way.

Tempest pointed from the waters. "Or so that's what Nova'm and Beast Boy said. You go on walks and stuff."

I nodded.

_Thanks for reminding me......_

I stood up, brushed some excess sand off my jeans, and sauntered towards the distant land ridge.

"Well, lonesome stranger...," Tempest smirked. "Hope you enjoy yourself. Must be cool having the City memorized in your head."

I froze in step.

A beat.

I scratched my chin.

I looked at Tempest....I looked at the City...I looked at Tempest again.

"................"

I smiled. I motioned for him.

He blinked. "You......y-you want me to come along with you?"

I pleasantly nodded.

"But......that's cool! But...erm......," he blinked again. "You sure? You seem like quite the reclusive type and—"

I laughed suddenly.

Tempest recoiled....perhaps it was the first time he ever witness someone project humor without vocal cords.

I coughed, waved him off, and motioned him along.

"O-Okay.........," he stood up—dripping.

I bit my lip.

"???" he looked down at his wetsuit....then back at me. "Er.....I'm not very presentable, am I?"

I scratched my chin. A beat. I snapped my finger and motioned him towards the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Knock Knock Knock_

"Come in."

SCHLUMP!!

The doors to Cyborg's laboratory opened.

Raven drifted in with the plate of sandwiches. She looked over with blasé eyes towards the workbench where Cyborg sat, hunched over. There was a board with a half-finished blueprint on it. Scraps of paper and technical manuals were spread around him like a literary campfire.

"Beast Boy send me some grub??" the android Titan remarked without looking up from his business.

"If you can call his stuff edible...," Raven droned. She stood behind him with the plate. "You must be either very preoccupied or very disturbed to ask for some of his cooking to keep you going."

"Yeah, Rae. Very preoccupied," Cyborg rambled thoughtlessly. He waved a titanium hand above him. "Just...uhm....set the stuff down on the stool over there, please. Thanks. I'll eat in a minute."

Raven drifted over to a stool and paused when she saw three other plates full of uneaten sandwiches lying on it.

"............"

She sighed. She placed the useless meal down and stood in the middle of the laboratory.

"See ya later, Rae."

"....................................."

"......."

"......................................"

"......Rae??"

"What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes narrow.

"Huh??" Cyborg swiveled around. His human eye blinked—excited. "Oh....um....eheheh...," he rubbed the flesh part of his head and sweatdropped. "I've been.....drafting."

"Drafting what?"

"Plans."

"What plans??"

Cyborg dramatically cackled in multiple increasing degrees of human grinning capacity: "The coolest—most spectacular—absolute fantabulous—kick assiest Titans' transport ever!!"

"Lemme guess...the T-Chariot?"

"The T-Ship!"

Raven blinked. "Don't you mean T-Boat?"

"Uh uh. This ain't gonna be what Robin and Beast Boy keep begging me to make," Cyborg motioned. He grinned mischevously. "It's gonna be cooler."

"Do tell...."

SWOOOSH!! Cyborg held up a rough illustration done by titanium hand. "It's following the old model of the—sniff—now deceased T-Sub. But instead of making another submarine that could double haphazardly as a spacecraft, I decided to kill two...three....er...a hell of a lotta birds with one stone! And you're looking at that Stone now!" He smiled with a sparkling grin.

"..........."

"Ahem. Anyway. The T-Ship will be bigger than the T-Sub. Fit with more life support systems, engine capacity, energy storage, and weaponry. It'll be good for water submersion, air transport, and outer space maneuvering. Imagine a boat, a plane, and a rocketship rolled into one!!"

"You're on a roll all right," Raven doned. "Just hope none of us trips on that roll."

"Awwwww...come on, Rae!" Cyborg smirked. "Have a little faith in me for once!"

She sighed and brushed a loose strand of blue hair away. "Well...it certainly would be........applicable."

"You're damn right it's applicable!" Cyborg beamed. "And not only that, it—" A beat. He raised an eyebrow. "Applicable???"

"Something wrong with that?"

"That the best you can do??"

"I'm a Titan," she muttered. "Not a cheerleader."

"Yeah...too bad."

She gritted her teeth, and an artery throbbed in her temple.

He chuckled. "Only a joke."

"Only one life...."

"I just thought of this last night and....been at work on it all afternoon," Cyborg said. He gazed at his scribblings with a romantic sigh. "It can work out. With the right time and resources...I can have this thing constructed in under two months!"

"And between now and then.....?"

"We let Flipper handle the water assignments," Cyborg winked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "I bet Tempest would love that."

"Yeah....heheh...he'd jump to the occasion."

"He did well today, though."

"Which reminds me...," Cyborg leaned forward. He rested his hands together. "How'd the mission go?"

"Some mission...," Raven droned. "Two crooks and a runaway convertible. We stopped them in a heartbeat."

"Nobody got hurt or anything?"

"Robin took a tumble or two—"

"But that's normal."

"Yeah...."

"......."

"......."

".....well I'm glad," Cyborg turned to face the desk.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You're glad that Robin got a little scraped?"

"No," he shook the back of his Titanium head. "I'm glad that it wasn't anything big."

"So?"

"Because I wasn't there...."

"Uh huh."

"....with you."

"Uh hu—huh??" Raven's eyes contorted. "What are you saying?"

"Oh.....ya know....," Cyborg shrugged. "You were there.....and I was here....."

"And?"

"And I'm a little skeptical about this 'only a few Titans at a time sort of deal' that Robin's experimenting with."

"If you're thinking what I'm thinking....don't worry about it," Raven said.

Cyborg glanced back at her. "Say what?"

"I don't need you to 'protect me'," she glared.

Cyborg swiveled to face her, his hands held up innocently. "Oh no no no no no, Rae. That's not what I meant."

"Then what?"

".........," he bit his lips.

"Just what I thought," she turned to leave.

"No, wait...," he stood up. A beat. He shly rubbed his human head. "What I meant was....was that....well....."

"...........," she looked impatient.

He appeared defeated. He sighed and sat down. "Never mind."

"What?"

He turned to face the bench again. "Go on and do what you had to do. Sorry Beast Boy had to drag you down here."

"What were you going to say?"

"It's that....," he gestured in the air for a few seconds and spat it out: "...I know you can protect yourself. But for some reason, I'd feel bad if something ugly happened to you and...and I wasn't there."

"What's the point?" Raven remarked. "If I were to suffer damage in combat, that is what fate has allocated me," the dark girl droned. She gestured with a graceful hand. "Your presence or absence at the scene of such an unfolding would make no difference."

"Well, it would to me," he said.

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Told you to forget about it," he grumbled. He went back to work with his scribblings.

Silence......

"............I won't forget about it, Cyborg," Raven said.

He slumped and shut his eyes. "Sorry...."

"Why be sorry?"

Cyborg's eyes popped open.

He swiveled around.

SCHWISSH!! The laboratory doors closed.

He was alone.

"...............," Cyborg smirked. "Pfft........cutie......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I.....I-I like it, Noir. They're just.....well................_loose_....." Tempest had on a helpless expression...a helpless expression which he pointed at me.

I scratched my head, shrugged, and smiled.

The Atlantean sighed. He shifted uncomfortably from where he stood in front of the bathroom mirror of my cellar dwelling. He was clad from head to toe in a spare black dress shirt and dark slacks of mine (I was once really into black, I guess). We were of approximately the same height and build, so it was of little difficulty that he tried on what I had to offer. At least...it seemed like little difficulty at first. But....

"How could I possibly ever go diving in this thing??" he asked.

I stared at him through my shades.

In the lanternlight, he blushed. "Oh...r-right. Ahem...this is surface stuff."

I smiled.

"Well...um....guess I'm ready for an adventure," he studied his clothed arms and legs as he spoke. I had tried to get him something covering the most skin as possible—assuming that he was used to that with his trademark wetsuit and all. "Um...you do know your way around the City, right?" he asked.

I rolled my black eyes under my shades and motioned him along towards my door.

"Allright then. Follow the leader, I suppose—AUGH!!" BUMP!!! "Jeez...it's dark in here!"

I snickered breathily.

"Home sweet home for you, I bet. Did it take a lot of sweet talking to Robin to get a room fit to _your_ liking?"

I waved my hand from side to side.

"Eh."

I paused. I held a hand up. I walked over to my bedside table and pulled out a notepad. I produced a pen and wrote on it. I held the paper up to the lanternlight for Tempest to see.

His white on black eyes narrowed. "'Can you read American English?'"

I mouthed 'D'oh!' and smacked my head with a breathy laugh.

Tempest gave me a sarcastic look. "Yeah...I'm not that much of a foreigner, man."

I nodded. I tucked the notepad into a nearby pocket and away we went.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Are you sure about this, Kory?"

"Unfortunately so, Nova'm," Starfire spoke as she floated around and cleaned her....already spotless room. "I do so greatly desire your furthered presence here, but your parents must surely miss you back at home. It is not my desire to worry them—especially when the deadline for your return from your 'vacation' at the Tower comes to a close. Already I am vexed as to how I must explain to them the reason for your harrowing role played in the Atlantean ordeal!"

"Oh...that...," Nova'm simpered. He sat on the edge of her round, pink bed and dangled his legs. "Um....you could tell them that we went out fishing?"

Starfire giggled and shook her head. "Hardly valid."

"Why not? Didn't we get a big enough catch??"

"Tempest is hardly the organism I would let Cyborg or Robin gut and scale for the sake of oral consumption."

"Hehehehe!" Nova'm giggled.

Starfire paused in the middle of dusting and gave him a wyrd look. "What amuses you, so?"

"I just....I just wonder....," he hugged himself, humored.

"Hmmm?"

"Do all Tamaranians speak like you do?"

"What is wrong with my vernacular??"

"N-Nothing, Kory! It's just......hehe....funny, that's all," Nova'm smiled. "You're cool and all...but sometimes I think the things you say could go well on advertisements of Japanese food products."

"I fail to see the connection between my verbalization and Oriental mercantalism, but I shall keep your statement in mind...," Starfire said, her face twisted. She shrugged it off. "Regardless, I will conclude one thing in regards to your visitation here."

"Yeah??" Nova'm leaned his head to the side.

She finished with her present task, brushed her hands off, and planted them on her chest. "You have excelled in warrior prowess far greater than ever I have given you credit before," she smiled his way sisterly. "When I first assisted in your deliverance from the miscreants' hands in North Carolina, I thought you would be too consumed by anger or sadness to ever smile—much less act in the vehement jocularity of which you possess now—but you have surprised me, Nova'm. You are as remarkable in spirit as you were royally begotten to be. Your unbridled joy and passion shines at the surface. You are a true Tamaranian indeed."

Nova'm smiled, a little red. "I-I guess I should be kinda sorta proud...huh?"

Starfire floated over and landed by his side. She sat and draped a gentle hand around his shoulder. "Down in the murky depths of this planet's oceans, you laid your life down for the safety of beings as strange to you as they were to me. I imagine now that we are...'on the same pagination' as it were. Do you understand what I refer to? In the world of Atlantis and the Hidden Valley, you were liken unto me...a Tamaranian soul far away from home. And yet—in spite of your alienation—you gave all that you could so that others whom you didn't know could prosper. It took me years and months to arrive at such a point of heroism. And for you...it took a span of weeks from the time you first started growing your hair long. Hehehehe...I am very, very proud of you Nova'm. And if it takes whatever admonishment I may receive for letting you get into danger just to share with your guardians the pride I now possess for you...then so be it. Someday the world—nay—the galaxy shall sing of your glory. I am certain of it. And I am certain that you desire to only grow more..."

"Uhm....," he bit his lip and looked up at her. "As long as I can still....ya know...."

"Hmmm?"

"Hang out with you and your friends from time to time?" A beat. "B-But mostly you...."

"Hehehe...," she hugged him to her. "Absolutely, Nova'm. If you should allow me, prince."

He smiled and leaned his head into her side as he hugged her back. He sighed and said: "I'm gonna miss this place."

"Alas, do not be too sorrowful. You have a day or two yet before departing back to your home. It is quite common of Tamaranians—fully knowledgeable of their limited span of time—to do things they greatly desire to mark the occasion."

Nova'm blinked. "To do things we g-greatly desire?"

"Mmmmhmmm," she nodded.

He looked off, his green eyes narrow. "Hmmmm......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I took a deep breath of crisp and cool air as—once again outside—I walked out onto the land ridge leading towards the main land of the City.

Tempest was beside me.

An early autumn stroll....

"I wonder if you would be the right person for me to ask questions to....?"

"????" I glanced at him.

He cleared his throat and dug his hands subconsciously into his pockets.

_Funny......he's wearing Terran slacks for the first time ever and finally he's found the nervous use of pockets......_

"I gotta admit; I feel like a total moron in front of Beast Boy and Cyborg. Heck....Robin too."

I raised an eyebrow above my shades.

"Cuz this whole place is alien to me," he gestured. "Everything about the surface world is just.....so wyrd. I mean, the amount of oxygen is crazy. I'm surprised everything here isn't all catching fire at once. And then the 'ground' here...it's all so grainy...." He kicked at a few pebbles on the asphalt of the land ridge. "Is the planet falling apart and the undersea world just doesn't know it?"

I chuckled breathily.

"Seriously! The only reason dry land exists—in my book—is because of earthquakes and volcanoes! It's like everything above the waters is nothing but a huge accident!"

I looked at him blankly.

"Ack....m-my bad," he winced. "I....uh....I must sound like all I can do is complain and yap on about the oceans..."

I nodded slowly.

"Eheheh...," he scratched his neck and looked off shyly. "It's not like....l-like I'm totally creeped out by this place. Stuck with it as I am...I realize there are plenty things I'm looking forward to. Like my first 'thunderstorm' for once. Is it true that actual bolts of electricity dance between the sky and earth?"

I nodded with a humored smirk.

"How do you people cope with that?"

I shrugged.

"And....then there're stars...," he stared up at the—then—clear blue sky. "I know you can only see them at night....but just to see them...."

I gazed at him as we walked along.

For a moment there, Tempest looked at peace. He seemed tranquil.

He looked like me.

"If I have to deal with this infernal 'ground', it's really the sky that's going to make it all worth it," he said.

I smirked.

"I know I can have neither the seas or the sky," he said. "But right now...I'd rather wish for something that actually has...hope for me in the future. And at the moment, the seas aren't that..."

I saw that serenity fading.

I had to get him distracted.

We reached the mainland. I tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow me. I took us eastward—leisurely—towards the Bayside Plaza.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay....okay....," Nova'm wrung his hands as he stood on the very top of the stairwell. "Just....make it quick. Make it quick and get out of there..."

He took a shuddering breath, clenched his fists, summoned some residual, Tamaranian strength, and marched firmly out the door.

Bright light cascaded over his figure.

Her narrowed his green eyes and managed to make out the figure of a petite, blue-robed Titan floating cross-legged across the rooftop of the Tower.

Nova'm inhaled.

He marched over.

Raven had his back to him.

He came within four feet of her and stopped. He bit his lip. He shook. He managed to open his mouth—

"I will warn you....," Raven spoke without looking.

Nova'm jumped.

She said: ".....even though you're a twelve year old Tamaranian with princely qualities in Starfire's eyes, I shall and will respond in whatever way I so desire if what you have to say is over the top."

He blinked.

"So make it quick...."

"Uhm....," he blushed and twiddled his thumbs. "Has anyone ever.....t-told you that....like....uhm....y-you're really pretty and stuff?"

"Approximately fifty-three fans have written me since the establishment of the Teen Titans. From those fans I have received five letters with hair and toenail clippings and three letters written in blood as various signs of obsessive affection."

Nova'm winced.

"In this world of heroes and villains, infatuation is merely a distraction and incitement towards dangerous, mental fixations. It would do you well—especially in an alien element to you such as Terra Firma—to not center yourself too much on another being."

A pause.

"Especially when that being is older than you are, constantly busy, and quite-vehemently _not interested_....."

Silence.

But Nova'm smiled.... "Still....I think you're pretty."

"..............," Raven floated around. She stared boredly at him.

He stood nervously.

She settled gently to her feet.

He blinked.

She walked over towards him and looked down upon his brow.

He blushed.

A beat.

She held a hand out...pointed it towards his nose....and--

FLASH!!!

"ACKIES!!" Nova'm was blown off the rooftop and into the open air where he haphazardly flew and straightened his flailing body.

"I swear...," Raven grumbled and marched towards the stairwell door. "There's no rest as long as adolescents walk this world." She grumbled, hoisted her hood over her blue head, and was gone.

"..............," Nova'm floated alone. He hugged himself and sighed with a warm smile. "She's perfect......."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I held a hand down from a buildingtop.

Tempest gripped my palm.

I pulled my muscles tightly and lifted him up onto the building.

"Whew...," he caught his balance and stood beside me. "Thanks. I'm used to descents being strenuous. Not ascents."

I smiled. I motioned and walked towards the edge of the roof.

"Where are we, exactly?" he followed me.

I came to a stop and pointed over the side.

Tempest came to a stop and narrowed his eyes.

The Bayside Plaza stretched beneath us, a simple, multi-tiered shopping square nestled in between a croissant string of restaurants on the first floor and a movie theatre at the end. At least a hundred citizens mingled in various clusters of social gaiety. High school students chattered and laughed around eating tables. Families gathered on sidewalks. Loners sat with a book or CD player on benches. Citizens walked to and fro...some jogging...others just on a stroll during this fine, autumn day. It was just the usual, merry snapshot of our lovely City in action.

Usual—that is—unless it was the first time you ever saw it.

"Wow....," Tempest blinked. "....people...."

I chuckled breathily and nodded.

He scratched his dark head of hair. "An awful lot of them, too."

I shrugged.

"H-How many people live here anyways?"

I held a finger up. I took out my notepad. I scribbled on it. I handed it to him.

He read it.

"Four million people??"

I waved my hand from side to side.

"Approximately....I s-see....," Tempest handed the pad back to me and stared down at the plaza. "Four million people and seven heroes..."

I smiled proudly.

He looked at me. "That's one big job we have....and yet Robin said we have a success rate of ninety-something percent?"

I nodded slowly.

A beat.

"Mmmmm...," Tempest sighed and folded his arms. "Guess they can add an additional three hundred thousand on my account."

I chuckled breathily.

He laughed a bit too.

Then...

"Not that I want to be egotistical or anything....but....," Tempest rubbed his temples and spoke quietly: "I hope I get a lot of saved people under my name and stuff."

I looked at him curiously.

"Not that anyone's keeping score of who saves who, of course," he shrugged. "But....maybe if I actually get some acclaim....word could spread undersea? Who knows..."

I was silent....still....

"But....the curse pretty much takes care of that," he muttered. A pause. A sigh. His arms hung at his side. "I know my place now. I'm here to do good...the most good I can possibly bring to the world. Then someday if worse comes to worse and I cannot control the darker side of my powers....," he looked at me, "...I will have built myself a good enough name to die with before I can do anything bad."

I nodded.

I understood...

"So....um....what's next on the 'tour'?" Tempest asked with a pleasant grin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Now most places won't accept this sort of hardware because of the warranty seal being broken. Whoever had this before you must have opened it up to do some inner repairs or something—which is all good and fine, only it voids the manufacture warranty and most retail stores aren't kosher with that," Daniel explained to the customer. "But here, we make some exceptions. I think I can give you......mmmhmmm....thirty-five for it."

"No kidding?" the customer pawning the electronic equipment asked.

"I'm quite sure!"

"Wow, you're a life-saver. I really need gas money for this trip. You sure this thing will sell?"

"Man...I've been needing to sell something that plays DVDs ever since summer began," Daniel smiled. "You're helping me more than anything."

"That's great! What do I need to do?"

"Just fill this stuff out to prove consent of handing the stuff over to us for payment and—"

"Ah, I know the drill. Good stuff, dude."

Renee glanced over from where she was filling out the shop's monthly report.

The man finished filling out the material, the money was handed over, and a handshake of finality.

"You have a safe trip, sir."

"Hey man...when I'm back in Town, I'm telling everyone about this place!"

"Yeah," Daniel winked. "You do that."

"Peace out, man!" the guy left the store, the door's bell ringing as he exited.

Daniel set the DVD player aside, stickered it, and put the money through a slot in a behind-the-counter register.

"Why'd you do that?" Renee asked.

"Do what? Customer service? It's part of owning a pawn shop."

She rolled her eyes. "That unit would barely have gotten twenty dollars...where'd you get the idea to give him thirty-five?"

"We've helped him out before, and I could tell he was really needing a break and—"

"Daniel, you can't just run around 'giving people breaks'," Renee moaned. "Nothing is ever certain with these people. We've only started catching up to speed with business this past month, we shouldn't let it get to our heads! We're here to exchange good products...not hand money out!"

"I wasn't handing money out!" Daniel chuckled. "I was just..."

Renee gave him a look.

He bit his lip. "Come on, Renee. It's a good machine. I've handled these before a lot, remember? The warehouse? I wouldn't have given him a penny if I immediately saw this thing as crap. Besides...people are desperate for a used player lately. We may have a foot over our competition."

Renee sighed. "I just.....I just think that sometimes you get a little too carried away. You get too nice and—sometimes—in this world we can't be one hundred percent angelic all the time. Especially when we need to save money aside...not just for us, but for 'next' of us..."

"Awww...honey...," Daniel smiled. He drifted over and embraced her. "Every minute of every day...I never stop thinking." He placed a gentle hand over her abdomen. "Never..."

She closed her eyes. "I know. I know."

Daniel leaned his head to the side. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better these weeks...already told you that, I thought," she said. "But the Dr. Vern says that it's always unpredictable the first time."

"What? The nausea?"

"Nnnghh," Renee winced. "Don't say the 'n' word...."

Daniel bit his lip. "S-Sorry..."

The bell over the door rang.

Daniel spun around. "Ah! Someone to save me from myself—oh hello."

Renee glanced over her husband's shoulder. She smiled wide. "Noir! It's been a while!!"

I waved. I stepped in with Tempest beside me.

"............," the couple blinked. "........and he has a clone!"

"Huh?" Tempest raised an eyebrow.

"A clone that speaks!"

"What are these people talking about?" the Atlantean made a face. He looked at me strange. "Do you know them?"

I grinned wide. As I walked over, the two came out from around the counter. Daniel and I shook hands while Renee gave me a hug.

"You've been taking good care of yourself?" she asked.

I nodded. I couldn't help but look at her tummy.

"Huh? Oh...," Renee blushed and instinctively hugged herself. "Y-You really can't notice anything yet. But....she's there."

"He," Daniel spat.

"She!!"

I cleared my throat.

Both looked at me.

I waved.

Renee giggled. "Hi, Noir." She smiled. "We've missed seeing you around here."

"Though the news did have some interesting things to say," Daniel remarked. "Something about a seventh..........Titan....................." His eyes trailed obviously on Tempest's figure.

The Atlantean gave in. "All right...guess there's no fooling you guys." He walked over and offered his hand. "My name is Garth."

"............."

"P-Prince Garth......of the Hidden Valley."

"..............."

"..........it's an Atlantean thing."

"Ohhhhhh."

"A sea-dweller!"

"Fancy that!"

"Wow!"

Daniel shook Tempest's hand. "If you're anything like that 'Aquaman' character, then you must be pretty tough!" Daniel winked.

Tempest tried to keep a straight face. "Yes....K-King Orin."

"Who?"

Renee butted in. "You look so alike!!"

"Pardon me?"

She pointed at him, then me. "You and Noir! Even down to the eyes....well, almost."

"Oh yeah...that....," he scratched his neck nervously and glanced at me.

I glanced at him.

A beat.

We both glanced at the pawn shop owners.

"Pure coincidence, we assure you," Tempest said.

"Hehehe...," Renee looked at Daniel. "It's like they speak for each other."

Daniel smiled. "What brings you here?"

I held up a finger. I pulled out my notepad.

"Ah! Coming prepared, I see."

"Hehehehe."

I smirked. I scribbled. I held up the paper.

"Just going for a stroll, eh?" Daniel asked. "Showing the new kid the ropes?"

"Ropes?" Tempest blinked. He glanced around. "Is there a sailing vessel nearby?"

"...................." the couple looked at me.

I simpered.

"Well......I see culture shock is ever-rampant these days."

"How could a sailing vessel fit in here?"

I cleared my throat.

Tempest looked my way.

I waved my hand.

"Er.....yeah....ya know what? I'm really hot and....dry. Is there any place where I could possibly acquire water?"

"We have a cooler here," Renee said.

"Or if you'd want something to eat, there's Carman's Diner across the street."

"Ya know...that sounds good," Tempest smirked. He pointed at me. "I'll be across the way...okay? In the Diner of the Carman."

I held a hand over my face.

Renee suppressed a chuckle.

Tempest stumbled out the door—nearly fell at the startling sound of the bell—but continued.

"Well, he's certainly............interesting," Daniel said.

"............."

"I bet it's a real treat teaching him to adapt and stuff..."

"............!!!!!!" I suddenly dashed out of the pawn shop door.

Daniel and Renee jumped, startled.

A beat.

I walked back in, panting. I scribbled on my notepad and held it up for them to read: _'He doesn't understand crosswalks'_

"Ah...."

"Well, that was a close call."

I simpered, relaxed, then scribbled: _'So...chosen any names yet??'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh....Neptune, I swear..." Autumn weather or not, the Atlantean was sweating. Tempest wiped his brow and walked stiffly across the sidewalk in his Terran clothes. "...the seas only exist because the surface world is melting." He paused at the entrance to a thin, trailer-shaped establishment built into the nearest building side. "Carman's Diner......I hope they're civilized."

He stepped inside.

It was just after lunchtime, and a mid-afternoon lull was in effect. A few patrons sat at about four or five booths. Three cooks and two waitresses were working within the thin confines of what was most-likely a bustling place for mealtimes. Tempest found a stool at the counter and sat down.

"So....uhm....," he muttered to himself, looking all around nervously with his white on black eyes. "Where does the water come from?"

A young waitress wandered over towards him. She was a teenage thing with stringy blonde hair and leftover freckles. "Good afternoon. Welcome to Carman's Diner. How can I help you tod---"she paused. She blinked.

"????" he stared back at her.

She leaned her head to the side.

He leaned her head to the side.

A beat.

"Say....aren't you that Teen Titan?? Noir??"

"Uhm....n-no...," Tempest shifted in his seat. "I'm not Noir."

She jumped. "Y-You talked! Uhm...ahem. I-I'm sorry, sir. I know that was out of place...just....the resemblance is uncanny—"

"I need water."

"Huh?"

"Water. I need—"

"Oh! Yes...but of course," she tried to compose herself. She handed him a menu and nervously produced a pad of paper to write orders on. "What would you like today, sir?"

"Water."

"Just water, sir?"

Tempest's eyes narrowed. "You speak as if water is a trivial thing."

"I....I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

"Water is the medium through which life on this planet flourishes! Certainly you are capable of understanding and—thus—servicing voluminous quantities of such a liquid—"

"I'd be more than happy to get you a glass, sir."

"Great. Now...hang on a sec...," Aqualad fumbled through his borrowed clothes'. "Poseidon...I swear...whoever the Terran was that invented pockets must have been a paranoid schizophre—Ah!" He pulled out a crisp green bill and handed it to her. "I knew Robin gave me some currency!! I hope this monetary unit is enough to pay for some water."

"Uhm...," the waitress glanced at the image of Benjamin Franklin on the bill. She smiled pleasantly and gently pushed his hand back. "Water is on the house here."

"..........," Tempest blinked. "There are houses here built underwater?"

"Wh-What I mean to say is—"

Tempest leaned forward in earnest. "Do you know where I can pursue purchasing such a submerged house?"

"Carl???"

"Yeah, Lindsay??"

"Glass of water. Make it tall!"

"Yeah, okay."

"Will that be all?"

"You can never have enough water," Tempest said. His eyes narrowed, "Ms.........."

"Call me Lindsay," the waitress pointed at her nametag and winked. "It's a pleasure to serve you, sir."

Tempest blinked. "Well, if you say so."

She walked towards the kitchen area just as a cook slid her a glass of water. She picked it up and carried it over to the counter in front of new Titan. As she placed the cup down, a bracelet of tiny, metal dolphin figures rattled.

Tempest's eyes zeroed in on them. He beamed. "Hey! My king was raised by those!"

The waitress froze. "Um...bracelets?"

"Is that what you call them? I thought it was 'dolphins'."

"Oh...is that what you meant?"

"Well, if it helps you to know," Tempest fingered the glass of water. "King Orin of Atlantis was raised by bracelets....or dolphins if you prefer."

"......................yeah."

"Thanks for the water," Tempest picked up the glass.

"No problem," the waitress smiled. "If you need anything else just—"

Sploosh!!

Tempest dumped the water over his forehead so that it cascaded down his shoulders, soaked his shirt, and dribbled down his limbs. He shook his head into the curtain, sighed pleasantly, and relaxed....dripping.

"............"

One or two patrons glanced over.

"Ah yes...cleans out the gills." A beat. He looked up.

The waitress was staring.

"Is something wrong?"

"You're not from around here, are you?"

"Is that a crime?"

"No...no....just...," the waitress glanced nervously at the soaked Titan.

Tempest looked at her....then at himself...then at her again. He smirked. "Sorry..." He placed the glass down and flexed his wrists. "I forget how you surface dwellers hate wetness being so....wet. Hang on."

"Sir, what are you—"

The Atlantean's eyes fluctuated a brief purple. The water magically lifted up from the floor in a reverse trickle. Gasps from far corners of the diner sounded out as he flicked his wrist and converged all of the spilled liquid into a floating, translucent sphere.

"How.....h-how...," the waitress murmured.

"Honestly, I don't know why you even handed me a glass," Tempest spoke as he floated in the last few droplets. "If you were to just direct me to your nearest reservoir, I'd gladly dive in and be out of your hair. But, I'm still new here. Who am I to dictate? Ah...." He curled his fingers. The sphere flattened out and gradually cascaded over his face in a thin sheen. The rest was soaked into his long black hair. In such a manner, his body thoroughly absorbed the remaining liquid without looking too ridiculous. "Refreshment has no words...," he chuckled.

Suddenly, two high schoolers had drifted over by his side. "Dude...you're him, aren't you?"

Tempest's eyes thinned. He glanced over. "And you are???"

"We watched the news!" the teen beamed. "You're that new Titan at the crime scene, aren't you??"

"How does word get out so easily here??" Tempest made a face. "I thought sound traveled farther through water."

Yet another teenager drifted over from...somewhere. "At first, we thought you were Noir...and just a moment ago we heard you talk about 'Robin'. You're the new Titan aren't you? You just...look a lot like Noir!"

"Look...," Tempest raised his hands. "I can see I'm gathering a crowd for some infernal reason. I don't want to ruin this business establishment..."

A greasy cook stepped up. "Whoah, he's for real, Lindsay!"

"Yeah," the waitress smiled up at him and motioned towards Tempest. "You should have seen what he did to the water! Just like on the news!"

"Um...who're you, sir?" Tempest asked.

The cook folded his meaty arms. "I'm Carman. Now tell me," he smiled. "Just how do you get water to do all that floaty-jazz?"

"......," Tempest blinked. He bit his lip. "I think I'll be going...."

"Like—OMYGAWD—it's him!!" shrieked an estrogen-thing from the diner's entrance.

Another uttered: "Hey, that's not Noir!!"

"Who is that??"

"The new Titan on the news!"

"He's hot!!"

"Hey! Mr. Titan!!"

"Cool!! What powers do you have??"

Tempest nervously stood up—but soon found himself utterly surrounded by curious citizens young and old alike....but mainly young. A throng of curious commotion erupted around him.

"Yeah...uhm....I can't stay and chat. I gotta go...um...be somewhere. Somewhere far away from here."

"Where to, the Tower?"

"Is that where you're from?"

"Where's your home??"

"Nnnghh," Tempest grumbled. "If you must know, I'm from Atlantis!"

Silence.

Then....

"Whoah!!"

"Cool!!"

"An ocean dweller!!"

"Hey, Steve! Greg!! Come on over here!!"

"Bring the others! It's the new Titan! An Aqua-person!!"

"_Tempest_!!!" the boy growled.

"Nice!!"

"Kickass name!!"

"Tell us more!"

Tempest ran a hand over his face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so I thought 'Joan'....ya know...like Joan of Arc? Cuz she was always my hero....or heroine...," Renee smiled. "And in a City of heroes like this one—hehe—what would be more appropriate?" she winked.

I smiled.

"If it's a guy, I still vote for 'Duke'," Daniel said.

Renee grumbled. "Oh gawd...not with that awful name."

Daniel shrugged. "My cousin married someone named Duke!!"

"That's because your cousin married into a family of rednecks, and her husband's parents happened to be John Wayne fans. Ugh...," Renee shook her head. "The last thing I'll EVER do is name our child after a Hollywood figurehead."

"I was almost named Ryan," Daniel said. "After 'Ryan O'Neal'."

"Pfft...thank gawd your mother didn't pick _that_ name."

"What's wrong with Ry—"

"_Plenty!!_"

I folded my arms and smiled, listening to the two.

They glanced my way....and seemed embarrassed.

"Erhm...."

"Bet you feel left out, Noir."

I shrugged.

"Tell us...," Renee asked sweetly. "What's a good girl's name?"

In under four seconds, I had a suggestion scribbled.

"'Ana'??"

I smiled widely.

"As in 'Anastasia'?"

I smiled even wider.

"I dunno. I wouldn't want her classmates thinking we were Czars."

I pouted.

"Girl names starting with 'A' are pretty, I'll admit," Daniel nodded. He pointed with a smile: "How about 'Amy'?"

I bit my lip.

"Something wrong, Noir?"

I snapped out of it and pleasantly shook my head.

"What about a guy's name?"

I scribbled. I proudly held up the notepad.

"Heh...," Daniel smirked. "'Robin'."

I nodded.

"I thought I asked for a _guy's_ name."

My black eyes bulged. I about doubled over in the explosive urge to laugh my head off. My face showed it.

"Watch it, Danny! You almost hurt him!!"

"Hahahaha...sorry, man. I couldn't resist," Renee said. "Though I will admit...'Robin' could be a nice last resort if we don't do an ultra sound test."

"I dunno...," Renee simpered. "I can't imagine how many hundreds of babies are born named Robin in _this_ Town."

"Good point...."

I tapped my chin. A beat. I smirked evilly and scribbled. I held the notepad up.

"'Victor'?"

I simpered.

"Not bad...if we're giving birth to a gothic scientist or vampire."

I chuckled again.

Renee playfully shoved Daniel.

"Well...maybe we're stressing a little too early," the husband said.

"It's only natural for the first time," Renee smiled.

Daniel blinked. "F-First?"

I cleared my throat.

They both looked at me. A beat. They smirked curiously.

I raised an eyebrow.

"How'd you ever get your name, Noir?"

I shrugged....smiling. My black eyes trailed the edges of my shades. I thought of the Norman Apartments. Janice....

"I-I mean your real name."

I blinked.

_I......never told them that, did I?_

"You don't have to share it if it's a secret or anything," Renee hesitantly said. "Just..."

"We're curious, ya know?" Daniel shrugged. "Friendly inquiry..."

I smiled at them.

_Friendly indeed......_

So I told them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I was only doing what I was supposed to do...," Tempest grumbled, the center of an ever-increasing crowd of spectators. "The Titans wanted me to stop some crooks, so I helped out. Heck...I didn't want them to get away with the stuff they were stealing anyways. What was it? A bag of diamonds? I dunno..."

"But it was so cool!"

"Do all Atlanteans have the ability to shape water like you??"

"When are we gonna see you kicking butt some more??"

"Hey...give him some breathing room," Lindsay the waitress smiled. "He's a sea-dweller, after all."

Tempest sighed. "Well....I was."

"Huh?"

"Hmm?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Only....Only that....." Tempest paused. He put on a brave smile. "Only that you're gonna see me in the surface world 'kicking butt' from now on. And not quite...erm....under the sea."

"Hey, cool!"

"Glad to have you, man!"

"Way awesome!"

"Heh heh heh...looks like we got a celebrity finally!" Carman slapped a greasy hand on Tempest's shoulder.

The Atlantean blinked. It was strangely quiet as he looked around and uttered: "Everyone here is so......so........I dunno...."

"We love the Titans!"

"Woo hooo! Titans rock on!!"

"Friendly is the word for it...," Tempest uttered. "never imagined...."

"What'd you expect from the surface world?" Lindsay asked.

".......," Tempest looked at her. He glanced at the dolphins on her bracelet. He took a deep breath and managed to smile. "I surely didn't expect...something as warm and welcome as the home I left....."

"Hey, as long as you're a hero, dude....we're with you all the way," said another citizen.

"Yeah.

"All the way!"

Claps. Cheers.

Tempest felt strangely warm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Not a lot of customers today," Daniel glanced out the front of the store, then back at me. "It's too bad. You could be quite the endorser."

I snickered.

"Yeah...carve him out of wood and plant an Indian headdress on his crown," Renee rolled her eyes.

Daniel laughed. "We'd s-set you up outside the store! But then we'd have to sell cigars or something."

I made a face.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly."

I suddenly had a sharp chill run through my body.

_Augh! Dammit......I hate that......_

I tried to hide the sensation. I hung my metal hand behind my back and gripped the disc where it connected to my flesh with my right wrist. I fought to keep my legs from shivering.

_It'll pass......It'll pass......_

"But it's nice to spend this sort of time together. You'll always be a great friend of ours, Noir," Renee said.

"Yeah. If we had our way, we'd meet somewhere a little cooler than a dusty pawn shop or a busy Steak N Shake."

As if by magic, the chill seemed to stop. My heart skipped a beat upon the crest of a wave of epiphany. My lips parted...melting into a warm grin. Inspired by the refreshing coolness of autumn and life in general....I had an idea.

"You okay, Noir?" Renee asked.

"Yeah, man. You look like someone struck a match in your trachea."

I smiled at them. I held a finger up, waved, and dashed out the door with a bell noise.

".........."

"........."

".........okay...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I dashed out into the middle of the sidewalk of the breezy City.

With the best possible reception, I switched on the communicator device in my metal arm and started clicking two fingers together.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And....there. Damn...best report ever," Robin sat back from his computer station, folded his arms, and sighed happily. A beat. "Now if only I had an excuse to read it..."

A program on the computer lit up on the desktop.

"Hmmm?" Robin's eyemask contorted. He dragged the mouse cursor over and highlighted the program.

It was a system that read incoming morse code signals on the Titan Tower's receiver and transformed them into readable text.

And that text in particular was displaying:

'_Hey Robin. Noir here. When is the soonest we can get a dinner together.'_

"..........," Robin blinked. "Uhm...." He leaned forward and pulled out a computer mic. He clicked on an icon in the computer program with the mouse while simultaneously flipping a switch on the mic. A little red light burned on. "What kind of a dinner, Noir?"

A pause.

Then, the text:

'_A special dinner at the Tower for two guests.'_

"Guests? People you know?"

'_Very much so.'_

Robin had a humored look on his face. He slyly added: "Think we can trust them?"

A pause.

Then....

'_Think you can pee standing up?'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so there we were...stuck in a cave with over a thousand of Trident clones," Tempest energetically narrated. "And Beast Boy got the great idea to play on their ego and make them all attack each other. Cuz—after all—an underwater mutant freak is naturally egocentric and powermongering!"

Chuckles.

Laughter.

"Anywho...we got these clones to pretty much beat the crap out of each other. But they were still really mad and wanting to end our lives. So, we made a run for it---er, swim for it...and dashed out of the cave. And just when it looked like they would chase us down, Cyborg's T-Sub full of the other Titans dove in and blasted the mouth of the cave shut. Beast Boy and I got out of there alive...and Trident has never been heard from again!"

Cheers.

Whistles.

Overall fanfare.

"Wow...that's so cool!!"

"So you've fought with the Titans before!"

"Well...," Tempest shyly scratched the back of his neck. "On the same side, of course."

"Of course!"

"Hehehe."

"So I guess we've had the experience to team together. Now we'll have plenty of chances to...er...further the process along, I guess."

"Niiice."

"This Town feels safer already!"

"Right on!"

I walked up to the back of the crowd. Nobody recognized me in my casual wear...but that's probably because all eyes were trained on the 'other Noir', Tempest, inside the diner. I had caught the tail-end of his narrative by the time I got there.

I smiled proudly...

Tempest caught sight of me. He didn't say my name out loud, but by his body language he knew that I knew that it was time for us to skedaddle for some reason or another. But it was seemingly impossible with all the people in the way.

But someone else in there had a magic, intuitive eye. With a rattling of a dolphin bracelet, she motioned to Carman.

The boss leaned in.

"Umm....I think he needs help getting out of here..."

"Hmmm...yeah. I love this crowd, but it's getting in the way of things," Carman silently nodded. "Let's execute our 'C Plan'."

"Hehe...got it," Lindsay winked.

Carman glanced over the counter of the kitchen area. He quietly nodded.

The two other cooks—having watched the proceedings from the back groom—nodded back without saying a word. They walked over to the circuit breakers.

Carman whistled. "Well...while you're here, Mister...."

"Tempest."

"While you're here, Mister Aqua-person...why don't you regale us with some Atlantean poetry?"

"..............Huh?"

"Now!" Carman shouted.

Chtung!!!

The lights blacked out.

Loud commotion and confusion.

Everyone was blind...except for the spare worker who had the placed memorized.

Tempest suddenly felt a gentle hand grasp his wrist. He was hurriedly led out of the crowd, behind the counter, through the kitchen and out---

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

---the back door into the dark alleyway behind the establishment.

Tempest took a deep breath as if he had previously been suffocating inside the diner.

"Whew!! Wow.....that was worst than the kelp forests of Poseidonis," he looked over at his savior. "Thank you kindly—Oh, it's you."

"You okay?" Lindsay asked.

"Yeah...I mean....very much so," he smiled gently. "I never really realized that so many people....so many people...."

"The Titans are loved in this City," the waitress pleasantly explained. "If you're gonna be part of their team, expect plenty more where that came from."

"I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing."

"Well...," Lindsay straightened her hair with her braceletted hand. "It's certainly a good thing what you and the Titans are doing."

"What's that?"

"Duh....protecting our City, of course!"

"Oh, right...of course."

"Hehehehe."

"Heh heh heh..."

Silence.

Tempest looked off down the alleyway at the road beyond. After the wave of jubilance passed, things of old once again crossed his mind. He exhaled depressingly.

Lindsay looked at him from an angle. She said: "You know, Mister....all I can ever ask of you is to continue."

"Saving the City?"

"It is what you do best...I'm sure of it."

"Heh...as long as somebody is sure of it," Tempest nervously smiled.

She looked serious. "There are thousands of people who believe in the Titans. They shall believe in you too. If anything helps...think of that."

Tempest glanced at her. A pause. "I must....really sound pathetic, don't I?"

"I'm not one to judge," she smiled.

"I mean...I'm so much out of my element....I keep complaining about water and stuff and......," Tempest rubbed his hands together. His eyes drifted. "I suppose I should just be thankful."

"Thankful for what?"

"Everything," Tempest smiled. "Absolutely everything." A beat. "And I should learn to stop talking my mouth off."

She giggled. "You're not that bad, sir."

He looked her way. "I'm not?"

Suddenly, a dark column of smoke materialized into a fleshly being between them.

"Yeek!!!" Lindsay hopped back, frightened.

Tempest raised his fists.

"...............," I stared.

"Ah jeez, Noir...," Tempest exhaled. "Don't tell me you can turn invisible too?"

I looked at him. I scribbled on the pad of paper. I held it up for him to see.

_'I can turn invisible too.'_

He smirked. "Smartass."

I grinned. I motioned him to come along towards the alleyway.

"Time to go?"

I nodded.

"Allright then...," Tempest turned and faced the waitress. "So...um....Lindsay of the Diner of the Carman. Thank you very much for your hospitality."

"Yeah, okay...," the girl smiled. Her eyes trailed the corners of her lids and her cheeks turned red for some reason. "M-Maybe we'll meet again s-someday?"

"........," Tempest leaned his head to the side. "Yeah....perhaps so—WHOAH!!"

I yanked him by the arm and dragged him towards the Tower.

The girl waved...........and smiled again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I had no idea you people were so popular here...," Tempest said. "And what's with surface-dwelling girls fanning themselves? You know, a lot of them thought I was you—Noir, what's the big hurry????"

I scribbled on a pad and tossed it to him.

"We're getting ready for a dinner?" Tempest had on a face. He looked at the back of my head strangely. "What's the occasion?"

I merely smiled into the autumn air.

We hurried on home.


	131. Equinox

**131. Equinox**

Starfire fluttered by, carrying a billion miscellaneous things at once. "Beast Boy!" she exclaimed in a paranoid mixture of joy and anxiety. "Have you ventured upon assuring the preparedness of the bottom floor atrium yet??"

"For the last time, Star...._yes!!_" Beast Boy groaned from where he stood in the hallway alongside Tempest. "I picked the place up so much, I had to pick myself up too! I swear to Allah, the front room is more presentable to guests than the surface of the Sun!!"

"For that, I must commend you," she stammered. "Eeek!! The kitchen area!! Surely it requires a third degreasing!!"

"A third???"

"Housekeeping is liken unto a science. Cleanness cannot be maintained unless the act of creating such cleanness can be repeated!! Excuse me as I excuse myself to the area of immediate, santation-necessity!!" the busy Tamaranian zoomed towards the elevator.

"Why don't you get Nova'm to lick the tile clean while you're at it??"

"A suggestion not entirely devoid of its fruitfulness upon this hour of desperation!" Schlump!! The elevator doors shut themselves and the redheaded alien ascended beyond.

Tempest whistled. "Is she always this.....psychotic?"

"I don't know," Beast Boy sighed and scratched his head. "We don't get many guests here at the Tower. You should have seen her before Nova'm arrived. She practically had Robin and Cyborg waxing the walls to the gym."

"She can make you guys do that?"

"What's to stop her? Heheh...I just turn into a mouse and hide."

"And Noir?"

"Eh....he can turn invisible." A beat. Beast Boy blinked up at the Atlantean. "Which reminds me...I hear Noir has something to do with this 'dinner' thing tonight. You know anything about that?"

"I dunno. Ask Robin," Tempest shrugged. "Sounds like he's Noir's main counterpart in this....escapade."

"I suppose Starfire jumped on board," Beast Boy said.

"Does Noir have many friends outside of the Tower."

"Not likely," Beast Boy snorted with a laugh.

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Beast Boy cleared his voie. "I'm sorry, did that sound cold?"

"Yes."

"Well—to be honest—none of us really have a bunch of friends outside the Tower."

"That doesn't sound very..........healthy."

"Eh....what do you know, noob?" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. He folded his arms in a pout...then smirked. "I suppose Robin could have a bunch of friends......but they wouldn't be calling him Robin."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply that his alter ego probably has a bunch of friends....hell, maybe even a family," Beast Boy gestured.

Tempest's eyes narrowed. "You mean you don't know?"

"Nope."

"He hasn't told you or you haven't asked?"

"More of the first part," Beast Boy made a face. "Believe me, I've asked."

"Is that what the residual bruises are from?"

"Sure." A beat. Beast Boy looked surprised. "I have bruises?"

"What's with all the secrecy?"

"Huh?"

"With Robin—"

"Oh. It's a Gotham City thing," Beast Boy said. "Masks, secret identities, secret lives...."

Tempest stared off down the hallway. "I heard Robin was a sidekick—like me. His mentor is someone by the name of......Batman?"

"Yup. A legend in and of himself!" Beast Boy winked.

"Pray tell...what is a bat?"

"Erhm...."

"Is it anything like a devil ray?"

"Yeah, dude. Just leave it at that."

"..........."

"Ahem....," Beast Boy bounced in his place. "I wonder when our 'guests' are arriving."

"Noir's never showed them to you?"

"No. Has he ever showed them to you?"

"I think so. The pawn shop people."

"Pfft. Figures."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Beast Boy smirked. "You're here for less than a week and already Noir is showing you stuff that he's not shown any of us. I tell you, you're quite the charmer."

"What are you trying to insinuate?"

"Man...you need to lighten up some," Beast Boy elbowed the Atlantean. "Just cuz you're all wet behind the ears and clueless in this world doesn't mean you have to be as stiff as a board."

"Okay...for one thing," Tempest frowned and pointed, "...my ears haven't been wet enough since I got here."

Beast Boy inspected his fingernails. "Uh huh...."

"And for another, how can I be stiff in these ridiculous clothes?"

Beast Boy giggled. "I still can't believe Noir was crazy enough to lend you some of his threads, dude."

"Well, you have to admit. He is rather selfless."

"Yeah, perhaps. But he does keep these friends of his to himself."

"Until tonight."

"Yeah...."

Silence.

"I suppose I can bear wearing these 'threads' until the guest are gone," Tempest said. "Being a Titan means being an example of...something. Right?"

"Just don't go walking down any runways."

"I'll just...," Tempest gestured, "....stand back and let you all lead."

"Let us lead? Are you suggesting we dance, dude?"

"No, what I mean is............tonight is gonna be a dinner, right?"

"Right......"

"And obviously that involves a lot of surface-dweller traditions."

"I guess it could. Maybe if we order out for pizza at the last second."

"I just don't wanna screw anything up," Tempest explained. "So it's best I take a back seat."

"Dude...relax," Beast Boy smirked. "You're suave....you're hip....you're handsome. You've got nothing to worry about. Heck...I bet you could charm the pants off our guests and make 'em forget any screw-ups you do."

"Um....I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"They're married."

Beast Boy's eyes went wide. "Noir's invited a couple of lesbians over?"

"Huh? N-No....Beast Boy, they're a _husband and wife_."

"Well, my bad. I figured Noir's friends could only be chicks."

"You sound disappointed."

"Nah, man. I'm just bored." Beast Boy leaned back against the wall and sighed. "The day's been nothing but Starfire rushing around to get stuff looking nice, Noir replacing me in the kitchen, Robin convincing everyone to help along, and everything just about moving at once so that it gets to be a headache to even walk across the room."

"What could you and I do to prepare for tonight?"

"We're doing it right here and now, man...," Beast Boy smirked suggestively and cracked his knuckles. "We're playing it cool."

"Uhm....what for?"

"To be perfect hosts, of course."

"Erhm....," Tempest bit his lip. "I don't think I'm in any condition to be a host....much less a month from now."

"Nah, not you. Me, dude!" Beast Boy smiled a glistening smile. "You're just my straight man."

"Uh huh.....whatever."

"I mean you're a straight-A kind of guy!" Beast Boy gave a thumb's up. "I'll be making jokes to have the guests laugh...and you'll be there to sit around, look bored, and make everyone realize there's a fate worse than death...so they'll cackle to distract themselves."

"You're wyrd...."

"HA!! You're becoming used to this place yet!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Cuz you're getting used to me, dude."

"Wow, what an accomplishment?"

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. He smirked and said: "Seriously...you ain't bad as a noob, Tempest. You're starting to kick ass on a regular basis. You've already gone through Robin's screening. And—ya know—not once have I caught you having to ask where the bathrooms are!!"

"Heheheh...I guess that's right," Garth nervously smiled.

"Yup! You're a regular Titan yet!" Beast Boy patted the teen's shoulder from down below.

A beat.

Tempest asked: "What's a bathroom?"

".........................," Beast Boy blinked. "...................." He stared at Tempest.

"???" Tempest made a face. "What?"

"You're joking, right?"

"About what?"

"Bathrooms...."

"If I knew what they were, then maybe I'd joke about them. But I obviously can't—_can I_??"

"I'm serious, dude!! You haven't used the bathroom since you got here??"

"Uhm..."

"Is that something to do with Atlantean metabolism or something?"

"Metabolism??"

"Ya know...," Beast Boy gestured. A beat. He bit his lip. He cleared his throat.

"...............," Tempest stared at him.

"................................have you—"

"Urinated? Defecated?"

Beast Boy coughed.

Tempest looked around.

The changling hissed: "Use friendlier words when possible, dude."

"What's your deal??"

"Have you?"

"Have I wha—??"

"Dude!! What do you think we're talking about?!?!"

"What business of yours is my business?!?!" Tempest turned red.

Beast Boy pointed at himself. "Hey...I may be over two thousand animals in one, but I assure you that every single one of them was house-trained by the time I walked into this Tower!!"

"Are you trying to insist that I'm uncivilized??" Tempest frowned.

"Just where do you go, man??"

"Where else??" Tempest cackled frustratingly. "Out in the Ocean!! Just like everybody else!!"

The changeling's eyes turned into white pixels.

Tempest folded his arms and smirked indignantly. "Heh....bet you feel stupid now."

"Erp......you........it......," Beast Boy blinked.

Tempest's eyes narrowed. "What this time?"

"All these times you've been excusing yourself to go out into the Bay....."

"Not ALL the times!" Tempest cackled.

"Like...what percentage??"

"What importance is it to you, man?!?!"

"Dude...you can't just................it's the _Bay!!_"

"It's just another part of the Ocean for all I'm concerned."

"You guys eat, drink, and sleep in the very same Ocean!! Doesn't that ever gross you out?!?!" Beast Boy's arms flailed.

Tempest pointed. "And you think your atmosphere's any cleaner???"

Beast Boy raised a finger. He paused. He stroked his chin. "Never thought of it that way before..."

"You're overreacting," Tempest shook his head. "Atlantean business has always been Atlantean business. How could you ever protest that?"

"I can name three people who protest it!"

"Yeah?? Who??"

"God for one!" Beast Boy pointed. "He doesn't like it! And then there's the mayor....who's pretty similar to God."

"Who's the third?"

"God again....or maybe God's wife. I dunno. Fact is, dude, you gotta find another place other than the Bay. That's just super-ultra-mega gross. I mean....like...don't the fish complain or something?"

"Circle of life, Beast Boy."

"Huh??"

Tempest gestured. "Nutrients are returned to the Ocean through a natural cycle involvi—"

"Okay...okay...okay...," the changling waved his arms desperately. "Don't even TRY explaining it."

"Well what do you all want me to do?!?!" Tempest shrugged. "I'm no infant, ya know!! I have my ways and you people have yours!! What's the middle ground?"

"A very nice, ceramic middle ground."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Come on, dude...," Beast Boy motioned with his upper arm and trotted down the hallway. "I gotta show you something."

"Okay....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I whistled while I.........worked.

I was busy cooking a fine meal for ten. My own recipe. Something of Japanese orientation....no pun intended.

I smirked.

"You do seem to be enjoying yourself...," Raven muttered.

I nodded and grinned over at her. I winked under my dark shades and busied myself with herbs and spices while steam rose from the kitchen unit of the main room.

She sat casually on a stool of the counter, leaning over and watching me at work.

"Looks like you've done this before."

I nodded and kept cooking.

"Do hermit swordsmen under the age of eighteen get their hands on skillets while heading eastward?"

I gave her a silly look.

"Don't mind me," Raven glanced out the window. "I'm getting my last bit of sunlight."

I glanced at her curiously.

"Before I go into hiding..."

I made a face. I looked at her helplessly as I went back and forth between cooking and scowling.

"Could you expect any more?" she droned. "I don't do well with company." She glanced over at a set of suitcases that had been set up for the following day besides the elevator. "I'm about to rip the head off Starfire's little friend as is."

I mouthed: 'Nova'm??' while cooking.

She nodded.

"If there's anything that I'm thankful for in light of his existence in proximity to my person, it's that I'm a great deal more willing to embrace the every day absurdity that is Starfire's sanguine holocaust of a personality."

Cyborg stepped in from an adjacent corridor. "Sounds like somebody's having PMS."

Raven glared. "I beg your pardon?"

"Pissed Metrion Sinthos," Cyborg smirked and leaned against the counter.

"............," I gave him a horrified look.

So did Raven.

".....................all right, I digress," Cyborg sweatdropped.

"You could suffer a seizure from that digressing," Raven muttered.

"Robin and I just got finished with sprucing up the lawn around the entrance," Cyborg gestured. "Now Starfire's got Robin helping her with dusting the doorframes of the atrium of all things. I swear...that alien girl's working us to death!"

"Wouldn't that be a shame...."

"What's she made you do, Raven?"

"At first she asked me to arrange silverware and tablecloth for the dining area," Raven said.

"And then what?"

"And then I described to her what it felt like to have her hair ripped out strand by strand through telekinesis."

"And then...."

"Starfire made Nova'm do it."

"Heheheh...," Cyborg rubbed his human skull and glanced at a dining table erected in the center of the Main Room. "Fancy Smancy. She's even got the little squirt going all Cinderella on the place. I'm telling you, Noir...," he smirked my way. "...you owe us big time for all the trouble we've gone through to make Starfire and the guests happ—" He blinked and his voice lingered as he stared at me for the first real time.

"?????" I looked at him. I looked down at the apron I was wear. I rolled my black eyes and put my cooking utensils down just long enough to hand-sign.

"So you're in the same boat," Cyborg smirked.

"Starfire has good taste," Raven droned. "At least the apron looks good on him."

Cyborg blinked. "It does?"

I bit my lip.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

An infamous redhead flew in, and dangling from her grasp—by a cape—was the Boy Wonder of legends.

"Star!! Come on!! Let me go!!!"

All three of us stared in numb perplexity as Robin struggled, kicked, and dangled from the Tamaranian's grip.

"Bear witness, friends!!" Starfire frowned and pointed at the helpless hero. "Does he not possess an unnatural fragrance reminiscent of dead grass and sweat??"

"For crying out loud!! I barely got my underarms dirty!! You're overreacting!! Now let me down!!"

"Negative!" she pouted and stared down at him. "You must travail upon relocating your person under the dispersement of water and soap cleanser!!"

"I do NOT smell!! I don't need to showe—"

"I know when Robin is not smelling like Robin should!!"

The Boy Wonder's eyemask twisted. "What?? Do you make a habit out of smelling me, Star??"

"I......erhm...............," the alien girl blushed.

Plop!!!

Robin was again standing on his boots. "That's better....," He brushed himself off and straightened his cape. "I swear...you're letting this dinner thing get way too deep into your head, Star."

"You're weak, man," Cyborg smirked at Robin.

"Go to Hell."

"Well, alright."

"Noir," Robin looked at me. "How's the meal going?"

I stirred with one hand and held up my metal fingers with an 'ok' symbol.

"Good," the Boy Wonder nodded. He smiled. "I've always enjoyed Japanese cuisine. Oh, nice apron by the way."

All but one of my metal fingers retracted.

"Ahem," he turned and looked at Cyborg and Raven. "I gotta admit...I'm going out on a limb with this one."

"Explain," Raven droned.

"Letting perfect strangers into the Tower."

Cyborg said: "They're not strangers. Noir knows them! Right, Noir?"

I smirked and nodded.

"And they are citizens of this City!" Starfire clasped her fingers together and spoke. "And for such a reason, we must be ready to present ourselves as honorable and beautifully as possible!"

"Relax, Starfire," Raven rolled her eyes. "It's not like they're royalty."

"Yeah, girl," Cyborg pointed. "Nova'm and Flipper are princes...and yet you got them doing cleaning duty."

Starfire folded her arms. "Nova'm is quite capable of understanding the necessity of cleanliness, preparedness, and—"

Cyborg sniffed. "Uh oh...rolly pollies? I think I smell rolly pollies?"

Starfire paused. "...............eh?"

"Yes! Rolly pollies and........um....pine needles! Don't you smell it, Raven?"

"Uhm........y-yeah."

"Like a whole heap of landscape!"

"Rolly polly invasion..."

"Must be Robin. He's carrying them in!" Cyborg pointed. "UNCLEAN!!"

"What???" Robin practically pratfalled.

"Eeek!!" Starfire clasped her hands together. "The atrocity!!"

YANK!!!

"Augh!!!" Robin cried out as his legs flew up from his body being dragged mid-air towards the elevator from Starfire's tugging.

"We must remedy the evil phalanx of pine needles!!"

"Starfire!!! Cut it out!! Rgghh...you guys!!!"

Schlump!!

I shook my head, smiled, and went on with the dinner.

"That was undeniably evil...," Raven.

"Wasn't it, though?" Cyborg smirked and leaned back against a wall. "Now I don't have to take a shower....."

"Heh...."

Nova'm flew in from the other room. He was completely soaked from the top of his head to the soiled feather duster in his hand. "Um...guys??" he sweatdropped. "I think I broke something while dusting the fire sprinklers like Kory asked me to."

"Ah son of a—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And assuming you were doing your business in here or something....just press this lever and.....viola!!"

With monotonous glory, the toilet in the seventh-story bathroom flushed.

"Ain't that simple or what?" Beast Boy smiled proudly at the Terran technology. He looked up at Tempest and folded his arms. "Well?"

".................................." The Atlantean stared.

A beat.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. He said: "You gonna start turning to stone yet? Or should I go fetch the cement mixture?"

"This is utterly ridiculous...," Tempest murmured.

"Excuse me?"

"Excuse yourself!" the new Titan jabbed a pointing finger. "How incredibly freakin' dumb!! This 'towel' whatchamacallit—"

"_Toilet."_

"Whatever. It's still using water! What's the difference? I swear...you brought me here over nothing."

"It's a heck of a good difference!!" Beast Boy cackled. "We don't go around squatting in the Ocean. At least the water we use can go where we want it to!"

"Oh yeah? Like where?"

"Pfft! The septic system!"

"Then where?"

"Uhm...the sewers!"

"And then?"

"..............," Beast Boy blinked. "Okay, now you're just stretching my head where it doesn't like being stretched, dude."

"Pfft. Hypocrites, I swear," Tempest shook his head with a humored look of disbelief. "You're torturing yourselves with all this dryness. Why not just do what we do? Create a cesspond in the corner of the community?"

"Look around you, Garth. You see fish swimming by your head? This ain't the sea. This is dry land. If you wanna be a good Titan, you gotta become a good citizen. And being a citizen of this place means learning to adapt so that you can eat like us, drink like us, sleep like us, and....and...." He glanced at the toilet. ".................like us."

"Rghhhhh," Tempest ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "I feel bits and pieces of me crumbling away already."

"Well that's as good a sign as any!" Beast Boy beamed.

Tempest's dark eyes narrowed as the water in the toilet bowl rose back up. "So...afterwards, what do Terrans do to................you know."

"Hmmm?" Beast Boy blinked. "Oh. Duh. Right." He turned and pointed. "There be salvation."

Tempest looked at the toilet paper roll. "..........you've got to be kidding me."

"What?" Beast Boy laughed. "Also a little too dry for you?"

Tempest stared at him.

"You have any idea what I'm talking about?"

".............."

A beat.

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Uh....okay. I am SO not doing your laundry from here on out, dude...."

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "'Laundry'??"

SWOOOSH!!!

Starfire flew into the bathroom, dragging Robin.

Tempest and Beast Boy flinched. "Augh!!" "Whoah!!"

Starfire and Robin screeched to a mid-air stop. "Eeek!!" "Dah!!!"

A moment to breathe...

"Whew....," Tempest exhaled. "This Tower is full of chaos, I swear...."

"Star? What's the deal??" Beast Boy inquired.

"I apologize. I do not mean to intrude," Starfire leaned her head to the side. "But you are blocking the shower stall to which Robin must have immediate access."

"Huh?"

"You guys gotta help me!!" Robin cackled.

"As much as I find this strangely pleasing," Beast Boy gestured...then oozed forth a grin. "I gotta ask.....what's going on?"

"Robin has failed to cleanse himself after sweaty labor outside of the Tower!!" Starfire exclaimed.

"For the last time! I don't smell!! Besides, I don't think Noir's friends would give a darn either way!!" Robin shook.

"Cease and desist!! The dirty rolly pollies are upon you!!"

"Just dump him in the bay," Tempest droned.

Whump! Beast Boy elbowed him.

"D'oh!! What this time???"

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Just drop the Robin, Star. Nobody needs to get hurt."

"Truly.....I am sorry, Robin. If anyone is capable of the mandatory cleansing of your own person, it is mandatory that I let you do it yourself."

Thwump!!

Robin stood on wobbly knees and shook his head. "I don't even want to know the implications of that last sentence..."

"Speak for yourself dude."

A beat.

Robin narrowed his eyemask towards the two guys. "Just what are you two doing in here anyways?"

Tempest lifted a finger. "Um...."

"He craps in the ocean!!" Beast Boy pointed.

Tempest fell down spontaneously. Thwump!!

"Er....huh??" Robin's face scrunched.

"Don't listen to him....," Tempest said, being helped back up to his feet by Starfire. "He spreads seditious libel."

"Uh uh, dude. This is the truth!!"

"What's the truth??"

Tempest coughed. "Why don't we...ya know...go upstairs and eat the guests....er, I-I mean eat with the guests.....that is..."

"Robin, they don't use toilets in Atlantis!" Beast Boy said. He leaned forward. _"They use the Ocean!!"_

"..........," Robin looked at Tempest.

Tempest pouted.

"............," the Boy Wonder shrugged. "Well...as long as Cyborg and I don't start finding little surprises in the corner."

"Hehehehehehe!!" Beast Boy almost toppled over.

Robin laughed.

Tempest planted his hands on his hips. "That's not funny!!!!"

"Hehehehe!!" Starfire jumped and clapped her hands. "Glorious!! The defecation revelation!"

Beast Boy did a double-take.

Robin bit his lip. "Uhm...."

"I do so remember the awkwardness of learning that Terran sanitation facilities lacked neutral-gravity-disentegrators!"

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"

Starfire smiled prettily. "Thankfully Robin was most eloquent in relating to me the idiosyncracies of the toilet process!!"

Robin suddenly hissed. "Shhh!!"

Beast Boy grinned. "Dude!! You potty-trained Star??"

"No!!" Robin's entire body flinched. "I....snkkt....it......I gave her a book!!" he gestured.

"A book, Robin?" Starfire leaned her head to the side and blinked. "I was under the impression that you wrote it!"

Beast Boy smacked his forehead. "You wrote her instructions?"

Robin nervously simpered and scratched the back of his head. "I don't think her memory's on par—"

"It certainly looked like your handwriting," Starfire insisted.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Beast Boy laughed.

Tempest smirked.

Robin pointed. "Look...she's from another world. She deserves some respect."

"Yes...extra soft, absorbant respect!" Beast Boy winked.

"I can't believe we're talking about this.........." Robin held his gloved hand over his face.

Starfire held her finger up towards the Changeling. "That was not dealt with until the eighth step in instructions, Beast Boy!"

"Nghhh!!" Robin had a heart attack.

"Eight steps???" Beast Boy gawked.

"Damn...."

Everyone looked at Tempest.

He waved his hands. "D-Don't mind me."

They looked at each other.

"Twelve steps completed the tutorial, to be precise," Starfire uttered. "Right, Robin?"

"Holy crap, Robin! You're like an obsessive-compulsive weapon of mass destruction!" Beast Boy cackled.

"'Holy crap'...that's pretty funny...heheh...," uttered Cyborg's voice.

Robin glanced at the doorway. "Since when were you here?"

The android Titan smirked. "Does it matter by this point?"

"Now that I think about it, got any cyanide pills?"

Beast Boy walked between the two. "Welcome to the madness, dude," he dramatically gestured in front of Cyborg like a game show announcer. "Titan Toilet Day!"

"Hooray!" Starfire jumped.

Tempest broke in, pointing bitterly at the toilet. "Cyborg....be honest...do you actually use this thing??"

"Nah, dawg. I got a tube."

"Just tell us why you're here, Cyborg...," Robin moaned. "I have nothing else to live for by this point."

"Count me in on that," Tempest waved.

"Oh....no big reason," Cyborg said. "Only the sprinkler system on the observation deck has exploded.

"What?!?!" the Boy Wonder barked.

"And the guests have driven up to the Tower."

SWOOOSH-THWUMP!!! Starfire shoved Robin out of the way and gripped Cyborg by the titanium collarbones. "What?!?!"

**Ding-Dong!**

"Eeek!!" Starfire pulled at her red hair. "Eeekness omega!!"

"Nnghh....what do you mean the sprinkler system's exploded?"

"Supremely kaputz, man."

"It was Nova'm, wasn't it?"

"How'd you know, B.B.?"

"Cuz I'm right here and I know I didn't do it."

"What's a sprinkler system? Another hypocritical use of water?"

"What the hell are you talking about??"

"Guys!! Let me through!! I need to see if there's any damage—"

"It's just the observation deck, Robin! Nothing but concrete and dust bunnies! We hardly even use the damn thing!"

"Please! Friends! Subtract your colorful figures of speech to a minimum!! We have guests and thus it is not prime season for offending anyone or anything!!"

"Calm down, Star. Cyborg...get out of the way!!"

"I can't! I have a schizophrenic Tamaranian in the way!!"

"Hey, while we're all here....let's say we clean out the shower drain—"

**"Shut up!!!"**

"Sheesh, dudes!! You know while we clump around in here like total imbeciles, we've got two innocent folks waiting endlessly at the door—"

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

A blur of murk rushed down the hallway.

Everyone flinched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I huffed.

I puffed.

I streaked down the hallways the fastest my murk-empowered legs could carry me. I teleported through cracks in doors, glided down stairwells, bounced from wall-to-wall, slid down a banister or two lining some stairs, ran into the atrium, screeched to a stop in front of the huge doors, straightened my dangling black bangs, took a breath, and jammed my finger over the wall panel.

-click-

CHTUNG!!!!!! Whurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-CLANK!!!

The huge doors opened.

Daniel whistled. "Wow....like Nasa..." He was dressed in slacks, a white shirt, and a thin plaid overshirt unbuttoned and hanging around his figure. (_Whew......casual........................or at least I think that's casual......)_ "Well hey there!!"

Renee was a little red as she smiled and waved a hand. "I hope we're not too early or anything." She was looking a bit more.......'special'. She wore a princess-blue blouse with a matching skirt that hung low around her prettily sandled feet. "Traffic on the bridge to this island is.....well....kinda null."

I smiled warmly.

"............," both of their eyes traveled down me.

"???" I glanced down. I still had the damn apron on. I blushed furiously and turned myself into smoke form just long enough for the apron to fall 'through' me. I kicked it away with casual foot, cleared my voice, and waved nervously.

"Hehehe...so this is what you're like when you're caught off guard."

I rolled my eyes under my shades. I walked aside and motioned for them to walk inside.

They did so....slowly. Pensively.

"Man...," Daniel muttered as he looked all around the spacious interior, arm-in-arm with Renee. "This is....like the stuff of legends."

I smiled proudly.

"Kinda feels like it was built for an elephant herd, though."

"Pfft! Danny!" Renee shoved him.

"I'm just saying!!" he smirked and shrugged. "It's a really big!! I bet you could fit a billion college students in this room alone. Or better yet....," he glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't there supposed to be teens in this Tower?"

I held a finger up. I stretched my metal arm out. With my right hand, I gripped the disc where the prosthetic was attached to my figure. I turned a switch. I clicked morse code using two of my left fingers. I turned the switch back. I waited....waited....waited...waited...

The elevator doors opened.

With a sighing sound, Raven stepped out. "Guess everyone but me is scrambling to do something at the last second, as usual."

I looked sad. I pointed at myself.

"You're perfect, Noir. You don't count."

I smirked.

"Hey.....I know you....," Daniel pointed. "You're that gothic one. Crowette? Blackbirda?"

".........," Raven blinked from where she stood. "Keep guessing. It amuses me."

"Raven...," Renee ruined it. She stood before the dark girl and seemed to curtsy. "It's an honor meeting the Titans. Personally—from what I see on the news and interviews and such—you've always struck me as the most mature and well-rounded of the team."

A beat.

Raven looked at me. "And you haven't introduced these two to us before because.....?"

I snickered breathily.

"Hi, I'm Daniel," the appropriate one waved. He hugged an arm around his wife's shoulder. "And this is my angel, Renee."

Renee giggled and pointed at Daniel while winking at Robin. "And he's my demon."

Raven smirked ever so slightly. "I'll be the judge of that."

"Daah!! Robin!! Keep shoving!! I'm telling you, I need to---"

Robin pushed Beast Boy into the room from a side hallway. Tempest was with them.

"Just go already, B.B.," the Boy Wonder frowned. "You don't need to show them your tofu-tossing trophies this early."

"But it's my trademark! Besides being a Titan and a dead child-star....ahem....I gotta show them my renown in some category—" He nearly bumped into the couple. "Yikes!"

Raven yanked him back.

"At ease."

Beast Boy blinked. "Hey.....they're cool looking."

Daniel chuckled. "Thanks. Say....you're an elf!"

"Huh? Oh yeah. On occasion," Beast Boy shrugged. "I can't be in _true_ human form or else I risk dying of a terribly rare African disease, so 'elf-form' will have to do. Some scientists think I'm living proof of an elder race that existed before homo sapiens. After all, the only way I can assume any organic form is by borrowing the genuine genetic DNA sequence of—"

"The ears are so cute!!" Renee giggled.

"...........," Beast Boy blinked. He blushed furiously and nearly melted back in Raven's arms. "Eh heheheheheheh........pleeeeeeeeeeease tell me you're a fan girl!"

I cleared my throat.

Daniel raised a suspicious eyebrow.

"............oh right," Beast Boy snapped out of it. "You're both married."

"Yes."

"Darn it!! I'm so confused!! Imagine, I was expecting lesbians—WHOAH!!!" PLOP!!

Raven dropped him.

"Don't mind him," she droned. "Beast Boy's inferior."

"Ah."

"Okay."

Robin walked forward, smirking and extending a gloved hand. "Welcome to Titan's Tower. I'm Robin."

"Trust me. We know," Daniel gripped his hand and shook it. "Former Gotham City fodder. That's us."

"No kidding??" Robin smiled wider. "Where at? The docksides...the downtown...the suburbs....??"

"Downtown. Middle District, thank gawd."

"Yes," Renee added. "Only half the sewers are steaming at night there."

"Man...that's tough," Robin spoke. "But still...pretty lucky. I found myself in two gang battles just a few blocks east of that. And I think I nabbed Killer Croc in a Starbucks along with Nightwing just a week before I came here."

"Man...you were everywhere. We always appreciated the crazy heroism of you guys," Daniel emphatically said. "And we still do. We still do."

"World's longest handshake...," Raven said.

Beast Boy giggled.

Robin and Daniel glanced at themselves...then stepped apart.

"Ahem..."

"Welcome to the...uhm...City...."

"We wouldn't have been here if it weren't for you guys. On many occasions."

"Really?" Robin glanced at me. "I'm sure we have lots to learn."

I simpered.

Suddenly, Robin's communicator vibrated.

"Excuse me..." He flipped the device open with a Star Trek sound. "Nani?"

"_Rob......are they here or are they not?"_

"Is that the Cyborg?" Daniel whispered.

Robin spoke: "Yeah, they're here. Why not be polite and come down to say hi—"

_"Just bring them up here, man. The food's gettin' cold and—"_

"_Eek! I am here!! I hope my latency is not too heinous---where is everybody?"_

"_They're downstairs, Star. But don't worry. They're coming—DAH! Star...get dressed!!"_

"I am......attempting......to do that!!"

"_But do it in your room! Damn!!"_

"There is no available time to do it comfortably within the abode of my domain!! Now assist me with the zipper!!"

"Raven?? If you're hearing this....it's not what you think—"

Clamp!!

Raven reached over and shut the communicator closed. She stared at everyone.

"It's not what I think...," she droned.

"How about we....take our time in going up there?" Robin simpered.

"Great idea...though not quite as fun," Beast Boy smirked.

Tempest motioned for Daniel and Renee to go on ahead. "After you two. Neptune knows, I'm so new here that even you two must know your way around."

They laughed pleasantly and walked on.

Tempest winked at me.

I smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes later...

SCHWIIISH!!

In the Main Room, Nova'm spun to look at us.

"Oh hey!! They're here, Cyborg!!" he waved pleasantly with work-beat fingers. "Hi there, everybody!"

Renee and Daniel stepped out of the elevator first. They could have spent their time staring—awestruck—at the legendary interior of the Titans Main Room...but instead they approached Nova'm and uttered:

"Hi there, M-Mister...."

"Nova'm," he smiled pleasantly. "I haven't memorized my Tamaranian household name yet. I think Kory's got it written down somewhere."

Renee glanced back at Robin. "You're inducting kids left and right now, aren't you?"

Tempest walked in, eyebrow raised. "Kids??"

"Oh....this is Starfire's......um........Well, let's just say they're cousins," Robin walked by and patted Nova'ms shoulder. "He's been visiting us lately, though his vacation time is coming to a close."

"Yeah," Beast Boy waved. "He's like Titan Lite."

Nova'm folded his arms. "Yeah well......I have and can still kick butt."

Daniel smiled at his wife. "I didn't know sidekicks could have sidekicks."

"Hey!!"

I chuckled breathily.

"Not all of the Titans have been sidekicks in the past, sir," said an elegant voice from the other side of the room. "Only a small fraction."

Renee and Daniel looked over.

"Oh....hello."

"N-Nice to meet you."

Robin smiled and turned around. "I was wondering where you'd be, Star. After all that preparation it'd be a crime for you not to.......show......" He blinked under his mask.

Tempest stopped....glanced at Robin....then glanced at Starfire.... ".....oh, I see how it is."

"Took you this long, dude?"

Tempest shrugged and walked past Starfire...who was wearing what looked like a red-pink prom dress. It was a reflective gown.....thing that fell delicately around her ankles.

"I do apologize about any awkwardness," Starfire said, her gloved hands clasped together. "I realized that it would be inappropriate to greet company in a fashion other than respectful and—"

"Um....Starfire?" Raven floated over. She whispered: "_You really didn't have to......"_

The alien girl bit her lip. "Very well. Give me a second." She then proceeded to grip the corners of her dress and pull—

Raven grabbed Starfire's hands. "Ahem. You know what? Forget about it..."

"A-Allright...."

Cyborg stepped up. "Hello there. The name's Cyborg. How're you doing?"

Daniel found himself looking up. "Excellent, sir. And...might I say....that red eye is very.........red."

"I got a lot more parts of me that blink and glow," Cyborg held a thumb's up. "When I was a kid, I always loved showing off my toys to houseguests. These days...I just show myself off."

"Ha ha ha ha."

"Eh heh heh heh...," Renee laughed...then cleared her throat. "How quaint."

"Ahem....," Beast Boy walked over and gestured. "This egotistical bucket of bolts is Cyborg. Around here we call him.....Cyborg."

"Hi...," Cyborg held a hand out.

Daniel shook it. "You guys have him programmed well."

"Ah ha ha ha ha......ahem....," Cyborg's human eye narrowed. "I program myself...."

"R-Right....of course...," Daniel sweatdropped.

Cyborg glanced over. "Got yourself a couple of winners, Noir!"

I smiled. I gestured to Robin for something----I froze.

Robin was still gazing at Starfire.

"...........," I waved my metal hand in front of his face.

"Huh? Oh...uhm....right," Robin slapped his gloved hands together and rubbed them. "Japanese time?"

"Japanese??" Renee glanced over the counter of the kitchen unit and saw the meal prepared. "Oooh....I like."

"Wuh oh...," Daniel made a humored face.

"What??" Renee gave him a look.

"Them's the warning signs."

"Pffft....the last four months have been NOTHING but warning signs."

"Nausea, mood swings, and exotic cravings...," Daniel winked at Tempest. "I've been counting them off."

Tempest shrugged.

"Uh....I'm afraid I'm lost," Beast Boy simpered.

"She's pregnant," Raven sipped from a sudden cup of tea by the kitchen counter.

"Eeep!" Renee blushed and hugged herself. "How'd you know?? Please don't tell me I have a pooch already!! I thought this dress would hide it—"

"You don't have a pooch," Raven smiled slightly. "As a result of my powers, I'm extra sensitive to life energy. You have an aura about you. I sensed it the moment I first walked out into the atrium."

"Magnificent!" SWOOSH!!! Starfire floated over in her gown and hovered before a startled Renee. "You are embarking on a magical journey of precious sanctity and glory!!"

"Uhh....y-yeah...," Renee chuckled nervously. "Should you be flying around in a dress—Ack!"

Starfire knelt down and hugged Renee—gently—with her Tamaranian temple placed against the visiting woman's tummy. "Heeeeee!! The gift of life is so amazing!! I can almost feel the child's spirit already!!"

Robin and Cyborg discreetly cleared their throats, walked over, and pulled the Tamaranian girl away.

"Don't mind her," Cyborg winked.

"She's not from around here...," Robin added.

"Yeah....," Daniel rubbed the back of his neck.

Renee blinked. She smiled at Daniel. "She's cute."

"Yes....," Raven groaned. "Very cute...."

"Oh this is a fabulous evening!! One filled with life and happiness!!" Starfire held her fingers together and cooed.

Robin patted her shoulder. "There there, Star. Let's just give the couple some breathing room—YAACK!!"

She plowed into him with a hug. "Oh Robin!! I am so happy!! Are you not?? Heheheheeeee!!"

Robin wheezed.

"Is he going to be.....okay?" Daniel asked.

"It may look like he's suffocating, but—" Beast Boy pointed. A beat. "Okay...so he's suffocating. But it's O.K. We're all used to it."

".............."

Beast Boy jumped, beaming. "Who's for grub??"

I silently led the way.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so we couldn't go out that night because Commissioner Gordon had set up a curfew for the City and everyone had to be inside at sundown because Man-Bat was out on the loose again. Daniel and I had forgotten about this, and it was less than an hour before sundown. Daniel had just planned on visiting me after school, but we got so busy talking and stuff that we lost track of time. He said he couldn't leave my family's apartment to get back home because it'd take him until past-sundown to bike there. And this was a problem because my mom and dad—especially at the time—are really strict. They didn't want me having _any_ boys over. They thought it was bad news."

"To her parents, Donny Osmond is Alice Cooper's twin."

"_Daniel, shhh!!!_ Anywho. So Daniel gets the idea of sleeping out on the fire escape. Of course I tell him that that's stupid because he'd still be 'outside' overnight. It's crazy enough to try sleeping out there...much less with the fact that he'd be high above ground and a prime target for the Man-Bat. But Daniel had it all planned out. He crawled outside the moment my parents got home. And—hehe—we even had some time to chat and say our 'I-love-yous' before bedtime. But...like...in the middle of the night I hear this tapping on the window. A-And I almost feel like shrieking my head off cuz I think it's the Man-Bat. Turns out it's Daniel. I open the window and there he is—shivering—saying that it's too cold outside!! And I was like, 'Chyeah!!' But—being the good angel that I am—"

"Gawd she was cruel."

"Rrghhh!! _Shut up!!_ Hehehe! Ahem....being a nice girl, I let him in...but only if he agreed to sleep in my closet so my parents wouldn't walk in on him and think the worse. But—turns out—he began _snoring_ in there!! And my closet is just a wall away from my parents' bedroom!!"

"Cramped as Hell, I tell you what. The girl had like a million shoes she didn't wear."

"Three times that very same night, my dad comes in with a flashlight...thinking there are rats in the wall. I about lost it the third time when he actually opened the closet door and looked inside!! Thankfully, he didn't see him...and the next morning, Daniel ran away faster than I could kick him out. It's a wonder that I ever let him ask me to the dance the following weekend. Though—I must say—for a high school kid his age he had a pretty handsome chin after a day without shaving."

A good number of us applauded from across the dinner table filled with assorted dishes of Japanese cuisine.

"Wow..."

"Glorious tale!!"

"That's a really cool story."

"Hahaha! Dude, that's rich!"

"......" I clapped, smiling.

Renee blushed. Beside her, Daniel was finishing his plate.

At the far side of the table, Tempest kept staring at his silverware with perplexity.

Raven was eating her meal....like a bird.

"How'd you not get caught?" Nova'm asked Daniel.

Daniel swallowed with aide of a glass of water and said: "Renee had this really bigass New Kids on the Block poster that was just perfect for me to hide under."

"Ooooh," Cyborg winced.

"Man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, I guess...," Robin smiled.

"Yeah. I tell you what," Daniel winked. "There are fates worse than death."

"Tell me about it," Raven said.

Beast Boy and Cyborg laughed.

I ate meekly and sat back...merely listening....

"Yeah...that Man-Bat...," Robin pointed. "He didn't last very long. But then again, he never really was much of a villain to begin with. He was just an on/off freak of science."

"I don't care," Renee shuddered. "He creeped the heck out of me."

"Just you??" Daniel cackled.

"Interesting fact though...," Robin spoke. "The last time Batman fought against the Man-Bat, it was actually a Woman-Bat."

"Really??"

"Well fancy that."

"So wait....," Beast Boy pointed. "Those last few photos taken of the Man-Bat was actually a she-thing?"

"Yup."

"But it looked shirtless, dude!! I never saw anything!!"

"Yeah. Nice that the extra hair took care of that."

Beast Boy blinked. "Ewww!! Gross!! Bleah!! Not at the table, dude!!"

Starfire smiled, holding up a cup in her shimmering glove. "The Regorks of Vasculon Ceti Five are quite the hairy species of humanoids. At age twelve, Regorkan girls are already shaving their mammory glands. I cannot imagine something more unpleasant."

"Whoah...you mean to same alien neighbor chicks to our planet have natural bras??" Nova'm gasped.

Starfire winced. "That is.....a c-crude way of expressing it. But, affirmative."

Nova'm winced. "Brrrr....after hearing that, I'm glad to be a prince....even if it means inbreeding."

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Say Star...not that we mind you bein' twice as pretty and all...but you don't have to dress so elegant for our account. Why don't you go jump into your regular threads? No need to accidentally get some of that food on that."

"You need not be concerned, Cyborg," Starfire smiled. "This is but...." She glanced at Raven. "....'wash of the hog'?"

"Don't ask me. I don't watch VH1."

"I've had this article for a while, and it has served its purpose," Starfire said, taking another bite of food."

"What purpose would that be?" Cyborg smirked.

"She wore it on the Killer Moth mission," Robin explained.

".............," Cyborg stared at Robin.

The Boy Wonder emphasized: "You know......Kitten and the cruise ship? The 'Date With Destiny' Prom?"

"Ohhhhhhhhh," Cyborg nodded. A beat. He snickered. "You're still calling that a _mission_, man??"

Robin glared.

"I'm curious to hear how you and Noir all met up," Raven managed to say.

Renee and Daniel looked my way.

I smirked. I hand-signed.

Cyborg finished his last sip of a glass and swallowed in time to verbally translate: "'They attacked me with a band of Arabian knights'.......say what???"

"We did not!!" Renee barked.

I leaned back, chuckling breathily.

"Obviously someone isn't very good about reminiscing...," Daniel glared. He focused on the other Titans and explained: "We ran into Noir late one night in the Bayside Plaza about four and a half months ago."

"Good grief...," Cyborg blinked. "That was just around the time he joined us. You guys have almost known him as much as we have."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Daniel smirked. His hand snaked up and gently wrapped around his wife's wrist as he gently said: "It was within days of night you all saved us."

"Hmm?" Beast Boy looked up.

"We saved you??" Starfire spoke.

"And what's strangely beautiful about it is that you people aren't even aware of it," Renee said. She sighed and smiled. "It's amazing. Heroes have no time to sit down and just realize how much of a blessing you all are. So many lives are saved thanks to you."

"Hey...we're more than willing to lend a hand," Beast Boy said. A pause. "Or a paw, or a hoof, or a flipper, or a—"

A roll of sushi lifted up telekinetically and plugged Beast Boy's mouth closed.

"Mmmmmfff!!"

Lowering her hand, Raven said: "What did we do in your case?"

"Bet Noir knows," Cyborg winked. "That's how he's known you all this time, huh?"

I simpered.

"Do you remember the last time you confronted the creature called Fang?" Renee asked.

"Yes," Robin nodded. "We were called upon to help transport him through the prison."

"Er....I-I mean the time before that," Renee blushed.

Robin glanced around at the others. He leaned forward. "Ahem....Fang had escaped from prison and was running around the City, trying to strike vengeance against us. He managed to paralyze Noir, who would have been dead by now if it weren't for the intervention of three citizens named—"

"No no no...not that time," Renee ran a hand through her hair. "Jeez...how many times has Fang gotten loose?"

Daniel stepped up to the plate. "Remember the battle in front of the old cathedral??"

Starfire gasped and clapped her hands together. "Of course!! It was the last great battle before Control Freak's final imprisonment." She blinked and looked sad. "When poor Robin was kidnapped and threatened at nerd-point."

"Yeah, well, I made it out okay, Star—" WHUMP!!!

Starfire hugged him. Their chairs leaned precariously against each other.

"And I am so elated that you did emerge safely!!!"

"Nnnghhh—Star!! Cut it out!!"

"Kory...," Nova'm grumbled and looked away. "You're embarrassing meeeee...."

"Ahem," Raven stared over at the guests. "We remember."

"Before you chased Fang down to the Cathedral front...," Renee explained, "...you drove him out of a pawn shop."

"Yeah...that's right," Cyborg nodded.

"Well, that was our pawn shop," Daniel explained.

"No kiddin'!" Cyborg smirked at me. "All this time you've been sneaking visits with a two-person fan club!!"

I gave him a sarcastic smirk. I hand-signed back.

"Right...gotcha," the android nodded. He looked at Renee and Daniel. "I correct myself. 'Friend club'."

"Hehe....'friend club'.....cute....," Renee smiled.

"Well...we met Noir shortly after that," Daniel said. "He was...like...asleep on a bench. I think he was in the middle of one of his walks."

"So that's what you do!!" Beast Boy smirked.

I stuck my tongue out.

"We knew all about the original five Titans of course," Renee said. She gestured. "The Boy Wonder. Starfire the Tamaranian. Beast Boy the Changeling. The Mysterious Raven. The Titanium Cyborg..."

"Sounds like wrestling names," Nova'm said.

Starfire elbowed him.

"Owie!!"

"But nobody was really certain about Noir yet," Renee spoke. "Some people were scared, actually. I-I mean...the guy runs around with a sword and....does 'smoke' stuff. It was wyrd."

I folded my arms with a proud smirk.

"But it's safe to say...," Daniel smiled. "...that we got to know the real him long before the press."

"Yeah, well...," Beast Boy switched his hand into a squid tentacle, stretched it over, and held my hand up. "So did we. So nya!!"

"Hehehehehe!!"

"Hah hah hah!!"

I shook the tentacle loose.

"No inhuman limbs at the table, Beast Boy."

"I know...I know. Better not shove sushi in my mouth again. Ya know—I may be a vegetarian—but you'd better be damned glad I'm not Hindu."

"The idea of you being reborn ten-thousand times is horrific," Raven droned.

"Would it make you happy if I turned atheist?"

"It'd make me happy if you shut up."

"Uh oh!" Beast Boy mock gasped. "It's pratfall time!!"

Raven made a face. "Huh??"

SLIP!! A hidden tentacle stealthily yanked her chair out from under her.

"YAAK!!" Raven fell hard to the floor. WHUMP!!!

"Uh oh..." Cyborg blinked.

"Gang way!!!" Beast Boy bounded—giggling insanely—towards the elevator doors beyond the dining table.

"Gang way is **right**," Raven floated up. Her eyes glowed evilly and her cloak billowed around her as she lifted various foodstuffs up in a threatening manner and prepared to toss them at the scampering changeling. "You shall be lucky to again see the light of day!!!"

"Aaaaiiieeee!!" Renee and David held each other in fright.

"Eeek!!" Starfire flinched.

".........," Nova'm sighed dreamily.

"Raven!! Calm down!! Try killing Beast Boy when we don't have _guests!!_"

But Raven gritted her teeth and was prepared to launch a burning volley of sushi and rice and---

"I got it!!!!!"

Everything froze.

Everybody looked at Tempest. Even the half-fleeing Beast Boy and the demonic Raven.

The Atlantean proudly held up a clump of sushi at the end of his fork. "It's like a trident!! See??" he bit the fishmeat of the fork. He swallowed. A beat. He felt all the eyes on him. He moaned. "What now??"

"Uh....dude?" Beast Boy pointed. "You're supposed to use chopsticks."

"............," Tempest glanced from his fork to the wooden utensils on a napkin. He groaned and dropped the silverwear altogether. "Bah! To Hades with it then." He leaned his chin on a bored hand. "What now??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Plank!!"

"Log!!"

"Rectangular solid!!"

I shook my head. I dramatically straightened my body where I stood besides the chalkboard. I craned my neck aside and put on a 'statuesqe' expression.

The others formed a semicircle before me on the couch and a few chairs in the Main Room...but mainly the couch.

"Uhhhh...telephone pole!!"

"Mannequin!!"

"Shut up, B.B.!! Uhh...a cucumber!!"

"Mannequin with dark glasses on!!"

"Man!! That ain't right!!"

I grabbed my ponytail of long hair and pulled it up and adjusted my bangs haphazardly so that it looked like I was wearing an old fashion 'wig'. I tried a George Washington pose.

"Gotta give us more hints, Noir!" Robin said.

I groaned. I rubbed my chin. I brightened and drew my best 'duck' on the chalkboard.

"Water fowl!!" Starfire shouted.

I shook my head.

"That's too obvious, Star."

"Oh, my the bad. A water fowl that is crudely drawn by a metal hand!!"

"......," I paused. I shook that off and drew an arrow at the bird's mouth.

"Myxomatosis!!" Daniel shouted.

"Bwa ha ha!!"

"Beak!!"

"No, Bill!!"

I smiled and pointed at Robin.

"Bill!! Bill!!"

I nodded. I put a number 'one' over the duck, circled it, drew a division line, and held up two fingers.

"Okay."

"Second word!"

"Come on..."

I 'flapped wings' under my chin and moved my head around like a super-deformed creature. I opened my mouth repeatedly to make simulate 'caw' sounds.....mutely of course.

"Uh...a bat!" Nova'm said.

"Mentor!!"

"Man Wonder!"

"A hard act to follow!!"

"Okay, guys...knock it off," Robin pouted.

Beast Boy snickered.

I continued the ridiculous pantomime.

"Linda Blair's head??" Renee bit her lip.

"Close one, honey," Daniel chuckled.

"Looks like my first boyfriend, actually."

"Yes!!" Daniel pumped his arm.

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.....and went to the drawing board.

"Yeah, Noir. You're the worst pantomime ever," Beast Boy snickered.

I stuck my tongue at him and startred drawing a highway causeway...followed by a honeybee. I illustrated a 'plus' sign between the two and slashed the causeway in half with a jagged line of chalk. I pointed at it.

"Bridge!!"

I shook my head.

"Street! Road! Boulevard!!"

"Stop hogging the guesses, Cyborg!"

"Make me, little man!!"

I kept jabbing my finger at the illustration.

"Um...avenue...onramp....," Robin shrugged.

I pointed at him.

"Onramp??"

"Causeway!!" Daniel jumped.

I nodded. I held my finger up. I pointed at it again.

"Causewa—"

I snapped. I mouthed the first part of it...rolling my tongue...motioning Daniel along.

"Causew—"

I snapped.

I repeated.

"Cause—"

I snapped.

"Cause—"

I gave a thumb's up.

"Cause??"

"Dude...where's this going??" Beast Boy was stumped.

Starfire smiled. "A water fowl is taking an onramp towards honey!!"

Everyone groaned.

'"Bill Cosby'...," Raven droned. She wasn't even looking at me or the board. Her nose was in a vampire book the whole time.

Everyone groaned.......louder.

Myself included....my shoulders sagging.

"Is that it, man??" Cyborg rubbed his head. "'Bill Cosby'?"

I sighed. I nodded with a weak smile.

"Damn....tough one."

"Darn it, Raven!" Beast Boy pouted. "That's the third time in the row that you've ruined it! I thought you weren't even _playing!_"

"I can't help it," she smiled ever so slightly. "You're all making Noir look so ridiculous."

I gave her a wyrd look from afar.

"Have to agree with her on that," said Tempest from the faraway kitchen counter.

"Oh....go soak your head, flipper."

The Atlantean folded his arms and smirked.

"Wow...," Renee giggled. "You're all just a bunch of kids...aren't you??"

"I beg to differ," Raven said.

"Allright...," Robin raised his gloved hands. "I know we're still testy after digesting supper and all...but let's try something a bit more...I dunno...fair?"

"Fair??"

"Exactly," the Titan leader and sudden 'host' nodded and said: "Something that all of us can enjoy in equal...mature fashion..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Forty minutes later...

"Dude!! I got the flag!! Cover me!!"

"How do you steer this thing??"

"Just point in the direction that you're facing—WAAH!! How'd I get pawned??!?! Aw crap....sniper bullet!! ROBIN!!!"

"Ehehehehehehehe," Robin hung his tongue out evilly as he gripped the Xbox controller and started sniping at the enemy's warthog next. "Master Chief...consider yourself Master Fodder!!!"

"Daaugh!! Third time in a row!!" Daniel shouted. "Respawn already!! I need to get 'Stone' back!! Who's 'Stone' anyways??"

"That's me, man," Cyborg smirked.

The four boys—er—three boys and a man camped around the Main Room t.v., playing a blown-up game of Halo capture-the-flag. Nova'm sat on the top of the couch beside them.

"Awww...come on, guys!! Can't I play??"

"It's rated _'M'_, Squirt."

"I know. But Cyborg! I'm sitting here watching it, aren't I??"

"Innocence is broken through touch, man. Not by sight."

"Heh. Speak for yourself."

"I do speak for myself!"

"..........oh.......well........speak for yourself AGAIN!! I dare you!!"

"Not now...not now...not _now!!_" Cyborg stood up. "Ah yeah!! Who's got whose flag now, dawg??"

"Is he in our base already???" Daniel cackled.

"Uh....yeah, dude."

"Crap! He's fast!"

"No, you're a nooby!! Just follow me and—um—let me handle the rocket launchers."

"Awww...but those things are cool!!"

"Yeah...it was especially cool when you BLEW ME UP TWO MINUTES AGO!!"

"Hey! Be a hero!! No shouting at civilians!!"

"Bah! Civilian! You're running around with a handful of frag grenades dude—NO!!! SNIPER AGAIN!!!"

"Bwa ha ha ha!!!" Robin beamed. "I am the Assassin Wonder!!!"

"That's it, Robin!! Boo-Ya!! Flag captured!! We are SO kicking ass!!"

I smirked from where I stood on the sidelines, leaning back against the wall. I shuffled playing cards nonchalantly in my hand. I glanced at the other side of the room—past a bored looking Tempest—at where the girls sat. Literally.

"Boys will be boys...," Renee shook her head. She glanced over at Starfire and Raven. "Even superboys."

"'Super' being used lightly...," Raven flipped a page in her book.

Starfire smiled, her hands in her lap. "I like your dress, Renee."

"Hehehe. Yours is very pretty too, Miss Starfire. Robin said you wore that on a _mission_?"

"Oh...yes...," Starfire blushed and scratched the back of her neck. "A very fascinating mission too."

".......I see....."

"It burdened me to hear that Killer Moth had escaped again a few Earth months ago. But I need not have been complacent for long. Beast Boy, Noir, and Cyborg took care of that situation."

"The opera thingy in Westhaven, right?" Renee leaned her head to the side. "The place where that illegal weapons arm dealer came from?"

"You sure do pay a lot to Titan affairs," Raven smirked slightly.

"I can't help it," Renee smiled with a shrug. "Oftentimes, Titan affairs are our affairs."

"Quite true," Starfire nodded.

"Daniel and I were especially troubled shortly after that business in Westhaven. Remember when Blake Glover the reporter was on a burning crusade to stop you guys?"

"Yes...," Raven spat. "I do."

Renee bit her lip. "We thought it was awful. Noir was still new then. A crowd of people got mad and threw a bottle at him."

"...........," Raven glanced up. "I did not know that."

"You didn't?" Renee asked.

"...........," Raven slowly shook her head.

"B-But I thought Noir radioed you the night that happened and—"

"If there's anything we've all learned about Noir is that we don't hear his voice. But in the occasion that we are graced with his words...he's very 'selective' about what he says. Even more so than Robin, believe it or not." Raven glanced across the room silently. "He's the most mysterious out of all of us."

Renee blinked. "Wow....but I thought—"

"I could get into an exposition about my past," Raven spoke. "I have done so with most everyone here. But it is a time-consuming story." A pause. "And not a very 'happy' one."

"..........," Renee looked over at Starfire.

The girl slowly nodded.

"You people are so young...," Renee hugged herself. "How could you have gone through....so much bad stuff?"

"Pain is relative," Raven flipped a page. "Noir understands that as much as I do. While he lives with his secrets, I live with my repressions. Robin's solution is a lot like Noir's. He hides behind a mask—not that there's anything wrong with it; it's a vigilante's code. But sometimes it's a naked contrast against Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Starfire...who will not hesitate to relate about their true selves."

Starfire smiled. "I am....very open."

"Y-Yeah...," Renee winked.

Starfire giggled.

"But...a-at least you guys are there for each other, right?" Renee asked.

Raven gazed across the room. Her eyes fell on someone's titanium shoulders. Cyborg's laughter filled the room as he stole another flag in the game.

"I mean...you're all friends till the end. With all your secrets and stuff...you still have ways of showing that you truly, deeply care for each other...I-I can only hope!"

"..........," Raven faced her book again. "Yeah...."

"............"

"............"

"Okay, dudes!!" Beast Boy jumped up. "This isn't working either!! I have one last idea to set the night on fire!!"

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"Stand back!!" the changeling cackled. He lit the match, held it to the fuse, and ran across the Tower rooftop right as the sparks went off. The fuse burned into the body of the bottle rocket and--

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!! CRA-KOW!!!!!!

Purple and red light bloomed overhead.

The top of the Tower was lit up under the shroud of night.

"Oooooooooh," Starfire was lying back with her head in the lap of a cross-legged Robin. "Pretty working fire!!"

Robin chuckled and patted her head of hair. "Fireworks. Remember?"

"I do not only remember, I bear witness once again!! Hehehe!!"

"Light another one, B.B.!!" Nova'm said from where he floated.

"Only Titans can call me 'B.B.'!" Beast Boy scowled. He got another bottle rocket. "Good thing I saved these since I moved up from Florida..."

"You're Floridian?" Cyborg asked from where he stood against the stairwell. Raven floated beside him.

"Isn't everybody at one time or another?" Beast Boy winked. He lit the fuse. He ran back. "Head's up!!"

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!! POW!!!

Orange and yellow.

"Ooooooooh."

"Nice!!"

Tempest smirked. "I suppose some things _do_ work better in dry air." He glanced over at me. "Bet King Orin has never seen stuff like this!"

I merely smiled back. I never told anyone....but....I had to close my eyes everytime a flash of fireworks exploded. My eyes just weren't built for the spectacle. Shades or no shades.

But it would be wrong to say I didn't enjoy the evening. The incoming freshness and coolness in the air was ever-present that evening. I took a deep breath and felt like I was floating. A gentle wind kicked at my hair and made me want to sigh and gasp at the same time.

I looked over at Renee and Daniel. The couple seemed uniquely detached from the rest of the Titans at that present moment and time. The whole evening they had been conversing with one of us at some time or another. They had been happily distracted so often and for so long that—now—all they did was sit down and lean against each other. They sat neck and neck. Eyeing the fireworks. Warm and whole.

My black eyes narrowed.

I thought back to the first night I saw them. The simple cup of coffee at the Steak N' Shake in the downtown district. How close they were to tears because Fang had nearly destroyed their lives before the Titans and I intervened. From the very beginning of our friendship, I had known that I was more or less responsible for their well-being. I never let it get to my head or anything, but it did fill me with a sense of goodness and happiness that I had taken part in a couple's salvation.

Renee was going to have a baby—come five months or so. My breath left me as I suddenly warped half a year into the future and saw their little boy or girl gracing oxygen for the first time and....

Right there and then...I felt something which I hadn't felt in a long time. It was a feeling I hadn't tasted of since long before I made my melancholy, westward trip that landed me in the Titans' lap.

_Immortality........._

SWIIIIIIIIIIIISH-BANG!!!

"Hehehehe!!"

"Boo-ya!! That one was awesome!!"

"Hang on, dudes!! I got three more!!"

I took a painful breath, hugged myself, and smiled.

I saw Renee and Daniel leaning against each other.

I saw Tempest looking truly relaxed for the first time in days.

I saw Cyborg and Raven gathered together.

I saw Nova'm giggling over something and watching the fireworks with big green eyes.

I saw Starfire leaning back into Robin's lap.

I saw Beast Boy scampering back and forth busily with the fireworks.

I inhaled....

Somewhere, Sandy was tucking in a kid she was babysitting and telling him or her a bedtime story.

Mrs. Cartwright was likely setting up the last of the Westhaven Opera's repairs.

Speedy was regaining the life of Roy Harper and starting anew.

Lisa was sketching original masterpieces and learning to be less bitter at the world.

And Kara...

My heart jumped.

I smiled.

Somewhere...Kara was the prettiest, sexiest, and smartest thing ever to fly the skies of superhero lore.

All these people flashing through my black eyes...like a snapshot of souls...

I sighed.

Another firework lit the air.

And exploded.

My eyes braved to stay open.

_This moment. This flash. As always...this could very well be the end. This could be the last time everyone and everything feels so........._

The fireworks faded.

My eyes twitched.

My vision returned...and everyone was still there.

I shut my lids.

......_so whole......so together......_

My sockets were a bit moist as I reopened them.

_I guess.........I guess I have a family after all......_

Cyborg cheered loudly at the last firework. And it was worth it.

I snickered to myself as I suddenly realized...

I hadn't seen the Messenger in ages. And sad as that sounded......that was a good thing.

I too...clapped. Flesh on metal palms.

They sounded off proudly into the autumn night.


	132. Mortuana part 1

**132. Mortuana part 1**

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Grating noise.

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Metal scraping on metal.

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Shuffling legs down a hallway.

A.......A lightbulb that will not work.

"She will burn in Hell...I swear it...honest to God..."

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Floating over ruins.

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Her blue hood and blue hair.

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An ocean of blood....

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Heartbeat......

Heartbeat............

Heartbeat...................

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"Go forth, annointed one. Angela the pure. Your groom awaits you in the golden fields...."

"All hail Angela the pure."

"Angela the virgin."

"Angela the sacred mother."

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Silken sheets.

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Honey light filtering in...

.......through....

.......the tapestries............

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Red rivers. Split into four. Limbs taut. Eyes wide.

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"Give yourself unto me."

_Oh god........._

"Give your_self un__**to me!!!!!!!!!!"**_

_Oh God!!!!_

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FLASH!!!!

_Snkkkt!!!_

Ripping apart thread by thread ligament by ligament string by string hair by hair

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_Oh God!! Get out of me!!! GET OUT OF ME!!!!!!!!_

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Screaming.

Split fingernails.

Cracked teeth.

Antlers and fangs.

Biting. Sinking through the epidermal layer_hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!_

_SnnnkktttttaaAAAAUGHHHH!!!!!!!!!_

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**  
FLASH!!!!!**

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Heads spinning contorting twisting without mouths("Mmmmmffffffff"_OhGodddddddddd!!!!!!!)_

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Limping down the alley.

A trail of blood down the inside of the legs.

Clutching the rags to her breast.

Weeping.

Puddles and skulls

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_Splash................................._

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_S-Somebody..............._

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_Somebody p-please!!!_

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_Kill me!!!_

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_Somebody please k-kill m-m-me!!!!!!!  
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I don't want to give b-birth to this monster!!!!!!_

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_I don't want to live to see it!!!!_

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_Please.........oh God......please......kill me......_

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_**KILL ME!!!!!!**_

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_**FLASH!!!!!!!**_

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"There was a time, child....."  
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_SNKKT!!!!_

AAAUGHH!!!

Crawling across the stone floor.

Bowels falling out.

Antlers rising from the entrails.

Fangs and four eyes.

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_I can still FEEL HIM!!!!!_  
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"...someone wished you to burn in Hell....."

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Laughing down the hallway.

Legs dangling overhead.

Piano wire....

Shadows start kicking as you reach the window.

A leathery face on the other side of the glass.

Fogging....

_SNKKTRAAAAAAACK!!!_

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"But the only Hell for you....child....."

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Creatures hooking their way up the wall.

Bloody bandage tongues rusting.

Barbed wire and moans.

The bridge between stacks of bone white briars.

Twisting like snakes.

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"...is that which your life has already chosen to consume."

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_Please......will you kill me??_  
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Barefoot over beetle shells.

The occasional knife.

Something squirming under the skin.

The bulbous belly.

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"...let us consume it with you."

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_God.........just let me die......_

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Bottomless pit lined with

faces

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_Or sleep......_

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"By the power invested in us by Azar, we shall grant you peace."

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_Kill me........._

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"But you must let the child live."

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_Kill me......_

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"Angela......the innocent reborn...."

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_Kill me........._

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"You must let the child live."

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_Kill it._

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_**FLASH!!!!**_

_Lanterns are lit one by one._

Girls in elegant dresses set the oil in the lamps.

An orange aura rises against the gray stone and brown planks.

Immortal souls gather on benches surrounding a circle of clear concrete. Frilly ladies and straightlaced men. Skirts and pants. Hairbands and top hats.

A fire is lit in the center. A warming thing. It pierces the darkness. The darkness that is all around. The darkness that is everywhere. The darkness that is everything.

A pale-skinned man walks into the center. Behind him are three men with rickety stools and musical instruments. Two violins and a flute. The pale man raises his arms.

The archaic crowd settles down. A cough or two. Miserably serene eyes gaze bruisedly onto the scene. Pale skin and dark hair. Black threads...

The man bows his head. He inhales. He raises his arms and face to the stone sky.

The violinists start stroking their musical instruments. A beautiful melody vibrates through the crowded, lantern lit interior. A fragance of earthly energy wafts upward and outward as the flute drifts into the rhythm, playing the opposite end of the spectrum to the pale man's voice as he distinctly and passionately speaks:

"This is a story. A very fine story. And—in that all stories are mortal infinites—it is a story laced with paradoxes. Laced with emotion. And drenched in darkness. But the darkness is not very exciting. For you and I well know that the darkness is everything!! It encompasses all that we soak in and consume!! Our very reason for living!!"

The tune pauses, lifts, and swings around into the melody again.

The man slowly spins to face the attentive audience as he continues speaking. "It is a story of a girl. Not just any girl!!" he raises a finger. "But the offspring...of the purest being in our dark dimensions. The defiled possessor of light. The eternal and blameless Angela. May the sacred mother be praised."

"Praise the sacred mother...," chants the crowd in acknowledgement.

"Her daughter......her very daughter!!" the man gestures. "Was granted half of the purity of the Ether.........and half of the evil of CHAOS."

Mutterings. Commotion. Recollection......

_The music swings forth._

"And yet......she was not the vessel of limbo she was conceived to be!! Nor was she the Hellion that she was defiled to be!! But she was a heroine!! She was the savior that she chose for herself to be!! In spite of her very blood......in spite of her darkness......she chose the path of life and—most of all—the path of _**light.**__"_

Gasps. Some cringing...

"Light......the most upside-down thing to bless us......has now enveloped us like a psuedo-obsidian cocoon. For not only did the daughter of the sacred mother come to visit us......but now, she has _**become**__ us......" The man smiles. His pale eyes thin. "And Mortuana has reunited infinitely with the lost twins of Azar........."_

_Smiles. Claps. Friends clinging to each other......sighing......_

The music reaches a high point. Violins sobbing. And yet flute rejoicing.

The man raises his hands.

"This.........is how it all began........."

_And the music dives in......_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This...this is something I've worked on recently after....a-after a recent adventure in Atlantis. But I'm sure that it's ambiguous enough for anyone to understand."

Some people chuckled. The others leaned forward in their seats and listened intently.

Cyborg sat at the usual table at the far end of the smokey, hazy poetry café. A jazz group had come together that evening and were playing a steady rhythm in the background. The android Titan folded his arms and watched/listened proudly.

Raven stood at the podium before everyone. With her hood down, she took a deep breath and read from her writing pad.

"The poem's title is 'This Thing that I killed'."

_This Thing That I Killed_

_She breathes and she bleeds_

_She casts songs and seeds_

_A heart-string chain of aimless links_

_That somehow hold up a whole_

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She came my way without going my way

_Growing my hair and eyes every day by day_

_Looking like the loss that lost itself to her_

_This thing that I killed_

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_This thing that I killed bled red from my bed _

_This thing that I killed that I lied that I led_

_One night a knife was all it took, but_

_This thing that I killed is living in my stead_

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_And damn me if I don't dare to dash the darkness_

_Against the stone for_

_One single hour, minute, second_

_To stand before her..._

_A mother-stained mirror_

_And tear forth the salty hints that may_

_Help her help herself to home_

_Wherever it may be..._

_...I am not_

_This thing that I killed has carried has caught_

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Raven took a deep breath. She closed her eyes...gently reopened them, and curtsied with a slight smile. "It's done now. Thank you."

Applause. Snapping fingers. Mutterings of interest and...overall approval.

Cyborg finished clapping as Raven shuffled over and sighed into her seat.

"Great stuff. Dark....but then again, what's not dark with you, Rae?"

"The ending was horrible...," Raven muttered...slowly folding her notepad closed. "I didn't give myself enough time to finish it."

"Could have fooled me!!" Cyborg shrugged. He leaned back even more and folded his titanium arms, smiling. "It was really, really cool......Raven."

The dark girl glared at him. "Then tell me....did you understand any of it?"

"..........," Cyborg blinked his human eye. "Now...granted...," he raised his finger and smiled nervously. "I hardly ever _get_ your poems...."

"I knew it...," Raven plopped the notepad onto the desk and hugged herself...looking rejected. "Why do I even bother??"

"Come on, Rae!!" Cyborg leaned forward. "Here. Lemme read the sucker. Maybe a second time through will help me out—"

Raven flicked her wrist, enveloped the notepad in black telekinesis, and floated it out of his diving reach.

"Not today...."

".............," Cyborg stared at her. There was a splash of concern over his half-metal features as he leaned on his arms across the tabletop. "You know Raven...I've been curious. Are you okay? The last day or two you've been.....on and off again. Kinda like back at the vacation, remember? It's like you're only giving into some emotions and then immediately retreating from the whole idea altogether. I don't mean to be a bothersome little....freak, but is that normal? F-For you, that is?"

"You're asking the wrong sorceress..."

"Lately today, you've been down," Cyborg sat up straight. He smirked. "I thought revisiting this place might cheer you up some. That's why I invited you!"

Raven glared at him. She said: "I thought visiting this place might shut your worrisome mouth off. That's why I _agreed to come."_

"Ouch...," Cyborg planted a hand over his 'heart'. "I am dealt a deep blow." He winked.

Raven sighed. She brought the hood over her head and more-or-less avoided Cyborg's gaze. "This time of year..."

"What about it?"

"It gets cold. It makes me think of the stale plains of Azar."

"Your home town? Er....home town in the cosmos?"

"More or less...," Raven's voice droned out from under her hood. "It was in Azar that I learned how to control my emotions and—thus—my powers."

"But you were born there too, right?"

"Yes."

"That....th-that's gotta be tough, Raven," Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "Not being able to feel emotions. Even as a _kid._"

"It's not a matter of not 'feeling' emotions, Cyborg," Raven looked at him. Her violet eyes peered out from the hood's shadow....as always. "An emotion for me is like a temptation to use one of my powers. Nothing more. When I tame these tempations, I can bend my powers at will. But if I give into these emotions, then the powers do whatever they desire. If too many emotions are freed at once, then they lose cohesion. Without cohesion of emotions into one numb whole, there is a lack of strength. And where there's a lack of strength...Rage gets loose. And Rage is the open doorway to Trigon."

"Daddy dearest..."

"Correct."

A beat.

The jazz kept on playing in the hazy background.

"You're.....you're still reeling, Raven....aren't you?"

"I beg your pardon?"

Cyborg looked at her fixedly. "Months ago...when Mumbo Jumbo's camera split your head apart and a piece of Trigon got loose. That's sent your life into a bigass spiral, hasn't it?"

Raven bit her lip. She looked to the side. "I wish I could say it was that simple."

"Wanna talk about it?" Cyborg asked. "That's what I'm good for...right?"

Raven looked at him. The silly android. A slight curve appeared to her lips. "You're good at being loud and smashing villains. It's a stupidly simple enough thing to actually be _useful_ for the Titans."

"What about my techno-smarts?"

"I never truly pay attention to that anyways, to be honest," Raven stood up. "I'm the spiritualist of the group."

"You ready to go?"

"I suppose...," Raven droned. "I'm dying of second hand smoke and Gwendolyn Brooks tributes. Let's go."

"Homeward bound it is!" Cyborg stood up.

"Yeah....," Raven adjusted her cloak. She reached a hand up and gracefully repositioned the ever-stubborn loose strand of hair over her bangs. "Homeward....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That evening I sat in my cellar bedroom with the laptop on my bed and a phone cradeled to my ear. I was listening and multi-tasking with an IM window and a crime report program all at the same time.

"_Pa says he'd love to see you again. Though it was brief for the last time you were here...he thought you were an all-around kind of guy. But...to be honest—hehehe—I think Ma and Pa are both a little nervous about me and you. Don't take offense please, Jordan. They just......well......they're old fashioned. They still think that people who fight like samurai—warriors or not—belong to kamikaze Zeroes or something."_

I smirked. I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Wow....I think I take that as a compliment.**

"_Hehehe! But don't ever say that in their presence. It wouldn't settle well."_

I shrugged. I shuffled through computer crime files.

"_Everyone's protective of me. I'm flattered and all...but it makes me sick. Clark's the same way. He'd screen everyone I ever came in contact with if he had to. I mean......what difference does it make? Like...--for instance—let's pretend I go out on a prom date or something. How's the guy supposed to pull a fast one on me in the back of his car?? I could lift his car and tie it around his neck twice for crying out loud!! Unless the guy just coincidentally happens to be a mutant-android hybrid programmed by Luthor or something. Or maybe he could drop pellets of Kryptonite into my glass of punch or something...............yeesh, that's kind of scary."_

**SpSquirrel: Kinda talked yourself into a hole there.**

"_Hey!! At least I'm talking! You seem at a loss for words......in the IM window, at least. What's got you distracted??"_

**SpSquirrel: I'm doing some research for Robin.**

"_Do you have to do that now??"_

**SpSquirrel: I sure as heck can't do it later after he's killed me for not doing it earlier!**

"_Awww...it's okay, Jordan. I'll fly over and beat him up for you."_

If fell over on my bed. My breath had completely left me. If I had a voice, I'd be giggling like a schoolgirl.

"_Hehehe...liked that one, didn't you?"_

**SpSquirrel: Uesds**

_"Huh??"_

**SpSquirrel: Sorry. I meant to type 'Yes'. My hands were shaking.**

_"Ooh, you're a quiver!"_

**SpSquirrel: Huh?**

"_Nevermind. Ahem. I'd just like to see you again soon is all, Jordan."_

**SpSquirrel: Same here.**

"_Really??"_

**SpSquirrel: Really Really.**

_"How about your place next time?"_

**SpSquirrel: Shall I keep the back door unlocked?**

_"Pfft!! I'm trying to be serious! Don't joke!"_

**SpSquirrel: Until we have the absolute capability of seeing each other again, what's not to joke?b**

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

**SpSquirrel: Not that I blame him...but Blueboy has you on a leash.**

_"Ick. Don't put it like that!"_

I chuckled. I went through some more files.

Her voice sighed on the phone.

"_I mean...it's so stupid!! I'm a bonafide superheroine and I'd still get the death warrant if I so much as went against Clark's protective wishes!"_

**SpSquirrel: Wish I could promise to run over there and beat him up for you, but in that case the most I can promise is martyrdom.**

_"Awww......that's sweet."_

**SpSquirrel: Yeah.......**

_"Don't you think I'd make a great Titan?"_

**SpSquirrel: Kara, you'd make a great many things. Rest assured that a Titan is one of them. Though I can think of better things.**

_"Oh? Like what?"_

**SpSquirrel: Oh, a face on my bedside table for one.**

_"I keep promising you! I'll get you a photo! Just be patient!"_

**SpSquirrel: But alas, my vision of you is fading!**

_"Oh please......"_

**SpSquirrel: So long, ambiguous blonde of beautiful merit! I see a feminine form fading on the horizon!**

_"Hahaha.........stop it......"_

**SpSquirrel: It's like **_**The Birth of Venus**_** backwards. Only with clothes.**

"_Venus, hmm? I didn't know you watched anime."_

**SpSquirrel: Actually I was referring to the work by Botticelli.**

"_Whatever. I promise, I'll get you a photo of me."_

**SpSquirrel: Uh huh.**

_"Don't 'uh huh' me! I will! Sheesh. Why don't you just go to a Wal-Mart and buy a poster of me if you're so damned desperate!"_

I smirked.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: But a poster is so heartless. It's commercialized fluff more interested in your bosom than in your benevolence!**

_"What's wrong with that?"_

**SpSquirrel: .......**

"_Hehehe. It's okay to be a guy for once, Jordan."_

I bit my lip at that.

A beat.

"_Jordan??"_

I snapped out of it.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Posters are all good and fun, but none of them show the Kara that I know. None of them show the smart, beautiful, talented farm girl from outer space who for some quirky reason has chosen to grace me with her...uhm...godessness.**

"_Hehehe...how eloquent."_

I smirked proudly.

"_It's hard to know the 'smart, beautiful, and talented' farm me when we live so far away from each other."_

I sighed in melancholy.

She heard it.

"_Heh. Poor you. You've got pretty chicks living with you in that Tower."_

I rolled my eyes.

"_Come on. Admit it. You like to look at them from time to time, don't you?"_

I adjusted my shades and typed.

**SpSquirrel: It helps to have eye contact when hextuple-teaming Plasmus, yes.**

_"Pfft!! You know what I mean, Jordan. You're being evasive!"_

**SpSquirrel: I think I learn from Robin.**

"_After all, you and Raven were close once."_

I froze at that.

"_Right?"_

I blinked a few times. I typed.

**SpSquirrel: We may have been.**

_"Heh," _she laughed dryly.

**SpSquirel: Seriously, Kara. It's very wyrd.**

_"How so wyrd?"_

**SpSquirrel: We never did anything together. We never so much as communicated intently. We never even did anything purposefully together outside of a mission.**

_"But can you deny that there was something between you two?"_

I exhaled slowly through my nose. I stared off into the dark corners of my cellar room.

"_Cuz I saw it. And I'll be honest. I think it was sweet. A girl as....uhm......freaky as Raven could do with some companionship."_

I didn't know whether to laugh or scowl at that.

"_She was very protective of you. Heh...EXTREMELY protective. I guess it makes sense being that it was so soon after Slade's death and......and......"_

**SpSquirrel: Wyldecarde.**

_"Y-Yeah......"_

**SpSquirrel: It's okay, Kara. You can say the 'W' word. lol.**

"_Heheheheh........."_

I closed my black eyes.

I typed blindly.

**SpSquirrel: It's the faces that I don't see on a regular basis that I truly miss.**

_"Yeah......I know......I'd like to have your photo too."_

I smirked.

"_But I can't help but be curious......whatever happened to her?"_

I raised an eyebrow.

"_Raven. Did she end up depressed or something? Gawd, I hope not."_

**SpSquirrel: What Raven has....I don't think you can call it 'depression'.**

_"Then what can you call it?"_

**SpSquirrel: Life.**

"_Heh......that's really informative."_

**SpSquirrel: Ain't it, though?**

"_So is she off her rocker yet or what?"_

I rubbed my chin. I looked off...and smiled.

**SpSquirrel: She isn't exactly alone. She hasn't been alone in a while.**

"_Really?"_

**SpSquirrel: Yeah**

"_She's won somebody's heart then?"_

**SpSquirrel: Perhaps.**

_"Perhaps?"_

I typed:

**SpSquirrel:** **I'd say we're all a few electrical circuits away from finding that out by now.**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-****

"Simon says that Phaser Labs is accepting Jean-Luc Blair and Rachel Mendez in for rehabilitation and cybernetic resyncing..."

".........," Raven was staring out the passenger side window. She blinked, shook her blue head, and glanced Cyborg's way. "I-I'm sorry....who??"

Cyborg had his hands on the T-Car's steering wheel. "Jean-Luc Blair and Rachel Mendez. Ya know...._Slug_ and _Reload_??"

"Oh right. Those two," Raven nodded tiredly. "It's been a while."

"They were never really in the wrong, ya know," Cyborg smirked as he drove them towards the land bridge that would take them to the Tower. "Because of their many cybernetic prosthetics, they were susceptible to Anderson's programming when he was controlling my Uncle Simon. But now that Simon's been his own man—electronically speaking—for the last two months or so, they're letting Jean-Luc and Rachel into Phaser Labs here in Town to see if they can get back into sane shape and all."

"Good for them," Raven said. "Seriously..." she hugged herself and seemed to nod off.

Cyborg had his look of concern again. "You okay, Rae?"

"For the last time...I'm fine....," she droned.

"You look tired."

"Probably because you're tiring me."

"Heheh...I wouldn't mind tucking you in bed."

"Don't even think about getting close."

"You let me walk into your room once, remember?" Cyborg remarked. "Showed me the picture thingy of the blonde chick."

"Oh. Right."

Silence.

The Tower gradually came into focus. The sun was almost completely set.

"Say Rae?"

A sigh. "Yes...Cyborg?"

"Can I....can I say something? Something wyrd?"

"Whatever kept you from doing so a billion times since we first met?"

"Heheheh," Cyborg drove casually with one hand and rested the other against the window. "I just want to say that...th-that it feels great."

"What feels great?"

He glanced at her with a human eye. "Spending time with you."

"Oh really....."

"Yeah. You're just so...so..."

"Boring? Cold? Apathetic?"

"....wise."

"That too."

"Wise and....I dunno....it's hard to explain...."

"Why're you telling me this? I'm not easily flattered."

"I'm not trying to flatter you, Raven."

She finally looked at him completely. And it was an impatient look. "Then just what are you trying to tell me?"

"I...I-I don't know. I guess I'm trying to say that....th-that no matter how impossible it is for you to 'feel' or be 'happy' or something, it doesn't mean that other people can't feel happy or pleased to be around you, ya know?"

Raven raised a bored eyebrow.

"You aren't such a bad person, Rae. There are people—friends—who really are glad that you exist and that you bless their lives. And though you might not sense any of it...they do. Continuously. And....a-and it's nice thing...ya know?"

"Are you trying to say that you like me?"

Cyborg bit his lip. "Er....."

"Cuz if you are, you can stop right now. It's for your own good."

Cyborg chuckled.

Raven frowned. "What??"

"Nothing," he sighed with a fading smile.

The T-Car cruised on.

Silence.

"Well, what did you expect?"

"If I'd expected anything else," Cyborg winked. "I wouldn't have said anything."

A beat.

"Whatever...," Raven stared off. Over time, she glanced momentarily at Cyborg...but his attention was no longer on her. She swallowed and pushed back the stubborn strand of hair....then hugged herself.

"Ah....looks like we're late for a send-off party."

Raven immediately glanced up. "Huh?" she blinked at the sight of a parked car and a few figures at the entrance to the Tower. "Oh....right...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car cruised to a stop. Cyborg and Raven stepped out, shutting the car doors behind them. They shuffled over across the asphalt to where the Sanderson's volvo was parked. Kevin and Ruth stood, reunited with their foster son Nova'm. Robin and Starfire faced them together.

"Just in time, guys," Robin waved. "Looks like the kid of the household is going away!"

"I'll be a teen soon, ya know!" Nova'm pouted.

"I swear...he's more childish by the minute," Raven droned.

"I heard that!"

Ruth laughed gently and rested a hand on Nova'm shoulders. "We hope he wasn't of too much trouble to you."

"Not at all, Mrs. Sanderson," Starfire cupped her hands together and smiled pleasantly. "Nova'm is so full of life these days!"

"And full of antics too, I bet," Kevin winked. "Virtues come in pairs."

"Awwww...dad, I've been good!"

"Yeah...he only wrecked ONE FIRE SPRINKLER SYSTEM!!" Cyborg barked.

Nova'm sweatdropped.

"I take full responsibility for that occurrence," Starfire raised her hand....blushing.

"Yeah," Nova'm folded his arms. "Last minute slavery."

"Slavery??" the Sandersons rang.

"Figure of speech, I assure you," Cyborg had the guts to say.

"Oh, alright. If you say so."

"Well...looks like this is it, pal," Robin held his hand out. "You've been a mixed blessing—yes. But more of the blessing than the mixture."

"Hehehe...I'm honored, Boy Wonder," Nova'm shook his gloved hand.

"Better be glad I don't have a last name," Robin leaned his head to the side with an evil smirk. "Or else I'd be demanding you call me 'Mr.' something."

"He has a last name all right," Cyborg cackled. "But I won't say it in the presence of the ladies."

"Heh."

"Raven? Want to shake hands?" Nova'm blushed.

"Your parents want you home alive. Don't ask me again."

Nova'm cleared his throat.

Cyborg walked over. "Give me some skin!"

"Metal?"

"Ha ha! That too, little man!"

Nova'm floated up and high-fived Cyborg.

"And stay out of trouble!" the android Titan smirked. "No need for us to be saving your butt again, alright?"

"Hehehe...sure....," Nova'm smiled. He floated over and faced Starfire.

The Tamaranian Titan had sighed, a warm face of pride on her person.

Nova'm bit his lip. The edges of his green eyes watered emerald. "I miss you already, Kory."

"Oh Nova'm...," she knelt down and hugged him tightly to her. She sniffed and smiled: "X'Hal sedsu thriul..."

"X'Hal sedsu thriul ni, Koriand'r...," Nova'm clenched his eyes shut as she hugged her back.

The Sandersons watched from above, their hands gently held together.

The two 'cousins' parted. Starfire smiled and trailed a lasting hand through the boy's red strands. "And do not let me find you shearing it ever!!"

He giggled. "I won't! I swear!!" He floated over towards his parents. "Tell Beast Boy I'll have a prank joke to explode on him next time we meet!"

"Aw man!!" Cyborg cackled. "But that just ruins it!"

"And say 'bye' to Noir and Tempest for me, please?"

"We will...don't worry," Robin waved.

The Sandersons got into the car with Nova'm and started up the engine.

"So long, Nova'm!!"

"Pleasant travels and felicitations to you!!"

"Peace out, dawg!!"

The family waved, turned the car about, and drove off for the long haul back home.

Gradual silence settled around the Tower.

Raven spun about and marched up the stairs. "Good riddance....little lecher."

Cyborg gave her a double-take. "Lecher? Say what?"

"The little shrimp was practically drooling over me the whole time."

"You mean to say Nova'm was hitting on you?"

"If I gave him a mallet, he'd be lethal."

Cyborg chuckled. "Heh....now I have no qualms about the idea of beating him up! Ha ha!" he followed the dark girl up the steps.

Starfire and Robin were left alone.

The alien girl let out a sigh. It sounded more like a whimper, really.

Robin placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. "You know....it's really all because of you that he's gotten a second chance."

She took a deep breath. She looked Robin's way with happy-but-wet eyes.

Robin smiled.

She shut her eyes closed and relaxed. "Sometimes, Robin, I believe that I cling too hard to people."

The Boy Wonder chuckled. "It's never bothered me any."

She leaned her head to the side. "Even when you nearly suffocate?"

"Nope...cuz you see," he's lifted a finger. "You realize that your hugs are murderous now..."

"Eheheheh...," she scratched her neck nervously. "I do s-suppose..."

Robin smiled and extended a hand. "Come on. Let's go have some sandwiches."

"Ooh....w-with delectable nectar?"

"I bought some bottles of mustard for the occasion."

"Heeeee!! Glorious!!"

They walked/flew into the Tower.

In the deathly twighlight of the night's air...a shadow drifted across the concrete.

Like a prism or a shard of glass...

The light parted...blinked with two frowning eyes...and streaked off like a bullet towards the center of the City....

And then was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And this is called a remote...," Beast Boy held the object in question up. "You use it to watch t.v."

"T.V.??" Tempest made a face.

"Uh...yeah...," he pointed at the huge screen at the end of the Main Room. "That thing, dude."

"Oh. Where the moving pictures are."

"From time to time. Jeez......you mean Atlanteans haven't invented television?"

"I'll have you know we have many fine arts," Tempest folded his arms. "There's Atlantean theatre, for one!"

"Oh wow...that must be sooooo interesting," Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"Truly! There's nothing more invigorating than the Third Act of 'The Dying Nautilus Princess' where Crenedyn and Fresuvius perform their underwater duel to the death with poison-tipped tridents!"

"Does Crenedyn's mom drink a goblet of poison?"

Tempest blinked. "Huh?"

"Nevermind," Beast Boy waved his arms. "I was an actor once, dude. I've had my share of theatre."

"I mourn for your culture."

Beast Boy turned into an aardvark and stuck his tongue out. He reverted back to elf form and turned to complain at Robin who sat besides Starfire at the kitchen counter. "Robin!! Come on!! You gotta help me out here!! I can't teach Garth our culture all by myself!!"

"Sure you can!" Robin leaned his chin on his hand and smirked. "After all, I speant nearly two years by myself teaching Starfire how to adapt. And look how she's doing now!"

_Schhhhhlppppp!!!_ Starfire sucked an entire bottle of mustard through its snout and smiled. "Mmmmmhmmmm!!"

"Yeah....look at her now....," Beast Boy smirked.

Robin frowned.

Schwishh!!

Cyborg walked in carrying something. "Say...any of you guys seen Raven?"

Starfire gulped the last of her 'nectar', sighed happily, and faced the android. "Yes, Cyborg. She said that she was retiring to her room."

Cyborg made a face. "This early? What's up with that?"

"I can only imagine that she is adamant about performing some early meditation...," Starfire shrugged. "Perhaps she was exhausted by the trip the two of you made to the café of poetry?"

"Yeah...," Cyborg scratched his human scalp. "Perhaps..." He slowly turned around.

Robin narrowed his eyemasks. He spotted a sealed package of sort in Cyborg's titanium hands.

"Guess I should hit the hay too...," the young man trotted off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was night out...but Raven had the curtains hanging over the windows anyways, making it doubly-dark.

After a warm shower and dressing in a sleeping gown, the girl hovered cross-legged over her bed. She folded her fingers meditatively and hummed:

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos.........Azarath Metrion Zinthos........Azarath Metrion Zinthos....."

Her eyes remained beautifully closed.

Something mysteriously nonexistent glinted off of her chakra stone.

And....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_She floated over the landscape._

Dark rocky bodies floating through the nether.

Mysterious cosmos burning in red clouds in the distance.

_Her eyes fluttered open._

Specks were scattered across the craggy landscape.

_Multi-colored robes._

Fair faces.

Matching chakras.

Yellow sat on a rock with her nose in a book.

Pink ran around with her hands acting as airplane wings.

_Green was performing exercises and stretching._

Gray sat against a huge stone and hugged herself.

"............" _Raven flew over the plain._

_She flew over a dark canyon filled with thorns and briars._

She flew over the pit where rusting chains held a wrought iron cell inside the fuming stone.

She flew past it all into an archipelago of floating rocks.

She came to a lone rock surrounded by a halo of ash and frozen limbo.

Gracefully, Raven settled down on her feet. In her mental world, she was still wearing her nightgown. Like a Gothic Wendy halfway to Neverland. She took a breath, concentrated, and raised her fingers with glowing eyes. After chanting a short spell, a pillar rose up from the ground and a small wooden chest materialized.

The girl took a deep breath. She opened the wooden chest with trembling hands.

_  
Creeeeak!!!_

There was a cloth of sorts inside. Pale white. Like silken ivory.

Raven pulled it out and let it dangle to its full length in front of her. It fell into a pool just before her feet. It was a cloak that belonged to someone significantly taller than the girl.

Raven's eyes lowered. She brought the cloak to her face and inhaled deeply.

A sigh escaped her lips. Almost a coo. She deflated to her knees, hugging the cloak to herself. She seemed to shrink in size by a factor of three. The teenage had disappeared and a little girl cuddled in the cloak and disappeared.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slowly...

Gently...

A slumbering Raven lowered to her bed. She lay on her back, breathing serenely. Relaxed.

Content....

Gradually—into the darkness of night—the Titan curled into a fetal position like the little girl slumbering identically in her mysterious head...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_Arella wore an ivory-white cloak._

It was the Azarathians' way of symbolizing her purity.

For she had once been Angela, the defiled.

But she had been converted into Arella, the pure.

The sacred mother cradled her four-year old girl to her chest.

The child was trembling.

Arella ran a hand through the little one's hair.

Her eyes were on fire.

The sacred mother was not happy.

"You said that he wouldn't find us here...," she practically hissed.

Juris, the magistrate, looked over boredly. "Dear holy Arella, your......'child' is a beacon. She practically pulses with the evil seed that resides within her from his touch. We may have been able to save you...but the child is the greatest poison yet."

Rumbling sounds filled the temple. Robed figures were quickly bolting the front entrance shut with marble cross beams. The ground shook. The little girl sobbed.

Arella held her gently and frowned at the man before her. "Do not speak so evilly, Juris!! She is a living thing!!"

"Must we forget the night they first found you?" Juris glared. "The pleas you were screaming? I'm not the first to show little sympathy."

The temple shook more.

Red fumes started seeping in.

Cries of pain echoed from outside.

A few of the pacifists shivered.

Arella growled. "Be silent!! If you knew what was good for you, you'd think us a way out of here!!"

"Dear Woman...this is the only escape given you! But it has failed!! SHE is bringing him!!" he pointed a gnargled finger.

The child wailed louder.

An old woman shuffled over. "Juris. Do you not know when to cease your pathetic tongue??" She rested a comforting hand on Arella's white-cloaked shoulder. "The sacred mother's child is to be defended at all costs. For as powerful as that demon may be, he needs to consume Raven to truly be powerful. You, Jruis, are not helping."

The man sniffed indignantly. He marched off to assist in bolstering the temple's defenses.

Arella sighed. She closed her eyes and leaned towards the elderly woman. "Th-Thank you, Azar..."

"Do not be afraid...," the woman spoke above the chaos echoing around them. Torchlight danced against her wrinkled features. "Not all of our defenses are penetrable. The child shall be saved. Her future is secure..."

Arella held her daughter closer. "I just......I just can't do it anymore, Azar. I feel like I'm missing something. S-Something that I should be doing but I-I'm failing somehow......"

"The truth...it will come to you in time...," Azar said. "And you will know your destiny. As the sacred mother." She knelt down till she was gray-eye to young-eye with the little, trembling girl. "And you......dearest Raven......" she smiled. "There will come a time......when you will no longer need to cry."

The girl merely shivered, tears running down her eyes.

BANG!!!

Arella jerked. She and Azar looked towards the door.

It was bulging inward from the outside. Shrouded figures scrambled desperately to hold it shut. Red fumes danced in. A low, grumbling sound throated through the interior.

Azar took a deep breath. "He comes......"

Arella's jaw was dropped. "Th-That smell.........," her eyes melted. She held her daughter tightly. "Oh god......that sm-smell......"

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

"It will not hold!!"

"He is piercing the sanctuary!!"

"Look out!!"

CRAAA-AAACK!!!

The marble crossbeams shattered. The door flew open in flames and red fumes. A red giant with four red eyes and jagged antlers burst through the door, flexing his limbs and growling with a spray of ivory fangs.

_**"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!"**___

The nearest two Azarathian acolytes were burned alive within seconds. Two other clerics rushed over with makeshift weapons.

_**"Pathetic SHEEP!!!!"**__ Trigon unsheathed jagged, brown claws from his forward knuckles and swung down._

SLASH!!!!!

A man fell in a pool of his own entrails, screaming.

SLASH!!!!!!

A head rolled in half, gurgled red spray, and fell down with a crunch of shattered torso.

Stomp!!! Trigon walked forward in a mist of red embers and sparks. Stomp!!! The marble floor cracked and licked up tongues of flame. Stomp!!! He hissed forth red smoke and smiled with jagged teeth. Stomp!!! _**"I'm back...darling......heh heh heh heh." **__Stomp!!!_

"_We have been betrayed......," Azar nonchalantly said at that very moment._

Arella managed to stop trembling to respond: "H-How??"

"Juris......," Azar frowned. Her elderly face was like angry stone. "There is no other simple explanation. Juris believes Trigon must consume Raven in order for Azarath to be safe. He is blind and selfish......"

"_**And he is most faithful....,"**__ Trigon sneered. Stomp!!! __**"When he finds his true God!! Heheheheh!!"**__ Stomp!!_

"Azar......," Arella whispered. "Your powers...are they enough to shield all of us??"

_Stomp!!!_

_The old woman took a deep breath._

Stomp!!!

"They are not.........not all three of us......"

Arella took a deep breath. "Then......then I know what I must do." She firmly handed little Raven over into the elderly sorceress' arms. "My destiny......"

Azar held the child.

The girl shook. "M-Mommy??"

Arella walked towards the marching demon.

_Stomp!!!_

"N-No!! Mommy!!!" the girl struggled.

Azar held her tight. She squinted her glowing eyes. She chanted: "Azarath......"

_**"It's been a long time......you pathetic, mortal bitch!!!"**___

"We're due for a talk, Trigon. You....and me......"

"......_Metrion......"_

Stomp!!!

_**"Allow me to talk with my hands......heheheh..."**___

"......Zinthos!!!"

_FLASH!!!_

A black umbrella-like shield of energy safely cocooned Azar and the girl.

_The little child's violet eyes bulged._

She saw Trigon's clawed hand rise up...then come down towards her mother's body just as the blackness descended and blinded the scene.

SLASH!!!!!!!!

"AAAAAUGH!!!"

Something warm and soggy splashed against the outside of the black shield.

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NOOOOOO!!!!!!"

Raven shot up in bed, clutching her skull mercilessly.

"NO!!! MOMMY!!! NOOO-OOOO!!!!!" her eyes quivered. "Nnnghh...ahh...AAAHH!!"

Her eyes flew open, bulging.

Her breath left her......then rushed back in.

Raven panted....panted....panted....

Clutching her blue head of hair so tightly it nearly bled in ten finger-nail shaped spots.

Raven's saucer-eyes drifted upwards. She was sweating profusely as she scanned the room.

Every loose book, trinket, and decoration had fallen off of the shelves. Some of them had shattered upon reaching the floor.

Utter chaos.

Raven wasn't thinking by the time she found herself hopping out of bed in her nightgown, rushing out the door, and bolting down the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was in the middle of the night.

Everyone was sleeping but her.

The dark girl stumbled down the hallway in a daze.

She wrung her hands.

She bit her lip.

The walls seemed to be dancing around her.

Everything was sickeningly dizzy.

She wasn't her normal self.

And yet she was.

And yet she wasn't anything and she was everything at once.

But Raven didn't truly feel anything until she felt the proximity of Cyborg's door in front of her knuckles.

The girl froze.

"............"

_  
_Raven stood less than two feet away from the entrance to Cyborg's laboratory.

She panted.

Her hand shook.

She tried to knock.

She tried......

Her shoulders shook.

The girl hiccupped once...twice...

Her eyes watered.

Raven choked. Before she could so much as whimper, she tightly clamped her small hands over her mouth.

She moaned once into her palms.

Her eyes clenched shut. Moist.

Her torso swung back and forth...shaking all over.

She shuddered a breath and let out a cry of frustration.

FLASH!!!!

Two light bulbs overhead shattered.

CRAAA-ASH!!!

Raven gasped as the glass shards fell around her.

She stumbled across the middle of the hallway.

"Ow!!!" she winced.

She was barefoot.

She hobbled to the wall and leaned against it, panting. Shuddering.

She eventually shook her head, took a breath, and ran desperately down the hall.

A few seconds passed.....

Schwishh!!!

Yawning, Cyborg stepped out and stood in the doorway. "Nnngh....what's going on??"

He looked around.

A beat.

He glanced up at the ceiling.

He saw the shattered lightbulbs.

He glanced down.

He saw scattered glass on the floor.

A few shards to the right were tainted red.

A tiny, thin trail of red streaked down the hallway in intermittent, fading patterns.

".........," Cyborg's lips parted. "Raven??" he breathed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That morning, I got up early as usual.

It was time for my daily meditation.

I had Myrkstaff equipped with its sheathe, not to mention my combat fatigues.

But I wanted a glass of orange juice to start myself out. It was a thing I was into those days.

Schwissh!!

The elevator doors opened.

I walked in, fastening my bandanna.

I smiled...feeling rejuvenated....or about to be rejuvenated.

I was about halfway to the kitchen unit........when I noticed a graceful figure sitting somberly on a couch in the early rays of morning light.

I squinted my black eyes beneath my shades.

_Raven??_

I shuffled

She wasn't facing me. She hugged herself in a nightgown of sorts and gazed out the window. And yet, she spoke as if she had eyes in the back of her violet head.

"Is it intriguing how—after so many trials and tribulations—you and I are very much alike, Noir?"

I raised an eyebrow.

Raven took a shuddering breath. She glanced my way slightly. Her eyes were still cast to the floor.

_Was she......crying?? Raven??_

"Both of us must hold back. In some way or another. You are restricted from having a voice. And I.....I am restricted from having feelings."

I leaned my head to the side. Curious. Listening....

Her violet eyes shifted upwards. They were glassy. "The weather's getting cooler....the air crisper....and I can almost feel evil things flying through it as if they've always been there. And somehow—in my busy days of heroism—I've managed to forget much of what I am....and much of what I inevitably will be...."

".............," I took a deep breath.

She continued. "It's.....becoming unbearably hard as of late..." She ran a nervous hand through her hair. Her calm and resolve had faded. She looked like a different person. "These....temptations......t-temptations to feel......."

A beat.

She bent her knuckles in mid-air as if wanting to strangle someone. Perhaps herself. She was looking at her reflection in the morning-lit window. "I wish.....I wish I could just t-tell him................" A beat. "I w-wish for a lot of things. A-And no matter what Cyborg does or says, I'm so very alone. And I can't ever _not_ be....."

"............," I swallowed.

She looked at me.

I looked away.

"It's....it's always been that way, Noir....," she murmured. "I've always had to be alone.....even when.....e-even when...."

I looked her way bravely and smiled.

She didn't have to continue.

"But....I can't bear it....I-I can't even meditate without......w-without remembering......" She hugged herself. Her eyes looked hallow. She rocked back and forth.

I was desperately concerned. I gently reached a hand towards her shoulder---

Wree!! Wree!! Wree!!

Raven jumped. She looked past me.

I spun around.

The alarm on the computer was going off.

Wree! Wree! Wree!!

I rushed over. I typed furiously and brought up a block of text including a map of the City's Downtown...near the library and a subway station.

Raven dropped to her feet and stumbled over with a curious limp. "Wh-What is it??"

My black eyes scanned the report through my shades.

"Trouble??"

I nodded.

I immediately programmed the computer to sound the alarm in Robin's room. I glanced at Raven.

She took a deep breath. "Guess I should g-get dressed..."

I smiled a bit at that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

A news helicopter roared over the downtown of the City. In the angled glare of the early, autumnal Sun...the flying craft circled from a distance a curious event taking place on Main Street.

Smoke was rising. Buildingfronts were crumbling. Empty cars were tumbling over.

And yet.....the cause of the destruction and chaos was nowhere to be seen. It was as if the wind was performing a destructive ballet.

From high above, the news helicopter recorded a police barrier being set up far away from the awkward occurrence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Allright!! Clear the streets, people!!"** Commissioner Decker shouted into a megaphone. Officers rushed around in front and alongside him, setting up portable barriers and driving squad cars into position. **"It so happens that—in our City—ghosts walk around in the daytime!! So get your asses out of the way of our forces before I get sued for some damned collateral damage!!"**

His lieutenant walked up. "Sir..."

Decker turned to him. **"Got some developments, I hope!!"**

The lieutenant winced.

**"Shit, hang on...**," Decker switched the megaphone off. "What the Hell is it?"

"Wish we knew, sir," the lieuteant spoke. "No sighting of any perpetrators yet. And everyone we've sent in to investigate found themselves under attack."

"By what?"

"Seemingly nothing, sir."

"Nothing????"

"They couldn't spot a single suspect. But all sorts of stuff is being wielded around by intense force, regardless."

"What kind of stuff?"

SWOOOOSH-CRASH!!!!!

An empty schoolbus landed through a squad car, sending shards of glass and metal flying everywhere.

Everyone flinched.

"Whoah!!"

"Holy Hell!!"

"Where'd that come from??"

Decker stood perfectly still. "..........," he blinked. "Where're the Titans??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Through a sepia, flickering visor...Downtown's Main Street was magnified ten times. The shaky image showed a fire hydrant being magically severed. Then a lamppost bending over. Then a newspaper stand being smashed to bits as with a projectile.

"Hmmmmmmm...."

Robin lowered the electronic binoculars and stared through his squinting eyemask from atop the building ledge. I was perched beside him. The cool, autumn air kicked at my long black hair.

"It's gonna be one of those days...," the Boy Wonder murmured. He whipped out his communicator and opened it with a Star Trek sound. "Titans. Status report!"

"_Beast Boy here. We're closing in on Main Street!"_

"Who's 'we'??"

"_Tempest and I. We're taking a shortcut through the sewers. Whew...not my idea, I tell you what, dude."_

_"This is Starfire! Raven and I are almost at the scene! Who could be so disruptive this early in the morning??"_

"Someone who's seriously pissing me off," Robin grumbled. "Cyborg? How about you?"

"_Driving there as we speak in the T-Car. These barriers ain't helping any!"_

"Well get here as fast as you can. We may need your thermal scanning."

"_What for?"_

"It looks like whoever we're dealing with is invisible."

"_No way, dawg. For real??"_

Robin's brow furrowed. "Let's just hope it's not a former, invisible friend of ours..."

I gulped.

"Robin out!" He flipped the communicator closed and whipped out a grappling hook. "Noir. Let's go."

I nodded at the leader.

POW!! Clank!! He swung off.

I glanced nervously to the side where I imagined the T-Car driving up beneath the visible building tops. My mind was distracted then and there...as I imagined Raven's to be. So when I blurred down the building sides and streets to catch up with everyone, I felt compelled to switch on the communication function in my metal prosthetic...and send forth a morse code signal......

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on!!"

Cyborg swerved around the roadblocks, waving at cops to show who he was.

"Y'all could just as easily hired cows to stand in the way, man!!"

His dashboard lit up.

"Huh???" Cyborg stole a glance at the computer screen of his Baby.

A text message popped up. One that Cyborg knew had to have originated from a certain mute's morse code signal.

'_Cyborg, do you have a minute.'_

"Is the Pope a Hindu, dawg? I'm a little busy here playing caboose on this mission!!"

'_I wanted to ask you something.'_

"Can it wait???"

'_It is about Raven.'_

"...................I'm listening."

'_I think you should talk to her.'_

"Heh...," Cyborg smirked. "That's all I do these days."

'_No. I mean really talk to her.'_

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. He glanced at the computer screen suspiciously. "Why?? What's going on?"

'_She really needs someone right now. But she cannot express that.'_

"Yeah...but what for? Is something wrong?"

'_I think so. You should talk to her.'_

"I will as soon as I can, man. Thanks for asking me though. After this mission, okay?"

_'Okay. Noir out.'_

Cyborg switched the computer off.

He gripped the wheel and sighed. "Raven....what am I gonna do with you?"

A beat.

He frowned at the road's asphalt horizon.

"If this just turns out to be Cinderblock again, I'm gonna be really pissed."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the middle of the Main Street, a car exploded in half.

CRACK!!!

Fissures formed in the ground.

Then...

CRUMBLE!!!!

An awning collapsed into dust in front of a hotel.

Silence........

CLANG!!!

A manhole cover shot up, fell down, and rattled to a stop in the street.

Tempest's head popped up.

".........," he blinked.

He leapt up on a jet of sleeve-propelled water and he got into a fighting position.

A green velociraptor jumped up after him.

The changeling and the Atlantean spun around, back to scaley back. Claws rearing and water hoses aiming.

Ready for anything....

But only nothing.

Tempest looked at the changling. "I think we've just chased one of your wild gooses."

Beast Boy returned to elf form. "Dude....if you can't say a figure of speech, don't even try."

"And why do you not preach that to Starfire??"

"Because she has more curves than you. Now shut up and keep your eyes peeled!"

As the two boys looked around, Starfire and Raven touched down to the earth.

"It is strangely still and quiet here!" Starfire uttered.

"Shhh!!" Tempest hissed. "We're probably being watched."

"Dude...Raven, why's your foot all bandaged up?"

"Never you mind," the girl droned. She floated across the street. "Are there any civillians here?"

"Look!" Starfire pointed.

Everyone glanced up.

There were huddled figures peering desperately out a third story window. They waved. "Watch out!! He can cloak himself!! He shoots energy bolts and stuff!!"

"But who??" Raven planted her hands on her hips. "Who are you talking about??"

"We can't tell!!"

"H-He looks a little familiar...but..."

"You gotta get us out of here!! He could be anywhere!!"

"You must remain calm," Raven said firmly, her hands raised. She was oblivious to a black ring of energy lifting up a van and hovering it over her. "We'll get to you as soon as all the Titans are assembled and—"

Beast Boy gasped. "Raven!! Look out!!""

Tempest gritted his teeth and shot a spray of water at the girl's body. SPLASH!!!

"Nnghhh!!" she was shoved out of the way just in time to avoid the van crunching down at her.

SMASH!!!!

Starfire charged a starbolt and shot at the air above the van.

FLASH!!!!

The silhouette of an invisible figure darted momentarily past the green aura.

Starfire gasped.

A blink.

A dark streak appeared behind her and shoved her hard in the back.

"Augh!!" she stumbled forward.

A shadow appeared momentarily.

"RAAAWR!!!" a green panther leapt towards it.

The shadow disappeared...revealing a stop sign directly behind it.

WHANG!!!!

The panther smashed face-first into the sign and dizzily teetered into the sidewalk.

Across the street—groaning—Raven stumbled to her knees.

A streetlight above her was lassoed with black strands and wobbled before toppling down over her.

The dark girl looked up at the last second, gasped, and dove out of the way.

SMASH!!!!

Raven struggled to her feet. She limped towards the sidewalk.

SWOOOOSH!!

The dark figure reappeared in front of her with a strong fist across her cheek.

WHAM!!!

"Ooof!!" Raven teetered back.

WHUMP!!! A shadowy knee to her chest.

Raven bent over, wheezing.

The shadow flicked to a stance behind her, raising its hands threateningly.

FLASH!!!!

A starbolt struck the figure in the side.

"Mmmmf!!" a manly voice uttered. A flicker and—the figure disappeared again.

Raven wheezed. Starfire floated over and held her up gently. "Are you damaged??"

"I'll live...," Raven winced. "Unfortunately...."

"The invisible assailant is concentrating an awful lot of harming you!!" the Tamaranian said. "Perhaps we should get you out of here??"

Tempest walked forward, glaring. "Or perhaps we should just flush him out...," he cracked his knuckles. His dark eyes flashed purple. He raised his hands and collected water spewing out of a nearby fire hydrant. He gathered the water up in a floating 'cloud' above them and rained down on the street.

Raven held up a black shield above herself and Starfire to keep them dry.

The rest of the street was drenched. And after a while...two legs formed...then a torso...then a whole body. A silhouette formed in the cascading water.

"Gotcha.......," Tempest sneered.

"Just in time too....," said a voice from above.

SWOOOOOOSH!!! Robin swung in through the water and plowed his steel-tipped boots into the visible figure in the 'rain'.

WHAM!!!

"AUGH!!" a voice grunted. The shadow flickered as its body tumbled across the fresh puddles.

Robin landed. He shouted and charged the figure. "Raaaugh!!"

The shadow jumped up and held a hand out. FLASH!!! A black orb of sorts flew at the Boy Wonder.

Robin ducked.

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred in, screeched to a stop, and whipped out Myrkblade—CHIIIING!!—deflecting the dark blast. CLANG!!!

From where he lay on the ground, Robin whipped out a bolo, spun it over his head, and flung it at the shadow.

SWIIIIISH-THRAP!!!

The shadowy figure struggled in the suddenly binding cord wrapped around his figure. "Nnnghh....rrrrghh!!"

Chtung!!! He flinched as two strong headlights stabbed into his shadowy form.

"Looks like we have us a snake in the grass!" Cyborg stepped out of the T-Car, whipped out his sonic cannon, and marched threateningly towards the figure.

Robin and I approached him. I with my sword and him with his staff.

"Show yourself!!" Cyborg shouted.

"Now!!!" Robin growled with emphasis.

"Dear children...," the voice contemptuously slurred. "...what is there to show you when you have nothing to see me with?? You are hypocrites down to the core. You think you're heroes, when in fact you purposefully blind yourselves to the true villainy inside of you. Much worse than the villainy I ever embodied!! And no one...no one on this pitiful earth is more evil than THAT WITCH!!!!" The shadow's 'head' faced Raven as it spat the last part.

Starfire gasped.

Raven freed herself from the Tamaranian's grip, frowning. "Who are you?? What do you want??"

"VENGEANCE!!! Retribution!!! I want you to suffer like I have!! That's why I brought you here!!!" the figure hissed. It shook in its restraints and—like magic—a curtain of blackness peeled away. The shadow was replaced by a bearded man in a black jumpsuit with an obsidian crest helmeting his skull. "Remember me, oh hideous one?!?! I sure do remember you......"

Raven's eyes narrowed.

Robin's lips parted. "Dr. Light???"

I did a double-take.

"Ah...but I was once such a meager miscreant!! Happily robbing banks for the pure thrill!! It was all fun and games...but she...SHE had to play with me!! Like a demon cat to a helpless mouse...that witch showed me Hell!! Hell in all of its true, cold reality!!"

"Oh brother...," Raven rolled her eyes.

"What's this all about???" Tempest whispered.

Beast Boy muttered aside: "Dr. Light. One hit wonder. He nearly had us beat one night after a robbery when Raven suddenly went biserk and sucked him into some nightmare abyss place thingy—"

"Don't speak of it as some trivial imprisonment!!" the man cackled as if he heard everything. He shook and hyperventilated psychotically within his restraints. "It was so lonely....and so c-cold....and so TERRIBLY DARK in that place!!!"

"You were endangering lives and disrupting the peace," Raven grumbled. "Do not dictate to us what is or is not 'terrible'..."

"SILENCE!!!!" the man shook. "RRRAAAAUGH!!!" his whole body pulsed with black energy.

"Cyborg!!!" Robin shouted. "Let him have it!!"

"Aw great...," Cyborg gritted his teeth, squinted one eye, and let loose with the sonic canon. "Firing!!" ZAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

A black aura emanated from the villain's body, snapping the bolo apart and repelling the blue beam back up high into the building sides.

CRAAAASH!!!

"Aaack!!"

"Yikes!!"

The citizens watching overhead barely avoided the blast and ducked back inside the window.

Cyborg dove to the side to avoid a falling piece of debris.

I panted.

"How did he do that???" Starfire exclaimed, breathless.

"I have learned....I have learned the true nature of life..."

All of us watched nervously as the pulsing shadow rambled in front of us. His eyes were wide and mad. His teeth glistened animalistically.

"The only reason to exist is to die. I have had my innocence stricken away from me. And Raven of the Titans!!" he glared and pointed a finger. "I shall make you pay for such torturous revelation!!!"

"Grow up, Dr. Light...," Raven said indignantly. "We all have to deal with death. So must you."

"NO!!! I will not listen to your LIES!! You will suffer. I SWEAR IT!!" he held up two hands and charged dark black orbs of high energy. "And I am no longer Dr. Light. Oh no....thanks to you, I have a new path. A path of suffering. A path that I shall send you and everyone else on!! For I have become Dr. Dark!! Fear the ABYSS!!!"

"Titans!!" Robin shouted. "Go—"

"RAAAAAUGH!!" he flung an orb at the leader.

Robin flipped over the blast which tore into an abandoned semi-truck behind him.

SMASH!!!!

I blurred at the villain, Myrkblade swinging.

"I have tweaked my technology to the darkest ends of the spectrum!!" he shot a stream of blackness at me.

FLASH!!!!!

I gasped at the last second—WHAM!!!!

I was tossed literally a dozen blocks away over the City.

Starfire flew down, tossing starbolts. "Raaugh!! Haa!! YAAUGH!!" FLASH!! FLASH!! FL-FLASH!!!

"I have mastered the art of complete absorption!!" Dr. Dark created a shield of obsidian that absorbed the Starbolts. He produced an extra-heavy charge of subsequent power and struck Starfire hard across the side as she dove in.

SMASH!!

"EEP!!" Starfire flew straight into a buildingside—SMASH!!—and was sealed within.

Tempest charged, producing bullwhips of compressed water.

"I understand now the flow of life and the universe!!" Dr. Dark held up a huge orb of blackness and dropped it on the running Atlantean. "The perpetual descent into nothingness!!"

CRUNCH!!!

"Augh!!" Tempest shouted as he was plowed through the asphalt and into the sewers below. SPLASH!!!

"RAAAAUGH!!" Robin and Cyborg charged at once.

Dr. Dark held up a shield of black energy, blocked Robin's staff, shoved the Boy Wonder aside, and shot a stream of darkness into Cyborg's chest.

FLASH!!!

"WHOAH!!!" Cyborg was propelled at maddening speed far away so that he crashed through the police barrier and nearly collapsed into Decker and the lieutenant with a smoking THUD!!!

Beast Boy turned into a bull and charged, snorting.

"HA!!!" Dr. Dark flicked his wrist.

Shadows flickered, and over twenty mines suddenly appeared—blinking—in Beast Boy's path.

The bull screeched to a stop, its eyes bugging as it nearly fell over and landed on an explosive.

Raven watched all of this—panting.

"And you!!"

Raven jerked and looked at the man, her eyes wide.

He grinned evilly and flicked his wrist. A sinister, black cylinder of metal appeared in the middle of the street. It hissed and let loose steam as a light atop it blinked.

"You shall bear witness to your own Hell, witch!! For you shall be in the center of my greatest creation!! The Absolute Black!! A device that reverses the energy distribution of all incoming light! Effectively creating a null effect! In other words...," his eyes and soulless. "A City without light...not so much as a stray spark."

Raven's jaw dropped.

Robin shook his head dizzily and looked up from where he lie helpless on the asphalt. "No!! Don't set that thing off!!"

"Too late, Titans!!" Dr. Dark fingered the trigger. He smiled. "It's your time of judgment...."

He flicked the switch.

And then he—and everything—disappeared.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VROMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

From high above, the helicopter suddenly pulled up as beneath it a huge black sphere exploded like a round mushroom cloud inside the heart of the City.

A literal half-dome of pure blackness solidified fifty stories tall and fifteen blocks in diameter from every angle.

A deep, haunting noise vibrated throughout the air as a great deal fo the city was lost to spectral oblivion.

_VROMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I had managed to land with my metal hand gripping a close-line between two old apartment towers. I leapt off the lines, blurred up the brick walls, and perched on the rooftop.

I was about to dash my way to the scene of the fight when I realized the scene of the fight was completely gone.

And in its place was a huge dome of obsidian.

I gasped.

CL-CLANK!!

Myrkblade fell to the rooftop gravel....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh my god!!"

"Shit almighty!!"

"What is that thing?!?!"

"Nnngh....," Cyborg stumbled up to his feet. He rubbed his head and opened a squinting, human eye. "Nnngh....mmm?? What....wh-what the Hell??" He blinked. He stomped forward with fists clenched and gasped. "What the Hell?!?!?!"

No further than forty feet ahead of the barrier was a solid wall of black. It curved up—cold and perfectly smooth—arching over to meet the other side of the half-sphere. It didn't look like any tangible material. It was like space had opened up and swallowed a piece of existence from the urban world. A black hole without the gravity drawing into it.

"I need backup immediately!!"

"Code red!! Code red emergency!!"

"No, I'm not kidding!! Fifteen square blocks of the Downtown has suddenly been swallowed up!!"

"I don't know what it is!! It's big, black, and it's here!! Send backup!!"

Cyborg followed along, whipping out his communicator arm panel and shouting: "Robin!! Robin!! Do you read me?!?!"

Silence.

"Robin!! Raven!! Star??!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Does anybody read me?!?! Over??"_

I had the chills then and there.

I shakily managed to reach my metal prosthetic with my other hand and switched the morse code signaling on.

I responded to Cyborg.

"_Noir?!?! Thank God. Where the Hell are you?!?!"_

I was four blocks south of the blackness. I could see the whole center of the City swallowed up.

"_Do you see any of the others?? Any of the Titans at all?"_

I bit my lip.

I reported 'negative'.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Crud, man. Serious crud...," Cyborg lowered his arm a bit and spoke to himself more than anything. "I can't get in contact with any of them."

A beat.

He spun and shouted at someone...anyone. "Get someone from Phaser Labs here!! On the double!!"

"Yes sir!!"

"We need to find out what this big piece of shit is!!" Cyborg grumbled. A beat. He uttered—quietly this time: "Whatever it is....it's got our friends..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"..............."

I stared forlornly at the site.

Helicopters and birds fluttered overhead.

Glistening in the sunlight above the black silence....


	133. Mortuana part 2

**133. Mortuana part 2**

_  
The violins stroke._

The flute lingers.

The pale figure pauses to take a breath.

He lifts his arms and opens his eyes as he spins dramatically inside the fire-lit circle of gothic listeners and utters:

"_Lost!! Inconceivably scattered within the hallow shell of pure darkness!! They had no way of finding each other!! They had no way of knowing if each other were alive!! And it was all because of the selfish villain's attempt to strike pain and suffering in the heart of the sacred mother's child.........Can you imagine such an atrocity??"_

Murmurs.

Worried looks.

Hands comforting each other......

The pale man smiled and raised a finger. "But......"

Pale lips. Pale teeth.

Thin eyes......

"She had allies......," he whispered at first, then practically sang: "Friends so dear and close to her that they would give anything to assure that the attack on her person was relinquished. Sure, the rescue attempt was made for all the souls of the land of light trapped within the obsidian shell......but these two souls in particular had every reason to seek her and her alone. It was their destiny......"

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Progress slowly.....and.....freeze frame." The lieutenant said.

The t.v. screen flickered to a stop. The fuzzy black image of a thin figure appeared in the middle of a helicopter view of Main Street. Besides the figure was a small, onyx cylinder of threatening mystery.

The lieutenant leaned over the technician and pointed at the figure.

"This...is Dr. Light. And beside him is what we think triggered the dome."

I narrowed my black eyes through my shades. I glanced aside at Cyborg.

The android Titan stared, his arms folded. We were gathered inside a makeshift tent erected in the middle of the street besides the ever-growing barricade formed around the sudden half-sphere of blackness. It was bright daylight outside and a cold autumn wind kicked at the tent flaps, deaffening the otherwise tense scene.

"Just what could it be??" the technician sitting before the editing controls muttered.

"Shhh....let them examine it," the lieutenant hissed.

Cyborg rubbed his chin.

I stared a bit more intently. A beat. I hand-signed at the Titan.

"Nah, man...," Cyborg exhaled and shook his head. "Not a chronoton detonator. It's too small. Besides...you've seen one before, remember?"

I sighed and nodded.

A beat.

"It's Terran technology," Cyborg leaned a titanium finger and traced the small dark shape of the cylinder. "Just...pretty damned advanced. Too overtly sinister for something like Lexcorp to manufacture. Dr. Light is certainly smart and technologically gifted enough to make something that small and yet that dangerous on his own...but I have no idea how he'd gotten the money to do something like that."

"Not to mention he's only been a free man for five months," the lieutenant took the liberty of adding. "He escaped from Arkham Asylum and wasn't heard from until now."

"A maniac like that could have gotten some help from Intergang...but I think they're still reeling from Metallo's imprisonment. This guy is working solo, that's for sure." A beat. A sigh. "What Raven did to him must have screwed his brain up more than any of us could guess," Cyborg said.

I looked at him strangely.

"Long story, Noir...."

I hand-signed: _'I would love to hear it.'_

Cyborg groaned. "Let's just say that none of us are perfect....okay?"

I bit my lip.

A ruffle of tent material. Decker marched in.

"Looks like the National Guard's coming. The Governor's declaring a state of emergency and I just remembered I needed to buy shaving lotion. God, I friggin' hate Mondays."

"Just keep everyone as far away from the dome as possible until the probe is finished."

"How's that rusty little Johnny Five gonna do us any good??"

"If you want to go and stick your head into the black mass, Comissioner...be my guest. But believe it or not, this City actually needs your razor-edged spunk from time to time. So I suggest you stay alive."

"Heh...," Decker glanced at me with a dry smirk. "Since when did the grow up?"

I simpered.

Cyborg again refocused attention on the computer screen. "Progress by ten frames," he pointed.

"Allright," the technician fumbled with the controls.

I leaned forward....watching....

The fuzzy image clicked into blurred motion until the figure of Dr. Light (or 'Dr. Dark') leaned over and flipped the switch to the device. The top of the cylinder was the first to explode outward in a big bulbous blob of blackness---

"Freeze frame!"

The technician did so.

"Now zoom out..."

The entire Main Street came into a wide-angled focus. The half-exploding mass of darkness could be seen in the center of the otherwise-quaint scene.

"Now progress by twenty frames....slowly....."

The technician did so.

The five of us watched the tiny t.v. screen as the black sphere expanded outward and sloshed throughout the City till it formed a structurally sound 'dome' of obsidian.

"Freeze."

The Technician did so.

Cyborg glanced at me. "Did you see what I see?"

I nodded slowly....

"????" Decker and his lieutenant appeared clueless. "What the Hell's going on?"

"Reverse and forward the last forty frames...and repeat," Cyborg instructed.

The technician did so.

"See?" Cyborg pointed for the officers to see. "The black mass...it's contorting fluidly to match the mass and shape of the ground."

"Meaning...."

"Whatever this darkness is....it isn't merging with the actual structures around it. Rather, it's shaping itself around it. Like a gas or a half-solid."

"So you're saying that the part of the City that's blacked out.....," Decker scratched his head, "...isn't in fact obliterated?"

"Nope. Rather, I think it's covered. As if with a huge-ass blanket."

"A blanket that we can't even see through..."

I hand-signed: _'Can it be penetrated?'_

Cyborg swiveled about. "There's no saying it is or isn't permeable. But hopefully we should know by now."

"How so?"

"The probe...," Cyborg walked out of the tent.

I followed him swiftly. Decker and the lieutenant were at our heels.

Outside of the tent, the street was a loud and busy bustle of officers rushing about, setting up barricades, and securing a perimeter around the heart of the City's Downtown district. Orders were shouted. Engines revved as cars and trucks pulled into position. Tents and monitoring equipment were set up. And beyond it all was a line of citizens beyond yet another perimeter...and most of the innocent people were shouting and sobbing and crying out for answers. Their loved ones were trapped inside....

"Where's this probe of yours now????" Decker cackled.

"If the Phaser Labs scientists are doing their job...then it should be at least fifty meters deep into the black mass right about now."

"You mean you've actually been sending something _inside_ that dome??"

"A remarkable feat...," Cyborg slurred. "Considering that it's been two and a half hours since it appeared and nobody has come _out_ yet..."

Decker was silent.

I had a sore sensation in the back of my throat.

We approached a group of white-coated lab technicians flanked by armed guards. They were busily scrambling around a computer console erected and attached to a loud, humming machine with huge electric cords dangling and stretching off towards the body of obsidian. The cords seemed to pierce through the black nether like brave placentas, and the cables danced...indicating that the probe inside the depths of the obsidian mass was moving about efficiently and exploring _somewhere_.

"Hey! Old man!" Cyborg planted his hands on his hips and cackled: "How goes it??"

"_I wish you would not interrupt me, Victor......"_

"Simon...you're an advanced computer construct. It'd take the whole northeastern electrical grid overloading for me to _interrupt_ your subroutine."

_"Bah......has it been that long since we worked together??"_

A flicker of light, and the hologram of Simon Stone's figure appeared small and gentlemanly on the edge of the computer console. He was broadcasting his visual incarnation from the mainframe at Phaser Labs in which he was housed many, many blocks away across the City's interstate.

"_Give me a break. I'm looking for your friends as much as you desire to meet them again."_

"Don't forget about the innocent people stuck in Downtown when this crap unloaded too, Princess Leia!" Decker frowned.

I hand-signed at Cyborg.

Cyborg blinked at me and then looked at Decker. "Approximately how many people could there be stuck in there?"

"It's hard to say...," Decker groaned. "Lucky shit—though—that we managed to evacuate a bunch of families when Dr. Light first performed his pantomime of death."

"The estimation is at five hundred people right now...," the lieutenant said....with a latent shudder.

The two of us felt it too.

_"Well...no time like the present to start taking samples of this thing,"_ Simon's hologram said. He pointed at the keystroking scientists busy at work in guiding the probe. _"Right now, tests show a virtual paradox inside that place. There is absolutely no sign of light. Not even in the daytime. Particles are almost absent completely. Nothing is being reflected or absorbed—save for that which the robot probe casts. And yet—in the absence of light energy—the City streets have not achieved absolute zero in temperature. We suspect that there may be another source of heat energy left in the City under the blackness.........or........."_

"Or what??" Decker's eyes narrowed.

The hologram flickered...then smirked. _"Quite technically......we may be dealing with the first recorded example of a self-sufficient, pocket dimension caused by an artificial paradox."_

"..........," Decker blinked. He looked at Cyborg and I. "So how do we kill it?"

"Commissioner, I don't see how we can 'kill' a pocket dimension....," Cyborg grumbled.

"Right now, the lives of those possibly inside that thing matter the most," the lieutenant said.

"And just how're we going to get to them?" Decker asked.

I motioned a 'walking figure' with two fingers.

_"Not a bad idea thus far,"_ Simon Stone's visage grinned. _"Part of the inherent paradox is the almost perfect, nonpolluted living conditions inside the interior of the dome. I dare say—as accidental as this is—we may have before us now the cleanest spot on the globe."_

"Looks like a big glob of shit to me...," Decker grumbled, eyeing the dome and scratching his head.

Simon sighed. _"Yes......well......there will be interpretations......"_

"I don't see what we're waiting for," Cyborg spoke. He faced Decker. "I suggest you consider assembling a task force together, sir. We may not want to wait for the National Guard on this one. That thing looks big 'n all, but there's no telling how stable it is or not."

"You're telling me," Decker nodded. "In a place that dark, trapped citizens are only bound to get hurt in some way or another—"

"The probe!!" a scientist suddenly gasped. "It's....a-accelerating!!"

The figure of Simon Stone flickered. _"Wh-What??"_

"Into the center of the dome!" another scientist scrambled over the controls and computer console. "The cord is being pulled on! Hard!!"

_"Then cut the engine to the probe!!"_

"It's not the probe that's moving on its own, sir!!"

"_Huh??"_

Cyborg and I looked at each other. "........."

If Simon Stone had a jaw, it'd be gaping. His holographic visage snapped out of it and motioned: _"Quick!! Pull it back!!"_

A scientist shouted: "Initiate retrieval!!"

"B-But---"

"Now!!!"

Another technician jammed on the controls.

VRYMMMMM!!!!!!! The mechanical pulley system to the probe recoiled at a maddening pace. The cords slid back into a huge metal box. Retracting----

CL-CLANK!!!!

I jolted.

So did everyone else in the vicinity.

"The Hell???"

The cord had stopped retracting.

Two nearby scientists blinked at it. "It.....it's caught—"

CRACK!!!!!!! SWOOOSH!!! YANK!!!!

The cord was pulled fiercely forward...lunging _into_ the black dome. The anchor of a pulley system snapped halfway off its hinges. The cord was yanked forward again from inside the dome. Sparks flew. A metal panel blew off with a POW!! and smacked hard into the back of a scientist, who collapsed with a groan.

"It's being pulled back!!"

"The machine can't counter for the force!!"

YANK!!! CRKKKKK!!!!

The cord pulled taut...dancing....metal twanging sounds reverberating everywhere.

"_We're losing it!!"_

Cyborg dove forward.

I gasped as I watched him.

The android Titan grabbed onto the cord, gritted his teeth, and pulled with heavy, titanium muscles. " Nnnnghhhhh!!!!!!!"

CREAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!

The cord stretched to the breaking point. Split 'ends' of wire strands snapped off in a dozen places. The cord shook, tensed, and finally gave in to the Titan.

YANK!!!!

"RghhhhrrRRAUGH!!!" Cyborg stomped towards the barricade as he pulled at the cord...easier....easier....

"Look....," the lieutenant pointed.

The cord dangled to the asphalt. Something emerged from the dome.

Decker and I squinted.

CL-CLANK!!!

The probe was dragged out of the black sphere.....

Or at least..._what was once_ the probe. The wheels of the metal, robotic cart were gone. Many instruments were damaged and dangling. And at the front of the craft opposite of where the cords were attached....the metal body was scarred, scratched, and dented in key places.

"...........," Cyborg stopped pulling and stared at what was at the end of his line. THWUMP!! He dropped his grip of the cord and walked over to the mangled probe.

I joined him quickly.

The two of us knelt and stared at the metal device. Decker, the lieutenant, and a few stray (and dumbfounded) officers stood over us.

"What the Hell?? Did a building front land on it or something??" Decker remarked.

I ran my metal finger over the surface. My titanium digits ran in tiny ravines cut into the metal surface. ".........." I hand-signed to Cyborg.

The android took a deep breath. "Noir's right....it's not that simple."

"Why not?"

I looked up at the officers and pointed at the surface with emphasis.

Cyborg spoke: "Those are _teeth marks......"_

".....................," everyone stared at the scarred probe. "................." we all turned and stared at the black dome.

The dark wall stretched pure and satiny before us. Solid, pure black.

Silent......

Ever erect.....

".................."

Cyborg and I looked at each other.

A beat.

A breath.

My teammate said: "Ready to go for a daylight, midnight stroll?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gone were my combat fatigues. I did away with the camouflage jacket, black tanktop, and brown slacks that I was used to. In its place was a white jumpsuit. Reflective ivory color. I even had a white bandanna that I was fastening to my forehead.

"_The light clothes and gear are essential in this mission,_" spoke Simon Stone's image from atop a holographic pedestal inside the equipments tent. _"Your only way of seeing will be use of artificial light, whether it be flashlight or lanterns or flares or what have you. And in order to prevent the two of you from getting lost from each other......you'll just have to deal with the dusty ghost look."_

Cyborg finished inserting a chip into his sternum and closing the panel over it. "On top of that, old man," he smirked. The usual blue glow of his titanium exoskeleton was replaced with a bright white aura. "Heh...I can feel my basketball-dunking skills fading already."

I glanced Cyborg's way and stuck my tongue out.

He chuckled.

"_And did I mention flashlights? You'll need a lot of them. A whole pack of them. Along with medical aid kits and—just in case—radio equipment."_

Cyborg and I finished bagging the items in questions. The two of us had backpacks—though Cyborg's was considerably bigger.

"_The ropes and cords are for any emergency rescue you might need to orchestrate...be it scaling a building or a sewer or what have you."_

I nodded in understanding. I fastened tight bundles of cord around my chest and torso in an 'x' formation. I slipped on Myrkblade between all of this and the backpack and practiced unsheathing the weapon. CHIIIING!! I sighed with a slight smile. _At least some things are working today......_

_"About the radio equipment......it's going to be hard granting you and the officers outside two-way communication......much less one-way. We found out with the probe that we couldn't transmit live signals in or out of the black dome completely. It seems to be cancelling out radio waves and other transmissions. It might also account for the fact that no phone call has gotten through to anyone's mobiles among those still stuck in the Downtown District."_

"That's for you to wonder about and for us to find out, old man," Cyborg said...fastening the last of his ropes and cords to his chest. "Consider this the final experiment. I hypothesize that we're gonna go in there and come out with over twelve hundred people in tact."

"_That doesn't sound like a null hypothesis to me......"_

"Yeah...well...screw you, Mendel," Cyborg winked.

The hologram's figure chuckled. _"Heheheheh."_

Silence.

_"This isn't gonna be easy, Victor,"_ Simon solemnly said. _"Be careful."_

"You know we won't," Cyborg said.

Just then, one of the technicians rushed in with a CD. "We think you may want to see something."

"What's that?"

"????" I looked.

"It's a recording from the probe," the technician slipped the CD into a nearby computer console and typed up a media program. "Taken as a sampling right when we nearly lost it."

"Is it footage from inside the dome??" Cyborg walked up, I beside him.

The technician bit his lip. "I-It's mostly sound....but............j-just watch...."

One last keystroke...

-click-

Cyborg and I leaned forward to the computer screen.

Simon's hologram 'craned his neck'.

There was nothing in the media window but absolute white snow. The audio corresponded predictably:

"_Snkkkktkkkkkkskkkkksnnkkkkskkks-skkkknnkkkkskkkttkkkkkkk........."_

Cyborg slowly shook his face, shrugged, and sighed. "Nothing—"

"Shhh....watch...," the technician said.

_"Snkkkkkkktkkkkkknkkkkkkkkkkksnnnkkkkttt-kkkkkksnnkkk........."_

Pure snow. But then...a hump of black...then snow again.

I narrowed my eyes. I leaned in between the two's shoulders.

Cyborg rubbed his chin.

Snow.....more snow.....more snow......

"_Snnnkkkkkkkkksnkkkkkkkktnnkk-kkkktkkkkkkktkkconsumemesskkktkktk......"_

Snow. Snow. Another dark hump. Parting snow. Dancing. Asphalt up close. A shadow. Snow burst. An eyebrow. Twitching cornea. White lace.

"_Snnkkktkkkkconsumememommysnnkkktkkkkkktohgawdhe'sHERE-SNNKKKT—TKKKK!!!"_

The screen went black.

The speakers dead silent.

I blinked. I adjusted my shades and glanced at my teammate.

"..................," Cyborg leaned back. He took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his neck....feeling for hair that wasn't there.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When the two Titans marched slowly towards the obsidian wall, the commotion of the barricade and the two perimeters had practically melted into absolute silence. Even the news and camera crews from beyond the outer rim of protection had turned mute. Everyone—officer, scientist, and technician alike stared in awe and uncertainty as we approached the line of no-light. Our bodies equipped with backpacks, rope, and lighting equipment.

We were ready....

We paused at the edge of the black wall. I glanced at Cyborg.

Cyborg nodded. He turned around and faced the barricade from a long distance. He looked at Decker and the lieutenant in particular as he spoke...and his voice had a frighteningly queer echoing sound in the middle of that sunny afternoon in the City:

"I know it might not matter much...but we'll try and keep in contact!! If we don't meet or see anyone in the first three hours...we shall return!! If we're not back by then...I suggest you rely on some outer forces to investigate! Maybe....M-Maybe the Justice League..."

I bit my lip at that.

Decker nodded. He called out. "Don't forget the cord!!"

We both looked down.

A black cable painted with impromptu bands of white highlight had been tossed into the surface of the black dome.

"Right!" Cyborg saluted back from a distance. "If there's a tug on it...that means people are ready to come out! Don't come in for us unless you see that thing there moving!! It's too dangerous for anyone but heroes at this point...."

Silent understanding...

Cyborg and I swiveled back to the dome. We took our own...independent breaths.

"Remember, dawg....we stick together....no matter what...."

I nodded. I hand-signed. _'I am dressed like Colonel Sanders. I don't think that will be hard.'_

Cyborg chuckled at that. He smiled at me.

I smiled weakly at him.

"............"

"Let's go find our friends, Noir."

I nodded.

I faced forward.

Slowly....I stepped in first.

I reached my metal hand out while absent-mindedly holding my other arm back and clutching the hilt of my sheathed sword.

I exhaled....and oozed through.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Absolutely cold.

Absolutely silent.

Absolutely black.

And then...there was a thunder that exploded through the blind world.

I gasped...and it thundered louder.

And I realized that that very thunder....._was my very own breath._

I fumbled my metal hand down to my belt...where a flashlight had been tied to my jumpsuit. I snapped the flashlight free of the belt........and turned it on.

-click-

A golden beam shot out from my left arm like a lightsabre. It startled me. I twisted my metal hand around. The beam danced around. And suddenly...building sides appeared. And street signs. And empty cars. Like pieces to a puzzle lighting up from beneath a mahogany-glass surface.

I exhaled.

Visible wisps drifted into the beam as my breath thundered into the deathly silent domain of black......

I shuddered.

Two echoes of thunder from behind me.

I spun my head around.

A shuffling.

A pause.

".............."

".............N-Noir?" Cyborg's voice.

I swung the flashlight around.

The ground caught fire in an orange glow. Cyborg's boots appeared.

I tilted the flashlight up.

Cyborg's upper body. His human eye squinted.

"Okay, man....we're both here and we're both okay. Stop blinding me."

I sweatdropped, simpered, and pointed the electric torch away.

"Step aside....," he thunderously whispered.

My footsteps echoed twice to the side.

Whurrr-Chting!!

His shoulder flashlight popped up....and...

FLASH!!!

A quarter of the nearby street appeared before us...as if emerging from the surface of a black lake. Everything beyond fifteen meters disappeared into inky oblivion. Everything was still. There was no movement. No wind. No ambiance. Just perfect oblivion. Death, almost.......

"..................," Cyborg's human eye blinked. "Whoah......."

I walked ahead of him a bit. I shone around with my flashlight. The light scanned the buildingfronts. But when it met the glass of the windows, it didn't reflect off. There was no glinting effects. No glistening. Just dullness.

"...............," I blinked a few times. My face scrunched up. –click- I turned my flashlight off.

"?????" Cyborg glanced at me strangely.

I reached a flesh hand up....and took my shades off. I blinked with my black eyes.

A beat.

I glanced Cyborg's way.

He looked at me.

A beat.

I shrugged and tossed the black shades off.

They clattered with unnatural loudness on the asphalt floor beneath us.

I took a deep breath and took the lead, walking ahead and scanning the immediate area with my naked, black optics.

Cyborg marched up slowly behind me, assisting with the glow of his floodlight.

And in such a slow manner, we advanced into the abyss....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Streetsides oozed past us.

Cars and trucks and vans in the thick murk of black.

Lampposts and street lights looming like silver ghosts.

No lights.

No strobes.

No blinking.

Just a cold, quiet dullness.

The footsteps of Cyborg and I seemed to echo as far as the android's floodlights could pierce into the nether.

My black eyes caught the shells of vehicles and abandoned storefronts seconds before they emerged into the normally visible spectrum.

No people.

No bodies.

Nothing...

Quietly...breathing steadily....we walked on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We passed by the site of the Titans' battle with Dr. Light.

Smashed cards and building fronts littered the asphalt on either side of us.

Cyborg stepped over a mound of debris.

Loose bricks crumbled under the weight of him.

Echoing cracks and rumbles drifted into the nearby air.

I walked by and peered into a smashed building front with my eyes.

I sensed stone-still shadows inside but nothing moving.

I sighed.

Cyborg walked over the hole in the asphalt where Tempest had collapsed.

He aimed his floodlight down.

The sewer was dry.

No liter of water or muck could so much as be seen.

Not even a trickle or a piece of residue.

Cyborg inhaled.

He stood up and joined me in the center of the road.

There, we found the spot where Dr. Light's cylinder was.

And the object was gone...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Surrounded in an orb of dim, golden glow...our two bodies shuffled down the empty streets of Downtown.

We reached the Business District.

At an intersection, four huge skyscrapers stretched up into the blackness.

I glanced up with my naked eyes at the edge of the northwest building.

The electric stock exchange ticker was off completely.

I peered up.

Cyborg stepped up behind me and aimed his floodlight up.

He switched the light to its highest intensity.

The glow managed to climb up the first six stories of the building...but failed to go beyond.

Cyborg swiveled the flashlight around.

The light caught three shadows in front of a building.

The two of us jolted.

.....

Flagpoles.

The canvass flags hung limply.

There was no wind and they didn't move an inch from where they 'dangled'.

Cyborg and I glanced at each other.

A breathy shrug...

....and...

We moved on...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The buildings spread apart.

An open space of ground appeared before us.

The asphalt was replaced with sidewalk and then with grass.

The central park in front of the City Hall....

I gazed around.

Cyborg swung his floodlight gently around.

Our light-colored boots padded over the grass.

My eyes narrowed.

I jerked to a stop.

Cyborg froze behind me.

I held up a finger.

I extended my arm out.

I concentrated.

I sent murk pouring down my white-sleeved arm...outstretched.

My eyes danced with smoke.

A beat.

I took a knowing breath, then smiled sarcastically.

I walked on ahead and motioned for Cyborg to follow.

With a confused look on his face, the android Titan did so.

In a matter of seconds, Cyborg saw emerge from the darkness that which I had sensed with my spatial awareness already.

A pale finger and a pale skull.

Cyborg nearly pratfalled........

It was a statue of General McClellan mounted on a horse.

Stretched in pale marble in the center of the park's monument.

Cyborg let out a sigh of relief.

He smirked my way.

I was walking up to a water fountain.

I switched it on.

......

No water.

I scratched my black head of hair.

I glanced back at Cyborg.

The android Titan silently shrugged and walked on towards the far edge of the park.

I followed suit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We walked past a parking garage.

Concrete slabs, metal fences, and dull headlights drifting past us and dripping back into darkness.

I took a tired breath and strained to keep my black eyes focused on the invisible path ahead of me.

A deafening beeping sound was alighting the air as Cyborg fiddled with his arm communicator.

"Decker...come in." A beat. "Decker...do you read me?" Another pause. "Simon? You there, old man?"

Silence.

"He was right...," Cyborg grunted. "No signals can get in or out. We're in dead space right now, dawg."

I nodded with my back to him.

"It's not just the light that's sucked out...but everything's pretty much kaput in here!" Cyborg said. It was eerie how he referred to that place as 'in here'. "None of the power's working. There's no water in the sewer or fountains. It's like the lifeblood of the City's gone!"

I looked around the empty street.

"Not to mention, no people whatsoever...," Cyborg muttered. "Ain't there supposed to be five hundred citizens not evacuated? Not to mention our friends?? You'd think we'd run into them by now!"

I took a shuddering breath.

"Well....one thing's for sure," Cyborg said. "We've been walking through the streets for well over an hour. If none of them are out here..." he nonchalantly pointed to a random building. "Then maybe they're in there..."

I faced him and nodded.

A flowing figure streaked behind me.

"!!!!!!" I spun around. CHIIING!! I held Myrkblade out, darting my eyes around.

"Did you see it too, dawg??" Cyborg breathed.

I nodded. I cleared my throat, composed myself and walked forward in a march.

Cyborg followed with his light.

_Creak......Creak......Creak......Creak......_

From up ahead, a squeaking sound emanated intermittently.

I narrowed my eyes.

Cyborg's light fell over the front of the Downtown Hotel.

The centermost revolving door was slowly spinning to a stop.

_Creak......Creak.........Creak............Creaaaaak......................................._

"............" I glanced back at Cyborg.

"Come on!" he rushed forward.

I followed behind.

As we reached the entrance, something golden on the cement foundation caught the corner of my ebony optics.

I did a double-take. I squinted.

There was a plaque on the wall.

Black letters were chiseled into the golden sheet:

'_Hannah and Her Dolls'_

I raised an eyebrow.

_Since when did they put that here?_

"Noir! Come on!!"

I shrugged it off and dashed after the android.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeak_

Cyborg and I stumbled into the lobby.

"Augh....dammit....loudest revolving door in the world. Hang on." He shone his light around the murky-back hotel lobby. "Hello?!?!" Silence. "Hello?!?!?!" Echoes. Then silence.

"..................," I peered around with my black eyes at the spots where Cyborg's light couldn't touch. I scanned the shadows in the immediate darkness. Nothing. No one.

"We're the Titans!! We've come from the rest of the City outside!! We only want to help anyone and everyone!! Please show yourself!! We'll get you out of here!! I promise!!"

Silence.

"Why would you run away from us?? I mean come on!!" Cyborg tossed his arms. He glanced at me. "Maybe we do look like ghosts, dawg."

I smirked.

_Creaak-CLACK!!_

I spun with Myrkblade.

Cyborg shone his light on the revolving doors.

But they weren't moving.

_Clack......Cl-Clack..._

I turned. I pointed to the left.

Cyborg aimed his floodlight.

The door to the stairwell flanking the lobby settled close.

_Clack......clink......_

"There we be...," Cyborg said.

We both crept towards the stairwell.

I ducked in and opened the door ahead of Cyborg.

The android stood in the frame and shone his light in.

The shadows of steps cast against a wall below. The stairwell only led down.

"Pfft....lovely....," Cyborg muttered. He cupped a free hand around his mouth and called down: "You actually think it's any brighter down there?!?!?!"

Silence.

Cyborg's voice echoed back, latent.

"Argh...," Cyborg looked my way. "It figures that the first group of people we save are a clan of albinos."

I simpered.

"Let's take it slow...," Cyborg said as he marched in and down.

I followed behind, letting the door fall closed behind.

_CLACK! Clack......cliiiiink._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Our footsteps clapped against the claustrophobic, hollow walls of the stairwell.

As we descended what felt like a full three flights, Cyborg's flashlight caused shadows of the steps and handrailing to dance all around.

The light had a yellowish hue against the sick walls, as if a lantern fish was swimming around inside a fishbowl positioned in the center of the room.

We finally came to the bottom two doors. They had windows with tiny crosswires in them. The sort that one would find in a hospital.

But what was more....the handles of the two doors were chain-locked together.

"Say what???" Cyborg made a face as we reached the bottom of the stairwell. He fingered the chains...rusted and old. He gave me a wyrd look. At the same time, we both glanced behind us and back up the stairwell.

A dead end....

"Didn't the person just run down here??"

"..................."

"This is seriously creepy man...I don't mind saying," he chuckled.

I hand signed.

"Nah, dude. I could have sworn I saw a skirt or something on the figure. Remember?"

I nodded.

"So it couldn't have been Dr. Light....unless he's a closet transvestite or something. Though he has managed to turn the entire Downtown into one bigass closet."

I was peering through the cross-wired windows at the dark hallway beyond while Cyborg spoke. I narrowed my black eyes. I spotted shadows within the shadows....perhaps doorways or entrances leading into basement compartments or storage rooms.

"I think we should go back up. Perhaps our imagination's playing with us."

I turned from the door and smiled at him.

"If we want to find the other Titans, at least, we shouldn't be going around in any basement levels. If Robin's gathered the others, he's probably somewhere high up."

I nodded. I turned back to the windows. A girl's pale face stared at me through the glass.

"!!!!!!!!!" I fell back into Cyborg.

"AAAACK!!" THRUMP!!! "Noir?!?!?!"

His light went out.

I panted.

I jumped up, whipped out my flashlight in one hand, and aimed both it and Myrkblade at where I sensed the door in the darkness.

-click-

The light shone dully through the cross-wires of the window. But there was no pale face. No girl.

I took deep breaths.

"Nnnnghh....man....wh-what did you see??" Cyborg hobbled up to his titanium feet, dusted off his shoulder lamp, and switched it on again.

The glow shone through the glass and into the dark hallway. We saw the black and white tile. The plastic lining of the bottom walls. Two white heels dashing off into darkness.

"........"

A chill ran through my body. I bit my lip.

"Okay...so we got some scared kid to take care of," Cyborg groaned. "Let's go check up on her...it's 'what heroes do', I suppose."

I nodded. I took a breath and swung Myrkblade. CRACK!!

I broke the lock apart and pushed the doors open. _Creeak._

"Hey! Little girl! Wait up!" Cyborg spoke. He walked ahead with his flashlight.

I followed along.

"Yo!! It's okay!! It's Cyborg! Ya know...like in T.V.? The big black dude with the blue birthday suit!!"

I hissed: "Shhhh!"

"What??"

I held a finger up, and hand-signed: _'She may be frightened.'_

"Oh....r-right...," Cyborg winced. "My bad..."

I sighed. I walked ahead of him and peered at every door on my sides.

It was the maintenance storage facility, positioned strategically in the basement level of the building. Small alcoves for huge washers and dryers appeared on either side of us. And then there were entire closets devoted to hotel towels. I gazed in each of them with my naked vision and Cyborg illuminated every corner with his flashlight.

We were already halfway across the corridor...and yet....no girl.

As we walked past a large service elevator, Cyborg muttered. "There sure as Hell better not be another stairwell on the other side or something."

I glanced around. I rounded a cart for carrying foodstuffs....empty. I felt the interior yawn open to my right. I stopped and glanced in.

A huge black room stretched before me. I could already sense—both from my vision and the edges of Cyborg's illumination—the bodies of numerous carts, laundry trays, and towel racks. A curtain of translucent, plastic sheets hung in two or three tiers before us like ghosts. Remarkably, Cyborg's floodlight didn't shimmer off their smooth, dangling surfaces.

Silence.

I sighed.

_Dead end._

I glanced up at Cyborg helplessly.

"She's just....h-hiding, man...," he spoke to himself more than me.

I raised an eyebrow.

_Rustle......_

The two of us turned around.

"..........."

"..........."

............

............_r-rustle........._

Cyborg whispered: "Where's that coming from??"

A beat.

I looked at my Titan friend. I elbowed him hard.

"Oof!! What the?!?! O-Oh, right. Ahem," He raised his voice. "You can come out now! We're your friends, okay? We want to help you get back home....only it's really super dark right now and it doesn't help that we can't see you!"

Silence.

"Won't you work with us?"

Silence......

......................................._r-rustle............rustle........._

Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head. "She must be deaf, man...."

The entire time I had my ear crained intently towards the air of the basement hallway. I tried to determine the source of the shifting noise. And I had made a substantial hypothesis. I walked partially into the huge alcove where plastic tarps hung before me. I glanced behind me at Cyborg. I pointed 'inward'.

"Hang on...," Cyborg stepped to my side. He brought a hand up to his red eye and switched on a scanning device. A whining sound. A beat. "Mmmf...," he exhaled. "Infrared's not picking anything up. If someone's in there, she's got no body heat." He glanced at me. "You sure?"

I blinked my black eyes.

I faced the room.

I took a deep, steady breath.

I shifted forward.

I raised my hand up and outward.

I spread the fingers.

I relaxed.

I coursed a thin curtain of murk down my limbs and outward, spreading my spatial sense.

I took a deep breath.

My flesh wrist drifted towards the center of the room.

Towards the darkness.

Inching towards the plastic tarps....

SWIIIIIPE!!! A brown limb reached out and grabbed my wrist.

My eyes bugged---

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!! I was yanked forward into the jet blackness of the room, swiping through rings of hanging tarp and slamming into a forest of metal carts and trays.

CRASSSSSH!!!!

I tumbled onto a cold, uneven floor.

"Noir!!!" a numb voice warbled.

I winced, splain across the floor in total darkness.

Two orbs opened above me.

I glanced up.

A three foot six inch girl stood above me in a dress of black lace and petticoats. Pale heels. She hugged a headless teddy bear to her blouse...until I realized that the teddy bear was also a bubble of brown flesh sewed to bloody wrist-stubs with rusted stitches. Her eyes glowed and her teeth were black as she sadly sang: "Are you my Mommy??"

I stared, my mouth agape.

"You're late for tea time, Mommy...," a piece of her gray lip broke off and fell wetly to the floor as she slurred: "...go join my dollies. They're very thirsty..." The girl's skirt lifted on its own.

My black eyes twitched.

SWOOOOSH!!! Three brown tentacles shot out from underneath her dress and converged on my lower figure.

"!!!!!" I grabbed desperately for the tile floor as I was dragged off, tossed up, ricoheted off the ceiling, and plunged towards a brown pit in the tile illuminated dimly by a child's nightlight that appeared suddenly overhead.

THWAP!!!!!

I grunted as I landed on a mound of bround dirt and muck. I stumbled up to my knees. I was aware of bodies writhing all around me.

The girl floated to the edge of the pit above me. She hugged the brown mass that was her 'teddy-hands' to her chest and relaxed her tentacles.

"Be kind to my dollies. They haven't had company in a long time. They're so lonesome..."

I panted. I widened my black eyes to see the most I could of the darkness.....and suddenly wished I didn't.

Six pale, naked, human figures writhed about on the ground in a ring around me. Where their heads should have been instead formed the four-limbed, writhing figures of three-year-old babies growing backwards from the things' necks. Two chubby arms and two chubby legs danced around in similar fashion to the aimless struggle of the bodies' limbs across the brown pit's ground. "Mmmmmff!!!" One abomination sniffed me out. It pounced. "MMMMFFF!!"

I held my arms out and gripped the torso of the creature helplessly as it pounced upon me and pressed my body to the floor. CLUMP!!! GRIP!!!! Two baby legs clamped over my forehead.

I winced. I watched with horror.

Where the baby's spine would normally be there instead opened wide a mouth lined with snake fangs and two lashing tongues like worms. "RAWSSSSSSSSH!!!!" It drooled on me with the scent of brimstone.

I blinked. I let out a silent scream and gripped the baby-head as the mouth lunged at my neck. I held it nose-length. The worm-tongues flailed about, wetly tickling my face.

I shuddered. I took a huge breath and shoved with a murk-controlled pulse.

SWOOOOSH!! The naked thing toppled across the floor at my feet.

I tried standing up---

"MMMMMFfffff!!!"

CLAMP!!! Pale arms tackled me from behind. I was planted into the floor with the dead weight of the 'dolly' against my back. I felt baby arms snake around my neck and felt the hot breath of the drooling mouth against my hair. "RAWSSH!!!!"

I concentrated---SWOOOSH!!!—I teleported backwards, jumped off the naked back of the monster, leapt over the lunges of two other beasts, and gripped onto the edge of the pit.

I struggled to keep my hold.

The pale nudes hissed and moaned and reached up for me all at once with pale arms and baby-bodies.

GRIP!!!!

I gasped.

SWOOOSH!!!

A hideous tentacle hoisted me up.

I hung upside down and was forced to look at the source of the tentacle...

"You can't go......" The girl's face scrunched up. Her nose cracked in two. Her eyes melted into her lashes and dribbled black blood onto her lacey blouse. "I need Mommy to consume me!! She won't be late again!!!"

I blinked.

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!

A blue beam shot in with glorious blindness and slammed into the girl's body.

"_AAAAAAH!!!!!!"_

The tentacles convulsed violently.

I fell towards the writhing pit...

"Hang on, Noir!!!!"

POW!!!!

Cyborg's arm shot out at me on the end of an extension cord.

I reached out desperately and gripped it.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The arm retracted and I was yanked mightily towards Cyborg and his floodlight.

He caught me with his other arm and set me on the ground. "What happened?!?!"

I panted and leaned against him.

"_NOOO!!! MOMMY!!!! Don't leave me alone with him!!! Consume me!!! NOW!!!!"_

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Three 'dolls' pounced at us like giant frogs from the pit. Pale arms stretched wide. Baby limbs twitched. Fanged mouths opened wide. "RAWSH!!!!"

TWHOOSH-WHAM!!!

All three collapsed on us.

I tumbled with one.

Cyborg found himself wrestling with two. "Wh-What in the blue Hell?!?!"

"RAWWWWWWSH!!!!"

They bit down onto his titanium exoskeleton.

"AAAUGH!!! GET OFF ME!!!!"

In the meantime, I struggled desperately with my aggresser. Worms extended outward from the drooling jaws and encircled my ears.....squeezing.

I winced in pain. The blood was leaving my ear lobes as I was drawn closer to the razor-sharp mouth in the back of the baby-body-head. I reached back with a struggling hand for Myrkblade....but found my sheathe empty.

I gasped.

_Had I dropped it??_

I glanced across the black and white tile.

Myrkblade rested four feet away from our wrestling figures.

_I dropped it!!!_

"RAWWWSHH!!!!"

"AUGH!!! Sons of a—"

I lost hearing for a moment there as the teeth grazed my nose wetly.

I clenched my black eyes shut, summon murk, and---

FWOOOOSH!!!

I exploded into a short-ranged teleportation. I slid across the floor straight on my back, snatched up Myrkblade, vaulted myself up and onto my feet in a murk-pulsing flip, and twirled Myrkblade at ready.

"MMMMMFFFF!!!" the naked body leapt up from the floor and flew at me.

I swung my sword down, baby-middle.

SLAAAAAAASH!!!!

"MMMMFNNNNNKKKKTTT!!!!!!!" the creature twitched and groped everywhere as my blade went down its neck, between its shoulders, and halfway into its torso. Black blood—the color of obsidian—splattered and splashed all over my white jumpsuit.

I panted.

I gritted my teeth.

YANK!!!! I pulled the sword out.

A spray of black spurted towards the ceiling.

I rushed over towards Cyborg's body.

I swung my sword like a golf club, severing the baby-body from the neck of one creature.

"RAWWWWWRSH!!!!" both the baby torso and the naked form twitched eerily independent of each other in their own blood.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg punched the baby-face in of his last attacker. SMASH!!!!

"SNKKKKTT!!" the monster spurted blood.

Cyborg tossed the mass of flesh off as I pulled him up to his feet by his shoulders.

"What in shit's name?!?!?"

_"NOOOOOOOO!!!!"_ the girl's body rose on a spider-stance of writhing tentacles from under her skirt. "My pretty dollies!!! What are you doing?!?!?!"

"Screw saving this brat...," Cyborg gulped.

I tugged at him and the two of us hobbled through the plastic tarps towards the basement corridor beyond. The vision of the underground passage dancd with every bob and shake of Cyborg's shoulder flashlight.

"Don't leave....DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WITH HIM, MOMMY!!!!"

The girl-thing screamed and twitched around. It snatched up carts and metal racks with its tentacles and flung them at us one at a time.

SWOOOOSH!!! THWOOOSH!!!!

The objects blew through the tarps and sailed barely over our heads.

CLANG!!!! SMACK!!!! They crashed explosively into walls and dryers around us.

Cyborg gritted his teeth, produced thrusters to the back of his exoskeleton, and throttled us both out into the hallway.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

One last cart struck dangerously close to our heels and knocked us off balance.

CRASH!!!

"Augh!!!"

"!!!!"

TH-THWUMP!!!

We fell across the tile. I slid into the elevator door. Cyborg landed flat on his chest.

"Nnnnnghh," he shook his head. He looked up...and gasped. "No way!!!"

I glanced up. My black eyes narrowed.

The double doors to the stairwell through which we had entered the basement corridor had been covered from head to toe with rusted chains, locks, bolts, bars, and braces---all of which were absolutely and positively _not there_ _beforehand_.

"Uh uh...I am NOT spending the night doing a Linda Blair slumber party!!!" Cyborg frowned. He jumped up, glanced aside, and spotted the service elevator doors. "Going up!!" he gripped the crack in the doorsides hard and pulled apart. "Nnnnnghhhh!!!!" YANK!!! He opened the elevator. "Noir!! Get in—"

"MMMMFF!!!" SWOOOOSH!!! A 'doll' flew in and shoved itself and Cyborg into the elevator car. WHUMP!!!! "RAWWWSH!!!" the baby limbs gripped Cyborg's bald head and the mouth prepared to bite over the young Titan's flesh.

"Nnnngh....no!!!"

I snarled and stabbed forward with Myrkblade.

SLIIINK!!! I skewered the monster down the center.

"MMMF!!!!!!!"

I pulled back, yanked the abomination off of Cyborg, and flung him across the corridor.

SLAM!!!! The naked thing slammed into the front of a huge washing machine, cracking the glass door panel.

Tentacles slithered into view.

I gasped and looked up.

The girl gradually octopused towards me, her arms pulling taut at the seams bubbling them together. "Go nowhere....go NOWHERE!!!"

I stepped backwards into the elevator car, panting.

"Come on...come on...," Cyborg jammed his finger onto the elevator door.

"I MUST BE CONSUMED!!!!" the girl shrieked and flung its tentacles at me.

I expertly twirled Myrkblade and deflected the blow. CLANK!!!!

"Hang on!!!" Cyborg popped open a panel in his arm and yanked out a power conduit. He ripped off a panel inside the elevator wall and hotwired the system with his own electrical innards. "Go up! Go up!!!"

CLANK!!! CL-CL-CLANK!!! I deflected more tentacle blows and slashed hard on the last one. SLIIIINK!!!

_"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"_ the girl shrieked, its mouth stretching beyond normal capacity. It hacked black flesh out of its mouth and rushed at me with tentacles fanning everywhere. "HESHAAAAAA!!!"

Sparks flew from inside the elevator.

"Got it!!!"

The doors closed.

The girl flew in.

I flinched and blocked with Myrkblade.

SWOOOOOSH!!! The girl's crumbling head ducked in like a giraffe neck through the closing doors, opened its crusty mouth wide, and breathed a fiery vapor into me.

"!!!!!!!" I jolted. I inhaled.

"Noir!!!"

I.........I consumed.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_Burning sunlight._

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_Lone bird burning on the sidewalks._

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_Revolving door._

Creaking.

Hotel lobby.

Smiling faces.

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_Pale yellow stairwell._

Skipping joyfully down the steps.

Tall doors.

Cross-wire windows.

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"_Are we gonna help Mommy do the people's laundry, Daddy?"_

He led her by the hand through the basement of the building past washers and dryers.

"_We're going to wait here for Mommy, Hannah."_

_She hugged a doll to her chest and bit her lip. "Is Mommy being bad again?"_

"_Just play with your dolls, Hannah."_

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_Giggling voice._

Pale heels dangling under a black skirt.

"_Want to have tea with me, Michelle?" she tilted one doll's head to the other. "Why, that'd be divine Nikki!"_

_Footsteps echoing on the other side._

A gasp.

"D-David???"

"_Hello, Emily......"_

The girl looked up, curious.

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_Peering through a translucent door yawning open from a washer._

A tiny blurred figure and a strong blurred figure.

Facing each other......

"_David......you're not supposed to have even stepped into the daycare center! The restraining order—"_

"Shut the Hell up. What do I need to do to get you off my back?!?!"

"David......we've settled this. The judge said—"

"Screw him!!! You're using me, you bitch!! It's time I put this to an end!!"

"David, if you so much as—Let go of me!!"

_  
"Shut up!! Shut up!! I didn't come all this way for you to just preach to me!! Now I'm going to—"_

"Someone!! Help!!!"

SMACK!!!

"Augh!!!"

"I said SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!"

_The girl trembled, hugging herself._

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"_WAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAAIEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAAIE!!!"_

"...you hear me? And if you so much as get your brother into this again, I swear I'll slit his throat!! Your whole family has been triple-teaming me from the get-go!!"

"_WAAAAAAAAIEEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAIEEEE!!! WAAAAAAAAAIE!!!"_

"You never thought about how I felt once, did you?? Huh?? You rotten good for nothing bitch!! How many times do I have to—Hannah, stop your damn crying!!!"

"WAAAAAIEE!!!!!!"

"D-David......p-p-please.........just.........just l-leave her alone......please......"

"Tell her to shut up!!!"

"Hannah......p-please......"

"WAAAAAIEE!!!!"

"Hannah, for M-Mommy......for Mommy's sake......"

"WAAA-AAAIE!!!"

"Allright...you won't listen to Mommy?" Flick! Grip! "How bout I slit her throat?!?!"

"DAVID!!!"

"SHUT UP!!! You want your Mommy to bleed, don't you?!?! I'll do it, you little shit!!! Just keep on crying!! Just keep on trying to MAKE ME FEEL BAD!!!"

_  
"DAVID PLEASE!!!"_

"I've wasted six years of my god damn life on you and all I get are threat letters from some old-ass judge!! Don't you DARE tell me what to do!!"

"HANNAH!! RUN!!!"

"M-Mommy......"

"RUN!! GO!!!"

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_Pale heels._

Lifting skirts.

Panting lungs.

Little voice.

Glancing back, tearfully.

Two writhing bodies in the corridor.

A muscled arm and a glinting switch blade.

A woman's throat.

"NNNNGHHHH!!!"

Sliiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiink!!!

"Snkkkttt!!" TH-THWUMP!!! The woman's body deflated.

He panted. He wiped his chin. He looked her way.

The girl stalled.

"D-Damn brat.........NGHH!!!"

A flying glint.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! _**THUNK!!!**_

_Ice in the throat._

_  
PLOP!!_

Pulsating eyes. Tearing. Peering hazedly at a doll on the tile floor. Beady black eyes.

A reflection in the beads knelt beside her mother......and started to punch her dead face in.

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_A melting sensation._

Lace closing in.

Girl legs shrinking into chubby stubs.

Crying and sobbing.

Passed along in blue-gloved hands.

A frowning face of stone.

Crawling back up the womb with eyes sewn shut.

The walls are lined with snake fangs.

_A blink of fire._

And......

Forever.........

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped.

I howled mutely for air.

I gripped my head.

I banged back and forth against the elevator walls.

CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

"N-Noir!!!"

CLANG!! CLANG!!

"NOIR!!!"

Strong Titanium hands gripped my shoulder.

I thrashed and twitched and gasped in them.

I punched at the metal arms.

I let out another silent howl, hacked, sputtered, and gaspd for air.

My black eyes flew open.

Blinding light.

Cyborg's light.

"Noir...take it easy!!"

I shoved against him.

I gripped my head.

I gritted my teeth and tried to implode.

"Shhhhh!! Noir!!" he held my arms strongly in only a way Cyborg could. He stared me strongly in the eyes. "It's okay, man.....it's okay......it's okay....."

I hyperventilated. I hugged myself. I scrunched into the corner and panted.....panted.....panted.....

Cyborg took a deep breath. "What did that freak do to you??"

I bit my lip. My throat was sore. My eyes felt like bursting into tears.

I remained on that precipice for a shivering two minutes. My body was chilled from the metal prosthetic, up, and back down again. I shuddered and ran shaking hand through my black hair.

There was an unzipping sound.

"Here, man....," Cyborg gently handed me a plastic bottle of water from his pack.

I hastily unscrewed it and gulped down a huge chug of water. I let some dribbled down my chin as I closed my eyes again, took a deep breath, and shuddered some more.

"You were out of it for nearly five minutes...," the android Titan said. "Scared me half to death until I performed a scan and realized that you were simply.....experiencing REM sleep."

I panted. I looked up at him weakly.

"Yeah.....you were dreaming, man," he said. He glanced at the elevator console. The 'stop' feature shone dully in his floodlight. He had it switched into functioning. "As soon as you breathed in the crap from that.......th-that thing, you fell down and—like—went to sleep immediately."

A beat.

"Tell me.....did you............envision anything?"

I hugged myself tightly. I looked off, shivering.

Cyborg bit his lip. "I-I'll drop it, man. For now."

I nodded with much, trembling relief.

A beat.

"Man......what the Hell is going on??" Cyborg remarked.

"..........."

"Those......those _things........._," Cyborg gestured into the thick air of the elevator.

I merely panted.

".............," Cyborg glanced down at me. "We were _lured_ down there, man. We had to have been."

I bit my lip again.

"I wonder.....," his human eye traced the ceiling of the elevator car. ".........does it all fit together somehow?"

I ran a shakey hand through my hair and looked at him strangely.

"I-I mean.....the black dome all around us........and those freaks in the basement....."

"............"

"Everything about this place....," Cyborg gestured. "It feels so......s-so dead........so empty of warmth and light. Well, duh."

I simpered nervously.

A beat.

"I don't know about you...," Cyborg spoke. "But something tells me this building isn't so safe."

I narrowed my eyes. I thought about something.

_A plaque......_

'_Hannah and Her Dolls'......_

My lips parted somewhat.

_Hannah........._

"Here, man..."

I looked up.

Myrkblade. Held before me. Cyborg's hands.

He smiled. "Gotta superglue this thing to your hands if you're not more careful, dawg."

I smiled weakly. I gripped the sword with one hand and his wrist with the other. I let him help me up to my feet...followed by a pat on my back by his Titanium palm.

"I'll take the lead from now on, okay man?"

I nodded.

"I took us up to the seventh floor...," he said as he fingered the elevator controls. "I'm thinking a nice, quaint fire-escape exit will do us some good right about now."

_I couldn't agree more......_

Cyborg flipped the 'Stop' switch.

-Ding!-

The elevator doors opened....

And.......

"HA!!!"

"YAUGH!!"

"RRRRGH!!!"

Three flashlights, a knife, a two-by-four, and a golf club aimed threateningly at our necks.

Cyborg and I jolted.

Four or five normal (but frightened) looking citizens jumped back.

All of us panted.

"The.....Th-The Titans!!" the man holding the two-by-four stuttered. He and his companions on the dark-lit floor were wide eyed. A man behind them held up a bright, make-shift lantern. Two others had candles. The place was an elevated safehouse. "I-Is it really you??"

"Yeah...it's okay....put down the weapons, folks...," Cyborg gestured. "We ain't monsters...."

The men drew back. Women and children huddled against the wall of the hotel corridor together.

"Have....h-have you come to kill us?" a child murmured.

I blinked. I looked at Cyborg.

The android Titan exhaled. "Why...no! We haven't come to kill you!"

The child gulped and uttered: "Why not?"


	134. Mortuana part 3

**134. Mortuana part 3**

_The violins hum._

The flute pauses.

A beat.

The music sinks into a low melody.

The pale man calmly rests his hands behind his back.

He half-bows to the gothic audience.

He says: "To the rescuers......it was a land of hellish nightmares. At first they could not fathom just why things were travailing in the horrific way that they were. The environment was threatening......supernatural......unpredictable. A flux of death was taking place within the blackness, and they were powerless to do anything to stop it. So instead, they relied on the heroism that defined them. They found innocent people hiding from the death. They found them and promised to deliver the innocence back to the land of light. And would they leave themselves?? No. For their task had only started..."

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"W-We had heard about the evacuations. We knew that there was some awful villain running around in Main Street. I think he was c-causing so much damage that some of using th-this district were too afraid t-to answer the police department's call to flee the area, much less step outside. And when the darkness fell.....we honestly didn't expect it. I mean...s-some of us thought it was an eclipse. But no eclipse is ever _this_ dark. It's like everything is p-pure and utterly b-black. It's frightening. But that wasn't the worst of it. The monsters came. It's like they were all around us. I was inside the lobby of the hotel when they attacked. God in Heaven....wh-what were those things?? Naked and crawling around with...w-with their heads replaced by tiny, twitching c-c-corpses. I ran the soonest I could. I found other people running with me. Some from across the street. A scant few from the Downtown Library and the stock exchange buildings. As much as I know, we all made it. We took the elevator up here and have felt pretty safe since. Th-That is to say, the monsters seem to be lying close to the ground level. It's as if they're afraid of being anywhere above the third floor or something. Anyhow....a few people---_real_ people have been joining us. People who are actually ALIVE and capable of running the elevator. Like you two. They've come here with their shaken nerves and their stories. Stories of snakes made out of living coils of barbed wire. Streets and alleyways that drop off into bottomless pits. Flying winged bat-things that cry with the sound of dying horses or some shit. It's crazy. It's like the end of the world. I haven't been to church in years. God....it's all so crazy. Tell me you guys can do something. There're a lot of people here who could.....use th-the encouragement. Women and children too. We don't know what to do."

"That's enough...," Cyborg patted the man's shoulder. "We're here to help, Mr......--"

"James. Henry James...."

"I assure you that we'll get everyone here out to daylight."

"D-Daylight??" the man hugged his knees. "Y-You mean the Sun still exists?"

"Yeah...," Cyborg smiled. "It exists..."

Henry let out a shuddering sigh.

Cyborg stood up. He took a deep breath. He looked down the hallway.

Bodies sat along the rows of doors with their backs to the walls. Men. Women. Teenagers in a few scant clumps. Mothers with children sobbing in their laps. Old couples. At least fifty or sixty people. Every other cluster of individuals possessed either a flashlight or a lantern or a candle or other mode of illumination. A young boy was busying himself obsessively with a bright, portable t.v. that merely emanated snow and white noise. _"Snkkkkkktkkkkktkkkttkkk-kkkktkkktkkkkk........."_

Cyborg walked slowly down the hallway—like the dim intestine of a huge glow worm. He came to the far end where I stood 'keeping guard' at a window. I stared out into the blackness and randomly pointed a bright flashlight out as if to check for......something.

_Or somethings......_

"Hey, man....."

I looked his way. I waved.

He waved back. A beat. "You okay??"

I sighed. I nodded.

Cyborg placed a hand on my shoulder. "Something got to you in that elevator. Did you want to talk about it now?"

I looked at him. I glanced down at myself. I blinked at the black splotches of supernatural blood scattered across the top part of my white jumpsuit.

Cyborg bit his lip.

I looked at him again. With a weak smiled I placed the flashlight down onto the windowsil and hand-signed.

_'It was a vision.'_

"A.....vision?" his human eye narrowed.

I nodded. A shuddering breath.

'_I was a little girl watching my mother have her her throat slit. And then I was killed by my own father.'_

Cyborg blinked. "No kidding......"

I ran a nervous hand through my thick hair.

"And this was....right when that demon-lolita-thingy breathed that red stuff into you? In the elevator?"

I nodded.

"All of the....st-stuff we saw down there was pretty messed up...," Cyborg understated as he rubbed his head. "I'm still trying to figure it all out myself. But....maybe it'd be safe to say that the creepy crawly did something to you?"

I blinked my naked eyes and gazed off in thought.

"It probably messed with your neurotransmitters in your brain or something. Gave you something nasty to dream about since it couldn't feed you to those S&M zombies."

I chuckled a bit. A sigh. Then I thought of something.

'_I saw a strange plaque as we entered the hotel,'_ I hand-signed.

"A plaque?"

'_It said 'Hannah and Her Dolls'...'_

"Yeah....and?"

".........," I hand-signed: _'I heard the girl's name 'Hannah' in my vision.'_

"Could have been all part of the hallucination. You saw the plaque, right?"

'_Remember the monster girl? She called those naked things her 'dollies'.'_

".......," Cyborg scratched his metal chin. "You think....Hannah could have been that girl in the basement too?"

I shrugged.

A beat.

A voice from behind. "Y-You mean Heather Graham?"

The two of us Titans swiveled and look.

"Say what??" Cyborg uttered.

A girl about our ages stood with a candle in her grasp. She blinked. "You mean you don't know??"

"........." Cyborg and I looked at each other. "......." We looked at the teenager.

"Back in nineteen seventy-two, there was a terrible murder in this hotel," the girl said. "My mom is part of the head committee of this place and has been for some time. So the legend runs in my family."

"A legend of a murder?"

"Yeah. Three bodies were found down in the basement of this place one afternoon. The Graham family. Mrs. Graham had her throat cut and her upper torso beaten to a pulp. Mr. Graham had slit his wrists. And their little daughter—Hannah Graham—was found several feet away from the parents in a pool of her own blood. There was a deep knife wound in her neck. Experts say she died a slow death...probably after her father died. Nobody was discovered until nearly twelve hours since the family was last seen before."

My metal fingers flinched. The prosthetic turned to ice. I got the damned chill....and tried to fight it off.

"That's....That's some story...," Cyborg simpered.

"I heard you Titans talking about it. Is there something going on?"

I hand-signed.

Cyborg 'read' what I had to say. He turned and asked the girl: "You said your mother's on the committee, right? Did they ever put up a plaque in Hannah Graham's memory or something?"

"A plaque?"

I hand-signed again.

Cyborg added: "Like...near the entrance of the building. Gold with black etchings."

The girl shook her head. "I come in and out of this place all the time. Heh...I must wear out the revolving doors. Anyways...there's no plaque of any sort. Why'd you ask?"

I scratched my head. I shrugged.

"I suppose even the superpowered people here are a bit confused," Cyborg smiled. "Thanks for telling us about that story."

"Wish I didn't have to...," the girl shuddered. "This day is creepy enough as it is."

"Tell me, Miss..."

"Elisha."

Cyborg rubbed his temple. "If you know this hotel so much.....is there a way to---oh I dunno---get to the street without actually going to the lobby??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The window to the seventh floor opened.

I dashed out onto the fire escape.

click!

I pointed a flashlight up the metal steps.

A beat.

I pointed down the metal steps.

A beat.

I stood at ease. I motioned towards the window.

Cyborg stepped out and looked around. "Ah yeah.....this is perfect!!" his voice echoed into the soup-thick blackness around us. He glanced up the length of the fire escape. "Only goes up four more floors?"

"Yup," Elisha said as she and Henry perched at the window inside the dimly-lit hallway. "From there you can walk across the rooftop to the top of the office building next to it. It's h-half a story below the top of this building, though...." She bit her lip.

"Nothing we heroes can't handle."

"............."

"Or the rest of you people if we have something to do about it," Cyborg winced.

"Oh."

"Whew."

I smirked.

"How do we plan to do this?" Henry asked. "A caravan of sorts?"

"Sounds good to me. How about you, Noir?"

I hand-signed.

"Right. I'd take point. You'd take the rear. I think one trip should do."

"B-But what of the creatures??" Henry murmured.

Cyborg said: "You told us—even—that they don't seem to hang around in this building above the third floor?"

"T-True...."

"Well, this is gonna avoid them the best, man," Cyborg said. "There's no way I'm going down THAT elevator again. Especially with a bunch of innocent people on our hands. And I'm not letting us stay here for long either. Fifty people capable of saving is too good for Noir and I to pass up....especially when we have a deadline to get back to our point of entry within an hour from now."

"Point of entry???"

"A spot in the dome where people are waiting for us to return....," Cyborg said. "Hopefully with everyone if not all the people we can find."

I hand-signed.

"Yeah...," Cyborg nodded. "The rest of the Titans are stuck in here too. We were the only ones spared from the....uhm....'black bomb'."

Elisha's eyes narrowed. "You mean you aren't with the others?"

"The....others?"

"Robin...Beast Boy...," Elisha spoke. "A few of the people who came here right before you were with a group being led around by those two."

My jaw dropped.

Cyborg leaned towards the window. "You mean....the other Titans are okay??"

"A-At least those two...," Elisha swallowed. "They saved us from the first bunch of monsters we saw near the parking garage. They hid us here in a hurry to go and investigate strange screaming sounds at the Sheldon Apartments. Th-They haven't been back since."

"Well I'll be.......," Cyborg murmured. A beat. "Sheldon Apartments?"

"Yessir."

"Rich place. Hmmm," Cyborg rubbed his chin. "That's north of here....but out of our way."

"Out of your way??" Henry asked. "Aren't you going to go investigate?"

"Noir and I will, most likely," Cyborg nodded. "But first thing's first...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay, people!! Four people at a time! This fire escape can't handle everyone at once!" Cyborg called out from the shrouded rooftop.

Electric torches were held by four citizen volunteers who illuminated the climb up in a chain of light. I stood at the base of the four flights besides the window. I acted as a toll booth operator, allowing the citizens to progress three at a time until a signal was given me to push the next group up. I tried to segment my allowances among couples, family members, and other familiars so as to not unnecessarily divide anyone and cause trouble.

In such fashion the group of fifty-to-sixty City-dwellers rushed up to the rooftop under the ever-descending blackness. When the last group rushed up the stairwell, I acted as caboose. I marched up and tagged every lantern carrier along the way to go ahead of me. Soon all of us were on the rooftop. A rough line was formed and we marched across the top of the hotel.

Cyborg and Elisha reached the edge first. The girl stepped ahead and pointed down. "Um....th-there it is. The office building."

Cyborg glanced over.

A super-tiny alleyway stretched between the office building and the hotel, barely five and a half feet wide. But there was a descent of about six feet from the hotel rooftop to the office rooftop.

"Ah....so it's a bit of a drop."

"S-Sorry....," Elisha bit her lip.

"Hey...it's okay, seriously," Cyborg smiled. "We just need to improvise, is all...." He amplified the brightness of his floodlight. He scanned around. Citizens with lantern light and flashlights assisted the best they could.

A beat.

Cyborg's light fell onto something flat, white, and broad. He smirked. "That'll do. Hey Noir...hop to, chop chop!"

"????" I marched over. With my black eyes I saw the entirety of what Cyborg's light was touching.

A half-constructed builboard on the corner of the hotel rooftop. Planks of wood, printed sheets, and various tools rested behind the metal skeleton of the board.

I walked over with Cyborg pacing behind me.

"Think that sword of yours can slash through the middle supports?" Cyborg asked.

CHIIIING!!!! I pulled the blade out. I encased it with murk. I looked Cyborg's way. I smiled.

"Have at it, man...," Cyborg gripped the upper width of the billboard with his titanium arms.

I got into a pose. Concentrated. Focused murk through my limbs....my sword. Morphed into steam---

SWOOOOOSH!!! SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOSH!!! SLASH!!! SL-SL-SL-SLAAAAASH!!!!

I teleported five brilliant times in a span of ten seconds. I ended—solidifying—in a crouched position with Myrkblade outstretched. I panted.

_Creeeeeak!!_

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Cyborg grunted and strained as the middle supports of the billboard snapped and cracked from my sword-slashes. The weight of the billboard leaned against him.

CRACK!!!!

Cyborg held the entire billboard with his own massive strength. Pacing himself expertly, he shuffled over to the edge of the rooftop...and dropped the object down over both edges of the adjacent buildings.

CLAP!!!!!

"Whew!!" Cyborg wiped his brow and motioned with pride. "Not even Khaza Dum had as good a place!"

I looked curiously.

The billboard had formed a crude—but structurally sound bridge leading down onto the office building's top.

I clapped.

"Heheheh," Cyborg spun and faced the crowd. "All board!!"

"Y-You sure it's safe??" a woman cradeling a child asked fearfully.

"Positively, ma'am. Noir...why don't you hop on over and just give the rooftop a look-see?"

I saluted. I leapt, slid down the billboard, and hopped onto the gravel of the lower building. I looked around without so much as squinting. For hours, I had been wandering the City without my shades. To be honest...it was the most comfortable I had ever felt with my eyes in a long time. Such utter darkness—and if it weren't for the horrible monstrosities, it would have been a perfect haven for me......I imagine.

I found nothing amiss. Nothing but a charred and abandoned green house on the far end of the roof and the occasional antenna and a/c unit in between. I turned and signaled for the first group of people to come.

"One at a time, people!" Cyborg said. "Except the children!! Everyone must be accompanied!"

Quick murmurs of acknowledgement. Everyone was

I suppose they all wanted to see the light again.

Ten...fifteen....twenty people gathered on the rooftop.

I paced around them, motioning, repositioning them into a single cluster like a subtle sheepdog. I didn't want to let anyone get lost. No chances....

The boy with the portable t.v. was still tuning his device as he stumbled by. "Come on....I still can't get anything!!"

I rolled my eyes and went about my job.

Forty....forty-five.....fifty people.....

Cyborg motioned the last few along. "Allright....that appears to be it. Nnngh!!" He leapt.....THWUMP!!! He landed with a splash of gravel atop the office building.

A few people jumped, startled.

".......," I raised an eyebrow.

"What??" Cyborg smirked. "I might not be billboard friendly!"

I shrugged.

"Better burn our bridges......with gravity.....," Cyborg remarked.

He walked over towards the billboard and gripped it.

I shuffled over and held the edge too, doing my best to assist my hurculean friend.

"On the count of three. One...two...._three."_

We lifted at the billboard's edge, lifted back, and shoved forward again.

The billboard flew down the thin alleyway, banging and scraping against the walls before being eaten up by the darkness and exploding with the unseen floor far below.

CRASH!!!!!

Cyborg dusted his hands off. "Dumbass advertising....HA!....let's go."

He shuffled over towards the main body of people.

"..........," I glanced back at him. I placed my hands on the edge of the building and peered over. I saw nothing but a deep gash of blackness. Like an obsidian stream beneath us. And yet....I was peering much further than I had ever done before. It felt as if my eyes were getting more and more in tune with the shadows of that place.

I took a deep breath.

I was about to go when a touch of gold graced my vision.

"???"

I leaned down even more.

There was a plaque on the very edge of the building. A golden plaque. I saw letters upside down, etched in black.

"..........," I twisted my upper body and neck around so that I could more-or-less read the plaque from an upright position.

'_The Dirty Needles.'_

I blinked. I stood up slowly. I turned around and looked cautiously all around the rooftop.

"So....is there a stairwell around here we can take down or something?" Cyborg uttered. The clump of fifty-to-sixty people wandered around him. "Have you ever been inside this place?"

"Once or twice...," Elisha said. "Just to use a restroom, though. I-I think I found a stairwell entrance on the first floor..."

I gulped.

_This is wrong.........it just has to be another......t-trap........._

"Darn it...almost had something there!" the kid with the portable t.v. uttered. He was right next to me.

"_Snkkkkkkkkkkkktkkkkk-kkktkkkkk-kkktkkkkyoutherekkkthhtkkkk......"_

"Hey!!" the boy beamed to himself and twisted the antenna a little. "Maybe it's a news bulletin?!"

I looked over his shoulder.

"_Snkkkktkkkkktkkktkkkkk-kkkktkkyoukktktkkkktIseeyoukkkthtkkkkk."_ The bright snow broke momentarily on the tiny screen. A floating guitar. Bleeding rose petals. An unshaven face. Yellow teeth. _"Snnkkktktkk—gettheHELLOFFMYROOF!!!"_

"AAAUGH!!" the kid dropped the t.v., jumped back, and clutched my side.

PLOP! The portable t.v. landed on the rooftop. A shaking...a shifting...and slowly the t.v. sank into the gravel of the rooftop like unnatural quicksand. It disappeared.

The boy was breathless.

My eyes widened.

_Shhhhhhhhhh!!!_ A moving mound of displaced gravel snaked its way across the rooftop...and towards Cyborg's group.

I gasped. The boy clutching me was breathless.

And he was just the one we needed to scream a warning...

The mound of gravel sunk down like a diving humpback right as it reached the back of Elisha's feet.

"Is it padlocked?" Elisha asked.

"Yeah...not for long," Cyborg readied to kick.

"Hehehe...that method works," the girl giggled.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!! Gravel exploded at her feet...and she sank two feet into a floor of deposits that should have been no thicker than two inches. "AAAAAAAH!!!! Wh-Wh-What?!?!"

Henry spun around. "Holy---"

"Help me!!!" Elisha struggled as she sank to her torso.

Cyborg looked. He gasped. He dove. "Nnnnghh!!!"

CLAMP!!!

The android Titan's hand grabbed the girl's arm at the last second.

"!!!" Elisha gasped, her chin barely above the rooftop's gravel.

The people watched in squirming horror as Cyborg pulled with all his might and oozed the girl back up out of the sudden quicksand.

Elisha panted as her torso emerged....her waist...her legs....

But as Cyborg lifted her up and out completely, there was a gnarled hand of burnt and peeling flesh gripped around her ankle.

"Aaugh!!" the girl shrieked. "Get it off me!! GET IT OFF ME!!"

"Hold on!!" Cyborg pulled at Elisha with one arm and aimed down at the rooftop with his other fist. POW!!!! His arm ejected via a cord and slammed into the burnt limb clutching the girl's limb. WHAM!!!!!!

Torn flesh of a monster....

And....

YANK!!!

Cyborg fell back with Elisha.

"Mmmf!!"

"Nngh!!"

Henry knelt and helped a trembling Elisha off of Cyborg.

"Wh-Wh-What is that?!?!"

Cyborg panted. "You and me both sister....someone get a bestiary!!!" SNAP!! He retracted his arm.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Gravel exploded in a huge, vertical fountain.

The crowd surged back, cowering and chanting in fear.

In the haphazard electric light from the people, a gray figure sloshed upward in a weak stance. A figure of rust and glass. A figure made out of pure, cohesive syringes. Needles shot and pointed everywhere like metal hairs.

"................oh lovely...," Cyborg grunted.

_"SLZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!"_ the creature hissed. It grew larger. Two arms of shifting and flexing syringes formed by its side. It seemed to breathe red vapors of mist from its 'head stub'. Syringes and needles twitched in its 'wrist' as it sloshed through a sea of gravel towards the group. A deep growl....and the thing seemed ready to pounce. At least part of it...

SWOOOOOSH!!!!!-SLAAASH!!!

I streaked by the monster and struck through its side with Myrkblade.

SHATTTER!!! Glass vials and needles littered the rooftop beneath my strike.

I skidded to a stop, panting. I turned around.

Cyborg and I watched as the shattered syringe parts sank into the gravel and soon the monster morphed forth glass vials and needles to replace the mass I had severed from it.

I winced.

"Guess it's that time of year...," Cyborg mumbled.

_"SLZZZ-ZZZZZ!!!"_ the monster vapor-panted and sloshed towards us with flying gravel.

I dove out of the way.

Cyborg charged with a heavy fist. "YAAAAUGH!!!"

SMASH!!!!!

Needles exploded and flew around like shrapnel.

I rolled across the ground, barely missing the flung ends of metal. I panted.

Cyborg—in the meantime—found himself toppling through the shattered body of the beast. "H-Huh??" he panted.

The creatured reformed, sloshed around, and slammed a leg full of glass bottles at the android Titan's feet.

CRAAAACK!!!

"AUGH!!!" Cyborg tripped to the floor.

SWOOOOOSH!! I dove for the creature, my teeth gritting, my sword swinging. SLAAAASH!!!

SLOSH!!! The creature sank into the ground.

"!!!!"

"!!!!"

WHUMP!!!!! I landed harshly on Cyborg's body and the two of us tumbled across the rooftop.

"Nnngh!!" Cyborg stirred.

A rumbling sound.

Cyborg glanced aside and saw the mound of gravel snaking our way.

"Noir!! Move!!" Cyborg strongly tossed me off the ground and out of the way.

I awkwardly stumbled to my feet.

Cyborg vaulted himself up just as the mound passed underneath him.

SL-SL-SLOSH!!! Syringers shot out of the ground in a string of rail-gun madness. Cyborg barely avoided this.

The mound swam around, brushed by an antenna, and shot it out of its standing.

SWOOOOSH!! CLANG!!! "Augh!!!" Cyborg tumbled again from the impact of the antenna.

The mound then swam past two A/C units.

SWOOOOSH!! SWOOOOOSH!!! I ducked one hunk of metal and slashed my way fiercely through another incoming. SLICE!!!!

As the shrapnel parted, the beast of cohesive syringes leapt out of the gravel 'sea' like a dolphin and pounced at me. _"SLZZZZZ!!!!"_

"!!!!!!" I fell back flat on my spine.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The glass and needles brushed barely over me.

I took a breath and rolled to my right as rusted, metal spikes rained down onto the rooftop. TH-TH-THUNK!!!

CRUNCH!!!! The creatured landed from the dive, rolled along, morphed into a thick human figure, and stormed Cyborg.

Cyborg readied his fists. "Okay ghost...come meet the shell!!"

_"SLZZZ-ZZZZ!!!"_

"YAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg switched his arm into a sonic cannon---

SWOOOOSH-TH-TH-THUNK!!! The creatured launched a glob of needles and glass shards at the android's hand.

CLANK!!!! The shards embedded themselves into the titanium exoskeleton. Sparks flew as the cannon shorted out.

"What??" Cyborg blinked at his failing apparatus. "Aw shitstain omega!!"

SWOOOOSH-THWACK!! The creatured lunged forward and 'punched' Cyborg mercilessly.

"OOOF!!" the Titan fell back with a tumble.

_"SLZZZ........."_ The creature turned and faced the crowd.

Everyone cowered in fear, Elisha and Henry included.

The monster shook and flung a fan of razor-sharp syringes at the vulnerable crowd in a line.

The people shrieked.

.......I was already running towards the line of fire. I had teen feet to miraculously cross to access all of the projectiles. And I did it in a jump....sideways. SWOOOOOOSH!!! Time slowed as I launched myself horizontally, spun in mid-air, and twirled Myrkblade in front of me like a fan—deflecting every syringer and needle and glass shard back at the monster—CL-CL-CL-CL-CLACK!!!—before landing hard on the gravel. THWUMP!!!

The creature seemed to grown. Its convulsing body of junkies' junk grew bigger and flung another arm-ful of needles.

I again deflected to the best of my ability—CL-CL-CLANG!!—but missed a huge array sailing at a family of four.

"AAAIIEE!!!" the parents and their four children flinched.

"YAAAUGH!!!" THWUMP!! Cyborg landed from a massive leap and 'hugged' them with his backside facing the projectiles.

TH-TH-TH-THUNK!!! The needles and glass embedded into Cyborg's titanium backside. He had no risk of contracting anything, but it sure as Hell was annoying. "Hey!! Friends don't let friends do _me_, punk!!!" he gripped a nearby antenna one-handed and flung it. "RAUGH!!!"

SWOOOOSH-SPLASH!!! The creature exploded violently from the dead-on projectile.

THWOOOSH!! I blurred over and materialized with a hummingbird onslaught of stabsslashesjabsstrikesripstears(!!!!!!).

CR-CR-CR-CRACK!! The monster deteriorated from my blurred attack.

I gritted my teeth and increased the frequency of my split-second stabs with a pulse of murk.

The torso of the syringe monster shattered away and seemed to melt in speeded-up camera mode. And then--

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!

A burnt brown hand reached out of the pillar of glass and needles andgripped my metal hand.

"!!!" I gasped. I looked up.

With slimy fluidity, the syringes and glass covering the 'head' parted ways and a face emerged. A face with skin peeling and burn marks eating into the nasal cavity. What was left of the man's flaky, stubble-laced lips frowned at me and bulbous white eyes of death narrowed. The mouth opened—calloused—and breathed red vapor into my face.

My eyes twitched.

_Shit!!!!_

I struggled to get out of the creature's-man's grasp.

_Not again!!!!_

I pulled and yanked with my arm. As the vapor covered my lips and nose, I tried in vain to sacrifice my metal limb and simply fall away. But I was already inhaling.

_Consuming........._

"Noir!!!" Cyborg's voice shouted.

I tried replying. One of those damned moments when I actually forgot that my vocal cords had been exploded a long time ago....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_Screaming faces._

Strobing lights.

Bodies jumping.

Arms waving.

Topless women and...

..._beer bottles._

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_Music......_

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_The stage._

Heaven light.

A guitar.

A drumset.

Goatee.

Raising arms.

Raising arms.

Raising arms in unison.

He smiles.

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"_What are you talking about, Vinnie?!?! The show was a blast tonight!!"_

"Just open the damn newspaper, kid. Your latest album's a joke. The reviewers are spitting all over it. And the facts show that the show brought in only sixty percent of last month's revenue. You gotta bail yourself out, kid. It's now or never."

"Vinnie......I know what I'm doing. This is l-like my talent, okay?? I'll bounce back!!"

"No you won't, Trent!! Don't you get it?!?! They know!! They know what you're into!!"

"Pfft...they know nothing."

"Get therapy, Trent. You're becoming a mess. And it's screwing up your act royally."

"Shut up, Vinnie."

"What was that—"

"I said shut up!!"

SLAM!!!!

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_Pumping blood._

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"_What's with the greenhouse?? You a nature fanatic all of the sudden, Trent??"_

"Don't insult the place. I got it for cheap. Hidden as all get out. Now let's get on with it."  


"_This is the last time I help you out, man. It's becoming publicly known. As soon as you're up to your neck in it, Trent....so am I. Pop stars are dead weight these days."_

"Shut up, Mark. You got it or not?"

"Yeah, I got it. And this time it'll cost you."

"How much?"

"Twelve thousa---"

"Twelve thousand?!?!?"

"You heard me. Take it or leave it."

"How about I take it and leave you?"

"Hahahaha.........ehm.........huh?"

"............"

"Trent, you're scaring me."

"I don't need to pay you. I don't even need to friggin' talk to you."

"God, you're so wasted. Get enough sleep after last night's gig? Oh-yeah-that's right...it was _**cancelled**__, wasn't it?"_

"Thank you, Mark."

"Heh...for what, Trent?"

Cl-Click.

"Giving me a good excuse."

"Whoah......whoah......whoah!!"

"Give me the stuff."

"Put it down, Trent!!!"

"GIVE ME THE DAMN STUFF!!!"

"NNGHH-NO!!!"

_**BANG!!!!!!**_

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_Piercing......_

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_Heavy breathing._

An eye twitch.

Glinting needle.

Further then it needs to be.

A jolt.

Shooting up in his place.

Panting.

Stumblng forward.

Mark's pool......

THWUMP!!!

Hands crashing.

SMASH!!!

Candle off the table.

Plant leaves.

Fire.

Eating upward.

"Heheheheheheh......"

Pots on fire.

Steam against the glass.

"Heheheheheheheheh......!!!"

Smoke billowing. Dancing. Pixies in the wind.

"It's so funny, Mark........."

Acid air.

Smoldering plants.

"I shot you and we're BOTH in Hell!! Ha ha ha ha ha!! Greatest comeback ever!!"

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_Burning............_

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"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!"_

_  
Gold dancing off his arm._

Hair and flesh curling...melting...crying......

"AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" tumbling through a burning plant. Smashing through glass. Blood trickle. The forehead. "MARK!!! HELP ME!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!! GAWWWWWWD!!!!! HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"

Smoke collecting on the rooftop of the greenhouse.

Forming in bubbles.

Skull sockets.

Ever black and ever and ever and ever..................

..................

......

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"_Hey!!!"_

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"_Hey punk!!!"_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey punk!!!!"

The burnt arm let go of me.

I gasped and fell back. THWUMP!!!

The creature looked over across the rooftop. _"SLZZZZ!!!"_ Trent's corpse narrowed its bulbous eyes.

"This your brain!!" Kl-Kl-Klak!! Cyborg aimed a freshly repaired and glowing sonic cannon. "This is your brain all over Town!!!"

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!_

CRAAAAK!!! The creature shattered instantly and flew—screaming—over the greenhouse and off the edge of the office building.

"Any questions?!?!" Cyborg spat.

The glass and needles melted into dust from the sonic punishment and filtered off into the black murk of the cursed world.

Exorcised.

A huge sigh of relief settled through the crowed.

Cyborg exhaled and returned his arm to normal. He placed a hand on Elisha's shoulder. "You okay??"

"Y-Yes...," she nodded breathily.

Cyborg smiled a bit. He glanced over. He walked over and knelt besides my sitting figure. "Noir?? Talk to me, man."

I shivered a bit. I hand-signed: '_I may not get my flu shot this year'._

"But are you in one piece?"

I gulped and nodded. Sighing. Running a hand through my hair.

He patted my back. "You're tough, dude. Two times in a row with those nasty things. You're not getting addicted, are you?"

"...........," I glared at him. "........."

Cyborg winced. "Okay....s-so that was bad. Ahem."

I nodded.

He stood up and helped me to my feet. "Come on," he led me kindly towards the stairwell where everyone else was gathered. "Let's get the Hell out of here..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So you say you saw through the eyes of Trent Larson??" Henry asked.

I was taking up the rear as we marched the fifty-to-sixty people through the dark city streets towards the point of entrance. I nodded at the man's inquiry.

Henry took a deep breath. "It was always a hush-hush thing...but rumor has it that Trent's burning 'suicide' not only took place in this City...but there was another body involved. A drug dealer or agent or someone. I imagined it to only be a pop culture legend. I mean...he was a famous guitarist. One of the best ever. Hall of Fame was in his future. Some people—obsessed fans—are crazy enough to think he's still alive."

_Oh, he's dead all right......_

I hugged myself and took a deep breath.

Henry bit his lip and looked away.

"We're here!" Cyborg said.

I craned my neck and walked ahead.

Indeed, there was the edge of the black obsidian. It was thicker than the dark fog always hanging before us—if such could be properly envisioned. The cords lying across the thick curtain were there. Cyborg picked it up, handed it to Elisha first, and yanked on it.

"That's the signal," Cyborg smiled. "Y'all should be okay to walk through now."

"Whew."

"Thank heavens."

"We're so grateful, Mr. Cyborg."

"Yes....thank you!"

"The Titans rock!!"

"L-Let's hurry!! I must see the light!!"

Elisha simpered. "Guess you did it."

"We've done only some of what we've come for," Cyborg said.

I nodded.

"What do you mean?" Henry asked.

I looked at Cyborg.

The android said calmly: "We're going back."

Commotion.

Murmurs.

Elisha's mouth hung open. "But....B-But why??"

"More people to save," Cyborg exclaimed.

I hand-signed.

"The Titans especially," he smirked. "We'll be going to Sheldon apartments first."

Elisha bit her lip.

"Hopefully we'll find Robin there. And lord knows he's more than enough for us to feel 'together'."

I chuckled breathily.

Cyborg shrugged.

Elisha took a deep breath. "Well....good luck." She looked at me. "And your eyes....."

"??????" I glanced at her quizzocally.

"They really are black, aren't they? It's not just a t.v. rumor?"

I rolled the optics in question. I motioned her along.

"R-Right...," she spoke. "Good bye." And she blushed.

"......"

She pulled on the cord and walked through the inky wall of black first, followed by the rest in straight-line formation.

".........," I looked aside.

Cyborg was staring at me with an eyebrow raised. He had a pathetic smirk on his lips. "It never fails, does it?"

I groaned.

He made kissy expressions.

I was about to give him an expression of my own when a mother carrying her baby girl was last to pass on through.

"Byeeeee Titansssss," the girl smiled sweetly and waved as she disappeared over her mother's surface into the bright world beyond.

"........."

"........."

Cyborg and I glanced at each other. A beat. We quietly—numbly—turned around and walked back into the dark, dark murk of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Forty minutes later....

"The Sheldon Apartments......shouldn't be too far now....."

I nodded.

We trudged on through the darkness by the scant illumination of Cyborg's floodlight and my noirish vision.

Silence.....

"................," I took a deep breath.

"I still don't get it..."

I glanced at him, squinting from his light.

"They went after you both times...," Cyborg said. "After a good fight, they seemed to have selected you for that crazy-ass forced REM stuff."

I shrugged.

"Come on, Noir! It's a big deal, dawg. We don't truly know what we're dealing with and I.....I-I don't want you to get hurt..."

I nodded. I smiled warmly at him as if some sort of consolation.

It didn't seem to work.

"I should have been packing more punch down there when Dr. Light showed his sorry-ass self," Cyborg grunted. "I mean...how can a bearded twerp like that take me down? Much less all of us?"

'_He had some pretty good technology...'_

"Yeah, I know. But it's not as if it's something we haven't faced before. We beat the guy once! And in one night too!"

I looked at him funny. I hand-signed. _'I thought Raven was the smoking gun.'_

Cyborg bit his lip. "Yeah.....th-that...."

"............," I stared curiously at him as we walked.

"Dr. Light was making a robbery. He did high-powered burglaries for a thrill all over the continent at one time. When he stumbled in on our Town, he had five superheroes to contend with. But the guy was downright tricky...and it was—yeah—becoming a losing battle. For some awful reason he really got to Rae. And I mean _really_ got to her. As it turned out, Raven had been—I dunno—down on meditation at the time. Her emotions most closely linked to her dad got loose, and her powers went berserk and sucked Dr. Light into some cold, dimensional void thing. I tell you what, it wasn't pretty...."

I shook my head. I gulped.

"Anyways...it was the first real time that the Titans ever did something that made people really question us, ya know. Cuz Dr. Light was really traumatized by the dimension he tasted of from Raven's rage. None of us ever meant for that to happen, of course. Not even Raven. But Dr. Light had to go to Arkham for rehabilitation...and—you know Arkham—he didn't last inside that place for long. He got out and now he's going royally nuts all over our City's behind. Man, I don't know how that upside down head of his concocted the damn bomb that did this to our Downtown....but I know for sure that Dr. Light wasn't a dabbler in the supernatural. No matter how much he may have rambled on and on about death or Raven being a witch or whatnot....all he is is just a mad scientist. So how on earth do these monsters and crap enter the playing field???"

I blinked. A street sign or two swam past us through the thick black soup.

"I hope Raven's not feeling bad right now," Cyborg said. "I bet it's easy to assume that Dr. Light did all of this to the Downtown because of her."

I glanced back at him. "..............."

"Eh.............heheh............okay," the android cleared his throat. "So maybe Dr. Light DID do all of this because of Raven."

I ran a nervous hand through my hair and looked ahead again.

"But nothing excuses what he's done. And I....I-I can't help but think that Raven may be in some bad situation now. Dr. Light must have planned all of this out or something. I don't know about the monsters though...but he could probably have Raven as a hostage now or even worse. I know she c-can take care of herself and all...........but.........."

Silence.

"Noir?"

I looked back again.

"What was it that Raven wanted to talk to me about?" he asked solemny...with concern. "Before everything got shot to Hell?"

I came to a stop. I sighed. I hand-signed.

_'She was a wreck this morning. She was almost crying.'_

Cyborg blinked. "Sh-She was?? I didn't notice..."

_'It was before you got up to the Titan alarm. I saw her on the way to meditation.'_

"What'd she say?"

"......," I hesitated. I hand-signed eventually. _'She said a lot in that she did not say a lot.'_

"Huh???"

I sighed. _'She could not finish most of her sentences. She was rambling. Helpless...'_

"But...B-But why??" Cyborg gestured emphatically. "You know she never gets emotional! Or at least...when she does, it's usually NOT a good sign!"

I bit my lip. _'She mentioned you.'_

His was caught somewhere precariously between falling and lifting. "She d-did?"

'_She said she could not tell you something.'_

"Tell me what?"

'_I am not sure exactly.'_

"How come?????"

I frowned.

Cyborg ran a hand over his face. "S-Sorry, man....I just.....dammit, how could I be so blind??"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Did it have anything to do with....with Tempest?"

I seemed confused.

"T-Tempest's loss. How tragic it was that Tula died. Tram and Ivan and the rest......"

I gazed off. My black eyes were round.

"She.....she's been taking it hard, Noir..."

I glanced at him sideways.

He looked at me sincerely. Softly he asserted: "Raven is a much rounder person than she tries to be. And Tempest's tragedy has really gotten to her. She doesn't seem to know how to deal with it...so I do the best I can to—ya know—distract her. Cuz she won't ever freakin' cry or get angry or anything. She has no outlet, man! And the best I can do is just....take her mind off the subject. I talk my head off about stuff. I don't mind it, really. Heh.....I enjoy it even. But it can't be perfectly healthy. Not when she's holding in lord-knows-what. But yeah...ever since Tempest has been here, Raven's been up and down. And just yesterday she seemed really in blue funk. I think it all has to do with her dad. Trigon and Slizzath are practically bedmates—so far as their power and methodology is concerned. I think Raven's stressing over the thought of what could happen to all of her friends if Trigon's power was to be manifested."

I took a deep breath. A chill ran up my left arm.

_Trigon......_

_If there was a second soul on the planet that knew him, I did......_

"But there's something especially bothering me...," Cyborg seemed to bit his lip with nervousness as he confessed, "...late last night, I could have sworn I heard something crash outside of my laboratory in the hallway. But when I stepped out to look, there was nobody there. One of the lightbulbs in the ceiling had shattered, though. And I saw a little blood—like someone had stepped in the glass. And....and....it was like I _felt Raven._" He gestured confusedly as his eyes gazed through the dark ground. "I...I can't explain it. But...I _felt_ her. A cold hand washed over my circuits and down my body and it was so.....so.........cold." He inhaled. A beat. "So lonely........so desperate........"

My lips parted a bit.

He looked at me. "You think I'm going crazy?"

I slowly shook my head. I gestured: _'That was the one thing she admitted this morning.'_

"What's that?"

'_Loneliness.'_

"............," Cyborg took a deep breath. "I never doubted for a second that the girl would feel lonely, Noir. I just....I-I just never imagined myself ever understanding the _feeling_. The coldness....the....the utter helplessness of what her lifestyle must demand of her...."

_'I wonder if that's what Dr. Light felt.'_

"Who gives a shit about Dr. Light, Dr. Dark, Whoever anymore?!?!" Cyborg cackled.

I winced.

Cyborg's fists clenched, but he wasn't frowning at me. He gazed off into the infinite black. Seething. "It can't just be a coincidence. All of this...all of this nightmarish crap....it's all got to do with Raven. I just know it!!" He looked at me, furious. "She's the center of all this!! And leave it to me to be a oaf and not the friend she could lean on in her time of need—"

I held a finger up.

Cyborg stopped, interrupted.

I hand-signed emphatically: _'She wants to tell you, Cyborg.'_

"............"

I swallowed a sudden lump down my throat. _'She wants to tell you so much. You, Cyborg. She feels helpless only because you are helping her and she does not know how to receive it yet.'_

Cyborg's human eye rounded. He took a deep breath.

I stared at him firmly. _'We will find Raven, Cyborg. You will have your chance. But first we must check on Robin.'_

He nodded. "Y-Yeah.....Robin first....then the rest...."

I smiled weakly.

He weakly returned.

He patted my back and the two of us pressed on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Sheldon Apartments existed in a tall, skycraping structure with lots of glass panels that gave it the deceptive appearance of an office building in the northeast portion of downtown. It was at least fifteen stories in height, and the exterior was lavishly decorated around the entranceway; a testament to how glorious the rich living areas inside the building must have been.

But neither of us could have cared at that moment. Instead, we were standing there and staring fixedly at a golden plaque inscribed with the black text:

'_The Banshee'_

".............."

"............."

Cyborg and I exchanged glances.

"Did the last one have—??"

I nodded.

He winced. A beat. "Uhm....ya know, Noir...," he tried to smile. "You can stay out here this time and—I dunno—keep guard while I go in and—"

I shook my head.

He nodded. "Yeah...we're both in on this together. Just stick next to me man..."

I sighed and saluted.

"And no super-heroics this time," he said. ".........relatively speaking."

I smirked.

We stepped into the atrium, one by one.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg's floodlight swam across the dark interior.

I gazed around where the edges of shadows were.

_Great, another lobby......_

There was a desk of sorts. Lavish elevators on either side. And a fancy mosaic on the floor.

"I've always wanted to furnish our Tower like this..."

I rolled my black eyes. I wandered over behind the desk. I checked for any signs of recent activity.

None.

"Well...we only have fourteen floors to look through.....," Cyborg grumbled. "I suppose I could just fire a sonic cannon blast up one of the elevator shafts. That'd get Robin and B.B.'s attention."

I scratched my head. I looked at a black plaque on the lower wall behind the desk. It was made of a glossy, plastic sheet and contained room numbers lined up vertically in a fourteen columns respective of the floor. I suddenly noticed buttons and spots for lights on all of the panels. Finally, speaker holes.

_An intercom......_

My black eyes narrowed as I noticed something. The panel for Room 1113 had been planted over with a golden bar with black smudges. It seemed glued on with some sort of questionable, brown material.

_Uhm........._

A hand on my shoulder.

I jumped.

"Yo!! It's just me....kay??"

I exhaled and shrugged Cyborg's hand off me.

"Yeesh....touchy! Now what do we have here??"

I pointed at the gold bar.

".............ew."

I glanced at him.

He looked at me, then at the bar. "Now why would this be here?"

I motioned towards the exit from which we came.

"Yeah...it does seem to be the same type of gold as the plaque. But what's that mean?"

I shrugged.

Just then, something dark dribbled down from under the bar covering the panel.

"Uh....hang on...," Cyborg leaned forward with his fingers.

I watched....

The android's fingers clamped over the bar. He pulled. He bit his lip. He pulled more.....more....m--

CRACK!!!! The bar snapped off.

_SKRIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!_

An ear-piercing wind blew unnaturally out of a slimey gash that was hidden in the 1113 panel, and a fountain of black monster blood splattered out and doused the belly of my white jumpsuit.

I winced, my long black hair windblown. My eyes were thin.

The 'scream' died down, and there Cyborg stood beside me....holding the dripping bar. He blinked.

"............."

He looked at me.

I cleared my throat and pivoted to face him. I then looked down at my stained shirt.

"..........I never understand why you don't just wear red, man..."

I groaned.

Cyborg held the bar up to his red eye and examined it. After a bit of crimson-strobed scanning.... "It's blood allright. Nothing I can classify, though. The readings say it's fresh. As if it just came out of a wound. The cells are alive and everything."

I held my mouth shut and waved for him to stop the description.

"Okay, okay, okay...," he sighed and twirled the bar around. "No doubt this has to do with that 'Banshee' plaque." A beat. "Elisha DID say that Robin and B.B. heard screaming sounds that drew them here, right?"

I nodded. I hand-signed.

Cyborg replied: "Then whatever they were looking for....it was probably in the obvious place that we've just been 'told' now. Floor eleven...room fourteen."

I smiled sarcastically.

Cyborg was similarly enthused. "A trap, perhaps?"

I mouthed: '_What hasn't been today?'_

"Heheheheh."

I shook my wet arms dry and wandered towards the nearest stairwell.

"Onward!!" Cyborg pointed his floodlight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As soon as we stepped onto the eleventh floor, we knew that we were in the right place. Somewhere between the hallway walls replaced with stretches of dirty-brown leather and blood smears and the ragged strips of rope nooses hanging from random parts of a rusting metal ceiling........we got the hint.

Cyborg and I stood at the top of the stairwell.

"......................................................."

A beat.

We blinked.

"...................okaaaaaaaaay," Cyborg uttered. "I, for one, am glad that I haven't had to poop for about five years now."

I looked at him enviously.

He took a shuddering breath, summoned his courage with a tightening of titanium shoulders, and said: "Okay...let's move." Kl-Klak-Ka-Klack!! His arm morphed into a sonic cannon which he stretched out in front of him as he lead the way.

I flanked him with Myrkblade held at ready.

Cyborg's floodlight illuminated the hellish hallway ahead of us....but not that it needed to. There was actually dancing light in this place, illuminating the leathery walls and rusted metal support structure. It looked like torchlight. But none of us could determined where the flames were until we realized that the crimson glow was shining out from _under_ the leather wall fabric. The place seemed to glow all around us like hidden embers. And if that wasn't enough, there was a devilish gurgling sound vibrating through the chambers. It felt like we were inside some giant incubus' digestive track.

_And it smelled like it too......_

"Well....," Cyborg muttered under his breath. "Here goes....." He cleared his throat then and cried out: "Robin?!?!?! Beast Boy?!?!?!?!"

My black eyes darted around as we crept forward. I examined every shadow of the hallway. Every strap of leather. Every noose hanging above us...

"Robin????? Beast Boy???? If you can hear us, give us a shout!!!"

Silence....gurgling.....embers.....

My foot stumbled into something.

I glanced down.

There was a bundle of rope coils beneath me.

"............"

I stepped over it.

There was a bright flickering light coming from the right just a few feet ahead. Cyborg and I soon realized that it was a doorway.

"Room 1114....," Cyborg slurred.

I took a breath. I tightened my fingers around Myrkblade's hilt.

Cyborg's human eye narrowed along the sight of his cannon.

The flickering increased....the first blinding thing in hours.

Cyborg slowed down. He slid his foot forward.

I poised next to him.

He glanced at me. He held up three fingers.....two fingers......one....

He pointed forward.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

SW-SWISH!!

KL-KLAK!!!!

I dashed into the room, spinning Myrkblade at ready.

Cyborg shuffled in, his cannon aimed.

And...........

We lowered our weapons.

Our eyes were wide. Brown and red and black and black.

"...................."

Bodies.

Bodies dangling everywhere.

Filling the richly furnished room like an upside down forest of flesh and rags.

Twisting...swinging gently.

Hung on ropes.

Men, women, children......

My mouth was agape.

Cyborg blinked as he scanned the scene slowly.

Mothers and daughters hung together.

Their eyes shut.

Legs still....dangling....

The robes made tiny little grinding noises with the subtle drifting of the bodies suspended from the nooses.

My tongue rolled to say something.

_Again......I forgot......_

I looked desperately at Cyborg.

"........."

I shoved him. "!!!!!!!!"

"What?!? What?!?!" he jumped. "Shit...hang on!!" He whipped out his arm console and typed madly away. Taking a censor reading.

I took the initiative to walk over to the nearest body I could find and felt with two fingers around its wrist.

My heartbeat confused me....

"Oh my god...."

I looked Cyborg's way.

"They.....they...," he looked at me with explosive eyes. I soon found out why. "They're a-alive! They're all alive!!"

I felt a pulse for sure then.

I shuddered for many reasons.

"But they shouldn't be!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "They've had to have been hanging here for forever---"

I pointed at one of the nooses.

Cyborg's eye narrowed.

There was a red glow on the ropes right where the flesh of the neck made contact. There didn't seem to be any constriction on the craniums whatsoever.

"That's doing it....that's keeping them alive....I-I guess!!!" Cyborg stuttered. "It breaks all the rules of....everything....but screw it in this place!!" He switched his one arm back to its regular shape and started untying the first noose he could see. "Let's get them down! Now!!"

I nodded. I walked over to a hanging family and worked on loosening them.

Cyborg's and my hands were shaking during the first few minutes of grounding the innocent figures. As soon as the rope came loose from their necks, the red glow disappeared and instantly the people gasped and sputtered—as if magically gaining their breath back. We lay them gently on the floor where they groaned groggily and seemed to take a great deal of time in 'waking up'.

"Come on....," Cyborg muttered desperately while trying to untie as many people as he could. "Come on!! There're so many of them!!" He seemed on edge...panting. He pointed a metal finger at me. "Noir!! Check the rest of the apartment!! Get an estimate on how many people we're dealing with here!!"

We remembered there and then who was in charge out of the two of us Titans.

I nodded, lowered the last gasping person I was freeing, and rushed into the 'forest'. I brushed dangling legs, ankles, and bodies aside as I tried to reach the far side of the room. I bumped into a table, positioned myself around a soggy-stained sofa, and met a wall of glass overlooking pure darkness. It certainly was a spacious apartment. But no room—no matter the size—felt comfortable when it's filled with _over fifty pseudo-executed people!!!!!!!!_

I gritted my teeth and pushed myself past a rather....obese body. I glanced down a hallway where a bedroom and a bathroom yawned open. Bodies weren't hanging there. The walkway was filled with bundles of rope and rusted metal......pointy things.

I shuddered, turned around, and headed back into the thickness of the body 'forest'. I pushed my way through the dangling forms and made it to a rough count of seventy-five to ninety bodies.

_This place is packed!!_

I turned to rejoin Cyborg's task when I suddenly got a face-full of red and yellow cape. I winced, shook my head, and glanced up.

My black eyes twitched. I grabbed the metal-tipped boots and whistled shrilly.

Heavy footsteps. Parting bodies. Cyborg pushed his way into the center of the room and joined me.

"What is it---holy mother of god...."

I held the legs of Robin. The Boy Wonder's eyemask was thin and lifeless. He dangled from the noose in tight, petite fashion. His gloved hands were bound behind him in barbed wire.

"Come on...let's get him down...," Cyborg breathed. He held him as I 'scaled' the Android's shoulders, unsheathed Myrkblade, and cut through the rope. –SNAP!- We carried Robin down and gently lay him on the ground beneath the feet of those left hanging above us. I slipped the glowing rope off while Cyborg shook him. "Rob! You hear us, man? Say something!"

A gasp escaped the boy's lips. He groaned and stirred.

"Hold your hands still....," Cyborg extended a sparking tool from his finger and cut the barbed wire 'binds' around the Boy Wonder's gloved wrists. "You're gonna be okay. Everyone's gonna be okay. Noir and I are here."

"Beast Boy....," Robin coughed, sputtered, writhed slowly. We couldn't tell if his eyes were open or not, but the rest of his face looked painful. "....did he make it out of here??"

"We don't know, man. We just got here. He could still be here."

"You must......you must....."

I placed a hand on the leader's shoulder.

"Just take it easy, Robin...," Cyborg said gently. "What do we need to know?"

Robin suddenly gasped.

"?????" Cyborg and I were confused.

_Shuffle............_

We froze.

_...............sh-shuffle.........shuffle......_

We both looked around, but all we could see were hanging bodies.

"It's just the people we freed....r-right?" Cyborg asked....me.

I looked at him stupidly.

_The shifting sound was too heavy to be any of the weak rescuees......_

Cyborg spun his vision about. The floodlight only went so far due to the bodies in the way. All we could see was the red embers glow from the leather walls beyond.

_Shuffle...........................shuffle............_

Robin sputtered: "Plug....P-Plug your ears....."

We both looked at him.

"That's h-how she takes you o-out...," he stirred and slurred.

_Shuffle......_

Cyborg and I slowly stood up.

He swallowed and spoke: "You think he's delusional?"

I glanced around at all the dangling bodies. I hand-signed. _'You think we can blame him?'_

"Shhh!" Cyborg hissed.

We froze.

_Shuffle.....................Shuffle...............Sh-Shuffle......sh-shift.....................stomp! stomp! Stomp! Stomp! STOMP!!! __**STOMP!!!!!!**_

To our right.....

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWAP!!!! The dangling bodies parted like upside down dominoes and a brown shadow broke through, slamming into us.

WHAM!!!!!!!

"AUGH!!!" Cyborg went flying into the body forest, along with his light.

"!!!!!!!" I pinballed backwards through three rows of bodies and landed hard with my shoulders pressed to the wide, glass window. CRACK!!! Hairline fractures spiderwebbed out from the back of my head.

I winced.

Amber flickering danced across me from the dangling bodies.

I saw a glimpse of two leather feet under the shadows before it disappeared. Bodies swung and knocked about towards the far end of the room, then Cyborg's voice:

"AUGH!! DAMMIT!! RGHHH!!!"

THWAP!! SMACK!! CRACK!!

"AAAUGH!!"

I gritted my teeth. I vaulted up to my feet, twirled Myrkblade, and blurred through the bodies towards the hidden fight. I morphed into smoke form every now and then teleport into random dangling bodies as I zeroed in on the spinning kaleidoscope that was Cyborg's half-concealed floodlight. And as I emerged onto the clearing of parted bodies--

SWOOOSH!! Cyborg's fist came at me.

I skidded to a stop, wincing.

Cyborg stopped his punch at the last second. He was panting and sweating profusely. "It was just here!!!!!!"

We looked around.

A ring of violently swinging bodies haloed us.

"Shit!! Shit, man!! Where is it?!?!"

I panted. I spun and looked between two bodies only to see a wall of rotted ribcages.....breathing......'staring' at me.

"!!!!!!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!! The two bodies parted and a leathery mass leapt on me. A BIG leathery mass.

"HEY!!!" Cyborg shouted and readied his sonic cannon for a point blanc shot.

I fought with the shadowy mass. The huge thing rolled us over in time to avoid the blue stream.

ZAAAAP!!!

POW!!! The floor exploded.

A leathery leg kicked out and shoved Cyborg away.

"YAAAUGH!!" the android fell back, knocking a few bodies around from where they hung.

"!!!!!!!" I gritted my teeth and angled Myrkblade to stab into the leathery thing I was entangled with. It would be an awkward feat, for whatever the thing was...it's body had to have been four feet in diameter. I heatedly realized that using Myrkblade in close combat was a stupid idea anyways, since there were so many innocent bodies hanging around that I could accidentally stab....

I gritted my teeth and decided upon a crazy test of brawn...only to have myself mercilessly twisted about and launched forth from the forest of bodies.

TH-TH-TH-THWAP!!! I broke free and found myself sailing right into Cyborg—who had marched himself out into the clearing at the side of the room.

WHAM!!!

We tumbled into the nearby wall. We collapsed on the floor and achingly got up.

"Is it still in there?!?!" the android Titan gasped.

I merely winced.

_Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!!_

We both looked at the line of hanging people.

_STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!!_

The leathery thing emerged from the swinging forms. It was a bulbous thing of thick plates of black leather with exposed ribcages circling upwards and forming a sphere....like a bleeding tangerine. Two thick legs like that of a dinosaur or rhinoceros planted into the ground beneath us. It was like a walking blob of steel-plated flesh. And right then and there—at the end of its march—it unfolded. The leather plates peeled down like a black lotus flower on an invisible pond's surface. In the center of the leather 'petals' rested the naked torso of a bleeding woman. Two white eyes opened as the centerpiece torso extended both arms to her side and stretched open a bleeding mouth three times its normal capacity and:

"_**SKRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"**_

_The Banshee........._

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg clutched his skull.

I screamed mutely and palmed my flesh and metal hands over my ears, dropping Myrkblade to the floor. But I couldn't hear the wood strike the soggy carpet. I couldn't hear anything. My ears were on fire with iron picks stabbing their way twistingly into my brain and shattering skull fragments up to my brow and down to my throat.

"_**SKRIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"**_

The window shattered, dousing hanging bodies with thousands of shards. Dirty vases and glassware in the apartment's kitchen fell apart. Cyborg grunted and twisted about as fissures formed in the see-through portions of his titanium exoskeleton. A spiderweb formed in his left skull. His floodlight started to crack and fracture...

And finally....the creature stopped shrieking. She marched towards us, drooling in some sort of sob and swinging a ragged arm of bleeding muscle at me.

THWACK!!!!

I flew back ten feet and slammed into the leather wall—WHAM!!—bouncing off and tumbling to the floor below. THRUMP!!!

The creature then shuffled about, grabbed Cyborg, and swung him through a piece of furniture. CRASH!!!

Cyborg twitched painfully on the floor.

Blood trickled down from my ear lobes as I stumbled up, gritted my teeth, and charged madly at the creature. Without Myrkblade, I felt my best bet was flinging my titanium prosthetic into the creature's gut. And that's exactly what I tried to do....

...until it saw me and let loose one 'chirp' _**"SKRIEEE!!"**_

"!!!!!" I instantly clutched my throbbing head, tumbled blindly, and fell into the monster's grasp.

THWUMP!! It hooked an arm around my waist and tossed me effortlessly behind her.

SWOOOSH!!!

I twirled in the air and found myself flying at a hanging man's body.

THWAP!! I hugged onto his torso. Swung towards the window. Swung back. And leapt onto the back 'petals' of the leathery creature.

"!!!!!" I slammed my metal fist down into its skull repeatedly. WHAM!! WHANG!! SMACK!!

The creature shook, convulsed, then reached a meaty arm hideously backwards at me with a snapping of unearthly joints. CR-CRICK!! It gripped my forearm, twisted its head about, and:

_**"SKRIEEEE!!!!"**_

I howled and shook as if receiving a concussion blast.

GRIP!!!

The banshee flung me over her shoulder and into a glass lamp.

SHATTER!!

I fell limply to the floor, groaning.

Something barely broke through the ringing on either side of my skull: "Hang on, Noir!! I've got this covered!!"

I looked over with weary black eyes.

Cyborg marched forward. He pressed a button on the back of his skull. CL-CLAMP!!! Metal plates surrounded his ears and face and mouth from within the exoskeleton. I recognized it as his automatic 'breathing mask' for underwater missions. Right now, it seemed just enough to mute....

I gasped and slammed my palms over my ears like Robin instructed....._a long time ago._

_**"SKRIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!**_ The Banshee howled at Cyborg.

Cyborg visibly groaned under his mask. But with fiery eyes he resisted and stomped strongly towards the creep and swung his titanium fist.

POW!!!!!

The banshee's head swung from the impact.

THWACK!!! A fist slammed into her chest.

The torso piece doubled over, sputtering. The legs and 'petals' twitched painfully.

Cyborg gripped one of her arms and hoisted her 'torso' up. "MMMMFFFF!!" the android let out a muffled war cry and started to form a sonic cannon to plow into the prone creature's skull.

CLAMP!!!

"!!!!!!!!!" Cyborg gasped. His arm was caught in mid-transformation by two petal plates of leather squeezing over his limb. The metal joints and sonic cannon parts twitched and sparked, trying desperately to finish the cycle.

_**"SKRIEEEeeeeEEEE!!!!!"**_

The creature shook his one hand free from its shoulder, leaned its torso back, leaned its torso forward, and slapped the android Titan hard across the face with two spark-showering wrists.

SLASH!!! SLASH!!!

It then shrieked and head-butted Cyborg.

THWUMP!!!

The petals let go with a spin and Cyborg rolled dumbly across the floor.

"MMmmff!!"

I struggled to get up to my knees.

The beast twirled about. It hissed at me. _Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!_ It charged my grounded figure and—_GRIP!!!—_seized me by the throat.

I gurgled for breath.

The bony hands held me up.

I dangled.

The scar in my neck ached.

My black eyes thinned.

_**"Sssssssssss.....**_" the creature's eyes narrowed. It opened it's mouth wide.

I winced.

_Aw crap......_

"N-Noir!!" Cyborg coughed from where he struggled to get up.

Red vapor came out of the Banshee's mouth.

_Not again........._

"Nnngh...," Cyborg hobbled my way. "N-No!! Noir, get away!! Teleport or something!!"

I had no strength left.

I merely hung their limply as the vapors filtered out from the creature's mouth and tempted me to consume....

".............."

The sound of a flute filled the air.

My black eyes rounded a bit.

Cyborg panted...confused.

The banshee had stopped. Her mouth shrunk down to barely human standards. Its leather neck twisted around.

The melody continued to play. Drifting around the bodies. Dancing in the darkness and the red aura.

TH-THWUMP!!! I was dropped to the floor.

I watched—breathless—as the creature limped towards the doorway. As Cyborg and I looked over, we realized that there were three human figures at the front end of the room. Dressed in black. Pale skin.

And the furthestmost of the trio was a flutist.

The whistling came forth from his thin figure and seemed to soothe the writhing creature. The Banshee stumbled over towards him, hissing...almost whimpering. The woman inside the half-open cocoon sobbed and shook.

The figure kept playing. His companions stood silently nearby.

The Banshee stood close enough in the flickering red to touch the flutist. It seemed to kneel down as its arms curcled and its upper torso swung around.

The music stopped.

The flutist slowly lowered his instrument. He smiled peacefully. He reached a pale hand out. It touched the Banshee's head.

"................," Cyborg and I wearily watched.

A beat.

The banshee shuddered........then..........opened its mouth violently wide.

FLASH!!!!!

A red stream of vapors shot from its mouth into the flutist's face. The gothic musician stumbled back. His companions gently caught him. At the same time, the banshee fell down in a ring of deflated flesh-petals....and faded into mist.

A beat.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!

The room's leather walls were replaced with plaster. The metal serration turned into carpet. The ropes disappeared—and---

THWUMP!!!!

All of the bodies fell to the floor, clean. Everyone gasped with the sudden wind of life flowing through them once again. They coughed, sputtered, then panted slowly for breath...getting up gradually at different rates of recovery.

But Cyborg and I remained grounded. Cyborg crawled over to me and placed a concerned hand on my shoulder.

I looked at him and gave an assuring smile.

He seemed relieved.

Then...

Three pairs of footsteps.

We looked up.

The instrument player was fine. He stood upright—howbeit visibly weak and even dizzy. He smiled the best that he could and said: "You need not worry.....she is gone.....for now...."

Cyborg blinked. "Wh-Who are you??" the android murmured. A beat. "Better yet....what did you just do??"

"What we are purposed to do...," the young man gestured at himself and the two flanking companions. "We've consumed the dead."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So who are they??" Robin grunted.

"Can you—I dunno—just rest for a second and let me run a thorough scan on you, man???" Cyborg frowned.

"You've scanned some of the others," Robin gestured tiredly with his glove. "What's true of everyone else must be true of me. We're fine. Besides...you should be more concerned about the citizens right now. Not another hero."

Cyborg glanced at me.

I shook my head with a weak smirk.

"You are far too 'you', my friend...," Cyborg said.

"Don't plan on changing anytime," remarked Robin.

A half-hour or so after the banshee fiasco, almost everyone 'hanging' had awakened. It was a miracle that they survived. But....perhaps they were never meant to suffocate to begin with. All that the creature had wanted to do—according to these strangers—was be 'consumed'.

And in speaking of the strangers...the three pale figures of gothic standing resided in the corner as if waiting for us to either die or ascend. Maybe both...maybe neither. They seemed perfectly calm...perfectly tranquil....and—as one would assume—perfectly at home in this blackened environment.

"And just who are our benefactors, exactly?" the Boy Wonder wearily, warily nodded his head towards the three. "I've not run into them before."

"I dunno who they are.....," Cyborg said with a rub of his human skull. "But they sure came in the nick of time for Noir and I. Hell...all of us!"

"I'm proud of what you and Noir are doing...," Robin cracked his knuckles nonchalantly while speaking with a furrowed brow. "Walking into this dark place is a feat in and of itself. I'd be afraid you'd chicken out and ask Superman and Wonder Woman to come crashing in."

"Geee....thanks for the ego-boost, _Robin_!"

"You're quite welcome...," the Boy Wonder sniffed. "I gotta go question them." He tried standing up. He ached all over. He slumped back down. "Okay....maybe later."

"Heh....maybe....," Cyborg said. He stood up and walked across the room towards the three strangers.

I joined him.

All around us, huddled groups of people sat with candles and small torches provided by the flutist. One or two flashlights from Cyborg and I were donated as well. The post-hanging citizens seemed on the road to recovery—psychologically speaking—and it was only a matter of time before we made an effort to evacuate them towards the daylight world.

Right then and there...we marched up to the pale figure and--

"Dimitri...," the musician said.

"I beg your pardon?" Cyborg blinked.

"It's my name," the man smiled and extended a pale hand. "Even in this place, we still have identities."

Cyborg eyed the man's hand. It had stitch marks in a few key places. "Uhm....yeah...," he shook the man's hand and looked at all three. "Just who are you guys anyhow?"

"I am a Mediator," Dimitri said. "Victor and Raphael...," he gestured towards the two men, "...they are my guardians. We work together."

The two men bowed.

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Greetings."

Cyborg rubbed his human head. "So....uh.....how come you three don't look spooked and stuff??"

"Do you mean scared?" Dimitri asked.

"Yeah. In case you haven't noticed, the City's stuck in permanent air raid practice and the Downtown has become a stage play for American McGee's Alice."

"Oh, we have noticed the....'oddities' of this place," Dimitri smiled liquidly. "But then again, what's not to notice when you live here?"

My black eyes went crooked. I glanced at Cyborg.

Cyborg leaned forward. "You.....live here?"

"But of course."

A beat.

"Like...in this apartment?"

"Hehehe...no, good sir. We live 'here'...," he gestured all around. "Isn't 'here' not obvious?"

Cyborg twitched once or twice before managing: "Yeah...well...right now 'here' isn't too safe of a place. We'd better get you—"

"To the land of light?" Dimitri remarked. "We are quite blessed and delighted to witness your visitation, but we cannot go there. It is not our home. Though—at an archaic time—it once was."

"You mean to say this darkness stuff is normal to you??" Cyborg cackled. "I have news, buddy! The only reason this place has ended up like this is because of Dr. Light's gizmo!"

"Ah...but you do not understand..," Dimitri patiently smiled and said: "What that man did was merely create a doorway."

"A doorway?"

"Naturally, your City does not possess such horrific beasts and mutilated landscape, does it? Or do you often find in the world of light buildings that will change shape on you, blood and skin where it shouldn't be, golden inscriptions appearing out of the darkness, and glass that does not reflect?"

"............." We were both silent in response to that.

Dimitri seemed to expect that. "I would be so happy to explain," he said. "But it may be best that the Grand Mediator meet with you. After all, your entrance into our world has been a very monumental thing...especially with so many of you scattered abroad."

"You know where the other citizens are??" Cyborg leaned forward. "Are th-they safe??"

Dimitri held a hand up. "I can only sense their presence. I cannot vouch for each individual. As it is...our numbers are few. But I am most certain that the Grand Mediator can plan something to benefit your kind and bring you back to the world of light. That—and he can explain things with...heheh...far greater finesse and flair than I ever could." Dimitri smiled pleasantly. So did his 'guardians'.

I hand-signed: _'Very happy people'._

Cyborg nodded. "I know a word for 'happy'..." he muttered. He stepped forward. "Where's your Grand Mediator?"

"In the Dwellings," Dimitri said.

"...........okay. Anywho...yeah, I think we will see him. But first...," the android Titan gestured. "We gotta get these people back where they can be safe."

"By all means...," the man half-bowed. "...and we shall help you."

"Well...," Cyborg smirked at me. "Looks like not everything about this place is gruesome."

"........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"'Grand Mediator'??" Robin asked.

Cyborg nodded.

The three of us Titans were marching the group of seventy people or so towards the edge of the City. I was at the front of the group with Dimitri, Victor, and Raphael. Cyborg and Robin held the back. With combined flashlights and candles, we illuminated the line of nervously marching people and proceeded onward through the thick blackness of the Downtown.

"I think he wants to help us, Robin," Cyborg said. "His leader too."

"Do you trust them?"

"You gonna take _my_ word for it???"

"Maybe."

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "After everything we've fought and seen, what's not to trust more than them?"

"So you've run into other freaks before the banshee?" Robin asked. "Beast Boy and I had our hands full of strange creatures when we met each other at the radio station. They were like conjoined bowling balls with millipede feet and a hundred razor-teethed mouths. And I thought the Scarecrow's hallucinations were bad..." The Boy Wonder shook his head. "Well, it's good to hear you and Noir faired well. Fifty people, huh?"

"Fifty to sixty, yeah," Cyborg nodded. "We got them out of the Downtown Hotel after our first.....er....'run-in'. Someone in the hotel named Elisha said she last saw you and Beast Boy heading towards the Sheldon Apartments. So after we took them to safety, Noir and I came back to try and get you guys. And that's when we ran into the sequel to the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Man...I swear....." A beat. "Just where _is_ B.B. anyway?"

"He got away safely during our first battle with the banshee when **we** tried to save all of those people," Robin said with a touch of angry frustration and regret. "When I realized it was a losing battle, I told him to run for it and try and get help. So he leapt out of a broken window in the shape of a jellyfish."

Cyborg made a face. "A jellyfish?"

"No ears."

"Ah."

"I haven't seen him since...," Robin muttered. "He probably has his paws full of more obscene crap in this hellhole."

"What about the others?" Cyborg asked. "Star? Flipper?" A beat. He painfully swallowed and added: "Rae??"

"The last time I saw Tempest, he was being smashed into the sewers again," Robin said. "He may be down there for all we know. I tried looking for Starfire the first moment I awoke from the falling darkness, but I couldn't see her anywhere near the building she flew into. And I have no clue where Raven is."

"I don't like the sound of that...," Cyborg muttered. "Dr. Light was going after her to begin with. If his plans were successful enough to hold off all of us Titans and bathe the center of the City in pure blackness...then who knows what else his precision could have done?? Especially if Raven was his target. She could be in big danger right now. Even worse."

"I'm sure she can handle herself, Cyborg," Robin smirked ever so slightly. "It's not like we're bathed in a world of intense 'light', so I'm sure he's quite at home."

Cyborg frowned. "It ain't funny."

"I know," Robin retorted. "And Raven knows it too. She's fine. Have faith."

"HA!! You, Robin? Faith?"

"I was trying to appeal to your sense of pathos—"

"Yeah yeah, whatever," Cyborg grunted. "Anyways. Dimitri's gotten me thinking again about this whole situation."

"What about it?"

"The way he speaks of this place and all its freaks...," Cyborg spoke, "...it's as if he's used to it."

"Point being?"

"They're natives...unless they're pulling our universal tail," Cyborg scratched his human head. "I'm beginning to believe that the monsters and all the other creepy stuff have nothing to do with Dr. Light."

"Then what could they be here for?" Robin asked.

"He called Dr. Light's bomb as 'doorway'," Cyborg said.

"As in....," Robin blinked under his mask. "...to another dimension? That would make sense."

"Would it? Then you'd have to explain it to me, dawg. Cuz nothing in this place seems to have a top or a bottom!"

"This 'Grand Mediator'...," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "He may have some answers."

"He'd better..."

From the front of the line, I whistled.

Robin and Cyborg looked up.

The line came to a halt.

"Ah."

"We're here."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We safely escorted the seventy people to the edge of the dome. After they had walked through to the world of light (though it was probably late in the evening by then...heh) the six of us walked back into the City. The six of us were—of course—Dimitri, Cyborg, Raphael, Robin, Victor, and myself. Dimitris led us between buildings and through parking lots, and across many sidewalks in the utter blackness. His gait was very nonchalant, and he seemed to have no apprehension or fear of the things around him. Everything appeared natural to him. The same went for Raphael and Victor...who walked on either side of me at the rear of the procession.

Halfway through the stroll, my mind was a blank...but was soon interrupted by:

"You're the one the Grand Mediator talks about..."

I glanced to my left.

"The one with black eyes," Victor said, eyeing my optics as he did so. "We've sensed you when you entered. Tell us...are you a mediator?"

I blinked.

"He can't be a mediator...," Raphael hissed. "The boy's from the world of light. He doesn't adhere to the teachings."

"But the teachings specify that some are possessed with the talents," Victor said. He looked at me again, smiling. "Tell us....how did you do it?"

I was confused.

"He cannot speak, Victor. Do not tease him."

"I am not teasing him! I just want to know how he did it!" he looked at me. "Two poltergeists in a span of hours...and without any prior knowledge of mediation. H-How did you learn to consume them?"

My lips parted.

_Consume??_

"The creatures....th-they were drawn to you....weren't they?"

I looked off. A chill ran up from my damn metal arm.

"Leave him be, Victor. If need be, the Mediator can speak to him. Don't confuse his poor mind."

I smiled sarcastically at that.

It was around that point that I noticed Dimitri leading us towards—of all things—a subway station underground. As we walked down the steps, I couldn't help but do a double-take at a hint of gold metal.

My eyes widened.

A golden plaque on the entranceway read: _'The Acolytes'._

I took a deep breath. I was about to whistle or tap Cyborg's shoulder or--

A hand on my shoulder.

I glanced over.

Raphael had calm eyes. He and Victor smiled. "Don't worry...," Raphael said. "It's us..."

"................," I glanced at the plaque....then at them again.

They smiled. "You don't have to come down if you don't want to—"

I shook my head and motioned down the subway. I swiveled about and descended the steps. But I was taking a nervous breath the whole time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I never remembered the subway looking so decrepit and run-down. Dust and soot was everywhere. Walls had crumbled in various places. Metal racks and concrete pylons blocked our path, and we had to climb over them to proceed down the pitch-black corridor.

Dimitri led us on. Soon, Cyborg's floodlight met a flickering glow from the first of many candles and torches and lanterns.

Dimitri smiled. "You need not worry...we have lights of our own down here..."

Robin and Cyborg exchanged glances. Cyborg flipped his shoulder light down and off.

We approached the aura.

My black eyes thinned a bit. I sensed the light was going to be dim enough for me to manage it without sunglasses...but it was still a bother.

We rounded a corner...and that's when the framework began. The 'framework' being a series of wooden platforms, ladders, planks, and ramps. The interior of the subway yawned open wide into a huge, underground chamber of broken down tile and concrete. But the framework of wood created a very old-fashioned skeletal structure, and on every other platform there rested tents and leather flap 'booths' and huts of haphazardly sewn material. And people were there. Lots of people. Walking on wooden catwalks. Casually sitting in the tents. Carrying food items and pails of water from point a to point b. And the people looked alive and busy...but they all weren't normal—at least to our perspective. Their skin was pale. They weren't albino, but rather their bodies seemed to reflect in a silver sheen like wet moonlight. And much of the skin looked like it remained their by miracle. Stitches and sutures ran circles around their limbs and faces, so that everyone looked like patched-up dolls. And—as hard as it is to explain—they looked just about as beautiful as any person I was used to seeing could be. Their eyes were dark...or rather most of their eye sockets were dark. They appeared like children from a silly Halloween play. But they weren't children. At least not all of them. They all seemed young. Young and vibrant in spite of their pale 'patchwork'. There were men and women...mothers and fathers...elders and nobles. As we approached, many stopped to look at us. They gazed from catwalks, from interior patches of gardens, from gathering places of makeshift bazaars. Men in the middle of toiling. Women in the middle of sewing. Children in the middle of playing. They were all dressed in aesthetic garb of an old-fashioned nature. And 'old-fashioned' in this case harkens back to something reminiscent of the Victorian era only.....well....gothic. Super gothic. Black dresses and black suits and gray working trousers, plus the outrageous bonnet or top hat to complete the obsidian look. It looked like a life of luxury, poverty, ecstasy, and misery all the same. All eyes were locked on us.

I swallowed.

Dimitri smiled and pulled out his flute. He played a lively melody as pulled us along. It was like a victorious pied piper leading three Titans into the midst of confusion. But the confusion gave way to merriment as people from above clapped and children ran along with us, giggling, curiously gazing at us. On the sidelines, men bowed and women curtsied. Soon we became the eye of the storm.

Dimitri lowered his flute long enough to speak: "Summon Jonas! The allies of the Grand Daughter have arrived!"

Cheers. Excited muttering. Bodies running back and forth.

Dimitri came to a stop, and so did we. Cyborg, Robin, and I gazed around at the underground 'city' of lanternlight and gothic faces.

"So who's this 'Jonas'??" Cyborg murmured. "Tim Burton's twin?"

I chuckled breathily.

"Don't look now...," Robin uttered.

We did.

From a wooden ramp leading down from a platform above us, a cluster of pious-looking people in brown dress clothes wandered down. They were flanking a couple. A tall man and a very familiar blue-haired girl of petite stature.

Cyborg gasped. He took a step forward. "R-Raven!!"

Raven stepped down to our level, hand daintily held in the grasp of the man's. She looked at us......and she smiled.

Cyborg's jaw dropped. "Raven???"

Robin and I scratched our necks.

"I'm happy that you finally got here...," the dark girl said.

"H-Happy???"

"Mmmmhmmm," she breathed and smiled in a manner so soft that....we had to 'believe' it. "You wouldn't believe it....b-but...I'm with family now."

"Raven...," Robin stepped forward. "Who are these people?"

"The brothers and sisters of Azarath...," the tall, pale man said. He stepped forward and—in spite of the blatant stitches running gray across his face—he produce a very pleasant smile. Very peaceful..... "The last protectors of the Sacred Mother's Daughter, Raven."

Cyborg glanced back and forth. He finally gazed at the man. "And you are??"

"Jonas," he bowed. "The Grand Mediator."

Raven floored us when she giggled....and said: "Welcome to Mortuana."


	135. Mortuana part 4

**135. Mortuana part 4**

_The man paces around the fire in the center of the ring._

The melody circles about as much as he does.

With a smile, the orator twirls, holds up his hands, and says:

"Four friends. United as one within the realm of Mortuana. But did they truly recognize each other? The gentlemen had been through enough trials and tribulations to wear a soul of light down into oblivion. And yet they had pressed on—if not for the salvation of all their kind—then at least for the safe retrieval of the girl. But when they found the daughter of the sacred mother, she had been transformed. As much as they were concerned, she was a different person. Happier. More at peace. And with a sound mind untroubled by her own dark essence."

The man smiles and bows slightly as his eyes thin and he smiles with added emphasis.

"_The ultimate question—of course—is.........did she recognize herself?"_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jonas, the Grand Magistrate of Mortuana, had a very modest home. For someone of his stature and leadership, he chose to dwell in a leather tent no fancier than any of the common habitats lining the platforms and wooden stands of the underground city.

Nevertheless, he afforded to have three or four guardians standing and keeping watch outside his tent flap while a good percentage of the gothic population curiously attempted to peer inside at the proceedings.

Jonas, Raven, Cyborg, Robin, Dimitri and I sat in a circle inside Jonas' shack. Surprisingly, it wasn't as cramped as it sounds. Jonas must have been used to meetings in his establishment, and he had the walls of his home fashioned to hang household items that would normally be covering the floor on other occasions.

In the meantime, we had a for our visit.

"Centuries ago on Earth, the very first pacifist to carry the name of 'Azar' gathered the pilgrims under her teaching and led them through the interdimensional rift to settle in a world that was to become known as Azarath. A Temple was erected in Azarath, and there the Book of Azar was first printed. Since then, the ideals of serenity, harmony of controlled emotions, and enlightenment through meditation have flourished among the select few who have graced the hidden dimension. Azar—and all magistrates who follow in her namesake have maintained a universal tranquility the likes of which the blemished Earth has never seen. But in spite of the strongpoints Azar presented, there were still members of the Temple that doubted at least some of the principals presented in the sacred Book."

Robin, Cyborg, and I listened patiently. Raven sat still...a smile on her face every now and then. It made me feel uncomfortable. I noticed Cyborg shifting uncontrollably every now and then.

Jonas continued: "These separatists maintained that the teachings of Azar supported reclusion above benevolence. They could not understand the benefits of meditation in aiding the tranquility of all life if only a select few from Earth were allowed into this ritual dimension. They emphasized the nature of death and its reaping of souls—both Azarathian and not. Many people developed this concern, and they formed a group that broke off from Azarath in favor of pursuing these new concerns."

I glanced at Dimitri. The man was examining his flute while listening. It suddenly surprised me how young he looked. I glanced back at Jonas again.

"The Azar of the time maintained the order of the Book, and when the separatists grew in number she traditionally did nothing to persecute the new 'religion'. After all, it goes against Azarathian doctrine to act upon biases. The Temple was tolerant of all people and beliefs. The separatists were allowed to stay in that dimension...but such is not what they desired. For they maintained that the only way to truly bring tranquility to the world was to manifest the supernatural strengths they have learned and employ them in aiding the mortal world; Earth especially. Well over four hundred years ago, the Exodus took place. The separatists bade Azarath farewell and left en masse. But upon returning to Earth they realized that their numbers were too little and their belief system too radical to survive. In spite of their peaceful ways, they were persecuted and martyred and branded as herectics. In the Middle East they were stoned. In Europe they were tortured. And in the Americas they were burned at the stake. Labels of 'witches' and 'sorcerers' and 'demons' filled the air. And sooner than nought, it looked like the separatists' cause was to be eliminated."

Jonas' face seemed to brighten. His eyes were soft as his smile came wide. He looked like Peace itself.

"But not all hope was loss. Though death was what consumed the separatists, the last remaining few of them realized that the only way they could save themselves—and still aid the world as their doctrine allowed—was to consume death back with equal fervor. They studied the ancient, primordial fundamentals of Azar the First and discovered a way to open a dimension nestled so thinly between Earth and Azarath that it could not be defined as either. But rather, the elements of light and dark were used in summoning the doorway, and the separatists settled into a between-worlds landscape that was identical to Earth....but only was robbed of light. It was in this realm that the separatists discovered two chief things. Firstly: they were not so much separated from the living that they could not assist them in preparing for death. Secondly: they were not so much separated from death that they could not protect the living from their hunger. The dark lands turned out to be a landscape built on the framework of life but possessing the poltergeists, the pain, the hauntings of death. The former Azarathians found their purpose in this world, and such was to coexist in alternate cityscapes of the land of Earth and consume the dead so that their evil auras would not spread to the land of the living. And under this new purpose and plan, the middle-world was named Mortuana...a place defined by death in all of its positives and negatives."

We were all equally startled when Raven's voice dripped in with a queer warmth and vitality: "These people are in essence the closest I have to my former acquaintances." The dark girl smiled warmly and leaned her head to the side. "Separatists or not......they have built Mortuana upon the former pillars of Azar. It is....it is like an undiscovered home to me."

"Did you ever know about it before?" Robin asked. He gestured: "Weren't you taught in the Temple of Azarath?"

"There are many histories explored in the Book of Azar," Raven replied. "So many stories that the casual onlooker would not know the difference between canon and apocrypha. I had heard of the Separatists...but I had never visualized Mortuana. And now that I'm here....and now that I-I can actually taste and feel it...." The girl hugged herself. "It's so....beautiful..."

Cyborg blinked. "Beautiful??"

Robin looked at Jonas. "Do you........_know_ Raven?"

Jonas smiled. "It is difficult not to."

"How so?"

"She is the daughter of the sacred mother, Arella."

"Arella?" Cyborg remarked. "Raven's Mommy?"

Raven's eyes darted to the side and her eyes faded a bit.

I took notice.

"Formerly known as Angela in your world," Jonas explained. A beat. He leaned back and inhaled. "I would tell you more...but such is not my position."

"It is alright," Raven said. "They are my friends. You can tell them all about it."

He looked at her politely. "Raven, as much as I would love to comply...I distinctly remember your opinion upon entering our presence. You felt the need to remain secretive, did you not?"

"............"

"Even now...after your first consumption......I feel it would be best to standby your request. It is my desire to honor you above all else."

"Wait a damn second...," Cyborg half stood up, frowning. "'Consumption'?? What's going on around here?"

Raven smiled. "Soon after I was saved from the shadowed landscape, I underwent a meditative procedure to...t-to free my emotions."

"Free your emotions??" Cyborg retorted. "You've spent well over the greater part of your life repressing your feelings and attitudes and now you suddenly want to _free_ them?? What about your daddy, Rae?"

Interestingly, she did not seem the least bit phased or saddened. Instead...she seemed 'happy'. "It is difficult to explain, Cyborg. Trigon........Trigon isn't with me anymore."

My black eyes widened.

Robin leaned forward. "Raven.....do you mean to tell me—"

"The curse isn't dropped," she sighed. A beat. "But it isn't malignant either."

"I'm afraid I don't understand...."

"I know. It's st-still new to me. Hehehehe," she chuckled. She blinked. "But he is gone. I know it. And now I'm taking full advantage of it."

"Yeah...well...I think something smells fishy!" Cyborg uttered.

I cleared my throat.

"I'm serious!" he barked at me. Frowning, he faced Jonas again. "This whole god damn place is totally upside down! We're only here on account of Dr. Light and already you're trying to make some sort of Mortuanaesque—whatever example out of her?"

Jonas took a patient breath and said: "I'm afraid you're being too hasty."

"We did not force her," Dimitri butted in calmly. "In fact, we didn't even propose it to her."

Cyborg had a twisted expression. "Huh?"

"Cyborg....."

The android looked Raven's way.

She leaned forward and smiled. "It was my choice."

"..............," Cyborg sat down.

I felt a chill run up from my metal arm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The six of us continued the convesation outside, strolling along the wooden platforms and passing tents and houses of the gothic population alongside, overhead, and beneath us.

Raven spoke as she lead the procession:

"The fight with Dr. Light had taken quite a toll on me. I wasn't very well prepared for a battle this morning in the first place. So when he started defeating all of us Titans one by one...I was helpless to do anything. When the bomb of blackness went off, I was thoroughly dazed and disoriented. A mediator and three guardians found me. They brought me down here to this 'city'. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I was recognized...for being an apprentice of Azarath no less. Hehehe...at first I was completely put off, as usual. But then when I realized that the curse of my being had faded down here, I began to see things in a different light—no pun intended. Jonas and the acolytes of Mortuana were receiving me with open arms. I was on the verge of rediscovering the avenues of my emotion, and they were in the right place and in the right time to help me. So I took a brave step. I asked them to consume my repressions. And Jonas and his prime mediators agreed to assist me. They would purge me of my barriers, one by one...and then I could be completely free. Hours ago—before your arrival—I was purged of my repression to happiness. Th-That's why I seem so bubbly now, I bet. Hehehehe."

I scratched my head. I glanced mutely at Cyborg.

He was biting his lip. "So...you're sorta doing a Raven reversal?"

"Exactly, Cyborg! Hehehe! Aren't you happy for me?" she beamed.

He sweatdropped with a nervous simper.

She blinked. "Cyborg??"

Robin cleared his throat. "You......_have_ put a lot of thought into this, right Raven?"

"Of course, Robin. I'm a rational person. Don't you know that?"

"I do not doubt you in the least, Raven," the Boy Wonder replied with folded arms as we walked. "I merely feel......"

"Concerned?" Jonas interjected.

Robin glared at him.

"I understand how odd this must feel," he said. "I am not one to dictate about the daughter of the scared mother. Nor am I one to dictate about your special friend. But you must trust us...we respect her and will only do that which honors her. This was her choice. Her decision. As distant relatives of Azarath, we must honor it. And since you are her allies—as well as innocent members of the world of light—we shall honor you as well."

"You people seem to be experts on dealing with those monsters out there," Robin said. The Titan leader stopped in his tracks and—thus—effectively paused the movement of the group. "Maybe you can honor us by helping us track down the lost members of Downtown, including our friends."

Jonas bowed partly. "More than happy too. However...I must correct you."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

Jonas pointed: "Those creatures out there are _not_ monsters."

"Could have fooled us!" Cyborg uttered.

I nodded.

"It is difficult for you to understand," Jonas nodded. "After all....you are still alive."

Robin made a face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Dimitri spoke: "Look around you, dear Titans. Describe to us what you see...."

I gazed around with black eyes.

Cyborg's vision darted back and forth.

Robin used his peripheral vision.

"My best guess is the film stage for 'Gangs of New York'," Cyborg suggested.

Raven giggled at that.

Cyborg sweatdrop. "Pity B.B.'s not here."

I smirked.

"What's your point?" Robin asked.

"Do you seriously think that we're alive?" Dimitri asked. "With the conotation that the name of our very land implies?"

"......"

"......"

"......"

Robin and Cyborg instinctively took a cautious step backwards.

I stood in place.

Raven watched.

"You mean to say.....," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You're all dead?"

"I was arrested for resisting British conscription in the Napoleonic Wars," Jonas spoke. The seams and stitches across his face seemed all the more real as he explained this. "I was bayoneted to death in a prison at the age of twenty-nine."

"I was shot to death along the rest of my family when my father refused to give up our farm to Soviets," Dimitri said. "I still find it humorous today that nearly five percent of the population of Mortuana owe it all to Stalin...heheheh."

"You.......died......a-and came here?" Cyborg stuttered.

"We were selected by the Sentinels," Jonas spoke. "The Sentinels are specialized mediators of Mortuana that consume the spirits of the dying before they have the chance to truly pass on. Such spirits are chosen for select qualities in benevolence and justice. Of course...no single soul is forced to dwell in Mortuana and perform consumption. If she or he would rather desire eternal rest...they are granted such. When it was my time, I chose to.......well.....'live' on for the sake of protecting those whom I had loved but needed to leave behind." He took a deep, seemingly sorrowful breath...but washed it away with a genuine smile of softness. "I am so...so very honored to have the chance to bless the same members of the world of light that could not give me a chance to do so when I was alive. I joined the ranks of Mortuana gladly...and have been proud of my occupation ever since."

"But.....how can you be dead? You're moving, breathing.....'consuming'...."

"The fundamental laws of existence have their loopholes, Mr. Cyborg," Jonas said. "Please try and understand that—even beyond the threshold of death—there are new questions even far more confusing than the 'meaning of life'."

I hand-signed a '4' and a '2'.

Robin elbowed me.

I rubbed my side and pouted.

Raven giggled.

"Man....," Cyborg ran a hand over the human part of his head. "This is all so heavy. I mean...I always thought of life beyond death....but...."

"Mortuana hardly falls into that category," Dimitri said. "We—in fact—do not know what to call it. We merely concern ourselves with the task at hand...and that is protecting the poltergeists, the very things you call monsters."

"But....you've seen what the 'poltergeists' have done to some of our people!" Robin exclaimed.

Dimitri nodded. "And indeed we do our best to keep them in check. But it is not our goal to annihilate them. They are not here by choice. They are confused and tortured by unfinished and nightmarish things that glue together the gray lines of life and death. Only in the absence of light do they reveal themselves. Wandering aimlessly. Seeking for solace that will not find them. As mediators we consume the death inside them so that—temporarily—they can rest until the aura of death rises in them again. If the aura gets too strong, it will start to attract innocent souls to the poltergeists' suffering nature....even branching into the world of light. Our purpose—in a realm where souls filter through in greater and greater percentages—is to achieve balance. And in such tranquility—mutual instead of the Azarathian personal—we serve our purpose."

I leaned my head to the side, intrigued.

Robin spoke up: "Then you people are...in a sense...superheroes." He blinked behind his mask. "Superheroes of the dead."

Jonas smiled. "Exactly...," he slowly nodded.

"And we will be more than happy to assist you in your searches...," Dimitri said.

"Think you can tell us more about this 'place' so we can have a common footing?" Robin asked.

Jonas replied: "When your infamous 'Dr. Light' destroyed all light in the nearby vicinity, it opened up a portal from Earth to Mortuana. In Mortuana, the City you live and fight in is merely a fascimile. Like a living and breathing chameleon, Mortuana does its best to blend in with the framework of the land of light. But when poltergeists roam the space and spread their sorrow and confusion...the organism that is Mortuana becomes cancerous. Imagine tumors of the structural and geographic metaphor. Buildings turn upside down. Pieces of street and sidewalk fall away. Rooms reflect the personalities of the tortured and agonized dead...."

Cyborg glanced at me. He whispered: "The leather in the banshee's apartment...."

I nodded shakily.

"We cannot supplement an explanation for why these things are the way that they are. All we know is that—the more we consume the poltergeists—the more that Mortuana blends in with the nature and structure of the light world, and that is our gauge for balance. But not always are we successful in maintaining this balance."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

Jonas hung a sad head. He said: "There are times when....the poltergeist gets too strong. Its weight of anguish and souls becomes grand and immeasureable. Sometimes—even—the poltergeist becomes self-aware. It knows of its power and attraction. It hunts after souls and forces them to branch out and bend the world to its liking. When this happens, we have hellion on our hands. And no mediator—no matter how strong—can take on and consume a hellion."

Cyborg swallowed. "Are there....uhm....any 'hellions' in this City?"

Dimitri shifted uncontrollably.

Jonas folded his hands together. A deep breath. "The Lich...," he hissed.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Does this Lich....pose a threat to the people we're searching for?" Robin asked, getting straight to the point.

"It.....might be possible..."

"How can I found out?" Robin asked. "In fact...how can I find out about those whom I'm looking for, period? This place is.....kinda dark, you know."

Jonas smiled. "We have our ways. We built the Tower for that."

Cyborg smirked curiously.

"'Tower'??"

"It was erected in the skyscraper above us...," Jonas pointed directly 'up'. "It is where we look out on the landscape of Mortuana around us."

"How can I.........access this 'Tower'?" Robin asked.

Dimitri gestured. "I shall show you. Would you allow me?"

"I'd do anything at this point," Robin nodded. "Come, comrade."

Dimitri rolled his eyes and glanced Jonas' way. "Last person to call me that was Pierre. I swear, the Jacobin victims are always so cynical." He and the Titan leader walked off.

"Raven....can I......I dunno....speak to you for a moment?" Cyborg asked, nervously scratching his neck.

"Why, sure thing Cyborg...hehehe...," Raven hooked her arm intimately around his. "Lead the way."

".................................ahem," Cyborg politely lead her down a wooden catwalk.

".......," I stood by myself. I glanced at Jonas.

Jonas smiled at me.

I simpered.....and wandered off by myself blindly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the end of a dark, subway hallway there was a vertical chamber of granite that stretched up beyond visible torchlight. A lone young man of pale complexion guarded a set of levers and mechanical equipment.

"Dimitri! Hail to thee!! Have you a lightsider?"

"Indeed, Nathan," Dimtri spoke as he alighted the square black platform of metal at the bottom of the chamber. He leaned on wrought-iron railings as Robin joined him. "We wish to scale the Tower. Who is up there now?"

"Ayane. She's been there the greater part of eight sandglasses."

"Heheheh......quite the trouper she is. Up with us, now, shall you?"

"Only glad to," Nathan pulled a switch.

CHTUNG!!!

CL-CLUNK!!!

VRMMMMMMM....

HTING-HTING-HTING!

The black elevator rattled and shook as it rolled its way up the black platform, carrying Robin and Dimitri. Tiny lanterns were lit every other twenty feet interval. Beams of dim light swam down the shapes of the two individuals.

"For dead people, you certainly are very......cheery," Robin commented.

"Heheheheh...," Dimitri pulled his flute out and polished it some more. "When you live in a world of pure darkness, you learn to make your own light. Consider—if you will—a creative mind with an infinitely clean slate."

"Hmmm....," Robin stroked his chin and smiled a bit. "You know...any single one of you Mortuana people would give the entire planet's philosphers a run for their money."

"Where you come from....I imagine...."

"Why, yes." A beat. Robin asked: "You think Earth philosophy doesn't work here?"

"Oh...it does...but there's a lot lost in the translation," Dimitri said.

"Like what?"

"Well...heart beat for one."

Dimitri laughed...and Robin found himself joining him.

"I'm.....I'm rather surprised...," the Boy Wonder managed to utter.

"At what?"

"If this is what death has in store for us......," the Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "....what is there for the lightsiders to worry about."

"Uh uh uh...," Dimitri shook his finger. "Do not be so quick to leap on upon death."

"Oh?"

Dimitri shook his head. "There is plenty......plenty to worry about....," he breathed. It was almost menacing.

Robin nodded with a sigh. He leaned back against the railings as the elevator rattled its way upward.

HTING-HTING-HTING!

"You are.....worried....," Dimitri uttered.

"I'm busy," Robin pointed at the hidden brain inside his skull as if that made everything obvious. "I've got a lot to be responsible for. Citizens. Teammates."

"Loved ones?"

"................," the Boy Wonder folded his arms and looked aside.

Dimitri leaned forward. "Tell me....who is it? Who has you so frightened on the inside—"

"Never you mind," Robin barked.

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Dimitri nearly dropped his flute.

Robin frowned.

Dimitri composed himself the best he could and said: "So much irony...it never fails to amuse me..."

"What do you mean?"

The pale mediator smiled. "I've been 'deceased' for well over six decades, and still I find that life has more secrets than death."

"..............."

The elevator rattled upwards and upwards....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The subway city was a busy and bustling place, full of wooden platforms and leather tents and flickering torches....not to mention mysteriously pale people of voluminous presence and population. And yet—someway—Cyborg and Raven had found a corner of the underground dwelling place away from everyone. They sauntered about in the shadows of an underground corner. Cyborg stood still against a wall while Raven paced energetically back and forth.

She rambled: "I...I-I just couldn't believe it. The timing and everything. These are my people. A-At least the closest I've met to 'my people' in ages. It's been so long since I left Azarath. With everything the Titans have dealt with, it's become more and more challenging to stay focused and meditate and feed off the words of the Book of Azar..."

"Rae....."

"And suddenly I feel the opportunity to simply let go. To shake off my repressions. To embrace that which I am and can be!"

"Rae.........."

"And now that I'm tasting of it...now that I'm happy for once...I can't figure out why I ever had to be the way that I was. I can't believe that I've been so cruel and cold and—"

"Rae!!"

Raven stopped. She spun about and faced Cyborg. An innocently curious look washed over her face.

Cyborg took a deep breath. "What did you come knocking on my door to say the other night?"

"...........," Raven's eyes fell to the floor. "I....I didn't knock on anybody's door..."

"But you tried to...," he slowly stepped towards her. "And you couldn't bring yourself to do it. You were trying to tell me something, weren't you...Raven?"

She bit her lip. "I......I wasn't getting much sleep that night."

"But why, Rae?"

"It is not important."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Would you have shared it with me if it were important?"

"Maybe...."

"Because you shared it with Noir."

A pause.

Raven turned and looked at Cyborg strangely.

He avoided her gaze.

She slowly stepped towards him. "Cyborg...," she inquired softly. "Are you.....Wh-what are you trying to say?"

"I just....I just don't understand...," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "You were troubled by something the other night. But you couldn't bring yourself to share it with me. But you could share it with Noir....at least somewhat..."

"Who said I was 'troubled'?" she giggled. A beat. "And who said I shared any of it with Noir? What's the point??"

"The point is, Raven....is that I've clearly let you know in the past that....th-that if you needed anything, we'd be there for you—"

"And I know that."

"But I want to be there for you, Raven!" Cyborg said. A beat. He shook his head and waved his hands. "S-Sorry....that must sound really selfish. I.....I-I don't know why I'm making such a big deal out of it. Everything is going all wyrd and you.....and you...."

"What about me?" she asked.

"You're so different now...," he sighed.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I.....I don't know."

"But what do you _feel_, Cyborg?"

Cyborg blinked. "Huh?"

"Is the question too vague for you?"

"No....i-it's just that...."

"What?"

A beat.

"Since when was 'feeling' more important an issue than 'thinking'?" Cyborg asked. He pointed. "You're the rational type, Raven. You've always been. It's part of your nature. And now—with Jonas and Mortuana and this whole damn-confusing 'consumption' business...you've been tossing all of that into the wind. And so suddenly, too. Doesn't that strike you as just the least bit impulsive?"

"I may be happy now, Cyborg," Raven smiled. "But I am not impulsive."

"Raven...--"

"If I was impulsive, I would have let my fingers knock on your door," she said firmly.

Cyborg winced at that.

A beat.

Raven sighed and ran a hand through her blue hair. "I-I'm sorry....I wish I could lay all of this out for you clearly, Cyborg. It's so hard getting used to emotions. Even though I'm doing them one at a time...it's still hard. M-Maybe I am not the normal Raven you know. But then again....I don't think I was ever the aware of who I was to 'know' in the first place." Her eyes were round and glistening as she said: "I only wish to find out—once and for all—who and what I really am. Naked, deep down, beneath the curses and supernatural powers and everything. I want to know _Raven_. Even as much as you want to know her, Cyborg. When Mumbo Jumbo split me apart with his camera, I got a tiny glimpse. But that was at the expense of you and Noir and all of my other friends. Now I finally have the chance—without any lateral threats—to explore myself fully. Think of it this way, Cyborg. If you were given the chance to become human again...and start everything from the beginning in a fresh, fleshly manner...would you not leap upon the opportunity?"

He shifted nervously.

Raven blinked. "You wouldn't?"

"I-I dunno...," Cyborg uttered. "I know that I would give anything to be the way I was again. But also...," and his gaze was firm upon her as he aid this: "...I know that because of what I am, I have had the blessed opportunity to save many people, to meet the Titans, and.....and to meet you Raven...."

Raven took a deep breath. "You....You do not believe I am making wise decisions?"

"I can never dictate to you, Raven," Cyborg said. He sighed. "And lord knows...I've done a lot of that. And each time I've tried to help you out and give you suggestions as to how to blend in with us and be an emotionally well-rounded person...you keep surprising me more and more with the depth of your character and the complexity of who you are and......" A beat. "Heh.....I-I'm not worthy. That's all. I'm simply....n-not worthy...."

A beat.

Raven walked over and leaned against a dark wall. She sighed.

Cyborg looked at her in melancholy.

She managed a brave smile and said: "I suppose I was foolish...no matter how rational I assumed myself to be. I went to Noir instead of you, Cyborg. I went to him because I knew....I knew he wouldn't jump all over me at what I was tempted to tell him. At what I was tempted to tell anyone. And yet...I never did tell it. Noir failed to hear what you failed to hear. There's nothing to be jealous of."

"I'm....not....jealous...," Cyborg walked to the back of her. "I'm concerned, Raven. I'm concerned about whatever it was that tore at your soul the other night. I'm concerned as to why it was so intense that you wanted to share it with me so much that you _couldn't_...." He gently rested a hand on her shoulder. She didn't resist his touch. "I'm your friend, Raven. You don't have to tell me anything. But I would love to help out....in any way that I can."

"...........," Raven glanced back at him. "You can know, Cyborg. You can know...."

He stood still.

She slowly turned about and hugged herself, deadpan. She resembled the common Raven for a moment or two there. "Last night.....l-last night I had a flashback. You were right in thinking I've been gloomy lately, for indeed a lot has been on my mind."

"Tempest's situation with Slizzath?" Cyborg asked.

"More or less...," she bit her lip. "Atlantis wasn't the first time I've seen a demon take lives away."

"......," Cyborg listened quietly.

Raven breathed: "Trigon has already struck in my life....." A beat. "For he had invaded Azarath when I was barely five..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_SLASH!!!!_

"AAAAAUGH!!!!"

_**"Hahahaha!! Give me your entrailssss!! Give me your bleeding pulp!!! You wastes of FLESH!!!"**___

People screaming. Torsos rolling back and forth on the stone steps. Arms twitching.

Bloody rags hanging over the antlers as streams fly with the swiping claws.

"NNGHH!!!"

"SNKKTKAAAAAAAUGH!!!"

_**"Give yourselves UNTO ME!!!! INFIDELS!!!!!"**___

A river of blood forming around the temple.

A black sphere.

A little girl in an elder's arms.

Screaming inside like a cracked lobster.

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He tore bodies apart and ate Azarathians alive," Raven softly explained. "He killed everyone in the dimension. Every follower of the Book, he turned extinct. Soon, there were only two left. Myself...and Azar, the last elder. Trigon had destroyed my world and my people....._and he only did it as a 'test'."_

Cyborg's lips parted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_The girl sobbed._

Inside the sphere, the old woman held her close.

"_**Heh heh heh heh heh........."**_

_The demon chuckled outside._

His red aura was fading.

He was slowly leaving.

But his voice remained over the blood-stained landscape.

"_**I will be back for you, daughter.......and I will not be so 'merciful'."**_

_  
Sobs._

Shaking.

Shivering.....

"_**For you shall always be mine. As long as you live, my blood pumps through you. Someday...I will consume you as I consumed your mother and we....will...be....one......."**___

Red fading to darkness.

A face buried into a wrinkled shoulder.

"Mommy............"

Sobs.

Wails.

"Mommmmmmmmmmmy!!!"

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"From very young....I knew that the horror I had faced was only a taste of what was to come. I was tainted from birth with Trigon's blood. One day he would rise up to consume me...and my flesh would make manifest his power in any dimension he chose. And he chose Earth."

Raven took a deep breath. She smiled awkwardly as she continued:

"Azar knew this. And—as the last surviving practioner of Azarathan teachings, she taught me to repress my emotions. Especially Rage. For Trigon had selected Rage to be the trigger for his powers within me. He killed my people...he killed my elders...a-and he killed my mother so that Rage would consume me."

A beat.

"And all this time, it hasn't," she spoke. "It's had its surfacings....with Dr. Light and with Mumbo Jumbo....but I've survived this long. But....but I knew that—as much as I have to deal with my own pain—I could not deal with Trigon alone. Yes, he is my responsibility. But if Trigon was to get loose, I needed people that I could trust to end him." A beat. She blinked. "By ending me."

Cyborg's fists clenched. "Raven....how could we ever 'end you'?? We're your friends."

"I know," she nodded. "As distant as I've tried to be....," her eyes darted aside. "I've let myself become.....close."

A beat.

She ran a nervous hand through her blue strands. "I almost gave in with Noir. Y-You were right. I....I did feel a connection to him. As much as I tried to deny it, he meant a lot to me. But after Slade was defeated, I made the choice to distance myself from him. Because I knew that getting too close would not only be a bad thing for me and my unpredictable emotions....but I couldn't let someone like Noir hesitate to deal with me in the long run when I might become uncontrollable. And after I distanced myself from him....."

Cyborg folded his arms and looked aside. He grumbled: "I-I tried to comfort you...."

Pure silence.

Raven took a shuddering breath. But she smiled and leaned against Cyborg. "But don't you see, Cyborg?"

He looked at her depressingly.

She swallowed and uttered: "The pressure doesn't have to be on my friends anymore. I......I can change. Just like you've insisted in the past, I can change for once, Cyborg."

"But it has never been your desire to change, Raven," Cyborg said. "I've found that out. And I respect it—"

"And I respect you," Raven insisted. "And all of you. And I'm not going to let you worry about me anymore."

"Raven, we haven't—"

"Yes you have. You've insisted upon it yourself!" she cackled. "You and the other Titans care about me!!!"

Cyborg looked away.

Silence.

Raven hung her head. "I....I take responsibility for my own actions. And that includes what I'm doing now." She looked up again and smiled. "The consumption shall continue. And I shall deal with my past and pains as I see fit. And eventually, Rage itself will collapse and become a thing of yesterday for me. All that matters now is the present....for now I am ready to deal with the past."

"How, Raven?" Cyborg asked.

She inhaled. "Jonas....h-has promised to remove the barrier to my sorrow next....I will learn to cry...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

HTING-HTING-HTING!

WHURRRRRRRR!!!!

CLTUNG!!!!

"We're here...," Dimitri smiled.

Creeeeeeak.

He opened a gate surrounding where the black platform had ascended. He and Robin walked out of the chamber and through a torch-lit passageway. Wooden steps were erected and wound up along the outside of the tower's summit. There were no handrails on the edge, and Robin had to rely on balance as he slowly followed the casual Dimitri up, up, up the winding planks around the edge of the spire. They reached the top, which was a circular metal ring propped up atop a glass peak with metal, skeletonous supports that formed the peak of the building. Robin gazed at what looked like faded and crumbling satellite dishes on either side of him.

"............," the Boy Wonder's lips pouted. "This is Kobayashi Tower....."

"Is that what you lightsiders call it??" Dimitri chuckled. "Well, it serves us quite well. Doesn't it, Ayane?"

Robin became aware of a dark haired watchgirl standing on the edge of the metal ring. She was staring out with a telescope at the pitch black landscape....as if she could see something. At the sound of Dimitri's voice, she gazed the two boy's way with pale-white almond eyes. "I can't complain, that's for sure."

Robin's insides jumped at her optics. He managed to hold himself and say: "What are you looking for?"

"Dark auras."

"Dark?"

"Darker than 'dark'," she uttered as she gazed out the telescope again. "My eyes are trained for it. I can see well beyond the supposed 'dome' that the Grand Mediator has spoken about. I honestly do not know how the light side of the world could segment a portion of our dimension off and yet manage to keep itself intact on the 'outside'. I suppose life—and death—is full of surprises."

"If you can see into the darkness...," Robin walked up behind her. "Maybe you've seen signs of the very same people I'm trying to save."

"It depends," she shrugged as she gazed out expertly. For such a height as the top of Kobayashi Tower, the dark air was eerily calm and void of wind. "I've been seeing a lot of things lately. Bright bodies wandering in the darkness. Their movements erratic and frightened. Indeed, I must be seeing strangers to this obsidian place."

Robin stepped forward and firmly muttered: "Where?"

Ayane pointed a pale finger. "Northwest. Seven blocks away. The central station of the L-Train track." She turned and pointed elsewhere in the pure darkness. "Due west...the Downtown canal." Another turn and pointing of the finger. "And—of course—east northeast."

"What do you mean 'of course'??" Robin asked with curiosity.

"That's where the Pit is," Ayane smirked.

"Yeah....has it gotten any bigger, by the way?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh, it's always getting bigger. But it hasn't consumed all of the Library yet."

"Why's there a pit in the Downtown Library?" Robin asked.

Ayane looked Dimitri's way.

"Simple...," smirked the flutist/mediator. "That's where the Lich is."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I took a deep breath as I strolled across the wooden platforms.

I turned my head and gazed with black eyes at some of the dwelling places that I passed by.

Men, women, children....families and loners alike....

People gathered all about their homes. Some with fires, cooking pots, pipes and cigars.

Women on old fashioned rocking chairs.

Men teaching their sons how to hold and use archaic tools.

My eyes narrowed.

_How can families exist in the land of the dead?_

Perhaps they died and were extracted together?

Maybe the dead are capable of.........m-making more dead......

I shuddered and tried not to show it.

I passed by a gaggle of girls. They sat in wilted skirts of brown and red patchwork. They looked up from where they were making a quilt and seemed to smile bashfully at the sight of me. Their pale complexions reddened a bit and they hid their faces behind their hair.

I simpered.

_Not too bad......for dead chicks......_

I decided quickly to relocate myself. I found a ramp leading up to a lone platform where no immediate tent or shack was erected. The nearest torch was well over twenty feet away. In the darkness of the wooden floor, a chair rested.

_Must be a thinking spot......_

So I walked over, leaned against a wooden railing, stared down at the multi-tiered city...

And thought.

The lonely tranquility didn't last too long. Not that I was one to complain....

Adult footsteps shuffled to a stand-still behind me.

A beat.

Jonas' voice: "You are built for the land of the dead....are you not?"

"............," I slowly spun around and gazed at him. His pale image reflected off my pure, black cornea.

He gazed at my eyes with interest. He said: "Ayane has a gift much like yours. She can sense things in the dark. But she can sense them from a long distance visually. You—on the other hand—you can sense things without having to use your eyes...can you?"

I narrowed my optics in question....suspiciously.

"Heheheh....do not mind me...," he uttered. "Many of the mediators out on patrol have taken notice of yours and Cyborg's journey. Believe me when I tell you that we would have gladly sent our qualified individuals in to consume the poltergeists you ran into ahead of time—only, we could not accurately predict where you two were going and why you were making such hurried movement. That—and—the poltergeists you encountered were actually quite weak in comparison to those whim the mediators were charged with consuming today. It would not have been easy to call them off. But by the time you ran into the banshee...Dimitri, Victor, and Raphael were well on their way."

I nodded. I smiled as if to say 'thanks'.

"And this brings up an interesting point....," uttered Jonas. He paced around me.

I eyed him.

He leaned on the railing beside me and said: "Those that did keep an close watch on you and Cyborg...they mentioned something interesting. Especially Victor and Raphael." He leaned his head to the side. He uttered with a curious smile: "You....have been consuming monsters yourself, haven't you?"

"......," I slowly nodded. I didn't know how else to respond.

_I consumed them......_

"On more than one occasion, in fact...," Jonas uttered. "Without any prior experience. How fitting—hehehehe—that you would also happen to be such a close ally to Raven."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You are indeed more fit for this world than you give yourself credit, I imagine," Jonas said. He gestured: "To be able to consume death....to be able to relinquish the power of such spirits that you encountered....it means something? Doesn't it??"

I looked confused.

"But surely you understand," Jonas said. "Before Dimitri died, he murdered two of the Soviet guards slaughtering his family. And after I was tortured in a British prison cell, I managed to stab one of the guards to death. This is something I cannot deny."

"............," I glanced away....then back at him.

He leaned forward. "Mediators.....can accomplish the consumption of the dead....because of _experience_." The way he smiled made me want to punch his face in. "You have dealt with death before, have you not, Mr. Titan? Most likely you have caused death on more than one occasion...."

My fists clenched.

I took a deep, fuming breath.

My black eyes were menacing for a moment...then softened.

I exhaled....

".......," Jonas blinked. He uttered with bleeding admiration: "You exhibit great....great control, Mr. Titan. It.......it amazes me." A beat. He glanced at Myrkblade. "For someone with so much destruction." A beat. He glanced back at my face. "So much that you're trying in vain to forget."

I closed my eyes. I sighed. I reopened them and did my best—in whatever polite way that I could—to express my deepest desire to be _alone_.

And as I expected, the Mortuanan Empath sensed it.

"I am not one to pry," he said. "I merely wish you to know that.......you display a unique sense of bravery with how you've been approaching these poltergeists. And if you so desired...my people and I can help you learn how to master that art, whether or not you're a lightsider. But—of course—the final decision would be totally up to you, as it is similarly up to the duaghter of the sacred mother. For we do not force people to grasp our ways...we merely invite them."

I wasn't looking at him anymore.

Jonas got the point. He slowly walked away...but not without pausing at least once to say: "One piece of advice, Mr. Titan. Your friends....the same friends that you fight with..................Do not be so worrisome for their safety." He glanced back at me and smiled gently. "Of all that they face...the least danger they'll ever have to worry about is you."

And he was gone.

I took a shuddering breath and ran a metal hand over my face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you sense at the L-Train station?" Robin asked.

"It is hard to say," Ayane spoke as she gazed through the telescope. "I've seen what seems to be a new creature."

"A poltergeist?" Dimitri stepped over.

Ayane shook her head. "Inconclusive. It keeps flying back and forth from random parts of the city and the L-Train station. It'd make sense if it was a poltergeist. Then the L-Train station would be its haunting. But there is much speculation leftover..."

Robin rubbed his chin in thought. "And what of the man-made canal? Doesn't that lead into the sewers?"

"Indeed."

"Does that place have a haunt?" Robin asked.

"Indeed. We erected the plaque their as fair warning," Ayane explained. "Similar to how all the other plaques were set up."

"And just what is the poltergeist of the sewers?"

"Why...it's the Bon—"

Suddenly....

A speck of light.

Robin saw it.

"!!!!" he leaned over an edge of the metal ring and leaned forward, staring out into the black mess. "Did you see that?"

Ayane rubbed her eyes. "I do believe so, yes...," she winced.

"Was that a......l-light?" Dimitri's face contorted.

"Far stronger an aura than any of the flashlights your Titan friends were using," Ayane said to Robin. "Perhaps it's—HEY!!"

Robin had snatched her telescope away from her. The Boy Wonder gazed through it towards an area to the North of the Kobayashi Tower.

".................," Robin stared.

He pointed the telescope around somewhat.

"................."

Nothing......

Nothing......

Nothing.......

................a light.

Robin gasped.

_A green light......_

Robin's eyemask widened.

He lowered the telescope somewhat.

"Star......"

Dimitri blinked. "Star??"

"Starfire....she's out there!" Robin exclaimed. He clenched his teeth. "I'm going. Now."

"But....Mr. Robin...," Dimitri emphatically gestured as the Boy Wonder stomped towards the wooden spiral of stairs. "That light could mean anything!"

"Then I'll find out."

"It could be a poltergeist trying to lure you or your friends in—"

Robin came to a stop and spun around frowning. "I know what it means to take risks. If necessary, I'll go there alone. Cyborg and Noir can check out the L-Train station or sewers. I need...to get...to that light..."

"Then at least let me go with you," Dimitri said as he showed off the flute. "Raphael, Victor, and I....we are especially trained to consume these spirits. If you wish to find your 'Starfire' before the time limit, our assistance shall be crucial."

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "Wait a damned minute....'time limit'??? What the hell is this about a 'time limit'?"

Ayane gasped. "You mean....you don't know??"

"No, I don't know!!" Robin barked. "What am I supposed to know?!?!"

Dimitri took a deep breath and calmly spoke: "It's the 'dome' of darkness that you and the other lightsiders perceive," the young man explained. "There's something about it Ayane has taken notice of and has long since alerted the Grand Mediator Jonas about."

"And what's that???" Robin asked suspiciously.

"The dome...," Ayane gestured. "It's _collapsing_."


	136. Mortuana part 5

**136. Mortuana part 5**

"_What is it that drives people to save their friends by—in essence—giving up on them?"_

The man asks this of the crowd.

The gothic onlookers mutter about themselves. They shift uncomfortably around the fire.

The violins and flute spin around each other and then rise as one dancing melody.

The storyteller smiles and goes on: "Perhaps that is a question not meant to be answered. But then again, should it be asked of to begin with? The heroes—venturing as far as they could into the land of Mortuana—found themselves reunited with their ally, the sacred daughter. And yet their next course of action was to seek out the safety of others ahead of her. Why? Perhaps it was because she had made a decision to change herself.........and soon she would no longer be the friend that they once knew........."

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"Cyborg!!"

The android Titan stood alone behind a busy bazaar full of Mortuanans. He glanced over from where he somberly had his arms folded as the Boy Wonder ran up.

Robin came to a stop, panting. "I'm going out into the City! I think I know where Starfire is!"

"Yeah?" Cyborg asked boredly. "Where at?"

Dimitri ran up, along with Victor and Raphael. "Ayane the Tower guard thinks your alien friend is in the 'shopping mall' as you lightsiders call it. It's a large structure with two floors, a basement level, and multiple chambers with wide acrea—"

"Yeah, yeah," Cyborg waved a numb hand. "Just keep safe, okay?"

Robin's eyemask went crooked. "Cyborg...is something wrong?"

"I'm just chilling I guess....," Cyborg sighed. A beat. He glanced Robin's way. "Do you need help with Starfire, man?"

"I think I can handle it," Robin said. "I just found out that we only have a limited time to get everyone out of Mortuana."

"How's that?"

"The dome of darkness that Dr. Light created...," Dimitri explained. "The 'doorway' from the light side into Mortuana....it is collapsing."

"You don't say...."

"It may only be a matter of hours."

"And we have to get the citizens and our teammates out _now!_" Robin pounded his fist. "I'm going to check on Starfire." He pointed a firm, gloved hand. "You, Noir, and Raven explore the central water canals. We'll rejoin later and inspect the L-Train Station."

Cyborg sighed bitterly. "Raven ain't going with us."

Dimitri and his guardians shifted uncontrollably.

Robin leaned his hand to his side. "What do you mean?"

"You heard me, man," Cyborg grumbled. "She's too busy with her....'emotion consumptiong' thingy........She's decided to stay here in this City. Besides, I hardly think she's in the condition to help us out right now."

"Understood," Robin impatiently nodded. "Then you and Noir tackle the canal. Just make sure word gets to Raven about the inevitable collapse of this crazy place!! I want to go to sleep tonight with the satisfaction of having saved everyone, Cyborg. _Everyone._"

"Go get Star, man....," Cyborg sighed. "Noir and I will handle the rest."

"......................," Robin stared at Cyborg for a few naked seconds....but eventually shook it off. "Come on, Dimitri. Let's haul ass."

"Is that the lightside way of saying 'wheelbarrow corpses'?"

Vincent and Raphael laughed.

Robin groaned. "Teach me your undead inside jokes another time. Let's move!!"

The four scurried out of the city. A few darkly-dressed citizens watched with curiosity, their heads turning.

Cyborg stood still as a statue. After a beat he sighed and forced himself to walk across the center of the City.

Looking for his partner.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Raven....," Jonas paced around the girl who sat—legs crossed—in the center of the tent. "...I must ask you again—for ritual's sake if anything." He came to a stop, knelt down, and looked her gently in the eyes. "Do you truly desire to go through with this?"

The girl took a deep breath. She smiled, her eyes gently closed. She uttered: "Jonas....from the moment I came to Mortuana...I felt the same air that once flowed through my lungs in Azarath. It was refreshing...but not deceptive. As much as it could have been a catalyst, it was also a warning sign. A warning sign that my life can be freed from the bonds I have forced upon myself in desperation to counterract the evil of Trigon. Now that Trigon cannot detect me—as I am between dimensions—it would be a tragedy for me to not take advantage of the sudden gifts within reach. I would very much like to go on with this consumption. I desire to proceed with the unveiling of my sorrow. It is the necessary next step. Happiness......H-Happiness has well prepared me for what is about to come."

Jonas inhaled. He smiled respectfully. "I am not one to contradict the daughter of the sacred Arella." He drifted two hands out and framed the girl's temples. Gently. "I shall do that which is required of me. I shall assist in your freedom...."

Raven smiled one last, happy time....and proceeded to meditate.

The very beginning of the process paved a way for itself silently.

Outside of the Grand Mediator's tent, a tall and dark figure with black eyes watched silently.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

".................," I gazed past the line of guardians at the two figures kneeling inside the tent. The tent flap was closed by two other mediators inside the leather structure.

I took a shuddering breath and walked off.

I hung my arms behind my pale white jumpsuit.

I stared at the floor.

The chill kept bothering me that day. My metal left arm would give me no rest. It was trying to tell me something in temperature fluctuations across my nervous system.

Jonas' words during the last time we conversed were circling through my head. I kept reminding myself that—_these people aren't your usual natives. They can sense stuff. They can sense the dead......_

I took a shuddering breath and bit my lips.

A pale white wisp was born and was killed in a blink of my black eyes.

_They can sense......they can sense my past........._

I walked over to a shadowed section of subway floor beneath a dusty wooden scaffold. I leaned weakly against a wall and sighed.

_I don't want to be here anymore._

I want to go home.

I want to go home.

A strange thought ricocheted through my head.

It nearly startled me.

_The Tower?_

B-But of course the Tower.

I mean.........wh-where have I been living for the last four or five months???

A strange, eerie need to chuckle rose through me.

I resisted with a sigh.

_God I hope the others are okay........._

"Noir...."

I swiveled around.

Cyborg towered above me. He looked more granite than metal. His dark face had sunk. "We gotta get moving."

I blinked my black eyes. Just one sight of his expression and I completely forgot about myself. I hand-signed with concern: _'You okay?'_

"I'm impatient. Now get your ass moving," he grunted. "Leave it to Robin to crack the whip. We have a sewer entrance to go visit. Come on."

I shrugged, sighed, and stumbled after him.

Under the gaze of everyone—and no one—in particular, we left the underground city of torchlight....stepping out into the cold murk that was Mortuana above ground. Living dead air.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven bit her lip.

Jonas paused in the middle of his incantations. He leaned over a ring of freshly-lit candles. "Miss Raven....do you wish to discontinue?"

"I uhm.......," the dark girl blinked. She shook her head. "S-Sorry. I just......I-I just needed to find my center, that's all."

"I understand."

"Please....," Raven took a brave breath...reset her lotus position...and closed her eyes. "....let us continue...."

Jonas nodded. Other mediators hummed meditatively in the background as the leader of the Mortuanan city chanted boldly into the magical winds of the colorfully lit ring of candles:

"_Ady-tum tasdrag'm-tinglo nikpon skye_," the pale man's lips slurred like silver blood across a granite surface. His fingers folded into gracefully mysterious positions as he raised his limbs into the thin air and proceeded: "_Bran'wyn khak zodafir'm v'tispira skwall udimp brasbane_."

The colors of the candles comingled in the air and fluctuated from red to yellow to green to blue and to oblivion. A black mist filled the air as utter darkness manifested itself in obsidian purity. A halo of onyx circled around Raven.

She breathed calmly, her bangs dancing in a magical wind.

The room turned cold.

Mist poured out of Jonas' mouth as the mediator raised his voice to complete the spell:

"_Chu-monke inu elsa'm faindar idla'm nimr blaaksyd!! Hamdyd ophel drk'n itsa hocare screble unowscen!!_" he unfolded his fingers and held his palms out—the seams glowing. "_**Sora ranrog belgron!!"**_

FLASH!!!

A bubble of blackness exploded outward from the center of the air between Raven and Jonas.

The dark girl gasped uncontrollably.

The warmth in her eyes dilated into little black dots.

Icy blue things started dripping down from the leather of the tent's 'ceiling'.

She expected this.

And all it took was for Jonas to lean over, pierce through the obsidian halo, and gently grip the sides of Raven's face to seal the pact. He opened his mouth, sucked the dark energy out of her soul, and consumed the barrier.

Raven twitched.

She fell into a deep and inexplorable pit.

And the worst thing she could ever imagined happened....just as she meant it to.

She was eternally.....alone....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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_The dark sphere dropped._

A little girl fell to her knees.

Nude......pale......shivering......

The steps of the Temple of Azarath led down into a sea of red.

Beyond that stretched an ugly blackness.

A sky frowned without a face.

And then the personality in everything faded away to an infinite staleness.

And all the shivering soul could hear was the echoes of her panting breath into the opaque soup.

Her violet eyes teared.

"M-Mommy............"

Silence.

Cold marble steps.

The red lake began to recede.

A pit of obsidian yawned hungrily into eternity.

Gravity stung at the girl's joints.

They pulled her down the stairs.

The world tumbling.

No pain......just numbness.

The girl's limbs fell apart.

The naked skin peeled away, leaving a tumbling red mass of a heart rolling one or two last times before coldly plopping into the obsidian abyss.

Without so much as a whistle.........

"_Mommy............"_

_Somewhere beyond the stained marble of Azarathian blood an invisible ice pick flew like a tomahawk missile and skewered the plunging heart in mid fall._

_But there was no red juice left._

"Mommy.........why did you want me to die when I was born??"

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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the middle of marching down the street, I paused.

I turned slowly and gazed more or less in the direction of the city from which we ascended.

Cyborg stopped beside me. "What's up, man?"

".........," I blinked my black eyes. I sighed, turned back, and walked on forward.

Cyborg quietly joined me.

We meandered through dripping-black avenues and alleyways, trying to find the canal hidden behind the medium-sized buildings of the Downtown region. Cyborg and I truly had this City memorized, but the absolute blackness was confusing...even for me. I recognized everything immediately as soon as we walked upon it. But the lack of peripheral vision or far-sight threw us off balance. And—besides—it was not everyday that we sought to walk into the City's underground waterways.

Cyborg was surprisingly mute the entire time. That, of course, wasn't too unusual. Our trek through 'Mortuana' earlier that day was something of the quiet sort. But there was something discernibly moody about my android friend. An issue beyond that of simple fear or apprehension was seemingly vexing his person. I had many guesses as to what the issue or issues could be, but I wasn't one to pry. It's hard to be very inquisitive around your friends when most of them can't even understand what you're trying to 'say'. And at that moment, Cyborg's hands fell limply by his side.

"................," I sighed and silently lead the way. My naked eyes pierced into the wave of darkness and spotted obstructions and twists in the path ahead of time. Soon we were traversing a narrow walkway behind lower skyscrapers. Trashed alleyways and avenues yawned before us in the darkness. Cyborg's shoulder light bounced from behind me, casting a Noir-shaped shadow across the dismal walls.

At some point, the light behind me visibly slacked.

"???" I slowly turned and looked over my shoulder.

Cyborg was slowing. His electronic gaze fell to the passing ground beneath his feet.

"....."

I slowed down too.

He didn't notice until he nearly bumped into me.

"Hmmm?" he looked up.

I blinked patiently at him.

"What now?"

I hand-signed: _'A very good question'_.

Cyborg sighed. "Let's just.....rest a moment."

_Rest??_

But he leaned against a wall and folded his arms.

I shrugged and leaned against a nearby metal fence. I couldn't help but hand-sign something of valid importance.

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "I know what Robin told me, Noir," he grunted. "So what if the black dome is collapsing? The whole damn universe is collapsing. We should just get used to it.....or something."

I raised an eyebrow. Half humored and half annoyed.

Cyborg gave me a look. He finally uttered: "I'm worried about Raven."

I nodded slowly.

He glanced off into the darkness....made doubly dark by the claustrophobic alley walls around us and his downward-tilted shoulderlight. "She....she truly seems intent on letting these Azarathan-Separatist-Folks strip her of all her emotional resistance. And I bet you and I think that's cool and all....but it's all happening so suddenly! I mean...one moment she and I were spending a quiet evening out at her favorite poetry café, then the next moment I know she's letting herself get reprogrammed and stuff. And all following Dr. Light's attack and this Mortuana dimension explosion/implosion thingy and....and...."

He half gestured to say something else, stalled, and sighed.

A beat.

"I guess I am jealous...," Cyborg said. He chuckled a bit. "But not for what Raven thinks." He smiled exhaustingly at me. "She thinks I'm jealous of you, Noir."

I blinked.

"Don't ask me what makes her think that. I am jealous of her. But it's not about you," Cyborg said. He glanced off and inhaled. "I'm jealous of Raven.....I-I'm jealous of Raven because of the mystery that she simply _is._ D-Does that make any sense?" He looked at me again and absent-mindedly rubbed the human part of his head. "There's so many secrets encased in her past—both painful and wonderful—and for the life of me I can't unfold them from her. N-Not that it's my privilege to know exactly everything that makes her naked soul tick.......b-but I want so much to make her—I dunno—happy? Accepted? Warm, even?" A beat. He brought a metal hand over his face. "Gawd...listen to me. I can't believe I'm saying all of this. I'm.....I-I'm just kicking a stone, that's all...."

I leaned my head to the side. In some way or another, I was always playing 'listener' or 'counselor' to Titans and other people. But I never minded with Cyborg.

Not one bit.

He eventually went on: "I started talking to Raven a lot....a-after the Wyldecarde incident, Noir...." He frankly spat out.

I nodded solemnly.

"I don't know all of what Raven told you about herself in those days...but she blames herself for much of what happened before and after we fought Slade for the last time. She's mad at herself that Trigon ever possessed you. And she thinks she somehow played a part in our distrust of you. But both you and I know the t-truth of that, Noir. All of us did you wrong in that day and age. We were so susceptible to Slade's and Dagger's trickery."

I took a deep breath, absent-mindedly fingering the base of my metal prosthetic.

"Anyways....Raven was just about to completely abandon being close to anyone. Period," Cyborg said. "And I saw this. And I couldn't let her.....p-punish herself in that way. When you were playing the Wyldecarde, Raven did an unprecedented thing. She talked confidently with me. She shared her feelings...her fears. You were gone, Noir. The Titans had pushed you away and Raven no longer had her silent acquaintance to simply....'exist' alongside. To share oxygen with. To not make her feel awkward for her eccentricities. Did you know you were the first Titan to truly do that, Noir? You accepted her for who she was by doing that which you do best."

I started to shift uncomfortably.

Cyborg realized that was a cue to take the focus off of me. So he complied. "I....I sought out to keep Raven from punishing herself with lonely reclusion, I guess. At first, I just teased her as always. But then when I kept pressing on her, that teasing turned into advice. And soon I was....I was dictating to her. It was pathetic, I know. But at least I was making her think of stuff. And I couldn't stop....because I realized more and more just how complex and curious a person Raven is. And soon she started coming to me even. And she didn't hate it when we talked or hung out or....or whatever. Even though I felt that everything I've ever said or suggested fell on deaf ears, I sensed a connection between us. And that made me think that—perhaps in some way or another—I was helping her. She never truly shut herself off. And today, Raven's almost as warm and lively a Titan as the rest of us...a-at least in my eyes."

Silence ensued for a split moment.

Then Cyborg sighed. "I know Raven is more than I could ever imagine her to be. And I know that her character is far more worthwhile than something to be analyzed or 'counseled' by whatever pathetic friendship I may offer. But....but I feel hurt, Noir. I feel hurt because....after all these months of getting to know her...she's suddenly and explosively getting a life-changing inspiration by a group of undead _strangers_. Oh sure...they're more or less related to her dead people...but how can she just....how can she let everything change overnight? Doesn't she think that her friends may about her? They might miss the Raven they knew or....or was getting to know?"

I stroked my metal arm and gazed toward the floor.

".........," Cyborg smiled painfully. "You don't care, do you, Noir?"

I looked up at him, surprised.

He waved a hand. "No-no...I-I don't mean that in a bad way. I j-just mean.........," he blinked, "........you'd let Raven do whatever she wants, wouldn't you?"

"........."

"Because.....b-because we should trust Raven....," Cyborg was more looking _through_ me as he spoke to himself. "...we should trust Raven to do what's best for _Raven_."

Silence.

"Maybe I am jealous of you...," Cyborg stroked his head and looked off down the pitch-black alleyway. "...I wish I could have the capacity to....leave people to their own devices. But look at me..." He raised his metal limbs. "I can't understand life without some sort of facilitation." He glanced my way with a red eye. "People can only help themselves so much...and then they might end up hurting their own bodies or souls in the end. And what kind of a person....wh-what kind of a _friend_ would I be to just stand by and let that sort of stuff happen?"

".........," I looked down at the metal arm attached to my limb.

For a split second, both of us were emphasizing our artificial parts at the same time.

Click!

Hissssssssss....

I winced at the chill that ran through my body. I detached my left forearm and raised it for Cyborg to see.

A beat.

Cyborg took a breath. "I guess.....sometimes for the good of our friends, it's not pieces of ourselves that we sacrifice, is it Noir?"

I slowly nodded.

Cyborg gazed toward the ground and muttered: "Sometimes we must sacrifice our friends themselves?"

_Now that's not always true._

But............Raven.........

.........

CL-CHTUNG!!

CLICK!

I reattached my limb, biting my lip.

Suffering the chill.....

_It occurred to me that this was all new to Cyborg. He was the same age as me—if not older—but only now was he dealing with it._

I looked at the android. I saw the sagging of his Titanium soldiers. The volume of his sighs.

_Some people are just meant to ride life alone. Whether it be because of harm......death......or selfishness._

I flexed my flesh and metal knuckles....and sighed.

_I'd already dealt with that twice in my life. The first was way back West. The last was on a boardwalk stretching into the East._

And now...funnily enough...I had my heart set upon the Continent's center.

I absent-mindedly rubbed my forehead with a tired exhale.

_I shouldn't be hard on Cyborg. He's not alone. Most people never learn from anything anyways......._

"Well....since the universe is collapsing," he put on a brave smile. It didn't last long. "I guess we better haul-ass to the sewers. Robin says a guard in the Mortuana tower spotted signs of human activity here. I'd say that's worth checking out." He walked ahead with his floodlight shimmering across the back alleyway. He said: "Of course...it'd help if the Mortuanans were as supportive of us as they've 'been' to Raven. We could sure use one of them flute-playing exorcists pretty soon, I bet."

I cracked my knuckles and gripped the hilt of Myrkblade as I silently followed behind him.

_Don't worry._

Jonas sent one......

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

"This is it??"

Dimitri and his two guardians flanked the Boy Wonder.

All four peered across a sudden ravine of blackness. An island of shattered asphalt formed, surrounded by an eerie dark moat that shouldn't have been there. The moat shouldn't have been there because the Downtown Shopping Mall didn't have a ravine built around it. At least....not in the world of light.

The architecture of the commercial structure that Robin memorized was gone. In its place was a collapsing mimicry of rusted-red metal and shifting dust. Barbed wire and rickety planks of iron and tin and copper replaced the walls and floors of what would normally have been the City's finest display of retail. In fact—upon close examination—Robin could swear that the ravine cut around the mall was simply a pit and the shopping plaza itself was nothing more than rusted platforms floating precariously over an endless, obsidian expanse.

"This is where you saw the green light from the Tower," Dimitri said. "There's no mistaking it. This is where Ayane suggested we go."

"But there has to be some mistake...."

"No mistake, my bleeding friend. This is the place. It's only fair to say it doesn't resemble that which you're used to."

Robin glared his way. "You think????"

"The poltergeist here is exceptionally strong. Nothing like the Lich and his Pit, of course. But as you can see, the cityscape has been greatly distorted and—"

"We're going in," Robin grunted. He pulled out a grappling hook and aimed over the edge of the black drop.

"Wait." Dimitri planted a hand over the Boy Wonder's wrist.

Robin glared at him.

The flutist mediator said: "On the other side of that ravine....there is certainly grave danger. Pure death waits for us, and you are still a living soul. Is venturing into such depths truly worth the chance you're going to take?"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Starfire's in there. And this isn't the first time either one of us has chanced 'pure death' for each other."

That said, the Titan leader acrobatically swung over. He tossed the grappling hook back over the chasm for the other three to swing on. In the meantime, Robin slowly paced forward across what was once a sidewalk but had instead become a sheet of rusted metal. His movement was slow. His metal-tipped boots slid over the dented sheets beneath him. With one hand he waved a tiny flashlight. His other hand he stretched out...as if to find some invisible, Tamaranian hand to grab beyond the immediate shroud of darkness.

Instead, his glove came in contact with the wall. And splashed across that wall was a golden plaque.

Robin cautiously read it:

'_The Wire Wraiths'_

"................," the Boy Wonder blinked behind his mask. "...........cute."

He shuffled along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This is it, man. I haven't seen this place since the other guys and I rode Speedy's boat away from Viper."

".........," I merely nodded. _I wasn't there._

Cyborg walked ahead of me. The piercing beam from his shoulder floodlight bobbed as he knelt then slid swiftly down the concrete incline leading into the ravine. At the bottom of the ten-foot-deep river of concrete was dry ground. All the water had been gone, as if dried up by a nearby napalm explosion.

"Then again...it was in one of these ravines that Robin made Tempest go biserk. Heh...my memory's shot these days," the android Titan muttered. He snapped out of it and motioned ahead. "Anyways...there's where we should be headed."

I jumped down and landed behind him. I walked up to his side and narrowed my black eyes.

A huge, yawning hole of a sewer pipe yawned ahead of us. It swallowed the entirety of the concrete ravine and stretched approximately fifteen feet wide. The interior—a perfectly round, horizontally hollow cylinder—stretched off into a cavernous darkness that adequately screamed to us a warning as to its ominous nature. Interestingly, the usual rank and nasty smell of the sewer was absent at that very moment. I mentally contributed it to the lack of water running below our feet.

_Whether or not that's a good thing......_

"Well man...what're we waiting for?" Cyborg shrugged. Kl-Klak!! Kak!!! His right arm switched into a sonic cannon which he aimed cautiously ahead of himself as he marched on forward. "Come on. Most likely there're citizens dumb enough to be hiding out inside this place and it's up to us to save their asses! Heh...what better to do on a leisurely stroll??" He marched on ahead.

"..............," I stood in place.

"???" Cyborg realized he was alone. He and his floodlight turned to face me. He lowered his sonic cannon some. "Noir? What's wrong, buddy?"

I scratched my head. I gestured.

"Oh......r-right," Cyborg winced. He scratched his head with the one good hand and glanced around. "I suppose there _should_ be a plaque around here somewhere."

A beat.

"...........," I marched over towards something.

Cyborg looked.

I came to a stop in front of a metal rectangular set in the wall. And—indeed—it was a gold object.

Unfortunately, a heavy layer of grime covered a good two-thirds of the plaque and hid the full extent of the message:

_'The Bo-------------'_

"Heh....lovely that," Cyborg muttered.

I shrugged.

CRACK!!!!

Cyborg pried the object off and tossed it at me.

I awkwardly caught it.

"There....see if you can't clean it off some while we head on in...," he said. He turned around and once again aimed his sonic cannon ahead of his path as he trudged on. "Until then, I suppose we could guestimate the ghoul, eh? Let's get a move on."

"............," I bit my lip.

I followed shortly after the man and lethargically tried to wipe off the excess grime with a white sleeve.

And in such fashion, we were swallowed by the humongous, dark pipe.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cl-Clank!

Cl-Clank!

Creeeeeak!

Cl-Clang!

Robin winced with each step that he took. The deeper and deeper he ventured towards the center of the shopping mall, the weaker and more fragile the rusted metal floorboards and walls around him seemed to get. And yet—the more he walked into the center of the mall....the less 'mall' it became. It suddenly seemed to him as if the place had faded away into a rusty skeleton around him and his three allies about halfway through their journey. He hadn't noticed a thing....only now the walls became thin planks of vertically precarious metal and the ceilings gave way to skeletonous bulkheads of loose rivets and wobbly support beams.

Everything about the mall screamed 'unsafe'. He could feel the floor buckling beneath him with each step of his boots. The entirety of the place became more and more fragile the further he traversed towards the center. Creaking sounds gave way to haunting reverberations....like the symphony of thousands of tensile, taut copper wires tied to some invisible fulcrum and vibrating like mile-long guitar strings a dozen twists out of tune.

Robin still took the lead, venturing into this hazardous hell of metal. Dimitri followed slowly behind. The guardians—Victor and Raphael—looked ironically uneasy for undead acolytes. Mutely they insisted of the flute-carrying mediator that they reverse their path. But Dimitri paid them no attention. He instead caught up partially with the Boy Wonder and spoke in a hushed tone: "They sense that we are here."

"Good...," Robin grunted. He whipped out two explosive birdarangs and held them between his gloved fingers as he walked forward. "...cuz I come bearing gifts."

"You must realize...," Dimitri smiled patiently. "There is quite a lot at risk here. These Wire Wraiths...they have great control over the environment. The further they sense us infiltrating their domain, the more hazardous they make it for us—"

_Creeeeeeak........._

Robin stopped, cautiously balancing his weight.

Raphael and Victor bit their pale lips.

_Creeeeeeeeak.........kkkkkk............_

Silence.

Dimitri breathed steadily.

Robin cleared his throat. "Well....," he inhaled. "Gotta admit....it keeps me awake." A beat. He glanced back. "Are all undead people so........reluctant?"

"I am hardly reluctant," Dimitri politely smiled. "Just lifeless."

"Try 'drunk'," Robin smirked. He turned around again, faced the rusted wasteland ahead of him, and sighed depressingly.

A beat.

"Where are you, Star??" he murmured.

And he stepped on ahead.

_Creeeeak. Creeeeeak. Creeeeeeeeeak._

The metal floorboards were practically bulging downward from the travellers' feet.

Dimitri held a hand out. He spoke hoarsely to the two guardians—and Robin as well if the Titan Leader was so inclined to take heed: "Spread out. Equally distribute our weight. The floor can no longer support all of us...."

Raphael and Victor nervously, shakily obeyed.

Robin pressed on forward—way ahead of the others. "Just what's so terrible that's beneath us anyways---"

CRACK!!!!!

The panel beneath Robin's outstretched boot fell free. The metal rectangular went diving...spiraling...and plunging into utter and pure darkness. The bottomless pit of death itself. The free-falling oblivion of Mortuana.

"...............," Robin stared.

Dimitri was still, peacefully balanced.

Raphael and Victor nervously stayed where they were and pressed no further.

Silence.

"................," Robin's eyemask narrowed.

Silence.

........................_cl-clank........._

Raphael and Victor turned twice as pale.

Dimitri was unaffected.

Robin craned his neck to the side.

......................................_cl-clank..................clank......_

The four held their breaths.

Somewhere from the deep recesses of the rusted metal and darkness, the sounds of scuffling metal reverberations shook through the strangers' bodies and danced up into their ears. It sounded like umbrella needles shuffling over a giant flagpole....and then filtered through a seashell.

............_cl-cl-clank...........................clank...............cl-clank......_

A beat.

"I'm not scared....," Robin murmured. A frown. His gloved fists clenched and he uttere loudly into the darkness straight ahead of him over the metal planks. "You hear that you stupid spectres?!?! I'm not scared!! You have my best friend!! You may even have my fellow citizens!! I won't be leaving without them...and I sure as Hell won't be leaving without her!! I've faced worst demons than you!! And I frankly don't give a shit if this is your 'home sweet hellish home' or not. I'm coming for what I want!! Scare me all you want, I don't care!!"

The Boy Wonder's voice echoed into the oblivion.

Silence.

From directly below..........................._clank..............................cl-cl-clank.........cl-clank......clank........._

The Boy Wonder stood absolutely still.

Nevertheless, his petite heart pounded in the center of his athletic frame. His arms hung by his side, poised to do anything...or nothing at all.

And he meditated on the latter...knowing it would grant him the most success with anything.

But after then........further silence ensued. A long bout of it.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "Okay.......onward we go...."

He shuffled one boot ahead....and moved on.

Dimitri hesitated a bit this time in following the boy. He murmured to himself. "Great Lenin's ghost.......," he whispered. "She'd better be damn pretty." He smiled as he pressed on slowly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A ball of light slowly bobbed down the concrete passageway. In the center of the bright sphere stood Cyborg and I. We paused as we came to a stop in a junction of the huge, interconnecting tunnels. Three possible avenues of movement yawned open before us. There was still not a single drop of sewer water....and not a single sight of a human soul.

Sensing nothing with my spatial awareness beyond the shine of Cyborg's floodlight, I boringly switched my attention to wiping the grime off of the detached plaque in my hand. I was making very little progress.

"Aw man....," Cyborg grunted. He was aiming one arm forward as a sonic cannon and staring at the sensor readouts on a panel of his other metal wrist. "I'm not reading a _single_ heat signature. Either these concrete pipes are too thick and the people are too far away....or there aren't any people underground here to begin with!! I've dealt with enough damn traps for today, haven't you?"

I sighed, shrugged, and continued trying to make the inscription on the plaque legible.

"...........," Cyborg stared at me. A blink. "Eh....now look who's moody."

I glared at him.

He shook his head. "Never mind. I think we should take the center route, what about you?"

I gazed ahead towards the limits of Cyborg's floodlight. I scratched my chin with a free hand. Then nodded in agreement.

He gave me a suspicious look with his human eye. "Took you an awful long time.....to come to the same conclusion."

I stuck my tongue out.

"I'll show you where to put that soon enough. Come on. Let's go center."

I wiped at the plaque some more. I looked at my handiwork.

".........."

'_The Bon------------'_

I groaned...and hesitantly shuffled behind Cyborg.

Little did I sense the ceiling above us....._and how it was shifting around like upside down quicksand._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The shopping mall was only discernible by then by the scant clothes racks that dotted the rusted landscape. And even at best the metal racks were leaning precariously about, lacking clothes, and even lacking clothes hangers. Rather, they formed a rusted forest of jagged metal limbs that scratched out in frozen stretches towards Robin as he shuffled towards some transient 'center' to the madness.

Indeed, as the Boy Wonder gazed one hundred and eighty degrees about him with his eyemask, he took notice of something. "It's a spiral."

"A spiral?" Dimitri asked, close behind.

The two shuffled forward...ten feet a minute. Taking it slowly. The metal planks groaned and bent suggestively underneath their feet.

"Yes...," Robin nodded. "Whatever used to be the shopping mall...it's now a twisted mess aiming towards the center. I bet there's something important nestled between all the converging lines of rusted metal. It's like a really huge spiderweb."

"You don't say......"

"You've met these 'wire wraiths' before, haven't you, Dimitri?"

"Once or twice I've had to consume them. Yes."

"Would you know what they're like?"

Dimitri took a shuddering breath and managed weakly to smile: "Your spiderweb analogy is right on track, I shall admit that much."

"Mmmmhmmmm....," Robin pressed forward.

The closer they got towards the center, the more frequent and random the shuffling noises throughout the echoing lattice structure.

_Cl-Clank........................clank..................cl-cl-clang........._

..............._cl-clank.....................shuffle............clang........._

"Shhh....," Robin hissed as he paused. "Listen."

Dimitri was ever obedient.

Raphael and Victor had stopped following about fifty feet ago.

....................._cl-clank............clang............sh-shuffle......_

........._clank..................clank..................cl-clang..............._

Robin whispered: "There are two of them.........."

"Indeed...," Dimitri swallowed. "As the plaque's pluralization implies........"

"And they're _right beneath us........._" the Boy Wonder added.

Dimitri was silent at that.

Then.......

_Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clang! Clang! Clang!_

Panel after panel of metal floorboard bulged upwards in a straight line from behind Dimitri, past him, underneath Robin, and towards the center.

Silence.........

Then....

_Clank! Clank!_

A spot of metal bulged up just two feet away from Robin's forward toe.

"................," the Boy Wonder stood silently like a stealthy fly.

_.................sh-shuffle............_

The metal board bulged once more....lifted up a few inches....settled down....then depressed.

_Clang! Clang! Clang! Clank! Clank! Clank!_

The upwards-bulging planks dwindled off into the indiscernible darkness.

Robin exhaled. He glanced back at Dimitri. "Not close enough to consume them?"

"It's always difficult to consume a dual poltergeist....," the mediator smiled weakly. "No matter if it's right-side up or upside down."

Robin shrugged with a smirk. "Occupations are never as easy as they used to be....or should be." A beat. He turned around and proceeded to press on. "I suppose I should be thankful that----"

CRUNCH!!!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The next metal panel fell out from under him.

The Boy Wonder dropped.

"Mr. Titan!!!" Dimitri scampered towards the fresh hole in the metal floor. He slumped down to his knees, wobbled a bit on the precariously bending platform, and peered down below. ".............!!!!!"

He caught sight of Robin.

The Boy Wonder was grabbing onto one of many dozens of metal wires dangling precariously like rusted umbilical cords or huge, unstrung coathangers. A veritable upside forest of copper strings waved to and fro underneath the metal platforms in some magical wind. Beneath the Titan's flailing cape and legs was a gigantic spindle of rusted, metal lattice work. All corners and edges of the shopping plaza's floating 'island' were attached to red metal wires that stretched tightly downward and met at the center of an iron nub that descended about two hundred meters via an upside tower at the fulcrum of the rusted 'plaza' platform. It was like a blood-red, paper-thin chandelier hanging over pure, infinite blackness. All it took was one slip for Robin to taste eternity.

"Might I say...," Dimitri uttered. "You're dangling by a thread."

"You may say nothing...," Robin grunted. His teeth clenched in his strain as he flailed his legs about and tried to perch himself upside down via the rusted string. Instead, he decided to launch a free arm out with a gasp and clutch onto another dangling string. "Excuse me while I exercise Hell's trapeze act," the Boy Wonder sweated. He swung his lower body and then leapt off the two cords just to hang from a thicker, metal cord closer to where Dimitri hung his head down. The Titan leader wiped a brow with a free, shaky hand as he dangled from the fresh wire. "I swear...this is Nightwing's environment. Not mine."

Dimitri blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Never mind. Be a good zombie and help me up."

Dimitri reached a hand out. "You should have been more cautious."

"Remind me who's looking for whose close friends here...," Robin grunted as he reached an arm out to grasp ahold of Dimitri's and hoist himself back up to the top surface of rusted metal. "I have my eyes peeled for friends, not falls---"

Silence.

The Boy Wonder cut himself off as he lowered his gaze and caught sight of something. His lips parted.

"????" Dimitri glanced straight down.

Where the tower dropped and met the converging wires like an upside down mushroom, five distinct bodies hovered eerily in the darkness. The bodies had been reduced to stiff, mummy-like figures......for high-strung copper wire had wrapped around their structures from head to tow. They drifted into each other along the limited slack of their wired support to the anchor of the upsidedown tower head. Silent. Lifeless. And yet...one of them was glowing an adamant, green hue from beneath.

_And to Robin, that meant they were all alive......_

"Allah...Buddha...Yahweh...whoever....," Robin mumbled and blinked under his mask. "Praise be...."

"The ones you are looking for?"

"The **one**," Robin uttered a correction. "But saving anyone else in the process is a fringe benefit......as always" He stopped reaching out for Dimitri's hand from above and swung back and forth on his single, copper cord. "Excuse me if I don't shake your hand on the way out."

Dimitri gasped. "Why, Mr. Titan, what are you---?!?!"

Robin swung.....and jumped.

Dimitri's pale eyes went wide.

Robin flipped forward, stretched his cape out, and glided....glided....glided down towards the upside down towerhead like a colorful paper airplane. Any false move...any single degree of miscalculation would land him—figuratively—in black eternity.

And yet—before Dimitri's eyes—the Titan grabbed ahold of the upside down tower's 'stalk', slid down gracefully, and landed smack dab in front of the cord-wrapped body of the floating alien girl.

"..............," Robin stood up straight on the upside down, metal 'mushroom'. He took a shuddering breath and smiled weakly. "Guess that goes without showing......--"

"Rather hasty decision, Mr. Titan," uttered Dimitri from high up above.

Robin glanced up.

A panting Victor and Raphael joined Dimitri finally in glaring down at the upside down, rusted 'web' of metal.

"I think you just entered their domain!"

"Whose domain?!?!" Robin barked back up at them.

Dimitri merely pointed. "The wire wraiths..."

Robin spun around.

_Cl-Cl-Clack!!............ Shuffle............_

"Ah yes......," Robin half groaned and half smirked. He whipped out his metal rod, extended it, and got into a ready pose on the inner circumference of the metal tower nub. "Charlotte, I presume." A beat. "Or _CharlotteS_......"

The three Mortuanans watched helplessly from above as two bulbous shadows shuffled their way towards Robin and the tied-up victims via the wires converging on either side of the metal nub.

Robin's eyemask narrowed and he grit his teeth. His gloved fingers tightened around the metal staff.

As the two shadows entered the green aura of the unconsciously dangling Tamaranian beside the Boy Wonder, pale limbs came into focus. Ivory-smooth arms and hands. A fan of naked, human torsos stretching out from a meaty, pulsing center. Upper bodies transformed into giant spider legs.

"Rhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhsskkkk......."

Robin exhaled. "Picked a really bad day to go shopping........"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey....I-I think I'm getting something...," Cyborg's whispery voice drifted backwards towards me. We were walking down a stretch of horizontal pipeline. The air was getting colder. Still there was no sewer water, but a distinct feel of moisture floated through the air and clung sickly to the insides of our mouth. The android Titan studied the sensor readings on his left arm and uttered: "There's definitely some heat signatures nearby. The reading's faint right now, but something's out there. And it's all bunched together. Who knows, man? It might be people. Can you see what's ahead of us, Noir?"

I wasn't paying attention. I was halfway through finally cleaning off the damn plaque.

"Noir???"

I looked up boredly. A blink. I clamped a hand over Cyborg's shoulder.

"?????" he glanced over at me. "Huh???" He looked ahead. "Aw nuts..."

It was a dead end. At least where our tunnel was concerned. A circular drop opened up just a few feet beneath us. Jumping down it would bring us somewhere......perhaps anywhere.

But nowhere we wanted to go.

"Well...guess we have to double-back. Look on the bright side....," he smiled at me. "Anywhere these innocent people might have gotten to can't be any real problem for us to reach, right?"

I shrugged. I looked down at the plaque.

I suddenly realized that it was legibly clean.

It read:

'_The Bonewyrm'_

"............" I slowly tilted my head up. My black eyes blinked. Again I sensed something strange. Like a pulsing ceiling of white oatmeal.

I glanced directly up.

Beyond the edges of Cyborg's floodlight, I saw the distinctly still shadow of solid concrete. But directly above my android friend, I saw something else. And that something else had morphed into a giant scythe of calcium formed by a huge femur and a razor-sharp clavicle that was presently swinging a serrated collision course towards the Titan's cranium.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred at him.

WHUMP!!!!

I shoved the both of us to the ground.

"OOF!!!"

"!!!!!"

"Noir?! What is it?!?!" Cyborg gasped.

I helplessly clutched to his arm and pointed upwards, shivering.

".........," he glanced from me to the ceiling. His human eye widened.

A sickle-like conglomeration of bones stretched into the halo from his floodlight. A legbone twitched and shook until it yanked the clavicle out of the concrete ceiling. It then scurried down the length of the pipe's ceiling on clicker-clackering little carpals and tarsals attached to the base of the femur.

".................well allright," Cyborg blinked.

"Shhhhh!!" I breathily hissed. I spun my head around and about, eyeing little pale shadows streaking by all around us.

Annoyingly high-pitched clattering sounds echoed all around us in the claustrophobic chamber. We became aware of dismembered hands, knuckles, and jawbones scurrying past us like tiny sea crabs on a concrete beach. Occasionally vertebrae would slither past us like bony snakes, and rib cages would crawl along like ungodly centipedes. All of the possessed entities of bone crackled off in some shadowy mass just beyond the light.

My black eyes saw it first, and I shivered.

Cyborg pushed me aside gently and aimed his shoulder's floodlight.

The wall of illumination slithered up and found itself reflecting off the pale-ivory complexion of hundreds and thousands of bones merging into a cohesive whole in the center of the tunnel. _CrkkkkkkkCrkkkkkckkkkrkkkkkkkkCkkkk!!!!_ Leg bones slid up against spinal columns and pelvises and tibulas and fibulas with carpals and tarsals sliding in between it all like squirming, vanilla-colored ants or ball bearings. And squishing out of the center and glaring at us was a conglomerated ring of skulls. Human skulls. Animal skulls. Bird skulls. Every eye socket glowed and every jaw opened wide to exhale a wave of air-crystallizing freeze: _"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!"_

Cyborg bit his lip. "Yeah....okay....I'm not seeing _that._ Uh uh."

SWOOOOOSH!!! The Bone Wyrm slithered violently at us down the tunnel.

There was nowhere to go but---

"!!!!!" I blurred murk into my limbs and shoved Cyborg and I down the hole.

"WHOAH!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!

_CrrrrrrrrkkkkkkkCrrkkkkkckkkkkkkrkkkkkCkkkkrkkkk!!!!"_

The wall of calcium soared above us as a wriggling stream of white mass while we plummeted.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin gritted his teeth.

He paced carefully around the scant metal support of the upside tower from where he spied the two, incoming 'wire wraiths'.

The poltergeists were round, bulbous blobs of ragged meat with the torsos of twitching and contorting mannequins sticking out from the bloody exoskeleton. In a ring of reflective pale, the mannequin limbs shuffled collectively with oozing motion, carrying the meat blobs down the inclined spiral of red wires like dimpled spiders. Every now and then, a leg-mannequin head or two would shake and vibrate as with epilepsy and a loose, leathery mouth positioned around the dummy's pale nose would cycle open allowing a ten foot long bullwhip tentacle of leather to flick out, in, out, and back in like a snake's tongue. The tips of the vomited tentacles were razor sharp with crusty brown keratin. Add all of these things to the fact that the bulbous round 'torsos' of the wire wraiths had huge, gaping, baby mouths full of red-stained teeth and you had yourself one Hell of a fright.

"Thank you Scarecrow...," was all the smooth Boy Wonder had to say. He calmly eyed the menaces creeping down on either side of the hanging tower. The wound-up bodies of Starfire and the three other people dangled and hovered eerily beside him. "Forgive me, Star. But I'm gonna have to make a little detour before....erm.....unwrapping you."

The green glow under the wires seemingly intensified....as if the Tamaranian girl underneath registered his words.

The Wraiths slithered down. The mannequin arms were almost towards the metal nub. Tentacles began lashing at the Boy Wonder's boots from a distance. SNAP!!!

"Rhhhhhhhskkkkkk......"

Robin gritted his teeth and pulled out a grappling hook.

From above, Raphael shouted: "Lightsider!! You are in a predicament of great peril!! We three shall help you, but you must cooperate!!"

"No sudden movements!!" Dimitri exclaimed. "Do you understand??"

"Yeah, I understand...," Robin smirked suddenly. "But you see....it's not my style."

That uttered, the Titan leader bravely spun his staff, charged the edge of the metal platform, and leapt violently outward over the endless pit.

He sailed conveniently towards the wide open baby-mouth of the leftmost wraith.

"Rhhhhhhhhhskkkkk!!!!!"

"Allow me to check your temperature!!!!!!!" Robin shouted. And he dove with his staff stabbing deep into the creature's mouth. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!!"

.....but it bit down.


	137. Mortuana part 6

**137. Mortuana part 6**

"_What is the struggle of life? What is its purpose? What inspires those bestowed with the warmth of light to preserve that very same warmth in spite of the inevitable collapse of all things beating, breathing, and dynamically changing??" the pale man glances around at the emaciated crowd._

The emaciated crowd stares back.

A pause in music.

Then......

_  
Rising. Violins and flute._

The man's arms dance before the fire: "It may not be understood, but it certainly can be witnessed. The fighting cause of the lightsiders is great. It is majestic. It is a testament to the fact that—piercing out from an eternal plane of darkness and absolute cold—there is something far greater than the laws of destruction. Construction—it would seem—is the brave soul of the universe. And for all we know, it defines existence."

The man smiles.

He adds:

"The sacred daughter's friends......they are brave, brave souls indeed......"

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ooof!!!" Cyborg exhaled as the two of us slammed thoughtlessly onto the concrete floor of the pipe below.

My black eyes spun. I sat up wincing next to a dizzily upright Cyborg.

"Nnnnghhh...," the android Titan rubbed his half-metal skull and squinted at me. "Plan to save me to death, dawg?"

I simpered.

_CrrrrRRKkkKCKkkrrrrrkkrrrrrCccrrrkkkk!!!!!"_

We glanced up. Cyborg's halo of a floodlight shimmered up the vertical junction in sewer pipes through which we plummeted. And now something else was also plummeting. A squirming, calcium clattering, twenty-foot-long blood-thirsty something.

A pulsing, screaming nub of human and animal skulls lunged down at us with a mane of twitching vertebrae and fins of stabbing ribcages and scapulae. _"CRAAAAAHAAAAAAAK!!!!"_

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Where's He-Man when you need him?"

I jumped up, pulsed murk through my limbs, and swiftly yanked at Cyborg's shoulders. "!!!!"

"Aack!! Okay!! Jeez! I'm running for my life already!!!"

SLOSH!!!! The shifting blob of bones surged down into the concrete cylinder and slithered violently after us, the razor-sharp joints scraping sparks against the curved walls. _CrrrrKKKrrkkkkkrrrrCCrrkkkk!!!! "CRAAAAAHAK!!"_

"Okay...REALLY running for my life!! Shit...go go go go go go GO GO GO GO!!!!"

My android partner and I dashed down the concrete passageway at horrendous speeds. I was blurring my limbs. He was firing his rear thrusters.

We came to an intersection and decided in coincidental unanimity to turn right. Like Keystone Cops on foot we skidded in a curve, fought the friction of our momentum, and dashed on down the right corridor.

SWOOOOOOSH-CRUNNNNNNCH!!!! The mass of writhing bones slammed sickeningly into the flat wall of concrete. It surged, pressed into itself, pulsed, and launched three calcium 'tentacles' at us that congealed together with branching femurs just in time to reconnect and reform the Bonewyrm into one again as it pursued us ravenously.

"_CRAAAAHAAAAAK!!!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin wasn't running.

"Rrrrrrrrrghh!!!" the Boy Wonder stood precariously balanced atop the bulbous face of a wire wraith. His staff was stuck a good two feet deep into the creature's serrated baby mouth. Two pale eyes thinned across the meaty landscape of the creature's face as it bit down harder and harder on the staff. Robin gritted his teeth, attempting to pry his weapon loose.

_"Rhhhhhhhhhhhhskkkk......"_

The Boy Wonder glanced over.

On mannequin torsos and arms, the second wire wraith came gliding over the red copper strings beneath the 'shopping plaza'. _"Rhhhskkk!!!"_

Dimitri called down from above: "Now would be a good time to flee, my friend!"

Robin grunted. "I don't need a coach!!!" He whipped out a bundle of metal cord and an electrically-shocking throwing disc.

The wires shook as the second wraith scurried over. Two mannequin heads tilted the Titan Leader's way and opened their mouths.

SWIIIIISH!! SWIIIIISH!! Two sharp, leathery tentacles lashed at him.

In a span of five seconds, Robin tied one end of his string to the electric disc, the other end to the top of his metal staff, and acrobatically flipped off the teething monster while flinging the disc by its cord around the weapon like a tetherball. The disc spun two or three times around the metal cylinder and struck it—_dink!_

Zzzzztttttzttt!!!

_"Rhhhhhhhhhskkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!"_ the one wire wraith shook and twitched as burning electrical bolts of blue soared through it. The mannequin bodies twitched and smoke echoed out of their howling mouths. A pair of pale hands was all that held onto the red cables and kept the poltergeist from falling into infinite nothingness below.

And in the meantime.........Robin was airborne.

"!!!!!!!!"

He flipped, descended, and gripped onto a wire with two hands at the last second. "Nnnghh!!" he swung his body down and up and flipped into a precariously balanced position on the descending wire. He panted and looked directly downward.

The second wire wraith was rushing at him....a foot per second.

"_RHHHHSKK!!!"_ Two tentacles flew at him. SNAP!! SNAP!!

Robin jerked, ducked, and jumped to another wire behind him. He landed with his boots positioned at an angle.....and slid down the wire like a banister straight back towards the center metal nub beneath the plaza platform.

Th-Thump!!

Robin landed. He took a breath. He rushed towards Starfire's coiled body--

**TH-THUMP!!!!**

The electrocuted wire wraith landed meatedly in front of him. Smoke and fresh embers sizzled across its bulbous skin. _"RHhhhhskkkkkk!!!"_ the huge baby mouth spat the staff out and hissed at the Boy Wonder.

Robin picked the charred, drool-covered weapon back up. "Gee...thanks," he winced.

SWIIIIISH!!! Two mannequins spat tentacles at him.

Robin spun his staff. CLANK!!! He deflected the blow and flipped forward.

SWIIISH!! SWISSSH!! Two more tentacles shot up at his flipping person.

He spun in mid-air and twirled his rod beneath him. CL-CL-CLANK!!! He landed where the metal stalk stretched down and met the metal nub of the upside tower. He jumped in reverse, planted his boots backwards into the stalk, and shoved off. "Nnnngh!!" he soared at the rear of the meaty poltergeist with a heavy downswing of his staff.

SWOOOOSH-THWAP!!!!!

A mannequin's body was cracked in two. It twitched and gushed out purple slime.

Robin fumbled for a half-second. "Ah jeez...."

THWOOOSH!!! _**GRIP!!**_

"Snkkkt!!!" Robin suddenly found himself being strangled by a leathery tentacle from a mannequin mouth. The middle of the limb's length was wrapped firmly around the Boy Wonder's neck while its serrated keratin end rose above the 'knot' like a snake's head.

Robin struggled for breath.

The wire wraith hissed and constricted the tentacle more and more.

Robin's eyemask thinned. He warily, wearily eyed the sharp brown tip of the tentacle aiming at its face like a kamikaze worm. A beat. It struck. SWOOOOSH!!!

"Nkkkktt!!!" Robin wheezed and lifted his staff up with two arms.

CLANG!!!!!

Sparks flew as the Boy Wonder stopped the sharp jab just an inch shy from his nose. His upper arms shook and strained to hold the sharp tentacle 'head' back. The wire wraith kept applying more and more force, while at the same time the mannequin torsos dragged its meaty center closer and prepared to launch additional tentacles.

"Snkkt....snkkktk......snnk....," Robin hissed. At the end of his breath, he found the structure of his staff—and his strength fading. He bit his lip and flexed his muscles just right---

_SNAP!!!_

The rod broke in two.

Robin yanked them out and shoved the shattered shards back together in the blink of an eye. They stabbed bloodily into either side of the thick tentacle head until they met in the center.

CHUNK!!!!

"_RHSSSSSKSKKK!!!!"_ the huge baby mouth howled.

The keratin head cracked. Brown mush and deathly-blue ooze leaked. The tentacle's length loosened from Robin's neck.

The Boy Wonder gasped and landed on his knees....but not once did he relinquish pressure on the two rod shards. Once poised, he stood up straight and yanked over his shoulder with all of his force.

_Snkkkt-SNAP!!!_

The tentacle was ripped clean out from the mannequin's mouth closest to him. The pale torso twitched, shrieked, and vomited spurts of blue ooze as if having a seizure.

The entire wire wraith slumped down with two of its mannequin torso-'legs' gravely injured. It convulsed and the baby mouth sobbed in pain: "Rhhskkkkkkkkhhhh...."

"Nnghh!" Robin yanked the two rod halves out of the tentacle, dropping the severed appendage—twitching—to the floor. He spat. "Take a nap..."

"The other one's coming, friend!!!"

"Rhskkkkkttttkkk!!!"

Robin spun around.

The other wire wraith slid down the wires, mannequin limbs and tentacles flailing.

Robin's eyemask darted to the coiled bodies.

He ran directly towards the one with the green glow.

"RHHHSKKK!!!" the baby mouth of the second poltergeist shrieked as two mannequin torsos vomited a tentacle each at Robin.

SWIIIISH!!!

CLANK!! Robin deflected one with a rod half.

SWIIIIISH!!!

"Nnghh!!" Robin leapt over the second one. In midair he tossed both rods at the creature.

TH-THUNK!!!! One rod embedded itself into the monster's forehead. The other slid bloodily into the baby's eye.

"_RHSKKKKKK!!!!!!!"_ it shrieked and all its mannequins quivered to a stop on the wires right before the metal nub.

Robin panted, jumped, and grabbed Starfire's floating body. She brought her down and whipped out a birdarang. Chiiing!! He held the pointy end of the projectile out and sliced the metal cord to her body loose.

SNAP!!!

He swiftly hoisted her under his left arm and whipped out a grappling hook with the other hand. POW!! CLANK!! It struck the bottom of the rusted metal platform. He leapt off the metal nub, swung over the wire web, and up towards the thin surface of the supernatural shopping plaza above.

CLANK!!!

Robin sailed up through a loose shingle of rusted metal and flipped into a kneeling position safely atop the metal floor.

He panted, cradling Starfire's metal cocooned body in his grasp.

The body beneath the strung wire stirred a bit, making a warm—but soft—sound.

Robin's lips curved somewhat.

"Lightsider!" Dimitri rushed over with Raphael and Victor. "You're safe!!"

"Take her," Robin handed the bundle to the flutist.

The man cradled the thin form. "I...I-I don't understand—"

"There're others down there," Robin pointed through the metal floor. "I can't just leave them behind."

"Your fellow citizens, I take it?"

"Keep her safe!!" the Boy Wonder practically snarled. He retracted his grappling hook and stood over the black gap in the metal floor. "I'll have to make a few trips!"

"It would be easier to just bring the wraiths to us," Raphael said.

Dimitri nodded. "If I am to serve my purpose in aiding you, the poltergeists must be close enough for me to consume them."

_.................................sh-shuffle.................._

All four men freezed.

"...............," Robin craned his neck and peered below them.

The metal shingles started to vibrate.

..........................._shuffle..................clank...............cl-clank!........_

The Boy Wonder grunted: "Unless of course they cut it short by coming to us ahead of time....."

CRACK!!!!!!!!

Mannequin arms punched upwards, blowing a metal panel between Robin and the Mortuanans sky-high.

Robin jumped backwards.

CRACK!!!!!!!!!

More pale arms. Another panel...this time just to the Boy Wonder's left.

He let out a shout and dove forward across the rusted expanse.

CR-CR-CRACK!!!!!! Three panels exploded in a trail behind the Titan leader.

The wraiths were pissed....

"Wait for me to return!!!" Robin shouted above the speedy chaos. "I'll be back with another body!!"

He said this just as—predictably—a panel exploded in front of him and the Titan's body fell heavily through to the darkness below.

Dimitri and his two guardians gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

TH-THWUMP!!

"!!!!"

Cyborg landed.

Th-Thwap!!

"!!!!"

I landed.

The two of us spun around from the wide tunnel we had jumped down to. We glanced up at the tiny juncture pipe.

"....................."

Silence.

Then---

_CrkkkkCRKKKckkkkkrkkkk!!!!!!!_

The disjointed form of the Bonewyrm slid through and exploded out from the ridiculously small tunnel with flying skulls, ribs, femurs, and fingers galore that rejoined in mid-air and morphed back into the familiarly gargantuan cucumber of bloodlust.

"Awwww man!" Cyborg exhaled with a sinking expression. "It just won't give up!!"

Not only that, it was soaring at us hungrily again with shrieking skulls: _"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAK!!!"_

"You know the drill," Cyborg grunted and pulled at me.

I gathered my breath and blurred ahead with the android.

While surging after us, the white mass of calcium lurched back...then lurched forward with a WHIP!!!! SWIIIIISH!!! A tentacle of over two dozen vertebrae laced with razor-sharp tail bones lashed at us.

CRUNNNNCH!!!! They sliced a ribbon of concrete out of the tunnel wall just a foot above Cyborg's head.

"Whoah!! Son of a....," he gritted his teeth, twisted his upper body around, and—Kl-Klak-Ka-Klak!!—aimed a sonic cannon backwards while sprinting. "Show a little backbone to someone ELSE!!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!

The blue stream of energy pummeled its way mercilessly into the mass of calcium. Bones shattered and crunched and cracked, but the rest of the wyrm morphed appropriately to compensate and the speed of the pursuing creep was not deterred the slightest.

Cyborg sweatdropped. "Guess he takes his vitamins..."

I gritted my teeth.

SWIIIIISH!!!

The tentacle struck again.

I leapt instinctively.

The vertebrae whip shattered the ground ahead and beneath me.

CRUNCH!!!!!!

I leapt over it and blurred through the flying debris. I landed

ZAAAP!! ZAAAAAAAAP!! Cyborg shot a few more times in a vain attempt to hold the pursuer at bay. He glanced ahead, gasped, and swallowed. "Look!!"

I darted my black eyes forward.

There was a fork in the tunnel.

"Split up!!!" the android Titan shouted.

_Uh.........sure!_

Cyborg ran right.

I ran left.

_CRrrrrrrkKkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!_

I glanced back.

The bonewyrm's body surged, warbled, pulsed, and—_CRKKKKKKKK!!!!—_split into smaller yet significantly large masses of murderous calcium. I was conveniently experiencing a flight down a smaller tunnel before with only my own devices to fend off the sub-wyrm. It's also only fair to mention that we both neglected to remember that only Cyborg had the light and I had my black eyes at best to help me down the shadowed interior.

_Ah ha ha ha ha ha......hoo boy...here we go......_

I let out a frustrating sigh as I hopped, blurred, and side-jumped in mid-sprint in anticipation of attacks from the rear.

And I anticipated right.

SWIIISH!! SLASH!!!!

I darted left and right down the tunnel, bits of concrete exploding on either side of me from the lashing vertebrae.

CRUNNNCH!! CRUNCH!!!

I glanced behind me, breathless.

A solid wall of ribcages was forming at the front of the charging train of bones. The ribs congealed together like huge knuckles and soared at me. SWOOOOSH!!!

I gritted my teeth.

CHIIIIIING!!!

The ribcages came upon me.

I let out a silent scream. Everything went in slow motion as I blurred my feet, leapt directly up in the air, and spun a complete three-hundred-and-sixty degree sword slash while being throttled forward by my momentum. SLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!! I split the wall of ribs so that they shattered safely on either side of me.

CLAMP!!!

I landed. Time resumed. I hopped back into the sprint and only lost two and a half feet between myself and the surging monster behind. I panted and panted, my black eyes wide to see every curve of the pitch-black tunnel bare yards ahead of me.

_"CRAAAAAHAAAAAAAK!!!"_

I glanced back again.

Pelvises were collecting and—THWOOOSH!!—being launched at me like cannonballs.

I bit my lip.

SWOOOSH!! I ducked one of them. CHIIING-CRACK!! I ripped a second in half.

Three more launched at me like serrated dodgeballs. THW-THW-TWHOOSH!!!

I blurred my legs into pure smoke. While running, I dashed up the curved wall of the pipe, across the ceiling, slashing back at two calcium projectiles with Myrkblade—CR-CRACK!!—and back down the other side of the pipe.

I panted.

The bonewyrm came closer.

Closer.

And then...

My black eyes squinted.

A light was forming at the end of the tunnel. Literally.

I gasped.

_Daylight??_

The Mortuanans??

The light intensified....then took on a bobbing motion.

"!!!!!!"

I skidded to a stop.

"!!!!!!"

Cyborg skidded to a stop.

We stood...panting....facing each other in the middle of the tunnel.

A beat.

....

....

_Oh shit._

"CRUD!!!"

We both spun around.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!" Cyborg let loose a wild sonic pulse at the wyrm-half closing in on him. ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!!!! I swung, stabbed, struck, and jabbed Myrkblade with blurred ferocity.

In such berserk manner, the two of us simultaneously fought back the two halves of the bonewyrm attempting to sandwich us together in the tunnel from either side.

CRUNNNNNNNNCH!!! A wall of white bone crumbled and shook from Cyborg's punishment.

CRACK!! SMASH!!! CRUNCH!!! Ribs and skulls and joints were knocked back by my sword.

Cyborg heaved.

I sweated.

The two halves pushed and pushed.

The android Titan and I stepped hesitantly in reverse until we were back-to-back.

ZAAAAA-AAAAAP!!!!

SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!

Cyborg's human eye dashed to the side. While unleashing what was left of his sonic cannon blast, he struggled to talk to me over his shoulder. His voice was like a feather landing on the floor in the center of a band practice. I strained to hear him.

"Noir.....on the count of three....I....I want you to hug me...."

"?!?!?!?!" I looked at him strangely.

"Don't give me that look!! When I freakin' count to one, you freakin' hug me!! Got it?!?!"

I glanced at what I was repeatedly stabbing.

_Maybe death by bone skewers isn't so bad......_

"Got it?!?!?!"

I groaned and nodded.

"Okay...," Cyborg intensified his sonic blast. "Three........."

I took deep breaths, slashing at every lunging vertebrae and shrieking skull I could find.

CR-CR-CR-CRACK!!!

"............two........."

ZAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAP!!!"

A beat.

"ONE!!"

I lowered Myrkblade, spun around, and clutched hard to Cyborg's shoulder.

In one jolting motion, the android Titan pulled his sonic cannon back—Kl-Klak-Klack!!—switched it back into a fist—"RRRGHHH!!"—and thrust it forward again. POW!!!!! His arm ejected with a length of cord slacking.

CRUNNNNNNNNNCH!!!!!! The titanium fist ripped straight through Cyborg's half of the wyrm and—CLANK!!!—gripped with sharp fingers a piece of wall on the far side.

"HOLD ON!!!" Cyborg shouted...and retracted on his arm.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

I winced as we sailed directly through the mass of writhing, squirming bones. The steady stream of Cyborg's sonic cannon had properly shredded a miniature tunnel through it...giving us easy access. We tumbled awkwardly across the floor on the other side.

TH-THWUMP!!

"OOF!!"

"!!!!"

We rolled apart separately.

Cyborg sat up immediately and aimed his free hand into a sonic cannon. "YAAAAUGH!!" with a warcry he blasted a blue stream at the tunnel in a circular fashion before the two wyrm-halves.

CRAAAAAAASH!!! The pipe walls collapsed and formed a pile of rubble, effectively sealing the bonewyrm away from us.

I panted and gave Cyborg a thumb's up, smiling weakly.

"Don't get any ideas, man...," he exhaled.

_Too late._

CLAMP!! He retracted his titanium arm fully and stood up. "That'll just buy us some time..."

WHAM!! WHAM!! WHAM!! The monster pounded from the other side of the rubble. _"CRAAAAAHAAAAAAK!!!"_

I glanced at Cyborg, panting.

_Time to do what??_

He started jogging down the tunnel. "If we're lucky, poltergeists have a line of jurisdiction that we can cross!! Come on!!!"

I shrugged and sprinted after him with Myrkblade in grasp.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin plummeted.

POW!!!

Robin fired a grappling hook.

SWOOOOSH!!

Robin swung.

And while Robin swung—arching down towards the metal nub—he became aware of something.

"........," the Boy Wonder blinked under his mask.

The wounded wire wraith wasn't there anymore--

SWOOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

"AUGH!!!" Robin grunted as a meaty mass sailed into him from behind in midair.

WHANG!! The Titan bounced off the metal platform, rolled, and flew over the side.

"!!!!"

The Boy Wonder flung a gloved hand up and gripped the edge of the platform at the last second. He hung loosely from their, his boots dangling above a huge air of pitch black nothingness.

"Nnnnnnngh," Robin gritted his teeth. He stretched his other hand up and gripped the edge. He then flexed his muscles and pivoted his lower body up till his boots contacted the underside of the metal nub. With a grunt he shoved and twirled himself upwards arobatically into a perch on the side.

The Titan leader barely had a moment to regain his breath. A blue-bleeding wire wraith was clamoring towards him, dragging two mannequin 'limbs' limply behind.

_"Rhhhhsskkkk!!!"_ Two tentacles streamed violently at the Boy Wonder. Th-Thwisssssh!!

Robin clenched his teeth and—"HA!!" He leapt the two whipping appendages. SNAP!!! He flew high into the air, spiraled, and came down with a spinning drop-kick. "HrrrrrRAUGH!!!"

THWACK!!!

The baby face of the wire wraith teetered back.

Robin handplanted behind the wire wraith, leapt up, flipped, landed on his feet, and ran towards the nearest coiled prisoner--

WHIP!!!! **GRIP!!!**

"!!!!" Robin was yanked back by his ankles and forced into a collapsing dive. THWOMP!!! He landed hard on his chest with his outstretched hands barely a foot away from the hovering victim. A second tentacle wrapped around his other ankle and he was dragged backwards across the rusted metal towards the writhing mass of the wire wraith.

Robin twisted his body so that he slid on his back. He looked down past his legs.

Two mannequin heads were drawing the tentacles back into their mouths. They groped and grabbed hungrily with pale arms as they reeled Robin in closer.

"Rghhh!!" Robin reached two hands into his utility belt, whipped out a birdarang in each, and stuck them backwards into the thick metal. CL-CLANK!!!

YANK!!!

Robin held himself in place by the grip on the birdarangs while the mannequin mouths struggled desperately to yank his lower limbs into the wraith's meaty grasp. It was a tug-of-war and Robin felt like he was on a medieval stretcher.

"MMmmmmmmm....," Robin winced. He took a deep breath. "This is....gonna hurt you....more than it does me....," he blinked under his mask. ".....I hope."

Swiftly, the acrobatic Boy Wonder pulled his legs out into a gymnastic split—held it—and fiercely brought his steel boots back together. Clap!!

The tentacles wrapped about his ankles pulled tight and--

_CL-CLUNK!!!_ Both mannequin heads collided like coconuts. They shook and shrieked in pain. The tentacles loosened from Robin's limbs and retracted into the pale things' mouths.

The boy exhaled. He gripped the birdarangs tighter and reverse-somersaulted his lower body up and over. He yanked the birdarangs as he stood up, twirled them, and flung the projectiles murderously at the meaty backside of the wire wraith.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!! THUNK!!!

"_RHSSSSKK!!!!"_

Robin turned and sprinted from the bleeding scene. He jumped and practically tackled the first dangling body he could find. He and the coiled victim swung out into the black expanse. Once stretched out to the extent of the eerie wire's length, Robin fired a grappling hook towards the platform above. POW!! Clank!! Robin and the body were suspended by both cords. The Boy Wonder took a breath, flipped out another birdarang in the hand of the arm hooked around the victim, and snapped free the copper cord holding the hostage's end up.

CRACK!!!!

Robin carried the body now as they swung out from the center, down, and up in an arc towards the metal sky.

"_Rhskkkkk!!"_

Robin gasped.

The other wire wraith—the one blinded bloodily—crawled a webbing of wires and blocked the Boy Wonder's high-wire act.

Robin gritted his teeth. His gloved thumb wrenched over a button on the grappling hook launcher and pressed down hard.

-click-

With a buzzing sound, the cord retracted in mid-swing. Robin swung up now above the wraith, and he took the opportunity to let go of the launcher, leap through the air with the body in his grasp, and plant his feet squarely over the bleeding baby face of the poltergeist. THWAP!!! He leapt up, flipped and--

CLANG!!!

--dove up through the metal platform. He rolled onto the ground nearby with the body, panting.

From a distant huddle, Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor looked over. Victor and Raphael ran over. "You've got another??"

"It's certainly not deli meat!" Robin coughed. He struggled to get up. "Here, take him!!"

Raphael was the first there. He hoisted up the wired man's legs while Victor gripped his other half.

"You need some rest, no?" Victor suggested.

Robin stood up on the metal floor, panting. "Not in the mood." He glanced over at Dimitri. The pale mediator was halfway through his task. Robin saw the metal coils giving way to familiar peach-colored skin and a violet two-piece. "Though when the opportunity presents itself—"

CLANG!!!!

The platform between the three exploded upward.

Robin grunted. "Here we go again—"

Two tentacles soared up out of the fresh hole.

"....oh."

SLAP!!!!! The two tentacles slammed into Robin's body. The Titan leader tumbled off and landed with his back against a mutated storefront showing hair products.

Raphael and Victor ran off towards Dimitri with the victim's body. "Come on!!"

"Hurry!!"

Robin groaned. He looked through a thin eyemask.

The edge of a shrieking baby face peered up through the empty panel. _"Rhsskkkkk......"_

"Coming up for air?" Robin sneered.

The wraith face dropped away, and the tentacles too slid down and under.

"?????" Robin looked around.

.................._shuffle..............._

Robin nervously planted his hands down onto the platform where he was seated.

............_sh-shuffle......clang......CLANG!!_

"Wouldn't you know it," he groaned.

CRACK!!!!

A tentacle shot up beside him.

Robin took a breath and rolled to the side.

CR-CRACK!!!!

Two tentacles trailed where his back was.

Robin panted. He somersaulted.

CRAAACK!!!

The panel he rolled off of shattered and fell away into oblivion.

Robin got onto his knees and dove forward.

CRAA-AACK!!!

A tentacle sliced up and down like a buzz-saw, barely missing the hero's legs.

Robin rolled again and came to a stop.

A beat.

"........"

He spontaneously spread his legs.

CR-CRACK!!!!

A tentacle sliced up between his thighs.

He sweatdropped.

"Right....gotta move..."

Robin dove forward again, rolled, and jumped up to his feet. In his desperate sprint, the metal laced toes of his boots clanked and clapped loudly against the flimsy metal tiles.

Giving him away....

........._shuffle shuffle shuffle shuffle-C-C-C-CLANG!!!_

CRAAA-AAA-AA-AAACK!!! Tentacle after tentacle ripped upwards like spiked deathtraps, trailing the Boy Wonder's heels. Shards of metal flew each way, smashing into glass 'storefronts' and knocking over rusted clothing racks and other nightmarish fascimiles of a 'shopping mall'.

Robin found himself running helplessly towards the glass display of a hollow electronics store. There were bottomless gaps on either side of him. He took the liberty of pulling his muscles tight, crossing his arms over his head, and leaping forward—SMAAASH—and through the glass. Shards littered the floor on either side of him as he rolled to a stop on a huge iron plank and landed against a cracked, high-def television.

"Oof!!!"

SMASH!!

SMASH!!

SMASH!!!!

Three tentacles soared in after him.

Robin flipped to his feet, kicked one sharp tip away, and ducked the lunges of two other tentacles. He side-stepped and hid behind a stereo system as the tentacles converged on him.

CRAAAACK!!!

The speakers, plastic, and metal fasteners of the stereo were shattered into utter dust.

Robin backflipped and ran down a row of grimy, broken televisions.

CRUNNNNNNCH!!! The tentacles rushed after him like anacondas, smashing every hardware unit in the way.

Robin panted. He was about halfway through the store when he slipped on dvd cases.

"Snkkkt!!" he gasped as he tumbled and rolled into a stand of PS2 demos.

SWIIIIIISH!!! The tentacles lunged.

Robin grunted and rolled out of the way.

SMASH!!!!

A gaming stand shattered apart.

Robin hobbled up to his feet and stepped back.

The tentacles rosed to meet him.

Robin looked to his left, gripped a metal stand full of Xbox software, and batted away the tentacles.

They merely gripped the metal out of his grasp, wrapped around it, and snapped the thing in half.

Cornered, Robin desperately reached back behind him. He grabbed two N-Gage boxes and flung them hard. "Nnnghh!!"

Incidentally, the N-Gages knocked the tentacles back into a rusty fire extinguisher...which exploded on contact and sent the tentacles reeling in pain.

Robin sweatdropped. "Guess those things are good for _something_......." The Boy Wonder shook it off and jumped over the writhing tentacles. He dashed through a hole in the electronics store and ran across the rusted floor of the mall. He found half of a broken escalator stretched over a precipice. From there Robin envisioned a good dropping point for swinging down onto the metal platform again.

"Good thing I gave up shoe laces...."

Robin was halfway up the escalator and reaching for his next grappling hook when--

_"RHSSSSK!!!"_

RUMMBLE!!!

The limp wire wraith suddenly rose up at the end of the shattered escalator, its baby face scowling.

Robin came to a sudden hault, his fists clenched.

From behind: _"RhSSSKKkkk!!!"_

He turned to look.

The half-blind wire wraith crawled up below. It retracted its tentacles into the mannequin mouths and growled.

".........," Robin looked back and forth at the oppressor on either side. He took a deep breath and dashed his hands into the far sides of his belt. He waved them back out and held a sparkling taser in either grasp. "All right...," he sneered. "Who wants to break his neck first?"

_"Rhskkkk......"_

"Rhhssssskk........."

The Boy Wonder readied himself as both wraiths slowly converged on his figure from either side.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and I dashed out into a vertical cavern in the sewers. Four levels of huge pipes dropped open above us, and rusty metal lattice work clung walls on opposite sides and stretched upwards towards the brickwork ceiling high above.

It felt like a labyrinth....as if it hadn't already.

I glanced around.

_Where's the minotaur??_

"Okay....um.....," Cyborg gestured blindly with his titanium fingers, sweating. "We are SO not lost. We are....uhm...." He glanced around. "You think North's that way?" he pointed and looked at me funny.

"..........," I lightly smacked Myrkblade across his forehead. Whack!!!

"Ow!!! Hey, man!! I---"

_"CraaaaAAAHAAAAAaaak!!!"_

"............"

We both blinked.

"Chiropractor's back in office."

_CRRrkkkkrkrrrkkkkkkRRKKK!!!_ The familiar rushing sound echoed outward from deep within the tunnel where we emerged.

I looked around....across....up.....

A blink.

I tugged Cyborg's arm and pointed 'up'.

He stared at the ladders and the metal platforms rising upwards. "Yeah, dawg!! Let's get moving! You first!!"

He didn't need to ask.

I dashed up the ladder, my limbs blurring. About twenty feet up, I got to the first rusted platform. I knelt on the side and reached a hand down...helping Cyborg up.

The next platform's ladder was retracted upwards. So Cyborg knelt down beneath it and held his palms together.

I stepped a foot onto his grip.

He hoisted me up.

I pulsed murk through my legs and vaulted up the rest of the way. I gripped onto the edge of the platform with one arm and dragged myself up with Myrkblade. I kicked the ladder loose. It slid down for Cyborg to climb up. As he did so, he glanced downward at the tunnel beneath us.

I gazed as well.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!! _CRrrrrkkkkkkk!!!!_

The mass of morphing and pulsing bones shot out onto the concrete floor of the sewer cavern. It throbbed, glared at us with black skull sockets, and tried slithering after us on the platforms. But no matter how much the bones surged and lunged, it couldn't slide up after us.

"Hah hah hah!!!!" Cyborg beamed. "That's just great, man!! The thing's got nothing to grip too!!"

I smirked.

The bonewyrm shook and quivered. It slithered backwards. It oozed into a pool of shifting calcium in the center of the cavern floor. One seconds....two.....

_CRkkkrRRRkkk!!_

The center of the bonewyrm quivered. A ring of vertebrae opened up—_CRAAACK_!!

Three white forms shot up at us like mortar shells.

Cyborg and I flinched.

SWOOOOSH—CL-CL-CLAMP!!! The three white figures landed on my platform and 'stood up'. They turned out to be hastily constructed humanoids of cracked and worn bones. Three cherub-sized skeletons paced around me, each equipped with a ribcage for a shield and a clavicle for a rapier. With crooked, creaking joints they all approached me as one.

Cyborg climbed up to the platform and was halfway through pulling himself to his feet. He took one look at the bone-cherubs and blinked. "Whoah....no thank you."

I held Myrkblade out at the three creeps.

_They're only drones. How good could they be at swordfighti--_

SWOOOOSH!!! The skeletons twirled at me, clavicles blurring.

I gritted my teeth.

_Awwww you mother f--_

SLASH!!!!

CL-CLANG!!! I knelt down and deflected two clavicles from the first two.

The third swung low at me.

SWISH!!

I rolled to the side. I leaned precariously on my right and jabbed Myrkblade out to block a dual lunge of the creatures.

CL-CLANK!!!

I kicked one back.

The third rushed forward and tossed its 'shield' at me.

SMACK!!!

I exhaled and fell stretched-out on my back from the blow.

WHUMP!!!

One bone cherub landed on my chest, hissed, and stabbed the clavicle down---

SMACK!!!

Cyborg's boot smacked mercilessly into it.

The creature went spiraling and smashing apart against the brick wall of the cavern.

Kl-Kl-Klak!!! "Scatter!!!" Cyborg aimed his sonic cannon and took potshots at the remaining two skeletons.

ZAAAP!! ZAA-AAAP!!

Calcium dust littered the far side of the metal platform.

Cyborg rushed over and stretched his whole hand down. "Like frickin' popcorn, I swear..."

I simpered and grabbed his arms.

_CrrrkkkKKkrkkkkk!!!_

Cyborg helped me up. We both looked down.

The bonewyrm wobbled, shook, and---CRAACK!! CRAACK!!!

Two larger white forms this time soared up, flipped in the air, and landed on the metal catwalk next to us. They were unnaturally large. Two vertebrae with two sets of ribcages each. Four arms—precipitated by femurs as upper limbs. Extra pairs of carpals on the hands gripped tightly two double-jointed scapulae. In effect, two skeleton giants circled Cyborg and I with eight arms wielding serrated calcium nunchaka. Skulls laced with horn-like tailbones glared down at us.

"Hmmmmm....were those pipsqueaks friends of yours??" Cyborg grumbled. He aimed his sonic cannon at the two. "Allow me to pop you too, punks!!!"

ZAAAAA-AAAAP!!!

The blue stream shoved the giant skeletons backwards. They stumbled momentarily...cracked their limbs...and gradually glared at us.

"...........," I bit my lip. I looked at Cyborg.

"Uhm....eheheh...," the android Titan sweatdropped. "Guess you're acoustically sound."

With a loud clatter of armor-heavy bones, the two creeps charged us.

"Plan B!!" Cyborg shouted. "Uhm....'KILL'!!!" He charged forward. "RAAAUGH!!!"

I took a shuddering breath and dashed forward too.

Cyborg slammed into his opponent and the two scuffled....titanium against calcium.

I found myself running straight into a quadruple-buzz-saw fan of expertly twirled shoulder blades.

"!!!!!!" I panicked at the last second and morphed into smoke form.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

I teleported through the rotating joints and solidified—trembling—behind the skeletal giant's back.

I took a breath--

SWIIISH-CHUNK!!!

I stabbed in reverse with my blade. I snapped a rib free from its cage and twisted the sword into the monster's body.

SW-SW-SWISH!!! Three separate shoulder blades were twirled back at me.

I took a breath and vaulted my legs up with a pulse of murk and out of the blades' reach. I pinned myself upside-down to the vertebrae of the creature....took a deep breath....and teleported back through the skeleton to solidify in front of it.

CRUNNNNNCH!!!!

The skeletal giant snapped vertically in half from the force of my teleportation. With a crumbling noise, the two halves crumbled to the floor. It was a remarkable feat...especially considering that I was upside down when I solidified in mid-air.

THWUMP!!!!!

I winced and toppled over into a limp position across the metal platform. I shook my head and sat up. Blinking my black eyes. I looked to the side and saw Cyborg in an arm-wrestling match with his huge opponent. I stumbled to my feet, rushed over, and dragged Myrkblade along the metal floor beside me. _Skkkkkrrttttttttt!!!!_ Sparks flew. I blurred over, ran up the monster's backbone, and leapt off with an expert swing at the monster's cranium.

CRAAACK!!!

The beast's skull flew off.

Cyborg stretched a metal palm out and caught the skull securely. He gritted his teeth and shouted at the monster's torso. "Head's up, punk!!!"

CRUNCH!!!! He slammed the skull into the creature's sternum. The disjointed vertebrae crumbled. Cyborg shouted a warcry and rose his knee into the skeleton's center of gravity. THWACK!! The beast lumbered back and teetered off the edge of the metal platform.

I let out a sigh of relief--

"Look out, man!!!" Cyborg shoved me back.

"?!?!?"

CLANK!!!! A shoulder blade slammed down sharply over where my ankles would have been.

The torso of the skeleton I ripped in half had crawled towards me to make its strike.

Cyborg roughly kicked it off the platform to join the rest of the poltergeist below.

"_CRAAAHAAAAAK!!!"_ the monster's voice hissed in anger and frustration.

Cyborg exhaled: "I dunno about you...but I'm all for getting out of Dante's inferno." He pointed upwards.

I nodded. In smoking agility, I climbed furiously up the ladder to the next metal platform above us.

Cyborg followed.

The entire time we ascended, the stirring sounds of the bonewyrm below increased more and more. But we couldn't see it at this point. Instead, our eyes caught sight of a huge doorway in the brick wall besides the platform.

A huge doorway cealed by a concrete pylon.

"Awww man...," Cyborg ran up and performed a quick sensor sweep. A beat. "I-I can get us through! It'll be our ticket out of here...but it's gonna be a belated ticket!! Hang on!!" He switched his hand into a red-hot tool of flame and started burning through the surface of the concrete seal in a circle. "We must get through this thing at all costs!! If Mr. Bone Jangles down there decides to crash our party...I'm gonna need you to poop it for me, Noir. Got it??"

I nodded.

_CrkkkkkRkkkkk!!!!_

I twirled Myrkblade at ready and faced the edge of the platform.

"............"

Nothing.....

Until......

_CRkkkkrkkkRKkkkk!!!!_

A skull rose. Then two. Then three. A virtual pyramid of skulls lifted upwards and leered at me above the metal platform like a cobra's head. The look was complemented by the fact that the pyramid of skulls rested atop a bulbous bundle of ribs stretched outward on a stalk of multiple vertebrae twisted and fused together. The huge 'snake' of bones drifted around, 'eyeing' me threateningly.

"_Craaaahaaaak........._"

I bit my lip.

The rib cages yawned open with a creaking noise. Eight tiny skulls stretched outward on tentacle-like vertebrae while four strings of femurs stretched out and rose above me with scythe-like clavicles on their ends. The skulls clattered and shrieked and snapped at me while the four bone 'scythes' twitched hungrily.

I regripped the hilt of Myrkblade and pumped smoke through my upper limbs.

In the middle of his work, Cyborg glanced back at me. He blinked. "Uhh.........," he returned to his concrete-cutting. ".....y-yeah....sucks to have your job."

I gritted my teeth.

_Love you too, Cyborg._

_"CRAAAAHAAAAAAK!!!"_

The eight tentacle skulls and bone scythes lashed out at me all at once.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Rhhsssskskkk!!!"_ the half-blind wire wraith lunghed upwards at Robin. SW-SWIIIIISH!! Two tentacles soared at him.

Robin leapt, twirled in mid-air, dodged the two limbs, and landed nimbly on the escalator rails. He took a breath and slammed a taser into the broad-side of one of the lunging tentacles.

ZZZTTTTTT!!!!!

The creature shuddered and slammed baby-face first into the bottom end of the escalator.

CRUNCH!!!

The structure shook.

Robin struggled for balance.

The limping wraith slid down from above. _"Rhhsssskkk!!!"_

Robin performed a one-armed hand plant. He vaulted himself upward, flipped through the air, and landed past the lashing tentacles onto the back of the poltergeist's meaty center. He grunted and slammed both tasers at once into the rubbery hide.

ZZZZ-ZZZZZZTTTT!!!!

The creature shrieked. Tentacles thrashed everywhere. And the mannequin arms--

**GRIP!!**

"Ack!! Wha----?!?!" Robin glanced down.

A pale mannequin extending from the creature's body hissed as it pulled and tugged at Robin's cape.

"Nnnnghh!!" the Boy Wonder struggled to keep his balance AND his pressure of the tasers on top of the monster. !!! Yaaugh!!!" he lost it. He fell backwards from the mannequin's yanking grip. The Boy Wonder toppled until he hung limply over the edge of the precarious escalator. Utter darkness yawned beneath his dangling legs.

"........."

And then the mannequin let go of his cape.

SWOOOOOSH!!! Robin plummeted.

"!!!!" the Boy Wonder gasped. He twirled in mid-air and fired a grappling hook. POW!! Clank!! It embedded into the center stalk of the tower jutting down out of the platform's bottom.

SWOOOOSH!!! Robin sailed down. The red wires webbing down into the metal nub came into view.

The Boy Wonder positioned his feet just right.

CLAMP!!! He landed with his boots on the upper, angled end of the wires.

He panted.

SMASH!!!!

He looked over.

Both wraiths ripped their ways through the floor sheets and were spider-crawling towards him, hissing. _"Rhhhskkkk!!!!"_

Robin panted. "Do you guys have a fetish for living meat or what???" Robin pulled taut the grappling hook cord and pushed his legs into action. With his agile body positioned almost horizontally, he 'ran' from wire to wire in graceful stride while anchoring himself to the centermost stalk of metal. The wraiths crawled ravenously after him, lashing tentacles at his heels. SNAP!! SN-SNAP!!! Robin grunted and flung birdarangs and exploding discs at the pursuing poltergeists in mid-sprint. BLAM!! POW!! BOOM!!

Robin glanced at the metal nub through the edge of his eyemask. There were two more coiled figures.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath and launched a freezing disc.

SWOOOOOSH-CRKKKKK!!!!

A chunk of ice formed on the wires, trapping the two demons by their mannequin toes. They struggled, yanked, and hissed to get free.

Robin yanked at his cord. Responsively, his body yanked too and he lost momentum. He repositioned his boots and slid agilely down a copper wire till he landed on the metal nub below. Right as he was about to uncoil the two bodies, vibrations shook violently down the cords attached to the structure.

"Rhskkkkkk!!!!"

"RHSSSSkkkkk!!!"

SNAP!!!! The ice shattered.

A huge, quivering shake thundred down the wires and wracked the metal nub.

"Nnnghh!!" Robin braced himself as the structure literally wobbled beneath him.

The wraiths got the idea and began shaking the metal webbing mercilessly.

More vibrations. More thunder. The metal tower stretching downward started to teeter and groan like it could snap off its rusted support any second.

Robin fell helplessly—chest first—to the metal structure's floor. "Ooof!!" he winced. "Exactly who's the home-wrecker here??"

The wraiths hissed and shook and thrashed about with wide-open baby mouths of hate.

Joints in the metal structure started to crack and fracture.

Robin gritted his teeth. He struggled to his feet and scrambled for the coiled bundles. He didn't give a thought as to whether or not he could save both—much less one victim. He whipped out a birdarang, snapped the cords free, and started gripping them--

CRACK!!!!!!

The tower shattered.

The metal nub lurched downward...and dangled dangerously on the ends of the copper cords attached to it.

_GROAAAAN!!!!_

Robin gasped, tumbling with the metal-cocoon bodies. He struggled to keep him and the two forms balanced on the wobbling nub as the cage of wires became an even steeper spindle.

"Not good....," he grunted. He looked over and found himself peering down the endless pit of black. "Not good!!!"

"_RHSSSSkkkkKKKkkk!!"_ the wraiths hissed. They shook the wires some more.

Clanging thunder warbled down the taut strips of rust and--

SNAP!!!!

One flew free.

SNAP!!!!!!

Then another.

SN-SNAP!!!

Two more.

The metal nub lurched downward with each break. Only a few more wires to snap off...and there'd be nothing to hold the Boy Wonder and his two rescuees anymore---

FL-FLASH!!!!!!

Glowing green bolts slammed down onto the wraiths from above. They shrieked and burned.

Robin looked up.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

A red-haired goddess lowered before him.

The Boy Wonder exhaled. "Starfire. Just in time. Could you---"

SWOOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

She soared over hugged him fiercely.

"Erp!!!" Robin struggled for breath.

She shivered against him. "I.... do.... not.... like... absence... of.... nightlights!!!"

The Boy Wonder wheezed. "Y-Yeah. Um....y-you and me b-both, Star. Now....how about—"

"Eeep!! My the bad!! 'Keep your equine under opposable pressure'!!" The Tamaranian gripped Robin by the cape in one hand and tethered the two victims by their coiled copper ends in the other. SWOOOOOOSH!!! She airlifted the three souls up and out of the bottom of the lurching spindle.

SNAP!! SN-SNAP!!! SNAAA-AAAP!! The last of the wires broke free from the heavy metal and the nub descended endlessly into the obsidian oblivion below.

Robin couldn't but shudder at least once. He focused his attention on the thin metal floor of the plaza rocketing violently down towards them......and winced.

CRACK!!!!

Starfire smashed the four of them through the metal shingles. She drifted them over and landed them gently in the midst of Raphael, Victor, and the other recently 'unwrapped' victim.

"Are those the last of them??" Raphael asked.

"Yes," Robin nodded as he dropped down to his boots. "But as for those creeps—"

SM-SMASH!!!!

The five conscious people spun around and gasped.

_"Rhhskkkk!!!"_ the wire wraiths emerged upwards from the black expanse. They crawled on mannequin arms towards the group. They bled and hissed and sneered.

"Allright....time to finish this...," Robin whipped out two explosive discs.

Starfire frowned and readied a huge starbolt.

The two monsters crawled closer.

Raphael and Victor raised their fists. The citizen cowered.

And.....

A flute played.

"...........???" Robin's eyemask twisted.

"Huh???" Starfire looked over.

The thin melody wafted through the black air. It drifted over the two monsters and seemed to hold them at bay. Soon, Dimitri's peacefully pale figure marched into view with the musical instrument. He played it gently......serenely. He soon stood between the two creatures. They waved their tentacles...mesmorized.

"It....is beautiful...," Starfire blinked her green eyes. She looked over. "But I am afraid I do not understand what—"

"Shhhh...," Raphael hissed. "It's his job. He's a mediator."

"Huh?"

"He consumes the dead," Victor explained. "Robin may have ripped those two poltergeists apart in saving you, but only Dimitri can truly quench their anguish."

Dimitri waved the flute as he played. After a lullabye-like ensemble, he gently lowered the flute. He took a deep breath, meditated momentarily, and stretched both hands out towards the leathery baby-faces of the wraiths.

Starfire gasped. "He shall be damaged!!!" she was about to fly over when Robin gripped her forearm. She looked at him.

The Boy Wonder gently shook his head.

"........," Starfire watched pensively, biting her lip in concern.

Dimitri took another deep breath. He tilted his head back. He strectched his fingers apart.

The baby mouths of the wraiths opened wide. A slight whining sound...then...

Red vapors streamed out through their lips...and into Dimitri's nostrils.

The man's eyes pulsed pale for a moment and then a huge surge of red light gasped out of his inner being.

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!!!!

I slid back from the heavy contact of Myrkblade to bone scythe.

I gritted my teeth, twirled my sword, and rushed back into the fray.

"_CRAAAHAAAAAK!!!"_ The menacing snake of bone launched three biting skulls at me and two slashing scythes.

SWIIIIISH!!!!

I blurred, ducked, slid, stood upright, and swung up mightily.

CRUNNNNCH!!!

I shattered three layers of bone.

I twirled Myrkblade and stabbed inward.

CRKKKK!!!!

I pulsed murk in an explosion outward from the blade's wooden tip.

SNAP!!!!!

I yanked out harshly.

CRAAAA-AAAACK!!!!

Five skulls and a bone scythe were lopped off and fell free from inside the yawning ribcages.

_"CRAAAHAAAAAK!!!"_

The other scythes remaining slashed down at me.

CL-CLANK!!!

I deflected two and sidestepped the last before jabbing back, countering, stabbing, side-stepping, and then pacing myself at a safe distance away from the leering creature.

I was hoping that this was enough effort for Cyborg to acquire his much-needed distraction. And apparently it was. He was already three fourths of the way through his concrete slicing.

"Almost there!! Just a little longer, man! You're doing good!!"

I took a deep breath. I fanned Myrkblade in a side-lunged, deflecting three skull strikes at once. CL-CL-CLANK!!! I stabbed forward. The creature drew back. The pyramid of skulls shrieked. Then the entire head of the bonewyrm lunged at me.

THWOMP!!!

I tumbled back. I landed on my shoulders.

SWIIIIISH!!! Two scythes sailed down at me.

I parted my legs just right to miss the strikes. I then morphed into smoke form, drifted up in a blink of a black eye, and solidified in a standing position above the two scythes.

SLASH!!!!!! SN-SNAP!!!! I severed both bony limbs.

"_CRAAAHAAAAAAK!!!!"_

The creature reared its huge 'head'. One last scythe was leering and twitching.

I sweated.

_This isn't right. I can't kill the creature. I'm only making it hurt more._

I panted.

_Hurt......_

"Got it!!!" Cyborg shouted. He stood up from his handiwork and kicked at the concrete seal with his boot. CLAMP!!!! "Nnnghh!!!" CLAMP!! CLAMP!! "Come on!!!" CLAMP!!!

The severed piece began to give way some.

I glanced back at him. I gripped Myrkblade. I glanced back--

SLAAAASH!!! The scythe came down before I could counter.

SLIIINK!!! A stream of blood flew from my shoulder.

"!!!!!" I howled mutely in pain, clutching my upper limb.

Cyborg gasped. "Noir!!!!" he rushed over in an instant and covered my wounded body with his titanium bulk, deflecting whatever striking limbs of the skeletal wyrm remained. CL-CL-CLANG!!! "Back off from my friend, shitheads!!!" he aimed a sonic cannon at the skulls. ZAAAAA-AAAAP!!!!

Calcium dust flew and the huge snake-head fell back some.

Cyborg spun around with me in his grasp. "And you!!!" he growled at the door. "Crumble sesame!!!" he slammed his boot into it one last time.

CRUNCH!!!! CRKKKK-THWOMP!!! The freshly cut concrete circle fell without a hitch.....and beyond it in the tunnel was a solid wall of water.

Cyborg and I winced.

But the water was standing in place.

".................."

"...........uhm....," Cyborg blinked. A beat. He suddenly gasped. "Down---!!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Cyborg slammed himself and my body down onto the metal platform at the last second.

A torrent of pure water gushed magically out and slammed into the writhing mass of the bonewyrm.

SPLAAAAAASH!!!!!

_"CRAAAHAAAAAK!!!!"_ the beast writhed and twitched and fell down hard to the cavern floor below.

The android Titan and I panted. We stood up—myself wincing—and looked down the open tunnel.

Tempest stood with his hand outstretched. He had a bandage on his left wrist. Behind him—partitioned around magical cubicles of solid water—nearly a hundred people were gathered and gazed helplessly, nervously out at us.

The Atlantean's eyes were glowing purple as he calmly uttered: "Don't surface-dwellers believe in knocking?"

"H-How long have you been here, man??" Cyborg panted.

"Since Dr. 'Dark'—or whoever the genius was—sealed us away in this living cemetery," Tempest grunted. "And might I add that I've been providing these good people with quite a bit of safety till you and black eyes there had to summon another ghoul to harm us all!!"

"Well excuuuuse us, Flipper!! We came down here looking for warm body signatures like yours. And the least you can do for Noir and I is---Noir?? NOIR!!!"

Tempest's purple eyes narrowed. He and the immediate people behind him gazed beyond Cyborg as the android Titan rushed over to the edge of the metal platform, panting. "Noir!!! What are you doing, man?!?!"

During the altercation, I had descended the ladders and now stood knee-deep in sewer water before the collapsed bonewyrm. I limped towards the creature. The wound on my shoulder was just a graze...but it still hurt. I winced with every step I took, leaning on Myrkbalde once or twice.

The bonewyrm recovered slowly, its skulls and ribcages forming a cohesive 'neck' that regarded me.

I took a deep breath.

_All right......_

CHIIIING!! I sheathed Myrkblade.

_Here we go, Jonas......_

I held my hands unthreateningly behind my head.

_The grand experiment........._

The bonewyrm didn't make any attempt to rip me apart anymore.

The black sockets eyed my black eyes.

I started to exhale visible vapors.

A connection was formed. Like clockwork.

"Noir!! Get away!! Now!!"

_Don't worry, Cyborg._

For Raven...or for me...

Don't worry......

The neck of the bone mass leaned down towards me.

_I'm gifted........._

The calcium parted ways. Unfolded. Split apart.

_So very gifted......_

The bone kept spreading.

Ribcages yawned open like russian dolls, revealing smaller ribcages.

And something dark inside—concealed and hidden until now—pulsed and twitched.

I panted. My breath was frozen. Chills ran down from my metal prosthetic.

The last ribs parted ways.

My black eyes twitched.

A hairy fetus shuddered inside. Twin, beady eyes flew open.

Black on black.

_No......_

Stubby arms reached out for me.

_N-No............_

Red vapor from squealing frog lips.

And....

"Noir!!!!"

I consumed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_Fire!!!!"_

POW!!!!!!

BLAM!!!!

BLAAA-AAAM!!!

_  
Musketfire._

Puffs of white and blue smoke.

Hot lead shot screaming through the air in every direction.

_The meat wall staggers........._

TH-THUNK!!!!

THUNK!!!!

SPLAT!!!

"AAAAAAUGH!!!!"

"GAWWWWD!!!!!"

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"_Form ranks!!!!"_

_The soldiers in blue stood in an orderly phalanx._

A solid wall of raggedy-gray men charged towards them. Yelling. Howling. Crying.

Bodies twitched half-open on the green grass.

The sun was out.

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"_Reload!!!"_

_Moses trembled._

"Ready!!!"

Moses shook.

"Aim!!!!"

Moses shuddered.

"Fire!!!"

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_BLAM!!!!!!!!_

BL-BLAM!!!

POW!!!!

White mist shot out from the barrels.

But the gray bodies still charged on through. And they had bayonets.

"RAAAAAUGH!!!!"

"YAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"

SLIIIIINK!!!!

THUNK!!!

RIIIIIP!!!

"AAAUGH!!!!"

"ATTACK AT WILL!!!"

CL-CLANK!!!

THWACK!!!

SLASH!!!!

"AAAAUGH!!!"

Moses trembled as he stood on his knees. And that's when the blade struck him through the spine from behind.

THUNK!!!!

"!!!!!!!"

He lurched.

He fell on his chest.

The world turned black.

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_Grass._

Soil.

Red soil.

Bodies on either side of him.

Ragged pieces of flesh hanging out.

Fingers clutching.

"Momma......it hurts............"

A trumpet sounding off in the distance.

The battle proceeds beyond the green hills.

"Momma.................."

A brand of fire shooting up Moses' spine.

"Momma!!!!! AaaaAAAAUGHAHAHAAHAAAAA-AAAAAA!!!!!"

_And dark again._

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_Shuffling._

Wheelbarrows.

Carts.

Black workers.

Sobbing women in the field.

A pair of calloused hands stroke over Moses' face.

"Is he alive?"

Silence.

"No. This one's dead too."

Gurgling.

A throat that refuses to work.

"Cart 'em."

"Yeah."

Hoisted by arms.

Carried to the cart.

More gurgling.

A bright sun.

The same sharp pain.

_  
A half-gasp._

And......

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Darkness._

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"_!!!!!!!!!!"_

Gasping.

Flesh and bloody clothing against his mouth.

Legs moving.

Heat.

Squished.

Limbs.

Body parts.

"Mmmmfmfff!!!!"

Moses squirmed.

Faint daylight.

The red aura of a barn.

A stack of bodies.

A stack of dead bodies.

A stack of dead, bleeding bodies.

Moses was at the bottom of the pile.

"MmmmmMMMFFF!!!"

Twitching.

Gurgling.

Hot pain.

He shook his caked mouth free of the obstrusive limb.

He howled.

"HEY!!!!!"

Muffled silence.

Heat.

Flies.

"HEYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nothing.

Caked blood.

More flies.

"NNGHHH!!! I'M ALIVE!!!!!! MMMFHHHELP ME!!!!!!"

The stench.

The stench............

"SOMEONE!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!! HELP ME!!!!!!!!!"

Maggots crawled into his mouth.

Bodies shifted from his struggling and crushed his lungs.

"MMmmmfFFFF!!! GAWWWD!!!! AAAAAUGHHHHH GAWDDDD HELP ME!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!"

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_Hours......_

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_Hours....................._

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_Hours......................................................_

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................................................_darkness........._

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_Clawing........._

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_Clawing away at the flesh._

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_Ripping through into the bone._

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_Nothing but bone._

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_Bone and heat._

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_A mother's womb._

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_A crowded grave._

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_Congeal.........congeal.........congeal........._

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"................................._crrrr...............crrr-rrr......crrrraaaaAAAHAA__**AAAK!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!!!!!"

I gasped and sputtered for breath.

Strong titanium arms were holding me from behind.

"Shhh!!! Easy, Noir....easy....."

My black eyes flew open.

I panted.

I raised my flesh and metal hands up in front of my foggy gaze. I flexed my fingers. Shuddering, I ran my palms over my face. I shook back into the frame of Cyborg. We were both sitting in the shallow water at the bottom of the sewer cavern. He had me in a strong grip. And though I wasn't freaking out like the 'first time', it still felt........soothing.

I exhaled and leaned back. Dazed.

"Man....why do you keep doing that???" he uttered worriedly from behind me. "This is not your land!! This is Mortuana!! You weren't built for this!! Don't you know that?!?!"

I swallowed.

_I don't know what to 'know' anymore......_

I looked lethargically across the floor of the cavern.

There was no sign of any monstrosity.

"He's gone, dawg......the damn thing faded away as soon as you 'consumed' it. You've got a death warrant, man. I swear....."

I ran a hand through my long, black hair.

I was thinking about Kara's smile right about then.......

Tempest lowered slowly down from the people-filled pipe above on a pillar of self-supported water.

"I hope you don't mind," he uttered. "But I had to....erm...'borrow' the Downtown's water supply in order to best protect these people."

"So that's where all the water went," Cyborg smirked up at the Atlantean as the android Titan helped me up to my feet. "We're all thirsty on account of you."

"Speaking of accounts," Tempest's purple-glowing eyes blinked. He was maintaining an awful lot of magical water at once. "What in Poseidon's name is going on with this Town of ours??"

"It's a long story," Cyborg rubbed his human head. He glanced at me. "As you can see, we're pretty stressed out—holy crap....NOIR!!!"

I jolted, startled.

Cyborg reached a hand to my shoulder, dipped a titanium finger in my wound, and held it up. Liquid dripping from his hand was.......glowing. A bright ivory.

My black eyes bulged.

Cyborg's lips quivered in shock and concern. "That....th-that bonewyrm thing!! It must have done something freaky to you!! Come on, man! We gotta get you back to Jonas, Raven, and the Mortuanans! We've got to—"

"Nothing bad has happened to Noir," Tempest lethargically groaned. "Nothing more than a mere cut."

I looked horrifically at both Cyborg and the Atlantean.

"What do you mean??" Cyborg's human eye narrowed.

Tempest took a deep breath. He undid the bandage on left wrist. "When we bleed down here in the blackness....," he held his hand up. "....it glows." Indeed, a moderate cut in Tempest's hand was leaking blood...a blood that glowed silver.

Cyborg's mouth hung open. He glanced at back and forth between the Atlantean and myself. "Man.....what....wh-what the Hell??"

"?!?!?!" I looked helplessly at Tempest.

The dark-haired young man exhaled. "Don't you see? It's 'life'......and this apparent 'land of the dead', life burns."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin shook his head. He snapped out of it. He slowly turned around and was shocked to find himself inside....a shopping mall.

A normal shopping mall. Pitch black, yes. But void of copper wires or rusted metal framework or missing floor tile. He pulled out his flashlight and shined it around. The illumination swept over three stirring, safe citizens, Raphael, Victor, and a trembling Starfire.

"............," Robin placed a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder.

The girl fluttered her green eyes open. She clutched ahold to Robin's side. "The l-light....it is nice....."

Robin simpered. "Glad you like it." He glanced at the two guardians. "Hey..."

"Y-Yes, lightsider?"

"How come everything's back to normal?"

"The wire wraiths...," Raphael spoke.

"They've been consumed," Victor added. A beat. "For now," he smiled.

"..........and Dimitri?" the Boy Wonder asked.

The two pointed.

Robin spun the flashlight about.

The pale figure of the young man crouched besides his flute, panting as if suddenly exhausted.

Robin took a deep breath and stepped towards him---

Starfire's hand was on his shoulder.

He froze and looked back at her. "Huh??"

Starfire bit her lip. "Robin....I must thank you for your brave attempt at rescuing me and—"

"Thank me later, Star," Robin curtly said. "Right now, we must make haste and—"

"But I am always having to 'thank you later'...," Starfire uttered.

"...............yeah....well.....," Robin cleared his throat. "Ahem......let's make 'later' be...um...when everything is light again."

"...............," Starfire looked aside depressingly.

Robin ignored it....for then. He marched over and knelt by Dimitri's side. "Hey.....you all right?"

The man shuddered. "Y-Yes....I just....," he ran a shaky hand over his face. "I-I must meditate....is all.....it's....it's always....hard.....you must understand....it's always hard...after the task is performed...."

Robin slowly nodded. He gently patted the man's shoulder and managed a smirk. "Nice job."

"The same goes for you and your attractive companio—"

"Teammate."

"Oh?"

Robin sighed. "Let's go."

Dimitri smiled and picked up his flute with slightly calmer hands. "You certainly display quite a bit of acrobatic pathos for rescuing a mere 'teammate'---"

"LET'S GO!"

Starfire floated over, smiling. "The pale one does have a remarkable opinion to express, Robin—"

"Grrrrrr...."

Raphael and Vincent chuckled. They helped the three frightened citizens up and soon the group was exiting the shopping plaza.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And as they did so—shuffling into the dark, shrouded parking lot—a green shape lowered with a flap of leathery wings.

"!!!!!" Raphael and Victor pounced the creature.

THWOMP!!!!

"YAAAK!!! Get 'em off!! Get 'em off me, dude!!!!"

"It's okay!!" Robin dove in and shoved the two guardians back. "He's one of us!!!"

Dimitri panted. "A changeling in the world of light?? How remarkable!"

"Yeah...well...not really," Robin grumbled.

Beast Boy sat on his derrier in the parking lot. He dizzily rubbed his head and groaned. "Nnnghhh......I'd be seeing stars if I could only friggin' see the sky, dude..."

"Beast Boy!!!" Starfire sailed out from walking alongside the citizens and hugged the changeling fiercely to her chest. "Ooooooh I did so worry about you!!!"

Beast Boy wheezed. "Okay.....it's enough that I get pounced on by the technical consultants of Nightmare Before Christmas....can't you at least lessen the strangulation??"

Starfire held the elf at arm's length. "How did you travail upon descending upon us just now??"

"I was patrolling the area in bat mode," Beast Boy said. At that, he winked suggestively in Robin's direction.

It didn't work. "You heard the commotion and decided to investigate...right?"

"Right-oh-rooney," Beast Boy grinned. "Though—to be honest—I was just looking for more citizens to add to my collection."

"Citizens??" Starfire inquired.

"Yup!" Beast Boy cracked his knuckles. "I've got at least three dozen safely under my wing!"

Robin frowned. "You'd better not be just saying that. We all know how much you like to boast—"

"Dude!! Believe in me for once, will ya?!" the changeling pouted. "Fine! If you're so doubtful, I'll show you!! Follow me. Sheesh!! And you'd think reunions would be a tad bit more _friendly......_."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well what do you know...," Robin folded his arms and smirked. "So YOU'RE the group at the train station......"

Beast Boy had led the Boy Wonder, the Tamaranian, the three Mortuanans, and the three citizens to the central station of the Downtown's L-Train track. Inside the hollow interior lined with benches—under the illumination of eight bright torches—a lively cluster of City dwellers were safely gathered, obviously protected by the changeling's security. It was a remarkable feat in and of itself...especially considering that the emerald Titan had accomplished such on his own.

"Beast Boy...," Robin slurred. "See to it that I promote you for this."

"Woo!! At last!!" the changeling jumped with a cheer. "And to think the last time was at Westhaven!!"

"Actually, that was not Robin," Starfire smiled and gestured. "That was the fair Ms. Cartwright."

"Oh right. I forgot. Robin doesn't wear stockings."

The Boy Wonder glared for a second before facing the crowd and uttering loudly: "Don't any of you worry! More of us are here now! We're going to get you back to the real world soon enough!!!"

Dimitri smirked. "Careful what you call the 'real world', my friend."

Robin retorted with a smile: "Oh....go dig a grave."

A citizen or two meekly walked up.

Robin gazed upon them.

"W-Will we be okay, Mr. Titan?" a preteen girl murmured. Her older sister hugged her. "We can't stay in this p-place much longer......"

Starfire cupped her hands together with a sad look on her face.

Robin took a place. "There comes a day when we all must die," Robin said. A beat. He leaned forward and gazed firmly. "Today is not that day......."

Murmurs amongst the crowd.

Raphael and Victor exchanged glances.

"Right! Enough with the poetry!!" Beast Boy paced between the crowd and Robin. "I suggest we take the L-Train!"

Robin raised an eyebrow above his mask. "Excuse me?"

"Er...not the train itself. But the tracks!! Think of it! They're elevated. They're high above all the monsters and crap. And they can take us out of this big blob of blackness thingy!"

Robin rubbed his chin. "Or maybe they could bring us to a short-cut....."

"Er.....huh?"

Starfire leaned in. "What is it that you have planned, Robin?"

"I'm not sure yet...," the Boy Wonder smirked. "But it's beginning to hammer itself nicely in my head as we speak...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the hollow train station, something shifted in the corner of the torchlight.

A silver outline emerged momentarily in the darkness.

It was the figure of an adult human.

Atop his head was a crested helmet.

Dark eyes narrowed.......resentful.

A bearded face tensed.

A beat.

The figure dashed away like a fleeting shadow and disappeared into the blackness.


	138. Mortuana part 7

**138. Mortuana part 7**

"_One cannot imagine—in the world of the dead as much as in the world of the living—an existence without the warm faculties of __**emotion**__," the storyteller said. The fire dances off of his face as he scans the crowd and continues: "What would it be like to know the definition of a feeling...to know the iciness of sorrow...the numbness of fear...the fire-red heat of anger...or the smooth taste of happiness............and yet not be able to experience each and every one of those?? Only a grand, celestial inhibition could possibly play a part in such a castration of the heartstrings. Only powers exceeding that of the common decency of life could rob from someone her ability to cry, tremble, shout, or laugh. But it is very real. In all of its improbability, the possibility exists. And it exists in __**her**__."_

The violin and flute hit a sad note.

But the speaker seems strangely numb. Distant. Cold now.

"It was a necessity for the sacred daughter. From her very conception, the seed of evil nestled itself in her soul. Her wicked father tormented her with the blood of family members, and ever since she would have to guard against rage, or else she would release the father's evil essence upon the world. And as we all know, the soul is like a wheel with emotional spokes all contributing to the great rotation. If anger had to be in check, so did the girl also need to guard against happiness and sorrow and fear. The result was a life of stoical necessity. Something nobody would dare ask for. But for her, it was required."

The man's face returns to warmth as his body sinks and with gesturing arms he exhales: "And in our land......... in our land of Mortuana......the girl found that everything was collapsing. Everything was collapsing............and she allowed herself to collapse with it......"

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jeez, Flipper. You've been having a busy day! I've counted one hundred and eighty people!!"

"Good, because I have counted one hundred and eighty people too...," Tempest nodded. He and Cyborg paced down the length of the tunnel. The Atlantean's eyes kept glowing, because—the entire time—he was magically keeping the huge mountains of water around the huge group suspended "I've counted them a few times, actually. Just to be sure that nobody got lost. But such wasn't likely. We've been stationed down here for the last eight hours or so. I've been making a few trips now and then to check on other possible victims up on the surface. But I stopped doing that about two hours ago with the last group or two that I found. I figured that the sewers were safe...especially if I have control of the water supply to act as shields against.....erm.....whatever these foul beasts are."

An old man and his wife stepped forward, their hands together. "It's b-because of him that we're all here, Mr. Titan."

"He's b-been watching over all of us. We've been safe."

"Yes...."

"We're just so glad to be alive."

Murmurs and relieved sighs.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and looked at Tempest. "Wow, Tempest. You've done.....y-you've done—"

"Good?" the Atlantean smirked.

"Beginner's luck."

"You don't say........."

Cyborg winked. He faced the people. "Is anyone injured? Hurt or anything??"

Tempest gestured: "I already checked up on that. Over on the north side of the pipe is a triage center. I've got three people in casts for sprained limbs. They were driving a truck when everything turned dark and they crashed. It was the second group I found. The first set of people with me helped carry them into the sewers." Tempest took a breath. "These townspeople...they have been working together. It has not all been my doing."

Murmurs.

Commotion.

Cyborg cleared his throat. He stretched his arm out and opened a panel showing an underground schematic of the City. A beat. He tapped the display and uttered: "This is the main reservoir. It leads about one and a half miles west towards the far side of the City. If I'm not mistaken...you could walk the length of the tunnel and then climb up into the outside world. It'll probably be nighttime by now, but I'm pretty sure you'll know when you're outside of the dome---"

"Wait a second...," Tempest's glowing eyes narrowed and he held his hands up. "You mean we can walk out of this....this darkness?"

"Well, Noir and I walked in. That's how we got here," Cyborg said. "Dr. Dark's explosion sucked out all light in the City—yes—but it was all the light in a general radius. There's light and life and everything all rosy and happy outside of this mess, dawg. It's just these lucky victims who happened to be caught in the middle of it!"

"You mean m-my family outside is okay??" a woman uttered.

"The world isn't coming to an end??"

"What's going on here, Titans?!?!"

A murmur rose up.

Cyborg held his hands up. "Listen...LISTEN!! People!" A beat. He lowered his voice some. "You're all gonna be okay. This may look like our City and all, but it's actually a pocket dimension. It'll take a long time to try and explain, but if we simply make an exodus through this tunnel westward, then we'll be in the clear! It's not as bad as you think! Only five hundred people or so were caught in this mess and already—before you guys—we've rescued a good third of them! For the time being, we need to get you out too! Now we gotta be cool and calm about it...but still we gotta do it as soon as possible, allright??"

"Is there a hurry?" Tempest asked. "I thought it'd be wisest to have one of us stay here and then have the others meet up with Robin and the other Titans to—"

"Last time I talked to Robin, he said this place was collapsing," Cyborg uttered.

Tempest's purple eyes widened some. "Excuse me??"

"Yeah. I know. I don't like the sound of it...," Cyborg looked off down the western end of the tunnel. "...so I say let's get these people out of here and into safety. And while we're at it...the same with you."

"But....b-but you may need me!" Tempest exclaimed. "Neptune knows what sort of creatures you might come across down here and—"

"I need _you........._," Cyborg pointed, "...........to take _these_ people to safety. In these sewers, you are a one-man army. You control the water that surrounds and protects these people. We don't need a full-on Titan patrol when instead we have you. Got it?"

"I....I desire greatly to help...," Tempest bit his lip. "I want to prove myself and—"

"Listen, man...," Cyborg planted his hands on the Atlantean's shoulders. "A plus. A plus all the way."

"........................," Tempest blinked. "..........am I supposed to know what that means?"

Cyborg simpered. "You've more than proven yourself, Flipper. As the highest ranking Titan present, I'm giving you an order to bring these people you've saved to the light side of our City. We'll meet you there once we've got all the other people out and the black dome is gone. I promise. And believe me......we'll remember what you've done today."

".............," Tempest glanced down the tunnel. A beat. "There is.....something keeping you here, is it?"

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow.

Tempest looked at the android directly. "Or someone?" A beat. "Dr. Dark was after Raven. What became of her?"

Cyborg sighed. He tilted his head down. "I dunno, man. It's all so....wyrd. You know Raven. She's not the emotional type, right?"

"True," Tempest nodded. "And I thought it's all on account of her father and—"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Cyborg waved his hand. "Anywho...she's suddenly going back on all that. Turns out this pocket dimension is populated by living-dead dudes who are more or less related to the practitioners of Azarath."

"Raven's home..."

"Right on. And now that she's kinda with 'her people' again...she's no longer touched by Trigon's curse and she's letting loose her emotions."

"But why??"

Cyborg shrugged dramatically. "I don't know!!" He exhaled. "But I'm going to find out. One way or another."

Tempest smirked. "And.....save some more citizens, right?"

"Er...yeah....th-that....," Cyborg sweatdropped. "Dammit, Flipper...you talk too much now that I've gotten to know you."

"**I** talk too much?"

"And don't give me that lip!"

"Pfft!" Tempest rolled his glowing eyes. "Go talk to Noir."

"Oh yeah.....good idea, that."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"She was laughing?!?! What the fuzz?!?!?!" Beast Boy's eyes bulged.

Starfire gasped. "Could it be our friend Raven is having the flute?!"

"Flu," Robin corrected. "And calm down, Titans. Those people over there are freaked out enough as it is."

The three superheroes huddled in the corner of the torch-lit train station. Behind them, clusters of anxious citizens gathered around and awaited.....anything. Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor were in another corner.

"She is....apparently losing her emotional shields," Robin said. "I don't know any better way to describe it. She's purposefully, willfully undoing her many years of stoical meditation. In other words...the unemotional and mysterious Raven that we once knew...is a thing of the past."

"Remarkable...," Starfire blinked.

"Dude...that's royally wyrd," Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "Not to mention unfair! I was SO just about to figure that girl out, and now she's gotta change on all of us!!!"

"................," Robin and Starfire stared.

"Seriously!! I...I was about to understand her!" Beast Boy stammered.

"................."

"Ahem...so anyways.....why's she doing all of this?"

"Is Trigon no longer a threat?" Starfire inquired.

"So it would seem," Robin uttered. "Raven claims that the curse and threat of his uprising is no longer present in her spirit."

"You don't sound so impressed, dude."

"I'm doubtful of a lot of things, Beast Boy," Robin gestured. "But if you could only _see_ Raven. She seemed so free...so happy....so....so glowing...."

"Hehehehe. Sounds like you looked at her a little too closely—YAAK!!"

Robin finished twisting Beast Boy's pointy ear. He cleared his throat and said: "I'll be the first to say this outright. Raven may no longer be the Titan she once was. In fact, she may no longer be a Titan from now on."

Starfire gasped. "Do you mean....h-her powers? Her telekinetic strength........??"

"With her meditation gone, so would those talents be absent," Robin nodded. "But that's not what I'm getting at. You see....Raven and I founded the Titans to begin with. We both had our different reasons. And I know that a big reason—in Raven's case—was that she needed strong people whom she could trust to combat Trigon if ever he was to use her in entering our dimension. If she no longer has to be concerned with Trigon's curse or controlling her emotions—and if the threat is truly gone—then she wouldn't have to fight alongside the Titans for the very same reason that she helped originate them. Raven is now free to do whatever she wants. And that may or may not involve working with us in the future."

"Man...," Beast Boy folded his arms. "...I've always known that Raven was sick and tired of us. It sorta figures that—once everything is kosher in her head—she'd just walk out."

"Do not jump so hastily to foregone conclusions!" Starfire exclaimed. She clasped her hands together and leaned her head to the side. "Raven is our friend. On multiple occasions we have won her trust. Surely by now she will realize our respect towards her, and I can only assume that a Raven more perceptible of emotions would desire to stay within our presence!"

"Dude...all I can think of is three times the PMSing!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Grrrrrrr," Starfire grumbled.

Robin ran a gloved hand through his hair and sighed. "Anyways.....issues of Raven can wait."

"Dude! She's our friend! We can't just let this whole thing rest—"

"We have more important things right now," Robin said. "Look at all these people!"

"Yeah, dude. I know. I saved them," Beast Boy struck a glistening grin of pride.

"This deep in the center of Downtown, I'm not sure we can make it to the edge of the blackness in time...especially when this whole dimension is on the verge of collapse and I don't know exactly when. Now....," Robin gestured southward. "We can get them back to the Mortuanans' town. The L-Train track dips down to street level and then into the subway system. And the town of the Mortuanans is directly beneath Kobayashi Tower. There's an elevator there that scales up the building and can take us—and the people—to the highest point in the entire City."

"Point being???" Beast Boy gestured.

"I want you to go on messenger duty for me," Robin pointed.

"Wha—me?!?! Dude, haven't I done enough lonely stuff for the day??"

"To those who are given, much is required," Robin quoted. "I want you to fly up, exit the dome through the top, and then summon a helicopter airlift. Complete with metal carrying rack and everything.

"Just what do you have in mind?" Beast Boy gazed suspiciously at Robin.

"We have a lot of people here, Beast Boy," Robin said. "And I want to get them out of the City as quickly as possible."

Starfire blinked. "The air."

Robin nodded. "Something tells me they'll be enjoying starlight soon enough..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There we go, Mr. Titan," the woman smiled as she finished tightening the bandage. "Good as new."

I glanced over my bare shoulder. I flexed my arm a bit. The bandage pulled taut. It hurt—of course—but I knew the bark was worse than the actual bite. It was a mere scratch.

I looked at the woman, bowed my head with a thankful smile, and slipped the top of my white jumpsuit back on.

"Freaked us out the first time Tempest got hurt," the volunteer 'nurse' said. "The blood...it glows....so wyrd...."

I nodded. I glanced at my forearm where some blood had run down. It was dry...but a faint silver glow emanated in the darkness and was highlighted through my naked black eyes.

"This place looks like home...," the woman gestured around. "But I'm glad it isn't. I hope we find real hope at the edge of this tunnel."

I nodded. CHIIIING!! I sheathed Myrkblade and stood up with a sigh.

The woman leaned her head to the side. "You and Mr. Cyborg are going back out into the black mess, aren't you?"

I smiled wearily. I nodded.

"It's a good thing you got them peepers, I bet," the woman held a thumb's up. "Care to come by the house sometime and help my husband repair the circuit breakers?"

I chuckled breathily.

She laughed.

I waved and walked off....only to run into Cyborg.

"Hey man...," he held a fist out.

I hit it with mine.

We shook hands.

"You doing allright?"

I rolled my black eyes and emphatically mouthed: _'YES'._

"Cuz you threw me for a loop," the android Titan said. "Ughh.....you've been doing nothing but throwing me for a loop lately."

I simpered.

"I don't get it...why are those creatures letting you consume them? I thought only these undead mediators of Mortuana people could do that!"

I gazed aside softly. I exhaled.

"Something you ain't telling me, man?"

I hand-signed: _'Jonas thinks I have the makings of a mediator'._

Cyborg frowned. "And just because that prissy guy says that, you go all out and put your life on the line for no apparent reason with these poltergeists??"

I quickly gestured: _'But there is a reason'_

"And just what is that, Noir?!?! What are you risking your neck for with those spirits?! It's not right!! It's just dangerous!!"

I bit my lip. I hesitated......but then signed: _'I am only trying to understand.........'_

"Understand what, dawg? This creeped-out place?"

'_No, more than that.'_

A beat.

Cyborg exhaled, his face morphing back from frustration to concern.

I rubbed my temple exhaustively and eventually hand-signed: _'I am trying to understand death.'_ A beat. _'I need to figure out what it wants from me.'_

Cyborg's human eye blinked. He was at a loss for words.

So I took the opportunity to add:

'_At the same time, I think Raven is trying to figure out what life wants from her.'_

Cyborg's gaze fell aside. He clenched his fingers some...then relaxed.

A beat.

"Come on, man....let's go...," Cyborg quietly said with a wave of his head.

"........," I followed him.

In the meantime, the whole crowd of people inside the dim sewer tunnel were standing up as Tempest spoke to the lot of them: "Allright, surface-dwellers!! We are making our way westward to exit this dark domain!! Just follow me and you'll be safe!! I'm encasing us in a protective shield of dense water. Imagine it as an aquatic tank of sorts—or don't imagine it at all. Or just—"

"Just take off, Flipper! Damn!" Cyborg uttered.

A handful of laughs and chuckles.

"Ahem...," Tempest waved at us. "_So long_, fellow Titans."

I smirked and waved.

Cyborg and I headed down the opposite way of the sewer tunnel. A wall of water parted ways magically, let us pass through, then closed up on itself once we were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green pterodactyl landed on the top of the train station. It morphed into a green elf just long enough to salute the migrating people down below. Soon it lifted up in the form of a peregrine falcon and soared towards the pure black sky.

Robin waved. He turned and continued leading the front of the line of people. The two remaining Titans and the three Mortuanans were escorting the huge group of citizens southward via the L-Train track. Buildingsides and roads settled in the darkness thirty feet below the pacing limbs of the line of souls. It was a slow procession...but given that they were heading towards Kobayashi Tower and not the edge of the City, the duration of the trip was certain to be shorter than otherwise. While Robin and Starfire covered the front with watchful gazes...Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor took the rear.

"I-I awoke inside a smashed building not too far away from our prior confrontation with Dr. Light," Starfire said as they marched forward. "It was horrifically dark inside. As soon as I glowed a starbolt with my hands....I-I found myself surrounded by what looked like humans in nurse uniforms with octopuses in their mouths. It is difficult to explain, and I am n-not of the persuasion to willfully describe it either. B-But I retreated from there quickly, and on the way out I caught sight of a golden plaque inscribed: '_The Healing Ward'_. I went on a fruitless search for you and my other friends throughout the darkened City, but the closest I could come to was answering the cries of anguished souls in the 'mall of shopping'. I went there and attacked the two horrific demons called 'wraiths', but they overcame me. I do not know how long those unfortunate citizens and I were bound up in such metallic restraints, but I am most...most grateful to have been rescued by you, Robin."

"Don't mention it...," Robin uttered. "We're to get every last person out of this City. Yourself included."

"I understand," Starfire nodded. "But Robin, if you meant to—"

"I was just doing my job!"

Dimitri spoke up from behind them suddenly: "Actually, I was there when the caped hero was in the watchtower, Miss Starfire. He seemed most adamant about running directly to the faint glow of your starbolts in an attempt to save you."

Starfire gasped happily and clasped her hands together. "Was he truly??!! Glorious!!!"

Robin icily turned his head around and glared at Dimitri. "Say...what the Hell are you doing way up here anyways?"

"Oh...do not mind me," Dimitri smiled and bowed backwards. "Even dead muscles must get exercise."

"Mind the rear, please."

"Consider the rear minded."

Robin exhaled in frustration and glared ahead.

".........," Starfire stared at him.

A beat.

"What?" he grunted.

"I must inquire," she blinked her green eyes. "Why are you so hesitant?"

"Hesitant about what?"

"About sharing the true nature of your heroic actions??"

"Didn't I just say that my goal is to save everyone stuck in this dimension that shouldn't be here?"

"Hehehehehe," Starfire giggled. "That you did, Robin."

He looked at her curiously. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. Hehehehehe."

He frowned. "I mean it!!"

THWUMP!! She hugged him intensely as they walked along. "You are so youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu."

"Gah!! Star!! I'll fall off the L-Train if you keep hugging me like that!"

"Then I shall catch you!!"

"I...erhm.....uh...," Robin blushed. "I could break my neck!"

"No you will notttttttttt."

"Star, cut it out!!"

"Hehehehe!!"

The citizens scratched their heads curiously.

Dimitri folded his arms and smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The mouth to the subway system rested ahead of us.

After a good forty minutes of cross-city travelling in the dark, we had returned to the point of origin. Mission accomplished. A day's work in two hours.

But neither of us felt victorious for some reason.

An air of dullness followed us. Not a word was spoken....that is to say, Cyborg's voice was quiet and my hands were still.

And no more were we aware of the somber feeling encasing ours souls than when we found ourselves gradually walking to a stand-still in front of the subway.

As if neither of us wanted to go down there.

As if we were both equally sick of this whole Mortuana business.

"I'm wondering....," Cyborg muttered, finally breaking the silence. "Just how in the heck does a dome of pure darkness 'collapse'???"

I shrugged.

A beat.

"I guess we can trust these people....but I really don't like doing it," Cyborg said. "Especially with Raven."

I looked at him.

"I respect the fact that they're so close to her true people and all...but something just gives me an aching feeling. Raven wouldn't do all of this on such short notice. She wouldn't do it at all, man!! She's got a strong spirit and she's in constant control over her own psyche, so I don't see how she could possibly have been coerced into stripping herself of all those emotional shields. Yeah, she's doing all of this willingly. But why?"

Cyborg ran a hand over the natural part of his head.

He sighed and murmured into the dark throat of the tunnel. "What are you doing this for, Raven?? Why are you changing yourself so completely and spontaneously? What do these people have that your friends can't give you? Th-That I can't give you?"

I bit my lip. I wanted to talk him out of thinking like that.....but for some reason, I didn't even touch it.

A beat.

Cyborg sighed.

"You go on, man. I'll be a while."

I looked at him with a twisted expression.

He waved: "Don't worry. I won't go anywhere or nothing. I just want to have some time to think is all. I'll be down soon enough. I've got my floodlight. I'll be fine."

I nodded. I wasn't about to argue.

I turned, and walked slowly down the subway.

Cyborg leaned against a buildingside in the dark, and shut his eyes with a sigh.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The glow of the underground town greeted me gently.

With all the exercise my bare eyes had gotten, I barely needed to squint as I marched through the torchlight.

Pale gate guards waved at me with gentle, dead smiles as I passed by.

_They are always so friendly............so friendly........._

I took a breath and walked on.

I passed under wooden walkways. Over ramps and besides empty bazaars. It was very quiet and hardly anyone was moving or stirring about. As I noticed the torchlights to be fewer and dimmer, it occurred to me that the undeground dwellers must have been simulating 'nighttime'. Indeed, as I glanced up at the tents and shacks set upon the wooden walkways, I noticed many a body silently slumbering within.

_So.........the dead can sleep?_

I blinked my black eyes.

_Then again......since when could the dead walk and talk?_

I sighed and slung my metal and flesh hands into the pockets of my white jumppants. I strolled gently, quietly across the empty 'city square' of the place. In the center of the subway there was a round circle of sorts lined on the outside with benches and spots for a crowd to sit. The center of the circle appeared charred, as if many a torch had been lit there on occasion. It struck me as the ruins of an old, greek theatre....before stone masonry was invented.

_And the dead have a culture. That's three strikes._

I found myself subconsciously walking to a stop in front of Jonas' tent.

My black eyes gazed towards the shack.

There was no movement from within. Nothing to signify activity. Not even a guard present.

I sighed.

_I wonder where she is right now?_

I lifted a hand out of my pocket and smoothed a few black strands back beneath my bandanna.

_I wonder if there's anything left of her to recognize?_

I suddenly realized how extremely tired I was.

The scratch under the bandage ached.

I envisioned a glowing trickle of blood in my head and shuddered.

Before another chill could erupt from my metal prosthetic, I turned and headed towards a comfortably shadowed part of the town--

_Grip!!!_

"????" I looked to my left. "!!!!"

Raven had me by the arm. And she was teary eyed. The first time I had ever seen her crying.

And cry she did: "'I know very well that there is a fate worse than death. Yours will be oh so trivial'...."

I stared at her. My lips were parted in shock.

She hiccupped. She expounded: "I-I said that to you once, N-Noir. That one night wh-when you were Wyldecarde a-and the T-Titans and I battled you on th-the construction s-site that Slade had rigged to explode. I threatened you, Noir. I threatened you and would have killed you...and Trigon broke free. He m-must have!! Everything in my being senses it. Trigon came l-loose that evening and I woke up safe and sound afterwards, and I-I don't know why. How did you do it, Noir? How did you m-manage to save me from my wicked f-father when all I did w-was summon him by treating you w-with such vehement evil???"

She shook. Her grip on my hand slipped. She started to teeter over, hugging herself.

I rushed to hold her uptight—and when I did so she practically tackled me with a desperate hug. Raven sobbed into my chest. Her tears dampened my white shirt. Her hands trembled around my back.

Sniffs and convulsions and choked breaths.....

".........," I bit my lip. I nervously—gently—parted the hug and held her at arm's length.

She gulped, shuddered, and looked up at me with quivering lips. "I....I-I am so....so sorry, Noir.....I am so sorry that I put you through that.....that I spread my distrust of you to the Titans and made them push you away. I'm sorry that you h-had to become Wyldecarde. I-I truly am. It's all m-my fault..."

I exhaled and shook my head with a horrified expression. I wanted to dissuade her. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault. But she was so.....so 'sad' that I couldn't persuade her of the truth for the life of me, on top of the fact that I was mute.

And then the reality of what I saw before me struck my mind at about the same time Raven said:

"I....I-I have chosen to lift my h-hold on sorrow....," she hugged herself and trembled. "Jonas consumed the barrier a f-few hours ago.....and now everything is so clear to me. I see so much. And I see how c-c-cold I've been. And I see how much I've pushed everyone back and hurt them in the end. All b-because of my stupid curse!! I made my whole life bent around it!! I-I thought I could help people by distancing m-myself from them. But all I've managed to d-do in the Earth's dimension is find s-such kind, caring people who actually care about me a-and I treat them like dirt!!!"

She shook and clutched her blue hair achingly. She nearly shrieked. "I'm such a witch!! A WITCH!!! I hate myself!! I hate myself for ever hurting you, Noir!! I hate myself!! I hate myself!!!!"

"Shhhh!!!" I hissed and grabbed her shoulders. "Shhhhh.....," I gulped. I motioned with my head to the sidelines and gently guided the two of us towards a shadow where a wooden bench was. Like a gentlemen I lowered her to the seat and sat besides her.

She hugged herself and bent over, gasping as more and more tears rolled down her red face.

"My....My m-mother....," she wiped her face with a gentle wrist and shuddered. "She w-wanted to die....when she was pregnant with me." She bit her lip and clenched her wet eyes shut. "She was so overcome with the evil fate that Trigon had forced upon h-her....that she couldn't b-bear having me. And when I-I was an infant...she tried more th-than once tried to slaughter m-me. I-I do not know how she ever learned t-to love me before sh-she was slaughtered....b-but all of my life I've lived with....w-with that branding of banality." She looked up towards the heavens with tears streaming. "Wh-Why am I-I such a t-t-terrible living thing?? Why was I born?? To just be evil?? My mom is d-dead because of me. The very r-reason she wanted to k-kill me has caused h-her life to end. And someday it will t-take my friends away from me too. But these friends of mine....th-they do not want me t-t-to die. At least n-not that I know of. And that confuses me...."

She looked at me. Her blue eyes glistened.

"Why are you and the Titans s-so tolerant of me?" she murmured. "D-Don't you see that I'm a witch?? H-Haven't I creeped you all out enough, g-given you all the c-cold shoulder enough, and endangered y-y-you're lives enough to make you want t-to abandon m-m-me?? Like my mother should have b-before she died because of me??"

I slowly shook my head. My black eyes were round and I couldn't decide between placing a hand on her shoulder or trying in vain to hand-sign to her some consolation which she needed right then and there.

And I found my face leaning back a bit in surprise as Raven's trembling hand traced the edge of my sockets.

"I.....I-I can see my reflection in your eyes, Noir....," Raven spoke. Her sorrowful shivering lessened a bit and her lips were firm. "I could a-always see my reflection in them. Whether you were wearing your shades or not...whenever I was in your presence....whenever I could talk to you....whenever I so much as l-looked at you...I could see myself in your black eyes. And it w-wasn't like things are with the others. N-Nobody would be trying to get me to eat tofu, or to go shopping at a mall, or to go training in the Titan gym, or to w-work on the T-Car. I saw myself. And I-I had a chance t-to think of myself for once. T-To be selfish with someone. And....and...."

Raven's eyes closed.

She lowered her hand from my face.

She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I was so....s-so very selfish, Noir...," she exhaled. A beat. "I let you trust me. I let you respect me. I-I may even have let you admire me. B-But in the end...I shoved y-you away like garbage. And it w-wasn't so true wh-when I nearly hurt you in those b-battles with Wyldecarde as it was true afterwards. When all felt peaceful. When all seemed serene. Wh-When you were still h-hurting from the sacrifice you made for all of us to survive Slade, and all I did was t-toss you away. After you tasted Trigon because of me, endured my distrust of you, and weathered my indifference.......d-during the vacation the best thing I could do was run a-away and leave you alone when you m-most needed a friend to be selfish w-with for once as you deserve."

By the time she was halfway through saying this, I had my metal hand covering my face. I took a deep, shuddering sigh and then I closed my eyes.

Raven swallowed a painful lump down her throat and shed some more tears. "Y-You.....you hate me.....d-don't you, Noir?"

I earnestly shook my head and waved a desperate hand without looking at her.

"It's a-allright...," she sniffed. "You can hate me. You can—"

".........," I got up swiftly. I dug my hands into my pockets and walked a few slow steps facing away from the dark girl.

A beat.

I breathed slowly. I hung my head.

Silence......

"............," Raven wiped her eyes with a wrist. "If I were brave....I-If I were truly brave.....I-I would let all of you scream and shout and hurt me in some manner that could almost make things feel 'right'. But that isn't possible now. My mother wanted me dead, and y-yet I lived. The world is unfair that way."

I sighed.

_No........._

I shook my head at the floor.

_No...no...no...no..._

I slowly turned around. I looked at Raven with a painfully sincere smile. I breathed peacefully.

_If only you knew, Raven......_

I ran a shaking hand through my long black hair. Calming down.....

_You were right to distrust me after Trigon. You were right to want to hurt me when I was Wyldecarde. You were right to......t-to push me away when we nearly became 'close'......_

Raven looked at me, her lips parted as she panted in the exhaustion of her outpouring sorrow. It almost looked like she could understand what I was thinking.

But I knew she couldn't.

_You have no idea, Raven, how right and how just and how vindicated you are to have ever decided to keep yourself away from me._

I swallowed and smiled again.

_For it is not your place to ever concern yourself with me. It may always have been your reflection that you saw in these black eyes, but you didn't know me. You still don't know me._

I looked off towards the distance. The chill finally caught up with me. My left arm shook some.

_Nobody knows me. And if they did...then maybe even Trigon wouldn't look so bad._

I exhaled with a shudder.

_The only people who come close to knowing me......are the Dead themselves. The poltergeists......_

My mind went numb.

I could have fallen asleep standing up...or died.

Silence.

"............Noir?"

I looked her way.

She was hugging herself. She avoided my gaze as she trembled to utter: "In a few hours......I......I-I don't want any of the Titans to see me. Especially Cyborg......"

I raised an eyebrow.

She sniffed. "Jonas will be rested from the last consumption...a-and by then he will be ready to help me release the n-next and s-second to last barrier."

I blinked curiously.

She looked up at me. "H-H-He will be freeing me to experience rage......"

The chill reached a fever point. I clenched my metal fingers and steadied myself as I looked at her.

"I.....I don't want Cyborg seeing me mad...," Raven bit her lip. "Even with Trigon's curse gone...I don't t-trust myself to be around him then." She closed her eyes defeatedly. "I......I-I really d-don't want to do to Cyborg what I d-did to you..."

I felt a lump in my throat.

She gently cupped her hands over her face and sobbed. "I......I-I have so very little left right now......s-so very little....." Her body shook. She quaked. "I-I-I hate to do it....b-but I must sacrifice it all. And I-I don't want Cyborg to see the angry Raven. I-I don't want his last m-memories of me t-t-to be full of angst and r-remorse like I have forced them upon you!!"

With a shocked expression I mouthed: _'Last memories?'_

She brought her hands down, sniffed, and looked tearfully up at me. "When all of the Town citizens are s-saved...and you and the T-Titans have left th-the collapsing dome......I will b-be staying here." She swallowed. "I w-will be staying with Mortuana permanently...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg paced around the darkened street.

He had his shoulder flashlight on, but he wasn't making any special attempt to see where he was going.

For once, he let the infinite blackness guide him. And that blackness was guiding him in circles.

The android's human and red eyes fell on his pacing boots.

He sighed.

"I can't shake the feeling that I'm alone...," he muttered to no one in particular. He just talked. He said: "Raven is losing herself. Noir is practically killing himself. And me? What am I doing?"

He shuffled to a stop and folded his arms.

"I'm yapping my mouth off in the middle of the street like a good schizo, that's what I'm doing."

A beat.

A sigh.

A shuffle and......more pacing.

Cyborg grumbled: "I'm thinking only about myself. Raven knows what she's doing. Noir knows what he's doing.....—I think. What right do I have to keep dipping into their heads and telling them what to do and what not to do?"

Silence.

Cyborg ran a hand over his human head. "Why can't I just....leave people alone? Why can't I just trust my friends in what they do and leave them be?"

A beat.

"Or maybe....I-I've never ever truly tried to help them in the first place...," he slurred. His face was long and he exhaled achingly. "Maybe I'm the one who's screwed up and they're the ones doing the right thing." He sighed and gazed upward at nothing in particular. "Noir....Raven....you have far more in common than you give yourselves credit for..."

As he glanced up, something emerged from the darkness. The stretching, wrought-iron skeleton of an L-Train track. And to Cyborg's confusion, the sounds of footsteps and murmuring, human voices lit his ears.

"?????" Cyborg's human eyebrow raised. After a beat, he smiled. "The prodigal Robin returns......."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I asked for two helicopters to descend through the dome carrying metal cargo cases from steel support cables," Robin explained to Dimitri as they now led the migrating citizens towards the center of Downtown. "Being that the top of Kobayashi Tower is high up...they won't have to descend much into the blackness. Considering the number of people with us, I figure that the two helicopters will be enough to airlift them to safety beyond the reaches of this pocket dimension. It may not be practical...but at least it's the fastest plan I can think of. And Beast Boy was perfect as a messenger to set the whole thing up. Ahem. Anyways, that was my plan. Did you have any questions, sir?"

Dimitri nodded. "No, my friend. Save for one."

"And what's that?"

"What is a 'helicopter'?"

"..............," Robin blinked under his mask. "Tell you what, once we get to the subway city......you just go about getting Ayane and the elevator prepped for extra visitors, okay?"

Dimitri smiled. "Sounds like a deal."

"Allright then."

POW!! CLANK!!!

People shrieked in fear.

Dimitri blinked.

Robin whipped out two birdarangs and gritted his teeth in fighting position.

Something bright and shiny had landed on the edge of the train tracks. Then a titanium body rose up, attached to the launched arm, and stood on the tracks at full height.

"S'up, dawgs? Did you forget your train tickets or what?"

Robin exhaled. "Cyborg, next time you sneak up on us in the middle of a City plagued with darkness.................._don't_ sneak up on us in the middle of a City plagued with darkness."

"Heh...missed you too, Robbie."

"CYBORG!!!!" SWOOOOOOSH-THWUMP!!! Starfire nearly knocked the android off the L-Train track with a monstrous hug. "You are undamaged!! It is glorious to commune with you yet again!!"

"Hehehe...glad to see you're in one piece too, Star."

"Where's Noir?" Robin asked.

Cyborg parted his hug with the Tamaranian. "Down in the city," he said. "We just came back from sending off Tempest with about one hundred and eighty people."

"Whoah, whoah, wait....what's this??" Robin held his gloved hands up. "Tempest and one hundred and eighty people?"

"Yeah, man," Cyborg nodded. "The fish dude got them safely rounded up on his own. He's been hiding out in the sewer system of the City just waiting for you or another high-ranking Titan to come and give him a review or something. Anyway, after Noir and I tackled some badass bone-monster—"

"Bone monster??"

"—don't ask—we had Tempest walk the people safely out through the pipelines into the light side. They should be safe with him manipulating the water in the sewers and all. A job well done, if you ask me."

"How did Tempest single-handedly save so many people?"

Cyborg gestured towards the huge crowd looming on the train tracks. "How'd you save all these people??"

"Actually, they are safe on behalf of Beast Boy's doing!" Starfire beamed.

Cyborg laughed. "Ha ha ha!! You mean B.B. saved these peops' necks all by himself?? Man, is this the Day of the Triumphant Underlings or what??"

"........," Robin glared.

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Ahem.....so....what're y'all doing, anyways? Reenacting the pied piper or something?"

Dimitri—with the flute—smiled. "Actually," he spoke, "...your wonderful leader has a plan for getting these people to safety."

"He does, huh?"

"Yes sir. We are homeward bound...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in the blackest black part of Mortuana...

In the shrouded, nightmarish replica of the City...

A dim aura of light glowed. An aura emanating from a human form.

This human form took a few steps forward. Glowing arms pointed outward and reflected off of a rickety wooden fence.

A crest on the person's helmet glowed.

The fence appeared brightly in the darkness.

A sign read: _'City Landfill'_.

And there was a golden plaque erected besides the sign. And on it the black words were etched in:

'_The Cats'_.

A bearded face smirked.

"Awake......"

The hands glowed brighter.

Blinding orbs of firelight streamed into the heart of the darkened landfill.

FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!

_"Awake!!!"_

There was a stirring sound.

Then sickening chirps.

Like the sounds of a thousand dying breaths on helium.

The landscape shook a bit. Dirt and debris crumbled outward as if from a gale force wind.

The figure took a deep breath, lowered his glowing arms, and leapt out of the way as--

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Dozens of tentacle-shaped shadows soared out into the black city and merged in with the depths of Mortuana.

Their chirps echoed like a flock of pained bats into the endless night.

And as the glowing form faded....he was laughing with bloodlust.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the sounds of a good few dozen marching feet, I glanced down the dark corridor along with a handful of guards.

Robin and Dimitri came walking up the front of the procession from the subway tracks. After over eighty people swarmed up pensively, I caught sight of Raphael, Victor and........Starfire.

I wanted to smile. I really did.

But I didn't.

"Where is Jonas?" inquired Dimitri of the guards. "The Titan leader seeks to speak with the Grand Mediator about enacting a plan to return the lightsiders to their world."

"The Grand Mediator is busy communing with the Sacred Daughter," one of the guards answered. "However, I was informed to leave all decision making to the Titans when it came to the situation at hand."

"Well...sounds like someone trusts us," Robin remarked with arms folded. He had a slight smirk on his face.

Cyborg seemed shifty-eyed.

I noticed.

"This place is wondrous...," Starfire murmured. "Are all of these people—"

"Dead?" Dimitri smiled. "But only in a sense, Miss. Now—if I'm not mistaken—there are a great many people here who need to be assured of continued _life_. Mr. Robin...if you would care to proceed with your plan?"

"Let's get to the elevator," Robin motioned. "All of you! Come along! No time for sight-seeing!"

The people murmured with a slight wave of unease, but nevertheless they quickly pursued Robin's lead en masse. Their eyes fell all over the curious sights of the underground dwelling place. Mortuanans likewise stared at them with passive interest. It was like two sides of the eternal spectrum rubbing against each other.

While Starfire floated on, escorting the dozens of scurrying citizens, Cyborg trailed behind. At sight of me he lingered to a slow march and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Raven.....y-you've met her, haven't you?" he asked. He must have seen it in my black eyes.

I rubbed the back of my neck nervously and sighed.

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "You're looking like I did a few hours ago when _I_ got done talking to her," he said. He shrugged. "What's wrong?"

_Wrong........._

I bit my lip.

"Noir??" Cyborg asked out of concern moreover than impatience. Although it could just as well have been both.

I glanced off at the passing crowd.

The huddles of humans lingered down the dark passageway. They were bathed in darkness as the two Titans and Dimitri's group lead them towards the elevator.

I glanced at Cyborg once they were gone and hand-signed: _'She is staying'._

Cyborg's face exploded into a frown. "What do you mean.....**'she's staying'**.????"

I was halfway through hand-signing a reply when the android rushed towards me and gripped my shoulders harshly.

"What's gotten into her head?!?! Why the Hell didn't you try and talk her out of it, man?!?! Raven's _**staying?!?!?!**_"

I gritted my teeth and shoved him off me. I frowned, straightened my white jumpsuit, and motioned: _'It is her choice. I could not talk her out of it.'_

"The Hell you couldn't!! Y'all are on the same page! Don't you damn tell me you couldn't at least have tried or something, man!!!" Infuriated, he spun around and clenched his fists. "Where is she?? With that Jonas punk, I bet!!" He marched off. "I tell you...I'm gonna have a word with him! If he thinks she can manipulate her into—"

I whistled sharply.

".....," Cyborg spun around.

I stared at him with firm black eyes. I hand-signed: _'She was crying, Cyborg.'_

His lips parted. The anger melted away.

'_She was crying. She is not the Raven you and I thought we knew.'_ I was very emphatic when my fingers spelled out the word 'thought'.

A beat.

I sighed. I relaxed my shoulders some and added: _'She is staying here. I do not want that to happen. But I have not wanted a lot of things with Raven. And they have happened anyways.'_

"But....but....I'm different, Noir...," Cyborg uttered. His head shook with disbelief and his voice came out in a murmur. "It....it's not the same. You and Raven.....me and Raven........it......it's....."

I firmly hand-signed: _'We are both her friends'._

A beat.

'_Nothing more than that. Can you prove to me otherwise?'_

"........."

Silence.

Cyborg shuffled backwards until his back leaned against a wooden pillar. He slid down to the ground and propped his titanium arms up on his knees. After a defeated sigh he said:

"Why, Noir? Why? Why'd you and I ever have to team up with someone so smart and so pretty and so mysterious that...that....that we'd be stupid enough to think that we could get to understand more?? Maybe _this_ is the curse that Raven's always yapping on about. It has nothing to do with Trigon. It has nothing to do with some demon invading our dimension or whatnot. It's all about Raven's soul. Her poor...beautiful....lonely soul. You and I peered into the well...and now the well's gotten deeper. You and I can't live in that sort of darkness, Noir. But she can. Why? Why does she always have to end up so alone??"

I took a deep breath. I ran a hand through my black hair and shakily hand-signed: _'Some people are meant to live that way. Some people can not escape that curse. Others can get out of it.'_

I smiled gently. The distant torchlight reflected subtly off my black eyes.

I made sure Cyborg was looking when I added: _'I truly believe I have found a way outside of my own curse. I believe I have found that someone. I have moved on, Cyborg. I moved on a long time ago.'_

Cyborg blinked. "And 'so should I', right?"

My hands didn't move.

He bound his knuckles together. He inhaled....then: "You and Raven may have had your curses, Noir. But frankly...I don't believe in that. I think curses only exist with people who curse themselves. I know you respect Raven and all, and that's why you're not interfering with this decision she's making. But obviously you know that I respect Raven too." He looked up at me. "And because of that respect...I have always...._always_...tried to help her get out of her own curse. Think and believe what you want, Noir. But Raven's only hurting herself. And as her 'friend'....I'm not about to let her be alone for friggin' ever!"

He stood up resolutely.

"You and Raven have been beating yourselves up all your lives, I bet. And that may be all and well fine for you. But it's still not fair man. Cuz as things are the way they are....you've got Kara and I've got my best friends and Raven's got _nothing_. I'm not down with that. And so I'm gonna do something about that, so God help me. You understand that, dawg???"

I slowly nodded. And Cyborg knew as much as I did that I had no place in fighting what he was intending on doing.

Whatever that was...

He walked over and planted a hand on my shoulder. "Noir...without even trying you must already know more about Raven than the rest of us Titans combined. But at the same time......people have the capacity to change. After all......you've changed, haven't you Noir? Then maybe...so can Raven..."

I took a shuddering breath and smiled weakly.

_He was right._

He was right......

I glanced off into the darkness and somehow my eyes envisioned the magically wind-whipped fields of Kansas under a starry sky.

_I.........h-have changed......_

I swallowed.

_Is this what you wanted, Ana??_

**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**

I gasped.

Cyborg flinched and spun around.

A few guards gasped and clung onto wallpieces and wooden pillars as the entire subway shook.

After about seven seconds, the shaking stopped.

Waking Mortuanans filed about nervously.

Murmurs of the 'dead' filtered the claustrophobic air.

Torchlights flickered on the sidelines.

"Okay....that's it...I don't need anything else CREEPING ME OUT in this frickin' corpse hole!!" Cyborg grunted and ran a bee-line towards the direction of Jonas' tent.

I was powerless to stop him....not that I even wanted to.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pale people in fancy dresses and suits of the town mingled nervously in the 'courtyard' of the underground town. Guards formed a solid line in front of the small tent that was Jonas' dwelling place. The Grand Mediator in question stepped out and waved his hands dramatically for all to see. The crowd quieted and a throng of pales eyes rested on him. A pensive Raven stood in his shadow, clutching a cloak pensively about her melancholy form.

"Do not fear, brothers and sisters...," Jonas uttered firmly...loudly. "There is friction between Mortuana and the world of light. The doorway that brought the lightsiders here is collapsing. The poltergeists are running thin from the recent campaigns to rescue those foreigners caught in the black abyss. Because of that, the spirit plains are open to tension between the two worlds. I assure you—once the door collapses completely—Mortuana will be safe. But these frequent tremors shall be inevitable. We can endure them."

The crowd believed Jonas. They trusted him. They all nodded in agreement and sighed in relief.

Until a titanium figure rushed in and bellowed: "Raven!!"

The dark girl shivered.

Commotion. Turning heads.

Jonas glanced over. He calmly blinked. "Ah....the one named Cyborg. Do you wish to—"

"Raven...," Cyborg marched forward...entreating the girl from beyond. He walked no further than the line of guards cautiously minding the perimeter of Jonas' tent. He spoke in concerned desperation: "Raven...please....don't do this."

"I....I-I'm sorry....," she sniffed. A tear ran down her face. "But I have to stay here, Cy-Cyborg..."

A breath escape from the android Titan's throat. Her sorrow was real. It numbed him to see it for the first time in such fashion. He managed to swallow and say: "Please, Raven. Don't give up on us. Don't give up on your friends. These people and all...I know they must seem close to you. They're 'relatives' of Azarath and stuff...but do you truly _know_ them, Raven?? Do you truly want to live the rest of your life here? A living soul surrounded by death? Raven...no one deserves that. At least not right now. Not so early. It's not your time to die yet, girl. Please....give life some more time. Give _us_ some more time! We care for you! We really do!"

"You don't understand...a-and I can't explain it....I-I'm sorry that I had to do this to you...," Raven shivered. "I'm sorry I ever had to do it to you and the other Titans from the beginning. I c-came to you because I needed help. And y-you tried to give me help, Cyborg. You and the Titans. B-But it was not the h-help I wanted. I'm a selfish person, Cyborg. The only w-way I'll ever be happy is if I do this. If I do this on m-my own. I'm sorry....I—"

"I should have answered the door sooner, Raven!!!" Cyborg exclaimed. His voice rang against the subway walls. Silence. Then—with an inhale—he repeated: "I should have answered the door..." He lowered his head, clenched his fists, and sighed. "I....I know that you've hated me for all the times I've tried to 'change' you, Rae. And even I've gone so far as to apologize to you for it. But now that I look back at it...I don't regret ever dictating to you one bit. And you know why??" He looked up. He smiled painfully. "Because you truly wanted to change, Raven. Deep down inside....I was _reaching_ you. And you never admitted it. You never had the courage to admit it. Not until just the other night when you ran to my door and needed someone to....to be with. You were willing to change, Raven. Maybe because you realize that...that doing it the way you've always done it—alone—isn't really the path you feel like taking. And you know what, Raven?" He pointed a strong, Titanium finger. "If you stay here with these Mortuanans...you might think you're changing, but you really aren't. You're losing your emotions and experiencing feelings for the first time—yes—but you'll still be alone. Cuz you'll no longer have friends. You'll just have comrades. Fellow practitioners of some black-shrouded religion far away from anyone who ever truly had a warm place in their heart for you. And all this when for once in your life Trigon's curse is gone!!" He tossed his arms. "Raven...we're your friends. Know that with us....w-with _me_...you won't ever have to be alone. You can change and that change can be good. Please, Raven. Please....._think_ about it. _Think_ about it for once without just jumping into the darkness like you've always done!"

By then, the girl's sobs had quieted to a breathy hiccup. She bit her lip, summoned the strength, and looked up across the pale heads of people at Cyborg as she managed: "Cyborg....be...b-be patient...."

He ....

"_Be patient..._," she hissed. "I......I am doing the best thing." She took a sharp breath. "F-For everyone...."

"No...."

"I have to do this."

"N-No, Raven—"

"I'm sorry I can't explain it to you...."

"Wait!!"

"I must go, Cyborg....," she turned around and walked into the tent like a deflated flower. "I h-have to release rage now..."

"Raven!!" Cyborg surged forward.

The guards tangled with him.

Cyborg struggled for a half second. He then shook his head, snapped out of it, and stepped out of the guards' grasp....panting. He could easily have punched their undead faces in. He could easily have plowed his way into the flimsy tent and entreated Raven one last time.

But he didn't.

And to his surprise—with the gentle tapping sounds of old fashioned boots—he looked up and found Jonas walking towards him.

The pale man stepped peacefully through the line of guards and stood before Cyborg with his hands behind his back. He took a deep breath as he looked compassionately up into the android's face.

"Dear sir....I wish I could simply give her up to you...," Jonas spoke. "I can only imagine how much she means to you and her friends. But this is a decision on behalf of the Sacred Daughter herself. As it stands...it takes the entirety of my powers of meditation to free her from her emotional barriers. I feel twice dead after each time I consume her inhibitions. But I do it because I respect the Sacred Daughter...as so do you respect her. But this is her will. And as it would seem, she wills it for the best of you and the other Titans. I cannot allow myself to argue with her....though, honestly, I have attempted subtly to convince her of the other options available...."

"I know....I know....," Cyborg muttered. He rubbed the human part of his head and groaned. "I'm finding that just about everyone 'respects' Raven." He sighed, turned around, and walked off. "But it's....so hard to respect someone who doesn't even respect herself...."

"........," Jonas stared.

The crowd thinned.

The subway shook one more time from the collapsing dome.

**RUMMMMBLE!!**

Jonas ignored the tremors. He shuffled about and marched back to his tent and the dark girl's next phase....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and the second group of citizens riding the elevator reached the top. And they were more-or-less glad to by that point. The tremors had taken place during their ascent, and a good-few of them were relatively.....freaked.

Robin marched up the winding platform to the metal look-out station. "What in the Hell is going on?!?!"

Dimitri, Ayane, and a floating Starfire looked over.

"It is the collapse," Ayane said. "You do not have much time left in Mortuana. If you desire to get these people out of here...it must be done _now_."

"Not to mean that the collapse is going to take place right this second," Dimitri smiled. "But soon enough to warrant immediate action."

"And immediate action—I can guarantee you," Robin nodded. "Beast Boy should be here any second." He glanced at Starfire.

She shook her head.

Robin sweatdropped. "_Should_ be...." He repeated.

"Fear not, Robin," Starfire cupped her hands together and smiled pleasantly. "I am certain that our beloved changeling will be here in due time!"

Ayane smiled, her pale eyes twinkling. "Her soul glows. She's not from around here, is she?"

"Huh??" Starfire blinked.

"Hehehe...so cute. If I still had warm blood, I'd hug her."

Dimitri rolled his eyes.

"Uh....yeah," Robin scratched the back of his head. He looked Dimitri's way. "Once the helicopters lower here...things will get confusing. I need you and your two guardians to assist in calmly helping the citizens onto the suspended platforms."

"I shall circle the perimeter of their ascending path and see to it that nobody falls off of the building," Starfire said.

"We are more than willing to accept," Dimitri half-bowed.

Ayane blinked her pale eyes. "But do we have enough people to be of true assistance? I mean...Raphael and Victor are good but—"

SWOOOOSH!! CLAMP!!! I ran up and perched on the side.

Dimitri and Ayane jumped.

My black eyes blinked...and I smiled.

_Ha! Leave it to me to frighten the dead......_

"Noir!! How pleasant it is to see you!!" Starfire beamed.

I waved back pleasantly.

"Couldn't you have at least given us a warning whistle?" Robin folded his arms and smirked.

I shrugged.

_I know Kobayashi Tower like the back of my metal hand._

"Any second......Beast Boy should be here," Robin said. "Lord willing."

I nodded.

"Where's Cyborg?"

I pointed 'down'.

"Yeah....but why?"

My eyes trailed off.

"Something tells me we may need him for this...," Robin uttered. "Why don't you go back down there and try to—"

"Don't bother," Dimitri said.

Robin looked his way. "Why not?"

"Because there's a green parrot on my shoulder."

"......," Robin glanced over.

"Squawk!!" the parrot blinked. Hopped down, and turned into a green elf in time to land on the floor. He stood up straight and waved his arms. "Ta daaaa!!"

Starfire giggled.

"Please tell me you performed the simple task I gave you," Robin grumbled.

"Pfft!!" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "I'm not THAT hopeless, Robin." A pause. He winced. "Ahem...anyways....they should be here in five."

"Five???" Robin did a double-take. "Couldn't you have given them at least twenty minutes??"

"Dude...do you want to get out of here or not?!?! Sheesh!! Hi, Noir."

_Hi, B.B._

"Well we better get this whole thing orchestrated PDQ," Robin punched his fist. "Forget about Cyborg. "Starfire....fly the perimeter. Dimitri...have your men line up along the stairs and help the citizens onto the top platform. Ayane....stay on the look out."

"Sure thing, Mr. Titan. Hehehe...kinda small for a leader, aren't y—???"

"Ahem....NOIR," Robin pointed. "You're with me. We're gonna be all over the place, making sure nobody slips or falls or anything. You got two helicopters to come, right Beast Boy?"

"Aye, sir."

"Great. Two trips it is, then. Starfire...you and Dimitri gather half of the citizens for the first load. Beast Boy...stay up here on the platform. You summoned the choppers....so I'm gonna rely on you to signal them back and forth. Got it?"

"Birds of a feather 'chop' together, dude," Beast Boy winked.

"Whatever. Let's do this."

"Indeed!" Starfire flew off.

Dimitri shuffled off down the stairs.

Beast Boy turned into a green falcon, flew up, and perched on the top of the Tower.

Robin ran off and I followed him swiftly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven took a deep breath.

Once again she was meditatively sitting in a lotus position.

Once again, she was surrounded by a ring of colorful candles and robed figures.

Once gain Jonas knelt in front of her and concentrated.

But this time, there was greater distance between the mediators and the dark girl. And Raven's arms.....were bound. They were tied with velvet cords that were fastened by ropes to a peg driven into the wooden floor. The ropes were short, so that if the girl tried to walk so much as two feet from the center...she'd come to the end of the slack. It seemed rather pointless...but the girl was preparing to free her rage. And she knew it.

She took deep breaths. Tears were still forming at the corners of her eyes. With happiness exhausted and sorrow still lingering, it was an intense battle just to remain focused. And yet—the girl cleared her mind like she had done so on many a prior occasion. She breathed in and out and readied herself for the procedure to take place.

So it was with quite a bit of awkwardness that Jonas uttered: "Dear Raven....sacred daughter....I respect your will. I shall do that which you—the prodigy of Azarath—requires of me. But as always—the offer remains. I shall not force this consumption upon you. If you so desire to back out of it, we Mortuanans will—"

"I-I know what I must d-do...," the girl sniffed. She swallowed a lump down her throat and shuddered. "And I-I need your help."

Silence.

"Very well....," the Grand Mediator nodded. "Are you prepared....to experience anger freely for the first time?"

She bit her lip. "It w-won't be the 'first' time...."

"......."

"I-I'm ready...."

Jonas nodded.

He chanted. He waved his hands. The candles glowed. The fires blended. Hums filled the air. Smoke and mist. Darkness shrouding down. Like an obsidian ghost....

Raven's hands tensed under the velvet cord.

Her face tensed.

Jonas leaned forward.

The world spun.

His mouth opened.

Red vapor streamed.

And.....

"!!!!!" Raven's eyes popped open in four scarlet places.

Spiraling.

And...

A heart on fire...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_Kill it!!!"_

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"_I'd rather die than see what that monster put inside of me!!!"_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Slow and safe, people. Move it along. Don't worry if you have to take some time. Keep close to the building side. That's it. Easy now...."

Dimitri was the perfect crowd controller....for a dead person.

I eyed from a glass ledge above near Kobayashi's peak. I held my weight with my metal hand on the structure and my other hand resting on Myrkblade. Shapes of people passed before my black eyes. They filed orderly up the winding passageway towards the Mortuanan platform at the top of the building. Hands wrung themselves nervously and many a nervous gaze fell upon the utter darkness falling around the cylindrical ascent like a black soup. Unlike all of the rescued 'crowds' I'd seen previous, these people were utterly nervous and fearful to the point that they could barely smile. It made some sense. They were in the blackness of Mortuana longer than anyone else caught in the blast wave of Dr. Light's device. I assumed they'd be thanking us Titans much later....after they could actually see the _light_.

Robin was perched on the far side of the building behind me. He was similarly keeping a watchful gaze on those walking up and towards the platform on top. Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor paced themselves between the crowd...escorting them. Ayane kept a lookout for the crowd. Beast Boy kept a lookout for the first helicopter. Starfire flew all around and kept everyone safe under her gaze. She glanced at me in the middle of this 'operation' and smiled with a pleasant wave.

I waved back. But I wasn't smiling.

I felt glad to be in the company of so many of my fellow Titans again. But my mind was busy. I had uneasy feelings settling through my system. I thought of Raven. I thought of Cyborg. I thought of...

"Here it comes!!" Beast Boy's voice echoed from above.

"Where??" Robin's voice echoed back.

"Try looking UP, genius!!!"

I did so. My black eyes narrowed. My empty optics caught the first shadowy semblances of a lowering aircraft before the rotary blades sounded off.

And they truly did sound off.

A wind picked up. A deafening noise filled the black arena. Raphael got finished escorting up the last of the first crowd. Victor and Dimitri walked back down to the elevator platform to check on the second batch of citizens.

Ayane and Beast Boy steadied the top group of people who were flinching from the rush of air and thunder.

Robin leapt up to a higher spot on Kobayashi Platform's summit and cupped a pair of gloved hands over his mouth: "Beast Boy!! Go up and help them lower safely!!!"

Beast Boy nodded, saluted, and albatrossed up into the air.

Robin looked over at Starfire and motioned for her to keep minding the edges of the Tower.

She nodded and flew around in a green streak.

The air got louder and wilder.

My black hair whipped behind me like an obsidian windsock.

I gritted my teeth and held an arm in front of my face.

The helicopter lowered into view. And it was a huge sucker. A cargo carrier....capable of suspending a tank.

But instead it was suspending a huge, metal square floating on wrought-iron chains. Its descent was slow....steady....alien. The loudness and immensity of the huge craft only further highlighted the wyrdness of it 'being here' in this universe. With my black eyes, I saw beyond the darkness into the tinted windows of the metal beast and saw two uncertain-looking pilots doing their best to keep their wits in tact as they lowered the giant bird into the obsidian domain. What's more, they had to deal with a green elf suddenly perching on their front nose and gently signaling them to inch the craft lower and lower.

And lower they did. Slowly. Safely.

Soon the platform reached the edge of the platform...and settled down.

Ayane signaled Robin. Robin signaled Beast Boy. Beast Boy signaled the pilots.

The helicopter stopped and hovered in place. A sigh of relief seemed to settle over the deafening scene. Robin and Raphael dashed over—marching against the wind—and pulled down the metal 'gates' of the platform. Robin motioned for the people.

"All right!!!" he shouted. "One at a time!! Nice and easy!!!"

The people nervously marched forward. They settled on board the platform one by one. Finally...there were some smiling—howbeit stressed faces.

And still...I was numb.

And I was quiet.

And I was gazing past the chaos with a feeling that I couldn't quite put my finger on....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"TERRA!!!!!!!"

Raven shook. She leaned back and forward. She clenched her teeth shut and gritted her teeth.

"Terra!! You BITCH!!! Do you have any idea how much you HURT MY FRIENDS?!?!?!"

She tugged and pulled at the velvet restraints. She writhed and panted like a mad animal. Sweat poured down her brow and her lungs exploded and imploded.

"You betrayed us!!! Slade made you!!! Slade....SLADE!!! I hope the afterlife is an agonizing PLACE FOR YOU!!!!! You tore everyone apart!!! You used Robin!! You used Terra!! You used Noir!!! Noir shouldn't have killed you. He should have MADE YOU SUFFER!!! RGHHH!!!!"

Jonas and the mediators were silent. They hung their heads and kept their distance as the dark girl convulsed and shook and screamed.

Raven's eyes flashed open. All four of them. Red and glowing.

"Slizzath....Slizzath, I know you aren't dead. I know you live inside Tempest. Rrghhh....I know what you want to do to him someday because it's what my father wants to do with ME!!!" She shook and twitched and growled. "RRGGHHH!!!! You contemptuous spirit!! You are not powerful....you are PATHETIC!!! I dare you...I just DARE YOU to try and consume me someday!!!! I will show you pure and utter darkness!! I shall show you the blood that drips from my father's mangled hands!!! I will show you what it tastes like to experience pure loneliness in the dark for fear...f-for fear of the world collapsing all because of you!! NNnnghhHH!!! I AM A DEMON!!!!! By Azar I SWEAR I will tear you all APART!!!! RAAAUGH!!!"

Raven yanked at the bindings. She fell over. She panted. A pained look came over her sweat-stained face. She curled up into a fetal position. She shivered.

"Juris........"

A chill swept over the room.

Jonas and the other Mortuanans glanced up.

They knew that name....

"Jurissss...," Raven slurred. Her four red eyes flickered. She gnashed her teeth. "It was you who made my mother hate me. It was always you spreading lies....making my mother believe that I was the absolute bane of the world. You never...ever trusted me. And so you took it out on Azarath. You summoned Trigon! You showed my father the way in through the gates and because of that the blood of righteous people are on your filthy hands, you wicked fool!!!" She inhaled...inhaled...inhaled........and exploded. _**"MY MOTHER IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU, JURIS!!!!!!!!!!"**_ She deflated, recoiled, inhaled, and—_**"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"**_

Raven shook all over. She pounded the ground. She grunted...shrieked...and bellowed till her throat was sore.

And then she panted.

And her face melted.

And the four red eyes faded...blinked...sizzled into two blue orbs.

Her lip was quivering.

She stared past the floor and past the rage and past everything swirling around her.

In a haze she slurred: "Dr. Light.....Dr. Light....Dr. Light......"

Jonas leaned his head to the side.

The girl exhaled. "Dr. Light.....wh-what are you doing here??"

Silence.

She shut her eyes.

"I can see......I....I-I can see.......I can see......"

She rambled.

She quivered.

"Titans...........f-friends...."

She passed out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay!!" Robin waved his gloved hands. "Take 'er up!!!"

Beast Boy held an 'okay' symbol. He pointed 'up' to the pilots and leapt off, morphing into an owl in mid-air and gliding down towards the tower.

The cargo helicopter lifted up. The metal platform dangled some...but the ascent was slow and soon the people were gently airlifted up and out of the utter blackness. A few children in their parents' grasp waved.

Starfire smiled and waved back.

The helicopter lifted up beyond even my vision...and the deafening noise disappeared.

_Time for phase two._

I watched Robin as he turned and faced Ayane and Raphael.

"Okay. Let's get the second group up here!"

Ayane nodded. "Way ahead of you." She motioned to Raphael. The young man dashed down the steps and worked with Dimitri and Victor in escorting the fresh crowd of remaining lightsiders up the steps.

"Glorious!" Starfire exclaimed. "Our time in this dreadful place is coming to a close!"

"Yeah...," the owl landed and morphed into a perching green elf. "What say we catch the second helicopter lift and get the respectful Hell out of here?"

"Some of us can leave, sure," Robin nodded. "But there's still Raven and Cyborg to account for."

I shuddered from where I was perched.

"Noir??" Starfire leaned her head to the side from where she hovered. "Is there something disturbing you?"

I sighed. I tried a smile.

She looked worried.

"Starfire. How about you go down and check on Cyborg? It'd be good to touch base with him."

"And what of Raven?"

"That's gonna be more delicate," Robin remarked. "I'd better go and see about her."

"What about the rest of us?" Beast Boy asked.

"I frankly wouldn't mind if you, Noir, and Starfire took off with the last group. I should stay. Cyborg and Raven are my responsibilities."

"Robin! Please, you must not travail upon this place any longer!" Starfire insisted. "At least allow us to remain with you until we can safely escort you and the others out of this City before the collapse—"

"I think it'd be best if the most of us who can get out _do_ get out," Robin said. "It'd even the odds of our complete survival."

".......," Starfire hovered depressingly as the line of people marched up beneath her.

"Noir?"

I looked at Robin.

"You okay with that plan?" he asked. "With leaving now?"

"......," I looked off into space. I thought of Raven. I thought of her tears. I thought of what she told me and what I told Cyborg and what nobody else knew.

A beat.

I looked at him....and nodded.

I caught a black body in the corner of my vision.

"?????" I glanced down the height of the tower.

Nothing.

"......."

"Hey, don't look now," Beast Boy said. A beat. He smiled and pointed up: "But look now."

Robin and Starfire and Ayane tilted their heads up.

The air started whipping again. The noise of rotor blades filled the air.

_The second helicopter._

"Shall I go communicate with Cyborg now??" Starfire asked.

"Never mind that, Star," Robin said. "Just go with this group of citizens. I'll be coming out of Mortuana with Cyborg and Raven soon. I promise."

I bit my lip.

Starfire nodded solemnly and went about flying a ring around the crowd and keeping a safe eye out for every citizen.

Beast Boy flapped up as a dove and again perched on the front of the helicopter, prepared to give signals to help the pilots lower.

The helicopter came down.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor prepared the citizens.

Ayane watched over everything.

Robin whistled and shouted commands to Starfire and Beast Boy on the fly.

I watched cautiously from my perch.

Everything was going like clockwork.

_Exactly like clockwork......_

My black eyes narrowed.

_Something......doesn't feel right..._

I blinked.

_Raven? What has--_

A string.

"!!!!"

I spun around this time.

The twitching end of a shadow shimmied past my gaze and into the blackness of night.

My lips parted.

Another string. A _rope_.

I spun the other way.

Again...a fleeting shadow.

And....

A whining.

_A whining??_

I looked at the other Titans.

They were oblivious.

_But oblivious of what??_

The whining was there. And it increased. And it shocked me that I could hear it above the roar of the helicopter blades. And then I realized that I wasn't hearing it. I was _feeling_ it. Vibrating through my bones like a chilling symphony of chirps.

_No......not chirps._

_Something more helpless._

Painfully innocent.

I shuddered. I could see my breath. I was having the chills...but it wasn't from my metal arm.

I realized that I was the only one that far down the Tower on my perch. Everyone else was on top of Kobayashi Tower's summit. Robin and Dimitri opened the gates to the metal platform and people started filing onto it. They weren't affected by the sensation at first. But gradually, the citizens started shaking more. The flutist and his guardians started fumbling more. Ayane's pale white eyes twitched.

Beast Boy seemed suddenly agitated from his perched location on the helicopter's nose. His pointy ears lifted upwards. He could hear it too.

_Or at least feel it..._

I stood up straight on my perch. I panted. I waved my flesh and metal arms and mouthed something for Robin to see.

But he didn't. Instead, he was looking all around as if overcome by the same thing I had been overcome with moments ago.

_The sudden array of chirping sounds above the helicopter noise._

No......not chirping...

_Mewing......_

I shuddered.

Then---

SWOOOOSH!!!

Something bright streaked by me.

I did a double-take.

A blindingly white object flew up the tower, pulsed, and appeared in the form of a tall man in a black outfit and a crested helmit. "Rrrrghh!!" he spun with a karate kick flying across Robin's cheek.

WHAP!!!!

"Ugh!!!" Robin fell hard to the rooftop of Kobayashi Tower.

"Robin!!!" Starfire loaded two starbolts and dove down.

The intruder spun around. Bearded mouth snarling, he raised his hands above his head and summoned a huge orb of light which he promptly launched at the Tamaranian girl. "HA!!!!"

FLASH!!!!

"Nnngh!!" Starfire flew back from the impact and sailed down into the darkness below.

"Nobody leaves....," Dr. Light murmured....then with an insane volume he bellowed: "Nobody escapes the RECKONING!!!"

"Guardians!!" Dimitri shouted. "Protect the lightsiders—"

"RAAAAAAAUGH!!" Dr. Light aimed two arms out and shot a pulse of light at the helicopter.

Citizens gasped and ducked.

Dimitri stood his ground. He tensed his body as the pulse flew directly at him.

"!!!!" I tensed.

FLASH!!!!!

Dimitri flew back from the impact. His body struck the dangling cage hard. CLANG!!!

The suspension cords shook. The citizens gathered on the platform gasped and stumbled. One or two nearly fell off the side. Beast Boy slipped from the front of the helicopter with a gasp, swiftly turned into a bat, and flapped towards Dr. Light...shrieking.

"Cowards!!! Face it....face the endless darkness!!!" the villain shouted. He raised his arms this time—but instead of summoning a light blast, he produced an orb of pure blackness and flung it mercilessly at Beast Boy.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"..............," Cyborg stood in a dark subway corridor besides steps leading up to the street level of the City. His arms were folded and his human and red eye stared listlessly into the nearby wall.

A beat.

**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**

The ground shook momentarily....then quieted.

Cyborg barely glanced up. He sighed.

_**CRASH!!!!!**_

This time the ground REALLY shook.

Cyborg gasped. He shone his floodlight up the stairs and saw dust just beginning to settle. He rushed up on titanium feet and gasped. "Star!!!"

The Tamaranian had landed from an unearthly plunge. A huge crater formed in the asphalt where she now lay. "Ooohmmff...," she sat up, rubbed her head, and then shook it.

Cyborg knelt by her side. "What on earth happened?!?! You allright?"

"I am...but Robin and the others are not!" Starfire floated up. She gritted her teeth as a furious glow of green shimmered out of her eyes. "Dr. Light is attacking!! He is ruining the evacuation!!"

"No shit?!?! We gotta do someth—"

"Rrraugh!!" the Tamaranian warrior soared straight up into the blackness.

"Wait up!! Star!!!" Cyborg stretched a hand outward. "Give me a lift!! I can help!!"

But she was gone.

"Damn!!" he gritted his teeth. A beat. "Huh??" he craned his neck.

Outward from the darkness he heard the echoes of high-pitched noises. Like chirps...infant cries. The multitude of sounds emanated from some deep, dark murk of the streets.

"The Hell is that??" he breathed. A beat. His fists clenched. "The Hell I'm gonna find out..."

And he charged into the darkness with his floodlight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ooof!!!" Beast Boy landed hard on the rooftop of Kobayashi Tower. He winced, his body smoking with black trails.

THUMP!! Dr. Light....or Dr. Dark planted his boot down in the small of the changeling's back. "The biggest mistake you ever made, child....," he smirked and charged two glowing fists of black. "....was ever allying yourself with that blue-haired witch." He chuckled. "Allow me to educate you...." He made to kick the helpless elf off into utter darkness.

Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-_THUMP-THUMP-__**CHIIIIIING!!!!**_

**SLASH!!!!!**

"AAUGH!!" Dr. Dark lurched forward as a stream of blood flew from his back.

I paused with the upswing of Myrkblade, took a breath, and spun my body around with a swing of the wooden length across the man's wounded spine.

THWAP!!!

Dr. Dark tumbled towards the edge of the Tower but caught himself at the last second. He gritted his teeth and smiled evilly at me. A trickle or two of glowing silver blood ran down from his crested helmet and settled on his nose.

"Looks like everyone wants to be dark these days...."

I frowned and twirled Myrkblade into a threatening position to strike.

Dr. Light twisted his neck, cracked a few joints, and flexed his fingers upon standing up. "Well come along, wicked one. Let's see if you're cold enough to _scare me......_"

I took a breath. SWOOOOOSH!! I blurred at him with Myrkblade trailing---

FLASH!!!!! His crest lit up.

"!!!!!!!!" _I forgot I was bare-eyed._

THWUMP!!!! I literally plunged down onto the surface of the rooftop. I winced all over. My black eyes were on fire.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!" he marched towards me. "This one's afraid of the light!! How pathetic!!"

I struggled to my knees. I saw stars. The faintest outline of his black jumpsuit faded in and out before me.

"Don't you know what far more terrible fates there are in this universe??"

I frowned.

_Don't get me started now, you son of a b---_

FLASH!!!!!

_ARGH!!!!_

I covered my black eyes with a metal hand.

SWOOOSH-WHAM!!!

He kicked me hard in the chest.

I toppled over, wheezing. My eyes melting inside out.

"I hope you get used to being blind...," he sneered over me. "Pretty soon...you'll have nothing left to see—"

"RAAAAUGH!!!" WHAM!!!

"OOF!!!" Dr. Dark shifted to the side from Robin's jump-kick.

The Boy Wonder landed, whipped out two birdarangs, and snarled: "You picked a bad time to piss us off!!"

"On the contrary, Robin," Dr. Dark charged up a hand of pure obsidian. "It's way past your bedtime. Lights out."

"Nnghh!!" Robin flung the two birdaraings.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Dr. Dark stretched his hand out with a black pulse.

CR-CRACK!!! The birdarangs shattered.

The dark pulse banded out in a black explosion.

"AUGH!!!" Robin was tossed back. He collapsed into Dimitri and Raphael.

Ayane and Victor rushed forward in a desperate attempt to tackle the villain.

Dr. Dark created a spherical shield of black just in time to hold the Mortuanans off. FLASH!!!! "No one can understand the power that I possess in this land...."

Beast Boy stirred. He stood up, clenched his fists, and charged the villain in the form of a shrieking velociraptor.

Dr. Dark spun around and produced a 'club' of black energy in his glove. "One time...I was tossed in here by a very wicked girl. I was shown what it truly was like to be alone."

SMACK!!! Dr. Dark batted the changeling back.

SWOOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew back up from the dark streets below. Gritting her teeth, she charged an array of green bolts and launched them at the villain. "Raaugh!!! Yah!! Ha!!!"

Dr. Dark swung his arms with black streaks, deflecting the energy blasts. "You see, Titans....my device wasn't the first doorway into Mortuana. Raven was. That witch is a part of this place through and through. Her evilness _thrives_ in here!!" He stepped back, charged a huge bullwhip of black, and snapped it at the Tamaranian. "The same evil I dish out upon you is that which she subjected me to!!"

WH-PISSSH!!!

"Ugh!!" Starfire was shoved back from the impact. She smashed through a rusted facsimile of the Kobayashi satellite dish and tumbled onto a ledge.

Blinking painfully, I stood up and teleported my way towards Dr. Dark.

Somehow he was ready for me. He twisted around and gripped me in a limb-numbing hold. I winced in his grasp as he held a hand over my face.

"That witch is the foil of you!! And right now—even though you don't know it—she is the very reason why everything is collapsing!!" FLASH!!!

I let out a silent scream, blinded. My eyes could have been bleeding for all I cared. He tossed me like a ragdoll corpse across the rooftop and prepared a huge pulse to launch at the prone helicopter.

"And soon...she will be the reason why everything you fight for will fall inevitably for the merciless fate of _darkness!!_"

"You know....you should really shut the Hell up."

Dr. Dark glanced over.

Robin aimed a grappling hook from where he was suddenly perched up above. "Even in the darkness, you only give yourself away."

POW!!! SWIIIIIISH—THWAP!!

The cord wrapped around Dr. Dark's body. The villain's glowing arms were pinned to his side. He grunted and struggled.

Robin held his breath and ran down the opposite side of the tower. He held tightly to his end of the grappling hook cord, sped his legs against the building side, and used his weight and the cord's slack to lift the villain off his feet.

"!!!!" Dr. Dark gasped and twirled.

Robin 'ran' around the Mortuanan observation platform, kicked off against the structure, swung around, and slammed a metal-tipped boot into the flailing villain's side.

WHAM!!!

"AUGH!!!"

SNAP!!!

The cord broke.

Dr. Dark went tumbling across the precarious rooftop of the tower.

The people in the suspended cage flinched.

Robin landed. He tossed away what was left of the grappling hook and in its place produced a birdarang. He ran murderously towards the villain and flung the sharp object down. "Rrrrgh!!!'

SWIIISH!!

Dr. Dark rolled to the side.

CHTING!!! The birdarang's sharp end struck the ground where Dr. Dark's head would have been.

SWOOOSH!! The villain lifted his foot up.

WHAP!!!

Robin was uppercutted. He stumbled back.

Dr. Dark leapt to his feet, charged a pulse with two palms, and flung it point blanc at Robin. "YAAAUGH!!!"

Robin leapt the blast, flipped, and landed on the other side of the villain. He flew his fist into the man's bleeding back--

GRIP!!! Dr. Dark caught Robin's glove from behind. He reverse kicked.

THUMP!!!

Robin bent over.

Dr. Dark spun with a heavy punch.

Robin ducked.

Dr. Dark shoved his weight forward.

He and Robin grappled on the edge of the building. Struggling.

At around this time, I was standing up, muttering mute cuss words, and refastening my white bandanna around my black eyes. With the appropriate blinders on...I gripped Myrkblade tightly in my flesh hand and extended my metal hand out. I let murk drift out into the dark expanse. I 'felt' around with spatial sense. I picked up on Starfire's and Beast Boy's pained bodies. Dimitri and Victor struggling to join the fight. Ayane and Raphael watching worriedly. The metal platform, the metal chains, the hovering helicopter. The dozens of worried bodies. And finally...the grappling forms of Robin and Dr. Dark.

I took a breath...and rushed over the blind landscape.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I swung Myrkblade up.

Dr. Dark sensed me. He gasped and brought his right hand back with a black energy charge in time to grip the tip of my sword.

CLANK!!!!

I couldn't spill blood...but I did free up Robin some.

"Rrrgh!!" Robin punched with an uninhibited fist.

WHUMP!!!

Dr. Dark was struck hard in the gut. He bent over.

WHAM!!! Robin uppercutted his fiercely.

Dr. Dark flew back towards me.

I sensed the inclination of his body and aimed Myrkblade just right.

SLIIINK!!! My blade was caught between his skin and his black jumpsuit. I hoisted him over me like a pumpkin launcher towards the edge of the building.

Dr. Dark righted himself at the last second and skidded to a stop on smoking boots just barely at the edge.

Robin and I charged him simultaneously. I blindly and him with full rage.

Dr. Dark crossed his arms and charged a huge pulse of black.

I sensed it.

FLASSSH!!!

The orb flew at us.

I jumped it.

Robin slid under it.

We both converged as a slashing/punching one on the villain's figure.

SWOOOOSH!!!

He leapt up. He flipped over us. As he came down from behind, he launched two quick bursts of black. FL-FLASH!!!

Robin was struck hard and went flying over the edge.

CLANK!!! I stuck Myrkblade hard into the building's surface, held my weight by it, and reached a blind hand out in time to catch Robin's arm. YANK!!! I held him, dangling.

Helpless to avoid Dr. Dark's volley.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" he bellowed and aimed at us.

FLASH!!!

A pulse of green.

"Ugh!!!" he flew back from Starfire's blast and slammed into the edge of the metal platform. The object jolted. The helicopter lurched. The people gasped.

"YAAAAAH!!" Starfire let out a war-cry as she soared at the man with a huge starbolt glowing.

"By all means...," he smiled. "Let out your rage!!" He suddenly cloaked himself in pure obsidian.

Starfire found herself sailing straight towards the innocent people.

"Eeeek!!"

She flung her starbolt safely into the black recesses of Mortuana and stopped barely in time to avoid slamming into the metal platform.

Dr. Dark materialized behind her. He gripped her harshly from behind, spun, and flung her into the platform. "HA!!"

SMACK!! Starfire slammed heavily into the metal side. The people gasped as the platform shook.

I struggled to hoist Robin back onto the rooftop. He clutched onto the building side with his free gloved hand and grunted: "Get 'em out of here!!! Make them go! Now!!"

Beast Boy hopped up, panted, and waved emphatically at the helicopter.

The panicked pilots inside nodded. They started to lift up.

Dr. Dark spun about and noticed this. His eyes widened for a second....and then he snarled evilly. "No. NO!!!" he raised two hands....and they were glowing a bright light this time. "You shall not leave!! NONE OF YOU SHALL LEAVE!!"

FLAAAAAASH!!! He shot a huge, pulsing beam out into the darkness. For a second there, a few of us could make out the buildingtops of the immediate structures around us. Dimitri and the other Mortuanans were powerless to stop the villain...as if the brightness was too much for their natural eyes. Especially Ayane. She shrieked as her pale eyes burned from the searchlight brightness.

And as if in response to the light, the chirping increased. Hundreds of mewing sounds echoing through the night and vibrating into our frames.

I lifted the bandanna from my eyes. I blinked. The stars faded away...and I saw the shadows again. Shadows of ropes. Shadows of streams. Shadows of cords.

SWISH!!

SWISH!!

SW-SWISH!!!

SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Starfire stood up and gasped.

Beast Boy bit his nails.

The helicopter slowly continued its ascent, but the pilots seemed overcome by the same shadows.

And then the shadows took form in flocks around us. They were strings of fur. Smooth, brown fur. They had no beginning and they had no end. They stretched in and out of the blackness of Mortuana around us. Streaming by in the dozens like trains of animal flesh. And lining the ropes of fur were little, tiny cat teeth. And the cat teeth opened sporadically with babyish mewing sounds that made the bones in the ear shiver. Chirping all around us. Enveloping us like some wicked DNA mixture of feline genes and spider silk.

"It looks like someone let the cats out....hahahahaha," Dr. Dark convulsed insanely. "Hahahahahahahaha!!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The furred ropes of serrated mouths spun all around us. Closing in like an intergalactic ball of yarn.

Beast Boy gasped and shuddered. He found himself having to hop over the ropes and duck their streaming forms.

The civilians in the metal platform ducked and cried out in horror.

Starfire was the first to strike the poltergeists. FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!! She barely kept the 'cats' at bay with fiery starbolts.

Dimitri and his guardians rushed over to motion the pilots in the helicopter away.

But Ayane—blinded helplessly by Dr. Dark's bright beacon—wandered over by the side, alone. She covered her pulsing optics with her hands. "H-Help!! I can't....I can't see!! I c-can't see anything!!!"

"Ayane!! Over here!!" Dimitri shouted, panting. "Follow the sounds our voices!!"

"Hurry, Ayane!!!" Raphael joined in.

"Too much noise....the chirping....nnghh....help me!!" Ayane twitched.

And that's when the ropes of fur converged on her.

"Ayane!!!!" Dimitri shouted. He tried rushing into the fray, but it was too late. Victor held him back. "No!!!!"

"AAAAAUGH!!!" Ayane shrieked as she was surrounded by furred strings. The mewing fangs closed in and bit her on all sides. A practical ball of fur covered her pulsing figure and shook and twitched with the consumption of the undead flesh we could no longer see. A soul-shattering shriek—muffled through the layers of feline—warbled outward for a split second and was silenced as dark ooze poured out between the ropes. The fur strings unwound and a meaty pulp sloshed to the rooftop where 'Ayane' once existed.

Starfire shuddered. A woman or two on the platform shrieked. Dimitri's lips quivered.

"Dimitri!! Snap out of it!!" Robin shouted. "You can 'consume' these things!! Do it!! Quickly!!"

"I....I....," the Mortuanan stuttered. His eyes on where Ayane once stood.

And Dr. Dark flung a blast of darkness through the entire mess. FLASH!!!!

"OOF!!" Dimitri and Victor were tossed harshly into the ground.

Robin growled. With a birdarang in one hand and an explosive disc in the other, he ran forward—leapt the branching strings of 'cats'—and charged Dr. Dark.

The villain spun and flung a pulse of blackness. FLASH!!!

Robin rolled on the ground beneath it, knelt, and flung the birdarang. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Dr. Dark jerked to the side and deflected with a black-charged hand. CLANK!!!

Robin dove forward, flipped over a string of mewing mouths, and flung the explosive disc.

Dr. Dark disappeared with a wave of his glove.

KABOOOM!!!!

The explosion went off uncomfortably close to the helicopter.

The platform shook.

The people gasped and cringed.

The helicopter lifted and lifted...

Robin stood up, panted, and spun around--

FLASH!!! Dr. Dark materialized behind him and shoved the Boy Wonder with a foot to the rear.

WHUMP!!!

Robin stumbled—gasping—into a rope.

SLIIIIINK!!! Three mouths in a row bit into Robin. Glowing blood flew.

"AAAUGH!!!" Robin convulsed in pain.

"Robin!!!" Starfire dove in.

Dr. Dark snickered and aimed a black orb at her.

Then Beast Boy came charging in the form of a ram.

Dr. Dark pivoted and flung the pulse at him.

FLASH!!!

Beast Boy's body flew back.

I ducked as I suddenly charged underneath his blow and slashed Myrkblade at the villain.

CLANK!!!

He suddenly produced a sword of blackness in his glove and deflected.

I pushed against his 'blade' and jabbed at his upper body.

He ducked. He lunged forward at me with his black sword.

CL-CLANK!!! I parried. I pivoted my body, shifted my weight against him, and shoved him back.

He hopped backwards over a rope.

I slashed at him.

RIIIIP!!!

I snapped a 'cat' string in two.

Fanged mouths mewed in agony.

Dr. Dark jerked to the side.

I slashed forward at him again.

SLIIIINK!!!

Another rope shredded.

Black blood splattered.

Dr. Dark jumped back, spun, and spiraled at me with two shadow rapiers.

CL-CLANK!!! I deflected, slid back dangerously close to a string of furred fangs, and raised Myrkblade in time for his next charge.

But he didn't perform it. For suddenly he was gone. Truly gone. In a wave of black he disappeared.

I panted.

"Nnghh....the helicopter...," Robin moaned bloodily above the noise.

I glanced at him. He lay wounded in Starfire's arms. I looked up at the chopper. My black eyes twitched.

The ropes were rushing up towards the aircraft. They started constricting around the metal body and pulling the thing down. Bloodlust mews filled the air. The pilots scrambled over the controls in vain. The helicopter started to shake and jolt as it was pulled down. The people inside the platform cried in fear.

I gritted my teeth and ran helplessly towards the mess with Myrkblade.

_This is all going to Hell in a hand basket._

I panted.

_Or maybe we're already there......_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg jogged across the black streets.

The chirping sounds increased.

His human eye narrowed.

Something emerged from the blackness.

A mass of twisting fur.

Fanged 'ropes' flew up into the air like giant tentacles...mewing insanely.

In the meantime, the sphere of animal hair slithered across the low streets like a giant, hairy slug.

"What in the blue Hell....," Cyborg murmured. His red eye and his floodlight traced the black journey of the ropes up...up....up.... "They're converging on Kobayashi Tower...."

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!! The murderous tentacles shook and quivered diagonally upwards in an endless fashion. The fur slug slithered on.

The android gritted his teeth. He punched his palm into his fist and growled. "You're not gonna royally screw everything up! Not now, punk!!"

On heavy boots he stomped towards the horrific poltergeist. He flicked his thumb and a panel opened in the small of his back. His core was exposed...sparking with electric ferocity.

The fur slug jerked and seemed to 'face' the Titan momentarily.

"That's right....I'm comin' for ya....," he raised two sparking fists. His red eye fluctuated. "Raven and Noir have had their spotlight....now it's time I risked my neck for once!! Leave...my friends...alone!!!!"

Half of the furred ropes jerked and rushed on him, mewing hungrily.

Cyborg slammed through them with a metal fist. "RAAAAAUGH!!!" he charged through the chaos and into the slug with a swinging fist.

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!!!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASH!! SLASH!! SLASH!!

I gritted my teeth and swung Myrkblade madly at every rope and string of fangs that I could find. Besides me, a green bear slashed its claws at the stringy bodies of the poltergeist and growled.

But the ropes kept converging more and more on the helicopter. They started biting into the metal structure with merciless fangs. Sparks flew. Metal scraping sounds filled the air. Then--

_ZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!!_

I gasped.

The green bear turned into a confused elf.

Dimitri and his guardians looked up wearily.

Starfire blinked.

We all watched as a blue energy pulsed through the catropes. Sparks danced between the fangs and fur burned with a sizzling odor. The myriad of ropes shook, convulsed, and withdrew from the Tower's summit. They let go of the helicopter and retracted into the darkness below.

I panted. I looked at Starfire.

The girl was holding a barely conscious Robin in her arms. "H-He is injured...," her lips quivered. "I fear for him if he stays here!"

I nodded. I pointed firmly towards the metal platform.

Starfire nodded. She lifted off in a heartbeat, the Boy Wonder draped across her grasp.

I turned to Beast Boy.

He panted. "Something's up! Lemme go check it out with you!!"

I shook my head.

"What?!?! Dude!! Didn't you just see what happened?! That murdering Dr. Dick is on the loose and—"

I gripped him by the shoulder. Firmly...not painfully. I slowly shook my head and pointed to the platform.

"......," Beast Boy bit his lip.

A beat.

He shakily said: "You get the others out, okay?? Raven and Cyborg...you get them out safely!!"

I nodded. I pointed at the platform as the helicopter took off.

Beast Boy morphed into a crane and flew up to join the aircraft and its cargo lifting away into the darkness.

I took a deep breath and faced the edge of the Tower's summit.

Raphael stood up straight as the deafening noise lessened finally. "M-Mr. Titan. What do you intend to do—"

SWOOOOSH!! I swan-dived over the Tower's edge.

"Mr. Titan!!!" the Mortuanan guardian gasped, his arm outstretched.

_Too late......_

I was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I plunged down the height of Kobayashi Tower.

I gripped Myrkblade tightly.

Air kicked at my black hair like a thin cape.

My black eyes narrowed into the darkness through which I plummeted.

I ...concentrated...

FWOOOOSH!!

My legs blurred, meeting the buildingside rushing past me. I streaked down. I became aware of a blue glow bright and real before me in the streets.

I narrowed my optics.

A burning smell filled the air.

Sparks danced upwards towards me.

I gasped.

I met the street.

I blurred onto the concrete and skidded to a stop, shading my eyes.

My mouth fell agape.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" Cyborg was wailing in agony. He had plunged his fist into the center of the furred creature's sluglike base....and he had purposefully overloaded his energy core.

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!_

Blue energy throbbed through the twitching creature. Sparks burned the fur and soon the poltergeist curled into a melted mass of ashes and littered fangs.

"NNnghhhh," Cyborg sparked, groaned, and fell to his knees. THWUMP!!!

I rushed over and tried to hold him up.

He fell face-first into the asphalt.

I panted.

CHIIING!!!

I sheathed Myrkblade.

With a strain, I turned him over. He lay on his back...facing up at me. Only the human half of his face stirred. The red eye pulsed over and over again as he groaned, looked at me, and muttered: "C-C-Couldn't let you be the hero this time, Noir....," he wheezed. He coughed. He smiled weakly. "Gotta save your appetite for a rainy day."

I looked at him in shock.

He coughed again and stared up into the blackness. "Are the others...s-safe??"

I nodded shakily.

"Good...," he wheezed. "...just in time too." His human eye shut. "Lights out....."

And the glow of his red eye faded. His body went dull as he powered down and lay silent.

And I didn't know what to do.


	139. Mortuana part 8

**139. Mortuana part 8**

_Silence falls._

The violinists were still strumming......but the notes are so high and so soft that all they accomplished is a tense whining in the back of everyone's pale ears.

The audience falls silent. They exhale breaths they don't truly have.

The storyteller hisses exhaustingly through his teeth, shakes his head towards the claustrophobic ceiling, and shrinks to his knees before the bonfire.

He runs a hand through his wavy hair and utters:

"The collapse......"

A breath.

Whining violins.

"......the collapse........."

The listeners shut their pale eyes.

The bonfire flickers.

The man's face tebses into a painful smile.

".........she had found it."

He lowers his arms towards the flames.

"She had found the collapse. Her father's binding emotion had been pierced through. With the springboards of happiness and sorrow, the sacred daughter survived the brunt of rage......and the concept of her self began to deteriorate. And the world......our precious Mortuana......"

He again eyes the 'ceiling'. "......it followed her suit. The eternal plunge......the hideous pit......" He inhales. He speaks: "None of us knew where she was taking us. But we decided to trust her. We put our faith in her and braved the thunder of the collapse."

A beat.

He beams.

Softly he utters: "After all......_**he**__ did..."_

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Metal fingers against plastic shell.

Twisting the two cylinder halves together.

Pulling the wires out.

_Cl-Click!_

Fastened in the silver slot.

Metal fingers pressing in.

_SNAP!_

A breath.

Gripping the panel.

Sliding it close.

_Chtink!_

Sliding the candle holder over.

Scraping pewter against rickety wood.

Gripping the metal wrist.

Snapping a joint open.

A whirring set of gears.

Gentle flesh fingers guiding the wires.

Into the open joint of the wrist.

The gears made contact.

Static.

And.

_Zzzt!!!_

I winced.

I applied force.

_Zzz-Zzzt!!_

Electrical currents traveled through the wire into the battery of the flashlight shut away inside the unconscious Cyborg's auxiliary power compartment.

Titanium fingers twitched once or twice.

I stuck the wires hard into my prosthetic.

Chills ran through my entire body.

I braved it.

The android's arm twitched more.

Then--

Fl-Flash!!!

A pulse of blue light. Then white light. Then a dull, low glow barely beneath the surface of the cracked, translucent metal.

I yanked the wires out of my metal arm and swiftly reached back to the compartment of Cyborg's power system. I flipped a switch in the open compartment.

There was a 'clunking' sound from inside the Titan's chest cavity.

I leaned my dark head over to his sternum.

"..............."

I blinked.

"..............."

_Whurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr_.

I let out a breath.

_His 'heart' is working again......_

I stood up and reached towards the table for a small plastic pouch of smelling salts from Cyborg's equipment. I waved it before his nose.

A beat.

"Nnnghh....," the flesh half of Cyborg's nose scrunched up. He twitched and groaned.

I smiled weakly.

His head turned somewhat. His electric eye remained a dull black. In fact, his entire left metal face was as black and dead as the rest of his titanium exoskeleton.

His right eye opened. He blinked up at me.

Cyborg was lying on a collection of wooden benches gathered at the last second by myself and a few helpful Mortuanans hours ago. Since the time the other Titans had fled to safety, I swiftly Macgyvered a reboot battery for at least giving the android Titan some semblance of life again. But as I stood over him there in the shadowed corner of the town—dimly haloed by tiny candles—I found myself exactly where I was two hours previous.

I had no idea what to do.

_I just want to see him alive......_

I bit my lip.

_I......I want to see somebody alive in this place......_

"Halle Berry?" Cyborg murmured.

I raised an eyebrow above my black eye.

He coughed, chuckled hoarsely, and shut his human eye again: "Sorry......thought I was in Heaven already."

I smiled.

His lips went soft. His head started to teeter.

I whistled. I slapped his face lightly. I shook his neck.

"Nnnngh....cut it out, dawg....I'm not gonna pass out and die on ya, okay??" he groaned and opened a lazy eye in frustration. "Only half of me is dead right now. Not the better half, if you ask me."

I took a deep breath.

"The others??" Cyborg asked. "Robin? Star? Beast Boy?"

I hand-signed: _'They made it safely.'_ I bit the corner of my lip as I conveyed that.

Cyborg inhaled through his right nostril. "And Raven??"

"..................," I blinked.

Silence.

Cyborg sighed. He let his head fall towards the right. "Heh....d-didn't think she was on the list...."

"????"

Cyborg coughed, then said: "The list of who I knew I was saving."

_'Did you expect to overload?'_

"Noir....all I did **was** overload," Cyborg responded to my gestures. "Whatever the Hell that thing was...I sincerely doubt it could survive the energy capacity of a city block of Las Vegas in the form of a bipedal vigilante. And speaking of yours truly...," he sighed then continued, "...I'm glad. I'm glad that Satan invented flammable creeps. No more hairy slug tentacle punks on these dark hunting grounds, thanks to me. Heheheh."

A beat.

I hung my head.

So would he if he had the energy to do it.

"Noir......I....I-I didn't mean to make you worry," he mumbled. His voice was struggling to come forth from his facilitated voice box. _I always forget that he nearly lost his voice too once._ "I....I just couldn't do anything else...."

I leaned my head to the side and looked at him.

"I saw you coming down like a bolt of murk," he smiled somewhat. "I expected you to dive down like you did, Noir. I expected it before I passed out in front of you. You see....I-I gotta even the score. Throughout this whole nightmare....y-you've been tearing your soul apart to 'consume' these creeps. And God knows why you're doing it. Maybe it's Jonas' influence. Maybe you're just feeling ascetic lately. But...." Half of his brow furrowed and he seemed a bit menacing as he wheezed: "....this damned place has already taken one of my best friends. And Noir....I'm not gonna let it take both of the closest people I have to trust in this life."

My lips parted a bit. I narrowed my black eyes.

He closed his eyes. He took a shuddering breath. It was haunting to see only his flesh half move and his metal part fail to reciprocate.

Eventually the android Titan said: "Noir......you can...y-you can live your life punishing yourself for secret things in the past. But all you'll have is darkness. I'm pretty sure that....th-the reason why you're alive now is that....th-that you're purposed to live. And for you and me...life means the world of light. I want you to make it through this, man. Raven may have given into a curse she no longer has....but now that you're still here and you're still reasonable......I-I'm not about to let you fall into some guilt-ridden abyss either. Come home with me, Noir. Come home with the rest of the Titans. Things aren't so bad that you have to....s-surround yourself with death this early."

I didn't have a response to him. I was mainly too involved with shock.

_How transparent am I???_

My black-eyed gaze fell over his dull-metal features.

_I suppose......I am not the only person the dead appeal to._

I ran a nervous, metal hand through my hair.

I sighed.

"Noir....," Cyborg coughed. He gasped, gathered his breath, and said: "I'll spend all of my days dictating to you. Much like I've dictated to Raven. But I know in the end, you'll do that which you wish to do. And.....and I-I'll trust it. I really will." His gaze fell sadly across the dim candles. "I....I trust Raven........I just don't want her to stay." A beat. "That's why I exploded all over her. That's why I acted like a selfish punk. After two years of trying to understand the mystery that is her...I-I now see it open before me. In all its gruesome, deathly reality. I see the mystery that is her....and I can't settle with it. I want more than t-to just understand her. I....want to be around her. I can't imagine being outside in the light without her usual pessimism and wariness and wisdom. I can't imagine being in a world without her....even though I've already been in a world directly related to her. Fact is...I know nothing. This is all Raven's department. She knows what to do with herself. She knows what she can or can't do." An exhale. "I trust her....as much as I know I'm going to miss her.....I trust her...."

"..........," I stared off into the darkness.

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The chamber shook.

The wooden tables and benches rattled.

The candles flickered.

I calmly gazed around.

Cyborg's human eye blinked.

The rumbling stopped.

I breathed out and looked at him.

"It's collapsing, isn't it?" Cyborg asked. "If....if we don't get out soon enough....we'll be stuck in here. And as appealing as it is to join Raven in such a crazy fate......I think you and I have duties in the world of light."

I gently nodded.

"It's a pity...," Cyborg twitched.

I grabbed his shoulders and hoisted his limp, half-powerless body into a rough sitting position.

"......I was sorta getting used to this place," he sighed. He rested his head back. "Comfortable....in a Stephen King on LSD sort of way. Think they'd mind if I steal some towels on the way to checking out?"

I smiled crookedly.

Shuffles.

Footsteps.

"..............."

We both glanced over.

Raven panted. She hugged herself.

I bit my lip.

Cyborg's face stretched some.

"What....are you doing here......??" she hissed. Her eyes were thin. Dagger sharp.

My eyes fell to the floor. I avoided her gaze.

But Cyborg didn't. "R-Rae??"

"What is HE doing here?!?!?!" Raven barked with a shaking finger. Her voice rattled against the wooden frames around us.

I shuffled towards Raven and made gently to turn her around and--

"NO!!!" she jumped back, practically bearing her fingernails like a blue praying mantis. "I said I didn't want any of you here!! N-Not now!! Not to see me like this!!"

"Raven....you came to us...."

".........," the girl shook. She continued to hug herself.

I stood helplessly strung between the half-dead Cyborg and the half-feeling Raven. I glanced back and forth.

Cyborg managed to utter: "What is it, Rae? What did you come here for??"

"I didn't _come_ here....," she gritted her teeth. "I didn't want to be here!! Never....NEVER in my life have I ever had something go my way!! I've always given my damn all for the rest of the world. Protecting everyone from my father's influence inside of me. Hiding my true powers from you and the rest of the Titans! Doing everything I can to make myself into some freakish ghost!! I can only do that which I know to do!! And in here....in this cold and dark place...the only thing I know to do is make myself twice as invisible as if this darkness isn't enough to hide my pathetic face!!"

"But Raven...I thought that these Mortuanans were your people and—"

"I don't know anymore, okay?!?!?!" Raven shrieked. She clutched her hair and shook all over. "My head....it's bubbling....like a hot iron dropped into my brain. I've felt this agony before. It was when Rage broke free. And indeed, Rage has broken free again. Only...only I-I know there is no longer any demonic threat...." She glared at us and spat: "But I still can't handle it!! I can still hurt you and the Titans!! Why didn't you leave?!?! Why did you stay?!?! This isn't your world!! You don't belong in the dark like I do!!"

I shook some.

Cyborg breathed...then spoke: "Raven...we are going to leave you..."

Raven panted. The red in her face faded some. She stood, half-hunched over as if having just run the mile.

Cyborg lowered his human eyelid. He said: "We are going to leave. It won't be long now. Noir and I will be back in the world of the light. And you will be alone, Raven. You will be perfectly alone....if that is what you desire...."

Raven hugged herself. She looked aside and pushed the stubborn lock of blue hair up and away from her brow.

Cyborg opened his eye. "I....I know that there are parts of you that you never want me or Noir or any of the other Titans to see, Raven. But please understand....never have we seen anything that would warrant us l-leaving you willingly...."

A beat.

Raven slowly gazed in my direction.

"????"

"........," I slowly nodded. I shuffled off and walked away from the dark corner.

Raven and Cyborg were alone.

Silence.

Raven wandered over.

She leaned against the wooden table.

The candle light danced against her graceful features.

Her posture was straight and rigid.

She glared into the darkness.

A beat.

"Cyborg...," she spoke into the flickering halo with a side-stammer. "....I...I am so confused....r-right now.....that I hardly know what I am doing here to begin with."

".......," Cyborg listened.

"I......I have to stay here.....," the dark girl murmured. "I don't _feel_ like I have to stay. But rather....it's.....somehow logical to me. Or at least, it _was_ logical to me......" She hung a thin hand over her face. "It was all clear before...b-before I underwent the consumptions....."

"Jonas and your emotions?" Cyborg asked.

She slowly nodded.

The android numbly stirred. "Raven....I swear....if he—"

"No, Cyborg," she sighed and shook her head. "Every time we perform consumption....Jonas extends the invitation to cancel the procedure. I know that I and I alone am responsible for this decision. Ever since Dr. Light enacted his revenge and plunged all of us here....I've known what I had to do. I had first sent Dr. Light to this world when Rage once took over me. And when in this world, Dr. Light saw something. He saw a weakness in me, Cyborg. Or at least....he saw something he thought would be a weakness in me. He brought me here hoping that the same dimension that terrorized him would paralyze me and everyone else caught up in it. But he couldn't count on the fact that this place—loosely or directly—is linked to me. The blackness is my blood. The poltergeists are my breath. The Mortuanans are my heartbeat. And in order to reverse Dr. Light's secret weapon...I must consume it....and let it consume me. I must understand Mortuana fully. And in order to do that...I-I must stay here, Cyborg. I must stay in Mortuana.......a-and lose control....."

"But why, Raven?" Cyborg breathed. "Why must you lose control? What does losing your meditation and powers have to do with—"

"It is a gain, Cyborg....," Raven interrupted with a murmur. "I....I don't know how to explain it. But I have to keep going. I have to keep stripping myself of what I once clung to. I have to become this new person. This new Raven. But the new Raven doesn't exist without its testament to the old. I must be alone. I m-must be alone in this quest. Mortuana will grant me the essence I have always strived to be."

Cyborg lowered his human eyelid again. "I know. I've always tried to make you into something different.....b-but I know that you are you, Raven." He smiled weakly. "I wouldn't like you if you were anyone else."

Raven looked his way. She raised an eyebrow. "L.....L-Like me??"

Cyborg slowly nodded.

".............," Raven lowered her head. She clenched her teeth. She clutched her skull hard.

Cyborg's lips pursed in concern.

"I......I.......," Raven shuddered and shook. She shook her head in her wrangling grasp. "I-I don't know how to feel, Cyborg." She looked up and her eyes were teary. Her lips quivered. "I...am so full of sorrow...." Her eyes clenched shut. "And yet....g-giddy.....and at the same time so madddd....." She clenched her fists. She relaxed. She shuddered and sobbed once, clutching her hands once more over her face. "....but most of all right now....I feel so, so overwhelmed and hopeless. So very hopeless....."

Cyborg wished suddenly that he could so much as move a limb.

Raven shook. She tilted her head back up with a tearful groan. She wiped her fair sleeve across her cheeks and exhaled: "......I know what I'm doing is logical. I just don't know why. All I can do is trust that I'm going somewhere important with all of this. Once every barrier is broken....things will be oh so clear. I can already feel it, Cyborg."

"F-Feel what, Raven?"

She hugged herself and shivered. "I....I can feel the deepest shadows of this world. I can feel the poltergeists twitching in agony. I can feel Dr. Light cowering away in some deep crevice. I c-can feel......feel......."

_**RUMMMBLE!!!!**_

The wooden table rattled.

The benches groaned.

Cyborg's eyes trailed the dark corners of the candlelight's halo.

Raven took a deep breath. "I can feel the collapse. I can feel the land of death _dying_." She looked hauntingly at Cyborg. "It's a race, Cyborg. You see....it's not just the doorway to Mortuana that's collapsing. It's much darker and more ominous than that. Whatever it is...I have to collapse _before_ _it does_. It's for the best of everyone and everything. Light side and dark side. For whatever logical reason....it's my purpose here. The lonely pre-emptive collapse of shields to all my wicked passions."

Cyborg breathed. "You.....are a savior, Raven?"

The girl sniffed. "I am a witch......nothing more...." She stood like a flickering shadow at the far edge of the candlelight. "Always was. I'm.....I-I'm sorry I ever let you get close to me, Cyborg. Now I'm doing this...and it has to hurt you so much....."

Silence.

"It would hurt me......logically," Cyborg remarked.

Raven looked forlornly in his direction.

He smiled weakly. His flesh face. "Raven....the part of me that thinks.....that truly 'thinks'....it's way on the fritz right now. I'm having to stay awake as I speak with eighty percent of my conscious motor functions disabled and over half of my cybernetic processors on strike. The overload I set off a while ago smashed through three solid failsafe systems of my energy core. I can feel a flashlight in my arm compartment that Noir must have utilized in rebooting me. A _lightbulb_, Raven....."

The girl blinked at him.

He breathily continued: "All I am right now....is all I ever truly was when I befriended you. While I saw through my red eye a creepy girl who punished herself needlessly day in and day out....this eye---"he winked "---showed me that which I still see at the present. And that's a girl who knows herself. With all mystery and meditation torn away or not...she's always been in charge of her own person. Her self-control is beyond anything any of us Titans can hope to compare to. She's known the path of her life long before walking it...and she's stuck to her destiny through and through. And no matter what I did to obey logic and try and talk you out of being who and what you are....you still stayed true to yourself. And this Cyborg--.....Vic Stone....he respects you. He always has. He always will."

Raven's gaze drifted away.

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Cyborg spoke above the shaking sensation: "When I'm back in the light world....without you, Raven.....and when I go 'back online'.....I'll hate myself. I'll hate myself for letting you go. But this part of me...the part that feels...I shall always remember the freeze frame that rests before me now. A young lady....so selfless....so wise....and so.........cutie...." He smiled.

Raven folded her arms and performed a unique blend of a smile and a frown. The tripartite expression was topped off with a tear. She took a shuddering breath. "You....say a lot, Cyborg.....but you'll never understand me."

"I'm glad, Raven............I'm glad......."

"............................," Raven turned towards the darkness. She shuddered. "When....wh-when should you and Noir be going?"

Cyborg swallowed. He uttered: "You tell me, Rae....."

".................," Raven hung her arms by her side...facing away from him. "You should leave as soon as I disappear. Because that's when I'll be doing it."

"Doing what, Raven?"

"Opening myself up to the last and final emotion," she walked off. "Fear....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Men and Women in the subway 'town' murmured and wrung their hands in apprehension. They gathered in worrisome clusters under the flickering torchlight as the underground cityscape vibrated and quaked.

I walked nonchalantly down the center of the cross-mesh of wooden platforms and lattices. I was unaffected by the shaking. I had every reason to fear the implications of the collapse's violent side-effects But I didn't.

_Not my world anyways._

I looked up ahead. I sighed and my black eyes narrowed.

_Or is it?_

I spotted a lonely, wooden crate. Dimitri sat on it with his shoulders hunched. He twirled a flute numbly in his grasp. His pale eyes drifted through the floor.

"........."

I walked over and stood quietly before him.

Silence.

"I have seen......so many horrors....," Dimitri slurred.

A beat.

"So many.....memories.....of tortured spirits......the poltergeists....."

"......" I stared down at him. Nearby torchlight shimmered off my tattered white jumpsuit. Worrisome shadows walked to and fro behind me.

Dimitri looked up at me. "Why is it....after all of my consumptions as a Mediator.....Ayane's loss _affects_ me??"

I raised an eyebrow.

He leaned his head to the side. "I imagine....as a lightsider, you must understand what loss is."

I gazed off at that.

A beat.

Dimitri examined his flute up close....stoically. "Here in Mortuana....loss is everything. The dead come to us. Tragedy falls on our doorsteps. Everything we know and practice is for the sole sake of balancing the frequency of loss. We salvage what we can from the world of the living...and make do with it."

He ran a pale hand through his hair and looked up at me again.

"Ayane....is doubly lost. I know it was meant to be....but after witnessing so much of what the light side offers these days....I can almost....almost remember what it was like to be on the farm. In the Sun. My family....."

I nodded slowly.

A beat.

Dimitri smiled painfully. "Those two particular Titans....they are quite...............warm. Who are they again? The 'bird' youth and the alien?"

I smirked.

"Do they realize how much the both of them appear—"

I shrugged.

"I see," Dimitri nodded. His pale eyes trailed off. He sighed. "Mortuana....is blessing amnesia. You will be likely to find in death—Mr. Titan—the greatest heaven you'll ever have is forgetfulness." He glanced up at me again. "You wouldn't be here.....you wouldn't be able to consume poltergeists.....if you had nothing worth forgetting."

I bit my lip.

Footsteps.

The two of us looked up.

"........," Jonas smiled. "Greetings, fellow souls."

Dimitri stood up. He seemed to be shaking for some reason. "G-Grand Mediator. I-I...."

Jonas placed his hands on the man's shoulders. "At ease, Jonas. We all know that you have taken Ayane's departure hard..."

".....," Dimitri hung his head.

Jonas leaned his head to the side, smiling. "You have been so....so very brave as of late, Dimitri. Ayane was very proud of you. I'm sure that—wherever her energy may be now—she is still very proud of you."

Dimitri took a shuddering breath. "I wish my energy could join her......"

I listened.

"We will all join together one day, young one...," Jonas said. "Soon enough. We are in the age of the Sacred One." That said, he gazed my way.

I stared back.

".........Mr. Titan.....," Jonas breathed. "You are......departing?"

"..........," I slowly nodded.

"Your presence in Mortuana.......has been most eventful."

I narrowed my black eyes.

"You know that which I refer to...," Jonas gestured. "Your talent has been most efficient."

Dimitri stared curiously at me.

I sighed. I nervously rubbed the back of my head and looked off.

"You are not like the native mediators of this land," Jonas spoke. "You ease poltergeists.........with guilt....."

I shuddered.

"For a moment, I assumed that perhaps you belonged in this world. But I was wrong."

I looked at Jonas.

He leaned his head to the side. "You are far more bound to the light side than I can imagine. You have....family there...."

A sudden warmth washed over my heart. I shuddered a breath and slowly nodded.

Dimitri smiled weakly. "Maybe you won't be so forgetful after all."

"???" I glanced at him.

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!**_

The underground shook violently that time. Some of the wooden platforms shook and quivered on their supports. Dimitri and Jonas nearly fell down. My legs wobbled.

Murmurs and cries of shock echoed from the 'living dead' beyond us.

Jonas took deep breaths.

Dimitri put his flute away. "Your honor....is now a good time?"

Jonas slowly nodded. "They must know....they must all know...."

"??????????" I looked at them in confusion.

"Though...I would be surprised if none of them truly suspected it...," Jonas spoke.

Dimitri hummed in agreement.

Morbid...pale agreement.

_What's going on here??_

The two men walked out into the open 'courtyard' of the City between the torches and wooden lattices and bazaars and....everything. They were in the center of the underground Town. Every Mortuanan soul trained her or his ears and eyes on the two as Jonas raised his arms, silenced the civilization, and uttered firmly:

"Fellow Mortuanans....you must sense it....as we sense it.....the tremors do in fact mean more. The recent events have proven....that this is not a matter of friction with the light side. The collapse of the doorway into our dimension is not what's breaking down around us."

My black eyes bulged. I glanced at every citizen around me. They were completely deadpan. Somberly numb. Not angry in the bit.

"??????" I faced Jonas again, my lips parted.

"The 'black dome' is not collapsing," Jonas spoke firmly. He didn't blink. "Mortuana is."

My jaw dropped.

"The infrastructure of our sub-dimension is no longer strong enough to maintain integrity. The fate of our world is in a _collapse_....inevitably and cataclysmically. For hundreds of years, we have served our purpose as mediators between life and death. Our purpose in existence is coming to a climax....as it was prophesied by the arrival of the Sacred Daughter."

I sweated nervously. I spun around and scanned the shadows and lines of the wooden lattices with my black eyes. Behind the scores of numb faces paying attention in zombie-fashion to Jonas' news of disaster, I spotted a lone form hugging herself in the darkness.

_Raven._

I was already running past the stoical Mortuanans and desperately up the platforms towards her figure as Jonas went on:

"Let us all prepare for this in reverence of the former teachings of Azar, and that of our forefathers...the Separatists. For soon...all of our energies shall be merged as one. There shall no longer be differences or schisms. In death...or the realm that exists beyond death."

A hum and thunderous murmur of hundreds and hundreds of respectful voices filled the chamber with one, unanimous bow.

And then—like an aftershock—a tremor of combined sighs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran to the edge of a darkened platform overlooking the torchlit campfire.

I panted.

My shoulders heaved.

My face was frozen in shock and concern.

Raven had her back to me...and yet she uttered: "It's true, Noir. It's collapsing." She wrapped her arms around her cloak and shuddered, her eyes round and sad. "It won't be long now." A beat. "I-I don't have long now. I must beat the collapse....b-by collapsing myself."

I leaned my head to the side. I mouthed. _'B-But why??'_

She must have known I asked without reading my lips. I had the queer sensation of envisioning her fingers in my brain and--

"Why do you keep sacrificing yourself, Noir?"

"????"

She turned and faced me forlornly. "The poltergeists....you've been consuming them."

I blinked.

"I've sensed it....," Raven spoke. Her eyes fell momentarily. "I....I could always sense things, Noir. Always. You know that. But lately.....l-lately with the collapse....."

I leaned my head to the side.

She continued: ".....it's like the whole world....the whole _dark_ world is being turned inside out around me. I-I.....I'm losing control of my emotions. I'm going relatively insane. And yet at the same time....things are becoming so much more clear." She hugged herself tighter. "I-I already told Cyborg this. I feel everything in this world. But there's one thing I haven't told him."

_'What?'_

She looked up at me. "There are a dozen left, Noir."

I raised an eyebrow.

"People. Innocent people. Citizens."

I gasped.

She nodded. "The Titans did not get them all out. There are twelve still left. Mortuana is collapsing. Soon this world will be absolute oblivion. Absorbed into chaos. And those twelve lightsiders will be stuck in there....exactly where they shouldn't be."

My eyes gazed off. My mind raced.

_Where could they be?!?! How could we have missed them?!?!?!_

"I....I'm telling you this because......because you and I have many things in common, Noir," Raven said. "As much as I understand...even Cyborg sees this. You and I are so......s-so self-sacrificing. Cyborg's recently tried to emulate us. But he wasn't built like you and I were. While you and I survive in spite of our selflessness, Cyborg nearly ripped himself in two. He is in no condition to risk his neck any further."

I took a deep breath.

_But I am........._

"I.........I told you about the twelve not because I want you and the Titans to make a last minute rescue...," Raven said. "I know you probably want to now. But it's fool-hardy. The citizens are in the deepest, darkest spot in Mortuana. To attempt rescue now would be suicide in all physical, emotional, and spiritual senses of the term." She took a deep breath. "I told you about them—Noir—because I choose to trust you." She bit her lip and nearly choked: "I choose to trust you as Cyborg trusts me."

"..........," I stared at her.

She stared back. "I know I'm being a hypocrite....but.....," she bit her lip and fought it....but eventually said: "Take care of yourself, Noir. F-For me?"

I took a deep breath. The Raven that stood before me suddenly became ten times as normally familiar. I no longer was seeing the strange, emotionally unpredictable girl who had taken over the sorceress' shell. But instead I saw the same, blue-haired Titan who had protected me and fought for my defense so often in the past.

_Kara's right. She's always so protective. So very protective._

I smiled painfully.

Raven closed her eyes. She took a shuddering breath. "The Lich."

I blinked.

"In the pit inside the library....," Raven muttered...as if hoping I wouldn't hear her. "That's where the last twelve are. It....it is utterly hopeless for them. But......th-they are with the Lich. In the pit of the strong poltergeist's lair..."

She walked away briskly.

I found my arm lifting up as if to grab a piece of her invisible vapor trails.

But I touched nothing.

Only darkness. The faint dance of torchlight.

I panted.

_Where does all of this begin and all of this end?_

I panted some more.

_Why do I feel......like I am the third thing collapsing here??_

I shook the mental oblivion off and ran down the nearest wooden ramp....

Towards Cyborg's location.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A hum filled the torch-lit depths of Mortuana.

A hymn of sorrow.

A universal moan.

Men walked the last of their rounds of guard duty.

Women stitched the very last patchwork quilts.

Bazaars emptied themselves forever.

Children of the dead stopped running around.

Bodies slowed down.

The dim light became even dimmer.

A rosy-sepia hue of struggling warmth lapped at the dark gray walls.

Dust rose an extra half-inch on the Subway floor.

Darkness seeped down from the observation tower.

Everything mingled in dull snow like an old VHS tape.

But there was no sobbing.

No crying.

No tears.

Just........

Acceptance.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The shadows of shadows spread like obsidian spider webs throughout the City.

Even the poltergeists felt the spread.

The tremors.

The quivering form of the invisible dome.

Pale figures skirted into black alleyways.

Leather creatures clung to brickwork behind golden plaques.

Howling noises filled intersections of the Downtown, then faded away.

It became cold.

Condensation skirted down the bronze cheeks of statues on the building faces of the stock exchange district.

Windows fogged.

The air dripped with floating sleet.

And somewhere....underneath the crumbling letters of 'City Library'....a pit yawned open.

With a hissing breath.

Unaffected by the end.

The end of end itself.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

I looked towards the ceiling.

Panting.

Cyborg was leaning against me, standing on half of his legs.

Behind us, Mortuanans huddled in candlelight and flickering oblivion.

The hymn filled the air.

A dusty glow of oblivion.

Cyborg and I glanced back.................once.........

"So long, Raven.....," the half-dead Android whispered.

I turned and gazed with black eyes towards the dark passageway ahead.

_Have a happy apocalypse._

I hobbled us forward.

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Raven hung her head.

Jonas sat meditatively beside her.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor huddled in the corner of the tent.

Silence.

Raven's eyes thinned. She lifted her head somewhat. She inhaled slowly.

"................."

A beat.

She closed her eyes finally and sighed.

Jonas looked up.

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!**_

........

........

........

"I'm ready...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...jumped into the river.....what did I see......black eyed angels...swam with me...."

Cyborg and I shuffled along.

Two Titans in the dark.

Arm an arm.

Vapor drifted out of my mouth as I panted.

Cyborg chuckled breathily and kept rambling.

"...a moon full of stars...and astral cars....all the friends I used to see....."

I knew he wasn't going insane. They were lyrics to some song he liked. I didn't remember the artist. I didn't care.

The blackness seemed doubly blacked as it yawned ahead of us. The air was cold and thin. The ground and buildings shook every now and then like the shadowed intestinal track of some hideously huge beast.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

"....all my lovers were there with me....all my past and futures....."

I gazed up.

Streetlamps swam above us in the blackness.

Dull, non-reflecting windows.

A low hiss like last-minute wind.

My black eyes narrowed.

"...and we all went to heaven....in a little row boat....and there was nothing to fear.....nothing to doubt....."

Cyborg went limp a little.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted him up more. Shaking him.

He wheezed and struggled, summoning the strength to walk with half of his limbs.

"....nothing to fear.....n-nothing to doubt...."

We hobbled along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The candles were lit.

A ring formed around Raven.

Heads bowed.

Voices chanted.

Jonas folded his arms.

His lips began to move.

_**RUMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

Raven's eyes popped open.

Twitching.

"W-Wait......"

Jonas paused.

The hooded figures lifted their gaze.

Silence.

"I......," Raven shuddered, ".....I wish to do this part alone...."

Murmurs.

Dimitri and his guardians shifted uncomfortably.

Jonas leaned forward. "Sacred One....but how—"

"I don't know...but...I-I can.....I can sense it....," Raven uttered. "I want to release my fear by myself. It's the only way. And besides...."

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

Everyone looked around.

Raven's lips lingered. She blinked. She said: "Your people need their Grand Mediator.....allow me to face fear the strongest that I can. Alone."

Silence.

Jonas took a deep breath, smiled, and bowed his head.

"As you wish.....Daughter of the Sacred Mother...."

Raven tilted her bejeweled forehead down.

Jonas stood up.

The other mediators followed suit.

A line shuffled out of the tent.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor went last.

The girl took a deep breath. The candles flickered around her. She closed her eyes and raised her hands in meditative fashion.

"The collapse.........the collapse......," she hissed. A scrunched brow. "Lingerrrrrrrrrrr.............."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!**_

"Noir....," Cyborg shuddered against me as we hobbled along. "Noir.......I....n-never expected it to happen........."

"?????" I barely gave him a half-glance we shuffled forward.

"Raven and I.......," he exhaled. "....I....I merely wanted to....t-to help her try and.....become something......."

".........," I gazed at the asphalt passing beneath us.

".....I.....I did not intend to.......t-to get that close to a young lady that you once may.......h-have felt close to.....but...."

He shook his head. He sighed.

"....I couldn't help it......I wanted to be there for Raven The more I talked with her....the more I realized she wasn't so awfully creepy or whatnot....she was just someone needing attention like any one of us......and she may have never said so aloud.....but I just know that she appreciated my attention. And soon...I got addicted to her attention too....and...."

"Shhhh....," I whispered....gently.

Cyborg bit his lip.

We motioned along.

A moment of silence.

Then.....broken.

"I digress.......," Cyborg muttered. "....I regret nothing.........and I'm sorry if that hurts you, Noir......once we're outside of this nightmare, it's gonna take me a really long time to get used to her absence......"

_Hurt........._

I barely listened to him. I could care less about more hurt.

My black eyes were obsessed with something beyond the shadows.

_The Twelve............The Twelve........._

My heart washed over with ice water.

I shivered with a chill and hurried us along.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lanterns were lit one by one.

Girls in elegant dresses set the oil in the lamps.

An orange aura rose against the gray stone and brown planks.

Immortal souls gathered on benches surrounding a circle of clear concrete. Frilly ladies and straightlaced men. Skirts and pants. Hairbands and top hats.

A fire was lit in the center. A warming thing. It pierced the darkness. The darkness that was all around. The darkness that was everywhere. The darkness that was everything.

Jonas wandered into the center of the circle in the courtyard. His hand were peacefully held together. Behind him, Dimitri sat on a rickety stool, flanked by Raphael and Victor. The guardians gracefully tuned their violins. Dimitri polished his flute one last time.

Jonas slowly lifted his face. A painfully sweet smile on his face. He raised his arms.

The archaic crowd settled down. A cough or two. Miserably serene eyes gazed bruisedly onto the scene. Pale skin and dark hair. Black threads...

_**RUMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Jonas bowed his head. He inhaled. He raised his arms again and faced the stone sky of the subway.

Raphael and Victor stringed their violins. A beautiful melody vibrated through the crowded, lantern lit interior. A fragance of earthly energy wafted upward and outward as Dimitri's flute drifted into the rhythm, playing the opposite end of the spectrum to Jonas' voice as he distinctly and passionately spoke:

"This is a story. A very fine story. And—in that all stories are mortal infinites—it is a story laced with paradoxes. Laced with emotion. And drenched in darkness. But the darkness is not very exciting. For you and I well know that the darkness is everything!! It encompasses all that we soak in and consume!! Our very reason for living!!"

_**RUMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were approaching the edge.

The darkness felt thinner.

I swore my black eyes saw frost floating in the misty air.

My lips quivered and I saw beyond the obscurity of obscurity.

Facing West.....

_"Are you alone too, Jordan?"_

My black eyes narrowed.

_"I don't know what past you may have, Jordan," Kara spoke. She gazed at me compassionately across the plains of Kansas. The starry sky bathed us with a gentle glow from above. "But I know that it still haunts you. Much like mine haunts me. But one thing's for certain..."_

_Kara's hands trailed down and gently stroked the metal skin of my left prosthetic._

I breathed thinly.

My optics blinked.

_"You've given more than enough to prove...you don't have to be alone anymore. You must stop struggling, Jordan. You must stop punishing yourself and embrace what you have."_

My feet stumbled a bit.

Cyborg rambled on the verge of total and utter shutdown.

"I should have answered the door.......I-I should have answered the d-door..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!**_

The tune paused, lifted, and swung around into the melody again.

Jonas slowly spun to face the attentive audience as he continued speaking. "It is a story of a girl. Not just any girl!!" he raised a finger. "But the offspring...of the purest being in our dark dimensions. The defiled possessor of light. The eternal and blameless Angela. May the sacred mother be praised."

"Praise the sacred mother...," chanted the pale crowd in acknowledgement.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat.

Cross-legged in the tent.

The candles flickered.

A magic wind kicked at her hair.

She panted...hyperventilated....

Concentrating on the me......consume me......," she shuddered. A tear ran down her cheek. She bit her lip....and whimpered: "I don't want t-to be alone..................I-I don't want to be alone........"

And yet, she lifted her neck back.

She exploded her mouth open.

She shook once...twice....

She began a deep-throated scream as a wave of black light exploded from her chakra stone.

**FLASH!!!!!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg was beginning to twitch.

His emergency energy supply was waning.

We were almost to the edge. We were almost in the light.

And he was starting to short out.

And I wasn't really there....

"_And I only hope that—as truthful as you are—you do not hesitate to admit your good over that of your bad, Noir."_

_Wonder Woman stood before me on the outskirts of the Tower. She smiled in a benevolent manner._

"_For I do believe the good things about you—as always the good things about all of us—shall always be remembered. And not what we perceive as the 'bad'. Hold onto the virtue that you have, Noir. Do not blind yourself to it like I have. It is a shameful thing to do to someone as brave as you. Embrace that which is good inside of you. To obsess over anything else....that will only destroy what is already a precious and noble soul."_

I sighed.

My arm was throbbing with a chill.

The blackness took on a vertigo effect.

It seemed to stretch on forever....though I knew we were nearly at the edge.

It was as if I was being pulled back......

_The Twelve......_

I bit my lip.

"_But you're fighting for the righteous side," the Messenger said to me._

I sat wounded above an alleyway. Avoiding his gaze.

"You're fighting for the side that matters," he said. "And no matter what existentialists and other liberal-minded philosophers in this world think, I'm convinced of one thing. As long as you're on the side of Virtue, there is a chance to bend reality, break the limbo, and come out victorious by doing the very same thing that you've been doing all along."

Something beneath the chill rose up.

I held my breath.

It was a feeling I hadn't felt since....since....

_"I still love you, Jordan......"_

I shuddered.

I felt like dropping Cyborg.

I felt like dropping myself too.

"_Remember how I once loved you, Jordan?" Ana asked. She stood in a place where light ruled above all else. White......hot......wise......light. "And I never stopped, Jordan. I never stopped......"_

I clenched my metal hand.

It suddenly felt more real then than it ever had before.

My lips moved.

_Will I live, Ana?_

_Her eyes lowered._

An invisible wind touched her blonde wisps of hair.

"When were you ever alive, Jordan?" she smiled. She gazed up at me like the angel she was. "When were you ever alive?"

I smiled.

I breathed in slowly.

Cyborg and I reached the edge.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!!**_

"Light......the most upside-down thing to bless us......has now enveloped us like a psuedo-obsidian cocoon. For not only did the daughter of the sacred mother come to visit us......but now, she has become us......" Jonas smiled. His pale eyes thin. "And Mortuana has reunited infinitely with the lost twins of Azar........."

Smiles. Claps. Friends clinging to each other......sighing......

In spite of the collapse...

Jubilation of the dead.

The music reached a high point. Raphael's and Victor's violins sobbed. At the same time, Dimitri's flute rejoiced.

The paradox of Mortuana.

Jonas raised his hands.

"This.........is how it all began........."

And the music dove in......

_**RUMMMMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I wrapped the cord sticking out into the light world around Cyborg. I tugged on it. I slipped the material into his titanium grip. I lay him gently on the concrete on the edge of the black wall. I stripped him of his extra equipment. Flashlights. Flares. Glow sticks. Rope. First Aid. Bandages. Everything I could find. I strapped them onto two separate belts strung over my shoulders and white jumpsuit. I adjusted Myrkblade in its sheathe. I pocketed the flashlights and held another in my grasp.

I took a deep breath.

I began to turn around--

"Noir....."

I froze. I slowly gazed down at Cyborg.

He panted. He weakly sat up some....holding the cord in his grasp.

"You.....Y-You......"

I held a finger up.

".............," he blinked. "You're.........you're going back..........why? Why, Noir? For Raven---???"

_'No'_ I mouthed.

A beat.

Cyborg was utterly confused.

I took a deep breath and hand-signed.

Cyborg's human eye widened a bit. "There's.......twelve more left?"

I slowly nodded.

".......Raven......she told you.........didn't she?"

"........."

Cyborg lay back, gripping to the cord. He groaned. "You two.....so alike........"

I stared at him.

He uttered: "She knew.....that you would sacrifice yourself.......like her........"

A beat.

"Noir....don't do this....don't do this to yourself.....," he said. "....this isn't your land. You don't belong with the dead. No matter what secrets you may have—"

I swiftly hand-signed: _'I am not punishing myself, Cyborg'._

He stared at me.

I smiled painfully and added: _'I know what I am. I am a hero, Cyborg. I am going to save those twelve people. Because that is what I do. And that is what I am. I am no longer making up for things.'_

Silence.

Cyborg took a deep breath. He smiled weakly. "Goody two-shoes."

I snickered.

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

A beat.

Our smiles faded.

He shuddered. "Come back in one piece, you hear me? You come back, Noir. Don't destroy yourself over this."

"........," I walked over and firmly stretched an arm out through the blackness.

Cyborg weakly reached a free hand up.

We gripped our palms together tightly.

I squeezed.

He couldn't.

I took a deep breath and cupped my metal hand around his. A beat. I let go and dropped his arm back to his numb chest. I shuffled over and yanked at the cord.

After a pause....those on the light side pulled on the cord.

Awkwardly—but efficiently—Cyborg was dragged off through the curtain of black.

He saluted.

I gave him a 'peace' sign.

He was gone.

A beat.

I sighed, turned around.

Click.

Click.

I turned on two flashlights in either hand.

Equipped with a lantern in each arm, I swiftly shuffled my way into the thickness and blackness of Mortuana.

Alone.....


	140. Mortuana part 9 final

**140. Mortuana part 9 Final**

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"_Ana.........p-please........."_

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"_A-Answer me..............."_

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"_My eyes, Ana..............."_

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"_Can y-you see............Ana?"_

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"_Please.........a-answer me.........please........."_

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_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

I marched forward.

Flashlights in both hands.

Breathing slowly....

_**RUMMM-MMMMBLE!!!**_

The dark City street around me shook.

I gritted my teeth and teetered to the side.

Asphalt pebbles danced beneath me.

Abandoned cars rattled in the shadows.

Then a clanking sound from above.

I glanced up.

A streetlamp quivered.

I gasped and jumped aside--

_GROAAAAN-CLUNK!!!!_

The metal structure collapsed hard besides me.

I shuddered.

A beat.

I re-gripped my flashlights and marched forward.

Panting.

My black eyes wide.

Piercing the darkness before me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_Jordan??"_

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"_Jordan????"_

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"_There is.......bl-blood on your face....."_

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"......_.oh my god.......your eyes....."_

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"......_.your eyes.....oh god......what did they do.....Jordan......Jordan!!!"_

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"_Please.........s-stay strong, Jordan........."_

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"_P-Please....I........I-I..........."_

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"_Oh god.......th-they're coming for m-m-me next......"_

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"_Oh god......"_

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked over broken canyons in the asphalt.

I hopped a ravine.

I landed on the other side.

I squatted down.

I held my flashlights out.

Listening......

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Silence.

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A rustling.

Shrieking sounds.

My black eyes narrowed.

_**RUMMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

More shrieks.

Scuffling claws.

Pale bodies writhing and slithering.

I took a deep breath.

I shuffled forward.

Squirming things streaked across the bright halo of light eating into the black soup ahead of me.

A few poltergeists even flanked me in their howling migration.

They were heading in the same direction as I was.

The library.

The lich.

The pit.

All parted ways and squirmed so as to avoid my light.

I breathed steadily and kept my pace.

I followed the death march of pale forms shuffling and moaning towards the colder...colder...colder air.

Vapors....

Echoes....

Collapse.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The dark swallowed my dim, bobbing form the further I went.

Cutting through........

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_Nnngh........."_

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"_Nnnnghhh!!!!! Nnnnghhhhh!!!!!"_

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"_Ana?? Ana?!?!?! What.........wh-what are you doing to her?!?!?!"_

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"_What......wh-.........nnnghh.........wh-wh-what are you doing to her?!?!?!?!"_

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"_Nnngnhhh-No......NO! Ana!!! Rghhhh!!!! Stop it!!! STOP IT!!!!!!"_

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"_NNNGHHHHH!!!!!! ANA!!!!!! YOU GOD DAMN BASTARDS!!!!!! NNGHHHH!!!! __**WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!?!!?!?!?!"**_

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"_**NNNGHHH!!!!!! ANA!!!!!!!! YOU WILL NOT HURT HER!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!! LEAVE HER ALONE!!!!!!"**_

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"............_**.nnnnNNNGHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!............ RAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAUGH!!!!!.............. RRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!! ANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NNNGHH!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!"**_

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I exhaled.

My black eyes narrowed.

I slowed down.

I resorted to only one flashlight in my metal hand.

My flesh hand gripped tightly....cautiously on the hilt of Myrkblade sheathed behind me.

".........."

I crouched in my white jumpsuit and crept slowly up the pale sidewalk.

The library rose beyond a hill of asphalt.

At least....what was left of the library.

The outer ring of the four foot structure was still in tact.

But the center crunched downward like a huge crater.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

I shone my flashlight upwards.

Cold mist danced in the black air.

"........"

I lowered the flashlight.

Pale bodies twitched.

Walking hulks of ghostly flesh.

Moaning flesh bags dragging themselves along with hooks for hands.

Crablike creatures made from two human torsos joined together and walking on their pairs of hands while whimpering through sewn lips.

Snakes of dog skin with ivory teeth acting as millipede feet.

A hooded figured hunched over, breathing red vapors, dragging five black-bleeding mannequins by rope nooses.

Leather-winged shriekers with dangling fish-eyes and forked tails.

The ghosts and ghouls and demons formed a pale train as they wandered through the cracked entrance of the library.

I took a deep breath.

I looked up with the light pointed.

My black eyes squinted.

I saw a line of dull windows on the third floor.

"........."

I held the flashlight squished under my right arm.

I fumbled through one of the two belts strung around my shoulders.

I pulled out a flare.

I took a breath.

I clenched my eyes shut.

I looked away and snapped the cap off the flare.

Pfft!!!!

A strobe.

I winced.

The pulse faded from my eyelids.

I exhaled.

I aimed half blindly up at the ledge.

I tossed the flare.

It landed on the sill, illuminating the third floor.

I re-gripped my flashlight.

I took a breath.

I summoned murk into my legs and ran up the building side above the haunted entrance.

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"....................."

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"_Jordan......wh-where are you going?!?!"_

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"_Wh-What did you do, Jordan??"  
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"_**JORDAN!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?!?!"**_

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SMASH!!!!!

The dull glass scattered into a thousand fragments.

The flickering light from a flare shimmered down the black interior.

Crunch!!

I landed inside on my boots.

CHIIIING!!!

I held Myrkblade out.

I also held the flashlight out.

I shone the electric lantern down the length of my blade.

A disfigured halo soared down the hallway, ending about four doors down into the darkness.

I breathed in....out....in....out....

I walked forward.

Crunch....Crunch....Crunch.....Pad.....Pad....Pad....

The carpet was dry.

Stale.

The walls were dull.

It was freezing.

Vapor drifted out from my nose.

"................."

_".................."_

"................."

".................._N-Noir??"_

I froze in place.

"................"

I turned and looked behind me.

Nothing.

The flare was dying.

The shattered window-hole was fading.

The dark was all-encompassing.

I heard a few shrieks and cries from the flocks of creatures outside.

Other than that...

Nothing.

.......

.....

"_Noir??"_

A chill swept up my body.

I swallowed and gripped tighter to Myrkblade and the flashlight at once.

The wound under my right shoulder's bandage throbbed.

"_Noir......wh-why did you come back??"_

I exhaled.

My black eyes narrowed at nothing in particular.

'........._Raven???'_

A pause.

And then.....

"_Noir......your voice......I-I can hear it......"_

_'I don't have a voice.'_

My black eyes blinked.

'_And you don't have telepathy!!'_

"_Noir!! You have to get out of there! You. Have. To. Get. Out. Of. There. __**NOW**__."_

I shook my head.

I clenched my teeth.

'_Shut the Hell up! Whoever you are. Get out of my—'_

"_You're so selfless, Noir."_

'............'

"_I told you that long time ago. On the boardwalk in Virginia."_

'............'

_That still isn't true......_

"_You remember the boardwalk......don't you, Noir?"_

'_Raven. I had to come back. When you told me that—'_

"_I knew it! I knew it! Just as I feared."_

My face twisted.

'_Feared???'_

"_I'm.........I'm............"_

Silence.

Mental silence.

But only for a spite.

"_I'm struggling, Noir. I'm struggling very hard."_

'_Struggling to do what, Raven?'_

"_T-To keep Mortuana in tact."_

'..............._huh??'_

"_I'm consuming the last shield. The shield to fear. I'm still meditating, Noir. I haven't finished......and yet I hadn't started."_

'_But......that's gotta be impossible to do, Raven! The strain on your mind! Why—'_

"_Because you're so selfless, Noir. I was afraid you'd come back. And that you'd come back alone. And you have."_

'_I can't let those twelve people go unsaved, Raven. So help me, I'll risk whatever. It's my job. I'm a Titan.'_

"_I---"_

I took a deep breath and marched forward.

'_You're not a Titan anymore, Raven. Do not dictate to me. Do not tell me what I should or shouldn't do!'_

"_I don't care about what you should or shouldn't do, I only care about what you __**can**__ do!!"_

'_Same difference.'_

"_NO, IT ISN'T NOIR!!"_

I winced.

I rubbed my head.

'_Raven......'_

"_Noir, please---"_

'_Get out—'_

"_Noir, stop!!"_

I halted my steps.

I sighed.

I gripped Myrkblade tightly.

"_I......I do not know what I have become. I don't know the logics of it all. I know that the logic exists. I know that I set things in motion somehow. But......but I don't know anything anymore except for what I feel. I've been stripped down to these raw passions of happiness, sadness, anger, and now fear. And I can sense so much with fear......even when I have only half-tapped it. I am extending my essence everywhere at once, Noir. I am in the underground City. I am there with Jonas as he gives his speech to his fellow undead. I am there in the melody wafting out of Dimitri's flute. I am outside with the ghouls twitching and moaning pale in the endless midnight. I am the darkness and the darkness is me. And that darkness reaches out everywhere. As far as death will go. And death goes on for eternity. Noir, I am becoming Mortuana. I am b-becoming Mortuana. But the transformation is not complete. For I must give into the fourth feeling. I must consume the barrier to fear entirely. And once I have done so......the collapse will happen. Mortuana will be no more. For it will have collapsed within me. The Sacred Mother's child. The ending prophecy of these beautifully morose people......"_

I took a deep breath.

My fingers played along Myrkblade's hilt.

'_All well and fine, Raven. But that is what you set before yourself. In some twisted way......that is what you wanted.'_

I pointed Myrkblade and the flashlight forward again.

I marched down the black hallway.

'_And this......this is what I wanted.'_

"_To march into the lion's den, Noir?"_

'_Raven, my whole damn life __**is**__ the lion's den.'_

"..............."

'_Were you going to close the beasts' mouths for me?'_

"_I.........I can guide you, Noir......"_

'_You have enough to deal with as it is, Raven.'_

I shuddered.

'_No need risking the two of us—'_

"_The only risk is you, Noir. You and the twelve people. Now I am suspending my exposure to fear for a reason. As hard as it is and as much of a strain it is in my head......my withholding is what's keeping the collapse from happening."_

Silence.

I thinned my black eyes.

'_You're.........you're giving me extra time.'_

A beat.

"_Stay with me, Noir.........in spirit.........in mind......"_

Her 'voice' was desperate. Panting. Tired and cold.

"_I will guide you.........I-I will show you where the Twelve are........."_

My lips parted somewhat.

"_Do you know where the Twelve are, Noir??"_

I swallowed.

_'No.........Raven.........'_

"_They are in the pit.........let me guide you........."_

I took a deep breath.

"............"

'_Okay.........'_

"_Thank you, Noir. I can't tell you how much that means to me."_

'............'

"_I'm so scared. Please.........b-be careful......"_

'_Just show me where to go.'_

"_Down."_

'Down??'

"Wait a second."

"?????"

I stepped forward.

And suddenly....

The light caught a door.

I stopped before it.

I shined the light against the frame.

It read: 'Stairwell. Third Floor. Basement to Fifth Floor.'

"......."

I took a deep breath.

'_So far......so good......'_

"_The pit. You can reach it from the basement floor."_

'_Thank you, Navigator.'_

"_Noir......even with emotions.........I don't get humor."_

'_Then expect everything else but.........'_

I jerked a metal hand forward and gripped the stairwell door handle.

I breathed heavily.

_3......_

_2......_

_1........._

"!!!!"

I yanked the door open—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--and stepped firmly out onto the stairwell platform.

"........"

I aimed Myrkblade and the flashlight left.

"........"

I aimed Myrkblade and the flashlight right.

"........."

Nothing.

Nothing but metal railings and cold steps.

Shadows danced before me from the shaky hold of the flashlight in my grasp.

I exhaled.

"_You have nothing to fear in here, Noir.........not yet......"_

I nodded into the darkness.

I marched down the steps slowly.

My boots clapped loudly.

Echoing against the walls of thin stairwell.

Blackness parted from above and below me as the fish-eye halo from my flashlight danced down the walls before my descent.

_**RUMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

I gripped the hand railing for a moment.

"............"

A beat.

"............"

I moved on forward.

Boots clapping.

Light bobbing.

Raven.......

"_The Lich, Noir.........The Lich is stronger than anything I've ever imagined......"_

'_Do you know where the monster is, Raven?'_

"_It is at the bottom of the pit."_

'_Does the Lich have the twelve people?'_

"......_it has them, Noir."_

I sighed.

I nodded my head.

'_I thought as much.'_

I descended.

-Second Floor-

"_But they are not alone."_

'_Someone else is there?'_

"_I......I cannot tell.........the darkness is so clouding. I wish I had my old powers."_

'_Since when could you talk to my head?'_

"_Mortuana, Noir. Mortuana and I—"_

'_Yeah......I remember now.'_

"_I can sense the nature of things......but not the essence."_

'_And the Lich is too powerful for you to pierce through mentally?'_

"_It frightens me. It chills me to the bone."_

'_What does, Raven?'_

"_What the Lich feels like. It's almost like........."_

'...............'

"..............."

'............_???'_

"_Keep going, Noir."_

I sighed.

'_Any hints as to what I may be coming across would be nice.'_

-First Floor-

"_It is strange. It seems as if every poltergeist and haunting in Mortuana is flocking to that location."_

'_The Library?'_

"The Pit."

'_Well, I've seen them entering the library. They didn't seem to be paying any attention to me. Something's gotten into them.'_

"_But Noir—"_

'Something tells me they're a lot more concerned with this collapse than I am.'

"_Noir......there is at least one that will contend with you."_

'_Oh yeah? Who?'_

-Basement Floor-

I stopped dead in front of a pale door...half hanging off its hinges.

Brown muck was drying on the sides.

A stench liken unto the inside of a tannery filled my nose.

And on the half-collapsed door hung a golden plaque.

It read:

'_The Guardian'_

"............"

_'Super. Lemme guess......does it have three dog heads?'_

"_Noir......"_

'_Right. I'm going in.'_

"_Be careful—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CREAAAAAAAK!!!

I pushed the door open.

I slowly snaked through with Myrkblade and the flashlight.

My black eyes darted left.

Darkness and bookshelves.

My black eyes darted right.

Darkness and more bookshelves.

Like black tombstones of wood and paper stretching endlessly in hauntingly long rows......dancing into the darkness.

"......."

I stepped forward.

I shone the flashlight down a row of bookcases.

Dull covers and spines were illuminated.

Everything was still.....stale.....

The air felt dense. Cold....but without moisture.

I couldn't see any semblance of the rest of the basement floor beyond the bookcases....never mind the darkness.

I exhaled.

"........"

Silence.

....

....

....

_**CRASH!!!!**_

"!!!!" I spun around.

The uneven door had collapsed behind me.

The golden plaque spun on its end a few times before clattering to a still position.

I exhaled through clenched teeth.

'_Son of a—'_

"_Noir??"_

I snapped out of it.

'_Ahem......yeah, Raven?'_

"_It's down there."_

I spun around.

I faced the gravestone bookcases.

'_The Lich?'_

"_No...."_

'_The Guardian......'_

"........."

I took a deep breath.

I shuffled forward.

I walked past the first row of bookshelves.

Myrkblade and the flashlight aimed high.

Sandwiched between bookshelves, I slowed my pace.

My black eyes darted around.

"......"

I emerged from between the shelves.

A beat.

I crept through the second row.

'_Raven......'_

"Noir??"

'_Tell me there's something worth looking for on the opposite side of this room.'_

"_You mean where you're walking to?"_

'_Uhhh......yeah......'_

"_I......I-I think it's the pit, Noir."_

'_You think??"_

"I don't know!! I don't know, okay!!!"

I winced.

'_Raven......'_

"_You're so deep down in that library and there're so many spirits filing about that—!!!!"_

'_Raven......take control of yourself.'_

"............"

'_You're experiencing way too many emotions. You have to achieve balance. I-I know you can't repress them, but at least you can be selective. Now choose an emotion.........and stick with it. It'll help you concentrate. I promise.'_

Silence.

In both contexts.

I took a deep breath.

I shuffled forward past the shelves.

Third row.......

"......."

A beat.

"_Wh-What.........What emotion helps you concentrate the most, Noir??"_

I blinked.

Silence.....

'_I.........I don't know...'_

"_How about right now? In this situation?"_

'_Necessity.'_

"_That isn't an emotion. Even I know that."_

A beat.

I sighed.

'_Loneliness.........'_

Raven's 'voice' was silent.

I raised an eyebrow.

After a while, she conveyed:

"_That......that is something I can do right now......"_

I exhaled.

I slowed a bit in my pace.

"_Th-That is something I can fear."_

I bit my lip.

"_Keep going straight, Noir. The pit is there. I know it. It'll take you down to the Lich..."_

'_And the Twelve?'_

"_And the Twelve."_

I took a breath.

I nodded into the darkness.

'_Very well.'_

"_Be careful, Noir."_

'_I'll be that which I am......'_

I crept forward.

I exited the row of bookshelves......and came upon a row of leather sacks.

"........."

I froze.

A beat.

My black eyes gazed around.

The next line of bookshelves weren't exactly 'bookshelves'. And yet they were, in some twisted sense.

Some twisted, hellish, psychotic sense.

The next row was comprised of sacks of bloody leather hung over the bookshelves. Slash marks and stitches and splotches of questionable brown stains covered the despicable bodies. The smell of an inside dead cat floated through my nostrils.

"......"

I slowly turned around. I shined the flashlight back at where I had come from.

The bookshelves were also covered in butchered leather.

"....."

I glanced down.

The carpet was soaked in dark red liquid. It squished under my feet. And where it didn't squish, red rusted metal suddenly appeared.

'_Raven?'_

Silence.

The smell became worse.

'_Raven????'_

I exhaled.

I gazed ahead of where I was supposed to be moving.

_I have.........jumped somehow..._

I took a deep breath.

_She's doing her part......I must continue doing mine......_

With the flashlight and Myrkblade pointed forward, I padded across the moist, leathery landscape.

A low, gurgling sound filled the chamber. Some unnaturally natural ambiance.

Drops of dark brown and black dripped from the ceiling in random places.

The moist floor squished beneath me.

My flashlight highlighted the inner, red hues of the leather-bookshelves.

I breathed slowly.

My black eyes narrowed.

The smell got worse.....but it was shifting.

Like a tiny wind.

A strand or two of black hair from my bangs twitched over my eyes.

I held my breath.

I passed one row.

Another...

A third.

The floor got more moist.

More and more questionable juices squished out from beneath my boots.

I gripped my hilt and flashlight tighter.

The shoulder-straps of the two belts clung to my body....the one on the right aching into my bandaged wound beneath the white jumpsuit.

My metal arm was fine....for now.

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Drops shook from the ceiling.

I walked through them, slowly....cautiously.

One row after another.

Nearly halfway through the chamber.

I realized that I was surrounded on three hundred and sixty degrees by blinding, bloody bookshelves.

The floor and walls and ceiling had stitches.

Where the leather split, bloody book spines showed....like innards of a hideous beast's organ.

The floor became more and more erratic....with stretches of rusted metal peering up through the bloody, torn leather.

A red glow seemed to be increasingly present as I walked forward.

"............"

I paused in mid step.

"............"

.................................

I peered left and right.

A beat.

Click.

I turned my flashlight off.

It turned doubly dark.....but the dim redness remained.

I let murk pour out from my limbs and eyes and cascade over my body.

I shuffled to the side and blended in with the shadows with a sack of leather behind me.

I slid myself against it.

Waiting.

"............."

_..................thrump............thrump............th-thrump........._

I held my breath.

The glow intensified softly.

It felt warm.

Sweat ran down my brow.

My muscles tightened under the white jumpsuit.

The air vibrated.

I tilted my cheek against the leather bookshelf.

Two inches from my nose was a tear in the material.

Streams of red light shimmered through the gash from the other side and pivoted across the air like a passing subway train in slow motion.

I held my breathing.

............_thrump......thrump......thrump......th-thrump......thrump......_

It was just beyond the suitcase.

It paused for a moment.

It wheezed...snorted...hissed...and moved on.

............_thrump.........thrump.........thrump.........thrump......_

The red dimness pivoted away.

And faded.

"..........."

I turned my neck towards the far side of the chamber.

Beyond the rows.

I exhaled.

I gripped Myrkblade.

I snuck towards it--

_**"NRAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!"**_

_THRUMP THRUMP THRUMP THRUMP_

Red....more red....a lot of red......

I spun around.

Pale horns and goat hair exploded in my face.

WHAM!!!!!

"!!!!!"

I flew ten feet and tumbled wetly onto the leather floor.

I gritted my teeth, flexed my legs, and vaulted to my feet.

SW-SW-SWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade into a fighting position. I panted and narrowed my naked eyes.

The creature trotted around.

Both creatures trotted around.

There was one atop the other.

Beneath....

A hairy, skeletal thing with bleeding hooves and a ragged spine. It was a goat....or a goat-creature. Three times the size of any natural specimen....and six times as emaciated as should be alive. The flesh was torn and a muddy ribcage showed briefly under long strands of gray goat hair. The head was simply a skull with tiny scraps of flesh attempting to cling to the horns and facial cavities. Red vapor streamed from the mouth and nose sockets as the goat-thing opened its mouth and hissed intermittently with a crimson glow.

On top....

A woman was riding backwards on the goat skeleton. She was naked...but any semblance of body parts were hidden by the fact that her skin was merely flaps of various flesh sewn and layered one on top of the other with awkward sutures. She looked like a brown salad wrap from Hell. Her lips were sewn together and her eyes were bulbous toad hides that leaked slime. Positioned backwards on the hoofed steed, she reeled back and forth and swung a rickety distaff in her twitching grasp. Huge locks of gray hair blew wildly in a nonexisting wind.

"_**MMMMMMFFFF!!!!"**_

I panted.

The woman groaned and aimed its distaff at me.

"_**NRAAAAAAA-AAAAT!!!"**_

With a draft of red vapor and steam, the huge goat stomped towards me down the row of leather bookshelves.

_THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!_

I held my breath.

I blurred murk into my limbs and pulsed outward.

I jumped to the side.

I kicked up off the nearest bookshelf.

And vaulted myself off the next.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

I flipped high and near the ceiling as the Guardian streaked beneath me, swinging its distaff backwards and nearly clipping my head.

"!!!!!"

I toppled in mid-air, righted myself in the descent, and landed in a nimble squat on three limbs with Myrkblade outstretched.

"_**MMMMF!!!"**_

The flesh-woman slapped her distaff against the goat's rear legs.

_**"NRAAA-AAAT!!!"**_

The creature slowed down, slowed down two rows away, and turned around. It hissed red vapors and rubbed its bloody hooves into the ground like a bull about to charge.

I slinked up to my feet, panting.

The creature shook its horns....and charged again.

_THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!_

I turned and ran.

My legs blurred.

I looked ahead.

The edge of a row of leathery bookshelves was coming up.

_**"NRAAA-AAAAT!!!"**_

The air warmed and turn red behind me.

I urged myself forward faster.

As the end of the next bookshelf came, I fiercely jabbed Myrkblade to the right.

THUNK!!!!

I stabbed my blade into the leather divider and yanked on it.

My body acrobatically spun to the right and into the adjacent bookshelf.

The goat rammed the air where I was and stomped out into the space between rows.

SLACK!!! I yanked Myrkblade—dripping—out of the bookshelf. I twirled the weapon and charged the goat when it wasn't facing me.

And I remembered that—though the goat wouldn't be facing me—the woman would.

"_**MMMMMMFFFF!!!"**_

It jabbed its distaff at me as I charged.

"!!!!" I slid down and backwards. I was forced to play limbo with her staff before summoning the strength to swing Myrkblade up and deflect the rod away—THWACK!!!

I vaulted to my feet and charged with an upswing. SLAAAASH!!!!

The rider spun her distaff to the right and knocked my blow to the left. CLANK!!! She swung at my head.

I ducked.

I jabbed into her chest.

She gripped onto my blade before it could pierce her womb.

"!!!!!"

_**"NRAA-AAT!!"**_

Suddenly, the goats' hooves kicked up and into my torso like a donkey.

WHAM!!!!!

I exhaled and flew back with my blade.

The woman shook and slapped her distaff into the goat's rib cage.

The animal turned around, ground its hooves, and charged at me again.

_THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!_

I inhaled.

The creature lowered its heads and bore its horns down on me.

I lifted my boots---

THWUMP!!!!

My feet were planted firmly against its red-seething skull.

I was shoved down the row of leathery bookshelves on my back.

My body smoked all over protectively as I scraped along.

"_**MMMMMMFFF!!!"**_

The woman stretched around and repeatedly jabbed her distaff down at me between the steed's horns.

I gritted my teeth and twirled Myrkblade upward to deflect the rod.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

I pulsed Myrkblade into my body, pivoted my body, vaulted up off the horns of the shoving goat, backflipped, and came down with Myrkblade slicing downward mercilessly.

CHTUNK!!!!

The blade slid a good halfway into the goat's skull.

The creature slowed to a stop...shook its head....and pulsed a bright flicker of red vapor.

FLASH!!!!

"!!!!!" I was tossed back across the library fifteen feet.

WHAM!!!

I landed hard on the wet floor.

C-Clank!! My flashlights went tumbling across the chamber.

I groaned.

I stood up in the dark.

"........" I blinked.

_**"NRAAAA-AAAAT!!!"**_

I spun around.

My black eyes scanned my surroundings.

I was dimly aware of the creature's red glow two rows down.

But beyond that, I was hard pressed to see anything.

And I was far too distracted to start my spatial sense then and there.

I jumped up to my feet, limped a little to a bookshelf, and reached into one of the belts slung over my shoulder.

I pulled out another flare.

I shut my eyes.

Snap!

Pfft!!!

A red halo against my eyelids.

I winced.

I slowly opened my black eyes, avoiding direct gaze at the flare.

I breathed desperately.....sweating....gazing down the rows of leathery bookshelves.

Again I saw the red glow that was the Guardian's position.

I took a breath and tossed the flare like a baseball with my metal arm.

The brilliant flame shimmered down the rows of leather and landed in the center of the library.

Pulsing.

Strobing.

......

No goat or rider.

"......."

My black eyes narrowed.

............_th-thrump......_

A red glow from behind me.

"!!!!!"

I spun--

_**SMASH!!!!!**_

The nearest bookshelf exploded in a splash of bleeding books and red leather scraps.

The goat charged on through. _**"NRAAA-AAA-AAAT!!"**_ Its skull pivoted.

SLIIIINK!!!!

A pale horn slid between my jumpsuit and the right-most belt slung over my shoulder.

I was shoved along the library floor, dangling from the horn's twitching head.

Hooves stomped violently at my dragged-lower body.

_THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!_

I gritted my teeth.

I kicked my feet, avoiding the stomping hooves.

My right arm with Myrkblade dangled in an awkwardly bent direction.

"_**MMMMMMF!!!!!"**_ the woman shrieked and stabbed her distaff down at me.

I exhaled.

SWIISH!! I lifted my metal arm and held its broadside in the path of the rod's swing.

CLANK!!!!!

Sparks flew.

_**"MMMMMMMF!!!!"**_ the Guardian struck again and again at my body as the goat shoved me along.

CLANK!! CLANK!!! CLANK!!!

I panted.

"_**NRAAA-AAAAT!!!"**_

The goat shook its head and rammed me against a passing bookshelf.

SPLORTCH!!!

Leather peeled off.

I gasped.

RIIIIIIIP!!!

SNAP!!!!

The shoulder belt stringing me to the monster's horn broke off.

I tumbled free, flip-flopping over and past the pulsing flare.

I groaned and stirred up from the floor.

That part of the library was too bright for me to easily gaze around...thanks to the flare.

I gasped and felt around my chest with my metal hand.

Both belts were completely gone.

_My equipment!!_

I exhaled.

_My lights........._

A hissing sound to my right.

I knelt and glanced aside.

I shaded my naked eyes.

_**"Mmmfffff........**_"

The Guardian sat backwards on the skeletal goat.

She lowered the end of her distaff and 'dipped' it into the fire of the flare.

Flash!!!

The distaff end caught aflame. It smoked red and crimson. She held it high to the ceiling and eyed me menacingly....her hair blowing in the wrong direction.

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!!**_

I stood up...

I glanced down the rest of the library's length...

I glanced at her.

She twirled the flaming, smoking distaff. She shrieked and kicked the steed into gear.

_THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!_

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade.

The goat stomped towards me.

I stayed still.

The flaming distaff jabbed at me.

I squinted my eyes.

"_**NRAAA-AAAT!!!"**_

I held my breath.

I teleported into murk form.

SWOOOOOSH!!! The Guardian rode through me.

I materialized.

Flexed my muscles.

And backflipped.

PLOP!!!

I saddled the rear of the skeletal creature and rammed the hilt of my blade backwards.

WHUMP!!!!

I struck the off-stitched belly of the woman.

I spun with a mute snarl, Myrkblade swinging at the rider's skull.

SLASH!!!!!

She twitched her head away at the last second.

Long strands of gray locks fell to the leathery floor.

"_**MMMMMMF!!!"**_ She elbowed me hard.

THWAP!!!

I cringed form the impact.

FWOOOOOSH!!! Her flaming distaff flew at me.

I ducked.

She swung again.

CLANK!!! I deflected up with Myrkblade.

_**"NRAAA-AAAT!!"**_

The goat skidded to a stop and reared its upper body up like a spooked horse.

"!!!!!"

I tumbled off.

TH-THWUMP!!

I rolled backwards into a leathery book case.

I winced.

"_**MMMMMF!!!**_"

The Guardian shrieked as the goat spun around and rammed towards me.

I held my breath.

CHUNK!!!! I stabbed Myrkblade reverse into the bookshelf leather high behind me.

THRUMP-THRUMP-THRUMP!!!

I put my weight on the sword and acrobatically lifted my lower body up horizontally---

RAM!!!! The goat's horns slammed into the bookshelf beneath me.

My lower body came down and planted on the goat's neck.

"_**MMM-MMMF!!"**_ the distaff flew at me.

YANK!!! I ripped Myrkblade out of the bookshelf, vaulted off the creature's neck, and flipped over the swinging rider's flame.

Clump!!!

I landed firmly behind the goat.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!! The rider angrily swung the torch at me.

CLANK!!!! Sparks showered from the flame and the contact of our weapons.

The wind-blown guardian twirled and stabbed her flame at me.

I half-deflected, lunged back, side-twirled, and slashed forward.

SWIIIIIISH!!!

The rider jerked back.

SLASH!!!

I stripped goat fur and bone fragments.

"_**NRAAA-AAAAT!!!"**_

The goat ripped its horns out of the bookshelf and spun at me.

"!!!!"

I tried to duck at the last second.

_SLIIIII-IIIINK!!!!_

I let out a silent howl and drifted backwards, clutching my left shoulder.

Blood dripped through my fingers. It glowed a bright silver down there.

I gritted my teeth and looked up.

_**"NRAAA-AAAAT!!"**_ The goat came for a second charge.

I ignored my pain and deflected madly with Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK! CLANG!! CLANK!!

The goat trudged menacingly towards me, pushing me back across the space of the library.

I panted and deflected with whatever strength I had left.

The darkness quivered around us with the alternating strobes of flamelight and red ambiance.

And all the lingered.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

I sweat.

Salt water mixed with glowing lifeblood.

Rows and rows slithered past me.

And I felt the ground beneath my feet groaning.

"?!?!??!"

Amidst my sword-swinging struggle, I glanced down and back.

A breath escaped me.

The floor fell into utter blackness.

Ragged pieces of metal jutted into the oblivion.

Surrounding the fall in a ring were pale bodies. Naked forms of flesh. Stitched zombies and ghouls and tentacled things. Assorted poltergeists were dripping down from a huge gash in the ceiling and shuffling down into the abyss.

_The pit......_

And I was being pushed straight into it.

_Not yet......Not YET!!!_

I hissed and stabbed forward at the advancing Guardian with all my strength.

CL-CLANK!!!

She teetered back.

The goat stomped forwards.

"_**NRAA-AAT!!"**_

I stabbed straight into nose socket of the creature and twisted.

_CRKKKK-RKKKKKK!!!_

Bone fragments and red vapor littered the air.

The horned beast twitched.

The guardian leaned forward and swung her flaming distaff again.

I exhaled--

CHIIIING!!!

I slid the blade out of the goat's skull and swung it high up.

SLASH—CRACK!!!!

I severed the flaming head from the rest of the wooden rod.

The torch flipped through the air and shimmered down the black pit.

The poltergeists twitched, groaned, and slithered menacingly towards me from all sides.

I shuddered.

_Surrounded......_

_**"MMMMMMFFFFF!!!"**_ the Guardian twirled her severed distaff.

I deflected the best I could.

CLANK!! CLANK!! CL-CLANK!! SWISH!!!

At the last second, the rider's rod stabbed through. The splintery, severed end sliced up the back of my right hand.

_SLIIIINK!!!_

I winced and fell back on my rear. I clutched my hand. Shuddering. Blood glowing and leaking out in a river.

And.....

The goat and the Guardian froze.

The closing-in poltergeists lurched to a stop.

Silence.

I panted....panted....panted...

My black eyes widened.

I looked up at the guardian.

The woman's bulbous eyes stared at me in horror. A flesh-stitched hand raised in front of her hair-blown face. She was trying to hide her gaze from something.

"............"

I stood up.

The goat trotted backwards, groaning.

The poltergeists around me and the pit stirred.

"............"

My ripped right hand throbbed.

A drop of blood came out, glowing bright.

The guardian recoiled. _**"Mmmmmfff!!'**_

The goat shook its head.

"........."

I raised my bleeding hand towards her.

A silver glow dimly showered her body...and _it burned. Smoke literally rose to the ceiling._

_**"MMMMMFFFF!!!"**_ she teetered back on her steed, reeling.

The goat shuddered in pain.

I blinked.

I twirled around.

CHIIIIING!!!

I sheathed Myrkblade. I brought my metal fingers back and dipped them into the wound of my left shoulder. I winced.

I held two hands out—both laced with my own warm blood.

Glowing....

The poltergeists shook, shivered, and shrieked. They scurried off like jackrabbits in headlights and plunged desperately into the dark hole beneath.

Not one could bear to exist within the aura....

I panted.

_In the land of the dead......_

I looked at my glowing hands. The pain throbbed.

_In the land of the dead......blood burns......_

I slowly looked the guardian's way.

Her stitched mouth quivered.

I hissed like a sleek predator, blurred a trail of smoke, and pounced onto the front of the goat. I saddled and leaned into her. I slammed my palm into her chest just beneath her twitching neck.

My blood burned into her skin.

Smoke rose up through my fingers....but it wasn't _my_ smoke that time.

"_**MMMMMMMMFFFFFF!!!!"**_

I gritted my teeth in some form of snarl.

My black eyes widened. A touch of ivory in the corners...

_**"MMMMMMMMFFFFF!!!"**_ the poltergeist twitched....shook....quaked all over like an epileptic dummy. Smoke rose up through it sutured mouth and she dropped her distaff as the burning blood trickled down to the goat beneath us and sent it toppling over.

THWUMP!!!

I tumbled across the floor.

I winced, throbbing from my cuts.

I got up slowly....sitting on my knees.

I looked over at the twitching masses of the two halves of the library's haunt.

The goat was melting into liquid fur and discarded bone mass.

The woman was flopping about on the floor like a dying fish. And a red mist was coming from her mouth.

I took a deep breath.

_Come on......_

The red vapor drifted towards me.

I hung my arms to my side and tilted my head back.

Meditating....

_You know as well as I do that this is how we finish it......_

The vapor flew into my nostrils.

I twitched once.....but then gave in.

Consumption.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_Norah.................."_

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"_Norah Smith......"_

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_Her eyes flashed open._

She panted.

The horse beneath her sighed.

Her skirt was bundled up.

_Her arms bound together._

The noose tight.

A line of shadows broke the gray horizon before her. The grainy gray New England sky.

In the distance, three black birds flew towards the disappearing sun.

They were fleeing the scene.

Norah's eyes joined her.

"Norah Smith......"

The woman gazed over.

Magistrate Albrecht stood besides two clergymen. The other elders of the town gathered behind them. Wind blew at their pale features and contrastingly dark hair. The air was wet.

"_Do you renounce Satan and all of his faculties which have brought you to this point??"_

_The woman's voice quivered. "I......I-I......"_

Silence.

Wind blew at her hair.

The village beyond the hills sank in the shadow of the overcast afternoon.

Tears welled from her eyes. "I have d-done nothing. By God......By Jesus......I have nothing to renounce......"

_Silence._

Magistrate Albrecht took a deep breath. "Foolish child. The evidence weighs against your favor. We have ruled thusly."

A beat.

He lowered his head. "Norah Smith......for endangering the lives of this God-fearing town with your sorcery......we hereby sentence you to be hung in retribution of your malice. May God have mercy on your soul."

_A hand-signal._

A man walked up to the rear of the horse.

Norah's eyes narrowed.

A beat.

Her teeth clenched.

"Albrecht......"

The man didn't look at her.

"Albrecht......you hypocrite!!"

The magistrate nodded towards the man.

The man swatted the horse's rear.

Norah spat: "IT WAS YOU WHO FORCED ME INTO YOUR BE—SNKKKKTTTT!!!"

_**YANK!!!**_

_Norah's eyes rolled back._

Her lips quivered...tightened....fell limp.

Her feet twitched....then dangled.

_The woman hung._

The clouds rumbled.

The night stretched into darkness.

The village folk wandered back to their somber households.

......

And Norah saw it all.

Through kaleidoscopic vision.

The noose wasn't tight enough.

She was bleeding on the inside of her neck and wheezing through thin nostrils.

The blood spurted out from her cranium and gave her a numb tunnel vision of pain.

And the last semblance of thought in her living being was that this torture all had a grand purpose.

For she could still see Magistrate Albrecht standing there.

Alone on the hill.

Gazing at her twitching figure.

...

_And he smiled._

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

"............."

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!**_

I twitched.

I groaned.

"_Noir??"_

I exhaled and struggled to get up.

"_Noir......a-are you there???"_

'_Wait, raven.'_

I sat up, wincing.

'_Give me a second to rise from the dead.'_

I rubbed my black eyes with a trembling hand.

I opened them.

"..........."

The library looked...normal.

The leather bookshelves....floor....and ceiling were gone.

The flare in the middle of the library was dying.

In its lingering glow I saw books and carpet and plastered walls.

The hole was still there. It yawned open black and murky.

_The Pit......it hasn't gone away._

I stood on wobbly legs.

I took a deep breath.

_That was merely the 'Guardian'......_

I glanced at my right hand.

The blood was dried. But where the cut was, a faint glow could still be seen. I could sense tendrils of burning light itching to stream into the obsidian air.

_The greatest fire......it is inside of me......_

I flare died.

My black eyes twitched.

I fumbled into my pocket.

I found my very last flashlight.

Click.

A yellow halo swam through the library.

I guided it towards the hole leading into the Pit.

The poltergeists were gone.

I shuddered.

_Bet I know where they went......_

I stood over the pit.

Gazing down.

It seemed to go on forever.

"_It leads to the Lich, Noir."_

I nodded towards no one.

'_Anything else it leads to?'_

"_It......it is saturated with tortured spirits."_

'_I imagine so.'_

I glanced to the side. I shined the flashlight.

I found a bundle of electric extension cord.

I walked over to it.

"_You have done well to consume the poltergeists you have thus combated......but you surely can't handle them all!!"_

I started bundling the cord and wrapping its length around my forearm.

'_I'll have to do what I have to do. There are Twelve people down there that need me, Raven. Every single one of them counts.'_

I shuffled over to the Pit with the cord.

"_But you still can't h-handle all those terrible spirits. I-I'm afraid for you, Noir......"_

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!**_

I paused.

I looked up at the gash in the ceiling.

"........"

I blinked.

'_How are you doing, Raven??'_

"_It's......I-It's so hard, Noir."_

'_Just concentrate. Stay with me, okay? Keep the link going. You won't have to give into your fear. Mortuana will still stay in tact. Just a little longer.'_

"I know......I-I know.........I can then guide you..."

'_Guide me?'_

"Y-Yes. My powers may be gone......but I have a new power. I can focused my mind into yours. I can help you avoid the spiritual attraction of those poltergeists. You might be able to slip by them without having to fight."

'_Ah. I see. A guiding light.'_

"_I-I guess......"_

I strung one end of the cord around a metal bulkhead that formed part of the floorboard slashed apart by the hole. I looped it a few times, tied it securely, and tugged to test its security.

It felt firm.

I exhaled.

'_I'll definitely be needing a guiding light.'_

"_Noir......it's not too late to go back. You don't have to endanger yourself. You can go back now and I wouldn't have to worry about you collapsing with all of Mortuana. Don't you know that??"_

I gripped the cord in two hands, planted my feet into the side of the hole, and tensed my legs.

'_Yes.'_

I kicked off.

I gave the cord some slack.

I slid down into the yawning mouth of the Pit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ribbed concrete.

Flaky dirt.

Craggy rock.

I lowered and lowered.

My feet kicked off the vertical tunnel's wall as I 'hopped' down vertically.

My breath produced cold mist.

The parts of my skin not scratched had goosebumps.

My one last flashlight shook and wobbled as my body dropped down.

The darkness became something tangible. It reminded me of the murk that appeared when I used my powers. A perfect absorption of anything that tried to be 'light'.

I felt iciness in the air. And I tried to imagine just how powerful this Lich actually was. And why.

The tunnel went deeper.

The air colder.

The darkness....thicker.

The flashlight could barely shine a foot ahead of it.

I wasn't sure I was seeing anything anymore.

My black eyes were as wide as saucers to try and gauge what was around me in my descent.

"_Keep going, Noir........."_

I panted and dropped down more and more.

I was almost afraid I didn't have enough cord.

"_That leads somewhere. It leads to the Lich. You must trust me."_

'_When did I not trust you, Raven?"_

"........."__

'When did any of us ever not trust you?'

"_I never trusted me......"_

'............'

"_Noir??"_

'Yes, Raven?'

"Your voice. It sounds so painful."

I exhaled.

'_Thanks for noticing......'_

I dropped down more and more.

My flashlight had become a tiny nub of dimness.

I knew that it was working......but down there in the darkest spot of Mortuana, it didn't seem to work well enough.

I lowered and lowered.__

The cold practically condensed against my wide black eyes.

I shivered.

"_Noir......will the Titans hate me??"_

I panted as I hopped down against the wall more and more.

'_How can we hate someone who isn't with us?'_

"_Before you came, we hated Terra when she was with Slade. She wasn't around us then."_

'You haven't betrayed us, Raven. I know you've lost your logic and stuff......but try and rationalize that false analogy in your head. You never did anything to hurt us.'

"_Not yet......"_

'...............'

"I......I don't even know why I joined the Titans to begin with, Noir......"

I lowered more and more.

The cord slid between my numb fingers.

My muscles ached.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

"_Yes, I wanted help. But......I would only be burdening everyone."_

'_With Trigon?'_

"With my father......yes....................................Y-You should know that more than anyone, Noir."

I exhaled.

'_I know nothing.'_

A beat.

'_Nothing but that which has always pushed me forward. And it's something that makes me ashamed too, Raven. I-I frankly don't know why I ever joined the Titans either.'_

"_What is that, Noir?"_

I took a firm breath.

'_Same as you, Raven. I have a past. And I'm concerned presently with having a better future. But there's an even better driving force than that.'_

"_And wh-what's that??"_

PLOP!!!!

My boots hit solid ground.

I let out a sigh, relaxed my limbs, and let go of the cord.

'_There are people to save. I am a hero. And saving people is what heroes do.'_

CHIIIING!!!!

I unsheathed Myrkblade and stretched the flashlight out.

I twirled about slowly.

'_You're helping me save them yourself, Raven. Just like you've always saved people with the Titans.'_

I shone the flashlight around and found a dim tunnel of rock. Dank and moist. Cold.

'_You're a hero, Raven. Always have been. And you always will be.'_

"_Even when everything around me collapses, Noir?"_

A painful lump formed in my throat.

I fought it off and shuffled forward.

'_Even then, Raven. Even then.'_

My white figure crept into the dark bowels of Mortuana.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The flashlight was like a fading cigarette.

I swatted it a few times, as if that'd make it brighter.

Slapping sounds echoed against the claustrophobic tunnel.

I panted....shivering.

I looked straight ahead.

I swallowed....then reached a metal hand forward while walking.

I concentrated.

Smoke danced out of my eyes.

Currents of murk shimmered down my limb.

Smoke branched out into the dank, stony interior.

I breathed deeply.

Concentrating.

I felt for bodies....._and felt a wall of them._

I came to a stop.

"............"

I flexed my metal fingers some.

The wall of bodies was twitching. Curling.

Hissing sounds drifted towards me.

I aimed the flashlight in the direction that my spatial sense hinted of me.

I widened my black eyes and crept forward.

And I saw them.

Glistening pale bodies.

Snakes and reptiles and amphibians....and yet all sickeningly humanoid.

Headless rope-people stretched in and out of the pure stone. They moaned with mouths they didn't have and twitched about to find necks that were missing. Jagged arms scratched out at me, desperate for warmth to end them...perhaps.

I stepped backwards.

I turned.

I aimed the flashlight at another wall.

Two nurses cringed. Nurses with octopus things dripping out of their mouths. Their gowns were drenched in brown blood. They shuffled about against each other and seemed to be melting into the rock.

"........."

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The poltergeists twitched and groaned as one. And the sounds were numerous. Massive.

I realized that the entire tunnel ahead of me—winding and snaking—was lined to the teeth with squirming, clawing, agonizing poltergeists. It was like an intestinal tract in Hell. I envisioned pale limbs brushing up against me, finding my heart, and ripping me into ribbony shreds of meat to get at the juices.

And that's exactly when and where my flashlight started to flicker.

"!!!!"

I slapped it hard.

I shook it.

The light faded. It shuddered like a dying kaleidoscope....and soon was gone.

Utter, complete darkness.

The poltergeists' voices mingled into an ambient thunder around me.

Scratching noises.

Shufflings.

Liquid dribbles....

"..........."

I stepped backwards. One boot shuffling after another.

I limped into a crevice set in the stone.

Alone from the poltergeists....at least I thought so.

I shook the flashlight one last time.

Nothing......

"........"

Cl-Clack!!

I dropped the useless piece of plastic to the floor.

I breathed.....breathed.....breathed....breathed....

I shut my eyes.

I gently focused.

I stretched my metal arm out a bit.

I felt the currents in the frigid air.

I again sensed the twitching poltergeists hugging the wall.

The flailing limbs.

The pure line of living dead.

Going on and on down the full length of the tunnel.

Even if I tried navigating my way by spatial sense, I'd be victim to the haunts' devices.

"..........."

I took a deep shuddering breath.

I rested Myrkblade against the wall.

I took a deep breath.

I gripped the top to my white jumpsuit, tattered as it was.

I lifted it up and off my shoulders...over my head.

I tossed the fabric to the floor.

I flexed my right arm...feeling the bandage.

I slowly....carefully....peeled it off.

Wincing from the Bonewyrm's wound.

I dropped the bandage to the floor besides the jumpshirt.

I stood bare-chested.

I took a few deep breaths, the cold air clinging to my skin.

I gripped Myrkblade—Chiiing!

I knelt on the floor.

I breathed hard.

My left metal fingers flexed.

I meditated.

My black eyes closed.

I concentrated on the powers of Construction and Destruction.

I merged them.

I achieved balance.

"........._N-Noir?"_

'_Don't look, Raven.'_

"_Noir, what are you doing??"_

'_Don't look......'_

I meditated hard, momentarily severing my link with the dark girl.

Smoke poured out from my eyes.

My fingers blurred with dark tendrils.

I gripped hard to Myrkblade's hilt in my right hand.

I raised the sword up, and angled it diagonally downward towards my left hip.

I brought my metal fingers up and wrapped them about the tip of the blade.

I took a deep breath.

"......"

I gently lowered the wooden tip to my lower left ribcage. Planted firmly against the skin.

"......"

I swallowed.

I concentrated.

I ran murk down the length of the black blade. Smoke encased it. The blade became sharp.

An icy kiss to my skin.

I shivered.

I took a deep breath.

And.....

Drew the blade up.

Diagonally.

Towards my right shoulder.

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink.

I clenched my teeth.

I shuddered.

_Snnnkktk......nngh......_

I steadied my shaking hands so as not to cut too dep.

A thin red line formed in my flesh from the long cut.

And the redness turned into glowing silver as it thinly crept up to the surface and kissed the black air.

My blade reached my right shoulder.

I yanked it out.

I panted.

Panted.

Panted....

I pivoted Myrkblade around.

I gripped it with two trembling hands.

I hiccupped a bit from the shockwaves running through my body.

I took a breath.

I placed the blade above my right hip.

I encased it in murk.

I gritted my teeth.

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink.

My spine shook.

I forced myself to sit still.

Vapor hissed out of my breath.

I clenched my eyes shut...for they were starting to tear.

_Nnghh......nnngh......God........._

As I was halfway through the criss-crossing cut, the stone wall before me became visible. A silver light was emanating from in front of me. My chest glowed as the blood came to the surface.

_Snkkkkt......nngh......_

The blade reached my shoulder.

I gasped.

I panted.

Warm trickles started to run down my chest.

My muscles quivered under the 'X' shaped scar meeting between my pectorals.

_I have to make this quick......_

I stretched forward. I bent my back.

I panted.

I took a deep breath.

I held it.

I brought Myrkblade down behind me.

I lowered it to the small of my back.

I clenched my eyes shut.

Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink.

I bit my lips till they nearly bled too.

The back seemed to take forever as I cut a shallow river up.

My whole body was hot with rushing blood.

My nerves were screaming white hot.

_Nnngh......Jesus......snkkkt......_

I finished at the back of my neck.

I pulled the blade away.

I panted.

A halo of silver brightly illuminated the area around me.

Every time I flexed my muscles, the light spread further outward.

The darkness was cut away by my own cuts.

The nearest poltergeists beyond the gaze of my black eyes twitched and groaned at the 'heat' they felt.

I shuddered.

I flexed my left arm.

I brought my blade to the broad front of my shoulder.

I took a deep breath.

"........."

Sliiink!!!

_Aaugh!!......nngh......_

I winced from the cut.

I forced myself—rather quickly—to do the same on my other upper arm.

Sliiiink!!!

The last one.

I fell over on my hands.

Panting.

I was leaking all over. The X-scar on my chest bled silver light. My back was wet. My shoulders...

_Now......do it now......_

I clenched my eyes shut and concentrated.

When I reopened my optics, black murk was pouring out of them.

I raised my throbbing arms.

I let out a silent scream.

FLASH!!!

I panted. I had extended outward from my center a tiny shield of smoke energy. I covered the 'X' on my chest with thin smoke, as I did the line up my back and the wounds in my shoulders. In so doing, I kept the blood from pouring out and draining me. At the same time, I let enough trickle out to brilliantly illuminate my surroundings.

"............." I breathed in and out slowly. Gaining my composure above the numbing pain.

_Guiding light............Guiding light........._

I blinked my black eyes.

I swallowed.

I gripped onto Myrkblade's hilt, put my weight on it, and stood up. On wobbly legs I gazed down the tunnel. I twirled Myrkblade into a ready position and slowly crept down the tunnel.

A halo of silver light followed me. As it touched the poltergeists, it burned them with red smoke. The pale bodies shrieked and quivered, jerking and scrunching away from me.

I hobbled through them, eyeing back and forth with my black gaze. The blood on my chest was almost blinding to myself. I strained to keep my focus on where I walked....but soon found I had plenty of room to walk because of the pale creeps moving out of my way.

I didn't even need to move Myrkblade from where I gripped it alongside me.

I walked down the tunnel as long as the tunnel lasted......and marched on through the oblivion beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Noir??"_

'..........'

"_Noir, speak to me please........."_

'.............'

"_I know you are mad at me."_

'_I'm not mad at you, Raven.'_

"_Then why are you—"_

'_I'm sorry. I'm trying to concentrate my powers.'_

"_How so??"_

'_To keep from bleeding to death.'_

"_What?!?!?!"_

'_Don't worry, Raven---'_

"_What did you do to yours—"_

'_I'm saving these people, Raven. I'm not letting darkness or any of its faculties stand in my way. Besides......there is bigger prey here.'_

"_Dr. Light."_

'_No, more than that.'_

"What makes you say that??"

'............'

"_N-Noir??"_

'_I can't explain things easily myself, Raven. You're not alone in your confusion.'_

"_How are you confused, Noir?"_

'_I'm always confused. It's a part of living.'_

"I wished you would have told me you thought that way before."

'_No......you didn't wish that, Raven.'_

"............"

'_You didn't wish for anything. You were you.'_

"............_I......I-I wish I was me again......"_

'............_as I wish I can find myself to begin with.'_

"..............."

'...............'__

"..............."

'........._where now, Raven?'_

"_Head left. Follow the rust......"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My boots clanked against metal platforms.

"............"

I walked half-naked through a trail of mist over what appeared to be a metal catwalk deep in the center of the earth. Only—as I gazed over the cracked railings every now and then—I saw pure oblivion. I was walking across a paradox. I was no longer in Mortuana....much less any world...as far as I was concerned.

And yet I knew that—if I was to be stuck here during Mortuana's collapse—I'd still be royally screwed.

I held my breath and crept forward.

Winged pale-things saw me, shrieked, and flew off into the thickness of Nothing.

My pale light burned them.

It sent ape-creatures bounding away, their skewered heads clicking and uttering deep-throated sounds of pain and annoyance.

I glared at them with my black eyes and walked along.

The halo of silver light followed me.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

The metal catwalk groaned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'............'

"............"

'............_R-Raven?'_

"_Y-Yes??"_

'_You've been quiet.'_

"I......I'm sorry......"

'Am I lost?'

"No, Noir. I can still sense what's ahead. I just—"

'What, Raven??'

"_I......I c-can't help but feel this is all my fault. The p-people of Mortuana. They're all g-going to suffer. And it's because of m-me."_

'_You don't know that for sure. Don't worry.'_

"I h-have every reason to be w-worried, Noir!!"

'_Raven, stay calm. All of this has a purpose.'_

"But why?!?! Wh-Why does it have a p-purpose?!?!"

'_Because you told me so, Raven! You told me that this was once logical and—'_

"_But I don't r-remember why!! I-I'm going insane! I'm tricking m-myself!"_

'_Raven—'_

"_I've f-fooled you!! I've fooled th-the people of Mortuana!! I've f-fooled the T-Titans—"_

'_Raven, Cyborg loves you!!!'_

"..............."

'_Cyborg loves you, Raven.'_

"..............."

'_Don't pretend that it's not true. Don't pretend that he spends every waking moment of his days trying to understand you more because it's all some sort of stupid game with him. He loves you, Raven. As a friend...as a teammate...and—who knows—probably as more.'_

"..............."

'_You don't fool people, Raven. You show them how important, how serious, and how sacred life is. You've had it really tough, Raven. And because of that—people don't pity you. No, they respect you. They respect you because they know that—deep down inside and in spite of all your shit—you care about the world and the goodness that must be protected within it! I understand how this feels, Raven. You and the Titans...you respect me. If only you all realized how......how __**complete**__ that makes me feel? After all these years?!?!'_

"..............._Cyborg............Cy-Cyborg trusts me......"_

'_He does, Raven. And......A-And so do I.'_

"..............."

'_I......I-I've always trusted you, Raven. I'm j-just sorry that I could never.........could never......'_

"..............."

'...............'

"........._I......I-I think you should take the inclined tunnel up ahead."_

'_Thank you, Raven.'_

"............"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gritted my teeth.

I crawled through a thin crevice in the rock.

The claustrophobic passage shimmered with my glowing blood.

I panted and reaceded forward with my metal arm.

My chest and back sweated between the bloody cuts as I dragged myself forward.

My glowing stretched forward across the rock.

Little, furred spiders with needle legs shrieked and scurried away from the burning sensation.

And then my glow started to grow dim.

The light faded as the blood finally dried.

I came to a stop halfway down the tunnel.

I panted.

My black eyes thinned.

I swallowed and held my breath.

I concentrated.

I hissed in pain as my smoke shield was dropped momentarily.

With the resistance gone, silver blood oozed out.

The tiny tunnel burned like an oil lamp.

A few brave spirits that were still hiding suddenly faced the intense heat of 'life' and slithered away, crying.

I swiftly gasped and extended another bubble of murk over my wounds...stopping the flow of blood.

I panted.

Panted.

Panted.....

I swallowed.

I crawled forward.

The rock face beneath me streaked with naked sweat and glowing blood.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'...............'

"_Are you......are y-you okay, Noir?"_

'...............'

"_Noir??"_

'......_this......is very difficult......'_

"_Why did you put yourself through with this?"_

'_I have to......the p-people—'_

"_It's more than that. Isn't it?"_

'_I know what you're thinking, Raven. But no. It isn't.'_

"_Are you sure?"_

'_No, I'm not. But what does it matter? I'm the only one right now who can do this. But not without your help. It's necessity. We have to do these things. We have to.'_

"But......it feels like you're punishing yourself, Noir. You......you always do that......"

'..................'

"_N-Noir??"_

'........._s-sorry, Raven. I'm............'_

".................."

'........._I......ugh......l-losing concentration. Sorry......it......'_

"_Take deep breaths. Use whatever oxygen you have down there. Try not to lose too much—"_

'_It's okay, Raven. I can meditate......only.........nngh............I-I should have left it at just the chest......nghh......'_

"_N-N-Noir???"_

'_Wh-What.........huh?'_

"_Concentrate. Stay awake. Keep focused on your journey."_

'_It's so.........so dark......l-like my room......'_

"_No, Noir!! Don't pass out! Stay awake! P-Please!!"_

'_Wish.........heheh......I-I had a tape recorder in my head. Y-You sound so emotional......'_

"_Noir???"_

'............'

"_Noir, stay awake! Focus on what I'm communicating to you!!"_

'_It's.........h-hard, Raven.........'_

"_Keep moving!!"_

'_Just......s-so tired......"_

"Noir????"

'...............'

"_Noir......I......I-I was jealous, okay?!?!"_

'...............'

"_I......I-I was jealous......when......wh-when you met Kara......"_

'...............'

"_It.........It w-wasn't about me sensing evil in her or......or truly knowing that she was involuntarily working for Braniac and whatnot. I mean......it __**was**__ but........."_

'...............'

"......_I.........I couldn't see someone......someone like Kara possibly having the capacity to understand you, Noir. I...I didn't s-see how she was truly blessing you. I only saw selfishness in her......but......b-but that selfishness truly was my own. Mine and mine alone. I regretted it in the end, Noir......especially when it h-happened so soon......s-so soon after I distanced myself f-from you........."_

'...............'

"........._I-I've always wanted to c-confess that to you, Noir. But......at the time......it never occurred to me to be __**logical**__. I-I-I'm not so logical right now..............."_

'........................'

"........................"

'....................._I knew......Raven......"_

"_??? Y-You knew?!?!"_

'_Mmmmhmmm.........'_

"............_a-and you're awake??"_

'_I felt......g-guilty......'_

"_But why??"_

'_I......got along with Kara so quickly. It didn't seem fair to you.'_

"_But, Noir. I was the one who---"_

'_Nobody did anything, Raven. For there was nothing to do anything with.'_

"....................."

'_That is why......that is wh-why I don't hate you, Raven. Silence only bred more silence. There isn't much to be jealous of in that.'_

"............_I......"_

'_And if you're wondering, I've been jealous too. But for other reasons, Raven. Sometimes I wish I had your capacity for patience and tolerance. But I'm too busy on the move. I pale in comparison to you. And for that, I feel guilty.'_

".................."

'_Where do I go now, Raven?'_

"I.........I-I wouldn't know the answer to that, Noir."

'..............._I mean here in the Pit.'_

"_OH! Uhm.........up the rock crags."_

'_Okay. Thanks.'_

"........._Th-Thank you, Noir..............."_

'..................'

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I crouch-walked through the darkness.

I was in the center of a huge, cavernous expanse.

Hooting, howling, and cawing sounds echoed eerily around me.

I sensed a flood of poltergeists in a swarm beyond my black eyesight.

Bodies shrunk away from the burning halo as I crept forward, my torso slumped.

I crept on all fours over a peak in the rock.

I perched at the top.

My black hair draped over the top of my bare shoulder.

I took a deep breath.

The cuts on my bare chest and back throbbed.

I glowed from the shoulders to the hips to my back.

Splotches of dried blood had trickled down to the top of my white jumppants.

"............"

I gazed with flat black eyes before me.

I sensed a huge plain of rock.

_3......_

I took a deep breath.

_2......_

I held it.

_1......_

I leapt off the peak.

"......"

THWUMP!!

I landed in an acrobatic crouch.

The halo of silver light splashed around me.

Shrieks.

Groans.

Cackles.

My black eyes gazed up under tossed black hair.

Pale bodies were spreading wide around me.

Serrated tentacles.

Cracked flippers.

Dragging limbs of gnarled fingers.

The plane of rock was chock full of monsters and poltergeists.

I felt their icy cold breaths on my naked torso from all around.

"........."

I brought a metal hand up and tossed the hair out from over my face.

I took a deep breath.

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiing!

I unsheathed Myrkblade and crept slowly forward in a crouch.

Like a sneaking secret operative, I crept through the dense landscape. Every step I took, the silver glow slithered forward.

The creatures retreated from my blood with grunts and groans of agony and frustration.

I dragged Myrkblade against the rock beside me threateningly.

Scraaaaaaaaaaape.

I eyed the pale bodies about me icily.

They writhed and groaned on the verge of the knife-cut darkness.

The echoes formed a ring around me.

"........"

I gazed ahead.

My black eyes narrowed.

I became aware of a crimson aura ahead....as if emanating out of a long, smooth chamber.

Frigid air rushed towards me from the passageway ahead...achingly tracing the smoke-shielded 'X' cut into my chest.

I throbbed in pain.

And then I knew......

_He waits for me up ahead......_

I closed my eyes and sighed in concentration as I crept forward.

A halo piercing the menacing night.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Raven?'_

"_Noir!! You're near!! I just know it—"_

'_Raven......I have to break our link.'_

"_Wh-What?? Noir, why?!?!"_

'_I have to go in here alone. I can't let you join me.'_

"_Why not?!?! We've gone this far!! We can save the people!! We can figure a way to defeat the Lich together!!"_

'_I......I can't let you in there with me. I think......I think that whatever I find in there will be the confirmation of your __**fears**__. And that means Mortuana will collapse if you so much as see it.'_

"_How could possibly know that??"_

'_I don't. I feel it.'_

"............"__

'Goodbye, Raven.'

"_B-But Noir—"_

'_I pray that—in some fashion or another—you still manage to exist after all of this.'_

"_Noir......"_

'_Goodbye.........'_

...............

............

.........

......

...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"............"

I left the creatures in the plain of rock behind me.

I crept into the passageway.

Red light shimmered down and met my black eyes.

I narrowed them.

I paused in the middle of the passageway, holding to Myrkblade.

"........"

A beat.

I took a deep breath.

I closed my eyes.

I concentrated.

Murk covered my wounds completely.

Any semblance of blood was hidden.

The silver glow left, and I was a dull, scarred person again.

A beat.

I opened my eyes.

I took one step forward.

A second.

I oozed down the passageway.

The red light intensified.

The air became colder.

My breath crystallized in the air.

Frost clung to my eyelashes.

Three more steps into the crimson....

And....

"......"

My black eyes twitched.

A circular chamber stretched before me.

It was a very.....red thing.

A crimson glow rose from the floor like hidden, burning embers.

And speaking of the floor....it looked like a highly tense bottom of a copper wicker basket. Or as if the loom of some goddess was strung in a spiral towards the center. Red strings of rusted metal stretched down cylindrically from a million points to a converging spot in the center of the glowing room. It looked like the bottom of a bleeding thimble. The inside of a circular piano. Hung with arms stretched out at equidistant spots around the room's circumference were the Twelve people. They appeared unharmed....unconscious....ready for a sacrifice of sorts.

"......."

My eyes fell on the crimson center.

A tall thing stood, breathing slowly, its back away from me.

It was a tall thing clad in tattered rags of shredded satin.

Between the rags peaked bone thin strips of white.

Then again.....the strips _were_ bone.

Slowly....a fifteen-foot tall skeleton turned around with arms out-stretched. A horned-skull glared at me. Its eyes burned with red vapors. Its grinning teeth hissed out crimson crystallized air. Its rib cage was laced with thorns. Spikes jutted out of the joints of its legs, knees, and feet.

My black eyes thinned.

Plastered to the chest of the razor-edged Lich—arms stretched out along the Lich's arms—was the crucified figure of Dr. Light. The bearded man's wrists were encircled by strips of calcium that fastened him painfully to the being's joints. His legs were joined together by a similar loop of bone around the Lich's pelvis. Dr. Light's body stirred and groaned. Red vapor fluttered down from the Lich's eyes and clenched teeth and were inhaled into the poor man's body.

_He's being controlled......_

My gaze went up.

My heart stopped momentarily.

_The Lich......_

My lips parted somewhat.

_It has......antlers........._

A blink.

_And there are......four eye sockets......_

The lich seemed to sneer. Its arms flexed, causing Dr. Light's body to shift more and more. The sharp teeth parted. The antlers shook.

"_**We meeeeeeeet again boyyyyyyyyyy........"**_

If I had pupils, they would have dilated.

"_**Tell meeeeeeee, Jordan............has she been a goodddddddddd little girl??"**_

I panted.

I gripped Myrkblade tightly.

The Lich took a step forward as Trigon's voice continued to pour out.

"_**She shoulddddd be thankfulllll. I finally gave herrrrrrr what she wanteddddddd......the no good bitccccch.....heheheheh...."**_

The Lich snickered.

Dr. Light twitched and moaned.

The Twelve circling the room hung silently.

I glanced at them.....then back at the demon ahead of me.

"_**When Dr. Light was firsssssst absorbed into Raven's esssssssssssence a year and a half aggggggo......I saw the answerrrrrrr. I saw the ssssssssolution.......I filled the patheticccccc man's mind with fearrrrrrrr. I showeddddddd him true dreadddddd and lonelinesssssssss........as only RRRRRRRRRage can do....."**_

The Lich's arms drifted upwards.

So did Dr. Light's puppet limbs.

"_**I instillllllled in Dr. Light the seed of darknesssssss......much like that in Raven's sssssssoul. The soonesssssst he could, Dr. Lightttt created a bomb that he callllllled the Absolute Blackkkkkk. It was through thisssssss that Raven—my imprisonmentttttt—was brought to this wonderful land of death."**_

The Lich's skull rose to the ceiling like a wolf to the full moon.

"_**Mortuana......."**_

A chill.

A red glow.

_**RUMMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

I breathed heavily, Myrkblade at ready.

"_**Mortuanaaaaaaaa.........heheheheheh........"**_

The Lich lowered his arms.

Dr. Light did too, groaning on his 'crucifix'.

"_**This exquisitttttttttte land of blacknesssssss and DEATH. I love it sssssssssso..........forrrrrr it is my key to claiming your patheticcccc dimension......."**_

Red smoke trailed from the four bony eye sockets.

The Lich's fingers clenched and cracked.

"_**As soooooon as Raven entered this world of missing lighttttttt.......I escaped from herrrrrrr bbbbbbeing......She thoughttttt that she was frrrrrrrree......but she didn't knnnnnow I had merely found a new host. Someone and something much prettier than herrrrrrrr."**_

The Lich gestured at itself.

"_**The Licccccccccccch. The mossssssssst powerful beingggggg of hattttttte and death in thisssssss land.......this landddddddd of death........"**_

The skull leaned forward. The antlers swayed.

"_**This realm......is a weighttttted portttttal of anguished souls. You can see it, can you?? It drawsssss in all ghosts and demonsssss from all over Mortuana. The Pit growssssss deeeeeeeeper. The poltergeissssssts keep collecting. The weight getssssss heavierrrrrrrr. Death gets strongerrrrr. Soon, the weightttttt of death will bbbbbbbbe so strong that it'll punch a hhhhhhhole into the worlddddd of light. And by then I shall have demonssssss of all nightmarish shapes and sizes to leapppppp upon the unspectinggggg puppets of bloodddd. I.......Trigon.....shall give birth to the NEW HELL!!!!!"**_

A crimson wave of breath shimmered at me.

I flinched, my metal arm held in front of me.

A chill.

A laugh.

A demonic laugh.

"_**Ha ha ha ha!!! The NEW HELL!!! And my foolissssssh daughterrrrr thinks Mortuana is collapssssing because of what she's doing. But she's wrong. It isn't collapsssssing. It's merely EVOLVING!!!!"**_

Another shimmer of crimson.

I gritted my teeth.

The cuts on my body throbbed.

But I kept the blood in.

I kept it in......

The Lich took a menacing, smoking red step towards me.

_THUD!!!_

A second.

_THUD!!!_

Trigon's voice vibrated outward towards me at a distance.

"_**You.......boyyyyyyy...........Jordan........I knew I would meet you again. You havvvvvve and shallllll always have a part in my daughterrrrrr's pathetic psycccccche. I can feel you......I can feel the burning white inside of you......"**_

I bit my lip.

"_**And I know........I knnnnnnow........from the day I ever firrrrrst possessed you to even now......you are part of the plan..........the plan.............the plan to destroy me........."**_

I lifted an eyebrow.

"_**You may not knowwwww itttttt.......but life and death arrrrre not for mortalsssss to know. You are two out of the whole. You are the halfway marrrrrk of the plan. The plan to destroy me........"**_

I gripped Myrkblade tighter as he crept close.

But I did not move.

_Keep talking......_

"_**I am notttt a fool...........I know about the Obsidian Trinity....."**_

The red vapors licked furiously from the four eye sockets.

"_**I know that I mussssst consume you.......I must know the secrettttt.......that is why I let Dr. Light live ttttto attack your friendssss.....to keep you alive. That is why I abducttttted these twelve worthlesssss humanssss. That is why I kept my patheticccc daughter in the darkkkkk about where and why I lefttttt her.........as much as I want the New Hell.......I wantttttt you firssssst of all, boyyyyyyy.......the plan will notttt go through...."**_

I breathed gently.

I eyed him with black eyes while I held Myrkblade up.

The skull's teeth seemed to grin.

"_**Heh.....heh.....heh........do you nottttt fear me?? That only provessss your threat. But you are stillllll weak. For I neverrrrr forgot, boyyyyyy. Have you forgotten???"**_

I clenched my teeth.

"_**We neverrrrr forget our sinssss......do we?? Heheheheheh......demonsssss of our own ilkkkk.......is this not the New Hell you see before me??"**_

The Lich and Dr. Light raised his arms.

A beat.

The skull leaned to the side.

"_**Or maybe thissssss???"**_

The Lich lowered his arms.

The center of the red room melted out towards me. The red stayed the same, but it transformed into rust. Moldy metal washed up towards me. The Twelve victims disappeared, replaced by smashed electrical equipment and crevices. Catwalks and railings. Dark shadows and even darker doorways. The scene washed over me and under my feet. I looked down. I was standing in puddles of blood. Brown and red bodies littered the floor around me. Bellies were strewn open. Intestines dangled across the floor. Entrails hung over cross beams and levers. Scattered hair and bone fragments scattered across the corners like cereal. And I was standing in the middle of this surrounded gore. And I was panting. And my hair was short. And my eyes were bleeding. And my throat was full.

And I was gripping onto Myrkblade.

Dripping with blood.

I hyperventilated.

I felt this terrific urge to laugh.

To explode.

"_**Heheheheheheheh!!!!!"**_

I gripped a shaking hand over my face.

_**"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"**_

I shivered.

"_**HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!!! YOU ARE YOUR OWN POLTERGEIST!!!"**_

CLANK!!!

"............" the Lich grew silent. It glared at me.

I had just dropped Myrkblade.

The room was back to normal. The red metal strings. The victims hung to the side. The crimson glow beneath the menacing Lich.

I panted.

I slowly raised my scarred arms up.

I held them behind the back of my neck.

Submissively, I fell to my knees.

I looked helplessly up at the Trigon-possessed skeleton.

My black eyes were weak.....powerless.....

_I give up._

_**".............."**_

_Take me. Consume me._

"............_**."**_

I swallowed my empty throat.

_Consume this poltergeist, Trigon._

A beat.

_**"Wise choice boyyyyy."**_

Criii-iiick!!

Crick!!

The bony strips clinging Dr. Light's crucified body to the Lich's limbs uncurled.

"Nnnghhh...," the scientific villain groaned and fell hard to the floor.

Not even a second passed as--

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The Lich flung its arm at me.

A shadowy limb of red smoke flew out.

It engulfed me.

I twitched with a violent gasp.

"!!!!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I was dragged across the floor, leaving Myrkblade behind.

I was toppled and tumbled a few times.

SWOOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

I was squeezed painfully up with my scarred back against the Lich's thorny ribcage.

"....." I winced.

SWOOSH!! SWIIISH!!

Red, smoking limbs magically stretched my arms out along the Lich's upper body.

Crii-iick!!

My wrists were bound to the Lich's.

My heart pounded.

Crii-iick!!

My feet were fastened to its pelvis.

I panted.

Sweating all over my naked, cut chest.

Icily clinging to the red-smoking skeleton.

It vibrated up against me as Trigon's voice drifted down at point blanc.

"_**You arrrrrrre mine......boy........butttttt......I will not destroy you......the Obsidian Trinity.......I must learn its secretsssss.....I mussst preserrrrrrve you in the prisonnnnn of the New Hell. I shall possssssess you. I shall consume the consumer of Poltergeisssssts and learn your secretssssss. And it is only fitttting. Heheheheh. You are made to be evil........you arrrrrre a demon by creation....."**_

I sensed a demon tongue licking my ear.

I winced.

I gritted my teeth and breathed harder.

_Everyone.........everyone......_

I clenched my eyes shut.

I hyperventilated.

_Everyone has the capacity to change............_

"_**Join yourrrrr evil with minnnnnne, Jordan. Let your essssence be known!!!!"**_

I popped my black eyes open.

And they were dancing with murk.

_I have always let my actions speak louder than my 'words'......_

And it was exactly then and there........that I released the shield of murk.

I tilted my head back into the thorned rib cage.

I clenched my fingers.

I tensed my ankles.

I flew my mouth open in a long, mute howl.

A flash of white in my eye sockets.

And.....

I bled.

_RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!_

I bled.

The 'X' shaped cut in my chest dribbled glowing-silver down my sides and onto the monster's ribs.

The slices in my shoulders trickled onto its arms.

The river down my back spurted onto its inner vertebrae.

And the Lich—being a poltergeist—burned instantly from the contact with my life juices.

And it happened to be the one vessel in which Trigon had a foothold upon the land of the dead.

"_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"**_

The bones burned and steamed forth red vapors like a hot iron to ice. The Lich's body sagged. Its eye sockets flickered in agony. Trigon's essence writhed and shook violently inside of it.

"_**NOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOO!!!!!"**_

I clenched my teeth.

I kept bleeding.

I kept leaking on the skeleton I was bound to.

And the Lich kept burning. Red vapor filled the air underneath the halo of hot, cleansing silver. The two of us teetered back.

The red vapor became a mist. Trigon was detached, and the essence of the Lich—tainted by the demon—bore itself before me.

I gritted my teeth.

My black eyes flared.

_Feed me......_

"_**CURSE YOU, BOY!!!!! CURSE YOU!!!!!"**_

_Feed me, asshole!!!_

I opened my mouth.

My scarred throat inflated.

And the red vapor sank in as

"_**NNNNGHHHRRAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"**_

_Soaring in._

My eyes twitched.

A gasp or two.

_FLASH!!!!!!___

"Someone please!!!!!"

_  
Angela hobbled down a dark alleyway in Gotham City._

Half naked.

Clutching tattered blankets to herself.

Her belly swollen and glowing a demonic red.

"_Please kill me!!!!"_

_  
She sobbed._

_  
She burned inside out._

She scratched at the naked, red air.

"_I don't want to give birth to this monster!!!!'_

_FLASH!!!!!_

"_N-NO!! Mommy!!!" the little, blue-haired girl twitched in the elderly Azar's grasp._

"_**It's been a long time.....you pathetic, mortal bitch!!!"**___

Arella stood her ground as Trigon stomped forward and ripped her body in twain.

_SLASH!!!!!_

"AAAAAAUGH!!!!"

"MOMMMMMY!!!"

_FLASH!!!!!!___

"AAAAAAAH!!!! GAWWWWWWWWD!!!!!"

_Dr. Light screamed as Trigon ripped his gnarled hand into his chest and polluted his heart with his demonic seed._

"AAAAAUGH!!! PLEASE!!! LET ME DIE!!!! LET ME DIIIIIIE!!!!"

"_**SUMMON HERRR!!!"**_

"_AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!"_

"_**SUMMON MY DAUGHTER!!!"**_

_FLASH!!!!!___

Thousands of pale bodies spinning around the Pit.

Screaming and shrieking.

White wisps of souls fading into oblivion.

The blackness of Mortuana falling down the drain.

Collapse.

Collapse......

_FLASH!!!!!___

"Jordan......stay strong. Please."

_FLASH!!!!___

"ANA!!!!!!! LEAVE HER ALONE!!!!!!!!"

_FLASH!!!!___

"Mommy......wh-why did you want me to die?!?!"

_FLASH!!!!___

_**"CURSE YOU!!!!!!! YOU ARE NO PURER THAN I!!!! YOU ARE NO PURER THAN I!!!!! I HOPE YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS DIE BECAUSE OF YOU BOYYYYYY!!!"**_

_FLASH!!!___

_**"JORDAN!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?"**_

_FLASH!!!!_

_SLASH!!!_

Voices shrieking.

Then......

_SLASH!!!!!_

......no more.

_SLASH!!!!!_

Blood.

_SLASH!!!_

_Rust._

_SLASH!!!_

A pool.

_SLASH!!!_

SLASH!!

SLASH!!!

_FLASH!!!!___

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!"

Tilting back.

Bleeding.

Grinning.

Laughing at the skeleton shadow across the way.

At the man twirling daggers.

At the sea of entrails surrounding.

_  
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"_

_FLASH!!!!!_

_Yanking, pulling, twitching in the dark._

"_**NNNNGHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! ANA!!!!!!!!! ANAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"**_

_FLASH!!!!_

"_HAAAAA!!! HAAAA!!! HAAAAA!!! HAHAHAHA-HAAAAAAA!!!!"_

_A flash of red._

Streaming.

THUNK!!!!!

The exploding throat.

_FLASH!!!!_

_"I never stopped loving you, Jordan"_

_FLASH!!!!!!_

"_**WHAT DID YOU DO, JORDAN?!?!?!"**_

_FLASH!!!!_

_Lying on a stone in the center of a field of sawgrass._

Blood streaming down my chest.

Clutching an armful of air.

Sobbing.

Facing east......

_FLASH!!!!_

"_I never stopped loving you.................."_

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"..............."

I stirred.

".............."

I shifted my limbs.

"....l-look."

My black eyes flew open.

"H-He's getting up."

"!!!!"

I sat up, panting.

I spun around.

Things came into twirling focus.

Bookshelves.

Bookshelves.

Carpet.

Soaked carpet.

A silver glow.

I panted.

I looked down at my chest.

I was bleeding.

I held my breath.

I concentrated......my head spinning.

Murk trailed down and covered my cuts.

The blood was held in place.....for now.

"Is he.....still alive?"

"H-How.......?"

"????"

I blinked.

Twelve bodies stood around me.

Adults.

Children.

Normal citizens.

"....."

I stood up. My legs wobbled.

I panted.

The library was back to normal.

My blood shone on the surrounding sights.

The freed victims were staring at me.

"Mr. Titan??"

I turned around, blinking.

A balding man stared at me, his lip quivering. "You........You c-came for us??"

".........."

I slowly nodded.

_Trigon......the Pit.........the poltergeists........._

I gazed aside.

_They're all gone......_

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The men and women around me gasped.

The young ones clutched to the adults.

Fearful.

I gulped.

_The collapse._

"............."

_Mortuana......_

I exhaled.

I stared down.

_Raven..............._

_  
_Myrkblade was held before me.

I looked over.

A little boy stood with the bloody weapon in his grasp. He gulped. "I-I believe this is yours, Mr. Titan."

"........"

I gently took the weapon by its hilt.

A breath.

CHIIIIING!!!

I sheathed it.

I motioned towards the distant exit.

The balding man nodded. "W-We need to get out of here....."

I nodded back.

"You are.....," a woman approached me from behind and hesitantly brought a hand to the cut in my back. ".....you're hurt...."

I gently gripped her wrist and lowered it from my wound. I slowly shook my head.

"Nnngh....."

The victims bit their lips at the sudden voice.

"????"

I turned and saw two citizens kneeling over a thirteenth body.

I walked over.

I knelt down.

I blinked once or twice.

"..........," Dr. Light lay on his back. His breath was erratic. His features....pale. His pupils were dilated. His face seemed to shrink inside his crested helmet. His bearded lips quivered. Pale eyes looked up at me. He had very little time left. He uttered: "Death.....it is.....so very and lonely.......do you believe that, Titan?"

A beat.

I sighed and slowly nodded.

".......," Dr. Light whimpered. "I......s-so look forward to that now......."

I lowered my head.

Dr. Light's eyes thinned. His breath left him. "Get out......"

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

"Get out before it collapses............your days are yet long....."

And the brightness left the last remote part of his being.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!!

I kicked the entrance doors to the library open.

I marched out quickly.

Panting.

My naked arms swinging.

My wounds glowing a halo of silver.

The twelve—as instructed—formed a ring around me.

My lifeblood illuminated us as we cut through the pure darkness of Mortuana.

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

What was left of Mortuana......

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We dashed across the asphalt.

The citizens trembled in fear.

They stayed close round me.

I panted.

I gritted my teeth.

My black eyes quivered.

The dull ground beneath my halo faded in and out before me.

I shook my head and re-focused.

I kept the shield of murk around my wounds in tact.

My breath was ragged.

I swallowed and pushed on.

I stumbled once or twice, but balanced myself precariously on a person's shoulder.

I felt a hand or two help me back onto my feet.

I breathed, nodded a tiny bow of the head, and pressed on quickly as if nothing happened.

_**RUMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The thirteen of us scurried along in the thick oblivion.

Heading westward.

Westward....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WH-WHUMP!!!

I fell to my knees.

I winced.

"M-Mr. Titan! Careful!!"

"Please....don't give up now!!"

"We c-can't make it out on our own!!"

I gritted my teeth.

"The l-light....."

"Oh gawd! It's getting darker!!!"

"I don't want to be stuck here!!"

"Shut up!! Calm down!!"

"Everyone!! Please!!"

"Don't panic...."

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Everyone silenced.

Trembling.

I panted.

Panted.

I took a deep breath.

"Oh my....I think he's—"

"Mr. Titan! Don't! You couldn't possibly manage another---"

I shoved them back harshly.

I held my breath.

I concentrated.

My whole body winced.

My face became tense.

"......"

I lowered the shield.

I bled.

My head spun.

"M-Mr. Titan!"

I exhaled.

I extended the shield again.

The silver glow protected us in the dark again.

I panted.

I stood up.

I stumbled....

A pair of hands steadied me.

I didn't know whose.

I panted.

I felt nauseous.

My world spun.

My body was numb.

I shook my head.

I swallowed.

I marched limply forward.

One foot.

Another.

Again.

Again.

Like a tumbling wooden puppet down the stairs, I hobbled us forward.

I stretched a cut arm out straight ahead.

Panting.

Illuminating the path before the thirteen of us.

Leading us forward.

Westward.

Out of Mortuana.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Out of Mortuana......

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"I-I frankly didn't care if I survived the comet or not...," Kara explained to me._

We sat in the field under the Kansas stars.

_"I saw it as 'going out in a blaze' of glory. After all, everyone I knew died on Argos. If I could join them by doing a bunch of other people a good deed....then....so be it, ya know what I mean?"_

_I closed my eyes and nodded, biting my lip._

_"I've grown out of that.....angsty phase. I no longer see things so fatalistically. When I'm saving people, I'd like to save my butt too. Hehehehehe.......I-I've got things worth living for on this planet now. It's a waste to throw that all away."_

_Silence._

_She looked at me again. Silence. She had a solemn expression as she said: "I wonder.....Jordan.....were you doing something similar when you were Wyldecarde? As brave as your actions were.....perhaps you also were trying to obliterate yourself?"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I tripped.

I fell on my knees.

The world spun.

I bled.

I wheezed.

"M-Mr. Titan.......," one of the citizens behind me murmured.

Everyone else was silent.

_So close......_

I panted.

I hobbled to my feet.

Dizzy.

Everything spun.

My black eyes were thin.

My lips quivered.

I hobbled forward.

My metal hand shivered.

I stretched my black hand forward.

I saw the edge.

I saw the western wall of the dome.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

I hobbled towards it.

My bleeding-glowing hand groped for it.

My head teetered from left to right.

My feet had turned into lead.

My eyes twitched.

The world swan-dived.

I tripped.

I hobbled.

I leaned precariously.

Then forward.

My eyes rolled back.

My head emptied.

A spinning globe.

A liquid sigh.

I fell back.....I fell....

And a dozen pairs of arms caught me.

"Easy...easy....," said a man.

"Don't touch any of his wounds," said another.

"Gently now....."

"You got his legs, Johnny?"

"Yes, Fran. Now let's hurry."

I was carried the rest of the few dozen feet towards the edge of the land of the dead.

My limp body acted as a human torch in their arms.

My arms hung limply on either side.

My wounds throbbed towards the black sky.

My eyes rolled back.

My mouth hung open.

_Raven............_

The citizens carrying my feet slipped through the black curtain.

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!**_

My naked torso followed suit in the second half of scurrying forms.

_Take care........._

And we were gone.

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"Here they come!!!"

"It's the last of them!!!"

"Thank God!!!"

"Quickly!! It's collapsing!!"

"Hurry!!"

"Now!! Now!!"

Fire.

Blinding whiteness.

My black eyes clenched shut.

I winced all over.

The air was warm.

I smelled autumn.

I smelled life.

I felt my blood get colder.

_VROMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

An alien sound filled the air.

The arms lowered me gently down.

"Careful.....careful...."

"God....he's bleeding all over!!"

"Someone get a medic over here!!!!"

"Hurry, god damn it!!!"

_VROMMMMMMM!!!!_

"Look!!!"

"There it goes!!!"

I gasped.

My lids forced my black eyes opened.

I bit my lip as I stared into the blinding whiteness with naked optics.

A huge black shadow loomed above buildingtops in the center of the sun-kissed City.

The black dome that was the 'doorway' lifted up and shrunk into a twirling sphere of obsidian.

_VROMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!_

Wind blew at me and everyone.

The police barricades provided shelter for huddled, cringing officers.

The citizens around me—whom I had rescued—cringed and shaded their eyes.

_From what??_

I kept gazing.

The black sphere shrunk and shrunk.

It spun.

It vibrated high above the clean, brightly-lit City.

And---

_VROMMMMMMM-FLASH!!!!!!!_

Exploded in tendrils of black.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

A downdraft of air kicked at my black hair.

"........."

My eyes narrowed.

The sphere was gone....but something else dark was in its place.

A dark girl.

"!!!!!"

Murmurs.

Uncomfortable commotion.

A cloaked figure floated down from the last spot the sphere was located. It drifted down towards us like a dying kite. A girl clothed in blue. In nonchalant grace, Raven floated down and settled her feet on the ground a few feet in front of me. Her face was deadpan. Emotionless.

Calm......

She shuffled quietly towards me.

People watched—dumbfounded—as she went by.

I saw Commissioner Decker standing with his lieutenant....scratching his head.

I saw the paramedics who rushed over to 'help me' pausing and dropping their jaws in shock and confusion.

My heart beat.

Raven knelt before me.

She blinked her blue eyes.

"Keep still....."

Her eyes glowed a bright gray.

She extended her hands towards me.

A gentle shine.

I blinked.

I glanced down.

The 'X' cut on my chest shrank.

The wounds on my shoulder and back disappeared.

They 'zipped' up into clean flesh and I gasped as I felt myself refilled magically with the blood I lost.

I stared at Raven.....dumbstruck.

".....," she clutched her cloak to herself and breathed gently. Beautifully. "Mortuana....." A beat. Her lips pursed. She raised a hand and gently moved her stubborn lock of hair out from over her brow. "Mortuana is in me....."

My lips parted.

I leaned my head to the side.

Her eyes zeroed in on me.

"I remember now....," she said. "I remember the logic of my actions. When Trigon left me....I knew it was too good to be true. So I let go of my emotions.....in a desperate attempt to suck my demon father back in. To suck in everything he was concocting in the land of the dead."

A beat.

She gazed up into the bright sky.

"I......I am a living portal, Noir. Ask Robin...Beast Boy...Cyborg. They'll tell you that. Azarath is more a part of me than it ever was a part of itself. And now......now Mortuana has joined the collective well of emptiness inside of me. I.....I....." She gazed up at me. Her lips curved upward ever so prettily. "I 'consumed' it......"

"......," I blinked. I smiled weakly....helplessly.

"Trigon is back where he belongs. And as for me....." She flexed her hands in front of herself. They still glowed from having healed my wounds. "I seemed to have learned some new tricks......"

I slowly nodded.

A beat.

"Noir.....," Raven murmured. "Let's go home......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

In the early morning light of the Sun.

Besides a suburban road outlined by a dry forest.

A hunched figure in a trenchcoat wandered up to the door of an old church.

A wrinkled hand knocked on the door.

Thap! Thap! Thap!

A beat.

The door to the gathering place creaked open.

A man in business casual opened it.

A beat.

"Ah....you're here already," the man smiled pleasantly. He gestured. "Come in! Come in!!"

The man in the trenchcoat wandered inside. He was an old thing of wispy, graying hair. His face was extremely wrinked....almost illegally so. It seemed to take every fiber of his being to stay alive. And yet he did so with eerie finesse.

His gray eyes fell over the pews. The aisle leading down to the simple, unassuming altar. The stain glass window with the early morning light streaming through.

The man took a breath.

The younger one shut the door behind him and wandered over. "So...Juris....what brings you here this hour."

Juris gazed coldly at the man. "Do you not sense it, Mr. Cain? Do you not sense the tides of fate in action?"

"I.....I-I'm afraid I don't understand....," the young one looked confused.

Juris took a deep breath. "Mortuana....," he breathed. "Mortuana has been consumed....."

A beat.

"It is His Daughter, Mr. Cain....," Juris glared off towards the stained-glass window. "Mortuana now exists within Raven. Our Almighty Lord has been sorely mistreated."

"That....th-that's the confirmation of the second prophecy...," Mr. Cain stammered. His eyes thinned suspiciously. "Are you sure you sensed this right, J-Juris?"

"Do you forget where I come from, young one??"

A beat.

Mr. Cain cleared his throat. "N-No....not at all, sir."

Juris paced towards the altar, his hands held together. "The second prophecy has been fulfilled. The pattern is now set in motion. We cannot deny the writings of the Red Elders."

"You mean.....a-about the Obsidian Trinity?" Mr. Cain remarked.

Juris nodded his head without looking. "Trigon's days are numbered. Our God knows not eternity....though He may think that He does. The Plan is in effect. He is to be outdone.....by the Destruction of Man."

"Then what is it that we await for next?" Juris asked. "The Final Prophet?"

"No.....there are more tests to remain....," Juris uttered. "Especially to confirm whether or not the boy is integral to the Obsidian Trinity. There are secrets still unconfirmed to me. But I cannot witness them alone."

A beat.

Juris spun around. "We stand on the precipice of destiny. I cannot wait any longer. I must speak with Jezebel."

Cain smiled neighborly. "I shall go summon her. I seriously doubt she'd mind meeting you finally. Especially over this."

Juris' eyes narrowed. "You.....mislead me?"

"Heheheheh," Mr. Cain laughed merrily. He clapped his hand gently over the elder's shoulder. "But of course not, Juris. You are more than welcome here at the Church of Blood."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So you knew it all along??" Robin asked. He sat on a stool with his back to the kitchen unit's counter. His upper body was bandaged down the middle. He smirked. "From the very get-go....you knew that all you were doing was 'consuming' Mortuana??"

Raven stood across from us in the Main Room. She adjusted her robe and uttered: "I...knew at the beginning. But following that instant, I was confused. I couldn't remember what I was losing my emotions for. And it was a good thing. Because if I knew the challenge that I was up against—my father—my last exposed emotion would have collapsed Mortuana without any hope of my emergence. I couldn't face my fear at the end. And that's actually a good thing."

"Glorious....," Starfire beamed. She sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter above and behind Robin. "Such actions were quite brave of you!!"

"From what I hear, actually....," Raven blinked. "Everyone was putting in their fair share of effort into this.....'affair'."

I leaned against a wall, my arms folded. I glanced through my black shades—smiling—over at Tempest.

Tempest blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head nervously. "Er....I........l-let's just say I found myself at home in the sewers."

"You got a passing grade, that's for damn sure," Robin smirked proudly. "Great job, Tempest. We couldn't have saved all of those people without you."

"Yes!!" Starfire giggled. "'Damned to the sure'!! Hehehehe!"

I rolled my eyes.

"So.....you uhm.....," Tempest bit his lip as he looked at Raven. "You still have that demon inside you, huh?"

"My father?" Raven blinked. A beat. She smiled ever so slightly. "Some habits never get old."

I snickered.

SCHWISSH!!

Beast Boy hopped out of the elevator, jumping excitedly. "Guys!! Guys!! Cyborg's recharged!! He's coming too!!"

"Glorious!!" Starfire exclaimed. She flew in a streak towards the elevator doors.

Robin hopped down off the stool and walked with Tempest towards the far side of the Main Room.

"Well, it's about time!! I swear....we need a nuclear power plant to juice that guy up!!"

"Yes...but....," Tempest scratched his head in confusion. "If liquid was all you needed to supplement Cyborg's lack of energy, couldn't I have just summoned some water for him?"

".............try and keep quiet for a while, Garth."

"Uh....sure."

Robin glanced back. "You guys coming?"

I looked over.

Raven held up a finger. "We will in a moment."

I glanced at her.

"All right," Robin said. "We'll send word."

SCHWIIISH!!!

The other Titans were gone.

Raven and I were alone.

"..........."

"..........."

She took a breath. She hugged one of her arms and glanced aside. "So....uhm.........you r-really gave a lot to save those people, didn't you?"

I shrugged.

A beat.

".........I....I guess it's only natural. You knew what you were doing from the beginning. I knew what I was doing from the beginning. Now look at us. We both came on top."

I nodded. A smirk.

Her lips curved slightly too.

I motioned towards the stairwell.

"Huh??"

I gestured 'walking' with my feet and pointed at myself.

"You're going to your room?"

I nodded.

"Oh...right....I forgot," Raven droned. "You already paid Cyborg a visit, didn't you?"

Another nod.

A beat.

She cleared her throat. She walked across the room. "I....uh.......want to see him now myself....."

Silence.

Raven walked by.

I turned towards the stairwell and walked off.

And in the middle of it, we both paused.

For in going in our own separate directions, we suddenly ended up so very much close to each other.

Almost shoulder to shoulder.

And neither of us admitted that we stopped.

But we just......stopped.

And stood there.

Frozen.

Deep breaths.

I felt the heat of her proximity.

She took a deep, shuddering breath.

A beat.

She started once....twice....

I walked ahead.

She bit her lip and strolled on to the elevator doors.

Neither one of us cast a single glance at each other...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Consumption_

_I saw it not once  
I saw it always_

_Shuddering inside of me_

_Like a window pane against the plain_

_-_

_Night is just a preview_

_Of the perfect bane of evil_

_The pain lessened  
The new heaven_

_Made strong and able  
Inside of me_

_-_

Mortuana has played its part

_Mortuana, the end, the start_

_I gave myself I gave my all  
Mortuana is in my heart_

_-_

Mortuana, the endless night

_Mortuana, the righteous fight_

_In secret sighs of violet eyes_

_Inside me Mortuana burns bright_

-

-

Raven cleared her throat.

She humbly half-curstied.

"Th-Thank you...."

Applause.

The gentle snapping of fingers.

Muttered commotion of approval.

And....

The jazz reconvened.

Raven walked down from the podium and shuffled gracefully across the haze of the poetry café.

Cyborg pulled her seat out for her as she wandered over.

"There! See?? I'm being the perfect gentleman."

"That's a day that I'll croak like a frog...," Raven droned.

"Hah hah hah!!" Cyborg leaned back and laughed. "Come on!! The poetry was good, by the way."

"No it wasn't. I wrote it impromptu."

"Well of course you did. We just got over the whole Mortuana thing yesterday!"

"Impromptu is relative."

"Hey....," Cyborg shrugged with a smirk. "If you say so, cutie."

Raven glared. "Aren't you supposed to be choking on pretzels or something?"

"Pfft. I'm not hungry."

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "Are you sure you recovered fully from your recharge?"

Cyborg leaned forward. "Do I detect a hint of concern?"

A beat.

Raven looked towards the side. "You know about me and emotions, Cyborg....."

"Well....I thought I did," he said.

"......???" she glanced at him.

He leaned his head on his chin and smiled at her. "It's like something that Plato said. Or maybe it was Socrates. Whatever. Ahem. 'The more you know, the more you know you don't know'."

"..........."

"You're like a labyrinth that keeps on going, Raven."

"Gee....," hugged herself and looked off. "....thanks."

He chuckled. "I mean it in a good way."

"I know....it's just....," Raven brushed her stubborn lock away.

Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "Just what, Rae?"

"........."

A blink.

"Rae---" Cyborg suddenly gasped.

Raven was hugging him. Desperately.

"...........," Cyborg lifted an uncertain hand and placed it gently on her back. "Raven.....are you—"

"I'm okay, Cyborg.....," she breathed. She sighed against him. "I.....I think I'm willing to change after all. Only....slowly....."

A beat.

Cyborg smiled painfully. He patted her back. "I'm glad, Raven. I'm glad....."

But as she gazed over his shoulder....

Raven's eyes were elsewhere.

Elsewhere entirely.

Lingering........

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on the bed, cross-legged.

I typed away at the laptop.

Waited.

And---

**InzeUltima: So your okay and stuff right?**

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Last time I checked, yeah.**

**InzeUltima: Good cuz I was really worried : (**

**SpSquirrel: You heard anything about the 'black dome' in the City?**

**InzeUltima: Yeah. It was on the news. Even here in Kansas!! Gawd I wanted to fly over there and stuff but...**

**SpSquirrel: Clark, I know.**

**InzeUltima: Yeah.**

**SpSquirrel: I think I know just what would cure your problem.**

**InzeUltima: Please Im open to suggestions!!!!1**

**SpSquirrel: Kryptonite in his Luncheables.**

**InzeUlitma: lol Actually, I was just thinking of a homophobic blackmail letter sent to the Daily Planet. Lololol**

I leaned back.

And I smiled.

But my eyes lingered off and my heart shuddered.

Because.....

For the first time I could remember since the night of the Kansas stars..........the smile didn't feel real.

"........"

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_Jonas looks to the sky._

Shimmering down in a queer gray from the cracks in the Subway ceiling.

Something is wrong.

Everyone is alive.

He takes a deep breath, smiles, and turns about to gaze at his people.

Dimitri, Raphael, and Victor walk about aimlessly.

They and the gothic citizens gaze in wonder at the light shining in.

The alien substance.

The land beyond the land of the dead.

"We are Mortuana......"

Strange bodies wander in through the Subway entrance.

"_We are Raven......"_

The underground citizens watch in wonder at the newcomers.

"_We are Death......"_

_Dizzy......confused humans wander into the realm. Some hand in hand. Some just side by side._

"_We are Healing......"_

_Trent Larson wanders in. He looks at his arms. They aren't burnt._

Norah Smith hugs herself. She feels her neck. She can breathe.

Moses stumbles at an explanation to everything. He gazes down to his side.

Little Hannah clutches a doll to her chest. She seems frightened...until Raphael walks over, kneels in front of her, and offers a pair of pale arms to hold.

Moses looks up as Victor walks over, extends a hand, and shakes it.

One by one, the spirits meet spirits. The cleansed poltergeists and the Mortuanan population.

In the midst of this soup of conglomerated souls, Dimitri steps up. His pale eyes thin. He gasps.

Clank!!

His flute drops to the floor.

He runs through the crowd.

Ayane runs to him.

The two embrace warmly in the pale sea. They twirl with tears under the gray skylight.

Jonas smiles more.

"_The separatists founded this world to aid mankind. And for successive generations, they have worked selflessly."_

The combined crowd wanders to the surface of the hazy streets.

The world is full of gray light.

Jonas and the others gladly squint their eyes.

"_And finally......we have been rewarded......"_

Raphael lifts Hannah up on his shoulders. They smile at each other. Hannah gazes up at the pulsing orb above them. The strobe of sacred energy.

"_The New Heaven. The New Life. Within the heart of the Sacred Daughter."_

_Hannah lifted her little hand up as if to touch the distant orb. Reaching......reaching......_

"Mortuana was......is......and shall be.........forevermore......"

The orb pulsed. And as everyone waited, it grew brighter.

Brighter.

Brighter...


	141. Smoke and Mirrors

**141. Smoke and Mirrors**

**Loading....**

**Loading....**

Loading....

**Loading Complete**

**Initialize Surveillance Protocols 11/21-SH (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initialization Process Complete**

**Protocols 11/21-SH In Effect**

Input Devices at 120 Efficiency

Power Resources 98 And Holding At Nominal Rate Of 0.002 Decrease

**Automatic Sensors In Effect**

Opening Program "Rahab's House"

Subject: Blake Glover

**Location: Warehouse In East Disrtict of City**

**Date: October 15, 2004**

**Time: 0113 Hours**

**Focusing In....**

**Recording...**

Recording...

Recording...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was a ring of squad cars beneath the black night. Police lights strobed red and blue and white and back again against the concrete piers and dark waters of the Bay. A yellow line was stretched before the gaping doors of a spotless warehouse with the number '4146' emblazoned across the top. Officers stood in clusters outside, handheld radios squabbling and screeching in a sickening cricket cadence between them. From inside the warehouse, lightning flashes of cameras could be sensed.

One last squad car pulled up. The engine cut off and the driver filed out. The front passenger's side opened slowly, and a balding journalist of short stature and a weathered face slinked out.

Blake Glover gazed at the ceiling. He peered up. His eyes narrowed.

'4146'.

A blink.

Blake took a deep breath and sauntered forward. "Okay...where to begin?"

A single body walked out from the thick crowd of officers and approached Glover. It was Commissioner Decker's right hand man, the lieutenant.

"So you did show up."

"You've given me the opportunity," Glover replied. "I'm not about to turn it down."

"You do realize that we'd appreciate it if you didn't reveal anything that you're about to see here until the next day or two when Decker deems it safe for the pub—"

"I'm not doing a cover story," Glover said.

"????" the lieutenant eyed the middle-aged man quizzically.

Glover stared back. "I'm not doing any story at all."

A beat.

"V-Very well then.....follow me," the officer motioned with his finger and trudged on towards the warehouse.

Glover held his breath and followed along.

They approached the tape.

The lieutenant lifted it for Glover to slip under. He said: "I'm surprised, Mr. Glover."

"About what?" the man ducked the tape.

"Your normal enthusiasm is lacking. I've seen hungrier Jain monks than you. If this isn't for a story...then what are you here for?"

"Let's just say....I don't expect to see something in here that a mortal soul would _like_....," Glover uttered.

The lieutenant nodded. "Then I guess you don't need me to warn you to plug your nose."

"......"

The officer led the journalist into the dimly lit warehouse.

There were scarcely any cargo or material inside the building worth storing. Maybe a crate or two. A fishing net in the corner. But beyond that, there was merely a gigantic waste of space.

A line of officers stood with their backs to the two entering souls. Things beyond them flashed and strobed.

Glover took deep breaths.

The lieutenant cut ahead, parted two of the police officers, and led the journalist through.

A second line of bodies formed. Investigators. Detectives. They had set up three floodlights on stands that were aimed at the Eastern Wall of the warehouse's interior. They held cameras up and took shot after shot after shot.

Flash! Flash! Fl-Flash!

The lieutenant came to a stop.

So did Glover.

A beat.

"An inspector called in this morning," the lieutenant said somberly. "He said his job was to check on the warehouse's activities on a daily basis. This warehouse is being leased to a company known as 'SeaWings, Inc'. A manufacturer of fins for speedboats....supposedly. The inspector hadn't heard any word from the renters in days. And just this morning when he checked on the warehouse, he sensed a terrible smell from inside. He got the owner of the place to open the warehouse up. And they found this. Now—we've yet to conduct some research—but we're all pretty sure that this work is at least a few days old."

A beat.

A sniff.

The lieutenant scrunched his nose up and groaned. "Been a while since any of us have seen something this messed up."

"........," Glover stepped forward. He stayed two feet outside of the chalk line drawn around the scene. The chalk line wasn't in the shape of a body. It was a semicircle stretched outward from the wall, for it had to contain six bodies. At least....what was left of six bodies.

Six bloody bags of meat lay on the floor side by side in a sickeningly orderly fashion. They looked hacked apart—as with a sword—and simultaneously riddled with dozens of grossly large bulletholes. Their faces were ripped into indiscernible shreds. Their limbs had become mangled stubs. The only part of their flesh that showed was a tiny splash of white or dark sternum, and on such immaculate skin a single letter was cut as with a dagger.

Glover's eyes narrowed. He swallowed and scanned his eyes upward.

A huge, dried pool of red covered the wall like a crimson lake within the chalk. The red blood splashed in tendrils like burgundy sawgrass up the metal wall of the warehouse. They stretched up for about a foot and a half in random directions shooting upwards: red light rays. On the far side of the massacre, a line of bloodstains stretched up like a promontory. It formed a right triangle of sorts, with a straight edge of the left side running up and down almost so solidly that it seemed perfect. The right side angled down too softly to be a steady mark of the triangle's degrees. The whole thing looked like a great red needle cut in half. Adding to the cropped nature of the red mosaic, patches of blood formed a horizontal line along a 'top' meridian that stretched eight feet equidistant from the floor. It seemed as if blood had been gathered from the victim's mangled bodies and splashed about in a rectangle, with splotches at the top, rays at the bottom, a thick triangle stretching up on the left, and a huge space of pale warehouse wall in the center. Only.......the space was not completely empty. In jagged font, a finger or a dagger had painted six letters in blood. It quite legibly read: 'S-T-R-O-K-E'.

".........," Dagger took a shuddering breath.

"Whoever did this to these people....," the lieutenant uttered, "....we're dealing with a madman."

"Quite the creative one too.....," Glover murmured. He swallowed. "H-Have you contacted the Titans?"

The lieutenant blinked. "The Teen Titans?"

Glover slowly nodded.

"No. Why?"

Glover stood up straight. He let out a sigh and turned away from the bloody mess. "No reason......"

Behind him, the cameras continued documenting the scene.

Flash!! Fl-Flash!! Flash!!

_**FLASH!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!!!!!!" Blake Glover wheezed. His eyes bulged. He gripped his chest and leaned over in bed, hacking. Coughing. Sweating. He flung a shaky hand over to his bedside table and desperately switched the lamp on.

Click.

An amber light dripped through his loft apartment room.

The middle-aged man stumbled out of bed. Coughing terribly, he limped past translucent tables, leather furniture, and lavish decorations collected from a life of successful journalism. He stumbled towards one of three stools besides a miniature bar. There, an oxygen tank rested for him where he had carelessly left it. He was hyperventilating by the time he fingered the mask and lifted it to his face. His other hand numbly twisted the handle. Fresh air cycled through the cord and into his lips.

He breathed easily. His body sighed with relaxation. His face melted and his eyes closed. He seemed twice as at peace with the oxygen tank than he was inside his own bed. The coughing disappeared. His lungs worked normally. He sat down on the edge of one stool, his back hunched over. He panted through the mask until his hands stopped trembling. He twisted the handle of the tank again and cut off the facilitated oxygen. Glover then lowered the mask and sat back, exhaling. Getting calm again.

Silence......

"....."

The man's weather eyes reopened. His comb-over was splayed across his shining crown. He bit his lip, stood up, and shuffled across the apartment to his desk. His workspace was no longer the tidy relic of his glory years of writing and setting up interviews. Rather...it was a scattered quagmire of photos, scraps of paper, newspaper clippings, tape cassettes, video cassettes, three-and-a-half-inch floppies, and CD-Rs. Despite the chaos, there was something akin to order in the displacement. Almost all the scribblings were in Glover's own handwriting. The dates on many of the exhibits were either identical or in relation to one another. And words and phrases showed up commonly over and over again.

"Red." "Stroke." "Earth." "Piers." "Red." "July 5, 2004." "Gotham." "Dragonflare." "Red." "Bay." "Smoke." "Blood." "Red." "Red." "Red."

Glover eyed the mosaic before him, spending time and effort in the process as if he was reading a magic-eye painting. His optics spun over themselves and landed him in the same spot. He exhaled and sad limply in his desk chair. After a beat, he reached over under a clutter of paper shreds and produced a voice recorder. He slipped a miniature cassette tape inside, rewound it, hit the record button, swallowed, and spoke exhaustingly forth:

"The fifteenth of October. Two thousand and four. Er.....j-just a little after midnight. I can't sleep. Somewhere between the coughing fits and the digestion of all I've come across in my searches lately is keeping me up. I never intended for this to become the nightmare that it now is. But now I have no choice but to confront it. Two and a half months ago, I discovered that I have a malignant cancer in my lungs. This revelation has come to me practically overnight. I would be at a rush to save myself with all of my resources....if saving myself was possible. My doctors have not been very optimistic. And second opinions have turned into third opinions and have turned into fourth opinions and so on—all leading me to this one simple conclusion. The legacy of my life shall end a lot sooner than I originally anticipated. It doesn't get much more bleak than that. I suppose that explains why I am so adamant about enacting this search....and why I am so dedicated to the analysis of this one particular issue which I am bound to call my last great feat of research and information."

Glover glanced at the desk. He glanced beyond it at a slightly-more-orderly assortment of documents and VHS tapes and gathered material.

"There is......there is a secret pattern at work in my world. A rippling current in the bottom of the pool of the underground. I need not get into great details on this review. I've written far more detailed supplements over the last two months. Between doctors visits and public meetings, I've worked endlessly and diligently on examining this one topic. And it is something that—for the life of me—I cannot attribute a name or a title to. Heheh....how humorous for a dying man to invest all of his energies into a wordless epithet. But that is part of the allure....the mystery that draws me in."

He pivoted about and peered out the black night beyond his loft apartment's windows.

"I have found—over the last ten weeks—countless documents, testimonies, and incidents that all point to a spirit of unease and paranoia in the world of crime. Bloody murders, computer hacking, psycho-physical phenomena....everything is pointing to a grand conspiracy that ultimately results in a countdown to.....t-to something. And it is my attempt to find out what that 'something' is. For at this moment, I am almost inclined to believe that even my cancerous body will live to see the culmination of these somber prophecies. This destiny that seems to wrap around the neck of a phrase. A pair of words that stab at me down the dark threads of this endless, mind-numbing yarn..."

Glover slid open a drawer inside his desk. Inside was a single piece of paper in red ink. He pulled the scrap out, held it before him, and uttered:

"'Red....Aviary.....'"

A beat.

He dropped the scrap—fluttering—back down into the drawer.

"It started two months ago shortly following my first test results. I was spending extra hours at work one evening at the station and was just about to head on home....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mr. Glover, sir?"

"........"

"Mr. Glover?"

"......."

"......Blake?"

The journalist looked up.

Avery was looking at him with a sideways glance of concern. "Are you allright, sir?"

"I....uhm......y-yeah....," Glover ran a nervous hand over his half-bald head.

"You seem preoccupied."

"In this job, I'm always thinking."

"I could have sworn you were on 'vacation' still," Avery smirked.

Glover shrugged. The two walked down a lonely hallway towards the parking garage with briefcases in tow. "I make excuses....but I never really stop thinking."

"What ever became of that trip to the lung center?"

Silence.

"Goodnight, Avery...," Glover said in an exhausted voice.

"......," the assistant quietly exited ahead of the journalist. He held the door open, but was silent.

Glover took it as he stepped out of the inside of the building. The men said nothing to each other.

While Avery walked off to some nondescript part of the parking garage, Glover turned immediately right. He didn't have to park far from his office...being the man of his stature in the station. He was halfway through getting his keys out and unlocking the car when he heard a loud clattering sound from across the claustrophobic domain.

The man—startled—coughed uncontrollably and spun towards the location of the sound. The briefcase shook in his grasp.

Glover barely caught sight of a shadow darting down the parking garage. A janitor door set in the wall was halfway through swinging to a creaking stop.

".......," Glover blinked. He looked down the incline of the parking garage. A beat. He looked at the janitor's door. "......" He locked his car again and marched towards the doorway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover found himself in a huge utility closet. But a door at the far end of it was opened, which led to a stairwell. The stairwell led to Glover to the basement level of the station, and another open door. After a stroll down a barren hallway that Glover didn't even know existed, he marched out through an open door into a place he DID know existed. The 'locked and secure' video archives of the station.

It didn't take the journalist long to figure out that something had been stolen, most likely now in the arms of the shadowed runaway. But it was the discovery of what in specific had been stolen...as made evident when Glover happened upon the smashed container marked '07/02/2004'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It was the backup videos of Wyldecarde...," Glover spoke into his tape recorder. "Someone had broken into the vault and stolen the footage my boys took of Noir during his fight and rescue of random citizens along the City highway the same day that Phaser Labs suffered its huge explosion."

He shifted in his seat and leaned back with a sigh.

"Naturally, I was devastated. Though—perceivably—it would have made little difference. I agreed to never go public with the footage, even if it meant vindicating Wyldecarde's roguish actions at the time. I was under pressure to keep Noir's heroism secret. And in time—as fate would reveal—Wyldecarde became responsible for his own saved legacy."

Glover swiveled towards the shadows in his chair. His eyes narrowed.

"For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what someone would have wanted with the tapes. Much less how the tapes were stolen. I suspected someone from within the station. But I didn't report it. I guess Avery was right at the time. I **was** preoccupied. Nevertheless....history would ironically try to contact me....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat at the desk in his office one afternoon. He was perusing articles on local charity events. He sighed and rubbed heavy fingers into his temples.

There was a knock on his door. Then a sliding sound.

"????"

Glover glanced up. His eyes narrowed.

A white envelope lay between his floor and the doorframe.

"......."

Glover got up, shuffled over, and knelt down. He took the envelope in his grasp. Ripping it open, he pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper.

On it, the words simply read:

_Mr. Glover,_

_I stole some video tapes from our vault. I went somewhere. I gave them to somebody._

I do not remember any of it.

Please, help me. Meet me on the centermost bench at the Bayside Plaza tonight during the matinee showing. I don't know who else to talk to. I'm afraid. So very afraid.

__

Sincerely,

_An Associate._

The journalist's lips parted. He looked down the hallway. He rushed out a few feet. He glanced down both ways. He saw no one. After a moment, Glover was aware of secretaries staring strangely at him. The middle-aged man cleared his throat, marched back into his office, and shut the door behind him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I think—with my life becoming more and more bleak—I've still managed to keep hold of some of my rebellious qualities. I know I should have contacted the producers about what was going on, but I decided to go out on a limb. I was desperate for something.....something original. Something to sweep me up and away from the funk I was in. And even if it meant dealing with a strange thief from within, then so be it. I had a good hypothesis as to who it was anyways. One reporter in particular—that week—had been missing quite a few days of work."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Gary Sills.....," Glover whispered to himself.

The journalist was slowly trudging into the Bayside Plaza. The sun had set, and the theatre lights were aglow with electric magic. Dozens of citizens half the journalist's age mingled in the food court and storefronts. But Glover's eyes were on a huddled figure alone on a bench. Pale and paranoid.

Yet familiar.

"G-Glover.....," the man stood up on wobbly legs.

"Take it easy, Gary....," Glover said with an outstretched hand. "Sit down."

Gary swallowed. He sat down on the end of the bench and held his shaky hands together.

".....," Glover sat beside him.

Silence.

The men watched young people move to and fro. High schoolers laughed and joked and flirted before them like some back and forth parade.

"Those tapes were expensive."

"I-I know, sir. I know....."

"Then why did you—"

"Look at me, Glover," Gary gestured. "You know me, don't you?? At least you've read some of my stuff! I have a reputation!! I-I make a living!! A pretty damn good living!! I have a wife and kids and a two-story house and two cars and a **dog** for God's sake!! Why....WHY would I steal those tapes??"

"........," Glover looked at Mr. Sills as if the man had some terrible plague.

The fellow reported took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "Maude....my wife....she thinks I need to see a doctor or something."

"Are you coming down with something? It's almost flu seas—"

"No.....NO! A _different_ kind of doctor....," Gary ran two shaking hands through his hair. "And.....I-I'm almost tempted to agree with her." He shuddered and stared off into the ever-darkening night. "I....I think I'm going insane, Mr. Glover. I can't seem to....have a finger on what I'm doing anymore. It feels as if I've lost control of everything in my life. Literally.....l-literally....."

Glover shifted uncomfortably. "That still doesn't explain why you took the vid—"

"I know. I know." Gary swallowed. "I....I only have brief flashes. Tiny recollections."

"What do you mean??" Glover asked.

Gary bit his lip. "......I.......I did take those videos, Glover. I know because I saw the door to the vault and utility rooms being smashed open. I saw my hands rummaging through the files for the videos. I saw the street and sidewalks blurring past me while blood rushed through my arteries. And I saw the videos being given away. But....even though I know I was doing it all, I didn't feel like I was the perpetrator. It was like I was being hung from some invisible strings floating above my body the entire time. I.....I was just _not_ in control of myself, Glover. I wasn't. The only thing I could do was speak. Everything else......I swear.....they were in somebody else's hands."

"So...you do remember," Glover blinked. "But—"

"How can I explain it?? You'd have to have been there in my body. Hell...someone had to have been in my body. But it sure wasn't me."

"But you could speak??" Glover asked. "So at least you had some sort of control??"

"N-No! I mean yes.....nnghh....I don't know. Even she couldn't answer me."

Glover raised an eyebrow. "She??"

Gary shivered. "The.....th-the girl I gave the videos to."

"You gave the videos to a girl?"

".............."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gary Sills panted for breath.

He sweat all over.

He stood in a dark alleyway on the northeast end of town.

A floodlight stretched out of the brick wall before him. It practically blinded him. And yet—no matter how much he tried—he couldn't bring himself to stare away from it. His eyes were burning.

A feminine figure stood in the glare of the light. Her face was turned invisible by the burning brightness. She leaned a hand on her hip and gestured with the other.

"You kept him alive. How very noble of you."

Gary Sills panted.

Her voice had a touch of a British accent to it. She added: "You could have picked someone a pinch more young and fit for the job, ya know. Not this daft piece of shit."

Gary breathed: "Who....are.....you....."

"Give me the tapes."

Gary handed the VHS copies over without arguing. He watched himself in disbelief.

"Very good...," the girl took the tapes in her grasp. There was a whining sound....then another burning pulse. FLASH!!! Her hand exploded and shattered the VHS to burning embers that scattered to the floor.

Gary's lip quivered.

"What.....a-are you doing??"

The girl's body shrugged. "Merely scaring the birds away before they can be caged." A pause. "Let him go already."

There was an intense flash of blue light. Gary's body vibrated. Something aqua-green streaked out of him. The man sighed and fell to the hard ground below.

Out cold.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I woke up at daylight....," Gary shuddered and said. He bent over on the bench beside Glover and spoke: "....I was gone. The girl wasn't there anymore."

"Who was she talking to?"

Gary looked up. "I-I beg your pardon?"

"I'm sorry...just.....it almost seemed like she was talking to someone," Glover said. "........besides you."

A beat.

"Y-Yeah....just as I felt....," Gary sighed. "Maybe someone was standing behind me. An accomplice. I-I couldn't turn around and see for the life of me."

"So....she destroyed the tapes?"

Gary nodded.

"Did you see any sign of them when you woke up?"

"Sir...I ran out of there the soonest I could," Gary shuddered. "I didn't care so much about the VHS tapes. I never did. I would never have stolen them in the first place! You h-have to believe me!"

"................"

Gary sighed. He ran two shaking hands through his hair. "I'm afraid to show my face outside. It's hard enough to be here with you in this plaza. I'm afraid it'll happen again. I"ll lose control and start stealing things...."

"Why are you telling me this, Gary?"

"........," Glover bit his lip. "I.......I think you can help, Glover."

"Help you?"

"N-No....," Gary shook. "Not me. Nothing can help me."

"........"

"Those tapes were wanted for a reason. And I know you played a big part in filming them," Gary looked at Glover. "Your cameramen.....they aren't so good at keeping secrets. I think some of them rue the fact that you never did air whatever it was you filmed that day in July."

Glover glanced off.

Gary leaned forward. "This has got to do with....w-with Wyldecarde, doesn't it?"

Glover gave him a suspicious look. "How do you know that?"

".........," Gary reached into his pocket. He produced thin object. "I-I awoke with this.....in my pocket...."

"......," Glover reached forward and took the object from Gary's hands. He looked at it up close.

It was a razor-edged joker card. There was wear and tear on it...showing that the acrobatic host had used it to fling at someone or something.

"Turn it over...."

Glover did so.

There were words written on the back of it. In red ink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"'The game is not over. The head dealer still has a hand.'"

Glover held the playing card in one hand and the voice recorder in the other.

"Gary had no clue as to what it meant. And—to be frank—neither did I. But my curiosity was piqued."

Glover lowered the playing card back to the desk. He then picked up a map with a part of the East district highlighted.

"I kept Gary's story secret. The next day, I went on a drive with Avery to the lower part of Town. I had somehow coaxed the specifics of Gary's late night marathon out of him."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

One door slammed shut.

Then another.

Avery and Glover marched out of their limousine.

Avery seemed uneasy. He spun around and glanced both ways down the street. The neighborhood was lined to the brink with litter, paper bags, shopping carts, and broken glass. Dogs barked and sirens could be heard in the distance. It wasn't a good place to park a vehicle with a built-in wine cooler.

"Uhm.....might I ask why we're creatively committing suicide, sir?"

"I'm looking for something here...."

"What, exactly?"

Glover took a breath. "The bottom of the deck."

"Huh?"

"Just stick close to me. You've got more muscle."

"Uh.....okay."

Glover sauntered down the dirty alleyway. He glanced at the walls in the noonday Sun as he walked. Old red brick formed the layout of the structure. And the walking space was thin, just as he remembered from Gary Sills' account. The shadows in the alleyway increased, and soon they reached a dead end with a run-down door hanging over a set of concrete steps.

"I don't see no poker game here, sir."

Glover's eyes narrowed. He tilted his head up.

There indeed was a lamp there. But the bulb was completely shattered.

"Hmmm.....," the old journalist blinked. "The lamp's shattered."

"Is that supposed to mean anything, sir?"

Glover spun about. "Do you.....see anything?"

"Sir?"

"On the ground. Perhaps the remains of a VHS tape or two?"

Avery scanned the concrete below them as well. The two men paced around liked chickens looking for feed. But not a scrap of desired junk could be found.

"I'm....um.....getting nothing....," Avery muttered.

"......," Glover gazed towards the door. A beat. He walked over towards it. He tried the knob.

"Um....sir?" Avery asked, a bit confused.

"It's stuck....," Glover grunted. He pushed against the door a bit. "I bet whoever was here before had a stake in this building."

Avery walked up. "Isn't that trespassing?"

"This building is _condemned_, Avery," Glover said. "We'd only be half breaking the law by walking in."

"I don't like the sound of th—"

"Push the door open, Avery."

"But why??!?!"

Glover smirked. "Because you're a hell of a lot younger and stronger than me."

"...........," Avery sighed. He brushed Glover to the side. "I'm no Indiana Jones, but I suppose some muscle could do the trick."

"Or empty lungs."

"Huh?"

Glover looked off depressingly. "Never mind. Just do your job."

Avery gritted his teeth and--

WHAM!!

--forced the door open with his shoulder.

_Creeeeeeak._

The wooden door gave way.

".......," Glover peered in. He stepped forward a space or two. Avery filed in behind him.

The interior was dusty. Dark. And devoid of any sort of life. Wooden boards covered windows on the far side. Sunlight filtered in through thin cracks in the wall, casting a fine-toothed-comb of bright yellow on the soiled floor. Wooden furniture populated the space in random spots. Shredded bits of paper and cardboard suggested a hasty retreat of questionable materials. And as Glover trained his eyes upon the scene, he took notice of rectangular shaped spots where the dust had been pushed aside. And in such spots, the ground was remarkably clean.

"Someone's been in here recently....," the journalist said.

"What do you mean, sir?"

Glover pointed. "Those clean areas in the dust. They look like a t.v. or computer or something was just there."

"T.V.?? What are you talking ab—"

The two men noticed the electric outlet in the wall. A very fresh-looking and clean outlet.

".............oh. Uhm........that's wyrd."

Glover glanced at a moldy pile of papers beneath a nearby table. He walked over to it.

Avery stood behind, scratching his head. "Why would a condemned, abandoned building have a fresh source of electricity in it? Especially one this old?"

Glover didn't respond. He reached his hand and brushed the top piece of the moldy pile away. To his surprise, something contrastingly clean rested beneath the dust mountain. A manila folder of sorts. The material of the folder was immaculate. Like it had been processed barely the day before. Glover couldn't help but think it was placed there for someone to find.

"What do you have there, sir?"

"I'm not sure...," Glover turned it over. The closed flap had a phrase written in crimson ink. _'Chime of the Red'_ "But it's gotten my attention."

"I hope it's enough attention for one day...," Avery sweat. "I've got a really bad feeling about this. I think we should get out of here—"

_Creeeeak._

"......"

Both men looked over.

The door to the alleyway behind them had shut on its own.

"........."

Glover blinked. "...........huh."

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!_ Suddenly, bullets streamed explosively through the wooden frame of the door. CR-CR-CRACK!!!

"Get down!!!" Avery plowed himself and Glover to the floor.

P-PING!! CLANG!!! TH-THUNK!!!

Bullets ricocheted across the wall and tabletop beyond the two men.

Glover coughed and hacked and wheezed.

Avery gritted his teeth, slithered forward beneath the invading bulletfire, and dragged the middle-aged journalist towards a door on the far side of the room. "Move!! Move!!!"

Glover was dragged along. He looked down between his legs. The manila envelope was left behind on the floor. He reached for it--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

P-P-PING!!

Glover flinched. Flecks of wood and plaster showered his body. He snatched the envelope and scurried along with Avery towards the door. Blind bullet-fire trailed their heels.

CR-CR-CR-CRACK!!!!!

"Nnngh!!" Avery hopped up and kicked the door down.

WHACK!!!

Sunlight exploded in.

"Go!!" Avery shouted as he and Glover ducked into the outside world.

The wind felt freezing against their already shocked skin as they desperately dashed down the sidewalk, practically teleported through the doors to the limo, and screeched off down the road.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Looking back....I'm amazed that no cops pulled us over...," a tired Glover spoke into his voice recorder. "Avery and I were hardly in our right mind then in there. It's not every day that you get violently shot at. Now I'd seen my fair share of frightening stuff as of late. A violent altercation in a subway.....Wyldecarde's 'confrontation' with the Titans....and then the Puppet King's abduction of myself and scores of other innocent citizens. But poor Avery...he was not used to anything overtly dramatic. So I gave him the next few days off to collect his cool. I knew he had many questions to ask. Like why the Hell we got involved in random gunfire. But the truth is...I had no answer for him. But I thought that I was soon about to. Because—as harrowing as that situation was—I did not emerge empty-handed..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat in his office. He took a deep breath. He peered over at the knob to his door ten feet away. It was locked. He looked back down at his desk. The manila envelope waited for him patiently. He swiftly untied it and opened the flap with "_'Chime of the Red'"_ on it.

Inside the envelope were three paper-clipped groups of papers. The papers were random schematics, data sheets, time tables, computer reports. Scores of numbers and zeroes appeared on them...the most common of which was quite obviously the four digit string: "0321".

Glover carefully separated each of the three groups and examined them individually. He found that there actually was some text. Just enough—in fact—to provide three identities to the different groups of documents.

"City Drug Rehab Ward." "City Power Grid." "City Zoo."

The journalist's eyes narrowed. He shuffled through the groups of papers and focused on the one for the City Power Grid. He found the page with most text on it. It was a progress report of sorts. It listed a specific date in late July and detailed a power failure that happened in the wee hours of the morning. The time exactly.....3:21 a.m.

"..........."

Glover glanced over at the side of his office where he kept extensive notebooks of local contacts and phone listings. He rubbed his chin in thought.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The director of overnight technical operations in the management of the City Power Grid is a woman by the name of Dawn Graham. Ms. Graham was working the early morning shift of July twenty-first, two thousand and four. When I called her and asked her about any technical malfunctions at that particular time, she seemed very nervous over the phone. Regardless, she gladly called me in to visit her at the management facility of City Power. There was a feeling of...bitter irony in how willing she was to accept my inquiries at that particular moment. That's when I started to realize that I was onto something that—in spite of its eerie ambiguity—was destined to suck me in until I found out something so significant that it'd effect the entire City as we all know it. It turned out to be a happy obsession. I completely forgot about my medical test results.....much less the sounds of the bullets that had streaked over my head just the day before..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Please, Mr. Glover. Sit down. This has been...quite the stressful kind. Please don't mind the shape of my office."

"Not at all, in fact I think it looks nice," Glover said......then discreetly shoved off a pile of shredded paper from the chair as he sat down. He faced Ms. Graham over a desk piled sky-high with folders and disorganized spreadsheets. "You seem quite......busy....."

Ms. Graham, a woman too old for her youth practically pulled at her stringy hair as she panted and replied: "You must understand....ever since we've tried inputting the latest security subroutine into our Net, things have been hectic. Breakneck speed. That sort of stuff, you know."

"Um....I-I called you because—"

"A glitch."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're asking about the glitch, aren't you? Everybody's asking about the glitch! It's about time someone in the media took a look into it!! Believe me, sir. Normally I'd run from you. But at this point, I think the truth should be made known. Freaky things are happening. And no better can you see it than in our system."

"Uh....okay....," Glover nodded. "Ahem. I-I found some printouts. I can't tell you where I got them. But believe me—I didn't do much to get them. Er...that is to say, I didn't ask anyone to make these printouts that I found. I just happened upon them. But now that I have, they caught my attention. You mention a 'glitch', huh? Well...tell me. What happened on July twenty-first? At twenty-one minutes after three, no less...?"

The woman leaned back and folded her arms. "Well...to put it simply...there was a City-wide power outage."

"There was??" Glover asked.

"It was in the middle of the night. Most of the population didn't notice it. And it lasted for only fifteen minutes, approximately."

"Then what is the big concern?" Glover asked.

Ms. Graham replied: "Our system was infected. And, sir, when the City's Power Grid is infected...that's a very severe thing. Someone had somehow polluted the digital network we were using. In order to do that, she or he had to break through ten separate security barriers."

"A virus?"

"A terribly strong one, if it was," Ms. Graham shuddered. "But it's not so much the potency of the glitch as it was the nature of it that has had me—and all my co-workers—on edge."

Glover leaned forward. "Care to explain?"

"..........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was a beeping chime.

The door to the control room unlocked.

Dawn Graham stepped hurriedly in, stringing her keycard back around her neck.

"What's the status?"

Four or five workers scurried around an array of controls, keyboards, and switches inside a twenty foot by twenty foot room lined with glowing screens displaying the City's power layout.

A worker replied: "We started getting reports of power cutoffs from sub-grids twenty-nine through fifty-two. Backup reserves are working...for now. It's just a matter of time before we'll have to reboot the system and reset the core distribution."

"Damn....are we that desperate?"

"Look at the schematics yourself," another worker handed Ms. Graham a still-warm printout.

The woman scanned them with her eyes.

A beat.

She placed the sheets down.

"Do it."

"Hoo boy, here we go."

"Concentrate, everyone. Let's make it just like practice," Ms. Graham strolled over to a chair in front of the master controls and typed a keystroke. "All right. Remember, we do this one step at a time. First we destabilize the auxiliary banks, then lower the energy distribution to the central branches. Follow my lead by the word. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Right."

"Got it."

"Good," the director nodded. "On my mark. Let's get this right, people."

She fingered the controls.

The time read 0321 hours.

"Countdown in T-Minus 10....9...8....7...." she began.

"Ms. Graham!!"

"My-My terminal!!"

The woman looked over. "What is it, John??"

The worker gestured emphatically at his computer.

Murmurs.

Gasps.

Graham stood up and craned her neck.

The computer monitor was flickering madly. It glowed from white to yellow to red and stayed there.

"Shit! Mine too!!"

"What's going on?!!?"

"It's....it's some kind of bug!!"

"Quick! Shut it down!"

"I can't!!"

"I've lost secondary controls to the grid!!"

"We're losing the City!!"

"Ms. Graham, what should we do—"

"I'm shutting it all down!' the woman exclaimed.

"But....that'll cut off all the power from the local facili—"

"We don't know what we're dealing with here. It could be a virus. It could be a deficient program. Whatever the case is, I can't let it permanently damage the mainfra—"

"Look!!!"

_ZZZZZTTT!!!_

Sparks flew from the first monitor that broke down.

The worker jumped back. "Jeez!! What the Hell?!?!"

"A power surge?!?!"

"Impossible! Even we don't have the controls to—"

"SOMEONE GET ME A FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!"

_ZZZZZZZTT!!! ZZZZZZT!!!_

Two more monitors exploded.

Ms. Graham gasped. She glanced at her screen as her hands madly keystroked to shut everything down. But her ministrations froze in mid-action. Her screen had crashed into a DOS prompt with a red background and even redder text scrolling down a mile a minute. She couldn't discern the words.

FLASH!!!

Workers gasped.

Red light splashed across the room.

Ms. Graham looked up, panting.

The huge visual displays across the wall were short-circuiting. Dotted lights on the power grid map disappeared one by one until three separate strings of jointed lights remained—flickering—and roughly spelling out the word: '_RED'_. There was a brief but nightmarish clatter of every printer in every building printing at the same time, followed by a final flash of red and more flying sparks and....

Darkness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It was like a scene out of _Poltergeist_," Dawn Graham murmured. She ran a shaky hand through her stringy hair and refocused her gaze on Blake Glover over the desk. "Everything sorta.....came 'alive' then 'died' right before us. Thankfully, one computer hadn't.....er....'exploded', and we were able to access the basic program of the power grid and successfully reboot the energy distribution before the City had an official 'blackout'. It could have been a lot worse, despite the freakiness of it all. Again, it was at night...and places like the Hospital and Prison had auxiliary power to rely on. That was during the lull in crime here in the City. The Teen Titans were absent for about two to three weeks and the City was being guarded instead by Green Arrow and his sidekick Speedy. There wasn't much to worry about....unless you were one of us cooped up in that creepy place that early morning..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's back online....," John said.

Dawn Graham wiped her brow. "Okay....just what happened?"

"I can't run a diagnostic right now," another worker said. "But maybe I can run upstairs and try one of Department Four's terminals? Surely they're back up and running at this point. Maybe we can trace the problem back to a hacker or something."

"What makes you think this was a hacker's doing? Maybe it was a bug in an old program. Y2K four years late....heh."

"Guys...take a look at this!"

Graham and the others wandered over to another worker leaning over a string of printouts from one machine.

"Is this wyrd or what?"

"Lemme see....," Graham took the ribbon of paper in her grasp. She put on tiny reading glasses and narrowed her eyes.

The printout was a constant chain from top to bottom of _'REDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDRED'_.

"........," a chill ran over Graham's body.

"Over here!!"

The group looked over.

John stood by another spool. "It's the same thing over here!"

"And here."

"And here, man."

"What's up with that?"

Graham shuddered. She looked over the printout again.

It seemed to hiss at her.

'_REDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDREDRED'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat in his office.

He brushed the City Power Grid to the side.

He held up the printouts from the City Zoo next.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dawn Graham's account only confused me more," Glover spoke into the recorder as he sat in his apartment. "I kept trying to look for a connection ahead of time. I was too eager for a pattern. So far, the only thing in common between the Power Grid's glitch, Gary Sills' ordeal with the VHS tapes in the alleyway, and Avery's and my near death experience was this heavy, over-empowering sense of eeriness. All that feeling did was push me along. I felt a cold, cold fear clawing up my throat. I almost dreaded having to take this thing to the zoo as well."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I could have sworn one of you local journalists did a cover story about what's been happening here lately," spoke Gionvanni Gent, the chief zookeeper. He lead Blake Glover—after closing hours—down an electrically lit path beyond the central cages and exhibits. A gated trail lead them to a portable building that served as the Zoo's main office. Once inside, Mr. Gent showed Glover a chair to sit in. "This is the sort of thing that brings people to the Zoo nowadays. Drama. Craziness."

Glover smiled ever so slightly. "Nobody can ask for too much drama."

Gent fetched a plastic notebook from a fresh spot in a nearby bookshelf. He marched back over and held it before the journalist. "I suppose I must warn you......are you squeamish?"

"My digestive system is an old thing, Mr. Gent," Glover spoke. "It's learned to handle anything."

"......," the zookeper blinked. "Well....I sure as Hell hope you're right." He held the notebook down for Glover to take. "Here....take a gander."

".....," Glover bowed his head. He opened the first of the page and gazed on what turned out to be the plastic sheathe of a photo album.

Glover soon wished he hadn't opened the book to begin with.

He visibly grimaced. "Wh-What........is _that_."

"That....," Gent uttered, pointing to the first Polaroid on the overleaf. "....is what's left of a _lemur's_ digestive track."

Glover stared at a photo taken of the City Zoo's lemur cage. The frame caught sight of the darkly lit, back corner of the enclosure. What looked like a ball of rolled-up fur rested in the darkness. But it was spotted and strewn with tiny red ropes that stained the fluffy fur in crimson. A few inches away, a meaty rag of red lay in the dirt.

"My god....did....did another animal get inside the cage or something?" Glover gulped. "That's horrible...."

"Another animal did do that to the lemur indeed," Gent nodded. "The only thing is...," he scratched the back of his neck. "It wasn't another _species_."

"........," Glover looked up from the chair. "You mean to say....the other lemurs did this?"

Gent nodded. "Overnight. Nearly two months ago. Late July. One of the security guards heard a terribly high-pitch squeal...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Morgan Knox ran across the grounds.

He panted.

He rested a palm to the hilt of a gun at his side.

His feet crunched through the mulch in between paths.

He stopped dead before the lemur cage...a fifteen-foot tall, cylindrical thing with a pale lamp hovering above. A thin amber glow illuminated halfway through the metal bars in a sickly manner. Things were hauntingly quiet by the time the guard arrived.

"Okay....who's here screwing with the animals?!?!" Morgan barked. A beat. "Show yourself!!"

Silence.

He kept one hand resting on his gun. His other grasped the flashlight and aimed it into the cage.

Click.

A thin, yellow spotlight splashed through the bars. A broken circle appeared on the other side, rippling gently across tree branches, a mulch-covered floor, a pale white wall, and then settling towards the circle.

Morgan paused. He narrowed his eyes.

Something red, pulpous, and glistening twitched in the corner. Gray fur twitched in the cold wind.

Morgan exhaled. He bit his lip, swallowed, and walked straight up to the metal bars for a better look--

_**CL-CLANK!!!**_

A lemur with bulging eyes pressed itself up against the bars. It howled with a blood-soaked, furred mouth. _**"SKRIIIII!!!!! SKRIIIIII!!!!! SKRIIIIIII!"**_

"DAAH! Jeez!!!" Morgan jumped back, the flashlight in his grasp shaking.

_**CLANK!!! CL-CLANK!!!**_

Two more lemurs banged up against the inside of the bars. They shrieked with pulsing eyes. Thin, furred claws covered in red stretched out through the spaces between the bars.

"..........," Morgan panted. He looked past the mad creatures at the pulpous thing in the corner.

_**"SKRIIII!!!"**_ the three lemurs hopped down. In the yellow light from Morgan's electric torch, their shadowy forms bounded over to the corner. All three began to rip, tear, and pound upon the dead brother's carcass as they had been doing long before the guard got there. _**"SKRIIII!! SKRIII-III!!!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Morgan resigned from his post that very night. Heh. Yellow bastard," Gent smirked. "The next two guards we hired noticed similar things. All happening overnight. But with different animals." He pointed at the photo album in Glover's grasp. "They were all documented in there. It wasn't so hard after a pattern formed."

Glover gazed down and reluctantly turned the page. Each open sheathe of the notebook contained a relatively identical looking blob of shredded flesh, blood, and fur. But each was labeled differently...be it "raccoon cage" or "marmoset pin" or "sea otter pool".

"For one thing...each one of them is a mammal that died," Gent said. "And all done by their fellow cage mates. It started happening so fast—and one at a time too. Never two different cages or pens at once. Only one species at a time overnight. We started getting desperate to stop it. Then someone got the bright idea to put all the animals in separate cages. Ya know...keep them safe from each other. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And the last time it happened, it was the prairie dogs that were 'chosen'. We know this because the next morning we found every prairie dog dead in their cage but one. Three out of five of them ripped their limbs and heads apart against the metal bars trying to get at the single one's throat. Damndest thing I ever saw."

Glover shuddered as he turned to a page that showed four cages in a row with all but one prairie dog reduced to half-bloody meat.

"You....uhm....," the journalist fought his lunch down and gazed up at the zookeeper. "You say this all happened overnight?"

"Yeah....just different nights."

"It wouldn't happen to have been.......a specific _time_ overnight, would it?"

".....," the zookeeper scratched his head. He swallowed....then said: "Well....actually....yes...."

Glover's eyes narrowed. "Three in the morning perhaps?"

"Nope. More like twenty after three."

"........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover walked in late that night into his office. He flicked on a light and tossed his briefcase onto the desktop.

He slumped into his chair....and sighed.

"..........."

He gazed at the manila envelope on his desk. He eyed the two clumps of files. One on the City Power Grid. The other on the Zoo. He bit his lip and slid both into the envelope. But when he gazed at the third file, his attention made him freeze. The journalist's eyes narrowed on the words reading: 'City Drug Rehab Ward'. Again he glanced at the digital string '0321'. He groaned.

_Riiiiing! Riiiing!_

Glover jumped. He looked to his desk phone.

An outside call was coming in.

_Riiiiing! Riiiing!_

Glover eyed his watch.

'12:53 am'

_Riiiing! Riiing!_

Glover took a deep breath.

He picked it up.

"........Hello?"

_"M-Mr. Glover?"_

"Yes. To whom am I speaking with?"

_"This is Dr. Schafield. Dr. Schafield with the City Drug Rehabilitation Ward."_

Glover's heart stopped momentarily. He glanced meltingly down at the clump of files in his grasp....then back into empty spce.

"Wh-What...er....I-I mean....how can I help you?"

_"I didn't expect to actually hear from you at this late an hour. I was just going to leave a message. Actually....I'm rather desperate right now...."_

"Desperate? How do you mean, Dr. Schafield?"

"_I've heard that you've been making rounds, Mr. Glover. Visits to places where 'odd' things have been happening. Don't be startled. I've actually met with Dawn Graham and Gionvanni Gent on City Council meetings. So I've not had to search hard far to hear of your inquiries."_

"How can I interest you, Mr. Schafield?"

There was a pause on the other line. A pause of thought and uncertainty.

Then....

"_Could you possibly spare a visit to our facility?"_

"This late an hour??"

"_By all means, if you're too tired or indisposed, I shall not force you to—"_

"N-No....I'm just curious....why would you need to see me this late?"

"_Because it's only late at night when it happens, sir."_

Glover's eyes narrowed. "When _what_ happens??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

With a metallic ring, the double doors to the psychiatric ward of the City Drug Rehabilitation Center opened. Dressed in white, Dr. Schafield and two orderlies walked along with Glover down the checkerboard-floor hallway. It was lined with doors to individual cells. Everything felt terrifically 'white'. Glover felt like he was going insane looking at it all....and smelling the sterility in the air.

"I have worked for over twenty-five years in providing aid to drug addicts and psychotics in this City's rehabilitation programs....," Schafield calmly uttered as they marched down the corridor. "And never have I been prepared for this..."

"Wh-What exactly is 'this'?" Glover asked. He glanced up at a clockface on the pure-white, cinderblock wall as they passed. Both the hour and the minute hand were barely past '3'. It was still dark outside.

"The cells of this hallway are reserved for our most extreme cases of psychotic episodes. Now...over the last five years, modern therapy has greatly reduced the number of people we've had to put inside these cells. The record stands at 'four' for two years ago. But over the last two months...we've had to resort to an unbelievable increase in patients utilizing these spaces."

"Like how many?"

"Eighteen."

Glover's eyes widened. "Eighteen???"

"It is most troubling," Schafield said with a long face. "Especially considering that there's a connection between all of them."

"A connection?"

Schafield shuffled to a stop in front of a cell door that was still open. Inside, two orderlies were fastening a twitching and sweating patient to a safety bed with leather straps all over his body and limbs.

"Every patient that we have to place in here is a drug addict. Specifically, a drug addict to Dragonflare."

"Dragonflare....," Glover murmured aloud. His face brightened a bit. "Yes.....y-yes, I remember that substance. It was connected to the ambiguous legacy of 'Dagger'."

Schafield nodded. "'Dagger' remains to be a proven entity. But Dragonflare is very real. And—consequently due to the nature of the drug's hallucinogenic properties—the psychotic episodes caused by the drug are very real. Real to the people involved. But typically, Dragonflare side effects are random and unique to each individual. It's utterly impossible by scientific understanding for any group of random Dragonflare addicts to....to experience the same horror."

"As in......?" Glover raised a curious eyebrow.

".......," Schafield turned and motioned for the two orderlies to hurry it up.

They workers did so. They fastened the patient tightly and walked out of the cell. They shut the door to the padded room behind them and locked it.

Glover found himself strolling past the other cell doors. He glanced through the criss-crossing wire hatches of the windows to the doors and saw a patient in each room strapped to a table. Every single one of them was twitching and fighting against the restraints. Some uttered curse words while others sobbed incoherent words of terror.

"Right now....are they all experiencing the 'horror'?" Glover asked.

Schafield appeared to be suddenly obsessed with his digital watch. "No...," he shook his head without looking. "They are resting right now...."

"?????" Glover gave the man a pathetic look. "You call THAT resting?"

"Just wait...."

"What're you looking at your watch fo-----," Glover's voice trailed off. His lips pursed. He glanced up at the wall clock.

At precisely that same time, Schafield spoke: "And.......three twenty a.m."

Glover looked through the cell windows.

The orderlies gazed from afar...their eyes tired.

Schafield was silent.

At precisely the same time, each of the eighteen patients stopped squirming and gasping and—for the most part—breathing. Their eyes went wide under sweaty brows and their mouths were clenched shut. They lay back silently on their chair. Still as boards. Quiet as rocks. Glover could feel his heart hear his lungs wheezing.

"And...............," Schafield fingered his digital watch. "..........thirty second past....."

As if on cue, every body slowly began to flex and rise up against the leather straps. It was a gradual process....like the loading of a rocket on its launcher. Every body was trying desperately to sit up straight. In the last half a minute left, every single addict mutely inflated their lungs and stared in absolute, beady-eyed horror at some monstrosity beyond the cinderblock and padded walls.

Glover took a shuddering breath. He looked at the patients....at Schafield...at the clock...then at the patients again.

Schafield tapped his digital clock once....twice....and he breathed: "3:21 am."

"_**REDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

Eighteen mouths exploded.

Eighteen pairs of eyes clenched shut.

Eighteen brows sweat.

Eighteen lungs emptied.

Eighteen patients in eighteen cells with eighteen voices screamed the long-winded word.

All at the same time.

It filled the thin, checkerboard hallway like the acoustics of an opera house filtered through a glass amplifier being dropped on concrete. It was the sort of thing to explode one's heart up into his eardrums.

Glover was so mesmerized and horrified at once that he didn't realize until the last second that Schafield was visibly counting down five of his fingers and—

"............_**.."**_

All eighteen voices cut off.

All eighteen bodies slumped back against the bed.

All eighteen lungs collapsed.

All eighteen patients went unconscious....relaxed in dead slumber.

The unified scream had lasted a full sixty seconds.

"3:22," Schafield uttered. He and the orderlies numbly looked Glover's way. "A full minute....every night...for the last two months."

Glover's lip quivered. He shook. He shivered. He murmured: "Wh-Why haven't you t-told anyone?"

Schafield seemed to suddenly lose his cool as he swallowed and shuddered forth: "Mr. Glover....it took me four weeks to tell my _Priest_ about this...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"According to the doctors there, the patients inexplicably lose six hundred calories during each 'scream' alone....," Glover explained into the voice recorder. "Schafield is forced to scrounge around for extra IVs to feed the addicts during the daytime, only for them to hurt themselves with the screaming every night. At exactly the same time too. It wasn't easy to sleep for a few days after making the visit to that ward. Not so much because of the eeriness of it all as it was for the sharp desire to find out _more_. Things were happening all over the City at the same time early in the morning and in a haunting fashion. But still, I couldn't see a connection with the stolen Wyldecarde tapes or the playing card I had been given by Gary Sills. 'The game is not over. The head dealer still has a hand'. So, I swiftly did a strict no-no thereafter. I went to the police."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Glover, for the last time...I have no friggin' 'last time'. I don't even have 'first time'!" Decker growled. "If that's not enough of a clue that I'm busy, then go run outside and make love to a telephone pole cuz that's gonna produce far better results than any damn interview with me."

"This isn't an interview," Glover said, helplessly following the police Commissioner around the hazy police department. Officers and clients filed about and worked loudly around them at multiple stations of business. "Don't you understand? I'm not doing a story. I'm trying to understand something!"

"Understand what?!?! That power outages, dead lemurs, and crackheads all have something in common??" Decker grumbled. "I'm currently giving my damndest to cover all bases in the City's downtown as we speak!! For over twenty-four hours, fifteen square City Blocks were covered in absolute darkness when Dr. Light suddenly decided to show off his fart bomb. I've got looting incidents to investigate, property damage in the shopping mall and library and—"

"I understand that must be a great strain on you," Glover nodded. "But what I think I'm following is important!"

Decker paused long enough to give Glover a curious glare. "Since when were you ever someone to go on chivalric crusades, Glover?"

Glover took a deep breath. "I know I've been wrong about a lot of things in my career."

"I'd say."

Glover held his peace. "But....that doesn't stop me from wanting to—"

"What?? Confuse the situation more?? Forget it," Decker marched off. "Contact me when I'm not busy."

"And when will that be?!?!"

"WHEN I'M DEAD!!"

Glover sighed. He turned around and made way to exit the offices--

"Hello, Mr. Glover," spoke the lieutenant.

Glover jumped, a bit startled. He coughed, cleared his throat, and breathed easily. "G-Greetings. Sorry...you startled me."

"Quite a nasty cough you have there."

"Yes....well....to each is own. How can I help you?"

"Actually....," the lieutenant's eyes trailed on the background and then back to Glover. "I was thinking that I could help _you_."

Glover's eyes narrowed. "You'd be willing to answer some questions?"

The man nodded.

"But.....would Decker approve?"

"Truth is not in the hands of a man such as that," the lieutenant said. He smiled. "Mostly just a gun and a cup of coffee."

Glover grinned crookedly.

"Come....," the lieutenant motioned with his head. "Follow me."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So you're looking for some connection between these late night phenomena and 'Wyldecarde'??" the lieutenant asked. He was talking to Glover while nonchalantly filing things away in the police records.

Glover stood with his back to the door. He nodded. "The tapes that were stolen—that I nearly lost my neck for—were of Wyldecarde saving over a dozen citizens on and off the highway."

"And you never showed that to the public—"

"Wyldecarde asked me not to."

The lieutenant looked strangely at Glover.

Glover sighed. "Noir.....had other plans up his sleeves."

"Or an ace in his deck."

"Apparently. Slade is dead now."

A beat.

The lieutenant rummaged through a few files and spoke without looking: "And you say that Gary Sills stole the tapes....but did so without knowing it?"

"Exactly....and I'm inclined to believe that of him," Glover said. "That or the other possibility."

"What's that?"

"He's completely and utterly insane. As I'm slowly becoming," Glover coughed.

The lieutenant smirked. "But there was something of real importance in that abandoned building. You were shot at, right?"

"Yeah....by an assault rifle, I'd gather. My studies on gun proliferation filled me in on the sound and ballistics of various types of firearms. I'm pretty sure that was a high-calibre assault rifle that tried to end us."

"Not very easy to find these days," the lieutenant said. "Ever since the Slug and Reload incident months back, even gun stores in the City have been wary about selling large firearms. I think whoever attacked you could have been from outside. A foreigner."

Glover narrowed his eyes. "According to Gary Sills' story....the woman he met had a British accent. She was the one who took the VHS tapes and destroyed them." He gazed up. "Maybe....it was her?"

"Now that's a big assumption."

"I know. I'm no detective. I'm just a journalist."

"You're neither," the lieutenant said. "You're a mortal man desperate for answers to something that doesn't even have a question."

"......."

The lieutenant paused in what he was doing. He spun about and asked Glover: "Back to the 'red' and the screaming and the killer lemurs. You said this all happened at approximately the same time?"

"Yes," Glover nodded. "Around three in the morning."

"......when _exactly_."

Glover took a deep breath. "3:21 A.M."

"........," the lieutenant leaned back. "I think.....I-I think I might know a possible connection."

"With what?"

"Wyldecarde."

"Seriously?"

"As serious as I can contemplate it," the lieutenant replied. "It still keeps everything feeling.....well....supernatural."

".........," Glover stared.

"Come along....," the lieutenant closed the nearest cabinet and marched into an adjacent room. "Time that you see a VHS tape of our own."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The two men sat before an array of editing tools and t.v. monitors.

The lieutenant spoke while forwarding a grainy piece of footage. "Slade—as we found out after his death—was notorious for filming _everything_. He was a master at sticking hidden cameras and microphones all over the place. On the top of the Wayne Enterprise building. Inside the Titan Tower. Even the police department. His lairs would be set up with walls of huge monitors displaying any piece of the City that he so desired. And even his own lairs would have documentation thanks to camera devices. The freighter that he was on last during the carbonite bombings of the City is no less affected. Cameras were rolling as he abducted the Titans....and even when Wyldecarde killed him."

Glover's mouth dropped. "It was _Noir_ who killed Slade?"

"Why....yes....," the lieutenant glanced at the journalist. "I thought you would have come to that conclusion on your own."

".............."

"Anyways. The time of Slade's demise is visibly recorded. I warn you....this will be disturbing."

"To those who are disturbed, much is required to be more disturbed...," Glover croaked. He sighed. "Play it."

"Here goes."

-Tap.-

The footage was from a high-angle in the corner of the freighter's bridge. The naked-eyed image of a one-armed Noir was seen violently slicing his sword in and out of Slade, ripping his fingers off, slicing through his metal-mesh outfit to the flesh underneath. The Titans watched wearily from glowing chairs of torture in the distance. Jinx's body lay unconscious on the floor. A digital counter at the bottom right of the recording counted off the time down to the millisecond.

Glover bit his lip.

Noir's sword-swinging shoved Slade up to the bright, round window at the edge of the bridge. The villain's body stretched up. Noir ran in and shoved the full length of Myrkblade through the man's chest. There was a sickening pause as Noir leaned forward one-handed and held his blade through Slade's center. Then....Noir ripped the blade out. A fountain of red, red blood spurted upwards in Technicolor glory. Then Slade's carcass fell back through the glass window, shattering it, and plunged into the waters beyond.

-Tap.-

The bloody drama paused.

"Did you notice it?" the lieutenant asked.

Glover's lip quivered. "N-Notice what??"

The officer silently rewound the tape until it was during the first strikes of Noir's attack. He slowly played it forward. In slow motion, Noir hacked at Slade, slashed at Slade, and then charged in for the final blow. Myrkblade's length agonizingly sank into Slade's chest and skewered him. Slade's head lurched forward.

-Tap.-

"There....," the lieutenant froze the frame.

".........," Glover stared...but saw nothing.

"Look at the time."

And Glover did so...icily.

The counter at the bottom read: '0321 hours'.

Glover coughed uncontrollably.

The lieutenant spoke: "The fifth of July, twenty-one minutes after three in the morning....Slade's heart was pierced in two. There was no return to life from then on out. Slade....is dead."

"..............."

"I thought you'd might like to know that. But honestly....I don't know what the connection could be with all the stuff that has been happening."

".............," Glover's eyes trailed. He stared at the limp body of a pink-haired apprentice on the floor of the freighter's bridge. "Perhaps.....perhaps someone closer tied to fate would know...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat at the cold table in the small dark room. He spun the joker card around in his grasp. He made careful not to cut himself on the sharp edges.

The door clicked open.

Glover sat up. He quickly pocketed the card away.

A pair of guards led a petite prisoner to the other side of the table before Glover. They quietly sat Jinx down and retreated to the dark corners of the room.

Jinx had an ever-bitter look on her face. She burned through the table-top with her pink eyes. She didn't seem willing to give Glover so much as a stare.

The journalist leaned forward. "You were there when Slade was killed."

"................"

"I also here that the freighter you and the Titans were on nearly self-destructed," Glover spoke. "But at the last second, you saved everyone from a fiery doom with your hex."

"..............."

"Jinx.....I don't want anything from you but just a little help," Glover said. "I promise that I'm not about to write a story about anything on this."

"You're dying, aren't you?"

"......I-I beg your pardon?" Glover blinked.

Jinx looked up. "You're dying. I can sense it."

Glover breathed slowly.

Jinx's pink eyes narrowed. "Fate makes this invisible hissing sound when it's squeezed slowly from a mortal person's soul. You, Glover, are practically a siren. It's most deafening."

Glover swallowed. He spoke: "I know my days aren't long. The cancer....it is practically monstrous. But that's not why I'm here—"

"It isn't?" Jinx asked. "What do you believe in, Mr. Glover? Justice? Victory against evil? Isn't Slade's death enough for you?"

"Is it for you?"

"............," Jinx looked away.

Glover took a deep breath. "I've been on the outside, Jinx. And there people....lots of people who are starting to analyze the incidents of July Fifth in a new light. Much in the same way as they're trying to re-examine the robotic takeover of the City over half a year ago. Terra was used by Slade. And so were you, Jinx. You were manipulated and terrorized into your roles. Besides, you're only childr—"

"I was not manipulated," Jinx spat. She looked up. She bore an eerie grin. "I _liked_ Slade. Heaven help me, I would have let him have my children."

Glover bit his lip.

Jinx hissed: "But he bit me in the end. He bit me so hard...I bled all that was left of me to fight back anymore. I could have let the ship explode. Hecate knows....I wanted to die. But I took the painful path. I resisted fate...and let myself live. And everyday, I begin to regret it. But being alive is all the punishment I'll ever need. This prison....these cells....they are nothing to me. I could escape at any second."

"And you haven't because you're punishing yourself?" Glover asked. "Wasn't H.I.V.E. enough of a torture to someone as young and impregnable as you?"

Jinx's sneered: "Don't....talk....about.....H.I.V.E......"

Glover leaned back.

A beat.

"What do you want from me?" Jinx groaned.

"When Slade died...something else happened. Something bad. What was it?"

"I don't know what you mean...."

"You're a child of fate, Jinx," Glover leaned his head to the side and took a gamble. "Surely you've felt it. Increasing in volume every night. A frightening force at work twenty-one minutes after three in the morning. Marking a daily anniversary of the holocaust on July the Fifth."

"........," Jinx looked down at the table again.

Glover leaned forward. "Tell me.....what do you feel? What are you in tune to?"

"You tell me something first, Glover."

"???"

Jinx looked up. "What does the word 'Red' make you think about?"

Glover pursed his lips. "Blood." A beat. "Slade's blood?"

Jinx slowly shook her head. "It means far more than just that."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Red is the personification of something. Perhaps a spirit. Perhaps an angle of fate itself......"_

Glover stood in the back of Pier 4146. He rested a hand over his mouth and leaned against a wall as he watched the investigators gathered around the five bloody bodies, taking photographs.

Flash! Flash!!

Fl-Flash!!

Glover's eyes trailed up and eyed the word _'STROKE'_ splattered in thin red streams across the warehouse wasll.

"_Fate can be seen as the balance of life and death. And when you see the world of the Probable like me, Glover...you find that even supernatural essence has its own iconography."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the City Zoo—early in the morning—two keepers were discreetly gathering the ragged remains of a meaty animal's carcass and depositing it into a miniature body bag. They fought away the flies that had gathered overnight and looked over their shoulders as if to make sure no patrons had arrived to see the nasty ritual.

"_Life is a living thing on multiple layers. Life itself is most likely an entity all its own. And Life has a whim—like Fate itself. It leans to the sides of some colorful spectrum occasionally. And when it does so, our world senses it."_

The keepers finished depositing the body, zipped up the bag, and marched quickly out of the back of the pin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The giver of all life......that which constructs......is white......"_

Dawn Graham was busy directing computer experts around the array of systems monitoring the City's power grid. She took a moment to sip a shaky cup of coffee and gather what was left of her wits. She glanced at the huge City layout at the far end of the small room and took a shuddering breath.

"_White stands for Creation. God the Father. Brahma. Whatever. It's the energy of life force that still courses through our arteries from the beginning of time till we grow old and die......like you."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Schafield wrote on a clipboard, watching a lounge full of resting and silently gazing patients through a one-way mirror. A few doctors at his side bickered about procedural ways to cure the former Dragonflare addicts of their nightly trauma. Nobody was going anywhere.

_"Black is Balance. Like Vishnu or perfect adherence to the Tao. It's the acceptance of Fate in all of its positives or negatives. Black is everywhere......like the background of a Baroque painting masterpiece. It's what we all know is around us but fail to recognize because we're so used to it but cling to White instead."_

Schafield paused in writing. He gazed to the floor, hidden in the shadows. He sighed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The soonest Glover returned to his apartment one day, he had a coughing fit. He left the apartment door open and stumbled across the way to where his oxygen tank was. He desperately grabbed the mask, planted it over his face, and turned the handle.

"_Red............"_

Glover was momentarily dizzy.

"_Red........................"_

He caught a good whiff of air and filled his lungs. He relaxed, slumping back in a chair and panting.

"_Red is the color of Destruction. Shiva, the Grim Reaper, Murphy's Law. It's what awaits us all in the endless harvest of souls. Each and every one of us is going to die. Time frames it and Fate dictates it. Red stands for the ravenous black hole on the opposite side of the spectrum from White. In due time, Red catches up with us and consumes us and burns us into oblivion. And the energy we all once had and shared is exhausted into nothingness......further dissipating the universe into a gigantic thin line of empty space."_

Glover lowered the mask and breathed naturally. He leaned his head back towards the ceiling and sighed.

_Riiiiing! Riiiiing!_

Glover's eyes opened.

_Riiiing! Riiing!_

He groaned. He got up from his chair and stumbled over to the home line.

_Riiiing! Riii—click!_

"Hello?...........Lieutenant?..........What..........Y-You're serious??.......I.....I.....Of c-course. I-I'm on my way. Thank you."

Glover dropped the receiver down, regathered his belongings, and stormed back out the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that night—after the sickly viewing—Glover and the Lieutenant walked along the docks outside of Pier 4146. The cold waters of early fall lapped up against the concrete sides while the police lights strobed in the background.

"I'm sorry if that was too gruesome for you...," the Lieutenant uttered. "I asked you to come because I think this may have some relevance to your search. I tend to not let stuff like that phase me anymore. I suppose all of us in the department have been rather blasé about death since the Titans took Viper down."

"I had to see it....though....I'm not sure exactly _how_ it's aided me...."

"There was some evidence at the scene that you might find interesting.....chiefly this," the Lieutenant held up a printout.

Glover blinked. "You're letting me see it—"

"Just look."

Glover obeyed. He held the paper out in front of him and squinted his eyes. It wasn't easy to read at night. Especially at his age.

"That was a note found written and laid on the ground just outside the pool of blood from the six bodies."

Glover's eyes traced the words.

'_By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive.'_

"How poetic....," Glover slurred.

"And this was found on the other side of the note....," the lieutenant handed him another printout.

Glover took the sheet. He read the grainy copy. One word.

'_Aviary'._

"Um....the Hell?"

"It gets wyrder," the lieutenant said. "You remember seeing a single letter carved into the skin of each bloody victim?"

"Y-Yes...."

"Well I have them here listed....in order of when you see the victims' bodies from left to right as you enter the warehouse...," the Lieutenant read off from a list. "'T...R...V...G...K...J...'"

"'T, R, V, G, K, J??'"

The lieutenant nodded.

Glover looked at both copied-halves of the note in his two hands and then at the paper in the lieutenant's hand. "I am completely and utterly confused....."

".......," the lieutenant stared off.

"S-Sir??"

The officer handed him two things. One, the copy of the letters. Two....a manila envelope.

"Don't open it until you're somewhere alone," the lieutenant said, walking off.

"But...sir! What's it mean—"

"It means that this wasn't the _first_," the lieutenant pointed at Pier 4146 surrounded by squad cars as he walked off.

A chill fell ran down Glover's spine.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover sat alone in his office late that night.

He had only one desklamp on.

It filled the room with a deep, amber glow.

He opened the manila envelope and slid out a clump of folders.

His eyes scanned the material in his hands.

"'Gotham City......September Twenty-Ninth....Two Thousand and Four....'"

He ruffled through a few documents.

"'Outer docks of Gotham Bay.....Pier 7123.......discovered at 4:12 in the afternoon.....'"

His hands shuffled through another sheet....and he came across a photo.

".............."

Six bodies lay in a puddle of blood before an inner warehouse wall. The blood formed a semi-circle on the floor around the bodies and then splashed up along the wall in swishing sawgrass strokes. A frame of dried blood stretched left and up and formed an eight-foot-long rectangle. A half-triangle of sorts stretched up along the right of the 'frame', seemingly incomplete. In the pale center of the red layout, a word was formed in crimson lines: 'D-E-A-T-H'.

Glover's lips parted.

"It's......It's almost identical!"

A beat.

He flipped through to another page.

He saw a series of letters, presumably from the victims' skin carvings:

'T...R...V...G...K...T...'

"Only off by one letter....," Glover murmured, eyeing the last 'T' in the arrangement.

A beat.

He nervously flipped to another page.

Indeed...he found printouts of two halves of a scrap of paper.

The first side read:

'_In order for the Sky to turn red, the Earth must bleed.'_

A beat.

He flipped to the copy of the other side of the note.

Indeed, it was one word:

'_Red'_.

"..........."

Glover pulled out the papers that the lieutenant had given him from the Pier 4146 scene.

_'Aviary.'_

He glanced back at Pier 7123.

'_Red.'_

A beat.

"What is 'Aviary Red'?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx blinked. "Excuse me?"

"What does it mean?" Glover asked. "'Aviary Red'?"

Jinx did something eerily which she hadn't done in a long time.

She giggled.

A pink glow formed in her eyes.

The two guards in the back of the room shifted uncomfortably.

Jinx stopped giggling. She cleared her throat and leaned back with an amused smile.

"Aviary Red....that's rich..."

"I....I'm confused...," Glover sweatdropped.

"As well you should be," Jinx folded her petite arms. "Cuz it's 'Red Aviary'. It's always been."

Glover's eyes narrowed. "Do you know what happened at the Piers? Do you know why?"

"All I know is that Fate has been leaning towards one end of the spectrum lately...," Jinx slurred.

Glover blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Power Grid shorted out.

Bloody lemurs shrieked and jumped around.

Dragonflare addicts screamed at the top of their lungs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Red......," Glover murmured. "Destruction...."

Jinx slowly nodded.

"But....why?"

"I am not one to dictate the whims of fate....," Jinx said. She smiled coldly. "I merely obey it." A beat. She looked aside depressingly. "I......I-I have learned the price of trying to control it. For it has always controlled me."

Glover took a deep breath. "H.I.V.E. took a lot out of you, didn't they—"

"I said DON'T MENTION THAT WORD!!!" CLAMP!!! Jinx's fist slammed into the table.

Glover shook.

The two guards placed their hands on the girl's shoulders.

She panted...panted....panted...and relaxed. "I.....I-I don't want to talk anymore...."

".......," Glover stood up. "I understand. Fairwell, Jinx."

He turned and walked towards the door.

"Glover...."

The journalist paused. He turned and looked over his shoulder.

Jinx hugged herself as she stood up and was led away. "If the earth bleeds...and the sky is red....where is there for the birds to go?"

"........."

And she was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Gary Sills' lip quivered._

"What.....a-are you doing??"

The girl's body shrugged in the blinding light. "Merely scaring the birds away before they can be caged." A pause. "Let him go already."

And Gary collapsed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover's eyes looked past the roadsigns and streetlights ahead of him as he drove home that night.

He gripped the wheel to his sports car and sighed. His mind full.

"_Red Aviary........."_

He stopped at an intersection, waited, then cruised along.

"_In order for the Sky to turn red, the Earth must bleed."_

He passed a homeless person at a bus stop. The man was looking through garbage.

The journalist's eyes momentarily trailed.

"_By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive."_

Glover prepared to drive up an onramp and take the highway under nightcover to his apartment.

"_Why is Destruction on the rise??"_

FLASH!!!!!

A blinding orb of light exploded in front of him.

"Shit!!!" Glover swerved wildly, thinking he was hitting an oncoming truck in its headlights.

SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!!

The sports car slid to the right and slammed up against the guardrail of the onramp.

CLUNK!!!

And......

Still.

Glover panted. He was sweating all over.

Flash!!!

A bright light through the driver's side window.

Glover's eyes darted out.

A female figure appeared out of nowhere.

He started coughing.

The girl aimed a glowing hand at Glover through the window.

The man hacked and spit--

FLASH!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh....."

............

"Nnngh....ugh....."

Glover stirred.

He was sitting in a chair.

His arms were bound tightly.

But his face wasn't blindfolded.

He opened his eyes painfully and found himself in the shadowy interior of some run-down apartment complex. The floor was covered in soot and dust. The walls were peeling. A window on the far side danced with a neon-light glow.

"H.....H-Hello??" the aging journalist's voice echoed into the room.

No response.

"Nngh....," he stirred. He grunted. He couldn't get loose. "H-Hello???"

A beat.

A female voice filtered through the darkness. "You're a upstart old sod, aren't ya? You're doing this all arse about face. The hostage doesn't talk, the kidnapper does. Chiefly, me."

Glover's eyes thinned.

_A British accent._

"Who are you??" Glover asked.

"I know your friend very well. Gary Sills. Upside down wanker, he. It was rather easy for us to get him to procure those tapes. Fancy that he's married and has children. You Yanks are polluting the gene pool, I swear."

Glover took a deep breath. "I got your message...."

"What? The playing card or the bullets over your head when you smashed into our old flat? I was rather fond of the latter, to tell the truth."

"It was you who fired upon us?" Glover murmured. "You nearly killed Avery—my associate—and me!"

"That was really just all shits and giggles," the voice said. "If I'd wanted to, I would have offed you the very moment I touched the trigger. I've killed so many people in my day, you wouldn't even know they existed. Oh, I could have played a shirty game with you. A prize for every bulls eye. Two gold coins for your bullocks, assuming you even have but one, namby pamby."

"You....gave Gary Sills' the card.....Wyldecarde's old weapon," Glover grunted. "And he gave it to me. Is that what you wanted?"

"Remember the note I scribbled on that?"

Glover nodded. "I...I think so...." He shifted in his seat and realized....his pockets were empty. "Um....."

"Allow me to remind you," said the voice....uncomfortably close to a shadow positioned across from Glover—the journalist noted. A dark hand raised the joker card up before an even darker face: "'The game is not over. The head dealer still has a hand'."

"Were you trying to hint me to something?" Glover asked. "What is your obsession with Wyldecarde? Why did you want to destroy those tapes?"

"It wasn't a matter of wanting to destroy tapes....it was merely a way of prolonging Destruction itself."

"...........," Glover blinked.

"Don't get me wrong, Mr. Glover. I am but a lowly assassin. I do not do charity things for the end of the world. But when it comes to my mates, I can get very....very....protective."

"Someone like you has friends?"

A flippant, cold laugh.

"Why, yes. I know it sounds daft. But it's true. To be honest, I have only one friend. And I do sincerely wish you would get off her arse about all this."

Glover's eyes narrowed. "Jinx......" A beat. "You know Jinx?"

"Who doesn't know Jinx? The key point is that I _respect_ her. And coming from me, that truly is no....laughing....matter...."

Glover felt very uncomfortable. So he gulped and changed the subject: "Gary described a bright light in the alleyway when he......'was brought' before you. But when Avery and I visited, I noticed the lamp that he described had been shattered. Was breaking part of your grand exit? Along with attempting to ransack your own 'flat'?"

"Silly Yankee. The lamp was always broken."

"Then how did Gary see a light?"

"Because _I_ was the light...."

FLASH!!!!!

Glover groaned. His eyes thinning. His face wincing. He braved a stare into the shimmering halo before him. His jaw dropped some.

A blonde girl sat across from him. She sat with her legs crossed and her golden hair cascading around her shoulders. She wore a silver jumpsuit....very sleek and simple. She would have been a living, breathing trademark of feminine grace if it wasn't for the sharp images of the pistol and silencer against her hip and the huge, black assault rifle resting against her chair. She held the joker card nimbly in the fingers of one hand and produced an unnatural, golden glow in the other. Her blue eyes stared coldly between Glover and the discarded weapon of Wyldecarde.

"My talents are nothing to boast of," she muttered. "I'm too busy killing people in or outside of the light to possibly find someone to busy myself with yakking."

"Are.....a-are you going to kill me?" Glover asked.

She glared at him under the crop of her dangling, golden bangs. She slowly shook her head. "No," she said. "Jinx and my other accomplice have no reason for killing you. To be honest...such was not a majority vote. But still...I'll deign. Besides, it's not very sporting to kill a man who's already dying."

In response to that, Glover's lungs instinctively wheezed. He stirred in his restraints and regained his breath.

The girl tossed her hair out from her face and turned the card over and over in her fingers. "You're a curious man, Glover. And I suppose one can attribute that to your nosy career. But there's something very....very different from the firebrand public speaker of the past and the obsessed invalid of the present. Something has inexplicably and dramatically changed your life overnight from something superficial to something ambiguous. And in the world that I know—a world defined by bullets and bastards—you don't get that far too often. People stay people—uniquely the same overtime. But that is not the case with you. And for once...I would get a qualm for ending someone's life. Because I do not know if it can in fact be called 'life' to begin with. When Gary Sills decided to tell you about what happened to him that night, my first thought was to eliminate him as a loose end. But then I realized that the only person who would ever pay attention to him would be you. So I let you start this journey, Mr. Glover. I let you have a go, if you will."

Glover's lips parted. He narrowed his eyes and said: "You.....left the envelope there for me on purpose!"

She slowly nodded.

"You wanted me to investigate the power grid....the zoo....and the drug therapy center....," Glover thought aloud. "This was your mystery to solve from the beginning. Not mine. Y-You just sent me on the rest of the path!"

The girl's head turned to the side and there was the slightest hint of a smirk on her cold face. "And what a brill job you've done of it too. It truly went like a bomb. You've been quite the help, being how busy I am. But still....you cannot figure out the first-AND-final clue that we gave you."

Glover's eyes fell to the Joker card in her grasp.

She brandished it.

"Don't you see??" she remarked. "Come on, you're not so daft! Who was part of the card game to begin with?"

Glover took a breath. ".........Slade.......Noir......." A blink. ".......Dagger.........the.....th-the Titans!" He brightened.

The assassin nodded. "Someone still has a hand to dish out. And from all that you've seen in these bloody days of runaway Red....who do you think is truly responsible?"

"I....I don't know....," Glover murmured. "But....it's not the Titans...."

"It's not the Titans...," the girl said. "....but they're still involved."

"........"

"Very involved indeed."

"Are they in trouble?"

"Everybody's in trouble, Mr. Glover," she leaned back and twirled the playing card more. "Even myself."

"Wh-Who are you exactly?"

"Does it truly matter in the long run, nosey parker? Horses for courses, I'd kill you if you were to find out my true identity. So be happy that you and I will not get too friendly, alright? Now, if I were you...I'd keep playing this game for us, Glover. I'd keep following the clues. I'd keep zeroing in on the truth, if there be a thing such as truth. Because my mates and I don't truly know everything, as much as it irks me."

"You and Jinx and....your 'other'....," Glover remarked with narrow eyes. "What are you.....planning?"

"Not planning, Glover," she waved the card. "_Counter-_planning."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that birds are best left to the wild," the girl said flippantly. "What use is an aviary—red or not—when the little shits are going to lose their feathers eventually anyways!"

"........"

"The dead bodies, Glover....," the girl spoke. "....they're the greatest offerings a fan has ever made for the Teen Titans. I'm rather envious of it myself."

"You know about the two Pier murders?"

"I know a lot....but I can learn more," she said. She stood up, shuffled over, and stuck the card back into Glover's pocket. "But you're going to find out _for_ us."

Glover gulped. "Lemme guess....you're going to 'keep watch over me'."

She leaned over. Her blue eyes narrowed: "You've been watched over for a long time, Glover. The least of all by us."

His mouth hung open.

She leaned back and extended a hand out before his face. "Turn your lights on."

He blinked.

"It's dark outside. It's best to drive with headlights."

And her fingers pulsed hotly---

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

".........," Glover stirred. His hands were gripping a steering wheel. He sat up straight and blinked.

He was parked on the median of the highway. The keys were in the ignition. The engine was running.

"........," he blinked.

A car streaked by in the darkness.

The journalist glanced at his clock. It was three hours later than when he last looked at it. He looked at his arms. Creases in the skin showed where the binding ropes were.

He shuddered a sigh. He went into driving mode, signaling to merge back onto the highway when he realized something.....

It was dark.

".........," Glover switched his headlights on. He took a deep breath and drove home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The assassin was pointing me in the direction of the Pier murders. But I could have sworn I read over them from top to bottom. I didn't know what she and her 'posse' wanted from me. At the same time, I was worried about her connection to Jinx. Perhaps the authority needed to know that their high-profile prisoner had a contact outside of the jail cells. But then again...I was dealing with an _assassin_. An assassin with unnatural power over the spectrum of light. Though she didn't threat me....I can't help but feel....h-helpless."

He lowered the voice recorder and paused it. He gazed out through the windows of his apartment. The endless night. There was a rumbling sound as a storm front moved in from the dark distance beyond.

"......"

Glover raised the recorder again and pressed the switch.

He continued: "Though I knew that whatever was going on involved the Titans. I guessed that the assassin wanted me to find a tie-in with the Titans. But I couldn't figure out what. I mean...besides the fact that Gotham City is the origin of Robin's fighting career....I couldn't see any significance. I spent nearly half a week trying to come up with a solution. I obsessed over it all and agonized myself so much that I needed to get out."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover strolled through the Bayside Plaza one afternoon. He had a notepad in his grasp and he was busily scanning over scribbles that he had made from a night-long brainstorming in his apartment. At that particular moment in time—as he walked nonchalantly around the courtyard and storefronts—he read aloud the letters on the murder victims' bodies.

"'T...R...V...G...K...J...'," Glover muttered. His eyes darted across his notepad. "'Pier 4146'..."

He walked around the circumference of tables set up in the food court. He tapped his pen against his balding head.

"'T...R...V...G...K...T...'," Glover read. "'Pier 7123'."

A beat.

He came to a stop and groaned. "Just one letter difference. What did the murderer want? What was his message?"

There was a muffled set of giggles and girlish voices behind Glover. The journalist was dead between his own thoughts, and he couldn't help but pick up the conversation:

"I swear!! Gar was sooooo cute in Space Trek, 2022!! He was like some elf-changeling alien and stuff!! He didn't get much airtime, but when he did it was precious!!"

"Pfft!!! You make him sound like a wash-out!! Face it, Hope! Garfield had no legitimate fighting experience before he joined the Titans!!"

".........????" Glover turned and craned his ear to listen.

"You girls forget Vic. Stone had some action in Metropolis before he moved here."

"Yeah, Janice...but nothing like my Robbbbbie!!! Hehehehe!"

"Ugh. Gawd. Someone kill her."

Glover stumbled over towards a table where four teenage girls were positioned. "Uhm....e-excuse me...."

All four looked up at him like deers in headlights. They were instantly all mute.

Glover bit his lip. He cleared his throat, and said: "I-I'm sorry to be nosy but---"

"Say....," a curly-blonde girl blinked and pointed. "Ain't you that old guy on the news that once hated the Tita—"

A dark-haired girl elbowed her.

"Ooof!!"

"Ahem....can we help you?" the brunette asked.

"I couldn't help but ask....," he blinked. "Who're you talking about?"

"Huh?" a petite girl with blonde hair blinked.

"Just now. You were talking about—"

"The Titans!" the taller blonde blurted again. "Hope here thinks that Garfield was cute as a child actor! Pffft! She's so obsessed."

"Who's Garfield?"

"Beast Boy!!" the petite practically exploded. "Everybody knows that!!"

".........."

"Garfield Logan," droned a voice who hadn't spoken before.

Glover glanced over.

A dark-haired girl sat with her arms crossed over a half-finished sketch. She had an eyepatch for some reason. "Garfield Logan. That's Beast Boy. He starred in a few two-bit acting roles before he joined the Titans and used his morphing abilities towards fighting crime."

"They weren't two-bit!!" the petite one squealed.

Glover blinked. "And Victor is..."

"Cyborg," said the other brunette with a wry smirk. "Victor Stone. Sheesh...for a journalist, you're pretty washed out."

"Uh.....yeah.....I-I've been preoccupied lately," Glover sweatdropped. "Ahem....m-may I ask where you people learned this??"

The girls looked at each other. A beat. A good few of them giggled.

Glover bit his lip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I never had any idea....," Glover smirked helplessly as he spoke into the voice recorder. "....the Internet has a culture that adores the Teen Titans. People young and old—but mostly young—have organized hundreds upon hundreds of websites dedicated in reverence to the heroes of this City. 'Shrines' they are called. The girls gave me a few webrings where I could find sites based entirely on Raven's legacy, Beast Boy's career, and even a few 'shrines' that revolved solely on theories concerning the love interests of—say—Robin and Starfire or Raven and Beast Boy or even Robin and Noir." A beat. Glover took a shuddering breath, but continued: "These sites are hubs for fanfictions, fan sites, captured images of the Titans in action, message boards covering all subjects of Teen Titan fandom, and—finally—a few scant samples of legitimately intelligent research and information. And from perusing a good many sites and coming up with average information, I realized that the identities of—at least—most of the Titans weren't entirely secret."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin. Founding member of the Titans. Origin in Gotham City. True name and identity....unknown. He is simply referred to as 'Robin'."

Glover read off a list of notes he had made and printed before him in his office. He squinted his eyes under the amber light and continued aloud to himself:

"Raven. Assisting, founding member of the Titans. Origin in another dimension. True name also Raven. Last name unknown."

He slid another sheet over.

"Cyborg. First Titan recruit. Origin in Metropolis with S.T.A.R. labs. True name Victor Stone."

Then...

"Beast Boy. Fourth Teen Titan. Born and raised abroad with scientists Mark and Marie Logan. Name Garfield Logan. Former child actor and present member of the Teen Titans."

Glover produced another sheet.

"Starfire. Fifth Titan. Alien from the planet she calls 'Tamaran'. Real name is allegedly 'Koriand'r'. Information on her name supposedly gathered from the Titan Tower occupation by the Puppet King. No known 'last name'."

Glover's eyes scanned over. He took a breath.

"Terra. First official 'sixth Titan'. Infamous Second Apprentice to Slade. Police files identify her as 'Tara Markov'. Her background is completely unknown. Her state of being now is also in question."

Then a last sheet.

"Noir. Present 'sixth Titan'. Temporarily 'Wyldecarde' during Slade's last and fatal plot. Name undisclosed. Also a completely unknown background."

Glover lined all the sheets up in chronological order.

He narrowed his eyes.

He read:

"Robin...Raven...Victor...Garfield...Koriand'r...Tara...Noir..."

A beat.

He pulled out a pen and wrote:

"R...R...V...G...K...T...N..."

He leaned back.

He scanned the pages.

He took a breath.

A beat.

He slid out the information from Pier 7123.

"'T...R...V...G...K...T...'"

He then glanced at Pier 4146.

"T...R...V...G...K...J...'"

A beat.

"Only six initials....," Glover breathed. "Six initials for six Titans...."

Silence.

"Or six Titans at a _time......_," he uttered. He glanced at the Pier 7123 files. "Of course.....Pier 7123's murder took place in Gotham City BEFORE Pier 4146 in this City." A beat. "T...R...V...G...K...T..," he said. "Robin...Raven....Victor....Garfield....Koriand'r....Tara...." He looked at his other list. "T...R...V...G...K...J...," he inhaled. "Robin...Raven...Victor...Garfield...Koriand'r...Noir...."

A beat.

"All the names match up except for Robin's and Noir's...," he spoke to himself, leaning back. "....unless....the killer truly knows the names of the Titans. If that were the case....Robin's secret identity would have to begin with a 'T' and Noir's with a 'J'."

Silence.

He took a deep breath.

"If someone who truly knows the Titans that much did something that violent....that's a great threat indeed. But what kind of a threat is it? What does it hint to? Does it hint to anything at all?"

Glover glanced over at another pile of papers. He reached into a clutter and pulled out the copies of the two note-halves from the Gotham Pier 7123.

"_In order for the Sky to turn red, the Earth must bleed."_

And...

"_Red."_

Then he looked at the copies from Pier 4146.

"_By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive."_

And...

"_Aviary."_

Glover took a deep breath.

"_It's supposed to mean that birds are best left to the wild," the assassin said flippantly. "What use is an aviary—red or not—when the little shits are going to lose their feathers eventually anyways!"_

Glover's eyes narrowed.

"What did you mean? What do you want from me? What am I supposed to find??" he looked at the array of paper madness. "Is it total and complete doom? Is it Destruction on the rise? What's it got to do with birds??"

A beat.

Glover took a deep breath.

"Or maybe......just one bird......"

Glover reached for the files on the two piers. He focused on the numbers. He breathed:

"Pier 4146...."

A beat.

"Pier 7123..."

Another beat.

"...............!!!" Glover gasped. He dropped the papers to the floor. He spun in the chair—coughed once—and scooted over to his bookcase. He whipped out a miniature atlas. "Crazy....you've gone absolutely crazy...." He flipped through the pages. "Completely bonkers.....utterly.....bonkers...." He stopped when he found a map of the U.S. Northeast. He trailed his finger on the lines. "41.46 North......." He trailed another finger. "71.23 West....."

When both fingers met, Glover's breath left him.

"Gotham City......"

A beat.

Glover eyed the phone on his desk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ben Clapton was an apprentice of Glover's illustrious past. He considered the aging man to be his mentor and one day promised he'd do anything to assist in his research.

He didn't think it'd come to this.

"Is this some really important development or something, sir???" Ben gritted his teeth as he steered his hummer with one hand and held the cellular phone up in the other. "This weather is really ruining my paint job....not to mention my shocks way out here!!"

Indeed, the landscape of Gotham City was under inclement weather. The usual red sky was replaced by gray overcast as rain pounded in from the huge stormfront trembling over the landscape. Lightning flashed in the distance and the wind was strong enough to threaten the balance of the huge vehicle.

_"Please!! I really need you to tell me what's at those exact coordinates! It's imperative to...uhm...my latest studies!"_

Ben eyed the GPS tracking system he had installed into his dashboard. It beeped away and signaled him which compass directions to take in order to arrive at 41.46 N and 71.23 W.

"What kind of studies?"

_"S-Secret studies."_

"But of course...," Ben said. "Just my luck...," he grumbled.

"_What was that?"_

"Er....I-I mean...I'm almost there now!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_But I can't see what's so important about these coordinates!! I'm practically out in the middle of nowhere!! I-I'm surprised these damn roads haven't been closed off!!"_

"Don't go anywhere too dangerous, Ben," Glover said. He paced slowly in front of the windows of his office. He gazed out at the black night of the City sky. It was calm and tranquil outside. "As much as I want to find out what's out there, I care about your safety foremost."

"_I ain't going back by this point!! You've gotten me curious myself, sir!"_

"Where are you anyways?" Glover asked, his eyes narrowed. "It looked like—judging from my atlas—that the coordinates are somewhere close to the Bay."

_"Kinda sorta! When you say 'close to Gotham Bay' in this City......you can mean anywhere—Hold on!!"_

Glover jumped. "What?? What is it??"

"_The GPS is beeping like crazy! I think I'm here!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ben slammed the door to his hummer shut. He clung a raincoat to himself with one arm and kept the cellphone to his ear as he marched against the howling winds and beating rain. Solid curtains of falling water clouded the air in gray translucency. The young man grunted and panted as he soggily climbed a hill of rock bluffs and looked over a rainsoaked Bay. Somewhere in the blackness, a dark shadow rose up high into the air and strobed with a bright pulse of light. The man panted as he overlooked the stormy black waters stretching before him. He huddled and shouted into the cell phone.

"Well! This is it!!"

"_What's there??"_

"I've only been here once before!! Flew over it on the way to the Gotham Airport! There's a lighthouse across the Bay from here!! Oh!! Also some chemical plant!! I'm not sure what they make there, but it's nestled between the Bay Waters and some of these rock bluffs!! The plant and the lighthouse are like the only buildings in this place!!"

The water around him exploded in yellow light as the lighthouse's beam swept past him.

He continued: "I hope there's some special meaning to this or something!! Cuz I'm clueless!! And I'm also getting soaked!!"

"_Ben...can you—I dunno—take a photo or something??"_

"Uhhh......," Ben looked wearily into the rain and drenching wind.

"_If you can't or aren't up to it, I'll understand—"_

"No! I'm glad to help, sir!! Just....I gotta let this all clear up some!! I brought my Polaroid Camera here!! I'll take a snapshot of the coordinates, scan it, and have it e-mailed to you as soon as possible!!"

"_Much appreciated, Ben. You're a life-saver."_

"Yeah....heh....though I could be hung out to dry!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Glover paused in the middle of his dictation to the voice recorder.

"......"

His eyes scanned some invisible horizon.

"......."

He switched the recorder off. He shuffled his deskchair over to his apartment's computer. He brought the interface out of standby mode and accessed his hotmail account. After a few clickings and keystrokes, he indeed found an e-mail from Ben. And inside of it was the promised scan of the Gotham Polaroid.

Outside the man's windows, the stormfront was catching up. The night air started to vibrate with low thunder.

"Come to Poppa.....," Glover selected 'Print' on his browser.

His printer whirred into action.

Glover waited patiently.

A paper slid out.

A grainy—but discernible image of a watery landscape appeared before him in limited color.

"Get a new scanner, Ben....," Glover smirked. He removed the sheet and looked at it. His eyes narrowed. "........"

The image taken that night captured a mostly uninhabited section of Gotham City's Bay. The foreground contained the tops of rock ledges laced with sprouting sawgrass. Beyond the black waters, the lone lighthouse stretched up in the center of the picture. It jutted high into the square, red splash of Gotham night sky. The evening sky of Gotham City was always red. Experts had many environmental theories as to why that was the case, but no solid solution could be reached. Glover figured that no explanation could efficiently supply logic.

".......," Glover blinked.

_Red.........Red sky............_

His lips parted.

_Red Aviary............_

".......," Glover glanced across his desk. The two separate folders for Pier 4146 and Pier 7123 stared up at him.

A beat.

The journalist reached a shaky hand out and gathered the murder-scene photos from both. He took a shuddering breath.

He placed the first incident's photo—Pier 7123—on the left.

_Red......_

He placed the second incident's photo—Pier 4146—on the right.

_Aviary......_

"......"

Glover swallowed.

He pressed both photos together. Side to side. Left to right.

And it happened.

It clicked.

The two photos of the bloody massacres.

The Polaroid of the Bay.

"........"

_They match._

A perfect symmetry was formed. The red frame of blood from the Pier 7123 photo crossed over to merge with the blood puddles of Pier 4146.

_The rock bluffs._

Red fingers scratched upwards against the two separate walls in various, arching directions.

_The saw grass......_

Red splotches lined the top in a perfect cropping.

_The red sky of Gotham......_

And to Glover's undeniable shock, the two tall half triangles of blood formed together to create a solid structure or promontory.

_The lighthouse......_

The journalist's heart raced. His eyes darted down to the meaty bags that were the remains of the dagger-initialized murder victims.

"Robin...Raven...Victor...Garfield...Koriand'r...Tara...Noir...."

_The Titans......their names.........their 'bodies'......_

With a twitch, his eyes fluttered back up both the Polaroid and the murder scenes at once.

His breath was ragged.

The two blood-written letters became a whole on either side of the hyphenated 'lighthouse'.

'_Death-Stroke'_

A blink.

_Deathstroke._

Glover sweated.

His trachea went numb.

Something icy crawled up his spine.

_Red Aviary. Deathstroke. Red sky. Bleeding earth. Freezing. Smoke and mirrors._

Something collapsed together into a horrifying whole in the man's brain.

And his lungs gave out.

"!!!!!"

Glover leaned over. He coughed. Hacked. Wheezed. Tears formed in his eyes. He coughed and sputtered. He gasped for breath.

THWUMP!!!

His desk chair collapsed backwards.

He stumbled....limped...and hobbled towards the miniature bar.

He practically fell across a stool as he reached for the oxygen tank.

His fingers fumbled over the handle. He started pumping it long before he had the mask over his mouth.

But once he did, his body convulsed. He struggled to inhale the air. He gasped. He wheezed. He tilted his neck back.

Somehow, his lungs stretched just right...and he started inhaling. And he started breathing. And....

He started relaxing.

"...............," Glover inhaled/exhaled long and hard. He shuddered and reveled in the oxygen.

But the iciness was still there. The throbbing heartbeat.

After a good five minutes, the man lowered the mask and panted on his own.

Rain started pattering against the windows. Streaks of water ran down his flat stretch of glass windows.

Glover closed his eyes. He sighed. He shuddered.

He rested....

_Riiiiiing._

_Riiiing. Riiiing._

Glover's eyes opened.

"......."

He glanced over.

That late an hour, the phone was ringing.

_Riiiing. Riiing._

Glover grunted. He swiveled the tank handle and cut off the oxygen. He was still holding the oxygen mask in one hand when he yanked the phone off its handle and grumbled.

"Yeah....what is it??" Glover frowned.

"_They've been poisoning you, Blake."_

"................."

"_It's not really lung cancer. They've been poisoning you all this time."_

"................."

"_Quite simple, really. Tiny additions to your diet here and there. Intravenous methods with your common, everyday environment. The thing is...it's been happening over so long a period of time, that it'd might as well be excused as lung cancer. But think about it, Blake. You didn't smoke any much more than your fellow man. Besides...you quit doing it over the last three years. There're chain-smokers much worse than you who live their life like walking diesel engines and live to the age of seventy-seven, and here you are croaking at barely sixty years of age? That just doesn't seem fair, does it?"_

"................."

_"You can talk now, ya know. Not everyone I pester is mute."_

"H-How......what........," Glover's eyes narrowed. He glanced forlornly at the mask in his hand, then at the receiver he was holding. "......what's going on here?"

"_A damn good question, Blake. But I think you're pretty close to the answer. Otherwise I wouldn't be calling you."_

"I.....I'm confused...."

"_Are you really?? Surely you know that things are awry in this City......once again. Heh...things have almost always been caddywankas in this Town. Ever since the Titans joined, it's been bomb threats followed by supernatural phenomena followed by terrorist occupation followed by bloody murder streaks. At one time you were a vehement opponent to the Titans in speech and in practice. And as much as you were pretty much an asshole over what you said and did, you were right about a few things. The Titans __**are**__ responsible for some of the nightmares you see in your world. But it's not necessarily a matter of their __**choice**__. I mean...how could it be? Quite simply, they desire nothing more than the proliferation of justice and the diminishing of evil in all of its forms. They are heroes to the core. Through and through."_

Glover put his mask away and scrunched back on the stool. He gazed out through the night window as rain streaked down in translucent river under a crown of low thunder.

"_The fact is, Blake......there's this queer thing called the 'Balance of Morals'. There's always been. Back in the days of Dagger's reign, the Balance of Morals was simply a theory. But it's much...much more than that. I know it because I've dealt with it first hand. I'm a lot like you, Blake. I do my research. I practice nosiness in a sneaky manner. And—as a result—I learn things. I may not get abducted by buxom blonde Britons in the process......but-heheheh—not everyone is that lucky. Ahem. The world......the universe......life and fate......it is all part of some transient organism, Blake. And the world metabolizes around us at a constant rate whether we like it or not. Energies are exhausted and processed into new forms. And this covers all spectrums of Construction and Destruction. Jinx told you that Destruction is the ultimatum of all universal energy. And that's quite understandable coming from the tortured little sorceress. I, on the other hand, am quite the optimist. I'm prone to believe that energy goes on undaunted by the powers of Destruction. The universe has many layers to it......so many complex possibilities. To say that Construction has a limit would be short-sighted and selfish. Life is a lot stronger thing than we give it credit. But that does not mean we must ignore the faculties of Death. Especially now, Blake. So much importantly now."_

"What is happening.......?" Glover murmured into the phone. "Do.....d-do you know?"

"_I know that whatever is __**going**__ to happen is but a manifestation of the constants I'm always outlining. The Balance of Morals......it is flexing. It is bending back from its last exercise. The bowels of the universal metabolism has emptied and the Spectrum is hungry again, I suppose you can say. A long time ago......during a very dramatic chapter in this City's legacy......so many chaotic things came Full Circle. And for once I was naive enough to assume that Full Circle was simply that. A culmination. A climax. An end. But how narrow-minded I was. And I fear that it may have blinded the Titans......though I'm certain Noir is wary enough to expect my return eventually. And it's a good thing too. For reality dictates that the universe lives off of not one—but many Full Circles. Like loops linked endlessly in a chain. Constantly morphing. Constantly dynamic. And yet......in repetition of the previous debacle. Think about it. Robin and the Titans nearly die at Slade's hands. Terra dominates the City. Noir kills Slade. All violent links in the chain. And...after a spite......the universe is flexing again."_

"Then wh-what now??"

"_A harvest, Blake. A stroke of death running across the wind with red wings like that of a bird. But the cage is full. The aviary is a crowded place. But not if Destruction has its say. Not if the Red becomes doubly Red. Not if blood is spilt. Blake...I dare say...this lovely vacation of ours is coming to an abrupt end."_

Glover took a deep breath. "And why am I a part of it? Why are you a part of it? Just who the Hell are you anyways??"

"_It's not so much our roles that's important as it is what our roles play,"_ the voice said. _"Think of me as a simple messenger, Blake. I appear......I disappear......I try to lend a helping hand when I can. Hell, even a good techno CD if I can fit it in. But my time is always short. Damned space-time-continuum......eh?"_

"How is this helping me??" Glover swallowed. "Telling me that I'm poisoned?"

"_True, Blake. You already knew you were dying. After all, you wouldn't be where you are now......would you?"_

"............."

"_Which is ironic. Because the ones who poisoned you thought that they'd be silencing you and your inquisitive nature. Or maybe I should say 'The One'."_

"Who??"

"_A King......and a Pawn all at the same time. He is the strongest enzyme in this metabolizing organism we call 'existence'. The harvester this time is merely a virus. A fluke of the Balance of Morals. An opposite reaction. And the resulting friction will spell quite a bit of chaos for this City......but most of all, the Teen Titans."_

"What's going to happen to them?"

"_That's what I'm here for, Blake. And quite frankly......that's what you're here for too. That's why you're still alive."_

"Me??"

"_You're my backup, Blake. Never mind the assassin. I'm the one who'll be needing you when worse comes to worse. And—as a matter of fact—so will be the Titans. This is quite simply the way things work. Messengers stay out of the spotlight."_

"What if I don't like being used....," Glover grunted.

"_If only you could see it through my eyes, Blake. The white and red mosaic of fate. The blackness of tranquility and the green that thrives hotly outside of it. The universe is a colorfully complex place...and yet there is order. It dictates for me to separate myself from my essence and intercede on behalf of the Titans. As it also dictates to you. But what is your purpose? What is your role?? Maybe someday you'll find that epiphany before you die from your 'cancer', Blake. But when you do find it...it will be quite the remarkable revelation. It's like the face you had before your parents were born. Or the sound of one hand clapping. You'll have to experience it to know it. Like Noir has."_

"N-Noir??"

"_But he's not the center of this issue. Not this time. There's another Titan to go. Another link to the chain. But I will tell you one thing for sure."_

"Wh-What's that??"

"_July Fifth, Two Thousand and Four......It's a hard act to follow."_

-Click.-

"..........," Glover lowered the phone. He gazed out the rain-drenched windows. Lightning flashed and the sky looked betrayingly cold and dark-blue beyond. Without a hint of red.

"The Aviary......," Glover whispered. "....who truly rules the roost?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The catwalk went on for miles and miles. Acid dripped from the ceiling and mud caked the metal surfaces. Everything was boiling and steaming around him as he ran along. His boots clanked loudly against the floor. His lungs heaved and his black spikes of hair started to bend and melt with sweat. Somewhere in the distance, a strobe of light danced against a red, red sky._

_"R-Robin!!" a voice cried out from a black horizon._

_"I'm coming!!" the Boy Wonder panted. His face was pale beneath his eyemask. Chills ran through his thirteen year old body._

_The catwalk started to rust beneath him. Bits and pieces falling out from under. There was more and more mud._

_Mud everywhere._

_Brown against the black and sizzling with the acid that dripped from the ceiling._

_And beyond that the immortal red with its dancing strobe._

_The factory crumbled around him._

_Robin gasped._

_He lost his footing._

_His leg broke through the rusted catwalk and he tripped forward with a grunt. Acid fell onto his cape and slowly ate into his agile form._

_He strained and grunted. He couldn't move._

_"R-Run, Robin!!" a voice sobbed from the far horizon. "Can't you see? I'm not real!!"_

_Robin bit his lip and looked ahead._

_Shaking._

_She was flailing in the center of a churning mass. The mud was eating her from the inside out. Her round eyes bulged and her black hair shattered as the acid and rust swallowed her whole._

_"NOO!!!!" Robin shouted. "Get out of here!! Stay alive!! STAY ALIVE!!!"_

_But she disappeared. The factory rippled like waves. The mud laughed and the acid flew and everything crumbled and rattled down a maelstrom of urban Hell._

_And Robin went numb. He stood silently on rock bluffs overlooking dark bluffs. The sky dripped red. The earth leaked scarlet. A lighthouse stretched high up into the crimson air and with each flashing sweep of its bright beam, mysterious words chanted louder and louder as if rushing in from the distance._

_red aviary_

_red aviary_

_Red Aviary_

Red Aviary

Red Aviary!!

Red Aviary!!

RED AVIARY!!

_**RED AVIARY!!!**_

_**RED AVIARY!!!!!!!**_

**FLASH!!!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shot up from the table with a gasp.

Sweating all over.

A terrible chill was running up from my metal limb like liquid ice in my blood vessels.

I cringed where I sat on the booth inside the kitchen unit of the Main Room. I clutched my titanium hand to myself and shivered all over. Finally the cold was unbearable and I gnashed my teeth and practically ripped the metal limb off--

C-Click!!

Hisssssssss!

CLUNK!!

I dropped the hand to the table.

I clutched my metal-laced left stuff and panted....panted....panted...

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

_Wh-Where did that dream come from??_

A beat.

I swallowed and wiped my brow with my right arm.

_R-Robin???_

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I jumped.

I glanced across the Main Room.

Framed by rain-streaking windows under the darkness of night, the Main Screen of the computer hung down from the ceiling and displayed a flashing pulse of light.

Shaking off the last of my shivers, I picked up my metal limb and stumbled over on tired legs. I reached the computer console and pressed a switch.

_Zzzzt!!_

An image splashed across the monitor.

It was Simon Stone's construct.

_"Noir!! Thank goodness one of you kids is awake!!"_ the old man's hologram flickered in front of the interior image of Phaser Labs. _"Look. Can you wake Victor? I've got something urgent! Some really earth-shaking data, if you pardon the pun!!"_

I raised an eyebrow. With one finger, I keystroked an inquiry and sent it to him via text messaging.

'_What's so important at this hour?'_

Simon Stone took a deep breath...as if he could breathe. _"Please....I just need to speak with Victor. He'd best understand my findings more than anyone."_

I bit my lip suspiciously.

Finally he gave in: _"It's about the girl."_

"....."

_"You know the girl!! The one made of stone!! I......I think I might have found a cure for her..."_


	142. Raise the Titans

**142. Raise the Titan**

**Loading....**

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**Loading Complete**

**Initialize Surveillance Protocols 92/41-SV (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initialization Process Complete**

**Protocols 92/41-SV In Effect**

Input Devices at 125 Efficiency

Power Resources 94 And Holding At Nominal Rate Of 0.002 Decrease

**Automatic Sensors In Effect**

Opening Program "Rahab's House"

Subject: Simon Stone

**Location: Phaser Labs In West District of City**

**Date: October 19, 2004**

**Time: 0426 Hours**

**Focusing In....**

**Recording...**

Recording...

Recording...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the darkness of basement level laboratory in Phaser Labs, a glowing aura emanated from a station in the far corner. Whirring sounds echoed through the room as robotic limbs traversed the proximity of a glowing, translucent cylinder. There was something inside of the cylinder. Something slender and graceful that stood four and a half inches high.

And there was something outside of the cylinder. Something flickering atop a circular holographic panel.

The visually-represented construct of Simon Stone huddled over the cylinder. His projected eyes were narrowed....and if they were truly real, they would be glistening. Static beams shimmered down the man's dark face of pixels as if to simulate sweat.

"Come on......come on.....you were working beautifully.....you were working beautifully...."

_Whurrrrrrrrr!!_

The robotic arms pivoted around glass structure. They glowed and shot forth thin lasers that pierced the glass and illuminated the slender object inside. A young and healthy rose rising up out of a plastic sheathe that held the stem. The red petals reflected the beams of magical light. The thorns dripped with scientific glow.

"Let's do it again...from the top....repeat....repeat....," Simon Stone's electronic voice rambled. He waved his holographic hands and a second phase in the robotic operation took place. The arms spread out in a coordinated ring around the cylinder. They all glowed at once.

_Wreeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeee!!!!!_

The entire rose glowed.

Stone's eyes narrowed.

_Wreeeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeeeee-FLASH!!!_

The rose seemed to catch on fire. It pulsed like radioactive embers.

The holographic man didn't so much as flinch.

The robotic arms vibrated.

The cylinder shook.

Then...

Crawling upward from the plastic sheathe and climbing the length of the flower, a solid layer of rock congealed and cracked and crystallized into a statuesque whole.

_CRKKKKKTTT!!_

And...

The glowing stopped.

The robotic arms fell still.

Stone leaned forward and blinked....not that he needed to. But he did anyway. An electronic gasp escaped his lips.

"Okay.....okay.....a-and now.....reversal......"

_Whuuuu—uuuuurrrr!!!_

The robotic arms spun back to life.....and kept spinning. They formed a centrifuge around the glass cylinder. A cyclone. The tips of the arms glowed and shimmering lasers practically carved into the translucent surface.

FLAAA-AAAAAAASH!!!!!

The hologram flickered as a power surge was induced by the intense experiment.

The room vibrated.

The shadows ran away from a strong strobe of yellow and yellower light and--

_**FLASH!!!!**_

Almost an explosion.

The cylinder shook.

The glow dissipated.

The robot arms slowed to a gentle sway.

And inside the glass jar...the rose was back to normal. Perfect. Beautiful. And unscarred.

The hologram jumped like a schoolboy. "Ha!......Ha ha!!! Ha ha ha ha—Yes!! Oh my g—wait till they hear it....wait till they hear it!!!" The construct composed his emotional programming. "Gotta contact Vic." He spun around and faced the communication console on the other side of the dark laboratory. "Gotta tell them!! It's perfect! Absolutely perfect!! Ahem—Computer!! Place a webphone call in to the Titan's Tower! Priority Simon!"

_BEEP! 'Mr. Stone......would such an action truly be advisable at this late a time in the morning?'_

The construct rolled his eyes. "Dear Allah....if digital chicks are all I have to look forward to for the rest of my life, you're certainly giving a bad rap!"

_Zzzt!! 'Does not compute.'_

"Just freakin' patch me through already! Damn!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**Knock Knock Knock**_

A beat.

Cyborg's door slid open.

The android peered out, yawning. "Nnngh....Raven--?? Oh, hi Noir."

I panted. I hand-signed desperately.

"Jeez...," Cyborg tiredly rubbed his human head. "Slow down, man. What's so important this late at night??"

I gestured rapidly, sweating.

"Uhhhhh...............," Cyborg blinked tiredly....on the verge of teetering over. ".........huh?"

I frowned. I shoved him back into his forward.

"Hey! Whoah!!"

I pushed him against a wall. I stomped over. I switched his computer on. I clicked a few buttons and flipped a few switches.

"Say, what's the big idea---"

Flash!!!

"_Vic!! Finally!!"_

"---oh. Well alright."

_"Come down to Phaser Labs! Pretty damnable quick!!"_

Cyborg yawned. "What's this all about, old man??"

"_You know what I've always told you, young man......,"_ the Construct of Simon smirked and leaned forward suggestively on the screen. _"Not the best of things can be explained digitally only!"_

A beat.

".............you never told me that!!!" Cyborg frowned.

I bit my lip.

"_Well, I'm telling you now. So get your rusted butt over here! This is a very important day for the Titans."_

"Day?!?! Man...it's nearly five in the morning!!"

_"True true. Shove some Duracells up your wazoo then!! Uncle OUT!!"_

Zzzzt!!!

The screen went blank.

I looked at Cyborg desperately.

"Man...did he tell YOU what's going on??"

I sweatdropped.

"Just....five more minutes....," Cyborg leaned back and groaned. "I'm so tired....I can outsleep Congress into a Euthanasia Bill."

I took a deep breath. I marched forward, and banged my hand over the android's chest.

CLANK!!

Slkkkkk! The metal disc/ignition key to the T-Car slid out.

Cyborg blinked. "Man...how'd you—"

I grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him towards the elevator outside.

"Whoah!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEECH!!!!!!!

Barely half an hour later, the T-Car barreled to a halt in front of Phaser Labs.

I jumped out of the driver's seat while a squawking, hot-red Cyborg stumbled out and practically engulfed me in shaking fists. "Okay...I am SO awake now, dawg!! You drive my Baby like that one more time and you're gonna be WEARING that steering wheel on your head! Well, maybe not mine because I had it custom made with rubber grips by a fine shopworke---er...I mean....SHAME ON YOU!!"

I tossed the 'key' into his arms and shoved him inside the automatic doors.

"Yo!! You got my attention already! Let me use my legs for once!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and I marched side-by-side into the basement laboratory. The two of us froze instantly.

"........"

"........"

We blinked.

Two familiar people glanced across at us from a set of exercise equipment. That is to say....two half-peoples and half-androids.

"Hola. Buenas dias esta hora temprana, Titanes." Uttered Rachel Mendez. She smiled from where she walked on a treadmill and winked a robotic eye. "Fancy meeting you chicos this hour."

"..........y-yeah.....," Cyborg blinked. "Eheh....kinda forgot you and Slug were being rehabilitated."

"_Jean-Luc Blair_, to be precise....," uttered an exquisite voice across the room.

Cyborg and I glanced across the laboratory to where the semi-human was lifting weights with his slender, titanium hands. Sweat ran down his balding head as Jean-Luc glanced over and spoke: "Notice.....our worse parts are shut down?? This is all flesh."

I simpered.

"Well....more power to ya," Cyborg smirked. A beat. "Now where the Hell is my Uncle?"

_"I'm the Hell here......,"_ the holographic visage appeared on a nearby pedestal. The man's dark face smiled and beckoned at his nephew with a flickering hand. _"And boy am I glad you got your bucket of bolts butt up and over here at this hour!!"_

"Yeah....well....uh....," Cyborg glanced at me.

I frowned and crossed my arms.

"I was having a pleasant dream!" Cyborg sweatdropped and walked forward.

_"Oh yeah?"_ Simon Stone tapped a shimmering foot. _"About what??"_

"Something out of your league, old man."

"_Ouch."_

Rachel giggled.

I glanced at her strangely under my shades.

"So....what's so damned important that I had to come all the way here and.........interrupt C-3PO's gym."

"We heard that."

I snickered breathily.

The hologram turned.

A flicker.

Simon Stone 'teleported' to another holographic pedestal sitting besides a huge computer display. He gestured with glowing arms_. "Take a good, long look at it, my boy......"_

Amused, Cyborg stepped up. He stroked his chin and thought aloud as he scanned the monitor. "Mitochondrial Intercellular Kineticism. Synthetic Biological Endocatalyst. Hmmmm.......Thermonucleic Amplification of the Greater and Minor Organelles." A beat. "It's been a while since my last anatomy class, but it sounds like you want to explode a toenail or something. HA!"

The hologram had a drunken grin as the construct said: _"Do read the last portion, Victor......"_

Cyborg sighed. He squinted his human eye. "'Possible Metamorphic Extraction of Crystalline Structural Neutrality When Applied With......W-With Geothermal Ultracurrents......'"

A beat.

Cyborg scratched his human head.

Silence.

He looked at the hologram.

"......."

He looked at the monitor.

"..........................W-Well...........damn."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning in the Tower's Main Room.

"Yeah....uh....I just got here. So.....why do I have to be so suddenly versed on your surface-dwellers' holiday traditions?" Tempest made a face.

"Dude!! Don't ruin it now! I so have your costume done and stuff!! You're gonna be kickass! Now hold still!!" Beast Boy practically frolicked around a standing, crucified Tempest with a measuring tape in his gloved paws. "Sweet!! You're thin!! We won't have to buy so much leather after all!!"

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "Leather??"

Raven glanced up from a book she was reading across the way. "Leather?"

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "A jacket."

".......oh............," Raven returned to her book.

Tempest groaned as Beast Boy hobbled around him. "Please....someone....tell me what the big deal is..."

"It's not a big deal!!" Beast Boy stuck his tongue out. "It's a mandatory deal!"

"No it's not."

"Butt out of this Robin!!....assuming you get a butt first."

Robin smirked sarcastically. He stood against the brightly-lit windows with his arms crossed. "It's a tradition we have here at the Tower, Tempest. We like to call it the 'Titan Fall Festival'. It's nothing short of publicity thing. Basically...we invite a whole bunch of families with little kids to the Tower, deck the place up all Halloween like...and put on a safe 'indoor' Trick or Treat a week before October Thirty-First. It's our way of telling the City that—no matter what supervillains may be out there—the Teen Titans are around to keep things safe. This is becoming our third year here in the City...so it's our Third Annual Titan Fall Festival."

"Hehehe!! It is so full of adorable cuteness and merriment omega!!" exclaimed Starfire who flew by, already trucking a ten-foot high stack of Tupperware containers full of various ornaments and decorations. "How I do love catering to the infantile Terrans and their Hollow Wieners during the time of year that the air grows thin!" She plopped the tall stack down in the middle of the floor.

THWOMP!!!

Robin sweatdropped. "Uhm......well, for one thing Star. Don't say 'Hollow Wieners' when the kids' parents are here. And for another......the thing is two days away and you've got the rest of us here to help you! Why're you starting decorations this early?"

Starfire flew in with a second stack of containers in her deceptively strong grasp. "Robin, do you not enjoy lanterning the jacks and cobwebbing in diligent fashion?" THWOMP!! "With very little in the way of adversaries to presently face, it enthralls me to be employed in such a fashionably productive manner!!"

"The perfect housewife...," Raven droned into her book.

Robin glanced aside. "Who're you talking to?"

"...............no one, obviously."

"....."

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "I got Tempest's measurements! I've got Tempest's measurements!!"

"For what, exactly?" Tempest winced. "I'm getting freaked out."

Starfire jumped up and down giddily. "We are to don outfits of alternative identity!! Often it is something that corresponds with American Post-Modernism. Last year per Robin's suggestion—"

Beast Boy grinned.

Robin hissed for Starfire to be quiet.

Raven rolled her eyes.

"—I was that Lee-loo from the motion picture _'Element of the Fifth Power'_."

"_Fifth Element_....," Robin grumbled. He glanced aside with a slight redness to his cheeks. "And I didn't exactly _suggest_ that...."

Starfire blinked. "Was it not you who showed me the conceptual design of the outfit in the catalogue that I was perusing last year??"

"She has a good memory," Tempest smirked.

"Uh huh," Robin ran a hand through his hair and swallowed.

"_Fifth Element_....," Beast Boy smirked. "I used to hate that movie."

"What happened?" Tempest asked.

"Halloween came around."

"............ohhhhhhhh....haha....you guys are funny," Tempest chuckled.

"Don't you mean 'we're funny'?" Raven asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're part of us now," the dark girl droned. "Welcome to the asylum."

Robin chuckled.

"I'll take that with a grain of salt water...," Tempest then eyed Beast Boy suspiciously. "What movie are you stealing to get me costumed with?"

"Uh uh uh!! It's a secret, dude!" Beast Boy smirked. He pointed an amused finger and giggled evilly. "I swear...you're gonna look so perfect two days from now."

"Why are you insisting that I look so perfect in a costume??" Tempest asked. His dark eyes narrowed. "Is this some sort of nooby prank?"

"Don't mind Beast Boy," Robin said. "You don't have to partake in this festival thing if you don't want to. At least the costuming part."

"PPSSSTKKK!!!" Beast Boy pounced over and clamped his hands over Robin's mouth. "Don't listen to him!! He's sick! Unclean! Unclean!!"

"Do rest assured, Tempest," Starfire smiled and held her hands together. "The entirety of us will be engaging in this custom. Noir included...and it is his first time as well. There is no embarrassment to fear...for we shall be sharing in the experience."

"Uh...okay....," Tempest simpered with an Atlantean sweatdrop. "All in the family then?"

"Hemophelia...here we come," Raven said.

"This is your favorite time of year, is it not Raven?" Starfire asked.

"...................................," Raven smirked ever so slightly.

"Hehehehe!!"

Robin popped Beast Boy's hands off his mouth and shoved him aside. He cleared his throat, readjusted his outfit, and said: "Last two years in a row...Cyborg's won best costume."

Tempest did a double-take. "Cyborg?!?!"

"Yeah. Let's just say he's got a few lousy tricks up his sleeve...," Beast Boy pouted, bundling up the measuring tape. "Frickin' holograms and plastic prosthetics....I swear...."

"Cyborg is a genius!" Starfire beamed. She then put on a sympathetic face. "And Beast Boy's failure to win the best costume award two years in a row has been known to move him to tears."

"I did NOT cry!!!" Beast Boy cackled. "It was Raven's damn onion dip!"

"I didn't make that. Cyborg did."

"Cyborg's damn onion dip!! He made snacks the first year and the first year alone! And there you have it, the big bucket of bolts was cheating!!"

"Beast Boy...you were dressed as a _spark plug_ the first year," Robin uttered.

"Hey! I had the words 'ignite me' written on the back! Come on, dudes!! Isn't that sexy or what?!"

"Considering that you were pretty much twelve at the time....no....not sexy," Raven flipped a page. "Besides....."

Robin finished: "It's the _sparkplug_ that ignites something. Not the other way around."

"Nuh uh!! Not if you were in zero g!!"

"What the Hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"Disprove it! I dear ya!" Beast Boy pointed a finger. "What...you ever been into outer space??"

"...................."

"......oh....wait.....my bad."

"Yeah."

Starfire bit her lip. "Spark plugs......cannot be ignited by anything.....in outer space—"

"He knows, Starfire," Raven groaned. "He knows...."

Tempest smirked. "Say....speaking of being in disguised...are Noir and Cyborg being the walls this year?"

"Uhm...."

"Cuz I'm not seeing them."

"Oh....that," Robin shrugged. "They left a note."

"Saying.....?"

"They were paying Simon Stone a visit at Phaser Labs."

"Wasn't that very early today?" Raven asked.

"Finally. An experiment on morning wood!"

THWAP!!

Robin shoved Beast Boy over a chair without looking. ".....right. I'm sure if it was important, they'd call us or somethi—"

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

The computer console at the end of the main room chimed.

Beast Boy crawled back up to his feet. "Speak of the devil.....the ONION DIP CHEATING DEVIL!!!"

"Pfft....take a pill of the chill, man...," Tempest said.

Beast Boy slapped a hand over his forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you, dude! Just stop TRYING!!"

"Hey!! So sue me!!"

"Heheh...that worked!!"

"Hehehehe!" Starfire added.

Robin smirked, rolled his eyes under his mask, and walked over to the computer console where he opened a close channel. "Hello?"

In the meantime, Raven spoke: "How many levels are we going to have accessible to the visitors this year?"

"I do believe most of the middle levels and this upper floor," Starfire said as she opened the first of many containers and produced fake plastic fall leaves. "Perhaps even the ceiling for a special superpowers show. We did that last year, do you recall?"

"I do," Raven nodded. She returned to her book. "They damned well better not go into my room."

"Raven...when have they _ever_?" Beast Boy shrugged with a smirk.

"Who says I don't have the skin of children in my closet??"

Tempest blinked. "You're freaky."

"And proud of it," she flipped a page.

Robin continued with his muddled conversation in the background.

Beast Boy barely noticed. "So....anyone else need help with his or her costume?? Hmmm??"

"Oooh! Oooh!" Starfire beamed. "I do believe I am in need of a new sling!"

"Ah, well then how can I be of ser---oh wait. Er...nevermind."

Starfire pouted.

Raven suddenly blinked. She glanced up and over at Robin a good minute or two before the others. She was the first to notice the blank expression on his face before he even turned from the console and walked over to face the Titans. And she was also the first to see the teeth biting his lips as empty eyes gazed beyond his mask and towards the floor. The dark girl was silent.

"Robin??" Starfire blinked from behind a Tupperware castle. "Does something ail you?"

"Uhm....," Robin cleared his throat. He bore a pleasantly fake smile. "Nope! I'm fine!"

"What did Cyborg and Noir have to say?"

"Uh....I-I'll tell you in a little bit. Say Beast Boy, you got a moment?"

"Do I ever?!?! You need help with your costume, dude?"

Robin walked over and patted the changeling's shoulder, leading him into the elevator. "Uh...sure. Why not. Let's go chat about it."

"Yeah...cuz....like...," Beast Boy 'framed' with his fingers. "I've been thinking Johnny Depp all the way!"

"Eh....w-we'll see," Robin simpered.

SCHWISH!! The two were sealed away in the descending elevator car.

Tempest glanced over. He gestured while talking: "Is this one of those moments when surface-dwellers refer to a 'fruit basket'?"

"Hehehe!" Starfire giggled. "Do not be cruel!"

"I'm just saying!!"

"........," Raven stared at the elevator doors quietly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the silently humming, descending elevator...an excited Beast Boy wrung his hands and uttered: "Okay....I know this sounds goofy....but....Mario! Ya know...the Nintendo character?? Not to say that you're stout or anything, but you aren't exactly super tall. Like....you could put on overalls and a mustache and—I dunno—Raven could be Luigi! What do you think?"

".........," Robin stared at the doors.

"Well....actually....Raven's a tad bit shorter than you so she wouldn't make a Luigi. Maybe a Bowser. Heh. Am I going overboard?"

-click-

Robin's gloved finger pressed onto the 'stop' button on the elevator controls.

The car slowed to a stop in the shaft.

Beast Boy chuckled. "Okay...need a long conference, huh?"

"Beast Boy....," Robin began quietly.

"Yeah, dude?"

"They think they have a cure."

"A cure for what?" the changeling smiled.

"......," Robin looked at Beast boy directly. "For Terra."

".......," the smile stayed plastered on Beast Boy's face. But after a blink or two, it started to fade into a mesmerized pursing of the lips as Robin spoke...

"It's.....it's based on recent experiments by Simon Stone and a few of the head scientists at Phaser Labs...but mainly Simon Stone. He's been slaving late at night, working around the clock on turning things into crystallized forms and rejuvenating them again. Being that he's a computer program practically, it's of little consequence to him. But....still he's put a lot of time and effort and there's no denying him when he says that everything he could possibly conclude in an empirical matter is sound. He's repeated the experiment dozens of times. He's listed and reanalyzed every bit of data from the experiments possible, and he's made a comparison to Terra's crystalline condition. The absolute specifics of his findings I cannot say for sure....b-but.....he's found a solution, Beast Boy. He's found a solution to Terra's condition. He called Cyborg over early this morning. Cyborg and Noir went over to Phaser Labs and they witnessed six successive repeats of the same experiment on various small plants and animals. And it's worked like a charm everytime. Organic matter has been turned into rock and back again without a hitch....and remaining alive and healthy afterwards. Cyborg and Noir are absolutely ecstatic about it. And now Simon Stone wants us to go and see it all for ourselves....so that we can consider the next step. And that is using this process....to revive Terra."

".........," Beast Boy blinked. His eyes fell. He swallowed. He opened his mouth as if to say something but all he could do was tremble and shudder in an inaudible breath.

When Robin spoke, his attention was again grabbed:

"I wanted to tell you first....before the rest of the Titans," the Boy Wonder said. "I....I-I think only you deserve to know at this point. Before all the others. I wouldn't be telling you this one on one unless I had a firm reason to believe, Beast Boy, that we're dealing with the real thing here. Simon Stone has found a cure for Terra. All that's to be done now—however quickly or however slowly—is to cautiously try it on Terra herself. And she will be back."

Beast Boy took a deep breath. He ran a nervous hand through his hair. "You.....y-you think we should...r-run some more tests? Cuz.....c-cuz.......wow....."

Robin nodded. "I want to see them for myself too, Beast Boy. But I could hear the enthusiasm in Cyborg's voice. And if he's enthusiastic about what his Uncle has done...then they both must be on the same page about something remarkable here. I do trust my teammates' judgment after all...." Robin tried on a legitimate smile.

But Beast Boy wasn't looking. He hugged himself and scrunched into the corner. "Ah jeez......ah jeez ah jeez ah jeez...."

"Hey....," Robin placed a hand on the green elf's shoulder. "You okay?"

"I......I........," Beast Boy gulped. He smiled painfully and the corners of his eyes are wet. ".....it's......it's hard to explain, dude. It's almost like.....l-like being told I could see my parents again, Robin." A sniff. He hugged himself tighter. "That's what th-this sort of news means to me..."

Robin slowly nodded. His voice was of a unique gentleness the whole time. "Take it easy. Believe it or not....this is good news."

"Is it?"

".........," Robin was silent at that.

"I mean...th-th-that's NOT what I meant. I.....," Beast Boy hugged himself and looked off. "....if this is true....i-if Terra has a cure.....and she's free.......w-will she want anything to do with us? After we practically threatened h-her head following all sh-she's been through with Slade......will sh-she want anything to do with me?"

"Beast Boy---"

"I've been nothing but a complete goomer since she got stuck like that!!!" the changeling clutched his head and shook towards the floor. "A nerd!! I haven't proven myself to be or do anything!! I'm the same pathetic little joker that made life depressing for her before she helped Slade!!"

"Beast Boy!" Robin shook his shoulders. "Listen to me...."

The changeling closed his eyes and nodded with a painful breath.

Robin leaned forward. "Let's just see what we can do to bring Terra back. If this works...and if she walks away free. Then leave it up to her for how she will think about or react around you. But being a team leader, I notice many things." He smiled sincerely. "And I know for a fact that Terra truly cared for you before she ended up in such a tragic fate. But something tells me you know that far more than I could ever explain or pretend to explain it to you."

A beat.

Beast Boy sniffed. He wiped his cheek with a sleeve and smiled weakly. "I.......I just hope she's okay is all. Ya know?"

"I know, Beast Boy."

"We will.....w-we will be there for her, Right?"

"......"

"I-I mean.....we've forgiven her for everything...........r-right???"

Robin took a deep breath. "Yes, Beast Boy. We have."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I can't believe it......," Cyborg murmured.

His titanium fingers turned the dial.

Inside the small, translucent cylinder a potted plant rested.

Robotic arms spun around the display.

With a whirring sound and a glow of revolving needles, a strong beam was projected onto the flora. A wave of crystal traveled up the pot, the roots, the stem, the stalk, and eventually the leaves. A perfect statue of a fern rested inside the cylinder.

"I just can't freakin' believe it!!"

Cyborg's fingers turned again.

The arms spun.

Glowing.

And....

The plant glowed. The crystallized mass dissipated outwards. A living, healthy plant appeared thereafter.

"I still can't believe it!!!"

_"Keep saying it—I promise you—you will NOT wear it out!"_ Simon Stone's hologram smirked from the human-sized hologram pedestal across the laboratory. He folded his flickering arms and said: _"Throughout the extent of my experimentation on this project, I've incorporated over nine hundred hours of intense uninterrupted work at a processing rate six hundred thousand times that of a normal human being. Do you have any idea how concentrated that state of mind is?"_

"Yeah, I know...," Cyborg muttered as he repeated and re-repeated the plant experiment while turning the dial. "...I can reach about half of that when I'm on a roll."

_"Oh really?"_

"Yeah....takes an hour of weightlifting and a Twinkie, though.................or maybe a good issue of Maxim."

I raised an eyebrow.

Cyborg glanced back and faced Simon beyond me. "Whatever got you started on this whole mess, old man?"

_"Heheheheh....you? A Titan? Calling this a mess??"_

"If it's something you're working on, man.....hell yeah."

Simon's hologram chuckled. He smiled and gestured: _"Well into my first month of existing here at Phaser Labs. Following my installment, I collected my digital wits to recover from Anderson's damn Triad thing...and then thought I'd....ya know...."_

"No, I don't know! Fill me in!"

The hologram leaned forward with an elderly smirk. _"I felt bad, Victor. I felt bad about what happened to me and how you had to learn about it. Most of our family is gone...and I thought I'd do what I could to make sure that the most of your 'new family' that could be preserved got preserved! You get me?"_

".......," Cyborg turned and smiled at his electronic relative. "Now that's just sappy as all get out."

_"But it's true, young man!! I read up on Terra the most I could, and believe you me I felt bad for the poor chick!"_ the hologram looked at me. _"Wouldn't you feel the same?"_

I grinned with a happy nod.

_"See? Even your white friend agrees with me!"_

"His name is _Noir_!"

"_Really? For a second there I thought it was gonna be 'Hey You',"_ Simon winked.

I smirked....then winced as a shiver suddenly and sharply ran up my body through the metal prosthetic.

The hologram looked at me with a sideways glance, concerned. _"My my......is that arm STILL giving you the chills after all of these months??"_

I bit my lip. I nodded with a shudder.

"_Here......_"

With a flicker, the hologram teleported to a miniature pedestal on a nearby computer frame.

"_Slip it in this slot for a second."_

I nodded.

-CLICK-

_-HISSSSSS-_

I detached my left forearm.

The chill left.

I sighed with relief and marched on over to the wall of gadgetry. I slipped my metal arm in. The slot closed around it and beeped away. Clicking sounds...then....

A display popped up on the monitor before me. The miniature hologram gazed up at it and scratched his flickering chin.

"_Hmmmmmmmmm..."_

A beat.

"_Schematics say that it's functioning normally and jazz......,"_ Simon Stone uttered.

I leaned my head to the side and gazed stupidly at the data scrolling upwards.

"_Have the symptoms been getting worse at all? The chills with the nerve sequencing?"_

My black eyes trailed off under my shades. I thought about the night previous. I thought about the nightmare. I thought about waking up with the unbearable cold rocketing so my body so mercilessly I swear I could have breathed vapors into the Main Room's air.

And I shuddered again.

I smiled, looked at Mr. Stone, and waved my hand from side-to-side.

_"Well......it better not be getting any worse......,"_ the hologram 'thought' out loud. _"I suppose we could always reformat the artificial synapses and basically give you a refit......but we haven't made anything more advance than the preexisting model. It does serve its purpose though, eh Noir?"_

I nodded vehemently.

"_I mean......REALLY serve its purpose?"_ the man winked.

I rolled my eyes and smirked.

"_Heheheheh."_

"Old man....you're bad as Hell."

"_Oh go suck on a battery."_

There was a chiming sound that resounded through the laboratory.

Cyborg beamed. "That's them! Robin and the gang! Oh man...I gotta go see them!! Noir, you coming?"

I shrugged. My mind was elsewhere.

"Stick to here, man. You too, Simon."

"_Where the Hell am I going??"_

Cyborg waved him off and trotted off on Titanium toes.

The automatic doors to the laboratory opened and closed behind him.

A beat.

I was alone with the construct.

I paced over quietly, one arm dangling. I knelt a bit and stared into the translucent cylinder where the now-organic plant rested. I breathed a shuddering breath and fog formed against the polymer.

The hologram flickered onto a tiny pedestal beside me. _"I didn't realize it......but......you weren't around when this 'Terra' chick was making a legacy for herself, were you?"_

I slowly shook my head.

"_You were still lone rangering it, weren't you?"_

I smiled gently.

A beat.

The hologram seemed to pace playfully from pedestal to pedestal....taking on multiple different shapes and light intensities. _"What I find fascinating......from research at least......,"_ the construct uttered. _"......is that when the Titans first found Terra, she was a lone ranger of her own. Lone ranterette, that is. Am I correct?"_

".......," I nodded.

"_I wonder......if fate had it in store for them to befriend you so easily after time went by......,"_ the holographic man ported to a pedestal before me and smiled. _"Maybe Terra prepared them for whatever you were to bring?"_

I was silent.

"_And if I dare say, Mr. Noir. After Anderson took me away from Victor for good......I was nearly afraid that his 'new family' would bite the dust. But as it turned out......Wyldecarde was simply that. A Wyldecarde. An elaborate game to show the Titans how truly much they need to rely on each other."_

I exhaled through my nose and looked towards the wall.

And the damn construct appeared before me on the pedestal there.

"_Have I......ever thanked you for what you did for them?"_ his holographic eyes fell down my left limb to the metal-encased stub.

I took a deep breath.

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that very morning....

Simon Stone's hologram stood on a pedestal erected at the end of a thin, dimly lit conference room. As he spoke, a power point presentation was projected onto a hanging white screen against the wall.

_"As you can see by these microscopic images...the cell structure of the organic entity being turned to 'stone' has simply crystallized. The molecular energy of the organelles in the cell slow down—but not in the same way that matter freezes. As you can see, there's no polar bonds forming in the water contained inside the cells. Rather, the matter is being forced into a state of flux that forces it to slow down remarkably in comparison to the rest of the matter surrounding the subject in question. Now...the catalyst that forces the molecular energy of these organelles can be found chiefly in the chlorophyll of this plant cell. And—as I change the slide for you to see here—the mitochondria of this animal cell. Now...what we're concerned about_ _right now is the mitochondria, as you would find in Terra's body. For some reason or another, her mitochondria exhibit an energetic pulse that absorbs the molecular energy of surrounding electrons. That is to say, there is no charge inflicted on the electrons themselves....but rather their orbits around the nuclei are slowed down dramatically. This spreads outward from the mitochondrial pulses and inflicts the cytoplasm and cell walls with the similar effect. Soon, the entire body of the organism slows down and takes on a crystalline form to calibrate for the mismatch of electron energy speeds with the contrasting universe. I know this sounds like an awful lot of hogwash....but simply keep in mind that Terra isn't exactly 'stone' per se. In reality, her microscopic parts have slowed so dramatically that she is simply out of sync with the rest of organic processes around her. It's almost like a biological time machine, and she's rocketing inexplicably into the future. Now....I've been able to simulate this unique energy pulse in the chlorophyll of plants and the mitochondria of animal flesh and small amphibians and mice, and this was all done through synthetic means within the labs here using an extraordinary amount of power. How Terra was able to concoct this energy pulse in her microscopic being all by herself is beyond my ascertaining at the moment, but my hypothesis is that her earth elemental powers—mysterious as they are—have managed to push her into this flux. But how could she manage such a huge surge of energy? Quite simple, really. As we all know, she was exercising the greatest outburst of superpowers in her life to stop the spontaneous volcano that had formed in Slade's overrun City. The sheer exertion of this—combined with a possible self-defense mechanism of her biological psyche—Terra was able to achieve the same result as my experiments. All she did was use her powers, and when the body sensed the impending surge of lava and destructible brimstone...the girl's body compensated on the molecular level and preserved her as so. In 'stone', as we deem it. Really...Terra hasn't frozen at all. She's still using her powers and still 'saving our City', and for all we know her neurons may indeed be immune to the whole ordeal, leading to the additional hypothesis that all this time she's been aware of things taking place within normal, organic time. Regardless of her possible or impossible state of being, I predict that a strategically supplied pulse of energy can adequately reawaken her frozen mitochondria and incite a reverse flux capable of reverting her condition, bringing her back to our level of biological 'existence' and—in effect—saving her...................Any questions?"_

"............." All seven of us sat at random in the many mostly-vacant rows of chairs in the conference room. "............"

The holographic construct craned his 'neck'.

A beat.

Tempest raised his hand.

_"Yes!"_ Simon pointed. _"You there......the Atlantean!"_

Tempest lowered his hand. He blinked. "Who's Terra?"

I bit my lip.

Robin and Starfire sat side by side, shifting uncontrollably.

Beast Boy was silent.

_"Err......,"_ Simon sweatdropped.......holographically. He glanced over. _"Victor?"_

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Uhm....Garth....didn't you read the Titans' historical archives?"

I glanced the aqua lad's way.

Tempest's dark eyes scanned the ceiling. He thought and thought and thought and—"Oh!" Tempest beamed. "Now I remember!! The villain girl!"

Beast Boy shuddered.

"The traitor!! The Second Apprentice of Slade!! The young lady who won the Titans' trust and tried ever so ruthlessly to murder them and take over the City—Mmmmf!!!"

I had a metal hand over his mouth.

I simpered, blushing, and escorted the confused nooby out of the conference room.

"..............."

"..............."

"..............."

"...............ahem.....," Raven broke the silence. "So....uh....Cyborg tells us that you've been researching this for—"

_"A month and a half."_ Simon said.

"Really....," Raven blinked. "And just like that---"she gestured "—you've come up with this solution?"

"_Indeed I have. Lord knows the Titans have their hands full too much with villainy the world-over to ever possibly contribute a near twenty-four/seven hour commitment to this problem at hand."_

"It's not a problem....," Beast Boy frowned.

The other Titans looked over.

The changeling folded his arms and glared off towards a wall. "What Terra did for us in the end...it was NEVER a problem. It was sacrifice."

Silence.

"_Well....then....uhm.......a-all the more reason to revive her, correct??"_ the hologram simpered.

"I think it is glorious!" Starfire beamed. "Alas, Terra...we are embarking upon your rescue!!"

Robin held a gloved hand up. "I have a question."

"_Yes......the spikey-haired one in the second row."_

Cyborg rolled his human eye, smirking.

Robin leaned forward. "Assuming we do successfully reawaken Terra.....will there be any side effects of her circumstances? Could reversing the process of her 'flux' in this stone-form cause her any physical ailments or detriment back on our level?"

Simon shook his flickering head: _"None of my test subjects have exhibited any negative resul—"_

"Ferns, flowers, and mice are all great," Robin gestured. "But this is Terra we're talking about. A human being. What's to say that her DNA might not be—oh—'kosher' with this treatment? We want her back allright....but we want her back safely."

Starfire nodded.

"_Honestly......,"_ Simon said, _"......that is up to conjecture."_

Robin nodded.

Beast Boy sighed.

"_But.........there is always a way to find out for sure......,"_ Simon's holographic hands gestured. _"......a 'final experiment' if you will."_

Robin's eyemask thinned.

"A human test subject...," Raven droned.

Starfire gasped.

Cyborg bit his lip.

A beat.

"Well that makes sense," Robin leaned back with an exhale. "What would that involve?"

"_First......a test subject. Second......positioning him or her in the energy dispersal chamber. Finally......exposing him or her to the synthetic energy catalyst needed to sufficiently produce the 'stone effect'."_

"So....turning into Terra's 'condition' and back again?" Cyborg uttered.

Simon nodded. _"Precisely."_

"But who would undergo such a procedure?" Starfire murmured. "It sounds most harrowing?"

The hologram took a deep 'breath'. _"We have scientists here who are willing to undergo such a process. This experiment is not only beneficial in Terra's case, but its impact on the biological world could be earth-shattering.........if you pardon the pun. Basically, anyone could sign up......o-only—"_

"It's far too dangerous for just anyone...," Robin said firmly. His brow furrowed. "Such is a job for a hero."

Simon solemnly nodded.

A beat.

The Titans looked at each other.

And after a while....Starfire stood up.

"I volunteer to undergo the procedure!" she uttered with fists firm.

Robin glanced up. There seemed to be something snapping inside his head as he absent-mindedly breathed: "Star??"

The Tamaranian took a deep breath. "Terra is a dear friend of mine! And friends give themselves for one another! I gladly accept the challenge of undergoing the test for her benefit! As well as for the sake of all other people!"

"But...Star!" Robin shot up rather defensively and gestured to her. "Give it some thought first!! This could be dangerous and—"

_"It wouldn't work...,"_ Simon said curtly.

The two Titans looked over.

Starfire's mouth fell. She seemed hurt.

The hologram's eyes narrowed. _"She isn't human. Whatever results we acquire with her will not correspond with the likelihood of Terra's success."_

A beat.

Starfire hung her head. "That....is true, I do suppose."

"Then I'll do it...."

The other Titans looked over.

Beast Boy was standing this time. His lungs were slowly heaving. "Everyone knows it. It's m-my place. I'll do it. I'll do it for Terra."

"But you can't Beast Boy...," Raven said.

He glared at her. "Why not??"

"You aren't human either."

Cyborg pointed. "You're an elf."

The changeling took a deep breath. "Then.....Th-Then I will be human. F-For the test!!"

"Whoah!!"

"Goodness, no!!"

"Beast Boy...don't say—"

"You heard me! I-I'll be human—"

"Beast Boy....," Robin marched firmly towards him. "Don't do this. It's not that dire."

"What are you talking about?!? It sure is!! This is Terra we're talking about here!!" Beast Boy cackled.

"We all know that if you were to turn back human...you'd die...," Robin pointed.

"Dude! Only if I'm human long enough for the disease inside of me to take hold!! I've had to do it before, and I've lasted five minutes before I started to get symptoms. Five minutes! It's my record but it's a big enough window in my book!" He turned towards Simon. "I'll do the experiment. But only if you can get it set up fast enough."

"No you won't," Robin firmly said.

Beast Boy clenched his fists and spun to face the Boy Wonder. "For the last time, Robin—"

"How about this for the 'last time'??" Robin frowned and pointed. "'N-O'. No! I will not let you risk yourself over this type of experiment! It's too dangerous!! Nothing should force you to have to switch back to human form!! As the leader of the Titans, I aim to look after you and there comes a point when I draw the line!!"

"Then I'll quit the Titans if I have to you and you won't boss me around!!!!" Beast Boy shouted.

Robin leaned back.

Starfire held her hands clasped together.

Raven and Cyborg stared silently.

".......," Beast Boy seethed. "I'm sorry, Robin. I respect you, dude, and I owe you a lot of stuff...I know. But Terra means far too much to me!! She means more to me than fighting crime. Even more than breathing sometimes—I swear. If throwing in my communicator and uniform is what it takes to save her, then by my dead parents' watery grave....I'll...do...it....."

"............," Robin looked aside.

Silence.

Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head. He sighed. "Aw come on, Robin....let him do it."

"But—"

"And who would do it if he didn't, dawg?" Cyborg pointed. "You?"

"........."

"This is Terra we're talking about. Give B.B. a chance."

A beat.

Robin sighed. He looked weakly in Beast Boy's direction. "You know you've had plenty of warning, right?"

"I know what I know...," Beast Boy said.

"Ohhhhhh....," Starfire bit her lips and her eyes glistened. "I do not wish for our pointy-eared friend to be in danger as well!" She sniffed.

"Boys will be boys, Star....," Raven said. She glanced over at Beast Boy purposefully as she added: "But men are men."

Beast Boy blinked. ".........," he smiled.

"_I shall see what I can set up...,"_ Simon uttered. _"It may very well be possible to perform the energy experiment on Beast Boy within a span of five minutes."_

"You mean turnin' him into stone and back again?" Cyborg asked.

The hologram nodded. _"But it will take some setting up. But if y'all plan on going through with this......then there's a second half of the plan that can be enacted while the Main Lab is set up for the procedure."_

Raven's eyes narrowed. "And that is?"

Simon smiled. _"Bringing in a certain statue......"_

A beat.

Cyborg smiled. "Well allright. Lemme get the towing rig of the T-Car!!"

Raven rolled her eyes.

"You'd be coming along to help....right, Rae?"

"Yeah....why not?"

"Why not indeed. Let's skedaddle."

Raven and Cyborg marched off.

"I shall see you out the doors!" Starfire flew over—paused in mid flight—and skirted back towards Beast Boy. She gave him a gentle hug, smiled, and flew out with the other two.

".....," Beast Boy blushed. "Wh-What was that for?"

"Anything and everything...," Robin uttered. He sighed and patted his gloved hand on the changeling's shoulder. "What can I say, man? You've gotten very brave and stubborn since you joined us."

Beast Boy gulped. "Or maybe I'm just suicidal, dude."

"Same difference....believe me."

Two crooked smiles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood with Tempest halfway down a Phaser Labs stairwell under the cold stare of an electric light.

"So.....like....Terra pretty much became a martyr for the City's sake?"

I leaned against the corner of two adjoining walls of white-washed cinderblocks. I scribbled in a notepad. I held it up a sheet for the Atlantean to read.

His dark eyes narrowed.

A beat.

"Oh...," he replied. "Of course she's not 'dead'. Ahem....I'll be sure to not say 'martyr' in front of the other Titans," he simpered.

I smiled slightly. I scribbled. I showed him: _'Terra means a lot to the Titans. Bad history or no."_

"I can see that....," Tempest braced himself against the metal hand railings of the stairs. "Wish I knew about her a bit beforehand. But who am I to complain? Heh." A beat. "They told you, right?"

I bit my lip.

He made a face. "They kept it secret from you too?"

I shrugged and waved my hand from side to side.

"Somewhat??"

I thought about it. A beat. I produced a pen and notepad paper.

'_The Titans are practically as private as I am.'_

"Heh. That's pretty damn true!" Tempest smirked. "Silly thing is, they can talk!"

I pouted.

"Pffft...what excuses do you need even if you COULD talk, Noir? I swear...you're practically a nymph."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Erm....ahem.....I mean 'angel'. Sorry."

I smirked and shrugged.

"So.....," Tempest glanced down at his feet. "How long ago was it?"

I scratched my head. I held up my fingers.

"Nine weeks?"

I frowned.

"Months, my bad."

I nodded.

"Wow....that's really recent. I guess these guys have every reason to be angsty." A beat. "Though....they really just want her back. I wonder why? I mean...in spite of all that she did to hurt them, why would they want her back so much?"

I dangled my metal and flesh limbs by my side and stared off through the nearby walls. My black eyes relaxed. I thought about a month ago when the Titans slipped out of the Tower to pay homage to Terra's 'statue'. I had been left behind and that was when I first discovered the DVD of Terra's birthday party. I never tried looking for more DVDs or photo albums of the Titans and the earth elemental girl. I supposed that it was not my place to do so. Terra was in the Titans' past. Not mine. Even though I was a Teen Titan.

And that's where my head would meet itself after running in circles constantly. It was always the subject of Terra that truly separated myself from my teammates. Forget the fact that I joined the crew so long after their true establishment. But history dictates that there is only one 'Sixth Titan', and it's not me. It never was me. And it was that Sixth Titan that created a never-ending dividing line between my friends and myself. I did not know their pain. I did not feel their betrayal. And for that, I shall forever be—in many senses—a noobie. An outsider. A third person perspective.

But had I amended all that? I may not have felt Terra, but I sure as Hell felt Slade. I may have been inducted into the Titans a month or two before I lost my left arm, but I was not truly a part of the team. The real heroic coronation required understanding, commitment....sacrifice. I could very well have trotted away when everything went to shit and let Slade consume the Titans with the Balance of Morals. But that's not what I wanted. Running west would have been the way of Wyldecarde...and perhaps Jordan. But down deep underneath, I didn't feel like either of those two. I was Noir. I was the new 'Sixth Teen Titan'. My pain became their pain. And the night they hugged me gratefully in the infirmary was the junction, the union, the marriage. I had become a part of something. I had spilled blood alongside them all. A covenant of the body and soul.

And still....Terra.........poor, misunderstood Terra.

I was just as clueless about her as Tempest felt. Perhaps even more so. I felt like I deserved to be out there in that stairwell with him instead of listening to the rest of Simon Stone's conference. And I knew that—when it came down to it—the Titans wouldn't argue that I had to be anywhere or do anything in this regard. They wanted Terra's pain to be their pain alone. And—ironically—that hurt me more than it would have if I shared the memories and anguish with them.

I took a deep breath and leaned back with my arms folded.

_I'll be an outsider. I'll be a ghost._

I shut my black eyes under my shades.

_Just for today. Just for today._

"I guess we're at the event horizon of something spectacular for our teammates, huh?" Tempest remarked.

I looked at him.

He simpered. "I-I mean.....this could be the happiest moment of their lives for all we know. Heh....kinda makes us feel insignificant, huh?"

I rolled my black eyes and snickered breathily.

"I'm serious!! Watch Terra come back to life and they'll say: 'Oooh! We've got Earth back! Who needs water?'"

I shook my head, smiling.

"And you should be scared too!" he smiled and pointed. "Terra could start enough volcanoes to smoke you off the continent!!"

I stuck my tongue out.

"Better be glad there're no surface dweller septic tanks nearby," he flexed his fingers and glowed a slight purple.

I punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow!! Seacrab!!"

He kicked me in the shins.

I hissed in pain and hobbled.

"Hahahahaha!!" he pointed.

I chuckled helplessly.

"Flirt with each other when you're back at the Tower," uttered a familiar robot.

Tempest and I glanced up.

Cyborg marched down the steps. Raven floated behind him.

"We've got a plan in action....," Raven droned.

"Where're you off to?" Tempest asked.

"Off to give a good old friend of ours a ride," Cyborg said. He smirked. "A very.....special ride."

I rubbed my ankle and stood up straight.

"I see....then it is time for extraction?" Tempest said.

"Uh.....yeah. Sure, Flipper."

Tempest glanced at me.

I glanced at him.

He faced the two Titans as they descended, "Can I join you guys??"

"What for?"

"Because.....," Tempest shrugged. "I'd really like to help in any fashion that I can. Besides...it would behoove me to get to know this 'Terra' more, right?"

Cyborg smirked. "Right on. Follow us, man. And quit dragging scales!"

"I'm not---"

"Let's just go...," Raven grunted.

"..........," Tempest glanced at me. "Any bets that Terra is actually a _sane_ superheroine?"

I shook my head 'no'.

"Yeah.......this is the real world," Tempest turned and hopped down the steps after the other two. "....the REALLY dry and annoying world."

I shrugged.

The three descended down the stairwell.

I was alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy sat shirtless on a medical bed with his feet dangling. Three laboratory scientists administered to him from all sides with examination instruments and electrical sensors. They checked his vital signs and health and prepped him with a few shots and minor drugs for whatever emergency may possibly arrive with the compounded adventure that was soon to transpire: 1) His reversion to human form and 2) His turning to 'stone'.

The changeling was calmly braving the whole matter until a nurse planted a stethoscope against his chest.

"Nnnnnghh!!" the green elf shivered. He clenched his teeth and hissed. "Man....don't you techno geeks ever store those things in places where ice doesn't....._grow_?!?"

The lab technician smiled. "I often wonder about that myself. But I haven't seen any ice in the cabinets. And if you're wondering, they're working on cloaked ice at STAR Labs, not here."

"Cloaked ice??" Beast Boy blinked as scientists checked his blood pressure. "Sheesh! What'll they think of next?? Satellite radio??" A beat. ".........oh wait."

Robin walked into the room.

"Well, look who it is! Tall, dark, and badass!......er....minus the 'tall' part."

Robin couldn't help but smirk. "You seem in better spirits."

"Robin...when have I _not_ been in good spirits?" Beast Boy smiled brightly and darted his eyes suggestively at the uniquely female lab techinicians circling him on the medical bed. "Come to think about it, when did I die? Cuz I think I'm in labcoat heaven now!"

"Don't quit your day life," uttered one nurse.

"Hey! Nerds aren't supposed to be able to say that!"

A chuckle or two.

Robin folded his arm. "I came to check on you."

Beast Boy nodded with a soft smile. "Thanks, dude."

A beat.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "You know....it's never too late."

"For what, man?"

"To reconsider—"

"I reconsider nothing...," Beast Boy matter-of-factly said. He bore his arm for another shot. "I need to do this, Robin. After Terra practically gave up her entire life for the sake of protecting us-SSSS!!" He winced as the needle sunk in. He bit his lip, sweatdropped, and continued: "....wouldn't it not be....j-just plain _right_ to pay her the same respect? Besides....I'm perfectly safe. Look at me! I practically have Charlie's Angels prepping me up like a supermodel!"

Another lab technician uttered: "Never knew he was so blatant in person—"

"Hey! Pretty damn proud of it too, Mrs!"

"_Miss_."

"Oooh? You don't say—"

_-Prick!-_

"Snkkk!!" Beast Boy winced again. "Right....I think I'll keep my jokes to non grownups from now on. Got it."

A smirking nurse...

Robin stepped forward. "Beast Boy....I....I-I think we all know why you're doing this...."

Beast Boy lowered his gaze to the floor. He took a deep, gentle breath.

Robin continued: "And....well....I'd do the same thing."

"Dude. I know. You'd do more probably too. You think I'm even half as brave as you?? Pfft!"

Robin raised a gloved hand. "Listen, Beast Boy. You might have had your....erm....less than flattering moments with the Titans—"

"Heh."

"—but you gradually showed just how strong and composed you really are," the Boy Wonder said. His eyemask narrowed. "When we faced Slade for the second major time...I...I was really proud of you. Did I ever tell you that?"

Beast Boy bit his lip and looked off. "You....you hardly tell us anything, Robin." A beat. "I-I mean, besides the usual 'good job' and 'well done' stuff."

Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah....well.....I was proud of you, Beast Boy."

"Why?" the changeling smirked. "Cuz I made it alive even after being dropped down by Slade and nearly crushed by a boulder?"

"Not that, Beast Boy," Robin said. He leaned forward. "It was you who made the rest of us realize the true goodness in Terra."

"What are you getting at?" Beast Boy asked. The nurses finished their duties and he was slipping his jumpsuit's shirt back on.

"What I'm getting at is that—while the rest of us hated Terra's guts—you still believed in her. And that was very endearing and courageous of you, Beast Boy. You weren't closed-minded."

"Heh....I dunno," Beast Boy hopped down off the medical bed. "It felt kinda sappy and helpless at the time."

"Whatever it was...it was better than the example set by the rest of us," Robin said. "I for one was ready to haul Terra off to jail with no second or third chances. I was....s-so overcome by what she had done for Slade's cause that I couldn't bring myself to try and understand her. I was in complete battle mode. And I'm sure everyone else was too. You saw more in Terra. You were tolerant and understanding. And because of your caution, we didn't go over the edge."

"Why??" Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips. "Because I had a crush on her?"

"Beast Boy...," Robin spoke firmly. "We nearly killed Terra down there in Slade's lair."

"............."

"Raven would have sliced her to bits. I would have set her on fire. Cyborg would have shattered her apart. And Starfire would have melted her. But we didn't. We hesitated. Because we knew....we knew that Terra was a human being. But not only that....Terra _meant_ something to us. She was a part of us. All four of us were too busy being angry. But you...Beast Boy.........wh-when Terra was torn away from the Titans, it was like a limb being ripped out. And it bled through you. I....I-I can't imagine how painful it was for you to try and understand what had consumed and enveloped someone so close. But you took all of that pain upon yourself Beast Boy because you believed in Terra. And it wasn't some pathetic 'crush' or infatuation. It was the respect of a hero, a human being, and a friend. Terra thought she had no friends....and Slade worked her with that. But she had one true friend. She had you, Beast Boy. And she still does. I was proud of you then...and I still am now. So proud that—I'm gonna let you go through this stupid stunt so that we can go on and bring Terra back. But as soon as you get into that test chamber...you're out of your hands. You'll be in your own hands. And—in many ways—Terra will be in yours as well. It'll be a major test for you and your character and stamina, Beast Boy. But as far as I'm concerned....you've already passed it."

Beast Boy hugged himself and stared off with a sigh.

Robin placed a hand on his shoulder. "Just....at the same time....I like to think of myself as your friend too, Beast Boy. Not just your leader. And as a friend—moreso than anything—I don't want to see you get hurt." He lowered his glove and exhaled once the speech was done.

"..............ugh....," Beast Boy shuddered and smiled helplessly. "You're getting me all melty, man."

Robin smirked. "Sorry."

"Don't be...."

Silence.

Beast Boy ran a nervous hand through his hair. "I......I believed in Terra.....yeah. Never did I want to hurt her.....e-except one time....."

Robin leaned his head to the side.

The changeling uttered: "At the fairgrounds....when I found out that Terra was truly a traitor and Slade wasn't just lying about it. I.......I felt so angry. I..." A beat. "Y-Yeah, I know we were close. I know w-we had spent almost all the time she was with us hanging out together and just........being close. But I wasn't so much hurt because she had betrayed me. I just looked at her face and for once I didn't see the friend I knew. I saw someone who....who had betrayed herself. And not just with Slade, but over and over again in her lonely life." Beast Boy gestured emphatically as he spoke: "Terra never needed to be alone. She'd been through tough stuff and all, yeah. But.....wh-why'd she have to be such a loner, huh?? Her powers never hurt anyone. Slade made her think that. She made HERSELF think that. Why was she so afraid to....g-get close? To become friends? She got close with me...and yet she didn't really get close to me. It wasn't until after Slade hired her that she started really hanging out with me...as if her apprenticeship with the madman was her failsafe for if I did anything to hurt her. As if it was all some crazy experiment. She was dipping her toes into me or something.....ya know?"

"......," Robin slowly nodded.

Beast Boy's shoulders sagged. He sighed and stared off into space. "I....I couldn't understand how a person would do that to herself. Not get close...and yet get close....and somehow end up hating everyone in the end so that they hated her back. And for a split moment, I saw Terra as someone who only victimized herself and couldn't accept the goodness that was just handed to her and the entire life she lived in all of its mysteries and loneliness seemed like one giant waste to me. And....and I thought it was so ugly. I....I-I wanted to show her that. And yet I was so angry. I told her that she didn't have any friends....and I abandoned her......."

A beat.

He rubbed the back of his neck slowly. ".....you see....Robin.....I-I wasn't so mad at Terra when she attacked us under Slade's command. Because I know that she wasn't the first to betray us. I betrayed her, Robin. I betrayed her myself. I hurt her in the worst way possible. And who cares if maybe Slade orchestrated it for things to happen that way. And screw whatever psychological excuses there may be for what I did. I know my heart. I know my words. I hurt Terra on purpose. And I shall never.....ever forget that."

The changeling paused.

A shuddering breath.

Then: "I love her so much. I just want a second chance to.....make things they way they were. But not exactly the way they were. Instead....something truer, ya know? Something that isn't clouded by dark loyalties or fears or the threat of loneliness and rejection. I want to be there for Terra like I've always wanted to be. But only....only if she would have the capacity to forgive me. I'd do anything to be with her either way....but.....I want to honor her, Robin. I truly do. I want her to know that somewhere inside, I adore her a million times more than I would ever want to purposefully hurt her. And everytime I see her stone form....her rock-like eyes staring off in endless pain....just, like, a touch away from being awake....it tears me a-apart on the inside. It tears me apart because it's like I-I sent her to the greatest abandonment ever. Some sort of crazy purgatory or sub-Hell or something. If we can get her out of that....if _I_ can get her out....then I won't let anything stop that from happening."

Robin nodded. "Just know this, Beast Boy. What Terra did...it was of her own choice. It was never your fault. She did what she did because she had to. And it wasn't done as a victim or a wounded soul...but rather as a hero."

A beat.

"And in the end...," the Boy Wonder added, "...we have every reason to be proud of her too."

".......," Beast Boy smiled. "Yeah....you're right. We do." A pause. "Uhm....how's the experiment going in the setup?"

Robin shrugged. "Still halfway through constructing the equipment."

"Yeah.....," Beast Boy suddenly shuddered. "Um....look dude....I'm gonna need some time, okay?" A beat. "Some alone time?"

"By all means...," Robin gestured. He turned and exited the medical room.

"Hey Robin....wait, man."

The Boy Wonder stopped and turned to look over his caped shoulder.

Beast Boy wasn't facing him, and yet he gestured and said. "Thanks.....I-I promise I won't die on you or something."

Robin smirked. "Sounds like a plan."

"Ya know.....," the changeling added with a mutter. "....I-I can accept what you're telling me."

"What's that?"

"That I'm the reason that the Titans didn't kill Terra in the end."

"I see...."

"But Robin?"

"Yeah, B.B.?"

Beast Boy turned and looked gently. "Back when Slade first used his nanoprobes on us.....w-we could have hurt you really bad, ya know. And some of us wanted to."

"........"

"But Starfire was there."

"........."

"You understand what I mean, dude?"

".........perfectly....," Robin turned and walked out.

A beat.

"Nnngh...," Beast Boy groaned and plopped down on the bed. He stared up at the cold, carboard ceiling tiles. "....he doesn't understand a thing........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay y'all...keep calm. We're gonna do this real slow. Raven, are you ready?"

"Yes, Cyborg."

"Flipper?? Keeping a trained eye?"

"Absolutely. Do your best."

"The rest of you!! Keep the area outside the cavern clear! As soon as I carve the rock facing loose beneath her, Raven's gonna carry her out onto the trailer! Then the caravan will head on out west beneath the Interstate!"

A ring of city workers nodded. A handful of scientists were also present. Floodlights and sensor equipment had been set up around the perimeter of the hollow cavern. Above the groups of people, Raven hovered. Her cloak billowed and she meditated gently with hands aimed at the statue. Tempest perched atop a nearby cleft in the rock. He crouched low and eyed the feminine figure with his dark optics.

In the meantime, Cyborg practically was lying down titanium-chest first against the stony floor. He extended an arm which he grafted into a red-hot laser cutter. With slow precision, he stretched the sparking limb towards the 'blob' of rock beneath Terra.

"Allright.....here goes nothing....," Cyborg muttered softly. He gritted his teeth and proceeded to cut.....

_ZkkkkkKkkk!! ZkkkkKKKkkkkkKKkk!!!_

Dust and stone pebbles and marble slivers fell and flew. The sparking tool ate its way through the earthen block loudly. The cavern echoed with Cyborg's ministrations. The scientists and workers eyed tensely, ready to spring into action if anything adversely collapsed and produced chaos.

Raven muttered gently to herself: "Azarath Metrion Zinthos...Azarath Metrion Zinthos..." She gently batted away a flying pebble or two with wisps of black telekinesis so as to preserve Cyborg's unhindered effort.

_ZkkkKkkkkKKKKkkk!!_

Cyborg sweat as he carved halfway through. His human nostril flared with concentrated breathing.

Tempest shuffled sideways like a crab, crouched low. "A little lower...," he hissed. "A little lower!!"

"'Kay.....," Cyborg whispered and lowered the tool. He cut straight through the erected plaque, severing jaggedly across somewhere between 'A Teen Titan' and 'A True Friend'.

"Almost there....," Tempest whispered. He glanced up at Raven.

Raven nodded. Her eyes glowed.

The workers shifted in place.

The cutting tool got to the edge.

"And......."

_ZkkkkkkKkkKkkkk-KKTTTTT!!_

"There!"

"Grab it!!"

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Raven extended a bubble of black that caught the stone girl like a catcher's mitt and floated her safely into the claustrophobic air.

"Boo-ya!!"

A collective sighed filled the cavern. Even a few clapping hands.

"Don't applaud just yet!" Cyborg grunted. He stood up and retracted his arm back into normal form. "Raven....care do to the honors??"

"I'm 'honoring' as we speak," she droned. Terra 'magically' floated past the line of sighting workers up the thin tunnel and towards the bright lights of the afternoon air. Outside, the T-Car rested with a metal trailer attached to it. A throng of chains and special, tensile cords were also ready for the exquisite transport.

"Well...this is looking promising," Tempest smirked. "Wouldn't you say?"

Cyborg wasn't smiling.

Tempest blinked. "You don't seem so enthused."

"This is nowhere near finished," Cyborg said. He glanced at the Atlantean. "All eyes are on B.B. at the moment."

Tempest nodded. "But of course."

The two shuffled along at the end of the line.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The laboratory was filled with the clamor of scientists and constructors erecting a large scale version of the translucent cylinder used to contain the organic material so successfully converted to stone and back in Simon's previous experiments. At the same time, a huge handful of mechanical equipment was being carted in and set up on the far corners of the interior. Jean-Luc and Rachel Mendez were lending a helpful, half-metal hand. They used their titanium strength to good use, as if it were community service in retribution of their dormant darksides. Rachel smiled and said something in Spanish to a woman that seemed to understand her. The two of them laughed and finished pushing a computer console into place atop a huge tray. Jean-Luc conversed with the hologram of Simon Stone while helping to fasten the cylinder in place. It felt like the beginnings of some Fall celebration of mysterious, happy sorts.

Which would probably explain why Starfire chose to watch it—silently—from the far side near the entrance to the room. She hugged herself and smiled gently with a fair breath.

Eventually, Robin strolled in and stood beside her.

"Hey."

"Hey to you as well, Robin," Starfire grinned. "Is this not a blessed event?"

"Ummm....," the Boy Wonder scratched his spikey head of hair. "Minus the questionable former criminals undergoing cybernetic rehab....sure."

"Hehehe...," Starfire giggled. "Robin, you are quite the pest of mist."

"_Pessimist_," Robin corrected. "And might I add....you're rather cheerful."

"When do I fail to be so?"

"Good point."

She smiled. She continued watching the scene. "I am....overjoyed. It pleases me so to realize that our long lost friend may once again be in our midst. Though I have long forgiven her for her vicariously enacted misdeeds by the hands of Slade, I would greatly desire to convey to her my benevolence in the first and second person. I am inclined to believe that Terra indeed is not quite as sentient in this state of 'rockness' as can be presumed. I would hope that she's enjoyed a peaceful rest the entirety of this time. I do not imagine her deserving any less."

Robin looked off. His gloved arms were folded. He seemed....preoccupied.

Starfire noticed it like a deflated bird inside an empty cage.

"Robin??" she leaned her fair head to the side. "Something troubles you....."

"Eh.....n-not really, Star...."

A beat. "You are....unhappy with Terra's return?"

"It's not that," he shrugged. "I just....."

A beat.

She blinked her green eyes.

He sighed. He gave in with a limp scratch of the neck. "I just got done talking to Beast Boy and......and it's not that I envy him for his bravery or whatnot. I'm sure I've made it clear that I would be more than glad to undergo the experiment on Terra's behalf before she goes."

"Truly...," Starfire nodded.

"But I can't bring myself to say no to Beast Boy. As much as I worry about his safety and take responsibility for him. I j-just have to tell myself that this is a time where.....wh-where I have to lift my responsibility."

"How so?" the alien girl asked.

"Because....because I don't think I was ever truly responsible for Terra, Star," he muttered. He sighed and his arms hung at his side as he gazed off into the nearest wall. "...I should have. I should have been more careful around her. I should have paid her more attention. I should have been watchful of her feelings and the things Slade would take advantage of in her. But....I-I failed. I failed, Star. I never wanted to give her a chance. I wanted to deal with her coldly. And when she betrayed us, all I could think about was ending her career and putting her in prison."

"Robin...we all failed Terra. The Titans...we collectively overlooked her true weaknesses and vulnerabilities," Starfire said. "What happened to her.....the way she fell into Slade's arms.....it was on behalf of our mutual neglect."

"But even if that's true....Still, it doesn't excuse what I've done....or rather what I've failed to do! As a leader....," Robin gestured. "And what makes it worse is that....th-that I repeated it, Star. When Noir was framed and had to pull off the Wyldecarde act. All I could think about was the rest of the Titans' interest. I could only think about myself. I was so selfish."

Starfire took a deep breath. "Robin...you are a very direct person. You have no superpowers, and thus you cannot afford to choose the issues and situations at hand by happenstance. I notice constantly that when there is danger at hand, you strive to reach the heart of the matter. But you do not do so selfishly. You are an element of speed and agility. Very brave and full of expedient, righteous fury. When Slade threatened us both during Terra's legacy and Wyldecarde's existence...you took it upon yourself to protect that which was most real and physical to you...and that was a direct threat to the Titans. That is your responsibility as a leader, is it not?"

"I should have a broader scope, Star...," Robin grumbled. "I should be able to....t-to see more. To have tolerance. To try and psychoanalyze things a bit more before going all berserk."

"Hehehehe...you look quite handsome when you go berserk."

Robin glared.

Starfire cleared her throat. She blushed. "But it is true...."

Robin looked over at the preparation inside the lab. "Beast Boy is more mature than I've given him credit. He deserves to be up there. He never gave up on Terra. And tonight...t-tonight we may very well have the culmination of everything he's worked for and dreamed of. We may have a glorious reunion on our hands."

"Hehehe! You said 'glorious'!" Starfire beamed.

Robin couldn't help it. He smiled. "You're.....you're really cute, Star."

"Heeee!" she hugged him from the behind. "I am so ecstatic at Terra's inevitable release!"

Robin did something which he hadn't done in a while. If ever.

He leaned back into Starfire's embrace. Practically resting against her.

The sudden awkwardness of such intimacy stunned the alien girl. She froze against him...her amber face a crimson that he couldn't see from where he stood.

Gently, his gloved fingers met hers. He took a shuddering breath and gazed off as he said: "It's good to know....th-that some people in this universe don't ever give up on others."

"..........," Starfire smiled gently. She gazed off too. "Truly......Robin.....I-I am afraid I do n-not understand the purpose of your statement just now."

Robin sighed with a painful smile. "It's okay, Star." He patted her hand. "It's all okay....."

".........."

SCHWISH!!

The two shuffled apart and turned as one to look at the door.

I stood in the doorway. I smiled. I walked to the side and made way for Beast Boy. The changeling was dressed in white cloth resembling the material that nurses usually wear. It was his garb for the experiment. For some reason—the long full sleeves and wide pant legs made him look smaller. Truly more like the 'boy' than the 'beast'.

The animorph took a deep breath and said: "Okay dudes.....let's rock and roll."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Throughout the central streets of the City, pedestrians came to a stop and gazed inward. Families on sidewalks with their children. Old couples at bus stops. After-school cliques at storefronts. Apartment dwellers through loft windows and balconies.

Cars stopped as multiple red lights in a row went into effect. A few drivers put their gear into park and stepped out to get a better look with craning necks. A group of workers at a construction site stopped what they were doing and eyed the scene.

Cruising at fifteen miles per hour, three police squad cars led a caravan of blinking and strobing lights. In the center of the vehicular line was the T-Car, dragging a metal cart that encased the ominous statue of Terra in mid throe. A utility vehicle with emergency lights cruised and blinked behind. Above it all, Raven floated with meditative hands prepared to 'catch' the statue if any bump in the road should happen to upset the impromptu transport.

Inside the T-Car, Cyborg drove and Tempest rode in the passenger's seat. At the sight of so many gazing faces, the two exchanged glances. Tempest simpered. Cyborg bit his lip. They both shrugged....and moved along.

They had every reason to press on...

The sun began to set as the caravan went under the overpass.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Allright, Beast Boy. All systems are calibrated and set to go. The equipment is rated at one hundred and ten percent efficiency at the moment. Everything says green light."_

"Heh.....heh....heh....," the changeling panted/chuckled. "Glad for that extra ten percent, dude...." He gulped. He shivered a bit, doing his best to stand up straight. He was positioned atop a circle of metal grafted into the floor in the center of the laboratory. The huge, translucent cylinder hung above him. "So....a-are we gonna do this thing?"

Starfire glanced over. "Should we not wait for Terra to 'get here'?"

"........," I looked at Robin.

"I think the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we'll be.....l-less anxious. It's Beast Boy I'm concerned about right now."

"Yeah....," Beast Boy simpered. "Me too."

I smirked.

Some lab technicians typed away at a console on the right and left. There were about four members of personnel in the place. Along with Simon Stone's hologram and—yes—Rachel and Jean-Luc watching from the distance. I supposed they were volunteers. They looked more like cybernetic bouncers.

"The energy core is ready to distribute the catalyst....," an assistant said. "Distribution rods at maximum rotary potential."

"Affirmative!" another chirped. "Reserve banks on the ready!"

"Auxiliary support system onl—"

_"Cut the crap! Let's just start the blasted thing! Damn!"_ Simon rolled his human eyes. _"Of course......if the subject is ready to start."_

I smiled confidently and folded my arms.

Beast Boy gulped. He looked Robin's way.

The Boy Wonder saluted. "She's all yours...."

A beat.

Beast Boy sighed with a crooked smile. "Y-Yeah....she is....isn't she?"

Starfire clasped her hands together.

Beast Boy closed his green eyes. He exhaled, flexed his upper limbs, and nodded. "Okay.....l-lower the tube."

The hologram of Simon nodded. He gestured a flickering hand to the lab technicians.

Devices were appropriately pulled, pressed, typed, and yanked.

With a whirring sound, the mechanical apparatus lowered and encased Beast Boy. There was a hissing sound as a vacuum was produced. Beast Boy winced....then flexed his jaws. He glanced at us with a silly smirk.

Starfire giggled breathily.

Robin was silent.

_"Any time you are ready, Beast Boy......,"_ Simon Stone said. _"We should be able to do this much quicker than five minutes. Remind us......how long do you need to become human?"_

"That's long enough," his muffled voice said from behind the Plexiglas. "I suppose it's time for my opening monologue."

_"Give us a signal when you're ready for our part of the process to begin......"_ The hologram again flagged a nearby assistant. The machine parts above Beast Boy and the cylinder started to hum to life. Power flickered through the brightly lit laboratory. The air conditioning kicked up a notch or two.

Beast Boy took deep breaths. He clenched his fists. He stared down past his white fatigues.

My smile slowly faded as I watched.....and watched......and watched....

Starfire held her hands together pensively.

Robn was silent.

"..................," Beast Boy clenched his teeth and arched his neck, head, torso back....almost hitting the Plexiglas wall behind him. His fingers uncurled and stretched out. His knees went taut. And.....his skin peeled away.

My black eyes blinked.

His skin wasn't peeling away. Merely...the color was. The green hue faded away like murk licking off my blade. The emerald jumped off him in a trail up his feet, beneath his pants and shirt, across his arms, and over his face and nose. A pale peach highlighted his body. His ears shrunk to stubby round lobes. His eyes flashed underneath tightly shut lids. There was a bright pulse as the green spikes of his head was replaced by golden waves. After the transformation slithered its way up and leapt off his forehead, he seemed to lurch over with a heavy breath. His face twisted in a sickening fashion and his temples pulsed as he uttered in a hoarse and violently human voice: "N-Now, Doc. Now!"

_"Hit it!!"_ Simon barked.

CH-TUNG!!!

WHURRRRR-RRRRRR!!

FL-FLASH!!!

VROMMMMMM!!!!

Four huge, rotating robot arms spun down from the ceiling. They glowed a bright yellow and revolved around the cylinder at a breakneck speed. The air kicked up. A golden glow throbbed as the robotic 'fingers' focused their energies on the occupant inside the Plexiglas.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

We bore witness to a kaleidoscopic flicker of Beast Boy's heaving, panting body from beyond the spinning arms.

I swallowed nervously.

Starfire had her hands cupped over her mouth.

Robin was silent.

_"Catalyst initiation!!"_ Simon shouted.

A nearby assistant nodded. She uttered: "T-Minus Five! Four!!"

Rachel bit her fleshly lip.

Jean-Luc took a firm breath.

"Three! Two!"

Beast Boy shuddered once or twice.

I took a step forward.

He regained his dizzy balance and stood up for—

"One! Zero!"

"_Activate!!"_

FLASH!!!!!!

A yellow explosion of light.

Starfire and I shaded our eyes.

Rachel and Jean-Luc flinched.

The assistants strained to see.

Simon Stone stood absolutely still.

WHUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr.r.r.r.r.r.r.........

The arms stopped spinning.

The glow inside the cylinder pulsed on for a few seconds....then died like a deteriorating shell.

And a statue rested inside. A light brown slab of stone. With thin arms dangling like granite branches. A torso that was hunched over. A feverish face with mouth agape sickly. Thin eyes.

It wasn't a very pleasing freeze-frame.

"Beast Boy.....," Starfire murmured.

I bit my lip.

Simon Stone's hologram blinked. He and the scientists stared in wonder. _"It.........it worked. A charm......one hundred percent!!"_

"Good....now bring him back," Robin muttered.

A beat.

.....

The Boy Wonder looked over. "BRING HIM BACK!!"

The echoes ringed painfully in our ears.

"_Uh......r-right!!"_ the holographic Construct winced. He pointed a flickering hand. _"Reversal! On the dot!!"_

"Already activating, sir!!"

"Inverted energy withdrawal!!"

"Affirmative!!"

WhurrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRR!!!!

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The robot arms spun again.

The fingers started glowing again.

I bit my lip. I crossed two metal fingers behind my back.

VROMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!

The wind.

The pulsing.

The gold—

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

"Nnnngh!!" Beast Boy's voice echoed as he hobbled forward and planted two smoking, human hands against the Plexiglas. He panted for breath, shivering all over.

_"You're back, Beast Boy! You're back!!"_

"Hurry!! Hurry!!" Starfire hopped desperately. "Change into an animal!!"

"I......," the human coughed. He sputtered. He wheezed inside the tube. "I.....I feel....."

"The disease, Beast Boy! It'll consume you!! Change back!!"

He was sweating all over. Bulbs of liquid trickled down his pale, smooth temples. Subtly green eyes teared as they gazed widely at the floor. His limbs shook and his golden hair was tosseled.

"Beast Boy!!!" Starfire shouted.

"I.........this.......T-Terra......," he muttered. He clenched his teeth. He tilted his head back. " NnnnngggghhhhRAAAUGH!!"

A flash of green.

SWOOOSH!!!

The body shrunk into a furred creature at the bottom of tube. Complete with elongated body, a tale, a snout, and.....green fur.

".......," a trembling mongoose shook its head. It looked up at us, chirped once or twice....and then ballooned outward into an exhausted and panting elf sitting on his behind.

_"Raise the cylinder!!"_

CL-CLUNK!!!

WHURRRRRR.

The tube raised.

Beast Boy practically sprawled himself out on the floor, panting.

Two technicians ran over.

Robin stood above the scene.

I craned my neck to see.

A beat.

The two technicians checked his most basic vital signs...and then his temperature. They glanced at each other....smiled...and gave the thumb's up.

"Whew.....stop the adrenaline, I want to get off...," Beast Boy muttered.

"You are alive and elfin again!!!" SWOOOOSH!! Starfire soared over and scooped the changeling up in happy arms. "Heeeeee!!" She snuggled him to her chest. "You are undamaged!!"

"Uhhhh......," Beast Boy blushed. "Yeah....."

Starfire parted the hug and jumped in place. "That was so incredibly brave of you!"

"And it worked," Robin smirked. He held a gloved hand out. "Way to go, Beast Boy. You just paved the way to Terra—"

Beast Boy hugged him. "Love you too, man!!!"

Starfire giggled.

I shook my head and smirked.

"Okay, B.B. Get off me---GET OFF ME!! Sheesh...."

Beast Boy stuck his tongue out, did a little jig in place, and inhaled. "Whew yeah! Back to being beastly again!"

"May I be so bold as to inquire....," Starfire smiled with her hands held together and her head leaning to the side. "Why did you choose a Terran weasel to be your animal?"

"It's a mongoose," Beast Boy corrected. "And it's simple, really. That's the first animal I ever became."

"Really??" Robin smirked with a curious eyebrow raised.

Beast Boy nodded. "It's a long story. Now let's frickin' get Terra here."

There was a chiming sound at a computer console.

Simon Stone's hologram turned and glanced at it. A beat. He turned back and smiled at us. _"I don't think we have to wait for long."_

Silence.

Beast Boy took a deep breath, gulped, and said: "Allrighty then......what are we waiting for?" There was a trembling to his voice.

And—ensuing—there was a trembling sensation throughout the entire room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"About this Terra....," Tempest murmured to me.

We sat on a bench at the far side of the laboratory a half hour later. Terra's free-floating statue was being lowered into the metal ring beneath the cylinder by a combination of Raven's telekinesis, Cyborg's brawn, and Starfire's grace. Robin stood in the center of the room and acted as conductor...guiding the movement with the gentle sway of a leader's hands. Beast Boy stood at the side of the room—hugging himself—while the hologram of Simon Stone and his physical associates looked on.

"About this Terra...," he started over, "...I think she's unknown to practically everyone."

I glanced at him curiously.

"When we rode through Town to bring her safely here...," the Atlantean spoke. "...many surface dwellers stared at her as if it was the first time they had.....had ever seen her in this fashion. Or maybe the first time they'd seen her at all. I wonder if anyone in the City knows her any more than you and I do?"

I shrugged silently, eyeing the five Titans and their intense attention being paid to the statue's placement.

"It almost seems as if....as if they don't identify with the girl ever being a part of Slade's historic takeover of this region. I wonder how much they've attributed her to infamy. Maybe they've forgotten? Either way....I-I'm tempted to believe that it was never this City that Terra hurt the most. It was the Titans and the Titans alone."

I leaned forward with a hand to my knee to my chin. I exhaled. I gazed at the frozen pose of Terra. Her 'brown' hair waving in permanent rigidity. The solid, smooth eyes of frozen power. The hidden aura of the entire body.

"It....it begs the question....and it makes you wonder....," Tempest murmured. "....what great compassion.....what true admiration and friendship....c-could ever empower these original five heroes to risk so much and expend so much energy in attempting to revive her?"

A beat.

I remembered the DVD. The preciousness of it all. Almost angelic.

I smiled painfully. I took my shades off, rubbed my naked black eyes, and put them back on. I leaned forward some more and sighed.

I didn't know Terra. But I knew innocence. At least, I once did.

And somewhere hidden inside of that rock—like a Michelangelo sculptor—there was innocence waiting to be carved out. And the Titans saw it. They were the starving artists preserving a beautiful poem by the name of a girl written in some mystic 'yesterday' I could only have glimpses of. And it tasted of adorableness. Something rich in taste and warmth. Like a hand on the other side of the earthen veil.

"Once she's back and stuff....you think they'll forget about us noobies?" Tempest asked.

A beat.

We glanced at each other.

I looked at the purple glow in his dark eyes.

He looked at my metal arm.

We both smirked. We shook our heads.

"We barely ever heard about her....," said an eccentric voice.

"????" Tempest spun about.

I glanced over him.

On another bench, Rachel and Jean-Luc looked over.

Jean-Luc reiterated: "Granted....we were under Anderson's programming at the time and forced to do bank robberies in Metropolis and Bloodhaven. But none of the news truly revealed Terra's identity. Not until after Slade's fall. And even then...Terra's 'infamy' was not highlighted until—well—the last bombing runs."

Rachel nodded. "'Terra' ha sido siempre un misterio."

Tempest narrowed his eyes. "Wait a sec. You two.....were criminals?"

Rachel smirked. "We were _reprogrammed_," she said in English. "Por Dios......we were nothing but simple citizens of the land before an adventure in life-saving prosthetics saved our lives."

Jean-Luc interjected: "Quite an unpleasant thing it was too. Crime lords took advantage of the power cores fused to our synapses to control us and make us perform ill-will. As you can see...the rebuilding process of our lives is taking exceedingly long."

"Heh....fancy that....," Tempest blinked. He pointed at me. "And you were once Wyldecarde, right?"

I nodded boredly.

"Sheesh...am I surrounded by rogues or what?? Ha ha ha—Ow!!"

I rubbed my elbow after hitting him.

"Sheesh. Don't ruin the moment."

_The moment......_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

......_it arrived._

".......," Cyborg stared at the statue inside the plastic cylinder. He rubbed the human part of his head. An exhale...and he uttered: "Well allright...." He slowly turned and his eyes scanned those in the room. The lab assistance. Simon Stone's flickering visage. Rachel and Jean-Luc in the corner. Starfire. Robin. Myself. Tempest. Raven. And finally a hand-wringing Beast Boy. ".......so....a-are we done taking our sweet time?"

"We're done," Raven droned.

Tempest chuckled a bit.

Robin smirked.

Raven folded her arms....and even I noticed a slight curve to the edge of her lips. She glanced over at Beast Boy.

The elf was shaking all over. His lips were firm. His eyes thin. His gait hunched over as he still wore the white fatigues donated to him from Phaser Labs. They shook on his scrawny arms like miniature capes.

Raven did a strange thing. She shuffled over and placed a gentle hand on the changeling's shoulder.

Beast Boy seemed to relax from that. He swallowed and simpered crookedly.

"Be calm....center yourself if you need to....," Raven said.

"Enough mumbo jumbo."

The dark girl rolled her eyes. "I was only trying to help." She glanced Cyborg's way.

Cyborg smiled back at her. He took a breath and gestured towards the hologram. "All yours, old man."

As the android walked in reverse and away from the Plexiglassed girl, the hologram nodded towards the assistants and—silently this time—the experiment went into play. Buttons were pressed. Dials were turned. Keystrokes were peformed...then...

WHURRRRRRRRRR!!!

The robotic arms lowered around the tube.

CL-CL-CLINK-CHTUNG!!!

The fingers extended.

VROMMMMMMM!!!

They glowed.

WHURRRR-CTHING!!-CHURK!!!-WHURRRRRR.

The arms started to revolve.

Swish......Swish.......Swish....

Faster.

Swish Swish Swish Swish.

Faster.

Swish-Swish-Swish-Swish-Swish.

The kaleidoscope.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Beast Boy shivered. He wrung his hands more. His teeth would have clattered if he had his mouth open.

Cyborg stood next to Raven. The two looked upon the increasingly glowing spectacle as one.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

"......," I glanced over from Cyborg and Raven back to the cylinder. "....."

The tube shimmered in a golden glow as the tips of the robotic fingers illuminated the entity inside.

".......," I sighed and glanced to my left.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Robin watched, his fists firm at his sides.

Starfire—her eyes glued to the cylinder—drifted over meekly and stood behind the Boy Wonder. She entreated his grasp with her trembling fingers as her lip hung open. Robin didn't resist to hold her hand.

Both watched the experiment without moving an inch....

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Tempest's eyes narrowed as he leaned forward with curious interest. The emotion was replaced with an equation of wonder.

I envied him.....and yet I envied the Titans too. I felt strung out in the center.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Simon's hologram looked desperately from the spinning arms and golden glow to the lab technicians.

A scientist gritted her teeth, examined the controls before her, and shouted above the increasing fray: "Forty seconds until catalyst initialization!! So far, maximum efficiency!!"

"Purring like a kitten!!" Cyborg bellowed. "Ha ha!! YES!!!"

Starfire smiled desperately.

Beast Boy wrung his hands.

We all gazed at the metallic cyclone as the stone glowed and glowed and glowed and glowed and....

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

A chill.

I blinked.

A **chill.**

I winced.

I gripped my metal hand. I gritted my teeth and weathered a cold shiver running up from my left prosthetic to the base of my central nervous system.

_Not now............not right now!!_

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

The chill shattered through my insides.

I exhaled. I felt ice on my tongue.

I shuddered all over.

I winced.

_Please......not now......_

My left fingers flinched. The titanium digits pulsed. It felt invisible knives pricking my metal 'skin'.

My face twisted in confusion and shock...magnified by the golden vortex before me.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

"Thirty seconds!!"

"Come on....," Beast Boy murmured.

Robin took a deep breath.

Starfire trembled.

Raven adjusted her hood over her head.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

By then, I was sweating.

I felt numb all over.

The chills.

The chills....

....................

.........................._'red aviary'........._

My lips parted.

..............................'_red aviary'............_

My black eyes convulsed.

Something in the bright gold turned a rusted, bleeding red and back to gold again. And then a sloshing sensation in the corners of my ears like a bright beacon over dark firmaments or an endless sea of churning, abysmal mud.

................................................'_red aviarrrrrrry'........._

My lips quivered.

_This........._

The chill racked through my body.

_This is not going to work........._

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

In the corner of my shaded vision, a few lab technicians jolted at what they saw on their computer stations.

Jean-Luc stood up...as if his cybernetic core was sensitive to something startling.

Even Raven looked suddenly and awkwardly tense.

I panted.

_This is not going to work!_

I ran a shaky hand through my hair.

_It's......it's not working.........It's not working!!_

I looked panickedly, mutely over at the computer stations.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

"Something.....S-Something's wrong!!"

Beast Boy's eyes exploded.

Simon Stone's hologram spun around. _"What??!"_ he shouted above the tumult.

An objectionable buzzing sound emanated from the computer stations. A red light flashed.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

FLASH!!!

An explosion of gold light.

Blinding.

My black eyes clenched shut and I clutched my aching head.

_Nnnnnghhhh!!_

"What's going on?!?!"

"A-Analyzing!!"

"What do you mean you're 'analyzing'?!" Beast Boy's voice cackled. "What the heck's going on?!?! What's happening to Terra?!?!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

FLAAAA-AAAAASH!!!

_................................................'rrrrrrred aviary'............_

Chills and chills.

I shuddered.

My black eyes flew open.

I saw a reflection of white on the inside of my shades.

Momentarily--

"There's an energy overload!! Two hundred and thirty-five percent stronger than predicted!!"

"Two hundred and thirty-five percent?!?!" Cyborg's voice cackled.

"Is that bad?!?! Cy!!" Beast Boy barked. "Tell me if that's bad?!?! What's going on here?!?!"

"The catalyst is igniting an energy flux that's growing at an alarming rate!!"

"It'll blow!!!"

"Then....Th-Then....."

"Shut it off!!!!" Beast Boy's voice shouted.

"But B.B.—"

"Shut if off, dammit!! This is Terra we're talking about!!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

_ZZZZZZZTTT!!!!_

"Overload imminent!!"

FLAAAAA-AAAAAAASH!!!!!

"!!!!"

........................................._'red __**AVIARY'**_..............

"Shutting down!"

_"Now!"_

"NOW!!!"

ZZZTTT!!!!

SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

WHURRRR-CHTUNG!!!!!

VROMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmm........

The arms spun to a stop.

The golden glow dissipated.

The cylinder smoked from the inside out.

And there stood Terra's stone body. Untouched. Unaffected.

Still.

Still as rock.

Half of the room was panting. As if we had all just run the mile in circles and the world spun inside of us with the catalyst's sunlight glow.

No one hyperventilated more than Beast Boy. The green elf ran two shaking hands through his hair, swallowed, and uttered: "What.....wh-wh-what happened.....?!?!"

Simon Stone gazed flickeringly at the tube containing the girl in the center of the room. He shook his head with holographic mouth agape. _"I......I don't know........."_

"Her mitochondrial signature was off the charts....," a scientist said. "She was practically on fire."

A beat.

"Then how do you FIX it?!?!?!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Beast Boy...easy—"

"Don't tell me to take it easy!!!" Beast Boy shook all over. "You said you had a cure for her!! And it worked on me!! Why in God's name can't it work on her?!?! Huh?!?! What's wrong with your machines?!?!"

"It's not the equipment," another scientist said, glancing over the monitors. "It's....it's...."

"What?!?!"

Simon Stone bowed his head. _"We......we'll have to run some tests—"_

"Like Hell you will!! You guys are smart!! You were intelligent enough to put ME in that damn pressure cooker!! Now tell me what's wrong....now!!!"

"Beast Boy....," Robin walked over.

"Don't tell me to shut up!! Terra deserves more than this!! She deserves—"

"Beast Boy...," Robin placed a gloved hand on his shoulder. "Let them run their tests. Let them figure out the problem. Then we'll try again. Okay?"

Beast Boy fumed....heavily.

"Please, Garfield....," Starfire leaned over him with a gentle-soft gaze. "Allow them to truly help Terra....like you have...."

"...........," Beast Boy clenched his fists and stared at the floor.

Robin and Starfire slowly led him limply out the door and into the hallway beyond.

Cyborg rushed over to the computer stations to assist in the analysis.

Raven was left standing...gazing intently at the cylinder. In thought.

Tempest looked at me. He exhaled with raised eyebrows of confusion and stress.

I shivered and swallowed a lump down my throat.

And just like that....the chills left me.

"......."

I released my python grip on my left hand.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy paced back and forth down the hallway.

Robin leaned against a nearby wall, his arms folded. Starfire sat cross-legged on a nearby bench. Tempest, Raven, and I huddled besides a potted plant. Half of us shifted uncontrollably.

Cyborg was gone with Simon....wherever. It was well into a half-hour of 'analysis'. We were all feeling anxious.

Most of all Beast Boy.

"I don't get it.....I just don't get it!!"

"Please, Beast Boy...," Starfire cooed. Her eyes were sad for him. "Do not despair. There is yet to be a verdict—"

"Oh yeah?! On what?!?!" Beast Boy cackled with swinging arms. "It worked for me!! I nearly _died_ making sure that technology worked on a human! Why isn't it working on Terra??"

"She may be more than human," Tempest shrugged. "Heck...imagine if she was Atlantean. That'd still yield a different result than you—"

"This isn't a joke, man," Beast Boy frowned. "Believe it or not...I'm not in the mood for laughing. So shut up, dude!!"

".....," Tempest frowned. "Look! I was only saying---"

Raven placed a hand on his shoulder. "We're saying nothing...." She looked calmly in Beast Boy's direction. "Have patience. Leave theories to the wind right now. It's not our place to guestimate as it is. That's Cyborg's and his uncle's job."

"Some good they're doing!! I thought they were geniuses and stuff!! Computer talent runs in their blood!! What could they have overlooked?!?! This is Terra for crying out loud!!"

"Beast Boy, we are well aware of the crucial nature of whom we are dealing with," Starfire floated over and gestured emphatically. "Please.....follow Raven's advice. Be patient. All is not yet so dire."

"Speak for yourself....," Beast Boy sighed, bringing a hand over his face. "We....we can't let Terra down. I-I-I can't let Terra down. Not again. Oh God please....n-not again...."

"......," Robin leaned forward. "Beast Boy....what did I tell you—"

"It's my fault, dude....," Beast Boy hugged himself and rocked back and forth. "If I treated her with more respect, this never would have happened! She never would have met Slade! The City would never have been in trouble! Terra would never have to resort to—"

"Beast Boy....you paid her the best respects out of all of us combined."

"................."

"Live with it. You were her friend. Her best friend ever." His eyemask narrowed. "And as if today's actions on behalf of you weren't enough to prove it.....then you'll just have to believe me when I say you've more than lived up to the commitment you've always paid her."

"................I.........I just want her back....," Beast Boy murmured. "I want her back so much."

"We all do, Beast Boy," Starfire cupped her hands together. "We all do."

"..............," I gazed down at my feet.

A beat.

Titanium shoes marched into view.

We all looked up.

Cyborg stood tall. His arms hung by his side and his expression seemed very...........solemn.

"Come.....," the android Titan merely uttered. "Uncle Simon and I've got some stuff to share with you."

"............," Beast Boy swallowed. He led the pack. Cyborg followed behind. Then Raven. And the rest of us.

I filed in last behind. I rubbed the metal contours of my metal limb restlessly....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The conference room was still vacant. The projector screen wasn't even erected this time, and the lights seemed twice as dim inside the lonely room.

The Titans sat—spread out across the field of skeletal chairs. At the far end of the chair setup, a pedestal stood with Simon Stone's holographic visage. Beside him stood Cyborg, leaning casually against a podium with a few shambled, fresh printouts collected in his grasp.

The eight of us were alone.

"So what is it?" Beast Boy murmured. To the point. He clung hard to the seat of his chair with white-green knuckles and tried to contain his shivering. "H-Have you found out what went wrong?"

".........," Cyborg took a deep breath. A beat. His human eye darted over towards his Uncle.

Simon Stone flickered once....twice. He turned and 'faced us'. _"With present technology......it.........it iI-isn't possible to raise Terra from the rock."_

Starfire gasped, a hand over her mouth.

Robin rested a hand on her shoulder.

"........," Raven lowered her hood. She took a breath and gazed Beast Boy's way.

"........," the changeling stopped shivering. He blinked. "Why......wh-wh-why not?"

_"It's her mitochondrial level...,"_ Simon Stone sighed. He rubbed his holographic temples—as if he needed to—and uttered lethargically: _"It's quadruple the normal level. Trying to apply the energy catalyst to it would only result in an overload. And that means that Terra's body would shatter. Literally. Long before any attempts at bringing her to our organic level is even __**possible**__."_

"What's with such a high mitochondrial level??" Robin asked. "Is it because of her superpowers? A mutation of some sort?"

"That's what we thought at first...," Cyborg said, lifting a finger. "But....Terra is very much human. We know that her mitochondria is the source of her earth elemental fields and telekinesis, but that's not the issue."

"Then what is??"

"There is a far greater mitochondrial volume in her," Cyborg said. "More than any human being. Normal or superpowerful."

"But....why??" Robins hrugged.

"_We examined her rocky frame with every sensory apparatus Phaser Labs has to offer,"_ Simon Stone said. _"X-Rays, sonar scans, anomaly detectors......"_

"Basically everything we couldn't use to examine 'Terra' before....cuz she was sealed up in that cave...," Cyborg said. He paced over into the center of the rows of chairs and gestured. "We found out a heck of a lot more about her structural integrity. Stuff that would have been important to know....b-before the experiment started. Indeed....ahem....w-we almost spelled the end for her."

"Just tell us what you found!!" Beast Boy cackled.

"We are most concerned...," Starfire insisted.

".........," I watched and listened.

Simon Stone took a deep 'breath'. _"Terra isn't the only organism inside the stone,_" he said.

Starfire's lips parted.

Tempest leaned forward.

"What do you mean??" Raven remarked with a suspicious gaze.

Simon leaned back. _"Terra was a month and a half pregnant when she turned to stone."_

"............"

"............"

Starfire and I exchanged wide-eyed gazes.

A beat.

"She....but....what......"

We all glanced over at Beast Boy.

He was half-collapsed out of his chair. His jaw was agape. "She....she was pregnant??"

Simon Stone and Cyborg nodded. They were both looking at Beast Boy. Everybody was looking at Beast Boy.

And he immediately sensed it: "I.....Th-That's impossible!!" Beast Boy stammered. He shook his hands. "T-Terra and I....w-we were in love but...b-but we never got intimate!! I-I-I mean...we never....That's impossible!! She and I are v-virgins! We hardly ever got a chance to kiss for crying out loud!! So stop looking at me, dammit!!"

"Beast Boy....," Cyborg said silently. "The tests aren't lying. Terra has a healthy, growing embryo inside of her. It's just as much frozen as her. But it's there. And it's overloading the process."

"And I'm telling you, that just isn't possible!!!" the changeling barked. "Terra and I never touched each other, dude!! How else could she have gotten pregnant at......th-that..............time......."

Silence.

Starfire bit her lip.

"........," Raven stared at the floor.

I took a few deep breaths and hunched over on my knees. I ran a finger across the frames of my shades.

A beat.

"......," Beast Boy was staring off into space. His eyes darted back and forth across the nether.

A jerk....a start...

He stood up suddenly.

"........"

He didn't seem to be looking at anyone or anything. His fingers flexed as he turned about and—without a breath—slowly paced over towards the end of the conference room. His feet slowed. He came to a stop in front of the podium. Alone. Slowly....like the first tremors of an earthquake....his shoulders started heaving. His whole body shook, quaked...and finally exploded with a furious kick into the podium.

WHAP!!

_**"I hate you Slade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

A deathly silence.

A breath.

A second heave.

"_**I hate you!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

Silence again.

All of us were gazing at the floor. We couldn't summon the strength to look at him. Not directly. Even the hologram was 'gazing' elsewhere.

Beast Boy tilted back and pulled at his hair. _**"Nnnnghhhhhhraaaaaahh!!!!"**_ He deflated. He fell onto his knees, hyperventilating. Hugging himself. The anger melted away and sloshed out his eyes as he bit his lip, sniffed, and hiccupped.

Starfire was well misty-eyed at this point. She sniffed, floated over, and knelt behind Beast Boy. She hugged him gently, leaning her head closely into the back of his neck as she absorbed his shaking figure. A few seconds later, Raven walked over, sat down, and rubbed a gentle hand across his back.

The rest of us...the guys...gradually stood around with hands in our pockets.....staring blankly into the corners.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Uncle Simon says that....th-that he's going to keep running tests and trying to come up with a way to overcome the problem of the condensed mitochondrial intensity. It has something to do with the 'life aura' of stem cells or something. It's much more complicated than that, but basically it's a headache-full of stuff to try and explain. The fact that Terra's pregnant....well....that really REALLY complicates things now. We won't be trying just to raise her from the stone. We'll be shooting for both her and the embryo. To try and save just _one_ would have drastic effects on them both. Basically—the stone has fused Terra and her developing child into one 'entity', in the mitochondrial intensity sense. If that can be understood."

"So....," Robin took a deep breath. He, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, and I huddled about the T-Car in front of Phaser Labs. The moon was out. The wind was cold. The night was merciless. "I'm guessing....at least....another 'month and a half of non-distracted concentration and experimentation', huh?"

Cyborg rubbed the human side of his head quietly.

Raven droned: "Cyborg.....does it even look _possible_ at this point?"

A beat.

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Let's just tell Beast Boy the truth...."

"And wh-what is that?" Starfire asked. She still seemed on the verge of sniffing and tearing.

Cyborg glanced at me.

"......."

He glanced back at the Titans. "Anything is possible. Anything and absolutely e-everything is.....p-possible....." The android's face went blank as his voice lingered.

A beat.

Robin swallowed. He walked over and patted Cyborg's shoulder. "Thanks, Cyborg.....f-for all you've done."

"Heh....'done'.....fancy word that," Cyborg muttered.

Robin sighed. "Well....we're going back to the Tower."

"Yeah...that's right...," Cyborg smiled weakly. "We've got a Halloween show to put on for the kids in two days."

"More like 'one', actually," Raven said.

Cyborg looked over. "Well...look at Miss Cutie! Suddenly eager for this Fall Festival?"

Raven blinked at him. "After today.....what would I _not_ be eager for."

The whole of us gazed off into space.

Eventually Starfire took a breath and uttered: "Beast Boy is.....still inside, no?"

"Yeah...he's inside. Last time I checked, Tempest went in to check on him."

"Might as well pass the word that we're homeward bound...," Robin gestured. "I hate to say it....but....it's getting late."

I raised my hand. I gestured.

"Noir'll go check on them," Cyborg said.

"Good 'ol Noir....," Raven droned.

Starfire managed a tiny giggle. Tiny.

I smirked somewhat. I turned around, sighed, and marched towards the front entrance of Phaser Labs.

Behind me I heard:

"After all we did today......I-I hate to go to sleep and realize that Terra isn't alive and around. I practically promised Beast Boy.........."

"Robin....after what we've learned....would he—or any of us for that matter—be truly ready to welcome Terra back?"

".........."

"Let's not take this setback too lightly....or too seriously. We've learned more about Terra. And when or if we ever do successfully raise her out of the stone...we know she won't be alone. But we'll have to be prepared to make sure that _she_ doesn't feel alone."

"Yeah, Rae."

"Very true, Raven."

"Spoken well."

".........let's go home."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHWISSSH!!

The doors to the lab opened.

I walked in....and blinked.

It was nearly pitch black inside....save for emergency lights in the far corner.

In the dim glow, I saw Beast Boy standing right in front of the translucent tube housing Terra's stone figure.

Tempest stood a few feet behind the two of them. Both of their backs were to me.

"You loved her, didn't you?"

Silence.

Tempest reiterated with a wave of the hand. "I mean....really....truly....loved her?"

A beat.

Beast Boy raised a hand and stroked the Plexiglas in front of her frozen face.

"One morning, Garth. I-I went to awake her. I knocked on her door....the desert themed room we had built for her. And...she didn't answer. And this was shortly after she rejoined us. Nobody knew about the betrayal. But all I could think about that morning when I knocked on her door was that....th-that maybe she had gone. That perhaps Terra had run away. I was about to leave and check out the rest of the Tower...when....wh-when I heard her crying, Garth. I....I heard her soft, whimpering voice inside. And....she was murmuring things. Silent, desperate things. About her life. About her loneliness. And about her servitude to Slade....th-though I never truly grasped that. But I remember now....I-I remember so clearly now....Raven talked about herself plurally. She never said 'me' or 'I'. She said 'we' and 'us'. She......"

A beat.

Beast Boy's hand lowered. He shuddered.

"She knew it, Garth. She knew what was inside of her. She knew it and she never told us. Just like she never told us what she was doing with Slade. Like she never told us how lonely and helpless she felt in the world with her dangerous powers. She...she never trusted us. For she felt we could n-never trust her. And because of that, she let herself be alone. She let what was growing inside of her be ignored. And she....sh-she let S-Slade....."

Silence.

".......she turned to me, Garth. T-Terra turned to me. And I now know......I now know that n-no matter how much I hurt her....I...I-I must have been so much more helpful and blessing to her. I was her escape. I w-was her outlet. I.....I-I was her innocence, G-Garth. I was the friendly face she c-clung to before she ever entered Slade's c-clutches...."

A beat.

"I truly loved her. And she l-loved me. I....I know it now. I know it better than I ever had before. And when she's out of this prison...when she's free at last..........I-I will continue to love her. And I will love everything that is a part of her. Even the life that w-will someday come from her....."

Silence.

Tempest stirred. He scratched the back of his neck and uttered: "This one day in Poseidonis....the King and Queen were away on a diplomatic mission to the Renzukkan Trading Capital. I came to visit Tula for the first time in ages. We arranged to have a simple dinner and she snuck me into her palace afterwards, giggling the entire time. I was as n-nervous as a lopsided clamshell. I was a lonesome vigilante of the seas...and she was the brazen princess of a royal sect of Atlantis. But when I felt her hands holding mine....and saw her beautiful eyes gazing into mine..........I-I surrendered. I let her take me into her loveliest of sacred spots."

A pause.

"We made love for the first time that night. And the night after that. And all that weekend. And every morning in the soft thermal undercurrents of the upper Pacific Valley.....I awoke to her gently waving hair and her sleeping figure.....like a nymph in riverlight. And I realized then and there—for even the briefest of moments—that I could die finally. For I had found someone to make my soul....warm and complete and just plain........happy. I've....I-I've not felt true 'happiness' since I last saw her."

Tempest took a deep breath.

"Why she sacrificed herself for me.....I-I'm still trying to figure out. She believed in something in me so strong that she laid down her life for me to go on. But if only I had told her.....if only I had told her that I had nothing else to live on for. Because I had her. I had found my purpose in her arms. In her breath. In the gentle way she let go of her strong defenses and just....clung to me in the drifts of the warm currents. She's dead now...and....I-I've been trying to figure out since then why that is. She had some purpose in mind when she gave herself for me. And....I-I guess I'm only here with the Titans to try and figure out what that purpose is. And I may not know it yet....but I did know Tula. And I know she was all there was for me to feel complete in."

A beat.

"But like I said....she is dead now, Beast Boy. My journey is a lonely one—yes. But at least I know where it may possibly end. But you......I-I can't imagine what it is like for you, Beast Boy. Terra....this wonderful....mysterious nymph......she is neither dead or alive. She is a facsimile of dry earth and stone. It must be....so painful. So impossible to understand." He stepped up and stood close behind the changeling's back. "As impossible as it is for me to understand what Tula's dead for.....it's impossible for you to understand what Terra's tortured for. But....perhaps with each other's help....two half-understandings might make a whole?"

".........," Beast Boy stared into the Plexiglas.

"Beast Boy....," Tempest smiled gently. "Someday.....I'm sure of it....Terra will be freed. And if she can hear us right now...then surely even she can testify.....you are the best thing that ever happened to her or could ever happen to her. And not just her....but the life she carries. Mitochondrial and superpowers aside...it's your glow that she lives off of. I'm sure of it."

A beat.

Beast Boy turned and gazed up at the Atlantean. "We....w-we're a lot more alike than we'd like to think, aren't we?"

"Hehehehe....'like to'?" Tempest smiled. A beat. His face seemed a tad bit more solemn as he said: "Or maybe we've both been equally blessed....in our curses?"

A beat.

"Tell me, Garth. Did you ever......feel Tula's hair?"

Tempest nodded. "It was like the finest seaweed of the Atlantean troughs...."

Beast Boy blinked.

Tempest smirked with his hands on his hips. "That's a _good_ thing."

"Oh.....got it, dude."

"Heheh."

A beat.

Beast Boy's hand against trailed the Plexiglas. "Terra's.....it was like gold. Liquid gold in my fingers. I.....heheh....I tucked her in bed one time."

"Truly?"

Beast Boy nodded. "I.....I-It was the night I heard her crying. I w-walked into her room afterall. She was practically collapsed on the floor....exhausted. I...um....picked her up, tucked her in bed, and walked away. But I felt her hair as I carried her and laid her down. And.....I-I swear....I never slept happier than I did when I went back into my room."

"Yeah....it's the hair that'll do that."

"More or less."

A beat.

Tempest smirked and startled me as he turned and pointed: "Poor Noir. Must be left out."

I smiled crookedly.

Beast Boy waved. "Heh....yeah....get a load of us, dude. A bunch of lovesick saps."

"You don't understand what it's like....d-do you, Noir?"

"............," I blinked. A beat. I smiled. I shook my head and lied 'no'.

"Heh....you're lucky, dude."

I gazed to the floor.

Tempest placed a hand on the changeling's shoulders. "Come on....let's go home."

A beat.

"Yeah....," Beast boy forced himself to turn and look away from the statue. "Let's...."

Tempest guided him gently out the door and past me. "You know what's funny?"

"What, man?"

"I'm Garth....and you're 'Garfield' apparently."

"You didn't know that??"

"No! What if we're twins!"

"Heh......but I don't have gills!"

Tempest snickered. "We'll search for birth marks....tomorrow."

"Ick. You do that on your own, dude."

As they walked past me, I stood alone in the shadowed doorway.

Shivering.

I felt my metal wrist and shuddered.

_What............h-happened earlier??_

I gazed at the statue. At the robot arms suspended limply overhead.

_R-Red.........Aviary??_

A beat.

I bit my lip.

_What's wrong with me??_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At around that time in the Tower....

Raven retreated to her room.

She hummed monotonously to herself and rummaged through her closet.

"Stupid festival....," she grunted. ".....well....at least the costume isn't _that_ bad......"

She gradually found the outfit in question....something very 'black'.

But as she pulled it out, a familiar something wide and soft plopped over.

Thwap!!

"........"

Raven draped her costume over a nearby chair.

She knelt in her closet and tilted the thing back up.

".......," she gazed over it once again.

A canvass painting of a short-blonde haired girl with a wooden katana and a green vest. Smiling. Surrounded in red shadows. An angel. A nymph.

A beat.

"I wonder when we'll try raising you for a change......"

Succinctly droned, the dark girl put the painting back up, closed the closet, and proceeded to try on her costume for the coming day.


	143. Picture Frames

**143. Picture Frames**

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**Initialize Surveillance Protocols 75/02-SF (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initializing....**

**Initialization Process Complete**

**Protocols 75/02-SF In Effect**

Input Devices at 115 Efficiency

Power Resources 99 And Holding At Nominal Rate Of 0.002 Decrease

**Automatic Sensors In Effect**

Opening Program "Rahab's House"

Subject: Teen Titans

**Location: Titans' Tower**

**Date: October 22, 2004**

**Time: 0801 Hours**

**Focusing In....**

**Recording...**

Recording...

Recording...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He sat on the edge of the Tower's rooftop.

The early afternoon Sun lingered over the City.

A beautiful golden shine dripped over the landscape.

The waters of the Bay sparkled.

The suspension bridge in the distance glowed.

The skyscrapers and building tops and apartment complexes jutted up into the air.

A chaotically pleasant, uneven horizon....

Cool autumn air drifted upwards, was caught up in a heavy wind, and rushed through him.

Coursing through his dark black hair.

Swimming around his limbs.

Closing his eyes.

Filling his nostrils.

Reminding him of a colder place.

Where the air was anything but crisp....

And the seas were anything but shimmering.

And the last thing that the sky was.....was blue.

A beat.

He sighed.

Slowly, he got up, turned around, and walked towards the stairwell in his costume.

....

By the time he was inside, Robin made sure that his eyemask was back on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Main Room was full of people.

Parents. Children. Titans. But mainly children.

Even a few City Officials and local celebrities were there.

Ribbons and paper bands of orange and black arched down from the ceiling.

Various cutesy-dark decorations lined the walls, such as rubber black spiders and rats and hair-raising cats.

There were pumpkins galore in the corners, stacked with bits of 'borrowed' hay and a scarecrow or two.

Musical instrumentals of violins, dulcimers, and a great country flare played from a uniformly spread sound system throughout the interior.

The windows were open.

The air was filled with Autumn crispness and happy conversations.

Children giggled and ran around and played with the various minigames set up around the place and operated by volunteers from the City.

The Autumn Festival was in full effect.

Besides a line of 'Trick or Treat' tables adorned with candy, a green figure emerged. Beast Boy was dressed in an emerald tunic with white leggings and an elongated cap. He stepped backwards with a prop sword and shield dangling from behind as he gestured emphatically to the shadows.

"Dude...come on! I went through all that trouble to make you look so kickass! Don't back out on me now!!"

An Atlantean voice grumbled from the other side. "I can't believe what you've done to me...."

"What?!?! You've seen a mirror, haven't you?!?!"

"Yes. And believe me....never before was I more homicidally inclined....."

"Just walk out! I swear, nobody's gonna castrate you, dude....."

"........," Tempest walked out of the shadows into the lavishly decorated Main Room. He had a dark leather jacket, black pants, and intensely black shadow around his already dark eyes. On top of that, his black hair was frazzled and framed his head where a fake, rubber snake hung suggestively around his neck. "Why....why did you make me a _girl_??"

"Dude...Alice Cooper isn't a girl!"

"Then why is he named—"

"It was a badass thing at his time. He was the king of all musical rebellion, dude!! Now....you got your lyric sheet, right?"

Tempest glanced at the nefarious scrap of paper in his leather grasp. "Uhm...with all of these children around....should I really insist that 'I'm their gun'??"

"Eh....what'll they know," Beast Boy waved. He smiled. "Starfire's got this place done whiter than a Victorian Confirmation Ceremony. We need an element of the dark! Besides....Raven doesn't let me pick her costume and character."

"Why, because you'd turn her into a _guy_??"

"Dude! You....are...not...a....girl!!"

"Thanks for the insistence....," Tempest sighed. He shrugged. "Well....at least there's one thing about this." He smirked and lifted the lyric sheet. "I AM eighteen."

"There ya go! Keep it up!!"

Two kids in stormtrooper outfits scurried by, giggling.

Tempest cleared his throat. "So....uhm....just what are you, Beast Boy?"

Beast Boy proudly brandished his 'sword and shield'. "I'm Link!!"

"........"

"Protector of the Triforce of Courage! Hero of Hyrule!"

"........"

The green elf narrowed his eyes. "Um.....from the Nintendo Video Game saga 'Zelda'?!??!?!"

"What's a video game?" Tempest asked.

"Oh my god, your civilization is so doomed....," Beast Boy stammered. "Look....," he walked over and leaned up towards Tempest's ear. "One day when we're not fighting crime....I'm going all old school on you."

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat?"

"It's a proposal."

"You don't say....," Tempest folded his leathery arms and smiled. "Keep wearing that merry-men outfit, man."

"Dude!!"

"Hahahahaha!" Tempest laughed.

Beast Boy frowned, but couldn't avoid a slight chuckle or two.

A petite figure walked up.

The boys looked over.....and jumped.

"Whoah!"

"Ackies!!"

"...................," Raven stared at them. Her skin was twice as pale. Fake blood and bruises leaked around her eyes and lips. She wore a tattered, black peasant's outfit with a rope's noose hanging around her neck. "You two don't need costumes to be goofy. Do you?"

"Look who's talking," Beast Boy waved.

"Nice costume, Raven," Tempest gestured. "Who are you, exactly?"

The dark girl blinked. "I'm being hung."

"............"

"............"

"............um....that's uh......th-that's very nice, Raven....."

"I was originally planning on buying fake cellophane tubing to hang from my womb and paint various shades of red."

Beast Boy gulped and put on a nervous smile. "So you were almost disemboweled."

"Yes. But with the last minute preparation for this festival, I had very little choice."

"Well....looks like you're out and about and taking full part in this event!" Tempest smiled. "I may be a nooby, but I'd say that's rather generous of you!"

"Tempest, it is very....very generous of me."

Beast Boy folded his arms. "Robin and Star forced you into it, huh?"

"The list of desired recompenses is unbelievably long....," the girl droned with clenched fists. A beat. The fists relaxed. "But I digress. This is a nice costume—in my opinion—and the outfits of these children this year are entertainingly horrible. I actually don't mind passing candy out."

"You're killing them by carbohydrates. No wonder you're being hung," Beast Boy smirked.

Raven's eyes narrowed. "And just what are you?"

"Dudette!! I'm Link! Link from The Legend of Zelda!!"

"Ah.......," Raven nodded. A beat. "I wonder if Noir's Simon Belmont."

"Er....huh?"

"Castlevania...," Raven droned and walked off.

"Dude! She plays Castlevania!! Hey, Raven—"

She was gone.

"Dammit! She always does that!!"

"She always gets hung?"

"No, Garth...she....snkkktt....rrrrgh....let's go and see how the festival's going."

"Allright....."

"And whatever you do, don't touch any chickens."

Tempest blinked his shadowed eyes. "Huh?"

"Never mind...."

The two wandered off.

They found Starfire and Cyborg in the center of the room where most of the children had gathered in a ring. Parents formed an outer shell, smiling and chatting away as their youths were entertained. Those who were invited into the Tower were chosen at random from various communities within the City....but mostly from the communities where the neighborhood proved less friendly than desired. Thus this Titans' Tower getaway was solace for a few needy young souls.

"And when the Chrysalis Eater threw itself upon my person like this—" Starfire dramatically clawed the air with her hands and floated in a suggestive position of 'pounce!' "Rrraaawrr!!"

The children gasped and giggled.

Starfire smiled and floated back to the ground. "That is when the Titans rushed in to my rescue!!"

Kl-Kl-Klak-Ka-Klak!! Cyborg waved a sonic cannon. "And that's when we laid down the celestial law!!!" He pretended to fire straight into the ground with a glistening strobe of blue light. FLASH!! "Boo-Ya!!!"

The kids clapped and cheered.

"Was the Chrysalis Monster destroyed??"

"How did you survive?!?!"

"It must have been dangerous!!"

Starfire giggled in mid-air and said: "It truly was dangerous. But my friends were there for me...even though—at the time—there was very little if anything that I could do."

A little girl in a Dorothy outfit uttered: "W-Were you scared?"

Starfire walked over. "Oftentimes in battles....I am scared, little Terran. It is not an absent of fright that makes a superhero brave....but rather the ability to face fears in hopes of a blessed retribution."

"Besides...it was Star we were talking about!" Cyborg smirked. "No ugly-butt-alien was gonna take her away from us with its stomach!!"

The kids laughed.

Cyborg smirked.

A little boy dressed as Batman raised his hand. "Were you scared when you fought Slade?"

A beat.

"Yes.....we were," Starfire breathed. She smiled. "But we are frightened no more. Slade was a very, very bad man. But he is no longer alive. His chance to grace this beautiful planet was stolen from him by his own misdeeds. That is why you must always be good, children. The universe has a way of taking back from you that which you might steal. There are many things in existence that deserve reverence and respect."

"Yeah....like your parents!" Cyborg folded his arms.

"Awwwwwwwww."

Chuckles.

"Now here is something you need not fear!!" Starfire held a finger up joyfully. She flew over, grabbed a 'pumpkin' basket, and started tossing assorted foodstuffs out. "Candy for the communal lot of you!!!"

"Hooooooraaaay!!"

Kids hands groped and waved through the air, snatching away the flying treats.

Starfire giggled.

Cyborg glanced over to the side. "Hey guys!! Where've you been?"

Tempest looked at his sheet. "Uhh....," he looked up. "Passing a gun around and giving everyone a shot?"

".........."

Beast Boy simpered: "We're catching up, dude. We're catching up. Looks like you and Star are...heh....the STARs of the attraction here."

"Nah....I think it's just my sonic cannon they like," Cyborg shrugged. "If I were a kid, I'd like my sonic cannon too."

"You mean you don't like it now?"

"Well, it doesn't win girls."

"You got a button that does that? Don't tell me you've been holding out on me, man."

"B.B......what's to hold out on when it comes to you?"

"HAAA!!" Beast Boy struck the dinky sword against Cyborg's metal chest. "Avast ye, you dirty moblin!"

".........," Cyborg blinked boredly. "Is that something Link would say?"

"Actually, Link wouldn't say anything...," Beast Boy muttered as he stepped back and straightened his cap. "He'd just leave it at 'HAAAA!' and slice the rest of you to ribbons. All the fangirls seem to love him for that or something. Ahem. So.....decided to give up this year?" the changeling asked with a smug smirk.

Cyborg was—indeed—his usual titanium self.

"Are you trying to insinuate something?" Cyborg remarked. He grinned evilly. "Cuz....seeing that I kinda sorta beat you the last two years in a row in costume competitions, it would make sense for you to insinuate something, huh?"

Beast Boy took a deep breath. "Now don't anger me.....I've got Faerie Goddesses on my side."

"Cyborg, you've got twice the metal and twice the taunt," Tempest smirked.

"Nuts to you, Flipper. Go get a haircut."

"Yeah....well.....welcome to my nightmare.........or s-something."

"Admit it, Cyborg!! You gave up this year!!" Beast Boy pointed a leather-gloved finger. "What...did you get lazy or something?? Certainly you could have gotten an oil change on behalf of these shrimps coming to visit us and see the almighty, color-changing 'Cyborg'!"

"Allright, little man. I was gonna save this for a rainy day....but I guess I'll settle for blowing you away now...."

That uttered, Cyborg slammed his fists together. There was a fluctuation of blue and white light throughout his translucent, metallic skin. Then tiny slots opened up at random spots cascading down his figure. White material ballooned out and formed a ribbed surface of rubbery ivory from head to toe, complete with a cartoonish 'mask' airbagging out to encase the android Titan's cranium.

Tempest's shadowed eyes retreated. "Um.....lemme guess....a bunch of clam shells stacked on top of each other?"

Beast Boy's mouth was dropping to the floor as he gazed unblinking at the white entity in front of him. "Holy Shit....you're the Michelin Man...."

The white-ribbed figure performed a signature wave and uttered: "Mmmmfmmf mmmfmmmf mmmf!!"

"What?"

"Mmmf! Mfmmmfmmf mmfmff!!"

"_What?!?!_"__

"Mmmf mmfm mff!" The 'mask' deflated and shrunk back into Cyborg's metal surface. Cyborg's natural head crowned the ridiculous body beneath it. "I said....it took me well over seven weeks to put this together. So don't go on one of your ridiculously predictable tirades of 'you cheater, you're made of metal and you can't be counted for something like that'!"

"You cheater!! You're made of metal and you—"__

WHAP!! Cyborg shoved Beast Boy back.

"Mmmff!" Beast Boy landed against Tempest's chest. "Sheesh!! Nothing's safe riding with you, dude!"

Cyborg flexed his white-ribbed biceps. "I grip in the wet, punk. I'm all around rubber badass."

Tempest smirked and leaned Beast Boy back into a standing position. "Is that costume altogether water proof? I could test that out, ya know."

"Yeah, dawg. And then I'd test your rectum with my foot."

"Feed my Frankenstein!!"

"Well...I'm just gonna have faith then," Beast Boy waved his sword. "Nintendo Power all the way! Someone's bound to vote for me!"

"That's what sympathy's for, B.B.," Cyborg winked. A flick of his wrist and the rest of his white coverings shrunk back into their metal holdings. "Let me know how good the third place ribbon feels to your fingers again."

"Who votes exactly?" Tempest asked.

"That's one of the great mysteries...," Beast Boy grumbled. "Come on. Let's go choke on candy corn or something."

"Just follow the Starfire," Cyborg pointed.

"I haven't seen her outfit," Tempest remarked.

"Whose outfit?" Starfire floated over, her bucket empty.

"See y'all," Cyborg waved. He winked. "I've got more kids to brainwash."

"Huh?"

"Gonna tell the 'Atlas-gets-his-ass-woodshedded' story."

"Ah.....well I wish you good traction."

"Pfft. Go make love to Selene."

_"ZELDA!!!"_

Cyborg walked off and waved to the ring of attentive youngsters. "Okay....here's a story even cooler than the previous! Only minus the space travel and intergalactic zits!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!"

"Weee! Cyborg!!"

"Anyways, there was this really bad dude named Atlas who tried bossing me and the Titans around. He had no respect for living people....now is that nice?"

"Noooooooooooooo!"

"So I wasn't down with that. I taught him a thing or two one day....."

Tempest and Beast Boy wandered over to Starfire.

"I think he has enough success being inflated on his own...," Beast Boy muttered.

"Hehehehe! Indeed....," Starfire smiled. She was squeezed into a tight....tight....tight red jumpsuit with strips of black material around her joints. Metal 'instruments' were housed around her shoulders and upper sternum. A patch of green and the numbers '02' adorned the area of the jumpsuit above her chest, which was encased in accentuating a lower tone of the color red. The crimson ensemble completely encased her body, save for her head. And her hair was also braided high above in metal red-and-black bands on either side of her cranium. "How do you like my garb? I am Ass Ka of the Langolier!"

"Asuka Langley," Beast Boy said. A beat. "I didn't know you were otaku!"

"Oh taco??"

"No, Star—I....er...I didn't know you liked anime."

"I have been graced with borrowing Robin's D of the V of the D collection of various entertaining material over the last two years. And the one serial concerning schizophrenic children in huge bleeding bipedal machines intrigued me greatly. I do hope that does not appear odd."

"Heh....," Beast Boy smirked and looked Tempest's way. "Starfire likes anime!"

"What's anime?"

"Oh go to Hell," Beast Boy faced Starfire again. "Do you like me? I'm Link from Zelda—"

THWOMP!!!

Starfire hugged him. "Hehehe! Beast Boy, I always like youuuuuuu."

The elf wheezed. "Y-Yeah......sknnkkkt.....any body got a faerie bottle?"

Tempest looked at his sheet. "Uhhh....I got a line on you...."

That's when Robin walked up.

"Hey guys. Good job keeping thing in order with the party and all and—whoah, hello Starfire."

"Robin!!" Starfire dropped Beast Boy. THAP!! "It is ecstatic to see you at last! Cyborg and I have been busy regaling the Terran youths with tales of our victories against morbidity!"

".........," Robin leaned his head to the side. "You look..............red."

Starfire smiled pleasantly with her eyes wide shut. "I drive a homicidal robot!"

"Yeah...," Beast Boy sweatdropped and scratched his head beneath his green cap. ".....I gotta admit that his is the happiest I've ever seen Asuka."

"Someone's been digging around my anime again," Robin smirked. "You'll remember to put Neon Genesis Evangelion back in alphabetical order, right Star?"

"Oh Jehovah....," Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

"And just who are you supposed to be?" asked the eyeshadowed Atlantean.

Robin stood fully geared in a black jumpsuit that stretched up to splash forth a blue set of wings across the Titan Leader's chest. A gray belt hugged his waist and a solid black, V-shaped eyemask clung to his face.

In a devilish smirk, Robin proudly said: "I'm Nightwing."

"..............," Beast Boy stared, thin-eyed. A beat. "Can't you have been more creative?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

"Well that's what the first Robin became!"

Starfire giggled. "And should we forget my time-bending adventure in which you, Robin, turned out to become—"

"There shall be NO MENTIONING of Starfire's time-traveling!!" Beast Boy hissed with arms folded.

Tempest blinked. "What's his problem?"

Robin/Nightwing leaned over and whispered: "Starfire says that Beast Boy is bald in the future."

"Oh.........," Tempest blinked. "Fancy that."

Beast Boy pulled the cap down past his eye level, sighing.

"You make a most splendid Nightwing, Robin," Starfire remarked. She held her hands together and smiled nervously. "Though....the hair is not exactly in perfect duplication."

"Yeah...well.....," Robin shrugged. "I don't do wigs."

"Hey...I could have been Nightwing!" Tempest smirked. He ran a hand through his then-blown hair. "Don't you think?"

Robin looked at him. A beat. He smiled. "Nah....."

Beast Boy lifted his green cap back up. "There's always Noir. I swear...he should dress in drag and rehearse for one of those Herbal Essence commercials." A beat. "Just where is the dude anyways?"

An arm hooked around Beast Boy's neck and a knee pressed sharply into his back. A prop gun with a prop silencer was planted into the side of his skull.

"WAAAAIEEEEE!!!" the green elf squirmed and shook all over.

Robin smirked. "A regular one-man sneaker...."

I smirked. I shoved Beast Boy forward.

"Nnngh!!" the tunic-clad elf spun around. His eyes rounded. "Dude! Sweet! Solid Snake!"

I struck a pose. I wore a steel-blue bodysuit criss-crossed at the chest and waist with military-brown belts and utility packs. My usual bandanna was replaced with a blue one twice as long and big, so that it dangled visibly below my betrayingly black locks of hair. I purposefully missed three days of shaving to achieve the gruff look of the espionage hero. I gripped a prop gun and silencer loosely. And my black eyes......weren't black.

"You did contacts," Robin smiled. "Nice."

I had spent an hour and a half prior to the festival inside the Tower preparing what—to them—looked like naturally brown eyes. Only if one were to look up close would they find that fake patches of skin were applied to minimize the size of my true sockets and the blackness of my cornea. But at a social distance, it appeared very legitimate. I smirked proudly.

"Solid Snake doesn't have a scar under his neck," Beast Boy smirked.

I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Nor does he do that to the Colonel," the changeling giggled.

"All present and accounted for!!" Starfire cheered. "Though I must admit...we were rather tardy in our preparation for this event."

"Except for you, Starfire," Robin said. "It's a great job and all....but I think you overdid it some," he sweatdropped.

"Why....however do you mean, Robin?"

"Well....like....picking through the scarecrow's straws for fleas and such—"

"But fleas are such horrid Terran entities!! Do you not forget their notoriety during the Muddy Ages??"

"Middle Ages. And the Bubonic Plague hasn't been that rampant for a long time, Starfire."

"Regardless...there is much that needs to be done!" Starfire glanced over. "Eeep!!" she held her red-gloved hands to her face. "The parents are quickly running out of the cups of Doctor's Pepper!! Quickly!! We must embark upon supplying them with additional volumes!"

"That's a job for a Hyrulian peasant," Beast Boy grunted.

"You are efficient enough!!"

"Now wait a second—WHOAH!!"

Starfire grabbed Beast Boy and hoisted him away towards the other side of the Main Room.

Robin smirked. He folded his arms and remarked: "Why am I not feeling jealous?"

Tempest leaned his head to the side. "I don't know...why aren't you feeling jealous?"

Robin shook his head. "Never mind. It's time for me to make an appearance, I guess..." He walked off.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No. Just relax and keep your hair away from candles."

"......," Tempest glanced at me.

I aimed the toy gun at him and mouthed: _'Bang'_.

"Everyone's so full of silt....," he walked off, shaking his dark head.

I smirked.

In the meantime, Link and Asuka Langley converged upon the soda cooler behind the kitchen unit of the Main Room...which was temporarily disguised to look like a pumpkin patch.

"I do thank you very kindly for your assistance, Beast Boy...," Starfire said...lifting two heavy coolers at once as if they were sample trays. "Terran enjoyment is best accompanied by large volumes of carbonated beverages, I do observe."

"You do observe well, Star," Beast Boy sweated and strained as he tried to lift a single cooler of soda up onto the counter. "Me...I-I can do with a glass of soy milk. But whatever makes the Halloween Whole Happy."

"Doctor's Pepper it is!!" Starfire beamed and began pouring cups.

Beast Boy smiled gently. He took his cap off, cracked his knuckles, and started preparing cups himself.

The two were silent while the rest of the Main Room's fifty-plus inhabitants giggled, chattered, and murmured away.

"......"

"......"

"......"

Starfire glanced at Beast Boy.

Beast Boy paid attention to what he was doing.

"......"

Starfire returned to her task.

A beat.

"......"

"......"

Finally, Starfire uttered without looking: "You are.....quite resilient, Beast Boy."

"Am I?" he stated while pouring from Dr. Pepper bottles.

"Mmmmhmmmm," she nodded. "I was......afraid."

"Afraid of what?? Heh....after that speech you gave those kids, I couldn't imagine you being afraid of anything."

"Oh, but truly I was. I was afraid that....th-that you would not be your joyful self this year."

"How do you mean?"

"At this autumnal festival," Starfire said, opening and emptying another bottle. "I was most certain that recent events would have dampened your spirits. But you surprise me. You seem.....a lot more resilient than you used to be. You have maintained your extroverted self upon this hour of celebration. That fills me with joy."

"Well...same here, Star," Beast Boy smiled gently. "Why wouldn't I be happy?"

She bit her lip.

"Look....I know I was really down and out following the first time Terra ran off on us," Beast Boy gestured. "And God knows how depressed I was when I found out she was working for Slade. But.....ya know....I-I've always pretty much gathered that Terra's life hasn't been much to be giddy about. N-Not to say that she was a waste or anything....but.....I-I just didn't know any details. Heh....I still don't. I'm resolved to celebrate the fact that she exists, not mourn it. And....A-And I'm convinced that no matter what unfortunate things have been pressed upon her.....I'm going to make it all worthwhile to her someday."

"Truly?"

"Yup...," Beast Boy poured some more sodas. "We're all gonna get her out of that stony mess and I'll be there—waiting—once she's free again."

"Despite any challenges you may face...."

"Exactly. You don't need to pep talk me, Starfire," he winked. "I think I'm pretty sane about things now."

She took a breath and smiled. "Happiness fills you, Beast Boy. I am pleased at its legitimacy."

"Hey...I'm always happy," Beast Boy shrugged. "That's what I'm here for." A beat. "That and the occasional Tyrannosaurus Rex morph."

"Hehehehe!" Starfire giggled.

As she did so, Beast Boy smiled. But as he stared off into the shadows of the rooms, something in his eyes faded. He exhaled long and slow...

In the meantime, Nightwing walked over to an unlikely pair of guests at the event.

"Well....I heard about it....but I didn't believe it," Robin smirked. He held a hand out to two gentlemen. "Welcome to the Tower."

"Hey....more than happy to be here," Decker's lieutenant uttered, shaking the small hero's hand. He was subtly dressed to look like a rock star. Quite definitely 'out of uniform'. He leaned back and smiled. "I'll take a day off....even if it's in the same place as a bunch of squealing munchkins. Thanks for the snacks, by the way."

"Thank capitalism," Robin said. He glanced over, crossed his black-suited arms and smirked. "And who might this be?"

".................," Commissioner Decker stood beside his lieutenant in completely natural garb. His usual quasi-organized dress shirt and slacks hung loosely on his gruff figure. The only thing out of the ordinary was a single red, Styrofoam ball planted at the end of his nose. "I'm a clown....," he grumbled.

The lieutenant chuckled.

"Really?" the Nightwing eyemask on Robin's face narrowed. "But aren't you supposed to have face paint and floppy red shoes and—"

"I'm a clown, dammit."

"Allright," Robin shrugged.

"He practically had to kill himself to come here," the lieutenant said.

"Oh really."

"You're shit right, really," Decker grumbled. He folded his arms and swirled a cup of coffee. "I have better things to do than stand around here gawking at outfits." A beat. "Though the City Recreation Chairwoman over there makes a mighty fine cheerleader."

"Err....."

"Anyways...," Decker's red nose twitched. "The Mayor would have had my foreskin in a vacuum cleaner if I didn't follow his advice and come here. Okay...I know what you Titans are doing is great for the kids in the community and all....but if I had my way, I'd have Halloween completely torn off of the national calendar. It's nothing short of an open invitation for predators and sick people all over the country."

Robin smiled. "Well...that's what you and I are here for, Decker. With these kids. To let them know that they have _good_ people on their side....while at the same time reminding ourselves just how valuable the souls are of those whom we're protecting."

"Yeah yeah......when're you gonna serve the drinks already?"

"Starfire and Beast Boy are over there with the soda bott—"

"No, I mean the _drinks_ drinks."

The lieutenant cleared his throat.

"What?? Did I give you permission to cough?"

"No sir."

"That's right." A beat. "Ah screw it. I'm sure I can take a bunch of candy corn home and build a still."

"Yeah....," Robin waved with a Nightwing glove and walked off. "I'll turn a righteous eye away."

"You do that."

In the meantime, Tempest stood in the corner of the place like a good wall flower.

Alone.

"I swear....," he grumbled as his shadowed eyes scanned the pages of Beast Boy's lyric sheet. "...no Atlantean knack for rhythm and orchestration. Surface dwellers have the musical talents of a humpback whale with arthritis...."

A figure walked up close. There was a tiny, rattling sound.

"....." Tempest glanced up.

The first thing he saw was a slender hand encircled with a bracelet of tiny dolphin ornaments.

"......"

He glanced up further. The Atlantean was graced with a familiarly freckled face of a teenage girl with stringy blonde hair.

"So there you are," she said.

".....," Tempest's black eyes blinked. "Excuse me?"

The girl had a toddler propped up on her shoulder and dressed cutely as...well....a 'pumpkin'. The baby girgled as the teenager readjusted her support of the infantile boy and smiled at the Titan. She herself was dressed as a female pilgrim. "I was playing a game of guessing which Titan was which, since all of you are costumed. Robin was a dead give away....and so was Raven. But you were the last one for me to find. How are you doing?"

Tempest leaned his frizzled head to the side. "Uhm....should I be 'doing' in any specific manner?"

"You don't remember me, do you?"

"........"

"I'm Lindsay. From Carman's Diner. Ring a bell?"

Tempest exhaled: "Ohhhh. Right. The feminine procurer of my water when I first arrived in this concrete purgatory. Yeah, I remember you."

"Hehehehe...you make it sound so special," she winked.

"Uh....sure," he glanced down and pointed at her bracelets. "I see you're still adorned with King Orin's foster parents."

"Hehehehe....yeah. How quaint," she shrugged the shoulder opposite of the baby. "And I see you're still......'new' to things here."

"I guess so," Tempest nodded. He looked over at the pumpkin-child. "Who's the larva?"

"Oh, this is my younger brother Phil. All he does is poop and steal oxygen from the atmosphere. But someday he's gonna grow up and ask for help with algebra homework, so I better take care of him now and make a good sisterly impression, don't you think?"

"I think so now. Cuz you just told me."

"Hehehe! So literal....say hi, Phil! Say Hi!"

The baby giggled: "Dicky Cheney!!"

Tempest did a double-take.

Lindsay blushed. "Er....h-his dad watches C-Span a lot."

"It begs the question..."

"Not now it doesn't," the girl cleared her throat, then smiled again. "So....you growing into this Town all right?"

"I'd say puberty is all well and done with."

"I meant figuratively," Lindsay smirked. "You seem to be holding yourself as a hero."

"I despise evil, if that's what you mean," Tempest leaned forward. "Even evil is definable in this Town. I'm more than happy to help the Titans in dismantling it."

"Well...the simplest motive is the best motive, I always say," Lindsay shrugged.

Phil gurgled.

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "I must ask.....am I.....how should I put it........."

"A household term now?" Lindsay nodded. "Indeed. Every Titan is. Especially the new ones."

"Really?"

"Yes. If only you could imagine how long it took us to stop talking about Noir when he first joined. Not to mention that he was totally hot and—oh my god, Wyldecarde—heeee."

Tempest sweatdropped. "Don't drop the C-Span larva."

"Eep!! You okay, Phil?? You're an anti-gravity rugrat! Yesss you are! Yessss you are!"

"Enron!!"

Tempest cleared his throat. "Well...uhm....I hope I don't get too popular."

"Why not?" Lindsay leaned her head to the side.

"Well...I.....it.......uh...."

"......."

"......," Tempest exhaled. "I'm here in this City for a reason."

"You are?"

He nodded. "And....I-I don't want to get that popular. I don't want people to kn-know that reason...," he nervously glanced aside.

Lindsay nodded. "And you know what? A great deal of that really respect that."

"Y-You do?" Tempest blinked. "How??"

"You know how many fanboys and fangirls there are of the Teen Titans? And of Robin and Raven alone?? And imagine all of the secrets those two have!! We might speculate and guess about their true backgrounds or identities....but we know that their secrecy is important. It's....It's a superhero thing, ya know? That creepy guy in Gotham City pretty much popularized that. Not to mention Green Arrow on the West Coast. When Robin and the like moved into the City, the last thing we ever wanted to do was lynch him, peel off his mask, and toss him out of Town. No, we respect the sacrifices that the Titans make. So whatever secrets you all have.....we trust you enough that it's okay. I think the issue here is....can you accept that?"

Tempest said: "I don't know what to accept or not accept. Right now.....a-all I'm doing is existing. And...well...," he pointed at his dark getup and leather jacket. "....look what I've suffered."

Lindsay giggled.

Tempest gave in with a chuckle.

Lindsay gathered her breath and said: "Quite a nice looking suffering too."

Tempest was quiet.

Lindsay blushed and looked away, clearing her throat.

Tempest smirked, his eyes narrow. "Just....what are you here lecturing me for...anyway?"

"I just wanted to thank you," she said.

"Erm.....you're welcome." A beat. A longer beat. "For what?"

"My cousin Helena is okay, thanks to you."

"I....I-I don't know a Helena..."

"But she knows you," Lindsay smirked. "She was in the sewer tunnels."

"......."

"......you know....in downtown?"

"......."

"When Dr. Light's bomb went off?"

"Ohhhhh," Tempest nodded. "That claustrophobic adventure in the dark! I recall that."

"It was barely a week ago."

"True."

A beat.

"Your cousin was there?"

"Mmmhmmm," Lindsay nodded with a smile. "And she was so happy to get out of that deathly fiasco alive that she's been crying happily ever since she reunited with us."

"Er....sorry about that."

"About what?"

"The crying."

"Nuts to you!!" Lindsay barked, repositioning Phil. "She's happy! My whole family owes it to you for what you did for Helena and all those poor people in the blackout!"

"Yes...well....," Tempest simpered and scratched the back of his neck. "I was merely following Robin's orders to retreat back into the light..."

"........"

Tempest narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," she smirked and walked off with Phil in tow. "It's just fun getting used to you is all!"

"What do you mean 'getting used to me'?!?!"

She was gone.

"I don't even know you!!!" he cackled.

A beat.

He turned and faced a plastic skeleton. "I don't even know her...."

"......," the skeleton replied.

Around this time, I had wandered over and was leaning against the kitchen unit's counter besides the bails of natural and unnatural hay. Beast Boy sat on one bare stool, spinning his green cap by one finger. We both watched as Cyborg kept telling dramatic stories and Starfire kept passing out treats, sodas, and smiles.

"I think Starfire wants everyone in the world to be happy....," Beast Boy uttered in a slightly dull voice.

I nodded, brandishing my 'gun'. My eyes were getting tired. I tried my best not to rub them so as to preserve the humanlike contacts.

"Lord knows...if there weren't any supervillains or whatnot....she might even succeed," the changeling added.

I nodded.

I heard a giggle from across the way.

I glanced over.

Two teenage chaperones were watching over their younger siblings. They were high-school aged girls and their glances seemed intermittently fixed on me. They giggled and whispered something to each other. Both were dressed in 'supergirl' outfits.

".....," I chuckled breathlessly and pinched myself.

"Say Noir..."

I looked over.

The Hyrulian Beast Boy looked at me sideways. "Do....y-you think I'm a happy person too?"

"......," I tilted my head. I slowly nodded....a curious expression bleeding through Solid Snake's contacts.

"At least I think I am. I told Starfire that I am," Beast Boy glanced down past his dangling legs beneath the stool. "I guess I am happy. Just....it's a little hard to be."

I took a deep breath.

_Go on......_

"I'm just not....I'm just not depressed about things. I know it's tough what Terra's gone through. And it...hurts me everytime I think about just how farther away she is now in that stone...," he ran a hand through his short green hair. "But....I know what she would want for me, Noir. I know that she would want me to be happy. Just like the rest of us."

I listened. Simply listened. I—of all Titans—would be the least expert at understanding Terra.

_Then there's Garth......_

"When Terra was with us...in the Tower....," Beast Boy took a deep breath. "It was.....the happiest time of my life as a Titan. I....I-I felt so sure of myself and I felt so blessed that I could know someone as beautiful and as....as 'Terra' as Terra." He smiled crookedly.

I smiled back.

"The first time we had her here at the Tower....before Slade came in...," he shuddered a bit at the name that came out of his lips, but he moved on: "....it was like clockwork. We all loved her and she loved us. She was the perfect stranger. Energetic. Friendly. Virtuous. She fit in with us like a glove. Starfire's a bundle of joy and all...but we needed someone as....as 'vibrant' as Terra too. Someone to complete the circle. Kinda like how you came in and gave us an element of 'patience'."

I smiled proudly.

"Hehehehe," Beast Boy giggled. A beat. He sighed. "Most of all....Terra made me feel like there was someone there who I didn't have to impress. I could just act naturally with her. And when she entrusted me with her secrets...about her powers and all...I felt honored to help her. I felt honored to share that trust."

"......"

"I know it sounds......disastrous to talk about Terra and 'trust' in the same sentence. But I never stopped trusting her." He stared off into the blurred chaos of the social event inside our home. "I still trust her now. In fact....I trust that....that whatever happened to her....."

A beat.

"........"

He sighed. ".....whatever happened.....I-I trust it was not in her best interests."

He hung his head.

I silently gazed at him. I was thinking of patting my hand on his shoulder when--

"Oww! Let go!!"

Two young boys in Mortal Kombat outfits were carried over by telekinetic 'hands' of black. Raven walked through the crowd—rope noose and all—and lowered them with glowing eyes of concentration in front of their mothers.

The parents knelt down besides their two boys. "What's the meaning of this??"

Raven planted her hands on her hips and frowned. "I found these two trespassing on the sixth floor of the Tower. They were trying to break their way into Robin's weapons vault."

"We did no such thing---owie!!" the Sub-Zero mimic yelped as his mother pulled his ear.

"Just a second, young man!!" she frowned at the dark girl. "How could they have gotten to such a dangerous place?? Aren't you Titans keeping an eye out for trouble??"

Raven nodded. "And believe me, ma'am. I was fully observant of your and your friend's boys." A beat. An artery pulsed in her temple. "I even saw them as they ran up and kicked me in the shins."

A gasp.

"Johnathan!!"

"Richard!!"

"I-I didn't do it!!" an SD Johnny Cage shivered. "Honest!"

"........," the one mother glared.

The kid gulped. He pointed at the other boy. "He made me do it!!"

"Come over here!!"

"We're gonna have a little _discussion_!"

"Waaaaaah!!"

Raven folded her arms. She eyed the screaming and wailing brats in the distance.

Beast Boy smirked. "Rae.....you enjoy that sort of misery, don't you?"

Raven's lips curved ever so slightly. "Best to mix the trick with the treat."

"Yeah, whatever."

Raven glared at him. "I'm serious." She looked at me.

I aimed the gun at her and mouthed 'bang!' with a smirk.

"........get a shave."

"CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE??"

The three of us looked over.

Robin/Nightwing walked to a standstill at the perimeter of the gathering. Starfire paused in mid soda-offering. Tempest shuffled out from the shadowy corners.

Cyborg gestured to everyone with a glowing arm of titanium. He grinned wide, flanked by a handful of young children and their respective guardians. "And now...without any delay...the winners of the kids' Halloween Costume Contest!"

Parents chuckled and clapped happily. Children giggled and murmured. Commissioner Decker rolled his eyes.

"Glorious!" Starfire tossed the tray away. CRASH!! She clasped her hands together. "Cuteness supreme shall commence!"

Raven rolled her eyes. "Okay....I'm going back to the weapons vault."

She turned around.

I held her in place by her shoulder.

"Don't grab me," she grumbled.

I smirked at her.

".........," she folded her arms again and watched the proceedings boredly.

"Our judges have made their well-thought decisions and votings!" Cyborg gestured. "Isn't that right, Miss Chambers?"

"Absolutely!"

"How about you, Mrs. Nguyen??"

"Heheheh....way ahead of you."

"Commissioner Decker??"

"Go to He—"

"Allrighty!! The voting is done! The results are in!" Cyborg dramatically held up a card and read from it. "First off...from the girl's side...." A heartfelt pause. "Boo-Ya!! Little Miss Claire Morgan from the Western District!"

Applauds.

Juvenile cheers.

A shy girl dressed quite believably as a mermaid 'hopped' forward and performed a blushing curtsied. She nearly fell, but was caught and balanced at the last second by her amused mother. Cyborg handed her a ribbon.

"They get younger every year," Beast Boy said.

"What's it to you?" Raven said.

"It's nothing to me—What's up with you today??"

She 'shrugged'.

"Snap your neck already, girl...," Beast Boy muttered.

Raven smirked and tossed the end of the noose around her shoulders.

Robin rolled his eyes under his mask.

Starfire was still giggling and clapping by the time Cyborg pivoted about and faced the side where the boys were.

"And for the little men....we have a winner straight out of the Downtown Apartments....," he flipped the card before his red eye, smirked, and pointed like a game show host. "Mark Hathaway!!"

An African American boy in a Roman Gladiator outfit marched forward and bowed dramatically. His mother and father couldn't contain some chuckles in the background.

A photo or two was taken of the event.

Cyborg smirked. "Let's give them a hand, shall we??"

Applause.

Clapping.

Starfire giddily whistled.

Beast Boy and Tempest plugged their ears.

Cyborg knelt down between the two kids and placed his hands on their shoulders as a camera or two flashed. "Hey...good job you two. You look great! Must have taken forever to make those costumes, huh??"

The girl giggled. "Actually, my mom made it for me!!"

"Well....I'd say it's a great compliment," Cyborg winked.

"Cyborg!" the boy held up his hand. "You're my hero!!"

Cyborg gave him a high five. "Well look at you, little man! I've got a fan every these days!!"

"Whoah....is that the same arm that becomes a sonic cannon??" little Mark exclaimed. He jumped up and down, his gladiator outfit rattling. "That's so cool!!"

"Actually, it gets pretty darn hot from time to time," Cyborg said. "But I like your arms too, kid! You been lifting weights or what??"

The boy giggled. "To be like you, Cyborg....I'd lift a whole BUILDING!!"

"One thing at a time, kid."

"Can I feel your arm?"

Cyborg proudly flexed his Titanium biceps. "Give it your best shot."

"Whoaaaaah...," Mark ran his hand across the forearm. "It's really metal!!"

"Rust-proof American goodness," Cyborg smiled a flashing grin. "And I assure you...it's down many a punk from Slade to Killer Moth!"

"Oooh...what's this? A button?" Mark's hand traveled higher.

"Heheheheh....uh....don't touch that kid. Kid? Hey...don't...YO!! Watch where you're---!!!"

-Click-

POW!!!!

A secret trigger was pressed.

Cyborg's right arm ejected with a plume of heat.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

And Mark's hand was caught.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Mark and the flying 'arm' zoomed across the Main Room. Parents and guests gasped and parted ways as the projectile rocketed towards the elevator.

"My baby!!!" Mark's mother shrieked.

Starfire gasped.

"Whoooooah du-u-u-ude!!" Beast Boy chuckled.

The arm was about to collide with the elevator doors.

Raven's eyes widened. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!" she flung a hand forward.

FLASH!!!

Encased in black, the elevator doors flew open.

"WAAAAA-AAAAA!!!" Mark bellowed as the rocket arm flew into the elevator shaft and flew straight down the corridor. The roar and smoke of the exhaust dissipated in the echoing distance.

"Uhm......," Tempest blinked. "....that can't be good."

"Shit!!" Cyborg jumped up. He flinched. He eyed the children in listening distance around him. "Er...I mean _Shiatsu_!! I-I-I need to see my Japanese Masseuse! Y-Yeah..."

"Cyborg!!!" Robin ran towards the shaft. He pointed down it with a black glove and yelled: "He's plummeting!! Stop that arm of yours!! NOW!!"

"Yeah! Sure thing, dawg!!" Cyborg flicked his left arm and popped open the computer console in his wrist. He literally 'typed' with his nose. "Mmmmff....ngnnhh...just gotta....trigger....the....return...p-protocol!!" Beep! FWOOOMP!!! The white airbags popped out of his entire body, and soon a one-armed Michelin Man was rolling helplessly across the floor. "Mmmf!! Mmmmfmmf—mmmmfff!!"

Robin clenched his teeth. "Great...."

"The poor young gladiator!!" Starfire flew down the shaft. "I shall rescue you!!!"

"That's right!!" Robin shouted. "Titans, move!!" He felt around his utility belt....but then realized that it was all part of the Nightwing costume and nothing more. "Dang it.....I'm empty..."

".....," I glanced at the elevator shaft. I glanced at Robin. I glanced at the elevator shaft again. "........."

_Screw it._

I tossed the prop gun away, cracked my neck, and ran straight towards the elevator shaft. I took a breath and—with Solid Snake's finesse—dove suicidally down the full length of the chamber.

"Noir!!!" Beast Boy dramatically gestured towards my plummet of death. "Noir!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!!!

I angled my body just right and practically flew down the elevator shaft. My black hair and bandanna whipped behind my cranium.

Even I was surprised as I found myself sailing down past Starfire's green-and-red streak.

"Eeep!!" she tossed in mid air.

".....," I blinked my contact-covered eyes.

I saw a trail of exhaust leading through an open doorway two flying floors below.

I held my breath.

Murk coursed through my body.

I pivoted my legs against the opposite wall of the elevator shaft as I reached the level of the open doorway.

I pulsed the smoke energy outward from my feet.

FLASH!!!!

I darted out into the hallway after the trail of smoke from Cyborg's rocketing arm—and Mark. I rolled onto the floor, got up in a kneeling position, took a deep breath, and blurred hurriedly after the projectile. Starfire soon darted down and joined me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven, Tempest, and Beast Boy ran up to the computer console.

"What are you doing??" Raven asked.

Robin/Nightwing was typing madly away at the controls to the Tower. The nervous guests and parents watched from behind.

"I'm taking whatever precautions are necessary."

"What kind of precautions?" Beast Boy remarked. He glanced aside and sweatdropped at the sight of the grounded-and-rolling bundle of white ribs that was Cyborg. "The night's officially wyrded out, dude."

"I'm opening every door inside the Tower," Robin said. "I don't want to incur a deadly crash."

"Good thinking," Tempest nodded.

Raven pouted. "Don't open _every_ door...."

"....," Robin glanced back at her. "I have to, Raven. Deal with it."

She folded her arms and exhaled. "Somehow I think a skull-crushing impact is going to be the least of this kid's worries."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Mark smiled and cheered.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The rocket carried the gladiator with murderous momentum down the hallways. The collision detection system built into the arm's titanium fingers kept it from crashing into any obstacles, but it didn't slow the thing down any. The arm curved around turns in the hallway, skimmed alongside the walls, and spun circles at random moments in the spacious interiors of the Tower before skirting off to accelerate senselessly again.

"WEEEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEE!!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!!

I dove into the hallway, skidded, ran my legs, and blurred after the soaring two. I sweatdropped. I strained to inch my way closer to the detached arm in pursuit. I reached my metal hand out a few times...nearly touching the dangling legs of the little boy ahead of me.

Another turn in the hallway.

SWOOO-OOOOSH!!

"WEEEE!!!"

"!!!!!"

I held my breath and teleported in and around the curve so that I could solidify in mid-sprint without having to turn. It took a lot of energy out of me, but I did manage to gain a crucial yard in my pursuit. I was then running practically alongside the rocketing arm by murking momentum alone. I took a deep breath. My brown contacts glistened.

"!!!!"

I leapt and grabbed onto the broad side of the arm.

My added weight to the flying projectile offset the balance. The automatic systems in the arm's thrusters calibrated. Mark and I twirled sickly down the hallway like a rogue agent of the Blue Angels.

"WEEEEEEE!!! THANKS FOR JOINING ME, MR. TITAN!!!"

I panted.

I pulled at the metal mass.

The arm veered left and right in the hallway.

My legs dangled.

My hair and bandanna whipped.

"Hehehehehe...AGAIN!!!"

I gritted my teeth.

I shoved my legs down.

My boots met the floor. They ground into the metal, causing sparks to splash.

SKRRRRKKKKKK!!!!!

"Wuh oh!! Hang on!!!"

"????" I glanced up.

A dead end.

"!!!!"

I held my breath and fiercely kicked my legs into the floor with a pulse of murk.

PLANT!!!

The rocket shot up.

Before we could hit the ceiling, I teleported and materialized upside down, still holding onto the rocket.

THWAP!!!

I kicked off the ceiling this time and ran my legs against the wall so that we turned around and rocketed towards the direction from which we came.

Which meant...

SWOOOSH!! Starfire flew straight towards us. "EEEEK!!!"

"!!!!!!!"

"WOOOHOOOO!!!"

I winced as the collision with the Tamaranian girl seemed inevitable.

The arm 'saw' this too. The collision detectors clicked...whirred....and took a sharp right turn....

.....directly into the yawning entrance of Raven's room.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

"!!!!!"

"WEEEEE!!!"

I kicked my legs like crazy to hit a wall, floor, ceiling, anything to stop us.

The collision detector went insane inside the dark, claustrophobic space of Raven's forbidden domain. It spun around in circles, creating a twirling globe before my eyes.

I gasped. I felt sick.

And Mark felt....

"Hehehehe!! Keep it up!!!"

SWOOOOSH! Starfire flew in.

"Noir!! Do not move!!"

"?????" I tried my best to give her an incredulous look.

The Tamaranian hovered in the doorway. She summoned a fiery green starbolt that shimmered off her red jumpsuit. She focused. She concentrated. She--

FLASH!!!

SWIIIIISH-CLANG!!!

The starbolt struck dead center in the metal forearm of the detached rocket.

ZZZTTT!!!

The thrusters short-circuited.

"WHOAH!!!" Mark yelped.

The rocket spun one last time.

THWOOOSH!! Mark was thrown loose. PLOP!! He landed in Starfire's strong arms.

FWOOOOSH!! I was shaken off. CRASH!!!! I plummeted straight into Raven's closet.

ZZZZzzzZZzzzZZttTTTTttt!! The rocket arm sparked a few times, lost its glow, and fell down dead in the center of the room. CLANG!!! It smoked...and all was quiet.

Starfire let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah!! Ha ha ha ha!!" the little gladiator in her arms cheered. "Again!!"

She sweatdropped and smiled helplessly. "I do believe your excitement has culminated for the evening, young warrior of childish ilk!"

"Awwww," he pouted.

She gently let him down on her feet and took his hand. "Come.....I must reunite you with your parents for surely they must be worried to the sickness." She glanced across the dark room at the smashed closet doors. She winced. "Noir.....you are....undamaged?"

I stirred amidst the wreckage of door splinters and fallen cloaks. I held up a weary hand with the 'ok' symbol.

Starfire simpered. "Very well. Brave work, Noir. I....erm...s-suggest that you make haste in exiting Raven's sacred habitat." And she hurriedly rushed out into the hallway to ascend back to the Main Room.

I groaned inwardly.

I fought and swam my way out from the mountain of feminine linens. I shook my head, inhaled, and rubbed my aching head.

A beat.

I glanced around at where I was.

"....."

I blushed.

I got up. Nervously, I started tossing random sets of clothes back into the closet. I set what was left of closet doors up against a nearby wall. I bundled up some cloaks and set them in the corner. I grabbed a painting and placed it back where it had fallen from---"

"...................."

Slowly, icily, I gripped the painting tighter and turned it bare before me.

"...................."

My disguised eyes quivered.

_The hair._

The face.

The eyes.........

My lips parted.

_The sword..._

The......r-red......

A mammoth chill ran over my body. But this time...it wasn't from the arm.

"........."

I exhaled.

Shaking, I looked over my shoulder.

.....

....

....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire flew up and landed with Mark in tow.

Parents cheered and clapped.

The mother ran over and hugged the little boy. The father stood and looked at Starfire. "Thanks."

She smiled happily with her eyes shut. "Extremely ecstatic to assist!"

Robin walked over. "Well done, Starfire. I'm so sorry, Mr. And Mrs. Hathaway. You see...Cyborg has secret switches on his arms placed strategically for situations in which it may become necessary to—"

WHUMP!!

"OOF!" the Nightwing-garbed hero fell aside as a green elf stomped up. "Everything's back to normal!! Partyyyyy!!!"

Children giggled and cheered. Commotion resumed to normal as conversations took place between the grownups and guests and the Autumn Festival continued unhindered.

Raven stood on the sidelines. She had her arms folded and seemed full of thought.

"......."

Behind her, a deflated Cyborg struggled up to his feet. "Nnngh....mmf....damn.......remind me to pick a mascot next year who doesn't fill with air."

"Are you okay?"

"I could use a spare pitching arm...," he gestured at his missing member. "But otherwise, I'm just dandy."

".........."

"What about you, Rae?"

"I'm hanging in there....," she said.

Cyborg eyed the noose. His human eye thinned as he smirked. "Ha...Ha...Ha....you're a million dollars rolled up in estrogen, girl."

"Love you too, Cyborg."

The android Titan walked off.

"........," Raven found herself staring at the elevator doors. Her mind wandered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later...the party became quieter. The children became sleepier. And the night waned gentler.

One by one, the guests and families and groups of kids left through the designated passages to the exit of the Tower. They were led by police cars and caravans safely back home that autumn night in the City. Decker and his lieutenant were the last to leave. Robin and Starfire bid them goodbye at the door to the Tower.

"I'd say it's been fun....but.......I'm an honest man," Decker growled.

"So am I, Commissioner," Robin smirked. "Now get the Hell out of my Tower."

"Ha ha ha ha!" the lieutenant laughed. "I bet he's been waiting to say that for ages."

"Darn kids. Come on....let's go arrest a donut or something."

"Hehehe!! Much merriment be to your travels, officers!!" Starfire exclaimed.

"Uh....sure. Happy Halloween."

CLANG!!!

The huge doors closed.

Starfire and Robin turned around.

A beat.

Starfire looked at Robin's black garb.

Robin looked at Starfire's red jumpsuit.

Silence.

"**Nice outfit."** Both said at once.

A beat.

They blinked....and looked away from each other, blushing.

"Hey!"

They both looked up.

Cyborg stood on top of the steps leading to the elevator. "The Main Room looks like a rodeo after the philistines invaded. When are we gonna clean all that crap up?"

"Eh....tomorrow," Robin waved a black gloved hand. "It was a mess last year too."

"Can we not leave the decorations up for a short time??" Starfire giggled. "It is so festive and.....f-festive!! Hehehehe!!"

Cyborg sighed. "Man...she never runs out of energy."

"Tell me about it," Robin said. A beat. He winced. "Er...."

"Ha ha ha!!" Cyborg laughed. "Oh man, that was rich."

"What I meant to s-say was—"

"Good night, Nightwing....," Cyborg mused as he walked off into the elevator.

Starfire giggled again and flew away, blowing a kiss at Robin.

The Boy Wonder folded his arms. "Heh....good night, scrap metal."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"......." Raven wandered silently down the hallway.

"Say....," uttered Tempest. He and Beast Boy walked a few paces behind Raven. "....where's Noir?"

".....," Raven glanced back tiredly. "Huh?"

"Noir, he's.....been gone since the rocket-arm incident," Tempest said.

"Oh right...," Raven shrugged and glanced up ahead. "....go figure."

Beast Boy yawned, his green tunic stretching. "Probably got tired of the insanity. I can't blame him."

"Or maybe you didn't want him there to see Cyborg snatch the first place again," Tempest smirked.

Beast Boy frowned. Pinned precariously to his chest was a mold-colored ribbon inscribed with 'Third'. "Remind me to put acid in your water squirty thingy next time we take on a bad guy."

"Duly noted," Tempest winked. "Now to get this blasted 'Alice' off my body." He yanked at his hair. "Ouch!! O-Oh right...it's not a wig."

"Heh....I'd laugh at that, but I'm way too tired dude."

A beat.

Beast Boy glanced ahead. "Never thought I'd say this....but you sound quiet, Raven."

"You know what happened in my room....," she grumbled. "I'm not too enthused about scraping scorch marks off my wall and picking up random debris."

"Hey....it can't be that bad," Beast Boy smiled. "Besides....Star told me that Noir cleaned the place up after she and him saved the kid."

"........," Raven glanced back. "You mean to say Noir was in my room?"

"Er....yeah. Didn't you know that?"

"............," Raven stared off into space.

"Raven???"

"Uhm....I-I'm tired. I think I need to go to bed. Now."

"Suit yourself," Beast Boy shrugged. "I thought that's what you were gonna do—Raven??"

She was half-running down the hallway.

Tempest blinked. "What's up with her?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven panted.

She skidded around a corner...not the most expert runner in the world. She huffed and puffed her way to the door and came to a screeching halt.

"...........," she breathed. She stepped through the still-open doorway. She glanced all along the floor. Cyborg's discarded arm lay dormant in the center of the room. Scattered scraps of clothing and robes and other articles littered in a tiny hill by the closet doors.

"......"

Raven wandered over. She peered inside the closet. Her eyes narrowed. She scanned the interior.

A beat.

_It_ was nowhere to be seen.

She turned around.

"......"

Her eyes lowered.

She saw it.

The painting was placed suspiciously neatly in the square center of a plush chair against the wall. The girl appeared happy...almost glowing in the darkness of the sorceress' room. The red halo shimmered and the three letters 'A' and 'N' and 'A' seemed to have a ghostly aura about them.

"....."

Raven subconsciously wrung her hands together. She exhaled. Her eyes traveled to the floor...and she saw something. Her body went numb. She knelt down and picked up in gentle fingers what turned out to be two patches of fake skin and brown contacts.

"............."

Raven got up slowly. She shuffled over towards a desk on the far side of her dark room, opened a drawer, and took out her communicator. She flipped it open with a Star Trek sound. "Robin....I need to see you, please...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's the painting, Robin....," Raven said.

"The painting?"

The Boy Wonder and the dark girl stood in a dark corner of the hallway that night where they had met from two converging paths. That was certainly a sign of urgency from the two Titan founders.

"The one that I drew....long ago....," Raven droned. "Drawing inspiration from my visions of Noir granted me after Trigon's possession of him."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. He was still clad in the 'Nightwing' garb. His body posture suggested tiredness. "The girl...," he said. "The girl with the sword like Noir's...."

Raven nodded. "The one that may have shown up in the testimonies of your investigations long ago."

A beat.

"You're saying....he saw it?" Robin asked.

She held out the contacts. "And....I-I believe he is not taking it nicely."

A beat.

Robin rubbed his temples. He sighed. "He hasn't shown up since the rescue of the kid, has he?"

She shook her head. "And I don't believe anybody else has seen him either."

".....," Robin turned about swiftly and marched towards the elevator. "Follow me."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A 2D schematic of the Tower was brought up on one half of the computer screen and a map of the City on the second half. After a brief moment of beeps, blips, and scanning....red text splashed across the monitor reading: 'Negative'.

"I'm not getting his signal," Robin said. He sat in the chair while Raven leaned in behind him. "That or there's a glitch. I'm not getting a sign of him at all."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "I don't think he has his signal on at all."

Robin swiveled about. "Raven....do you.....I dunno—"

"Sense a reason as to why he's gone?" she asked. She nodded. "It could be just presumption....but....he is not in a.....good mood right now."

"Tell me about it!" uttered a familiar voice from behind.

Raven and Robin swiveled around.

Cyborg walked in from the elevator shaft. He had Beast Boy, Tempest, and Starfire flanking him. "Look what I found pasted to my frickin' door!" he held a note.

Robin stood up. He marched over and took it. He scanned the paper with a narrow eyemask.

"'Dear friends. Don't worry about me. I just need to get out. I'll be back.....sometime. Sincerely, Noir.'"

A beat.

Robin lowered the paper. "Dammit...."

"Dude....like what's going on all of the sudden??" Beast Boy shrugged. "Noir just doesn't have mood swings or anything......does he?"

Starfire floated down. "I am worried for our silent friend! Has something provoked his temporary departure!!"

Cyborg planted his hands on his hips. "Y'all know something....and you're not telling us, aren't you??"

".......," Raven and Robin exchanged glances.

A beat.

"What do you want to do, Robin?" Raven asked.

"You know what I'd want to do," he said. "But....."

"....," Raven nodded. She sighed and faced the rest of the team. "It's about time we introduced you Titans to someone...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Tempest, Beast Boy, and Starfire sat on the sofa in the Main Room.

Beast Boy sat cross-legged on top of the coffee table.

Robin leaned against a nearby wall and observed the proceedings with half a glance.

Raven turned around. She had a painting in her grasp.

"This....is Ana."

"...................," the other Titans stared.

A beat.

"Who??" Tempest remarked.

"Someone very close to Noir," Raven said simply.

"Uh....okay....," Beast Boy nodded. He blinked. "So....like...why haven't we ever heard or seen her?"

"Simple...," Raven placed the painting gently down on a stand. "Because we....haven't heard or seen her."

"But didn't you say she's someone close to Noir?"

The dark girl nodded. "That I did."

"Then how—"

"I know very little about her....but what I do know is that she is very prevalent in Noir's mind."

"????" the Titans looked confused.

Raven explained: "Back when Mumbo Jumbo split my emotions, Trigon took possession of Noir through rage. When rage returned into my mind, it took with it some of Noir's emotions and memories. I got scant visions of....of _Noir_," Raven gestured. "Either his past or his fears or something else deeply rooted in his mind. But the most common image is that of her...." She pointed at the painting. "Ana."

A beat.

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "She's............pretty."

"Yeah," Beast Boy smiled. "Love the lesbian haircut!"

Tempest elbowed him.

"Oof! Hey!!"

Tempest groaned.

"Allrighty....so..........you painted this, right Rae?" Cyborg asked.

Raven nodded.

"You used....inspiration from Noir's vision to paint it or ?"

She nodded again.

"So what's the big deal?"

"I think Noir saw it," Raven said. She glanced Starfire's way. "The last you saw of him was in my room, correct?"

"Affirmative," the Tamaranian nodded her head. "He was situated around your closet to be exact."

".....," Raven took a breath. "Well, that explains it then."

"That explains what?!?!" Cyborg gestured. He actually stood up. "What's going on around here?? Is....W-Was Noir not supposed to see that pic or something??"

Robin glanced silently over at Raven.

Raven took a breath. "I.....I-I have been hesitant to show it to him."

"What for, Rae?"

"When I drew it.....I was.....Robin and I—"

The Boy Wonder spoke up: "We were investigating Noir's background for possible signs of villainy and traitorous links to Slade," he said. He rubbed the edges of the Nightwing eyemask. "Raven showed the painting to me. I knew about it. But we didn't dare tell Noir about it....because we tied it so closely to our suspicions."

"But what is so negative about it?" Starfire remarked. "It is an aesthetic piece...."

"The red...," Raven pointed at the crimson halo surrounding the blonde swordswoman. "...I believe it is blood."

"........"

"Creepy," Beast Boy remarked.

"Blood?" Cyborg rubbed his human head.

"It.....It's backed by other visions...," Raven stated.

"I see....."

A beat.

"But I still don't get it. What's so important about this?" Beast Boy gestured. "Why would this make Noir get all moody and leave the Tower?"

"......," Raven stared at Beast Boy. "There are a lot of things that can.....trouble a young man, Beast Boy."

He seemed perplex.

And then Tempest suddenly blurted: "A lost love...."

The others glanced at him.

Tempest's white-on-black eyes blinked. "Noir has a girlfriend....or at least he used to. And.....something happened. And here he is now....with the Titans."

"That is quite a theory, Garth," Starfire remarked.

"Yeah....what makes you think that?" Cyborg asked.

Tempest took a deep breath and folded his arms. He seemed to shrink back into the sofa some. "I....see similarities in Noir and I. Besides the eyes and hairstyle of course. Wh-What I mean to say is.......I think I can understand what this may mean." A beat. "I wouldn't be so happy if I found out that one of you sketched Tula and kept it locked away in your closet."

Raven's gaze fell to the floor.

Beast Boy's lips were parting. "What......But.....Wait a second....Heheheheh....," he waved a hand. "You mean to say that all this time....Noir's been some lovesick Romeo and none of us ever knew it??"

"That's not what I'm saying exactly," Tempest said. "What I'm saying is—"

"We all have our secrets, Beast Boy," Robin said.

The Changeling looked at him.

The Boy Wonder spoke rather softly for his own good: "And some of us here—some of us Titans are superheroes solely because of the impact of those secrets on our lives. Lord knows I have my identities and issues that I feel heavily at risk of exposure by working with each and every one of you. But I keep mum about it. It's....well....it's a 'me' thing. And you all know that. And by now, you've learned to respect that."

Robin pointed at the painting.

"Inadvertently...one of Noir's secrets slipped out. It got lost in the shuffle of Wyldecarde, Slade, and the Balance of Morals. Nicely for Noir, only two of us discovered something very....very sensitive to him. But secrets don't remain secrets forever. The painting was bound to be discovered. And now that it has....well....I'm inclined to think that the very foundation of Noir's security has been attacked. He respects us all as much as I respect you Titans. But just like me....he has stipulations. He's not quite so bold or forward in announcing him and whatnot—partially because he is mute—but still there are things that he wants to cling onto. Him and himself alone. Whoever Ana is....that was for him to know and for us not to delve into. But now...that's a little unavoidable. He probably feels.....b-betrayed right now. And he just needs his distance."

Tempest shook his head. "No....no no no...."

Robin's eyemask raised.

"He doesn't feel _betrayed_, Robin...," Tempest uttered. "He doesn't feel anything about _us_. It's not about the Titans, don't you get it?"

"......"

Tempest pointed emphatically at the painting. "It's about her!!"

Everyone looked at 'Ana' again.

"It's all about her!! Someone very beautiful and important only and SOLELY to Noir!! She may seem to be the prettiest thing to walk the earth—but as Raven seems to hint at....she's quite obviously _not here_. We may be here....but she isn't. And as nice and friendly as we all are....I'm sure we're a bunch of poor.....poor substitutes."

"........," Robin gazed off.

Tempest sighed and seemed to hug himself. "Neptune knows....I'm thankful for all you people have done to help me fit in as a hero and all.....but every morning I wake up and all I can think of....i-is the way she smelled. Her crystal clean face and smile. Poseidon, how warm her breath was......." He bit his lip, stroked his brow, and sighed.

Starfire swallowed a lump down her throat and gently stroked the Atlantean's shoulder.

Silence.

Beast Boy stood up. With a dead gaze, he paced around the coffee table.

A beat.

"Heh....I.....I-I can't believe myself...."

"Say what?" Cyborg asked.

Beast Boy looked up. "I....I've been there for you, haven't I Garth?"

Tempest slowly nodded. His eyes were still weak.

Beast Boy glanced at Starfire. "And....you've all been there for me when I got emotional....o-over Terra, right?"

"Truly, Beast Boy," Starfire said.

Beast Boy ran a shaky hand through his hair. "How....h-how could I not even begin to imagine that....th-that Noir has gone through something similar?"

"He doesn't tell us, man," Cyborg said. "It's his way."

"Screw his way!!" Beast Boy barked. "Where would you be if we didn't force you to open up after Anderson royally screwed up your Uncle Simon with Triad???"

".......," Cyborg gently blinked.

Beast Boy spun and faced Raven. "And you!! When we first met...you wouldn't so much as talk to me or any of the other Titans!! And look at where we are nearly three years later!!"

"My life is relative, Beast Boy—"

"You have friends, Raven!!"

"I said my life is rel—"

"You have friends, Raven. And you're glad about that, aren't you? And you're a bit more sane about all your problems and curses, aren't you??"

"...........," Raven stared.

Beast Boy slumped back down onto the edge of the coffee table. "I....I feel so stupid. So selfish." He hugged his knees childishly. "Why do we have to let some of us stay so lonely and angsty??" A beat. "How about you, Robin? You got some lousy secrets?"

Robin didn't so much as look at him.

"'Lousy' isn't the word for it," Raven said. "At the same time....this isn't the most drastic situation. Noir is just....." She lingered.

Starfire spoke up: "Noir is selfless."

They all looked her way.

She smiled gently. "I am constantly being complimented and called benevolent things by you, friends. I have been called 'pretty', 'kind', 'nice', and many other platitudes. Hehehe. Ahem....but I have also been called 'selfless'. And though I may understand the motive for labeling me as such, I do not believe that I am the prime example of such a quality in this Tower."

"Noir's some character, huh?" Cyborg smirked.

"He is a 'character' indeed," Starfire nodded. "Sometimes....I-I fear that we are inclined to let him continue in his servitude to us and the City without realizing that—without asking for it—he needs and desires retribution."

"Like what??" Beast Boy asked. "A badass guy like that never asks for anything!"

"He likes eye contact," Cyborg said. "Well...at least I'm the only one here who frickin' knows how to hand-sign with him."

"Perhaps we should orchestrate a way to intercede on his behalf tonight?" Starfire remarked. "Assuming that we can find him first?"

"He wants to be alone.....," Tempest groaned. "....don't you guys get it?"

"But that isn't what's good for him!!" Beast Boy cackled. He looked Cyborg's way. "I know! Let's do a City-Wide search!! Then when we find him....like....l-let's get Kara on the phone then have her talk to him!! Th-They're close, aren't they? Heck....I almost thought the two of them were.......like......a _pair_! Who's this Ana girl all of the sudden?"

"Kara won't help Noir....," Robin said.

Everyone looked his way.

"How do you know, dude?" Beast Boy remarked.

Robin had been gazing off in thought for most of the conversation. In fact, he was scratching his chin as he said: "Because if she could....he wouldn't be running off at the very thought of Ana right now."

Raven slowly nodded at that.

Cyborg saw her.

"Then what are we supposed to do??" Beast Boy waved.

Robin stood up straight. He hung his arms by his side. "I'm going to go talk to Noir. I'll set things straight."

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Beast Boy did a double-take. "Dude....what??"

"What did you have in mind, Robbie?" Cyborg asked curiously.

"I....I think I can help. I can't explain it more than that."

"Dude, why not?"

Robin's mask narrowed. "The only thing common between secretive people....is the very act of keeping secrets."

A beat.

Robin gestured. "I'll be off."

"Do you even know where to look, man?"

"As a matter of fact, I think I do," Robin turned and walked towards the nearest stairwell. "Now if you'll excuse me...I'm off to my room."

"What for?"

"To change back into my regular costume...," Robin half-lied.

"......," Starfire gazed after him. A beat. "Robin...." She got up and flew his way.

Robin paused. He glanced aside.

Starfire flew down beside him. "You will.......be careful?"

Robin nodded. "Of course, Star. I know what I'm doing."

"You are certain??"

He smiled somewhat. "Absolutely.

She cupped her hands together. "Noir.....has been hurt by us before. It would be a shame if we all hurt him again...." She gazed over at the painting. ".....by prying."

"Noir isn't leaving us, I promise," Robin said. He made way for the stairwell.....paused.....pivoted around....and hugged Starfire suddenly.

"!!!!" the Tamaranian blinked. "R-Robin??"

"Thanks, Star....," Robin breathed gently over her shoulder. He let go and walked away.

"F-For what?" she stammered.

The Boy Wonder was gone.

Starfire held a hand to her cheek. She was blushing some.

".......," Beast Boy looked over at the painting.

The blonde angel looked back.

A beat.

"Terra....a-are you really alone after all?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCWHISSSH!!

Robin entered his room through the automatic doors

SCHISSSH!

They closed behind him.

He took a deep breath.

He clenched his gloved fists.

His eyemask narrowed, signifying that his optics underneath were closed.

A beat.

".....okay...."

He flexed his arms.

".....I can do this....."

He looked over towards the bedside table. He opened the drawer.

".....you can help me....."

A beat.

Robin proceeded to change into something more....fitting for the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_I can't stop shaking. I just don't understand it. I just don't understand. How was she there? How was she anywhere I couldn't expect? I feel so cold. I feel so alone...and yet surrounded all the same. And I want to be mad but I know I can't because there's no reason to be. Or is there? My head won't stop. It's like someone is screaming twenty four/seven. But then again...I think it's always been like that. Only...I rarely ever sober up to hear it. My head wants to split apart. But it doesn't compare to the pain in my throat. It's like a soreness that wants to bleed through my scar. I know you wouldn't understand. I don't even know why I'm writing this to. I just......I just want to write to someone. But I can't. There's no one. I can't tell it to the Titans. Not Kara. God, not Kara. I don't want her in this. This soreness. I almost thought of knocking on Renee's and Daniel's door. But thinking about it makes me sick. Cuz I feel like a bum. A stupid, angsty, aimless bum. I've wandered hundreds of god damn miles to get to this place and still that's not enough for me. Not when I feel like this. Not when I get 'sober'. Not when I'm reminded. Not when I see her face. And those beautifully cold blue eyes. Like diamonds buried in the bottom of the Ocean. The icy kiss of Choral that I only barely touched during training. Oh god her golden hair like sunlight in the early mornings as we danced with our blades in the sawgrass and the air sweat with the Pacific and she smiled and she cried and she bled and she sang all over my eyes when I had eyes to be proud of without the burning sun that ate at my chest and arms as I tried to chase it down and chase it down and oh god oh god I don't know what I'm doing here I don't know what I'm doing here I don't know what I'm doing here I don't know what I'm doing here I don't know what I'm doing here............_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in the vacant streets of a City, a paper napkin rolled across the pavement and fluttered into a gutter.

Before it plummeted into the darkly lit sewers below, a touch of moonlight graced its surface.

A letter addressed 'Dear Diana' quivered in messy, black ink.

Written by a shaking hand of a wandering shadow in the desperation of the darkness.

And tossed away as the shadow shuddered on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"............"

I gripped my head.

My flesh and metal fingers kneaded through my hair.

Cold, chilling autumn wind blew into my figure.

".............."

I shuddered.

I lowered my arms.

I hugged myself.

My black eyes stared naked into the night...westward.

I was sitting up high on one of the support towers of the suspension bridge over the Bay. It was the closest Tower to the Main Land. Regardless, dark waters churned ravenously far below my precariously perched position.

".............."

I blinked.

I wasn't sure what I was staring at.

I wasn't sure what I was breathing in or breathing out.

I felt numb all over. Like a tiny vibration inside all of my cells.

I shut my eyes.

I wanted to disappear.

I wanted to become oblivion.

I felt like a brat...a cry baby....a vagabond.

I shouldn't have been there. I was worrying my friends. The note had to have been more of a cruelty than a consolation.

I shuddered.

But still...

The painting.

The painting.....

I ran two shaking hands through my long black hair again.

_Her golden hair._

_Her eyes._

Her smile.

I panted.

My heart beat.

_What was she doing in Raven's room??_

I clenched my black eyes tightly shut.

_What did Raven know? What did she not tell me that she knew??_

I grit my teeth.

_I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm......_

My fists clenched.....then relaxed.

I bent over and nearly fell over the edge of the tower.

_I want to tell someone. I want to tell someone so bad......I want to share everything._

_Everything......_

I so much want to share everything......

I hiccupped. But somehow, the tears wouldn't come.

_Kara......could you possibly understand??_

My eyes opened.

Everything was hazy.

Out of focus.

Westward....

_Would you......s-still speak to me after I told you???_

"You know........for me, it's when I look North."

My breath left me. Almost in a pleasant way. Like the prospect of being discovered....and wanting to be discovered. Such desperate and paradoxical loneliness.

_The Messenger??_

I turned around and looked.

I inhaled.

_No, Robin........._

The Boy Wonder stood behind me, his cape blowing in the wind. I hadn't even noticed him alighting the structure. He was the master of sneaking. And there I was still clad as Solid Snake.

"North is where Gotham City is...," Robin simply stated. "I never told anyone....but that's why I have my room on the north end of the Tower. The windows look in that direction."

"........," I blinked.

_I h-hadn't thought of that._

A beat.

_What the Hell is he doing here??_

I made to get up and salute him....or something.

But he stretched a gloved hand out. "At ease..."

I simpered.

He lowered his glove. His eyemask was unchanging. "I'm not mad at you or anything, Noir...."

I exhaled.

"But.....we were worried," he said. A beat. He sat down slowly beside me. "That is to say....we _are_ worried. I only told the Titans that I would speak to you. Nobody else seems to suspect that you'd be here but me."

"........," I stared away from him. The two of us sat with our legs dangling over the edge of the Tower.

Facing West.

"I once tried to investigate your background, Noir. I bet—by now—you know that."

I shrugged.

"You're from......Washington State, aren't you?"

"........."

"Oregon? California?"

"........," I shrugged and nodded a bit.

Robin leaned back on two arms. "I've been there a few times. Great weather....except when it rains—all the time."

I smirked somewhat.

_I hear Gotham City is a hellhole......_

Robin wasn't telepathic.

We sat in silence.

Until Robin broke the silence.

"Raven.....painted that picture, Noir."

".........."

"She never told you about it. I think it's.....one of her many ways of 'protecting' you. Heh....she does seem quite in a habit over doing that."

".......," I slowly nodded.

"She doesn't know anything about.....about 'Ana'," he said. "And—obviously—neither do I."

"......."

"But...we both realize that Ana is very....exclusive to you." A beat. "That is to say....someone very close to you. Maybe no more than a thought these days."

I cringed.

Robin noticed it. Maybe he meant for me to cringe. "It was never our attempt to exploit something....of great value to you," he said. "Or great secret."

I slowly exhaled.

"Anyways....," Robin scratched his black head of hair. "....my room faces the North. I suppose it's my way of torturing myself." A beat. "Kinda like how you're torturing yourself now."

".....," I glanced at him curiously.

"Facing West," he pointed. "I knew that—of all places in this City—you'd be here, Noir. I'm surprised you don't come here more often. But maybe that's a good thing. Like a sign that we Titans haven't encroached on you that much."

I stared ahead of me. Silent.

"Ever since the days just prior to Slade's death," Robin gestured. "I've pretty much figured that the West was a sore subject for you. When Cyborg had us all go on our lovely little vacation....I-I never said anything of it, but I knew it must have been very hard for you, Noir."

I shrugged. A sigh.

"Heh....I'm selfish. Starfire and Beast Boy suggested we go to Gotham City. I said 'no'."

My lips curved somewhat....but not for long.

"Of course....I've been back and forth a few times since you've come here," Robin looked down at his dangling feet. "Between here and Gotham City, I've made my own private trips. My alter ego at work. My own pretty secrets." A beat. "But that's only because I've resolved myself over many things in my past. Or at least....I'm a bit more willing to face them personally."

I glanced at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Not to say you're afraid of your past or anything, Noir....," Robin stated. "That's frankly none of my business and—quite simply—beyond my guessing."

A beat.

"This is how I try to remain sane, Noir....," Robin said.

I realized he was handing me something.

"???"

I looked down and found myself holding a black picture frame. Inside the frame was a grainy black and white image.

My black eyes narrowed.

It was a freeze-frame from some security camera feed. It looked like an airport or a bus terminal. I saw escalators and crowds of people wandering about in stylish clothes suggestive of Gotham City culture. And yet—as chaotically ugly as the snapshot was—there was a figure, howbeit fuzzy, that seemed to be in the center of the accidental composition. She stood at the base of one of the stairs...a petite thing with a mop of black hair and a thin frame.

"......"

Robin leaned over my shoulder and pointed: "This was taken at the Central Gotham City Terminal. Twenty minutes after nine p.m. on the dot. It was a clear night's sky that evening. Four years ago."

".......," I glanced at Robin. I glanced at the photo again.

"If that snapshot was taken a mere ten seconds later, I would have been in the frame," he said. "But that's not what's important." He pointed with a gloved finger. "She is...."

I stared closer. My naked eyes strained.

_The figure........._

"I met her that night while on my beat," he said. "She was running helpless across Town. I had to save her from a group of bikers, and yet still she wouldn't stop running. The only thing that stopped her oddly enough were flashing lights.....like the strobe from a police squad car."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Is that what you're running from?"_ _A thirteen-year-old Robin approached her gently in the alleyway. "Are you in trouble with the cops? I just want to help."_

"You can't," she stepped backwards. Nervous. Frantic. She shook her head. "I have to keep moving."

"Is there somewhere where I can take you?" Robin asked. "Do you have a family?"

"I-I......," she clutched her head and shuddered. "I can't remember......"

And she ran......

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"She had no long term memory...," Robin said. He was staring off...but his head turned right from 'westward' as he spoke. "At first I thought she was a victim of trauma or abuse. Like she was blocking some mental crap in her poor little head. I lost track of her a couple of times as she ran all over the place and I got more and more worried. Batman thought nothing of it....even after the girl's deadbeat dad showed up and nearly beat the crap out of her. But....I wouldn't give up. I would help her. I would help her remember everything, no matter what."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_You shouldn't be trying so hard to help me...," she uttered pensively, her hands clasped together. "He'll hurt you too."_

"I can handle him," Robin stepped towards her and gently said.  
_  
"What makes you so sure?" murmured the girl._

"I know his type," the young Boy Wonder smiled. "My dad wasn't much of a prize either."

"So that's why you care," she gently grasped her hands around his glove and smiled weakly. "You're the only person I can remember who ever did."

Robin smiled.

She leaned in and gave him a slight peck on the cheek as if to express 'thanks'.

Bashful, the Boy Wonder merely scratched the back of his neck and pointed: "Y-Yeah.......but you don't remember anything!"

She actually giggled at that.

And then her smile faded as she saw a light looming overhead.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Gradually....," Robin said, gazing northward. "....she started remembering things. She remembered a light atop a tall place....shimmering in the darkness. There was only one place in Gotham City that fit that description. So I took her there."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_This......all feels familiar..."_

_The girl walked forward across the rocky bluffs overlooking a bay of dark water. A lighthouse loomed overhead. Its glowing beam of silver and gold swept across the blood-red sky of Gotham City. Robin trailed behind her slowly...curiously..._

"I've been here before......," she murmured. She climbed the bluffs. Higher. Higher. With each mounting step, her enthusiasm rose. "I know it!" She rounded the top of the rocks and gazed across the bay to where a cold, dark factory loomed with heavy concrete pipes yawning into the dark currents. "There!" she gasped. She started to scurry down the other side of the bluffs. "That's it! Those pipes! I r-remember!"

"Whoah! Not so fast!" Robin entreated. He hopped down to catch up with her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Somehow....her memories brought us inside an old chemicals factory. I had a very bad feeling about it. Like it was a trap. But for once...the girl seemed excited. Full of life. Happy. She was on the verge of catching up to herself. To understanding that which she had forgotten. And...I-I couldn't deny that from her. As dangerous as everything felt...the ominous signs that I should have seen earlier but didn't because I was still a young and stupid caped crusader...."

Robin's fists clenched.

A beat.

He relaxed.

A sigh.

"....I led her into her disastrous fate. Her evil father...he was there. He was in the factory. Waiting for us. For her. But he wasn't just any ordinary father..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Robin gasped. "Clayface!!"_

Matt Hagen...a shape-shifting monstrosity of putrid mud...stomped forwards. Pure white eyes glaring. Lumbering, thick limbs looming over the two children.

"_Now we can cut out the games......," Clayface grinned. And he flung a warbling arm of clay down at the youths._

The girl shrieked.

Robin grabbed her and dove the two out of the way of the sloshing villain.

THWAP!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We ran halfway through the factory...," Robin said. "We tried to get away from Clayface. But it was futile. Especially when I realized....when I realized...." He lowered his head some and took a breath for composure. "I had been closer to Clayface far more than I imagined the entire time."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_You okay??" Robin asked as the two knelt on a catwalk._

_The girl went silent. Her head hung as she limply traced the scattered drops of mud plastered to her arms and wrists from the flight._

"_I understand now...," she breathed._

"_Good, cuz I'm lost," Robin leaned towards her. "What do you have to do with Clayface?"_

".........," the girl gently held her hand out before the Boy Wonder. She showed him how the mud was sliding into her...becoming one with her...rejoining the body. "I am Clayface."

_Robin's eyemask widened as he saw the miniature morphing. He looked at her face._

She gazed up at him with sad eyes. "I remember now......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"She wasn't human. She wasn't flesh and blood like you and me, Noir," Robin said. "She was an extension. A puppet. A drone sent out from Clayface's body itself when the villain resurrected himself from the dissolving waters of the Gotham bay. She crumbled away on the inside. Clayface was there to rejoin with her. To regain the loss body mass he had sacrificed in making her. To become his whole, strong, miserable self again. And she was about ready to accept defeat and 'join' him. She said she wasn't real. She looked me in the face and surrendered to a terrible fate. But....B-But I wouldn't allow it. I told her she was real. I told her to run. I-I told her to......r-run. To live. To keep existing. After all I did that night. All of the running around. All of the searching. The sweating and bleeding. I would not let her die on me. She....she had become that precious to me overnight. I was still young and....and emotional. I-I wouldn't let her disappear. I wanted to hold onto her forever and somehow convince her...._show_ her....that she was so very alive. So very real."

Silence.

A gust of autumn wind.

I was staring fixedly at him by this time.

Robin took a deep breath and continued:

"Clayface advanced. She ran, like I told her. I tried fighting Clayface on my own. But....I-I couldn't possibly have lasted. He was toying with me...pushing me over the edge of a catwalk that rested over a vat of acid. I would have died. I would have stopped being 'real'. But.......But it was not meant to be...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Nnngh!!"_ _Robin gasped and struggled as Clayface forced him against the railings._

"_Wait!!"_

Her voice......

Clayface glanced aside.

She came running back up the catwalk. Panting.

She ran like a bullet towards the monstrous villain. "I'm the one you want!"

Robin's mouth flew open. He shouted two words at her. Words he forgot because he was drowning her figure in through his eyemask as she blurred forward into a dive and shoved herself into Clayface's chest.

_The two tumbled across the catwalk. And with an explosion of mud and mock 'flesh', the two quivered and screamed and morphed into one._

"N-No......," a beat-up Robin murmured limply.

"Run Robin!!" the last semblance of her sentient figure reached out to him as she was dragged into the warbling mass of Clayface...and absorbed. "Hurry!"

"NO!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stroked his temple with a finger. He almost seemed to be slurring at this point.

"She....sacrificed herself. And I went on to live instead."

A beat.

He leaned back and stared at the blue sky. "I....I relive that moment. In different ways.....dreaming....flashbacks....passing thoughts. And yet they're all the same. The creaking catwalks. The rusted metal. The putrid mud. That damn red sky and that lighthouse....all of Gotham City, for that matter....."

A beat.

My eyes narrowed.

_That......sounds familiar......_

My metal left hand twitched once or twice.

"It....it wasn't enough at first to drive me away," Robin continued uninterrupted. "I was....s-sad for the next few days, of course. But I got over it. It's what superheroes do. They get over things. But as the months waned on...and I started seeing things from a new perspective....Batgirl's independence, Nightwing's incessant hatred of Batman's crime-fighting politics....and the jaded opinions of a cynical Gotham City population....I started to see things differently about Gotham City. There were no absolutes. Not even in crime fighting. So....many of my mental shields fell away so that I could....re-analyze things. And I remembered her. I remembered how small and frightened she looked. I remembered how lovely and full of life she was the moment she started remembering things...even if the return of her memories meant her undoing. I remembered the few times she said my name aloud. It sounded so sweet....so full of trust. L-Like she had known me all of her life even though it was just one evening of breath, life, and couldn 't stand to be under that red sky anymore," Robin murmured. "Just like Nightwing....a bird like me has to find a new cage. A new aviary, if you will."

".........," I gazed off.

Robin pointed at the picture frame. "But I took that with me. And nobody knows about it, Noir. Not Raven. Not Cyborg. Not even Starfire. I....I've only told you, Noir. I've told you because....because you're very tolerant and mature. And I think you're the only other member of our team who understands what it means to feel conflicted over what we're doing here. Is it that we're trying to be heroes in a new battlefield? Or perhaps—Noir—you and I are also running away from something? Something painful? Something that has made us colder and darker than the children we once used to be?"

".........," I looked at him again.

He took a deep breath.

"I came here for many reasons, Noir. And one of them is because I don't want to remember the past. And yet I do, to some extent. Either way—cowardice or not—I'm still growing. And I'm still kicking crime's ass. And you know what? So are you."

".......," I slowly nodded.

"She is......very pretty," Robin said.

I looked at the frame with a raised eyebrow.

He smirked. "Ana....I mean."

I mouthed 'oh'. I chuckled breathily. A beat. A deep sigh.

"And....I hope you don't ever feel pressured to tell us about her, ya know...," Robin gestured. "Lord knows, you tolerate my secrecy."

I nodded.

A beat.

"So....how long will you be looking westward, Noir?" Robin asked. "A long time? A short time?" A beat. "Regardless of how long you indulge....I would love you to join us back East....at the _Tower_."

I nodded. I sighed.

"A part of you will always stay. As a part of me will always be in Gotham City," Robin said.

I smirked somewhat.

"But I want you here, Noir," Robin leaned his head to the side. "Especially because....b-because of my decision."

I raised an eyebrow. I mouthed: '_Decision?'_

He nodded. "I'm promoting you, Noir."

"..........??"

"Raven knows about it, I'm pretty sure. She may have been the co-founder of our team...but when it comes to authority, she's stepped back. She's merely a third party member of the team. She's the mediator of all our conflicting interests. So....as you know....I've relied on Cyborg to be my number one. In case anything happens to me, he'll be the one to lead the team. In a way....that's how it's always been. We've orchestrated ourselves in that fashion."

I nodded.

"As much as we may try to deny it....our team is becoming bigger," Robin said. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've always wanted to expand the Titans into....well...something more capable of fitting the Tower." He smirked. "Much more than five scant superheroes."

I leaned my head to the side.

"I'm promoting you, Noir," he pointed. "I want you to be Number Two."

I blinked.

"You're third after Cyborg," he said. "If anything should happen to me....you answer to him. If anything should happen to the both of us......w-well.......you lead the team."

My lips parted at that.

"I trust you, Noir," Robin said. His eyemask narrowed. "And....I feel that we have many commonalities."

My flesh and metal fingers traced the frame of the security photo in my grasp. I took a deep breath. _I thought of the painting......_

"It wasn't easy for me to trust you," he said. "The biggest test....that was the trial of Wyldecarde. You proved to us a long time ago how loyal you are to the ultimate safety of the Titans and this City....and this whole world. You give yourself entirely, Noir. And—like even Starfire said—it's about time you're given back." He produced a communicator...but not just any communicator. It looked like the extra-special type that Cyborg carried...with tiny blue decals that suggested a higher rank.

_A higher rank......_

_Promotion......_

"So.....Number Two?"

".............."

_Well, Ana?_

".............," I smiled.

_Well indeed......_

I gently reached a flesh hand out and grasped the communicator.

Robin patted me on the shoulder. He took a deep, proud breath. "In a world that's getting darker by the minute....I'm glad we have a bit of _your_ darkness to fight back with."

I smiled nervously.

He held his gloved hand out.

I holstered the communicator away and eagerly shook his hand.

He tightened the grip.

We shook, twisted our thumbs together, and released them with a snap(!) before pointing at each other simultaneously.

"Heheheheheh....," he chuckled.

I smiled. A sigh.

Robin stood up. "Come on, Noir...," he again patted my shoulder and faced the both of us Eastward. "Let's go home."

And I couldn't have felt better.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Recording...**

Recording...

Recording...

**Stop**

**Exit Surveillance Protocols 75/02-SF (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

Loading....

**Loading....**

**  
Loading....**

**Activate "Counter-Red-Aviary" Program (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

**Opening....**

Opening....

Opening...

Begin: Project "Counter Red Aviary"

Servers Online

"Pulsade" Server Responding

"J" Server Responding

Third Server Inoperative

**Continue (Yes/No)?**

"**Yes"**

**Initializing...**

Initializing...

Initializing...

Opening Program "Seventh Day Shout"

Location: City Prison – Omega Wing

**Date: October 23, 2004**

**Time: 0701 Hours**

**Equipment: Accounted For / Maximum Availability**

"**D" Insurgency Factor: 100 ("IMMINENT")**

**Transfer of Text: "Dear Old Friend, Red Aviary Has Begun. Be very careful." "J"**

**System Calibration: Complete**

Warning – Warning – Warning – Warning

Counter-Red-Aviary In Effect

**Warning – Warning – Warning – Warning**

**  
Counter-Red-Aviary In Effect**

Begin:

-T-T-T-T-T-

At exactly 7:01 am on October 23, 2004....

In the silent and unsuspecting structure of the City Prison's Omega Wing....

Still dark from the autumnal morning...

A grand and dramatic explosion flared outward from the cold building.

**KABOOOOOM!!!!!!**

Brick and cement flew.

Frightened cries and insane laughter filled the night from a conglomeration of prison guards and excited villainy.

The burning flame from the explosion plumed high and turned the sky red...

In the distance, sirens sounded.


	144. Double Jinx part 1

**144. Double Jinx part 1**

_Three and a half years ago......_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Cold air._

Metal armwrests.

Silver shackles.

A stale smell in the darkness.

Distant sounds of muffled children.

Crying.

Screaming.

And......

Shocking sounds.

Beating sounds.

Carving sounds.

She breathed......breathed.........breathed...

"..............."__

"Wake up, witch........."

"..............."__

"Wake up. That is a commandment. Your first commandment."

"_Nnnghh......I......wh-where am I?"_

_A beat._

"_Remove the blinders."_

_FLASH!!!!_

Bright electric light.

She flinched.

Her teeth grit and her arms struggled in the metal restraints.

Panting......

Twelve year old chest falling and rising......

"_Who......are........."_

"We??" an old woman with ghastly gray hair and a tight face paced before her. She was flanked by men in yellow armor and helmets. The helmet visors were bulbous black spheres, like insect eyes. The cold metal walls were hexagonal combinations of golden plates. "It does not matter who we are......," the old woman walked to a stand-still and stared at the girl. "Tell me......who do you miss??"

_The girl blinked._

She shrank back in the chair. "I......I-I......," she felt sleepy and anxious all at once. The world begged to spin before her eyes.

"Who......are you missing......?" the old woman asked with narrow eyes.

The girl shuddered. Her lips parted and her vision blurred momentarily as if reacting to something squirming around in her brain.

"Faye............," she whispered. "............Fiona."

A beat.

The girl bit her lip. A moan came out of her throat that she half expected. But it felt so natural. "M-My sisters.........oh gawd......what's become of them?"

A beat.

The woman paced in front of the girl again. "You......failed them......didn't you??"

The girl's lips quivered. "I......I-I......"

"You were supposed to watch over them. To protect them......," the woman's old eyes narrowed threateningly. "......it was what your mother wanted. After all your mother's been through......you would disappoint her?"

"I......I......," the girl shook all over. Her eyes quivered.

"What did you do??"

"I......f-failed my mother......I-I failed Faye......I failed Fiona.........," she hunched over in the chair's restraints. Tears started trickling down her cheeks. She shook and hiccupped. "I......I w-was reading a book at the p-playground......when they came and t-took them both."

"Were you able to save them??"

"I-I........."

"Your powers. Did you use your powers?"

"I t-tried!!" the girl sobbed. She clenched her eyes shut and shook her head. "I tried......b-but I wasn't good enough!! I failed them!! Oh god......Faye...Fiona.........p-please forgive me......"

"They may not be able to forgive you for long," the woman said.

The girl gasped. She looked up, her eyes wide.

The woman smiled. "We have them."

"..............."

"We have them. And we will do whatever we want with them. Because you failed your sisters. And if anything happens to them......it will be your fault."

The girl bit her lip. She panted heavily.

The old woman folded her arms across her business suit. "Do what we tell you to. Do whatever H.I.V.E. commands. Do not be foolish again by disobeying us. You will be what we want you to be......or your dear sisters will suffer the consequences of your insolence......is that understood?"

"..............."__

"Is that understood?!?!"

"Y-Yes."

"Y-Yes, what??"

"Yes ma'am!!"

"HEADMISTRESS!!!"

"Y-Yes, headmistress!! I shall be what you want me to be!! I shall do whatever you want!! Just please......," the girl sniffed and sobbed. "I don't want them to die......p-please......don't let Faye and Fiona die because of me........."

At that, the old woman smiled. She looked over and nodded at a man.

The man smiled back as he walked out from the shadows to the restrained girl's right. He was a withering thing of old flesh and bulbous eyes. His skull looked as if it had been sawed off halfway and replaced by a sheet of transparent plastic. The girl shuddered as she quite visibly saw his brain matter through the 'skull cap'.

"Tell me......little girl......," the fiendish fellow walked over and held a small mirror in front of her face. "......what is it that you see?"

The girl's face paled......but it was already pale. Pink bangs hung around her shoulder in a long ponytail. Two exotic cat eyes of pink brimmed with tears.

"I.........I-I see......"

"A witch???"

"............," the girl glanced at the Headmistress.

The Headmistress smiled.

".........," the girl sniffed and stared teary-eyed at her reflection. "I see a witch............"

"You will be H.I.V.E.'s witch from now on......," the freakish man hissed. He smiled for good measure as he added: "You shall be H.I.V.E.'s most ruthless sorceress ever...or else your dear sisters will suffer the inevitable fate of your blood-born jinx......"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Saturday

October 23, 2004.

7:42 am

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Commissioner! About time you made it!!"

"Can it! Nobody in this City is allowed to be impatient over _me_," the man grumbled. As he rushed into the Comms. room of the Police Department, he was still tucking his dress shirt on and adjusting his tie. He was a remarkably dressed man for having waken up and rushed over from his apartment loft inside a span of twenty-five minutes. Flanked by a few other officers, he stormed over and leaned in behind a group of frantic operators on the City's communication relays. "I want updates."

"All I've got is chaos, sir."

"Not good enough. Brief me, I'm in the mood to be humored."

The operator multi-tasked between patching an increasing flurry of radio communications back and forth while listening to squabbles in his headset and finally typing away at a City graphical interface on the computer in front of him. He produced a map displaying the security grid of the Town. With a single keystroke he zeroed the focus of the map up north to the triangular prison structure built barely out of the municipal boundaries. Another keystroke...and a red blur of colored imagery flashed over a segment of the northernmost cylindrical structure of the three-sided prison complex.

"A little over half an hour ago, an explosion took place within the northern pylon. It was four floors up on the South side. An entire wall of a reported diameter of twenty feet has crumbled away completely. There're still fires and huge plumes of smoke.

"Shit....," Decker gritted his teeth. "...Omega Wing."

The communicator nodded. "Latest Internet messages from the Warden's office say that practically half of the Omega Wing has been wracked by the explosion. The last report briefly mentions a prison-wide effort of all unified wardens attempting to put out the flames."

"Screw the flames," Decker gestured wildly. "What about the punks in their cells??"

"No information yet, sir."

"Well, I want information!!" the Commissioner stood up straight and waved at anyone and everyone he could in the room. "I want fifty units going north to the prison! Now!! This ain't no drill, bedwetters!! This is really big crap!! Let's keep it from flaming any further!! Hop to it!!"

"Sir!!!" a worker at a computer station two spaces away suddenly stood up and nearly yanked off his headset in emphatically pointing at his equipment. "I'm getting a direct radio message from the warden's office!!"

Murmurs.

Commotion.

Decker rushed over through the thickening Comms. room and grabbed the headset and mic. "Patch me through....and turn it up."

The worker nodded. He pushed some switches and turned a dial.

A crackling conglomeration of panicked voices and white noiz filtered through the speakers.

_......snnkktkk...... snkkkt............ "For God's sak—"snkktkktt...... BANG! BANG!!......... snkkktk "--ORCEMENTS!!"snnkktkkk...... snkkt......_

Decker sweat and shouted into his mic. "This is Commissioner Decker! Do you read me???"

............_snnkkkktkt......"—t you?!?"......snktktkkktBANG!!BANG!!"—ents immediatel---!!"snktkkkttt......_

"This is Commissioner Decker of the City Police Department!! We need a status report!! What is going on over there?!?!"

_......snnktkkktkkkk......snkkktkk"—victs from the Omega Wing have escaped!!"snkktkkt......BANG!!!......snkktk"—ttempting to suppress the revolt!! We need reinforcements!! They ar—"snkktkkkt......snkktkkt"—er the place!!!"snktkkktkk......_

"Listen!! Can you confirm who has escaped from Omega Wing??!! Over."

A beat.

The officers leaned in.

Decker took a deep breath.

He repeated into the mic: "Can you confirm who has escaped from Omega Wing?? Over."

_............_

............

............_snnkktttkkk"Everyone!!!"snkktkk"Shit, behind y—!!"snkkttkk......BANG!! BANG!! "__**RAAAAUGH!!!"**__ CRUNCH!!!SNKTKKKTktkkktkkkkkkkkktttt.............................................-beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep-_

"..............."

Decker and the other officers looked at each other.

"A-Are you going, sir?"

"Hell yeah, I am...," Decker dropped the mic and ran a nervous hand through his hair. "...and I think I'll be inviting the kids too."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_What in the world???_

My naked black eyes narrowed.

I leaned forward, gazing at the laptop's glowing screen.

I sat cross-legged on my bed in the dark. A dim lantern-light drifted down from above. My Solid Snake costume hung over the foot of the bed.

I gazed at the 'stranger' in my e-mail's Inbox. There was no e-mail address. No significant screen name. Just one letter. The letter 'J'.

I blinked.

_Spam? A virus?_

The e-mail was only 1k in size.

I hesitantly clicked on it.

The e-mail opened up.

My black eyes blinked.

A message read short and simply:

_**Dear Old Friend,**_

_**Red Aviary Has Begun. Be very careful.**_

_**-"J"**_

My lips parted.

_Red Aviary......_

I ran a hand through my long black hair.

_The......Th-The Messenger??_

My black eyes focused at the bottom of the message.

_But......it's not his style......_

A beat.

_What does 'J' mean???_

WREE!! WREE!! WREE!!

I gasped.

The Titan Alarm......

I snapped the laptop closed in standby mode.

I jumped up off the bed and blurred over to the mantle where Myrkblade rested.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I rushed in on the Main Room, most of the Titans had already assembled. I saw Cyborg and Raven standing side by side. Starfire floated overhead. In the center of the scene, Robin leaned into the computer console....his gloved fingers typing like mad. I was still panting by the time he splashed forth a satellite view of the City Prison.....or what was left of it.

Starfire gasped.

Cyborg uttered: "No way...."

Raven blinked. "Uh oh."

My black eyes widened under my shades as I saw a huge, gaping hole in the side of the northern cylindrical building of the prison. Smoke was spewing out, and the tiniest trace of flames still glowed a threatening orange from within. A thick ring of police squad cars and emergency vehicles had formed around the perimeter of the structure and a helicopter or two loomed over the scene. But none of the police forces or firetrucks seemed to be approaching the scene. It was as if they were trying their very best to avoid proximity with the shattered structure.

_What's going on here???_

"Titans......this is huge....," Robin simply grunted.

"Yeah....maybe," Raven droned. Cyborg glared at her.

"I just got a call from Commissioner Decker. There was a tremendous explosion at the prison nearly an hour ago. He and his men just found out about this....but that's not all they found out."

"Dudes!! Sorry!" Beast Boy hobbled in, slipping a belated boot over one of his feet. "I got tangled up with my laundry and—holy snikeys!!!"

Robin continued on as if nobody came or left. "The entire cell holdings of the Omega Wing have been opened by the explosion. What's more, the occupants of that sector are on the loose and committing ambiguous acts of violence and terror on the city officials inside what's left of the prison. The guards and wardens are fighting a losing war. And—quite frankly—if the police go in by themselves, so will they lose as well."

"It's up to us, then....," Raven nodded gently...firmly. "Considering all of the criminals we've spent months sealing away in that place...it'll be a handful even for those with superpowers."

"Dude.....," Beast Boy shook his head and sighed. "I so did not want to wake up to this."

"Have they ALL escaped??" Starfire murmured.

Robin spun around. "All of them, Star. But if the Titans hurry....they won't get far."

"Damn straight!" Cyborg punched his fist into a titanium palm. "Lightning attack Titan style!! Seven point blitzkrieg!!"

"Don't be melodramatic," Raven droned.

"Have you looked at the screen, girl?!?!"

"No more chatter," Robin waved a green glove. "Let's move! Now!!"

"Affirmative!!" Starfire flew off.

I nodded. I headed towards the window and blurred out of it while Starfire flew away.

At around that time, Tempest stumbled in...yawning. "Oye.....guys? What's going on?"

"Prison break...," Beast Boy ran to the opened window behind Starfire and I. "...a bad one."

"Uh....okay," Tempest blinked. "And just who are we going to do in?"

Beast Boy glanced over his shoulder. "Take your pick!" He flew off in the form of a green owl.

".........," Tempest glanced at the satellite image still plastered across the computer screen. "............no way. Holy Poseidon."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOM!!!! Robin's R-Cycle burned down the land ridge.

Followed by Starfire's streak and my blurring figure over the water.

Cyborg's engine roared as he and Raven rocketed behind.

Over the scene, a green bird flew...and soon a blue figure was skirting his way above and below the currents of the City's Bay northward along the path.

All speeding forms converged on the distant horizon. The early morning sky was aglow with a halo of red and orange beyond the skyscrapers....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEECH!!!!

Huge black trucks and vans came to a fierce stop along the perimeter surrounding the prison.

In swift fashion, SWAT Team members filed out with guns and riot shields. They formed a phalanx facing the walls and outer doors of the prison cylinders one hundred feet away across the half-barren parking lot. They provided cover while other officers rushed in and set up barrier stands and sensors.

At the same time, a traveling police HQ on wheels was directed to a stop thirty feet outward. The portable facility was barely set up before Commissioner Walker stormed up the rough steps and in through a side door, his lieutenant trailing behind. Inside the HQ, computers were warming up and workers were swiftly typing away program prompts to analyze the explosive situation with available sensors being simultaneously installed beyond the SWAT barriers.

"Data. Data now, dammit," Decker leaned over a worker's chair.

The worker keystroked. "Alive and smoking, sir."

A detailed floor-by-floor digital blueprint of the prison's Omega Wing appeared.

"Simulate the recent damage based on satellite imagery....," Decker pointed.

Another keystroke.

A gash appeared magically in the Omega blueprint.

The lieutenant leaned in and narrowed his eyes. "My god....it eats into three floors. And all those cells in the blast wave—"

"God rest their souls....," the computer worker murmured. Another keystroke. "It'll take a minute...but I may be able to predict the source of the explosion, sir."

"Then stop talking and do it!!" Decker growled. He sighed and turned around. "Where's my damn coffee?"

_SCREEECH!!_ A pair of wheels came to a drastic stop outside.

The lieutenant smiled. "Better yet, sir...."

Bounding steps.

Then....

SWOOSH!!

The door flew open and Robin stomped in, followed by myself and a floating Starfire.

"Got my message?" Decker raised an eyebrow.

Robin marched to a stop. "I got the same message you did," he nodded. "Now maybe we can both figure out just who the _messenger_ is."

"Amen."

Robin's gloved hand pointed. "What do you have?"

"Not sure yet. How's it coming?"

"Sixty-seven percent, sir."

"X'Hal....," Starfire held a hand over her mouth as she eyed the digital damage with shock. "Were all of those shattered holding cells occupied by p-people??"

"It's too late for them, Star...," Robin said. "...right now, there are criminals who are not only alive but bound to take advantage of this disaster to raise Cain. We're going in for the ruthless....not the dead."

I nodded.

"I think I got something!" the worker said.

"Let's hear it...," Decker mumbled.

Typing....typing....typing....

The computer beeped.

Three green-glowing axes converged on the digital schematic and centered on a cell that had only 1/3 remaining of what it originally was.

"There....cell 4-127H," the worker pointed. "Second tier of the Omega Wing. Ironically separated from some of the highest profiled criminals."

Decker's eyes narrowed. "Who was assigned to that cell??"

The worker brought up another program. After a few keystrokes...a list of names appeared. His finger traced down to one in particular. He paused....blinked...and read: "Jean Jenkins....."

".........," the lieutenant glanced back at us.

Robin rubbed his chin. "Jinx...."

I bit my lip.

"Either someone wanted to off that witch....or the girl had let loose one hell of a fart," Decker grumbled.

Starfire did a double-take.

"Whatever the case....we're going in," Robin spun around. "Starfire. Noir. Follow me."

"But we don't know what you'll be facing in there!!" the lieutenant said.

"Nothing we haven't faced before....," Robin muttered.

And we were gone.

Decker rubbed his temples. "One battlefield after another....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin marched forward across the emptiness of the parking lot. Nobody stopped him as he crossed the barrier and approached the wall of the prison buildings. I walked alongside his gait while Starfire floated above.

The Boy Wonder flipped open his communicator with a Star Trek sound. "Cyborg. Raven. Where are you two?"

"_A little sidetracked by morning traffic! But I think we've found a detour!!"_

"It'd better be a good detour...you're behind," Robin frowned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh, it's a good detour allright!!!"

PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The nitro flared out from the back of the T-Car, accelerating it well into the triple decimal places and causing it to literally drive across the wall of a building or two before lifting off, flipping in mid-air, and landing impossibly upright past a huge traffic jam on Main Street.

THWUMP!!!!

Cyborg and the passenger jolted.

Raven was frozen in her seat....her hand glued to the Jesus bar. As they returned to an upright driving position of normal velocity, her hair gradually obeyed gravity and drifted down her brow. ".............."

"_Get here as soon as possible!!"_ Robin's voice drifted through the dashboard's speaker system. _"There's no telling how many criminals we're dealing with!!"_

"Right on, Robbie! Cy out."

-blip-

Cyborg steered in and around different lanes of traffic as he zeroed in on the City's north side. He glanced over at the frozen Raven and smirked. "You okay?"

".........."

"You look like you could use a hug."

"Or a cyanide pill....," she groaned.

"Come on, girl!! Think about it....in just a second you'll be taking this all out on the crooks!"

"Wear a red flag on your head so I know it's you when the time comes," she spat with glowing eyes.

Cyborg cleared his throat and screeched around a corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Tempest!! Where are you located??"_

SPLASH!!!

He broke the surface of the water as he swam. His arched back and stroking arms were lined with the hose apparatus. "I'm about a half mile due south of you......and fifty feet below."

_"You're taking the sewers??"_

"Don't need to tell me that...," he grumbled. He swam through the green sludge down long chasms of cylindrical concrete. A junction formed up ahead beneath where the prison was. "Want me to take a posterior entrance?"

"_Huh???"_

"Should I come up from below?"

"_Sounds good to me. I'll give Beast Boy an order to enter the prison from up top. Starfire, Noir and I will take the prison head on. Cyborg and Raven will provide backup."_

"Very well then."

"_Can you handle part of the trip by yourself, Tempest??"_

"You should ask that....," Tempest grumbled. He distastefully eyed the sludge he was swimming through. "Ever swam in one of your surface dwellers' sewers before?"

"_Yes."_

"Try doing it with **gills**."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin winced. "R-Right.....Robin out." He flipped the communicator closed and glanced at me. "I think I'm ready to commune with prisoners after hearing that."

I almost wanted to smirk.

"Look!" Starfire pointed up high.

Robin and I glanced up.

In the early morning light, Beast Boy could be seen circling the prison with his green feathers outstretched. He turned into a flying squirrel just long enough to salute us in mid-glide before converting to a pterodactyl and flapping his way towards the northernmost cylinder.

"Looks like he's got the right idea...," Robin said. Snkkt!! He extended his metal rod. "Titans....we have two mission objectives. One.....save the wardens, guards, helpless prisoners, and whoever else may be at risk. Two....seek and stop all escaped convicts from the Omega Wing at all cost."

Starfire took a deep breath. Her eyes and hands glowed. "I am ready...."

I nodded firmly. CHIIIING!! I spun Myrkblade out to my side.

"Titans....GO!!" Robin shouted. He charged ahead. Starfire flew. I blurred.

All three of us converged on the front entrance at once—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMACK!!!!

The doors flew open.

Robin landed rolled, and ended in a crouch with his metal staff held high and three projectile discs squeezed between his fingers.

Starfire spun around—emanating a furious emerald.

I stood tall with Myrkblade stretched out....my black eyes drifted murk under my shades.

Silence.

".............."

Robin looked around.

Starfire scanned the interior.

I panted.

Nobody. Not even a soul. The lights were out in that wing of the prison.

"It is........surprisingly vacant....," Starfire blinked.

"Yeah.....," Robin sneered. His eyemask drifted across the scene.

Neither of them saw anything.

But I did. Or at least I was starting to.

My lips parted as I narrowed my black eyes underneath my shades and glared into the shadows of the atrium....just beyond the metal detectors and bullet-proof desk stations.

I saw two figures....both thin.....and both holding a cane or wand.

".........!!!" I pointed--

"Mumbo JUMBO!!!!"

_ZAP!!!_

Starfire gasped as a streak of magic flew past her and Robin.

My hair kicked up.

I spun around.

The magic struck the front entranceway of the prison. A green light suddenly fluctuated and a thorny veil of roses and gnarled stocks rushed up out of the floor like a solid wall....blocking our way in or out.

"It's a trap!!" Robin shouted.

"Not a trap, duckies!! Just a jolly good chance to bite your arms off!!"

_CLANG!!!_ A bell sound emanated from the shadows.

FLASH!!!!

Bright, swirling lights shimmered in front of us.

I was instantly blinded. I hobbled sideways a few paces and grasped my head in pain.

Starfire and Robin shielded themselves and gasped at the two figures coming into focus.

Mumbo Jumbo and relatively young-looking Mad Mod stepped into the sudden, psychedelic aura produced by the British brute. They spun their cane and wand and leaned on them in pathetic synchronization.

"Your canes....," Robin wheezed. "...how did you—"

"Nothing but pure luck on this fanciful day of whimsy!!" Mumbo Jumbo cackled, his eyemask round and happy across his pale face. "I'm not one to pass up a good show....especially when a nice suit like this presents itself!" He posed.

"Head towards the light, you sprogs," his visage swirled with the cane-induced kaleidoscope. "I'll enjoy eating your brains for porridge!!"

"But not if I wow you first!!" Mumbo Jumbo fingered his suit's cuffs. "What do I have here up my sleeves? Why....your pimply behinds on a platter, of course!!! Hahahahaha!!!" That said, he opened one sleeve impossibly large and two living stuffed-animal lions leapt out, roared, and attacked us with razor sharp claws.

"Titans!!" a squinty-masked Robin gasped and dove. "Fan out—!!!"

_RAWWWWR!!!!!_

SLASH!!!! SL-SLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Plant!

Beast Boy landed on the rooftop with a crouch. He 'knocked' on the structure with his knuckles, bent over, leaned his pointy ear against it, waited, then stood up with a sigh.

"This is not my fun idea of a 'throw down'," he flexed his muscles, leapt up on two kangaroo feet, gorilla spun in the air, and dove down as a triceratops.

CRASH!!!!!

Beast Boy plowed through the rafters of a prison hall. He fell down forty feet and three tiers of jail cells before collapsing hard on the cement floor below.

THWAP!!!

The cackling echoes of dozens upon dozens of angry inmates inside the jail cells ran around him. Fiends of varying bearded nature banged and pounded against the bars and shouted in a cadence of chaos.

"Nnnnghh.....," Beast Boy rubbed his aching head in elf form and slowly stood up. "Welcome to the rock....."

Suddenly, the rowdy voices all around Beast Boy started cheering.

"......," the changeling blinked. "Well that's not good."

FLASH!!!

He winced and shaded his eyes from a merciless spotlight shimmering from straight ahead of him. An engine sound throttled from the source of the glow.

"Well....if it isn't the City's favorite road kill!!!"

"Uhm....can we get straight to the ass kicking, dude?" Beast Boy shuddered.

VRMMM! VRMMMM!!!

The light pivoted. SCREECH!! Johnny Rancid sat saddled in his motorcycle. He gave Beast Boy a dark grin as he throttled the handles even more.

VRMMM-MMM!!

"Have it your way. Your skin would make a good helmet," he spat in overtly masculine fashion, wiped his lips with his forearm, and produced a spiraling length of rusted chain from his bike's rear compartment. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!! "Gotta paint it red first though, punk!

"Uhm....j-just how did you get that bike??" Beast Boy murmured, stepping backwards.

"Same way I'm gonna tear your guts inside out!"

"Dude...that makes no sense."

"Guess I'll have to show you then!!" VRMMMMM!!! "HAAAAA-HA HA!! SCURRY!!!" SCREEEEE-EEEECH!!! Rancid throttled towards him.

The inmates cheered and whooped.

Beast Boy sweatdropped....and started running.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CLANK!!!!!

A metal grate flew up into the air of the dank interior and fell down across the tile.

CLAAA-AAA-AA-AANG!!!

The grate rang to a stop.

"Nnghh!!" Tempest leapt up and out of the grate's water passageway. He landed in a kneeling position on a patch of worn tile. "..........," with black on white eyes he scanned the interior left and right. A beat. "Wonderful...."

The Atlantean was in the prison showers.

Tempest slowly stepped up to his feet and started pacing across the moist interior. It was empty and dark inside. Only a spare light or two in the corner flickered and partially illuminated the scene. The gently ominous dripping of a faucet or two sounded in the background.

Tempest sniffed. He made a face. "I miss fish....."

A rustling sound.

His feet shuffled to a stop.

"......"

He slowly turned around.

His eyes glowed purple.

He held an arm out, his water hose at ready.

More rustling.

"........," Tempest walked towards the very grated passageway he had just entered through. "Who goes there?"

A beat.

Then a hissing voice: _"You should really get your drain cleaned. I'm liable to collect inside."_

His purple eyes narrowed. "Who??"

SWOOOOOSH!! A dark body flew out from the passageway. WH-WH-WH-WHAP!!! Four arachnid limbs spun and struck Tempest repeatedly across the chin.

"!!!-!!!-!!!-!!!" Tempest flew back. THWAP!! He struck a wall. "Ughh!!" He fell onto his butt. CL-CLANK!! The faucet head detached and collapsed over his dark skull. "Nnnngh....," Tempest clenched his teeth and growled. He looked up. His eyes widened.

SWOOOSH-CLAMP!!! Fang landed in a four spider-limbed pose on the shower floor. His human body dangled and his fists rose in the air. The mandibles of his 'face' twitched as he uttered: "So the Titans have a new sheep. All the more juices to suck out."

"Uh.....yeah....," Tempest stood up and flexed his limbs. "You're totally gross looking, you know that?"

"The name's Fang, noobie," the red compound eyes on the spider head narrowed. "And it looks like Robin led his Titans astray. Which is just what we expected. Welcome to the food web. RAAAUGH!!!"

The beast scurried over on six legs.

Tempest held his breath. He shot two flushes of water beneath him and vaulted him with a burst of liquid flipping over Fang's charge.

The Atlantean landed on his feet.

Fang lunged backwards and reversed kicked/jabbed with four alternating spider feet. "RR-RR-RRRGHHH!!"

WH-WH-WH-WHAP!!!

Tempest deflected with a flurrying wrist. He held his breath and shot a splash of water at Fang's center. SPLOOOSH!!!

Fang flipped up, grabbed onto the ceiling with spider legs, and swung his human body at Tempest like a pendulum.

WHAM!!!

"!!!!" Tempest slid back in a grinding crouch. He winced. "Are you the most freakish the surface world gets? Cuz I sure hope so."

Fang lowered to the floor on all sixes. "Keep dreaming."

Tempest fired his water hoses and produced a sphere of condensed water in the air which he congealed and formed together into something akin to a threatening ball-bearing. He extended a glowing hand of purple and breathed: "And keep breathing....what left you have of oxygen."

"It's always so cute when the new guys try and threaten me....," Fang crossed his human arms while bearing his spider limbs threateningly. "Go on...flush me out. That's what this place here is built for."

"The land was only built to fall into the sea...," Tempest hissed.

Then....from behind.... "Hey....wash up yourself, handsome."

".....," Tempest raised an eyebrow and glanced over his shoulder. "Huh?"

WHAM!!!!!

A huge, muscular fist plowed into his face.

Tempest ragdolled across the floor and into a wall across the way. He was doused by his own ball of water. "Nnngh....," he shook his wet mop of hair and looked across the way.

A thick-bodied, red-haired young man stomped towards him...cracking his knuckles.

Tempest uttered: "Um....okay....," he limped to his feet and raised his fists. "Are you what Beast Boy keeps calling a 'sasquatch'?"

"Mammoth....," Mammoth pointed at himself. He pointed at the Atlantean. "Carcass."

Tempest sighed. "So I've noticed."

"Let's get to know each other...," Fang cracked his spidery neck. He and Mammoth charged with limbs flying. "YAAAUGH!!!"

"RAAAAAUGH!!"

Tempest readied himself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAWWWRR!!!

A ridiculously violent stuffed-lion pounced on Starfire.

"Ooof!!" she was tossed down from mid-flight and slammed into the floor. WHAP!!! She growled with a flash of green light and shoved the 'lion' back. "Ungh!!"

The lion tumbled back, rolled onto its paws, and leapt mercilessly at the Tamaranian with claws slashing. RAAAWRR!!

Starfire flinched.

"YEEAAUGH!!" Robin dove in with his metal staff. CL-CLANK!!! He uppercutted the lion and then kicked it back with a metal-laced toe. SMACK!!!

The lion tumbled back and slammed into a wall.

Starfire looked up.

Robin growled and charged Mad Mod.

Mad Mod grinned and effortlessly blocked and deflected Robin's attacks with his cane. CL-CLANK! CLANK!!!

Sparks showered.

Robin growled and shoved forward.

Mad Mod shoved back.

The Boy Wonder and the Briton glared at each other nose-to-nose as they struggled.

"How'd you do it, Mad Mod?!?! Chemical agents?? Genetic manipulation??"

"Oh what, lad??" Mad Mod grinned. "My spotty good looks? Thank my new comrade in clock cleaning over there!!"

"Abra cadabra!!!" Mumbo Jumbo's voice bellowed from the distance.

FLASH!!!

Robin's staff turned into a ribbon and wrapped around his body, binding his arms to his side.

"Whoah!! NnnnghhGHHH!!!!" the Boy Wonder struggled.

"Now isn't that just the bees knees, mate?" Mad Mod laughed. "Ha ha ha ha!! Stiff upper lip, now!!" he smacked Robin hard across the mouth.

THWACK!!

"OOF!!" Robin fell on his back, struggling amidst the constricting pressure around him.

"Ha!!" Mad Mod loomed above the Boy Wonder and pointed down. "Looks like you're not so full of beans as you used to be, my duc—"

THWAP!! Robin's foot slammed up between the villain's legs.

"!!!!" Mad Mod's spectacled eyes bulged. "Bullocks!!!" he fell to his knees and groaned. "Why you little sod—"

"RAAAUGH!!!" Starfire flew in with a fist.

WHAM!!!!

Mad Mod tumbled across the atrium.

Starfire panted. She flew over and knelt by the Titan Leader's side. "Robin!!"

He smiled ever so slightly. "Sorry to beat you to the punishment, Star."

"Allow me to remove your transmogrified bludgeon from your chest!!"

A well-polished shoe stepped into view.

Robin and the Tamaranian girl looked up.

Mumbo Jumbo grinned in a clownish fashion and spun his wand. "Now now...kids...save the magic for grownups." He petted the second stuffed-lion on its 'head'. "Not to mention supernaturally animated beasts of foam and polyester!!! Hahahaha....dinner time!!!"

RAWWWWR!!

The 'lion' pounced at them.

Robin winced.

Starfire readied a split-second starbolt....

SLAAAASH!!!!

The lion was ripped in half down the metal.

"Huh???" Mumbo Jumbo's eyemask 'blinked'.

FWOOOSH!!!! I solidified from the end of my teleport, took a deep breath, and charged the evil magician. Myrkblade whistled in the air.

The pale, tuxedoed cretin merely smirked. "Two can play at that, my boy..." He pressed the flower on his lapel. _FHHH!!!_ He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"!!!!" I skidded to a stop, my arms twirling for balance. I looked around, panting.

_FHHHH!!!_

Mumbo Jumbo appeared behind me. He stuck his tongue out and performed a raspberry. "PLBPLBPLB!!!"

I snarled and spun at him with a slash of Myrkblade.

_FHHHH!!!_

He was gone.

CLACK!!

Myrkblade got stuck in a support pillar for the ceiling.

I gritted my teeth and yanked it out with a struggle.

_FHHHH!!!_ Mumbo Jumbo appeared at my side, armed with an obnoxiously stuffed white rabbit. "You don't know jack-....RABBIT!!!" THWAP!!! He clubbed me with the fluffy toy.

"!!!!"

I flew back and landed on the floor with a slide.

"Hahahaha!!" Mumbo Jumbo spun the rabbit and turned it....into a revolver. He aimed with a psychotic grin. "Now to air you out..."

FLASH!!! Starfire burned the bondings off of Robin's body.

"NNNGH!!!" Robin tossed a birdarang the first moment he had his arms free.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! CLANK!!! It struck the revolver.

"Augh!!!" Mumbo lost his grip. BANG!!!

PING!!! A bullet flew off the ground between my legs.

I sweatdropped, jumped up, and prepared to charge the magician along with my friends. But I suddenly became aware of something scurrying on the high ceiling of the atrium above me. Something thick and muscular and using clawed appendages at the end of his four limbs.

"......???" I glanced up.

The figure glanced down. Two fake, bulbous eyes of black.

"!!!!"

"RAAAAAUGH!!" Killer Moth let go of the ceiling, spread his 'wings', and glided down at me with the claws on his gloves reared.

My black eyes bulged. I lifted Myrkblade lengthwise over me at the last second.

CLANK!! THWUMP!!!!

He pressed his weight down into me.

My knees buckled.

I sweated.

I strained.

I clenched my eyes shut and let out a silent shout. "!!!!" I shoved up and against him.

FWUMP!!!

He flipped and landed in a muscular stance in front of a pair of double doors. He held his clawed gloves up and fluttered his wings threateningly. "Remember me, samurai-jerk?!?! You ruined my greatest plan for criminal conquest!! And now—alas—I have the perfect opportunity to strike revenge and---"

I charged at him.

"!!!!!" he shuddered.

WHAM!!!! I slammed into him, elbow first.

The two of us tumbled through the double doors, leaving Starfire and Robin to fight Mad Mod and Mumbo Jumbo behind.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!!

Killer Moth and I rolled and collapsed down a set of metal catwalk steps on the other side of the door. We smashed through the guardrail and plummeted a floor and a half down to the hard floor of a corridor full of rowdy, crowded jail cells. THWUMP!!!! Inmates cheered and roared from all around us on three tiers.

But that wasn't all.

VROOOOOOOOOM!!!!

I became vaguely aware of something throttling around me and a blurring body of green.

"Welcome to the party, Noir!!" Beast Boy panted between morphing from four-legged animal to four-legged animal.

Killer Moth and I groaned as we struggled to stand up.

Beast Boy perched in the form of an elf against a jail cell behind me. "Dude! Head's up!!"

"????" I looked at him strangely.

VROOOOOOOOM!!!

SW-SW-SWOOSH-YANK!!!!

I gasped for air as a loop of metal chains was flung around my neck. "!!!!" THWOOOSH!! I was dragged violently by my cranium across the cold floor of the prison row by Johnny Rancid on his bike.

"HA HA HA HA HA!!! Let's STRING HIM UP!!" Rancid howled. "I love a good ghost in chains!!!"

"Noir!!!" Beast Boy gasped and tried 'leaping' into action, only Killer Moth outleapt him.

"RAUGH!!!" Killer Moth plowed the green elf to the floor. He pressed his serrated weight down against the emerald elf. "You too!! I shall DEFINITELY have revenge upon you—!!"

Beast Boy morphed into a bear. "RRAAAAAR!!!"

"CHRISTMAS!!!" Killer Moth squealed.

SMACK!!! The villain got a face full of bear. Beast Boy unleashed a furred frenzy of claws and muscular forearms, punching and slashing the suited creep further back across the row of loud, occupied jail cells.

Back to where I was being 'strung up'....

Johnny Rancid swerved his bike left and right, appropriately slamming me into lockers, tables, and water fountains. WHAM!! SLAM!!! THWACK!!!

"!!!!!" I winced in pain.

"HA HA HA HA!!!" Rancid barked his mouth off and swerved a U-turn to throttle back the way which we came.

I gritted my teeth and gripped tightly to the chain around my neck as my body became airborne from the centripetal force. I kicked my legs, danced them off the jail bars that blurred beneath me, and kicked off with a pulse of murk. SWOOOOSH!!! I soared my body up ahead and over Rancid's head.

While driving, he did a double-take. "H-Huh??"

With slack leftover on the chain around my neck, I flipped and perched on the front of his motorcycle. I stuck my sword-hand out for counterbalance and effectively plowed my right foot up into his nose. WHAM!!!!

"D'AH!!" he fell back in his seat. His arms twisted in their grip of the throttles.

SCREEECH!!!

The bike came to a stop.

The chains slipped free.

I was tossed forward.

I flipped with the aid of warbling smoke and slid to a stop on my boots. I yanked the chain from my neck, spun them in my left hand, and dragged Myrkblade with my right hand as I charged Rancid.

"Nnngh...," the man rubbed his bleeding nose and looked my way dizzily. "Huh???"

SWOOOSH!!!

I flung the chain taunt around his neck.

"SNKKKTTT!!!"

I slipped Myrkblade through the metal links at the other end of the chain and swung it over my shoulder with a mute growl.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Rancid was yanked off his bike and sling-shot by his neck straight into a row of jail bars, practically denting them. WHANG!!! "Nnnngh..." The inmates on the other side of the bars banged the walls and shouted angrily.

I panted........I smiled.

"WAAAA!! INCOMING, DUDE!!!"

I spun around--

WHAP!!!

Beast Boy was thrown into me. We both went sprawling over a table.

THWUMP!!!!

Beast Boy saw stars...while I saw bloody murder in my black eyes. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I disentangled myself from the changeling and tried to sit up.

STOMP!!!

STOMP!!!

STOMP!!!

The concrete floor below dented from an orange and red, metal foot.

I looked up and saw what had tossed Beast Boy so mercilessly.

Cracking his titanium knuckles, the robotic Atlas glared down at the two of us. A wall had been smashed down in the background...signifying his secret entrance.

"Hmmmm....dogpile on the human pile......"

Killer Moth limped into position besides the metal monstrosity. "About time you showed up!! Now....let's exact vengeance on these young cretins and we'll truly have something to boast of once we blow this place!!!"

Atlas sneered at Killer Moth. "NO ORGANISM TELLS ME WHAT TO DO!!!" A beat. His metal face 'grinned'. "Though....that is a pleasing idea." He raised his metal foot.

I gasped and gripped Beast Boy and---

SWOOOOSH!!!

Atlas' foot lowered.

SMASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOSH!!! SPLOOOOSH!!!

Tempest panted and strained to launch stream after stream of high-pressured water at his foes.

Fang made a great show of twirling, side-stepping, leaping, and dodging the Atlantean's projections in various athletic ways. At one point, the arachnid villain gripped his spidery limbs to the ceiling and dangled his human form with bored arms crossed.

Tempest knelt down low and aimed again, one eye squinting.

"........"

Nothing came out.

"????"

Tempest's dark eyes bugged. He looked at his hose apparatuses attached to his wrists. The water was all gone.

"Awwww....out of juice??" Fang dropped down on his spider limbs and marched threateningly towards the Titan across the prison showers. "Spoil sport."

"There's one thing I missed about fighting my old foes underwater...," Tempest stepped backwards and frowned. "They never got a chance to mouth their heads off."

STOMP!!!

Mammoth marched up onto Tempest's right side.

"All right, fish boy...," Mammoth sneered. His pale eyes thinned as his lips curved up. "We just finished weighing you in. Now it's time for you to get properly scaled."

"Boys....please....," Tempest smirked and raised his hands while backstepping. He strolled with his rear to a set of dripping faucets. "Let us just talk. Surely you all have escaped for a reason. And beating me up is a lousy waste of time, during which you could be properly explaining things to me. Just what caused that explosion in this prison?"

"Nuts to you if we so much as talk about our grandmas!!! Ha ha ha!!" the oafish redhead bellowed.

Fang's mandibles glistened as the two closed in on the Titan. "You're a fun combatant, punk.....but we're tired of dipping our toes in."

Tempest glared purple. "Then take a _plunge_...." That uttered, he raised his fingers. FLASH!!! His limbs pulsed a bright violet and the solid shower wall behind him started to bulge and quake. "Nnnnnghhhh!!!!"

CRAAA-AAACK!!!

The shower faucets were yanked out magically. The pipes burst through the wall. The metal rings split and a torrent of water gushed out at a punishing rate. _SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!_

"OOOOF!!!" Fang—the lightweight creep that he was—experienced instant pummeling. He was tossed like a wet insect out the door to the showers and into the waterlogged hallway.

Mammoth on the other hand stood his ground and plowed an iron-strong shoulder into Tempest's aquatic pressure. SPLAA-AAA-AASH!!! "NNNNNGHHHHH!!!!!"

Tempest gritted his teeth. His wrists flicked. The streaming water from the indoor plumbing grew more intense.

SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!

"RRRRRRGHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Mammoth struggled. His muscles rippled and quaked as he marched into the horizontal waterfall.

"..........," Tempest suddenly smirked.

"?!?!?!" Mammoth gasped.

Tempest flicked his wrists.....and stopped glowing purple.

Instantly, the rushing water died out.

Mammoth found himself exerting a huge amount of force and energy into a wall of absolute nothing.

SWOOOOOSH!! He charged dumbly towards the hard wall. "WHOAHHHH!!!"

Tempest nimbly leapt up and flipped over the madly-stomping Mammoth.

STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!-_**CRUNCH!!!**_

Mammoth's upper body got stuck inside the hollow wall and his lower half comically thrashed about on the outside.

Tempest landed perfectly, dusted himself off, and glanced at his handiwork.

"..........I can think of much better ways to prove one's waste of existence...."

That uttered, the Atlantean marched loosely down the hallway. He whipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound. "Robin?? This is Tempest. Come in! I've encountered some resistance, but am presently making my way towards the sight of the blast zo—"

CRUNCH!!!

"?!?!?!" Tempest spun around.

Mammoth charged towards him with a huge chunk of the wall hanging around his neck like a wreath. "RRRRRAUGH!!!"

Tempest sweatdropped. "Awwwww crabsticks."

WHUMP!!!!

Mammoth slammed into the Titan and the two went sprawling into the adjacent hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HAH!! HAH!! HAH!!" Starfire yelled and flung three starbolts in a flurry.

Mad Mod grinned as he stepped back across the atrium. He spun his cane and deflected the energy bursts. He then spun about and aimed his cane with a sparkling pulse. "Ta-Ta!!!"

Two huge sparks of energy arched out like trachea and converged with each other behind Starfire. The resulting surge of both colliding elements shoved the Tamaranian girl forward

"Mmmf!!!" She plummeted towards the psychotic redhead.

He twirled his cane and held it at ready in front of him. "Now for the old round of cricket...."

In mid-fall, Starfire gritted her teeth, glowed her eyes, and—ZAAA-AAA-AAAP!!!

Two green streams of energy surged over the ground and burned over Mad Mod's loafers.

"AAAAUGH!!!" he jumped up and down, his leather-cased toes smoking. "By the Queen's appendix!!"

At the end of her fall, Starfire performed a handstand, tipped over, and spin-kicked Mad Mod upside down in the face. WH-WHAP!! She then tilted herself up right and shoved both hands into his chest. "YAAAH!!!"

"OOF!!" he was pushed back till he tumbled over a desk with a violent CRUNCH!!!

A beat.

Starfire trembled. "Ohhhh....X'Hal! I-I do believe I have acted out of control!!" she floated towards the desk. "Mr. Mad of the Mod....are you too terribly damaged—"

"Awww, to bloody Hell with it!!" Mad Mod appeared out from behind the desk with a pith helmet and a bazooka over his shoulder.

"!!!!!" Starfire 'screeched to a halt' in midair.

PFT-CHOO!!!! SWOOOOOOOSH!!! The rpg flew her way.

"EEEK!!" she dove at the last second.

BLAM!!!!! Fire and debris flew from a nearby pillar. Part of the ceiling collapsed, dividing Starfire and Mad Mod from the other fight in effect...

"NNNGH!!!" Robin jumped backwards with a slicing birdarang in either glove. He sliced and shredded his way through the oncoming advance of Mumbo Jumbo, who was equipped with paper ribbons that he was magically using as lacerating whips.

WHP-ISHHH!!! WHP-ISSSH!!!

"What's the matter, Robin?!?! Today not all it's CRACKED up to be?!?! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

Robin gritted his teeth and ripped through the magician's attacks. "What sort of game are you all playing here, Mumbo?!?! Lives have been extinguished in that explosion and here you are treating it like one big sport!!"

"Oh, where's the sport truly at....Robin my boy??" Mumbo smirked. He twirled back, released his grip on the paper 'whips', twirled his wand, and converted it into a fencing sword which he used to push Robin back in his attack. "Ha!! HA!!!"

CL-CLANK!!! Robin deflected the fencing blade with his sharp birdarangs and paced around the comical villain. "Stop being so vague!! Let me guess....is this the 'code of the magician' or some crap?? You can't tell me your plans or else you'd spoil the trick?!?!"

"Now stop being a thief, Robin! Leave the villainous ramblings to me!!" Mumbo jabbed forward with the fencing blade and leered threateningly close to the Boy Wonder. "Today is no trick, Robin. It is a truce!!"

"A truce???" Robin panted and knocked the blade out of Mumbo Jumbo's grasp. He jumped forward and pressed the birdarangs to the gasping man's chest. "What kind of truce?!?!?!"

Mumbo kept his cool. He said: "She lets us do whatever we want—even escape—if it means a distraction!"

"Who?!?!" Robin shouted. Intimidating. "Tell me!!!"

Mumbo slid a hand into his pocket and produced a card. He winked one half of his eyemask. "Why....the greatest witch there ever is, of course...."

Robin's lips parted.

Mumbo's teeth glistened---FLASH!!! The joker card increased in size by twenty-fold. It formed a shield between Robin and the evil magician. Mumbo Jumbo laughed and kicked the card straight into Robin's chest. WHAP!!

"Nnngh!!!" Robin hobbled backwards.

Mumbo backflipped, landed in a kneeling position, slid backwards across the ground, snatched up the fencing sword, 'spun it' back into a magic wand, and pointed at a row of light fixtures above Robin's location. "Hocus pocus!!!"

POP!!! POP!!!! POP!!!

The lightbulbs shattered one at a time in a row and magically spewed fire down at the Boy Wonder. PH-PH-PHOOOOM!!!

Robin gasped and rolled out of the way. The edge of his cape caught fire and he struggled to put it out as he ran across the room.

"Ha ha ha ha!!!" Mumbo spun, struck a pose, and aimed his magic wand again. "And what a fine brew this day will be!! Eh heh heh heh heh heh!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg! Raven!! Come in!!!" Beast Boy screeched into his communicator.

"YAAAUGH!!!" Killer Moth pounced at him.

The changeling yelped and dodged the villain's serrated dive. He jumped from prison table to prison table. The inmates in the cells shouted and hollered all around us.

"We could use some help in here, dudes!!!" the changeling continued.

In the meantime....

BLAM!!!!!

A crater exploded in the floor beneath me.

I came down from my forward-flip and landed in a crouch, panting.

Atlas' electronic eyes glowed a menacing gold as he aimed his blaster arm at me again and fired.

BLAM!!!!

I dove forward and rolled out of the way of the blast, which formed another crater.

"NNnnnghhh!!!" he rushed over and stomped on me in frustration. THWAP!!! THWAP!!

I rolled left and right, avoiding his crushing limbs. I somersaulted backwards after his last stomp.

"BURN, FLESHLING!!" he aimed his blaster square at me.

BLAM!!!

I jumped backwards, warbled smoke down my right arm, and slashed heavily upwards with Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!!

The sheer strength of murk alone empowered the sword to deflect the blaster pulse back. It sailed over Atlas' ducking head and exploded in the ceiling beyond.

I flew back from the heavy deflection....and became aware of something thin and green leaping towards me from the opposite direction.

"Bread and butter, dude!!"

I hooked my metal arm out.

Beast Boy stretched his limb out.

We contacted each other in mid-air, spun like a pinwheel, and flew off with me flying towards Killer Moth with Myrkblade slashing—CL-CLANK!!—and Beast Boy flying towards Atlas like a missile. "BANZAI!!!!"

Atlas sneered and readied two blasters. Beast Boy's shadow suddenly increased by tenfold. Atlas' glowing eyes rounded--

WHAM!!!!!!! A huge green triceratops plowed heavily into Atlas and smashed the two of them through a nearby wall and into the open courtyard outside and in between the three cylindrical buildings of the prison. They continued their battle where there was more stomping room while I fought toe-to-toe with Killer Moth inside.

CL-CLANK!!! Myrkblade deflected off of his clawed gloves. The man lunged at me.

I backflipped.....and landed uncomfortably close to the jail cells. Two or three pairs of burly hands reached out from between the bars and held me in place.

"!!!!"

"HAHAHA!!"

"We got the shithead!!"

"Beat his Titan brains in!!"

Killer Moth cracked his knuckles through his gloves and came charging. "RAAAWR!!"

I held my breath and blurred into smoke form. FWOOOSH!!

"DAAAH!!" Killer Moth tried to slow his momentum.

CLANG!!!

He slammed into the bars so hard, the front of his helmet got stuck between the metal beams. He struggled and fought to pry himself loose.

"Aw man....you suck...," a prisoner slurred from inside.

"Silence....nnghhh.....pathetic whelp!!"

"You're mine once your ass gets schooled, freak!!"

I materialized behind Killer Moth, exhaled, saluted, and kicked him hard in the rear.

THWACK!!

"AUGH!!" Killer Moth jolted forward....and jolted back. POP!!! His masked head broke free of the bars. He stumbled backwards.

SLIIINK!! I slid Myrkblade between his shoulder and the material of his suit and flung his flailing body over me like a lever.

"UGH!!" THWUMP!! He landed atop a table, rolled off, and limped to his feet.

SW-SWISH!! I twirled Myrkblade and charged at him.

Killer Moth reached into his pockets and flung two things at me. Two cream-colored, squirming things.

"????" I skidded to a stop as two larvae attached to my chest. SPLORCH!! SP-SPLORCH!!! In fast-motion, they sprouted wings and hooked feet and claws and shrieked up at me.

I bit my lip and batted them off with a metal arm, but one of them bit onto the titanium limb and hung on by its teeth no matter how much I tried to shake it loose.

_SKREEEE!!! SKREEEEE!!!_

I flung the one moth monster off and raised my blade just in time to avoid the diving swipe of the second one. C-CLANK!!!

_SKREEEE!!!_

I prepared to stab at the flying pests--

WHAM!!! Killer Moth plowed me over with a fist.

I rolled across the floor of the prison row. Cheers echoed from all around.

"Feast, my children!!" Killer Moth petted the giant insects and pointed a sharp glove-finger at me. "FEAST!!"

_SKREEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEE!!!_

SWOOOOOSH!!!

From where I lay down, I helplessly stretched Myrkblade out in a defensive position.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAUGH!!" Mammoth swung his right arm.

Tempest dodged.

SMASH!!

A hole in the hallway wall was formed.

"YYAAUGH!!" Mammoth swung his left arm.

Tempest backflipped.

Another hole in the opposite side was made.

Tempest slid into a pose and aimed his wrists up towards the ceiling. "Nnnnghhh!!" he clenched his teeth and concentrated.

C-CLANK!!! POP!! CRACK!!!

The fire sprinklers and their pipes shattered downward from the ceiling structure and shot water into Mammoth's eyes.

"Nnnngh!!" Mammoth struggled blindly. "No fair!!"

"Yes fair...," Tempest hissed. He ran and performed a flying kick into Mammoth's chest. THWAP!!!

Mammoth stumbled back, slipped on a puddle of sprinkler water, and slid towards the top of a long flight of metal stairs.

"HA!!" Tempest flipped and landed squarely on Mammoth's chest.

"WHOAH!!" Mammoth sputtered as he slid down the water-strewn steps on his back.

Tempest road the steroid-induced-villain's body like a surfboard down to the lower floor. WHAM!! Once they reached it, Tempest leapt off, flipped, and perched on a wall on the far side. He took a deep breath and extended a purple glowing hand towards Mammoth's body.

SPLOOOSH!!!

The water underneath the collapsed villain exploding, lifting him up like a punching doll towards Tempest.

WHAM!!! Tempest pounced off the wall with a flying kick that met Mammoth's ascent.

The muscular villain teetered backwards and fell through a glass window that led into the central courtyard of the prison below. CRASH!!! "WAAAA—" THUD!!!

Tempest stood, panting, and looking out the window.

".........."

"Hey gunk-guppy!!" squealed a childish voice from behind.

"???" Tempest spun around.

A bald munchkin in a jetpack and wearing goggles snickered and held what looked like a sparkplug in his hand.

Gizmo cackled: "Throw my buddy out the window and you win a prize!!" He tossed the sparkling tool towards the pool of water that Tempest was wading in. "Fry-Therapy!! On the rocks!! HAHA!!!"

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTT-TTTTT!!!_

"AAAAAAAUGH!!!" the Atlantean twitched and convulsed as electrical currents danced through his limbs. His body smoked and he began to fall over--

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!! Gizmo rocketed into his chest.

"OOMF!!" Tempest ragdolled down the scorched hallway.

"Hahaha!!" Gizmo spun around, produced a laser cannon from the back of his jetpack, and increased his thrusters. "Nerd Empire RISING!!!"

PHOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Tempest could barely lift a muscle as the tiny villain rocketed towards him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnghh....," Mammoth twitched on the ground of the courtyard. He rubbed his head and exhaled: "Well...glad that's over—"

STOMP!! STOMP!! Four triceratops feet thundered over him.

"OOMFF!! NNNGH!!!"

THWOMP!! THWOMP!!

Followed by a pair of golden robot boots.

"AAAUGH!! DAAH!!" Mammoth convulsed in pain and panted.

In the meantime, Atlas was busily swinging his titanium fists at the hardened skin and horns of the green dinosaur's crown.

SWOOSH!! CLANK!! CL-CLANK!!!

The dinosaur roared and backed up against a wall.

"Now....TREMBLE!!" Atlas slammed his foot down heavily into the concrete. Cracks spiderwebbed out across the floor and the entire courtyard shook as with a great tremor.

RUMMMMMBLE!!!

As predicted, the green dinosaur teetered on its feet.

CLAMP!! Atlas' metal hand gripped the terrible lizard's throat and slammed the entire beast up against the prison wall.

WHAM!!!

The dinosaur winced.

Atlas leaned his red head in. "When will you realize?! No slimy beast alive is big enough to take on Atlas!!!"

The pale eyes of the dinosaur narrowed. SCHWUMP!!! The animal morphed into a spider monkey...which promptly scurried down the huge robot's arm, up onto his shoulders, and planted himself onto the android villain's neck. WHUMP!!!! Beast Boy morphed into a kangaroo and kicked off.

"AUGH!!" Atlas stumbled forward into the wall.

CRUNCH!!!

His torso was stuck into the cement structure.

Beast Boy then morphed into a gorilla, growled, and lifted up a huge chunk of iron debris from the devastated courtyard. He played batter-up with Atlas butt. CLANG!! CL-CLANG!! CLANG!!!

"AAAUGH!!! Wait till I get my—" CLANG!!! "—DAAAH!!"

The gorilla broke the iron slab over his knee to form two jagged chunks of serration. With a growl, he slammed them both into the android's ribcages.

CRKKKK!!!

_ZZZZZZTTTTT!!!!_

Atlas convulsed, sparked, and slumped into the recess his body had made with an electronic groan. "Stupid.....puny......organism.........nnngh...." And his lights were out.

Beast Boy returned to elf form, panting. He spat: "It's called the 'proverbial woodshed', dumbass!!" More panting. He orderly wiped his brow, sighed, and turned around with a happy grin---

WHAM!!! Mammoth punched Beast Boy halfway across the courtyard. "You were saying....," the muscular freak grinned and charged the grounded figure.

"Nnnngh...," Beast Boy rubbed his head and stood up with clenched fists. "God of the Israelites...." He morphed into a huge bull just in time to meet Mammoth's head-on collision.

WHUMP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEECH!!!

The T-Car burned to a stop outside of the prison and the police barrier surrounding it.

Cyborg rolled his window down.

He stuck his head out and craned his ear to the incessant chaos emanating from within.

".........," sounds like quite a party.

"Every prisoner we've ever locked up in this City is taking his or her frustrations out on our teammates," Raven droned. "It's their party. Not ours."

"I can't think of a good entrance point!!" Cyborg exclaimed. "And Robin isn't answering our calls to his communicator!"

"He's most likely too busy to reply at the moment."

"Then that means we gotta move fast...," Cyborg's red eye scanned the wall of the nearest building for weaknesses. "There!!" he pointed. "Those windows!! That's the best place for us to enter!"

"Only two stories up...," Raven nodded. She began to unbuckle. "I'll be up there in no time—"

Cyborg placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't go anywhere."

She blinked at him. "Um....."

"Start meditating," he smirked...and revved his engines.

"..................oh joy........."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!" Robin had a fresh metal rod out and was deflecting sharp, armor-piercing roses being flung by a magical 'bouquet'. CL-CL-CLANK!!! He side jumped and flipped towards Mumbo Jumbo with a heavy swing of his staff. "YAAAGH!!"

Mumbo waved his wand. His entire body shrunk and leapt into his hat.

SWOOOSH!! Robin's staff hit nothing but air. "Rghhh!!"

Mumbo's hat levitated across the room. It was there that Mumbo Jumbo reappeared, twirled his wand, and shot at the floor beneath Robin's feet. "Abra cadabra!!!"

FLASH!!

Robin panted. He gasped and fell on his rears as the floor morphed into a warbling mass and rolled Robin like a whipping carpet towards the fiendish magician.

Mumbo twirled his wand and turned it into a bat. Suddenly wearing a baseball uniform, he readied himself for the Boy Wonder pitch. "This oughta break the Red Sox curse! It'll break your skull too! HA!!"

Robin gritted his teeth as he tumbled towards Mumbo's swing. He whipped a hand into his utility belt, fished out a grappling hook launcher, and aimed at the ceiling. POW!! CLANK!! He lifted himself up off the warbling floor and flew over Mumbo via the cord.

SWOOOOSH!! Mumbo swung his bat, but missed Robin's lower body by a hair.

Robin flew up behind Mumbo, let go of this grappling hook, flipped, landed, and swept his leg out. "Strike out, Mumbo!!"

THWUMP!!

"WAAAAH-OOF!!" Mumbo landed on his rear. "Why you meddl—" THUNK!!! The bat fell on his head. "Nnngh....," stars swirled around the villain's head. "Guess you still are the Bat boy."

GRIP!!!

Robin lifted Mumbo up by the collar and practically shouted into his face: "Who set off the bomb?!?! You said it was a witch!! Did you mean Jinx?! Jinx's room was the center of it!!"

"I've never been to that little girl's room!! How would I know??" Mumbo smirked. "I've been locked up for OTHER reasons, silly!!"

THWUMP!! Robin slammed the magician up against a wide set of windows. "Why did she do it?!?! What does she want?! How'd she get all of you free and with your powerful weapons to boot?!"

"Ya know, Robin...not all of us know the answers," Mumbo smiled. Without looking, he flexed his right hand's fingers. The baseball bat lying on the floor behind Robin turned into a wand again and began to slide towards the villain's prone location. "There's an element of mystery to things that even magician's don't know. Ignorance keeps us entertained as much as our audiences!!"

Robin's eyemask glared. "You mean to say you don't know how everyone in the Omega Wing got free??"

Mumbo's face grinned wide. "I mean to say I DON'T CARE!! HAHAHA!!!" SWOOOSH-GRIP!! The wand flew into his gloved hand. He tapped himself with the instrument. "A la Kazaam!!!"

ZZZZTT!!! Mumbo Jumbo's body sparked.

"ARGH!!" Robin jumped back, flinching.

Mumbo spun his wand and struck a goofy pose in front of the wide stretch of windows. "I'm LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF THIS, Robin!! But I'd love it even more if you disappeared!!" He aimed his wand threateningly at the Boy Wonder's body. And that's precisely when a pair of glowing headlights appeared from behind the glass.

Robin wearily smirked. "You first...."

Mumbo's face contorted. "Huh???" He turned around. His eyemask thinned. "Son of a Houdini...," he sighed.

_**CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

The T-Car sailed through the window. Shards of glass and metal support structures few everywhere. To say the least, Mumbo Jumbo was toppled to the side and out cold. His wand spun in the air until Robin caught it in mid-leap.

And speaking of mid-leap, Robin landed perched on the T-Car.

_**CLAMP!!!!!**_

The vehicle's tires made contact with the floor of the prison hallway. They screeched to a stop and an aura of black telekinesis faded.

From inside, Raven's eyes stopped glowing a bright gray and she blinked at Robin on the hood. "Don't mind the carbon monoxide."

Robin smirked. He looked at Cyborg through the windshield. "About time you both got here."

"Yeah, tell me about it!!" the android leaned his head out the window with one hand on the wheel. "What the Hell's going on in here!!"

"I think Jinx set off the bomb that's freed all of these super convicts."

"Jinx??" Raven remarked.

Robin nodded. "And somehow she's manage to give all of them the tools they need to go crazy on us as usual."

"Man....not good," Cyborg revved the engine to the T-Car. "Better do something so that they don't get out of these walls and 'go crazy' on the Town!!"

"Right! Let's rejoin with the others and fight the convicts en masse! Then once we get their hands full, we'll check on the wardens and other possible hostages!!"

"Where ARE the others??"

"Noir got sidetracked by Killer Moth. I don't know where Beast Boy and Tempest are."

"We heard some crazy noises coming from the central courtyard...let's check that place out!!"

"Good idea," Robin nodded. "Drive."

Cyborg's human eye bulged. "Say what?!?!"

"You brought the T-Car in here for a reason, right?? So drive, dammit!!"

Cyborg sighed. "My Baby wasn't made for linoleum traction."

"Get over it," Raven droned.

SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!

The vehicle zoomed down the claustrophobic hallway.

Robin held his balance on the hood of the T-Car.

"Wait...what about Starfire??" Raven remarked above the noise.

"She was taking on Mad Mod the last time I checked!!" Robin shouted back.

"Don't we need to help her??"

Robin smirked. "Already taken care of...." And he snapped Mumbo Jumbo's wand in two.

CRACK!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FL-FL-FLASH!!! Starfire flung starbolts at the young Briton from across the prison cafeteria.

CL-CLANK!! Mad Mod deflected with his cane, spun around, and zapped the Tamaranian with a huge, ruby pulse of electricity.

ZAAAP!!

"Ugh!!!" Starfire flew back across the commissary and landed with her back against a long table. "Nnnngh....," she shook her head and looked up at the thin menace with round green eyes.

"Cherio, lass...," Mad Mod spun his wand and aimed it—sparkling—down at her. "You put up a good scuffle. Tis a shame to ruin a pretty face like yours. But my heart goes out for a burned bird anyday!!" And as he prepared to zap her again—he was encased in a puff of smoke and magical light. "What the bloomin' Hell???" In mid sentence, the strength in his voice gave out and soon a wrinkly, liver-spotted old man in a sweater vest and faded slacks stood in front of the girl. "...........aw fiddle sticks."

"........," Starfire smiled. She floated over and held her hands together. "I so apologize for the disrespect of your elderly standings....but I must steal that cane from you."

Mad Mod sweatdropped. "Eheheheh.....horses for courses, love...."

She smiled, took the cane, and curtsied. "Thank you." With a finger, she thwapped the old man in the nose.

"Nnnnghh....," his frail body tipped over and fell back across a table.

THWUMP!!!

Starfire giggled. FLASH!! She melted the cane away with a point blanc starbolt and flew up into the air. "Now to find and assist my frien—"

SMASH!!!!!!!!

The ceiling exploded downward.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" a water-soaked Fang jumped kicked his way down and slammed into Starfire with all eight limbs.

WHAM!!

"AAACKIES!!" Starfire tumbled across the cafeteria floor.

Fang landed, spun to a spidery stance, and raised his human fists. "This table taken??"

Starfire got up, gritting her teeth. "You are an evil....evil....bug!!!"

"And you're pretty....," Fang's multiple eyes narrowed. "Allow me to kiss your face off. RAAAUGH!!" Mandibles glistening, he charged the alien girl.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CL-CLANK!!! I deflected the lunging teeth and legs of the huge moths circling around me. I spin-jumped up onto the second tier stairwell of the prison row. The buzzing sounds of moths increased, and I realized that three extra beasts had been formed.

Sweating....panting....I glanced down at the bottom floor of the interior.

Flanked by cells full of rowdy inmates, Killer Moth kept tossing hatching and metamorphosizing larvae so that a virtual swarm of giant insects were flying and hissing after me in ravenous fury.

I bit my lip. I looked to my left. There was a platform with rails lining the wall between the first and second tiers of prison cells. I looked back down.

_SKREEEEE!!!_

The moths were upon me.

I blurred murk through my limbs and vaulted off the stairwell and onto the side of the platform. Through momentum and smoke energy, I ran across the wall, trailing Myrkblade behind me and deflecting the biting jaws of the pursuing insects. CLANK! CL-CLANG!!

_SKREEE!!!_

"Ha ha ha ha!!" Killer Moth bellowed. "Enjoy the quarry, my children!! Enjoy the quarry!!"

I panted. I ran around the curve in the prison row's walls and found more and more insects trailing me.

I glanced down.

I saw Johnny Rancid getting up. He rubbed his head, groaned, and glared up at me. He ran over to his bike, uprighted it, and mounted the seat. From behind he produced a revolver, spun it, and aimed at me with a sneer. "I got him....."

"Hey!! Let my creation devour him!!!"

"Shut up, ya furry clown!! I said I got him!!!" Rancid squinted one eye and took aim.

I bit my lip. I readied a stronger pulse of murk in my sprinting figure---

BLAM!!!!

The bullet streamed at me.

I held my breath. I leapt off the wall and morphed into smoke form.

FWOOOOSH!!! The moths flew through me. Two were splattered dead by the single bullet of Rancid's. SPL-SPLORCH!!!

Killer Moth gripped his helmet and shouted. "NO!!! MY CHILDREN!!"

The frightened moth monsters spun around in the air.

I solidified in an upright position, hanging off of a railing above.

"Shut up, old man!!" Rancid hissed, spinning his pistol. "I'll shoot as many as I want till I hit the meat straight on!!" That said, he aimed at my hanging figure....chuckling.

I took a breath. I looked over at the moths. I whistled.

They looked my way, buzzed their wings into rapid speed, and swarmed on me.

"You stupid punk!! Killer Moth shook his fist at Rancid from afar. "Don't---"

As the insects converged on me, I again teleported in smoke form.

And Rancid again shot.

BLAM!!!

The bullet went through where I would have been and blew up the head of another moth.

"AAARGH!!" Killer Moth convulsed dramatically.

But Rancid laughed his head off. "Whoah!! Did you see that one explode?!?! Ha ha ha!! 'RAAAAAID?!?!?!' Ha ha ha ha!!"

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP-STOMP!!!! WHAM!!! Killer Moth ran over and tackled the cretin on his cycle. "Rrrghhh!! Why must I always be surrounded by insolent morons!!"

"Hey!! Knock it off, gramps!!! I mean it!!!" Rancid struggled.

I materialized long-distance just above them, panting.

Killer Moth clawed and punched and bit at the motorcyclist. "I swear...if you so much as hurt or harm another one of my children again—"

"Pfft!! Children?!?! Grow a penis, pal!!" WHAM!!! Rancid kicked kicked the costume villain off, spun his revolver, and aimed high. "How's this for an adoption agency?? GOODBYE JUNIOR!!"

BLAM!!! SPLORCH!!!

"Stop it!!!"

"HEY LITTLE SUZIE!!" BLAM!! SPLORCH!! "LITTLE JOEY!!!" BLAM!! SP-SPLORCH!! "WHOOPS! Got twins there! HAHAHAHA!!"

"RRRRGHHH!!!" Killer Moth burned red. Inmates around him booed and hissed. He steamed and pointed a clawed glove at Rancid. "My children....SICK 'EM!!!"

_SKREEEEEE!!!_

SKREEEEEEE!!!

With a buzzing thunder, all the moths converged on the psychotic motorcyclist.

Rancid's eyes bulged. "Wuh oh!! Hahahaha!!" He revved the engine and took off. VRMMMMM!!! "I am NOT about to get shit upon by the Tinkerbell club!!"

He burned rubber out into a lower hallway of the prison interior. Killer moth and his furious 'children' blurred blindly after him.

I let out a breath of relief and dropped down in the super-villain vacated interior. Most of the inmates groaned and cursed in frustration....but I actually heard some cheering from behind me.

I turned around, smiled, and gave a nervous thumb's up—that is until I realized just how......effeminate that particular cell of inmates looked.

_Okay......never thought I'd be depressed by a compliment._

I re-gripped Myrkblade and spun about, scanning for leftover rogues with my eyes....when I noticed a streak of light. My black eyes twitched under my shades. I glanced down an inclined hallway to my right. It lead to the basement levels of the prison.

"......"

A reflective pink glow died out as a light set of footsteps echoed against the far walls and were gone.

"......"

I turned myself invisible with a falling curtain of smoke and tread lightly—but quickly—after the source of the pink hue...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin had found a firm glove-hold on the front of the T-Car. The vehicle's sides scraped walls with showering sparks as it spun around curves and throttled down the thin hallways.

"All man...," Cyborg sweatdropped while gripping the wheel. "I swear that this Baby is having a love affair with Murphy's Law!!"

"Less weeping and more driving," Raven said.

Above the chaotic noise of the interior, speeding vehicle...the sounds of gunshots and cries echoed down the corridor.

Robin craned his neck. His eyemask went wide. After a beat, he knocked his gloved knuckles against the windshield and yelled: "I'm getting off here!! Keep going!! Find Beast Boy, Starfire, and the others!!"

"Okay!!" Cyborg nodded.

"I have my communicator! I'll rejoin you soon!!" The Boy Wonder then nimbly squatted atop the car and raised his hands just in time to grab a low-hanging bar from the ceiling. He jumped off the T-Car and hung by the metal pipe. After a beat, he dropped down into a crouch, stood up, and ran down a nearby hallway....following the gunshot sounds.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VROOOOOOM!!!

The T-Car screamed down the thin prison hallway. A bright light was forming ahead.

Gritting his teeth and keeping the vehicle steady, Cyborg uttered: "Got a lock on B.B.'s signal?"

Raven was looking at the map display on the dashboard. Her blue eyes blinked. "Uhm........"

"Uhm what???"

"Just keep driving...," she sweatdropped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnnghh!!" Beast Boy groaned and struggled as Mammoth had the green elf in a violent headlock.

"Say Uncle....," Mammoth grinned. "Preferably a dead Uncle. Cuz that's who I'm gonna send you to see...."

SMASH!!!!!!!

From a huge span of windows two stories above, the T-Car drove through and flew down towards the courtyard.

"Huh???" Mammoth looked up at the hulking blue missile. His white eyes practically cracked apart in dramatic shock.

Beast Boy swiftly held his breath, turned into a snake, and slithered out of the giant's grasp.

VROOOOOOM!!!! The T-Car glided down. SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Mammoth held his breath...then held his arms out.

CLAMP!!!

He grabbed onto the hood.

THWUMP!!! The wheels of the T-Car hit the ground and the vehicle ground into the young villain.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!

Tires burn. Dust and concrete flew. Mammoth's feet carved into the ground as he was slid in his blocking stand clear across the courtyard and against the far wall where finally his strength won out and he pushed the T-Car to a stand still.

"HA!!!" Mammoth smirked. "Think you're so bad and tough!! Nothing's stronger than—"

WHURRR-CHTUNG!! The photon cannon popped out of the vehicle's top and fired point blanc in Mammoth's face.

ZAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

FLASH!!! "WAAAAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth plummeted backwards from the back and sailed through the prison building's walls. SMASH!!!!! Smoking debris and crumbled buildingside brick was left behind.

Cyborg stepped out, frowning. "Hands off my car....."

Raven teleported out in a black sphere. She reformed and glanced around at the scene. Atlas lay dormant at the far end of the courtyard. Mammoth was nowhere to be seen beyond the huge gash in the wall formed by his body.

"........so...._how_ dead is Beast Boy anyways?" Raven groaned.

"I'm not dead!! Here I am!!!"

SWOOOSH-WHUMP!!

Beast Boy ran up and hugged Raven. "Am I badass or what?!?! Look what I did!!!"

Flames erupted in Raven's eyes. With a snarl she flung him halfway across the courtyard. FLASH!!!

"YAAAAUGH—OOF!! Nnngh.....nice to meet you too, Raven."

"Even I know when not to do that," Cyborg simpered.

Raven blinked at him. "I can't toss you around as easily."

"Good point. Now where is---"

CRASH!!!

A window shattered from above...followed by a plummeting scream.

Cyborg looked up. He blinked. Effortlessly, he caught the flailing body of Tempest. WHUMP!!

Tempest sat up in his arms.

A beat.

"Flipper....," Cyborg said.

Tempest panted. "Gizmo...."

Cyborg frowned. "Cyborg!!"

"No!! Look!!" Tempest pointed up. "Gizmo!!"

"HIYAAAA!!! SCRUFF-MUNCHERS!!!"

"?!?!?!" Cyborg looked up...and got a face full of tiny missiles.

BOOOOM!!!!

"DAAAH!!" He and Tempest went flying across the concrete landscape, plowing into Beast Boy who had barely gotten up. WHUMP!!!

"!!!" Raven looked at them...then upwards.

SWOOOOSH!! Gizmo came flying down, laughing psychotically on his jetpack. "Recess time!! Who's for a friendly game of four square....with GRENADES?!?!" A tube propped up and out from his jet pack and fired two explosive canisters down at the male Titans.

Raven gritted her teeth and raised her hands just in time to deflect the explosives with black telekinesis. The grenades smoke-trailed off and exploded against an upper pylon of the encircling prison wall. BOOOM!!!

"Awww...," the flying munchkin frowned. His goggles almost thinned in mock sorrow. "Spoil sport?? What good is a new friend if you can't decorate your lawn with their insides??"

"Quit it!!!" Raven frowned. She floated upward with her cloak billowing around her. She stretched two glowing arms out and hissed: "You're going back in your cell where you belong!!!"

"Pffft!!" the hovering Gizmo spat. "Nuts to you barf-bimbo!! You're not my babysitter!!"

"I assure you....," Raven's eyes glared. "I can and will put you to sleep...."

"Heheheheheh...," Gizmo aimed a laser turret at her and locked on.

She flung her wrists. "Azarath....Metrion...ZINTHOS!!!!" A balloon of black obsidian surged outward at Gizmo.

Gizmo clicked a trigger on his controls and fired a volley of laser blasts.

Both energy distributions converged explosively in the center.

FLASH!! FL-FL-FLASH!!! PHOOOOM!!!

Smoke and flame erupted.

Raven shielded her eyes. When she looked again, she gasped an incoming rocket.

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Raven blurred to the side in mid-air and barely dodged Gizmo's diving form.

"Heeeeh heh hehhhhh ha ha!!!" Gizmo gurgled like a schizophrenic toddler and spun back around with two missile volleys at ready. "Show me your broomstick, book crammer!!!"

SW-SW-SWOOOSH!!! The missiles fired.

Raven raised a slab of concrete debris and floated it in front of her.

BLAM!!!!!

The concrete shattered.

"Nnnghh!!" she was thrown back a bit from the explosion's concussion.

Gizmo soared through the smoke and debris towards her.

"Geek SLAM!!!"

Raven swiftly teleported through him in a column of black energy.

Gizmo burped. "MMF!! What the--?!?!"

The dark girl spun around with a wrist pointed at him.

FLASH!!!

Black energy encased the thrusters of his jetpack.

Gizmo surged to a stop in mid-air.

"Nnngh!!! Cram it!!! No fair!! Let go!!"

"Have it your way...," Raven gritted her teeth and curled her fingers.

POW!!!!

The fuel cells of the jetpack blew off and exploded a few feet away.

"YAAAAAH!!!" Gizmo plummeted to the floor.

Tempest huffed, puffed, and ran out underneath him. PLOP!!! He caught the tiny villain. "I got 'em!!" Tempest grinned.

"You're crummin' right!!" Gizmo cackled. Whurrrrr-CLANK!!! Four metal spider legs popped out of his pack.

THWACK!!! Tempest was knocked back by the exiting limbs. "OOOF!!"

Cyborg—running over—caught Tempest in a hooked arm. He looked at the Atlantean and smirked. "Nooby...." THWUMP!! He dropped Tempest to the floor, converted his left arm into sonic cannon, and approached the metal-limb suspended Gizmo. "Allright little man!! Just like old times!! You....and m—"

"RAAAUGH!!" Mammoth charged out of the hole in the wall and slammed his fist into Cyborg's torso.

CLANG!!!

"AAAUGH!!" the android toppled to the ground.

"Heh heh heh heh!!!" Gizmo chuckled. "A brother in need is a friend indeed!!"

"Uh....whatever you said," Mammoth cracked his neck and grinned. "TIN CAN CRUSHING TIME!!!" And he stomped down upon Cyborg.

Sweatdropping, Beast Boy turned into an elephant. "This is getting old." With a trumpeting noise, he stomped over and rammed into Mammoth's side.

Gizmo produced a laser cannon and was about to shoot at the green Titan when Tempest flipped onto his back and wrestled with the villain on his four metal limbs.

At the same time, Cyborg wearily got back up and joined the emerald elephant in tackling Mammoth.

Raven considered joining in the cause against Gizmo. She was about to float over when---

"Hey!! Blue chick!! Are you the White Mage's sister or something??"

"?!?!?!" Raven spun around and looked up. "I beg your pardon---"

ZAP!!!!

Raven gasped as a ruby light enveloped her cloak from afar. Soon the cloak seemed to come alive and constrict all around her until it bundled her up like a roll of carpet and sent her plummeting to the ground. THWUMP!!! "Nnnnghhhh!!" she struggled and fought her cloaked restraints. She gradually saw the source of the ruby light leap down from the building sight and land fatly in front of her.

FFFBPPHSSSSS!!!!

A crimson light extended outward from two ends of something in the stranger's grasp. A double-edged lightsabre. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! Control Freak twirled the hot weapon around and struck an obese pose. He smiled a cheese puff stained smile down at the dark girl. "So...are you???"

"Am I WHAT?!?!" Raven snarled. Flames danced in her eyes.

"The sister to the White Mage?? Ya know...Final Fantasy I?? Granted, her cloak was—well—white.....but the black mage—also more or less reincarnated to become Vivi in the Playstation monstrosity Final Fantasy IX—wears a cloak of a hue quite similar to yours. And judging by your powers, you seem somewhere in the mix of the two elements. Tell me....," he leaned forward. "Are you light or dark?"

"Right now....I'm feeling very _**DARK**_!!!" Raven hissed, struggling.

"You don't say," Control Freak sneezed. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!! He twirled his lightsaber and smirked. "Well then, Miss Sith...do your best energy bolts on me. Cuz I'm a level 45 manga fit to unleash a cheese-elemental limit break unfriendly to 95 of epileptics this side of the Northern Hemisphere!! And in case you're redundancy illiterate—that means you're deader than a hill of bantha fodder. ENGAGE!!!" And he stabbed the lightsaber straight down at her.

Raven flinched.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin sprinted into a utility room consisting of metal catwalks criss-crossing over one another. He panted and looked towards the far end of the interior.

Over a dozen guards cowered in a metal-wrought corner. They flinched and trembled helplessly from a solid line of gunmen marching towards them with dual pistols in both hands.

"Hey!!!" Robin barked. He stomped forward with a fan of birdarangs held up in his left hand. "Leave them be---"

The gunmen turned around.....and were revealed to be guards themselves. A solid line of prison workers stared numbly at the approaching Boy Wonder. All of their eyes were glowing a bright, pale-blue. They aimed their pistols at the nimble hero.

"!!!!" Robin skidded to a stop. "Wh-What????" he sweatdropped.

"Ahem....," a small voice uttered from above.

"????" Robin looked straight up.

The Puppet King leaned against a set of metal railings. He held in his hand a glowing control. His googly eyes shook as he throated woodenly: "It would be fair of you not to intercede, Titan. At least one of my curses must fall through before I turn to ashes. Now let me kill the infidels off and march off to safety with the army that's left over!!"

Robin aimed his birdarangs at the small villain overhead. "I've got a better idea. How about I chop you in half and count the rings in your chest??"

"And find what? That I was too young to die?"

"Yeah....something like that...."

CL-CLICK!

CLICK!

CLICK!!

The sounds of over twelve pistols cocking behind Robin announced to him that the possessed guards were aiming their weapons at him.

".........."

"Your move, hero...," the Puppet King sneered. "Let's see your meat strings snap."

Robin tightened his muscles. "Better not blink then...." FWOOOSH!!! He leapt up at the wooden fiend on the catwalk.

The possessed guards aimed and--

BLAM!! BLAM!! BL-BLAM!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRRAAUGH!!!" Starfire flung a huge starbolt at Fang.

SMASH!!! SM-SMASH!!! Three commissary tables in a row exploded from the careening blast.

Fang had flipped over the toss with twirling spider legs and now he side-sprinted towards the girl. "Come on!! Swat me already!! HA!!"

FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!!! Three spider limbs stabbed at her.

"!!!!" Starfire ducked the swing....only to be struck blindsided by a fourth limb. WHAM!!! "NGGH!!" she cratered into the cafeteria floor.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Fang leapt straight up, flexed his spider legs like wings, and flew straight down at the girl with a human jump kick.

Starfire gritted her teeth, rolled onto her back, and shot starbolt after starbolt straight up at the plummeting Fang's body. "HAH!! HAH!! HAH!!" FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!

Fang was bopped and batted around like a ragdoll towards the ceiling.

Starfire shrieked with one huge, finishing starbolt. FWOOOOSH!!!

But Fang pivoted his body in mid-air, 'gripped' the starbolt, spun around on it, and launched himself downward with six limbs pushing down this time.

Starfire glided backwards across the floor.

SMASH!!!!! Fang landed hard, tossing bits and shards of tile elsewhere. The mutant let out a shout and stormed after Starfire on four spider limbs....stretching the front limbs forward intermittently and stabbing at the girl with the pointed hooks of the feet. CLANK!! CLANK!! CL-CLANK!!

Panting, a back-flying Starfire twitched and jerked and convulsed to barely miss each step-stab. She flew beneath a cafeteria table and kicked up at it with her feet. "NNNGH!!" WHUMP!!!

The table upended hard into Fang's advancing mandible. WHAP!!! "OOF!!"

Starfire pivoted into an upright floating position and pushed the table into him. "Nnnnnnnnnnngh!!!"

Fang anchored himself with two rear spider feet and stabbed through the table with his other two. SLICE!! SL-SLICE!!

Starfire gasped and jerked her head left and right to avoid the serrated spider feet piercing through the surface of the table and ending up on either side of her ears.

"RAUGH!!" Fang kicked at the tabletop with his human feet.

CRACK!!!

The table shattered and Starfire flew back against a concrete wall. WHAM!! "Ooof!!" she exhaled.

SPLORCH!! SPLORCH!!! SWOOOOSH-THW-THWAP!!! Two web strands stuck wetly around Starfire's wrists and pinned her back against the wall.

"Mmmff!! Nngh!!" Starfire struggled to pull herself free from the fluid holding.

CL-CLANK!! Two spider legs stepped down before her.

The girl gasped.

The spider's multiple eyes narrowed menacingly as Fang stepped forward. "That's right....," he cracked his human knuckles. "Try summoning one of your nasty alien blasts with both hands tied up, bi--!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

A pair of green optic blasts exploded from Starfire's burning eyes and plowed into Fang's chest.

"OOF!!!" he flew back, tumbled over two tables, and collapsed in a moan. "Rrrgghhh!!!" He hopped up and rubbed his spidery head with a human hand. "Always a stupid little trick left....ALWAYS!!!"

"NNNNNNNNGHHH!!!" Starfire strained and pulled at her sticky hands. CRACK!! CRACK!! Starfire stumbled forward. She blinked. She looked down at her two hands...which now had half-gloves of concrete debris stuck to her knuckles. The webbing was still in tact.

Fang got up and scurried towards her. "Now you'll DIE!!!"

Starfire gritted her teeth. "I choose not to!!!" She brought both concreted hands together and flung them upwards in a massive uppercut that met Fang's mandibles. "RAWWWR!!!"

WHAM!!!!

Fang flew back, his spider legs twitching.

Starfire flew forward and punched his gut with a fist full of concrete. "YAUGH!!"

WHUMP!!!

He doubled over.

She punched his jaw with a rocky fist. "RRRGH!!"

SMACK!!!!

Fang half-spun and fell to his knees.

"HAAAAH!!" Starfire brought both hands together with the momentum of the concrete and slammed in both of Fang's temples.

CRAAACK!!!

"Ughhhh.....," Fang dizzily fell to the floor.

Starfire panted, frowning. "I do believe I have given you the squash!!!"

VRMMMMMMM!!!

"Huh??" she looked up. "EEEP!!" she flew up just in time to avoid Johnny Rancid zooming down the aisles of still-standing cafeteria tables and firing a revolver.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

The bullets splashed through the bodies of swarming, giant insects chasing after the motorcycled freak. Rancid circled around the room, shouting and hollering as he shot the multiple bugs and raised Cain.

Starfire panted to herself from where she hovered. "There is an awful lot of criss-crossing absurdity today...."

"The only thing criss-crossing will be your guts!!"

"?!?!?!" she spun around.

"YAUGH!!" Killer Moth pounced on her.

"EEEP!!"

The two fell across a table and wrestled 'concrete-gloves' to clawed fingers. TH-TH-THWUMP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"........"

I snuck—invisible—down a dark hallway in the basement levels of the prison. The walls were a cold concrete, intermittently kaleidoscoped by red light filtered through a cold metal fan somewhere or someplace. My smoking, black eyes narrowed in the shadows. I slowly stretched my metal hand out and felt around with murk for a mass...a movement....anything beyond the curve in the concrete hallway.

"......."

I didn't feel anything. But I _saw_ something.

My vision danced left across the clear domain.

A hue of pink rose and fell just beyond the stretch of concrete and tile.

"....."

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade and slowly shuffled after the darting light.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the courtyard....several feet away from the Beast Boy-Gizmo-Cyborg-Mammoth-Tempest fight....

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Control Freak laughed his head towards the morning sky as he stabbed the lightsaber down and down. A beat. His eyes opened and blinked. "Huh?? No squishy???" He looked down.

Raven's forehead was straining. Her face was tense. Gray light pulsed under her eyelids....and a black 'talon' of energy had extended from her cloak-encased womb and gripped the length of the lightsaber.

"Dammit, witch!!" Control Freak frowned. "Why couldn't I just have thrown water down on you??"

Her gray eyes flashed open. She gnashed her teeth. "Because it's my turn at the dice." RRRRRRRIP!!! The cloak flew apart into tiny shreds as she pulsed the black energy outward and vaulted herself angrily to her feet.

"Whoah!!!" Control Freak's chin shook as he grinned. "A girl's never stripped for me before!!"

Raven nodded in her leotard. "There's a first time for everything. What say we start with you _skin_ next??" FLASH!!! She charged up a handful of razor sharp black energy shards. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!" She flung them at the obese obstacle. They whistled in the air.

Control Freak stepped back and twirled his lightsaber in one hand. CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!! He deflected the shards. He then jerked his other body forward, twirled a remote, and jammed his finger over a button. "HA!!"

ZAP!!!

Raven ducked low.

A stream of red light covered a metal support beam from the pile of wall rubble. It came alive, slinked about like a snake of mobile steel, and leapt at Raven's back.

The dark girl turned around, gripped the metal 'snake' in two black gloves of energy and tossed it over her shoulder at Control Freak. "Mmmmf!!!"

Control Freak uppercutted with his lightsaber and cut the steel in two. SLASH!!! He then twirled his remote and aimed it at chunks of concrete debris lying by the side.

ZAP!!!

The debris glowed a ruby light and formed together to form a 'golem' of stomping gravel. The concrete giant stomped over and swung a heavy fist down at Raven. FWOOOSH!!

Raven held her breath and levitated up high in the air.

SLAM!!!!

The golem's arm smashed hard into the coutyard's floor, forming a nasty gash.

Raven gritted her teeth and slung two 'whips' of black energy down at the being. FLASH!! THWAP!!!

"......," the gravel golem tilted 'up' at Raven and flung two boulders at her. FWOOOSH!! FWOOOOOOSH!!!

Raven dodged the first boulder but--

WHAM!!!

"Ugh!!!" she fell hard to the ground.

THWOMP!!!

The granite monster planted its foot down over her, pinning her down hard.

"Nnnnnghhh!!" she struggled and strained for breath and freedom.

Control Freak whispered. "Great gusto!! You're like Seven of Nine when the air condition's turned up!!!"

Raven gritted her teeth. "Is that some pathetic attempt to flirt with me?"

"Oh please, Miss Sunshine...," Control Freak sneered and eyed the golem on top of her. "I think someone else has got a 'crush' on you."

The golem brought two of its fists up and prepared to fling them down onto Raven's fragile skull.

The girl gnashed her teeth.....

FWOOOOSH!! The fists came down.

CLAMP!!!!

A titanium arm clamped over the concrete limbs of the 'golem'.

"Eh????" Control Freak gasped.

"........," Cyborg frowned...towering over Raven and holding the golem back. "Find yourself another cutie....," he sneered. His blocking fist turned into a sonic cannon that exploded violently into the concrete monster's torso. ZAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAP!!! CRUMBLE!!!!!

Gravel and pebbles flew everywhere.

Control Freak flinched.

Cyborg grabbed what was left of the golem's body and flung it—shouting and titanium muscles rippling—at Control Freak.

"YODA!!!"

WHAM!!!!

The rocky body exploded and Control Freak went tumbling hard across the courtyard floor.

Cyborg panted, wiped his brow, and bent over just in time to gently help Raven up.

She shook her head dizzily and blinked up at him. "Lemme guess...this is the part where the girl kisses you, right?" she droned.

".....," Cyborg smirked. "Actually....I was merely gonna ask you to duck."

Raven leaned her head to the side. "Huh?"

"DUCK!!!" Cyborg shoved Raven out of the way as a volley of tiny missiles flew into his chest.

BLAM!! BL-BL-BLAM!!!!

"OOF!!" Cyborg stumbled back.

Rushing on four metal limbs, Gizmo chuckled and rushed Cyborg with more ensuing volleys.

FWOOSH!! FW-FW-FWOOSH!!!

Raven panted and was about to float after him---

"Pfft!! HACK!!!"

"???" Raven spun around.

A bruised and dizzy Control Freak coughed and sputtered from the floor. "Some convention this was....I was glad to have my remote and all...but it was lacking its spark. Pfft....my kingdom for a cell full of Chobits and Cardcaptors anyday!!"

"What.......on earth......are you talking about???" Raven groaned.

Control Freak slipped a limp hand into his pocket, produced a huge red computer chip, and tossed it onto the courtyard floor. Cl-Clank!! "From Hell's breath I stab thee....," he wheezed. A beat. He smiled: "And other ugly-nasty-stuff!!" With his last inch of energy, he clicked his remote and zapped the computer chip from far.

FLASH!!!

The chip glowed...sparked....sparked...and sparked some more. Soon a bulbous blob of electrical chaos morphed upwards like a blown transformer's hellish bubble. Overload stretched his shimmering tendrils and hollored: "I AM RE-AWAKENED!!!

"Oh super....," Raven sweatdropped.

Panting, Beast Boy ran over. "Rae!!" he leaned on her. "We need help!! Gizmo and Mammoth—they're.....," he looked Overload's way. "OH GOD NO!!!"

"BURN, BIOLOGICALS!! BURN!!!" Overload stretched its arms forward and sent waves of electricity warbling mercilessly towards the heroes. ZZZZZT!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Robin deflected stream after stream of hot bullets.

POW!! CLINK!!! He fired a grappling hook into the ceiling above the Puppet King and lifted himself up, still twirling the metal rod to deflect the possessed guards' weapons.

CL-CLANK!!!

Robin came at the end of his swing, spun up, flipped, and landed in a squat across the catwalk from the Puppet King.

The short fiend turned and faced him, his googly eyes settling still.

"Now that we're on the same level...," Robin ran towards him. "...hand over their souls—"

The Puppet King dropped his control and pulled out a flame thrower.

"!!!!!" Robin's eyemask bugged.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!! A plume of fiery plasma surged out from the Puppet King's two-handed weapon.

The Boy Wonder leapt off the catwalk, gripped a support bar lengthwise by one glove, and swung himself out of the reach of the flames. He leapt through the air again and landed on an adjacent platform to the Puppet King.

"Roast....you pathetic infidel!!" the Puppet King aimed his flame thrower.

Robin took a deep breath and backflipped off the platform as the flame swept over. He found himself plummeting straight down towards the throng of possessed guards and their drawn pistols.

BLAM!! BL-BL-BLAM!!!

Bullets streamed up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder let loose and fired another grappling hook. POW!! CLANK!! He swung—twirled around in mid swing to avoid the hot streaking bullets—and lifted himself up and onto the Puppet King's platform again.

The short villan was ready...

PHOOOOOM!!!

Robin gasped and covered his body facing the Puppet King with his titanium polymer cape.

SPLASH!!!! Flames and plasma erupted all around him. But the Boy Wonder was shielded.

The Puppet King gnashed his wooden teeth and increased the intensity of the flames...marching towards Robin.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

Flames danced all around the edges of Robin's scorched cape.

The Boy Wonder sweated.

The spiked hair on his head started to curl.

The catwalk beneath him glowed red hot and burned up into his steel-tipped boots.

"I want to smell you smoke....I want to smell your rotting flesh!!!" the tiny regal automaton sneered.

SNKTT!! Robin whipped out a birdarang. "Get a nose first, Howdy Doody..." He lowered his cape just long enough to fling the metal projectile. "NNGH!!" FWOOOOOSH!!!

The Puppet King relented on his fiery punishment and ducked his blockhead just in time to avoid the air-whistling weapon.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

"Nice try, bird brute...," the Puppet King's googly eyes glared. "But that was rather pathetic."

Robin merely smirked and crossed his arms. "Don't you villains ever learn?"

"??????" the Puppet King turned around.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!! The birdarang came back around.....and sailed down to directly skewer the glowing control discarded on the catwalk floor. CRACK!!!!

The puppet's wooden jaw fell agape. "NOOOOOO!!!!"

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

The glow left the eyes of the possessed guards. Regaining their senses, they groaned and teetered back and forth....blinking.

"Up here!!" Robin shouted and slid down a support beam. "Let him have it!!"

"!!!!" the Puppet King gasped. He glanced down over the railing stupidly.

Red-hot-mad, the guards all aimed their pistols up at the catwalk and unleashed a murderous volley of lead.

BLAM!!! BL-BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

The stream of multiple bullets actually severed the section of catwalk out from underneath the puppet king. He was sent plummeting—flame thrower and all—down to the hard floor below.

CRASH!!!!!

"Nnnngh....," the puppet's head rolled about and he was out cold.

Panting, Robin limped towards the guards. "Are you all okay?"

A warden nodded and holstered his pistols. "Thanks to you!! Where is everyone??"

"A very good question," the Boy Wonder nodded. He pointed: "All of you! Head to the South Wing!! That's just where I came from....and the place should be vacant by now! The Titans and I will take care of the Omega Wing convicts. You just get somewhere save to reorganize! There're police forces outside waiting to assist!"

"Got it....thanks Mr. Titan!!"

"You're welcome!! I gotta go!!" Robin ran off down a nearby hallway as the guards relocated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHUMP!!!

Starfire somersaulted forward and kicked Killer Moth off of her. "NNNGH!!!"

"YAAAH!!" Killer Moth twirled in mid air once or twice before slamming hard into the concrete wall of the cafeteria far behind.

Starfire huffed....puffed...and prepared to surge after him when---

VRMMMMMM!!!!

"Going my way?!?!" Rancid sneered and hooked an arm out that caught Starfire.

THWUMP!!!

"EEP!!" she struggled in his grasp.

He laughed his head off, swerved the motorcycle around, and flung her through three tables--SMASH!!--before whipping out his revolver and shooting dead the last of the two pursuing bugs. SPLORCH!! SPLORCH!!!

"My children....," Killer Moth groaned...struggling to get up. "My poor....molting....little children...."

GRIP!!!

A pair of spider legs hooked around his neck.

"SNKKKTTT!!!" Killer Moth wheezed as he was held over to the bruised face of Fang.

"You moron!! Can it with the 'my children' crap!!"

"You....," Killer Moth sneered through his mask. He brushed Fang's spider legs off of him. "I don't want anything to do with YOU!!"

"What?? Listen, old man...," Fang hissed. "If this is about your daughter...drop it..." He shoved Killer Moth's head around to face the ensuing scuffle between Starfire and Rancid. "You see that?? That's a Titan...not just that.....she's one of SEVEN Titans. Seven Titans that are here!!"

"What are you saying.....?"

"I'm saying that the party is over and it's about time we leave....," Fang breathed. "The opportunity was given to us. We'd better make do....or else it'd be a waste of explosion....and equipment!!"

Killer Moth's helmet nodded. "I see what you mean....but when could we scurry out of here??"

"We'll wait for an opportunity....then spring upon it."

"And if the Titans try to stop us??"

"That's what webs and porch lights are for....," Fang's mandibles twitched. He rushed out through a pair of double-doors lining the cafeteria. "Come on, old stuff. Let's go."

"Somehow I think I'm going to regret this.....," Killer Moth grumbled and hobbled after the mutant.

In the meantime....

"For a race accustomed to hyperspace...you sure are slow as shit!! HA!!" Rancid shouted and aimed his revolver at the redheaded girl.

Starfire grit her teeth and dodged two shots swiftly.

BLAM! BLAM!!!

She produced a 'shield' of green-hot starbolts and absorbed three more shots.

BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

"YAAAUGH!!" she flung the very same starbolt forward.

VRMMMM!!! Rancid steered his motorcycle around the green energy pulse and forward.

FLASH!! Starfire flung another starbolt. "RAAUGH!!" FLASH!! Another.

Rancid grinned, ducked, and bunny-hopped the blasts with his cycle. He propped the rubber-burning vehicle up onto the tabletops and road bumpily towards Starfire while aiming his revolver with a free hand. "Stand still so that you can fall down!!!"

But instead, Starfire flew straight at him.

He fired.

BLAM!!!

The bullet streamed at Starfire's forehead.

She gritted her teeth and launched an optic blast at the last second.

ZAAAAAP!!!

The two green streaks melted the bullet in mid-air. There was nothing in the Tamaranian's way to stop her as she—WHAP!!!—plowed into the psychotic motorcyclist and wrapped around so that she was gripping him tightly from behind. "NNNNGH!!!"

"Snkkkttt!!" Rancid choked. "H-Hey!! Not on the first date, baby!! Not on the first date!!"

"Cease calling me an infant!!!" Starfire shrieked and applied more pressure.

"HEY!! SKKKTTT!!! ARE YOU CRAZY!! WE'RE BOTH GONNA—"

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!

The motorcycle throttled helplessly towards the stretch of wall ahead.

"AAAAAAAAAH!!!"

"EEEEEEEEEK!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!!

The high wall of the inner courtyard ring shattered. Starfire and Rancid went plummeting four stories towards the floor below.

"WAAAAAAIEEEEE!!!"

A black field of energy encased Starfire alone and gently lowered her to a safe floating level.

Rancid—on the other hand—fell down hard as a rock.

"YAAAAAA—" THWUMP!!!! "Ughhh......" He groaned, out cold. SMASH!!! His motorcycle fell hard a few feet away. It gathered smoke and sparks.

Starfire sighed and happily clasped her fingers together. "Raven...thank you kindly for—" A beat. "You are Miss Leotard suddenly!!"

Raven gritted her teeth. "Stop talking, Starfire, and start diving."

"Huh??" Starfire blinked.

_ZZZTT!!!_

"EEEK!!" Starfire gasped as blue blast of electricity struck her in the back. She plummeted awkwardly into Raven and both girls were sent sprawling. TH-THWUMP!! "OOF!!"

"Ugh!!!"

"Heh...heh....heh.....," Overload took a few sparkling stomps towards the two female Titans. "So many juices to burrrrrrn!!!"

Raven sat up straight and sneered. "Don't you ever find an outlet??"

_ZZZZZTTT!!!_

"Okay...maybe not...," Raven's eyes glowed. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!" She produced a black shield that covered the two girls just in time.

FL-FLASH!!! The electricity bounced off the black shield and licked through the air, dancing over the battle between Mammoth, Tempest, and Beast Boy.

"RAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth slammed a fist towards Tempest.

"!!!" the Atlantean nimbly leapt up and flipped.

Mammoth's fist sword through the air and was grabbed in the hold of a huge, green sloth.

Plant!!! Tempest landed on the joint limbs. He smiled, streaked up Mammoth's shoulder, and jumped off with a kick sailing across the thick villain's neck. WHACK!!!

"Ooof!!" Mammoth stumbled back.

The sloth morphed into a goat that charged forward and slammed its horns into the heavy fiend's belly.

WHUMP!!!

Mammoth bent over, wheezing.

Tempest scurried over, held his breath, and leapt up high with an uppercut.

THWACK!!!

Mammoth tilted back. He hobbled up against a wall, panting and wheezing.

Tempest and Beast Boy charged with a finishing warcry......that they didn't finish.

FLASH!!!!

A golden bolt of energy flew at them and knocked them back.

A few feet away, Gizmo stood on four metal limbs with a smoking laser barrel. "Ha ha ha ha!! Taste the gravel, snotchops!!"

Something gripped his metal limbs from behind.

"The Hairball?!?!" Gizmo looked back. "Crammit...it's always you!!"

"Yup...always me!!" Cyborg shouted and flung Gizmo straight up via the metal limbs. "RRRRRGHHH!!!"

"WAAAAAA-AAAAH!!!!" Gizmo shouted and flailed his human limbs as his entire suit was flung up and slammed back down, shattering the metal limbs completely. CRAAACK!!!

"Boo-Ya!! That didn't take long did it, little man??" Cyborg smirked.

The tutle-like Gizmo rolled on his back and grinned evilly beneath his goggles. "Yeah....stand around and enjoy the occasion!!" ZAAAP!! His rifle shot a blue wave of light at Cyborg.

"Huh??? Nnnnghhh!!!" Cyborg gasped, suddenly struggling in a death-grip of paralysis where he stood. "What.....in....the world....?!?!"

"EMP Shockwave up your wazoo!!" Gizmo stuck his tongue out. "Hope you have a lovely afterlife in Macintosh Hell!!" He smirked at the dizzy Mammoth. "Hey!! M! Mince Meat time!!"

"RRAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth charged murderously towards Cyborg. He grinned animalistically and raised a hulking fist.

The android Titan barely had the strength to sweatdrop....

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK-_**BANG!!!!**_

An explosive birdarang landed in front of Mammoth's charging feet.

"Augh!!" he flew back from the blast.

"Awww cripes!!" Gizmo shuddered.

SWOOOOSH!! Robin swung down and slammed his boots hard into Gizmo's backside.

THWUMP!!

"CrucCrudCrudCrudCrud!!!' the high-tech munchkin rolled repeatedly across the courtyard and came to a stop on the floor, groaning.

Robin stood up, took a deep breath, and smirked. "Hope I wasn't too late...."

"Heh....it depends....," a statue-still Cyborg blinked. "A little help here??"

Robin stood in front of Cyborg, turned around, and whistled loudly. "Hey!! Overload!!" he waved.

_ZZZZT!!! ZZZTTT!!!_ The electrical beast stopped zapping the shield of Raven and Starfire long enough to look over at the Boy Wonder. "?!?!?!"

"Come and get some fresh meat, you freak!!" Robin shouted.

"Yo!!!" Cyborg murmured. "What are you doing—"

"Shhh...."

"Mmmmm....tender morsel....," the 'eye' in the electrically submerged computer chip glared. Overload's glowing limbs went into motion as it stomped its way towards the two.

Robin raised his fists.

Overload charged.

Robin gritted his teeth.

Overload sprinted.

Robin.......dashed to the side.

Cyborg stood still in the open. "!!!!!!!"

"YAAAARGH!!" unable to stop, Overload flew into Cyborg's robotic body.

_ZZZZZZZZT!!!_

"NNNNGH!!!" Cyborg twitched and groaned.

The bulk of Overload's energy was absorbed into him.

_ZZZZZZZTTTTT!!!_

Gradually, the electrical splashes died out and the computer chip of Overload fell lonely to the floor. CL-CLANK!!!

"Ugh.....Overload.........sleepy......" _ZZZT!!_ And the chip smoked and went out like a light.

"......," Cyborg found himself able to flex his limbs and function normally. He exhaled.

"See?" Robin brushed his gloves off and crossed his arms with a smirk. "Should have trusted me."

"Yeah....and you should trust me too, dawg....," Cyborg glared. "Trust me to give you a dutch rub as soon as I can!!!'

"That chance may come soon...," Tempest limped over.

"Yeah, dude....," Beast Boy nodded. "Coast looks clear here."

"Then...," Starfire walked up with Raven. "We are victorious??"

_**WHAM!!!!**_

The whole group of six stood still. Blinking.

"......"

_**WHAM!!! WHAM!!!**_

"Um....," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Is Raven pregnant? I hear some huge-ass baby kicking."

"Drop dead."

_**WHAM!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!**_

"A tremor??" Tempest asked.

A beat.

Everyone stared down to see a huge, gradual bulge pushing up through the concrete floor of the wreckage-strewn courtyard.

_**WHAM!!! WHAM!!!! WHAM!!!! WHAM!!!**_

"Titans!!" Robin shouted. "Move—"

The group barely had time to scurry out of the way as the concrete cracked open from below—SMASH!!!!—and a huge gunky body of purple ooze crawled up.

RAWWWWWWWR!!!!!

Green eyes of slime bulging, Plasmus rose fifty feet high in the center of the courtyard and flung its slimy tendrils about.

RAWWWWWWWWWRR!!!!!

Tempest shook his head with a dry grin. "Wow....you surface dwellers are so....so beautiful...."

Beast Boy groaned. "Dude....just shut up. Seriously."

"Don't give it a chance to empower us!!" Raven shouted.

"You heard the girl!!" Cyborg whipped his arm into a sonic cannon. "Blitz 'em!!!"

Starfire launched starbolts.

Beast Boy charged as a lion.

Tempest leapt.

Raven flung dark beams of energy.

Robin jump-kicked.

RAWWWR!!!

Plasmus merely flexed its torso and exploded outward a huge splash of purple sludge.

SPLORCH!!!!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Silence.

"........"

A beat.

"........."

I materialized.

I walked slowly forward into the dead end of my pursuit of the elusive, pink glow.

One step after another.

Slapping against the concrete floor.

"......."

I was in the underground prison's Laundromat. About two and a half basement levels below the first floor. It was a claustrophobic place of concrete pylons and floors and ceilings and walls. The place had a dim, dull brown look and feel to it. An occasional amber lightbulb hung intermittently throughout the chambers. A long line of huge, white washers and driers stretched before me. Half of them were on and rocking about with loud, metal clanking noises. The others stood silent like ghostly house appliances. Metal racks full of cleaning bottles and bleach containers hugged every other concrete pylon throughout the place. At the far end there was a room where orange prison clothes hung on hooks attached to automatic tracks along the ceiling.

I took a deep breath.

I stood staring down the line of metal equipment.

My eyes darted back and forth under my shades.

".........."

My metal arms flexed in....and relaxed out.

I slowly walked forward.

Right foot.

Left foot.

I dragged Myrkblade down by my right side.

The wooden tip scraped quietly...gratingly against the cold concrete floor below.

I breathed in gently.

I glanced left.

Metal racks. Driers. Pylons.

I breathed out gentler.

I glanced right.

Washers. A solid, opaque wall. Paper instructions on the wall.

"........"

Underneath the hum of the occasional working machine or two, I felt nothing more than the echoes of my own two feet.

I shuffled ahead.

Slow.

Undaunting.

Quiet.

"......................"

My black eyes blinked.

I felt....a flutter of my long black hair against my neck. My bandanna's ends twisted a bit.

"....."

I came to a stand-still.

I barely breathed.

I slowly....slowly....slowly turned my head to look around.

"......"

Nothing but empty Laundromat.

The steady hum.

The white shapes....the white shapes....the white shapes.....

"......."

The white shapes suddenly had drifting shadows.

"?????"

I looked straight ahead.

A hanging flashbulb that wasn't swinging back and forth was swinging back and forth now.

My black eyes widened.

The bulb swung back.

Flash!!

It swung forward.

A glare.

It swung back.

Flash!

It swung forward.

A glare.

It swung back.

My eyes twitched.

Flash!!

_Pink..._

"!!!!"

CHIIING!!!

I raised Myrkblade just as--

--_cat eyes._

"HAAAAAAA!!"

CL-CLANK!!!

A pink glowed hand struck my blade.

I slid back from the impact two feet.

I gritted my teeth.

I pushed forward.

SWOOOSH!!

A nimble shadow in gothic-pretty-attire back-flipping, sliding backwards across the floor. Pink hair. Pink eyes. Pink hands outstretched--

"HAAAAA!!!"

Two hot beams of fuchsia searing towards my head.

I tilted backwards by a back-breaking sixty degrees.

FWOOOOSH!!!

The energy bands grazed my nose and bangs as they soared overhead.

And--

---padding feet.

_Platform shoes....._

I twirled Myrkblade in front of me.

CL-CLANK!!!

I blocked two stabbing hands of pink.

"HAAA!!"

FLASH!!!

A hex bolt at my feet flew.

I backflipped, handstood on my metal wrist, and vaulted myself upwards by one hand. Spiraling up vertically I deflected two more blasts and clung to the ceiling via murking boots.

Panting...I watched an upside down Jinx run towards me, jump, bounce off a pylon, flip till she was at my level and angle and—SWOOSH—jump kick towards my face.

FWOOSH!!! I teleported so that she flew through me.

I materialized down to the floor in a panting crouch.

At the same time, Jinx's jumpkick planted her against the body of a washing machine. With a pulse of pink she vaulted herself of the machine—denting its white exoskeleton—and backflipped towards me with two streaking wrists of pink. "HAA-AAA!!"

I rolled to the side.

CL-CLANK!! Her hexing hands stuck into the floor.

I jumped up to my feet, ran up the side of a pylon, backflipped, and sailed down at her neck with Myrkblade whistling—SWIIIIISH!!!

She rolled underneath my swing.

CLANK!!

Sparks flew from my blade as she twirled up like a ballerina, spun, and ended with a huge hex bolt flung towards my center.

FLASH!!!

I held Myrkblade in two hands horizontally.

CLANG!!!

The hex bolt exploded around me.

Gritting my teeth, I pierced through the pink splash, twirled Myrkblade, and charged the girl.

SLASH!!!

She jumped back as my sword got nothing but drier. CRACK!!!

SLASH!!!

She ducked. Myrkblade ripped the top of a washer to shreds. RIIIP!! SPLOOSH!!!

SLASH!!

She blurred to the side with a haze of pink. CLINK!! Myrkblade got stuck into a concrete pylon. I tried to yank it out--

WHAM!!!

A platform shoe slammed into my ribcage.

"!!!"

WHUMP!! I landed sideways against a humming washer.

I gritted my teeth and glanced out the left corner of my shades to see Jinx sprinting towards me and swinging both fists held together as one human sledge-hammer. "RGHHH!!!"

With a gasp I leapt up onto the washer and kicked the open-latch loose with my heel. CLANK!!! Water and wet laundry flew out. SPLOOSH!!!

"!!!!" Jinx slid across the slippery concrete and toppled over the door of the washer. "Oof!!"

I held my breath, leapt over her, swung with an arm hooked around the pylong, yanked Myrkblade out—CRACK!!—and charged the girl's rear with a serrated twirl of my weapon. SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Jinx set her body upright and reverse-kicked me with a platform shoe.

WHUMP!!!

I winced and stumbled back.

Hissing, the cat-eyed sorceress spun around around. She raised her right arm in a fist. CHIIIING!!! Before my eyes, a burning psionic blade of pink formed at twenty-four-inches of flickering length off the end of her wrist.

"......," I blinked.

_That's a new trick....._

"HAAAA!!" she lunged at me with the pink serration.

"!!!" I barely blocked with Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!

Sparks showered as pink met wood.

I stepped backwards down a line of metal racks and driers.

"HAA!! HA!! HAAA-AAA!!" Jinx shouted as she swung the pink blade of hex repeatedly at my retreating figure.

CLANK!! CL-CLANG!!! SMACK!!!

I gritted my teeth and sought a chance to parry.

When I found it...I found it....

SWOOOOSH!!! I jabbed forward with all my might.

Jinx held her breath and twirled at the last second. SLIIIINK!!! Myrkblade slit a cut in her dark-purple tunic, but didn't break blood. She gritted her teeth and struck down hard with her pink blade against mine.

CLANK!!!

Myrkblade was forced into the floor and my lunge with it.

Jinx then slid her fuchsia blade up my right forearm.

I held my breath, teleported in a blink of steam and materialized so that I was positioned with my left arm gripping Myrkblade this time.

CL-CLANK!! Jinx's blade ricocheted off my metal wrist.

I head-butted her chest.

WHUMP!!

"!!!" she teetered back.

I yanked Myrkblade out from the ground, tossed it into my right hand, twirled it, and stabbed forward.

SLASH!!!

Jinx's pink head ducked.

STAB!!!

I broke apart two bottles of bleach.

Jinx snaked to the side.

I swung my sword at her figure.

SLASH!!!

She cartwheeled out of the way as my sword ripped an entire metal wrack in half. CRASH!!!

Jinx finished her cartwheel, stood up straight, and held her bladed wrist over her head as I came down on her gain.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

I pressed the full length of Myrkblade into her and her figure.

She struggled, shook, and strained all over as I pressed the sword into her magical blade.

I sweated.

She sweated.

The appliances hum and shook all around us.

Our pink and black eyes watered from the fumes of the spilt bleach nearby.

I shifted a foot forward and pressed more of my weight into her.

Jinx squealed. "Nnnnnghhh!!" Her teeth gnashed as she freed her left arm. CHIIIIING!!!

".......," I relented on some of my pressure.

Jinx now had a flickering-pink blade in both wrists.

She took a deep breath, and exploded up and at me with both flickering blades lunching. "HAAAA!!!"

The two hex-swords burned on either side of my ears.

I sweatdropped and flipped back just as Jinx scissor-swung the blades through where my torso and neck just were. SW-SWISH!!!

I landed from my flip and lunged at her.

She crossed her blades and blocked my sword.

CLANK!!!

I pressed into her.

She pressed back, yelled, and uncrossed her blades.

SWOOOSH!!

I was shoved back. Jinx shrieked and swung, jabbed, and lunged at me alternating her two new magical possessions. SW-SWOOSH!! CL-CLANK!! CLANK!! CLANG!! SWOOSH—CLANK!!!

I deflected the best that I could. Two tiny blades versus one ravenous one. I looked for an opportunity to take advantage of her weakening fight. When she offset her balance so much as once, I swiftly swung upwards from a low position and forced her to block awkwardly against that diagonal point. CLANK!!!

I then spun opposite of where I last swung my sword and produced a high-kick into the side of Jinx's cranium.

WHAP!!!

"Ugh!!!" she stumbled sideways.

I spun around, leaned back, twirled Myrkblade, and jabbed forward with all my might.

Jinx somehow recovered, blocked, and slid the length of her left pink blade down my sword till her wrist met my hilt.

We were almost nose to nose.

"HAAA!!" she shouted and flew her right blade at me.

"....," I gritted my teeth.

SWOOOSH-GRIP!!!!

Jinx gasped.

".....," I glared.

I had my metal hand gripping her left hex blade. With such a hold and my Myrkblade keeping her at bay, the two of us were locked limb-to-limb.

Jinx's cat eyes blinked.

"........," I responded.

She frowned.

Her head tilted down.

CHIIIIING!!!

"????" I glanced below us.

A third pink blade formed at the end of her foot inside her platform shoe.

"!!!!!" I gasped.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

In slow motion I let go of her two wrists and tilted back...back...back ...back...so that the warbling heat of Jinx's 'ankle blade' barely grazed the tip of my nose and angled itself off the twitching skin of my left-turned face. Murk was coursing through my body and only by smoke power alone could I contain an eighty-degree backwards lunge from alignment with the ceiling without falling for even that briefest of seconds alone.

Time resumed just as soon as I swept one leg out and let loose a heavy pulse of smoke through my blade. FLASH!!!

WHAP!! Both my right foot and the murk pulse exploded into Jinx's body and propelled her into a crazy-looking horizontal spin. She landed haphazardly into the side of three driers in a row, denting their fronts. CL-CLANG!!!!

THWUMP!!! I finally fell on my back...gasping for air.

"...."

"...."

A beat.

She jumped up. "Nnngh!!"

I jumped up. "!!!"

She spun at me with two arm blades burning and one ankle blade searing the air. SW-SW-SWISH!!!

I blocked vertically with Myrkblade. CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Jinx continued to spin, flip, spiral, and throw her body towards me. Every single lunge she made was swinging a hex blade. Every backwards step she took was uppercutting with her ankle sword. Every time she so much as danced past me, serrations of wrist-situated flickering ripped towards me.

CL-CL-CLANK!!! I deflected and deflected and deflected. She pushed me back towards the hung forest of orange prison clothes.

"HAAA!!" she swung a pink blade at my head. SLASH!!!

I ducked, loosing a few strands of hair. I gritted my teeth and took a chance by kneeing her in the soft gut.

WHUMP!!!

She bent over.

I spun, let out a silent scream, and kicked her hard in the chest with my left boot.

THWUMP!!

She flew back from the impact and contacted a concrete pylon behind her. Before she had a chance to fall, she stabbed her ankle blade and her left wrist-blade into the wall of concrete. CLAMP!! CLANK!! She dissolved the pink sword of her right wrist into oblivion and flung a hexbolt at me from where she hung up above. "HAAAA!!!"

I gasped and backflipped the blast.

FWOOSH!!

She launched two more from where she clung to the wall.

FLASH!! FLASH!!!

I didn't land on the ground—where the hexes went. CRACK!!! Instead, I grabbed onto a hanging orange suit, rolled along the hanging track like an upside down roller coaster, swung around the train of coats, and leapt off in jump-kick towards the girl.

She dissolved her other wrist-blade and her ankle-blade in time to jump down.

CRACK!!!!

I smashed part of the pylon's frame apart as I jump-kicked murkingly through it. I landed in an awkward slide across the floor. I saw my body in the reflection of a washer's glass door. I thusly saw Jinx's charging body reflected behind me and charging a hex bolt.

"!!!" I stabbed backwards, deflecting the blow half-blindly.

CL-CLANG!!!

Jinx's momentum carried her in a forward-flip over my body.

I blindly slashed Myrkblade upward.

She miraculously out-twirled my slash and landed with her platform shoes planted firmly against the wall. She kicked off, twisted her body about in mid-air, and slam-dove into me.

WHUMP!!!

We went twirling. The smell of sweat and strawberries. I flipped up to my feet upright.

She flipped up to her platform shoes upright.

We were nose to nose.

Breath to breath.

A charge of pink.

A charge of murk.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

And then—

_**CLAMP!!!!!!**_

Something cold....something heavy.....something lifeless clinging to my metal wrist.

"......."

And clinging to Jinx's right wrist.

"........" My black eyes narrowed.

_A pair of handcuffs._

Thick, black handcuffs.

A blinking light in the center.....

I instantly twirled Myrkblade and readied it to sever the thing clean through.

SWOOOOOSH--

Jinx leaned forward with a scowl_: "__**BOMB!!!"**_

.......

My slashing blade ended a mere centimeter from snapping through the chain link of our fresh handcuffs.

"......," I looked at Jinx.

She panted, but firmly managed to say: "Not all of Slade's carbonite bombs were entirely found, ghost boy...," her pink cat eyes narrowed. "There is still one left. One devastating carbonite explosive is left somewhere in this pathetic City....."

"........," I glared.

"And it's mine now. It's mine to control. It's mine to set off. It's mine to do with according to what I _please_!" she pointed at the handcuffs. "These shackles....Ghost Boy....if you unlock them, the bomb goes off. If you break them apart....the bomb goes off. If you so much as detach your prosthetic arm or teleport out from the handcuffs....the bomb goes off." A beat. She sneered: "If you even try to kill me....or kill yourself.......the bomb goes off."

"........."

"And the bomb will also go off if you don't do exactly what I say and when I say it....."

"........"

"Do you understand the situation, Ghost Boy??" Jinx grabbed me by the collar.

I didn't fight her.

She stared me menacingly up close. "I need you....and I need you badly.....or else......."

"........."

"Got it??"

_God, I hate you so much......._

"We're going for a little trip........will you follow me?"

"........"

"I said....will you FOLLOW ME?!?!?!"

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAWWWWWWR!!!!!

SPLORCH!!!!

Half of the Titans were covered in hideous goo.

Beast Boy flinched and ducked for cover as Plasmus' slimy discharge flew across the shattered courtyard.

Starfire shrieked and tried to melt the pelting liquid away.

Raven produced black shields and gave Cyborg and Robin the space they needed to prepare a sonic cannon and a handful of freezing discs--

"Now, Rae!!" Cyborg shouted. "Now!!!"

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!" Raven cried out as she exploded a bulb of black towards Plasmus' pliable hide.

SPLORCH!!!

A deep hole appeared in the slimy beast's body.

RAAAWWWWR!!!! The green-eyed monstrosity twitched and convulsed.

Cyborg and Robin took aim for the slimey cater.

SW-SW-SWIIIIISH!!!

ZAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAP!!!!

Robin's freezing discs converged with Cyborg's sonic blast.

_**FLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!!!!**_

Chunks of ice exploded inside out from the slimey core of Plasmus. The creature groaned and twitched for a few lasting moments it took for the glacier to form around its purple body....and then it was still and dead solid.

Cyborg and Robin panted.

Starfire flew up. "Sh-Shall I do the honors??" The Tamaranian murmured.

Robin breathlessly saluted.

She nodded. Her eyes and hands glowed. "Rrrrrrgh....," she summoned a large starbolt and flung it dead-center onto Plasmus' frozen body. "RAAAAAUGH!!!"

FLASH!!!

_**CRAAAAAA-AAAAAACK!!!!**_

The slime monster shattered into a million crystalline pieces of purple....and in its center—lying in a bed of dry-ice steam—was a slumbering mutant of a human being. The sign of Plasmus' defeat.

Beast Boy let out a sigh of relief and shook some of the excess slime out of his green hair. Besides him, a puddle parted as Tempest stood covered in purple goo.

".........," the dark eyes of the Atlantean blinked under the moldy covering. "For once....," he sputtered. "....I wouldn't mind being dry."

Raven drifted by. "Stop being so fickle...," she droned.

"Oh....go play with Cyborg's off-switch."

"I heard that."

"I KNOW YOU DID!!!"

Beast Boy chuckled.

"Wait a second...," Cyborg spun around and gestured. "Is that everything?? Everyone??"

"What do you mean, dude?" Beast Boy groaned.

"Is that it, dawg???" Cyborg faced Robin. "Is that the fight??"

".......," Robin blinked under his mask.

".....," Raven's eyes thinned. "No."

Starfire gasped: "Look!!"

Everyone spun around.

"RRAAAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth roared as he grabbed tightly ahold of an entire wall of the prison courtyard and ripped it off its foundation. CRRRRRACK!!! The result was exposing three levels of twenty-five cells full of nearly one hundred and fifty gasping, helpless inmates. Gizmo ran up Mammoth's back, plopped himself down on the huge villain's shoulder, and aimed two poison gas canisters at the tiers full of trembling inmates.

"Here's the deal, you bug barfers!!! It's been a fun game of beat-the-crap-out-of-ourselves-for-no-apparent-reason...but this day is too great to pass up without some grand, awe-inspiring escape!! So unless you want me to test some brand new biological warefare on these crummy, life-sized lab rats...you're gonna let my steroid pal and I walk out scott free!!"

"Yeah!! Heh heh!!" Mammoth folded his arms. "Scottish Free!!"

Gizmo grunted. "Leave the threats to me...noogy-nuts!!"

"Uhm....."

Robin clenched his teeth. "If you so much as even try to—"

WHURRR-CHTING!!! Gizmo aimed the poison grenade launchers at the inmates further.

The men gasped and muttered in fear.

Raven held her calm.

Starfire bit her nails.

Beast Boy wrung his hands.

Tempest blinked. "So what?" he muttered. "They're only prisone—"

WHUMP!! Beast Boy elbowed him.

"Ow!! Sheesh! Okay!!"

"WELL?!?!" Gizmo cackled.

".........," Robin's fists tightened....then released.

A beat.

"Go....," Robin grunted.

Cyborg gasped. "B-But!!"

"GO!!!" the Boy Wonder reiterated.

Cyborg shook.

"PLBLBLBLB!!! HA HA!! WIMPS!!" Gizmo shouted as Mammoth ran a destructive path northwest and out of the prison courtyard through a gash in the wall. "Teen Titans....more like Teen Toddlers! HAHAHA!!!"

".........," Raven glanced at the others while the two villains were gone. "I can't believe we just did that."

Cyborg frowned. "Believe it." A beat. He sighed. He hung his head and glanced at Robin. "What now, man?"

Robin looked at the crooks and villains littering the courtyard...unconscious. He took a deep breath. A pause. His eyemask narrowed. "Noir....."

The other Titans glanced at each other nervously.

"Wh-Where's Noir???" the Titan Leader again remarked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look!!" Fang hissed as he pointed a human finger.

From the edge of the prison walls, he and Killer Moth glared across the forest landscape surrounding.

They saw Mammoth and Gizmo charging off towards freedom....uncontested.

"They're getting away!! If the Titans let them go...that must mean the bad guys did a good number on 'em after all!!" Killer Moth said.

"Well...I ain't waiting any longer...," Fang stood up straight and scurried down the buildingside. "Last one out is a rotten abdomen!!"

"Hey!! Wait up!!" Killer Moth climbed down after him.

"Listen, ya old fart....just because we worked with each other before—"

"At least help me find Kitten!! As pathetic a whelp as she is, I'll need her to get a good footing again!!"

"Rgghhhh...."

"Think about it...you owe me."

"I owe _you_?!?!"

"Yes."

"Pfft...fine...whatever...."

"Shh!! Less talking and more scurrying."

"Steal the words right out of my mandibles."

Separate or not....four villains escaped successfully that morning....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Down here, y'all!! I got his signal!!"

"Noir??!"

"Yoo-hoo!! Noir??!"

"Please respond!! We are your friends!! Are you damaged??"

"Shhh.....," Raven hissed. "All of you. He could be in danger."

Robin held a hand out as they all entered the Laundromat of the prison basement. He leaned in towards Cyborg. "Where's his reading at?"

Cyborg whispered. "Just twenty feet up ahead."

"........," the Boy Wonder crept ahead. "Stay here....for now."

The Titans watched silently.

Robin paced slowly down the line of dented appliances and shattered metal racks. He looked around...shuffled about...and eventually found something. He knelt down beyond sight for a second or two......then stood up with something in his hand.

"?????" the Titans craned their necks to see.

A beat.

Robin glanced their way. He motioned with his head for them to enter.

FWOOOSH!! Starfire was first there, flying in a streak. She gasped. "Noir....."

Robin held out the Sixth Titan's communicator. Abandoned. Beeping...giving the signal.

"Aww man....I don't like the looks of this. I don't like the looks of this!!" Cyborg pulled at hair he didn't have.

"Calm down...," Raven said. "Robin....does it look like he was the only one down here??"

"Nope....not at all...," the Boy Wonder said.

"Dude....how do you know??" Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips.

Robin bent over and picked up a scrap of pink cloth in his grasp.

Starfire's lips parted. "It....It was her...."

"It was....," Raven glared.

Tempest blinked. "Uhm....is this all supposed to mean something??"

"Jinx...."

"J-Jinx??" Tempest scratched his head. He smirked. "And just who's this Jinx when she's at home?"

"That's just it...," Robin muttered. "She's not at home."

"And Noir?"

A beat.

"He must be with her....," Robin said. He scratched his chin.

"Dearest negativities....," Starfire held her hands together and murmured. "What is transpiring here?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

Plant!!!

Jinx and I landed from hopping over the tall prison walls.

She ran ahead of me.

Yank!!!

I was pulled by the handcuffs.

I winced and kept up with her. I looked over my shoulder at the police barricades strobing around the prison from a distance.

"Keep up with me, Ghost Boy! I mean it!!" Jinx hissed.

I let out a shuddering breath.

_Robin.....Raven....Cyborg.....please understand....._

"And no looking back!! Got it???" she squealed.

I frowned, faced her way, and ran alongside the pink sorceress into the woods....


	145. Double Jinx part 2

**145. Double Jinx part 2**

"_This is Marilyn Chen of JCN Broadcasting with a special bulletin. At approximately seven o'clock this morning, a gigantic explosion ripped through the heart of the City Prison North of the industrial district. Details are sketchy at this time, but according to police rumors from the site the explosion has damaged an entire building face of the Prison's Northernmost structure. Such a building is where the infamous 'Omega Wing' of the City Prison is located, the home for the most ruthless and dangerous criminals in this region. Shortly following the explosion, police rushed onto the scene and the Teen Titans answered the call. The heroes rushed in and seemingly did battle with dozens of escaped criminals of identities unknown over a thirty-minute-period and........Oh wait.......Th-This just in......It would appear that five criminals are reported to have escaped the prison during the explosion and ensuing melee. According to reports, Baran Flinders, Mikron O'Jeneus, Drury Walker, Jean Jenkins, and Franz Durk are missing at large. Better known, their aliases are Mammoth, Gizmo, Killer Moth, Jinx, and Fang. Other reports from the battle scene are still sketchy. The Titans and police appear to be in one piece...but there is an estimation of thirty deaths involved in the horrific blast. We'll bring you more on this startling event as soon as it arrives upon the threshold of JCN Broadcasting. Please...stay tuned...."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ambulances, fire trucks, and rescue vehicles drove in and out and parked and formed lines of brimming, emergency activity. Medics, guards, police officer, and even members of the national guard filed in and out of the prison building and around the surrounding parking lot where miniature health stations and a MASH were set up. Prisoners and guards alike were treated for their wounds from the explosion and villainous rampage. A few paces off, a scuffed-up T-Car resided besides the huddled Titans. Commissioner Decker, his lieutenant, and a few other officers gathered at the scene...conversing with Robin. Beast Boy and Starfire were catching their breath while Cyborg inspected his car and Raven bent over a sitting Tempest, healing a few of his bruises with glowing hands of gray. The Atlantean winced, but braved the discomfort as he sat still and let the dark girl administer to him. He glanced over with dark eyes at the conversation at hand.

"So you suspect that Jinx indeed WAS in the middle of all this??" Decker scratched his head.

Robin nodded. "Or at least that was my impression from Mumbo Jumbo. I could have sworn Mad Mod gave off the same impression. Shortly following the explosion emanating from Jinx's room, the supervillains of the Omega Wing were freed and somehow granted control of their old weapons and instruments of crime." The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed as he seemed to think aloud: "To be honest....many of those weapons had to have been duplicated from scratch to have ever fallen into the escapees' hands....being that the only known surviving devices of those in Prison are either in state holding or the Titan Tower's evidence room."

"And there's been no robbery from the City warehouses," Decker muttered.

Cyborg looked up from polishing his dented hood. "Nor any punk slipping into the Tower!! Not with my defense matrix up!!"

"Which begs the question....," Robin folded his arms. "Even if Jinx set off the explosion in her cell....how could she have found or duplicated things such as Mad Mod's cane? Gizmo's tech? Johnny Rancid's motorcycle?"

Beast Boy rubbed his head. "Or Mammoth's steroids...."

"......," Decker took a deep breath.

The lieutenant leaned in. "Uhm....sorry if this sounds stupid.....but....do Jinx's powers even allow her to do that sort of thing from inside the prison? I thought she was merely a telekinetic."

"Hardly a telekinetic...," Raven finished healing Tempest's arm. He flexed it as she stood up and shuffled over by Robin's side and faced the officers. "She wields hex fields."

"'Hex fields'??"

"Energetic manifestations of the ties of fate," Raven droned. "If you can imagine cause and effect being a tangible thing subject to manipulation. Jinx has the ability to bend reality to her will...but with limitations. It's not uncommon for her to weaken a building structure, resist gravity to some degree, and cause tremors to occur within the earth. But random explosions........long-distance transportation of high-tech material......that's out of her league. At least....to the best of our knowledge."

"Though...to be honest...," Cyborg shrugged from the T-Car. "...we don't know an awful lot about her."

"Only that she was forced into being a bad girl by Slade...," Beast Boy grumbled.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Raven rolled her eyes.

"Uhm.....B-Beast Boy....," Starfire smiled with a betraying sweatdrop. "Jinx has been....m-most ruthless in her attempts to annihilate us both in the past and past-past....."

"I don't just think she's another two-bit villain!" Beast Boy waved his arms. "Come on, dudes!! You know Slade!! He used her!! What's to say that Jinx wouldn't have become good or something hadn't he and Dagger brainwashed her?!?!"

"Uhm.....," Decker raised a finger and his eyes narrowed. "Pardon me.....but.....what the Hell is the emerald muppet talking about??"

"It was in my report on the death of Slade," Robin gestured with a glove. "Jinx was motivated into becoming the Third Apprentice of Slade's by a brainwashing technique....supposedly funded by Dagger."

"You don't say....."

Robin nodded. "There're no physical details, of course. But Slade made it clear that—in some fashion or another—Jinx was 'prepared' ahead of time to be his apprentice by a fake memory of two long-lost sisters being planted into her brain."

"And what's to say she was totally wrong to believe that, dude?!?"

Robin ignored Beast Boy. "Anyways....supposedly it was out of a motive to find siblings that didn't even exist that Jinx ever first severed herself from H.I.V.E.'s iron fist way back at the Killer Moth incident at the Westhaven Opera House."

"And when Slade's ship nearly blew up with all of us on it---," Beast Boy cackled, "---it was Jinx who had a change of heart and saved our asses by switching off the self-destruct sequence with her hex!!"

Raven ran a hand over her face and sighed.

"Stop jumping ahead, man...," Cyborg said.

Beast Boy blushed.

Tempest raised an eyebrow.....thoroughly confused.

"Regardless....," Robin caught Decker's and his lieutenant's attention again. "...Jinx is a dangerous, self-absorbed criminal. Her history proves it more than disproves it."

"Though from what the prison files say....," the lieutenant flashed a manila folder and blinked. "...she was on perfect behavior for the last three months. She followed every command that the guards gave her. She never talked back. She hardly ever talked at all!!"

"Still doesn't change the fact that she's presently causing possible harm to Noir....," Raven uttered firmly.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "Yeah....that....."

".......," Beast Boy hung his head.

Starfire floated over. "Robin....tell us....is there any other possibility? Do your detective skills truly dictate that she has him in custody somehow?"

"What other deduction would you prefer, Star?"

".........."

Robin took a breath. "The shattered debris in the basement...the scuff marks on the floor...the sword strikes in the washers and driers.....they had quite the nasty fight in there. But there was no blood. No sign of a significant injury. Yet when we got there, Noir's communicator was on the floor."

"And the only time he wouldn't have his communicator with him would be....," Cyborg muttered.

"If he was forced out of possessing it...," Robin said.

"Or dead," Raven droned.

Starfire gasped.

Beast Boy clenched his fists.

Tempest looked at him.

"Heh.....Y-You don't think he's run out on us again, do you??" the changeling uttered.

Tempest glanced at the other Titans.

"No way, man....," Cyborg smirked. "...besides....even if Noir was nuts enough to pull a Wyldecarde again...we'd know now."

"How so, dude?"

"Our skulls would be smashed in."

"Oh. Right. Heheheheheh!!"

"Stop laughing!!" Starfire bit, stamping her foot in the ground. "Do you not realize that our friend may be in jeopardy??"

"You think I'm not worried, Star??" Beast Boy pointed at himself. He looked Robin's way. "Robin....what are we going to do now?!?! I know we got a handful of escaped prisoners and stuff....but Noir needs our help, dude!!"

Cyborg nodded. "We should be fanning out. Mammoth should be fairly easy to catch up with more than anyone."

"But with Gizmo pulling his reins...," Raven interjected, "...he might actually prove a camouflaged foe."

"Nnnngh......true....," Cyborg exhaled.

"We can try searching for Fang," Robin said. He clenched his jaw. "Heavy emphasis on the word 'try'."

"Heh....tell me about it," Beast Boy leaned back. "Ever tried possessing the gloves of God and reaching into a continental haystack to pick up a single daddy-long-legs, Commish?"

"Uhm....," Decker blinked.

"Killer Moth will be a dead giveaway wherever he may be," Robin said. "If we spread out now....we may actually catch Mammoth or Killer Moth or maybe both. Something tells me that they could provide info on Gizmo and Fang respectively if caught and interrogated.................just right."

"Right...," Raven smirked ever so slightly.

"And what of Jinx?" Starfire blinked. "And our friend?"

"That will take the concentration of all our energies...," Robin said. "Until then....let's look for whatever escapees we can find in and around the City. We'll just have to hope that Noir has the strength to endure on his own until we're capable of catching up with him...whatever situation he's in." Robin marched over towards his R-Cycle.

"Hey....," Cyborg blinked and gestured. "What made you so sure he could take on 'whatever' by himself??"

Robin stood by his ride and slipped on a helmet. He glanced at the other Titans. "Since I promoted him...."

They all looked surprised.

Robin saddled his bike and pointed a gloved hand. "Robin....Beast Boy...take flight over the northern forests and look for any suspicious runners. Cyborg...take the T-Car for a drive around the City Downtown. They might try hiding under our nose. Raven....do a basic fly-by of the City. Tempest....check the sewers and Bayside docks."

"What about you, dude?" Beast Boy asked.

Robin switched the cycle on and knocked the kickstand up. "I've got a hunch...and I'm going to track down my hunch at sixty-miles-per hour."

"Ah....but of course. Enjoy going Rambo, man."

The Boy Wonder looked the officers' way. "Think you can hold the fort here, Decker?"

"Consider it held," Decker grumbled. "The damn coffee truck should be here in about an hour."

"And so it is....," Robin flipped his helmet visor down and gripped the steering. _VRRRRM!!! VRRRM!!_ "Let's do this."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My shaded gaze stared at the platform shoes shuffling a few feet ahead of me.

I panted and scurried along.

My left arm stretched up and outward...connected to the frantically pumping right limb of Jinx.

She led the two of us up a steep hill just past a green grove outside of the Prison. A thin line of trees announced the start of a forest just beyond the hill's steep crest.

"Stop lagging behind...," she grunted.

A beat.

My left arm went taut.

She frowned and looked back down at me with glaring, pink eyes. "I said....**stop lagging behind**!!!"

I gritted my teeth, sweat, and tried to keep up with her on the sharp ascent. I collected myself by her right side and rushed to match her pace. It was a difficult feat...considering my 'enthusiasm'.

"Remember....I've got Slade's last bomb, Ghost Boy...," Jinx panted as she scrambled up a foot or two ahead of me. She was practically using all fours to claw her way up the hill. Her petite fingers gripped soil and blades of grass. "It's remotely powered by these handcuffs. And these handcuffs—in turn—are trained to continually detect the functioning of my biological processes. If I stop ticking....then the bomb _starts_ ticking. For all you know...it can be anywhere or at any place. But I'll assure you of this....the carbonite is compact and _deadly_. It will hurt a lot of people if it goes off....perhaps even your friends. Unless you don't pull any funny stuff and try to hurt me.....or get away. Every second scratches the inside of the trigger, Ghost Boy. Do what I say....and everything will be your so-called definition of 'safe'."

I bit my lip. My black eyes glared under my shades.

"And don't give me that look!" she hissed. "I need you....I need you and only you for what I-I must do.....don't run off....or something's gonna blow off. Got it?"

".........."

"Yeah....you be _quiet_," she sneered, turned her head around, and put the extra effort into climbing up the hill.

I took a deep breath. My heart pounded heavily in my chest. My gaze fell and I stared at her platform shoes again.

_Why....?_

She yanked and pulled at me.

I kept up the best that I could.

_Why is Jinx doing this??_

I nearly slipped, but gripped a right-handful of grass and pulled myself up hurriedly.

_I thought Jinx had changed. I thought she had renounced Slade. Her prison records.....w-weren't they perfect? What was it that Beast Boy said after one of his trips to see her? I......I-I can't remember. I must have blocked it out. Cuz Jinx...she....."_

Silence.

Jinx panted quietly as she urged herself upwards. If I was lucky—perhaps—she would pass out and I could contact my friends somehow for help.

_But would they understand??_

I blinked under my shades.

_Then again.....what is there to understand?? The prison explosion. The escapees. Their prop weapons...._

I craned my neck. I got another good look at Jinx. She was adorned in her gothic outfit of purple and black...a throw-back to her glory days with H.I.V.E. and Mammoth and Gizmo. Even down to the platform shoes, she looked like the incarnation of Jinx prior to the Third Apprenticeship with Slade. I saw the tiny tear in the back of her left midriff....from where Myrkblade grazed her during our underground confrontation.

_What is she doing? What does she want? And what does she want with me?_

I sighed and slowed my pace to carefully climb up a steep incline. Roots of a tree hanging off a dirty cleft poked at my ribcage as I snaked up after Jinx.

I looked up and saw something slipping out of the front of Jinx's blouse. Something at the end of the chain. Heart-shaped. Spinning and reflecting the glint of the early morning sun.

I blinked.

_The locket._

A beat.

_Her sisters....._

I narrowed my eyes.

_But I thought......Slade......._

We rounded up the edge of the cleft of dirt and started to enter a thin forest atop the earthen mound.

_What is going on here?? Jinx.....I-I thought Jinx had given up on everything. Then why is she kidnapping me? Why is she making a bomb threat? Why......_

My heart froze a bit.

I took a deep breath.

_I suppose that some people....s-some people are just __**born**__ evil._

We got up on two feet and ran into the woods.

_Right??_

I felt my right hand into a side pocket for razor sharp playing cards.

There were none.

I sighed with relief.

_Right........_

"We're.....here.....," Jinx panted. She grinned drunkenly as she slowed to a breathless pace in the middle of the forest. "Great Hecate......we're here...."

"????" I glanced at her...then at the dense woods surrounding me. Tiny scattered rays of light danced down from the filtered sky above.

"Pulsade, you can come out now!!" Jinx hollered.

Echoes.

Silence.

A beat.

I raised an eyebrow.

Jinx regathered her breath and uttered: "Leslie??!! Leslie...I'm here!! Show yourself!!!"

I heard something that sounded like a groan. It betrayed the presence of...a figure high above. Only, it wasn't a figure. I glanced up and saw a silhouette of translucency perched on a tree and stretching something out palm first---

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

"!!!!!!!"

My eyes burned into blindness with a fiery sheet of pure white. I clutched my right hand over my face and toppled over, nearly yanking Jinx to the ground.

"Leslie!!" Jinx gasped. "What are you—wait a second!!"

Ch-Chting!!

Plop!! _Someone dropping down...._

"You know better, Jean."

Footsteps toward me.

Plant!!

I felt the cold kiss of a thin gun barrel pressed up into the scar of my neck.

I swallowed nervously.

"Nobody hears my real name and lives to tell it." The barrel pressed deeper into my skin. "Mute or not."

"Let him live."

"Rubbish!! I'll—"

"LET HIM LIVE, Leslie!!" Jinx said firmly. I felt a tug on my left arm as her hand shifted over and obviously gripped the stranger's aim of the point blanc weapon. "We need him."

A beat.......

The cold barrel lowered from my throat.

I exhaled long and slow.

"Why the bloody Hell would we need him??" the stranger's voice uttered. "The three of us made a plan. I would help you escape the blast and the prison. "J" would oversee your journey and provide the accomplice. And you would reach your destination ALONE, Jean...."

"I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I had to bring him along. He can help me, Leslie. He can help _us_."

"How in God's name could he?? I've heard stories of the Wyldecarde....but he's not one of us."

I clenched my fists and squinted into the hot blindness.

_Don't call me Wyldecarde....._

"Have you ever fought him before, Pulsade? Huh? Have you? Do you know what it's like to have the continent's strongest criminals—Slade and Dagger—on your side and still be beaten single-handedly by this punk over and over and over and over? Even before I joined Slade, Ghost Boy here could beat my face in. That's not something I've come across everyday in my life. And you know what that means?"

"You've gone totally daft?"

"No....he's my _equal_, Pulsade. He's my equal."

"....."

I panted into the darkness. Sweating. Blind.

"Where we're headed with project counter-Aviary...," Jinx rambled, "....I'm going to be a force to reckon with. But with him by my side...I'll be twice as strong...and I'll have the element of surprise at the destination. Please....we can do this with him. He won't be a liability. I've made sure of it."

"........"

I twitched as white spots danced painfully across my shaded black eyes.

The stranger's voice uttered: "Hmmmm.....you and your equal, huh?"

"That's right."

A beat.

"Heh....," the British accent chuckled. "Fancy that. A double Jinx. Twice the punch and half the estrogen......I-I think."

I frowned blindly.

_What the Hell is going on here??_

Pulsade??

Counter-Aviary?

A beat.

_I'm Jinx's equal?!?!?!?!_

"Just how do you expect him to be a good bloke? I see those handcuffs.......What? You plan on lugging him around to death?"

"It's the bomb, Leslie."

"The bomb?"

"You know....the _bomb_???"

A beat.

"Ah....yes.....Slade's little leftover treasure," the voice remarked. A chuckle. "Quite ruthless of you, Jean."

"Shut up. At least _he_ knows better. One false move and he and his friends will regret it forever."

"Speaking of his mates, will those nasty Titans be on our arses now that we have one of their flock?"

"I'm going to move too fast for them," Jinx's voice said. A beat. "_We're_ going to move too fast for them."

I clenched my teeth under my lips.

"Well...you certainly seem ready to spin the world around. Remember what we're here to do, Jean. Remember what _I_ agreed to give my services towards. We must treasure counter-Red-Aviary above all else. The Titan's samurai here is of little concern to us."

"Don't tempt me to make things worse, Leslie."

".....I-I beg your pardon?"

"I.....I'm glad to have escaped the explosion and all...but....," there was a sudden shaking to Jinx's voice. I felt her right wrist tremble and wring her other hand. "....but....th-they're all going to tear me apart now."

"........"

"The explosion. The escaped convicts. They're all going to think that I....th-that I....."

"Jean, love....that was going to happen regardless of anything. The fact of the matter is....we got you out alive. And now that you're alive, you can help us in tracking down the source of everything."

"I know....I-I know....it's just that......"

A lingering pause.

I sensed footsteps. The stranger came closer.....to Jinx, not me.

"What is it?"

"I.....I-I was so scared......I was so scared, L-Leslie. I barely made it out of there. It was hard enough to ensnare Ghost Boy here. I....I-I wanted to see you. I wanted to know you were with me."

"I _was_ with you, Leslie. I oversaw your escape. So did "J" through the computer systems. You know that."

"But you were all so damn _invisible_!!" Jinx shuddered. Her right arm trembled even more. "Ever...E-Ever since I left H.I.V.E. I can't help but shake this feeling of being alone. So very alone. B-But it's all my fault, Leslie. I....I-I should have stayed with you. I should have stayed with you after I left the Westhaven Incident. But S-Slade....he promised me so much. H-He promised me so m-much and I fell for it. I was so stupid. S-So vulnerable. You would h-have taken care of me but I g-gave in to that madman instead. I'm so sorry.....I-I'm so s-sorry...."

It was quite obvious to me through the shaking of the handcuffs and the hiccupping sounds coming from Jinx's voice that the pink girl was crying. I shifted uncomfortably where I stood...anchored to her.

I heard a sigh from the stranger. "Awww....Jean....what am I ever going to do with you?" A beat. The footsteps of Leslie/Pulsade drifted forward. "Come here...."

Jinx's right arm—and body—surged forward and she hugged the stranger desperately. Shaking. My left shoulder brushed up against a new set of arms encircling Jinx soothingly.

And so be it....it was around that time that the white wall of hot blindness peeled slowly away from my black eyes. Shadows came into focus. The trees....the leaves...the grounds....the bodies beside me. I saw shapes...and those shapes morphed into a tall, blonde teenager in a white jumpsuit and with her arms encircling a sobbing Jinx by my side. I saw the stranger stroke one hand in the small of Jinx's back and the other caress her hair gently. My first fuzzy sight of Pulsade would have rendered her as a compassionate friend in my black eyes...hadn't I noticed the conspicuously huge assault rifle leaning to her side and other tools of an assassin hanging off her utility belts.

"There there....," Pulsade/Leslie said. She leaned forward and gently kissed Jinx's forehead before continuing: "We're all in this together, Jean. One bloody cause for once. There's no backing out now. We need your strength as much as we need "J"'s fortitude and my finesse. Let us concentrate on what's at hand....and not things of the past."

"I'm s-s-so sorry, Leslie. It's all my f-fault that you're in this...."

"I'm in this because I chose to be. In the meantime, let's worry about other partners in the project who aren't quite in this as a matter of choice." That uttered, Pulsade shot a painfully cold glare of blue from under her blonde bangs.

I shivered, but tried not to show it. From all she knew, I was still 'blind' from the light pulse. I had shades on—as always—so I kept my head tilted partially away from the two so that it didn't look like I was staring at them. But perhaps it seemed a little too obvious. Pulsade appeared to be an expert.....at whatever she did. She would have noticed if I was truly watching her and Jean.

But she didn't act upon it for some reason. And I became to realize that I was bearing witness to something hardly a soul (alive) had born witness to. Jinx the obnoxious witch was breaking down and Pulsade—a menacing gunwoman—was soothing another soul.

_I guess even villains have to cry at some time or another._

"........"

I bit my lip.

_What good is crying if you're born evil?_

I clenched my fists....then relaxed them.

I sighed....I hung my head.

_Titans......pl-please............find me......_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's R-Cycle cruised down the country road. The tops of trees on either side of the asphalt math blurred off his reflecting helmet. He gripped tightly to the handles....only momentarily freeing a gloved hand to switch on the communication device in his helmet.

"Titans. Report. Any luck in your search??"

"_When you say 'luck'...if you mean Jinx, then no, dawg. Complete washout."_

"You've been searching the downtown area, right?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yeah, man," Cyborg nodded to nothing as he slowly drove the T-Car down Main Street. He shot his human and red-glowing gaze down alleyways on either side. "The streets are practically empty too. I'm guessing the news reports of the prison explosion and escapees have really gotten the citizens all shaken up. I'm hardly seeing anyone leave their apartments and take to the streets."

_"If the streets are so empty, then that'd make it easier to spot something conspicuous."_

"I know, Robin!! But I'm getting nothing!! Not even on my thermal scans! I know it's possible for a villain or two to seek refuge in the City under our noses...but that doesn't seem to be happening today."

_"I stand beside Cyborg......"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven flew overhead. The tops of buildings and skyscrapers in the City drifted below.

Her blue cloak ruffled in the wind as she stared about with thin eyes.

"I've not seen a sign of any of the five escapees. And considering Mammoth's knack for destruction, Gizmo's knack for hacking, and Fang's knack for being disgusting.....there's a lot of explosive events that simply haven't _happened_. I think our crooks have learned a thing or two. Either they're hiding somewhere far below or they've left the City completely."

"_Which leads me to ask....Tempest? Any luck?"_

"_Uh....yeah....I have one question, Robin."_

"Go ahead."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest waded through the thick sewage of the underground pipe system. He gritted his teeth and glared icily through the interior of the tunnel as he lurched on ahead.

"For the first month I've been with the Titans...we've had about five missions and yet somehow I've been sent into the sewer system a dozen times!! Can someone....come down here with me and share the pain of the surface-dwellers' feces???"

_"Stop complaining, Tempest."_

"Be quiet, Raven," Tempest hissed. "I wasn't talking to you."

"............_..this is Robin still."_

Tempest blinked. He bit his lip. "Oh...um...s-sorry." A beat. "Has anyone ever told you two that you sound alike?"

"_No we don't."_

"Uh...yeah you do, Robin."

"......_..this is Raven."_

"Whatever!! Snkkktt—I'm finding nothing down here!!!! Sheesh....Poseidon almighty....the only creep I'd imagine harboring the insane inclination of making this dung-domain his habitat would be that Fluff guy!"

_"Fang."_

"Whatever, Raven."

"_Robin."_

"Nnnnnghhhh!!!!"

_"But you've got nothing on Fang, right dude?"_

Tempest took a deep breath and calmed down. "Right..."

"_Same here. And no sign of Jinx either."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And where Jinx is, Noir should probably be...," Beast Boy said. He was perched on the top of a tall tree overlooking the northern forests. He melodramatically scanned the horizon with a hand shading his brow. "Or better yet to say....where Jinx isn't, Noir isn't either."

"_You're still covering the forest?"_

"Yeah, Robin. And believe you me...if I saw something pink among all this green, I'd give a shout out," Beast Boy said. He sighed. "The dude's gone. Noir's long gone. Sheesh....I hope we find him and bail him out before...I dunno...Jinx force feeds him strawberries or makes him dress up as Princess Toadstool or something." A beat. "C-Could that really happen? Cuz I left my camera at home and—"

"_Proceed with the search."_

".....yeah, allright," Beast Boy smirked. He leapt off the treetop and morphed into a green falcon that continued circling above the region.

"_I have an inquiry, Robin."_

_"Go ahead, Star."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Tamaranian girl flew over mountainsides and lines of trees. With her green eyes she carefully studied the landscape below.

"You related to us earlier that you had a 'hunch' that could possibly assist in our search. Is that still true?"

"_It is, Star."_

"C-Could it help in securing our poor friend Noir?"

_"It's difficult to say at the moment. But it'll at least get us on the right track with some thing."_

"_Care to explain, dude?"_

"Yeah, man, we're all ears."

"Truly...we are all lobed and ready to listen!"

"......_ahem."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin throttled the motorcycle down the barren path.

"My thoughts have been on Mammoth and Gizmo. I think it's obvious by now that they're nowhere in the City. Furthermore....if they're trying to escape the City....I think I know how."

_"And what's that gotta do with Noir??"_

"This is the 'hunch' part," Robin said.

"_Oh. Here we go."_

Robin smirked some. "A while back...Jinx broke apart from H.I.V.E. This set her apart from Gizmo and Mammoth for obvious reasons."

"_Yeah man....she betrayed them!"_

"Anyways.....that was still a while back. And since then, all three of them have been in prison. If Gizmo and Mammoth have lost their ties to H.I.V.E. by now as a result of their prolonged distance in captivity.....then perhaps their animosity for Jinx will have lessened."

"_They might be more receptive to her if she would ask for help...."_

"Right, Raven. So if I'm to find Mammoth and Gizmo....I might possibly get a tie-in to Jinx. Possibly."

_"Just where would those two goons be at, anyhow?"_

"Somewhere that they could procure a means of escape through brute force and careful technological manipulation at the same time."

_"Huh??"_

"What else?" Robin said. "A freight train."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" a woman shrieked.

"RRRAAAUGH!!" Mammoth lifted and threw the concrete bench over his shoulders.

Citizens shrieked and ran off in multiple directions across the train depot.

SMASH!!!!

The bench shattered into a hundred shards and cleared the area of all pedestrians. A panicked engineer or two from the parked passenger train jumped out of the engine and ran for the nearby forest.

"HAA!!! That's darn tootin'!!!" Mammoth flexed his steroid-induced muscles and cackled. "Scurry before the might of Mammoth!! Flee his mighty muscles!! Run away from his—"

ZAAP!!

"Owie!!!" Mammoth rubbed his shoulder and frowned at the floating accomplice beside him. "You're an annoying fly, you know that?"

"Wrong...," Gizmo hissed. His pixilated eyes glared. "I'm an annoying fly who's gonna keep you from getting us in over our snotbucket heads!!!"

"What's that supposed to mean???"

Gizmo gestured towards the emptied train station around them. "All of those ants you scattered? They've got a queen called the 'police'. And once that queen gets ticked off....it's back to the barf-hole with us!!"

"Awwww man....," Mammoth smirked and shrugged his heavy shoulders. "We're not going back to prison this soon!! Relax!!"

"We're not going back to prison _at all_ in my book, crudlicker!! Now give me a hand..."

"What are you doing?"

Gizmo floated over towards the freight train on his jetpack. "I'm gonna make love to this freight train and give birth to a ticket out of here!! If you had any brains, you'd be helping out!!"

Mammoth grumbled as he walked ahead. "You think this is gonna make the authorities any less ticked off at us then bullying puny citizens??"

"The only _authority_ I recognize is in here," Gizmo pointed at his skull. "So be a good meat mountain and give me a hand!!!"

CRUNNNNCH!!!!

"Yaaah!!" Gizmo jerked back, panting.

Mammoth held the shattered, wrought metal door to the front engine of the train in his grasp. CL-CLANG!!! He dropped it loudly to the floor, smiled, and bowed mockingly before Gizmo.

"After _sir._"

"Yeah, yeah....whatever," Gizmo floated into the engine compartment. "Less reverence and more railroad."

"Heh...whatever you say...," the giant climbed after and squeezed into the train as well.

They were both ignorant of a nimble, caped shadow touching down onto a metal awning lining the railroad tracks besides them. A minute and a half later as Gizmo got the train to start moving, the very same figure fired a grappling hook and swung effortlessly onto the top of the train...riding along towards the mysterious destination.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You'll be having to move fast, Jinx. Better make sure your dead weight isn't so dead along the way. By noon tomorrow you should meet "J"'s accomplice in Blue Pine. No sooner or later. He'll help you make it the rest of the way to your destination. I can provide some cover and keep the heat off your backs to some extent....but once you're back home....you're on your own. "J" and I will be waiting for you from thereon out. And we'll be wishing you luck."

"Luck....heh.....," Jinx murmured. She was sitting on a tree stump and fitting on the last of two black boots to replace her usual platform shoes. My left arm lurched downwards to accommodate for her position. "....the only luck I'll need is something to keep me weeping over the loss of my fashion statement."

"You've always looked too.....bloody pink....," Pulsade said.

I glanced over at her.

The girl leaned on her assault rifle. She smirked somewhat as she spoke to Jinx and Jinx alone. "I was actually rather flattered by the outfit Slade gave you. Very proper and—"

"Plain??" Jinx smirked back up at her. "Hecate...if you weren't so kickass at everything else you do, I swear your boring taste in clothes would have driven me out the door."

"Heh...as if I had a door....," Pulsade said. A beat. "As if I had a _flat_ for that matter...."

Jinx stood up, testing her boots out. "Someday, Leslie....you'll stop having to kill people. And me? I won't be on the run anymore."

"What then?" Pulsade folded her white-clad arms. "We'd buy a dog and call it a 'life'?"

"Pffft....something like that."

"...............," I stared at them.

Pulsade glanced my way. Two blinking eyes of cold blue. "I think he's getting ideas."

"Well that's not what he's here for...," Jinx grumbled. She ran petite hands through her high tufts of pink hair. "I'd better get him out of here before you're tempted to kill him again."

"Too late."

I bit my lip.

Jinx sighed. She seemed to be having an awful bit of 'luck' in pulling her trademark hairstyle down.

"I....I-I wish I could...nghh....get it back to the way it was in the middle of my imprisonment," she slurred. "Nobody would recognize the ponytail."

"Horses for courses, love," Pulsade shrugged. "You chose that ghastly hairdo. Now you do something about it. I don't want anyone but "J" and I recognizing you during this trip."

"That makes the two of us....or three....or....ah never mind," Jinx sighed. She looked towards me. "Ghost Boy....," she held her hand out. "Give me your sword."

"............" I stared at her.

"Give me....your **sword**," Jinx hissed with a frown.

Cht-Chtung!! The assault rifle cocked and was aimed at me from my right.

"Better do it now or you'll lose one head too many," Pulsade declared menacingly.

".........," I frowned. I slowly reached my right hand back.

Jinx waited.

Pulsade aimed.

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! I took a purposefully long time in unsheathing Myrkblade. I glared daggers at both of them as I did so. A pause.

They both blinked.

SWISH!!!

Jinx jerked and Pulsade's trigger finger shook as I twirled the blade once...and pointed it hilt-first at the witch's hand.

"........," Jinx took a shuddering breath. "Cute."

"Not bloody likely," Pulsade grumbled.

Jinx took the sword. She leaned close to me so as to get the best slack with her two hands. My arm followed her right wrist as she held the sword in one hand and gripped her tufts of hair in the other and--

_Riiiiiiiiiip!!_

I blinked.

Jinx expertly severed her long, pink locks. It was an amazing feet...considering she had no murk powers to make the wooden edge of the blade truly serrated. I figured that her hex field had something to do with it.

_Riiiii-iiiiip!!_

More pink follicles fell away.

Jinx was now a short-haired thing. A thin mat of pink encased her skull. The pixie factor. She shook the excess strands off, sighed, and handed me Myrkblade back.

"That....unbelievably....sucked...."

"Speak for yourself."

Jinx stuck her tongue out at her.

Chiing!!

Myrkblade was back where it was supposed to be.

The pink girl looked at me.

I looked at her.

..........

"Let's go....," Jinx said.

"Wait a tick...," Pulsade gestured.

We both glanced at her.

The assassin brought a hand down and retrieved a sensor device from the side of her jumpsuit. "I think I'm getting something here."

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "The Titans? A-Are they following us?"

Pulsade's blue eyes squinted at the sensor.

"Don't you have your glasses with you?"

"Belt up. It looks like I've got a track on some old friends of yours."

"Friends? Do tell...."

Pulsade glanced over. "Gizmo and Mammoth."

Jinx rolled her cat eyes. "Those are no friends of mine."

"......," I stood still and listened.

"Well they're on a freight train headed north. If they're still working for H.I.V.E., they could very well get in your way, love."

Jinx sighed. "That....would not be good."

Pulsade flipped the sensor closed and holstered it on her side again. "Never worry. I'll take care of the sorry lot."

"You will?"

"Just make it to Blue Pine as fast as you can," Leslie pointed. "I'll keep Mammoth and Gizmo off your arse. As for the Titans...I can handle only so many. And as it looks...you've got enough trouble looking out for one."

"Don't worry," Jinx said. She pointed at the blinking light on the handcuffs. "As fate would have it....he's going to be hard pressed to look after _me_."

"......," I stared down at the floor and sighed frustratingly.

A pair of footsteps.

I looked up.

Pulsade was practically glaring me in the face. Her cold blue eyes and her blonde bangs frozen. She sneered: "If you so much as hurt a single inch of Jinx's head....I swear....I'll show you the ways I've learned of letting my victims live through fifty bullet wounds before the torture truly _begins_."

".......," I slowly nodded with a sweatdrop.

Pulsade stepped backwards. She holstered a sniper rifle suddenly. "Jinx...."

"Pulsade."

".............take care." And the assassin disappeared in a flash of light. Something translucent bounded off into the forest, and was gone.

"............" I stared after it.

_TUG!!!_

I gritted my teeth and stumbled Jinx's way. She led us—bounding—down the hill and northward.

"Keep up, Ghost Boy....," Jinx uttered, her right arm trailing behind to accommodate for me. A breath escaped her nostrils. "....we've got a long way to go."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The train chugged its way down the tracks at a speed at least twice that of normal regulation. Trees and signs blurred by on either side of the rails. The ground shook with the transport's momentum. Four passenger cars—presently empty—jostled and shook as they trailed behind the throttling engine.

Inside, Gizmo had various gadgetry and mechanisms attached to the instruments of the engine. He controlled the entire functioning of the train with what looked like a video game controller attached by black wires to the whole mess.

"On this train...we break for no one," Gizmo smirked. "Unless we can smash someone or something backwards!!"

"Heh heh heh!! Hey...can I toot the horn?"

"No, Mammoth."

"I wanna toot the horn--!!"

"Go barf on yourself!!"

Mammoth folded his arms and stared out the nearest window.

A spikey-haired shadow stared back at him.

Mammoth dumbly shook his head and looked again through the window, blinking.

The shadow was gone.

"..........," Mammoth scratched his head. He shrugged.

A beat.

Gizmo silently looked through the front windows and guided the train along.

The floor rattled as they went over the rails and tracks.

Silence.

"Ya know...Gizmo...," Mammoth grumbled. "I've been thinking....."

"About what, scruffmuncher?"

"It's about H.I.V.E.....that's where we're headed back to, right??"

"Yesssssss.....that's the plan. Don't wear it out!!"

Mammoth scratched his dense head. "Perhaps....P-Perhaps we shouldn't go to them immediately?"

A beat.

Gizmo slowly, icily turned his head and frowned. "Say what??"

"You heard me!! Maybe we should contact some older friends first!"

"Contact them for what??"

"Well...for one thing...," Mammoth counted off his fingers. "We've been gone from H.I.V.E. for so long because of prison. The last time we ever worked for H.I.V.E. was when we got our butts kicked at Westhaven. And you know how much they'll want to whoop us for doing a job terribly."

"Mammoth...," Gizmo grumbled, "...the only reason we ever....EVER lost out to Killer Moth and the Teen Titans way back when was because of that no good fiberglass-headed witch _JINX!!_"

"You think I don't know that??" Mammoth grunted. "Jinx was the reason we ever got stuck with H.I.V.E. to begin with!! It was a tradeoff...and you and I were used as currency!!"

"The old team is dead, Mammoth...," Gizmo grunted. "They've been dead ever since we joined that loogeylunching Academy!"

"If you hate H.I.V.E. so much...why do you want to go back there so bad??"

".........."

Mammoth smirked. "I think we should go talk to Psimon."

Gizmo made a wretching sound. "For the love of sprockets!! Not Psimon!!"

"But Psimon is smart!! He'll know what to do!!"

"And how's that gonna help us where we are now??" Gizmo barked. "We're on the lam again, Mammoth! We've got the law and the Titans on our tales and only H.I.V.E. is powerful and seedy enough to hide us!! They've always been!"

"But we were also safe with Psimon!! Come on....the least we can do is go see him and then—if need be—he'll hand us back over to H.I.V.E. At least we'd be protected!!"

"I don't know.....it sounds out of the way...."

"Everything's out of the way of a train."

"Cram it!! That's not what I meant!"

Mammoth looked off into space and smiled. "Who knows? If we see Psimon...maybe even Selinda will be there to help us—"

"Rrrrgh!!" Gizmo spun about and zapped Mammoth with a tiny laser pulse.

ZAP!!

"OWIE!! Hey you flea--!!"

"Don't mention her name!! We are NOT going to see your sister! No matter what!!"

"But Selinda's always wanted to be part of the team! She'd help us out too!!"

"Selinda WAS part of the team. That's what bugs me!! Jinx took her place!!" Gizmo spun back and faced the front of the train engine again. "And from the way she looked last....it would not be good for us to cross her again."

Mammoth folded his arms. "You're just sick of her cuz she turned you down when you asked her out to see a movie two years ago."

_"SNkktt!!_ I never asked your cruddin' sister out!!"

"Heheheheheh!! Pipsqueak Romeo! That's you, Giz!!"

"I did no such thing!! So help me Bill Gates, I'll blow up this whole crummy train!!"

".............," Mammoth replied.

"Mammoth?"

"............."

"The hairball??" Gizmo spun around.

There was a reason why Mammoth wasn't talking. Mammoth was covered in ice.

"?!?!?!" Gizmo glanced down.

A whirling frost disc had landed against the frozen giant's leg.

"Oh shitake!!" Gizmo barked.

SWOOOOSH!! WHUMP!!

Robin dove down from the engine compartment's ceiling and slammed Gizmo forcefully into the ground.

"Ooof!! Get off me, you gymnastic turd!!"

Robin gripped Gizmo's tiny collar and forced them to face each other eyemask to eye. "Trying to get back to H.I.V.E., Gizmo?"

"At least **I** am!!" the boy genius squealed and struggled in the hero's grasp. "Muscle mountain there has feelings for his long lost sister. Good luck interrogating me on that one! HA!"

THWUMP!!

Robin forced Gizmo's head up against a wall of instrument panels.

"Tell me....where is Jinx taking Noir??"

"How the Hariball should I know?!?!?" Gizmo cackled. "Mammoth and I could care less for that witch!! She took everything from us with her betrayal!!"

"She took everything from you but your criminal seed," Robin hissed. "You know how the mind of that pink sorceress works better than anyone else in the world of crime or crime-fighting. So _guess_, Gizmo. You're a genius...you should be able to approximate. Where would Jinx be taking Noir??"

"Out on a date perhaps??" Gizmo grunted. "She has a knack for flirting with everyone. And I do mean _everyone._"

"If you're trying to amuse me, it's not working," Robin said.

THWAP!!!

He flung Gizmo hard to the floor.

"Augh!! Brutalityyyy! Brutalityyy!!"

THUMP!! Robin's knee pressed into the small of his back.

"Shut up. Why is Jinx running off with Noir?? Why did she set the bomb off at the prison to begin with??"

Suddenly the munchkin underneath Robin's grip started laughing his squealing head off.

"???????" Robin's eyemask twisted the wrong way.

Gizmo chuckled, coughed, and hacked: "You stupid mega-dork!! You actually think that _Jinx_ set off that explosion?!?! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

Robin's lips parted.

"_Robin?? Robin, this is Beast Boy!! Respond, dude!! I-I think I've found something—"_

"Uh.................h-hang tight....Robin out," he said into his communicator.

The Boy Wonder gripped Gizmo roughly. "Keep talking....," he said through clenched teeth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx rushed forward with me through the forest. Again, the movement was frantic. Hurried. Jinx panted as if she was out of shape. _Or perhaps she was just paranoid?_

But of what?

She got everything she needed.

Perhaps......

My black eyes narrowed as I trailed after her.

_Counter Red Aviary......_

I took a breath.

"_J"......."J" sent me a message. 'Old Friend'??_

I looked up at the sunlight filtering through the trees.

_Why do I feel like.....everything is coming together. And yet.....nothing is coming together._

A beat.

_There's a lot at work in the world right now. And for the first time....I-I don't feel privy to it all._

Jinx and I bounded over a stream. Our boots splashed in the water. We ran wetly off on the forest floor beyond.

_Messenger.......Messenger, where are you??_

"I....wish....you...w-weren't....so big....."

"????" I looked at the girl ahead of me.

She glanced back once or twice over her right shoulder. "Tall. You're so tall...and I'm just a petite little doll compared to you. It's hard to drag you places."

I blinked under my shades.

_Since when were you so damn social? Don't talk to me._

She talked to me: "We have to....keep moving if....we want to be at....Blue Pine by....tomorrow noon." She swallowed. She continued: "I know we're....moving fast enough....to more than make it.....b-but I don't want....to take any chances...."

I exhaled through my nose. I stared at her head...a short butchered thing of pink follicles.

She looked back at me. She caught me staring. She looked up ahead.

"What's gotten you so....surprised about things, Ghost Boy?"

"........"

"Is it my lack of fashion sense for once??" she uttered. A breath. "My crying in your presence?" A pause. "The fact that I'm bi?"

I did a double-take.

_I never thought that you were..............ohhhhhhhh.........okay......_

I bit my lip.

We came to a tiny ravine in the forest. A fallen log stretched over it. Jinx nimbly jumped up and paced herself across like on a balance beam, one foot in front of the other. I followed suit the best I could—given that my hand was off balance by the handcuffs.

"Go on. Feel content that you've seen a bit of my personal life. Pulsade is telling the truth when she says she kills people who know her real name. It just doesn't happen. The same thing with who I really am. People shouldn't find out unless there's a damn good reason."

We made it to the other side and resumed our fast-paced sprint.

"Slade....he had every good reason to know me," she said with a frown. "Even when....wh-when I found out that what he knew about me—and what I knew about myself—wasn't anything worth to know."

"......," I glanced at her blouse.

The locket was hidden underneath somewhere.

"Are you scared, Ghost Boy?"

"???" I glanced up at her.

She looked back at me once or twice as we were running. "Are you scared that I'm going to kill you? Cuz you saw me with a close friend? Cuz you saw me cry?"

"............."

"Wow.....you really _can't_ talk, can you?"

"..........."

She shrugged and focused her gaze forward. "I frankly don't get it. I don't understand how you could have survived this long with the Titans without being able to frickin' _speak_."

".........."

"And yet, you have. And not only have you survived...you've out-survived me," she griped. "You schooled me more than once...twice...and thrice. And if you can't beat them, you join them, Ghost Boy. But I'm not joining you....I'm having you join me. It'll do yourself and your friends and your City a whole lot of good if you follow along and forsake your stupid heroism. Heh....I know you can do it. Cuz you've done it before—"

YANK!!!!

"Augh!!"

I stopped dead in my tracks and pulled her roughly into me.

GRIP!!

I brought my right hand tightly around her pale neck. I glared intensely down at her. Breathing steadily.

"........," her cat-eyes narrowed up at me. Slowly her lips parted: "Your shades are a lot more transparent then you think, Ghost Boy. Deep down beneath them....you've got the black eyes of a murderer."

"............"

"I can see it. I can see many things. Fatefully minded or not....some of us are born as evil. Some of us....are born to be much better allies than any nerdy group of costumed superheroes can eclipse...."

"...........," I swallowed a sudden lump in my throat. Shaking...I released my grip of her throat.

She took a deep breath. She lifted her right hand and my left metal wrist. She nodded her butchered-haired head to the handcuffs. "That's all it takes, Ghost Boy. Refuse to give into what you really are.....your nerd-pals pay the price. The bomb will go off....and your career and theirs will be in jeopardy."

"Unless....you follow along....and don't pull any stupid _**TRICKS!!!**_" she shrieked.

"....."

"Got it?"

_I....hate....you....so....much....."_

"_**GOT IT?!?!"**_

I took a deep breath.

I nodded.

"If we face any authorities....I won't be the only one to stop them. You will. If we run into any Titans....not only will you let me dispose of them, you will fight them yourself. And when it comes to the point that even shedding blood will be an option.......you will not hesitate."

"......"

"Got it???"

My fists clenched.

And then--

SWOOOOOSH!!!

A green body fell down before us.

"Wha--?!?!" Jinx gasped and looked aside.

I craned my neck.

Leaves falling around him in a halo, Beast Boy stood up from a landing crouch and panted: "Noir!! I've got your back!! Let's take her out---"

FLASH!!!!!

A pink hex struck at his feet.

"Ooof!!" he flew back from the earth-shattering blow and landed hard into a tree trunk in reverse. WHAM!! "Nnghh!!"

Jinx's cat eyes glowed as she held out a pink-streaming hand. "Stay out of this, Beast Bastard!! We're dealing with things far bigger than you can possibly comprehend!!"

Beast Boy shook his aching head and clenched his teeth. "Shut up!! You're dealing with my friend!! And now you're going to let him go!!!" That said, he aptly turned into a green lion and pounced at Jinx.

I gritted my teeth and motioned desperately with a free hand for him to relent--

"HAAAA!!" Jinx jumped straight up in a pink streak.

"!!!" I was yanked up with her.

The two of us awkwardly flipped high through the wooded forest. As we twirled uniformly upside down, Jinx flung a hex bolt down at the green cat. I struggled to upright us on our descent, and we landed on numb feet together. TH-THUMP!!!

The hex blast had successfully tripped the lion so that he slid into a tree stump. The emerald animal shook its head, spun around, and morphed into a velociraptor. "Skreeeee!!!" The dinosaur padded towards us (Jinx) and leapt with claws flying.

Jinx somersaulted

I tumbled.

She side-jumped over my sprawled figure, landed on the ground in a stretched position, and fired a hex beam. "HAAA!!"

The velociraptor leapt high above the beam.

Jinx fired another.

FLASH!!!

The dinosaur morphed into a green weasel in mid-air, twirled expertly to dodge the blast, and landed as a green elf succinctly pressing Jinx's body down into the leafy earth.

"Ooof!!" she struggled in Beast Boy's grip.

"Game's over, Jinx!!" Beast Boy's green eyes narrowed. "Some lucky streak that was! Back to the prison with you!!"

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "Don't be so quick to assume thing......," her petite fingers touched the blinking light on the handcuffs. "You thought the prison explosion was bad? You know nothing!!"

Seemingly, Beast Boy noticed the handcuffs in the heat of battle for the first time. His eyes widened. "Dude!! Just what is th—"

WHAM!!!!

The hilt of Myrkblade slammed into his face.

Jinx blinked.

"Nnnghhh....," Beast Boy toppled backwards and landed dizzily in the grass and soil.

Yank!!!

I pulled myself up and Jinx too. I stood, panting, over Beast Boy.

"Nnngh....," the changeling stirred. He looked up at me, a red welt on his forehead. "Noir......J-Jordan........what are you—"

I swallowed...and slammed my foot into the chest cavity just below his rib cage.

WHUMP!!!

"NNnnnnghhhh!!" the breath escaped Beast Boy's lungs. He curled ....and was out cold.

"........," Jinx smiled. She placed her cuffed hand on my shoulder. "Now that's the Wyldecarde I missed—"

"!!!" I shrugged her hand off, seething.

".........well....if we ever had to split before....we definitely have to now," she said. She ran towards the north end of the woods.

".....," I looked down at Beast Boy's unconscious body. I had the sudden urge to leap down and activate the emergency signal of his communicator......or just hug him.

YANK!!

Jinx pulled me along.

"Now, Ghost Boy! We're moving NOW!"

And I followed under a gloomy cloud, sheathing Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There isn't anything more to talk about!!" Gizmo gurgled in Robin's grasp. "Yes, someone set off a bomb in the prison! YES....people died. Yadda yadda. Boo cruddity hoo!! Do you think we cared?? We got our tech and our suits back! It was time to party!"

"The party's long over, Gizmo...," Robin frowned. "Right now...you're telling me who set off the bomb and who equipped you with your weapons!!"

"And I would tell you if I could!!" Gizmo squealed. The small compartment of the train engine shook and rocked around them as they throttled down the tracks. "Believe me...I don't enjoy being your fisted glove's tree ornament!! I think what's important to keep in mind here is that....whoever set off the bomb...it wasn't so much a person as it was an _idea...._"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come now, Robin....," Gizmo smirked. "You booger-brained bird!! You think so narrowly! No wonder you're not even half the genius that I am!!"

"Stop the tongue tap dance...."

"Ahem," Gizmo's pixel eyes thinned. "Jinx didn't set that bomb. I didn't set that bomb. But—for the most part—all of us set that bomb."

".............What?!?!"

"What I actually miss about Jinx being gone is her knack for knowing the ties of fate...," Gizmo sneered. "Things don't just fall down a well for no apparent reason! Take my genius for example!! I know that every wire and every gadget and every blinking light has a purpose! It's all interconnected to make a complex machine that really slaps the snot out of goody-two-shoes such as yourself!!"

"And what's this all have to do with the prison bomb and escape??"

"What I'm saying is....when enough bad guys weigh down in a certain area....their weight collects together and they're no longer bad guys!! They're _badness_ itself!!"

"You mean to tell me that the pure essence of evil or some crap set off that bomb???" Robin barked.

"What I'm saying is.....there's a lot of evil in this place right now. And I rather like it," Gizmo chuckled. He cleared his throat. "But....that very same evil....when it collects enough......."

"Yeah????"

".....someone usually comes into play to terminate all that's left of good. So that everything will be purely evil and destructive. In one fatal stroke, death reigns supreme. Rather nasty sounding....eh?"

".......," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You're not giving me any answers."

"Well maybe you're not asking me any of the right questions, maggot breath!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A hundred feet ahead of the speeding train, a branch of a high-stretching tree depressed towards the earth. A flicker of bent light appeared...then a bright flash announced the dazzling white form of Pulsade. She balanced atop the branch in her sleek, white jumpsuit and produced her sniper rifle. After firmly attaching a tool liken unto an rpg to the end of the barrel, she tossed her blonde hair, aimed the rifle at the distant, incoming train, and squinted her eye through the sight.

"'Don't you have your glasses with you'....pfft!! Rotten bird....," she curled her finger around the trigger....and aimed for the freight train's engine wheels. "Last stop, blokes...."

PFFIIFFTT!!!

With a rush of air, the tool flew off the sniper rifle's barrel like a rocket. The arrowhead-shaped object streaked towards the incoming train. It whistled in the air until it was halfway towards the target. Then the 'wings' of the arrowhead deployed and fell off like mid-orbit rocket boosters. What was left over was a bed-blinking dome with a swishing tail that lashed around and produced a shiny spike just as the twirling object met the steel wheels of the train.

SLIIINK!!!

The 'tail' sunk into the metal and the red bulb spun, firmly attached to the wheel. It beeped a few times....flashed a bright red....and—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So what are you going to do with me now, Boy Whacked?!?! I seriously doubt that you can carry both me AND Mammoth back to prison by yourself!!"

"Thankfully...," Robin gestured at his communicator. "I've got backup."

"Heh....like they'd so quickly give up their posts to attend the likes of you!!"

"............okay, now that was desperate."

"You've been interrogating me for a long time! Of course I'm all dried up, booger brai—"

_**PHOOOOOM!!!!!**_

A heated explosion shattered the left side of the engine. Everyone inside—including the frozen Mammoth—were thrown to the edge as the train started to wobble and shake and lean---

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCRAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAPE!!!!!_

Sparks flew as the wheels shattered away and a good half of the leaning freight train grinded against the rails. A slight turn in the tracks spelled the train's doom. It lurched to the side, upended, and rolled nastily over and over and over.

The passenger cars behind the engine followed suit in a domino effect. Metal shrapnel and wooden splinters flew and spat every which way as the train rolled into the grass and bunched together from resulting friction and centripetal force getting entangled.

After a loud, groaning crunch-time....the mass of the train settled together....sputtered.........and billowed smoke and steam.....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I ran to the edge of the forest. We heard muffled sounds from a police radio.

"!!!!" Jinx forced us into a stop. She panted and knelt down, forcing me to do so as well.

Through the thin line of leftover trees, we saw a two-lane country road. And on the side of that road was a state trooper car. Two officers stood with a map placed across the hood of the car, and they were listening to and communicating through a walkie-talkie radio system to some unknown partners miles away.

"Copy that, 10-4. We'll be making a routine search of Burltown immediately. Over."

Jinx's teeth grit. "Decker.....damn....he's fast when it comes to organizing a search party."

A beat.

"Well...these people won't last long...," she held up a glowing hand of pink.

I gasped. I jerked to close my right hand around her limb.

She jerked her arm out of my reach and glared at me. "Listen!! Part of the agreement was you would NOT get in my way when I had to eliminate someone!! Didn't you get it??" she hissed.

I panted....frowning.

Suddenly, she grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Or maybe......you could finish those two punks for me? Yes....that sounds good. Why don't you go on and do that, Ghost Boy....since you so much dislike my exertion of force!"

"..........," I glanced down.

"Heh....just what I thought," she said. She stood up slowly and glowed her pink hand even more bright. "Well then.....since it's all up to me.......let's see how far I can make their entrails fly---"

FWOOOSH!! I blurred ahead.

"YEEK!!" she was carried along with me.

Outside on the road, the officers looked at one another.

"Did he just say contact was broken with both Beast Boy and Robin??"

"The Titans are none of our concern. We're looking for the convicts as much as they are. Remember what Decker said—"

"Yeah, yeah---"

FWOOOOSH!!

I leapt out of the forest with Jinx in tow.

The two looked up. "What the—"

"!!!!" I landed. I blurred towards them. I spun and high-kicked one officer in the chin.

WHAM!!

"MMmff!! He fell back hard on the concrete.

The second officer gasped and reached for his holster.

I spun myself...I spun Jinx....I spun myself again. I reached the officer and slammed my right fist into his gut just before he could lift his pistol.

WHUMP!!!

"Nnngh!!" he bent over, exhaling hard.

I uppercutted his face with my elbow.

THWAP!!

He tumbled back, hit the squad car, and slid down to the asphalt.

"Hold it....r-right there...."

I turned around.

The first grounded trooper had his gun aimed at us from where he was half-sprawled across the concrete. He panted and weakly held his weapon.

I clenched my jaw. I tensed my legs....

Jinx panted.

The main aimed and--

BLAM!!!

I blurred the two of us left.

BL-BLAM!!

I blurred the two of us right.

He pulled at the trigger again.

I dashed forward, skidded to a stop, and spun myself so that Jinx's pendulum of a body flew at the man feet first.

WH-WHAM!!!!

The man fell back hard....out cold.

"............" I stood still.

Jinx leaned against me....panting.

I glare down at her.

She straightened herself up, stood straight, and simpered. "Well then.....glad that's over with, aren't you?"

"......."

"Yup. Just what I thought. Now let's go."

She knelt down, swiped the trooper's keys, and marched towards the car.

"?????" I looked at her incredulously.

"We're getting out of here the fastest we can, of course!!" she cackled. "Or what...you'd rather carry me to Blue Pine?"

I groaned inwardly.

She opened the driver's side door and pointed at the passenger side through it. "Slide on in. I'm driving."

I mouthed: _'What?!??!'_

"Hey....I'm old enough."

".......," I shakily entered into the car and slid over. I held my left arm up as I sat in the passenger's seat, giving Jinx the leeway to position herself in the driver's seat.

She slammed the door shut behind her. She lifted the back of the seat. She pushed the seat forward. She adjusted the rear view mirror. She checked the windows. The gas mileage. The windshield whipers. She touched the stickshift. She adjusted her seat again.

"..............," I stared at her.

She looked at me with a glaring cat-eye. "What?? I'm getting in the mood."

I exhaled with a sweatdrop.

"Allrighty....let's crank this baby up!"

"!!!" I lunged to the left as she jerked the key in the ignition.

And immediately the police siren went off.

_Waa-Waa-Waa-Waa-Waa!!_

We both jumped.

"Nnnghh!!" Jinx clutched her head.

I gritted my teeth, pivoted my awkwardly balanced body, and kicked the siren mechanism on the dashboard.

THWAP!!!

_Waa-Waa-Waa-snnkkktt!!_

The gentle purr of an engine.

"......th-thank you....."

I planted my hand over my face.

_I almost hope Beast Boy DOES kill me after this--_****

_VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!_

"!!!!" I was pressed back into my seat as Jinx burned rubber...screeching left and right a few times before finally finding a steady angle to drive on the road.

"I-I got it!! Luck is on my side!! Luck is on my side!! Luck is—oh wait....forgot to shift into higher gear...ahem---Luck is on my side!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghhh....," Gizmo groaned. "Cram it....." He sat up inside the upended train engine and shook his aching head as bulkheads of metal steamed around him. "Frickin' stupid barfin' crappin' train.....how the hairball did we derail??"

He glanced over.

He saw a half-unconscious, groaning Robin in the corner.

He grinned.

"Well....at least something good happened. I wonder if I should stab his eyes in with my teeth—"

A thick hand reached down through the metal and grabbed him by the collar.

GRIP!!!!

"YAAAA!!!" he shrieked as he was pulled up and out of the wreckage and into the bright light.

"What the---?!?!" Gizmo gasped. "Mammoth!! You are.....un-ice-cubed!!"

"......," Mammoth stared at him. He shook icicles out of his red hair and goatee. "Yeah. Looks like our ride could use some ice though."

Gizmo floated by his jetpack and glanced around at the smashed train parts. ".......right. Anywho....what say you and I crawl back into the engine and kill that stupid caped gunk-eater??"

"I don't think we should do that, Gizmo...," Mammoth shook his head.

Gizmo turned red. "Why not?!?!"

A feminine voice echoed from the sidelines.

"Because you'd have the Titans even more mad at you...and they would surely hunt you down then."

"Huh?!?!" Gizmo turned and looked over. His pixel eyes widened. "Ah cripes....not you...."

Mammoth gasped. "Selinda!!!" He bounded over towards a redheaded figure like a huge toddler. "It's so nice to seeeee youuuuu."

The girl bent down, picked up a few blades of grass, and flung them at Mammoth. In mid-air, the blades of grass turned into iron plates.

SM-SM-SMACK!!!! They pelted Mammoth in the face and chest.

WHUMP!! He fell back on his butt and rubbed his throbbing nose. "Owwww....Sis?!?! What gives?!?!"

"That's for turning your back on me years ago!! I should shove a piece of meat loaf down your throat and turn it into hydrochloric acid, you stupid, ungrateful brother!!!"

"Now Shimmer....calm down....," Gizmo waved his hands and simpered. "We never voted for Psimon's decision to replace you. We went to H.I.V.E. on our own because we had to! And now--

"And now this is all about the same person who ruined my life!!" Shimmer growled, her eyes thin. "Jinx. It's all about Jinx!! That's why you're here!!"

"Sis....Jinx didn't set off that bomb...we don't know why everyone believes it!!"

"Yeah....besides, we hate the stupid witch now too!!" Gizmo growled. "She should have burned alive back at that prison!!"

"But this still all about Jinx," Shimmer said.

"How so??"

"Follow me and I'll explain it to you all," Shimmer motioned with a red-orange glowing hand. "There's a nasty chase afoot. And if you help us out, maybe your lives will be a lot easier. Consider it as my last attempt to be _gracious_ to you sorry bunch of testosterone!"

"Who's 'us'??" Gizmo asked, looking suspicious.

"Psimon himself, you boobs," Shimmer smirked. "He wants us all to meet together. He's trying to rebuild the Fearsome Five."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop an overhanging tree branch.

High above and beyond sight....

Pulsade perched with her rifle tucked under her nimble arms.

Her blue eyes narrowed as she eyed the distant meeting besides the wrecked train.

She had a long-distance listening microphone in her grasp.

"Hmmm......'Shimmer'......," Pulsade blinked.

A beat.

She smiled to herself and turned invisible. "Eh.....I'll kill them all later."

And a translucent shape leapt off and disappeared in the trees.


	146. Double Jinx part 3

**146. Double Jinx part 3**

He marched alone through the metal-laced catacombs of the underground facility. Yellow hexagons formed the structure of the walls on either side of him. Guards decked in yellow and black and carrying laser rifles patrolled the distant corridors. A random student or two walked between training areas. They seemed suspiciously nervous...as if some unknown adversary had been unleashed upon the world above.

The young man was calm and collected, though. He marched straight up to a huge, golden door shaped as a hexagon. He waved his arm in front of a sensor. The device read the chip under his skin, beeped successfully, and opened the huge door for him.

_Whurrrrrrrrrrr-Chtung!!_

He stepped through, entering a huge office. The walls were composed of crags of rock and stone...and the metal structure of the underground facility seemed built into the jagged earth. The man approached a lone desk inside the unnecessarily huge chamber. There a gray woman sat in a tight business suit. She was typing away at a document on her computer.

"Headmistress....," the young man stood at attention before the desk. His body was straight and perfect. "Reports confirm. She is alive. She is alive and heading this way."

The Headmistress kept typing, unphased.

The man stood there, still. He didn't move a muscle. He waited.....

She typed.

She typed....

She typed........

She paused.

A beat.

Sighing, she leaned back and uttered: "Lemme guess.....Pulsade bailed the Jinx out again...."

"Our people in the field report a 79% likelihood of sighting Pulsade. Supposedly there was a young girl with Jinx....but it's hard to say whether it was her or not."

"Who else would it be??" the Headmistress rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "I swear....that assassin is going to be the end of us."

"You trained her well, Headmistress...," the young man had the audacity to smile.

".....," the Headmistress frowned at him. "You are almost always out of line, Damien. Do you know that?"

"I intend to live forever, Headmistress...," Damien smiled. "There is no line....but a repeating curve."

She stood up and paced around the desk. "Jinx has escaped...," she thought aloud. "Pulsade is assisting her. Now with her alive, the public will think she was the one who set off the explosion."

"That was our backup plan, wasn't it?" Damien remarked. He leaned his head to the side. "If the girl would live....she would have to live on the run?"

"She wasn't supposed to live at all," the Headmistress wrung her wrinkled hands together and frowned. "How in God's name did she walk away from that holocaust?"

"She is Jinx, after all," the man said. "We tapped into her powers so much when she was with us. Since then, the girl has learned to evolve her powers on her own. Who knows what she is capable of at this point?"

"Why is it that I feel our children are all going astray.....," the Headmaster murmured. A beat. She looked over at Damien. "Mammoth and Gizmo. What has become of them?"

He folded his arms and said: "A fancy situation, that. It's been nearly twelve hours since they escaped prison and already they've nearly wrecked a train and fought head-to-head with Robin."

"Robin??" the Headmaster's gray eyes narrowed. "The Teen Titans?"

The boy nodded.

"Ah....this is their territory we're dealing with isn't it?" she paced back over to her desk and leaned against it. "Did they survive the confrontation?"

"That they did," Damien said. "It's quite possible that an outside source _caused_ the train wreck."

"A murder attempt?"

"A 'something' attempt, for sure," Damien exhaled. "It might not be that someone wants Mammoth and Gizmo dead. But rather, someone wants them distracted. As it is at the moment....H.I.V.E. should want Gizmo and Mammoth dead."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because they're no longer headed back to our home."

"Oh?"

"Shimmer found them."

".............," the Headmistress blinked.

Damien reiterated: "Shimmer found them...and now she's leading them somewhere to reunite with Psimon. I think they're trying to rebuild the Fearsome Five."

"Impossible....," the Headmistress murmured. "Dr. Light is dead! He perished in the dark-city incident a week ago...."

"Which is probably while Psimon is making his move _now_," Damien gestured. "And leave it to the explosion at the prison to free up desired recruits of his."

The Headmistress took a deep breath. "You don't think he's wanting to....recruit Jinx again, do you?"

"Hardly," Damien smiled. "In the Fearsome Five's eyes....Jinx is twice as detestable to them now. First for her replacement of Shimmer. Second for her treachery at Westhaven. Jinx is a rogue from us and them and everyone else as well. With the exception of a few, she's truly.....truly alone."

"A few??" the Headmistress leaned her head to the side. "I thought only Pulsade was—"

Damien shook his head. "There're two others. One whose identity we can't find for the life of us. She or he is providing assistance to Jinx and Pulsade through hacking and digital manipulation. We're thinking such an operative played a crucial role in Jinx's escape."

"And who's the last?"

"A boy named Noir," Damien said. "A Teen Titan."

"A Titan??? Why is he helping Jinx of all people??"

"Well...here's the interesting part," Damien grinned. "They're handcuffed together."

"Handcuffed??"

"I've seen the technique before," Damien said. "Jinx has a Model-5 Biological Responsive Detonator attached to the handcuffs. If the two were to separate....an explosive somewhere would go off. In this case—as we judge by the signal—carbonite explosives."

"Hmmm.....Slade's handiwork," the Headmistress rubbed her temple in thought. "So....Jinx is most likely hiring this Titan to assist her with his powers."

"Yes. Against his will, most likely."

"Well....all the more proper! We trained Jinx well.............unfortunately."

A beat.

"Damien."

"Yes, Headmistress?"

"I want you to do as much research as you can on this 'Noir' individual. Maybe his back history will explain what Jinx desires to use him for. In the meantime, exert all available energy on trailing Jinx and the boy. I want to observe them for a little longer. Try and see if they truly are heading this way or not...and if so....what their intention is...."

"And what of the Fearsome Five?"

The Headmistress frowned. "After Psimon deceived us last time.......a man of that intelligence and power should know that our organization will not tolerate his presence among us ever again. If he gets too close to Jinx—for whatever reason—we must go at war with him. Jinx is our matter, not his."

"Then Mammoth and Gizmo are expendable?"

"Where Jinx is concerned, always," the Headmistress smiled. "Besides...we have two new students at the top of their class who would be wonderful replacements."

Damien smiled and nodded his head. "Indeed."

"You have your orders. Any questions."

"But of course, Headmistress."

She sighed and waved her hand. "Go on, Damien. Ask away."

"Do you ever want us to actually research and find out who it was who set up the bomb in the prison?"

Silence.

The old woman's eyes narrowed. "That is information not privy to any of us."

"........," Damien nodded. With an added bow, he turned around and headed for the office door.

"Besides....," the woman said to his back with smug eeriness. "I think I already know who it is...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin?? in. Robin, can you read me?"

"_How many times is it now, Cyborg?_" Raven's voice filtered through the T-Car's speakers.

"I've stopped counting," Cyborg muttered as he drove north out of Town. The buildings on either side of the road gave way to trees and hilltops as the land got increasingly elevated. "It's absolutely dead on his end of the communicator. It happened right after he last signed off. He was going to pounce that train, remember?"

"_Did you contact the rail authorities?"_

"Yeah....," Cyborg drove onto a country road and sped north. "And they said that the train hadn't come in at the next scheduled depot. There's no word from the conductors or engine pilots either."

_"Something has happened....,_" Raven voiced suspiciously. _"...perhaps Mammoth and Gizmo were too powerful for him to handle??"_

"Rrrrghh....," Cyborg gritted his teeth. "Why'd we let him go solo?? Hell...why do we _always_ let the little guy take on such crazy obstacles! He'll get himself killed someday!"

_"He's the Titan leader for a reason, Cyborg. He's more competent than the rest of us combined."_

"I know....I know....," Cyborg sighed. A beat. "At least Starfire's taking this calmly."

_"Why? Because she's been absolutely silent for the last thirty minutes?"_

"......uhm...."

"_She's flying to the site of Beast Boy's last coordinates. He hasn't responded to any of our communications either."_

"Man....what's going on here??" Cyborg gritted his teeth. "We're losing people left and right! First Noir. Then Robin. Beast Boy." A beat. "Hold on, Rae."

"_What is it?"_

"Just gonna check on Tempest."

"_Good idea."_

Cyborg switched frequencies on his communicator while driving with one hand. He uttered: "Hey! Tempest!"

_"........"_

"Yo! Flipper! You there??"

"_Yeah, I'm here."_

"Scared me for a second there."

"_Why?"_

"............"

"_Er...n-never mind. Any luck on contacting Robin or Beast Boy?"_

"None yet. I just wanted to touch base with you."

"_Awww....how sweet. Can I get out of these damn sewers now?"_

"Uh....sure. Go find a.....fire hydrant or something."

"_What's a fire hydrant?"_

"Aww nuts to that--," Cyborg switched frequencies again. "Rae...Tempest is fine."

"_Cyborg!! Urgent! Urgent!!"_

Cyborg blinked. "Star?? Oops...my bad. Wrong frequency...," he blushed. "Heheh....c-can't believe I did that—"

_"I have found Beast Boy! I have found Beast Boy and Beast Boy is injured!!!"_

Cyborg's human eye widened. "Say what??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat on her knees besides the unconscious green elf in the middle of the woods. She checked his pulse with one Tamaranian hand and held the communicator up in another. "He seems terribly bruised and out of breath! I do believe his situation is nominal....but alas, something has happened to have caused him such trauma! The Fang, perhaps?"

"_Star. Sit tight. I'm on my way!"_

"Please....do go on the way quickly!" Starfire's green eyes were round and earnest. "Today has not been a good day for my friends!"

"_We're on the way, Star. Rae...Flipper....rendezvous at Starfire's signal! As soon as you can!"_

"_I copy, Cyborg."_

"_Yeah, sure thing."_

Starfire put her communicator down. She looked sympathetically down at Beast Boy. "Ohhhhhhhh....," she cradled him gently and exhaled. "....the world is a cruel place to elves."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!_

The police squad car burned rubber up hill. There were still trees on either side of us, but the distant roar of motorized ambiance in the distance announced a nearby highway. Most likely the road leading towards Metropolis or New York.

_Was that where we were headed??_

I sat helplessly in the passenger seat. My left arm stretched out from my side, connected to Jinx's driving hand. I sweatdropped as she steered us up the crest of the country road with inexperienced, petite hands.

"I usually drive with platform shoes....it makes up for my height," she said. "So if you're wondering why I'm a little rusty today...."

I simpered nervously.

_JERK!!!_

Somehow, Jinx's grip of the wheel slipped.

"Whoops!!"

We skirted left.

I bounced in my seat.

We came over the hill in the road....and rushed head-on towards a throttling RV.

BEEEP!! BEEEP!!!!

"Alice Almighty!!" Jinx gritted her teeth and swung us back to the right.

SCREEECH!!!

I flew against her. WHUMP!!

The RV steered suicidally off the road as we regained our grip on the asphalt and zoomed off towards the northern horizon.

"........"

"........"

"........th-they really should put some sort of rubber grips on their steering wheels."

I ran my flesh hand over my face.

"Especially when they're cops, ya know?? Can never guess when a high speed chase is about to happen or—"

I pointed at the stick.

"Huh?? Oh right...time to shift gears again. Thank you."

She did so.

The engine sputtered as if to mock us and we zoomed a little faster down the road.

Jinx gripped the wheel tightly, stared out the dashboard with her pink cat eyes, and sighed.

A beat.

I stared out the window on my right. I watched the trees blurring by. I thought of the soft soil of the earth. The layers of pine needles. Beast Boy's unconscious body.

I winced.

_I.....I-I had to do it, right? I mean.....I had no choice. Jinx....the handcuffs....the explosion......she......_

I ran a hand through my thick black hair. I sighed.

_The Titans.....they'll understand. But what is there to understand? I'm in this spot again. But this time...I'm not the mastermind. It's Jinx. It's all back to Jinx._

"Kinda anticlimactic, isn't it?"

I turned and glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

She drove us down the road, speeding. "It's like you and I are taking a Sunday drive, Ghost Boy. If any random passer-by was to look in the window....they'd think we were on a date. Heh."

My black eyes thinned under my shades.

_I hate you so much......._

"So....Jordan, huh?"

I did a double-take.

"That's what the little elf twerp said before you finished the job," she uttered. "I guess the Titans have real names just like us of the 'dark ilk'. Guess you know my name already."

_Jean....._

"Jean and Jordan. J.J. Double jinx....sounds like a cute tabloid couple."

I groaned inwardly.

_Shut up. I thought you were bi.............................oh wait._

"J.J.....," Jinx inhaled. "That's what they would call me..........."

"???" I looked at her sideways.

"At least...," she frowned. "....that's what they made me 'remember'. It was all fictitious. Fake. And yet....when I think about it....'J.J.'.....m-my heart feels stabbed."

"........"

Her shoulders sagged as she gripped the wheel. "Listen to me. I'm so pathetic. I know they never existed. I know it. And yet......yet....."

".......," I glanced at her blouse. I saw a tiny lump underneath that announced the location of the locket.

_Why hadn't she gotten rid of that??_

"No matter," she grumbled. "We're going to set everything right. You and me." She glanced at me once with a darting cat-eye. "In the end....you'll be glad that you helped me. You will be."

I gritted my teeth. My right fist clenched. And---

"Red Aviary."

"........."

"What do those words mean to you, Ghost Boy?"

I blinked. My black eyes trailed the edges of shades.

_I.....I-I've heard those words somewhere...._

My lips pursed.

My brow furrowed.

_The shivers in my arm...the dream....Robin....._

I took a shuddering breath as—ironically enough—a cold sensation swam through me.

_Terra's failed revival......the experiment gone awry........Red Aviary......_

"Fate is a funny thing....," Jinx said as she drove us quickly around slowly chugging trucks and minivans on the country road. Some of them honked at us. We were speeding too quickly for the sound to hang around for long. "....Fate will actually bow down to a greater force."

"???" I looked at her sideways.

"Red. Red is the essence of Destruction. Of Death." She smirked slyly. "You get what I mean?"

I stared at her blankly.

"Red is Destruction. Black is Balance. White is Construction."

My jaw dropped.

"Ring a bell, huh?"

_The Spectrum......_

She smirked and kept steering us around traffic.

_The fundamentals of what the Master taught us all._

My black eyes narrowed.

_But.....H-How would Jinx know that? How would anyone BUT the Master's school know that??_

Autumn wind whistled through the cracks in our windows as we zoomed down the road.

_Maybe....maybe Jinx doesn't know the Spectrum. Only.....because of her penchant for 'fate', she can see the Spectrum from an entirely different light._

"There is a lot of Red brewing in this land....and in this land alone," she said. "Your precious City....it's becoming a powder keg of evil. And where too much evil collects in one place....well....it upsets the order of things. It creates weight. Imagine bad things happening all at once because they have nowhere else to run to? They just sink and sink and sink and sink into some invisible, eternal abyss."

I took a firm breath.

_The Balance of Morals._

Slade tried to upset that 'order of things' a long time ago.

_  
But...._

He failed.

And I.....

_  
I killed him._

"It's this pit of spiritual evil that—I'm pretty sure—nearly killed me, Ghost Boy," she took a deep breath. "It nearly killed me and a bunch of other prisoners. Luck wouldn't have been enough to save me. But fate did give me the ability to foresee the inevitable. And—as if by magic—I was contacted by "J". "J" hooked me back up with Pulsade. And the two of them bailed me out this morning....but not without a plan."

"???" I looked at her curiously.

"I......We....W-We're going to go to the one place I don't want to go to. We're going to the very locus of H.I.V.E.'s stronghold. We're going to do whatever it takes—legal or not, violent or not—to pierce into their defenses and infiltrate their databases. Because H.I.V.E. is the closest "J", Pulsade, or I can get to truly tracing the secrets of Red Aviary. H.I.V.E. holds many secrets. Some....s-some that I've been dying to know after all these months in prison...," her fingers clutched tightly around the steering wheel for a moment...then relaxed some. "But most importantly.......they go deep. Deeper than Luthor. Deeper than _Dagger_. Their database is the epithet of the criminal organism worldwide. Whoever controls their information controls half of the entire machine of evil. You and I are going to sabotage that machine, Ghost Boy. And we're going to find out exactly what's been trying to blow me up, what's been killing and murdering people left and right across random places in the East, and what's presently drawing darkly and threateningly around your precious City. Because that is where the red is the strongest."

I nodded with a nervous smile.

_Yeah.....okay...._

I glanced out the window.

_Titans. Get your butts here....now...._

The peripheral of my shaded eyes caught a flash of squad car lights in the side mirror.

"???"

I squinted my eyes. I gasped lightly.

Two state trooper cars were pursuing us at high speed. They were rising over the hill behind us...gaining distance.

And Jinx saw it. "Ah....it's about time something combustible came into play," she smirked in the rear mirror.

I looked at her horrifically.

She glanced at me back. "Hope you're insured."

I shook my head.

SCREEECH!!!

"!!!" I jerked to the left as she swerved her driving arms.

We rounded a brown van and throttled......backwards.

"Ack!!!" Jinx shook as the swirling lights intensified behind us. "Wh-Which one makes us go faster?!?!"

I swiftly jerked our arms down, grabbed the stick in my metal palm, and pushed it up and right into fifth gear.

_VRRMMMMMM!!!!_

We zoomed up quickly and Jinx had to compensate by swerving screechily around a Volkswagen on the country road.

"Whoah!! Okay!! The wheels go round and round! The wheels go round and round!!!"

I sweat-dropped and glanced behind us.

Innocent drivers moved to the left and right side of the road, giving the two pursuing squad cars easy access to pursue us.

I bit my lip.

"I wonder if they heard about us....ya know....kinda sorta beating up their partners?"

I stared at her.

_You think??_

SCREEECH!!

I jerked into her, my face planting painfully in her shoulder.

She was swerving us right and around a truck hauling a camping trailer. The truck honked at us annoyingly as we skirted around it.

But the swirling lights behind became brighter and the sirens became louder.

Jinx suddenly bore a Cheshire cat grin.

I stared at her nervously.

"I think it's about time we re-wrote the rules of the road," she slurred.

I vehemently shook my head 'no'.

She ignored me. We pulled up so that we were in a lane in front of and to the right of the truck behind us. Jinx raised her left hand free, charged it pink, and aimed at the driver's side window next to her.

FLASH!!!

_SHATTER!!!_

The glass fell away.

I winced.

"Mind the bumps!!!" Jinx exclaimed and shot a pink hex out alongside us.

FLASH!!!

The pink energy streamed over the blurring asphalt, swam between the four wheels of the truck, and exploded beneath the trailer hitch.

SNAP!!!!

Screeeeeech!!!

The truck swerved as it lost control of the camping trailer.

CRAA-AACK!!!

The trailer broke loose from the back of the truck, skidded, rolled over, and scraped its way backwards towards the two squad cars.

The police swung hard to avoid the vehicle. One had to stop completely, barely bumping into the trailer. The other swerved safely around it and pursued us with added ferocity. The siren wailing. The state troopers inside cocking weapons.

I watched from the rear view mirror. I shivered.

"Hmmm....I don't like stalkers....," Jinx said. She decelerated some, reached her left arm outside the driver's side window again, and fired hex after hex beam at the road blurring beneath us.

FL-FLASH!! FLASH!!!

The asphalt glowed with a hot fuchsia and exploded with flaming potholes scattered abroad. The pursuing police car found itself navigating a sudden mine field of combustible energy. One pothole exploded underneath a front side tire. POP!!! The squad car screeched, decelerated, swerved to the side, and came to a light crashing stop against a guardrail as we passed over a bridge. CRUNCH!!!

"HA!!" Jinx cackled into the rear view mirror. She looked at me, grinning wide. "They certainly didn't have their Earnhardts at the wheel today, huh??"

As we zoomed down the other end of the hill, two police motorcyclists in waiting throttled their engines and cruised alongside us at high speed.

_VRMMMM!!!_

The motorcycle on our left drifted over and the cop kicked the side door of our squad car with his boot. WHAM!! "Pull over!! Now!!!"

Jinx growled like a vicious cat snarl and—"HAAA!!" Her outstretched hand flew a pink hex straight at his face.

FLASH!!!

TH-THWAP!!

His helmet tore off. He shook his wind-blown face—disoriented. Soon his motorcycle skidded through two lanes of incoming traffic, causing two cars to screech to a stop and grind against each other. CRUUUU-UUUNCH!!! The trooper fell off his bike and rolled to an unconscious stop on a grassy gnoll.

The motorcyclist to our right reached desperately for his mic and shouted: "Requesting backup immediat—"

Jinx growled, aimed her wrist....

"!!!!" I ducked my head.

"HAAAAA!!!" the witch flung a hex straight over my cranium.

SMASH!!!!

The pink energy sailed through the passenger side window and slammed into the front of the motorcycle. The handle snapped free.

"WHOAH!!!" the trooper struggled to grab onto something as the rest of his bike teetered, unbalanced.

"Nnnngh!!" Jinx swerved our car right.

THWUMP!!!!

I jolted as my passenger door slammed into the side of the trooper's bike. The man and his cycle were sent sliding into a lake just besides the country road then and there. SPLOOOSH!!!

_Dah!! Jeez!!_

I panted, slumped down in my seat.

JERK!!!

I was yanked to my left as Jinx swerved hard to the side.

We burned rubber around a school bus and zoomed down the country road. Traffic appeared to be increasing. I saw a sign for the Metropolitan Highway coming up.

"Ah...well.......w-we can't make them any angrier than that, now can we?" she chuckled nervously.

Ear-splitting sirens swam in through the shattered windows of our car. We looked forward and to the left to spot three trooper vehicles drive over the grassy median from the opposite, incoming lane and over to cruise alongside us threateningly.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

Jinx took a deep breath. "Allright....plenty more hex where that came from." A beat. "And petroleum," she smiled and tried to shift gears—

_CRNNNNGGG!!!_

The gears grinded.

"Ackies!! What the?!?!"

I panted.

"Wh-Where's the clutch again??"

I dove into her seat area and forcibly shoved her foot over to it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"..........."

Robin's eyemask twitched.

His head pivoted a bit.

A slit of sunlight crossed the gray area of his mask.

"Nnnngh....," he groaned and stirred.

His lips pursed.

His teeth clenched.

He sat up--

CONK!!

He bumped his head on a bent scrap of metal that was once the frame of the train engine's interior.

"Owwwwwww....," the Boy Wonder rubbed his forehead. He moved his limbs to check if anything was broken.

He was in one piece.

"Ugh....," he snaked and squirmed his way down the tiny corridor of bent and collapsed metal that he was in. He crawled up, sideways, and up again towards blinding daylight. Soon the Boy Wonder stood atop an overturned metal holocaust of a crashed train engine, haloed by collapsed and crunched passenger cars. Metal wheels and framework were still steaming around him. Every now and then, a groaning or creaking sound announced the collapse of some bulkhead inside the monstrous crash.

He jumped down onto the upturned grass, walked a few paces uphill, and turned to get a good look of the wreckaged besides the scuffed tracks.

"..........."

He adjusted his tangled hair back to its spiked look and sighed.

"Guess I take the bus from now on...."

A shuffling sound.

Robin jerked. He whipped out three throwing discs and a birdarang in a blink of an eye.

His vision swirled, scanned the nearby landscape, and found the source of the shuffling.

Two forest rangers emerging from the tree line.

"Hello there!"

"My god....are you all right??"

"Yes.....I'm fine....," Robin exhaled, pocketing the projectiles away. "What time do you have?"

One ranger seemed confused. He blinked....looked at his watch, and then uttered: "Wh-Why....uhm....three twenty two."

Robin took a deep breath. "So I've been out for nearly an hour." He rubbed his head again. "Nnngh........how'd it happen? Mammoth was out cold....literally. I had Gizmo in my grip. Did th-they have an accomplice??"

"Help me look for survivors!" the one ranger said to the other.

Robin groaned. "There aren't any passengers on board. They were scared away before it was hijacked."

"H-Hijacked??"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. He turned to look at the two steadily. "Did you two....s-see any strange people leave this area?"

"Sir???"

"Mammoth and Gizmo. Supervillains. A large, muscular Caucasian with red hair and a short, bald-headed youth with a jetpack and goggles?"

"N-No, sir. We just got to this crash now. We were investigating the disappearance of this train in between stations."

"Yeah, well....you can have it," Robin growled and faced the line of forest. "I've got two fugitives to track down now...."

A beat.

"But first thing's first....," Robin whipped out his communicator. A light on it was blinking....indicating an attempt by his colleagues to contact him while he was under. He sighed and flipped the communicator open with a Star Trek sound, speaking on all frequencies: "Titans. Titans, this is Robin. Report!"

"_Snnkkkt---Robin??"_

Robin exhaled. "Starfire. It's me."

"_Robin! I am filled with jubilation at again hearing your voice! I was afraid another one of us had fallen!!"_

Robin rubbed his brow—wincing—as he replied: "Well, I'm A-Okay. The train Mammoth and Gizmo were on derailed while I was interrogating them. I don't know how—"

"_Robin, Beast Boy has been attacked!"_

A blink. "When??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire stood in the woods. Beside her was Raven, who was tending to a dizzy-but-waking Beast Boy propped up against a tree. Cyborg stood off a few feet away, performing sensor scans on a wireless frequency connected to the computer of the T-Car, parked a few paces away beyond the forest line. Tempest wasn't there yet.

"It transpired approximately the same time we lost contact with you," Starfire voiced into her communicator. "Beast Boy believed he had spotted Jinx and was attempting to intercept. He seems to have suffered blows to his poor elfin body."

"_Is he okay??"_

"He is stable," Starfire said. She bit her lip. "But there is one distressing note..."

"_What's that?"_

SWIIISH—A green tentacle momentarily reached up and—GRIP!!—took the communicator out of Starfire's hand.

Beast Boy leaned achingly against the tree with one hand holding an icepack to his forehead. "Noir pummeled me good, dude!"

"_Excuse me??"_

"You heard me!!" Beast Boy winced. "He smacked me in the nose then played soccer with my tummy! I ain't doing curl-ups for a week now! Nnnghh..." he winced as he overexerted his lungs.

Raven—applying hands of a healing glow—forced him to sit still and droned: "Oh you poor thing......"

Beast Boy stuck his tongue at her.

_"Let me get this straight, Beast Boy....you're saying that Noir attacked you?"_

"Er....well....," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"_Well what?"_

"He didn't do it right away."

"_What do you mean?"_

"Jinx was with him," Raven leaned over and spoke into the communicator. "Beast Boy was in a scuffle with her before Noir stepped in and finished the battle in Jinx's favor."

"But it was not entirely in Jinx's favor....," Starfire interjected. She gestured: "For if it truly was....then Beast Boy would not be alive, no?"

"There's something else, dude...," Beast Boy yanked the communicator from Raven's mouth and spoke: "Jinx and Noir.....th-they were _handcuffed_."

_"Handcuffed?"_

"Uh....yeah," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Didn't know Noir was into that sort of thing."

"......_..be serious."_

"I am!! It was a thick, black, metal handcuff with—like—a blinking light in the center of the chain link and stuff."

Cyborg stepped forward. "Ya know...that doohickey sounds familiar."

"Care to help us out here?" Raven asked.

Cyborg smirked momentarily, then said: "Sounds like there's some sort of sensor on the handcuffs."

"_Like to trigger something if there's separation of the link?"_

"Not so much the link, Robin," Cyborg shook his head. "But there are handcuffs made to register biological signatures in proximity to each other. Lexcorp was notorious for using a bunch of them. H.I.V.E. too. 'Model Fives' they were called. Basically, two people would be forced together in handcuffs and if one were to detach from the other the sensor would trigger something as simple as a security failsafe or as chaotic as a nuclear bomb. No matter what...the result is a chilling effect. A chilling effect most impactful on the recipient of the handcuffs."

"A chilling effect....," Raven's eyes narrowed. "So you're saying that....Jinx may be coercing Noir into something?"

"Phweeee...," Beast Boy sighed. His eyes were thin. "A lot of people seem to be in the habit of doing that to him."

Starfire bit her lip.

"But coercing him into what exactly?" Cyborg shrugged. "Kicking the crap out of Beast Boy? Raven and I do that enough as it is in the Tower!"

The changeling fumed.

"_Jinx is taking Noir somewhere...,"_ Robin's voice said. _"And wherever she's taking him....she doesn't want the Titans getting in the way. But it's not the Titans she's trying to control...or else she would have made some demands of us already. This is all about Noir for some reason."_

"And Noir was attending to her commands by defending against Beast Boy....," Starfire murmured with her hands clasped together.

Beast Boy grumbled: "He could have simply _asked_ me to back off."

Raven blinked at him. "He was mute....and you were wrestling with Jinx. What was he to do?"

"Run away!" Beast Boy grinned.

"......................from you?"

Beast Boy frowned.

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Uhm....Robin?"

"_I'm here."_

"I've run a scan of the surrounding forest. When I combined thermal traces with Beast Boy's sense of smell and Raven's empathy, we all agree that—wherever Jinx and Noir went—they took a northerly direction. If we all fan out in that general area....we may be able yet to trace them."

_"Not a bad idea. Expediency would be best here."_

"You allright, man? You need a lift?"

_"I have the R-Cycle.....s-somewhere."_

"Are you damaged??" Starfire asked.

"_No, I'm fine. The train wreck didn't hurt me any—"_

She gasped. "T-Train wreck?!?!"

_"Uh...yeah. Didn't I tell you that the train Mammoth and Gizmo and I were on derailed?"_

"You poor, traumatized leader!! I shall make haste to see to your safety—" She prepared to take flight.

"_No, Starfire. Stay there. If I'll need you for anything, it'll be to track down Mammoth and Gizmo with me. Just like Jinx and Noir...they can't be too far. In fact, they may be closer."_

"I....I-I understand...," she murmured.

"Well.....," Raven folded her arms and droned, "...who are we going for?"

"_All I can say at this point—with all the obstacles in our way—it's up to fate itself to point us in the right direction."_

As if on cue, there was a beeping signal on Cyborg's arm-sensor. He flipped the compartment open and squinted his eyes at the readout. He smirked. "Looks like we got just the pointer we needed, dawg."

"_What's that exactly?"_

Starfire and Raven leaned over the android Titan's shoulder as he said: "Reports are in that there's a dangerous, high stakes police pursuit taking place north of here and involving a stolen squad car."

"_Since when?"_

"The car was stolen an hour ago. And get _this_. One of the two cops knocked unconscious reported two strange-looking teenagers of pink and black......with handcuffs."

"Man....," Beast Boy teetered. "Noir's on a roll!"

"_This looks to be it, Titans. Cyborg....Raven. Take the T-Car and catch up to the pursuit! I'll join you with the R-Cycle!"_

"Allright, man," Cyborg nodded. "I'll relay the coordinates to you by the time you get situated."

_"10-4. Starfire."_

"Yes, Robin?"

"_Take Beast Boy back to the Tower. He's relieved of duty for the day."_

"Woo-hoo!!"

"_Once he's taken care of...perform an aerial search of the area surrounding the train wreck. Just in case. I don't want to leave Mammoth and Gizmo unattended completely."_

"Understood."

_"You have your orders."_

"Well alright," Cyborg nodded. He motioned with a strong arm. "Let's move out!"

He ran to the T-Car beyond the trees. Raven drifted after him.

Starfire gently lifted Beast Boy by the shoulders.

He simpered: "A-Anyone tell you that you're amazingly well-fit?"

She giggled. "Yes, Beast Boy. The costume I wear envelopes my bodily shape with great comfort."

".....no, Star. I meant—"

SWOOOOSH!!

"YEEEP!!!" he clung to her as she flew the two of them southward.

_VRMMMMM!!!!_ The T-Car throttled off down the country road beyond.

The forest clearing was empty.

A beat.

An even longer beat. Then.....

Sploosh!!!

Out from a babbling brook two rows of trees down, an Atlantean form leapt. Shaking the drops off him, Tempest ran over and stood still in the center of the forest clearing.

"........."

He looked around.

".........."

Nothing.

"Okay...what the Hell??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran through the forest from the train-wreck, panting.

In mid sprint, he whipped out a trigger from his utility belt and fingered a switch on it.

"Hope nobody's carjacked you yet...," he uttered.

His finger pressed the switch.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the nearest railroad station south of that spot.

Behind a bush.

Parked and hidden.

The lights of the R-Cycle activated on their own.

The engine switched on.

The throttles revved 'magically'.

_VRRRRM!!!_

The R-Cycle burst through the bush, scared a few pedestrians, then sped down—tires squealing—towards the main road that led north.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a small, alpine town....a lonely bus stop resided alongside a two-lane road.

Two old ladies stood by the bus stop sign with purses hanging over their shoulders and red hats on their heads.

"And it was the size of an aerosol can!"

"You don't say???"

"Mmmhmmm....."

_RUSTLE!!_

Robin burst out of the nearby line of trees and brush.

"Good heavens!!"

"Mercy me!"

Robin stood by the two ladies, panting, brushing twigs and branches off of him. He stood up straight and waited at the bus stop.

Silence.

".........," he glanced over.

The two ladies stared at him.

"......"

He blinked. He cleared his throat. "Ahem.....beautiful weather."

"Oh....v-very."

"Yessir."

"Fall."

"Yeah....fall."

A beat.

Robin shifted where he stood.

The women stared at their feet.

Silence.

A rumbling sound.

A throttling sound.

A roaring sound.

_VRMMMMM—SCREEECH!!_

The R-Cycle came to a stop.

Robin leapt on and grabbed the handles. "Good day!!"

"S-So long....," they waved.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMM!!!_

He coasted down the road.

The two ladies were alone.

A beat.

One looked at the other. "So....um....the potpourri kind or the body deodorant kind?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin masterfully slipped his helmet on with one hand while steering speedily with the other.

He activated the communicator in his helmet and uttered: "Where're those coordinates, Cyborg?"

_"We're getting them now, man."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg glanced over at Raven as he drove.

The dark girl typed away at the dashboard computer. Her violet eyes swam across the tiny monitor.

"Heading North-Northwest on the State Road Ten-Twenty. Approaching Hashburn County."

Cyborg's human eye narrowed. "That's leading towards the Metropolitan Highway!"

Raven looked at the android. "Maybe they're heading for Metropolis?"

"_Kind of a bad idea now with all the heat they have on them,"_ Robin's voice said.

"Come on, man!" Cyborg smirked. "How much attention could the two of them gather together?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VROOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!_

Jinx and I flew over a rise in the asphalt at eighty miles per hour and landed with a brief shower of sparks before burning down the state road.__

Wriii! Wriii! Wriii! Wriii!

Twenty-Five state trooper squad cars were hot on our heels with sirens blaring and lights flashing. More and more were joining the gargantuan pursuit.

_Wriii! Wriii! Wriii! Wriii!_

Jinx stared in the rear-view mirror at the solid line of law enforcement.

She bit her lips.

"Well....hope you're doing okay too, Leslie." A beat. She glanced right at me. "Any ideas?"

I was desperately rummaging my right hand through the glove compartment for something to perform Hiri Kiri with.

"I agree," Jinx nodded. "The highway it is."

"?!?!?!?!" My black eyes practically exploded.

"Howbeit....my hex is a little dried up," she pouted. "I'll need more concentration. Hmmmm...I know! You drive!"

My jaw fell between my legs....er....'to the seat'....er.....

"You heard me!!" she cutely uttered and was already halfway through the process of repositioning her petite body around as we rocketed blindly forward at ninety miles an hour. "You....DRIVE!!"

I couldn't dispute her. Besides...the way she was twisting herself around--

"!!!" I was yanked left. In the middle of the 'yanking', I converted it into a dive as I plunged myself into the driver's seat. SWOOOOSH!!! My right foot went to the gas pedal. SWOOOOSH!! My left foot to the clutch. I panted and jerked my right hand between Jinx's body and mine and found the clutch. My left arm—still bound by her wrist—gripped tightly to the wheel.

I didn't even consider figuring out how this coordination was to work......until I felt Jinx saddling my waist.

"Get onto the nearest onramp...," she growled as she leaned forcibly over me. Her knee pressed into my upper thigh and her other foot balanced on my knee as her upper body leaned closely over my face and shoulder. "And don't get any ideas, Shades!!"

I gritted my teeth and craned my neck to the left, literally staring at the burning road underneath her left armpit.

_God I hate you so much...._

"Steady....steady....," Jinx leaned over me and faced the rear of the vehicle. The lights from the squad cars flashed through the rear window of the vehicle. She raised a pink left hand, barred her Cheshire teeth, and flung a streaming beam of hex. "HAAAAA!!!"

SHATTER!!!!

I winced.

The rear window was gone. The pink streamed out and struck the front tire of one squad car. POP!!! HISSSSSssssss. The squad car in question swerved left and right before decelerating and dropping back. Speeding pursuers behind it swerved out of the way and throttled after us with extra gusto.

"HAAAA!!" Jinx flung a hex beam. FLASH!!! Another. FL-FLASH!! "Have some sprinkles for your donuts, pigs!!!"

I gripped the steering wheel until my metal knuckles were white....if that was even possible. I found a break in the civilian vehicles ahead of us. I went for it.

I shifted gears forward.

I slammed the gas.

_VRRMMMMM!!_

"ACKIES!!" Jinx fell....into me.

"!!!!" I shook my head free of her chest, regained my focus of the road, and spit once or twice.

_Bleack!!_

I spit again.

_Cat hair?!?!?!_

My black eyes caught more patterns emerging in the traffic before us. Spaces between a truck and two vans. An 'alleyway' formed between two commercial buses. I swiftly swerved us in and around the vehicles without so much as touching them—while at the same time maintaining a suicidal speed worthy of Hollywood.

"O-Okay...," Jinx shivered against me and re-propped herself on my shoulders. "YOU are the better driver."

I shuddered as I found two semi-trucks slowly coasting along the state road. They stood in the way between the right lane we were suddenly in and the exit leading towards the highway onramps.

_Wriii-Wriii-Wriii-Wriii!_

Two squad cars caught up behind us in between traffic.

"Keep her steady!!" Jinx hissed.

I glanced up at the rear-view mirror.

Beyond her butchered head of pink hair, I caught the reflection of the troopers in question.

I sweatdropped.

She prepared a hex bolt....aiming at their fuel tanks.

_SCREEECH!!!_ I swerved hard to the left.

"Nnngh!!" she let loose a hex beam awkwardly.

FLASH!!!

It struck asphalt a few blazing feet in front of the first squad car, barely missing it.

"Grrrrr....," she growled down at me. "Keep it STEADY!!!" She gestured at the blinking light on our handcuffs. "Understand?!?!?!"

"........"

She focused again on the two squad cars, sweating.

They came closer to our rear.

Sirens blaring.

We were nearly at the exit.

I bit my lip.

The semi-trucks were still coasting in the way.

I was decelerating.

The squad cars were gaining.

Jinx's pink hand was glowing.

My black eyes narrowed.

One of the semi trucks changed lanes.

_An opening...._

"!!!!"

I throttled towards it.

SCREEEECH!!!

"AUGH!!" Jinx tottered over me again.

I shoved her away some with an elbow and struggled to swerve the car two lanes left, almost clipping the front of one semi truck, and skirting off towards the onramp to the Metropolitan Highway.

"I thought I told you to---" Jinx glanced forward. She blinked. "—oh. You're getting us there."

I exhaled with a frown.

"Well...," Jinx sighed....panted. "Guess that makes my job easier." She relaxed some, facing the back as the huge array of squad cars grew more and more distant behind us. "Though I would have been content to see some aluminum fly."

I shrugged.

I swerved us onto the onramp, curved around, and onto the highway—

_WRIII!! WRIII!!! WRIIII!!_

There was a screeching formation of four squad cars waiting for us just as we entered the highway.

"Cleopatra almighty!!!"

_CRUD!!!_

I gritted my teeth, shifted gears, and swerved with one hand to avoid the collision of two squad cars to the left of me.

In so doing, I decelerated us some. We were now cruising at about sixty-five miles per hour between four expertly driven squad cars. We were being boxed in.

"Nice job, Ghost Boy!" Jinx panted, looking all around...literally. "Think you can drive us onto a city tow truck while you're at it??"

_Shut up!!_

I held my breath, shifted gears, and tried throttling forward.

_VRMMMMM!!!_

The two police cars ahead of me closed in together, blocking me.

I pulled back, gripping hard to the wheel.

Panting, I glanced over my shoulders.

The two squad cars to our rear closed in.

"Get us out of this, Ghost Boy...."

The police cars in front of me were gradually decelerating.

We were forced down to sixty.....fifty five.....

"Ghost Boyyyyyy....," Jinx sweatdropped.

I panted. I looked out the windows. The windshield. The rear.

Fifty.....forty five.....

A pink light.

I looked straight up.

Jinx glanced down at me from where she was saddled. Her hand was glowing a threatening pink. "Get us out of here....unless you want _me_ to force an exit."

"......," I blinked at her.

_She.......She's giving me a choice?_

There was something strangely...betrayingly soft in the villain's pink cat eyes then and there.

_A.....p-peaceful solution?_

My black eyes caught something.

I glanced under her right armpit.

I saw a break in the guardrail separating the North Highway from the South....

_A break!_

I couldn't go forward. I couldn't go back.

So I swerved left.

SCREEEEECH!!!

Jinx held onto me and the seat for dear life as I swerved us through the tiny gap in guardrail, over the grassy median, and into the opposite highway.

I held my breath.

_Well....semi-peaceful._

HONK!!! HONK!!!

HONNNNNK!!!

SCREEE-EEEEECH!!!

I gritted my teeth, concentrated, and jerked left and right as I made minute adjustments so as to cruise us safely forward........through layer after layer of incoming traffic.

SCREEE-EEE-EEECH!!! HONK!!! HONK!!

Sports cars. Buses. Trucks. Vans. They all swerved desperately to avoid even the slightest contact with this homicidal squad car rocketing straight towards them at combined speeds of well over one hundred and twenty miles per hour.

_But I'm not homicidal!!_

I sweatdropped and looked for an opportune way to get back to the frickin' North-Lanes.

All the while, Jinx clung to me with her cat-eyes shut. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!"

I bit my lip.

I saw a construction mess of sorts blurring up towards us. The guardrail of the median ahead was being reformed. There were piles of metal bracing equipment scattered here and there along the edge of the innermost lane. One pile looked suspiciously like a ramp.

I exhaled.

_Oh well...you only live never...._

SCREEEECH!!!

I swerved the two of us right, nearly clipped the front of a pickup, jerked closely around the rear of a Ferrari (!!!!!) and rocketed straight towards the 'ramp'.

TH-THWUMP!!!!

THWOOOOSH!!!

We soared—airborne—across two lanes of north-bound traffic, lowered dangerously close over the top of a semi-truck trailer, and landed just beyond the grill of its front engine before zooming off with a tiny flurry of sparks.

_VRRRRMMM!!_

I found it a Hell of a lot easier to speed illegally around traffic going in the same direction than twice as illegally against incoming traffic. But still...we lost those two squad cars.

I exhaled.

A beat.

I looked at Jinx still clutching me. I nudged her.

"......," she sat up straight over me. "Ya know....I just realized something. Remembering the last time you and I were both on a highway....m-maybe this wasn't such a safe idea."

I would have headbutted her if only her knee wasn't so close to my groin.

Siren sounds.

"?????" I glanced in one of the rear mirrors.

Two motorcycles were coasting up the onramp and joining the highway lanes. They were quick to our tails.

_No holiday on the road._

I refocused on the road ahead as I sped around vehicle after vehicle.

_Just where did she expect this to end??_

The motorcycles were gaining on us.

"Okay...go time....," she muttered.

I flinched as Jinx suddenly flipped herself over the back of the seat.

"!!!" My left hand jerked back with her. I hurriedly took my right hand off the stick and ripped the right side of the wheel. My left hand hung backwards at an awkward angle as Jinx turned herself around, positioned herself in the back of the squad car, and sat with her back to my back with a seat cushion in between. She had her right hand free to aim out the rear window and—"HAAA!!!"

She flung two pink beams at the cyclists.

They expertly swerved around it, saluted to each other, and split up to position themselves on either side of us.

Jinx glanced left. She glanced right. She flung her arm through the shattered window on the right. "HAAA!!!"

My body jerked awkwardly to the right to compensate. I struggled to keep my right hand grip of the wheel.

FLASH!!!!

The bolt exploded in front of the right cyclist. He decelerated some.

Jinx went to the left. "HAA!!!"

I jerked with her, cussing inwardly.

FLASH!!!

The cyclist ducked the flashing beam. He gunned it and cruised ahead of us.

"Keep it steady, Ghost Boy!!!"

I glanced at the stick shift. No hand on it. Naked.

_Guess we're fine going a constant ninety miles an hour for a while......_

I sweatdropped nervously.

_VRMMMMM!!!_

One cyclist cruised and positioned himself right in front of us.

The other to our rear.

I raised an eyebrow.

_Are they trying to box us in?? Motorcycles??_

I saw the cop in front of me unholster a pistol and take aim at---

I gasped.

_The tires!!!_

SCREEEECH!!!

I swerved us left and out of range.

Jinx toppled over in the back, jerking at my arm.

_VRMMMMM!!!_

I winced. I couldn't shift down without taking my hand off the wheel. And at this speed, no-hands-at-the-wheel wasn't a good idea.

And neither was trying to drive between two semi-truck trailers side by side.

But that was exactly what I was doing.

HONNK!!! HONNKKK!!

The truckers must have seen us in their rear view mirror. But they were up against the guardrail of the far left lane and traffic on the right. They couldn't move.

Only we could.

"........," I took a deep breath.

I slammed my lead-foot.

_VRRRRRRM!!!_

We accelerated to one hundred and twenty.

Straight towards the thin gap in between the semi-trucks.

The motorcycles squealed after us.

The semi trucks loomed.

We throttled towards them.

Jinx sat up—trembling—in the backseat.

"Um.....wh-what are you doing—"

I gritted my teeth. I concentrated. Murk coursed down my arms and danced out from my shaded eyes.

The gap between the trucks came closer and closer. Too thin. Too dangerous. We couldn't possibly fit through it unless--

"!!!!!!" I swerved hard to the right. As I did so, I simultaneously let loose a huge purse of warbling smoke and murk energy through the steering wheel, into the mechanisms of the car, into the axel of the vehicle itself, and then the left tires--

FLASH!!!!

Smoke exploded.

The car tipped right.

The left wheels lifted off the ground and--

_VRRRRRM!!!-SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!_

We squeezed through the two trailers at an off-horizontal angle. The left hubcaps sparked against the left trailer while the right edge of the squad car's ceilings dragged against the right trailer.

After three or four endless seconds....we popped through and past the truck engines on the other side.

WHOMP!!!!

The left side of the car lurched down.

I couldn't calculate for the centripetal force of the weighted impact.

SCREEEEEECH!!!

I lost control of the steering momentarily.

We literally spun around twice.

"WAAAAH!!" Jinx went flying into the front seat.

THWUMP!!

Cr-Crrk!

It took me half a second of spinning seven-hundred-and-twenty degrees across two lanes of highway traffic at excess of seventy miles an hour to realize that—in toppling into the front seat—Jinx's body had struck the stickshift.

And we were in 'reverse'.

_Great Hera!!_

I jerked at the steering wheel.

I let go of the gas.

_SCREEEECH!!!_

I stopped the spinning.

I angled us against the grills of the two semi trucks.

A blink.

THWAP!! My foot slammed over the gas again.

_VRRRRM!!!_

We drove backwards at sixty miles per hour down the highway.

The grills of the two semi-trucks bore down on us. We were nearly a foot apart.

HONNNK!! HONNNK!!!

I panted...panted....panted...

_Have you ever heard of 'braking for cataclysmic highway chase sequence?!?!'_

_VRRRRM!!_

The two motorcycle cops bravely—or stupidly—drove between the two truck trailers towards us.....head-on.

At around that time, Jinx sat up. She blinked. "You REALLY don't want your squad cars coming back in one piece...DO YOU!!!" And she aimed a glowing hand forward.

If I had an arm free to shield my face, I would have--

"HAAAAA!!!"

FL-FLASH!!!

SHATTER!!!

The pink glow smashed through the windshield and struck the two motorcycles.

POW!!!

P-POW!!!

The cops were thrown from their bikes. They ricocheted off the trailers on either side of them and tumbled together across the asphalt....growing distant on the highway road.

I winced.

"Get us moving forward again!!" Jinx growled and aimed her foot at the stick shift.

I gasped.

_Wait!!!_

She kicked it.

CRRRK!!

Fifth gear.

_ARRRRGH!!!_

I spun at the steering wheel with one hand.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!

The world spun.

My hair windsocked around us.

"Mmmf!!" Jinx toppled over me...again her torso provocatively over my face.

_Go to Hell!!_

I snarled and fought to peer at the spinning world under her armpit.

_Go to Hell and....d-die!!_

SCREEECH!!

I angled us with the road ahead, slammed my foot down on the gas, and rocketed us forward.

"AAACK!!"

Jinx fell over me and plopped hard into the rear of the vehicle.

"Owie...."

I exhaled.........and smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRRRRRRMMMMM!!!_

Robin burned down the road. His gloved hands gripped tightly to the handles of his bike as he gradually came alongside the Metropolitan Highway. He looked for a perfect onramp to advance onto the northbound lanes.

He spoke into his helmet:

"Robin here!! I'm approaching the Highway! How about you guys??"

_"We're already there, man. And it ain't a pretty sight."_

Robin's eyemask narrowed under his helmet's visor. "Define 'unpretty'."

"_Cars offroad. Scraped and scuffed up trucks. A few bruised up state troopers. Nothing super serious...but he's been doing some mighty ass daredevilling."_

"I hear ya. I'll be joining you and Raven in the pursuit soon."

"_You think Noir has any idea what he's doing???"_

"Not any less than us," Robin said. A beat. "And I think he's just about as happy about it as _we_ are."

"_Couldn't agree more, dawg. Let's end this."_

"Yes....," Robin slurred. "Let's...."

And he swerved up onto the first onramp he could find.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The highway was starting to clear up some.

The late afternoon sun was burning with an autumn orange.

I took a shuddering breath and glanced back at Jinx.

She glanced at me from the backseat. With all the windows shattered, air was whipping through mightily and blowing at our hair.....well...._my_ hair. There was hardly anything left for the butchered Jinx.

"What???" she cackled.

I motioned towards the road ahead with my head.

"Keep going," she smiled. "We look to be in the clear now, Ghost Boy."

FLASH!!!!

The car lurched.

The two of us jerked.

"Nnngh!!" Jinx shook her pink head. "What in Hecate's name??" She glanced back.

I looked in the rear view mirror.

The trunk of the squad car was being engulfed in black tendrils of energy. We saw the shimmering hood of the T-Car behind us. Menacing. Inside the passenger's seat, a blue-robed sorceress had her hands outstretched and her eyes glowing a bright gray.

FLAAA-AAASH!!!

Our car was slowly dragged backwards. The tires burned as what was supposed to be ninety-miles-per-hour became gradually seventy.

Jinx growled. "Your witch friend......sometimes I envy her."

I wanted to whimper.

She raised her left hand—glowing pink. "This will take care of the job."

I furiously shook my head 'no'.

"Would you rather somebody....somewhere...BLOW UP?!?!" Jinx remarked.

"......."

"Now......BACK OFF!!" Jinx flung her hand back. "HAAA!!!'

FLASH!!!!

The hex struck the asphalt and split forth a huge, gaping ravine.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg gritted his teeth. "Hold on!!!"

SCREEEEECH!!!

He swerved left with both hands to the wheel, barely avoiding the cut in the asphalt earth.

Raven bumped up and down in her seat. "Nnngh!!" Her eyes immediately stopped glowing and she lowered her wrists. "I told you I couldn't concentrate at this speed....."

"Understood, Rae....," Cyborg nodded. He flipped a switch on the dashboard. "About time I put things into focus for the four of us."

_WHURRRRRR-CHTUNG!!_

The photon cannon stuck up and out of the top of the T-Car.

".......," Raven glared at Cyborg.

He simpered. "EMP Shockwave. It'll only shut down the vehicle....forcing it to stop. They won't get hurt."

She nodded.

The two looked straight ahead.

A beat.

"Though.....dropping Jinx on her head would be nice," Cyborg said.

"Here here."

"Ahem....FIRING!!"

-click-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

A blue stream of electrical energy soared at us.

I took one look at the shimmering aura in the rear view mirror, gasped, and spun to the left.

SCREEEECH!!

FLASH!!!

The blue stream struck the asphalt beside us, scorching the ground.

_Dammit, Cyborg!!!_

I panted and swerved left as---sure enough....

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!

FLASH!!!!

The bolt struck to our left.

I sweated, gripping the wheel.

Jinx took a deep breath and fired swift volleys of pink hex. "HAA! HAA-AA!!"

FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look out!" Raven gritted her teeth and extended a black shield in front of the T-Car.

FLASH!!!

Three of the hexes were deflected. The next three streaked towards the vehicle.

"Nnnngh!!" Cyborg swerved hard to the left and avoided the asphalt-exploding shot. "I am NOT in the mood for Blitzkrieg Pong on the Highway today!!!!"

-click-

-click-

Z-Z-ZAAAAA-AAAAP!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Blue beams landed and exploded around us.

I swerved madly, throttled forward, and brought us up and around trucks and vans...knowing Cyborg wouldn't fire if it risked striking a civilian vehicle.

Jinx on the other hand....

"HAAA!!!"

FL-FLASH!!!

Pink hexes streaked over the tops of sports cars and underneath buses to strike the madly pursuing T-Car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghh....," Cyborg sweated as he steered hard left and right. "Wh-Why'd Noir have to be so damn good a driver???"

"I'd be more worried about Jinx if I were you...," Raven droned.

"That girl can't hit the broad side of a—"

FLASH!!!

CLUNK!!!! POW!!!

The photo cannon above exploded from a blast of pink hex.

Cyborg gasped. "YO!!! That's coming out of YOUR allowance, Noir!!!"

"......but you don't pay him—"

"Shhh!! Sorry Rae, but I'm gonna have to ask you to be silent as I unleash a can of vehicular whoopass...." He frowned as he popped open the safety lid of the nitro switch and fingered it....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that now's the time Cyborg would use his nitro?_

"Ghost Boy....."

I stared at the rear view mirror.

"Ghost Boy......" Jinx tapped on my shoulder with her finger.

"????"

I looked at her.

"......," She pointed forward.

I looked through the windshield.

My black eyes glossed over.

There was a terrible accident ahead of us. A semi-truck had swerved sideways and come to a stop stretching across three lanes of traffic where the highway lifted up as a bridge over a state road. Two emergency vehicles were there, their lights flashing. Eight layers of stopped traffic piled up bumper-to-bumper as work crews utilized a huge crane along the state road below to lift the trailer over to a point where it could actually be pulled down the highway to clear the lanes. This was something that had to have been in effect for two hours at least. And now it was four hundred feet away and closing in faster by the second.

I blinked.

_No way around the engine on the left._

My eyes darted under my shades.

_No way around the rear of the trailer on the right._

A twitch towards the rear view mirror.

_Cyborg and Raven dead behind us._

Falling eyesight.

_Seventy miles per hour....._

Jinx was also staring at something. But she was staring at something with a purpose. Focused and collected....she uttered: "Keep on driving."

"????" I glanced at her. I glanced at the solid wall of semi-truck-trailer stretching ahead of us.

FLASH!!!

Jinx flung a burning bolt of hex at the front right frame of the car.

FLASH!!!

She flung a bolt at the top right frame.

"........" I watched her with my peripheral vision.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

She fired at the rear left and right frames with her free hand's hex bolts.

And that's when I realized....

_She's severing the top half of the squad car._

I looked ahead.

I saw the semi-truck trailer.

I saw the tiny gap between the highway asphalt and the bottom of the trailer.

_Oh no...._

FLASH!!!

She struck the left frame.

_Oh Hell no...._

FLASH!!!

She struck the right frame.

_No no no no no no no no.........NO!!!!_

FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!

After a circle of pink fire was launched, Jinx flattened herself in the backseat of the squad car.

"Speed it up!! And duck!!!'

I shook my head.

"Duck, Ghost Boy!!! Duck!!!"

I squinted my black eyes.

I slunk down in the seat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg's hand trailed off the switch.

He leaned forward, his human eye squinting.

"What.......a-are they doing....."

"........," Raven blinked. Her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Slow down."

"Huh?? Why??"

"..........in case their body parts go flying."

"Say what?!?!?! Awww shit!! No way!! They're crazy!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I love life! I love life! I love life! I love life!!!!_

I scrunched down the lowest I could in the seat while at the same time retaining at least the most peripheral vision for seeing the dead-stopped cars on either side of us as we rocketed like an aluminum kamikaze towards the trailer and--

Contact.

_**CRAAAA-AAAACK!!!!**_

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Half of the squad car shattered and crunched back like the unfolding top of a sardine can.

The other half of the squad car showered sparks and squeezed on underneath the trailer.

The entirety of Jinx and I emerged safely on the other side.

We sat up—panting—and faced the naked wind of the rocketing highway around us. Now that our squad car was a 'convertible'.

I panted. My black eyes blinked a few times.

........._.....I love life._

_VRMMMMMM!!!!!_

With the highway completely barren on that side of the trailer, we zoomed on at an uninhibited one hundred and twenty-plus miles per hour.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEEECH!!!

The T-Car spun to a dead stop just inches in front of the trailer.

Cyborg and Raven stepped out of the T-Car and looked helplessly at the blocked path in front of them. Cyborg walked over and kicked at the severed top-half of the squad car....still smoking.

"Damn.....are they completely nuts?!?!" He panted. He looked at Raven. "Rae....you sensed they made it through okay?"

Her lips were ever so slightly curved. "And how....."

He blinked. "You mean to say you're rootin' for them to get away???"

She blinked back at him. "And you would want any less for Noir's sake?"

A beat.

Cyborg grinned wide. "You know....that was pretty frickin' cool. Hahaha!"

Raven sighed. "'Cool' indeed...."

Then....

_VRRRRRM!!!_

CL-CLANK!!!

Robin's R-Cycle zoomed in and literally ramped up and off the back of the T-Car, showering sparks.

Raven's hair blew.

Cyborg shook his fist. "Hey!! Nuh-Uh! No, dawg!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

Robin's cycle's wheels struck the asphalt.

He gritted his teeth, maintained balance, and zoomed forward at well over one hundred and thirty five.

_VRRRRRRRRRRR-RRRRRRRM!!!!!_

He rocketed after the murderously speeding clunker in the distance.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I wonder how tall our traffic tickets would stack by now?" Jinx simpered. "I'm thinking Sears Tower. What about you?"

I frowned dirtily at her.

"Aww....get some estrogen, dammit."

POW!!!

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!!"

"?!?!?!?!?" Jinx glanced back. "Aww phooie."

Robin was tailing us on his R-Cycle. With one hand he gripped tightly to a grappling hook that was fired and embedded in the back of our vehicle. He retracted the cord, pulling his already-throttling R-Cycle closer and closer towards us.

"Have him pull over!!!" Robin shouted. "NOW!!"

"Why....whoever are you talking about, Robin???" Jinx demurely gestured with overt feminity. "I see no friend of yours here!! Just a badass chauffer who happens to be doing anything and everything that I say!!"

"If you think you have any control over Noir....," Robin's eyemask narrowed as he shouted above the speed and noise of the highway debacle. "If you actually THINK he'd ever want to help you with whatever you intend on—"

SCREEEECH!!!!

I pulled hard to the left on the steering wheel.

The grappling cord pulled taut and twisted.

Robin's R-Cycle was swung left through two lanes till it grind with the guardrail of the median on the left.

SCRAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAPE!!!!

The Boy Wonder gritted his teeth and tried to maintain balance and control--

SCREEEEEEECH!!!

I pulled hard to the right.

"Nnngh!!" He kicked his leg out, pushed against the blurring right guardrail with his metal-laced boot, and aligned his bike more safely behind us.

Or so he thought.

"HAAA!!" Jinx fired a hex bolt.

SNAP!!!

The cord broke apart.

Robin steered his R-Cycle into a stable path. He took a breath and accelerated towards my left side.

_VRRRRRRM!!!_

Jinx glowed her one free hand from the backseat. She launched hex after hex. "HAA!!! HA!!! HAAA-AAA!!!"

FL-FL-FLASH!!!

Robin steered madly left and right to avoid the hot streaks of pink. Asphalt exploded around his two wheels. Just as he accelerated past Jinx's limited line of sight--

SCREEEECH!!

I swerved towards him.

"!!!!!"

He compensated at the last second.

SCRAAA-AAAPE!!!!

My car and his cycle contacted briefly.

We pushed away.

Robin found himself teetering dangerously toward the guardrail again....but he still had room to recover.

_I had given it to him._

He panted.

He looked at me.

He mouthed: 'Noir??'

Jinx was charging another hex blast. A huge one.

I looked back at him from where I drove.

I mouthed something back.

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

I mouthed it again....again.

A pause.

I lifted my left arm—bound to Jinx—and showed off the blinking sensor. When I mouthed the word one last time, everything clicked together in Robin's head. The training with Batman. The detective skills. The quick-thinking that allowed him to understand the lip-sync of one of the simplest of words.

'_Bomb!'_

"!!!!!!"

_SCREEEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEECH!!!!!_

Robin slammed onto the brakes of his motorcycle.

_VRRRRRRM!!!!_

Our squad car throttled forward and well out of range of any murderous hex bolt from Jinx's petite hands.

Robin panted from where he sat....propped up on the bike. Sweat ran down his brow. His eyemask was round.

A beat.

A chime.

Robin activated his helmet's communicator.

"Yeah, what??"

"_You going after him, man??"_

"Uhm....."

"_Cuz Raven thinks she can lift the T-Car up and around the crashed semi-truck and then we can rejoin you! Don't chase down that kidnapping witch alone, man!!"_

"........."

_"Just hang tight, Robin. We'll continue our pursuit soon enough—"_

"Negative, Cyborg."

"......_..Say What?!?!"_

"Hold back. That's an order."

_"But.....But....she's taking him away!! Are you crazy?!?! We're so close, man! We can do this!! The police have fallen back, but not us, man!! We can chase them down, dawg!!"_

"I said NO, Cyborg!! And I mean it!! Cut off all pursuit of Jinx and Noir!!"

"_Dammit, Robin! What for?!?!"_

"Those handcuffs....," Robin swallowed. ".....I think there's a remote explosive tied to them."

"..........................._..wh-what kind of explosive?"_

"That's just it, Cyborg. I don't' know," Robin exhaled. A beat. "Contact Starfire and the others. Tell them to rendezvous at the Tower."

"_Man....we're going all the way back there?!?!"_

"Something tells me that the issue at hand never left the City to begin with...............you have your orders. Robin out."

That said, the Boy Wonder slowly....gloomfully....turned his motorbike around.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cram it....frickin', cruddy, gunkin' stupid, toe-munchin'...."

"Something wrong, Gizmo??" Shimmer smirked. She kicked him in the rear along the forested path. THWAP!! "You're not moving FAST enough!!"

"Owch!!" the stubby humanoid spun around in the later afternoon light and growled. "Don't touch me in my special area!!"

"Gizmo....if you had a 'special area', then it's official.....God invented Braille on drive-thru teller machines," Shimmer smirked.

"Braille on drive-thru teller machines!!!" Mammoth laughed as he brought up the rear of the group. "Ha ha ha ha ha!!! That's funny!!! Ha ha ha!!"

WHUMP!! She elbowed him in the gut.

"Ooof!!"

"Quiet....the two of you....," Shimmer frowned. "This is it."

"..........," Mammoth glanced around. "This is what??"

"Psimon's camp," the redheaded girl folded her arms.

Mammoth frowned. "Sis....this is just a mound of leaves in the middle of the Blair Witch set!! Was this all another one of your practical jokes??"

'_**It is not her sense of humour that you should revere, my good oaf. But my sense of power....'**_

Mammoth blinked.

As if by magic, the leaves around the three of them pulled up, faded into the night, and revealed a metal block between their feet. A circular panel opened up, revealing a spiraling walkway of cold hard steps. A hooded figured marched up, his hands held together under dumbbell sleeves like that of a monk's.

Mammoth rubbed his eyes.

Gizmo folded arms.

Shimmer smiled.

The tall figure stood before them. His hands slid out from his sleeves and rose up to grab his hood. When he lowered it, the first thing the three youngsters saw was brains. Brains under a transparent sheet of a glass skull. A weathered face with aged, bulbous eyes stretched tautly beneath the transparent rim. The man smiled jaggedly.

"Don't mind the leaf-blowing job. It only took a slight prodding of your frontal lobes to distort the information your eyes were transmuting."

"Psimon.....," Gizmo flippantly grunted, looking the other way. "....been a long time."

"Gizmo, my boy....," the freakishly frail man gestured. "How's it like feeling as though you're the 'genius' of the group? Did you miss me?"

"Pfft....don't patronize yourself."

'_**And just who should YOU patronize?'**_

Gizmo glared at the man.

Psimon silently grinned.

Shimmer stepped forward. "I did it. I got them. Now what?"

"My dear students.....," Psimon stretched his arms wide and grinned even more. "We rebuild the Fearsome Five."

Mammoth scratched his dense head.

Psimon held his hands together. "There is a witch on the run. And many people will be hunting for her. Why?? Quite simply....because she was nearly put to death by impossible means. And by even more impossible means, she escaped that impossible death to be impossibly-impossibly alive right now. By the stroke of fate alone....she has been allowed to live. ....Jinx has become a rift in the natural order of things. She is....a wildcard. And if we can move her—by prodding or so—in the direction that we so please....we can get back at those whom we've been desiring to empower for a long time."

Gizmo blinked. His arms fell to his side. "H.I.V.E........y-you want to strike at H.I.V.E.......don't you?"

"Heh heh heh heh....," Psimon tilted his head back somewhat. "The amusing thing is....Jinx wants the same thing to.....m-more or less."

"So....what....we clobber her or something?"

"Oh....someone will get to take on Jinx. Though that is not the real goal here."

"Though it's the only reason **I'm** tagging along," Shimmer smirked.

Gizmo glared at her. He looked up at Psimon. "Um.....sorry for being 'genius' enough to count, Psimon _sir_. But there're only four of us here. The Fearsom Five is crud!!"

"Yeah!!" Mammoth shrugged. "Dr. Light bought it!! Who's gonna lead us!!"

"I am.....," Psimon said.

"Heh....didn't see that one coming," Gizmo rolled his pixel eyes.

Shimmer conked him on the head.

"OW!! Barf-barker!!!"

Psimon cleared his throat. "And already.....I-I've taken the first step of picking a replacement for our dear Dr. Light...."

"Oh yeah??" Gizmo's eyes narrowed. "Who?"

Psimon smirked. He shuffled over to the side and gestured towards the metal entranceway in the forest forth.....'

There was a red glow about the place. Steam frothed upwards....followed by a heaving stomping noise as a red helmet lifted into view...followed by a red and orange metal body. A body that glowed with a pulsing menace.

Mammoth and Gizmo shaded their eyes.

Shimmer grinned wide....almost like a Cheshire....

The suited man stood before them....his limbs flexing....his body glowing awkwardly....frighteningly.

"Colleagues...." Psimon gestured. "Meet Nat Tryon.....but he prefers to be called 'Neutron'."

A lonely voice hissed through the mask of the glowing figure.

"Hey there....," Neutron nodded. "So....did someone order a second cold war?"


	147. Double Jinx part 4

**147. Double Jinx part 4**

"Here you go, Robin. A complete sensor sweep of the entire City. Infrared spectrum. Radio frequencies. Radiation signatures. Gaseous emissions. Sonic vibrations. Electromagnetic flux. Even supernatural reports from local mediums....," Cyborg said as he typed and produced a multi-layered map across the huge computer screen of the Main Room. It was all very.......bland. Blank. Clean. "Nothing, man." He swiveled around in his chair and shrugged: "Nothing."

Robin took a deep breath. He folded his arms and stood in the angled rays of the amber sunset through the windows that evening. The other Titans stood quietly behind him.

"If there's an explosive somewhere in the City....it's expertly hidden," Robin said.

"......," Cyborg looked at his computer program. A beat. He looked at Robin, sweatdropping. "Or m-maybe there's no explosive at all?"

Robin scratched his chin.

Tempest cleared his throat. "So....um.....wh-why're we scanning the City instead of searching for escaped convicts, again?"

"That's what I wanna ask, dude....," Beast Boy sat on a sofa with an icepack to his forehead. "Did—like—Noir whip out a Wile E. Coyote picket sign and just tell you: 'BOMB IN CITY'?!?!"

Robin gritted his teeth. "No....," he uttered. "I merely read Noir's lips."

"Read his lips?" Tempest asked.

"He is a detective after all," Raven said.

"Yeah....lord knows detectives are good with lips."

Cyborg cleared his throat. "All he said was 'bomb', right?"

Robin nodded with a sigh. "I know....it's vague. But Noir wouldn't have lied."

"Heaven forbid."

Floating nearby, Starfire suddenly gasped: "Could it be that Noir has the bomb strapped to him?????"

Raven spoke: "I know this might sound dark—"

"—go ahead, cutie."

Raven's forehead throbbed. She didn't look at Cyborg, but instead continued: "—but if Noir was likely to have himself blown up by an instrument of Jinx, I don't think he would be giving in to her demands as we speak."

"You mean he'd let himself blow up?" Tempest asked.

"That guy shows off all the time," Beast Boy groaned....wincing into his ice. "I swear...."

"Noir would only concur with Jinx's plans if he knows that she has an explosive that would threaten the City," Raven nodded. She added: "Or us."

Starfire gulped.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "I should have....given him the chance."

"What do you mean, man?" Cyborg asked.

"To explain," Robin said.

"Explain?!?! Robin, he was driving Jinx's getaway car at ninety-miles-per hour down an empty highway. And from what I hear, he did it one-handed and _handcuffed_. Even if you could read a hand-signed sentence from him, do you seriously think he would have taken the time to remove his grip of the wheel? He told you all he could." Cyborg turned and faced the monitor. He rubbed his human head and sighed. "He gave us all he could....."

"And it's still not enough, is it?" Tempest said.

"Still....we gotta go with what we have," Robin said.

"Which is nothing," Raven droned.

Robin nodded. "The security of our City is at stake now. I'm convinced. Titans....we need to perform a City-Wide search and an in-depth, individual sensor sweep."

Mutual groans from throughout the room.

Robin frowned. "I'm serious. We can't take any chances. But at the same time—I acknowledge that this is a blind shot in the dark."

"Tell us about it, dude."

"That's why we'll run a simultaneous pursuit of Jinx and Noir. If we play our cards right, we can catch back up with them and perhaps extract some further information."

"Who'll be doing that?" Cyborg asked. A beat. He smirked: "Besides you, of course...."

".........," Robin looked across the room. "Raven."

The dark girl looked up.

"You'll be joining me. We'll embark on a trip up north, search the area for evidence, and fall back on the trail of Jinx and Noir again."

"......er.....okay," she blinked.

"Uhhh," Cyborg lifted a finger.

Robin looked his way. "Have something to say, Cyborg?"

"..........," a beat. The android simpered. "N-No. Sounds c-cool to me."

Beast Boy simpered.

"All right then," Robin nodded. "The rest of you get ready to search the City. Divide the place into four quadrants and take it from there."

"Beast Boy gets the sewers this time," Tempest groaned.

"Dude!! I do not—" he winced.

Tempest smirked.

"Raven....let's skedaddle," Robin motioned.

She stood up and swirled her robe. "Skedaddle we shall."

Suddenly, there was a chiming sound from the computer console.

"Now what?" Beast Boy groaned.

"An urgent message, perhaps?" Starfire said.

Cyborg swiveled and typed a bit on the computer. A screen popped up. The android smirked at Robin. "Looks like a certain Decker is wondering what we're doing sitting on our butts inside the Tower."

"Ay gevalt," Raven rolled her eyes.

Robin sighed. "Who didn't see this one coming?"

"Want me to tell him you ran off to Gotham to get a haircut or something?"

"No....," Robin grumbled and plodded over towards the console. "Patch me through."

-beep-

_SNkkkkt!!!_

"_--cking stupid communicator doesn't work, I swear to Go---Oh, HELLO?!?!" _

"Commissioner," Robin managed a straight face as he leaned to the mic. "I read you loud in clear." He quietly turned around and motioned for the four Titans to get to work.

Everyone but Raven rushed to their stations.

"_Might I kindly ask what the idea is of letting two convicts and half of a state trooper car tear-ass down the Metropolitan Highway??"_

Raven blew a stray strand of hair out from her face and folded her arms.

Robin rubbed his forehead and slowly managed: "The Titans.....and I.....h-have reason......to believe that.....Noir would be.....m-most safe being....left alone with Jinx."

"_Ah....so it IS true! That hippie-haired samurai is in the cahoots with the pink fortune teller!!"_

Robin's eyemask narrowed as he frowned. "Now wait a seco—"

"_Yeah yeah....I know, I know......he's still on the Titans' side, right? And for some godawful reason he's being forced to work with Jinx against his will right? Robin....those two teenagers have cost the state nine squad cars, five bikes, and four guardrails!! This was no simple joyride that they went on today!! Try telling the four state troopers who were battered till their brains rattled otherwise!!"_

"Okay....you want to know the truth, Decker??" Robin barked into the communicator. "It's a bomb, Decker. A _bomb_. Jinx has Noir handcuffed and has been forcing him to do her bidding—such as the devilish driving and cop beating—or else she may use it against him or against us or against innocent people."

"_Whoah....whoah whoah whoah whoah hold the funnel here!! You're saying we're dealing with a bomb threat now??"_

"I have every reason to believe that Jinx is up to some explosive scheme. That's why I have the Titans fanning out and checking the City."

"_Perfect.....nnngh......Robin, can you tell me exactly __**where**__ we should be looking to find this 'bomb'? Or 'bombS'?? Where should I send my men to assist in the investigation?" _

Raven cleared her throat.

Robin sweatdropped. He scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I uhm.....er......."

"............_..Robin??"_

"We.....d-don't exactly kn-know where it is yet......," the Boy Wonder bit his lip.

Raven ran a hand over her face.

A painful pause.

"_You mean to say that this is all based on supposition???"_

"Well...technically—"

"_No....there is no 'technically' or 'quite simply' or 'rubber plastically' about it!! Either there's a bomb or there isn't!!!"_

"Like I said, the Titans are scanning the City as we speak for any and all possible signs of explosive material. We're not taking any chances."

"_Maybe you shouldn't be searching the City!! Maybe you should be searching Jinx's and Noir's asses cuz by now that's the ONLY place where we're gonna find out any MORE secrets!!"_

Robin took a deep breath. "Raven and I were planning on pursuing them again, sir—"

"_Well I hope like Hell that you do!! My experts at the prison site unanimously agree. Jinx is the top suspect for the horrendous bombing and murder of dozens of inmates and guards. By now, she and Noir are halfway down the Metropolitan Highway. Do you know what that means, Robin?"_

He swallowed. "They're out of your jurisdiction...."

"_Right!! And it would not make me very happy to lose that marshmallow-haired suspect, Mr. Titan. It would not make me very happy at all....."_

A beat.

Raven immediately stepped forward. "We'll find them, Commissioner Decker. Titan Tower out."

"_Huh?? Hey, I didn't say you cou—!!"_

-beep-

Robin looked at Raven, his eyemask wide. "Raven?!?! What do you thin---?!"

"Listening to him any longer is only going to get you more temperamental," Raven droned. "I can sense it .....," Robin seethed.

"............"

A beat.

Robin sighed.

His shoulders hung and he stared at the floor.

"I'm.....I-I'm sorry, Raven. It's just......I-I feel so responsible for letting this happen to Noir. And it was the worst of timings. The absolute worst of timings."

She blinked. "Since you promoted him?"

Robin looked up at her. His lips curved somewhat. "I....I-I did tell you guys that, didn't I?"

"More like randomly blurted it," Raven droned.

Robin winced. "Y-Yeah.....spur of the moment thing."

"The blurting or the promotion?"

"The blurting."

"I would certainly hope so."

"Didn't I talk to you about it, Raven?" Robin asked, his masked head leaning to the side. "About how I wanted him as Number Two—"

"—after Cyborg, yes," Raven nodded. "And I whole-heartedly agree."

Robin sighed with relief at that.

"......it would just have been prudent to mention it more formally to the other Titans, I think."

"Yeah....," Robin nodded. "Perhaps."

A beat.

He ran a hand through his spikey black hair. "Still....i-it wasn't just the promotion that made this all bad timing."

"Then what was it?" Raven asked.

"......," Robin motioned with his glove. "Come on. Let's start our search, don't you think?" He walked towards the elevators.

Raven shrugged. "Autumn weather is the best to sigh by."

"Uh........yeah....."

And the two were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The autumn wind kicked at our hair. Loose edges of the shredded police car flapped in the breeze. We rocketed down the highway and--

"_This bottle....of stevens...awakens ancient feelings..._," Jinx grinned wide and sang with the radio. _"Like father.....stepfather....the son is drowning in the flooooooooooooooood!!"_ She shook her butchered head of pink hair. _"Yeah! Yeah yeah! Yeah yeah!!"_

".........," I slowly turned my head left from the passenger seat and glared. Hard black eyes under dark shades.

The wind kicked at my long strands.

A crackling guitar riff from the dashboard radio.

Then....

"_Say it ain't soooooooo-whoah-whoahhhhhh,"_ Jinx's head rocked around. She tapped the steering wheels with petite fingers. _"Your drug is a heartbreaker!!!"_

I ran my right hand slowly over my face.

I sighed.

"_Say it ain't sooooooooo-whoah-whoahhhhh.....My love is a life-takerrrrrr!!"_

The song died down.

Jinx sighed, smiling wide. "I love that song. Makes me think of autumn." A beat. She looked at me with a Cheshire cat grin. "What about you?"

My face squinted against the beating wind.

"Yeah....good thing we're mutual," Jinx nodded. We passed by a camper on the left. "Hello!" she waved.

"..........," the elderly drivers inside blinked at our half-wrecked squad car as we sped past them.

"What are they staring at?" Jinx said. She shrugged and looked straight ahead over the dashboard. "We have every right to take this highway. Heck....it was miles and miles back that we ever nearly killed people."

I bit my lip.

"Lucky for us we picked the one state trooper squad car in the state that actually carries its own public radio!"

"_Snnkkkt!! We interrupt this segment for an important news bulletin. Reports are in that the escaped convict—Jinx—is heading on a path of destruction north along the Metropolitan Highway---"_

"Er....right...," Jinx flung her right wrist, yanking my arm a bit.

FLASH!!!!

A burning bolt of hex flew into the radio, sizzling it into oblivion immediately. POP!!! Hisssssssss! Smoke rose.

I rubbed my temple, groaning.

Jinx's right hand lowered back to the stick shift—and so did mine.

"Come on! Relax!" she grinned as she drove casually with her left hand alone. "It was the cops that got us so stressed to begin with! And we left them way back there! Out of our hair!"

A beat.

She simpered and ran her right hand through her now-tiny strands. "As a matter of speaking...."

".....," I twitched my right fingers to shake off the loose, pink follicles that had collected when my wrist followed her movement. I gave her a sad look through my shades.

".........??????" she glanced back at me. A beat. "Oh, for Hecate's sake....," she rolled her cat eyes. "We didn't hurt any of your _precious_ friends! Sure...maybe a scuffle or two. But they left us way back there!! Robin decided not to mess with you and me. And—heheh---that's the best decision I think that bird boy has ever made!"

I frowned.

"Okay....maybe it was just _me_ that he was messing with," Jinx shrugged. "The point is...we got away without anyone being really hurt....now isn't _that_ something to be proud of?"

I stared at her with an amused look. My right eyebrow was raised.

She glanced back at me with similar suspicion. "What? You think I want to hurt your friends?"

I nearly spat.

She clenched her jaw and stared out at the highway ahead of us. The wind kicked pathetically at our faces. _How low were we on gas??_

"You think I ever wanted to hurt your friends.....???"

My right fist clenched.....then relaxed.

I glanced out the right passenger side and tried counting mile markers.

"Let me ask you something, Ghost Boy."

_Drop dead._

"Have you ever wanted to hurt me?"

I winced.

I tried not to show it.

But surely she expected it.

"Like....before we ever truly did battle?? Before I kidnapped you. Before Slade. Before everything."

My black eyes narrowed.

I thought of Westhaven.

A cabin inside a forest.

The pink-haired girl squatting around candles.

A broken mirror.

The near-drowning.....

"You knew I was your enemy, right? You were barely a Teen Titan. And surely there was a code to uphold, right? And what code can be upheld when 'villains' are allowed to frolic in your way?" Jinx drove our clunker around two honking trucks and continued nonchalantly. "The fact is....I was a target. At some point or another....you—a nooby Teen Titan—would have to fight against the agents of H.I.V.E. I and my criminal ideals would have to be eliminated. And the only way that could be done would be for you to hurt me."

I gritted my teeth and shook my head. I ran a hand over my shades and sighed.

_But it's not the same. It's not the same._

I stared off towards the passing scenery, exasperated.

_It's not........._

"Do you have any idea.....any clue....how much Slade wanted the Titans to die?"

".......," I looked over at her.

She stared at the road. The profile of her face seemed different somehow. Perhaps it was the grossly short hair. Or maybe the way her eyes squinted in the wind.

She spoke: "And don't think you know everything about Slade just because you killed him, Ghost Boy. Things aren't as simple as that....ya know...."

My metal arm flexed a bit.

I swallowed.

"Slade.....Slade was a vessel of pure hate and obsessive madness.....," Jinx said. "He didn't live for life. Rather, he lived for death. He wanted death to prosper and stroke a path of absolute power across the land. And nobody did he want to test this out with more than the Titans themselves. For some reason.....he chose the Titans and the Titans alone to suffer. Even when everything he was planning turned out to be more and more ludicrous....he would not give up on his singular goal of flipping the coin of life over onto its ugly tails and reversing everything happy and 'righteous' in the lives of you and your goody-goody-two-shoe allies."

"..........," I listened....gazing off.

"Slade taught me how 'evil' you all were. He showed me lists of facts and a plethora of statistics that revealed your 'cruelty' to petty criminals and misunderstood people of society. He reminded me of how much you, Beast Boy, and Cyborg had totally and utterly wrecked all hopes I had of leaving Westhaven with the Khazza jewel in my grasp. He even went as far as to teach me the story of how the first five Titans befriended a lonely little girl named Terra.......and r-ruthlessly tore her already-vulnerable heart apart."

I winced at that. But....I still listened.

"And....a-and then he mentioned Faye and Fiona.......," Jinx's cat eyes were thin and firm. Her breath came out slowly from her nostrils to brave the wind kicking at her face. "He triggered the one part of my memory most dear to me......the one part of my memory that wasn't true. And I let him consume me because of it....and mold me.....and shape me into twice the killing machine that I was before. And it felt so.....s-so _right_ being his Third Apprentice. It was like water. Flowing. Immaculate."

A beat.

Jinx sighed as she switched lanes. "But life is not made to be immaculate. Yes....there may be a road paved around the twists and turns of time by Fate. But that is not a straight and smooth road. It is something full of stumbling and confusion and just plain....w-wackiness."

".......," I raised an eyebrow.

She said: "I should have seen the cage that I was in. I should have seen how fake the walls of manipulation were around me...the walls that Slade had erected. But I refused to see it. I chose blindness. I chose arrogance and pride. And out of all this came anger. And it seemed so easy....so _right...._to channel all of this anger through the tiny tunnel vision of my apprenticeship and unleash my fury on those whom Slade had taught me were fit to burn. The _Titans._"

I looked at her.

I glanced down.

I looked at the blinking light on the chain of the handcuffs.

_You're not stupid or innocent, Jinx. Stop being a hypocrite......_

"Do I regret nearly killing you and the Titans for Slade on multiple occasions?" Jinx spoke. She shrugged while driving. "Hardly at all."

".........," I exhaled and stared off at the blurring landscape.

"But at the same time, I have the capacity to understand that it weren't exactly the _Titans_ that I was fighting. But rather....Slade's conception of them. And my conception of them. Truth be told, Ghost Boy," she glanced at me. "I'm just a rogue. I've always been so at heart. Even if I wasn't made to believe in Faye and Fiona in the first place...I'd be betraying and ditching H.I.V.E. eventually. But it wouldn't be an attempt to 'convert' over to the good side. Oh no. I couldn't possibly be good. Heh....imagine me as a Titan. I'd probably have to get a uniform or something. And those blasted yellow communicators. Yeck!! Totally do NOT match anything in my wardrobe!"

I didn't want it to....but it did. The corner of my lips curved up slightly. I hated myself for it.

"It's not that I want to hurt people, ya know?" she said, her voice barely beating forward against the rushing wind of the highway. "It's not that I truly....deep-down enjoy hurting those cops or beating up on your or laying the smackdown on the Titans. I just want.....I just want..........I-I don't know what I want, Ghost Boy. But I'll tell you what I don't want. I don't want to be caught. I don't want to be held against my will anymore. I don't want to be owned or enslaved by anyone or anything anymore. And the way I see things now—through the thin membrane of fate—there is something dreadful growing in this world. Something destructive and deadly. A red phantom that wants to imprison every single one of us in a cold embrace of death. And that's not something I'm down with. I'd take prison over that any day. But as it stands....I have to keep moving. I've ditched the prison...and now you and I are going to the next phase of freedom. H.I.V.E. should have answers. They should have secrets. Their base is the Area 51 of the crime world...and a lot of unanswered questions on Red Aviary should be there. And I frankly don't give a crap if you don't understand. Cuz I don't think you want to, Ghost Boy. I think you're just angry at me."

I took a deep breath. I rattled my left wrist a bit, tugging at the handcuffs attached to Jinx's right hand.

Reminding her about what she didn't have to be reminded about.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," she smiled evilly. "I know you more than you think, Ghost Boy," she said. "You'd sever an arm or a leg before you'd turn against your friends or your City," she glanced at my metal limb with emphasis and continued driving. "Who knows how opposed you would be to blowing up. Heh.....if even you would be opposed at all. So I kept one of Slade's little toys handy. And you know very well that I would waste no time in letting it go righteously kablooie if you were to oppose me or be a general nuisance while we infiltrate H.I.V.E."

".........," I stared at her. I glanced at the lump of the locket under her blouse. I looked at the handcuffs....then at her concealed locket again.

_Is Jinx looking for sympathy??_

_Understanding? _

_Compassion? _

_Is she trying to win my favor or support or something?_

_Why does she keep talking to me? What ever convinced her that I was so 'necessary' to her cause to begin with? _

_Why me?? Because I'm so god-damn self-sacrificial? That just gives her the right to torture me? To put me into this situation again?? _

My right fist clenched.

I tried to breathe peacefully.

_She's right....she does know me more than I give her credit. She knows that I'm incapably weak to do anything but what she wants if innocent people or even my friends are at stake. She knows that I would give anything and everything for them. And she knows that I __**have**__ already._

_But that doesn't make Jinx and myself alike. Not even in the least. She's evil. And I'm not. _

_......R-Right?_

I sighed and rubbed my temples.

_I may be good.....but I'm not very good at being.....'good'. No sooner has Robin promoted me that here I am now........disappointing him. Letting him and the rest of the Titans down. Powerless. Jinx's 'apprentice'._

Silence....save for the whipping wind.

Our squad car clunked along. Jinx tried to compensate for the sputtering vehicle by shifting gears and putting pressure on the gas. Soon we were cruising along again.

_If I'm Jinx's apprentice....then what is my goal? How do I 'graduate' out of her little school-thing that's going on here? So maybe she has me. Maybe I'm her most valuable 'ally' or something. But what's the use? What's the use of me? She needs me to infiltrate H.I.V.E.'s headquarters? I can do that. I can infiltrate and sneak into many things. I can do it most easily alone.....but I guess Jinx can't have me without having me on a leash._

_But what is the point? What is the purpose?_

_Red Aviary...... _

_What do Jinx and Pulsade know?_

_  
And "J"....... _

_Why do I feel like I know a little bit of what they're talking about?_

_Construction. Destruction._

_The Spectrum. White. Red. Black. _

_Fate??_

I looked at Jinx.

_Fate is her ally. Fate allows Jinx to see and sever things within the ongoing continuum of the universe. If she spots something that is cause for alarm—and enlists a cloaking, badass assassin to assist her in tracking such an issue down—it must be supremely important. Something perhaps truly worthy of investigating and confronting with force._

_  
A job for the Titans._

I bit my lip.

_Why couldn't she just tell someone about it? Why couldn't she simply ask for help? Maybe it's because nobody would believe her? Because she was the third apprentice? Because—by helping Slade—she nearly banished me back West, nearly blew up half the City, and nearly tortured the Titans to death or worse??_

_All elements of the proverbial rape of the Balance of Morals. _

_The reversal of everything that can be reversed. _

_Essence itself. _

_If Slade was right in his theory, he nearly rewrote this little pocket of the universe. And Jinx helped him. _

_Now she's on her own—more or less—and she's concerned with protecting the world from the essence of death and destruction itself?? _

_She desires the cancellation of Red....perhaps in support of Black through reinforcement of White._

_But even if she knows all about that....how is infiltrating H.I.V.E. going to help? And what's it going to help with? _

_What's going on here? _

_What's Red Aviary???_

I stared at the locket-lump under Jinx's blouse again.

_Jinx is......probably as confused as I am. If not more so. If she is on her own....if she is a rogue trying to escape the 'imprisonment' of death and destruction.......then why is she still holding on to the two of __**them**__???_

"If you're trying to stare at my breasts—I assure you—you'll be hard pressed to find any big enough to be worthy," Jinx smirked.

I did a double-take. My eyes came off her locket and I scowled.

_I wasn't----!!_

She giggled. "Didn't think you were the lecherous type, Ghost Boy! But I swear.....the only thing you'll find under my bra is a can of mace!! Hehehehe!!"

I frowned.

_God, I hate you so much. Screw the explosives. Screw Red Aviary. Screw.....um.....Weezer! M-Maybe I'll just whip Myrkblade out and slice your pink Annie Lennox head off right n---_

"Uh oh," Jinx turned her head around and glanced back.

"????" I snapped out of it and looked back as well.

"Looks like we've got a bird," she mumbled.

A beating sound emanated through the air. Behind us, a police helicopter cut through the low sky and spun its rotary blades in furious pursuit of us. Where the police cars and motorcycles couldn't navigate, the helicopter was sent to act as a trained eye. It had scanned all the way north along the highway and found us. And—sure enough—it dropped altitude some and crossed the distance remaining between our broken and battered bumper and its deafening flight. A system of megaphones positioned on the 'legs' of the helicopter crackled in the air before uttering:

'_This is the police!! Broken squad car!! Pull over immediately!! You are under arrest!!'_

"Rather impolite to the people on the roadway, don't you think?" Jinx smirked.

I sweatdropped.

The helicopter came closer and closer. Other vehicles on the highway slowed down. A few in the opposite lane stopped completely on the median. The police were not going to let us get away without a little intimidation. The megaphone crackled:

'_This is your final warning! Pull over now and surrender!'_

"Take lessons, Ghost Boy," Jinx remarked above the winds. "Never talk that forcefully to a lady. No matter _how_ pink she is."

I stared at her blankly.

She smiled back at me. "Let's for a walk, shall we?"

"?????"

"Heee!" she jerked left.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!!!_

"!!!!!!!!" I teetered right, yanking at the end of my handcuffs.

Jinx swerve us suicidally left. We barreled through two lanes of traffic.

HONK!! HONK!!! HONNNNNK!!!

SMASH!!!!

We plowed through the metal guardrail and median.

We soared through three lanes of _opposing_ traffic.

HONK!!!! H-HONK!!!

SMASH!!!!

And finally through a final concrete barrier.

And it wasn't very comforting to find out—at the last second—that the highway was presently bridging over a forested marsh about thirty feet below.

"!!!!!!!"

Our half-a-car took a swan dive towards an array of tree tops. For a split second, the two of us were weightless. Time stopped. Sound died. The wind laughed at three different angles against my cranium.

_Um.......h-hello, Death._

Jinx's voice oozed forth into my left ear during the slow motion holocaust....followed by her petite hand closing around my metal limb.

"And now....we jump."

_W-We haven't jumped already—YAAAH!!_

YANK!!!

She 'stood' us up in the plummeting car and vaulted us out and forward in a pulse of exploding pink light.

CRASH!!!!!!!

The squad care smashed into the trees and shimmied down violently into the marshlands below in a shower of broken branches and scattered leaves.

Jinx and I soared forward through the air, hand in hand.

The ground was a frightening twenty-five feet below.

THWAP!!

Her feet planted against a tree branch passing suddenly underneath us.

I found it too.

Breathless, I kicked off it with my boots. THWAP!!

The two of us leapt off the tree in synchronized grace. We flipped through the air, soared down.

The ground was twenty feet away.

Another branch.

TH-THWAP!!

The two of us bounced off it, flipped forward, and--

FWOOOSH!!!

The line of trees ended.

The marshlands bled into lake to the north.

We plummeted.

The waters lapped hungrily as our feet flew down first.

Jinx's body glowed a hot pink. From her legs up to her head.

In mid-fall, I caught her giving me a cat-eyed glance.

And I knew my cue...

FWOOSH!! I shot a curtain of murk down over my ankles and feet and—

_Plant!!_

We landed on the surface of the water. Her hex field and my murk powers went into work....holding us impossibly on top of the water's 'skin'. Waves warbled out and shook back at us as we took a breath...a second breath....and--

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!

Jinx ran forward

I ran forward.

She blurred with pink.

I blurred with murk.

Fountains trailed behind us as we ran across the water, sped the distance of the lake, and landed explosively on the other side.

THWUMP!!!

We dove into the lake-side sand and came to a sliding stop against a dark, moist dune.

Jinx panted.

I swiped my brow.

The waters behind us settled across the lake in a line of 'footprints'.

The pink aura and trailing smoke around us faded.

We were safe and dry....for the most part.

"Whew....," Jinx exhaled. "Nothing like a little gymnastics to get the blood working, I always say."

I simpered with a sweatdrop. I repositioned myself and sort of.....'half-sat' so as to look back with a craning neck towards the marshland forest and highway.

The concrete structure of the express roads could hardly be seen. But I could hear it. I could hear screeching cars and rumbling engines coming to a stop and the distressed/annoyed honkings of multiple automobiles. The beating of the helicopter could still be heard. But the spinning rotary blades stayed somewhere beyond the exterior line of trees. It didn't fly out further to scout our location. Rather....the police were sticking to the spot where our car made its theatrical plunge off the highway and into the woods.

Where Jinx and I would most logically _be_. Presumably dead.

"I tell you what....it feels better and better after every time I 'die'," she smiled.

I gave her a tiresome look.

She instinctively adjusted a pink head of hair that she no longer had. She seemed to be facing a unique direction. West-North-West. "I think that should take them off our backs for a while. Leslie might scold me for dragging so much attention in the first place. But the ends justify the means, ya know?"

_Yeah.....'I know'._

I realized that my metal hand—handcuffed to hers—was resting against a damp, wooden log lying in the sand. I thought of something. I glanced at the position of the late afternoon sun. I again glanced at the way her gaze was lingering West-North-West.

".........."

Without making too much movement in the process, I swiftly scratched my hard, metal fingers into the log. After a few finishing strokes, Jinx was already standing up and saying:

"Well...we've got a H.I.V.E. to throw rocks at," she smirked. She seemed very......'content' at the time. "Let's make like the wind, as if we hadn't already...." She winked.

I groaned. No sooner had I stood up that she was leading us—sprinting—through the nearby line of trees. West, NorthWest.

Our footprints remained in the lakeside shore...as did the log with its fresh scratches.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!

Starfire flew up to the top of a building summit opposite of Kobayashi Tower. She half-perched herself to the flagpole on top and gazed at a sensor in her hand.

Cold autumn wind over the City kicked at her long red hair. Her green eyes narrowed on the device in her grasp. No lights blinked. No beeping sounds.

"Negative results in this district...," she reported seemingly into the air.

"_Copy that, Starfire. Keep scanning the downtown area."  
_

"Understood," she nodded. "Claanu sif'l de X'hal....," she flew off.

SWOOOSH!!

"_Flipper? How's it going?"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You know, I wish you'd stop calling me that."

"_Keep wishing. Report."_

Tempest waded in the Bay Water adjacent to the docks. Fishing boats bobbed up and down several feet away from him.

"Nothing here now. Nothing here before now."

"_Before??"_

"I was here before, man. Remember?" Tempest smirked sarcastically. "Back when we were looking for 'waterproof' convicts. They're sewer-proof too, if you're wondering."

"_Will you let it rest?"_

"That's just it. The stuff in your sewers never settle! In fact—"

"_Ahem. Continue on with your search. Try and....I dunno....do something to be more thorough this time or something."_

"More thorough? Uhhh.....sure....okay," Tempest looked up from where he waded. He saw seagulls and pelicans perched atop wooden mooring poles. He narrowed his dark eyes and sent forth a telepathic blurb.

The birds seemed to tense. Their heads turned left and right...tilting side to side. A beat. They relaxed....cawed...and flew up into the air with a communal flapping of wings. Both the pelicans and the seagulls formed together as one cohesive flock before each and every one of them fanned out and flew over the City and Bay in three-hundred-and-sixty degrees of attentive 'scanning'.

Tempest smirked. "That'll make it quicker. And if one of them blows up....somebody could just blame it on God."

SPLOOSH!!

He dove down deep and continued searching the docksides.

"_B.B.! Come in! Status report!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"When you say 'status report', dude, does that necessarily mean we must have some legitimate **status** to begin with?"

"_What, you're turning up empty?"_

Beast Boy was in the parking lot of a hospital. He turned into an anteater, sniffed under an ambulance, morphed back into a green elf, and stood up.

"Thankfully....yeah. Though I almost wish I could hurry up and find a bomb so that I can go to sleep before it turns dark."

"_Is your head still hurting from the Noir run-in?"_

"Uhh....if I say 'yes' will you give me a nachos break?"

"........._keep searching, man."_

"Awwwwww.....say, do I have to go _inside_ the hospital? I ain't searching the bedpans, dude."

"_You're on your own on that."_

"Yeah. Thanks, Cy. Just what are YOU up to that makes bossing us around so right?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"......."

Cyborg walked around the City landfill, his titanium boots making squishing sound every now and then while birds and flies swirled overhead.

"I think Robin's the one who'll be deserving some female dogging-to when he gets back," the android Titan grumbled. "Just do your part, Beast Boy. And I'll do mine."

"_Yeah, whatever dude. Over and out."_

Cyborg closed the panel in his arm. He sighed, scanned the nearby, smelly heaps with his bult-in scanner and muttered: "Somehow....I'd give anything to be where Raven is now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat with her chest pressed snugly to Robin's back. She hugged him around the waist as the two throttled down the country road on his R-Cycle. They both had helmets on....and the path before them was relatively barren from the lack of motorists that time late in the afternoon. The sky was turning an autumn amber against the surrounding trees and mountaintops.

"Why does this place look familiar to me?" Robin said, smirking into his helmet.

_VRRRRRRRRM!!!_

Raven said nothing. She just held on.

"Th-That was supposed to be a joke," he said.

"Oh....."

A beat.

"Ahem. Sorry to drag you back out here, Raven."

"We need to find Noir and Jinx. It doesn't matter how far we go."

"Right."

_VRRRRRRRRRRRM!!!_

The lines in the center of the road sped by.

Raven found herself gazing nonchalantly at them.

"Raven..."

"Yes, Robin?"

"Do you think we've ever........ever truly showed Noir our gratitude?"

Raven tilted her helmeted head upwards. "I can't think of how we haven't. Since Slade's death we've been doing our best to support him and be by his side."

"Yes....but as Titans we show that sort of respect to every member. What I mean to say is....have we ever really gone out of our way for Noir? L-Like has gone out of his way for us?"

Raven took a deep breath. "First thing that comes to mind is when Mad Mod had us all imprisoned inside that digital movieverse for Soto's enjoyment. We vehemently refused to carry on with the 'theatrical production' unless Noir's safety was assured of."

"True....true....but do you remember when we were in North Carolina? Noir went solo to investigate Booker's ties to Nova'm."

"Yes, he did—"

"And it was Noir who freed us from Braniac's lair in Kansas."

"Uh huh—"

"And Noir risked his neck along with me and Sandy when the Puppet King took over the Tower. And he infiltrated Atlantis with Beast Boy to play the crucial role of Prince Garth. And just recently he nearly killed himself to get people out of Dr. Light's dark sphere."

"Are all of these obvious examples supposed to lead to one conclusion, Robin?"

"After Slade's death—as much as before—Noir has shown complete selflessness in trying to save his fellow teammembers and lives of the innocent. It's no different from the amount of effort the rest of us put in....only.....Noir seems to go even further into danger. He risks his neck often without asking. Taking monumental challenges oftentimes too great for him. He's....he's...."

"He's like you...," Raven said. There was the slightest curve to her lips.

A beat.

Robin 'slowed' the bike a bit....a cruising fifty-five miles per hour.

"I.....I never thought of that before."

"Sure you haven't," she droned. A beat. "Is THAT why you promoted him?"

"I....I promoted him because.....," He was silent for a small period of time. He kicked the bike back into its higher speed. ".....I promoted him because I know that.......that if it were necessary for him to replace both Cyborg and I, then he would still give his all for the team and more. I have every bit of confidence in him, Raven. I wouldn't doubt him capable of leading an impressive mission."

"That remains to be seen....," Raven said. "His gifts lie in following orders. We have yet to see how they work in his giving of commands. Not to mention that his teammates could....use a refresher's course on how to understand 'fingertalk'."

"True....true.....," Robin's helmet nodded. "All the more reason to find him tonight."

"What of tomorrow?"

"I'm convinced that the two of us are enough to track him and Jinx down," Robin said.

"And I'm convinced that this is going to be an overnight mission," Raven replied. "I should have brought a book."

"Oye....I should have known I was bringing your pessimism along for the ride."

"You didn't ask me along for my empathic powers and telekinetic strengths, now did you?"

"Actually, I did. Oh wait....I should have known better than to answer that. Never mind."

Silence.

"Are you scared, Robin?"

Robin tilted his head back at that a bit. His eyemask narrowed under the helmet visor. "Titan leaders don't get scared."

"Did you get the altitude reading on that flying pig?"

"I'm concerned, Raven. Is that enough?"

"You're experiencing a lot of emotions right now," Raven droned. "Both you and I know that it would only be a detriment to get in the way of your judgment."

"Wow....I swear....ever since the incident of Dr. Light's black sphere, you've been more.....more....."

"Democratic?"

"Interrogative."

"I merely sense that you are in need of getting something off your chest," Raven said. "And you've been doing a good job of that." A beat. "Until now."

"Yeah...but—"

"Not used to me evoking that?"

"To be honest.....n-no....."

Raven took a deep breath. "Mortuana.......meant a lot to me, Robin."

A pause.

"A part of me shall always be there. And Mortuana will always be a part of me," Raven said. She strengthen her hold to the Boy Wonder's waist as they rode on and she continued: "I have....felt so many living things and dead things become one in a singular flash. It's.....It's a changing experience. And having tasted what it truly means to be independent of my father's influence for once.......well......I-I feel that I am here for greater reasons than just a backup sorceress. You and the Titans....I know you all for a reason. And you know me for a reason. I've been wrong these years to sit idly by."

"I can't imagine a social Raven," Robin smirked.

"Neither can I. And it's not that I'm becoming social, Robin," Raven said. "I'm just becoming....," a beat. "....flexible."

"So...you're worried about Noir too?"

".....yes. Yes I am."

Robin nodded. "There's an even better reason why I brought you long."

"You mean besides my pessimism."

"Heheh....yeah," Robin said. He curved the two of them around a bend in the country road. "And—personally Raven—I'm glad. Even if it isn't 'opening up', I'm proud of you for taking these steps."

"Steps towards what?"

"Maybe someday being fully receptive of us when it comes to us helping _you_ out."

"Whatever."

"Heh, knew you'd say that," Robin said. He glanced back momentarily over his shoulder. "Looks like Cyborg's been a helpful friend as of late. You notice that?"

"................................"

"Okay....," Robin faced back forward. "Moving on."

"Cyborg is safe back at the City," Raven said. "And that is a good thing."

"You're worried about him too?"

"Just drive."

"Heheheh....now there's the Raven I know."

"Keep knowing her."

Suddenly, Robin jerked. "Hmmm!!"

"What's the matter?"

He slowed the bike down and raised one hand to his helmet. "I'm picking a police signal in my built-in receiver...," the Boy Wonder said. He listened to something Raven couldn't hear for a few seconds, then revved the engine again. "It's the squad car."

"Jinx's and Noir's?"

"Yup. They've found it," Robin said.

"Good. Maybe we can intervene before—"

"It's crashed through two medians and fallen thirty feet off the side of the Metropolitan Highway into a wooded area."

"......," Raven blinked.

"Let's hope your pessimism doesn't get any stronger," Robin said.

_VRRMM-VRMMM-__**VRRRRRRRRM!!!!**_

The two rocketed off northward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I managed to slow down....probably because Jinx was out of breath.

"Okay....okay....," she panted and stumbled forward, leading the way. We were walking through an old forest. The fallen leaves of autumn were just starting to change color, and they littered the floor beneath us as we moved on in a two-person chain. "...so we more....later on. Right now....let's just....fast walk. Y-Yeah....that's it....fast walk to destiny. Fast walk to destiny. Fast walk to destiny."

I was perfectly content. I realized then and there that either I was used to running a lot....or Jinx wasn't as good at endurance as I was. Which surprised me. Then again, she had been in jail for nearly three months.

I quietly let her drag me on. I wasn't resisting physically at that point. I realized that there was no point in trying to dissuade her from taking me to wherever the H.I.V.E. base was hidden. I wasn't about to set off a terrible bomb somewhere. And besides....I figured out a way to save myself out of this whole mess.

_At least....I thought as much....._

She glanced back at me, breathless. "You....you.....you....st-st-still hanging in there?"

I put on a plastic smile and nodded. I must have looked like a sunglass-wearing vulture to the worn-out girl.

She looked ahead and lumbered forward. "Oh no....don't think....don't th-think I'm out of it! I'm not out of it! I'm merely....stocking up....st-stocking up on oxygen. Oh yeah. We'll again...fairly soon. Just you see. Running .....again...."

I leaned my head to the side.

_I can never understand how she makes evil look so cute._

A beat.

I shook my head and squinted my black eyes under my shades.

_Dammit....Titans....SAVE ME._

"Okay....so....l-let's pause on the running for now...," Jinx slowed her pace some. "J-Just for now, though."

We skirted around a steep hillside where the soil eroded away and rocky earth rose to meet the gnarled roots of trees besides the beaten path. Soon we were hobbling downhill at a leisurely pace. The red sunset glittered through the trees along with alternating showers and sprinkles of autumn leaves in the cool breeze kissing our back. The distant babbling of a brook licked our ears and foraging birds chirped in scattered formation overhead.

It was beautiful. I wished that I could have enjoyed it.

"So....tell me....wh-where are you from, Ghost Boy?"

"........"

"You got a Mommy? A Daddy?"

"......."

"A damn dog for god's sake?"

"......"

"I have a Mommy," Jinx exhaled as she walked forward. "At least....I once did. Unless she was 'made up' too...."

A beat.

She took a breath and continued through the forest: "She......loved me. As much as a single mother hounded by the dog days of capitalist society could love a child. She was a waitress and she worked the day shifts. I could barely ever see her. I got depressed a lot as a kid. Stayed home because kids made fun of my eyes and hair. That sort of stuff. Ya know. The usual."

I was silent. My left arm felt tired in having to stretch the wrist out so much to meet Jinx's position. At least I had a metal hand. I couldn't imagine what a painful number the handcuffs were playing on the little witch's skin.

"I haven't seen my mother in nearly four years....," Jinx muttered. She padded softly down the inclined forest ahead of me. "I've been through the Fearsome Five, H.I.V.E. and Slade since then. I feel....I feel like I'm actually twenty-six instead of sixteen. It's....it's so strange. Or is it?" A beat. "I-I guess the days of a villain are up for grabs once she starts counting the years it's been since she started busting heads in."

I took a deep breath.

_Some of us are born evil. No matter what excuses we can grab ahold of._

"Ever think that time flies by, Ghost Boy?" Jinx glanced back at me. She smirked somewhat. "Or should I say 'Jordan'?"

I frowned.

"Yeesh....so edgy...," Jinx faced ahead again. "And to think....I'm the villain! I'm being all mushy and sharing about my past, and you're the one with the mean-looking, clenched jaw!!"

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

_How the Hell can I even talk to you??_

My heart stopped at that. I suddenly realized....after nearly twelve hours of being stuck with the one girl in the entire world that I hated, I was starting to feel lonely.

_Again._

My heart ached for my laptop and the instant message window.

"I bet you lost your parents, huh?" she rambled on. "I bet you were sitting down, having a picnic, and then robbers drove by in a van and shot them all dead in front of your face and shot you in the neck too. And you survived and balled your eyes out or something and vowed to strike crime down from here on after."

I sighed.....weathering it.

"Oh! I know! Your parents are VILLAINS! Yeah! You're from a long line of diabolical masterminds. And y-you're ashamed of it. So you live a life of vigilantism to make up for the guilt of being born from such evil ilk!! Hehehe...I'm so smart sometimes!!"

I dragged my feet some in following her.

"Hey! Stop pouting! Hurry up or something _blows_ up!! Remember??"

I groaned inwardly and quickened myself.

"I still have an itchy-trigger-finger. Got it?"

"........"

"Fine, don't humor me," Jinx huffed. "Your family's probably dead anyway. It happens to most of us."

I exhaled.

_My family's alive. _

_I just..... _

_I don't know where they are....._

"Guess you feel pretty at home with the Titans, huh?"

I bit my lip.

"And if you think I'm about to berate you and make you feel bad for associating with that bunch of losers---ahem---I'm not."

I raised an eyebrow.

We rounded a huge tree trunk and continued our autumnal descent. As we passed by it, I grazed my metal fingers against the bark. I made a few quick scratches....and we were off.

"I know what it's like. When I first joined H.I.V.E......I would have been mince meat before the student body if it wasn't for Leslie. Pulsade took care of me. She beat up anyone who tried to massacre me during my first few days of training. She even taught me the....hehe....gymnastics I know. I perfected them of course...," she bore an obscenely cute posture of pride and continued on, "...but she doesn't think much of it. Besides...she escaped from H.I.V.E. after her first year at the academy. I....I-I sorta drew inspiration from her. In fact...while she was free on the outside, she supplied me with information regarding the Khazza jewel. And so I signed up for the Westhaven mission."

She looked back at me with an outrageously, bubbly smile.

"And that's how you and I met!! Isn't it just delicious??"

I gave her the finger.

"Hehehe....my thoughts exactly," she turned around and practically frolicked us forward.

I gritted my teeth.

After a beat, Jinx's pace returned to normal. She let out a reminiscing sigh and said: "Leslie.....L-Leslie is the one true friend I have. And when all you have in life is one true friend, Ghost Boy....there becomes something very special about that friendship. Something....something precious. And Leslie and I....we're......v-very precious. For a while there—after my sisters—I would defend the two of us at any cost. And I still will. Even though I know Leslie could kill twice as many people as I could four times over....I'm willing to defend her with every tool of Fate that I have at my disposal. She's like....she's like 'home' to me. I realize that now. She's home with eyes and a heart."

A beat.

-Clip-

"????" I craned my neck.

Jinx had the locket in her grasp. The two faded photos of her 'sisters' stared into the fading rays of the sunset.

"For....F-For a tragic moment in time....I had _this_ as my home. This tiny....insignificant....peace of crap......."

".......," I breathed.

"And....and I still have it on me," she sighed. A beat. Her shoulders strengthened again from sagging. "As a reminder. A reminder that my old legacy is behind me."

I leaned my head to the side.

-Flip-

-Snap!-

"And a new goal in front of me," she slipped the locket back down the front of her blouse via chain. "Something real. And something....n-not so alone anymore. With H.I.V.E., Mammoth, Gizmo, Slade....I was truly alone. But not anymore."

A beat.

She glanced at me. "And _no_....I'm not coming onto you or anything."

I smirked.

We pressed onward a bit quicker.

"Besides...," she giggled. "....I know your secret."

"???????"

"It's okay.......hehehe.....I think it's cute."

My lips parted somewhat.

_What??_

"It's also kinda funny. Considering all the high school fangirls with your posters and pictures and stuff. The 'handsome Titan'. Well of course you're handsome, silly. But it always works that way, doesn't it?"

_What in the freakin' Hell is she talking about--..........wait a second....._

"So tell me....is it hard working alongside Robin?"

_I.....am not gay._

"Wearing those green tights. Rowwwr."

_I'm not gay!!_

"Always swinging that big stick of his around!"

_I'm not gay!! You—snnnkkktkkk...ARGH!!!_

"Hehehe. And what about Beast Boy? You're not a cradle robber, are you??"

_For the love of Jerry Lewis....my kingdom for a god damn telepath!!! _

Jinx was silent for some reason or another.

_Wait....earlier didn't she accuse me of looking at her--_

"......."

_Oh. I get it..........I'm not bisexual either!!_

I bumped into something.

I blinked. I gained focus.

I had bumped into Jinx.

"Shhhh!" she stupidly hissed, her handcuffed finger held before my face.

"............"

Silence.

Leaves slowly drifted downward around us in a halo. The red light was fading more and more. The evening began to wane sorrowfully.

My black eyes narrowed. I slowly tilted my head up and scanned the horizon through my shades.

".........."

"Did you hear that??" Jinx whispered.

I tilted my head to the side.

A ......

I .........swiiiiiiiIIISH!!!

"!!!!"

CHIIIIING!!!!

Jinx flinched as I pulled Myrkblade out with my right hand and twirled it behind me.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

Through spatial sense, I 'felt' four streaming anomalies and slashed hard at them. They shattered like glass and littered the floor in the form of white dust.

And then they were no more.

".......," I panted.

Jinx stood up, shivering some. "W-Were those just....kn-knives?"

_Some fragile ...._

"In the trees!!" Jinx exclaimed, pointing upwards.

"!!!!" I looked up.

A shadow jumped and leapt overhead and--

_SWIIIIIISH!!!_

Something sharp and metallic flew down at us.

Jinx gritted her teeth and shot a hex bolt straight up.

FLASH!!!

CRAAACK!!!

The metallic object split in half and embedded into the ground on either side of us.

TH-THUNK!!!

SWIIIIISH!!!

Another object flew from the same darting shadow in the trees.

"Nnngh!!" Jinx flew to the floor and cowered, her dainty hands covering both sides of her shorthaired head.....which forcefully yanked me down to kneel beside her. THWAP!!!

THUNK!!!!

Something sharp landed barely between us.

I looked at it. I did a double-take.

It was a leaf....but just not any leaf. One constructed out of serrated silver. Like a super-fancy shuriken. And yet...it looked so natural. Like all the organic leaves floating down around us.

_What in the tap-dancing Hell??_

"Shimmer....," Jinx breathlessly murmured.

"?????" I looked at her.

"Shimmer's back. But.....she was locked up! In order for that to happen......," Jinx's cat eyes widened. "The Fearsome Five....."

I trembled. I looked up for the shadow.

YANK!!!

I stumbled up to my feet as a sprinting Jinx was suddenly dragging me towards a distant clearing in the forest. "Unless you want to be a pin-cushion, hurry!! If either one of us dies, the bomb goes off!! Not good for you!!"

I panted.

_How's it not good for __**me**__ all of the sudden??_

Regardless, I quickly followed her. And it was a good thing too. Razor-sharp leaves were slicing into the earth right behind my heels.

THUNK!! TH-THUNK!!

THUNK!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was near-night around the Metropolitan Highway.

Police lights swirled around the shattered concrete overpass above. Electric lanterns attached to branches of the tall trees below illuminated the marshland. Plastic tape—awkwardly stretched in a triangle from tree trunk to tree trunk—surrounded the collapsed half-a-squad-car laying upside down in the muddy marsh. State troopers and investigators stared closely at the wreckage. Photographs were taken, the flashes illuminating the scenery. Officials muttered to each other in grim fashion and paced around the thick muck of the locale.

Up above—on a stretching tree limb—both Robin and Raven were perched. The bird Titans.

"No body. No foot prints. No leftover evidence whatsoever......except a pair of keys," Raven droned. A beat. "Guess we should still be worried."

Robin rubbed his chin. "Hmmm....I don't know."

"Please tell me the detective has an idea."

"Hmmm....," Robin smiled. "The detective has entered the building."

Raven folded his arms. "You don't say."

Robin gestured: "Why would Jinx spontaneously drive a suicidal hulking piece of aluminum crap across the road?"

"To get to the other side?"

".........leave it to a moment when Beast Boy and Cyborg are both absent for you to make a joke."

"Heh."

"Ahem," Robin returned to the topic: "Jinx has an appetite for destruction. But her appetite is warranted.....for once she's eaten her fill of chaos, order blooms."

"Uh huh."

"Jinx is an acrobat. She is also a criminal. That means that she likes to flip around a lot...and break laws. In this case, the law of gravity."

Raven eyed the obviously-smashed piece of vehicular hardware beneath them. "Uhm....explain to me where gravity lost out."

"Where the bodies are missing."

"Okay.....," Raven blinked. "Jinx and Noir can suddenly fly now?"

"No....but they can jump."

"On what?"

"...........," Robin glanced down.

So did Raven.

They saw where their feet were planted against the tree limbs.

"Oh....right....," Raven hummed.

"Right indeed. I'm fairly sure they bailed at the last second and used the collapsed car to thwart the cops."

"You mean _Jinx_ bailed out. Noir was along for the ride, undoubtedly."

"True. I was speaking in general."

"Uh huh."

"Now....they were originally heading north....under that theory.....let's assume............," Robin's voice trailed off and instead he positioned himself until he gazed in a northerly direction through the trees. He pointed outwards.

"Ally-oop?" Raven droned.

"Yup. Ally-oop me."

"Suit yourself....," the dark girl produced a 'platform' of black energy. The two stepped onto it and floated through the darkening evening towards the edge of the forest clearing. "Looks like they would have had quite a bit of wooden jungle jims to work through."

"They're young," Robin smirked. "It happens."

"........"

The two Titans floated out into a clearing. A lake stretched before them. Dark waters shimmering dully in the late sunset light.

"Okay....so they came here to drown. Maybe we should have brought our scuba gear."

"Noir can run on water, remember?"

"Yes....but Jinx?"

"........."

"Why do I even ask...."

"There!!" Robin pointed a green gloved hand.

Raven squinted. "I'm afraid I don't see—"

"The riverbank! B-By the clearing!!"

"Where the sand is?"

"Take us down there!"

"Okay....."

Raven lowered the two of them down by the water's edge....but neither of them dropped down.

There were already undisturbed footsteps in the soft ground. Two sets. One large. One small. But both footsteps seemed....paired. Side by side. Bound together....

"They were here....," Robin said. He gazed back through the trees and easily caught sight of the shimmering aura of a police light or two. "They were here....and we're the only ones who know."

"And I bet you're going to keep it a secret for the Commissioner's sake," Raven droned. "Especially since Jinx has become his new 'trophy'."

"Hey....whatever so much as _slightly_ makes up for what happened this morning," Robin suddenly sighed. "And still...not enough."

"......."

"......," Robin's eyemask narrowed. He leaned forward. "Wait a second...."

"What is it now?"

"Take me over to where the trees start...."

Raven floated the black platform over. She gently lowered Robin to the earth. He jumped and landed someplace where vegetation grew and the footsteps weren't located. He knelt down and looked closely at a log. A few scratches were legibly present in the soft wood. "There's....a message here."

"A message?" Raven floated beside him.

He nodded slowly. "Like it was....etched in somehow."

"By who?"

"Well, we can rule out Jinx—I think."

"Uh huh. So, Robin. What did _Noir_ send us?"

Robin fingered the log. He stared at it closely.

'_17 W'_

"Seventween double-u????" Raven remarked.

A beat.

"A l-longitudinal coordinate?" she suggested, glancing at Robin.

"That's what I first thought," he nodded. "But 17 West?? That's crazy! What would he mean by that?"

"Perhaps he is trying to give us a quantity of something?" Raven remarked. "Such as 'seventeen watchguards' where he is being held....er....or something."

Robin took a deep breath. He stood up. "Remember that number. It may come in handy later."

"Later??" Raven blinked. "What about now?"

"Now....," the Boy Wonder faced the forest. "We get acquainted with the woods. And hopefully soon....we'll thusly get reacquainted with both our friend and ally."

Raven stared into the woods. "Hmmm....a dark forest on a cold, autumnal night." A beat. Her lips curved somewhat. "I think I can do that."

"Wish Cyborg was here?"

"........I beg your pardon?"

Robin shook his head. "Never mind, let's go."

"Robin, I revoke my begging of your pardon—"

"I said let's GO!!!"

Raven groaned and floated lethargically after the sprinting Titan Leader.

Into the woods....

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There's a crossing up ahead!" Jinx panted. She led us blurringly through the end of our line of trees. "Hurry! We're almost out of the thick of it!!"

"........," I ran swiftly behind her, our wrists attached. I glanced desperately behind me as I dragged Myrkblade. I saw lots of shadows...but none pursuing us.

_Was this 'Shimmer' gone?_

I looked ahead as we broke through the tree clearing.

We emerged onto a cliff. A huge ravine stretched over us...carved into the forested countryside. As if remarkably predicted ahead of time by the pink sorceress, there stretched a bridge crossing the ravine. A rickety, wooden bridge. The age showed on it. It stretched suicidally high over a scattering of hard rocks and water rapids far down below. Splashing sounds echoed up the walls of the ravine and into our ears on that slowly forming night.

The Sun was nearly eclipsed by the horizon. The air felt twice as thin. The wind had died down.

"Quick!" Jinx lead me to the bridge. She took just one step and the whole structure creaked loudly. She winced—tried not to show it—and dragged me across desperately. "Maybe if we get to the other side first, we can—"

Z-ZAP!! ZAP!!!

Bright bursts of yellow energy flew into the rocky Cliffside on the other side of the bridge.

"!!!" Jinx gasped and came to a stand still.

"......," I jolted to a stop beside her. Breathing slowly....with uncertainty.

The two of us were stuck in the middle of the bridge as a small, dark figure floated down to a stand-still in front of us.

"End of the line, roadwrecks!!" Gizmo cackled.

Jinx frowned. "Gizmo..."

"Jinx....," he grinned.

"Where's the big guy?"

STOMP!!!

Mammoth emerged from the forest and stood beside Gizmo on the far side of the bridge. He cracked his knuckles and grinned a monster grin. "Nice haircut. It makes you look like a corpse. Very appropriate for tonight."

"You don't say...," Jinx smirked half-a-cheshire. "Don't mind us as we bolt for it then—"she began to turn us around.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH-THAP!! A dark shadow flipped out from the forest behind us and landed nimbly on the cliffside opposite of Mammoth and Gizmo. The figure turned out to be a nimble, tightly-clad strawberry-blonde with a devilish grin and even more devilish eyes. Nimble fingers of glowing maroon danced against her hips.

"Well....if it isn't everyone's favorite cute fugitive."

"Heh...look who's here," Jinx blinked. "Superbitch."

I winced.

"You're one to bite," Shimmer smirked. "Maybe someday you'll catch your tongue. You'll be as mute as your love-toy you got with you."

"He's not my love-toy," Jinx said. She smirked a bit. "Let's just leave it at slave."

"......," I glared at her.

_How about.....eunich?_

"I do thank you for taking part in this grand experiment, Jinx," Shimmer said.

"I'm afraid I've not been clued in."

"Well, it's rather simple....really...," Shimmer knelt down daintily and took two leaves in her fingers. "You provide the flesh. You wear it around your bones. Then you expose the jugular." In a glow of orange-red light, she solidified one leaf and then the other into sharp sheathes of organically-shaped silver and platinum respectively. "The whole point of the experiment is to see how quick you die, I suppose."

"Go on, Shimmer....do your worst...," Jinx raised a pink-glowing hand. "See if it takes back my pleasure at once screwing you over in every metaphoric sense of the term. You'll find out sure enough....," the witch grinned. "....the experiment will be a failure."

Again I winced.

Shimmer frowned...but composed herself. "Actually....I didn't necessarily say it was going to be _my_ responsibility to enact the experiment."

Jinx seemed confused at that....which wasn't a pretty sight for me. She raised a perplexed eyebrow and stood numbly atop the rickety bridgework beneath us.

"And neither are we gonna bash your brains in!!" Mammoth growled. "In case you were wondering!!"

"Yeah...as much as we would love to squish your crud-guts into goo....we're going to sit back and enjoy the spectator sport!"

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And just who's the referee of this sport?"

_**STOMP!!**_

The cliffsides shook. The bridge wobbled. Jinx and I leaned against each other to maintain our balance.

_**STOMP!!!**_

_**STOMP!!**_

"Why.....," Shimmer shrugged with a grin. "The latest member of the Fearsome Five, of course!! Sorry you haven't been introduced before now. You only—I dunno—betrayed us all twice over!!"

_**STOMP!!! **_

_**STOMP!!! **_

_**STOMP!!!**_

Jinx winced. She whispered aside to me: "I....uh....kinda sorta did do that, didn't I? Eh heh heh."

I sweatdropped. With each successive stomping sound, I grew more and more complacent.

_You know.....this isn't really my fight to begin with?_

I glanced at the light on the handcuffs.

_What's a few innocent limbs or skin patches anyway??_

I snapped out of that REAL quick.

_**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**_

The forest from which we exited started to shake. Birds flew out of the trees, cawing loudly. A red-orange glow poked out through the tree trunks. And then--

_CRUNNNNCH!!!_

Full-sized trees were pushed over effortlessly as a seven-and-a-half-foot tall metal monstrosity walked our way. A man suited up with heavily beefed armor of titanium.

_Glowing_ Titanium.

I merely shook in my boots.

Jinx—on the other hand: "Hecate.....," she murmured. "Neutron. Neutron is out too....this is nuts...."

I did a double-take.

_Neutron?!?!?!_

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**_

I looked desperately at Jinx.

"Uhm.....," she bit her lip. "....this is....a bad guy who....um....was only turned in once."

"........................"

".........................b-by Superman."

I winced a third time.

"This is his initiation...," Shimmer smirked proudly. "Believe it or not....we kids are the veterans here. I think it's time we let our nuclear nooby have a little run-through....by running through your brains."

"Okay.....uhm....," Jinx raised her hand. "Can any 'bad person' these days be anymore lame than _that??_"

"Hey there, lovers....," an adult voice hissed amusedly from Neutron's glowing helmet as he stomped mightily towards us. "Planning to live long? Well I got your half-lives right here!!"

Jinx sweatdropped. "I stand corrected."

"Mr. Tyron....," Shimmer smiled up at the glowing behemoth of nuclear prowess. "Show them what fallout is really like.....for your new boss Psimon."

"Gladly....," Neutron hissed.

Jinx's cat eyes exploded. It practically scared me how quickly those pink peepers dilated. "Ps-Psimon?!?!"

Shimmer smiled smugly.

Neutron raised his strong, metal arms.

Jinx's teeth practically bore cat fangs as she hissed with a glowing gaze: "Where is Psimon?!?! What does that son of a bitch want from me?!?!"

And Neutron's arms fell.

I braced myself—

_**WHAM!!!!!!!!!!!**_

The cliffside shook. It shook into our bridge. The bridge shook into itself. And--

_**CRUNCH!!!!!!!**_

"AAAAAH!!" Jinx fell first.

YANK!!!

"!!!!"

I plummeted second.

The two of us plunged deep down with a splash of shredded wood. The thunderous rapids and rough rocks of the stream fifty feet below welcomed us in a death-yawn. It was almost too dark to see our plummeting doom. Up above, Neutron hissed hot steam while the three villainous youngsters laughed their heads into the crisp emptiness of the young night.

The first two stars appeared on the far edge of the horizon.


	148. Double Jinx part 5

**148. Double Jinx part 5**

"DAAAAAAAAH!!!!" Jinx wailed.

"!!!!" I pivoted my body in mid-air until I reached the end of our mutual arms' lengths. Rock faces flew up past either side of us while dark shapes of an evening-shrouded stream of river rapids swallowed us from below.

Down and down and down....

"Okay....," Jinx shuddered as she 'fell past' me. "Death owes me a favor." She gritted her teeth and aimed a glowing hand of pink down at the rapids flying up to us. "Death owes me a favor!!!!"

FLASH!!!!

The pink bolt flew down and struck the rushing water between two huge stones.

SPLOOSH!!!!

Cold river water leapt up towards us.

Jinx swung her body around.

I got the idea and did so as well. I aimed my boots down and encased my lower body in murk. I gritted my teeth against the wind---

FFFFFFFH!!!!

Streams of water skirted up across our bodies and limbs in a reverse cascade.

Jinx produced an aura of pink that succinctly transformed the force of the upwards rushing water into gravity resistance.

I let loose a pulse of murk that adhered us to the water as it slowly descended from Jinx's manipulation.

FWOOOOOOSH!!!

Our deadly descent was cut in half. We lowered on a cushion of water and landed—awkwardly but safely—atop the two largest rocks emerging from the rapids.

THWUMP!!!

"OOF!!"

THWAP!!

"!!!!"

Jinx and I tumbled once or twice—and barely stopped with our lower limbs hanging over the rocks' edge. We teetered on the brink of falling into the raging rapids and sat up straight.

Jinx got on her knees. Panting, she looked up at the dark line of night's sky showing through the rock faces on either side of the ravine—

_FLASH!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!!

--the freeze frame of Jinx half-kneeling on the wet boulder and staring up the ravine appeared, splashed across a theatre-sized computer monitor.

The Headmistress slowly turned around from the podium where she stood. Facing a wide-stretching, indoor amphitheatre of Academy students, she uttered: "Can anyone identify who this individual is?"

Various young, costumed villains-to-be sat en masse throughout the H.I.V.E. classroom. Their tabletops—splashed randomly with books and learning materials—were of the same predominantly yellow hue as the hexagonally structured walls and ceiling of the place.

After an uncomfortable pause, one student cleared her throat and raised her hand.

"Yes, Bumblebee?"

"That's Jinx, isn't it, Headmistress?"

"That is correct," the old Headmistress turned her gray head to the huge freeze frame and highlighted the panting girl's image with a laser pointer. "Jean Jenkins to be precise. She was inducted into the H.I.V.E. Academy nearly four years ago. During her three and a half year career in our school, she was transferred over to the Fearsome Five where she learned to work with two of our most legendary students, Mammoth and Gizmo."

"But...sh-she betrayed H.I.V.E., right?"

"Charger!!" the Headmistress frowned. "Don't speak out of line!!"

He shrunk back in his seat and gulped. "S-Sorry. Yes, Headmistress...."

The aging woman cleared her throat and went on: "But yes...she did betray H.I.V.E. Through help of outside sources—among which is assumed to be the rogue former student Pulsade—Jinx sought to steal the prized Khazza jewel and flee Westhaven on her own. Because of Jinx's actions, H.I.V.E. never got ahold of their precious ruby artifact...which would have been priceless in the criminal black market. Luthor and Dagger were asking much for it, among other prospects."

The woman highlighted the picture again.

"Today....Jinx is a vengeful spirit. She realizes that much of her past......at least much of her past that is valuable to _her_......is nothing but a figment of her imagination on behalf of our expert methods of brainwashing. But the main proponent of the process that made Jinx so reliable back in the day is now a threat to our Academy. Can anyone guess who?"

A hand rose.

The Headmistress smiled somewhat. "Yes, Bumblebee? You've been rather eager today."

She lowered her hand and said: "Dr. Simon Jones, now known as 'Psimon'."

"Very good, Bumblebee," the Headmistress nodded. "Psimon was the second in command of the Fearsome Five. He was subservient to the leadership of Dr. Light, despite his superior intellect. Even before Dr. Light died, it was obvious that he desired control over the criminal team. He undoubtedly used his powers of telepathy and mind control to instill in Shimmer a rebellious initiative, for she soon went on bleak and suicidal missions that put the security of H.I.V.E. interests internationally at risk. At her last 'mission', she was captured and framed for miscellaneous crimes so as to serve a jail term. This was accomplished through Dagger—with whom our Academy had been reciprocating financially until his death on the very same night that Slade perished. At the same time, the imprisonment of Mammoth and Gizmo and the death of Dr. Light have broken up the Fearsome Five. But now Psimon has returned and is planning to put his plans with the Fearsome Five into full effect. He has already broken two criminal partners out of prison to accomplish his will—one of whom is Shimmer. And now with Gizmo and Mammoth collected back on their side, they are combining forces to assault Jinx. But what for? To what means are they attempting to accomplish?"

".................," the classroom was clueless.

Headmistress smiled. "Watch and learn...."

She turned around, picked up a remote off the podium, and clicked it--

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!!!!_

--Jinx panted. "Look out!!!"

"???" I looked up.

Huge wooden splinters from the shattered bridge were sailing down at us in a torrent.

FWOOOOSH!!!!

I gritted my teeth and stood up.

I swung a murk-trailing Myrkblade in heavy arcs.

SLASH!!!!

SLASH!!!!!!

SLASH!!!

My upward swings ripped wooden planks in half. They split over our heads and safely clattered on either side of us. As for the huger chunks--

"HAAAA!!!" Jinx flung a huge stream of hex up at the sailing shreds.

FLASH!!!!

Even tinier splinters showered down at us from the explosion.

Jinx and I shielded ourselves with our free hands. Then something blocked the moonlight from above. We squinted our eyes upwards....and gasped.

A huge shadow got even huger as it fell towards us down the ravine under the nubile night.

"NnnnnnnnnnnnNNNNNYAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

"SCURRY!!" Jinx squealed. She dove forward.

_YANK!!_

I flew forward too--

_**WHAM!!!!!!!**_

Rock and rapids water sailed up in a destructive crater as the glowing form of Neutron landed heavily behind our diving bodies. He hissed out steam from his helmet, flexed his red and orange muscles, and produced a radioactive aura of glowing mayhem.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" once a huge enough pulse of death was summoned, he stretched his arms toward our collapsed bodies and unleashed a stream of nuclear energy.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP-----_

_FLASH!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

"This....," the Headmistress said as she highlighted the freeze frame of the red-suited, nuclear giant. "Can anyone tell me who _this_ is?"

A hand raised up.

"Disruptor? Educate us."

Disruptor leaned back in his seat and smirked: "Neutron. The walking atom bomb."

"But who was he originally?"

"Pfft! Nat Tryon! Some lousy crook. A member of some even lousier group of bad-guy-wannabes. The 'TNT Trio' or some crap. He got exposed to radiation at the Metropolis Nuclear Facility. When he broke into S.T.A.R. Labs and tried to use their stuff to fix himself, he only became more radioactive."

"Radioactive but _stable_," the Headmistress emphasized.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Ahem. Neutron became capable of wielding the nuclear power invested in him. But in order to keep from....well....becoming a human meltdown, he must wear his suit at all time. As much as he would love to destroy an entire City...he doesn't want to destroy himself as well."

A hand rose.

"Yes, BumbleBee?"

"Didn't Superman finish him off?"

"Indeed he did. But as the law enforcement in Metropolis is.....Nat Tryon was never truly punished for his criminal deeds following his transformation into 'Neutron'. But he was contained within an expensive facility. But just as of late—Psimon made the recently-escaped Shimmer infiltrate the facility and also turn Neutron into a fleeing convict. Neutron's danger is second only to Psimon himself....and considering that Psimon has complete control over what the radioactive man could do....there's no telling what may happen if Neutron is allowed to enter our Academy. We must not allow Psimon to locate this new facility. If that were to happen, he would have anything and everything he needs to destroy our greatest stronghold of interests....for whatever reason that untrustworthy man demands."

Another raised hand.

"Yes, Charger?"

"Then why is Neutron attacking Jinx?"

"A very good question. Let us find out...."

The Headmistress picked up the remote again and—

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!!!!_

--ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!

Jinx gasped.

I gritted my teeth and--

FLASH!!!

--let loose a huge pulse of murk.

I vaulted off.

_Yank!!_

Jinx flew off with me.

"YAAK!!"

We arched over the raging rapids in the night air.

The stream of nuclear energy soared hotly past us and exploded against the river in a flurry of rocks and white spray.

CRAAAACK!!!

I took a deep breath as the two of us descended and stuck Myrkblade out towards the ravine's east rockface.

_SKRRRRRRKKKKKTT!!_

Sparks flew as my murk-covered sword slowed us to a scraping stop.

FWOOSH!!

Jinx soared down past me.

My left arm pulled taut.

Jinx jolted and dangled by the handcuffs.

She panted and got a pink-glowing handhold of the rockface in reverse. She gulped and stared at the distant villain.

I strained to hold onto my blade with my right hand while Jinx hung tightly from my left.

Neutron hissed, steamed, and cracked his 'neck' underneath the helmet. "Atoms are too pretty to waste on holding you meatbags together."

Jinx gritted her teeth. "You're pretty condescending for a big, burning trash can."

"And you're pretty upstart for someone who's about to evaporate....," Neutron flexed his suited arms and glowed brighter. A single hand pointed at us. "How about a spoonful of Bikini Atoll?"

"........," Jinx blinked. "How about a change of scrypt, you stupid—YAAAK!!!"

I had yanked Myrkblade out. The two of us plummeted towards the rapids.

A good thing too...

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!_

A glowing stream of radiation flew at us.

CRAAACK!!!

Rock and dirt shattered above and scattered over our plummeting bodies.

SP-SPLOOSH!!!

The two of us fell into the rapids. We bobbed up and under and under and up and under for a few watery seconds of infinite adrenaline before my blade swung blindly and struck into a flat segment of rock.

CLANK!!!

"!!!!!" I gritted my teeth, strained, and pulled the two of us up onto dry earth. We tumbled wetly onto the stony surface when--

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**_

Jinx and I looked up, gasping.

Neutron thundered in our direction. His heavy feet charged through the rock and water alike. He had a huge elbow aimed at us like a mountain of glowing metal.

I scurried to my feet.

Jinx hobbled behind me, dragged by one wrist and flinging a handful of hex with the other. "HAAAAA!!" FL-FL-FLASH!!!

"NRRRRGH!!!" Neutron simply batted the pink hexes away and was upon us with a last minute leap--

_**THWOMP!!!!!!**_

The sheer concussion of his nuclear weight sent us flying up and over the streaming rapids.

"RAAAAUGH!!!" he flung another radiation stream at us.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!_

Time slowed in mid-air. The red glow flew at us....and directly ate its way through the thin winds toward where our arms joined. I saw the vulnerability of our chain link. I saw the blinking light. I thought of the hidden explosive. With a gasp I concentrated murk, coursed it through my limbs, enveloped Jinx's upper body in smoke, shot it down her limbs vicariously, and--

FWOOOOSH!!!

The two of us materialized against a rockface ten feet away. Time resumed. We fell down.

CLUMP!!!

We tumbled hard across a stone surrounded by stormy, splashing water.

"......," Jinx sputtered.

"......," I winced and sat up. I examined ourselves.

The link was still in place. But teleportation wasn't quick enough to avoid all of the proximity of atomic disruption. I realized how close of a call that was when I noticed that my hair was on fire.

"!!!!!!"

I jerked towards the edge of the rock.

"Yeek!!" Jinx jolted and half-slid with me.

I gasped and---DUNK!!!!—plunged my head into the splashing water's surface. A beat. I whipped my head back out and panted. I dripped all over. My long black strands dangled across my shoulders....and end of one particular lock was effectively singed by Neutron's handiwork.

"......," I fingered it. "........." I started to gnash my teeth.

_This......has not been my day....._

Black vapors danced out from under my wet shades like obsidian flame.

_Not my day at all......_

".....," Jinx gulped. "Um....Ghost Boy? About that look in your eyes—"

_YANK!!!!_

"ACKIES!!" Jinx shrieked as she suddenly found herself the unwitting caboose to a murk-streaking locomotive.

Teeth gritting, I blurred us both up stream over stones and rapids and along rockfaces towards the glowing target. I gripped Myrkblade tightly, trailing onyx vapors.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!!" Neutron was laughing his head off. He slowly glanced down and saw us incoming. "...........Ha?"

I leapt at him, twirled with a helplessly-spinning Jinx, and descended with a murderous swing of Myrkblade.

_RAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!_

CLANG!!!!!

Neutron's helmet jerked right from the impact.

SWOOOOSH-SLASH!!!

Myrkblade impacted against his chest. Sparks flew. He stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth, landed, spun, teleported, materialized behind him, and slashed at his left shoulder.

CLANG!!!

He lerched left.

I swung at his right shoulder while Jinx swung and panted.

SMACK!!!

Neutron all but fell off the rock and into the rapids.

I held my breath, teleported in front of him, twirled Myrkblade, charged, and swung the sword with a thunderous force of smoke energy up and horrendously between his legs.

SLAAAAAAASH---

_FLASH!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

The frame froze in mid-slash of Myrkblade.

"Can anyone identify this person?"

Half of the students were stuck in an equally frozen wince of vicarious pain.

"............._class???"_

The students stopped wincing and cleared their throats.

Charger raised his hand. "Wh-What was the question, H-Headmistress?"

She folded her wrinkly arms and frowned. "Care to identify the swordsman attached to Jinx?"

"Uhm....."

Bumblebee raised her hand. "That new Titan! The dark one...."

"'Noir'," the Headmistress said. "The new 'Sixth Titan', since Terra was more or less had that title removed from her identity. Noir has been with the Titans since May of this year. Since then, he has proven to be an invaluable member of the young vigilante club...even in spite of his controversial switch to the role of Wyldecarde during Slade's last bombing run in the City. Noir has proven that he has what it takes to be a villain as well as a hero. Unfortunately, he seems incredibly dedicated to being the latter. As a result, he has been a chief proponent in the Titans' defeat of many villains as of late...including Mammoth, Gizmo, and Dr. Light himself."

Another student raised her hand.

"Yes, Deuce?"

"Wh-Why's he helping Jinx then?"

"A good question. It would seem obvious that Noir's part in this recent debacle with the Fearsome Five is not out of his own choice....," the Headmistress highlighted the handcuffs in the freeze frame. "That is the source of Jinx's manipulation of his powers. A Model-Five Biological Responsive Detonator. If Noir was to separate himself from Jinx....even for a second...an explosive somewhere would go off. Considering the history Jinx and Noir have together in combat, Noir knows to truly respect a threat made by the pink sorceress."

"What's she using him for??" Deuce asked.

"It's hard to say," the Headmistress leaned against her podium. "Again...it is known that Jinx and Noir have a past together. But that is something strictly of antagonistic relation. At Westhaven, Jinx and Noir first conflicted. It was a tough battle on either side...but eventually Noir defeated her. Jinx lost possession of the Khazza jewel she betrayed us to acquire. But at the same time, she escaped and became the apprentice of Slade. The grounds were set for her rematch with Noir, and the two did battle on multiple occasions. Slade had successfully used Noir as a criminal façade while Jinx covertly ensnared the Titans into doom. But Noir countered with an unexpected tactic. He purposefully amplified his fake persona as the Third Apprentice of Slade through the adverse acts of Wyldecarde. In the end, Slade would still ensnare the Titans...but extreme actions taken by Noir ended Slade's plans....as well as his life."

Murmurs. Eyes staring fixedly at the screen. Thoughtful expressions.

The Headmistress took a deep breath: "Don't underestimate this stranger chained to Jinx. Even we masters of the Academy know very little about him. But one thing is for certain...he killed Slade. And since Dagger himself disappeared on the same night as Slade's perishing, many of us assume that Noir was responsible for his end as well."

More mutterings. Whispers.

"What Jinx wants with him is something only she understands....for it's quite possible that she understands something about Noir more than any criminal or hero in the land. All that's left for us is to observe the two in action." That said, she clicked the remote again.

FLASH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!!!!!_

_**CLANG!!!!!!!!!**_

Myrkblade struck dead center in Neutron's......center.

"Nnnnnnghhhh!!!" the armored villain fell down in a radioactive slump.

_**WHAM!!!**_

I stood above him. Panting. Wet from riverwater. Shoulders heaving.

A trembling Jinx stood at my left side. She caught her breath and winced as she looked at the collapsed villain. "Man oh man.....," she looked up at me and blinked. "So much for his Three Mile Island."

".......," I stopped panting and stared at her.

She stared back at me. "......"

"......."

"......."

".......," I helplessly snickered.

"Hehehehehe," she giggled.

I shook my head and shook all over with breathy chuckles.

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

WHAM!!!!!

Neutron's glowing first flew up and slammed into me.

"!!!!" I flew back.

_Yank!!_

"DAAH!!" Jinx flew back with me.

WHUMP!!! I landed against the rockface--

PLOP!!!

Jinx flew into me.

We fell---tangled together---onto a half-submerged rock below. Our legs dangled in the rushing waters. The two of us struggled to climb up—

_**STOMP!!!!**_

Neutron stood up, groaning.

"Now....you shall doubly die.....TRIPLY DIE!!!"

"After all that....," Jinx wheezed for air. "I-I'd say it was worth it!!"

"......," I struggled to pull us up.

But Neutron had other plans.

"RAAAAUGH!!" He ran for us.

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!!!!!**_ On the last charging step, he flew up into a massive jump and came down onto the top edge of the rock we were gripping to. "NNNGH!!" _**WHAM!!!!!!**_

SHATTER!!!!

His half of the rock exploded.

Ours shot upwards like the sad end of a lever.

"!!!!" I twirled in the air with Jinx. I spotted a patch of rocky platforms in the middle of the raging waters and tried guiding us murkingly towards a firm footho—"

_**GRIP!!!!**_

My body felt on fire.

I gritted my teeth in the iron hold of Neutron. He held me by the throat—dangling. Jinx doubly-dangled beneath me, gasping.

"Look at the upstart little blackhead...," Neutron's helmet leaned in and hissed. His grip on my neck squeezed intolerably. "What say I pop you??"

I wheezed.

Jinx gritted her teeth and aimed low. " HAAAA!!!"

Her pink hex struck the stony ground beneath the metal-armored creep.

FLASH!!! CRAAA-AAACK!!

"AUGH!!!" Neutron cried as he plunged into the waters.

SPLOOOSH!!!

_HISSSSSSSSS!!!!_

Water steamed violently into a white cloud above the currents as he submerged and was carried down the ravine.

PLOP!!! I landed on my rear on rocky earth, gasping.

Jinx perched beside me in a nimble pose. "That ought to cool him down some....."

I wheezed.

She looked at me. "You know, you're cute when you're dying."

I glared at her.

"_Having a special moment??"_

"!!!"

The two of us looked directly up.

Shimmer stood atop a dry tree jutting out of the rockface twenty feet above. She posed sexily in the growing starlight and smiled a mischievous smile. She held a few flimsy leaves between her fingers.

"No....we're not." Jinx frowned.

"Good," Shimmer smiled. The leaves in her grasp glowed and turned into razor-sharp crystals. "Cuz I hate romance. It produces too many retards."

She let out a shout, spun with her orange hair fanning out, and unleashed streaking rings of razor sharp leaf-knives. "HAVE A TASTE OF AUTUMN---!!"

_FLASH!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!

The air-slicing leaves stopped in the freeze frame.

"Shimmer....," the Headmistress spoke. A beat. She took a deep breath. "So many members of our former flock are mixing into this heated cauldron of conflict. Jinx. Pulsade. Mammoth. Gizmo. It's quite a tragedy, really. But Shimmer...she is an outsider. A former ally of sorts—yes. But she's Fearsome Five down to the core. Not a member of the Academy's pride."

After a thoughtful pause, the teacher turned to face her students. She spoke: "Can anyone tell me why Shimmer would be acting so vengefully against Jinx?"

A hand raised.

"You've done your part, Bumblebee. Anyone else?"

Another hand.

"Deuce?"

"Didn't Jinx force her out of the Fearsome Five?"

"Jinx was Shimmer's replacement," the Headmistress nodded. "Shimmer was forced away from her team and her very own brother, Mammoth. After having spent so much time in jail because of Psimon's manipulation, one would imagine her wanting to exact revenge on him. But it would seem that his influence is too great. All of her anger....all of her angst....it is being centered on one person and one person alone. Jinx."

The Headmistress pointed to the freeze frame. "What we're seeing here is not just a clash of rogues in the Academy's eyes...but something coldly calculated by Psimon himself. There is every reason to believe that all we're about to see unfold before us is nothing more than the manifestation of Psimon's detrimental plans for our interests and organized crime abroad. That's why we must keep careful....careful watch on the proceedings."

The students nodded in dizzying agreement.

The Headmistress lifted her remote, smiled, and—

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!!!!_

"RAAAAUGH!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SWIIIIIIIISH!!!!

The razor sharp 'leaves' flew down at us in air whistling streaks.

Jinx shrieked and covered her short pink hair.

I stood firm.

I twirled Myrkblade once—CL-CL-CLANG!! And lifted up vertically—CLANK!!

The leaves shattered apart and crumbled to my feet.

I exhaled.

Shimmer gripped a four foot branch of the dead tree sticking out of the ravine's rockface. She applied force---SNAP!! She broke the branch free, held it over her shoulder like a club, and leapt down at us. SWOOOOSH!! She dropped twenty feet and landed in a graceful squat.

Jinx looked up, panting. "Oh no....don't try and get CLOSE to us, hag!!" She unleashed quick bursts of hex with her left wrist.

FL-FL-FLASH!!!

Shimmer smiled.

She twirled left, advanced, jumped rignt, spun, and ran at us with a leap—all the time avoiding the respective blasts of pink energy. She charged straight at me, flailing the flimsy wooden branch over her head.

I smirked and raised Myrkblade at ready.

CHIIIING!!! In a flash of orange-red light, her stick turned into a heavy-iron club.

"!!!!!!" I exhaled.

"RAAUGH!!!" SWOOOOOSH—the club came flying down.

I yanked my handcuffed hand up and gripped Myrkblade above me at both ends.

CLANG!!!!! Metal met smoking wood.

She gritted her teeth and pressed the club down into me, applying its weight.

I struggled to push back against her.

Jinx recovered from having been yanked by my left hand's movement. She twirled on one boot and aimed at Shimmer's feet. "HAA!!" A hex flew.

Shimmer yanked the club back and flipped over me.

CRACK!!!

The stone beneath her leap exploded in pink hex.

My black eyes spun.

Shimmer soared over us.

Jinx's head rolled.

Shimmer landed. Jinx's side.

"RRRRGH!!!" She swung the club in a massive horizontal sweep.

"!!!!" Jinx leapt up high.

My left arm flew up.

SWIIIIISH!!! Where Jinx was missing, the club streaked through and barely missed my nose by a millimeter.

I sweatdropped in slow motion.

SWIIIISH!!! Shimmer teetered awkwardly from her heavy miss.

PLANT!! Jinx landed from her leap and shot a hex into Shimmer's chest. "HAAA!!!"

Shimmer held the metal club vertically in front of her chest.

CLANG!!!

The pink bolt split.

Shimmer sneered and shoved forward with her bludgeon. "Nnngh!!!"

THWUMP!!!!

Jinx was shoved into my chest.

I was shoved into the rock wall.

THWAP!!!!

I leaned precariously back into the side of the ravine with a thick stream of water surging between my feet and the wall.

"......," I strained to keep my balance and to keep from suffocating from Jinx's shoulder in my face.

The pink witch in question said: "Get ready for blastoff?!?!"

"????"

Jinx jumped up and planted her feet painfully against my chest....upon which she vaulted off.

WHUMP!!!!

"!!!!!" I exhalded.

Jinx leapt forward as far as she could on the handcuff's length. She landed low in a heavy squat and—through a pulse of pink aura—anchored her body hard into the floor.

Which meant--

_YANK!!!_

I flew forward on the scant chain, flipped over, and vaulted—boots first—into Shimmer's body.

WHAM!!!

"OOOF!!" the villainous vixen flew back from my blow. She bounced off two rocks and barely fell into the starlit currents of water rapids. "Nnngh...."

THWOMP!! I landed on my back a few feet in front of Jinx, wincing.

"HA!!" the witch smiled a Cheshire grin. "Now I'm ready to kick fanny!!!"

SWOOOOSH!!! She streaked forward with glowing pink.

"????" _YANK!!_ My black eyes bulged beneath my shades as I was dragged forward and yanked up onto my feet. I blurred my legs to keep up as Jinx hopped us from rock to rock and over rapids streams and leaping high and sailing down mercilessly towards Shimmer.

CHIIING!! "HAAAAA!!!" Jinx made a hex blade in her left hand during the descent.

CHIIIIIING!!! I had Myrkblade ready with gritted teeth.

Shimmer stood up with her club.

SWOOOOSH!! We both landed down on either side of her. SWIIIISH!! Our blades sliced in together like a giant pair of scissors.

Shimmer held her club up and deflected our weapons with both ends of her bludgeon. CL-CLANK!!! She twirled it like a fan and stepped backwards slowly across the precarious rock ledge.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!! Her spinning mastery deflected Jinx's repeated stabs.

Jinx jumped back.

I jumped forward.

SWIIIIIISH-CLACK!!!

Shimmer held the broadside of her metal club to block my blow.

I pressed down hard into her weapon, holding her down.

For....

"HAAA!!" Jinx jumped in, hex blade swishing.

Shimmer tilted her head back.

SWOOOOOSH!!

The Hex blade barely glazed her nose.

Shimmer stepped back, twirled her blade, crouched, spun, and swept Jinx's feet out from under her.

"Augh!!" Jinx fell down on her butt. THWOMP!!!

Shimmer jumped up, growled, and swung one end of the bludgeon down hard over the witch's head.

I gasped and yanked back hard on the handcuffs.

THWOOOSH!! Jinx slid back.

CRACK!!! Shimmer's club struck the rock hard.

I spun my body around, anchoring my weight to my right foot.

Jinx swirled around like a tether ball over raging rapids surrounding us until—three hundred and sixty degrees later—she was slamming her knees into Shimmer's gut.

WHAM!!!

"Nnngh!!" Shimmer stumbled back. She fell three feet and tumbled across a lower rock in the rapids.

Jinx stumbled to her feet.

I ran ahead.

_Yank!!_

"Ackies!!" Jinx was forced to run with me as I streaked towards the rock edge, leapt up, sailed over rapids, and flew down towards Shimmer.

SWIIIIISH!!! Myrkblade licked through the air.

Shimmer rolled to the side.

CRACK!!!

My sword slammed into the rock.

Shimmer jumped up to her feet.

"HAAA!!" Jinx flung a hex at her chest.

Shimmer tilted back, backflipped, and landed on a stone two streams away.

SW-SW-SWISH!! I twirled Myrkblade at ready.

Jinx brandished her hex blade.

Shimmer's eyes narrowed. She smirked.

The two of us charged her. SWOOOSH!!

Shimmer kicked her foot into the river rapids besides her stone.

SPLOOOSH!!!

The water lifted skyward in a spray.

Shimmer gritted her teeth, glowed her hands a red-orange, and flung both limbs forward through the fountain.

"NNNNGH!!!"

As a result, the water morphed into pellets of black lead that flew at us in a torrent. FWOOOOSH!!!!

"Waaaiee!!" Jinx skidded to a stop and covered her face.

I shielded my shades with a single arm.

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWAP!!!!

We were pelted with streams of tiny stones all over our figures. It was blinding. Hot.

"NYAAAAAAUGH!!!"

I stopped wincing just long enough to peer through the black stream.

WHAM!!!!!

Shimmer sailed through foot first across my chin.

"!!!" I spun from the impact.

"Yaak!!" Jinx consequently spun from the impact.

The two of us tumbled off the rock, splashed through a shallow stream of frothy water, and rolled wetly onto the surface of another rock.

"Should've brought a paddle...," Shimmer smiled. She reached down and grabbed two three rocks from a dry quarry over the rapids. "I don't know what you were thinking when you blew up that prison and tried escaping, Jinx. You were dead girl walking from the get go."

Jinx sat up, wincing in the starlight. "I....d-did not set off that bomb...."

"Sure you didn't," Shimmer juggled the three rocks and smiled. "And you didn't royally screw up my life the very moment you were born."

Jinx narrowed her pink eyes. "Look....Selinda.....about that. Psimon, he—"

"Don't call me by my REAL NAME!!!" Shimmer hissed. Her eyes flared an orange-red. "You ungrateful little pink turd!! Guess you'll never know what it feels like to be burned, huh? Well....allow me to elaborate some!!" She stopped juggling the rocks and tossed them at us one by one.

FWOOOOM!!!! The stones turned into balls of hot-streaking flame.

I about melted at the sight of them.

"Move!!!" Jinx jerked us downstream.

_What's the point anymore--_

YANK!!!

_DAAAH!!_

I ran helplessly with her.

FWOOOOOOM!!! SPLASH!!!!

The rocks exploded at our heels.

FW-FWOOM!!! SPLASH!!! SPLASH!!!

Jinx leapt.

I leapt.

Jinx hopped over a stream.

I jumped over a stream.

Jinx skirted against a ravine wall.

I blurred against it after her.

We found ourselves running towards an open spot of even rocks along the ravine.

Jinx smiled in mid-sprint. "Great!! Keep it up, Ghost Boy! We can lose them! We can—"

POW!!!! An orange light exploded against us.

"Yaaugh!!" Jinx flew back into me.

I caught her awkwardly. I looked up.

FWOOOSH!!! Gizmo hovered to a stand-still in front of us.

"Going somewhere, blubbermunchers??"

"Yeah...," Jinx snarled. "How about up your tiny ass with a pipe bomb?"

_**THWOMP!!!!**_

I spun around with Myrkblade in my right hand.

Mammoth had just landed from the ravine's cliffside above. He cracked his knuckles and smiled. "Such potty language, Jinx. Look at what prison has done to you."

"And look at what Psimon has done to you...," Jinx leaned her hand against her hip and smiled. "Don't tell me he practically has you both sharing toothbrushes by now."

"You shut up!!" Gizmo squealed, aiming a laser rifle from out of the back of his jetpack. "We've been waiting a long time for this moment, girl."

"Really, all we want to do is rip the skin off your skull and feed it intravenously to you before stomping your insides into jelly," Mammoth said, advancing menacingly. "But we've been ordered just to roughen you up some. Nothing more."

"So I think we'll just settle for burning you alive," Gizmo snickered. "What better a fate for a snotlicking witch?"

"Keep it up, guys," Jinx merely Cheshired. "All these death threats will only make killing you so much more rewarding...."

The two former teammates of hers snarled angrily.

Jinx glanced back at me, smirking. "Don't I know them or what?"

I blinked at her.

_Do you ever shut up???_

"RAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth charged.

"Eat crud!!" Gizmo shot.

Jinx ducked low, yanking me down with her.

FLASH!!!! Gizmo's laser shot slammed into Mammoth's face, frying his hair.

"Aw jeez!!" Mammoth hissed and put his hair out with flapping fingers.

"Stupid oaf!! Stop being so big!!" Gizmo cackled.

Jinx and I panted from where we hovered on the floor.

"I get Gizmo," she breathed. She glanced at me. "Back to back. You get the big one."

".....," I glanced at her over my shoulder.

_Gee...thanks._

We both jumped up.

FLASH!!! Jinx reformed a hex blade.

CHIIIIING!!! I held Myrkblade out.

We stood back to back. Petite body to tall frame. My left hand and her right hand joined together. My right hand and her left hand brandished destruction.

"HAAAA!!!" Jinx jabbed forward with her hex blade.

"!!!!" I slashed Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK!!! Mammoth deflected with his tough skin.

SWOOSH!! Gizmo barely ducked. He gritted his teeth and fired laser volleys at Jinx's figure.

Jinx cartwheeled to the right—forcing me to as well.

I gasped and barely managed to balance myself upright at the end of the cartwheel--

"RAAAUGH!!!" Mammoth charged at me with a fist through my head.

I took a deep breath.

SWOOOOSH!!!

I teleported my upper body into smoke form just as his fist flew through.

Mammoth spun awkwardly from his pure strike of air.

I materialized and slashed Myrkblade up into his underarm.

THWAP!!!!

He teetered back.

I put pressure back into Jinx's body and slammed my right foot up. WHAM!!!

Mammoth teetered back into the Cliffside. "Whoah!!" THWAP!!! He winced.

CLAMP!!!

He gripped onto the end of my murking blade, struggling to hold it in place.

I struggled to pry it from his iron grasp.

In the meantime, Jinx was swinging her hex blade madly at Gizmo. "HA!! HAAAA!!!"

Gizmo thrusted left, back, right, back again, and forward—avoiding the multiple sword strikes. At one heavily missed swing, he produced a second laser turret from his jetpack and fired with both. "Nya ha ha ha ha!!!"

BL-BL-BL-BL-BLAM!!!

Jinx gritted her teeth. "Ghost Boy!!!!! Cover your back!!"

I started to feel her legs tensing.

I gritted my teeth. Smoke danced under my shades and---

YANK!!!

I pulled Myrkblade out from beneath Mammoth's fingers.

"OWIE!!" the big oaf blew on his palms.

FWOOSH!!! Jinx performed a handstand on my shoulders.

SWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade blindly behind me.

CL-CL-CLANG!!! Gizmo's shots were deflected before they could sail into my back.

Mammoth charged, stomping. "RAAAUGH!!!"

SWIIIIISH!!! I brought Myrkblade back around and met his charge. CLANK!!!

FWOOOSH!!! Jinx landed down from her handstand, charged her hex blade bright, and launched it as a projectile at Gizmo. "HAAAA!!!"

POW!!!

The hex struck dead center with his jet pack.

"CRIMINY!!!" he fell hard to the rock beneath him. SPLAT!!!

Mammoth growled and gripped his huge hand around my throat.

"!!!!!!" I wheezed and struggled for breath.

Jinx glanced over her shoulder. She gasped. In a heartbeat she flipped up and over my shoulders with her two feet plunging over my head.

WHAP!!!!

She slammed her entire weight into the top of Mammoth's skull.

"OW!!!" he let go of my throat and stumbled back.

Jinx snaked back over me. Her weight pulled me into a forced, backwards flip.

I held my breath, graced a spinning world of stars and river water, and landed on my feet, facing Jinx.

She blinked.

I blinked.

"RAAAUGH!!" Mammoth shook his head and charged us both.

Jinx pointed down behind me.

I glanced.

I saw Gizmo struggling to his feet.

Teeth gritting, I twirled about.

Jinx spun at the end of my left arm.

SWIIIIISH!!! I jabbed Myrkblade. SLIIINK!!! I caught Gizmo between his back and jetpack.

"WAAAA!!" He wailed.

I spun again and swung Myrkblade at Mammoth.

RIIIIIP!!!

Gizmo's jetpack shredded apart and his body went sailing into Mammoth's chest.

WHAP!!!

"OOF!!!" Mammoth stumbled back.

I twirled to a stop. Jinx spun like a tetherball and stopped against me. She leaned her body back and flung an upside down hex-bolt straight into the conglomerated villain's bodies. "HAAAAAAA!!!!"

FLASH!!!!

The pink glow struck dead-center, forcing the two young crooks off of their rock and into the river rapids.

SPLOOSH!!! SPLASH!!!

"Augh!!!" "Crammit!!!"

They bobbed down the currents.

"Just like old times, huh?!?!" Jinx shrieked. "You're both all wet and I'm still standing!!!!" She stood up straight. "Hehehehehehe!!!" A pause. "......" she realized that we were standing chest to chest. She looked up at me.

I bit my lip and shoved her to my left side.

"Ahem....," Jinx shook her short head of pink. "Wh-Where were we?"

"Try oblivion....," said a familiar voice above us.

We both glanced up.

Shimmer perched on a rock ledge, smiling down at us.

Jinx groaned. "Will you give up already?? Haven't you enough badassness for one evening?"

Shimmer examined her nails as she spoke: "Oh....I'm done breaking sweat. However there's someone else who's regaining steam."

"Eh???" Jinx cutely blinked.

"........," I glanced around....taking notice of the white mist forming heavily from the water around us. The temperature of the wet air was rising. I shuddered.

"Uhm....," Jinx blinked. "Who was keeping his eye on that one anywho?"

"RAUGH!!!!!!!"

_**CRAAAAACK!!!!**_

Neutron exploded upward from some hidden crevice beneath us. Water and stone flew in the nuclear force....our bodies included.

FWOOOOSH!! Jinx and I sailed through the air. We twirled about and plummeted dangerously towards the conglomeration of hard rocks and shallow river water below.

"!!!!" I twirled us in mid-air using waves of murk.

Jinx had an aura of pink ready.

We landed safely on the rocks....but...

"Melt already....," Neutron aimed a glowing wrist of metal. "MELT ALREADY!!!!"

"Go!!" Jinx tugged and pulled. "Go go go go go go go go!!!"

I gritted my teeth and blurred us off the rocks and into the water.

ZAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAP!!!!

Streams of radioactive energy warbled behind us.

Our pink and black feet blurred over the surface of the watery rapids. It was a tough feat in and of itself to navigate our way through the splashes and the uneven torrents of water and various, jutting rocks.

At the same time, red-hot streams of energy exploded rock and earth and ravine walls around us. Shimmer's cackling laughter filled ecstatically through the canyon.

But soon all of the chaos was drowned out as a huge mist formed in front of us, followed by a gust of air and a dead horizon of black.

My black eyes narrowed.

_What in the world? Why is everything suddenly dropping---??_

"Waterfall!!!" Jinx panted.

My eyes bulged.

The two of us were helplessly running along the top of the water towards an huge plunge of at least fifty feet into pounding surf below.

"Ah jeez! Ah jeez!" Jinx's teeth clattered. "We gotta go back! We gotta....we gotta...."

I glanced back behind our running shoulders.

I saw the angrily glowing Neutron and the homicidal Shimmer and the slowly surfacing Gizmo and Mammoth.

........._..yeah....._

I gripped hard to Jinx's hand.

"What??" she gasped. "No wait!! AUGH!!!"

And I leapt....

....

And we fell.

And somewhere our bodies got lost between the gravity and the water and the queasily solid feeling of centripetal force combined with liquid pressure.

_**SPLOOOOSH!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-BLIP-

The classroom monitor switched off.

The Headmistress turned and faced the class.

"Are they dead? Most likely not. Already, our sources in the field who were responsible for recording this debacle have also confirmed the continued existence of these two targets. We have let them be the brunt of the Fearsome Five's pursuit long enough. Soon...they will be coming dangerously close to the Academy. And there will soon come a time when we will have to intervene. Either our graduates....or you yourselves, students. Now is the time to test your loyalty and learning. For eventually....I may be asking **you**.........to capture Jinx and her handcuffed partner."

"................," the young villains stared blankly.

"Keep that in mind....," the Headmistress smiled. "It is your up and coming project."

There was a creaking sound. Then footsteps.

The Headmistress gazed up.

Damien Darhk stepped in at the top rear of the classroom, above the descending rows of seats. He stood with a smile on his young face. His hands were in his pockets._  
_  
The Headmistress took a deep breath. She faced the students. "If you will excuse me.....I must attend to our situation. Class is dismissed. I want to hear about each and every one of you training by sundown thoroughly. Long live H.I.V.E."

"**Long live H.I.V.E."** the classroom collectively droned. They gradually broke up and left the classroom in scattered groups and loners, muttering and sharing anxious conversations about the material covered.

The Headmistress gathered her briefcase and shuffled over to meet Damien. "Well?"

"Reports are in. They're on dry land. They're headed west....howbeit slowly."

"And the Fearsome Five??"

"I've got some extensive info on them too," Damien smirked.

"Talk while we walk."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Neutron stood on a cliffside overlooking the waterfall. His metal-encased limbs heaved. Steam filtered in and out of his helmet.

Shimmer jumped up and perched on a tree-limb. She overlooked the nightshrouded river below. Squinting her eyes, she could spot two miraculous bodies running ashore from the river and disappearing into the forest.

"Hmmm.....," Shimmer smirked some. "Well there's always pneumonia."

"Okay....so.....," Mammoth grumbled as he dragged himself and a soggy Gizmo from the elevated river rapids. "Please tell me that was part of the whole plan. We got our butts kicked on purpose, right?" A beat. "RIGHT????"

"Just put a sock in it, Dumbo," Gizmo squeezed the water out of his sleeves and knocked some extra droplets out of his ears. "Psimon says suck. Then we suck. Isn't that what Psimon says?!?!" He glared upwards.

Shimmer and Mammoth turned to see the elderly man shuffled over in his robe. His translucent brain-dome glistened in the starlight. A wrinkled mouth formed a pale smile and: "Excellent. I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to direct intervention. Psychology works all in itself, doesn't it?"

"How come you couldn't HELP us anyways?!?!" Mammoth grunted. "Even Dr. Light knew how to get his fingers dirty!! Why can't you just...I dunno...MAKE them go to H.I.V.E. by mind control?"

"But you see, Mammoth....it _is_ Mind Control," Psimon smiled. "At least where Jinx is concerned." He gazed lovingly at the wooded landscape beneath the elevated cliffside. "It's always been mind control with her. Her past. Her present. Her future. All created. Dagger and H.I.V.E. thought they had hired me to make a secret weapon for them. Slade used her as if she was his own. But Jinx has always belonged to me." His eyes narrowed. "Now that we have given her something to run from...she will be ever quicker in leading us to her Academy. This is something she's doing of her own will...not knowing that her own will is just as much an illusion as two precious sisters she once believed in."

"Rrrrrrgh!!!" Neutron suddenly shouted and spun around with swinging fists. "I've had enough with your telepathic games and super ego!! We could have accomplished what you wanted AGES ago!! We could have stole our way into the Academy and my wish would have been granted!!"

Shimmer giggled. "My my....what _are_ you babbling about??"

"You....," the helmet hissed as a burly finger pointed as Psimon. "You're too full of yourself and your strategies!! Just read the blasted girl's mind and tell me where to go!!"

"I....can't....do....that....," Psimon glared. "And you—sir—are speaking out of line."

"Don't DICTATE TO ME!!!" the nuclear freak roared. "You promised me that I'd be freed from this suit the moment after I successfully stormed into H.I.V.E. And you're DELAYING THAT ON PURPOSE!!! This is not a bargain! It's SLAVERY!!!"

"I assure you....," Psimon's eyes started to glow threateningly. "It is perfectly....legitimate."

Gizmo and Mammoth shifted uncomfortably where the stood.

Shimmer hummed.

"Rrrrgh!! Don't...I know what you're trying to do...," Neutron shook. "Don't....Don't......"

Psimon's eyes continued to glow.

"NOOOOOO!!!" _**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**_ Neutron charged him.

Psimon flicked his wrist.

FLASH!!!

Neutron froze in place. His glow died out. He looked like a catatonic statue.

Mammoth muttered: "Wh-Wh-What did you do?"

"Reprogrammed him....," Psimon smiled. "It's about the fifth time I've had to do that to this stupid brute since he was freed from prison."

Gizmo glanced at Shimmer. A beat. He glanced back at Psimon.

The freakish elder smiled. "Some people just don't know how to revere those who have truly freed them...."

"Was what he was saying true, though?" Mammoth asked. "About freeing him from his suit after we follow Jinx to H.I.V.E. and trash that place?"

Shimmer suddenly chuckled for some reason or another.

"Indeed it is true, Mammoth," Psimon said. "Nat Tryon shall be freed from his suit. At the same time, he shall be freed from this plane of existence."

"What do you mean??" Gizmo asked, his eyes suspiciously thinner.

"Once we situated him deep inside the domain of H.I.V.E. Academy....," Psimon spoke over the deaf ears of the suited freak. ".....we will detonate him."

Mammoth blinked.

"H.I.V.E. will be short a cove of villains."

"But what for??" Gizmo grunted. "What's the whole point?"

"The point....my little technogrunt....," Psimon glanced down and smiled. "....is to get to the bottom of the one thing in this world that I feel is strong enough to threaten _me_."

"What's that?"

"Not a 'what'....a 'whom'," Psimon spoke. "Whoever is the mysterious stranger who wields the force whispering through the red tresses of darkness. The words in the wind that hiss 'Red Aviary'....."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress and her assistant walked slowly through the yellow hallways of the Academy. Guards and students wandered between posts and training sessions.

"—and as it stands, there is no sign of Jinx's aides."

"Pulsade and the mysterious hacker?"

"Indeed. We've attempted to study up on that hacker, though."

"Oh? Inform me, Damien."

"I wish I could," the young Mr. Darhk nodded. "We came up with one thing and one thing only. A letter."

"A letter?"

"'J'."

"......," the Headmistress took a breath. "That isn't very helpful."

"I would have to agree with you, ma'am," Damien smiled.

The Headmistress came to a stop and sighed. "Somehow....somehow I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it would be wrong to ever wake Jinx up. What would the original Headmistresses say?"

"Nobody has seen the founders in years, ma'am," Damien said. "What jurisdiction could they possibly hold over Jean Jenkins at this point?"

The Headmistress shook her head. "None of that matters. This is all about Jinx. I almost wonder.....would she stop leading the Fearsome Five to us if we simply told her the truth?"

"We've let Psimon change her too much for that to ever work."

"True. Very true," the Headmistress nodded. "I think it's about time we intervened."

"Shall I call in the Strike Squa—"

"No!" the old woman hissed. She clutched her briefcase tightly and frowned. "We must never kill Jinx. She can always be changed back to us. I'm convinced of that."

"Then what do you suggest, ma'am?" Damien smiled. "I'll do whatever task you give me."

"..................send a covert squad."

"A covert squad?"

"Perform an Enforcer Masque maneuver," the old woman smirked. "Intercept Jinx and the boy at their next destination."

Damien blinked. "Blue Pine."

The woman nodded.

Damien smiled. "I'll round up the boys. I must say....we do look good in uniform. Even if it's not our uniforms."

"Take four squad cars with you," the Headmistress commanded. "I want it to look authentic."

"Oh....it'll be authentic," Damien smoothed his hair back and walked away. "I assure you of that...."

The old Academy Leader sighed and turned around. "If it comes down to it, Jenkins.....I'll tell you the truth myself."

And she walked off towards her faraway office.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx limped to a stop in the forest. She leaned her soaked body up against a tree trunk and panted for breath. I stood beside her, sheathing Myrkblade and inhaling deeply.

It was dark. Dead dark. The autumn night air stung our wet bodies with cold. Our flesh and metal wrists trembled inside the rattling handcuffs.

"I like gymnastics.....when they stay dry......"

".......," I ran a hand through my soppy black hair. I sighed. I saw a thick branch quite close to our left hands. Slowly...I stretched my metal fingers out and carved some lines into the wood. I managed to match my movements with the trembling of the cold girl attached to me. In the meantime, I glanced behind my shoulder for any Fearsome villains that may be pursuing us.

At that time exactly, Jinx uttered: "Psimon......," her fists clenched against my fingers and the tree bark. "....why doesn't he just leave me alone?? What's he getting everyone together for?? Shimmer....Nuetron.....," she took a deep breath. "Gizmo.....Mammoth...."

My black eyes narrowed. I stared at the girl's lonely form in front of me. She took a deep, sighing breath and stood up straight. "It's.....It's okay.....," she exhaled. "Nothing I shouldn't have expected."

She glanced at me with a sickening layer of sadness in her cat eyes. "Life is....really all about everyone hating you."

"...........," I simply stared at her.

Jinx shook her wet head. "Bah....w-we gotta keep moving. Th-The last thing we should do is let them catch up with us." She rubbed her right arm with her left hand and shivered. "Brrrr.....gawd it's cold. Freakin' Autumn. I'm soaked through to my skin. Hang on a damn minute."

She twisted her left hand back, under, and up her black blouse. I watched confusedly as the wet tent of her submerged wrist stretched up and came to a stop. There was a snapping sound, and quick as a switchblade she whipped her arm out and into the open, dangling a training bra.

".........," I blinked.

"Yeah. To Hell with that....," she tossed the pale article beyond the nearby bushes. She glanced at me. A beat. "What??"

"......."

"Stop looking at me like that!!" she rolled her pink eyes. "Pfft! Not like I even need it."

I ran a hand over my face and sighed.

"Come on...," she sighed and trudged ahead.

_Yank!!_

I followed her in a cloud.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later.

Under the darkness of night.

Above the ravine that lead to the river rapids...

Two young bodies levitated down to the ground.

Raven lowered herself and Robin. Once they reached the forested earth, she released her flying fields of dark telekinesis.

Robin ran forward and looked around. He gazed at the floor in whatever starlight could help him. But it wasn't good enough. So he reached into his utility belt and whipped out a small flashlight. He swept a shimmering beam of illumination across the misty woods. His eyemasked vision scanned the floor.

Silence.

"If we're searching possums, we're off to a sour start," Raven droned.

Robin ignored her. "This is the only spot in the forest with a beaten path. It would have been easiest for the two to traverse this route."

"Since when would Noir choose a path that's _easy_?" Raven asked.

"But you forget. Jinx's at the reins."

"Ah.....true."

".........," Robin sneaked forward. His boots cracked against twigs and leaves. His eyemask thinned.

Raven floated quietly behind him, her cloak billowing lightly in the autumn air.

".........," Robin glanced down. His lips parted. "There.....," he murmured.

Raven looked down.

Footprints.

One small set.

One large set.

"Boo-ya," she droned.

Robin glanced at her.

She glanced at him. "What?"

"Nothing," he smiled.

Raven frowned.

The Boy Wonder crept over and knelt by the tracks. "Looks like they were slowing down. The footprints are closer together. Like they were taking smaller steps."

"This path does take them sorta downhill," Raven said. "They had to have taken it slow."

"True...," Robin said. He stood up straight. "Guess we follow them from here—"

"Robin....," Raven pointed at something. "Look."

"???" the Boy Wonder glanced over. He and Raven rushed to a huge tree trunk around a bend in the path. There were scratches on it that spelled out something:

'_28 W'_

"Another message....," Raven slurred.

"From Noir??" Robin remarked. "It's just like the last one."

"Not quite," Raven said. "The last one was '17 W', remember?"

".........."

"If only he could have been more specifi—"

Robin gasped. "Of course!!!"

Raven blinked. "What did I miss?"

Robin stood up straight. He glanced up. "Raven....take us up over the treetops. Pronto!"

"Okay....," she shrugged. Her eyes and hands glowed. "You're the boss. Azarath Metrion Zinthos."

She lifted herself and Robin up beyond the branches and tinted leaves of autumn. The night sky yawned open above them and a cold wind kicked at their hair.

Robin pivoted on the platform of black energy for a bit. His eyes scanned the celestial hemisphere. "There!" he pointed. "The North Star! And......" He slowly pivoted his gloved hand left as he counted off in his head. ".......twenty-six.....twenty-seven...twenty eight degrees! Twenty eight degrees west of the Northern Axis!" He turned to look at Raven, smiling wide. "Noir's been giving us coordirnates! He's telling us in which direction Jinx is taking him! The last marker was '17 degrees West'. He's trying to tell us that Jinx is taking him west of the original direction! She wanted nothing from the Metropolitan Highway!"

"So we can rule out Metropolis...," Raven said.

"Exactly. For all we know...she could be taking Noir elsewhere. Gotham City. Chicago. Indianapolis....."

"Or Grandmother's house."

"Let's head in _that_ direction," Robin pointed. "If we're lucky...we'll find another marker—"

"And then maybe find Noir...," Raven blinked. "I would hope so. The mosquitoes are coming out."

"Leave it to you to hate blood sucking."

"........"

"Raven, that was sarcasm."

"........"

"........sarcastic _humor_."

"Stick to giving commands, Robin."

"Yeah....good idea."

"Let's go...."

The two lowered to the forest floor and ran down the path......until they found themselves on one side of a shattered wooden bridge.

"..........."

".........."

".......okay," Raven blinked. "Can I start worrying about Noir again?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I were in the thickness of another forest when she really started to....lose it.

Her breath that is.

"I can't.....I won't....uh uh.....not tonight....not this night....," the witch panted as she limply lead the way.

"..........????"

I leaned my head to the side.

_What's your problem??_

"I will not....cannot....give into.....sleep.....," she murmured.

_Oh....._

I shrugged and followed her calmly. Mr. Endurance....

"I swear....I'm too....dainty....f-for my....my own good....," she swallowed, panted, and turned around to look at me. "Even when....I worked for Slade....I-I was....a laughing stock. I was....so winded....and confused.....while you ran....circles around me.....Wyldecarde....."

I gritted my teeth.

_Don't tempt me......it's so easy to kill someone when the Sun's down._

"Nnnnnnngaaaugh!!" Jinx squealed.

I winced...a bit startled by that.

PLOP!!!

Jinx collapsed to her rear and bawled: "Fine...FINE!! I give in, Fate! I give in!!!"

She sighed and ran a tired hand through her short-short hair of pink.

"Gotta....sleep here. Build up for tomorrow. Blue Pine....."

I gritted my teeth, sweatdropping.

_Sl-Sleep here??_

"You hear that, Ghost Boy?" Jinx glanced up at me dazedly. "We sit down for the night. Slumber kicks our brains in. We get up. We get on with it." A beat. She looked at me.

I looked at her.

".....the road, that is. We get on with the road."

I slowly nodded and mouthed: '_Yeah.'_

"......," Jinx blinked. "Nnngh...," she shook her tired head into her hand. "Either I'm getting older or the world is getting screwier."

I shifted uncomfortably where I stood, tethered to her with my left arm stretched down.

She suddenly frowned in an attempt to be threatening. "And you sure as Hecate better not pull anything!! Remember the bomb, Ghost Boy?!?! Someone or something goes horrendously kablammo if you so much as try to escape during the night, try to cut the handcuffs during the night or try to......."—blink blink—"......through the night."

_God...just shut up and pass out._

I groaned inwardly.

My black eyes narrowed through my shades and I took a deep breath.

Because I had to be honest with myself.

Gazing at the half-kneeling Jinx sitting there, deflated, looking up at me with her pink cat eyes.

"......."

_How was I ever....ever afraid of her? Just once?_

Brief images flashed through my inner vision. A Cheshire grinning vixen blinding me on the rooftop of Westhaven. A darting shadow bringing doom to my Titan allies and framing me for the ambush in a City junkyard. A pink-haired apprentice in a metal mesh outfit kicking and punching my brains out on the blurred rooftops and highway overpasses of some urban Hell.

_And this was the same villain??_

My jaw clenched and my right knuckles tightened as I felt friction in my upper synapses.

_Why is H.I.V.E.'s traitor, Slade's third apprentice, and Wyldecarde's nemesis on the run for her own life? Why would someone frame her? Why would she deny ever trashing the City Prison and...yet....threaten me and my friends just so that I could 'help her'?_

I exhaled.

My right fingers relaxed.

I glanced at the handcuffs.

_The explosive. She....is still using it. She is still mean....and threatening....and manipulative. She is still Jinx. And she is....is still m-my nemesis....._

"Come on, Ghost Boy...," she grumbled and half-crawled, half-walked through a thin line of shrubbery over to where a soft bed of leaves had gathered under a wide-stretching oak. "Girls on the left.....boys on the right."

_God I hate you so m—ACK!!_

YANK!!

Jinx laid herself sideways on the earth.

THWUMP!!

I plopped down forcibly on my left side. My back was to her. Her back was to me. We both lay on our sides where our wrists were blindly joined together.

"Shhh!! Don't be so freakin' loud. Hecate....I swear. If you're the type to spin like a top in your sleep, I'll just blast your head off with hex in the middle of the night. And that wouldn't do the biological systems detector in the handcuffs any good, would it?"

I exhaled depressingly.

_I just know my left arm's falling asleep from this._

A beat.

My black eyes blinked.

_Oh wait....half of it is metal. I forgot. Haha......phwee....._

Silence.

My partne—er.....my 'unwitting associate in flight' was still as stone. I figured that she had settled in. A true line of exhaustion.

My thoughts fleetingly fluttered over a million brilliant ideas of teleporting out of the handcuffs, knocking Jinx's lights out, circumnavigating my way around the Fearsome Five, returning to the City, and throwing the pink witch before the feet of the police. But all my thoughts returned to the same thing my left wrist was bound by. And I gave up.

I decided to keep my shades on throughout the night. There was no telling what would require me to need them....especially with so many.....people 'hating Jinx' that could ambush us in the middle of the night.

I made sure not to sleep on Myrkblade's sheathe.

That checked, I decided to lower my eyes. I tried to ignore the warm proximity of the petite body behind me. And I was slowly......gently................drifting—"

"I bet you're the type to sleep in almost condition, Ghost Boy," Jinx said from behind me.

I cringed. My black eyes reopened and I hissed angrily through clenched teeth.

She stirred some. "As for me? It's not so easy to sleep as a villain. Your very own bed could be made out of....I dunno....crystal cyanide by some wicked assassin. You've always got to be careful."

I nodded to 'no one' and tried to block her out.

"The safest I've ever felt sleeping.......was after I broke out of H.I.V.E. and was temporarily reunited with Pulsade."

"............"

"Oh Hecate, why am I telling you this? I need you to sleep too. And there're plenty of other things I _don't_ need you doing."

I shook my head and practically dug my tired face into the bed of leaves.

_You don't have anything to worry about, really....._

Silence.

Jinx didn't move....didn't speak....

A beat.

I exhaled happily and.....let.............myself............

"I kept having bad dreams in prison."

My teeth clenched.

_Zeus damn it!!!_

"Very.....depressing dreams. Not nightmares. But they were disturbing. Still....nightmares are things that you're supposed to feel scared from. I don't ever feel scared anymore, Ghost Boy. I only feel.........bad......"

I blinked into the black forest.

_Bad??_

"Guilty."

_Oh....._

I stirred some and settled into the leaves more.

_Don't talk to me about guilt._

She talked to me about guilt.

"When Slade died....wh-when you killed him....it opened up a lot of things to me, Ghost Boy. N-Not so much because my former master is dead. But....."

A beat.

"But.....I found out that some people.....th-that some people were never alive to begin with."

-Clip-

I blinked. I tilted my head to the side some.

I caught the bare minimal silhouette of Jinx holding an open locket up in her hand behind me. "When Slade told me all that had been done......all about what Dagger had funded to have put falsely into my head................I wasn't angry because I knew I had been wronged. I wasn't angry because I suddenly remembered Psimon and the brainwashing and the....fallacy of everything I once held dear. I was angry because.....because I had no excuse, Ghost Boy."

"???" I listened.

"I......I had no excuse for what I had done in my life."

A beat.

"I-I had _never_ had an excuse for what I had done. There was no pain. No abducted sisters. No danger of having some precious siblings of mine torn apart or gang raped or tortured because of anything I refused to do for my superiors. All of my work for H.I.V.E. was for an empty cause. And when I betrayed Mammoth and Gizmo in pure treachery....it was out of selfishness, not necessity. And when I-I worked for Slade and beat your freakin' brains in.....it wasn't for some awful vendetta. It was.....It was all for nothing."

Silence.

-Flip-

-Snap-

Jinx's body lay limp behind me with a shuddering sigh.

"Some of us are born evil, Ghost Boy. And some of us....s-some of us are simply _made_ evil. But in the end—whether or not I was manipulated or brainwashed or what....it doesn't matter. I'm just as evil as I am than if I would have been if H.I.V.E. or the Fearsome Five never got to me. The sins in my life are stacked up way too high to ever break down. And you know what it is, Ghost Boy? It's Karma. It's Fate playing it's endless game with me. I lost out on luck a long time ago. Some Creator or cosmic accident out there broke a mirror, and out from the blood of—I dunno—the bleeding shards of the universe I emerged and was born. Pink and cute and kickass. But evil. Downright evil. Either because I chose to be or because someone planted a seed. I don't know. And I don't care either."

A beat.

Jinx curled up in a fetal position and hugged herself with her free arm. "I.....I-I don't care. I don't......."

"........."

"I......I-I hope I don't have to dream about that t-tonight...," she said. "Who knows? Heh...m-maybe.....maybe because you're here, you'll soak up the energies of slumber and I'll be spared."

I rolled my black eyes and gazed into the earth.

"No Really Ghost Boy. I.....I......Y-You know what?"

_What.......?_

"I have......lost so many friends. And....A-And so many comrades. Almost everyone hates me now. And they have the right to. Maybe not Pulsade or "J".....but I know you hate me, Ghost Boy. But I don't think that matters. Because....in all the time I fought for Slade....all the time I tried to off the Titans....all the time I nearly ripped apart the Balance of Morals for my master..............all the time there was you. In between the flipping dives and the flying kicks and the hex bolts and the sword swings and the punches and the shouts......there was you. I.....I-I kinda enjoyed that kaleidoscope. And when I look back at it all....I think I was seeing some glimpse of the future far truer than any gift of Fate could grant me. I saw you, Ghost Boy....and in you I saw myself. Someone impossibly and helplessly alone in this universe. Someone so alone....he or she does nothing but enslave him or herself to fate and just.....exists. Exists for the better good.....or bad. You exist for the better good, Ghost Boy. And I know what I exist for. I knew it the very moment Slade's bullet flew into my chest and nearly punctured my skin. I knew it the very moment you drove that sword through him. Everything....melted in my head. And there was nothing to fight for anymore....because I was already all that I would ever be. There's no conflict. No dichotomy. I j-just.....am. I wish....I-I wish I could explain what that feels like. Th-That sensation. The impossibilities of such a terribly simple revelation exploding in my head like....l-like tiny, tiny thunder...."

My lips moved, but no breath came out.

_It's like the sound of one hand clapping....._

Jinx murmured on: "But the difference between me and the Third Apprentice is........I know that it's all for nothing. And I feel bad. And that feeling of b-badness seals me into this existence. I....I-I almost wonder what it is that I saw in you during those kaleidoscopic battles. I w-wonder what seals you in, Ghost Boy?"

I bit my lip. There was a sore feeling in my throat, and I subconsciously ran a hand over my scar.

_Nobody....no one knows who' seals me in'...._

A beat.

My eyes closed and I sighed.

_But then......last night......_

Shivers ran through my damn metal arm. I gritted my teeth.

_The....p-painting......._

I shook a bit.

Silence.

I opened my eyes. I slowly glanced behind me.

Jinx was finally.....finally asleep.

And I almost regretted it.

I turned back over, sighed, and forgot all about getting comfortable. My head drifted west.....but only halfway.....

_God I wish that seal would disappear already._

I swallowed painfully and covered my face with my hand.

_I miss you so much, Kara. I really do. I wish to God that I would be as awake when writing to you as I feel awake this very moment._

I shuddered to breathe and let the cold numb me into oblivion.

_I keep running away from you. Running away from you by staying here, Kara. So damn East. So far away from Home....._

My aching black eyes glanced up.

Starlight stabbed down.

_Maybe....M-Maybe someday you'll at least take me halfway back. I.....I would really like that._

A beat.

_Wouldn't I, Kara?_

I let the darkness be the judge of that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Raven had been searching the ravine for an hour and a half. They started at the shattered bridge high above the rapids. Then they descended and investigated the leftover splinters littering the rocks and streams. They followed the drifting deadwood, only to find shattered rocks and scorch marks and what looked like a metal.....tree limb. But as for signs of the two handcuffed rogues....there were none.

And the two Titans were reaching their biological limits.

"I think I'm reaching my biological limits....," Raven said.

"......," Robin turned to look at her from where he was perched on a rock in the middle of the rapids. "What the Hell does that mean?"

"It means I'm tired," the dark girl droned. "And so are you."

"I.....am not tired," Robin uttered. ".........................................................." He yawned.

"I rest my case," Raven said. She glanced across the rapids at a spot of dry earth. "And I would _like_ to rest my case for that matter...."

"We have no time to rest," Robin grunted. "Do you think Jinx and Noir would be getting some shuteye?"

Raven blinked. "Um....yes."

"Oh...."

Silence.

"You go and investigate the rocks and water, Robin," Raven sighed and floated over to the dry earth. "Be a good bear and catch us some salmon in your mouth for breakfast the next morning."

"You're not abandoning me, are you Raven?"

"There's nothing to abandon," Raven said. "We've been at this pathetic ravine for over an hour, Robin. Our minds are exhausted. If Cyborg was here....he'd say we should 'sleep on it'."

Robin planted his hands on his hips. "But Cyborg isn't here."

"I know. And I'm still exhausted. Imagine that...." Raven deflated on the dry rock. "Set that biological alarm clock of yours for....erm....seven or so. That'll be a good time to resume our chase."

Robin gestured: "Are you nuts?!?! If we slow down, we'll lose our stea—"

"You're not succumbing to worry, are you Robin?" Raven stared.

"............," Robin took a deep breath. "You're right." He hopped from rock to rock and slowly stepped onto the dry rock. "Rest would......be helpful. Even Batman would agree to that."

"Of course he would."

PLOP!!

Robin sat with his back to the rocks and stared at the distant rapids. "I said 'rest'. Not sleep. You can slumber all you want. But I'm going to keep a vigil."

"Suit yourself....," Raven slipped her cloak off. She spread it out like a blanket across the rock and lay down in her leotard. "Just don't vigil yourself into oblivion. I need your detective skills if I'm ever going to bring Noir back alive."

"Heh....," Robin smirked a little. "You speak as if he's some sort of Holy Grail."

"I don't know about the 'Holy' part....but sure."

A beat.

Robin sighed. He stared up towards the stars. "I can't imagine what ambushed them."

"Hmmm?" Raven tiredly hum from where she reclined.

"Jinx and Noir....they were obviously attacked. I mean....I can't imagine them having a fight. Not with the handcuffs' sensor acting as such a possible risk."

A beat.

"I....I can't help but feel that this is all happening.....for some calculably heinous reason," Robin said, his eyemask thin.

Raven turned over and looked across the rockface at him. "How so?"

"I.....," Robin took a deep breath. "I.....opened up to Noir...s-some...."

Raven blinked. "Opened up to him?"

"I.....told him something I haven't told any other Titan," Robin said. His gloved hands wrung together. He tried not to show it....but failed. "I told him about......someone very close to me a while back that I lost." A beat. He glanced sideways at Raven. "W-Without revealing too much about myself, of course."

"Heaven forbid."

Robin smiled sarcastically, sighed, and faced the stars and rapids mist again. "And....it feels as if.........in some indirect way, it's all repeating. I told Noir about it....and the curse is starting over again." A beat. He gestured towards this sky: "And this air. The crispness of Autumn. I....I-I feel like I'm back in Gotham City again. That damn red sky. Dark waters of some forgotten bay....like the mist before us now." He took a deep breath. "It's painfully familiar. And yet I know it's different. This is another time. Another place. Just because things feel similar.....it doesn't mean everything's repeating. It doesn't mean something else is going to happen....like it once h-happened to her...."

Raven's eyebrow lifted. "Her??"

Robin shook his spikey head. "Never mind. God....I never have controls these days. I swear....Batman would kill me."

"Robin....," Raven took a breath. "....only you know whatever in the world you're talking about. If it makes you feel any better, I'm utterly clueless. I'm empathic. Not telepathic. And with you....I still can only perceive what you tell me."

"I don't think so, Raven," Robin shook his head.

"Excuse me?"

He turned and faced her. "What am I _feeling_ right now?"

".........."

His eyemask thinned. "Don't tell me that you can't sense it now."

She took a deep breath. "You are......you are feeling apprehension."

Robin nodded towards the stars. "See? I'm exhibiting emotion, Raven."

"......"

"I'm letting my feelings loose. It's....It's a liability."

"......apprehension......and something else....," Raven said.

Robin glanced at her funny. "Something else?"

"You mean you don't know?"

He seemed humored. "Now I feel REALLY vulnerable."

"You are.......full of compassion," Raven said.

"Compassion?"

"Or maybe just 'passion'," Raven said. "That's a fair description. It's the foremost on your mind right now."

"Pffft!!" Robin chuckled. "I may feel apprehensive about Noir, but the last thing I'd feel for him is—"

"Who said anything about Noir??"

"................"

Raven sighed, on the verge of much needed sleep but being kept from going there.

"Robin....," she spoke. "Was it because you wanted Starfire 'safe' that you chose me to go on this mission with you and not her?"

"................"

Raven stared.

Silence.

Robin ran a tired hand through his hair. "I.......d-don't want to lose.......th-the most trusted people in my present life, Raven." A beat. "Not now."

"Maybe it's not a matter of trust, Robin," Raven said. "But familiarity?"

A beat.

Raven continued: "Me....it's okay. I know that I'm distant to you as I'm distant to everyone else. But Noir....he's like a brother to you. A fraternal twin almost." A blink. "And Starfire.....to you she's---"

"Go to sleep, Raven."

Silence.

"Yes sir," Raven droned. She turned over and was out like a light.

Robin stared out onto the rapids....in thought.

Time passed.

And when the Boy Wonder glanced over his shoulder and realized Raven was truly asleep.....he let out a shuddering sigh and hugged his knees to his chest. He stayed that way for a few lonely moments....and eventually succumbed to his 'biological limits' as well.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"................"

I couldn't sleep.

"................"

I sighed and laid uncomfortably in the leaves.

"................"

Something stirred behind me.

I paid no attention to Jinx.

I exhaled through my nostrils and stared off into the black forest.

A beat.

Another beat.

More stirring.

".............."

I sighed.

I turned and looked at her.

The pink-headed girl was curled up in her sleep. Her face seemed taut. Her arms and legs twitched some.

"........"

I turned back over and shook my head a bit. I tried to go to sleep.

A beat.

"Nnnngh...."

Stirring.

More stirring.

Then......

There was quite a bit of shuffling behind me.

I almost turned to look when--

"Hmmmm....."

Petite arms encircled my upper body as Jinx cuddled up to my back.

"?!?!??!" I looked back breathlessly.

"Nnnnghh.....," a sleeping Jinx nuzzled her cheek into the small of my back. There was a drunken smile on her lips. "Mmmm.......Leslie......"

"...........," I sweatdropped.

I shook against her.

I tried grabbing and pinching her shoulder.

But the position we were in...or I was in....er.....

I shook my head and sighed.

_Right now....I wouldn't even mind if Diana saved me._

I simply lay there throughout the course of the night and tried to ignore the small, slumbering witch hugging me from behind like a huge teddy bear throughout the night.

_Who needs nightmares?_


	149. Double Jinx part 6

**149. Double Jinx part 6**

That very same night...

SPLOOSH!!!

A green sailfish leapt up out of the Bay Waters, transformed into a wet cat in mid-air, and landed on all fours atop the dock jutting out of the Titans' island. After swiftly turning into a dog and shaking the moisture off its fur, Beast Boy transformed into elf form and sauntered over towards an amazingly dry Tempest. The Atlantean sat on the edge of the dock, his feet dangling above the lapping waters. His white on black eyes stared up at the black sphere surrounding the Earth.

"What's up?" Beast Boy chirped.

"...........the stars," Tempest uttered.

Beast Boy giggled. "Silly nooby. So literal."

"So sue me for being serious," Tempest said. He stared and stared and stared at the night's sky as he said: "The stars weren't always 'up' for me, ya know. The sky is....sometimes a difficult thing to explain to an Atlantean. But still....I've always known that there are many layers to the universe. It's just....mesmerizing to sit back and actually let your eyes melt into it all."

Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips. "Is that what you've been doing this whole time instead of bomb sniffing, dude?"

"Pfft....hardly," Tempest smirked at the changeling. "I just got back from my own bit of harrowing, endless searches." A suspicious glare. "What about yourself, man?"

"Phweeeeeeee....," Beast Boy exhaled. He spun and plopped himself noodily down besides Tempest on the dockside. "I've just gotten back from having gotten back from getting back to square one and back again."

Tempest blinked.

Beast Boy's eyes were thin as he looked at the Atlantean and clarified: "Yeah....I checked the sewers too."

"Ahhhh...."

"And believe you me....there's plenty of stuff to sniff there...but no bombs, dude," the changeling muttered.

"I think I remember something about 'being a hero' when I joined this team," Tempest cynically smirked, his dark eyes trailing. "But somehow 'being a self-inflicted labyrinth' wasn't part of the job application."

"Yeah, I know....right?" Beast Boy sighed. "This sort of stuff happens once in a blue moon."

"Eh?"

"Bomb searching," the elf shrugged. "We've done it a few billion times with Slade."

"Ah...Slade...," Tempest nodded. A beat. "This 'Jinx' once worked for Slade, right?"

"Right. But they're not the same, dude."

"Why do you say that?" the Atlantean asked, his eyebrows raised. "She's certainly giving you and me an explosive runaround like the deceased despot, right??"

"Yeah....but.........rrrgh...," Beast Boy clutched his head and shook his upper body.

Tempest blinked. "Hey....you okay?"

"Yeah. Super," Beast Boy sighed. He stared out into the waters. "Over the last few months, man....ever since Slade died.....I....I-I tried a few times to reach out to Jinx."

"Did you?"

"Mmmhmm," he nodded. "I wanted.....I-I wanted to see if maybe....I dunno......if maybe she was different after Slade was gone than she was before."

"That's quite a lot of compassion."

"Is it???" Beast Boy looked at Tempest as if he had the answer. "Dude....Jinx worked for Slade because he and Dagger somehow made her think that she had two sisters who don't really exist! They toyed with her emotions! They made her into the villain that beat Wyldecarde up and nearly threw us Titans into a deathtrap!"

"She was a villain before, though, r-right?"

"Yeah yeah...," Beast Boy muttered. "H.I.V.E. Fearsome Five. Strawberry Shortcake Mafia. _Whatever_....," the elf sighed again. "But....not everyone is born evil, Tempest. Ya know? S-Some people are just.....just misunderstood. And because of that, th-they can't get a right foothold in the world and they resort to bad things. Not that it's good, of course. But....it sure isn't simple. Good and evil.....it's a very complex thing to try and shape and explain. Heh. Ask Robin. He'd tell you that. I bet Noir could too."

"................," Tempest blinked. "Terra......"

Beast Boy shuddered. He barely looked at Tempest.

"This is all because of Terra, isn't it?" Tempest asked. "You and the Titans never got to reach out to her until it was too late. Her villainy had run full circle with her virtue....and she became stone." A beat. "Jinx is still alive. And now that she's free from prison and with Noir in custody.....you think there's still a hope or ounce of redemption in her."

Beast Boy ran a hand through his hair. "I......I know I t-take responsibility for what happened to Terra. I blame m-myself for what I did to her. Wh-What the Titans did to h-her. But at the time that she was a villain....at the time she did what she did.....I even told her....I-I even told her that she always had a choice. And I told her that she betrayed us not because of Slade....but because she wanted to. And even she would have believed that."

"And now?"

"..........," Beast Boy leaned back on his hands. "And n-now.........I....I guess I really don't care. I just want Terra back. No matter what she's done.....no m-matter what she's gone through........I just want her back, Garth. I want her back and in one p-piece. I guess I-I don't even care if she's truly evil or not."

"Then why do you seem to care with Jinx?" Tempest asked. He smiled. "Because it's not so much a matter of _love_?"

Beast Boy blushed a bit at that, but tried not to show it. "I think....Jinx a-at least deserves to live long enough to find out that people can care about her. People....wh-who aren't manipulative villains."

Tempest nodded. "Well....let's just hope Noir doesn't kick her teeth in before Jinx lives longer. Fate _would_ have it that she's attached to the hip with her 'nemesis' from what I hear, right?"

"Yeah, dude....heheheheh......," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "What a screw universe we live in."

"_Snkkkt......B.B. Come in."_

Beast Boy jumped. "Yeep!! Er....ahem....," he whipped out the communicator from a back pocket with a Star Trek sound. "I read you, Cyborg. This is Beast Boy."

"And the fish," added Tempest.

"_I've just finished what has to be my sixth round of cruising the Downtown area and performing every possible emission scan known to man. The only way I can possibly comprehend Jinx hiding a bomb this well under our detection would be if she were to somehow fuse the explosive between quantum realities or something......and I sincerely doubt her hex power is capable of even doing __**that**__." _

"Whew......lay off the Stephen Hawkings dude, it's a bad year," Beast Boy said. "You coming home or what?"

"_Yeah, I'm coming home. I just radioed Star and told her to return to the Tower too. Game over and stuff."_

"What're we going to tell Robin?"

"_That if he lays a finger on Raven, I'll be making a shoelace out of his esophagus. Other than that...I'll just report 'inconclusive' on the bomb search."_

Tempest leaned in with a smirk, "Thatta boy, Cyborg. Think you'll get a check-plus for effort?"

"_Hey Flipper."_

"Yes?"

"_Get a haircut."_

"Love you too, Cyborg."

"_I'm so over and out."_

-blip-

Beast Boy pocketed the communicator away. "You know, I just thought of something?"

"Oh? What's that?"

A beat.

Beast Boy shook his head: "Never mind. I was just fooling." He stood up and limped towards the Tower. "I'm off to molest the shower faucet and die under the covers....not necessarily in that order."

"Thanks...," Tempest nodded and gazed upwards. "The stars and I need some privacy."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I tapped Jinx's shoulder.

She batted my hand away and hissed: "Shhh! Don't bother me!"

"............"

I tapped her shoulder again.

She gritted her teeth. "Not now....."

I sighed.

The two of us were perched atop an elevated edge of the forest overlooking a two lane state road that next morning. From the hedges and tree trunks we saw a truck or van or camper zoom by, heading past a green sign reading: _'Now Entering Blue Pine. Pop. 64'_

"Okay....so we wait for the traffic to back up...or for a car to break down. The latter would be reallllly nice. Then you use your cloak thingy to make us both invisible as we waltz across the road, hijack the car, and keep the driver hostage till we pull over into a grove and steal his clothes and wheels and drive into Blue Pine disguised so that we can meet up with the contact "J" has provided." She took a deep, hysterical breath. "You got all that?"

I lifted my finger to sign--

"Good," she spat. Her pink cat eyes narrowed cutely in the early morning sun. Her tiny strands of pink hair fluttered. "Somebody.....," she hissed with stressed menace. "Breakkkkkk downnnnn........"

Silence.

Cars streamed by.

She sighed.

"........."

I tapped her shoulder again.

She spun around. "**WHAT?!?!"**

With our combined hands I pointed a metal finger towards a broken down, rusted truck in the green brush behind us. The side door hung open and inside were old jackets, jeans, and other apparel that looked like they had been through a few Vietnam Vet donations.

".............," Jinx blinked. "Heh....Fate throws a curve ball."

I simpered.

Jinx trotted us both off. "Good thing I found it," she smirked.

I frowned and was about to protest--

_Yank!_

I was pulled along with her. While strolling forcibly forward, I glanced back at a lone tree trunk besides the edge of the road.

A few scratches had been professionally etched by yours truly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW! CLANK!!!

Robin fastened the grappling hook into the rock face. He got a good hold of the cord and gently, expertly lowered himself down the Cliffside with kicking feet. To his left was the thundering cascade of the river's waterfall. After waking up, he and his Titan partner figured that it would be best to assume the worst....the worst being that Jinx and their kidnapped ally had made a terrible plummet down into the pool below after their conflict with the ambush.

Raven floated effortlessly down alongside Robin the whole time.

"You know....I could just carry you down with telekinesis," she droned.

Robin smirked. "I'm getting my exercise." He grunted and kicked down alongside the waterfall some more by the cord. "Besides....you've done enough for me as it is."

She blinked.

A beat.

"Is that your usual excuse with Starfire?"

Robin did a double-take amidst his descent. "H-Huh??"

"Assuming that she 'does enough for you'?"

"Uhm....."

"Robin, you are leading this chase far better than I could ever do it on my own," Raven said. "If I were to assist in meager transportation, all that is is teamwork. Stop attempting to be so macho and nearly kill yourself with strenuous activity."

"I'm not trying to be macho!" Robin exclaimed. "Like I said, I need the morning exercise!"

"........"

"I....I-I do.....," the Boy Wonder pouted.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Starfire must give you lots of exercise."

Robin frowned at her.

PLOP! His feet landed on the riverside below.

"Oh....well....th-that didn't take too long," he simpered.

"No....it didn't...," Raven floated off.

"......." Robin loosened his grappling hook, coiled the cord, and caught up with Raven as they scanned the side of the river.

"It would help to know what we need help in knowing what we're looking for," Raven droned.

"Anything has got to turn up more promising down here than it will up there by the ambush site," Robin said.

"What gives you that idea?"

Robin smirked. He pointed ahead of them: "Because there we are."

"......," Raven looked ahead.

Two familiar pairs of footsteps emerged in the sand and dirt to the left of the churning waters and into the forest.

"......," Raven blinked. ".......," she looked at Robin. "How do you do that?"

He was too busy rushing over and squatting by the stream. "The pressure is equal in each footprint. Doesn't look like they injured any of their legs."

"At least we know half of them are all right," Raven floated over. She looked up. "Great...another forest to frolic through."

"They're the ones frolicking," Robin stood up. "We on the other hand....we have clues. Or at least we _did_."

"I get the picture," Raven nodded. She floated in between the trees. "Look for the scratches..."

She and Robin spread out amongst the tree branches and tree trunks, looking for a sign of their friend's chiseling handiwork.

Robin ducked under a branch or two. He could still spot scant footprints in the soil beneath him, and he used them to guide himself forward. The morning light filtered down unevenly but refreshed the Boy Wonder regardless. He took a deep breath of autumn, relaxed, and went about his task.

For a split second, he had no worry. So far, the day had survived a waterfall.

_Or the previous night had 'survived' it._

"There!" Robin hissed to himself. He ran over to a thick branch stretching out into a tiny clearing. He saw distinct scratches labeling legibly: _'42 W'_

"Wow...," he murmured. "Even further west." His eyes blinked invisibly under his mask. "If I didn't know any better....I'd say they were headed straight for B—"

"Robin??" Raven's voice inquired.

The Boy Wonder spun around. As Raven floated into the clearing, his eyemask twisted strangely.

The dark girl held a discarded training bra in her fingers. She hovered to a stop before the Boy Wonder, displaying it.

".............."

".............it's a brassier."

"I-I can see that," Robin bit his lip. "But....um......what's it doing out here?"

Raven glanced at it. She glanced at Robin. "It's Jinx's."

He leaned his head to the side. "Jinx's bra?"

"Yes."

"How.....How would you know?"

Raven exhaled. "I'm pretty sure."

"But—"

"I'm _pretty sure._"

"Yeah, okay...whatever," Robin shrugged and pointed towards the branch behind him. "I found Noir's latest marker by the way. So the two were here."

Raven glanced behind her shoulder. She glanced back at Robin. "You think?"

"Come on, let's go...," Robin headed off.

"Westward?"

"Westward."

"Allright, then...," Raven floated after him.

The two traveled on through the forest.

"........."

"........."

"........."

".........why does a girl like her even wear one--?!?!"

"Just lead the way!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"No peaking!"

I groaned inwardly.

_I'm not peaking......_

My left arm stretched into the dilapidated yet somewhat roomy interior of the pickup truck. Inside, the villainess attached to me was in the process of replacing bits and pieces of her attire. I half-stood impatiently outside the doorframe of the vehicle and looked off into space....vehemently.

"Seriously! You'd better not be looking!"

I gritted my teeth.

_I...am......not LOOKING!_

Sighing, my eyes fell to the length of the van's aluminum body. I spotted the dark rust of the material. Surely if I simply scratch my metal fingers against it, I could produce another follow-up clue.

_Gotta make myself a reminder to do that......_

"Okay....," Jinx stumbled out, hopping on one foot. "A little bit of goofiness....but I think I can afford it."

I looked at her. I did a double-take.

The jeans she had on were laughably big on her. I'm not even sure they were crafted for the feminine frame....much less the toothpick that was Jinx. She had found what appeared to be a rope or bungie cord inside the truck and had tied it around her waist within the pants like a belt. The lower apparel _could_ have come across as simply.....a 'baggy' look providing she complement the piece with a sufficient top. But at the present moment, that was giving her some difficulty.

"Nnnngh....," Jinx struggled to fit on a red, moth-eaten turtleneck. She had her short pink head through the top neck hole, her left arm through the left sleeve, but predictably.....her right arm would not perform up to par. And she struggled and griped in an obscenely cute fashion. "Darn it....freakin' solid state of matter...I swear..."

I bit my lip.

_I will not smile. _

_I will not smile. _

_I will not......_

"A little help here?" she groaned.

"????"

"Like....maybe cut the sleeve open with your sword so that I can slip my hand in or something?" she said. A groan. "Why do the simplest problems make the biggest waves?"

"......."

"Don't look at me that way!" she frowned. "Either I get a fashion statement or someone gets an early grave!" She rattled the handcuffs.

_Yeah yeah......_

I held a finger up.

She looked at me.

I gripped her right arm with my free right hand.

FWOOOSH!!!

Murk coursed down my arm, wrapped around her right limb, and--

THWUMP!!!

I converted her upper arm into steam along with my grip just long enough to swiftly morph the sleeve around her appendage and rematerialize everything before the handcuffs' sensor could go haywire.

_Job finished._

But Jinx flinched....big time.

"EyaaaAAAIEE!!!"

I rocked with her due to the handcuffs.

She settled down into a shivering. "Warn me next time before you do that!!!" she shrieked.

I shrugged my arms.

_Make up your damn mind!!!_

She clutched her pink head with her left hand and groaned. "Never mind." She then stood and posed before the hazy side mirror of the truck. "Hmm....kind of an.....Ellie Mae Christmas look, but it works."

"....."

"Your turn," she smiled.

I leaned my head to the side.

_I'm not becoming an Ellie Ma--_

"Ta-daa!!" she brandished a denim jacket from the car.

"......," I smirked.

_I can do that._

She tossed it to me.

I grabbed it in my right hand.

"Sorry I couldn't find any jeans in there. I mean....you are tall and stuff, but I hope the jacket helps. I don't want anyone recognizing us...so take your time and make sure the jacket fi—"

FWOOOSH!!!

I murked the jacket through my limbs and straightened it out. It fit perfectly. The upper half of my combat fatigues were well hidden.....but still looked bulky underneath.

A beat.

I cleared my throat.

I concentrated.

FWOOOOSH!!!

Like a guillotine chopping off a head, my torso murked in and out of smoke form, expelling the top jacket of my combat fatigues. I grabbed the article and tossed it into the truck's interior, adjusting the denim jacket with my arms and shifting the black tank top underneath.

A beat.

I glanced at Jinx.

"........"

I waved my arm.

"Hmmm....what?"

I bit my lip and sweatdropped. I pointed towards the approximate location of Blue Pine beyond the.....er....pine.

"Oh. Right. B-By all means....hehehe...."

I raised an eyebrow.

_Pick a side, girl._

"Oh! One more thing!" and she went to check inside the truck again, all about diving.

My left arm jerked towards the vehicle. I took that moment in time to my advantage, scratching the few designs I needed to in the rust with my metal fingers.

"Here!!" Jinx jumped back out giddily.

I hid our arms down below her vision and smiled innocently....that is until I saw what was in her grasp.

A ridiculously large trucker's cap.

"........"

"See? It'll hide your big, long, black hair!!"

".......," I blinked.

_And......what about your short pink head?_

A beat.

She frowned.

"Wear it," she spat.

I sighed.

I grabbed it and—PLOP!!

"There you go!" Jinx beamed. "That wasn't so bad, was it??"

"......," I looked like an illegitimate crossbreed of Charles Manson and the Home Depot guy....or so I imagined.

"Now hide your hair like a good boy!! You see, since it's a trucker's cap, it should be big enough to acco—"

I slipped my black hair back like a ponytail and stucked it down the back of my jacket.

"—no, I said the cap. The _cap_."

"..........," I stared at her.

She sighed. "Ah what the Hell. Let's go." She grumbled as she led the way. "Hope the contact gets here soon."

_Yank!!_

I followed her along limply.

_I can't wait._

I glanced at the sensor on the handcuffs.....then gazed lingeringly at the truck behind us as we slowly walked away.

I sighed.

_Can my friends??_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you mean you're lost??" Cyborg blinked. "Just what exactly have you two been doing all this time on the road??"

"_We're tracking......Noir and Jinx......still!!"_ Robin's voice huffed and puffed over the intercom of the Main Computer's communication system. _"We've not......lost their trail! Only because......we've been......focusing on the clues......being left for us......and not......the region we're in!"_

"What kind of clues?"

The speakers crackled: _"Just tell us what the GPS results say, already!!"_

"All right, all right! Calm down, Robin," Cyborg said.

"_......that was me, Raven."_

Cyborg's human eye dilated. A flushed expression washed over his face. "Uhm.....uhhh.....," he glanced to his side.

Tempest smirked from the edge of the Main Room.

Cyborg cleared his throat and simpered into the intercom: "W-Well of course it was you. Eheheheh.....heh. Uhm....I-I've got the results right here. You're all the way out in.....in Glade County. Damn...how'd you get so far?"

"_Never mind that. Tell me...is there any special city, territory, building, or __**anything**__ located in a direction that would take us approximately forty-two degrees west from directly north?"_

"Hold on, let me consult the motherboard," Cyborg muttered.

"Thattaboy. Consult that motherboard's brains out."

"Shut up, Flipper."

Tempest chuckled.

Titanium fingers typed in a flurry. Then....

"Closest thing I can find, dawg, is a tiny town called Blue Pine."

"_Blue Pine?"_

"That's right. Barely a dot on a road map, if you ask me. Population less than one hundred. It's more of a truck stop than anything."

"_What could Jinx want to do with Noir in some mountain village??"_

Cyborg glanced at Tempest.

Tempest scratched his head.

Cyborg faced the computer again. He shrugged. "Motel 6??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was a road. 'Main Street.' They could have called the strip of asphalt 'Blue Pine' Circle and left it at that. A general store, a tiny post office, a diner, and a gas station were the only things to catch my eye. There were a few two story buildings of weathered-brown build, but I could only guess what their purposes were. I assumed that was where the people of the town actually lived. I didn't see any semblance of a dirt road or path leading off towards undiscovered zones for residences among the slopes and forests of the mountain side. Besides, such wouldn't make sense.

It was a very....quaint place. And I with my love for urban landscapes in general truly found it pleasing. Or at least, I was _inclined_ to find it pleasing. I'm usually not very cheery when hooked up to a girl and a bomb.

_Usually......_

"Great....just as I imagined it....," Jinx muttered. She glanced around with wide pink eyes of....of....._satisfaction?_ "We're sure to find him once he appears."

".....," I looked at her.

"The special friend "J" is sending," she winked.

"......."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah....well....trust me. When he appears....you'll _know_."

_Whatever._

I shrugged.

I glanced back down the 'Main Street'.

We stood on the side of the road where an old, weathered sidewalk haphazardly struggled its way to border the thin, two lane road in front of the buildings' faces. Autumn leaves from the higher mountain slopes above us had scattered down and were randomly blowing across the morning-lit scenery in amber streaks. Every minute, two or three trucks on a semi-busy route would drive on through. Old folks gathered by the front of the general store, leisurely chatting as if it was a century-old routine.

It reminded me ever so slightly of the town of Barrymore before Robin and I had to come in blazing to stop the rampage of Johnny Rancid.

I sighed.

_Different town. Different villain._

The diner across the way was surprisingly busy, with two semi trucks parked outside and a few smaller motorists eating within. I realized to my inevitable frustration that—yes—I was hungry. And—yes—my stomach was growling.

I wasn't alone, apparently.

"Nnnngh....," Jinx slumped. "Damn that diner."

_Tell me about it......er......I-I mean 'shut up'!_

Jinx rubbed her tummy with her left hand and exhaled. "Well...Pulsade did say the rendezvous would take place at _noon_." She glanced at the diner again. "That's about two hours from now."

"......," I cleared my throat.

Jinx glanced at me.

I gestured to my denim jacket's pockets and showed how empty they were.

Her pink optics blinked. "Oh. Right. Money. Forgot that existed."

I groaned and shook my head.

_Criminals......_

"Hmmmmmmm," her cat eyes narrowed as she rubbed her chin with a tiny finger. "The last time I ever actually _bought_ a meal was when I went to MacDonald's with my Mom and si—er.....with just my Mom. And the cost of the meal....added to the rapid inflation during the time I was either with the Fearsome Five, in H.I.V.E. Academy, or in prison.............ngh....." She smiled. She glanced at me. "Is thirty-five bucks too much for a cheeseburger now??"

I sweatdropped.

"Now.....who to rob....," she glanced around.

I bit my lip.

"Oh don't be such a sissy," she stuck her tongue out. "I can reciprocate for the two of us!"

I glanced at the sensor on the handcuffs.

_Reciprocate.........heh........._

"THERE!!" Jinx stretched a pink-glowing hand.....at a toll booth four feet away.

FLASH!!!!

Shatter!!!

Dozens of quarters fell out onto the floor in a silvery splash.

Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clink!!

I winced. I looked both ways.

Nobody saw us.

"Dum de dum...," Jinx hummed as she knelt down and gathered the coins. "Help me, Mr. Sunshine!"

I groaned inwardly....knelt down....and helped gather the quarters. There had to have been...._jeez_.....eleven dollars??

"Okay....step two over with," Jinx stood us up and smiled. "Cuz step one was getting dressed for the occasion! And we did that, right??"

"......"

"Hehehe...this is SO working. Ahem. Now we'll just.....ya know.....make sure your sword scabbard is hidden underneath your denim jacket. And....um....I'll do the talking."

"......"

"You're right, the handcuffs!" she squealed.

I blinked.

"Awwww....jeez....," she pouted. "That's a dead giveaway. I mean...it's enough that we're dressed as we are and look so different—what with my short hair and your cap and all. But if anyone in this area sees the handcuffs, it'll be the end of this trip." A beat. She grumbled. "Darn it!! Why can't I think?? It should be simple, right?? I mean....there's got to be a reason that we can pretend our hands are so close together for!!"

Silence.

Jinx's eyes lit up...glistening obscenely. She looked up at me with a Cheshire Cat grin.

".....," I stared down at her.

_No......_

She giggled.

_God no......_

"Let's eat, shall we??"

_God, I hate you SO MUCH!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...and so he says to the Pope, 'I didn't know it was _that_ time of month'!!!"

A waitress and two other truckers bent over laughing after the patron finished.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"Hehehehehe!!"

"Ohhhh man....hehehehe!!"

A hanging bell rang.

Still chuckling, half of those eating in the diner glanced over.

"Mornin'! Welcome to Cheryl's Diner," the waitress said. A beat. She blinked. She stared.

The truckers stared.

A few breakfasting people at the booths glanced up.

Two figures sauntered slowly into the depths of the diner. A boy and a girl. Their long-sleeved hands intertwined.

"Awwww...," the waitress cooed. Chewing gum, she waltzed up with two menus and smiled at the two of us. "And what brings you two sweethearts into our town?"

"Heeeeee!" Jinx cutely clutched tighter to my left hand and leaned into me. "My sweety-pumpkins and I here are headed to our school's leadership retreat in Toronto! But boyyyy are our bellies empty! It'd sure please us to get a bite to eat before we're on the road again all by our lonsssssome!"

"........," I looked like I was being fed blood plasma full of piranhas into my neck arteries.

"Well, that sounds like an adventure!! Let's get y'all situated and you'll be on your way!!" the waitress guided us towards a booth. She placed the menus down in front of the window and stood back with her hands folded. "My name's April and I'll be getting you your breakfast essentials while you decide on a main course, that sound good?"

"It sounds good to me....hehehehe...," Jinx fluttered her eyes up to me. "How about you, cuddly-lumpkin??"

I stared down at her.

_Bite me._

"Awwww....you two look precious together."

I glanced at the waitress.

_You too._

"Well go on and sit down and make yourself at home! It's a long way to Toronto from here!!"

"Weeeee understaaaaaaand," Jinx grinned wide.

I smiled like an upside down torture victim.

The waitress shuffled off. "Hey Lenny!! Two glasses of OJ and a plate of biscuits! Butter on the side! Ya know, the usual!!" A beat. In the distance: "Hehehe....it's so nice seeing young couples nowadays. What a secure future we've got!"

_Fossil fuels are running dry. Sperm are dying._

I groaned inwardly.

_YANK!!_

I winced and flew into the booth on the outer side of the seat as Jinx plopped down against the window.

"Whew....didn't think it'd work for a second there," she simpered.

I glared at her.

"Dammit! You can play along better, ya know!" she hissed. "If we want to get out of here in one piece, you've got to play your part too!!"

I ran a hand over my face and shades. I felt Myrkblade resting between my jacket and my back against the seat.

_I felt it......_

"I guess I shouldn't be pushing too hard, 'boyfriend'," she stuck her tongue out and shuffled the menu open in front of her. "It's easier playing the part for me."

"????" I looked at her.

"Well, face it," Jinx droned as her pink eyes scanned up and down the menu. "You _are_ handsome. What girl wouldn't want you as a cuddly-lumpkin from time to time?"

I raised an eyebrow. I gestured the letter 'L' in front of her.

Jinx glanced at me, blinking. "Leslie??" she uttered. A smile flashed honestly across her face. "Well of course my heart and soul belongs to her! No one else!"

I bit my lip.

"Pfft! Don't flatter yourself, Ghost Boy," she muttered. "I just said you were 'handsome'. That's all." She looked back down at the menu. "The way I see it....life is like a huge, circular road bordering nothing but car lots. Imagine driving your automobile around this sort of thing. All you see around you is nothing but new and used cars. All nice looking and pleasing to the eye. Just because you're already _inside a car_ isn't gonna stop you from making appraisals on other wheels you see, now is it??"

I scratched my head.

_Yeah......but I'm a better driver than you. That's proven._

And I couldn't help but snicker breathily.

Jinx eyed me suspiciously aside. "You're smiling? Something's wrong, isn't it?"

I sighed and shook my head. I tried prying my left hand free of her right--

"Uh uh!!" she squealed. "Not till we're properly filled and finished our meals! Then we can skedaddle out of here and wait for "J"'s contact with full stomachs. That sound good?"

_Heavenly......_

"When you eat....just.....I dunno....eat with one hand," Jinx said. "You're a swordsman. You should be good at doing things one handed."

_I could always try strangling a pink haired girl with only five fingers--_

"Ooooh! Biscuits! Nummy Nummmmmy!!!"

"????" I blinked.

_YANK!!_

Jinx's right hand flew up with mine as we took a saucer of biscuits from the returning waistress' grip and lowered the item to the tabletop.

"Thanks a plenty!! Hehehehe!" Jinx fluttered her eyelids. "We are sooooo lucky to have dropped in on this place!"

".....," I icily turned my head to look up at the waitress with the world's fakest smile.

She horrendously bought it: "Hehehe. You sure seemed geared up for this leadership retreat!" the waitress said.

"Oh yessss!" Jinx gasped happily. "We're gonna learn about corporate idealism and stuff!"

"Well, I wish you two the best of luck! Maybe you'll learn some other things along the way," the waitress winked.

I exhaled through my nose.

_Don't go there, Mrs. Nympho._

"And what would the young man like?" she asked me directly.

I bit my lip nervously.

Jinx cleared her throat. "Oh....um....we alwaaaaays share our meals! It's both economical....AND intimate!!"

"Hehehe...if you say so. What meal can I bring you two?"

I lifted a finge--

"Why, the pancakes and sausage Supreme Meal, of course!!"

"Excellent choice!"

I lowered my right hand, sighing.

_Pancakes......_

"......"

_Pancakes make my stomach commit suicide._

"And to drink?? Or is your orange juice allright?"

_Go to Hell._

"Oh, quite alright! Vitamin G does the body good!"

I cleared my throat.

"C! Vitamin C!" Jinx sweatdropped.

"Well, I'll be back with your meal sooner than you can say 'Cleveland'!" the waitress beamed as she scribbled on her notepad.

_Cleveland......_

"Oh...do take your time," Jinx smiled and waved her left hand in an insultingly feminine fashion. "Every minute togetherrrr is precioussss. Right, wuvy-poo??"

I looked at her.

_What if I bite her nose off with murking teeth? Just to see if the Universe explodes or something?_

"Oh my goodness!" the waitress suddenly gasped, a hand to her chest. "What happened to your hand, sir??"

"?????" I glanced at where Jinx's left hand and my right hand rested, joined together. There was....nothing of the handcuffs showing beyond our sleeves. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing that I could imagine betraying the flight of the villain and I.

"Er...," Jinx sweatdropped but smiled, "His hand....uhm.....it w-was caught in a terrible fire years ago."

I glanced at my hand again. The dark metal titanium.

_Oh right. Metal prosthetic. Heheheheh._

_Funny how much I've gotten used to that............_

"Oh, that's terrible!" the waitress looked sympathetically at me through my shades. "If I may say so, you've recovered nicely, sir."

"..........."

"..........s-sir?"

"..........."

"Erhm....," Jinx interjected again. "It's because of the same fire that....he....erhm.....th-that is, my wuvy-poo can't exactly _TALK_."

I was beginning to wonder what degree in education that waitress had. It took her a full twenty seconds to notice the 'X' shaped scar on my neck.

"OH! M-My mistake, sir. I was not aware."

I simpered.

Jinx hugged my left arm. "Oh but I luvvvvvv my huggy-bear!! He may not speak out loud, but he knows the language of a girl's hearrrrt!!"

Both women giggled.

I felt flooded in a cloud of social estrogen.

I wanted to die.

"Well...you know what me and my girlfriends always say," the waitress smiled. "The world's full of yappers, but every woman's entitled to one cunning linguist! Hehehehehehehe!!"

".....," Jinx blinked. She then exploded in giggles. "Hehehehehehehe!!!"

"Hahahahahahaha!!"

"He he he he heeee!!"

I snickered breathily between them.

CHIIIIIIIIING!!!!

The two women jumped as I slid a butter knife off the tabletop and coldly, silently began to slice some biscuits open for myself.

"......," the waitress gulped. "Well...," she simpered. "I'll be off getting Lenny to work on your pancakes, shall I?"

"Yes.....merrily....," Jinx murmured.

And the two of us were alone again.

"Whew......," Jinx exhaled. "I can't believe I forgot about your stinkin' arm!!"

"......," I buttered my bread.

She shoved me and hissed: "Darn it!! Why'd you have to be so....so....goody goody back when Slade was alive?!?! Hell...you could have at least let Beast Boy and that redheaded alien chick die on the frigate and lost a foot inste"—THUNK—"mmmmfff!!"

I shoved a biscuit into her mouth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Um....," Raven stood besides the rusted pickup truck and held the discarded, gothic blouse and pants of Jinx's. "........either she's become a nudist.....or they've found replacement clothes."

"I'm tempted to believe the latter," uttered Robin, kneeling and examining the scratches in the rusted body of the truck. "It'd make sense if they discarded some of their older garb for 'new skin' as it were. Especially if they were heading into town."

Raven picked up a familiar top-jacket of combat fatigues. "So, you mean to say...."

Robin stood up straight. "The latest bearing etched by Noir sends us directly into Blue Pine." He pointed a green glove. "Just beyond those trees."

Raven floated over. "Don't you think that's.....I dunno.....leaving too many clues for us?"

"You think this is some sort of a trap?" Robin asked.

"Would you sue me if I thought that?"

He shook his head. "No. But at this point, I'm out of options." A beat. "**We're** out of options."

"Naturally....," Raven folded her arms.

"I think we should go and scout the town out," Robin said, already trotting off.

Raven floated after him. "And if they're not in the area?"

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "Then we may finally be at the end of this crazy string of pursuit."

"........"

"Let's hurry."

"Yes....let's."

The two Titans rushed up through the forest.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mmmmm.....mmmmm.....," Jinx hideously hummed with each sensuous bite of her.....pancakes. Syrupy pancakes. Rivers of syrup and pads of batter......

I shuddered to look at it.

My black eyes thinned under my shades as I glanced away.

"Mmmmmmmmmghost boy," she muffledly expressed through a sinfully full mouth. "Mmmmmyou've got to try this...." A swallow. "Personally I care for blueberries with it....but I suppose everything's a digestive orgasm after ages in prison." A bite. "Mmmm....mmmcome on, don't be some anorexic freak! Eat!!"

I groaned. I ran a hand over my face and leaned against the table.

_I don't do pancakes.........I need to meditate.........I need to meditate......_

The morning was eating at my temples, throbbing the whole way into my brain.

"I'm gonna be needing you to have energy for the rest of our trip! Now eat!!" Jinx hissed. I sensed the handcuffs rattling.

I glanced down.

_Is she gonna blow people up just because I offend Aunt Jemima?_

I reached a right hand out.

She watched.

I took another biscuit. I ate it slowly....miserably.

She sighed and stuffed her mouth again with another bite of pancakes. "Mmmm....so be it. Spoil sport. Mmmm.....wh-why're all heroes so ascetic anyways?? There're so many pleasures in life you could just be DIVING into and yet you hold back!! Me, I'm different. Not to say—mmmm—th-that all criminals are hedonistic, of course. But at least I have some sense when it comes to living. Oh yeah! Bad people know how to live! Ever thought of that for once?"

I munched on a biscuit, sighed, and swallowed.

_I know I'm alive........._

She gulped down another mouthful with some orange juice, wiped her mouth with her left turtleneck sleeve, and exhaled. A smile later, she said: "You know what? I'm feeling good today!"

I smiled sarcastically.

_No........._

"You and I....we're gonna make it, Ghost Boy. We're gonna get to H.I.V.E. and we're both gonna kick ass to get answers! At first, I thought it was impossible. But after the highway...and that stupid run-in with Psimon's club.....well....I know that I was right. So Pulsade can just go soak her fat head!!"

"????" I glanced at Jinx sideways.

The girl hugged my left arm.....genuinely this time. "Heeee! You WERE worth abducting!"

I wanted to groan.

"With the powers combined with the powers of....of.....uhm....whatever it is that you do," she simpered. "We're an unstoppable team! You should think of joining Pulsade, "J" and I!"

I glared at her.

"Of course...only girls get the bedroom. You and "J" could sleep out in the dog house. Hehehehe!"

I raised an eyebrow.

"_J" is a guy, then?_

A beat.

_Or a dog. A dog at a computer._

"I bet you're wondering one thing, though....," Jinx remarked while picking through the leftovers of her pancakes. "You're wondering if I'll let you go after all is said and done and H.I.V.E. is thoroughly thrashed for what they have."

"........"

She smiled ever so slightly. "Well....who am I to refuse someone as helpful as you?" She took a bite, swallowed, sighed, and smiled again: "I'll deactivate the handcuffs and let you go your merry way, Ghost Boy."

I leaned my head to the side.

"Then and ONLY then!" she lifted a finger and frowned her cat-eyed brow in a hilarious attempt to look stern. "In the meantime, no funny stuff! Or _kablammo_...got it??"

".....," I glanced at the handcuffs.

_Why do I get the sudden......crazy urge to test her?_

But I didn't.

"I hope that....some way...some how.....after all of this chaos is said and done, Ghost Boy....," she said, digging through her syrupy slop. "....you'll look back and realize that I wasn't so bad a girl after all."

"......"

"Seriously, I'm not," she muttered. A bite. A swallow. A dazed gaze. "H.I.V.E......I'm pretty sure of it. They're responsible for the bombing on the prison," she said. A bit somberly. Her cat eyes blinked and she continued: "The only thing is....I don't know how they did it. I don't know what powers gave them the ability to dig into the prison and try and....take me and many other prisoners out. The bomb nearly took my life away....and only thanks to "J" and Pulsade did I get out."

I stared at her.

She took a breath and resumed food-picking. "But that's not why we're going into H.I.V.E.'s Academy," she said. "It's all about Red Aviary. EVERYTHING is about Red Aviary."

I felt a momentary chill. I shuddered.

"Maybe it's best you stay confused about it all," she muttered to me. "What you know can't hurt you, right?"

"......"

She sighed. "No.....not right." A beat. "But who am I to care about what's right or not? Huh?"

Silence.

She glanced at me slightly.

I blinked beneath my shades.

_Was I supposed to answer her on that??_

"Red Aviary.......s-scares me, Ghost Boy," Jinx said. "And.....and I-I don't know why. But it does. And I'm not alone. "J" has come out of the woodwork—as it were—to help me. And Pulsade.....Hecate, I've never seen her so adamant to do something at least _quasi-virtuous_ before."

"......"

"And me......well......m-maybe I'm saving the world for once," she simpered slightly. "Which is wyrd, cuz.....I-I've always thought the world was something being spiraled down the eternal shower drain of fate. None of my concern, ya know? Even though I was a witch of fate to begin with."

"......."

"You don't talk much, do you?"

I stuck my tongue out.

"Hehehehe," she looked out the window. A beat. She sighed. "Maybe....M-Maybe once this whole thing with H.I.V.E. is over....and Red Aviary is at least understood.....I can finally.....I dunno....._rest._ Maybe Pulsade will stop wanting to travel around so much. Or if not.....maybe I'll just find some place to....disappear. Or something. Then the world wouldn't have to worry about hating me anymore. I wouldn't be Jinx....or the Third Apprentice.........'J.J.'......."

Silence.

Jinx's cat eyes lowered as she stared off into oblivion in the darkness of her lids. "To be honest.....I wouldn't even mind if....I dunno.....if the sky fell at the end of this trip. If Red Aviary turns out to be the final curtains. My own destruction. Whatever. I....I just want to stop feeling guilty....f-for everything."

A beat.

"That's all I want....," Jinx opened her eyes thinly and sighed. "To be free.....from what I am....."

Silence.

Jinx's head turned. Her eyes exploded and she gripped my arm with a girlish gasp: "Ohhhhh, the breakfast was mossssst scrumptioussssss!! Wasn't it, wuverly-pooooo?!?!"

"?!?!?!?!?!" I about shook off the booth's seat. I glanced to my right side.

The waitress came up with the bill. She smiled proudly down at us. "Will that be all for today?"

Jinx beamed a Cheshire cat grin as she openly held our hands together and leaned on my frame. "Oh yessssss. We are most full!! Thank you most kindly! We won't ever forget this Town!"

"Well...hehehe....I'll be sure not to forget about you!" she placed the slip of paper down on the tabletop. "Fourteen fifty."

CLAMP!!!!!

Twenty stacks of quarters landed in view.

"Is that enough???" Jinx grinned.

"..........," the waitress sweatdropped. "My my....," she simpered. "S-Someone is....uhm....performing a genocide on piggy banks, no?"

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

I smiled nervously....and it actually looked genuine.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well....," Robin muttered as he stared through tiny binoculars down at Cheryl's Diner from the rooftop of a two-story building across Main Street. "They're definitely in there."

"Mmmmhmmm....," Raven nodded. Her eyes glowed as she held two fingers to her temples and performed an empathic scan of the surroundings. "Jinx seems to be feeling content."

"And Noir?"

"You tell me how he looks....I can never seem to know how he feels," she droned.

Robin lowered his binoculars and adjusted his cape in the flapping wind. "He doesn't seem too hungry, that's for sure."

"Huh?"

Robin smirked at Raven. "They're having breakfast."

"......."

"Or at least Jinx's having breakfast."

"How'd they end up in a _diner_ to begin with??" Raven asked with a twisted set of eyebrows.

"It beats me," Robin shrugged. "But there're only so many ways for them to come _out_."

"And the reason why we're not springing upon them right now is.......?"

Robin gestured. "'Kaboom'."

"You still think it's a _bomb_?"

"Of course I do!!" Robin cackled.

Raven blinked. "But Cyborg said when we called him—"

"I'm well aware of his report," Robin grunted. "But I'm still not taking any chances."

Raven folded her arms. "We should be changing your alias to 'Mr. Uncertainty."

Robin shrugged. "When you're dealing with a female villain who can alter the whim of fate....what is there not to be cautious about?"

"..........."

Robin exhaled. "And as it seems....Noir has been in the hands of fate for nearly twenty-four hours. Just....not the hands of fate that we would _want_."

"So what are we going to do? You're the leader."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. He traced something in the distance. "We see what becomes of this...."

"Becomes of _what?"_

Robin placed a hand on Raven's shoulder and pointed with his other hand. "Watch and learn...."

Raven's blue eyes followed a state trooper car pulling up and into the diner's parking lot.

"Hmmmmmm......should I prepare the body bags?"

Robin pinched her.

"...........ow."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay....now that that's over with....," Jinx stood up in her seat and prepared to shuffle us out into the center aisle of the diner's interior. "...let's skedaddle," she whispered. "We should still have plenty of time before 'J''s contact arrives and—"

The hanging bell above the door jingled.

We both looked from the booth.

My eyes exploded under my shades.

Jinx cackled. "Hecate almighty!!"

THWUMP!!

She shoved me back down into our seats. Panting.

Two state troopers were waltzing up the center aisle in the thin diner. They saluted a few regulars that they seemed to know and headed towards the counter stools facing the kitchen. They were coming closer....closer....closer....

"Oh jeez....oh jeez....," Jinx trembled all over. She looked at her cat-eyed reflection upside down in the back of a spoon. "Oh jeez...." She ran a hand over her short pink hair. "Oh jeez!!" Her lips quivered as she looked at me. "Troopers! All of them have got to be briefed on what the two of us look like! We're so screwed!"

I didn't know whether to smile or gnash my teeth.

The troopers came closer.

Closer.

A beat.

She gasped. "Oh! I know!!" She grabbed my right hand.

Footsteps.

Two uniformed bodies behind us.

She looked at the span of my palm-to-my-fingers. "Hmm....seems big enough." She planted it in the back of her head, cupping her fuzzy skull.

"????" I made a face.

_What in the blue f—WHOAH!!!_

Jinx's lips were being firmly planted against mine. At the same time, she forced my right hand to forcibly push her face up against mind as if in a passionate lock.

And as the cops shuffled up behind us....I realized that was exactly what Jinx wanted. A _passionate_ lock. Or at least....something simulating it.

_Simulating......yeah......_

When the state troopers passed by, they saw two teenage sweethearts in the middle of a romantic embrace. Their faces melted together. The girl's eyes were shut ecstatically closed while the boy's hand gently caressed her short head of hair.

"Heh.....they keep getting younger...," one trooper mused.

The other saluted the waitress behind the counter. "The usual, April?"

"Of course! Fresh-brewed and steaming, as always!" she presented them with a cardboard carrier with two coffee drinks. "Keep protecting our roads, boys! Hehehe."

"By all means. What do we owe ya?"

"On the house today."

"No way....seriously, April?"

"I mean it," she smiled.

"Well, you have a wonderful day. You're an angel, ya know that?"

"Heh...on occasion."

"Have a good afternoon."

"You too!"

"Good afternoon...."

The cops shuffled back out of the diner.

The hanging bell rang.

And they were gone.

"!!!!" I rocketed my hand off of Jinx and released my lips, sputtering.

"Whew...that was so damn close....," Jinx exhaled. "I swear to Hecate...I thought they'd never leave!" She fanned herself.

I sputtered some more, making wretching faces.

_Gawd in heaven!! I'm not gonna lose the taste of syrup in my mouth for a month!!!!...............a-and strawberries._

A beat.

I looked at Jinx.

She was still fanning herself.

I cleared my throat.

She stopped....blushing. "R-Right....uhm.....ahem...."

FWOOOSH!!!

Somehow, the two of us were on our feet and heading hurriedly towards the door.

"Come on, luvy-pooo!! We're so offff to Toronto!!" she hugged onto my arm and skipped us along.

I gritted my teeth.

_Dear Diana. Kill me please. Sincerely, Noir._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the diner, the two police officers reconnoitered at their parked squad car.

"So what was it that they mentioned at the briefing this morning?"

"Oh yeah....s-something about a pink witch and a dark-haired vigilante handcuffed to each other and rocketing to their death off a highway."

"Heh....they keep getting younger."

"..............didn't you just say that?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind."

As the two men walked over with their coffee, there was a uniformed stranger standing by their car with his back to them.

"Uhm, Mister? This is a police squad car you're loitering besides."

Silence.

The figure rocked back and forth as if to some invisible tune.

The first cop's brow furrowed as he walked up. "Excuse me....Mister??"

FWOOOSH!!!

The stranger spun, a leg thrust into the officer's stomach.

WHUMP!!!!

"Ooof!!" the cop dropped the coffee.

SPLASH!!!

It splashed across his ankles and boots with a steaming sensation.

"Augh!!!" The trooper hobbled.

THWACK!!!

The stranger uppercutted him mightily.

"You!!" the second cop reached for his gun. "Freeze---"

The stranger spun over, whipped out a taser in the blink of an eye, and plunged it hard into the cop's ribcage.

_ZZZZZT!!!!_

"Nnnnnnngh....," the second officer fell down silent. THWUMP!!

".......," Damien Darhk tossed the taser up and down in his hands a few times before finally dropping it. Whistling nonchalantly, he adjusted his 'trooper hat' and glanced down Main Street. A beat. He leaned against the car and performed a high-sign of sorts towards something in the distance.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wuh oh....," Robin uttered as he peered through his binoculars.

Raven's eyes darted back and forth. "'Wuh oh' what?"

"Wuh oh _that,_" Robin pointed.

The dark girl looked.

Four brand new 'state trooper' vehicles rolled into view from the far side of Main Street. They formed a semi-circle of vehicular meatshield around the extent of the diner.

"That's a lot of 'wuh oh'," Raven droned.

Robin rubbed his chin in thought.

"Are they real police?" Raven asked.

"No....they're not," Robin said.

"Then they could be in trouble!" Raven started to float to the rescue. "If you and I hurry, we can—"

Robin tugged her back down by her cloak. "Stay here, Raven."

"But—"

"But nothing," Robin's eyemask narrowed as he stared at the scene. "This is about to get hairy enough as it is with those two and the handcuffs. It's best that we not get involved."

"Aren't you....aren't you.....," Raven tried to speak--

"Worried?" Robin smirked.

".........," Raven blinked. "Got me there."

"Shhh...," Raven urged her to get down while he himself crouched. "Something tells me that Jinx has something up her sleeve regardless of what's happening now...."

"But just who _are_ these people?"

"Maybe we'll be finding that out soon enough."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The bell rang.

Jinx backed herself and I out the diner's doors. She bowed happily, smiling like a cute anime kitten. "Thank youuuuuu everyone!!! My luvy-pooooo and I shall always hold you in our happyyyyyy hearts!!! Heeeeee he he he he!!"

We both spun around.

Cl-Click!

Click!

Cl-Cl-Click!!

"**FREEZE!!'**

".....," Jinx blinked. "Oh shit."

I sweatdropped.

Twelve fully-garbed state troopers stood, half-shielded behind the doors and bodies of immaculate squad cars in a thick line surrounding the front of the diner. They aimed pistols at us in perfect synchronization. Their dark eyes and dark hairs perfectly cut into threatening frowns. Their aim seemingly perfect as they trained their weapons threateningly upon our foreheads from far off.

Our handcuffed hands flew up.

"....."

"....."

A suspiciously young state trooper on the side spoke through a megaphone: **"Jinx! Noir! You are both under arrest!!**"

Jinx's cat eyes were wide.

My brow furrowed.

_Both??_

They all continued to aim at us. Patrons inside the diner gasped and ducked their heads in apprehension from the unshot bullets. The scant populace of Blue Pine peered nervously out of windows and storefronts all along Main Street. A trucker or two looked from behind a rig. Motorists stopped and backed up safely away from the standoff.

Jinx and I bit our lips.

"**Turn around! Slowly!"**

I glanced at Jinx...as if for directions.

"You heard the m-man....," she murmured. She slowly pivoted to her left.

I walked to compensate until I was facing the diner. I kept my hands up. Both flesh and metal. While turning, I glanced aside. I swore that I saw parts of two fallen state troopers besides one of the squad cars.

_Okay......what the Hell??_

Jinx and I were successfully 'turned around'.

"**On your knees! Facing away from us! Now!!"**

Jinx started lowering.

I followed suit....slowly.

Jinx murmured hushedly to me. "These.....th-these aren't real cops...."

I nodded breathily.

"That smartass with the megaphone.....I recognize him somehow....."

"......."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Anyone in your book?" Raven droned.

Robin shook his head. "Nope. But one thing's for sure....this was planned. Ahead of time."

"But by who?"

"It's all so well organized...," Robin uttered. "I suspect something corporate...yet criminal."

"........."

Robin's lips parted. "H.I.V.E......of course...."

Raven leaned her head to the side. "???"

Robin gestured: "This is their former student, after all."

"H.I.V.E. has a bone to pick with Jinx?"

"It would appear so."

Raven glanced down. "Maybe that's why she's on the run with Noir."

"Who's to know?" Robin muttered quietly as they watched the standoff. "Not to mention if they were the ones who ambushed the two at the waterfall...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I panted as we sat on our knees.

There was shuffling behind us.

A few of the armed men slowly approached our backs.

"Think they'll handcuff us?" Jinx snickered breathily.

I elbowed her.

"Ow!!"

"**Stay still!! Heads down!"**

There was something moving in the reflection of a diner window. Something large, dark, and menacing. It grew at an astonishing rate. There was a low vibration matching its movement through the ground. I gazed at the reflection curiously.

"Ah....," Jinx smiled. "So he's a bit early...."

"?????" I glanced at her.

She smirked at me. "'J''s accomplice, of course...."

"**I said, head's down!!"**

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

Jinx hummed cutely to herself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop the building across the way, Raven's nose wrinkled.

She made a face.

She looked at Robin. "Do you smell something?"

"????" Robin glanced at her.

_**CRUNCH!!!!**_

"_AAAAH!!"_ a 'state trooper' shouted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Damien Darhk gasped and all but dropped his megaphone. His costumed cohorts lowered their weapons and gazed over along with him at the right flank of the phalanx. Two H.I.V.E. agents were being tossed left and right like ragdolls by a dark shape incoming.

"Waaaaieee!!"

"YAAAAH!!"

Thwump!!

THWAP!!

They landed on the concrete and against the side of the diner.

Then.

_CREAAAAAAK!!!_

The rightmost squad car was lifted up mightily by a dark, furred object. That dark, furred object turned out to a bipedal, muscular behemoth of a human – buffalo crossbreed. The shoulders of the man-beast were plated with steel armor. Metal shingles ran up the back of his neck and formed across his forehead with a crest of sorts that laced tall, pointy 'horns' with silver menace. Cloud-white eyes narrowed as a bovine mouth sneered.

"Nnnnnnghhh!!!!"

The newcomer's furred biceps rippled as it hoisted the squad car over its horns even higher and tossed the hulking vehicle at the rest of the line.

"RRRGH!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!!

"AAAAH!!!"

"RUN!! RUN!!!"

SMASH!!!!!!!

Glass and aluminum bits went flying under a fountain of sparks.

Damien Darhk stood still. ".........," he smirked. "Why's it always you?"

The creature sneered.

Flanking 'police' posers took aim with their pistols. BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

FWOOOOOSH!!!

The muscular beast streaked forward on fast-acting muscles. It bounded on all fours past the streaming rivers of mid-air bullets and rammed Darhk with the side of its steel-plated neck.

WHAM!!!!

Darhk went flying sideways into a smashed squad car. CLANG!! "Nnngh!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wildebeest!!" Robin gasped, all but jumping up off the ledge.

Raven's blue eyes narrowed. "Who??"

Robin panted. "I....I-I-I fought him at the Tournament of Champions! After the Master of Games was defeated...I offered him to become an honorary Titan! Wh-What in the world is he doing here?!?!"

Raven shrugged. "Being an honorary ass-kicker?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAH!!!" a helpless H.I.V.E. agent dropped his gun and tried to run--

WHAM!!!!

Wildebeest's burly fist flew into his side.

The man went toppling through a newspaper stand clear across Main Street. He collapsed to the sidewalk with a groan.

Two H.I.V.E. spies ran to a stop and aimed at Wildebeest's back. BLAM!! BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

With only a half-second to glance back over his shoulders, Wildebeest leapt up straight and flew over the bullet fire. His massive frame went topsy-turvy as he flipped himself in mid-air and came landing in a crater-forming smash behind the two fake cops.

CRUNCH!!!!

The two henchmen shuddered from the vibrating ground.

**GRIP!! GRIP!!**

Wildebeest clutched their necks.

**SMACK!!**

He coconutted their heads together.

"Nnnngh...."

"Oof!"

They both collapsed.

Wildebeest grunted. He spun around.

Two H.I.V.E. henchmen dug into the backseat of a squad car and whipped out highly illegal, sawed-off shotguns. CH-CHTUNG!! **BLAM!! BLAM!!**

"Nnngh!!" Wildebeest gripped hard to a squad car and lifted the entire vehicle in front of him to absorb the shot.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

The shotgun blasts struck dead center in the bottom of the vehicle. Sparks flew. Flame crept up towards the fuel tanks.

The two H.I.V.E. members gasped and stumbled back.

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed and his animal lips smirked.

SWOOOOSH!!!

He tossed the now-smoking squad car at them.

"AAAH!!" they started to run--

CLANK!! The car landed, sparked, and--

_**BOOOOOM!!!**_

The H.I.V.E. henchmen flew off into a building front.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BOOOOOM!!!!**_

A plume of fire and burning debris lifted up high and dramatically above the Main Street of Blue Pine.

Raven gasped as shreds of flaming wreckage fell their way.

Robin gritted his teeth, dove, and shoved himself and Raven safely out of the way.

"Ooof!!"

CRUNCH!!! Burning debris slid across the rooftop.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was covering my eyes with my left hand. Because of the brightness.

_The brightness......y-yeah......that's it......_

"Yeah!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!" Jinx 'chugged' her left arm. "Score one for the holy cow! HA!"

I bit my lip.

BANG!! BANG!! BANG!!

One standing 'cop' stepped backwards, firing shots like mad and gritting his teeth.

SWOOOSH!!!

Wildebeest deftly charged up, kneed him in the chest, grabbed him by the shoulders, and flung him hard through a street sign. CRACK!!!

"Nrrrrgh.....," Wildebeest snorted. He glanced over at us, white eyes thin.

"For a second there, I was afraid you'd never show!" Jinx stood up and yanked me to my feet beside her. "Cute timing, no?"

"NNGH!!"

SWOOOOSH!

**GRIP!!!**

Wildebeest had his hairy hand tightly wound around my neck.

"!!!!" I hung helplessly from his grasp. I wheezed for breath.

Wildebeest snarled.

"N-No!! Down, boy!!!" Jinx jumped up and gripped the beast-person's burly arm with her left hand. "Frieeend, Wildebeest! Friend!"

"......," Wildebeest's eyes narrowed. The hair on its white snout stopped standing on end and it relaxed.....letting go of me.

Plop!!

I landed on my feet and teetered back and forth, gasping for breath.

"There ya go! Good boy!" Jinx beamed. "Ghost Boy is on our side! Isn't he??" She glared my way.

I nodded weakly.

"So....you gonna take us to the passageway?" Jinx smiled. "Only you know where it is!"

Wildebeest smiled and folded his arms in a proud stance. The ridiculously dramatic flames of the wrecked squad cars rose up against his silhouette.

Jinx and I sweatdropped.

"Okay....um....can we go now?"

Wildebeest snorted. He motioned and started to bound up towards the hills.

"Great...more climbing," Jinx muttered. A beat. She shrugged. "Oh well. Come, luve—er...I mean Ghost Boy."

I frowned—_Yank!!_

_DAH!_

I stumbled after the two...but mostly Jinx.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh!!" Robin stood up on the rooftop and looked out, panting. He squinted past the rising smoke and chaos. "They're getting away!!"

Raven struggled to get up. "Thanks for throwing me into the floor for my own good, Robin....," she grunted.

"Quick!" Robin whipped out a grappling hook. "We gotta put those flames out before—"

His speech was cut short as he noticed one of the H.I.V.E. 'cops' getting up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh...," Damien Darhk rubbed his head. He winced and looked out at the retreating three figures with a squinting eye. "Dear Journal....today I had a cow....literally...."

A beat.

He shrugged it off. "Oh well..."

He reached into the last remaining squad car. He pulled out a red-tipped gun of sorts. After he 'cocked' it, the weapon started blinking. The man ran after the three figures, darting in and around plumes of burning wreckage and smoke.

"Time to go kill me a Trinity."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I gotta ask you, cutie...," Jinx mused to Wildebeest as the three of us marched uphill. "....do you ever see 'J' personally?"

Wildebeest merely grunted.

"Ah....my thoughts exactly," Jinx simpered.

"......," I said.

Footsteps from behind.

"????" I spun around, a right hand reaching under my denim jacket for Myrkblade's hilt.

Jinx charged a pink hand.

Wildebeest raised his burly fists.

We all watched Damien Darhk run to a stop, kneel, and aim a red-tipped gun at us.

He whistled....and pulled the trigger.

The three of us flinched.

"......."

The red tip of his gun blinked. Like a strobe.

Jinx's eyes narrowed. "A......laser guide?"

Darhk stood up, smiling. "Don't mind the fire and brimstone...," he smirked. He walked off.

"........nnnrgh??" Wildebeest tilted his head upwards. His huge nostrils flared. Sniffing the air.

Jinx murmured: "Wh-What is it??"

I craned my neck. I heard a distinct 'rushing' sound through the atmosphere. Something glinted painfully bright in the corner of my vision.

I jerked my head to the side and peered through my shades.

_There...... _

_In the distance......_

Fwooooooooooooooooooosh!

I blinked.

_A guided missile?_

Indeed...from some undisclosed, H.I.V.E. location...a missile was flying at us and directly at of Darhk's laser strike.

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

"Eeek!!" Jinx raised her pink glowing hands. "Here's hoping that only _half_ of the ensuing explosion roasts our noses off—"

Wildebeest grabbed us both.

"!!!!!"

Jinx and I remained tethered to each other by rattling handcuffs while Wildebeest hoisted us—one under each arm—and bounded off towards the mountain side.

We were suddenly carried around trees, over locks, down ditches, and up, up, up, up the hillside.

All the while, the tomahawk missile descended and trailed madly at our heels.

_FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!_

Trees blurred by on either side of us.

Twigs littered our faces.

The earth bounded.

The missile ate at our rears louder and louder.

Wildebeest gritted his animalistic teeth.

Jinx wouldn't stop shrieking.

I wanted to hit her but _I had a god damn farm animal in the way!!!_

FWOOOOSH!!!

At the last second, Wildebeest leapt us up and through a throng of branches.

TH-TH-THWISH!!!

I got a mouthful of autumn leaves. I spat them out and scowled.

But not for long....

_**BOOOOOOM!!!!**_

Flame and metal exploded into the mountainside. Three or four tree trunks shattered and the branches came tumbling down in beautiful chaos.

But I wasn't looking.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Damien stared at his handiwork from far down below. As yet another plume rose into the sky, he shrugged and whipped out a remote from his pocket.

"Guess I should get rid of the evidence, then...."

SWOOOSH-CLUMP!!!

CHII-II-IING!!

"Hold it right there....," Robin growled, three birdarangs sharply held in his gloved grasp.

Raven floated down beside him. She had glowing hands stretched out and ready to inflict the first telekinetic blow on the stranger. "Drop it! Now!"

Damien merely smirked. "Drop what, Mr. and Mrs. Titan? I might say....you're a long way from your playhouse."

Robin and Raven glared at the villain from across the Main Street littered with smoking debris.

"You...," Robin uttered with a narrowed eyemask. "You have answers, don't you?"

"It depends. Do you have questions??"

"What did you want with Jinx??"

"Who do you work for??"

"I.....," Damien smiled. "Believe it or not, I work for myself. And only myself."

"Not good enough...," Robin growled. "Answer us...."

"Very well then...," Damien bowed his head. "Let's see if you can hear me out just right."

His finger pressed the button on the remote.

And every leftover piece of automobile, weaponry, and H.I.V.E. gadgetry resting around the three in the middle of the street suddenly and dramatically exploded.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The resulting explosion inside of Blue Pine could be seen from a mile away.

And exactly a mile away stood Psimon atop a mountainous peak. His wrinkled face stretched into a concentrated, telepathic scan....his glass dome of a skull reflecting in the sunlight and his cloak billowing around him.

Shimmer stood patiently behind him, running an anxious hand through her red-orange hair.

Gizmo and Mammoth sat on a log in a nearby clearing.

Neutron stood off by himself....his arms folded....looking dazed and frustrated.

After a while, Psimon's bulbous eyes popped open. The freakish elder smirked.

"What is it?" Shimmer walked over and peered up at him. "H-Have you figured out where the two punks are headed?"

"Flushed into destiny like rabbits afraid of a little flame....," Psimon sneered. "Their oafish ally is making this almost too easy for me."

"And what of those guckmunching Titans?!?!" Gizmo squealed from the distant background.

Psimon ever-so-slightly peered over his shoulder. "The Titans.....they matter little," he said. A beat. He added: "Much like their insignificant, mortal lives do now."

Shimmer smirked for some reason.

Mammoth twiddled his thumbs.

"Come....," Psimon sneered and drifted forward on deceptively nimble feet. "Let us give chase....."

And the rest of the Fearsome Five followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CREAAAAK!!_

Wildebeest opened a trapdoor in the earth, literally.

A cold passageway yawned before us after the accomplice of "J" lifted what looked like a slab of concrete on metal hinges. The 'lid' to the tunnel was well camouflaged and it looked so heavy that it was understandable that only Wildebeest could easily open it.....much less locate it.

"This the best you can do?" Jinx pouted.

"Nrrrrrgh," Wildebeest sneered.

"Hehehehe! Just kidding...," Jinx smiled.

I sweatdropped.

"Come on! I'm in a good mood! We're almost there!" Jinx smirked. She crawled into the tunnel before me. "Now....for a six hour trip in pure darkness until we get into City limits of our destination!"

I groaned inwardly.

"Come, friend!" the handcuffs rattled as Jinx gestured towards our beastly compatriot.

Wildebeest snickered breathily and stomped after us.

THWOMP!!!

The concrete door slammed shut behind us.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Half an hour later...

In the Main Street of Blue Pine....

Robin lay on the sidewalk off to the side....well out of range of the even-more flaming debris and wreckage.

He stirred into wakefulness, bruised all over. Some of his costume was singed.

"Nnnngh....," he sat up and rubbed his head. "The...explosion.....Jinx....and Noir...."

A beat.

His eyemask exploded. "R-Raven!!!"

He jumped to his feet, fought his dizziness, and looked around the wreckage....calling out desperately: "Raven!! Raven!!" He panted. "Raven...answer me!! Are you there?!?!"

_Snnnkkktt!!_

"_I'm here, Robin......"_

The Boy Wonder jumped. His gloved hand blurred to his side, where he produced the Titan communicator and spoke into it: "Raven?!?!"

"_Robin......_"

"Where in the Hell are you?? I just woke up and I was worried sick!! I thought you were toast!!"

"_Must you be so 'worried'?"_

Robin frowned. "Okay....don't be starting that. Not _now._"

"_Glad to hear you're okay too,"_ her voice droned electronically to him. _"I woke up soon after the jolt of the explosion. Our little pyromaniac had vanished...and you seemed bruised pretty badly. I healed you the best I could, then set out on trailing Jinx and Noir and their animal friend before it was too late to sense their emotional signatures."_

"You're.....you're following them on your own??" Robin panted.

"_Yup. You're free to join me anytime you want."_

"Where are you now, Raven?"

"_It's hard to tell you exactly. I'm having enough trouble as it is concentrating on their signatures. They're moving in an underground passageway. They must think they're impervious to any senses......Jinx and the Wildebeest, at least."_

Robin gestured into the smoke-laden air. "Can you at least tell me where you're _headed??_"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm.....I-I'm afraid I can, Robin," Raven mumbled as she floated over the forested slopes of Earth.

"_Where??"_

Raven glanced ahead. Her gaze fell towards where the mountain sloped down and towards where the trees died and towards where the air—even in the bright noontime—darkened into hideous smog that covered a deathly plain of urban sprawl and grime stretching as far as the blue eye could see.

"Somewhere.....," she blinked. "Somewhere where I don't want to be alone," she droned.

"_In other words......I'd better catch up to you?"_

"Oh yeah," she replied into the communicator. "That's an 'oh yeah' with an emphasis on 'really quick', Robin." There was a touch of urgency in her voice as she gazed at the hellish City gradually yawning open before her. The soul-signatures of the spelunking three beneath her lead unarguably towards the location.

Along a local highway nearby—overrun with litter and tumbleweeds—a green sign lay crumpled on the side of the road where one could barely see the white—on—olive text display: _'Bludhaven, 27 miles'_.


	150. Double Jinx part 7

**150. Double Jinx part 7**

_Whurrrrrrrr-Chtung!!_

The Headmistress looked up from her desk. She blinked.

A slightly bruised and singed Damien Darhk walked quietly through the huge door and into her spacious office.

The Headmistress immediately frowned. She stood up with a stern clenching of teeth. "What happened?!?! Why are you back so soon?? Where are Jinx and the boy?!?!"

"Wildebeest," Damien grunted.

A beat.

The Headmistress' eyes narrowed. "Wildebeest???"

Damien nodded. "He was there. He took out the entire team of the operation."

"The entire team?!?!" the woman gasped.

Damien nonchalantly shrugged. "He _is_ Wildebeest, after all."

She formed fists in her hands. "This is unbelievable.....w-was he after Jinx?? Must we add Wildebeest to the list of the Fearsome Five, the Teen Titans, and everyone else in the Brotherhood who are after that damned vixen?!?!"

"Actually....," Damien gestured calmly. "I believe he was assisting them."

".........what??" the Headmistress' eyes narrowed. "What makes you say---"

"When I launched the laser-guided missile at the three, Wildebeest grabbed Jinx and the Titan boy and ran off towards the mountain side."

"........"

"Ma'am......they're headed this way now," Damien spoke. "As easily as they may get lost on the cruel and unforgiving surface, it would benefit us to prepare ourselves down here."

A beat.

The Headmistress turned around to pace alongside the outer edge of her desk. She folded her hands together and took a deep breath.

After a while, she spoke:

"Wildebeest has proven to be.........bothersome to H.I.V.E. before. But never has he taken part in something so strictly in opposition of our goals as assisting Jinx. Somehow...I doubt that he is acting on his own. Someone must be giving him an order. Someone must be moving him against us for some reason..."

"Perhaps one of Jinx's accomplices?" Damien remarked. "The ones that helped her escape the prison?"

Silence.

The Headmistress took a breath. "It does not matter. In some ways...the speed at which Jinx is heading into this City may work to our benefit. It might throw off the Fearsome Five."

"Might," Damien smirked.

She glared at him. "Gather your men once more.....what's left of them...."

"What is the plan this time, Ma'am?" Damien asked, leaning his head to the side.

She folded her arms. "In this City...there's no need to impersonate cops to produce means of success. When we acquire Jinx this time...it must be an acquisition of cold and precise coordination." A beat. She smiled some: "Something that the Dagger of old would have been proud of."

Damien blinked. "That would require Jinx to come to a full and complete stop with her partner in flight. How's that going to happen in this City?"

"How's it not going to happen?" the Headmistress ran a hand through her graying bangs and sighed. "She's coming 'home'..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

My black eyes peered through my shades and saw shadows and shapes that any normal human vision couldn't spot in the dark. And these shadows and shapes told me that there was a long way to go in the tunnel, and Wildebeest was ever-present in front of us, marching forward.

My metal fingers flexed, and the handcuffs around my left wrist rattled.

I took a deep breath...but it emerged from my lips as a sigh.

Wildebeest turned around and glanced at me while we marched along. His white eyes narrowed.

I stared at him.

"....."

He stared at me.

"....."

Silence.

He grunted and pressed on forward at full stride.

"I wonder if you're two related," Jinx mused with a smile.

I looked at her.

She giggled. "You're both very quiet."

".........."

"I rest my case," she shrugged with her left arm.

I looked forward.

We went on with our march through the tunnel.

The pink-haired girl leaned up in mid-walk and whispered to my left ear: "I hear he's a real friend to 'J'," she said, gesturing at the half man/half beast before us. "Like....blood brothers."

"......," I blinked.

"Er....but 'J' isn't a strong creature-person like him," Jinx digressed. "I've met 'J' before. You wouldn't expect it from a computer hacker but.....hee hee...he's actually pretty cute. Adorable, to tell the truth. I-In the 'oh I want to hug you' sort of way."

"........"

"None of this means anything to you, does it?"

I bit my lip.

"Ya know....we may have tried to kill each other quite a few times in the past, Ghost Boy," Jinx leaned into me. "But when it comes down to it....we've always been two of a kind. Athletic, dedicated to our causes, ambiguously gifted, mysterious....."

I frowned into the darkness.

_There's nothing mysterious about a kinky sex kitten wannabe deathmistress._

"Why do you hate me so much?"

I did a double-take. I looked at her.

_Is everyone freakin' telepathic??_

But she wasn't. Still, she stared at me, blinked her pink cat eyes, and said: "Why do you hate me so much? It can't be because of Westhaven....or because I worked for Slade." A beat. "It's all because of Wyldecarde and the Titans, isn't it?"

"......."

She took a deep breath and uttered: "You hate me because I took everything that was safe and secure in your life and turned it all upside down by helping Slade frame you for the Titans' mishaps. I turned you into their 'traitor'."

I took a deep breath. My right hand clenched.

_No...... _

_No, I hate you because my best friends.........m-my only friends nearly died in yours and Slade's hands._

I gazed down at the dark floor as we traversed ahead underground.

"You know....the Titans didn't need to believe everything that Slade and I pushed them to believe," Jinx said. "Think about it how you like....but when it comes down to it, the Titans were ready to hate someone." She spoke with a certain style of solemnity. Had she been smug about it, I probably would have punched her face in and then had nothing but God and Wildebeest to deal with inside that blasted tunnel. "They chose to reject you, Ghost Boy. They chose out of the meanness of their hearts to ditch you for their own, selfish insecurities."

I took a deep breath.

_Yeah......but they took me back in out of the sincere pain of their hearts._

I glared at Jinx.

_Not all of us are being chased by people who want us dead._

She leaned her head to the side as she looked up at me.

"You......have so much love.....and dedication to those nerdy Titans....," she said in only the way Jinx could. "It's almost frightening......like you're joined at each and every one of them at the hip. And yet....it wasn't always like that, was it? But you let it become that way. You let it become that way........perhaps.........because you needed a family, Ghost Boy?"

I looked away from her.

She continued: "Don't assume I know nothing about this sort of stuff. 'J' and Leslie....though they may be long distance and stuff.....I think of them as family. At one time, I considered Gizmo and Mammoth to be brothers.....though they were perfect morons." She giggled a bit. A pause. She looked at me straight again. "I wonder what past life you had before you came a 'Ghost'. I wonder who or what had to have died to make you the one-track-mind that you are today."

I gritted my teeth.

_You......don't......know......me......_

If there was ever a mute sign that told her to back off, that was it. She drifted towards the left some in our march and was silent.

And all I could do was fume.

_How......how could she __**possibly**__ know me??_

I shook my head and sighed.

_We're not alike. We're not alike at all. I've gone through my fair share of shit......but I was never manipulated into believing in people who weren't there or hired to do criminal acts for some evil academy or......_

My eyelids lowered some. I exhaled gently.

_Some of us are born evil. And some of us simply __**are**__. Even if you and I are alike......even if you and I have 'pretend' families to keep us sane......I know what I am. And I know what I must do because of what I am. And the first moment I have to get out of this situation—Red Aviary or not—I'll take it. Because how in the world could you possibly choose to do something good, Jinx? It's......it's just not you._

A beat.

_Is it?_

Wildebeest grunted ahead of us.

I looked up.

"We're almost there?" Jinx purred.

The horned crown ahead of us nodded.

I bit my lip.

"Well then....," Jinx cracked her knuckles and smirked up at me. "Put on a brave face."

"???" I glanced down at her.

"In this City.....you'll need it."

I glanced ahead as Wildebeest approached a door from the inside and started to push against it.

_Where......are we?_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Bludhaven?!?!" Cyborg remarked as he and the other Titans gathered around the Main Room's computer. "They're headed for Bludhaven??"

"_At this point, they're practically inside the infested City,"_ Robin said over the communicator. _"Straight into the heart of the Downtown District. Being that it's noon and the Sun's out—despite the overcast—they have a fifteen percent greater chance of making it across three city blocks alive. But even that is going to be a harrowing experience. I've been in Bludhaven only once before in my life. Let's just say it helped harden some of the rough edges before I helped found the Titans."_

"Then our friend Noir is in grave danger!" Starfire exclaimed. "Would it not be prudent for us to—?"

"_I need you and the others to stay where you are, Star,"_ Robin said.

"Man, what for?!?!" Cyborg frowned. "You wouldn't stand a chance going in that City after those two alone!" A beat. He cackled: "**Raven** wouldn't stand a chance!!"

"_I assure you, we'll be fine. We'll trail Jinx and Noir but stay out of sight. This City isn't our jurisdiction anyways."_

"Yeah, dude....that's where your friend rules the roost, huh?" Beast Boy smirked. "Say...maybe while you're in town, Nightwing might even give you a hand!!"

"_Not happening."_

"Why not?"

"_Nightwing is Nightwing. End of story. Helping us would be 'charity work' to him. And Nightwing doesn't do charity work."_

"How about the cops then?" Beast Boy shrugged.

Cyborg looked the changeling's way. "Man, are you stupid??"

Beast Boy sweatdropped.

Robin's voice cleared his throat over the intercom: _"There's not been a successfully managed police department running in Bludhaven for more than fifty years. The City is a hellhole. What isn't under the manipulation of the murderous and ruthless Blockbuster is divided up by drug gangs and Chinese and Russian mobsters. Over thirty-five percent of the economic system is supported by thievery and the black market alone. The only thing keeping the U.S. army from rushing in and establishing martial law is that America doesn't have even half the infantry needed to make such an enforcement possible. Bludhaven is the eternal boil on America's backside. What goes in doesn't likely walk out. That's why—if we want to see Noir back home safely—Raven and I have to seize him __**now**__." _

"And......an-and you do not desire our assistance??" Starfire murmured.

"_What I desire is not the issue, Star. There's still a deadly pair of handcuffs around Noir's and Jinx's wrists. The last thing we want to do is break that link......for it may very well be fixed to something that can threaten the City."_

"Man, I'm telling you!!" Cyborg groaned. "There ain't no bomb!! We've search this City more than a veteran doctor giving an elephant a prostrate exam!! What...you wanna have us dig into the core of the earth and see if there's a molten river being aimed up here at our doorstep?!?! You're asking the impossible, man!!"

"_We've done the impossible before, Cyborg. You and the Titans remain vigilant. Something is going to happen in this City, and I feel it. Jinx and Noir are going to run smack-dab into fate. And if that spells the end of one of them......or of the handcuffs......I want you four ready to respond to whatever emergency may be taking place at home. Got it?_"

Tempest nodded. "Got it." He looked at the others. "That sounds easy enough, huh guys?"

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Robin?"

"_Yes, Cyborg?"_

"You watch out for yourselves, dawg," he said. "You and Raven both!"

"_I already am. Robin out."_

The communication cut off.

Cyborg swiveled to face the others.

A beat.

"Do you believe.....they are in for more than that which is chewable?" Starfire inquired.

Cyborg smiled slightly. "If they haven't been chewed up as it is by now.....who are we to worry?"

The others nodded.

Silence.

"But...seriously dude...," Beast Boy sweatdropped. "What kind of crimelord would have the spunk to call himself '_Blockbuster'_??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So let me get this straight....," Raven droned as she and Robin perched high atop an abandoned, half-rusted radio antenna on the outskirts of the City. "There is no legitimate authority in this Town to counteract the crime?" She stared out at the smog-infested horizon. ".....and we're going in there anyways?"

"What, Raven? Are you worrie—"

"Hush."

Robin smirked somewhat. "There is an authority. But it's a crooked one. Some wicked excuse for a 'police force' in Bludhaven is run by Dudley Soames, aka 'Torque' as he's known in the criminal world...a world that happily recognizes him. Soames has been working to appease Blockbuster from day one. Long story short, we can't expect help from anyone....unless we're in the mood of either being killed or gang-raped."

"Lovely," Raven blinked. She gestured towards the dirty City: "What could Jinx want from......._that_?"

"Anything and everything," Robin scratched his chin as he spoke. His eyemasked gaze fell upon the distant cityscape. "Don't let the chaos of Bludhaven fool you. It's this hemisphere's deepest haven for all sorts of criminal and terrorist evils to hide. Imagine if you were that the crime and corruption were merely layers to a huge, secret package. What's in that package? Anything from Intergang's training camps to the refuse of Lexcorp's technological experiments. If it sheds blood and ruins lives somewhere in the world, it's bound to end up in this place at one time or another....and escape notice too. It would take more than the combined efforts of the entire world's superheroes to converge on this place and do anything significantly close to 'restoring order'."

"How bleak," Raven uttered. "I'm intrigued."

"Yeah, well....stay 'intrigued' to Jinx and Noir. Where do you sense they are now?"

Raven ran a finger along her temple, concentrated some, and hummed: "About two miles into the center of the Downtown region. I left an empathic tracer on them....but I'll be losing contact soon if we don't gain the distance lost in our belated pursuit of them."

"I guess we should get a move on then," Robin gestured towards the air. "Can I have a ride?"

"You can indeed," Raven droned. She produced a black disc of energy and stepped onto it.

Robin followed her.

The two floated out into the smoggy expanse. Towers of wasted car manufacturing plants and industrial castles drifted past them on their left and right. Stretching out beneath them were huge expanses of junkyards and landfills, three times the quantity of that which would be found in a huge urban region such as Gotham or even Metropolis. The stacks of junk, wrecked cars, half-burnt tires, and chemical decay seemed to form 'buildings' and 'skyscrapers' of their own on the City's perimeter. 'Controlled' fires sent toxic fumes from the center of many a landfill swarming into the air, while at the same time dramatic events were taking place beneath the flying two live; such as an occasional drug exchange or knife fight between two rival gangs.

"Nice for a vacation," Raven said.

"I've seen it all before," Robin grunted.

"Have you?"

"..........."

"..........."

The two floated on.

They passed railroad tracks in disarray. The landscape lost its junkyards and gained its dilapidated apartment complexes. Crumbling buildings. Broken down schools and playgrounds.....as if 'children' could ever be an equation in that hellhole. Some of the streets were utterly obstructed by abandoned cars or shopping carts or burning trash barrels. The smog and smoke of nearby industrial quagmires blackened the noonday sky so much that it could just as well have been night. Some of the sparse, high-tech streetlamps misinterpreted the darkness and remained illuminated constantly. In the deep and dark alleyways, the trash piled to the height of grown men and questionable stains of red intermittently splashed across the walls.

"So......," Robin broke the silence he initiated in mid-flight. "...where exactly should Noir and Jinx be?"

"They should be popping up anywhere ahead of us," Raven said.

"Popping up??" Robin leaned his head aside.

Raven nodded. "As 'from underground'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I expected the light from the surface to stab my eyes. Imagine my surprise when I felt it almost more relaxingly dark outside the hole than inside the tunnel.

Wildebeest held the trap door up, which turned out to be a concrete flap with iron hinges that was concealed beneath a heap of biodegradable trash. I was struck with a smell that—I realized—would most likely not leave my nostrils anytime in the next foreseeable future. I stood up and looked around to find myself inside a deep, dark alleyway with smudged brick walls that stretched incalculably high upwards towards a dead-gray sky. Jinx climbed out of the tunnel and joined me on my left side. The intermittent contact of her right wrist seemed a great deal warmer there than it had ever done so before.

I felt an instant shiver up from my metal limb....and I thought instantly of my friends.

"Okie-day....," Jinx breathed. "Now for the fun part."

"..........."

She turned—forcing me to turn—and half knelt before the trap door with her hands on her knees. She smiled at Wildebeest down below, who was still hoisting up the massive concrete gate with his burly arms.

"You did good, WB," she smiled cutely. "You know how this works now, right?"

"............," Wildebeest stared.

Jinx pointed with her left hand back down the tunnel. "You go on back to where you came from and reunite with 'J'. Ghost Boy and I will take it from here, okay?"

Wildebeest uttered a sound through his nostrils that sounded like something between a hum and a whine.

"You heard me! This was part of the plan, remember? Now go....'J' needs you. Just as we needed you earlier. It's your part."

Slowly, Wildebeest nodded. His white eyes darted down the dark alleyway questionably, then rested on Jinx again. "Nnnnngh....," his lips curled slightly. A whinny. Then--

SLAM!!!!

The concrete lid fell shut. The reverberating thuds of half-beast's feet grew distant as he marched away in the tunnel.

Jinx and I were alone....like we always were.

Jinx took a deep breath and stood up.

"Well......now................n-now........."

A beat.

She glanced at me.

".......," I stared at her.

She smiled. "Now......we run."

_Yank!!_

And I was being pulled by her and the handcuffs down the alleyway into the labyrinth of urban Hell.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a street corner of Bludhaven.

The roads were empty like the edge of some ghost town or abandoned district.

A lonely figure lay in a pile of rags in front of a smashed store entrance long forgotten.

The figure was silent. Either dead or sleeping.

A brief gust of wind pushed a flap of two-month-old newspaper past the sidewalk.

The lamppost above flickered momentarily.

Silence.

Two bodies rushed out of a nearby alleyway. One petite with short-short pink hair. The other tall and dark with a denim jacket and a trucker's cap.

The two youngsters seemed busy as they darted across the road and into another alleyway entrance beyond.

And then they were gone.

A beat.

The figure in the rags stirred. Two healthy-glaring eyes peered out from a moth-eaten blanket.

A beat.

The figure stirred and raised his wrist to his face. There was a bulky black watch on the man's arm.

"Ceti Point Two....positive confirmation. Targets A and B. No sign of C. Targets A and B hurriedly running west through southern downtown quadrant. Repeat. This is an affirmative on Targets A and B."

"_Copy that, Ceti Point Two. This is Yellow Nest Prime responding. Ceti Point Four, do you concur with Point Two's sighting? Over."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A lone man atop a fire escape sat in a rickety old chair five stories above an alleyway. He smoked from a cigar and was dressed in a worn-looking jacket. His clothes seemed purposefully ragged. He glanced down in between tobacco puffs and eyed two nimble figures—handcuffed—darting through a maze of broken down, half-burnt automobiles.

He took a deep breath, slid a black communicator out of his tattered pocket, and wheezed into it: "Ceti Point Four. Confirmation of Targets A and B. Movement towards the east-west L-Train track south of Ceti Point Three's location. Speedily haste in travel. Suggest Drone Cam."

"_Roger, Ceti Point Four. Ceti Point Seven, can you depatch a Drone Cam? Over."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This is Ceti Point Seven. I do concur," spoke a man atop a three-story rooftop overlooking the Bludhaven L-Train tracks. The two figures blurred up the side of the elevated railroad in an aura of pink and a splash of black smoke. The man atop the rooftop readied a rifle of sorts. "Presently utilizing Drone Cam with frequency modulation to match remote support by Alpha Point One and Beta Point Eight."

"_Roger that, Ceti Point Seven."_

"_Adjusting remote transceivers to support Drone Cam." _

"_Likewise."_

"Roger," the man squinted one eye, aimed the rifle, and flipped a switch that caused an apparatus in the butt of the rifle to blink and hum. "Firing Drone Cam.......now."

PFFIFT!!!

SWIIIIISH!!!

A tiny, elliptical capsule flew out from the elongated barrel. After soaring outward for fifty feet, it sprouted two tiny wings of hard, aluminum alloy and flapped blurriedly to achieve flight. With the momentum of the gunshot and the three-way-signal support of three pointmen, it fluttered after the two running figures atop the L-Train with a microscopic camera whirring and focusing in on the duo.

"Yellow Nest Prime, Drone Cam is a go. Repeat, Drone Cam is a go. Do you receive a signal?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside an abandoned building somewhere in Bludhaven—behind the wooden shingle shuttered windows of the structure's ghetto exterior, an array of computer stations and weapons cache had been set up. Men dressed in yellow uniforms sat at the computer stations, typing away at mad. Four separate monitors simultaneously displayed the black-and-white, drifting vision of the drone cam following the two figures in flight.

Standing in the center of the room, Damien Darhk spoke into a headset that he hugged to his right ear. "Affirmative, Ceti Point Seven. The Drone Can is working at one hundred percent efficiency. Nice job, and stay put. Over." He flipped a switch on his headset. He peeled it off his head, walked across the busily blinking room full of computer stations, and picked a remote phone off the hook. He dialed a number and held it to his ear.

A beat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A mobile phone on the Headmistress' hip vibrated.

The old woman turned around from where she stood inside a metal-plated room of the Academy. She held the phone up to her ear and spoke: "Yes? Damien?"

"_Good news, Ma'am. They're in Bludhaven and we have a perfect follow on them."_

"And where are they headed?" she asked firmly.

"_It would appear that you are correct in your assumption, ma'am. They're headed westward. Most likely to Jinx's 'home'."_

The Headmistress smiled somewhat. "Splendid. A job well-done, Damien. A job well-done indeed."

"_What is the next course of action? Should I have my men intercede?"_

"Negative," she shook her head and hung the phone to her face. "This City is enough to eat these two children alive."

"_There is still the risk that Jinx will never be distracted. She may reach the Academy after all......and that's a danger, even if my men do not report the presence of the Fearsome Five yet."_

"Then it'll be my place to distract them into our 'net'," the Headmistress said. "And then shall your men strike."

"_What do you have in mind, Headmistress?"_

"The bowels of this City have been calm and quiet for too long. It's time for some urban indigestion....and Jinx and Noir will be the virus." She turned around and smiled. "As for the symptoms.......I think some our students could provide a key...."

Lined up before the Headmistress were four of the Academy's most elite students. Disruptor, Charger, Bumblebee, and Deuce. They stood at ready—appearing to be at a mix of nervousness and curiosity.

"I'll get back to you....," the Headmistress hummed into the phone.

-click-

She pocketed the mobile away...staring at the students.

A beat.

Smiling, she pointed at half of them. "You two!! Prepare yourselves." Her gray eyes thinned. "I need you to run an errand for me...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fwooosh!!

Pl-Plant!!

Jinx and I leapt off the L-Train tracks and into an alleyway. We ran down between the two dark walls. Jinx led the way, while I trailed behind by a handcuff.

I panted. My black eyes spotted the blinking light on the center of our handcuff link. My eyes traveled up to the glinting effect caused by Jinx's pendant as it dangled out from her blouse's neck. It had slipped somehow in the midst of our sprinting. She didn't seem to care if it was out in the open or not anymore.

Jinx curved our path around a turn in the alleyway and into an open street. I noticed a few gang members in hooded jackets loitering around a corner besides a smashed street sign. They took slight notice of us, muttered one thing or another, but didn't try to intervene in our flight.

_Random running figures must be common in this place......_

I followed Jinx across the road, into another alleyway, and hopped with her over a crumbling, wooden fence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"They....are close....," Raven uttered. Her teeth clenched in a visible strain.

"How close?" Robin asked as they floated over buildings.

"Nnnnnngh....," Raven tried concentrating more.

The black disc of energy beneath them started to flicker and fade.

Robin sweatdropped. "Er....Raven! J-Just concentrate on flying us, okay! I'll worry about the rest!"

She exhaled and blinked her weak eyes open. "I've lost them, Robin. I'm sorry...."

Robin's eyemask narrowed as he gazed downward. Something...or some_things_ caught his eye and he smirked. "Don't worry. I've 'refound' them."

"???" she gazed down. Her lips parted some.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I jumped up and ran along a thin streak of window ledges overshadowing a city street strewn with garbage and homeless tents. A few lit fires illuminated our profiles from the 'camps' below. We leapt off the ledges into the next intersection, rolled from the landing, got to our feet, and ran forward again.

Jinx's flight was certainly a hasty one. I had somehow gotten into the pattern of meeting her fervent pace. Soon we were running and jumping and making sharp turns at a simultaneous rate. I never thought much of it...but Jinx nearly matched me in the speed department. Thanks to the powers of black murk, I could run across water and up walls and the like. But Jinx could do the same if not nearly the same, on account of her abilities to bend fate to her will. Or mostly to her will.

We both had ways of cheating.

_But we weren't similar. _

_We weren't......_

I kept matching her pace, even when she took us down a road that actually had driving cars and bikers in it. Many vehicles screeched to a stop and honked annoyingly as we ran over their illuminated bodies, frightened drivers, and streaked into an open alleyway in the far side.

We were—for the most part—heading west.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Plop!!

"Nnngh!" Robin grunted and immediately ran after touching down on the rooftop. He ran westward, hopping from building top to building top in a nimble fashion that only Robin can do.

Raven floated at an equal pace parallel to the Boy Wonder in the air. The two kept their gaze fixed on the ever-darting figures of their two targets in the streets and alleyways below. They had gone so far....and come so close...

Their speed was a desperate thing.

At the sight of the two figures ahead of them darting left and right, Robin looked over towards Robin and signaled for Raven to take one side of the street while he took the opposite.

The dark girl nodded. With a wave of her cloak, she drifted right and pursued the two silently on their far flank.

Robin leapt up buildingsides, swung on his grappling hook, and scrambled to stick to the left. His eyemask narrowed as his gaze remained firm on the targets...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Every now and then I gazed up past the city's ceiling while running.

The 'ceiling' of Bludhaven—to me—was a thick but translucent curtain of fog floating overhead. There was an even thicker overcast sky above that...but it was difficult at best to spot. It felt like God or Allah or someone was trying to blot out our location from existence. It felt strangely unnerving and comforting all the same. I felt like going to sleep.

But Jinx's body still kept sprinting and her handcuff still kept tugging and so I kept running with her.

Over abandoned cars, around alleyways, past garbage heap, avoiding clusters of gangs.

Going somewhere....somewhere....somewhere....

I looked at Jinx.

Her face was pale. Sheen with seat. Her mouth hanging open in an endless pant.

_Is she losing her cool?_

"........"

I looked ahead at where we were running.

_Did she ever have her cool to begin with?_

I thought of Slade. I remember my naked eyes fluctuating the moment Myrkblade ran through his chest to the hilt. The saliva and blood that poured out of his breathing vents in the metal mask. His hissing voice. The moment he fell through the glass window of the frigate and was churned twice to death under the beaten waves.

_Every villain......strong or weak......redeemable or not......has an end._

The vision of Dagger hanging by his bloody shirt flashed before me. His dangling figure above the dark, infinite alleyway. The rain streaking down his red-cut face. Those unchanging eyes rounding out to embrace death. The puffiness to his lips as he hissed forth his last words of spookiness before fading away forever from my grasp into the turbulent air of early July Fifth.

_Every villain reaches a demise as terribly violent as the life he or she has lived._

I thought of Jinx's Cheshire cat grin. Her dancing figure of doom. The way she played the game of turning my life into a living Hell. The way she giggled and laughed about the Titans' inevitable destruction. Her pink cuteness and her homicidal heart.

And then I looked at her running next to me. Her pink hair practically buzzed from the butcher job with my sword. The sweat and panting from her face. The glinting pendant hanging desperately from her neck. The replaced outfit of cutesy-gothic lore.

_Every villain............even her........._

I blinked my black eyes under my shades.

_Was I going to kill her too before the night was over?_

Jinx darted us around a corner and into another dark alleyway before I had a chance to sigh.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swung himself up in a diagonal arc and wrapped upwards on the cord so as to land upright in a deep crouch. He gazed down from seven stories up like a true bird and eyed the streaking two from up high. After a beat, he whipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound and uttered: "Raven. You still on their tail?"

"_Barely. They're moving so fast. I sense an apocalypse that we don't know about or something."_

"Tell me about it," Robin ran along the high building front, eyeing the two distant specks below. "If I didn't know better, I'd say Jinx was in a hurry."

"_Tell me about it."_

"No, seriously," Robin remarked. "There's something about this City that seems to be propelling her further faster than on the highway or in the forests or in Blue Pine. There's a sense of urgency in this place which is evident in her. I think it just goes to show that this is it."

"_What do you mean?"_

"Bludhaven is the destination of her journey."

"_What could she possibly want with Noir here?"_

"I think she's already used Noir for what she's wanted," Robin said, hopping a building level down onto another rooftop and continuing to run parallel to the two below. "She's gotten this far with help from him."

"_Along with Wildebeest, who I might add is no longer with them."_

"Hmmm....," Robin managed to breathe as he hopped onto another building top. "But she's still needing Noir. Good point."

"_Well, I hope she knows what to use him for. Things are about to get ugly."_

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "How so?"

"_They're about to run right into hostile territory."_

"Raven....," Robin grunted. "This is **Bludhaven**. Define 'hostile territory'...."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx was halfway through leading the two of us into the courtyard when she gasped and skidded to a stop.

"Ah jeez!" she squealed.

"!!!" I came to a blurred stop beside her. I panted...swallowed....and exhaled.

We were in gang territory. We knew that from the fifty-plus gang members gathered in the far end of the courtyard ahead of us.

I was a stranger to Bludhaven. I didn't know who was who in this City. I didn't know who these gang members were affiliated with, but I did take notice of the lovely 'cache' of ghetto weapons in the corner of their 'hideout'.....things that ranged from baseball bats wrapped around with barb wire to sawed-off shotguns to Molotov cocktails. They had an impressive arsenal for whenever a 'war' was to break out between themselves and a rival gang a mile or two outside of their territory.

Fancily enough, Jinx and I single-handedly ran smack-center into their precious 'territory'....and they noticed.

"Whoah!!"

"Red light, shitheads!!"

"The Hell do you think you're doing here???"

Twenty gang members at a time walked menacingly towards us. There was a resounding 'snap!' as fifteen different switchblades were flicked out simultaneously. The threat was very much real....but I couldn't help but notice the same drunken grin on half of their unhealthy faces. I sensed a thirst for blood moreoever than anger at intrusion.

"Okaaaaaaaaay....," Jinx sweatdropped and stepped with me backwards. "Detour time."

But as soon as she—and I—turned around--

CLANK!!!

A gang member struck a metal bat into the floor, flanked by seven other grunts. "Heheheheh....," he grinned as he and his armed partners marched in towards us, encircling us with the other fifty.

Jinx and I backed up. She bit her lip. I glared under my shades. I glanced behind me as the Bludhavenists formed a circle around us. They clanked their bats and knifes and machetes together. A few strung their shotguns behind their shoulders and smirked at their spontaneous prey. The cold-hearted swiftness at which the gang gathered around to overwhelm us was startling. I had enough of a taste of this City as it was.

"So...you from out of town, punk? Your head on your shoulders is a damn giveaway."

"Gawd....look at them. They're out of breath!"

"Care to tell us what you're running from? It's not us, is it?? Heh heh heh."

Jinx grunted. "We have no time for this....we have to get through—"

"Oooooooh!!!"

"Ha ha ha ha!!"

"Woooo!!"

"Way to go, Miss Spunk! You've got us wowed shitless!"

Jinx's eyes narrowed.

I blinked.

"Hey!"

A beat.

"Hey, punk!!"

I glanced over.

Out from the crowd of weapon-brandishing strangers came a peculiarly stoned-looking creep with heavy eyes and his pockets stuffed full of something which I assume—in that city—was considered 'valuable'. He marched directly up to me and sniffed: "How much?"

"........," I stared at him.

"How much?"

"........" I still stared.

People started chuckling.

The man cracked a smile and pointed at the handcuffs. "For the key, dumbshit!!"

".......," I glanced at what joined Jinx and I together.

More chuckles.

He said: "Surely you didn't bring that nice ass of hers all the way over here for free!!"

Jinx bit her lip. She stepped back once.

"So how much, man??" he rummaged through is pockets.

"...........," I slowly looked up at the man.

_He......He thinks that I'm 'selling' her......_

"Look....just give us the damn key, leave us the bitch, and you'll be on your way!"

"Simple as that, man!"

"Uh uh!" the stoned one shook his head and grumbled. "We're doing this legit! I'm paying him! We've gotta build respect, ya crackheads!"

"Ha ha ha!!"

"Someone hit him—"

SWOOOSH-CRACK!!!

A random gang member rushed in and smacked the stoned man's skull in with a bat.

Blood splattered between Jinx's and my feet as the man coldly collapsed into a convulsing pile.

Jinx and I jolted.

The gang around us laughed and cackled. Some fell over drunkenly.

Another man kicked the twitching body in the side, then stepped over it, and pointed a switchblade at Jinx and I. "Okay...negotiations are over, kiddies. Though it is out of season for such a surprising treat, I think we'll take what you have to offer and spare your quiet head."

Jinx subconsciously crept closer to my left side. "I-I don't like this," she whispered. "There're too many creeps here. Even if I could get a good hex shot off at the ground or something, I-I couldn't take them all out in tim—"

"Hey, shut up!!!" The man reached forward, grabbed Jinx painfully by the left arm, and jerked her forward to him.

"Nngh!!" Jinx grunted.

The man shoved the tip of his blade up against the small part of Jinx's throat and stared tightly down at her face with a sneer......then a smile. "You'll open that pretty mouth of yours only when you're told too, sweety. From now on."

Jinx gritted her teeth in his grasp.

The man chuckled while others around him chuckled. "Wow...she's a healthy little thing isn't she!" He looked at me with a smirk. "You didn't bring her to the East B Gang first, did you? I hope not. It's kind of a turn off when a bitch has more than three holes in her."

CHIIIIIING!!!! My denim jacket ripped to shreds. Myrkblade sang into the air.

The gang members went quiet.

The man holding Jinx blinked. "................huh."

**SMACK!!!!**

I struck him hard across the face with the blunt side of my blade.

CRACK!!! His nose broke in an instant and the cartilage almost ripped free from under the skin. He toppled down to the ground like a quivering rag doll and gurgled bloodily in pain.

"!!!" Jinx fell against me, panting. Wide eyed.

I frowned, holding Myrkblade frozen in upswing. The sword still vibrated from the impact.

"Nnnngh!!" another gang member shook. He held up his bat and charged me. "Who the Hell do you think you ar—"

SW-SWISH—CHIIING!!! I twirled Myrkblade into an uppercut that lopped off the end of his bat with a murking trail.

"!!!!" he skidded to a gasping stop.

SWOOOSH!!! I flung my smoking blade into his chest, bruised his ribs, and struck my right foot out hard into his chest. WHAM!!!

"OOF!!" he fell back into two other thugs. All three collapsed hard to the floor. THWUMP!!

"Shit!!"

"They're superfreaks!!"

"Damn stupid mutants!!"

"Fresh crap straight out of Metropolis! I swear!!"

"Get 'em!!"

"No way! I ain't losing my head!!"

"Shit....BUT THEY'RE IN OUR PLACE!!"

"Damn....bastard freaks!!"

"You're messing with the wrong gang!!"

The circle around us started shaking fists and yelling and grunting and sneering.

A little shaken up, Jinx leaned into me. She stared blankly at the floor. She gulped. "That.....Th-That is why I don't like men......."

"........," I found myself with a hand on her shoulder as I distanced us safely from the growingly loud and angry crowd. I drifted us further into the center. I eyed the men one at a time.

Jinx looked up at me. "Why didn't you just let them cut me to death or something??" A blink. "Is it the bomb?"

I felt the handcuffs against my left wrist as if for the first time in hours.

_Yeah...... _

_The bomb........._

We drew back towards a brick wall that formed the edge of the growingly tempestuous courtyard. The encircling gang members started brandishing their shotguns and holding machetes out threateningly and other various poses of battle-read aggression.

"Okay....if we can just devise a way out of this...," Jinx muttered. "...we can run off with our butts in tact and continue on with our journey uninterrupted."

A beat.

"R-Right?" she stammered.

I glanced down at her.

_You're asking me?_

A beat.

_Stop hugging me, dammit!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

A pair of black heels landed on the rooftop of a building looming over the thunderous courtyard.

Bumblebee stared down. Her brown eyes narrowed. She rested her hands on her hips. Her 'wings' rested silently behind her.

Cl-Clamp!!

Charger landed in a squat beside her, then slowly stood up. He walked forward in a suit of red and blue. Two firm eyes glared out from a crimson helmet as he looked at the sight down below and whistled.

"I wonder if we're even _needed_," Charger uttered.

Bumblebee shrugged. "The Headmistress sent us here for a reason." She whipped out two 'stinger' guns that sparkled bright yellow bolts of energy. "If a calamity is what she wants, a calamity is what she's gonna get." She looked up and eyed the urbanscape around them. She spotted a flickering, neon billboard looming on the edge of an apartment building. "Shoot for that, Batteryhead. I'll make the sky fall in the meantime."

Charger sneered: "Don't call me 'batteryhead'," he grumbled as he produced a huge bolt of electricity from deep within his being and aimed at the distant neon lights. "It's annoying."

She floated upwards, her wings 'buzzing'. She smirked. "You know as much as I do that we're not graded on attitude."

"Thank god," Charger groaned as he produced greater and greater electrical pulses. "You'd be in the Honors courses."

"I already am in the Honors Courses."

"Oh go to Hell."

"Hehehehe. Riot time!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The gang closed in on us. Bats and machetes and guns glinting in some distant firelight.

Jinx and I were shoulder to shoulder. We could feel each other's heartbeats.

"Okay....I've got it....," the pink-headed witch uttered. "On the count of three, we bolt like Hell through the left wing of the group. If we make it out into the street, we should be okay. You got it?"

_Yeah, whatever......_

I nodded, holding Myrkblade high with one hand.

The gang crept forward. We could see the colors of their eyes.

"One...."

Sneering teeth.

Dirty breaths.

"Two....."

Raised weapons.

White knuckles.

Jinx's whole body tensed.

"Thr—"

FLASH!!!!!!!!

The two of us blinked.

We glanced up.

So did the gang members.

The neon lights of an overhead billboard pulsed, shook, and—

_POP!!!!_

Sparks and shattered glass flew down in a bright torrent.

Men with weapons gasped and dove out of the way. Some were cut by the shards. A handful of others found their clothes caught on fire and had to roll on the ground in a rush to put the flickering tongues out.

Jinx panted, confused.

When....

_FLASH!!!_

_CRUMBLE!!!!!!!_

Everyone still standing and in one sane piece of mind spun to look elsewhere above us.

A huge chunk of buildingside was falling down in crumbling brick.

"Watch out!!"

Gang members grunted and jumped out of the way barely in the nick of time.

_CRAAAAAA-AAAAAAAASH!!!!_

Dust and debris flew across the collapsing hideout.

I bit my lip.

Sure enough, everyone turned and frowned at us.

"It's them!!"

"Those freaks!"

"They're doing it!!"

"They're tearing the place down with their powers!!"

"Get 'em!!!"

"DIE!!!"

Jinx and I winced.

"Why can't H.I.V.E. build an Academy under Disneyland sometime??" Jinx murmured.

"**YAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!"**

Metal bats, strings of barbed wire, knives, and bricks were thrown at us in one giant convergence of hate.

SWIIIIISH!!!

Jinx pulsed pink energy.

I let loose a burst of murk.

The two of us leapt out of the tossed weaponry and flipped forward into the crowd.

SWOOOOOSH!!

We landed haphazardly in the center of the murderous mob.

Jinx and I stood up, panting. Surrounded by heated bodies. Swinging fists. Growling voices.

"HAAAA!!!" Jinx shot both with her free left hand and her bound right hand.

Two blurring streams of pink flew into the crowd and tripped them hard.

Jinx recoiled.

I sprung forward.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I swung Myrkblade out hard, snapped two weapons in two, and landed the blunt side of my blade into a crook's chest. THWAP!!! Bodies fell.

More gang members came at our rear.

Jinx held her breath. She leapt up, spun around my body, forced me to spin, and launched herself forward to the extent of her handcuff's length to launch a spiraling hex bolt at a huge onrush of thugs. "HAAA!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!!

Ten men fell down hard as if on a sea of invisible banana peels.

Two punks with sawed off shotguns suddenly ran up and aimed at our skulls.

"EEEK!!" Jinx plowed into me with a trembling hug.

I gritted my teeth and threw us back onto the floor.

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!!

The huge spread of shotgun shot flew over us, nearly burning our noses.

I produced a carpet of murk beneath our sprawled bodies. We slipped forward as if on concrete ice till we were behind the two gunmen.

SWOOOSH!!

I sprung the two of us up into a spinning jump.

Jinx struck her leg out.

I struck my leg out.

TH-THWAP!!!

We kicked both men in their backs.

"OOF!!"

"UGH!!"

We landed from our jump.

Three thugs came at us with machetes swinging. SWWWWISH!!! SW-SWISH!!

CLANK!! I deflected one swing with Myrkblade. SWIISH!! I ducked another swing. FWOOSH!! Jinx vaulted up, rolled over my shoulders to avoid the third swing, and pivoted her legs off my torso to kick two of the swinging men across their cheeks with her shoes.

WH-WHACK!!!

I slammed the hilt of Myrkblade into the ribcage of the last man. WHUMP!!!

The three collapsed.

The rest of the crowd surged in.

Jinx and I stood, our glowing hand/sword raised.

And—

_CRUMBLE!!!!!!!_

We gasped.

The ground shook.

From up above---

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bumblebee buzzed over the scene. She zapped huge slivers of the wall from invisible vantage points. Her sparking guns let loose yellow bolts of hot energy that severed the brick from the buildingfronts and sent them spiraling threatening onto the angry crowd below.

In the meantime, Charger had jumped to a buildingtop across the way and was busy sending huge electric charges into light bulbs and lampposts, causing more sparks and glass to litter the chaotic crowd below.

And both students were smiling.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRAAAAA-AAAAAAASH!!!_

_FL-FL-FLASH!!!_

Fueled on by the chaos, the crowd got more and more angry. They charged in on us in fervor. Their weapons swung harder. Their fists grew faster and faster in furious flesh-hunger.

Jinx and I found ourselves backflipping blades, ducking clubs, and jumping over gunshots. A knife or two grazed me at a few points. I grunted and pivoted so that I could deflect the worst of the attackers. I didn't think much of it, but I was doing my best to bear the brunt of the battle. And where was Jinx?? Anywhere I positioned her...which turned out to be away from the worst heat.

_Dammit......what's wrong with me??_

Before I could pass out from the frantic melee, Jinx saved the day by shouting: "A break! A break, Ghost Boy! To our left!!"

I looked.

"No! No! Our other left!!"

I **looked**.

Where a few groaning bodies were sprawled, an open path lead into the naked street.

Without thinking, I--

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!

"YAAAAK!!" Jinx felt her body yanked away from a hex-bolt fight with a dozen men. She flew from behind me like a pink cape as I blurred us out of the infernal courtyard and into the street beyond.

The gangs behind us shouted and took chase.

"Those yellow-bellied freaks!!"

"After them!!!"

"Call the Red Street families!! They owe us!!"

"Let's skin their shitty-ass hides!!"

"Bastards!!"

The shouting grew distant behind us, but not distant enough. Even as fast as I was running us, I sensed I couldn't go fast enough to lose them.

I panted.

In the meantime, Jinx's feet blurred into pink action as she caught up with my running pace. She panted: "You know....just listening to them makes me feel 'cute' again."

".......," I glanced at her in mid-sprint.

She smiled again. "Thanks, ya know?"

"......"

"I mean it!" she pouted. "Thank you...G-H-O-S-T B-O-Y."

I exhaled and looked ahead.

_Don't EVER thank me......_

"Hehehehe!"

_And stop giggling._

"We are sooooo out of here!" she grinned. A beat. Her smile faded. "Unless they get angrier for some reason."

_FLASH!!! _

_CRUMBLE!!!!!!!!_

We both gasped and looked up.

"What the fuzzball?!?!"

Brickwork and neon light shards fell down at us from the building sides.

"EEK!!" Jinx jumped into me.

"!!!!"

We teetered to the side in mid-sprint.

_CRAAAAAA-AAAAAAASH!!_

The debris littered where our bodies would surely have been crushed.

We skidded to a stop. Panting.

"Where in the world is that coming from?!?!?!" Jinx panted.

I swallowed.

_I know......it's a familiar sensation......ISN'T IT, JINX?!?!_

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!

We both spun and glanced behind us.

Two beat-up pickup trucks full of gang members drove up from the courtyard far behind us. Thugs in the backseat shouted and whooped and cheered with bloodlust. They had uzzis and shotguns in their grasp.

".......," Jinx sweatropped. "What's it that Charleston Heston said about apes with guns?"

I glared at her.

_Get an education._

VROOOOOOOM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

BLAM!! BLAM!!!

Bullet shot ricocheted up towards our feet in a white string of flashes.

P-P-P-P-P-P-P-PING!!!

"EEKNESS!!" Jinx shrieked.

_STOP THAT!!_

I yanked at her and blurred us to the right down a street.

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!

The two trucks swerved around the corner of the road and zoomed after us, ballistics flying.

BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

BL-BLAM!!!

We blurred in a Technicolor combination of pink and black.

Gasping for breath and acceleration as the bullets ate up at our heels.

"We'll....be...fine....," Jinx shuddered as we ran for our lives and nothing more. "We'll... be.... fine... as.... long... as.... we... just.... lose... them. Yeah, that's it. Just....lose...them...."

And that's when a huge chunk of buildingfront flew down and landed through the front engine of the first pickup truck.

SWOOOOOSH-_CRUNCH!!!!!!_

The truck upended. Bodies and guns went flying across the pavement.

Jinx glanced back. "Whoah!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bumblebee streaked down the rooftops of the buildings, zapping continuously downward with her two bolt-pistols.

Charger ran parallel to her on the buildingtops, letting loose huge pulses of electricity.

Their combine energy bolts struck building faces and electrical wires, raining down destruction on those pursuing us.

Just enough to piss them off more.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And judging by the bazooka, they were certainly pissed off.

"Jeez!!!" Jinx hissed at the truck pursuing us. "RPG AT SIX O'CLOCK!!!"

"????" I made a face as we ran.

_Since when did street gangs get a hand on Magic: The Gathering??_

"Hello?!?! Didn't you hear me?? Rocket Propelled Grenade!!!"

I glanced back behind me and saw the man in the back of the pickup truck with the bazooka.

_Oh......right. God, how'd I fall for that--_

PFTCHOOOOO!!!!!!!!

The bazooka head flew at us.

SHOOOOOM!!!!

Jinx glanced at both sides of the road streaking past us. "Right or left?!?!" There was no legitimate alleyway to rush into.

SHOOOOOOOOM!!!

The explosive burned at our blurring heels.

"RIGHT OR LEFT?!?!" Jinx panicked.

I panted.

I glanced down.

Rushing up beneath us was a manhole cover.....barely cracked open.

_How about down??_

FWOOOSH!!

I leapt us up.

Jinx gasped.

The RPG flew into us.

I twirled us down.

I swan-dived.

I dragged Jinx with me.

Smoke danced out of my eyes...under my shades.

Murk consumed my body, traveled up the handcuff at once, and enveloped Jinx.

With great concentration, I morphed the two of us into black steam and flung us down straight through the crack in the metal and concrete.

FWOOOOOOOSH-CLANG!!!

The manhole coverlid danced and rattled for half a second before—

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!**_

The bazooka sent metal and concrete flying. A black crater formed in the center of the street.

SCREEEEEEECH!!!

The pickup truck came to a violent stop in front of the flaming patch of urban ground. Random creeps from the street ran up with machetes and baseball bats....only to find no two bodies to hack apart.

"The Hell?!?!"

"They're gone!!!"

"D-Did we cook them?!?!"

"No, man!! The freaks teleported somewhere!!"

"Damn it!!"

"Where are those bastards?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over the smoking scene...

Bumblebee hovered in the air and Charger perched on a building side.

They both peered down at the gathering group of angry, confused thugs.

"Did we.....did we do them too much trouble?" Charger murmured.

"Hmpph...," Bumblebee smirked. "Hardly enough."

"Heh. H-Hey...I think the Headmistress is calling us."

Bumblebee holstered her zappers away and pulled out a communicator. "Yes, Ma'am!"

"_Judging from your location......you're close to the 'net'. What happened to Jinx and the boy?"_

"Consider them 'netted', Headmistress," Bumblebee smiled proudly. "That swordsman kid....he ported the two of them into the sewers. And at this point....the sewers only lead one place."

"_Good......Good......that's where we're waiting for our Jinx."_

"Hey Headmistress, I've got an idea," Bumblebee uttered. "How about **I** become your 'Jinx' from now on?"

Charger rolled his eyes.

"_You're not graded for attitude, Bumblebee."_

"Right. Of course not."

Charger chuckled.

Bumblebee stuck her tongue out at him.

"_Return to the Academy. But make sure nobody follows you. Mr. Darhk will take care of the rest."_

"Gotcha. Bumblebee out."

Charger spoke: "You know....when you first came to the Academy....you were never so....so...."

Bumblebee pocketed her communicator away. She raised an eyebrow: "Badass?"

"I was gonna say 'annoying', but sure."

"Go screw yourself, Charger."

"Maybe if you helped me."

"Pfft...," Bumblebee started to flutter northward. "Whatever. Hornball."

"........."

"Charger?"

"............"

"Charger????" Bumblebee turned to look down at him. Her eyes widened.

The young villain was convulsing....for a black 'talon' of energy had stretched out of the ceiling and was clasping over his mouth.

"Mmmmmmfff!!"

Bumblebee blinked. "Now what in the Sam Hel—"

"HIYAAAAAAAAUGH!!"

Bumblebee spun around....and got a face full of Robin.

WHAM!!!!

"UNGH!!" she flew down and tumbled across the gravel of the rooftop. "Nnngh! Nnnngh! Ugh!!"

Robin landed from his swing. He dashed across the buildingtop, gritted his teeth, and whipped out a metal staff which he extended and swung down at her. SWIIIISH!!

"!!!!" Bumblebee fluttered her wings, shot herself upright, and swung her zappers up in a blink of an eye. CL-CLANG!!! She met both weapons to Robin's staff with a shower of sparks.

Robin pivoted and swung his foot under her legs.

WHAP!!

"Augh!!" she fell back.

WHAM!!!

He struck the rod deep into her gut.

"MMMF!!" she caught her breath barely, spiraled, and hovered sickly and off-balance across the rooftop. "Nnngh....where'd you come from, sh-shorty??"

"H.I.V.E....," Robin sneered and spun his staff into ready. "We should have known. This is all about you and Jinx. What's she doing....making you all scared? She got some vendetta on you!!"

"What's it to you, Titan?!?!" Bumblebee sneered. She glanced behind her.

Raven floated up behind Charger, encasing him in a cocoon of dark energy.

Robin pointed with a gloved finger. "You weren't just threatening Jinx's life! Our friend is handcuffed to her!"

"Hehehe....so the Headmistress was right," Bumblebee smiled. "You do have a buddy in the witch's clutches. Don't you realize that he's expendable?? We're dealing with much bigger crap here, Bird Brat!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You're going to answer some questions for us."

"Or else what?"

Raven floated over. "We'll start by ripping that mouth of yours off with your own teeth."

"Raven, I've got the intimidation going fine here. Thanks anyways."

"Whatever," the dark girl groaned.

"Pfft...you guys are whimps," Bumblebee backed up with her zappers sparking. "I can take on you AND your doppelgangers....if you had any!!"

"Want us to make you see double?" Robin's fists clenched. "That can be arranged."

"Unless you tell us where Jinx is going," Raven added.

"Jinx could be going anywhere," Bumblebee shrugged. "But I can guarantee where you two will end up. How's an early grave sound?"

FLASH!!!

The young villainess disappeared.

Robin gasped.

Raven's eyes narrowed.

Robin spun around. "Where....Wh-Where'd she go?"

Raven's lips parted. "She's....she's still here...."

"WHERE?!?!" Robin grunted.

"_Hey Mr. Anorexic!!!"_

"?!?!?!" Robin glanced down.

A familiar—but four inch tall Bumblebee peered up from under the neck of Robin's shirt. She winked.

"_Try some tighter spandex!!" _

And her tiny zappers flickered with unreal strength as her tiny figure flew up his chin in a massive uppercut.

_WHAM!!!!!_

"UGH!!!" Robin flew back.

Raven gasped and her eyes stopped glowing. "Robin!!!"

The black shield around Charger faded. "Nnnngh!!" The red and blue villain shook his fists, summoned a huge wave of electricity, and sent it soaring at the two Titans as a shrunken Bumblebee flew—laughing—to take cover.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG!!!!

A half a mile away from the scene of the gang-chase, I kicked a metal cover up off another manhole. I leapt up, gritted my teeth, and strained to pull a frazzled Jinx up to the road alongside me.

"Nnnnghhh!!" she shivered all over. "Warn me next time, Ghost Boy! Warn me before you go all teleporty on me!! Jeez!!"

I simpered.

She swatted at bugs and invisible creepy crawling things that were all over her upper limbs but weren't really.

"Ick....Ick!! Gives me the willies! Jinx doesn't like being taken apart molecule by molecule! Jinx doesn't!!"

I simpered again.

_Give me a reason to want to kill you again._

"Okay...so....um....," Jinx straightened nonexistent tufts of hair, stood up straight, and faced to our left. "...we were...heading west. Right."

She started running.

I followed along.

We crept through a long-abandoned parking lot covered in potholes and random weeds growing from between the cracks. Shattered chain-link fences hung on either side of us. Buildings rose brown and rusty in the distance. We were away from the heart of downtown Bludhaven....but everything still looked like the grimey, overcast hellhole.

"If we make time, we'll be there sooner than you can say---"

".................."

A beat.

Silence.

"????" I looked at her.

Jinx had frozen in mid-step. Her cat eyes were wide. Vibrantly pink. Her lips hung open. A breath escaped her.

"Hecate......."

"???"

I looked in the direction her eyes were aimed.

I blinked.

There was....an apartment complex. A simple three-story collection of buildings forming a hooked 'U' shape. The buildings were run-down, with plenty of holes in the outer structure and wooden planks covering the windows and such ruination. An occasional pile of junk or two formed scattered mountains before us....but quite obvious before our gaze rested a playground. Complete with a jungle gym and dismantled swingsets and a fort and a rusted slide.

It was anything I could have expected from the crumbling, urban environment.

But for some reason....Jinx's eyes were stuck on the sight of the....site.

She crept forward.

I helplessly followed.

Her breath came with every step: "This.....is....m-my....home...."

"???" I leaned my head to the side.

_Your home???_

Her jaw fell more.

"The.....apartment......," she glanced aside. She saw a half-broken, wooden bench bordering the playground. "....the....the reading spot..." Her pink cat eyes trailed up towards a distant apartment balcony. ".....Mommy......she would......she would stand out there.......gazing at the sunset....." Her eyes fell down beneath us. We came to a stop.

I looked down as well.

A sandbox rested in a spot of the playground closest to the 'reading spot' bench. Mud and grime filled the wooden square. A plastic pale rested to the side along with a toy shovel.

Jinx's eyes rounded. She bit her lip. "Faye......Fiona........."

"..........."

Silence.

Jinx fell to her knees.

My left hand jerked down with her....but I stood. I didn't stop standing.

"Faye......F-Fiona......," Jinx clutched the pendant to her chest. A beat. Her shoulders shook. Her eyes clenched shut as the first moisture since her collapse with Leslie threatened to leak from her again. "....I....I don't remember....I-I don't remember EVER living in Bludhaven."

A beat.

She opened her eyes again. And they were full of fire Her fingers around the pendant formed a fist and for a moment there I thought she was going to snap the heirloom into pieces.

"Psimon.......Dagger.........H.I.V.E........what do you want from me still?? Why did you....d-did you make this up?? Where is my real home?!?! Is this it?? This sh-shitty place?!?! Was I born in a den of crime?!?! Why do you want me to think of this place as my _home_?!?! Do I even **have** a home?!?! Nnnghhh!!!"

She clutched her butchered pink head and tilted her head to the sky. "NNNGHH!!! I HATE YOU!!! CAN'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE?!?! CAN'T YOU?!?!" She heaved forward in a sob. "You're worse.....you're almost w-worse than Red Aviary........I.......I don't know. I don't know anything anymore...except that I hate you.....I hate you so much......."

".........," I swallowed. I tried not to look at her shaking figure.

She hugged herself with one arm while with her other arm she leaned limply against my left leg.

"What....Wh-What am I doing here, Ghost Boy? Why aren't I dead? Wh-Why aren't I the new paint job to my prison cell back in the City?"

I took a deep breath.

_Why am I with you for that matter, Jinx?_

Whurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-Cting!!

"???" Jinx gasped.

I looked up.

There was something on the jungle gym. Blinking.

Whurrrrrrrrrrrrr-Chting! Chting! Chting!!

Three more blinking things.

On the swingset. The fort. In the sandbox.

All around us.

Blinking things.

A radio squabble.

Shadows in the distance.

Waiting in ambush.

Jinx jumped up and grabbed my torso. "Ghost Boy!! It's a trap—"

The explosives laughed in red flame.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!**_


	151. Double Jinx part 8

**151. Double Jinx part 8**

……..

"_Today…………"_

………

"_Today……we begin the age of The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, the strongest vessel for organized freedom fighting and insurgent interests world wide. All of us—as united sisters and brothers of the modern Earth—shall work to produce the most elite mercenaries and intellectuals in the field of political activism that this World has ever seen or ever will see. In an age when hypocrites and bureaucrats wield futile strengths of social standing, it will be up to us to truly act upon the interests of the downtrodden and oppresses masses in every nation and on every Continent. And we…the Headmistresses…we shall be your guiding light. Your pillars of strength. Lean on us for strength, and we shall commune to equally share the courage and fervor that has been granted us by years of strife and hardship. This is the turning point, sisters and brothers. This is the birth of a new regime. The future is ours. The future is now. The future has been paved already in our past. In our origins. In our will. May all evil opposition tremble at the wave of fury that the Hierarchy shall unleash on those pathetic enough to maintain the wretched status quo. Revolution is nigh. All those who agree……pledge with me!"_

"_**Long live The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination!" **_

"_**Long live The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination!"**_

"_Know in your hearts……Know in your mind……you are part of a grand whole. A supporting body in a colony. A colony that shall rebuild the world from the deep recesses of the abandoned Terra Firma and outward."_

"_**Long Live H.I.V.E.!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I've often wondered if life would have been an easier thing lived blind than with my black eyes open.

Even when halfway unconscious, I could feel things with my spatial sense. I felt the shadowy figures rushing into the exploded playground. I felt the limbs dragging Jinx and I out from the smoldering crater left by the hidden explosives that ambushed. My mind registered the bumpy ride in a stuffy vehicle that turned left, right, right, left, left, left, right, and left again before descending somewhere beneath the earth's surface. I felt the cold rocking motion of an invisible platform leading us down partially ventilated tunnels. I heard creaking sounds as the two of us were carried somewhere parallel to each other with the handcuffs between us rattling. I felt the air get colder and muttering voices part ways as clumping boots of marching guards led us into a small interior. Then the cold metal. The even colder metal clamping around our arms. Clamping around our feet. Clamping around our waists. Pivoting. Whurring. Holding us up vertically……

_It felt strangely familiar……_

As I legitimately woke up, all of those sensations rushed up at my heel and screamed at the back of my head in fifteen seconds flat. I winced, stirred, and opened my black eyes….only to have my shades missing.

And the light stabbed my optics, so I immediately shut them again without so much as registering the bright reality in front of me.

I clenched my teeth and squirmed from where I was hung. I felt about and realized that my limbs were still in tact. I couldn't tell if I was burned anywhere. All my nerves seemed to be working. I felt the cold metal pressing up against my back through my black tanktop and up against my legs through my lower fatigues. My long black hair was loose around my shoulders. My bandanna must have fallen loose from the explosion or something…..

I flexed my left wrist. Beyond the metal clamp that held it to the table, I felt the handcuffs still there. I stretched my metal fingers out and felt a pair of petite fingers hanging against them. I concentrated and extended a thin stream of smoke across Jinx's limb. I felt the handcuffs attached to her wrist still.

_Why hadn't they severed us??_

I felt down further. Her limb seemed in tact. As did her body. From the heavy way in which she was hanging against her own metal slab, I assumed she was either asleep or just waking up. There didn't seem to be any major damage to her skin or flesh. Her clothes stolen from the rusted truck way back when were still on.

I was a little surprised with my relief at learning of her 'safety'.

"Must you feel her up so? Be a gentleman for once, Titan…."

"……"

I dropped my curtain of shape-shifting smoke off of Jinx's form. I crept the murk across the floor and felt for feet.

There were five pairs. Two pairs were in one corner of the room in line with each other. Another two in an opposite corner.

_Guards……_

The sides of the walls were solid and glossy-surfaced, save for a few shelves at waist level in the rear. In a corner besides a door, there was a conspicuous….'shape'. I couldn't make out what it was…except for something very still and dead. I spread my spatial sense outwards and away from it.

In the center—facing us—was a smaller pair of feet. They were connected to nimble legs and an even nimbler torso of a man leaning his hand casually on his hip. A wry smile. Thin lips.

"Fascinating how you do that. I'm surprised the Titans found your type before we did."

My eyes narrow.

_Who's this guy?_

I gave in. I slowly opened my eyes a tiny crack. It stabbed me deeply, but I did manage to get a sliver of a glance at the figure in front of me. And I instantly recognized him as the fake cop with the laser targeting weapon back in Blue Pine…

"Unfortunately….I'm not the one who performs recruitment for the Headmistress," Damien Darhk's voice said. "That's her own department. And—I have to admit—she's done a good job…."

A beat.

His head pivoted to grin at Jinx's figure.

"….for the most part."

"………"

"Oh….you do know you're both in the latest H.I.V.E. Academy, right?"

_I had no damn clue. Thanks._

"We had to hurry to get you here. The Headmistress is very paranoid of a certain telepath following dangerously on Jinx's heels. That telepath has a rather……unstable friend. Ever bullied a sissy kid only to find out he has a really bigass, burly brother? Believe me….the Headmistress isn't in the mood of pissing off some of those who are ambulance-chasing that witch you're attached to."

"………"

"I bet you're seeing all of this as a rather unfortunate series of laughable events," the feet of the man paced across the room. "…assuming you're capable of laughing without a voice box. 'Noir', is it? I hear you've been quite a bad boy in the past. Sent the Titans for a run….supposedly to 'protect them' against Slade….whom you killed, I might add. Tsk tsk….quite a sour situation for you to be in now. Especially considering that you're stuck in the paws of the one girl who fought against you across the legendary battlefield of your City one turbulent week during July Fourth." A beat. "Intrigued? I always do my research."

_Everyone's got the Internet these days……_

"Care to open your eyes? It's rude not to look at a man's face when he's talking to you.

_Ha ha……_

Silence.

His feet shifted to a stop. He faced me.

"……"

"……"

"You're rather comfortable, Mr. Titan."

"……"

"You do realize that H.I.V.E. only has interests in Jinx, right?"

"……."

"What happens to you matters very little," his feet shuffled over. "But we can't just toss you away as it is. You see…," his fingers traced the metal links of the handcuffs. "….there is still a liability here. Not that the sensor to these things are any threat to us…but rather we can _exploit_ this liability. Whenever there's a dramatic explosive lying around just ready to go off in some purely terrorist fashion….H.I.V.E. loves to leap on it. Looks like we got a double-prize with this witch here. Two peas in a pod. A double jinx….though you're hardly half of it."

_Thanks. You're the first smartass I've met all day._

"Want to say something?"

_Yeah. Where's my sword………?_

I shifted some from where I hung.

Darhk exhaled. He let go of the handcuffs' links and sauntered over towards the far side of the room. There was a rummaging…then a light, sparking sound. He walked back, and as he did so I sensed a blue light stabbing into my optics through my eyelids. And a heated dance in the air.

I felt around his torso with spatial sense, ran up his arm, and felt a small, cold object between his fingers. From the end of the object there was a dancing pulse….of something.

SWIIIIISH-_ZAAAAP!!!!_

A sharp, fiery pain exploded outward from my right shoulder.

I gritted my teeth and hissed out in pain. My body arched against the restraints. My head throbbed down to my burnt shoulder and up again and—

_ZAAAAAAP!!!_ Across my right shoulder blade.

My upper body jerked.

The smell of burnt skin wafted up into my nostrils.

I exhaled and slammed my head back into the metal with a silent howl.

Then….

Panted….

Panted……..

Panted………..

…………………until the second wave of pain hit.

My teeth clenched again. My eyes popped open momentarily (STAB!!) as my head thrashed once…...twice….then hung in a huge exhale of numbness drenching over me like a sheet of ice.

"So….you _do_ feel pain….," Darhk's humored voice uttered close to my face as he waved the electric dagger up and down above my exposed arm's hairs. "That's something for me to take note of. You too…if you even so much as consider any tricks while in our humble abode."

I hissed through my teeth, sweating.

"Heh…..behind every badass there's a back to be broken," Darhk extinguished the pulsing spark of the 'dagger' and walked back across the room to put it on the shelf where he got it. "A little torture never did anybody bad. It grows character, ya know?"

I panted. I swallowed.

_Don't talk to me about 'torture'…………_

It was then and there that a stirring took place to my left. Jinx was finally coming to.

"Nnnngh…."

"Whoop…..showtime," Darhk's body shuffled over to a corner. His hand picked pressed into something and he spoke into the wall….perhaps an intercom. "Summon the Headmistress. Jenkins is coming to."

"_Aye, sir."_

-click-

He shuffled over again.

"The Headmistress is rather….queasy of watching people in pain," Darhk said…facing me, I guess. "You and I will talk later."

I took a deep breath.

_I bet we will._

"Where…..where are we?" Jinx's head tilted up. A beat. "Oh…..naturally."

"Been a long time, witch."

"Damien Darhk. Are you the Headmistress' errand boy now?"

"Proud of it."

"I thought you had to be older than that to grovel before the old coot."

"I've earned my age, Miss. Jenkins. And I assure you….it wasn't through groveling."

I flinched my right arm where the searing pain was still slowly fading….

"Ghost Boy…..you okay??"

I glared over at her through closed eyes.

_What do you care?_

She was silent.

I wanted to open my eyes….but I decided not to.

"Cat got your tongue, Jinx? Don't mind the pun. I just didn't expect two mutes to look over today is all."

"I'm not here to talk to you…," the girl grumbled.

"Then what are you here for?"

"I'll wait till the Headmistress is here. I have nothing to say to you."

"Oh, certainly you have plenty to say to me. I must say….you were rather loud when you fell into the 'net'."

"………"

"Honestly….I don't know what importance such a putrid apartment complex in the middle of the shitty surface City has….but it was enough to make you pause for our concussion mines to deal their blow."

"………"

"It's interesting. You are worth so much to H.I.V.E. You were once worth so much to Slade. Both Psimon and Dagger sought to control you. And now the Titans and half of the police department from their shiny bright City are chasing your heels. But why? For such valuable blood….you're nothing but a shadow, Jinx. An accidental twist of fate. Does that ever dawn on you?"

"…….," Jinx stirred and I sensed a familiar, dangling object from her neck. "Why didn't you take it away from me?"

"Take what?"

"When you took the Titan and I in. Why didn't you confiscate my damn pendant? It's not like it's _my_ sisters on the thing!"

"For the love of god, girl….why didn't you toss it away yourself?"

"……"

"Heh…..always an enigma."

"I won't let you dictate to me who or what I am," Jinx spat.

"Girl…..not even you know that."

"…….."

I bit my lip.

_Schwissh!_

Overtly proper footsteps marched into the small room.

Jinx caught her breath.

Darhk's feet turned to face the side next to two of the guards.

"Alas…alas…..," an elderly, female voice uttered.

Jinx grumbled. "Don't 'alas' me, you walking fossil!"

"Hmmm……the same Jinx as ever."

Footsteps.

_Schwissh!_

Darhk stepped back.

The headmistress' presence came forward to the center of the room and stopped uncomfortably close to us two.

"I see you captured them in one piece, Damien," the woman said. A pause. "Or two pieces."

"Forgive the rocker-haired 'twin' joined at Jinx's hip. But I do believe you ordered me not to sever the handcuffs. So…he's alive at the moment."

"I see……….he is mute, correct?"

"You have first access to the research database, not me."

"Hmmm."

"He's done nothing….," Jinx grumbled. "You don't need the Titan."

"On the contrary, he's done a lot," the woman's voice said. "He's protected you…given you flight…helped you escape countless obstacles…and practically saved you from a ravenous gang in the mean streets of Bludhaven above. Now how could such a selfless, unwitting hero have done all that while attached to you by handcuffs without your prior knowledge of the possibility?"

"……."

"The truth is, I know you, Jinx. I trained you. I breathed in you life when you were part of H.I.V.E. I know the way you work. I knew that you would be coming here….and I knew that you would be using him. But I guess it's only typical. Life lately has taught you that exploitation is the better half of fate."

"You don't know anything about fate…," Jinx's voice murmured. "Or life. The only thing you breathed into me was hatred."

"For what? For H.I.V.E.? What did you come back here for, Jinx? Do you possibly have any idea what you could be inviting into this place? Don't you know that Psimon desires the ruination of not only the Academy but all your former classmates and the Headmistresses and Headmasters themselves?"

"You tell me why I'm here. You 'know me', right?"

"…….at least I thought I did."

"I've changed. I'm not the little terrorist you trained."

"Is that so? What have you become now, Jinx? You were once a rogue. Then you were an Apprentice of Slade and an accomplice of Dagger. Then you were a prisoner. And now…what are you? An ambiguous crusader?"

"What does it matter who or what I am?"

"It does to H.I.V.E. and it does to me!"

"Why?!?! Why did you try so much to capture me?! Why not just kill me?! Is it the handcuffs? You gonna use me for one more little job?"

"Dear Jinx….you have no idea……no inclination as to what you are or who you are……"

"How in the Hell can I?"

"……."

"How can you expect me to know anything after what you and Psimon did to me? What does it matter anyways? Here I am. You got me. Now stop lingering around the subject matter and tell me what you're going to do!"

"…….."

Silence.

The feet of the headmistress shifted. An arm waved through the air.

"The boy. His shades….."

Feet of a guard clomped over. I sensed him picking something up off the shelf not far from the torture device. It was handed to the headmistress. Her frail fingers drifted over along with her tapping feet. I felt the cold plastic of the shades sliding up and over my face and between my ear lobes.

I clenched my jaw and slowly fluttered my black eyes open.

Things came into comfortable focus. And thus I saw the uncomfortable situation. The metal table stretched my legs out like a medieval rack at rest. The room was claustrophobically small with plated hexagons of gold criss-crossing to form the walls. Two guards in bright yellow armor and dark helmet visors held laser rifles at ready. Damien Darhk, the young miscreant of a H.I.V.E. executive, stood casually in the corner looking too handsome for his own good. The headmistress—a surprisingly tight-skinned old thing of graying hair, graying eyes, and graying fingers stood in the center looking at us both….but mainly me.

"I thought you may want to have your black eyes back, Mr. Titan," she said.

My gaze narrowed.

Jinx stammered: "Wh-What for?"

She nonchalantly snapped at the guards while speaking: "So he could withstand the last thing he ever sees."

Kl-Klack!

The guards' rifles locked.

Four separate laser pointers converged on the left part of my chest.

The guards' fingers curled around the triggers.

I suddenly realized then and there that I had gone for twenty-four hours on the run without a restroom break.

I struggled in vain inside my restraints. I gritted my teeth and sweat. I thought of teleporting out of the rack, but I wasn't so sure I could do it in time or without causing Jinx and the handcuffs to separate…

"Fire on my mark…"

Jinx gasped. "N-No! Wait!"

"Ready….."

"P-Please….I…I-I…."

"Aim…."

I panted. I glanced at Myrkblade on the table across the room. With my last waking thought I considered shooting a carpet of murk out to engulf it and--

"Fi—"

"NO!!!!" Jinx shouted, her whole body aglow in pink fury.

The Headmistress raised her hand.

The guards lowered their weapons.

I held my breath.

Darhk smirked.

"…….," Jinx took a deep breath. "Don't kill him. Don't kill him, please….."

"What use is he to you? He's certainly no use to us. That makes him twice as pointless an existence," the Headmistress spoke. "Is it the bomb? Do you not want it to go off somewhere without your personal provocation?"

"No….wh-who cares about the bomb. I never started caring about the bomb," Jinx panted. "Just….don't kill him…please…."

"Because….," the Headmistress raised an eyebrow. "……..he is your friend?"

"No!!!" Jinx growled. Her voice reached a high-pitch that rang in my ears. "Because he is my **nemesis**!!"

"……….," I slowly started breathing again. My head tilted her ways a bit. My eyes were round under the shades.

Jinx summoned strength to add: "You don't _kill_ my nemesis! The nemesis is all I have left! After all these years….th-this kid has been the only person who truly respected me in b-battle. Everyone else simply _used_ me! Like y-you use me. Like Psimon used me. Like Slade and Dagger used me. But Ghost Boy here…..he fights me simply for what he believes in. And though I-I may not know what it is, what he b-believes in has got to be enough for the two of us. B-Because I lost all that I believed in long ago…"

Silence.

I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed against the metal rack.

Kl-Klack!

"….," I opened my eyes.

The guards were aiming again.

"So…..you would cooperate with your former Headmistress……if I were to guarantee his sudden and painful death otherwise?"

A beat.

Jinx swallowed.

I looked at her.

My eyes were thin.

_Don't……_

The pink witch took a deep breath.

_Don't do it……whatever it is……_

"I w-will cooperate……"

I hung my head.

"……..," the Headmistress nodded. A wave of her hand, and the guards stepped back to their posts by the wall. "Then you will cooperate….by telling me….," she leaned her graying face forward with stern eyes. "………what did you come here for?"

Jinx's cat eyes thinned.

"Red….Aviary…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HIYAAA!!!" Robin flew at Charger with a jump kick.

Charger pivoted and raised his forearm to meet the Boy Wonder's boot with a pulse of electricity.

_ZAAAAAAP!!!!_

"RRRRRAAAUGH!!" Charger twirled and unleashed a steady stream of pearly-blue destruction.

Robin landed, ducked, and backflipped to avoid the stream. He slid across the gravel of the Bludhaven rooftop and ran in a huge circle as Charger unleashed zap after zap of electrical wrath at the Titan leader's heels.

SWIIIIIISH!!!

A four-inch tall Bumblebee fluttered overhead, spun around, and aimed two tiny zappers at a pursuing, full-sized Raven in mid-air. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!!!" ZZTTT!! ZTTT!!!

Raven blocked the electrical pulses with two wrists of streaking, black energy. She clenched her teeth as her eyes glowed a bright gray. "Who are you calling 'big'??" She flicked her wrists. Two A/C units lifted off of the rooftop, ripped free of their foundations, and soared collectively at the size transfiguring Academy Student. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!"

SWIIIIISH!!!

Bumblebee performed a barrel roll in the air, twirling through the volley in a nimble dive. She bulleted towards Raven with both zappers pointed outward. But instead of firing, she shrunk down to the size of four centimeters and ripped through the fabric of Raven's hood. On the other side, she returned to a four-inch form and back-kicked the dark girl in the back of the head. "HIYA!!!"

THWAP!!!

"OW!!!" Raven stumbled forward.

Bumblebee spun, slammed her two zappers together, and produced a huge bolt that she launched at the sorceress' feet.

BLAM!!!

"!!!!" Raven fell down hard on her butt. THUMP!!!

"HA!!" Bumblebee fluttered overhead with her tiny arms folded. "Get a broom, sweetheart!"

Raven snarled from where she lie. "Get a casket…."

FWOOOOOOM!!!!

Two huge fountains of telekinetically congealed gravel shot up and converged on the villainous pixie. CRSSSSHKKK!!!

"NNNGH!!" Bumblebee groaned as she was surrounded by a gray-black mold.

With her cloak billowing, Raven floated up and over towards the floating sphere of chaos. She stuck her hand in, grabbed the doll-sized Bumblebee, and yanked her out. The gravel flew to the ground as Raven held the tiny villain before her and uttered: "I should have brought a glass jar instead of handcuffs."

Suddenly, a frowning Bumblebee looked up at her giant captor. "You should have brought your foot up here so I could shove it into your mouth for you!!!"

FLASH!!!! Bumblebee transformed back into her full-sized body. FWUMP!!! Her sudden weight forced Raven to the ground.

"Ugh!!" Raven stumbled.

"HA!!" Bumblebee nimbly leapt off Raven like a springboard and flipped into a perfect landing, upon which she aimed at Raven in half-reverse with her zappers.

ZZZZZZT!!!

CLANG!!! Robin dove in suddenly, deflecting the energy discharge with his twirling staff. He ran straight towards the yellow and black outfitted student.

"Hey!" Bumblebee blinked. "I thought you were fighting---"

Robin took a breath and leapt straight up, revealing to Bumblebee's vision the form of Charger across the way stupidly launching a bright stream of electricity that was meant for Robin but was instead throttling down upon her.

ZAAAAAAAP!!!!

"NNNGH!!!" Bumblebee shook and convulsed from the waves of electricity throbbing full her. She dropped down to her knees, smoking and groaning.

Charger winced. "Dammit, Bee!! Look where I'm not looking, will ya?!?!"

"HIYAAA!!" Robin somehow had circled around and was diving at him again.

"YOU!!! SUFFER A HEART ATTACK ALREADY!!!" Charger produced a pure whip of electrical bolts which he lashed up and down, left and right, forward and back at the incoming Boy Wonder.

Robin nimbly dodged the chain-link-electrical pulses. Impacted spots on the rooftop and metal antennae around him smoldered from Charger's wrath. At the last second, the Boy Wonder dove forward with his staff lunging. "RRRGH!!!"

THWUMP!!

"Oof!!" Charger backed up from being struck in the gut.

Robin swiftly uppercutted with the outstretched end of his metal rod.

Charger shot his head to the left and dodged at the last second.

"!!!!" Robin struck nothing but air.

"This'll boil your blood," Charger smirked and gripped the tip of Robin's staff.

_ZAAAAAAP!!!_

Hot electrical juices ran through the metal weapon down into Robin's gloved hands.

"Rggghhh!!" Robin convulsed and dropped the rod. CL-CLANK!!! He stumbled back, waving smoking gloves. The rubber insulation had protected him some, but now he was missing his trademark weapon of choice.

"Sorry to emasculate you…," Charger smirked from behind his helmet.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You are so going to die."

"Oooh…feisty….," Charger flexed his suited muscles and danced forth electrical sparks down his arms. He stomped menacingly towards Robin. "….you have a lot of gall for some punk nobody inside a clown suit. Do you realize what I am? I'm a god compared to you. I'll be melting your intestines to mush with hot electricity while you fling flimsy knuckles at me!"

"Keep giving the lecture….," Robin began pacing himself in a bouncing, fight-ready stance. Back and forth. "I'm used to it."

"Are you now? HA!" Charger grinned and produced a huge throb of heated electricity. "The only way you could possibly touch me is if you were faster than electrons themsel—"

THWOOOSH—WHAP!! "WA-TAAA!" WHAM!!! "HAAA!!" TH-TH-TH-THAP!! "WAAA-HAAAAIII!!" THUNK!!!!

A fist to Charger's stomach, an uppercut to his chin, four forward lunges into his ribs, and a backhand to his right cheek sent the Academy student falling hard to the rooftop five feet away in three and a half seconds.

Robin stood frozen in his backhanded strike just long enough for his mind to catch up with his body. Knuckles and joints cracked as he rested at the end of a two meter long ravine formed by his shifting feet in the gravel.

"Nnnnngh….," Charger was out like a lightbulb. The sparks danced around his torso a few last times and died out.

"……..," Robin glared down at him. "Get a higher voltage."

"Hey!!!"

Robin flinched. He spun around.

Bumblebee was back up again, despite the singed ends of her hair. She hovered above the edge of the buildingside a few feet away and aimed her zappers at the Boy Wonder.

"You do realize that I'm going to have to beat you up twice as bad for doing that to my classmate, right?!?!"

"Yeah….," Robin produced a fan of throwing discs between his gloved fingers. "…you do that."

Bumblebee snarled. She aimed. She---_ZZZZT!! ZZZZT!! ZZZT!!_

Robin started running. He streaked across the length of the building, jumping and leaping the explosive energy bolts at his feet.

Bumblebee flew parallel to him, firing shot after shot from her zappers. _ZZZZT!!! ZZZZT!!_

Robin returned fire with expertly swung discs. FWIIISH! FWIIISH! FWIIISH!

Discs and energy pulses flew between the two streaking combatants, a few of the projectiles exploding in contact between them and creating a wall of explosive chaos. Pieces of the rooftop were burned and ripped apart in a solid line down the middle. The air filled with miniature thunder.

At the end of the dash, Robin was out of discs.

Bumblebee however---

_ZZZTT!! ZZZT!! ZZZT!!_ Bumblebee gritted her teeth as she fired volley after volley.

Robin dodged left, dodged right, ran up a metal smoke stack, backflipped off it, and fired a grappling hook at Bumblebee while upside down.

THWIIIIISH-TH-TH-TH-THWAP!!! The cord looped about and wrapped around Bumblebee tightly.

"NNNGH!!" she had but a moment to struggle--

Robin flipped, landed in a crouch while holding the grappling hook launcher, and tugged down hard on the device.

_YANK!!!_

The cord pulled taut, vibrated, and--

"AAAAAAAAAAUGH!!" Bumblebee arched downward over Robin's head and slammed into the wall of a metal A/C unit on the far side. CLANG!!

Robin took a breath…and yanked again.

SWOOOSH-THWAP!!!

Bumblebee was jerked down hard onto the gravel of the rooftop.

"Nnnghh," she moaned and got up on her feet dizzily.

Robin stood up, panting, and marched towards her with fists clenched. "We can end this….this fight. You can just tell us where the Academy is. We'll arrest you…and take you to a jail _outside_ of Bludhaven. Do you understand me?"

Bumblebee winced and struggled to hold up her zappers. "I am….the Headmistress'…..most valuable student!!"

FWOOSH!! Raven touched down behind Robin, her eyes glowing. "Then maybe you've learned when is the time to hand in your assignment and call it quits."

Bumblebee frowned. Her zappers glowed stronger as did her fragile resolve. "Or maybe….I should know better than to be intimidated by punk vigilantes such as yourselves!!" She flew up into the air with a growl and menacing flutter of her 'wings'.

Robin sweatdropped. "Raven?"

"Hmmm?"

"Keep your mouth shut from now on."

"Yes sir."

"RAAAAUGH!" Bumblebee slammed her two zappers together and prepared a huge, burning pulse of energy to launch at the two Titans. "My training has prepared me for twice the likes of you!!!!"

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!!!_

Robin shoved Raven out of the way and barely twirled out of the energy's stream himself.

_ZZZZZT!! ZZZZT!! ZZZZT!!_

Raven backed off with a shield of black energy protecting herself while Robin dodged and dodged and dodged.

"This is my test….," Bumblebee rambled while firing. _ZZZTTT!! ZZZT!!_ "This is my grade!!!" _ZZZZT!! ZZZZZTT!!!_ "And this is your freakin' head on a _platter!!_" ZZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!

A steady stream of zappage flew at Robin's feet.

The Boy Wonder dove forward and slid on his chest. "Ooof!!!"

Bumblebee twirled one zapper and aimed down. _ZZZZT!!_

Robin rolled to the side as the energy pulse flew down at him. In one swift motion he flew his right hand down to his utility belt, produced a gray pellet, and flew it up at the villain.

FWIIIIISH-POW!!!!

_FLASH!!!!_

A huge strobe went off in Bumblebee's eyes.

"Nnngh!!!" she shook her head and saw stars. She dangled in mid air as if on the end of a weakening string.

Robin was jumping up onto his feet in an instant. "Raven!!" he shouted to the dark girl as he sprinted towards Bumblebee. "Jacob's Ladder!!"

Raven lowered her shield, meditated, stretched her fingers into a few poses, and flicked her wrists.

Flash!! A black 'block' appeared beneath Bumblebee.

"!!!" Robin grunted as he leapt up.

He bounced off the 'block'.

Raven flicked her other wrist.

Flash!! Another block higher up.

Robin bounced off it, upwards.

Flash!!

Up another.

Fl-Flash!!

Up two more.

"NNNNNGH!!!" Robin spun in mid-air once he was at Bumblebee's level, stretched his metal-tipped boot out, and--

**WHAP!!!**

Bumblebee literally twirled three times in the air from her cheek's impact with Robin's foot. With a groan she plummeted hard to the rooftop below. THWAP!!!!

A beat.

Plop!!

Robin landed in an agile manner beside Bumblebee's unconscious figure.

And everything was quiet.

"…………," Robin exhaled. He relaxed. He turned to face Raven.

"………….," Raven stared.

"………….," Robin blinked under his eyemask. "You can talk now."

"Think she'll get extra credit?"

Robin smirked. "Not according to my curriculum." He produced a pair of handcuffs and tossed them at Raven.

Raven caught them. She wandered over and took care of Charger's unconscious wrists.

In the meantime, Robin took care of adequately binding up the silent Bumblebee. "Well done, Raven. We could make good use out of these two."

"They're a little too _unconscious_ to face an interrogation, Robin."

"In time, they'll be awake for questioning."

Raven stared at him across the rooftop. "But do we have 'time'?"

"………..," Robin stared back at her.

Silence.

Both of their communicators went off. Chiming at the same time.

The Titans looked down.

Hands rummaged.

Fingers flexed.

Dual Star Trek sounds.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"_I've got some important news for you, Raven."_

"…….it's Robin."

"_Huh?? Dammit! Only one of you answer at a time!"_

Robin shook it off. "What's your update, Cyborg?"

"_Well……it's potentially an update."_

Robin lifted an eyebrow above his mask.

"_More like a peculiarity, really……"_

"Cyborg, we have no time to waste. Raven and I just got through risking our necks to bag two H.I.V.E. suspects and—"

"_Titan's Tower has been hacked into."_

Raven craned her neck.

Robin's lips parted. "E-Excuse me?"

"_Just what I said, dawg."_

"How do you mean 'HACKED'?!?!""

"_Now calm down, Robin—"_

"Don't tell me to be calm!! Raven and I are stuck here in the filthy navel of Bludhaven, Noir's in the clutches of both an evil witch and god-knows-what-else, and there's a potential of a terrible bomb threat on top of all that!!"

"_Yeah, but Robin! This is helpful!!"_

"How is learning that our computer resources have been torn apart a helpful thing???"

"_That's just it!! There's been no tearing apart!!"_

"…..," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "What??"

Raven walked over and leaned in towards the communicator in his gloved grasp.

"_We're dealing with an expert hacker here, man. In order for him to have pierced through all of my firewalls and protocols, he had to have been dealing some serious punch!! Nobody short of an electronic god could possibly break into the Tower's mainframe following the security beefing I've produced since Terra's betrayal and Slade's framing of Noir! If there was any intent to damage our systems…it'd be more than done by now, man. I'd be talking to you through a tin can at the end of a long, dangling string!"_

Robin slurred: "How do you know there still isn't a threat?"

"_Cuz he's been talking to us."_

"Talking to you??" Raven blurted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, and Tempest stood huddled around the Main Computer of the Tower. Cyborg was at the seat. The others formed a half halo around his back. The computer monitor displayed a DOS prompt with blinking, green text against the blackness.

"Yeah….he calls himself 'J'. He seems pretty cool."

"_Pretty cool?!?! Cyborg, he's a hacker!!"_

"Robin….hear me out some," Cyborg spoke into the communicator. "Is it true that you've lost track of Noir and Jinx?"

"…………"

"Robin??"

"_How did you know that???"_

"I didn't. 'J' did."

"_Then……that means—"_

"He's been following the chase," Cyborg said. "Perhaps even closer than you and 'yours cutie'."

"_Drop dead." _

"_Raven, please……"_

Beast Boy and Starfire giggled.

Tempest rolled his eyes.

"_This sounds too strange to me, Cyborg. I mean……aren't you concerned in the least? This guy has pierced through your firewalls and—"_

"Shhh! Hang on, dawg! He's typing something!"

"_What??"_

The four Titans leaned in.

The green text splashed across the black prompt.

'_Tell Robin that some hives are built in the ground.'_

"……….," Cyborg blinked. "Uhm….hey Robin….didja know that some hives are built in the ground?"

"_Excuse me??"_

The text splashed some more: _'I know where in the ground your friend is. Let me help you, and you can find him.'_

"I….uh…..I think he can help us get Noir back," Cyborg said.

"_Why? Who is he? What does he want?"_

Cyborg typed a string of letters.

A pause.

The Titans waited anxiously.

Then…..

'_I want an end.'_

"He says he wants the beginning of an end."

"_An end to what, exactly?"_

Cyborg typed.

Cyborg waited.

The computer replied.

'_Red Aviary.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The explosion in the prison….the supplication of the escaped villains' weapons and props back to them….the calamitous turn in events that have suddenly made me public enemy number one…," Jinx rambled from where she lay stretched against the metal rack to my left, "……it is all part of a huge pattern. A pattern in which all of fate is tipping in Evil's favor. And Evil in this case desires Destruction. Destruction is aligned with the color Red. Red is splashing across the sky that forms our world's illusionary integrity. Everything that was once considered orderly is about to be turned upside down. For Death is turning into a living being…and it will stroke across the land a finger of hate the likes of which this globe's restless spirits has never seen or felt before. This is something that threatens me as much as every other thing that clings to 'Life'….in that 'Life' is the last of our fleeting desires in this cratered world."

Silence.

I felt a never-ending chill running up my metal left arm. A sensation like marching ants in my ear canal or throbbing blood in my brain echoed through my cranium.

_Red Aviary……_

_Red Aviary………_

I clenched my metal fingers into a titanium fist.

I pressed myself back into the metal rack, sighing. Trying to keep from shivering….

"I brought myself here…..I-I brought myself and Ghost Boy here….," Jinx spoke with a bowed head, "….to find answers. To understand why this shift in fate is going on. To find out what Red Aviary is." She tilted her gaze up…a frowning gaze. It fell on the Headmistress' face. "And hopefully then…how to stop it."

Silence.

Damien Darhk yawned. He shook it off and looked at the Headmistress.

The Headmistress stared at Jinx. After a pause, she paced across the room and folded her hands together as she gazed into the walls.

"So this has all been a quest. You and three accomplices."

"????" Jinx leaned her short-pink-head to the side.

"Pulsade….'J'….and Noir of the Titans here…."

_Oh, I'm not really here. Thanks._

I exhaled.

The Headmistress continued: "The four of you….mysterious individuals….half of you total enigmas to us….working together to come to this point. To reach this point in which you've completely and utterly fallen into the Academy's grasp. Regardless of whether or not the Fearsome Five is a threat."

A beat.

She glanced over. "You come looking for answers about Red Aviary……..and I must say……I don't have any," the Headmistress glared.

"……………," Jinx bit her lip.

I fought the shivers more…..and more…..

"But I do know some things," she suddenly smiled at the pink-headed witch. "I know who bombed your cell in the prison."

Jinx's eyes lit up slightly….and at the same time her lips looked weak and apprehensive.

"And I assure you….it isn't who you think it is. It isn't at all….."

Jinx gritted her teeth and hissed: "You have no intention of telling me anything….do you?"

"Is it of no surprise to you, Jinx?" the Headmistress pointed. "All we ever told you is all you ever were. We crafted you with our very will. Even though Psimon had planted seeds of subversion in you from the beginning, you were made to do only what we wanted and be that which we wanted you to be. I do not know what you expected to get from us by coming here….but all you can be guaranteed of is a true return to your roots. For now we have acquired the power to reconstruct fragile young minds without Psimon's mutant strength."

"Really now…..?"

"Indeed," Damien Darhk suddenly spoke up with a smirk and a folding of his arms. "My specialty, actually. A little bit of pain…a little bit of more pain…….and….oh yeah……pain." He winked. "Just about anyone can be conditioned into pledging full and utter allegiance to The Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination. How else do you think we got Bumblebee to convert toward our cause?"

Jinx made a strange face.

So did I.

_Bumblebee??_

"Who's Bumblebee??"

"A spy…," the Headmistress quietly grumbled. "Sent in by some unknown force to undermine H.I.V.E. operations worldwide. The same person who bombed the prison tipped us in on the new girl's loyalties. I gave Bumblebee then to Damien here….and soon we had a model student on our hands."

"Gee….you must be proud," Jinx sneered.

"We always are," the Headmistress half bowed. "And….you know….there was a time when you were too."

"Sorry if I have a different one-track-mind," Jinx said.

"One Track Mind indeed," the Headmistress folded her arms. "Didn't you ever give it a thought that your suicidal mission into Bludhaven would end up only in your capture at our hands?"

"……."

"Didn't it dawn upon you that desperate measures would need to be taken to assure you of acquiring whatever ludicrous information you desire?"

"……."

"Jinx….," the Headmistress sighed. "You disappoint me. I never thought I'd have to recondition you _again_…..but now it seems twice as necessary. If it isn't necessary to hammer out your personality and memories….then maybe your _resolve_ should take some tweaking too."

Suddenly….a Cheshire cat grin lit the air.

Damien did a double take.

The guards shifted nervously.

Headmistress' eyes narrowed.

My shivers left me as I felt a shift in the room. Like a cloud descending. My breath left me.

Jinx continued smiling. Jinx said….: "Nothing needs tweaking, Hagmistress. For your information, I did have a backup plan for getting the information I wanted."

"Oh?" the old woman leaned her head to the side. "And how do you plan to do that?"

"By kicking the ever-living fecal matter out of every brain-carrying bag of meat in this stuffy school!!" She giggled with a pink kiss blown across the room. Then, with her head tilted back, she dramatically cackled: "Pulsade!!! Now!!!"

There was a hauntingly familiar shimmer of light in a column across the room. It was for a split second, but it made me gasp and do the wise thing. And the wise thing was closing my eyes shut underneath my shades as soon as humanly or inhumanly possible—

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

"Augh!!"

"Nnngh!!"

"Rgggg!!"

"What the—"

All four guards struggled as they were blinded by what felt like to me—even under my secure eyelids—to be a reasonably large explosion of light. With my spatial sense I felt the conspicuous, 'dead shape' hidden in the corner of the room suddenly become animated. And in becoming animated, it threw itself upon the guards with nimble ferocity. There were flinging arms, spinning feet, a pivoting torso, and long, silky hair trailing behind two tight shoulder blades.

FWOOSH!!! WHAP!!! THWACK!!! SMACK!!

"Ugh!!"

"Argh!!"

"Ooof!!"

I peaked out from under my eyelids. Sure enough, I saw the blonde assassin acrobatically at work. Pulsade was twirling herself between armed guards like a homicidal ballet dancer, smashing her limbs into each man's gut and removing their weapons through crushing blows to their wrists and upper arms. No single bullet had a chance of being launched by the time she was practically rolling over one thug at a time and slamming her ferocious palm into many an unsuspecting face, complete with a finger-charged pulse of light to further blind the victims.

FLASH!! FL-FLASH!!!

Her hand smashed through two of the helmet visors as she leveled the thugs to the ground. Once all four had collapsed, she spun around, pulled a shotgun out of a holster hanging against her back, twirled the weapon, pumped it, and aimed it at the forehead of the Headmistress, who had collapsed dizzily in Damien Darhk's arms.

I panted.

Jinx was smiling.

Damien somehow managed to fight off some of the stars in his eyes, and now he was reaching into his pocket for something—

_Plunk!_

The cold shotgun barrel rested against his forehead.

"That'll be enough pissing around for one day, smart arse," her blue eyes coolly thinned over a deadly smirk. "Don't move a bloomin' muscle."

Damien sweated.

The Headmistress dizzily panted in his grasp. "Pulsade….you…….you were there the whole time!!!"

"????" I glanced confusedly between Jinx and the blonde assassin.

The Headmistress continued to sneer: "You damnable spectre!! You were tagging along the two rogues invisibly the entire time!!"

"Don't mind me for throwing a spanner in the works," the shotgun toting Pulsade winked. "But Jinx the minx here was only bound to get her pretty head captured, Titan or no Titan. In fact…getting captured was the essential plan of getting here to begin with. So we had yours truly tag along so that I might make my introduction just as soon as you showed that—blast it all—you _do_ know a bit about Red Aviary! Well, this should lead to some fancy chatter after all, shouldn't it?"

The Headmistress clenched her teeth.

Damien couldn't help but smirk. "Bravo….'lass'."

WHAM!!! Pulsade kicked him in the neck.

"Oof!!" He fell back.

The Headmistress was left alone, seething on her knees.

"All of my children….all of my best students….why must you turn against me?!?! I made you who you all are!!!"

"Maybe because you're a daft pillock of a bird!!"

"…………….," the Headmistress' eyes narrowed.

Jinx cackled from where she was shackled: "She means you're a stupid bitch!!!"

Damien laughed…then coughed and wheezed on the floor.

The Headmistress frowned.

Jinx glanced over at me….suddenly realizing the look of astonishment on my face.

"Sorry…," she blushed cutely. "But after getting out of prison so soon….you think I'd give up on hanging around with my girlfriend for even a second?"

I simpered.

"Yeah….so I guess it was a 'triple jinx'," she shrugged. "Face it. If you knew Pulsade was there the whole time….would you have fought so hard to help me get here?"

"…………"

"We needed you, Ghost Boy," Jinx said. She looked at Pulsade with a smile. "We needed him!"

"Off your bike, love," Pulsade grunted. With a pivot of her hips she agilely kicked her left foot high and smashed the computer console on our metal rack. C-CRUNCH!! "Let's just interrogate this gray-haired dip stick for now."

The shackles holding Jinx and I to the beds unlocked. The two of us slumped to our knees, rubbing our wrists. We stood up dizzily…gaining our balance and strength. Jinx paced us over so that we were behind Pulsade while facing the humiliated H.I.V.E. leader and cohort. I reached a flesh hand over and gathered Myrkblade and its sheathe off of the shelf. I slid it over my shoulder and glanced anxiously over at the two girls who….well…still had me captive.

_At least I'm not __**doubly**__ captive anymore……_

I exhaled.

My right hand clenched.

_When will they free me already??_

Pulsade resumed aiming her shotgun at the gray lady's skull.

My black eyes narrowed.

_And what can I do to prevent a total slaughter here……?_

"Do you know what death is, Headmistress?" Pulsade asked. "And I don't mean the mass-produced kind like that which you so love to proliferate across the globe. I mean actual…true….death."

"…………"

Pulsade went on: "It is the exact opposite of light. The complete absence of warmth and energy. When you die…you become nothing more than Nothing itself. You are but a dream that some invisible figment woke up from and sighed itself into oblivion."

Kl-Klack!

She pressed the shotgun to the Headmistress' chin with emphasis.

"And you will bear witness to exactly that in thirty seconds if you don't start talking."

"What is there to talk about?" the Headmistress glared. "You were here to listen to what I had to say to Jinx."

"And that is--?"

"There is nothing to say," the Headmistress spoke. "I'm surprised you don't know more about Red Aviary than I do. Things are horrifically obvious in this world. You don't need a secret organization to understand it all."

"I know what Jinx said…," Pulsade uttered. "And I believe in her whole heartedly. But I still have one thing bothering me." The assassin's blue eyes narrowed. "Red Aviary….it is not made manifest in an idea, a spirit, or an element. But rather…it centers around a person, doesn't it?"

"…….."

"Red Aviary has a name. An identity. And a motive," Pulsade spoke. "Red Aviary has a lot of hate. And she or he is on a mission of blood to quench such hate. But what I need to know is….who? Who is the person? Just like you said….the answer must be obvious. But you must forgive my pink-haired mate and I. It's been a long time since we've……attended _class._"

The Headmistress smirked. "I can't tell you who Red Aviary is embodied by….but I can tell you who must suffer the quenching of the hate."

"Who??"

A beat.

The Headmistress' eyes wandered over…..and settled on me.

I blinked.

"Him….," she breathed. "Him and the five or six others…."

Pulsade's eyes narrowed in suspicious confusion.

But Jinx's cat eyes were wide. She murmured: "The T-Titans??"

The Headmistress slowly nodded.

I got at touch of the chills again.

"Why the Titans?" Jinx stammered.

"Because they were always the only birds in the cage."

"……….."

Pulsade flinched a bit as I walked forward and stood between the two girls and the grounded H.I.V.E. leaders. I knelt down, forcing Jinx to lean halfway with her right hand outstretched. Staring firmly, I reached my flesh hand out and forced the Headmistress to stare me through the shades. I frowned and mouthed: _'When?'_

"………"

'_When??'_

The Headmistress took a deep breath and said: "Soon, Mr. Titan. Soon. Your friends will face their past. And your friends' past will face you with such….such wrath. It's not a real concern of mine what happens to the Titans…as long as it happens to the Titans only." Her gaze lifted up. "H.I.V.E. needed protection from Red Aviary. That's why we had a good ally of ours bomb the Prison. So we could free Jinx. So that she could come back here. So we hopefully have a chance to reach out to her. Or else reprogram her."

Jinx frowned.

The Headmistress looked at me again. "But I can see that's only a folly, now. Everyone is subject to Destruction, Mr. Titan. But you, sir….you are on the front lines."

I clenched my jaw.

"Soon, Titan…," the Headmistress hissed. "The bird cage shall be bathed in crimson. But not all the pieces of the puzzle are complete yet." She smiled. "After all….In order for the Sky to turn red, the Earth must bleed."

"……," I raised an eyebrow.

Jinx and Pulsade were silent.

And then……a chuckling sound.

"Heheheheheheheh!!"

I stood up and glanced over.

Jinx and Pulsade turned.

The Headmistress groaned.

"Heheheheheheheheheheheh!!" Damien Darhk was convulsing hysterically on the cold floor.

Pulsade frowned. "Okay, wanker….," she aimed the shotgun at him. "Off with your bloody head—"

Jinx held her left hand up. She walked over, dragging me. "What's so funny?"

"Heheheheheheh!!!"

"What do you know??"

Damien coughed, sat up against a wall, wheezed, and looked up at the three of us….smirking. "You're all so full of shit. 'Red Aviary'. 'Red Sky'. 'Bleeding Earth'. How insane are you people?? Life is too complex as it is! Stop throwing in useless, prophetic garbage and iconography!!" He coughed and hacked some more.

"You know nothing of the threat here….," Jinx grumbled. Her eyes were a hot pink as she growled and gestured: "Something dangerous is looming on the horizon. Yes, it's something we can't quite put our finger on. But it's real! As an agent of fate, I can feel and taste it! As an expert assassin of the street, Pulsade here has heard of it!!"

I ran my flesh finger up and down my metal arm. The shivers were gone at the moment.

_The dream………_

I bit my lip.

_What is fate trying to tell me??_

"And I tell you what….Red Aviary is the least of your problems….," Damien smiled.

"And just what is, Mr. Darhk??" Pulsade glared.

He winked. "Try the Fearsome Five for one."

"……….."

"………."

"………."

And on cue….

_**BOOOOM!!!! **_

_**RUMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

The entire underground facility shook.

Jinx gasped and fell off balance, taking me down to the ground with her.

Pulsade steadied herself, but had to lower her shotgun to do so.

The Headmistress toppled over, but was caught by Damien—who among all of us was the only one on steady feet.

As if he expected this…..

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RUMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

Random students, guards, and headmasters in the upper tier hallways of the Academy gasped and looked around fearfully. As the shock kicked in, they were powerless to do anything about the strong vibrations ricocheting through the domain. They were also powerless to counteract---

_**CRASH!!!!**_

A huge grenade explosion shattered downward through the yellow-metal ceiling. A few guards flew from the concussion and impacting debris.

A beat.

SWIIIIISH!!!!!

Gizmo floated down on a swift jetpack. He smiled through goofy goggles and readied a salvo of miniature grenade launchers out from the back of his hovering contraption.

"Gather around the flagpole, you scum-munchers!!!"

THWOMP!!!

Mammoth landed beside him and cracked his knuckles. "Sorry if we forgot our tardy slips…"

Guards shouted, pointed at the intruders, and gathered in a strong phalanx of six gun-toting defenders. They lined up in the far side of the hallway and aimed their laser rifles at the two--

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!!"

_**STOMP!!!!!!**_

Neutron leapt down from the hole and landed barely a few feet in front of the line of guards.

Three men fell at once from the vibration of the nuclear villain's impact with the floor.

"RGHHHH!!!" Neutron glowed a bright red aura and swung his fists straight through the guards, smashing them up against the walls and down the hallway like pathetic ragdolls.

Shimmer leapt down nimbly behind Neutron and leaned against his radioactive body in a feminine pose. "Enjoy the new exchange program while you can!"

"Yeah! Ha ha! Good one, sis!" Mammoth cackled.

Neutron grumbled.

Shimmer rolled her eyes. "Shut up, oaf."

"Yes'm."

Gizmo looked up. "Coast is clear. I'm sorely disappointed!"

"You will have your fun, young ones….," Psimon shuffled gracefully down into the crater from the Bludhaven surface. He held his robed arms together and smiled. The flickering, damaged lights of the underground corridor glared off of his glass cranium. "….go forth. Go forth and bring _ruin_ to the Academy!!!" He grinned evilly.

"OOOH-RAH!!!" Mammoth proceeded to charge through four sets of walls, shattering classrooms apart. SMASH!!! SMASH!!! SMASH!!!

Gizmo flew down a hallway, approached a fresh recruitment of guards, and sent them all running with explosive salvos of grenades. BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!

Shimmer twirled and danced her way down another corridor where she found guards aiming and shooting at her. She expertly dodged the ballistics and flung metal pellets at the defenders which—after application of a magically red-orange glow—turned into puffs of flame into mid air and sent the yellow-armored guards running.

Neutron stood still. Seething. Glowing a hot radioactive light while hissing forth steam. He glared over at Psimon through his helmet.

Psimon stood over towards him, concentrated, and manipulated the nuclear fiend through direct telepathy. "You….," he uttered menacingly…but not without a trace of pride. "….take me to the Headmistress."

**STOMP!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!!** Neutron smashed his way down the hallway.

Psimon shuffled casually behind him in his robe.

"Burn and melt all in your way…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WRIIII!!! WRIIII!! WRIIII!!

In the small interrogation room that we were in, an annoying loud alarm went off that was accompanied by an equally annoying pulse of bright-red light.

I couldn't choose between covering my ears or covering my eyes. But I couldn't do either because I was sprawled out on the floor with the weight of a handcuffed Jinx….sprawled out on top of me.

"Leslie! Do something!!" she struggled, entangled with me.

Pulsade gritted her teeth as she tried to maintain her balance. "For the last time….don't call me Leslie in the fiel—"

"Hey girls!!!"

All three of us—er….two of us looked across the room _plus_ myself.

Damien was dragging the Headmistress out through a side door. He smirked and held a remote in a free hand.

"Have yourselves a happy Hell!"

-click-

He pressed the remote.

Schwiish!!

He and the Headmistress were out of the room.

_WHURRRR-CLANG!!_

_  
WHURRR-CLANG!!!_

Two yellow-metal gun turrets lowered down from the ceiling and aimed uncomfortably close at us with huge caliber bullets on ammo chains.

Jinx sweatdropped. "Did he just do that?"

"STOP STATING THE BLOODY OBVIOUS!!!" Pulsade shrieked.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-P-P-PING!!! Bullets exploded off the floor in four chaotic lines toward us.

"EEK!!" Jinx twitched.

I gritted my teeth, grabbed her, and teleported us on a curtain of murk behind the metal rack.

Pulsade dove and rolled safely behind the rack alongside.

We were pinned up behind the structure as bullets flew all around us.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!

Robin swung down onto a buildingtop via grappling hook. He stepped onto the edge and peered down into a fresh, smoldering crater in the center of the old, historic downtown of Bludhaven. Instead of a sewer beneath the ruined street, there was an interior paved with golden, hexagonal wall panels.

Robin scratched his head. He turned and looked behind him.

Raven floated down, flanked by two unconscious bodies encased in black energy talons. She gently lowered Bumblebee and Charger down on the rooftop before stepping over and peering into the Fearsome Five's entrance alongside the Boy Wonder.

A beat.

A blink.

"Right where 'J' said it would be," Raven said. "Though I must say, we're a little late."

"We've been late this entire freakin' chase," Robin gritted his teeth. He whipped out another grappling hook. "Let's go in."

Raven glanced at him. "Do you have any clue what's in there?"

"I'm guessing someone who's a real enemy of H.I.V.E."

"Or perhaps someone after Jinx?"

Robin nodded silently.

Raven folded her arms. "We should proceed with caution."

"Undoubtedly."

"Seriously, Robin," Raven gestured. "There is a telepath invading the Academy."

"A telepath?"

"A very strong telepath," Raven droned. "And in case you've forgotten, whenever you go into battle with a nest of villains possessing a telepath—"

"—always take the telepath down first," Robin nodded. He got his grappling hook ready. "It can't be too impossible a task before us."

'What makes you say that?"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Cuz I'm through with worrying about this mission once and for all."

Raven smirked ever so slightly.

"Leave the two students here. We'll get them after we're back from infiltrating the Academy."

"You mean after we're back and we have _Noir_," Raven emphasized.

"Exactly."

POW-CLANK!!!

Robin swung.

Raven flew.

They converged on the hole.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The hallways were full of rushing, scampering, panicked H.I.V.E. members. Most were running to their battlestations. Guards trucked weapons and grenades and other threatening equipment to take on the split members of the invading, Fearsome Five. Students rushed into classrooms designated as emergency rendezvous points. Headmasters went to the central command center of the Academy.

Throughout this chaos, a limping Headmistress leaned on Damien Darhk's shoulder as he half-carried her down the hallway at a sluggish pace that undermined the adrenaline around them.

"I m-must….get to…..the command post….," the elderly woman panted.

"I'm taking you to where you belong, Headmistress," Damien uttered. "Don't worry…."

"Have our top students ready to defend the interior of the base!" she continued to hoarsely command. "We must not let them pierce into our secure archives!"

"Disruptor and Deuce are already leading a contingent defense squad, ma'am."

"I don't understand it…," the Headmistress muttered through clenched teeth. "You and the rest of the team! Y-You organized the 'netting' project perfectly!! Bumblebee and Charger flushed the two rogues into your hands and you whisked Jinx and Noir away before anyone MUCH LESS Psimon could possibly follow you!! What could possibly have gone wrong?!?!"

"A couple of things, actually," Damien uttered as he lead the Headmistress down the alarm-shrieking hallway.

"???" she looked at him in mid-lip.

"Bumblebee and Charger never made it back to the Academy," Damien slurred.

The Headmistress' jaw dropped.

"They were intercepted by two of the Titans on Jinx's heels. Robin and Raven."

"What?!?!?" the woman gasped.

Damien smirked somewhat. "And furthermore….those two have just entered the H.I.V.E. right after the Fearsome Five. We have seven enemies to deal with now!!"

"How….H-How could you possibly know all this???"

He smiled at her. Teeth showing. "Because Psimon has been telling me for the past hour…"

THWOMP!!!

Damien shoved the Headmistress into a sudden laboratory corridor to her side.

Clamp!!! His fist jammed over a wall panel.

_SCHWIIISH!!_

A glass door slid down and locked the Headmistress inside the laboratory chamber.

"Damien!!!" she howled. Getting up dizzily on her feet, she pounded on the door and shouted out at him in a muffled voice. "Damien!! Let me out!! What are you doing?!?!"

Damien leaned forward against the glass and smiled at her through the transparency. "Look around you, Ma'am. The H.I.V.E. is a weak and vulnerable entity. It has no chance to stand up against Psimon, against the Titans, against Red Aviary, and least of all against those who so often desire to betray it. The Hierarchy is a dream of old coots that are either dead or dying like yourself. It's time for a revolution….a blood transfusion of the central order, if you will. To put it ever so succinctly, your time is over."

The Headmistress shook, her gray face being touched with a slight hue of red. "How long, Damien? How long was _your_ heart bent on deceiving me?? I should have known. I should have seen it in your rebellious, young eyes! You wanted this from all along, didn't you?!?! YOU WANTED ME CAGED LIKE A DYING ANIMAL!!"

"On the contrary, Ma'am….," Damien half-bowed. "The 'animal' died a long time ago. It took but a decade of H.I.V.E.'s lame history for the beast to slay itself. The Founders were spiritually disillusioned spinsters…and like all good religious fanatics, those women created nothing but a bureaucratic quagmire just waiting to crunch into a sinkhole. You were right about your fanciful Red Aviary dreams, Headmistress. For the Sky to turn red, the earth must bleed. And every H.I.V.E. hidden in the worldly underground shall suffer the inevitable drowning of cleansing blood. I'll see to it."

Her eyes widened. "_You_ will?"

"Who's second in command once everyone in this filthy site dies, Ma'am?" Damien smiled.

"……," the Headmistress seethed.

"I must congratulate you on your fate, ma'am," Damien gestured, turned, and walked away. "Your training….more than any headmistress before—the founders even—has produced perfect traitors. And now it shall produce a perfect era. Be proud."

And he was gone.

"Damien…..," she pounded on the transparent door in vain. "DAMIEN!!!!!!"

A haunting chuckle floated back towards her through the hallways.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

More yellow corridors.

More rushing guards.

More chaos.

Smiling, Damien walked casually, slowly through it. He came to a stop in a corner, closed his eyes, and rested two fingers against his temple.

He sought out the voice…..

The voice….

"_Psimon? Oh Psiiiiiiimon."_

"_**Greetings, Mr. Darhk. I must congratulate you on your ruthlessness."**_

Damien's face smiled. His eyes were still closed. Relaxed.

"_If only you knew how good it feels to be complimented by a __**gentleman**__ for once."_

"_**My team and I did not come here to throw down a matriarchy. We came to seek answers from H.I.V.E. and eradicate all that's left of this Academy behind us."**_

"_Do whatever you want to the Academy. Kill all you need to. But H.I.V.E. stays alive. It stays alive to be reborn."_

"_**In your hands, I presume."**_

_  
"Yes. A lovely venture, that."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RRRRAUGH!!!" Neutron ran straight into a volley of lasers that either bounced off his metal body or were absorbed into his radiation field. He held his arms wide and grabbed the huge, metal shields that guardsmen were hiding behind. He 'hugged' the shields, crumpling them into metal wads of mangled metal, and flung them straight at the retreating H.I.V.E. defenders. "NNNGH!!!"

CL-CLANG!!!!

The guards shouted, ran backwards from the nuclear juggernaut, and fired volley after volley of retreat fire.

Neutron growled low and stepped after them.

**STOMP!! STOMP!! STOMP!!**

Psimon shuffled smoothly behind the scene—practically floating. His hands were held together and his face was purely serene as the mental conversation continued.

"_**I must say, Mr. Darhk. I'm glad that you are still in the same selfish state of mind as when we first negotiated over a year ago. It was far easier than I imagined to hone in on your mental signal once Jinx led us in proximity of you and the Academy."**_

"_I know, I know. It all worked out perfectly. Blah blah blah. Is there anything else I can do for you?"_

"_**Tell me where the Headmistress is."**_

"_Sure thing……you intend to rough her up some?"_

"_**I INTEND to speak to her first……"**_

"……………_ohhhhhh. By all means."_

And Psimon smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Pulsade, Jinx, and I hid behind the rack as the bullets ate into the room around us.

It would only be a matter of time before the metal 'beds' gave way and we become swiss cheese.

I winced, glancing at Jinx.

She glanced at Pulsade.

Pulsade nodded. She whipped out her shotgun.

Jinx held a hand of pink.

I clenched my eyes shut….

Fwooosh!!

Pulsade leapt to the far side of the room. BL-BLAM!! She fired her shotgun.

POW!!! One gun turret exploded.

The other aimed at her.

Fwooosh!!

Jinx dove to the other side, dragging me with her. "HAAAA!!" She unleashed a bolt of pink hex.

CRUNCH!!!

The second turret sizzled and died.

Pulsade jumped up and walked across the room over mountains of deflected bullets. She swam her way to the wall console and tried opening the door. An annoying buzzing sound emanated from the automatic door.

"Shite!" she hissed. She used the butt of the shotgun as a crowbar and popped the console open, upon which she attempted to perform an electrical dissection. "There's a terrible row going on outside and we're not privy to it!!"

Jinx stumbled up to her feet, tugging me up with her. "Take your time. Keep cool. Fix it."

"Blasted twists and turns all around us…," Pulsade grumbled as she fiddled further with the wiring. "…I swear….Red Aviary just doesn't WANT to get solved!"

"Fate is inevitable, Leslie," Jinx muttered. She tilted the neck of her jacket out and dropped her dangling pendant down it. She then straightened her nonexistent hair and smoothed her baggy outfit before adding: "…time is but a lazy excuse to lose hope."

"Listen to who's all high and philosophical," Leslie muttered. She nodded her head at me blindly. "I bet you enjoyed talking to a brick wall for the last twenty-four hours and hearing your voice. I know. I was there to hear it."

I shook my head subconsciously.

I couldn't believe it.

_The Highway. _

_The forests. _

_The rapids. _

_The diner. _

_The tunnel. _

_Bludhaven…… _

"………."

_Pulsade was there the entire time?_

"Bloody Titan runs like The Flash," Leslie continued to gripe in the middle of her re-wiring job. "Why couldn't you have handcuffed yourself to Cyborg or Beast Boy or some other slow bloke for the love of beans?!"

"Leslie……"

"Yes, Yes, I know. Chatter on. Chatter on." A beat. "Oh by the way…" She pivoted and kicked Jinx in the shins.

Whap!

"Owwwwie!!" Jinx limped with a pout. "What was that for?"

"Calling Wyldecarde here by my name in the middle of your sleep," she murmured. One edge of her lips curved ever so slightly. "And thenceforth cuddling him overnight."

Jinx's jaw fell. "I SOOOO did not do that!!"

"………"

Jinx glanced at me.

"………," I glanced away.

"!!!!!" Jinx gasped with both hands over her mouth. "Omigod! Omigod! I did do that, didn't I???"

I simpered.

Pulsade yanked a wire out. Crkkk!! "And to think that habit of yours once annoyed the Hell out of me."

"Eeep….," Jinx blushed a firestorm. "I…uh….ahem….l-l-let's focus right now on our quest and worry about amending other th-things later."

"Yes…let's….," Pulsade grumbled.

_ZAP!!_

The console sparked against her fingers.

"Nngh!! Bugger!!!" she clenched her teeth. She whipped out her shotgun and aimed point blanc at the console. "YAAAUGH!!!"

Kl-Klak!

BLAM!!!!!

Sparks flew.

A whirring sound….

SCHWIISH!!!

The automatic door to the thunderous corridor beyond flew open.

Jinx and I finished flinching.

Pulsade took a breath and pumped her shotgun again. "Well…there's more than one way to eat a cat."

"Great!" Jinx beamed. "Ghost Boy and I will chase down the Headmistress. We'll kidnap her if we need to. I'm convinced she's still got the information we need to get on a good foot with things!"

"That makes the two of us…," Pulsade said. She glanced at me. "Well…two and a half."

I glared at her.

"Want to lend a hand, Leslie?"

"You're the best at tracking the Headmistress down at this point," Pulsade pointed. She motioned out the doorway with her head. "Right now, the Fearsome Five and the Headmistress' gun-carrying eunuchs are running amok. I should go slow them down and hopefully buy you the time you need to catch up with the old hag."

Pulsade's cat eyes were round and pleading. "You will be…..o-okay on your own, Leslie?"

"Truly, love," the white-clad assassin smirked some. "Besides…there's more who are giving the Fearsome Five a sore foot as we speak."

"Like….."

"A few of the Titans," Pulsade droned.

My lips parted.

Jinx glanced at me. He glanced at Pulsade again. "They're after him?"

"Naturally. But that's not why they're here. They were tipped off."

"Yeah? By who?"

"Our precious little 'J'."

A beat.

Jinx smiled. "He's not just a computer slob after all."

"Hell no. Now let's make like the wind."

Jinx pounced forward and hugged Pulsade close.

Pulsade rolled her blue eyes and hugged the pink girl back.

I groaned inwardly—my left arm leaning into the embrace. I looked off towards the golden walls.

"Keep safe, girl."

"You too, love. Now less sapping and more hexing."

"Right on! COME, GHOST BOY!!!"

My middle finger was halfway through its extensi--

_YANK!!!_

Jinx giggled as she tugged me down the corridor and into action.

Pulsade shook her head. "I swear…I'm never buying her a pet." And she ducked out and ran the other side of the hallway.


	152. Double Jinx part 9 final

**152. Double Jinx part 9 Final**

ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!! ZAP!!!

Guards fired laser round after laser round at Mammoth.

The red-haired giant growled and ripped off a huge piece of yellow, hexagonal paneling. He held the metal slab up like a shield and blocked the energy bursts as he charged at the gunmen.

"RRRRRGGHH!!!" Once he was ten feet away, he let go of the slab.

SWOOOOSH!!!

It went flying/scraping its way down the hallway and plowing into four guards at once.

"OOF!!"

"Nngh!"

THWOMP!!!

"HA HA HA HA!!!" Mammoth pounded his chest like a certain Kong and flexed his steroid-induced muscles. "That good enough for a hall pass?!?! I can't believe I was once afraid of you guys!!"

"Innocence dies hard."

Mammoth spun. "Huh?"

THWACK!!!

A metal staff flew across his cheek.

"Augh!!!" He stumbled backwards.

Robin spun, gritted his teeth, and slammed his metal-laced boot into the center of the hulking giant's gut.

THWOMP!!!

"SNKKKTT!!" Mammoth's lung capacity hissed out and he toppled back on the ground.

Clamp!!!

Robin stood on Mammoth's belly and shoved the tip of his rod down into the oaf's Adam's Apple.

Mammoth wheezed.

Robin's eyemask narrowed on him. "Where's….Gizmo…."

"Over here, gunkball!!"

Robin turned and looked.

Gizmo hovered fifteen feet down the smoldering hallway. As the ground and walls rumbled, he produced an armament of twenty miniature rockets from the back of his pack that aimed at the Boy Wonder.

"Why don't you make like a good bird and poop off??"

Robin frowned. "Is it true….has the Fearsome Five been established? What do they want from H.I.V.E.??"

"If you stop using my big companion as a crummin' throw rug, I might talk……mucous head!!"

"……" Robin slowly stepped off of Mammoth, his staff held in a cautious stance.

"That's a little more like it…," Gizmo's goggled eyes narrowed. He kept the rockets aimed at Robin as he hovered around in a circle to match the Boy Wonder's movement. "You know what they say, Teen Trash?? You know what they say about being in Rome?"

"Do as the Romans do…," Robin muttered.

"Mammoth and I are up to our necks in Rome," Gizmo uttered. "And Rome is currently using the name 'Psimon'. The big oaf may be loose a few screws, but even he knows just as much as I do that all we can ever hope to accomplish under the wings of a powerful telepath such as Psimon is anything and everything that telepath wants! I'm not quite in the mood of having my gorgeously genius brain turned to mush, thank you very much."

"And for that reason alone….," Robin frowned and gestured with a gloved hand, "…you're allowing him to order you into threatening an Academy full of people?"

"What do you care about this H.I.V.E. scum??"

"They're human lives!" Robin shouted back. "Noir may be our prime reason for going on this mission….but the preservation of lives is the top of our list!! Securing life to the Titans is securing justice!! We did not come to destroy!!!"

"Talk all you crammin' want to about destruction, Bird Bluff!!" Gizmo stuck his tongue out. "You have no clue what it truly is!! What's going on here in this crudhole is everyone and everything running into each other cuz of something fearfully dead looming on the horizon!! Psimon knows it…so he's dragged us here!! And now we can't get out of the net!! Shimmer and Neutron probably already tried…but Psimon lobotomized them with a friggin' thought and they're his puppets to play with!! Well that's not happening to me!! I'm no doofus!! And as long as it doesn't happen to me, it doesn't happen to Mammoth!! The two of us are all we have left!! In the meantime…." Gizmo clicked the rockets into firing mode and produced a targeting sight which he zeroed in on Robin. "….I'm more than happy to watch this barfin' school burn down! It never did me any good except for maybe a few Twinkies in the commissary!!"

Robin got into a ready stance with his staff. "Go ahead, Gizmo. Fire away. Fighting you may not get me any closer to Noir…but it'll get me a little closer to quieting this chaos…"

"Yeah…don't count on it, vomit brains!" Gizmo lowered his targeting sight and craned his tiny neck. "Now, Big Guy! Now!!!"

Robin raised an eyebrow.

**GRIP!!!!**

His eyemask bulged. He wheezed for breath as two heavy arms of Mammoth gripped him from behind.

"Why… aren't….. you…. the….. cutest….. little….. thing…..," the embracing villain sneered.

Robin gasped for air in his clutches.

"Pop his torso off, Mammoth!" Gizmo commanded. He smiled a sneering smile at the Boy Wonder. "You see caped craphead?? It may be small…but Mammoth and I gather in packs! It's the only way to bust heads!!"

Robin hissed. "I couldn't agree more….." With a lasting breath he uttered: "Raven! Now!!"

"Huh??" Gizmo blinked. "Raven???"

FWOOOSH!!!

A black portal opened in the ceiling above and behind Gizmo. Raven lowered down, solidified from her black soul self, and gripped Gizmo in an onyx talon from behind.

"Augh!! Let go of me you stupid jar of pickled estrogen!!!"

"Lovely….," Raven glared over the captured munchkin at Mammoth. "Let go of my bird and I let go of your turtle."

Mammoth clutched Robin in a tighter death grip. "You….You can't tell me to do nothin'!!" the giant's gray eyes thinned. "How about YOU let go of my little pal???"

Robin craned his neck to open his windpipe some. "Mammoth….your sister's Shimmer….right?"

"Shut up!!" Mammoth squeezed. "I didn't say you could speak—"

"Gizmo says she's being brainwashed….b-by Psimon….," Robin wheezed. He sweated and glared at Gizmo across the way. "Isn't that right, _genius?_"

Gizmo frowned. He struggled in Raven's telekinetic grip. "So what if she is? It's not my fault!"

"When in Rome….do as the Romans do….," Robin hissed. "….that involves doing what Psimon says, right? So…where in there do you bail Shimmer out of her lobotomized state?? Huh??"

"Can it!!" Gizmo squealed. "Nnnnghh!!" He grunted as Raven tightened her grip.

"……," Mammoth blinked. "Shimmer is…..being brain-controlled?"

"Only for now, lughead!!" Gizmo struggled. "It's…It's…It's temporary!!"

"Says who?" Raven spoke up. "Psimon's in control of her. Not you."

"But you didn't have any plans to save her….did you?" Robin added.

Gizmo sweated. "I…..It….Jinx….W-We…."

"We're going to….save her…..r-right?" Mammoth muttered. "We're going to save my sis??"

"Y-Yeah! Sure!!…..E-Eventually," Gizmo uttered.

"When??" Raven frowned. "Be specific!!"

"Yeah….when, Gizmo?!?!" Mammoth growled.

"I…..Uh……When….," Gizmo sweated.

"You're a coward, Gizmo….," Robin wheezed. He tilted his head up and barely managed: "He's a coward, Mammoth. He won't save your sister from Psimon. He wouldn't even save you! The only reason you're safe is that Gizmo's been safe so far from Psimon's touch!"

"Man, shut up!!!" Gizmo cackled.

Mammoth was frowning….frowning at Gizmo. "We can't let Selinda be some egghead's toy!! Why didn't you tell me befo—"

"You stupid brick!! I thought you could figure that out on your own by now!! Sweet Stephen Hawkings!! Just how _dumb_ are you?!?!"

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!" Mammoth frowned. FWOOOSH!!! He tossed Robin to the side.

THWAP!! Robin sputtered and coughed on the floor.

Stomp!! Stomp!! Stomp!! Mammoth angrily thundered his way towards Gizmo.

Raven whispered into Gizmo's ear: "Good job, braniac….."

"Why of all the mean, low down, selfish things EVER!!" Mammoth's nostrils flared.

Raven released her telekinetic hold on Gizmo.

PLOP!!!!

Gizmo landed on his butt. He panted and scooted away from the advancing, redheaded giant. "Uhm….," he sweatdropped. "Raven…pretty-please….get me back in that TK-Talon thingy again!!"

"Uh uh," the girl crossed her arms and floated out of the way.

"Promise you'll help my sis out!!" Mammoth growled.

"Hey!! Butthead!! Don't you realize that Psimon would—"

"Did you hear me?!?!?!" Mammoth charged Gizmo. "RAAAUGH!!!"

"YAAAAK!!" Gizmo squealed and pressed every button, switch, and lever on his jetpack device.

SWIIIIISH!! SWOOOOSH!!! BLAM!!! BOOOM!!! PHOOOOM!!!

The two former H.I.V.E. students became a cloud of swinging knuckles, flying rockets, massive shoulder-butting, and explosions.

Raven drifted over to a slowly standing-up Robin.

"Well….that worked like a charm," Raven droned.

"Yeah….," Robin panted, rubbing his shoulder. "That should keep their attention off the rest of H.I.V.E."

"And make our search for Noir easier," raven added.

"Speaking of which….why don't we make haste?"

"We shall…."

The two bird Titans ran down the hallway while the boys went at it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I streaked down a long, yellow corridor, wrist by wrist. I blurred a smoking black trail on the right. She had a pink streak on the left.

"We just need to nab us a Headmistress….," Jinx uttered. "Then you'll be free!! Pulsade and I will take the old fart away and you can just go hug and kiss the Titans or whatever it is you like to do, Ghost Boy! Consider that a promise!!"

"…….," I panted as I ran along with her.

_And just what would they do with the Headmistress??_

WHURRR-CLING!!! WHURRR-CLING!!!

Two of the hexagonal panels in the rooftop rotated and revealed double gun turrets aimed at us.

"Ah Hecate….," Jinx sweatdropped in mid-sprint. "I hate these things."

I bit my lip.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! Bright pulses of energy flew at us.

CHIIIIING!! I whipped Myrkblade out to my right while running.

Jinx glowed her left arm with pink.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

The pulses were upon us.

I gritted my teeth and twirled Myrkblade like a fan in front of me.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!! My side of the wave of energy blasts were deflected into the passing walls.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

At the same time, Jinx flung a huge band of pink energy down the corridor. It caused the pulses to part ways and slam into the ground and ceiling while her hex streaked its way into the leftmost turret ahead of us.

CRUNCH!!!

The device collapsed.

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! The right turret kept firing.

We ran towards it.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!! I deflected with Myrkblade.

We passed on by.

The gun turret.

I stabbed my sword to the right.

CRRRRRRKKKK!!!!

I ripped the gun turret into ribbons. It fell apart, sparking.

Jinx and I rounded a corner.

Another corridor.

Thinner…like a giant hexagonally-shaped passageway. Three guards were positioned fifty feet down the thin hallway. At sight of us, they shouted out and fired volleys of laser fire.

ZAP!!! ZAAAAAAAAP!!!

Jinx and I ducked in mid sprint.

"Speed it up!!" Jinx uttered through clenched teeth. She turned her left hand into a fist. FLASH!!! A blade of magic pink vapor formed off her wrist.

I held Myrkblade out.

The guards fired and fired and fired—_ZAAA-AAAA-AAAAP!!!_

CL-CLANG!! I deflected a few shots.

FLASH!!! Jinx deflected some of her own.

The two guards up front kept aiming. The one in the rear chucked a grenade.

"Fire in the hole!!" Jinx squealed.

FWOOOOSH!! The smoking canister flew. Cl-Clank!! It struck the floor and rolled underneath us.

"Nnngh!!" Jinx streaked right.

"!!!!" I streaked left.

In our blurred sprint, Jinx and I criss-crossed paths. She ran up the right wall of the tunnel. I ran up the left wall. Like a minute hand and an hour hand on a collision course, we converged on the ceiling by sheer momentum alone and were safely out of range of the---_**BOOOOOOM!!!!—**_grenade below.

We burst through the smoke and flame.

Gravity took over.

Jinx kicked off the ceiling.

I kicked off the ceiling.

_Yank!!_

Our handcuffs pulled taut in midair.

We jerked into each other. We spun. We struck our legs out.

THWAP!!!

SMACK!!!

We simultaneously kicked both front gunmen across their cheeks.

TH-THWUMP!! They fell.

PLOP!! We landed.

The third guard prepared another grenade---

FWOOOOSH!!! Jinx and I blurred forward in a crouch.

THWACK!!!

"Snkkktt!!"

We caught the man's neck with our handcuffs' chain. We dragged him between us for ten feet before he tumbled off alone and unconscious.

"Okay….," Jinx's cat eyes blinked. "'Note to self. Throw up later'."

"……," I said.

We swirled around the corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress panted. It was dark. She stumbled through the laboratories. She bumped into tables of scientific equipment that rattled and forced her to wince. She groped her way along metal walls, trying to find a door, an escape hatch, a compartment, a passageway, anything that she could use to get out of her sudden confines.

Her gray hair was tossed and hung loosely around the frame of her brow. Her skin lost some of its tightness in favor of wrinkled anxiety. She panted and groped and more desperately. Sweat running down her upper body. Her tight business suit wearing into a rumbled mess. She broke a heel of one shoe and now she limped her way across the darkness in desperation.

And….

"_**I seeeeee youuuuuu…….**_"

She gasped. She pressed herself up against a random counter. Shivering.

"_**Don't think you can hide from me."**_

She took a deep breath. Her eyes were firm and gray in the darkness.

"_Hello, Psimon……"_

"_**Been a long time since we talked like this. You and I have unfinished business."**_

She frowned into the air.

"_Somehow……I don't think 'unfinished business' is what you're truly here for………"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Slade and Dagger died. Dr. Light's life was extinguished. Our former allies are gone. What ever once tied us together is no more, Psimon."_

The telepath shuffled after a thunderously storming Neutron. The atomic brute was shoving and elbowing his way through throngs of guards and deflecting grenades back down the hallway from which they were launched. The hallway was a bloody echo of endless ringing and ricocheting sounds as the battle-minded behemoth marched in a straight line for the Headmistress' mental signature.

Psimon smiled as he 'spoke' to the Headmistress during his leisurely stroll through the carnage.

"_**The things you speak of Headmistress…….honestly, I am astonished. Such dishonesty. Such hypocrisy. You know that I already am aware of more than you'll ever be."**_

"_Then what do you want from me? What do you want from H.I.V.E.? If you know more than I'll ever know, what do you want from me?"_

"_**Two words, Headmistress. Two words."**_

"_Red Aviary??"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress blinked.

Silence.

"_**Red Aviary………."**_

Her darkened brow furrowed. _"What could someone as powerful as you need to be told about that?"_

"_**Not told, Headmistress. Shown."**_

Her lips parted.

"_Sh-Shown??"_

"_**I need to feel Red Aviary. I need to feel it….through someone. Someone whom it would most easily consume. Someone who has dished out enough evil on the world for the spirit of Death to demand a recompense."**_

The Headmistress clutched a hand to her neck. She gulped.

"_I……I don't understand……"_

"_**Oh, you understand allright. If you breathe, you understand. If you have a heartbeat, you understand. If you had a beginning…then you have an end….and you'll understand. For that reason alone, Red Aviary will manifest itself through your sacrifice. I must know the anguish…..the reality of what this part of the world is facing so fearfully."**_

She clenched her jaw.

"_But wh-why me?? Why me, Psimon?!?! What did I ever deserve to be chosen by you for some bloody experiment?!?!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Neutron shouted and burst through another wall. Academy students shrieked and ran every which way to avoid his stomping feet and glowing aura.

Psimon drifted effortlessly behind him. He mentally froze anyone who so much as fled close to his robed figure.

"_**You, Headmistress……you think that you know the fine art of manipulation. But you are but a fool. It was always I who had a hand of control in your most gifted of students. I brainwashed your honors department. I reached out to Damien Darhk. And Miss Jean Jenkins….I put the curse in the Jinx. Fate or no fate, it was I who made her the ace that she was. She was never your witch, Headmistress. The failsafes that I installed in her mind helped her survive H.I.V.E., Dagger, Slade, and even the Titans. She has surpassed all obstacles to return to where I began the grand experiment you, Dr. Light, and Dagger hired me to perform. And now that first experiment is a success. It is somewhat like……l-like a prophecy coming true. The first in a mighty string of impossibilities that will spell out the full enactment of Red Aviary. But the most important step next is to make the Earth bleed, for how else can the sky turn red?"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Headmistress was panting.

Her eyes cold and wide as she gazed at an unseen sky.

Psimon's telepathic voice lingered.

"_**And I shall start with you, Headmistress. The beginning of the first experiment shall be the beginning of the second. I will make you bleed…..bleed……bleed…..oh so badly…….heheheheheheh…..it is going to be a Red sky indeed. Very much a Red Sky……."**_

His voice cut off.

Headmistress' lips quivered.

"_Psimon?"_

Silence.

"Ps-Psimon??" she stuttered out loud.

A beat.

_**SMASH!!!!!!**_

Neutron burst in through the nearby wall.

The Headmistress gasped and stood in a spotlight of red, glowing radiation. She stared—trembling—at the intruding behemoth.

Neutron—hypnotized—stood in place with arms clenched at his sides.

Psimon drifted in, his arms folded.

He smirked.

"Speaking??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven blinked.

She gazed into nothingness suddenly.

THWACK!!! CLANG!!! Robin was busy smashing the helmets in of nearby guards. "Yaaugh!! Wa-taaa!!"

Raven droned. "I know where the Headmistress of this Academy is."

Robin punched out the last of a throng of guards confronting him. Panting, he turned to look at her. "H-Huh??"

"The Headmistress….," Raven blinked at him. "The telepath has found her. I sense an intense wave of fear and dread two stories below this location."

"Well keep your head sensitive for Noir and Jinx!" Robin uttered. He twirled his staff and prepared to charge down a corridor. "They've got to be in this compound somewh—"

"Robin," Raven blinked. "I must deal with this confronation."

"What?? Why?"

"The telepath must be eliminated, remember?"

"Yes, b-but—"

"And I sense that something terrible is going to happen to the Headmistress," Raven droned. "Something which must not be allowed to happen to anybody."

"………..," Robin blinked.

Raven took a deep breath. "Let me intercede, Robin. Go and find Noir and Jinx. I will join you shortly."

He shuddered a breath. "N-No worries?"

She nodded. "No worries."

"Go," he waved.

She nodded. With a bow, she sank through a black portal in the floor.

Robin regripped his staff and ran down a long corridor of yellow metal. "I'd laugh if she decides to have a tea party instead."

He emerged from the corridor into a chamber full of chaos. A red-haired girl was spinning about and nimbly taking on over a dozen guards by herself. She picked up random pieces of debris off the floor and flung them at the H.I.V.E. defenders…. turning the objects into corrosive acid in mid-air. Guards shouted and clutched their limbs in pain as juices burned through their armor and ate at their skin. Shimmer was laughing insanely, like she was enjoying the torment.

Robin took a deep breath, cracked his neck, and prepared to rush into the battle--

SWOOOOOSH-WHAP!!!

A body in white rushed in and struck him hard across the back.

"Augh!!" Robin collapsed forward. He expertly dove, rolled, and leapt up into a spin upon which he landed and twirled his staff at ready.

THWIIISH-CL-CLANK!!!

A dark-haired girl in white armor rushed up against the Boy Wonder. She pressed against his raised staff with two shiny rapiers. She gritted her teeth, her brow furrowed under an ivory headband with a crest.

Robin's upper body shook. With an exhale he shoved her off and jabbed forward with his staff.

She dodged and jumped back, twirling the two rapiers.

Robin panted, his rod at ready. "Well….aren't you new?"

"Deuce," she said.

"Robin."

"Roasted dinner."

"Dead man's hand."

TH-TH-THWISH!! The Academy student twirled her rapiers. "Let's do this…."

Robin glanced over his shoulder at Shimmer's destruction. "Don't you even care about your own people? They're being slaughtered!"

Deuce smiled menacingly. She slithered towards Robin. "Consider this my final exam. I must get an 'A'. I don't care about ANYTHING or ANYONE else!!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Boy, aren't you a perfect study buddy…"

"RrrrrRRRGHH!!!" Deuce growled and spun at Robin with both blades spinning.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH-_SLAASH!!_

Robin ducked, somersaulted to the side, spun, and swung his staff down low.

Thwap!!

Deuce's legs were knocked out from under her.

She teetered forward, landed impossibly balanced on the tips of her downstretched daggers, kicked up with her feet, and flipped up into a standing swan-pose.

Robin whistled. "Fancy. It's going to be an awful shame beating your brains in."

"Try me….," Deuce smirked. "Try all of me."

Robin readied his staff.

Deuce let loose a long shout. "Rrrrrrrrrr-**rrrrrrrrghhh!!!"** Her yelling voice suddenly took on a plural volume.

Robin did a double take.

His eyes blinked beneath his mask.

He gasped….

There were _two_ Deuces. Both identical. Both…..sudden.

"What in the—"

"En guarde!" "En guarde!!"

The doppelgangers flew at Robin in perfect precision.

Robin gritted his teeth and stepped back, deflecting the two Deuces' blows with their rapiers against his staff.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

One Deuce slid low and struck at Robin's legs. The second jumped high and slashed at his face.

Robin took a deep breath and dove forward through the two's advance, barely escaping the double-barrage of blades. He rolled, spun up to his feet, and spun with his staff held vertically.

CL-CLANK!! Both Deuces shoved against opposite sides of Robin's bludgeon.

The Boy Wonder teetered back against a wall.

The Deuces charged, shouting: "RAAAUGH!!!" "RAAAUGH!!!"

Robin ducked a slash. Sidestepped a second. Deflected a third and fourth, then kicked off the wall into a forward flip.

The Deuces pivoted and swung their four rapiers at his body.

Robin deflected upside down in mid air—CL-CLANK!!—landed, and swung his rod hard with the entire length of it. "Nnnngh!!!"

The two doppelgangers stepped back, flexed their muscles, and--

FWIIISH!!

One Deuce jumped and landed behind Robin.

The other remained in front.

"…….," Robin breathed heavily.

The Deuces giggled.

"Hehehe!! Keep on your toes!!" "Hehehe!! Keep on your toes!!"

Robin gritted his teeth. "Stop….doing that."

FWOOOSH!! FWOOOSH!!

The Deuces charged Robin's front and back.

Robin flung his rod forward—CLANK!—deflecting one Deuce and then jabbed it back—CL-CLANG!!—deflecting a second Deuce.

The two copies whirled their rapiers in nimble, feminine hands and jabbed forward at both sides of him as with buzz saws. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!

Robin stood on his hands, lifted his legs, spun like a break dancer, and deflected with the steel-tips of his boots. CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!

Acrobatically, he snaked his lower body down and came up with an intense ceiling-bound swing of his staff.

"YAAAUGH!!!"

_CLANG!!!_ The front Deuce was deflected and forced back three feet.

"NNGH!!" The back Deuce pounced on Robin.

Robin stuck his rod reversely in the ground, used it as a vaulting pole, and backflipped himself up and over the pouncing villain.

Deuce stumbled forward beneath him in a blind swing.

Robin spiraled to the ground, spun his rod, and stabbed at her rear--

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Six rapiers blocked Robin's lunge.

"…….," the Boy Wonder blinked.

_Six??_

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

A sea of blades spun at him.

"!!!" Robin jumped back, twirled his rod, and stared forward with a widening eyemask.

There were two more Deuces. Once all doppelgangers were recovering from Robin's moves, the Boy Wonder found himself staring at four identical combatants in white. Each spun a rapier in each hand and struck a battle pose.

Robin's lips parted: "H-How….?"

The Deuces giggled.

"Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!" "Trade secret, Bird boy!"

"Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!" "Hehehe!!"

Robin's eyemask narrowed.

And the four Deuces came charging.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!!!

Robin readied himself.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASH!!!!!!

THWAP!!!

"HAAA!!!"

FLASH!!!!

WHUMP!!!

Two guards fell from our punishment as Jinx and I blurred down the hallway. We came around a corner and rushed down towards an elevator. The sounds of battle and groaning, grounded guards echoed from behind us.

"Okay…so the Headmistress isn't on this floor. Let's go down a level!" Jinx panted.

I replied with something between a nod and a shrug.

_Whatever gets it over with._

We reached the elevator door. Jinx's finger jammed the button.

Nothing….

Not even a light to show if it was rising or lowering.

"Nnnnghh…..," Jinx grumbled, taking the time to cutely tap her toe in impatience. "Nnnnghhhh!!!"

I bit my lip.

A beat.

Jinx looked behind her.

Jinx blinked.

Jinx looked ahead.

Jinx sighed.

"Screw it."

FLASH!!!!

She forced the elevator doors open with pink hex. SLKKKK!!!!

A black shaft opened before us.

We both peered in.

Nothing but cable.

"……"

We both peered down.

The elevator car was two floors below us in the basement shaft. And it wasn't moving.

"Ugh!!" Jinx pouted. "It's stuck! Hecate forbid something should work in our favor today!"

I sweatdropped.

"Okay…um….," Jinx experimentally stuck her left foot inside the space of the shaft, then reached out and tried grasping the cable. "Maybe we could….I dunno….pull the elevator car up here so that it won't be in our way and—"

FW-FW-FWISH!!! Myrkblade twirled with heavy vapors of smoke power.

"????" Jinx looked.

**SLASH!!!!!**

CLK-K-K!!!

I ripped my sword straight through the elevator cables.

CRKKKK-NK-NK-NGGGGGGGGG!!!!

The cables snapped free.

The elevator fell loosely down the shaft, scraping against metal and creating a howling echo all the way.

"……," Jinx looked at me.

I smiled.

Jinx sighed. "Phweee…..well, whatever gets the frog out of the throat."

She knelt down and went before me…climbing down with spiked blades of hex attached to her arms and legs. I stretched my left arm down to give her clearance before climbing down with an awkward arrangement of three limbs to follow her in the descent.

"Hopefully she'll keep put long enough for us to find her," Jinx grumbled. "I mean…with all of this crap taking place on her home turf, she'd be somewhere safe….right?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" the Headmistress groaned and struggled in the heavy grip of Neutron.

The nuclear villain clamped his arms around her waist, holding her up high and facing out across the red-lit laboratory. Psimon stood below her, looking up and grinning. His eyes narrowed and an almost-supernatural hint of light emanated from the visible parts of his brain from beneath the transparent dome.

"_**Yes…….Yes…..keep struggling to live. Keep wishing for that which shall be ripped asunder from under your very own mind. It only further reinforces the pain of your sacrifice. It only further strengthens my understanding of just what this culmination of fate is….."**_

The Headmistress hissed through clenched teeth: "You…..you don't need…..m-me…to understand death….," she managed to say aloud. "You're pretty close to….understanding it all yourself…..you old fool!!"

Psimon's eyebrows raised in humor.

"_**Death? Is that all you think Red Aviary is? Is that all you think the true power of Red is?"**_

The Headmistress panted.

Psimon glanced at Neutron.

The atomic villain hypnotically responded by strengthening his iron grip.

"Nnnghhh!!" the Headmistress writhed.

Psimon's lips curved even more.

"_**Red represents Destruction, woman. Death is not the same as Destruction. Death is but a beginning. Destruction calls for total, utter obliteration….and all the spirits that work to put it into fruition. For Death to be equivalent….there must be a 'second Death'. I wish you could tell me what that is like. But I suppose all secrets belong to unlucky souls…..as long as they possess 'souls' capable of existing."**_

He Headmistress was wheezing for breath. Her eyes began to water. The room spun…

Psimon drifted forward some…looking up at her.

"_**I want to hear every thought that goes into your mind. I want to feel every pain of your heart and being. I want to taste blood of every physical, mental, and spiritual source as it is squeeze from your extinguished shell. And then I will know…..I will finally know….Who it is. Who it is that commands utter obliteration. Who is the Father of Red Aviary……"**_

"………..," the Headmistress barely moved.

"_**Now……"**_

Psimon raised his fingers towards the Headmistress' heart.

"_**I must temporarily shut down neurological transmissions traveling up and down your spinal cord. It is the only thing that will keep you from passing out as I reprogram every organ inside your body to reject itself……"**_

FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

"???" Psimon turned around.

"….," the Headmistress weakly looked over.

In a black bird-shape, Raven lowered through the ceiling and stood at the far end of the laboratory besides the hole that Neutron had smashed his way through.

"Let her go….," the dark girl uttered.

Psimon smiled. He said out loud: "So the world is getting chock full of witches."

Raven's eyes glowed a bright gray. She pointed: "Do not take me command lightly. I know you are very powerful, and I sense what you are about to do to that woman. I am telling you now—in spite of your strength—let her go."

"You do well to acknowledge my strength, Titan….," Psimon shuffled slowly towards her. "But one does not truly fear Psimon until Psimon is tasted."

"Watch it," Raven glared. "I'm a minor…"

The telepath chuckled. "You are truly, truly shallow. How can I even begin to explain to you the depths of my godlike psyche??"

"Nobody likes a smartass," Raven raised two glowing fists. "Let her go or I will make you let her go…."

"Then, dear Titan….," Psimon's eyes narrowed and glowed a bright red. His lips closed. _**"You must command the sky to fall!!"**_

Raven's body tensed.

Psimon eyes flared a crimson strobe and—

_**FWOOOOOSH!!!**_

Raven sensed an invisible wave of telepathic chaos flying at her through the third and fourth dimensions.

Raven clenched her eyes shut. Her head tensed.

_**FLASH!!!**_

There was a mute clash of thunder in the center of the room where Psimon's invading essence slammed into Raven's soul self. Neutron and the dazed Headmistress were clueless. But the telepath and empath in the room reeled.

"Nnnghh!!" Psimon clutched his head.

"Ugh….," Raven stumbled back.

A beat.

Red eyes.

Gray eyes.

Psimon gritted his teeth. _**"Very……impressive….."**_

Raven panted. _**"I don't aim to please…."**_

Psimon raised two fingers, concentrated, and launched another wave of mental destruction.

"_**RRRRAUGH!!!"**_

_**FWOOOOOSH!!!**_

Raven held her fingers up in meditation as the wave flew at her.

"Azarath….Metrion….**ZINTHOS!!!"**

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

Psimon pressed against her.

_**FLAAAAASH!!!!**_

Raven's forehead tensed as she shoved back.

Both bodies were intently staring at each other across the room.

In their heads they were practically locking elbow to elbow.

Invisible colors of incomprehensible nature exploded and flashed around them.

A struggle of artery-pulsing nerves.

And….

_**FLASH!!!!**_

Both combatants stumbled back from each other further.

Psimon panted.

Raven sweat.

Psimon's teeth showed as he snarled and spoke barbarically aloud: "I have no time for these silly games!! I came here to learn the trends of Destruction. And if I need to, I'll make you part of the experiment!!!"

Raven's face was calm and collected as she stared back at him. _**"You didn't say Psimon says….,"**_ she mentally projected.

Psimon's eyes rounded. "That's it…..," he stood up straight. _**"THAT'S IT!!!"**_ He concentrated.

Raven braced herself. Her soul self.

Psimon's eyes strobed. And….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISSSSSH!!!**_

An astral projection of his body soared straight at Raven's physical shell like a wind-cutting missle.

"_**YAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"**_

Raven stood calmly. In meditation. Her glowing eyes lowered.

And the incorporeal Psimon made contact.

_**FLASH!!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

_Raven's soul self flew backwards out of her body. She crossed her arms and took the brunt of astral Psimon's sailing fists. _

_WHAM!!! WHAP!!! THWAP!!!_

"_**RRRRGH!!!!"**__ Psimon, a virtual demon on the astral plane, thrashed and stabbed and slashed at Raven with red-sharp fingernails. _

_Raven flew back, deflecting his blows with impervious black arms. The two drifted through the walls of the laboratory, out into the laboratory where guards lay silent, up through floors where Shimmer was battling dozens of defenders, through Robin's battle with Deuce, through more walls, over the scuffle between Mammoth and Gizmo, and beyond. _

_THWACK!!! SMASH!!! POW!!! _

_Psimon struck and struck and struck and struck, shoving Raven up through the ground until the two were arching over the blackened, hellish landscape of Bludhaven. They tumbled through the air like invisible Greek deities. Like anguished leaves they spiraled towards the center of the Earth and hovered at a point where Raven unleashed a pulse of black that shoved Psimon back. _

_FLASH!!!! _

_Psimon soared off two hundred feet. He spread his arms out with red vapors. His eyes flashed as he spun about, snarling, and flew a bloody streak at Raven over the slums of Bludhaven. He reached his arm out—youthful and muscular in the mental world—and produced a screaming blade of crimson. _

_CHIIIIING!!! _

_Raven chanted meditatively, struck her forearm out, and produced a black shield the size of her torso._

"_**NNNNGH!!!!"**__ Psimon was upon her, swinging heavily. _

_CLANG!!!! _

_Black energy splashed from Raven's upper body as she shielded herself from the heavy blows. _

_CLANG!!! CLANG!! CLANG!!! _

_Psimon screamed and raised his sword up high. Red bolts of supernatural lightning were absorbed into the weapon. With a grunt he swung it down again. _

_CRASH!!!!! _

_Time slowed as Raven's shield exploded into scattering tendrils of onyx chaos. _

_The dark girl's soul self floated back. She took a mental gasp. Her eyes strobed gray. She brought her shield arm back. The tendrils snaked back through the air and recollected in her left palm. Raven gritted her teeth. The tendrils morphed her palm into a huge black bird talon. With a shout, Raven flung the arm straight forward and clasped it tightly around Psimon's face. _

"_**!!!!!"**__ Psimon's sword vanished and time resumed as he found himself being enveloped from the incorporeal neck down with black energy._

"_**YAUGH!!!"**__ Raven shouted and flipped upside down. _

_FWOOOOOSH!!! _

_Psimon's body swung at the end of the talon like a pendulum. _

_Raven shoved down against his astral form, flying towards the center of the earth, soaring through buildingtops and apartment complexes until finally slamming into a garbage-strewn alleyway of Bludhaven below. _

_FWOMP!!!! _

_Raven held Psimon tightly to the earth by willing Terra Firma to solidify beneath his soul. _

_She raised her other hand up, produced razor sharp talons, and proceeded to slash and rip and lacerate his prone torso. _

_SLIIIIINK!!!! SLIIII-IIII-IIINK!!! SNKKKKK!!!! _

_Psimon twitched and shook and convulsed all over as black wisps of smoke flew free from his astral form. The red steam flew up into the air, magically collected, and surged back into his throat beneath Raven's first talon. A crimson glow emanated from the villain's spiritual throat before summoning red flames to erupt up Raven's transmogrified arm. _

"_**Augh!!!"**__ Raven stumbled back and floated through a few buildings. _

"_**RAAAAAAUGH!!!"**_

_Raven looked up. _

_FWOOOOOOOSH!!!! Psimon was up and flying through the buildings at her. His arms had turned into two giant butcher knives of red. He 'bled' all over with red stream. His eyes were replaced with flickering flame and his teeth with glistening, red-stained fangs. _

_SLASH!!!! SLASH!!!! The giant cleavers converged on Raven's body. _

_She teleported to the side. _

_SLASH!!!!! _

_She teleported again. _

_Psimon's astral body spun at her like a red tornado and exploded into her body with a million red, bleeding arms. _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

"_**NNNGH!!!"**__ she fell back from the impact. _

_Psimon converted back into the bleeding figure with the two giant knives. He pounced upon her. __**"RAAAUGH!!"**_

_Raven braced herself with two black talons. _

_CLAMP!!!! _

_She grabbed onto the sharp ends of the blades and resisted the pain as her body leaked black energy. Her soul self fluctuated and her mental face strained as she attempted to fight back the weight and lacerating presence of Psimon upon her._

"_**When I'm finished with you….,"**__ Psimon's astral face sneered. __**"I shall feed you into the Red Jaws of Destruction itself!!"**_

_She glared at him with glowing gray eyes. __**"I bet I'm even hungrier than that…."**__ That uttered, Raven's face twisted and spun about. Her blue hood dipped low over her head. She bowed her cranium towards her chest, and when she lifted it back her entire head and hood had converted into the huge, black silhouette of a demonic raven. A huge black beak with unearthly rows of sharp teeth howled open. __**"SRKIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!"**_

_Psimon's flaming eyes flickered once. _

"_**SKRIIIIIIIIII!!!"**__ The bird's jaws opened wide and snapped tightly over Psimon's face. CLAMP!!!!_

"_**MMMMMFFFF!!!"**__ Psimon struggled. _

_YANK!!!! _

_The black bird's head twisted. It tossed Psimon across the urban landscape. _

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!!! _

_Psimon flew through buildings, streets, and junkyards of Bludhaven. He tumbled across the floor of the plane. He struggled to get up. _

"_**SKRIIIIIIIIIII!!!!"**_

"_?!?!?!" Psimon turned and looked. _

_Raven—now a black spectre of bird wings and a sharp beak—flew at him in a nightmarish streak. _

_Psimon jumped up and prepared himself with two bladed arms-- _

_WHAP!!!! _

"_**SKRIIIII!!!" **_

"_**RRRGH!!!"**_

_The two tumbled, struggled, wrestled, and fought their way across the endless expanse of mountains and trees outside of Bludhaven and stretching beyond._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At around this time, Psimon's hypnotic control over Neutron faded.

The nuclear fiend shook his head and rubbed his skull.

To rub his skull…Neutron had to let go of the Headmistress.

"Ooof!!" the old woman fell to the ground and tumbled onto her knees.

"Nnngh….where….wh-where am I?" Neutron muttered before realizing that he was suffering the most painful, telepathically induced migraine of his life. "Nnnngh!!!" he collapsed to his knees and glowed a radioactive red strobe of pain.

"……," the Headmistress stared at him. "……..," she looked the other way.

Psimon and Raven were standing on the far side of the laboratory.

Staring at each other.

Emotionless.

Staring.

"………"

"………"

The Headmistress took a deep breath. She stumbled up to her feet. She shuffled quietly…pensively….in front of Psimon.

"……….," Psimon was staring through the Headmistress and directly at Raven.

"……….," the dark girl stared back.

The Headmistress shuddered. Nervously, she left the three alone in the dark laboratory and hobbled out into the hallway through the fresh hole.

The telepath and the empathy remained staring at each other….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I just got a report that the Central Command has located the Headmistress!!" a leading H.I.V.E. guard announced to six others standing at attention in a war-torn hallway a level above. "She's heading towards the Founder's Wing on the bottom tier!! We must find her and escort her to the Central Command!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Lead the way!"

The leader turned and was about to head into a stairwell along with his six, armed followers when---

FLASH!!!!

In a white pulse of light, a blonde in an ivory-colored jumpsuit appeared before them. She had a hand stretched out. She was glaring.

"Back up. Turn around. Evacuate the Academy…..now."

"It's one of the intruders!!" a guard exclaimed.

Kl-Klak!! The leader aimed his laser rifle at her throat. "Hold it right there! You have intruded the H.I.V.E. Academy!! Give yourself up or we shall be forced to take lethal action against you!!"

"The Headmistress is no longer yours to protect," Pulsade frowned. "Either she is to be slaughtered by the Fearsome Five, arrested by the Titans, or taken into custody by my good, pink-haired friend. Seeing as I prefer the latter, I shall do everything in my power to keep them from being delayed in their accomplishments. And everything in my power includes the elimination of all whom I see as a potential blockade. You, mates, are a potential blockade. But I am giving you a warning. Turn around…evacuate….leave the area immediately, if you value your so-called lives."

"Shut up and surrender!!" the leading guard hissed through his helmet and kept aiming at her neck. "H.I.V.E. has very little patience for traitors such as yourself!!"

Puslade's eyes swept the group of armed men. "I'll tell you one more time, being that Jinx so insists that I give namby-pamby blokes like you a second chance. If you do not turn around and leave the Academy right this instant, every single one of you will be dead in under a minute."

Kl-Klak!!

Kl-Klak!! Kl-Klak!! Kl-Klak!!

Seven rifles aimed at her.

She sighed. "Very well…." Her eyes glowed a bright white. "Hope you're all bloody bachelors." Her hands went to her back's holsters--

"Shoot her!!!"

ZAP!!! Z-ZAP!! Z-Z-ZAP!!!

FLASH!!!

She was gone.

Laser burns appeared in the walls and floor where she stood.

The guard leader leaned forward.

A guard at the rear lowered his gun. "What the?! She's gone—"

FLASH!!!

Pulsade appeared behind him. She batted his gun-arm down, bent his spine back, and wrapped her arms around his neck. One hand with an uzzi to his chin, the other with a shotgun aimed at the rest of the guards—_BLAM!!! BLAM!!!_

TH-THUNK!!! One guard's back exploded in blood. He fell forward, his lungs coughing up crimson.

The other five spun and nervously fired.

Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!!

FLASH!!! Pulsade vanished from behind the rear guard.

"No--!!!"

TH-TH-THUNK!!! The energy streams exploded in his neck, shoulder, and face. He fell down in a red spray of death.

One of the guards lowered his weapon and shook: "Shit!!!"

FLASH!!! Pulsade appeared in mid-leap behind him. She grabbed his shoulders, flipped nimbly in front of him, came down, yanked forward with her upper arms, and tossed his ragdoll body into another guard.

WH-WHUMP!!

"AUGH!!!" the two collapsed into the yellow-plated wall.

The guard and the other two standing men fired at her. Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!!

Pulsade rolled to the side, avoiding the blasts, knelt up, and dove sideways with two uzzis suddenly stretched out and firing in mid-fall.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

A steady stream of bullets flew across the feet of the two guards standing in front of the leader. P-P-P-P-PING!!! TH-THUNK!!! Their boots exploded in red splashes.

"AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" the two guards collapsed and clutched their bleeding stubs.

The leader panted, for Pulsade had disappeared again. He spun and looked all around, his gun shaking.

The two collapsed guards against the wall stood up dizzily.

FLASH!!!

Pulsade appeared in front of one. She elbowed him hard in the Adam's Apple-THWACK-making him gurgle blood. ThWUMP!! She elbowed him in the stomach. He bent over, extending his rifle. Pulsade wriggled her hand around, enclosed her fingers around the man's trigger, rested the gun against her hip, and aimed backwards at the other standing guard.

Z-ZAP!!!!

The laser flew through the man's heart. He dropped dead in an instant. THWUMP!!

Pulsade then spun an uzzi in her free hand and aimed it into the back of the neck of the man she was grappling.

BLAM!!!!

His brains gave way in Technicolor vomit.

She dropped his warm corpse. SLUMP!!

"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!!" the leader fired madly. Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!!

Pulsade stretched her arms to the side and backflipped over the steady stream of laser fire. She disappeared in mid-air, upsetting the leader's aim.

The man sweated under his helmet. His heart race.

FLASH!!!

From behind….

The man spun around and was met with Pulsade's palm directly in his face.

A huge STROBE of light pulsed through is visor. His eyes burned.

"NNNGHH!!!" he stumbled backwards. His hands were clutching his skull.

Pulsade casually whipped out her shotgun and aimed at his forehead. BLAM!!!!

The man's hands were suddenly clutching nothing anymore. He fell onto his knees and slumped forward. FWUMP!!!

The two last guards were still clutching their legs and screaming.

Pulsade holstered her shotgun behind her, whipped out the two uzzis, spun them as she walked between the two grounded guards, paused, and pointed the weapons straight out at her sides.

BANG!! BANG!!

Straight through each head.

Silence.

Pulsade spun the guns, holstered them, and sighed.

She hadn't even broken a sweat.

"I swear….I should start wearing red jumpsuits from now on…."

She was halfway through turning around and exiting into an adjacent corridor when she heard something.

The blonde craned her neck.

A whistling sound.

Her eyes widened.

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Pulsade jerked her head aside.

CLAMP!!!!

A silver dagger shaped like a dismembered finger stuck into her hair and pinned her thusly to the wall. The assassin grunted and cursed as she tried to tug her follicles free. She heard light footsteps and looked down the hallway with burning eyes of hatred.

Shimmer pranced down towards her, grinning psychotically. "Trying to beat my record?? Shame on you!!"

YANK!!!

Pulsade pulled the transmogrified dagger out and tossed it to the floor. "I'm sorry…have we met?"

"At Ragnorak, I'm sure," Shimmer winked. "If ya want to talk about the future in the past tense."

"What in the bloody Hell are you babbling about?"

"Ooooh! I know you!" Shimmer pointed. "You're Jinx's 'special' friend, aren't you?"

Pulsade's eyes narrowed. "It depends….," she reached a hand back to her shotgun's holster. "How special do you suppose I am?"

"Okay….I'm just going to lay it all out…," Shimmer stroke a pose with her hands glowing. The walls and floors around her throbbed in an unnatural glow. "….I've been given a second chance by Psimon to bust some heads. And if you must know…there's a certain pink head that's on the top of that list. Seeing that she isn't exactly here right now, I think I"ll have to settle on busting her head _through you_."

"Lovely," Pulsade readied herself. "Listen, carrot-top, Psimon has been using you from the beginning. It's just about as obvious as your bra size."

"Why all the talk?" Shimmer smiled. "Are you going to hesitate in killing me? You did such a fancy job on _them._"

"……," Pulsade glanced at the dead bodies on the hallway floor. Then back up at Shimmer.

"Or maybe it's that…..you know you can't so easily _kill_ me?" Shimmer sneered.

"I tend to back away from assassination jobs that I'd **enjoy**," Pulsade sneered back.

"Then let's have some fun!!" Shimmer flipped forward, somersaulted, swiped a rifle off the floor, ended in a leap, and launched it at Pulsade. "Back off!!!!"

FWOOOOSH!! The gun turned into a flaming ball of plasma in mid-air. PHWOOOM!!!

"Nnngh!!" Pulsade ducked, rolled, and leapt up beyond the fireball. SWOOSH!! She whipped out her shotgun. Kl-Klak!! BLAM!!!

A hot stream of shot flew at Shimmer.

The red-head raised her glowing hands towards the wall of lead.

FLASH!!!

The lead turned into a silver liquid, congealed together, molded, branched outwards, and cooled instantly into a spinning glave.

SNAP!!! Shimmer caught the glave in one hand, spun, and tossed it back at Pulsade. "HA!!!"

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!! The razor-sharp blade sang its way towards the blonde assassin.

Pulsade flinched. She lifted the butt of her shotgun.

CLANK!!!

The projectile stuck in.

"……," Pulsade stared at the shotgun….then at Shimmer.

Shimmer blew a kiss. "That turn you on?"

"Not on your nelly."

FWOOOOSH!!! Shimmer sprinted towards Pulsade, approaching the sea of dead bodies.

Pulsade pumped her shotgun—Kl-Klak!!

Shimmer pounced on her. FWOOOSH!!! "NNGH!!!"

FLASH!!! Pulsade disappeared.

Shimmer landed in a slide.

Pulsade reappeared behind her and aimed the shotgun into the back of Shimmer's head. _Plant!!_

Shimmer took a breath and shot her arms behind her. CLAMP!! They closed around the barrel of the gun, and before Pulsade could shoot—FLASH!!!

"Dah!!" Pulsade jumped back, waving her hand as the entire shotgun turned into a red-hot strip of iron.

Shimmer spun, whipped the hot iron to her side, turned it instantaneously into putty, molded it in her hand, and converted it into a grenade. "Here ya go, limey!!" Snap!! She pulled the pin out with her teeth and tossed the explosion at the blonde. "Suck on this!!"

Clank! Clank! **BOOM!!**

"Nngh!!" Pulsade fell back from the explosion. She slid across the yellow floor on her back.

"FWOOOOSH!!!" Shimmer leapt through the flames and dove down madly at the assassin.

Pulsade whipped her two uzzis out and fired up at the descending figure while sliding. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The falling Shimmer crossed two glowing arms. The bullets streamed into her until they were but a centimeter away, upon which they converted into flower petals that fluttered down with the redhead and onto the assassin's torso.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!" Pulsade exhaled.

"Hehe!" Shimmer winked, grabbed Pulsade's shoulders, rolled forward with her, and kicked the blonde back across the hall towards the dead guards.

FWOOOSH-WHUMP!!!

"Oof!!" Pulsade slammed against a nearby wall and fell to her knees in the fresh pool of blood. She stirred and tried standing up.

_Sssssssssssss!!!!_

"????" Pulsade looked around her. The red pool of blood was slowly turning green. Steam rose as the yellow floor was suddenly being eaten away in ring around her by corrosive acid.

Shimmer waved from afar. "You know what they say about those who live by the sword!"

Pulsade grumbled. "You silly arse…."

_Ssssssssss!!!!_

CRUNCH!!!!

The floor gave way in a halo.

"Augh!!" Pulsade fell an entire tier, collapsing with the crumbling yellow metal into the wide-open mess hall below.

CRASH!!!!

She collapsed through an eating table and tumbled across the floor

"Nnngh."

FWOOSH!!

Shimmer landed from the floor above and planted her hands on her hips. "I hope you don't hate me for my fighting style. I prefer the slow and painful beating above the bullet to the brain."

Pulsade stirred and tried to stand up. "Everyone's a critic…"

Shimmer glanced down. She kicked up a splinter of wood from a smashed table, gripped it, and turned it into a scimitar of serrated silver. CHIIIING!!! She lowered it towards Pulsade's chest. "Let's cut right to it, shall we?? Hahahahaha!!"

Pulsade reached behind her utility belt. "Pardon my plasma…."

Shimmer raised an eyebrow. "Huh??"

Clank! Clank!!

Shimmer's eyes widened.

SWOOOSH-CLANG!! Pulsade's leg lifted up and kicked the scimitar out of Shimmer's hand.

The redhead jumped back.

Pulsade flung both of her hands forward, unleashing two live plasma grenades.

Shimmer stupidly caught them. "…….," she blinked. "YEEEK!!!" She fell on her back and tossed the two high into the air.

BOOOM!!! BLAM!!!!!

They fanned outward in erupting flames that cascaded down towards her prone figure.

Shimmer clenched her teeth and shot out two glowing hands.

FLASH!!!

The flames gradually morphed into a curtain of Autumn leaves. The leaves fell scattered around the mess hall, only interrupted by the sailing figure of Pulsade jumping up and piercing through the chaos with a descending jump kick aimed at Shimmer's chest.

"YAAAAAAUGH!!!"

Shimmer gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP!!! A guard desperately shot at us.

Jinx and I leapt up above the energy dispersal, came together with our backs touching, spun in mid-air, and landed across the hallway with Myrkblade and a pink blade outstretched.

SLIIINK!!!!

The man's laser rifle was sliced apart in two places.

"Wha--?!?!" he backed up.

GRIP!!!

I grabbed him.

"HAA!!!"

Jinx punched him.

SMACK!!!

"Nnngh…," he fell hard to the ground.

I panted. I looked left at Jinx.

She pointed. "There! The stairwell!! It'll lead us to the bottom tier!!"

I groaned.

_Another descent?!?!_

"She wasn't on any of these levels!! She must have retreated to her office on the Founders' Wing!"

_Yeah, whatever_

Jinx's legs glowed pink as she tugged me towards the far end of the hallway. "Come on!! We can do this!! Just hurr—"

FLASH!!!

Jinx's pink glow faded.

She skidded to a stop. "Wh-What???"

I stood beside her. I leaned against Myrkblade, perplexed…..then suddenly realized something. Myrkblade was a wooden sword again.

"????"

I looked at my blade. There was no longer a sharp layer of murk covering it.

I tried extending smoke down my arm to reinforce the blade….but nothing happened.

My lips parted.

_My……My powers……_

"My powers!" Jinx simultaneously cackled. "What gives??"

A dry chuckle from the stairwell.

Jinx and I both looked.

A young man in a red suit and silver disks set in various spots across his limbs menacingly stepped up. Her smirked at us from across the way.

"End of the line, sweethearts."

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "Disruptor…."

I glanced at her. I glanced at him.

"I see you remember me…," Disruptor winked as he blocked our only passageway downstairs. "…was it because we once went out to the Academy Dance together?"

Jinx frowned. "Disruptor…we never 'went out'. I was being a wallflower along with Gizmo and Mammoth as you spent the whole night trying to _grope_ me."

"Ah yes…fun times…," Disruptor nodded. "And speaking of fun times….it looks like this whole school is going to shit."

"And you like that, don't you?"

"It depends…," Disruptor stepped forward. His arms glowed red. "…do you like it more? Or do I like it more?"

I looked at my wooden sword. I looked at his glowing arms. A beat. CHIIIING!!! I sheathed my weapon and simply clenched my right hand into a ready fist.

"Cut to the chase," Jinx spat. "Are you going to be a model student and protect the Headmistress with your dying breath or some crud??"

"Maybe you don't remember me, Jinx," Disruptor smirked. "I was _never_ a model student. I'm only here to keep the heat off the inventor of this suit. My dad." He flexed his red glowing muscles and pointed at us. "You're here for no solid purpose, are you? You're more confused than the rest of the dying, frightened lot in this crumbling place!"

"……."

"Allow me to give you a reason to be here," Disruptor uttered. There was an eerie vibration in the air the closer his red presence approached. "I'm going to beat your brains in. Then I'm going to beat your samurai friend to death. Then I'm going to have fun with whatever flesh is left alive….preferably yours."

Jinx made a face. "I always knew you were a psychotic pig."

"And I always knew you were dead meat….," Disruptor raised his hands over his head. "Rrrrghhhh!!! Time to remodel!!!"

He flung his glowing arms out.

_VROMMMM!!!!_

The yellow walls shook.

The lights flickered.

There were groaning and crackling sounds through the yellow metal.

Then—

SNKKKKKTTTT!!!! CRAAAAAAAAACK!!!!

Huge lead pipes burst out of the walls in a torrent. Disruptor's chaos was bending and distorting the water pressure of the Academy's plumbing so that soon, highly pressurized streams of liquid were spewing out of the walls and pummeling Jinx and myself from both sides.

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

WHUMP!!! Jinx's left shoulder was impacted.

THWAP!!! My right shoulder was impacted.

SWOOOSH-**WHAM**!!!

We were forced into each other.

"Nnngh!!"

"!!!!"

We slumped to the ground.

Slosh!-Slosh!-Slosh! Disruptor charged through the spewed madness. "RAAAUGH!!" he arched his leg back, swung it in, and swung it up….

….across my chin.

WHAM!!!!

I flew back.

YANK!!

Jinx flew back with me.

We tumbled over each other down the hallway.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!!!

"Ugh!!" we settled against the corner where the wall met the floor.

I sputtered.

Jinx stirred to her knees. "Nnngh…," she looked down at me. "Ghost Boy! D-Do something!!"

I glared up at her from where I lay.

"Don't give me that look!!" she squealed. "Without my powers, I'm nothing but an anorexic gymnast—"

CLAMP!! Disruptor's hand clutched her skull.

"Eeek!!"

"RRRGH!!!" he shoved her face up against the metal wall.

WHAM!!!

Jinx winced against the metal.

"Didn't you miss your home sweet home, bitch?!?!" Disruptor grinned. "Why don't you kiss it and it'll all be better!"

I pivoted my body on the floor and shoved a foot expertly I into the back of Disruptor's leg joints.

THWUMP!!!

"Ugh!!" he stumbled to his knees.

He released Jinx.

I gritted my teeth and flung my fist into Disruptor's face.

FWOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

I winced as his hand gripped fiercely over mine.

He looked at me straight in the shades and smiled. "You know, the Headmistress was lax about quite a few things. But there was one anal rule she always wanted us to keep. 'No smoking'."

I suddenly felt as if my power was being sapped from me. I gasped as I saw a layer of smoke surge out from my arm, collect in Disruptor's shoulder, and shoot back out at me in a pulse of murk.

FLASH!!!!

I flew back from his burst. Jinx tumbled with me. We collapsed in the center of the plumbing-strewn hallway. We tried to stumble up to our feet.

"Heheheheheheh," Disruptor stood up and stretched his hands to the ceiling. "Thanks as always for your toy, father!! THANKS AS ALWAYS!!!"

FLASH!! FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!! The light fixtures burst in a line towards us. Sparks and shards exploded downward from the ceiling.

I jumped up to my feet, hoisted a reeling Jinx with me, and fled towards the stairwell.

FLASH-FLASH-FLASH-FLASH-FLASH!!!! The lights exploded in a trail behind us.

I panted.

I dragged us towards the stairwell.

Towards an escape.

_We are SO not fighting him!!_

Disruptor begged to differ. He was toying with us. As we reached the far end of the hallway and prepared to dive down the stairwell, he flicked a glowing wrist and caused a fire extinguisher besides us to explode.

POW!!!!!

_CRUD!!!_

I winced as Jinx and I were blown back down the hallway and towards Disruptor….who was presently charging at us with a kicking foot in mid-lunge. "RAAAUGH!!!"

_**STOMP!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!" "Hehehehe!!"

Robin panted.

Robin sweated.

Robin was surrounded by eight Deuces.

Every one of them giggling.

Every one of them blurring.

Every one of them spinning a rapier in each hand and--

Stabbing.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!

The Boy Wonder had to continuously spin his staff around him nonstop.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Robin was only barely aware of the myriad of deflections that he was miraculously performing. He spun the rod and spun it and spun it some more as he slowly attempted to pace himself across the room and enter a hallway or a utility closet or some place with closed quarters so he could square himself off against the acrobatic doppelgangers one on one.

But the Deuces were not giving him much help. The soonest he moved in a single direction, the more they would collect in that spot beside him and cloud his chance of advancing further.

"Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!" "Uh uh!!!"

Giggles.

And…

_Stabs._

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Robin deflected to the best of his ability. His arms were tiring into meaty soup and his face was red beneath his mask. "C-Come on!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!! One Deuce dove in behind him.

He could barely turn--

SLIINK!!

"Augh!!" Robin clutched a bleeding shoulder.

He stumbled forward.

The one Deuce dove back into the blurring ring of bodies around him.

Giggles.

And.

FWOOOSH!!!

Another single Deuce dove in.

"!!!" Robin spun with his staff raised--

SLIIINK!!!

The one Deuce grazed his upper thigh.

"NNNGH!!" Robin limped backwards.

The Deuce dove back into the doppelganger crowd. A pluralized giggle and…

FLASH!!!

The group doubled.

Sixteen Deuces were spinning and jumping and twirling rapiers and blurring around Robin in a huge halo of white suits and headband crests.

"**There is not a vigilante in the world who could catch even ONE of us!!!**" all Deuces chanted thunderously at once.

Robin backed up, panting and bleeding. He found himself and the field of Deuces nearing a wall of pipes on the far side of the yellow-plated room.

"**NOW!! A FEAST!!!"**

All sixteen Deuces dove in at once.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!!" Robin shouted and spun his whole body and the rod too.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Amidst the three-hundred-and-sixty degree panorama of the chaotic swing, Robin saw over a dozen Deuces overjumping, dodging, ducking, or sidestepping his mighty bludgeon despite their having just dove in a second ago.

And weathered and tired and half-butchered as Robin was at that spare moment, the Titan Leader inside of him knew for a fact that _that was impossible……_

FWOOOSH!!!

One Deuce dove in.

WHAM!!!

Robin was shoved back as the shadow darted into the cloud again.

CLANK!!!

Robin's staff snapped off a handle to a pipe.

_HISSSSSSSSSSS!!!!_

White steam poured out.

Robin stumbled limply. Panting.

Mist poured into the region, blending in with the white blur of the torturing Deuces spinning around him.

FWOOOSH!!!!

Another single Deuce dove in.

Robin deflected her rapiers lightning-quick. CL-CLANK!!!

She tumbled against the pipes, her rapiers sparking against them in contact.

CLANG!!

They cut a small puncture. More white steam poured out.

As the Deuces circled solidly around Robin once more, the Boy Wonder found himself staring at the erupting steam, moreso than his opponents.

"…….."

His eyemask narrowed.

FWOOOOSH!! Another Deuce dove in.

Robin grunted and rolled on the ground, avoiding the rapier strike. At the end of his roll, he jumped up onto his feet and smacked off two more handles to the pipes.

CLANG!!

SMACK!!!

FW-FW-FWISH!! Robin twirled his staff into a ready position and stared silently at the Deuces circling him.

He stared….

And stared……..

And stared…………

Giggles.

Pompous laughter.

White bodies running in and out of the mist.

Deuces charging through the suddenly translucent air of the Academy's chamber and out the other side.

Circling him.

Spinning.

"……………."

The Deuces spun.

The mist spread.

"……………"

Robin's lips parted.

"Only one of them is making trails in the mist….," he whispered to himself calmly.

Robin stared at the blurring figures. It was only every now and then—in a blink of an eye—that a single Deuce caused the leaking mist and steam from the pipes to part and twirl about fancily in the air. All fifteen of the rest were merely rushing in and out like incorporeal ghosts.

"There is more than one telepath in this facility….," Robin hoarsely said to himself. "…all of this….it's in my mind."

The Deuces spun around him.

The mist stayed solid…stayed solid…stayed solid….parted…

Robin flinched.

FWOOOSH!!! As he predicted, a single Deuce dove at him. The _only real_ Deuce.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! The rapiers spun.

Robin knelt and deflected them.

CL-CLANK!!!

The girl flipped over his head, landed in the halo again, and blurred around him.

Robin panted. He summoned a deep breath and got into striking-stance.

He stared steadily at the mist. At the bodies ghosting through the mist. At the white halo around him for any impurities.

"Come on……."

The Deuces giggled.

The Deuces spun.

The mist stayed the on……"

Bodies blurring.

Mist settling.

Voices giggling.

Mist oozing.

Mist parting.

Robin's eyemask widened.

_A trail of steam……_

"HI-YAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Robin dove forward and jabbed his staff straight into a forehead set between two wide, shocked eyes.

**WHAM!!!**

FLASH!!!

All of the Deuces disappeared around him. All but one…the one he hit.

"Augh!!" she stumbled back, cross-eyed.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! Robin gritted his teeth, spun at her, and--

"RAAAUGH!!!" WH-WHAM!!! "WA-TAA!!!" THWACK!!! "NNNNGH!!!!" TH-TH-THWACK!!! _**WHAM!!!**_

Mist exploded into a human canal as Robin smacked, punched, kicked, and uppercutted Deuce's ragdoll body back across the golden chamber.

FWOOOSH-THWUMP!!!

She landed hard from the last impact. Her rapiers clattered beside her as she coughed and sputtered.

FW-FW-FW-FWISH!! Robin spun. His staff flew. He yelled and brought the bludgeon straight down and heavily impacted it across her chest.

WHAM!!!!!

"UGHHHH!!!" Deuce curled, exhaled, convulsed, and fell back unconscious.

"…………………….," Robin panted. He leaned back and shrunk his staff. Snkkkt!! "Pull yourself together," he muttered.

After a breath, Robin twirled and ran down the nearest hallway he could find.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**SKRIIIIIIIII!!!"**_

_A black bird with wisping wings of magical serration flapped and clawed and slashed its way into Psimon's red body. _

_Psimon deflected with his blade-arms. He saw a moment to grab the astral bird by its big black beak. He did so, clenching his fangs and practically mounting the bird in his attempt to wrestle it into the astral ground. The two spiritual combatants tumbled and plummeted down mountainsides, through forests, across rivers like skipping stones, and in and out of mountains at incalculable, mortal speeds. _

_At some point, Psimon found himself gripping the black raven-spirit by its wing. He took the advantage by biting into it with his unnatural fangs._

"_**SKRIII-IIIIIII!!!"**__ The bird-spirit shrieked in pain. It morphed back into the visage of a blue-haired girl who tried to shake Psimon's jaws off her wrist. When that didn't work, Raven's soul-self turned her free hand into a flaming black torch and shoved it into Psimon's face. _

_SSSSSSSsssss!!! _

_Psimon's face half melted. _

_He stumbled back, clutching his face and screaming. _

_The girl charged him with flickering black trail. _

_Psimon snarled, converted his right hand into a mace, twirled it, and struck hard into Raven's chest. _

_WHAM!!! _

"_**Ooof**__!!!" Raven exhaled and flew off for miles. _

_Psimon howled, jumped after her, met her in mid-air, wrapped his flickering red legs around her torso, and proceeded to beat her torso and brain senseless with blurred hands of red steam. _

_WHAM!! SMACK!! THWACK!!! POW!!_

_Raven's face jerked and jolted and spun from each heavy impact. _

_WHACK!!! WHAM!!! SMACK!!! _

"_**RRRGHH!!!"**__ Psimon shouted as the he continued punching the girl. The two plummeted towards a huge body of water besides an even huger City. They sailed under the currents and streamed their way past fish and seaweed and submerged sand dunes. One on the surface of the underwater ground, Psimon gripped Raven by her cloak, spun, and flung her up high. _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

_Raven flailed limply up out of the water and dryly into the air. She soared towards a huge, branching Tower and plummeted through the walls before landing on a floor inside. WHUMP!!_

"_**Ugh…..,"**__ she moaned. _

_FWOOOOSH-PLANT!!! _

_Psimon landed immediately after her, standing above the girl's crumpled soul-self. He knelt over her on the floor and gripped her by the neck. _

_Raven stirred weakly in his grasp. _

_Psimon's flaming eyes narrowed across the disfigured face of his astral projection. __**"Stupid…..weak-minded female….didn't you expect me to do no less than utterly obliterate you?!? I could toss you around this pathetic dimension as much as I please before destroying you!!"**_

_  
Raven's eyes opened with a flickering gray. She murmured: "__**I expected it……I expected everything……"**_

_Psimon's eyes narrowed. __**"Huh???"**_

Raven limply motioned around them with her hand. _**"I expected you to destroy me…..so I lead you here….."**_

_Psimon looked up. _

_They were projected into the Main Room of Titans' Tower. _

_Cyborg was busily typing away at the computer to keep a track on Robin and Raven. _

_Tempest and Beast Boy stood off to the side, talking about something. _

_Starfire was making some Tamaranian beverages to share with the group. _

_Psimon's lips parted. __**"What in the name of---?!?!"**_

_Raven's eyes glowed with bright vigor. "__**I am among soulmates now."**_

_Psimon gasped. _

_Raven lifted her hands up into the air. She chanted: __**"Give me strength!!!!!"**_

_FLASH!!!! _

_Gray and black streams of energy soured out of Cyborg's body. Tempest's body. Beast Boy's body. Starfire's body. In converging streams of warm energy, they flowed into Raven's chest. The girl took a deep breath and flickering black wings like that of a bird's skeleton or a holy demon emerged from her back. _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

_With one flap of the wings, Psimon was shoved up off of her._

"_**AUGH!!"**__ his astral self tumbled across the floor of the Main Room. _

_FWOOOSH!! FWOOOSH! FWOOSH! Raven "flew" into the air. She glared with glowing gray eyes as her hands turned into torches of black flame. _

_Psimon stood up and glanced at her in hollow fear. _

_Raven gritted her soul teeth. "__**Now……where were we??"**_

_FWOOOOOOOSH!!! _

_In half a mortal second, Raven had crossed the distance between them and was in the process of giving Psimon a black flaming, wing-stabbing case of supernatural bitch-slapping. _

_WHAM!! SMACK!!! POW!!! THWACK!! _

_Psimon jolted from each impact until he was struck once in the gut and-- _

"_Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!"_

_--uppercutted heavily across the chin with a black wing. _

_WHAM!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," Raven stared at Psimon.

"………..," Psimon stared at Raven.

….but Psimon was sweating.

The two stood besides a near-unconscious Neutron.

Silent in the dark laboratory….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beep! Beep!

Schwissh!!

Three headmasters, two guards, and a controlwoman looked over from inside the Central Command.

The two guards raised their weapons.

Damien Darhk held up a friendly hand after entering the secured room. "At ease….," he uttered. "Sorry it took me so long to get here. There's a bloody battle taking place on every floor."

"Were you born yesterday?!?!" and elderly headmaster frowned. "This is a complete and utter calamity!! The Headmistress is missing! The Fearsome Five's numbers are spread throughout the Academy! Jinx, Noir, and Pulsade are running amok!! And on top of all that…we have two members of the Titans intruding our floors and at least two students and two dozen guards unaccounted for!!"

"Disruptor and Deuce are not unaccounted for," Damien practically yawned as he stepped up to the control panels of the hidden command vault. "They were sent to attack the intruders. If they're dead by now—along with the guards—well, that's another situation altogether." He leaned against the back of the controlwoman's chair. "What do we have here?"

"Sir, Pulsade was sighted by security cameras on the second tier," the woman pointed at various camera screens being broadcasted across the panel. "She eliminated Captain Feezon's wing of the Security Guard single-handedly. All of them are dead."

"Good God….," a headmaster in the room shuddered.

"Where's she now?" Damien asked.

"Currently battling Shimmer of the Fearsome Five in the mess hall," the woman said. She typed a string of letters and numbers on a pad and brought up another screen. "It might be interesting to know that—currently—Mammoth and Gizmo appear to be battling each other."

"Anyone know why?"

"Hard to say, sir. They confronted the two Titans—Robin and Raven—earlier. They may have caused a scuffled between the two former students."

"I see….," Damien leaned back and boredly asked: "And what of the ever-beloved Jinx?"

"Third Tier. Heading towards the Fourth and final Tier, we think."

"What's stalling them?"

"Someone's battling them. Possibly Disruptor. It's hard to say."

"Well….at least they're being kept on their toes," Damien said. A beat. He blinked and turned to face the guards and headmasters. "Well, folks….this situation leaves us with but one option."

"I agree," one headmaster nodded. "Calling in recruits from the other Academies and performing a massive counterstrike from the outside of Bludhaven and working in—"

"Nope," Damien smirked. "Evacuation."

Even the guards performed a double-take at that.

"Evacuation?!?! Are you insane, man?!?!"

"Mr. Darhk, since when were you authorized to suggest such a preposterous th—"

"Since the Headmistress' ass turned up missing in this bloody fray, that's when, dammit!!!" Darhk suddenly snapped, his frowning face and burning eyes spontaneously living up to his last name in a fashion that actually chilled the elders cowering before him. "Now you get your god-damn, leaky old butts onto those underground escape trams and regroup at the Gotham site!!! The last thing any of us friggin' needs is too many authority figures perishing from a minor insurgency!! We're going to begin the evacuation sequence!! And I swear to all that's holy, if I don't see every living, breathing soul from this facility in those trams in under half an hour, I'll blow this place to Hell and back with the self destruct sequence!!!"

"……………….," the others stared at him.

Darhk frowned. "Do I make myself clear??"

"Y-Yes, sir….," a headmaster bowed slightly. "You are the Headmistress' Number One. W-We shall trust your judgment."

Damien smiled pleasantly again. "Excellent. Now skedaddle." He looked at the guards. "Make sure they get through safely. Uhm……..try to avoid Pulsade, got it?"

Half-trembling…the guards nodded. "Aye, sir. Let's move out!!"

The two guards led the way. The headmasters followed.

The controlwoman got up from her seat.

"Not you….," Damien said, a hand on her shoulder.

"S-S-Sir?"

He pointed at the security feed monitors.

"Does that thing show Psimon's last known location?"

"A-Actually, sir," the woman swallowed. "It's showing his p-present location…."

"Oh really?" Damien raised an amused eyebrow. "Well let me see it….."

The young woman typed a string.

Three screens of the laboratory flashed into being. They showed three separate angles of Psimon and a dark girl standing in the shadows just…….staring at each other.

"What a time for a staring contest," Darhk leaned forward.

"I think they're engaged in some sort of telepathic battle, sir—"

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know," he pointed at the huge shadow in the corner. "Is that……N-Neutron??"

"Yes sir."

"Ha! What's he doing on his ass??"

"He appears to be suffering a seizure of sorts…..possibly related to the telepathic battle taking place. He was only animated for as long as Psimon appeared to be guiding him."

"Has the Headmistress shown up on those cameras in the laboratories at all?"

"Sir?"

"Eh….it makes no difference," Damien shrugged. "Where're the remote system controls to the laboratory?"

"I can bring them up for you, sir."

"Do it."

She started typing.

Damien folded his arms. "We're going to flood the Academy's entire coolant reserves into that one laboratory."

The woman paused in her typing. "But….but….are you cert—"

Damien smiled at her. "That's a walking nuclear bomb we have doing timeout in the corner there, ma'am!" he pointed at Neutron on the screen. "He may be an unstoppable force to everyone in the brother save for Superman himself….but that doesn't mean we can't slow him down if the opportunity presents itself!"

"What of Psimon and the girl Titan? They're enemies to the Academies! Wouldn't it be prudent to capture them and—"

"Lady….if there's one thing I've learned today," Damien leaned to the side and smiled. "….it's that the soonest you have the chance to put the most powerful telepaths in the world to sleep….you leap on it." He examined his nails and smiled some more. "If I do say….it'll make everything about this shithole week turn out just plain nice."

"………….," she blinked up at him.

Damien winked down at her. "That's your cue to start the coolant."

"Aye, sir," she submissively typed. –click- "Initiating. It will take approximately fifteen minutes for the coolant to charge up and redistribute its entire reserves into the room. Once it does so, all living things on that floor will be in immediate danger of suspended animation."

"Splendid," Damien Darhk nodded. He pulled out a gun from his pocket and cocked it. with the evacuation system in effect….leaves me with only one thing left to do."

She stared at the screens while typing. "What's that, sir?"

"Eliminate all witnesses." And he pointed the gun into the back of the control woman's head.

**BANG!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!! _

"_WARNING!!! ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF!!! EVACUATE TO TRAMLINES!!!" _

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!! _

"_WARNING!!! ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF!!! EVACUATE TO TRAMLINES!!!"_

Dashing backwards across the floor, Pulsade sweated. "Will you shut the BLOOMIN' HELL UP?!?!"

_WRII!! WRII!! WRI!!_

"YAAAUGH!!" Shimmer growled and spun towards Pulsade, swinging two sharp blades of silver that she had forged from eating trays.

The two girls charged at each other, dodged, and parried across the mess hall. The lights strobed red in tune to the alarm all around them. As if the place wasn't loud and chaotic enough, an extra ounce of adrenaline was pumped into their struggle.

"RAAUGH!!" Shimmer stabbed forward with her blades.

Pulsade sidestepped.

FWOOOSH!! Shimmer blurred beside her.

Pulsade reverse-kicked, her heel making contact with Shimmer's gut.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!" Shimmer bent forward.

Pulsade—teeth gritting—spun around and grabbed the redhead's shoulders. She growled and tossed the girl hard over an eating table.

THWUMP!!!

"Ooof!!" Shimmer tumbled onto the tile floor.

"NNGHH!!" Pulsade performed a flying jump-kick, sailing down at Shimmer heel first.

Shimmer clamped her hands down onto two pieces of tile, converted them into wet towels, and clamped them over the incoming heel of Pulsade. THWAP!!!

"?!?!?!" Pulsade found herself balancing on Shimmer's wet grip.

Shimmer morphed the two tile-towels into an iron ball, effectively closing around Pulsade's foot.

"Bugger!!" TWHOMP!! Pulsade fell over.

"HAAA ha ha ha ha ha HA!!!" Shimmer stood up and shook all over with laughter. "Try breaking a heel in that, you dumb blonde!!! Ha ha ha—"

WHANG!!! Pulsade's iron 'foot' kicked Shimmer across the cheek.

Shimmer stumbled back against a table, reeling.

Pulsade hobbled up and jumped one-legged towards the redhead. "You're really going to fancy it when I shove this thing up your arse!!!!"

Shimmer scowled. "I'm not your girlfriend…." She ripped a stool seat off of its foundation-CRACK-and tossed it at the blonde like a fireball. FWOOOOOM!!!

Pulsade rolled to the side and hobbled again.

Shimmer gritted her teeth, picked up a shattered plank of wood from the tables, and turned it into a blade. She charged with it swinging. "RGHHH!!!"

Pulsade pivoted her upper body and swung her iron-foot up.

CRACK!!!

The blade met the iron ball.

The metal cracked and crumbled away.

Pulsade, with her foot free, used her lower limb to kick off of Shimmer's shoulder, backflip, and land atop a table upon which she reached into her pocket, pulled out a grenade, and tossed it—live—at Shimmer.

Clank!!

FWOOOSH!!!

Shimmer smirked. She angled her blade and glowed a red-orange.

Snkkkt!!! The grenade—now a red apple—stuck on the tip of Shimmer's sword. She lifted the skewered red fruit to her lips and took a bite.

"Mmmmm…..sweet. Looks like you have as much sugar as the spice left, girl!"

Pulsade sweatdropped. "Bloody witch…."

"Ya knowl…," Shimmer tossed the apple away and swallowed. "For an assassin, you sure do an awful lot of talkin'."

"As long as you do an awful lot of dying," Pulsade muttered.

CHIIING!!! Shimmer split the blades in two and positioned herself to strike. "Let's dance." She charged Pulsade. "RAAAUGH!!!"

Pulsade vanished in a flash of light.

"DAMMIT!!" Shimmer ran into the table, tumbled over it, rolled across the tile, and ended up against the yellow-plated wall of the mess hall. CLUMP!!!

FLASH!!

Pulsade appeared a few feet away. "Mind if I lead?"

"AAAAUGH!!" Shimmer shrieked in frustration and tossed the two blades at Pulsade.

The blonde dodged one, vanished, and appeared far away from the second blade.

Shimmer stood up. She found a coil of fire hose on the wall beside her. She smiled.

Pulsade charged with a breath.

Shimmer pulled at the fire hose, formed a lasso, and tossed it at Pulsade. "HA!!"

Pulsade gritted her teeth as the hose rapped around her. "Nnngh…," she growled and prepared to slide out—

FLASH!!!!!

The hose hardened into a branch of pure stone.

"Augh!!" Pulsade found herself in inescapable bondage. She struggled and shook and squirmed in vain to get out of the rock-hard harness.

CHIIING!! Shimmer picked up a fire axe from the same wall. She turned the tip of the axe's blade into flickering flames as she smiled. "Stiff upper lip now…..," she droned. She charged. She swung the axe overhead.

"……..," Pulsade glanced down. One of Shimmer's discarded blades rested on the floor by her feet. Expertly, Pulsade kicked it up.

FW-FW-FWISH!!! The blade spun in the air.

Shimmer came in. Her axe came down.

GRIP!!! Pulsade grabbed the blade, gripped it in two hands, and held it lengthwise above her forehead.

CLANK!!!!!!

Pulsade held the axe away from her head by her blade's pressure against the top of the tool's stem. The unnatural flames of the axe's tip ate down at her blonde head.

Pulsade struggled and sweated.

Shimmer chuckled evilly. "I got you a memo from Hell. They wanted me to tell you they're no tea breaks in the Underworld."

Pulsade murmured. "And to think I was holding off by making a 'septic' joke…….NNNGH!!!"

She shoved against Shimmer's axe.

FWOOSH!!

Shimmer stumbled back.

Pulsade jammed the blade into the rock 'string' of the bonds holding her.

CRACK!!!!

The stone crumbled.

Shimmer swung the axe.

FWOOOSH!!

Pulsade dropped beneath the swing.

Shimmer teetered off balance from the miss.

Pulsade rolled on the ground, squirmed out of the leftover ring of rock, jumped up, and grabbed Shimmer from behind.

"Nnngh!!" the girl struggled.

Pulsade slammed her knee into Shimmer's back.

CLANK!!! She dropped the axe.

Shimmer brought her hands back, gripped Pulsade's shoulders, and flung her over head. WHAM!! "HA!!!"

But Pulsade expected that. Her feet made contact with a string of stools beneath an eating table. She kicked off against them, shoving her weight backwards into Shimmer.

WHUMP!!!

Shimmer tumbled across the floor.

Pulsade nimbly rolled up into a kneeling position, grabbed the axe, and dove at Shimmer.

Shimmer snapped out of it and looked up. Her eyes widened.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! Pulsade spun the axe and brought it down the middle of Shimmer's head. FWOOOOOSH!!!

Shimmer winced.

……

……

Shimmer was still wincing.

And she realized it.

She looked up and gasped to see the tip of the axe's blade stopped no more than a centimeter from her nose.

Pulsade held it in place, glaring down at her.

"You….you….d-didn't….kill me??" Shimmer murmured.

Pulsade stared. She smirked. "I don't fancy an opponent who is merely a brainwashed facsimile of who she once was. Believe it or not, I think people should be _born_ before they actually die." She pulled the axe back, aimed her palm out, and let loose a fluctuating stream of light pulses.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!

Shimmer's eyes dilated…rolled in the back of her head….and the redhead was out cold.

CLANK!!!

Pulsade stood up straight, dropping the axe to the floor.

"There…..sleep well, lass," she ran a hand through her hair. "And when you wake up….Psimon's hand will be gone. The optic stimulation should relieve you of his mental barriers."

She turned and limped towards an exit of the mess hall.

"God, how I hate being a softie. Damn you, Jinx…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heh!! Some freaks you are. WIMPS!!"

WHAM!!!

Disruptor's fist slammed into my gut….again.

I wheezed. I ached all over. There were bruises on my body where the black tank top didn't cover my skin.

All the while—as I would later realize—I was purposefully engaging the all-empowering Disruptor with all I had to offer…which wasn't much. He was beating me senseless on my end of the handcuffs, and yet I kept advancing on him—dizzily even. And perhaps it was because I didn't want anything to happen to the other end of the handcuffs.

"RAAUGH!!" he kicked me in the side.

I tumbled, yanking a grunting Jinx with me. I panted and spit up blood, resting achingly against a golden wall of a hallway strewn with water, pipes, and light fixture fragments.

"I thought that it might be fun to make sport of your skulls….but now I'm having second thoughts," Disruptor grinned. Then the grin fell. "I don't like having second thoughts."

SWOOOSH!! WHAM!!!

His foot made its way into my side.

I coughed and wheezed.

GRIP!!!

He held me up with a glowing arm. Jinx dangled besides me.

"I suppose the rest of H.I.V.E. and Bludhaven and the Fearsome Five softened you up before I could get my hands on you…," Disruptor sneered. "And it's quite a shame. I read up on Wyldecarde since the Headmistress' lecture. I really….really wanted to meet him."

"……..," I stared sickly at him. My shades had a hard time resting on my face.

Disruptor took a breath. He reached his free hand down and gripped Jinx's neck.

"Nnngh!!" she struggled.

With the help of his suit, Disruptor had us both up in a double-choke hold. Our handcuffs dangled between us.

"Well now…..I wonder….," Disruptor's right hand—around Jinx's throat—sapped some of the pink hex from her and throbbed a powerful aura around his figure. "…what should I make out of you two? Carpet or wall paper? Ah Hell…maybe a little bit of both! I've so wanted to change these boring school hallways anyways!"

Jinx wheezed: "You're a real…ch-charmer…."

Disruptor's eyes narrowed. "And you're really screwed…."

His wrist beneath Jinx's throat fluctuated.

I envisioned a pink blade skewering her neck. So from where I dangled…I did the first thing that hit my mind.

WHUMP!!!!!!

"!!!!!" Disruptor's eyes bugged. "Nnnghh!!! Allah almighty!!!"

His legs crossed and he all but fell after my foot made its way to his groin.

I bit my lip.

Sweating, Disruptor glared at me. "You piece of crap…..y-you think something so underhandingly simple as that is gonna stop m---"

THWACK!!!! Jinx's foot slammed into Disruptor's groin too….only four times as hard.

"SNKKKTTT!!" Disruptor went cross-eyed and fell down. THWUMP!!

We were dropped. PL-PLOP!!!

Jinx and I stumbled back and leaned against a wall. Panting.

Disruptor lay curled up on the floor, groaning.

I felt the murk returning to my body. Next to me, Jinx regained her pink glow.

"Whew….," she exhaled.

I looked at Disruptor's hidden groin. I looked at Jinx's foot. I looked at her.

She simpered: "A-Always counts when a _girl_ does it," she said.

I mouthed: _'oh'_.

"Come on!! Your bruises aren't THAT bad!!" she ran down the stairwell, yanking me along with her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran down the hallway. The alarms had stopped for the evacuation, and the hallways were growing empty…save for a random unconscious or dead body of a guard along the way. Robin couldn't tell which bodies were 'corpses' or not.

The Boy Wonder ran past a huge, gaping hole in a wall leading into the laboratories. He headed towards a stairwell. He paused.

"……Raven…."

He turned around.

He ran back to the hole.

He peered in and gasped. "R-Raven!!"

"……," the girl stood.

"…….," Psimon stood.

The two were staring at each other. Still. Comatose almost.

Robin panted. He rushed forward to Raven and nearly gripped her shoulders—but stopped. It clicked in his head. He knew what they were doing. And he remembered the tons of times Raven specifically told him how disastrous it was to disturb anyone engaged in a battle of astral projection…..for all parties involved.

Robin may not mind losing the diabolical Psimon, but there was no way he'd let Raven get extinguished. For his sake as much as the other Titans'.

Robin glanced past Psimon.

He saw Neutron's still body.

"The Hell??" he uttered. A beat. He craned his neck.

There was a whining….whirring sound. It came from the walls of the laboratory itself. Robin felt cool air rushing in at an increasing rate from vents located all around the interior.

"……they wouldn't……," he uttered.

The cold increased. The walls began to shake.

Robin gritted his teeth. "They would……"

Breath started to come out of the occupants' mouths in vapor.

Robin spun to the dark girl. He stood as close as he could to her without touching her meditative body. "Raven!! Raven, this is Robin!! You must end the battle, Raven!! Come out of there!!!"

"………," Raven stared.

"You hear me?!?! Come out, Raven!!! This room is about to become inhospitably cold!! Your body won't survive, Raven!! And your body is just as important as your soul-self right now!!! Come back, Raven!! You must!!!"

"………."

"Come back!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Come back, Raven!! You must!!!"_

_SMACK!!!! _

_Raven's black wing slammed across Psimon's face._

"_**AAUGH!!"**__ Psimon's red body flew through the counter of the kitchen unit and tumbled to a stop behind Starfire. _

_Raven panted._

"_Come back!!!"_

_Raven panted. Her soul-eyes twitched. _

_A fluctuating of her wings._

"_**R-Robin….,"**__ she blinked. __**"…..Th-The Academy!!"**_

"_**RAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!!!"**__ Psimon flew out of the woodwork. _

_Raven braced herse-- _

_WHAM!!!!! _

_Psimon shoved his entire body into the dark girl. The two souls went tumbling in red and black vapors across the Main Room. They flew through Tempest and Beast Boy and wrestled on the floor besides the Titan's Computer. _

_SLAM!!!! Psimon pressed himself on top of Raven and gripped her shoulders with razor sharp claws. _

_SLIIIIINK!!! _

"_**UGGHHH!!!"**__ Raven shrieked. _

_Psimon breathed out blood vapors as he lowered his inhuman astral face to hers. __**"You are still nothing to me. I can't believe I've wasted my soul's time on you!!! I should have just lobotomized you on the spot!!!"**_

_Raven squirmed. She tilted her head back in an expression of pain. Her soul-eyes fluctuated and flickered black. _

_She saw Cyborg's body looming above her. Typing at the Main Computer. Concentrated. 'There'…… _

_Raven clenched her teeth. She reached a black-flickering arm up above her. It merely sank through Cyborg's titanium skin. He typed forth, oblivious. _

_SLIIIIINK!!! _

_Psimon sank his soul-claws deeper._

_  
Raven writhed. _

"_**Your friends are useless to you!!"**__ he hissed at her. __**"Do you know what you are?? You are only half a demon!! Twice as useless!!"**_

_Raven's twitching eyes fell off of Cyborg and rested on Psimon's visage._

"_**I……I….I-I know…e-exactly…what I am….."**_

_Psimon's fiery eyes narrowed. _

_Raven swallowed. __**"I'm a cutie…."**_

_FWOOOOOOOSH!!!! _

_Raven's black, skeleton wings sunk into her back. Her torch-like hands extinguished into spiraling puffs. Her black body relaxed into a petite teenager in a dark leotard and a blue cloak. Her soul self had turned into a perfect, relaxed, meditative facsimile of her physical self. _

_And the end-result of such a transformation—where Psimon was concerned—was a black hole phenomenon. _

_FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!! _

"_**AAAAUGH!!!"**__ Psimon 'plunged' deep and long into the black womb of Raven. The astral plane shattered behind him and he was rocketing further and further through black clouds at a million miles per second towards an infinitesimal nub of sentience that was the leftover fragments of Azarath encased in Raven's soul-self. Soon he was soaring through cosmos and pinprick stars and galaxy clusters. Then a huge halo of limbo where gray rocks and planes of stone were hung in perfect black. Psimon was soaring over craggy landscapes and dead trees till he found himself zooming into a trench that got darker and darker and ended in a frozen pit where an iron wrought cage rested with rattling chains. SWIIIISH!!! Psimon plunged into the cage, the darkest spot in the world, and it was there that he saw lights. Red lights. Four of them._

_Eyes…… _

_Eyes and teeth in the dark. _

_Swallowing Psimon's face._

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!"

Psimon suddenly came alive. His bulbous eyes exploded and he clutched his cranium as his brain tissue throbbed and visible cracks formed spider webs in his glass dome of a skull. _Snnkkkktt!!_

Robin jumped, startled.

Psimon stumbled backwards. Took a deep breath. And let it out again.

"AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" He fell on his knees then toppled back in a convulsing, twitching fetal position.

Robin panted.

He faced the comatose Raven. Frost was forming on his bangs. "Now, Raven!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_He's down!! Psimon is down!! Come out now!!"_

_Raven lay panting on the floor of the Tower's Main Room. Panting. _

_She took a deep breath, flexed her soul-fingers meditatively, and chanted. _

_A beat. _

_She flicked her wrists to her side and strained her 'forehead'. _

_FWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!_

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!!!!_

_  
She rocketed out of the Tower in a 'lying down' position. She flew through the walls, over the Bay, over forests, the Metropolitan Highway, more forests, river rapids, Blue Pine, hills and peaks, the City of Bludhaven. Through the earth, through the asphalt, through golden hexagons, through the tiers of the Academy, into the darkness—_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--and into the arms of Robin.

THWUMP!!! She hung limp in his grip with a groan.

Robin gritted his teeth, repositioned Raven in his arms, and rushed out the freezing laboratory with her.

The walls shook.

The vents exhaled.

Psimon gasped, his lips turning blue and black.

Bulbous eyes slowing down.

"N-No….."

Frost formed on his cheeks.

"N-Not stasis….," he whimpered. "Death….P-Please….Death….."

And he was under a blanket of exploding frost.

PHWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!! Everything in the laboratory instantly froze as the coolant reserves exploded inside.

Outside in the hallway, Robin was running desperately down the hallway with a literal wave of cold at his heels. He panted as he trucked Raven up a stairwell and onto the next stairwell. At one point, he was yanked back.

"Nnngh!!" He looked back.

His cape was frozen stuck to the frosting wall.

"Nnnnghhh!!!" Robin struggled. He held Raven up with one hand and growled as he swung his other down at his own cape. "HiYAAA!!"

SHATTER!!!

The frozen cape broke into a hundred shards.

Robin freed himself and dragged Raven safely up the rest of the stairs and out of the range of the rapid freezing coolant.

Once in a warm enough place, he laid Raven down and folded the corners of her blue cloak protectively around her to provide insulation. He then yanked his green gloves off and rubbed his palm up and down her thighs and shoulders and limbs to provide friction and ensure she was warm.

"Raven….speak to me…..you made it back, right? Raven?? Can you hear me??"

"Nnngh….," she stirred. Her brow scrunched up. "Advil…."

Robin blinked beneath his eyemask. "Huh?"

"C-Could use some Advil….," she murmured.

Robin bit his lip. "Uhm….I don't carry that in my utility belt."

"I know, Robin….and I know better than to ask," she groaned and tried sitting up.

Robin knelt down and held her secure. "Easy there…….That was very brave of you. Psimon was the most dangerous of our potential enemies here. Only you could have taken him down….though I wish you didn't do it so dangerously."

"I know, Robin," Raven nodded. "Remind me to thank Cyborg later…."

Robin leaned his head to the side. "Cyborg?? F-For what??"

She sighed. "N-Never mind." She kept her weary eyes shut and pointed down with her finger. "They're down there."

"Who are?" Robin asked. A beat. His lips parted. "Jinx….Noir…."

She nodded.

"How're you able to detect their spirits so easily now??"

She smirked ever so slightly. "I-I just came back from some exercise…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I walked down a lone hallway. The guards were gone. Those who were still alive fled to evacuation points along with the students and headmasters. We weren't entirely sure if we would still find the one we were looking for….or who Jinx was looking for.

The lights flickered once.

And…..

It snowed.

"……..," I stopped and glanced up.

"……..," Jinx looked up.

Down through the cracks and ventilation ducts of the Fourth Tier floorway, flakes of frost descended. A coolness filled the air as the white specks drifted down all around us. It was eerily magical.

A beat.

Jinx and I looked at each other.

"……."

We proceeded ahead….towards the one conspicuous set of doors standing in our path. A large room separated by a huge, hexagonal frame. The last place the Headmistress could be.

CHIIIIING!!! I pulled Myrkblade out.

FLASH!!! Jinx prepared a hex of pink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the stone-carved cavern…a single gray soul sat slumped in the desk chair facing away from the door. Breaths of vapor betrayed the Headmistress' location. The room was dark.

Then….

FL-FLASH!!!

_**CLANG!!!!**_

The huge hexagonal door fell down flat.

Jinx leapt in.

I was yanked along with her, holding Myrkblade at ready.

"………." I could see perfectly in the dark room. And I could see that Jinx and I were perfectly not at risk.

_What's going on here??_

Jinx stepped forward, leading the way.

"We found you….," she said firmly towards the back of the chair. "…..there's no where to run. You're coming with Pulsade and I. We're going to have some chats. Some educating conversations. Then everything will be cool."

"…………"

"HELLO?!?!?!"

"……..w-will everything….b-be cool, Jean??"

Jinx stopped. She looked confused. "Huh??"

The chair slowly turned around.

The Headmistress looked at us with sad eyes. She had a gun to her head. Vapors came in and out of her nostrils slowly.

I gritted my teeth. Every muscle in my body tensed….just in case.

Jinx held a pink hex up high, eyeing the gun from afar.

Silence.

The Headmistress rested the barrel of the gun to her temple as she murmured: "I was wrong….I was wrong, Jean…."

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "Wrong about what?"

"Red Aviary….," she murmured. "I-I thought I knew what it was. Psimon thought I knew what it was. But I didn't know anything. Not until now. Not until this moment."

"………."

She inhaled. "Red Aviary is when everything you hope or dream for comes collapsing down. Yes, it means 'Destruction'. But Destruction is relative to each and every one of us. Red Aviary won't just strike down this part of the globe. It won't just strike down the Titans. It will kill each and every one of us at some point in time or another. Being alive…this is inevitable for all of us. But events….strange events that are at play….they are rushing Red Aviary into fruition. Destruction is paying us a visit years earlier than expected. And today….today my beautiful, beautiful school….," she gestured with a limp, free hand. "It is falling apart. Years of betrayal and insidious plots have ripped it asunder from the inside out. Everything I have ever worked for….all of my hard work…it is all for nothing. It is all collapsing. It is all meeting its destructive ends."

A beat.

She exhaled. "Some of us can't wield Fate, Jinx." A pause. "Many of us are merely subject to its whim. W-We do not have your sort of luxury."

Jinx's eyes narrowed.

FLASH!!!!!!

SWIIIIIIISH!!! A pink hex flew.

CLANK!! It struck the gun out of the Headmistress' hand.

BANG!!!!!

The bullet streamed over her head, lopping off a few gray hairs off her scalp.

I winced.

FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!! The pistol spun the air—CLANK!!—landed on the floor, and slid across the metal to a stand-still.

The Headmistress slumped further back in her chair, shaking.

Jinx panted. Her glowing hand outstretched.

"…….," I was still.

The frost caught up with the vents. It snowed lightly in the huge chamber of the Headmistress. Tiny flakes of white drifted down.

Jinx swallowed and kept frowning at the Headmistress. "I hate you……you and people like you. I hate people….people wh-who….who complain about FATE!!!!" Jinx's teeth clenched and her voice squealed echoingly across the chamber. A beat. She shrieked on: "Fate this!! Fate that!! 'Jinx can wield the hands of fate'!! 'Jinx knows all about fate'!!! 'Oh I wish I had that model student's touch of witchery and magic'!!!" Jinx's right fist clenched next to mine. "Don't you realize that I'm subject to fate too?!?! But for me, it's not at the end of the road!! It's at the damn beginning!!!!"

The Headmistress' eyes fell to her desk. She took a deep breath.

Jinx shook all over. "You….Psimon…Dagger…you _robbed_ me of whatever life I could have had much less had victimized to Destruction like any other normal human being!! You reprogrammed me from the get go to be something evil and wicked and vicious and full of hate so that at this point in my pathetic life I don't know what else to be!!!!" She pulled at her nonexistent, pink har….nearly hyperventilating. "Do you have any idea….any CLUE….how much I've wanted to be a _good person?!?!?!"_

I looked at Jinx silently.

The Headmistress avoided her cat-eyed gaze however….

Jinx panted. Heaved. And shouted: "Sometimes I wish I was dead!!!" She took a deep breath. She shouted again: "Sometimes I wish….I wish I could find out about Red Aviary not to prevent it…but _to dive right into it!!!!!"_ She ran a hand over her face, shuddered, and groaned: "I'm not doing this for the Titans. I'm not doing this for Slade. I'm not doing this for you, or Psimon, or even Leslie!!!" She clenched her teeth and shook her fists. "I'm doing this for myself!!!! Because I want an end to myself!!! Because the only 'me' I'll ever have a chance of knowing from hereon out is some damn 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive' poster in some crummy alleyway of an abandoned street!!!"

Silence.

Frost collected slowly on the cold floor.

When I exhaled, I saw my breath. And I almost didn't realize that my metal arm was giving me the shivers.

_Red Aviary……_

Jinx panted. "I always thought….that it was just poetic….to say….t-to say that some of us are b-born evil. But I know it's true. I was born evil, Headmistress. I was born evil because of you…."

A beat.

The Headmistress tilted her head up. Quite calmly she uttered: "I suppose that now….now there are no more reasons for me to fear telling you the truth, Jinx…."

Jinx raised an eyebrow.

I gazed across the way through my shades.

The Headmistress took a breath and said: "You were not born evil, Jinx. You chose what you became ahead of time."

"…….."

"You were one of the Founders, Jinx."

Jinx's lips parted.

"You were one of the Founders….."

I glanced at the pink-haired witch.

The girl quivered. She muttered: "I…..I-I was one of the Founds….o-of H.I.V.E.???"

The Headmistress slowly nodded.

"But….B-But that's impossible!!" Jinx frowned. "The Founders created H.I.V.E. over sixty years ago!! I'm not in my seventies, you dumbass!!"

"I know you don't look it, Jinx. I'm not denying that."

"…….."

The Headmistress gestured towards the venting flakes of frost from above. "Do you know where this snow is coming from, Jinx?"

"……," the girl stared upwards.

"Someone has vented the coolant reserves of this Academy. Every Academy has such reserves on hand. It's enough to freeze half of this Hemisphere's crops over a summertime."

Jinx blinked. "But….why?"

The Headmistress finally leaned forward from across the way. "Frozen stasis. Suspended animation."

"…….."

"You are a relic, Jinx……a piece of our Founders….preserved through time."

My brow furrowed.

"I….I….," Jinx murmured.

The Headmistress gestured: "Sixty-Two years ago…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…_your real name was the same then as it was now. Jean Jenkins. You were only twelve years old at the time. But you were a warrior……"_

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!!

A petite girl with cascading, pink hair burst into the room in a black jumpsuit. Besides her were two older women also in black. They were armed with daggers.

An apartment room full of mafia thugs jumped up from chairs, tables, and other gathering spots. They rushed to their weapons…

The pink-haired girl shrieked and launched a wave of pink light.

FLASH!!!

The hex bolt slammed into the floor, opening a gash in the structure that sent two mobsters plunging bloodily three stories below. CRUNCH!!!

The two women flung their daggers, ripping into the hands of men trying to grab their pistols.

SWIIISH-THUNK!!! THUNK!!!

"AUGH!!!"

"AHHH!!!"

Two mobsters rushed in with Tommy Guns.

The girl ran forward, performed somersaults, flipped over a table and flew at the men with arms outstretched.

FLAAAAASH!!!

Pinx hex ripped through their torsos, coming out the other side in a splash of red.

They screamed and fell down, their fingers closing onto the triggers of their Tommy Guns in a death grip. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!! The bullets streamed across the room and ripped through the bodies of three other mobsters, falling them.

SWIIIISH!!! THUNK!!! Daggers from the black-clad women flew into the necks of a few retreating cowards.

The girl with pink hair perched herself on a back of a chair, panting in bloodlust. She glanced down a hallway.

A man with a shotgun and two with pistols thundered down towards her. BLAM!!! BANG!! BANG!!

The girl kicked off the chair, swung on a chandelier, and flipped her body towards the ground. She scampered towards the men on all fours.

The first man reloaded his shotgun, and took aim. BLAM!!!

In a pink stream, the girl jumped off the wall, bounced off the ceiling, and slammed into his chest….grounding him. THWUMP!!!

The two men in the back aimed their pistols at the girl's face at point blanc.

She shrieked and unleashed two huge slices of pink up into the men's groins.

FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

Blood flew. The men fell down, howling in pain.

The girl brushed the blood off her brow and ran down the hallway.

The man with the shotgun sat up and aimed at her---SWIIISH-THUNK!!! A dagger embedded into the back of his neck. He fell back down, convulsing on the floor.

The girl bounded down the hallway. She approached a huge, wooden door at the end. She kicked it open with a pink charged foot.

CRACK!!!!

The frame fell loose.

The girl ducked into the bedroom.

A woman in the bed shrieked and covered herself up.

A shirtless man with slick black hair jumped out of the bed and towards a revolver on the windowsill.

The girl's cat eyes glowed a hot pink. She produced a huge charge in her hands and unleashed the bolt. "HAAAA!!!"

TWHOOOOOOSH!!! It flew into the man's chest and exploded, revealing cracked ribs and leaking lung matter. He dropped his gun. His eyes rolled back. He fell back and through the window. SMASH!!!!

Glass flew.

The woman in bed screamed.

The girl with pink hair marched slowly towards the shattered window. She peered down and saw the man's crumpled, bloody body lying limp on the sidewalk of the Bludhaven streets below. Hair blew at her cascading threads…

"_You were more menacing than people twice your age. You demanded respect. And in the City of Bludhaven, you took your claim. You slaughtered the leaders of organized crime in the sister city to Gotham one at a time. McGinnis. Tinteretti. Nicolai. Even the forefathers of Rupert Thorne himself. And after the death of the last drug and embezzlement cartel in Bludhaven, the Underworld only had you and the Founders to answer two. You took advantage of that power, Jean. And with that power, you created the Hierarchy for International Vengeance and Extermination. A criminal organization……formed from the very scum of society……and yet built upon a sense of organization, commitment, and structural unity."_

The woman in bed kept screaming.

The girl turned and looked at her. Pink cat eyes glaring. With a flick of her wrist, a pink hex flew and the woman stopped screaming. The sheets were bathed in red.

FLASH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flakes of frost fell around the Headmistress' face. Her eyes were strangely darker than normal as she continued speaking.

"But you did not have a promise to see much further into the growth of H.I.V.E. Your powers were remarkable…goddesslike….but at the same time, gravely misunderstood. The Founders grew to realize that their youngest and most talented member was experiencing terrible side effects to her fateful mutation. Dizzy spells. Vomiting. A failing cardiovascular system. Tendency to hallucinate. Your body was falling apart, Jean. It was if the universe knew it had goofed in making someone so in tune to the wills of Fate…that it tried to silence her. But the Founders would not have anything of it…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_They teamed up with the Obsidian League……an ancient incarnation of Intergang. The Obsidian League used the funds donated them by H.I.V.E.'s early exploits in Bludhaven to create a chryo-chamber that could encase the most valuable Founder in a sleeping, frozen stasis……"_

In the dark laboratories of an underground Academy, the Founders gathered around a black metal tube connected to giant tanks of hissing, steaming chemicals. Two women in black with daggers hanging around their waist held the hands of the petite girl inside the sleeping chamber. The pink-eyed girl stared up at them…weakly. She smiled before resisting a moistness erupting in her eyes. Soon she was lying back in the chamber as a pale scientist laboriously closed it with an ear-numbing hiss.

"_But before you were put away, Jean……you discussed with your partners the risky nature of your endeavors. The frozen sleep was meant to give your system a rest…a chance to……reboot or reset itself, if you may. Your powers were rocketing your psyche a hundred years into the future, but your body had to catch up. Scientists of the Obsidian League estimated that decades would be needed to fix yourself properly. But at the same time—such an elongated process would not be without its own side effects. You would lose your memory. You would lose your body's chance to develop one hundred percent properly. But……you would still retain your powers. Your talent. Your finesse for fate. And to undergo such an arduous, amnesiac process—you and the Founders decided at the time—was the lesser of two evils."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yes, Jean," the Headmistress nodded gently. "You were destroyed from the beginning. Fate had played its game with you at the beginning of the road. But it was you who decided which road that would be. And long ago—you yourself decided—that if indeed you woke up without your memory, then it would be in the hands of the chief headmasters and headmistresses of H.I.V.E. to decide what method would be used to utilize your talent upon the moment it was safe for you to awaken. Over sixty years passed. There were many executive leaders of H.I.V.E….all of them trying to follow in the footsteps of the Founders. But it was I who had the pleasure and honor of seeing to your resurrection, Jean. When Dagger's technicians determined your body was restored, I had you unfrozen. And I had Psimon provide the mental incentive that you would have approved of so long ago. You became Jinx. A pink shadow of her former self…but no less powerful and no less gifted."

The Headmistress' eyes fell some.

She continued: "But if I had any clue that Psimon would have ultimately used you as a tool to strip this very Academy down….or that Dagger and Slade also had plans for taking advantage of you. If I knew all of that, Jean, I would have gladly given you up to the next generation of executives to truly take responsibility for you. It is an atrocity what has been done to you….the greatest Founder. And that is why I know….Red Aviary has come to claim us all. For I see you collapsing, Jean."

The snow flakes fell.

The air was stingingly cold.

My arm shivered.

_Red Aviary……_

"I see you collapsing….and that is part of what confirms the Red Hell about to consume everything around us," the Headmistress murmured. "I would hate to see the Earth bleed now…..after this….after all this….."

Silence.

"………………………," Jinx lowered her eyes. Jinx sighed.

The Headmistress leaned her head to the side. "You……don't remember, do you?"

"…………………………"

"Or maybe it's that……you simply do not choose to believe me, Jean……"

"…………………………," Jinx's hand moved over her chest.

I craned my neck.

She pulled the pendant with the 'sisters' faces on it and clutched the heirloom gently.

A beat.

"I…….," Jinx murmured so quietly that I wondered if the Headmistress could even hear her.

But I could.

"I…..I don't know what to believe in anymore…..," Jinx uttered. Her eyes were still stuck as she gently shook her face. "I know that….th-that there are people….who I-I think I l-l-love……and then…th-there are people that….I think I hate……"

A beat.

"But I know one thing for sure. One thing for absolute clarity." She opened her eyes and they were wet. She frowned at the Headmistress. "I kn-know that I will not kill you….."

"…………..," the Headmistress stared back.

"I know….that I will n-not end your life…..," Jinx's teeth clenched and the next words were hissed out. "Like I **should**. Like I **want to**."

A beat.

A tear streamed down Jinx's right cheek. "In all my so-called life….all that I can remember….now is the only time that I've stopped wanting to kill people. Or hurt people. Or manifest my anger and frustration for things real or unreal. I ch-choose not to kill anymore….and I-I choose life…..b-b-because that is the ONLY way I can ever cheat Fate now. I can only cheat Fate by doing the most futile thing. Trying to preserve myself and preserve others. I-I choose not to kill you, Headmistress. Regardless of whether or not that's what the real 'me' would do. I'm going to track down Red Aviary….and I'm doing to do the impossible. And if Fate chooses me to die for trying…then so be it. Because that is who I am. I have the capacity….the maturity….and the gall to _change_." She pointed and heaved. "And **you**….you self-righteous _bitch!!_ You are coming with us!! So leave your crappy tears and sighs behind with your **stupid** Academy!!!"

"…………..," the Headmistress' slowly nodded.

Jinx took a deep breath. She tugged at me and my handcuffs. "C'Mon, Ghost Boy….round 'er up."

I shakingly nodded and walked forward with Jinx to the desk. The Headmistress didn't protest as Jinx and I lifted her from the chair, forced her arms together, and tied her wrists with a string from Jinx's jacket pocket. As we lead her out the huge office chamber, I couldn't help but look quietly at Jinx. And as soon as I did, she muttered:

"You know why I brought you along now, don't you Ghost Boy?"

"……"

"In spite of anything I could have said earlier?"

"….."

Jinx sighed and stared at her feet as we walked the Headmistress along.

"I…..I didn't know if I was strong enough to change after all, Ghost Boy. So I needed you. I needed you along for the ride so that you could…..c-could keep me from de-evolving."

I leaned my head to the side.

She looked at me with a sick smile. "You could keep me from killing."

I slowly nodded.

_I understand completely…… _

_The double jinx._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAUGH!!! Get back here you little computer stain!!!"

FWOOOOOOSH!!! Gizmo rocketed down the yellow hallway. "Yeah….sure….NOT!! Screw this!! I'm out of here, ya stupid throw rug!! I don't care if Psimon lobotomizes me for going AWOL! As long as it means me getting away from your PMSing ASS!!!"

The boy genius kicked his thrusters into a higher intensity and sped towards the exit.

Mammoth growled and chased him on two meaty legs. "Did I say you could run off?!?!" He ran past a door to the mess hall. "How dare you not give a flip about Selinda!!!" A beat. Mammoth turned and stomped back to the door. "Selinda!!!!"

Shimmer lay still on the floor.

Mammoth rushed in and cradled her. "Sis!! Yoohoo!! What happened to you??"

"Nnnngh….," the redheaded girl stirred in his huge grasp. She fluttered her eyes open and gazed at him wearily. "B-Baran??"

Mammoth blinked…then smiled. "Jeez….Sis. You've not called me by my real name in ages."

"I…..I…….wh-what am I doing here??" Selinda murmured. She glanced across the wrecked mess hall. "I…….Psimon……..th-the prison…."

"Uhm….don't you remember?" Mammoth uttered.

"………."

Mammoth sweatdropped. "Uhh….Say! I know!"

"Know what?"

"Let's get out of here!"

"Where's here??"

"Come on!!" he carried his weary sister and ran happily out into the hallway. "I'll get us out of the Academy!!"

"Who's us???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere deep in the recesses of the Academy's fourth Tier, one last tramline had an escape car waiting in the long tunnel.

Whistling, Damien Darhk waltzed into the tramline with a briefcase. He opened the aluminum door, sat inside the capsule on wheels, and shut it behind himself. He pushed a lever, and the car started to roll along the tramline. He leaned back and casually examined the splash of blood on his shirt.

"Heh…," he breathed.

The car rolled along.

He leaned back with his arms behind his head.

"Gotta remember to hold the gun out a little further away next time….."

The grinning man was soon gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin…," Raven grunted as she leaned against the Boy Wonder's shoulder. "I think I can move on my own now…."

"Just a little further," Robin said as he hobbled the two down the golden hallway. "I'll find a nice place for you to relax—safe from straggling guards and students—while I go to track down Jinx and Noir on my own—"

"Robin, they're heading back towards the surface."

"……," he glanced at her. "They are?"

She nodded. "Yes," she droned. "And they have the Headmistress with them."

Robin blinked behind his mask. "You….sense all that?"

"Right now I do," Raven said. "We should go up to the surface to intercept them if we don't want to lose Noir once and for all."

Robin exhaled. "Man….too bad you aren't this sensitive all the time. It could help Cyborg and I find the remote back at the Tower."

"A remote doesn't have a soul, Robin—"

"I was joking, Raven."

"Blah."

"Come on….," Robin positioned their path and lead them up a nearby stairwell. "Let's go…."

The two wandered off.

A beat.

A very long beat.

Flash!!

Pulsade appeared, leaning against a wall.

"Hmmmm….."

A pause.

The assassin's lip curved ever so slightly in the corner. "Guess it was over before it even started…."

She followed the two Titans—invisibly—in their ascent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!!!!

I kicked open a metal trap door. I poked my head out.

An abandoned parking lot of urban, Bludhaven sprawl spread out before us. The sky was a dull overcast. I couldn't tell what time of the day it was….or if it even was frickin' day or not.

_Don't you love this city??_

I ducked back down. A few seconds passed….then the Headmistress was heaved up and onto the surface.

"Oof!!" she exclaimed.

I jumped up after her, then pulled Jinx up behind me.

"Nnngh…," she gained her footing.

The two of us stood up and hoisted the Headmistress to her feet alongside us.

"Okay….now to the rendezvous point," Jinx panted.

I glanced at her.

_Rendezvous point??_

"That's where Leslie will be…by the middle bridge of this City's river."

My brow furrowed.

_And exactly when the Hell am I out of these handcuffs??_

"JINX!! FREEZE!!!"

The Headmistress gasped.

Jinx produced a glowing hand of pink.

I instinctively whipped Myrkblade out—CHIIIING—and spun around at ready.

I gasped too.

Robin and Raven stood fifty feet to our side….where another trap door from the mostly 'concealed' laboratory resided.

_Robin and Raven!!!!_

Robin had a fan of birdarangs at his disposal. Raven was levitating with a bright gray glow.

"We've come to get you, Noir!!" Robin pointed with a free hand while he readied the batarangs. "Jinx! Release him this instant!!!"

Jinx panted. She leaned in to me. "Think your friends could be a little…..less 'friendly' right now?"

I bit my lip.

She sweatdropped. "We're kinda sorta at the end of all this and—"

"Look alive, gunkeaters!!!"

"?!?!?!"

"!!!!!!!"

"?????"

We all spun and looked above and behind us.

Gizmo hovered with two missile salvos ready to land on Jinx, the Headmistress, and I.

"Gizmo!! Stay out of this!!" Robin shouted.

"You're as much of a threat as they are at this point!" Raven added. She pointed her glowing wrists for emphasis. "Back off or we'll force you to!!"

"Uh uh!! Not today, scraplickers!!" he pointed a red-laser targeting system at the three of us. "I ain't forgotten what Jinx did to Mammoth and me back at Westhaven!! Before I leave…I think it's best I send you a message!! A message full of fire and frickin' shrapnel!!"

A shrill whistling sound.

"?!?!?!?!" we all glanced over.

Besides the huge, gaping hole of the Academy…a bruised Disruptor and Deuce stood. Deuce flipped a rapier in one hand and frowned. Disruptor stood cross-legged, managing barely to summon a huge glow of frightening red.

"Yo!! The pink haired bitch and the samurai dude goes with us!! That is to say…we're tossing 'em into Hell if we can help it!!!"

"Uh uh!! I found them first, losers!!" Gizmo shouted. He aimed one salvo so that it pointed at Disruptor and Deuce, then split that one even more so that missiles aimed at Raven and Robin too. "I'll blast anyone who gets in my way!!"

Deuce gritted her teeth. "Try us, squirt!!!"

"You're all under arrest!!" Robin shouted. "All of you!!!"

Raven cleared her throat. "Uhm……Robin?"

"WHAT?!?!"

"Shitheads!! Over here!!!"

Again, everyone turned to look.

Fifty beat-up Bludhaven gang members had gathered at the end of the parking lot with two pickup trucks, bats, machetes, and a handful of ballistic weaponry. They looked injured, pissed, and full of bloodlust.

"Them two!! The pink and dark one over there!!" One pointed with a snarl.

"They're coming with us."

"We're gonna finish them off reallllll slow!!!"

"Yeah!!!"

"Skin 'em alive!!!"

"You'll back off if you know what's good for you!!" Disruptor cackled.

"The whole butt-sniffing lot of you will burn for all I care!!" interjected Gizmo.

"Everyone!!" Raven shouted. "Control your emotions!!"

"Shut the Hell up, ya wyrdoes!!!"

"We're tossing their guts all over Main Street tonight!!!"

"YEAH!!! BLOODY BLUDHAVEN!!! HA!!"

"You will do nothing of the sort!! Back off….or else!!!"

"You're a fruitbasket, kid!! Hand us over those two and we'll be easy on you!!"

"Yeah right!!"

"HA!!"

"For the last time…….BACK OFF!!!"

"YOU PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!!!"

"Make us!!!"

"Say goodbye to your natural souls, booger brains!! On the count of ten!!!"

"Don't do it, Gizmo!!!"

"No! No! Let him!! I want to see him **try**!!"

"Nine!!!"

"Gizmo. My birdarang. Your forehead. Not a good equation."

"Robin…think of a way to get Noir out of here—"

"Y'ALL SHUT UP!!! Deuce, bend their vision or something!!"

"I-I can't! There's too many of them!!"

"Eight!!!"

"Damn straight! And there's more where we come from!!"

"I'll take the whole City down!!!"

"You just try that, asshole!!!"

"Seven!!"

Everyone and everything was shouting and bickering and threatening on four sides of us. The air stirred with their voices and became a numb soup within which I was suspended. And I found my gaze drifting away from the throng of angry gang members….past the lovely vision of Robin and Raven—my friends…..far away from Disruptor and Deuce….past Gizmo's floating form….away from the cowering Headmistress….and onto Jinx.

"……"

Everything seemed to slow down as I stared at her….but not so much her. But at what was hanging from her. From her neck.

The pendant.

Opened.

The faces.

The two girls.

Fate and Fortune.

Faye and Fiona.

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

'_And I know what I exist for. I knew it the very moment Slade's bullet flew into my chest and nearly punctured my skin. I knew it the very moment you drove that sword through him. Everything….melted in my head. And there was nothing to fight for anymore….because I was already all that I would ever be. There's no conflict. No dichotomy.'_

"………," I exhaled. The sound of my own breath was deafening under the chaos.

'_But the difference between me and the Third Apprentice is……..I know that it's all for nothing. And I feel bad. And that feeling of b-badness seals me into this existence.'_

The wheels turned in my head. It spun more than the screaming world surrounding us. Robin and Raven shouting for order. Disruptor and Deuce making threats. The gang members hooting and hollering. Gizmo counting down.

'_To be honest…..I wouldn't even mind if….I dunno…..if the sky fell at the end of this trip. If Red Aviary turns out to be the final curtains. My own destruction. Whatever. I….I just want to stop feeling guilty….f-for everything.'_

My eyes further narrowed on the pendant. The faded photographs. The sisters who were….who weren't…._who are……_

"_Sometimes I wish….I wish I could find out about Red Aviary not to prevent it…but to dive right into it!!! I'm not doing this for the Titans. I'm not doing this for Slade. I'm not doing this for you, or Psimon, or even Leslie!!! I'm doing this for myself!!!! Because I want an end to myself!!! Because the only 'me' I'll ever have a chance of knowing from hereon out is some damn 'Wanted: Dead Or Alive' poster in some crummy alleyway of an abandoned street!!!"_

For seconds that were hours, I stared at the pendant. And when my eyes traveled up some…I realized that Jinx was looking at me the entire time. Gazing up into my eyes without her Cheshire grin but still with her pink cat eyes. And she didn't frown and she didn't smile. She just waited…and gazed….as if she knew exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I was going to do when I found it.

And I did.

The standoff surrounding us shouted.

The clouds sighed.

I felt a shift in the weight of our handcuffs….and then the weight was no more.

Because I had turned to steam and teleported my arm out from the handcuffs.

FLASH!!!!!

People gasped.

The Headmistress recoiled.

Jinx's eyes widened.

FLASH!!!!

I solidified.

The handcuffs dangled loosely off Jinx's right hand.

The sensor on their link-chain beeped.

And blinked.

And beeped…..

And blinked……

FW-FW-FWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade with my right hand.

And…

With my left hand I grabbed Jinx's pendant and yanked--

SNAP!!!!

I grabbed it.

I tossed the two sisters up into the air.

FWOOOOSH!!!

I ended the twirl of Myrkblade and swung upwards….knocking the pendant high up…up….up like a ballistic cricket ball.

_CLANK!!!!!_

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Jinx stared up at the distant image of pendant. Her lips pursed and her cat eyes were wide.

So did everyone else look up.

Everyone except me.

I gazed at the floor and covered my eyes to avoid any visual contact with the airborne pendant.

_Because that's where the carbonite is………_

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

A huge, pulsating, mushroom cloud of an explosion went off brightly above us at one hundred and fifty feet. A ceiling of fire spread out and descended in a frothing, crimson blanket of combusted carbonite.

And just about everyone but me was blinded.

I opened my eyes, panted, and leapt--

Going into action.

I pounced on Gizmo first.

FWOOOOSH-WHAP!!!

"AUGH!!" the hovering boy genius cackled.

I twirled Myrkblade while balancing on his hovering little shoulders. I then stabbed my sword into the center of his jetpack.

CRKKKK!!! _ZZZZZZT!!!_

The device sparked and lost its propulsion. It fell hard to the ground. And Gizmo fell twice as hard as I vaulted myself off of him into a backflip.

THWUMP!!! "OOF!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!!! I backflipped murkingly across the burning landscape. I heard two spinning birdarangs sing past my air in mid-descent and collide with the skulls and torsos of Disruptor and Deuce on the otherside of the blinded standoff.

CLANG!!! "OOF!!!"

WHANG!! "AUGH!!"

"RAVEN!!!" Robin's voice shouted. "SHIELD!!!!"

A dark dome exploded above me and combated with the descending flame.

At the same time, I descended with a curtain of surviving embers and sparks, twirled my body in the air, gritted my teeth, and slashed Myrkblade down in a smoking pulse of power towards the full line of fifty or so gang members.

SLAAAAAAAAASH!!!!

I came down with a fountain of murk shooting outward.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!!! Four solid columns of gang members fell down from the force of my downswing. The others cowered and jumped to avoid the licking flames not caught by Raven's shield.

Not a second too later, I spun around—sweating—and blurred towards the center where Jinx was.

The pink-haired, petite girl could sparsely turn and stop me as--

FWOOOOOSH!!!

--I blurred by and snatched up the Headmistress, hurrying her over to the Titans' side.

Jinx merely stared….until her figure was hidden from view by the clash of black telekinesis and flame.

FLASH!!!!

I skidded to a stop between Raven and Robin and set the exhausted Headmistress down.

"Noir!!" Robin panted as he pulled out a fresh batch of birdarangs. "Hang tight!! We gotta clear these gang members out—"

A flash of pink.

"?!?!?!" Sweating, I spun around and looked with desperate, black eyes.

Jinx was gone.

A pink streak was rushing towards the distant river-side.

FWOOOOOSH!! I blurred after her.

Robin extended a hand. "NOIR!!!"

FLASH!!! I broke through Raven's black dome and teleported through the carbonite flames beyond.

Raven's forehead tensed as she spoke in the middle of excessive meditation: "I've got ….the H.I.V.E. suspects….a-are safe from….the gang…."

"Then float them to someplace safe!!" Robin shouted as he whipped out his staff and went in pursuit of me. "B-Bring them back to where Bumblebee and Charger are!!"

"Yeah sure…whatever….," Raven strained.

The Boy Wonder ran out from under the dome and sprinted as fast as he could. In the distance, gang members ran—screaming—back towards the center of Bludhaven.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted…panted…panted…

The grimy river in the center of Bludhaven came into view.

And at the same time, so did the gliding, pink figure of Jinx.

A bridge loomed in the distance.

The rendezvous point.

I blurred my legs faster.

Murk aided my cause.

As I caught up with her, she merely came to a stop…right at the water's edge.

_Giving up??_

"You……Y-You got me, Ghost Boy….," she murmured.

I slowed to a steady pace and came to a stop behind her.

Staring.

"……."

She hung her head. Her gaze and spirit was as limp as the dead handcuffs on her right wrist.

"You got me……."

She slowly turned around.

Sad cat eyes.

Sad, but knowing.

"I….I sorta expected this too."

"………."

"I just…..just wanted someone to understand. Me….you….somebody….."

She hugged herself.

A beat.

She ran a hand over her short, pink head.

"I've been…..s-so selfish. This has been all about me. N-Not Red Aviary. Not the lives lost at the prison. Not—"

Cl-Clank!!

Something had fallen at Jinx's feet.

"……..??" She bent over and picked it up.

It was a keycard. A keycard with the Headmistress' face.

"This……Th-This is a security clearance card…..," her lips parted. She stared at me in shock. "Every headmaster and headmistress wears one of these. B-But….I never told you sh-she had this on her! I….I-I didn't even know how she had it on her!! Th-This could help Pulsade and I dig into H.I.V.E.'s information afterall! How….H-How did you….."

A beat.

She stared at me.

I stared back at her.

Silence.

"Why……..," she took a deep breath. "Wh-Why did you do it?"

"………….," I smiled.

_Some of us are born evil._

I exhaled.

_But some of us die good._

Jinx bit her lip and tried to resist the Cheshire grin….but she failed. "You're nuts, Ghost Boy. I'm going to have to beat you up for this someday."

I nodded.

_God, I hate you so much……_

And I smiled some more.

Jinx took a deep breath, turned around, and ran under the bridge.

A beat.

FLASH!!!

A figure appeared on the bridge. A figure in white with a sniper rifle aimed at my chest.

"………," I stared up at Pulsade.

The British blonde's hair flickered in the wind. She lowered the sight of the sniper rifle and sighed. "Bloody Hell….what do I do when I find myself someone I _don't_ want to kill?"

I simpered.

"Leslie!!" Jinx's voice cackled from beneath the bridge. "Come on!!!" The sound of a small motor sounded.

Pulsade strapped the rifle to her back and exhaled. "Right then….," she hopped down from the bridge and ran beyond view. "Ta-Ta…."

I waved numbly.

The motor increased in its moan. A small boat skipped across the waters with two girls in it. In a spray of water, the two were gone.

I flexed my metal fingers.

Alone.

"…………………"

I slowly turned around and hand-signed: _'Hi, Robin.'_

The Boy Wonder was perched on a broken fence. He stared down at me, capeless.

"So…..," he uttered. "….after all that, you just let Jinx go."

"………………..," I nodded.

His eyemask narrowed. "In twenty four hours….you disappeared on me and the Titans. You assisted in a calamitous chase on the Metropolitan Highway. You beat up two cops, Beast Boy, and dozens of H.I.V.E. students. You assisted in the robbery of clothes, parking meter money, and a squad car. And now—partially thanks to you—Jinx and a mysterious assassin have gotten loose, the H.I.V.E. Academy is in disarray, and over two dozen gang members of Bludhaven now have the Titans on their murder list!!!"

I winced…..I nodded honestly.

"…………..," Robin's eyemask rounded and he smiled. "Do you have any idea….any idea in the world….how proud I am of the job you've done today?"

I simpered.

Robin motioned with his hand. "Come on, Number Two." He hopped down off the fence and trotted back towards Raven's location. "Let's go home."

I nodded. I glanced back at the river once, shrugged the smell of strawberries off, and followed Robin.

I sheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH!!!

Raven floated towards the nearby building top where she and Robin earlier departed from. Behind her, the dark girl extended a black talon of telekinetic energy. Inside the talon were the neatly rested bodies of the Headmistress, Gizmo, Disruptor, and Deuce. Raven gently lowered the four down and walked over to check up on the two defeated students from earlier.

But in mid-stride, Raven stopped.

Charger still lay unconscious where he was left.

But where Bumblebee should have been….there was only a lonely pair of handcuffs.

"………….huh," Raven blinked. "Well that's cute."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a forested hill overlooking the grimy expanse of Bludhaven, Mammoth lowered Shimmer to her feet.

"You okay there, Sis? You think you can walk now?"

"Nnnngh….yeah….I-I guess," she dizzily nodded.

"I was really worried about you for a second," Mammoth frowned. "Gizmo started yakking off about Psimon mind-controlling you and stuff. It really got me worried."

"Nnngh….," Shimmer blinked. "Psimon….m-mind controlling me??"

"Yuh huh…," Mammoth nodded. "Ain't that the dumbest thing you've ever heard?"

"…………."

"Selinda??"

Shimmer suddenly smiled. "Baran….y-you're a real sweet brother, you know that?"

Mammoth turned red. "I-I am…."

"What say you and I blow this Town and do something…..like the old days," she hugged herself. "Ya know….Brother and S-Sister?"

Mammoth chuckled. "Sure thing!! I'd love that!!" He punched his palm. "WHAMMO!! Crushing heads together!! Flinders style!!!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

Shimmer sweatdropped. "Uh….or we could just set up a lemonade stand??"

"Yeah…uh…sure. Whatever you say, sis."

"C-Come on, Brother….," Shimmer marched down through the forest. "Let's get moving."

"Heheheheh…."

The two redheads were gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deep in the darkened holocaust that was the battle-worn Academy….

In the silent, frozen laboratories….

Two bodies lay encased in white ice.

A huge mound represented the red and blue suited Neutron.

The small bump was Psimon in an agonized fetal condition.

The two were perfectly still in their icy prison.

Except for one thing…

The radiation from Neutron's body was spreading. And as it spread, it ate its way through the ice…until it came into contact with the elderly body of Psimon.

Over time, the radioactive aura—hidden beneath the secretive, corrupted squalor that was Bludhaven—mingled with Psimon's body….turning his flesh a deep red hue.

And at some point—unknown to anyone—the telepath's eyes opened wide beneath the ice. Red and brimming.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day….

In Titans' Tower….

"…and you can thank Raven in the end," Robin gestured with a grin. "It was her who teleported all of us into Metropolis to deposit the criminals into the hands of the justice department. Believe you me….even the police of Metropolis were happy to have so many dangerous criminals and H.I.V.E. students under custody in one day! I've finished talking to Commissioner Decker just recently. He's on good terms with Maggie Sawyer of Metropolis. He thinks he might be able to get Gizmo back here in our prison. Maybe even the biggest catch of them all too."

"The Headmistress?" Cyborg asked.

Robin nodded. "Through some sort of….wyrd legalistic finangling, Decker thinks he can connect the yet-uncaught Jinx with the Headmistress and thus bring her back for questioning in her involvement with the Prison bombing."

Starfire leaned forward. "Jinx insists that it was not her who set off the bomb in her cell, correct?"

"Yes," Raven nodded. All eyes were on her. "According to Noir, at least. We'll probably know more as it may come from the Headmistress' lips."

Robin looked at Cyborg. "She's being interrogated preliminarily by Maggie Sawyer as we speak. The authorities there in Metropolis have quite a few bones to pick with H.I.V.E. before they even consider handing them over to Decker."

Cyborg pointed. "What about that police guy in Bludhaven? Tiki….Taco…"

"Torque?" Robin leaned his head to the side. "Sure enough, Dudley Soames of the 'Bludhaven police' has made a row about the incident in Bludhaven and the revelation of the H.I.V.E. Academy and the fact that Raven and I gave the suspects over to Metropolis."

"What's he gonna do about it?"

"What can he do??" Robin smirked. "He wasn't there at the scene of the explosion and Academy invasion! His 'forces' were miles away. And even if he _was_ involved…Trying to demand the Headmistress or any of the students back would only hurt him in the long run because national inquiry will discover all over again just how corrupt and hypocritical a public figure he is!" The Titan leader smiled at the other Titans. "The suspects are in capable hands now."

"Hooray!!" Starfire cheered.

"Should we be cheerful so soon?" Tempest remarked. He stood on the sidelines with folded arms and smirked a bit. "Lest we forget….Jinx and that 'Pulse' person got away—"

"'Pulsade'."

"—whatever. And then there's still that spider person and…um…..moth-man to deal with."

"Fang and Killer Moth??" Beast Boy blinked. "Dude….I forgot all about them."

Cyborg pointed at the computer. "Reports are in that Barrymore had a robbery from a 'freakish man with many limbs'. And also rumors suggest of some strange activity in a canyon up to the north."

"Lovely," Raven muttered. "No rest for the weary."

"I'm sure there'll be many leads to Fang and Killer Moth," Robin said. "And I'm sure everyone knows here that we'll be following them to track those criminals down."

"Yup….," Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "Down to the last millimeter."

Starfire giggled.

Robin lifted a gloved finger. "Let's not forget….a lot of lives have been lost as of late. The bomb killed both prisoners and guards alike at the Prison. And there were quite a few casualties when the Fearsome Five attacked the Academy. Raven, Noir and I could not account for all of the deaths involved."

"Well, I should hope not," Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"Regardless….this has been a very….s-serious situation," Robin said.

"Well put," Tempest smirked.

Robin glared at the Atlantean before continuing: "As it stands….the people of our City are frightened. Nervous. Unsure. Feelings of paranoia that they haven't felt since the days when Slade was alive."

"I can only imagine their distress," Starfire murmured.

"That's why I promised Commissioner Decker that the Titans would appear at a public address tomorrow afternoon in front of the Police Department."

Half of the room groaned.

"I'm serious!!" Robin gestured. "We have to do these things to keep the public assured of their protection!! We allowed a lot of innocent people to die at the prison! That's unacceptable!!"

"Robin….," Raven droned. "We didn't _allow_ anything bloody to happen."

"But that's what people may think if we don't convince them otherwise," Robin said. "So we have to keep in touch with the populace. Not just for our image….but for the safety of the people's psyche itself. I've made a promise to Decker, and I intend to stick to it. I suggest you all do the same by joining us tomorrow evening."

"Understood," Beast Boy cracked his knuckles and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "I can slip in a joke at the beginning! While we're on camera, ya know? Soften the mood!"

"You'd get the same result from public suicide," Raven said.

Tempest laughed.

Beast Boy seethed.

"I must inquire…," Starfire leaned her head to the side and faced Cyborg more than anyone else. "What has become of our elusive letter?"

"Letter??" a question mark formed above the android Titan's head.

Starfire smiled. "Our….'J'."

"Oh…..that guy," Cyborg scratched the back of his neck and simpered. "He's long gone. Came in and out. Left no trace of himself in the computer banks. Damnedst thing I've ever seen."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Did we ever…..find out who he was?"

Cyborg slowly shook his head.

Robin looked over at me. "But….Jinx and Pulsade know him?"

I was sitting on a stool with my back to the kitchen unit's counter the whole time, flipping cards in my hand. Tired of wearing my uniform for a twenty-four-hour stretch, I was clad in shorts and a white t-shirt.

I nodded at Robin.

"I suppose we'll catch him the same day we catch those two girls," Robin sighed. He rubbed his temples. "I don't know whether to be happy that they're gone or not."

"You think Jinx is innocent about the prison?"

"I think there's been too much confusion and darkness spreading around this whole issue that she might as well be innocent," Robin muttered. He looked tiredly at the others. "I really _hate_ going to Bludhaven."

"Ohhhh!!" Starfire flew over and tackled Robin in a hug. WHUMP!!! "But you made it back saaaaaaaaaafe!!" She cooed with her eyes joyfully shut.

Robin's face went blue. "Safe….is….a….r-relative….term…."

Tempest cleared his throat.

"Eeep!!" Starfire gently released her death-hug and blushed. "P-Perhaps one of these days I shall remember that you are thin!"

"……..what's that supposed to mean??"

Starfire simpered with a sweatdrop: "Eh heheheheheh…."

"Anywho, enough of this!!" Beast Boy jumped up and bounded over to me. "Is it true??" he hopped. "Is it true? Is it true?"

"????" I looked at him funny. I looked at the others.

"Did you get promoted??"

"Oh….," Cyborg smirked proudly. "That."

"Yes….," Raven droned. "That."

"Indeed…I promoted him," Robin folded his arms. "And believe me, this was not an impromptu decision. I think Noir deserves respect for all he's gone through to protect the City and us Titans. But more than that….I think he's capable of accepting the responsibility to lead us beneath Cyborg and myself. So….for the rest of you…if Cyborg and I were to be missing or inoperative….you know who you can turn to."

"Yes, **sir**!!" Beast Boy saluted.

"Hehehe! Glorious!!"

I sweatdropped.

"Not a bad choice," Tempest nodded. He smirked at the others. "Gonna have to learn sign-language fast, huh?"

"Well, what'd you expect, dude?" Beast Boy said. He pivoted to face me again. "But before I answer to you or anything…….THIS!!"

THWACK!!!

I dropped the cards and hobbled out painfully on one leg after Beast Boy kicked me in the chins.

Starfire gasped. "Beast Boy!! What provoked you to do that?!?!"

"Simple," beast Boy shrugged with a smirk. "He slammed me real-bad in the gut back when he was kinkily attached to Jinx! Heck….if the world was a just place, I'd kick him in the other ankle!!" A beat. "Ah, to heck with it!"

THWACK!!!

I fell on my knees. I winced…then let out a silent growl as I pounced forward on the elf.

"Ackies!!"

We tumbled and wrestled on the floor.

"Ah yes….," Tempest smirked over at the rest again. "Public relations would be a healthy thing by now."

"Shut up, Flipper."

"Sure thing, Mr. ATM."

Cyborg shook his head at Tempest and gazed over at the wrestling me and giggling Beast Boy. A beat. He raised a human eyebrow. He glanced to his left at Raven.

Raven looked up at him. She was sitting up straight, and yet her nose was surprisingly close to his chin.

"What?"

Cyborg blinked. "Uhm…," he simpered. "Is it just me….or….for the last day since you and Robin got back from Bludhaven and Metropolis and all….er…..h-have you been sitting closer to me?"

"Mmmmhmmmm," she hummed with a nod.

"……………heh," Cyborg gulped. "Fancy that—"

Raven leaned against his left side.

"?????" Cyborg bit his lip. "Uh….Raven?"

"Yes?"

"You feelin' okay?"

"Is there something the matter?"

"Nah, it's all cool. You're just…..kinda cuddly all of the sudden."

Her face looked bored as she droned. "Consider it a 'thank you' reward."

"Reward???" Cyborg smirked. "For what?"

"…….."

"Raven??"

"I'll tell you someday."

"Pfft….sure….whatever," Cyborg smiled and added a mischievous: "Cutie." And he was surprised when three…four…five seconds passed and Raven didn't blast him off the couch with telekinesis. "Oh….um…..hello there."

"Hi."

"Is this where I put my arm around you or somethi—"

"Don't push it."

"Yes, ma'am."

At around that time, I finally managed to kick a wrestling-giggling Beast Boy off of me.

"Whoah!!" Crash!!!

I stood up, brushed myself off, and smoothed my black ponytail back behind my shirt.

Robin walked over and faced me directly.

"So…."

I looked down at him.

_So……_

"We barely got to talk on the way back from Metropolis," Robin uttered. "You were quite exhausted and all. I understood that."

I slowly nodded.

"But remind me, Noir…," his eyemask narrowed. "….what was it exactly that Jinx kept rambling about?"

"……."

"Those words she repeated. Herself and that blonde assassin friend of hers."

I took a deep breath. A late shiver ran up from my metal limb as I mouthed the two words.

"Hmmm….'Red Aviary'," Robin nodded. "That's right. Peculiar."

I leaned my head to the side.

He rubbed his chin. "What Jinx and Pulsade and 'J' are onto….it must be important. But at the moment…it's not as important as tracking down Killer Moth and Fang, I believe."

My shaded eyes narrowed. I suddenly thought of the dream. With the red sky and the brown rust and the lighthouse. Clay. Clayface. Robin.

Another shiver ran up my arm, and I wanted to spell something out for to Robin but I didn't.

He walked across the room and joined Starfire with something.

And all I could do was stare.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Phoenix, Arizona.

An airport.

The air was dryer that Autumn time of year. But the temperature barely changed.

Damien Darhk walked out of the terminal, a briefcase in his hand.

He gazed through sunglasses at the many cars lined up to pick up visitors.

And he saw a black limousine.

Smiling…handsome as ever….Damien marched over towards it. The chauffer quietly let the man walk inside. No words were interchanged. The chauffer closed the door, wandered around to the front, sat inside, and drove off.

Inside the car, Damien flipped his shades off, stuck them into his shirt's pocket, and sighed relaxingly. "How I hate airplane rides. They get the blood rushing and stuff, ya know? Oh…I-I didn't mean that as a pun, guys. Heheheheh!!"

Two gentleman sat across from him. One young in a business casual getup. The other a graying man with even grayer eyes and wearing what looked like a monk's robe.

"So…wh-which one of you is the talkative one?" Damien crossed his leg and leaned his chin on his hand.

The younger man in business casual smiled. "I'm Mr. Cain," he leaned forward and extended a hand. "On behalf of the Church of Blood, it's a pleasure to meet you at last Mister…."

"Darhk," Damien shook the man's hand. "And it's 'Headmaster' now."

"So it's true then?" Mr. Cain leaned back. "Power has been handed over?"

"H.I.V.E. has no choice," Damien shrugged. The once and future queen is now in custody. Though….to be honest, I doubt she'll be in custody for long. As a matter of fact, I doubt that she'll be alive for very long."

"Oh dear me," Mr. Cain blinked. "How do you know that?"

"Taking her place amongst the Academies….," Damien studied his fingernails. "….I've learned the extent of her true connections. And I've since learned to use them. The right acquaintances, that is. The Headmistress won't be alive for long. Let me just assure you of that."

"I don't mean to sound grotesque," Mr. Cain cleared his throat. "But I-I would surely hope the power of the Hierarchy rests in your hands. For we've always wanted to do business with you, Mr. Darhk."

"Oh…the feeling's mutual, Cain," Damien gestured with a wink. "H.I.V.E…..Church of Blood….fingers like Chinese handcuffs, ya know??"

"Heheheheheh!!" Mr. Cain slapped his knee and grinned. "I never thought of that before!!"

"Heh heh heh…."

The gray man in the robe glared. "You two are too cheerful for your own good….."

Mr. Cain gestured: "Now calm down, Juris. We're just here to do initial business."

Juris grunted. "I am calm…"

Damien cleared his throat: "So…….I hear she's in town."

"Who?"

Damien blinked. "Who else? Jezebel?"

"Oh, Jezebel. Yes…she's moving the church body here to Arizona. It's much….cl-closer to the action, if you will."

"And just what is that action called again? I'm a little rusty," Damien waved his hand. "The 'Oblique Whatsit…'?""

"_The Obsidian Trinity_," Juris practically spat.

"There ya go! Badda Bing, Badda Boom. You know….damn ambiguous catch phrases is all fun and stuff….but I gotta be up front with you guys."

Cain shrugged. "By all means."

Damien Darhk leaned forward and his eyes were menacingly firm. "'Red Aviary'….."

"………."

"………."

"Have you ever heard of it?"

Mr. Cain blinked. "Uh….n-no. No, I-I don't believe I have….what is that?"

"Oh….nothing," Damien leaned back and smiled. He rested his hands leisurely behind his back. "Now we can get things cookin'!"

"Well allright."

"So….when I meet Jezebel---she's someone important, right?"

"Oh, very much so."

"Is she gonna introduce me to Brother Blood? I've heard a lot about him."

Suddenly, explosively, Mr. Cain laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed.

Curiously amused, Damien raised an eyebrow.

Mr. Cain wiped the tears from his eyes and giggled a few more times.

Even Juris seemed to have an ever so slight curve to his lips.

"Did I hit someone's funny bone with a sledge hammer?" Damien asked.

"Sorry…e-excuse me…heheh…," Mr. Cain leaned forward and held his hands together. "There's not going to be a Brother Blood in our Church, Mr. Darhk." He grinned. "Not for a long time…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I had come back down to my dark cellar room to talk to Kara.

I turned the laptop on.

I lit half of the lanterns in the room.

I got a glass of tap water and put it on my bedside table.

But as I sat down and logged onto the Internet…

I had another e-mail.

I opened it up and…sure enough.

I was dumbstruck.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, I leaned forward towards the laptop screen and read.

_Dear Old Friend,_

_Jinx and Pulsade are back safely. I cannot thank you enough for not threatening their necks with that sword of yours. In the meantime, I hope my assistance to the Titans was useful. But I still have the feeling that you don't remember me. Quite alright. I'll be there in your City soon. I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet again in the next few days._

_-"J'_

"………."

I leaned back against the head of my bed.

"………"

I blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What is it, Cyborg?"

That night, Cyborg was at the console of the Main Computer. He turned around and motioned to Robin who was walking up.

"What'd you want to show me?" Robin reiterated.

"I've just been going over a report sent in from Maggie Sawyer's department over at Metropolis. Their interrogation of the Headmistress hasn't turned up much for us to be concerned about….except for one thing."

Robin leaned against the back of the chair. "I'm listening…."

Cyborg scrolled down the fresh computer document.

"The Headmistress gave a brief history on the origin of the Hierarchy of International Vendetta and Extermination."

"Yeah….?"

"There isn't much to be wowed about….but she did mention something about the Founders."

"What about them?"

"There were three Founders of H.I.V.E. Sisters. Two twins and a younger one. The younger one's wasn't discussed…but we now have the names of the older sisters."

"Uh huh…."

"………," Cyborg swiveled around. "Aliases 'Fate' and 'Fortune'." A blink. "Real names….Faye and Fiona Jenkins."

"………." Robin blinked beneath his mask. The Boy Wonder stood up straight and gazed at the screen.

A beat.

"…..wh-what the Hell?"


	153. J part 1

**153. J part 1**

His fingers danced gracefully over the piano keys.

Chords formed a weepingly soft rhythm from the shadows.

The piano is old…but its strength and size speaks of something archaically majestic. It shines beneath the layer of dust and soot in the corner of the decrepit room.

He's dwarfed by the instrument. And yet his fingers are patient as they seek out all corners of the playing field.

The tune rises, falters, and gently dies in a beautiful fashion.

And when it is over, he leans back, exhales, and hugs his small self.

Alone…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_I am all right._

_Less than twenty-four hours ago I returned home from an exhausting ordeal at the hand of Fate…literally. Jinx—the former Third Apprentice of Slade and rogue of both state and the Hierarchy for International Vendetta and Extermination—had me handcuffed to her in what ended up being a true adventure in the physical, mental, and political sense. There are too many things to simply sum up in a single letter to your Highness. And I can only imagine that the Justice League has enough troubles of their own to ever possibly be concerned with our neck of the woods._

_To keep things brief……the Titans have quite an ordeal on their hands. And things haven't felt this stressful since the day Slade was still alive._

_There has been a terrible tragedy at our Prison. Something that has involved casualties of both inmates and guards unsuspecting of their bloody doom. Well over a dozen lives perished when an enormous explosion ricocheted through the Omega Wing of the Northern Structure. The result of this was a running amok of hundreds of the most notorious convicts of this part of the country—but eve worse is the release of far more problematic supervillains._

_Thankfully, the intervention on behalf of the Titans and I managed to suppress and recapture most of these eccentrically evil individuals…but a few still got away. Jinx is still on the loose now—if I haven't already given that impression. Also escaped from our clutches is Mammoth, Fang, and Killer Moth. It may be fortunate that only so few got away from our hands……but it is still unacceptable. There were many lives lost at the prison…and many of the Titans—myself included—feel that we owe it to them to retrieve these criminals back and project a legitimate sense of security back over the people of this City._

_Also if we don't do anything about it, Commissioner Decker will have our genitals in a tin can._

_Which explains why I'm making this letter short. In under an hour, Robin, the rest of the crew, and I will be embarking upon a public service speech thingy over at the Police Department. Commissioner Decker and the Mayor wants us to assure the people—via JCN Broadcasting—that we'll be doing all we can to track down the villains and get this prison debacle organized._

_And the one thing about all of this that bothers me is that……well……I feel personally responsible for letting one of the villains go. Only because I __**did**__ let one of the villains go._

_Jinx is free because of me. And I don't feel bad about it. I almost feel as if I did the world some sort of strange favor through an obtuse action like that. Why, Diana? I wish I could explain it to you. My head is spinning with things like at the end of a horizontal roller coaster. I don't know how things started moving so fast……and yet I get the feeling as if they've been moving so fast all along. My vision is blacking out in my sleep and turning red around the edges. I'm experiencing someone else's dreams. I'm getting chills everyday._

_Something terrible is going to happen._

_Hopefully……not to anyone save for myself._

_In expectations of a warm future,_

_Noir_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………"

Silence.

Robin sighed.

_Knock Knock Knock_

Robin stood up.

He quietly shut the bedside table, hiding the picture frame.

He walked over to the door of his room.

He pressed the side panel.

_Schwiiish!!_

Starfire stood with her hands clasped together. She smiled subtly….ever so pleasantly. "Robin…is it not time for our departure?"

"That it is, Star…," Robin sauntered out along with her. The two trotted down the hallway. "Let's go round up the others."

"Certainly, Robin. But….may I ask……..was there important business of yours to attend to in your room?"

"…..," Robin glanced back. A beat. He turned around. "Nah. Nothing at all."

And they entered the elevator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I know it's gross. But think about it, dude!! In sometime in his life…Christ had to have defecated!"

"Come on, Beast Boy….," Cyborg shook his head. "Let's not talk about that sort of thing."

"Why not?!?! Tell me you don't think about the Almighty Savior pooping once in a while!!" Beast Boy cackled. "I mean….yeah, he was the Son of God and stuff…but he _had_ the body of a man! Jeez….if he ate and broke bread….then the stuff _had_ to have gone somewhere!"

Cyborg groaned and ran a hand over his face. He looked my way from across the entrance hall of the Tower. "Noir….help me out here, dawg."

I simpered and hand-signed: _'I'm agnostic'._

"The Hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Beast Boy's making a point," Raven said.

"I am?" Beast Boy giggled.

She glared momentarily from over the pages of her book and went on. "To assume that Christ was incapable of physical and bodily functions is a testament to the overtly sanctified ambiguity of his persona. If you ask me, when Christians ignore the fact that Christ was capable of defecation, urination, and ejaculation…they ignore the fact that he was flesh and blood. And the fact that he was flesh and blood only underlines his purpose here on Earth to die agonizingly for all of our sins."

Beast Boy whistled. "That's pretty deep." The green elf smiled at me. "I was just gonna make a 'holy toilet paper' joke."

I simpered.

"Say Rae," Cyborg smirked. "I don't think I asked you. What religion do you follow?"

Raven flipped a page in her book. "Sylvia Plath."

"Ah."

Tempest raised his hand: "Um……excuse me?"

"Yes, Flipper?"

"Who's Jesus Christ?"

"………."

"………."

"………."

"……….," Beast Boy blinked. He looked Cyborg's way. "Allright….where's our Veggie Tales collection?"

Cyborg shrugged.

The elevator doors opened and Robin and Starfire walked out.

I stood up at attention.

"At ease," Robin muttered.

"Way ahead of you dude," Beast Boy spoke. "We're in the domain of animated cucumbers and holy fecal matter."

"…………..yeah," Robin blinked. "Anyways…enough lounging around." He droned: "We have an event to attend."

Raven nodded and folded her book away.

"Say Robin, you alright man?" Cyborg pointed. "You seem kinda…..I dunno………out of it."

"…………," Robin said.

"Robin has been busily occupied with nothing in his room!" Starfire pleasantly announced. "Hehehe! Though he is most humble and meek in dismissing his behavior, I am quite sure that he has the most glorious plan drafted for today's Titan itinerary and—"

"No need for narration, Star," Robin grumbled. He walked off through the entrance of the Tower. "Come on, guys. Let's move."

"………..," we all stared at him.

"What's his problem?" Tempest blankly asked.

Starfire held her hands together with a sympathetic expression on her face. "Robin is……quite typically troubled when villains escape our surveillance. The fact that so many miscreants have escaped the prison and the H.I.V.E. Academy at Bludhaven troubles him greatly. He is rather……..rather….."

"Obsessed?" Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Cyborg chuckled.

The Atlantean looked his way. "That sound funny to you?"

"No," Beast Boy smirked. "It's right on, dude."

Tempest shrugged. "I don't see what's the big problem. I mean….Robin does all that he can! He does _more_ than he can! And yet he still bangs himself in the head when so much as the littlest thing goes contrary to our plans. Was he always this way?"

"Heh….," Cyborg got up, flipping the 'key' to the T-Car in his grasp. "…does the Sun set in the West?"

"Actually, when you're a half-mile deep underwater, the refraction of all the liquid tends to—"

"Thanks, Flipper. Make love to Captain Nemo's corpse or something. Like Robin said, we gotta move."

Beast Boy chuckled and followed the exiting Cyborg.

Tempest looked at Raven funny. "Did he treat Noir like this when he was still new?"

Raven hung the hood of her cloak over her head. "Noir doesn't ask obvious questions," she left.

"Well, I guess that makes sens—heyyyy!!"

The dark girl was gone.

Tempest sighed and scratched his head. He looked at me. "Is it just me, or is everyone today one sponge short of a coral reef?"

"………"

"Noir??"

I snapped out of it. The chill in my arm that was suddenly there was suddenly not there. I looked dazedly in Tempest's direction.

"You okay?"

I smiled bashfully.

"Let's get this over with, man. I need to take a day-long swim….even if it means scouring the rivers for signs of Homicidal Butterfly….or whoever the Hell it is we're searching for again."

I nodded.

I walked side-by-side with him out the Tower.

Sighing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VRMMMMM!!!

Robin blazed by on the R-Cycle.

I watched tiredly from the back of the T-Car as Robin's motorcycle sped ahead of us on the land ridge.

As we road into Town, I was sandwiched between Raven on my left and Tempest on my right. Beast Boy was in the far right of the rear compartment. Starfire was in the front passenger seat. Cyborg of course…..

"Man….suddenly he's quick as the wind," Cyborg smirked.

"Eh….he just wants to be alone," Beast Boy gestured with a bored hand. "He _always_ wants to be alone."

"Beast Boy, that is an erroneous statement," Starfire glanced in the rear view mirror. "Robin's social mood takes on a spirit of enthusiasm whenever he and I engage in a leisurely convers—"

"You don't count, Star," Beast Boy winked.

She pouted. "Why do I not count?"

"You're like Robin's replacement hip!"

"………..huh?"

"Beast Boy??" Cyborg glanced back once. "Whatcha getting' at, man?"

"Who here will deny that Starfire and Robin are like two peas in a pod nowadays?"

"I'll deny it," Tempest raised his hand. He smirked. "I'll deny anything."

"He will," Raven droned.

I smiled…only slightly.

"We are two components of Terran seedlings?" Starfire blinked.

"No, Star….," Beast Boy shook his head. He leaned his head forward and practically spoke into her ear: "Don't you think that you two are…..oh…..kinda sorta close?"

Starfire instantly—betrayingly—blushed a deep red-on-amber skin. "Cl-Close? Why….B-Beast Boy, whatever could you mean? Robin is on his R-Cycle and here I am presently positioned in Cyborg's 'Baby'!"

Cyborg laughed.

Beast Boy giggled.

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

"What is it th-that is so amusing?" Starfire stammered.

"Just never thought I'd see the day," Beast Boy folded his arms with a smirk. A beat. "The alien naiveté becomes a strategic device of avoidance."

"Avoidance??" Starfire blinked.

"Your innocence shall always floor us, Star," Cyborg spoke while steering. "But come on. Stop faking it. You and Robbie are close and you know it."

Starfire folded her arms and pouted. "Hrumph! On my planet, friends do not make such unwarranted allegations!"

"I think her ears are turning crimson," Tempest pointed.

"Hah hah hah!"

"Hehehehe!!"

Starfire bit her lip. "Cease! Desist! I did not intend for this discussion to take such a…a….Koriand'r-centralized turn!"

"You're flusterrrrred!" Beast Boy pointed.

"I am not the flustered!!" Starfire barked.

Cyborg glanced in the rear view mirror. "Is she flustered, Raven?"

"She's flustered, Cyborg."

"Ha ha ha!!"

"Ohhhhh," Starfire covered her face with her hands and practically curled up in her seat with embarrassment. "X'Hal….Why can I not possess human melatonin??"

I reached forward and patted her shoulder assuredly.

She glanced back at me. "Noir….are you one to relate?" murmured the Tamaranian.

I shrugged with a smile.

"I bet he is," Beast Boy smiled mischievously.

"He is," Raven droned out the window.

I glared at her---

Beast Boy leaned across Tempest and shouted in my ear: "SUPERGIRL IN A LEATHER BODYSUIT!!"

"…..," I looked at Beast Boy. I chuckled breathily.

Beast Boy's ears sank. "It didn't do nothing!"

Tempest shoved his head out of his face, teeth gritting. "Tell me about it."

I shrugged.

"You're not doing it right," Raven droned.

"Huh??" Beast Boy blinked.

"????"

Raven cleared her throat. "Supergirl walking home Sunday morning church."

I shook my head and was about to smirk…when I felt my face doing something different.

"Whoah!! He's blushing!!"

"!!!!" I glanced in the rear-view mirror.

_Shit._

"I'll be damned….," Cyborg chuckled.

I swallowed.

_I was blushing even more._

"There ya go!!" Beast Boy smirked. "Kara all prettied head to toe in a summer frock!"

_Dammit, don't say 'frock'!_

I shook my head and groaned.

"And a cute hat with flowers on it!" Starfire added.

_Not her too!! ARGH!!_

I bent over and hid my face with my hands over my dark head.

"Hehehehe!!" Beast Boy doubled over. "Excellent!"

"Hehehe! Spread the fluster!" added Starfire, no longer the center.

"Wyrd as all get out," Cyborg shook his head. "Way to go, Raven."

"It's not me. It's Noir's head."

"Hehehe! I'd say!"

"Who's Supergirl?"

"Shut up, Flipper."

"Okay…."

Slowly, agonizingly, I glared at Raven.

She blinked calmly at me. "What? I'm not the one who fantasizes about carrying books gentlemanly for a country girl."

_And since when did I ever tell you---aw crud._

My ears burned.

And I swore I saw a curve to the edge of Raven's lips.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin arrived at the front of the Police Department early. They were still setting up a 'stage' of sorts with portable platforms for the televised event. Only a meager crowd had formed at that point, though more promised to show up later. Workers busily finished constructing the last of the stage while JCN broadcast vans gathered on one-side and police and security officers gathered on the other. There was a general buzz of voices in the air that gave the Autumn afternoon an ample ambiance. The air was thin and vulnerable to knives from the oncoming cold front.

Robin cut off his bike and pushed down a kickstand or two. He dismounted, removed his helmet, and took a deep breath.

A beat.

He shivered. His teeth grit. There was a sometimes a disadvantage to wearing tights out in the open….

Robin didn't have much time to either freeze or brood.

A set of footsteps.

A hoarse clearing of the throat.

A voice:

"When I said the Titans, I meant more than just one pimply wonderhero…"

Robin sighed. He swiveled around and more or less slurred: "Hello there, Commissioner."

"……," Decker was decked in a trenchcoat over his normally disheveled business shirt and tie. He glared at Robin…but not quite in a menacing way. Decker was always about 'glaring' anyways. "Don't look so sour, kid. I'm not here to castrate you. Today is one of my lazy days."

Robin hugged his upper body and leaned against the steep steps of the police department's steps. "Good. Maybe that means this day will last longer."

"Hmmm?"

"More time to gather thoughts and evidence on those we're after….," Robin slurred. A beat. "And console the citizens of this City, of course."

"Of course."

A beat.

Decker shuffled down a few steps and produced a cigarette. He lit it calmly, took a puff, and blew. "You look cold," he said without looking.

Robin breathed out of his nostrils. "I am."

"Want me to get a sergeant out here to give you a lap dance or something?"

"You forget who you're talking to."

"I forget nothing, kid," Decker puffed again. "Least of all how prompt you seven were in answering the call to the prison."

"………," Robin glanced at the man. "Does that mean you're _proud_ of us?"

The Commissioner grumbled. "It means that my crew is getting raggedy-ass-slow. And security isn't what it should be. The prison had no excuse for being as vulnerable as it was three days ago. What with the multiple strikes by Slug and Reload, Viper, and Cinderblock…..it should have been well fortified by now. Over forty people have died at this prison alone in the last twelve months. _Forty_, Robin…."

A beat.

The man groaned and sighed forth a stream of lethargic smoke. "And to think I once barked up your teenage asses….."

"…….," Robin stared at him. A beat. "Yeah…..," he looked downward.

Decker blinked at him for a moment or two, then glanced away.

Silence.

"I don't know why I'm so cold all of the sudden….," Robin suddenly opened up. "I grew up in Gotham for crying out loud."

"So I've heard," Decker smirked.

Robin gestured to a wall of air in front of him. "It's barely even early winter…and yet…..there's something chilling…..s-so very chilling about today."

"Stage fright?"

"No…," Robin leaned back and sighed. "Just……change."

"………"

"………"

"………change?"

"I'm not ashamed that we let so many criminals get loose. We bagged the rest of them, after all. A good eighty-five percent of them, in fact," Robin said. "What I regret is that…..I have no clue _why_ they got loose to begin with."

"Ah."

"Cyborg and I have done some studies on the multiple prison reports you've supplied us….and we can't imagine what caused either the explosion or the supplication of the villains' gear."

"Assuming it wasn't Jinx…."

"Exactly…," Robin nodded. "Jinx has a lot of friends in mysterious places, so it would seem. From invisible assassins to hackers. But nobody…..NOBODY could have gotten into the Omega Wing without someone or some system noticing it." He stared at the Commissioner. "You'd know that, wouldn't you?"

"I'd sure hope so."

"Sure, the prison may have had a lot of gaps in its security net….but it would have been utter suicide for someone to set up a bomb in the Omega Wing."

"Perhaps it was Suicide," Decker flicked his cigarette down to the steps and clamped his shoe over it. "Many would-be-suspects perished in the blast. Prisoners and would-be-traitorous-guards alike."

"We've thought of that too," Robin nodded. He scratched his chin in thought. "But it's pointless and unethical to start pointing fingers."

"Heh….speak for yourself."

Robin momentarily glared before going on: "I feel….I-I feel like I've been in this place before."

"Have you now?"

"Yes," Robin nodded. "Helplessly clueless. Vulnerable to some sort of invisible, coldly plotting evil. I feel that this prison explosion is just the beginning of something. Like the first link in a chain. I'm….I-I'm almost reminded of the Sakura Scraper…."

Even Decker seemed to shudder at that. "The beginning of Slade's last bombing run…."

"…..," Robin nodded.

Silence.

Only the distant sounds of crewmen setting up the last of the stage.

"I don't want any of the Titans falling for the same sort of trap again….," Robin mumbled. "….I'd give anything. Even my own life."

"Now wouldn't that put a damper on my daughter's schoolgirl crush," Decker muttered.

Robin did a double take. "Y-You're a father, sir?"

Decker smirked. "Nope. Just seeing if you're awake. Shits and giggles, kid."

"…….," Robin stared off and shook his head. "Sometimes I can't believe you lead a police department."

"I can't believe you wear a cape."

"Touché'."

A beat.

"Yeah….," Robin rubbed his arms again. "It's c-cold." A beat. "But somehow…..it's not as cold as it can be."

"Good," Decker scratched his neck. "That means you can get your ass onto camera in about twenty, right?"

"S-Sure."

"Then that's what you're gonna do," Decker turned and made to walk across the steps. "Then you can go home and have your tree house detective party for all I care."

Robin reached out for him. "Commissioner!"

"The Hell is it now?"

"Maggie Sawyer…….Maggie Sawyer in Metropolis….," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Has she made any comments on possibly handing the Headmistress over to you?"

Decker sighed. A beat. "Things are a little sketchy as it is. Maggie has always been a bit razor-edged and dominant about whom she interrogates ever since Turpin bit the bullet and all. But….." A beat. And the Commissioner's face lightened up ever so slightly.

Robin smiled at that. "Got it. I look forward to updates."

"I ain't no damn newsletter."

"Go to your policemen, Commissioner."

"Go to Hell," he walked off.

Robin finally managed to chuckle that day.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When the rest of us arrived, the day was still cold. The sky was a pleasant autumn blue. The City's building faces seemed all the clearer in their granite greatness.

And a huge crowd had formed in the blocked-off street. Reporters, citizens, and city officials formed in a large mass up to a solid line of tape where police officers kept them from advancing on the stage. But there was no sign that the people would do anything drastic. They were patient….patient to hear…

Patient to hear the Titans.

Robin stood a distant ten feet away at the base of the steps leading up to the temporary stage. It was 'temporary' because the rest of the Titans were definitely separated from him and squished together in the thin space left over between the back of the stage and base of the steps.

"I can barely stand up straight back here, man," Cyborg grumbled. "I sure hope Robin and the Commissioner have us walk up there soon or else I'm gonna start having things to complain about on TV."

"Like what?" Raven droned.

"…………El Nino."

"If you must speak, say something constructive.

I hand-signed to Cyborg: _'That is my motto.'_

"It _is not_, dawg!"

I smirked.

"Augh!" Cyborg lost balance.

_Bump!_

"Eek! My grebnaks!"

Cyborg winced. "S-Sorry…."

"Envatta s'tal thriel…," Starfire blushed.

"…..," I looked over at Beast Boy and Tempest.

"I'm telling you, this is it, dude! I'm gonna let you stand closer to the center of the group. That way….you'll get all the camera attention you can possibly get! Remembering that Robin's gonna be in the foreground of course…."

"And the point of all this is……what?" Tempest asked, eyebrow raised.

"Dude! Weren't you listening to me? Until now, the only chance you've had to make yourself known to the people of this City has been through scant photos taken at crime-busting scenes and editorials by old farts in the newspaper on our vigilantism! But television is it, man!! After today, you'll no longer be a newby in the eyes of the City! People will see you on the news and say: 'Hey! That's Tempest! He's a Teen Titan! Wow, we should write fan newsletters and stuff about him!' And imagine all the girls who'll flock at your feet from hereon out! I mean….you've got the hair and body and—everything for it, man! You'll be the Titans' poster boy! I can show you off and get someone to buy me a moped!"

"You sure do look awfully far ahead," Tempest smirked with his arms folded. "If I remember right, we're all here for Robin to give his speech on protecting the City and stuff. You forget about that?"

"Dude….I don't forget things," Beast Boy winked.

"Where's the double-sized shower I was promised?"

"Uhhhhh---huh?"

Tempest planted his hands on his hips. "When I came back from Atlantis, you promised you'd remind Cyborg to renovate the lavatory in my quarters into a king's sized shower stall! Or was _that_ forgotten?"

"Stick to non-boring things, dude. THAT'S what I'm not forgetful about!"

Tempest sighed. "I don't know why I shouldn't just drown you sometimes…."

"It's because I'm cute."

"No….it's because you can turn green and _grow gills_ on the fly!!"

"Hehehehe!!"

I shook my head.

I glanced over at the crowd.

The people were somewhat difficult to spot out individually from where I stood. I did have a good-sized stage blocking my perspective, for one thing. For another…I expected nothing special. And indeed—as I lethargically gazed upon them—I found nothing special. Just gray bodies in gray suits performing gray broadcasting jobs or gray interview jobs or gray reporting specials. The audience looked like a standing sea of craning faces with mountains of JCN Vans looming in the hairy horizon. I wanted to throw up.

_Somewhere behind all that……there is the City I want to save._

So I didn't think much else of it.

And then I saw him.

Just the head first.

A few feet below the rest.

Horrendously blonde.

I raised an eyebrow.

I looked again.

Somewhere in the back of my mind's black eye, I expected to see something or someone I half recognized. Like the breath of autumn laughing back into my lungs and out again.

_A short figure…… _

_Shuffling through the crowd. _

_Young……very young. _

_Clean, smooth blonde hair._

Nothing.

I blinked.

_The Hell was that??_

I was confused in confusion itself.

And it was around that point that someone signaled Robin. And Robin signaled us. And we signaled our own feet to move over and up the stage.

The broadcast was beginning.

I straggled behind…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special JCN New Bulletin. We now go live to the front of the City Police Department where Commissioner Decker is currently speaking to a gathering crowd about the recent events at the City Prison. It's reported that Robin and the other Teen Titans are to make an appearance and perhaps even a speech. Harry, over to you."_

"_Thank you, Marilyn. Behind me you can see a stage that was set up with a podium and everything—all stuff we typically see from Commissioner Decker and the other City officials when a special announcement is to be made. But I've had it confirmed for me this afternoon that—indeed—the Titans __**will**__ be making an appearance, most likely to address the crowd on the subject of the recent explosions and escapes at the City Prison. As you all may well know, five highly wanted convicts made their escape in a single morning following a huge blast in the Prison's Omega Wing that cost the lives of nearly two dozen people. The five high-profiled escapees include Jinx, Fang, Killer Moth, Gizmo and Mammoth. Now Gizmo was turned in to Metropolitan Police yesterday for reasons unknown. Hopefully this is going to clear up somethings—"_

"_Harry, we see Decker ascending the podium now."_

"—_that's right, Marilyn! Ray, see if you can focus in on the Commissioner. We're gonna switch over to the man's microphone and get this address with the best clarity possible……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yesterday, a yet-unfinished-chapter of the Prison Explosion Debacle finally came into play. In pursuing the escaped suspect Jinx, the Titans discovered an Academy of the Hierarchy for International Vendetta and Extermination in Bludhaven. Shortly upon that discovery, the Academy experienced a terrible battle from within…the results of which have given over to the hands of police authorities in Metropolis terrorists in training such as Disruptor, Deuce, Charger, Gizmo, and the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. herself."

Voices in the crowd muttered.

Shock and murmurs.

We stood in the shadows silent.

Robin cracked his gloved knuckles. His eyemask gazed at the floor. "….."

Under a strobe of flashbulbs, Decker continued: "This marks the first major fall of H.I.V.E.'s Western foothold in our region—even the entire country—in decades. Furthermore, suspects that were accosted at the scene are currently being questioned as to the nature of H.I.V.E.'s leftover fortresses in this hemisphere as well as for possible information regarding the terrible tragedy that took place at the Prison three days ago."

Decker—his temper and potty mouth greatly withheld—then turned and gestured towards the Boy Wonder on the sidelines.

"To best fill you in on the recent endeavors made to track down these criminals—plus the new straggling strands of H.I.V.E.—we have Robin of the Teen Titans here to address the crowd and JCN Broadcasting. He and Raven were there to see the crumbling of the Bludhaven Academy. And it was also they who personally tracked down Gizmo and brought him and the others to justice. Robin….you may take the stand."

The Boy Wonder nodded. A deep breath. A shuffling of feet….

….he walked over to the podium.

There was no cheering. No hormonal howl or cat call from some youthful member of the crowd. Everyone there was mature, anxious, and waiting….

A few voices cleared and more flashbulbs went off.

Robin was initially silent as he found himself—much to his chagrin—having to stand on the tips of his boots to display the better half of his torso above the podium.

Starfire did her best to suppress a giggle.

Tempest smirked.

"Ahem…..," Robin's voice hoarsely crackled over the speakers. He swallowed and gained his strength: "Ladies and gentleman. Citizens of the City one and all. When the Titans and I rushed upon the explosive scene at the Prison, we were shocked, horrified, and disgusted. The fires and the destruction we witnessed in between combating this region's most notorious terrorists filled us with dread and remorse. Please believe me when I tell you that our hearts have always and will always go out to the families of victims perishing needlessly in our land on a week to week basis. It is the sort of pain like that as of recent that moves us to fight our ways to the heart of the matter. Right now, many of you may be thinking that we missed the heart of the matter with the Prison…and such may be why a tragedy has taken place. The fact of the matter is, we Titans never miss. But on occasion….villains don't miss either."

Camera lens focused. Reporters aimed microphones. Eyes stared fixedly forward.

Robin continued without stopping: "The perpetrator of the prison bombing remains nameless. But like all perpetrators, nobody remains traceless. I am convinced that there are five major traces. Gizmo as one…but he's since been found and is back in our custody. Jinx is another. And as much as her escape was publicized—being that many suspect her of the bombing—people may not be surprised to learn from us as they've already learned before that she's still on the loose. But we've found something far greater than the pink sorceress herself. We found H.I.V.E."

Robin shifted in his stance and continued with a gesture of his glove.

"H.I.V.E. is just what it sounds like. A cove. A cove of villains. A central hub of evil. And for whatever reasons, this hub has all but caved in on itself. A powerless Headmistress and a student body of terrorists in disarray suggest a tremendous schism taking place in the criminal underworld today. I am convinced that this is all related to the prison bombing and escapes. There is something at work in this City. There has almost _always_ _been_ something at work in this City. But at the same time….there has always been something to counter such insidious developments. When Slade threatened this City over and over again, the Titans were there to answer to him and eliminate his terrible plots. When Dagger raised his ugly head, his legacy was cut short. The Titans have sweat and toiled to put these threats into submission. And we have succeeded. Slade and Dagger are dead. And as of recent—most of the prisoners who tried to escape are back where they belong. The only traces left are Fang and Killer Moth. But soon they will face their reckoning. For we don't sweat and toil for nothing….we do it out of the respect and admiration of this City and its inherit life and goodness. We won't let these villains get away. We will chase them down. We will lock them back up. And we will ensure that this entire region is safe and secure from anxiety again…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

To tell the truth, I had read Robin's speech ahead of time. Supposedly Tempest and Raven had as well. I didn't really know for sure. I didn't really care.

I was blacking out. Not so much in the manner of being asleep. But instead…..

"…….."

I folded my arms and gazed past Robin's shoulders, past the crowd, past the flashing(stabbing!)cameras. Past the gray of the City beneath the cold blue of Autumn.

_I wonder if she'd really mind if I carried books for her sometime._

"………."

I shook my head and snapped out of that.

A sigh.

My black eyes blinked.

And….

I saw him again.

"…..?????"

I leaned forward.

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades.

And….

_In the crowd. _

_Moving through. _

_Short blonde hair. Smooth. _

_Small stature. _

_Eyes……_

My lips parted some.

_Green eyes?_

A blink.

_Who……is that???_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…already have confirmation of sightings as far out as Barrymore. And as it stands, the Titans and I are discussing a plan to branch out and search each location to learn more of Fang and Killer Moth's last locations," Robin continued as he gazed out at the crowd. "We've dealt with these two before. Sometimes together. Sometimes apart. But both have one thing in common. They always….ALWAYS leave traces of themselves behind. And the Titans will be quick on their trail…."

As the Boy Wonder spoke, he became slightly aware of a small figure moving slowly, liquidly through the crowd. A figure that was uniquely different. Uniquely….._small_…..

"We have the assistance of Commissioner Decker and the Police Department in this investigation." Robin's head turned ever so slightly towards the center of the crowd. "Also the state troopers have agreed to lend the highway patrol….in order to….m-make up for……th-those hurt during…..the…….Jinx pursuit……" The Boy Wonder's eyemask was narrowing. He was being distracted by something. His voice lingered off.

That 'something' turned out to be a boy. A twelve-year old boy. A little thing peering out from behind the crowd. He was a stranger. Something or someone that didn't belong there. And yet……and yet….

The Boy Wonder's lips hung open a bit in mid-speech.

A few people started mumbling.

Raven and Cyborg exchanged glances.

The boy came into full view. He was dressed in a modest polo shirt and khaki shorts. He couldn't have been more than four and a half feet tall. He looked up….stared directly at Robin….and smiled.

With green eyes.

Robin stared back.

_Green eyes……_

And.

"!!!!" Robin gasped.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dizzily, the Boy Wonder nearly collapsed over the podium.

Starfire jumped. "R-Robin??"

Decker shifted uncomfortably.

There were mutterings of confusion and shock from the crowd.

I leaned forward, my brow furrowed.

For a second there, we all swore Starfire was going to rush over toward the Titan's Leader side, but instead she stayed put.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was standing up straight again.

He was panting.

Sweat ran down his brow.

He stared out into the crowd and…

….and there was no one. No one out of the ordinary.

Robin swallowed, ran a hand through his hair, and uttered: "E-Excuse me….," he cleared his throat and simpered. "I think I put my cape on too tight this morning."

Chuckles arose from the crowd.

Smiles and nodding of heads.

The faces were still again.

The flashbulbs resumed.

Robin took a deep breath and continued: "A-As I was saying before I…er….l-lost myself. Ahem. The Titans will not be alone in tracking down these wandering miscreants. We have the assistance of law enforcement between here and Metropolis on our side. In fact, Commissioner Decker just got done talking to Maggie Sawyer this morning regarding the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. in custody and—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire had her hands cupped together. She smiled pleasantly now….relieved.

Beast Boy leaned in towards Tempest: "You think he was having an aneurysm?"

Tempest leaned back. "You think I care?"

"Heheheheh."

Silence again.

The whole time…..The whole time I was staring into the crowd.

"……."

The boy could no longer be seen. I couldn't spot him anymore behind the towering bodies of the reporters and other adults in the crowd.

I exhaled strongly through my nostrils.

_Where did he go?_

Silence.

_And where……wh-where have I seen him before??_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later….after the press conference and back at the Tower….

"I swear, man. You've been looking dazed all morning," Cyborg said as he paced leisurely with Robin through the hallway on the seventh floor. "Like you missed out on a month of sleep. And just what's your excuse? Noir was the one chained to an escaped convict for over thirty-two hours of nonstop annoyance! Heh!"

"……..," Robin found himself gazing out a window at the beautiful Autumn day as they passed by.

Cyborg's human eye blinked as he stared down at him. "Robbie?"

"H-Huh?" Robin looked up with a thin eyemask. He shook his head. "I-I'm sorry. Could you…..I dunno…repeat what you last said?"

"You okay, dawg?" Cyborg paused in a thoughtful pose. "You don't look so good. If I knew better, I'd say you were in good need of a shot. Be it a shot of morphine or a shot of sunshine….I dunno."

"Yeah….I……I…..," Robin gazed out the window again. "……………….y-yeah……"

Cyborg was silent. Suddenly, his hand was touching Robin's forehead. "Hmmm…….nope. That ain't it. Guess only a psychiatrist could go deep enough to see what's wrong with your skull."

Robin pouted. "Very funny."

"Heh….I hope so."

"What do you mean?"

"I've had my hand on your forehead for a full seven seconds and you still haven't batted my wrist away like a good Boy Wonder," Cyborg lowered the appendage in question. "Why don't you go get some sleep, man? I'd hate to be the one to break it to you first….but you need it."

"Yeah…….Y-Yeah….maybe I should," Robin said….still gazing out the window.

"So you actually agree with me?"

"Something wrong with that?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Just seeing how dazed you really are."

"Yeah….I guess I…..I-I-I just guess I was stressing too much over the speech earlier," Robin mumbled as he ran a gloved hand over his face. "It must have taken more out of me than I imagined."

"Heheheheheheheheh…."

Robin frowned. "Now what's so funny?"

"You admitting to stressing too much over something…..that's all."

"I'm entitled to a little honesty every now and then, aren't I?" Robin grumbled. "Sheesh. What is this, a review?"

"Now don't start whining on me," Cyborg pointed. "You're beginning to sound like Flipper."

"Heaven forbid," Robin said. He gazed off into space for a good ten seconds until he seemingly realized it and took another ten sluggish seconds to look at Cyborg and suddenly ask: "H-Have you seen…..Starfire?"

Cyborg blinked at that. "Um….yeah, dawg. She's up with Raven and Beast Boy making 'grilled tofu cheese deluxe'. I tried talking them out of it….but when Raven joined in—heh—what could I say? She's practically more nuts than you lately. Which makes me wonder…," he smirked and planted his metal hands on his hips. "Just what _did you two_ do while pursuing Jinx and Noir alone."

"What's it matter to you?" Robin grumbled.

"……," Cyborg leaned forward. "Should you even ask by now?"

"…….oh," Robin remarked. A beat. He leaned back a bit with a wider eyemask. "Oh……"

Cyborg glanced around with an innocent, off-beat gaze.

"Whatever…," Robin gestured. He stretched—but didn't yawn—as he turned towards the far side of the hallway. "….this day was too cold from the get go. I'm taking you up on your advice."

"C-Cold?"

"Cold," Robin walked forward…..and nearly bumped into me.

I jumped back.

Robin was dizzy. I almost envisioned him falling over. Instead, he balanced himself and looked up liquidly at me. "Noir…..where are you off to?"

I simpered. Indeed, I was dressed in denim on denim. Jacket, jeans, and white t-shirt. 'Strolling' material.

"I honestly can't blame him," Cyborg shrugged from behind Robin. "With that tofu nightmare happening upstairs, I should probably be heading out too. I hear Flipper's taken to the Bay to drown his head out for a while."

I hand-signed.

Cyborg interpreted with a smirk: "He says he's been out in the fresh air with Jinx too much to enjoy being out in the fresh air."

"Whatever….," Robin waved. "Just……….watch for cars."

Robin sauntered off lethargically down the hallway.

Cyborg and I watched him.

"………"

I turned and gazed at my android friend. I hand-signed.

Cyborg replied: "I dunno. I think puberty is finally kicking in."

I stuck my tongue out.

Cyborg chuckled. He walked off. "Cya, man. Don't go cheating on Kara out there, you here? With a face like that, you're only bound to!"

I walked off with my hands in denim-laced pockets.

_Save your flirting for Raven……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin locked the door to his room. He turned around and—clad in a white t-shirt and sweatpants—shuffled over to his bed.

"I suppose one nap in a year wouldn't kill me….," he muttered.

He all but collapsed onto the mattress, gazed up at the ceiling, and sighed.

"Why do I feel………..n-numb…..all over?"

Silence.

He groaned. His hands tossed the covers open and he slid his body in. He turned over to his side and….

A pause.

The Boy Wonder's hidden eyes lingered on the drawer of the bedside table.

But his hands didn't.

"I have more 'real' things to obsess over….," he mumbled to himself.

His hand reached up and over to the lamp.

-click-

He was bathed in the darkness of his windowless room. And it wasn't until the shadows truly enveloped his figure-snuggling into the warmth of the lonesome bed-that he finally peeled his eyemask off and shut his naked eyes to oblivion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Time flew as did the City beneath my feet.

And yet it was all at a leisurely pace.

I walked slowly through the City, staring more at the asphalt and sidewalk pavement than anything. I didn't realize the sun had fallen and the early Autumn evening had descended until it did, surprising me. I gazed up and caught glimpses of stars through the vaporous breaths echoing out of my nostrils.

Yes.

It was cold that day. That night.

But as of late….I was getting used to shivers.

_Red Aviary……_

My black eyes narrowed as the world became comfortably dark, save for a passing pair of headlights or the occasional streetlamp adjacent to my urban stroll.

I walked and walked and walked and walked.

And my head went through loops.

I thought….

_That……_

_That boy……_

My black eyes narrowed.

_Where have I seen him before??_

My feet shuffled against the sidewalk.

Passing headlights glinted off my the dark lenses of my shades.

_And did I just imagine it……or……did Robin see him today as well?_

My lips pursed.

_This afternoon……at the press conference……_

A beat.

I saw a crack in the pavement. A familiar crack.

Then a familiar smell.

"………"

I slowly looked up.

My gaze narrowed.

A black marquis. White plastic letters. A sheet of glass.

A funeral home.

I took a deep breath.

_Not just a funeral home……THE funeral home._

I stood there silently with my hands in my pockets. Gazing at the front of the old building. Its brickwork foundation haunting me. The thin alleyway to the rear parking inlet yawning a few steps away.

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………"

_I stood in my dark and ornate suit, holding the door open. I smiled subtly, sympathetically as I waited for the old couple to shuffle their way slowly inside the parlor. They were silent and sluggish in their movement…as if they half wanted to be there. I almost questioned their admiration for the body being laid to rest…but didn't comment on it. _

_Not like I could. _

_Once they were entered, I gazed out momentarily at the bright sky of a gradually-warming April above the City skyline. I took a deep breath and—like a good little usher—wandered inside after the last of the attendees to oversee the service._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Henry Lyons. Born on January 2, 1930. Died on April 6, 2004. Father of three. Grandfather to nearly a dozen. Catholic. A veteran. An all-around American. _

_There were a lot of old people that day. It always felt……twice as peaceful when an old person only has old people to attend his open-casket showing. Death is surrounded by the walking-dead……to put it roughly. The faces in the pews are almost twice as wrinkled as the one lying before them. And I learned from my life as an usher that death is a very relative—and close thing. Yesterday is merely a the tip of my tongue……the edge of my toenails. _

_I appreciated meditation a hell of a lot more each day._

_But there was one 'young' person there. _

_Sylvia Lyons. Age twenty-nine. Daughter of Henry and his second wife. And supposedly the heir to his lifelong fortune because of wyrd family rearrangement stuff. This was no Brewster's Millions situation by any means……but Sylvia did have a prospect of enjoying quite the lucrative bonus of the bloodline. But she appeared to be a modest rumor, and many of those in attendance of the service gossiped about her philanthropist ideas with the funds. _

_But what was I to know? I was just an usher. A mute usher with ears…… _

_I'm always on the receiving half of the globe._

_The service was already halfway over. The doors to the inner parlor were shut. My elderly co-workers Bartholomew and Ariel were seeing to the proceedings inside. I stood 'on guard' outside as it were, boredly giving the guestbook a look-through once or twice. Counting those who had attended and comparing it to the invites. I leaned my chin boredly on my hand while listening to Sylvia's eulogy. _

"_My father never told me much about his days in Korea……only that if it weren't for the Hell that he went through, he would never have met my mother. And though the two wouldn't marry until their reunion fifteen years later……I am forever glad for it. Because otherwise I would never have been given the chance to walk this world and be honored with my father's wisdom and patience and admiration for all people good and giving."_

_I couldn't help but smile to myself. After many a service ushered, I grew a knack for interpreting the eulogies I heard for earnesty and honesty. _

_And Sylvia had both. I didn't doubt for one second that she was going to donate the money inherited to someone or something else. Some people truly are born selfless……_

"_If my mother was here with me today, I knew she would be a walking fountain of tears. We all know how she couldn't resist a good sob story every now and then—" _

_Chuckles. The lasting bells of the elderly. _

"—_but she is in a place where there'll never have to worry about sorrow ever again. And now my father is there for her to teach what endless joy and happiness really feels like."_

_I took a deep breath and gently closed the sign-in book._

_There is no sorrow in oblivion……_

_Just then, the door to the funeral home opened. Fiercely._

_  
I glanced up. I blinked under my shades._

_In walked a scraggly looking young man with black, spiky hair, a super-tight black tank top, and grimy black jeans with chains hanging off the 'belt'. His eyes were hideously lined with dark shadow and he looked ready to bust his head through the brick wall of some pathetic bar or something. _

_It took a great deal of effort on my part not to sneer or chuckle at the utter patheticness of it all._

_Uh……no……uh uh, pal._

_He approached the parlor doors. _

_I walked forward and held my hand up. _

"_Out of the way, punk," he snarled. _

_I kept my cool. I folded my hands, smiled, and pointed at the guestbook-- _

_He shoved me back. "I said……move!!" _

_I clenched my jaw, cleared my throat, and forced another smile as I—gently—took him by the shoulder with my left, flesh arm and-- _

_FWOOOOOSH!!! He twirled his arm free of my grasp. "This is none of your business, shades!! Rrrgh!!" he pivoted his body and kicked me hard in the gut. _

_WHAM!!!! _

"_!!!!" I flew back. _

_CRASH!!!! _

_The parlor doors exploded from my flying body. _

_People in the pews gasped and shot up. A few seniors nearly had a heart attack. A woman on a breathing tank coughed and wheezed. _

_I rolled painfully across the floor as the creep whipped out a luger from his belt._

_**BANG!!! BANG!!!**_

_He fired to shots into the ceiling. Fiberglass and plastic rained down. _

"_Listen alive, you crusty eggs!! The rich bitch goes with me!!" _

_Sylvia—standing by the casket—leaned forward with her eyes squinting. "Johnny?? Johnny, is that you??"_

_  
"Damn straight, babe!! Get down here! Now!!" _

_Sylvia frowned. "Didn't I tell you it was over between us? Now here you are dishonoring my father! Who do you think you are??" _

_Cl-Click! 'Johnny' cocked his pistol and aimed it at the young woman from afar. "I'm the grim reaper today!! Now come with me!! Your head's worth more than all of these euthanasia guinea pigs combined!! You're going to earn back all the worthless months I spent trying to win your cold heart, shit-for-brains!!" _

_More and more attendees gasped. Others sobbed. _

_Sylvia raised her hands. "Okay, Johnny. Okay……," she slowly walked down the aisle from the podium and strolled towards the man in leather and denim. "Take me. Leave everyone else alone. It's just between us two, got it? I wish it wasn't……but it is……" _

"_Oh……you'll be wishing for a lot of things by the time the day's over, girl," Johnny winked evilly as he grabbed her forearm and yanked her towards him. "You'll be wishing for __**a lot**__." _

_I struggled to get up. _

_WHUMP!!! _

_The man pressed me hard against the wall with a boot beneath my chin. _

"_That's as far as you go, handsome." _

_I frowned up at him. _

"_J-Jordan??" Ariel and Bartholomew came running around the corner with the balding manager. "What's going on in he—EEP!!"  
_

_Johnny aimed the gun at them with one hand while grabbing ahold of Sylvia Lyons with the other. "Keep away or her head gets blown away." _

_I motioned emphatically for my co-workers to comply. _

_And they did so……even though my manager muttered all the way towards crouching on the floor with hands over his head: "Just what do you want from her?" _

"_Something that was due me for a long time," Johnny said as he paced himself and Sylvia out towards the entrance of the funeral home. "You got the keys to the hearse outside, old man?" _

_My manager's eyes bulged. "Th-The keys?" A beat. "The hearse?!" _

"_Eh, screw it," the man smiled with a snarl. "I'll just hotwire the sucker!! Ha ha ha!! LET'S GO!!!"_

_Sylvia panted as she was yanked out the door and towards the street outside. _

_Everyone immediately started trembling and muttering. _

_Bartholomew stood up and gently paced his way to the windows of the front parlor. He peered out. A beat. He looked back at the manager and shuddered: "He's doing it! He's taking her along with the hearse!" _

_A car engine sounded from outside, announcing the worse. _

"_Perfect……," the manager grumbled as she struggled to his feet. "Just perfect." A beat. A breath above the worried sobs. "Bart……go call 9-11." _

"_On it!" _

"_Ariel, check up on the guests. Make sure nobody's hurt and calm them down." _

"_Y-Yes, sir." _

_He looked my way. "Jordan?" _

_A beat. _

"_J-Jordan?" _

_Another beat. _

_His aging eyes narrowed. _

_I was gone. _

_He frowned. "Now where the Hell did he go?"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_SCREEEEECH!!!!! _

_The hearse screamed out into the street, forcing both a semi-truck and a service van in opposite lanes of traffic to screech to a stop. _

"_Ha ha ha ha!!!" Johnny shouted while driving the wheel with one hand and aiming a gun to Sylvia's neck with the other. "I've always wanted to make an exit in one of these things!!!" _

_Sylvia panted. "You're a psycho, Johnny. A complete psycho! I should have listened to what my brother said about you in the first place!!" _

"_That was before I was famous, babe!!" Johnny smiled. "Now if you play nice……you and I can get this set of wheels pawned in some place and that—combined with your fortune—could get me the oomph I need to start busting heads of people who've been really annoying me!!" _

"_If you think……even for a __**second**__ that I'd do anything to help you after what you've done to my father—"_

"_You know what……why don't you just shut up, bitch?!?!" Johnny frowned. "Before I decide to make this a roadkill romance." _

"…………………"

"_Heheheheh……look out, everyone!! Death on wheels! Hot and on the go!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_VRRRRMMMM!!!!_

_The hearse bulleted madly down the city street below the rooftops. _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

_On smoking feet, I ran up the brick wall of an alleyway and onto the ledge. _

_I squatted—clad fully in my usher's uniform—and took a deep breath. _

"……………"

_SWOOOOOSH!!! _

_I blurred forward. _

_I ran with smoking feet from building top to building top. _

_As I rushed parallel to the hearse throttling its way through traffic below, I unclipped my belt and tore it off. _

_I unbuttoned my dress jacket while running. I tossed it off behind me. A few seconds later, I tossed my tie off into the wind. _

_I hopped up onto a higher building tier, all the while pulling my long black ponytail out from the back collar of my white shirt. _

_Not a moment too soon, my shirt was gone too. As I ran—now shirtless—I undid the band to my ponytail, stretched it out, and fastened it around my forehead like a bandanna. _

_Up ahead was an intersection, and the hearse looked to be making a mad right turn. Up ahead was also the event horizon of the rooftops. _

_I angled my dash to the right some—panting—and reached a murking hand out towards a TV. antenna. _

_CLANK!!!! _

_I ripped off a metal 'branch' of three feet in length, twirled it like a sharp edged staff, and ran straight towards the edge of the roof just as the hearse swerved through two lights and went right._

_I gritted my teeth._

_You didn't sign in, you bastard. _

_SWOOOOOSH!!!!!_

_I swan-dove off the edge of the rooftop and plummeted six stories. My hair beat behind my upper body like a miniature, black cape. If flipped in mid-air, kicked my murking feet off the building side across the street, vaulted up into the air, flipped again, and landed with the smoke-encased staff stabbing deep into the back of the leather-plated hearse._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_CLANK!!!!! _

_The vehicle lurched. _

_Sylvia gasped. _

_Johnny lurched at the wheel. _

"_What the Hell??" he muttered._

_  
CL-CLANK!!! _

_He glanced behind while driving at seventy-miles per hour._

"_Did I forget a zombie in the back or something—" _

_SMASH!!!! _

_The glass plate behind the driver's seat shattered. _

_Sylvia shrieked._

_Johnny all but lost control of the wheel. _

"_Aaack!! What the—" _

_A pair of smoking, ghostly arms encircled his neck from behind. _

"_Snkkkkttt---" _

_A dark head leaning forward. Black shades. Smoke dancing out from under the lenses and wisping over clenched teeth._

_YANK!!!! _

"_Aaaugh!!" Johnny screamed in terror as he was yanked back into the coffin compartment of the hearse. _

_Sylvia looked at him, bug-eyed. She stared ahead. _

_The hearse was driving straight into a storefront. _

"_AAAAAAAAH!!!" she covered her face. _

_The same dark limbs reached past Johnny's kicking legs and gripped tightly to Sylvia's shoulders. _

_SWOOOOOSH!!!_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T- _

_SWOOOOSH!!!_

_Sylvia suddenly found herself standing on solid ground besides a cross-walk sign. _

_Teleported. _

"_Nnngh……," she dizzily slumped down with her back to a lamppost. _

"…………_," I stared up from where I stood next to her. _

_The hearse soared by itself straight into the building side._

_  
Well……not technically 'by itself'. Johnny was still inside._

_SMASH!!!!!!!!! _

_And Johnny's body ricocheted through the back compartment of the hearse as it came into a smashing halt into a wall of glass and granite. _

_CRUNNNNCH!!! _

_HISSSSSSssssssss……… _

_A beat. _

_Crinkle! Crinkle!! _

_On a sea of broken glass, a dazed Johnny stumbled out. _

"_Nnnngh……," he moaned. "……well……I got the driving part. But I don't remember the 'drinking'." _

_He was belatedly aware of my figure marching towards him with the antenna branch in my grasp. _

"_You………," he pointed with a snarl. "Who are you—" _

_WHANG!!! _

_I slammed the staff into his ribcage. _

"_NNGH!!" he twitched. He tried to pull out his pistol-- _

_SWOOOSH-CLANK!!! I spun-kick my foot into his wrist, knocking the weapon a dozen feet away. SWOOOSH-WHUMP!! I spun with another kick into his forehead. _

"_Augh!!" he stumbled back. _

_I seethed. _

_That's who I am. _

_He snarled. "NnnnnghhhAAAUG!!" he flew forward with a sudden fist to my face. _

_SMACK!!! _

_My head turned from the impact. _

_My shades flew off. _

"………_," I slowly tilted my head towards him. Glaring. Naked black eyes smoking. _

_Johnny's face gasped in terror. "Whoah!!" _

_Whoah is right. _

_WHACK!!!!!! _

_Without so much as moving my legs, I uppercutted him fiercely with the metal bar. His body flew back twelve feet from the murk-empowered blow and he landed, crashing through a newspaper stand. SMASH!!! _

"_Nnngh………death should have……t-taken a holiday……," he mumbled……and was out cold. _

_I took a deep breath. _

_Respect the dead before the dead loses respect for you. _

_I checked up on Sylvia before—CLANG!!—dropping the bar to the floor and walking away in stealth mode as sounds of police sirens emanated closer and closer to the chaotic scene._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Quite ironically, I got my paycheck the next day. When I came to collect it, the manager—of course—gave me an earful for disappearing so suddenly on him and my co-workers when the doomed hearse was stolen. And shortly thereafter, the manager caved in and blessed me for being such a fine usher and never disappointing him ever and a bunch of other stuff that I simply shrugged and smiled at before walking away with my earnings._

_  
It was the start of a new month. And that meant 'reward night' for me. Ever since I moved into the City, it was a tough experience to earn a living. Granted, I didn't give myself much. I lived in a rathole of a room in the Norman Apartments where I survived solely on winning the trust of families throughout the compound through the works of 'black eyes'. I scrimped on funds so that I'd have enough to eat every day (or every __**other**__ day). All that seemed to matter to me was being alive the next day to continue ushering or meditating in the mornings. _

_But at the first of each month during that lifestyle, I had a 'reward night' for myself. And I decided for the fourth night in the row to visit the Downtown Buffet. It was a fourth-story restaurant with an all-you-can-eat buffet for $11.50 an evening. Not bad……especially for a deprived twig such as myself in those days. _

_I ascended via stairs for the sake of exercise. I had on a pair of black work slacks and a plaid jacket I had earned at a thrift store four weeks earlier. It was the nicest 'casual wear' I had at the time. I made it in line for the restaurant……and it was there that I saw all sorts of people. The faces that I was used to on 'reward night'. True Americana, they were. Much like the kind you find at your neighborhood Wal-Mart……only I'm not ashamed to call it 'Americana'. In all of its obesity and countrified or citified slang or groups of wailing children and inefficient mothers and fathers and half-English-speaking entities all around. Half of the people smelled, half of the people smelled bad. The fact that there was a smell was what attracted me to that place. It wasn't dead and it wasn't dusty. It had life. _

_After twenty minutes of stomach-growling buildup, I limped through the register and chopped a limb off figuratively to pay the meal price. I had to my disposal—ever arriving fresh from the loud and clattering kitchen—huge platters full of roast beef, smoked ham, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, corns, green beans, casserole, fried chicken, steak strips, black beans and rice, and various sorts of jello and puddings and slices of delicious pie._

_  
And what did I choose? _

_Salad. Caesar. Rich with carrot slicings and dressing. _

_I carried the tray and my plate over to a barren table miraculously placed in a remote spot far away from the rest of the loud, boisterous eatery. There was a discarded front page of the City Newspaper on the desk. I leisurely glanced at it through dark shades as I sat down._

'_Johnny Rancid Kidnap Plot Stopped By Ghostly Vigilante'. _

'_Police and Teen Titans Still Baffled At New, Mysterious Do-Gooder'. _

_I smirked._

_Who's Johnny Rancid? _

_The guy I just beat up? _

_Whatever…… _

_I brushed the paper away and put down the salad. _

_I ate slowly…relishing in every bite. Feeling restored from something other than hastily heated, canned goods. I knew that I had plenty a plate ahead of me……but I was determined to make a night out of it. It was my 'reward night' after all. _

_After the first plate of salad was gone, I decided to indulge in my first luxury in months._

_  
I pulled out of my pocket a fresh pack of cards. I ripped open the plastic sheathe, opened the box, and pulled the deck out. _

_Pushing my tray out of the way, I shuffled the cards expertly for a good minute and a half and then laid them out for a relaxing, brain-numbing game of solitaire. _

_I smiled. _

_I had lost the old deck I had during an impromptu midnight fight with a gang of would-be-rapists two blocks down from the Norman Apartments. What can I say? They were in my………'territory'._

_So I played solitaire. So I digested Caesar salad. So I forgot about how ugly the world was. _

_And I smiled some more. _

_I was halfway through my available deck when he first dropped by. At first, he was just a short statue with a blonde head. Then, gradually, he was a close shape. Closer……closer……closer…… _

_Finally—in the middle of twirling a seven of hearts between my fingers—I glanced up. _

_A boy looked at me. At standing, he was at about eye level with me sitting. An eleven year old, blonde thing……he smiled at me. A pleasant smile._

_  
Green eyes. _

"……………_," I simpered. I shrugged. I went back to my game._

_A minute or two passed……_

_  
The figure came closer._

_  
I had an a four of diamonds in my hand. _

_A chair shuffled……suspiciously close to my lonesome table. _

"………………_," I looked up. _

_The boy was sitting down. Across from me. Barely two and a half feet away. Staring. _

"………………"

"………………"

"………………"

_Finally, I mouthed slowly: 'Can I help you?' _

_The boy slowly shook his head. He smiled at me. A calm smile. And yet……hauntingly full of a sense of 'admiration'. Idol worship? I don't know…… _

_I took a deep, annoyed breath and tried fumingly to continue my card game. _

_And that's when I noticed through the peripheral of my dark vision a flurrying of fingers. A half of a sentence. _

_I jerked to attention. I stared at the boy intently and realized he was speaking to me……with sign language._

'_---you just yesterday,' finished his sentence._

"…………_," I blinked. I gently lowered my cards down and gestured back._

'_What?' _

_He smiled gently and repeated: 'I saw you just yesterday.' _

_I replied: 'Saw me when?'_

'_In the street with Johnny Rancid.' _

_A beat. _

_I smirked._

_  
I gestured: 'That was not me.' _

_The boy giggled……only, it was a giggle without a giggle. A breath without a voice. 'Sure you were not,' he hand-signed. _

"…………_," my black eyes narrowed and my neck craned. _

_I saw a scar on his little neck. A thin, diagonal wound that stretched its way up from the lower end of his throat to halfway up his larynx._

_A knife wound, most likely. Someone was only half finished in slitting his throat._

_Interesting……… _

_But I shrugged it off at the time._

'_I am telling you, that was not me,' I hand-signed to the……mute. 'Besides, what is it to you?'_

'_Curiosity,' was his reply. _

"…………"

_He suddenly held a hand over his mouth in a silent gasp. 'I am sorry. Were you eating?'_

_I looked at my empty plate of salad. I looked at my card game. I looked at the blonde kid._

'_Yes. I was.'_

'_I see. In that case……,' and the eleven year old got up and walked away._

_I took a deep breath._

_  
Finally alone._

_  
I returned to my cards. _

_Gathering the strength to smile again._

_  
Until…… _

_The chair scooted out and in again. The familiar blonde shape…… _

_I looked across the table. _

_The boy sat down with a plate of sliced peaches, fruit salad, and crackers._

'_I think I will eat with you so that you will not be alone,' he cutely hand-signed with a beautiful smile._

"……………_," I glared at him. _

_He ate. _

"……………"

_He ate. _

"……………"

_He ate. _

"……………_," I leaned back with a sigh and folded my arms. I found myself staring at him more intently. The way his blonde hair was short and had that typical……I dunno……'greased cliff hair' thing which seems so popular among kids nowadays. He was a small thing……even for his age, which I again judged was around eleven or twelve. There was something undeniably……harmless and innocent and warm about him. Suddenly I couldn't help but wonder—_

'_Where are your parents, kid?' _

_He finished eating a spoon full of grape, watermelon, and raisins from his bowl. He swallowed with the aide of water, used a napkin properly, and eventually signed back: 'That is a good question. Where are your parents?' _

_I smirked with an eyebrow raised. 'I was asking you. Why change the subject?'_

'_And now I am asking you. See? Is it not simple?' And he "giggled" again. _

_I took a deep breath. 'You look like you could use a mother.' A beat. I added. 'Or a concussion.' _

_He swallowed some more and returned: 'Come on, now. You really are not that violent.'_

_I chuckled breathily. 'Oh, I can be really violent. Believe me.' _

_He then hand-signed with startling immediacy. 'Like with Johnny Rancid?'_

"………………"

_He stared at me. He added: 'Or the rape gang near the Norman Apartments?' _

_A beat. _

'_Do you call that violence?' he asked. With a smile he finger-danced: 'I call that bravery.' _

_A beat. _

_My black eyes narrowed under my shades._

'_Who are you?' I caved with a gesture._

_He leaned back proudly from his fruit salad and replied: 'Now who is changing the subject?'  
_

_A beat. _

_I smiled. _

_I slowly stood up. I gathered my cards. I put them in my pocket. I gathered my tray._

_  
His green eyes rounded. His fingers blurred: 'Where are you going?' _

_I replied: 'Someplace where nobody will…'—middle finger—'…up my evening.' _

_I shuffled off, my peripheral vision collecting the reflection of my shades of his hands signing: 'But I needed to ask you something—' _

_I left the eatery behind me in a huff._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I took my time walking home to the Apartments that evening. I gazed around the dark streets and alleyways of my route, as if expecting to find some sort of crooks to do in for the better good of my neighboring citizens. _

_There were none. _

_And I felt obscenely disappointed. _

_I reached the Norman buildings. I slowly marched up the creaking, old steps. Each floor was layered with rooms full of clattering noises. Spouses yelling at each other with muffled exclamations through the walls. TV's and radios blaring. Other mysterious noises that would have haunted my dreams if I didn't know I was a swordsman who could cleave a brick wall in two._

_As I came increasingly closer to my floor, things became gradually friendlier. A few straggling tenants crossed paths with me…smiling and waving with an exclamation of 'hey, black eyes!' or two. I smiled at a few of them, trying to pleasantly nod or reply with a wave of sorts. _

_But I felt twice as much dead that evening. Reward night had bitten me in the rear. _

_I reached my floor. Two kids were playing tag in the hallway. Little ones. At one point they circled around me as if I was a tree to hide behind. I chuckled breathily and made to chase one or two of them before they both ran off—giggling—towards an apartment door where their mother called for them in Spanish. She took one look at me and smiled with a curtsey, saying something I didn't understand but I assumed was mostly good. _

_I saluted back with a smile, sighed, and turned around to head into my room._

_I ran into Molly along the way. Janice's former roommate and a single-mom. _

"_Jordan. Hey…," she walked towards me. "Say, the guys from downstairs—you know the Johnson brothers and Albert Veracity?" _

_I nodded. _

"_They wanted to talk to you about………uhm……some bad stuff happening a few blocks away lately," she murmured. _

_I raised an eyebrow. _

"_I can't talk too much about it right now. But people are hearing rumors. Ya know……about the street bots." _

_My eyes narrowed. _

"_They say Slade is on the rise again. His first time back since this City was taken over and stuff months ago. Everyone's afraid of what might happen if Slade's henchmen visited the apartments again……" _

_I nodded. _

_My memory wasn't bad. _

"_Anyways. Talk to Veracity and the Johnson's about it sometime, please? We all would l-love your protection. And……er………wh-when I say 'talk'……I didn't exactly mean-----" _

_I waved a friendly hand with a smile. _

"_Okay……uhm……cya," she waved and walked off. _

_I headed towards my room, my head full. I shuffled in slowly. The door could never shut tightly enough. One might consider my dwelling place vulnerable……but I didn't have much worthy of stealing. Besides…anyone within so much of a stone's throw from the Norman apartments would know that my room is the __**last**__ they'd want to mess with. _

_After slowly bathing myself in the vast boring wasteland of my dusty abode, I shuffled with a sigh over to the bed. I bent down, slid under, and opened the wall panel where Myrkblade and its hilt were hidden. The thunder of a passing L-Train shook the building's foundations and nearby neon lights glowed annoying in through the windows. I ignored it all as I picked Myrkblade up and walked over towards the panes where a fire escape loomed. _

_CHIIIING!!! _

_I pulled Myrkblade out with one hand and produced a sandstone from a satchel with another. I encased Myrkblade in smoke and began sharpening it absent-mindedly, passing the time as I gazed out of the window towards the streets and rooftops beyond. In thought. _

_I exhaled through my nose. I thought of the infamous 'Slade'……a word that instilled fear into the hearts of every neighbor around me. A name that had haunted them before on various occasion. One occasion I was there to witness……when Janice's former boyfriend Ricky summoned some of Slade's minions through his own gang to launch an assault on the rooftop population of my building._

_Heh……'my' building. Somehow that Freudian scared me…… _

_I stared out the window. My black eyes braving the intermittent, neon pulses. Beyond the electric canopies, I somehow spotted it. Standing alone against the black horizon. Situated on an island in the middle of the Bay. _

_A huge, shimmering 'T'. _

_And I zoned out…………_

…………_until a shuffling noise alighted from the opposite side of the room behind me. _

_The sandstone paused. _

_My shoulders tensed. _

……………………_another shuffle. _

_SWOOOOSH-THWIIISH-CHTUNG!!!!!! _

_In a blink of an eye, I had spun and tossed the blade across the room……effectively embedding it into the wall across the way and pinning the intruding figure by his shirt._

_  
A young, petite intruding figure with blonde hair and frightened green eyes._

"………………_," I panted. _

_The boy from the buffet restaurant struggled. In a ridiculously futile fashion he tried yanking himself from the blade and running away……until he found himself under the dark scrutiny of my condescending gaze. He blushed, bit his lip, and looked away. _

_I clenched my fists. I groaned inwardly, marched over, and pulled the blade out of the wall. _

_YANK!!! _

_He slumped down—halfway sitting—and examining the fresh hole in his shirt's shoulder. _

_CHIIIIIING!!! I sheathed the blade. A sigh……a pause……a helpless smile. I held a hand out to him. _

_He simpered and took it as I raised him to his feet. His head was barely above waist level. _

_I slung Myrkblade and its sheathe over my shoulder and hand-signed: 'Did you follow me all the way here?' _

_He bashfully scratched the back of his head for a moment before replying with a finger dance: 'I guess you could say that.'_

'_Why?'_

'_Curiosity.' _

_I rolled my black eyes. I hand-signed: 'What part of the middle finger do you not understand?'_

_He frowned. 'Do not be mean. Super-heroes are not supposed to be mean.'_

_I felt like laughing. _

_He sensed it. I guess people who can't talk have a 'humor-wavelength'._

_  
I gestured: 'I am no superhero, kid. Go home and turn on the news.' _

_But he smiled and hand-signed. 'I am home.' _

_I made a face._

_He lovingly spread his arms before gesturing: 'People……people are my home.' _

"……………_," I blinked._

_  
Yeah……… _

_I walked back and sat on the window sill. 'Well, this is my home. And I did not invite you here. Now I have better things to do than waste my time exchanging fingers with long-lost jailbait like yourself. Either you get out of here or I might do something I will regret.' _

'_Like what?'_

"………………"

'_Like what??' he bravely repeated._

_I scratched my head. I folded my arms. "…………" I sighed._

_He 'giggled' again._

'_What do you want from me?' I asked._

'_Are you Noir?'_

'_Noir?'_

'_I hear people on the streets in this part of Town call the new vigilante the Black Eyes or Noir.' _

_I smiled. _

_He leaned his head to the side._

_I hand-signed slowly. 'What is it to you?'_

'_It is a lot of things to me. I bet it is a lot of things to many people. At least, it could be.'_

'_What do you mean?'_

_He paced around my room with a happy expression, as if he was finding something absurdly beautiful about it that I couldn't._

'_This place is a lot safer because of you,' he hand-signed. 'I bet.'_

'_Yeah. And?'_

'_I bet the whole City could be safer too.'_

_I stared at him._

_  
A beat._

_  
He sat on the edge of my bed. _

_Hey……MY bed! _

_I almost stood up—_

_But he hand-signed:_

'_Ever thought of being a super hero?'_

_I raised an eyebrow._

_He hand-signed as he gazed out the window at a familiar Tower. 'Ever thought of joining the Titans?' _

_I couldn't help but smirk._

'_I tend to think more about eating cyanide ice cream.' _

_He almost seemed to pout at that. But still: 'That is too bad.' _

_A beat._

_I leaned my head to the side. 'What is your name?'_

'_My name?'_

'_Yes.' _

_The boy seemed to think about that for a second. Naturally, such hesitancy would make me question the person's honesty. But with him……… _

_I felt inclined to trust……_

_He smiled at me. 'I know what you can call me.'_

'_Very well, what?'_

_He folded his three middle fingers under his thumb and—with pink curved outward—performed a half loop with his hand._

'_J'_

_I nodded._

'_Pleased to meet you, J. Now get the Hell out of my apartment.'_

_But suddenly he was yawning. And suddenly he was stretching his arms. And suddenly he was lying on my bed in a fetal position._

_  
MY bed!!_

'_Hey!' _

_I jumped up, teeth gritting. I waved. I shook my fist. I practically performed a rain dance. _

_He didn't budge._

_I growled mutely and hand-signed: 'Drop dead!!'_

_  
He smiled and returned: 'I do not mind if I do.' That conveyed, he turned over, snuggled against the mattress and the dusty wall, and was out like a light._

"………………_," I clenched my fist……sighed……and unclenched it. I slumped back against the window sill with a hand over my face._

_Why can't I smash in a cute face for once?_

_I had no clue how to sleep that evening._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………," I stared at the front of the funeral parlor for a few added minutes. I felt a shiver up my metal limb. I took a breath.

_Red Aviary._

I sighed.

I turned and walked down the sidewalk under the fall of night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Robin!!" the voice called out for him. _

_The thirteen year old panted as he streaked down the rusted catwalk. A sky of crimson stretched overhead. A mud-brown sea boiled beneath him._

"_I'm coming!!" _

_Feverish breaths. _

_Dark echoes. _

_Putrid mud leaking down the metal supports of the catwalk that groaned around him. _

_She was a distant speck. Black and burgundy. Being swallowed up by the brown._

"_R-Run Robin!! Please!! Hurry!!" _

"_No!!!" he shouted. "You must run!! Get away!! Get somewhere safe!!" _

"_Robin!! Stay back—" _

"_Wait for me!! I can save you!!!" the young Hero sweat. "I can save you!!!!" _

_The catwalk groaned beneath him. _

_He nearly lost his balance. _

_He leaned against the side railings of the catwalk, panting for breath. _

_The bleeding sky boiled above him. _

_The lighthouse. _

_The beam. _

_Slicing. _

_Slicing. _

_The factory was falling apart. _

_Her speck was going with it. _

"_No……," he shuddered. _

"_Robin!!" she shrieked._

_  
Everything fell into the putrid mud. _

_Disappearing. _

_Laughing away into oblivion. _

"_No!!!" he pulled at his face with black gloves. _

"_Run………r-run………" _

_And she dissolved. _

_And the catwalk disappeared. _

_And everything was red……red………__**red.**_

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" the young Robin fell to his knees. He wept. He sat at the edge of the bay. Standing over the rock bluffs. Cold. Chilled to the bone. Paralyzed. _

"_Why didn't you run??" he shook all over. "Why didn't you r-run?"_

_And. _

_Cold. _

_And. _

_Silence. _

_And…_

……

………

…………"_Robin……" _

_The Boy Wonder gasped. _

_His eyemask twitched. _

'_This……This isn't the end?' _

_Something stabbed hard into him. Something unnatural._

_  
'Something wrong.'_

'_No……something right……'_

_Trembling, he craned his neck._

_A dark speck rose from the waters of the bay. _

_A gasp escaped the Boy Wonder's lips._

'_This is so right.'_

'_And this is so wrong.'_

_She walked up towards him. Her black bangs drooping. Her eyes hidden._

'_Robin……'_

_There was a green light. Warm. Inviting. Like a supernatural blanket. It melted around his shoulders, replacing his cape and uniform with emerald fury. _

_He throbbed all over. _

_His lungs were on fire. _

_And…… _

_He reveled._

_She walked up to him. _

_She walked up to him._

_  
Her face tilted up._

_Chocolate brown eyes. _

_Thin lips……into a smile. _

_Robin's face was pale. His eyemask as wide as could be allowed him. And something melted and something cried as her hands lifted up and cradled his face. _

"_Do you feel me, Robin?" her voice echoed the laughter of the Sun and chased the Red Sky away. "I am real……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin woke up. But he didn't shoot up into a sitting position. He didn't gasp. He didn't sweat.

He simply……woke up.

Softly….as if from the gentle descent of a feather. He slowly shifted up into bed. His true eyes shadowed by the darkness as the evening entombed the world outside his room.

He took a deep breath. He brought his legs to his chest and hugged them in silence.

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Knock Knock Knock._

"………….."

_Knock Knock Knock_.

"Nnngh….," Starfire turned in bed that night, disturbed by the sound. Still, her slumber was pleasant—howbeit interrupted. She curled up under the pink covers of her circular, Tamaranian bed and exhaled. "Mmmmm….em'bratta slorvax de X'Hal……"

A beat.

_Knock Knock Knock._

Starfire's brow furrowed. Finally she stood up, her hair a tangled facsimile of the fiery-red smoothness that it was during the day time. "Haaftu?" She blinked dazedly, cutely. "Haaftu ven saat'm?"

_Knock Knock Knock._

"Ah yes….Terra Firma….affirmative," she shook her head. She slowly pushed the covers off and hovered limply towards the door. "Just a minute!" She yawned, rubbed her green eyes, and pressed the panel to her door.

_Schwissh!_

"H-How can I be of assistance to you, nocturnal friend of visitation?" she mumbled rather impromptu. A beat. She blinked and her thin eyes widened somewhat. "Robin! I…..I-I was not expecting you."

"………," he stood at her door with his hands hanging by his side. Fidgety. Still dressed in a white t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Is there something I can help you with at this hour?"

"………."

Starfire's eyes narrowed. "Is there…..something the matter?"

Robin bit his lip. He slowly stepped inside. Starfire watched as the Boy Wonder wandered halfway across the room, paused before the windows, falter, pause again, and drift over towards the windows….gazing out finally. Still. Contemplative. And yet…..nervous.

Starfire's face lit up in concern. "Friend…..you look….distressed…." She floated over towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "….please….tell me what ails you—"

Her sentence was cut short at the feel of his bare hand against her wrist. Slowly—Robin turned around and his hand traveled up her arm to her shoulder, up her neck, and gently cupped her cheek.

Starfire's lips parted as she felt the Boy Wonder's hands suddenly cup both sides of her face.

He leaned towards her….at a relatively safe distance. His eyemask peered into her green-on-amber visage and there was an expression on his face just short of breathless wonder as he uttered: "Warmth….."

She blinked.

"Such….s-such warmth…..," the Boy Wonder shuddered. His fingers lovingly traced the contours of her face. Gently…as if afraid to break her.

Something happened that Starfire had never seen before. A tear squeezed out from under Robin's eyemask.

"How…….how could I have f-forgotten…..?" the young man breathed.

Starfire shakingly gripped his wrists. "R-Robin??"


	154. J part 2

**154. J part 2**

_I twirled Myrkblade with shimmering bands of trailing smoke. _

_I twirled down into a crouch and balanced myself stoutly on one ankle with my other leg curled up awkwardly to my thigh. _

_After a few painful seconds of freezing the pose, I spun up to my heels, twirled around, and sliced up with Myrkblade into the air before twirling it again and striking a tall, one-legged pose of concentration. _

_A beat. _

_I twirled, I shifted across the gravel of the Norman Apartment rooftops in a glide and came to a sliding stop of splashing murk. I arched my body into a human arrow and slowly dragged my fingers calmly up the length of Myrkblade's dull side. _

_I took a breath. I twirled my blade forward, jabbed the air, twirled, jabbed more of the air, cart wheeled, twirled my blade, and ended in a terribly awkward pose with only three of my right toes keeping me upright. I could only manage that for twenty seconds before I all but plummeted into a forward slash, a horizontal cut, and a spiraling descent into a lotus position. _

_CHIIIIIIING!!! _

_I had Myrkblade sheathed in its scabbard and lying across my lap. I held my hands together. I closed my black eyes. I took a deep, invigorating breath._

_  
It was early morning._

_I felt the air of the Spring sky settle down onto the urban lattice work of half-burnt out neon lights and trashed-up TV. antennas. Somewhere a little bit of crisp oxygen fell over and scattered over my brow and into my nostrils. _

_And again I wished—if even for a moment—that my everyday spot for meditation would be somewhere more natural. Perhaps……perhaps somewhere close to the Bay……_

_Heh……the Bay. That's rich. _

_And then I heard applause. Hands clapping. _

"…………_," my black eyes opened. _

_The little boy stood across from me where the fire escape met the rooftop. The morning wind kicked at his mat of blonde hair as he smiled and continued clapping. _

"……………_," I exhaled and slipped my shades on. I stood up slowly—with my back to the Sun—and hung Myrkblade behind my back before hand-signing:_

'_Enjoy hijacking my bed last night?'_

_He grinned and gestured back: 'I am most grateful for your hospitality.'_

'_I will try and be twice as hospitable tonight by placing land mines around my room.'_

_He pouted. 'Surely you are not mad.'_

_I smirked. 'Nah, I am not mad. I am only going to rip your head off if I so much as see your Norman Rockwell face for a single minute longer. Now leave and never come back.'_

_I furiously marched past him and began descending the stairwell._

_  
He whistled. _

_I paused. I sighed. I looked his way. _

_With a relatively serious face, the eleven year old hand-signed: 'You would not do that to me.'_

"_????" I blinked under my shades._

_His figure was strangely aglow against the bright, burning Sun that stabbed into me. 'You would not rip my head off.'_

_I smirked again, sarcastically. I let go of my hands against the fire escape rails and hand-signed: 'You would not know. How can you say anything?' _

_He scurried over and stood in front of me, blocking my descent. He fervently hand-signed: 'Oh, but I do know. I have seen you.'_

'_Freak……'_

'_I have!' _

_I made to walk through him-- _

_He held up two weak hands. _

_I deigned to stand back._

_He took a breath and mutely expressed: 'I saw you beat up Rancid. I saw you beat up those gang rapists too. I saw you save people from thieving gangs.'_

_I oozily hand-signed: 'You sure get around a lot for an underaged munchkin.'_

'_I am serious! You do it all in the darkness! You vanquish bad guys and save good guys and do it all in the shadows without asking for anything in return! But I think things should be different. I think Noir was meant for more than just these dirty streets!'_

_Suddenly, I frowned. _

_The boy bit his lip and shrinked away a bit. _

_I pointed at his chest, then hand-signed: 'Okay, for one thing. Dirty is a relative term. For another. You are wasting my time. I just finished meditation and now I need to go to work. The only work that really matters. The work that the Sun bears witness to. Anything I do with my life is none of your business. Now if you will please get out of the way. Must you hog more than my bed but the whole Apartment Building as well?'_

_I grumbled inwardly and marched past him. _

_A beat. _

_I paused. _

"…………"

_I turned around. I looked at him funny. I hand-signed: 'What is it that you want from the Titans anyway?'_

_He looked confused. _

_I added emphasis to my fingers: 'The Titans. You mentioned them last night.'_

_He blushed sheepishly. Darn little kid……: 'Yes. That I did.'_

'_What do you want from them?'_

'_It is not so much what I want……though I do want the same thing that the Titans want and the people want.' _

'_Yeah?'_

'_Peace.'_

_  
A beat._

'_Peace,' the boy held up two fingers with added emphasis. He smiled pleasantly._

"……………_," I stared at him. I shook my head. 'There had better not be lice in my bed,' I hand-signed._

'_Do you not believe in peace?'_

_I took a deep breath. I leaned against some railings and narrowed my gaze on the metal steps. I hand-signed more to the wall of the building's inner alley than anything._

'_No. I do not.'_

_A beat._

'_I believe in peace,' the boy hand-signed. 'I believe in it because I saw it once. And I see it again. I see it in you.'_

_I chuckled breathily. My black eyes rolled under my shades._

_  
And then he hand-signed: 'You are a balance of white and red, are you not? That is peace indeed.'_

"…………………_," I looked up at him. _

_He smiled back down at me. _

_I started hand-signing……I stopped. I started again. I stopped again. I bit my lip. I coughed, walked up a few steps on the fire escape until I was towering over the little boy again and hand-signed: 'Who………are you?'_

_He smiled proudly. 'Did I not tell you already? Call me J.'_

'_Tell me, J,' I hand-signed. 'If I am the balance of white and red, what would I be?'_

'_Black.'_

_I nodded._

'_And if black is peace, then what is construction?'_

'_White.'_

'_Correct. And destruction?'_

'_Red.'_

'_Okay. Now……' I leaned over him and stared intently into his green eyes beneath my figure. 'You have seen me beat up a bunch of bad guys, right?'_

'_Right.'_

'_And you have seen me bust teeth loose from those crooks and give them many a black eye, right?'_

'_Right.'_

'_And you have seen the blood fly from their shoulders and torsos as Myrkblade lands a heavy swipe, right?'_

"………"

'_Right???'_

_He took a shuddering breath and admitted with a hand-stroke: 'Right.'_

'_Tell me J……,' I gestured. 'Where is peace in that?' _

_A beat. _

_He hung his blonde head. Two hands liquidly confessed: 'I see your point.'_

'_Good……,' I sauntered backwards and away from him. 'Now take your point and scratch it into a record somewhere. Maybe you will be making some music for yourself. How is that for peace? So long—'_

_He held up a palm._

_I stared, frozen still again._

_The boy hand-signed: 'But you show far less red than someone else in this City right now. As a matter of fact, I do not think you believe in the red. Not like this person.'_

_My brow furrowed. I mouthed: 'Who??'_

_And there was something sad splashing across J's face._

'_Slade.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And last but not least, there is Mad Mod. The Commissioner had this recorded from a session yesterday morning…a few hours before the press conference."

Cyborg inserted the tape into the deck, pressed play, and the speakers of the Main Room crackled around us.

"_For the last time, I have no bloomin' clue how my things got 'ere! One moment, there was an explosion. The next thing I know, the doors to all the cells in the Omega Wing were opening up. I limped out of my room and—by Jove—there was my cane lying on the ground below me! And a mighty smart looking bunch of threads too, I might add. I had no clue at the time just who may have been the punctual benefactor, but it suited me fine! I would have twirled that cane halfway across this miserable Yankee Town if I wanted!! Naturally those do-gooder sprogs hopped into my lap and made a royal mess of things. Did you see the bruises they gave me? Bugger-all sods, the whole likes of them—"_

-click-

The tape ended.

Cyborg turned and looked at us. "Just like the interrogations of Mumbo Jumbo, Control Freak, Johnny Rancid, and the Puppet King before him. None of the criminals will attest to who or what may have given them their tools on the morning of the Prison bombing. But each prisoner's testimony is so different from the others in terms of attitude and tone that it doesn't look like they're all cooperating to withhold some sort of missing information."

"Yeah…," Beast Boy leaned back against the sofa and yawned. "Control Freak couldn't stop talking about Transformers and Care Bears."

"Can't be any worse than Mad Mod's soliloquy on America's bruised ego with the Panama Canal."

Raven's eyes thinned. "Really?"

Cyborg bit his lip. "Th-That comes later. I just decided to cut it off."

Tempest stood to the side, leaning against the sofa. "About this 'Great Britain' of the past….with guys like Mad Mod," he smirked, "How did they ever once 'rule the waves'?"

"If you've taught us anything, nooby," Beast Boy smirked. "The waves are too cynical to be ruled."

"Damn straight."

Raven's lips curved ever so slightly.

"Getting back to our topic at hand…," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and gazed at a table display. "…the tapes only support the theory that the crooks are completely clueless about why things happened the way they did at the prison. And since Robin is not here this morning to actually provide a valid explanation of what task we have before us, I've volunteered."

"How noble of you," Raven droned.

I glanced aside from where I sat on a kitchen stool. Where Robin usually was, he wasn't. And where Starfire usually was, she wasn't.

I took a deep breath and folded my flesh and metal hands together.

Cyborg walked towards the table display where various, villainous familiars were strewn about. Control Freak's remote. Mad Mod's cane. Mumbo Jumbo's broken wand. Killer Moth's dried cocoons. Johnny Rancid's gun. The Puppet King's control. Gizmo's jet pack.

"Everything we've rounded up here has come straight from the prison," Cyborg gestured. "They are virtually identical to the props of the villains we have displayed in Robin's lovely evidence room. Down to the last detail and functionality. Now, if history proves me right….none of these villains have EVER had a purposeful connection with one another. True, Killer Moth and Fang were once in association…as well as Killer Moth and the workings of H.I.V.E. But as we speak, Killer Moth and Fang's escape could as easily be a spontaneous decision as it could have been planned. And Killer Moth was coerced at Westhaven to work alongside Mammoth, Gizmo, and Jinx. They aren't exactly on any good terms."

"Yeah, that brings back memories," Beast Boy smirked. He looked at me. "When was the last time you made Miss Cartwright blush, Romeo?"

I smiled back at him.

_Shut the Hell up._

"Ahem. None of these villains at the prison has ever tried to unify the entire lot of them. For a prison escape, it makes sense for them to band together and attempt some sort of uprising. But if that was the case, why are the villains so clueless as to the origin of the bomb and the provision of the tools and weapons? Furthermore…the bomb exploded _in Jinx's cell_, and Jinx turned out to not want anything of the other prisoners."

"Yeah, all she wanted to do was get to H.I.V.E., right?" Beast Boy blinked.

"As we all know by now," Cyborg pointed. "But we all know the blast was huge. Jinx couldn't possibly have escaped it on her own. If she has the capability of doing so, then perhaps her powers of hex are far stronger than we all can imagine."

"Didn't she have her outfit and everything just like the other escapees?" Tempest asked. "I mean….I've seen pictures of her when she was a H.I.V.E. terrorist and—"

"Yup….candy cane goth goddess," Beast Boy nodded. "God, that black and purple outfit thingy still haunts me. You lose a lot of your ego when you get kicked in the face with a platform shoe."

I couldn't help but chuckle breathily.

"Who would try and bomb Jinx and yet give her the stuff she needs to…I dunno…be herself?" Tempest shrugged.

"Maybe it was her idea?" Beast Boy suggested. "Assuming it was her that was the pyromaniac. Have we ruled that out, dudes?"

"No, B.B."

"It'd be a distraction!" the elf cackled. "She'd make everyone assume she was dead while she pranced on, handcuffed Noir, and took him on the wild trip that she did through asphalt and forest while the rest of us spent hours on end searching ever corner of the City for a bomb that was hanging around her _freakin' neck!!_" He folded his arms in a pout. "I'm still pissiful about that, ya know."

I hand-signed to Cyborg.

The android Titan nodded. "Yes, Noir. We know what Jinx and Pulsade told you. But that's as much supposition as anything else is."

"I for one don't think Jinx was the bomber," Tempest said.

"Why's that?"

"Just doesn't seem a woman's style."

"………………huh?"

"Explosions attract too much attention," Tempest smirked. "A woman doesn't need explosions to get attention. A woman simply handcuffs some thick-haired hunk to her and takes off." He winked at me.

I glared at him through my shades.

"He's got a point there," Raven droned.

Cyborg did a double-take.

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "Ahem. What I _do_ wonder is….even as powerful as Jinx could be, how could she have gotten the tools and stuff to the prisoners so effectively? I-I mean, I can buy the whole 'escaping from a bomb she set herself' idea. But the rest of that? I dunno."

"She could have had accomplices," Tempest said. A blink. "Actually, she _did_ have accomplices."

I nodded.

"Pulsade and 'J'," Cyborg said. "One is an invisible assassin. The other is a hacker…..and that's all we know."

My gaze drifted to the floor…

"…………."

"Pulsade—from what Noir describes—seems to be a highly experienced person who can manipulate light and turn invisible. Though I doubt the Omega Wing's extreme security systems could have overlooked tell-tale signs of it, I bet she could have thought up an infiltration of sorts to plant a bomb and other materials."

"Ya know…," Beast Boy gestured. "If a big oaf like the late Cinderblock could have stomped his way into Omega Wing on multiple occasions and steal punks for Slade, then surely a paradoxically _smart_ blonde could have!"

Raven made a face. "Not…..exactly the same thing."

"So sue me."

"The hacker could have done it," Tempest remarked. "He broke through our system's firewalls, right?"

Cyborg winced. "Y-Yeah…."

Tempest pointed: "He could have tapped into the utilities of the prison and—I dunno—rewritten the data and itinerary of the workers in such a way to somehow vicariously orchestrate supplication of the bomb and the villains' weaponry."

"…………….huh?"

"Nothing spreads more confusion than making a bureaucratic system even more bureaucratic."

"Nah….that's going waaaaay far into conspiracy theories, dawg."

"Well how far can't we go?!?!" Tempest cackled. "Dammit, where's Robin?! He'd agree with me!"

"I'll agree with Tempest on one thing," Raven nodded. "There is no simple answer to what has happened at the prison. The way I envision it, it is not a matter of a single individual or a single faction producing the explosion and criminal provisions."

"How do you mean?" Beast Boy gazed at her.

"Imagine if you will if the explosion was indeed a distraction," Raven suggested. "But at the same time, it was also meant to serve its purpose."

"To kill Jinx?"

"Yes," the dark girl said. "But as much as it was made to kill Jinx, it also worked to preserve her."

Beast Boy rubbed his head as if he suddenly had a migraine.

"Uh….Rae? Explanation, por favor?" Cyborg simpered.

Raven sighed. "Yes, someone planted the explosion. That someone wanted to kill Jinx. Yes, Jinx survives the explosion. Jinx and her friends get her out of the prison." A pause for added emphasis, then: "Also…someone knows of both the explosion and Jinx's escape. That someone finds a way for the prisoners to escape and create massive confusion."

"Whoah, whoah, whoah," Beast Boy held his hand up. "You're thinking there're….uh….three forces at work here?"

Cyborg thought aloud, ingesting Raven's words. "Someone wants to kill Jinx. Jinx escapes. Someone else tries to get the prisoners to escape during the explosion and Jinx's flight…."

"Three major interests," Tempest blinked his dark eyes. "One to kill the girl. One to free the girl. One to free all the prisoners."

"That's way too huge, man," Beast Boy pointed. "Remember Arkham's Razor….or Anchor's Ranchor….or whatever that term is."

Raven gave him a bored look.

"Okay, now _I'm_ starting to get a headache," Cyborg muttered. "And when half of your brain is circuitry, that is NOT a good thing."

"You're doing fine, champ," Tempest winked. "You're getting us well prepared for the exam."

"Shut up, Flipper."

"Heheheheh."

Cyborg sighed and all but tossed a canvas sheet over the evidence on the display table. "Well, I think we're screwed in this investigation until Margaret Sawyer's interrogations of the H.I.V.E. Headmistress in Metropolis turn up anything."

"Any news as of yet?" Raven asked.

"Just one," Cyborg nodded. "A name. Damien Darhk."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Now there's a cute name," Beast Boy folded his arms and smirked. "Heh. _Omen_ anyone?"

"What about him?" Tempest asked.

"The Headmistress alleges that all of H.I.V.E.'s major academies are under his control right now," Cyborg pointed. "They were handed over to him when she was arrested." A beat. A human-eye blink. "Actually, that's not true. Sawyer said the Headmistress used the word 'betrayal'."

"Wouldn't doubt it," Raven droned.

I leaned my head to the side.

"Yowsers….that Darhk guy's a traitor?"

"According to the Headmistress, yup."

"Guess someone let a bad bee into the H.I.V.E."

"More or less," Cyborg looked my way. "You remember this Darhk guy at all, Noir?"

"………," I stared off. I thought about the man's wily smile. His homicidal breath. The way he tortured me in the room with the metal racks that Jinx and I were clamped to.

A beat.

I hand-signed: _'Not much.'_

"Yeah….well….one day at a time, and we may learn more of him yet," Cyborg pointed. "Especially when the Headmistress makes her trip here to our home-town."

Raven's eyebrows lifted. "So it is confirmed?"

Cyborg nodded with a proud smile. "Decker's gonna get his trophy. THEN we're bound to get some answers."

"Heh….or some replacement ads in the Town's job listing!" Beast Boy winked. He held to fingers up and scanned an invisible headline: "'Wanted: New City Commissioner. One With An Assload Less of Rotten Apples!'"

Tempest chuckled.

So did I.

"Heheheh," Cyborg took a breath. "For right now….I'm gonna run some tests on these here weapons and props. The next course of action will be to research recent findings in Barrymore and elsewhere outside of Town."

"Killer Moth and Fang?" Raven remarked.

"Precisely. Though I doubt _those two_ will be blowing up any prisons soon."

_Schwishh!_

The sound of elevator doors.

We all turned and looked.

Starfire floated a half-foot off the ground and approached us. Her face was solidly blank until she was well into the range of our eyesight. Then she folded her hands together and put on a warm, polite grin.

"Friends…I do entreat your forgiveness for such latency in attending this important meeting. But I was busily preparing a message to relate to you."

"Oh yeah?" Tempest asked.

"It's about Robin, isn't it?" Beast Boy winked. "The bird got a sick notice from his parents or something?"

Starfire simpered. "The fact of the matter is….indeed…..Robin is not feeling quite so well this day."

"Ah….," Cyborg's human eye blinked. "Well that sucks."

"What's wrong with him?" Tempest asked.

"He is……………….," Starfire bit her lip, glanced off, struck a thought, brightened, and looked at us again with a convincing smile. "…..restless."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

"Restless??" Beast Boy shrugged. "The dude's always restless."

"He is……_most_ restless today," Starfire said, her hands clasped together.

My black eyes narrowed.

_Clasped hands and the word 'most'……_

_Sure signs of Starfire's earnestness._

"Well allright," Cyborg shrugged. "The dude's mortal. Even he needs a day off once in a while………………..I guess."

"I, for one, am putting this in the record books," Beast Boy beamed.

"Oh knock it off," Tempest groaned. "You know Robin will beat you up if you ride his ass about this."

"Hey!! Noobies aren't supposed to make a point so easily!"

"Well sorry for being observant."

"Calm down, guys," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and sighed. "I agree that Robin could have picked a better week to fall under the weather and stuff….but who am I to complain? I'm sure he'll come in and bail our putrid minds out when it's necessary. He always seems to do that."

"Yeah," Beast Boy chuckled. "True that."

A beat.

Another beat.

Raven spoke: "Are you okay, Starfire?"

"Eeep! Erm….I……huh?"

"Are you going to join the meeting or—"

"Oh….v-verily I shall!" she beamed. "Only…f-first I must….attend the room of the ladies, if you shall grant me pardon."

"Yeah….we grant you," Tempest smirked.

"I shall return shortly," Starfire said. And she turned and floated away.

Floated….

"………," I watched silently.

_Starfire floats when she can just as easily walk. But the only time she does that is either when she's literally 'walking on air' happy……or feeling detached from this alien planet._

I found myself staring at the exiting hallway in thought. And sooner or later, I found Raven staring too.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire drifted down the dark hallway of the Tower.

She was hugging herself.

Green eyes swam across the metal floor.

And…..

She sighed.

Her lids lowered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Friend……you look distressed…," Starfire floated across her room to Robin. She placed a concerned hand on his shoulder. "……please……tell me what ails you—"_

_Her sentence was cut short at the feel of his bare hand against her wrist. Slowly—Robin turned around and his hand traveled up her arm to her shoulder, up her neck, and gently cupped her cheek._

_Starfire's lips parted as she felt the Boy Wonder's hands suddenly cup both sides of her face._

_He leaned towards her….at a relatively safe distance. His eyemask peered into her green-on-amber visage and there was an expression on his face just short of breathless wonder as he uttered: "Warmth……..."_

_She blinked._

"_Such…...s-such warmth…...," the Boy Wonder shuddered. His fingers lovingly traced the contours of her face. Gently…as if afraid to break her._

_Something happened that Starfire had never seen before. A tear squeezed out from under Robin's eyemask._

"_How……...how could I have f-forgotten…..?" the young man breathed._

_Starfire shakingly gripped his wrists. "R-Robin??" _

_He flinched suddenly, as with icy pain. He turned his face and hugged himself as he faced out the windows. His fresh tears were hidden. _

"_So……cold………today. And yet……it didn't have to be so. I kept obsessing with it. The coldness……" _

_Starfire walked over to his side. "Robin, what is wrong??" she desperately murmured. _

_He sniffed and hugged himself more. "Wrong? Everything and nothing!!" he shivered and tilted his head down with clenched teeth. "It wasn't supposed to have ended that way. It wasn't……it wasn't!!" _

"_What, Robin? What should not have ended?" _

"_The dream!!" he ran a hand over his face and moaned. "The same damn dream as always!! It wasn't supposed to end like th-that!!" _

"_What dream are you referring to, Robin?" Starfire asked. She reached over and gently pulled his hands away. "Robin……I am most concerned. I have not seen you this troubled before. Ever." _

"_I……I-I can't explain it, Star…," he murmured. He shook his head and his brow furrowed to suggest tightly shut eyes beneath his mask. The thing was like a useless scrap of plastic and spandex suddenly. "It's like……It's like…………" _

_A beat. _

_He looked at her, practically panting in a cold sweat. "Have you ever woken up……in the middle of the night……a-and you can't seem to put a finger on who you are or who you've always been? And you suddenly forget what existence is and that we're all just pent up shells of flesh and bone? And then do you ever doubly-wake up from that and feel that……th-that there is something so warm………so wonderfully beautiful beyond the veil that we draw before ourselves?"  
_

"_I.………I am afraid that I do not understand, Robin……" _

_The Boy Wonder shuddered. "God……wh-what am I doing here. What in the world am I doing here??" _

"_You……a-are in my room to seek c-companionship?" she simpered. _

"_NO!!" he shook. "Here!!" he waved his arms dramatically. "All this!! This City……Th-This Tower……this……this……," he traced his eyemask with his fingers. He shuddered again. "I'm losing it. You warned me a million times, Batman. And you were right. It's happening. The edge……I-I can feel it slipping." He shook all over and clamped his bare hands again over his mask. "I can feel it god-damn slipping away!!!" _

"_Robin, nothing is plummeting into any sort of demise!" Starfire shook his shoulders. "You must find a way to calm your spirits! You are among friends! Do not worry!! It was only a bad dream that you woke from!!" _

"_You……y-you don't understand, Star…," he shuddered. "I n-never told anyone about the dream. Nobody a-accept maybe Noir. But he doesn't know what I know. He doesn't kn-know that the dream……th-that the dream is more real than anything else in my life." _

_She swallowed a lump down her throat. "Th-Then there was no purpose in visiting me? Am I not worthy of offering you counsel concerning this nightmare, Robin?" _

"……………_," he stared longingly at her. Again, his fingers found their way gently up to her cheek. His lips quivered. "………the thing is, Star……it is supposed to be a nightmare. But for once……it wasn't. It was……good. And it was warm." A beat. He swallowed: "And I can almost feel that things around me……r-really close to me………were warm all along……"_

"…………_," the Tamaranian girl blinked. "L-Like what things, Robin?" _

"……………_," Robin bit his lip. His hand fell. _

_And so did Starfire's heart. _

_Robin stumbled backwards, away from her, like she was the plague. "I……I-I'm sorry, Star." _

"_R-Robin?" _

"_I-I'm sorry I bothered you. I……I j-just need to sleep, is all. I'm……I-I'm not feeling well." _

"_Wait--!!" _

"_Tell the others that I'm not feeling well," he rushed out of the room. "I-I just need some time alone! That's all! J-Just some time alone……"_

_And he was gone. _

_Starfire floated into the hallway. "Robin, wait!!!" She gasped at the echoing sound her voice down the hallway. She clasped a hand over her lips. A beat. The pajama wearing Tamaranian floated limply back into her room with flushed cheeks and closed the door behind her. _

_Schwiish!! _

_She floated over to her head and sat down with hands politely folded in her lap, despite there being nobody present. _

_Save for in her mind. _

"_H-He looked like he was freezing……," she murmured. A beat. Her fingers rose to her own cheek. "But his hands………" _

_She was up for another hour before a turbulent attempt to sleep._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In one of the Tower's many restrooms, the Tamaranian girl gazed closely at her reflection in the mirror. The amber skin. The lifted eyebrows of red. The crimson bangs. The emerald green eyes.

Her lips were a deadpan blankness as she raised her fingers up and graced her own cheek.

Yet again…..

"So warm……," she murmured.

A beat.

The girl sighed and stared down into the sink.

"Koriand'r…..y-you have much to learn of Terran emotional complexity…………"

A long pause.

"…………..c-correct?"

She didn't answer.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He sat on the edge of the Tower's rooftop.

Fully garbed in green and red and yellow and black.

The colder and colder autumn winds blew at his cape.

Robin's legs dangled over the edge of the structure.

He stared out at the dancing waves of the Bay and towards the brilliant, pale complexion of the City. The dark mountains beyond to the north. The green forests that beautifully bordered the perimeter of the County where Barrymore, Westhaven, and Blue Pine existed beyond.

"………"

Robin grabbed his right wrist and slowly….slowly slipped his combat glove off. Once bare, he flexed his right fingers.

The breath of the wind whistled between his knuckles.

Tiny hairs stood on end.

He held his hand out against the Autumn gusts. He angled it against the current. Like the shy wing of a bird examining his aviary.

_For the first time in years._

"……….."

Robin smiled.

"It's……….It's cold……," he murmured into nothingness.

A beat.

He tilted his head back. He took the deepest breath that he had ever taken in ages. Perhaps since the Atlantean-Chasma debacle.

And his lungs were rewarded with pure, refreshing Autumn.

His eyemask thinned.

He exhaled.

His head tilted down.

His right fingers flexed.

A beating of the cape….and then it settled behind him.

Still.

"………."

He tilted his head back up.

"Y-You….."

A beat.

His lips were painfully smiling. "Y-You didn't run away…." A beat. "You….stayed with me. You s-stayed alive….."

He hugged himself. His fingers flexed against his opposite shoulder. His own body felt warm. Like…..

"You said that you were real…….," Robin murmured.

A beat.

His smile faded. "And yet….you didn't. N-Not really."

The wind kicked again at him.

The cape danced.

Robin tilted his head back and gazed blindly towards heaven with a thin eyemask.

"Why….did….the dream….end….like….that?" An inhale. An exhale. "What does it all mean? Wh-What am I supposed to know?"

Silence.

His right fingers flexed again.

He tilted his head back down and looked at his naked hand.

"N-No…….not _know_. _**Feel**_."

He bit his lip.

His brow furrowed.

He gazed North again, frowning. "Didn't Batman say…..t-to feel is to open oneself up….is to fall?"

Silence.

Robin ran the hand through his hair. He shuddered: "I….I am not the same animal." A beat. "There are wings of leather and wings of feather. Not everyone is built for the night. Some are…..built for warm air currents and….the Sun…."

A lingering breath.

He lowered his hand and gazed downward.

"Sun……..," his eyes blinked under his mask. "Star…….S-Starfire….."

He hugged himself.

"It all feels so warm now. I……I'm like another person. I know it. I feel it. And yet……..I-I don't feel any regrets….."

A beat.

He flinched. He shook his head. "Nnngh…..Batman would be right. I'm losing it. I'm losing it. I just….just…….."

……….

"I-It wasn't supposed to end that way……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shuffled sluggishly through the hallway.

I felt the scabbard of Myrkblade bouncing against my limping back.

I gazed through the cold floor of the Tower.

Barely breathing.

"……….."

Until I sighed.

And I sighed.

To my right was a door.

A familiar door.

I paused in front of it.

A beat.

"…………."

Deadpan, I opened it up—_schwissh!!—_and stepped inside. The room was dark, with glossy traces of reflection answering the dim light shifting lazily inside.

I found a power switch and considered turning it on…..but didn't.

_Schwiish!!_

I closed the door behind me, bathing myself in darkness.

I whipped my shades off and stuck them in a combat of my combat fatigues. I marched forward.

_The Evidence Room._

Racks and stacks and glass displays of various arts of villainy stretched before me. Legitimate samples of Killer Moth's chemicals, Mumbo Jumbo's magical weapons, Viper's broad sword, Atlas' circuitry.

I gazed at them openly with my naked eyes. Everything shone and shimmered with clarity for me in the dark. I then came to a metal display with a newspaper clipping and Wyldecarde's gear.

"……….," I gazed at my reflection against the glass….against the razor-edged playing cards and the onyx goggles.

A beat.

Just a side-step to the side.

I was staring at another glass display.

A glass display in which was hung a metal mask with an emblazoned eye and three breathing slits. It was cracked diagonally across its surface, the tell-tale trademark of Robin's metal-laced boot.

My black eyes narrowed.

And maybe shadows were playing with my black optics, for I could have sworn the one eye on the cracked mask narrowed in response.

I hadn't been that close to the face since…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!! _

_I drove Myrkblade into Slade. _

_To the hilt._

_The slight curve of the blade arched out of his convulsing back. _

_Blood dribbled along the wooden surface. _

_His upper body lurched. _

_His dark head hung shakily beside mine. _

_A hot breath turned cold against my right ear. _

_Blood and saliva oozed out of his breathing vents and pitter-pattered on my shoulder._

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir."_

"…………………"

"_Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools………"_

_Ever muscle in my body tensed. _

_My lips opened. _

_Inhale._

_  
And. _

_Murk charging. _

_**SLASH!!!!**_

_I yanked back._

_A fountain of blood kissed the ceiling and floor of the ship's cabin. _

_And as Slade fell out the window crashing, I swam in it……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….."

'_Only fools tear themselves up for friends………'_

My eyes narrowed at the mask.

My metal hand clenched.

I was shivering the whole time.

_Red Aviary._

The mask glared at me.

'_Only fools……'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Dear Noir. Did you enjoy work today? Don't worry. I didn't do anything to your apartment while you were gone. I didn't really need the bed last night to be honest. I only needed to see you. I think when a lot of people look at you, they find something that they're afraid of. I'm only guessing that such is what you wished. Admittedly, it does make you a good terror of the night to wield justice by. But not all superheroes need to be terrifying. Sometimes superheroes are just lonely hearts needing other people to lean on and……share some of their angst. There's nothing sadder than being alone in the world on top of being alone in the world. I have the feeling you know what I mean. I hope you don't mind if I drop in on you again sometime soon. There's a lot happening in this City and I plan to be around for a while. And might I add……those who don't share the spotlight with the Titans in this place might become quick to ridicule. I'm only saying. Not like I'm a superhero expert and all. Anywho, ta ta. Hope you fair well in dark alleys. You seem built for that. Sincerely, J. P.S.: You're going to crumple this letter up after reading it, aren't you? It's so silly when good people try to be bad._

"………………"

_I crumpled the note that I found under my door and tossed it down the hallway. With a groan, I stomped into my room in my funeral parlor clothes and looked around angrily for any sign of the little blonde runt. _

_But I was alone. _

"………………"

_I gazed back down the hallway. _

_The tiny sheet of paper looked like a pale ghost in the darkness. _

_I sighed._

_Only fools become 'superheroes'._

_  
I thought…… _

_I tossed a plastic bag of canned goods onto the bed……MY bed……and approached the hole in the wall to get Myrkblade and perform some much needed meditation. _

_But halfway through pulling my sword out, I heard commotion. Lots of commotion. _

_I stood up and craned my ear towards the window. _

"………"

_I walked over and stuck my head out into the City. _

_I craned my neck again. _

_A beat._

"……………"

_The rooftop……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"_There is something that must be done!! The police won't listen to us!! The City officials won't listen to us!! There's not even a camera or cameraman so much as a half a mile from this dump that'll be brave enough to record evidence! What'll it take for someone to finally take notice of the Hell we're going through?!?!" _

"_Yeah!!!" _

"_We've got to shout!!!" _

"_Grab everyone's attention!!" _

"_Damn straight!!" _

_A crowd of local neighbors and occupants stood in a heavily clustered circle on the rooftops of the Norman Apartments. Various individuals grabbed center stage as the demonstration went on. Emotions were churning and a few fists were waving into the fiery, evening sky._

"_His goons are running rampant in the street!! My brother was attacked on the way home from work yesterday!! They didn't say nothin'!! They just slammed him hard in the gut, left a note, and disappeared into the shadows!! The note said something about a 'day of reckoning for all people who trust in morals' or some shit!! The guy's a madman!!"  
_

"_Yeah!! A murder!! The Grayton boys went up missing two weeks ago!! They were wandering around in his 'territory'!! They're probably bobbing up in the middle of the sewers by now!! And the police ain't doin' shit to help out!!" _

"_The sewers……that's where his men come out!! He always hides underground!!" _

"_Decker's afraid to search them holes!! I swear, we have a god damn wuss running things here!!" _

"_We've got to take action!!"_

_  
"Yeah, we've got a secret weapon!! If the madman wants a war, we'll take it to his doorstep!! We'll give him more of an ass-kicking than the Titans ever did! I tell you!!!" _

"_Yeah!!" _

"_We'll tear him to shreds!!" _

"_For every time he's terrorized us!!" _

_The crowd cheered. Chanted. Surged. Shifted--- _

_WOOOOSH!!! _

_Gasps. Startled breaths. Wide eyes. _

_Silence. _

"…………_," I stared from where I was perched……crouched on the building side. The last few trails of murk dissipated from my half-suited figure, and I leapt down to my feet and walked firmly into the group. _

"_It's the black eyes……" _

"_Noir………" _

"_At last!! He's here!!" _

"_Tell him all about it, Albert!!" _

"_Yeah! Let him hear it!!" _

"_Yeah!!" _

"_Let's do something!!" _

"…………_," I stared at the crowd. A beat. I stared at the rebel-rouser. "……………," I nodded my head. _

"_Jordan……," the man spoke quietly at first. "He's back. He's back and he's making life a living Hell for all of us!!" _

"_?????" my eyes narrowed under my shades. _

"_Slade, Jordan!!" the man practically hissed. His eyes were on fire. His hands strangled an invisible neck. "Slade is sending his robot creeps throughout the City again! Trying to terrorize us!! Killing off the innocent!! And nobody's doing jack about it around here because the whole damn world thinks we're scum!!" _

"_Yeah!!" _

"_Let's see how apathetic the police would be if Slade made an attack on the South District!!" _

"_Or smashed up Kobyashi's Tower good!!" _

_More shouts. _

_More fists. _

_Teeth. _

_I raised a hand. _

_They quieted down. _

_I exhaled. I motioned for Albert to go on. _

"_Nobody's going to do anything. Not at this rate. But thanks to you, Slade's not coming here anymore. This is safe territory. Courtesy of you……the black eyes……" _

"_Hell yeah!!" _

"_Nobody's touching the Norman Apartments!" _

_Albert went on: "You can help us even more, Jordan. You can use those powers of yours……take on Slade and his robots……teach them a thing or two!! Tell them to screw off and terrorize some other part of Town because it ain't like we've not had our fair share of shit already in this god damn hell hole!!" _

_Mutterings. _

_Nodding heads. _

_Then, silence. _

_I took a deep breath. I craned my neck. I raised two of my hands together and formed an easily understood 'A' symbol for everyone to see. _

"_Agnes……," a neighbor turned and said. "Where's Agnes?" _

"_Agnes?!" _

"_She's right over here!" _

"_We need you again, ma'am." _

"_Oh allright, show me where he is. Just one second…," an elderly voice uttered. The crowd parted ways as a young mother guided a short, gray-haired lady into the center of attention. Her back was hunched over with seventy years and her voice was a wavering thing of last-minute strength. As she was lead gently to a few feet in front of me, she shakily put on her spectacles and squinted through with wrinkled blinks. "Oh dear me……this is quite a row we're all making, isn't it, Mr. Noir? What do you wish to say, lad?" _

_I stood in front of her and hand-signed slowly. _

_The old lady blinked. Slowly, Agnes' voice shook forth an interpretation: "'I understand that……Slade is……a dangerous person…………i-in this City………'" _

_Everyone on the rooftop was deadly quiet as I continued my gesturing. Agnes read, and through her my voice spoke to the fellow residents:_

"'_But Slade……still has…many contacts………with gangs……and drug lords……………close by. And those criminals………have a lot………of p-people on their…………side………'" _

_Men listened, their brows furrowed. Women gathered in bunches and clusters. Children clung to their mothers. _

_I took a deep breath and finished: _

"'………_I will……protect……these City blocks……as I always have…………but I will not……be a part……of a gang war………'"_

_  
Murmurs. _

_Hushed voices. _

_Even a few frowns._

"'……_I trust that……all of you will………keep true to……the law and…to each other's……security. I implore you……n-not to attack Slade. Doing so……will only cause………everything…around the Norman buildings………to collapse in on us."_

_The commotion rose. _

_Anger and frustration. _

_Confusion and anxiety. _

_I sighed deeply, feeling suddenly tired…… _

"_But……but come on, man!! We're helpless here!!" another person cackled. "Slade's intimidating us!! He's getting closer and closer to these apartments and I swear someday he's going to bust into our homes and kill us in our sleep!!!" _

_I hand-signed with a inward groan. _

_Agnes spoke: "'I promise you……I will protect everyone………here to the best of my ability……'"_

"_How's that protecting us?!?!" Albert shook. "You not only have the guts to stand up to Slade, but you have the power!! We need someone with powers to intimidate __**him**__ for once!! We need a superhero! You!!!" _

"_Yeah!!!" _

"_The Black Eyes kicks ass!!" _

"_Show him we won't take it any longer!!!" _

_My eyes closed. I tilted my head back and hand-signed: 'I am no superhero'. _

_A beat. I heard nothing. I opened my eyes and looked at Agnes. _

_She was silent. _

"_Why won't you do it?!" another person stepped up and waved. "C'mon, man! Give us a break here!! We're practically on our hands and knees!!" _

_I hand-signed. _

_Agnes interpreted this time: "'I will not……do anything…………that may……harm…………the people I have………come to love and trust……'" _

"_For crying out loud!!" Albert exclaimed. "People are dying, Jordan!!!" _

_I frowned. I hand-signed._

"'_People……are always………dying……'" _

"_We're willing to take the chance!! Why won't you??"_

"'_Because……I will not……'" _

_I expressed finality, took a breath, swiveled around, and made for the fire escape. _

_There was a mumbling of despondency._

_  
But Albert was practically enraged. His fists shook. He stomped past Agnes and shouted at my back: "You had us fooled for a second there, Black Eyes!! We all thought you were gonna make a difference in this City for once!! But all you are is a peace-loving freak, aren't you?!?!" _

_Gasps and inhalations. Then utter, bleak silence from the crowd behind Albert. _

_Rightfully so……I had frozen in mid step. _

"……………………"

_I slowly, icily turned around. I was glaring. My fists were clenched by my side, and I'm sure people could see a faint aura of smoke dancing around me. _

_Albert bravely stood his ground, but nobody could deny seeing a pensive biting of the lip across his features. _

"………………………_," I turned and looked Agnes' way. I snapped my finger and pointed at her. _

"_Oh……uh……a-ahem," she cleared her throat and reapplied her bifocals. _

_I slowly marched towards Albert. I stood in front of him. Two feet separating our faces. Slowly, I reached a hand up……gripped my shades……and took them off. My eyes were closed for a few seconds, until I slowly slid them open. Solid black gems stuck inside enlarged sockets. _

_Glaring. _

_There were a dozen or two gasps……because it was the first time many of my fellow residents had seen my naked eyes._

_Albert swallowed nervously. _

"……………………_," I kept staring at him. With my right profile to Agnes, I slowly hand-signed._

_She spoke my voice: "'Do you know………h-how I lost………my original eyes………'?" _

_Albert exhaled. He slowly shook his head. _

_I stared at him. I hand-signed. _

_Agnes spoke waveringly: "'I was……strapped………to a sheet of metal……in the wall of………a dark corridor. Tiny staples…………were driven……through my upper and lower………eyelids………and attached by……rusty wires…………to a crown on……my skull………a-and a collar………around my……neck. If I……tried shutting………my eyes…………the tiny hooks……would……rip through………my flesh. My arms and legs……were helplessly………bound………as a robotic………arm piloted………a three inch……set of pencil-wide………iron pins……into my face. These pins ripped their way……into my lenses……and dug……dug………dug……until their spindly tips ripped……straight……into the meat………of my………retinas'." _

_Albert was trying to stand still, but his upper body was shivering. People in the back fidgeted. Women had hands over their mouths. Boys and girls blinked with confusion and awe._

_I never stopped glaring at the man and I never stopped hand-signing. _

_Agnes continued to interpret: "'Once the……three pins……were searing into………my optic receptors………the needles split………into fan-shaped branches…………with razor edged teeth……that ate into the………gnarled mass………of my eyes. And then………without anesthesia………and without pain killers……the arm retracted………and the needles pulled……and pulled……and pulled………and pulled. I could not……m-move my head. I could……n-not even turn……my neck. The only thing……my skull felt………was the sickly wet……vibrations………of each optic cord……snapping wetly………as my eyes……were yanked out……slowly…………five minutes each……eye. Sometimes………when I wasn't too busy……screaming……I felt the blood……collecting in my………nose cavity……………and oozing down my throat………and settling over my dried tongue. And yet……it was not…………half as bad………as when they later……………drilled electric spikes……into my……bleeding sockets………to make them larger……for what you see………solid and black……before you……"_

_Silence. _

_Albert's face was in a contortion. _

_Agnes seemed understandably winded. _

_But I was nearly done. _

_Still glaring, I hand-signed. _

"'_I……am not……a peace……l-loving freak. But……I do know………what pain is. And because of that……I also know………when……it is best……not to be……stupid'."_

_Albert took a deep breath. _

_The rest of the crowd looked away. _

_I looked a bit calmer, my glare melting away as my hands gestured: "'I will continue to……protect you from Slade. But I……will not do something…………that will bring more…………pain to this City. I am not a………superhero. I am what……you see. I am……a ghost. Treat me…………as one……'" _

_Once she had finished, I turned around and slowly……quietly……exited by the fire escape. _

_And everyone was silent._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

Starfire floated in a lonesome fashion down the hallway. Her arms were hugging herself. Her green eyes were cast to the moving floor.

"……………….."

She had no way of warning herself before she bumped into him.

_Thump!_

"Eeep!" she jumped back, landed on her feet, and looked ahead. A beat. She blushed. "Oh….R-Robin! I must apologize…..I-I was not truly paying attention to where I was going and—"

Robin raised a gloved hand. He smiled somewhat. "It's okay, Star. Seriously."

"I must confess," she bit her lip and then simpered. "I have…..not fully memorized all of the corridors in this Tower and—"

"I said it's okay, Star," Robin insisted. "I mean it. It was an accident."

"………..," she slowly nodded. "I-I understand."

A beat.

The two remained standing. Facing each other. At least where their bodies were concerned. Starfire's green-eyed gaze and Robin's mask vision were settling on opposite sides of the hallway floor.

A few seconds paused.

Starfire cleared her throat. "W-Well…..," she clasped her hands together and put on a shining smile. "I-I suppose I must be continuing to…..c-continue to my destination."

"………," Robin stared past her.

"Happy tidings….," she waved. She took a deep breath. She floated past the Boy Wonder--

"Starfire."

She froze. Her back to him.

His back to her.

A beat.

"Y-Yes, Robin?"

"About……," he ran a nervous hand through his hair. "…..about l-last night…."

"Last night need not be worried about," she smiled gently to the empty air ahead of her. "I have travailed efficiently upon not relating the…..n-nature of the tears I witnessed on your face to the rest of the team."

"……….but did you want to talk about it, Star?"

Her cheeks flushed. She bit her lip and stared back through the peripheral window of her gaze. "You…….you desire to…..talk about…..what has happened to you?" A beat. She turned around completely. "Th-The dream?"

He turned and faced her. He slowly nodded.

She twiddled her fingers together. Her gaze shimmied across the floor below his boots. "Robin…I-I would be….e-elated to. Eep….th-that is, if you so desire and if…..it m-may assist you in…..in coming to closure….t-to whatever it is that ails you."

He stared at her. He leaned his head to the side: "What are you up to now?"

"N-Now?" She stammered. "Er…..I-I was….t-travailing upon……..being somewhere."

"Am I interrupting?" Robin asked.

"H-How are you interrupting, Robin?" she inquired.

He simpered and gestured: "I was going to ask you if you wanted to do something."

She clasped her hands together: "Glorious!! Of course!! A training exercise!" she winked and held up a finger. "Allow me to acquire pads of the knees and shoulders and you and I shall engage in most strenuous sparring—"

"No, Starfire…."

She blinked. "N-No??" she murmured.

He hid his gloved hands behind his cape. "I…..meant as in…..n-not training."

She seemed utterly confused. "N-Not training??"

"As in…..just…….ya know….."

"……………."

"………you and I……"

"……………."

"………t-talking…….."

"……………."

"……………out."

"Out?"

"Would you like to?"

"Like to what, Robin?"

"Out."

"Out???"

"GO out!" he said, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

She stared at him, as if in entranced. "This is…..the 'going of the out'???"

"Y-Yeah……," Robin nodded. "Just….away from the Tower."

She continued to stare blankly at him. Her face was flushed. Her lips open.

He simpered: "It's….um……cold outside."

"C-Cold?"

"It's nice," he exhaled. "Very…..very nice." A beat. "I-I'd very much like to enjoy it with you, Star."

A beat.

She smiled, her cheeks red. "Alright……a-as long as we are…..d-discussing what ails you."

"Uh….sure….we can do that," Robin said.

A beat.

"Uhm…..," Starfire blinked. "I fail to remember what it is we do now…."

"We can change outfits for one."

Starfire giggled nervously. "Yes….that is a….a r-remarkable plan….yes….I shall…uhm…endeavor to…c-comply!" She flew down the hallway in a red bolt. She suddenly froze to a stop in mid-air. A beat. She streaked back and plowed Robin with a hug.

"Ooof!!!"

"Heeeeeeeee!!" she exhaled jubilantly, dropped him, and soared back down the hallway in a blink of an eye. She disappeared brightly around the corner.

Robin straightened his uniform, took a breath, and sighed. His eyemask lingered on the spot where Starfire last was. He flexed his fingers.

"I'm…..d-doing the right thing………"

A beat.

"R-Right??"

No answer.

He slowly turned and headed towards his room….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg sat at the Main Computer, typing furiously.

Tempest sat at the kitchen counter across the room, reading a surface-dweller's novel.

Silence.

Beast Boy sauntered in: "Say….you guys seen Robin or Starfire?"

"Nope."

"Nuh huh."

"Cuz…..like……it was Robin's turn to clean dishes. I know he's 'under the weather' and stuff…..but…..a little consideration for the rest of us who desire to eat tofu off of a clean platter would have been nice on his part this evening!!"

"It's your tofu," Cyborg shrugged while typing. "It's your platter. You clean it."

Tempest added: "Be a man for Crisco's sake."

"_Christ_."

"Whatever."

"Nnnngh….," Beast Boy folded his arms and pouted. "But I still get this wyrd feeling, dudes."

"You don't say….."

"I do say! Noir's been pent up in dark places of the Tower since our meeting, and now I can't find the bird brain or the alien anywhere in the place!!"

"Noir's gone through a lot with Jinx and all lately," Tempest said. He flipped a page. "Give him a break."

"Yeah, dawg. And Starfire and Robin are probably just training or something."

_Schwish!_

Raven shuffled into the room. "Actually, they're on a date…." She walked across the place, grabbed a mug of herbal tea, and sipped it all the way back into the elevator from which she came.

_Schwish!_

"…………"

"…………"

"…………"

The three guys slowly looked at each other, bug-eyed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRRRRRMMMM!!!!_

The R-Cycle with two figures mounted on it zoomed off towards the City.

The riders were dressed casually for the evening 'out', the exception being the driver with an eyemask under his helmet.

The sun was setting, and there I sat perched on the edge of the Tower's rooftop. Wind blew at my black hair as I gazed down at the fleeting two.

"…………….."

My gaze rose. I squinted my eyes. I looked out beyond the rooftops and towards a dusty pair of apartment buildings beyond the quagmire of the Northeast District……..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_An L-Train passed by. _

_The entire room shook. _

"………………_," I looked up from where I was slowly, absent-mindedly rubbing sandstone along the inner curve of Myrkblade. _

_A bright neon glow strobes through the passing windows of the nearby train car. _

_My black eyes narrowed, but didn't close entirely from the stabbing light._

_  
I took the pain………_

"………………"

_Slowly, I got up. I dangled Myrkblade at my side. I walked over towards the door. I gazed out at the grimy streets below. I smelled in the late night smog. I craned my ear to the distant tunes of police sirens and alarms. _

_Alarms……… _

"………………"

_I turned and looked out my barely closed door to my apartment room. I envisioned the tiny, crumpled note in the hallway. Its pale presence piercing me through the door. _

"…………………"

_I looked back out the window. _

_I sighed. _

………………_I smiled._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I stepped along the building side's edge._

_One foot before the other. _

_Toe to heel. _

_Heel to toe. _

_I finished tightening my combat jacket into my camouflaged slacks and over my black tank top. _

_I wrapped the bandanna around my forehead and black bangs, tightening it. _

_CHIIIIIING!!! _

_I whipped out Myrkblade. _

_I reached the absolute corner of the structure._

_  
A huge drop of a gaping street yawned before and beneath me. _

_I took a deep breath, inhaling the width and breadth of the City. _

_I spread my arms. _

_I stretched Myrkblade out. _

_I teetered over._

'_Only the ghost knows when to take flight……'_

_I fell._

_  
My feet blurred._

_  
And I soared down the building side and into the urban battleground of night……_


	155. J part 3

**155. J part 3**

"A date?!?! A cotton-pickin' date!! I swear….Robin and Starfire have been diligent, perfect superheroes for nearly three years of partnership and on the ONE DAY Commissioner Decker and the City needs our resourcefulness the most, they bail out on a _date!!!"_

Raven looked up from the pages of a book. "You're rambling."

Cyborg grumbled at a side console in his lab, typing away. "I am not rambling! I am not rambling!! I am….I am….," a beat. He paused. His shoulder sagged and he sighed. "I am rambling."

"Mmmmhmm….," Raven flipped a page. She floated cross-legged in a far corner peacefully.

Cyborg pulled a lever and the a glass-encased compartment containing Mumbo Jumbo's shattered rod and Control Freak's remote glowed in a green strobe as computer sensors scanned the device from head to toe.

After a while, the android sighed and said: "Do things feel wyrd to you, Rae?"

"How so…?"

"Like…..," Cyborg pursed his lips and thought for a moment before swiveling about and gesturing: "Robin's been tired and pretty much brain dead since the middle of yesterday. Starfire's been acting somewhat lonesome. Noir's been quie—er, that is to say he's been lonesome too. We've just gone through a tragedy at the Prison and a victory against H.I.V.E. And to top it all off………….A HACKER GOT THROUGH MY COMPUTER FIREWALLS!!!!"

Raven's brow furrowed. "Speak a little louder," she droned. "I don't think all the walls in the Tower heard you."

"I swear…..I'm gonna find this 'J' punk and I'm gonna tear his ass out!!"

"Or her," Raven uttered.

"Or 'it'! Whatever!!"

"Have you forgotten that not only did this mysterious hacker point Robin and I in the right direction towards saving Noir and finding the Academy….," Raven spoke, "….but she or he also spared the Tower's mainframe from any damage whatsoever?"

"Nnnghh….it doesn't help my ego any."

"Since when was that ever a concern of ours?" Raven smirked ever so slightly.

Cyborg looked at her.

She looked at her book.

Cyborg looked at his instruments again. "I get this….sinking feeling about stuff lately. It's like things are messed up and yet…not messed up. It's unsettling."

"You're having premonitions," Raven spoke. "That's a change."

"How about you, Rae?" He smirked slyly. "Tell me….is Robin off his rocker?"

"Why should he be off his rocker…..??"

"He's asking Starfire out. That's like one of the Seven Deadly Sins of the Boy Wonder. He should go to Hell and get castrated by seventy virgins….or something like that. Maybe with more brimstones."

"You've always known that Robin has never condemned the possibility of teammates getting close to each other," Raven gestured. "He may be razor-edged at times, but he isn't restricting."

"Yeah…well….we're not talking about any of the other Titans, now," Cyborg replied with a smirk. "Don't you see? It's Robin _himself_ that's the issue!"

"And are you jealous that Starfire's taking him??"

Cyborg's human eye bulged. "Say what??"

"Sorry," Raven exhaled. "Another lousy attempt at a joke."

"Girl, if you can't joke _period_….don't try scoring any homophobic touchdowns. It just doesn't work."

"Meh."

"Take that with a grain of salt, Rae," Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head. "It was funny what you said. And I'm proud of you for…erm….'trying'….."

"Gee, thanks."

"But I guess I'm just a little…..feeling cheated," Cyborg said. A beat. "A-As in having all of this research dumped on my shoulders, of c-course."

"But of course."

"And I could sure use Robin's detective skills….," Cyborg continued to mumble. "The whole damn City could. And by now he's probably sipping some sort of strawberry sundae with Starfire."

"Yeah."

"Or taking a walk in the park."

"Yeah."

"Or…….Or just……driving around. Being with each other. All alone. Talking."

"Yeah………."

"……………."

"……………"

Silence.

"Ahem," Cyborg shook his head and uttered: "Anyways….no time to complain. This analysis should hopefully provide us some bearing."

"Some bearing on what?"

"Anything that makes these props different from the normal tools the villains actually used when they originally went against us mano y mano."

"Ah. Find the sheep's clothing amongst the rams."

"Uh…..yeah. Sure."

"………you never get any of my innuendoes—"

"Try something a bit more pop culture and less…..smarty."

Raven peered up from her pages. "Do you assume that just because I read all of the time that I am smart?"

He nodded. "Yup."

A beat.

She went back to her book. "Well, you're right."

"Damn straight, cutie."

And somebody smiled.

And somebody tried not to.

And perhaps even someone took notice.

And then---

_BZZZZZZZ!!_

A rather annoying buzzing sound filled the small interior.

Raven's brow furrowed in some tiny facsimile of a wince. "I believe your experiment is well-cooked."

"Huh??" Cyborg blinked at the chamber of strobing lights…..then at the computer console. "That's funny."

"Only you would know…."

"Hang on a sec….," Cyborg pressed a few buttons.

The experiment came to a quiet stop.

Raven glanced up.

Cyborg stood there, rubbing the human part of his head.

"What's wrong?"

"I dunno….," he muttered. "The computer…..it's telling me something wyrd."

"How wyrd?"

"It's saying that…..th-that this experiment was already conducted!"

"You're not repeating yourself again, are you?"

"Raven, no joke….," Cyborg gestured to the equipment. "If I actually did this operation before, I would know."

"Well your computer seems to know."

"Yeah….and that's bothering me," he rubbed his chin in a very Robin-esque way. "Come to think of it….."

A beat.

"What?" she uttered.

"I need to check out something," Cyborg quickly walked across the room and accessed a separate computer terminal linked to the Tower's network. "Something I almost overlooked earlier."

"If the tests have already been done….," Raven spoke, "….is it a bad thing?"

Cyborg took a deep breath. "It may mean our visiting letter between 'I' and 'K' never really left our Tower's brain…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was setting.

It bled the sky red.

Red to scarlet to amber.

Cascading into the cold waves of the ocean.

In a way, the red beams shimmered off the dancing Bay.

And as they shimmered, they reflected off of the docks and the wharfs and the barges of the seaside.

And they also bounced off of the corners of Robin's eyemask as he stared silently out across the waters.

He leaned with his arms and chest propped on the dock's wooden railing.

He took a deep breath.

The corners of his lips were ever so slightly curved.

"Robin….?"

He slowly turned his head.

Starfire stood beside him. An innocent, patient pose. Her hands clasped together and hanging in front of her. She was dressed in sneakers, jeans, and a light pink sweat jacket with a pouch in the front and a hood hanging out the back. A cold breeze drifted by, slowly forcing her red strands of hair into a dance that burned in the fiery evening light.

"You have been most…….q-quiet since we rode out here…."

"……..," he smiled. The Boy Wonder stood up straight, one arm still rested on the railing. He wore sneakers, black slacks, a white t-shirt, and a large dark green jacket over it. He looked small. He didn't seem to mind. "Does that bother you, Starfire?"

"Does what bother me, Robin?"

"That I've been quiet?"

"…….," her eyes trailed the world for a simple answer to that even simpler question. "I…..have no reason….to dislike your quietness."

"Does it make you worry?"

She bit her lip. "Robin…why do you ask such things?"

Robin glanced out across the waves. "When Raven and I were chasing Noir and Jinx….we talked a lot about 'worry'. I've realized that when I helped found the Titans, the things I planned and expected from this City are far different from what I've become and what my team has become. I wanted to be a fearless, powerful leader. But….I think I've become something else."

"Is it a good thing that you have become, do you think?" Starfire asked.

He chuckled. "Starfire….you tell me."

She blinked. "Oh….um….."

He looked at her.

She blushed somewhat, out of being put on the spot more than anything. She innocently scratched the back of her pretty head as she uttered: "I….uhm…..believe that you are exceptionally talented, authoritative, and—"

"Caring?"

"…..," she blinked. "C-Caring?"

He nodded.

A beat.

She simpered somewhat. "Yes, Robin. You do show…..qualities reflective of a responsible guardian."

He chuckled again.

She pouted. "What??"

"A guardian???"

She folded her arms. "What is so amusing of that?"

"Not amusing. Just……interesting."

She blinked.

He gestured: "I don't want to be a mother hen to my teammates."

"I am afraid I do not understand. You consider yourself to be some sort of earthling poultry of maternal identity?"

"No, Star," he shook his head, smiling. "I mean to say is….as much as I may push all of you and take a lot of responsibility for the Titans' actions….I never wanted to be dominating."

"I see….," she nodded.

He nodded too.

A beat.

"I will confess," Starfire looked out on the waves herself as she spoke into the cold wind: "Sometimes I believe that the Titans and their inherent nature warrant you to be 'dominating'."

"Oh?"

She nodded. "Oftentimes, I am too confused or naïve to effectively take upon a foe. And Cyborg is quick to a bad temper. And Noir is prone to self-sacrifice. And Beast Boy is quite often jocular. And there is—of course—Raven's demonic issue and the developing vigilantism of Tempest…."

"Where do I fit in?" Robin asked.

She smiled pleasantly. "You are the b'nvirak!"

Robin blinked under his eyemask. "B'nvirak, Star?"

She bit her lip. "Erm….a pliable material on my home planet of Tamaran that is exceptionally known for its adhesive qualities in a domestic environment."

"……," Robin snapped. "Glue??"

"Ah yes. Glue is quite similar, indeed."

"You think I'm the glue that holds the Titans together?"

"Is that not a fair analogy?"

"Sometimes I wonder," he said, gazing.

She leaned her head to the side. "You have doubts, Robin?"

"We all have doubts," he shrugged. "I won't deny that I've kept this team whole on many an occasion. But I won't go far as to say I'm the sole reason we're all together now."

She slowly nodded.

"Raven's emotional fortitude has been priceless on multiple occasions," Robin gestured. "Not to mention Cyborg's facilities. Beast Boy's levity." A beat. He looked at her. "And you, Starfire."

"Me??" she half-recoiled.

He nodded slowly. "You're one in a million, Star. The Titans are so lucky to have you."

"But why is that?"

"There's something about you that…..th-that makes the fight against crime worth going on," Robin said. He ran a hand through his black hair. "In you, Starfire, we see something akin to what we're working to defend."

"Justice?"

"Innocence."

She blushed. "That is….a stretched idea."

He chuckled. "Is it really?"

She raised a Tamaranian eyebrow. "Robin….may I be so bold as to say something--?"

"Shoot."

She cleared her throat. "You are……very……….." Her voice lingered.

"Very what, Star?"

"Happy," she sighed. A nervous smile. "Very…..happy."

He shrugged. "Happiness is relative. Would you consider yourself a happy person, Starfire?"

"Indubitably!" she beamed.

He chuckled a bit. Then spoke: "Well…I guess you have an honest opinion. You truly are a happy person, Star. So I'll take your word for it. I am happy."

Her eyes trailed.

A beat.

"Star??"

She bit her lip. "But…..if you are happy….," she gazed at him. "Why were you…..c-crying last night?"

"……………"

"It was the first time I have ever seen you shed tears, Robin," she spoke. "It……concerns me……d-deeply."

"It may be the first time you've ever seen my tears, Star," he gazed off. "But it's not the first time I've ever cried in front of you."

She blinked. "Robin…??"

"'Crying' is….relative. Heh…as lame as that _sounds_," the Boy Wonder commented. "Not everyone has to shed tears or wail to cry. Sometimes crying is as simple as….as…..a w-way of life."

She gazed at him. Or what she thought was him. His eyemask seemed darker than normal. A testament to shut eyelids on the inside. She almost reached a hand out and rested it on his jacketed shoulder. A Tamaranian impulse. A Tamaranian impulse that she carefully repressed at the last second, jerking her hand back.

He didn't see it. Instead he turned around and smiled at her with that grin of haunting happiness. "Come on, Star," he gestured towards the center of the City beyond the dock sides. "I want to show you something."

She smiled helplessly, "A-Alright, Robin…"

The two wandered quietly towards the parked R-Cycle with its two helmets.

A cold autumn wind flew over from the waters and wracked their bodies.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shivered.

My left arm jerked from the metal to the flesh.

I tried not to show it, but instead I kept my fan of cards straight as I sat at the table with Beast Boy and Tempest. The Main Room settled with a darkening red glow around shoulders.

"Say what you want, dude," Beast Boy planted down a red colored One. "UNO is only fun when you have Starfire sharing a hand with you."

"I didn't say anything!" Tempest remarked. "Uhm….," he planted down a red Seven. "That works, right?"

I simpered.

Beast Boy went on: "I swear. She's like so funny and adorable with: 'Oh, I was not aware that this card game was built upon the faculties of Castellan and numerics!'"

"Heheh…," Tempest raised a fingers. "I will admit….that was really good."

"Darn tootin'," Beast Boy placed down a blue Seven. "Your turn, Noir."

"…..," I looked at the cards. "……" I looked at my hand. "……" I drew one from the deck.

Tempest's turn. "That's pretty weak. Pretty weak luck," he put down a blue Four.

I smiled mockingly at him.

_This is a damned kid's game……_

"Whatever the case, Starfire should be here," Beast Boy said, fiddling through his cards. "And Robin can do whatever he wants."

"Not approving of their sudden expenditure together?" Tempest asked.

"It's not my part to approve," Beast Boy shrugged. "But it is my place to be depressed."

"What about?"

The changeling put down a yellow Four. "Robin's gone all softy on us! I mean….you don't get it, Tempest. You weren't _here_ since the beginning of everything 'Titan'. Robin doesn't ask girls out. He doesn't even look at girls like most guys do! I'd think the obsessive guy was gay if it wasn't for his ugly fashion statement."

Tempest shrugged. "I dunno. I think everyone's entitled to living life the way they want. With or without romance."

"You don't say…," Beast Boy uttered. He glanced at me. "Your turn again, dude."

"………," I looked at the cards. "………" I looked at mine. "…….." I drew from the deck again with a sigh.

Tempest: "Take me and Tula for example—"

Beast Boy winced. "Dude….w-we won't make you have to go there. Seirously—"

Tempest shook his hand and smiled assuredly. "I can talk about it. Really."

"Alright….."

Tempest thumbed through his cards. "It took me forever to realize that Tula was where I wanted to be and who I wanted to be with. I was so caught up with my own life and saving the Idyllists and all who lived in the Hidden Valley that—quite frankly—I saw intimacy as a deterrent." A beat. He smiled. "But both Atlanteans and superheroes alike must all come to realize one thing."

"What's that, dude?"

"Nobody can save the world," Tempest leaned forward. "Not by him or herself. It just doesn't happen. And in a life where life itself is but a fragment of mortal time, sometimes the most important world to attempt saving is not this giant sphere of air and water that we dance on….but the very world that wraps itself around our brains and organs with flesh and bone. I had gone through so many harrowing situations and near-deaths that I realized that some things are….are too precious to leave untouched. So I gave in. I spent more time with Tula. And….and I loved it. I truly, truly did."

Tempest put down a green Four.

A beat.

"To be honest," the Atlantean went on. "I thought Robin had made that decision long before I ever joined your lovely little team. He and Starfire are quite obviously……"

I glanced up. I mouthed: _'Close?'_

Tempest nodded. "Yeah. Close."

"They're best friends," Beast Boy shrugged. He placed down a green Six. "They've always have been. It doesn't mean anything more than it is."

I looked at the cards.

"………"

_Dammit._

I pulled from the deck again.

Beast Boy giggled.

"Best friends, huh?" Tempest asked. "I'm a little confused. But I don't recall anything during the Titan application process that underscored 'ignoring blatant companionships among the Tamaranian and Gothamite' as a prerequisite to being a sane crime fighter."

"I'm serious!" Beast Boy gestured. "They're best friends! Nothing more!"

I cleared my throat.

They both looked at me.

I smiled and planted metal fingers on two spots in the center of my forehead like 'eyebrows'.

"Yeah, yeah," Beast Boy rolled his green eyes. "We all know that Starfire could go ga-ga over Robin anyday. That's no secret, man."

Tempest put down a green Two. "Robin's a lucky bird."

"But what bothers me is-----," Beast Boy gave Tempest a double-take. "……………..yeah." A beat. "But what bothers me is that with Robin as the softy, where will I be?"

"Same place where you are now," Tempest smiled. "Four cards while I'm down to two and Noir has….what….eleven by now?"

I groaned.

Tempest chuckled.

Beast Boy put down a green Five. "I mean….I should be the Romeo of the Titans! Not him! Sheez…I've got no chance now! The next thing I'll know, Noir will set up a kissing booth or something."

"For the guys or the girls?"

_Don't go there, Captain Nemo._

"Har har," Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Let's look at the bright side. Of Robin and Starfire start doing this from now on….maybe less training sessions?"

"I think regretting training sessions is just a poor excuse these days," Tempest shrugged. "You've been working under Robin's tutelage for—what---two and a half years now? I'd imagine the training is anything _but_ strenuous by now. Poseidon…I don't even mind!"

"Eh….you're all wet," Beast Boy waved. He glanced at me. "Dude….is it your turn or what?"

I shrugged. I was already pulling at the deck. I looked at the card and was graced with an artistically done, naked print of Hawkgirl among red satin sheets.

I did a double-take with contorted black eyes.

Beast Boy jumped. "Er….uhm……there isn't a wyrd card in that deck, is th-there?"

I winced, trying my prude best to not so much as visually register the card in my grasp.

_That's your definition of 'wyrd'??_

I shakily handed it back to him.

Beast Boy glanced at it and blushed all over. "Ooops….heheh….h-h-how'd that get in there?? Eheheheh…." He slipped it quietly in his pocket.

"Wrong deck?" Tempest asked with eyebrow raised.

"Uh….yeah. Sure. Ahem…..your turn still, Noir."

I was afraid to draw from the deck.

_At least it wasn't Diana._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You seem to be fond of….c-cold places today, Robin," Starfire simpered.

Robin smiled at her as they stood side by side. "If it bothers you, Starfire…we can leav—"

"N-No!" she exclaimed. "I am most sincere about seeing what it is you wanted to show me here!"

The two had entered an ice skating rink. They stood in the outer perimeter where there was a snack bar, a set of tables with chairs, and a desk leasing ice skates. Ahead of them a rough gate opened up to the white sheet of ice that was the rink. A few dozen people of all ages and varying proficiency were circling the rink in a counter-clockwise formation. Young couples swiftly swished their way along the perimeter. A few talented ones could do it hand-in-hand. Older individuals skated closer to the center of the rink and showed off subtle spinning acts of talent. An elderly few took their time on the far sides, gripping to the wall's railing as they pulled themselves along. An echoing ambiance of public domain music filtered down from the crackling speakers of the old—but still lively establishment.

"Well….," he scratched the back of his head nervously. "I was a little inaccurate about what I said earlier."

"Hmmm?"

"It's not so much showing you something….as t-teaching you something."

She blinked. She bit her lip. "T-Teach me wh-what exactly, Robin?" she nervously asked.

He looked at her directly….warmly. It felt good in the cold, interior atmosphere. "I promise, Star. It won't be anything embarrassing or damaging to you. Just….trust me."

"Trust you?"

He nodded.

A beat.

She smiled. "O-Okay. I can do that, Robin."

He held a finger up. "Wait here….," and he sauntered off towards the rental desk."

Starfire stood with her hands behind her back. She leaned back and forward nonchalantly. Humming. She glanced out at the rink.

She saw a family of four—two parents and two small children—gently gliding their way across the side of the rink. The father and mother held their children's hands, but the younger of the two kids was being giddy. She tried performing a half-jump of sorts, but instead landed hard on her rear on the ice.

Starfire winced.

The kid started wailing. The mother cooed something, picked the girl up, and guided her to the side of the rink where she solaced the weeping child.

Starfire swallowed and forced a nervous smile.

"Here you go, Star….," Robin came up, handing her something. "Grab them by the laces."

"Huh??" Starfire looked down at what he was handing her. A pair of pink and white ice skates. "Eeep!!"

Robin half-jumped. "Wh-What's wrong?"

"Robin! I cannot…I do not….I am unable to dance with knives upon the ice!" she exclaimed with hands clasped together.

Robin smiled. "I'm going to show you how, Starfire. It really isn't all that difficult."

"Difficulty is something best measured by experience….," she bit her lip. "I am….n-not very experienced."

"So?"

"Tamaran is not a world prone to huge collections of ice. Almost the entire planet is under the Terran definition of a tropical climate and—"

"Think of it as getting to know Terra Firma a bit more," Robin said pleasantly. A beat. "Of course….I won't force you to, Star. I could always return these skates an—"

She clenched her eyes shut, took a breath, and opened them again with a brave face: "N-No, Robin. I….I-I shall endeavor to go through with it."

"'Go through with it'? You make it sound like torture."

"Torture is also something best measured by experience….," she muttered in a sappy voice.

"Heheheheh," he took her gently by the hand. "Come on…."

Numbed by the feel of his fingers, she let herself be dragged to the rink.

Before she knew it—distracted as she was by gazing at the various occupants skating past her with swishing sounds—the Tamaranian girl was sitting on a bench placed in a little inset bordering the ice. Robin somehow already had his blue and black skates on and he was presently kneeling at her legs.

"Here….I'll help you the first time."

"Uhm……," Starfire's green eyes blinked. A beat. She glanced down at Robin. "Huh?"

He was already lacing up one of her two feet up in the ice skates. "You see….I've had practice," he smirked up at her.

She simpered. "S-So you have….," and her gaze fell despondently on the rink again. "So much…..hard whiteness."

Robin fastened her skates tight. "There ya go. Snug as a bug."

"Is it a good thing when I am equipped with insectoid firmness?"

He chuckled, stood up, and gently held her shoulders. "Yeah…..sure, Starfire."

"Robin, I am still somewhat uncertain about—EEP!!"

He hoisted her up by her shoulders and soon the two were drifting…drifting…drifting out onto the white interior expanse.

Starfire's teeth chattered for reasons other than cold. "I….I-I-I think I would gladly appreciate having my feet unbladed now!"

"You're doing great, Star….," Robin smiled with two hands gently on her shoulders as he faced her and drifted backwards. "Just keep your balance like you're doing!"

"My…b-balance?" She glanced down. She saw her feet and suddenly became aware of how her entire weight was being precariously placed on two thin blades across the slippery ice. "Eeek!!" she scrambled in a flurry.

Sw-Sw-Swish!!

Robin reached in and half-hugged her struggling figure. "Easy! Keep your toes pointed outward. I've got you."

"B-B-But!!"

"Pretend you're one with the ice," he said gently. He drifted so that he was on her left side. "See? Relax….it's easy at first. It really is."

"At f-first??"

"Mmmhmmm. Pretend you're the master of your elements. Or mistress…..whatever."

"……………" Starfire took gentle breaths. She stretched her arms out. She drifted forward, forward, and came to a balanced stop. Still. At ease.

"There you go!" Robin pointed. He released himself from Starfire. "Now keep that balance. Get a feel for it."

"………," she simpered with chattering teeth.

Robin effortlessly skated around her. "See? You'll master all elements that Earth has to offer in no time!"

"Not l-like you…," she shuddered. She eyed him in awe. "How are you….so capable of such frigid fanciness??"

"Who? Me?" He smirked. He swished into a triple spin and outward into a glide that ended with a spray just two inches before her. "Gotham gets really cold this time of year. Then later on in November, December, and finally January…..God, it's like an iceberg. I no longer try and wonder why Mr. Freeze and the Penguin both make the City their locations of interest. Heh. Anyway….when I wasn't fighting crime with Batman…I suppose you can say I got my skating fix in."

"You are most proficient at it," Starfire pouted. "I on the other hand—"

"I'm not asking you to become Kristi Yamaguchi overnight," Robin said. "I am merely trying to show you how—" He froze in mid speech. His eyemask fell.

A beat.

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "Robin??"

"………..," He blinked under his mask. "You're floating."

"Huh?" she recoiled. "I am not floating!!"

"Yes you are," he pointed down. "Look."

Starfire's gaze fell.

The blades of her skates were a full inch above the ice. She bit her lip. "S-So I am." She looked up with a nervous smile. "But I am balanced, no?"

"……….," he stared at her.

Starfire moaned "Robin….I am sorry. But I absolutely cannot do this. I cannot do it without flying! It is an instinct of mine to keep myself from falling!"

"Lord knows I'm not asking you to go against your Tamaranian instinct, Star," Robin drifted towards her. "But I assure you. You won't really understand what it means to skate if you don't just let it all go."

"But how??"

"Concentrate on your skates," he pointed. "Let the ice and the position of your legs dictate what is or isn't 'balance'."

"But what if I am to fall—"

"You won't, Star."

"But I will!"

He shook his head. "You won't." He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'll be here. I won't let you fall and hurt yourself. I promise."

"………," she took a deep breath. "Allright, Robin. I shall try…."

He smiled. "Good."

She gently….slowly lowered herself the one inch to the ice.

Robin drifted so that his right arm hooked around hers and his left arm was on her left shoulder.

She gasped for one reason or another once she was back 'on the ice'.

And she was still.

"Okay now….with me….," Robin breathed.

Starfire found herself drifting forward. Her body graced against the Boy Wonder's grip. Her legs moving through the guidance of his. Inward and outward the strokes of her skates and…

The two swished forward, slowly along the perimeter. The stale cold air of the huge interior became fluid and soothing as they rushed forward through it. Faces started to drift behind instead of past the two. The rink stretched forward, eternal yet limited all the same.

Cold movement.

Starfire simpered. "We are….skating the ice!"

Robin chuckled. "More or less. But it sure beats standing in place and going nowhere."

Starfire glanced down.

"Don't look down. Not yet."

"Eep!" she looked forward, blushing. "I am sorry!"

"Nothing to be sorry for, Star," Robin said. "Just relax."

"I….I-I think I am relaxed."

"Not thinking of flying, are you?"

"N-No….I will admit that….th-that there are other forms of 'unbridled joy'."

"You don't say…."

"We are not prevailing upon colliding with the wall, a-are we?"

"No, Star. Don't worry."

"Okay….."

"I've got us on a steady path."

She nodded. She stayed in frame with his movement. The two traced the perimeter of the rink for a good few minutes until it no longer seemed quite as cold as it was to begin with, and Robin slowly—without speaking—let go of Starfire's right shoulder, drifted sideways, and simply held her by her left arm with his right hand.

She looked over at him.

He smiled at her assuredly.

She simpered. She looked ahead.

The two continued their drift. A leisurely thing. The ice was smooth and forgiving. A few of the citizens had left since it was nearing suppertime. The rink was emptier, and thus gave the two Titans greater room for mobility.

Starfire let out a breath.

"Are you okay, Star?"

She smiled without looking at him. "I am okay, Robin."

"Do you want to stop?"

"N-No. I am…..enjoying this," she nodded.

A beat.

"Thinking about flying at all?"

She giggled. "No, Robin. I am skating." She glanced at him. "You seem quite insistent that I neglect my powers of flight. Is this what you desired to teach me?"

"In a way….," he slowly nodded. "Yes."

"Oh?" she looked ahead again.

He held onto her left side firmly as they drifted onward.

"Does it feel so hard now that you're actually doing it?"

"No, it does not…..but….."

"But what?"

"You are here. Keeping me steady."

He nodded. "But if you wanted—and I'm just saying—you could practice hard enough and learn to skate on your own, don't you think?"

A beat.

"Yes…," she nodded towards the passing whiteness. "I suppose I could…."

"In theory."

"Yes, in theory."

"Then you could understand how I'm able to spin around and do loops in the ice like you sorta saw me do earlier?" Robin asked.

She giggled. "Indeed. That must have taken practice."

"But practice isn't all it takes for me," Robin said. "For you, Starfire….it may be that simple."

She seemed confused. "I do not understand…."

"What did you have to do to learn to just….stay balanced, Star?"

She blinked. "I had to…..to give up flight."

He nodded. "You had to give up a talent."

A beat.

"For most humans…..we have to find our talents to begin with," Robin spoke. "From what I've learned of nearly every alien species we've made contact with and discovered openly in the last ten years…….well….to put it most honestly, Terrans are inherently weak and powerless in the galaxy. I don't mean to imply that Tamaranians and other races are lacking vulnerabilities or weaknesses. What I mean is that…a single human rarely ever stands a chance in surviving harsh environments or antagonism compared to other sentient beings. At the same time, that doesn't make humans completely worthless. We've learned to accommodate for things in which we are lacking. Through technology….increasing our physique….our athleticism and endurance. We can train and shape ourselves into something strong and formidable. But….I-I guess what I'm trying to say, Star….is that being someone like me….being human……being an Earthling….it is something that….th-that…….."

Starfire interjected quietly: "It takes risk." A beat. She gazed calmly at the ice passing them. Her face was deadpan. "It takes risk and….a-and trying to be something you are not born as."

Robin nodded. "My feet don't have blades built into them. But it doesn't keep me from skating. I love to do it too much. It's something that I'm proud of. It's something that defines me as a human being. And I keep to it…even though I know I can't fly and I can fall on my rear end or maybe break a limb at any time."

Silence.

They swished on a bit.

They glided.

A breath….

"My life, Starfire….," he spoke. "'Robin'. The Titan Leader and the Boy Wonder from Gotham." A beat. He said: "It's not something I was born to be. I'm not built to fly from rooftop to rooftop. I wasn't made to take on hulking monsters of granite and slime, armed only with throwing discs and a metal staff. But that doesn't stop me from doing it anyways. Because if I didn't do it….I wouldn't be what I am today. I wouldn't have met such great partners. And I wouldn't have saved so many people as I have. In some ways, Star---as self indulgent as it sounds to say---I may very well have all that you've ever wanted to learn about Terrans all thrown together in my head. But I don't know how better to show it to you…than by teaching you myself."

Silence.

Starfire said: "I…..I-I understand now…." Her voice was a murmur. Her green eyes blinked. "I….I-I believe I do understand. It must be so hard…and yet so beautifully endearing for Terrans like you to take such risks and become heroes amidst your society…."

Robin slowly nodded.

A beat.

Starfire glanced at him while they skated. "I now have an inkling as to realizing why it is you defend your dangerous stunts so much."

"Yeah….well….," Robin simpered. "To each his own."

Starfire smiled. "You……never tried so hard before to make this message clear to me." She glanced down at their skating feet then back up at him. "Why is that?"

"People tend to forget things, Star….," Robin said. He glanced across the rink as they went on. "Myself especially. But there comes a time when….when you just wake up. You remember how everything got started. And you start to wonder how everything continued to where it is now."

"………..," she gazed blankly at him.

He smiled at her, sighed, and said: "Before you work up a sweat….h-how about something to eat?"

She simpered. "That…..th-that sounds glorious, Robin."

He nodded. He guided the two of them back to the side of the rink.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrrgh!!"

THWAP!!

Cyborg's fist hit the desktop.

"This just doesn't make sense!!"

"Easy there…," Raven placed a hand over his shoulder, leaned over, and peered at the computer screen. "What is it saying now?"

"I can tell you what it's **half-**saying!!" Cyborg spat and gestured frustratingly at the console. "It's giving slight, subtle hints that the Tower's experiment programs were accessed…but it won't let me check and see who accessed them and for what reason!!"

"Why don't we ask everyone in the Tower if they've been playing with your laboratory?" she droned.

"Nuh uh! It was this 'J' guy!! I know it!" Cyborg grumbled. "'Benevolent Hacker' my titanium ass!! You've read about one of them, you've read about them all!"

"Calm down," Raven groaned. "Now….just what is blocking you from accessing the experiment programs anyways?"

"It's telling me that Robin's Authorization Code is keeping me from patching through!" Cyborg said. "That's completely bogus!! Why would Robin want me to stay out of the programs that _I built?!?!_"

Raven folded her arms. "And what's to say it isn't _really_ Robin's Authorization Code?"

Cyborg blinked. He swiveled and looked up at her. "Say what??? Rae, are you serious?? Robin wouldn't—"

"Let's pretend for a moment that he would," Raven glanced at Cyborg. "What would you require to get past it?"

"Well….unless I was a badass hacker--," he paused to roll his eyes, "—I'd truck Robin over here and have him unlock it for me. To tell the truth, I'm almost hurt that Robin gets number one priority to digital confidence. This isn't his computer system—so why should the entire Tower's security revolved around _his_ access code."

"You're right about one thing," Raven nodded. "This is your computer station."

"Darn tootin'."

"But on the other hand….," she leaned over him. Her fingers gracefully performed a keystroke.

And---

_Beeep!_

The computer speakers chimed prettily as the program Cyborg was trying to access was brought up.

Cyborg's jaw dropped. He swiveled to her. "How…..H-How….."

She gestured: "Robin wasn't the _only_ person to found the Titans…….not technically."

"…………………," Cyborg smirked. "Looks like I got a friend in high places."

"Yessir."

"But you don't even exercise your authority, if you're 'up there' with Robin!" Cyborg pointed. "I was Number One after him, remember?"

"Yes, Cyborg," she rolled her eyes. "I remember….."

He rubbed the human part of his head. "Damn…if even _I_ can't get that far into the Computer….what can Noir do now that he's Number Two? Windows Solitaire?"

"Somehow, I think he'd enjoy that."

"Yeah……," Cyborg shook his head and snapped out of it. "Allright then, thanks Raven."

"Don't thank me. I'm curious too."

"Good," Cyborg typed his way deeper and deeper into the program files. "Now to find out exactly what was done and when."

"And by whom?"

"I think we both know that," Cyborg smirked.

A beat.

"No….I don't think we do," Raven said.

Cyborg faltered somewhat at that.

But the investigation went on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay. That's two hotdogs. One with everything on it. The other with extra mustard. Will that be all, sir?"

Robin stood at the snack bar with the tray and two hotdogs in paper carriers. "Actually…can I have some mustard packets?"

"Sure thing, Mr. Titan," the clerk ducked down, rummaged through the trays behind the counter, and produced a handful of mustard. "There you go."

Robin smiled politely. "More, please."

The clerk blinked. "Uh….s-sure thing." He ducked down. He came back up with another handful. "Have a pleasant me—"

"A little bit more."

"……..," slowly….apprehensively the clerk bent down. He came up with two handfuls and pensively placed them in the growing pile of packets on the corner of the tray.

Robin smiled. "That should do. Thanks."

"Y-You're welcome…."

Robin turned around and drifted across the carpet to the table where Starfire sat.

"Eeee! Glorious!" she clasped her hands together and smiled. "You remembered!!"

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "How many times have you made us watch that hot dog documentary? I'm surprised I'm not going to vomit from—"

"Negative!" Starfire dipped her hands into the pile of yellow packets and rubbed them lovingly against her cheeks. "Sweet, delicious nectar!! You remembered my infatuationnnn!!"

Robin sweatdropped. "Uh……yeah. I have a photographic memory."

"Heee!" RIIIP!! Starfire opened packet after packet of mustard and obscenely dumped them across her hot dog. "This will be a most heavenly meal!"

"Glad you plan on enjoying it," Robin pointed. A beat. "Or already enjoying it."

RIIIP!! She opened more packets and glanced at Robin. "You usually do not eat at this time of the day. Are you choosing to be less fastidious?"

"I only skip supper because of how unnecessary it is," Robin said. He took a bite out of one end of his hot dog, chewed, swallowed, and added: "Breakfast is the one important meal of the day. If eaten well, it prepares the body for a long, full day of exercise and strenuous crime fighting. But….for now…..I can settle for a little spoiling. Besides…." his eyemask thinned amiably. "This is a special occasion."

In the midst of her mustard mountaining, Starfire blushing. "It is?? For what reason?"

"Not for 'what'. For 'who'."

"Ohhhh," she hid her face behind her hand. "Why do you fluster me so?"

He chuckled. "It is a little…..fun."

"Does that explain all the times you have done it prior to now?" Starfire leaned forward.

"………," Robin stared at her. "Huh?"

"Oh….uhm….eep!" she blushed. "I….I suppose I am my own worst enemy."

"You think I've been trying to fluster you all of these months, Star?" Robin leaned his head to the side. "By doing what?"

"Oh….X'Hal….this mustard is most inviting…," Starfire changed the subject to the food she was blushingly eyeing before her. "….lest I forget the heated canine submerged in the nectar as well." CHOMP!!! She took a big wet bite. Mustard bits flew across the room like fireworks.

"…….," Robin leaned forward. "It doesn't take a detective to know that you're changing the subject."

"Mmmmhmmmm!" she half-ignored him with a mouthful.

Robin chuckled. "Honestly, Starfire…..sometimes you are too cute."

She swallowed. "Yes, Robin. And sometimes you are too……tough."

Robin froze at that. A bit puzzled.

Starfire winced. "Oh….I-I am sorry, Robin. That did not come out in the desire that I meant it to. I was….t-trying to speak 'honestly' as you were."

"Then you admit that you're cute?" Robin simpered. "I can admit that I'm tough."

Starfire nodded. "We are…stigmas to the end, are we not?"

"It depends," Robin took a bite, swallowed, and said: "Even if we were stigmas…is that what we most desire?"

"I have been and shall always be Koriand'r," Starfire pleasantly said. "'Starfire' suits me in my attempt to gradually merge myself with my own identity here on earth. I must say, it is quite the arduous process. But it is not without its gradual success." She suddenly beamed. "Did Beast Boy tell you?? Just the other day he helped me practice your challenging contractions!! Ahem…." She put on a face of honest, exaggerated concentration and twisted her lips: "'Dick _duzunt_ care if Jane _izint_ going to tell him what Spot _wouldint_ do….'"

The Boy Wonder suddenly suffered a wave of startling convulsions.

Starfire dropped her sloppy hot dog, gasped, and made half an attempt to fly across the small table. "Robin!! What in X'Hal's name is wrong—?!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" he hugged himself and bent over in his chair. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"

"……………….," Starfire blinked. She folded her arms and pouted. "Hrumph! I was sincerely trying my best to learn them!"

Robin waved. "I know, Starfire---hahaha---I know just…..don't stress yourself. You're---hahaha---good as you are."

She stared at him.

He still chuckled, his eyemask thinned.

She exhaled gently. "Robin??"

"Hahahaha….ahem….," he sat up straight. "Y-Yes, Star?"

"Will you tell me who you really are someday?"

"………….," his smile faded. He breathed deeply, staring at her. "Who…..Wh-Who I really am?"

She stared at him. Deadpan. Almost sad. "The boy who is sitting before me. Not the superhero. Not the Titan Leader. But the daring human beneath the mask. The one who has…has found so many talents to make him into what my eyes see. And yet—in spite of all of those talents—he is still human beneath it all. And still vulnerable…far more vulnerable than extraterrestrials, as he himself has just confessed to me tonight. Who are you, Robin? Will I someday find out who….who I have fought by, smiled with, and cried for? Will I be able to call th-the best friend that I've ever had by his first name?"

"……………………………..……………." Robin was mute.

Starfire's eyes closed and she hung her head towards her half eaten meal. "I…..I did not expect you to respond to any of that with more than absolute silence. F-Forgive me for springing such a question upon you as I just did, Robin. I…..I suppose seeing you last night…..seeing you most willing to….to be reached…." She gazed up at him. Sad green eyes. "I had hope." A beat. "A s-selfish hope," she winced at her own words and could no longer bear to look at him. She gazed off across the tables and towards the rink in the distance. "For nearly three years now….I-I've wanted to ask that. Just to see what the reaction would be. And it has been what I predicted. But do not despair, Robin. I am not mad at you. You are my friend regardless of what your identity is. I have always respected that secrecy of yours….and I shall continue to do so. It is the least I can do for someone as talented and wise as you, much less the leader of my team—"

"Starfire….," Robin gestured. He sighed and shook his head. "Don't. Please. I don't deserve….that is to say, I don't need….."

He fumbled for words.

Silence.

"It is allright, Robin," Starfire smiled weakly. But her eyes still had her lively shimmer. "At least….maybe it will benefit you to know where I stand. Or float…hehehe."

"…………," he stared thoughtfully at her.

She leaned back in her chair and clasped her hands together. "You say that you have woken up from a terrible dream turned good, Robin. Correct?"

He scratched his neck. "Y-Yes, Star…."

"I too have had a deeply affecting dream," she said. "And just like you….I shared it with Noir and no one else."

He raised an eyebrow over his eyemask.

"Until now," she giggled. "Hehehehe." A beat. She took a breath: "Months ago, I was nightly assaulted with a vision in my sleep that I could not bear to experience. A few times I lacked sleep because of it and I suffered fatigue during our early excursions in training Noir. Do you remember that, Robin?"

"Yeah, Star. Somewhat."

She continued: "Every night I dreamt that I was wandering a wasteland. A barren plain that did not resemble Earth or Tamaran. Despite the unfamiliarity of the inhospitable location, I needed to be there. And I was there to find someone. Someone I knew."

Robin leaned his head to the side and listened quietly as Starfire went on.

"I am sure that you can predict the person I was looking for to be you, Robin," Starfire said. "I was very concerned about you at the time. In my dream, you were stuck inside a frozen lake. You were hugging yourself and hiding your face. And you were crying." She gestured. "Although the lake was icy in and of itself, it paradoxically boiled at the surface. I interpreted it as the flaring temper of your fighting persona when in battle. And I tried to understand what the ice meant…until I finally saw your face and your eyes were covered with the green tears of a Tamaranian that ironically disguised you even without a mask. And then I realized that…..whether it is true or not….I only imagine a life of pain and sorrow underneath that mask you wear. It is something you hide not to deceive your friends around you….but perhaps to protect yourself. And such is perfectly understandable. And on my planet—as much as on Earth—such an action is something hardly deserving ridicule, I firmly believe. Yet still….I worried greatly about you, Robin. I truly did. When….hehe…wh-when I told Noir about my troubling visions, he showed me for the first time what his eyes looked like with the shades off. I believe Beast Boy was the last of us to see his eyes in their true glory. Noir was very private when he first joined us. In a lot of ways he still is. But it was then that I realized how much he understood what his new partners felt and anguished over. And without speaking, Noir told me that I need not worry about who you really are, Robin. For someday—no matter what dangers we might face—I may even find out about the boy who is sitting before me. But….I will admit….as I already have….such a selfish desire. And I take great pleasure in knowing 'Robin' so much that….th-that I cannot truly sum it up in simplistic fashion."

A beat.

Robin smiled weakly.

He ran a hand through his hair: "I…uhm…..I don't know what to say, Starfire."

"It is all right…," she smiled then took a bite out of her mustard-dog. Swallowing: "The fact that you listen is enough to console me."

He winced at hearing that. But he said: "I….I wouldn't honestly know about 'hiding sadness and pain'. I think that's all relative."

She looked at him silently.

He turned his head to the side. "I think….I think my secret identity is not so much to protect myself," he said. A beat. "But to protect you, Starfire."

She blinked. "M-Me, Robin?"

"………," he slowly nodded.

"I….I-I respect that, Robin. I truly do," she said. But she shuddered: "I just….d-do not understand it."

Silence.

Robin took a deep breath, and warmly said: "Say, Star."

"Yes, Robin?"

"After we eat….would you like to go out on a walk?"

"I….I-I would love to."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I washed my hands in the sink until I realized I was doing it for the fourth time in a row.

I shook my head.

I blinked my naked black eyes and looked around.

I was in my lantern-lit bathroom…adjacent to my small and dark quarters.

_Why does my mind keep wandering??_

I sighed. I cupped cold water in my hands. I splashed them across my face. I closed my eyes and streamed my bangs back, slicking some of my black strands of hair.

I sighed.

I shut the water off and leaned over the sink with two tired hands.

_I must not have gotten any rest yet. _

_From the adventure at Bludhaven……_

"……….."

I looked up.

Two black eyes stared at me.

Dark and noir.

"………."

_How could I have not figured it out beforehand?_

I stared at the corners of my solid optics.

'_J'._

_The hacker that Pulsade and Jinx were talking about. _

_It was that kid………_

I leaned back and folded my arms.

I sighed…staring at the dark figure in the mirror.

_Was that him at the Public Address? _

_Why is he in Town? _

_Why all the e-mails? _

_Does he know the Messenger?_

I ran a hand over my face.

I shut my eyes.

Darkness…..

_Could what he want now………have anything to do with what he wanted then?_

"……….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SMASH!!! _

"_Get 'em out of there!!" _

"_Light the bottles!!" _

"_We're gonna burn this place to shit!!"_

_  
A crowd of eight men armed with knives and bats yanked a family out from their business establishment. Under the shroud of night and in a doubly dark underneath an L-Train track, the thugs threw bricks and other rough objects through the front windows of the store, shattering the display to bits. Two other men started lighting Molotov cocktails. _

"_No! Please!!" the owner struggled and gestured towards the store. "That's our life!! Don't burn it down! I-I'll do anything!" _

"_Shut up, you old bastard!" a man wandered over and punched the owner hard in the gut. WHUMP!!! _

"_Nnngh!!" _

"_Richard!!!" the wife shrieked. _

_The two children were sobbing. _

"_Shut the hell up!!" one man shouted. He pointed at the two with the Molotovs. "Light the shithole!!" He faced the family again. "You may be the first……but you may not be the last. We're gonna track down every creep in this City who lives in the Norman Apartments and teach him a lesson!!" _

"_Why……," the owner doubled over and wheezed: "……are you d-doing this??" _

"_We all know very well that you Norman chumps are too high and mighty for the rest of the street now!! Even Slade's goons won't go anywhere near the apartment themselves on account of some blasted 'black eyes' and crap!! You know what that means for the rest of us?? Slade is all the more ruthless!! Well if he doesn't roast your hides, then WE will!! BURN THE DAMN PLACE DOWN!!!" _

"_Consider it done…," one of the two men with flaming bottles approached the storefront. He raised the jar to the side and prepared to swing it through the window. "……pawn this, you sons of bitches!!" _

"_No! Don't!!" _

"_Shut up!!!" _

"_THROW IT!!" _

_FLASH!!! _

_In a puff of black haze, a figure materialized beside the flame-throwing creep. Something solid black and flickering spun upwards in half an arc and ripped through the Molotov cocktail. _

_CRACK!!! _

_FWOOOSH!! Flames fountained outward in a tongue of red and orange. The thrower's jacket caught fire. _

"_AAAAUGH!!!" he flailed about for two seconds before desperately pulling his jacket off of him and tossing its smoldering remains into the sidewalk. _

"……………_," the seven other men watched numbly………dumbly. _

"_The Hell??" _

"_WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" the man clutched his burnt arm and wheezed. _

_SWOOOOSH!!! _

_A shadow burst through the flames and slammed a long slender object into his side. WHACK!! _

"_Augh!!" he tumbled hard to the concrete. _

_The thugs gasped. They held their knives and bats out in paranoid readiness._

_  
But or what? _

_The shadow was gone. _

"_A………A-A ghost??" _

"_Shhh! It may still be here!!" _

_The family huddled together, their eyes wide as they too looked around the shadowed corners of the flame-lit street for the mysterious figure. _

_The one other man with a Molotov cocktail blinked. He looked over his shoulder. Nothing. He turned and looked forw-- _

_WHAM!!!! _

_A foot slammed into his face. _

"_NNGH!!" he fell back. _

_The lit bottle fell on the ground. CLANK!! It rolled across the street and exploded. FWOOOOOSH!!! _

_The six other thugs and the family members shaded their eyes as a curtain of fire stretched from sidewalk to sidewalk. The bottom of the L-Train tracks above them shimmered in rusted glory. Smoke billowed up towards the building sides stretching high towards the skyline. _

"_Craig!!" one thug shouted through the flames to the fallen man. "Craig?!?! You there?!?!" _

_Everyone froze at the voice emanating from the other side of the fire and smoke. _

"_Augh!! God!! Stop it! Don't—"WHACK!!"—AUGH!!" A groan. Then. _

_Silence._

"………………"

_Suddenly, the flames parted ways. _

"_C-Craig??" _

_The family members stared, hugging each other. _

_The billowing smoke slithered down the 'slope' in the wall of flames and collected together in the figure of a swordsman walking towards them. The smoke materialized, as marked by the glinting shades on the long-haired stranger's face._

_Teeth glared. _

"_It's……It's some sort of freak!!" _

"_A Titan?!?!" _

"_Like shit it is!!" the leader of the thugs went charging with a bat. "It's the black eyes from the Norman Apartments! GET HIM!!" _

"_RAAAAUGH!!" they all charged. _

_I stood still. My left fist clenched. My right hand gripping Myrkblade's hilt tightly. My legs spread. _

_The leader came charging with his bat. _

_Two others followed him with knives. _

_Two more with bats. _

_One stood by the family with a machete._

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade into a pose behind my head. I stretched my left arm out towards them. I narrowed my eyes. My left fist clenched. A wave of smoke coursed through my shoulders and out my right limb to flicker off the blade of my sword like a freshly lit match of obsidian. _

"_RGHHHHH!!!"_

_  
The five charging figures converged on me at once. _

_Ten eyes. _

_Two black lenses. _

_Black eyes. _

_I took a breath. _

_SWIIISH-CHIIIIING!!! _

_I swung Myrkblade down. It ate into the pavement. Sparks flew. _

_SWOOOOOOOSH!! _

_Myrkblade spiraled upward into a massive uppercut and so did my body. _

_A wave of smoke flew up from the ground, catching the feet of the thug leader and two creeps by his side. _

"_Augh!!" _

"_Whoah!!" _

"_Nngh!!" _

_The last two men came to a stop and gasped, looking up. _

_In slow motion and reflecting the surrounding tongues of flame, I and the three miscreant bodies flew up high into the air like some sort of twisted, urban ballet. My body spun in mid air with Myrkblade acting as a tornadic fan that lifted us higher, higher, and higher towards the bottom of the L-Train tracks. I let loose a miniature pulse of smoke and propelled myself towards one of the flailing bodies. I ended my spinning with a foot slamming across his face. WHAM!!! The impact jostled me to the right, upon which my legs made contact with the thug leader's chest GRIP!!! I wrapped my legs around his waist, spiraled us upside down, grabbed the bat from his hand, and twisted my legs so that I shot him hard into the rusted ceiling of the train tracks above. WHANG!!! I flipped, descended, and flung the bat blindly outward so that it flew so hard across the back of the third airborne thug it shattered into splinters. CRACK!!! _

_In a blink…… _

_Time resumed. _

_SWOOOOSH!!! PLOP!!! I landed crouching in the center of the street. _

"………………………"

_WHUMP!!! THWAP!!! WHAM!!!! _

_The ragdoll bodies of the three creeps landed hard on the pavement in a halo around me. _

"_Nnnngh……," they groaned in pain and were out like a light._

_The two other chargers gasped and stumbled back, the bats in their hands shaking. _

"………………_," slowly……menacingly……I stood up. Myrkblade flickered. I tilted my head up. I glared at them. Smoke danced out from under my shades._

"_Jesus………he's a demon!" _

_Maybe…… _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

_I blurred at them. _

"_RAAUGH!" one swung his bat. _

_I slid under and past him. _

_The other rammed his bat into the ground. _

_I vaulted upward. _

_SMACK!!! The bat cracked as it hit pure pavement._

_  
I flipped over them, landed behind a man's back, and gripped his neck in a reverse strangle-hold with my left arm. _

"_Snkkkk!!" he struggled. _

_The other man shouted and swung his bat at me. _

_With one hand I swung Myrkblade up and blocked. CLACK!!! My blade made contact with his bat. I charged smoke into the blade and pulsed it outward. _

_CRACK!! _

_The bat shattered completely. _

_The man backed up across the street, gasping. _

_I gritted my teeth, bent over, and swung the choking man over my shoulders by his neck. _

"_Whoah!!" _

_WHUMP!!! _

_Both men collapsed together and rolled to a cold stop besides the sidewalk. _

_I spun around. _

_The machete-wielding man stood alone besides the family. Trembling. He stepped backwards. He stammered: "L-Look! I never meant to hurt them!! It's Slade, okay?!?! He's putting the pressure on us to bust heads in where he can't go!! Seriously!! I don't want to do anything!!" _

"……………_," I marched towards him. _

"_Stand back!!" he pointed at the family with his blade and snarled. "Don't make me d-do something neither of us want!! We can strike a deal! Come on! L-Let's talk!!" _

_I frowned._

_I……don't……talk…… _

_FWOOOOSH!!!!! _

_I rocketed towards him in a burst of smoke. _

_He barely had the time to gasp-- _

_FLASH!!!!! _

_I materialized below and past him in a crouch. _

_The sheer speed of my teleport sent his body flying high up into the air._

"_AAAAAAAH!!"_

_  
I stood up straight._

_He fell._

_  
"AAAAAH!!!" _

_SWIIISH!! I stuck Myrkblade directly up like a ship's mast. _

_SLIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!! _

_The black blade got caught between the flesh of his back and the material of his shirt. _

_For half a second, he hung above me like a flag._

_Then…… _

_I gritted my teeth, grabbed the hilt with two blades, and heaved the sword into the earth like a collapsing redwood. _

_WHAM!!!!!!_

_The man slammed into the pavement chest-first. I didn't bother counting the teeth he lost. _

"_Nnnnngh………," he wheezed and was out. _

_His machete finally dropped from his head. Cl-Clank!! _

_The family blinked. _

_Riiiiip!! I shredded his shirt as I pulled Myrkblade up. FW-FWISH!! I twirled it behind my back. CHIIING!! It was sheathed. _

_I took a deep breath. The flames were starting to die down. The bodies of the eight thugs lay unconscious all around the street. _

_Slowly, the family stood up on shaking knees. _

"………………" _They stared at me. _

_I stared back. "…………………" I smiled._

_And so did they, holding each other. The mothered mouthed: 'Thank you'. _

_I gently bowed my upper body. _

_And that's when I noticed it. A head. A blonde head. _

"_???" I turned and glanced at a nearby alleyway. _

_I barely spotted the sight of a petite boy with golden hair dashing out of view. _

"…………_," my eyes narrowed. _

_I heard the sounds of police and firetruck sirens. _

_I glanced across the scene, made sure the crooks were out cold, and then spun around. _

_FWOOOSH!!! _

_I cloaked myself with a shroud of smoke and ran down towards the alleyway. _

_The family hugged each other and waited until the emergency vehicles arrived._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I blurred up the edge of the building, jumped up off the wall, flipped, and landed in a crouch on the corner ledge. _

_I exhaled. _

_With the night's wind whipping at my hair, I gazed down at the alleyways and streets beneath me. _

_My black eyes narrowed behind my shades. _

_The distinct body of a small blonde kid ran through the streets of the City. He was heading Southwest. _

"…………………_," I watched silently._

_  
If he's so intent on spying on me……maybe I should spy on him…… _

_I got up and ran across the roof. My black feet blurred and soon I was hopping from rooftop to rooftop across the City. _

_Keeping up with him……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The boy ran across empty, abandoned streets until he came to and entered a doubly-abandoned building. The structure was seven stories high, boarded up, and hardly the hospitable locale you would imagine anyone—especially someone as clean cut as the boy—possibly living in. _

_From atop a rusted construction crane atop the way, I stared at the site. _

_I blinked._

_How can he even expect to be safe in streets like these?_

_I sighed. I smoked my lower limbs and blurred down the building front. I ran across the street and—taking my time and pace slowly—I crept in through the front entrance of the abandoned building._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The wooden steps of the stairwell creaked pathetically with my ascent. _

_I winced. _

_So much for being stealthy……_

_The further I went up the building, I became aware of something haunting. And in an abandoned apartment building, there are many things that one might call 'haunting'. But the sound of a piano? _

"…………"

_A lovely, soft tune was wafting down the stairwell towards me. Something angelically muffled through the floors. It was almost drawing to me. I pushed against it and walked towards it at the same time._

_I was only half-surprised to come up to a floor where there was light. It was the sixth floor, and the glow grabbed my interest. I walked into a long, gray hallway littered with scraps of paper from bygone eras of residency. I paused at a doorframe where the light danced through._

"……………"

_I slowly stepped into the room. Orange candle light danced and flickered across the walls. The room looked as if all of the paper and dust debris had been swept away and into the hallway. And there was the broom besides a half-open closet to prove it. My black eyes scanned the room……winced from the flickering candle light on an old wooden table across the way……and then settled on a 'cute' little corner. A cute little corner adorned with a small-sized cot, a cooler with foodstuffs in it, a backpack, and a laptop. _

_Yes, a laptop. Two laptops. Two laptops and what looked to be a functioning, electrified television. _

"…………"

_I walked over slowly. I gazed down at the screens of the three units. _

_One laptop had a modem connected to it, but was displaying a DOS prompt of green-on-black letters across it screen. It had garbled text scrolling down a pixel per second. I could easily read the mysterious program narrating itself:_

_**Loading…**_

_**Loading…**_

_**Loading…**_

_**Reinforcing Program "River Jordan"**_

_**Location: Northeast City District**_

_**Date: April 11, 2004**_

_**Time: 0211 hours**_

_**Utilities: Cameras B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4 alternating with Cameras C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4 alternating with Thermal Scanner**_

_**Equipment: Minimal Failures in C Cameras**_

_**Maintenance Systems: Optimal**_

_**System Calibration: 98 Complete**_

_**Loading…**_

_**Loading…**_

_**Loading…**_

_**Initializing Concurrent-Program "Milk and Honey"**_

_**  
Location: Titan's Tower**_

_**  
Date: April 11, 2004 **_

_**Time: 0211 hours **_

_**Utilities: Long range infrared scanner**_

_**Equipment: Functioning Efficiently**_

_**Processing… **_

_**Processing… **_

_**Processing… **_

_**Examining Program "Canaanite" **_

_**Confirmed Sightings: Negative **_

_**Present State Of Functionality: 80 Efficient**_

_**Next Examination: T-Minus 59 minutes.**_

"…………"

_Hmmm…… _

_I looked at the TV. screen. _

_The image was split into four squares, each of which was alternating between two different views of the City's Eastern District. I recognized the black and white live feeds. They were streets and avenues familiar to me. _

_Ones that I often frequented…… _

_I inhaled. _

_I glanced at the last laptop. _

_My eyes squinted. _

_There was an elaborate, brightly-lit map layout of the City. There were small, strobing lights around…… _

_I blinked. _

_Titan's Tower?? _

_And one light that blinked on a block where I knew—from the back of my brain—I was located. _

_My fist clenched. _

"………"

_But I relaxed it. _

_I sighed. _

_Silly kid. _

_A beat. _

_Silly smart kid…… _

_The piano music continued. _

_I tilted my head up._

_The next floor…… _

_I glanced across the candle-lit room. _

_There was a hallway with a tiny stairwell that led up. The apartment I was in must have consisted of my floor and the one above. _

_He's here…… _

_I made a step to leave, but froze at the sight of something beneath me. Some thing__**s**__, that is. _

_I glanced down. _

_There were……newspaper clippings, magazine articles, computer printouts, Internet headlines………_

_All about one thing……one person…… _

_Slade……_

_Photos……quotes……details of bombings and terrorist runs. _

_Images of burnt buildings. Charred bodies. Assassination photos. _

_Articles with headlines ranging from the Titans' fight against Slade to Slade's two major defeats to the story of the City's temporary domination by Slade months ago._

_I took a deep breath. _

_I looked back to the stairwell. I approached it slowly._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The music increased as I came closer and closer to the source of the music. _

_I ascended the stairs and stood on solid floor. _

_Staring. _

_Across from me, eerily alone in the corners of the barren room, rested a grand piano. 'J' was at the reins._

_His fingers danced gracefully over the piano keys._

_Chords formed a weepingly-soft rhythm from the shadows._

_The piano as old…but its strength and size spoke of something archaically majestic. It shone beneath the layer of dust and soot in the corner of the decrepit room._

_He was dwarfed by the instrument. And yet his fingers were patient as they sought out all corners of the playing field._

_The tune rested, faltered, and gently died in a beautiful fashion._

_And when it was over, he leaned back, exhaled, and hugged his small self._

_Alone…_

_A beat. _

_I craned my neck._

'_J' lowered his arms. He took a breath._

_  
Without so much as looking at me, he gestured into the air:_

'_Why do you do it?' _

_I blinked. _

_He turned and looked up at me patiently. _

_I took a breath. I hand-signed back:_

'_What do you mean?'_

_  
He blinked. His green eyes small, but warm. He again gestured: 'Saving people. Beating up bad guys. If you are not a person of peace, then why do you do it?'_

_I groaned inwardly. Trying to put a hold on my patience, I gently returned: 'You think I am a superhero? Or that I should be one?' _

_A beat. _

_He smiled. He slowly nodded his blonde head. _

_I gestured: 'But that is a common error. Saving people and beating up bad guys does not make me a superhero.'_

_He leaned his head to the side. _

_I went on: 'People like the Titans……,' I paused a bit. I continued: '……they are hypocrites. It is stupid to think that by beating up people you are enforcing peace. There is no such thing as peace, but instead favor. And fate favors people differently. Yes, it is possible to change the ways of fate so that more deserving people can be favored instead of others. But how can you call it peace when innocent people enjoy the fruits of life while so called goons and creeps have to get their faces smashed in?'_

_  
He surprised me with how fast he replied: 'Do you think you are evil, Noir?' _

_I doubled-back. I blinked. If I was talking, I would be tongue-tied. I awkwardly hand-signed: 'I did not say that I was evil.' _

_He giggled breathily and hand-signed: 'I know. But you think it, right?' _

_I glared at him. 'I did not come here for psychoanalysis.'_

'_Then what did you come here for?'_

"………………"

_He swiveled his small legs off the chair, dropped down, and walked towards me._

_  
I blinked. 'You are small for your age, you know that?'_

_He stood before me, looked up, and hand-signed: 'What are you doing in this City? What future do you want, mister black eyes? Will you keep saving people by yourself until you are old and gray?'_

_I frowned. 'You tell me what you are doing here. You are wise beyond your years, kid. I saw the laptops and the camera screens. You are some kind of technician or hacker, are you not?'_

_He smiled proudly._

'_I should have known.' I sighed. 'What do you want to blackmail me for.'_

_He replied: 'I do not do blackmail.'_

_  
'Then what do you do?'_

'_It is not what I do but what I want to do.'_

'_And that is?'_

_He hugged himself and looked aside._

_  
I stared at him._

_A beat._

_He bit his lip, looked up at me and signed: 'I want to put a stop to something.'_

_I blinked. 'Not something……,' I hand-signed. 'Someone. Slade.' _

_His green eyes fell from my hands when I conveyed that. He turned around and looked off towards the shadows._

_I fidgeted. This was starting to wyrd me out. What could a sitcom spawn of a preadolescent want with a demonic, urban terrorist?_

'_J' drifted over towards a boarded window. Thin cracks let slivers of silver moonlight streak across his face. He gazed outward into nothingness for a short bit before turning to face me._

'_No matter how much the Titans fight Slade……,' he 'said' '……he keeps getting stronger. And every time he gets stronger, it is not just the City that he threatens, but the Titans themselves. He keeps hurting them more and more with the same ferocity that he hurts the City, if not moreso. And everytime he hurts the Titans, he rips a precious piece of them out and turns it against them. First he struck with Robin. And then he struck with Terra. He keeps making a huge wound huger. Can you believe how horrible he is?'  
_

_Most of what he said was Greek to me. Every boy born in America knows who 'Robin' is. But 'Terra'??_

_  
I scratched my head and shrugged. 'What do I know? Horribleness is relative. I do not like Slade. I wish he would stop terrorizing this City. But I hardly think that is possible. Not today. Not tomorrow.'_

'_Why not?' he hand-signed. _

_I smirked. _

_Idealists are cute……_

'_Slade is merely a piece of the world. And the world manifests its ugly self in billions of ways. To expect Slade to stop can be compared to expecting death to stop dying or pain to stop paining. It is but a dream. A dream within a dying dream we call existence.'_

_  
'J' jerked as if suddenly wracked with a sharp, sharp pain. _

_I looked at him from an angle, a bit concerned suddenly. _

_He sighed depressingly with glistening green eyes as he signed: 'I almost wish I knew what you have been through.' _

_I mouthed: 'Huh?' _

'_Everything you say……what you believe in……,' 'J' shuddered and gestured: 'It is so fatalistic. So cold and painful and lonely. Do you not understand? If you keep fighting crime alone like that, what you believe in the most will flip on you and someday you might find yourself sharing nothing but the pain instead of peace.'_

"………………_," I stared past him._

'_Mister Noir,' he went on with a compassionate gaze. 'The Titans may be hypocrites. But at least they are sane hypocrites. They have shoulders to lean on. People to share their pain with. You can fight in this City alone all you want. But inevitably you will run into the Titans. And when you run into the Titans, you will either work with them or work against them. This City may look big, but it is far too small for you and them to work separately.'_

_I frowned. 'Then I will just have to find another City!'_

'_You know you would not leave, right?' 'J' added. _

_I ran a hand through my thick black hair. I stared at the floor and exhaled._

_He was right._

_  
He was right…… _

_I couldn't leave this City. Because……no matter what…… _

_After all the distance I traveled, this was the furthest East I could possibly go._

_I closed my eyes and sighed for a second or two._

"………"

_I opened my eyes. I glanced across the room. I looked at 'J'. _

_I hand-signed: 'Where did that piano come from?'_

_He blinked. He looked at it……he then smiled. 'I learned to play the piano from my mother,' he took a happy breath as a warmth spread over his young features. 'She took care of me a lot when I was younger. I miss her now.' _

_I snapped my finger._

_He looked at me._

_I pointed. 'The piano. I mean the __**piano**__.' _

_He mouthed: 'Oh'. He scratched his head. 'I do not know. It is just here. There are some things even I do not know.'_

_  
I looked at him._

_  
He looked at me._

_I snickered breathily._

_  
He let out a silent giggle, hugging himself._

_  
I shook my head and chuckled some more. _

_If we had voices, they would echo. _

_After a minute or so, we both exhaled. _

_And then……with wicked nonchalance……he pointed and hand-signed: 'Where did you get that scar?' _

"………_," I envisioned the obvious 'X'-shaped mark on the inside of my throat. I smirked cynically. _

_He smiled innocently at me._

_I pointed back and asked: 'Where did you get __**your**__ scar??' _

_It was merely a rhetorical rebuttal of mine._

_  
Imagine how much I was floored when he actually answered me:_

'_My father gave it to me.'_

_My lips parted some. _

'_J' was deadpan. His face lingered on happiness and sadness. But somewhere in his green eyes I saw an uplifting warmth of hope. Something that wanted to reach into the souls of lonely wanderers and turn everything upside down for some transient good._

_And it frightened me._

_  
Not so much as—_

_His father??? _

_I made a face._

_What the f--- _

_BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

'_J' gasped. His little green eyes were wide._

_I jumped._

_In a flurry, the small boy dashed down the stairs. _

_Hey!! _

_I blurred after him._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

'_J' ran down the stairwell and into the candle-lit room. He nearly tripped once in his scrambling attempt to get to his equipment. He jumped onto his cot and was immediately typing away at his loudly-beeping laptop with furious fingers. _

_I skidded to a stop beside him, panting. I gazed as hundreds of text scrolled past the screen at a rate that only the little computer munchkin could understand._

'_What is it??' I hand-signed._

_His back was to me. He mutely went forth with his keyboard ministrations. _

_The DOS prompt warbled green and black until it finally froze on something. _

'_J' gasped, his lands literally held to his face. He slammed his finger over a key. _

_Lights appeared in a cluster on the other laptop's City map. It highlighted a building complex ten blocks away._

'_J' ran nervous hands through his blonde hair. _

_I knelt beside him. I glanced at him, at the map, at him again. I hand-signed my curiosity._

_He looked at me, panting. He hand-signed: 'My detection program!'_

'_What detection program?!?'_

'_The one that scans for carbonite explosives. It has a positive lock!'_

_I blinked under my shades. 'Why do you have a carbonite explosive detection program?'_

_He gritted his teeth and shoved me._

_I was barely jostled._

_  
Fuming, he hand-signed: 'To keep track of Slade, you stupid head! Everyone knows that Slade uses carbonite in his terrorist wrath!'_

_I raised an eyebrow._

_Uhhhh…………y-yeah……_

'_There are four explosives set to go! At an apartment complex just north of Downtown! I still have not acquired the material needed to infiltrate the City's infrastructure and digitally manufacture a warning to the fire stations! How can I warn the people? It is not like I could run there and do something!!'_

_I looked at him. I looked at the screens._

"………………………"

_I looked at him again and hand-signed: 'But I can.'_

_He bit his lip._

_I took a breath. 'Look. There should be a bunch of people in that apartment complex, right?'_

'_They are wealthy apartments. There are less people per unit floor space. But I would estimate at least one hundred and fifty if they are all at home.'_

'_I will go. You stay safe.' _

_I got up and blurred towards the nearby window._

_He ran after me, wringing his hands. _

_I stopped at the window and kicked the boards loose. SMASH!!! CHIIING!! I had Myrkblade out and was already summoning murk. I glanced back at him._

_He hand-signed: 'Why are you doing this if you believe that people like Slade will not ever be stopped?' _

_I took a breath. I reached into my pocket for something and flicked it at the boy. _

_A playing card slid to a stop at J's feet. _

_I blurred out the window._

"…………" '_J' knelt and picked up it up. He turned it over. He made a face._

_The joker card………_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay……I think I got something…..," Cyborg said. He finished a keystroke. Schematics flew up across the computer screen. He rubbed his chin as he read the information. "Okay……"

"What's it saying?" Raven asked, standing beside him.

"It's telling us what the experiment concluded," Cyborg muttered. "It appears there's a high content of sodium chloride moisture-produced mildew on some of the equipment."

"Sodium chloride?"

"Maybe the villains' tools were made or stored somewhere near a body of salt water," Cyborg typed some more. Another screen flashed up. "Hmmm….this test shows a plastic alloy constant in all of the props. Never before did all of the villains use the same material in producing their tools and weapons."

"Plastic alloy?" Raven made a face. "Even in Johnny Rancid's gun?"

"It's a very strong material," Cyborg said. "The likes of which are found exclusively in some of the old war machines produced by Lexcorp."

"Lexcorp….now that raises an eyebrow."

"It doesn't mean anything," Cybrog said. "Not yet." He typed some more. "As much as we're on a homework assignment to scrounge up incriminating data for Commissioner Decker……I'm more concerned with finding out just who conducted these experiments and why."

"If it was 'J'—"

"And it most certainly was."

"…….ahem. _If_ it was 'J' and he was merely a hacker from outside the Tower, how could he have physically scanned the evidence?"

"That's exactly what I want to know," Cyborg said. "Here—woo."

"Woo what?"

"Something startling," he blinked. "Uhm….this experiment was conducted just last night."

"Last night??"

"If I recall right…..all of us were asleep then. Ya know? As in 'not awake and active'??"

Raven folded her arms. "Supposedly….."

"………"

A beat.

Cyborg began typing.

"What are you doing now?" Raven droned.

"Something so stupidly simple, it may answer all of this in one fatal swoop."

"What's that?"

"Looking at camera feed of my laboratory at the exact time the computer says this experiment was conducted."

"……," Raven glanced at the table full of evidence just behind them, then back at Cyborg's work. "Lovely."

"Brace yourself," Cyborg said at the end of his keystroke.

-Click-

The computer monitor splashed forth a black and white image of the very computer they were working at approximately eighteen hours previous.

Raven blinked. "Whoah….," she monotonously uttered.

Cyborg half-stood up. "What in the Hell??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Starfire walked side-by-side through a City park that night. Robin had his hands in his pockets. Starfire's hands rested in the pouch of her sweatjacket. Electric lights glowed softly overhead. A fountain trickled off darkly in the distance. The park was pretty much abandoned by the rest of the population. They looked and felt extremely alone.

Starfire sighed.

Robin looked at her.

She glanced back at him, having to tilt her head down a bit to do so. She smiled. "Yes, Robin?"

"Are you okay, Starfire?"

"Mmmhmmm," she nodded.

His eyemask gazed down at the sidewalk. "I was…..was almost afraid that—"

"I do not harbor any anger towards you, Robin."

"…………."

"I have never had a reason to," she spoke. "Frustration? True…..hehehe….I cannot deny that."

He smiled a bit. "Yeah. That first time we ran into Nova'm, I could swear you were going to bite my arms off."

"Hehehehe! Ohhhh how emotional I was at that time."

"Can't blame you," he shrugged. "Nova'm is very special to you."

A beat.

"You are….a-also very special to me, Robin," she spoke.

He silently nodded. Quiet understanding.

She gazed ahead of them as they walked.

Silence.

A lot of silence.

She glanced at Robin.

Robin was gone.

"???" she turned around completely.

The Boy Wonder was sitting on a bench. Alone. Hunched over.

"……," she drifted over and stood before him.

Without looking up, he gazed through the earth. He spoke: "My dream, Starfire….."

"Yes, Robin?"

A beat.

"It is about a girl," he said quietly. "A girl who once was not, then was, then wasn't again."

"…….," Starfire slowly sat down beside him. She folded her hands in her lap. "I am listening…."

Robin rubbed his hands together in the cold air. "It's not a….figurative dream. Nor is it some vision of mine. It's….It's a recollection……It's something that actually happened…."

Starfire leaned her head to the side.

"I was thirteen at the time. Barely thirteen. I was still a fresh, new apprentice to Batman. I was scanning the streets for crime or wrongdoing. I found her being approached by a band of bikers. I stopped them before they could do anything to the girl. But she ran off. When I tried to help her, she said that she had to keep running. She had to keep running from some man. That man appeared. He claimed to be her father. He was a gargantuan human being. I couldn't fight him on my own. Batman jumped in and joined the fray. But the man ran away. And so did the girl. I searched all over Gotham City for her. I spent hours on end under the red night trying to find her helpless little soul. When I did, she showed me that I was the only person who ever cared for her. She trusted me. I was to be her protector. And in protecting her….I….I-I only led her to her doom. We ran into her father again…and I learned the horrifying truth. Her father was Clayface. And she was an extension of him. A drone made for villainous reconnaissance throughout Gotham City. But when she left his presence, she forgot what she was made to be. She only knew herself to be the scared little girl lost in the streets of Gotham. But I didn't believe she was that insignificant. I wouldn't accept her as some fake mound of mutated clay. I fought Clayface to save her. I was nearly killed. I was nearly killed and….she sacrificed herself. She sacrificed herself so that I might live. I can see her face when I close my eyes. Those round, innocent eyes throbbing in pain as she is consumed once again with some hideous mound of evil. I completely lost it. I found a way to destroy Clayface and I nearly leapt upon it. But that's when Batman returned to the scene and Clayface was imprisoned instead. That monster lived on and the girl didn't. She was real…..and yet she wasn't. She died, but she never left my dreams. Frustrating…incessant dreams of someone who didn't deserve to die so much that she didn't even deserve to live. When I stayed in Gotham, she was in my dreams. When I came here to this City and formed the Titans, she stayed in my dreams. And everytime I have the dream, the same thing happens. Except last night….when something changed."

Starfire took a shuddering breath. Her green eyes were slightly wet and her lips quivered. "What….Robin?"

The Boy Wonder looked at her. "She lived, Star."

She gazed back at him.

Robin ran a shaking hand through his hair. "It's like….like the script of my dream was re-written. She lived. She lived and she….." He hugged himself and sat cross-legged—shrunken—on the bench. "….she told me she was real. I could feel her hands. Her face was so close. It was all so…..so warm……"

A chill wind.

Starfire was dead still.

Robin shuddered: "I forgot how warm it was. How warm everything is…."

"How do you mean, Robin?"

He swallowed and gazed at her. "When….When you _feel_ for someone, Starfire. I mean…..r-really feel for someone. When everything you've ever done or ever plan on doing wraps itself around a person's soul. And you find yourself doing everything you can to save that one person…or that one idea….or that one thing."

Silence.

He hung his head and sighed. "I….I-I looked all over Gotham City for that girl. I didn't sleep. I didn't eat. I didn't rest….until I could so much as _gaze upon her_ again. To have her in my presence. To know that….th-that she existed. And to know that she was safe. To know that I could be with her. To protect her in spite of all of the infinite elements working against her security. She was the preservation of a paradox. And….and she came and went. Since then….four years have passed and I keep being reminded of how precious it once meant to truly protect a person or a thing that was special to you. I've lost that feeling in so much combat and so much leadership and so much obsession over Slade and so many other quackjobs in this City that I'm finding myself growing up at the speed of light and sooner than I know it, I'll be lying dead in the gave." The Boy Wonder swallowed, shuddered, and spat: "Alone."

Starfire bit her lip.

He gazed slowly at her. A beat. "Starfire…..I-I…..after that dream…..I-I had to see you last night. I couldn't put it off. Not then. Not when everything in my head just….j-just so spontaneously collapsed."

"Why, Robin?" Starfire's eyes trailed as she wrung her clasped hands. "What….What part of all this do I play?"

He took a deep breath. "Because….B-Because you know far too well what this feeling is, don't you?"

"………," she looked perplexed.

"You understand…wh-what it means to….t-to have someone in this world that you care about," he said softly. "It's like a tiny heat inside your heart that explodes on sight. It makes you want to laugh and cry at once. But most of all….you wish for things to last forever. Like a moment. A snapshot. A warm breath." A beat. "I….I-I once knew what that felt like, Starfire. I had it torn from me….and….now I'm getting a glimpse of what it looks like again. I don't know why….but I am. And….I wanted to ask you…..to ask you if you have that feeling to."

Starfire's eyes closed. She took a deep breath. "Robin….what I am about to say may not bode well with you…….but it is the truth…."

Robin shrugged. "Go ahead, Starfire. Of all days in my life….for some reason I feel like nothing _couldn't_ bode well with me."

She reopened her eyes and looked deeply through his eyemask. "Ever since the first day I came here….I was supposed to be studying and understanding Earth. Maybe I have accomplished that. Maybe I have not. But I know for a fact that—all the time—I have instead been studying and trying to understand you." She clasped her hands together in front of her chest and leaned forward. "On this planet, one may call this an 'obsession'. And such is understood. But I do not believe that you are an obsession to me, Robin. Because obsessions do not live and breathe and sigh and—as I have recently witnessed—cry. You are so much like this wonderful planet, Robin. You are strong in spirit and mind and voice. But….But any day you can just perish in the blink of an eye. And I-I know that you are more than capable of fending for yourself in the face of any villain….but…..b-but…."

"You desire to protect me….," Robin openly admitted. There was no emotion to the way he said it. It was just a softly-spoken fact.

She nodded shakily. "I……so do desire to protect you, Robin. It is unfair to you….but I cannot shake loose my apprehensions concerning your safety. Yet, it is not pity or an inferiority complex that fills my Tamaranian spirit with an urge to keep you safe. I just…..I-I want to preserve your existence. And in this dangerous occupation, such is a most harrowing prospect at best. I want to preserve your existence…out of s-selfish reasons. Because I would be greatly saddened and so very alone if you were to die tomorrow. I cannot imagine an hour or a minute without you to lean on and to teach me the idiosyncrasies of this planet. I cannot imagine what life on Earth would be like without you to compliment me or make me feel like I am not a foreign freak or…or….."

Her voice lingered off. She sighed.

"I….I suppose that I must sound like I am desperate," she simpered nervously. "You have undoubtedly heard these words from me before. X'Hal knows……I can only seem to express myself to you in words."

Silence.

Robin looked up at her. "Starfire…..would it make you happy to know…..j-just to know that I am here?"

"……….."

"That I do exist? That there is nothing….nothing in the universe that would keep me from being split from you if I could so much as help it this very moment?"

"I…..I-I know that you would never forsake me, Robin," she spoke.

"But do you feel it, Starfire?"

She blinked confusedly at him. "R-Robin??"

He leaned forward. "Do you feel it, Starfire?" he asked. "Do you feel that I'm truly here?" A beat. "Do you feel **me?**"

"Robin…I-I….," she scooted away apprehensively. "It is n-not typical of you to speak in such emphatic fashion of 'feeling'…."

"I don't feel typical today, Starfire," he breathed. "And….I-I don't understand it. It's like I'm a whole 'nother person. Maybe I'm losing my mind. Maybe I never had my mind to begin with. I've spent so many years hammering myself into two completely different identities that I've found myself having to seek solace in some third, emotionless, cold identity. And for one moment last night…I caught a glimpse of what it means to be warm again. To be simple. To be honest and….sincere." He raised a hand halfway as if to touch her wrist…but he didn't. He didn't want to break a barrier that was too sacred for the both of them. As if such barrier always, invisibly existed. "I feel like I'm going to lose this glimpse very soon, Starfire. And I know that once I lose it…..I will see things clouded again. And I know I may be fine with that. But when I woke up from that dream of dreams last night….I wasn't thinking about myself. I wasn't even thinking about the girl. I was thinking about you, Starfire. You have a great need….a great need that is so obvious that….it's a tragedy that I keep pushing you away. And—to be honest—it's a tragedy that I keep holding myself back."

"Robin I….," Starfire stared off into the night-shrouded park. "I….I can tell that you are far too vulnerable for your own good right now. This is not necessa—"

"Do you want to hug me, Star?"

"…….," she glanced at him. "Huh??"

"Do you want to hug me, Starfire?"

She simpered. "Robin…hehehe…..y-you know very well that I am _always_ hugging you as it is. What difference does it make now, silly?"

He continued staring at her. "Would you like to hold me then?"

Her green eyes blinked. "H-Hold…..you?"

He slowly nodded.

"Robin…..," she breathed. "But….wh-what is the difference?"

"You know."

Silence.

They kept staring at each other.

Starfire shivered a few times as if in a latent reaction to the autumn night. Her lips moved, as if mutely muttering something. Tamaranian. English. Nothing at all. She felt it natural as she scooted back over and hesitantly placed her hands on Robin's shoulders.

The Boy Wonder didn't move. He kept gazing at her.

Starfire swallowed. She leaned forward once…haltered….leaned forward again, and slowly….like a huge airborne blanket settling to a bed in the summer time….she gently hugged the Boy Wonder. Her hands rested gently on his shoulders for a short span in time before drifting down feather-soft to his back and gently squeezing, holding him to her.

Robin remained still. He didn't hug back. He didn't move an inch.

He just let Starfire 'hold' him.

And hold him the Tamaranian girl did. She slowly reached a hand up and ran it through the black hair on the back of his head while her other wrist settled in the small of his back. It almost looked from a distance like she was cradling him. The embrace was warm and close and real. And sooner than Starfire admittedly wanted it to happen, green tears were gently streaming their way out from her clenched eyelids and she sniffed over Robin's shoulder.

"I care about you so much, Robin….," she shuddered and her voice choked. "M'dtorrak de X'Hal…I do not ever want to lose you."

"I'm here, Starfire…," he spoke and finally hugged her back. His arms encircling her gently. He responded to her voice and embrace only. "Do you feel me? Do you hear me? I am real. I'm not going anywhere…."

Her whole torso shook in a single sob. She sniffed it back, bit her lip, and hugged Robin's body closer to hers. "You a-are so precious, Robin. So st-strong…and y-yet so fragile. Do not ever die on me. Please…X'Hal….do not ever die…."

"I won't, Starfire….," he hugged her back in response and rested his head over her shoulder and leaned it against her head. "I promise you…..I won't ever die on you…"

She shuddered.

He calmly let her encircle him with her embrace.

The two slowly rocked together under the dim glow of an electric light.

It never flickered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Late that evening, the R-Cycle was parked in front of the Tower.

Robin and Starfire walked towards the building's entrance.

Side by side.

Robin looked at Starfire.

She glanced back at him.

A beat.

He smiled and stretched his hand outward.

Starfire giggled. She took his invitation.

The two walked up to the door hand-in-hand.

They entered in together.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and Raven were waiting for them in the atrium.

"Hey guys….don't mind us," Robin shamelessly motioned at the girl he was sharing a hand with. "We're trying playing two-person blob tag and _really_ enjoying it!"

Starfire giggled and hid her blushing face in a hand. "Goodness! This is most flustering…."

Cyborg and Raven stared. "………"

Robin chuckled. He cleared his throat. "What's up?"

Cyborg swallowed nervously. "Uhm….Robin?"

"Yeah, Cy?"

He glanced at Raven.

"……"

Cyborg glanced at Robin. "Are you feeling…..okay?"

"Pfft…what's that supposed to mean?" he smirked. "Something wrong wit—"

"You and Starfire are fine," he gestured. "I'm asking **you**. Are you feeling okay? Any dizziness? Awkwardness? Loose emotion?"

Robin raised an eyebrow.

Starfire leaned her head to the side, looking concerned. "Friends…what is the meaning of this inquiry? Is there something Robin must know?"

"Rae?" Cyborg remarked.

"I've been scanning, Cyborg…," Raven uttered. Her face was in concentration and it was then that the Boy Wonder first noticed that she was concentrating her gaze on him in only the way an empathy would. "…there's definitely something strange. But it's practically insignificant. Hard to detect. That's why I managed to overlook it before."

"Okay…what's going on here?" Robin remarked with a glare that summoned his usual irascibility. "I think we're entitled to know."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Well allright. Come on….we need to show you something."

Starfire leaned into Robin, looking nervous.

Robin silently led the two of them after Cyborg and Raven into the elevator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The four were gathered in Cyborg's laboratory.

"Now Robin….," Cyborg spoke from the computer seat. "Please understand….even we don't know what this means yet. And we're not suspecting anything, so don't you worry—"

"Just show us what it is," Robin folded his arms. "You brought us here for a reason, right?"

Cyborg glanced at Raven.

"Well don't look at me."

Cyborg shrugged. "Whatever." He typed at the computer. "Here goes….."

-click-

A black and white security camera footage displayed the very same laboratory they were in. Only, it was early the previous morning. Barely past midnight.

Robin and Starfire leaned forward. Squinting.

"This is footage from last night," Cyborg spoke. "When I tried conducting an experiment on the criminal evidence found at the Prison—like we had planned—I found out that someone had already been conducting the experiment. Not only that, but he had been accessing top secret Titan security files and criminal archives over a two hour period…..and none of us knew a thing about it until I traced it back to this footage."

"X'Hal….," Starfire murmured.

Robin's lips parted. "What…..How……."

The footage showed a very familiar dark-haired young man in a cape and tights. With a white eyemask. He was very busy at scanning the said materials and typing flurriedly away at the computer with inhuman, almost hacker-expertise.

"You don't remember doing any of it, do you Robin?" Raven droned.

"I….I….," Robin snapped his gaze off from the screen and looked widely at Raven. "N-No! I don't!! Seriously….I…. h-how……..I-I-I was asleep! I wasn't anywhere _near_ the laboratory. I went to sleep early yesterday, remember?"

"Yes!" Starfire added with hands clasped together. "In fact, he was dreaming!"

Robin bit his lip.

"Nobody's denying that, Robin," Raven said.

Robin did a double-take. "Excuse me?"

Cyborg motioned towards the footage still playing. "I cross-referenced this with other security sensors running at the time. You were _sleeping_ dawg. You were in the process of REM sleep at the same time you performed a professional computer analysis of the materials, searched the archives, and then hid your tracks using your very own Titans Authorization Code."

Robin nearly stumbled backwards.

"Robin…," Starfire walked over and placed a concerned hand on his shoulder.

He looked at her. "I….I-I don't remember, Star….," he murmured. He looked at the others. He cackled. "I don't remember ANY of it!!"

"And we believe you," Cyborg said.

Raven stepped forward. "But what concerns us….is _why_ you did all of that in your sleep."

"How could I possibly know that??"

Raven shook her head. "You don't. But I'm sure the person who was controlling you does."

Robin's eyemask thinned. "Excuse me??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**InzeUltima: how many things are you going to do to worry me anyways?**

I typed on the laptop while sitting on my bed.

**SpSquirrel: Excuse me?**

**InzeUltima: Being kidnapped by some witch villain person thingy. :P Ur startin to scare me.**

I simpered.

**SpSquirrel: I don't ask for danger. Danger comes.**

**InzeUltima: Id be envious if I werent so worried sick about u**

**SpSquirrel: How's the farm?**

**InzeUltima: Dont change the subject! Were you hurt any while you were handcuffed?**

**SpSquirrel: Besides my ego? Nah…**

**InzeUltima: Argh!! Sometimes it feels like winepressing to try and get information from you!**

I smiled.

**SpSquirrel: It makes me mysterious. **

**InzeUltima: nah it just makes you a butthole :P**

**SpSquirrel: A mysterious butthole. **

**InzeUltima: lolololol**

**SpSquirrel: So, how's the farm?**

**InzeUltima: Why dont you ever want to talk about yourself? I want to learn all about you, Jordan.**

**SpSquirrel: There isn't much worthy to know.**

**InzeUltima: Sure there is! Every superhero has a nifty backstory!**

I took a deep breath.

I subconsciously typed…

**SpSquirrel:** **Heh.**

**InzeUltima: Wuts so funny**

**SpSquirrel: At one time, I would have told you that Im not a superhero.**

**InzeUltima: But you are one now, right?**

Silence across the Internet.

A minute passed.

**InzeUltima: Jordan??**

Another minute passed.

My fingers were still.

**InzeUltima: You there? Did you get disc?**

I was gazing off.

I stared at one of the lantern lights in my room.

The dancing flame stabbed into my naked eyes.

I was building a cold sweat.

I was being blinded.

I started breathing heavily.

**InzeUltima: Jordan? Is something wrong?**

My face flinched.

More cold sweat.

An exhale.

My arm….

_Red Aviary._

**InzeUltima: Jordan…please type something…**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I blurred down the street. _

_My lungs heaved. _

_I streamed down the blocks and made sharp, smoke-pulsing turns as I honed in on my destination._

_I gazed up ahead. _

_I saw the apartments as illustrated on J's map. _

_Merely a three-story, white, pretty set of stone buildings. _

_In mid-sprint, I smiled. _

_I made it…… _

_I ran straight towards the building side facing the street._

_Now……it's a rich place. It probably has a lobby with someone in it. If I just rush in and somehow warn them about the carbonite without looking like a psychopath, I just might be able to—_

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

_Slade's bombs went off. _

_My eyes exploded in hot white light. _

_I winced all over, lost my footing, and tripped. _

_WHAM!!!_

_  
I stumbled into the ground and rolled across the asphalt. _

_FWOOOOOOOSH!!!! _

_The concussion blast from the explosion hit me. _

_I rolled back a foot or two. _

_I clutched my face……my burning eyes. _

_I panted. _

_My teeth clenched. _

_A deafening roar was filling my ears. _

_I shook all over. _

_The sounds of clattering, falling debris echoed around me. _

_I scrambled up to my feet. _

_I felt around for Myrkblade._

_  
I picked it up and stood dizzily. _

_I slowly opened my eyes. _

_Tears of burning pain streamed down from under my shades. _

_I saw a plume of hot white fire where the building was. _

_Smoldering up towards the sky like a lashing tongue from Hell. _

_And as I leaned forward….as I hobbled forward. _

_I panted. _

_For I heard voices._

_**Voices.**_

_Screaming, tortured voices. _

_People were burning alive. _

_My lips opened and a breath escape. _

_The ghost left me._


	156. J part 4

**156. J part 4**

_SLIIIIIIIIIIINK!!! _

_I drove Myrkblade into Slade. _

_To the hilt. _

_I leaned my head over his shoulder. _

_My lips parted. _

_Breathing._

_Slade's helmet convulsed._

_  
"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools………"_

_I exhaled. _

_A final breath._

"………………"

_  
My black eyes flared-- _

_SLASH!!!!! _

_I pulled back._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I panted. _

_My freshly-stabbed eyesight washed back over into clarity. _

_The blinding plume of the carbonite's flame was still there. _

_Half of a shattered building was melting before me. _

_It filled the air with heat and smell. _

_Burning dust settled around me as my ears throbbed with the second and third echoes of the burning-alive. _

_Two seconds……Three seconds……Four…… _

_FWOOOOOSH!!! _

_I blurred towards the flames. _

_Teeth gritting. _

_Myrkblade held tightly in my grip. _

_Ashes and embers laughed in tiny orange splashes on either side of me. _

_The wind turned hot and whipped against my face. _

_I narrowed my vision. _

_I craned my ears. _

_I combined my eye for the darker regions of the flame with my hearing for the loudest of the tortured voices. _

_I found a spot two stories up. _

_I encased my body in a shield of warbling smoke… _

_And dove in. _

_FWOOOOSH!!! _

_I was momentarily shielded by an even more momentary flash of hotness on either side of me. _

_Then…… _

_CLUMP!!! _

_I rolled onto cold floor beyond the tongues of flame. _

_I got on my knees and looked around, panting. _

_Smoke. _

_Crumpled walls. _

_Blackened furniture. _

_And around it rings……rings……rings……rings of fire. _

_Around me…… _

_Voices. _

_My head jerked. _

_A caved-in hallway. _

_Shadows on the other side. _

_Encased in orange… _

_FWOOOSH!! _

_I teleported towards it with a breath and exploded out on the other side. _

_CRUNCH!!! _

_My body rolled onto dry ground and settled against a dismembered arm. _

"_!!!!" _

_I sat up, panting. _

_I heard a murmur. _

_I looked to my other side. _

_Two teenage girls huddled against a wall, coughing and whimpering. Smoke billowed over their heads as they convulsed against each other. One had blood trickling down her brow. _

_I grabbed their shoulders, hoisted them swiftly and—with teeth gritting—blurred back out through the flames in a wall of murk. _

_CRASH!!!! _

_Teleporting, we exploded out the other side. Quicker than the flames could burn us, I leapt us through the wall of fire and out onto cold territory. I lowered them to a sidewalk where a group of startled citizens had gathered. At sight of me and the victims they gasped and immediately ran to investigate-- _

_SWOOOOOSH!!! No sooner, I was already blurring back towards the fires. _

_Panting. _

_Heading towards the screams that were growing fewer and fewer……and fewer……… _

_PHWOOOOOM!!! _

_Part of the building's face crumpled down. _

_Screams erupted. _

_I clenched my teeth and burst through in a pulse of murk. _

_CRASH!!! _

_Mortar. _

_Dry wall. _

_Embers. _

_I tumbled onto charred floor on the other side. _

_Wincing. _

_Being singed by sparkling ashes all across my splayed legs-- _

"_Mommy!!!" a shrill voice rang out. _

_I looked up. _

_A little child was on his knees in the middle of a burning halo of carpet. His hair was singed and his face was blackened by soot. He reached out across a pile of rubble towards a smoke-filled hallway where a half mangled woman in a charred nightgown struggled to get loose from a collapsed door frame. _

"_Mommy!! Get out!! Get out!!!" _

"_Aaaagh……," the woman bellowed in pain. "R-R-Richard……st-stay back!!" Her upper arm quivered. It was planted against the wall. That wall started to crumble. Cra-a-a-a-ack!! Amongst showers of red ashes, a huge fracture ran up the wall and onto the ceiling and enveloped the smoldering hallway in crimson spiderwebs. _

"_!!!!" I blurred forward. CHIIIIING!!! I materialized to a standstill at the mouth of the hallway with Myrkblade jabbing straight up. CHUNK!!!!_

_I gritted my teeth._

_My entire body convulsed as I extended a field of murk up through my blade, outward, across the ceiling, and cascading down the walls of the hallway. I struggled to hold the crumbling frame of the burning interior whole with my black powers of balance. _

_The woman gasped and wheezed for breath. Half-open eyes gazed painfully at me. _

_I gazed helplessly back at her. Peripheral blazes danced off my shades. I couldn't move from that spot even if I tried. I sweated and my arms strained as I mouthed: 'Get out……Get out……' _

_Her jaw was weakly agape. She wheezed: "I……I-I can't……" Her leg was caught. _

"_I'll help you, Mommy!!" the little boy crawled up to his feet and ran towards the hallway. "Stay there!! I-I'll help you!!" _

"_Richard! NO!! Stay back!!!" _

_The boy ran. _

_The walls started to crumble over and across my blade's reinforcement. _

_I gasped. I looked down. _

_The boy ran past me-- _

_THWOOSH!!_

_My leg shot out._

_WHUMP!!_

_  
I tripped him. _

"_Ooof!!" he fell down hard on his tummy just an inch before the hallway. _

_CRNNKKKKK!!!!! _

_The wall collapsed. _

_I let out a mental scream. _

_The ceiling parted around Myrkblade. _

_The spiderweb fractures billowed flame. _

_The hallway swallowed the woman as she let out one last gasp of life. _

_CRASH!!!!! _

"_No!!!!!!!" the child squealed. "Mommy!!!!" _

_I collapsed on the ground from the impact. A second later, I vaulted to my feet and rushed towards the flame. _

_CL-CLANK!!! _

_Two crossbeams fell down, nearly crushing me. _

_I skidded to a stop, gulped, and stretched my left hand forward……spilling smoke……'feeling' through the rubble with spatial sense. _

_The child sobbed on the floor beside me. _

_I panted. I kept 'feeling' until I finally found the mother's body. The only problem was—underneath all the rubble—it was now in three separate places. _

_I gulped._

"_Mommmmmmmy!!!!" the child wailed. _

_CRNKKKKK!!! _

_I looked up. _

_Two levels of ceiling were leaning over us with a loud groan. _

_CHIIING!! _

_I sheathed Myrkblade, spun around, scooped up the little boy, and dove--- _

_FWOOOOSH!! _

_CRAAAAAASH!!!! _

_The two of us flew out of the blaze in a trail of smoke. _

_I landed in a crouch, stood up, and limped over to the sidewalk where a cluster of worried, woken citizens were gathered around the two recovering teenagers. _

_I slumped down to my knees on the sidewalk and let the boy go. The only problem is, he didn't let me go. He pounded his tiny fists against my chest and wailed: "Why didn't you save her?!?! You just let her die!! I hate you!! I HATE YOU!!!" _

_I exhaled. I practically shoved him away and into the arms of an unsuspecting good Samaritan. I hobbled up to my feet and turned towards the blaze again. _

_A random gentleman out of the gathering crowd ran across the flickering street towards me. "What happened here?!?! Sir, who are you?!?! Did you save these people??" _

_I pushed him away harshly. CHIIIING!! Teeth grit. I had Myrkblade out again and was sprinting towards the blaze. _

_The man gasped and reached towards me in vain. "M-Mister! Don't!! That building's going to collapse at any time—" _

_FWOOOOOSH!!! _

_I dove into a burning room. I coughed. I wheezed. Bubbles of sweat formed on my skin and shoulders. I ran into a door. It was jammed. Flames lit up all around me. I rammed the door with my shoulder. Once. Twice. I kicked it open with a mute growl. CRUNCH!! I stumbled into a burning hall. I heard moaning. I spun around. Smoke and embers. Smoke and embers. I stumbled forward. Ashes showered on me. The floor was groaning. The walls vibrating. Cracking sounds like shattering steel and splitting wood echoed around me. The groaning increased. A numbered door. Half open. I kicked it and rushed inside. I blinked. _

_PHWOOOOM!!! _

_A wall of flame flew at me in a backdraft. _

_I held my breath, gripped Myrkblade in two hands, and covered myself in a shield of smoke. _

_FWOOOOOSH!!!! _

_A ceiling of fire bubbled down and wafted past me like pure plasma. In a blinding blink, the flames were gone. The heat lowered down to a simple __**scorching**__. I lowered the shield and gasped for breath. _

_Moaning…… _

_I spun around. _

_A leg sticking out of a bathroom door. A charred black leg. _

_I ran over. _

_I leaned my head through the door frame. _

"…………"

_A seventy-year-old man lay collapsed on the tile. Half naked. He clutched a quivering right arm to his chest. Thin ribbons hung off his wrist. I knew it was skin._

"_H-Help……m-me………," he spat up blood and smoke. _

"…………"

_  
I took a deep breath. _

_I knelt down. _

_I scooped him up. _

"_Ohhhhhh__**HHHHH**__……," he hissed in agony. _

_I hoisted him over my shoulder. I hobbled out of the bathroom. I looked around the hallway. The building started to shake all around us. The man sputtered and quivered against my back. _

_I spun around. _

_There was a noise from the hallway. Like that of a wall of growling lions. _

_Rupturing Oxygen…… _

_I felt the hair on my neck curl as an indescribable heat built up in the place. _

_The man wheezed. _

_I saw a peripheral reflection of pure hot orange in the edge of my shades. _

_A wall of flame from behind. _

_I panted. I looked around for an exit. _

_The smoke from the ceiling dipped down and parted ways momentarily. _

_And I saw……… _

_A window. _

_FWOOOSH!!! _

_Carrying the man, I blurred towards it. _

_SMASH!!!! _

_I broke through the glass and saw myself flying towards a brick wall straight across a third story alleyway. _

_I pulsed smoke and pivoted my upper legs sideways and up to meet the wall. _

_WHAP!! _

_Smoke powers gripped. _

_PHWOOOOOM!!! A cloud of flame burst out after me. _

_With sheer momentum, I ran across the alleyway wall. I gripped hard to the injured man. I streaked us both towards the dark sliver of the alley that led us towards the open street. Bright chaos chased us from behind, so did a monumental thunder as the entire building collapsed in a plume of ashes beside us. _

_CRUNNNNNNNCH!!!!! _

_Nnnnghhh!!!! _

_I leapt. _

_We burst out through a thick wall of flame. _

_We fell three stories. _

_I covered my legs in smoke. _

_I cushioned our descent. _

_I landed us in the middle of the street several feet away from the other three victims and the crowd surrounding them. _

_CRKKKKK!!! The building finished collapsing from the carbonite wrath. _

_Everything settled into liquid agony. _

_The sounds of flame were replaced by an even more intense shouting of voices as people performed spontaneous, street-knowledge first aid and called for the fire department. _

_And I sat there with the man over my shoulders. _

_Panting. _

"…………"

_I knelt down. _

_I gently lowered the man and cradled him against my lower legs and the sidewalk. _

_His eyes were open. Glazed. Staring straight up through his shades. _

_His mouth hung agape. But no breath came out. _

"……………"

_I looked up from the body towards the flames eating into the sky. _

_But I didn't see them. _

_Not really. _

_I became dimly aware of bodies gathering around me. _

_Cold things in the shapes of people rushing around. Clustering. Squawking into cell phones. Sobbing. Attempting CPR on a man no longer in my grasp. _

_My black eyes blinked. _

_Ana stood behind the out-of-focus shoulders. _

_Her head was hung. _

_Her hair shined golden in the firelight like angel blood. _

_Her head tilted up. _

_Sapphire orbs opened. _

_But when the tears came out of them, they had turned white. _

_I blinked again. _

_And she was gone. _

_And yet……she wasn't gone. _

_I felt a sharp pain in my chest, and without knowing it I had turned invisible._

_Nobody noticed. _

_They were too busy trying to breathe life back into an elderly corpse._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_It was no more than forty-five minutes later. _

_I was cloaked in smoke. _

_Nobody could see me. _

_I leaned numbly with my back against a lamppost across from the blaze._

_Firetrucks and two ambulances were at the scene. _

_Police squad cars were there, but they hadn't even begun to roll out the yellow tape. _

_A group of onlookers kept their distance while those who tended to the three survivors gave their eyewitness testimony to cops and on-site reporters alike._

_The two girls sat on the back of a ambulance, bandaged, holding each other beneath a pair of blankets and shaking. _

_The little boy was flanked by two medics. He never stopped wailing._

_  
I stared down at the asphalt from where I was invisibly located. _

"…………"

_I took a deep, shuddering breath. _

_Myrkblade hung dead on my back. _

_Silence……save for the tiniest crackling of dying embers from the 'clean' blaze._

"…………"

_I had my shades off. It made very little difference when I was invisible. To stay in stealth for that long was really an exercise. I could have killed myself. _

_Well……maybe not. But perhaps I __**wanted**__ to pass out._

_Breath slowly poured in and out of my mouth. _

"…………………"

_I shut my eyes. _

_I hugged myself. _

_I took a deep………long………inhale………_

"………………………"

_A breath of wind._

………

_Wind? _

_My black bangs danced. _

_I opened my eyes. _

_Clump!! _

_In slow motion, a shadow touched down in front of me. A living shadow landing in a crouch. I could feel body heat in the air currents. The figure stood up, and a black and yellow cape shook._

_  
My black optics narrowed._

_  
The figure turned around. _

_White eyemasks. _

_Hard set. _

_Frowning. _

_They glared right at me. _

"_What are you waiting for??" _

_I blinked. _

"_It's……It's a lot to take in, dude……" _

_The caped crusader waved at someone on the other side of me and the lamppost. "Nothing you haven't seen before. Now come closer. A tragedy has taken place here tonight, and it's up to us to investigate……" _

_A thin figure walked past me, nearly bumping into me. A short youngster with green complexion and pointed ears. He was practically limping with melodramatic air. "Man……this is really bad. H-How many people do you suppose were inside that building?" _

"_The police might be able to give us an estimate. Where're the others?"_

_Fwoosh!! _

_An amber skinned girl with flaming red hair landed directly to my left. She clasped her hands together and gasped. "X'Hal!!" she exclaimed dramatically. "How horrible!!" _

"_Shhh……keep it down, Star," the caped one signaled with a green glove. "There are survivors." _

"_My goodness, there are. Oh……the poor children………," she murmured quietly. _

"_Yeah……I know," the green one muttered. _

_There was a revving engine, then halting wheels, then two doors opening. _

"_Awww man……no," uttered the android driver with a hand to his fleshly skull. _

"_We're too late, Cyborg." _

"_The whole damn building's gone! Who could have done—" _

"_Need you ask that?" a girl in a blue robe drifted over from the passenger side. "This was bound to happen eventually. No matter how vigilant we were," she droned. _

_Half of the members hung their heads. They all stood around me. Surrounding. _

_I felt suddenly warmer. Warmer than in the middle of any blaze. _

_My lips parted. _

_A beat. _

"_We are……t-to avenge the deceased?" the redhead uttered. _

_The caped one shook his dark head. "No. We prevent more from dying. Come on. We're getting to the bottom of this. And we're taking it to Slade." _

"_Damn straight……," the android punched his fist. _

_The elf gulped. _

_They all drifted forward._

_  
My left arm was drifting forward too. For what reason, I couldn't quite figure out. So I halted it half way before I could so much as touch anyone. _

_I blinked. _

_The ghost returned. _

_And then—to my realization—the girl in blue had halted. _

_A beat. _

_She slowly turned around. Her face was obscured by the shadows of her robe's hood. Until she daintily gripped the edges and lowered the hem. A pale face with a chakra stone stared unemotionally through me. Strands of blue hair fluttered in a warm breeze of the wounded spring night. _

_I breathed slowly. Staring. _

"…………_," the girl gazed past me. Her violet eyes scanned the street. The alleyways. The sidewalk. _

_She must not have found what she was looking for. Or maybe she did. Either way, she turned around quickly and hovered over to join the rest of the teammates in conversing with the police officers. _

_And I was alone. Unseen._

_My left arm fell by my side._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The Sun was rising across a new City. _

_I sat limply on the edge of my bed. I wore my black tank top and my camouflaged pants. Myrkblade and the rest of my outfit was tossed across the edge of the apartment. My black hair hung limp over half of my brow and chest like a dead animal. I crossed my arms over my knees and stared down into the floor. Slouching……slumping……breathing…… _

"………………"

_My naked eyes barely blinked. Even when the morning light intensified and everything started to __**hurt**__…… _

_I swallowed my empty throat. _

_Things almost make half-sense when they hurt._

_There was a shuffling of feet. _

"……………_," I glanced over. _

'_J' stood in the doorway. He looked like he belonged there. He hugged himself and shrank twice as small as his tiny self already was at the receiving end of my gaze. He was biting his lips. Green eyes bled at me. _

_Silence._

"……………_," I took a deep breath._

_  
His lips quivered. One shaking foot at a time, he shuffled into my room and stood besides me. _

_I stared at him. _

_He swallowed. He barley managed to lift his hands up from where they wrung behind his back. _

_He hand-signed: 'The Titans were there? They took care of it?' _

_Silence. _

_My lips curved ever so slightly. Painfully. I lifted my hands up and merely gestured:_

'_The Titans were there.' _

'_J' shook. He ran a hand through his blonde hair. Shook. And signed: 'It was Slade.' _

_I nodded. 'I know,' I mouthed. 'I know.' _

_Something came over him. Something so nightmarishly intense that I instantly wondered why I didn't predict it. The boy sniffed once…twice……then hugged himself as his whole body convulsed inwardly, and the tears started floating. Down his immaculate face. Shivering through his small frame. _

_I took a deep breath. I reached an arm out. _

_He gladly fell against me in a clutching hug. _

_I circled a single around his back and gently rubbed his shoulder as he sobbed into me. I was deadpan, but my breaths hurt more than his. I gazed out the window into the stabbing light and gently rocked him._

_Why does this kid care so much? _

_Why is he so obsessed over what Slade does? _

_Why does he look up to me? _

_Why……Why………… _

_I blinked for the first time, resisting the bright torture. _

_Why couldn't I have run faster to the site………? _

_I don't remember how long J cried. Nor do I remember how long we were both there that morning. I only remember thinking about Ana's smile. The giggle she would sound off while racing me through the cedar trees to breakfast……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"For the last time! I don't remember anything! I was asleep, Cyborg! Asleep!"

I blinked.

I was sitting in the Main Roo.

The Titans were having a 'meeting'.

I momentarily lowered my shades and rubbed my eyelids tiredly.

"Robin, it's cool man," Cyborg gestured.

"No! It's not cool!" the Boy Wonder barked, back in his signature costume. "I don't kindly to finding out I've been running around doing things I can't recall in my sleep!!"

Raven drifted forward and faced him: "We know this is a lot for you. But something is wrong. We believe you when you say you don't remember what happened last night, Robin. It's inherently impossible for you to have. You were acting under a mysterious influence—"

"What kind of mysterious influence?!" Robin cackled. He gestured towards himself: "I feel fine!!"

"Robin…..," Starfire rested a hand on her shoulder. She was standing next to him the entire time. Standing close. "Be calm, please. Allow them to explain their findings once more…."

At her touch and her words, the Boy Wonder breathed easier. But that didn't stop his shoulders from shaking and his brow from being furrowed. He hung clenched fists at his side and gazed mutely through the floor.

Cyborg said: "There was no brain activity inside that spiked head of yours to possibly register the sort of experiment you were performing. It's like your body was in complete control. You don't remember a thing because your brain wasn't working with the rest of your system to get the job done last night that you did! Do you understand, Robin? We're talking about a dissociative function here. It's not a matter of multiple personalities vying for control over you. Neither is it some crap about an ego and superego conflicting and resulting in the said activity. Quite honestly, I don't know what happened. But according to all the sensor readings and surveillance….it certainly wasn't _you_."

"Sounds like you've done a lot of intense research," Robin grumbled.

Cyborg. "Yeah, man. Quite frankly….I stopped doubting you as a Titan a long time ago."

"………," Robin was silent to that.

Raven spoke: "Like I mentioned before, I detect something about you. Something small. Something miniscule. I cannot describe it. Neither is it something I've encountered before in scanning the psyche of an individual. But there's definitely something foreign in your….in your…..y-your system. Your mentality. Your overall being. And whatever that thing is that my empathy is even remotely measuring…I am certain it may be the missing link to your somnambulist activity."

"Excuse me for interrupting," Tempest lifted a finger. "But….wh-what exactly did Robin—er….the _body_ of Robin do?"

"He worked way ahead of us, Flipper," Cyborg gestured. "He did an intense scan on the evidence found at the Prison."

"You mean the escaped prisoners' stuff that you lectured us about yesterday?" the Atlantean remarked.

Cyborg nodded. "Everything I intended to do. The surface scans. The chemical analysis. The digital comparisons to prior subjects. Research into local manufacturing bureaus both legitimate and not…..Robin somehow did it all in a span of three hours. It's phenomenal. From the surveillance footage, it looked like his body was going through the experiment like he had done it a billion times before! Like a computer! Not a single second was wasted. Er….no offense, Robin. You're a good detective in your own right."

Beast Boy chuckled.

"Yeah……," Robin grunted.

"So….like…..," Tempest blinked. "What did he find?"

"Is that really important right now?" Robin uttered. "In case you haven't noticed…..there's this little issue of _mind control_ that's worrying me!"

"We don't even know if it is mind control," Raven droned.

"What else can it be?!?!" Robin exclaimed. "I wasn't doing all of that last night!! There's something wrong with me, and as the leader of the Titans I cannot afford to suffer that liability!"

"I'm sure it's nothing big, dude," Beast Boy shrugged as he leaned back in his sofa seat. "I mean….Robin's been known to sleepwalk before, right?"

"Eep!" Starfire clasped her hands together, blushing.

Cyborg bit his lip.

Raven's eyes trailed.

Robin did a double-take. "What??"

Starfire hummed nervously.

"It's nothing, Robbie," Cyborg said.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

Robin ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I'm confused."

"So am I…," Tempest blinked.

"Okay…so like….Robin's doing experiments in his sleep," Beast Boy pointed. "So what? Makes our job easier! Cyborg, you followed up on the research from last night, right?"

"Yeah….."

"Couldn't we use that to make Decker satisfied?"

"It just doesn't feel right, man," Cyborg said. "Something outside of the circle of Titans is obviously impacting Robin. The fact that our leader was used to an end of performing the same experiment we've been planning on doing sounds like it could be leading us into a big trap if we followed. Besides…the conclusions that 'Robin' came up with last night are ambiguous. Yes, they show that the weapons and the tools found at the prison could not have been made by the prisoners themselves. But the closest the experiment ever came to revealing the location of the stuff's manufacturing was somewhere by a body of ocean water. And that doesn't help much."

"Raven," Starfire spoke. "When you and Robin pursued Noir and Jinx into H.I.V.E. Academy….there was an extremely powerful telepath present, was there not?"

Raven nodded. "There was. Psimon. Most likely the leader of the temporarily reborn Fearsome Five."

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "Could he perhaps have wielded an influence over poor Robin's mind?"

The Boy Wonder lifted his head at hearing that. He seemed dazed. Tired…all of the sudden. His body sagged in proportion to Starfire's tall and alert complexion beside him.

"……….," I stared.

"We thought of that ourselves, Star," Cyborg nodded. "That's why we conducted a scan on Raven and Noir as well. Both with my systems and with her meditation."

"Neither Noir or I give off the same signal of peculiarity," Raven droned. She shook her head and gestured: "Whatever has affected Robin has affected him alone. And I cannot give an exact time as to when this mental interference began. It could have been during the H.I.V.E. debacle. It could have been weeks before it. I'm tempted to think it happened after we returned from Bludhaven. I had…..h-had undergone a lot of _mental exercise_ during the H.I.V.E. raid. I would definitely have sensed something about Robin shortly thereafter."

"Then the cause as to his nocturnal habits is inconclusive….," Starfire blinked.

"I'm afraid so," Raven nodded.

Starfire swallowed. She asked: "Could this interference have an impact on his emotion?"

Robin gave her a surprised look.

Beast Boy and Tempest and Cyborg all scratched their heads.

I gazed at the deadpan Raven, then back at Starfire.

The Tamaranian's face was untouched. Patient. Awaiting a response.

Robin stared at the floor, exhaling gently…

"I….I don't know, Starfire," Raven said. Then quite bluntly she turned, faced Robin, and asked: "Have you felt…..different lately, Robin?"

Slowly, pensively, Starfire gazed at him.

We all stared at him.

The Boy Wonder gulped. "I…..I-I…..n-no! I've been fine! I've been….myself…..normal….you know??"

"…………….," we all stared at him.

Robin breathed. He turned and looked at Starfire.

She kept gazing at him.

"I'm fine, Star….," he insisted with a nod of his head. "I'm fine. Only….."

"Only what?" Tempest asked.

The Boy Wonder ran a gloved hand over his face. He sighed. "Tired…..I guess….."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Tired?"

"Yeah, Cyborg. Tired. OKAY?!" he gritted his teeth.

We all shifted nervously where we stood or sat.

Robin sighed and shook his head. "Look, I'm just about as confused about all of this as you guys are. But the way I see it…nothing _really bad_ has happened. At least…..not yet." He stared at Cyborg and Raven. "I'm proud of you two. Honestly, I am. You caught me…..n-not being myself and you reported it the first moment I got. It just goes to show that—as Titans—we don't keep strange things to ourselves anymore. We know damaging it is to carry on with our own individual suppositions of other members. And I'm very glad that you two brought this to everyone's attention—mine especially—right away. But as things are…this shouldn't get in the way with official business. I think it'd be best that we alert Commissioner Decker of our 'findings', vicariously influenced or not. The furthest we can get to the bottom of the prison bombing, the better."

Cyborg stepped forward and looked down at Robin. "The nest best thing we should do now is get you to stay put."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Why would you insist that?"

"Are you nuts, dawg? There's something wrong with you!"

"I feel fine--!!"

"At least admit that there is a level of unpredictability with whatever has been controlling you in your sleep," Raven droned. "We all respect you, Robin. And we believe that it is truly you whom we are speaking and deliberating with this very moment. But if this mysterious element were to take root in you in the midst of our investigations—"

"I could be nothing but big….big trouble…..," Robin muttered.

A beat.

Raven blinked. "Yeah…..," she exhaled. "Quite honestly….."

Silence.

Robin slumped back into a chair. He stared down at the carpet. "Why…..? Why now? Why did all of this have to throw a wrench into the project?"

"Don't put it that way, Robin," Tempest spoke. He shrugged with a helpful smirk. "The rest of us can handle the investigation as far as it goes physically. While you're taking it easy, you can give us commands from the sidelines."

"Yeah, dawg," Cyborg patted the Boy Wonder's shoulder. "Just take it easy for the time being. We've got it covered. When we need you—and believe me we will, Mr. Detective—we'll holler. Got it?"

A beat.

Robin sighed.

"Consider it gotten…."

"Good," the android Titan nodded. "Now go get some rest. Your room is a good place to start."

"Uhm….," Starfire raised an amber hand. "May I volunteer to escort Robin to his habitat?"

Tempest snickered.

Raven suppressed a smirk.

Cyborg rolled his human eye. "Girl….you're too modest."

"Huh?"

"By all means, Star…," Robin smiled tiredly and offered his arm as he headed towards the elevator. "You don't even have to ask."

She blushed somewhat. "I understand," she waved at the others. "Thank you, everyone. Our leader shall get the respite he deserves."

"Uh….yeah," Beast Boy nodded. "Joy to the world and stuff."

I watched as the two hobbled out of the Main Room and descended beyond the double doors.

A beat.

I turned and glanced back at the rest of the Titans.

Cyborg took a deep breath. He glanced at Raven. "Well??"

"He is absolutely clueless," Raven said.

"Duh!!" Beast Boy hopped to his feet and scampered across the Main Room to the fridge to make himself a tofu sandwich. "Any dolt could have told you that! I swear, that guy's gonna have a mid-life crisis real early in his existence! Like….two weeks YESTERDAY!"

"He has no inclination as to what possibly caused his actions in the middle of last night," Raven spoke. "And I doubt that his detective skills will help him unravel any of the mysteries we have about his condition."

"But they will help us in the prison investigation," Cyborg said, walking over to the computer.

Tempest leaned forward: "Shouldn't we be more worried about Robin right now? Can't Decker and the prison stuff wait?"

"If there's one thing you learn from being a Titan….," Cyborg said as he sat down and typed away at the keyboard. "….it's that 'Robin issues' have a way of resolving themselves on their own with you not really getting any jest of it. I dunno. It's all Greek to me." He finished a keystroke, leaned back, sighed, and swiveled to face Tempest. "Robin will be okay, Flipper. Whether it's mind control, neurological programming, or just plain sleep-walking….I dunno. But don't worry about your leader. He's gone nuts long before you were even a tadpole."

Tempest shrugged: "I just think we'd perform this investigation a whole lot better with Robin fully at the reins."

Cyborg glared. "You doubtin' my leadership skills?"

"Yes."

Raven chuckled.

Cyborg looked at her, eyebrow raised.

Raven cleared her throat. She gestured towards Tempest: "Did I mention he makes a great addition to the team?"

Tempest smirked.

"……….," Cyborg sighed and leaned forward with all of his focus on the computer. "I'd throw you out with the Atlantean tonight too, but I kinda sorta _like_ keeping my skull in tact."

"You remember that," Raven drifted off.

"Where're you going?"

"To meditate," the dark girl droned. "I want to try scanning Robin's psyche again. But I'll need to 'exercise' first."

Beast Boy held a plate towards her as she passed by: "Here! Take a munchie with you! Good for the heart!"

"Go suck on tofu."

"Heh. Anorexic."

Raven was gone.

Beast Boy was quiet.

Cyborg was typing.

Tempest was resting.

"……………….."

With a quiet sigh, I stood up, shuffled about, and walked out of the room.

_Why was I ever given a 'cloaking ability' to begin with?_

I was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Starfire walked down the dark hallways side by side.

Silent.

"………"

"………"

A beat.

Starfire glanced at Robin.

Robin stared ahead.

Starfire looked ahead too.

Silence.

The alien girl smiled. She held her hands together and uttered: "I know! I-I can have a saturated wash-of-the-cloth prepared for you! And an ice pack! Would that not be alleviating to your condition?"

"…………."

"R-Robin?"

"I'm not sick, Star," Robin grumbled.

She blinked.

He sighed: "Ice packs work on humans when they have a fever. I don't have a fever. I'm not sick."

"But Cyborg and Raven's findings….," she spoke. "They said—"

"And I acknowledge what they said. And I believe in their findings," Robin droned. "But I am _not_ sick. I am not….n-not anything! I just….just…."

"You need rest, most assuredly?"

"I just don't know anything, Starfire," Robin grumbled. "I've felt this way for the last few days. Ever since I've gotten back from the H.I.V.E. fiasco with Noir and Raven, I've felt clueless about…..a-about everything. Only—starting yesterday—I've been feeling clueless and _tired_. So very tired…."

Starfire's green eyes fell. She stared at the floor passing beneath them.

"Only….."

She looked up at the sound of his voice.

He came to a stop at the door to his room. He hung his head.

A beat.

He sighed, he turned and smiled weakly at her. "…..only I didn't feel tired this evening, Starfire. I…..I really enjoyed being with you."

She smiled and shut her eyes as she pleasantly said: "It was ecstatic spending time with you as well, Robin. I….I do think it would m-make a pleasant trend."

"Yeah……," he slowly nodded. "It would…."

A beat.

Robin's shoulders suddenly sagged as if his body had been draped in a melting thunderbolt. He shook his head and sighed.

Starfire's lips parted. "Robin…..you are…..afflicted?"

"Nngh….I dunno," he rubbed the corners of his eyemask with gloved fingers. "Everything that Cyborg and Raven said. It's a bit…….a bit….."

"Overwhelming?" Starfire blinked, her head leaning innocently to the side.

Robin gritted his teeth. "I'm just sick of it, Star! I really am!"

"Sick of what, Robin?"

"Being a liability to the entire team. Being so unpredictably problematic!" he gestured. He sighed. "Being so…..h-human…."

A beat.

Starfire daringly touched Robin's shoulder. An intimate echo from a golden conversation hours ago. "I think you are precious, Robin."

"……," he gazed up her arm and at the Tamaranian herself.

She smiled. "Precious….but strong. Strong and resilient." A beat. She giggled softly and said: "But right now, you are extra precious."

A beat.

Robin chuckled.

Starfire giggled.

Robin sighed: "Yeah….super tired." A beat. "Ugh." He practically fisted the console to the door. Clank! Schwishh! "Now is a good time to crash."

Starfire gasped: "Robin! Do not hurt yourself!!"

"It's a figure of speech, Star," Robin blinked under his mask. "It means that I'm going to sleep….in every definition of the term."

"I see," she nodded. "I shall not keep you."

Robin paused. "…….." He looked the girl's way. "Did you want to come in for a second?"

She did a double-take. "I…uhm….erhm…..," she blushed.

He smirked. "It's just…..to talk some more, Starfire. I've got a lot on my mind. If th-that's allright."

"Oh….u-understood," she simpered. "But of course."

"Do they make gutters on your planet?"

"Huh?"

"Never mind," Robin walked in.

Starfire followed.

Schwissh!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I went into my cellar room.

I plopped myself onto the bed.

I got out my laptop.

I signed online.

I switched on my instant messenger service.

I scanned down my buddy list.

My heart skipped a beat.

_InzeUltima……_

I quickly highlighted her name, typed, and clicked 'send'.

**SpSquirrel: Hey there.**

But….

'**InzeUltima Is Away From the Computer'**

"……….," I sighed.

A beat.

I looked around my room.

The lanternlight.

The lonely shadows.

Silence.

"……….."

I cracked my metal and flesh knuckles.

I flexed my fingers.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Say, I know you're gone and all. But I gotta ramble on about one thing.**

**SpSquirrel: When you first became Supergirl….was it your way of preserving something? Like perhaps the memories of your family back on Argos?**

**SpSquirrel: If that's too pointed of a question, then don't bother responding to it when you get back and stuff.**

**SpSquirrel: You're one of the most legendary superheroines out there….even with all the 'restrictions' Clark puts on you and whatnot. The legacy of Supergirl had to have started with something big, right? Otherwise, how would Supergirl be around today? Things have got to be built in concrete.**

A beat.

I leaned back and scratched my chin.

My black eyes narrowed.

"………….."

I exhaled.

I leaned forward.

I typed:

**SpSquirrel: I joined the Titans through an impulse, Kara. And an impulse only lasts for so long. My impulse has turned into something so…so incredibly big. I've lost an arm and half of my decency to stay where I am now. And for the life of me, I can't seem to wrench myself free even if—for some psychotic reason—I was possessed with the need to do so. There is something mind-numbingly frightening and paranoid eating at my senses. Like something evil and ugly on the horizon and I can't make myself leave my best friend's side for fear of an end to the security I once killed Slade to uphold. It's an ambiguous thing…kind of like what's affecting Robin. And I'm scared for him. And I'm scared for my friends. And—in a lot of ways—I'm scared for myself. I don't know what to do, Kara. Lord help me, I'm even more powerless than Robin is.**

I finished typing.

I leaned back.

I sighed.

Silence.

"………"

I groaned inwardly.

With the 'mouse' button of the laptop, I highlighted the gargantuan paragraph I had just typed….

And quickly deleted it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Well a how-do-you-do to you, Titan's Tower!! Are you the bringer of good news this fine evening?!?!"_

Beast Boy paused in mid-sandwich bite.

Tempest nearly tripped in walking across the room.

The boys looked past Cyborg's shoulder at the computer console's speakers.

The android Titan at the station blinked. "Uhm……C-Commisioner? Is that you?"

"_Damn straight, it's me! What?! Scared that I sound like I'm in a good mood?? Well I am in a good mood!! God only knows…the moon may be shitting acid down to earth and still I'd be tap-dancing outside with an umbrella! Naked, I might add!!"_

Cyborg winced. "Ahem. I'm afraid I don't follow you sir…."

"_I just got done talking to Margaret Sawyer!!"_

_  
_"And?"

"_She's sending the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. to the department of yours truly for some good old-fashioned interrogation!! Your leader Robin and the rest of the Titans get front row tickets, by Zeus!! I'm going to grill the Headmistress for every god damn shred of evidence she conceivably has lying around in that prozac-layered head of hers regarding the prison bombing!! And I want Robin nearby as a listening ear and a helping hand!! He's trained for such things, ya know!! Bats in a belfry have an influence over him, if you catch my continental drift!!"_

Beast Boy uncontrollably giggled.

Tempest hissed at him to shut up.

Cyborg leaned in towards the speakers. "Uh….yeah. We'll….um…..work something out."

"_Work something out?!?! This is progress, Cyclops!!" _

"Cyborg."

"_Whatever. The green one, right??" _

"No, sir, actually I'm the black one."

"_So maybe you're a random drop from a bag of Skittles?! Who the Hell cares?? The truth is coming to this City! It's official! HA!" _

"How exactly is the Headmistress getting here??"

"_Patty Wagon! Quite literally!! A prison van from Metropolis is headin' our direction down the Highway!"_

"Alone??"

"_Shit, no! Armed escort!! Six motorcyclists and two state troopers armed to the teeth!! Nothing short of a Greek God is getting through that phalanx!! And even if Apollo himself was to pay a visit, mine and Maggie's men would have his granite balls on a platter, I tell you what!"_

"It's…erhm…..g-good to hear you in…s-such good spirits, Commissioner," Cyborg sweatdroppingly stammered into his mic.

"Tell him to stop on by!!" Beast Boy cackled from the back of the room. "And bring his sleeping bag and a teddy bear and we'll all sit around gossiping about New Kids on the Block!!"

Tempest tossed a sphere of dishwater at him.

SPLOOSH!!

"Dah!! Hehehehe!!"

"Grow some pituitary glands!!"

"SHHH!!!" Cyborg uttered at them and returned to the mic. "Anyway we can assist in the Headmistress' trip here??"

"_Nuh uh. I need you kids for other things at the moment. Don't worry about that old bag. She's halfway here by now, I bet. In the meantime……just what did you hail me for, Mr. Cypher?"_

"Cyborg."

"_More good news, perhaps? About the investigation? Hmm?"_

Cyborg sweatdropped. He glanced back at the others.

A half-soaked Beast Boy gestured: "Is there an even more eloquent form of saying 'don't look at me'??"

"Uh…..," Cyborg blinked. He turned back to the intercom. "We ……our e-experiments on the weapons….found at the prison……………………………………………more or less."

A slight pause.

"_More or less??"_

"Yeah….uh….you see….uhm….," Cyborg scratched his titanium brow momentarily. A beat. He brightened. He said: "But….there's this….uhm…..high improbability factor—uhm—'percentile' that is forcing us to go back over the procedures and….um…..proceed on them just right so that…….they're not improbable anymore."

"…………………"

"……………….but we think we have enough info to confirm that the weapons weren't made by the prisoners."

"_Kickass! Now THAT'S some development!"_

"It's safe to assume that whoever or whatever made those weapons, it was a source outside of the prison and responsible for ALL of the weapons and props found."

"_Has Robin been working hard to get all of this done?"_

Beast Boy and Tempest winced.

"Oh, by all means sir…," Cyborg shrugged his shoulders. "Robin's been spearheading this investigation ten times more than the rest of us!"

"_Well that's comforting. Yesterday he looked like an undercooked vegetable. Mushy limbs supporting an even mushier psyche. Sometimes I wonder what's in that scrawny little head of his."_

"That makes the seven of us, sir."

"_Anyways, be sure to have Robin bug me soon. Or else I'm going to have to bug the punk by the time the Headmistress gets in Town. Ha! Decker out."_

-blip-

"That guy in a good mood…," Beast Boy pointed, "….is like a really yummy ice cream sundae………dipped in termites."

"Well…be thankful for what I got out of him," Cyborg swiveled around and stood up on tired feet. "Now we've got some time to check up on Robin and get all our ducks in a row before the Headmistress actually gets in Town."

"Well done, Cyborg," Tempest smirked. "No wonder Robin chose you as number one."

"Flattery gets you nowhere, Flipper."

"You see me going anywhere anytime soon?"

"Hey, I got one thing to say…."

"One thing? What is it, B.B.?"

The changeling gestured: "If there's something making Robin do stuff in his sleep, how do we not know whether or not he's been affected in other ways?"

"Like…..," Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Beast Boy sighed. "Him and Starfire, dudes."

Silence.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "That's for….the two of 'em to know. I guess…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Robin sat on the edge of his mattress. Staring at the bedside table. The closed drawer. Silent.

Starfire was admiring various frames of newsclippings along the Boy Wonder's clustered bookcase. "Glorious…….I was not aware that you had so many documented instances from your Gotham City legacy. It must be a wonderful thing to achieve such recognition."

"Yeah….," Robin muttered. His eyemask was still frozen to the drawer of the bedside table. "All they are—though—are memories."

Starfire traced images of Robin and Batman in action as taken by random, spontaneous photographers. There were headlines depicting the fall of Scarecrow, the Mad Hatter, Bane, and Killer-Croc….just to name a few.

"Your memories are wonderful, Robin," Starfire smiled. She looked over at him. "You should be happy…..a-and proud."

Robin slowly lowered his gaze from the table. "Not all memories are good ones, Starfire."

"Oh??"

"But one can still learn from them…"

Silence.

Starfire slowly walked over and stood above Robin at his bedside. "You are…..thinking of the girl of clay?"

Robin exhaled slowly. "I've….had my chances to grow up. As I'm sure you have, Star…." He looked up at her. "I don't think any Titan here has had a happy life story."

She stared with unblinking green eyes…then slowly lowered them. A breath. She uttered: "I acknowledge that I have been through times of great severity and turmoil. And you are right, I have used such instances to grow. X'Hal knows what kind of a person I would be now had I not learned to survive a devastating world that burned its way onto my beautiful Tamaran." She slowly opened her eyes again. "But I know that I need not feel shameful for living in the present and looking forward to the future. Tamaran is my home, Robin. But Earth has….has stolen my heart." She clasped her hands together and leaned forward. "I choose joy. I choose joy as something to live and die for. The people of Earth are wonderful and beautiful, but they are also very sad and pessimistic. Many of them do not understand how truly strong the forces of Life are. They cannot open their eyes to salvation…a thing which emanates from their very own heartbeat. Their very own essence of being." She gazed aside meekly. "I have…always carried about me this ideological consideration. And perhaps that is why I have not been so quick to admonish you for your vehement acts of daring that put your life on the line so many times daily, Robin. I know that—in spite of your obsession and in spite of your penchant for danger—deep down inside you truly, truly love life. You love life's warmth and the justice that secures it and all the faculties you are able to employ in preserving it. I admire that about you. I admire it about all Earthlings. But I admire it about you the most. For I feel it in you, Robin. I feel that life. It is….hehehe….m-most addicting."

A beat.

"Heh….," Robin smiled slightly.

"Does something amuse you?"

He looked up at her. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be saying that you saw life in **me**."

"Why….whatever do you mean, Robin?"

"Do you not see how incredibly good and innocent and…..just plain righteous a person you are, Star?"

She blushed somewhat. "I do get a….s-slight impression of people's _opinions_."

Robin shook his head. "It never fails."

"What is it that ceases to fail?"

"Never mind, Star….," Robin rubbed his temples. He yawned. "Ugh…I am so out of it. I can even think let alone…..think wisely."

"You have been subjected to unsettling revelations within the last hour or two," Starfire pointed. "One cannot blame you for physiological exhaustion."

A beat.

"Starfire?"

"Yes, Robin?"

He stared at her. "You said….for some reason….th-that you feel life in me, right?"

"Mmmhmmm," she nodded.

He bit his lip. "By feeling that…..can you tell me………" A pause. He finished: "….am I the same person right now that you have always known?"

"…………," Starfire blinked. She slowly sat down on Robin's left side. She held her hands in her lap. "Earlier today, Robin. When……Wh-When you let me 'hold' you….."

"Yes?"

A beat.

"I-I felt that very same life tenfold," she uttered softly. "And I suppose it is liken unto the essence of your bad dream turned good as of recent. I realized truly how precious this 'life' that I sensed was. It amazed me, yes. But not because it was different coming out of the person I have always known. I knew it was 'Robin'. I had sensed it before. Only so close….so intimate…..it was……," she hugged herself and looked at Robin with a soft smile and warm cheeks. "…..stronger."

He slowly nodded.

"I….I must sound liken unto the liquid excrement of a tree."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"Eep! I am sorry. I forget exactly the term, but Cyborg once described to me how Earthling trees excrete a sticky substance—"

"Sap?"

"Yes!"

"You think you're being sappy?"

"Yes! Er…I-I mean no! I….ohhhhhhhh….," Starfire planted her face in her hands and shook it. "How I so desire to master your vernacular after so many months of planetary habitation!! This is liken unto the strand of dead grass that damaged the vertebrae of the desert beast!!"

Robin chuckled helplessly. He stretched his left arm out and hugged Starfire gently to him. "Starfire…..I've got to say….your existence is the best thing that ever happened to me."

She blinked. "Truly?"

Robin suddenly blushed, as if realizing at the last second what he just spat out. "Uh….yes, Starfire. Truly." He looked at her in a somber gaze. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me."

She bit her lip. Her eyes suddenly glossy…until the eyes nearly crossed at seeing how close Robin's nose was to hers. And then her eyes drifted down to their two forms sitting so close. Sitting so close on a bed.

"….."

She got up.

"I think I must….uhm……endeavor to leave so that you may rest."

"Y-Yeah…," Robin scratched the back of his neck. "I suppose….I need that. Rest."

"A Terran shower would also be nice."

"Nah, Star. I think I'm just gonna crash—"

"I was referring to myself."

"Oh……..huh?"

She was already at the door, waving pleasantly. "Heeeeeeee! Happy slorvax!"

Robin waved back at her.

Schwissh!!

She was gone.

"………." Robin murmured, "Tell me, Starfire. How could I ever be as truly happy as you?"

A beat.

The Boy Wonder sighed.

Yawning helplessly, he laid himself down on the bed, curled up partly, and was out like a light.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the door to Robin's room, Starfire sauntered down the hallway a few paces.

She paused.

A beat.

She hugged herself.

A sigh.

Biting her lip.

Green eyes shut somberly for a few seconds, and reopened moist.

She sniffed for some reason or another and continued her brisk pace around the corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on the bed in my room.

My back against the headboard.

My arms folded.

Staring into the blackness of my domain.

Silent……

"………………."

I took a deep breath.

I gazed down at the laptop on my cross-legs.

"………………."

_Kara still isn't back._

A beat.

_Hmm……_

I moved the cursor and checked my e-mail. I looked under the old subject headings. I opened the last one addressed to me within the previous forty-eight hours.

_Dear Old Friend,_

_Jinx and Pulsade are back safely. I cannot thank you enough for not threatening their necks with that sword of yours. In the meantime, I hope my assistance to the Titans was useful. But I still have the feeling that you don't remember me. Quite alright. I'll be there in your City soon. I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet again in the next few days._

_-"J'_

I leaned forward and stared at the message. Scanning my black eyes over it a few times. Scratching my chin and slowly exhaling in the process.

A beat.

My eyes narrowed.

_Old friend??_

I blinked.

I leaned back and folded my arms again.

_We met briefly back when I met the Titans. _

_But we were never……'old friends'._

I ran a metal hand through my long black hair.

_But then again, the little shrimp was sorta friendly. His idea of a companion could be a different definition compared to my reclusive little book._

A beat.

I blinked.

_Or could it be……he's been around longer than I've __**known**__ him to be……? _

I gazed at the message again.

'_I hope my assistance to the Titans was useful.'_

I took a breath.

_He's an 'old friend' of mine. And now he's helping the Titans like we're all pals. What if all this time……he's had every reason to 'get to know them'?_

I swallowed.

My black eyes trailed the shadows of the room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I walked into the corner of the abandoned apartment building. _

_Piano music wafted down through the floorboards above. _

_I stood by a little cot next to a cooler of food. _

_I stared at two laptops and a TV. screen. _

_Surveillance camera footage flashed in sequence. _

_A map of the City had Titan's Tower blinking. _

_The DOS prompt……_

_**Reinforcing Program "River Jordan"**_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I exhaled.

My fingers curled.

_He……monitored the Titans. How could I have……forgotten about that so easily?_

I gazed at the message on the laptop again.

"……"

I stared off into the shadows.

_He was watching them before I joined. So how would I know he wasn't……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T- _

_SLIIIIIIIINK!!!! _

_I drove Myrkblade into Slade. _

_To the hilt. _

_My body leaned in. _

_His body lurched. _

_Our heads met side by side before the huge, circular window of the ship's cabin. _

_The dripping red shadows of the two of us reflected off the lenses of three of Slade's security cameras, obsessively placed by the madman in the high rafters of his freighter's black interior. _

_The recorders were zooming in the entire time. _

_Red lights blinking. _

_High powered microphones aimed constantly…… _

_Slade hissed in my ear. _

_I breathed back. _

_And…… _

_SLASH!!!!!!!!!!_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

My breath shuddered.

I felt a chill up my metal arm.

I stroked my wrist.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_WHAM!! _

_SMACK!!_

_  
I tumbled around like a ragdoll as Dagger kicked and punched me repeatedly. _

_I fell off of a catwalk and collapsed across a conveyor belt carrying vials of pink hex in the secret processing plant of the dead despot's skyscraper._

_Dagger blurred down with a pink aura and grabbed me effortlessly by the throat. _

_As I struggled, my twitching limbs reflected off of video cameras of Dagger's security system hanging high above the facility. _

_The lenses focused. _

_The microphones were trained. _

_They recorded the fight emotionlessly._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I blinked.

My fists clenched.

_Only a hacker could……………_

I stared at the laptop again.

My lips parted.

_No…… _

_More than a hacker……_

'_I'll be there in your City soon. I'm sure we'll get a chance to meet again in the next few days.'_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I stared at the blonde kid in the crowd. _

_Surrounded by press agents and cameramen. _

_They towered over him. _

_He smiled sweetly and his green eyes were large and inviting and……_

_Tilted up. _

_My black optics narrowed. _

_He was looking at…… _

_I traced an invisible line._

…………_Robin? _

"_!!!" the Boy Wonder suddenly gasped. He lurched forward on his podium. _

_Starfire jumped, "R-Robin??" _

_Robin leaned forward on the stage. Panting. Sweating. He gathered his wits……shook it all off……and uttered: "E-Excuse me. I think I put my cape on too tight this morning." _

_Chuckles._

_  
Camera flashes. _

_I glanced down. _

_And……_

_The blonde kid was gone._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"…………," I stared at the dim walls.

_He was __**gone**__! _

I blinked.

_Robin jolted and 'J' was no longer……_

"……………"

I jumped up, dumping my laptop across the covers of my bed.

_Robin._

I blurred out of my room in a trail of murk.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Boy Wonder panted. _

_He sat on the rock bluffs. _

_He wore the black and red and yellow of his Gotham days. _

_Thirteen-year-old legs dangled over crashing waves of a dark Bay under the red sky. _

_A band of yellow light streaked overhead from a faraway lighthouse. _

"…………………_," Robin shuddered. It was cold. He hugged himself. Moisture formed at the edge of his eyemask. "……………" _

_Slowly……like liquid clay……two warm arms encircled him from behind. _

_At the slightest touch, Robin shivered. He bit his lip and hung his head in a visible shudder or two. _

_The girl leaned her head forward. Short black bangs fluttering in the wind. She leaned her chin daintily on Robin's shoulder and held him close…softly…comfortingly…… _

_A beat. _

"_Robin……," she uttered. _

_The Boy Wonder shook. _

_She breathed on: "What troubles you??" _

"_This……Th-This isn't right……," the thirteen-year old muttered. _

"_Why isn't it?" _

"_This isn't the way it all happens……," Robin whimpered. He sniffed. He shuddered. "It's now how it's SUPPOSED to happen." _

"_Do you feel me?" the girl cooed. "Am I not real?" _

_Robin choked back a sob. He sniffed. "You're not supposed to be……" _

"_Be calm, Robin. Be at peace……" _

_He cried. _

_She gently stroked his shoulders. "Do not fight it. This warmth……it will heal you." _

"_No it w-won't!!" he shuddered. Weak. Teeth chattering. "It'll only distract me!" _

"_And since when is a distraction a bad thing??" _

"_I NEED my memories! I don't just need to know them……I-I-I need to FEEL them!! I can't feel this! I can't feel this warmth!!" Robin shook. "Otherwise……I-I'll never have grown up!! I'll never have become strong……I'll never have become a Titan!!" _

"_Robin……" _

"_No! No no no no no!!" _

"_Robin……listen to me……" _

_He helplessly fell back into her embrace. _

_She whispered into his ear gently: "I am not here to steal that which you have become. For a greater good……I must merely borrow your talents. You have given so much……sacrificed so much. Allow someone to give you rest for the time being. It is for the best of you and your friends. You must believe me." _

"_I……I-I……" _

_She pointed up at the sky. "Look up there, Robin. Tell me. What do you see?" _

_He gazed up. Tears streaming down from under his eyemask. His mouth agape. _

_She spoke: "It is the sky, Robin. A red sky. All your life…you've had blood over your head. But you've moved on. You've kept your strength……but you've pulled yourself out of the mire. But there is someone, Robin. Someone so horribly evil……all he wants to do is bathe your new life in that very same blood. He is out to blemish the Robin's new and precious aviary. Don't tell me you haven't sensed it." _

"_I……I-I don't feel anything……," Robin exhaled. "Not anymore. Not until—" _

"_It's because I came in, Robin." _

"………"

"_You may not feel anything. But there is a lot inside of you. It's been trying to get out." _

"_And you……," he leaned back and shuddered to the girl. "Y-You let it out……didn't you?" _

_She nodded. "It was……th-the fair thing to do. The only way I could pay you back for helping me work through you." _

_Robin bit his lip. "St-Starfire………" _

"_You are who you are, Robin. And I must say……it is an amazing being." She gently let go of him. "I promise you……I will not hurt you or any of your friends. You will be perfectly safe…" _

_The Boy Wonder felt suddenly cold. He turned around. "Wh-What……" His eyemask widened. "Wh-Who are you?!?!" _

_The girl was no longer there. Instead, there sat a young boy. _

_Bright green eyes. _

"_Dream on, Robin……," he spoke quite naturally. Suddenly the cornea of his eyes vanished. Green irises melted into a black abyss. "Dream on."  
_

_**-CONTACT-**_

_  
Robin gasped. _

_**FLASH!!!!**_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

Raven floated cross-legged in her room.

Her fingers clasped together.

Meditating…..

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion---"

Her voice cut off.

"…………….."

Her eyes popped open.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Schwishh!!

In the Main Room, Cyborg, Tempest, and Beast Boy looked up from a late-night dinner.

Cyborg blinked. "Robin?"

"Titans…," Robin marched forward. "I just realized something."

"Dude….I thought you were with Starfir—"

"I know," Robin nodded. His gloved hands hung in fists at his side. "I told her and she understood."

"Told her what, man?"

"I remember what I did last night," Robin said. "Everything. The experiment. The computer analysis. It's all clear to me now."

"You serious??" Tempest remarked.

Cyborg stood up. "Then tell us!! What the Hell happened?? Was someone controlling you or what??"

The Boy Wonder nodded. "Yes. I don't know who. But whoever it was, he wanted desperately to find out where the weapons for the prisoners were manufactured." Robin frowned. "It's the docks."

"The docks?"

"_Our_ docks??"

"Eastern District. The Zanzibar Piers. A covert group has been working right under our very noses. If they're still there….they may have connections left to the prison bomb worth exploring."

"How quaint," Tempest folded his arms.

"Dude….," Beast Boy gestured: "All of this came back to you…..like 'that'?" He snapped a finger.

"I have no time to explain. We need to take action. We're going to the Zanzibar Piers!"

"Well hot damn!" Cyborg marched towards the elevators. "I'll round up Starfire, Raven, and Noir. I'll get the T-Car rolling and sooner than you can say 'swiss che—'"

"No."

Cyborg stopped. He blinked. "No?!?!"

"I'm taking point," Robin pointed at himself. He then pointed at the others. "When I give the signal, you all rush in. Stay at the Tower until that point, got it?"

"Man, what for?!?!"

"I know how dangerous these people are…," Robin's eyemask thinned. "As a matter of fact…they have over one hundred pounds of carbonite on them as we speak."

Beast Boy pratfalled out of his chair. KERPLUNK!!!

Tempest's dark eyes were wide. "Um….that'll give your Earth a new Gulf of Mexico."

"Whoah….," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "This is heavy…."

"Which is why one of us needs to go in and investigate solo," Robin nodded. "Me."

"Will you be safe?"

"Like I said….wait for my signal…," Robin popped open a nearby compartment and withdrew an extra utility belt. "When I give the call…the Titans will rush in together. But it may not be the Zanzibar Piers. I have to find out some more about these creeps first. Having too many superheroes converging on one location could be bad."

Beast Boy crawled up: "Over a HUNDRED POUNDS of carbonite?!?!"

"I'm out…," Robin dashed down a hallway. "Stay vigilant!"

"Okay….uh……y-yeah…," Tempest scratched his head. A beat. He looked at the others. "Anybody else needing a new set of swimming trunks?"

"This is huger than _big_…," Cyborg shrugged. "Bigger than _huge_!"

"Not even SLADE had that much carbonite on him!!" Beast Boy shuddered. "Jocasta almighty…."

"I don't care what Robin told us," Tempest pointed. "He can't go into all of that alone. Are we nuts to let him slip into such a dangerous hive of crooks??"

"Yes, Flipper…we're NUTS!" Cyborg cackled. "We've always been nuts! It's part of being a Titan."

Beast Boy shrugged: "Nobody gets in the way of Robin's will."

Tempest's eyes thinned. "I don't like the feeling of it…."

Schwissh!!

The elevator doors opened.

Starfire and Raven piled out.

"Friends!!" Starfire panted nervously. "Was Robin just here presently??"

"Yeah he was!!" Beast Boy nodded. "Did you hear?? He remember all that went on last night and—"

"Is he gone already?" Raven pushed Beast Boy aside and faced Cyborg. "Is he??"

Cyborg leaned back. "Uh…..yeah, Rae."

"…….."

"Why? What's the problem?"

"That wasn't _him_," Raven said.

"Say what??"

"Tempest," Raven pointed at a nearby computer. "Check the surveillance footage of this very room when Robin was here. Cross reference it with the sensors like we did with Cyborg's laboratory."

"Uhh…okay then," Tempest ran over and operated the controls.

Beast Boy gulped. "Is this going where I think it's going?"

"I'm afraid it is," Raven droned.

"Got it!" Tempest clicked on the keyboard and brought up visual diagrams on the monitors. "Come take a look!"

The Titans gathered around.

Cyborg leaned forward and squinted his eyes as he read the text. "…….son of a bitch…"

"He was asleep."

"DAMN!!" Cyborg gritted his teeth and spun around. "Alright!! Titans, pull out!! Track Robin down—"

"Wait!!" Raven held up her hands. "What did Robin say to you all??"

"He mentioned loads of carbonite!!" Tempest gestured. "You still can't get in the way of that, man!!"

"How the Hell do we know he was telling the truth at this rate?!?!" Cyborg barked. "He's being controlled and stuff!!"

"Friends…we must think of something!!" Starfire floated in. She was panting. Hands held desperately together. "Robin is in grave danger and it is all our fault!!"

"Our fault?!?!"

"Starfire, if you saw and heard him a moment ago you would have—"

"Everyone!!" Raven snapped. "Calm down!!"

All present in the room immediately obeyed.

"…………," the dark girl in blue blinked. "……where's Noir?"

"????"

"????"

"????"

Suddenly, Beast Boy's communicator vibrated. He glanced down at it….then up at the others. "Uhhh….dudes?"

"Noir??" Starfire murmured.

Cyborg marched over, grabbed the communicator from Beast Boy's hand, and flipped it open with a Star Trek sound. He opened a compartment in his left arm and hooked the device up. "Noir. This is Cy. Where are you??"

A series of morse code bleeps filtered through the communicator. The signals were fed into Cyborg's built-in computer system. An LCD screen flashed blinking, electronic text:

'_Do not worry. I am on his tail. He is taking the cycle through Town. Heading eastward.'_

"The Zanzibar Piers…," Tempest blinked. He and the other Titans were leaning over Cyborg's shoulders the best they could. "So whoever's controlling Robin WAS telling the truth."

Cyborg spoke into the communicator: "You're trailing him, dawg??"

A pause.

Signals bleeping.

'_Yes. I am keeping my distance.'_

"Dude….," Beast Boy leaned in. "How'd you know he was being controlled again?"

A beat.

'_It is J. J is in Town.'_

Cyborg gritted his teeth.

Raven blinked. "J??"

"The benevolent computer expert….," Starfire murmured. She leaned in. "You are saying that he is here in person?'

'_Yes. As a matter of fact, you just got done talking to him.'_

Cyborg and Beast Boy gasped.

Tempest's eyes narrowed.

Raven stared off, thinking.

"But…..B-But how??" Starfire exhaled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I clicked my metal finger a morse code response:

'_It does not matter at the moment. Keep your distance like I am sure Robin told you to. I will handle this.'_

"_How, man?!?! You know how dangerous that place y'all headin' into is??"_

'_Trust me. This is between 'old friends'. Noir out.'_

I flicked my metal wrist.

The morse code frequency was cut off.

I waited on the corner of a rooftop six stories up.

Narrowing my black eyes.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

The R-Cycle burned rubber beneath me, heading straight towards the docks.

The night was cold and autumn a bit nasty.

I stood up.

CHIIIIING!!!

I gripped Myrkblade, cloaked my body into the shadows, and blurred after the 'Boy Wonder'.

Not losing him for an instant…


	157. J part 5 final

**157. J part 5 Final**

"…………………"

_I stared down the hallway to the storage room._

_Casket models lay stretched open on satin pedestals._

_Side by side._

_Dull purple, brown, gray, and black._

"…………………"

_There was a stamping sound to my left._

_A shuffling of an envelope._

_Then someone stretching his arm towards me._

"_Here you go, son."_

"……………………"

"_Jordan??"_

_I blinked under my shades. I slowly gazed over at my boss._

_He sat behind his desk in his usual suit. He had an envelope held out towards me._

"_Your pay for this week. By law……you have to take it……heheh."_

"…………_," I slowly nodded. I took the envelope from him. I numbly turned it over in my hands. Staring downwards. "……………"_

_The balding man stared. He blinked once or twice. He stood up and shuffled over with a sigh. "Are you……all right, Jordan?"_

"……………"

"_I knew when I hired you that I would have the perfect usher," he said, coming to a stop in front of me and holding his hands together behind his back. "You would never speak or……impose yourself upon the crowd. But at the same time, that makes it a little hard for Ariel, Bart, or I to truly know if you're satisfied with this work environment or not. And never mind where you live and all, I've already gone there. I just wonder sometimes……what is it that you do that makes you so………so serious for your age? People as young and healthy as you shouldn't be so surrounded in death."_

_I merely stared at him. _

_He sighed and rubbed his temples. "Who am I to judge, right? I just want you to know that you can count on us if you need anything. You've won our respect by now, son. And don't feel obligated at all that I'm saying this. After all……," he patted my shoulder and smirked. "……everyone deserves a family, right?"_

"……………"

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I slowly walked down the streets of the northeast district. _

_Under the thundering L-Train track, past bazaars of multiple ethnicities, through open marketplaces in the street full of old brown things and pawning people, across abandoned construction sites where children played hide and seek, alongside a metal-fenced basketball court where two teams with a ball went at it._

_The sun was setting, piercing the spring air with a fiery red glow. Everyone and everything at once seemed to subconsciously acknowledge that the world was dying. The roughest streets were happy and cheerful for but two hours of red-tainted bliss._

_My pace was a lazy one. My legs were practically limping. I didn't care if I got home early or late. I didn't care if I got home. _

_I stared at the pavement and asphalt below me._

_Eyes hidden blacker behind black shades._

_Mute. _

"……………"

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I sat on the edge of the Norman Apartments' rooftop that night. _

_The usual family crowd had gathered in the 'safe' domain._

_Mothers on half-worn lawn chairs._

_Men in the corner discussing something in a beer circle._

_The kids playing with a red ball towards the center._

_I had Myrkblade with me……a sight that most everyone was used to by then. I had the blade sheathed and was leaning on it with it rested between my knees. I slowly, absent-mindedly fingered the wooden designs on the sheathe. My shaded eyes gazed through the texture of the rooftops._

"………………"

_A halo of light from nearby neon signs shimmered off my back and scattered to the corners of the building top. A gentle spring breeze drifted down momentarily and took off as soon as it landed. I shut my eyes beneath my shades. I exhaled._

_A beat._

_A giggle._

_A gasp._

_A bouncing sound. A rolling sound._

_Something tapped into Myrkblade's sheathe._

"……………"

_I opened my eyes._

_I looked down._

_A red ball._

_Five little kids ran to a stop in an invisible line of the rooftop four feet away from me._

_They stared, suddenly quiet._

_Pensive._

_A beat._

_I palmed the ball._

_I lifted it up to face level._

_I stared at the ball._

"……………"

_I stared at them._

"………………" _I smiled._

_FWOOOSH!!!!_

_I let loose a pulse of murk from my hand._

_The ball went flying high up._

_The kids' heads tilted up._

_Five gasping little mouths._

_The ball came down._

_I caught it._

_I aimed over their heads._

_FWOOOOSH!!!!_

_Another pulse of murk._

_The ball went flying over them._

_They scattered for it, giggling._

_I sighed and leaned forward on Myrkblade. Watching them. Blinking. _

"………………"

_I gazed over._

_I saw some mothers looking at me. Mixture of trust and exhaustion. People who were either blessed or depressed by my presence. Maybe both._

_In spite of everything……_

"………………"

_I shut my eyes._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"_Listen, Albert……we're alone on this. We really……truly are alone. Nobody has the balls to get up and do something about this damn little war of ours." _

"_But the Titans—"_

"_The Titans nothing, Gary! Slade is taking potshots at the entire neighborhood. And where he can't slither his little explosives in, he's got crackhead suckups doing the dirty work for him!! I know the black eyes has got us safe up until now. But not even he's going to do anything in the long run. He's said that himself. The best way he can!"_

_Albert leaned back in a rickety chair inside the apartment's kitchen. He sighed, rubbed his temples, and spoke: "You know……that Jordan kid is a lot smarter than we give him credit for."_

"_You turning on a dime, Albert?"_

"_I'm serious, guys. Here at Norman……we can't afford to piss Slade off. The black eyes is practically synonymous with this place. If he went out and started throwing stones or something……the rest of us would fall into a domino effect. As if things aren't snowballing already, the news is calling it a blow in the face of the Titans."_

"_The Titans never give a shit for us anyways."_

"_They're not careless. They're just ignorant!"_

"_Stop defending them!"_

"_Look. They may be young punks. But they actually do something for this City!! You think things are Hell under Slade?? Try living a month in Gotham, man!"_

"……………"

"_Just what do we do??"_

"_What can we do?" _

_Albert shrugged. "We get together. We have meetings. We woe over tomorrow."_

_Heads hung._

"_I almost wish he never came here to begin with." _

"_Who?"_

"_Jordan."_

"_The black eyes?"_

"_Yeah. It's too dangerous to live safely nowadays."_

"_Good point………good point……"_

"……………"

_**Knock Knock Knock**_

"………………_???" _

"_Get it, will you Gary?"_

"_Sure thing. Perhaps it's Victor."_

_One kitchen chair scooted back. The man got up slowly and marched over towards the door to the apartment. He looked out the keyhole. "Who's there?!"_

_A wavering voice answered back. Barely audible through the door._

_  
But Gary seemed to understand. He swiftly undid the locks, the latchkey, and the knob. _

_Creeeeak._

_He opened the door._

_Agnes, the old lady, stood in the hallway, visibly through the crack. She peered inside through her bifocals._

_Albert stood up. "Agnes……what brings you here this hour?"_

_The door opened the rest of the way._

_There I stood besides Agnes. I stared in through my shades. "……………"_

_The others were silent._

"_Young Jordan was so kind to w-walk me home," Agnes smiled. "I thought it'd be only proper that I'd h-help him talk to you fellows."_

_Gary looked back at the others._

_A beat._

_Albert nodded. "S-Sure. I mean……why not?"_

_A few fidgeted in their kitchen seats._

_I hand-signed something._

"'_It's short and simple……,'" Agnes explained for me._

"_Alright……"_

_The old lady and I stepped inside. We faced the group._

_I took a deep breath._

_I gestured._

_Agnes translated: "'I would……like you……to tell me where…………your injured………companions………were attacked………by Slade's men…………'"_

_The men blinked. They exchanged gazes. _

_Albert scratched his head. "Um, I thought you were a-against confronting Slade……"_

_I stared at him. I hand-signed._

_Agnes: "'I will……be the judge of…………who is……or who is not……confronting…'"_

_Albert bit his lip. _

_Gary cleared his throat._

_The owner of the apartment stood up shrugged: "What do you intend to do?"_

"'_I cannot say yet. I just need to find out more of Slade.'" _

"_But why, all of the sudden?"_

"_Yeah, man. Did you change overnight or what?"_

_I stared at them all. I hand-signed._

"'_I was……there……at the…………apartment bombing'." _

_Silence._

"_I……I-I see……," Albert scratched his neck. "But……if you find Slade, what would happen if—"_

_I held a hand up._

_Albert stopped._

_I hand-signed._

_Agnes translated: "'I would not be……too worried……about anything……men……'"_

_The owner's eyes thinned. "What do you mean?"_

"'_If I……do indeed………find Slade……or if Slade………finds me……………then you will………not be……seeing me………ever again………'"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The aqueduct. _

_Gary's brother was attacked by Slade's robots days ago on his way home. They came in and out of the darkness just as he passed the human canal. Nobody else had sighted them in the streets or along the building sides._

_There was only one other place for them to have gone._

_I blurred to a stop, perching acrobatically on a lamppost overlooking the aqueduct the next morning. I gazed down into the bone-dry canal. Grass had over-grown in the cracks between the cement. The body of a dead cat rested along the hard slopes of the structure, gathering flies. The pale granite stretched onward and onward between rusted and dilapidated fences of metal chainlink and the shanty buildings beyond. The aqueduct ended in two huge, black tunnels._

_The sewers……_

"………………_," my black eyes narrowed under my shades._

_CHIIIING!!!!_

_I unsheathed Myrkblade._

_  
I took a breath._

_  
I blurred down and ran a smoking streak under the hot sun and into the cool darkness of the tunnel._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Once truly underground, I effectively slowed down. _

_I paced myself patiently through the huge, cylindrical catacombs._

_My feet were silent as I expertly snuck my way down the dark corridors. Mysterious cracks from the world above shimmered golden rays of light down intermittently across the labyrinth._

_It was strangely dry in that part of the Town's underground. There was practically no moisture to be found. I imagined that these were sewers that were either built an indescribable long time ago or they simply did not live up to any liquid distribution standards._

_Whatever the case, the City I was in had a huge waste of underground corridors on their hands. A waste of corridors that was just perfect for criminal exploitation. Exploitation by eccentric madmen and brilliant terrorists._

_Like Slade._

_I crept along steadily._

_Myrkblade hung to my right side. My hand gripping the blade was taut. My fingers wrapping around the hilt tightly. Everytime I rounded a corner, I lifted the blade up and at ready. _

_But I found nothing. No robotic henchmen. No death traps. Not even any suspicious alterations to the concrete environment._

_I took a deep breath and pressed on……slowly._

_Thinking………_

_Just exactly what does this 'Slade' look like, anyhow?_

_I reached my left hand out. _

_Sensitive fingers flexing inward and outward._

_I extended a field of murk._

_I thinned my eyes._

_I concentrated…………_

"………………"

………………_I sensed an irregularity in a large chamber ahead of me. Through a square entrance. Abandoned and silent. Still._

_I took a deep breath._

_I lowered my arm, gripped Myrkblade in two hands, and crept towards it._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_My feet echoed, and I knew then and there that in that interior I had no chance of exhibiting perfect stealth. _

_I came to a stand-still. I gazed left. I gazed right. I blinked._

"……………………"

_It may very well have been a 'hideout' of Slade's. But if it was, it had seen better days. The huge chamber was a virtual graveyard of collapsed metal shards and shrapnel and chunks. But as I gazed more and more at the metallic chaos, I realized that there was a grand purpose to all of it……or at least there once __**was**__ a grand purpose. There were huge gearshafts, sprockets, shattered axles, and nuts and bolts galore. Ripped and shredded catwalks lay on top of each other. Metal rods lay scattered across the floor. And even shards of glass._

_I took a deep breath._

_I shuffled forward._

_  
My feet crunched against the littered ground. _

_I strolled past shattered chunks of metal. Huge, stone-like gears, and even what looked like a cracked throne built for an adult's body._

_Slade……_

_I stopped at the throne momentarily._

"……………"

_I gazed beyond it at a huge, tall-stretching wall. I saw figures in it._

_A beat._

_I walked forward……forward……forward……_

_I found myself staring at a cracked set of five thin sheets of glass. They reflected me with spiderwebbed clarity. At first, I thought they were mirrors half-serving their purpose. Then I realized that they were huge monitors of some sort. Circuitry was spilling out of some of the larger cracks._

_Regardless, I was graced with five reflective doppelgangers of myself stretching from the floor to the ceiling._

_I shuffled to a stop._

"……………………"

_I closed my eyes. I slipped my shades off. I opened my eyes. I blinked. I gazed at myself. The cracks distorting my face. My faces. The wreckage and the metal wasteland lying beyond and behind._

_I exhaled._

_Something…… _

_Something climactic must have happened here._

_In this very spot._

_A terrible battle………something I've been late in attending._

_And before my black eyes, five shattered blonde boys appeared._

"…………" _I turned around._

_J stared up at me. His hands held together nervously._

"……………_," I stared up from looking at him and scanned the interior 'horizon'. A beat. I looked back at him._

_I hand-signed: 'How do you do that?'_

_  
'Do what?' he replied._

'_Just appear like that?'_

'_I do not know what you mean.' _

_I sighed._

'_I suppose not.' _

_I slipped my shades back on. I looked around the interior once more._

_The little boy swallowed and gestured: 'Slade is not here.'_

'_I gathered that.'_

'_You were looking for him?'_

'_Maybe I was. Maybe I was not,' I hand signed. A beat. I narrowed my eyes. 'What are you doing here?'_

_J bit his lip. He hesitated, hung his head, then eventually looked up at me again to hand-sign: 'I was hoping I would find you.' _

"………………"

'_Really. I was. I was hoping you would be wanting so much to track down Slade.'_

'_Since when was Slade your responsibility?' I hand-signed. A beat. 'Since when was I your responsibility?'_

'_Neither is my responsibility.'_

'_Then what is a little boy like you doing in such a place like this?'_

"…………………_," J turned and walked towards the shattered throne. _

_I stared at him._

_He stood in the shadow of the huge seat. After a moment, he turned and hand-signed at me: 'Do you know what this place is?'_

_I sighed. I lethargically responded: 'An old home of Slade?'_

'_It is where peace won in the end,' he gestured. 'There are many places in this City where peace won. They were places that once were built or overflowing with evil. But out of both bravery and pain and both courage and sacrifice that evil was shattered apart. The Titans themselves found peace here in the very same place and time that they found anguish.'_

'_If peace won out in the end, why is Slade still alive and kicking and spreading death and murder?'_

'_Because there is still hope for this City yet.' _

_I frowned. 'There is very little hope for anything anymore.'_

_He blinked his green eyes at me. 'Then why are __**you**__ here?' he pointed._

"…………………"

_He answered for both of us: 'It is the same reason that I am here.'_

_I groaned inwardly. I hand-signed with my eyes closed. 'I am not a self righteous moron.'_

_The boy smiled slightly. 'But I am. And I am willing to admit that.'_

'_You got one part right.'_

_He giggled mutely. _

_A beat._

_He craned his neck as if to look at some angle of my person he hadn't noticed before._

_I stared back at him. I blinked._

_He suddenly hand-signed: 'You always wear that camouflage and jacket and stuff when you fight crime.'_

'_Yeah. So?'_

'_It is like a costume.' _

_I nodded._

'_It is something a Titan would do,' he gestured._

_I rolled my eyes._

'_You saw them, did you not?'_

"………………"

'_Up close?'_

"………………"

'_What did it feel like to be within arm's reach?'_

_  
I took a deep breath. I gazed off. I hand-signed: 'Nothing I have not felt before.'_

'_Is it a good feeling?'_

'_It makes me know that I am alive.'_

'_Yes. But is that a good feeling?'_

'_I have not had a good feeling in years. How would I know?'_

'_You would know nothing if you do not give it a chance to grow.'_

_I sighed. 'Why do I get the sense that it is suddenly more important for you to change the person that I am than it is to protect this City from Slade? Will you not be settled until I am suddenly paired up with mid-pubescent superheroes? Will you go as far as to mind-control me?'_

'_I cannot mind-control you. You are too complex.'_

'_Just what is that supposed to mean??'_

'_You do not believe that you are a hero, right?'_

'_I am a ghost. Nothing more.'_

'_What is there to possess of a ghost? But the ghost is a spirit. And spirits understand the sensitivity of flesh and blood,' he hand-signed. He took a deep breath. 'There is so much flesh and blood in this City, Noir. And already I know that the spirit inside of you is deeply concerned for it all. Do not even try to deny it. You would lay down your very life for the good of all that you could possibly guarantee. The only problem is, you know that you yourself are not capable of saving so much as a fraction of the huge population being endangered by Slade if you have to do it all __**alone**__.'_

"……………_," I stared down. I sighed. _

_J smiled and signed: 'A superhero is not a title easily attained. It is something that requires sacrifice. Sometimes the best spirits are those that can withstand exorcism. Someday, the ghost inside of you will be in charge of things, Noir. And do you think that ghost will want to keep all of this darkness if it means more and more people not being able to see the light?'_

_I exhaled slowly. I gestured: 'The light hurts.'_

'_Then you are perfect for the job,' J signed. 'The Titans need you, Noir. They need to be reminded what pain is and just what they need to get out of it. Or else the loop will continue. Everything will go full circle.'_

_I looked at him funny. 'Full circle?'_

_He nodded._

"………………_," I slowly turned and gazed around at the wreckage._

_Slade……… _

_I took a deep breath._

_Slade doesn't want the City. _

_He doesn't want my neighbors in the Norman Apartments._

_He doesn't even want the lives of those he bombs to death._

_All he wants……all he'll ever want……_

_Is the Titans. _

_My fists clenched._

_I wasn't supposed to be there._

_No……_

_The Titans……_

_The only way to save the City was to bring the fight away from the City._

_But what good would I do? What role would I play? What was the whole point?_

_I looked at J._

_  
He looked innocently up at me. Those crystal green eyes. That immaculate complexion._

_I hand-signed: 'Why are you alone, J? What is to happen to your spirit?'_

_He blinked. 'My spirit lives in those I see and those who see me.'_

_I smirked somewhat. 'You do not say……'_

_A rustling sound. _

_We both jerked to attention._

_Limbs tense._

_Ears pricked._

"…………………"

"…………………"

_Another rustling sound._

_I gripped Myrkblade._

_J trembled._

………_a rumbling sound._

_Beneath us. _

_J gasped and stumbled backwards._

"_????" I stared down. _

_The metal piles of scrap started to squirm and shake and—_

_**SMASH!!!!!!!**_

_I fell back from an exploding mountain of debris. _

_J's body went somewhere with a mute cry._

_  
Between us, a huge hulking figure emerged from the ground and 'clawed' his way into the interior of the chamber. __**CRUNNNNCH!!! "REAAAAGH!!!"**_

_I jumped up to my feet with Myrkblade held high. I panted. Sweating._

_My black eyes stared wide at the figure suddenly standing before us. It was a large walking form of cracked granite and stone. I had seen his image in the papers._

_Cinderblock…_

"_**Nnnnghhh!!!"**__ he growled. Two lifeless eyes darted over towards me. _

"…………" _I blinked._

"_**RAUGH!!**__" __**STOMP!!!**__ His foot came down onto the uneven terrain. A solid wave of debris surged through the floor and exploded up into me._

_CRASH!!!_

"_!!!!" I flew back from the impact. I flipped. I landed, perched on an overturned, metal bulkhead._

_Cinderblock stood up high and waved his arms. __**"RUUUURGHAAAA!!!"**_

_I gritted my teeth._

_And just why did God spawn these things??_

_FWOOOOSH!!_

_I blurred at him. I rose Myrkblade to strike. _

_He readied his fist._

_I took a breath. I teleported through him._

_FLASH!!!_

_I materialized on the other side, spun three hundred and sixty degrees, and slashed hard at his stony back-side._

_CL-CLANK!!!_

_Showers sparked._

_Myrkblade nearly vibrated out of my grasp._

_I stumbled backwards, panting._

_Cinderblock spun around with fists clenched. __**"RRGHHHHH!!!"**_

_Oh Hell no._

_**WHAM!!!!! **_

_**Solid knuckles of stone slammed into my body. I flew halfway across the littered chamber and ricocheted off a collapsed catwalk. CL-CLANK!!!**_

_THWUMP!!! I landed on the floor. I wheezed and struggled up to my knees, wincing all over._

_I heard a shuffling sound._

_I glanced left._

_J hid behind a huge metal pole. Trembling and helpless._

"_**RAUGH!!!"**__ Cinderblock brought both of his hands together and slammed them again into the ground of the interior._

_**RUMMMMMMMBLE!!!!**_

_  
The whole chamber shook._

_There was a groaning sound. _

_J gasped and looked up._

_A loose, car-sized chunk of metal wobbled and broke free from the ghostly mechanisms in the ceiling. A ton and a half of rusted death fell and soared down towards J's tiny figure._

_The boy flinched and covered his blonde head._

_SWOOOOSH!!!!_

_I dove in with a pulse of murk, tackled him, and rolled the two of us barely out from underneath the falling chunk._

_CRUNCH!!!!_

_I rolled the two of us over against a metal pylon. I held J protectively beneath me while aiming Myrkblade out towards the noises of the rumbling giant beyond. I breathed slowly, caustious, ready for flight. J trembled in my grasp._

_  
Seconds passed. _

_I realized that if the monstrosity wanted to eliminate us, he could have done so ages ago. I gently set J aside and crawl over to peer over a hill of metal._

"……………"

_Cinderblock was bending over the hole through which he entered up through. He punched a fist into the metal earth—SMASH—and produced an electronic device that fit snugly in his gargantuan hand. With a sneer, he swiveled around and stomped his way out towards the sewer tunnels beyond the ruined chamber._

_I didn't realize until I heard the resounding gasp that J was kneeling beside me, also staring at Cinderblock's retreating figure._

_  
"?????" I looked at the blonde kid. _

_J's mouth hung open. He looked at me with wide green saucers and hand-signed: 'Did you see what was in his grasp?'_

"……………"

'_It is a detonator!!' J emphatically gestured. 'A detonator to a thermonuclear device!!'_

_I blinked. I gazed at the exiting monster. I narrowed my black eyes and looked at the smart device in his grasp one more time. I caught the cold glint of familiarity._

_Crud……_

'_Cinderblock is Slade's number one henchman! He must have sent him here to this hideout to retrieve the device! Now Cinderblock has got it and is surely returning the last component to a weapon of mass destruction to his master!!'_

_I ran a shaking hand through my black strands._

_Why does my life suddenly feel like an incestuous relationship of multiple coincidences?_

_CHIIIING!!! _

_I lifted Myrkblade from the ground. I stood up. I ran after the beast._

_  
J panted. He ran after me and whistled._

_  
"………," I came to a stop. I turned and glanced at him._

_He signed: 'What are you doing?'_

'_What do you think?'_

'_You cannot take on Cinderblock on your own!'_

'_What, you want to help? You cannot boy scout a monster to death.'_

"………………_," J stared at me._

_  
I took a deep breath. 'Go somewhere safe. I have to get that device from him somehow.'_

"_Noir……'_

'_Yes?'_

_J bit his lip. He hand-signed: 'Do not get yourself killed.'_

_I blinked. I gestured: 'Ghosts do not die.'_

_I twirled Myrkblade, spun around, and blurred down the subway in pursuit._

_And J was left alone._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!**_

_Craters formed in the earth as Cinderblock marched down the streets of the City. Citizens shrieked and ran out of the way as the growling monster stepped through cars, elbowed his way through shops and building foundations, and shoved telephone and lightpoles off like toothpicks. _

_He was taking a direct path. Moving in a straight line with no decrease in his speed whatsoever. Nothing stood a chance in his way, and if anything—like a squad car—so much as tried to resist him……the damage done was with tenfold attitude._

_Debris and shreds of urban earth flew._

_The juggernaut surged on._

_**STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!!**_

_FWOOOOOOOSH!!!_

_  
I blurred parallel to the creature on the rooftops alongside it. I panted and looked aside, attempting to match my movements with his. I leapt up onto higher rooftops, scaled buildings with blurred feet, and kept my eye constantly on the marauding creature. Moreso on the smart device in his grasp._

_My black eyes narrowed._

_This somehow doesn't seem right……_

_Slade is an intelligent terrorist, correct??_

_You don't send your henchman walking straight through Town with a nuclear detonator in his grasp. _

_Not in the middle of the day._

_With the sun shining down._

_  
No matter how monstrous the henchman is. _

_I ran and ran and jumped up onto a buildingtop, upon which I perched and gathered my breath._

_  
During which……I looked down at the stomping beast. _

_The cars and people being scattered by his approach._

"…………"

_I gazed towards the northwest._

_The urban landscape grew hazy with the distance……but I had been in the City enough to know what lay ahead less than a mile away._

_An elementary school……_

_My fingers gripped tightly to Myrkblade._

_I wonder if there's a way to perform lethal sodomy on a walking mountain?_

_POW!!!! _

"_!!!!!!" I jerked._

_  
The sound of a grappling hook………… _

_I looked to my left side._

_CLANK!!!_

_A hook stuck into the building side._

_  
A cord dangle. _

_Something was retracting the length of it and pulling towards the hook._

_SWIIIIIIISH!!!_

_I gasped. I swiftly concentrated and extended a cloaking wall of murk over my body._

_I turned invisible just as—_

_PLOP!!! _

_A familiar caped crusader perched on the buildingtop. He ran over to the building side and peered down at the marching behemoth. Spring air kicked at his spiked, black hair. He whipped out a yellow communicator with a Star Trek sound and spoke into it:_

"_Titans! Stop Cinderblock!! He's not gonna stop running otherwise!!"_

_Voices on the communicator squabbled back._

_-Dude, where's he going?!-_

_-When you gotta go, you gotta go.-_

"_This isn't funny!" the caped one frowned. "I have no idea where he wants to go, but I do know where his path is taking him!"_

_-Oh no! The elementary school! The poor Earth children!!-_

"_So far he's made a straight line and smashed everything in his way. I seriously doubt he's gonna just walk __**around**__ the school up ahead! We've got to beat him back…and now!"_

_-Roger that, Robin! Beast Boy! Follow me!-_

_The sound of an engine below. _

_I glanced down._

_A shimmering, silver car throttled after the monster._

_  
VRRMMMMM!!!_

_-On your six, Cy!-_

_A green albatross glided in behind the speeding vehicle._

_The caped hero made to dive off the building side. "Raven, Starfire, distract him till we join you two for full firepower!"_

_-Didn't even need to ask…-_

_He pocketed his communicator, whipped out another grappling hook—POW!!—CLANK!!!—and swung off and down into the streets below._

"……………_," I 'de-cloaked'. I peered down. _

_The swinging hero, the vehicle, and the green bird zoomed after the stomping golem._

_  
SWOOOOSH!!! _

_FWOOOOOSH!!!_

_Two feminine forms flew high over me. I glanced up in time to see a blue, wavering figure and a streak of violet and red._

_My black eyes narrowed._

_The Titans?_

_  
How did the Titans know so soon about Cinderblock? _

_Unless……_

_My teeth grit._

_My fists clenched._

_J…… _

_That damn little chipmunk………_

_  
The hacker tipped them in somehow._

_I shook my head._

_  
It never fails._

_  
Oh well. _

_Makes life easier for me, at least. Certainly five superpowered freaks can successfully strip a single, thieving freak of his wares._

_I stood up, faced east, and prepared to dash my way back to the Norman Apartments._

"………………………"

_I didn't move._

"………………………"

_I sighed and hung my head._

_A beat._

_  
I glanced back behind my shoulder._

_  
Peripheral vision……_

_I saw five figures converging upon the granite juggernaut in Hollywood finesse……but making no impact._

_I sighed._

_Things are set too perfectly in motion. _

_Who am I to presume the flow of a ghost's domain?_

_Groaning, I turned around, faced west, and charged up murk._

_Stop giggling, Ana. _

_FWOOOOOOSH!!!_

_I zoomed over building tops and roofs and alleyways in a streak of smoke. I hooked a left—curving southward—bending around buildings and avenues as I arched back to meet perpendicular to the action at hand._

_Ceremony aside…… _

_Gloves off………_

_It was time to make an entrance._

_SWOOOOOOOSH!!!_

_I blurred up a building side._

_The noise of the Titans' battle with the unstoppable cretin became more and more intense._

_  
After dashing up the edge of the building, I backflipped and landed in a curtain of smoke. I ran to the edge of the building side and looked down. Panting. _

_The silvery vehicle had collapsed._

_The green changeling was nowhere to be seen._

_The alien girl was sprawled across the street._

_The young lady in blue hovered above._

_The caped crusader ran abreast the action._

_And that 'action' had torn its way through a fence and was halfway through the schoolyards of the elementary pavilion. Kindergarteners and a few school attendants shrieked in horror as the monster bore down on them. The cybernetic Titan was doing his fickle best to shove the youths out of the way._

_Cinderblock stomped forward. A group of helpless youths were in his way. Slowly, he started to raise his next stepping foot higher for a homicidal squash._

_I took a deep breath. I closed my eyes._

"…………"

_I didn't need to open my optics to feel the sense of time slowing down. Smoke was already pouring out of my lids as I blindly fell down, kicked my feet into rapid gear, and ran down the building side. I streaked onto the street level. Teleported half of my body into smoke, and practically glided a mile per second over the asphalt with Myrkblade raised over my head and whatever solid teeth I had in my being leftover gritting and--_

_**SLASH!!!!!!**_

_I drove all of my essence into the blade and struck at one tiny spot in the universe. One tiny spot in the universe that just happened to be Cinderblock's ankle._

_I felt two things as I blurred past the spot in the schoolyards. I felt the caped Titan literally spin from the proximity of my speeding figure. And I felt the unquestionable shape of a large, granite foot fall loosely from the monster's lower limb._

_  
FWOOOSH!!! _

_Time resumed. My body materialized. I found myself spun about and standing in a meditative pose on a building side across the schoolyards where I had just rocketed my smoking self. A trail of obsidian mist settled in a straight line as my 'footsteps'._

_I panted._

_I kept frozen in my pose._

_I saw Cinderblock look at his dismembered limb confusedly._

_  
And he wasn't alone. _

_My black eyes narrowed under my shades._

_How could I have severed his limb?? _

_Slade's henchman is pure stone!!_

_Unless……_

_I gulped._

_It's not really Cinderblock. _

"…………"

_I heard the girl in blue mumble across the schoolyard: "Um……what in the world?"_

_The alien pointed right at me from afar. "LOOK!!"_

_Eyes on me._

_Specifically masked eyes. A dumbfounded caped crusader in the shadow of a partially-slain foe._

_I took a deep breath. I bowed my head halfway._

_Light glinted off my shades._

_The caped hero gasped._

_No time for introductions……_

_FWOOOOOSH!!!!_

_I felt the landscape dissipate around me as I shot myself back down the building, across the schoolyards, and towards the monster._

_The cyborg was pushing children and teachers out of the way: "Let's get out of here!! Go! Go!!"_

_RRRRRGHHH!!!!!! _

_I let out a silent howl. I ran and pounced onto Cinderblock. SLASH!!!! At the end of my swing, I teleported behind him with another slash. CRACK!! Then I reappeared to his side with another blow. CRACK!! Then again elsewhere. SMACK!! And again. SL-SLASH!! Again. SMACK!!_

_Limbs fell off of the monster. Sparkling limbs. Sparkling limbs of a robot doppelganger. _

_Slade was playing a trick with me. He was playing a trick with all of us. This was all supposed to have happened and yet never supposed to have happened._

_Things were being put into full motion._

_Full circle._

_But I didn't care._

_It was the death of a ghost and the birth of a union._

_FW-FW-FWISH!!! I jumped off the golem's torso, flipped, and landed in front of him. Snarling, I charged a fountain of smoke into my blade and shoved it up and hard into his chest. Piercing him. Struggling to hold his humongous weight up. I gritted my teeth. I dug deeper and deeper into the yawning chest cavity of the monster. I glanced right. I saw green eyes. Red hair. The alien Titan._

_  
The one with energy bolts……… _

_I struggled, freed a hand, and pointed at her._

_She nodded._

_  
I glanced to my other side. I saw the cyborg. I struggled. I pointed at him._

_You'd sure as Hell better have a gun on you…… _

_The young man ran up. "All right then!!" Kl-Kl-Klak-Ka-Klak!!! He aimed a sonic cannon at the beast being skewered by me._

_In my peripheral vision, I saw the caped crusader preparing a fan of explosive projectiles._

_Grinning……_

_Well, this is easy. _

_Just as the blue figure floated overhead and produced a protective shield--_

_SNKKKKKT!!!_

_I ripped Myrkblade out of Cinderblock's chest._

_The monster's body teetered over._

_Nnnngh!! _

_I flexed my leg muscles. I shot myself up._

_FW-FW-FW-FWISH!! I performed a spiraling slice with Myrkblade heavenward._

_SLIIIINK!!! _

_The doppelganger's hand was sliced off. The hand with the nuclear smart device._

_I descended, my body spinning. My leg sweeping out through the air…… _

_Special delivery!!_

_CL-CLANK!!!_

_I kicked the airborn device down towards the caped hero._

_PLOP!! _

_I landed._

_CHIIIING!!!_

_I sheathed Myrkblade. I held my breath. I dove towards the side-----_

_**FLASH!!! **_

_**BOOM!!!!**_

_**BOOM!!!**_

_The future kissed me with concussion from the combined punishment of three Titans on the nearby monster. _

_I fell to the floor and spun pleasantly into darkness._

_The wind had been knocked out of me and my brain went with it._

_KO………_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Sometime, I was aware of lying in Titans Tower's infirmary. _

_Sometime, I was aware of stirring in my medical bed._

_My shades were off._

_  
My body ached all over._

_  
I was in a strange place and yet a warm place all the same. _

_I felt that I was going to collapse again._

_The world under my eyelids turned twice as onyx._

_With a shuddering sigh, I reached two delirious hands up into the air and hand-signed to nobody and nothing._

_Strangers all alike._

'_Did someone forget the holy water?'_

_My last thoughts were on J. _

_I speculated on whether I would see him again or not._

_What he must have been thinking about me now._

_The children at the Norman Apartments and their red ball._

_  
The smell of salt in the air. _

_Ana trying on a summer frock._

_Cedar trees……_

_And…_

_I slept._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

The Zanzibar piers blended into the night.

Black warehouses bordered by black docks over black waters of the Bay.

It looked to me like a good summer home.

But I had very little time for amused thought.

I sat perched…..and cloaked…..atop a docked boat several feet away. I awaited the one soul I had blurredly circumnavigated.

"……………"

_Vrmmmmmmmm……_

Robin's R-Cycle coasted into view. It rolled to a gentle stop on the outskirts of the lot surrounding the warehouses. Robin was very slow and methodical about the way he parked…the way he stood up off his bike….the way he slipped off his helmet and embraced the night………

It was too liquid for the real McCoy.

"…………..," my black eyes narrowed.

I kept my vision trained on the 'Boy Wonder'. He slowly snuck his way towards the center of the three Zanzibar warehouses. He slid along the blackest walls that formed the side. He approached a window, reached into his utility belt, and produced expert materials for use in opening the latch of the window from the outside in.

I took a deep breath.

_Well……at least he has the intelligence and tenacity of 'Robin'._

I knew that it would only be a matter of time before the caped hero entered the warehouse. I also knew that I could quite possibly enter it faster. I hopped off the boat and landed nimbly on the docks. I took a deep breath. I concentrated. I cloaked myself with a shroud of murk. I crept forward on silent feet.

'Robin' was oblivious to me as I snuck past his rear and approached a window on the west side of the warehouse. I reached my hand up and felt for cracks and fissures in the window frame. Once I found one, I meditated, summoned a pulse of murk, and teleported myself through and inside…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOSH!!!!

I landed on the ground in a crouch and materialized immediately.

Panting.

It was dark.

I sensed I was in a closet or alcove of sorts.

Metal racks of canvass-covered items rested around and on either side of me.

"……….."

There was a sliver of light on the far end of the alcove. I sensed a cracked door leading towards a dimly-lit, large interior of the warehouse. And beyond it were voices….

I took a deep breath.

I crept forward.

Myrkblade brushed up against something.

I paused. I looked right.

The hilt of my blade had caught a strap of canvass covering a pile of something on a metal rack. Actually, something**s**. Small black canisters of somethings with detonators.

I exhaled.

_Carbonite……_

I turned and face the cracked door again.

I crept towards it.

The slit of light glinted off my shades.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was cloaked again when I entered the interior.

My black eyes scanned the floor.

Six men were gathered around a circle with two lamps on opposite sides of the room casting a lukewarm light.

They seemed in the middle of some sort of important, impromptu meeting.

_Gotta love coincidences……_

They looked like everyday people. Men in their twenties and thirties. Clean cut. Well shaved. Clothes neither refined or impoverished. I counted three jackets for autumn's cold night and two pairs of shades for no reason save for suspiciousness itself.

"….—not a rumor, but the truth. I've got an inside ear with my buddies up the street. The whole police department is in a buzz!"_  
_

"Yeah, but for what?"

"The H.I.V.E. bitch, dumbass! They're bringing her all the way here from Metropolis!"

"Looks like Decker is getting his prize after all."

"Does he seriously think she's going to say anything about what happened at the Omega Wing?"

"She'll tell eventually. She's a liability."

"It's not like she ever helped in operations."

"That's besides the point…."

"………," I felt vulnerable standing at their level. I glanced up. There were wooden crossbeams stretching over the interior. I headed towards a far wall, blurred up it in a blink, and perched myself invisibly on a crossbeam. I took a moment to breathe, meditate, and maintain my strenuous cloak. I relaxed. I crawled over till I was nearly over their heads and listened in…

"…she was a part of everything once before. But when the shit royally hit the fan, we had to lose a lot of loose ends. She was the loosest of them all."

"Funny, I could have sworn Anderson—"

"Anderson is dead. Let it rest."

"I'm trying to make a point here! Yes, Anderson is dead! But that Headmistress is alive! That's sorta breaking a pattern."

"Don't worry."

"What the Hell do you mean, 'Don't worry'?"

"The pattern will continue. Just you wait."

"What makes you say that? Word of mouth?"

"Heh…..not in this case."

"Huh?"

"Listen everyone…what really matters here is that ever since explosion, people have been anxious. Too anxious for our own good. Not only is Decker pushing his whole department into overdrive, but the Titans are also becoming more and more hardcore about patrolling this City. People are waking up. And we can't stay in the middle of it for much longer."

"What of the rogues?"

"The rogues?"

"Yeah…."

"You mean Jinx and the two others? I think we have worse to worry about right now."

"What do the Titans know? They've been thrown for loops before, and look! Sure enough…..it's happening again!"

A voice from the shadows droned: "Not tonight….."

Naturally, the six men gasped and spun to look. Half of them had pistols raised and pointing.

FWOOOSH!!! 'Robin' plopped down from a high point much like mine. He crouched from the impact then slowly stood up. He didn't have a single weapon drawn.

I watched warily from the crossbeams.

"You know lots of important information," Robin spoke monotonously as he slowly marched towards the six men. "Information about the prison bombing. About the fissure at H.I.V.E. And about terrorist interests in this City."

The men trained their weapons on the boy.

"Okay, freak. One more step and your head gets a 'fissure'! Hell, I just may shoot you no matter what you do!"

"What are you waiting for?! Blast his brains out!!"

"No! Don't!! H-He may have buddies of his in the shadows!!"

"The Titans?!!?!"

"………," I narrowed my eyes.

The boy was talking like Robin. He stood with clenched fists like Robin. But he didn't seem to care about the weapons aimed at him. He wasn't readying himself in any sort of battle preparation. He hadn't sprung into action or pounced on anyone or--

"The Titans are safe…," the boy slurred. "The last place they would ever be is here. After all, you would blow them sky high with all the carbonite you have."

"How…..H-How did he…..??"

"Look, Boy Wonder….if we wanted to blow you and your teammates up to high heaven, we would have done so long ago." C-Click! A thug cocked his pistol. "This City isn't yours. Not like you think. Not like you're going to die for."

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Are you certain you know who it is you're talking to?"

"…….."

The foremost thug walked forward with his pistol raised. "Okay, kid. Enough games. Tell us once and for all. Are you alone?"

Robin pointed at his face. "Look into my eyes when you ask that."

The thug's eyes thinned.

Robin stared.

The thug stared.

A numb pause…

FLASH!!!!

There was a pulse of green light.

The thug jerked in place and was still.

"Nnngh….," Robin uttered in a zombie fashion. His neck teetered limply and he fell to the floor, asleep. PLOP!!!

My jaw dropped.

The Boy Wonder lay limp on the ground.

In the meantime, the thug was frozen……aiming his pistol at naked air.

Another crook panted. "What…..Wh-What in the hell??"

"……..," the foremost gunman was silent.

"Ted?! Did you shoot him?! It looks like he just collapsed from a stroke or something!!"

"I…..," the gunman blinked. "…..I-I can't move."

"Ted??"

"Oh God!!!!" the gunman spun around suddenly….and aimed his gun at the others.

"!!!!!"

BANG!!!! B-BANG!!!

CLANK!! One pistol flew out of a man's hand.

SLINK!!! A second bullet grazed another's ankle. "Augh!!" He slumped to the floor.

"TED!! THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!!!"

"I-I….I can't stop!!! Somebody help me!!!" the man cackled while at the same time he madly swept the pistol across the room.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

The five crooks ducked and threw themselves to the floor. One dove suicidally at the gunman's feet and tackled him. TH-THWUMP!!!

They fell across the hard ground.

"Ooof!!"

"Nnngh!!!"

The gunman's body rolled across the floor unnaturally. He panted and aimed the gun at the tackler's forehead.

"Ted, knock it OFF!!!" he batted the gun out of the man's hand. CLANK!! He pounced on his chest and practically gripped his neck, nostrils flaring. "The Hell has gotten into you!!"

"I….I…."

The man yanked Ted's face up towards his. He frowned at him as they stared at each other nose to nose. "Give me one reason not to slit your damn throat right now!!"

Suddenly, Ted gasped. His eyes twitched.

The tackling thug's gaze narrowed.

And….

FLASH!!!!!

The tackler blinked.

Ted suddenly let out a huge sigh and slumped his head back to the floor. "I….I….It's over now…."

WHAM!!!!!

Ted went out cold as the tackling thug slammed his face in with a knuckle sandwich.

The man stood up swiftly. There was a look of horror on his face. "Holy shit!! What's happening?!?!"

Three of the other four men stood up, panting. The fourth man lay on the ground clutching a bloody ankle.

"Brandon?? Did you need to hit Ted so hard---?!?!"

SWOOSH!! The man reached over and grabbed a crowbar off a metal rack. He spun around with it gripped strongly in his hands. "Guys!! Look out—" SWIIIISH!! He tossed the metal projectile.

WHAM!!! It struck one of the thugs dead in the chest. He bent over and wheezed for breath.

"Brandon?!?!"

"He's gone insane too!!"

"Get ahold of yourself!!"

The two thugs standing rushed him.

Panting, the man found himself picking up a wooden crate. "No!! Wait!!" He trembled as he held the object over his head and tossed it at the incoming two. "It's not me!! Dammit!!!"

WOOOSH!! CRASH!! The crate exploded against one of the two thugs. "Augh!!!"

The last ran with gritting teeth and threw his fist at Brandon's head.

The man ducked the punch and expertly countered with an elbow to the attacker's chin. He then gripped the man's shoulder and slammed him against a nearby wall.

"Guys!! Knock me out!! Punch me unconscious or something!!" Brandon sweated. He marched over towards a wall and grabbed an axe out of a firebox. "Something's happening to me!!"

The thug hit in the stomach with the crowbar stumbled back up to his feet. "You're so full of shit, man!!"

"Oh god…," Brandon walked towards a lump of canvass-covered objects at the side of the warehouse. "The equipment!! Someone stop me!!"

"Brandon!! You idiot!!" the ankle-bleeding thug winced. "He'll kill us all if you ruin that!! You too!!"

"AAAAUGH!!! NO!!!!" the man lifted the axe and proceeded to hack into the canvass and shred apart the instruments inside. CRACK!!! THWACK!!! CRUNCH!!!

"Damn you!!" the crook struck with the crate limped up to his feet, scooped up a deflected pistol, and cocked it.

CRACK!!! Brandon chopped with the axe one last time. He turned and looked at the crook, panting.

The thug aimed the gun at him.

Brandon's eyes were wide.

The thug's optics twitched.

FLASH!!!!

Brandon slumped against the handle of the stuck axe.

"………..," the gunman blinked. A beat. He raised the pistol suddenly towards the ceiling. BLAM!!!!

The bullet whizzed by me. I flinched.

The gunshot struck its target. And the target turned out to be an aluminum chain support for a rack of electronic equipment above Brandon.

CLANK!!!

CRASSSSH!!!!

The devices tumbled down in a waterfall of chaotic debris that rolled off the axe-chopped objects and slammed into Brandon.

"OOF!!" the man fell down.

The gunman gasped as he suddenly pivoted and shot at random materials in storage, damaging them far beyond immaculateness.

BLAM!! BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

CRASH!! SMASH!!!

"Now he's going nuts!!" the bleeding man shouted.

The other thug from across the warehouse got up, clutching his side. Frowning, he ran across the warehouse and pounced on the gunman. "NNNNGH!!!"

WHUMP!!!

The two rolled across the floor, wrestling.

The gunman ended up on top of the other thug.

They struggled in each other's grip.

Their eyes locked.

And….

FLASH!!!!!

A pause of breath or something else.

The thug's legs lifted and kicked the gunman off him.

THWOOOSH!!!

"WAAAAAAUGH!!!" the gunman's body flailed as he arced through the air and landed in a painful collapse across the bleeding thug's body.

THWUMP!!!

"Nnnghhhhh….."

Both were out like a light.

The last thug stood up, panting. "Oh god…..Oh god….Oh god……Oh god….."

His breath was erratic. The expression of his face and the sound of his voice went against his actions. And his actions consisted of marching over to a table, grabbing a baseball bat, and continuing to smash canvass-covered equipment and electronic devices.

SMASH!!! THWACK!!! CRASH!!!

"Brandon?! Reynolds?! Ted?!?! Somebody!! Anybody!!"

SMACK!!! CRACK!!! WHACK!!

"Help me! P-Please!! I can't stop!! I-I can't….."

His body turned and approached a conspicuous pile of devices on the corner.

"Oh god….not the detonators!! STOP ME!! PLEASE!!!"

I had very little pity for the insane man dancing about destructively below me. I had very little sense either because I didn't know what the hell was going on. The one impulse that struck my head was that—regardless of any explanation—this man (and all others before him) was destroying evidence. And he was quite possibly on the verge of destroying the most important evidence of all.

So I pounced.

FWOOOOSH!!!!

His head tilted up in one single gasp.

SLAAAAASH!!!

CHIING!!

Myrkblade sliced his baseball bat in half.

He stumbled back, holding a wooden stub.

I landed, blurred my lower limbs, and swept a leg out.

WHUMP!!! I tripped him. His body fell to the earth.

I spun, pivoted, and slammed my foot into his airborne side.

THWAP!!!

He ragdolled across the floor, grunting.

TH-THWISH!! I twirled Myrkblade and dashed towards him.

The man stumbled up.

Teeth gritting, I slammed the broadside of my sword against his rib cage.

WHAM!!

"OOOF!!!" He exhaled harshly, bending over.

I spun. I readied my foot. I held my breath.

WHAM!!!!

I uppercutted him hard in the forehead with the sole of my boot…a blow that would knock any mortal unconscious.

And indeed, the man fell back across the cold, slippery floor. THWUMP!!

And to my utter shock….he was still twitching.

"?!?!?" I wasted no time. I ran. I dove. I landed on top of him, pinning him to the floor. I slammed the hilt of Myrkblade into his chest.

WHAM!!!

He jolted.

I slammed it into his ribcage.

THWACK!!!

He jerked.

I raised the hilt of Myrkblade again and prepared to give his skull a knock out punch--

'J'

I froze.

'J'

I blinked.

The man's unconscious right arm was lifted in the air. The three middle fingers were curled with the thumb wrapping over them and the pinky hooked outward.

'J'

My gaze narrowed on the silent man's body beneath me.

I exhaled.

_What in the Hell???_

**SLAM!!!**

I blinked.

**SLAM!!!**

I looked to my left.

**SLAM!!!**

Something was denting the warehouse wall inward from the outside.

**SMASH!!!!!**

A hole shattered open.

A raging beast stormed through. Cloud white eyes. Silver, armored plates. Two pointy horns. It took one look at me and flexed its muscular, furred arms.

"Nnnnnnghhhh!!!!"

My jaw dropped.

_Wildebeest?!?!?!_

STOMP!!! STOMP!!! STOMP!!

He charged forward, bent down, and backhanded me with a mountain of muscle.

WHAM!!!!

I flew off, spiraling across the claustrophobic air. Somewhere in the middle of my flight I blurred murk, shifted my flailing position in midair, and guided my feet flat against the inner wall of the warehouse. Smoke energy clung me to the surface as I spiraled Myrkblade into position and gritted my teeth, glaring at the invader across the way.

FWOOOOOOSH!!!! I kicked off the wall and flew at the monstrosity.

_RRRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!_

WHAM!!!! I slammed Myrkblade across his face. SMACK!!! I drew the sword back, impacting the opposite side of his skull. THWACK!!! I uppercutted him with the blade.

Wildebeest stumbled back, his cranium jerking about from my advancing punishment.

THWACK!!! WHAM!!! POW!!!

I spiraled three hundred and sixty degrees and slammed Myrkblade hard into his chest.

WHAM!!!

He flew back against the wall. He shook his head and growled.

I twirled Myrkblade and charged him blurredly. FWOOOOOSH!!!

He raised a fist.

WHAM!!!

My head ran into his knuckles.

My dashing legs slipped out and up from beneath me.

GRIP!!!

He grabbed me by my ankles.

"Nnnnghhh!!!"

He slammed me like a caveman's club against a metal rack of detonators.

CLANG!!!

And onto the floor.

WHACK!!!

I winced.

He raised his other fist to squash me.

I jabbed Myrkblade into his wrist.

CL-CLANK!! It impacted against his hard fur and skin.

He let go of me, wincing.

I held my breath and teleported myself up into and around him in a puff of smoke. I materialized with my back against the wall and my feet shoving against his shoulderblades.

TWHUMP!!!

He stumbled forward.

I fell to the ground with a heavy swing of Myrkblade to the back of his skull.

WHAM!!!!

He tumbled into a wooden table and bent over.

I dashed at his backside.

Wildebeest growled and spun with a heavy fist.

WHAM!!!

I was blown across the warehouse.

THWUMP!! My back slammed against the wall.

I winced.

TH-THWACK!!!

I gasped as I felt two piercing horns slice into the wall on either side of me.

Wildebeest had charged and headbutted the side of the warehouse. I was now pinned to the wall between his horns and forehead.

I fought and struggled in vain to get loose.

Before I could possibly teleport out--

GRIP!!!

His meaty hand encircled my torso.

Cr-Crack!!

He pulled his horns out, lifted his torso, and lifted my body in turn.

Snarling and breathing heatedly through his nostrils, he brought his hands up so that they wrapped around my neck.

I dropped Myrkblade and struggled against his furred fingers. I wheezed and struggled for breath while dangling.

Wildebeest's cloudy-white eyes narrowed menacingly.

He exhaled a grunt.

He started to apply pressured.

I lost my breath.

"………"

A shrill whistle.

The pressure lessened.

Wildebeest blinked. He looked down.

I panted. I looked down as well.

J stood looking up at us. A few months older than when I last saw him. Severe shadows different under his green eyes and blonde brow. But still no taller and still no thicker. The sight of his pure green eyes was hideously innocent among the quieting chaos of this destructive setting. The body of the last thug I had pounced on lay still by his feet.

I narrowed my black eyes.

_How did he get in here?!?!_

He hand-signed at me.

_No……not at me……_

I looked at Wildebeest.

The behemoth grunted as if in contention with the little boy. His eyes were thin from a furrowed brow.

I looked at J and found him hand-signing the same message again.

'_Let him go.'_

A beat.

Wildebeest whinnied. His hands released….

THWUMP!!!

I fell to the floor. I coughed, wheezed, and sputtered. I fell back and gathered my breath. My sides ached….big time.

Footsteps.

I looked up.

J stood above me. He stared. Blinking those green eyes. J's choice in clothes seemed darker than what I remembered. And a trace of loneliness in his youthful complexion seemed edgier. More rigid. Something that could slice mountains without a sound.

I merely panted. My shaded eyes weak.

An awkward shade of yesterday…..

_He looks more noirish than I ever did._

He hand-signed: 'Please do not follow us, old friend.'

I raised my eyebrows.

Wildebeest was stomping his way towards the hole in the warehouse wall. J was backing up slowly to join him. The beast waited for his small companion at the exit.

'My job here is finished for now. Stay with Robin. He needs you.'

I managed to hand-sign back: 'What are you doing here?? What is it that you, Jinx, and Pulsade want?'

He replied. And when he did so, his face was deadpan. Changed. Absent of the joyful little boy of very recent 'olde'.

'I cannot tell you. But I assure you, someday you will know. But hopefully then it will not be bloody lesson.'

'Bloody?'

'Red, Noir. Red.' He took a deep breath and walked over to Wildebeest.

Wildebeest gave J a boost, and soon the boy was perched on his hairy shoulder. The beast protectively held J in place, all the while giving me an unforgettable glare. He exhaled through his nostrils and stomped out of the warehouse and into the darkness of night beyond.

I was far too beat to possibly give chase.

Besides….

I heard a stirring sound.

A….whimpering….stirring sound.

I looked to my left.

I took a sharp breath.

Robin was coming to.

And he was shivering all over.

Wincing, I practically dragged myself over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Robin gasped. He sat up halfway. His eyemask was around and….there was moisture on the edges.

His lips quivered.

"It's gone……"

"……………."

"I…..I'm…….," he hugged himself. He shivered. "So cold…..so damn cold….." He shook his head and shuddered. There was a cracking sensation to his voice. Like a creaky lid to a bird cage sliding shut. "I had it….and then I lost it again. The warmth. It's g-gone. Starfire…..Starfire please….." He ran a gloved hand over his face and shuddered. "So cold……so….c-cold……"

The Boy Wonder began to shake and sob. The Titan Leader was crumbling before me.

I took a deep breath. I wasn't Starfire. I wasn't a girl. I was just a young man with a sword. So I did the best thing a young man with a sword could do.

I looked away….and said nothing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hours later….

Police squad cars gathered around the Zanzibar piers. The thugs from within the warehouse—in various conditions of bruises—were lead into police vans for relocation. Investigators filed in and out and around the structure. Robin and I were nowhere to be seen, but four of the other Titans were there. Chiefly speaking, Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, and Tempest.

Cyborg was busy speaking to Commissioner Decker at the scene.

"Noir returned Robin to the Tower shortly after we got here. Our leader's doing fine from what we heard. We're all still in the gray area concerning just what in the heck happened to him. Last time I checked, he didn't want to be talked to."

"And the smokester?"

"Noir went out into the City on his own," Cyborg muttered. "He didn't say where he was going."

"You don't sound so enthused."

"I'm acting leader of the Titans at the moment," Cyborg shrugged. "I feel like I have all of this on my shoulders. Problem is, I don't know exactly what _this_ is."

"You don't say," Decker puffed on a cigarette, swiveled about, and pointed at the centermost warehouse. "Imagine bushels of carbonite explosives, detonators for all of them piled high on top of each other, smart devices for other explosives, and even a crate or two of high-tech, smuggled laser rifles to boot."

Cyborg whistled. "Now there's a jackpot."

"And you're tellin' me that the Boy Whoopass found this place out and smacked the thugs all _in his sleep_?!?!" Decker cackled.

Cyborg winced. "That…..still remains to be debated."

"The Hell does that mean??"

"Look, Commissioner….there's been a lot of confusing things going on…," Cyborg shrugged. "Give us a break, alright? We've been working hard around the clock to figure out the loose ends of this explosive conspiracy. The fact that this warehouse was found practically overnight shocks us as much as it shocks you. But personally….I don't give a damn. It's pulling us in the right direction. Now what's there to be frustrated about _that?_"

A beat.

Decker smirked. "Absolutely nothing at all. This development is the third best thing God sent to earth following Jesus Christ and mammary glands. I'm just wondering how the little tights-wearing shrimp did it, is all!"

"You're gonna have to wait for another time, Commissioner," Cyborg sighed. "Maybe when the Headmistress of H.I.V.E. gets here…we can cross examine her for information that could shed some light on why……all of _this_ is here."

"Well, I'm sure as Hell cross-examining someone," Decker flicked his cigarette and grinded it into the ground with his shoe. "Especially after what we found in the shadowy goons' closet."

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Why? What is it that you found?"

Decker looked up. Deadpan. "Three and a half cartons of illegal Dragonflare."

"……..," Cyborg blinked. "Dragonflare?"

Decker nodded.

"Like the stuff the guys working for Dagger were once addicted to?"

"The same crap."

Cyborg looked off towards some distant horizon. "What's up with that?"

"Hell if I know, Cypress."

"Cyborg."

"But believe you me….we're gonna get to the bottom of it," Decker put on a haunting smile. "If both my department and your Titans get _this_ lucky by accident….imagine how many results we'll get when we're actually **accomplishing** something?"

"Yeah….imagine that…."

The lieutenant rushed forward from the squad-car-lit background. "Uhm….sir? We've got a message for you."

"Found something else in that rathole?"

"No sir. It's about the Headmistress' transport here. State trooper's radio signal."

"Ah. Stuff I'd like to hear, I bet," Decker put on a smug smile. He waved at Cyborg. "Catch up to you in a minute, robo-kid. I gotta take this." He walked off with his lieutenant. "Patch me through to the squad car."

"Yes, sir."

Cyborg sighed, stared at the warehouse, and rubbed the human half of his skull.

Raven walked over. "I checked with Starfire over the communicator," she droned. "Robin is fully awake and in good health."

"Yeah…," Cyborg mumbled. "How about good state of mind?"

Raven blinked. "He's being his usual……….edgy self."

"Well, that's a good thing…..I think," Cyborg remarked.

"If it helps you feel solaced at all," Raven gestured. "The presence that was in Robin since last night…I did not sense it in him when Noir returned him to the Tower."

"So….he really is back to 'Robin', huh?"

"Correct."

"But it's just so creepy….," Cyborg shuddered. "None of us could tell that he was being….b-being controlled! He was acting like the Robin we all know!"

"Because for the most part he _was_ the Robin we all know," Raven said. "Whatever entity possessed him, it was taking a very passive role. Essentially 'nesting' inside of Robin and only controlling him when it knew that Robin wouldn't be conscious of the manipulation."

"Like in his sleep….," Cyborg said.

Raven nodded. "Including when Robin ventured forth to the Zanzibar Piers. Our leader was asleep. I believe it was only at that time that the entity could control his voice."

"Noir says it was 'J' the whole time…," Cyborg spoke. He frowned. "The computer hacker is….also capable of telepathic manipulation or something?"

"I think he is merely an astral projector and possessor," Raven spoke. "He can lose bodily form and inhabit another's fleshly shell. It may be a talent of 'J'. When I was in Azarath, there were some acolytes who practiced to master the art without much success. Nobody could have predicted that 'J' was in Robin."

"Except you and Noir," Cyborg smirked. "You know, it never fails."

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

The android shook his head. "Never mind. I'm just glad that Robin's back to being Robin. Now we can make _real_ progress with the material we have available to us."

"You must admit….," Raven folded her arms. "As much as 'J' took control of our leader under our very noses, he did help us immensely."

"You mean with all this carbonite and weaponry and Dragonflare and stuff?"

Raven nodded.

Cyborg shrugged: "Yeah…but why? First 'J' helped you and Robin find Noir at the Academy. Then this thing with the investigation. It seems too good to be true. What if we're being manipulated again?"

"If this is the 'J' we're all thinking of, he's allied with Jinx and Pulsade," Raven droned. "Both of those girls spared Noir's life on a couple of occasions. I may be going out on a limb here….but I think they are awkwardly benevolent in this case."

Cyborg smirked. "Gee, Rae…..that's the most optimistic thing about pure strangers I've heard you say ever."

"Yes," Raven nodded. "It's a disgusting habit."

Cyborg chuckled. "You're cute when you're confused."

Raven frowned. "I'm not the one confused."

"Well I'm not the one who's cute!"

Raven's eyes trailed. A slight smirk.

Cyborg blinked.

"Ask her out for a sundae!!" Beast Boy cackled from the distance.

Cyborg spun. "Man, shut up dawg!!"

Tempest and Beast Boy laughed.

Cyborg fumed.

Raven was covering her mouth.

"What's up with you?" Cyborg stared down at her.

"Even a dark mind like mine wanders," she said, her feather-light smirk fading.

Cyborg sighed. "As long as it's just your mind."

Just then, Commissioner Decker walked back up. But something was different. His gait was sluggish. His face was pale.

Cyborg's lips parted. "Commish….what's up? You look dead."

"……..," Decker ran a stressed hand over a cold brown and sighed.

Raven blinked. "Something happened……"

Decker slowly nodded.

Cyborg leaned forward. "The caravan from Metropolis….," the android muttered.

Decker swallowed. He said: "When it rains, it shits…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I looked all over the City for 'J' and Wildebeest.

I blurred through the alleyways, streets, and courtyards.

I ran up building sides, perched on rooftops, and scanned the urban sprawl with wide black eyes.

The boy was nowhere to be found. Neither was his furred friend.

The search went on for an hour….two hours….three….

I felt almost as exhausted as Robin. But perhaps I had been asleep all along. I didn't care.

I couldn't find J…and for that, I felt like a failure.

My sprinting turned into lethargic walking.

I found myself drifting through graveyards of my mind.

The L-Train track.

The old bazaars under nightfall.

The basketball courts and the abandoned construction sites.

I couldn't bear to walk within eyesight of the Norman Apartments, so instead I turned south.

I walked and walked and found myself coming to a tired stop in front of a familiar structure.

A seven-story, abandoned apartment structure.

Wooden boards stretching over the black window frames.

Empty, dusty, dead.

"………"

I slowly, sluggishly walked in.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The steps were as decrepit as ever.

The newspaper scraps and blanket fragments lingered in the corners of the stairwells as I marched my creaking way upwards.

There were no sleeping bums this time.

It felt as if the population of the world died since the last time I was there.

The creaking stopped as I stopped and the ascent stopped.

"…….."

I peered into a familiar hallway.

A beat.

I walked down it.

I turned into the room.

The room where once there were candles, a cot, and laptops.

Now there were none.

It looked as dead and dry as the rest of the building.

"……………."

I exhaled.

A beat.

I turned around.

I faced the hallway.

I began to march my way down.

………….piano music.

I stopped.

I craned my neck.

………..soft, piano music.

I turned and gazed at the lonely stairs leading up into the loft above.

Music drifted down.

Sacred and lonely.

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked up the stairs.

It was almost pitch black in the room, save for two streams of moonlight wafting in through the spaces between the window boards. The moonlight streams settled on the unmistakable blondeness of J. The boy sat at the dusty piano, playing a melancholy tune. Patiently.

"…………" I stared at him. My gaze thinned beneath my shades. I glanced left somewhat.

There was a huge furry mass in the darkest corner besides J. A furry mass with heavy, muscular arms. It glared at me, nostrils gently flaring.

"…………."

I took a deep breath and looked at J again.

The petite young man finished the last keystroke and sat back. A beat. He sighed, faced me, and hand-signed: 'I knew that you would come here.'

I glanced at Wildebeest in the dark. I glanced back at J. I gestured:

'So you were looking for me the whole time? Not the other way around?'

He merely shrugged.

Silence.

He stood up. He quietly shuffled forward a few steps. He came to a stop six feet away from me.

"…….," he stared at me.

"……," I tilted my head down to meet his gaze.

He took a deep breath and gestured: 'I had to do it. I was not going to hurt Robin in any way. You were there at the warehouse. You saw how Robin was safe.'

I hand-signed swiftly back: 'He may have been safe. But he was still in danger.' I glared.

J swallowed. He replied: 'I was afraid that you would disagree.'

'You were afraid??' I emphatically gestured back. 'What did you expect? Robin is my leader. He is my friend. He has entrusted me as his number two subordinate. His security means the Titan's security and that means a lot to me.'

J shook his head. He had an expression that was somewhere between pride and sorrow. 'You have changed so much, Noir.'

I raised an eyebrow.

'Look at you,' he pointed. 'At one time, you wanted nothing to do with the Titans. You could care less about being a superhero for the entire City. You would rather have died than work with others. But now….' His gesturing lingered off. His green eyes fell on my left arm.

I curled metal fingers.

I shivered once, but hid it as I gestured: 'Are you supposed to be happy now? Did I do all that you wanted of me, J? I chose to stay with the Titans.'

'Why?'

"…………."

'Why?'

"………..," I took a deep breath. 'Probably because I am stupid.'

J smiled. 'I do not think it is stupidity. I believe that you have found a family.'

'Well maybe I have,' I hand-signed. 'But I do not find a family by controlling the members in it. But rather, I give myself up for them the moment I can.'

'Do you think I am without sacrifice too, Noir?' J hand-signed. 'Do you know how dangerous it was to help Robin—'

I practically snarled. I hand-signed in a flurry: 'Stop saying that you **helped** us!!'

'But I did—'

'No you did not!!' I gestured. 'Controlling is never helping.'

'The situation at hand is most dire!' he signed.

I took a deep breath. 'Do you know who last controlled Robin like that? It was Slade.'

J recoiled sharply as if stabbed in the gut. He trembled all over.

I seethed. I meant for that last statement to be emphatic. I didn't mean for it to have _that_ intense of an impact.

J looked on the verge of tears. A horrific expression washed over his face as I imagined his brain and heart boiling together into a sickly compound.

Wildebeest shifted nervously in the corner, not sure whether or not J was in legitimate duress.

I took the chance to twist the dagger: 'It was Slade that controlled Robin, J. He did the same to Terra. He did the same to me. And on all three, disastrous occasions he controlled the Titans. And he controlled the City. Do you want to prove yourself as a benevolent spirit, J? Fast using those powers of yours. The more you use them, the more you are like Slade. And that is just plain pathetic, considering how much you obsessed with him and now he is dead.'

J swallowed a lump in his scarred throat and hand-signed shakily: 'I know he is dead. Because you killed him.'

I stared silently.

His lips quivered. He strengthened his posture and signed: 'You have a dark side, Noir. I never saw it before. At a time, I thought your past did not matter. I still do not know anything about you. I do not know what Slade sought to manipulate and Dagger sought to control. But there is something quintessential of death in you. And you wielded death in such a way that Slade could not compare at the time.'

'Slade is gone. He brought himself his own end. Is that not what you wanted?'

'I do not blame you for choosing to kill Slade,' J hand-signed. 'But Noir….think about it….'

"…….," I blinked.

J's eyes were round and glisteningly green. He gestured: 'What went through your mind, Noir?'

"………"

'What went through your mind the moment you killed Slade?'

"…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!_

_  
I drove Myrkblade into Slade. _

_To the hilt._

_I leaned my head over his shoulder._

_My lips parted._

_I breathed through them……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

'I…..," I started hand signing. A beat. I swallowed.

"……," J stared.

Wildebeest's cloudy eyes loomed in the corner.

I took a breath. 'I….I was thinking about my friends.'

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools………"_

_I panted over Slade's shoulder._

_My naked black eyes picked up the Titans in their torture chairs._

_All of them gazing at me. _

_Helpless._

_I swallowed._

_I gripped Myrkblade._

_More breaths filtered through my lips._

_Twitching optics._

_  
And…… _

_SLAAAASH!!!!_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

'I thought about their safety. About all the hell Slade had put them through. How much I wanted to save them….'

My hands fell.

Silence.

J slowly hung his head. He shook it. He looked back up and hand-signed: 'That is not true and you know it.'

"……….."

'Do not tell me you forget, Noir,' he gestured. 'Certainly you know what you felt. Surely you know what you gave Slade. How could you forget the wrath and anger of Death itself?'

I made a face. I hand-signed: 'You know nothing.'

'Do I not?' J gestured. 'You must believe me. Jinx and Pulsade and I….we are working in places you have not begun to imagine yet. Such dark, scary places.'

'I am not a stranger to those….'

J slowly nodded. 'And I think Slade found that out.'

"………"

The boy glanced over his shoulder. He whistled.

Wildebeest marched menacingly into the slits of moonlight.

I held my position firmly.

J turned to face me. Wounded, lonely green eyes. He gestured: 'We are both going to reunite with the girls. We will be watching you and the Titans.'

'Somehow I do not doubt that,' I gestured. 'Tell me, J. Are you a superhero now?'

He stared at me for a few seconds before somberly shaking his head and gesturing: 'I am a ghost.'

My lips parted.

J slowly turned about and walked down the steps like a small corpse. Wildebeest protectively took up the rear, glaring at me a warning as he did so.

"…….," I stared. Soon I was alone with the piano. The dead and dusty voice of J.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Raaugh!!"

THWAP!!!

"HA-TAA!!"

SMACK!!!

"RRGHHH!!"

WHAM!!!

The noise rang through the Titan's gym, intermittently connected by panting and gasps.

Slowly, Starfire floated in and hovered at the doorway. She leaned a pensive hand on the frame and worriedly glanced in. After a pause, she swallowed and murmured: "R-Robin? There is a message f-from Cyborg."

"YAAAUGH!!" Robin spun and slammed his knee into the punching bag. Sweating all over, he paced himself in place and performed two heavy jabs. "HAA!! YAAAUGH!!"

WHAP!! SM-SMACK!!

Starfire blinked. "They….Th-They are taking the T-Car to the Metropolitan Highway. Decker's contacts told him that something bad happened to the Headmistress' caravan."

"RRRRRRRGH!!!" Robin jabbed the punching bag hard. WHAM!!! He leaned against it, panting. Sweating. Panting some more. He swallowed and nodded with a thin eyemask. "Okay, Starfire. Thanks for the update."

"They…Th-They say that the news reported by Decker's men are most distressing and it may be a while before they arrive at—"

"Look, I heard you the first time, OKAY?!?!" Robin growled. "Will you please…j-just….leave me alone?!?! Do you have any idea…ANY idea how much I nearly lost it back at that warehouse?!?!"

Starfire cringed. Her face tensed and moisture formed at the corners of her green eyes. "I….I-I am exceedingly sorry, Robin. You n-need your time to recover. I shall endeavor t-to leave you be…."

Robin took a breath and kicked the punching bag hard. SMACK!!!

Starfire turned around, hugging herself. She sighed and drifted towards the Tower's hallway--

"Starfire……."

The Tamaranian froze. Weakly, she turned around and gazed at him.

Robin was hunched over against the punching bag. His back was to her. His head hung.

In between panting breaths, he spoke: "The first time…..I ever battled the Scarecrow, I was twelve years old. I had just recently joined Batman as Robin. I hadn't been the Boy Wonder for more than three months. Batman, Batgirl, and I stormed in on the Scarecrow's headquarters. I thought the creep was a cakewalk to beat. In the ensuing battle, I ran straight towards him. Fists throwing. I was brash and reckless. I planned to land him in one punch. I didn't. He whipped out a canister of fear gas and tossed it at my feet. I inhaled it in a single gasp. The fight was barely twenty seconds in the making and already I was a liability."

Robin stood up straight, his back still to Starfire. His gloved fists hung tightly at his side.

"Scarecrow was defeated, but it was not the end of our ordeal. I was hallucinating for three solid days and nights. I had to be strapped down to a special bed in the Batcave's infirmary. I would scream at the top of my lungs because I saw unimaginable things tearing my intestines out with my eyes opened or closed. I called out for….f-for my mom and dad. For people I only knew of in name but had never seen before. I passed out and suffered nightmares twice as bad as the waking world's delusions. If I could have killed myself, I would have. I have Batman's tenacity to thank for ever pulling through that."

Starfire had her hands cupped close up to her face. She bit her lip sorrowfully as she listened.

Robin slowly turned around. His eyemask was around. He faced Starfire.

"That was the first time I ever felt what it was like to lose my mind. To lose my grip on things. To be utterly weak and incapable of saving myself. I promised myself after that to—first of all—not be so stupid as to rush a villain like that ill prepared. But I also promised myself that never again—as Robin—would I ever put myself in a position where I would lose my grip on things, or become incapable of saving myself, or…..or c-cry…."

A beat.

He ran a shaking glove through his spikes of black hair. He sighed.

"The last twenty four hours, Starfire…..," he gazed at her intently. He swallowed. "I d-did not lose my mind."

Starfire stared at him.

He went on: "I did not lose my mind. And…..A-And I can't for the life of me figure out what it was that happened t-to me." He gazed at the ground. "For a moment….I-I felt so free. So….So warm. The dream changed, Starfire. I would never have told you about it much less felt inclined to express a need to share it if it wasn't for….f-for that reminder I was given." He hugged his sweaty self and leaned back against the punching bag. "That r-reminder of the idealist I once was. When I wasn't so concerned about my _mind_….but instead about my heart."

A long beat.

He stared up at Starfire from afar. His voice was shaking somewhat: "You are the best thing to ever have happened to me, Star. I meant it when I f-first told you that last night. And I mean it now. It is just that….th-that….," he shook somewhat. He spat it out: "I can't always…….e-express it." A beat. "N-Not when I am really….'myself'…."

Starfire took a shuddering breath. "I….I understand, Robin….," she painfully nodded.

"I……," Robin shook his head. He sighed and stared at the floor. "….I just need time….t-to gather my senses. To try and start to…..understand myself." A beat. He glanced up: "I wouldn't doubt it if you know who Robin is better than I do, Star."

"And of the boy beneath?"

Robin bit his lip. He was mute.

Starfire hung her head. "I see….."

Silence.

"Robin…..?"

"Y-Yes, Star?"

"Would it….W-Would it be too much to ask sometime if…..," she hugged herself and avoided his gaze. "….if sometime you were to….l-let me hold you again sometime??" She trailed her eye until it finally set on him again. "Like you did yesterday? Would you be so willing to let me h-hold you again?"

A beat.

Robin smiled softly. "Yeah, Starfire…..that sounds doable…."

Her cheeks flushed. She giggled under her breath with her eyes shut. "That is…..m-most glorious…."

Robin kept smiling.

Silence.

"I….I will let you be…..f-for now….," Starfire said. She floated out of the gym the same way she entered, only with an added ounce of vigor.

"……….," Robin's smile slowly faded as she was gone. He stood there, resting against the punching bag for a few minutes before slowly shuffling across the gym and leaving for his room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Schwissh!!

Robin walked into his room.

Schwiish!!

The door shut behind him.

"……….."

He sighed.

A beat.

He looked over at his bedside table.

"………"

He started. He hesitated. He walked over.

The drawer to the bedside table opened.

His gloved hand reached in and took the picture frame.

Robin stared at the grainy image of the bus terminal. The feminine figure placed daintily in the center of the image.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. His gloved fingers traced the picture. But when he touched the glass, he could feel the cold.

"…….."

Robin flinched. Robin shook. Robin snarled.

SWOOOOSH!!

He tossed the picture frame to the floor.

CRACK!!!! His boot smashed down over it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!"

After the convulsing yell…

He fell to his knees amidst the glass shards and frame splinters.

He hyperventilated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on my bed.

With the laptop.

Typing.

**InzeUltima: I wonder….do you have ANYONE besides me on your buddy list? Oo**

**SpSquirrel: Hey, I got something on my mind.**

**InzeUltima: Do tell. I read some of your messages while I was away. Is everything OK?**

I took a deep breath, typing…

**SpSquirrel: Do I frighten you, Kara?**

**InzeUltima: Excuse me?**

**SpSquirrel: Let me rephrase that….. Do you think I'm a true superhero?**

**InzeUltima: Of course you are! hehehe What else would you be, Jordan?**

I blinked my naked black eyes.

**SpSquirrel: A ghost?**

**InzeUltima: Quite a sexy ghost I might add**

**SpSquirrel: You're not helping.**

**InzeUltima: Well what do you want me to say? I think it's ludicrous to doubt your heroism in your case. Understandable, perhaps….but ludicrous.**

**SpSquirrel: Understandable?**

**InzeUltima: You're so badass, Jordan. Sure, you can be dark when you take on your enemies. But that works just fine!**

**SpSquirrel: Am I really badass? Could I be something else?**

**InzeUltima: Like what, Jordan? Tell me whats on your mind. Thats what im here for**

I took a deep breath. I rubbed my temples under the lantern light.

A beat.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Someone has very recently started me thinking.**

**InzeUltima: about…..**

**SpSquirrel: Why exactly I had to kill Slade.**

A pause. I waited for Kara's response.

It came.

**InzeUltima: You did what you had to do, Jordan.**

**SpSquirrel: I know. For my friends, right?**

**InzeUltima: You sacrificed everything for them. That is true love and commitment.**

**SpSquirrel: Was it 'true love' that killed Slade?**

**InzeUltima: I'm prone to believe it. But you know what, Jordan? I wasn't there. I wasn't in your head when Slade was killed. You were. If anyone knows why Slade had to die, it was you.**

"……….."

**InzeUltima: But I believe in you, Jordan. Slade deserved to die ten times over for what he did.**

**SpSquirrel: But still…that doesn't make death excusable. I joined the Titans on an impulse. An impulse to stop a horror that spread death. And in the end, it was death—at my hand—that stopped the spread of that very death. I've stayed with the Titans ever since because….**

And my typing lingered. I wasn't even sure why I sent that last message.

**InzeUltima: Having a brain fart?**

I exhaled.

**SpSquirrel: Yeah….**

**InzeUltima: Well, let's put it in this perspective Jordan…**

**SpSquirrel: Okay….**

**InzeUltima: What was going through your mind the moment you killed Slade?**

I froze.

_That same question…… _

_Damn……_

My brow furrowed.

**InzeUltima: What was it that you were thinking when you drove that badass sword of yours through him?**

I took a deep breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLIIIIINK!!!! _

_I drove Myrkblade through Slade._

_To the hilt._

_He jerked on my skewering weapon._

_I leaned towards him._

_Blood……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SpSquirrel: I was thinking about my friends.**

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: I wanted to save them. I wanted their pain and anguish to end. I lost my damn arm for them.**

My eyes trailed off.

They danced—stabbed—with the flickering lantern light.

My flesh and metal fingers moved without thinking.

**SpSquirrel: But…….I was thinking…….**

A beat.

**InzeUltima: Thinking what, Jordan? What was going through your mind??**

"…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLIIIIIINK!!!! _

_Slade jerked._

_I leaned forward._

_I panted over his shoulder._

_Gazing through the window of the ship._

_Out through the circular, spider web panels._

_The black waters._

_The cold and lonely moonlight._

_A reflection of silver and white._

_Ana's screams_

_The cedar trees burning._

_Bleeding from the neck down on a lonely rock in the middle of a cold field._

_My lips opened. _

_A breath came out._

_Mute…hoarse…_

_Searching for vocal cords that were ripped from me._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

My lips quivered.

My heart pounded.

I typed on the laptop without looking.

**SpSquirrel: I……I said something, Kara….**

Breaths came out of my lips in short, articulate bursts.

My black eyes twitched.

The lantern light laughed and howled.

**SpSquirrel: I 'said' something into Slade's ear…..**

**InzeUltima: What did you say, Jordan?**

My black eyes narrowed.

I gazed through the blaze.

At some frighteningly cold wasteland in the dark of everyone's eyelids.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLIIIIIIIIINK!!! _

_I skewered Slade._

_He leaned over me._

_I leaned over him._

_The window silhouetted us._

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools………"_

_I gripped hard to Myrkblade with my one, right hand. _

_My left stub throbbed painfully._

_I felt a shiver run up my whole body._

_A prophecy of cold that chilled me from the bones outward._

_My lips opened._

_A breath filtered through them._

_I spoke silently words that only a mute's mind can imagine or 'hear'._

_Into Slade's ear……_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I hope you fucking burn.

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_**SLASSSSSH!!!!!!!!**_

_I ripped Myrkblade up. _

_Dividing Slade's torso._

_Screaming serratedly out of his shoulder._

_And…_

_A fountain._

_A fountain of blood._

_  
It soared out of his upper half. _

_It spilled out of his breathing mask._

_It arced over me and nearly reached the ceiling._

_Red._

_Endless red._

_The pure discharge of a breath and hand of utter, immaculate Destruction._

_And I screamed silently at the end of my upswing._

_And I practically drank and breathed in the blood._

_The corners of my eyes washed over and blinked in a split second of pale white. Like the rolling eyes of a shark. And they were black once again as they always were._

"_SNKKKKKTTT!!!"_

_Slade twitched, convulsed, and fell back in a wet red curtain._

_**SHATTER!!!!!!**_

_His corpse flew through the window and was buried in the churning, Atlantic grave beyond._

_And I panted…gripping Myrkblade one-handed……drenched inside out in Red._

_Stronger._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gripped my metal wrist.

I gritted my teeth and shuddered.

The chill ran through me like an ice pick through my spine.

_RRRed Aviarrrrry……_

I panted.

I swallowed.

I composed myself and typed:

**SpSquirrel: I wanted him dead, Kara.**

A beat.

I sighed and typed.

**SpSquirrel: God, I wanted him to die so much……**

A beat.

**InzeUltima: I am glad he's dead too, Jordan.**

I clenched my black eyes shut.

A lump in my throat….

I swallowed it away, reopened my optics, and typed:

**SpSquirrel: Do superheroes wish people dead? Or is that a ghost's curse?**

Silence.

The electronic response:

**InzeUltima: Some people kill, Jordan. And some people save. And what is a savior without bloodletting?**

I took a deep breath.

**SpSquirrel: I don't feel like either a superhero or a savior, Kara. I'm not the virtuous person I joined the Titans to be.**

**InzeUltima: Did you join the Titans because you were virtuous, Jordan?**

"…….."

**InzeUltima: Or did you join them so that you could have a family?**

I took a deep breath. The lump was back in my throat, but this time I didn't push it away.

I smiled painfully and typed:

**SpSquirrel: Right on, Kara. Right on.**

**InzeUltima: And it's such a beautiful family too, Jordan. It truly is. I wish so much I could be a part of it. It would deeply……deeply honor me to be sacrificed for so. And you know what? You have done that for me. In a lot of ways you have.**

"…….."

**InzeUltima: If Slade got in the way of all that….I would wish him dead too.**

I inhaled.

**SpSquirrel: Yeah…..perhaps so….**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was chaos on the Metropolitan Highway.

State trooper cars blocked off all lanes of traffic.

The prison van carrying the Headmistress had crashed through the middle barrier and now it rested on its side.

The motorcycles and squad cars of the van's escorts lay strewn around in a semi-circle.

There were bullet holes and slash marks in the concrete of the divide, the asphalt of the road, and the aluminum of the vehicles.

And….

Huge spots of red.

Crimson red.

Splotched all across the concrete earth.

Squad cars and rescue crews formed a halo around the massacre.

Their lights fought the rising sunrise's glow.

It was at such a scene that the T-Car rolled up.

Cyborg cut the engine, parked, and stepped out. "My god….," he murmured.

Raven floated out, blinking.

Cyborg exchanged glances with her.

A beat.

They both walked forward slowly towards the scene.

As they approached, a slightly aged state trooper marched up to him. He adjusted his hat instinctively and with a long face spoke: "Did the Commissioner tell you the details?"

Cyborg slowly shook his head.

"He did not…," Raven said. "But he was very distressed." A beat. "Is anyone alive?"

The trooper shook his head. "Not a single one."

"Wh-What happened to them?" Cyborg asked.

The trooper's eyes fell to the asphalt. A beat. He looked up again and motioned with two fingers. "Come. Take a look for yourself."

The two Titans nodded. They filed in after the man. They walked past delirious, numb troopers and paramedics. They seemed confused, overwhelmed, disgusted. One was actually throwing up as they passed by.

"……," Raven gazed. "Something feels……hauntingly familiar."

Cyborg glanced at her. "What is it?" he whispered.

Raven shook her head. "A trail. A scent of some presence. Something cold and ruthless."

"You say it's familiar?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it…."

"There," the state trooper pointed.

The Titans froze.

Their gazes narrowed.

Resting up against the overturned top of the prison van were the bodies of the dead. The Headmistress lay in the center. The dead troopers rested up against her side like some bizarre altar peace.

The Headmistress was dead. There was a deep, vertical slit in her throat. The impression of a razor-sharp broadsword.

The state troopers' corpses were identical in their punishment. Slit throats leaked with dry, brown and caking blood.

"We wanted you Titans to take a close look….," the man removed his hat and rubbed a graying head of hair. "Decker says….y'all have seen this sort of thing before. In the City."

In response to that, Raven and Cyborg's gaze fell.

And they realized that the dead Headmistress and troopers' corpses all had one haunting thing in common.

All of their right hands had been neatly and expertly sliced off at the wrist.

"………….."

Cyborg and Raven gazed at each other.

"…………."

They gazed again at the corpses.

The bloody right stubs glistened in the morning light


	158. Whispers part 1

**158. Whispers part 1**

He was hyperventilating.

His breath came out in thin vapors as he scrambled forward on all fours.

Thin, autumn-eaten trees stood coldly on either side of his awkward flight.

Moonlight filtered down through the trees in an awkward refraction of purplish hue.

Like the end of the world.

The end of life.

Arteries throbbed in the man's forehead.

Sweat ran down his neck and clung to his shoulders.

He was wearing a bathrobe and sandals in the cold dirt and soil.

Bloodstains laughed across the white folds.

He tripped and stumbled to the earth.

"Ooof!!"

He pressed himself up and looked over his shoulder.

Panting.

Nothing.

Silence.

The man swallowed.

He struggled up to his feet.

He ran forward again.

Numb in the cold breeze.

The cold air.

The mountain started to slope downwards.

He began skidding and sliding sideways downhill.

He struggled to regain his footing.

He pushed against trees to keep from getting a face full of bark.

He heard the distant shouts and engines of his henchmen trying to find him.

Trying to save him.

He gasped and panted…

…but couldn't bring himself to shout for help.

If he made any sound, he would be heard.

He looked over his shoulder again.

Still nothing.

Still silence.

He was short on breath.

He came to a clearing in the mountainous forest.

His vision nearly blacked out on him.

He wiped his brow, shook his head, and leaned forward.

He planted a hand on the nearest tree.

He leaned against it.

He breathed.

He breathed.

He breathed.

"………………….."

………

_CHIIIIIIING!!!!_

A glint of silver.

**THWACK!!!!!!**

The man's right arm exploded in a cloud of red mist and his hand was gone.

"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!" He slammed into the tree, clutching an oozing, meaty stub and howling. "NNNNNNNnnnnnghh!!!!"

As he convulsed and bled against the tree, a figure appeared over his shoulder. Clad in a gray jumpsuit and holding a red-stained broadsword of silver in a metal, prosthetic right hand. A pale bald head crowning bulbous, glaring eyes.

A metallic ring surrounding the man's neck lit up with a red glow as an electronic voice filtered out.

"**You're a dead man, Garet."**

Garet stumbled back, clutching his hacked off limb. He stammered: "V-Viper….what did I ever do to you?! I gave so much to Anderson!! I complied with Dagger!! I'm your god damn ally, for Christ's sake!!"

"**Which is exactly why I am going to kill you…,"** Viper's lips didn't move. His eyes narrowed as the disc fluctuated. **"Simply because I can. In fact, I always could have killed you. I regret having waited until now. The only useful ally is a dead ally…"**

Garet stepped backwards, shivering. "You conniving, obsessive _freak!!_ Why did we ever once trust you?! We should have had our agents bombed your ass to bits in Pakistan LONG before you ever squirmed your way over here!!"

"**That would only have incurred my wrath sooner..,"** the assassin menacingly marched towards him. His broadsword dragged coldly through the forest floor. **"Organized criminals like you disgust me, Garet. Smugglers, drug dealers, mobsters, crimelords. H.I.V.E., Slade, Dagger, Luthor. They are all petty, bureaucratic wastes of blades and blood. Do you see me, Garet?? I am clean. I am smooth. I am perfect. I am the epitome of death itself."**

"Is that why you sl-slaughtered the Headmistress and everyone in that prison caravan to Decker's City??" Garet gritted his teeth. He backed up into a tree and shook in pain. "Is that why you're offing me?!?! You're trying to prove some sort of shitty point?!?!"

Viper leered down at the man. **"As far as I am concerned….there is only one other soul on this pathetic planet who could ever best me in the art of death. He exists, though I do not know his face or his name. But I do know that he has brought about the deaths of many of Dagger's old cohorts. And he was also there at the City Prison when Decker and the Titans lost out. Assassins find names of very little importance, Garet. Their mark in the sand is through bloodshed. This is a contest that I must win so that I may wield true power. In the end, it'll be between me and him….to see who makes the biggest stroke of death in the land."**

"Viper….w-we can work something out…," Garet shuddered. "Th-This man you're looking for…I-I can help you f-find him!! We can kill him together, Viper! T-Together!!"

CHIIIIIING!!!

Viper raised the silver sword up to the man's neck.

"**Shhhhh…..,"** Viper's lips curved into an acidic smile. **"Corpses don't talk…."**

From behind…

In the distance…

"_It's him!!" _

"_He's got the boss!!" _

"_Shoot him!!" _

BANG!! B-BANG!!!

SWIIIIIIIISH!!! SWIIIIIISH!!! Bullets streamed by Viper's head.

Viper gritted his teeth and looked at the men.

Garet shouted at the top of his lungs: "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! SHOOT HIS ASS---"

_CHIIIIIING!!_

**SLIIINK!!**

Garet's head rolled to the forest floor. Two seconds later, his body slumped down and joined it.

FWOOOOSH!!

Viper spun, twirled his sword, and ran directly towards the edge of the forest.

Two henchmen on dirt bikes were positioned on a dirt road leading down the mountainside. They aimed uzzis and fired madly at Viper.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Viper gritted his teeth and waved his broadsword in front of his sprinting figure.

"**NNRRRRGHHHH!!!"**

CL-CL-CLANK!!! He deflected the bullets.

He charged closer and closer to the henchmen.

Projectiles streamed past him.

Viper held his breath.

He side-stepped.

He jumped.

He bounced off a tree on his left.

He vaulted and jumped off a tree on his right.

He flipped in mid-air, came down into the midst of the henchmen, and dove his sword forward.

THUNK!!!!

One henchman quivered as the blade went straight through his heart and broke through his back on the other side.

Viper flexed his muscles.

He lifted the skewered the man by his blade.

He spun.

He aimed the sword at the other gunman.

Viper lifted his foot and kicked the skewered crook's body.

The twitching corpse slid off the long blade and slammed into the body of the second man.

WH-WHUMP!!!

"Augh!!" the gunman struggled under the dead body's weight. "Nnnghh—"

THWACK!!!

His head split in two from the impact of Viper's broadsword.

"………**,"** Viper panted.

More engine sounds.

He looked uphill.

Three more henchmen on dirt bikes came throttling down towards him. The first of the three lifted an uzzi with one hand and awkwardly fired.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Viper crouched and twirled his sword in front of him. SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

The bikers kept coming.

Viper looked to his side. CHIIIING!!! He sheathed the broadsword. He dashed over to one of the two bikes and mounted it. He kicked it into action.

_VRMM!!! VRMM!!! VRMM!! _

The engine roared to life. The headlight glared on.

_SCREEEE-EEEEECH!!! VRRMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

Viper started speeding downhill, trailing dust and autumn leaves along the dirt road.

The three bikers were quickly on his tail.

The chase loudly went on under the purplish moonlight.

Viper veered left and right to accommodate for the wavering path ahead of him. He ducked a few low branches from the trees on either side. He gripped the handles tightly, ramped over a dirt mound or two, and then sped down a straightaway.

Once the path was straight, the first of the three pursuers raised his uzzi once more and let loose a deadly barrage.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Viper ducked his head and steered his bike in a serpentine fashion. Bullets swished by and exploded in the dirt and trees all around him.

Ping! P-Ping! Ping! Ping!!

Viper's momentum slowed from the steering.

The bikers gained distance.

Viper glanced over his shoulder.

The frontman prepared to shoot once more.

CHIIIIING!!!

One handed, Viper unsheathed his sword. Purple haze shimmered off his metal knuckles as he held the blade in reverse.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Viper spun the sword backwards.

CL-CL-CLANG!!!

Viper veered.

The pursuers veered.

Another straightaway.

Viper's metal fingers tightened.

The front pursuer fired again.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

Viper swung once.

PING!!!!

The bullet deflected back and exploded into the front biker's throat.

THUNK!!! "Snkkkkkt---"

He fell back dead and his bike went tumbling across the dirt path behind.

The other two veered around his corpse, unleashed an uzzi each, and fired dually.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!

Viper held his blade down, ducked, and veered to the right.

Bullet streams exploded in the dirt path blurring past his left.

Viper looked up.

He caught sight of a thick tree close to the right side of the road.

_VRMMMMM!!!!_

He throttled towards it.

One of the two bikers got cocky and accelerated towards him, leaving the other speeder behind.

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!_

Viper focused on the tree ahead.

In four seconds he crossed a hundred feet and--

"**NNNGH!!!"** Viper leapt off the bike.

He stretched his blade out in to the side.

CHTINK!!!

His broadsword stuck into the tree.

Momentum carried his lower body forward and around.

SKKKRKKKK!!!

Viper spun three hundred sixty degrees around the tree, his sword carving around the body of the trunk.

When Viper's body returned to the path, he successfully mounted himself on the back of the foremost biker. THWUMP!!!

The two sped off together.

CRKKKKKK!!!

Adequately sliced, the entire tree fell down across the path behind them. THWUMP!!!

"AAAAAA—" The last biker couldn't break in time. CRUNCH!!!! His body and the bike violently smashed into the body of wood.

In the meantime, the last biker gasped and panted as Viper reached over him from behind and planted the cold silver of his broadsword into the henchman's throat.

"**Give me your blood……"**

The man's lips quivered.

_Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiiiiink!!!_

Viper slowly drew the entire length of the blade's edge across the man's throat. Blood sprayed out. The henchman's eyes rolled back and--

THWAP!!!

Viper shoved him off the bike, took control, and drove one-handed down the clearer part of the dirt path uncontested.

_VRRRRRRMMM!!!_

….but not for long.

Two bikers waiting for him on a hill overlooking the last stretch caught sight of the runaway assassin, throttled their cycles, and sped down in full pursuit.

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

Viper's eyebrow raised. He looked behind him.

**BANG!!!**

An off-chance bullet.

"**!!!!"**

Viper gasped and jerked his bike to the side—

**PING!!—CRUNCH!!!!**

The bullet struck his neck. More specifically, it struck the electronic voice system around his neck. Red sparks started to short out and dance along his throat. _ZZZZ-zzzz-ZZ-zzt!!!_

"**Nnnzzznnnghh!! Bastazzzzrdszzzzz!!!!**"

He rubbed his broadsword holding metal wrist against his neck and winced. His eyes were hard and his teeth grit in fury.

"**Zzzzznnttnncazzn'tzzzzzzzdammzzitzzzzz!!!"**

_ZZzzzztt!!!_

The sparks stopped.

His voice was gone.

He panted.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

More relentless bullets streamed by him.

Viper fumed.

He looked to his left.

Offroad, there was a thicker sea of trees overlooking the mountainside.

_VRMMMMMM!!!!_

Viper madly steered his dirt bike over and into the forest.

The bikers swiftly jerked at their handles and followed blindly after him.

Viper gripped the steering with one hand and his sword in the other. He ducked his head low and veered sharply to speed in and around trees swishing violently past him.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

The two bikers did their best to pursue. Leaves and dirt were kicked up by their tires. The front biker was getting the hang of it. The one in the rear—

"AAAA—" THWACK!!! He ran straight into a tree and collapsed.

The other biker throttled up and aimed his uzzi through the trees and branches.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-PING!! THWAP!!! PING!!!

Bullets exploded against the trees and forest floor all around Viper.

Viper ducked a few bullets. He panted. He twirled his blade….and stuck it deep into the earth beside his cycle.

_SNKKKKKKKKKKKT!!!!_

The huge, silver blade dug into the soil. Clumps of rocks, pebbles, and autumn leaves shredded and kicked up in a flurry.

The pursuing biker squinted his eyes. The cloud of debris was starting to cloud his vision.

Viper took a breath. He dug his blade in deeper.

_**SNKKKKKKKKKKT!!!!**_

Leaves and dirt flew high.

The biker blinked. He batted debris away with his gun arm. He grunted and found himself swerving and almost losing his grip while all the time accelerating into a wave of flurried madness….

….and…..

The wall of debris cleared.

He reopened his eyes. "Huh?"

Viper had turned around and was throttling straight towards him--

CHIIIIING!!!!

--and the biker's vision was cut as his nerves was cut as his brain was cut from his spine.

_VRMMMMM!!!!_

Viper sped through the forest.

Panting, he looked behind him.

The biker's body lay silent, severed, on the floor.

Viper smiled.

He looked ahead…and saw half of the continent.

"!!!!!"

Viper plummeted with his bike over a sudden cliff in the forested mountainside.

Alone in the purple night, he and the cycle fell and fell and fell…

In a cold, downwards arc….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!! WRII!!_

"DADDY!!! WE'RE NOT LOSING THEM!!! STOP DRIVING LIKE AN IDIOT BEFORE THEY CATCH UP TO US!!!"

_SCREEEECH!!!_

"Kitten, Daddy's trying to concentrate!! Now be a good girl for once and _try_ to use the Lepidoptic Acid Cannon on the state troopers and maybe Daddy won't have to go back to prison and you'll get your college tuition sooner!!!"

"I told you once before, this cannon thingy is TOO COMPLICATED!!!! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SHOOT ANYTHING BESIDES MYSELF WITH THIS PIECE OF CRAP?!?!"

"Don't tempt me, girl. Do not _tempt me!!_"

_VRMMMMM!!!!_

A stationwagon burned down the highway between mountainsides that night. A stationwagon with Killer Moth at the wheel and Kitten bouncing around in the back. A total of eight squad cars were madly pursuing the father and daughter, their sirens and police lights shooting off into the purple evening.

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!!_

"Well maybe if you didn't have to be a party pooper and BLOW YOUR UGLY WAY OUT OF PRISON we wouldn't BE IN THIS MESS!!!" The blonde animal cackled.

"I did what I had to do, Kitten!! If we're ever going to make it big in this crummy world, Daddy's got to have access to his winged children!! Now…for the last time…fire the damn cannon!!!"

"But what if I—"

"DO IT!!"

"FINE!! FINE! BE THAT WAY!!" She fingered the trigger.

Killer Moth glanced back. The bug-eyes on his mask doubly-bugged. "NO!!! AIM IT OUTSIDE FIRST—"

_SPLORCH!!!!!_

"Ooops…."

A glob of gray acid splashed across the floorboard of the station wagon's interior, ate through the bottom chassis, and melted across the axle while it was still spinning.

_SSSSSSSSSssssssssssss!!!_

"Nnnnghh!!!" Killer Moth struggled to keep control of the vehicle.

The station wagon careened. Kitten was thrown back and forth in the rear. "Whoaaaah!! Whoaaaaah!!!"

"You stupid brat!! Don't you eer use your head?!?! You're just like your mom!!"

"HEY!!! DON'T BRING MOM INTO THIS!! She's DEAD ya know?!?!"

"Only because of you and your driving lessons two years ago!!"

"………oh right."

Killer Moth regained control of the station wagon. "Nnnngh….we're fine. We're still moving along. Now….I think we can still lose these creeps on our tail so long as nothing more stupid happens—"

_VRMMM-SWOOOOSH—__**CRASH!!!!!**_

A falling dirt bike and the limp body of a muscular assassin slammed across the hood of the station wagon from high above.

"WHOAH!!!!" Killer Moth gasped and jerked as the station wagon grinded over the bike.

"EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Kitten curled up in the back.

CRKKKKK!!!!

The bike shattered into the tires. The gears of both vehicles completely flew apart. The stationwagon came to a cold, smoking stop.

FHHHHHHhhssssssss……

"Nnnngh….," Killer Moth shook his masked head and groaned. "Mother of moth…."

FWUMP!!!! The airbag struck him in the skull.

"OW!! DAMMIT!!"

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!! WRII!! WRIiiiieeee……_

The eight squad cars screeched to a stop. Two of them in the front drove parallel to the lanes of the highway before coming to a stop. Cops poured out and aimed over the cars as barricades with over two dozen pistols drawn.

Cl-Clik!

Cl-Clik!

Clik Clik Clik!

"Freeze!!"

"FREEZE!!"

"Out of the car!!"

"NOW!!"

CRUNCH!!!

Killer Moth kicked the front, driver's side door loose. He stepped out with his clawed gloves up.

"_Turn around!!!"_

Killer Moth grumbled and mumbled like Popeye. He twirled around. Synthetic wings limp. As he did so, he looked down.

The pale-skinned and palely dressed assassin lay on the asphalt, stirring in pain. Wincing.

"Way to go, chump…," Killer Moth growled. "What does Heaven think it is…….throwing a piece of crap like you to Earth??"

"_Down!! On your knees!! Facing away from us!!"_

Killer Moth slowly crouched in helpless obedience. His hands up.

Kitten marched out of the car. "Daddy?!?! What are you sitting around for??"

"_You too!! On your knees!!"_

"Aren't you going to beat the stupid man up, Daddy?!?! Look what his bike did to our car!!!"

"On your knees….Kitten….," Killer Moth growled.

"Huh?!?!" Kitten turned. Red laser sights danced on her blouse. "Holy Moses!!" She went pale and stuck her hands up high. "I s-s-surrender!!"

Killer Moth shook his head, groaning.

"_Now turn around!! Now get on your knees!!"_

The assassin blinked. He wearily looked up. He saw the supervillain and her daughter. But then he saw something else behind them. A group of people with guns. Cops.

_Law enforcement……_

The man mutely snarled.

He reached a steady hand towards the hilt of his broadsword lying on the asphalt…

Kitten knelt down besides Killer Moth. Her eyes were thin. She growled and spoke through the corner of her lips: "This is all your fault…"

"My fault?!?!" Killer Moth hissed back at her. "Girl, if you had properly trained yourself in the criminal arts long before I busted out of prison, we wouldn't be in this mess!!"

"It's not my fault Captain Picard on steroids fell onto our car!!! What is it?? Is ESPN doing Xtreme sports on mountaintops all of the sudden??"

"Listen to yourself!! You never take any of the family business seriously!! Just what have you been doing the entire time since Westhaven?? Door-to-door nail filing, I bet!!"

"Okay, Daddy. For one thing…I've been doing okay for myself until YOU showed up from PRISON!! For another…how can you take 'family business' seriously when you dress up like a giant bug?!?! And for the last part….THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH NAIL FILING!!!"

"_Lie down on the ground!! Face first!!"_

Cl-Clik!

"_NOW!!"_

The two sprawled out on the ground like it was every day routine. They even had their hands propped up behind their heads without being prompted by the authorities.

"Do you realize how much deep trouble we are in now, Kitten?? After the bombing and crud, when I go back to prison I may never come back!! They'll be entombing my prison cell with a titanium sarcophagus!"

"WELL I HOPE THEY DO!! AND I ALSO HOPE YOU GET PLENTY OF MIGRAINES AND HAVE TO POOP IN A JAR!!"

"Kitten—"

"OH I MEAN IT!! I AM NEVER FORGIVING YOU FOR THIS DAY, DADDY!! NEVER!!! NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVE---say, where did Mr. Zen monk go?"

"Huh??" Killer Moth looked ahead.

Where the dented station wagon and the leftover shards of the dirt bike were….the mysterious assassin was not.

Killer Moth cocked his masked head to the side. "Now where the devil---"

_Sliiink!!_

_Sliiink!!_

"_AAAAH!!"_

"!!!!" Killer Moth sat up and turned around.

Two cops at the front of the line were sprawled on the ground besides their squad cars. They clutched bleeding, right stubs where hands once were. The assassin stood between them with a red-dripping sword.

The second and third line of cops fired madly at the man.

BANG!! B-BANG!! BLAM!!!

He twirled his sword and deflected the blades. CL-CL-CL-CLANG!! He jumped to the side, rolled, snatched up one of the sliced troopers' pistols, ended in a kneeling position, aimed, and shot--

BLAM!!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

He struck down two cops in the heart. He shot through the head of a third.

Killer Moth's jaw dropped.

Kitten blinked.

BLAM!! BL-BLAM!! BLAM!! The man kept shooting.

The distant squad cars became pincushions of lead. Cops started running down the opposite end of the highway for their lives.

"…..," the man silently spied a squad car in the middle of the mess. He took careful aim and shot a single volley into the fuel compartment of one of the vehicle.

BLAM!!

PING—**BOOOM!!!!**

Flames erupted. The shell of the car lifted skyward and collapsed down in an splash of heat and metal. Troopers jumped into the rear squad cars and pulled back.

SCREEEEECH!!!

The assassin stood there, heaving.

"…..," Kitten blinked. She looked over.

One of the two front squad cars was now unattended.

"Pssst! Daddy!!" she hissed.

Killer Moth nodded. "Good idea. GO!!"

The two crouch-ran towards the vehicle as fast as their legs could carry them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"???" Viper turned to look.

He saw the supervillain and his daughter rushing into the squad car.

Viper frowned.

He aimed at them with the cops' pistol in his hand.

He pulled the trigger twice, one for each head of the fleers.

Click! Click!

"…..??" Viper raised an eyebrow and looked at the gun.

The chamber was empty.

"………," he exhaled.

Cl-Clack!! He dropped the gun to the asphalt and gripped his sword with two hands. He looked around the smoldering highway for a possible escape route.

SCREEEECH!!!

Viper gasped.

An armored truck had been called to the scene. It veered in and around the shot-up and burning vehicles, heading straight towards him.

CHIIIING!!! Viper readied his sword. Teeth gritting, he rolled to the side and slashed out at the side of the vehicle.

SNKKKKTTT!!!!

Sparks flew off the side of the armored truck.

SCREEECH!!

The vehicle came to a stop.

A bullet proof window rolled down.

An expert marksman aimed out and shot an automatic at him.

POW!! P-P-POW!! POW!!!

CLANG!! CL-CLANG!! Viper deflected and circle-strafed the firing passenger, planning a next course of attack.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on….," Killer Moth's clawed gloves were hard at work at hotwiring the squad car.

"Hurry up Daddy!! Let's get the Purgatory out of here!!!" Kitten squealed.

_Zzzztt!!_

_VRMMMMMM!!!_

Killer Moth cackled. "Yes!! Mwahahaha!"

He gripped the wheel, shifted the gears, and swerved the car into the middle of the road.

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!

And then he stopped.

He stared numbly out the dashboard.

Kitten panted. "Wha--….What gives?! Why arne't you getting us the Purgatory out of here!!"

"Hrmm….," Killer Moth's mask tilted to the side. A beat. He glanced behind him at the fight going on between the assassin and the armored truck. "Ya know….."

"What??!?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

POW!! P-P-POW!!

Viper grit his teeth and dove to the asphalt.

The gunman aimed at him. P-P-POW!!

Bullets ricocheted off the ground as Viper rolled out of the way, twirled his blade, and rushed towards the armored truck.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

And then--

SCREEEECH!!!

The passenger with the gun gasped and ducked inside just as--

CRUNCH!!!!

Killer Moth backed the squad car into the truck's side. He kicked the passenger side door open. He motioned with his glove. "You gettin' in or what?!?!"

"………," Viper blinked. He looked at the armored truck. He looked back at the other state troopers and squad cars regrouping on the burning highway. "………." He swiftly sheathed his sword and dove into the squad car.

Killer Moth wasted no time in hitting the gas.

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!_

VRRMMMMMMM!!!!

The squad car pealed down the road and shoved a great deal of distance between itself and the law enforcement. The armored truck was delayed in pursuing the getaway. The other state troopers even more so.

It was a good half a minute before at least four vehicles were speeding down the highway after the three miscreants.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper panted in the front seat of the vehicle.

Killer Moth drove madly at the wheel.

A beat.

Suddenly, Killer Moth's hand jerked into the glove compartment.

"….," Viper's eyes dashed--

"You!!" Killer Moth pointed a gun at Viper's forehead.

"……," the assassin sweat. Frozen.

"…..Here!" Killer Moth turned the gun around not a second later so that the handle was facing Viper. "Shake them off if they come closer!"

"……….," Viper looked at the gun. He took it. A beat. He looked at Killer Moth. "……..," he smiled. He nodded.

"Those were some fancy moves you pulled on those coppers back there….," Killer Moth grumbled and refocused on the blurring highway ahead of them. "We wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for you, and THAT'S the only reason I let you hop in. Got it?"

Viper cocked the pistol.

Kitten stared in from the back seat. Blinking.

"You have a name, pal??"

"…..," Viper was silent.

"Anything we should call you?"

"………"

"Won't talk, eh?"

"………"

"………….can't talk?"

Viper shrugged.

"Well, whatever. A badass is a badass." He looked in the rear view mirror at squad car lights increasing. "Now you've got a second chance to prove yourself. The three of us can talk or _not talk_ later. Got it?"

Viper nodded. He mouthed: _'Yes sir.'_ A corner of his lip was curved.

"……," Kitten glanced at Killer Moth. "Can we let him off at the first Seven Eleven we find?"

Viper rolled down the window, leaned out, and fired back at the pursuing vehicles.

BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

Kitten winced and covered her ears.

VRMMMMMM!!!!

The three sped off under the purplish night….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Commissioner?"

"…………….."

"Commissioner Decker?"

"………………"

"S-Sir?"

Decker looked tiredly up from his desk finally.

The lieutenant stood before him in the commissioner's office. He swallowed. He leaned forward: "It's two in the morning. Are you going to call it an evening or not?"

"Hmm…….," Decker uttered. He ran two hands through his hair and sighed. He gazed down at sheets of photos, text, reports, schematics all collected from the overturned prison van and the dead victims. "Evening….to sleep…..perchance to dream….."

The Lieutenant's eyes thinned. "You're starting to worry me sir."

"It's not your place to be worried about me, Lieutenant," Decker leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Your job is to oversee this department's checks and balances without running into sixes and sevens."

"You've been staring at those photos of the murder scene for four hours straight. What possible good could that be doing, sir?"

"No good at all, Lieutenant," Decker grumbled. "No damn good at all. That's why we call it a 'murder' in my business. Murder isn't necessarily a _good_ thing." The Commissioner lightly hit his desktop with a fist. "I was this close. _This_ close to having the biggest key to the explosion's mystery in my grasp!! The Headmistress was just miles outside of the City Limits when that sword-swinging teletubby jumped in on the party. Who the Hell thought Viper would be alive after all the shit we put the bastard through??"

"That is the final conclusion, then?" the Lieutenant asked. "That it was Viper?"

"You haven't been paying much attention, have you son?" Decker remarked. He pointed at the things on his desk. "Sure, I've got pictures and physical evidence up the wazoo. But there is actually testimony. _Eyewitness_ account of what happened."

The Lieutenant nodded. "Cortez…"

Decker looked at the file of the young police cadet. "He was riding shotgun in one of the two squad cars at the time…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_So……I-I'm confused. Has H.I.V.E. actually disbanded c-completely?" _

"_Heh…hardly, kid," spoke the driver. A state trooper in his early forties. He followed closely behind the prison van, his hands loose on the wheel. The sides of the Metropolitan Highway blurred past them that night. "A criminal organization like that doesn't crumble overnight. No matter how many Titans you toss at 'em. But don't get me wrong. This is a damn good step in the right direction. In some way or another, this prisoner ahead of us is gonna give us some really good meat of information that law enforcement has been drooling over for a long time." _

"_The Commissioner of the City we're doing to…," Cortez read off a clipboard. "………Dunkle??" _

"_Decker." _

"_You think he's gonna get anything more out of the Headmistress than Sawyer?" _

_The driver chuckled. "Decker? Oh hell yeah." _

_Cortez looked at the driver funny. _

_The man glanced over, grinning. "Decker could interrogate a camel through an eye of a needle. No need to worry your badge off." _

_Cortez nervously chuckled._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"The suspect entered from seemingly nowhere," Decker said.

A street map of the Metropolitan Highway was slid into view atop the Commissioner's desk.

His finger pointed.

"Experts presume one of the light poles erected within the central barrier of the opposing lanes…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…_can't wait to get back to my wife and kids after this," the driver said. "These long distance escorts are a real bitch." _

"_Aye, sir." _

"_Heheheh. I like you, kid. You'll be going places. Just watch and learn." _

"_I-I'm trying my best, sir," Cortez smiled. _

_A shadow blurred ahead of them. _

_Both jerked to look through the dashboard. _

"_H-Huh??" _

"_Whoah!!" _

_A gray figure leapt from a spot high above, landed with his feet planted on the front of an escort's motorcycle, and vaulted towards the side window of the van. _

_THWUMP!!! The motorcyclist lost balance and his bike fell over on the blurring asphalt. CRAAAAA-AAAACK!!! The van rolled over the body of the cycle and the cop in one sickening crunch. Vehicle shards and a crushed body tumbled across the highway pavement behind. _

_The figure perched on the side of the van pulled out something long and silvery. He proceeded to shatter the glass of the van's front window and shove the blade in. A fountain of red poured out from the driver's seat. _

"_Holy……," Cortez murmured. _

"_Mother of god……" _

_The van swerved left. The van swerved right. It fishtailed hard to the left again and started to teeter over while simultaneously crashing into the concrete barrier. _

_Cortez and his partner found themselves soaring seventy-miles-per-hour into the belly of the van. _

"_LOOK OUT!!!" _

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"Cortez was dazed, but awake and in tact," Decker mumbled.

He flipped through a few photos.

He pointed at the overturned van with his finger.

"He soon made his way out of the vehicle and approached the other side of the crash site."

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_  
_  
Cortez winced. _

_He struggled to pry himself out from his half-crumpled passenger seat. _

_He whipped out a knife and cut loose the seatbelt sticking him in place. _

_He looked left, panting. _

_The driver's neck was in an impossible position. His body was slumped over a steering wheel that refused to deploy the airbag. Blood trickled out of the man's ears. _

"……_.," Cortez exhaled. _

_Outside: "AAAAAAAAUGH!!" _

_SLIIINK!!! _

_SLIINK!!!_

_Cortez panted. He elbowed the glass window a few times. He shattered it and crawled through, inescapably cutting his arms with a few shards. He tumbled to the cold asphalt outside, scrambled to his knees, and pulled out his gun. _

_Shaking._

_  
BANG!!! BANG!! _

_Cortez looked right. _

_A state trooper with disheveled hair was backing up, firing at something out of view with a pistol. BANG!!! BANG!!! "GET BACK!!!!" _

_Cortez blinked. _

_The man gasped and flinched-- _

_SWOOOOSH---CHIIING!!!! _

_A shadow blurred by him with a glint of silver and was out of view. _

_The trooper's body stayed upright for a few seconds before collapsing to the earth, his brains spilling out._

_Cortez's mouth dropped. _

_From behind-- _

_SCREEEEECH!!! _

_He spun and looked. _

_A motorcycle coasted eerily on its own across the highway before donut-circling to a scraping stop. SNKKKKT!!! _

_There was a yelling, struggling sound. _

_A gray figure dragged a trooper by the leg—kicking and screaming—into the center of the highway. _

"_Nngh!!! Sonofabitch!! My hand!!!" _

_The figure let go of his leg and twirled a broadsword over his head. _

_The man on the ground writhed and shuddered: "No……n-no!!!" _

_The figure dove down, hacking and hacking and hacking on the twitching body. _

"_NOOO-NNGHHAAAAASKSKKKKKT-TTTT-TTT!!!!"_

_Cortez hyperventilated. _

_He stumbled backwards. _

_He tripped over something. _

_THWUMP!!! _

_His gun fell out of his grasp and hit the ground hard—BANG!!! A bullet sounded off. _

_Cortez winced. He looked down at his feet and saw that a dismembered right hand had tripped him. _

_He began to taste bile on the back of his tongue. He looked up and froze at the sight of two bulbous eyes beneath a bald crown staring at him. _

_The origin of the bullet. _

_Cortez shivered. _

_TH-THWISH!! The assassin twirled his sword and marched towards Cortez from afar. _

_Cortez scrambled backwards on all fours. _

_The figure prepared to sprint-- _

_SCREEEEEEEE-EEEEECH!!! The second squad car caught up and nearly ran the figure over. _

_The swordsman jumped out of the way and held his blade at ready. _

_Two officers—pumping a shotgun each—poured out and aimed over their doorframes. _

"_SMOKE THE BASTARD!!!!" _

_BLAM!!! _

_BLAM!! _

_BL-BLAM!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The attacker was inhuman," Decker spoke. "Cortez said that 'he was a demon', and that he killed 'like the wind'. Silent. Emotionless."

A beat.

Decker glared up at the Lieutenant.

"But especially 'silent'…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_BLAM!! _

_BLAM!!! _

_BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!! _

_The figure side-stepped, jumped, and ducked the shot. He then performed a massive forward leap, flipping and landing on the top of the squad car itself. _

_THWUMP!!! _

_He jabbed his blade down left. _

_THUNK!!!! _

_A trooper dropped his shotgun as the broadsword sliced through his voice box and shattered out the back of his neck. _

"_AAAAAH!!!" the partner yelled and aimed his shotgun up at the killer. But he was out of cartridges. He panted. _

_SLINK!!! The assassin yanked his blade out of the corpse's neck. _

_The other tossed his shotgun at him, panted, backed up, and fumbled for his pistol. _

_CHIIIING!! The swordsman pounced on him. _

"_NOOO—" THUNK!!! "AUGH--" SLASH!!! "SNKKKTTT!!!" SLIIINK!!! "………" _

_Cortez scrambled behind the van. He flattened himself back against the metal body. Hyperventilating. _

_Sweat ran cold down his face and upper body. It stung in the autumn air. _

_Silence. _

_The cries and the carving sounds had gone away. _

_The wind was stale and still for a moment. _

_And…… _

_Footsteps. _

_Cortez gulped. _

_Footsteps… _

_Cortez's forehead throbbed. _

_Footsteps…… _

_The cadet's fingers curled against the surface of the van. _

_A beat. _

_CREAAAAK!!! _

_The van shook. _

_The doors were opened. _

_Cortez couldn't see from where he hid. _

_But he could…… _

"_Y-You!!" the Headmistress voice shuddered from within the aluminum death cocoon. "But……th-that's impossible!! You died at the desalination plant!!!!" _

_An electronic voice in the darkness._

"_**Don't be so quick to judge death until you taste it, bitch."**_

"_Nnngh!!! Help me!!!!"_

_A struggled. _

_Vibrations through the van. _

_A dragging sound. _

_The thumpings of kicking feet. _

"_Help me!! P-Please!!!"_

"_**Cry on, you siren. Lull me to insanity."**_

_PLOP!!_

_  
Th-Thwish!!_

"_**You've sung your song one decade too long. Now that you are a lost and lonely puppy, it is so very easy for me to drown you in blood."**_

"_Who sent y-you?! Why are you doing this?!?! Haven't I lost enough already?!" _

"_**Dear Headmistress……nobody sent me but myself. This is but a game between me and he who desires to become death. It's rather ironically hilarious, is it not?"**_

"………………_WAIT!!!"_

_SLIIIIIINK!!!_

"_!!!!!!!!" _

"_**Think about it…..and laugh. It'll make the first century in Hell pass by quickly."**_

_SLASH!!!!!!_

_  
THWUMP!!! _

_Cortez shuddered. _

"_**If only silence was all that there was beyond. Maybe your soul will speak to me about it someday. I'll keep a souvenir with your blessing…….or with your curse."**_

_TH-TH-TH-THWISH!! _

_**THWACK!!!**_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

Decker turned to the final photo. The Headmistress' and the officers' bodies all piled together in a pyramid against the side of the van. He pointed at their bloody, right stubs.

"Their hands were never found at the scene. They were left with only their 'unclean' limbs still in tact with their corpses. An absolute trademark of the Viper of olde."

The Lieutenant took a deep breath. "And what became of Cortez?"

Decker gathered the documents and photos. He stacked them together. He straightened them against the desk. Thap! Thap! THAP!! He leaned forward and sighed. "………," he glanced up. "Psychiatric evaluation. Post-Traumatic stress from Hades. What else do you think?"

"What of obsession and overstress?"

"Nah…the doctors didn't mention anything about Cortez in that fashion—"

The Lieutenant smiled and pointed: "I was talking about you, sir."

"……………..Bastard."

"Heheheheh."

Decker ran tired hands over his face. "I suppose I _could_ use with making love to the leather couch out in the lobby or something."

"I'd be more than willing to give you a lift."

"Not in your first year, Lieutenant."

"Sir??"

Decker stood up, paced over to the windows of his office, and looked out on the autumnal night over the city with an aging sigh. "When you get as old and cranky as me, kid….I don't ever want to hear from beyond the grave you saying anything like: 'I've seen it all'. Cuz once you say that, all sorts of shit are gonna be put into play by the powers that be just to prove you wrong. Life has this ironic sense of humor…..not to mention a penchant for psychological sodomy."

"I just think you need to get some sleep, sir."

"Gotta love you and your one-track mind," Decker groaned. He sighed. He shook his head. "I hate having to say it…..but…..I can't wait until the Titans and I can talk about recent calamities."

"Nobody can blame the best minds of this City for coming together, sir."

"Yeah. Stop flattering me already, k?"

"….."

"Here's hoping no other crazy crap happens anytime soon."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Reports are in that a police chase of the suspected prison escapee Killer Moth ended last night in a bloody fray upon the Metropolitan Highway just miles south of the grisly murder of the H.I.V.E. Headmistress and seven other police officers over twenty-four hours. Details of this most recent tragedy is still sketchy, but at least three officers are believed to be dead and even more have been injured. Killer Moth could not be arrested, and he is believed to still be at large. It is far too early to draw any connections between this and the previous night's deadly debacle. State Troopers at this time are issuing……"_

In Carman's diner the next morning, the t.v. rattled on and on.

Lindsay was returning to behind the counter with a table of used plates for cleaning. She paused at what she heard. She looked up at the t.v. JCN News Broadcasting was showing a slew of photos depicting the sight of the highway battle. The charred vehicles. Body bags.

"……," the freckled teen looked out at the body of the diner.

At a booth beside a window, a family was eating. Two wide-eyed kids were gazing up at the screen.

Lindsay swallowed. With her dolphin bracelet rattling, she gently reached her hand up and changed the station. Spongebob Squarepants exploded into comical action in place of the violence. She wandered into the kitchen.

When she came back out without the plates, there was a new patron entering from the City streets beyond.

"Hello," she routinely smiled and spoke with a menu or two hoisted. "Welcome to Carman's diner, how can I--…." Her voice trailed.

"Hi," Tempest smiled. He waved with warm, dark eyes.

"Uh…..h-hi," Lindsay blinked.

"Are you working?"

"Uh….yeah."

"Good!" Tempest nodded. "So am I!"

Lindsay looked at his traditional blue and black wetsuit. "Oh. So you are." A beat.

"Well…I'm _somewhat_ working," Tempest motioned. "The Police Department isn't too far from here. We're conducting an impromptu meeting. When I say, I mean Robin and whoever he's chosen to drag along with him. He's the type to do that. You wouldn't know that unless you were to hang around with the guy so much that the smell of hair gel becomes analogous to vigilantism. Like me."

"Uh huh….," she looked.

"But anyways, I was in the area. And I couldn't help but think of you and your freckles and your little sibling whom I have only seen as a C-Span quoting pumpkin and I thought I might as well visit you and prolong the running gag. Surface dwellers are passionate about familiarity, right?"

"……."

Tempest's dark eyes thinned. "Uhm….are you okay?"

She stopped staring at his wetsuit. She looked up, blushing. "Uh…..huh?"

"Your melanin is giving way."

"I-I'm sorry…I just…uhm….," Lindsay fidgeted. "I've been working and…I-I wasn't quite expecting a Titan like you to come by…and….um…."

"Oh say, that reminds me!" Tempest remarked.

"???" Lindsay blinked.

He raised a hand. "You got a glass?"

"Uh…s-sure thing! Hold on a sec." Lindsay wandered over beneath the window-counter into the kitchen. She came back with a glass. "Here you go. What did you need it fo—??"

Tempest flicked his wrist. The hose attached to his arm squirted a stream of water from his tank into the glass, filling it with questionably murky liquid.

"…….," Lindsay made a face. "Um…..th-thanks. What's that for?"

"Weeks ago you were so kind as to supply me with water when I requested it," Tempest half-bowed. "I'd be a total tramp and misrepresentative of Atlantis if I wasn't so kind as to return the favor."

"But….r-remember?" Lindsay simpered. "The water was free. You didn't need to pay anything for it then. And you don't need to do so now. As much as I…er….appreciate the offer."

Tempest's face fell. "But….everyone knows it's the right of every living thing to share the world's water. At least….everyone in _Atlantis_."

"Ah, you see….that's where it's different. I'm from Illinois."

"Oh, I get it now!" Tempest pointed at the water. "It's gotta be _edible_, huh? Silly land-dwellers."

"You know what?" Lindsay smiled hopefully and took the glass. "I will take the water. Don't you worry about a thing."

"Ah! She comes through! You know, you've given me hope in this parched land yet." Tempest folded his arms and smiled.

Lindsay blinked. "I-I have?"

"Yeah! You know you're the only sane homo sapien I've met since coming out of the Pond?" Tempest gestured. "All of my teammates are so self-possessive when it comes to their superpowers. And all of them are either too giddy or too angsty to be of sound mind. And then everyone else I've had to run into is either a psychotic villain or a feces-mouthed commissioner of law enforcement."

Lindsay raised a humored eyebrow. "Where do I fit into all of this, exactly?"

"Last time I checked, you had on an aesthetic dress that Robin explained was a 'pilgrim'."

Lindsay giggled.

Tempest made a face.

She recovered. "Gracious be……Carman's going to kill me at this rate."

"What have you done to warrant execution."

"Nothing…," she cleared her throat and smiled. "You're just really silly, is all."

"…..huh."

"Why _did_ you come here?? I mean…obviously you have to be here and I'm working and all. No offense, but it _is_ a kinda awkward timing."

"My apologies," Tempest nodded. "It's only been a month or so now and I'm still feeling a bit awkward about adapting to this culture an---" Tempest went bug-eyed. He shook his head. "You know what? Scratch that. That's no longer a viable excuse."

She giggled again.

"You needed your water back," Tempest pointed. "And….uhm. I was in the area…so…..simple miscalculation again—"

"You want to hang out, don't you?"

"………..hang out?"

"Mmmmhmmmm," Lindsay nodded. "Why don't you just say so? It's simple, really."

Tempest bit his lip. "I hear that 'hanging out' is a surface-dweller form of execution. Beast Boy won't frickin' stop rambling about movies of the 'Wild East' and 'Clint Westwood' or something."

"Nah, it just means….ya know…..'hanging out'!" Lindsay shrugged. "Mostly when I'm not working and you're not…um…..in a wetsuit." She blushed again.

Tempest scratched his head. "Well….sure. I mean, you're a nice enough person."

"Oh?"

"……..with the water and stuff."

She chuckled. "I see you're still stuck on water. How about the Bayside Plaza?"

"The Bayside Plaza for what?"

"To hang out! I'm there with my friends every other evening or so. We do it too much for our own good, to be honest," she rolled her eyes, then smiled. "You could….I dunno….meet us there or something. Get to know 'surface dwellers' up close. That sound good? I-I mean…..Titans are _allowed_ to have normal lives, right??"

"Normal is a word that knows no definitions," Tempest simpered. "I'm willing to experiment."

Lindsay blinked. "Experiment?"

"Er…..'investigate'?"

"That sounds better."

"Allright then."

She smiled nervously.

He smiled even more nervously.

Something vibrated.

"Wuh oh….," Tempest reached into an impossible pocket and extracted a yellow communicator. His dark eyes read something on the device's LCD screen. He glanced at Lindsay and spoke: "The bird speaks."

"I don't get it," the waitress leaned her head to the side. "Are you referring to Robin or Raven?"

"The mature one."

"…..Cyborg?"

"Stop reading magazines," Tempest gave a humorous smirk and turned around.

"You know, the Titans have a magaz—"

The Atlantean was gone.

Lindsay sighed. With a smile, she fingered the dolphins on her bracelet and gazed towards the door.

Silence.

"_Lindsay!! Bread rolls!"_

"Eep! One second!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was a knocking sound on the window.

"???" Robin looked over. He walked across Decker's office and opened the window.

Tempest crawled in from the fire escape. He smiled. "Sorry I'm late."

"Where were you?" Robin asked, his eyemasks thinned.

"Giving a waitress her water back."

"………………..whatever," Robin sighed. He shook his head and motioned towards the other half of the room where Commissioner Decker, the Lieutenant, and Starfire gathered. "Listen and learn. We're dealing with stuff before your time with the Titans."

"Alright," Tempest nodded and took his quiet place on the side.

Decker cleared his throat and continued speaking, pointing at a map of the county. "The Headmistress was murdered here. And here….," his finger dragged down a few 'miles'. "….the last batch of state trooper deaths transpired last night, as I'm sure you've all heard well enough about from the news."

"Indeed," Robin nodded.

Decker sighed and leaned lethargically to the side with folded arms. "Now….everything about the first night's murder points to Vincent Patrick Matthew Thames the Third, a.k.a. Viper—the assassin of Judge Carson, Chief Warden Georgeton, and countless prison guards nearly four and a half months ago. The slash marks in the victims' bodies, the decapitations, and most of all…the sliced off right hands of all the dead. There is also a testimony by a police cadet survivor by the last name of Cortez who bears witness to a swordsman causing the ambush and murders."

"Sounds clear cut to me," Robin nodded. He gestured with a gloved hand. "Either it _was_ Viper or a very accurate imitation."

"Now with Killer Moth….," Decker pointed at the lower spot on the map. "The details are still hazy. Mainly because the situation at hand is something that took place explosively and with such suddenness that it's difficult to make a fair assessment. But essentially…Killer Moth and a post-adolescent female—presumably his daughter Katrina "Kitten" Walker---"

Robing cringed.

Starfire's face tightened.

"---were speeding away from a simple toll booth complication when police squad cars identified the escaped supervillain and a huge chase ensued over the following hour and a half. At some point passing the Azure Mountain Range, Killer Moth's car halted. The squad cars formed a barricade. Killer Moth and the girl complied with police officers at first, but then……."

Silence.

Starfire blinked. "Something transpired thereafter?"

Decker scratched his head of hair. "That's the troubling thing. Yes, something bad happened. And it cost the lives of three officers and the loss of three or four squad cars. The thing is….nobody's entirely sure how Killer Moth or anyone with him could have caused such sudden mayhem. The only people to get a truly good look at who was doing what are either dead or recovering from grave injuries now. But there is one nasty-as-shit commonality at work here."

"Do tell….," Robin slurred.

Decker cleared his throat. "Two of the surviving cops lived on _barely_. But they had their hands chopped off. Their _right_ hands."

Starfire bit her lip.

Tempest blinked. "Excuse me for being a rookie….but….that's a 'Viper' thing, isn't it?"

"It should be….," the Lieutenant pointed. "But the confusing thing is…."

"….it happened at Killer Moth's confrontation," Robin scratched his chin.

"Killer Moth is a supervillain, indeed…," Starfire nodded. "But I have not assumed him to be someone capable of the intimate sadism described of this 'Viper' person."

"'Decribed of'??" Decker made a face. "You mean you don't remember, girl?"

"I….I-I was in a biologically-induced comatose state during the brutal massacre of Viper," Starfire admitted with a flushed expression. "I must apologize. I am here partially for the same reason as yon Tempest."

"Robin….," Decker lethargically sighed. "Couldn't you have brought with you some Teen 'experts' for once? Why couldn't you truck along that robo-nerd, Calypso?"

"'Cyborg'. And these _are_ experts, Commissioner," Robin said, trying not to frown. "I believe that Starfire and Tempest will be most helpful in conducting a search on recent events. As for Cyborg, he's busy helping you out in another field. He's examining the evidence found at the Zanzibar Piers. Despite numerous setbacks with these recent murders, there's an end to this prison-explosive mystery yet."

"Well I sure as Hell hope so," Decker muttered. "If God were one of us, he must have been a clown. Cuz this is all feeling like one bigass joke to me."

"If I may implore, sir….," Starfire raised her hand. "What about this situation is feeling liken unto an enlarged donkey?"

"Wow, you're an innocent one…aren't ya?" Decker slumped down melodramatically in his chair. "I don't like losing members of my best friends' forces. Right now as we speak, they're performing a grand funeral over in Metropolis. I'm sure Maggie Sawyer's balling her eyes out and the entire population of the Blueboy's city is pointing fingers at us for getting them involved in this entire mess." A beat. He slammed his fist down onto the desktop. "Dammit!! If Viper killed the Headmistress, I want to know why!! It doesn't fit his bill one hundred percent!! He was a psychotic moron with the hots for wasting law enforcement officials like yours truly! Not that I want to be lying six feet under with my romance hand chopped off right now, but I sure as Hell want to make sense out of it all!!"

"This Killer Moth….," Tempest interjected. "Has he ever worked with Viper before?"

"No," Robin shook his head. "The man's too egotistical. He couldn't even keep sane when he was coerced by Jinx, Mammoth, and Gizmo to 'work with' H.I.V.E. during the Westhaven incident." A beat. He looked at the Atlantean. "You're thinking Viper and Killer Moth are working together?"

Tempest shrugged. "The dead cops had the 'hand thingy', right? Surface dwellers are terribly iconographic, I've noticed. With Black Manta made a kill, all he ever left behind was a charred corpse. Your villains leave clues. I think what we're seeing with the Killer Moth debacle is nothing of the same."

"'Your villains' is 'our villains' now, Tempest," Robin pointed. "Don't forget that."

Tempest took a breath.

Robin looked at Decker. "But he has a point. It's a stretch. It may even be an improbability. But it's still a possibility."

"The Hell are you talking about?"

"Viper and Killer Moth," Robin nodded. "Working together."

"Oh. Great. Perfect." Commissioner Decker tossed his arms and sighed. "I'm seriously liking that! That's like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope reuniting……...with gas grenades."

Robin's fists clenched. "Commissioner, if you don't mind me saying…..you're rather testy today."

"Yeah, well, love it or leave it, kid," Decker rubbed his temples. "And—ya know what??—it wouldn't be fair of me to assume that you and your pimply friends haven't been going through your fair share of shit yourselves. But over the last week, everything in this Town has been hitting the fan….and you can just _guess_ in the shape of what, too."

"Perhaps the results that Cyborg provides will be of consolation to you, sir…," Starfire smiled pleasantly. "In the meantime, I am certain that the combined collaboration of Robin, Tempest, and myself shall bring into fruition certain progress on the murder investigations at hand."

"Yeah…well…start with the highway scene where Killer Moth sped off," Decker pointed. "I've got half of my department crawling over where the H.I.V.E. mistress died already. I don't need you three crowding them up."

Robin headed towards the door to the office and motioned for the other two Titans to follow. "We'll get right to it, Commissioner. Though forgive me if I check up on Cyborg first. I want to make sure he has something presentable to you before it's too late."

"Yeah…..much appreciated, Wonder Bird…," Decker motioned tiredly. "Go…fly to action or something."

Robin cleared his throat and silently motioned the others out the door.

The Commissioner and the Lieutenant were alone.

"…………..Lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir?"

"…..the murder of the Headmistress…….."

"What about it, sir?"

Decker's eyes were tired. They were thin. But they were resting upon something on an invisible horizon. Something small and specific. "It…..It reminds me of something…."

"What's that, sir?"

A beat.

Decker swiveled to face the Lieutenant.

"You remember the grisly murder at Warehouse 4146 about a month ago?"

"How can I not, sir? It's both one of the bloodiest and most unsolvable mystery to date."

"…..," Decker rubbed his chin. "Go fetch me some of the files on it. I want to….research something…."

The Lieutenant went towards the door. "Should the Titans know about this?"

"Should the Titans know about my grandmother's panties?!?! GO, dammit!! I mean it!"

The subordinate was gone.

Decker gazed off again. He mumbled to himself: "Viper……are you but a player in the game of death?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Police Department's elevator…

"I don't see why we couldn't have just….I dunno….hopped out of the window," Tempest smirked at Robin. "Between your grappling hooks and Starfire's flight and my water manipulation, we could make quite an exit—"

"Why the Hell are you so cheerful today?" Robin grumbled.

"Well, that answers that," Tempest gazed ahead at the closed doors.

Robin rubbed the bridge of his nose beneath his eyemask. He sighed.

A beat.

The Boy Wonder gazed to his left. A pause. "How're you doing, Star?"

The alien girl glanced at him. "Robin, today I am full of sadness and regret for the brave lives lost in these two horrific disasters. At the same time, I am incited to exert courage and righteous fury in the act of unraveling this mystery before us."

"………so….um……you're doing okay?"

"Hehe…I am glorious, Robin. Why do you inquire?"

Robin shrugged and faced forward. "Just….checking on you. That's all."

A beat.

Starfire fidgeted. "It is not that I am desiring to complain, however the necessity to inquire presents itself to my psyche."

"Shoot."

"Is there a specific reason for your desiring of my and Tempest's talents during this search instead of that of the other Titans?"

"First of all…I want you two properly educated on Viper," Robin dictated. "Neither of you ever met him in person, and I'm prone to believe him to be the most deadly, artfully conniving, and elusive enemy the Titans have faced just short of Slade."

"So I have gathered…."

"As it seems, he's escaped both death and a dismembered limb. That sort of tenacity is scary, especially regarding a man such as Viper. We need to explore these murders deeper and hopefully figure out just how strong and dangerous a man we're dealing with. I wouldn't expect anything less in strength and bloodlust than what the Titans faced last time."

Starfire nodded.

A beat.

She simpered. "The last time you faced Viper, I was incapacitated. Do you feel I would not fare well to confront Viper on my own now that I am likely to do so?"

Robin raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Starfire bit her lip. "It would mean nothing if my supposition is false…"

"……," Robin stared at her for a while before gazing ahead. "Whatever."

Starfire's eyes fell to her feet.

A beat.

"Star?"

"Yes, Robin?"

"If worse comes to worse and we do face Viper….well….."

"…….."

"…….stay by my side, got it?"

Starfire nodded. "Understood, Robin."

"Good."

Ding!

The elevator doors open.

Robin walked out first.

Starfire floated out second.

Tempest stood in place for a while. He smirked sarcastically: "Love ya too, Robin."

The Atlantean shook his head and followed last.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Sun was halfway up the sky when the beat-up squad car rolled to a stop on the top of a forested hill offroad.

Killer Moth put the car into park. He leaned on the steering wheel with a sigh.

A beat.

He looked to his right.

"……….," the assassin stared back.

A beat.

Killer Moth looked into the back seat.

"Zzzzzzzzzzz," Kitten was asleep and drooling.

Silence.

The masked villain glanced again at the assassin and motioned with his head. He exited the car.

The assassin did so too.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper slowly followed behind Killer Moth as the supervillain lead him to the top of the hill overlooking a sun-kissed landscape.

Killer Moth folded his arms and looked out. "You see this? This is my territory. My territory and my territory alone. There'll be many a crook and cop alike who will argue and say that it has never belonged to me. It was once H.I.V.E.'s. Then Dagger's. Then Slade's. Even the Titan's. But they were all wrong. I own this City, mister. I just haven't been able to prove it yet. But now that I'm free from prison, I have the chance to. I have a hideout nearby. Just a few twists and turns, and even you yourself could see it. But up to this point, the only persons to see it are myself, my daughter….and my beautiful children."

Viper groaned mutely. He could care less about gazing out at the City. He eyed Killer Moth's head. The back of his head. The thinness of his neck.

_His neck……_

Viper's bulbous eyes thinned.

He snaked a hand back silently to the hilt of his broadsword—

"I am planning something big," Killer Moth muttered. "Something involving tens of thousands of lives."

Viper's hand stopped. "…….," He gazed intently at Killer Moth.

The villain turned around. "I have enough larvae to replace the stars in the sky. And with just the right funds…with just the right materials….with just the right formula…..I will have this entire pathetic populace begging for mercy."

Viper walked over and stood alongside Killer Moth as the villain pointed out to the land.

"This is not an easy world to conquest. It will take time. It will take effort. And it will take talent." He turned. He glared at Viper through the bug eyes of his mask. "You…..Mysterious stranger…..You have much talent. Much talent that I could use. You have shown your willingness to help just recently….on the highway. I would be honored….and I would be willing to _reward you_….if you contributed your talents to my grand plan. Something tells me that you would very much appreciate the City I will build."

"……..," Viper looked at the City again. His brow furrowed as he eyed a familiar stretch of ocean. A familiar Bay. A familiar suspension bridge. A familiar skyline. And finally, a familiar Tower. "……………." His metal fingers flexed. He looked at Killer Moth. "…………." He smiled.


	159. Whispers part 2

**159. Whispers part 2**

"The salt water content found on the Zanzibar Piers equipment matches that of the evidence left at the prison. I don't think I even _need_ to begin about the carbonite, but here goes anyway. The explosives have been divided into about two hundred and ninety-four units. But get this, there were _exactly_ two hundred and ninety-nine detonators found at the Piers warehouse. This suggests that six units of carbonite quantities and one detonator are missing from the site. Which is interesting, because just about six units of carbonite of the sort of volume found at the site would have been needed to create the magnitude of explosive power as was witnessed at the prison's Omega Wing. That—combined with the fact that two out of the six creeps found at the Zanzibar site work on delivery routes that go near the prison—supports the supposition that the carbonite at the warehouses ended up at the prison. But Decker and his men can question the six individuals as much as he wants, cuz there's no evidence thus far that any of _them_ actually _set_ the explosives there. But they _do_ seem to be the supplier."

Cyborg finished talking.

Raven—standing next to him—looked over at Robin.

Robin stood with his arms folded on the opposite side of the warehouse. He took a deep breath. "Well…we're getting halfway to nowhere."

"Somewhere speaking," Cyborg smirked.

"Well you seem in a good mood," Robin grunted.

"Why shouldn't I be?" the android shrugged. "I know you enslave me to do a lot of laboratory studies these days, but I don't mind when the job is something that actually has _results_. It didn't take Raven and I much time to come to some sort of conclusion with the wonderful samples provided."

"…….," Robin glanced over at Raven. "Nobody said you had to work on this experiment."

"I know," she nodded.

Cyborg smiled proudly.

A beat.

"Whatever…," Robin ran a hand through his head and wandered towards the door. "Good job, guys. Just keep at it. And if you can…try and scrounge up some background information on Killer Moth."

"Killer Moth??" Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "You mean we've found the bastard?"

"Though at the moment I'm concerned with another bastard," the Boy Wonder slurred. "But the one I'm focusing on doesn't exactly have much of a background check."

"Viper, huh?" Cyborg nodded. "You sure you three are gonna be okay searching after him on your own?"

"If there's anything I've learned about this creep from that one time we went toe to toe…," Robin tiredly muttered. "….it's that the more Titans who face him, the more at risk my teammates are of being hurt."

"But…you sure you can handle it, man?"

A beat.

Robin turned and looked at Cyborg funny. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Cyborg sweatdropped. "You just….ya know….recovered from—"

"There was nothing wrong with me," Robin said firmly.

"Robin…," Raven interjected with a drone. "…you were not acting one hundred percent of your own sentient choosing. Whether or not you choose to accept it, you were under influence by an exterior force. There is nothing wrong with your taking action with Viper. It is your place as a leader. But at the same time—as leader of the Titans—you have a responsibility as much as we do to your own well-being. Putting yourself in the possible line of fire with Viper may not be such a wise plan if you are still mentally and physically exhausted from your ordeal."

"And I'm telling you…," Robin began to growl. "It _wasn't_ an ordeal!!"

"But—"

"If you guys know me…you know that the only way I can ever gather my senses again is to employ my senses in ass kicking!!"

"Damn straight!" Cyborg smirked.

Raven elbowed him.

"Ooff! Girl?!?!"

Raven looked up: "You know you just admitted to needing to recover, right?"

"No I didn't," Robin left the laboratory.

Schwissh!!

A beat.

"Finally…," Cyborg smirked at Raven. "An afternoon alone together."

"Whatever," she droned. "Robin is going to kill himself one day."

"Yeah well…as long as he isn't killing himself alone. He's got Starfire with him. I don't think he's got anything to worry about."

Cyborg went to work with computer equipment.

Raven stared at the back of his neck.

A beat.

"You do know Robin would hurt you for saying that, right?"

"Saying what?" Cyborg asked.

"That he needs Starfire to protect him."

"It's true, ain't it?"

"That's a matter of perspective."

"Pfft! My titanium ass! Starfire is all over Robin like stink on Velcro! Every time he's ever been tortured by Slade or tossed around by Atlas, that girl's been there to hug the stuffings out of him and stuff. There's a greater likelihood of the moon falling into the Pacific Ocean than Robin getting a papercut in Starfire's presence, I swear to God."

"Starfire isn't about to needlessly protect Robin," Raven said. "Every Titan knows that when Robin wants to tackle something on his own, nobody will make him fall short of such an effort. Not even Starfire."

"I swear. They're joined at the hip. Absolutely, positively joined at the hip. The 'Wonder' in the Boy Wonder has Tamaranian blood. You catch my drift?"

Raven folded his arms. "Allright, then. How would you enjoy it if some fan of our crimefighting troupe was to walk up to us and insist that the only reason Cyborg ever kicks butt is because Raven _protects him?"_

"You see, that's where the analogy falls short," Cyborg smirked. "Starfire doesn't smack Robin around for calling her 'cutie'."

"………..good point," Raven blinked.

"Just what I was thinking…………………..cutie."

_ZAP!_

"ACK!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Tempest turned to face the front steps of the Tower.

Robin came walking down the steps.

"Tempest. Starfire. Let's go."

Tempest saluted. "The murder site of the highway is just off the Jamestown Tributary, right?"

"Right," Robin saddled his R-Cycle. "Go splashy."

Tempest smirked. "More than happy to…" He turned, ran towards the edge of the island, and dove into the Bay waters.

_SPLOOSH!!_

Robin began fastening his helmet on over his head.

Starfire floated over. "Are we expected at the site by investigators at any specific time?"

"As soon as possible…," Robin said.

Starfire smiled. "Understood."

Robin started the bike. The engine purred.

Starfire played with her fingers. Her eyes fell to the side. "Uhm…R-Robin?"

"What is it, Star?"

"It is a long way to the Metropolitan Highway, and quite conceivably it may take a while for us to get there going our separately planned routes…."

His eyemask gazed thinly at her through his helmet's visor. "What are you getting at?"

"……," she exhaled. "M-May I….instead of flying….r-ride with you?"

"Star, we don't have any time for—" his voice cut off. He gazed at her.

Starfire bit her lip, her eyes sadly hanging to the wayside.

A beat.

"…….see the rear compartment of the bike, Star?"

"Uhm….y-yes?"

"There's a helmet in there. Why don't you grab it?"

She smiled ever so slightly, her cheeks rosy. "I shall d-do so…"

Starfire fit the helmet on her head, saddled herself behind Robin, and slowly placed her arms around his waist.

Robin kicked the bike into gear, and soon the two were throttling off along the land ridge to the City…then northward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Viper glared out the window of the squad car's passenger seat.

As the vehicle rolled to a stop, there was nothing but thick thickets surrounding them in a forest clearing bordering a large mound of vegetation-covered earth. The morning light filtered down in a halo, creating an eerie glow about the lush place. It looked like the garden of eden….only with thorns.

Killer Moth cut the engine. He opened the side door and piled out, his artificial wings twitching in a slight breeze. "We're here…," he grumbled in through the force-open window.

"……………," Viper opened his door and slowly stepped out. His eyes thinly scanned the green clearing.

Killer Moth slammed his door shut.

"Nnnngh….," Kitten stirred in the back seat. She rolled over and slept with a drunken smile. "Jack Sparrow…."

Killer Moth groaned, shaking his masked head. He trudged through the tall grass and approached a wall of green vines.

_No……_

Viper blinked.

It wasn't vines…but rather……_silk._ Green silk. Organic camouflage. Upon closer examination, the rubbery material was slowly squirming. It formed a squishy but resilient wall of matter the filled a gap of missing earth on the edge of the thicket-strewn clearing.

"Be quiet for a moment as I open the hideout," Killer Moth pointed at Viper.

"…….," Viper glared.

Killer Moth cleared his throat, and spoke: "Larva Wall. Command. Open."

There was a gurgling sound. A tiny squeak liken unto the muffled voices of ten invisible bats. Then—with a disgustingly curdling sensation—the wall of green silk contracted and lifted upwards, revealing a dark passageway.

A cave.

"……," Viper blinked. He gazed at Killer Moth.

There was almost a smile to the villain's masked face. "It's all in the voice."

"????"

"I'll explain later." Killer Moth looked towards the squad car. "Kitten?! We're home, girl!!"

"Nnngh……."

"Kitten?!?!"

"Hehehe….nngh….just one more minute on the poop deck."

"Damn waste of DNA, I swear…," Killer Moth wandered into the cave. "Follow along. You need to get a feel for the place."

Viper took a deep breath. He ducked his tall head as he entered…wary of the slimy, retracted 'doorframe' writhing just above him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The cave's entrance twisted and turned twice before ending up in a wide, torchlit chamber. The rocky floor descended towards a set right out of _Frankenstein_. A flat bed of stone was covered with at least four long chambers full of bubbling chemical vials and electric shock tanks and various other equipment of questionable nature. In the far corner of the interior, there were three large tanks of cold green goo lit by bright bulbs above. Huge round frames of carved stone led to lateral chambers. One appeared to be a storage compartment full of rusty, metal lockers. Then there was an entrance into what looked like a warm, candle-lit study perfect for a mad scientist. And then there was a corridor leading into someplace horrendously…..pink.

Last but not least there was a set of three doorways leading into a wet, underground lake. Dripping sounds echoed eerily inward from the moist chamber.

"That leads to the Bay," Killer Moth pointed out the doorways and said. "In recent years, I've found that my beautiful children spawn best underwater."

Viper's brow furrowed and he mouthed: _'Beautiful Children'_??

Killer moth seemed somewhat perturbed. Regardless, he explained: "My moths."

Viper nodded. He gazed out the chamber.

"This City is pretty much built into the Bay," Killer Moth gestured as he walked amongst his set of equipment…performing a long-needed, visual checkup. "It's surrounded on all sides by water. I've always wanted to exploit that. If I could…if I really wanted to…I could create a nest that would infest areas surrounding the entire urban area. But I've had numerous setbacks. At an opera house in Westhaven, I first performed an underwater nesting of my children. It was a successful endeavor…if you don't count the part where I get _frickin'_ captured and thrown into jail!"

Viper smirked.

Killer Moth grumbled. "Now I have to start over from scratch. I need equipment. I need material to successfully breed enough larvae and exploit the bodies of water in this region. As much as I love this cavern….I don't think an underground lake is going to help me any. Still…I can't complain. I've got my daughter back. And as much as she can be a pain in the thorax, she isn't _entirely_ useless. She's still not known in every household as a supervillain's offspring. She can perform as an unassuming secret agent. If only coaxed right…."

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!!

Kitten marched into the cave, fuming. "What's the big idea leaving me in that stuffy police car?!?! DADDY?!?!"

Killer Moth's gloved fists clenched. "You were sleeping…._darling!_ Daddy didn't want to wake you!"

"Now my butt's all cramped up and I HAVE LINES IN MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!!! Rrghhhh!! I sooooo need beauty treatment!! I'LL BE IN MY ROOM!!"

WHAM!!

Kitten stomped into the pink chamber and slammed a metal door shut behind her.

Viper made a face.

"See what I mean?" Killer Moth grumbled.

Viper found himself gazing towards the 'study'. He blinked. He crept towards it.

From behind…

"Command. Study larva. Extend!"

SQUIKKKT!!

A column of silky cocoons lowered down and swiftly blocked Viper's passage.

Viper skidded to a stop. He turned around, frowning.

Killer Moth pointed. "I trust you….but only so far, chump." He walked over and pointed towards the study. "You're only allowed in there when I want you in there. And right now, I don't want you in there. I've got some heavy planning to do. And some stuff I may be needing your help with. If you decide to play along…you will be heavily rewarded. But I call the shots, got it?"

"…………"

"Got it??"

"………," Viper smiled.

"Good….," Killer Moth turned around and focused again on examining his chemicals. "Soon enough…you'll learn to respect my methods. Everyone who takes me and my love for moths learn to regret it in the end."

Behind Killer Moth's back, Viper glared. He reached his hand up and fingered the hilt of his sword. His gaze fell upon the villain's neck.

"……"

"Those cocoons….all of my children in fact….they respond uniquely to my voice. It's something I've spent many years in the making of. All of my moths have a voice recognition biological program that makes them obey everything my voice and _only_ my voice says. The distinct fluctuations and tone of my vocal cords is like a fingerprint that is only recognizable to my creations."

"…….," Viper gazed off at hearing that. He slowly lowered his hand from his weapon once again.

"I'm quite proud of the effect myself. OH! Which reminds me…," and there was almost a bubblish touch to the Killer Moth's voice. "Entreat. Petite brood. Come!"

There was an obscenely cute amount of squeaking. Then exactly a dozen slimey, football sized maggots squirmed their joyous way into the laboratory cavern and danced around the supervillain's suited feet.

_Skriiii! _

_Skriiii! _

_Skriiii!_

"……..," Viper stared.

"Heheheheh….my precious children certainly have missed me!" He pulled out a yellow pellet from his belt pocket, snapped it open, and sprinkled golden dust over their mandibles.

The squirming creatures eagerly ate, chirped, and rubbed their 'heads' up against Killer Moth's ankles.

"The time is coming when I shall put you good offspring to use…," Killer Moth slurred. "I shall terrorize this City for every inch of its pathetic lives. The people, the police, the Titans….they will all learn to respect me. And you, my friend…" Killer Moth looked over at Viper. "…you will put that blade to good use."

"…….."

"Keep your hands clear of the equipment," Killer Moth droned as he turned around and headed for his study. "I need time to reconsider my resources and draft a plan for unleashing my children. I'll contact you when I've made sufficient plans."

"…….," Viper watched Killer Moth walk into his chamber. The slimy cocoon 'door' opened to make way for him and—

"Command. Study Larva. Extend!"

_SLKKK!!_

…the silk closed behind him, shutting him inside and beyond sight.

"………," Viper stared. He felt something on his leg.

_Skriii……_

Viper looked down.

A larva was 'smiling' and rubbing affectionately against his ankle. _Skriiiii……_

"……….," Viper grit his teeth. He raised his foot and kicked the larva across the room.

WHAP!!!

_SkriIiIiIiIi!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!_

Robin's R-Cycle burned down the country road…uncontested.

Starfire clung to him from behind, demurely wincing from every little jolt. The Tamaranian girl gritted her teeth and uttered into her helmet's two-way communicator: "I am helpless to observe that many of our latest adventures are taking us to the countryside."

"Yeah…..good point….," Robin uttered.

Silence…save for the throttling engine.

The autumn air was cold against their limbs.

Starfire clung to Robin more.

A beat.

"Star?"

"Y-Yes, Robin?"

"I need to breathe more."

"Eep! I-I'm sorry!"

"You can hold on tight…just….don't crush my chest or anything."

"I shall ascertain not to…."

"……….."

"……….."

"……….."

"………Robin?"

"Yes, Star?"

"I…I am sorry that I was incapable of action when Viper last plagued this Town."

"Star, you couldn't help it. It was all part of the Tamaranian—"

"I know that I was helpless in the matter, but regardless I feel that more lives would have been saved if I was present at the time and with my superpowers fully employed."

"Viper was far too conniving for starbolts or super strength to overcome," Robin said. "N-No offense."

"None taken, Robin."

Robin veered around a roadkill and returned to the straightaway. "And…uhm….in a lot of ways, I was kinda…..g-glad that you were out of it at the time."

"Glad, Robin??"

His helmet nodded. "It was not a very pretty sight what Viper did…"

"I am certain I was more than prepared to face his horrors, Robin."

Robin sighed into his helmet. "You're right, Star. It's wrong for me to assume otherwise."

She leaned her head against his shoulder. "I do not think it is entirely wrong of you to think in such a manner, Robin. In fact, I find it ironically reminiscent."

He turned his helmet to the side somewhat. "What do you mean?"

She smiled into her visor. "Am I not always wanting to protect you in multiple ways? Despite our willingness at times to admit it?"

Robin bit his lip. "Uhhhh….y-yeah…."

She giggled slightly. "Could it be that you were feeling protective of me then?"

"………"

"Robin??"

"Yes."

She giggled again and clung onto him tighter….but not too tightly. "I think that is sweet."

"You do?"

"Mmmmhmmmmm."

A beat.

Robin breathed into his helmet's speaker while staring at the road again: "I….I wish I didn't make a big deal out of it myself."

"Hmm?"

"When you're there for me, Star."

"Understood, Robin."

"………but…..I suppose it makes me feell….."

"………"

"…..warm?"

She smiled. "That is an interesting testimony."

"Yeah….well…."

"????"

"Wish us both luck feeling warm today," he grumbled. "With what we're about to look into."

She nodded her helmet.

A beat.

"Robin?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you protecting me right now?"

"………"

"By taking me with you while Viper is possibly around?"

"………yes, Star."

And she acknowledged that in silence.

And he returned that acknowledgment in silence.

Silence is golden.

The R-Cycle burned down the take a look at this…"

The subordinate marched over and leaned over the back of Decker's chair at the Commissioner's desk. A bored wooden fan slowly swung overhead as they gazed at two separate, gruesome photographs of murder scenes.

"This was Warehouse 4146 at our City's Shipyards in October of 2004…," Decker pointed at the bloody pile of bodies gathered beneath a wall with 'S-T-R-O-K-E' painted in organic red. "And this was taken in Gotham City just weeks previous." A photo of a pile of bodies with 'D-E-A-T-H' splashed across a wall. "Now…."

The Commissioner pulled out the photo from the Headmistress' murder.

A bunch of bodies were piled unceremoniously up against the overturned prison truck. There were no red letters. And the bodies weren't entirely mutilated like in the other two photos. But the victims' right hands were missing.

"….this is most likely the work of Viper. It fits the bill in almost every way. Now look at the way the bodies are piled in his murder compared to the other two mysterious cases…."

The Commissioner and the Lieutenant took some time to study the images.

A beat.

The Lieutenant uttered: "It's a mimic!"

"What is?"

"Viper's murder….of th-the other two?"

The Commissioner sighed and slouched back in his seat. "If that's so, it's a friggin' ugly copycat."

"………..????" the Lieutenant looked at Decker sideways.

Decker pointed: "Whoever the murderer at the two warehouses was, he certainly had a hayday killing those punks. But with Viper…it was very swift and clean. The only pleasure he seems to take is his trademark removal of limbs. But I can't help but think that he's trying to make some bloody, god damn statement with this. It just…screams to me."

"Maybe it's not a message to us, sir…," the Lieutenant remarked. "But perhaps to the one who committed those other two murders?"

Decker eyed the old photos. The words 'D-E-A-T-H' and 'S-T-R-O-K-E'. He sighed.

"Why do I get the feeling that every crook in the world is a billion steps ahead of us at all times?"

A beat.

Decker turned and looked at the lieutenant. "I want to do a little homework. Bring me all the information we have on Viper's tools of the trade."

"Sure thing, sir…," the Lieutenant made for the door.

Decker stared out the window. "Those who live by the sword get frickin' I.D.'d by the sword."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You know….I never thought of it much, but Killer Moth certainly leaves a lot of evidence behind in his tracks…," Cyborg smirked as he typed away at the laboratory's computer station.

Raven fingered through notebook files. "You mean besides silky residue?" she droned.

Cyborg gestured at the string of data on his screen. "I mean…the guy has detailed schematics on all of his genetic research and chemical processes and ways of breeding giant-ass bugs and whatnot. It's kind of like the German managers of the holocaust at the end of World War Two. They were so meticulous in keeping a log of all their interments and exterminations and stuff. You get what I'm saying, right?"

"Somewhat…."

"Come on, Raven! I thought you'd be well-versed in this history stuff!"

"I'm gothic, not nazi."

Cyborg typed some more. "Well, nobody can blame you. If any of us really got to know Killer Moth face to face, it's either Robin or Noir and B.B. It's sheer coincidence that intimate details like his daughter's nickname ever became household names here."

"You mean 'Kitten'?"

Cyborg winced.

"Cyborg, Starfire isn't here. Relax."

"I am relaxed. I'm doing research. How can I not be freakin' relaxed?"

"Take this from me. Your sarcasm sucks."

"Yes'm."

Raven leaned over his chair. "What are you looking up?"

"I wish Robin had all of this stuff sorted a bit more clearly," Cyborg said. "I'm trying to find information on the chemical compounds used in Killer Moth's maggot-breeding. If he left detail of everything else in his psychotic life…you think he'd at least have a simple recipe book on mutant moths."

"Wait…," Raven pointed a thin hand towards a spot on the screen. "What's that?"

Cyborg narrowed his human eye. "On March 2nd 2004….Kitten bought a training bra and two bottles of lavender shampoo at a Wal-Mart in Metropolis."

Raven blinked. "Why would her father have information on that?"

"…………………y-yeah……….."

A beat.

"Ahem….moving on." Cyborg typed a flurry.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that day.

In the…….Moth Cave.

……..

Viper walked around the chemicals and vials and bubbling liquids located around the tables.

He eyed each solution with suspicious scrutiny.

Scanning the formulas.

Smelling some of the chemicals.

Looking over equations written on various scraps of obsessively gathered papers.

The penciled ramblings of a madman.

"……."

Viper shuffled over to a corner.

He eyed a bunch of metal utensils on a tray.

A beat.

He eagerly swiped a few of them.

He looked around.

He found a drawer.

He slid it open with a rusty creak.

He found more tools and picks and utensils inside.

He grabbed a handful.

He closed the drawer.

Looking over, Viper found a stool against the cold wall of the cave.

He shuffled over and sat on it.

He slid the scabbard with his broadsword off his shoulder and stretched his neck a few times.

Popping a few joints.

Viper exhaled.

He took one tool.

He took another.

He leaned his neck to the side and started picking at and tweaking the damaged part of his voice 'disc'.

His bulbous eyes narrowed into oblivion as he blindly worked on his implant.

He dug deeper with a tool into the conversion of metal and flesh.

The other tool he used to apply pressure to the cracked portion of his disc.

His brow furrowed.

He sweated.

He worked the tools harder. More delicately.

_Zzzt!!_

One spark.

_Zzzztt-tt!!_

Another.

He inhaled.

He dug deep with one tool.

_Zzzzzttt!!_

The disc flared red.

Viper concentrated.

"**Zzzzzkkkkkkkkk"**

He strained.

He pried with the tools.

More sparks.

More red light.

"**Zzzkkktestkkzkzkzing"**

A breath.

A flexing of finger muscles.

A stab—

_Zzztt!!_

"**ZzztttTesting. Testing."**

Viper paused.

The glow in his disc was faint…..but somewhat stable.

And yet his eyes lingered in the corner of oblivion.

And his tongue moved around in his mouth.

A beat.

He twisted the tools somewhat.

"**Command……Command……Command…."**

He monotonously repeated the same word in his trademark, computerized voice.

He twisted the tools more and more.

The inflection of the voice changed.

Viper applied pressure with his choices, distorting his own voice.

"**Command……Command………….**_**Command……**_**" **

Slowly, like an unfolding cocoon….the voice of the mute assassin grew deeper. Throatier. It had a ferocious tone to it. Like that of a muffled carnivore with a twinge of intellectual madness. Soon, the voice disc was emitting a fair mimic of none other than Killer Moth's ….."

Killer Moth's voice filtered out near-perfectly from Viper's disc.

The assassin paused.

A beat.

He looked over at the door to the madman's study.

The wall of biological slime rested there.

Silent.

Viper narrowed his eyes on it.

He took a breath.

His throat disc flashed red: _**"Command……..Larva……."**_

The slime and silk vibrated.

As if telepathically poked.

"_**Command……….LARVA….."**_

The slime curled.

Responding.

Viper smiled evilly.

He relaxed his eyes.

"_**Command. Larva. Op—"**_

_ZZZT!!!! _

_Zzzz-zztt!!_

A spark.

A pulse.

Viper gasped.

"**No--zzztkkktkkkktt!!"**

His voice died on him.

The glow left his neck.

"……..!!!" Viper snarled mutely. He tossed the metal tools to the floor and stood up, kicking the stool down.

Cl-Clack!!

Viper fumed.

He glared at the wall of silk.

CHIIIIING!!!

He had broadside out.

His lungs heaved.

He stomped over towards the cocoon 'door'.

He raised his broadsword.

He prepared to swing--

"Hey!! Baldy!! What gives?!?!"

"…….," Viper lowered his sword. He turned around.

Kitty stood in a very…..frolicky pink dress. She planted indignant fists into her hips and frowned at Viper. "And just what do you think you're doing?!?!"

"……" Viper looked at Kitten. "….." He looked at his broadsword. He looked at the cocoon. "….." He looked at Kitten again.

"The squad car is still out in the open, STUPID!! Why haven't you or Daddy pushed it out of the way before the COPS SEE IT?!?!"

Viper took a deep breath.

His metal fingers curled around the hilt of his sword.

Kitten stomped her foot. "If you don't start acting like a team member, I'm gonna tell Daddy you're out to castrate him with that sword of yours!!!"

"……," Viper smiled. He bowed.

"…….," Kitten blinked.

The mute assassin walked past her. But at one point he paused. And he lifted his hand….and patted her on the head.

Kitten made a face.

Viper left the cave, dragging his sword.

Kitten ran a finger along her temple. "Uhm…..does that count as my 'special area'?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper walked out into the forest clearing.

He came to a stop.

He stared at the squad car.

"……….."

Fuming, he walked over towards it.

CHIIIIING!!!

He twirled his broadsword.

He struck low on the front left.

THWACK!!

He struck low on the front right.

CRACK!!!

The brakes shattered.

Viper clenched his teeth, planted his foot on the hood, and kicked hard.

THWOOOSH!!!

The car rolled backwards, drove reverse over a mound, and crashed loudly down the mountain side into aluminum oblivion.

CRUNNNNNCH!!!!

Viper sheathed his sword and dusted his hands off. He marched towards the cliffside where the car rolled to its death. He folded his arms and glared out at the mountains and urban landscape beyond. Autumn wind clung to his purely bald complexion and muscular arms. Bulbous eyes narrowed and he slowly breathed.

Contemplating.

"…………………"

A beat.

Viper's eyes widened some.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Walking through the cave. _

_Looking at Killer Moth's chemicals. _

_Vials of strange juices._

_  
Multiple compounds and substances in storage. _

_Equations and chemical formulas._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper's lips parted.

A breath seeped through.

He blinked once….twice….

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Looking closely at the equations. _

_The chemicals and detailed agents._

_A small chain of molecules._

_Phosphorus and Oxygen in the center……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

Viper rubbed the back of his neck, leaning his head to the side.

A beat.

He gazed beyond the autumn sky.

He smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whoah…..," Cyborg sat back and blinked. "Damn."

Raven looked over. "What is it?"

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head and pointed at the laboratory computer. "I just…uhm…found something interesting about Killer Moth's breeding chemicals."

Raven folded her arms and stood behind him. "What about it?"

"Well……you get the idea that Killer Moth pretty much uses toxic chemicals in the spawning of his 'children', right?"

"I do now."

"Yeah. Remember when you, me, and B.B. went toe to toe with him in his basement laboratory over a year ago?"

"How could I forget?" Raven droned.

"Well…you see….we were all safe because all of his chickens had pretty much hatched, pun intended."

"Of course."

"Ahem. Anyways…we never truly encountered the creatures while they were in their chrysalises. Killer Moth's monsters were almost always in either larva form or full blown moths. Even at Westhaven, that was the case. The suckers were inside this bigass, glass dome underwater."

"Why underwater?"

Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe they breed best down there. Who knows? Anyways…Killer Moth must have some sort of metahuman immune system built into his frame if he tries so much as to handle these things _in person_. The compound ironically enough resembles a pesticide. In fact…I bet he chose such a deadly substance to raise the larvae in so that they would survive any deadly agents that they'd be subjected to in case the government tried to counterattack his creations through chemical force."

"Which undoubtedly they would."

"Exactly," Cyborg nodded. "But to tell the truth, I can see now why this guy's a complete and total madman."

"Do explicate…"

"Killer Moth gets off of terrorizing the people of this City through his monster moths, right?"

"Right."

Cyborg pointed at the chemical compound on display. "But if he so much as wanted to…the 'fluid' that he creates those creeps in is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from a full blown chemical agent of potential mass destruction. If he wanted to…he could use that as a basic stepping stool to royally screwing the population of this entire City. Maybe even the entire County!! Depends on how much he has!"

Raven's eyes thinned. "And he hasn't done this yet because…."

"Moth fetish, I guess."

A beat.

Raven looked back up at the screen. "What type of chemical agent are we talking about?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper stumbled into the cave.

He silently paused and looked towards the neighboring corridors.

Kitten was humming in her pink-massacre of a bedroom, making love to a hair dryer.

"…….," Viper crept along the chemicals.

He squinted his eyes and focused his vision on the scribbled compounds.

He exhaled gently as he perused the formulas and chemical structures and quite blatantly discovered:

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate…," Cyborg matter-of-factly rolled off his tongue.

"……………….."

Cyborg sighed and explained: "Commonly known as Sarin. Perhaps one of the deadliest if not THE deadliest nerve agent in the modern, tap-dancing world."

"And you're saying Killer Moth has the formula to make this?"

"Not….exactly."

"What, then?"

"I mean to say that his chemical compounds that serve as a birthing fluid for his creations are _similar_ to it. Or at least—given the right manipulation—the chemicals can be 'excited' into a molecular structure that essentially does the same thing as Sarin……which is royally screwing with the rate of neurotransmitter acetylcholine being fired in the body."

"And that's a bad thing?"

Cyborg smiled sadistically. "Imagine a chemical agent so strong that it not only kills you but the molecules practically rape your corpse once you're dead."

"Lovely."

"I knew you'd say that."

"Just what needs to be done exactly to bring forth this apparent apocalypse?"

"Well….," Cyborg stroked his chin and looked at the monitor. "I suppose if Killer Moth suddenly went twice as insane and decided to make a chemical agent out of his own devices…the cheapest and most ghetto way to do it would be to acquire the tools necessary in order to speed up the electrons and sorta….reshape the compounds into something a hell of a lot more lethal."

"Could Killer Moth have the equipment to make such a thing happen?"

"Pfft! Not very likely. The dude is a poor as belly button lint."

"So….it's an impossibility….?"

"Not quite. There's only….like….one device I can think of that could adequately manipulate the compound in question. A isomeric translator. Damn rare and expensive stuff these days. And you have to be rich as King Midas to possibly ever produce stuff like that."

"I'm guessing there's not many scientists or entrepreneurs rich enough to go that route."

"Well….there's one."

"Who?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Through the shaky magnification of the long-range telescope, the huge sign: 'Wayne Enterprises' glistened in the mid-afternoon sunlight. They rested atop a huge skyscraper just two blocks away from the trademark summit of Kobayashi Tower in the middle of the City.

"………….," Viper lowered the telescope.

He stood at the edge of the plateau a mile's hike from the cave.

He stared with naked eyes at the Cityscape across the Bay, looked through the telescope once more, and gazed nakedly again.

A beat.

He smiled, turned around, and hiked back….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Then of course you would need a major chemical byproduct in such manipulation…," Cyborg droned on.

Raven stared at him with a hand resting against her head. As if she was interested still. "Yes…..and?" She tried to hide a smirk.

Cyborg explained dutifully: "Lots and lots and lots of water," Cyborg said. "As a solvent." A beat. He lifted a finger. "And isopropyl alcohol."

"Isopropyl alcohol?"

"Yes….if he wanted to go the route of making a doubly deadly, binary solution."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Riing! Riing! Riing!

A secretary picked up a phone inside a room with windows overlooking a factory surrounded by forested hills.

"Dayton Chemical Works, Central Plant. Thanks for calling the Board of Maintenance. This is Judith, how can I help you?"

A beat.

"Hello?"

A beat.

The secretary stopped what she was typing on her computer and looked suspiciously at her phone. "Is someone there?"

A beat.

-Click.-

The woman sighed and put the phone back down on its base. "Another glitch…."

She went back to typing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….," Viper left the payphone off the hook at the roadside, country convenience store. He adjusted the shadowing jacket around his frame, dug his hands into loose pockets, and quietly sauntered back into the nearby density of forest.

There was a slight grin on his face.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey…hang on a minute…," Commissioner Decker held his finger up.

The Lieutenant stopped shuffling through gathering papers of evidence.

Decker pointed at one sheet of paper. "What the Hell is this about?"

"What? Oh…..remember that sheet you signed two months ago?"

"………."

"Ahem….," the Lieutenant gestured. "The one about…..S.T.A.R. Labs…um….doing research on villainous gadgetry for….better understanding of nefarious technology."

"Well, you remember something new every day. Refresh my deteriorating memory."

"Well….you see here….Viper's vocal communicator was among the devices sent over to the expansion of S.T.A.R. Labs into our City. Remember when you and Maggie Sawyer agreed to joint sharing of data for the sake of national crime fighting advances and what not?"

"Sounds like a bunch of hooiey to me."

"Sir?"

"Bullshit."

"Ah….well….no offense, sir, but you agreed to the bullshit at the time."

"I would….wouldn't I….," Decker scratched his chin. "Oh and Lieutenant?"

"Yes?"

"Wash your mouth out with soap."

"……s-sir?"

Decker scanned over the page. "It says that we sent S.T.A.R. Labs' facility one of Viper's confiscated communication devices. So like…the thingy that attached to that wyrdass metal disc in his neck, right?"

"According to the Titans, he was reportedly mute."

"You don't say!" Decker gasped dramatically.

The Lieutenant merely stared.

Decker patted his shoulder. "So…this is S.T.A.R.'s way of getting a foothold over Phaser Labs since they've been doing so well, huh?"

"I suppose so, sir."

"Is Viper's communicator still there?"

"I would imagine so…..is that a liability, you think?"

"………," Decker looked over the sheet. A beat. "Nah….." he said.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I frankly don't understand why we're in this boring Town…," one scientist muttered to another as they walked out of the front gates of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility….a flat, one story pavilion surrounded by thick, concrete walls. The two men sauntered down the sidewalk together in the waning sunlight. "There's little to no funding…sometimes I wonder if Metropolis really cares about this facility….and furthermore, we've got freakin' kids as superheroes instead of some serious supporters like the JLA."

"I dunno…I sorta like the Bay."

"'You like the Bay'…you moron…"

"What???"

A shady figure in a jacket bumped into the two.

Whump!

"H-Hey!" the loud scientist jolted and frowned at the passing figure. "Watch where you're going!!"

"………," the figure walked past them…his head hung.

"Hrmph….," the scientist frowned. "Jackass…." He marched forward with his companion. "Come on….Panera Bread….now…."

"But I—"

"I'm not done talking!"

"Alright…."

As the two scientists walked one way…the figure marched past the front gates of the Labs. He paused for a moment and lifted his head.

Viper glanced over at the labs through the gate. He raised his hand and brandished a shiny security keycard that he had just pickpocketed. He smiled, hid it away beneath his jacket, and marched onward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Robin??" Starfire spoke into the helmet's communicator as the two throttled down the last stretch of highway before the site.

"Yes, Star?"

"Something has been troubling me about this investigation…"

"What is it?"

"Could Viper truly have been at the scene with Killer Moth?"

"That's something we have yet to determine—"

"I do know that the dismembered hands found at Killer Moth's murderous site are all up to supposition, but I am attempting to consider the logic of it all. If Viper is truly the lonesome, cold killer that I have read up on….how could he possibly deign to work alongside Killer Moth?"

"That's exactly why we must have a null hypothesis about all this," Robin spoke as he steered them along. "Viper just couldn't conceivably work with someone. If he was at the scene of bloodshed, he would have murdered Killer Moth and his daughter just as easily as he may have murdered those three police officers. The man simply _does not_ make friends! He works alone. He epitomizes silence itself as a crimson wielder of death. He would kill his own mother if he simply _could_!"

"What could ever possess him to aid Killer Moth in an escape?"

"Well, Star…..barring a dissociative personality taking over him or something…..it'd require an innate need of his to get exactly and only what _he wants_."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slap!!

Killer Moth laid out a map on a table in the middle of the cave.

"Allright….now that you're part of the team….," he glared through his mask at Killer Moth that afternoon. "I think I might as well let you in on my plans…"

"Augh….," Kitten dramatically leaned her head back against the wall and whined. "This is the borrrrrrring paaaart!!"

"Quite, precious!! This is important!! Now…ahem. I'm—of course—in great need of gathering resources for my cultivation…so…," he dragged a pointy, gloved finger along the perimeter of the City. "If we hit a few of these chemical warehouses where the surveillance is low and the police patrols are limited, I am fairly certain that—"

Suddenly, Viper snatched the map out of Killer Moth's grasp.

"……," the villain looked up.

Kitten blinked.

Viper smiled.

And…

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip!!_

The assassin shredded the map entirely in half.

Kitten gasped and planted to pink hands over her lips.

Killer Moth instantly snarled. "Say!! What's the big idea---"

Viper held a finger up.

"……," Killer Moth stared.

Viper whipped out a road map picked up at the convenient store.

THWAP!!!

In one, swift flick of the wrist he unfolded the gargantuan design of the region and splashed it over the table. He whipped out a charcoal pen and circled three spots which he promptly labeled in order.

'Wayne Enterprises Building.'

'Dayton Chemical Works.'

'S.T.A.R. Labs Facility.'

He pointed at them all, drew his finger back and forth between the City and their home base, and then produced a piece of paper that he held out to Killer Moth…..smiling.

Smiling….

"……..," Killer Moth mutely took the sheet. He adjusted his helmet's 'eyes' and read off of it: "'Infiltrate Wayne Enterprises for Isomeric Translators. Raid Dayton Chemical Works outside the City for Isopropyl Alcohol reserves. And steal electrical conduits from S.T.A.R. Labs in the City….'"

A beat.

He looked up with a snarl: "What in blazes' name would I need all that for?"

Viper smirked. He snapped his finger for the paper.

Killer Moth handed it to him.

Kitten eyed the transfer blinkingly.

Viper scribbled something down. He handed it back to Killer Moth.

Kitten eyed it again.

Killer Moth read: "'To increase the speed of breeding.'"

A beat.

Killer Moth gazed into the horizon.

He slowly turned around and looked at his formulas.

He thought…..and thought….

And thought…..

Viper stared.

Not smiling at that freeze-frame moment.

A single bead of sweat formed on his temples--

"Remarkable…..," Killer Moth muttered. "It might….indeed….work as a catalyst……wow….," he looked over at Viper. "Especially with the equipment from Phaser Labs and the chemicals from Dayton……it…….i-it would need a lot of water….much more than this drafty cavern….but it may work. It may work indeed. But….B-But just a moment!!" He growled and pointed at Viper. "How would you expect me to just _march_ into those places in broad daylight and walk away with all of that vital stuff?!?! It's just ASKING for a trip back to prison!!"

Viper shook his hand…then pointed at himself.

"You……You have a plan??"

Viper slowly nodded.

Killer Moth crumpled the sheet in his glove and spoke: "I'm not so sure about this…."

CHIIIIIIIING!!

Kitten winced.

Killer Moth eyed Viper wearily.

Viper stared at the masked freak. "……." He laid his broadsword out onto the table. It still had blood from many a killed cop.

"…….."

Viper smiled and mouthed: 'You will have to trust me'.

Killer Moth rubbed his chin.

Kitten watched nervously.

A beat.

There was almost a curve to Killer Moth's masked. "Allright, Mr. Professional…," he extended his hand. "It's a deal."

Viper smirked. He held his hand out too.

And the two villains shook.

Kitten's eyes squinted. She could almost see a chuckled breath coming out of the corner of Viper's lips.


	160. Whispers part 3

**160. Whispers part 3**

Robin pulled up on the R-Cycle and slowed to a stop.

The center of the highway was taped off and surrounded by random investigators.

Normal traffic was being redirected to two lanes on the extreme opposite side of the freeway.

Robin cut his engine, removed his helmet and took a moment or two to stare.

"……"

Troopers stood on the side median next to the taped-off site. The men gathered in small circles, talking over recent findings. Others leaned tiredly against squad cars. The initial investigations had been long-performed and the bodies removed long ago in advance. At that point, it seemed as if everyone gathered around and waited for time to go in reverse and reveal the nature of the catastrophe.

Instead, the Boy Wonder had arrived.

Robin stepped off his bike and rested his helmet on the front seat.

A pause.

He looked over at Starfire.

The girl was frozen in a nervous, speed-induced flinch.

Robin smiled somewhat and tapped her shoulder lightly.

"Eep!" She blinked. Blushed. Stood up. "We have arrived…"

"Yes, Star, we have….," Robin nodded. "Now let's get to work."

He walked towards the site and was stopped by a pair of dark eyes.

"……," Tempest smiled. He waved. "I beat ya here."

"Garth! Glorious! You have been most expedient!" Starfire cooed.

Robin blinked under his mask. "Uhm….you better watch how fast you swim through those river streams. You wouldn't want to get the bends."

"Quite impossible, Robin," Tempest smiled and lifted a finger. "The level of oxygen in the plasma of Atlantean blood is on a completely different and well-adapted ratio compared to—"

"Yeah, uh huh…," Robin marched past him and approached the state troopers. "We're the Teen Titans," he called out. "Decker sent us to have a look at the site and remove some of the sixes from the sevens. This is it right here, correct?"

"Y-Yes, Robin…," an officer nodded and walked over towards the taped area. He pointed to the charred remains of two squad cars and wreckage around a station wagon. There were also chalk marks for the three perishing state troopers. "According to testimony, the suspects paused suddenly in their vehicle over there. Our boys performed a textbook operation to get them out of the car and face down. That's when a third figure attacked the front of the standoff. Two officers lost their right hands. Then the three in the middle of the blockade were shot dead. Finally, there was an explosion caused in the middle two squad cars. Our boys retreated back while we called in an armored truck with a marksman. Soon after that, the suspects took off."

Robin pointed: "Can we get closer?"

"By all means," the trooper gestured.

Robin bent the tape and stepped beneath.

Tempest stepped over.

Starfire floated and the officer followed last.

Robin strolled over towards the charred remains of the squad cars. He stood above them, farms folded. A beat. He knelt down and examined the ashes with his eyemask thinned. He gazed at the blackened aluminum.

Starfire held her hands together. "This surely was a horrific scene…."

The officer said nothing.

Tempest merely scratched his head.

Robin dug his fingers into a pile of ash and rubbed the gloved material together. He exhaled…then spoke: "I'm not seeing any visual signs of explosive chargers. Unless further testing proves otherwise, I don't think this was a bombing. Although…." He gazed at the heart of the charred chasis. "The explosion was most likely internal."

A beat.

Robin stood up and looked at the officer. "Was anyone's weapon missing after the event?"

"Yes. A pistol, in fact."

Robin nodded. "Killer Moth's company must have gotten ahold of it. I suspect a bullet-inflicted charge. Perhaps a shot to the fuel tank."

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

Robin turned and walked along the site. "Which means the suspect had to have been firing from a safe distance." The Boy Wonder moved a few paces till he stood next to one in-tact squad car. "How many squad cars were originally here?"

"Two. They belonged to the casualties who lost their hands."

"So the suspect attacked them up close…stole a pistol…and most likely…," he turned and pointed towards the blackened asphalt, "…fired from here to cause the squad car explosion." A beat. "The deceased officers….did they drive those squad cars?"

"The ones that blew up?"

"Yeah."

"Yes, that they did."

"By that time…everyone from the front of the barricade to the middle was either dead, injured, or running back that ways," Robin pointed away from the station wagon. "And with the flames and wreckage from the exploding squad cars, that would have provided a good enough wall of distraction for the suspects to get away. And in this case, the still-whole squad car here was stolen. The station wagon was ditched." Robin walked over to the vehicle in question. "Anything valuable found in it? Did you search?"

"We didn't find any special evidence, contraband, or weapons in it. We're thinking it was a stolen vehicle. There's a report of a missing station wagon at a car park just outside your City."

"What date?"

"October 24."

"Right after the prison blast and escape," Robin scratched his chin. He wandered around the vehicle. A beat. He knelt down and looked under it. He motioned for the officer.

The man stepped over.

Robin pointed under the vehicle: "I see the front half of a motorcycle under this thing."

"Yes, we saw that two. A dirt bike, we think. Half of it is shredded completely across the asphalt. We think the station wagon rolled over it."

"I'm seeing the pieces here," Tempest pointed at a line of scattered scrap. "It's….like….a streak of junk."

"Would it not be detrimental for a vehicle of this size to skirt over a moped?" Starfire blinked.

Robin stood up and gazed at the hood. "But it didn't drive over the bike…."

The officer blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Not at first, at least," Robin said. He gazed at the trooper. "I'm guessing you guys have no clue where the bike came from?"

"We didn't see it, no. The station wagon just stopped so suddenly…."

"Well….the bike fell," Robin said.

"Across the road?"

"From the sky," Robin pointed at the massive dent on the station wagon's hood. "A rather great height."

"But….But….," the officer blinked. "How could that possibly happen?!"

Robin turned and gazed up.

Starfire and Tempest looked as well.

Forested mountain ridges rested on either side of the highway. They seemed impossibly out of reach.

Robin pointed northward: "That's where the bike came."

The officer scratched his head. "How….D-Do you know that?"

"With an adult riding, the gravity would have shifted heavily to the rider's body on the vehicle. But seeing that the rider may very well have lived through the fall, I'm assuming the next opportune part of the bike struck the station wagon's hood first. The front tire. And from the impression of the dent…the front tire had to have been coming first from that direction…," Robin pointed. "Tell me, sir….is there anything important up there? A biking trail, perhaps?"

"No, Robin………….well…."

Tempest blinked.

Robin folded his arms. "Well what?"

The officer scratched his head. "There is…..nearly a mile away in the mountains….a private ranch in the thick forest owned by some rich entrepreneur."

"Do we know?"

"James Garet. He's known well in these parts."

"Well…then I guess it wouldn't be too hard for us to get to know him too…," Robin strolled forward casually….towards the mountainsaide.

Tempest and Starfire looked at each other.

The officer cleared his throat. "B-But….Mr. Titan….even if someone did plummet from Garet's property…how could he possibly have survived the motorcycle crash??"

Robin paused. With a ruffle of his cape he glanced back and said: "The last person we'd want to have survived…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Here at Wayne Enterprises, we believe that science's ultimate purpose is to benefit mankind. For that reason, there has been no contribution to military technology in nearly twenty-five years. Unlike Lexcorp or Powers Inc., Wayne Enterprises seeks to supplement new contributions in the medical industry and ecologically friendly fuel resources. And on top of that is our award winning program for home building and neighborhood funding throughout Gotham City and expanding abroad such as in this region of the country. On this tour, I would like to show you the local departments we have working around the clock to make this world a better place one person at a time. If you would follow me, please…"

The female tour guide smiled pleasantly—her teeth and name badge glistening in the fluorescent light of the hallway. She turned around and with a ruffle of her short business skirt she strolled down the hallway. Middle-aged and old folks alike in a small drove muttered curiously and followed her down the hallway on a guided tour. To the rear was a short estrogen-bearing thing in a ridiculously feminine, yellow dress with a scarf draped over short blonde hair. She had on gargantuan, brown sunglasses through which she glanced quietly—anxiously—behind and to the sides of her as she took up the rear of the monotonous procession.

As she strolled along, she reached a hand into a pink purse and fingered the button to a transceiver that nobody could see….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was starting its autumnal descent, and outside the air was crisp and clean and cool. An orange sky silhouetted the tall and gothic Wayne Enterprises building. A block or two away, a smaller but no-less majestic skyscraper of silvery granite stretched towards the sky. A wing-fluttering Killer Moth crawled up the wall through use of his razor-sharp gloves. A device on his belt blinked with a red light. He paused in his ascent, reached a single hand down, and tapped a signal into the transceiver. He then reached into a pouch and produced three tiny sacks of silk. He stuck them to the nearest window frame of the building's nineteenth story. He then proceeded to climb and attach more tiny cocoons to the building's surface.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the street from the rear of the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper, there was a bus stop. A man in a brown trenchcoat sat on a simple wooden bench, his hands in his pockets. The setting sun glistened off his pale, bald head. He sat mutely, glaring at a loading dock at the back of the building. There was a ramp with a descending doorframe for a truck to reverse into.

"…………..," the figure was silent.

A device in his trenchcoat's front pocket beeped.

He reached a left hand out, tapped it, and put it back in his lower pocket.

"………….."

An elderly black woman strolled over with a walker. Her wrinkly face smiled. "Hello, son."

"…….."

"You are heading uptown too, huh?"

"…….."

"My lord…it's a busy, busy Town."

"…….."

She slowly sat down on the bench beside him and waited for the bus.

"Lovely weather we're having. You look cold, though. Is that coat of yours heavy at all?"

"………."

"You're the quiet type. I see that. I've learned that the quiet ones are always the gifted ones."

"…….."

She fumbled through her purse and pulled out a packet of Tic Tacs with a shaking, elderly hand. "Mmmmmhmmm….I sure do love Autumn." She swallowed down two bits and offered some to the man. "Would you like some sweets?"

"………"

"They're gooooooood. Hehehehehe."

"……….," he started to cringe.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Here we have the Foreign Relations department. This City is our chief base for international relations with nations representing Europe, the Balkans, and Northern Africa. Oftentimes, Mr. Wayne himself comes here to conduct business negotiations with actual delegates from Spain and France. Such a meeting isn't happening today, of course. Otherwise this tour would have to have been postponed."

An old woman's hand raised.

"Yes, you have a question??"

She pointed across the lobby at a desk behind black-tinted glass. "What's that there window for?"

"Oh, that's the building's department of security. We have well-trained officers patrolling this building at all time. They check on surveillance and authorization codes there."

The girl in yellow blinked through brown shades. She fingered the transceiver in her purse again, gazing out a first floor window through the corner of her eye.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Killer Moth was in the middle of fixing what looked like a miniature speaker or megaphone to the wall besides the last batch of tiny cocoons stuck to the building's surface.

The device on his belt blinked.

He smiled under his mask.

He glanced down.

A delivery truck was slowly puttering its way towards the Wayne Enterprises building. The vehicle turned in towards the loading area to the rear of the structure. It was directly across from a simple bus stop….

Killer Moth took a deep breath and pressed a sharp, red button on his transceiver.

He then swiftly scaled the surface of the building and took a perching position atop an outcropping of granite design.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The transceiver in the trenchcoat pocket of the quiet bench-sitter vibrated.

"……….," the balding, pale fellow took a deep breath.

"……….," the elderly black woman sitting beside him smiled at the bus stop. Silent. Staring forward.

A mustached young man wandered over to the bench. "Hey there. Route 186?"

Silence.

"……….," the black woman smiled.

"………..," the bald man in the trenchcoat watched an incoming truck.

The truck came to a stop, reversed with a beeping noise, and backed up the ramp to the rear of the building. The huge doors to the Wayne Enterprises loading area raised and revealed a spacious garage darkly-lit inside. Two workers and a security guard gestured towards the vehicle backing up, guiding it.

"H-Hello??" the mustached citizen blinked.

The bald man stood up and silently marched towards the loading area.

"……..," the black woman smiled.

"Sheesh…rude…," the young fellow sat down next to the woman. He looked at her. "Say, ma'am…aren't you cold?"

"………"

"Ma'am?"

"………"

He gently shook her shoulder. "Are feeling okay?"

"……," the black woman smiled. Her head turned…and rolled into the man's lap.

"!!!!!!" the man jumped up, his entire pants wet with red blood. "Holy shit!!!"

The head smiled its way down the sidewalk and into a gutter.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clink!

Clink!!

"Ahem…."

The tour guide came to a stop. She turned and smiled pleasantly. "Hmmmm?"

A beat.

The tour guide's eyes bulged.

The girl in yellow had just pulled two grenades out of her pink purse. With gritting teeth, she cackled: "Listen up or blow up!!"

She spun with a growl, her scarf falling from her blonde head.

Thwiiiiish!

Thwiiiiish!!!

The two grenades landed in a set of cubicles.

The workers screamed, ran, and dove out just in the nick of time--

BOOOOM!!!!

The tour guide shrieked, spun around, and ran into a wall. THONK!!!

Everyone else in the room ducked and covered their heads as debris and flaming bits flew every which way.

Kitten grinned. She glanced over at the security post.

Two bumbling security guards ran out—nearly bumping into each other. They fumbled for their holstered pistols.

"Nnngh!!" Kitten tossed her purse aside and with extreme gusto reached her hands underneath her poofy yellow skirt. Somewhere from beneath a forest of ridiculous petticoats she emerged with an AK-47 in her grip.

Ch-Chtunk!

The guards froze, two wet spots forming on key places of their bodies.

Kitten gritted her teeth, knelt, and—

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

Huge pockets exploded in the carpet in dangerous halos around the guards' feet. Cubicles behind them exploded from lead pressure. Glass and light bulbs shattered from overhead.

The two men twitched and dropped their weapons convulsingly.

DING!

An elevator opened behind Kitten.

She spun and looked over her poofy shoulder, hyperventilating.

Three more guards dashed out of the elevator with pistols raised.

BLAM!!

BL-BLAM!!

BLAM!!!

Kitten jumped backwards out of the fire, vaulted over a desk chair, planted her feet against a cubicle wall, and shoved off with her legs. She flew forward in the air, flipping with a billowing skirt, and landed in a roll.

All the time firing--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!

The guards desperately threw themselves to the floor as bullets exploded all around them.

Kitten stood up and let out a war cry as she literally spun around three hundred sixty degrees and fired the AK-47 everywhere conceivable.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Walls turned into swiss cheese.

Cubicles crumbled.

Computer monitors collapsed.

Glass windows shattered.

A pigeon or two outside exploded.

And when all was said and done, steam rose from a billion different spots in the room…accompanied with the rusted stench of burning lead.

Kitten panted…panted….panted….panted…

A beat.

Ch-Chtunk!

She cocked her machine gun and aimed at the centermost guard of the elevator bunch.

"Now…..," she grinned evilly with bulbous eyes of madness. "I have a few things that I WANT!!!!"

The guards trembled. "What…Wh-What is it?!?!"

Kitten's eyes thinned.

A tiny microphone in her ear spoke to her in Killer Moth's voice.

"_That's it, Kitten……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The villain stood perched on the building ledge, speaking into his transceiver.

"Keep everyone distracted. EVERYONE!! The guards. The citizens. The police department. The fire department. The whole City is at your mercy! Just keep them---"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_---distracted until our friend grabs the good stuff!!"_

Kitten nodded with clenched teeth. "Oh yeah…..heheheheheheh….this is LOADS of fun!"

"_Just be sure you get those security protocols overridden—"_

"I'm already ON IT, **DADDY!!"**

The centermost guard made a wyrd face.

Kitten sweatdropped. "Ahem."

Ch-Chtunk!

She aimed the barrel of the machine gun at his forehead. "Are you a daddy!?!"

"N-N-No, ma'am…."

"Well you WON'T EVER BE IF YOU DON'T DO WHAT I SAY!!"

"What do you want?!?!"

"Security! Station! Over there! Shut down!"

"……"

BLAM!!

_Ping!_

"**NOW!!!!!!!!!!"**

The guard trembled and rushed past cowering bodies towards the dark-windowed station.

Kitten smiled, reached into her purse with a free hand, and stuck a lollipop proudly into her mouth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper marched—smiling—in his trenchcoat.

He ascended the ramp alongside the truck just as the driver got out.

"Uhm….," the driver blinked curiously at Viper.

Viper reached a flesh hand out and shoved him off the ramp.

"Wh-Whoa!!" THWUMP!!!

Inside the garage, the two Wayne Enterprises workers looked up along with the security guard.

"Hey…"

"Sir!" a worker pointed. "This is off limits! You can't come here—"

THWOOSH!! Viper whipped out his metal right hand, equipped with a pistol and silencer which he aimed and—

_Thift!!!_

The worker's pointing finger quivered. He stumbled back, a bullet through his eye.

The other worker gasped and dove to the right—

_Thifft! Thifft! Thifft!!_

His diving body received three slugs in the ribs. He lay on the ground, bleeding, silent.

The guard backed up against an elevator door with a security number pad.

Viper aimed at him--

Cl-Click!! The guard was quick to the draw with his pistol. "That's far as you go, ass!! Back off!!"

Viper smiled.

BANG!!! The guard filed.

In a blink, Viper tossed the gun to his left hand. He raised the back of his metal wrist up. PING!!! He deflected the bullet.

The guard's eyes widened.

Viper aimed with his left arm.

_Thifft! Thifft!!_

Both bullets found their way to key places between the guard's legs.

"!!!!!" he fell back against the wall and slumped down. "AAAAAAAAAUGH!!! JESUS!!!"

Viper walked calmly over to the elevator door.

"AA-AAAAGH!!!" The man convulsed in pain. His mouth howled open wide--

_Plant!!_

Viper shoved the barrel of the gun's silencer into the man's mouth.

The assassin looked over at the numpad and entered all zeroes…as facilitated by Kitten. _Beep!_

When he looked back, the guard's brains were splashed against the wall.

Viper pocketed the wet gun and kicked the man's corpse down to the floor. Thwump!!

Ding!!

The elevator doors opened.

Viper strolled in, whistling a tune, and pressed the button for the basement levels of the Wayne Enterprises facility.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Riiiing! Riiiing! Riiing!_

The Lieutenant looked up from his desk. He got up, walked halfway across the bustling police department office, and picked up the phone.

"Yeah, hello?"

A beat.

His eyes widened.

"Right on it!!"

He slammed the receiver down. He ran into a familiar office and ducked his panting face in.

"Commissioner??"

Decker looked up halfway through a sip of coffee.

"Wayne Enterprises," the Lieutenant spat. "Ten minutes ago. Gunshots on the first floor. Hostages."

"!!!!" Decker shot up. "Shit!!"

The coffee spilled—steaming—on his legs.

_SSSssss!!!_

Decker shook. "Double shit!!!"

The Lieutenant cringed.

Decker gritted his teeth and pointed: "Well don't just stand there, triple shit!!"

"Y-Yes, sir!!" the officer rushed out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beep!-Beep!-Beep!-Beep!-Beep!_

Cyborg and Raven froze in the middle of their research. They both glanced at each other.

The alarms in the Tower continued to sound off. A red light blinked from the ceiling.

_Beep!-Beep!-Beep!-Beep!-Beep!_

Cyborg swiveled over and tapped a single button on the computer console.

A map with a blinking red light appeared before them with 'Priority Alpha'.

Raven's eyes widened. "A hostage situation…"

"And a shootout," Cyborg stood up. "At the Wayne Enterprises building."

A beat.

Cyborg popped open the communicator in his left, titanium wrist. "When in Damn Rome…"

-Blip-

"Titans!! Trouble!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mmmmm….," Beast Boy finished stacking a tall sandwich of tofu delights. He greedily held up the skyscraper of fake meat by the bread and prepared to bite into it—"

_Beeeep!!-Snkkkt…"Titans!! Trouble!!!"_

Beast Boy frowned and spoke into an intercom in the kitchen unit's wall. "Dude!! I'm about to go all Bacchus on processed tofu now!! Can't it wait?"

"_We've got a hostage situation in the Wayne Enterprises building! Shots fired!!"_

"Whoah!!" Beast Boy dropped the sandwich in a single gasp and ran towards the Main Room's windows. "Un-dude that!! I'll be there pretty darn quack!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CHIIING!!!

I twirled Mrykblade and took a meditative pose.

Sweating.

Practicing in the Titan's gym.

Th-Th-Thwish!!!

I ended Myrkblade's swing in an awkwardly graceful pose, struggling to maintain my weight on one foot.

Slowly breathing.

"……."

_Beeeep—Snkkkkt—"Titans! Trouble!!"_

My black eyes bulged.

THWOMP!!

I fell on my butt on the gym floor.

I winced before hopping up to my feet and blurring out into the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Give me the phone…give me the frickin' phone!!" Decker growled as he snapped a cell phone from the squad car driver's hand as he jumped into the passenger seat. "Now drive!!"

"Yes, sir!!" the man flipped on the siren and slammed on the gas. The squad car flew out of the garage of the police department, followed by four other vehicles and a S.W.A.T. van in the rear.

Decker dialed a number, grumbling. "As if I didn't have enough crap to be…..crapped on with. Carn sarn it….what's the number to that security post agai—ah yes. There."

He held the phone up to his ear.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The guard finished keystroking on the security hub's computer. He leaned back with shaking hands. "There, Miss…," he swallowed. "That's all I can do from this post."

"Very very good," Kitten smiled. Her eyelashes fluttered. WHAP!!! She kicked the man in the side.

THWUMP!!! He landed on the floor next to the cowering citizens. "Ooof!!"

Kitten marched out, standing undaintily with legs spread beneath her yellow dress and the smoking AK-47 raised to the ceiling.

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

Bits of fiberglass settled to the floor.

Citizens shrieked and continued to cover their heads.

"Now….," Kitten slurred. With one hand, she yanked the lollipop out of her mouth. She twirled it while resting the machine gun against her hip. "I hope you losers enjoy this little tea party!! Cuz if the City doesn't give me what I want, then I might just have to settle for your livers! And I sure do hate livers full of lead!!"

_Riiing!! Riiing!!_

"Whoop! Who, pray tell, could that be?" Kitten's eyes fluttered again. She stabbed the lollipop into the corner of her mouth, marched over to the security post, and picked the phone up. "Moshi Moshi."

"_This is Commissioner Decker of the City Police Department—"_

"PONY!!!!!" Kitten shrieked.

"………………_uhm……"_

"I WANT A PONY, DAMMIT!!!!!!" Kitten waved the gun around.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……..," Decker's eyes thinned as his driver sped the squad car along. He stared suspiciously at the cell phone. He cleared his throat and calmly exhaled: "This is Commissioner Decker. And I am ready to negotiate your dema—"

"_DID YOU HEAR ME THE FIRST TIME, YA OLD FART?!?!"_

An artery throbbed in the man's forehead. "…I would first like to know how many hostages you have in that department of the skyscraper with you—"

"_WAIT!!! A PS2!!! I ALSO WANT A PS2!!!"_

Decker snarled. Then: "Allright, you little shitstain!! I'm not—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kitten giggled madly.

"—_playing any games anymore!! Now whoever you are, you can either end up in some psychotic blaze of glory or become the fodder for my S.W.A.T. Team boys!! Now since the mayor is a wuss who doesn't like me resorting to either/or fallacies when negotiating, I'm gonna give your ass a chance to land in prison if you give up without hurting anyone further!! You got that, pipsqueak?!?!"_

"I got it, but I don't think you got it."

"_Now what the Hell does that mean?!?"_

"You heard me, IDIOT!!!" Kitten squealed. The hostages sweatdropped as she shouted into the phone. "I WANT A PONY AND A PS2!!! Not necessarily in that order."

"_Are you freakin' serious?!?!"_

"Hmmmm," Kitten's eyes cutely trailed the ceiling. "Not entirely. A pony doesn't accept a PS2. No matter if you use an RF adapter or not."

"_Listen. You're the gun toter. If anyone knows that lives are at stake, it's you. We representatives of the City kinda sorta __**value**__ those lives!! Can we talk seriously about your demands or do you truly want to exchange flesh and blood for a petite equine and some gaming machine?"_

"It's called a _console_, you DUMBUTT!!! A _PC_ IS A MACHINE!! I want to play 'Mary-Kate and Ashley: License to Drive', not 'SimCity 4'!!!"

BANG!!

Ping!!

"Ooops!" Kitten simpered and re-positioned the smoking AK-47. "M-My bad."

"_Look……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Decker lowered his head and rubbed his temples tiredly as the squad car sped through intersections.

"…….I'll see what I can do to……….supply you with what you're asking for. As long as you promise not to hurt any innocent lives in reciprocation. After all, you seem hell bent on something relatively affordable. I wouldn't be alarmed unless you desired something that would threaten the security of this City—"

"_Oh yeah!! One more thing!!"_ the voice on the phone squawked. _"I want to talk to the provisional government of Ukraine!!"_

"…….," Decker blinked, his fingers stopped stroking his temples. "……….excuse me?"

"_I don't like the way things are going in Ukraine! I want to talk to their interim president!!"_

Decker frowned. "Now just a damned minute—"

"_YOU HEARD ME!!! GIVE ME UKRAINE OR I START SHOOTING THE FIRST PREGNANT MEN AND WOMEN I FIND!! Er……or JUST THE PREGNANT WOMEN!! Y-YEAH!!"_

"Let's talk this over a little bit mo—"

"_Ciao!!"_

-click-

"Oh go to Hell," Decker threw the cell phone to the floor between his feet and practically ripped the police radio off the dashboard: "I need tear gas, shotguns, and a packet of Marlboro! NOW!!"

"_Yes, sir!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kitten yanked the phone off of the wall. CR-RACK!! She tossed it to the floor.

A beat.

She looked at the hostages on the floor.

A few of them glanced at her, wide eyed. Panting.

A large woman shook in the corner.

Ch-Chtunk!!

Kitten pointed the AK-47 at her. "You pregnant?"

The woman slowly shook her head. Wide-eyed.

"I see. Just fat, then?"

The woman nodded. "As a cow."

"Kay. You're good," and Kitten patrolled the cubicles, twirling the lollipop in her mouth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………..," Killer Moth perched atop the building's edge.

A beat.

He grasped his left glove, slid it up some, and revealed an everyday watch.

"Hmmm….," he stared at the time.

A beat.

He turned and gazed down Main Street. "Right about now….."

Sure enough, a line of five screaming squad cars and a S.W.A.T. van sped towards the building site far below.

Killer Moth chuckled low under his breath.

"He was right. Heheheheh. Such luscious pray…."

Killer Moth stood up straight. He spread his arms out. He shook his back. THWUMP!! His moth 'wings' spread. They stretched wide and rigid. Killer Moth flexed his gloves, took a deep breath, and leapt off the building.

THWOOOOOOSH!!!!!

His still wings caught the currents of the air in descent, and he glided effortlessly down over Main Street. He drifted directly over the squad cars and the van. As he did so, he reached hands into his belt's pockets and pulled out tiny silken cocoons. He tossed them in flurries down onto the vehicles as he glided over them.

The cocoons settled down softly onto the unsuspecting cars.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Commissioner?? This is the Titans!! Please come in!!"_

The Commissioner picked up the radio transceiver. "Good to hear from you, Cyprus."

"_Cyborg!!!"_

"Where the Hell's Robin?"

"_He's on an investigative trip to the Metropolitan Highway along with Starfire and Tempest. He's conducting that search for you, remember?"_

The Commissioner blinked. "Oh right. Damn."

"_I'm currently acting leader of the Titans. I just want to let you know that we're on our way to the Wayne Enterprises building!!"_

"Good to hear," Decker nodded. He made a face. "Although…are you all enough for the job?"

"_There are four of us on the job, sir. Raven, Noir, Beast Boy, and myself."_

"Oh right. The sorceress, the smoking guy, and that robot dude."

"………_Actually, sir……that's me—" _

"Well get your pimply butts over here, got it?!?!" Decker grumbled. "As expediently as we've been gathering our forces, we may just get the drop on this gun-toting creep--"

Three cocoons landed on the windshield with slimy trails. Immediately they started convulsing and writhing about.

The driver made a face.

Decker's eyes narrowed. His lips lingered as he leaned forward and stared at the invasionary objects on the other side of the glass.

"The Hell are those things?"

"I d-don't know, sir…," the driver murmured.

With tiny shrieking sounds, the cocoons hatched. Larvas exploded out of them, shook their razor-sharp mandibles, and bit into the glass.

Chunk! Chunk! Ch-Chunk!!

The windshield cracked, spider-webbed out, and hissed as green acid oozed out of the mandibles and leaked caustically into the driving compartment.

_SSSSSSSSSSssssssss!!!!_

"AAAAAH!!" the driver twitched. He yanked at the wheel. The squad car veered left and right.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!

"AAAAAUGH!!!"

"_Commissioner??? What's going on??"_

"We've got worms!!!!" Decker shouted into the radio as he and the driver were jolted around.

"_We'll be there right away—"_

"Screw that, dammit!!!" Decker whipped out his pistol and aimed at the glass. "DIE!!!!"

BLAM!!!

Ping!! Ping!!! Ping!! The bullet bounced around the compartment.

"Whoah!!" the driver ducked his head.

"Shit!!!"

The car swung madly into a swirl.

SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The front squad car spun three times and slammed into a fire hydrant. Water spewed high up along the rows of building stories on either side.

The four squad cars and van behind the Commissioner's ride either slammed into each other in confusion or spun around as the same larvae attacked the vehicles from all sides. The police caravan was sufficiently halted.

CL-CLAMP!!!

Killer Moth ended his glide by perching buglike on a buildingside three stories up. He turned his masked head, glared down at the pileup, and chuckled.

"Perfect. Absolutely perfect. What a genius." He then turned his head and glared down another street.

The distant image of the T-Car zoomed into view. It was flanked by a black streak blurring across buildingsides and a green pterodactyl.

"Now for the fun part….," Killer Moth scurried up the buildingside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well….," Raven droned as Cyborg shut the T-Car's communicator off. "That sounded interesting."

"There's something nuts about all this," Cyborg gritted his teeth as he burned rubber. "Nobody just _simply_ takes hostages in this City. There's gotta be something extra to it. Some sort of catch."

The android gazed out the right side of the vehicle, past Raven.

I blurred alongside him. I looked in. My black shades glinting. I saluted with my metal hand.

Cyborg nodded. He looked out the left window.

The green pterodactyl flew parallel to the vehicle, shrieking.

Cyborg gripped the wheels tighter and looked ahead. "Okay…we're going in."

"What do you suppose it is?" Raven asked.

"Huh?"

She gestured. "The catch?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….," Viper slowly peeled the trenchcoat off his body while riding the elevator down.

Beneath it was his sheathed broadsword and a string of grenades, explosives, and silenced pistols hugging his torso.

Viper continued whistling nonchalantly as he bundled the trenchcoat in his muscular arms and eyed the floor numbers lighting up sequentially downward into the third tier basement level.

CHIIIIIING!!!!

He whipped his broadsword out and straightened his joints as the elevator reached its destination.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a basement hallway made of metal.

A security guard stood silently outside the elevator doors. He held a taser rifle in his grasp. A helmet with a black visor rested on his head.

"……….."

Ding!!

The elevator doors to his side opened.

"????" he turned and looked inside. "Huh?"

WHUMP!!!

A trenchcoat was thrown over his upper body, draping over him.

"Mmmmmmfffff!!!" he struggled madly to get out from under it.

FWOOOOSH-SLASSSH!!!

Viper dove out into the hallway, broadsword first.

SLIIIIINK!!!

The trenchcoat-covered form was chopped in half. The two parts fell, shrouded by brown leather. Blood oozed out in puddles underneath each.

Viper made sure not to step in the red rivers. He held his blade up at ready as he crept forward through the hallway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEECH!!!!

The T-Car skidded to a stop.

Beast Boy and I spilled into the courtyard in front of the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper.

Cyborg peeled out of the T-Car.

Raven floated out beside him. She glanced around. A blink. She looked at the rest of us. "We're the first ones here!!"

I nodded. Gripping Myrkblade, I looked up at the height of the building.

Cyborg gestured: "Noir!! Beast Boy!!! Pour inside!! Raven?? How about you and I enter from a little higher above? Let's say…third floor?"

Raven nodded. "Consider it higher…," her eyes glowed a bright gray. She gestured her hands. A black disc appeared beneath her and Cyborg.

Beast Boy rubbed his head. "I suppose with Cyborg leading and Raven in the party….there's a limit to the command 'split up'."

I shrugged.

"Let's go, dude…," Beast Boy leapt into a tiger and sprinted on all fours towards the front entrance.

I ran alongside him.

"Azarath…Metrion…Zinthos…," Raven chanted. Lifting herself and Cyborg high above us.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay!! Everyone move! Move!!"

Kitten grunted and waved her AK-47. She forced the huge line of hostages to march through the hallway and into the spacious atrium of the bottom floor. The people nervously shifted their feet and shuffled down to the center of the mosaic-splashed floor of the room. Sunlight wafted in orange and lazy through the spatious, two-hundred-and seventy degree panorama of ten-foot tall windows. A huge set of elevator doors encased in black, gothic marble stood behind a reception desk on the solid side of the place.

"I said move!! Must I spray it too?!?! Come on!!!" Ch-Chtunk!! She gritted her teeth and shook the gun.

Someone gasped at sight of something out the window.

Kitten gazed out. A blue-eyed blink. "Titans, ho!"

A green tiger and a dark swordsman approached the glass doorways from across the courtyard.

Kitten raised her transceiver to her bratty face: "Come ON, DADDY!! Do your stuff for the love of Vishnu!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wooosh!!

Cl-Clamp!!!

Killer Moth landed on a ledge of a building across the courtyard. He saw the four Titans approaching both the front entrance and the third story windows of the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper.

He grumbled into a communicator: "I'm on it, _Kitten._ Daddy's got everything taken care of. Just keep totin' that gun of yours. Over and out."

He lowered the device, reached into a suit pocket, and produced a sling. He stuffed a bunch of mysterious pollen into the pouch of the weapon and spun it over his head.

"Be bloody, bold, and resolute. But most of all…be _sticky!!_" He launched the globs of pollen across the space of air between buildings.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"How's this?" Raven asked as they reached a level of windows.

"Perfect…," Cyborg adjusted his sonic cannon with one hand and then aimed point blanc at the glass. "Now…with just the right sonic vibration I can make an entrance within a short period of—"

THWIIIIIISH!!!

Cyborg blinked. He glanced at Raven. "Are you whistling?"

"…..," she stared. She droned: "I don't whistle."

THWAP!!!!

TH-THWAP!!!

Two globs of pollen struck them and—on heavy contact—splashed into huge webs of stickiness.

SPLORCH!!!!

"Ugh!!!" Raven cried and lost her concentration as she was bound by a sticky yellow fluid.

"WAAAAAIE!!!" Cyborg shouted as the two plummeted three stories.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!!

WHAP!!!!

The Titans fell down onto the courtyard hard and groaned.

"!!!!" I skidded to a stop and looked over at them.

"Rrrgh??" the green tiger beside me blinked.

THWAP!!! SPLORCH!!!

Beast Boy fell over in a yellow web of stickiness.

I gasped.

I felt split-air rustling in the back of my ears.

I spun and summoned a pulse of murk--

THWAP!!! SP-SPLORCH!!!

_Augh!!!_

I fell back, covered from head to two in sticky, bioorganic ooze. I couldn't budge. Myrkblade was stuck to my palm and my legs tangled in thick strands. I struggled and strained—teeth gritting—on the concrete floor.

"I hate…..," an elfin Beast Boy grumbled a few feet away from me. "I hate….I hate…I HATE THE SUPER LOOGEY!!"

"What the Hell is this?!?!" Cyborg's voice uttered from a distance.

"Look…," Raven said.

My black eyes twitched under my shades, refocused, and saw more globs of pollen rolling down at us from…._across the street??_

"!!!" With a breath I exploded smoke energy through my lower body and forced my body into a sideways roll, avoiding the next handful of pollen shots. My three teammates weren't so lucky. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven were totally encased in yellow slime.

"Mmmmff!!"

"Mmmmffffff!!!"

I struggled to gain firm control of Myrkblade and possibly slice my way out of my restraints.

From across the courtyard.

"Mmmff…..mmmf…..ZINTHOS!!!" FLASH!!! Yellow globs flew everywhere in a fountain as Raven snapped herself free in an explosion of black energy. She floated up, gasping for breath. She looked around, and first went towards Cyborg with serrated talons of black energy over her shoulders to free him. "Hold still. I'll free you—"

WOOOOSH!!! Killer Moth glided in out of nowhere and rammed into her body.

WHAM!!!

"Nnngh!!" she flew into the building side, staggering.

"Rrrghh!!" Killer Moth pounced, grabbed her, and backhanded her across the face.

WHAP!!!

Raven spiraled to the ground, groaning.

ZAAAAAAP!!!! A blue stream of sonic energy shot out across the courtyard, shattering concrete. Cyborg stood up—seeping with yellow—and glared with clenched teeth. "Rghhh….NOBODY hits her around!!" Kl-Kl-Kl-Klak!!! He aimed a fully charged sonic cannon at the creep. "Eat blue shit, you blue shit eater!!"

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!

A blue bolt exploded into the concrete where Killer Moth was.

The suited villain was leaping over the blast. He forward flipped, glided down with help of his wings, and landed right alongside Cyborg.

The android Titan gasped.

Killer Moth smiled under his mask. SLAP!!! "Put 'er there, pal…," his gloves slapped over the barrel of Cyborg's sonic cannon. When the gloves retracted, a group of ten or more squirming larva were left behind. They crawled into the inner networks of Cyborg's titanium limbs and started eating everything inside.

"Nnnngh…augh….dkkk…..ack!!" Cyborg twitched as his cannon arm started shorting out, twitching, and shooting sparks. "Bugs! Bugs! I've got bugs!!"

Killer Moth chuckled.

I struggled to get loose. I grunted and strained in sticky futility.

Beast Boy was still a cocoon mummy.

Raven was silent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hehehehehehehe!!!" Kitten nearly doubled over, giggling. She and all of the hostages had a front-row seat of the Titans' dismay through the front windows of the atrium. "Hehehehehehehehehehe!!!"

One hostage sweated. He turned and saw a possible avenue of escape into a janitor's closet. He slowly began to creep over towards it--

Ch-Chtunk!!!

"Hey!! You!!!" Kitten aimed the AK-47.

He flinched still.

"You wanna be pregnant?"

"Uh….n-no, ma'am."

"Sit the fluff down!!!"

He did so.

"Harumph…," Kitten pouted. "Hope baldy's getting the job done."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ding!

Scwisssh!!

The laboratory door opened.

An aging scientist looked up from a metal desk. "Hello, can I help you—"

SLASSSSH!!!! _SKKKTTT_.

His skull split in two.

THWAP!!!

Viper kicked the bloody corpse down and marched into the room, sheathing his broardsword.

Two scientists across the metal-laced room gasped. One screamed.

Viper whipped out a pistol with a silencer. He spun it in his left hand.

The two scientists gasped again. The other one screamed again.

Viper marched in, all the while taking aim and--

Thifft! Thifft!! Th-Thifft!!!

He shot the first two dead. One slug in the heart and another in the skull each.

The last scientist scrambled backwards—shuddering—towards a wall of metal cabinets.

Viper smiled. He aimed, squinting.

Thifft!! He shot the man's left arm. Thifft!! He shot the man's right arm. Thifft!! His left foot. Thifft! Right foot.

"AAAAAUGH!!" the scientist slid down to his butt, helplessly bleeding on every limb.

Viper stepped up. He aimed towards the man's skull.

The man bled and panted bled and panted bled and planted.

Viper pulled the trigger.

The scientist's eyes clenched shut.

-click-

"…………," the man's eyes popped open.

Viper blinked. He looked at the gun. The clip was empty. He sighed and pulled out a load of bullets.

"…………," the bleeding man stared, trembling.

Viper fumbled…fumbled….reloaded…

"………….."

Viper snapped the clip in…………...and turned around.

The man's lips parted.

Viper still held his gun in one hand. He ignored the bleeding scientist as he physically perused each metal cabinet until he came to one that was locked shut with electrical mechanics. He pulled at it. It wouldn't budge. He placed the silenced pistol on a nearby, blood-stained table.

"…………," the bleeding man stared.

CHIIIING!!! Viper whipped out his sword. He stuck it into the groove of the metal drawer. SNKKTTT!!! He pushed, pried, yanked—CRAAACK!! He snapped the cabinet open. Black devices spilled out from an interior tray. Isomeric translators. Viper whipped out a canvass bag and started scooping bunches of isomeric translators and dumping them into the bag. Thwooosh!! Thwooosh!!

The bleeding man stared, panting, his bleeding limbs throbbing.

Once Viper scooped up all that he could, he slung the bag over his shoulder along with his broadsword. He slammed the cabinet closed with his foot.

He marched over to the table. He grabbed the pistol.

The scientist's heart jumped.

"……."

Viper spun his back to the man. He marched back to the elevator.

The scientist felt his own pulse.

Viper stepped into the elevator completely. He pressed the button. The doors closed.

Schwisssh!!

The scientist let loose a huge sigh of relief: "Whew….."

At the last moment before the doors shut, Viper stuck the gun out and fired once.

Thifft!!

The scientist went cross-eyed for a moment and then saw nothing as his body slid over to its side. A bullet in the forehead.

Ding!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back on Main Street, a thoroughly bruised and disheveled Decker limped from the crash site along with a handful of equally beat policemen and SWAT Team members.

A fresh set of squad cars drove up and came to a rumbling stop. A window rolled down: "Commissioner, are we going to the skyscraper or what?!?!"

"…..," the Commissioner gazed back at the wormed-wreckage, then glared at the driver. "Get your worthless ass to Wayne Enterprises now, before I send it to Satan's school of _prostate exams_!!"

The driver gulped and cackled into his radio: "Get a move on!! Reinforcements!! Reinforcements!!"

_VRRRRRMMMMMM!!!!_

The squad cars rolled on towards the site.

Decker looked over at another officer. "……….," he groaned. "Got a light?"

"Uh….n-no, sir."

"Let's do the next best thing. Let's hitchhike…," Decker ran up alongside a moving SWAT van and grabbed ahold of the bar at the rear, hanging on as the vehicle zoomed down Main Street. An officer or two joined him, pistols ready.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"UGH!!!" Cyborg stumbled around the courtyard, waving his worm-infected, sparkling arm. "Get 'em off!! Get 'em off!! Get 'em off!!!" He sweatdropped immensely and grabbed his arm desperately with his other hand.

The squirming little invaders jumped onto his other wrist.

His human eye bugged.

"DAAAAAH!!! Not that one too!! JEEZ!! GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!!!!"

He stumbled past me, all the while I struggled to get loose of my sticky bonds. I finally meditated, smoke dancing out under my shades. I held my breath and---

SWOOOOSH!!!

--teleported clean to the side. I rammed my head into a trash can in the process of materializing.

WHANG!!!

"!!!!" I clutched my aching head.

_Dammit!!_

Teeth gritting, I jumped to my dizzy feet, stumbled over to Beast Boy, and began ripping him free of the web with Myrkblade. In the meantime, I looked over towards Killer Moth…panting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Killer Moth glanced away from us at the sound of incoming cars and sirens.

He spotted the incoming parade of squad cars. The second wave of police enforcement.

And he chuckled.

"All into the web….," he whipped out a microphone and spoke into it. "My children. My children. Listen to the voice of your creator…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the building wall a few blocks away from the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper, the cocoons Killer Moth had planted on the granite surface rested where they were left by the supervillain.

The madman's voice in question emanated from the tiny megaphone there and filtered out into the air. Vibrating the cocoons.

"_My children. Obey my voice. My command. Hatch. Hatch and attack the infidels. Now! NOW!!"_

The cocoons twitched. The cocoons squirmed. At a metaphysical, insectoid shapes grew and grew and grew inside of them and burst out with mandibles writhing and screeching sloppily:

"_SKRIIIII!!!!!" _

"_SRKIIIIIII!!!!" _

"_SRKIIIII-IIIIII!!!"_

Nubile wings batted once…twice….and fluttered strongly.

Four dozen moth mutants emerged from their pupae state in a blink of an eye and swarm ravenously downwards towards the courtyard.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heh heh heh!!!" Killer Moth maddeningly chirped above the increasing volume of sirens approaching the courtyard. He raised his arms and hollered: "Feast, my children!! Feast!! This City's day of reckoning will come yet!!! Hah Hah Hah Hah!!!!"

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

SLASH!!!!

I blurred at him with Myrkblade swinging.

THWACK!!!!

I struck him hard across the helmet.

"OOF!!!" he flew to the side.

Snarling, I charged and slashed again.

WHAM!!!!

He doubled over in pain.

I twirled Myrkblade, held it back, and jabbed directly into his skull--

CL-CLAMP!!!

His sharp-edged gloves gripped the length of my sword, holding the serrated tip just an inch away from his the bulbous eyes of his mask.

I gritted my teeth and struggled with him, trying to push the sword further.

"Not this time, Titan….," Killer Moth hissed at me, getting the upper hand through muscular girth alone. "Raise your black eyes to the sky."

"……..," I frowned at him.

I frowned at him until I heard a haunting, buzzing sound.

Blinking, I turned my head slightly and gazed above the forming line of police cars around the courtyard.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEECH!!!

SCREEEEEEEECH!!!

SCREECH!!

Squad car after squad car after squad car after SWAT van rushed to a stop in a solid barricade, bordering the courtyard.

Well over fifty police officers jumped out of their vehicles and aimed guns over the aluminum bodies of the cars.

Decker jumped off the van and ran towards the front line alongside two other officers and a handful of SWAT Team members. He cocked his gun and aimed directly at Killer Moth from across the concrete lake.

"Okay, snot-for-brains!! It's your time to answer the call of lead!! But I'm daring you once and for all to be a brave little maggot and put down your dukes and we can all walk away from this peacefully---"

A buzzing sound emanated from the air above them.

The cops started looking at each other. They shifted uncomfortably and gazed upwards with a gasp.

Decker blinked. "H-Huh??" He glanced up and behind him. He groaned. "Ah sweet Jehosophat…."

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

"_SKRIIII-IIII-III!!!" _

"_SKRIII!!!"_

The cops cried out, ducked, and fired randomly into the sky as handfuls of moth monsters started swooping down on them with gaping jaws and serrated pinchers.

B-BANG!!!

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

The force was completely overwhelmed and in disarray.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stared at the horrific site, unbelieving.

I stared for one second too long.

THWAP!!!!

Killer Moth leaned forward and headbutted me.

I exhaled and fell back.

Killer Moth prepared to pounce on me--

FLASH!!!!

A black talon encased his figure.

"Nnngh!!" he struggled in the grasp.

Raven floated over with hands raised…her eyes glowing demonically. She snarled: "Let's find out how juicy you are on the inside…."

Killer Moth wheezed: "Not today…," he tilted his head up. "Children!! Attack!!!"

Responding to the perfect inflections of his voice, half of the mutants assaulting the officers swarmed over and converged on Raven and myself.

"Ughh!!!" Raven was jolted back by a head-ramming moth. She dropped Killer Moth.

The villain touched down and ran at her.

Raven gritted her teeth and summoned hand-shields just in time to block the villain's massive punches.

I was about to run to her aid when Cyborg stumbled into view and finally resorted to flicking his shoulders and 'shooting' both of his arms off. POW!!! POW!!!

The sparking limbs landed in the center of the courtyard, twitching.

"Dammit!! Aw shucks….," an armless Cyborg bit his lip. He looked at me for a moment. "Uhm….say Noir. Could I borrow a hand for just a moment?"

"……," I gazed down at my left prosthetic. A beat. I looked up at him, making a face.

_You've got to be kidding._

"Just to help Raven!!" he motioned with his left shoulder piece. "I'll give it back, I promise!!"

_How about I settle for giving you a finge--?_

THWAP!!!!

_AUGH!!!_

I gasped as two moths tackled me to a ground. They gripped my torso with sharp legs and tried biting onto my neck. I rammed one's thorax with the hilt of Myrkblade. WHAP!!! I struggled—teeth gritting—with the other.

_SKRIII!!!! SKRIII!!! _

The two prepared to bite into my skull.

"RRRRRAUGH!!!" Cyborg rushed up and kicked one of them off me.

WHAM!!!!

"At least my legs still work!!!"

I snarled and tossed the other one to the ground.

It writhed and shook on the concrete.

I jumped up.

It flew up at me.

I twirled Myrkblade and slashed the big bug into juicy bits.

_SPLORCH!!!_

Giant moths circled us.

Cyborg ran arm-less towards Raven and head-butted Killer Moth. The three engaged in an awkward, tripartisan battle with many of the villain's moths diving in to make matters worse.

I looked over to check on Beast Boy.

"Ugh….," the elf got up and shook his dizzy, cocoon-induced head of weariness. "Dude….who dropped us in on the flying monkeys scene of Oz?"

Two ravenous moths flew at his back.

_SKRIIII-IIII-IIII!!!_

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blurred at him.

"ACKIES!!" he ducked his green head in time for Myrkblade to slash over him.

SPLORCH!!!

I splattered the two moths to bits.

"Phweeee…thanks dude. Now I got my spark back!!!" he cheered.

_Whatever._

The changeling rushed off in the form of a velociraptor and started snapping moth necks from the swarm with his teeth.

I turned to face Raven and Cyborg's situation--

WHAM!!!!

Three moths slammed into my back at once.

I found my body flying helplessly into the glass entrance of the skyscraper's atrium.

"!!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHATTER!!!!

My body ragdolled through the collapsing glass sheet and tumbled amidst rows of kneeling, gasping hostages.

"Whoah!! Keep the battle outside, handsome!!!" Kitten shouted.

I jumped up to my feet, shook the shards off me, and held up Myrkblade. A beat. "……," I turned till I was actually _facing_ Kitten. I raised Myrkblade again.

"Hey!! I know you!! Westhaven you!!!" the blonde pointed.

I blinked.

She aimed her AK-47 at me. Ch-Chtunk!

I blinked twice.

"Let's see if HIGH CALIBRE BULLETS REMEMBER YOU TOO, CREEP!!!!"

_Mahatma…tap-dancing…Ghandi……_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Hostages gasped and pressed themselves hard against the shard-littered floor as bullets streamed all around me.

I danced to the side, I danced to the other side, I backflipped, I blurred, I dashed forward along the perimeter of the atrium.

All the while, bullets ricocheted sparkingly off the floor and windows around me, causing shards and debris to fly every which way.

"YAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I gritted my teeth and ran along the marble wall of the atrium's rear with blurring feet.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK….CLICK!!!

Kitten's eyes bulged blue and surprised. She stupidly looked down the barrel of her machine gun and pulled the trigger some more. CLICK-CLICK-CLICK. She pouted. "Awww….schizo…"

I skidded to a stop with my back to the elevator doors, panting.

She shook the AK-47 some more before grunting and tossing it to the floor. "Never live in a Barbie world with friggin' G.I. Joe toys!!" She reached into her pink purse and whipped out a pair of explosive shurikens, grinning. "Ninja Turtles on the other hand…"

I exhaled and raised Myrkblade--

Ding!

The elevator doors behind me opened.

Schwissh!

I spun around.

My black eyes widened.

His bulbous eyes narrowed.

Pale skin.

Bald head.

A canvass satchel over his shoulder.

Viper glared down at me.

I stared up at him through my shades.

"……"

"……."

There was the briefest of silent epiphanies between us and--

SWOOOOSH!!! I swung Myrkblade up at the assassin's skull.

Viper gritted his teeth and raised his right arm.

CLANK!!!!

Wooden Myrkblade slammed into his metal wrist with a shower of sparks.

I blinked.

CHIIIIIIING!!!!

He yanked out Myrkblade and swung down at me.

I jerked my left arm out.

CLANK!!!!!

Metal blade against metal knuckles.

A beat.

His eyes fell on my sword on his metal hand…then on his blade on my metal hand. "……" He smiled at me.

My lips parted.

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!!

He karate kicked me hard in the chest.

I winced and slid back six feet on the smooth lobby floor.

Viper line-danced out of the elevator, grinning wryly. He dropped the canvass bag. He kicked it with his foot.

It slid over to the wide-eyed Kitten's feet. She slowly picked it up.

Viper slid his body into a half crouch. Chiiiiiiiiiiing. He held his broadsword threateningly huge over his shoulder.

I frowned. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade into position.

_Alright, bastard. _

_Let's do this._

He steadied himself into a sword-slinging pose.

I coiled into an attack position.

We faced off across from each other in the lobby.

Black eyes.

Bulbous eyes.

Dark shades.

A glistening grin.

Half a heartbeat.

And….

I summoned a pulse of murk into my legs---

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!!! Killer Moth dove in out of nowhere and rammed me hard in the side.

"!!!!!!" I flew over to the lobby's desk and collapsed over it with a—THUD!!!!

Viper jerked to a standing position, his jaw dropped.

Killer Moth heaved. He pointed: "No time!! You got the goods!! Let's get out of here!!!"

Viper frowned. His fingers tightened around his sword's hilt. And shook and seemed ready to slash the fiend's head off--

"You heard Daddy!!!" Kitten cackled and was already marching past the hostages and towards the courtyard where the Titans were busily engaged with the moths. "Let's get back home in time for Joan of Arcadia!!!"

"…….," Viper snarled….but relented. He bowed dramatically with a chivalrous grin.

Killer Moth eyed him suspiciously, but shrugged it off. "Hurry!! Make like the wind!!" He ran out the skyscraper.

Viper glanced at my collapsed form, chuckled breathily, and walked off through the smashed windowfronts with his sword dancing lengthily over his shoulder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAWWR!!!" A green panther slashed claws through two moths and landed in the middle of the courtyard. Its cat ears pricked to the sound of footsteps behind. The green changeling turned around--

WHAM!!! Viper kicked the emerald cat straight in the jaw.

"Uggh….," a green elf tumbled into a huge, potted plant and slumped down to the concrete.

Viper flexed his neck and gazed over at Killer Moth. He nodded.

Killer Moth nodded back. "Time to go, Kitten!!"

"Woo hoo!! Let's blow this Popsicle stand…..with explosions!!"

Killer Moth grumbled and reached into his belt's pockets for a particular pollen extract…

From the distance—where police, moths, and bulletfire converged—Decker gasped and shouted: "You losers!! They're getting away!! Stop them!!!"

Raven and Cyborg were twenty swarming bugs away.

Beast Boy was dazed.

I was somewhere else trying to get my head unstuck from the framework of a desk chair.

"HA!!!" Killer Moth flung the pollen straight down onto the courtyard's concrete.

_**POOOF!!!!!**_

A huge cloud of yellow dust rose into the air and spread over the region like fast-moving ash and mist. It soon became impossible to see, even in the light of the setting sun. The moths started flying away to rejoin their master elsewhere, while cops and Titans alike stumbled blindly and coughed from inhalation of the pollen.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Decker collapsed against a squad car, rolled, and fell sprawled out on the concrete beside the vehicle. He coughed. He wheezed. He tried sitting up, tears in his eyes from the ash and mist. He gritted his teeth and tried to stared red-eyed through the mess.

A gray boot landed in front of him.

Decker looked up.

A pale face.

Bulbous eyes.

A grin.

CHIIIIIIIING!!!!

Decker's jaw dropped. His chin kissed the pointed edge of a broadsword.

"………..," Viper held the sharp weapon to the Commissioner's throat.

Silence…….

"…………."

CHIIING!!! Viper pulled the blade back. He walked off into the mist, joining two other slowly escaping bodies.

Decker wheezed. He gulped and felt his in-tact throat. Panting…..

His eyes quivered.

"He……He……"

His eyes narrowed.

A exhale.

"He….isn't….th-the same murderer who killed Carson and Georgeton…."

A beat.

"What the Hell is he doing?!?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The pollen-ash started to dissipate.

Beast Boy groaned and stumbled up to his feet.

Raven beat her sternum, leaning over and coughing…coughing…coughing…

Cyborg walked up behind her. "I'd pat your back and make it all better if I had any arms….."

"You're….not….helping….," she wheezed.

"Uhhh……so….um…..," Beast Boy sweatdropped as he studied the dead bugs, the shattered glass, and bloodstains from where Viper's broasword dragged. "…..do we get an 'A' for effort at least?"

"………..," Cyborg and Raven glared at Beast Boy. "…….you're not helping etiher," Raven droned.

Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah…I noticed…."

At around that time, I limped out through the smashed front of the building, clutching my shoulder and wincing. A few hostages walked dazedly after me, murmuring. I gazed helplessly at the other Titans. "………."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "This is bad." He turned and gazed at the distant line of squad cars in disarray. "Very…very bad."

Raven nodded. "I know."

"What do we tell Robin??"

"………."

"We had bugs," Beast Boy said.

I kicked his shin as I walked up.

"OW!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Policemen were still coughing and wheezing from the ash as the first of half a dozen ambulances pulled up to the chaotic scene. There were radios squabbling and voices shouting every which way and everywhere. Bodies rushed back and forth. A few collapsed persons littered the sidewalk.

Decker walked through it all. Dazed. Murmuring. "What the Hell….is th-that creep doing??"

A beat.

He came to a stop and wiped his brow. He sighed. "Dammit…."

Then there was a whinnying sound from behind. And—"Commissioner Decker, sir??"

"…..," Decker spun. He raised an eyebrow.

The Lieutenant stood at the corner of an abandoned intersection sprinkled with bug parts. He held the reins to a neighing, white pony in one hand and had a packaged PS2 system under his other arm. He looked at the splattered courtyard with a dropping jaw. "I-Is it too late?? Are the demands of the gunwoman still in effect?"

The pony whinnied again.

"…………….," Decker frowned. He pointed: "You. Your ass. With me. Back to the Station."

"S-Sir??"

"The damn gloves are off…," Decker stomped across Town. The Lieutenant and the pony trotted after him. "I'm going back."

"Back where, sir?"

"To the roots of all this shit!! I've HAD IT!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"James Garet….I'm afraid…..is dead….," spoke a graying man with a thinly-stretched face. Two burly men with coated muscles and dark shades flanked the elder's sides. "You cannot find anything more on him here, Titans. Please…honor his memory by leaving his old home in peace."

Robin, Tempest, and Starfire had found Garet's ranch. They had found the dirt bike paths leading up and down the mountain. They had found the forested trails and the roads all leading up to a huge mansion surrounded by rich, luscious fountains of frothing water. They found the door, they found the doorbell, and upon further inspection they found an uncooperative simpleton of old age inside who was now facing them with folded hands, a calm demeanor, and a cold voice of refusal:

"I'll tell you one more time. Honor his death…and leave."

Tempest and Starfire twitched uncomfortably.

But Robin firmly spoke: "Honoring James Garet's death is one thing. Honoring the deaths of many is another."

"I'm afraid I don't get what you mean, Mr. Titan."

"I have a feeling Garet was paid a fatal visit last night by a suspect of ours," Robin spoke. "A suspect of ours who may very well be in relationship with a group of thieves who have caused the deaths of dozens of cops and innocent people. Now—for the sake of perfect clarity and the safety of multiple lives—I suggest you work with us here. We just want to ask a few questions."

"If you may not take offense…," the elder frowned. "Costumed teenagers—especially those with superpowers—are never EVER satisfied with simply 'asking question'."

"………," the Titans stared.

The elder stepped back into the front room of the mansion. "Turn around…and leave. Or I shall call the police myself."

The two henchmen walked forward, glared in unison, and grabbed a half of the double doors each.

Creaaaaaaaaak-SLAM!!!

The door was closed in the Titans faces.

Starfire sweatdropped. "Eh heh heh heh heh…."

Tempest scratched his neck and looked at Robin. "Isn't this one of those moments when you surface people make a statement about the fecal matter of male cows?"

Robin spun around. "It's of little consequence. I know he's hiding something. It doesn't take a detective to see through that creep. He's as transparent as a paper bag after a dive into potato juice."

"That's a bit of a stretch there, Robin."

"Whatever…," Robin marched forward and glared at the luxurious front lawn of the establishment. "We're going to interrogate them in the end. They just may not know it yet."

"But Robin…," Starfire shrugged. "Have they not already shown us their vehement refusal?"

"And like good teenagers, it's due time we show them our vehement apathy," Robin said.

"Oooh…," Tempest folded his arms and smirked. "I like the sound of that."

"I knew you would…," Robin gestured towards the myriad of huge fountains. "Tempest….care to do the honors."

The Tempest looked at the rushing torrents of water. He smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The elder and the two henchman walked slowly away from the door.

"Contact my partners…," the elder muttered to the guardians. "I didn't expect the heat on us this quickly. We have to take action."

"Should we patch a call through to Luthor, sir?"

"No…leave that creep out of this—"

A rumbling noise.

All three stopped in their tracks.

More rumbling.

The elder looked at his subordinates questionably.

"What….is that?"

"Sounds….S-Sounds like a flood, sir!!"

A beat.

The elder gasped and spun towards the entranceway--

SMASH!!!

The doors exploded.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

Water rapids surged in and slammed down the atrium of the place, smashing over mahogany tables and shattering Chinese vases. The water leapt and laughed and splashed menacingly into the bodies of the two recoiling thugs and the gasping elder.

SPLOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSH!!!!

The three men slid to a stop in a fresh pond of interior water.

The goons groaned, unconscious.

The elder struggled to his knees. He looked up, wincing.

Tempest walked in with a hand outstretched. His eyes flared a bright purple as he smirked and said: "Your lawn sprung a leak."

"Rotten…little….brats….," the old man wheezed. "You can't do this!!"

Starfire floated forward, frowning. "I believe we have just accomplished the opposite of your declaration!"

The goons found strength, sat up, and pulled out their pistols--

FLASH!!! FLASH!!

Two hot starbolts melted and forced the weapons out of their gasps.

Robin marched passed the Atlantean and the Tamaranian. Frowning, he gripped the man by the collar of his soaked shirt and hoisted him up.

"Nnngh!!" the elder gasped.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Who…was….here?"

The man winced. "V-Viper…."

"Why?!?! What did he want with Garet?!?!"

The man hissed. "Death…."

Tempest raised an eyebrow. "Death??"

"Death…," the elder nodded. "Death and only Death….."


	161. Whispers part 4

**161. Whispers part 4**

Robin, Starfire, and Tempest stood in a rear parlor of the mansion at nightfall. A cold autumn wind drifted in through the windows. The elder in charge shivered at a table, a blanket wrapped warmly around his soaked shoulders. He sipped from a cup of hot tea, exhaled, and said:

"Garet wasn't the first. Not by any means. Before him, Viper took down Mendleton. Berkley. Hu-Sung. Every major…..businessman in the region."

"Using the word 'business' lightly…," Robin uttered, his eyemask thin.

"But of course…"

Two or three thugs hovered at the door, shifting uncomfortably.

Tempest and Starfire kept an eye on them.

Robin leaned forward and interrogated the old man. "And what is it that Viper wanted from these creeps? Ransoms? Monetary demands?"

"He simply comes, murders, and goes…," the elder gestured with an empty cup. "Silent—of course—much like he is built to do." A lackey drifted over and poured the man some more tea. He sipped from it and leaned back. "Although….lately….Viper hasn't been quite as silent."

Robin stared. "What do you mean??"

"Well….one of Garet's men who attacked the assassin managed to live. He fell off his motorbike in the ensuing chase down the mountain side. Only a broken arm. He said that he heard Viper's electronic voice spouting off a whole bunch of nonsense before Garet was actually killed. And that's unusual. It's not like Viper to chat away before offing someone. He's changed. He's changed somehow…"

"Did he hear what Viper had to say?"

"Barely. A voice carries thinly over the treetops in this cold, Autumn air. It's hard to get a finger on…especially when it's an electronic voice," the old man sipped some more tea. He swallowed. "But…."

Robin leaned forward.

The elder stared at the Boy Wonder. "He supposedly….rambled on."

"About what?"

"Death. Death and _being_ death."

"…………."

"I always knew Viper to be an obsessed individual. But not a foolish one. His passion has always dealt with the destruction of life. But even that sort of inflicted chaos had an order to it. Viper sought to suck the life out of a specific group of targets. Law enforcement. Judges. Police constables. Prison wardens. You are no stranger to this tendency of his…"

"Right…….," Robin nodded. "It deals with a vengeance factor rooted in his parents' deaths."

"Which is understandable. Believe me, Mr. Titan, when I tell you that I have seen many men in my life who live their days by vengeance."

"I can only imagine."

A beat.

The man leaned back. He said: "Viper once knew what his days were avenging. But….he's seemed to have lost track of that. He's fallen short of what he used to be…and in a sense…he's climbed up to a new state of being."

"How is that plausible?" Starfire asked.

He looked at her: "He no longer seems to care about who he kills….but only that he _kills._ The man has always been sadistic, and yes—he has taken pleasure in violence and ripping human beings asunder with that damnable blade of his. But everything now seems….indiscriminate. Immature. Spontaneous. He only seems to kill now because he _can_. And thus he has chosen the targets most readily available to him and unsuspecting of his wrath."

"Criminal organizations…," Robin remarked. "Garet's mafia for one."

"Please, Robin. 'Mafia' is such a stigmatic word…."

"So he's a traitor then?" Tempest gestured. "Was there something you guys did to piss him off?"

"For one thing….there is no 'us guys' in this situation, Mr. Sea-Dweller," the man pointed. "And for another….there is nothing Garet or myself could do to predict this action by Viper. It's more akin to lunacy than it is treachery. And yet….I would be lying if I said that I did not sense this string of murders coming."

"What do you mean….?" Asked Robin.

The man's eyes narrowed. "There is…a great spirit of evil in this land. Something destructive. Something fatal. Like the spirit of bloodshed itself. The color red." He gazed out the window, through which the cold air filtered in. "People are disappearing left and right. Either by the blade or by some dark shadow when nobody is looking. And the thing is…this has been prevalent long before Viper's string of murders. Viper may be a bloody madman….but he isn't the biggest threat in the land."

"He is….," Starfire blinked and held her hands together, "….a reflection of a greater killer?"

The man nodded. "Whether that killer is a man or a thing or an idea….Viper senses it. And he envies it. Assassins have their egos, I suppose. Viper won't settle for being the second best grim reaper in the land." He gazed at the Titans. "Whatever he's doing…whoever he's killing….Viper is trying to prove to the powers that be that he is the greatest wielder of fatality in the world. He'll go to any length he can to spread the essence of death. That includes turning on former associates……and slaying any pathetic cop he might happen to bump into on the highway."

Starfire bit his lip.

Robin frowned. "Viper hasn't killed anyone pathetic. He's a cold-hearted murderer, and the lives of everyone he's hurt deserves respect. We're going to bring him down, no matter what. And if you're so much as hiding vital information from us—"

"I've told you everything I know, Titan…," the man uttered. "You forget…I am merely a subordinate. The wonderful secrets that you are no doubt searching for perished along with Garet. The moment he was decapitated spelled the end of whatever conspiracy theory you may be after. It is beyond me what Viper may be doing at this moment and who or what he plans to target next. But know this…he _will_ be targeting someone or something next. If I were you….I would be very concerned for my brothers and sisters in arms. If you're so much as conveniently within reach of Viper's blade….you _will_ die. Only because you can be killed. Only because it would mean an extra roster on Viper's mortal scoreboard."

Tempest's communicator suddenly vibrated. He cleared his throat, whipped the device out with a Star Trek sound, and excused himself into a corner.

"Now…if you children would be so kind as to leave these premises before I start to get annoyed…….any discomfort would be avoided…"

"You're not in the position to give commands."

"Am I, Robin? Just tell me what proof you and your allies have against this organization on _anything_??"

"………."

"As much as the local law enforcement knows…we suffered a tragic blow from an insane assassin, and afterwards the Titans needlessly flooded the front room of this mansion with reclaimed water just to rough things up a bit."

Starfire snarled: "You are a dirty man who is most assuredly full of dirt!!"

Robin held an arm out, pushing her aside. "You told us what we came here for. We shall leave."

Starfire blinked.

The man nodded. "Wise move, Mr. Titan. That is why you're such a good leader."

His eyemask narrowed. "I'll be keeping an eye on this place. For since Garet died, I now know who's in charge of this 'organization' and I'll be sure to be here on a moment's notice with more cans of whoopass then you can pour tea on if ever you even _think_ about breaking the law. THAT'S why I'm a good leader."

"…………"

"Come on, Starfire…..," Robin swiveled around. "Let's go."

"A-Alright, Robin…."

But as they went to leave the room, Tempest walked up in front of them.

"Just got a message from Beast Boy."

"Yeah? What about?"

"There's been an attack on the Wayne Enterprises Building. Many people are dead."

Starfire gasped, her hands over her lips.

Robin did a double take. "Wayne Enterprises??"

Tempest nodded. "Get this. It was Killer Moth…..and Viper."

"……….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What are we looking for, sir?"

Decker rummaged through recent files in a stack of paper in the corner of his office. The Lieutenant shuffled through memos, reports, and faxes behind him.

"We're looking, Lieutenant….for something so simple that I'll be kicking my ass so hard over it tomorrow that my buttocks will switch places with my head or else threaten my toes with a lawsuit…," the Commissioner mumbled. "Somewhere here I remember breezing through the report on Killer Moth's stolen vehicle…"

"You mean the stationwagon that was left on the Metropolitan Highway?"

"Yeah. That piece of shit. That piece of shit may be the piece of shit I need to—AH!! Here we are!!" Decker victoriously ripped a manila envelope out of a pile of collapsing paperwork. THWUMP!! "Ahh…phooie. Clean that up later, will you?"

"Er…"

"Good boy…," Decker strolled over to his desk chair. He ripped the envelope open and scanned through the pages. His eyes darting back and forth. "………." A blink. "There."

"What is it, sir?"

"Not what, _who," _Decker droned as he scanned the papers. His eyes thinned "God, I need glasses again. I swear." A beat. He glared at the Lieutenant: "Don't you frickin' tell anyone that either."

"No, sir."

Decker pointed at the pages: "The stationwagon was stolen from the Pine Breeze Lot twenty miles outside of Town. And yet…the owner of the car lot didn't report it missing. A co-worker of his did, and even still…it was well over forty-eight hours after the vehicle was supposedly stolen. According to these files, the owner of the lot works there seven days a week, four times as much as his subordinates. What would have possessed a person like that to wait so long before sharing such a major loss with local authorities?"

"Perhaps Killer Moth threatened him against alerting anyone?" the Lieutenant shrugged.

"Hmmmmm," Decker hummed. A beat. He slid the papers back into the envelope and stood up. "There's one way to find out."

"What do you have in mind, sir?"

"The same as always. Nothing and everything." The Commissioner glanced over. "Was there any testimony taken from the the car lot owner."

"Yes, sir. Including his name and number of contact."

"I just need his name. Never mind the contact. In fact…I think I'll stop by the records department before paying him a visit. Because if I remember the area around the Pine Breeze Lot……," Decker's voice lingered in mid thought.

"???" the Lieutenant leaned his head to the side.

"Allright," Decker half-smiled in an eerie fashion. I'm going.

"Want me to go with you, sir?"

"Nope. But tell you what I'd want you to do…."

"What's that?"

"Blue ink….go fetch me some."

The Lieutenant blinked. "S-Sir??"

"You heard me. Get your ass in first gear!"

"Third."

"Whatever."

The Commissioner was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………….," the Boy Wonder stared.

'Wayne Enterprises' shimmered from glowing letters down the buildingsides of Downtown, resisting the darkness of night. The police and emergency lights strobed anxiously. Medics were still carting shrouded forms on gurneys out of the loading dock of the skyscraper's rear and into dark vehicles.

"……………."

"Robin?"

"……………."

"Robin??" Starfire softly uttered, leaning her head into the Boy Wonder's view.

Robin's eyemask thinned. He tilted his head down and folded his arms.

"What is it, Star?" he muttered.

She gulped. She held her hands together and leaned forward with concern. "You have been…..staring at the skyscraper for well over a Terran half-hour. Is something disturbing you?"

"……," Robin gazed over at the carted bodies. "………." He gazed back at Starfire.

She winced. "B-Besides that which is hampering all of our souls….."

A beat.

"It's nothing," he muttered. He marched past her.

She watched pensively.

Robin came to a stop in the midst of the Titans.

Cyborg stood halfway in the driver's seat of the open T-Car, finishing the attachment of his second arm. Raven floated quietly beside him. Beast Boy and I leaned against the vehicle's hood, applying our own shares of ice packs to a key spot on our persons. Tempest stood off by the edge of the courtyard within earshot.

Starfire walked over and stood patiently by Robin's side.

We all gazed at our leader.

He gazed back. "………" His shoulders heaved with a sigh. He asked: "All right. How many dead?"

"Eight," Raven droned. "And several more injured. Mainly cops from the mutant moths and the ensuing squad car crashes."

"Four of the dead were either guards or workers at the loading dock," Cyborg added. He finished adjusting his arm back onto his person with a KL-KLAK! He flexed Titanium fingers. "Three more were scientists in the basement laboratories of Wayne Enterprise's Science Department. Then there was an innocent civilian outside the loading dock at the neighboring bus stop. We're thinking she was killed first for reasons unknown."

Robin took a deep breath: "And just how many of these deceased victims were within close vicinity of either Kitten or Killer Moth and his creations?"

Cyborg gazed down. He muttered: "None."

"It was a distraction," Raven droned. "Kitten lured the police in. Killer Moth set up multiple traps to stop us from rushing in. And Viper…."

"He did all the killing," Robin exhaled…once again staring at the words 'Wayne Enterprises' glowing high above. "The eccentric, popular villains took center stage while the assassin wandered in the back door and performed the slaughter."

"Seriously bad, dude…," Beast Boy uttered.

Robin glared: "Do you even need to say _that_?"

Beast Boy recoiled, wincing.

Silence.

Starfire cleared her throat. "There was…..a p-point to this murderous escapade?"

"Damned if I know," Cyborg shrugged. "Maybe somebody's seriously pissed at Wayne Enterprises and it took Viper and that costumed freak to bring it out in the open?"

"Was something stolen?" Tempest asked. "Somehow…this all feels like one big heist. I've read up on Wayne Enterprises. I can't imagine anyone murdering his way into one of the company's establishments _without_ wanting to pick up something expensive."

"………..," Robin gazed off.

"There aren't really any details right now," Cyborg said. "Those laboratories are absolutely crawling with City investigators as we speak. And to be honest….I don't think any of us should get in the way."

"Right," Robin uttered.

Cyborg glanced at the leader. "But supposedly a bunch of equipment was stolen. Viper was carrying something with him when he, Killer Moth, and that blonde hyena of his waltzed off in the dust storm."

I lowered the ice pack and gestured with my hands.

Cyborg nodded at me and translated to Robin: "Viper had a satchel with him. Like….a canvass bag. He passed it to Kitten on the way out. It looked to have a bunch of bumpy stuff in it. Like tools or high-tech gadgetry."

Starfire gasped: "Weapons???"

"No….not possible," Robin shook his head.

"How would you know?" Tempest asked.

"Because I do," Robin immediately faced Cyborg and said: "Killer Moth…..what sort of resources did he have available at his disposal??"

"How do I begin to answer that, dawg?!?!" Cyborg cackled. He waved his arms and uttered: "He had…like….worms that ate into my circuitry and globs of sticky goo made of some durable stuff that I don't even WANT to know about. Then the pollen and the backup moths……oye."

"How many moths?"

"Um…."

"Under a hundred," Raven remarked. "I counted."

Cyborg blinked at her. "How do you do that?"

"I'm observant.

"Yeah, but—"

Robin cleared his throat. "So….what I gather is…………Killer Moth had a counter for every eventuality."

"It was crazy!!" Beast Boy cackled. "I mean, I know we've fought the creep more than once. But for a bad dude who's been in prison so long since his last butt-kicking—which was pretty darn miserable on his part I might add—he _sure_ knew how to predict not only the time we arrived but just how to royally make our day screwed!!"

I gestured again.

"Noir says that 'it felt like clockwork'," Cyborg explained. "Killer Moth must have possessed a cold, calculated mind of extreme focus to have pulled off such a trick."

"So……maybe he and the other two goons thought of it together!!" Beast Boy pointed. "Like….they put their heads against each other and came up with a way to kill people, bruise our egos, and spread pollen to boot!"

Raven stared boredly at Beast Boy. She raised an eyebrow. "Kitten……contributed to a good, villainous plan?"

Beast Boy blushed. "Well….most of their heads at least."

"Do I take it that the sort of thing that happened earlier today is not Killer Moth's style?" Tempest asked.

Starfire shook her head. "It is not, from the testimony being presented here." She gestured. "And if this atrocious event was not masterminded by Killer Moth…."

"….then Viper takes credit," Robin paced through the group. "I can't stop thinking about the fact that Viper performed all the bloodshed. Killer Moth's and Kitten's acts were merely the surface of what's going on here. The bloody heart of this matter lies in Viper's steps. And those steps were made quickly, coldly, and without regard for life. The three obviously wanted something from this whole ordeal. And in spite of everything thrown at them, they got it. They left as quickly as they came to the scene. What's to stop them from going wherever they want to next?"

"I performed an instant scan of the City as soon as the pollen cloud dissipated," Cyborg said. "And Raven sent out an empathic signal. But we couldn't detect the three fiends. They must have made like the wind as soon as we lost them. I hate to say it, Robin. But they're gone. Long gone. Not a soul was nearby to catch them in their flight."

"…….," Tempest shifted nervously where he stood for some reason.

I gazed at him curiously. I looked over towards the Titan leader.

"Well, that's just perfect…."

"……," I gazed back at Tempest patiently.

Sure enough, the Atlantean had his hand raised. "Uhm…..Robin? Leader, sir?"

Robin gazed over icily. "…………_What?"_

Tempest swallowed and simpered: "I b-believe I can find them.

"……….you can….huh?"

"Uh huh," he nodded. "But I gotta get to it now. Before it's too late."

"Just what do you have in mind, Flipper?" Cyborg glanced at him funnily.

Tempest smiled and pointed at his head. "I've got some unique talents."

"Yeah, okay…," Robin gazed back at the emergency vehicles. "Whatever."

"I'm serious!!"

"We have no time for this—"

"No shit!" Tempest frowned and pointed: "What are you gonna do, Robin? Retreat to the Tower and call it a rest since you and everyone else here is completely clueless as to where our nemeses are?"

"……….."

"Well, I think you guys need some rest after all," Tempest smirked. "At the same time, I'll get to the work the only way I can. I promise you…I'll have some results by morning time!"

"Dude, you're working all night?" Beast Boy blinked.

"If it takes that!" Tempest remarked. He looked at Robin. "Come on, Robbie! What do you say??"

Cyborg snickered.

Robin glared at him.

Cyborg pointed: "He called your 'Robbie'. That's rich."

"Nobody calls me 'Robbie'," Robin muttered.

"I call you Robbie," Cyborg said.

"……….."

"…………from time to time."

"…………I don't see what this has to do with anything," Robin muttered.

"Heeeee!!" Starfire hugged him from behind. "He is Robbbbbie!!!"

Raven rolled her eyes.

Beast Boy giggled.

Robin shook his head, sighed, and said: "Whatever, Tempest. Go have fun."

"Aye, sir," Tempest gladly saluted.

Cyborg folded his arms. "Spoken like a true sailor."

"Shut up, Clunker," Tempest retorted…dashing away.

Raven chuckled.

"…….???" Cyborg glanced at her, surprised.

"Ahem….," Raven cleared her throat and adjusted her robe. "Sorry….."

"………..," Cyborg looked at Robin. "Can we go home now?"

"My thoughts exactly," Robin shuffled towards his R-Cycle. Starfire followed.

"Show's over, folks…," Beast Boy waved his arms before fluttering Tower-ward as a green falcon. "Tonight the bed, tomorrow the morgue."

I was smirking as I joined Cyborg and Raven in the T-Car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin walked over to his R-Cycle and picked his helmet off.

Starfire floated behind him. "Robin…."

"What is it, Star?" he calmly replied. He gazed at her over his caped shoulder. "Did you want to ride again?"

"Perhaps," she leaned her head to the side. "But I was just…..wondering if you were okay."

"You're always wondering if I'm okay," Robin smiled softly. He gazed at the Tower once more, sighed, and glanced off. "Doesn't take a genius to know that I feel bad."

"About the deaths?"

"Bingo," Robin said. "I feel responsible for what happened here."

"It was not you who murdered those innocent people so mercilessly—"

"It's not just that, Star….," he gazed up at the letters atop the building once more. "It's….It's…."

"What, Robin?"

"………….."

Silence.

"It's nothing," Robin sighed.

Starfire hung her head. "Is it truly?"

"Sometimes…….Sometimes I wish I could tell you, Starfire…."

"Tell me what, Robin?"

"Everything…," the masked Wonder said. His back was to her. The autumn wind kicked at his yellow and black cape.

For a split moment, he looked like a photonegative in the night.

Starfire blinked, her lips agape. "R-Robin??"

"Never mind, Star…….," Robin shook his head and put his helmet on. He looked at her. "Did you want a ride or not?"

She smiled painfully. "I would……be glad to."

He offered a gloved hand.

She took it.

He helped her onto the back of the bike….but paused.

Starfire froze as soon as he did.

"……," Robin was gazing at her Tamaranian hand in his grasp. The half-naked, amber skin. The feminine softness of it. His eyemask narrowed.

"Is….Is there something you see, Robin?" the alien girl asked, slightly amused.

Robin's voice was deep, contemplative, and a bit lost in his gaze.

"Does it ever burn……Starfire?"

"Does what ever burn, Robin?"

"Your power. Casting starbolts. When you launch green fire from your hands."

"Actually…it somewhat tickles," she giggled. Her cheeks red. "Is that not amusing?"

Silence.

She blinked.

He was still holding her hand.

"Robin??"

"Viper….," he exhaled. "He…..didn't chop the hands off the victims in the Wayne Enterprises building….did he?"

Starfire slowly shook her head. "According to the initial police report, negative. He did not."

"But….But….," Robin slowly gazed up from her hand and into her face. "….that just isn't _Viper_. Where is the ego? Where is the extravagance? The penchant for a signature?"

Starfire's fingers flexed in his grasp.

She stammered: "Perhaps….P-Perhaps he is not in control of himself right now?"

"Or maybe…..," Robin gazed off in thought. "…..m-maybe he's not in control of anything. But is working to get that far?" He looked at Starfire again. "Viper isn't content. He isn't content because he doesn't have any of these bloody situations truly in his grasp. And when an eccentric villain isn't content….he has no time for making his signature."

"But Viper would desire to be content, would he not?" Starfire said. "And submitting to Killer Moth's camaraderie and devices is a way of achieving such a state?"

"Close….but not quite," Robin thought aloud. "Viper did all the killing, remember Star? No….No, Viper isn't working _for_ Killer Moth. He's working to get complete control. Control of what? Who knows. But I'm thinking Killer Moth is near the top of the list."

"What is it that you are assuming, Robin?"

"The guy at Garet's place said that Viper wants only to prove that he's the greatest wielder of death and fatality in the land. So far, Viper's been meeting that description. He's been killing indiscriminately while working alongside Killer Moth. But I think he wants more. Lots more. And to do that…he must play the game as Killer Moth's lackey……until it comes time to off Killer Moth himself."

"But to what ends, Robin?" Starfire remarked. "What could be the advantage of empowering Killer Moth?"

Robin gazed off. He exhaled.

"Devices………….the devices of death….."

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North of the City….

Besides a cluster of forests where the roads branched out gradually into the mountainsides….

There was a stream.

And Tempest walked along the banks of this stream.

And the moon shone overhead.

The stars.

The ring-lit torch of the Milky Way's outer band.

Autumn wind turned it all into a kaleidoscope as the leaves waved and danced overhead.

Tempest approached the river.

He gazed into the stream.

He closed his dark, white-on-black eyes.

He stretched his arms out.

With an exhale….

His lungs closed.

His neck gills open.

Obsidian hair danced.

And---

SPLOOOSH!!!!

He fell into the water.

He drifted to the bottom of the river bed.

He rested his knees together.

He crossed his arms over his chest.

He lay back in the currents like an invisible coffin.

He drifted….

Drifted…….

Drifted…………

And while drifting…

His brow furrowed.

His forehead tensed…and was calm again.

The telepathic nerves in his Atlantean head shifted gears.

In a meditative state he reached out in waves of thought towards every fish.

Every bird.

Every mammal in the area.

Dreaming creatures in the forest woke up.

Reflecting eyes blinked open in the trees.

Schools of freshwater fish shook and thrashed into coherency.

Currents of water and air and soil shook together as one and let loose a mental gasp that bounced back into Tempest's soul and drifted him further beyond the invisible dividing line of consciousness and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The wind-shaken eyes of a seagull. _

_Daylight. _

_A sunset City below. _

_Squad cars crashing into each other. _

_Dust rising._

_Pollen. _

_Bodies coiling together. _

_A cloud of obscurity. _

_Three dark forms_

_Breaking through. _

_And…… _

_A ruffle of feathers. _

_Dipping aside._

_A horizon with a suspension bridge._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_A canine nose digging through trash. _

_Echoing footsteps rushing down the alleyway. _

_Glancing up. _

_Sniffing. _

_Fleeing mice. _

_More sniffing. _

_Shadows. _

_In the distance…… _

_Gray boots. _

_A yellow skirt. _

_More gray boots. _

_A dragging broadsword. _

_And…… _

_Gone. _

_Barking. _

_Barking. _

_Barking._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Nighttime. _

_A beak digging into the guts of a field mouse. _

_A rustling of leaves. _

_A pivot._

_A twist of the head._

_Downward._

_Branches glistening in the moonlight. _

_Three shadowed forms. _

_Bulbous bug eyes reflecting off the top of a biped. _

_A silver sword screaming back the moonlight. _

_Slowly progressing._

_Slinking like a snake. _

_Westward. _

_Darkness. _

_Pivot. _

_And… _

_The innards of a field mouse._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Bounding across the road. _

_Shadows of antlers shaking in the light of a highway lamppost. _

_A black and white blink. _

_Through the underbrush beyond the median. _

_A rustle. _

_Freezing. _

_Looking up. _

_Still. _

_Three shadows. _

_Approaching a metal fence. _

_The moonlight overhead._

_A glint of silver. _

_Acid pollen. _

_The fence crumbles. _

_Three figures pile on through. _

_A blink. _

_And…… _

_Rushing back through the underbrush in the opposite direction._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Early morning sunlight kissing the horizon. _

_The sounds of chirping birds._

_Rushing down the back of a tree with an acorn. _

_Crouching on a branch. _

_Tearing the layers of flesh off the acorn. _

_Chiseling teeth. _

_Panting. _

_Panting. _

_Panting._

_Pause. _

_Glancing down. _

_Jerking. _

_Sniffing. _

_Three figures poised. _

_Three figures lurking forward. _

_Three figures swiftly darting through the grass and across a parking lot. _

_An office building bordering a huge factory with trees and hills in the distance. _

_A huge sign._

_Human font._

'_Dayton Chemical Works.'_

'_Central Plant.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was morning time when Tempest's wet face finally broke the surface of the stream.

And he gasped.

Dark eyes wide.

Lungs filling up with air.

"I know where th-they are……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CR-CRACK!!!

The door flew off its hinges.

Two office workers jumped up from their desks inside the carpeted building besides the factory.

Killer Moth stepped in.

Kitten followed with a shotgun which she promptly aimed at the ceiling, pumped with much gusto, and--

BL-BLAM!!!!

Fiberglass and dust flew.

One of the workers shrieked.

They both crouched low to the ground.

Kitten giggled madly.

Killer Moth pointed and growled: "I want access to the alcohol containers!! NOW!!!"

"Y-You need the p-proper authorization!!" one of the workers chanted. "We're just the business d-department!! This isn't the factory!! Even w-we don't even know how to get you in there!!"

"How's this for authorization??" Killer Moth produced a handful of pollen and blew it in the workers' direction.

The dust flew, congealed in the air, and wrapped around the victims in sticky, binding cocoons.

"Nnnnghhh!!" they struggled and strained in the suffocating grip.

"FREEZE!!!"

Kitten spun with the shotgun, panting.

"……," Killer Moth gazed over.

A security guard stood in the doorway with a revolver. He fingered the trigger and squinted one eye. "Nobody moves!!"

Killer Moth stared past him. "You're the only one who doesn't have to move."

"……..??" the guard raised an eyebrow.

CHIIIIING!!!!

A blade protruded outward through his chest, lifting his body.

"SNKKKTT!!!" he gurgled.

Viper leaned around him from where he stood with the piercing blade. He smiled and kissed the man's ear.

"…….," the man shook on the blade and spit up blood.

Viper held his mute breath, spun, and swung the man's corpse off his broadsword and out the nearby window.

SMASH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRRMMMMMmmmmmm………_

Decker drove his squad car to a stand still.

"………," he gazed out through the dashboard.

The Pine Breeze Lot was scarcely an acre in size. It was more like a sandbox clustered with three or four half-rusted cars side by side with aged signs slipped into the windshields. There were two portables located next to the highway-side bargain trap. One was decked with flapping, blue flags of plastic in the breeze. The other was beaten down and dilapidated. The first must have been the office. The second must have been the owner's home.

"………….," Decker sighed. "Well. Nice business."

He popped the car door open.

He shuffled out.

He shut it behind him.

He adjusted his autumn coat.

He ran a hand through his hair.

He slowly marched through the dirt, gravel, and sparse grass of the median towards the gnarled, wooden door of the lot's office. He knocked on it.

Thap. Thap. Thap.

Decker stepped back.

He rested his arms by his side.

A beat.

He folded his arms behind him.

A beat.

He looked once again at the old cars.

A beat.

He gazed at the door he just knocked on.

A beat.

Grumbling, Decker stepped back up and raised his fist--

_Creeeeeeeak._

The door opened.

A dark-haired man stared down. Olive skinned. Gangly. His green eyes blinked.

"It says 'come in'," he uttered.

Decker smiled. "I like to grab attention."

"…….."

Decker cleared his throat. "Mr. Smith? Mr. Allen J. Smith?"

"Yeah, that's me."

Decker showed him his badge. "I'm Commissioner Decker. Pleased to meet you in person."

Smith blinked. "_Commissioner_ Decker??"

"I take it you've heard of me…."

"I….uh…."

"Good. Now that that's over with…," Decker gently forced his way in.

Smith stepped out of the way.

Decker stood in the center of a claustrophobic interior. The office was a thin place partitioned into two compartments. One: a 'sitting area' with home-printed brochures and a thin skeleton of a metal desk serving as Smith's work area. Two: an unseen part of the office on the other side of a wall of velvet curtain. The makings of a coffee machine and a television could be seen on the otherside.

"Even the smallest of establishment's has a breakroom," Decker smirked and pointed beyond the curtain. "That where you sell your best premiums?"

"Nothing important," Smiths shrugged.

"Ah. I hear ya."

"Can I help you, Comissioner?"

"Oh yeah. I heard this thing about….oh….a stolen vehicle. Killer Moth was involved. Yeah. He kinda sorta snuck into your lot and took off with a stationwagon, do you remember that?"

"…………."

"If I must refresh your memory, it was three days ago."

"I suppose it was," Smith droned. "I already answered a report about it."

"Yeah, you did," Decker finished pacing and glared at the man. "It was less than a day ago."

The man shrugged. "So what?"

"So…..," Decker slowly stepped towards the man. "….if you had filed the report about a missing vehicle sooner, then maybe my men and I could more easily have tracked it down and prevented the deaths of a certain handful of innocent people over the last sunrise and sunset. You ever think of that?"

"…….," Smith stared boredly at the Commissioner. "Am I supposed to repent of something now?"

"You're supposed to tell me why you took so long to make a report like a good little boy."

A beat.

Smith simply shrugged. "I was threatened."

"By whom?"

"Killer Moth."

"…….," Decker leaned a hand on his hip. "So….Killer Moth threatened you."

"Yes sir."

"And you didn't mention this before because—"

He shrugged. "I was too scared," he droned.

"And boy….do you certainly look like the type to be scared shitless."

"………," Smith merely glared.

Decker scratched his neck and looked around the business. "Nice place you got here. How often do you get a good deal through?"

Smith again shrugged. "Just enough."

"How good is 'just enough'?"

"Just enough to get by."

"Heh….I thought as much," Decker nodded. "Don't take this the wrong way…but…working in a place like this must make you beg for some breathing room. But….what do I know? It's a good thing you sell a random, rusted Beetle every now and then, huh? Not the kind of thing losing….oh…an entire _stationwagon_ can put a wrench in. Right?"

"Commissioner….," Smith groaned. "I don't gripe about the job you're doing. So why should you gripe about mind?"

Decker stared the man closely in the face. "And just what bothers you about the job I'm doing, Mr. Smith?"

"…………," Smith took a deep breath. "I suggest you leave, Mr. Decker."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Or else I'll file a report….," Smith droned.

"Ah….a report….," Decker nodded. "Wouldn't want one of those…would I?"

Smith shook his head. "No. You wouldn't."

"I'll just….keep in mind that….you were scared by Killer Moth," Decker nodded.

"Exactly. I didn't want to tell the police what was stolen from my lot or else I could be in grave danger."

"I see. Then….you wouldn't know why Killer Moth chose this piece of crap business of all the spots on the highway to pillage?"

"Look….didn't I just tell you that—"

Decker waved the suddenly irate man off. "I get it. I'm leaving. You should learn to calm down."

"?????"

Decker walked halfway out the door.

He paused.

A beat.

He turned around on the outside steps.

"By the way. When you keep the cars of your lot outside for display…..do you leave keys in the glove compartment? Cuz after Killer Moth and his daughter fled the scene of the Metropolitan Highway—"

Thwap!!

The door to the portable shut.

"……….," Decker turned and gazed down the highway.

Silence.

No cars.

"……….," Decker turned. He looked down the other end of the highway.

Silence.

No cars.

Morning stillness.

A beat.

"Allright…," Decker groaned. "Enough with this shit."

The Commissioner spun, whipped out a pistol from beneath his coat, approached the door, raised his foot, and--

WHAM!!!!

CRACK!!!!

It flew off its foundation.

Smith spun around on the inside.

Decker stomped towards him, the gun raised sideways.

_Plant!_

It plopped coldly against Smith's forehead.

Finally the man gasped and his green eyes flew wide.

"What are you doing?!?!"

"Shut the Hell up," Decker grunted and kept stomping forward.

Smith stumbled in reverse. "Wh-What are you doing?!?! What are you doing?!?!"

Decker shoved the man back with the pistol.

Smith crashed through the curtain wall. The fabric and its metal support plummeted along side him as his body sprawled into the half of the portable beyond. Decker now stood above the man, surrounded by a revelation of mountains of grimey magazines, dirty VHS tapes, film reels, and a splendid array of t.v. monitors, VCRs, and even a projector assembled together into a 'theatre' of sorts.

"Tell me, Smith…," Decker reached down, grabbed the thin man harshly by the collar of his shirt, and hoisted him up to face the cold pistol again. "….how much business does a fellow like you get this far down the isolated highway?"

"Nnngh….," the man shook and gritted his teeth. "Let go of me!!"

"Not today…"

THWUMP!!!

Decker slammed him into a chair and pressed the gun to his neck.

"A-Are you insane?!?!" Smith gasped.

"I bet you get your best business at night?? Don't you??" Decker frowned. "You sell your best deals at night when nobody in his right mind would be driving along this pathetic road to see your customers coming to visit you for late night premiums." He reached a hand out, grabbed a magazine full of provocative photographs and—without looking at it—waved it nakedly in front of Smith's face. "What better way to serve a motherload of child pornography to half the perverts in this City??"

"I….I-I….," Smith eyed the obvious mountains of magazines and VHS tapes around him. He gulped. "H-How did all this get here??! I have no clue!!"

Decker smirked. "Real smooth, shit-for-brains." He dropped the magazine, grabbed the man by the collar again, and hoisted him up. WHAM!!!! He slammed Smith against a wall, knocking over DVDs and VHS tapes.

"Nnghhh…," the suspect winced.

_Plant!!_

The gun was to the back of his neck.

Decker hissed into his ear: "Answer me this, Smith. Are you just the distributor of this crap?? Or are you also the cameraman??"

"Wh….Wh-What?!?!" the man gasped.

"You heard me, punk. How many of these children have you actually filmed? Have you gotten to know 'personally'??"

"Stop bullshitting me!!"

"You're only bullshitting yourself, son," Decker pressed his weight and the pistol into the man's back. "Your name's not Smith. I looked into your records at the police department. Every detail about you is the fitting end of a puzzle that began half a decade ago. You're really Alex Diotrephes. You spent four months as an elementary schoolteacher until parents started calling into the principal and complaining about how long your 'tutor sessions' were taking. You were convicted on at least eight counts of child molestations and twice as many incidences of possessing illegal pornography. Just being the slippery weasel that you are was what got you out from under the radar of law enforcement's nose. You turned up missing on a highway not far from here, your vehicle abandoned. Some people wanted to confirm you as dead…but not a neighborhood full of parents. No…any Joe on the street could figure out that you weren't dead. You were just in the area. Keeping it low. But a guy as horny and as pathetically dumbass as you can't keep it down, eh Diotrephes?? Sooner or later…you were gonna attract attention with this….'business' of yours."

The man wheezed: "I….I-I was going to quit it! Honestly…I was!!"

Decker fumed: "Tell that to the sixteen-year-old freshman stuck in Gotham City having to raise a three year old baby boy on her own, you yellow-assed son of a bitch."

THWUMP!!!!

Decker shoved him across the room by his hair.

The man plowed through two rows of VHS tapes.

Cl-Click!! Decker pointed his gun down at the man.

Diotrephes crawled backwards, white as a ghost, panting. "You…Y-You can't be serious!! Just take me in, man!! Don't shoot me!! Y-You _can't_ shoot me!!"

"Can't I??" Decker glared. He curled his finger around the trigger. "Nine out of ten bullseyes a week in target practice tell me different."

"You're a City Commissioner!! They'll fry your ass for offing me!!"

"Speaking of fried asses……………tell me, Diotrephes….," Decker continued aiming the gun, slowly marching towards the crawling man. "…do you believe in a God?"

"…….," Diotrephes panted.

"How hot do you think Hell burns for a little turd like you?"

"What do you want from me?!?!"

"Certainly not what your clients want," Decker said. "Truth be told, I'm curious about your biggest client of all."

"……."

"Of course I'm talking about Killer Moth," Decker grinned. "But he doesn't want what all your other clients want either. Rather…I think he knows you all too well, and he wanted to exploit that. Since….well…..you knew Drury Walker back in Gotham City. You were both in the same _college_, dipshit."

"I…I….," Diotrephes' panicked eyes thinned. "How did you know that??"

"Gee…what a small world we ejaculate in," Decker said. "I do my homework. And the one thing in my career that never fails to amaze me is how ridiculously stupid criminal punks like you continue to be. Gotta cover your tracks, kid. But I guess it's too late for that. Prepare to burn…."

And he started to pull on the trigger.

"N-No!! Please!!!" the man waved his arm amidst the mountains of evidence. "D-Don't!!"

"Why not? It'll finish a lot of things."

"N-Not for you it won't!! All right?! I…I did it!!"

"You did what? Speak up."

"I gave Killer Moth the damn car!! Okay?!?! He threatened to turn me and this whole place in if I didn't cooperate!!"

"So you weren't so much scared by Killer Moth as you were by the national allegiance of soccer moms finally catching up with you and ripping your blueballs off??" Decker aimed the pistol closer. "Tell me something I don't know."

"Like what?!?!"

"Where is Killer Moth at??"

"What?!?!"

"Where's his base, Alex?! Where's his damn home-sweet-home?? Where's that lovely nest of his??"

"I can't tell you that!!!"

"And I can't shoot you, right?!?!" Cl-Click. "SPILL IT!!!"

"I….I….."

"There're people turning into bloody corpses all over my god damn City, you selfish little pig!!!" Decker shouted. "Killer Moth is the link to the one man in this world cold enough and merciless to even give _me_ nightmares!! So spill it!! NOW!!!"

"The mountains!!!" Diotrephes shouted. "He's in the mountains!!"

"Wake up!! We're _in_ the mountains!! Be specific!!!"

"Vines!! V-Vines and….an underwater cavern!! He said something about nests and an underwater cavern!! I'm not m-making this up!! I swear!! He's so eccentric and big mouthed!! He's in some cave somewhere!!"

"Where?!?!"

"Less than ten miles from here or something!! Real close, man!! He took the station wagon to the highway just so he could pick up his bimbo daughter!! That's all I know, okay?!?! Now please, for the love of God, don't shoot me!!!"

"………………….," Decker continued aiming the gun at the man. "……………………..okay then. That's fine," he lowered the weapon.

Diotrephes let out a huge breath of relief.

And then Decker raised the gun again. "But you still piss me off."

"!!!!" the man gasped--

_Thssssssshh!!!_

A long squirt of blue ink shot out from the barrel of the gun and stained the man's shirt, soaking his chest.

The man panted….heaving….blinking.

"…………..," Decker smirked.

"A….A…..A w-w-water p-p-pistol??" the man shivered.

Decker lowered his 'gun'. "You caught me."

"Y-Y-You were b-b-bluffing all along?!?!" he blinked. "Y-You weren't really g-gonna kill me??"

Decker shrugged. "Everyone is full of it these days. I thought I might join the crown."

The man suddenly frowned up at him. "You…..Y-You ass!!"

"Whoops," Decker waved. "Just in case you start to like me too much…."

And the Commissioner swiftly slammed his shoe into Diotrephes' groin.

_**WHAM!!!!**_

"!!!!!!!!!!!!" the man curled into a fetus position, his thighs crossing. "OHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh………."

Decker dropped the water pistol to the floor. "There we go….that's putting things to good use," he pulled out a cell phone. "Now with this info….time to touch base with a few kids of nicer ilk." He pointed down at the suspect. "You. Stay put."

"………," the man whimpered on the floor, rocking back and forth slowly.

Decker dialed a number.

He held the phone to his ear.

He waited.

A beat.

"Hello, Lieutenant?"

A beat.

"Patch me through to Titans' Tower."

A beat.

"Yeah, I got some potential development on Killer Moth's HQ after all."

A beat.

Decker's brow furrowed. "Say what?"

A beat.

"The Titans went _where_??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred to a stop, perched atop a tall tree branch.

I held Myrkblade, staring out at the factory site surrounded by fence.

A part of the metal barrier had been melted and shattered, forcing an opening.

In the morning light, the sign: 'Dayton Chemical Works' glistened over the treetops in the background.

"………."

I held up my communicator and listened in as everyone took their places.

"_Titans! Remember! Form a circle around the place!! I want all eyes peeled for if any of the three creeps show up!!"_

"_Raven and I have got the north and northeast side!!" _

"_Tempest here. I'm in the creek to the south." _

"_Got the air in the East covered. Noir's between Tempest and myself." _

"_And I am located within the western quadrant." _

"_And I've got northwest. Let's make this a coordinated effort, Titans……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stood at the edge of the fence surrounding the factory, speaking into his communicator.

"…We outnumber them seven to three. We mustn't let our perimeter break up. If and only if Killer Moth, Kitten, and Viper approach one of us….then we'll swallow them up by maintaining formation and zeroing in on their location uniformly. We just can't all rush in one direction to the rescue. Got it?"

"_Affirmative." _

"_Loud and clear." _

"_You got it, dude. But……wh-what about raiding the factory and stuff? Aren't there people inside?"_

"I've already radioed in the police," Robin said. "They're on their way. As soon as they get here, we'll let them set up a perimeter and we'll work a way to sneak inside. It'll require stealth, since there may be hostages in involved. Raven. Noir. That'll be up to you two."

"_Understood,"_ Raven said.

_Dash, dot, dash, dash. Dot. Dot, dot, dot._

Robin took a deep breath and pocketed the communicator away.

"Hope it doesn't get too….quiet…," he murmured.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Do you smell something?" Raven uttered.

A few feet away, Cyborg peered over hedges with a robotic scope over his red eye. "Not a thing. Why?"

Raven shook her head. "Never mind. Just testing my senses."

"You work on your empathy, cutie…," Cyborg remarked. "I'll do the rest of the senses. That way…we equalize our talents and the best results are guaranteed."

"I don't think you want to know what my empathy is telling me…," Raven droned.

"Do I ever?" Cyborg smirked. "Go on and tell me, Rae…."

Her violet eyes narrowed. "Something is wrong here."

"How could I guess?"

"Seriously. And it's not just because it's 'too good to be true'. It's a good thing we got here this quickly. Tempest's search was expedient and helpful. But this is feeling too much like yesterday. Like the Wayne Enterprises Skyscraper."

"You think this is a trap?" Cyborg glanced over from the hedges. "Raven…we're forming a perimeter _around_ the site. If there's any tiger pit to fall into, it's at least a hundred feet radius away from each of us."

Raven squinted her eyes.

"Whatcha lookin' at?"

"Those tanks….the chemical storage facilities in the factory…," she pointed. "They wouldn't happen to store volatile explosives, would they?"

"This is a processing plant for household products, Rae…," Cyborg smirked. "I seriously doubt they'd have that sort of stuff here."

"But still…..," her voice lingered worriedly.

"What would Killer Moth and Viper possibly gain in raiding a place that had highly explosive tanks unless…they……..wanted……………to………………," Cyborg blinked.

_**BOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**_

A flash of bright light.

A plume of flames shooting upward.

A shockwave---

_**FWOOOOSH!!!**_

"Nnngh!!" Raven fell back into the dirt.

Cyborg's titanium form braced the concussion.

He winced.

He squinted his human and robot eye into the mayhem.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire gasped.

From where she floated, a tall plume of flame rose high from the far edge of the factory.

The air singed with a barely tolerable heat.

And for some inexplicable reason….the Tamaranian sniffed something odd in the air.

Her face scrunched up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whoah!!" Beast Boy stood up from the shockwave knocking him down.

He rushed up to the clearing in the forest and gazed at the flames.

A strange smell filled the air.

Suddenly…inexplicably….his eyelids started to grow heavy.

"Ugh….what….in th-the world??"

He placed a hand against his head, feeling dizzy.

His legs gave way.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ughh….," Robin shook his head.

He moaned.

"The air….it……wh-what??"

Dizziness started to overcome him.

He fell to his knees, panting.

He began fumbling around in his utility belt for something….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Cyborg…..what….what is it??" Raven choked as she fell to her knees, wheezing.

Cyborg was halfway slumped down several feet off.

Wincing for breath, he popped open a console in his left arm and performed a reading in the air.

He gasped…not quite so much for air that time.

He uttered: "Pollen…..synthetic pollen in the air…………an allergen….it's increasing melanin levels in our body by two hundred and fifty percent…."

"It what??"

"It's putting us to sleep, Rae…," Cyborg wheezed. "It was in the air the whole time! I-I just hadn't s-sensed it before. The fiery explosion….the combusting oxygen must have t-triggered a chemical reaction in the pollen…."

"……..I……..so…….nngh….," Raven plopped down to the earth.

"Rae!!" Cyborg shouted. He fell on all fours. He wheezed. He coughed. He paused. Ch-Chtunk!!! His titanium cheeks opened up and his 'breathing mask' slid out and formed over his mouth. Breathing filtered air from tiny tanks in his armor, Cyborg got a second wind and stood up. He rushed over and nudged Raven…feeling her pulse.

She was asleep in his arms.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……," my black eyes were thin.

I rocked back and forth on the tree branch.

I loss grip of Myrkblade.

_Son of a………wh-what did those creeps do this time??_

My eyes closed.

They reopened.

My shades fell off as my head tilted violently back.

Sunlight.

Stabbing.

Then---black as I fell.

Spiraled…..and barreled through a tree branch.

CRACK!!!!

_That's going to hurt when I wake up……if I wake up._

THWUMP!!!!

I struck the earth and was out like a light.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Beast Boy?!?! Raven?!?! Noir?!?!" Starfire panted desperately into her communicator.

She floated easily among the treetops.

Unaffected by the allergen.

Tamaranian immunity.

"Friends!! Please respond!!" the amber-skinned girl uttered.

Silence.

She gulped.

"R-Robin??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Robin, please tell me that you are safe!!"_

The Boy Wonder had pulled a breathing mask from his utility belt.

It fit snugly over his lips.

There wasn't much length of breath left on the tiny white tank attached.

Nevertheless, the Titan Leader got up to his feet, frowned, and spoke back into his communicator: "It's a gas of some sort, Starfire! It's putting us all asleep!"

"_I seem not to be affected!"_

"Good. Different planet, different lungs…I guess," Robin ran towards the factory in the center of the place. "Tell me from how high you are….do you spot anyone exiting??"

"_I shall keep my eyes on the peel!!"_

"You do that!! I'm—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_running in on the scene as fast as I can! I bet they're making a run for it now!!"_

As Tempest listened to the communication, he sniffed an awkward odor in the forest air.

The Atlantean gasped.

In a split second, he shut down his lungs and opened the gills in his neck.

Holding his 'breath', he spun and ran towards a creek.

He dove in to where it was safe from the pollen-gas.

SPLOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire floated high over the scene, still panting worriedly.

She twirled around the cloud of dark smoke piling upwards and upwards from the factory building.

Then….

Something white caught her green eye.

She glanced down.

A huge freight truck was pulling out of the nearest warehouse. Four huge white tanks of chemicals rested in the back of it.

The vehicle groaned with diesel weight and rolled towards the exit of the compound.

"Robin! I see them!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Someone is attempting to depart from the site with stolen materials of the gaseous form!!"_

Cyborg looked up from cradling Raven's body.

He saw the vehicle groaning down the road.

He gritted his teeth beneath his mask. "This is Cyborg!" he spoke into a communicator. "I'm on their asses!!"

He gently lowered Raven to the Earth and stood up.

Kl-Kl-Klak!!!

He raised a sonic cannon and prepared to sprint.

"Just give me a moment to get a good shot in and—"

A finger tapped his back.

"….," he blinked and turned around. "Huh?"

A pale smile.

Bulbous eyes.

THWACK!!!!

Viper slammed his broadsword hard into Cyborg's back.

ZZZZTTTT!!!

The blade stuck in only partially, causing the android Titan to short-circuit.

"AAAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg screamed and convulsed.

He slumped to the ground with a smoking groan and was out.

"……," Viper stood above him. He had on a translucent gas mask preparedly hugging his mouth. He looked down at Raven.

A beat.

He twirled his broadsword and aimed it at the girl's wrist.

A pause.

"………."

Viper withdrew his blade.

He grinned and ran off.

His lips moved as he made for the Tamaranian girl.

'_Not now.'_

'_Later'._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Starfire soared down at the truck, both arms stretched out.

Killer Moth was at the wheel.

He glanced up through the window.

A gun-toting blonde in the passenger seat glanced too.

The father and daughter were both equipped with breathing apparatuses.

"How disturbing…," Starfire remarked as she dove down at the slow-moving vehicle. "You are almost too easy to strike."

And her eyes glowed bright green.

Her wrists charged a starbolt.

Killer Moth and Kitten didn't even flinch.

Regardless, Starfire summoned the energy blast and let it loose—FLASH!!!

The starbolt sailed directly down at the front tires of the truck and--

SWOOOSH!!! CHIIING!!!!

Viper dove in, swinging his broadsword.

CLANG!!!!

The starbolt flew back up into Starfire's face.

"EEEEP!!"

POW!!!!

The Tamaranian girl recoiled from the blast.

She fell hard to the ground, forming a slight crater on the edge of the property.

SMASH!!!

"Nnngh….," she groaned.

Footsteps.

Silent footsteps.

Quick--

Starfire's eyes bulged.

She glanced up.

"!!!!!" Viper flew at her, blade swinging.

Starfire flinched and shot two strong beams of heated emerald from her eyes.

_ZAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAP!!!!_

Viper split the two beams with his blade.

He straightened his legs and weathered the constant stream.

Starfire's upper body shook and her arms flexed convulsingly as she poured more and more energy into the optic blast of Tamaranian fury. Her teeth grit and her hair danced in a billowing updraft of heat.

Viper merely smirked beneath his breathing mask. In the midst of his and Starfire's first confrontation, he shifted his weight masterfully, twisted the angle of his silver broardsword, and deflected half of the beams into the ground at Starfire's feet.

FLASH!!!

"Augh!!" Starfire fell back from a second smoking crater.

Th-Thwish!! Viper twirled his blade. He pounced serratedly down at her.

Starfire flinched--

SWOOOOSH!!! "YAAAAAUGH!!!" Robin pounced in.

WHAM!!!!

The Boy Wonder tackled Viper's body. The two tumbled and rolled across the green field until Viper got the best of him and kicked the black-haired acrobat off him.

Robin spun in the air, landed on his feet, took a deep breath of his oxygen mask, and whipped out his staff—_snkkktt!!_ He twirled the rod and dove in, swinging hard: "RAAAAUGH!!!"

Viper raised his blade.

CL-CL-Cl-CL-CLINK!!!

Robin's rod twirled as a fan.

Viper deflected.

Robin pivoted and stabbed hard at Viper's gut.

Viper jumped back, spun, and pounced forward with a heavy swing.

Robin rolled to the left.

CHUNK!!!!

The earth divided from the weight and serration of the assassin's blade.

Robin rolled to his knees, hopped up, bounced off the broadside of Viper's earth-stuck sword, spun, and slapped his steel-tipped boot across the creep's face.

WHAP!!!

Viper spun, tumbled backwards, bounced off a tree stump, and nimbly leapt forward.

Robin ducked the diving man.

Viper dove past his stuck sword, grabbed the hilt, landed in a roll, yanked the blade out, jumped to his feet, twirled the sword, and pounced on Robin again.

Robin knelt and held the width of his rod up.

CRACK!!!!

Viper broke through it with his blade.

Robin fell awkwardly on his butt with a gasp, holding two severed rod pieces.

Viper stabbed down at him.

CHUNK!!!

Robin somersaulted backwards safely from the blow. He jumped up to his feet and twirled the two halves like miniature batons.

Viper charged him with a huge jab of the broadsword.

Robin gritted his teeth and brought his two rod halves together, grinding the assassin's sword to a stop with a splash of sparks.

CL-CLANK!!!

_CRKKKKK!!!_

The two struggled against each other.

Viper gritted his teeth.

Robin took a breath and…..shoved forward.

THWOOOSH!!!

Viper stumbled back.

Robin spun towards him, his arms stretching out, the rod halves spinning and striking with each flick of the wrist.

Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwish!!!

Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clank!!

Viper swung low once.

Robin deflected the broadsword lower. He lifted his foot up and kicked Viper in the sternum.

The assassin recoiled, gritting his teeth in frustration.

Robin rushed at him.

Viper lifted his foot.

WHAM!!!!

It met Robin's face.

The Titan fell back.

Viper twirled his sword, raised it high, and made to cleave the Boy Wonder's head in two--

FLASH!!!

A starbolt struck him hard in the side.

Viper tumbled across the green field.

"…..," Starfire hovered over with hot wrists of green.

"Good one," Robin grunted.

"I welcome you—"

"!!!!" Robin dashed at Viper.

Starfire blinked.

"RAAAUGH!!" the Boy Wonder plunged at the man with both rod halves stabbing downward---

Viper lifted his feet while lying back.

He kicked the Boy Wonder up.

"!!!!"

Viper stood up and raised his free hand.

GRIP!!!

He grabbed Robin by the cape on the way down. With his other hand, he ripped the breathing mask off the Boy Wonder's face and tossed it away.

Robin gasped--

Viper threw him into the advancing Starfire.

SWOOOOSH!!

THWUMP!!!

"OOF!!"

"EEK!!"

The two Titans tumbled down a slope in the pasture.

Viper re-gripped his sword, cracked his neck, and ran off after the truck….which had speeded into the forested path leading out of the Dayton Chemical Works compound.

Starfire flew up, hands glowing. "Hurry!! They escape!! We must endeavor to catch them and—" She glanced over at Robin and did a double-take. "R-Robin!!"

He wheezed, his eyemask thinning. His body growing limp. "You….go……a-after them……Star…."

"Robin!!!" the Tamaranian flew over and cradled him, her eyes wet. "Do not die on me!! I insist!!"

"Dammit….," the Boy Wonder winced. His voice hoarse. "I'm merely falling asleep, remember!!"

"…….," Starfire blinked innocently. "Oh. Rest easy, then."

"Star….the truck…."

"It is gone! I must not abandon my teammates!!"

"Nnngh…why d-do you have to be……s-such a good friend…….?" he was out cold.

Starfire bit her lip. "I am…..s-sorry?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRMMMMM!!!!_

The heavy freight truck barreled down the country road.

"……," in the creek just a few lines of trees away….Tempest peered through the surface of water at the vehicle. "……" He quietly dove back into the river, twirled about, and viciously kicked his legs so that he propelled his Alantean body into a swift, underwater sprint parallel to the vehicle.

Ahead, in the shallow waters of the creek, the jagged root of a saturated tree jutted out into the currents.

Tempest frowned and reached an arm out.

SNAP!!!

He effortlessly broke the limb loose and carried it with him through the water like a huge club.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Woo hoo!!!" Kitten stripped of her breathing mask as they were a safe distance away on the road. "What a heist or what?!?! Man, talk about crushed egos!! Those Titans will be bedwetting for months!! And not the good kind!!"

"Kitten! Darling…put your mask back on!!"

"Nuts to you, DADDY!! We're safe! Aren't we?!?!"

"Why must I have such an impatient daughter…," Killer Moth grumbled as he drove the speeding truck over an old wooden bridge.

"Why must you talk in some creepy third person??"

SPLOOOOSH!!!!

Beneath the bridge, a dark figure leapt up and out of the water.

Droplets trailing, Tempest flew and landed on the hood of the truck.

THWOMP!!!

He immediately snarled and swung the wooden branch into the windshield.

CRACK!!!!!

A spiderweb fracture formed.

Kitten shrieked.

"HOLY!!!" Killer Moth shouted and swerved left and right.

Tempest grunted and slammed the windshield repeatedly with the club.

CRACK!!! CRACK!!! CRACK!!

"DADDY!!! THERE'S A FISH ON THE HOOD!!!"

"I see that, Kitten!! I'm trying to drive!!"

"DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIM!!!"

"I WILL!!! JUST—"

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Tempest looked up.

Viper was pouncing down at him from the opposite side of the truck, broadsword first.

SLASH!!!!

Tempest gasped and swung to the side.

SLIIIINK!!!

The Atlantean lost a lock of long, black hair.

Viper then kicked his awkwardly bent body.

WHAM!!!

Tempest flew off the side of the truck and into a tree on the side of the blurred path.

WHAP!!

He then ricocheted off the side of the speeding truck.

THWAP!!!

And rolled to a dusty, groaning stop along the dirt road.

"Nnngh…."

"WOOOHOO!!! YEAH!!!" Kitten cheered from the passenger seat. "Score one for the How-Do-You-Like-Them-Apples Dumpling Gang!!"

Killer Moth chuckled and steered the truck back on a straight course.

Resting nonchalantly on the hood, Viper smirked and sheathed his blade.

CHIIING!!

And the truck was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRRRRM!!!_

Commissioner Decker pulled his squad car up to the perimeter surrounding the charred Dayton Chemical Works site.

He was the first cop on the scene.

He opened his car door.

He stepped outside.

He marched through underbrush and came to a stop on the northeast side of the compound.

"…………."

He stared down.

Cyborg and Raven's bodies lie quietly beside each other.

Asleep and unconscious.

"…………….," Decker sighed. "Friggin' perfect."

He shrugged.

He pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.

Flick!!

He produced flame.

He lit the cigarette in his mouth.

"Can't catch every lecher in a single day," he muttered.

The Commissioner stood there between the two downed Titans for a few seconds.

Then something happened in the air around his lit cigarette.

The man blinked once…twice….then fell asleep where he stood.

THWUMP!!!

He lie on the ground between the two.

"Zzzzzzzz……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Killer Moth rolled the truck to a stop outside the cave.

Kitten jumped out, cheering and doing a hilariously pathetic dance.

Killer Moth cackled loudly and raised his gloved hands to the noonday sky.

Viper smirked behind their backs.

He jumped down and walked till he stood amongst them, arms folded.

"This is perfect….absolutely PERFECT!!!" Killer Moth convulsed happily in the clearing besides the earth face and vines. "Nothing so well calculated has been so successful for me!! NOTHING!!! This day marks a turning point!! I can't believe it…just one more heist and we'll have all we need for the greatest threat to this infidelic City the world has ever known!!"

"YES!!! IMAGINE ALL THE TABLOIDS!!!"

"Enough with the tabloids, Kitten. We're through with them. We'll be making the World Report from now on!! Since we'll end up owning HALF OF THE HEMISPHERE!!!"

"HA HA HA HA!! I KNEW WE'D DO IT SOMEDAY DADDY!!!"

"Kitten?"

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Shut up."

"………"

Viper shook his head.

Six spots in the shadows of the vines and overgroaned earth glistened.

"????" Viper raised an eyebrow. He turned his head. He gazed into the shadows.

"Hey?? What is it, genius??" Killer Moth muttered.

Viper squinted his eyes.

He spotted something in the shadows.

Something tall and with gangly limbs.

Spread all around.

The assassin's lips parted.

'_What???'_

Kitten sniffed the air. She gasped. "Oh my!! Is it???"

Killer Moth looked at her. "Is it what??"

"SNOOKUMS!!!"

"Snookums?!" Killer Moth recoiled, the bug-eyes in his mask seemingly contorted. "You don't mean to say……aww criminy."

"?????" Viper glanced at them.

SWOOOOSH!!!

The figure in the shadows dashed out…directly at Viper.

Viper had his blade out in a second.

CHIIIIING!!

CLAMP!!!!

A set of four drooling mandibles encircled the edge of the blade.

Six black eyes across an exoskeleton slope of a head—broken intermittently with hairs—stared directly at Viper.

Viper had a disgusted look on his face.

And then…eight giant spider legs from around the bulbous head snuck around and gripped Viper's neck all at once.

"!!!!!" Viper wheezed. He was lifted up. He nearly dropped his blade.

A hissing sound. And….

Viper kicked his legs out.

WHUMP!!!

He struck a human torso.

The spider legs dropped the assassin.

The six eyes blinked and drooped back.

Viper fell to his feet, twirled his sword, and dashed straight towards the figure prepared to swing with a mute scream--

"NO!!! WAIT!!!" Kitten stood in the way.

Viper's eyes twitched. He skidded to a stop before his blade could rip through Kitten's blonde cranium.

SPLOOOSH!!! A web of sticky silk flew out and drenched Viper's figure.

WHUMP!!!

He flew back against a wall, pinned to it by adhesive strands.

He snarled mutely and kicked and thrashed to get loose.

At the same time, Killer Moth and Kitten were fighting to keep steady a…….mutant.

A man's body with a spider for a head.

"FANG!!! Control yourself!!!" Killer Moth growled.

"That's our friend you're attacking!!"

"Friend?!?! Friend?!?!" Fang, the arachnid crook snarled with dripping mandibles. His six eyes narrowed. "You call that madman your friend?!?!"

"……," Viper's eyes narrowed.

"RRRGH!!!" Killer Moth violently shoved Fang back across the clearing and shook his gloved fist. "What's a matter with you, boy?!?! Don't you know that it's all thanks to him that I've gotten this far since breaking out of jail?!?!"

"Yeah!! Where have you been?!?!" Kitten planted her hands on her hips, frowning.

"On my own….," Fang seethed. "And watching the news on T.V." He pointed at the bound assassin. "I saw you associating with that bloodlusting creep and thought I'd do the wrong thing by coming to the rescue."

The assassin wasn't 'bounch' anymore. Viper swiftly cut himself loose of the strand sand stood, panting, seething, with his blade leaning by his side against the ground. He frowned directly at Fang.

"So he's a little violent….that's his style," Killer Moth shrugged. "All that matters is that he's helping me create a thriving haven for my children one heist at a time!!"

"What?! You mean you're actually working with him?!?!" Fang exclaimed. "You crazy old coot, you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into…..HAVE YOU?!?!"

Killer Moth frowned.

Kitten blushed. "Snookums….you're embarrassing me…."

"YOU IDIOTS!!!" Fang pulled at his exoskeletonous skull. "How completely ignorant are you?!?!"

"What's the point of you barging in and hounding on our new teammate anyways?!?"

"Didn't you ever keep track of things while in prison, old man?!?!" Fang cackled. He pointed with a human finger. "That's Viper!!"

"Viper??"

"Who's Viper????"

"………," Viper smiled.


	162. Whispers part 5

**162. Whispers part 5**

"…………….."

"…………….."

"…………….."

"…………….."

Killer Moth, Kitten, Viper, and Fang stood at four separate corners of the cave's interior.

Tables and racks of chemical test tubes and other bubbling experiments sat between the occupants.

They eyed each other and kept distance as if afraid of a giant elephant landing in the center of the place and collapsing a hole through the floor.

Killer Moth was still and emotionless beneath his mask.

Kitten folded her arms, impatient and annoyed.

Viper was grinning. Gently. Wryly. His bulbous eyes thin. Sharpening his broadsword slowly. His eyes were set on six other eyes.

Fang glared, his mandibles slowly clicking together suspiciously.

"So…..you say his name was Viper??" Killer Moth remarked in a droning voice.

"What do you mean _was_??" Fang's spider head hissed. "He always was and always will be **Viper**!! What….did he give you some sort of alias or some shit?"

"Actually….he h-hasn't given us a name…..at a-all…"

"Oh. Great. Perfect. Gotta hand it to you, ya old coot. You give supervillains a bad name."

"All this coming from a petty thief who's head went through the ugly laundry."

"WATCH IT!!!"

"Both of you shut up!!" Kitten hissed. She pouted and looked over at Viper. "You have a reason to hide your name?"

Viper smirked. He shook his head.

"See? There!" Kitten gestured.

"The Hell does that prove?!?!" Fang shrugged his human arms. He pointed with two spider appendages. "I'm still floored by the fact that you never heard of the guy!"

"I'd love to hear about where you learned of him," Killer Moth grumbled. "Because I'm still in the dark."

"Look. K.M. He's the _only_ badass in the last five years to have infiltrated the Police Department and laid waste to cops all by his lonesome. That's quite a feat exalted by the criminal underground. Where's your head been at? Inside that stuffy helmet of yours, I bet."

"I've been too busy escaping from prison and gathering the tools needed to resurrect my beautiful children!!" Killer Moth warbled with a shaking fist. "The hive must thrive! The hive must grow! The hive must—"

"Dammit…won't you ever open your eyes for once?!" Fang glared. "Your _real_ eyes?? You're so freakin' obsessed with your chemical Frankensteining that you ignore the real issues in this crummy world. That's why you're always done in, old man. You let passion instead of instinct run your life. It's pathetic. I at least have an eight-legged feel for the simple facts of light. The ebbs and tides of weakness and death. How else do you think I've escaped so many times and gotten in the Titans' hair? I keep my eyes open. I look for anything and everything in this world to exploit. I don't restrict myself to some sort of obsessive tunnel vision. And right now…I'm seeing a bloody, selfish swordsman tagging along with you like a hoodless executioner in some sick game of police tag. Two bloody heists in two days?!?! Do you have ANY idea how pissed the police and Titans and whole god damn City is at you three?? They're going to stop at NOTHING now to squash you and this damn 'hive' of yours. I mean…..what were you thinking?!?!"

Viper suddenly whispered.

"……………??" Fang glanced over.

Viper walked forward.

He grabbed the canvass bag taken from the Wayne Enterprises skyscrapers. He untied it, overturned it, and poured out the clinking/clanking contents of mechanical devices. He gestured at it with a smirk.

"Uh….okay…..what the Hell?" Fang's six eyes blinked.

"Isomeric Translators….," Killer Moth pointed. "Just what I need to accelerate the growth of my beautiful children by tenfold. Combined with chemicals in the truck outside that we just today swiped from Dayton Chemical Works, I've made twice as much progress in preparing a hive of killer insects in a single week than I have in the last three years of work. And I couldn't have done a single bit of it without the help of yours truly with the cheese slicer over there."

Viper looked proud.

Fang looked annoyed. "I don't like this. I don't like this one bit. That man's a cop killer and an assassin and a sadistic butcher all around. You're telling me you never heard about the death of the first warden and his associates at the prison months ago?"

Killer Moth shrugged. "Never really cared."

"Yeah!" Kitten…..barked. "And since when was all that a bad thing?? In case you haven't noticed, he fits the bill!! We hired him on the spot!!"

Viper nodded.

"That's what worries me…," Fang hissed. "You didn't give it much thought to begin with."

"Eh….what do you care??" Killer Moth gestured.

"I don't give a shit about you!!"

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!?!"

"……………," Fang glanced across the room.

Kitten blinked. Kitten blushed.

Fang groaned and looked back at Killer Moth. "You said you had one more heist left….right?"

"Oh what?!?!" Killer Moth cackled, his suited arms folded. "You want a piece of the action now?? Gonna leech off of us like a good little punk on the run??"

"I'll have you know I've got a great niche out west," Fang said, his mandibles clicking. "Out towards Bludhaven. Everything's been crazy since the H.I.V.E. Academy was found and blasted. Blockbuster's goons are all in and out of the City, looking for vital stuff leaked by H.I.V.E. It's meant many stupid crackheads to mug for pocket change…..or tasty meat. I've gotten a decent street currency going. I might finally afford to put myself back into Intergang's lap. I'm taking it one day at a time. This last escape was the best thing that ever happened to my shitty life."

"But you still haven't answered me," Killer Moth pointed. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't trust this creep," Fang motioned with his arachnid head towards Viper. "I've been hearing loads of rumors in the underground. Something about a mysterious shadow running from gang to gang, City to City, region to region…killing indiscriminately. Some terrible stroke of death that even makes Luthor and Blockbuster wet their beds. And lately, dead bodies have turned up with their right hands missing. And when I heard the news about Wayne Enterprises….about the sword lacerations and such…….well……I connected it all in the juices squirming around in my cranium and here I am."

"And lemme guess…..here you'll stay."

"If it takes that, yes," Fang folded his human arms again and nodded. "I think I'll be lending a few helping hands with this operation of yours….for your own good, old man. And if you complain….then I'm willing to go toe to toe with the three of you to settle things. I've got enough hands to shove half the world up your asses, so don't tell me to back down."

"……..," Viper glared at Fang.

"……..," Fang glared at Viper.

A beat.

Viper was grinning again.

Fang hissed: "Stop….smiling……"

"Fang?? Does this mean you're our partner in crime now??" Kitten beamed.

"…….," he sighed. "Yeah, _baby._ I'm…er…..back."

"EEEEEE!!!" Kitten jumped up and down. "Just like Bonnie and Clyde all over again!! I miss those daaaaaaays!"

"Mary Martha of Magdalene….," Killer Moth gripped his masked face in his hand.

Viper raised an eyebrow.

Fang sweatdropped, cleared his arthropod throat, and uttered: "Anyways. I'm here to stay."

"And what if I want to kick you out of the 'team'?" Killer Moth asked.

Fang clicked: "So where's this hive of yours, old man? I'm drooling for a juicy snack."

"…………..welcome to the team, Fang."

"Bitchin'….," Fang looked over at Viper. "You're gonna have to share, baldy. Got it?"

Silence.

Kitten snuck her way across the room and hugged Fang. "Ohhhhhhhhh we're so going to kill people splendidly togetherrrr!!!"

"…….," Fang bore it with a thin inch of pride. He looked over the blonde's shoulder at Killer Moth. "Where next? The last heist?"

"Actually….we're a little stuck with something….," Killer Moth scratched the back of his neck. "Even if we get all the proper utensils, we still need a large body of water to spawn the hive so that my beautiful children can invade the City all at once."

"A large body of water??"

"That's how it works with the tools and chemicals we're using. But…ya know….location, location, location."

"You stupid old fart!! Don't you ever think ahead??"

Again, a whistle. Again, Viper.

Fang exasperatingly looked over.

So did the other two.

Viper smiled. He brandished his broadsword and pointed at a regional map on the cavern wall. A thin line stretching from river bank to river bank. Elevated.

North of the City…..

"Whoah….," Kitten uttered.

Killer Moth's masked jaw stood agape. "Amazing….genius…."

Viper basked.

Fang ran a hand over his spider face: "Oh give me a break…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"One guard. Skewered through the chest cavity. Back to front. Two service personnel members. Decapitated. Three other workers injured. Two more at the hospital right now dealing with hysteria…"

The Lieutenant read off a report in the cold breeze of midday Autumn. Decker sat on the back of a squad car, rubbing his aching head. He looked disheveled. As if he was sleeping for a long time.

"The attack started at approximately eight o'clock in the morning. This time, Viper was with the other two. Again…only the swordsman did all the killings. They left with four huge tanks full of—get this—the equivalent of isopropyl alcohol."

"Anybody hear of a God damn drug store?" Decker mumbled.

The Commissioner gazed across the grassy compound of the Dayton Chemical Works estate. State troopers and emergency vehicles had arrived on the scene. The leftover fire from the explosion was being cleared away. A few ambulances gathered to treat minor victims.

The T-Car was across the knoll. The Titans—now awake—were gathered around it. They wearily discussed the next order of business.

If there was a next order of business.

"Why is it always like this with Viper??" Decker mumbled. "Every other criminal in this city is a lollygagging, eccentric lunatic who loves to leave clues and eventually get himself found. But this man….This man…..n-no. He knows what he wants and he does what he wants and he kills anyone and everything that's in his way. All he leaves behind him is a trail of blood. And he does it all without making a sound. Not so much as a whisper."

The Lieutenant gazed out at the faint smoke rising from the chemical works. "He left a pretty fiery whisper last time…"

"Yeah…well…," Decker grumbled. "He's not working alone."

"Right. Killer Moth is in cahoots with him."

"………..," Decker's eyes narrowed. "Somehow….I don't quite believe that…."

The Lietenant gazed sideways at the back of the Commissioner's head.

Decker leaned forward and pressed his fingers together in thought. "Yesterday….at the Wayne Enterprises incident…I saw Viper up close, Lieutenant."

"…….."

"He was within arm's reach of me. And vice versa. I didn't do anything simply because I couldn't. The damn pollen was choking me and I couldn't even get a shot off on the creep if I tried. But he paused. And he looked at me. And he could have killed me but….he didn't. He purposefully walked on. There I was. A law enforcement officer. A keeper of legalized judgment….within his blade's touch. And he didn't so much as scratch me. Now……that is _not_ the same Viper we fought before. He may look like him. He may smell like him. He may sure as Hell hack and slash like him, but it's not the same man. And I remember the horrors and evil of the old man too much to ever imagine it being tamed by Killer Moth. No, Lieutenant. Viper isn't working for Killer Moth. He isn't even working _with_ him. Viper is the mastermind of all this. He's playing a game that is wasting lives away and toying with you, me, the police, the Titans, and—I'm pretty sure—Killer Moth himself."

"To what ends?" the Lieutenant asked. "What does Viper want with all the stuff he's doing for Killer Moth?"

"Death…..," Robin said.

The two looked over.

"Glad that you could join us," Decker droned.

"Not much to be glad about," Robin walked over with Starfire and Tempest.

"Aren't you superheroes supposed to be cheerful and optimistic?"

"……….," Robin glared.

"Right. Batman jailbait." Decker sighed and stood up straight. "You all got here on the scene quickly, didn't you?"

Starfire nodded: "We travailed upon arriving here as soon as we were capable of doing so."

"I was able to locate Killer Moth's company's last whereabouts," Tempest raised his hand.

Decker squinted. "You were??"

"He's Atlantean," Robin gestured. "His race is telepathically gifted."

Tempest nodded. "There wasn't a single animal in this wilderness that wasn't in some way privy to Killer Moth's movements."

"Well fancy that…," Decker scratched his head. "A Dr. Dolittle who doubles as a floatation device."

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

"I'm guessing there was nothing you could do, right?" the Commissioner looked squarely at Robin. "With the villains being an extra foot before us all and the sleep pollen and stuff straight from Oz…..the three crooks got away?"

"We fought them!!" Starfire held her hands together. "We fought them dearly!"

"You fought them, but you didn't conk them, sweetie."

"…….."

"Well, no matter….," Decker peered off towards the chemical works. "I was doing a little running-around of my own during this bloody mess. I've got a possible fix on where Killer Moth is located." He looked back at the Titans. "Believe you me….you're gonna love the ambiguity just as much as I do."

"I'm willing to hear anything at this point," Robin said.

"Heh."

"What?"

"That's rather flattering coming from a detective's apprentice."

"Flattery doesn't work on you, sir," Robin said.

"Damn right, kid. That's why I respect you." He gestured towards the line of trees surrounding the compound. "Somewhere within a ten mile radius is Killer Moth's hideout. No doubt hidden in an alcove or a cave or a mound of earth or something."

"Huh??" Tempest blinked. "Sir…h-how do you know that?"

"I've been informed by a privileged pervert."

"What?"

"Long story. Besides, stay out of it blue gills."

Tempest raised a finger--

"I want a thorough search of this landscape, PDQ. Unfortunately…it'll take more than a day for me to organize a team of my own men to do the scan. I don't want to wait a friggin' day. That's why I'm going to have you…," he pointed at the Titans in general, "…do the search for me. You're each very well gifted. You're few and far between. And—to be quite honest—you're cheaper. Besides, with less noise being made our targets won't expect a thing. Got it?"

"We….uhm…..I….," Starfire stammered.

Decker stared at her. "…….."

"That is to say…….ehm……," she blinked innocently at Robin. Then she looked at the Commissioner again: "I have sworn to follow R-Robin's orders."

"So?!?!"

"Do what he says, Star…," Robin said.

She gazed at him.

"You too, Garth," Robin spoke. "It's not so much Killer Moth that is important, but Viper and his murderous trail. When it comes to Viper….the Commissioner here should be as much concerned as the rest of us."

Starfire nodded. "I understand."

Tempest was silent.

Decker folded his arms: "And how has your end of the spectrum of search gone?"

"I'm sure we suspect the very same things you suspect, Commissioner," Robin said.

"………."

Robin gestured: "All Viper wants to do is kill."

"Isn't he doing that already?"

"But he wants to kill more….," Robin said. "Just decapitating or skewering three dozen people isn't enough for him. He has to make a record. He has to become an angel of death himself."

"But what for??" the Lieutenant asked, stepping forward.

"It's….It's all so vague and filtered through the white noise of the criminal underground."

"I'm all ears," Decker grunted.

Robin took a deep breath. "Viper is in competition with someone."

"……"

"Someone….so deadly…….he makes Viper look like a walk in the park."

"Who?"

"I have no idea," Robin shook his head.

Decker sighed and paced around.

The Boy Wonder spoke to his back: "But whoever it is….even if it's a figment of Viper's imagination……he's done enough to make Viper go to all odds to kill people. Not just law enforcers. Not just criminal gangsters. But everyone in general. A huge group of people. As many as he can access."

Decker swiveled and growled: "And just how the Hell does he plan to do that??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"This is it….," Killer Moth said. "The Shepherd Dam."

It was a majestic, white structure at least eleven stories tall….stretching from two mountain ridges that formed the Shepherd Ravine miles northwest of Town. Pale, ivory stone held off thousands of tons of water in the grand river that lead eventually into the great Bay of the City. Torrents of water spilled out of over a dozen clefts carved in a row along the lip of the structure. The Shepherd Dam was so big, a four lane highway stretched across the top of the a semi-busy road carving through the elevated countryside.

Kitten, Fang, Killer Moth, and Viper all stood in a line atop a hill across the ravine. A cold autumn air pushed the mist of pounding water up past them, forming rainbows in the midday Sun. Killer Moth lowered binoculars from his helmet and pointed at the structure. "See? There. Shepherd Da—"

"I **see it**." Fang hissed.

Kitten giggled.

Fang groaned.

"……….," Viper stared. Deadpan. Quiet.

"The pool of water on the north side of the dam holds enough volume to house the largest hive I have cultivated…EVER. This will be four times the size of Westhaven. And six times that of the Bay Bridge incident. I'll house the larvae deep down in the water with reserves placed within the aqueducts and plumbing of the structure. Then…once all of the hive is set up….when everything is properly infested….I'll use the tools that our new friend has gotten us to give all my beautiful children the spark of life. The moths will burst free, and in their rage they shall demolish the dam from the inside out. The torrent of water will carry them amphibiously into the City. After half of the Town has been thoroughly cascaded over with a deluge of biblical proportions, my children will lay waste to the straggling survivors. It will be a horrific day of reckoning….IF!!!" Killer Moth held up a spiked, gloved finger with extra drama. He lingered—something that made Kitten roll her eyes—and finally said: "If and only if the Townsfolk fail to live up to my demands and hand me control over the City!"

"You're nuts, old man," Fang grumbled.

"EXACTLY!!! I'm nuts…and in a day or two, I'll be KING!! How's that for nuts!!"

"Oooooh!!! I'll be a princess!!!" Kitten jumped gleefully.

"You already are a princess, pumpkin. Only now you'll be a princess with money!!! Ha ha ha ha!!!"

The laughter echoed across the ravine.

"Sshhh!! God, are you psycho?! Keep your voice down!!"

"There's nothing on the Shepherd Dam but an elderly security guard or two. They'll be a cinch to take out….if I don't bribe or threaten them into silence first."

"How the Hell are we gong to infest a dam?!?!" Fang pointed with a spidery limb.

"I'll see to it," Killer Moth uttered in a low voice. "It may seem impossible…but not anymore. I have the chemicals, the resources, and the utensils I need to make it all happen. All except for a few, key, electronic components. But…just like everything else….our genius 'Viper' here is gonna help us out. Is that right, pal?"

"………….," Viper stared at the dam. He was now grinning…..

"Hey! Pal!! Yoohoo!!"

"………….," Viper blinked. He glanced over at Killer Moth.

Fang was staring at the swordsman suspiciously.

Kitten was doing a ballerina dance…..for some reason.

Killer Moth said: "One last stop, right?"

Slowly, Viper nodded. With a grin.

Fang glared at Killer Moth. "What last stop?"

"Nerd Zone!!" Kitten squealed. "Dead center of the City!!"

"The City?!?! Why're we going to the City now?! That's crazy!!"

"Cuz that's where S.T.A.R. Labs is!!"

"What do we need from S.T.A.R. Labs?!?!?!" Fang shrugged his human shoulders.

Killer Moth laughed. "You really are a dense one, boy. All the isomeric translators and extra chemicals are all good and fine. But I need special conduits to distribute the energy to my hive so that I can best activate my creatures by remote vocalization."

"………huh?"

"Underwater vibration systems to carry my voice, kid!" Killer Moth gestured. "My children respond to my voice. The hive must hear me underwater."

"You're going to go balls first into the City—where EVERYBODY IN THE BROTHER IS LOOKING FOR YOU—just to get underwater stereo equipment??"

"Do you enjoy repeating everything I say??"

"Don't you think someone will recognize you??" Fang clicked. "You're frickin' Killer Moth. You've been on the news channels for the last three days in a row. And of all places to rob…S.T.A.R. Labs?? They'll get the police on your gray-suited ass in a heartbeat!!"

"That's why someone a bit more camera shy in the past will be doing the dirty work for us."

"…….huh?" Fang's eyes blinked.

Killer Moth smiled beneath his mask. He pointed over with his thumb to Viper. "There's your man."

"You can't be serious…."

Viper cracked his knuckles.

"He's in and out like a whisper," Killer Moth said. "He'll get the job done. In the meantime….," the villain gestured towards the Shepherd Dam. "My daughter and I will set up shop. If all goes according to plan, we'll have materials gathered and the hive ready by sunup tomorrow. And I…..I will achieve the power I've so long sought to wield. You will be in my kingdom, Fang. Won't that ruffle your abdomen?"

Kitten giggled.

Fang's human fists clenched. "Fine. I'll go along with your plan."

"Good. Good."

The arachnid thug's mandibles clicked: "But I'll be going with him…," he pointed at Viper, "…to the labs in the City."

Kitten blinked.

Killer Moth glared. "Why do I get the feeling there's a problem in letting you two work together?"

"I want to keep my eyes on him. All six of them…," Fang sneered. He glared at Viper. "If all this time he's not double-crossed you and you still trust him….." He glanced back at the father and daughter. "How much more can you surely trust _me_?"

"…….."

"……."

CHIIIIING!!!

Fang spun.

Viper had his sword out. A beat. He smiled. He tossed the blade to the ground at Fang's feet.

"………," Fang glanced at the grounded sword, then at the unarmed Viper.

The assassin smirked, held his arms out, and half-bowed.

"Feh…..cute….," Fang muttered.

Viper's eyes thinned.

"It's settled then!" Killer Moth punched his fist. "There'll be two teams! Alpha Team! At the dam! Beta Team—"

"Oh Vishnu Almighty…," Fang rolled his eyes. "Don't do names. God, I hate it when you do names."

"Hehehehehe!!"

"It's for proper efficiency!!"

"Screw your efficiency and let's just do this already…," Fang sauntered down the hillside.

"Fang!! Wait up!!" Kitten scampered down after him.

Killer Moth planted his hands on his hips. "You'll grow to respect me in the end, boy! Once I'm king of this City!"

"Bite me!"

"I would…but I don't want to get poisoned. HA!" Killer Moth cackled. He looked over at Viper. "Forgive him. He's got silk on the brain."

Viper trudged over to his blade, knelt down, and grabbed the hilt. He took a lasting look at the retreating Fang. When nobody could see it, the assassin coldly frowned. He drew his blade against the rock of the hilltop as he picked it up.

_Scraaa-aaa-aaape!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Kitten….leave me alone….," Fang groaned.

"Hehehe! Just one second!!" Kitten bounced around till she was in front of him. She rested her hands on his shoulders and looked up lovingly into his grotesque face. "What do you think we should be called?"

"What do you mean???"

"When I'm princess and you're prince of this City!" her eyes fluttered.

"Ick!! Kitten…when you say that you almost make it sound like we're both your dad's kids."

"A prince can marry into a royal family, ya know…."

"Nngh….Kitten….I thought it was over between us."

"But things are going so well now!!" she hopped.

"So is that it?? Only when things are going well, you stop being a complete and utterly selfish bitch??!!"

"HEY!!!" she planted her fists to her hips and frowned. "I can have my daddy plant worms in your intestines still, ya know!!"

"Heh….," Fang's mandibles performed something akin to a grin. "I rest my case."

"Ohhh….won't you _please_ trust that Viper guy?"

"Not on my life."

"Give my dad a break!! The swordsman has done a lot for us!! If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be—"

"Hatching some hairball scheme that could very well end up with all of our heads on the mayor's silver platter??" Fang pointed into Kitten's chest. "Look…..you need to think before you leap. Being a true criminal is like drawing a web. You gotta tell the adhesives apart from the silk and thread. If you're not careful where your feet go—even in the middle of building a web—you could get stuck. And right now, I see you and your dad tangled up completely in this guy. And it doesn't bode well with me. Not in the least."

"Does that mean that….th-that you care about us, Fang?"

The spider person looked aside. "Well….."

"You care….about me??" she clasped her hands together and cooed.

Fang walked away from her. "You're all nuts. Go to Hell."

"Heheheh! You do! You do care about me!!"

"Knock it off! HEY!!!"

Kitten pounced on his arachnid back and hugged him from behind. "Ohhhhhhh Faaaaaaaaaaang. We're committed at last!!"

"No we are not!! Kitten—KITTEN! Let go!! Sheesh! Alright. I'm going to S.T.A.R. Labs. I'm _going_ to S.T.A.R. Labs **right now**….STOP TUGGING ON MY SPINNERET!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"All right, Titans…," Robin stood before us on the edge of the Dayton Chemical Works compound. "The Commissioner has gotten a lead. Killer Moth's base is somewhere within this general vicinity."

"Uh….," Beast Boy raised a hand. "Can it just be 'vicinity' without the annoying 'general' attached to it?"

"…….," Robin glared.

Beast Boy sweatdropped and rubbed his shoulder. "Guess that answers that," he simpered.

"I want a thorough search done of the City," Robin said. "At the same time, however…I want more research to be done on the reports coming in from the Wayne Enterprises incident and the havoc that broke out at this factory earlier today. Raven. Cyborg?"

"Yes?"

"Yo."

"Since you two have been employed in the research thus far, it's best that you carry on with it further. Use the satellite linkup to the Tower's Computer in the T-Car. Work together."

"Heh….that's a good excuse if I heard any."

"What?"

"Never mind."

Robin cleared his throat. He looked at me. "Noir. Stay here and help them out. The Commissioner sent his Lieutenant to get some special records and help out. I want you to touch base with him."

I nodded wordlessly.

"Beast Boy. Starfire. You're both going to be flying around the nearby forests and slopes, keeping a sharp lookout."

"What are we looking for exactly, dude?"

"A cave. An alcove. An abandoned structure. Anything. Even a treehouse if you find one. Killer Moth's hideout is near here. Once we find it, we'll cut off the source of his strategies or operations."

"Do you men Viper's strategies?" Starfire interjected.

Robin gazed off at that. After a beat, he exhaled: "Which reminds me….if or when we find the hideout, I don't want any of us infiltrating it unless we can do so together. Viper will be dangerous regardless of how we attack him. Solo _or_ en masse. The fact of the matter is…we'll have to face off against him sooner or later. It might as well be in greater numbers."

"Understood…," Starfire nodded.

Robin looked Tempest's way. "Tempest…you did good overnight with your search of Killer Moth's tracks. It lead us here pretty quickly….even if it wasn't early enough. Still….I'm sorry for having doubted you."

Tempest smirked with a nod: "I'm sure you can make up for it."

"Indeed. I'm putting you on a similar assumption."

"Only now I'm looking for a hideout, right?"

"Right. Only don't get stuck in any rabbit hole. Keep your head clear, allright?"

"Yeah. Sure thing."

"I'll be searching too," Robin gestured. "Along the roadsides. I"ll take the R-Cycle and look for suspicious vehicles. I won't be alone either. Commissioner Decker and a handful of state troopers are out doing the same thing as we speak. The soonest I find something….or you, Tempest. Or you, Starfire. Or Beast Boy…we'll all close in on the signal and approach the site at once."

"Sounds good in theory…," Raven droned.

"It _is_ good," Robin remarked. "But only if we make it good. Let's get to work!"

We all nodded.

Beast Boy flew westward as a green falcon.

Starfire soared east in a bright streak.

Tempest ran into the forest to find a stream to concentrate in.

Cyborg, Raven, and I rushed over to the T-Car.

Robin swiftly planted himself on the seat of his R-Cycle and….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…sailed through the window with a shattering thunder.

CRASH!!!

Two guards inside the portable turned and gasped.

"YAAAUGH!!" Killer Moth leapt at them.

THWUMP!!!!

The huge, suited man plowed the guards over. He gripped one up by the neck and tossed him through the doorframe.

CRUNCH!!!

The one man tumbled to a groaning stop on the asphalt of the highway stretching over the Shepherd Dam just outside.

Killer Moth turned to the other guard and leered over him. His mask bore razor sharp teeth as he bent down and hissed: "The passcodes to the interior of the dam…."

The guard scooted back, helplessly fumbling for his gun.

THWOMP!!!

Killer Moth's foot planted over his chest.

"Augh!!"

"GIVE THEM TO ME!!!"

"I….I…."

Killer Moth growled, raised his fist, and….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…kicked the R-Cycle into gear.

_VRRRRMMMMMMM!!!!_

In the distance, the motorcycle sped down the country road.

I turned and faced the Lieutenant as he walked over to the T-Car where I was operating laptops along with Cyborg and Raven.

"I've finally got information on what was stolen from the Wayne Enterprises Building," the Lieutenant said. "They were very reluctant to share details. But I think this recent event at the factory moved their hearts. They were willing to disclose information much more promptly."

"Gee….how nice of them….," Raven uttered.

I took the papers from the Lieutenant. I scanned them with black shades and black eyes. My brow furrowed.

Two words in particular that repeated often caught my attention.

'_Isomeric Translators.'_

I took a breath.

I walked past the Lieutenant and whistled.

Cyborg looked my way. "????"

I held up the sheet.

The android Titan walked over and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…tossed two live grenades into the corridor.

Cl-Clink!!!

Maintenance workers inside the dam's industrial interior shouted and dove behind huge arrays of pipes and concrete bulkheads.

KA-BOOOOM!!!

Fire and smoke splashed across the claustrophobic, metal-jungle interior.

Kitten laughed maniacally, whipped an uzzi out of her purse, and frolicked down the corridor with a lead finger.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The men ducked and crawled out of the way as bullets ricocheted off of pipes, walls, floor panels, and even a hard-hat or two.

Kitten giggled insanely and tossed two more grenades.

Men cleared the room--

BOOOOM!!!!!!

Killer Moth waltzed in behind her mayhem-inducing daughter.

He folded his arms proudly, cracked his neck, and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…said: "That's all they stole?? Isomeric Translators??" Cyborg rubbed his human head. "Of all the things in the world…."

"Wayne Enterprises gave us intense details," the Lieutenant said. "Viper strolled in, killed the scientists, stole those devices and those devices only, and left without saying a word. Heh. Not like he could."

I bit my lip.

"Cyborg….is that a bad thing?" Raven asked.

"Is what a bad thing?"

"Isomeric Translators being stolen."

"……….," Cyborg thought and thought.

I stared at him.

"Wait a minute…..," Cyborg slowly turned around and marched to a laptop attached to the T-Car. "Wait a minute…Wait a minute…Wait a minute…"

The other three of us eagerly looked over the robot's shoulder.

Cyborg typed a fury. "Raven….," he remarked. "…do you remember the other day when you and I first started brainstorming on Killer Moth info? I mentioned something scary about the chemicals he uses?"

"How can I forget?" she droned. "It was…..the other day."

"I said that if the electrons of his mutant moths' birthing agent was accelerated just right, they would form another isomer that would produce a compound nightmarishly similar to Isopropyl methylphosphonofluoridate."

The Lieutenant gasped. "My god….Sarin?!?!"

I did a double-take at the man.

He looked back at me. "What?? I took Biology in college."

I blinked. _Sarin??_ A beat. I gasped. _Sarin!!_

"Killer Moth….and Viper….were going after the exact same instrument needed to create that isomeric change…," Raven remarked.

"Exactly."

"But….how—"

"Viper's no obsessed idiot like Killer Moth. He knows the sort of dangerous shit they're all dealing with. But Killer Moth could possibly be seeing only into the surface of these plunderings. The translators. The stolen alcohol. They're all pieces of a deadly recipe. But Killer Moth may only be thinking that Viper is helping him create something to speed up the mutant birthing process….instead of the dangerous chemical agent."

"So….Viper _is_ helping Killer Moth achieve his goal…," the Lieutenant uttered. "But….he could very well be going much further than that…."

Cyborg nodded. "Killer Moth has the potential for the largest hatching of mutant insects in his entire career yet. At the same time…he has his hands on something that could potentially destroy every living human, animal, and lawyer in the surrounding county."

"Just like that??" the Lieutenant snapped a finger. "That simple?"

I shook my head. I hand-signed.

"Noir's right…," Cyborg nodded. "It's not that simple."

Raven's eyes narrowed. "What else does the recipe of death need?"

"A way to connect the dots…," Cyborg gestured. "Something so high-tech that it can effectively juice up the translators to all of the birthing fluids at once."

"I'm guessing that's something Killer Moth and Viper don't have…," the Lieutenant uttered.

"Exactly."

"So…who would they strike next to get it?"

"I'm working on that…," Cyborg typed and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…smacked a man in the head with the butt of the shotgun before taking aim at a pair of guards across the top level of the dam.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

The two men ran for their lives, their guns dropping to the floor in their panicked flight.

Kitten giggled, pumped her shotgun, and stomped after the frightened would-be-defenders.

Killer Moth chuckled. He opened a huge satchel over his shoulders and reached a gloved hand in. He scooped up hundreds of tiny cocoons and larvae pellets. He walked over to the north edge of the dam where the water was closest to the top, being blocked off. He started sprinkling the eggs down in droves as he walked down the perimeter of the dam.

The cocoons broke the surface of the water and drifted down…down…down…until they clung to the ivory surface of the dam under water and began to throb and twitch on the inside.

Killer Moth then began the arduous process of suspending wired isomeric translators into the water from over the side while Kitten patrolled the edges of the huge dam and chased everyone off by pumping her shotgun and…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…finishing a keystroke.

"There….," Cyborg pointed at the laptop's screen.

We looked over his titanium shoulders.

"S.T.A.R. Labs??" Raven's eyes squinted.

I blinked.

"They're working on a special technology to replace fiberoptics and….uhm….," the android Titan's voice lingered. He shook his head. "Dammit…why do I even bother explaining??"

"Works for me."

"They're the only ones in the area who possibly have what would be needed to complete the deadly experiment."

"Why them and not Phaser Labs? Aren't they our….uhm……'home team' or something?"

"Phaser Labs isn't _international_, Rae. S.T.A.R. has its anchor in Metropolis. That City has funding up the wazoo. No doubt they could afford to extend some of the experimentation on the next generation's power converters over here."

"Well…that's perfect," Raven blinked. "Especially if Killer Moth and Viper are in the neighborhood."

"That's just it…," Cyborg rubbed his chin. "It's all entirely too perfect. Just as Dayton Chemical Works was perfect."

"And Wayne Enterprises…..," the Lieutenant added.

A communal nod.

A beat.

We glanced at each other.

I hand-signed.

Cyborg said: "We've got a drop on them for once."

"They could strike at any second! I've got to tell Decker—"

Raven placed a hand up on the Lieutenant's shoulder. "So that he can do what?? The more policemen we suddenly send to S.T.A.R. Labs, the more people are likely to die by the blade. Viper doesn't care much for your kind."

"But I've got to tell the Commissioner anyways!" the Lieutenant said. "It's my duty. It's _our_ duty to face this creep!"

"When or _if_ Viper strikes the Labs, it'll be a job for a Titan…," Raven said.

"Well, we gotta hurry if we want to intercede," Cyborg said. "And it's at least a forty-minute drive to the downtown of the City!! Beast Boy and Starfire ain't even here!!"

"…….," Raven looked my way. "We have one person fast enough."

I took a deep breath and nodded firmly.

"Noir….," Cyborg pointed. "You must run to Town. You must hurry to S.T.A.R. Labs in any eventuality of an attack. We're depending on the smoking of your legs. I'll see what I can do about getting the rest of us there PDQ."

I nodded.

CHIIIIIING!!!

I whipped Myrkblade out, spun around, and blurred across the green pasture without a moment to loose.

"Wow….," the Lieutenant shaded himself from the burst of wind of my departure. "He sure doesn't waste time, does he?"

"Damn straight…," Cyborg nodded. "Now call that Commissioner of yours."

"Ours."

"Whatever. We might actually be meeting the bastards' charge this time."

"Somehow it seems too good to be true…," Raven droned.

Cyborg's human eye was thin. "Girl….you're always saying that."

"And you're always asking for it."

"………………I'm calling Robin."

"You do that."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I leapt up and bounced from tree-top to tree-top in my flight.

The yawning green forest and mountain ranges stretched before and past me.

I huffed and puffed and moved my legs faster till I was practically a torso hovering paranormally on a cloud of smog.

Myrkblade screamed through the air on my side.

My black hair and the straps of my bandanna danced behind my head.

I gritted my teeth as wind danced across my black lenses.

_I……I don't like this so much._

I hopped over a clearing.

I was a bird for a split second.

I came back down, sprung my legs against a branch, and continued blurring over the forest canopy.

_I don't like going it alone._

_Not this time._

The silver spectacle of the bayside City appeared before me.

I held a breath and pushed myself even faster….if that was possible.

_Not when I'm dealing with these guys. _

_I want my friends by my side. _

_And I want them safe……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From a building top across the street, Viper stared.

"……………"

S.T.A.R. Labs' facility was just across the way.

It was like how the assassin had seen it before.

A one story building of seeming insignificance surrounded by a significant, concrete wall.

Fang scurried up and stood alongside the killer. "There're deep basement levels to it…," the arachnid crook clicked. "The laboratories are housed under the ground."

Viper glanced at him. "???"

Six eyes glanced back. "A spider who's lived in this town as long as I have learns all about cubby holes."

Viper nodded.

Fang glared and stood in front of the assassin. "Why are you even in this Town to begin with anyhow, man??"

Viper gritted his teeth and shoved Fang out of the way.

GRIP!!!

Fang wrapped two of his spider feet harshly around Viper's wrist and squeezed hard…glaring. "You first came here and took out that old fart Judge Carson and the first prison warden. I thought you were great for it at the time. But then you went up missing. And now that you're back….the best you can do is work alongside a weak minded psycho like Killer Moth? Man…what is your _deal_?? You could kill half of this Town's uptight law enforcement heads and everything would be peachy keen for the underground finally! Where'd you break, man?? What happened to get you so…so…..w-weak?"

"…………," Viper glared.

Fang hissed: "Aren't you even gonna speak? You dumb or something?"

"…………," Viper smirked.

"Yeah…whatever….," Fang shoved him aside with spider legs and approached the edge of the rooftop they were one. "…I'm gonna get you to fess up on some shit eventually. Even if it comes down to making you squeal, Mr. Nobody."

Viper's blood boiled. He eyed the thick neck of Fang's spider mutation attached to his human torso. The assassin fingered the hilt to his broadsword. His knuckles tightened. He took a deep breath…another….and exhaled.

He shut his bulbous eyes.

He swallowed.

"……"

He gently lowered his hand.

A beat.

Viper reopened his eyes. And when he did so, they were glaring. And soon they were accompanied by a drunken, bloodlusting grin.

The murderer was patient….

"Allright….," Fang pounced over the street in a single, mutant bound. "Let's do this."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMM!!!!_

Robin throttled the R-Cycle down the road.

In the midst of his speeding, he fingered a button on his helmet and communicated back over a broadcast signal: "What do you mean, you sent Noir back into the City??"

"_It's a hunch, Robin. A very fateful hunch. We're thinking that—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—the next attack by Killer Moth's gang could very well be at S.T.A.R. Labs," Cyborg spoke into a T-Car communicator.

Raven and the Lieutenant hovered about, listening in.

Cyborg continued: "There's this ugly-ass puzzle being slowly filled out here. A highly improbable one, but not impossible."

"_What puzzle is that??"_

"Killer Moth's chemical processes for birthing his monstrosities….it shares many properties with—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_a deadly nerve agent that could mean curtains for this whole section of the country."_

Commissioner Decker was tuned into the conversation on his squad car's radio.

He pricked his ear while cruising down the road, his eyes scanning the medians and opposing lanes for curious vehicles or individuals in some grand search.

"_What kind of nerve agent, Cyborg?" _

"_Something very close to Sarin."_

Decker nearly choked on his cigarette. He coughed and wheezed at the wheel. "Mother of God!! You kids can't be serious!!"

"_I wish I wasn't. But everything fits in perfectly. Killer Moth is only one step—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_away from acquiring just what he needs to change the chemical structure of his birthing agent and make a biological weapon out of it."_

Starfire listened pensively as she flew over the forests and mountainsides.

He green eyes scanned the green world below for any sign of a haven or a cove.

She was unsuccessful thus far.

"_What does he need now??" _

"_What S.T.A.R. Labs has, Robin. Something which can carry energy between the isomeric translators just now stolen and the hive of Killer Moth's." _

"_And just where could such a hive be?" _

"_There's no way of telling. Not right now." _

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_But you figured it all out about S.T.A.R. Labs?? I mean, are you __**certain**__ that that's the place of raiding next?"_

Beast Boy hugged himself to the top of a tall tree in sloth form. He peered down at the earth around him before leaping off, morphing into an albatross, and gliding over the landscape.

All the time…he listened.

"_Pretty sure. At this point, I don't think the Titans can afford to waste time on delaying a move when the opportunity presents itself." _

"_So you sent Noir over to investigate……" _

"_Absolutely! And I want Raven and I to go too, dawg! We can't leave the smoke ninja alone against any odds!!" _

"_I dunno……I still find this all to be supposition." _

"_What kind of facts do you __**need**__, Robin?" _

"_Hang on a second……Lieutenant, are you there??" _

"_C-Commissioner??_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Decker slowed the movement of his squad car a bit.

His brow furrowed as he talked into the radio device.

"You and I, Lieutenant, we were reading up on S.T.A.R. Labs just the other day….."

"_Yes, sir. We were." _

"I dunno what Killer Moth would want from that place. But I sure as Hell do know what Viper would want."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And what's that, exactly?" Robin asked. He had the R-Cycle momentarily parked at an intersection of two country roads meeting on the road.

"_Viper's weapons and gadgets went primarily to two places immediately following his disappearance from the desalination plant incident months ago._"

"Uh huh. A bunch of them went into our evidence vault…."

"_Yup. And the rest went to—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"S.T.A.R. Labs….," the Lieutenant muttered. Blinking. He leaned forward towards the T-Car's communicator. "S.T.A.R. Labs still has some of Viper's old disc communicators as evidence!!"

"_Correct. Now……do any of you super-kids remember that son of a bitch ever __**speaking**__ as we butted heads with him over the last few days??"_

Raven blinked. She looked at Cyborg.

The android Titan rubbed the human part of his head.

"Nuh uh."

"No."

"_Not at all."_

"_Well there you have it……,"_ the Commissioner's voice crackled. _"Viper is going to go shopping."_

The Lieutenant took a deep breath.

Cyborg looked at the others. "He….H-He may not need anything else to mutate Killer Moth's formula into a weapon of mass destruction after all."

Raven nodded. "He's simply going to get his voice back."

"But why? What purpose does it serve a cold killer like Viper to have a voice again??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Command. Drones. Patrol!!!"

Killer Moth shouted.

A dozen giant moths shrieked in obedience, hovered up with a buzz of wings, and flew in orbit around the Shepherd Dam.

Killer Moth turned around.

Ten more moths recruited from his small breeding grounds in the cavern awaited his voice.

Killer Moth throated:

"Command. Drones. Scan the river!!"

The huge bugs warbled and flew off. One group north. One group south.

Killer Moth folded his arms and chuckled proudly.

Kitten leaned against a nearby wall bordering the edge of the dam and polished an AK-47. She giggled.

Killer Moth tilted his head up and exhaled: "Fang! Viper! I wish you luck! Come and fulfill my destiny!! I await you!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Scientists screamed and ran down the hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs.

Fang marched ahead of Viper, occasionally shoving a random victim out of the way with huge, batting spider legs.

"WAAAAH!!!" TWHAP!!! "Nnngh…"

Viper glanced down remorsefully at the unconscious bodies…..still _alive._

"What's the matter?" Fang grumbled at him without looking. "Am I making too much noise?"

"……….."

"Or does it actually piss you off that a job can be done without shedding blood?"

"………."

"I only kill when I need to, pal. And as long as you're with me in this little raid of ours, you won't be killing unless I _tell you to._ I've worked with Killer Moth longer than you pal. Since you're working for _him_, you answer to me now. Got it?"

Viper smiled sarcastically.

Fang knocked another scientist aside and glanced back at the assassin with narrow spider eyes. "And don't give me that face. The more you kill at this point, the more you make the law enforcement of this City pissed at us. I know you just _love_ ripping people to shreds….especially cops. But that ain't happening today. Otherwise…I'd just have to assume you're working for yourself and not Killer Moth. We wouldn't want _that……_ now would we?"

"………….."

"Heh….god how I hate the silent treatment….," Fang looked ahead and marched on. "Remind me to put a fly in your soup later," he clicked.

Viper's metal and flesh fingers clenched.

But he remained still as the two marched on.

They reached a door to a basement laboratory.

CHIIIIIING!!!

Viper drew his sword.

Fang anchored his spider legs down into the tile floor and bent his human legs.

Viper dove forward with the blade.

Fang swung his lower body…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!!!!

The two villains smacked the door down, littering the tile floor with splinters and bits of plaster.

S.T.A.R. Labs technicians gasped and fled the scene through exit doors in the back.

Viper helplessly smirked.

"Heh…..that's a change….," Fang marched forward on all six. "I enter a room and _other people_ scurry about."

Viper's bulbous eyes peered around the room.

He spotted counters full of chemicals.

A closet cabinet stacked to the brim with gadgetry.

A tall metal cylinder that seemed to house an energy core of sorts.

Rows of microscopes.

More counters and more chemicals.

Finally, a set of tables covered with what looked like futuristic power tools….the likes of which were commonly found in Metropolis.

"Let's just find what we need and get the Hell out of here….," Fang stumbled forward. "Where do you suppose they keep the circuitry y'all need?"

Viper nonchalantly pointed towards the cabinets across the room. His eyes were elsewhere though.

"Great…," Fang crawled spideresquely across the room and started viciously yanking the cabinet doors off their hinges with his massive limbs.

While the arachnid villain looked through the compartments, Viper marched to the opposite end of the room.

The assassin looked through a glass display at a myriad of devices hanging before naked view.

A beat.

He saw something very familiar.

A black rectangular solid with blacker wires.

Dangling.

"……..," Viper smiled.

"Okay….I think I found the stuff….," Fang said, pouring electrical conduits into a black satchel he found. He tied the thing up with some silk and stuck it under his spider-head abdomen. "Let's blow."

CRACK!!!

Glass shattered.

Fang spun around.

His six eyes blinked.

"The Hell are you doing??"

Viper finished breaking open the glass display with the hilt of his blade. He fished his hands in and stuffed the devices into his pockets.

"This is no time for taking souvenirs, man!! Killer Moth's waiting for us back at…at….at you know where!!"

Viper glared over his shoulder at the spider person. He inhaled and scooped up two more devices.

"Fine. Do whatever you want. But I'm telling on you, if it all comes down to me being a brat for the greater good of Kitten and her dad!"

Viper gritted his teeth, but shrugged it off. He felt the devices in his pockets. His lips curved somewhat. Th-Thwish!! He twirled his broadsword, swiveled around, and walked towards the center of the room.

Fang met him there. "Ready now?!?!"

Viper nodded, smilingly smugly.

"You're like a neo-nazi Cheshire cat. Anyone ever tell you that?"

Viper gestured out the door through which they loudly entered.

"Just what I was thinking….," Killer Moth led the way.

Viper followed.

Both villains stomped towards the exit.

"Better make a hasty exit. Last thing we need is any vigilante punk catching up with us at the last second and—"

SWOOOSH!!! I materialized in the doorway with a murking swing of my sword.

THWACK!!!!!

The wooden blade struck Fang across the mandibles and sent him flying back through a table of lab equipment.

CRASH!!!

"OOF!!!"

Viper gritted his teeth and raised his sword--

WHUMP!!!!

I surprised him with a kick to the stomach.

"!!!" he stumbled back.

TH-TH-THWISH!!! I twirled Myrkblade and stood in a one legged pose. Panting. Sweating all over from the sprint there.

"God!!!!" Fang stumbled up to his six feet. "I hate _this one!!!!"_

Viper frowned.

I swallowed and glared back through my shades.

"Two against one, shithead!!" Fang got up, raising human fists. "You don't stand a chance against us!!"

I clenched my teeth.

_The badder the asses………_

I blurred forward.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

I swung Myrkblade.

Viper raised his sword.

CLANK!!!

He pivoted his blade and struck at me.

I side jumped and cartwheeled to the right.

Fang dove in. "YAAAUGH!!!"

I leapt over his stabbing spider legs.

Viper leapt at me.

I deflected him in my ascent.

CL-CLANG!!!

I landed, spun, and swung my foot out in a high kick.

Viper ducked.

WHAM!!!

I rear-kicked Fang's spider head.

He stumbled forward. "Ooof!!!"

Viper charged at me, stabbing and swinging and slicing like mad.

I deflected and twirled my blade. CL-CL-CL-CLACK!!!!

Sparks showered the floor as he pushed me back through the lab.

Viper snarled mutely and swung down hard.

I backflipped.

CRACK!!!!

A table of equipment flew into two pieces from Viper's blade.

I landed in a slide, twirling Myrkblade.

Viper ran at me.

At the same time, Fang crawled like a bullet across the ceiling and dove down from above.

I held my breath and dove forward.

I vaulted over Fang's arachnid body in mid-air.

Viper swung his blade dead-center on my forehead.

In a split second I concentrated and--

FWOOOSH!!!

--teleported in smoke form through Viper's swing and his body in tow.

I materialized behind him, rolling to the ground and hopping up onto my feet just in time to perform a spinning kick that knocked Viper into a counter, causing vials and glass tubes of putrid solution to spill over the floor.

Fang was already springing back at me and firing jets of silky strands at my person.

SPLORCH!!! SPL-SPLORCH!!!

I gasped and dove to the side, hopped, and skipped over his blasts.

Fang anchored his body down to the ground with his spider legs while pivoting his mandibles about and firing more and more strands.

I blurred my feet. I ran up the wall and around the perimeter of the room, the sticky shots landing just at my heels.

I gasped as I realized my unstoppable momentum was carrying me around the room and straight towards Viper who had the tip of his broadsword aimed at me--

CHIIIING!!!

I deflected down the length of his blade with Myrkblade stretched forward and inevitably rammed my body into his.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!"

"!!!!"

The two of us went tumbling across the floor till we slid literally underneath Fang's umbrella of an arachnid body.

Viper gritted his teeth and shoved me off of him.

I rolled to the side.

WHAM!!!

Fang's dangling human feet kicked me in the spine.

I gasped in pain and rolled back towards Viper's body…and blade.

CHIIIING!!!

With a pulse of murk, I vaulted myself over Viper's body like a leaping log and slid to a stop on the other side. I grabbed one of Fang's spider legs with my metal hand and stabbed upwards at another arachnid limb with Myrkblade.

CLANK!!!

Fang's left side was upended.

I tugged on his one leg, tripping him.

"Whoah!!!" Fang toppled through a tray of electrical equipment and gadgetry.

CRASH!!!!

I stood up, panting, and dove for the satchel tied to him--

WHAM!!!

Viper rammed me in the side.

I slid across the room, wincing, my boots scraping into the floor.

A flash of silver glinted reflectively off my black shades.

I gasped--

SLASH!!!!

I dashed my head back in time to avoid the kiss of Viper's massive broadsword.

CLANK!!!

His blade stuck into the tile floor.

Nimbly—with smoked feet—I ran up his blade and backflipped, uppercutting him with a boot to the chin.

THWACK!!!

Viper stumbled back with his sword.

"YAAAAUGH!!!" From the right.

I glanced over.

Fang ran. Fang jumped. Fang's legs spun like a buzz saw.

I held Myrkblade up.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!!

Myrkblade knocked back all of his stabbing feet in a sequence.

I gritted my teeth, sprung back, and shot forward with a stab.

Fang darted to the side.

I swung again.

Fang ducked, twirled left, and pounced at me.

"!!!" I defensively held my left arm out.

CL-CLANK!!!

His mandibles bit onto my metal prosthetic.

I gasped. I yanked and I pulled to pry my metal arm loose.

No luck.

It was stuck in the spidery jaws.

"Ged hig!!!" a muffled Fang shouted.

With a single breath, Viper charged at me. He swung his blade down towards my left shoulder.

I gasped.

Time slowed down.

I tossed Myrkblade up to the ceiling. Quick-as-lightning I blurred my right hand to the metal disc of my left forearm and--

POP!!! HISSS!!

_Shivers._

Viper's blade came down.

I spun left, my left arm detached from the metal hand.

SWIIIISH!!! Viper's sword met nothing but air….until it met the floor again.

CLANK!!!

I ended my spin with my right arm stretched out.

GRIP!!!

I caught Myrkblade on its descent by the hilt.

SWOOOSH-CLACK!!! I shoved my left limb so that the disc reattached to the arm in Fang's mouth.

THWAP!!! I stabbed Fang in the exoskeleton with the tip of my blade.

"Augh!!" he let go of my arm and stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth and bitch-slapped a recoiling Viper with my reattached limb.

WHAM!!!

Time resumed to normal.

THWUMP!!

THWUMP!!!!

Both villains collapsed to the ground from the blows.

I stood between them, panting.

"………"

_Chew on yourselves, bastards._

"Nnngh…."

"……….."

Both slowly got up to their feet….both human and otherwise.

I stepped back, Myrkblade held high.

Black eyes narrow.

Readying myself…..

"Why couldn't the Titans send someone more squishable to try and attack us??" Fang grumbled. "Like Beast Boy or that Crow girl??"

_Raven!!_

I contemplated killing Fang then and there.

Clank!!

"????" I glanced to the left.

Viper had picked up a huge chunk of a shattered table. He palmed it in his flesh hand.

"……….???" I leaned my head sideways.

He smirked. He prepared to toss it at me.

_He's joking……right??_

"……….," at the last second Viper's aim pivoted. He tossed the object over my shoulder.

SWOOOOSH!!!

"?!?!?!" I spun and watched the projectile.

CHUNK!!!

It stuck halfway into the core of the glowing cylinder at the side of the room. Steam started hissing out as the glow fluctuated and sparks began to fly.

I sweat-dropped.

"Whoopsies….," Fang's mandibles smirked…if that was even possible. "Better call the party short! I don't know what in the Hell that thing is, but it certainly looks explodable. And—might I say—Viper here threw it into extra-explodable mode!!"

I eyed the contraption. Steam was escaping through the breach caused by the projectile. The cylinder started shaking.

"Someone better go patch that thing up!! We are in the edge of Downtown, ya know. And heavens to betsy! What would happen to all the poor mothers and kids in strollers and dog walkers on the sidewalks above us if that thing went kablooie!!"

_Son of a……_

SWOOOOSH!! I blurred over, yanked the object out, and stabbed Myrkblade in its place.

CLUNK!!!!

I concentrated and extended a veil of murk to cover the breach. It took a great deal of power and concentration, but I was capable of producing an obsidian forcefield that contained the leak. The cylinder—whatever it was—started to glow and spark less. I exhaled sharply and turned to look at the two villains.

Fang bowed and made for the doorway: "Another day, and I'll suck your juices out yet…punk. Until then…enjoy being S.T.A.R. Labs' new bitch. Come on, quiet-ass!!"

Viper lingered. He walked backwards, smirking at me. He sheathed his broadsword and—to my half surprise—hand signed: _'I will be back for your other hand someday.'_

I smiled sarcastically and then gave him the only response I could afford with just one hand free.

He chuckled breathily, turned around, and raced after his accomplice.

And I was powerless to leave my spot….

I groaned and hit my head against the cylinder I was pacifying.

Conk! Conk! Conk!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Crud….Crud, Crud, Crud, Crud….that was _way_ too close!!" Fang panted. "Now…just what the Hell are we doing back here anyways, man?? Aren't we supposed to go to the dam???"

Viper walked through the cave past Killer Moth's equipment. He didn't so much as look back at Fang.

"Harumph…fine….be that way," Fang folded his human arms. "Just remember, I've got the gadgets KM wants. As much as I'd love to rest here and stuff….I'd rather us get our asses in gear so that the old coot can be through with you and I wouldn't have to……." Fang's mandibles stopped. His eyes narrowed. "What _are_ you doing??"

Viper stood at a bench. He took the black devices out of his pockets. He pulled out a few devices and began tweaking them.

"Hello??" A beat. Fang stepped forward once. "Hello?!?! I'm talking to you!!!"

Viper didn't glance back. His hands were at work. He attached a wire to the black disc around his thick, pale neck. He fastened the other end of the wire into a rectangular device. He stabbed both the gadget and his neck disc with a sparking tool of sorts.

"………," Fang crept sideways, staring suspiciously.

"………….," Viper breathed.

A flash.

A sparkle.

The disc flickered red.

Black again.

Then …..," an emotionless electronic voice uttered. **"Snkkkt…snkkt…."** Silence. Then, stronger: **"Command. Testing. Command."** More tweaking. More flashes. The disc glowed red and the voice altered, changed, melted….into something familiar. ….." Killer Moth's voice.

A beat.

Viper turned.

He faced the passageway into Killer Moth's study.

The slimy cocoon blocked it….

"**Command. Larvae. Retract."**

_Slpppsllpppppp………_

The slimy material drew itself upward in response.

Fang's mandibles parted. "Uh uh….no man. That's not cool. That's so not cool…."

"……," Viper glared. He started tweaking the neck disc some more.

Fang lifted two spider legs at serrated readiness. He glared at Viper and practically hissed: "Just what is this?!?! How'd you pull that off?!?!"

Viper slowly turned and faced Fang head on. Without moving his lips, he uttered in his electronic stoicism: **"What does it matter??"**

"Was this part of Killer Moth's plan or something?!?!"

A beat.

Viper smirked. **"And here I almost thought you were a smart pest…."**

Fang's mandibles clicked. "I knew it! I knew it from the start!! You were no good!! You were planning to take over Killer Moth's devices from the start!!"

"**Please……,"** Viper shrugged suavely. His lips frozen in a gently sickening curve. **"…what have I done that's so treacherous??**"

"Nothing yet….ya know why?" Fang glared.

"**Enlighten me."**

"You may be a killer assassin…but you're too damn slow on the draw……punk!!!" ZAAAP!!! A paralysis beam flew from Fang's mandibles and struck Viper dead center.

THWAP!!!

The assassin fell down to the ground, frozen solid from the metaphysical trademark of Fang's.

"……..," the arachnid fiend took a deep breath, flexing his eight limbs. He slowly crawled over towards the grounded assassin.

"…………," Viper lay silent.

Fang's legs came to a stop.

He hung over the pale swordsman.

"………….," the spider-person sighed. "Gotta admit….you almost made me sweat there, shit-for-nothings…."

"…………..," Viper blinked.

Fang's mandibles spread wide in shock.

Viper sat up easily, mobile. He smiled. **"You'd be surprised how accustomed I am to…..venom."**

"……," Fang nervously twitched.

"**You know…….I'm really tired of your existence."**

CHIIIIIIIING!!!!!

_SLUNK!!!_

The silver broadsword ate its way straight through Fang's right human leg.

"AAAAUGH!!!" the mutant screamed. He twitched and convulsed. He shakily fingered the blade piercing straight through his thigh. "NNNNGH!!!! JESUS!!!!"

Viper slowly stood up, twisting the blade, digging into the meat. His eyes thinned and he purred an exhalation of heat against Fang's warbling mandibles as his disc glowed and the voice broadcasted electronically: **"You have one too many legs……"**

SLAAAAAASH!!!! Viper mercilessly yanked his blade out.

Fang's right lower limb literally flew apart. A meaty string was all that connected the two halves of his shattered femur. He fell down to the floor, covered in his own spraying blood. Convulsing. Panting. Six eyes darting every which way and spider legs curling freakishly in the air.

THWOMP!!!

Viper stepped onto his chest.

Fang wheezed, blood and venom dribbling out of his mandibles. The mutant shook and convulsed as fear and death gripped his heart coldly for the first time.

Viper bent down and smiled at him. He brandished a soaked red blade.

"**Considered yourself squished……"**

"……….," Fang only twitched.

"**Heh heh heh heh heh….."** Viper twirled the blade over his forehead, snarled, and slashed straight down.

SLIIIIIIIINK!!!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

And…

Crimson.


	163. Whispers part 6 final

**163. Whispers part 6 Final**

_Red light. _

_Filtering through the cold, autumn air. _

_A bird or two streams through the crimson soup of the sunset. _

_Spiraling downwards, squirrels in the treetops nest themselves for a cold night._

_Moths and other insects stir to life on the bodies of bark. _

_Raccoons scatter about the base of the trees._

_A single deer trots along the underbrush and pauses. _

_A snake slithers through the grass in front of it and pierces through a line of hedges._

_A hare hops out of the way of the snake and jumps down a wall of vines and caked earth._

_Doves fly outward from a startled grove, their flapping wings echoing against the earthen barriers. _

_And ringing through the entrance to a dark, dark cave._

_A cave……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest's eyes open.

He swivels around under water.

He kicks his feet against the bed of the river.

He shoots upward.

SPLOOOSH!!!

On the surface, he gasps as he switches from his gills to his lungs.

He whips out a water-proof communicator and speaks into it: "I've found it!"

"_The hideout??"_

"Yes, Robin!! It's a cave. Not too far from the eastern ridges."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green falcon glides overhead, an electronic conversation emanating through the air around it.

"_Did you see any sign of Killer Moth or Viper?"_

"_No, just a cave. Call it a hunch, but I don't think that thing is as natural as it appears to be." _

"_Why's that?" _

"_There are vines all around the earthen wall of this particular alcove……but they break up as soon as they hit the cave entrance. As if they were sliced away." _

"……………"

"_What do we do, Robin?" _

"_Everybody fall in! Beast Boy! Go where Tempest directs you!"_

The falcon shrieked.

Its beak seat firm.

Its wings shrunk in…

And it dived like an explosive shell towards the cliffaces of the mountain side.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Decker listened intently.

His hands tight against the steering wheel of the squad car.

"_Starfire and I will follow close behind! We're a little too far off to be there first. So I leave it up to you guys!" _

"_We should wait for you two, right?" _

"_That's the best idea I've heard all day."_

"_Understood. I'm heading in. Beast Boy……stand by for directions." _

"_If you're listening too, Decker……I think we've got a positive!!"_

"Who am I? Betty Crocker??" Decker grumbled.

He pulled hard at the steering wheel.

_SCREEEEEEECH!!!!_

The squad car spun through the street.

He evened it out in the opposite direction.

He slammed on the gas.

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!_

Decker soared eastward along the mountainside.

"About friggin' time….," he whipped his pistol out and cocked it in a free hand.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The spectrum. _

_The spectrum. _

_White. Black. Red. _

_Centralize. _

_Focus. _

_Balance. _

_Black. _

_The black…… _

_The murk………_

I took a deep breath.

I clenched my shaded eyes shut.

My arms shook.

My limbs sweat.

My legs quivered.

I fought to maintain my meditation while continuing to shield the power core inside S.T.A.R. Labs.

I had Myrkblade stabbed deep into the cylindrical device, and my curtain of black murk was all that was keeping the mechanism from breeching or rupturing.

And an hour and a half into it, I was straining….to say the least.

I held my breath.

I summoned more and more smoke energy.

I breathed slowly.

I meditated.

_The spectrum. _

_The spectrum. _

_I am the black. _

_I am the balance. _

_White maintains the shield. _

_Red pushes back the rupturing energies. _

_Black rests in the center. _

_Black breathes. _

_Black relaxes. _

_Black coordinates with the universe. _

_Construction. _

_Destruction. _

_I am the center……_

Footsteps.

My black eyes opened.

More footsteps.

Shuddering, I looked over my numb shoulder.

Through the cracked door leading into the battle-strewn laboratory, two pairs of feet appeared.

Titanium feet.

Petite feet.

I exhaled.

Cyborg and Raven walked into view, tense, eyeing the scene.

"Well….looks like they're gone—WHOAH!!!" Cyborg gasped. "That's a scary dyke you've got your finger in, dawg!!"

I simpered weakly.

"Cyborg, what is it?" Raven asked with concern.

Cyborg slowly stepped towards me. "It's an antimatter flux container….for really high tech experiments. It would be an awful shame to all physical things in a half mile around us if the thing broke apart…"

"Enough said," Raven drifted forward. "Noir….brace yourself."

I nodded.

Raven meditated. Her eyes glowed and her fingers went into a nimble pose: "Azarath…Metrion….Zinthos…."

FLASH!!!!

A black talon encased the cylinder.

"Now, Noir! You can let go."

I whimpered happily.

YANK!!!

I pulled Myrkblade out of the rupture hole.

I stumbled back and landed exhaustedly on my butt.

Cyborg rushed over while Raven held the cylinder in place. He switched two of his fingers into electrical sparking tools. He operated on a panel in the back of the cylinder. _Zzztt! Zz-zzt!! Zzzzzzt!!_ He licked his flesh lips. He sweated a bit….then relaxed with a smile. "There…."

_Zzzt!!_

_VROMMMMMmmmmmmm……_

The lights inside the cylinder died down. The antimatter flux disappeared with a metaphysical sigh.

I timed mine with it.

Raven knelt down and braced my shoulders softly from behind. "Are you okay??"

I smiled tiredly and nodded.

"You look beat, man…," Cyborg leaned down in front of me. "Good move saving a huge chunk of the City and stuff. How long were you doing that?"

"…………," I stared at him.

"Eh….never mind…," he stood up straight and gazed around the wrecked laboratory. He rubbed the human half of his head. "Tell me……..as much as we all like your bravery and stuff……..but…….that wasn't all you came here to do, was it Noir?"

I shook my head. I pointed at the wrecked scenery and hand-signed.

"So Viper was here….," Cyborg nodded.

I held a finger up. I added with a few short gestures.

Cyborg's human eye widened. "Say what?!?!"

"What is it?" Raven asked from behind me.

"He says Fang was here!! Fighting alongside Viper!!"

I nodded.

"On the same side?" Raven leaned her head to the side.

Cyborg rubbed his chin. "Fang has been on Killer Moth's side before. And he _did_ escape from prison the same time the suited freak did. It'd make some sense of he was working for this whole chaotic plan or whatever too."

I took my shades off and tiredly rubbed my eyelids.

"Well, that's just perfect, dawg….," Cyborg paced around the laboratory. "Fang AND Viper we're having to deal with!!" A beat. He glanced at me. "Did they make off with what they came here for?"

'_I guess……'_

"Did you see what it was?"

'_I did not catch a glimpse of it.'_

"Well….looks like you put up a good fight."

I gave him a sarcastic look.

Raven stood up from behind me. "Am I the only one curious as to why there's been no bloodshed here?"

"????"

"…….?"

Cyborg and I both glanced at her curiously.

She gestured: "There isn't a single dead body on the grounds of S.T.A.R. Labs. And every scientist appears to be in good condition. No injuries whatsoever."

"Except Noir's ego."

I rolled my black eyes, stuck my shades back on, and stood up.

"What I mean to say is…," Raven droned, "…there hasn't been any murders. Nobody chopped to bits by Viper's blade. No missing limbs or heads."

"Yeah….fancy that….," Cyborg exhaled, gazing dazedly at the lengths of the room. "It's like he suddenly lost his touch!"

"Or maybe he was forced to keep his hands off so that there'd be no 'touch'," Raven said.

"………..," Cyborg's human eye squinted. "Are you insinuating that…."

Raven nodded. "Fang was here. That's a new factor that wasn't present at either the Dayton Chemical Works or Wayne Enterprises."

"Why would Fang have held Viper back from killing?"

"I'm not saying that he did," Raven pointed. "Viper could cleave Fang in two if he wanted to. But Fang and Killer Moth are two completely different people. Killer Moth may let Viper kill everyone under the sun and not think anything of it as long as his will is done. But Fang…"

"That's a different kind of duck altogether," Cyborg nodded. "Fang's a crook first, a murderer second. The more crimes he can commit without chopping people to bits, the more he can get away with without pressure of the law so heavily on his back compared to otherwise."

"If what Viper wants is only what he wants….," Raven spoke, "…he'll have to play his cards differently with Fang compared to Killer Moth. So…nobody died here. He wins Fang's favor….for now……"

"But what next??" Cyborg shrugged. "What is Viper planning? What's he got in store for Killer Moth and Fang?"

I stood up on wobbly legs. I groaned inwardly. I sheathed Myrkblade and hand-signed.

Cyborg blinked.

"What?" Raven asked.

Cyborg cleared his throat and said: "He's just reminding us that….that Viper's an assassin."

"……yeah……and?"

I clenched my teeth, hissed, and made a 'slitting' gesture along my throat.

_Snkkkkkkkkt!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Plop!!!!

A green falcon dropped into a green elf that landed on the earthen floor in a kneeling position.

"……."

Slowly, Beast Boy stood up. His pointy ears raised towards the sky. Green eyes blinked as he looked across the clearing.

A crescent shaped alcove had been formed into the earth, opening wide towards the edge of the mountainside where a huge drop plummeted towards the forested slopes below. A thin passageway—wide enough for a car—led towards the other edge of the elevated topography.

"…….."

Beast Boy slowly walked forward towards a line of rock covered in vines. He glanced down and saw his boots treading over tire tracks. Someone had been there.

Beast Boy looked forward again. There was a cave entrance in the middle of the vines. The top of the entrance was lined with slimy substance, as if a strange organic growth had previously been there.

The elf clenched his fists. He took a deep breath. He sauntered forward--

_Clamp!_ A hand on his shoulder.

"!!!!!" Beast Boy spun around. He opened his mouth--

Decker covered his lips with a free hand. He raised the neck of his pistol to his lips and quietly hissed: "Shhhhh!!!"

Beast Boy yanked the hand off his mouth and exhaled: "Dude…," he uttered hoarsely. "Only superheroes are aloud to sneak! Don't do that to me ever again…….uhm……………….**s-sir**."

"I'll work on getting X-Ray vision later…," Decker pointed towards the cave. "This the place waterboy was talking about?"

"Yeah. He should be on his way too. As for Robin and Starfire—"

"There's no time…," Decker said. "I'm going in."

Beast Boy went bug-eyed. "B-But….But Commissioner!!" He hissed and trotted alongside the police chief. "Robin said…"

"Robin can lay an egg…," the man grunted as he walked towards the cave entrance, pistol raised. "Let's not forget whose in charge of what here. You're the Titans. I'm the City. Enough people have been dying in these last few days of holocaust…I need not let a bunch of superkids get slaughtered too. I'm going in first."

"But…but….but…."

"Mind your own 'butt'….," and the Commissioner let himself be swallowed by the cave.

"………..," Beast Boy wrung his fingers. He looked behind him at the clearing. "………." He looked back at the cave. "…….." He groaned. "Frickin'…stupid…..Max Payne wannabe……"

A beat.

A sigh.

The changeling scurried into the cave after him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………," Decker crept down the steps of the cave. Holding his gun at ready. He heard and sensed Beast Boy sneeking up and creeping alongside him, but he didn't look. The man kept his eyes on the darkness ahead. And gradually, the darkness gave way to light. Green, fluctuating light. Bubbling sensations like from that of a chemical factory.

Beast Boy gulped and kept close to the Commissioner's back.

The two emerged into the main interior of Killer Moth's hideout.

And they came to a stop.

Blinking.

Tables were overturned.

Chemical vials and equipment had been shattered and scattered and splattered across the stony floor.

Electrical devices lie in pieces.

Sparks shorted out from dark appliances.

Steam boiled upwards from a corner where leaked acid ate into the cavern floor.

"…….okay…..," Beast Boy blinked. "I think we just stepped into Robert Downey Jr.'s apartment."

"……," Decker took a step forward and scanned the interior once more. "This isn't a hideout. It's a massacre."

"Maybe K.M. knew that we were coming and decided to smash any and all evidence before we got here?"

"All the evidence is still here, Brute Boy. No…if Killer Moth had Viper on his side, we'd be dead by now. They'd spring an ambush. Hell…they may still be planning to do that."

Beast Boy gulped. "Uh…okay……c-can we go back to the surface now?"

"Grow a penis…," the Commissioner walked forward.

"…..," Beast Boys stared. "Dude, that was cruel….H-Hey! Wait up!!" he tagged along.

The Commissioner walked forward, pivoting all around with his gun at ready. His shoes crunched and crackled through a sea of shattered glass vials. He stepped over a table or two and found himself gazing towards a black cavern with an underground lake. Empty.

"…………."

Squeaking sounds.

"????"

"Look…," Beast Boy whispered.

Decker looked down at where the changeling pointed.

There were tiny larvae on the floor. Their squirming guts hanging out. Some of them were ripped and sliced to shreds as with a huge knife. The helpless creatures writhed and twitched on the floor before slowly, slowly dying.

"Killer Moth's larvae…..he wouldn't do that to his own 'children'…," Beast Boy remarked. "Something's wrong here."

The Commissioner sniffed. His brow furrowed. "I'd say…."

"What is it?"

The man swiveled around, pistol raised. "I smell blood."

Beast Boy bit his lip. He looked at where the Commissioner's gun was pointed.

A ripped curtain of silk was all that separated the main room from a rocky corridor leading into what looked like a study or office of sorts.

"Hey….you got a better nose we can use, kid?" the Commissioner asked.

Beast Boy nodded. He held his breath. He knelt down and morphed into a bloodhound. On four paws, he sauntered forward and sniffed the ground…the air….the ground again. He pointed his nose towards the room. The canine paused. A blink. He stood up and morphed back into an elf, gulping.

"What is it?"

Beast Boy shuddered: "I've smelled that before……only….only not the same way."

"Do you know what it is?"

"No…but I think I know _who_ it is…," Beast Boy murmured. He looked up at the Commissioner. "Be careful, dude…."

Decker nodded. He cocked his pistol. He walked forward.

Beast Boy morphed into a velociraptor and trotted alongside the man. Sharp teeth and claws at ready.

Decker brushed aside the silken cocoon 'door' with one hand and ducked through the opening.

The green dinosaur slinked in alongside him.

The two went around a bend….and entered the small room.

And their feet splashed.

A pool of blood.

Both froze.

The dinosaur's eyes went wide and it shrunk back into an elf again. "Holy….H-Holy….."

Commissioner Decker's lips parted.

Fang lay on the floor.

On his back.

All four legs of his spider head had been ripped off before the first joint.

He had stab wounds all down his human torso and across his arachnid abdomen.

His right leg was near-dismembered by a blade. And his right human hand was missing.

Blood oozed out from two parts of his body…both human and mutant. It formed a literal sea of blood, half of which had turned black and was drying against the earth like brown-black burnt mold.

The two visitors glanced over and saw blood and ooze splattered across the walls of the room. The maps and journals of Killer Moth. And over in the corner—stacked like walking staffs inside an umbrella holder—were all of Fang's spidery legs. They bent over from their vertical holding and dripped…dripped…..dripped………dripped……

"Jesus Christ…..," Decker exhaled. Suddenly, he went into a flurry. He holstered his gun and knelt down. "Give me room."

Beast Boy blinked, eyes still locked on the grisly sight. "Wha-….Wh-What??"

"I said GIVE ME ROOM!!" Decker shoved Beast Boy back.

The changeling stumbled.

Decker crawled over the bloody carcass. He took his jacket off. He bent his head down and placed his ear against Fang's human chest.

"……………"

"Not gone. Not gone yet….," Decker pumped Fang's chest. He lowered his face to Fang's.

Beast Boy winced.

Decker planted his lips against Fang's oozing mandibles. He breathed into the mutant's mouth. He sat back up and pumped Fang's chest, counting with a whispering breath. After four pumps, he bent down again and continued the CPR.

Beast Boy bit his lip. He took a shaking step back.

"Come on….dammit….," Decker pumped the chest. "You're the last link. The last friggin' link!!!" He pressed his lips to Fang's mouth again.

"!!!!!!"

The butchered body shook.

Decker sat up just in time to avoid a gush of slime and blood coming out of Fang's crooked mouth.

Beast Boy blinked.

The bleeding mutant shook and shivered all over. Wheezing for breath. The bloody spider stubs around his face groped the air. Blood trailed down from his curling mandibles. Only two of his six eyes were open.

Decker was smeared all over from the reviving effort. He gripped Fang's shoulders. He hissed: "Listen….Listen to me…."

Fang gasped, ….

"Where….is Viper…..?"

"……………"

"Where did he go after he………after he did this to you……?"

Beast Boy looked at the Commissioner.

"V-Viper….."

Beast Boy looked at the speaker.

Fang hissed, spilling more ooze and blood. "Viper…..the dam…..the d-dam…"

"Dam?? What dam??" Decker uttered.

"Shepherd…D-Dam……," Fang wheezed. "He's going to Shepherd Dam…."

"……..," Decker sat up straight.

Fang coughed. His one solid limb lifted up and shook in the air. "The hive….h-he controls it now. He's….He's going to kill…..kill….."

"Kill who?"

"……….E-Everyone….."

A cold chill in the cave air.

Fang's lungs heaved. His last two eyes thinned. "The dam………Kitten……," his last limb fell to the wet floor. "Kitten….I'm……….."

"…………….."

Fang's body stopped moving.

The drips from his ripped legs echoed across the chamber.

"………………," Decker stood up. He was stained across his torso and on his knees with blood and spider guts. He picked up his coat. He looked Beast Boy's way. He whistled. "Hey. Kid."

Beast Boy shook to attention.

Decker's eyes were soft. "Call Robin. Tell him…..get his ass to Shepherd Dam. I'll meet him there."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"On my way!!" Robin shouted. He swerved the R-Cycle.

_VRMMMMMM!!!!_

He soared uphill, heading northeast.

He spoke into his helmet's communicator. "Follow Decker, Beast Boy. And tell Tempest to head towards the dam too!"

"_You got it, dude."_

"Starfire??"

"_Yes, Robin??"_

"Did you hear—"

"_I did. Is Fang dead?"_

Robin took a breath. "He won't be the first dead if we don't' move it."

"_Where is this Shepherd Dam that the Commissioner is referring to?"_

"Just follow the river upstream!"

"_Which river, Robin?"_

The Boy Wonder bit his lip. "The one that leads directly into the heart of the City…."

His motorcycle ripped down the country road towards its destination.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Grrrrr!!" Kitten pounded the wall of the second to the top level of the dam. She spun around from looking out the window towards the sunset-lit currents of the raging, southern river below. She paced across the maintenance corridor…walking back and forth across the location of her father. "Where are they?!?! Don't they know that this is the big one?!?! Don't they know that this is what will put us on the top?!?!"

"Patience, kitten….patience….," her father sharpened the points on his gloves. He stood in between planks of backup steel and coils of rusted barb wire piled up in the corner of the corridor. "The hive is already strong. The cocoons and eggs ready for hatching. The air need only remain cool and thin in autumn preparation for the banshee shrieks my children shall make when they make this City ours. Fang radioed us in an hour ago. They should be here….anytime now…"

"Well they'd BETTER BE!!! I want to be the princess of this region!! And I want it NOW!!!"

"Hehheheh….," Killer Moth shook his head. "And to think that after all these years of tolerating your insolence…..I would be rewarded for it."

She spun and glared at him. "And just what do you mean by THAT, Daddy?!?!"

Killer Moth smiled under his mask. "You make me proud, Kitten."

"……………"

"After all these years. These last few heists….you've performed remarkably."

"……………"

"You're a jewel to the family yet!"

"I…..I-I make you proud??" she murmured in a voice that she didn't' know was hers.

His masked face nodded. "We will all be duly rewarded. As soon as this City realizes the terror that we wield. We will be on top. I couldn't have done it without Viper….but I most certainly could not have done it with you."

"…………."

"We're all that we have left….but soon….we'll be sharing the City to ourselves," Killer Moth hissed. "Maybe we'll even have time to rebuild things."

She giggled. "Or get me a new Mommy!!"

Killer Moth rolled his head. "Heh….or I could get a grandchild."

"Pffft! Daddy…."

"One that does NOT have arachnid blood in him!!"

"What's the matter? I thought you liked bugs!!"

"Not THAT bug!!"

"Hehehehe…."

Killer Moth shook his head.

A buzzing sound.

The two looked over.

Six mutant moths lowered from a staircase leading in from the outer world. They hovered in the air before setting down on the ground, mandibles glistening.

"Uhm…..," Kitten blinked.

"Hey!!" Killer Moth shook. "Insolent drones!! What are you doing away from your posts?!?!"

The huge bugs merely stared. Hissing. Drooling.

"I think something's wrong with them, Daddy."

"Like Hell there is…," Killer Moth raised his fist and uttered loudly. "Command. Drones. Return!!"

"…………"

The bugs remained in place.

Kitten's lips parted.

Killer Moth heaved. He tilted his masked head to the side. He cleared his throat. He repeated: "Command. Drones…….Return!!"

Nothing.

Silence.

The drones stayed where they were.

"What gives??" Kitten blinked.

"I….I don't know….," Killer Moth stammered. "They…They're not responding to my voice….they're….." A beat. He cleared his voice again. "Command. Drones. Respond!"

Nothing.

Then….

From above.

"**Command. Drones. Form line."**

Immediately the bugs hissed and created a solid phalanx of insectoid menace.

Killer Moth and Kitten both jumped back.

A body leapt down from the stairway above. A body in a gray jumpsuit. A body with a broadsword strung over his shoulders.

"……….," Viper looked up. Bulbous eyes glaring. He slowly stood up. He cracked his neck. He marched forward.

"Viper!! What's going on?!?!" Killer Moth pointed. "My insects are not responding to my commands!! Are the Titans here? Have they tampered with my creations??"

"………," Viper marched towards him. Silent.

"Is anyone even listening to me?!?!" Killer Moth growled.

Kitten exhaled. "Wh-Where's Fang?"

Viper smiled. He pointed towards the two. The disc around his neck flashed red. **"Command. Drones. Restrain!"**

Killer Moth's jaw fell--

SWIIIIIISH!!!

Shrieking, all six insects flew down the corridor, breezed past Viper, and pounced upon Killer Moth and Kitten.

"AAAUGH!!"

"EEEEEEK!!!"

The father and daughter struggled in vain as the insects grabbed them with dozens of sharp legs and pinned them to opposite walls with silken strands of vomit.

"Nnnghhh!!" Killer Moth shook and strained to get out of his bonds.

Kitten panted, her eyes wide in fright.

The insects all around them drooled and prepared to chew into their flesh—

"**Command. Drones. At ease."**

At Viper's electronic 'voice', the moth mutants dropped to the floor and purred. Still. Waiting….

"……," Killer Moth looked at Viper. Mouth agape. "You….You….You can talk?"

Viper grinned. His lips didn't move. **"I can walk on my hind quarters too. Ever noticed?"**

"Oh god…Oh god…Oh god oh god oh god…," Kitten panicked.

"Shhh!! Darling!!" Killer Moth hissed. He looked Viper's way. "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"**Wasn't in the mood."**

"You were waiting, weren't you?? Waiting to betray us??"

"**Dear sir….there wasn't much to wait for. You gave me all I needed. You gave me an escape route. You gave me a hideout. And now……you have given me the sickle of death itself."**

"But…But…I don't understand….," Killer Moth gasped. "How were you able to command my children??"

"**Simple. I reprogrammed them…," **Viper gestured. **"They would never do much of anything under your orders anyways…."**

"But…But….."

Viper raised a finger to his disc. His eyes thinned. He tweaked the device. And in Killer Moths' voice he uttered: **"I gave them a new 'daddy'…"**

Kitten gasped.

Killer Moth stared. "You….You convinced them to follow your 'voice'…..by using mine."

Viper returned his voice to the normal electronic emotionless drone. His hands hung by his side. **"Your entire hive…the hugest nest you ever made….is now under my complete and utter control."**

"So you wanted to steal my operation…," Killer Moth snarled. "You wanted all the glory and control of this City for yourself!!"

Viper's eyes thinned. His lips curled. He slowly shook his head.

"What….th-then??" the masked man practically whimpered.

"**I seek that which I always have sought. Even when I failed to realize that it was the core of my desires. I want death, you fool. I want the death of everything. I want to spill the world over with blood and make the angel of death envious. The world is an arena. And people like myself are gladiators. We rule the whim of the dying and dead men reigning over this futile political landscape. In the end….only we are respected. And I have such….such a score to make. Such a toll to slice into being and set precedents with."**

"You're nuts!" Kitten gasped.

Viper turned somewhat. **"Am I? Tell me…do you really think I want to rule the City with a handful of giant insects?? Those are the things of a child's dream. The chemicals in your birthing solution, Killer Moth…..,"** he faced the man once again and glared. **"With help of the devices we stole…they will make a sister chemical to the nerve agent Sarin. And this dam….this river……...once I redirect and intensify the flow of water….I can send the quaff of death surging into the City. The water and mist will carry it into every avenue…into every nook and cranny of the urban landscape. Touching everyone….with the finger of death."**

"That…..That w-would kill everyone…," Killer Moth stuttered. "Everyone in this county….Including us and _you!!_"

Viper smiled wide. **"Yes. It will. But surely you know…..surely you know that I'm going to kill you two anyways…."**

Killer Moth's jaw was set firm.

Kitten stammered: "No….N-No….you can't. You c---" Her eyes went wide. "Fang! Where's Fang??"

Viper turned and gazed at her. Eyes thin. **"I…………stepped on him……"**

Kitten's lips parted. A tear fell down her cheek.

"You won't get away with this….," Killer Moth shook in his silky restraints. "Nobody ever gets away with blatant, impulsive murders!! Don't you get it?!?! It's always about a ransom!! Gaining power!! Frightening people into submission!! What could a villain possibly gain from simply murdering hundreds of thousands of people in a single instant?!?!"

Viper gazed at him. **"A new tilt…."**

"A new tilt to what?"

"**The Balance of Morals."**

Killer Moth exhaled: "What???"

"**You'll know it…,"** Viper grinned. CHIIIIIIIING!!!! **"You'll be sharing the same wail with the educated souls poured into Hell tonight."**

Th-Th-TH-THWISH!!! **THWACK!!!!**

Viper's broadword sang through the air of the corridor, and lopped off Killer Moth's right hand.

Kitten screamed.

Killer Moth's body twitched.

Viper twirled his sword again and dove in like a bread slicer.

Kitten's eyes convulsed as shadows of streaming liquid and convulsing limbs splashed across her face.

And she screamed.

And….

Footsteps.

The gray assassin.

Marching boots.

Th-Th-THWISH!!!!

A kiss of silver.

**THWACK!!!**

Kitten's hand flew into the air.

Her tearing eyes flew wide.

Her mouth stretched open---

_PLANT!!_

Viper's bloody hand clamped over her lips.

She shook and stared bug-eyed at him.

He leaned forward.

His lips moved: "Shhhhhhhh……," he cooed.

She quivered.

His lips curved…frozen.

"**You haven't even begun to scream….."**

Kitten jerked.

And Viper drove his sword into her.

And she suddenly didn't have the lungs to put him to the test.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEECH!!!!

The R-Cycle came to a smoking stop on the four-lane road stretching over the Shepherd Dam.

The engine cut.

Robin yanked his helmet off.

He tilted his head behind him.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Starfire lowered to the ground behind him.

Robin stood up. "See any of the others?"

She shook her head. "The last time I heard them over the transmissions, Beast Boy and Decker were headed quickly this way."

"Tempest too, I imagine….," Robin faced the lengths of the dam.

Starfire floated over. "Robin…are we to wait for our allies before proceeding? That has been your plan in encountering the enemy, no?"

Robin's eyemask thinned. "I think the enemy is already encountering _us._"

"Huh??"

His gloved finger pointed up.

A squadron of giant moths were diving down with glistening mandibles. Straight down at the two.

"Eek!" Starfire jumped.

_Snnkkt!!_ Robin extended his metal staff. "We can't fall back. Even if the others are late. The dam is infested…and that infestation has just found us."

Starfire charged two pulsing wrists of green fury. "Just tell me what to do, Robin. I shall obey."

Robin eyed the insects diving down. His ears heard the dull roar of the cascading water far below in the ravine…against the south side of the dam. Somewhere in the inner reflection of his eyemask he sensed the fading memory of a silver sword kissing the air inside a prison and nearly killing everyone in sight.

"Just stay by my side, Star….," Robin said.

The Tamaranian looked at him.

He coiled up into a crouching position. "Just stay by my side…."

She took a deep breath, and her eyes glowed hot emerald. "I shall, Robin. And thank you…"

_SKRIIIIII!!!!!_ The mutant moths dove.

"RrrrrrrrRRRRRAUGH!!!" Robin pounced into the flurry of wings and exoskeletons."

"NNGHH!!!" Starfire flung a volley of green death.

Robin acrobatically leapt onto and vaulted off the bodies of the first wave of moths. After he jumped off them, they were pelted into glue by Starfire's attack. Robin then soared upwards, spun, and slammed two moths with the side of his staff.

WHANG!!! CLANG!!!

They went falling—twitching—to earth.

The Boy Wonder stuck his arm out and grabbed another moth by two scrawny legs.

YANK!!!

The creature slunk down towards the ground in its flight.

Robin swung by the legs and slammed his feet into two other moths, sending them sailing out towards the northern body of water.

SPLOOSH!!! SP-SPLOOSH!!!

He dragged the insect he was hanging onto towards the ground and slammed it into the asphalt of the hallway. "YAUGH!!!" SPLORCH!!!

Seven more moths banked around and dove at him.

Robin twirled his staff at ready.

SWOOOSH!!! Starfire floated in front of him, gritted her teeth, and shot two optic streams of green out.

ZAAA-AAAA-AAAAAP!!!!!

The hot energy melted three moths instantly.

The last four split into two swarms and kept coming.

Robin tapped Starfire's shoulder.

The girl bent over, her arms wide apart.

Robin somersaulted off the Tamaranian's back and threw himself sideways into the left flank of insects. TH-THWACK!!! He twirled his staff into their thoraxes, shattering exoskeleton.

Starfire reached right and grabbed two moths by their heads. She gritted her teeth and slammed them hard into each other. SP-SPLORCH!!!

Moth juice and bloody silk layered the street.

The last of the insectoid corpses fell.

The two Titans panted.

_SKRIIIIII!!!!_

They spun.

At least two dozen more moths were swarming down towards them from the opposite side of the Shepherd Dam. Their wings buzzed and glistened in the red sunset.

"They are far too numerous!!" Starfire gasped.

Robin spun.

He saw a small security building behind them and to the left.

"Let's head for shelter!! It'll keep us safe…for the moment!"

"Agreed."

The moths buzzed closer.

"Go! Go! Go!" Robin ran, pointing.

Starfire cruised the air alongside him.

The moths swarmed at their heels.

Mandibles drooling….cutting the air.

Robin reached the door first.

He kicked it open on its hinges.

He dashed to the side, giving Starfire clearance.

She zoomed in through the doorframe.

Robin slipped in behind her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Tamaranian shut the door closed. She and Robin pressed against it.

WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!! The moths rammed it from the other side.

Robin gritted his teeth. "I'll hold the door!! Melt the lock!!"

Starfire nodded. She leaned back, charged a starbolt, and fired it at the knob.

The thing melted.

The door was practically welded shut.

Robin stepped back, breathing heavily.

WHAM!!! WHAM!!! WHAM!!!

The walls of the claustrophobic building shook from the swarming monstrosities outside.

"What are we to do now?" Starfire inquired.

Robin clenched his fists. "Right now….we catch our breaths."

There was a stirring to the side.

Robin and Starfire glanced over.

The girl Titan gasped.

Two security guards were bound by their hands and feet in silk. White threads covered their mouths, through which they uttered urgent cries.

The two Titans rushed over and knelt by their sides.

CHIING!! Robin produced a birdarang and began slicing the silk bonds loose of the foremost man.

Starfire melted the strands off the second guard.

Robin's hostage gasped and uttered: "Finally!! Somebody arrived!!"

"How long ago did Killer Moth get here??" Robin asked.

"Over six hours…," the man trembled. "It was around noon when they came."

"They??" Starfire asked.

The other man swallowed and said: "Killer Moth and some blonde girl. A teenager."

"Kitten….," Robin uttered.

Starfire winced instinctively.

"They're doing something with their moths….," the first guard said, warily eyeing the door as the bugs tried to pound their ways in from the outside. "I think they've turned the north side of the river into some sort of breeding ground or something!! You saw those things outside, right?? Well there's going to be a whole bunch of them in just a matter of time!! This dam can't hold so many creatures hatching at once!! And if the water was to flood down the riverbed…the City wouldn't stand a chance!!"

"I think there're worse things to worry about…," Robin said, standing up straight. "Hang on…" He whipped out his communicator with a Star Trek sound. "Cyborg. Cyborg come in, we're at the dam."

"_Robin?"_

"Was Noir successful at S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"_He was sure as Hell successful at a lot of things……but if you're asking if Noir stopped Viper from stealing the equipment he came there for, no……Noir didn't."_

Robin took a deep breath. "So the puzzle is complete. Killer Moth has all he needs to produce the deadly nerve agent?"

"_Well……he has enough. But I don't think Killer Moth would do it. VIPER would."_

"Understood."

"_You wouldn't happen to have run into that assassin yet, would you?"_

"No. Not yet," Robin shook his head.

Suddenly, one of the guards gasped. "Wait…..does he mean the swordsman??"

Robin raised an eyebrow. He looked at the man.

Starfire leaned forward: "What swordsman?"

"A t-tall man….balding….dressed in gray………with a huge silver blade over his shoulders. He passed by the window earlier. Don't you Titans have a swordsman in your group?"

"……….."

"……….."

"_Robin? You there, dawg?" _

Robin gritted his teeth. "Viper is here….."

"_Shit! You gotta stop him, man!! He'll end the lives of everyone in this half of the state!!"_

"What does he need to do to set off the chemical release of the nerve agent?"

"_He could very well have done it already, man!! It's a gradual process. It involves the immersion and cohesion of the chemicals while the circuitry fuses with the isomeric translators to stimulate the birthing solution mixed with isopropyl alcoholo and—"_

"How **long**, Cyborg???"

"_Forty-Five minutes, considering the volume of water and size of the hive."_

"I see…"

Starfire wrung her hands nervously.

"_But that forty-five minute window of death could have started any time. Or could START at anytime."_

"All the reason for us to move out **now**," Robin faced Starfire. "Even if we have to race death itself."

Starfire nodded.

The guards shifted nervously.

"Cyborg….what's the easiest way to cancel the chemical process IF it's already in effect?"

"_Either the complete annihilation of the hive through incineration….."_

"And Hotspot isn't here. Give me another option."

"……_forcing the Hive to hatch. Either a deadly, chemical plague or a billion killer moths. Choose your apocalypse. A or B."_

Robin marched over towards a window and gazed out. The north side of the ravine stretched before him. Including the length of the Shepherd Dam's north side.

"Somehow I like the alternative of little chance to that of zero chance."

"_Love it or leave it, dawg. Raven, Noir and I are on our way."_

"Don't bother speeding…," Robin said. "This is a matter of instant action. Right now…Starfire and I are here. We'll have to handle this."

"_Well, we're coming anyways. Good luck, Robin."_

"Same to you, Cyborg…," Robin pocketed the communicator. He then pulled at the window to open it.

"What…Wh-What are you planning??" A guard trembled.

"We're scaling the north side of the dam…," Robin said, struggling against the old window. "Tell me….is there a Redistribution and Pumping station in this structure?"

"Why…Y-Yes….," one guard uttered. "It's where the water flow through the dam's aqueducts and hydroelectric passageways is controlled…"

CRACK!!! Robin finally forced the rusted window open. He panted out into the autumn air and uttered: "Good. That's where we'll find Viper."

"How do you deduce that, Robin?" Starfire walked over.

Robin turned and gazed back. "It's where Viper needs to be if he plans on unleashing the toxic water out onto the population."

Starfire nodded. "I see…."

Robin motioned out the window. "Do you see the concrete opening ten feet below the edge of the Dam's northern face?

Starfire leaned her head out the window. Her green eyes thinned. "That I do…."

"We must head towards it."

"But….," she gazed at him and herself. "H-How, Robin?"

"How else?" he smiled. "You're going to hold me…."

A beat.

She smiled. "That would…work efficiently.

"What about us?!?!" one guard uttered as they both stood up. "We won't stand a chance against those bugs out th-there!!"

"Close the window once Starfire and I are gone," Robin pointed. "And don't worry. The two of us will distract them. You should be safe until further help arrives."

"And what if this nerve agent thingy you keep talking about gets loose?"

"………then hope you've found a good religion," Robin muttered. He stepped halfway out the window.

Starfire squeezed out two. "Robin?"

He held a gloved hand out. "Starfire?"

She took it. She breathed. "Hold on…."

SWOOOOSH!!!!

The two darted out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Into the crimson sunset they flew.

Robin dangled off of Starfire's hand like a kite tail.

She strongly pulled the two of them over the rushing waters below and towards the top row of windows in the pale granite giant to their right.

A buzzing sound arose.

Hissings and screechings.

To their rear.

Robin twirled from Starfire's grasp and glanced back.

The flurry of moths dove down after them.

"Starfire!! To our six!!"

"Our wh-what??" she gasped.

"Our six!!"

"But I do not have a six!!"

"Nngh…," he pointed. "To your rear!!!"

"Huh??" She glanced over her flying shoulders. She saw the bugs on attack. "I see them!!!"

_Snkkt!!_ Robin readied his staff, dangling.

Starfire aimed up towards the window in the dam. She skirted the two of them up the white structure's face. She charged a starbolt in her free hand. She glanced back. She thinned her eyes. She looked at the wall…at the insects…and back at the wall blurring by them.

"Nnngh!!!" she fired a starbolt against the dam.

FLASH!!!—CLANG!!!

It bounced off, flew in an angle, and sailed into the midst of the pursuing insects.

SPLORCH!!!!

Two fell from the blast.

The others soared past the falling carcasses.

Mandibles beared.

_SKRIIIIIII!!!!_

Starfire fired another blast. "RAUGH!!!"

FLASH—CLANG!!!

It again bounced off and soared into the thick crowd.

SP-SPLORCH!!!!

The insects parted ways and came from random angles.

"I cannot hit them anymore!!" Starfire shouted.

"It's okay, Star!! Just keep going!!!"

Starfire's eyes burned as she quickened the mid-air pace towards the window.

The insects started catching up. Their teeth chewed closer and closer to the Tamaranian's heels. _SKRIIIIII!!!_

Robin shouted and swung his staff with one hand.

THWACK!!!

He batted one moth away.

A second skirted down towards him. _SKRIIII!!!_

"YAUGH!!!"

SWIIIISH-THWACK!!!

He knocked the second back.

Two moths arced around the two teenagers, twirled, shrieked, and slammed swiftly into Starfire's side.

WHAM!!!

"Nngh!!" the Tamaranian went flying.

And—as a result—she dropped Robin.

"!!!!" Robin let go of his staff and plummeted down the dam's side.

Starfire righted herself and gasped: "Robin!!!"

The Boy Wonder gritted his teeth and fired a grappling hook up towards the top side of the dam.

POW!!!!

The hook sailed up and through one of two dive-bombing moths.

SPLORCH!!

It then embedded into the dam high above—CL-CLANK!!!

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin retracted the cord and sailed up. He swung his leg out and struck a moth with his boot upon passing.

THWACK!!!

The moth tumbled dead down the dam's north side and splashed into the waters below.

Robin's feet met the dam, and he 'ran' up it while holding himself tethered by the grappling cord with one hand.

"I'm okay, Star!! Head towards the window!!"

Starfire took a breath. She zapped one random, attacking moth and made for the window like a bullet.

Both Titans ran and flew their way to the window.

The moths closed in.

Three came suddenly from above the dam's other side.

Robin gasped. "Starfire!!"

Blind to the new attackers, the flying Tamaranian perched on the window.

_Crkk!!_ Robin readied a birdarang in his free hand while 'running' up the wall. "GET DOWN!!!"

SWOOOSH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! The birdarang sang its way towards her skull.

"EEP!!" she ducked.

SP-SPLORCH!!! The birdarang sliced through all three moths in succession, knocking them to the waters below.

Robin ran up the last length of wall that he could and leapt up towards the Tamaranian.

The bugs closed in on his legs.

"!!!" Starfire reached down. _GRIP!!_ She took Robin by the gloved hand and yanked them both into the window of the structure's inner sanctum.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Plop!!_

The two Titans grunted, landing on the floor.

Robin dragged himself up and pulled Starfire to her feet.

They made a mad dash for a pair of double doors leading inside.

The bugs swarmed in through the granite window and chased the two into the shadows.

_SKRIIIII!!!_

Robin reached the door.

He picked the lock.

Starfire spun around and flung starbolt after starbolt.

FL-FL-FLASH!!!

A quarter of the insects dropped to the floor.

The rest came in a drooling, menacing phalanx.

Hot breaths.

Hot stench.

Robin fumbled with the lock.

Starfire sweat.

She flung another starbolt.

It exploded within leg's length.

The bugs pounced--

"Got it!!" Robin shouted and flung himself against the doorframe.

He and Starfire swung in.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

They slammed the doors shut behind them.

CLANG!!!!

The moths pounded in futility on the other side.

Robin and Starfire leaned against the door for a while…then let loose sighs of relief.

"We are rid of the foul beasts…," Starfire murmured. "We can further along with our task."

Robin nodded. "Yeah. Let's not waste any time."

The two turned around.

They froze.

They were at the far end of the maintenance corridor. And the maintenance corridor was stained in splotches of red blood every other step. The splotches were wettest and the crimson was reddest twelve feet away…..where two hands marinated in human juices.

A sharp-gloved hand…and a dainty feminine hand…

Both right.

"…………."

"………….."

Robin readied two birdarangs. He took a breath. "Okay, Starfire…."

She braced herself behind him.

"Let's descend…."

And the two Titans crept forward…following the stained path of red towards the stairs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMM!!!_

Decker sped his car along the country road.

Winding up and up and up the mountainside.

He gritted his teeth and squeezed the wheel with white knuckles. "I swear….I've never broken so many of my own laws in a single day…"

_SCREEEEEECH!!!!_

He swerved across two lanes of empty traffic and took a back road up towards the Shepherd Dam. The deep river ravine could already be seen beyond the forested hillside on either side of the path.

"Figures….I'll probably be writing my own damn tickets after all this….."

_VRRMMMMMM!!!_

He ramped over a hill and came onto a straightaway, zooming towards the white structure of the dam in the distance.

A green pterodactyl swung low through his windshield up ahead.

He took a deep breath.

"God, I hope I never get frickin' old…"

And he shifted into a higher gear.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Starfire walked out of a concrete stairwell and into the deep bowels of the Shepherd Dam. Pipes coiled in and out of the walls like iron and copper intestines. Ribbons of metal bulkheads and dials and gaskets lined the corridor. Red lights and strobing signals illuminated scores of dials and meters and pressure sensors. Steam hissed out of cracks and joints of the pipework. The dull roar of rushing water rolled through the concrete belly of the huge structure.

At the far end of the mangled corridor was a brightly lit gateway into the pump rooms. The dark floor was intermittently stained with red streaks of dragging red. A path pointing them along the way.

Starfire gulped.

Robin took a deep breath. He lead the way with birdarangs raised.

Starfire floated closely behind, her hands glowing a bright green.

"Robin….," she murmured…facing the bright chamber at the far end of the corridor.

"Yeah, Star?" he quietly replied.

"….did it feel like this?"

"………???"

"When you, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Speedy faced Viper alone in the prison?"

"…….a little bit, yeah Star."

"I wish I was with you then."

"For what? To be prepared?"

"How do you mean?"

Robin slowly spoke as they both crept forward. "I….I honestly never wanted you to have to see this, Star."

"……"

"This man. What he does. What he is. Slade, we faced together. We all faced together. But this man is not like Slade. He doesn't choose intimate victims to torment. He doesn't terrorize. He only kills. Indiscriminately. Violently."

"…………"

"I'm happy to hear you wished you were with us when we first fought him…," he spoke to the girl. "But I honestly never wanted it to come to this. I never wanted you to see such evil."

"I have seen such immeasurable evil in my life, Robin."

He took a deep breath.

She uttered quietly: "The Tamaranian wars. The Gordanians. The Psions. Then Slade and those of his ilk on Earth…."

"………."

"I only wished I was around the first time you had to face Viper…," she spoke. "Not so much that I may be prepared for what we shall face now. But because….because I never want you to feel afraid or helpless, Robin."

"………."

"Did you ever feel afraid or helpless?" She asked him. A beat. She rephrased: "Do you feel helpless, Robin?"

"I'm okay, Star."

"You are?"

"Because you are here…," he exhaled. "You weren't then. But you are now."

A beat.

"Then I have nothing to fear either…," Starfire said with a weak smile. "I do not enjoy facing Viper…but as long as you are by my side, I shall not let fear overwhelm me."

Robin nodded. "Yeah….simple as that."

"I want to face everything with you, Robin. The good dreams….and the bad."

Robin gazed to the floor a bit. Through the shadows and the blood streaks. He inhaled. "Maybe I've not truly woken up from everything with 'J'….but I know one thing for sure."

"What's that, Robin?"

"I think I'll know who I truly am….as long as you're here…," Robin muttered. He gazed up with a strong breath. "That's why I've kept you close by ever since then."

"Even during this mission?"

He nodded. "Even during this mission."

"And what of Tempest?"

"He needed to get out of the water….he's becoming a damn prune…"

A beat.

"This is not an appropriate time to giggle…," Starfire said with a suppressed breath.

"Save it for later…," Robin readied his birdarangs. "…for after we kick Viper's ass."

"Yes…we shall teach many things to his proverbial donkey!"

Robin smirked.

Starfire clenched her jaw.

The two marched side-by-side into the lit corridor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And they froze.

They gazed up.

Their mouths drew agape.

_Drip… _

_Drip…… _

_Drip………_

Two bodies.

Two carcasses.

They were wrapped from the ceiling of the pump room in barbed wire.

Hanging from the ceiling.

Killer Moth.

Kitten.

They leaked crimson blood from three dozen places.

Their bodies dangled in the barbed wire cocoons.

High above the red pools in the well-lit, concrete floor below.

_Drip… _

_Drip…… _

_Drip………_

The two Titans gazed soullessly at the grotesque, silent sight.

And something echoed through the chamber.

An electronic throat.

Vibrating the hairs on their necks erect.

"**Heh heh heh heh……"**

Robin gazed around.

Starfire's optics remained affixed to the two carcasses.

"'**Come into my parlor', said the spider to the fly……."**

The pump room was a wide corridor skewered by thick concrete pipes scaling upwards in three tiers of horizontal stretches. The far wall was dotted with black tunnels; aqueducts that led into the darker corners of the dam. Cold water filtered through the pipes, filling the air with an autumn-induced frigidity within the belly of the Shepherd Dam. Robin's and Starfire's breaths filtered into the air.

They twirled around, searching for the source of the voice.

"**Shhhhh……..sit down and join ussssss……."**

Robin and Starfire stood back to back.

Panting.

Shivering.

Breath vapors….

The barbed wire creaked, wet and bloody.

The bodies hung and dangled against each other.

Father and daughter.

"**We are one happy….**_**happy**_**….family…."**

SWOOOSH!!!

A shadow darting above.

Starfire gasped.

Robin gritted his teeth.

The two Titans twirled about.

"Show yourself!!" Robin shouted.

"**Heh heh heh…..I already have….."**

SWOOOOSH!!!

Another shadow.

The two Titans spun.

Robin held his birdarangs up.

Starfire prepared a huge starbolt, panting.

"**Do you not see me?? I am dripping to the floor…."**

SWOOOSH-CLAMP!!!

The two Titans jumped.

They glanced up.

Atop a huge concrete pipe, Viper perched. His head bent low. Directly over them. His broadsword stretched lengthily over his back.

Starfire and Robin stepped back.

"……….," Viper slowly lifted his head. He gazed down at them. He smiled. **"I drip from the guts of the security guard I tossed aside at the Dayton Chemical Works. I empty myself from the hearts and skewered skulls of the scientists at Wayne Enterprises. And I laugh my way out of the Headmistress' stub of an arm…."**

"And Garet's neck hole…," Robin nodded. "We get your point, creep. You think you're death…don't you?"

"**Think?? Think??**" Viper's teeth showed. He stood up straight on the pipe and raised his hands. **"What is to think when I have robbed everyone of their spinal cords? What is there to grasp when the hand is missing or the heart is no longer beating??"**

Starfire's eyes narrowed. Her lips pursed, cold vapor coming out.

Viper gestured towards the concrete ceiling. **"When my father was killed…when my mother was molested to death……I thought I was merely a wielder of justice. TRUE justice. I labeled my enemies. I went after them. And when I had sufficiently trained myself in every degree imaginable…when I finally put up the effort to track my nemeses down……..I finally confronted face to face…and do you know what I saw??"**

"…….."

Viper's metal right hand clenched tight. **"Weaknessssss. Mortality. A finite soul."** Viper's bulbous eyes closed meditatively. His lips pursed. The disc strobed: **"Everyone I hated……everyone I swung my sword through…….they were nothing but meaty streams working cohesively towards the effect of chaos. Everyone was a meat bag. A hulk of flesh just waiting to be cleaved in two."** His eyes reopened with a trace of sadness. **"My parent's vendetta…..it was so trivial, Boy Wonder. My enemies were nothing. I could finish them in a heartbeat."**

"Funny that….," Robin sneered up at them. "How come then when you first came to our City….the Titans kicked your ass before you could so much as rob a tenth of the law enforcement of its lives?"

Viper's sad eyes melted into glares. He grinned again: **"I didn't realize then where gravity was taking me."**

"Gravity?"

"**The Balance of Morals, boy. You've heard of it before??" **

Starfire gulped.

Robin's eyemask thinned. "I think so…."

"**What can you tell me about it?"**

"I can tell you that Slade died because he was a moron."

"**Heh heh heh….Slade never loved to do dirty work. He never loved to sink his teeth into the meat like I do. He never loved to bathe in the blood. The sweet crimson of silence…."**

CHIIIIIII-IIIIIII-IIIIIING!!!!

Robin crouched into a ready position.

Starfire jerked.

Viper had slowly unsheathed his blade. He held it out and gently caressed the silver sharpness of it with a flesh finger.

"…**when it was too late for him to grasp the impregnable stroke of death, he fell victim to it. And once he was gone from the chessboard…and Dagger too….that led the way for the true gladiators like myself to enter the battle arena."** He held his finger up. A fine cut had been sliced into the flesh. A droplet of blood leeched out. He held it to his tongue…he tasted himself. He slowly closed his eyes. **"Hmmm…….it is a warm thing when you discover yourself. When you realize….through all the pain….all the foolish senses of life…..that you are made only for death."** His eyes opened with a hideous flare. **"I had been hacked apart, Titans. Your little dog of a swordsman ripped my arm off. Your archer skewered me. And you…Robin…..you bruised me. And I don't like being bruised. But in a way….I should thank you."**

"Thank me??" Robin frowned. "For what, creep?"

"**For showing me how silly pain is. I went to Dagger after our battle. He threw me out on the street. I had to cleave this prosthetic metal limb to myself. Without anesthesia. Alone in the element. The pain was excruciating. And the shivers…..oh gods, the shivers……..so bone chilling. I realized then and there that everything I was ever doing was wrong. I was killing, yes. But I was killing merely to support my own life. But everything that is born lives to die. And I started dying months ago, Robin. I started dying one at a time. Through every person I met. Through criminals and commissioners alike. Through the Headmistress. Through Garet. And now…through Fang….Killer Moth….his pathetic seed……and now….I shall die the greatest death of all. This whole City will let loose one last sigh of futility and fall down before me. The wielder of Red. The Lord of Destruction."**

"I don't know what you're trying to become….," Robin growled. "But you're just as psychotic as the rest of them. I've seen it all. I've heard it all. And every single punk I've face eventually bite it in the end. So you will."

"**And so will you, Robin…,"** Viper smiled down at them. "**Don't you realize that….at the end of the stroke of death…the Titans will be the ones to answer to the reaper? Even if it's it not me….Someone will do it. Someone will end you. Do you not feel it in the cold wind?? It's like whispers. Whispers of a dying sky, bathed red. A prophecy. A warning. But just whispers in the cave of silence. Outside of the foolish masses' ears."**

Starfire shuddered.

Robin stared.

"**I set the isomeric translators to go forth with their task just a moments before you arrived…,"** Viper gestured. **"In a matter of minutes….the water coursing through this facility will carry Destruction down the river and into your pathetic City. Many a child will see life's ugly face a dozen years early. I almost wish I would be there to taste the irony. Rusted….like copper…..heheheheh…."**

_Snkkt!!_

Robin raised his birdarang high.

"Shut off the process, Viper….."

"**Heh heh heh heh heh….."**

"NOW!!!!"

"**Silly bird…..,"** Viper knelt down and smiled down from the pipe. **"Do you know why you and your beloved concubine are here?"**

"Don't call her that…," Robin hissed.

"**My one last Opponent in this world wants you the most…,"** Viper's electronic voice hissed. **"And the only way I can beat him to the game of Death….is to end the Titans. And I've got two of them summoned here on the threshold of destruction."**

"…….."

"**So then….,"** Viper stood up straight. Th-Thwish!!! Glistening teeth. Bulbous eyes wide. **"Off with your hands…."** SWOOOOOSH!!! He leapt down.

"Star!! Look out--!!!"

"Nnnghh!!" Starfire flung starbolts.

Viper's feet contacted another pipe and vaulted his body off to the left just time to avoid the blasts. FL-FLASH!!!

Starfire gasped.

Viper flew down, bounced off another wall, and sailed towards the two.

Robin flung a birdaraing.

SLASH!!! CL-CLANG!!! The broadsword severed the projectile in mid-air. The villain sailed down at Starfire's arm, sword first. **"YAAAAAAAAH!!!"**

Robin gritted his teeth and shoved the Tamaranian out of the way.

SWIIIIISH!!!

A silver blade sang between the two.

Starfire fell to the floor with a grunt.

The Boy Wonder teetered.

PLOP!!

Viper landed. He twirled the broadsword. He pivoted his body and swung his leg up--

THWAP!!!

He kicked Robin across the pump room.

WHUMP!! "Oof!!" Robin slid backwards through the pool of blood beneath Killer Moth and Kitten. Blood streaked behind his cape and body.

Viper smirked. He marched towards the Boy Wonder---

"NNGHH!!" Starfire pounced on Viper's back and swung her arms around his neck in a sleeper hold.

Before she could apply her alien strength, Viper gritted his teeth and yanked his skull back.

THWAP!!!

He reverse-headbutted the girl in the forehead.

"Owie!!" Starfire fell back.

Viper spun.

His sword twirled.

He let loose a breath and swung at her skull--

SWIIISH!! Robin dove in, stabbing a birdarang into Viper's metal wrist.

CLANK!!!

"**Augh!!"**

Sparks flew.

Viper's sword hand was deflected up.

THWACK!!! The silver broadsword embedded into a concrete wall just an inch above Starfire's nodding head.

The girl was wide eyed.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook cord and wrapped it around Viper's body. He pulled it tight in a knot behind the man's back and fired the hook up at the ceiling. POW!!! SWIIIIISH-CLANK!! He pressed the button to retract.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Viper's body was strung up in the cord. His body lifted towards the top of the pump room like the bad end of a pulley system. He grunted electronically and struggled with his blade to get loose from the trap.

Robin panted. Sweating, he looked over at a wall of levers. "Starfire!!" he pointed across the pump room. "The controls!! If we vent the water ahead of time, it might displace the hive to where it can't be discharged onto the City!! Pull the levers!!"

"I concur!!" the Tamaranian nodded and rushed towards the devices.

"**Nnnnghh!!"** Viper snarled and swung the blade up high with struggling wrists. SNAP!!! He cut the cord loose. He dropped. He stabbed his blade out towards a concrete wall. _SCRAAAA-AAAA-AAAAAPE!!!_ The blade cut into the structure, slowing his descent. He spotted the Tamaranian girl, he yanked his blade out and kicked against the blurring wall with his feet. He vaulted over and tackled the girl in mid-air.

THWUMP!!!

"EEK!!"

The two plummeted to the hard floor.

THWAP!!!

They landed hard and rolled away from each other.

Starfire hovered up to her feet.

Viper jumped up, twirled his blade, and stabbed at her.

SLASH!!!

She darted to the side.

He swung again.

She rolled to the other side.

Viper dove in with a snarl and gripped her by the throat.

"!!!!!" Starfire dangled from his grasp, struggling.

He smirked and twirled the broadsword in the other hand.

Robin was two feet away from the levers. He glanced over his shoulder. His eyemask widened. He skidded to a stop, panting. He looked at Starfire. He looked at the controls. He looked at Starfire. He looked at the controls again.

In the meantime, Starfire groaned and wheezed…trying to pry herself loose.

Viper breathed out. His neck disc fluctuated red. **"Let's see what you taste like on the inside…."**

She winced.

His blade flew at her--

THWOOOSH!! Robin swung in by grappling hook and scooped Viper up around the waist.

"**OOF!!"** the assassin grunted.

Robin swung the assassin down and up towards a pipe on the top tier of the pump room. WHAM!!! He slammed Viper up against the concrete structure. Robin held his place with two legs spread. With a free hand, he pulled out an explosive birdarang. He slammed it into the concrete, pinning Viper to the pipe by his jumpshirt. CLANK!!! The light flashed on the explosive, charged….

Viper gasped.

"Give my regards to Death, asshole…," Robin backflipped off the pipe….leaving Viper with the explosive.

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Wriiiiiiiiii!!!_

Viper gritted his teeth.

_**BOOOM!!!!!!!**_

Plasma and dust flowered out from his location.

TH-THWISH!!! Robin flipped and landed in a crouch besides a panting Starfire.

The girl helped the Boy Wonder up to his feet.

The two stared—exhausted—at the cloud of destruction high above.

"……."

"……."

The cloud of smoke and fire dissipated.

What was left was a huge, gaping hole in the top tier pipe. No flow. No water.

And no remains of Viper.

Robin's eyemask thinned.

"He is….d-destroyed?" Starfire stammered.

"**If only you **_**knew…..**__" _

The two Titans jerked aside.

A shirtless Viper streaked at them like a pale ghost with an even paler sword twirling. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! And slashing—SWOOOSH!!!

Starfire stood in front of Robin and shoved a starbolt straight into the ground.

The concrete exploded between Viper and the Titans.

Viper stumbled back.

Starfire and Robin flew away from the concussion—dazed, but safe.

For the moment.

"**RRGHH!!"** Viper charged through the dust.

Robin met him. _Snkkt-Snkkt!!_ He whipped out two birdarangs.

SLASSSH-CLANG!!! Robin knelt back, his two birdarangs awkwardly holding back the length of Viper's broadsword along the curvature.

Viper grinned and applied his force down against the Boy Wonder.

Robin sweated, his wrists shaking as he held Viper's broadsword up with the meager birdarangs. His legs shook, went tight, and uncoiled upward. "Nnnngh!!!" Robin shoved Viper back.

The assassin took a reverse step and prepared to strike hard at the Titan leader's side--

FLASH!!!

A starbolt exploded beside him.

Viper jerked back and glanced aside.

Starfire stood, snarling, with glowing hands. "Let him go!!!"

Viper smirked. **"All too happy to…"**

"Star!! Hit him!!" Robin dove in.

But Viper gripped his shoulder, spun, and threw the nimble Robin hard against the side of a bulkhead.

WHAP!!!

"Ugh…."

Starfire gasped, frowned, and launched a heated flurry of green energy.

FLASH!!! FL-FL-FLASH!!!

Viper twirled his blade, deflecting the shots.

Starfire circle strafed him from afar, launching starbolts from multiple angles.

Viper continued deflecting. At the end of one block, he spun towards a nearby wall, ran up it seven feet with nimble legs, and vaulted off into a sideways flip. He soared over towards Starfire.

The Tamaranian hovered backwards, gasping, launching starbolt after starbolt towards his plummeting figure.

FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!

He deflected on the descent. CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!! He broke through the last of her barrage with a heavy downswing.

Starfire gasped and fell down on her back.

The length of Viper's broadsword came down on her.

She laid herself down and slapped her two hands up.

CLAP!!!!!

Her Tamaranian palms met the flat sides of Viper's sword and stopped the huge length of it just an inch above her middle, chest, and chin.

Viper took a single breath.

So did she….and twisted her arms—"Nnngh!!!"

Viper was yanked harshly at the end of his hilt by her strength. His body spun like a horizontal top in the air--

WHAM!!!

--just for Robin to dive in with a flying kick.

Viper and his blade tumbled across the concrete floor like a ragdoll. All too expertly, he jumped up to his feet and—although dazed—met Robin's advance with a twirl of his blade. TH-TH-THWISH!!!

Robin dodged the serrated swirl and jumped to his right. He kicked a thin vertical pipe with his metal boot. CLACK!!! He twirled the new bludgeon in his grasp, took a breath, and charged: "YAAAAAUGH!!!"

SW-SW-SWISH!!! CLANG!! CLANG!! CLANG!!

Robin advanced madly on Viper, swinging his new metal staff with fury.

Viper deflected and deflected and deflected, backstepping across the length of the pump room.

Their fight brought them beneath the dripping bodies of the father and daughter.

Their feet nearly slipped in the blood once or twice.

Robin was sweating.

But Viper was smirking.

Something exchanged between the two in a glistening heart beat, and…

"**RAUGH!!!"** Viper stabbed forward.

Robin pivoted to the side.

CLANK!!!

He was pinned to a concrete pipe by his cape. He struggled to get loose.

"**Hold your breath…,"** Viper hissed, pivoted his body, and slammed his foot into the Boy Wonder's gut.

"OOOF!!" Robin uttered before losing oxygen altogether. He wheezed and bent forward.

Viper sneered.

"ROBIN!!!" Starfire flew in like a green streak.

But Viper was ready.

He yanked his blade out, twirled it, and met the flying Tamaranian with the flat side of the broadsword.

THWACK!!!

"Uggh!!" Starfire plummeted into the ground.

She skidded to a stop against Viper's foot, which lifted her chin up just in time for his other foot to soccer-kick her straight in the face.

WHAM!!!

"!!!" she rolled numbly into Robin.

The two Titans' bodies were pressed into each other.

They shivered and sputtered.

Cold vapors rising between them.

CHIIIIIIIIIING!!!

Viper walked forward, dragging his blade.

Eyeing the two beaten Titans' heads next to each other.

"**Time to sign on the dotted line…."**

CHIII-IIIING!!

He lifted his sword.

He hoisted it over his shoulder.

He paused in a ready pose to hack them out of existence.

"**Know this moment, children. Know this moment when all you have to hold onto is the measly cold and a horizon of infinite silence awaits you at an arm's reach…."**

Robin's eyemask was thin. He trembled to look into Starfire's eyes.

The Tamaranian girl shuddered, struggling to see him too with emerald optics.

Viper breathed in. His metal fingers tightened around the hilt of his blade.

"**And maybe…..maybe the sky bleeds red outside a little bit early…."**

The two shuddered.

The two winced.

Viper prepared to swing. **"Someday…I want you to tell me how it tastes."**

And then a shadow just to the right. "Ya know….for a mute, you really talk your ass off."

Viper looked up. **"Huh??"**

WHAM!!!! Decker's fist flew across the assassin's face.

Viper stumbled back six feet.

The Titans' gasped.

The Commissioner marched over the two youngsters and towards the man. His hands were behind his back. He frowned: "Hey, shitstain….remember me??"

Viper wheezed. **"The silly police man I tried to stab to death….,"** he smirked. **"How can I forget??"**

"For your information…I still have both my hands….," Decker grumbled. "And they're both REALLY pissed at you right now!!" That said, Decker whipped out dual pistols in two hands, aimed them at the shirtless assassin, and let loose--

BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!

Viper held his breath and twirled his sword like mad…dodging and deflecting. CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

Decker marched forward, squinting as he unleashed more lead storm.

BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!

Viper's feet literally skid backwards across the concrete from the force of his deflections.

Bullet fragments and shell casings littered the cold floor.

Viper began to sweat.

Decker began to pant.

And…

BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!CLICK-CLICK-Click-Click…..

Empty air.

Decker exhaled.

"…….," Viper lowered his sword.

A beat.

"Shit….," Decker dropped one pistol and flung his free hand into his belt for more ammo.

Viper smiled.

TH-THWISH!! He twirled his blade.

Decker fumbled for a new clip.

Viper charged at the man.

Decker emptied his pistol.

Viper raised his sword.

Decker slipped in the clip.

Viper snarled. The blade kissed the air.

Decker cocked his gun.

Viper was on him.

Decker pivoted his body, lowered his arm, and aimed….straight into Viper's forehead.

A blink.

BANG!!!!

Time slowed.

Viper slid his entire body down, his head ducking beneath the bullet.

Decker remained frozen in place, his eye twitching at the vapor trail left by the single bullet.

Viper slid under the commissioner.

His muscles flexed.

He sprung himself expertly to his feet.

A sword-arm that knew no inaccuracy pulled and tugged at the hilt.

He swept low as he stood up behind Decker.

His blade sang through the air in hair-splitting serration.

Flying towards Decker's waist.

A force that would split the man's meat body in two…

Decker blinked….long and hard.

The mist that was flying out of his mouth was suddenly sucked back in.

And….

Time resumed.

SWIIIISH!!!

THWOOOSH-CLANK!!! Decker brought the pistol down and blocked Viper's sword in reverse, saving his hide.

Viper gasped, frozen.

"NNGH!!" Decker spun with a kick flying high.

It met Viper's skull.

THWACK!!!

The assassin stumbled backwards.

Decker twisted his body and—quite artistically for his own good—swan kicked his other foot up and uppercutted Viper's chin with his boot.

WHAM!!!

The assassin dropped his sword and fell back, sliding across the blood-stained floor.

Decker landed from his blow, panting, pale as a ghost. "…..," he exhaled. He shook. "AAAAAAUGH!!!! _AAAUGH!!_ Wax on, wax off… shithead!!" Cl-Click!!! He aimed the pistol at Viper's prone body from afar. "Now…FREEZE!!"

"……..," Viper slowly sat up. Frowning.

"You heard me right…freeze, punk!!!"

Viper slowly stood up. **"What do you think you're doing….?"**

"Now you listen and you listen carefully….," Decker uttered. Frowning. Aiming the gun. "You….Vincent Patrick Matthew Thames the Third…."

"……..," Viper blinked.

"…..you are under arrest."

Viper smiled. **"Heh heh heh heh….."**

"Anything you san can and will be used against you."

"**Hah hah hah hah hah hah…."**

"You have the right to an attorney…"

"**Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!"**

"If you cannot an afford an attorney, one will be granted for you by the court of law."

Viper's head tilted towards the ceiling as his face convulsed and his disc ring strobed red. **"Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa ha ha!!!"**

"Do you understand these rights??" Decker uttered.

"**Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"**

"I said….," Decker sneered. "Do you understand these—"

"**You fool. You cannot arrest me. You cannot even come near me. You can aim that pistol at me all you want. But do you really think it will stop me??"** Viper grinned.

The two Titans slowly struggled up to their knees, watching.

"**Just fire a bullet. Go on! Fire two!! I'll be over there in a heartbeat. Strangling your neck. Ripping your hand off with my teeth if I have to. I may want to be death incarnate…but I still have no respect for the likes of you. Law enforcers….you make me sick. I've bathed in the blood of your comrades in arms and I'll be sure to bathe in YOUR BLOOD TOO!!!"**

Decker frowned. His fingers tightened around the trigger. "I know what you've done. Every night I go to bed, I think about the innocent lives you've ended. The ways I could have prevented it….but couldn't. And you know what? You're right. You're right, Viper. I am pathetic. I'm no super hero. You've proven before that I can't do anything to arrest you. So….I guess that just leaves me with one last option…"

Viper snickered. **"And what's that??"**

"Taking you to the woodshed." And that said, Decker pivoted his aim, squinted an eye, and fired behind Viper.

BANG!!!

"!!!" Viper spun as the bullet blurred by him.

The Titans' head turned.

SWIIIIISH-CLANK!!! The bullet struck a lever on the controls. The gears turned. The whole dam shook. Water was being displaced early through one of the pipes.

_One of the pipes……_

Viper gasped. He glanced up at the one pipe where Robin had pinned him to with an explosive.

A gaping hole was in the side. The sound of rolling thunder echoed out of it. And the cold mist of rushing water started to emanate from the concrete gash.

Decker lowered the pistol and shouted: "Hope they taught you how to swim in your father's bordello, you pale-ass bastard!!"

SPLOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!

Riverwater spewed out from the shattered pipe like the white vomit of God.

"**Nnnnghh!!!"** Viper growled, turned, and tried to flee--

WHAM!!!!!! SPLOOOOSH!!!

The water plowed fiercely into him. The villain was plowed in a straight line perfectly from his one spot and straight out towards one of the dark aqueducts on the opposite side of the pump room, where he disappeared with an electronic yelp.

SPLOOOOOSH!!!!

Water was fountaining everywhere.

Starfire flew up with a burst of strength.

POW!!! Robin fired a grappling hook and lifted himself up just before the cascading torrents could possibly wash over him.

Decker found himself backing out of the room. He dropped his pistol and ran at at a full sprint as the white waters charged after his heels.

SWOOOOSH!!! Starfire swooped down, snatched the man by his shoulders, and flew him towards the ceiling.

Robin hung over the flooded mess by one hand, panting. He heard a shout and looked across the gradually submerged dam room.

"Woohoo!!" a green pterodactyl glided into the corridor. "Special delivery!!"

Robin pointed at two bodies hanging by barbed wire. "Not me!! Them!! Grab them!!"

"Yikes! Never a pretty job for me. No!!" the green pterodactyl shrieked, swooped in, snapped the two bodies free of the barbed wire, 'unwrapped' them, and grabbed each swiftly in a talon. Beast Boy then carried Killer Moth and Kitten out of the flooded interior and back towards the surface of the dam through the adjacent corridor and stairwell.

Robin was beginning to lose his grip.

Suddenly, Starfire soared in and—with a free hand—snatched the Boy Wonder up.

"Heeeeeeeeeee," she rubbed her warm cheek lovingly against his chin, smiling. "We are to stick together, yes?"

Robin sighed with a weak smile. "Yes….Star…."

"Please…," Decker grumbled. "I'm going to vomit…."

"Hold onto your equine!!" Starfire hoisted the two out from the raging rapids and towards the exit beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Viper's pale body tumbled and rolled through the dark aqueduct.

Fountains of bubbling water kissed a growing number of dark bruises and red cuts across his naked torso.

He gasped, panted, sputtered, and found himself blinded by a flash of red light.

The open world.

The naked autumn air.

"!!!!" Viper gasped. **"N-No…."**

The aqueduct was opening up towards the south face of the dam.

The water shoved him towards the opening with a ferocity that knew no deceleration.

"**No….."**

SWOOOOSH!!!!!

In a splash of white fury, Viper was ejected out into the air…..and fell over two hundred feet towards the crashing waters of the ravine below.

"**NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo**ooooooooooo….."

It sounded more like a 'thud' than a 'splash' when his body slammed into the ruptured waves below.

And then….

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!!

Starfire floated down to the top of the dam. She gently placed Robin and the Commissioner on their feet.

"Good work, Star…," Robin said.

"Yeah…," Decker sweatdropped. "Just don't tell anyone…"

Starfire blushed. "I'm….sorry?"

"Dudes!!"

The three looked over.

The green pterodactyl set down the bloody father and daughter down and morphed into a panting elf. "What happened to them?!?!"

"We must seek aid!" Starfire remarked. She started to walk off. "I shall endeavor to fly to the nearest hospital and—"

"Wait!" Robin held a hand in front of her. He turned and faced Decker. "Viper said he set the chemicals off already!! We're still minutes away from doomsday."

"You noticed that too, huh?" grumbled the Commissioner.

Robin ran towards the dam's northern edge.

Starfire and Beast Boy ran after him.

Robin looked over the edge. He gazed at the bubbling water. White forms bobbed in the depths far below.

"There must be tens of thousands of them…," Beast Boy uttered.

"X'Hal….," Starfire murmured.

Robin whipped out a handful of explosive birdarangs. He glanced at them…then at the other two Titans. "I don't even have near enough to take them out. Star?"

"I-I can attempt to eradicate them…," she uttered. "But it would take far too much time to incinerate the entirety."

"Then how do we kill them off??" Decker shrugged.

"We don't…," A voice warbled from below.

"Huh??"

SPLOOSH!!!!

Tempest leapt up, dripping. He perched on the edge of the dam and panted with his lungs. He pulled a few wet strands out of his face and gestured towards the north side of the river below him. "What's the other alternative to stopping the chemical agent besides killing the larvae??"

"……," Robin blinked under his mask. "We…uhm….hatch them…"

"I think I can do it, Robin…," Tempest grinned. "I can let everyone possible live through this!!"

"How could you possibly—" Decker began.

Robin elbowed the Commissioner. He gestured to Tempest: "Wouldn't it be too much for you?"

Tempest shook his head. "They're like shrimp. Brine."

Robin's eyemask thinned. "And once they're hatched…"

"Trust me, Robin…," Tempest pleaded. "You've done so twice already and all I've done is help."

"……."

Beast Boy leaned in. "He's right, dude. Besides….," the changeling smiled. "His proposal's the most peaceful thing I've heard of in days…"

Robin inhaled. "Okay, Tempest. We're all in your hands."

Tempest smiled. He saluted. He let go of the dam, fell back, and splashed in a reverse dive into the north river.

SPLOOSH!!!!

Decker folded his arms.

Beast Boy gazed over the edge, breathing steadily.

Starfire crept over and hooked an arm with Robin's.

The Boy Wonder rested a gloved hand on hers.

Everyone gazed into the waters.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….."

Tempest drifted down into the waters.

His dark eyes open.

White spots on black spheres.

His gills stretched wide.

A purple light fluctuated across his limbs and was out.

Bubbles flew out of his nose.

He closed his eyes again.

Folded his arms.

Relaxed…..

"_Where are you going?" _

"_Away……Tula……" _

"_What for??"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_He folded his arms in his lap. _

_He looked from the royal balcony across the spires and leaping fountains of Atlantis. The dome shimmered with ocean water overhead._

"_I……I'm dangerous here……" _

_Tula leaned towards him, dressed in silky opal. "It's the curse, isn't it? You're afraid……" _

"_I'm not afraid!!" he sneered. A bit. He sighed and hung his head. "I'm just worried……" _

"_About the Hidden Valley?" _

"_Everyone. Poseidon knows……the whole ocean even." _

_She took a deep breath. She leaned her head against his shoulder. _

"………_," Tempest shivered from the touch. But not from cold. He swallowed and tried not to show it, gazing off. _

_She purred against his ear. Warm. Like the upper currents of the Atlantic. "I don't think you should ever worry, Garth. You are a gift." _

"_Gift??" _

"_A walking, handsome gift. You are not something of destruction. You are something of life……," she gently stroked his hand. "I know it. I feel it." _

"_Tula……" _

"_Shhh……you may leave me, Garth. But I know……you'll be back. We'll meet again someday……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…_because, deep down inside, you love life too much to ever punish yourself with my absence. No matter where you are……"_

"……………."

Tempest's eyes popped wide open. They were streaming with purple haze. He arched back and flung his mouth open. A muffled roar. Bubbles shimmered up to the surface as he wailed in agony and let loose a monstrous pulse of telepathy.

FLASH!!!!!!!!!

The waters were still….but the eggs were shaking. Bubbling. Writhing from the inside out.

And chemicals that could have turned deadly were being sucked into the cocoons….and turning warm. Alive. Producing……

CRKKK!!!

CRKKKKKK!!!

CRKKK!!!!

Egg after egg hatched.

Worms squirmed loose.

Worms…

Then larvae….

Then wings….

Then mandibles….

Then floating….floating….floating…..

Upward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SPLOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

Decker stumbled back.

Robin readied a birdarang instinctively while Starfire clung to him.

Beast Boy smiled wide.

The four all tilted their heads up as a stream of dripping moths soared upwards into the air. In the dozens. The hundreds. The thousands. They were making sounds….but it wasn't a deafening screech of menace. It was a chirping sound. Warm. Throbbing. The moths flocked in a buzzing cloud of wings and legs before curling around and streaming towards the crimson horizon…

And the wilderness beyond.

"Should we not track them??" Starfire remarked.

Beast Boy planted his hands into his hips. "Those critters? Without an evil supervillain or a deadly nerve agent controlling them…..I think they're a-okay." He turned and smiled at the others. "Just animals. New ones."

Robin nodded. He smiled back. "Yeah….exactly…"

SPLOOSH!!!

"???" Decker leaned over the dam's north side and peered down. "Fish boy's back."

The other Titans looked down.

"You okay??" Beast Boy asked.

Tempest treaded water. He nodded, winced, and rubbed an aching head. "More or less. Did I do it?"

"Dude….I think you're a daddy."

"Pfft…shut up."

"Hehehehehe!!"

"_K-Kitten……"_

"!!!" the four on top of the dam spun and looked.

Killer Moth was bleeding. Killer Moth was cut and bruised in many places. But he was alive. He crawled on the three limbs he had left till he was kneeling besides the butchered form of his daughter.

"Kitten….," he wheezed through a broken mask. He shook her shoulder with his left hand. "Darling….Daddy's here…..say something…..breathe….breathe….."

Silence.

Kitten didn't move.

Her eyes were closed across what was left of her face.

"K-Kitten…….," Killer Moth shuddered. He raised a shaking hand. He slid his mask off. All the others could see from where they stood was a gray head of hair as the man buried his face into her side and convulsed. "Kitten….my child…….my b-beautiful….beautiful child….."

Somewhere, there was a sobbing sound.

It was carried away in an autumn breeze.

And for a brief moment, everyone's gaze fell to the asphalt lanes of the dam.

Even Decker's.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Last evening, a bloody drama came to a close as Commissioner Decker and the Titans apprehended Drury Walker a.k.a. Killer Moth and foiled a plot to infest the waterways of the City. The situation unfolded at the tail end to a string of bloody heists over the last few days during which Killer Moth enlisted the help of a mysterious swordsman in raiding Wayne Enterprises, Dayton Chemical Works, and S.T.A.R. Labs. Reports are sketchy, but suggest that a confrontation at the Shepherd Dam northwest of the City ended with the deadly disappearance of the swordsman and the expulsion of Killer Moth's deadly insects. Killer Moth has been arrested and sent to the hospital to recover from critical injuries. His daughter—Katrina Walker, a possible accomplice—was found dead at the scene. Local investigators are also rumoring the death of Franz Durk a.k.a. Fang. His body was found ten miles away in an unnatural cave believed to have been the most recent hideout of Killer Moth and his daughter during the recent—"_

click!

Dolphin bracelets rattled on Lindsay's wrist as she turned the diner t.v. to ESPN. "Sheesh, boss!! Ya know how many kids eat here?? Turn it to something a bit less grim, why don't ya??"

Carman shouted from the diner's kitchen while making an omelet. "Hey! You're not supposed to be working today! Stop female dogging me about my t.v. tastes! Everything's grim these days! Face it!!"

Lindsay giggled. "Not if I can help it. Lord help us all." She hoisted a jacket over her shoulders for the autumn coldness outside. "I just came for my paycheck."

"It's underneath the register drawe—"

"I already got it! Way ahead of you!"

"Pfft. Fine, whatever. You're scheduled tomorrow, four to ten!"

"Awwww….you remembered I go to school. How sweet of you."

"Gonna kiss me?"

"Not on your life, lecher."

He chuckled and went on with his cooking.

"See ya…," Lindsay marched past patrons towards the entrance/exit of the diner. She waved at another cook. "Have a good day, Carl."

"Cya, Lindsay."

The freckled teenager whistled and happily skipped out of the diner's door…..and nearly bumped into him.

"Ackies!!" she stepped back.

"……….," Tempest smiled. He stood in dark jeans, a black shirt, and a jacket. Very….surfacey.

"……….," she blinked. She blushed. "H-Hey….uhm…..Hey." A blink. "……..Hey."

"Wanna 'hang out'?" he said. A smirk.

A beat.

She smirked back. "Sure….I was just gonna join my friends."

He half bowed and gestured. "Show me the way. I'm still lost on these dry streets."

"To be honest….I-I wasn't so sure you were gonna take me up on my offer."

"Your offer?" he shrugged. "I could have sworn I impressed myself upon you."

"Nonsense! I'd love to let you hang out with my friends and I and—"

"Are you ever afraid?"

Lindsay blinked. "Huh?"

"The stuff broadcasted on your people's televisions…," Tempest spoke. "The supervillains who frolic through this City. The bloodshed. Does it ever scare you?"

"…..well…..s-sometimes…..I like to think that there're stronger things in the world, though."

"Hmm….like what?"

"God, for instance."

"God?"

"Yeah….I believe in Him. What about you?"

Tempest shrugged. "I think…..I think the things that we fear…can sometimes be just a hint of things that we've yet to look forward to. Some of the deadliest things can spawn the happiest of lives."

"Wow…," she ran a hand through her stringy brown hair. "That sounds…intense. You wanna talk about it?"

"Nah…I wanna find out about these friends of yours and hopefully not be embarrassed to Hades and back."

Lindsay giggled. "Allrighty then….I'd be happy to show you off---er, I mean….introduce you to my friends."

Tempest gave her a wyrd, but amused glance. "Just….lead the way."

"Off to Bay Plaza…," she gestured. They walked down the sidewalk under the autumn air of the morning. "Oh…and it's Lindsay by the way."

"What is?"

"My name."

"Ah…I see…," Tempest nodded. He cleared his throat and pointed at himself. "Prince Garth."

Lindsay raised an eyebrow. "'Prince'??"

"It's a long story."

"I'm all ears."

"I'm sure you are. I assure you….I'm all gills."

She giggled.

"You do seem awfully amused."

"Why are you here?" she asked as they walked along. "What about your Titan friends?"

"Oh….engaging in some ridiculous tradition of theirs."

"Why aren't you joining them?"

Tempest smiled. "Somehow….I expect to have plenty of days to catch up."

"Wow, that's optimistic!"

"So it is…..so it is….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

No further than five blocks away, the six of us Titans sat atop the corner balcony of the pizza parlor in the City's Downtown.

We stood up briefly, clear mugs of root beer clanking against each other.

"To peace in the City!!"

"Peace in the City!!"

"Hee hee hee!!"

"Cheers!!"

"Cheers…"

"……….."

After our mugs collided, we all drank the soda heartily…and sat down around our umbrellaed table.

Cyborg finished a long guzzle and clanked his mug down onto the table. He exhaled and nudged Raven. "Told you about the nerve agent thing LONG ago! Didn't I?? Didn't I??"

"Woo wee…," she droned.

"Why's it always that we reach the edge of utter oblivion…," Beast Boy mused, "…and suddenly come roaring back like there's no tomorrow?"

I smirked. I sipped some more root beer.

"It's all a matter of balance, Beast Boy….," Robin smiled. Starfire sat noticeably….close to him at the table. "A balance of….morals or something," the Boy Wonder gestured. "Evil never wins."

"Yeah…but does good?" the changeling pointed.

"For a time…," Robin winked under his eyemask and took a bite of pizza. "…for a really…relaxing time."

"Heeeeee," Starfire cooed.

Raven looked boredly at her food. "As much as it feels nice to celebrate and stuff….," she gazed at the rest of us. She droned: "Is it right, considering all that's been lost?"

"There's always a loss…," Cyborg muttered.

Raven nodded. "True. Thanks for stealing my words, Cy."

Cyborg nodded. He smirked: "You're welcome."

Starfire whispered in Beast Boy's ear. "She just called him 'Cy'…."

"Yeah….," Beast Boy nodded. "Hehehehehe."

Raven glared.

I was silent.

Robin cleared his throat. "There will be……services." He gestured. "To honor the dead."

Cyborg nodded. "Like last time?"

"Yeah."

"That….I was there to remember….," Starfire uttered, her head lowered.

"Tell you what though…," Robin lifted his glass again. "Decker's on cloud nine."

"You don't say. I heard he kicked a lot of ass before the rest of us got there."

"More or less," Robin smirked. He sipped some more root beer, exhaled, and said: "He's glad to have this bloody streak off his hands. Now he has the energy and manpower to once again focus on the Zanzibar Piers case."

"Oh yeah…," Cyborg nodded. "I almost forgot about that."

"Not to mention the death of the Headmistress…," Robin continued. "Although we know that it was Viper who killed her, there are still many questions unanswered. About H.I.V.E….the prison explosion….and now the dragonflare found at Zanzibar."

"I hear that Viper was yakking off about some strange stuff before you and Decker offed the guy…," Beast Boy said. "What was that all about?"

"Viper was insisting that he become the incarnation of death through his actions…," Starfire murmured somberly. "And…considering the fact that he nearly got away with his genocidal schemes….he nearly did become such."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Raven droned. "The man was hellbent on murder."

"And yet….he spoke of another….did he not, Robin?" Starfire glanced over. "Viper was constantly comparing himself to another agent of death. Someone else whom he envied. Someone whom he was in contest with to become a 'reaper'…."

"…….," I stared off into space.

Robin shrugged. "Could be true. Could be not. I said it to Viper's face and I'll say it again. That man was a psychopath. And all plans of a psychopath fail. Viper himself learned this. It all fits the pattern of ….everything."

"Patterns are made to be broken…," Raven said.

"Thanks for putting the doom back in the gloom," Cyborg chuckled.

"Anytime."

Robin cleared his throat. "If there was indeed someone else whom Viper was trying to outshine in the blood arena…..I couldn't imagine it."

"Why not?"

"You tell me, Cyborg…," Robin leaned forward. "Could you possibly envision someone…or something…._more deadly_ than the silent and merciless Viper was?"

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Raven stared through the table.

I took a deep breath.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head: "I'd think we'd know it by now."

"I think we would too…"

"Then…we have nothing to fear of?" Starfire asked. "As long as we are together?"

"I think I know who the incarnation of death is…," Beast Boy smirked.

"Amuse us."

The changeling pointed with a grin. "Ever see Raven on a weekday morning? Fresh out of bed? Whew!! Grim Reaper, move over!"

"Drop. Dead."

"Hehehehehe!! See??"

Robin laughed and Starfire giggled.

Raven rolled her eyes while Cyborg patted her on the back.

Beast Boy kept giggling.

I shook my head with a helpless smirk.

"Heh heh heh…don't be so quick to piss off the goth girls, Beast Boy," the Messenger said as he walked up to our table. He stood and smiled. "Flirt with them too much, and you find out they've got the kiss of death."

I glanced at him. I did a double-take, my black eyes wide. I jumped up to my feet. The chair I was sitting on fell onto its side.

"Whoah…hold your horses, Noir!" the Messenger held a hand up. "I hear of Swedish people peeing themselves the first time they see a Japanese person, but what's your excuse??"

My mouth was agape. My metal arm shivered.

"Uhhhh……," Beast Boy looked at the Messenger…then at me….then at the Messenger again.

"Can we help you?" Cyborg asked.

"Yeah…you can order an extra glass of root beer," the Messenger pointed with a wink. "I'm going to be here for a while."

I kept blinking.

"Uhm….excuse me…," Robin stood up straight. Starfire too. "But…who are you? What do you want?"

"Robin, you're looking handsome today. Love what you did with the cape. But then again…how do you iron-press something that's made out of polymerized Titanium? Heheheheh." The Messenger smirked at me and pointed his thumb at the Titan leader. "Count three seconds and the little hothead will blow his top, I swear to Buddha."

"What's going on here?!?" Robin growled. He looked my way. "Noir, who is this?! Do you know this person?"

I gulped.

"Starfire…hold onto the bird boy, will ya?" the Messenger asked.

Starfire clutched to a shaking Robin, blinking.

I hand-signed as if my old friend could understand me: _'Why are you here?'_

The Messenger looked at me from across the table. His hands dug into his sweatjacket's pockets and his mouth melted into something cold and somber. "I'm sorry I took so long, Noir. Things have been topsy turvey….but I had to come and tell you…"

"?????"

"It's Dagger, Noir…," the Messenger said. "He's alive."


	164. Hand and Dagger part 1

**164. Hand and Dagger part 1**

Monday.

November 1, 2004

12:24 pm

The City.

A grand total of one hundred and ninety square miles.

A population numbering in four million people.

Divided into six major districts.

North: The industrial region. Rows after rows of manufacturing centers, warehouses, and power plants. A decent level of smog, but not so much as to come close to Gotham City. Iron works facilities lined the northernmost quadrants, and in the center was the grandest building of all….a Radioactive Depository with a huge concrete sarcophagus lining the structure and ready to swallow it up like a grave.

Northeast: The slums. Impoverished apartments. Abandoned buildings. Desperate bazaars in the street. Everyday people clinging to each other in the day time and being preyed on at night. A place that supervillains overlooked and petty thieves terrorized. Many secrets festered and shivered in the shadows of Elevated Train tracks running north and south in a continuous loop.

Eastern: The docks. The shipyards. Warehouses and piers built along the glistering crystal waters of the Bay. Freights and fishing boats paraded alongside the blue Atlantic. Cranes and loading equipment brought shipments in through one of the busiest ports on the Eastern Coast of the continent.

Southern: The pretty face of the City. Concrete buildings of bright gray shadowing lush courtyards and healthy commercial districts. The Bayside Plaza. Theatres and eateries. Pizza parlors. Tourist traps. A boardwalk stretching out into the Bay. And a special viewing area for spying on Titans' Island.

Western: The affluent side of the City. Where the urban concrete jungle thinned and gave way to more trees and curving suburbia. The heights of the buildings dropped and residences actually had lawns around their duplexes and houses. The celebrities of the City lived out there, as well as the finest schools. Warehouses and storage centers lined the south while the City's huge and beloved Park rested on the border of the Western district and the Downtown.

Central: Downtown. The spires of the City. The skyline. Kobayashi Tower. Wayne Enterprises. Hotels and business complexes stretched up on either side of a north-south freeway that connected the suspension bridge southwest to the Metropolitan highway north. In the shadow of the highway was Phaser Labs, the scientific capital of the region. Subways connected random avenues where more and more skyscrapers were being built. It was an infantile metropolis, but growing larger and larger by the month.

To the far north…south of the gently rising mountains of forests…was the City of Prison, still rebuilding from the explosion at the Omega Wing. Far East across the Bay, two or three oil platforms were nestled in the raging Atlantic, almost out of sight of the shore. Towards the southwest, the river that ran into the Bay was crossed by the City's second most famous landmark….the Suspension Bridge. A concrete giant that glowed blue in the autumn air of early November.

And then to the south…where the river branched out wide and became the Oceanic Bay…Titan's Tower stretched. It's 'T' arms stretched out like the arms of a savior that shadowed the southern edge of the City. Its windows were ablaze with the reflection of the Sun and waters the same. When the sun was halfway across the sky and the beams of light illuminated the Tower for all it was worth, all eyes were on it. Helpless, trusting Citizens.

The population.

The City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

His warm brown eyes stared out past his reflection and at the glistening City beyond the glass. There was a granite solemnity stretched across his face for but a moment. A haunting replacement of the warmth that the ghost boy usually exhibited. He seemed to be looking for something that he knew was in the skyline but couldn't quite convince the principalities of the air of it. He breathed slowly, his hands stuck into his neon green sweatjacket's pouch. An even greener hood rested behind his neck. Emerald highlights kissed the end of spiked, black hair.

"……….."

Slowly, he turned around. And when he was looking at us, he was smiling. Warm as ever. The exact same snapshot of the Messenger I ever knew. And I only knew a fraction of him.

"You know…it's a little uncanny, but your City looks a hell of a lot like San Francisco at first glance…," he pointed out the window. "I wonder if that's a silly coincidence or just God's way of saying we need more homosexuals on the East Coast?"

The rest of us stood across from him in the Main Room. Half of us had our arms folded. Robin the most.

"We brought you up here for one reason and one reason only, stranger," his eyemask narrowed. "We're intrigued."

The Messenger giggled.

Raven raised an eyebrow. She shared a glance with Cyborg.

I sweatdropped.

The Messenger shook his head, smiling. "Intrigued? Robin…you are many things. But you are certainly never intrigued."

Robin sneered: "What do you possibly know about me?"

"I know that you are a detective," the Messenger gestured. "Much like the mentor under whose leather wings you were spawned forth from an innocent young boy of the street. Your life from age eleven or twelve has been a huge brick wall of reality constantly slamming you in the noggin'. God, I'd hate to see you suffer an aneurysm from all of that egotistical self-bashing. But regardless, it's admirable to notice that you're not the type to base anything off of _intrigue_. That's my job, Robin. I jump through the barriers and spy on the intrigue between the walls. That which seems morally destructive alarms me, and I try to find concrete ways of proving the danger to vigilantes and do-gooders liken unto yourselves. One may call such a system espionage. But I'd rather relate it to a messaging service. And I, dear Titans….," he bowed dramatically with a grin, "….am a Messenger."

"Cute….," Raven droned.

Starfire floated forward, an anxious look on her face as she wrung her hands: "And you….h-have associated with Noir before?"

The asian teenager looked my way.

I stared at him through my shades.

He looked back at the Titans, the Tamaranian foremost. He smiled: "Yes. I've known the badass."

I glanced down at the floor.

"Not as long as you Titans have known him, granted. But we opened communication somewhere in the vicinity of……ohhhh…..between holocausts. Slade holocausts. When Anderson croaked like the frog he was and Viper first made his little schoolgirl prance into this City. I helped Noir a little bit here and there. And why shouldn't I have? He's a handsome guy……plus he reminds me of Chow Yun Fat."

I raised an eyebrow.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

I groaned inwardly.

A figure stepped into view.

Robin.

"And….why did you never tell the rest of us about this communication before??" Robin asked, glaring at me.

I sweatdropped. I glanced at Cyborg and prepared a flurry of desperate hand signs when--

The Messenger stood between Robin and I. He placed a hand on Robin's caped shoulder, smiled, and said: "That's just the thing, Tweety. The word _was_ passed around this bird cage of yours. Only…it wasn't the word you and the other Titans thought it was."

"…..," Robin looked at the Messenger. Then at his hand. He peeled the fingers off his shoulder and glared: "What do you mean?"

"Dagger and Slade did a little hacking and manipulating of transferred files within the Tower's mainframe," the Messenger smiled. "That's how the whole mess started."

"What whole mess?" Cyborg asked.

The Messenger glanced over. Warm, almond optics blinked. "Why….labeling Noir a traitor, of course."

A collective wince was felt throughout the room. Everyone in the room took a subconscious, spiritual step back.

Everyone but Tempest.

He blinked innocently and gazed at the Messenger: "So…I'm lost here. Where'd you come from all of the sudden?"

"I….," the Messenger smiled and paced around the room and among us all. "….I come from the great Plane beyond. The spiritual horizon to which all of our souls are attached and one day are inevitably bound to return to." He gestured his small hands into the air dramatically: "A celestial circle of sacred divinity and cleansing of souls…"

"Really?" Starfire gasped.

"Nah, I was just shittin' you," he winked. "It doesn't matter where I come from. It only matters what I bring. And I bring news. Not-so-happy news. And fate would have it that the only reason I ever appear to show my cute face is when the cat doo-doo is hitting the proverbial fan. Isn't that right, Noir?" He looked at me.

I nodded.

Robin scratched his head.

"Dagger…," Cyborg uttered. He took a titanium step forward. "You said that he was alive…"

"Well I hope so," the Messenger examined his hand nonchalantly. "I'd hate to be delusional."

"For a messenger, you're very coy…," Raven droned.

He smiled back at her. "And you have so much more sugar than spice than you give yourself credit for, cutie."

"……," Raven blinked.

Cyborg stepped between her and the Messenger's gaze, frowning a little. "What she means is……you should get to the point."

"Sheesh!! Where's the patience in this dimension? I swear….you kids are too grown up for your own good. Alas…," the Messenger sauntered over and sat cross-legged and petite on the back of the sofa. "…I guess that's what you get when all you have is an Institute and no Professor."

Beast Boy blinked. "Uhhh….what?"

"Never you mind," the Messenger shook his head. "Listen closely…"

We couldn't resist leaning forward.

The Messenger's face was between a smile and a hard place. The words dripped from his lips as he gestured: "Yes, Dagger is alive. And he is dangerous. As a matter of fact, Dagger is always dangerous when he is alive. It's a winning combination…though it's all counted to our loss. Dagger may look like the epitome of death on the surface. But his existence only denotes chaos. Chaos through order. His life has been one long and cataclysmic experiment in balling up the evil of this entire hemisphere and smithing it into a two edge sword which he could use at his command. Only…it's not truly a sword that he resorts to. But knives. Rapiers. Daggers. Tiny pinpricks of poison so uniformly and so expertly placed that they tear a body and destructure it from the inside out. Dagger is cold, emotionless, calculated…and ultimately as venomous as the invisible machine his legacy has built. Oh no, Titans….death doesn't swallow him up so easily. Nobody kills a god by plummeting him to concrete."

Starfire blinked. She gazed in my direction. "Is it my lack of understanding….or did not Noir sufficiently bring Dagger unto his demise?"

The Messenger glanced at me, and so did the rest of the room.

I bit my lip.

"Noir…..you remember that one stormy night following July Fourth, verdad?"

I took a deep breath.

My metal fingers curled…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"Obstinate….," the dark-haired man's eyes narrowed. "…so horribly obstinate…."_

_He jumped up, twirled, and sidekicked me square across the face._

_SMACK!!!!_

_I was sent spiraling backwards and through the gothic windows of the skyscraper._

_SMASH!!!!!!!!!!_

_My bleeding body ragdolled out onto the rainswept ledge of the spire. _

_Lightning flashed._

_My body winced amidst a curtain of rain and glass shards. _

_Wyldecarde's goggles were shattered and broken apart. _

_Wet footsteps. _

_Dagger marched towards me. _

_Leering. _

_Unemotional. _

"_You disappoint me, Jordan…" _

_I wheezed. _

_He held his breath and kicked me hard in the side._

_WHUMP!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I hand-signed into the naked air.

The Messenger gazed over from where he sat cross-legged atop the back of the couch.

His lips were slightly curved.

Calm…

Cyborg spoke as he watched my metal and flesh fingers move:

"Dagger was using the hex stolen from Jinx, the Third Apprentice. He had a factory full of the pink stuff. It was what allowed his men such well-timed attacks and ambushes at Phaser Labs when Wyldecarde was doing his thing. Early in the morning of July Fifth, Noir fought Dagger face to face."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I hung from the edge of the balcony. _

_Rain slid off the granite ledge and pelted my naked face. _

_I gasped and strained for breath. _

_Dagger stood above me. _

_The City yawned deep and wide below with unforgiving asphalt. _

"_Learn to embrace the end, Jordan," the cold man sighed. "All your life…you've been avoiding it." _

_I frowned. _

_I produced the stolen vial of pink hex._

_Dagger's eyes widened. _

_I let go of the ledge. _

_I plummeted. _

_I broke the vial, absorbed the hex, and guided my fate. _

_The petroleum truck exploded below me in a brilliant ball of flame. _

_With angled murk, I sent myself back up into the air from the propulsion of the blast. _

_I sailed at Dagger. _

_Myrkblade sang into the air. _

_SLASSSSSSSH!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Dagger's pink powers had faded," Cyborg read. "He was a mere mortal again. Noir didn't have any mercy. He attacked and attacked and attacked with his sword."

I breathed gently and blindly hand-signed into the Main Room's air.

"Dagger suffered many wounds. But none of them were mortal. He wasn't truly in danger until…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dagger fell over the edge of the rainswept balcony. _

_I dove forward and grabbed his shirt with my flesh, left hand. _

_CLUTCH!!!!_

_The man dangled, bleeding, his feet trailing above the blackness of an alleyway shrouded by night and rain. _

_He looked up at me._

_Helpless._

_But still…unemotional. Unrelenting._

_"You are far more alone than even I thought, Jordan………," he murmured. _

_I panted. _

_My black eyes twitching, moist and cold. _

_"But perhaps not for long….," he whispered. "For you still have Titans to save." _

_I swallowed. _

_The words were exchanged. _

_The secrets of Slade's hideout. _

_The chip in my arm that would kill me._

_"Alas, such is the consequence of fate," Dagger murmured. A secret arm slipped up and pulled a dagger out from his pocket. He clung to it where I couldn't see. "It clips us of our wings…and sends our dust settling back into the heartless streets." _

_And his arm blurred upwards. _

_And he sliced the last shred of the shirt clinging to him. _

_I jerked down towards him with a gasp. _

_But Dagger fell. _

_And his body was swallowed up by the darkness of the alleyway._

_Buried in rain and thunder._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Shortly after that…the top level of Dagger's skyscraper exploded…," Cyborg read off my hands. He gazed at the other Titans. "Noir says it was a sure sign of Dagger's death. Much like how the frigate nearly exploded when Noir skewered Slade dead and tossed him into the Ocean. There was something akin to a biologically linked explosive."

The other Titans nodded.

"BUT!!!"

Everyone glanced over.

The Messenger leapt down from the back of the couch. _Plop!_ He paced between us, gesturing: "Rule number one about villain demises….you never….ever….._ever_…just let the bad guy 'fall to his death', especially when he falls into either…**A**…a body of water or….**B**….a huge abyss of shadowed mystery." He stood in place with his hands on his hips. "That's just ASKING for it!!"

I winced.

The Messenger walked towards me, smiling. "Now….Noir….who could blame you for letting go of Dagger? It was raining. You'd been through a lot. You were about to lose your paper-hanging hand, for god's sake…..how could you have POSSIBLY let Dagger live through that, much less went around searching for his body after his headquarters was so ceremoniously razed off the face of the earth??"

"I do not perceive how a mortal Terran could have survived such a terrible fall…," Starfire murmured.

"Neither do I, to be honest….," the Messenger shrugged. "Beats the Hell out of me." He looked at Beast Boy. "Right?"

"Uhhh……"

Robin stepped forward: "Then how did Dagger survive? If you're so certain that he's alive, you tell US how he made it through that!"

"I don't know how he made it through that!"

"Then how in the Hell do you suppose that he is alive?!?!"

"Because I've seen him!!!" the Messenger shouted.

Robin shut up.

The other Titans were quiet.

I rubbed my chin, looking at the Messenger. Curious as to how he knew that only a louder voice could make Robin's volume go lower.

The asian teen smiled and spoke calmly again: "I travel around a lot, Robin. I go places you couldn't even possibly imagine. Sorry to leave you out of the magic eye painting again, Boy Wonder…but I've got superpowers that you don't. If you could call them that. I think of them as gifts…when in all actuality, they're just a biological mutation. But not any normal biological mutation. My essence is tied to the invisible structures of all Existence. What is Existence? I cannot tell you in so simple words. Maybe in a couple of dimensions from now. Say….the Sixth or the Seventh. But you'll never see those planes in your lifetime. Not as if you would need eyes to 'see' them. Not as if they are even capable of being 'seen'. I could go on for hours and hours about all the stupid little pet tricks I can do inside and outside your space time continuum, but let's leave it at understanding that I can get from A to Z pretty damn quickly. And during one of my frolicking trips, I happened upon Gotham City. Not a month had passed since the supposed death of Dagger…and I witnessed something. A meeting. A tripartite association of ambassadors representing dark forces that would unify this City, Gotham City, and Metropolis under one nefarious force simply known as Triangular."

"Triangular?" Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "You just made that up, dude!"

"If only I did, Legolas," the Messenger glanced. He gestured: "Don't ask me why, but I like to concern myself with this chaotic little reality. There are so many layering alternates nearly identical to it….but this one takes the cake. There are things unfolding in this universe that will ultimately affect the continuum of all walls bordering it. It's like a kink in the armor of Existence's Foundation. A fluke in the pattern of all things that be. After all, accidents happen when randomness is the one true law of the Land."

"Nice to hear you're such a peeping tom in our dimension," Robin mumbled. "Now what's this about a 'Triangular'?"

"Ah…I knew your feathers would be aroused at hearing the word 'Gotham City' in the declaration. Forces from three regions have formed together to create a movement called Triangular. Like I said before…ambassadors were acting on behalf of those involved. All except for one force. One of the three. This leader wasn't the type to let puppet subordinates represent him. He's always the one to take the bull by the horns…and slice its brain out."

"Dagger…right?" Cyborg uttered.

The Messenger nodded. "I saw him in the flesh. And not only that, the immaculate flesh. Which puzzled me…cuz you sure hacked the ever-living snot out of him with that sword of yours, didn't you, Noir?"

I gulped.

"Anyways, there he was. I saw him from beyond the invisible veil. The green cloak I use to move from one world to another. Dagger was alive. And not only that, he was already moving towards some seedy goal. As always…under the cover of darkness or the shadows of the criminal underground. It's worthy to note that in this City…his headquarters…he lost nearly everything on the night that Slade died. And yet…when I saw him at the meeting of Triangular, he was clean. Well dressed. He had henchmen. He had transport. He had weapons. He had everything. It was like he had never once been burned in the first place. So what is there to be twice shy over??"

The Messenger looked at Robin. "Dagger is on the move. And he is on the move quickly. Whatever he is planning with Triangular…I suspect it is his way of ultimately bouncing back. It's his method of returning from the grave for good. And for once…he is working alongside others. Not in servitude to them….but because everyone who is involved in Triangular—in this City, in Gotham, and in Metropolis—are uniquely being sucked of their power from the inside-out by a bloody parasite that threatens to have the heads of the entire criminal underground on a platter."

"A parasite?" Starfire blinked.

"A person?"

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

Slowly, the Messenger smiled. And it wasn't sadistic as much as it was ironic.

"Red….Aviary…."

A chill ran through my body from my left prosthetic and up. I gripped my hand and shuddered.

The other Titans shifted nervously.

The Messenger slowly spun around between us and continued: "Red Aviary…a phrase you no doubt have heard before. Jinx's troupe has rambled on and on about it to Noir. And just recently…Viper tried to become it. But alas, Viper was just a taste of things to come. That assassin is _always_ a taste of things to come. Whether he be chopping hands off of judges and wardens preluding a tilt to the balance of morals or if he be murdering tons of people left and right and plotting chemical genocide to challenge some invisible 'gladiator'….Viper is always the beginning of something. Which was what prompted me into paying your treehouse a visit in the flesh finally. Because where Viper ends….Dagger begins. And both men are doing the exact same thing in uniquely opposite ways. But all for the same reason. Whether or not they choose to admit it, they're shivering in their boots. They're shivering in their boots because they live in the criminal underground. And the criminal underground is the spawning pool of something so deadly, so indicative of the spirit of death and Destruction, that they must now take measures to try and usurp it. Viper tried to do it on his own. He bit it in the end. And Dagger? He's working the best way he's always done. Through manipulation. Manhandling the feet and hearts of the masses. And bureaucratically merging his consciousness with the filthy squalor of crime lords throughout the hemisphere. The Triangular is one desperate attempt….a do-or-die operation that seeks to let the bloody tide of Red Aviary pass over and allow the evils of this world a space in time to reemerge safely atop the pinnacle of success. I am not entirely sure they know who they are dealing with……for red death itself knows no nemesis."

"You know that Dagger is part of this group…," Robin said. "But do you know the other two factions?"

The Messenger shrugged with a sigh. "Try as I could…I could not. There are some attics even a ghost can't penetrate without getting in trouble. I do not know who everyone is….but I do know what has been done…"

Robin raised an eyebrow.

The Messenger smiled: "In Gotham City…there has been a breakout of the most dangerous of villains. Arkham Asylum recently lost its hold on the Ventriloquist, Killer Croc, and Clayface. Those three are still at large…and people suspect a conspiracy." He shifted his feet and gestured: "In Metropolis…a string of factory robberies has sent Maggie Sawyer and her department on a wild goose change. All the while—under their noses—Intergang has increased in strength tenfold, receiving money and resources from a mysterious benefactor and being geared towards a battle of some sort." He paused, then smiled: "And…..in this City….--"

"The prison…," Raven uttered. Blinking. "The prison explosion and the ensuing near-breakout of villains…."

The Messenger raised a finger: "Ah….but it's so…_so_ much more complex in this City. Much more than in the other two urban zones. Which makes it clear that the issue of Triangular focuses itself right….here." He glanced at all of us in general. "Yes…there was an explosion at the Prison. Yes, there were materials laid out for prisoners of the Omega Wing to get ahold of. And yes, a few cretins escaped. But…" He pointed. "This is the work of three people. One. Dagger supplied the props and weapons for the villains to get ahold of. Two. Jinx, Pulsade, and their little hacker friend plotted the pink-haired-prisoner's escape. And Three……..someone started the whole thing. With the explosive. The explosive which was set…to kill Jinx in the first place."

Starfire's lips parted. "R-Red Aviary?"

The Messenger nodded. "Jinx was meant to die. Jinx didn't want to die. Jinx found a way to escape. Dagger saw an opportunity. Dagger supplied materials in a seedy way that only he could. What should have been an assassination ended up becoming an escape and what should have been an escape ended up becoming a chaotic battle-fest for the ages. Man, what a morning that must have been. I would have paid my college tuition for the Paperview special if I wasn't doing college already. Ha!"

"But….why would Red Aviary want Jinx to die?" Beast Boy blinked. A beat. "_WHO_ is Red Aviary?"

The Messenger shrugged. He sat on an armrest of the sofa. "A man? Woman? A dog? A cow with a rocket launcher and chainsaw strapped to its udders? Who knows?!?!" He cackled. A chuckle. A sigh. "Nobody knows. Because anyone who so much as looks into the eyes of Red Aviary dies." He looked at Robin and Starfire. "That's how you know for sure that Viper was just a copy-cat. You saw his eyes and you lived."

Starfire gulped.

Robin stepped forward. "You're saying Red Aviary set off the explosion at the prison?"

The Messenger nodded. "He was there."

"But as we speak, evidence is piling up against the men at the Zanzibar Piers…," Robin gestured. "Not only does it seem one hundred and twenty percent likely that they were in possession of the props dispersed at the prison, but they also had the exact amount of carbonite explosives missing from their cache to set off an explosion approximately designed to cause that as happened in the Omega Wing!"

"A very good coincidence, I must say," the Messenger smiled.

Robin's fists clenched. "Do you actually expect us to believe that?"

"No, I expect you to keep this in mind…," the asian teen pointed. "Red Aviary is a predator. Yes. But like I said before, he is also a parasite. The explosives at Zanzibar Pier WERE used at the Omega Wing. But as you're going to find out soon…there was no way in Hell any of the men in that warehouse could have gotten NEAR the Omega Wing. But Red Aviary….that's different. What wall can hold death itself back?"

"Does Dagger know he's being leeched off of?" Cyborg asked.

Robin glanced at him funny.

"Most certainly he does….in fact…I bet he predicted it," the Messenger said. "He's had a front row seat to Red Aviary long before any of us has ever had a migraine over it. Although—I will admit—I've been in the know for quite a while now. And yet, not enough to tell you who all the players are. But I've come instead to give you warnings."

"What sort of warnings? You mean you haven't been giving them to us yet?"

"That was all just the precursor…," the Messenger stood up, digging his hands into his sweatjacket's pouch. "The day is coming. The day of Dagger's strike."

"S-Strike??" Starfire murmured.

"What kind of strike?" Tempest asked.

The Messenger looked over. "Overwhelming…."

"………"

The asian teen pointed out of the Main Room's windows. "Do you know whose City this is?"

"The people's," Cyborg said. "It belongs to the citizens who live here."

"Correct," the Messenger nodded. "Provided you're reading right out of a damn Richard Scary book." He pointed more firmly out at the City and repeated: "**Whose….City….is….this????"**

We were silent.

"Dagger's….," the Messenger spoke. "It always has been….it always will be…."

"But…dude…th-that can't be true…," Beast Boy scratched his fuzzy green head. "How could—"

"A little less surfer accent and a little more action in our lives, Link…," the Messenger rambled as he paced towards us with arms stretched aside. "This City belongs to Dagger….as much as Dagger is concerned. It has never been an issue of conquering these skyscrapers and alleyways…but simply managing it. The City to him is like a stallion riding eternally into the Atlantic Bay. And lately…the giant granite horse that he's lead to water all these years is refusing to drink. Dagger has been gone for but a few months, my friends. But he's back…and he's carrying with him one hell of a bigass riding stick. He will take this City back…or else he will destroy anything and everything that stands in his path. Maybe both." The Messenger shifted to a stop. He folded his arms: "It is only a matter of days now. This City is ready to explode in on itself. Everything is about to hit the fan….but it can be lessened, if not stopped altogether. Because even though there's a despot in the shadows ready to sink his iron fists into the heart of this land once again, there're also seven noble superheroes more than capable of fending him off…….IF……," he pointed with a smile. "….if…..they get the right message of where to go first."

"……………."

The Main Room was hauntingly quiet.

Robin spoke for the greater number of us: "How can you possibly…..expect us all to believe you…….just _like that_??"

Silence.

The Messenger looked at Robin. A beat. He looked at me.

I sat on the stool to the side of the Main Room. By the kitchen unit. Looking cold, clutching my shivering left arm. I stared helplessly at the teen.

A beat.

The Messenger smiled at Robin: "You'll come around. That's why I came a day early."

The Boy Wonder's eyebrow raised.

The Messenger stepped back. "I hinted of it before. But you'll get your proof. I prophecy that….by sundown….you'll realize that the people at Zanzibar Piers could _only_ have worked with Dagger. And not only that….there was no way they could have set the bomb themselves. I'll be there to see to that revelation. Until now….I must leave you…"

"But…wh-where're you going?" Beast Boy pointed.

"Where else?" the Messenger pulled out his wrist and fingered a huge, black watch on his hand. He winked. "Home."

He tapped his watch.

FLASH!!!!

In a puff of green light, he was gone.

The rest of us murmured.

"Uhm….okay…," Tempest blinked. He looked to Robin. "Where did he fart off to?"

Robin took a deep breath, his arms hanging by his side. "It doesn't matter…."

"But…Robin….," Starfire placed a hand on his shoulder. "His words were most ominous, were they not?"

"Perhaps…," the Boy Wonder muttered. "That remains to be seen." He gently removed Starfire's hand from his shoulder and looked at half of us. "Noir. Cyborg. with me. We need to do some homework."

"Well, allright."

"Yes, Robin."

"……….."

The three of us trailed after the caped leader into the elevator.

The rest stood behind, confuzzled.

"Okay…..now for the showstopper…," Tempest blinked his dark eyes and looked over to Beast Boy. "Who in Neptune's name is Dagger?"

"Dude….where would you be without the rest of us?"

"I'm just saying—Help me out here!!"

"Dagger is….Dagger is……..sheesh….I-I hardly even know who he is myself!!"

"Then what's the big deal?!?!"

"The big deal is that the last time we ever heard about Dagger, all five of us were being strapped to torture chairs by Slade."

"Oh. How quaint."

"Right on, dude. This doesn't feel good. This doesn't feel good at all…"

Starfire stared at the closed doors of the elevator once they were gone. Her eyes were large and round. A name hung off her lips as she nervously wrung her amber hands together.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"No match. Not a single one. Not for his face. Not for his voice. Not even for his brain wave signatures….," Cyborg muttered as he entered a final, futile keystroke and ended the massive search at the computer console. The android Titan exhaled through his nose and said: "Either he was born completely out of the world's available data banks…or he simply isn't from this Earth."

The four of us stood in Cyborg's laboratory. Robin, Raven, Cyborg, and myself. The four top ranking Titans.

_Heh……_

"How about identity theft? Physical alteration?" Robin asked.

"Man….," Cyborg swiveled and shrugged at the Boy Wonder. "Can't we just accept him for what he looks to be? A teleporting, ambiguous, do-gooder?"

"I don't take things like this easily….do I, Raven?"

"You sure don't, Robin…."

"He's telling us a lot—granted—and he's making a show of it. But at the same time, he's holding back a lot. He's remaining ambiguous, mysterious, vague….for some reason. And where you keep people in the unknown…you retain power."

"Or perhaps you just retain caution?" Cyborg gestured. "Look, dawg, this guy's trying to do something good for us. Noir trusts him, why can't we?"

"……," Robin looked at me.

I stared back at him.

"Can we really trust him, Noir?" the Boy Wonder asked. His eyemasks were solid and set straight. "Is his word for real?"

I took a deep breath. I nodded.

"Are you sure?"

"……," I glanced at Raven.

So did the other two boys.

She inhaled and crossed her arms. "I……sensed honesty."

"He was telling the truth?"

"At least….he believes he's telling us the truth," Raven droned. She waved a dainty hand: "Whatever the case, he's not _trying_ to deceive us."

"And all of that gibberish about dimension hopping…what's with that?" Cyborg asked.

"How am I to know anything of that?"

"Just askin', Rae…"

A beat.

She rubbed her temples. "Mmmm……he is…..very calm."

"Calm?" Robin asked.

"As if he's in constant meditation no matter where he is. He's of more sound mind than….th-than just about anyone I've witnessed in this world yet. It almost reminds me of the acolytes of Azarath. Or random Buddhists from the City streets in summer. But there's an even greater clarity of mind. As if he has no worries whatsoever….just…..just…."

"Just what, Raven?"

"Just answers, Cyborg…," she exhaled…a bit of calm washing over her too. "Simple…crystal clean….a-answers…."

I folded my flesh and metal hands together. I took a deep breath and lowered my eyes.

_I can still hear the sound……even if just a whisper……_

"And I can sense that he has a connection to Noir."

My black optics reopened.

Raven had her arms folded and was motioning with her blue head: "I feel a touch of his meditation inside of him. Somewhat different from the sort of calmness Noir himself practices with his sword. Something that Noir didn't have when he joined us."

"He says that he helped you shortly before Slade died…," Robin said to me. "How exactly did he help you?"

I glanced down at the floor. A beat. I hand-signed.

Cyborg interpreted: "'The Messenger didn't so much as help me as he….gave me hope'."

Robin's eyebrow raised. "Hope?"

I nodded. A sweetly weak smile. I gestured.

Cyborg read: "'He gave me the hope to go against Slade and the Third Apprentice. And in a few tight places, he pointed me in the right direction. Gave me the right warnings.'"

Raven glanced at my left arm. "Did he….give you all of your strategies when you were Wyldecarde?"

I shivered a bit. I hand-signed.

Cyborg spoke: "'No…he only pushed. I chose the slopes I slid down.'"

"I can't help but wonder, Noir…," Robin leaned against a wall with his arms crossed. "Why it is that you never felt inclined to tell us about him before?"

I bit my lip. My metal fingers flexed.

I didn't have to 'say' anything…and yet, Cyborg looked from me to Robin and said: "I think…I-I think Noir needed distance from us as much as we needed it from him during the whole…..m-misunderstanding with Wyldecarde."

Robin swallowed.

Raven glanced into a dark corner somewhere.

I ran a hand through my long hair and hand-signed: _"'Do we trust the Messenger or not?'"_

"I really don't know, Noir…..I just really don't know….," Robin said. "I already don't like his public speaking skills."

"Why? Cuz he's cheerful?" Cyborg smirked.

Robin glared. He went on unabated: "I feel like this is a much _unneeded_ distraction at a much needy time. Let's pretend like this never happened. And if the Messenger's words are so important, than they'll make themselves known just as he wants them too. Until then…"

"RECESS!!!" Cyborg cheered.

Raven shook her head and hung her face in her head. "Dear Zeus…."

"Heheheheh….," Cyborg clapped her shoulder. "It's little outbursts like that which make the world go round, right cutie?"

"Remind me to fry your circuits later."

"No."

Raven shuffled out of the room.

Robin slowly followed.

I whistled.

Robin stopped. "……" He turned and looked at me.

"……," I smiled. I held a thumb's up.

"…….," he smiled slightly. He did a glove's thumb's up and sighed. "We all have our secret ways of doing things…of helping others….."

"………."

"I of all people should learn to embrace anonymity," Robin murmured. "Look at you, Mister. Already months ahead of me."

I folded my arms with a smile.

"Whatever…," Robin groaned and walked out into the hallway. "Decker should be calling soon, so…."

He was gone.

I gazed out the doorway.

"Hey…"

I turned and looked at Cyborg.

He stood up from the computer chair. "I just wanna say that….I-I'm relieved."

I raised an eyebrow. "????"

"I'm relieved that…that somebody was….y-ya know…," he rubbed the human part of his head and gazed at the laboratory floor. "……somebody was actually your 'friend'….back when we kicked you out of the Tower and all…"

"…………," I took a deep breath. I wanted to assure him, but I remembered that guys don't hug. So I simply shrugged, smiled, saluted, and left.

And everything was fine.

Everything….was fine……

……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I went into my room and signed on to the Internet as soon as I could.

**InzeUltima: Hey :D Whats up**

I let out a happy sigh.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: Hey gorgeous**

**InzeUltima: Whoah. 'Gorgeous' is it now?**

**SpSquirrel: Last time I checked.**

**InzeUltima: Been buying any new posters of me lately?**

**SpSquirrel: Haven't the time. I've been busy chatting with you online.**

**InzeUltima: :P Har Har**

**SpSquirrel: What else do you want from me?**

**InzeUltima: info**

**SpSquirrel: Info?**

**InzeUltima: Yeah. Howd it go kicking that Viper guys butt?**

**SpSquirrel: I wasn't there. Starfire and Robin were.**

**InzeUltima: Bah. Theyre always hogging all the glory.**

**SpSquirrel: Not necessarily. When the City was blacked out by a solid sphere of obsidian, it was Raven who saved the day.**

**InzeUltima: Sure it was**

**  
SpSquirrel: ….what is that supposed to mean?**

**  
InzeUltima: Have I told u how jealous I am**

**SpSquirrel: Enlighten me again.**

**InzeUltima: Practically every week ur bashing in the head of some nasty villain after another. Man, I wish I could join you guys**

**SpSquirrel: You could, you know. Robin would absolutely go ballistic over having a super-someone on our team.**

**InzeUltima: Yeah, but……. **

**SpSquirrel: Another Month, Another Clark Kent…huh?**

**InzeUltima: Yeah…. **

**SpSquirrel: I wonder what it must feel like. **

**InzeUltima: What? **

**SpSquirrel: Guardians knowing that you're a superhero and the strain of having to deal with them. **

**InzeUltima: Yeah…well a third of my 'guardians' just happens to be a superhero himself. I mean wuts his excuse? I wonder if I should be envious of you. **

**SpSquirrel: How so?**

**InzeUltima: Not having parents around to tell you what to do. That's a superpower all in itself. I know that might sound cruel**

**SpSquirrel: I'm not an orphan, Kara.**

**InzeUltima: ……ur not?**

I took a deep breath.

I smiled weakly and typed.

**SpSquirrel: No.**

**InzeUltima: But….But….**

**SpSquirrel: I just don't know where my family is. **

**InzeUltima: You don't?**

I shook my head.

**SpSquirrel: I haven't seen them in a long time.**

**InzeUltima: Since you joined the Titans? **

**SpSquirrel: Further ago than that. Before I trained in the Spectrum.**

**InzeUltima: Spectrum??**

**SpSquirrel: Long story. I just haven't seen them in ages. And they aren't where they used to be.**

**InzeUltima: Dear Kela…that's horrible. Don't you ever wonder what happened to them? Where they went and all?**

**SpSquirrel: All the time, Kara. I think of them often.**

**InzeUltima: But what if something happened to them?**

I shrugged.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: I've prepared myself for the best and the worst. **

**InzeUltima: That must take a lot of strength.**

**SpSquirrel: Who knows what is good and who knows what is bad? Besides….**

I smiled.

**SpSquirrel: I have a family of my own now. I've known that for a long time.**

**InzeUltima: The Titans showed you that, huh? : )**

**SpSquirrel: Not just them. I had help.**

**InzeUltima: Oh? From who?**

I took a deep breath, gazing off with naked black eyes across my dark interior.

**SpSquirrel: An old friend.**

**InzeUltima: Someone I'm supposed to know? **

**SpSquirrel: Yes and no. What matters is that he's back.**

**InzeUltima: He is?**

**SpSquirrel: Yeah. And as always…he brings both tidings of goodness and warnings of terror.**

**InzeUltima: Eww….sounds sticky.**

**SpSquirrel: Tell me about it. **

**InzeUltima: Well, is his return a good thing?**

I leaned my head to the side.

I scratched my chin.

A beat…..

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: A good thing. **

**InzeUltima: Then what are you worried about?**

**  
SpSquirrel: It's not so much a worry as it is a feeling. **

**InzeUltima: What sort of feeling, Jordan?**

**SpSquirrel: Well…as much as he has blessed me in the past, he only appeared during times of great trials and tribulation…and great duress.**

**InzeUltima: Like….?**

**SpSquirrel: He was there for me when I was Wyldecarde. I was never truly **_**alone**_** when I had to fight the Titans for their lives. I had him to lean on. And Renee and Daniel too. But I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for him. His guiding spirit. His commitment…..to the ideas of friendship.**

**InzeUltima: That sounds really endearing, Jordan. **

**SpSquirrel: But….**

**InzeUltima: But what?**

I took a shuddering breath.

I swallowed a lump down my throat and typed.

**SpSquirrel: I don't like the feeling I'm getting now that he's here again. I feel like things are coming full circle once. It's haunting…like a shiver up my spine. I'm almost too scared to find out what he's prophesying now.**

**InzeUltima: Awwww….I wish I was there for you, Jordan. **_**Really**_** THERE.**

I shut my eyes and blindly typed.

**SpSquirrel: I wish you were here too, Kara.**

Silence.

Then…

The electronic chiming sound of an instant message.

I opened my eyes, and my face twisted.

Because….

**XraverGreen: a/s/l?**

"………..," I blinkd.

**XraverGreen: Sorry, tender moment I'm interrupting?**

I typed into the new window.

**SpSquirrel: How do you do that?**

**XraverGreen: I dunno, I think I was born with a sort of empathy homing missile brain that chooses the appropriate time to interrupt people and annoy the ever-living-fluff out of them.**

**SpSquirrel: No, I mean I thought you had left the Tower….th-this dimension….whatever. How are you typing to me? **

**XraverGreen: Something I like to call a transreality signal extender. **

**SpSquirrel: ?????**

**  
XraverGreen: Not something being offered by Brighthouse Services this Christmas, I assure you of that.**

**SpSquirrel: Er…..**

**XraverGreen: You got a moment, Noir? **

**SpSquirrel: Sure…hang on a sec.**

I flipped to the other window.

I winced as I forced myself to type:

**SpSquirrel: brb**

**InzeUltima: Uh…..sure….**

I cleared my throat.

I went back to the Messenger's communiqué.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: What did you want to discuss?**

**XraverGreen: Ah, so now it's called 'discussion' between you and I. I wanted to pay you respect like in the old days, Noir. One on one. Just you and me. Like it used to be.**

**SpSquirrel: Should I dim the lights or something?**

**XraverGreen: lol! Look at you! I'd say I was having an effect on you finally if I hadn't witnessed that green elf friend of yours first hand.**

**SpSquirrel: Robin doesn't like your style of message-giving.**

**XraverGreen: And Siamese Twins come in pairs. Kudos to you, Einstein. That Bird Boy was going to chop off my head with that frown of his any second, I swear to Ptolemy!**

**SpSquirrel: It figures. Why did you choose now of all times to reveal yourself to the rest of the Titans, much less just me?**

**XraverGreen: Must you really ask? **

**SpSquirrel: Yes, I must. **

**XraverGreen: Ah, there's the Noir I remember. To the point as always. Ahem. Well, you're no longer the angsty, lone swordsman that you used to be, Noir.**

**SpSquirrel: You don't say…**

**XraverGreen: Oh, but I do. You've fused yourself in with your closest friends and allies. The Titans. Your family.**

**SpSquirrel: You couldn't tell me what was going on and leave the other Titans out because it would be like informing a part of a grand whole, huh?**

**XraverGreen: Eureka! He displaces water in the tub! **

**SpSquirrel: You're wyrd. **

**XraverGreen: Thanks. I mean to say, you're right on the money. Washingtons, Lincolns, and Hamiltons aside…the spotlight's no longer just on you.**

**SpSquirrel: When was it ever?**

**XraverGreen: So modest, I swear. Know this, Noir. I talked directly to the one person I absolutely needed to today.**

**SpSquirrel: …… **

**XraverGreen: Go on. Guess. It shouldn't even take a grade schooler a minute to yank the paste out of his nose and say it.**

**SpSquirrel: Robin.**

**XraverGreen: Bingo. A good guess would have been Raven. But nobody paints her Aviary red. She prefers black. God, they all do. It's wonderful…**

**SpSquirrel: Messenger, what do you know about Red Aviary? Honestly?**

**XraverGreen: Exactly what I told Robin, you, and the Titans, Noir. I don't know who or what it is. I only know that it's a real threat. I'm still trying to figure stuff out. Things are throwing me for a loop this time. But I do the best I can. A Messenger is like a press agent. He has to stay ahead of the story. And when it bleeds—boy oh boy—does it sure as Hell read.**

**SpSquirrel: You've got some competition this time.**

**XraverGreen: You don't say? : )**

**SpSquirrel: Ever heard of a hacker named 'J'?**

**XraverGreen: Ah…..'J'**

I leaned forward.

Black eyes blinking.

My fingers moved across the keyboard.

**SpSquirrel: So you've heard of him?**

**  
XraverGreen: I've been **_**watching**_** him, Noir. Him and those two fantasy girls he hangs out with. Nice job with the handcuffs and Jinx, I might add. I always found that to be a good excuse to anchor myself with a teenage girl.**

I frowned.

**SpSquirrel: What about 'J', though?**

**XraverGreen: Sheesh, prude. Ahem. What do I think about 'J'? I think everybody wants to be a part of the act nowadays. He's a great copy cat, if I may say so myself. But honestly, he's never heard about me. And he doesn't care either. He's after Red Aviary for many of the same reasons that I am…and at the same time for a whole slew of other reasons.**

**SpSquirrel: Like…..**

**XraverGreen: It's all in the blood, Noir. By principal, if I was of this universe I would fight against Red Aviary with as much fervor that I could. As a matter of fact, I do fight with the most fervor that I can muster. And so does 'J'. But his reasons are much more excusable. Me? I'm just a nerdy Asian kid with interstellar boy scout dreams.**

**SpSquirrel: You sound like you know more than you're telling me about 'J'.**

**XraverGreen: And you sound like you've hung around with Robin one too many months.**

**SpSquirrel: What's wrong with that?**

**XraverGreen: Hehehehe…nothing. Nothing, my friend. Just understand that 'J' has secrets. Many of which I have personally unearthed. And believe-you-me…if they were worth you and the other Titans knowing, I would gladly tell you in a heartbeat. Especially if it meant stopping Dagger. **

**SpSquirrel: What if I was merely curious? I've known 'J' before. Longer than you, before.**

**XraverGreen: Yes…but as intimately?**

**SpSquirrel: …..ew. **

**XraverGreen: I'll try to push my jealousy away and tell you this. Anonymity is a precious thing…and worthy of respect. Isn't that right, Noir? Something Robin would agree with?**

**SpSquirrel: …….. **

**XraverGreen: Do you have a fetish for ellipses, or is your keyboard just sticky?**

**SpSquirrel: I really wish this whole fiasco would resolve itself. I don't want to see my friends or anything in jeopardy. **

**XraverGreen: Noir, who am I to tell you that the world we live in is something we must fight into submission? **

**SpSquirrel: True…true… **

**XraverGreen: I just hope that—after working with me TWICE in a lifetime—you learn to believe in happy endings. **

**SpSquirrel: Is it all Full Circle, Messenger?**

**XraverGreen: Hmmm?**

**SpSquirrel: Is it all going Full Circle again? Is this just another blasted repetition?**

There was a pause.

The Messenger seemed to formulate his digital thoughts.

Then.

A chime.

And…

**XraverGreen: It is always….always, Full Circle, Noir.**

I took a deep breath.

**XraverGreen: Deep down, you know this to be true. Don't you?**

My metal fingers rubbed against each other.

A slight shiver.

_Red Aviary……_

**SpSquirrel: Yes.**

**XraverGreen: Stick close to your friends, Noir. To your 'family'. They'll need you and you'll need them.**

**SpSquirrel: About Dagger, Messenger… **

**XraverGreen: Yeah?**

**SpSquirrel: Are we to kill him this time? To break the cycle? I mean, **_**truly**_** kill him?**

A pause.

**XraverGreen: In the coming storm, Noir….the key to survival won't be by killing but instead by simply **_**living through it**_**. Do you understand?**

I nodded.

**SpSquirrel: I think so.**

**XraverGreen: Good. I must let you be and charge up my watch.**

**SpSquirrel: What for?**

**XraverGreen: Why…the first prophecy's about to come true, of course. : )**

**SpSquirrel: Okay….. **

**XraverGreen: Oh…and nice catch, by the way.**

**SpSquirrel: Hmm? **

**XraverGreen: SuperSkirtGirl. I'm not one for blondes…but….intergalactic, orphan space chicks….yum.**

I made a face. Blinking.

**XraverGreen: Yeah, so…anyways. Nice catch.**

He logged off.

I typed into the instant message window.

**SpSquirrel: Actually, she kinda sorta caught **_**me**_**. **

'**Nobody can hear you'**

I rolled my eyes.

I closed the window.

I opened the other one.

I typed.

**SpSquirrel: I'm back.**

**InzeUltima: Hehehe : ) I missed you. **

I smiled.

**SpSquirrel: Say…know any good sites with posters?**

**InzeUltima: Posters?**

**SpSquirrel: Of you.**

A beat.

**InzeUltima: Uhm…..there was this one site that Jimmy Olsen showed me….but….**

I chuckled.

**SpSquirrel: But what?**

**InzeUltima: I don't think Robin would approve of those drawings. Lol**

**SpSquirrel: Robin wears tights.**

**InzeUltima: Wuts that supposed to mean?**

**SpSquirrel: ……not sure yet.**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so…like…I figure that the superhero world is having quite a shortage on Asian kids," Beast Boy smirked. "It'd be righteous to have a teleporting, rave dancing, Japanese dude walk into the Tower and help us like some sort of white wizard from a rejected rpg. What do you think his superpowers are, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder grumbled from the computer seat of the Main Room. "We still haven't determined if he's a superhero or not."

"Come on! You saw him 'port out of here like nobody's business! Okay, so maybe he doesn't have superpowers. But he could be like you, man! A badass with lots of tech!"

Robin actually chuckled. "The Messenger….is not badass."

Beast Boy folded his arms and smirked. "We still haven't determined if he's badass or not….right?"

"Look….Beast Boy…," Robin swiveled around. "I've seen trusting people before. They charm you at face value…but they hold multiple, alternative motives underneath their skin just waiting to take advantage of the situation in their favor."

"Dude…," the green elf gestured. "Not everyone's from Gotham City! Dissociative Personality disorder is as rampant here as you can toss it!"

"Pfft…," Robin faced the computer again. "You know nothing about Gotham City."

"I've been there before, man!"

"Oh yeah?? With who? Your Space Trek, 2022 crew?"

"Nuh uh! The Doom Patrol!"

"……..," Robin's typing came to a standstill. "……." He swiveled around again, a curious twist to his eyemask. "You were with the Doom Patrol??"

Beast Boy smiled proudly. He slowly, silently nodded.

"…….," Robin blinked under his mask. "When were you with the Doom Patrol?"

"Does it really matter?"

"I certainly never knew of it…," Robin pointed. "I thought the Titans was your first team…."

"I never told you….," Beast Boy leaned forward, "…_because I signed a Confidentiality Agreement like the rest of us!_"

"……….."

"You used to put perfect trust in secret characters, Robin," Beast Boy said. "But…like….that's changed now. Maybe you changed. Something happened to you…."

"Whatever…," Robin faced the computer stubbornly again.

"Could it perhaps have been Sta—"

"I've got work to do…," Robin grumbled. "Lots of research."

"Hehehehe!" Beast Boy giggled. "You should take it easy on this Messenger guy, Robin. Lord knows the rest of us are!"

"Now that's not tr—!!"

A police signal sounded across the computer console.

Both boys jumped.

A beat.

"Ahem….," Robin leaned forward and pulled a switch on the intercom. "Titans' Tower. Commissioner Decker?"

"_No, Robin. The Commissioner is preoccupied. This is the Lieutenant."_

"Glad to hear from you," Robin folded his gloved hands together. "How can we be of assistance?"

"_Actually…I wanted to deliver a message."_

"Hey…fancy that," Beast Boy chuckled and pointed. "Two messengers in one day—"

WHUMP!!! Robin elbowed him.

"Owie!"

"Ahem…go on, Lieutenant."

"……_A-Allright. Well, we just finished the first round of interrogations with the suspects at the Zanzibar Piers."_

A slight chill ran through the two Titans.

Robin gulped. He leaned forward: "A-And….?"

"_We're convinced that they told us everything that can honestly tell us. It didn't take them very long to give in to our questioning. It turns out…their bodies are still weak, and so are their will."_

"Their will? Weak? What do you mean?"

"_Leftover effects of Dragonflare. Like the sort Dagger used to proliferate……"_

"………"

"_They gave in way too easily. Great detail too. And though we can connect the evidence found at the Piers' warehouse to the Prison, we can't—"_

"Lemme guess….it's inherently impossible for any of the suspects to have been at the Omega Wing."

"……_wh-why yes, Robin. How did you……I……I-I guess it was an obvious result……"_

"Yeah….quite obvious…," Robin murmured as he gazed off dazedly through the windows.

"_Decker would like to meet with the Titans as soon as possible to discuss the evidence found at the warehouse. With the possibility of the direct involvement of the suspects in the Omega Wing bombing ruled out, we now have a narrower search ahead of us and the Commissioner would be glad for any of the input that the Titans can put in."_

"Uh…th-thanks, Lieutenant. I'll…uhm……"

"_Robin??"_

"We'll be there PDQ. Titan's Tower out."

Click.

The intercom was switched out.

"Dude…." Beast Boy said.

Robin nodded. "I know…."

"And so what now? Now that you know?" A new voice. Freshly familiar. Robin saw his green visage first in the inner reflection of the windows. He turned and looked over Beast Boy's shoulders.

"????" the changeling turned too.

The Messenger was leaning against the sofa. Smiling. "Well? Gonna hear me out or what?"

"……," Robin stared.

"We…uhm…..need to c-consult…," Beast Boy rambled. "And uhm….get second opinions….preferably Raven's…and m-maybe…."

Robin stood up and walked over to the Messenger. "Yes. We'll use your help."

Beast Boy did a double-take.

"…..," the Messenger slowly smiled. "Good."

Robin took a deep breath, gloved fists clenched. "Where do you think we should start….._Messenger_?"

"Where else? The most irascible wielder of authority in this Town. What's his name…What's his name…..Walker?"

"_Decker!"_

"Ah right. That hothead. Ahem….so…kiddies….what are we waiting for?"


	165. Hand and Dagger part 2

**165. Hand and Dagger part 2**

"**Years ago……"**

_A dark alleyway. _

_Blackened snow from the soot of polluted skies drifting down. _

_An obsidian mist covering the slums. _

_A small figure, under a raggedy blanket. _

_Shivering._

"**He began innocently enough like anyone else. A child……"**

_The figure clutches himself. _

_Teeth gritting. _

_He looks up._

_Dark, scraggly hair. _

_A smudged face. _

_Ten year old faces turning to stone ten years early. _

_His cold eyes magnify the frost in the air……and reflect the fire of nearby smokestacks in the urban sprawl._

"……**a child…born of the streets. No mother. No name. No home other than the asphalt and concrete around him."**

_The boy wanders the frost-littered streets of some forsaken City._

_Cobblestones and brick flow beneath him as he stumbles forward. _

_Past huddled homeless. _

_Half-frozen corpses curled up in the gutters. _

_A holocaust of poverty and winter._

_The boy clutches himself and looks up._

_The buildings grow taller and taller. _

_A steel-reinforced jungle with lights like a Christmas massacre._

"**It is a miracle that he survived on his own the way that he did. Alone as he did. Helpless as he was. Most likely, he learned from an early age that there were powers in numbers. Strength amongst groups."**

_He runs at the head of a pack of six scraggly youths down a bazaar-lined street. _

_An aproned adult runs after them, shaking his fist and shouting. _

_The boy and the other children round a corner, run down an old alleyway, and scale a dilapidated fence into a sandlot. _

_They stop running and catch their breath. _

_They smile as the one boy opens his jacket and produces a huge loaf of bread. _

_He breaks it and they all share. _

_Stuffing their pale, emaciated faces. _

_Haloed by a streetlamp in the early morning._

"**But he must also have learned that working with people brought as much ills as it brought good. Who knows what immeasurable horrors the youth saw when on his own in the concrete jungle…."**

_Muffled screams in the alleyways. _

_The boy comes to a standstill on a shady sidewalk at night. _

_A ten year old girl's body lies on the street corner. _

_Butchered, her dress lifted. _

_A red pool gathering into the street and rivering towards a gutter. _

_More screams. _

_The boy quietly looks over. _

_He sees two burly men dragging a woman from the street corner. _

_She kicks and screams as they take her behind a dumpster. _

_One produces a dagger. _

_It glints in the moonlight. _

_The men disappear with the woman beyond view. _

_Abruptly, her screaming stops. _

_The boy's eyes are still. _

_Glossed over like ice on glass._

"**The boy's soul absorbed everything rather than resist it. But he didn't learn to mimic the things around him. He learned to perfect them. He knew the power of silence…of observing things…of taking note of the world around him. The way the moral fabric of existence ticks like a huge, celestial clock."**

_The boy sneaks up a fire escape. _

_He comes to a window. _

_He flicks out a dagger he picked up off the street. _

_Stained with a woman's blood……_

_He picks a lock with it._

_He opens the window. _

_He sneaks into the apartment. _

_He creeps by a sleeping tenant on a couch. _

_Into the kitchen… _

_He grabs as much food as he can. _

_He makes for an exit…but pauses. _

_Staring…… _

_Money lies on the kitchen counter. _

_And a wallet. _

_He takes a deep breath. _

_He gazes into the living room with emaciated eyes. _

_He looks back on the money._

"**It didn't take long for him to evolve. To climb the ladder. To not only learn that the world is a silly place built on grand narratives such as 'economy', but also that it could be manipulated…especially by hearts to inclined to power and ascension."**

_In a familiar sandlot, the boy stands at the front of a meeting. _

_He hands out money from the stolen wallet to random adolescents his age. _

_He points. _

_They nod. _

_They rush out into the cold, smog-laden alleyways. _

_Minutes later……some hours later……they return each with stolen food and bread. _

_The boy takes a deep breath and sets up a 'housing' of sorts for the stolen goods. _

_And once everyone has returned…… _

_A share of the money is returned. _

_And the food is equally distributed. _

_A few pat him on the back and cheer in their own subtle ways. _

_The rest are too busy scarfing food to say anything. _

_The boy watches mutely. _

_His eyes cold…almost sad. _

_He stands tall among them._

"**Everything started subtly at first. Like the first teeter of an initial domino. But soon the ivory keys had to fall."**

_The boy struggles in the middle of the bazaar. _

_Late at night. _

_Caught by a shop keeper. _

_The man forces the bread out of the boy's hands. _

_The boy weakly stumbles back. _

_The man snarls and backhands him across the cheek. _

_With a cry, the boy falls to the cobblestone street. _

_With a clanking sound, something falls out of his shirt pocket and lands in front of him. _

_Pressing himself up, the boy shudders. _

_His visage reflects off the one clean part of the blood-stained dagger. _

_Alive and glowing in the moonlight. _

_The boy shudders._

"**Somehow, he had to have crossed that line. Some precise moment when the moral fiber of life and the inbred dichotomy of right and wrong dissolved in his head in the most poisonous of ways. And he lost scent of blood. And he lost taste for heat. And all that was once pumping in his arteries turned cold and ran free from his skin like mercury or quicksilver."**

_The shopkeeper walks back to his line of goods, grumbling. _

_He sets the bread down onto a tray. _

_His hands suddenly jerk and mangle the dough apart. _

_His eyes are bulging. _

_His back straight and tight as the muscles in the center are being ripped into. _

_The bruised boy is pouncing onto the man's back, driving the dagger into his back. _

_Snarling. _

_Animalistic. _

_The fire from the polluted sprawl shrieking to life ever so momentarily in his cold as Calypso eyes._

_The man falls down to the cobblestones like a bag full of blood. _

_The boy yanks the blade out. _

_He straddles the man's back. _

_He pants. _

_Something somewhere distant falls slowly to the ground like tears or snowflakes. _

_The boy rolls them out of his eyes like a feasting shark._

_He lifts the blade. _

_He stops breathing. _

_And he stabs. _

_And he stabs. _

_And he stabs. _

_And he stabs……_

"**The boy died. In place of warm skin and circulating life juice there was forged cold steel, stale silver, and jagged ivory. The Dagger was born. The eternal, nameless, soulless leech of the night."**

_He stumbles down the mist-laden alleyway. _

_His mouth agape. _

_Breathing vapors. _

_His wrists covered in blood. _

_Clutching the dagger._

_Limping……_

_Panting. _

_Stopping for just a moment._

_Looking down at the weapon in his hand. _

_Glancing up high at the skyscrapers. _

_The untouched ceiling of the urban Hell._

"**Once the line is crossed, you never go back. You are never…...ever the same. Even at such an age, the boy knew this. And he didn't endeavor to go back. He could only go forward. As if he was made for it. As if the human part of him was an illusion and the only thing real was the metal extension from his hands in the form of a blade."**

_He paces across a rooftop. _

_His body a silhouette in the moonlight. _

_He stabs forward. _

_He retracts. _

_He twirls the blade in his hand like a spinning star._

_  
He spins into an air-kissing attack. _

_Slashing at unseen enemies. _

_Panting like some sort of wounded animal. _

_And he got better…and better……and better………_

"**And just like a blade, he lived up to one purpose and one purpose alone. To cut. To slice into ribbons. To lacerate a path and keep on going. To keep on going as long as the hilt remained in tact."**

_His shadow traces him as he pounces down the alleyway. _

_Two gang members spin around. _

_They don't have time to gasp-- _

_He practically dives through them, snarling. _

_It only takes two twirls of the dagger as he spins between them and ends on the other side, panting still. _

_The two men clutch throats that are suddenly missing._

_Blood spurts. _

_Gurgling sonds…… _

_They collapse to the cold alleyway. _

_The boy swallows. _

_His panting lessens as the smell of copper rises up into his nose. _

_And he grows…… _

_Calmer. _

_And…… _

_Quieter. _

_He kneels. _

_Scoops up their wallets. _

_And leaves them to bleed……_

"**It became oh-so-natural. And the boy saw it. Not in a matter of egotism…but part of some self-deluded fact that he was becoming a god incarnate. A deity of the streets. But how can one call him deluded if everything he did….everything he ever desired…….came true by his hand?"**

_A loud clanking sound. _

_Mobsters inside a warehouse spin around. _

_A dark, raggedy figure lands in a crouch from a burst ventilation shaft in the ceiling._

_With barely a breath, he glares up at the mafia. _

_They gather around the mob boss and whip out pistols. _

_The boy grits his teeth and streaks forward. _

_They fire. _

_A wall of lead. _

_Potshots exploding across half the warehouse. _

_The boy runs up a wall, hops off it, vaults off a pile of crates, and leaps over the bulletfire. _

_He whips out two daggers and twirls them in opposite sets of fingers. _

_The mobsters gasp. _

_The boss stumbles backwards. _

_The boy lands in the middle of them, crouches, and springs up with a seven hundred and twenty degree spin with both daggers twirling. _

_Trails of red launch through the air. _

_Then…… _

_Silence. _

_The boy's spin ceases and his body coils nimbly as if at the end of an artistic dance. _

_A beat. _

_The mobster gunmen all fall to the floor in red puddles. _

_Only the mafia boss is left alive. _

_And he's trembling like mad. _

_The boy glares at him. _

_He twirls the daggers one last time. _

_The boss has one last time to gasp before his trachea is severed from two converging points of entrance._

"**He learned to be sadistic. But not so much as to take pleasure from cold blood…...but rather to use it to his advantage. All for ascension."**

_In a dockside hideout, a large group of thugs look up from the floor. _

_They immediately whip out pistols and sub-machine guns. _

_The young man stands on a balcony lining the front of the warehouse's interior. _

_He has a dagger in one hand. _

_And in the other…… _

_The young man glares. _

_He tosses the body of the mafia leader over the balcony railing. _

_The leader's body dangles by barbed wired tied to his ankle and the railing above. _

_He's dead._

_Bleeding all over. _

_His eyes stabbed out._

_The thugs lower their guns. _

_Gasping. _

_The young man glares. _

_He leans against the balcony, twirling a dagger……then pointing it at the group of thugs. _

_And they all turn numb._

"**He won respect. By whatever obtuse code of conduct there exists in the criminal underworld, he received acclaim. And he won followers. By the dozens at first. Then by the hundreds. And the thousands. They flocked to him not so much because he was powerful…but because he was **_**invicible**_**."**

_Police officers surround a bank robbery in a solid barricade. _

_One officer prepares tear gas. _

_Another speaks through a megaphone._

_A screeching sound. _

_The officers glance over. _

_A tan van screeches to a stop. _

_The sliding door opens. _

_The young man is the first of four thugs to pop out, aim assault rifles, and let loose. _

_The officers can barely reach their pistols before their bodies are rendered to crimson swiss cheese. _

_The young man's eyes narrow as he pivots his aim, fires a few last shots, and blows holes into three descending foreheads in a row._

"**Nothing stood in his way that he didn't challenge. No leader too great or informant too small that he didn't hold an influence over. The city became his kingdom. A place of peasants and serfs under different names. And he was the chessmaster, moving all the pieces around. Even those of his opponents. When he saw victory at hand, he grabbed it without hesitation. If ever he was to lose, the whole world would lose too."**

_A parade creeps down a city street. _

_Confetti falls. _

_Crowds gather around thickly in the street. _

_Hundreds more cheer and wave from windows. _

_An open limousine rolls down the Main Street. _

_A politician waves his hand from inside. _

_Police escort him from the front, sides, and rear. _

_And…… _

_On a rooftop a block away, the young man watches through binoculars. _

_He lowers the visual aid. _

_He looks across the way at another rooftop. _

_He nods his head towards thugs gathered on the ledge. _

_The men salute back silently. _

_Two of them fumble around and produce a rocket-propelled-grenade. _

_They take aim at the street below. _

_A pause to aim. _

_And…… _

_The projectile soars down. _

_When it impacts with the limousine, the politician's head and torso go in two opposite directions. _

_People scream. _

_The young man watches with glazed eyes._

_Expressionless._

"**He never told anyone his name. Anyone who so much as saw his face, he would kill. Anyone who so much as saw his face and tried to tell others about it, he would torture….THEN kill. He sometimes took the opportunity to inflict such pain and death himself, but he never took pleasure in it. At least, not as could be witnessed. And, gradually, he let himself seep into the deep womb of the bureaucracy that he had forged with years of steel-cold determination. A company of arsonists would move at the flick of his wrist. He would merely have to point to get a hitman on the job of taking out a city official or a rogue crimelord. He'd hire gang rapists off the street to molest and stab to death the children of his opponents. Any and all things that could be desensitized through pen, ink, and red tape…he manifested. And he made allies in dark…dark places…"**

_The elevator doors open. _

_The man gazes out onto the spacious office, lined with windows. _

_Viewing the majestic spires of Metropolis from the inside out. _

_He walks across a plush carpet, twirling a blade. _

_Flanked by two bodyguards. _

_Lex Luthor stands up from his desk, smiles, and extends a hand. _

_The man merely stares. _

_Twirling the blade. _

_A beat. _

_Luthor sweats a bit. _

_But he clears his throat, smiles, and gestures towards a visual set up of……plans._

_The man nods and proceeds coldly to attend._

"**And even…..darker places….."**

_He stands on a frigate. _

_Overlooking dark waters. _

_He holds the dagger behind his back. _

_He gazes aside at Slade. _

_Slade speaks about something. _

_He gestures out towards the City. _

_A couple feet away on the deck, a pink-haired girl in a metal-mesh apprentice outfit sits on the railing with her legs dangling over the edge. _

_Slade continues dictating. _

_The man nods.  
_  
_He gazes out at the Bayside of the City again._

"**He reached the absolute top. Equally as feared as he was anonymous. He had become something far more transient than the blade. He had no need for an identity…...just for the continued spilling of blood for his will. His life became a cancerous thing, seeping into the criminal underworld, sucking it of all its nutrients, and spilling the toxins out onto the rest of the world in the form of missing persons, sudden and inexplicable massacres, and the proliferation of his organization's bloodmoney: Dragonflare. He became synonymous with 'Satan' in nineteen different languages across four continents and in almost every major city in the Western Hemisphere. He became the thing of conspiracy theories….and just about everyone in the brother who has suggested that some sort of criminal element has been burrowing into the government and secret societies of the world over the last three decades."**

_He leans against a desk inside a large office. _

_Behind him and against the wall is a mantle stocked to the brim with glistening daggers and knives. _

_All ornate in structure. _

_With decorative hilts. _

_But he only twirls one dagger in his grasp. _

_One stained with a long-dead woman's blood. _

_He takes a deep breath. _

_He wanders over to the windows. _

_He gazes out onto the City. _

_July Fourth. _

_Fireworks. _

_And in their explosions, an old fire akin to the smokestacks of some forgotten youth shimmer in his cold, glass eyes. _

_And he doesn't twitch._

"**This is a man who—up until his bloody disappearance months ago…commanded more personnel, more units of firepower, and more money and funds than the last three U.S. Brigadier Generals combined. Quite essentially, he has and—whether he's accounted for or not—still does rule half of the modern world without any of us regularly knowing it."**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"His name is Dagger," the Messenger said. He smiled gently. "He is alive. And he is coming back….to lay waste to this City."

Silence.

The Titans and I glanced at the Messenger….then across the smoky office toward the man at the desk.

"………," Commissioner Decker blinked at the asian teen. "……..that's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard."

We all winced heavily. Even Raven.

But the Messenger seemed calm. He merely folded his hands together, leaned his head to the side, and said: "You sound remarkably dubious."

"And you're remarkably ass-backwards for coming to me short-noticed with all this hogwash," the Commissioner grumbled. "And it goes without saying that I don't know who in the Hell you are. Did the tour bus drop you off at the wrong stop this far from Okinawa?"

"Uhm….C-Commissioner?" the Boy Wonder waved.

"Robin?! Who is this guy?!?!" Decker cackled with waving hands. "First of all, why did you kids let him into my office. And second…how quickly can I kick his scrawny little ass out of here!!"

"Did you even hear a word that he said?"

"I'll have you know…," Decker leaned forward with a pointing finger. "…that ever since Slade bit the dust—and apparently Dagger too—we've had every social and political analyst under the sun working with investigators at the razed site of Dagger's former hideout. A whole motherload of background checks were done into the shady man's career. His proliferation of Dragonflare. Possible connections with Intergang. The Slade factor."

"And??" Starfire leaned forward.

"There's nothing left on this creep, you got it? The meat of the matter left when smokey over there dropped him into the soon-to-be-enflamed city streets of July Fifth!"

I raised an eyebrow over my shades.

"It's taken over one hundred specialists and scholars over four months to determine this…," Decker leaned back. "I'm not gonna throw it out the window because some _Massager_ gives me this new paranoid story!"

"Messenger," the teen smirked.

"Whatever. I swear…these names are popping up everywhere. What's your superpower, kid? AP Calculus? Or just being a pain in the ass superhero wannabe? I bet you get honors in the latter."

Surprisingly, the Messenger giggled. He smiled over at Tempest. "I could listen to him all day."

"I couldn't."

"Commissioner……," Robin stood up, trying to keep his cool. "Would you please be a little open minded? We've given what this visitor has had to say quite a lot of thought. We believed it was important to bring him to this meeting. He has some very insightful things to shed upon this situation with the prison bombing, Dagger, and more. To say the least…he………gets around a lot."

"I need proof, Robin…," Decker mumbled. "After three days straight of having to deal with Viper, I've been sorely reminded of how solid evidence in the heat of a chase for answers _spares……lives……_" Decker lit a cigarette, took a puff, and exhaled: "……I can deal with just so many teenagers in spandex or whatnot. At least you seven punks, I trust. You've kinda sorta earned it by….oh…..I dunno….._risking your lives for the common good!!_ Now…when shortstop like Junior Bread over here waltzes in and starts spoutin' off random chicken shit like a good wolf crier…..well…how am I to take that? Seriously? I'm too busy with things right now to be bothered by that."

"Yeah…," Beast Boy muttered. "Like basking in the glory of how you offed Viper—"

Raven nudged him.

"Oof!!" Beast Boy winced.

The rest of us sweatdropped.

"…………..," Decker glared. He took another puff of his cigarette. "Tip the glass, kid. Keep tipping the glass…."

"I know this is all much to absorb, especially all at one time….," Raven began. "But after all this time of working together, we imagined that you would trust us, Decker. We imagined that you would trust us to not bring a fake story to you, but instead something legitimately warranting our concern in such a fashion that we believe it must warrant yours."

"And just what's the hook, line, and sinker in this situation, milady?" Decker cackled. "That…That….some knife twirling bozo has been ruling the western world, implementing a criminal conspiracy, and practically owning the same damn City I've been fighting to protect through the law all these years?? That…Th-That the man died….but didn't die…or at least _is alive now_…and is coming back to take over the City that _we didn't know he once 'had'_….all through the use of some tripartite criminal underground agreement thing which—I might mention—has not been properly labeled yet????"

"Actually…..there is a name for the group," the Messenger smiled. "They go by 'Triangular'."

"Oooh! 'Triangular'! Now that's a new one! The Hell is that? Some sort of new lesbian fraternity game??"

Cyborg chuckled.

Raven glared at him.

He cleared his throat. "Ahem….s-sorry…."

Raven sighed and looked across the room. "Robin???"

The Boy Wonder rubbed his eyemask. "Look….Decker…..would it hurt to at a few things here? We'll go over what you found at the Zanzibar Piers….and then we'll just let you hear what the Messenger has to say. He has some certifiable points of interests throughout the City where traces of Dragonflare may be found. And once found, they can point out movements of criminal influence under Dagger's control and—"

"Oh, we'll go over the Zanzibar Piers reports," Decker pointed at the Messenger. "But only if he skedaddles! It's between me and prestiged vigilantes alone, got it?"

"But….dude….," Beast Boy hopped in his seat. "What about what this guy's got to say about the Dragonflare—"

"What about it?? In the words of Gary Cooper, bullshit!"

"……Gary Cooper never said—"

"Get him outta here!!!!"

"………….," the Messenger slowly smiled. The Messenger slowly stood up from his seat. The Messenger slowly bowed his head. "Very well. Commissioner. I do hope you have a good day. And I wish you good luck on your searches and recent endeavors."

"……..," Decker blinked. "Yeah…uh….thanks. Now beat it."

The Messenger winked. "I'll be seeing you later." He turned and left the office.

"The Hell does that mean?"

I bit my lip. I looked after the messenger. A beat. I stood up, bowed my head with a simper, turned, and exited the office in pursuit of the asian teen.

"H-Hey!! Hey hey hey!!" Decker half-stood and pointed. "Where're you going?? You're a Titan, kid! I want you in on this! That's right! YOU!!"

"Too late…," Raven droned. "He's gone."

"Y'all just gonna let him take off like that? During an important meeting?"

"He and the Messenger….h-have been through a lot together….," Starfire stammered. "Word has it that the Messenger clued Noir in on Slade's deadly plans for us well in advance of the Wyldecarde days…."

"……," Decker leaned his head to the side. "Is that so?"

Starfire bit her lip.

Robin nodded.

"Well….," the Commissioner grumbled and rummaged his hands across his desktop. "…that was another time, another place." He kept rummaging. His brow furrowed. "Where the Hell are those….—"

A beat.

He grumbled. He shouted: "LIEUTENANT!!"

"R-Right behind you, sir."

The Commissioner jumped in his seat and turned around to see the Lieutenant standing behind his chair the entire time. "Sheesh! Don't do that."

"I-I wasn't trying to do anything, si—"

"Fetch the Zanzibar reports. Let's get this friggin' show on the road."

"Right away, sir."

As the Lieutenant paced across the high-level department offices and the Commissioner began his speech, Raven glanced aside. Her eyes searching beyond the rows of cubicles and office walls.

"…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Messenger and I stood atop the edge of the helipad on the police department building's rooftop.

We gazed out onto the City beyond.

The central downtown district stretched high above and before us.

As the Sun stretched into the mid afternoon of the early November day, we both took a deep breath of Autumn.

The Messenger more so.

"Ahhh…..have I ever told you—Noir—just how obscenely beautiful this City is?"

I smiled gently. I gazed outward some more.

"When you work hard…..when you work _very hard_ to preserve something…it just magnifies your love for it tenfold, doesn't it?"

I scratched my neck, sighing. Staring at the skyline.

"Decker's an obstinate man. But he is also a passionate man. He's lost so many innocent lives to the evils that would divide his City apart…," the Messenger spoke. "I'm sure he's too gruff and John Waynesque to admit it in person…but he has an awful lot of love to go around." A beat. "Hehehehehehehe," he suddenly giggled.

"????" I looked at him strange.

He dug his hands into his sweatjacket's pockets and smirked. "Not only am I a cross-dimensional traveler, I'm also a hippie!"

I snickered breathily.

"Ohhhhhhhhhh yeah……..teenage asian hippie….," the Messenger murmured as he stared at Kobayashi Tower. Wayne Enterprises. The Titans' Tower in the distance. "……Dagger does not know what passion is."

"………"

"He is as cold and methodical as gravity. He sees where the joints in the structures of all clay and iron statues alike falter, and he strikes directly at them. And this City….as we speak…..is one bigass monument with clay feet. Dagger has a motherload of boulders to roll down the proverbial hillside. I think I've almost convinced the Titans to hear me out. But Decker…..that man is a hero and he's an adult. And we all know what adults are like, much less heroes."

I shrugged.

"Hey….I'm not saying that Decker is a bad man…," the Messenger paced along the helipad and gestured. "He's just playing hard to get……..with a can of arsenic. But all in good time. I tend to have ways of appealing to the lonely, angsty goth girl in all of us……" A beat. "…..that last part was a joke."

I nodded blindly, my eyes affixed to the city skyline. Or at least, I tried to keep it affixed to the city skyline. My mind was wandering. And my mind was wandering towards---

The Messenger stepped in front of me. "I know what you're thinking, Noir….," he uttered solemnly. "If I know so much about Dagger….about the way he works…..about what he's done and what he's planning to….do I also know exactly what role he played in your bloody past?"

I winced.

I bit my teeth.

_Exactly._

The Messenger ran a hand through his spikey, green-highlighted hair. "The fact is…Noir…..I don't know you. I don't know you anymore than you know me. Granted, I know the things that matter to you. I know how to help you improve some of the things in your life and make a difference for both yourself and the ones whom you love. But I simply don't know who you are or how you became that which you are or any of the above. You've always known about your past….with just a few things missing here and there…but not enough for you to have a distorted picture. Everything that you went through….the pain and torture and loneliness is all must have been…..it's all crystal clean and clear and laid out before you like a carpet of gemstones. And I bet it just cuts your bare feet to walk across it. So you had to find new grounds. And you had to find new shoes. And before you knew it, you stopped looking at the floor to see a piece of the sky again and here was this cityscape. These majestic buildings. The Titan's Tower in the distance. And….eventually…family."

I took a deep breath, not looking at him.

He shuffled over to my side and stared out alongside me.

"If I could tell you everything, Noir. I would. I would tell you how Dagger got involved with the same thing that took away your eyes and trashed apart the entire School of the Spectrum. But there are things that you know and you hold to heart that put you way ahead of the game where I'm concerned. And who am I to dictate to you your own past? I've always been and shall always be concerned with the future…..and the things that I know most assuredly about the future. And I know for a fact that this City is becoming a battleground. It can be any moment now. The Dragonflare is it, Noir. Wherever Dagger has gone, that chemical has gone first. And it's not just a deadly narcotic, Noir. It's like….l-like a _controlling agent_. Something the underground despot has used to move and motivate everyone under his regime. It's like the lines in the sand. The strategy markers of his invasionary scheme. They must be investigated. But I don't have the power. And the Titans don't have the quantity. Decker's not fooled if he's being treated as a hero after the demise of Viper. He _is_ important to this City. He, the Titans, and I must work together….to minimalize the bloodshed ahead. Then….and only then….can we all be granted a day longer to live in which—together—we might explore some of these mysteries that haunt our past….even if the past is the thing that haunts the most."

"…………………."

The Messenger gazed down. I realized he was looking at my metal left arm.

"Do you remember it, Noir?"

"???" I looked at him.

He smiled. "Do you remember the sound?"

A beat.

I slowly nodded…a tiny grin.

He took a breath. "Then surely you know….that all things are possible….even in the greatest shadow of adversity. For adversity is as much a silly illusion as benevolence."

I slowly nodded.

"Then there's nothing concrete stopping me….," Noir smiled, "….from getting us into the next phase."

He touched his watch.

I blinked.

And he was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That late afternoon.

As the Sun was beginning to set…

Decker walked out of front entrance to the police department.

He was flanked by the Lieutenant, the Titans, and I.

A crowd of citizens saw us and started cheering and flocking over.

Raven rolled her eyes white Beast Boy waved back, grinning.

"So this is what I propose…," the Commissioner spoke. "…we all gather together early in the morning at the prison's Omega Wing and do a thorough, in-depth examination of the damaged premises. We'll put our collective heads together—both adult and hormonal—and hopefully come up with some more conclusive directions to take the investigation. In the meantime, Robin, I'll leave the Zanzibar Piers suspects at your disposal to investigate if need be…..though I seriously doubt there's any more vital information on their behalf to give. But Allah never knows…you've surprised me in the past."

"I'll be more than happy to surprise you again, sir," Robin said…a little smugly.

"Good. And keep Tyko with you…he's good at sensors……and stuff."

"_Cyborg!!"_

More cheers.

More whistles.

More waving hands from the crowd.

The Commissioner grunted. "Lieutenant…see what you can do about kicking these proverbial mongrels in the rear end. I swear…everywhere you Titans go, your fan clubs are sure to follow."

"Uhm….actually s-sir….," the Lieutenant simpered.

"They're here for you, Commissioner," Raven droned.

"…….????" Decker looked over.

The crowd waved and cheered some more.

Decker exhaled: "Friggin' fantastic….," he shook his head and headed for his car. "I'm off like an Antarctic torch."

"Feel free to contact us if you have a change of plans, Commissioner!" Cyborg waved.

"Why would I??" Decker looked out as he stepped into his driver's seat. "I said we're going to the prison tomorrow, so we're frickin' going to the prison tomorrow!"

"Sure….my bad….," Cyborg smugly smirked.

Robin bit his lip.

"………….," Decker sighed. "Damn kids."

He shut his door, turned on his engine, and drove down the sunlit road.

The crowd gradually dispersed.

"Dude…..," Beast Boy sniffed. "I think something in me just died…."

Tempest stood beside him, his arms crossed. "It's called sperm, my friend….," he patted the green elf on the head and winked. "Get used to it." He walked down the street.

"Hey! Where're you going?" Beast Boy called.

Tempest walked backwards for a moment. "I'd promised I……would pay someone a visit….," Tempest smirked.

I looked at Tempest. I looked at the others. I cleared my throat and hand-signed in Robin's direction: _'Me too.'_ I smirked and blurred down the opposite end of the street.

Beast Boy sighed to himself, turned into a green….blue jay, and flew away.

Robin shrugged. "Whatever….as long as we all get some sleep for the research tomorrow."

"They cannot hear you, Robin," Starfire said.

"Ah…well…screw it then. Come on, Starfire. Let's go."

She smiled slightly as the two wandered southward.

"…………….."

"…………….."

Cyborg and Raven looked at each other.

A beat.

"………………"

"………………"

They looked away.

"…………………………………"

They spontaneously and simultaneously spun towards each other.

"How about some pizza?" . "How about going out for tea?"

A beat.

They both simpered.

"Tea sounds great!" . "Pizza is fine."

A beat.

An even longer beat.

"Starbucks?" Cyborg muttered with a sweatdrop.

"Sure," Raven droned.

And they both walked to the T-Car.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"No way. Are you kidding me? He actually _joined _you guys?!?!"

"Pfft. Don't make such a big deal about it. I'm surprised Lillian, Antoine, or Bonnie hadn't told you already or something. Lord knows they're tickled pink with it."

"And by all means, they should be! Was Jack there too?"

"Yessss, Karen. Jack was there. Now…for the reason I asked to see you—"

"Eeeee!! This is too unreal! You're—like—the luckiest girl in the world, Lindsay!"

"Hey! Don't talk like that! He just….I guess….needed some non super-powered kids to hang out with. Who can blame him for that? Plus, he's from the sea and stuff…and…I-I'm more than happy to show him what surface-dweller life is like. You know that he can talk to animals using telepathy? And…his culture considers seaweed to be as fine and as delectable as silk and---are you listening to me?"

"Did you touch him?"

"I—huh?"

"Ya know. Did you _touch_ him?"

"Ew! Karen!! Shame on you!!"

"Hehehehehe….you are soooooooo lucky."

"I'm not like that! I just…I just…."

"You just what?"

"I dunno. He just looks like he needs a friend…and also a little lightening up."

"You don't say…."

"He's pretty tough and cynical up close….but I think he's really just nervous about being up here and away from the sea, deep down."

"Did you touch his hair, at least? Come on, Lindsay. Tell me you at least _thought_ about it!"

"Karen, st-stop!!"

"Hehehehe…running your hands allllll throughhhhh his silkkkkky tresses…."

"Stop!! Hehehehe…you're making me flustered!!"

"God's Providence….a goody-goody girl likes you gets a super-hot sailor like that landing in her lap!"

"Hey! Ya know what? I saw his gills!"

"………did you now?"

"Huh?"

"Hehehehehehe…."

"Oh jeez…THEY WERE IN HIS NECK!! They were in his neck! Get your head out of the gutter!"

"Which neck are we talking about?"

"Ugh….you're pathetic."

Tempest nodded: "That goes around a lot."

Lindsay and Karen looked up from a table outside of Carman's diner that afternoon.

Tempest smirked. "Oh…and the gills are closer to my shoulders than my 'neck' per se…but good memory regardless, Lindsay."

The freckled teenager simpered. "I do my best…."

Tempest glanced over at the other girl. "So…Karen, is it? Tell me…besides gills, what personal fetishes do you have?"

"F-F-Fetishes…..?" the girl stammered.

Tempest's rich, white on black eyes glistened in the setting sun and a tiny burst of air kicked at his long black locks. "Yes….if I may ask?"

Karen's eyes rolled. "Nnngh…" _PLOP!_ She fainted, her torso splayed across the table.

Lindsay uttered: "You're wearing your wetsuit again."

Tempest blinked at Lindsay. "So she noticed."

"You're right on time…," the girl stood up. "Is that a good habit or are you just showing off?"

Tempest shrugged. "There's no daylight's saving time in the Ocean. There is only—"

Lindsay nodded. "The migration patterns of local fish as biologically patterned with the changing seasons in the northern and southern hemisphere. I know. You only told us a few billion times when we all got together finally." She giggled.

Tempest scratched my head. "Which begs the question…where is your troupe of bread basket friends? This blonde thing is new…but I've lost track of the others."

Lindsay shrugged. "All out…doing their own thing. Lillian's working at her video store tonight. And the rest…Bonnie, Antoine, and Jack? They're doing something with the fellowship group. It was an impromptu meeting…so it's not like I'm missing out on prayer night or something."

Tempest blinked. "Prayer night?"

"I should invite you sometime," Lindsay winked. "It's really healing."

"Healing…..uh…..sure….," Tempest scratched his head. He glanced over at the still-dazed-and-confused-blonde. "What about that organism?"

"Hmmm?" Lindsay glanced over. "Oh! My bad….forgot what I asked her here for."

Lindsay whipped out a notepad and—in perfect waitressy fashion—scribbled a few words down with a single pen. She stuck the paper to Karen's deflated wrist.

It read: _'You owe me twenty bucks. Lindsay'_

"What's that for?" Tempest asked.

"Oh….a bet."

He raised an eyebrow. "What kind of bet?"

She blushed. "An innocent one…come on, let's go."

She lead him down the street.

He gestured: "Where are we going exactly?……………And without your prayerful friends?"

"Just thought I'd show you something at Urban Faith Academy."

"Say Where?"

"My school. There's something going on tonight. Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Fun….heh….haven't used that word loosely in a long time."

"The Titans a bunch of stiff necks?"

"Eh…only half of them. I kinda admire it, really."

"Awww….too bad."

"Why bad?"

"Oh…just a matter of opinion."

"Well…let's see the matter of this opinion of yours, shall we?"

"Hehehehe…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well….I-I'm glad you….came and….surprised us….w-with a visit….Noir! We're glad…for y-you're…..helping….h-hand!!"

"_Jordan_, honey."

"H-Huh??"

"His name is Jordan. He told us that one time, remember?"

"Oh….y-yeah…that's r-right…."

"I swear, your memory is so bad these days."

"Sweetie….can you…g-give us a second??"

"Hehehe….losing your breath there, Danny?"

Daniel struggled at his end of a heavy vanity that we were slowly carrying downstairs through their two-story condo/pawn shop. I wasn't even breaking a sweat. As much as I kept myself in constant meditation and battle-action every day with the Titans, moving furniture was no problem for me.

Daniel on the other hand…..well…..it had its fair share of hilarity.

"You need help?" Renee called from the top of the stairs where she observed our work. She was barely at seven months. Even looking at her straight-on from below, it was becoming visually obvious.

"N-No!!" Daniel cackled in mid-stride down the steps. "You just….r-rest your…..p-pretty little…..behind….sweetie…We've g-got this!!"

"In about a month," Renee smirked evilly, "All you'll find pretty on me _is_ my behind, I bet."

"Oh Honey…d-don't say that….n-not when I'm lifting….heavy things!!"

Renee giggled.

I smiled.

"Just a little….f-further down the….stairs….Noir….h-hang in there!"

I mouthed: _'Jordan'_.

"Nnnghh!!" he sweated.

Renee rolled her eyes.

The husband and I descended to the first floor, shuffled over into the rear stock room, and deposited the heavy vanity in a corner besides two dismantled bedposts and a small dresser we had just recently taken down together.

THWUMP!!

"Whew…..whew….whew…j-just….j-j-just one second…whew….whew…."

Daniel sweat, leaning against the vanity.

I smiled, leaned back against a wall, and folded my arms.

"You eat too many Doritos…."

"Oh please…d-don't talk about….food for…at least….two minutes….d-dear…..," Daniel waved a shaking hand.

Renee stepped leisurely down the stairs, her arms folded. "If you even call that food."

"Can't be any worse than the emergency take-outs I drive out for the last few nights."

I chuckled breathily.

Renee glanced at me with a sarcastic thinness of her eyes. "He's exaggerating. He always does this."

"And p-proud….of it t-too!"

"So were you exaggerating to me when you proposed down on one knee?"

"Sure th-thing…..honey!….All fourteen…karats of….e-exaggeration…."

"Hehehe….you're so pathetic, Danny. I love you."

"L-Love you too….n-now….will you l-let me roll over….a-and die now??"

"Nope. Not yet. There's still the coat rack and the computer desk to disassemble."

"I swear…wh-why did we ever….have a g-guest room….to begin with?"

Renee gestured: "I think it's because your grandmother was originally going to live with us."

"Y-Yeah…," Daniel ran a shaky hand through his hair. "It's a g-good thing she died f-first…"

"But now we get to transform it into a nursery!!" Renee did a little, ridiculous jig in place. "Heeee! I'm choosing the colors! I'm choosing the colors!"

"NO PASTELS!!"

"Awww….honey?"

"We still don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet. So NO PASTELS!!"

"It's not like I'm gonna choose to paint it jungle camouflage either!"

"**I'm** the one painting it…you just point and I shoot with the paint brush…," Daniel walked over and hugged her. "Got it?"

"Pfft…got it."

"No pffting me! I don't want you overexerting yourself! Leave all of the nursery work to me……or Noir as well, if he so spontaneously comes over and chooses to enslave himself again."

"Hehehehe."

Daniel smiled. He looked over my way. "Say…why don't we show you the layout we've got planned for the crib and diaper station and stuff?" A beat. He blinked. "Noir??" Another beat. "S-Say….Noir?"

"………..," I was staring into the stockroom. A claustrophobic place. But familiar all the same. In my head, I envisioned a cot in the corner where the shadows lay. The image of a desk splattered with welding equipment, radio junk parts, and jagged metal playing cards flew through my head. I envisioned a dark-haired stranger dressed in a metal mesh outfit trying his futile best to sleep in the corner…interrupted every now and then by a mute battle with sobs. Dark goggles hung off the window latch to the rear alleyway from a leather strap….

"Jordan??"

I snapped out of it.

My black eyes blinked under my shades as I turned about and smiled up at Renee and Daniel.

The two were already halfway up the stairs. "Come on! Let's show you!"

I nodded and briskly walked up, a relaxed sigh exhaling through my nostrils….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well, Mr. Beast Boy, your visit here is a little unexpected. But regardless, it feels good to see you again. Now…don't take that the wrong way since—after all—I am a holographic representation of a digital construct and I can't truly possess what biological souls would call 'feelings' anymore and—"

"Dude…," the changeling held up a hand, silencing the flickering visage of Simon Stone on the nearby pedestal. The elf smiled kindly. "It's okay. Just saying 'what's up would have sufficed'."

The hologram simpered and shrugged. "What's up?"

"How's it hanging?"

"Give me some skin!"

Beast Boy shot his hand towards the tiny hologram.

His wrist flew through the flickering image.

"Heh…very funny dude," Beast Boy rolled his eyes.

The African American hologram smiled and folded his arms. "Now….how can I help you today?"

"You can start by opening the door in front of me."

"Hmm? Oh! I do apologize…of course you have clearance, Mr. Logan!" the hologram flicked his wrist.

The huge metal doors at the end of the brightly lit hallway in Phaser Labs opened with a whirring sound.

Beast Boy gently walked in. The hologram flickered from pedestal to pedestal to keep up with the changeling.

"They've certainly upgraded you a bit….," Beast Boy remarked. He gazed at scientists and lab technicians and experiment stations as he sauntered deeper and deeper into the laboratory. "Look at you! Mr. Speedy…I swear…."

"Indeed," Simon Stone said. He jumped from pedestal to pedestal. "Indeed." "Indeed!" He paused on a huge platform that projected him as life-sized. He looked down at the green elf, his brown brow bright. "I have been promoted further into the mainframe of the laboratory computer. I am now in charge of all automatic, digital functions and security protocols of this facility. I basically keep everything in check and everyone safe."

"Wow….talk about an ego boost."

"That would only matter if I still had a—"

Beast Boy cleared his throat. "I don't know how Cyborg is related to you sometimes, ya know that?"

"Yes, I do suppose the flesh and blood part gets a little gray…"

The changeling turned. He walked down a thin corridor.

The hologram looked on for a moment…then flickered…then followed behind. "Are you here for any specific reason, young one?"

"Not a reason. A person."

"Ah…but of course."

"I think….I-I think it's better for her here."

"Do you truly think so?"

"It's not so………..dusty."

"Oh, you never quite can be sure about that…," Simon Stone smirked amidst flickering. "…some of these lab technicians, I swear to Stephen Hawkings! Leave them alone for five minutes and they become absolute slackers when it comes to cleaning up the work area!"

"She's protected, right?"

"Pardon?"

"The plastic sheath. It's—"

"Never left her position."

Beast Boy exhaled. "That's good to hear…"

_Schwissh!!_

A pair of doors to the left opened.

Beast Boy gazed in.

Rachel Mendez jumped back. "Ay….pardon….I-I did not expect you…"

"S'ok…," Beast Boy smiled weakly. "I only beat your brains in when you're _bad_."

She smiled crookedly, cleared her throat, and gestured into the room: "Puede ir adentro."

"Thanks," he nodded and walked in.

The cybernetic woman exchanged glances with Simon Stone's visage.

In the meantime, Beast Boy wandered in. His eyes remained locked fixedly ahead, although he did finally glance to his left and say: "Ah….you're here too, dude."

"By all means…fine lad…," Jean-Luc Blair uttered. He was running a system diagnostic with his half-robotic arms. A bald head reflected the shimmering lights of the computer console before him. "Phaser Labs is our humble abode now. We owe our lives to it. And we spend our lives making things a lot better for this City….though it is hardly compensation."

"It'll do…," Beast Boy smirked. He turned and stood in front of a plastic cylinder. "After all…you help take care of _her……"_

Rachel and the hologram stood behind him.

Beast Boy took a breath. He lowered to his knees and placed a small but quaint wreath of flowers down at the feet of the plastic tube. He took a deep breath. He smiled painfully: "H-Hey, Terra. I hope you've been enjoying the new digs. I know it's not quite that….'earthy'…..but I'm sure you'll grow to love it. After all, you liked the Tower better than the cave. R-Right?"

Stone eyes stared towards the ceiling, glazed.

Granite arms stretched out for ever.

"Hey….um….," Beast Boy stood up and scratched the back of his head. "We've been visited by this cool kid. He calls himself the Messenger. I like his style. He's funny….smart…..though a little bit on the fruity side. Ahem. But still, I think you'd enjoy meeting him. Although I get the feeling he's not the sort to stick around for long. But….j-just his friendliness and sunshiney smile and embrace of life….well….it reminds me of you a bit. Only….heh….y-you were so much more….erm…..huggable??" Beast Boy winded. He looked at her.

Stone hair froze in place. Unmoving.

"Yup…huggable…eh heh heh heh heh….," Beast Boy swallowed. A beat. He leaned against the plastic and ran his finger across a smudge on the transparent surface. He took a shuddering breath. "Terra….hang tight. Okay? Not j-just for yourself. But for that…th-that special someone…..ya know…..inside of you…."

Simon Stone and the recuperating cyborgs glanced aside.

"We're working on a way to get you out of there. We never stopped. Not once. I want you to hang in there, Terra. I want you to hang in because….because……," Beast Boy sniffed. "Things are….g-getting really scary again. It feels like….almost l-like Slade's back. There's evil stuff in the world again. And I don't want you having to see it. And at the same time, I don't want you having to suffer from it. So h-hang in there, Terra. I promise you….I promise you on my parents' name….I will see to your safety. To all of your safety. Even if….even if it means my not having to see you again…."

Simon's hologram glanced up, blinking.

Beast Boy's head hung, his hand remained resting against the plastic. He shook: "As long as you make it out of that. I'll be fine….I'll be…..fine….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where have Cyborg and Raven departed to??"

"Probably out to eat somewhere, Star."

"Truly?"

"Yeah. They tend to do that." Robin remarked while staring out the window, his back to the sofa's rear. "At least nowadays."

"Oh…I see….and Beast Boy?"

"Off to Phaser Labs most likely to check on….on….y-you know who."

"Indeed." A long pause. "Tempest and Noir?"

Robin sighed and ran a hand through his spiked hair. "I dunno, Star. How should I know?"

She drifted over across the Main Room, her hands held together. "I do apologize. I was merely desiring to inquire as to their whereabouts. If you are not appreciative of my interrogatory comments, I shall leave you presently…"

"I'm fine, Star…," Robin exhaled. "Ya know….I'm not half as closed off as I used to be."

"Do you truly think so, Robin?"

"………"

She blushed. "Erm…that did not quite come out the way I desired it too."

He chuckled somewhat, surprising her. "It's okay, Star. It's true. I'm….I'm different."

"In what fashion does Robin think that Robin is being different?" she leaned back beside him.

He shrugged without looking at her. His eyemask was full of the City. "I'm…..actually listening to total and complete strangers. The only reason I'm making myself go ahead with the Messenger's word is that he seems pretty adamant and Noir trusts him. If this were a year ago, I wouldn't have so much as looked at this prophet of doom. I'd have brushed him off as a punk…which he still may be. I almost wonder….are my defenses slipping? Jeez…I dunno…."

"Could it be that you are becoming more trusting, independent of your level of defenses?" she smiled optimistically.

"My head doesn't work that way."

"Then in what fashion _does_ your cranium function?"

"Trust is part of crime fighting. But when you're crime fighting, you only have so many people to deal with. And most of them are bad. When you're surrounded by bad people…it's hard to consider 'trusting' a measurable effect towards success."

"But I do not believe you are so surrounded by bad people, Robin…," Starfire gently placed her hand on his glove. "You are surrounded by friends, are you not?"

He glanced down. He gazed at her hand on his. He didn't try to move it. "I….I guess I wasn't quite adapted to teamwork as I thought I would be when I founded the Titans with Robin. Hell…Beast Boy would have done a better job than I did. I mean….turns out he's had experience. Did you know he was with the Doom Patrol before joining us?"

"Who?"

"Never mind…," Robin grumbled and shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I just wish…..sometimes….you had another leader to look up to beside me. Someone more….assured of himself. Someone who didn't have to have…..have a split identity…."

She seemed to gaze extra long at his mask for a moment. Her gaze fell to his lips. "Robin…I respect who you are. And at the same time, I respect who you are not. They are both part of the whole. They are both part of the same person I admire." She smiled gently. "Both halves of you…secret or superficial….are all part of Robin. I would not choose another leader for an instant."

He simpered somewhat. "You are….so very trusting, Starfire."

She giggled gently before responding: "Merely because you are so very kind, Robin."

"If you say so…."

"Mmmm….but I do."

A beat.

Robin bit his lip. "Though….I think the leadership's beyond me now."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"I trust Decker and all. But suddenly, I feel split. I don't know who to trust more….him or the Messenger?"

"The Messenger is quite adamant that he shall convince Decker into seeing the proposed threat of Dagger at hand, correct?"

"Yes….but I hate this conflict," Robin grumbled. "And this is coming from someone who typically is _okay_ with conflict."

"True."

"I want to feel….sure of something. I want to know where to go. Where I can toss my birdarang. Most of all…I want to be able to make the decision of where to go and what to do. But for once….I feel completely clueless. And because of me…I feel….that the Titans are completely clueless. And as much as Decker has been taking the reins lately and the Messenger has stuck his head into all of this, I just don't feel secure…..I don't feel like I should be giving anything away. Especially after all that's happened with Viper. And the prison. And now……Dagger……."

"I do not feel helpless, Robin…."

He glanced at her. "Really now…."

She shook her head.

"Because I'm here or something?"

She giggled. She leaned on him. "That is also true…but that was not the reason I was going to give."

"Then what was your reason, Star?"

She took a deep breath as she leaned against him. Her eyes gazed out onto the City. Whole. Clean. Complete. "We have all survived so much. And against all odds. Foolish as the sentiment may be….I have complete faith that we can face any challenge or evil that may rear its defiling head against us."

"You'd make a perfect motivational speaker, Star."

A beat.

"I would make…..a lot of perfect other things too….R-Robin…….do you think so?"

He was mute.

A beat.

"With the Tower….as empty as this. And the two of us alone in it…….it almost feels like we are in a married household, does it not?"

Robin blinked under his mask. He blushed furiously. "Uhm……"

"Hmmm?" she smiled at him.

"I suppose…..," Robin scratched his neck. He simpered and managed: "All we'd need is Nova'm and Beast Boy, and then we could tell the neighbors we're a nuclear family. We'd have a kid and a dog."

"Hehehehehehehe!!" she squeezed him in a hug. "Tooooooo cuuuuuute….."

"Y-Yeah…..," he swallowed…suddenly distracted away from the distant skyline of the City. "Cute…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The crowd roared and cheered.

Echoing chants filled the modestly large gym.

Two teams…one full of light jerseys and the other full of dark….

They dribbled the ball up and down the hardwood floor.

Struggling around the baskets.

Taking shots.

Missing.

Taking more shorts.

Driving into the hole.

Finally scoring.

And yielding forth monstrous roars of praise.

Especially for the home team.

Urban Faith Academy.

Tempest had his fingers plugged into his ears. He winced.

"Woohoo!" Lindsay waved her arms and half-stood. "Way to go…uhm…uhm….J-Jersey Number Seven! Yeah!!"

"Has the noise stopped yet?" Tempest asked.

"Come on, don't you think this is fun?"

"What??"

"I said, don't you think this his—Hey! Take your fingers out of your ears!"

Tempest shakily obeyed. "They do seem to take an awful lot of fun in punishing that poor orange sponge."

"No…that's the basketball."

"Oh…I see….," Tempest nodded. A beat. "So…what crimes has the sponge committed?"

"Don't you get it?" Lindsay giggled and gestured. "It's a game!"

"Ah yes…a game…," Tempest nodded. "Atlanteans have that."

"You don't say?"

"Yup. But instead of 'basketballs' you've got harpoons and walrus bladders. Want me to continue?"

"Er….n-no, actually."

"Didn't think so."

"But aren't you thrilled?" Lindsay cheered again as another basket was scored. The two sat in the middle row of bleachers towards the home team's side of the court. "This is surface people's life! This is how you have fun! You mean to tell me that the Titans haven't brought you to one ball game?"

"Sometimes—I've noticed—Beast Boy likes to spontaneously roll himself into teammates in the form of an armadillo, and when Raven's around all it takes is just one telekinetically charged mallet to take aim and—"

"Do you ever want to talk about yourself?" she asked.

Tempest blinked. He spoke above the noise of the crowd: "But wasn't I just—"

"You were talking about the Titans," she shook her head. "What of yourself?"

He scratched his black head of hair. He uttered: "Uh….well…..you see….."

She looked at him quietly. Patiently. A calm, freckled face.

He simpered. "The Titans……they are me now. At least…the me that I _am_ now. I came to this City a different person than what I used to be."

"Then the person I've happened to meet with ever so often and am now speaking to is…"

"A new Atlantean," Tempest said. "At least…not the same fish-neighbor that he was before hand. And…I think it's better that way. There are many things worth….leaving behind."

"Like what?"

He looked at her funny. He smirked: "Now, if I told you I wouldn't have technically _left them behind_, now would I?"

"Just asking," Lindsay said, her eyes trailing the basketball across the court. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrogate. I just—"

"Curiosity?"

"Yeah…but to a stone's throw."

"Do tell…"

She looked at him sideways. An interested smirk. "What in the world….EVER….possessed you to talk to a girl like me?"

"Hmmm?" he blinked. "You're talking to me right now, aren't you?"

"You know what I mean."

"No I don't," Tempest exhaled. "I'm what Cyborg would call a 'dense jellyfish'. Please elaborate, and I might be of more….mental service to you."

"A Titan just doesn't…ya know…..," she glanced off.

"Hmmm?"

She toyed with a lock of stringy brown hair. Her eyes trailed. "….a Titan doesn't just….visit an ordinary gir—er citizen….more than once….and make friends."

"Friends? So that's what we are!" Tempest gasped.

She bit her lip. "Uhm…."

"I've been completely in the dark, but not now thanks to you," he extended a hand. "Hello, friend."

She blinked. She simpered. She took his hand. "Hello…."

They shook.

He winked: "Well…that's one."

She pouted. "Only one?"

"Well…one and a half….," Tempest looked out at the basketball game. "I suppose that green armadillo back at the Tower is starting to count for something."

"Hehehehe….," she giggled.

He glanced at her through the corner of his eyes, then back at the game. Something washed over his lips, and his face found something solemn to sink in. A beat and a sigh and he said: "Say…Lindsay…."

"Yeah?"

"I've only been in this City for so long…and I know this sounds wyrd coming from a Titan…..but….."

"Try me. I've seen wyrder things than you in my days."

"Uh…okay."

"Hehe."

"Ahem…," he leaned towards her and spoke closely enough to her ear so that she could hear it over the game without him having to be too loud. "Back when Slade and Dagger were out and about….those two despots of evil in this City…..how did the people feel?"

She blinked. "Um…..'the people'??"

"You. Citizens. Everyday habitants of…this City. Were you…..frightened?"

She bit her lip some.

Tempest took a breath and gazed down into the stands. "You don't have to answer that if it's too uncomfortable."

"Discomfort is a way of life…," Lindsay simpered. "No matter what my mother says."

"What does your mother say?"

"Never mind," she shook her head. "What was the question again? Slade? Dagger? Fear?"

"Something along those lines…."

"Uhm…yeah…it was scary, Tempest. V-Very scary, in fact. There were bombs going off all across the City. Innocent people were at risk of dying. We were all scared. We set up prayer sessions here at the Academy…asking God to intervene. Not just for the victims, but also for the Titans…that they might track down the enemy and put an end to his actions….and………..," Lindsay's voice trailed as her eyes trailed and everything fell on Tempest.

Tempest with a raised eyebrow of curiosity.

"Something wrong?"

"N-No…," he smiled. Go on.

"……," she glanced at him sideways. Cleared her throat. And went on: "I remember lonely nights with my family, up late, hands held together….asking for God's deliverance. I don't think we ever prayed harder than we did then. And….and it helped me. It really did. My friends as well." She smiled somewhat. "And you know what? That faith was rewarded. At least, I think so. Slade and Dagger were stopped. It was a miracle….especially after all that had happened. It's taught me to expect a lot more out of life than just helpless adversities."

"You're very religious, aren't you?"

"Nooooooo," she gasped. Then giggled and playfully shoved Tempest.

He looked at his shoulder…then at her. Eyebrow still raised.

"It's one thing to be afraid….but I believe that there are greater things in this world—in this life than Destruction…," Lindsay said. "I believe that when God created the world…He meant it to be the exact same thing he forged it to be. Something good. Something wonderful. With or without the taint of sin…there's a divine purpose for everyone and everything. And evil—I am convinced—will not win in the end. The deaths of Slade and Dagger only helped me see that all the more."

"Only their deaths?" Tempest asked, somewhat quietly.

She slowly shook her head. "No….nah….not just because of trivial things…," she looked at him and smiled warmly. "Faith is something you just have….have to feel. I suppose. That's why I never can really understand televangelists and stuff like that. And I bet that sounds wyrd coming from me…."

"What's a televangelist?"

She seemed to ignore him: "Lives aren't 'saved' by dialing a number and talking to someone over the phone. You have to be….touched by God. You have to feel His warmth. His divine presence. Like….Like arms dipping down from Heaven and sorta….holding you."

"And you've felt that?"

"I like to think so, yes….," she nodded. "Have you ever felt something like that?"

Tempest gazed off. A faint smile trailed on his lips. "I've…..felt warm arms before. But…erhm….," he glanced at her. "Not quite the same as you unless….."

"……..," Lindsay blinked at him.

He chuckled. "Heh heh heh….noooo….not the same as you."

"What?"

"Nothing…..I think you're very fortunate," he said.

"What? To have divine inspiration?"

"To have anything….," he mumbled, staring at the basketball game.

"……..," she stared at him. Her mouth slightly agape.

She would have said something……but the home team scored and bodies all around rose up loudly to snap her out of it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Cyborg sat at the restaurant table, staring at a menu.

"………….," Raven sat across from him, staring at a menu.

"…………."

"…………."

Cyborg glanced up.

Raven glanced up.

A beat.

They returned to their menus.

"………….."

"………….."

Silence.

And….

The two snapped:

"Want me to handle the meal?" . "Want me to handle the meal?"

A blink.

"Y-You could just do the tip." . "You could just do the tip."

Another blink.

A pause.

"Dutch?" Raven raised an eyebrow.

Cyborg sighed and smiled tiredly. "Dutch….."

The two looked at their menus again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Vrrmmmmmmm………_

Decker's car came to a stop inside the parking garage.

The engine cut off.

A beat.

The man pealed himself out of the vehicle, got his shirt caught in something, cursed mildly, yanked himself free, and locked his vehicle up by remote. He scratched his head, yawned, and walked towards the nearby stairwell.

His shoes echoed alone against the concrete floor of the interior levels.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to Decker's apartment opened.

The Commissioner sauntered in.

Blinking tiredly.

He locked the door behind him.

A beat.

He glanced down.

Envelopes.

He knelt down.

He examined them up close.

A beat.

"The Hell??" he blinked. "Fan mail?"

Silence.

"Nngh…," he tossed the haphazard envelopes into a nearby trash bin. "Probably friggin' anthrax…."

He walked over into the kitchen. He tossed his tie and belt over the back of a chair.

He shuffled over to his answering machine, all the while loosening his collar.

He pressed a button on the machine:

_Beeeeeep!_

'_Greetings'._

'_You have………one……hundred……and…………twenty……two……messages……'_

Decker wandered over to the fridge, stopped, went bug-eyed, and did a double-take at the machine. "Say what?!?!"

He shuffled over.

'_Six……twenty-two……A.M……'_

_Beeeeep!_

'_Hey! Commissioner! I'm George Ferguson……owner of Old Time's Hardware down on Twenty-Eighth and Main Street. I just gotta say……way to go, man! I mean……kicking Viper's ass like that—'_

CLICK.

Decker's finger jammed on the search button.

A whining sound.

Then.

_Beeeeep!_

'_Six……forty-nine……A.M.'_

'_Commissioner Decker? H-Hi. You may not know me. My name is Agnes Slone. I'm the head of the Mothers-For-Safe-Street-Crossing in the Western District. And I just want to say on behalf of all of us soccer moms that what you've done for the City is not only brave but exemplary and—'_

CLICK!

THWACK!!!

Decker's fist slammed over the machine.

"Uh uh. No sir. Not tonight, losers. GET A LIFE!!!" He grumbled his way to a nearby window and flung it open to the air between skyscrapers outside. Cold November air drifted in. "I swear to frickin' God…this isn't my thing. I'm not about to become the next Donny Osmond……with a bullet proof vest."

He fumbled through a pack of cigarettes and produced a smoke. He lit it, then stood before the window. He seemed to breathe easier with the smoke filtering through his lungs.

"…………."

A few puffs later.

"…………..," he raised an eyebrow.

Part of the glass of the raised window was reflecting something.

Something green.

Something green and _behind him._

"………….," Decker's eye narrowed.

His left hand crawled up onto a table with a cookie jar set to his left.

He twirled the cigarette in his right hand.

One spin…two spins….three….

"!!!!"

Decker flicked the cigarette out.

His left hand tossed open the lid to the cookie jar.

He shoved his right hand into it, pulled it out around the trigger of a revolver, and spun around with the weapon pointed straight out. "FREEZE!!"

"I was never very good at Russian Roulette," the Messenger smiled into the barrel. "I kept taking peaks into Gamepro Magazine and stealing cheat codes for the bullet chambers."

"…..," Decker panted and limply drew the gun down. He swallowed and uttered with a faint trace of growling: "How in the blue Hell did you get in here?"

"I followed the trail of cigarette crumbs and beat back the wolves," the Messenger shrugged. "I swear, Lumberjacks are rare in this urban forest come November."

"You're a teleporter, aren't you??" Decker pointed an angry finger. "No wait. You're one of them telepathic manipulator punks! I'm going to be attacked by a giant mushroom next, aren't I?"

"Is that a come on?"

"AREN'T I??"

"Hold your horses!" the Messenger chuckled. "Not unless you really want to, sir. I shall keep the mushrooms and teleportation devices at bay." He lowered his raised hands and smiled. "I only want to talk."

"Screw off…."

"Not on a first date."

"I mean _scram_!!" the Decker motioned as he faced the windows and put the revolver away. "I told you that I didn't want any of your nonsense back at the Department. And I still mean it! Got it? Now scram…."

The Messenger gestured: "I'm sure there's a great analogy involving a constipated anaconda on Christmas Eve that's just waiting to be compared to you and your stubbornness, Commissioner."

"Thanks. I'm flattered…," the man lit another cigarette. "Do you not understand the meaning of skedaddle? You've already cost me a cigarette, you're gradually costing me half of my blood pressure, and if you're not gone when I turn around in thirty seconds you'll be costing me a once-clean shoe up your ass!"

"Besides the fact that you've got the poetic eloquence of a toothless beaver…," the Messenger nodded his head. "….it's safe to say that you're a leading authority figure in this City. You're also pretty dang smart—from last I read up on you—and it would seem you've become a hero after surviving not one but TWO scrapes with Viper. Not an easy task, I grant you."

"I'm sure there's a point to all of this that doesn't involve me bitch-slapping you out the door?"

"The Titans are only seven people. At any second, you—Commissioner—would issue command over seven hundred. I have with me detailed information as to Dagger's plan of movement in this City upon his return, and to counteract such a situation…it would require much, much manpower…the likes of which seven superhumans aren't even enough to cover. For the City to be safe, all of its elite must be employed in the unanimous attack of meeting this dire threat. And who is more an epitome of the City's strength and standing than you, sir?"

"You don't have evidence of any sort, kid…," Decker grumbled over his shoulder. "And besides…I don't even have to look at you to know that you're just some vigilante wannabe punk with freakish powers who thinks that—on a whim—he can suddenly save the world."

"Naturally….," the Messenger smiled.

"That might work in Disneyland…but not here."

"And the Titans—"

"—have earned their places. So don't go there. And frankly…I don't know what could possibly have possessed them to be deluded so suddenly by a brown-nosing clown like you."

A beat.

Then….

"Commissioner….you must listen to me. You must take this chance."

"Heh….."

"Don't you think some things take faith? For the better of all things good?"

"No."

"Are you afraid to extend your own boundaries?"

"I'm not afraid of punching your face in if you keep questioning my methods!!" Decker puffed the last of his second smoke and groaned in frustration. "Is it enough that you barge your way into my apartment and attack me with a barrage of—"

"Were you smiling at yourself inwardly when you scared the ever living crap out of Alex Diotrephes?" the Messenger asked quietly.

"……………," Decker was silent.

The Messenger took a step forward, staring at the back of the official's head. "When you planted that prop gun to his head….and you saw him turn pale….and the pervert before you peeled away to reveal a ghost whose testimony and practical life had become putty in your hands……did you enjoy it?"

"…………..," slowly, Decker turned around. His eyes were narrow. His lips firm. "How do you know about that…..?"

"Not very good etiquette in treating witnesses….," the Messenger shook his head…taking another step forward. "Especially when exhibited by the Commissioner of the local police department himself. Very cruel and unusual punishment indeed….."

Decker frowned. "I did what I had to do. There was a killer on the loose. One that goes beyond any normal bearings of the law—"

"Try telling that to the good judges and officials of this City…," the Messenger sneered. "All good heroes must answer to the balance of morals. They wouldn't be too happy with you, Decker. They wouldn't be too happy with you one bit…"

"Look, you little shit….," Decker pointed with a hiss. "Are you trying to blackmail me?"

"Why did you cross the line, Decker?"

"Because if you are, I swear—"

"Why did you cross the line?!?!"

"MY MEN WERE DYING, ASSHOLE!!" Decker shouted. "The people of this city!! Innocent citizens were buying it by that bald shithead's silver sword!! So damn me to Hell if I crossed the line!!"

"It was still wrong, Commissioner…," the Messenger seethed. Something dark and painful flashed in his almond eyes as he took yet another step forward. He seemed twice as tall somehow. "It was still wrong and you know it. And in spite of how much you try to excuse it, it'll still gnaw at you! And it'll still fester! And you'll never forget how you broke the rules that one day to get some pathetic waste of existence to squeal!!"

"You want to know about memories that'll never go away?!?!" Decker snarled. "How about Judge Carson?!?! Warden Georgeton?!?! ALL THE DAMN BLOOD OF ALL THE LOST LIVES THAT ARE ON MY HANDS?!?!"

Swoosh—The Messenger suddenly blurred forward.

Decker blinked, and in doing so…he couldn't see where the asian teen's hands went until they struck him hard in the chest and thigh.

Wham!

Thwap!!!

The Messenger then brought his knee forward.

Whump!!

Decker fell helplessly to his back and slumped against the window sill.

GRIP!!!

The Messenger clutched him hard by the collar and shouted—snarling—into his face: "**You have not begun to friggin' imagine the number of lives that will be on your hands if you don't do the right decision and cross that god damn line again right now, you filthy-ass coward!!! You know deep down inside you're only shittin' yourself when you give up an opportunity that I'm giving you!!!"**

The Commissioner panted.

The Messenger was frowning. His nostrils flared. He practically spat: "You don't have to be a cowardly asshole, Decker. Yes…Viper is gone. But Dagger is here. Dagger is here and you must FACE HIM. And you won't be alone. The Titans will be there. I will be there. Just open your god damn eyes for once and throw away all your hellbent pride. You're not the hero yet. There's one last hump to go…."

"……………..," the Commissioner took a deep breath. He lay there in the grip of the Messenger as he slowly opened his lips and said: "Do you have….any idea….how many ways….I can grab you….and break your sorry-ass nose….from where we're lying….right now?"

"…………," the Messenger glared. "You're right…..I'm toast…..now…..you gonna do your worse or what?"

"………….," Decker slowly bore a frowning smile. "You…..You have guts….kid………Because……you lousy son of a bitch…..you're speaking my language."

"………….," the Messenger smiled.

"How do you do it?"

The Messenger stood up. "I know people," he said simply…calmly. His pleasant demeanor returned. "I know you. I know the Titans. And…..I know Dagger." He held his hand down for the Commissioner to pull himself up. "And I know what tools Dagger is using. And if we work together….we may find out what path Dagger is taking to royally f-up this City. And perhaps….we can lower the inevitable body count."

"…….," the Commissioner refused the Messenger's hand. Decker stood up on his own, brushed himself off, and glared down at the teen asian. "Where did you learn to move like that?"

"A wolverine taught me…," the Messenger smirked. "So….do we have a deal?"

A beat.

"No," Decker said.

The Messenger raised an eyebrow. "No?"

THWUMP!!!!

Decker shoved him down with a single kick.

The young man collapsed onto the kitchen tile, wincing.

Decker grinned, his arms folded. "Now we've got a deal…"

The Messenger simpered with a wince. "Splendid. It's people like you that make me glad Noir's my best friend in this dimension."

"Yeah, whatever. Go read a Playboy magazine…," Decker rubbed his temple and stared out of the window. "Tomorrow…when I rendezvous with the Titans….I'll see what we can do about your….'Dragonflare plan'."

"Sounds good to me," said the voice behind him.

"On one condition…," Decker suddenly grumbled. "You don't ever….EVER….pounce on me like that again. Especially in front of the Titans." He turned and looked over his shoulder. "You got me?"

But the Messenger was gone.

"……….," Decker turned and glared out the window again. He sighed. "Somehow….I think I'm gonna frickin' regret this…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So long, Jordan!!"

"Take it easy, Noir!"

"Thanks for all the help!"

"Keep in contact!"

"Till next time!"

Renee and Daniel waved from the storefront.

I smiled and waved back at them as I walked down the sidewalk in the cold air.

They went inside, shut the door, and locked the store behind them.

I turned and faced where I was walking.

A beat.

I paused.

"…….."

I tilted my head up towards the November sky.

The sun had set.

The sky was darkening.

The clouds parted.

And….

The first stars started to appear.

And in mimicking glory, pinpricks of light appeared across the urban horizon in answer to the heavens.

Kobayashi Tower stretched high above it all.

Searchlights from Bayside Plaza filled the air with an electric glow towards the Southeast.

And beyond, the shimmering sight of the Titans' Tower shone across the dark waters of the Bay.

And I shuddered.

And I shivered.

And I tried to ignore it by shoving my fists into my pockets.

_How could anything……ANYTHING……terrible possibly happen to this Town? _

A beat.

I sighed.

I walked home quietly, slowly, on my own.

My mind drifted somewhere between Ana and Kara and at some moment I found myself in bed with the lanterns of my room dying out and the gentle fumes of a sheathed sword lulling me to sleep.


	166. Hand and Dagger part 3

**166. Hand and Dagger part 3**

Early the next morning.

At the City Drug Rehabilitation Center….

"Dr. Schafield! Come! Q-Quickly!" a physician anxiously paced ahead and waved for the man to follow.

Schafield walked down the long, checkerboard floor of the Psychiatric Ward. Orderlies flanked him and hurried with the same urgency as the man leading the way ahead.

The head doctor panted. "What is it, Cochrane? The Dragonflare patients?"

The man ahead nodded. "Yes sir. There's something….out of th-the ordinary."

"Well let me see…," Schafield murmured.

With a metallic ring, the double doors to the final corridor opened.

The two physicians and orderlies marched in, joined by others on watch.

"Have a look for yourself….," the man gestured towards the windows to the individual cells.

"……….," Schafield walked up to the first one he came to. He peered in. His eyes thin.

A beat.

His brow furrowed.

Through the cross-hatched window of the door, Schafield gazed in and saw the patient lying in his bed. Strapped as usual.

But….

Not struggling.

Schafield's lips parted.

The suspect was lying still. Breathing firmly. His head raised as much as he could muster. His eyes…..locked on the window.

Looking at the doctor.

"……………"

Schafield's feet echoed against the hard floor of the hallway as he sauntered down to the next cell.

He gazed in through the door.

His eyes narrowing.

The Dragonflare addict inside was just as immobile, calm, and vigilant as the previous.

He stared calmly back at the doctor through the door window.

Schafield strolled over towards the next door….and the next….and then the next…..

All eighteen subjects were exhibiting the same behavior. Utter calmness. Easy breathing. Silence. And yet—instant eye contact. Their eyes even seemed to trace Schafield's face as he went from one window to the next. He felt invisible gazes on him the more and more he blinked.

"They're…….at ease……," Schafield ran a hand through his hair and dusted off the shoulders of his lab coat. "And yet…it's like they're anxious. Like they're waiting for something….."

"Sir….," the physician beckoned.

Schafield looked over at him. "What?"

"The time…," the man pointed to his watch.

Schafield glanced at his wrist.

The second hand brushed over '12'.

_3:22 am_.

"What in the…….," Schafield blinked. He looked down the hallway, his mouth agape. "Why….Wh-Why aren't they screaming?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wednesday.

November 3, 2004

8:25 am

The City Police Department.

The Titans and the majority of the Police Department's top elite were gathered in the briefing room. It was a fairly large interior that sat one hundred and fifty people.

A podium stood at the far end of the room, where all the chairs faced. Behind the podium was a large, white screen hanging from where the ceiling met the wall.

The Titans and I had front row seats. I sat closest to the center, with Raven to my left. Followed by Cyborg, Beast Boy, Tempest, and Starfire on the side. Robin stood off to the left of the seats, his arms folded. Raven crossed her legs. Tempest leaned a curious chin on his fingers.

Commissioner Decker sat at a chair beside the podium, looking somewhere between bored, tired, and pissed. The Lieutenant stood off to the right somewhere next to a couple of ornate flags hanging off of vertical standing poles.

The room was full of curious mutterings. Random coughs. Cleared throats and even a chuckle or two emanating from the police's side. The Titans and I were….mute. Raven seemed curiously patient. Cyborg seemed anxious. And Robin was—well—brooding. Starfire looked up at him and gently touched his shoulder. At that, the Boy Wonder exhaled, and smiled down at her slightly.

Footsteps.

We all gazed ahead.

The Messenger walked up to the podium, humming. He stood at it…stumbled…and stood again.

"…….."

We could barely see the top of his head.

"A phone book would be quite the salvation at the moment…."

The Lieutenant rushed in with a stepping stool and quietly dropped it before him.

"Ah, why thank you, Thing." A bit of shuffling. We saw the Messenger's pleasant face. He stood above the podium, cleared his throat, and snapped his finger up high.

The lights dimmed.

The police fraction of the room turned silent.

The Messenger cleared his throat, reached a hand out, and flipped on an overhead display.

A white circle splashed brightly onto the shiny screen hanging behind him.

A bit of ruffling….

The Messenger slapped a transparency onto the overhead.

The map of the City appeared amidst darting shadows behind him.

"This look familiar to y'all?"

"…………"

"I'll give you a hint…it's where you live."

"…………"

"Tough department. Ahem…..And away we go….," the Messenger popped out a black marker. On the map—for all of us to see—he circled three key locations with black bands. "Dagger want his City back. And to reclaim it, he'll seek to overwhelm us from the inside out. How? By gradually extending his invisible forces in a spiraling formation inward from the side. But the forces aren't entirely invisible. The slimy legacy of Dagger leaves behind Dragonflare like a plague. It's a drug worth ten times that of street money. And not only that, but it's a controlling agent. Something that dumbs down a large enough mass of people until they're actually stupid enough to run blindly into chaos for the bureaucratic despot. There are three spots in the City I've discovered to be the initial harbors for this hellish drug. Then each respective spot branches inward into the City…."

He drew key-placed spots inward into the City and connected the dots from the outside. It looked like a spiraling symbol stretched over the map of our domain. Three raptor claws arching inward towards the downtown.

"….underground railroads of ammunitions, explosives, personnel, and….of course….Dragonflare. Dragonflare is the fuel of Decker's movement. I promise you….on the raids that you are soon to make…..you will find plenty of weapons and evidence to incriminate a person to Tierra Del Fuego and back….with penguins stuck in his ass."

He paused in his line-drawing and looked out at us across the dim room.

"But Dragonflare will be Dagger's signature. That's why we're starting at the base of his branches into the City…"

He labeled the three original spots on the perimeter A, B, and C.

"It will be the hardest series of raids. But it will also cut off Dagger's trafficking of dangerous materials. And while his sources on the inside of the spiraling branches take notice of our slamming the gavel down, we'll send secondary units to the innermost locations to surprise them from the inside out."

He labeled three dots neighboring the Downtown region X, Y, and Z.

Those in between the perimeter and the center will have to face the convergence of our raiding parties. It will send Dagger's forces into chaos. They will no longer be able to stay stealthy or maintain silence. They'll be caught between a rock and a hard place. And not even the hallucinogenic effects of Dragonflare can blind them to the swift ambush we'll spring."

The Messenger drew a huge 'X' through the City for some special emphasis.

"Most important of all….," he spoke firmly. His pleasant lips hardening for a split moment. "The Dragonflare must be found. Dagger will be powerless without it. Do you understand??"

Mutterings.

Decker twiddled his thumbs, glaring through the floor.

The Lieutenant folded his arms, blinking with interest.

The Messenger smiled. He leaned forward onto the podium. "Now….to strike those outer targets….we need stealth of our own to rival the king of conspiracies…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran to the warehouse wall.

I pressed my back into it.

Panting.

The morning light shown down off the white concrete of the Western District's riverside storage complexes.

_Point A……_

"**I am not asking for an all out attack. But an initial act of reconnaissance. After all…I'm sure many of you are scratching your heads. Do not worry. If we move now…we can take Dagger's men by surprise. There will be little resistance. And if we raid on six places all within the same approximate period of time…any retaliatory forces provided by him will be impossibly split among half a dozen fronts."**

I took a deep breath.

CHIIIIIIIING!!!

I pulled Myrkblade out.

I concentrated.

I covered myself with a curtain of stealth.

Invisible, I snaked my way in through the large doors of the warehouse.

I cradled against my pant leg a mute communicator wired to a secret police van two blocks away.

They were looking and listening through me….

I crouch-walked my way silently like a deadly shadow into the warehouse.

I stripped my face of my shades, blinked my naked eyes….

And looked….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Zzzzzt!!!_

Robin held a sparkling tool to the last of a dozen rusted bars stretched over the window he was perched at.

The autumn wind blew at his hair and cape up high on the eighth floor of a run-down apartment building.

_Zzzzz-zzzt!!_

Robin concentrated.

He cut the last of the bars.

He yanked them out as quietly as he could.

A breath.

He held onto the buildingside by a grappling hook and tossed the bar away with his other gloved hand.

The metal mesh fell eight stories until it landed out of earshot in an abandoned alleyway of the impoverished Northeast District below.

_Point B._

"**This is an act of precision. That is why the most expert people among us will be going in first. As is obvious, the Titans shall be the spearheads for this operation. But the courage and actions of you officers—the defenders of law and justice in this City—will be needed much the same."**

Robin slid the window halfway open, twisted his body, and nimbly swung himself into the apartment.

He crouched in a hallway.

_Snkkkt……_

He quietly extended his staff.

He took a deep breath, fingering the blinking communicator against his leg.

He slowly crept forward, holding onto the staff tightly.

There was a light coming out from under a door across the room.

He slid himself up against the wall.

Took a deep breath.

Grasped the doorknob…

And slowly slid the passageway open…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The cobblestone street between line of open shops and the fisherman's wharf was bustling with people.

Shoppers and workers the same.

Some sailors gathered in the middle of the street to chat and laugh about one fisherman's tale or another.

All the while, fresh fish was lined up at the shops.

Glistening in the morning sun.

Across from an old, brown building…the Lieutenant stood. He was dressed in a yellow poncho and jeans. He was eating from an apple, standing casually besides a set of wooden posts that marked the beginning of a dock that stretched out into the Bay.

He casually glanced around, took another bite of his apple, and stared at the brown building across the way.

Two shady men stood atop the steps leading into a door on the second floor of the building. The suspects had on impatient frowns as they scanned up and down the hustle and bustle of the Eastern District's fisherman's market.

_Point C._

"**Do not panic. At the same time, do not overstep your bounds. This is evil we're dealing with. Pure evil. And it is my firm belief that—as dictated by the Balance of Morals—a gravity of sorts is on our side. Victory will be carried to us as if on the wind. We just must learn to….to relax. To do everything methodically. By the book. And with just the right calm precision….this whole ordeal will be over."**

The Lieutenant's eyes narrowed.

His free hand came out from hiding beneath his poncho.

There was a long distance mic in his grasp.

He aimed it at the two suspects on the doorsteps.

White noise was broadcasting with crackling volume into a remote pair of earphone's in the Lieutenant's lobes.

He took a breath.

He gazed at the window of the brown building across the way.

Slowly…so as not to attract attention….he pivoted his hand and aimed the mic at the window.

"……………."

More white noise.

White noise.

White noise.

Then….

Whurring sounds.

Cutting sounds.

Mechanical sounds.

Like a processing center.

The Lieutenant's eyes widened.

He swallowed his last bitten chunk of apple.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I crept stealthily over a pile of crates.

I peered outward across the interior of the warehouse.

My naked black optics blinked.

Three adult figures were grunting and grabbing onto the side of a large, wooden container in the center of the warehouse.

They heaved. They pulled. And--

SNAP!!

The container cracked open.

The contents spilled out.

Ammo boxes.

Bullets.

My lips parted.

I gazed across the warehouse and tapped a morse code message through the communicator strapped to my leg.

The place was covered and filled to the brim with explosives, ammo crates, and eventually a pile of sub machine guns in the corner.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Carbonite detonators.

Hunting knives.

Four whole crates of grenades.

"Son of a gun….," Robin exhaled as he peered down the hallway into a run-down apartment where the deadly items were stacked. "….I can't believe it…"

The Boy Wonder helplessly smiled.

A pair of loud footsteps.

He cracked the door further closed.

He spotted through a thin slit of light two bodies marching past him and down the hallway, trucking another crate of explosives.

They dropped it down to the dusty floor with a grunt.

THWOMP!!!

They breathed easier and gathered around a torn-apart radio that was sending in mixed frequencies from some mysterious source.

Robin's fingers grew tighter around his rod.

His other glove traced the communicator against his leg…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The two suspects turned slowly and walked into the second story of the brown building.

They closed the door behind them.

The Lieutenant takes one last bite, swallows, and tosses the apple away.

He throws off his poncho and storms across the cobblestone street of the fisher's market.

He whips out a pistol and cocks it. Cl-Click! He speaks into the blinking communicator strapped to his left shoulder.

"Team Ceti. Fall in. Repeat. Fall in. I'm heading in first!"

He became aware of similar shadows to his in the peripheral of his vision…rushing through the large crowds and converging as one on the building.

The Lieutenant stomped up the stairs, looked through the window of the door, took a breath, and kicked the front entrance down.

WHAM!!!

He bounded in with one step and aimed straight over a wooden railing at the first floor of the interior below.

"Police! Freeze!!"

Even as he said that, he was fighting the urge to gasp.

Five men looked up.

Five men gathered around a huge machine.

A huge machine that was attaching together disembodied AK-47 parts.

"………," the Lieutenant blinked. He quickly snapped out of it and shouted: "Hands up!!!"

The men below fidgeted.

WHAM!!!

CRASH!!!

Two more policemen entered the building, but on the first floor. One through a back door and another through a window.

"Freeze!"

"Don't move!!!"

The men finally gave in, kneeling down and raising their hands.

"This is the Lieutenant!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Point C secure!! You won't believe what we found in here, Commissioner!!"_

Decker looked up from the floor of a police van. He blinked at a bunch of surveillance monitors being attended to by city specialists. He glanced to his right across the dim vehicle's interior.

The Messenger leaned against the wall. He smirked.

"I guarantee you, it's not a purple elephant."

"……..," Decker's eyes narrowed. He lifted a communicator to his lips. "Point B! Point A! Move in!"

The Messenger smiled wide.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nngh!!!"

WHAM!!!

Robin burst through the apartment door.

Two burly men spun around--

TH-THWISH!!! Robin dove forward with his rod spinning. SM-SMACK!!! He clipped the first man twice across the jaw.

THWUMP!!! The thug fell.

Robin dove forward, rolled, and leapt back just in time to upper cut the second man.

THWACK!!

"Augh!!" the man fell back and collapsed through a stack of ammunition cases. CRASH!!

Robin stood, twirling his staff into a pose.

Cl-Click!!

"?!?!" He spun and looked.

Three more men ran out of a nearby room and aimed pistols at him from across the foyer.

"HAAA!" Robin unleashed a triad of birdarangs.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

CLANK!!!

He knocked the guns out of their wrists.

They stumbled back, wincing.

WHAM!!! WH-WHAM!!!

Two doors into the apartment's main hallway kicked down.

Police with riot shields and shotguns stormed in.

"POLICE!!! GET YOUR HANDS UP!! NOW!!!"

Robin panted…sweated….and smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOSH!!!!

The stealth peeled off me in a layer of smoke.

I blurred down the center of the warehouse, spun my body, and smacked two thugs across the skull with Myrkblade.

THWACK!!!

SLAP!!!

"Ughhh…."

Their bodies fell hard to the ground.

Another thug gasped, whipped out a gun, and fired—BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!

I backflipped.

Bullets ricocheted with bright flashes off the floor beneath me.

I came about, landed gracefully behind the thug, and gripped him from behind before cutting off his air and rendering him unconscious.

Three more thugs gasped and ran towards the pile of machine guns--

CRASH!!!

CRAA-AA-AASH!!!

SMASH!!!

Three sets of windows shattered as six S.W.A.T. Team members poured into the room.

"FREEZE!!"

"ON THE FLOOR!!"

"NOW!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

A worker inside the van picked up a receiver. He switched through a few surveillance feeds, spun around, and addressed Decker: "Sir!! Points A, B, and C secure! No casualties! Reports of huge weapon caches!"

The Commissioner's fists clenched. "I don't friggin' believe it….

The Messenger crept around him. "What is there to believe? My dear sir…there is only that which must be seized upon!"

"………..," Decker looked down at the asian Teen. "You're queer little shrimp, aren't you?"

The Messenger shrugged. "I'm a queer little shrimp you're dying to hug and kiss right now, I bet."

"………..," Decker turned to the worker. "Send in the other three teams."

"Right away, sir!"

The man typed at his keyboard, brought up numerous other surveillance feeds for his partners, and uttered firmly into the receiver: "Point X! Point Y! Point Z! Move! Move in!! Now!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!!!!!

The door to a sealed off utility room inside a parking garage melted.

Three men stood up from a table of poker, gasping.

SWOOOOSH!!! Starfire soared in, her eyes and hands blazing green. She was flanked by four police men with riot shields.

"HAA!!! RAAAUGH!!" she unleashed a volley of starbolts.

FL-FL-FLASH!!!

"UGH!!" the men flew back from the energetic impacts, their bodies ragdolling against piles of ammo and carbonite detonators that fell over and spilled across the floor from the impact.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At a small warehouse behind the City football stadium, two suspects reclined in the shadows of the structure's huge door with concealed weapons.

At the sound of something chirping, they glanced up.

A green cardinal glided down from the treetops above.

In midair, the feathers shrunk and gave way to thick, armor plated skin.

"YAAAAUGH!!" the two men dove out of the way.

SWOOOSH-SLAM!!!! A huge green rhino landed in their midst.

The shockwave shook them to their feet.

The changeling snorted and slammed its horn fiercely across their torsos.

WHAM!!!

THWAP!!!

The men fell down hard…unconscious.

The rhino let out a moan, grinded its hooves, and slammed into the door of the warehouse.

CRUNCH!!!!

The building was shattered open.

A throng of S.W.A.T. officers stormed in from the wayside just as the weapons cache of the warehouse was revealed to the world outside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two thugs walked across a rooftop in the sunset.

The spires of Kobayashi Tower and Wayne Enterprises were barely a block away.

As the two marched towards a large greenhouse on the far side of the building top, they heard a humming sound from behind.

They both spun around. "H-Huh?"

FLASH!!!! A bolt of black telekinesis exploded at their feet.

They grumbled and stumbled back.

Raven floated at the edge of the buildingside. Her robe billowed and her eyes glowed hot gray.

She clenched her fists, and both a bundle of metal antennae and an A/C unit lifted into the air with dark energy.

The men shuddered.

The dark girl frowned.

She flicked her wrists towards them…

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

The metal objects flew their way.

The men ran desperately towards the greenhouse—WHAM!!!!

The objects shoved them inside before lifting up and shattering a huge gash of broken metal and glass across the top of the greenhouse.

The men covered themselves and took shelter amidst boxes of explosive detonators and gun casings.

They looked up wearily as two police helicopters hovered down and screamed down at them with megaphones: _"Police!! You're surrounded!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Points X, Y, and Z are being secured! Forces have been nearly uncontested!"_

The police radio squabbled from squad car to squad car as officers taped off and started confiscating the huge weapons cache inside the warehouse of the Western District.

I stood off to the side, brandishing Myrkblade. Taking a deep breath.

_Relief? _

_Exertion?_

I felt calm.

The police were in the middle of carting off the battered suspects into the back of a van when the R-Cycle rolled up.

I looked over.

Robin took off his helmet.

He looked across the front of the warehouse at me.

I smiled.

I gave him a thumb's up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Both the outer perimeter and the inner core of the sites have been neutralized! Mission at eighty percent successful completion!"_

Raven hovered over the spires of Downtown, keeping her eye on the one rooftop where police gathered thickly around the half-demolished greenhouse.

Boxes and crates of deadly materials were being carried out by the armful.

A police helicopter roared overhead, surveying the scene. Eyeing the streets below for straggling suspects.

"……….," Raven stared.

SWOOOSH!!! Starfire hovered down by her side.

Raven looked over.

Starfire smiled back.

The girls exchanged silent nods and continued eyeing the greenhouse below.

"_Sir! Commissioner! There remains one last point! Our eyes in the sky have already detected a mobilization of possible suspects towards the last final checkpoint! What are your orders, sir?"_

"……………_we're going in."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEECH!!!

Squad cars pulled to a hard stop in a grimy parking lot surrounding a huge building in the center of the Northern District's industrial zone.

Decker marched out of the first car and looked up at the large structure.

A giant factory of sorts. With warehouses for storage built into the factory's flanks themselves. Radiation and biohazard signs were splashed across the building's surface. Huge, concrete slabs were poised around the perimeter of the building….ready to rise up like a huge clamshell and lock the location shut from the outside-in at a moment's notice.

The radioactive depository….

Decker pointed forward.

A S.W.A.T. Team paced themselves ahead.

Decker ran along with them.

"**A dagger is a blade….and like all blades….it is forged through hard work and strong determination."**

Decker and his men scaled the building within the concrete sarcophagus. A nimble figure flipped up and landed onto the side of the structure. He saluted Decker.

Tempest….

Decker nodded and motioned silently to the Atlantean.

Tempest quietly crept along Decker…at the head of the pack.

They ran up tiers and tiers of catwalks and metal platforms with rusted railings till they got to the centermost factory structure of the radioactive depository.

"**But all blades…no matter how strong…are not indestructible. An impregnable force can break a knife…or bend it till it is inefficient and dull."**

Decker flattened himself up against a door. Tempest knelt down in front of it. He squirted out a string of water from the hose attached to his wrist. His dark eyes turned a purplish glow as he transformed the water into a key that picked the lock of the door and gently snapped it open.

He nodded to Decker.

Decker nodded to a S.W.A.T. member.

The man quietly opened the door.

Decker raised his gun.

Tempest readied his water pistols.

The two burst into the factory.

"**But a dull blade is always the most torturous. When one is the recipient of its punishment, all she or he has in store is a night of anguish and bone gnawing pain. That's why we must endeavor to settle for a dull blade. We must shatter the Dagger completely. Cold. Coordinated. In such a way that the man himself would envy…"**

Decker and Tempest snaked their way into the factory. The dimly lit interior was supposed to house thick, concrete containers of hazardous materials. Truly…it did. But nestled inside was a huge stack of crates with weapons, explosives, and—guarding them—shady characters.

On a catwalk overlooking the scene, Tempest and Decker came to a stop. They eyed the huge field of suspects below.

"……."

"…….."

Decker's eyes glanced up. With a free hand, he pointed towards the ceiling.

Tempest glanced up.

There was a thick arrangement of fire sprinklers lining the ceiling in a dense web of pipes.

Decker clenched his free fingers tight and jerked his arm.

Tempest nodded with a grin.

Decker held out three fingers.

Tempest extended a hand towards the ceiling.

Decker held out two fingers.

Tempest concentrated. His eyes a glowing purple.

Decker held one finger.

The S.W.A.T. members cocked their weapons and took aim.

Decker pumped his fist.

Tempest flicked his wrist.

FLASH!!!!

TNK—TNK—CRACK!!! SPLOOOOOOSH!!!!!

A deluge of water sprayed out and fanned wetly across the interior of the factory.

Thugs beneath the drops gasped and spun about in surprise.

Decker aimed his weapon into the chaos. "Freeze!! Police!!"

Cl-Click! Cl-Click! Click!!

The S.W.A.T. members along the catwalks all aimed down with guns ready.

The thugs below were blinded. They didn't know who was aiming at them or from where…but only that they had the drop on them.

"Drop your guns! Put your god damn hands up! Get down on the ground! Now!!"

A group of suspects over by a stockpile of weapons panicked. They each picked up sub-machine guns.

"Don't you do it!! Don't you—"

They panted and took aim towards the raining ceiling.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Decker and the S.W.A.T. members drew back.

Tempest ducked with a gasp.

CLANG!!! PING!!! P-POW!! Bullets splattered around the catwalks.

Decker snarled. He charged the railing and aimed down. "RETURN FIR—" …he began to shout.

CRASH!!!!

A wall on the first floor of the factory blew open.

Everyone gasped.

The group of gunmen gasped and looked over.

Tempest and Decker craned their necks from above.

Marching in smoothly through the curtains of rain was Cyborg. Smirking. Holding out a sonic cannon. Kl-Klak-KLAK!! "Boo ya….."

ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!

The gunmen fell down with a groan and were out cold.

The rest on the radioactive depository's floor raised their hands and surrendered.

Decker sighed.

And Tempest smirked.

Nobody was hurt.

"**And I'm convinced…..yes…I believe…that once the Dagger is turned to dust….all we have to fear is simply an empty hand…."**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Hello. I'm Marilyn Chen. Today marked a sudden and surprising chain of police sting operations throughout the entire metropolitan area of the City."_

"H-Hey! Turn it up!" remarked a patron.

Lindsay sighed in her waitress gown as she shuffled across Carman's diner to the t.v. "But I swear…it's nothing but bad news---" She stopped and blinked at the image of Commissioner Decker….and Tempest on the screen.

"_Commissioner Decker and the Titans led a cooperative force of police and vigilantes to crack down on illegal weapon caches located in random spots throughout the City premises."_

"H-Hey! Turn it up!"

"We can't hear it!"

"Oh…um…s-sorry….sure thing…," Lindsay blushed. She leaned up and pressed the 'up' arrow on the volume control.

All eyes in the diner were on the t.v.

So was hers…with a worried expression across her teenage freckles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The City officials have had no comment on why the raids were made and who the weapons actually belong to……"_

Inside an apartment, a door slammed shut.

"Sis!! I'm home!!" Lisa exclaimed as she marched in with her school backpack. "Sis??"

"…_and when questioned about possible connections with the recent demise of Viper, Decker simply had this to say."_

"What is this crap??" the girl muttered as she tossed her backpack onto the living room sofa and swiped the remote up from a nearby table. But as she gazed at the blasting t.v. set, she lingered. She saw the Titans in the distance of the various camera shots. Including the image of a dark haired, shades wearing swordsman.

"'_I want you people to get it through your skulls. Viper is dead. Dead as a doornail. The raids today are not related whatsoever to that silent assassin. What we've done today has been a remarkably successful response to a secret informant's tips as to possible locations of illegal weaponry. Everything is under control. The sites have been contained…and every suspect possible has been arrested. I'm sorry, I can't answer anymore questions. Thank you. Thank you.'"_

Lisa's lips parted. She subconsciously brought her hand up and brushed a few long, black bangs away from her brow…revealing once again the eyepatch over her left optic to the walls of the room.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey…check it out!" a customer pointed.

Daniel came around the pawn shop from sweeping a nearby aisle. "Hmmm?" He was suddenly locked onto one of the t.v.s that they were selling. It was plugged into the wall on a shelf near the back of the store, and a fuzzy image of the JCN News Broadcasting Network splashed images of broken warehouses, a shattered greenhouse, and a soggy radioactive depository before those in the store.

Three customers gathered by the screen.

Daniel watched, his brow furrowed.

Renee walked up from behind the counter, leaned against it, and gazed with concern.

"_None of the Titans were available for comment either. Although spirits of the officers and vigilantes present at the sting sites were described as 'calm' and 'content' by various onlookers and eye-witnesses, one cannot help but shake off the peculiarity of what happened today in at least seven different spots across the City."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside an electronics store in the Bayside Plaza, citizens young and old gathered before the window and muttered as the broadcast culminated on multiple different t.v. screens.

"_We'll have more to detail you regarding this developing situation as the day unfolds. Until then, this is Marilyn Chen. Signing off."_

A cold breeze drifted down and rushed through the autumn air.

A few people shivered.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well allright…," Cyborg smiled. He folded his titanium arms and stared across the water soaked depository. "Talk about textbook or what?"

"What?" Tempest smirked.

"Shut up, Flipper."

"Heheheheh."

Decker slowly strolled across the interior. His eyes were seemingly locked on something.

"Commish?" Cyborg gestured towards the dozens of officers inspecting the weapons cache. "You want to move on or something? I think we've seen all that we've needed to here…"

"Not quite…," Decker muttered. Blinking. Staring down. "The weapons and detonators are all one thing…but….we came to find one thing and one thing only."

"Hmmm?" Tempest blinked his dark eyes. He followed the Commissioner's gaze to a lone, wooden crate on the floor. "Oh right…the bread crumbs."

"Not just any bread crumbs…," Decker walked over, knelt down, and gripped the wooden crate. "Dagger's bread crumbs."

Cyborg, Tempest, and the other officers in the depository gathered Commissioner.

Decker took a deep breath and held the crate up to Cyborg. "Want to do the honors, Cinnamon?"

"_Cyborg_. And sure…," the android Titan gripped it in strong fingers of titanium.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I whistled.

I motioned for Robin.

He walked over to my corner of the warehouse, flanked by a few officers.

"What do you have there?" Robin asked.

I pointed to a wooden crate alone in the corner.

"…….," the Boy Wonder stared. He glanced at other officers. "Have any of you found quantities of Dragonflare yet?"

"No."

"Negative!"

"No signs of it here…"

"……," I stared intently at Robin. I pointed at the crate.

"All right, Noir…," He nodded…leaning over me. "Go ahead…."

CHIIIING!!!!

I held Myrkblade up, charged it with murk, and stabbed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!!!!

Starfire and Raven looked into the smashed crate.

"……."

"……."

"Uhm……," Raven droned.

"I….I-I do not understand!" Starfire exclaimed.

"You're not alone, Star. You're not alone…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Messenger and Beast Boy sat with their backs to the warehouse behind the stadium.

"…and so…," the changeling gestured, smiling. "…the aardvark says to him, what do I look like? A Republican?"

"And what does the duck say?" the Messenger smirked.

"He…H-He says….you're worse at quackin' jokes than I am!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!"

"Heh heh heh heh….," the Messenger chuckled. "Hey…I got one."

"Hehehehe…what?"

"A horse walked into a bar."

"Hehehehe…and?"

"He said 'ouch'."

"…….."

"…….."

"……..hahahahahahahahaha!!!" Beast Boy fell over to the side giggling, hugging his tummy and kicking his legs. "That's good…dude!! Hehehehehehe!!"

The Messenger smiled. "Here's one that a gruffy friend of mine taught me. What do you get when you cross a Nazi and a ride at Seaworld?"

"Hehehehehe…wh-what??"

"A sauerKraken!"

"HE HE HE HE HE HE!!!!"

The Messenger shook his head, smiling, as the changeling toppled over. "I swear…you're head's gonna explode. Your skin's making me want to put up Christmas decorations or butcher a mistletoe."

"Ha ha ha ha ha…," Beast Boy wiped a tear. "Ohhh man. You're too awesome. Why aren't you part of the team or something?"

"I always imagined being a Titan required a perquisite of having my liver bitten out by a falcon every day. That, or taking a standardize test in reading and math. I suppose I would prefer the falcon." The Messenger shrugged.

Beast Boy kept giggling.

"Let me know when you start laughing or anything. I might just tell a joke."

FWOOOSH!!!

Starfire and Raven touched down.

At precisely the same time, Robin rode up on the R-Cycle and I blurred in from the tree tops.

"Hey….I really get a kick out of this guy…," the Messenger smiled and motioned towards the floored Beast Boy as he stood up. "You should put a tag on him and stick him atop a stand in Wal-Mart. He'd shove the Pet Rock into limbo, I tell you what."

"Uhm….Messenger….," Starfire fidgeted.

"What? Don't mind me. I happen to know another fuzzy elf where I come from."

"There's none at the sites, Messenger….," Robin said stepping forward.

"……," he glanced the Boy Wonder's way. "I beg your pardon? Could you repeat what you last said? The universe was doing flips in my ear canals."

"The Dragonflare….it's not there…."

"Where's there?"

A car door slammed behind them. "Anywhere!"

The Messenger turned around.

Decker walked up from a squad car. The T-Car pulled up behind him, and Cyborg and Tempest came out.

"There're explosives….ammunition….guns…knives….Hell, even porno magazines…but not frickin' Dragonflare."

"………," the Messenger blinked. He bravely kept his smile going. "I'm afraid….I don't understand."

"What say…," Cyborg strolled through us and walked straight towards the warehouse. "We see for ourselves, huh?"

Beast Boy blinked. "Uh…dude?"

"Come along. Everyone…," Robin motioned.

The Titans, Decker, and a few officers outside all merged into the building.

"……….," I took a deep breath. A beat. I looked at the Messenger.

He looked at me. Shrugged, and waltzed into the warehouse.

I gulped and slowly followed the train.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRKKKKK!!!_

Cyborg and Robin both worked on the crate inside the warehouse at the same time. A crate identical to the lone ones found in each of the other warehouses.

_CRAACK!!_

They snapped the lid of the crate off.

The Messenger walked into the center of the halo of police men and vigilantes.

He stared down into the shell.

He blinked.

The crate was empty.

Mere dust lined the corners of the wooden container.

"Every site was the same…," Robin muttered. "No Dragonflare to be found. And then a crate like this…"

"Completely empty…," Starfire murmured. "And we searched everywhere!!"

"All around the greenhouse," Raven droned.

"And the apartment complex," Robin said.

"And the radioactive depository," Tempest added.

"…………," the Messenger kept staring. Silent. Suddenly…hauntingly deadpan.

I felt a shiver up my left limb. I kept myself steady.

Decker leaned in to the asian teen. His eyes were thin. "Were you…..putting us through a spin cycle, kid?"

"I was not." The Messenger spoke bluntly. A low voice. It was depressing. "I had been to all of these places before. I had spotted them way ahead of time. There was Dragonflare here. It was in the hands of the thugs and henchmen…"

"Kid…."

"And there was more than one crate. In fact, it was liken unto the Pharaoh's tomb of narcotics and hallucinogens."

"Kid………."

"How could there possibly not be any Dragonflare at any of the sites—??"

"HEY!!!"

"……," the Messenger turned and looked at the Commissioner.

Decker took a deep breath. "Now you told us….you told us that the most important thing to find at these spots….was the Dragonflare."

"……….."

"Isn't that right?"

The Messenger slowly nodded. He seemed smaller all of the sudden. A fallen Hobbit from some giant rave party in the sky.

"And can you tell us why…_exactly_ why….the Dragonflare is so damn important?"

The Messenger's lips parted…close…then parted again. His voice lingered, and it no longer seemed like he was gazing blindly into the crate…but rather that he was avoiding the Commissioner's gaze. "It's the one, ultimate, incriminating evidence against Dagger."

Decker growled with a turn of his heels. "Great….friggin' perfect…."

Robin ran a gloved hand over his face.

The Messenger lifted his head. "Dragonflare isn't proliferated by any other drug cartel cuz nobody is anywhere near as powerful as Dagger to possibly distribute it through the City like he can!"

"Dammit………God _damn_!!!" Decker shook and paced.

The Messenger turned and gestured towards the Commissioner: "But do you not see?? Dagger is at work here!! What else could possibly explain all of these weapon caches suddenly turning out of the blue?!?!"

"A whole assload of things!!!" Decker turned and shouted. "You know what my department and I have right now?!?! Without the Dragonflare, we have a bunch of no-name sons of a bitches taking the Fifth overflowing my jail cells and seven stockpiles of pure god damn quagmires!!"

"_Snkkttt—Commissioner!! This is the Lieutenant! We couldn't locate any Dragonflare at the fisherman's wharf—"_

Decker shouted into the communicator. "Yes! I frickin' know that!!" he all but threw the communicator to the floor and ran his hands through his hair. "God DAMN!!!"

Beast Boy winced.

Starfire fidgeted, staring down at the floor.

"Commissioner….don't overreact," the Messenger walked towards him. "The suspects are many. One of them is _bound_ to give some info with the right interrogation. In the meantime, a more thorough search could turn up—"

"What??! WHAT?!?!" Decker cackled, his arms outstretched. "Search what NOW?!"

"Dagger must have caught wind of our operation….," the Messenger shook his head. "…the Dragonflare could have been disposed of. I suggest we test the quality of the bodies of water closest to the sting sites and see if perhaps the drug could have been deposited—"

"No…no no no no NO!!" Decker pointed. "Don't you see, you little shit?!?! No…you can't possibly see!! You're just some punk superfreak from the gay-dimension who thinks he knows what he's doing!! I've been in this business long enough to know what it means to be thrown into a wild goose chase! Dagger _indeed_! You know how cheap a trick this entire day's waste of my department's time and resources is to an international terrorist group like Intergang?? H.I.V.E.???? I knew even before I picked up my own gun and stomped into the radioactive depository that this day was too good to be true!! Nothing is ever…EVER handed over on a silver platter!! No matter WHAT superheroes I may have on my side!! There is no Dagger, kid. Dagger died _ages_ ago. Someone higher above all of us fooled you and took advantage of your optimism so that I could have a royal pain in the ass long enough to be distracted from something truly serious or important! I could have spent this entire day catching up with the bombers of the prison's Omega Wing…but that didn't happen, did it?? Who knows how far behind the City and I am now?!?! And what's worse—we've got this bigass pile of shit to work on!! Thanks a lot, Mr. Messenger. Thanks a whole friggin' lot!!!"

"Commissioner….," the Messenger seemed to stammer. He took a step forward with his arm outstretched. "Commissioner…there's still a hope. If we just retrace our steps and try and find the traces of Dragonflare, it will tell us exactly what Dagger was wanting to do with these dangerous weapon arsenals that we found and—"

Robin stood in the way of the asian Teen and the Commissioner. "No…Messenger."

"Robin, be a good bird and poop elsewhere. Commissioner, can we just—"

Robin gripped the Messenger's shoulder firmly…but not meanly. The Boy Wonder's face was full of more solemnity than fierceness. "Messenger…."

"………."

"It's over. You had your chance."

"But…dude….," Beast Boy stepped forward, shrugging. "What about all of these weapons?? How could the Messenger have known about all this stuff if it wasn't Dagger?"

"I….am not lying…," the asian teen said.

Raven spoke firmly: "Nobody said you were, Messenger."

He turned and gazed at her. Almond eyes thin. He said: "You believe I have been fooled?"

"…….," the dark girl's eyes fell.

"You think that I've been fooling you?"

"Let's go back to the Tower….," Robin sighed, looking over his shoulder at a frustrated Decker. "….now."

And then the Messenger shouted: "Dagger will be here soon and he will be KILLING PEOPLE!!!!"

Silence.

"Watch….your emotions….," Raven said hushedly.

My heart fell there.

The Messenger heaved. He was sweating. But his eyes were rounded. Wounded.

"……," Cyborg took a deep breath, glanced at Raven and Tempest, and marched over to the T-Car. Raven and Tempest followed him.

Robin and Starfire walked slowly towards the R-Cycle.

Beast Boy, the Messenger, and I remained in a triangle formation.

"……..," the Messenger shuddered. A beat. He chuckled. With a weak smile, he looked my way. "Noir…..you realize….y-you realize that Dagger's trying to mislead all of us, right?" A beat. "R-Right…Noir?"

"……..," I finally looked at him. Dead on. And for some reason, he seemed different to me. Because for once…he was wrong. Absolutely wrong. And absolutely flustered. He was not some dimension-hopping demigod, but rather a human being. A very…..illusionary human being. And it hurt me.

And he saw on……," he smiled crookedly. "You're looking like you just ate Bambi's mother ten minutes after the gunshot…."

I didn't laugh.

And…

Neither did Beast Boy.

"I'll….uhm….s-see you back at the Tower, dude…," the little elf defeatedly said. With a sad flutter of wings, he took off towards the sky in the form of a falcon.

I took a shuddering breath. I motioned for the Messenger to follow….and slowly walked my way towards the Bay.

"…….," the Messenger followed.

And he was mute.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….what now?" Robin leaned towards the computer console of the Main Room that evening.

"_Well……I'd love to say something about an old drawing board right now……,"_ Commissioner Decker's disgruntled voice filtered through the speaker system of the Titan's Computer's communication system. _"But I guess we never even bought one of those damn things to begin with."_

Robin smiled somewhat. And then the smile left. "Look…Commissioner….I-I'm sorry about….about all that happened with—"

"_Don't be sorry, Bird Boy. As much as I hate to do so……I gotta admit. I didn't need to lose it the way I did. I believed that little rave reject with all of my heart. Sure, I had my doubts……but I pretty much handed my department over to some nerd's personal martial law. And well……that ain't cool. Not in my book. Not in anyone's. And—yes—I'm glad we found all of those smuggled weaponry. But it was so fake. Such a setup. For what? I'm not sure. Everything lately has been one twist after another. Something to keep throwing me for a loop. Hell……it's probably only because the Fates had an off-chance orgasm that distracted Murphy's Law was from letting me die at Viper's hand instead of booting his sorry ass off the dam……which I did, I might add."_

Robin chuckled. "Yes, sir. That you did." A beat. The Boy Wonder gazed off. "I guess…I-I guess the reason why the Titans and I trusted the Messenger so much…."

"_Equal Opportunity Employment?"_

"No. It's just that….he helped Noir out. He helped Noir out so much when the rest of us had…abandoned him, pretty much. And that…that means a lot to us. It's like the invisible friend we all never knew we had. Cuz if he truly helped Noir make it through the Wyldecarde days like both of them claim….then he's not so bad in his methods after all. But…I guess everyone's likely to go for a fall at some time or another."

"_It must be tough."_

A beat.

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Commissioner?"

"_I mean……besides donning the fruity cape and tight spandex……it must be tough doing it superhero style. Especially at your age, kid. You're all like a bunch of orphans knee deep in shit. Huge friendships are built out of stuff like that. Trust. Partnership. Sometimes they help you……sometimes they bite you in the back. It's gotta be tough having to wade your way through all that and not end up with more crap in the long run. Takes real guts and maturity, I bet."_

"Wow……Commissioner….," Robin smirked. "How very thoughtful of you to say that."

"_And how very thoughtful of you to listen."_

A beat.

"_Shit……you don't think something bad has happened to us, do you?"_

"I…er…n-no, sir!"

"_Frickin' soul tumor, I swear to God."_

"Nah, I think we're fine."

A beat.

"_Have you seen the shrimp off yet?"_

"You mean the Messenger? No…..not quite. Noir's with him. I figured at first that it was his place to wrap things up with him….but….I suppose I should step in. It's a Titan-Leader thing."

"_Right. In the meantime……I'm tangled up in all this nasty-ass evidence."_

"I swear to you…the Titans and I will be there tomorrow."

"_What? At the Department?"_

"Yeah…," Robin nodded. "I'll bring Starfire, Noir, and Beast Boy. We'll lend whatever services in recuperation and interrogation of the suspects that we can."

"_Well, that's mighty kind of you. Gonna bring the teacups and doilies too for the occasion?"_

Robin shook his head. "Yeah. Sure. We'll do that."

The Commissioner chuckled on the other end.

Robin smiled.

"_Ya know…… …… not all of you kids are bad. You really throw your heart and soul into the City like the Lieutenant and the rest of my men."_

"Kinda makes you wish you were a dad with children, huh?"

"_Hell no!! Decker out!!"_

Beep.

Robin shut the computer console off.

A beat.

He sighed.

He swiveled around--

"Who's the mentor of yours in Gotham City again?" Tempest asked, standing with folded arms. "I forget."

"Batman…," Robin stood up. "Why do you ask?"

"Been a while since you seen him?" Tempest asked with raised eyebrow.

Robin tilted his head to the side. Suspicious. "I have……gone back to Gotham City from time to time since I joined the Titans. What's your point?"

"Looks like you're missing a father figure."

Robin rolled his hidden eyes. "Believe me……I've grown very much comfortable with this place…," he walked past the Atlantean.

Tempest turned. "I said _father_ figure…not wife figure…."

Robin skidded to a stop. He half-spun. "Say what??"

"Nothing," Tempest smirked. "I take it you're not drafting me into going to the police department with you tomorrow."

"Guess not. Why?"

"I had……an arrangement."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "An arrangement?"

"Yeah. Tomorrow afternoon. Going to go…..m-meet with friends."

Robin gestured: "What friends?"

"Ones that lack gills," Tempest spat. "Amazingly….."

"………….," Robin exhaled. "Fascinating."

"What is?"

"How weak living things are," Robin said. "We never really do stay the same all our lives, do we?"

"Oh…I'll always have gills. And you? Will you always have a stick up your ass?"

"Ask me that tomorrow," Robin turned and walked towards the elevator.

"But you forget! I'm not seeing you tomorrow!"

Ding!

Robin was gone through the double doors.

Tempest headed casually towards the kitchen unit. "Lacking gills makes it all the easier to drown you. _Mwaaaa ha ha ha ha………………._now where's the May of the Nays?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………," the Messenger tilted his head up towards the sunset. "I have…..a friend at home. A very special friend."

"………," I turned and looked at him.

We both sat on the edge of the Tower, overlooking the City. The Bay glittering with crimson light.

The Messenger hugged his knees to his chest and continued: "When I first met her…..we were both going through a slightly similar set of circumstances. For some reason….because of some inhibition or another…..we could not reach out to anyone. We couldn't be touched. We couldn't touch. Every word uttered was either imaginary or fell on deaf ears."

"……….," I leaned my head to the side. Listening.

_Listening……_

"For nearly three months…we sorta played…..mental freeze tag. Only….nobody got tagged. It was like a double pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game with quadruple the blindfolds. And I was completely enamored with her….because she stood for everything I wanted to do and be. I wanted to be noticed. And I wanted to be heard. Because every thing I ever tried to do…I tried to do it for the betterment of everyone around me. I wanted to improve things. Things in a world where I couldn't….touch. Not for the sake of manipulation…but rather improvement."

Silence.

He took a breath and smiled drunkenly. "I suppose that's why I'm the sickly do-gooder that I am now. I see things. And I see things as being better. And I do my best to make it better…by leaning on the good sides of those around me."

A beat.

He gazed at me. Warm almond eyes. Everything warm…

Again.

"When I fail, Noir. When I fail to do good things….it gnaws at me. It gnaws at me because I feel like I'm back in that rut. And I'm staring at her…." He took a shuddering breath. Once again, human. "I'm staring at her…and I cannot help her. Until it is almost too late. And she is almost gone."

Silence.

I gazed out onto the City once more.

Mute.

He uttered solemnly: "I am so…so sorry, Noir. That I blew it. I made an embarrassment out of the Titans. And I hurt the one official of this City you seven trust the most. But I give you my word….and I stand by it…," he firmly gazed at me. "I know what I saw. And I know what I researched. Dagger _is_ a threat. And if somebody in this City doesn't do something about him….it may be too late. And lives that could have been touched…and healed…will no longer be."

"……….," I bit my lip.

He looked back out into the Bay too. "And I know you don't believe me anymore."

I winced.

"I guess I can't blame you for taking the same stance as the rest of the Titans…," he uttered. "And who am I to turn you against them?" He winked at me with a smile. "I have always…and shall always support you and your new 'family', Noir. Even if your trust and closeness to them after all of these months is turning out to bite me in the rear end like Jimmy Carter….heheheheheheh."

I simpered weakly.

He leaned back on two arms and took a big whiff of Autumn. He exhaled. There was a duality about him. Like he was glowing green from within and red from outside. "Who knows what is good….and who knows what is bad…..?" he uttered calmly. Meditatively. "All good things….all bad things….it doesn't matter….for there is no matter. And there is no difference. What happens will happen…and it will happen because it was meant to. And we are not worthy enough to make stipulations about the future. After all, Noir…..I was never, _ever_ shaping your destiny for you. You know that of course….right?"

I nodded.

"Naturally you do…," he chuckled. "I bet you even know the day when you're going to die."

I took a shuddering breath.

_I never really plan on waking up when I go to bed……_

A door creaked behind us at the top of the stairwell.

Footsteps.

Then…..Robin's voice: "Messenger?"

"Speedy Delivery?"

"………..I just want you to know that……that…."

"Come on, Robin. If you have a crush on me…," he slowly turned and smiled. "Go right out and say it."

I ran a hand over my shades, sighing. Smirking….a little.

Robin cleared his throat. "You're always welcome at this Tower."

"That's not a pity invitation, is it?"

"Depends. Are you going to shut up for once?"

"I never do. But let's pretend I do."

"Ahem…..you're always welcome at this Tower. But….at this point…….," Robin ran a hand through his spiked hair. A beat. "Just…..stay out of things….got it?"

I glanced at Robin. "???"

"Stay out of……….things….," the Messenger seemed smirked. "Like what things, Robin?"

"You know what I mean."

"Clarification would be golden."

"Silence is golden too," Robin said. "And I think your days of helping us have lost their karats. We're all glad for what you did with Noir and all—"

"I did nothing with Noir, Robin," the asian teen replied. "And even if I did, I swear, I wouldn't get him pregnant."

"Everything's a big joke to you, isn't it?" Robin suddenly frowned. "Look….we all took a big gamble. I admit it. The raids all throughout Town was a huge leap on all of our parts. But you pointed us in that direction. And time can't be reversed to change that. Now…I'm willing to trust that you're not the type to jump out of thin air and play practical jokes on a City already made fragile by a murderous swordsman and random bombings. Do the responsible thing in light of your recent errors and lay off some….got it?"

"…..errors……," the Messenger slurred.

"Yeah…that's right…you heard me…."

"……..," the Messenger slowly stood up. He straightened out his jacket for no reason in particular, dug his hands into his pouch, and took a slow step towards Robin. "Tell me…..what did Bruce ever teach you about errors?"

Robin's face suddenly paled.

I blinked.

'_Bruce'??_

The Messenger slowly marched towards Robin, gesturing: "Did Bruce tell you that professional detectives never base their major actions on errors? Or rumors? Or circumstantial evidence? But rather--only on empirical things?"

Robin's fists clenched. He took a shuddering breath. "Now you listen—"

"Was it errors that led to Dick leaving Gotham City and changing his entire life so that you could take the old mask in his place?"

"Quiet….Messenger…."

I stared, my brow furrowed in confusion.

"Or was it errors that Barbara traced when she researched her brains out and found out how your dad—"

"Okay, you made your point!!!!" Robin shouted.

The Messenger froze in mid-step. Glaring.

I inhaled…shivering.

The air was thin and deaf for a moment.

Robin panted. His eyemask hardest. "You made your point….Messenger…," he said darkly. "But now….now I _must_ ask you to leave…."

"…….," the Messenger kept glaring at Robin. He raised his finger and pointed. And when he pointed, he was highlighting the mask on the Boy Wonder's face. "I….don't….make…things…up….Robin."

A beat.

The Messenger continued coldly: "Unlike some people….I value the absolute truth above all things. Secrets….I'll tolerate. In theory. But you may not believe it when I tell you this…but I've had my fair share of experience in dealing with the world of evil. And when facing adversity….you need absolute trust. You need to know people and you need people to know you. The real you."

"………..," Robin merely glared. Fists and knuckles tight.

I swallowed.

"I don't make things up, Robin…," the Messenger said. "Dagger is alive. Dagger is coming. And when he does….and you see the truth that I have presented to you….to all of you….you will need real things the most. You will need real things….not erroneous ideas. Ideas won't withstand the tribulations ahead. I hope…for your sake, Robin. As leader of the Titans…as a dear friend to these teenagers after nearly two years…..you will learn to give as much of yourself as you sacrifice. Before all is lost and irretrievable."

"………….I don't see you leaving yet," Robin muttered.

I winced.

"………but of course," the Messenger smiled, not once lowering his gaze with the Boy Wonder's eyemask. He slowly walked past him…._close _by him…and headed towards the other side of the Tower's rooftop.

"……..," Robin fumed….but slowly calmed. Staring out at the City…or maybe at me.

I could never tell with that eyemask of his where he was looking at exactly.

_I couldn't tell much about Robin with that eyemask of his……_

"Flowers…."

Robin slowly turned around.

I gazed ahead.

"What??" Robin leaned his head to the side.

The Messenger had paused in mid-stride. "Flowers…..buy some for her."

"Who?"

"Starfire, naturally….," the asian teen turned and smiled over his shoulder. "…give some to her before late in the afternoon. If there's anything….Robin….that you will thank me for in the end, it's that advice. You won't regret it."

"Is that some sort of threat?"

"Hehehehehe….it's a prophecy….," the teen turned fully and bowed with great gusto. "From a humble Messenger…."

"………….."

"Farewell….Robin…..Noir…..," the Messenger smiled. He blew a kiss. "City."

"…….."

"……."

And he turned around once more. And he walked off. And before he could so much as step over the edge of the rooftop, a cloud of green light enveloped him…and he was gone in a blink.

"………………………..Noir?"

I looked at Robin.

He didn't look at me.

"Those names you heard?"

_Yes?_

"…….you didn't hear them, okay?"

I nodded. I sighed.

_Yes……_

And he left me alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Night fell over the City.

The Commissioner sat in his office, having a smoke.

Gazing off towards the dusty walls.

"…………….."

He took a deep, shuddering sigh.

He puffed from his cigarette.

Smoke rose up towards the ceiling.

Thin.

Alone.

"………………"

Cold mist from the autumn air of the City settled in gently from outside.

Decker's eyes danced among them. Bloodshot. Almost….sad.

_Riing. Riing. Riing._

Decker sighed. He picked up his desk phone with a free hand.

"Commissioner Decker. What is it?"

"………………"

Silence on the line.

"Hello?"

"………………"

A beat.

Decker frowned.

"Helllllllllllo??"

"…………………_C-Commissioner Decker………?"_

The voice sounded sickly.

Out of breath.

Fighting a wheezing sound….like that of rotting lungs.

A few hairs on the man's neck rose up.

"Who is this?"

"………………"

"Yoohoo!! Earth to the god damn creepazoid!! Is this some sort of prank call?"

"…………………………_y-you should have listened to him, C-Commissioner……"_

Decker blinked.

A few ashes fell from his cigarette and popped and sizzled on the hard floor.

"S-Say what?"

A hacking sound.

Coughing.

A wheeze.

Then……

"_Please……think it over……think it over……"_

"Think what over???" Decker blinked.

And suddenly.

It clicked.

_That voice. _

_Beneath the hacking. _

_Beneath the wheezing. _

_It was familiar……_

Decker's eyes brightened.

"Glover??" he uttered into the phone. "Blake Glover?"

"………………………………"

click.

Cold silence.

"……………..," Decker slowly put the phone down.

Gazing out the window.

He hadn't noticed his cigarette going out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Nighttime. _

_The psych ward._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

Dr. Schafield panted.

His finger struggled with the wall-mounted phone.

He dialed a number with a shaking finger and gazed over at the double-doors at the end of the checker-board floor hallway.

Three orderlies were struggling to brace tight a pair of double doors. They had a bench and a trash can squeezed between the handles of the doors and the frame. Their muscles struggled as something…..something….kept slamming in from the other side.

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

Schafield was hyperventilating. He pressed the phone to his ear as it dialed through on the line. He looked at the doors, sweating. "Put more pressure on the handles!!"

"We're…t-trying…Doctor!!!"

"NNnghh!!!"

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!!

"Please…pick up….pick up….dear Jesus…pick up…."

Click.

"_H-Hello?" _

"Superintendant!! Oh god, I'm so glad I got ahold of you!!!"

"_Sch-Schafield?!?! It's three o'clock in the goddamn morning!! No……wait………even later! What the Hell is it??"_

"Th-There's an emergency in the Psych. Ward! Y-Y-You've got to send in security right away, do you hear me?? Right away!!"

"_Now wait just a second! Calm down, Schafield."_

The Doctor panted. Sweating into the same phone he was speaking into.

CL-CLANG!!!

CL-CLANG!!

"Nnnngh!!"

"It's buckling!!!"

"God's sake…get security here, Doc!!!"

"_I thought everyone was properly restrained in the Psych. Ward. The Dragonflare addicts……don't you have them—"_

"The beds were useless this time!! I don't understand it!! Th-They were calm and quiet as stone last night, but tonight it is like a total relapse tenfold and—"

CL-CLANG!!!

"We need security here!! Right now, Superintendant!! I mean it!!"

"_Now I can't just go and order all of security to—"_

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS SOME SORT OF GOD DAMN JOKE, SIR?!?!"

CL-CLANG!!

CL-CLANG!!

"WAKE THEM ALL UP AND SEND THEM HERE THIS VERY SECOND—"

CL-**CLANG!!**

**  
CRAAA-AAAACK!!!!**

"_**REDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!"**_

"Oh gawd!!!"

"AAAUGH—SNKKTTT!!!!"

"Shit!! SHIT!!! NNGHHAAAUAGH!!!"

Dr. Schafield looked over.

His eyes twitched.

A breath escaped his throat….and then four pairs of pale arms strangled his throat all at once, yanking him to the floor.

WHAM!! WHUMP!!! THWAP!! SMACK!!

"Augh!!! Nnngh!! AAAAUGH!!"

"_Doctor?? Doctor?!?! What's going on?!?! What's happening?!?!"_

The phone dangled on its hook against the wall.

Meanwhile shadows of eighteen bodies with pounding fists and thrashing limbs danced across the dancing plastic.

"_Dr. Schafield?!?! Dr. Schafield!!"_

Coordinated screams of terror.

Feet stomping over.

Eighteen pairs of hands grabbed for the phone at once…ripping the entire thing off the wall and slamming it to the floor. Stomping. Stomping. Stomping.

Screaming.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

_  
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._


	167. Hand and Dagger part 4

**167. Hand and Dagger part 4**

Thursday.

November 4, 2004.

2:12 pm

The City.

One hundred and ninety square miles.

Four million people.

Six major districts.

An urban sprawl stretching out in the Sun.

Shadowed by coldly drifting clouds above the granite landscape.

The sounds of traffic, pedestrians, and machinery commingling in tiny pinpricks far below formed an ambiance of white noise the rose thin and listless in the autumn sky overhead.

Cold.

Silent.

Silent……

……..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Lindsay! You made it!"

"Finally!"

"And do you have—oooh, hello again!"

Lindsay smiled as she and Tempest walked to the table in the Bayside Plaza. "He decided to join us again."

"He decided to join us?? Or you pressured him into it??"

"Hehehehe!!"

"Heh heh heh…."

Tempest smirked. He was dressed in a black jacket, white t-shirt, and dark jeans. "I assure you…I came of my own good intentions. I hope this flatters you…but you gill-less juveniles are the best 'vacation' I can get from running blind circles through this City with the other Titans."

"Gee…thanks."

"Are all Titans so frank?"

"Only those born into salt," Tempest winked and sat down.

"Nice of you to join us. We were busy…..oh…..doing nothing."

"Ha!!"

Tempest shrugged. "I can do nothing. There's this green elf in the Tower that's taught me the fine art of that."

"Hehehehehe."

Lindsay sat next to him at the courtyard table, smiled, and pointed to the others at the table. "You remember these guys, right?"

"Run me through one more time for Alzheimer's sake."

"This genius is Antoine. He sacrificed a good Star Trek marathon to be here."

"Heh heh heh."

A black teenager with glasses smiled and nodded. "Hello again, Fish-dude."

"Back at you."

"And you remember this is Jack."

"Hey there…," a dark-haired teen in a preppy shirt shook Tempest's hand.

"And the girl clinging onto him is Bonnie."

"Hehehehe…stop ittttt….," a blonde thing giggled.

"And that over there is….uhm….Lillian?"

"Very funny, Lindsay."

"Right. Lillian. Hehehe."

The redhead with glasses nodded her head. "It's cool to see you again."

"Uh…thanks………so this is your place to hang out, huh?" Tempest scratched his neck.

"Yeah. When the pigeons permit."

"I guess that's where I come in," Tempest shrugged. "I can send them off."

"How?"

"Telepathy."

"You're a telepath?!?!"

"Why's that so startling? Are you an albino?"

"Hardy har har."

"Wow…you're a lot quicker than last time, Mr. Titan!"

"Quicker than what?"

"Hehehehe….never mind."

"So what were you guys planning on doing?"

"Well there's a moving showing…..and—"

"Uh uh! We are not seeing that stupid James Bond clone flick!!"

"But it's got Jude Law in it!"

"Everything's got Jude Law in it these days! Open a frickin' window!!"

"Hey! Did I tell you that Anne Vann saw Jude Law in person last week?"

"No way!"

"Anne who??"

"Anne…ya know….from Wednesday Fellowship?"

"Ohhhhhh…..wait…I thought she moved!"

"Nah, she's still in the congregation."

"She saw Jude Law, huh? A gift from God?"

"Pfft…hardly. That would have been a visit with Nicole Kidman."

"Dream on, Jack."

"I'm just saying!"

"Hehehehe…"

Tempest rested his chin on his hand and just….listened. Humored. Smiling softly.

Lindsay leaned in besides him, engaging cheerfully in the conversation.

"…….," Tempest glanced down.

Her right hand rested on the table…her fingers barely an inch from his left elbow. The dolphin bracelet around her wrist rattled with every giggle of her form.

He exhaled gently.

Dark eyes narrow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over the Western District of the City….

Over the trees…

The suburbs and the edge of the City Park….

The air was thin.

The air was cool.

The asphalt of the roads seemed to glow as if reflecting the crystal blue sky on the opposite side of the overlapping spheres.

And all was silent.

……….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin drove the R-Cycle the long way to the Police Department.

He passed by an old section of the City in the Western District.

One-story shop fronts blurred gently passed him as he cruised along.

Leisurely.

"……….."

He turned his helmet behind him and gazed at Starfire.

The Tamaranian was riding on the back of the R-Cycle with her arms wrapped gently around Robin's waist.

She gazed at him glancing back at her.

She grinned and giggled for some quietly idle reason or another.

He helplessly smiled and glanced ahead.

A streetlight was up ahead.

People were crossing the street.

Friends chatting.

A mother guiding her child.

Kids with balloons and skateboards.

Robin puttered the R-Cycle to a stop.

He waited at the intersection.

A few citizens caught sight of the Titans and—obvious fans—waved ecstatically.

Starfire happily returned with a wave of her own.

"…………," Robin leaned against the handle bars. He exhaled. A beat. "…………," he glanced at a storefront immediately to his right. His eyemask narrowed beneath his visor.

A floral shop.

A wooden stand rested before the old windows.

Roses, daisies, babies' breaths, and dandelions lined up the front.

A colorful display.

Bundles of blooms.

"…………..," Robin swallowed. He slowly, quietly, turned his gaze away from the storefront and back at the intersection.

The light turned green.

Starfire held tight to his waist.

He throttled them gently forward and cruised in the direction of the Police Department with traffic.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downtown.

The central district of the City.

Cold air drifted down between the concrete and steel spires.

Cars rested nose to nose in thick traffic.

A quartet of yellow school buses slowly returned from a field trip across the county. The elementary school children inside giggled and laughed while the traffic took its molasses time.

People walked in heavy clusters up and down the street.

Rushing to and fro, busily migrating for a late lunch.

A few birds flapped through the ambiance warbling upwards and were gone.

And then.

In the cold crispness.

Silence…..

…….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the hustle and bustle of the lofty Police Department offices….

The Lieutenant was on the phone with someone. He nodded his head and rambled on and on into the receiver.

As a worker streaked by, the Lieutenant held a bundle of half-crumpled papers to her.

The worker took it, listened to the half-words of the Lieutenant, nodded, and made an impromptu bee-line for the copying room.

The Lieutenant returned to his phone, at the same time picking up a thick notebook of names and thumbing through the lists.

Across the sea of cubicles, cigarette smoke, ringing phones, and heavy typing noises…Decker stood in the doorframe of his office.

He finished a cigarette, staring at the Lieutenant's business across the way.

"…….."

He smiled for some reason or another.

He grinded the cigarette into an ash tray.

He gathered a coat.

He walked over to the elevator.

He blindly waved at the Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant blindly waved back.

Decker walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the first floor.

And he was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City streets swam southeast.

The buildingtops lowered and lowered till they met the commercialized districts.

Buildings, theatres, dance halls, and plazas bathed in the shadows of the distant Kobayashi Tower and other scrapers.

The concrete met the sea with a tiny sprawl of beach side pavilions and boardwalks.

And between the crashing of the waves.

The tiny splashes of seawater….

The coldness of the autumn wind took over.

And it was silent.

………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm frankly sorry that he's gone….dude….that guy was a _riot_," Beast Boy said.

He and I rested at the bottom of the Police Department's steps.

He squatted froglike on the concrete 'banister' of the building's entrance.

I leaned against a lamppost, subconsciously shuffling playing cards in a metal hand.

Decker's car rested in a parallel parking space a few feet away.

"I mean…I know he's more important to you than some jokester and all," Beast Boy sweatdropped…but then smiled. "But that guy was cool. I wish you introduced us to the Messenger ahead of time, Noir. We all would have digged him! I just know it!"

I looked at him.

I smiled weakly.

I felt good as long as Beast Boy kept _talking_…….

"I think Robin and Decker were a little too short with him. Dagger sounds like a really hard-as-nails creep. So what if the Messenger made a little mistake here or there?"

"…………"

"We all trip every now and then….r-right?"

I nodded numbly.

I shuffled the playing cards.

I paused.

I looked at the top of my deck.

But it wasn't the Joker card.

I exhaled.

The two of us remained waiting.

For Robin and Starfire to show up.

For Commissioner Decker to show up.

For perhaps both at once.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Northern District.

Across the sprawls of industrial complexes…

The smokestacks were quiet.

The air was less polluted.

Workers seemed few and far between.

The business of the urban system slowed down.

The air cleared.

And the largest…most provocative building stood out among the rest.

The radioactive depository.

Its concrete, clamshell sarcophagus resting open around it.

Like a huge beartrap.

Or an unfinished tomb.

Plastic, yellow police tape flickered and shook around the tiers of the depository.

And the air grew thin.

And it was deadly quiet.

Silence.

………..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lisa walked down the hallway to her apartment.

A backpack made heavy with her drawing journal hanging over one shoulder.

She no longer wore her glass eyes…instead wearing her black, left eyepatch to and from school without inhibitions.

She stared through the floor as her head was in another place.

And she fumbled with keys.

Approaching her door.

When…

Th-Thump!

"???" she glanced up. She blinked. "Mr. Knight?"

Howard Knight was her next door neighbor. A man in his early forties. Husband. Father to two middle-school children. He had half-collapsed into the apartment door a few feet away from Lisa's and her sister's. He looked pale. Out of breath. His eyes cold and green.

Her one optic narrowed. "Are you….okay? You look like crap!"

He panted. Swallowed. And managed a weak smile. "Must have been something I ate…," he wheezed.

"God…I hope so," she smiled confusedly.

"I….h-had to call in sick in the middle of work…," he said. "Almost all of the boys did."

She leaned her head to the side. "Nearly all the factory workers were sick too?"

"Yeah…damnest thing I've seen in years….not that I care," he grumbled. "I need to take a shower or something."

"Yeah…and sleep, sir."

He chuckled. "Yeah….th-that sounds good…," he panted.

She winced…but tried to hide it. "Uhm…say hello to little Ashley and Greg for me."

"Will do…," he fumbled with his own keys, unlocked the door, and practically stumbled into his apartment. "Honey??? Gladys??? Yeah….I-I'm home early……ugh….long story, hon. Where're the kids?"

And the door closed behind him.

"……," Lisa stood alone in the hallway. She shrugged. "Wyrd….."

She unlocked her own door, walked in….but paused halfway through the frame.

"……….."

She glanced out into the hallway.

The girl mumbled to herself: "I thought Mr. Knight's eyes were brown….."

A beat.

She shook the day off, walked inside, and closed the door.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Eastern District.

The shipyards.

Boats bobbed up and down.

Moored.

Docked.

Loading and unloading shipments.

Fish.

Cargo.

A few of the warehouses were less busy.

Much like the industrial complexes.

It was like a holiday.

With the blue sky calmly stretching above.

With a few clouds.

And a cold breeze.

Gentle.

Silent.

Silence…..

………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Phaser Labs, a trio of scientists crowded around a glass chamber as they observed a cactus turning to stone in a flash of yellow light, glowing, and turning back.

A few of them jotted notes on clipboards and muttered enthusiastically.

The test was repeated…repeated…and repeated.

Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair watched from a bench in the corner, smiling. They shared a casual conversation….looking calm……looking happy……rehabilitated.

The life-sized hologram of Simon Stone stood atop a pedestal in the corner, his arms folded.

He grinned pleasantly at the sight.

As the experiment continued, a yellow glow passed through the room.

He gazed to the side with flickering, chocolate eyes.

A yellow light reflected off the plastic cylinder surrounded a frozen girl made of stone.

A bundle of flowers rested at her eternal feet.

A faded petal or two had fallen loose overnight….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Northeast District.

The slums.

The L-Train.

The bazaars.

Ragged children chasing a ragged ball across a ragged building site.

People making the best of the cold air by standing out in droves in empty blocks and balconies and rooftops.

Old black women and wrinkling men.

Teenagers gathered and chatting and laughing under the roar of a moving train or two.

Shaded by the browning towers overhead.

Clouded in the ambiance of autumn.

Silent.

Silence…..

………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the pawn shop, Daniel was having a pleasant conversation with two regular customers.

They turned over and examined an engine to a fuel-dependent leaf blower.

Deals and exchanges were made.

A light banter.

A chuckle.

A proprietor giving in.

Hands shaking.

Another customer walked in, the bell above the door ringing.

She had a few things in her hand.

She craned her neck, smiled, and waved as she called to someone over the counter.

Renee walked out with a book. She rested it to her womb, looked out onto the shop, and smiled back.

Greetings were exchanged.

The interior felt warm.

The sunlight kept bathing its way in through the front windows.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Bay.

Cold waters lapping the shores.

The rocks.

The bluffs.

An island rested in the center of the murky waves.

A tall, glistening Tower.

Its concrete and steel arms stretching outwards.

Embracing the City.

The autumnal horizon.

The silence.

Silence.

………..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside his laboratory, Cyborg flurried across stretches of blue prints and sketchy diagrams.

He rolled back and forth ghetto-style on a desk chair.

He held one of three pencils in his mouth, and he interchanged between them and a straight edge as he continued drafting a working design of his imaginary 'T-Ship' further and further into fruition.

The automatic doors behind him opened with a soft swishing sound.

Raven ruffled in with a plate of sandwiches.

Two.

One for him.

One for her to watch him eat.

He turned, saw her, grinned, and muffled a single address with a mouthful of pencil.

She rolled her eyes and zapped him once with a black spark of energy.

He chuckled and offered her a seat on a nearby stool.

She sat down and handed the plate to him.

He nonchalantly took one sandwich and pointed at her to have the other one.

She resisted at first…but eventually gave in.

She daintily munched on her own meal as he scarfed down his and began furiously, energetically rambling while pointing at all his drafts.

He pointed out diagrams of thrusters, weapon panels, armor platings, and emergency landing gear.

And somewhere in the middle of it….ever so slightly….Raven smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

……

Silence.

The air over the City was thin.

The sky blue and crystal clear.

Save for a few pale clouds that crossed over high above for a few lingering minutes before dissipating in soft, soundless sighs.

The urban sprawl glinted majestically in the sunlight, and slowly started to fade as the day wore on.

Six major districts.

Four million people.

One hundred and ninety square miles.

The City.

2:22 pm

November 4, 2004.

Thursday.


	168. Hand and Dagger part 5

**168. Hand and Dagger part 5**

"So, in short, I don't think it's too late to venture to the prison and do a thorough examination of the Omega Wing," Commissioner Decker said. He smoked his last cigarette and flicked it off into the street in front of the Police Department. "After all the chaos and distractions that have molested my career over the last few days, I frankly don't care how long we take now. As long as we at least _peruse_ the site, put our collective heads together, and come up with some sort of possible avenue of exploration to pursue. It can take a day…or a week for all I'm concerned."

"Wow….," Beast Boy scratched his head. "If only all school assignments were that vague. I'd never be stressed over homework."

Robin's eyemask narrowed at him. "Who are you to dictate about school?"

"Hey! I learned on the road!"

"Uh huh…."

"Seriously! Algebra in Liberia! Calculus in Zaire! Human anatomy in Madagascar….!"

"Human anatomy…," Starfire blinked. She glanced Robin's way. "I feel that I am sorely lacking in that subject area."

"Erhm….."

"Perhaps there is a school somewhere nearby for myself to attend, Robin?"

"It's okay, Star….," Robin simpered. "You're smart enough for your age as it is. I don't think you need the enslavement that is high school."

"Heh…," Decker rolled his adult eyes.

I smirked.

"Yeah…dude….besides," Beast Boy shrugged. "If anyone can teach Starfire about human anatomy, it's Robin!"

"…….," the Boy Wonder glared.

"Is this true, Robin?"

"Ahem. Let's just……get this show on the road, Star."

"We are to traverse the avenues of the City with a show of human anatomy?"

Decker shook his head, chuckled, and walked to his car a few spaces away. "You kids….I swear to frickin' God. Better not let me run over y'all on the way to the prison…"

"Hehehehe," Beast Boy giggled.

Robin smiled and saluted. "See you at the Omega Wing, sir."

"Goodbye, sir."

"Yeah, smell you punks later," Decker opened the door to his car and got in.

I held my hands behind my back and walked along with Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire down the sidewalk towards the R-Cycle.

"Shall we make haste?" Starfire asked.

"Nah….we can take our time…," Robin exhaled. "Besides….you heard the Commissioner. He isn't too anxious as it is."

"Yeah…," Beast Boy nodded. "Considering yesterday, he wants a walk in the park. Literally."

"I wonder if the Messenger's erroneous mission has produced a need for an unofficial restraint?"

"You mean some sort of….I dunno….mental vacation, Star?"

"I suppose you can interpret it as such."

Robin chuckled. "Heh heh heh….nah, there's no vacation. Especially when we all need to get to the Omega Wing and—"

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!**_

The Commissioner's car exploded behind us in a brilliant fireball.

We lost our breaths as the echoing concussion of the blast sent us flying across the street.

Starfire and Robin tumbled over against a lamppost.

Beast Boy and I collapsed besides a manhole cover.

Nearby pedestrians across the sidewalk gasped and cowered.

I winced.

Beast Boy panted.

The four of us glanced up in time to see aluminum debris falling like ashes from a giant, burning ceiling.

A flickering inferno was all that was left of the Commissioner's vehicle. A halo of charred concrete surrounded it. Our breaths were still gone, so none of us had the capacity to gasp at the sight of Decker's skull fragments on one side of the road and his smoking entrails on the other.

And that was probably why we were too numb until the last second to notice the red-hot bullets streaming through the air of the heated City street.

THWIIIISH!!!

TH-THWISSSSSH!!!

THWISSSSH!!!

Tiny potholes in the asphalt shot up between Beast Boy and I. P-P-P-PING!!!!

"Augh!!" he rolled into me.

The bodies of three pedestrians behind us jolted and fell with red fountains of blood.

We both panted, wincing.

From somewhere….

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

TH-TH-THWISH!!!!

One crimson bullet streamed further than the others and--

THUNK!!!!

The Tamaranian Titan's shoulder exploded in a green splash. "AAAIEEE!!!" She fell down.

Robin's mouth exploded: "STARFIRE!!!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

There were shadows in the shattered windows of a buildingfront across the way. And beneath each shadow there was a single flowery splash of yellow gunshot.

P-P-PING!!! PING!!!!!

Beast Boy grit his teeth.

I held my breath, grabbed the Elf by the scruff of his neck, and blurred across the street.

"!!!!" he gasped and looked between his feet as bullets trailed at his heels.

P-P-P-PING!!!!

I snarled mutely and tossed Beast Boy behind a newspaper stand.

Bullets ricocheted all around me.

I inhaled sharply, blurred up a lamppost, flipped off, and positioned my body towards the loudest of the machine gun noise. I blurred Myrkblade and deflected an endless barrage of bullets.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

I landed on the ground in a crouch and blurred over towards a sidewalk full of screaming pedestrians.

In the meantime, Robin was bending over, hoisting a wounded Starfire by her good shoulder, and dragging her to a little alcove behind the steps of the police department.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

P-P-PING!!!

"Nnnnghhh…," Starfire groaned, her eyes clenched shut. She squeezed her right hand around her bleeding arm.

Robin shouted above the thunderous noise: "Noir!! Beast Boy!!! Save the citizens!!! Save the citizens!!!"

CR-CR-CRACK!!! Beast Boy huddled behind the wilting newspaper stand. Relentless bullets ate into and through the wooden framework of the structure. "I'm having a difficult time saving myself, dude!!!"

"GO OUT THERE AND DO IT!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

"O-Okay!!!" Beast Boy gritted his teeth, peered around the stand…..shook…..tensed….and morphed out as a cheetah. He skirted in and around the bulletfire towards me and the citizens.

I was swiftly putting myself between the pedestrians and the bulletfire….only….._I couldn't tell exactly where the bulletfire was coming from._

They gasped and twitched as I panted, twirled Myrkblade, and deflected everything I could.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!! TH-THWISH!!!

A few bullets flew through my 'shield'.

I panted.

THUNK!!!

One citizen was shot in the ankle. She slumped to the sidewalk, screaming. Two other citizens grabbed her shoulders.

SWOOOOSH!!! A green cheetah morphed into a giant gorilla and engulfed five citizens at once in a mammalian hug. The changeling snorted and stomped his way out of range of the bullet fire before depositing the citizens behind a turn in the alleyway where frightened motorists had stopped.

I panted.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

"!!!!" I spun around. SW-SW-SWISH!!! CL-CLANG!!!

I deflected more bullets.

My black eyes twitched.

I again saw shadows through a buildingfront across the way. Shadows with gunshots.

And between me…..

Two panicked Citizens jumped up from behind a post office box and ran towards me, screaming for help.

I gasped. I pointed and mouthed: _'Get down!! Get down!!'_

Their eyes were blazing. They kept running.

I moved to blur towards them--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Their backs exploded in fifteen different places. Riddled with bullets, the two citizens slumped down before me.

"……"

SWOOOOOOSH—CL-CLANK!!!

Something at my feet.

I looked down.

A grenade…

I gasped and teleported to the side---

**BOOOM!!!!!**

The blast flung my smoking body across the street and into the collapsing front of an antique store. CRAAAASH!!! My body was buried under rubble, glass, and soot.

The autumn wind was cut off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The upstairs office floor of the City Police Department was brimming with shocked workers and officers crawling out of their seats and flocking to the windows looking out onto the fiery street.

"Gunfire!!"

"Do you hear it?!?!"

"Holy shit!! People are dying!!!"

"Where's the Commissioner's car?!?!"

"Oh god….oh god…"

"????" The Lieutenant craned his neck from the back of the office. Flanked by two other officers, he walked towards the huge group at the windows. "What's the big congregation for? What's going on out there?"

"It's….It's….It's unbelievable Lieutenant…take a l-look for yourself!!"

The subordinate marched over. He stared outside. His eyes narrow.

He saw a collapsed buildingside. In the center. To the left, streaks of rapid machine gun fire streaking out of another building. To the far right, stranded vehicles and frightfully fleeing citizens. And straight below….

"The Hell??"

Where Decker's car used to be, there was a huge black spot burning in the center.

"The Commissioner……"

"Hey!! What the Hell is that?!?!"

"Huh??"

"Look!!"

"???" the Lieutenant looked up.

Something in the distance glinted in the afternoon sunlight. Something moving. Something moving fast.

Towards the police department.

The Lieutenant's eyes widened.

The 'something' was flaring yellow and trailing steam.

"R.P.G……"

"Wh-What??"

The Lieutenant desperately grabbed two nearby workers, spun around, and dove forward: "GET DOWN!!!!!"

"Oh my god—"

"Aaaaaah!!!"

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH

The thundering explosive shattered into the office through the windows and--

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!! **

Cubicles and furniture shattered.

Bodies were flying.

Bodies were burning.

Flame and collapsing ceiling bits and--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**BOOOOOM!!!**

A bleeding Starfire gasped and looked up.

Robin shot his face up as well.

The crumbling face of the Police Department was sailing down towards them with a sea of glass and flame.

"X'Hal…..," Starfire shuddered.

Robin gritted his teeth. He hoisted Starfire up to her feet.

"Come on!!!!"

She yelped in pain as she limped alongside his scrambling figure.

"Go Go Go Go Go Go!!!"

The Two Titans hobbled out of the way of--

**CRASH!!!!!!!!**

Glass and brick and mortar splashed across the front entrance of the Police Department behind them.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Four different machine gun rounds flew at the two.

Robin struggled to drag himself and Starfire out of the range of the bulletfire.

The projectiles ricocheted off the wall and sidewalk around them. PING!!! P-PING!!! P-P-P-PING!!!

Something silver and glinting was tossed out by a shadow across the street.

Swoooosh!!

CL-CLANK!!!!

A grenade landed and rolled under a nearby SUV.

Robin tossed Starfire protectively around the cornerstone of the building and dove too--

**BOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

The grenade exploded. Its fiery flower of destruction ate into the fuel tank of the SUV, setting off another explosion. **POW!!!!** The aluminum body of the vehicle shot straight up four feet and sent aluminum shrapnel showering down onto the two quivering Titans.

Robin flung his body over Starfire. As the flames dissipated, he used the corner of the building as cover from the machine gun fire and started tending to her wound.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-PING!!!!

"Who are they?? Wh-What is going on??" Starfire panted, bleeding.

Robin tried to cool his shaking hands. He placed a thick bandage from his utility belt over Starfire's gaping wound as temporary blockage and wrapped tight gauze and bands around her shoulder above the bullet hole.

"I don't know….I-I don't know, Star…but I'm going to find out…."

"Robin….d-don't leave me….," she winced. She clenched her teeth and shut her eyes in pain. "X'Hal venru'vm!!"

He cupped her cheeks with his gloves. "I….will….be….back….Star…."

She looked at him. Eyes wet and pleading.

"I promise…," he whispered.

She gulped.

The sounds of gunshots and cries of pain erupted in the air.

Robin took a deep breath, whipped out a grappling hook, and shot for the top of a building across the way. POW!!! CLANK!!!

He flew up by the cord. SWOOOOSH!!!

Starfire rested her back against the wall, wincing. Waiting….

Beads of sweat ran down her amber temples.

Listening…..

"_Aaaaugh!!!" _

"_My arm!! My arm!!" _

"_Where are they?!?! Jesus, they're everywhere—" _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!! _

"_Snntkktaaaugh!!!"_

"………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCREEEEEECH!!!!

Car after car came to a screeching halt at the nearest intersection of Main Street.

Motorists stepped out—wide eyed and curiously surprised—as they saw pedestrians on foot running down the street and between their vehicles in the hundreds.

The sounds of gunshots and small explosions echoed down the road from the Police Department.

Over the heads of screaming citizens, a green albatross drifted.

Beast Boy flew until he was over the center of the blocked up traffic in all six lanes.

He morphed into elf form, fell, and landed nimbly atop a minivan. He stood up and shouted towards the motorists: "All of you!! Go back!! Turn around!! Get out of the Downtown District!! This isn't a joke!!! Order of the Titans and stuff!! Move it!!!"

The pedestrians who were at first standing around the nearby vicinity of the green Titan were now doing their damnedest to turn and run away from the chaos.

Beast Boy shouted and directed them.

Motorists in the rear started backing out first and taking detours away from the center of the City.

And then…

_SCREEEEECH!!! _

_VRMMMMMM!!!_

Beast Boy caught them first in the corner of his green eyes. He slowly turned and gazed. His jaw dropped more and more and more.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

Three black jeeps with dark figures inside sped up out of nowhere. In icy coordination, all three came to a sudden stop at the intersection behind the blocked-up traffic.

And as soon as they stopped, Beast Boy and everyone in the right mind saw thugs in the open rear of each vehicle get up….

"Oh no….."

….prop up mounted assault guns….

"…no no no no no NO!!!"

….load the, and take aim at the river of motorists.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!

Three streams of red hot bullets soared past and around Beast Boy.

The elf flinched.

The bullets pelted into the vehicles—PINGPINGPINGPING!!!—ripped apart a few bodies of drivers and riders inside….before eating their hot way into a fuel tank or two.

_**BOOOOM!!!!! **_

_**KAPOW!!!!!!!!!!**_

Pedestrians running down the sidewalk shrieked and flew as flaming concussion blasts from the exploding vehicles erupted around them.

Bones broke against buildingside and limbs were lopped into glass fronts. SHATTER!!!!!

Beast Boy stopped flinching, his teeth gritting.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The three jeep gunmen swept the bulletfire across the street full of cars. Vehicles were turned to swiss cheese. Citizens shrieked and dove for cover under flying shrapnel and glass. A solid line of pedestrians met their fate when one stream of bullets met them head on and mowed them down into a river of read.

"RRRRGHH!!!" the elf pounced off the back of the minivan and landed on the ground as a wolf. He ran on all fours, skimming between jammed vehicles, leaping over aluminum shards and collapsed passenger doors, and bursting straight out into the open.

All three gunmen converged on him.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Beast Boy leapt up, morphed into a snake, coiled himself expertly to avoid the bulletfire….before slamming into the ground as a huge gorilla that picked up a nearby lamppost—CRUNCH!!!—growled, and flung the hulking object at the jeeps.

SWOOOOSH!!!

"ROAAAAAR!!!"

_SCREEEEEECH!!!! _

The black vehicles burned rubber and sped off.

_VRMMMMMM!!!!_

CRASH!!!!

The lamppost formed a crater in the ground behind them.

Beast Boy glared after the three vehicles, panting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The tables in the courtyard rattled.

Lillian and Lindsay gasped.

Antoine and Jack removed their arms from the table top, blinking.

"……….????" Tempest's dark eyes narrowed.

Bonnie was the first to step up, her lips agape. A few other pedestrians outside the theatre and storefronts did the same.

Everyone in the Bayside Plaza gazed northwesterly.

Their ears pricked.

"My goodness….," Bonnie murmured.

Lindsay stood. "Were those….e-explosions?"

Tempest stood. "They were."

Everyone nervously fidgeted.

"What's….what's going on?"

"Sounds like it's coming from Downtown!"

"A bank robbery or something? Some criminal on the loose?"

Tempest sensed something. The telepathic part of his brain fluctuated.

He glanced up.

On the rooftop of the theatre, a row of black figures appeared. They appeared to be aiming--

"!!!!" Tempest shouted: "Get down-!!!!"

BLAM!!! BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!

Shotgun blasts flew down in storms of pellets.

Shrieks.

Screams across the courtyard.

Four pedestrians fell down in random spots, gurgling blood.

More screams.

Tempest yanked Lindsay and her friends to the ground.

BLAM!! BL-BL-BLAM!!! BLAM!!!!

More bodies fell.

Pounding noises as citizens fled and--

SWIIISH!!!!!

A hot row of shot flew down.

SP-SPLORCH!!!

"AAAAAUGH!!!" Bonnie shouted, her shoe exploding to the white bone from a wave of lead pellets. She bled and slumped to her knees.

"Oh god!! Bonnie!!!"

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Bonnie clutched her limb and screamed.

Tempest clenched his teeth. "RrrrrghAAUGH!!" his eyes pulsed purple and he flicked his wrist towards a fountain in the center of the Bayside Plaza.

SPLOOOOOSH!!!!

A worm of water rose up from his manipulation and surged through the air towards him.

Antoine and Jack rushed over to Bonnie's twitching form.

Lillian and Lindsay wrung their hands.

In the meantime, Tempest spread the water out into a wall and gathered as many tabletops from the courtyard that he could. He spread the aquatic wall out further and dispersed the tabletops as evenly as he could. Soon at least three dozens panicked citizens were being shadowed by a half permeable 'shield' of floating wood and marvel.

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!

CLINK!!!! CL-CLANK!!!!

The tabletops temporarily managed to block the downwards spread of lead shot from the theatre's rooftop.

"Everyone!! Move!!!" Tempest shouted. He glanced over his shoulder, panting. He found the exit. "To the subway!! Everyone move to the subway!!! NOW!!!"

Some citizens mumbled. Some sobbed. All of them—pale as ghosts—crouch-ran their way towards the sewers as Tempest spread the 'wall' more and more.

He looked over his other shoulder. "You two!! You got her???"

Antoine and Jack shakily nodded. "Yeah…b-but she's bleeding badly!!'

"Carry her!!"

"You got it!!"

"Nnnghh….," Bonnie winced, tears streaming, as the two boys hoisted her by her shoulders and shuffled her away towards the sewer on desperate feet. Lillian quickly scrambled after them.

Lindsay stood stock still, staring at red pools and still bodies beyond the wall of water.

BL-BLAM!!!

CRACK!!!!

A tabletop shattered into wet splinters above her.

She flinched and shrieked.

GRIP!!!!

Tempest's left arm held tight around hers.

"Come on!!!!" he shouted. He backed them up, his right hand outstretched and glowing purple. Under merciless shotgun blasts, he back the two of them down via the watery shield and ducked them down and into the underground subway.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Distant explosions.

The windows shook.

"………," a customer looking at a row of lawn mowers at the front of the pawn shop gazed up. "What….is that?"

Renee and Daniel stood frozen at the counter. Two other customers were in the middle of selling them a toaster or two, but now they too were gazing curiously…numbly towards the front of the store.

"F-Fireworks??" Renee blinked.

Daniel scratched his head. "At this time of year?"

"Hey….I-I think I hear screaming….," said a man by the toaster.

"Wyrd….," the faraway customer walked over towards the glass front of the store and gazed out on the street. "Hey…people are running. What in the world??"

"M-Maybe you should step away from the window—"

"L-Listen!!"

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

Renee and Daniel blinked.

The two customers by the counter fidgeted.

The man by the window took a shaky step back.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!_

Three black jeeps swerved by outside.

And….

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

A crimson string of machine gun bullets soared in through the store, shattered through the glass window, and exploded through the one customer's shoulder, neck, and forehead.

CRAAAASH!!!! CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!! TH-THWUNK!!! P-P-P-PING!!!!

The man's ragdoll body danced from the bullets and fell wetly down. THWUMP!!!

Bullets flew and clattered across the interior of the store. T.V. screens shattered. Appliances fell apart. Lawn equipment were pelted full of holes.

P-PING!! PING!! CLACK!!!

Daniel threw Renee down to the floor and covered her.

The other two customers dove down and covered their heads.

"AAAAAH!!!" Renee screamed.

Daniel panted.

The bulletfire stopped.

Daniel peaked over the counter, sweating.

Buildingfronts across the street were identically pelted with bulletfire just like the pawnshop.

Each gunman from the jeeps suddenly pulled something out of their combat pockets and tossed them at random building fronts.

Daniel's heart skipped a beat.

_Cl-Clank!!_

He heard something small and metal land in front of the store front just _to the side_ of the pawn shop.

**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

A grenade went off.

The lights flickered.

A wave of heat soared through the walls.

Crunching sounds of collapsing floors and rooms next door echoed hauntingly into the occupants' ears.

The husband knelt back down and clutched his wife, panting.

The two started to hear tortured, burning screams through the muffled walls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRUNCH!!!!

Myrkblade broke through the fallen dust and debris.

Face tense and shades foggy, I pulled myself out of the rubble.

I panted….black smoke trailing off my limbs.

I heard continuous gunshots and explosions.

Even the sounds of screeching tires and jeep engines.

"…….," I looked directly up.

The entire building face of the Police Department had crumbled. Like some horror scene out of Oklahoma City or Dresden.

"…….."

SWOOOOOSH!!!

"?!?!?!" I looked to my side.

Something bright and flaring was shimmering at me. With a trail of smoke.

My black eyes widened.

_R.P.G.!!!_

I gasped and blurred out of the way--

**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

I barely ran past the wave of fire and shattered asphalt.

I panted, streaking down the road on smoking feet.

I came to a stop, turned around, and panted.

"……"

I noticed two red streams cutting through the fading trails of my smoking body from above.

"……..!!!!" I glanced up.

Two red flashes from rooftops.

Blinding.

I gasped and jerked aside--

POW!!! POW!!!

High caliber rifle bullets slammed into the asphalt where I was a half-second ago.

I gritted my teeth, spun, and blurred across the street.

POW!!!

POW!!!

PING!!!

_PING!!!_

Bullets fired singularly behind me.

Red beams flickered through my trailing smoke.

I panted.

_Snipers!!_

POW!!! P-POW!!!

_They're on the rooftops……_

P-PING!!!

_But who are __**they**__?!?!_

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blurred up a buildingside towards one of the bulletfire sources.

_Dagger……_

My brow furrowed in mid-vertical sprint.

_Dagger is here. _

_In this City. _

_He's eating it alive._

I bit my liip.

_He was right. The Messenger was right._

CHIIIING!!!

I readied Myrkblade.

The roof's ledge came.

One breaths….two….

A glint of silver.

A rifle was tilting over.

SLAAAAASH!!!!

I dove 'up', Myrkblade first.

CHTINK!!!!

I ripped the barrel of the rifle clean off.

A shadow stumbled back.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I ran up off the ledge, flipped, came back down, and perched with Myrkblade ready to strike like a demon samurai.

"………….."

I sweated.

I saw eight men on the rooftop.

Six men on another rooftop two blocks down.

Eight on yet another rooftop near the Western District.

All were dressed in work clothes.

All looked like they were about to explode out through their eyes first.

_Green eyes._.

And they all were aiming machine guns at me.

Cl-Click.

"…………………………………….."

I jumped--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH-_Plant!!_

Robin perched on a building ledge across the crumbled Police Department.

He slowly snaked himself across the rooftop until he was parallel to the spot in the ground from under which the first group of machine gunners were still unleashing lead punishment across the lengths of the City streets.

_Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat!!!_

He took a deep breath.

CLANK!!

He stuck a grappling hook into the ledge's surface.

He pulled tight. He bundled a long length of black cord around his gloved arms.

He took a deep breath.

He turned his body around.

He held tight to the cord.

He kicked off the edge of the building.

The Boy Wonder's body drifted down till the cord pulled taut at his bundle.

Robin braced himself with legs planted against the building side.

He gave the cord some slack.

His legs kicked.

He shimmied down further down the buildingside.

Quietly.

Like a spider.

The machine gun noise got louder as he descended.

He squinted his eyemask and could see the hot-red streaks of bullet tracers flying through the air.

TH-THWISSSH!!!

TH-TH-THWISSH!!!

Robin gave more slack.

He took a deep breath.

More slack.

An even deeper breath.

He kicked off the buildingside with a grunt. "Nnnngh!!!"

His body bounced off.

He flew down and outward in a huge arc.

He extended his staff—_Snkkkt!!—_and twirled it.

Swinging like a mad pendulum straight down, between the machine gun fire, and suicidally in through the shattered windows of the gunmen's roost.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Thwump!! Thwump!! _

_Pounding. _

_Screaming. _

_A yelling voice of bloodlust._

"Mmmmph….," Lisa stirred on the couch in her living room. She slowly sat up, her black bangs tangled. Her one eye blinking.

_Thwump!! Thwump!!_

She had been napping.

But then…the pounding sounds had disturbed her.

"Ugh….not again….," she rubbed her eye and ran a tired hand through her hair as she yawned. "I wish they'd friggin' seek counseling…."

_Thwump!! Thwump!!_

_More shouting._

"………..," Lisa's brow furrowed.

She was used to domestic squalls in neighboring apartments.

But this….

And the windows were rattling.

And distant thuds outside her alleyway windows were growing more and more numerous.

"The Hell??" she stood up.

A beat.

She walked hurriedly towards the front door of her apartment.

She unlocked the door.

She wandered out into the hallway.

She glanced both ways.

Empty.

_Thwump!! _

_Thwump!!! _

"_Daddy!!" _

"_Stop hurting Mommy!!" _

"_What's wrong with y-you?!?!" _

"_Dadddddy!!"_

Lisa gasped.

She looked across the way at the door to the Knight's apartment.

_Thwump!! Thwump!! _

"_Rrrraaaugh!!"_

She rushed over.

She pounded her fist against the door. "Hello?!?! Hello!!!"

She tried the doorknob.

It was locked.

_Thwump!! Thw---_ The pounding stopped.

"What's going on in there!!!" Lisa frowned. "Should I call the cops or—"

**CRACK!!!!**

"AACK!!" Lisa fell back as the door exploded outward in a wave of splinters.

Lisa stumbled into the apartment hallway's wall.

She looked up, panting.

Howard Knight stood, heaving in the doorway.

In his hand was a metal bat. Blood and tiny scraps of brain matter were hanging off it.

Lisa's eye widened. She looked past his heaving form to see Mrs. Knight lying bloodily on the ground. Little Ashley and Greg were huddled in the distant kitchen, holding each other and shivering.

"Mister….," Lisa trembled, panting. Her eye drifted up from the bloody bat. "M-Mister Knight?!?!"

SWOOOSH!! His head spun and stared at her.

Eyes exploding wide.

Two green eyes.

Flaring green.

Lisa's jaw dropped.

"_**REDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!"**_ the man howled. He was upon her with the baseball bat.

"Ah…Aaah…AAUGH!!" Lisa stumbled backwards and fell.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!! The bloody bat formed a crater in the wall.

Lisa struggled on the ground.

Howard shrieked like a banshee and swung the bat straight down at her.

She flinched: "AAAAAH!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin dove into the front atrium.

Six bodies carrying smoke machine guns spun, panting.

"RRGHHHHH!!!" Robin shouted and spun a ballet with his twirling rod.

SM-SM-SMACK!!!

THWACK!!!

WHAM!!!

He slammed three skulls, broke two legs, and uppercutted a chin.

Three men fell down hard to the ground.

The others convulsed.

TH-TH-THWISH!! Robin spun his staff and took a battle pose. He pointed with a gloved hand, panting. "FREEZE!!! You are all under arre----" He stopped. His eyemask went wide.

The men were in worker's clothes. Straight out of every conceivable blue collar job under the Sun. They all looked at Robin, panting…..with flaring eyes of green.

Robin's lips parted.

So did theirs….with exploding mouths:

"_**REDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!" **_

"_**REDDDD!!!!!" **_

"_**REDDDDDDDD!!!!!"**_

They all dropped charged Robin, screaming.

Bloodlusting.

Faces pulsing.

Robin gritted his teeth and backed up, swinging his staff.

THWACK!!!

He knocked one berserker aside.

Two others charged him, hyperventilating, arms groping.

"NNGH!!!" TH-THWISH!!! CONK!!!

He struck another hard across the skull.

The third was upon him, grabbing.

Robin slid down between his legs, jumped up the other side, and reverse kicked him.

TWHUMP!!! The man slammed into a wall.

Robin spun.

The man spun. _**"REDD!!!!"**_ He charged Robin.

Robin whipped out a birdarang.

The man charged.

Robin threw his projectile.

SW-SW-SWISH-THUNK!!! It stuck into the man's shoulder.

He stuttered once…but kept charging.

Robin stepped back and tossed another birdarang. "NNGH!!!"

CHUNK!!!

It skewered the man's ankle.

He panted—eyes flaring—and kept charging.

Robin prepared a third—

"_**RED!!!!"**_

The man collapsed onto the Boy Wonder.

"AUGH!!" Robin was pressed against a wall.

The man tried to pummel the Titan.

Robin struggled with him, kicking his bloody leg, slamming his staff into his hips.

The man swung the two over. _**"NNGH!!"**_

THWAP!!!

The two slapped against a wall.

Robin wrestled with the man.

He dragged the Boy Wonder's arm up. He opened his mouth. He bit into Robin's glove. _CRKKKK!!!_

Robin hissed: "NNNRRAAAUGHHAAAA!!!" His whole face tensed. He yanked one hand free, twirled his brave, and slammed it straight into the man's face.

CRA-ACK!!!

The man's nose broke off.

Robin kicked him off him.

SLUMP!!!

The Boy Wonder stumbled back, clutching his twitching arm.

The man on the ground convulsed. He whimpered. He sweat. He pulled open his blue-collar jacket and revealed two solid rows of grenades attached to his chest.

"FREEZE!!" Robin aimed his staff with one hand.

The man panted. His finger fumbled across the grenades.

"Don't do it!!"

The man fumbled.

Robin shouted: "Don't you do it!!!!!"

Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! The man desperately yanked out the pins to ten grenades and simply….lay there.

"Sh-Shit…," Robin spun and ran out the alcove—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--for his life.

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!**_

Robin covered his head and gasped as he ran and ran and ran through the street, hopping over a body or two of dead citizens.

The explosion inside was massive…but grew even larger as a chain reaction thundered through all of the enflamed thug's grenades.

_**BOOM!!!—BOOM!!!-BOOM!!!-BOOM!!!**_

The Boy Wonder dove behind a charred SUV and sheltered himself the best he could as---

_**CRUMMMMMMBLE!!!!!!!!**_

The entire foundation of the building across from the Police Department gave way.

The supporting pylons of the building's inner structure lost…and the weight of the height pulled the upper levels down like a pancake.

_**CRUNCH!!!! CRUNCH!!! CRUNCH!!!**_

The nine story building toppled. Smoke and burning ash billowed out, blanketing the gasping Boy Wonder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From the studios and offices of Kobayashi Tower, workers felt a rumble shake through the floors.

People started rushing over to sunlit windows and gasping.

Pointing.

Gazing out at a tall, rising mushroom cloud of dust and burning smoke from just a few blocks away in Downtown.

"Oh my god!!"

"Look!!"

"Sweet Mother of Mercy."

"The Hell is going on?!?!"

"Was anyone in that?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Smoke and ash floated through the streets.

Citizens ran and darted into alleyways for their lives.

A wounded Starfire remained resting up against the wall of the police department.

She coughed, wheezed, and forced her tearing emerald eyes open.

"Robin!!!!!" she shouted. "Robin?!?! ROBIN!!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Move!! Move!!!" Beast Boy shouted, running down the street. "Out of this District!! Go!! Go!! Everybody!! Now!!"

People jumped out of their cars in the middle of jammed traffic and ran where the changeling pointed them. Families, businessmen, tourists…everyone formed a surging, screaming crowd.

"Man…what do we do?!?! What do we do?!?!" Beast Boy wrung his green hands.

And then I fell on him.

WHUMP!!!

"OOF!!!"

"!!!!"

We both tumbled from the ground.

My body was still trailing with murk from my desperate leap off of….some rooftop or another. I lay on the ground—panting—for a while.

"Dude!! You're alive!!" Beast Boy yanked me up. "Man…what do we do?!?! Psychos are everywhere!! These people can't be safe anywhere!!!" A beat. He glanced at my combat fatigues.

I stood, panting. I looked down at my clothes too. There were solid lines of ripped cloth all around, exposing pale skin beneath. I had been grazed quite a few times by bullets. I simpered.

"Seriously…dude….you're Number Two….," Beast Boy pointed. "Got any bright ideas??"

"…….," I blinked.

_Number Two…… _

_Robin and Cyborg aren't here. _

_And Robin……could he be……?_

I shook that off.

I glanced at where we were.

Signs.

_Thirty-Six and Main……_

I ran out into the intersection.

I glanced down Thirty-Sixth street. I pointed at two buildings down the way.

Beast Boy exclaimed: "The Central Bank?"

I nodded. I hand-gestured 'bars' and 'turntables' in a finger-full charade.

Beast Boy blinked…..then beamed. "The gold depository!! Of course!! All the steel vaults!! It's like a frickin' bomb shelter! Fort Knox incarnate!! I bet a whole bunch of people will be safe there!!"

I nodded.

I whistled loudly.

People glanced my way in the middle of their panicked running.

I pointed furiously down Thirty-Sixth Street.

I then kicked Beast Boy in the butt.

"Ackies!! Er…ahem…EVERYONE!! LISTEN!!! HEAD TO THE CENTRAL BANK!!! FOLLOW US!! FOLLOW THE TITANS!!! HEAD TO THE CENTRAL BANK IMMEDIATELY!!!"

People panted. They looked at each other. They looked at the rising smoke in a few places. The rubble. They hastily agreed. Eighty percent of the populace responded by surging past us and towards the building.

"That's right!! Follow us!! Follow us!! Quickly!!!" Beast Boy shouted. He panted and glanced at me. "Man…who's doing all of this?" He blinked. "Dagger??"

I glared at him.

_Welcome to the Food Chain._

Shrieks.

"?!?!?!" we both glanced aside.

Two yellow schoolbuses were stuck in the middle of traffic. They were full of elementary students. The kids were screaming and sobbing inside. The bus drivers and chaperones inside were telling all the kids to duck their heads….but they weren't emptying the busses in the middle of the traffic jammed street.

_Following some god damn protocols or something._

I pointed firmly at them, panting.

"YO!!! YOOO HOOO!!!!" Beast Boy waved his arms wildly.

I whistled.

"GET THOSE KIDS OUT OF HERE!!! TO THE CENTRAL BANK!!! HURRY!! HURRY!!!"

The adults inside the bus glanced at us panickedly. The children kept sobbing.

And then….in the background.

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!_

Beast Boy sweatdropped. "Uh oh."

I gritted my teeth.

Three black jeeps surged into the intersection.

CHIIIIIIING!!!! I blurred towards them.

The gunmen with the mounted guns in the back aimed at the schoolbuses.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!! I blurred over, dove sideways, and twirled Myrkblade while 'in flight'.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!!

I deflected the streams of bullets off and back towards the line of jeeps.

P-P-PING!!!

CLANG!!!

One gunman was hit in the shoulder.

He groaned and collapsed in pain into the backseat while the other gunmen took over.

SCREEEEEECH!!!!!

The jeeps roared off.

The gunmen let loose a barrage during the vehicular escape down the road and out of sight.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I knelt and madly swung Myrkblade, deflecting the bullets away from the schoolbuses. CL-CL-CLANG!!!!

The jeeps were gone.

I panted…sweating like mad.

Beast Boy exhaled and ran towards the schoolbuses. "Stay tight!!! I'll get you all out!!!! Just—"

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!_ A random R.P.G. soared in from one of the rooftops and--

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

Beast Boy was blown back.

I tumbled across the asphalt.

FWOOOOOOM!!!!

"Nnnngh…..," Beast Boy looked up. He gasped…his green eyes wide.

The schoolbuses were in flames. Whatever torturous 'things' could be alive inside were flailing about like lantern bugs.

Before either of us Titans could rush in to drag out corpses—

_SWOOOOOOSH!!! _

_SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!_

Two more rocket propelled grenades from above.

And…..

We went airborne.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Wrii! Wrii! Wrii! Wrii!_

_Schwisssh!!!_

Cyborg and Raven ran out of the elevator.

They froze to a screeching halt halfway through the alarm-lit Main Room.

Gasping.

Eyes wide.

Both of them.

The huge map of the City was splashed across the large Computer Screen. And it was flashing red in at least thirty different places.

"…………," Raven held a hand over her lips.

Cyborg stumbled forward. "Sweet Jesus Almighty….."

Beyond the computer screen, columns of smoke started to rise from the silent skyline….accompanied by urban thunder.


	169. Hand and Dagger part 6

**169. Hand and Dagger part 6**

Footsteps.

Painful moanings.

Sloshing, cascading water.

Over two dozen citizens standing about casually by the tracks of a subway turned and gasped as over two dozen more ran down, shadowed by Tempest with his wall of protective water stretched behind them.

Antoine and Jack helped a limping, bleeding Bonnie across the tile. Her ragged ankle leaked red on the pale tile of the underground interior.

"Oh my god…."

"What in God's name is happening above ground??"

Lillian shuddered, hugging herself. "P-People….People with guns…."

A throng of confused faces.

Those that ran down under Tempest's protection slumped against walls, panting.

Tempest gently let go of Lindsay and lowered his wall with a flicker of purple eyes.

SLOSH!!!!!

"Is anyone here a doctor?!?!"

"…………."

He clenched his fists. "**Is anyone here a doctor?!?!"**

"I-I'm a nurse…..," one woman stepped forward nervously.

Tempest pointed. "Her foot. Examine it. I'm Atlantean. I know nothing of surface dweller muscles…."

Antoine and Jack set Bonnie down against a wall.

The woman knelt and examined the writhing girl's foot. "Dear Lord…..what h-happened to her?"

"Bullets happened," Tempest grunted. "See what you can do." He spun looked around the Subway. "Is there any other way out of here besides the entrance through which we descended?"

"Just the Subway Tracks!" a teenager in the corner panted. "We've been sitting here for nearly thirty minutes waiting for the next train. It's late for some reason!"

"There's gotta be another path…r-right?" Lindsay stammered. "Like….a maintenance tunnel or some other thing?"

Antoine looked up from the writhing Bonnie. "There could be a control center? Ya know…for tracking the movement of the trains."

"Like a network?" Tempest asked.

"Yeah," another nodded. "There're always workers coming in and out of those things."

"Then maybe we should look to see if it acts as a junction to another subway," Tempest said. "There's no going back up to the Courtyard. And I'm not about to move people through these tracks."

"Excuse me, sir….," a middle-aged man in a business suit walked over. "You're a Titan, right?"

Tempest swallowed. "S-So far, so good."

"Will you care to tell us what in the blue Hell is going on in the City??"

"………," Tempest's lips parted, hesitated…and he uttered: "I have no clue."

The people shifted nervously.

"Sh-She's going to need medical attention…," the woman kneeling by Bonnie said. "_Professional attention._"

"L-Like a hospital?" Lindsay panted.

The woman nodded.

Jack leaned forward: "I-If we're goin' through that network they have a first aid kit?"

"That'll only delay things for a while," the woman said. "Her leg is bound to get infected."

"Then I'm taking all of you to the surface somehow…," Tempest paced across the subway and rose his voice among the fifty or so occupants. "Do you all hear that?? As the only Titan here….I'm guiding you all to somewhere safer! And it's not up those stairs…and it sure as Hades ain't here!!"

"I-I think we're pretty safe h-here….sir….," a teenager nervously shook.

A few people nodded.

A beat.

Lindsay blinked. She gasped. "D-Do you…..Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Lillian asked.

A beat.

"Th-That!" Lindsay hissed.

Tempest's dark eyes narrowed.

A whining sound picked up in the subway.

"?????" people craned their necks.

"…………," Tempest slowly turned his head.

Everyone looked where he did.

The train tracks….

_Scraaaa-aaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaape………_

A lone subway car rolled to a sparking stop from the dark tunnel and before the pale tile of the lit underground.

"…………..," Tempest breathed. "Didn't someone say that the train was remarkably late?"

"Y-Yes…," stammered a nervous citizen from behind.

Tempest gulped. "Actually….I-I think it's right on time."

Shadows inside the subway car shifted.

Tempest's gaze flew up.

Metal pipes equipped with fire sprinklers stretched above.

The doors to the subway car flew open.

"EVERYBODY!!!" Tempest fiercely grabbed Lindsay by the arm and tossed the freckled girl behind him. "GET DOWN!!!"

A line of green-eyed gunmen.

Panting.

Writhing.

Taking aim…..

Shrieks and gasps.

Everybody dropped.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

A river of bullets streamed in and bounced madly around the interior of the underground.

"AAAAAAAH!!!" Tempest let loose a warcry and—with glowing eyes of purple—raised his hands to the ceiling as bullets grazed either side of him.

CRKKK-CRKKKK-_CRAAAAAK!!!!_

Lindsay gasped and looked up as the pipes in the ceiling burst from their holding and yanked out towards the gunmen in the subway train. They spewed forth high-pressured steams of liquid fury.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!

Tempest exchanged hose-spray for lead bullets in a thunderous storm.

Water shimmied everywhere from the skewering bullets.

The gunmen fired.

The Atlantean stood his ground.

Citizens shook and shivered as bullets PINGed and CLANKed all around them.

Tempest's eyes flared purple. He gnashed his teeth…and shoved his hands further out into the air.

A wall of water formed from the spray and slammed mercilessly into the screaming gunmen.

Their green-eyed faces were drenched and their guns went flying.

SPLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!" Lisa rolled to the side of the apartment hallway.

"_**RED!!!!"**_ Mr. Knight slammed the bat down where her head was.

She clenched her teeth and slammed her leg up into his groin.

His whole body shuddered and tumbled to the side.

She panted and tried crawling away.

GRIP!!!

"Yaah!!" she looked behind.

The man feverishly grabbed her ankle.

His nostrils flared.

He hissed through clenched teeth.

Eyes flaring.

_Green._

"_**Nnngrhh…..RED!!!!!!!!**_" He shrieked and bit down on her foot.

"Rrrrrgh!!!" Lisa wince, shook….shook….shook her foot.

YANK!!!

She kicked her shoe off.

He bit through leather, snarling like a dog.

Lisa scrambled…scampered…stumbled to her feet.

Her one eye wide.

She found herself running straight into the Knights' apartment.

She ran over the bleeding corpse of Mrs. Knight.

She streaked right towards the shivering children on the kitchen floor.

A shriek behind her.

Shuffling feet.

Mr. Knight was back on his feet and thumping after her.

Lisa took one breath and stretched her arms out.

_YANK!!_

She scooped up Ashley and Greg.

The two middle schoolers gasped as Lisa dragged them hurriedly into the bathroom.

She practically tossed them into the tub, spun around, and had a face full of Mr. Knight's howling face just seconds before she slammed the door close.

WHAM!!!

She locked it---

_THRUMP!!!! _

_THRUMP!!!!_

_THRUMP!!!!_

The door rattled on its hinges as the man pounded on it animalistically from the other side with a baseball bat.

_THRUMP!!!! _

_THRUMP!!!_

"_**REDDDD!!!"**_

Lisa stumbled backwards.

Panting.

Sweating.

Her dark hair tangled.

Ashley and Greg clutched to her from behind, sniffing and shivering.

"L-Lisa…what's wrong with him??

"Wh-What's wrong with our D-Daddy?!?!"

Lisa slowly shook her numb face. "I have no clue…..I have n-no clue whatsoever…."

They sobbed.

"St-Stick close to me…," she murmured.

_THRUMP!! _

_THRUMP!!!_

_THRUMP!!!_

Lisa's eye glanced over across the bathroom.

A bright window shimmered sunlight in from the thundering world outside.

"……..," Lisa looked at the rattling door. "…….." She looked at the window again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Is he…Is he…Is he…."

"He's dead, Renee…," Daniel muttered. Feeling the scant amount of skin left on the bullet-riddled customer's neck. "Very…very dead."

One of the two customers hiding with Renee behind the counter hissed: "Okay! You know it now!! Get over here before those madmen in the jeeps come back!!!"

Daniel looked up at the shattered storefront, shaking. Sounds of distant gunshots and explosions and sirens filled the air floating coldly in from the broken Autumn world outside.

"I….I don't think the madmen in the jeeps are all there is…"

"The Hell are you talking about??"

"Get over here!! Please, Daniel!! I'm scared!! Don't get so close to the outside world!!"

"The people next door….the Fillmores….," Daniel blinked.

A beat.

He started crawling out towards the shattered doorframe.

"What's he doing?!?!" another customer behind the counter squealed.

Renee gasped. "Danny!!!" she tried crawling her pregnant self over the counter. "Danny!! No!! Get back!!!"

The two customers quickly restrained her.

She shook and grunted…tears flowing.

"…….," Daniel slowly pressed himself to the side of the Pawn Shop's entrance and craned his neck out. "………….." Panting…shivering a little….he gazed out. One eye at a time.

There were tire marks in the screech. Scorched asphalt where grenades had landed. Bulletholes and…..splotches. Red splotches. Red splotches and—two bodies having halfway out of the shattered window across the street.

Daniel winced, his eyes instinctively clenching shut. He took a few heavy breaths….and opened them again. Peering out across the street.

There were a few more dead bodies. And smoke. Smoke rising over the city skyline just above. He could see flickering flames if he just turned his neck so….

And he realized.

"Dear God…."

"Wh-What is it??" one of the two customers stammered.

"The shop next door!!" Daniel panted. "The Fillmores!! Their place is going up in smoke!!"

"No……," Renee shuddered.

Daniel's eyes squinted. He craned his neck some more.

Then his eyes widened.

The first story of the next door building….the shop…..it was burning. With smoke billowing out.

But the second story….

"The fire hasn't crept up yet…," he muttered.

And then.

He saw movement.

Panicked, desperate movement.

In the second story window.

And his breath left him.

"Oh no…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Groaning.

Coughing.

Stirring limbs.

Stirring debris.

"Nnnngh……," the Lieutenant stirred. He moved his aching body. He stood up, tossing planks of splinters and crumpled furniture pieces off of him. Ash sprinkled to the floor as he stood up and rubbed his head, groaning. Other bodies in the now-charred remains of the Police Department office were standing up around him.

Others….

"…………..," the Lieutenant glanced down.

The blackened body of a police officer lay beneath him. Where his head should have been, the Lieutenant's feet were.

"………..," he shuffled back. Swallowing.

A hand on his shoulder.

"!!!!" he spun with a fist.

Another officer flinched. "L-Lieutenant….S-Sir….are you allright?"

The Lieutenant nodded. Shuddering. "Yeah…..wh-who else made it."

"I did sir…," the man gestured. "Chapman. Rookie…..a few others did too."

"Abbey!" another figure waved.

"J-Johnson!" another wheezed.

"Vann!"

"Shaia…"

The Lieutenant took a deep breath, fists clenched. "N-No one else?"

"They're too injured, sir…." A woman's voice.

The Lieutenant glanced over.

A blackened secretary knelt besides at least a dozen people leaning against a wall with their arms and legs in ghetto bandages and splints. They groaned and twitched in pain.

"Everybody was at the wrong place at the right time…," she winced. "W-We still haven't found all the bodies."

The Lieutenant walked over. He looked at the injured. He took a deep breath. "Good work Miss Wilson. But they're going to need special attention."

"How can we get them to the hospital??" Shaia gestured. "The streets are lined to the teeth with marksmen!!"

"Have any idea who?"

"No more than you do, sir."

The Lieutenant blinked. "'Sir'?"

Vann cleared his throat. "You're…the highest ranking here."

"……..," the man gazed out the window. "Commissioner Decker…..?"

"No sign of him, sir."

A chill ran over the Lieutenant's body.

"S-Sir??"

"We're going out….," the man exclaimed with a deep breath.

"But—"

"Out there is where we **should** be," the Lieutenant walked over to the elevator. "Every man here standing…follow me."

"What do you have planned sir?"

"First…the armory. Second…the streets. And any murdering creep we find, we'll take out. Lethal force if necessary. Whatever it takes to pave the way to the hospital. Once there…we can set up camp and send groups out to rescue the injured and bring them back to safety."

"You talk like this is a warzone, sir."

The Lieutenant paused and turned around. "That's exactly what this is."

"……."

"If I'm going to give orders around here for the time being….I'll need you to cooperate. And in order to cooperate…you must _trust_ me. I think I know the evil behind all this."

"Yeah? Who?"

"Does it matter at this point?" the Lieutenant sighed and pressed a button on the elevator.

Abbey shifted nervously. "It's not…working, sir."

"What?"

"The elevator. The RPG knocked it out."

"…………right. We'll take the stairs, then."

"Ten-four."

"Follow me…," the Lieutenant burst the door to the stairwell open and rushed down. "Abbey! Chapman! Shaia and Vann! Johnson……let's move!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire panted.

Her left shoulder throbbed.

She dragged herself…dragged herself…dragged herself down the sidewalk.

Panting.

Eyeing the huge mound of dust, ash, and debris where the street in front of the Police Department used to be.

Explosions and gunshots ringed throughout the City in her ears.

She winced.

She stopped.

The bandage was starting to become seeping wet with green…

"R-Robin….," she murmured, gazing into the debris.

_SHATTER!!!!!_

"?????" she spun and looked.

A building's entrance across the way broke open.

Six men dressed in worker clothes stomped out. They had flaring eyes of green. Shotguns were in their grasps.

"_**REDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!"**_

Starfire gasped.

They took aim.

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!! _BLAM!!!_

Starfire shrieked and painfully ducked her head.

Lead shot flew into the building side behind her.

Steam hissed against her body from the impact points.

She shuddered.

They marched forward.

Pumping their shotguns.

She summoned strength.

Her left shoulder throbbed excruciatingly.

She ignored it, glowed her eyes a hot emerald, and—

_ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!_

Two eyebeams shot out and melted a pair of shotguns instantly.

The men screamed animalistically as their hands burned.

The other four shrieked and ran at her.

She flinched.

"HIYAAAAAA!!!!"

A dust-covered Robin swung in and slammed his boots into two men at once.

WHAM!!! THWAP!!!

They fell down hard.

Starfire gasped.

Robin landed.

Two other men aimed shotguns at him.

He gritted his teeth and twirled his staff. TH-TH-THWISH!!

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

He leapt over the asphalt-shattering lead. He flipped. He landed between the men, spun his body onto the floor like a break dancer, and tripped both fiends.

TH-THWUMP!!!!

He rolled up to his feet, twirled his staff, and gave both men knock out blows in their chest cavities.

The first two thugs with burnt hands ran at Robin furiously. _**"REDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!"**_

He coiled. He hopped back once…twice…he sprang forward: "Waaaa-TA!!!"

TH-THWACK!!!!

He practically sent their heads spinning from the single staff swing. A tooth or two flew bloodily.

Robin panted.

He spun around.

"You are….undamaged?" Starfire murmured.

"I told you I'd be back…," he uttered. He ran down and hoisted her up.

"Nnngh!!" she winced.

"Sorry," he grunted. He hobbled down the street with her. "We gotta hurry. I gotta get you healed!!"

"A…A h-hospital?" she shuddered.

"If we must…but we also need backup. It won't be much longer until—"

"_**REDDD!!!!!"**_

The Two Titans gasped.

They glanced overhead.

From a rooftop, green-eyed men with uzzis took aim and--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Starfire gritted her teeth. She pulsed forth a tiny ounce of strength. As much as she could muster….and it flew the two of them ten feet out of the bulletfire and behind an abandoned, commercial bus.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

The gunshots ricocheted off the opposite side of the bus.

Starfire clung to Robin, panting. "I am sorry, Robin. I am far too damaged to be of my usual service to the City!!"

P-P-PING!!!

Robin shouted over the fray: "T-Take it easy, Star!! I'm calling for backup!!"

"Noir…Beast Boy….d-did they suffer the same fate as the Commissioner??"

"I don't know, Star. I hope not. I'll try and contact them too."

"It is Dagger's men, is it not??" Starfire panted. "We were blind to the reality of the threat!!"

CL-CLANG!!! PING!!!

"Biggest understatement of the day…," Robin panted. "And guess what else?"

P-PING!!!

She looked at him, shivering.

He swallowed: "I know where all the Dragonflare went…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

click.

The light flickered on in the Police Department's Armory.

The Lieutenant marched in, followed by at least a dozen surviving police officers from the lower floors.

He pushed a key into a green, metal locker and pulled them open.

CREEEAAAK!!!!

Rows of shotguns.

"Lock and load!!!"

Johnson, Vann, Shaia, and other officers grabbed the heavy rifles.

Some for the first time.

Some like casual veterans.

They pumped the shotguns and flocked to other lockers for more rifles and pistols.

The Lieutenant grabbed his own weapons, chose a company of men, and rushed out towards the first floor of the Department.

He was quickly followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_ZZZZZZZTT!!! _

_CRKKKK-VRMM-__**MMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!**_

_The T-Car roared to life._

Raven spoke into the communicator, a thin curtain of her usual calmness drowning out the urgency in her voice.

"Robin. Robin. Come in. This is Raven. Please respond."

"_Snnnktkkkkespond…skkktktkkywhere and thekkkttkkkkttsscrkkfire is shot. Raven, we neskskktkkkktt………"_

Raven took a deep breath.

Cyborg jammed his hand over a button on the dashboard.

The door to the Tower's garage opened up slowly, bathing the two roadsters in bright white sunlight.

_WHURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-CHTUNG!!!_

"Robin……there's a lot of disturbance. Can you tell us your condition? Can you tell us what's happening in the City??"

"_Snkkkkktsnnnnkktt—There's barely a City where we're at!! We've lost contact with Beast Boy and Noir! There're gunmen and pyromaniacs everywhere!! Many casualties!! Need backup!! We need your healing touch, Raven!!"_

"I can only heal so many people, Robin—"

"_It's Starfire, Raven!! She's been shot!!!"_

Cyborg glanced over, human eye wide.

Raven's lips parted.

"_She's been shot!! It's pretty bad. I'm trying to get us to safety and we're under fire as I speak!! Please…get here……on the double!! That's an __**order**__!!!"_

"Tell him we'll be there ass-crazy fast…," Cyborg gritted his teeth.

"Robin. Hang on. We'll be there ass-crazy fast……," Raven blinked at the words coming out of her mouth.

The android Titan shifted gears.

He slammed his foot over the gas.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!_

Raven pressed back into her chair. She lifted a hand and gripped the Jesus bar.

_VRRRRRRRMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

The T-Car barreled down the land ridge connecting Titan's Tower to the main City. The vehicle streaked straight towards the smoking skyline….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-PING!!!

Bullets bounced around cars, building faces, and sidewalks as Robin rushed across the City streets with Starfire in grasp. His arm beneath her whole shoulder held the communicator. His other hand periodically produced a birdarang which he flung at the source of gunshots on nearby buildingtops and street corners.

"Nnnngh!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

CLANK!!!!

Green-eyed thugs shrieked and gripped skewered wrists in pain.

Robin hobbled with Starfire around a corner—fleeing the ricocheting projectiles. Starfire shuddered as he stretched his arm out from beneath her and shouted into the communicator: "Beast Boy!!! Noir!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

CL-CLANK!!

CLANG!!!

Robin and Starfire ducked.

"Please tell me you're doing something constructive!!!……..And Alive!!!"

"_Just that, dude. We've got things covered here!!!"_

PING!!!

Robin gritted his teeth. "Where's 'here'?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a luxuriantly polished hallway of marble, eight huge vaults stretched open with giant, circular doors.

At the heart of the City's Central Bank, dozens upon dozens of people were being guided inside the spacious vaults. They panted and shivered in nervous fright. People of all colors, occupations, and ages. A few of them were injured and were being tended to while on the move. A scant policeman or two were present and assisted with the flood control.

I directed the entire movement. Silently. Like an usher with a sword. Four bank guards—cooperating with the effort—followed my gestures and divided people into each vault safely.

Beast Boy gazed at all of this as he spoke into the communicator: "The Central Bank!! There's enough steel down here to protect people from Dagger dropping a nuclear bomb!! This is Dagger we're speaking with, right??"

"_Beast Boy, now you listen to me. There are still plenty of innocent people out there on the streets!!" _

"_You think we don't know that, dude?!?! Noir had me rounding up as many as we could to get them down here to begin with!! We're about to go out and help the others around Downtown! Beyond that, though…..—"_

"_Look! Tell Noir to focus on any creeps you guys can find!! And do what he says while I'm not there!! Got it??"_

"Yeah….if he can give a word."

"_This is no time for damn jokes!!"_

"I concur, Robin!! Sheesh!! I'm doing my part!! Let you do your part and get Star safe!!!"

"_That's where Cyborg and Raven come in!! As soon as I'm free, I'm joining you guys in the streets!! We must take out as many thugs as we can!!"_

"Where'd Dagger get so much men???"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire winced as she and Robin pressed up against a mound of rubble from a smoldering grenade site.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets landed around them.

P-P-PING!!!!

"They aren't _his_ men!!" Robin panted into the communicator. "They're everyday citizens!!'

"_Say what?!?!"_

"Th-They've been infected…"

"_With what??"_

Robin gulped. "D-Dragonflare.

"_You've got to be kidding me……"_

Robin shuffled along with Starfire towards a pile of smoking vehicles………aluminum shells that were burning from recent explosions.

"It acts as a hypnotic controlling agent!! Some sort of bloodlust formula!! It's practically metaphysical!! And it's giving all of these men the desire to do nothing but kill and destroy everything that moves but themselves!!!"

"_Yeesh!! Why'd they ever give in to take the crap to begin with?!?!"_

"That's just it….I don't think they did it willingly!!!"

"Th-They were poisoned???" Starfire murmured.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_They were __**exposed**__,"_ Robin's voice filtered through the speakers of the T-Car.

Cyborg and Raven listened in.

The T-Car swerved and screeched around fleeing citizens and vehicles as it bore its way deeper and deeper into the charred Center of the City.

Robin's voice continued: _"Decker mentioned something earlier this morning about apparent 'strikes' taking place at a few industrial complexes and shipyards. People weren't showing up for work. A LOT of people. I think the Dragonflare never disappeared after all. The Messenger was mistaken to a point……in so much as we found no Dragonflare. Because Dagger had already __**used**__ the Dragonflare. He exposed it to the blue-collar workers of this City."_

Beast Boy: _"Dude! Zombies!!!"_

Raven shook her head. "No. Not zombies. Hostages against their will."

Robin: _"Exactly, Raven! Keep to the code!! Keep casualties at minimum!!"_

Beast Boy: _"Easy for you to say. They've frickin' burned Children!!! People are __**dying**__!! INNOCENT people!!"_

Starfire: _"Th-These people are innocent too, are th-they not???"_

"God, this is crazy…," Cyborg muttered.

Raven leaned towards the vehicle's intercom. "I think we're dealing with a lesser and greater of two evils here."

Robin: _"Understood. Protect the cognitive citizens at all costs. Do you hear me, Titans?!?! At __**all**__ costs!!"_

Beast Boy: _"You got it, dude……"_

Cyborg spoke towards the intercom while driving. "What about Decker?? What's he doing to give us backup?"

Robin: _"Decker is dead."_

Raven gasped.

Cyborg's human eye was wide.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," Beast Boy gazed up from the communicator at me. "G-Guess it wasn't our imagination….huh, Noir?"

"………," I slowly shook my head.

"_Cyborg. Raven. Get here __**now**__. Noir……you and Beast Boy start taking the heat off the rest of us!!"_

I nodded and entered a morse code response of concurrence.

"_Good."_

"Hey!! Everyone wait up!!" Beast Boy panted. "Anyone heard from Tempest?"

"_Flipper?" _

"_Our dear Atlantean friend!! Where could he be???"_

"_Take it easy, Star. I haven't heard from him. How about you two??"  
_  
"_He left to visit some……friends of his in the Bayside Plaza."_

"_There's smoke coming from that end of the City too, dawg!! I think the Hell has spread outward from Downtown!!"_

"_It might as well be the whole City now, Cyborg. That's why we gotta counteract this Insurgency NOW!"_

I sent a morse code message: _'We are on it.'_

Beast Boy took a shuddering breath and pocketed the communicator away. "No time like the present, man…."

I turned around. I pointed at the security guards and policemen. I pointed then to the vaults through of people….and blurred myself towards the top lobby of the Central Bank building.

"Uhm…..you heard him!!" Beast Boy simpered and pointed as he ran after me. "Guard those vaults with every inch of your asses!!"

The men shifted anxiously, but stood in a straight line across the marble floor with guns raised and breaths steady as we left the people in their protection….

And headed to the blazing surface world.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………," Tempest panted. His arms outstretched. "………………"

Water dripped and dribbled from the ceiling and bathed the tile floor of the subway.

The entire side of the subway train ahead of him had bent inward from the force of his manipulated expulsion of water from the bent pipes above.

The once-green-eyed gunmen were lying in an unconscious, soggy pile in the train ahead of the Atlantean.

Tempest slowly lowered his arms, panting.

"……….," Lindsay was the first to stand up.

The other citizens hobbled up from being pressed into the floor.

Jack, Antoine, and the nurse sat up with the writhing Bonnie.

Lillian trembled.

"Well……," Tempest shuddered. "….I s-suppose they needed a bath…."

"What were they doing here??" a man exclaimed panickedly. "Wh-Who are they?!?! They look just like average joes to me!!"

"Why were they trying to kill us?!?!"

Lindsay crept over by Tempest's side. "The Titans….d-do you suppose someone's after them?"

He took a deep breath. "Hardly. The City is the meat of this."

"Yes…but who's the ravenous creep at work here? Slade?"

"Slade's dead!!!"

"So's that damn creep Dagger!!!"

Tempest winced. "I'm…..n-not so sure…."

Lindsay gazed up at him. Blinking.

"Huh??" Jack made a face.

Tempest spun and gestured: "We need to move!! Carry those who are injured!! I'll lead the way and take point if someone can just tell me where the path to the network is!!"

"Over there!!" a teen wandered over and pointed at a slate metal door. "That should lead to it!"

"Good…," Tempest marched towards it.

"B-But…it's locked!! Only employees can open it up!!!"

Tempest's eyes glowed purple. He held out a finger and droplets from the floor rose up and morphed into a liquid 'key'. "Here's my application…."

He condensed the water tight, slid it into the keyhole, and twisted.

Cl-Click!!

"Now let's go…single file……," he turned.

Lindsay looked at him. She simpered. "A-After you…."

"…….," he smirked slightly. He ducked into the dark corridor.

The rest of the fifty-or-so nervous people quickly followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," the Lieutenant was the first to sneak out the first level of the Police Department's parking garage. He held a pistol up. He gazed out onto the rubble-strewn street…still smoking from R.P.G.s "…………."

A beat.

He gazed up at the rooftops.

"…….."

He motioned to the man behind him.

He was handed a riot shield.

He held the bulletproof plastic in front of him like a shield with one hand and crept forward with the gun in the other.

Like a snake, a line of cautiously armed police officers crept after him.

They hugged the concrete border of the parking garage and the buildings beyond down the street.

Once about ten of them had exited, they broke up the group. The Lieutenant marched with his company till they could duck down another alleyway.

They pressed themselves to the dark walls within.

The Lieutenant took a few deep breaths.

He gazed back out into the streets.

"………"

The distant sounds of gunfire and explosions lit his ear.

"……."

He looked down to the exit of the parking garage.

The next officer looked at him.

The Lieutenant gave a few hand-signals.

The officer several feet away nodded….then emerged with riot shield and gun.

The Lieutenant and his company covered them….simultaneously eyeing the long path ahead of them.

Towards the City Hospital….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

Robin held Starfire tight as the two hid behind an overturned van….which was being pelted by bulletfire.

CL-CL-CLANG!!!! P-PING!!! CLANK!!!!

"Stay with me, Star….," Robin shook her good shoulder. "Help is on the way….."

She shuddered. "You should….sh-should endeavor to h-help the truly helpless people instead of m-m-me…"

"Not on your life….do you hear me?!?!"

P-PING!!! CLANK!!!

The two winced.

Robin panted. "Besides…..Noir and Beast Boy….they can hold the fort…."

SWOOOSH!!!

Cl-Clank!! A grenade landed before them.

Starfire shrieked: "Robin!!! Look out—"

"I got it!!!" Robin dove. He snatched the grenade, twirled his body, and threw it back over the van with a grunt.

**POW!!!!!!**

The blast shook Starfire into Robin. "Nngh!!!" THWUMP!!!!

A nearby lamppost wobbled and shook from the blast. _GROANNNN!!! _It teetered over.

Robin grunted and rolled himself and Starfire over.

CRUNCH!!!!!

The lamppost smashed straight through the van and sent shards of aluminum and glass showering over the two teens.

They flinched, having barely rolled out of the fall of the lamppost.

"M-My shoulder….," Starfire shivered. "N'gatta de X'Hal…."

Robin whipped his communicator out: "Will somebody get his or her ass here….NOW?!?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The human traffic thinned and the dead traffic increased.

Cyborg clutched tightly to the wheel and activated the T-Car's intercom with another.

"We're getting there as fast as we can, Robbie. There's a question of rubble and crap in our way though—"

"_No, there is NO question!!! Starfire needs help now!! Get Raven here!!!"_

Cyborg big his lip. "Wish I could help you sooner, dawg…."

"Cyborg….," Raven droned. "It may still be possible."

"Say what?"

"Just speed up as fast as you can…," she said and meditatively brought her fingers up to her temples. "I'm going to give the T-Car added strength."

"Meaning…."

"Your 'baby' can plow through the 'crap'."

"Hoo boy….this will be fun."

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!_

CL-CLANG!!! PING!!! P-PING!!!

"Scratch that!!!" Cyborg gritted his teeth and swung tightly on the wheel. "It just got a whole lot 'funner'!!"

Three black jeeps swerved in from a side street and sped alongside the T-Car. The gunmen in the back pivoted the mounted guns and took aim.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets flashed and bounced off the bullet-proof titanium body and glass of the T-Car.

Raven took a fuming breath. "Granted….it would be nice if I could concentrate."

"_What's going on?? A setback????"_

"Uhhhh….," Cyborg shifted into higher gear.

The jeeps followed immediately after him, firing like mad.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

P-P-P-PING!!!

Cyborg winced. "I'll get back to you on that, dawg!!!"

"……………"

"When I tell you….hit the nitro…," Raven said.

"Whatever you say, cutie."

"And when we drive by Robin and Starfire's location, I'll teleport out of the car."

"H-Huh?!?!" Cyborg's eyes bulged.

"I'll join them and help them while you distract these pathetic creeps on our tail."

"Uh uh!!! No, ma'am!!" Cyborg shook his head while swerving around smoldering rubble and abandoned cars. "We ain't splitting up, Rae!! Not on a day like this!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

She winced, trying to concentrate. "It's the only way. We must work together. And sometimes….being a 'team' means splitting up."

"Not now, it doesn't!!! You forget, I'm second in command!! I'll outrank you if I have to!!!"

She closed her eyes and meditated. "You can't order me around and you know it."

"…………damn….girl….."

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

Cyborg gripped the wheel to the T-Car tightly. Sighing. Glancing worriedly at the dark girl in the passenger seat.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On quiet, smoking feet….I hopped out of the glass doors to the Central Bank's lobby.

I sneaked forward towards the sunlit City, but remained under the dark overhang of the building's granite arches bordering the sidewalk.

I craned my ear and heard the upcoming roar of engines.

I pressed my back up against the shadowed side of an arch's pillar.

Beast Boy crept up, saw me, and pressed himself to a pillar a few arches away.

_Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……_

The car engines sounded louder and louder.

I glanced at Beast Boy.

I took a breath.

I motioned 'running' with my metal hand, pointed out at the street with a thumb, gestured a 'vehicle' with my flat palm, then held up five titanium fingers.

Beast Boy nodded.

_Vrmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!_

Four fingers.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

Three fingers.

The T-Car soared by.

Two fingers.

A beat.

The jeeps came up.

One finger.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

**VRMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!**

I formed a fist with my metal hand….then took a breath.

Beast Boy morphed into a panther.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred out into the street.

Beast Boy thundered behind me.

I pounced onto the first of the three black jeeps chasing after the T-Car.

Beast Boy leapt as a panther—morphed into a triceratops in mid-air—and slammed his dinosaur horns mercilessly into the second jeep. CRUNCHHH!!!! The green-eyed drivers and gunmen went flying with unearthly screams as the dinosaur slammed their vehicle into a building front, causing brick and glass to fly. SMASH!!!!

In the meantime, I clung to the side of the first vehicle with my sword.

"_**REDDDD!!!!"**_ The two gunmen in the back of the jeep screamed at me and aimed the mounted gun point blank at my figure.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

My body blurred into smoke, allowing the bullets to stream through.

I snarled and yanked my blade out. SWOOOSH!!! I twirled my body around from the side of the jeep and slammed my feet into the gunmen.

WHAM!!!!

One collapsed onto the 'bed' of the jeep's rear.

Another fell off and went rolling hard across the asphalt.

I twirled my sword and stabbed down at the last remaining gunman.

He snarled and kicked up at me.

I dodged his blow.

His foot struck the mounted gun.

The weapon spun on its fulcrum, firing on its own….madly and blindly.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

A spiral of bullets swam across the asphalt, bounced off the hood of the jeep's front, and back onto the asphalt.

The thug jumped up.

I caught my balance.

He pounced on me across the moving vehicle.

WHUMP!!!

I struggled with him for control of Myrkblade.

His weight pressed down into me.

Green eyes flaring into lenses covering black eyes.

"_**REDDDDDDDDD!!!!!"**_

I winced.

_Shut the Hell up!!!!_

I kneed him in the special area.

He barely winced.

I kneed him an even specialer area.

He howled.

We tumbled across the bed of the jeep.

Our bodies slammed into the mount of the machine gun.

THWUMP!!!

The weapon fell off its support and across our lower bodies.

CL-CLANK!!!

BL-BLAM!!! Two shots fired into the driver's compartment.

The vehicle lurched as blood splattered across the front of the vehicle.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!_

The jeep swerved to the side.

"_**R-R-REDDDD!!!"**_

Our wrestling figures tumbled to the side.

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!-THWUMP!!_

The jeep sped up and over the median and smashed through a string of newspaper vendors.

CRUNCH!-CRUNCH!-CRUNCH!-CRUNCH!-SMASH!!!!

Glass and shreds of paper rained around us.

I finally kicked the man off me and slashed Myrkbalde.

SLIIIIINK!!!!

I cut a thin river into his chest.

He tumbled back on the bed, writhing. Screaming.

I panted.

BUMP!!!!

The jeep ramped over the rear of a truck.

SWOOOOSH!!!

We went airborne.

I gasped.

My body blurred.

I leapt off the flying vehicle, soared ahead, and tumbled to a stop against a building.

WHUMP!!!

I winced.

CRACK!!! The jeep landed from its sideways leap. Upended, it slid towards me with sparks flying against the asphalt.

_SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!_

I winced and held Myrkblade vertically in front of me.

_SCRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPE-GROAAAAAAN-CLUNK!!!_

The vehicle lurched to a stop a bare inch from my body.

"……..," I exhaled. Blinking. I looked up.

A green elephant with its trunk attached to the axle of the stopped vehicle loomed over me….then morphed into a green elf. "Well…that plan went smoothly," he simpered.

I simpered back.

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!_

The third and surviving black jeep screamed past us.

"…………………"

"…………………"

Beast Boy and I looked at each other.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-P-P-P-P-PING!!!!

Bullets from the last pursuing jeep clattered and rained off the back window of the T-Car.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and zoomed down the ruined streets of Downtown.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…..Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

"_Where the Hell are you guys?!?!"_

Cyborg uttered: "We're almost there, Robbie!! Be a little frickin' patient!!!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Cyborg swerved the vehicle again…and found a mountain of pure rubble ahead of them.

"………," His face fell. "End of the road."

"Is it the rubble, Cyborg?"

"Yes, Rae. Blocked."

"……….," Raven's eyes popped open. Glowing hot gray. Her teeth gnashed: "Hit it."

Cyborg's titanium palm slammed over the nitro button.

PH-PH-PH-**PHWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!**

The ring of blue fire emanated out the rear of the T-Car.

Raven let out a gasp and flicked her wrists with glowing-black hands.

_FLASH!!!!!_

A bubble of flickering obsidian coated the hood of the T-Car.

"Brace yourself!!!!" Cyborg shouted as they flew straight into the debris--

**SMASH!!!!!**

Rubble, brick, and mortar exploded.

Dust flew.

The debris cleared.

A breath of air.

Then.

Another solid wall.

Cyborg tensed.

Raven kept concentrating.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOM!!!**_

_**SMASH!!!!!**_

They plowed through the second wall.

Debris flew in fountains on either side.

The Black jeep followed haphazardly behind them at break-neck speed.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-PING!!!!

PING!!!

Wall after wall.

**SMASH!!! **

**SMASH!!!!!!**

**SMASH!!!!!!!!**

"We're cutting on through…we're cutting on through!!!"

"We haven't cut through anything yet…," Raven hissed.

Cyborg blinked. "Huh?"

**SMASH!!!!**

Another wall of debris….this one crawling with green-eyed gunmen.

"_**RED!!!!!!"**_

Cyborg scrunched back into his seat. "Son of a—"

WH-WH-WH-WHAM!!!!!

Deranged bodies went flying as--

_**SMASH!!!!!!!**_

Debris and guns and explosives went flying.

They rained down along with the unconscious thugs behind the raging, black T-Car.

The jeep and its gunman swiftly followed behind.

And then---

The sight of a line of gunmen circling a turned-over lamppost and a smashed van like a crescent moon.

And there were two huddling Titans….

"Here's your stop, cutie!!!"

Raven gasped. "Later…."

FLASH!!!!

In a black portal, she dropped out of the T-Car….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…and splashed over towards Starfire and Robin.

"Somebody call for a medic??"

"Raven…I call for a miracle….," Robin pointed at Starfire. "Work. Now!"

Raven knelt down, her blue eyes squinting.

"F-Friend….," Starfire weakly smiled. She shivered against the wall, clutching her bandaged shoulder. "I-I am elated to s-see you…"

"Shhh…lie still."

_VRMMMMMMM!!!!_

Robin peered around the van.

The T-Car swerved by, the nitro cutting off. It spun three-hundred-sixty degrees. The driver's side window pulled down. "Hey!!! Buttwipes!!! Come over here and get a taste of some Titanium whoopass!!!" Kl-Kl-Klack!!! Cyborg aimed a free hand out the window as a sonic cannon.

"What the Hell is he doing?!?!?" Robin panted.

Raven applied glowing hands to Starfire's shoulder. "Being Cyborg."

"P-Providing a d-distraction??" Starfired winced all over.

"Something like that….yeah….," the dark girl droned.

Robin whipped out his communicator: "Cyborg!! Don't get too out of hand!! We need you!!"

"Yeah, but they need some medicine more!!!!" Cyborg shouted.

_ZAAAA-AAAA-AAAAAAAP!!!!_

He shot a blue stream of sonic energy out the window. "RAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!"

The jeep swerved around the blue blast and returned fire. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

P-P-P-PING!!!!

CL-CLANK!!!

Bullets ricocheted all around the spot.

Robin and Raven flinched.

Starfire panted.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!_

The T-Car donutted and then rocketed down the road. "Follow the leader, crap-for-crap!!!!"

_VRMMMMM!!!!!_

The armed jeep soared after the blue vehicle.

Gunmen on the other side of the van and street aimed and let loose barrage of uzzi fire and shotgun blasts too.

Robin peaked out from around the side of the van and produced a fan of explosive birdarangs. "Hey!!! Morons!!!"

The green-eyed berserkers looked over, panting.

Robin flung the explosive projectiles: "Wake up and smell the coffee!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

The birdarangs exploded in the sidewalk, shattering a fire hydrant to shrapnel and sending a rupture down into the pipelines that caused a resounding shockwave to bubble up and explode half of the street in water and unearthed concrete. And it was the half of the street beneath the gunmen.

_**BOOOOOM!!!!**_

Bodies went flying and fell hard…unconscious.

Surviving gunmen circle-strafed the sight and fired.

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!

Robin hid behind the van and readied regular birdarangs this time.

"Raven!! Some cover would be nice!!!"

Her temple pulsed. "I'm a little busy healing your girlfriend, Robin….."

The Boy Wonder ignored that. "As soon as you're able…we gotta take these people out!! We need to work our way to the others!!!"

"Ten-Four."

Starfire winced and glanced at her shoulder wound, which was slowly healing. "Th-Thank you kindly….Raven…."

"Thank me once the holocaust is over….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRUNCH!!!

Tempest burst a door open and peered inside.

"……………," his dark eyes narrowed.

Lindsay and Jack crept up beside him and peered into the large room.

A series of desks and computer consoles ran up the room in tiers like an indoor amphitheater. They all faced a wall where a huge grid of the City subway hung. All the lights on the grid were blinking solidly. Not moving.

"The subway trains…..," Lindsay murmured. A streak of fear crossed her face. "Th-They must be stranded!! The p-poor people!!"

"Poor us…," Jack muttered. "Where are we?"

"The network that one of our people mentioned…," Tempest glanced over his shoulder at the crowded underground corridor through which he was leading the caravan of people. "….all walkways from the subway stations must lead here."

Another citizen crawled up and peered inside. "Wh-Where are all the workers?"

"Good question…," Jack nodded.

Lindsay gasped. She pointed: "L-Look!!"

Tempest's white-on-black eyes narrowed.

A hand dangled limply…still…over one of the computer consoles. And there was another arm over a console a couple spaces away.

And there was blood.

"The workers…..," Tempest slurred. "….they are here after all."

Lindsay put a hand over her mouth.

"Then….Th-Then that must mean….," Jack stammered.

"_**REDDDD!!!!!!!"**_

Three men with shotguns ran out from behind a console and charged at the congregation.

Lindsay shrieked and hid behind Tempest.

Jack and the other citizens backed helplessly into the corridor.

Tempest gritted his teeth. "Neptune almighty…"

The men charged, shotguns pumping.

"Get back!!!" the Atlantean shouted and ran forward--

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

_**BLAM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Lieutenant ran across the abandoned street and pressed himself against an empty sports car. He looked ahead.

The hospital lay.

Silent.

Void of people criss-crossing the usually busy avenues ahead of it.

He spotted a barricade of sorts set hastily in front of the doors.

Another officer crept up behind the Lieutenant. "Th-There must be people inside. They must have fled in and set up a defense perimeter. The place has got its fair share of guards and police forces, right?"

"Yup…," the Lieutenant nodded. "The Commissioner made good use of them."

"God rest his soul…"

"Somehow this seems too easy."

"Speak for yourself sir. This day is Hell."

"No…I mean the trip here….uncontested…"

"Yeah….that……"

"………..," the Lieutenant looked over his shoulder. He motioned with a quick hand. "Vann!! Johnson!!" he hissed.

The rest of his company slithered over. They all crouched behind the sports car.

"What is it??"

"The hospital already? Why aren't we going in?"

"Something doesn't smell right…," the Lieutenant uttered. "Where're the other two companies??"

"Right on our tail. Just as planned."

"Jeez….this REALLY doesn't smell right."

A shuffling sound.

"???" the Lieutenant glanced over the sports car.

Seven green-eyed men in grungy workers clothes were shuffling in a quiet line. Trying to set up an ambush. They looked like deer caught in the headlight.

"Oh for God's sake…," the Lieutenant cocked his pistol. "Head's up!!!!"

"_**REDDDDDDD!!!!"**_

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!! POW!!!

P-PING!!!

THUNK!!!

"AUGH!!!" one officer fell.

"Shaia!!!"

The Lieutenant gritted his teeth. "Let 'em have it!!!"

The men shouted and took aim.

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

BANG!!! BANG!!! B-BANG!!!

Two thugs fell down, seeping red.

The others ran for cover behind lampposts, fighting like intelligent little zombies.

The other two companies kicked newspaper vendors and trash cans over and crouched behind them as barricades.

Other policemen squatted behind cars and took aim beneath and around them.

The Lieutenant and two members of his company snaked out from behind the sports car and found a concrete divider to shield themselves with.

A brilliant firefight of streaking bullets exploded between the two factions as more and more thugs poured out from the nearby alleyway.

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

POW!!! P-PING!!!!

"I NEED SOME COVER OVER HERE!!!"

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

BLAM!!!

"Augh!!! Sons of a bitches!!!"

"Aim for the truck!!"

"L-Lieutenant??"

"By the intersection!!! Someone hit the fuel tank!!"

"I got it!!"

"Waste it!!!"

"Eyes up!!!"

BANG!!!

_**BOOOM!!!!!!**_

A few green eyed thugs fell from the blast's concussion.

Others ran for cover.

And then a few gunmen appeared on a rooftop above.

Two of them shouldered what looked like a bazooka and--

_PHOOOOOOOM!!!!_

"Dammit!!!"

"R.P.G.!!!!"

"RUN FOR COVER!!!!!"

Members of the second company dove out from behind a truck.

"AAAAAA—"

_**BOOOOM!!!!!**_

The Lieutenant aimed and fired up at the rooftop.

Two other cops' joined him in aiming.

One fell from a thug's bullet, but--

POW!!!!

The gunmen with the bazooka were hit.

They lost grip of a grenade which teetered over the side, fell, bounced off a flagpole, and landed behind a nest of green-eyed thugs.

Cl-Clank!!

_**BOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

Bodies flew.

The Lieutenant winced…reloaded…

And the firefight in front of the hospital went on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Danny?? Danny…wh-where are you going??"

The man stripped to his white tank top and gathered some rope from the pawn shop's stockroom. "The Fillmores are in deep…deep trouble. They're going to burn to death up there. You know how th-they don't have a back door and stuff!!! Bloody fools…"

"Speaking of bloody fools…the last thing we need right now is a crazy hero!!" the wife pleaded.

"Renee….," Daniel placed his hands on her shoulders. "You know as much as I do that I gotta do this if I can….It's the _Fillmores_……"

"…..," the woman shuddered. She fell into his arms.

He hugged her.

The two rocked together in the dark stockroom while distant sounds of gunshots and explosions lit the air.

The two customers holed out with them gazed at the floor.

"Honey….wh-why did this all have to f-follow us…," Renee shuddered into her husband's shoulder. "Wh-Why couldn't it all stay back in Gotham??"

Daniel stroked her hair and sighed. "To those who are given….m-much is required."

"………..wow….that actually sounded intelligent."

He smiled down at her. "Kinda makes me want to try college out again…..this time _not_ as an art major."

She simpered, a tear running down her cheek.

He lowered his lips to hers and practically breathed into her as he gently stroked her womb. "But I can think of far better things to live for…."

She sniffed.

He kissed her. He stepped back. "I gotta climb to the roof…and see if there's a way of getting the Fillmores out from their upper story."

"Sound dangerous…."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock."

The one customer smiled. He stood up. "I'll go with you."

"You sure, pal?"

"Yeah. You're gonna need help. Especially with a whole family."

"Or what's left of them…," the other customer muttered.

Renee bit her lip.

Daniel took a deep breath. "Let's roll."

The man nodded.

The two rushed to the back door where an alleyway rested. They took a breath. They rushed out.

Renee stepped forward, panting. "D-Danny…."

He looked in at her. He smiled his goofy grin. "You be careful…," he winked. And he was gone.

Renee wrung her hands…shuddering. "Y-You too…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sounds of the battle-strewn City echoed down the alleyway and dripped over the two men's shoulder.

Daniel led the way, climbing up the rusted metal ladder behind the two-story line of shops.

The once-customer followed swiftly after him.

Smoke billowed out of the space just next to them.

A stream of blackness started to fill the once-pure-blue sky from many spots throughout the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THRUMP!!!!

"_**NNNRGH!!"**_

Howard Knight—possessed—slammed the bloody bat against the bathroom door again.

THRUMP!!!

And again.

THRUMP!!!

And again.

His wife lay dead in her own pool of red behind him.

THRUMP!!!!

The door rattled more.

The hinges started to give way.

"_**REDDDDDD!!!!"**_

SWOOOOSH-THRUMP!!

CRAAA-AA-AACK!!!

The door shattered into splinters.

He dove in.

Panting.

Slobbering.

Green eyes twitching.

The bathroom was empty….

He panted.

He sweated.

He swung the bat into the tile and shattered it, screaming.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_REDDDDDD!!!!"_

Outside the bathroom window, Lisa panted.

She swallowed and looked down the fire escape at Ashley and Greg. "Don't listen to his voice anymore. Your dad's sick. We gotta move…so move!!!"

"B-But---"

"Do as I tell you! Run down! Run down as fast as you both can!! I-I'll get you somewhere safe!! I promise!!"

The two children nodded. Hiding back sobs, they clamored down the rusted fire escape.

Lisa followed them, her black hair streaming in the autumn wind.

The sounds of explosions and gunfights dwindled in the background…and lessened as something else swallowed it up.

Something monumentously louder.

"……," Lisa slowed to a stop.

The kids did too.

Slowly, the girl gazed up. Her one, unpatched eye blinking.

A loud, beating sound seemed to fill the air.

Like a giant dagger spinning through the atmosphere.

"Now what the Hell could that be??" the teenage brunette muttered.

Ashley and Greg swallowed lumps down their little throats.

-T-T-T-T-T-T

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!!

Robin tossed birdarang after birdarang at the wrists of faraway gunmen across the streets.

He led Raven and a hobbling Starfire down the sidewalk and away from the smoldering decimation as much as he could.

Starfire's strength was slowly regaining…but not quickly enough. Her shoulder was still patched up, and she was leaning on Raven's petite shoulder.

Raven was the first to stop and tilt her head up, eyebrow raised.

Starfire noticed it second…panting.

Robin was sweating all over…but in the middle of downing distant gunmen, he too tilted his head up and listened.

A loud…..

_Beating_ sound.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The gunfight was drawing to a close.

Dozens of green-eyed thugs lay wounded and wheezing.

A dozen more cops were writhing on the ground, being attended to.

The Lieutenant panted and glanced aside as two ambulances sped over from the hospital and swerved to a stop.

The back doors spun open and two cops popped out amidst paramedics.

"I hope we came just in time!! Pile them in!!!"

The Lieutenant nodded. He started shouting and motioning people to help the wounded into the vehicles.

And then….

The beating sound.

Those with guns looked up, panting.

Out of breath, the Lieutenant spun around.

His eyes wearily floated up to the sky.

The beating sound increased.

Swishing.

Thundering.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH-SLASH!!!

I howled mutely as I blurred across the sidewalk and ripped a thug's shotgun to shreds.

He shrieked.

I kicked him fiercely so that he collapsed into another thug.

Two more lay unconscious by their side.

Beast Boy ran over in bear form from having escorted two dozen citizens safely under the awning of a building. He walked up to me as an elf and managed a crooked grin. "Well……m-maybe we have a hold over this Hell after all!!"

"………….," I was staring up at the sky as a loud beating sound emanated through the streets around us.

"…………," Beast Boy blinked. He swiveled and faced the same noise. "Or not."

The beating sound increased.

Deafening.

It carried with it an intense, unnatural wind that heatedly chased the Autumn away.

Over the nearest row of rooftops, the spinning blades appeared first.

Then the nose.

Then the body.

Huge and hulking.

Armed to the teeth with 12.7mm Barrel Machine guns, twin barreled cannons, rocket pods, hellseekers, and a hidden payload.

A glaring and desert-colored Mi-24 HIND helicopter. Over twenty meters in length.

There was no insignia on the hull….but judging by the dark figures in the double cockpits and the even darker beat of the blades….I knew…

_It had 'Dagger' written all over it._

I swallowed.

I gripped tightly to the hilt of Myrkblade.

Beast Boy muttered: "Dude….no way…."

I exhaled shudderingly.

_Yes way……_

The thundering HIND pivoted towards us…tilted forward…and….

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!**_


	170. Hand and Dagger part 7

**170. Hand and Dagger part 7**

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

The HIND helicopter's massive machine guns blasted potholes down the street towards Beast Boy and I.

The green elf cried out.

"!!!!!" I yanked him by the arm, spun, and flung him off towards the side of the street.

The Changeling tumbled to an awkward stop besides a line of cowering citizens under an awning. They steadied him while the elf looked at me in concern.

I came at the end of my spin, faced the combat chopper, and raised Myrkblade up vertically with gritting teeth.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!! The bullets splashed horrendously up the street and exploded on me.

_CL-CLANG!!!!_

Just deflecting one massive bullet was enough to send me flying back twenty feet, trailing smoke.

WHUMP!!!

I rolled on the rubble-strewn street, wincing.

The air was beating.

The rotating blades of the helicopter barely squeezing between the lateral buildingsides as it thundered towards me down the street.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

I desperately hopped to my feet and streaked a blurred path northward and away from the homicidal aircraft.

The blades beat the air after me.

The HIND helicopter remained tilted forward.

The machine guns tilted to aim at me.

I held my breath, blurred right, and streaked up a buildingside. I ran vertically.

The guns pivoted.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Gaping holes in the brick and mortar facings of the buildings exploded into being behind my heels. Windows shattered. Shop fronts crumbled. A few entire establishments crumbled to the ground from the sheer force of the bullets' caliber searing through the steel support beams.

My vertical streaking slowed.

The helicopter came closer.

The blades beat and beat at my heels.

I felt the friction of spinning blades turn the autumn air into hot steam.

I grit my teeth and blurred up the wall.

I lost more momentum. I was about to lose my murking grip to the buildingfaces…

But then my legs sprang off the surfaces with a pulse of smoke.

I flipped sideways over the street, barely over the passing HIND helicopter, and onto the rooftops to the far left.

I knelt on the gravel of the building top.

Panting.

Roaring, the helicopter spun around in a sharp arc and came back at me from the north side.

I shuddered.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Holes punched through the rooftops in a steady line, some eating into the top floors beneath.

I spun around and ran.

The helicopter lifted up.

"???" I glanced over my shoulders.

Two hellseeker missiles flared.

I gritted my teeth.

_Shit……_

I blurred my feet even faster.

I streaked over the buildingtops, hopping across entire avenues and streets.

_SHOOOOOOOM!!!!! _

_SHOOOOOM!!!_

Two missiles flew at me.

I held my breath and leapt over a wide alleyway between apartment complexes….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look!!" Ashley pointed up.

Greg and Lisa glanced towards the sky. They were on the seventh floor in descending down the rusted fire escape.

A shadow figure streaked overhead, as seen through the many layering cross-hatches of metal steps.

And then--

_SHOOOOOOOOOM!!!! _

Two missiles trailed after his figure.

One skirted over the rooftop.

The other however---

_**BOOOOOOM!!!!**_

The hellseeker exploded with a brilliant fireball on the first floor.

Thunder and ash snowed hotly down the alleyway.

The entire fire escape shook from the top down.

Lisa, Greg, and Ashley caught hold of the railings…wincing….shuddering from the vibrations.

CR-CRACK!!! The topmost level of the fire escape steps broke free from the apartment building's brick foundation.

Lisa gasped.

CHTUNK!!! CRKKKK!!!

The fire escape broke loose completely. A bundle of metal steps and railing collapsed downward.

THWACK!!!!

It flattened itself onto the second to the top row of stairs.

CRACK!!!!

That tier broke two.

The two sets of stairs stacked into a clump of twisted iron works and fell straight down through the next step.

CRUNCH!!!!!

And then the next.

RATTLE!!!!

Ashley shrieked in horror and Greg gasped.

Lisa's one eye widened at the pancake effect rumbling down towards them.

Ten stories….nine stories…..

"M-Mommy!!" Ashley helplessly shrieked.

Both kids clung to Lisa.

CR-CRUNCH!!!

Eight stories…

Lisa hugged the two to her sides and crouched instinctively with them, wincing.

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!!!!

"…………..," Lisa blinked. Her eyes remained open. She looked up, panting.

Miraculously…the bundle of twisted steps stopped collapsing and rested against the weight of the metal framework just over their heads.

But not for long…

_GROANNNNNNN!!!_

Lisa exhaled. "Go…GO!!!!"

The three scrambled down the wobbling fire escape.

They shimmied down the sixth floor…

_CRKKKK!!!_

The metal harnesses of the stairs pulled and cracked at the brick wall.

The fifth floor….

Dust and metal flakes rained down on their heads through the steps.

The weight of mangled steel above began to bend harder and deeper into the rusted webbing holding the wreckage in place.

The fourth floor….

_GROANNNNNN!!!! _

_CRACK!!! CRACK!!_

A few railings snapped free.

Nuts and bolts splattered downward.

Lisa panted.

The kids scrambled and scrambled to descend—

_CRUNCH!!!!!_

A shockwave flew down the groaning fire escape along the buildingside.

"Aaack!!" Greg cried as he was flung against a railing. He began to dangerously teeter over. "…….!!!!!"

"Nnngh!!!" Lisa jabbed her hand out and grabbed him by the wrist.

_GROANNNNN!!!!_

The fire escape shook and wobbled precariously.

The metal framework started to grow tight and looked ready to snap like a toothpick any minute.

"We'll….W-We'll never make it!!" Ashley stammered.

Lisa looked around, panting.

She caught sight of an old clothesline of bungee cord hanging between the two sides of the alley.

"Here!!!" Lisa pulled Greg's hands up and forced his fingers to close around the line. "Grab on!! Climb onto the window sill on the other side!!"

"Are you n-nuts?!?!" Greg shrieked.

"I'm making this crap up as I go!!!" Lisa barked. "Now unless you want to become a rusted sandwich….CLIMB!!!!"

He nodded, panting, and inched his way out on the clothesline.

Lisa hoisted Ashley next.

The girl clenched her eyes shut, refused to look down, and started to shimmy her way across the alley.

_GROANNN!!!_

Lisa nimbly perched on the rusted railing—nearly slipped—but regained her balance in time to leap out and grab onto the cord. Her weight—added to the two Knight children—caused the bungie to bow towards the rock-solid alleyway ground three stories below.

"Oh jeez….Oh jeez….Oh jeez Oh Jeez Oh Jeez Oh Jeez!!!" Greg hissed, his eyes clenched shut.

"Keep moving, Greg!!!" Lisa panted, struggling to remain hanging herself as she inched across the bungee after the two kids. They dangled in the middle of the naked alleyway. "Just a little more and we can enter the building across the way—"

_CRACK!!!!!!!_

The railings and steps five stories up gave way.

SWOOOOSH—CRACK!!!!

The bundle of mangled metal sailed down through the seventh level.

CRACK!!!!

The sixth.

CRAA-AAACK!!!

The fifth and fourth.

Ashley shrieked.

Lisa tightened her grip on the cord.

"H-Hold on!!!"

SWOOOOOOOOSH-CRUNNNCH!!!

The groaning metal mash sailed dustily down past them.

A wind kicked up from the plummeting body, causing the three to wobble and shake on the cord.

CRAAAAASH!!!!

A tall tower of crunched metal collected nightmarishly on the bottom of the alleyway, still standing like some orcish tower.

Shards and shrapnel of rust flickered outward and upward.

And one sailed through the harness to the clothesline on the side of Lisa's apartment building.

SNAP!!!!!

"AAAAAAAAAIIIEEEE!!!!"

The two children shrieked but clung on for dear life as the cord gave way.

The three swung down a story and a half before slamming into the wall on the other side.

"Oof!!!" Lisa fell from the impact.

She landed in a squat and then collapsed on her butt.

Wincing, she managed to stand up and shout: "Ashley!! Jump!!"

"I…I…."

"I'll catch you!!!" Lisa shouted.

The girl took a deep breath and leapt down from a story and a half up.

Lisa braced herself, teeth gritting.

WH-WHUMP!!!

She caught Ashley.

She panted.

She lowered the girl.

"H-Help me!!" Greg cried, dangling high above.

"You next, Greg!!"

He gave some slack to the clothesline, panted, and leapt down.

Lisa readied herself to catch him….but not necessarily his greater weight.

THWAP!!!

"Ugh!!" Lisa collapsed across the alleyway.

"Ooof!!" Greg landed, sprawled over her.

Both were too busy to notice what Ashley noticed.

"AAAAAAAH!!" the girl shrieked and pointed upwards.

Lisa and Greg glanced up.

_GROAAAAAN!!!_

The tower of collapsed fire escapes shook, teetered, and began to fall _over_ them.

"Ah Jehosophat….," Lisa grunted.

"Look out!!!" Ashley pounced on the two and hid her shivering head in Lisa's chest.

Greg hugged the other two and screamed.

Lisa struggled to get up and drag them all to safety. She fought and struggled under the panicking children.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

The tower of twisted metal fell on them.

Lisa could do nothing but wince and expect the worst---

_**CRAAAAAASH!!!!**_

"………."

Lisa panted.

Miraculously, the three of them fit in a curved alcove of metal—like a hole—that fit around their sprawled bodies.

The metal groaned for one last time.

The dust settled.

And it was silent, save for the distant splashes of gunfire, explosions, and chopper blades.

Lisa fainted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**RED!!!!!!"**_

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

Tempest shoved the front line of citizens away behind him and ducked the shotgun blasts.

The three-green eyed gunmen ran across the Network Control chamber and pumped their weapons.

Tempest gritted his teeth and dove at the first of them.

He aimed at the Atlantean in mid-air.

BL-BLAM!!! The shotgun blasted.

Tempest arched over the shot, plowed into the man's body, slammed him into a desk, and vaulted off him.

"_**R-RED!!!"**_ the other two spun, aimed their shotguns, and--

BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!!!

Tempest rolled behind a desk that absorbed the shot. He dove out and rolled past another blast.

As the two pumped their weapons, the Atlantean braced his nimble legs against a wall and kicked off.

SWOOOSH!!!

He leapt at them like a sailfish.

One ducked.

The other swung the butt of his shotgun.

WHAM!!!

Tempest was knocked back. He rolled backwards and landed with his back against a solid wall in the blood-stained office.

He winced.

A shotgun pumped.

A citizen from the passageway yelled: "M-Mr. Titan!! Look out!!"

Tempest's white on black eyes opened wide. He ducked his head--

BL-BLAM!!!!!

A spray of hot lead slammed into the wall above his dark head.

Tempest panted as all three thugs stomped towards him now.

He glanced to the corner of the room.

His lungs gasped and his gills flared.

A water cooler…..

With a flare of purple eyes, Tempest shot his left arm out and flicked his wrist—

_Rattle!!! THWOOOSH!!!_

The blue, plastic bottle heavy-full of water soared off the appliance and slammed into the back of one of the men's skulls.

WHAM!!!!!

The other two recoiled and ducked.

Tempest jumped up to his feet, spun, and flicked his wrist again in a jabbing motion.

THWOOOOOOSH!!!!

The dribbling bottle arched around the room, levitated…and shook.

The two men pumped their shotguns and aimed at the Atlantean.

Tempest gritted his teeth and pulled back with his hands…glowing purple.

THWOOOOOOOSH!!!

The bottle soared across the room and slammed its watery weight into the back of both thugs.

Tempest flipped between them, spun acrobatically, and pumped his arm again.

THWOOOSH!!! The bottle soared back like on an invisible yo-yo string and plowed through the two thugs' bodies again.

One fell for the count. The other shrieked and fired blindly

BL-BLAM!!!

Tempest twirled to the side, arched his shoulders, levitated the bottle over, rolled it over his arms like a giant baseball, perched it on his wrist, and shot it forward with a jerk.

THWOOSH!!!

But most of the water had dribbled out, and the effect now was like a wiffle bat slapping the thug coyly in the face.

The green-eyed man grunted and batted the bottle back with the but of his shotgun. THWAP!!!

Tempest parted his arms and stopped the bottle in front of him.

The man popped his shotgun and--

BLAM!!!!!

Tempest gasped and tilted back--

_POW!!!!_

The bottle exploded from the lead spray. Hot shot, flying water, and shredded plastic flowered above Tempest's chin.

He tilted back, tensed his muscles, and stretched himself back up again—

"_**REDDDDD!!!"**_ The last gunman tackled him.

WHUMP!!!

"!!!!" Tempest gritted his teeth and wrestled with the man.

The Titan and the Dragonflare spawn fought for control of the weapon.

The cowering citizens and escapees in the passageway trembled, watching anxiously.

Lindsay bit her lip and clenched her fist…mentally rooting Tempest on.

WHAM!!!

The thug pressed Tempest up against a bloody desk. He pressed the weight of their bodies and the shotgun down onto the struggling Atlantean.

Tempest kicked and thrashed back, convulsing with strained muscles all over.

"_**Nnnghr….RED!!!!**_" the man's eyes flared a hot green as he sweated and panted over his foe. _**"REDDDDD!!!"**_

Tempest glared a demonic purple and hissed through clenched teeth. "I'll give you 'red'….."

THWUMP!!

The Atlantean forced the shotgun up against the man's chin…

He squirmed a free finger up around the trigger—

**BLAM!!!!!**

The thug's head exploded. Crimson brain matter littered the ceiling and wall.

The citizens gasped.

"Nnngh!!" Tempest shoved the body off him.

THWUMP!!! The thug's corpse littered the floor beside his two unconscious allies.

Tempest spat on it and wiped his brow, panting.

"………"

Lindsay and the others slowly crept out, eyeing the dead body.

"……….," Tempest heaved. He looked at the others. He shuddered: "Sorry…I did…..I d-did what I had to do…."

Antoine nodded shakily. "N-No problem….," he blinked up at the Titan in earnest. "C-Could you do what you have to do a little more??"

"…….," Tempest raised an eyebrow.

"Which one of th-these damned passageways gets us up to the hospital already?!?!" A man in the underground crowd panickedly uttered, staring at the electronic subway grid.

"I-I know!!" a young person pointed. "We should head Northwest!! Follow me!!"

"Nuh uh!!" Tempest marched over. "Follow **me**!!" He strongly gripped the shoulder of the volunteer and pushed him behind. "You….._point_."

The man nodded and stuttered: "Y-Y-Yes sir, M-Mister Titan…"

"……," Tempest glanced aside.

Lindsay was staring at him.

"What??"

"N-Nothing…," she breathed.

He blinked. He marched towards the door and kicked it down. THWUMP!!! "Allright, surface dwellers. Let's move."

Antoine and Jack carried a hobbling Bonnie.

The others followed in single file.

Lindsay took a deep breath and walked loosely behind. Her freckled cheeks were rosy for some reason.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!_

The T-Car swerved around a bend in the ruined streets.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!_

As it rocketed down a straightaway, the lone black jeep swerved around the corner as well and chased tightly after the android Titan's Baby. The gunman on the back let loose without remorse:

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!

P-P-PING!!!

Bullets splashed around the rear of the vehicle.

"Come on….," Cyborg gritted his teeth while steering hard.

SCREEEEECH-SCREEECH!!!

The T-Car swerved in and around debris.

The jeep followed every move precisely, gaining proximity.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

"Could really use your black magic right now, Rae….," Cyborg muttered.

He steered with one hand and stuck his left out the window as a sonic cannon. Kl-Kl-Klak!!! He aimed straight down at the blurring pavement and fired.

_ZAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAP!!!!_

Two ridges were made as the asphalt split from his sonic punishment.

The jeep merely swerved around the obstruction.

"Nnnnnngh….," Cyborg unleashed another downward blast.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!_

More ridges.

The jeep ramped over it, actually gained more speed, and fired much closer than before:

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-P-PING!-**POP!!!**

Cyborg's left rear tire blew out.

"Criminy!! Son of a—" he steered fiercely to maintain steady direction down the road.

ThrumpThrumpThrumpThrumpThrump! The whole left side of the vehicle bounced and lurched.

The T-Car slowed.

The black jeep drew closer.

One gunman reloaded the main weapon while another prepared a handful of grenades.

Cyborg flew his free hand over to a console, popped open a compartment, and pressed a yellow button.

PIFFFT!!!! The left rear tire was ejected entiredly. SWISH-CLANK!!! _SCRAAAAAAAAAPE!!!!_ Sparks flew as the rear of the T-Car ran on the bear metal of the left wheel's rim.

Cyborg flipped a switch. He pressed the yellow button again.

Beep-Beep-Beep-PHWOOMP!! A replacement tire exploded outward around the rim.

The T-Car evened out, regained traction, and steadied itself along the road.

"Boo-ya!!!" Cyborg slammed on the gas.

_VRRMMMMMM!!!!_

The T-Car rocketed forward.

The jeep—still close—swerved to the right and gave one of the gunmen clearance to toss two grenades. SWOOOSH!! SWOOOSH!!!

"NNNNGH!!" Cyborg swung hard to the left.

_SCREEEEEECH!!_

The T-Car burned down a branching street past building front in time to skirt past and around the bouncing grenades.

Cl-Clank!!

**BOOOOOOM!!!**

A fireball rose.

The black jeep swerved, plowed through half of the flames, and soared after the T-Car.

The rear gunman cocked the mounted weapon and fired more volleys: RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMM!!!!_

Beyond the smoky veil of a burning building, the T-Car and the black jeep rocketed down the street.

But Daniel and the assisting citizen weren't paying attention.

They crept their way from the rooftop of the pawn shop to the two-story complex next door.

The Fillmores' house and shop. And it was burning from the bottom up.

"Any chance they could all have been upstairs when the grenade hit?!?!" the man asked above the ambient noise of a City under fire. "They are your neighbors, after all!!"

"Let's just hope most of them are still alive to share fruitcake packages with…," Daniel panted. He approached the smoke-layered front of the building. He took his bundle of rope and started fastening it tightly to a t.v. antenna. "Here…help me tie this!!"

"S-Sure thing!!"

The two men worked on tying the rope to the antenna with combined years of boy scouting knowledge. Once the cord was bundled tight, Daniel wrapped the end of it a few times around his arm and backed up towards the foggy building front.

"I'm going in!!"

"Don't you mean going down?"

"Are you here to help me or what??"

"My bad."

"I'm gonna need you to help pull me and whoever up….got it??" Daniel pointed.

The man nodded.

Daniel took a deep breath and started to backstep over the edge. "Here's where watching Macguyver comes in handy…."

He pressed his feet into the front of the building.

"Give me some slack!!" Daniel shouted above the crackling blaze beneath him. "Slowly!!"

"I got you!!" the man gradually shimmied the cord down, fastened ultimately to the weight of the t.v. antenna behind him.

"……," Daniel breathed firmly as he kicked his way down foot by foot towards the wide window. "Don't look down, Danny. Don't look down. Don't look down. Don't look down."

A beat.

The man glanced over his shoulder….and looked down.

Hungy blazes billowed out of the bottom floor with tongues of ash leaping up at his rear.

"Damn you, Danny….," the young man hissed. He exhaled shudderingly, and kicked his way down more.

Slack was given.

The rope pulled taut from the antenna.

Daniel reached the windows. He 'stood' on them, gripping tightly to the rope. He coughed from the fumes of smoke rising up against him. He lifted his foot and clapped the shoe into the window pane.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

"Hello?!?!"

Fire rumbled.

Smoke laughed.

Clank! Clank! Clank!!

"H-Hello!!! Mister Fillmore?? Mrs. Fillmore?? Cherish?!?! Beatrice?!?!"

He saw movement from the inside. Foggy. Distorted.

He panted. "Hello?!?! Can you hear me?!?! Open the window!! I've come to get you out of there!!!"

More movement panicked faces.

"The place is burning down!! Hurry!! Open the window!!"

He finally saw a figure through the glass. She yanked and pulled at the window dramatically before performing a 'shrugging' expression.

Daniel blinked, panting.

_The window was stuck……_

"Okay!! I got this!!" Daniel uttered. "Stand back!!!"

The figures disappeared from clarity.

Daniel tilted his head up. "Yo!! Hang tight to the cord!! I gotta smash the window open!!"

From above: "I…..gotcha……nngh…."

"Okay…here goes….," Daniel clenched his teeth. His legs bent once…twice….then sprung. "!!!!" holding his breath, he 'leapt' off the building side, dangled above the flickering flames, and rammed the soles of his shoes into the window.

CLANK!!!

The glass merely rattled.

Daniel grunted. "Again!!"

The rope pulled taut from above.

Daniel gasped.

He kicked off…harder this time.

The smoke and ash licked up at him.

He drifted out and back…

THWAP!!!!

He struck the glass harder.

They rattled some more…shaking the frame.

"One more time!! For the money!!!"

"_Anytime, man!!"_

"Nnnnghh!!!" Daniel coiled his legs….and pushed hard.

SWOOOSH!!

He nearly slipped, but regained his swing with a shudder and rammed his legs hard like two battering rams—

_SHATTER!!!!_

The glass splashed and cascaded outwards.

Daniel spun on the cord once, grunted, and braced himself once again against the buildingside. Panting.

Four bodies drifted towards the window amidst a small cloud of smoke. A middle-aged black woman. Two black girls. And a stranger of Chinese descent…most likely a customer who had fled with the family up to the top floor.

"Mrs. Fillmore!!!" Daniel coughed. "We gotta climb!! This place will burn down any minute!!"

"Thank the Lord somebody came…p-please….take Cherish and little Beatrice first….," the mother shuddered.

Daniel panted, his eyes darted around. "Wh-Where's Charles?"

The two girls shuddered. The customer gazed aside. Mrs. Fillmore's face contorted into a poorly repressed sob.

Daniel bit his lip, cleared his throat, and extended a hand: "By all means….Beatrice?? Hop aboard."

She stared at him pensively. "A-Are you a Titan, Mister?"

"Sure…..," Daniel smiled painfully. "I am….for today. Now take my hand!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!! CLANK!!!! Beep-Beep-Beeeeeep-**BOOOM!!!!**

An explosive birdarang caused a buildingface to collapse and block a throng of green-eyed gunmen from rushing upon a sudden throng of fleeing citizens.

CRUMBLE!!!!!

The villains on the other side screamed and scrambled to get through the rubble.

Robin panted, lowering his throwing arm. "That'll hold them off…for now. L-Let's get those people somewhere safe!!"

"Yes…but where??" Raven uttered, holding up Starfire. "We're far away from the Central Bank."

"The Hospital….," Starfire slurred. "Is it nearby??"

"You're doing fine now, Star….," Raven droned. "I treated your shoulder alrea—"

"N-No…for the people!" the alien girl panted.

"Good idea…," Robin nodded. "That hospital has a huge basement level to it. Almost a bunker in its own right."

"Isn't that where they keep the City morgue?" Raven dripped.

"Raven….now's DEFINITELY not the time!!" Robin pointed. He then approached the two dozen panicked citizens and waved his gloved arms. "Everyone!! Follow us!! We're taking you to the hospital!! We'll be safe there!!!"

The people muttered, nodded, and clustered after Robin.

"Now if we can just get through the streets swiftly enough to avoid those creeps with the guns coming back and---," Robin faltered in mid sentence at a loud sensation. A beating sound. "That feeling again…."

Starfire gasped. "It is like…a gigantic Voomblark bird!!"

"You got the gigantic part right," Raven pointed down the street. "Look!!"

Robin's eyemask squinted. "Son of a…."

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred down the street….then caught sight of the huge throng of innocent pedestrians directly in my path. Not to mention Robin, Starfire, and Raven. I gasped—my black eyes widening—and skidded to a murking stop.

Blades rotating monstrously, the HIND helicopter beated to a hover behind me. As if taking notice of a tastier prey, its nose tilted up and the machine gun cannons began to rotate.

Robin gasped and ran towards the pedestrians. "Everyone!!! Cling to the buildingside!! Now--!!!!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

I spun, summoned a huge wave of murk into my upper limbs, and spun Myrkblade like the devil.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!!

_Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!!!!_

I held my own against the huge-ass caliber bullets ricocheting off my blade.

_**CLANG!!! CLANG!!! CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!**_

But not for long.

WHOOSH!!!

I was blown off my heels and back by about thirty feet, landing painfully.

The bullets streamed past me, dividing the street in two like hot butter to melting asphalt.

Raven literally dropped the Tamaranian girl. "Starfire, you're on your own!!!"

WHUMP!! "Ooof!!" Starfire landed on her butt, winced, and stared wide-eyed at the scene.

Raven flexed her fingers in split-second meditation. "Azarath…Metrion…**ZINTHOS!!!"**

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

A translucent, black wall of energy splashed from sidewalk to sidewalk, blanketing Robin and the people as they skirted to the side and safety.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

The HIND soared past, along with its heavy machine gun blasts which pelted the black shield all over, causing the telekinetic surface to warble sharply.

Raven winced….looking as if her head was going to explode.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

The massive helicopter soared down the street and past the shield, but not without dropping a heavy payload directly into the black energy web.

SWIIIISH-_**KABOOM!!!!**_

The shield shattered from the flames and concussion.

A pulse warbled into Raven's forehead.

"NNNGhAAAH!!" she collapsed numbly to the sidewalk. Thwump!!

"R-Raven!!!" Starfire gasped, crawling achingly over to her side.

Robin hurried the shrieking pedestrians away from the flames and under the shadowed lip of the buildingside.

"Noir!!" the Boy Wonder panted. "Now where in the Hell did this thing come from???"

I stood up, wincing. Panting.

_Mother Russia??_

The beating sound lessened and increased as the hulking HIND helicopter spun around and barreled on back through the air. It took aim with its machine guns….towards the opposite side of the street from the pedestrians.

I saw it…I gasped.

Robin did too. "Starfire!!! Move!!! Get yourself and Raven out of there!!!!"

The alien girl looked up. She shrieked.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Brick and cement exploded outward from the building face in a straight line towards her and the dark girl.

Raven groaned, near-unconscious.

This time, Starfire hoisted _her_ over her shoulder. She winced…summoned up her reserve Tamaranian strength…and flew down the sidewalk in a green beam. SWOOOOOOSH!!!

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Building faces, storefronts, glass displays, and concrete exploded and puffed out behind the weakly flying alien in a steady string.

**CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK!!!**

"STAR!!!!!!" Robin shouted.

I gritted my teeth.

The helicopter loomed overhead.

I twirled Myrkblade, pulsed smoke into my limbs, and ran towards the buildingsides on the right.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred up the buildingside, coiled my legs, and vaulted.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

I twirled over and up in the air.

The helicopoter soared beneath me.

I flipped and dove downward, legs first.

The blades beat hotly beneath my heels.

At the last second, I stuck my body straight and teleported---_**SWOOOSH---**_through the blades and landed perched on the bottom of the two cockpits.

The pilots inside gasped.

I gritted my teeth, yanked Myrkblade back, and stabbed down point blanc against the glass bubble of the pilot's compartment.

CLANK!!!

Again.

CLANK!!!

Again.

CL-CLANK!!!

Sparks flew.

The machine gun stopped firing.

The HIND pulled up some as I mercilessly stabbed and stabbed.

Starfire pulled herself and Raven around a buildingside, panting.

Robin ran forward and whipped out a grappling hook. "Star!! Raven!! Get them to the hospital!!!"

POW!!! The grappling hook shot up.

Starfire gulped, caught her breath, and shouted: "R-Robin!!!"

C-CLANK!!!

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

Robin caught the helicopter by its undercarriage and his petite body was yanked up, up, and away by the cord.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Lieutenant!!!" Vann walked up as the ambulances roared back towards the hospital. "Look!!!"

The Lieutenant and a few other officers spun around.

Their eyes widened.

A beating noise.

A roaring noise.

A soaring noise.

_SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!_

The HIND helicopter soared overhead.

There was a dark-haired ninja clinging to and stabbing the cockpit domes of the aircraft's front.

A caped crusader was dangling by the helicopter's fuselage.

"Jiminy Cricket….," the Lieutenant uttered with a helpless smile. He and the others turned as the fiendish craft soared beyond the rooftops. "…they're alive."

"The Titans???"

The Lieutenant nodded.

"But for how long??"

"Good point….," the Lieutenant spun and pointed. "Tell the other two companies to escort the ambulance to the Hospital. You and the other boys are coming with me."

"Where are we going, sir?!?!" Abbey cried out.

"To nab us a Bird!!!" the Lieutenant said. "But we gotta make a hunting stop first!!!" He marched across the street.

The other policemen followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh!!!" Robin struggled to keep his grip as the helicopter sped up to one hundred and sixty miles per hour.

The cord dangled tautly from the bottom hull of the craft.

Robin couldn't seem to retract it enough and get closer to it.

He yanked one hand free, panted as he dangled in the cold air above dozens of blurring buildingtops, and reached into his utility belt for a remote.

His cape blew in the wind and his fingers were numb.

But he managed to get a gloved finger over a single red button on the remote….and click it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down besides the wrecked Police Department…..

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Beast Boy vaulted over a pile of rubble in the form of a green gazelle. He avoided spray after spray of heavy bullets splashing around him.

P-PING!!

PING!! PING!!!

CLANK!!!

"_**REDDDDD!!!!" **_

"_**RED!!!!"**_

Half a dozen men ran after the green animal. But just as they were about to jump or climb over the rubble in the middle of the street----a light shone out from beneath the dust.

The thugs in workers clothes glanced down, sweating. Grunting in confusion---

_SMASH!!!!!!_

The R-Cycle sprang out from the exploding rubble. It roared to life by remote and soared down the road.

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!! _

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

A few thugs were plowed aside…knocked unconscious.

The bike screamed northward….following a distant speck of rotary blades in the smoke-trailed, autumn air.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted and stabbed.

CL-CLANK!!!

And stabbed.

CL-CLANK!!!

And stabbed.

CRACK!!

The pilot inside the lower cockpit bubble gritted his teeth and fidgeted with controls.

My black eyes narrowed as I rested a moment to glare inside.

I raised an eyebrow.

_He doesn't seem to have the Dragonflare touch._

_Is he just one of Dagger's----_

WHURRRR-CHTING!!!

A machine gun barrel extended from the cockpit and aimed square at my chest.

"!!!!!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

I gritted my teeth, pulsed my limbs with murk, and swung up and out of the range of fire of the lower cockpit.

My metal hand gripped desperately to the slippery edge of the top 'bubble' for dear life.

For an updraft had caught my swinging body and was lifting my legs up…up….up towards the bottom edge of the huge, beating blades.

**SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISHHHH!!**

I gritted my teeth, snarled mutely, and literally 'pulled' myself down so that I lay flat against the top cockpit.

The pilot inside that tilted his head up at me, gasping.

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!!!!

I stabbed Myrkblade down into the glass. Cracking it. Forming spiderwebs.

I concentrated more and more murk. Into my blade, causing the cracks in the pilot's bubble to spread…

The upper pilot signaled towards the lower pilot.

A nod.

A shout.

Both jerked on their controls at once.

FWOOOOOSH!!!!

"!!!!!" I clung onto the 'bubble' for dear life as the helicopter plummeted down towards the urban sprawl.

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!_

We evened out with a jerk against some buildings, nearly tossing my body up into the humongous blades over my waving hair and bandanna.

Poor Robin was yanked up and to the side via his cord.

"Whoah!!!"

He flew towards a passing skyscraper's side to the right.

He moved his legs, 'ran against the glass windows', and kicked off so that he clung and perched to the right wing of the HIND helicopter.

Both Robin and I clung onto the craft as it veered left and right through and around skyscrapers in a desperate attempt to lose us.

I took every chance I could to stab deeper and harder into the shell of the craft.

Robin was in the middle of preparing an explosive disc to shove into the payload of the right wing.

The lower pilot glanced back through his cockpit's peripheral and saw the Boy Wonder. He shouted to the upper pilot.

The upper pilot flipped a switch.

I heard a rushing noise.

"?????" I glanced at Robin.

A hellseeker missile positioned just behind his head started to flare. It was positioned to directly impale his perched figure.

"!!!!!!" I let out a shrill whistle.

Robin couldn't possibly hear me beneath the blades and rushing air.

So I jabbed Myrkblade into the surface of the huge, beating bird, chipped off a shrapnel piece of paneling, and flung it at the Boy Wonder.

WH-WHAP!!!

"Owie!!!"

He looked at me.

I pointed behind him.

He glanced around, saw the missile shaking right in his head, and immediately dropped the disc he was preparing. "JEEZ!!!"

FWOOOOOOM!!!

The missile unloaded.

And then Robin dropped all grip he had on the HIND helicopter….and plummeted. Like a loose feather from the metal beast's wing.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The missile streaked past my form.

But I looked down past it at the falling Boy Wonder.

_Robin!!!_

I panted.

SWOOOOOOOSH—The Missile flew straight ahead….and slammed into the upper summit of Kobayashi Tower.

**FWOOOOOM!!!!**

The huge satellite dish atop the skyscraper flew apart in an instant. Giant, pale shards flew down at us.

The helicopter's blades beat madly as the whole aircraft veered to the side and barely avoided the flaming debris.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!!

I clung hard to the craft, ashes from the crumbling satellite dish dancing across my figure.

CRUNCH!!!!

The debris slammed into the streets below.

I looked down, panting….seeing what became of Robin.

It was a long fall, and he was still plummeting….that is…until a red streak of a motorcycle ramped up over a pile of rubble and saved him.

I smiled insanely from up high.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"OOF!!!" Robin saddled the R-Cycle.

He fell with the vehicle.

He flung his gloved hands down and gripped the steering mechanisms.

SWOOOOSH—The R-Cycle landed on the street.

CL-CLANK!!!

Robin gritted his teeth, caught his balance, and throttled the cycle ahead.

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!!!_

He zoomed northward in pursuit of the veering HIND….going deeper and deeper into the slums.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!! SW-SW-SWOOOSH!!!

The wind whipped at my hair and body as the helicopter veered left and right some more in an effort to shake me.

I winced. I gave up on the cockpits.

I looked down past my legs.

Beyond my flailing lower limbs was the engine compartment of the helicopter…positioned beneath the giant, rotating blades.

I gripped tightly to Myrkblade.

I clenched my black eyes shut.

I concentrated.

_One…… _

_Two…… _

_Three……_

CRACK!!! I yanked Myrkblade out of the nose of the helicopter.

SWOOSH!!! My body streaked back in an instant.

I twirled Myrkblade up.

CLANK!!! It caught itself, cutting halfway into the right wing of the chopper.

My whole body strained as I struggled to stay gripped to Myrkblade.

My face showed it.

_Nnnnngh!!!!_

I panted.

Once I succeeded in aligning myself with the wing of the aircraft, I gripped onto it with my metal left hand.

CLANK!!!

I took a deep breath.

I pulled Myrkblade out.

I spiraled around on my left limb.

I flailed some more.

I balanced myself with murk.

Another deep breath.

And….

SWOOOSH-_CRACK!!_

I stabbed into the engine compartment.

SWOOSH-_CRAACK!!_

Again.

SWOOSH-CRAACK!!!

Again.

Sparks flew.

Smoke started billowing out.

The blades puttered once or twice.

The HIND chopper started the lower.

The pilots inside shook and panicked.

I hissed through clenched teeth amidst the strained procedure.

_First floor……your asses!!_

SWOOOOSH-CRACK!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin throttled down through the slums. The bazaars. The ghetto half of the Town.

All in pursuit of the HIND helicopter….which was slowly, slowly lowering towards the streets.

And speaking of the streets…they were empty of panicked citizens.

But not empty of—

"_**REDDDD!!!"**_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Green eyed gunmen on the rooftops, fire escapes, and balconies came out of the woodwork and launched an intense barrage of heated lead at the Boy Wonder as he streaked on through. They seemed to be much thicker in number here than anywhere else.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-PING!!! PING!!!

CL-CLACK!!!

Bullets flashed and bounced off the curves of the R-Cycle.

Robin swerved left and right in such a way as to avoid bodily contact with the projectiles.

He panted: "Of all the friggin' times not to have my helmet…."

He gritted his teeth and swerved right to avoid a throng full of gunmen.

_VRMMMMMMM!!!!_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!! P-P-PING!!!

Robin eyed the helicopter with my body attached lowering and lowering. Smoke was billowing out from beneath the blades.

Robin glanced to his right…and saw the elevated train tracks that stretched through the slums running parallel to the lowered trajectory of the helicopter.

Robin looked at the chopper again…then at the train tracks.

"………what the Hell."

_VRMMMMMMM!!!_

He throttled forward veering around and under the overhang of the L-Tracks. He searched with his eyes…searched…searched….and finally found it.

"Aha!"

A truck. Parked to the left of the tracks. Its bed facing away towards him.

"Nnngh!!" Robin performed a wheelie.

_SCREEEEECH!!_

He hit the back of the truck.

CL-CLANK!!!

He ramped up…up…up…

_VRMMMMMM!!!_

And he came down on the L-Train tracks.

CL-CLANK!!! _VRMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!_

He road bumpily over the tracks and picked speed. He could look directly to his left and spot me and the chopper going neck and neck with him. He reached a hand to the communicating device on his R-Cycle.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH-CRACK!!!

I stabbed.

SWOOOOSH-CRACK!!

I stabbed again…and my butt vibrated.

"?!?!?!?!" I glanced at the communicator on my flailing pant leg….then out to my right.

I saw the Boy Wonder one hundred feet away on the R-Cycle. He signaled with one hand for me to drop.

I panted, nodded, and yanked out Myrkblade—CRACK!!!

SWOOOOSH!! I landed, kicked my feet, and ran the length of a rooftop below the helicopter.

I ran to a stop, panting.

Watching the duel ahead.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!!!!_

Robin kept his momentum.

He kept glancing left at the helicopter.

The pilots of the HIND were struggling to recuperate their smoking engine.

Struggling to pull up.

To take the aircraft out of range.

Robin took a deep breath, yanked a free hand into his utility belt, and produced an explosive disc. He tossed it straight out at the helicopter.

SWISSSSSSH-**POW!!!!**

It exploded off the chopper's hull.

The HIND rocked.

Robin breathed.

He whipped out another disc.

He tossed it hard. "Nnngh!!!"

SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH-**POW!!!**

It ricocheted off the hull and exploded not more than ten meters off the tail rotor.

The pilots inside the cockpits rattled.

Robin pulled out an explosive birdarang this time. He held his breath—

_HONK!!! HONK!!!_

"……," he glanced forward.

His eyemask widened.

A train car was barreling straight towards him on the L-Track. The front windows shattered as four green-eyed soldiers peered out, screamed, and fired a heavy volley of shotgun blasts.

BL-BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!

BLAM!!!!

Robin yanked left and right on his R-Cycle in desperate dodging.

_SCREE-EE-EECH!!!_

The train car rocketed towards him.

The HIND started to lift.

"Damn….damn damn damn DAMN!!!" Robin panted. He looked at the explosive birdarang in his wrist…then at the upcoming grill of the train. "Eat this!!!" He tossed it. "Nnngh!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!! CLANK!!! Beep-Beep-Beep-_**BOOOOOM!!!**_

The explosive landed twenty meters in front of the train.

The explosion tore at the tracks, forcing the steel girders to arch upwards.

The train car slammed on its breaks, sending sparks flying amidst a loud whining noise in the air.

Robin braced himself on the bike.

The R-Cycle struck the mangled, raised tracks---

TH-THWUMP!!!

He ramped up.

The Train Car screeched below him.

The R-Cycle somersaulted sideways. Its tires scraped across the top of the train before flipping off with the Boy Wonder in tow.

WH-WHUMP!!!!

The R-Cycle crashed and flipped over.

"Oof!!!" Robin tumbled to a stop across the elevated tracks.

The R-Cycle plummeted to the streets below.

And behind him, the train car plummeted suicidally into the demolished tracks. CRASH!!!!!

The R-Cycle exploded.

_**BOOOM!!!**_

The train car….exploded.

_**POW!!!**_

A fireball to Robin's left.

A fireball to Robin's lower right.

He got up on his knees, wincing.

Then…

A beating sound.

Heated air.

He looked up.

He gasped.

The HIND helicopter had pivoted and was rocketing towards him, purposefully tilted downward, the giant blades carving the air and ready to slide the Boy Wonder to ribbons.


	171. Hand and Dagger part 8

**171. Hand and Dagger part 8**

_**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!**_

The blades of the HIND helicopter danced against the rigid surface of the L-Train tracks, grazing them and causing sparks to fly.

In the cutting path, Robin backed up till he was on the edge.

He teetered helplessly.

The blades tore upon him.

He winced--

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred over the rails in a smoke-trailing arc, plowed into Robin, and shoved the both of us off the edge of the L-Train tracks and onto the solid sidewalk of the streets below.

Somewhat jolted, Robin gasped for breath.

I shook him and pointed down a nearby alleyway.

The HIND helicopter—bloodless—roared on overhead and gained altitude as the engine puttered back to life.

Robin gulped and nodded. "No use standing still."

I nodded with a weak smile.

_Sorry about your bike……_

Nothing was said, so of course the two of us were sprinting down the impoverished street without a moment to lose.

"At least we bought time for Starfire and Raven to get those people to the hospital safely…," Robin said. "Let's hurry back to the Downtown in time to help them in case the damn chopper goes on a second attack!!!"

I nodded.

And then…

Screams.

Shouts.

Gunshots.

We both skidded to a stop and glanced to our left.

Panting.

"Unless of course….," Robin gulped. "We run into another holocaust along the way…."

I shuddered.

"C-Come on!!!" he tugged at my sleeve.

I twirled Myrkblade and blurred after him towards a large apartment complex.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Is this the place, sir??" Johnson breathlessly stammered.

The Lieutenant marched up to a shopfront. A huge gun store. "Yup. Last stop before we go hunting."

"Is someone inside?"

"I dunno…but we're about to find out."

The Lieutenant drifted forward, reaching his hand towards the door--

"_Skriii??" _a green spider monkey lowered down by its tail.

"!!!!!" the Lieutenant jumped back.

His two flanking officers instinctively raised pistols and shotguns.

"_Eeep!!"_ the monkey blinked. It snaked down, morphed into an elf boy, and shrugged: "Yo!! It's me!! Good guy freak. Remember?? Good guy freak!!"

The Lieutenant exhaled: "You should know better than to sneak up on us at a time like this."

"I should know what there is to be **known** to begin with!!" the changeling panted. "The City's being torn to shreds, I've lost my teammates, and what's worse—there's some bigass helicopter diving about overhead and making life hell for my hairdo!!"

"That's what we're here for….," the Lieutenant gestured towards the gun shop.

"………," Beast Boy turned and gazed at the building. "You don't say…."

"Mind if you step back?? We've got to make a business deal—"

The Lieutenant tried to pull open the door.

But it was locked.

"…………"

The other officers shifted nervously.

The Lieutenant bit his lip. "Okay….well…I admit. That was rather desperate."

"………," Beast Boy stared at the storefront. A beat. "……..," he smiled at the officers and pushed them aside with an enlarged forearm of green fur. "I'll show you 'desperation'….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!!

The fist of a huge, emerald gorilla punched the store's doors in.

The Lieutenant and his men walked briskly in.

A stirring sound over the counter.

They swiftly raised their pistols.

A middle-aged, balding man stood up behind the counter, arms raised. "D-Don't hurt me…whoever you are!!" he murmured, standing in the middle of a plethora of guns. "I'm unarmed!!"

"……….," the Lieutenant looked at the racks and racks and displays and displays of guns around the man. "…….." He looked back at the shopkeeper himself. "Y-Yeah…….ahem….s-sorry about the intrusion…a-and the door. I promise…we'll pay for it all in time. But you see, s-sir….we've got an emergency."

The man gulped. "H-How can I help??

A green elf watched curiously from the corner of the store.

The Lieutenant stepped forward: "We need to borrow all the assault rifles you've got…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Everyone….this way!!" Raven exclaimed loudly with a wave of her arm.

She stood at the corner of Main Street and Seventy-Second. Just a few blocks away was the hospital….the goal of the journey. Over two dozen citizens crept hurriedly around the bend and followed Raven's directions, surging forward in single file towards the building in question. A barricade of bullet-riddled ambulances and police squad cars could be seen.

Starfire floated protectively at the rear of the group. Her shoulder was still bandaged and—yes—still throbbing. But her strength was also slowly regaining. She floated higher and higher, and she even had a few starbolts available to dish out on attacking insurgents.

"I hope Noir and Robin are safe….," Starfire wrung her hands.

"Not to mention Beast Boy and Tempest," Raven droned. A beat. "….and Cyborg."

Starfire gulped. "He has been most busily employed in losing enemies with that T-Car of his, has he not?"

"Go figure…," Raven floated along the ranks of shuffling citizens. "…in a perilous time such as this, the last thing he is to part from is his 'baby'."

Starfire gazed at her from the other side of the procession. "Are you not concerned in the least for our friends, Raven? You sound so…so…."

"Numb?" Raven remarked.

"I was venturing to say 'apathetic'."

"Heh….," Raven dryly uttered. "…this is not easy to deal with, Starfire. Make no mistake."

"I am sorry, Raven."

"And don't say you're sorry. Just keep your eyes pealed for--"

Raven suddenly froze.

Nervous, the crowd of people also jerked to a stop as soon as the dark girl Titan did.

Starfire floated still, gesturing: "Raven?? Why have you halted us? We are but a short distance away from our ultimate destination----" She suddenly gasped, amber hands clasped over her lips.

There were two dots of red light dancing across Raven's head of hair.

"R-Raven….do not attempt moving!!" Starfire hissed.

"I know, Star….," Raven whispered. Her fists clenched. Her eyes started to glow a dim…then bright gray. "Now……rush the people behind the semi truck to our right."

"R-Raven???"

"_**NOW!!!!!"**_ Raven shouted and pulsed a dark energy.

The people gasped.

_THIFFT!!! _

_TH-THIFFT!!!_

Streaming bullets sailed down from high above. The sniper rounds slammed into Raven's skull….only to explode upon contact with a black shield of energy emanating from her cranium in reverse.

FLASH!!!!!

"Nnnngh!!!" Raven's entire body shook as she concentrated the black shield out and over her figure.

"Hurry yourselves!!!" Starfire exclaimed, hurriedly ushering the panicked people out of the road and behind a long, abandoned semi truck. "Go for cover!!"

The people shrieked and muttered in fright as they rushed on crouched feet.

_THIFFT!!! _

_THIFFT!!! _

_THIFT!!_

More bullets streamed down.

Raven let out a literal scream and extended her personal shield of energy out over the shoulders of the people, protecting a lucky half of them from bullet strikes.

FL-FLASH!!

FLASH!!!

Starfire escorted the people undamaged to the far side of the semi truck.

Raven however…

"Nnngh…," strained for the second time that day, the dark girl slumped to her knees.

Red dots shined across her blue cloak and body.

Starfire gasped. "R-Raven!!!" She flew out in an instant. SWOOOOOSH!!!!

_THIFFT!!_

A sniper bullet flew down.

On the asphalt, a collapsed Raven spontaneously jerked her upper limbs apart.

_PING!!_

A bullet ripped a hole in her cloak and bounced off the road where it struck under her arm pit.

She panted, violet eyes wide.

SWIIIISH!!! Starfire streaked over, grabbed her shoulders, and dragged her friend swiftly to safety while sniper rounds exploded in a hauntingly quiet manner around them.

_THIFFT!! THIFT!!!_

P-PING!!!!

A few sparks and bits of asphalt flew, but Starfire safely hoisted Raven to safety. The two girls pressed themselves up against the side of the semi truck, wheezing…..panting….

"Well….," Raven swallowed. "….looks like you're doing _LOTS_ better…."

"You must not put yourself in so much needless danger, friend!!" Starfire exclaimed. "I do not want to lose you on a day such as this!!"

"Let me be the judge of what is or what is not needless danger…," Raven droned. She glanced around the edge of the semi truck. "…besides….just because Cyborg isn't here doesn't give you the license to nag."

"How are we to direct the people to the hospital now??" Starfire uttered as sniper bullets fired tauntingly around the scant gaps between the semi truck's structure. "They are on considerably high ground and I do not believe I have gained all of my talents of flight b-back!!"

"It's okay, Star…," Raven looked around the most readily available range of view. "I'll think of something."

"Would your shield be efficient enough to protect us and the citizens en route to the hospital?"

"The shield is always efficient…," Raven said. "It's my mind that isn't."

Starfire blinked. "H-Huh??"

_THIFFT!!_

P-PING!!!

The girls and citizens jolted.

"The distance is too far for me to cover with a shield to protect so many of us over so long a distance…," Raven droned. "The only way to get ahead is to put the snipers behind."

"How are we to accomplish that?"

"………," Raven blinked. "By drawing them out…." And she shuffled towards the edge of the semi-truck.

Starfire gasped. "Raven!! What are you—"

"Keep an eye out…," Raven said. She stood out in the open of the sniper's obvious view to the rear of the truck and floated cross-legged in mid-air. She assumed a levitating lotus position, posed her fingers, and meditated. "When I tell you to look….I want you to spot with those emerald eyes of yours where the bullets are coming from and zap them with your starbolts. Do you understand?"

"I….I-I think so…," Starfire all but bit her lips.

"Trust me….," Raven said with her eyes clenched shut. "I know perfectly what I'm doi—"

_THIFFT!!!_

A bullet streamed down from above.

Raven's forehead tensed.

FLASH!!!

A tiny black shield exploded over her skull and deflected the sniper bullet at the right place and right time within centimeters of accuracy.

Starfire's jaw dropped.

Raven cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and said: "—doing…."

She meditated on her powers. She extended her telepathy. Invisible energy talons rotated and orbited around her as a spatial sense swam through the air and screamed into her brain at the earliest note of a flying bullet or a shifting enemy gunman.

"Azarath….Metrion…Zinthos………..Azarath….Metrion…Zinthos…"

Starfire bit her lip, sweating. She scanned the horizons far above Raven's form. The rooftops. The possible avenues of sniper perches. There were far too many to safely estimate before—

_THIIIFTT!!_

Raven concentrated and--

FLASH!!!

--produced a shield to deflect the bullet.

There was an obsidian splash of black energy arching out, like black fingers groping for the vapor trail of the long-distance bullet. But the splash didn't go far.

And Raven's forehead tensed in frustration at that.

"Raven, what are you attempting to—"

"Shhhh…..," Raven hissed. She took a deep breath and kept floating…chanting. "Azarath….Metrion….Zinthos………..Azarath Metrion Zinthos……."

Silence.

Antsy citizens shook behind the semi truck.

Starfire blinked.

Raven floated. Her lips parted. A gentle breath came through.

_THIFFT!!!_

Raven produced a shield to the right side of her forehead--

FLASH!!!!

The bullet shattered against the shield.

Raven concentrated.

The black energy splashed out, found the trail of the bullet in the air, 'filled' it, and shot upwards in a black string for over two hundred feet till it found a rooftop…..and a dark shadow.

"There, Starfire!!!" Raven hissed. "The gunman's exposed! _Hit him_!!"

"Nnnghh!!" Starfire clenched her teeth and let loose a long-ranged starbolt. FLAAA-AAAA-AAAASH!!!

THWAP!!!!

The man in the distance shouted and flew back a dozen feet from the impact of the starbolt. His sniper rifle melted.

"Now get down!" Raven barked.

"!!!" Starfire planted herself to the sidewalk—

_THIFFFT!!!_ CL-CLANG!! A sniper bullet struck the truck above Starfire.

_THIFFFT!!!!_ Another bullet flew suddenly at Raven.

Raven tensed.

FLASH!!!!

The bullet shattered in a black splash over Raven's chest.

Raven concentrated.

Tendrils of black energy surged along the path of the bullet over to a lofty balcony two blocks down.

"Th-There!!!"

"RAAAUGH!!!" Starfire fired two starbolts from the ground. FL-FLASH!!!!

The two bolts of energy flew across the street, exploded against the balcony, and sent the gunman falling. His body slammed against a flagpole, toppled in mid-air, and landed hard on a balcony below. He wasn't about to pick up a gun again.

Raven took a deep breath.

"We did it!" Starfire beamed. "Glorious---!!"

"Stay down, Starfire."

"B-But…."

"There weren't two gunmen…," Raven uttered. "There're three….."

"………….," Starfire lay silent. Gulping.

"Azarath….Metrion….Zinthos………Azarath….Metrion….Zinthos………….Azarath….Metrion…Zinthos……………"

"…………"

"Azarath….Mertion……Zinthos……….Azarath….Metrion…..Zinthos……"

"………….."

_THIFFT!!!!_

Raven gasped and—FLASH!!!! Shot a shield down to her pelvis.

CRACK!!! The bullet exploded. It had sailed in on an almost perfectly horizontal angle.

Street level.

SWOOOSH!!! The black energy streaked out along the trail of the bullet and splashed against behind a newspaper stand three blocks down.

"Th-There….Starfire…."

Starfire sat up. She gasped.

The gunman was running away from the hiding spot.

The Tamaranian concentrated. Her eyes glowed a hot emerald.

The gunman ran past a truck.

"Nnnnghhh!!!" Starfire clenched her teeth. Two beams of green shot from her eyes. _ZAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAP!!!!!_

The beams streaked over asphalt, past rubble, and slammed into the fuel tank of the truck hundreds of feet away.

_**BOOOOM!!!**_

The man's body flew from the blast, flailed in the air, and landed hard on a pile of rubble. Unconscious.

"Hmmm…..," Raven blinked. "…climactic." THWUMP!!! She collapsed to the floor.

"Raven!!" Starfire rushed over to her side. "Have you been shot?"

"Only with exhaustion…," Raven tiredly curved her lips ever so slightly. "Ugh….that took a lot out of me, Starfire."

"Can we now safely go to the hospital?"

"I'd say yes….but….it's your turn to carry _me_ now…"

"Hehehehe….more than glad to take my turn," Starfire smiled and hoisted Raven up. She shuffled around the semi-truck with the dark girl in tow. "Let us hurry!! The hospital is our destination and the gunmen have been cleared…for now."

The people muttered and anxiously headed off towards the distant building under the two girls' guidance.

Starfire floated herself and Raven alongside them. "We must certainly set out into the City again once these people are safely within the hospital. There are many villains yet to tame."

"Or just obliterate….," Raven droned.

Starfire gasped. "But surely…we must not!! Do you not see? They are citizens under control of Dagger's Dragonflare!! Robin's assessment was most harrowing in underlining that!!"

"Citizens or not….," Raven winced. "…they are hurting other citizens as we speak. We are dealing with two evils and two goods here, and soon the Titans as a whole will have to make a decision."

"………..," Starfire bit her lip.

"Wait for Robin's word…," Raven prophesied. "The extremes have not yet been reached. Wait for his word…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"L-Lisa??"

"Where are we going??"

Lisa held the hands of Ashley and Greg. She led them hurriedly through the rubble-strewn streets of the City as sounds of warfare loomed in the distance. "Somewhere big where a bunch of other people are most likely to be safe."

"What kind of place would that be?"

Lisa shrugged, panting in mid-run. "I dunno. A stadium? The Police Department? A hospital? Right now, I'm betting on the Police Department."

"I hope you're right…."

"You won't leave us, w-will you, Lisa?"

The dark-haired teen smiled. "I promise. I won't…."

Suddenly, Ashley gasped. "L-Look!!"

"!!!!" Lisa forced Greg and Ashley to duck behind a heap of rubble in the middle of the street.

"Wh-What is it??" Greg whispered.

Ashley trembled. "I-I saw something. Like a really huge bomb!!"

"_Bomb??"_

"J-Just over the mound!! I'm not making it up!!"

"……….," Lisa held a finger over her lips. She slowly, quietly…crept over the mound of rubble.

Greg and Ashley quietly crept behind her.

Lisa crept and crept…and peaked over the top hill of rubble.

Her one eye widened.

There were at least a dozen shady men gathered in the space of open street behind the rubble. Their eyes weren't the flaring green, but instead a sane breadbox of colors as they walked around and shouted commands to each other…..gradually tweaking and preparing for launch what looked like a huge tomahawk missile. It rested on a metal contraption that was slowly lifting itself so that the missile aimed towards the sky at a forty-five degree angle. A bundle of wires ran from the launcher to a computer console that a hacker of sorts was swiftly typing at and shouting maintenance orders to others.

"What….the H-Hell……??" Lisa murmured.

"S-See??" Ashley whispered. "I wasn't lying!!"

"Wh-What are they doing??" Greg trembled.

Lisa gulped. "It's definitely not an after-church bake sale, I'll tell you that much."

The children shook in fear.

Lisa looked back at them. She blinked. A beat. "We've got to tell someone about this."

"But wh-who??"

"……..," Lisa grabbed their hands. "The first ones we run into." She grabbed their hands and slid down the rubble. "Come on!!!"

They ran down the street. A shadow crossed their figures, followed by a loud beating sound.

The HIND roared above and past them.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There!! Do you hear it?!?!" Beast Boy pointed as he ran over the rooftops of southern downtown in various animal forms. "It's coming!! From the Northeast!!!"

"Not so fast!! Just tell us where it is!!" the Lieutenant shouted.

"I'm finding you guys the best spot to fire from!!"

"Well, alright then….," the Lieutenant panted. He whistled and motioned behind him.

Eleven other officers ran from buildingtop to buildingtop behind him. Every single one of them—the Lieutenant included—was armed with assault rifles. Machine guns. Uzzis. AK-47s. Two even carried a high caliber anti-aircraft mounted gun.

"Th-There!!!" Beast Boy pointed from where he stood still atop a flat square of rooftop. His green finger highlighted a growing, black speck in the distance….growing larger.

"Okay men!! This is it!!!" the Lieutenant cocked his rifle. "Take positions!!"

Cl-Click!

Cl-Click!

Click!!

The two men in the rear planted the mount and the huge machine gun down onto it and both crouched down behind it. One pivoted the gun to face the distant speck. The other fed the machine gun ribbons of ammo from two crates.

Everyone else stood or knelt with their plethora of machine guns at ready.

Beast Boy took a deep breath and watched from the sidelines.

The HIND grew less and less distant.

The Lieutenant squinted behind his AK-47. "……….wait for it."

The men breathed hard.

Gritting their teeth.

Aiming.

Aiming.

The air began to beat.

The HIND came closer.

"………..wait for it."

The air shook.

The black speck was no longer a speck, but a forward-tilted metal bird with blades shredding the currents above it as it roared around in an arc that took it towards the…..hospital.

The Lieutenant took a breath: "FIRE!!!!"

"Fire!!!"

"Let 'er have it!!"

BLAM!!!

BL-BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

BL-BL-BL-BLAM!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

A dozen hot streaks of bulletfire stormed out thickly towards the hulking craft.

The helicopter seemed to jolt at the sight of it and lurched left.

The cops and their assault weapons shifted to meet it.

The two men swung the mounted gun over and fired like mad, shell casings exploding all around them.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The bullets struck the broadside of the craft as it swung around. A hundred dints were formed instantly. Sparks flew as the bullets bounced off and shoved the aircraft back, almost rotating it against its obstinate rotary blades' force. But the bullets still didn't break through the surface no matter the punishment. The helicopter bravely flew against the flow of weapons and soared overhead.

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!**_

Beast Boy ducked.

"The payload!!!! The payload!!!!" the Lieutenant shouted above the noise as the helicopter swarmed over their shoulders. "Aim for the payload!!!!"

The officers spun around and fired directly up and outward at the close belly of the bird.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

BL-BLAM!!!

B-B-BANG!!!

The bullets fell short as the helicopter soared out of range…..but then turned around.

Beast Boy blinked.

The cops lowered their weapons, their lips parting somewhat.

The HIND was swinging around—metal blades glinting as they spun—and angled itself perfectly with the cops. It tilted its nose down. It accelerated.

And its machine gun cannons began to rotate.

The Lieutenant gulped, but shouted: "FIRE!!!"

"Aaaaah!!!"

BLAM!!! BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

BL-BL-BLAM!!!!

The air beat.

The air heated up.

The HIND flew against the bulletfire, the blades deflecting a good swarm of the shots.

And…

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!**_

The street literally split in two from the tormenting bulletfire as it swarmed down the intersection, exploded two abandoned cars in a row, and surged like meteors into the buildings the cops were one.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!**_

CRUNCH!!!

CRKKKK!!!

SPLASH!!!

"Back!! Back!!" the Lieutenant shouted above the noise.

The cops split left and right.

The two besides the mounted gun practically dove---

_**CRUNCHHHH!!!!**_

The rooftop divided. Gravel and concrete flew. Steel girders were exposed like bone.

The cops gasped and panted….until they realized they could hear their gasps and pants.

The incoming HIND's machine gun fire had stopped. And in its place--

_SWISSSSSSSH!!!! _

_SWOOOOOOOSH!!!_

Two hellseeker missiles soared out from the wings and plummeted directly towards the rooftops the cops were on. One after another.

"Sweet Mary…"

"RUN!!!"

The officers practically dropped their guns and made a run for it.

But the first missile closed in on them—

"**RAAAAAAUGH!!!"** A green T-Rex stomped across the buildingtops, spun, and miraculously batted the missile away with its huge dinosaur tale. WHAP!!!!

The Lieutenant watched, gasping.

The missile spun, spiraled, and landed through an abandoned commercial bus in the street.

_**BOOOM!!!**_

The T-Rex tilted its head up towards the incoming HIND. It roared as if hungry for the metal bird.

The cops watched helplessly. Their heads tilted at the sound of the second incoming missile.

The T-Rex turned its head aside.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

The hellseeker plummeted towards the dinosaur's feet.

Beast Boy snapped his jaws forward.

CLAMP!!!!

He bit onto the side of the hellseeker.

He spun his body.

Growled.

And opened his jaws just in time to toss the drool-drenched missile back at the chopper.

The HIND swerved right.

The hellseeker hit it at an awkward angle.

CL-CLANK!!!

The chopper jolted.

The missile twirled off to the side—_**BOOOOM!!!**_—and exploded in mid-air.

The cops winced and covered themselves from the close ashes.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

The HIND roared overhead once again.

The T-Rex snarled, charged, leapt off the building, morphed into a snake in mid-air, coiled around the right wing of the helicopter, morphed then into a huge gorilla, and started punching, biting, clawing at the metal structure of the aircraft.

WHAM!!

THWAP!!!

CRKKK!!!

The Lieutenant and the others stood up, watching as the HIND—lurching downward from the gorilla's weight—sputtered and hovered off towards the west side of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"GRRRAAAUGH!!" the gorilla slammed with its fists, its feet, and even head-butted the side of the HIND. It tore off a panel or two and tried smashing its fingers into the hollow cavity of the chopper.

The craft veered left and right, trying to shake the changeling.

The gorilla clung on hard and started grabbing cannons, payloads, and other destructive weaponry.

CRUNCH!! CRKKKK!!!

As the chopper flew over the abandoned park of the City, the gorilla grunted and dropped the discarded bombs over the trees and grassy hills and fountains.

**BAM!!!! **

**POW!!!! **

**BOOM!!!**

**BLAM!!!**

The gorilla was about to reach and yank off the machine guns of the craft…when the chopper dipped low over the trees lining the park.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!!!

The gorilla grunted and shook all over as treetop after treetop slammed into his body. Soon he had no choice but to--

"GRRGHHH!!!"

The gorilla fell, snapping off a missile.

CRKKK!!!

FWOOOSH!!!

THWUMP!!!

The changeling landed on the forest floor.

It stood up, roared, beat its chest, and tossed the missile at the escaping chopper.

THWIIIIIISH!!!

The HIND veered left to avoid the explosive.

The missile flew past it and slammed into a park obelisk.

**BOOOOM!!!**

White concrete shattered everywhere across the enflamed environment.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" the changeling morphed down into a green elf that frustratingly pulled at his hair and yelled at the gradually climbing helicopter. "AAAAUGH!!! Why won't you just DIE?!?!?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Daniel shimmied down the front of the building once more.

Cherish and Beatrice Fillmore stood safely on the burning structure's rooftop. The man from the pawn shop and the Chinese woman from the Fillmores' second story were both working together to steady the bound rope as Daniel used it to go back down to the window and attempt his last rescue.

The fire on the first floor had increased, naturally. The smoke was positively blinding. Not to mention paralyzing.

Daniel coughed, his eyes watering. Still, he paced himself down to the window and extended a hand to the last person inside.

Mrs. Fillmore.

"Okay….time to go!!!" he shouted. "Grab my hand!!!"

"I'm….I-I'm too heavy!!" the woman shouted. "It won't be like my children or—"

"A little weight never b-bothered me….," Daniel managed to smirk amidst the noise and smoke. "That's why when Renee said she was ready for a child, I didn't hesitate!!"

"………..," Mrs. Fillmore blinked.

Daniel stretched his hand further. "Are you coming or what?!?!"

She shuddered. She started to climb out the window. "If it means living t-to see your wife's reaction when I tell her she said that….sure!!"

"Sounds like a real party…," Daniel took her hand, steadied himself, pivoted around, and offered her his back. "Climb on!!!"

"I-I'll try…"

"Don't try it. Do it!!!"

Mrs. Fillmore awkwardly wrapped her limbs around his back. The two swung out over the smoke.

The rope lurched.

Daniel wheezed. "J-Jesus!!"

Mrs. Fillmore winced. "T-Told you."

"Never you mind," Daniel wheezed and tilted his head up. "Help us back up!!!"

The rope slowly started to tug upwards.

Daniel strained. He positioned his shoes flat against the wall of the burning building. He slowly…slowly inched them up towards the edge of the building.

Cherish and Beatrice hopped on the rooftop, peering down.

"Come on, Mommy!!!"

"You've almost made it!!"

"Come on!!"

"Hurry!!"

Daniel wheezed and strained. He muttered through clenched teeth: "They aren't making it any easier…ya know…."

"Yeah….," Mrs. Fillmore smiled. "I'm so proud of them."

Daniel panted.

The ledge was within arm's reach.

His feet inched upwards.

"Almost….Th-There….."

Suddenly, the man above the roof gasped from out of view.

The Chinese woman shrieked in a different tongue.

Daniel blinked.

And…

**SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!**

A dented, recovering HIND zoomed overhead and horrendously close to the rooftops.

**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!**

The tail rotor skimmed the rooftop, dug up gravel, and--

**SNAP!!!**

--broke the cord anchoring Daniel and Mrs. Fillmore.

The children shrieked.

Daniel gasped.

The two fell--

SWOOOOSH—CLAMP!!!!

Daniel's left hand gripped the window sill.

"AAAAAH!!!" Mrs. Fillmore fell free—

**GRIP!!!**

Daniel's right hand reached down and grabbed the woman's arm.

She dangled, gasping. Her feet were suspended just above the billowing smoke and leaping ashes of fire.

Daniel strained, his entire body one giant muscle pulling tight to keep himself and the mother above the hell.

The helicopter zoomed off into the distance.

The man and the woman peered over with the children.

"Are you all right?!?!"

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Daniel strained. "What…does….it….look like?!?!"

"Mommy!!!"

"No, Mommy! Don't fall!! DON'T FALL!!!"

"ONE OF YOU!!!" Daniel shouted up. "GET SOME MORE SLACK TO THE ROPE AND TOSS IT DOWN HERE, DAMMIT!!!"

The two adults nodded and rushed out of view atop the roof.

"Nnnnghhhh….," Daniel strained, trying to pull himself up on the window sill more. Failing. Panting.

"J-Just let go, son…."

The man gasped. He looked down.

Mrs. Fillmore's face was solemn. Wet. She shook it. "Just let go….no need for two more lives being lost today."

He panted. His muscles practically ripping.

"Mommmmmy!!!"

"Hang on!! P-Please!! Hang on!!!"

Daniel clenched his teeth.

The smoke and the heat and the noise.

Mrs. Fillmore started to slip.

His limbs shook.

"No….."

Mrs. Fillmore gasped.

He snarled. He reopened his eyes. "What kind of f-father….would I be???"

"………."

His whole body cringed.

"God dammit….," he convulsed. "Mrs. Fillmore….your children will not become…f-friggin' orphans!! RrrrrrRRRGHHHAAAAAH!!!"

His joints snapped. His muscles ripped. He raised his arm for all it was worth and pulled Mrs. Fullmore up till her wrist was in line with the window sill.

"GRAB ON!!!!"

She jerked and clutched to the window sill.

Daniel exhaled and dangled loosely by one hand. He took a breath…then pulled himself up painfully to the windowsill. He stood inside the second story window and reached his good arm down for her.

She took his grip in hers.

He raised her to the windowsill till they stood safely inside.

Smoke billowed.

A new slack of rope dangled down.

"T-There you go!! The last length we can give you!!!" shouted the man from above.

"Now….," Daniel panted, clutching his one aching shoulder. He stared at Mrs. Fillmore. "We do this again….and we do it _successfully……_"

Mrs. Fillmore shook. She looked at his limp arm. She looked at him again.

"Yes sir……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I ran to the side of an apartment complex in the Northeast slums.

We pressed ourselves simultaneously against the shadowed walls.

We inched forward.

We peered around the corner.

My jaw dropped.

Robin gasped.

At least three hundred helpless citizens were being rounded up in the center of the courtyard between six-story apartment complexes.

They were surrounded by green-eyed gunmen.

But they weren't firing upon the helpless population.

Not yet.

In some sort of hypnotized precision, the gunmen shouted and forced the people into a dense, round circle amidst the playgrounds.

Impoverished masses shook and clung to each other.

Then gunmen on the sides…

Gunmen on the roofs…

Gunmen on the balconies…

They all aimed at once.

A three-hundred-and-sixty-degree firing range.

"An execution….," Robin murmured. "A mass genocide. If this isn't a sign of Dagger's work, I don't know what is…."

I shuddered.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He brandished a fan of birdarangs and discs in two hands.

CHIIIIIING!!!

I brandished Myrkblade. I smiled.

He nodded.

We all peered out.

_Three…… _

_Two…… _

_One._

"YAAAAAAAAH!!!" Robin shouted at the top of his lungs.

The people looked over.

So did the gunmen, faltering.

Robin dove out into the courtyard, flipped, and unleashed discs and birdarangs everywhere in his descent.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

THWIIIIIIISH!!!

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

Six gunmen lost their guns in perfect, textbook fashion.

CLANK!!! CLANG!!! WHACK!!!

SWOOOOOOSH!!! Snarling, I blurred out at them and struck them each hard with the blunt side of Myrkblade. THWACK!!! WHAM!!! SLAP!!! I ping-ponged between the different thugs and gunmen, knocking them all down in a ring of precision surrounding the people.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Guns fired from above. Bullets pelted the ground all around Robin.

The Boy Wonder dove forward, spun to his feet, whipped out an explosive birdarang, and launched it up at a balcony full of gunmen.

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH-**BOOM!!!**

The gunmen shrieked and were blown back into the apartment complex that they bordered.

"_**REDDDD!!!!"**_

A line of gunmen marched out of a dark alleyway and aimed guns at the shrieking circle of citizens in the courtyard.

SWOOOOOSH!!! I blurred around them in a curve, raised Myrkblade up, and lopped off the barrels of their guns in precision.

_SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLICE!!!_

The gunmen faltered back, gasping.

"Nnngh!!" Robin tossed a freezing disc at them.

SWOOOOOSH-FLASH!!!!

Their bodies were frozen in a mountain of ice.

Gunmen lining the rooftops cocked their machine guns and fired down.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The people flew to the ground, wincing.

I blurred repeatedly in front of the line of innocent civilians, twirling Myrkblade at the bullets.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

I deflected the bullets back up towards them.

The gunmen flinched and ducked.

Robin fired a grappling hook, lifted himself to a balcony across the way, and tossed three explosive grenades at the feet of the gunmen.

**POW!!! P-POW!!**

Amidst splinters of rooftop tile, the gunmen fell back and landed unconscious.

I resumed blurring across the courtyard, orbiting the innocent people, and thwacking thugs and fiends unconscious.

Robin leapt and jumped from balcony to balcony, karate chopping and kicking thugs to submission.

We were taking out an entire army.

And it was wearing on us.

Because no matter how many we beat up or try to smack unconscious, more would pour out of the woodwork and all try one thing--

To hurt the innocent lives gathered beneath us.

There was no time to usher them to safety. With just two Titans there, there'd be nobody to fight off the Dragonflared creeps if Robin and I poured our energy into relocating the people.

We couldn't call for backup, for the same reason we couldn't waste time trying to move the innocents away.

We could only fight…fight….fight….and even that was difficult as best.

It was heroes versus murderers. Robin and I were merely trying to maim them….while _they_ were trying to slaughter the people.

The Boy Wonder and I gradually lost our breath. Wherever Robin swung, he'd find himself having to swing to an entirely different spot next to stop more thugs. Wherever I blurred, it was a good one hundred and eighty degree turn to pounce upon the next target of necessity.

At some point, I was busy tackling a dozen thugs—striking them down with Myrkblade and lightning fast moves.

And Robin…

He was on another balcony, looking for the next spot to swing to over the shivering masses of helpless people.

And then…a glinting effect in the Sun.

Robin looked up.

A single thug stood atop the rooftop of an apartment building across the way. And he had in his grip a grenade launcher. And he was aiming directly at the thick crowd of people.

Robin gasped. He felt inside his utility belt. He was completely out of explosive birdarants or discs. He only had the regular kind. So…with a snarl…he resorted to whipping out a birdarang and tossed it at the criminal. "Nnngh!!!"

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!

The birdarang swirled above the populace.

They glanced up, panting.

I looked up too.

The gunman saw the projectile and readied himself.

SW-SW-SWISH-CLANK!!!

The birdarang flew off of the broadside of the heavy grenade launcher.

The man hardly budged.

"_**REDDDDD!!!!!!"**_

"Dammit!!" Robin hissed.

The man re-aimed the grenade launcher.

Robin panted. He looked down at me. "N-Noir!!!"

I was entangled with four thugs who just wouldn't drop their weapons. SLASH!!! CL-CLANK!!! SMACK!!!

Robin sweated. He looked back up.

The man pivoted his grenade launcher and aimed it at the thickest of the crowd.

The people screamed.

Robin whipped out another birdarang, teeth gritting.

The man pulled at the trigger.

Robin's eyemask thinned.

His lips held firm.

Something inside of him seem to melt away and--

FWOOSH!!! He nimbly tossed the birdarang.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!!!!

The sharp projectile spiraled upwards, turned invisible in the sunlight, and then boomeranged upward.

_**THUNK!!!!**_

A resounding gasp shuddered through the crowd.

Time slowed down as I looked up from my battle with four gunmen.

Robin remained frozen still, his arm still arched forward from the throw.

The man with the grenade launcher hadn't fired….because there was a birdarang stuck in his throat with the blade first. The green faded from his eyes. Blood trailed down his neck and…

A gurgle.

THWUMP!!!!

He fell back dead.

I exhaled.

Robin's body slowly melted into a tall position. He looked down at me, fists clenched.

I look back at him.

Something connected.

He nodded.

I nodded.

He whipped out a fan of birdarangs and his staff. _Snkkkkt!!!_

I twirled Myrkblade so that the sharp part faced out first.

_CHIIIIING!!_

I took a deep breath.

_And so the day has come……_

Time resumed.

SLAAAAAAAAASH!!! SL-SL-SL-SLINK!!!!!

I spun a fan of death in the center of the four gunmen.

Their forearms were sliced off instantly.

They screamed and fell to the ground in their own blood, quivering.

I held my breath and blurred to the next row of gunmen as they aimed at the crowd.

SWOOOOOSH!!! I pounced, slashing Myrkblade down.

THWACK!!!

I ripped the hand off of one.

I landed.

I swung Myrkblade up.

THWISSSH!!!

I ripped the throat out of another.

Both men fell.

I charged on.

Robin grunted and tossed three birdarangs at men atop the roofts.

TH-TH-THUNK!!! The projectiles sliced into their chests. They fell down, twitching.

Robin fired a grappling hook, kicked his way up onto the rooftop, flipped onto it, and started mercilessly beating his way through thug after thug with his staff. Breaking bone. Snapping vertebrae. Crushing ankles and kicking one or two green-eyed crooks off the rooftop and to a deadly fall.

He panted and shouted into his communicator while running to the next cluster of gunmen: "Titans!! This is Robin!! Lethal force!! Lethal force!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire and Raven were leading two dozen people into the waiting arms of police men and paramedics through the hospital doors.

At the sound of the Titan Leader's voice, they stood numb.

As if they knew this moment would come.

"_I give you permission to take all lethal force necessary in taking down these insurgents!!"_

Starfire bit her lip.

Raven took a deep breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy was running through the park towards the sounds of gunshots.

At the sound of Robin's voice, he slowed somewhat.

"_I repeat!! Take as much lethal force as necessary to save the citizens!! There's no going back at this point in the day!!"_

Beast Boy shuddered. He swallowed a lump down his throat, morphed into a tiger, and charged through the last line of trees to a street thundering with fleeing citizens and bulletfire.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The highest priority is innocent citizens' lives!! Do you hear me? Highest priority!! Robin out!!!"_

"Yeah….," Cyborg grunted. "Way ahead of you man…NNGH!!"

He swerved hard at the wheel.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!_

The T-Car barreled around a corner as it was followed by—not one, but seven black jeeps with gunmen nestled in the backs.

_VRMMMMMM!!! _

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets ricocheted madly off the back of the T-Car as it veered left and right. It skirted around rubble, beneath burning buildings, and even slammed through a barricade or two of screaming thugs as it tore down the road with the seven pursuers behind it.

"This City better sure as Hell be thankful I took the rat patrol off its back!!!" Cyborg spat. He slammed his fist over a black button on the console. _Beep! Beep! Beep!_ "You hear that you punks!!! Robin says your asses are mine!!! HA!!!"

The T-Car released a glob of black oil from hoses in its rear fender. A slick stain formed across the asphalt.

The first five jeeps expertly swerved around it.

But the six barreled right over the ooze and lost traction. Its tires screamed as the driver tried in vain to regain control of the vehicle. The jeep spun around, slammed into another, and both went tumbling straight into a gas station.

_**BOOM!!!!**_

A huge fireball erupted, roasting the green-eyed bodies inside and creating a crimson plume of flame for all to see above the skyline.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Robin sailed down with his staff and slammed it through the shoulder of a gunman.

THWACK!!!!

The man's bones cracked apart and he slumped to the floor.

Two gunmen screamed ("_**REDDDD!!!!"**_) and fired at the Boy Wonder.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Robin leapt, hopped, side-jumped, and twirled over the shots. He landed his feet on the shoulders of one thug, vaulted off, flipped in mid-air, and tossed two birdarangs while upside down.

THUNK!!!

TH-THUNK!!!!

The projectiles ripped into the two men's necks. They collapsed instantly.

Robin landed, twirled his staff, and ran and jumped his way along the perimeter of apartment rooftops towards the next group of thugs.

I blurred up the buildings opposite of him and worked around the rooftops the same way. I slashed arms off, jabbed Myrkblade through chests, and skewered legs of every creep I could come across.

Robin and I worked a circle of death towards each other around the courtyard of people. Him clockwise, and me counterclockwise.

When we could, we tried only to knock the occasional thug and gunman unconscious.

But the faster we wasted them, the faster they tried to shoot the people down below.

And soon it became nothing of a gore fest to win the upper hand.

SLIIINK!!! SLASH!!!! THWACK!!!

I dove through flesh and bone with Myrkblade.

Two men with uzzis screamed at me. _**"REDDDDD!!!!"**_

I showed my teeth. Something danced across my black eyes. Cold and ivory. Then all was black as I spiraled at them, teleported through the gunfire—RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!—and swung my blade.

SLASH!!!!

I sliced the arm off of the first thug.

He screamed and fell helplessly to the rooftop.

I let him live and blurred towards the second.

He aimed at my forehead.

BLAM!!

I ducked. I twirled around him.

He spun at me. _**"REDDDD!!!"**_

I screamed mutely back at him.

I swung Myrkblade high.

THWACK!!!!

His head rolled off.

"Noir!!!!" Robin shouted.

I spun around.

He had entangled himself with about twenty, overwhelming thugs atop a gray, flat rooftop. "Meet at a head!!!"

I nodded.

I blurred towards him.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Robin twirled his staff, deflected a couple of bullets, and dove into a man, plowing him into another.

A pair of gunmen aimed shotguns at the Boy Wonder's back.

I leapt down behind them, snarled, and jabbed Myrkblade forward.

SLINKKKK!!!

I skewered one thug's body, lifted him up like the head of a mallet, and slammed him into the body of the other.

WHAM!!!!

I pulled Myrkblade out and both thugs went tumbling to their death off the roof's edge.

"RAAAUGH!!" Robin slammed his staff hard against another thug's skull, shattering his brain stem. He twirled his staff, spun, and uppercutted another gunman before he had a chance to shoot. His body went flying off the other side of the roof.

I sliced open the ribs of another man and kicked him down before twirling Myrkblade and ripping off the arm of another aiming his gun down at the citizens.

Robin twirled his staff and slammed the man in the chest, knocking his screaming lungs out.

THWUMP!!!

I twirled.

Robin twirled.

CHIIIING!!!

THWIIIISH!!!

We both freezed.

Panting.

My blade's tip was at his neck.

The end of his staff was at my skull.

We blinked at each other.

We looked around.

Everyone was defeated.

The people below started to sob and mutter in momentary ecstasy.

Robin panted. He lowered his weapon.

I breathed deeply. I lowered mine.

"G-Good work….N-Noir….," he shuddered.

I nodded.

_If you say so……_

He looked at my blade. Blood dripped off it. He looked at me. "Not your first time, huh?"

I took a deep breath. I shook my head.

He nodded. "Neither is it mine."

And I understood.

"Come on….we got to get these people to safety….," Robin gestured.

I nodded.

We both turned and ran towards the top stairwell door on the corner of the roof.

"I can't think of any place on this side of Town really safe except for one of the warehouses in the industrial district," Robin said while sprinting behind me. "But if I'm not mistaken…that's where all the Dragonflare was most likely released when—"

Suddenly the door to the stairwell flew open.

THWOOSH!!

I glanced inside the darkness.

A glint of silver knives.

My black eyes flew wide.

I jolted--

_SLIINK!!! _

_SLINK!!! _

_SLIIINK!!!_

I was cut across the shoulder, the cheek, and the lower thigh.

I gasped in pain and shuddered three times.

SWOOOSH!!! A leg swung out from the stairwell.

WHAM!!!!

My body ragdolled over the edge of the rooftop, slammed against an apartment balcony, twirled, and collapsed hard into a dumpster several stories below. WHAM!!!!!

Robin gasped. "Noir!!!!" He turned and looked at the stairwell.

Dagger marched out.

Deadpan.

Face as emotionless as stone.

Shuddering, Robin stepped back.

And there Dagger stood, his face an immaculate perfection against the backdrop of an urban wilderness set ablaze in three dozen different spots. It was like a scene out of some terrible apocalypse behind his head. Smoke rising. A HIND helicopter circling. And gunshots and explosions ringing through the once calm, autumn air.

He stared at Robin without blinking. He glared straight into the Boy Wonder's soul.

The Titan leader clenched his fists.

Dagger droned: "I'm sorry. Did I break your City?"

"………," Robin snarled. "Nnnnghhhhh—" He twirled his staff, held it high, and charged the despot. "—RRAAAAAAUGH!!!"

Dagger effortlessly twirled two daggers in his hands and coiled back.

Robin charged. He swung his staff down.

Dagger leapt forward and spun with both blades twirling.

CLANG!!!!

Metal and metal and metal met with a shower of sparks.


	172. Hand and Dagger part 9

**172. Hand and Dagger part 9**

CLANG!!!!

Sparks flew.

Robin pressed his staff forward.

Dagger effortlessly resisted with two thin blades.

Robin gritted his teeth.

Dagger's brow barely furrowed.

They 'struggled' for a good five seconds until Dagger shoved up hard against Robin's weight.

Robin jumped back, coiled, and sprang forward with a high swipe of his staff towards Dagger's skull. "RAAUGH!!!"

Dagger swiftly bent back, ducked the swing, and stood up.

Robin swung the staff down low.

Dagger lifted his foot.

CLAP!!!

The heel of his shoe blocked the staff.

THWUMP!!!

He slammed his foot down and pinned Robin's weapon to the ground.

Robin yanked vainly at the blade.

Dagger applied his weight to the blade, flexed his legs, and spun with a jump kick slamming across Robin's face.

WHAM!!!

The Boy Wonder stumbled back.

Dagger leaned back, twirled his knives, and jabbed forward quick as the wind and just about as silent.

_THWISSH!!_

Robin leapt to the side.

Dagger's right knife slid between Robin's jumpsuit and his skin. When the villain yanked the blade away, it snapped off Robin's communicator.

Robin teetered to his right.

The communicator went airborne.

Dagger twirled his knives, spun nimbly, and kicked the communicator straight into Robin's face. Crack!!

THWAP!!

"Nnggh!!" Robin stumbled dizzily towards the edge of the rooftop.

Somehow, Dagger ended up behind him. He stood up as if from a huge leap and elbowed the Boy Wonder hard in the square of his back.

WHUMP!!!!

"Augh!!" Robin stumbled forward.

Dagger twirled his blades, twirled his body, and jabbed both knives at once into Robin's shoulders.

Suddenly, Robin growled, leaned forward, and lifted his staff over his head.

CL-CLANK!!!!

Robin blocked the stabs. He pulled the staff towards the back of his neck, locking Dagger in place by his grip on the blades.

Dagger struggled to get loose.

Robin sneered towards the rooftop gravel. "I can be **quick** too, pal…….RRRGH!!!" Robin yanked his staff away, reverse walked up Dagger's chest, flipped forward, spiraled in mid-air, and came down in a squat…upon which he swung his staff down low. "YAAAUGH!!!"

THWAP!!!

Dagger was tripped. He fell on his rear--

WHAM!!! Robin side-kicked the sprawling body of the despot.

Dagger flew back. But he flipped and landed on his feet, sliding agilely in reverse.

Robin charged him, twirling his staff. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!! "RAAAAUGH!!!!" He jabbed his rod like a missile into Dagger's chest.

Dagger swung his left left dagger in an upwards arc.

CLANK!!!

He deflected Robin's staff up and the boy's arm in tow.

GRIP!!!!

Dagger's knife-free finger grabbed Robin's wrist and held his arm up.

His right hand grazed Robin's ribs with the knife. SLIIINK!!!

"Aaugh!!" the Boy Wonder twitch.

WHUMP!!!! Dagger kneed him in the chest.

Robin lost his breath.

Dagger twirled his right knife, effortlessly flicked it down his sleeve, closed his right fingers together, and karate chopped Robin's shoulder.

_THWAP!!!_

"!!!!!!" Robin writhed.

Dagger's right forearm then pivoted left, uppercutting his elbow across Robin's face.

WHAM!!!

With the same right arm frozen solid, he bitch slapped Robin to the floor while finally letting go with his left fingers.

THRUMP!!! Robin tumbled to a coughing, sputtering pile on the rooftop.

Silence.

Dagger stood, his arms frozen in position for a few seconds. He finally cracked his right knuckles, flicked the knife out, and turned to face the fallen boy. "I'm waiting for you to be 'quick'…," the man droned.

Robin coughed and winced, clutching the bleeding cut on his left side.

Dagger slowly walked around him. Distant explosions and pillars of smoke erupted in the cityscape beyond him and the rooftop.

"That's the problem with being as young as yourself. You see 'fast and furious' as an effort, not an artform. You think finally resorting to dropping those Dragonflare victims in cold blood gives you an edge? I started killing at age ten, Robin. You don't understand what it feels like. You think you do, but you don't. It's like being born. Breaking through the eggshell that is life and realizing that all that remains beyond the white enamel is blissful oblivion. You aren't perfect, Robin. Because I know you can smile. I've seen it."

Robin hissed, curling on the rooftop. "I'm not….a m-merciless killer….like y-you…."

"And that….is why you lose," Dagger uttered emotionlessly. He twirled his knives. He dashed over.

Robin tried to get up.

WHAM!! WHACK!!! SMACK!!! Dagger rapidly hit Robin so that the Boy Wonder could rise to his feet just right from the impacts and---_SL-SLINK!!!_ Dagger grazed his other side twice with his blade.

"AAUGH!!" Robin clutched his other side and stumbled back against the frame of the stairwell door. He panted and heaved. Bleeding.

"You think you can beat me?" Dagger droned, standing before the Boy Wonder. "I cannot be defeated, Robin. I am older than sin."

"I won't l-let you have this City…," the Boy Winder painfully hissed.

"Won't you?" Dagger leaned his head to the side. "And I'm guessing you assume it's yours? I built this City, Robin. Its very existence owes its legitimacy to me and me alone."

"This City….," Robin frowned. He struggled to stand up straight and hold out his metal staff. "….was not built on _slime_."

"Poetic," Dagger breathed. He paced coldly around the Boy Wonder, never losing his eyemask. "True, this City was never made true by transient things. That's where people like the Titans and Slade failed to tame this world. The Titans believe in justice. Slade believes in evil."

"And just what the Hell do you believe in, Dagger?" Robin spat, aiming his staff at him. "What do you believe in that makes killing HUNDREDS OF LIVES WORTH IT?!?!"

"This City was founded on blood, Robin," Dagger exhaled. He stopped pacing and twirled his daggers. "And today, it shall be redeemed by blood. _Your_ blood." SWOOOOSH!!! He pounced.

Robin braced himself.

Dagger was upon him. THWOOOSH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!!!!

Robin ducked with a gasp. He slid under Dagger's parted legs, hopped up, spun, and swung his staff around to crush Dagger's back.

Dagger jumped the rod, ran up the stairwell's frame, flipped off, and seemingly produced a dozen concealed knives from his jacket which he promptly tossed at Robin in rapid succession while somersaulting in midair. TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSH!!!

Robin's eyemask widened. He leaned back, gritted his teeth, and spun his rod.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!!

Deflected knives went flying.

Dagger landed. He tossed one blade up and caught it in his teeth. He ran towards Robin, and while sprinting he spread two fingers out from the knives he was already holding and caught two of the deflected ones. When he was halfway towards Robin, he spun like a tornado and tossed the four blades at spontaneous moments at the Boy Wonder.

Robin failed to predict when and from where the blades were coming, and before he knew it…four knives were pinning him by his cape to a metal t.v. antenna behind him. CLANK!!! CLANG!!! THUNK!! CLANK!!! Robin struggled in vain to get loose.

Dagger stopped spinning, grabbed the last blade from his teeth, and jabbed it from the length of his arm into Robin's throat.

SWOOOOSH!!!

Robin winced.

Silence.

Robin breathed.

The blade stopped a bare millimeter from piercing his Adam's apple.

The Titan leader trembled and struggled for breath, stuck the antenna, the evil despot holding him at death's length.

"……..," Dagger stared. Unemotional. His lips moved like water sliding down a granite tombstone. "Your treehouse party has ended, Titan. Time for you to grow up."

"'Grow up'??" Robin wheezed, trying not to breathe too much through his neck and end up tasting the dagger. "You tell me to grow up right before you gut me to death? Isn't that a little bit corny?"

Dagger's cold eyes narrowed. "You actually think I can kill you?"

"………..," Robin looked at the man.

"I only want the City, Robin," Dagger slurred. "I only want back that which was mine. That's what Triangular was made for. We regain that which we lost since the last time the Balance of Morals was challenged. But your deaths…oh no. The Parasite won't allow that. I am not your reaper, Robin. Sooner than you think…you will see that."

"You're nuts."

"And the Messenger was too, I suppose?"

"………….."

"The Messenger once told the smoking pile of guts that is now your Commissioner that he knew people. Well, I know people too, Robin. I know him. And I know the Titans. And I know that you won't stand a chance once the real guillotine falls."

As the cold conversation went on, Robin slid an expert, hidden glove towards the back of his utility belt. "I don't believe you. After ripping this City to shreds…you've got the audacity to say that you never meant to kill us?"

"Oh, I meant to kill, Robin. The fact that I live reinforces my wielding of death…," the Commissioner hissed. "But the Titans….no….in the end you'll all have to learn what you must truly be afraid of. Is it the hand? Or is it the dagger?"

"………..," Robin breathed slowly. His gloved hand slid a smoke pellet out of the back of his belt.

"The hand, Robin….," Dagger breathed. "You must fear the hand. But…for today…..it will be the _dagger_ that divides."

"Yeah….," Robin frowned. "Whatever you say…."

"And indeed I do say…," Dagger pressed the blade up to Robin's throat. "Triangular. The Parasite. They are pieces of a great, bloody whole. This pretty world of use must turn crimson some way or another. And for the sky to turn red….," Dagger's eyes narrowed. "The earth must bleed. I've got a lot of carving to do, you see."

"I like the sky the way it is," Robin grunted.

THWOOOSH!! He threw the smoke pellet to the rooftop.

_PIFFFT!!!_

Dagger gritted his teeth and stepped back as his face was flooded with smoke. He disappeared into the steam.

Robin yanked the knives out without a second to loose. Freed from the antenna, he leapt out across the rooftop, scooped up his staff, and knelt in a ready position.

"………….," he glared through the cloud of smoke.

The synthetic fog cleared….but Dagger was gone.

In his place was a square device on the floor.

A square device beeping with a countdown timer.

_9……8……7……6……_

Robin gasped.

From some omniscient source, Dagger's voice droned echoingly: _"What will it be, Robin? The hand or the dagger?"_

Robin spun around.

He ran towards the ledge.

_5……4……3……_

"_It matters little which choice. The sky will turn red. The Earth shall bleed. Triangular will reclaim its precious meat."_

Robin dove acrobatically over the rooftop with his grappling hook.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wincing, I stumbled out of the dumpster on the bottom of the apartment courtyard.

I clutched my bleeding thigh.

Wincing from other cuts in my body.

Hobbling with Myrkblade.

_Where……is Robin??_

"NOIR!!!"

I gasped. I spun around--

WHUMP!!!

He scooped me up and swung the two of us across the courtyard and over the desperately fleeing people. "BRACE YOURSELF---"

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The gray apartment building exploded from the top down, sending fragments flying left and right, showering the courtyard, and sending a thunderous noise spilling throughout the northeast district of the City as the structure collapsed to ashes and dust.

Robin set me down.

We both could barely stand.

Panting.

"…….."

"…….."

He looked up at me.

I looked wearily at him.

He swallowed and said: "I get this strange feeling that things just got worse."

I whimpered mutely.

_W-Worse???_

"Come on…," Robin limped and motioned. "Let's get these people somewhere safe."

I nodded tiredly and walked along with him.

"Then we must….somehow…rejoin with the other Titans. Start out on a good foot."

I glanced back at the smoldering ashes we flanked the large group of citizens…escorting them westward towards the warehouse complexes.

"The earth's not going to bleed. Not on my watch."

I looked at him, an eyebrow raised over my shades.

_The Hell are you talking about??_

He didn't respond.

We trudged onward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………," Dagger stared at the smoldering remains of the apartment building from across the street.

Two relatively sane looking henchmen stood in the shadows of a nearby building next to him.

"Wh-What now, sir?" a subordinate asked. "Our experts say that it'll be another twelve hours before the Dragonflare effects wear out."

Dagger took a deep breath. "We don't need twelve hours. What we need….is the Titans to truly recognize the gravity of the threat at hand here."

"And what of Red Aviary?" another asked.

"He's here….," Dagger's eyes scanned the skyline. "Right now….as everything burns around us….he is here….."

The henchmen shifted nervously. "Sh-Should we be worried?"

Dagger stared at them. "Do you fear death?"

"…………"

"Do not count yourselves as eternal…," Dagger droned. "Not yet."

"We await your orders, sir."

Dagger twirled a knife nonchalantly. "Issue a command to the launchpad: Target the hospital. Everyone alive in this City is flocking to that spot. Wipe it off the face of the Earth."

"Right away, sir."

Dagger asked: "And Phaser Labs. How is that position holding out?"

"Ready for your mark."

"Don't give them the go yet," Dagger said. "Wait a little longer."

"For what, sir?"

"For when the Labs becomes twice as valuable….which—with the launchpad operational—I have a feeling the Labs will get a new piece of junk to work on. Now….," Dagger marched briskly down the road. "Let us hurry to the Southeast."

"Wh-What's in the Southeast District, sir?"

"A fish out of water."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest walked out of the subway entrance first.

He cautiously looked around.

The streets were empty.

Tossed about with rubble and heaps of damaged urban structures.

His dark eyes narrowed as he inhaled.

Lindsay and another citizen walked up besides him….and they gasped.

"Dear Lord…..," Lindsay murmured. "What h-happened here??"

Tempest took a deep breath. "Dagger happened."

"Huh??"

"Come on…," Tempest pointed down the long road. "The hospital is within view. We'll do this in trips, since I'm the only Titan here to give protection. Let's get your blonde friend to the health facility first. Quickly…without a moment to lose…."

Lindsay signaled for the first ten urban spelunkers to move ahead, and—with Tempest leading the way—the group of people walked vulnerably across the abandoned warzone. Antoine and Jack were among them, along with the nurse and the wincing Bonnie.

Lindsay, Lillian, and the rest watched pensively from behind…in the shadows of the subway entrance.

In the shadows….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the middle of the City, a missile launcher rested, aimed towards the sky.

One of the operators had his head to a radio communicator. He talked to someone on the other end, nodding his head. At a signal, he waved his arm energetically at another worker.

A salute.

Another salute.

People motioned and people ran to their positions.

The hacker at the controls nodded and performed a keystroke.

Twenty lights on the launchpad turned bright.

The missile launcher whirred to life, tilted upwards a few extra degrees, and began to steam…..


	173. Hand and Dagger part 10

**173. Hand and Dagger part 10**

"RAAAWWWR!!!" a green panther slammed a thug down to the hard concrete, leapt over bulletfire from two other green-eyed fiends, blurred across the street as a falcon, bounced off a storefront as a kangaroo, flipped, and came down as a hippo between the gunmen. **SLAM!!!** The huge green beast formed a crater in the asphalt, and the two gunmen fell down unconscious from the proximity.

"………," Beast Boy morphed back into elf form. He stood, panting. A beat. He glanced across the street.

A group of seven or so innocent citizens stood in place, shivering in fright.

"What are you waiting for?!?!" Beast Boy uttered above the ambiance of the chaotic City. He pointed southward with a jabbing finger. "Head towards the hospital!! Now!! It's dangerous here!!"

The people nodded. They turned and ran down the road towards the large structure in the distance.

Beast Boy took a deep breath and moved to escort them—

_VRMMMMMM!!!_

He gasped.

He looked aside--

SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!

A black jeep full of thugs swerved into him.

Beast Boy jolted and morphed into a grizzly bear. CLAMP!!! With long claws, he clutched onto the hood of the jeep and braced his sliding feet as he was pushed…pushed….pushed across the street and towards a guardrail bordering a huge drop towards a row of buildings below.

"_**REDDDD!!!!"**_ the gunman in the back pointed the mounted weapon straight at Beast Boy's forehead.

The changeling gasped and swiftly morphed into a huge green triceratops. _"RAAAARGHHH!!!"_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

The bullets ricocheted off of the hard leather of the dinosaur's crest. P-P-P-PING!!!!!

The changeling's greater weight and size took control, and soon the black jeep was burning rubber into him right in front of the guardrail.

The dinosaur snorted and thrust his horn up.

_CRUNCH!!!_

The jeep flipped up and over from the impact. Aluminum shards flew. Glass littered the asphalt….and the thugs tumbled out of the vehicle every which way. But not without the gunman in the rear managing to toss a single grenade--

Thwish!—Clank-Clank….

It rolled over to a stop in front of the dinosaur's legs.

The changeling's white eye widened. He gasped and shrunk into a turtleshell--

**BLAM!!!!!!**

The blast sent the green turtle slamming through the guardrail—CRACK!!—and plummeting three stories down into the loft complex of an apartment below.

CRASH!!!

THWUMP!!!

"Nnngh….," Beast Boy stirred, lying on splinters-littered carpet.

"Help us!!!"

The changeling jerked and looked up, gasping.

A family of five was scrunched up in the corner of the living room he landed in. They pointed with shaking fingers at a wobbling door.

"Th-They're breaking in!!!"

"_REDDDDDD!!!!" _

"_REDD"_

Beast Boy turned right and looked at a nearby door—

CRACK!!!!

The door broke down.

Two green-eyed men with shotguns rushed in.

They pumped their weapons and took aim at the shrieking family.

Beast Boy snarled and leapt up as a dog.

SWIIISH!!!-SNATCH!!!

The canine's jaws twisted the gun up in the first invader's grasp.

BLAM!!!!

A spray of lead shot exploded into the ceiling.

The dog picked itself up from its grip on the weapon, morphed into an orangutan, swung his lower body up, wrapped his hairy legs around the first gunman's shoulders, and spun vertically.

THWOOOSH!!!

The man was sent sprawling across the room and crashing hard through a glass table—unconscious.

SHATTER!!!!

The changeling landed on the floor as an iguana.

"_**REDDD!!!"**_ the second man aimed his shotgun down at the lizard. BLAM!!!!

The iguana scurried out of the way, ran up the wall, kicked off as an emu, and started striking mercilessly at the attacker with its beak. THWAP!! THWAP!!! TH-TH-THWAP!!!!

The man winced and stepped back, his fingers around the gun and trigger being pecked to bleeding.

The family watched nervously.

Finally up against the wall, the thug grunted and kicked the changeling hard across the feathery chin.

WHAM!!!

"UGH!!" Beast Boy landed across the floor in elf form.

The man pumped the shotgun.

A little boy huddling in the center of the family members cried.

The man turned and looked.

Beast Boy watched wearily from the floor. His eyes widened.

The man aimed his shotgun straight at the family.

They screamed.

He pulled the trigger—

"_SKRIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!"_ a green velociraptor soared in from the opposite side of the room.

BLAM!!!!!

The shotgun blast haloed the wall above the family's heads.

SWOOOOSH!!! The green dinosaur plowed the man through the balcony window.

CRASH!!!!!

The human and beast fell four stories, tangling in the air.

They slammed down hard with the velociraptor on top….and the dinosaur had found its sharp teeth around the man's neck so that when they landed he—

**SNAP!**

"…………," the man's body lay still.

"………….," the velociraptor stood up. It pranced backwards, blood dribbling from its jaws. Its slitted eye blinked once…twice….and then rounded as the scaly beast morphed into a shivering elf.

Beast Boy numbly felt the blood stains trailing down his neck. He gulped. He looked down at the man's body.

It lay still.

Beast Boy shuddered. He stepped back behind a line of hedges and sat with his back against the building front. Tears welled up in his eyes, and without noticing it…he hugged his legs to his chest and began rocking back and forth…..hyperventilating.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lisa ran out into the street with Ashley and Greg in tow. She panted and looked around desperately…pausing for a moment in the middle of an intersection.

"Wh-What are we looking for, L-Lisa??" Ashley stuttered.

"Not _what_," Lisa swallowed. "_Who_."

"What are we g-gonna do about that missile thingy?"

"That's exactly why I'm running us in circles," the one-eyed girl grunted. She stepped forward towards a corner of the street. "Somewhere in this screwed-up City there's gotta be some half-moron who can do something about—"

_VRMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

The T-Car burned suddenly around the corner. Sunlight glinted off the windshield as it suddenly barreled down directly on the teenager and two adolescents.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!" Greg screamed.

"EEEEEEEEEEK!!!!" Ashley screamed.

"DAAAAAAAH!!" Lisa convulsed.

"YAAAAAAAAH!!!" Cyborg jerked at the wheel.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!_

The T-Car spun two circles.

Lisa and the two kids squatted low, hugging each other for dear life.

The T-Car miraculously spiraled around them and jolted to a stop.

There were criss-crossing tire tracks haloing the three citizens.

Lisa shuddered.

The window to the T-Car rolled down. The android Titan stuck his head down: "Y'all crazy?!?! I almost ran you over!!!!"

"No…you think?!?!" Lisa frowned at him. And then she suddenly brightened. "Hey!! You're a Titan!! I've got something to show you---"

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!!!!_

Five black jeeps with mounted guns and homicidal hitmen in the back screamed around the corner and all zoomed at them.

Ashley and Greg screamed again.

Lisa's eye went wide.

"Dammit all to Cairo!!!" Cyborg shook his fest. "ALL OF YOU!!! GET DOWN!!!"

Lisa tossed herself and the kids flat to the asphalt with a gasp.

Cyborg grunted and slammed his fist over a red button.

WHURRRRR-CHTING!!!

The T-Car's photon cannon rose up mechanically from a panel in the vehicle's roof. It clicked into place and glowed menacingly with hot energy.

"HEY, RAT PATROL!!!" the android Titan cackled. "SAY HELLO TO YOUR PROSTRATE GLAND'S NEW ROOMATE!!!!"

He hit the trigger.

_**ZAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAP!!!!!**_

A bright gold beam of heat vibrated outward, burned through the air, and surged towards the oncoming throng of black jeeps.

Lisa, Ashley, and Greg cringed as the energy warbled over their crouched heads.

_**THWOOOOOOSH!!!!!**_

The phalanx of black jeeps drove right into the hellfire….and exploded brilliantly upon combat.

_**BOOOM!!!! **_

_**BOOOOM!!! **_

_**PHHOOOOOOMB!!!**_

Ashes and burning metal shards scattered every which way and bubbled about just inches before they could consume the three citizens.

Lisa let out a huge sigh with the borrowed breath of the other two escapees.

Cyborg panted, ran a hand over his sweating, human brow, and uttered: "That was definitely worth the extra hundred on mileage in under two hours…."

"A-Are they all d-dead??" Ashley murmured.

Greg griped: "Do we really care?"

Lisa stumbled up, yanked the kids in tow, and dashed over to Cyborg's car. "Mr. Titan!! We saw something! S-Something bad!!"

"Yeah, I know," Cyborg nodded. "It's called Armageddon." He lowered the photon cannon and re-gripped the steering wheel. "Now if you'll excuse me…I've just spent ninety minutes, two spare tires, and a migraine and a half wasted on those rust bucket jeeps and now I finally have the chance to rejoin my friends. So if you don't mind running along to some place safe like the basement of a Toys R' Us, I must be on my way—"

Lisa snarled, reached her hand in, and twisted Cyborg's human ear the wrong way.

"OWWIEEE!! Ow….ow…OW…ow!!!" Cyborg twitched and groaned.

She yanked his head towards her and hissed: "A missile, crap-for-brains!! A missile owned by the bad guys!! And it's aimed at the southern half of the City!!!"

She let go of Cyborg's ear.

The Titan jerked and rubbed his head the sore skin.

Lisa fumed: "If somebody doesn't do something about it soon, there won't be any somebodies in half the city left to do even half of a half of something!!"

"…….," Cyborg leaned forward, his eyes narrow. "You're pretty serious about this…are ya?"

"Are you doubtful? Or should I convince your other ear?"

"Sh-She's telling the truth, Mr. Titan!!" Ashley hopped.

"Y-Yeah!!" Greg panted. "A really HUGE bomb!!"

"_Missile."_

"M-Missile!! And it's on a launchpad and stuff and—"

"We gotta take it out…er…..," Lisa fidgeted. "You gotta take it out."

"I don't know where it is," Cyborg said.

"We do."

Cyborg didn't hesitate. "Hop in," he gestured.

Lisa nodded. She opened the rear doors for Ashley and Greg before dashing over to the front passenger side and leaping in.

"Head east!!"

"On it."

Cyborg shifted gears.

He slammed his titanium foot on the gas.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEECH-VRMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

Ashley and Greg jolted in the backseat as Cyborg rocketed down the City street past the charred remains of the jeeps.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Shhh….don't reveal yourselves…," the Lieutenant hissed.

Chapman and the other officers nodded.

They snaked through an alleyway in single file, growing closer and closer to the beating sounds of spinning blades in the air.

They crawled swiftly up a fire escape and took it to the balcony level of a three story restaurant. They crouched besides abandoned tables and chairs and hid behind marble railings. They loaded and cocked their assault weapons.

They waited.

Waited….

Waited……..

"…………….."

The beating sounds increased.

The air turned hot.

A few of the officers swallowed nervously.

The Lieutenant signaled to them.

He whispered: "Remember….the payload…aim for the payload…."

They nodded.

More beating.

Then….

Sounds of gunfire.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

The men winced.

But the bullets weren't streaming in at them.

The weaponry was aiming elsewhere.

"What're they shooting at??" Johnson whispered.

"Whatever it is…we've got to stop it," the Lieutenant said. "That thing's keeping any of us from getting an edge back over this City."

"Here it comes."

"Wait for it….."

**SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!**

The blades came into view first.

The men exhaled.

They aimed.

The metal body of the craft came in. Dented. Charred in some spots. It was firing down at a screaming, fleeing group of citizens.

The Lieutenant snarled. "NOW!! HIT 'ER NOW!!!"

BLAM!!!!

BL-BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The men fired over the railing of the balcony with reckless abandon.

The shots ricocheted off the wings of the chopper. Sparks flew as the bullets slammed in closer and closer to the missiles on board. But just as soon as the impacts came so much as near to the explosives…..the HIND veered, rotated, and spun so that it faced directly towards the officers.

Johnson gasped.

Chapman stumbled back.

The Lieutenant gulped.

_Whurrrrr---__**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

The officers flinched.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!! I blurred in with a streak of smoke, slid myself across the rails, and twirled Myrkblade with all my might.

**CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!!**

I gritted my teeth, absorbing the massive impacts of the deflections.

The HIND hovered in place momentarily. One of its hellseekers flared.

"Look out!!"

"HIT IT!!!"

Vann took aim.

_SWOOOOOOSH!!!!!_

The missile sailed through the street and right at us.

I gulped. I glanced aside.

Vann squinted one eye. He took a shot—BLAM!!!

**POW!!!!!**

It pierced the missile square on the head and exploded it at least fifty feet away.

The building shook.

I shaded my eyes from the bright explosion.

The helicopter seemed to shake as if in frustration. The pilots inside the dark cockpit bubbles pulled at the controls. With a heavy swish of the blades, the aircraft spun around and headed off towards the other side of the City.

"Nice shot, Vann."

"It's pulling off!!"

"They afraid of us or somethin'?!?!"

"It's just going to put more people in danger elsewhere…," the Lieutenant grumbled.

SWOOSH!! Robin swung up via grappling hook, panting.

I smiled. I saluted him.

"Y-Yeah…hey Noir…," he nodded. He tossed something large at the Lieutenant. "Hey there…look w-what I found."

The Lieutenant jerked, his arms stretched out.

CLUTCH!!

"…..," he found himself holding onto a bazooka.

Robin simpered. "By any means necessary. I don't know h-how to use one of those."

The Lieutenant smirked. "I'm flattered." A beat. He glanced at me.

I looked back at him. I held Myrkblade down low. There were obvious blood stains on it.

"……," the Lieutenant glanced up from staring at it. "You too, huh?"

Both Robin and I shared the same sigh and nod.

"It's g-getting away!!" Chapman shouted.

"Let's track 'er down!!! Move!! Move!!!"

The Lieutenant lead the way.

I blurred along with them as a super-powered escort.

Robin followed behind, fingering his belt and sides. "Dang it….lost my communicator when fighting Dagger….," he glanced ahead. "Noir!! Phone call!!"

I blindly tossed my communicator back at him as we scaled the buildingsides.

He caught it. "Thank you!" He flipped it open with a Star Trek sound and uttered while on the move: "Starfire! Raven! Report! Did you get them to the hospital!!"

"_That is an affirmative, Robin! We are at the facility presently and are leading the citizens into safety."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven held the heavy barricades of the hospital entrance up with strong talons of black telekinesis. In the meantime, paramedics and police men were swiftly ushering anxious people in through the sliding doors.

Starfire stared at all of this in the background as she spoke into the communicator: "Might I add…it has been a considerable amount of time since any of us last seen or audibly heard from Beast Boy or Cyborg………T-Tempest even!!"

"_Tempest is anyone's guess. I'll try and contact the others. We'll probably need Cyborg, since I wrecked the R-Cycle and the T-Car is all we have." _

"Robin…my strength and health has returned. If you need transportation, I can swiftly come to your aide and—"

"_No, Star. Stay with Raven for the time being. I want us all in pairs at least. No more splitting up unless we ABSOLUTELY have to!"_

Raven lowered the barricades after the last citizen. CLANNK!!! She turned around and dusted her hands off. "Well…guess we're bosom buddies."

Starfire bit her lip and uttered into the communicator: "B-But when will I be able to see you again??"

"_Soon, Star. I promise you. Soon."_

The Tamaranian sighed and nodded her head. "I have faith, Robin. I d-do. In the meantime, Raven and I shall endeavor to locate more citizens."

"_Yes. You do that. Robin out."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The officers, Robin, and I perched atop a building top at the corner of an intersection. The helicopter was still in plain view, oblivious to our relocation.

The Lieutenant and another man readied the bazooka, leaning it over his shoulder and aiming just right….

I crouched and glanced back as Robin shuffled towards me, down low. "Well…at least half of us are alive. Now to check on the rest." He changed the signal, fidgeted with the controls a bit, then raised the communicator back to his face. "Cyborg?? Cyborg! Come in!!"

The Lieutenant muttered quiet commands. The officers assisting him helped reposition the bazooka.

I watched anxiously.

"Cyborg?? This is Robin. Respond!!"

"_Snnnkkkt—Kinda busy here!!"_

"We're all busy!! That's not an excuse!! I want a report!! Where are you??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg grumbled. He fingered the switch: "I'm busy, Robin. And let that be the end of it. I'll report once I'm not speeding everywhere ass backwards!!"

"_Now you listen he—"_

Cyborg flipped the communication signal off.

"I bet he's pissed now…," Lisa folded her arms.

"This missile thingy better be real or else that spikey-haired Napoleon's never gonna forgive me," the android Titan grumbled.

"It's down this street!!" Ashley pointed. "Right over a mound of rubble!!"

"WHAT mound of rubble?? They've bred like jackrabbits since this day began!!"

"It's right at the intersection where the Metropolitan Bank building is…," Lisa droned.

"Ah…that helps…..," Cyborg nodded as he gripped the wheel. A beat. He glanced over. "Say…do I know you from somewhere?"

"Erm……depends. Do you dig through random people's trash at night??"

"Hey! I remember!! You're that goth artist chick that saved Noir back when he was paralyzed by Fang!"

"Uhm….."

"And there was that battle inside the parking garage!! Boo-Ya!! Man, I wish I was there…."

"I'm not goth…," Lisa's one eye blinked.

"Huh?"

"I said, I'm not goth."

"Could have fooled me."

"Look, do you want to stop the apocalypse or not?"

"Of course I do!!"

"Stick to the wheel or else soon you'll be sticking the pavement."

"Heh….touché…"

"What does that mean?" Greg asked from the back.

"It means that Mr. Cyborg here likes to flirt with teenage girls."

"Hey…."

"Look out when you grow up, Ashley."

"Hey!!!"

"Freakin' cradle robbers on D sized batteries, I swear—"

"Hey, I'm quite involved…thank you very much!!"

"Yeah?? With who?? Wonder Sprocket??"

"I'll have you know it's someone I haven't stopped thinking about since this whole bloody mess started!!" Cyborg barked. He grumbled as he gripped the wheel. "Haven't seen ANY of my friends in a while!! I like to think I'm doing all right considering. So sue me for trying to be a little bit social, Miss Cynacism!"

"…………."

"………….."

"………….."

"M-Mommy……," Greg sniffed in the back. "She's….sh-she's dead….."

"………….," Cyborg took a deep breath, staring out the windshield.

"Daddy….his eyes turned green….he got a bat and….a-and……"

"We're gonna find that damn missile…," Cyborg grunted. "Ya hear me?"

"………"

"I promise you. We'll find it….and we'll do something about it….."

"T-There!!" Ashley pointed.

"Stop the car," Lisa gestured.

Cyborg slowed to a stop. A mound of rubble rested before them. Smoldering.

"…………………………."

"It's….I-It's just beyond that pile….," Ashley trembled.

Greg gulped.

"Allrighty then….," Cyborg exhaled. He unbuckled and fingered the handle to his door. "I'll just step out and have a look-see for starts---"

_**POWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!**_

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!**_

The summit of the rubble split into two seas of red dust as a hulking warhead soared flaringly overhead. A heated vapor trail shimmered through the air like an amber comet as it roared above and shook the foundation of the street.

"Holy Apostle Paul on a Triscuit!!!!" Cyborg cackled.

Ashley and Greg shrieked and shrunk into the back chairs.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!**_

The rocket sailed off over the building sides.

Cyborg and Lisa looked at it through the back windows.

"Oh man….that is not good…," Lisa turned and looked out the windshield.

A dozen men with guns ran over the rubble and fired at the T-Car.

BLAM!! BL-BLAM!! BANG!!!

P-P-PING!!!

"Ackies!!" Lisa dove to the left and spontaneously hugged Cyborg, trembling.

"Mmmfmmmfmf!!!!" Cyborg's hands fumbled, found the shift gear, and accidentally drove the car forward.

_VRMMMMM!!!_

WHAM!!!!

The car struck the rubble. Dust flew and bodies fell down from the jolt.

"Nnnngh!!!" Cyborg shoved Lisa off him, breathed, frowned, and yanked the car into reverse.

SCREEEEEEEEECH!!!!

Under heavy gunfire, the T-Car drove backwards, spun, burned rubber, shifted into drive, and rocketed down the road in a direction that took it after the soaring rocket.

Greg murmured from the back: "I-I'm gonna throw uppppp—"

"Hush up!!!" Cyborg barked. He flipped the communicator back on through his dashboard and spoke earnestly as he sped after the burning image of the missile. "This is Cyborg!! This is Cyborg!!! Emergency!! Code red…omega….ultima…whatever!!!! We've got a huge-ass mother of a rocket headed towards the center of the City and it ain't lookin' good!!"

Lisa panted, being pressed back into her passenger seat from the acceleration.

The speedometer swiftly crept past one twenty.

"I repeat!! I repeat!! I'm on Vera Street crossing Seventy-First!!!—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I listened to the communicator on the rooftop, breathless.

"_---it's heading on a bearing of ninety-two degrees from the north axis!! Going at least two hundred!! Moving slow…but packing a lot of heat!!"_

"That……that…..," Robin murmured.

I looked at him, my jaw agape.

He glanced at me, eyemask wide. "Th-That takes it straight towards the hospital…."

"Got it in sight!!!"

"FIRE!!!!"

**SHOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Robin and I flinched from the backblast as the bazooka let loose an RPG straight towards the distant HIND helicopter.

The cops watched anxiously through the brown smoke of release as the projectile soared over the rooftops, twisted a bit, and slammed into the side of the chopper.

CLANK!!! **POW!!!!!**

The helicopter took the hit hard.

It veered and veered and veered and veered.

Smoking.

The top blades wobbling.

The Lieutenant's officers jumped up around us, cheering.

"Woo hoo!!"

"Eat that!!!"

"Fall, you bastard!! Fall!! Fall!!"

"Crash, dammit!!!"

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

Then all of us—officers and superheroes included—flinched as a giant missile soared over head. Shortly followed by…

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!_

The T-Car burned down the road in distant pursuit of the flying explosive.

"Whoah….."

"The Hell did that thing come from??"

"Better yet…where's it headed?"

"My God…you d-don't think……?"

We were all too mesmerized by the sight to notice the wounded helicopter pull itself off at the last second, summon a lasting, mechanical breath, and veer around westward and out of range.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

Ashley, Greg, and Lisa clutched to their seats for dear life.

Cyborg sped suicidally forwards. He swerved around heaps of burning rubble, skimmed through phalanxes of green-eyed soldiers, and madly pursued the burning target.

He shouted into the communicator: "Stick with me, Robin!! I'm performing an analysis!!"

"_A what?!?!"_

"I said stick with me, dawg!!" Cyborg crazily drove with only one hand on the wheel and opened up the dashboard computer with another. He typed madly with his right hand across a keyboard. "If I get…close enough….t-to the missile I might….SHIT!!—" SCREEEECH!!!!-_VRMMMMM!!!_ "—I m-might be able….to t-tap into ….and infect….s-some of the systems…..with an overloading protocol!!!"

"_You mean you can hack into the missile?!?!"_

"I **might**, Robin!! But I'm not fast enough for it!! I need some of you guys to slow the damn thing down so that I can get close enough to weaken it!!"

"_And then what??"_

"I dunno. I'm doing this Caped Crusader, style, man!! I'm thinking as I go along!!"

"_All right, Cyborg. I'll get you some help!! No matter what happens……STAY ON THAT MISSILE'S TAIL!! That's an order!!"_

"No, Robin…that's an understatement!!" Cyborg spat and switched the communicator off. "Okay, folks. This is the real deal. The speed at which the missile I'm chasing is going, I have no time to make any stops….save for just one."

"What do you mean?" Lisa panted.

Cyborg jerked hard on the wheel.

_SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!!_

The T-Car swerved across an intersection, spun, and jerked to a stop…facing northwest.

Cyborg popped open a panel revealing four buttons. "Gotta do a drop off." He slammed his titanium fist down over three of the buttons. CLAMP!!!

**CLANK!!** The rooftop to the T-Car flew off.

The three citizens gasped as their seats shook and—

**FWOOOOOOOSH!!!!**

Lisa, Ashley, and Greg were ejected from the vehicle all at once. Their seats soared up into the sky on miniature rockets. Once they reached a certain height amidst the buildingtops, they unleashed brilliant white parachutes. FWOOOMP!!! FW-FOOOMP!!!

The three citizens shuddered, panting, as they slowly drifted back to the earth.

Lisa looked down, her eye wide.

Cyborg breathed: "Find shelter. Hide out till this whole mess is over!! It's not safe for a carpool anymore!!!" And he shifted gears.

"W-Wait!!"

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!!_

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

The T-Car, now a convertible, barreled northwest and swerved around another distant corner in pursuit of the rocket.

Lisa gulped as the three of them drifted towards the floor. "M-Mind the bumps…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Snkkkt—Starfire!! Star! Come in!! Respond!!"_

"R-Robin??" Starfire lifted the communicator.

Raven craned her neck.

"_Starfire!! Raven!! We have a situation!!"_

Raven raised a suspicious eyebrow. "What kind of a situation….??" she droned.

"_A situation with over six thousand pounds of thrust, a plasma-tipped warhead, and that's heading straight for the hospital!!"_

Raven's violet eyes widened.

"!!!!" Starfire gasped, holding the communicator to her chest. "All the p-people!! The p-people that we rescued!!"

"_Mmmfmmmfmmf!!"_

"Eep!" Starfire held the communicator up again. "Robin, what was that?"

"_Cyborg's chasing the missile as we speak. He's trying to hack into it and sabotage it from as close as he can!!"_

Raven blinked. "He's _what?!?!"_

"_Fly up there and direct that thing off course!! I'm going to call Beast Boy too!! GET……MOVING……!!!"_

"Come friend!!" Starfire exclaimed and took to the air with a visible wince but managed it. "We must make haste!!"

"Wait!!" Raven gestured. She levitated up. "Starfire…."

The Tamaranian looked down, hovering painfully in mid air.

Raven floated past her, concentrated, and lassoed Starfire gently with a back cord of telekinesis…steadying her. Giving the injured alien lift. "Now….let's go."

Starfire nodded. "Swiftly…."

They zoomed towards a flaring dot growing larger over the rooftops.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Beast Boy?? Beast Boy!!!"_

The green elf hug his knees.

Shivering.

Staring at the corpse.

Staring…..

"……………"

"_Beast Boy!!!"_

The changeling gasped with a sharp breath.

"_This is Robin!! Take flight immediately!! Raven and Starfire are tackling a missile that will be flying dead-center into a hospital full of people unless they get all the help they can in redirecting the trajectory!! Get over there…NOW!!"_

Beast Boy clenched his teeth.

He forced his moist eyes shut.

He shook all over.

"_Do you hear me?!?!?!"_

"YES, ROBIN!!!" Beast Boy exclaimed, a little too loudly for his own good. He sniffed, stood up on wobbly legs, composed himself, and took to the air with a flapping of feathers. "I-I'm coming….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMM-MMMM-MMMM!!!_

"Come on…Come on….," Cyborg eyed the skies through his windshield and the missing roof above. Wind rushed in and kicked at his smooth face and titanium forehead. He drove with one hand and typed madly at the computer console with the other. "Come on………_Come on!!!"_

He veered around mounds of rubble and burning automobile remains as he rocketed down the roadway. Screeching the entire way.

He panted.

His eyes tilted upward as much as he could afford to.

"Show your ugly, metal ass. Show it!!!"

Slowly…gradually…the flaring jets of the rocket appeared over the rooftops alongside him.

"HA!!!" he swerved left to get a better view. He yanked his gazing face back and forth from the blurring road and the barreling missile above. He typed madly with his right hand, attempting to make a connection.

"Dammit….too weak….too weak….."

He tried a few more keystrokes.

The T-Car got closer and closer to the belly of the missile high above.

But still…no connection.

"Dammit…..need a greater _oomph_!!" Cyborg jerked his right hand over to another console, snapped it open, and danced ten numbers on a pad. The speakers of the T-Car's communicator system sounded an electronic dial tone….before ending up with a loud beeping sound and a woman's recorded voice uttering: _'Warning. Phaser Labs is Code Red Lockdown. Please contact proper authorities for evacuation isntru—'_

"God dammit!!!" Cyborg barked and punched the speakers in frustrations. "I ain't no friggin' terrorist!! Answer the damn call, old man!! It's your nephew, for crying out loud!!" He performed another keystroke…a much more complicated one.

Dialing sounds.

Then.

"_Snkkt---Victor??"_

"Simon!!! It's me!! Look, I need a really big favor right about now—AH JEEZ!!" _SCREEEECHH!!!!_ He swerved around a throng of gunmen and barreled on after the rocket again. "Whew…."

"_Victor!! You're in one piece!! Everyone at Phaser Labs is preparing for a thermonuclear winter or something!! What in devil's name is going on out the—"_

"Nuts to that!! Patch the T-Car through to your laboratory's satellite system!! I need a bigger, invisible antenna!!"

"_Victor, you know I can't do that without a grant from the department of research as well as Phaser Labs' security team and—"_

"Screw that!!! You're engrained into that damn laboratory's mainframe, aren't you?!?! Go in there, do your fenangling, and patch me the Hell through!!!"

"_But Vic—"_

"A lot of people are going to die, Victor. A lot more people than either you or I could count with our positronic nets. So you patch me through so I can stop a god damn missile in time! Got it!!"

"_A missile?!?! Are you attempting a long ranged digital overload invasionary protocol??"_

"**YES!"**

"_Why didn't you say so?? Hold onto your britches!!"_

Cyborg took a breath and momentarily gripped onto the wheel with both hands. He took a deep breath.

The road was practically fading by him on either side like twin mirages.

Heat from the burning tires rose up into the convertible's cockpit and wracked the Titanium Titan's senses.

"Keep it alive, Baby. Keep it alive….Keep it alive…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH!!!

Starfire and Raven spiraled/flew their way up into the air and saw the incoming missile. The entire air shook with its proximity. The air heated up.

Raven's lips parted.

Starfire gulped.

FWOOOOSH!!!

A green pterodactyl flew up alongside them.

All three Titans hovered high over the City.

They looked at each other.

"……………."

"……………."

"……………."

They all faced the missile, took a deep breath, and converged on it.

FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!!!

_CLAMP!!!_

The pterodactyl bit onto the lid and held on for dear life.

_CLANK!!!_

"Nnnghhh!!!" Starfire gripped onto the 'wings' on the side.

_FLASH!!!!_

Raven positioned herself in front of the craft and drifted backwards at a heart-stopping pace, all the time shoving against the friction-heated tip of the missile with a fountain of black energy.

"!!!!!!" Raven's entire forehead tensed with a wave of strain running down her body.

The pterodactyl got a firmer hold, morphed into a giant sloth, and started pounding the hull of the missile he was riding mercilessly. WHAM!!! WHAM!!! _WHAM!!!_

Starfire pulled and pulled and pulled at the side of the missile.

But in spite of all three's efforts, the missile stubbornly refused to veer off course by so much as an inch.

The thrusters flared brightly and sent the hulking weapon sailing outward….outward…and outward….before its inevitable trajectory sent it barreling down towards the distant white splotch of the hospital below.

**SHOOOOOOOOM!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Vic! My boy!! I've got you patched through!!"_

"Magnificent, old man!! I could kiss you!!"

"_Now don't go that far—"_

CLICK

Cyborg shut the communicator off and rapidly typed with flurrying left fingers across the computer console.

A tiny, green computer screen blipped and blooped as it attempted to lock onto the missile's computer guidance system with aide of the satellite frequency from Phaser Labs.

"Come to to Papa….," Cyborg hissed.

_VRRRRRMMMM-SCREEEEE-EEECH-__**VRMMMMM!!!!**_

He jerked his left hand, swerving the T-Car around obstacles madly as he crept closer to the missile high above one avenue at a time.

"Click through…connect, dammit! Connect!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We've got her!! We've got you both!!"

"I…c-can barely hold on…."

"Just a little more, man!"

"Nnnnghh!!"

The customer from the pawn shop and the Chinese Woman grabbed Daniel and Mrs. Fillmore. They pulled the two up and away from the rising smoke and flames.

The children rushed around their mother, hugging her to death.

Daniel lay sprawled on the gravel of the rooftop, clutching his one arm and wincing in pain. "Aahh….aaah….."

The whole building shook.

Cracks formed in the roof.

Heat vented through.

"It's gonna crumble!!"

"Move!! Move!!"

The man and woman hoisted Daniel to his legs.

Mrs. Fillmore and her children got up.

All six rushed across the rooftop, jumped a space, and landed awkwardly atop the Pawn Shop next door.

_CRASSSSSH!!!!_

The shop next door collapsed in smoke, ash, and splinters. Smoke billowed up intensely, eating its way darkly into the sky.

The six slumped down safely atop Daniel's and Renee's establishment. Panting.

Daniel was still clutching his arm.

"H-How….do you f-feel?" the man asked him breathily.

"Nnngh….," Daniel murmured. "D-Dislocated."

The man smiled tiredly.

Daniel gazed over at Mrs. Fillmore.

She sat between two sobbing children. Her dark face was wet. She shuddered towards him almost mutely: "Th-Thank you…..thank you….."

Daniel smirked crookedly. He raised his good hand and gave a thumb's up—

**SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**

Everyone gasped and looked straight up as a missile tangled with three flying Titans zoomed loudly overhead.

"My god…."

The Chinese woman muttered in her own language.

The man's eyes narrowed. "Is that thing…heading towards—"

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

They shook again as the T-Car rocketed down the street in front of the pawn shop and zoomed after the airborne weapon.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Why aren't connecting??" Cyborg sweat as his fingers kept dancing across the keyboard. "Damn your ass!!"

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

_Ding!!_

'_Connection Successful.'_

The android suddenly beamed. "Love your ass!! Love your ass!!"

He jammed his fingers across a magical set of keys.

The specs of the missile appeared in green wireframe models. Parts of it were highlighted. Cyborg drove himself deeper and deeper into the digital heart of the machine as he drove deeper and deeper into the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest was running back to the subway entrance.

He had completed two successful trips of escorting people.

It was time for his third.

He huffed and puffed and pointed into the mouth of the urban cave: "Okay…you're going next!!"

Lindsay shook her head. "Uh uh!! I want you to get the other people to the hospital first!!!"

"I don't know how many trips I may yet have to take!! I don't want you getting hurt if the stakes keep rising—"

"I'm not any greater liability than anyone else here, right?"

"………," Tempest faltered.

"Right???" Lindsay panted.

Tempest pointed and was about to say something—

**SHOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**

The rocket zoomed overhead.

The people cowering inside the mouth of the subway shrieked.

Tempest braced himself against a lamppost.

"The Hell??" he uttered.

_VRMMMMMMM!!!!!_

The Cyborg burned past him, kicking up dust and gravel.

Tempest gasped again. "The Double Hell!!!"

Lindsay gulped, clutching to the frame of the subway's entrance. "Better get going!!"

He finally gave in. "Right…..you, you, and _you_!! Let's go!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!!!!_

"Thruster protocols….Thruster controls….Thruster discharge…..GET MORE SPECIFIC ALREADY!!!" Cyborg panted.

Suddenly, the sound of his engine was being echoed.

"H-Huh??" he looked up, realizing he was momentarily too engrossed in the hacking process to notice--

"Shit almighty!!!"

The T-Car was barreling straight down a thin, brick alleyway at one hundred and thirty-five miles per hour. And two seconds ahead, the alleyway got twice as thin.

"NNNGH!!!" Cyborg slammed his right fist over a left 'arrow'.

PHWOOMP!!! Hydraulics to the T-Car's left wheels went off.

THWISH!!!

The T-Car leaned on its right tires. A forty-five degree angle. And in such an awkward position, it squeezed through the claustrophobic alleyway.

_SCRAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAPE!!!_

Sparks flew.

The rear mirrors snapped off.

The paint job faded to dull titanium in an instant.

Cyborg winced, trying his hectic best to maintain momentum.

….and then the computer image of the missile specs started to fluctuate and fade.

In the thin alleyway, the signal was being cut.

"No…come on, Baby!! Reconnect, dammit!!!"

WHAM!! CRASH!!!

The scraping T-Car barreled through two trash cans.

"RECONNECT!!!"

SCRAAA-AAAA-AAAAPE!!!

The monitor flickered…flickered…..and faded.

Cyborg's human eye widened--

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

The T-Car suddenly exploded out into a T-Intersection of open, urban roadway.

"NNNNGH!!!" Cyborg swung hard left.

The T-Car spun on two wheels, aligned with the street, and collapsed back onto all four tires.

THWOMP!!!

Cyborg shifted gears, inhaled, and slammed the gas.

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH-__**VRMMMMMMMMM!!!!**_

The wind picked up.

The speedometer rose.

"……"

_Zzzt!! Zzz-Zzzt!! Beeeeeeep-DING!_

The missile specs flashed back to life on the tiny monitor.

Cyborg gasped. "I love you, Baby!!!"

_SCREE-EEEECH!!!_

He swerved right onto a main straightaway and burned rubber down the open road.

Pursuing the missile.

He glanced up, panting.

He saw the three Titans clustered around the missile.

He gulped: "Hang on, guys. Just a l-little more…..thanks…."

He drove, typed, and tapped deeper into the thruster mechanisms of the weapon…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!**_

"Nnnnnghhh!!!" Starfire pulled frantically at the craft. "It is being….a m-most stubborn bomb today!!!"

"Don't let go….," Raven winced, maintaining her position at the head of the giant missile. Black energy splashed all around her as she pushed and pushed and pushed against the burning nose. "Keep working…t-together……..for Cyborg's move. F-For Cyborg's move…"

Suddenly, Beast Boy gasped in elf form—"Watch out!!!"

"H-Huh??" Starfire blinked.

A beating sound.

A heavier beating sound.

"…….," she glanced around.

**SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!!**

The black blades of the HIND glinted as it rose up behind the missile and—

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

"HOLD POSITIONS!!!" Raven shouted above the chaos.

Beast Boy shrieked and ducked his head, clutching to the missile.

**CLANG!!! P-PING!!! CLANK!!**

The heavy caliber bullets flashed and sparked off the hull of the weapon. They bounced all around Starfire.

"Star!!!!" Beast Boy shouted.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

The alien cringed and shook, still in one piece.

And then…

**CRACK!!!!**

A metal panel was ripped off the front of the missile by bullet fire. It sailed off and slammed into Starfire's body hard.

WHUMP!!!

"UGH!!!" the Tamaranian girl flew off the missile and plummeted to the streets below.

"N-No…..," Raven shuddered. Her eyes actually panicky.

Beast Boy panted. He looked at the falling Starfire. At the HIND. Then at Raven. He gulped with apologetic, glistening eyes. "I'm sorry, Raven!!!" he shouted in the wind. "But I can't let that thing kill us!! As long as one of us is alive, the missile won't hit the hospital!!"

"Beast Boy….don't—"

"Hang tight, Raven!!!" the changeling morphed into a gorilla, sprang off the missile, screamed, and landed against the cockpits of the helicopter. CLAMP!! "ROAAAAAAAR!!!!!" The huge simian slammed his hairy fists into the bubble cockpits and metal hull of the craft. WHAM!!! CLANK!!! SMACK!!!

The HIND veered left…right…then dove. Its blades beat heatedly beneath Raven and the missile momentarily before lowering dangerously to building level with the changeling riding.

Raven gulped….holding the entire force of the thrusting missile with just her shielding alone. She sweat all over….her cloak and hair billowing in the wind.

"Cyborg…..do it…..d-do it soon….," she wheezed. She forced her eyes closed in instant meditation. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos….Azarath Metrion Zinthos….A-Azarath….." She winced. The force of the wind overtook her. The madness and vibration of it all. She shuddered. "Cy-Cyborg…..hurry….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!**_

The HIND plummeted so low that it nearly hovered at street level. It continued to veer and jerk from side to side—quite used to having unwanted riders and now infinitely times as determined to lose them. It beat down the road thunderously, its giant girth and engines echoing against the buildingsides.

And…

In the silence behind it.

……..

SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!

**CRASH!!!!!**

Starfire landed, rolled like a skipping stone and—

_**CRAAAAAASH!!!!**_

Ground a long, deep crater into the asphalt.

She winced, her Tamaranian body bruised and scuffed all over. She sat up and rubbed her head. Pieces of her skirt and tanktop had been tattered. She weakly opened her eyes and gazed down the street at the throttling HIND with Beast Boy clutching to it.

"………," Starfire frowned. Her teeth showed. An emerald fire burned in her eyes. She gnashed her teeth: "In'vrm delatta siul threatta cal'x **mmty'r de X'Hal**!!!!!" Snarling, fists clenched, she soared over towards the side of the road where a telephone pole lay on its side from a smashed, black jeep. She charged her laser eyes and hotly cut a long length of telephone wire loose. **ZAAAP!! ZAAAP!!** She flew down, scooped two bundles of taut telephone wire up, lifted them in her mighty hands, and began to tie knots together as she soared after the HIND.

SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A green lion was now clawing and roaring at the cockpit windows atop the veering HIND. Its paws made sharp cuts in the glass, sending tiny shards sprinkling outward in every direction.

The helicopter dipped dangerously low, its bottom hull and wings clipping off the tops of three or four abandoned cars as it roared down the roadway. CL-CLANK!!! CRACK!!! CRUNCH!!

The impacts jolted the changeling, who suddenly found himself clutching on for dear life.

The HIND suddenly pulled up and pivoted to the right.

SCRAAAAAAPE!!!! The claws of the lion slipped and—

"ROAAAAR!!!" it roared, fell, and tumbled like a dropped bowling ball across the concrete.

The helicopter soared on down the road with a heavy beating of blades. It maintained its low altitude, as if the pilots were suddenly interested in a new prey ahead of them.

Beast Boy morphed into elf form, shook his head, and rubbed it.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

An emerald streak of fury zoomed past him, trailing what looked like a bundle of black cords.

"………….," Beast Boy blinked. "Huh??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yes….Y-Yes….," Cyborg muttered.

He drove wildly with one hand down the street alongside the missile.

With the other hand he broke in further and further with infiltrating the codes of the missile's guidance system.

"Come on….show me those protocols….that's on….."

A piece of the missile diagram on his dashboard's computer screen highlighted.

A magnification.

Schematics of thrust settings.

Customability options.

A password.

"Th-There!!" Cyborg slammed his finger onto the enter key.

A sup-program went into play, buzzing through thousands of six character combinations….slowly unlocking the password one digit at a time.

Cyborg smiled.

A beating sound.

Cyborg frowned.

A louder beating sound.

Cyborg had no rear mirrors left. Somewhere in the blurred confusion and chaos, he managed to turn and look over his shoulder.

The HIND had dipped low and it was practically on his tail.

"Ah PERFECT!!!"

The cannons rolled.

Cyborg gripped the wheels and jerked hard—

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

The T-Car swerved left. _SCREEEECH!!!_

The line of bullets exploded asphalt to the right and beyond the vehicle.

Cyborg jerked the other side. _SCREE-EECH!!_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

A string of bullets flew across the blurring street, sliced off a corner of the T-Car's rear, and shattered a buildingfront to the left.

The password was at two out of three characters unlocked.

"Nnngh!!!"

Cyborg grunted and slammed his fist onto a black button.

WHURRR-CLACK!!!

A panel in the rear of the T-Car slid open.

A dozen black ball bearings fell, bounced across the blurring asphalt, lifted up, and exploded in corrosive puffs of acidic gas.

_**SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!**_

The HIND beated through it. The already wrecked aircraft was far beyond _'immune'_. It rotated its cannons again.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Cyborg swerved left and right around humps of wreckage and abandoned cars.

The impervious string of cannon machine gun fire exploded through the junk and blew them aside to either side, giving the HIND a merciless path to soar after the T-Car with.

Cyborg panted. He looked at the computer screen.

The console beeped.

Three out of six characters unlocked.

"Almost there….," he hissed. Kl-Kl-Klak!!! He spun around while driving and fired his sonic cannon at the T-Car. "YAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

_ZAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAP!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

Raven strained and strained.

She pushed herself against the head of the missile.

Her black magic was gradually fading.

Her muscles giving away.

Her body weight demanding to give in to gravity and just….fall….

Panting, the normally meditative girl looked panickedly over her shoulder.

The hospital was in plain site. She could even see the thousands of figures crowded through the windows.

She was rapidly closing in on it….plummeting backwards…..

She took a deep breath. She faced the missile again and tensed her whole body.

"NNNNNGHHHH!!!!! AZARATH…..METRION……ZINTH—" she gasped before she could finish the last chant, for she had looked down and saw the HIND at the rear of the T-Car. The blue stream of a sonic cannon firing sporadically at the mechanical monster. The blades leaning forward and nearly slicing the tiny vehicle to ribbons.

"Be strong, Cyborg…..H-Hang in there….," she shuddered. "Everyone is depending on you."

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

The black tendrils.

The air rushing.

The blades beating.

The sonic cannon….

"Everyone….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!" Cyborg unleashed stream after stream of sonic fury.

_ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!_

"Come and catch me, you big, rusted, son of a bitch!!!!"

_ZAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAP!!!!!_

The HIND veered left and right, avoiding the blasts. Its beating blades filled the air with a furious thunder.

Cyborg aimed at it again. Panting. His human eye squinting—

Beeeep!!

"???" Cyborg turned and looked at the computer console.

Four out of six characters.

"…..," he exhaled.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Three bullets traced, missed, missed, and hit--

**CRACK!!!!** Cyborg's arm cannon exploded from the bulletfire.

"AAAAAAAH!!!!" he convulsed and slumped to the right against his sparking, cracked limb.

His left hand jerked loosely on the steering wheel.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!_

The T-Car veered right, ramped over a pile of rubble, and drove awkwardly over the sidewalk…slamming over a dozen street signs in succession.

CRACK!!! THWACK!!! WH-WHAM!!! CRUNCH!!!

Cyborg hissed in pain, sparking all over. With his one in-tact arm, he jerked left once more.

_SCREEEEEECH-VRMMMMMM!!!_

The HIND was catching up.

Cyborg panted, lifting his useless arm up….writhing.

_**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!**_

"!!!!" Cyborg glanced back down the blurred road.

The HIND had gotten so close that the pilots decided to tilt the nose down so that the humongous black blades sliced closer and closer and closer to the rear of the T-Car.

The beating sound wracked Cyborg's titanium skeleton.

_**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!!**_

Lamppost were knocked aside by the huge blade and fell down in splashes of sparks.

Newspaper stands shattered and helpless, abandoned cars ripped to aluminum noodles.

CRACK!!! SLIIIIICE!!! CRUNNNNCH!!!

Cyborg panted. He flicked his shattered arm.

_CRKKK!!!_

The cannon portion detached from his elbow. A light inside blinked.

Cyborg gritted his teeth and jerked his arm back. "From my mother with love, punk!!!"

KLA-AACK!! THWOOOOSH!! His shattered right arm flew off, twirled in the air, beeped, blinked, and exploded against the helicopter's blades.

_**BOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The HIND shook. The blades wobbled, licking flames. The whole aircraft lifted and drew back a few more meters, still pursuing.

Driving madly with one arm, Cyborg panted. He lifted his right stub. He winced. He twisted his elbow.

_THRICK-KK!!_

A skeletonous, spare 'hand' of aluminum snuck out of his stub. Two bony metal finger stuck out, sparked, and were shoved straight into a slot in the dashboard.

A blue light flickered to life.

The nitro cannons in the back of the T-Car stuttered and struggled to come to life.

"Come on! Come on, baby!!" Cyborg panted. Sweated. He glanced at the computer console.

Still four out of six character of the password.

"Come on!! Work with me!! Work with me!!"

The nitro still struggled.

The HIND lifted some.

"…..," Cyborg glanced from steering back at the craft.

Two hellseekers started to flare.

"Not now….not after all this time!!!" Cyborg shouted.

The hellseekers shook.

The wing clasps released.

"Come onnnnnnnn!!!!" Cyborg yelled.

His skeletal fingers sparked in the slots.

The nitro flickered blue flame….sputtered…and vomited azure plasma.

_**PWHOOOOOOM!!!**_

The HIND launched the missiles--

**FW-FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!**

But just as it launched the two missiles, the entire HIND lurched, jerked, and fell back rapidly.

The two missiles were fired at an awkward angle.

One twirled, spiraled in the air, and slammed explosively in the ground.

_**BOOOOM!!!!**_

The other flew up from the explosion, evened out, blinked, found its target, and sailed out violently in pursuit of the distant speck that was the nitro-boosted T-Car down the long road.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The pilots inside the HIND gasped and worked frantically with each other to recover their aircraft. They jerked at the controllers and did every thing they could to upright the helicopter.

But the vehicle merely lurched back and back, wobbling in mid-air, the blades rotating awkwardly. And--

CRAAACK!!!

The hull slammed into the asphalt of the street.

The metal of the helicopter grinded against the concrete.

The rotar blades suddenly worked against it.

The chopper spun a donut, its hind blades slicing through telephone poles, traffic lights, and abandoned cars.

Sparks flew.

Metal screeched and scraped.

The HIND rolled and rocked on the ground before eventually hovering back up three stories and slowly drifting in the direction of a bundle of telephone wires that had lassoed its long, metallic tail when it was unaware.

The 'lasso' of wires was being held firmly by a Tamaranian girl with gnashing teeth and burning eyes. "You shall learn to be tame, you murderous, oversized _chlorbag!!!!_"

The pilots signaled to each other. They grabbed the controls.

The beat-up HIND tilted its head down and rotated its machine gun cannons--

"RRRRRGHHHH!!!" Starfire screamed and yanked left with the wires.

SWIIIIISH-CRASH!!! The helicopter was slammed into the southern row of buildings.

"RAAAAAAUGH!!!" Starfire coiled the wires around her arms and yanked right.

SWOOOOOSH-SLAM!!! Sparks flew as the HIND hit the other side.

Starfire prepared to yank the helicopter mercilessly towards her super-strong figure with a mountainous fist raised--

**SHOOOOOM!!!!! **A missile was launched at her.

Starfire's eyes went wide. She panted, dropped the wires, leapt back, and deflected the missile upwards with two fists. "RRRRGHHH!!!" CL-CLANK!!! The missile spiraled upward, twirled in the air above the street, and---**BAM!!!!**

Ashes and trails of flame fell.

The HIND wasted no time. It rose up, aimed its twin machine guns, and—

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Starfire hissed, flared green in her eyes, and shot a steady beam of optic blasts that ate into the incoming streams of high caliber bullets. _ZAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!_ The projectiles exploded in mid-air gradually towards the source of their firing…until the HIND stopped firing and Starfire stopped unleashing her optic blasts with a gasp.

The helicopter's blades beat the air loudly.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" the Tamaranian warrior screamed back, two fists glowing with blinding starbolts.

The HIND unleashed its entire arsenal.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!! **_

_**SHOOOOOOOOM!!!!! **_

_**THWOOOOOOOSH!!!  
**__**  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

Starfire let warcry after warcry out into the vibrating air as she advanced on the craft, unleashing optic blasts, starbolts, and energy blasts with wild abandon. FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!! ZAAAAAAP!!!

The HIND was actually backing away from the redheaded Titan, unleashing stream after stream of high caliber bullets and hellseekers in a desperate attempt to hold her back.

But she kept charging, unleashing stream after stream of hideous alien strength. Eating through the HIND's arsenal. The sharpest stings of Dagger.

The street was catching aflame in three dozen different places. Falling clouds of plasma and shrapnel caused cars and vans and other vehicles to explode and melt. Windows shattered and buildingfronts crumbled from the intense one-on-one battle.

And Starfire got so close that she was practically kissing the HIND's black rotary blades.

The pilots saw this, and suddenly jerked the craft forward.

_**SWOOOOOSH!!**_

Starfire gasped and shot up two palms of glowing energy.

**CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!** She nakedly beat the blades back with her palms before leaping back, gasping. Her hands were red. Literally smoking. She thought of blowing on them--

**SWOOOOOSH!!!**

She looked up.

Emerald eyes widened.

Two hellseekers slammed into the ground at her feet and exploded.

"AAAAA—"

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The HIND lifted up victoriously.

The alien girl was lost in the fire and smoke.

_**PHWOOOOOOM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on!! Come on!!"

"You can see it from up here!!!"

The officers motioned from atop a tall mound of rubble.

The Lieutenant rushed up, panting.

Robin and I ran up last.

We watched—breathless—from atop the tall pile of junk.

A straight line of smoke and fire and ash stretched westward from the east side of the City towards where the hospital was located. We could see the missile with black splashes of telekinesis plummeting towards the hospital building. A blue-streak of a T-Car was rocketing after it with nitro fury. And nearly a mile away was a tall plume of flame where the HIND levitated.

But Starfire….

Robin's jaw dropped.

He dropped his metal staff.

Cl-Clank!!

"…….," I looked helplessly at him.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VRMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!**_

Cyborg could barely keep his human eye open against the g-force and heavy wind of speeding with the nitro.

He fought to keep his spare right hand above the computer console while keeping at least half of his attention on the blurring road ahead.

The hospital was looming up swiftly into view beyond a row of imperious gates lining a canal.

"End….of the road….," he struggled to utter. He looked at the computer console.

Beep!

Five out of six character.

"Jesus of Nashville…………..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!!!!!**_

The HIND hovered around the street. Pivoting around. The pilots craning their helmeted heads from the inside.

Looking.

Looking….

Looking……..

For her body.

The helicopter pivoted towards the far side of the road.

It hovered over a plume of dark smoke and flame.

A beat.

A pair of hot green eyes glowed from within the plume of smoke.

The eyes glowed brighter.

"Rrghhhhh….._**DE X'HALLLLLLL!!!!!!"**_ SWOOOOOOOOSH!!! Starfire soared out.

The HIND pivoted around.

The Tamaranign girl skirted the cratered asphalt, fist outstretched and glowing.

The HIND tilted its head forward and fired.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Starfire soared underneath and past the offset stream of lead.

P-P-PING!!! CLANK!!! CR-CRACK!!!

The HIND lowered itself, tilting forward.

The beating black blades closed in on the street.

"Nnnngh!!!" Starfire flew low, her chest practically grazing with the concrete. SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

She passed under the helicopter right as the blades touched the concrete and spilled sparks. **CL-CL-CLANK!!!**

Starfire grunted, rolled, landed on her feet, and ran straight towards the building nearly touching the rear of the forward-tilted craft.

The HIND hoverted, untilting. Blind.

Starfire held her breath, carried herself on momentum, and ran up the buildingside. Her green-glowing feet made contact with the shattered surface of the structure. She ran up the wall towards the tail of the helicopter. She gasped. She leapt off…flew up towards the tail rotor…spread her limbs….blinked….and brought them together.

_**SLAP!!!**_

Starfire's arms and legs clasped over the helicopter's tail-rotor in mid spin, freezing it in place.

She hung upside down for a second…two seconds…

"RGHHHHHHH!!!!"

She twisted her body and---

_**SNAP!!! **_

_**SHATTER!!!!!**_

Broke the rear rotor and a hulking piece of the tail clear off.

She twirled and fell to the ground amidst a shower of shrapnel and debris.

The HIND lots counterbalance. Its hulking exoskeleton spun helplessly off its black rotor blades. It spiraled and spun down…down…down…across the street. It tilted. It groaned. The blades hit the concrete earth first, dug in, snapped off—_**CRACK-CRACK-CRACK-CRA-ACK-CRACKKKK!!**_

SWOOOOOSH!! Starfire fell. PLOP!! She landed in a full-body crouch, all fours holding her up.

The helicopter morphed into the earth behind her, ruptured, sparked, and screamed in flaming agony—

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! **_

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

The entire street lit up from the fiery death of Dagger's aircraft. A plume of plasma and smoke ruptured up to the sky. Challenging what was turning out to be a sighing sunset.

Starfire stared, panting, the flames flickering against her glass eyes. Her hair tangled and knotted over her brow and tattered two piece. "……..," she collapsed against the asphalt with a groan. "Nnngh…."

The victorious hunter.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg panted.

The nitro sputtered to death.

The front panels of the T-Car were starting to peel off.

The last tires were wearing to their metal rims.

The fence…the last barrier….stretched before him.

Sweat ran down Cyborg's human brow.

His lips quivered. "Please….G-God…."

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

_Ding!!_

Cyborg looked down.

He gasped.

'_Password found.'_

'_Correct match.' _

'_Access to thruster protocols granted---'_

SWOOOSH!!

Cyborg's right hand flew over and slammed on the keyboards.

He cut the thrusters to the missile off by remote.

All of them.

Completely and utterly off.

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!!

'_Protocols overridden……'_

Cyborg then flipped the communicator and shouted: "It's a go!!! Rae!! It's a go!!! Knock that thing out of left field!!!!"

The android Titan then yanked hard at the wheel to the T-Car for all it was worth.

"NNNNNGH!!!"

He slammed on the brakes.

SCREEEEEE-EEEEEEE-EEEEEEEECH!!!!!!

The T-Car spun and spun and spun and spun, forming a double-helix of tire burn marks on the road behind him as he maddeningly attempted to slow his insane momentum before striking the inevitable.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven gasped.

**TH-TH-TH-THWIFFFFFTTTT-SNKKKKTTT!!!**_**  
**_  
The flaring, amber thrusters to the huge missile cut off.

The white aura of the hospital's rooftop loomed in her peripheral vision.

Raven let out a scream, summoned a huge pulse of black energy, and pushed up at the missile.

FLAAAAAASH!!!!

The missile slowly…gradually….tilted up….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEE-EEEEEE-EEEEEEEECH!!!!!!_

The T-Car spun and spun and spun and spun.

The fence barrier loomed.

The air heated up from the spiraling friction.

"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Cyborg shouted.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhh……..

The T-Car spiraled two last times, rolled, tipped over—tapped against the fence, lingered, and fell back on its upended side.

_Thwump!!_

Cyborg gasped.

And he was still.

Dead still.

The convertible T-Car steaming on all sides of him.

He blinked, his titanium hands stuck to the wheel.

He panted…panted…panted….

"……"

He looked up.

He saw the missile sailing towards the hospital.

And Raven…..

Pushing it up….up….up….

At the last second.

Cyborg gasped and shouted: "Yeah!! YEAAAAAH!!" he raised his one whole hand. "Save the day, Cutie!! SAVE THE FRICKIN' DAY!!! HAAAA HA HA HA!!!"

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

"????" Cyborg looked ahead. His jaw dropped.

The HIND's hellseeker missile…….….left over long ago from when the T-Car went into nitro………....caught up with him. Its incoming nose glinted.

Cyborg's voice exhaled…

Like a deflating flower softly discovering itself……

"…………..Oh."

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH-**__**KABLAAAAAM!!!!!**_

The hellseeker sailed into the cockpit of the T-Car.

The vehicle exploded from the inside out in a brilliant fireball that sent metal shards flying everywhere for the next seven blocks around.

And then the thunder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghhhh!!!" Raven struggled. Sweating. Panting. Her whole face looking like it was going to cave in. "Can't….p-push it!!!"

FL-FL-FLASH!! Her powers flickered. After the long haul, she barely had the strength to make the missile budge. It tilted upward and upward…but not enough. It momentum was still carrying it—and the dark girl—towards the top level of the hospital.

"Nnnngh!!! Azarath….M-Metrion……," Raven couldn't finish. Her limbs were giving out. Her body was throbbing.

The white surface of the hospital loomed. Inside, a few screaming citizens fled the window frames for some unsafe location elsewhere in the vulnerable building.

Raven twitched. She stated to slip from the nose of the missile. Her powers fading. Her limbs—

"_SKRIIIIII!!!!!"_

She gasped. Her violet eyes pulsed.

A green streak soared upwards from the City. An emerald pterodactyl. The changeling soared up at the missile in a gravity-defying, reverse dive.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!! CL-CLANK!!!

The pterodactyl's head slammed into the bottom of the missile, shoving the projectile upwards.

Raven was jolted with a gasp.

"SKRIIII!!!" Beast Boy swooped up, grasped her cloak by the talons, and swung her down and away to safety.

THWOOOOSH!!! The missile leap-frogged over the hospital.

Dangling from bobbing talons, Raven spun and looked over her shoulder at the weapon.

It flew up…up…up……..and grazed the edge of the building's roof.

CLANK!!!

Raven gasped, a hand over her lips.

CL-CLANK!!! The live missile skipped across the rooftop, slid across it, scraaaaaaaped its way over the gravel, flew off the other edge, and went twirling like an ill-swung cricket bat through the glinting sunlight and into a deep, man-made lake beyond where it plummeted into the hard waters and—

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

Raven winced.

The pterodactyl lifted them both higher.

A huge vortex of boiling water lifted from the lake, fountained outward, and harmlessly drenched the windows and western building face of the white complex.

And then…all was still.

……

FWOOOOSH!!!

Beast Boy lowered Raven to the top of an office building across the street…then collapsed beside her in elf form, panting.

"………"

"………"

"………."

The two Titans slowly got up to their knees, dazed.

Raven shuddered.

Beast Boy gulped. "This day…..This day is Hell…..please….t-tell me it's over…..tell me th-that it's all over….."

"…………."

"R-Raven??"

The girl was staring at something. A smoking something. A hot smoking something that—at one time—was the T-Car.

Beast Boy crawled over, gazed out, and saw the smoldering ruins. His jaw hung wide. "Dude….oh no….oh God no….."

Raven's lips quivered. "Cyborg?"

No answer.

She blinked. Usually steady hands began to shake and convulse. "Cy-Cyborg??"

Still no answer….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lindsay came to a stop, trembling.

Tempest and three other members of the 'last hospital trip' froze in the middle of a brightly lit alleyway. A row of nervous pigeons nestled in the corner.

"What is it??" Tempest uttered.

Lindsay clasped her hands together. "The hospital. Th-There was a huge explosion. Did you hear it?"

The other citizens trembled nervously.

"It was nothing but water…," Tempest said, his ears craned. "The hospital's still standing."

"H-How do you know??" another person murmured.

Tempest smirked. "Trust me. I know."

Lindsay swallowed a nervous lump down her throat. She suddenly found herself leaning against Tempest.

"????" Tempest glanced down at her. He took a deep breath, stroked her hair, and said: "Come on….l-let's hurry…"

"Yeah…..," she shuddered.

He wrapped an arm around her protectively and led her ahead of the other three. "We're almost there. Don't worry—"

Then the pigeons scattered.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!!  
_  
Suddenly, the three innocent citizens behind the Atlantean and the freckled faced girl danced in place as their bodies were riddled with red-splotching bullets.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!_

Tempest and Lindsay spun around.

Wide eyed.

The three people fell down in their own juices.

Lindsay screamed.

Tempest panted. He looked up.

Three shadows with guns jumped off the building top.

"LINDSAY!!" Tempest gnashed his teeth and tossed her into a brick-lain corner. "GET DOWN!!!"

She stumbled on all fours, watching fearfully.

"RRRRRGH!!!" Tempest charged.

The men aimed uzzis and fired—_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!_

"YAAAUGH" Tempest flipped over them, slammed his feet into the chest of the middle man, jumped up off his body, spun, and side-kicked the other two harshly across their cheeks. THW-THWAP!!!

All three men collapsed.

Pigeons fluttered over the scene.

Two more rushed out from around a nearby corner.

_An ambush……._

Tempest spun, snarling--

BLAM!!! BL-BLAM!!

BLAM!!

He ducked the shotgun blasts that slammed into the brick walls behind him. He rolled across the floor, grabbed the lid to a trash can, and tossed-shouting-like a Frisbee across the two men's faces.

WHAP!! WHAP!!

They stumbled back.

Tempest charged them, fists swinging.

THWACK!!

WHAM!!

Lindsay watched, trembling. She turned her head. She saw something. She shrieked--

"???" Tempest spun. He turned completely and looked---

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSHHHH!!!_

Tempest's white pupil dilated.

_A dagger……_

THUNK!!!!

It tore its way deep into Tempest's upper thigh.

"NNNNNGHHHH!!!" Tempest gripped the hilt. He slumped back against the alleyway's brick wall and fell onto his butt.

Lindsay shook.

Tempest panted. He tried to pull the blade out--

_Step-Step-Step---__THWUMP!!!_ Dagger's dark black boot slammed ont the hilt of the blade.

"**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaHAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!"** Tempest's mouth screamed to the sky, his dark eyes clenched shut in torture.

"…….," Dagger leaned in darkly. Coldly. He put pressure on his foot….which was propped up atop the hilt of the knife eating its way into Tempest's upper leg. "…..you're out of your element."

Tempest winced, shook, convulsed, panted….panted….panted….

He forced his tortured eyes open. He glared at Dagger from an angle. Shaking. His voice wavered like paper stretched to tear. "What….What….Wh-What do y-y-you want from m-me???"

The beaten thugs slowly oozed up to their feet. The pigeons settled back down to the alleyway rooftops. Peering down. Cooing. Normal-eyed gun men glared menacingly in a halo around Dagger with their guns aimed.

Lindsay trembled, breathless.

"Want??" Dagger icily said. "I never _want_ things…Atlantean….." He put more pressure on his foot.

"NnnnnghhHHHHHAAA!!!" Tempest twitched and convulsed in pain. His thigh was on fire.

Dagger's eyes narrowed. "I _get_ things. And you….you are going to get me the Titans…..right……here……"

Tempest panted….panted……panted……

Dagger pulled out Robin's stolen communicator from the rooftop battle. He held it out in the Atlantean's twitching face.

"Call….the Titans….here……"

Tempest writhed. He clenched his jaw, sweating bullets. Struggling to snarl.

"………..," Dagger applied more weight.

"NNNGHHH!!" Tempest tilted his head up. His eyes were tense. Tears streamed. He hyperventilated….hyperventilated….

"I've already stolen your ability to swim….," Dagger gestured at the Titan's torn leg. "Don't make me snuff out the rest of your mudsucking life." His lips hissed. "Call the Titans….here….."

"I….w-would never…be-….be-…be-….," Tempest struggled, sweat, bled, and spat: "…be-betray my FRIENDS….snkkt…..nngh…….."

More weight.

"NNNGHHH!!! GAAAAAH!!!" Tempest writhed all over. "NEPTUNE!!! NNNGHHH!!!"

Dagger leaned back. "Very well then…." He held his free hand out. He snapped his finger.

Two guards rushed over.

Tempest's eyes trailed them moistly.

They grabbed Lindsay. They hoisted her up to her trembling legs.

Tempest exhaled.

The guards forced the struggling teen to Dagger's side.

Dagger flicked his wrist.

_SNRKKT!!_

Tempest froze.

Dagger held a knife to Lindsay's belly.

The girl trembled, pale all over. Sniffing.

"Call the Titans….," Dagger droned, "…or I will kill your brand new friend."

"You……will not….t-t-touch her…..," Tempest hissed.

Dagger's expression never changed. He hissed: "I will carve a ravine from her vagina to her throat. And I will make you the first living thing to taste her entrails……"

Lindsay was breathless.

Tempest blinked.

"….unless……you do exactly….as I say…."

"……….."

Dagger pressed the blade to her womb.

She stiffened.

"Call the Titans…….."

Tempest looked at Lindsay.

He looked at the communicator.

He convulsed.

He shook.

Lindsay's lips moved.

Whispering.

'_N-No.'_

'_Don't do it.'_

'_Please.'_

"Call the Titans…."

Tempest shook.

He looked at Lindsay.

He looked at the knife.

He looked at the communicator.

He gulped.

"…..Now."


	174. Hand and Dagger part 11

**174. Hand and Dagger part 11**

"…………."

I froze.

Blinking.

My reflection.

I was gazing at the half-shattered, glass display of a passing storefront.

I stared at myself. My disheveled black hair. My combat fatigues scraggly and worn. My pant legs and Myrkblade stained in blood.

There was a red cut across my lower right cheek from where Dagger had 'greeted' me on the rooftop.

I fingered it with a metal hand, winced, and exhaled.

_That's gonna leave a scar._

"Star??"

"…….," I turned and looked.

Robin panted. He ran across the street and knelt besides the tattered, bandaged Tamaranian's side. "St-Star!!" he cradled her upper body on his lap.

"Nnnngh…," she stirred.

"Stick with me!" he uttered breathily. "Say something!"

"Mmmf…," her green eyes fluttered open weakly. "Take me to your leader…."

Robin smiled crookedly and hugged her.

"……………," I looked past the two.

The burnt shell of the HIND helicopter lay in smoking ruins across an adequately desolate street. The setting sun warmly sobbed over the melting sight. The sounds of gunshots and explosions lessened a bit in the background and gave in to an eerie sense of silence as if something deadly had died twice over.

The Lieutenant and his men marched through the ruins with assault rifles like some obtuse snapshot out of a World War II drama. The Lieutenant paused by my side, gazed at Starfire and Robin, sighed, and spoke to me: "The men and I are patrolling west. We're going to go swing by Phaser Labs and check in with the people there. Then we'll head back down to the hospital. By now, we should have had a communications depot set up. If all goes to plan, the National Guard will be here by sundown."

I nodded silently.

"If you ask me…," Johnson shuddered from the rear of the group. "We c-can't defend this place all on our own! N-Not this Hell!! We gotta call the Justice League or something!!"

"The Justice League??"

"The enemy is everywhere still!! Who knows how many more death traps or military hardware th-they might have up their sleeves!! It's just too much to take—"

"We are not calling the Justice League…," Robin slurred.

The officers looked his way.

The Boy Wonder stood up with a wobbly-but recovering Starfire.

"Are seven superheroes not enough for you?" Robin uttered. "I promise you…we have this City under control."

"Under control?!?!" an officer cackled. "You call this under control?!?! This is a warzone, you little caped nerd!!! You think your ego is going to take back the hundreds of innocent lives massacred today—"

The Lieutenant held his arm out and silenced the man. "This little 'caped nerd' and his allies are the one thing that have saved _all of us_ multiple times throughout this day."

"…………………"

The Lieutenant took a deep breath: "I know that this is a nightmare. And I know that it's tough….It's especially tough since Decker's gone. I want to be a better inspiration to you all. And if I failed…then…..well…..let history so say. But as for this City….it has always been a warzone. But the Titans weren't the ones to throw the first stone. We're all together on this….against a common enemy. Let's let the accusations or disrespect—if any exist—show up later. Right now…we need to move." The Lieutenant pointed westward. "Phaser Labs or bust." He looked the our way. "And what about you??"

"…….," I glanced back at Robin and Starfire.

Robin took a deep breath. "With the missile stopped…..we…we need to regroup."

"Cyborg…Beast Boy….," Starfire blinked. She gazed at Robin. "Raven…..where are they? A-Are they safe? Did we succeed?"

"You Titans do what's best," the Lieutenant said. "My men and I are heading out. Until then…Godspeed."

The men nodded.

I saluted weakly, leaning against a lamppost besides the smoking ashes.

As the policemen trotted off, Robin led Starfire over to a bench that has miraculously survived the nearby battles, set her down, and whipped out the communicator that I gave him. "I'm thinking if we all gather at the hospital too, we can form a defense perimeter around it since that is where the largest group of people is. Then we can send Titans out in groups of two to migrate the citizens in the Central Bank back over to the hospital while at the same time scouting out for more of Dagger's men to silence."

"D-Do you think they w-will ever regain their consciousness from the D-Dragonflare's effects?" Starfire murmured.

"I don't know, Star. I really don't…," Robin prepared to send a message out…but paused when he noticed something on the communicator's sensors.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Robin??" Starfire blinked. "What is it?"

"Funny….," Robin murmured. "Cyborg's communicator isn't showing to be active."

Starfire raised a hand to her wrists. "But…B-But is not his communicator built into his person?"

"Yeah, Starfire, it is…."

Her eyes widened.

I bit my lip.

"………………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!!!

Raven and Beast Boy flew down to the sight of the burning wreckage.

The scattered remains of the T-Car smoldered across the open street in melting metal pools.

"Cyborg???" Raven panted, lifting chunks of burnt metal with telekinesis.

"Cy!!" Beast Boy morphed through a dozen different heavy organisms as he lifted and upended as many chunks of debris that he could with paws, hooves, and tentacles. "Cy!! Say something!! We know y-you're here somewhere!!"

"Nnnnghh!!" Raven concentrated, trying to lift the heaviest hulk of charred T-Car yet with her greatly weakened magic. She lost her control of the dark, translucent talons and fell back on her rear. Hyperventilating.

Beast Boy looked over. He ran over the ashes and knelt by her. "Raven…t-take it easy. We'll find him!!"

Raven winced. "I should have kn-known…," she breathed. "He was g-going to sacrifice everything f-from the get go….he was so heavy headed….so one-tracked….."

"Stop talking in the past tense!!!" Beast Boy squealed, hyperventilated, swallowed, and shook her shoulders as he said: "Cyborg isn't dead!! He's far too badass and superfly-invincible to go kerplunk!! He's just….uhm….under one of th-these burning chunks of metal or something!!"

Raven shuddered, her eyes closed. "He is alive…."

Beast Boy blinked.

Raven exhaled again. "He's alive…."

"He is??" Beast Boy said. He promptly winced. "I-I mean…of course he is! But….j-just how do you---?"

Raven pointed a shaking finger at the largest piece of T-Car scrap. "Underneath that. His soul. I….s-sense it…."

Beast Boy looked at the pile…then at Raven. He squeezed her shoulders. "Stand back!!" He stood up, flexed his elfin limbs, and enlarged into a snarling T-Rex.

Raven braced herself as the earth shook from the immense dinosaur's movement.

The changeling swung his snout, snatched the chunk of metal in his teeth, and lifted the heavy object till it fell over and landed on the wayside of the charred street.

He then morphed back into the green elf, stammering with wide-eyes: "Dude…."

"……….," Raven hobbled up to her feet and floated over.

Her lips were agape.

The android Titan lay smoldering. His right arm was completely shattered and sparking. His metal feet were half melted. He had burns and cut marks all through his human flesh. His red eye was dim and his mouth hung open as he simply lay there…smoking….

"This guy….," Beast Boy gulped, "….is a juggernaut."

Raven took a deep breath. "He isn't doing well."

"You think?!?!"

Raven knelt down and pressed her fair head to his chest. Her eyes narrowed. A beat. "His artificial circulation is barely whirring. I think his power source has been fried."

"B-But doesn't that usually just put him to sleep?"

"He's been hit at point blanc by a **missile**, Beast Boy," Raven hissed. "If his body shuts down _now_, it'll be **permanent**!"

Beast Boy blinked.

Silence…..

"_Snkkkkt—Titans! Come in! This is Robin!!"_

"YEEP!!" Beast Boy jumped. He shook, shivered, whipped out his communicator, and uttered: "Uh…dude? Kind of bad timing."

"_Why?? What's wrong??"_

"Cyborg's wrong…," Raven stood up, nervously smoothing whatever was left of her tattered blue robe. "And if we don't help him quickly, soon he won't be anything."

"_Titans, you stopped the missile! What's the condition of Cyborg??"_

"That's still pending!!" Beast Boy cackled. "Look, if you're so worried about Cyborg and crap why don't you come here, man?!?! I hate being split up like this!! A whole City full of green-eyed Jeffery Dahmers with turrets syndrome is gradually picking us off one by one!!"

"_Beast Boy, calm down. See what you and Raven can do about Cyborg. We'll meet up with you as soon as we can. Starfire, Noir, and I. I __**promise.**__" _

"We have to go now, Robin," Raven said firmly. The strength of the dark girl's voice returning. "Over and out."

"_Wait a sec---"_

Raven snatched the communicator and shut it off.

Beast Boy's mouth hung open. "Wh-Wh-What was that for?"

"An end to wasting time…," Raven grunted. She gazed down at Cyborg's body. "We must get him to help. FAST."

Beast Boy panted. He turned around. He gazed at the still-standing, white hospital building. He pointed with his thumb: "There she blows!! Stand back!! I'll turn into a pterodactyl and—"

"They won't help any….," Raven shook her head. "Not Cyborg. Not with what he needs."

Beast Boy shrugged dramatically. "Then who CAN help??"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!!!!!

The concrete shield doors fell down hard.

In the hallways of Phaser Labs, four guards with high-end tasers flinched and aimed at the smoking entranceway.

Suddenly, Simon Stone's construct flickered holographically on a pedestal besides them and raised a glowing arm.

"_No! Wait!! H-Hold your fire!!"_

The men shook and shivered.

Through the smoke, Beast Boy rushed in….morphing from a huge green rhino to the normal elf. He stood atop the doors he just smashed in and panted. "Ya know…you guys should really up your security."

Stone's holographic head leaned to the side. _"What's going on?? What are you doing here??"_

A guard pointed and uttered: "By smashing down those gates, you're liable to bring the warzone straight into Phaser Labs!!"

Raven's voice droned icily: "Deal with it."

Everyone looked up.

The dark girl drifted in…and she had Cyborg's twisted, mangled body floating in after her in tow.

Simon's jaw dropped. He flickered and shook his head. _"Oh God no…."_

"His power cells are draining…," Raven frowned. "Soon he will be dead."

"You gotta fix him, dude!!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

Simon Stone's construct flickered…stammered…

"HELLLLOOOOO?!?!"

"_R-Right! Of course!!"_ the construct 'panted'. He spun around and pointed down the hallway with a glowing arm. _"Open the security gates between here and Lab C-1!! Get Mendez and Blair over here!! They can help with their strength for what I need to do!!"_

"But sir, all of our energy reserves are on hold for emergency lockdown in case of a—"

"_This is my god damn nephew, you sniveling little turd!!!"_ the hologram's electronic voice cackled. _"He's the last ounce of flesh my dying family has. You will do what I say or I assure you….there won't be anything left in these labs to lockdown!!!"_

"Calm your emotions….," Raven said to the computer construct…a rather redundant thing. But she didn't take note of it. She floated over with Cyborg's body. "Let's get him fixed. Okay??"

"…………_,"_ Simon nodded. _"Follow me…."_

The hologram flickered down a path of holographic pedestals.

The guards parted ways as Beast Boy and Raven both 'carried' Cyborg down the emergency-strobing hallways of Phaser Labs.

"Don't worry, Cy…it's gonna be okay….you'll make it through….," Beast Boy uttered. A beat. He blinked over at Raven. "R-Right?"

"…………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin, Starfire, and I trudged through the rubble of the City…westward.

"It's better that we all meet up at Phaser Labs anyways," Robin said. "With the facilities there…we might be able to come up with something to overcome the insurgents. Simon Stone is a smart man. Who knows if he doesn't already have something hatching up his sleeve."

"Robin….I must inquire…."

"Yes, Star?"

She swallowed nervously: "Do we still h-have the prerogative of 'lethal force'?"

"…………….."

I took a deep breath, walking ahead of them. Not looking back.

"Yes, Star. Until this mayhem is over with, we must protect the citizens….._at all costs_."

"I…I understand…."

"The helicopter, Star…..you did what you had to do."

"You need not lecture me on that, Robin….," Starfire sighed and ran a hand through her crimson bangs. "It just…just…."

"What, Star?"

"It harkens back to memories of the War…," she shuddered. "The Gordanian and Citadelian invasions on my home planet. The Psions. I….I-I almost thought that all of that was behind me."

Robin hung his head, swallowed, and looked up at her: "Maybe…M-Maybe some of your friends can now understand a little bit what it was like to have gone through what you did, Star."

"P-Perhaps…..," Starfire said. A beat. Her green eyes lingered nervously on my figure.

But I wasn't looking at her at the time.

She gazed away from me and leaned—trembling—against Robin as they walked. "I love my friends….I so truly do…."

Robin gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

She sniffed.

A beat.

"_Snkkkt……"_

We paused at the side of the street.

"……_snkktt……hello??"_

We looked at each other.

"_Snkkt……T-Titans? Come in, please!"_

Starfire gasped. "T-Tempest??"

Robin swiftly whipped out the communicator.

I leaned forward, curious…

"Tempest?? This is Robin!! Where the Hell have you been!!"

"_Snnkt---caught underground, Robin. I had my fins b-busy with more citizens than you can shake a stick at. Don't worry. They're safe now. I escorted them to the hospital."_

"Friend!!" Starfire leaned over Robin's shoulder and beamed. "We are most elated to hear that you are alive and well and—"

Robin gently pushed her back and spoke into the communicator: "We've tried contacting you all day!! You should always have a communicator with you no matter what the circumstance!! Even when you're 'going out' with new friends of yours!! You never know when something horrendous like today may happen!!"

"_Snkkkt—Look, Robin. I'm in a bit of a jam here."_

"What kind of a jam?"

I blinked.

A pause.

"_There are…lots of citizens……l-lots of citizens here that need to be escorted to the hospital. Far too many than I can do alone."_

"How'd you find them?"

"_They were………………h-hiding underneath a bus terminal."_

"Bus terminal?"

"_Look. The enemy can be here any second. Who are these guys?!?! Not that it matters……I REALLY need your guys' help! Get over here as soon as you can! I'm in the alleyway between the warehouses of the Southern District. Just beyond Rook Street and Clover. I need all of you, if at all p-possible!"_

"…….," I gazed up at Robin.

"Tempest, I'll send you the help you need. But only three of us can get there. Starfire, Noir, and I."  
_  
"What's the matter? The others…are they—"_

"They're busy tending to Cyborg at the moment."

"_Cyborg?!?! What happened to the old clunker—"_

"I don't know, Tempest!! Okay?!?! I don't know!!" Robin gritted his teeth. "Just hold tight!! Don't lose sight of those citizens!! Not even for a second!! We need to—"

"_I'd REALLY appreciate it if Beast Boy and Raven came too."_

"Well the three of us is all you're going to get. I'm sorry, Tempest. But I can't offer you anymore. We'll meet up with you, guide the people to the hospital, then reform at Phaser Labs with Raven and Beast Boy. Robin out."

"…………………"

The Boy Wonder pocketed the communicator.

"Glorious…," Starfire held her hands together and smiled. "He is alive!"

"Yeah…and just about as whiney as ever…," Robin grunted. "Noir. Come on. Let's go."

Starfire and Robin turned and dashed southward.

"…………," I stared after them.

_Something………doesn't feel right……_

"Noir!! Come on!!"

I shuddered, blurred smoke, and streaked after them.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest shook.

He gasped.

Twitching…

Cl-Clank!!

The Titan communicator fell out of his grasp.

CRUNCH!! Dagger's foot stepped over it.

"…….," the man gazed at his henchmen, twirling a switchblade. He took a breath and uttered: "Withdraw. Into the shadows. Keep yourselves hidden. When the Titans arrive….we will bleed them…."

The men nodded. They pump their shotguns and brandished daggers.

Dagger turned. He nodded towards one thug in particular.

The man held Lindsay from behind, his hand planted over her lips.

She kicked and struggled as the man drew Lindsay back into the dark corridors of the alleyway.

Tempest watched, his teeth gritting. Bulbs of pain sweat running down his brow.

CHIIING!! Dagger jabbed the blade down to the Atlantean's gills.

Tempest flinched.

Dagger's eyes were thin. He glared down at the ocean dweller. "If you so much as try to warn them…I will slice the girl some 'gills' for you….."

Tempest panted. His eyes darted up.

A pigeon flew over Dagger's head as the despot turned around, marched coldly, and disappeared into the shadows.

And Tempest struggled alone….bleeding….his leg helplessly skewered with the dagger still inside.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Over there!! On the medical table!!"_

"Y-You guys be careful!!"

"_Gentle!!"_

"Hang th-there, Cy!"

Beast Boy, Raven, and half a dozen laboratory assistants lifted Cyborg's scorched metal body and gently laid him across a silver-laced slab of jointed apparatuses. Among the assistants were Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair. The two contributed to the carrying with their metal limbs and cybernetic strength. They stood back and watched anxiously as the hologram of Simon Stone flickered around the room and pointed a glowing figure while issuing commands.

"_Hook those wires into his right shoulder!! Keep the frequency of the energy supply low for now! I'm about to perform junction, but I need him lying down flat. Absolutely flat on the table! Get those wires in, dammit!! Good! Now…everyone….step back!!"_

The assistants stumbled back.

Raven and Beast Boy watched, wringing their hands.

Rachel Mendez bit her lip.

Jean-Luc Blair folded his arms and scratched his titanium chin.

Simon ported over to a holographic pedestal in front of a tall computer console. He concentrated, flickering with a pattern. The lights on the console strobed multiple colors, turned solid, turned black, and strobed solid again.

_ZZZZT!!!_

The wires in Cyborg's shoulder sparked.

He jolted.

He was still.

Simon took a digital breath. Concentrated. Flicked a holographic wrist.

_ZZZZZzzzzttt!!_

Cyborg jolted again.

Twitched.

And was still.

Raven's lips perched.

Beast Boy whispered: "Come on…."

_Zzzzzt!!_

Jolting.

Lying still.

"Come on……p-please…."

_Zzzztt!!_

Again.

_Zzzzt!!_

Again.

_Zzzzttt!!_

Cyborg was still.

His electronic circuits and mechanical jolts stopped jolting.

His dark skin turned blacker and bluer at the edges of titanium.

Cold.

Hollow.

"………..," Raven slowly closed her eyes. She took a deep breath.

Beast Boy quivered. His eyes welled up. He clutched his short green hair and fiercely turned away from the table. He stumbled blindly across the laboratory.

"………_.,"_ Simon stared. _"……………"_ He looked over at the computer console. He waved his holographic hand, adjusting the frequency of the electrical juice up a few notches.

Beast Boy stumbled. He came to a stop.

"……"

He looked up, tears streaming.

His wet eyes opened wide and his mouth was wide.

Terra looked back at her.

Frozen in stone.

Behind the transparent plastic sheathe.

Eyes glazed over in granite power.

Her arms wide.

Her hair forever in floating limbo.

Beast Boy raised a shaking hand towards the living death….

_ZZZZZTTT!!!!_

A flash of light.

Bolts of blue.

And…..

A monumental gasp from behind.

Another loud gasp.

Clanking sounds.

Then…

Sighs of relief from those in attendance.

Beast Boy shuddered. He spun around. He held a hand over his quivering mouth.

Cyborg was stirring on the table, a sparking blue glow about his burnt metal parts. Sparks danced out of his severed right limb. Parts of his titanium shell that was burnt struggled to shimmer with flickering blue aura. His skin was sheen with sweat, miraculously immaculate…but still cold. He opened a weak human eye and gazed up.

Raven gazed back down. "…………….," her lips curved.

"……….," Cyborg blinked. He smiled and lifted a shaking, right hand. "W-Want to hear something corny?"

"Have you ever asked before saying it in the past?"

"I feel like I've died….and gone to haven….cuz here I see an angel above me…."

Raven exhaled. "You're right. You are dead. As soon as you're out of this mess and put back together again, I'm going to kill you." She leaned down and rested her soft head in the crook of his trembling neck. She shuddered and sighed: "Don't…..ever…..waste yourself like that again……"

Gazing up at the ceiling, Cyborg shook and gently nudged her blue hair with a burnt hand. "Is this a girl….wh-who feels??"

Raven inhaled. "This is a girl who's thankful….."

Beast Boy cleared his throat, dried up, and marched into the scene with a proud smile: "I'll have you know, Cy, that Raven and I managed to complete the job of saving the hospital full of people and—"

_ZAAAAP!!_

Without looking, Raven knocked the changeling away with Telekinesis.

"YAAAGH!!" THWUMP!!

She continued leaning affectionately against Cyborg.

Rachel wiped a tear away and sighed with a smile: "Es muy dulce…Que bueno…"

Jean-Luc merely smirked. He looked over the hologram's way.

Beast Boy stood up dizzily, shook his head, and glanced up at Mr. Stone's apparition. "How long do you suppose they're gonna stay like that?"

The smiling construct shrugged. _"Hopefully not too long," _he flickered. _"I still need to get Victor adequately juiced. And the repairs to his missing parts shall indeed take a while. Maybe days."_

Beast Boy winced. "We kinda sorta…need all the Titans for the warzone we've got going outside."

"_Ah…about that…,"_ Simon's hologram nodded. He turned and gestured towards a computer screen full of schematics. _"I've been busily working on a propelled concussion streamer that has a reach of over two hundred square miles…which I do believe will more than adequately cover this City and all ear-bearing organisms who are—"_

"Wait…wait….wait…..," Beast Boy held his hands up. "Dude….I have no time for Nerdlish. If you all got some sort of 'electron shields' or what-have-you for the Titans and I to keep people safe from hereon out, that'd great….cuz otherwise—"

The hologram smiled. _"Why have shields when you can have a silver bullet?"  
_  
"Well, quite simple! We---" Beast Boy did a double take, his green eyes wide. "Wait a second…d-did you just say 'silver bullet'?"

The Construct's smiling face nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Lieutenant and his men crept up to a pylon beneath the overpass of the raised highway cutting through the western part of Town.

They peered around from the shadowed, concrete underbelly.

Nothing.

The Lieutenant signaled.

They ran ahead, one officer at a time.

It was hauntingly quiet underneath the girders and concrete bridges of the highway….with no traffic presently roaring overhead.

And the gunmen were harder and harder to spot….

Perhaps they were dead.

Perhaps they were located elsewhere.

The officers readied themselves for anything, guns raised. They hurried southwesterly towards Phaser Labs.

At one point, Chapman hissed.

The Lieutenant held his finger up.

The dozen or so men stopped in the shadows.

The Lieutenant looked over at Chapman, panting.

"…….," the subordinate's eyes dashed back and forth. He whispered: "Did you hear that?"

"……….."

"………."

"A-An ambush??"

"One of those madmen?"

"JEEZ!! It's just a couple of kids for crying out loud!!" Lisa barked, stomping out from behind a pylon.

Cl-Click!

Click!!

Four pistols aimed at her.

She jerked to a stop, arms raised over her head. "For crying out frickin' loud!!"

Ashley and Greg trembled behind her.

The men glared, sighed, and lowered their weapons…panting.

The Lieutenant marched over. "What are you doing out here, Miss?"

"What does it look like?? Going ass-crazy trying to find the hospital!!….or a restroom."

"We keep forgetting h-how big this City is…," Ashley shuddered.

The Lieutenant took a deep breath. He glanced back at his associates.

"We can't just leave them out here….," one officer said. "We've gotta watch over them."

"Agreed," the Lieutenant nodded. He pointed at Lisa and the two. "Follow us. We'll be taking you to Phaser Labs."

"What's at Phaser Labs?"

"First of all…shelter….," the Lieutenant gestured. "Second….well….hopefully…."

"Hopefully what?"

"Something that can give us an edge over Dagger."

"Dagger??" Ashley blinked.

"Who's Dagger?" Greg asked.

"…….," the Lieutenant glanced out. He pointed at the smoldering horizon and plumes of smoke. "All of that. _That's_ Dagger."

"………," the kids stared.

"Follow us," the leader said and lead the group forward. "Keep hidden. And keep _silent……,_" he emphasized.

But Lisa immediately uttered: "S-Sir…..I must ask…."

"Yes?"

"The hospital….did the Titans save it? From the missile, that is?"

"……," the Lieutenant stared. He nodded. "Yes. They did."

Lisa and the two adolescents exhaled.

The Lieutenant's eyes were thin. "But how did you know about that? Did you see the missile?"

Lisa shuddered. "Let's say….today was the day fate decided I should take an impromptu walk around the neighborhood…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A propelled concussion st-streamer??" Cyborg coughed and wheezed from the table. He had his head weakly turned to gaze at the computer console against the laboratory wall. "Are you nuts, old man??"

Simon Stone's hologram stood besides the monitors that everyone in the room was looking at. He happily smirked at Cyborg, flickered, and said with glowing arms crossed: _"Lest we forget, it was my nuts that just saved your life minutes ago from going down the drain!"_

"We will not have you repeating that last sentence ever again, thank you."

"What exactly is it??" Beast Boy scratched his neck as he looked at the monitor's diagram of a missile-like-device.

"Something Mr. Stone has been working on since everything went to Hell in the handbasket outside these walls…," Jean-Luc uttered, his metal arms folded. He smirked. "Quite ingenious, I must say. Who ever thought sonar technology could counteract hallucinogenic effects."

Raven raised an eyebrow: "Sonar technology??"

"_It's quite simple………you need to think small by thinking big……,"_ Simon Stone gestured towards the inner workings of the device on the computer screen. _"A sound device emits a pulse using mechanisms appropriate for creating a sonic boom across a large landscape. But instead of producing that earth-shattering-thunder……the device works on minute alterations of sound waves in the air. So intricate and precise…that the sound frequency will shake merely the inner workings of the ears. This creates a vibration through the nerves, feeds into the brain, and stimulates the Wernick's Area just right so as to create a cascading effect throughout the cerebral cortex in whatever way the designer so chooses."_

"So….kinda like airborne Tylenol…..," Beast Boy blinked.

"Where are we getting at with this??" Raven droned.

Cyborg spoke up with a raspy voice: "The concussion device…..it can send out a pulse…th-that'll vibrate the inner ears….of every Dragonflare infected…p-person in the City….."

Beast Boy blinked. He glanced up. "And what of the not so Dragonflaring peeps?"

"_Neutral effect,"_ Simon said proudly. _"The crooks will drop whatever violent things they are doing and return to normal. Dagger's loyal forces will be outnumbered. He'll be drawn out……and you all will have a chance to rebuild."_

"Old man….," Cyborg simpered. "Are you godly? Or just plain insane?"

"_You're to speak about insanity, my boy……,"_ Simon winked flickeringly. _"Not all Stones save the day by turning themselves into scrap metal."_

"Har har…."

Raven gestured: "I'm sorry…b-but…..it sounds a little too good to be true."

Even Beast Boy nodded.

"……………_,"_ Simon glanced over. _"Miss Mendez?"_

Rachel shuffled, she walked over to a panel, she pulled a lever.

_Whurrrr-Chtung!_

A metal panel slid open.

There an exact replica to the device on the computer schematics appeared. In the metal flesh. Live and loaded.

"……..," Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

Raven's lips parted.

Simon smirked. _"I give you……the silver bullet."_

"Can it….b-be that simple??" Raven murmured.

Cyborg winked up at her. "Hey….if one miracle c-can come out of today…..," he coughed, winced, but braved it. "What's to stop two?"

"………..," and Raven smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!!!

Starfire flew down and gently placed Robin down on the sidewalk.

The Boy Wonder motioned for me.

I blurred in and skidded to a stop, smoke trailing.

Starfire blinked. She looked around. "I….I-I am unable to locate him!"

"…….."

"Did not Tempest state that he would be besides the warehouses?"

"He said the alleyways, if I remember right…," Robin uttered. "And I can't blame them. It's a good place for them to hide. Come on….quietly…..so we don't spook Tempest into thinking we're bad guys or something."

"Agreed," Starfire nodded, her hands held together.

Robin wandered in through the winding, brick alleyway behind the warehouses.

Starfire slowly followed behind him.

I curled my fingers and went in last. As I walked, I glanced aside.

A pigeon fluttered overhead….

And then another.

Both hovered until they found a place to perch, overlooking the alleyway.

"……..," I blinked. "…….." I faced forward and walked ahead.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest panted….panted…..panted…..panted…..

He was throbbing all over.

Torturous heat ran up his leg in waves from the skewered thigh.

He tried to stand up…but couldn't.

Tears streamed down from his dark eyes.

He clenched his lids, hyperventilated, and

Forehead tense.

Temples fluctuating.

And then….

Footsteps.

The Atlantean's dark eyes flew wide.

He hyperventilated more.

More footsteps.

The muttered voices of Robin and Starfire.

A third pair of boots.

Tempest twitched.

He glanced left.

Bodies in the shadows.

Glinting weapons.

He glanced right.

More bodies.

More glinting.

Waiting…..

The forms of the three Titans appeared before him.

Tempest shook.

Shivered.

Panted.

He gulped.

He tried to breathe normal.

He lay helpless against the brick wall.

The Titans came forward.

First Robin.

Then Starfire.

Then myself.

Time slowed.

Tempest's eyes blinked.

The figures of the Titans bobbed slowly from a distance.

Their clapping boots echoed against the hard floor between the brick walls of the alleyway.

Robin's eyemask scanned the scene.

Starfire's green eyes looked left and right.

And yet….everybody seemed at a lost to spot the wounded Atlantean slumped against the wall and floor.

His white pupils shook in their dark prisons.

He glanced left.

The threatening figures in the shadows stirred.

He glanced right.

The ambush coiled…coiled…coiled….

A silhouette of Lindsay's shivering form sobbed silently.

The death trap.

Robin and Starfire came closer.

And I……

I slowed.

I felt something amiss in the shadows.

The pockets of smoke-colored life.

I looked ahead.

And straight down.

Tempest made eye contact with me first.

Helpless.

Wounded.

Scarred.

Dark eyes to dark shades to dark eyes.

And somehow…that was enough.

For the connection.

Tempest's lips quivered.

Mine parted.

Tempest started to tilt his head back.

The figures in the shadows pounced--

Robin and Starfire were in a center of gun barrels and raised daggers.

And precisely at the moment when they were surrounded, they saw Tempest. And they gasped.

And I dove.

SWOOOOOOSH!! WHAM!!!

I plowed into them. The three of us Titans went sprawling to the ground just as enemies converged around us.

And Tempest's head was aimed at the sky.

And he forced his arms out like a crucifix.

And bleeding…shaking….burning….he screamed loud and hard with eyes flaring a hot purple.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaugggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!"

The howl pierced through the City, shook through the air, rang like a siren, and drew them all in.

Pigeons.

Hundreds of them.

A bloated cloud of chirps and molting feathers.

Driven by a pulse of blazing telepathy, they fell like quails over the land of Canaan and funneled into a cyclone of menacing fowl upon the thin and claustrophobic alleyway at the last second.

And before Dagger and the thugs could so much as stab any of us three, they were swallowed up by a tunnel of feathery life.

_SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!_

Time resumed.

_FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FLAP!!!!!_

"AAAAUGH!!!"

"NNNGH!!!"

"SNNKKT—JEEZ!!!"

The thugs twitched and swung their arms around and struggled in the fog of feathers and beaks and bird feet. The henchmen struggled as they got faces full of feathers, refuse, and bleeding scratches and scrapes. They shook about helplessly…their weapons dropped.

"Nngh!!" Lindsay fell to the floor, belly first. She gasped as she saw clear space. The Titans were in plane view…all of us crouched or lying low to the alleyway floor. The cloud of swarming pigeons were kept aloft by at least a foot and a half by the telepathic signals. So…only Dagger and the tall-standing ambush were suffocated.

I panted. I looked at Robin and Starfire.

They looked at me.

CHIIIIIING!!! I pulled Myrkblade out.

Robin nodded. _Snkkkt!!_ He had his staff ready.

Starfire held her breath. She produced a starbolt.

I looked at Lindsay, I motioned her to stay put, I twirled Myrkblade and--

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

Dove smokingly up into the wall of animalia. I teleported my way over to a thug, solidified, and slashed with Myrkbalde—cutting both bird and human flesh until the man was bloodily skewered and rendered lame. He fell wetly to the ground as I teleported back into smoke form, blurred through the birds, and pounced another helpless suspect.

SLASH!!!

"AUGH!!!"

In the meantime, Robin crouched, rolled, and snaked his way to the feet of other, struggling crooks. He crushed ankles with his staff. WHACK!! CRKKK!! He slammed people's legs out from under them. He then finished with lung-clearing blows to the chest with his fists or boots. WHUMP!!!! THUD!!!

Starfire simply burned her way through the feathery mess. Painful chirps and surprised gasps of thugs parted as she flew in with green fire and struck henchman after henchman with merciless starbolts across the forehead. FLASH!!! FL-FLASH!!!

Soon, the pigeons panicked and started to levitate upwards. As they cleared away, all that was left was Dagger twirling helplessly amidst a cyclone of falling feathers. He twirled two daggers through a handful of birds, killing all in his way. And suddenly, a rush of wind touched the despot's back.

"……," Dagger glared behind him coldly.

A wall of descending feathers parted like a comet piercing a waterfall as I blazed through…snarling…with Myrkblade sailing at his forehead. SWOOOOOOOSH!!!!

_Remember me?_

SLASH!!!

CL-CLANG!!! Dagger raised his knives and blocked.

I exhaled, spiraled, and slashed down low.

He hopped the blast.

I twirled and slammed my foot up into his face.

He side-stepped, spun, and tossed two daggers at me.

I twirled Myrkblade—CL-CLANK!! I deflected then jabbed forward.

He lunged back, squatting beneath my lunge, produced a new blade, and slashed up—CLANK!!!

Myrkblade flew up from the impact.

Dagger leaned back up, spun, produced a second dagger, and came at me with two hands of serration. STAB-STAB-STAB-STAB-STAB-STAB!!!!

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!! I deflected with Myrkblade held vertically.

He ducked and jabbed low.

I hopped off the blade, vaulted off his shoulders, flew behind him, flipped, contacted the alleyway wall, twirled Myrkblade bounced off, and slashed straight at him.

He deflected in reverse quite miraculously….blindly.

CL-CLANK!!!

He instantly spun and kicked me back.

WHAM!!

I stumbled.

He held his right knife between two fingers and stabbed at my sternum--

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!!! Robin dove in with his rod. He snarled and swung at Dagger's head.

Dagger ducked.

He stepped back.

Robin advanced, swinging and swinging and swinging and jabbing with his rod.

Dagger ducked, sidestepped, deflected with thin knives, and shoved Robin back.

Robin slid in reverse.

I stood beside him.

We flexed our muscles, standing shoulder to shoulder.

TH-TH-THWISH!! Dagger spun his daggers and struck a coiled pose.

A beat.

A breath.

"!!!!" I rushed in.

"!!!!" Robin rushed in.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!!!

Wooden Myrkblade and metal staff formed a mid-air kaleidoscope of blazing jabs, attacks, swings and slashes.

Dagger twirled his knives and his body in tow. He pushed us back and stepped in reverse towards the wall.

Robin leapt over him, bounce off the wall, and attacked his rear.

Dagger swung his arms apart to either side of him. He twirled his blades and deflected Robin blindly…then me blindly…then Robin blindly…then me blindly again as he warded off the two of us.

Robin sweat, snarled, and swung low.

Dagger leapt the blow, ran up Robin's body, flipped off, and came down behind me.

He landed. He fumed. He slashed at my throat.

FWOOSH!! I teleported into smoke form.

Dagger's blade seeped through.

"YAAAAUGH!!!"

Then Robin seeped through me, charging through my smoke-form body and emerging through the other side with his staff jabbing.

THWAP!!!

Dagger stumbled back.

"HYAAAA!!" Robin swung at his forehead.

GRIP!!!

Dagger grabbed the end of Robin's staff with a now-free hand.

Robin jolted.

Dagger twirled his other hand's knife. He jabbed at Robin's Adam's Apple--

FLASH!!! CLANK!!!

Starfire deflected the weapon out of the despot's hand.

Dagger blinked.

"YAUGH!!!" Robin kicked the man to the wall.

WHAP!! Dagger staggered.

"HAAH!! HAAAH!!! HAAAH!!!" Starfire floated overhead, flinging starbolt after starbolt.

Dagger ran up the wall in reverse, kicked off, flipped, and opened his vest upon which he somehow tossed out six knives at once.

_SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!_

Robin fell back on the ground and twirled his staff, deflecting the blades everywhere. CL-CL-CLANK!!!

"EEK!" Starfire flinched to the left and right, avoiding the blades.

GRIP!!! Dagger grabbed her by the arm, swung her down, and slammed her into me as I blurred up--

WHAM!!!

Starfire and I went sprawling across the alleyway.

"YAAAUGH!!" Robin ran up, twirled his staff, and swung at Dagger.

Dagger sidestepped, gripped the rod with two hands, and side-kicked Robin in the face.

WHAM!!!

Robin let go of his staff and stumbled back.

Dagger twirled the stolen rod over his shoulders, spun it in one hand, and produced a dagger in the other.

Starfire and I recovered…and charged him.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!!!

FLAAAASH!!!

Dagger deflected Myrkblade with the knife and knocked Starfire's energy blasts away with the twirling rod.

CL-CL-CL-CLANK!!!

Robin held his breath and pounced Dagger from behind.

Dagger leapt, backflipped over the Boy Wonder's dive, and tossed the rod out at him in mid-fall.

CLANK!!

"Augh!!" Robin was struck in the back. He toppled into Starfire. WHAM!!!

"Oomf!!"

I gritted my teeth and blurred past the two collapsing Titans and charged Dagger.

Dagger held his one dagger up.

CLANK!!!

I struck it with Myrkblade.

He flicked another dagger out of his sleeve with his free hand. Eyes narrowing…he stabbed at my face.

And I was ready for it--

SWOOOSH-CLAMP!!!!

My metal left hand gripped Dagger's wrist.

And the battle paused.

Starfire and Robin looked up from the ground, panting.

"……..," Dagger blinked. He looked at Myrkblade…which had his left hand pinned up high in the air. He glanced at my metal hand….where his blasted chip once resided when all was flesh…and I was holding his other hand at bay with it.

"……..," I glared into Dagger's eyes.

"……..," He stared back. Mute.

I gritted my teeth.

I closed my titanium fingers tight.

_CRRKK-KKKK!!!_

The bone in Dagger's hand broke nastily. Carpal by carpal.

Starfire winced.

Robin took a deep breath.

Tempest blinked.

But Dagger merely flared his nostrils. He didn't wince. He didn't even break a sweat. He _hadn't_ even broken a sweat.

"…….," I felt the bones snapping in his wrist. And when I saw the lack of reaction…I faltered. A little bit of awe…and a little bit of downright hate.

And Dagger used it.

WHUMP!!!

He kneed me in the groin.

"!!!!" I stumbled back, wincing.

Dagger's right hand hung limply…butchered. But still he struck a pose and twirled the blade in his left hand.

Robin stood up, mouth agape. "But….but…."

Starfire gasped: "Your hand is broken!!"

Dagger merely blinked. "So it is." TH-TH-THWISH!! He twirled his blade and—with one limb flailing—he spun effortlessly at us.

SWOOOSH!!!

I winced and held up Myrkblade--

CL-CLANK!! WHAP!!! He struck my weapon away and kicked me in the chest.

WHAM!!! I flew back against an alleyway wall.

Starfire and Robin rushed in.

Dagger crouched low, coiled, and spun at them with a flying kick.

WHAM!!!!

He struck Starfire in the chest.

He landed and elbowed Robin in the face.

WHAP!!

He stumbled back.

Dagger caught Starfire's top piece with his blade, swung her around, and slammed her into Robin.

"Ungh!!!"

"Ooof!!"

THWUMP!!

All three of us joined Tempest on the ground.

Breathless.

And Dagger stood above the halo of bodies.

He cracked his neck, twirled the knife, and leaned with his broken hand dangling grotesquely. "Pathetic…..I almost shudder to think what Red Aviary can do to you…"

"You?? Shuddering??" Robin wheezed. "I-I'd pay to see the day…"

"And maybe you will yet…," Dagger's eyes narrowed. "I for one am tired of death's delay. Perhaps Triangular was wrong. Perhaps I am fit to be the reaper? Well then…..let's experiment all over again." He twirled the knife into a throwing position and aimed at Tempest. "Starting with the fish out of water."

Tempest shook.

Dagger hissed: "Funny….nothing was ever said about the seas bleeding first—"

WHAP!!!! Lindsay flew up behind Dagger with two fists to the back of his head.

THWUMP!!! Dagger landed face-first in the ground, bruised.

Lindsay heaved. She spat: "Learn some respect, you meanie!!!"

Robin struggled to his feet, a fan of birdarangs in his grasp.

Starbolts ready, Starfire stood up too.

So did I, gripping Myrkblade.

We circled Dagger as he staggered brokenly to his feet.

"How about another experiment?" Robin smirked, raising the birdarangs to toss at his throat. "Let's see if you're as much a god underneath all that flesh as you are in red tape, you bastard!!!"

Dagger glared at him. His voice dripped: "You cannot run to experiments at once, Robin."

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Tell me….how many teammates of yours can I burn to death inside Phaser Labs??"

Starfire gasped.

My black eyes went wide.

Tempest and Lindsay shook.

"……..," Robin stared….numb….mouth agape.

Dagger's eyes narrowed. "Give up?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Whurrrrrrrrr!!!_

Raven and Beast Boy rode the small elevator up towards the rooftop of Phaser Labs.

They had the concussion streamer held between them.

A launcher was also positioned on the elevating platform, ready for use once they broke into the air above.

"Remember what Mr. Stone said…," Beast Boy uttered. "Aim at ninety degrees….switch on the wind current calibration system….and set for maximum frequency."

Raven nodded.

"………Y-You think this will work, Raven?" Beast Boy asked.

"No….," the dark girl said.

The elf leaned his head to the side. "No??"

"All it'll do….," Raven exhaled. "…is make us wake up sooner."

"………"

"If you call that 'working', then so bet it."

Beast Boy grinned. "And I do."

Raven nodded. As the elevator rose and rose…she stared down…as if she could see through the floor and catch sight of a recuperating android.


	175. Hand and Dagger part 12

**175. Hand and Dagger part 12**

"What do you mean?!?!" Robin barked. Teeth showing. Eyemask thin. "Talk!!!"

Dagger barely blinked. He stood as resolutely as he could for a man with a dangling, broken hand. "The longer I talk, the more your little neighborhood crumbles apart…and your hapless allies with it."

Starfire bit her lip nervously.

I swallowed.

Lindsay had wandered over to Tempest's trembling side. She rested a hand on his aching shoulder as the two glanced up at Dagger and Robin.

"You've planted a bomb….haven't you?!?!" Robin sneered. He pointed with his rod. "You've put an explosive in Phaser Labs and this is some sort of brand new threat, huh?!?!"

Dagger inhaled. "Not a bomb, Robin. Not in the literal sense. It was always Slade's style to rig things with explosives. You should know by now that if my faculties can drink the spilt blood, then that is what makes it truly an effective strategy. Murder is not something done entirely with buttons. Even I have to dig into the flesh every now and then."

"What horror have you concocted at the laboratories, you cretin??" Starfire more murmured than hissed.

Dagger gazed glassly over at her. "I wasn't the one who concocted it."

Starfire blinked.

I leaned forward.

Dagger uttered: "Anderson is."

Robin's lips parted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Raven! Beast Boy!" _Simon Stone's hologram rested on the laboratory's corner pedestal and spoke into the communication system. _"Are you situated yet?"_

"_Not quite, dude! Dude s-sir!"_ the speakers crackled back. _"This is the slowest elevator in the world, I swear!!"_

Cyborg lay helpless on the table, hooked up to wires that were feeding him electric life.

The hologram on the pedestal spoke: _"The hatch to the rooftop is waiting for an opportune time to safely raise you two into open air. It must detect nearby explosions and threatening activity."_

"_We do have a warzone outside…,"_ Raven's voice droned electronically. _"This will put an end to it, Azar willing."_

"_Are you sure about this?"_ Beast Boy added.

"J-Just listen to my Uncle, guys!" Cyborg smiled weakly. "And get that silver bullet up and away before sundown!!"

"_On it."_

The lab assistants waited nervously in the corner.

Among them….

Rachel Mendez.

Jean-Luc Blair.

They rested their cybernetic limbs and sighed…shuddering.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Anderson????" Robin exclaimed. "But…Anderson f-fell into a coma and died months ago!!"

"His flesh died….," Dagger droned. "But his legacy lived on."

"How d-do you mean??" Starfire asked.

Everyone was gazing at Dagger.

Nobody took notice of two collapsed henchmen in the corner of the alleyway stirring back to life and crawling slowly towards their machine guns.

"But of course you know….," Dagger said. "You let two members of the shortly existing Triad live on…..and you preserved his helpless henchmen as well."

Robin's lips slurred: "Simon Stone……Cyborg….."

Dagger tilted his head forward in a single, icy nod. "Reload…..Slug….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WHURRRRR-CLANK!!!_

The rooftop hatch opened.

The elevator finished lifting.

Raven and Beast Boy stood atop of Phaser Labs with the silver concussion streamer in their grasp.

The sky was turning red.

The sun melted bloodily into the horizon.

Explosion sounds…gun sounds…screaming sounds…..

An ambiance of a dying City.

"Okay!!" Beast Boy panted, gripping the streamer along with Raven. "Let's get this thing set up! Q-Quickly!!!"

Raven steadied the streamer with her hands as they shuffled over to an open spot on the roof. At the same time, she dragged over the launcher with telekinesis.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It is just as I predicted…," Dagger said. "And it is just as Triangular expected. The pieces are moving back together. And it wasn't quite ourselves who should receive credit. But this City….this foolish City that believes in second chances. The organizers of the Council and Phaser Labs have gradually committed suicide. I'm sorry, Titans. There will be no rest for you tonight. There will be no…….silver bullet….."

Starfire and I stared, frozen.

Robin shook. "You're bluffing…."

Dagger gestured his one good arm towards the distant plumes of smoke and explosion sounds. His voice was emotionless. After a pause, he uttered: "Bluffing??"

"……….," Robin stared.

The henchmen reached their machine guns. They slowly inched up to their knees.

Lindsay turned.

She saw them.

She…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

"????" Cyborg glanced over across the labs.

The other lab assistants stirred nervously.

Rachel and Jean-Luc stepped forward.

"_Hmmm……,"_ Simon Stone's hologram stared at the strobing computer screen. _"Funny. We're getting a direct transmission. I thought the internal firewalls have been reinforced since the chaos in the City began."_

"A…A h-hacker!!" one assistant uttered.

"They're trying to sabotage the sonic concussion project!!" exclaimed another.

Cyborg gasped from the medical table. "You've got to stop it!!!"

"_Agreed……,"_ Simon gestured towards the flock of assistants. "Piers!! Vale!! Get over here!!"

Two men in labcoats rushed over to the computer console. Their fingers blurred over the keyboard.

"Okay. First thing's first. We need to bypass the external signal and—"

_ZZZZZTT!!!!_

The computer monitor flashed blue and black.

Sparks flew from the console and shocked the two workers.

They screamed in pain before falling dramatically across the floor into two smoking piles.

Cyborg gasped.

"Mi Dios!!" Rachel ran over and knelt by their sides.

Jean-Luc gritted his human teeth. "That's not a hacker!! That's a freakin' weapon!!"

"_An electronic pulse flux!!"_ Simon Stone's construct exclaimed. _"It's taking over the central network of the Labs at a phenomenal rate!!"_

"B-But that's impossible!!!" an assistant exclaimed breathily, trembling. "The only way that could happen would be if it's been in the system under our noses the entire time!!!"

"_A latent acting worm……,"_ Simon Stone electronically stammered. _"But who could possibly have slid it into the mainframe when we weren't looking??"_

Cyborg shuddered from the bed where he lay. "Dagger……"

The computer monitor started strobing more and more. Greater sparks of electricity splashed across the keyboard and instrument panels.

The lab assistants stepped back, uncertain.

Rachel knelt besides the two injured scientists, panting.

Jean-Luc's eyes narrowed. "Something….S-Something's happening…..

Cyborg glanced over.

Jean-Luc swallowed: "If Dagger wanted to…he could have detonated the energy core of the Phaser Labs already. What is he waiting to do---???"

_ZZZZZZZZZZT!!!!!_

The consoles sparked brilliantly.

Everyone flinched—

**POW!!!!**

Computer panels exploded.

Brilliant overloading sparks of blue sailed out across the laboratory.

Scientists screamed and fell to the ground.

Cyborg's human eye was wide.

Simon Stone's hologram flickered madly and glowed in shock.

The blue bolts burned across the air of the room, scorching the walls and ceiling, melting instruments, and then….

Then….

The blue sparks and dancing energy focused on two bodies and two bodies alone in the room.

As if it was planned.

And…it was planned.

Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair jolted and gasped as their bodies were enflamed in blue energy.

_ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZTTTT!!!_

"AAAAAAAAUGH!!!"

"YARRRRGHHH!!!!"

The two victims danced and thrashed about from the blue torture.

Cyborg watched, jaw dropping.

And then….

The sparks died out.

But not the blue.

"………………..," Rachel and Jean-Luc stared at the floor.

Frozen.

And slowly…gradually….

Their titanium parts glowed blue.

Rachel's limbs.

Jean-Luc's skull.

Their legs and chest pieces.

Their human flesh warmed.

They tilted their heads up.

And…

Contorted expressions of fear and pain….slowly melted into drunken grins.

"N-No……," Cyborg shuddered.

The assistants in the corner gathered together, trembling.

The two cybernetic people slowly stood up.

"No…no no no no…..God no….," Cyborg shuddered, his human eye round.

"Heh heh heh heh…..," Reload chuckled with an old, awakened voice. Her metal parts glowed a bright blue. She produced a shotgun out of mid air with both hands. She pumped it and sneered sadistically: "Recuerdo esta sensacion…"

The hologram of Simon Stone collapsed on his knees, flickering. _"They……They're reverting………"_

Reload produced a revolver out of energy transferal. She tossed it to Jean-Luc.

"……_Dagger used the Labs' computer to reactivate their electronic parts……"_

Slug caught the revolver. He twirled it and smirked. "Damn straight, old man….."

"…….," Cyborg panted.

"_I'm so sorry, my boy………"_

The lights flickered.

Slug squinted an eye. He aimed at the mass of huddled lab assistants in the corner. His gun wrist glowed a bright blue.

"_I'm sorry……,"_ Simon flickerd….flickered…..and faded.

Cyborg screamed something.

But Slug's high-powered revolver shots drowned it out.

_**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**_

Energized projectiles streamed across the room and exploded in the center of innocent flesh.

Limbs and body masses flew….only to be riddled into mush by Reload's endless, shotgun punishment.

BLAM!!-BLAM!!-BLAM!!-BLAM!!-BLAM!!

"AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!"

Between the blood and the lights, Slug marched across the lab and aimed at a huge conduit of the Labs' energy core.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Soon you will understand, Robin…," Dagger spoke. "Soon you will all understand. This is a City I have always owned. Triangular and I are merely reclaiming it……….with…a few less, unneeded wastes of breath."

Robin sneered and raised his staff. "If you think I'll let you get away with any more deaths for any reason—"

"Deaths??" Dagger raised an eyebrow. "Hasn't it already been proven that I am hardly this domain's reaper?? I want the earth, Robin. And only the earth. Red Aviary can have the harvest. What's important to realize is…the harvest is merely temporary. The earth may bleed and bleed forever….but there is always stone to be claimed."

"LOOK OUT!!!!" Lindsay shrieked.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

Dagger dashed out of the way.

Robin gasped and ducked.

I grabbed Starfire, twirled Myrkblade, and deflected the bulletfire as I shoved the two of us out of danger's path.

The henchmen stood up and crept across the alleyway, pushing us out of sight.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CH-CHTINK!!!

_Beep-Beep-Beep!_

"Th-There….," Beast Boy shuddered. He nervously tried to still his hands as he typed on the numberpad of the launcher.

_Whurrrr!!_

The streamer tilted on the launcher and aimed at the sky.

"And…."

Beast Boy pressed a last button.

_Beep!!_

The launcher and streamer had a countdown time of fifteen minutes till launch and discharge.

"Sounds like a good enough amount of time." Beast Boy smiled nervously. He looked across the rooftop at Raven. "Consider the City un-Dragonflared before you can quote Hamlet." A beat. "R-Raven?"

"………..," the dark girl's eyes were searching the horizon. "Something….is wrong….."

"Huh??" Beast Boy walked over. "What is it, Raven? What do you sense?"

Her lips pursed. Her violet eyes narrowed. "Cyborg….."

"………"

Raven glanced down through the rooftop as startling vibrations ran up through the structure of Phaser Labs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There it is….," Abbey said.

The officers peered around the lateral pillars of the overhanging highway. The Lieutenant and his men gazed across the asphalt at the silent, shielded entrance to Phaser Labs. One of the concrete blockades to the interior had been smashed.

Lisa blinked her one eye. Ashley and Greg trembled behind her.

"Looks like someone beat us to the place!" Johnson shuddered.

"You think those green-eyed creeps could have done that?" Vann gestured.

"We're going in…," the Lieutenant walked out. "Be on the lookout. It could be anything."

"Yes, sir."

"Keep the kids between us. I'll move out first---"

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!**_

Half of Phaser Labs erupted in billowing tongues of flame up into the amber sky.

Ashley and Greg screamed.

Lisa gasped.

The Lieutenant stared at the flying debris and flaming plumes with wide eyes.

The other officers were similarly mesmerized.

Frozen still.

One second too long….for when two shadows marched out off the destruction---

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

A perpetual wave of lead flew across the courtyard and under the raised highway. The machine gun bullets slammed through cars and exploded concrete with unprecedented caliber.

And then it reached the line of officers.

"AAAAAA-" **SPLORCH**!! Johnson's head exploded.

**TH-TH-TH-THUNK!!!!** Vann was lifted in the air from the force and shot to shreds. Pieces of him fell around the scurrying officers.

"GET BACK!!! GET BACK!!!!"

"JOHNSON!! VANN!!!"

"THEY'RE DEAD!!!! MOVE!!! MOVE!!!"

As they scurried away from the fallen corpses, a high-powered bullet of sparking blue shimmered past them.

_**BLAM!!!!!**_

The revolver round exploded into a van parked under the overhang.

_**BOOOOOOOM!!!**_

Lisa flinched and covered Ashley and Greg with her body as she and the Lieutenant hid behind one pillar.

The leftover officers gathered—panting—behind another pillar.

"Abbey!! Chapman!! Stay concealed!!!" the Lieutenant shouted.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!! **_

P-P-PING!!!

CL-CLANG!!

The officers winced from the endless machine gunfire.

"Who in the Hell is that?!?!" Abbey shouted.

Lisa looked up, panting.

The Lieutenant took a deep breath. "Old news….._bad_ old news….."

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

He summoned strength. He peered barely around the edge of the pillar.

Slug and Reload were marching out of the flames of the half-collapsed Labs.

Slade was twirling a revolver, firing energy-loaded shots, and exploding rows upon rows of parked vehicles.

Reload was laughing her head off, spouting exclamations in Spanish, and letting loose a endless barrage of metal without having to stop for an ammo clip once.

_**BLAM!!!!**____**BLAM!!!!**____**BLAM!!!!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

The entire courtyard exploded and shattered from the ballistic punishment.

The Lieutenant cocked his weapon. Panting.

"H-How do we g-get out of here?!?!" Greg squealed.

"………."

"S-Sir??" Lisa murmured.

"I'm working on it….."

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

P-PING!!

CLANG!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger back out of the alleyway.

Flanked by henchmen.

Henchmen with machine guns.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

They snarled, fired, and gave Dagger cover to---

"Let us go…"

He twirled and jogged out of the alleyway, his distorted right hand flapping.

The men ran backwards.

They escaped.

"………," I held Starfire tightly in the shadows. Myrkblade raised. Panting.

"Nnnngh!!!" Robin peeled out of his shielded spot and tossed the dust and bullet fragments off him.

"H-He is getting away!!!" Starfire exclaimed. "We must make haste and—"

"No!!" Robin shouted. He pointed. "Everyone!! Go to Phaser Labs!! I'm most certain he was telling the truth. Who knows what Hell rages over there?!?!"

"Wh-What about--?!?!" Starfire pointed a Tempest.

"I'm f-fine!!!" Tempest snarled. Wincing. Bleeding. "Go save the other Titans and the Labs!!"

"But….look at you!!" Lindsay panted.

SWOOSH!! Starfire floated down and examined the deep knife wound in his thigh. "You are greatly damaged!! Allow us to simply—"

"NO!!!!" Tempest shoved her away, winced from the effort, and spat: "God dammit, this City is dying!! I'll live….lame if I must!!!"

"……"

Tempest shuddered. He clenched wet eyes. "I'm….I-I'm so sorry…so….s-so sorry…..they had…th-they had her…."

Lindsay fought a painful lump in her throat.

Tempest leaned back against the wall, hyperventilating. "I would have gladly died. But…but…I couldn't. I-I couldn't just let them—"

"Tempest….," Robin raised a gloved hand. He took a deep breath. "You did good. I know that you would never abandon us."

"………"

Robin's gloved fists clenched. "All the same…I would never abandon any of the other Titans." He looked. He pointed at me. "Noir."

I stood straight.

"Run speedily to the hospital. Get an ambulance crew. Escort them back here to tend to Tempest. As soon as you're done….get your ass over to Phaser Labs. There may be some tough business to attend to."

I nodded. Without a moment to lose—Chiiiing!!! I sheathed Myrkblade, spun around, and blurred down up over the walls and out onto the streets and towards the hospital with trailing smoke. SWOOOOOOOSH!!!

"Starfire…I'll need a lift…"

"We embark to Phaser Labs?"

"Yes….," Robin nodded.

"Kick some ass for me….," Tempest shuddered.

Starfire looked at Lindsay. "What about you??"

Lindsay gulped. She rested a hand on Tempest's shaking shoulder. "I stay here with him…."

Starfire bit her lip. She managed: "B-Be careful…."

The freckled-faced teen nodded.

"Star!! Let's go!!!"

"A-Affirmative!!"

Starfire grabbed onto Robin's arm and hoisted him away towards the western half of Town.

Tempest shuddered, as if the departure of the Titans depleted him of some breath.

Lindsay held his shoulders tightly. "You did good, Tempest. Stay with me. Stay awake. Mr. Noir will be back here with the ambulance soon. I-I am sure of it."

"I….I couldn't…l-let it happen……any of it….," Tempest shivered.

"You didn't, Tempest. You—"

"Nnghh…no….no….I…I-I feel it…," Tempest trembled. "S-S-Slipping. I…I d-don't want to die….I d-don't want to die…."

"Shhh….," she pushed his black bangs back. "Stay calm. You won't die. Help will be here. No reason to be afraid."

"I…I am NOT AFRAID!!!" Tempest shouted, shook, twisted from pain, hyperventilated, and hissed with his dark eyes shut: "I….I d-don't want to let you down…….I'm so sorry…..I tried…I tried so hard, Tula….."

Lindsay blinked.

Tempest shivered, contorted in pain. "I-I tried, Tula. I t-tried to change. I tried to live. Please….P-Please forgive me. Don't feel ashamed….d-don't hate me….I never wanted to toss you away….th-the very blood I feel inside me is all I have left to feel and taste you by. Please….I'm so sorry….s-so sorry…….I've failed….I-I've failed so much…."

Lindsay took a deep breath. "Tempest…..be calm….."

Her hands gently floated over and rested over his heart and on the numb part of his injured leg.

Tempest swallowed and gazed wetly at her. "Wh-What are you doing….??"

"I'm laying on hands of prayer….."

Tempest shuddered. "I-I-I don't b-believe in your God….."

"Shhhh….," she gently cooed. "You do not have to….."

"…….."

Lindsay shut her eyes. She inhaled. She applied pressure on her hands and uttered:

"Dear God, I ask for Your deliverance right now. Not just for the whole City, but on Tempest's behalf…."

Tempest shook all over. He tilted his head back as Lindsay murmured. Tears fell from his eyes.

She steadied his shaking form. "…Back when You blessed Your children with the power of the Holy Spirit, You gave us the authority to heal flesh and cast out evil spirits in the Savior's Name. And right now I bind you, Satan. I bind you and all of your evil principalities that would seek to snuff out the life of Tempest's body. I cast you OUT….in Jesus of Nazareth's holy Name!! God, Your Word shows us that true faith leads to healing. And I have faith that You put Tempest on this earth for a mighty purpose and reason…and I believe that now is not his time. Give him the strength and the health to recover from this. I pray that you remove this pain from his body and give him peace, for all that he's ever done is try to bless those who preserve the beautifulness of Your Creation, Lord. He desires Life, just as You gave us life. HEAL him, Lord. I pray the blood of Jesus and holy protection over him now….in Your name…."

Lindsay went on. For how long, the echoing walls of the alleyway didn't say.

Tempest breathed through it all, the pain still excruciating.

And yet, he wasn't focusing on the pain anymore. He kept his trembling ears focused on Lindsay's words. On the touch and warmth of her gentle hands.

And somehow….that kept him awake by the time help came.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh….," Beast Boy stirred. He tossed off smoking pieces of collapsed rooftop and stood up dizzily.

Sounds of loud gunshots and explosions thundered with deadly proximity.

Beast Boy panted.

He looked around.

"R-Raven??"

He started tossing debris and chunks of wreckage around. Snarling, digging, searching.

"Wh-Where are you?!?! Raven?!!?"

Beast Boy unearthed something.

Something glinting.

He blinked.

The concussion streamer was still stuck in the launcher. And it was still counting down.

_Thirteen minutes……_

Beast Boy paled. "Shoot…."

He glanced aside. He caught sight of a scrap of blue robe.

"!!!!!"

He abandoned the silver bullet.

He lifted a huge mountain of debris and tossed it aside with gorilla arms.

He reverted back to elf form and shuddered.

"R-Raven!!!"

She lay.

Bruised.

Crumpled in a crater.

Not moving.

"H-Hang on!! I'm gonna—"

_**BLAM!!!!!**_

The collapsed roof exploded before Beast Boy.

"Nnngh!!" he fell back. WHUMP!! He collapsed against a metal bulkhead exposed. He rubbed his head and looked up.

"_You're gonna _what??"

_CL-CLICK!!!_

The barrel of a revolver.

Beast Boy's breath left him.

Slug pointed the gun straight at the little changeling's forehead.

He smiled drunkenly as his forearm glowed.

"You're gonna die….."

_**BLAM!!!!!!**_


	176. Hand and Dagger part 13 final

**176. Hand and Dagger part 13 Final**

_**FLASH!!!!!**_

Beast Boy's face scrunched and his torso tensed.

"………….."

He was still alive.

Panting, the changeling opened his eyes and gazed at Slug's smoking gun in his face.

Only, Slug's smoking gun was no longer in his face. Slug was no longer standing. He had collapsed across the rubble of Phaser Labs. A field of black energy cleared as he struggled to get up.

"!!!!" Beast Boy spun and looked to the left.

A bruised Raven sat up. She had her glowing hand outstretched. Her eyes a hot gray as she gritted her teeth and uttered: "You….You filth. What did you do to Cyborg and his Uncle??"

Slug struggled up to his feet, smiled, and twirled his revolver. "Better yet….what say I show you??" He sneered, stretched his titanium wrist out, and fired with blue charge:

_**BLAM!!!!!**_

Beast Boy gasped, dove at Raven, morphed into a panther, and tackled her out of the way.

**CRUNCH!!!**

An unnaturally huge crater formed from the hypercharged bullet's impact.

The changeling and dark girl rolled down a slope of rubble until they tumbled to a grunting stop.

Raven winced. She tried sitting up and uttered: "Jean-Luc Blair….and Rachel Mendez…."

"Yeah, I know. They made the Labs go boom or something," Beast Boy panted.

"No…th-they aren't themselves…," Raven hissed. "Something charged up their electronic parts. They're not in control of themselves…"

"T-Tell that to the bullets they're slinging at us!!" the changeling hissed.

Cl-Click!!!

"?!?!?!?"

He and Raven looked up.

Reload had two heavy barreled machine guns strapped to her wrists….and aiming down at the skulls of the two Titans.

She sneered. "About time someone threw you two into a river, gatitos bonitos."

Beast Boy frowned: "That's not fu---"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!**_

"AAAH!!!"

Raven held her breath, concentrated, and opened a black portal in the ground.

She grabbed a gasping Beast Boy and sunk them through the earth.

Reload divided the earth where they originally were lying with her huge caliber guns.

The dark girl and animorph reappeared behind her and scampered away, Raven leaning weakly against Beast Boy.

THWOOSH!! Slug jumped up onto a mound of rubble, took aim with his revolver, and—"HA!!!" _**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**_

Two giant craters exploded at the heels of the Titans as they limped down the courtyard.

Reload spun and aimed her guns high. "AH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

P-P-PING!!!

CLANG!!

CL-CLANK!!

Beast Boy and Raven hid behind concrete plant holder.

Reload's bulletfire ate into a vehicle on either side of the hiding two, exploding them.

**BOOM!!!!**

**POW!!!!**

Raven and Beast Boy winced and covered themselves as bullets ricocheted off the urban landscape all around them.

Beast Boy panted.

Raven rubbed her aching ribs.

"R-Raven….," Beast Boy shuddered above the noise. "One of us has got to get back to the ground zero of Phaser Labs!!"

"Cyborg has got to be under at least two layers of rubble….," Raven shuddered. "Even I couldn't teleport his body out quickly enough with those two on our backs….much less locate it…."

Beast Boy winced as he said: "I-I'm not talking about Cyborg."

Raven looked at him.

Beast Boy jolted as a bullet splashed off the ground nearby, and he said: "It's the sonic concussion streamer silver bullet thingy…," he gasped, then continued: "It's set to go off. I gotta get the stupid thing up into the sky or else Hell's gonna extend itself for another glorious twenty-four hours!!!"

Raven gazed up at the sky. The fading amber on purple. The hue of red seeping through it all like a taunting shroud.

"Raven???"

Raven looked at Beast Boy.

The changeling gulped. "I'm going in."

"Beast Bo—"

"NO!! Don't say anything!!!" the elf barked.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

PING!!!

PING!!! PING!!!

The two winced.

Beast Boy panted: "I know this is gonna sound all Douglas Fairbanks cheesy and stuff….but it has to be done, and I'm the one who's gonna do it!! This City is worth more than any single one of me!"

"……"

Beast Boy touched her shoulder. "Give me cover. Distract them, if you can. But whatever you do….don't get out there in the open! You took a nasty collapse when the Labs exploded!! You can't simply _run away_ from them!"

"…….," Raven shuddered. She nodded with eyes closed.

"Raven…don't think about Cyborg," he said. "Not now. Not yet."

Raven took a deep breath. "I know how to repress, Garfield…."

"…….," Beast Boy blinked at that.

She added: "What are you waiting for?"

"Oh…uhm….y-yeah……..got it, dude," he turned and crawled towards the edge of the planter.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

CL-CL-CLANG!!!

He peered around the concrete structure.

He looked for a blind spot of Slug and Reload. A spot where their guns weren't aimed.

And then….

He gazed at the rubble of Phaser Labs.

"………."

Smoke rose.

Dust settled.

A distant glint of silver metal.

"……….," Beast Boy took a deep breath. "It's a good thing for once you're made of stone, Terra…."

He threw that off, shook his shoulders, grew fur, and dashed out as a green cheetah.

Raven watched him zoom out. She yanked her head to the right, saw a motorcycle beneath the highway overpass, and flung her hand towards it.

FLASH!!!!

She lifted the motorcycle, flicked her wrist, and tossed it across the courtyard.

Reload laughed maniacally. She aimed her fire at the vehicle and let loose.

So did Slug.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

_**BLAM!!! BLAM!!!**_

The motorcycle danced in the air from the fire before exploding in the air.

**POW!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**POW!!!!!**

The Lieutenant and his fellow officers watched the chaos from behind the pillars of the highway overpass.

Lisa and the two children flinched.

"What does he think he's doing?!?!" Abbey gasped.

"????" the Lieutenant craned his neck.

A green cat ran around the perimeter of the explosive action.

"I don't know…," the Lieutenant said. "But whatever it is…it must be important…"

Slug's head could be seen glancing left. Towards the running Titan.

The Lieutenant gritted his teeth. "He's gonna be seen……" He strapped an AK-47 lying against the pillar around his back and pumped a shotgun. "Watch over the kids!!"

Lisa looked up.

"S-Sir??" Chapman murmured from a pillar across a space of asphalt. "What do you have in mind—"

"I'm going in!!" the Lieutenant inhaled. "A distraction!!"

And he ran out.

"Lieutenant!!!"

Lisa gasped. She held tight to Ashley and Greg as they all watched in disbelief.

The Lieutenant ran sideways across the courtyard…diagonally towards the smoking ruins of the Labs.

Slug was slowly twirling his revolver and aiming at Beast Boy.

The Lieutenant aimed his shotgun while running and from long distance he--

_BL-BLAM!!!_

Shot spread wide across the courtyard. The tiny bits that managed to cross the space and contact Slug bounced off his titanium parts.

Slug turned. He saw the Lieutenant, he grinned.

The Lieutenant ran.

Slug twirled his revolved.

The Lieutenant pumped his shotgun.

Slug aimed out.

"!!!!" the officer dove sideways. He fired while in mid-air. _BL-BLAM!!!_

CLANG!!! Lead bounced off Slug's still skull with sparks.

The cyborg smirked and fired—_**BLAM!!!**_

The Lieutenant landed from his dive behind a dumptruck.

**CRUNCH!!!**

An upper corner of the dumptruck's rear dented inward from the charged bullet.

Slug twirled his revolver and reloaded.

The Lieutenant scrunched up to the side of the truck. He panted and reloaded his shotgun again.

Slug walked slowly towards the dumptruck, aiming.

"…………," the Lieutenant hid against the vehicle, panting.

Slug walked. He pivoted his upper body. He aimed at the fuel tank of the truck.

"…………," the Lieutenant's eyes thinned. "………." He gazed out the corner of his eyes. He thought. His eyes widened. "!!!!!" He gasped. He instinctively dove away from behind the dumptruck---

_**BLAM!!!!**_

_**BOOOOM!!!**_

The huge vehicle exploded in a fireball.

Shrapnel rained down.

The Lieutenant tumbled across the ground. He winced and felt his lower leg. A chunk of metal had been driven in from the blast. He bled heavily out of the ankle.

The officers beneath the highway gasped, but didn't say a word.

The Lieutenant hissed through his teeth in pain.

He heard heavy metal footsteps over the distant storm of Reload's gunfire.

Wincing, the Lieutenant dragged his way over to a pile of rubble and hid behind it.

Slug walked over to the blown up dumptruck. He looked around.

The Lieutenant panted, resting up against the pile of rubble.

Slug searched and searched and searched……and smiled.

A trail of blood.

Slug twirled his revolver.

He paced slowly across the edge of the courtyard.

His metal feet crunched over metal and shrapnel.

"Come out…Come out…Wherever you are…."

The Lieutenant took a deep breath. He held the shotgun to his chest. He bled. He panted. He waited….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy slid down the ravine of rubble in penguin mode. He landed, rolled as an armadillo, then ran as an elf towards the concussion streamer.

"Allright….special delivery…"

He pulled at the launcher.

"Nnnnnnnghhhh!!!"

It wouldn't budge.

He tried again.

"Nghhhh-hhhhh!!!"

The black launcher was stuck.

The rubble had forged it in place.

"Darn it…," he gritted his teeth. Sweating. He shuddered and started to grab the metallic, glinting missile instead. "Gotta do with just you, then…"

He yanked and yanked and yanked at the streamer, attempting to snap it free of the launcher.

"Come on…Come on!!"

_Ten minutes……thirty seconds……_

Beast Boy glanced at the countdown timer.

He took a deep breath. "Time to put the money where the mouth…w-will be."

He shrugged, bent over, morphed into a velociraptor, and bit over the end of the missile. His teeth carved into it. He twisted, he pulled, he yanked, and--

SNAP!!!!

The missile broke free from the launcher.

"RGHHH!!!" the green dinosaur lifted the missile up victoriously….and then went wide-eyed as the weight of the thing send him toppling over.

WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP-WHUMP!!!!

The dinosaur fell down the ravine in the rubble, broke through a wall of crumpled metal parts, and—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

---THWUMP!!!

Landed smack dab in the courtyard.

"Nnnngh….," a dizzy elf shook his head, sitting up besides the missile. His eyes went wide.

CL-CLICK!!

Reload aimed her guns at his forehead and smiled. "Let's see a big green smile on your face, chico. Before I blow it off!! Ha ha ha ha!!"

Beast Boy sweat.

FLASH!! SWOOOSH-WHAM!!!

An uprooted tree slammed into Reload's side.

"OOF!!" she collapsed onto the courtyard.

"!!!!" Beast Boy glanced right.

Raven was hobbling out from behind the planter. She gritted her teeth and held out two meditatively posed hands of glowing black. "Get…that thing….in the air!!"

"Raven!!! Stay out of the open!!!"

"NNNNRAAAAUGH!!" Reload jumped up and waved her wrist-guns. She hissed at Raven. "I shall decorate this City with your liver, perra!!!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Raven floated madly to the side on twirling wheels of black energy. "Beast Boy!! Go!!!"

The changeling took a deep breath, grabbed the missile in green talons, and took into the air as a pterodactyl.

Reload looked up. "Oh no!!" she smirked. She kept firing at Raven with one hand while she produced an iron ball in the other with a splash of light. "No leaving the party just yet!! Coma la muerte, birdy!!!"

SWOOOOOOSH-CLANK!!!

The ball slammed into the pterodactyl's back. The changeling shrieked and plummeted hard through the back of a pickup truck. CRUNCH!!! Beast Boy lay dazed while the missile rolled off to the side.

_Nine minutes._

Raven glanced at the sight. She gritted her teeth, twisted her black-glowing hand, lifted a lamppost with telekinesis, and launched it at Reload. "RAAAAAUGH!!!"

THWOOOSH!!

Reload jumped to the side, twirled with a grin, dodged the lamppost—CRUNCH!!!—and let loose a merciless barrage of bullets.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Raven strafed on black currents. She flicked another wrist. She picked up a hot-dog stand. She tossed it at Reload. "NNNGH!!!"

SWOOOOSH!!!

Reload stopped firing with one hand, produced a heavy sword, and tossed it through the flying stand.

CRAAACK!!!

She sliced the structure apart and aimed both wrist guns at once.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Raven bent backwards and ducked low, the hot bullets streaming over her chest and head.

Looking upside down, she spotted a commercial bus lying under the raised highway. She stretched two hands towards it with a gasp.

FLAA-AAASH!!!

The bus was cocooned in black energy.

"Nnnnnghhh!!" Raven pulled the bus towards her.

THWOOOOSH!!! It soared over her nose.

"NNNGHHHHH!!!!" she leaned back up and shoved her two hands forward. "Azarath…Metrion…..ZINTHOS!!!!"

The black energy exploded around the bus.

A wall of flickering shrapnel soared at Reload.

The woman laughed her head off and aimed both wristguns at the incoming mass.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

The relentless, high caliber stream of lead ate through the bus and telekinesis. Aluminum shrapnel and black tendrils spread as Reload's gunfire blazed through and gradually ate its way towards Raven's body and exploded out the rear of the bus.

_**POW!!!**_

"UGH!!" Raven was blown back towards the highway. She winced and curled up on the ground in pain.

STOMP!!

Reload stood over her, wrist guns smoking.

She smirked down at the dark girl. "So…you want to play catch?? CL-CLICK!! She aimed her guns down at her. "Hope you have a big enough mit."

Raven winced…helpless.

Reload pulled the triggers--

"RAWWWWRR!!!" SWOOOSH-CLAMP!!! A green panther slammed itself into Reload.

The woman gasped, her guns firing sporadically into the sky as she fell back across the courtyard.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Reload and the green cat wrestled and struggled across the courtyard.

Raven panted. She looked over at the missile…abandoned besides the truck.

_Eight minutes._

She started to drag herself over towards it, wincing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Lieutenant panted.

Slug stepped closer and closer.

"The blood of pure fleshlings is so….so prophetic…," the android murmured.

The Lieutenant held tightly to his shotgun.

"It's red…like the color of the sky….the color the sky will soon be…."

The officer took a deep breath. He tilted the length of the gun up. Beside his head. The barrel aimed towards the darkening heavens.

"….I can feel it in my circuitry. An endless scream. A thirst for blood….this City's blood…the Titan's blood…."

The Lieutenant's torso heaved. He ignored the pain from his skewered leg. He held his breath.

Slug stepped up. "It makes so mush sense now……"

A beat.

Slug leaned over the rubble mound. He stared down directly from atop the Lieutenant. "Hellllllllo."

The Lieutenant exhaled. "How ya doin'?" He jerked his head aside and pulled the trigger—

**BLAM!!!**

_CL-CLANK!!!!_

Slug's skull flew up from the point-blanc shotgun discharge from below.

The Lieutenant shot up to a standing position—half hobbled form his wound—popped the shotgun, and aimed it at the android's face.

Slug blinked.

CLICK!!!

"………," the Lieutenant's lips parted.

He was out of ammo.

"Heh heh heh….," the android twirled his revolver. "Touche." Slug aimed the gun at the officer's forehead with a blue-glowing wrist.

The Lieutenant winced.

CLICK!!!

"……….," Slug's eyes widened.

_He_ was out of ammo.

A moment of hilarity…..

WHAM!!!

The Lieutenant slammed Slug's face aside with the butt of his shotgun.

The android teetered back.

The Lieutenant winced from the pain. He threw his shotgun aside. He reached behind him. He whipped out his AK-47, cocked it, and took aim. "AAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!_

P-P-P-P-P-P-PING!!!!

Slug's torso jolted and danced and drew back from the impact of dozens of bullet impacts.

The Lieutenant hobbled over the mound, teeth gritting, firing like mad.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!_

The bullets shattered and ricocheted and clattered all across the android's metal surfaces. Eventually, he was leaning backwards and bent like a pretzel from the lead punishment.

The Lieutenant fired until his gun, the air, and Slug's body was smoking.

And finally—

Click-Click-Click-Click.

The AK-47 ran out of ammo.

The Lieutenant froze in place.

Slug froze in place.

"………"

"Reload….," Slug groaned while bent backwards. "Darling….a little help here??"

From where she struggled with a green panther, Reload grunted, whipped out a free arm, and tossed Slug her shotgun.

FWOOOSH-Clap!!

Slug caught it, pumped it, and leaned up till he stood upright with the weapon planted against the Lieutenant's throat.

"Nice show, pig….," Slug grinned drunkenly. "But now it's about time you share a honeymoon with your lovely Commissioner in Hell."

The Lieutenant gulped.

"HIYAAAAA!!!" Robin dove down with a swinging staff.

CLANK!!!

"AUGH!!" Slug's shotgun yanked aside.

_**BL-BLAM!!!!**_

A six-foot wide crater exploded in the courtyard a few steps away.

The Lieutenant was blown aside from the blast.

Slug leaned back--

SWOOSH!!! Robin landed, twirled his staff, and slammed, swung, and slashed his way against the android villain.

WHAM!! SMACK!!! CLANK!!! POW!!!

As the Boy Wonder drew Slug back, Reload got the better half of Beast Boy. She tossed the green cat off her, stood up, and readied two wrist guns with a snarl. "RRRRAUGH!!!!"

SWOOOOOSH!!! Starfire flew in with two starbolts flying. FL-FLASH!!!!

POW!!! Reload was knocked aside.

"The militaristic squadron of equine has arrived!!!" shouted the Tamaranian, and she started launching starbolt after starbolt at the stumbling android. FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!! FLASH!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From the side, Raven panted.

She stared at the fight scene tiredly, then looked at the concussion streamer.

_Six minutes and thirty seconds._

She struggled up to her exhausted feet, wrestled with the missile, lifted it up, and prepared to levitate skyward with it when—

"_**REDDDDD!!!!"**_

Raven blinked.

She glanced aside.

Violet eyes widened.

A thick line of green-eyed thugs numbering in the hundreds poured in from a side street waving bludgeons and guns.

"_**REDDDDDDD!!!!"**_

They rushed in like an undead army. Snarling. Panting. Wide eyed. Bloodlusting. And they--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

BLAM!!!

BANG!!! BANG!!!

Raven gritted her teeth and summoned a huge black shield in front of her and the missile.

FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!!

The black field deflected the blasts and blows of lead.

Raven struggled.

She was pushed back telekinetically on sliding feet.

Her forehead tensed.

The forcefield bent.

She struggled and strained and fought to keep herself and the missile in tact.

From the courtyard, Starfire looked over. She gasped: "R-Raven!!"

SWOOOSH-WHAM!!! Reload plowed into Starfire.

"Ughh!!" The Tamaranian fell to the ground.

"YAAAUGH!!" Reload pounced on her.

The woman and the alien girl wrestled.

Cybernetic eyes flaring into emerald optics.

"Nnnnghh!!" Starfire looked helplessly at Raven.

"Show me that neck of yours!!!" Reload hissed. She produced a metal scabbard out of a sparkling hand and shoved it into Starfire's throat.

GRIP!!!! Starfire's hands gripped around Reload's arms. She fought against the android's force, keeping the sharp metal tip from her skin. She clenched her eyes shut and shouted: "R-Robin!! Help Raven!! Help Raven!!!"

"HiYAAA!!" THWACK!!! Robin knocked Slug to the ground with his rod. He turned, panting. His eyemask went wide. "Star!!!"

"RAVEN!!! ASSIST HER!!!"

Robin looked over. He saw the line of marching Dragonflare soldiers. "Shit….," he ran over, cape billowing.

The Boy Wonder slid across the courtyard, crouched, and clutched ahold of Raven's waist. "You ready?? H-Here we go!!"

But before he could tug at her--

"Nnngh!!!" she reverse kicked him with her heel.

WHAP!!

Robin stumbled back, confused.

"The missile!! Get the m-missile!!"

Robin looked down at the glinting streamer.

_Five minutes thirty seconds._

"The Hell is that thing??"

"Our silver bullet!!!" Raven strained. "Take it!! Go!!!"

Raven shot an extra pulse of telekinesis in reverse that knocked the missile into Robin's chest.

"OOF!!" He caught it. He took a deep breath. He turned around, ran, jumped behind a pile of rubble, slid into the fresh trench, whipped out a grappling hook, and aimed it at Raven's body. "Not without you…"

She glanced over her shoulder just as her pelted force field started to fall apart. "R-Robin??"

POW!!!!

SWIIIISH!!!

The grappling hook sailed at her, serrated.

She winced.

SLIIINK!!!

It ripped through her robe and anchored itself by the cloth.

"RGHHH!!" Robin yanked back at the taut cord.

THWOOOSH!!! A gasping Raven was pulled back towards the trench. Tossed projectiles and heated bullets from the Dragonflare crowd chased her heels just milliseconds before she was pulled to safety behind the mound.

CL-CL-CLANK!!!

TH-THUNK!!!

P-P-P-PING!!!

Raven and Robin huddled safely behind the rubble.

"W-We've got to get that thing into the air…," Raven pointed at the missile. "Simon Stone said it will emit a frequency that can undo the effects of the Dragonflare in—"

"Yeah yeah…up into the air," the Titan leader nodded. He turned around, holding the streamer under his arm. "I'll go give it to Starfir—"

"RAAAAUGH!!!" Slug leapt down into the trench. He swung his fist.

WHAM!!!!!

He punched Raven to the ground.

"Ugh!!!"

He snarled and slammed both wrists together, uppercutting Robin.

WHACK!!

"Augh!!" the Boy Wonder fell back.

Cl-Clank!! The missile rattled down the trench, sparks flying.

_Five minutes._

"NNGHH!!!" fire burned in Slug's eyes as he pounced down on Robin, grabbed his shoulders, and slammed the Boy Wonder repeatedly down into the ground. WHAP!!! WHAP!!! WHAM!!! WHAP!!!

Robin gasped, jolted, grunted, and exhaled violently.

Raven stumbled up. She gasped and pounced on Slug's shoulders--

"RAAAGH!!" he backhanded her.

WHAM!!

Raven fell back, wincing.

Slug slammed Robin's face with a titanium punch.

WHACK!!!

Robin spit blood, gasping.

SLAM!!!

Slug pushed him back down into the ground of the trench. He sneered…chuckled…and reached his fingers up towards the Boy Wonder's face. "Heh heh heh heh…."

Robin gritted red teeth. He reached into his utility belt. He pulled out a sharp birdarang that glinted in the sunlight.

Slug hissed: "Why don't we see….what's underneath that mask of yours??" His fingers slid to the corners of Robin's diguise. "I love to see the fear in the eyes of those I kill."

Robin muttered: "At least I _have_ eyes, bastard."

_SNKKT!!_

Robin extended the sharp wings of the birdarang, lifted it, and jammed it into Slug's right socket.

CHUNK!!!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!" Slug stood up, clutching the projectile stuck in his sparking face.

Robin shouted and swept Slug's ankle out from under him with a kick.

WHAP!!!

The skewered android topple back.

Robin jumped up, raised his fist, and started pummeling the cybernetic fiend with uppercuts, high kicks, jabs and screaming punches.

WHAM!! WHACK!!! SLAM!!! THWACK!!

In the meantime, Raven stirred and sat up.

She looked at the fight. She looked at the missile. She started dragging herself over towards the streamer.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

P-P-P-PING!!!

Bullets from the advancing line of hypnotized citizens deflected all around the trench.

Robin and Slug exchanged strikes and brawling punches. They grappled and wrestled and twisted and turned inside the trench. All the while, the thick sea of green-eyed fiends marched in a blurred line of massive obscurity behind them and beneath the reddening sky.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Lieutenant hobbled across the courtyard, wincing, clutching his bleeding leg.

He wearily looked past the wrestling Starfire and Reload…past the fighting Slug and Robin…and took in the solid line of green-eyed soldiers.

"……"

He panted.

His face slowly melting into a frown.

Hissing through his teeth.

Suddenly, Abbey wandered over. "S-Sir!! Let's go!! This is not our fight! Besides, you're injured!!"

Without looking, the Lieutenant growled: "The kids!! Where are they—"

"Chapman's with them, sir. They're safe under the highway. Come on!! Come with me!!"

The Lieutenant shook him off. "Rrgghhh….Decker wouldn't run away…."

"The Commissioner is dead, sir!!!"

"Exactly my point….," the Lieutenant hyperventilated. He limped towards the crowd. He reloaded his AK-47. "Any minute now…the Titans will be swallowed up…."

"Wh-What should we do, sir??"

The Lieutenant muttered. "This….." TWHOOOSH!!! He aimed his gun up. "BACK THE HELL OFF YOUR GOD DAMN SONS OF A BITCHES!!!!!" RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!!

The Lieutenant marched towards the crowd, firing.

Abbey sweatdropped, reloaded his shotgun, pumped it, and marched alongside the Lieutenant….firing.

BL-BLAM!! BLAM!!!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

The two officers did their best to fire warning shots at the green-eyed people's feet.

The 'soldiers' jumped back, screaming.

But as soon as a few of them lurched forward with guns raised--

The Lieutenant aimed.

Abbey aimed.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!

BLAM!!!

Red splotches.

Three people fell.

A surge of flesh drew back, snarling.

Others ran forward…only to fall.

The Lieutenant and the officer used up their ammo, gradually.

All the while, holding the surging crowd at bay.

As….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!!! Robin slammed his fist across Slug's cheek. Then uppercutted him. "YAAAH!!!" WHAM!!!

Slug stumbled back, the birdarang still stuck in his face.

Robin charged.

Slug grunted and backhanded the Boy Wonder.

WHAM!!!

Robin tilted back.

GRIP!!!

Slug yanked the Boy Wonder back by his cape, twirled him around, got a firm, titanium hold of his shoulder, opened his mouth, and bit in. _CRKKKK!!!_ Drawing blood…..

"NnnnghhAAAAAH!!!" Robin screamed. He snarled and slammed his other elbow into Slug's face.

CRACK!!!!

The birdarang snapped out with a few airborne drops of blood.

Slug shuddered and stumbled back.

Robin limped aside, clutching his bleeding shoulder.

Slug spun around, whipped out his shotgun, and came about with it aimed at Robin. "An eye for an eye, Mr. Titan…or in this case a rib cage."

Robin tensed.

Slug pulled at the trigger-

"_Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"_

A wave of black-charged debris slammed into Slug. WHAM!!!!

The android fell.

Robin looked over.

Raven held the missile in one hand, her other fingers pressed to her tight temples…

SWOOOSH-WHUMP!!! Slug landed hard.

His shotgun landed hard on the ground.

It fired blindly.

_**BL-BLAM!!!!**_

Two hypercharged shots sailed out through the air, burned towards the highway overpass, and exploded through two pillars on either side of the concrete bridge.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRACK!!!!**_

_**CR-CRACK!!!!**_

The pillars shattered completely and collapsed.

The concrete overhang groaned.

Ashley and Greg gasped.

They looked over head.

So did Lisa and officer Chapman.

Cracks formed in the highway's belly. Dust and concrete snow fluttered down.

"It's going to c-collapse….," Lisa shuddered.

Chapman grabbed her and one of the children. "MOVE!!!"

_**CRKKKKKKKK!!!!!**_

The bridge collapsed.

The four ran towards the courtyard.

_**CRAAAAASH!!!!**_

The earth shook as a solid section of Highway road slapped down like a falling lever and slammed just at their heels.

They gasped.

They tumbled.

And when they finished tumbling, they realized they were only three.

Ashley, Greg, and officer Chapman.

"L-Lisa??" Ashley murmured. "Wh-Where's Lisa??"

"LOOK!!" Greg panted.

Chapman glanced aside. "!!!!" he ran over.

The two children followed him.

They knelt by Lisa.

She lay—twitching and wincing—under a pile of heavy debris at the lip of the collapsed highway.

"L-Lisa!!!" Ashley panted. She clutched Lisa's wrist. "Oh God, Lisa…n-no!!!"

"Do you feel any pain??" Chapman uttered.

"Besides my ego??" the one-eyed girl grunted. "I'm not crushed. I'm just stuck."

"Stuck??"

"Stuck like Hell!! I'm STUCK, OKAY?!?!"

Greg and Ashley tugged at her. "We gotta get you out!!"

"Ow…..OW!!!" Lisa batted them away. "It's not that easy!! I can't frickin' move—"

_**GROANNNN!!!**_

"…………," they all blinked.

_**GROANNN-NNNN!!!**_

They all glanced up.

Ashley gasped.

On the very edge of where the highway cracked dipped down, there rested a jackknifed petroleum semi-truck. Its cylindrical, aluminum body glinted reflectively in the red of the sunset. It was multiple tons and full of volatile fuel. And it was starting to lean, shift, and tilt down the ramp-like incline of collapsed highway.

_**GROAAAAANNN!!**_

"Well….," Lisa muttered. "That's certainly cute…."

The two adolescents gasped. They tugged harder at Lisa. "Come on!!!"

"Move!! Move!!!"

"We gotta get you out!!!"

_**GROANNN!!!**_

"Over!! Over!!" Chapman brushed the kids aside and grabbed Lisa's shoulders from behind. "Exhale!!!!"

Lisa breathed out. Her chest and tummy flatted beneath the debris.

Chapman pulled. He gripped lower on her torso. He pulled again. He strained.

_**GROANNN-NNNN!!!**_

The truck shifted over a bit.

Sparks flew.

Its wheels dangled.

"You can't move me….," Lisa stammered.

Chapman strained. "Just work with me!! Exhale and—"

"I said you CAN'T MOVE ME!!!" Lisa snarled.

_**GROAN!!!**_

The grill tilted down.

The tank trailer upended.

The truck pivoted and…

Began to slide.

_**SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!**_

"Get them out of here!!" Lisa slapped at the kids' feet. "Save them!! Save them!!!"

Chapman panted.

"GO!!!!"

The officer bit his lip, grabbed Ashley and Greg tightly by their upper arms, and dragged them away from the site of the collapse.

The kids screamed and reached out towards Lisa, tears streaming.

Lisa struggled and shook on her own in a last ditch effort to loosen herself.

And the semi truck came barreling down.

_CRUNCH!!!_

_**SCRAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAPE!!!**_

Lisa strained.

Sparks flew.

The whole concrete slab shook.

_**SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!**_

Lisa looked up.

She froze.

A glossy look in her one eye that quickly dried. As the sliding tank enveloped her vision, she shuddered and lay back: "Alan…you're a real dork….but I gotta say it…..I love you……"

_**SCRAAAAAAAPE!!!!**_

The truck was upon her.

She closed her eyes.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Smoking hands seized her shoulders.

GRIP!!!!

Her eye popped open.

I panted.

My black shades moist with seat.

I snarled mutely, concentrated murk, and—

_**CRUNNNNCH!!!**_

--teleported the two of us a few feet away, upon which I cradled her in my arms and blurred into the courtyard.

The tanker behind us crashed—

_**BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!**_

Officer Chapman, Ashley, and Greg stood shakily aside as I walked over, stopped, and placed Lisa gently down on her feet.

"Nnngh…," she rubbed her head. "Well…that's one more fantasy fulfilled." She smiled wearily at me. "Hello, you."

"……," I simpered at her.

"Hey? Is that a new scar? It looks kinda se—"

I looked over her shoulder. "!!!!" I shoved her to the ground.

"ACKIES!!!" THWUMP!!

I suddenly twirled Myrkblade. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!!

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!! I deflected a heavy stream of high caliber bullets from—

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Reload was firing my way, bruised and angry.

Starfire was flying away from her, flinging starbolts back at the android. FL-FL-FL-FLASH!!!!

Reload ducked, dodged, and kept firing.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Bullets flew all around me and Starfire.

The Tamaranian twirled in mid-flight, grabbed the children, and yanked them safely behind a mound of debris.

I grabbed Lisa and dragger her over to the 'shielding' earth as well.

Officer Chapman backed up, firing a pistol. BLAM!! BLAM!! BLAM!!!

We all hid behind the debris, shielding ourselves.

P-P-P-PING!!!

CL-CLANK!!!!

The kids winced and clung to Starfire and Lisa respectfully.

I gripped Myrkblade, panting.

Officer Chapman reloaded his weapon and Starfire gulped.

"The gunswoman is surprisingly resilient!!"

P-P-PING!!!

Lisa shuddered: "Does the redhead always have a penchant for stating the obvious?"

Starfire glanced at her curiously.

I glanced over the mound.

I saw the flames of the collapsed highway truck. I eyed the Lieutenant and Abbey holding the surging crowd at bay. I saw Robin and Slug duking it out. Raven with a missile…

"……"

I turned to Starfire and whistled shrilly.

She looked at me, emerald eyes blinking.

I gestured 'running feet' and held my other hand flat over it. I mouthed: '_Cover me'_.

The Tamaranian nodded, she charged a starbolt.

Chapman had his pistol ready.

I took a deep breath.

_Don't ever think. _

_Just…… _

_Blur._

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

I blurred over and ran a streak of murk along the collapsed side of Phaser Labs.

Starfire and Chapman peaked over the mound of rubble and unleashed bulletfire and starbolts.

FL-FLASH!!! FLASH!!! FLASH!!!

BLAM!! BL-BLAM!!! BLAM!!

Reload ducked and produced a metal shield from bare hands, using it to block the projectiles.

In the meantime, I ran around the perimeter of her blind spot and towards the trench of rubble behind the android…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!!" Robin side-kicked Slug.

Slug blocked with a metal forearm and raised his knee.

WHAP!!! Robin was struck in the chin. He hobbled backwards.

"RAAUGH!!" Slug dashed forward with a fist.

WHAM!!

He started punching, pushing, and knocking the hapless Boy Wonder back.

In the meantime, a weak Raven gripped the missile to her chest.

Panting.

She glanced at it.

_Two minutes thirty seconds._

"H-Hey Rae!!!"

"???" she glanced up.

A green elf was perched atop a pile of debris beside her. He had his arms outstretched. "I'm wide open!!"

Raven nodded. With an added boost of telekinesis, she tossed the concussion streamer at him. "Nnngh!!!"

FWOOOOSH!!

CLUTCH!!!

Beast Boy hugged it to his chest, took a deep breath, and took off into the air as a pterodactyl and soared up into the reddening sky.

Bullets and projectiles from the surging crowd flew up at him.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!_

He twirled and spiraled upward in the air, dodging their attack.

"…..," Raven gulped. She glanced down--

WHAM!!!! Robin's body ragdolled into her.

"Ooomph!!!" the two collapsed.

CL-CLICK!!!

Slug panted, bled, and aimed his revolver down at their figures.

"Killing two birds with one slug…," he spat.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

_Kill this._

CLANG!!!! Myrkblade flew across his metal skull as I dove in.

"AUGH!!!" he stumbled back.

I snarled mutely and slashed, hacked, and swung into him with all my might.

CLANK!!! CLANK!!! CLANG!!! THWACK!!

Robin and Raven stumbled up as I took the battle across the courtyard.

"Where's Beast Boy??"

"Armed and ready….," Raven shuddered…sweating.

Suddenly, two bodies fell into the trench.

Robin and Raven jumped.

"…..," the Lieutenant panted, wincing. He leaned on Abbey who supported him by the shoulder. "We're out of ammo."

"Meaning?" Robin's eyemask thinned.

The Lieutenant gulped. "Th-They're coming."

"……"

"_**REDDDD!!!!"**_

Raven gasped.

Robin glanced over the mound at the stomping feet of the incoming horde. "MOVE!!!!"

He pulled at Raven and dragged her out of the trench and across the courtyard.

Officer Abbey tugged a limping Lieutenant.

The surging crowd of green-eyed madmen clamored at their heels.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy's leathery wings flapped…flapped…and flapped.

His pterodactyl head angled itself agilely against the cold wind of the broken autumn night.

His specked eyes blinked.

He glanced down, beak fidgeting.

The missile glinted from red sunlight in his talons.

_One minute thirty seconds._

"Skriiiii!!!"

The changeling looked up straight again and carried itself higher…faster….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Raven and the Lieutenant and Abbey ran across the front of the collapsed lab.

Starbolts and gunfire flew overhead.

Reload stumbled back, grunting. She glanced right and looked at them. She snarled and re-aimed her wrist guns.

"Look out!!!" Lisa shouted from the sidelines.

Raven's forehead tensed. Her eyes clenched shut.

FLASH!!!!

A black shield formed.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

Reload's bullets splashed against the energy barricade.

Robin grunted and dove himself and Raven aside.

Abbey and the Lieutenant followed.

They all huddled behind a giant, concrete bulkhead.

Reload snarled and ate into the frame with heated, ravaging bullets.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!!!

PING!!! PING!!!

Robin jerked up and tossed a birdarang from behind the bulkhead with a grunt.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!!

"HAAAH!!!" Reload produced a blade in her left palm and severed the birdarang.

CLACK!!!

She aimed with her right hand and kept firing.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!**_

In the meantime, I duked it out with Slug. Sweating hard. Swinging Myrkblade.

SW-SWISH!!!

CLANG!!! He deflected with his metal forearm. Sparks flew.

He snarled, twirled his revolver, and aimed it into my skull. CL-CLICK!!!

I gasped and ducked--

_**BLAM!!!!**_

A hole formed in the distant debris of Phaser Labs.

I rammed his chest with my shoulder.

He stumbled back.

I jumped, spun, and slapped Myrkblade across his face twice.

CL-CLACK!!!!

He stumbled, dizzy.

I landed, gasped, and jabbed/slashed/struck at him mercilessly.

All the while, the advancing wall of green-eyed cretins filled the peripheral of my black eyes….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The urban world below spun like the altitude meter of a plane.

From a distance it resembled the face of some volcanic island.

Plumes of smoke rose from a dozen places.

A red city under a red sky.

Ambient in its complex horror.

And yet…

Silent….

…..

High above, a green streak soared.

Beast Boy took a deep breath. Wings flapping. He looked down at the missile once more.

_Fifteen seconds……_

He held his breath, Flipped. Tossed the streamer up with gnarled talons, morphed into a green elf, straightened his body, and plummeted…plummeted…plummeted…..

Down.

And the streamer….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The crowd marched upon us.

Reload aimed at Raven's and Robin's forehead.

Slug shoved me back and pointed the revolver into my chest.

Breaths left.

Triggers pulled.

Screams—

_**VROMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

From above……

_**VRRRRRROMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

The sky shook.

Our foreheads vibrated….our ears quivered.

The sane ones among us merely winced.

Reload and Slug froze altogether.

But the green-eyed 'soldiers'…..

"_**REDDDDDDD!!!!!"**_ they howled in one last, bloody warcry.

They clutched their skulls.

They twitched.

They writhed and danced about in dramatic pain.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the rooftops bordering Bayside Plaza…

A throng of men dropped their shotguns and clutched their heads.

Screaming.

Falling down to the surfaces of the roof.

Twitching and exhaling.

Hissing.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

They fell down in the hallways leading down into the Central Bank.

A line of guards and policemen with guns lowered their smoking weapons and watched.

Blinking in shock.

The green-eyed thugs writhed and screamed on the floor.

The innocent civilians hiding within the vaults en masse started to breathe easier….curious….mesmerized….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thugs rolled on the ground beneath the L-Train tracks in the northeast.

They collapsed in front of store fronts.

Alleyways.

Burnt vehicles.

And slowly…gradually….

With deflating sighs….

The flaring green left their eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOMP!!!

Almost as one solid wave, the marching horde collapsed outside the courtyard of Phaser Labs.

Reload and Slug remained standing.

But something was not quite right.

The vibration from the concussion streamer was affecting them too.

But only partially.

The blue glow of their titanium plating flickered.

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

They twitched and cringed.

The drunken smiles left.

And in their places were faces sheen with sweat.

Panting.

Long and sad.

Panic-stricken.

Reload shook all over. Her chocolate eyes wide.

Slug quivered. Bleeding. Bruised.

"……..," I stared at him.

He shook again. The blue faded.

I stepped towards him….

The blue returned.

His body jerked.

"!!!!" I swung with Myrkblade--

CLANK!!! He deflected with his fist and then slapped me hard. "NNNGH!!!"

WHAM!!!

I stumbled to my knees.

CL-CLICK!!! He aimed the revolver at my forehead.

I panted.

His blue light flickered.

He fumbled…he twitched.

Breathing hard.

Sweating.

Fear in his face.

And yet his finger twitched at the trigger.

"……," and so I remained on my knees.

Helpless.

Raven and Robin watched from afar, frozen solid.

The Lieutenant and Abbey were speechless.

"Nnngh…..Nnnngh….," Reload shook all over. The blue flickered across her features. "I….I….."

Starfire called out to her. "Concentrate, Miss Mendez!! Do not submit to the electronic perversion of your circuitry!!"

Reload's eyes flew wide. She growled with a sudden blue vigor and fired at Starfire's wall of debris.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!**_

Starfire ducked swiftly besides Lisa and Chapman as bullets ricocheted off the mound.

P-P-PING!!!

Reload shook and shivered. The blue flickering.

"I…I-I can't control it!! I'm….I-I'm reverting!!!"

"Concentrate!!" Raven uttered loudly, sweating. "Focus on your true personalities!!! Find your center—"

"These ARE our t-true personalities!!" Slug strained, aiming his gun at my forehead.

"……..," I stared up at him.

Slug shook all over. The blue light flickering. "R-Red……it must be all Red!! This City….the sky….the earth!! It m-must bleed!!"

"Why?!?!" Robin shouted. "Fight it!! You are yourselves!! Don't be Dagger's puppets!!!"

"Nnnngh!!!" Reload shook all over. "Dios me ayuda!! No puedo controlarlo!!!" Her trembling hands flicked to the side and started to spark. Two sharp blades formed in them.

Starfire gasped. "Miss Mendez!! Cease and desist!!!"

Tears streamed down the woman's face. She struggled. She stuttered.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

CHIIII-IIIING!!!!

_SLIIINK!!!_

Starfire shuddered.

Lisa blinked.

"……….," Reload fell to her knees. The blades stuck out of her neck. She collapsed wetly onto the courtyard ground.

"Nnnnngh….," Slug shook. Panting. Flickering blue beneath his titanium plates. "R-Rachel……R-Rachel……."

"………," I stared up at him.

A flash of blue.

His nostrils flared.

_GRIP!!!_

He grabbed a handful of my long, black hair.

I winced. I looked up at him.

_PLANT!!_

He pressed the gun between the lenses of my black shades.

He sweated bullets.

He twitched his finger around the trigger.

The blue light stated to take control over him.

Jean-Luc fought Slug.

He shook.

He hissed: ….."

I breathed slowly. I stared at him.

And something in his remaining eye flared.

A blue light.

I exhaled.

_**BLAM!!!!!!!**_

A crater formed between us.

Slug's smoking gun was lowered.

For a split second, the blue light faded completely as he leaned forward with a face of horror and earnestly shouted: "Now, Titan!! Do it now!! DO IT NOW!!!!"

My black eyes widened.

The blue light started to return.

CHIIIIIIIING!!!!

I raised Myrkblade.

SL-SLASH!!!

_THWACK!!!!!!_

Slug's head came off.

I held my sword up high from where I knelt.

Panting….panting….panting….

"……," Slug's body fell back. THWUMP!!! And was still forever more.

I didn't even bother looking at the rolling skull.

A collective shudder fell through the bodies of the Titans and officers in hiding. They stood up on wobbly knees as an eerie silence fell over the City from all over.

The gunshots had ceased.

The explosions had ceased.

The autumn air returned to its chill over the red-stained earth.

"……," I stood up. Gripping to Myrkblade. I exhaled. I turned around.

SWOOOOSH!!! Beast Boy landed, morphed into an elf, and shoved me with a snarl.

WHUMP!!!

I stumbled back. I looked at the changeling.

Beast Boy shook, frowning. "Did you have to do it?!?! Huh?!?! Did you have to freakin' kill him when he asked?!?!!?"

"……………"

"Hasn't the day been full enough with murders as it is?!?!" the elf squealed. He hugged himself and backed off, shaking. "H-Hasn't there been enough blood…enough chaos….enough d-death??" He ran a hand over his face and shuddered. His voice shook: "God….why? Why….why….why……?"

"…………..," I merely stared down. Silent.

Robin drifted over on lead feet. His skin was bruised and cut in a dozen places—much like mine. His cape and costume was tattered from head to toe.

Raven hovered above the wreckage of Phaser Labs. Looking dazed. The meditative calmness sucked out of her. Tired blue eyes gazed through a mess of disheveled blue locks. Her robe was missing, and she merely hung in the air by a ripped and wrinkled leotard.

Starfire wandered out, slightly limping. Her two-piece shredded at the edges. Her bandage still hugging her shoulder. She gazed across the smoking, cratered landscape and highway underside with wet green eyes. Her lips were pursed.

Chapman wandered over by Abbey's and the Lieutenant's side. The late Commissioner's subordinate clutched a bleeding leg, wincing.

Lisa walked out, her arms draped protectively over the shivering shoulders of Ashley and Greg.

The two children looked out pensively….until they unanimously saw something, gasped, and ran over.

"D-Dad??"

"Daddy!!!"

Lisa gasped. He reached out for them. "H-Hey!! Wait!! Don't—"

But as they ran up to Howard Knight, the man was already sitting up along with a dozen other former thugs. He was dazed and….innocent.

"Nnngh….k-kids???"

They all but tackled him.

"P-Please say your back to normal, Daddy!"

"Please….."

He held them close, gazing dazedly across the courtyard. "Gladys….she………I…….," he gazed down.

A baseball bat lay beside him….stained red.

His lips quivered. "Jesus…..wh-what have I done??" Tears welled up in his brown eyes. "What have I d-done…."

He began to sob.

Ashley and Greg held him tightly….the last shred of sanity.

He clutched onto them and rocked side to side.

Lisa covered her mouth and stared down at the floor. Gazing away with her one eye.

The people—returned to sentience—stood up and started wandering around numbly. Panting. Panicked. Some mumbling incoherently. Others cursing. Others calling out for loved ones by name….

Beast Boy suffered from a chill. He sat down and hugged his knees…seeming to disappear.

Robin gazed at the people. The red sky. The dying day. His gloved fists clenched. He muttered: "Dagger….is this the City you built???"

A beat.

He sighed. He turned and started to march across the courtyard. "Titans!! Assemble!! We need to---" He froze in his steps.

"…………," the Messenger stared.

I looked up. My lips parted.

Starfire held her hands together.

Raven watched from afar.

"…………….," Robin stared back.

The Messenger gazed at him. Endlessly. Deadpan.

And as he stood there…so suddenly and haunting…….in his immaculate green sweatjacket and stone-gray pants……his face youthful and his black hair highlighted green….

There was not a single taste of pride.

Or smug scorn.

Or anything clinging to the condescending authority of a prophet or sage.

The Messenger merely stared at the Boy Wonder…willing to absorb any and all poison that certainly existed from the refuse of that dying day.

And Robin frowned. And his fists shook. And, with a heated exhalation, he turned his tattered, caped back to the ghostly teen.

The Messenger took a deep breath. Calmly, he said: "Robin, it's never too late to buy those flowers—"

SWOOOOSH—WHAM!!!! Robin punched the Messenger hard across the face.

I started.

WHUMP!!! The Messenger landed hard. He winced…but not like he was surprised…and he touched his hand to his bruised cheek.

Robin seethed, glaring down at him. "This is not your City…..," he gestured and shouted. "This is not YOUR BLOOD!!!!"

"………."

Robin pointed as he leaned forward. "GO BACK TO YOUR 'HOME'!!!!! LEAVE US!!!!"

"………."

Robin fumed. He marched across the courtyard.

"R-Robin….," Starfire floated over with a hand outstretched.

"Nnngh!!!" Robin shoved the Tamaranian girl away.

Starfire recoiled.

The Boy Wonder pointed and spat: "This is not over!!! This day!! This Hell!! NONE OF IT IS OVER!!!!"

"……," the Messenger watched.

I watched.

Raven watched.

Beast Boy's eyes were clenched shut, hugging his knees to himself.

Robin walked off into the smoldering background.

Starfire hugged a hand to her lips and clenched her eyes shut. She shuddered alone, and with a hiccup or two…the green tears started to stream down her face.

Silence.

Everyone seemed to have parted from each other…mentally, at least.

I knelt down slowly besides the Messenger.

He casually hugged one knee and stared up at the sky from the exact same position he fell from Robin's fist.

"'Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert'," the Messenger calmly uttered. "'And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes'."

I leaned my head to the side. Curiously. Gazing at him.

He looked at me with a soft smile.

"Isaiah. He had a lot to ramble on about in the Bible. Gotta hand it to those Hebrew Prophets. They're like the Jedi of Torah…or Old Testament. Whichever you prefer."

"…….," I blinked.

The Messenger sighed. His almond eyes stared through me. "This City has burned an awful lot today. And the Earth has bled its fill. But the sky need not turn red. Not so easily, Noir."

I looked away. Exhaling.

He said: "You may find this hard to believe…but I have not…and I shall not turn my back on the Titans. I care too damned much for this universe to do so…"

A beat.

"Do you remember the sound, Noir? Even now?"

I shrugged.

"Let it ever echo in your ears like the voice you lost so many years ago….," he said whisperingly. "Because my throat won't always be around to donate it to you." He stood up and dug his hands into his sweat jacket's pocket. "But then again….something tells me….you're quite used to working a lot on your own."

I raised an eyebrow.

_Are you ever NOT cryptic?_

He winked. "Try smiling soon, Noir. I promise you. It may be a week. It may be a month. But eventually….things will come full circle. Full circle….in the way you would _wish it._"

And in a flash of green.

He was gone.

I blinked.

I looked through him.

And I noticed Raven was missing.

It took half a minute for me to realize that she was hovering over the smoldering pile of Phaser Labs….frantically scraping and digging into the mass with black talons of energy.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The ambulance purred to a stop at the hospital entrance.

Paramedics hopped out.

They hurried to the rear of the vehicle and tore the doors open.

In the meantime, cops and citizens alike were slowly pouring out of the hospital gates and peering out onto the silent city.

Their mouths were gape.

Eyes were mixed with fear and awe.

Lindsay jumped out the back of the ambulance. At bearing witness to the silence, she too froze. "…….," she gazed up at the sky. Her lips parted.

The paramedics in the meantime rolled out a stretcher with Tempest lying on it.

The Atlantean groaned and twitched on the movable cot, his leg bandaged and staining red.

"T-Tempest….," Lindsay murmured. "The fighting. The battles…th-they've stopped."

Tempest murmured something into his oxygen mask.

"????" Lindsay turned to him.

He murmured again.

She leaned down, her ear by his gilled neck. "Wh-What??"

He turned to her.

He softly exhaled.

"_The sky……it is red……"_

"……," she looked up.

Her pupils dilated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Officers, surviving lab technicians, and sane citizens had burrowed their way into Phaser Labs. With streaming flashlights, they swept the areas of the half-collapsed interior. Medics rushed to the aide of bleeding workers and injured guards. Oxygen masks and first aid kits were applied. Men and women called for backup. Radios squabbled. The inner workings of an active City slowly clicked back into normal operation as the rescues went underway.

Raven was at the front of the spelunking pack.

She formed carving instruments of black energy that bore at the rubble and caved-in hallways.

A ready set of rescue workers hovered behind her with tools and flashlights.

Raven tore them through room after room. Corridor after corridor. Zeroing in on one location.

One location in her mind.

And when they reached the laboratory….

"Oh my god……"

"The place is still standing!!"

"Everyone…get ready!!!"

Beast Boy ran up from behind Raven, panting. He looked up at the dark girl.

Raven concentrated….meditated….chanted….and unleashed a wave of force.

FLAAAASH!!!!

She raised the collapsed ceiling.

She shoved the debris out of the doorframe.

And she opened the hallway into the spacious lab.

"Go!"

The men and women rushed in with flashlights.

Beast Boy too.

Slowly….Raven floated in.

Her violet eyes gazed across the room.

At the glinting effects of flashlight streams.

The shattered, charred computer consoles.

The bloody, bullet-riddled bodies in the corner.

And then.

The table….

Raven's lips parted.

"Azar….."

Cyborg lay.

On the bed.

His left metal arm still missing.

His titanium body just as scarred as before.

And yet.

No new scars.

No new scorch marks.

No damage added whatsoever.

And as Raven floated over towards him….

The android stirred.

"Nnnngh….," his chocolate brown human eye opened. He looked over at Raven. "R-Raven?? What….what happened?"

Silence.

Cyborg wheezed: "Slug and Reload…th-they went ballistic. I think Dagger was controlling them and…..R-Raven?"

Raven was biting her lip. Tears were streaming down her face.

And Cyborg's expression contorted. "Rae?? A-Are you….Are you _crying_???"

Raven sniffed. She hung her head. "How….H-How could you possibly…._possibly_ be in one p-piece??"

Cyborg swallowed a lump down his throat. He simpered. "M-Miracles happen, cutie. Like…..like those tears for instance…."

She shuddered. She sniffed. Her face was still wet.

The weak android uttered: "Raven….are you sure that—"

"Let me cry, Cyborg…..l-let me cry….," she shuddered. She looked up at him. She droned: "My father has had his way with the world enough as it is today. In this City. With these people." She took a breath and quiveringly said: "There's nothing I can fear from him….at this moment…….so pl-please…." She leaned over and draped her face across his in-tact shoulder. She muttered: "L-Let me cry…..after this whole day….please….just l-l-let me cry….."

Cyborg took a deep breath. With his one arm, he stroked his metal fingers through her hair. "I'm here, Raven. Do whatever you want. Do whatever y-you want. I won't ever leave you again…."

She shuddered against him….and was silent.

Cyborg slowly closed his human eye.

And then….

From the other side of the room.

Beast Boy wailed.

"Nooooo!!!!!!"

A breath.

A deep breath.

"Noooo-ooo-ooo-oooo….," Beast Boy's voice wavered and sobbed.

Cyborg's lips parted. He strained to look over and see…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin sat on some lone rooftop.

Overlooking the smoldering plumes of the City.

Rising.

Dotting the landscape.

The urban sprawl was black, save for wandering lights like fireflies dotting the dark streets of the falling evening.

The menace of Dagger was dwindling. And in the cold silence that followed, people were rising up from the shadowed hiding places to inspect the ruins…rescue the wounded….do away with the dead and dying.

I'm not sure if Robin was aware of my arrival.

But I walked gently and stood behind him.

The world was darkening.

So I took my shades off.

And I gazed with naked black eyes at the back of Robin.

The little boy in the tattered suit.

His shoulders shook and he spoke with betraying firmness without so much as gazing at me: "Nobody…up until that point in my life…had ever called me 'Robin' with such intensity…."

"……???" I leaned my head to the side.

The Boy Wonder hugged his knees. A less-than-flattering stature for the brave icon of heroism. He knew I was watching…and he didn't care.

"Right when Clayface consumed her…..," Robin murmured. "….she called out to me. It was so….ecstatically loving and horrifically desperate all at once. Like….like a firecracker going off in the throat of a newborn kitten. I never felt so sick and yet so liberated in all my life. She saved me…and at the same time…she killed me…."

"……………..," I listened in silence.

Something in Robin's posture iced away into cold steel firmness. A touch of venom laced his words. "This City groans to me in the same fleeting voice. I hear my name in the cries and the sobs for loved ones. I smell it in the burnt air. Something has died and flown away all at once….and I feel like I did that very moment Clayface showed me what murder truly was when I was barely thirteen. I had failed. I had shown myself to be weak…imperfect….susceptible to loss and defeat."

A beat.

Robin slowly stood up, limbs shaking. Fists…..

"I failed this City….," the Boy Wonder muttered coldly. "_We_ failed this City. The Titans failed. It's the damn red sky of Gotham all over again. I cannot escape it this time. And heaven help me…I have no idea what the Hell I'm going to do…."

I narrowed my black eyes. I sighed through my nostrils.

_I knew by coming out West here that I couldn't escape it either, Robin._

_But some of us know better than to outrun death._

I clenched my metal fingers.

A cold shiver ran up my limb.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrry……_

My teeth clenched.

_Some of us have death living inside of us………_

Robin's communicator chimed suddenly.

We both glanced a tit.

The Boy Wonder flipped it open with a dull sound. He ignored it. "Robin here. What is it?"

The voice on the other line hesitated. And when it came through, it was like a rusty, swinging saw.

"_This is Beast Boy. Come to Phaser Labs."_

"Phaser Labs??"

"_D-Deep in the place Simon Stone worked. You……I-I want you to see this, Robin. WE want you to see this."_

"What is it? What's so important?"

"……………"

"Beast Boy??"

"_They took her, Robin!!!"_ the voice spat through the electronic feed.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "Who??"

"_Who do you __**think**__???"_ And the changeling's voice sobbed into a crackling sensation as the communication was cut.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Monday.

November 4, 2004.

7:37 pm.

The City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The world was a numb, dark place as Robin and Starfire walked through the courtyard to Phaser Labs.

The streets were filled with people.

Desperate, urgent people.

They ran left and right and shouted commands as they provided first aid to the wounded…the once-thugs….the victims.

A heavy cluster was at Phaser Labs.

Working under an impromptu erection of floodlamps.

They formed a line of men and women tossing debris in large, plastic buckets up and away from the crumbling crater of a building.

A rough tunnel led to the collapsed hallways beneath.

Starfire and Robin gradually marched down and inside.

"_This City was founded on blood, Robin……," Dagger said. "And today, it shall be redeemed by blood."_

The Tamaranian and the caped crusader strolled down the hallway. Flashlights were propped on top of empty first aid boxes and served as nighlights.

The two heroes had to make way for rescue workers and lab assistants rushing up and down the thing passageways.

Robin and Starfire remained affixed on a lit laboratory at the end of the dark hallway far down the line.

"_I only want back that which was mine. That's what Triangular was made for. We regain that which was lost since the last time the Balance of Morals was challenged."_

Raven and Cyborg hobbled down the hallway. Leaning against each other.

Cyborg weakly looked up, temporary skeletal limbs of metal replacing his missing titanium parts.

At the sight of Robin and Starfire, the two hung their heads. They turned and headed into a crowded infirmary.

Starfire turned and watched them pensively.

Robin kept gazing forward.

His brow furrowed.

Walking.

"_This pretty world of ours must turn crimson some way or another. And for the sky to turn red……The Earth must bleed. I've got a lot of carving to do, you see."_

Robin and Starfire entered the laboratory.

They paused.

They gazed around.

A circle of lights had been set up.

Streams of illumination shimmered through the settling dust and crumbling ashes of the partially collapsed ceiling.

And they all aimed at one spot.

And besides the spot, was a squatting Beast Boy.

Bent over.

His face in his hands.

Shaking.

Sobbing.

"_What will it be, Robin? The hand or the dagger? It matters little which choice. The sky will turn red. The Earth shall bleed. Triangular will reclaim its precious meat."_

Starfire floated….landed besides Beast Boy….then knelt at his side. She rested a gentle hand on his shaking shoulder.

Beast Boy merely sobbed louder, his agonized wails filtering through the halls of the bloodied chamber.

He was 'facing' something.

Starfire gazed up at where the lights converged.

And she gasped.

An amber hand clamped over her lips.

She shuddered.

And then….

Green tears flowed.

She shook her head in disbelief.

She gently hugged Beast Boy…and the two shook together.

Robin was silent. He walked past the crying Titans.

He stood before the convergence of lights.

His gloved fists clenched.

And he stared.

"_I want the earth, Robin. And only the earth. Red Aviary can have the harvest. What's important to realize is…the harvest is only temporary. The earth may bleed and bleed forever……but there is always stone to be claimed."_

Where the lights converged…there was a shattered transparent sheath of plastic.

A pedestal rested naked.

Flowers were scattered by the stalks and petals across the metal circle.

And Terra….

Terra was gone.


	177. Robin Dies

**177. Robin Dies**

"Robin, I am not necessarily the best at conveying words for Terran ears to receive. Regardless, I do hope that you recognize my sincerity when I tell you this. The recent tragedy and turmoil within this City and most especially the terrible disappearance of our beloved Terra has struck me quite dearly to the heart and I cannot help but express myself. Ever since I joined the Titans, the perils we have faced have been surmounting. And during the course of events, many of us have changed and grown in our powers. Raven has learned how to apply the healing touch. Cyborg has upgraded his circuitry. Tempest has mastered the waves while Beast Boy and Noir have learned the art of stealth. I, myself, have gained much greater powers through transformation. And it feels as if there has been a purpose for this evolution, in that the tribulations we face with each passing day have been greater and greater in intensity until the very field of our vigilantism very similarly matches the horrors of the galactic conflicts I have once borne witness to. But you, Robin. You have not changed. You have remained the same vulnerable, human entity whom I met and admired upon first meeting. This human who leads us has stayed fragile with every surmounting obstacle despite how much he desires to deny it. And furthermore, with each increasing danger, he only throws himself all the more selflessly into peril. I feel very much for this person, Robin. And I am sure that you know that. You are so precious and selfless and endearing in every way. You put the value of the lives of others over that of your own. You stretch your mortal boundaries and dare to be something that touches the skies. Nowhere in the universe have I found something so unimaginably brave and respectful of Life in all its faculties as you. I feel so blessed that this same entity has taken the time and affection to not only introduce me to this wonderful planet but show me the essence of humanity. I shall forever think of Terra Firma in the shape of your smile, or the wave of your handsome dark hair, or the warmth of your hand as you guide me through both confusion and wonder. My respect and admiration and feelings for you know no limits, and I hope someday you shall consider such truth when you realize that—likewise—my concern and worry for you knows no legitimate limits either. Each and every day, you strike me as a comet lingering over the surface of a burning, consuming star, and it takes all the Tamaranian strength that I have to keep myself from reaching out to hold or steady you at any waking moment of existence. For I know that you are your own entity, and I know that you are strong at heart and mind, and I know that you are far more capable of weathering the storms around us than I can even dare to think. And yet that instinct is still there, and I cannot deny it. I care about you oh-so-deeply, Robin. I do not want you to perish. I want to be with you for as long as I can manage, for the very reality of your existence is what gives my green heart the spark to keep beating. Please, consider my words. And be glad for Life….your Life."

Starfire finished her words.

She took a deep breath.

She held her hands clasped together.

A beat.

Her reflection gazed back out at her from the shattered mirror hanging on wall of a restroom in Phaser Labs.

"…………….."

Starfire sighed.

She hung her head.

A pause.

She shuffled around, her boots crackling on debris and scattered shards.

She limped her way out of the restroom and into the dark hallway of the half-crushed facility.

Alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Friday.

November 5, 2004.

1:49 am.

The City.

Phaser Labs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin's arms were folded.

He stared at a laptop hooked Macguyver-style by a bundle of loose wires to a battered mainframe of the crumpled laboratory.

The Boy Wonder said: "I'll ask you once again…..is it _possible??_ Not is it _probable_….."

"Anything is possible, Robin…," Cyborg grumbled.

He had a temporary, skeleton of a left arm and leg replacing the limbs he had lost in the T-Car's explosion. He sat on a first-aid crate and typed away at the tiny computer. Flickering floodlights haloed the shattered interior of Phaser Labs. The Titans more or less gathered in a circle while rescue workers and salvage teams rushed back and forth in the background, forming an anxious ambiance.

Cyborg gestured while typing: "After all the experiments my Uncle did on Terra's statue, there should be enough residual energy from the mitochondrial pulses of her cell structure to leave _some_ kind of a trail. Wherever those damn creeps took her."

"How are we to assume that they were 'taken'?" Raven droned.

"They were," Robin grunted. He stared down at the floor with a furrowed brow and eyemask. "Dagger's words. They all came together. He and Triangular wanted this City….but they couldn't get it. Not today. Even after all the bloodshed, the Titans proved too much for Dagger's forces. But that didn't stop him. The Titans couldn't be in every place at once. So he took another prize. For some insidious reason or another, he wanted Terra all along. He kept rambling about the 'earth bleeding' and crap. I don't think I want to even begin speculating what that means."

"None of us do, dawg….none of us do…," Cyborg groaned.

"Shhh….," Raven quietly uttered. She gazed across the laboratory.

Robin and Cyborg glanced over.

Beast Boy sat on a crate a few feet away. His upper limbs folded and propped against his knees. His green head resting flat into his forearms.

Still…….

"………..," I stood off to the side. Shuffling blood-stained playing cards dazedly in my metal hand. I felt a chill but decided to ignore it.

"Anyways….," Robin spoke…a little quieter, but still with the same amount of firmness. "Unless Dagger had teleporters or people with metaphysical talents of speed, he couldn't have gotten Terra too far away from here. Slug and Reload were his distractions. When they ignited the lateral energy core of the laboratory, they produced just the amount of chaos Dagger's thieves needed to slip under cover. But I'm convinced that Dagger can't distract us just enough. There's got to be a clue…somewhere in this butchered City…..Terra had to have left a trail behind her."

"I'm at a loss at the moment, man….," Cyborg shook his head, sighed, and entered another search on the map schematics on the laptop. "I have only half of Phaser Labs' power available to me…and barely a fraction of its computer resources. I'm still thinking the Titan Computer would do us some better help. If I could just get back to the Tower and—"

"You are in no condition to go anywhere far anytime soon," Raven uttered rather sharply. "You're staying here until you can recover."

"Robin?? Talk some sense into her."

"I wish I could….," the Boy Wonder uttered. "But she's right. Right now I need your brain more than your brawn. You're staying here……for here is where you can best help."

"Sheesh, I'm flattered….," Cyborg rubbed his human eyebrow. "I'm not the Stone who should be working with this system, though."

"Where is your Uncle?" Raven asked…wincing slightly in expectation.

Cyborg sighed. "Halfway between deletion and the power reserves."

"…………."

"It might take the mother of all rebootings….b-but I think I can bring what's left of him back….," the android Titan clarified. "Imagine it as family resurrection……..as far as c-constructs go…."

Raven and Robin nodded.

I exhaled softly and glanced aside.

Starfire floated into the room. Gently. She stood besides Raven. "I apologize for my absence. I needed a bout of inhalation and exhalation."

"A breather?" Raven uttered, eyebrow raised.

"That is correct," Starfire nodded. "Please continue." She gazed at Cyborg's laptop. A beat. She looked over at Robin. Pensive green eyes staring.

"………," Robin wasn't looking at her.

Starfire bit her lip. She returned her attention to Cyborg's work.

Cl-Cl-Click!!

_Beep!_

"I think I might have something….," Cyborg uttered, typing.

Robin walked over behind his back.

So did I, craning my neck curiously.

"What is it?" Robin asked.

"Another lovely-ass puzzle," grunted Cyborg. "I've got some traces on residual energy after performing a cross-reference search of Terra's powers and her mitochondrial signature. You see…after all the experiments were done with her, both signatures took a long….long time to settle down. IF they could settle down. It's like a giant blanket floating down over a bed after a fresh laundry or something. And believe me, Terra was powerful enough to emit frequencies that could last this long. Remember how her eyes glowed yellow the way she did? Scientifically speaking…she should have been melting on the insides everytime she lifted so much as a pebble!"

"Just tell us about the findings," Robin muttered.

"Fine…fine…."

Click!

"There are signature bands branching out across the City."

"Branching?" Raven asked, eyebrow raised.

"Take a look for yourself…," Cyborg pointed.

We did. Most of us, at least.

I narrowed my black eyes through my shades.

Yellow streams of flashing color stretched up from the central point in Phaser Labs in five entities. All of them wavering more or less in line with the streets and avenues of the broken City. All heading north…and yet apart.

I shuffled the playing cards…exhaling in thought…..

"They carried her around quite a bit for a statue…," Raven droned.

"I don't see the point in doing that," Cyborg rubbed his chin…thinking aloud.

"How else could they have produced signatures with her like that?"

"I can think of numerous different ways," the android Titan said. "Terra's energy residue—once it's seized at the very source, such as her statue—can be mimicked and traced over through careful applications of radioactivity. I'm sure Dagger is afforded with such talents. Most likely he took samples of Terra's statue and exposed them to radioactive dust and had some of his covert cretins here at Phaser Labs sprinkle them in random spots along the City simultaneous with Terra's mobile extraction from this site."

"As a way to throw us off……" Raven nodded thoughtfully. "By giving us multiple paths to explore, Dagger's men are making it that much harder for us to hunt her down and bring her back safely."

"True, Rae. True…."

"Or maybe they just broke her into a bunch of pieces and went on half a dozen hayrides out of Town…..," muttered a defeated voice.

"………………"

We all looked over at Beast Boy.

Cyborg sighed and said: "Don't exaggerate, B.B. How could we possibly begin to guess something like that at this point?"

The Changeling had his hunched back facing us. Shaking hands clutched the back of his head. "Oh….and your 'radioactive dust' theory is so much better? Face it…they trashed her. She's totally wrecked by now, dude……"

Starfire's face curved sadly. "Beast Boy…..you must not assume so. Let us not be so inclined to accept defeat, for—"

Beast Boy snapped and faced us with a snarl: "And do you think anything about today has been a victory?!?!?!?"

"………"

The changeling heaved. He pointed a shaking finger at the pedestal where the statue was cleared cleanly away. "Does that look like something 'glorious' or 'magnificent' to you, Star?!?! Terra's gone!! They took her from us!! They took her from us and heaven be helped if that low-life Dagger ever so much as _thinks_ about giving her back!!!"

Raven floated over. She had a gentle hand raised: "Beast Boy, be calm. If Terra was truly dead…I would have sensed it—"

"And what a fine job you did of sensing her being taken away when all Hell broke loose!!!" Beast Boy heaved. He panted. Sweat ran down the elf's face and disguised the moisture coming out from the corners of his eyes. "Did you have that much trouble sensing _Cyborg's_ _condition_ up until the concussion streamer went kablammo?!?!"

"……………," Raven stared.

Cyborg rubbed his head.

Beast Boy bit his lip. He clenched his eyes shut and grabbed his head. "Terra's gone!! Terra's GONE!!! Don't you guys get it?? Have you even woken up to it?!?! She….is….GONE!!!"

"I am truly saddened at Terra's departure….," Starfire murmured. "And for that, I am more than willing to engage in searching for her—"

"TERRA'S GONE!!!!" Beast Boy shouted, his voice echoing across the crumbled chambers. Workers and salvagers in the distance jolted in a momentary pause before unemotionally returning to their tasks at hand. Beast Boy clenched his fists by his side and hyperventilated. "She's dead…okay?? She's not alive anymore. Sh-She died back when……wh-when she stopped Slade and saved the City!! SHE DIED!!! Got it?!?! She can't be alive…not now….n-not in the hands of those jerks at Triangular. All Dagger has is a corpse. Whatever he w-wants with Terra, she won't feel it. Because she's dead. DEAD!! She won't feel a thing…she won't feel pain…sh-she won't feel the separation…she won't—"

I walked over to Beast Boy.

"Nnngh!!!" he backed up and waved a shaking hand at me. "Back off, dude!!"

I walked over to Beast Boy and placed a hand on his arm.

"Rgghhh!!!" he shoved at me. "I said, b-back off!! I don't need you to touch me or anything, Noir!! I don't…..d-don't…."

I gripped his shoulders. I looked down at him.

He shook. Once. Twice.

An exhale.

He fell against me. Sobbing. His face into my middle chest.

I gently, quietly held him still. Not firmly. Not coldly either. I gazed past him as his body shook against mine. His tears formed a damp spot against my black shirt beneath my combat jacket.

I slowly inhaled, staring at the spot where the statue used to be. The cold shadows of death prevailing in the room.

Raven lowered her eyes.

Starfire sniffed and cupped a hand over her lips. She closed her emerald optics and breathed gently.

"………"

"They're all heading north."

Starfire reopened her eyes.

"What's that?" Cyborg remarked.

Robin had walked over and was pointing at the laptop's screen.

"The trails of Terra's energy residues. Fake, legitimate, duplicated, or not….they're all heading north."

"Right….," Cyborg nodded. "They all more or less end within the industrial district of the City."

"Which is interesting….," Robin rested his arms by his tattered sides. "Because the industrial warehouses and factories are where—reportedly—the main bulk of Dragonflare victims arose to become the 'army' of Dagger."

"Dagger most likely distributed the Dragonflare somehow to ordinary citizens while at work," Raven added. "And somehow he was able to spark within all the people exposed to it a hypnotic command to attack the rest of the population." A beat. "With weapons he provided, no less."

"Most likely a chemical catalyst was used…," Robin breathed. "Something seemingly harmless and yet could be carried massively through the air. Something nobody would have suspected even if we were _searching_ for a sister agent to Dragonflare. But back to the northern district and the industrial complexes….I don't think it's any mere coincidence that the 'trails' of Terra are all heading north."

Cyborg blinked his human eye. He pointed with a skeletal metal hand: "You think that's his base of operations, dawg?"

"Not a base….," Robin said. "A 'port'. A spot in the City to which Dagger's interests reach a focal point and he is able to transport to in and out with ease. It may also act as an exit point if he is attempting to take Terra's statue somewhere."

I glanced over, still holding Beast Boy. The elf's sobs were quieter now…but still just as wet. He continued hiding his face in my embrace.

"But what about the possible misdirection Cyborg talked about?" Raven gestured. "Not all of the energy traces lead to one exact point. He could have been onto something with the radioactive manipulation idea—"

"There's no time to speculate which is or which is not the true path….," Robin gestured. "Paths are made for walking. We're going out. Now."

With that said, Robin swiveled on his boots, turned, and marched towards the exiting hallway full of workers.

Starfire instantly started. Her neck craning.

Raven's lips parted.

Beast Boy looked up, teary eyed.

I gazed as well.

"Wait a second, Robin….," Cyborg stood on wobbly legs. Raven floated over and supported him as he pointed at the Boy Wonder's caped back. "Don't we need to think this out, more?" he pointed. "What if it's a trap? What if Dagger's toying with us again like he's done so all day?"

Robin paused. He spoke with his back to us. "You heard Beast Boy. Terra is gone. It's about time we all woke up to that."

"……………."

"But she won't be gone for long….if we act now," Robin turned and glared over his shoulder. "And we _must_ act **now**." A beat. He pointed with a gloved finger. "Noir, you take the westernmost point. Raven, Starfire….you take the trails east of him." He gazed over. "Beast Boy?"

"Y-Yeah??"

"You feel capable of being a hero again tonight?"

"………," the changeling shuddered. He let go of me, sniffed, and wiped his cheek with a sleeve. "Sure…dude. Always…..," he shuddered breathily.

"Good," Robin nodded. He turned and spoke: "Cyborg. Stay here. Keep in contact with us over the communcation frequencies and guide us along the path of the residual energy traces. Okay, Titans."

"Robin—"

"We're moving out."

"Robin, wait!!" Cyborg gestured. "Listen, dawg. It's nighttime, the City's a wreck….h-how can we possibly get anything done so suddenly and amidst such chaos—"

"We're Titans!!! And we get the job done!!! Got it?!?!" Robin shouted with a pointed finger. "Or maybe you lost a little bit of your memory banks along with those robotic limbs of yours?!?!?!"

Cyborg frowned. "Listen, dawg. I ain't trying to---"

"You 'ain't' trying to do NOTHING!!!" Robin shouted. "Lest you forget, I'm the leader!! Founding…appointed…whatever!! The only thing that frickin' matters is that when I give commands, things get done!! We're moving out, dammit!!"

"Robin—"

"We already failed this City but we sure as Hell aren't going to fail Terra!!!!" the Boy Wonder snapped. "I don't care how many people Dagger has killed or tortured, he's not going to get the upper hand on us!!! Not anymore!!!"

"He doesn't have the upper hand, Robin…," Cyborg raised his replacement limb. "He tried to snuff me out twice. Guess what?? I am _here_. Dagger isn't quite as badass as he likes to sound…."

Raven glanced aside.

Robin took a deep breath, and the words came icily from his mouth: "You're alive….only because the rest of the Titans were courageous enough to battle two gunslinging androids and a virtual army of zombies to claw your smoldering body out of the ruins."

"……….."

"We're heroes…..not frolicking kids on some goddamn field trip…..," Robin uttered. He glared at all of us. Myself included. "You want to grow up, Teen Titans? Ever desired to have the chance??" He pointed straight up at the collapsed ceiling. Towards the outside world. "There's life, my friends. We grew up today. We're no longer the _Teen_ Titans. We're something else. And I don't think that 'something else' will be anything stronger unless we make our moves when we're _destined_ to."

Silence.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "We move out. If there's any justice to be had on this raped Earth, we're moving out. We're finding Terra. That's our contract from hereon out. The piece of us that was torn away must be reclaimed before the wound has a chance to bleed. The City's run red enough as it is. I don't want the sky being touched. There's no time for rest. There's no time for sleeping. Titans….go….."

He turned.

He began to march out of the room.

"Robin…..," Starfire floated in front of him.

"Get ready, Starfire," Robin uttered firmly and gently pushed her aside.

"Robin….I implore you….," she turned and faced him as he marched off. "Allow me to join your trail-chasing into the industrial complexes."

Robin kept walking, his back to her. "No can do, Star. We have to split up. It's the only efficient and quick way."

"But I-I would argue that such efficiency would be alternately provided by strength in n-numbers…," the Tamaranian stammered.

"You have your orders, Starfire. Go—"

"Robin…I….," Starfire floated after him, bit her lip, shook a bit, then blurted: "W-Wait!!"

"…..," he froze.

"I….after all of today….I….I simply desired to….t-to…..," Starfire wrung her hands. Her pretty face cringed as she lost all that she had linguistically formulated and all that she had prepared in her head and in the cold easiness of the shattered mirror. She rolled out: "I do not want to lose sight of you again. So much horror has transpired today, and it has shaken me more than I thought would be possible, Robin and—"

He shifted about as if he was about to say something or move or explode or--

"I love you, Robin," Starfire said.

Silence.

…….

"I love you so….," the green-eyed girl exhaled. "And there is nothing in this world…no power so great in the cosmos…no distance too huge in the universe that could ever keep me from loving you and adoring you." She took a deep breath, hugging herself….hugging him from fifteen feet off. "Please….u-understand….."

The silence crept its way over and iced Robin's shoulders. His lower legs shifted once or twice, but his dark head hung all the more. For a moment—from my angle at least—it looked like he could turn around and spin the world down the drain, but all of us knew that he wouldn't.

There was no sound but that of the distant workers, and all too soon Robin swallowed, exhaled and—without so much as looking back—the Boy Wonder walked frostily down the hallway and into the darkness.

And Starfire bit her lip. Her face quivered as the green tears flowed. She floated limply into a corner for a few seconds to be alone with her streams.

The rest of us had our eyes to the floor. Long ago each and every one of us had resolved ourselves to the all-too-real swish of a cold, yellow cape.

The alien had not.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was deadpan.

He walked out onto the courtyard of Phaser Labs.

A circle of squad cars and ambulances formed a perimeter besides two stalks of floodlights bathing the scene.

Tents and bundles of equipment were set up as more and more officers and backup forces gathered and established a base of salvage operations. Hundreds of figures dashed in and out of the electric halo and the dark night beyond as citizens volunteered by the busload from all corners of the wrecked sprawl. Off in the distance of the evening, other crowning lights of similar bases sprouted across the smoldering urban environment.

The Recovery had begun.

"Robin….," the Lieutenant uttered from where he sat on a concrete planter. He was between calls with various officials across the City via radios, cell phones, and communicators. All the while he winced as a paramedic finished re-bandaging his injured leg. "Glad to see a Titan for once. The amount of outpouring aid is enormous. You wouldn't begin to imagine the number of people flocking in from Metropolis and Gotham City just to give us a helping hand in search and recovery. There's even rumor that five busloads of donated blood are coming in from as far away as Keystone City and—"

"Never start me off with the good news…," the Boy Wonder said.

The Lieutenant smiled. "The body toll…," he murmured—wincing from his leg. "So far it's estimated at nine hundred….with twice as many missing."

"Right….," Robin smoothed his cape and exhaled towards the ground. "…an estimate."

"But without you Titans—God forbid—it would have been so much more wor—"

"We're on the move," Robin said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Cyborg may have a possible lock on Terra's location," the Boy Wonder uttered. "I'm sending most of us into the Northern District of the City to investigate. If we act now, we might catch the last of Dagger's straggling forces."

The Lieutenant blinked. "Y-You mean….you think he's still in this City?"

"Terra," Robin said. "I think Terra's still in this City. As for Dagger…who knows where he is." Robin took a deep breath, then firmly pointed. "I want you—if at all possible—to order the bulk of your men away from the industrial complexes. If there's trouble to be had when the Titans follow the trail, I don't want anymore unnecessary casualties."

"……..," the Lieutenant stared up at the Boy Wonder.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "You…uhm…a-are in charge, right? Now that….th-that Decker is—"

"I'm Acting Commissioner of the City, yes," the Lieutenant nodded his head. "Though I could have thought of better circumstances under which to be promoted."

"You're doing great….," Robin gazed off at the rushing workers and busy recovery efforts across the base. "Keep this City and its people in top priority. That's what Decker always did. That's what any hero would do."

"For the City, right Robin?"

Robin looked at him. "………….right."

A beat.

"By the way…," the Lieutenant shifted as the paramedic finished the bandage. "…I've checked up on your Atlantean buddy." He pointed at a cell phone. "He's in stable condition. They've got him on a comfy little bed upstairs in the hospital where it…….wh-where it isn't so c-cramped."

"Thanks for telling me," Robin nodded. Only half listening. "Now can you do me another favor?"

"Anything, Robin."

He looked directly at the Lieutenant. "Can I borrow a motorcycle?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin slipped on his helmet.

He gripped the police bike's handles.

He kicked—

_VRMMMMM!!!! _

_VRMMMMM!!!_

The engine purred to life.

He gazed off to his left.

I was perched on a fallen chunk of highway. I saluted him…and blurred northward.

Raven was next, floating a bit northeasterly. She had on her leotard only…the robe was too tattered to rest on her shoulders.

Beast Boy took a deep breath, jumped into a bat, and fluttered off into the night.

And then….

And then Starfire hesitated. A weight seemingly pressed on her fair shoulders.

"…………," Robin gazed at her.

She didn't look back. It was as if she didn't know he was there. She finally summoned a green glow and soared upwards.

Robin looked straight ahead. He tested the feel of the bike's handles again.

_VRRR-RRRRMMM!!_

"_Robin?? This is Cyborg……,"_ the familiar voice crackled into his helmet's ear piece. _"I'm tracking the signals still. I'll guide y'all to the source."_

"Good going, Cyborg," Robin said. "Keep in contact with us. You'll be our director for the time being and—"

"_Listen, Robin. We have to talk."_

Robin sighed. "Not now."

"_About you and Starfire. Don't you thin--??"_

"I said not now!!!" Robin grunted. "We've got a job to do!!"

"………_well okay then."_

click.

"Great….," Robin sighed. He slowly kicked himself into gear and rolled forwards. As he slowly navigated himself out of the courtyard and base of flurrying workers, he gazed up.

And…

His eyemask narrowed.

In the starlight, he saw the clouds.

And they looked red.

Blood red.

His lips parted.

Something flashed across the juvenile borders of his mind.

Like a tall and impervious lighthouse.

Skewering white bands across a crimson soup…looming over dark rocks and water.

"……," Robin cringed. "It's a long way from home…."

_VRMMMMMMM!!!_

He throttled off down the road…and into the blackness of night.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beep……beep……beep……beep……beep……_

The machines wired to Tempest's arm and chest monitored his heart, pulse, and breathing.

The Antlantean Titan rested comfortably in the hospital bed. Gowned. Blanketed.

His dark eyes were lowered.

A special 'leash' was around his neck with bottled 'pockets' of water fit snugly around his gill slits. He breathed, relaxed….recovered.

"…………….," Lindsay sat in a chair beside him in the small, dimly lit room.

As quiet and as serene as the hospital quarters were, the sounds of the busy hallways outside could not be denied as hundreds of nurses and doctors poured in overtime to look at four times as many patients and cases as normal. Half of the people outside were there just to be there.

A shelter for the frightened and shellshocked.

Lindsay leaned forward, her hands leaning against her chin. Her freckled face calm and quiet. Sleepy, almost…..but too vigilant to fade.

Her shirt and jeans were showing the wears and tears of a long day of Hell.

Silence.

"………….."

Eventually, Tempest's eyes opened. Gently. Tiny white specks on black pearls. "……………," he gazed over at Lindsay.

Quietly, she smiled.

A beat.

The water pockets bubbled.

Tempest opened his mouth dryly and uttered even more dryly: "Why…..are you h-here??"

"Watching over you…..," she quickly and simply replied.

Another beat.

Tempest blinked slowly. He struggled. The water pockets bubbled. He hissed: "Your family…..you should….sh-should…."

"They're all okay," she exhaled with a second wave of relief. A painful smile crept across her lips. "Mom. Dad. My cousin Helena. Hehehe…even l-little Phil." She leaned her teenage head to the side. "One of the nurses was so kind as to pass me her cell phone momentarily shortly after you got here. I talked to them. They were holed up in the apartment the whole time. Some building a few blocks down got hit pretty badly by some of the men on black jeeps….but otherwise, they were spared from the warzone. A lot of people died today…..but so…so much more lived. And it's all thanks to people like you."

Tempest shuddered. "Wh-Why aren't you….w-w-with th-them?"

"I couldn't get to them if I tried," Lindsay sighed and stroked a strand of stringy brown hair up and around her ear. "The hospital's in lockdown. A curfew's out over the entire City. It's black as soup outside with most of the lights not working or simply not turned on…..a-and a bunch of policemen and firefighters from all over the state have rushed in to help take care of things. It's so amazing. It truly is. I almost wish you could look out the window."

Tempest closed his eyes again. A series of rapid breaths flew loosely out of his lips. Some weak substitute of a chuckle.

"???" Lindsay leaned her head to the side.

He managed: "You sound ……"

"Thankful is the word for it," she smirked. "I like to think…..to think th-that a lot of my prayers were answered this evening."

"At least somebody's were…."

"………"

"I….I-I've been listening to….uhm…..some local news broadcast…..on th-the radio….," Lindsay quietly said. Her voice drifted in soft loops around the beeping and bubbling sensations of the room. "…it's not any of the f-famous people from JCN….but th-they do seem to know what they're talking about. Word is….W-Word is that the Titans are all alive. Th-That Cyborg was hurt really bad, but made it out all right. That they're all working with the police and others to try and run out the last of the bad guys in this City. So….I-I think you have nothing to worry about."

"……………………….," the Atlantean lay silently.

Lindsay bit her lip. "T-Tempest?"

"Garth….."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Garth…..are you okay?"

"I….I don't know……..," he shuddered. "I can barely feel my leg. I may never be able to swim again. And the Titans…….the Titans……"

"……….," she was silent.

His lungs rose and fell as the gills retired momentarily. "I gave up praying to Neptune a long time ago, Lindsay. A very long time ago."

"Wh-Why's that, Garth?"

"Prayers never change the fact that people are mortal….," the Atlantean breathed. "And when people are mortal…they never do truly stay in your life all the time. They come only once and they go for forever. Forever…as much as we're concerned."

She nodded. She bravely parted her lips and uttered: "You have….lost a lot of loved ones, haven't you Garth?"

He breathed sharply.

A beat.

"I came here….to this surface world……not because I was banished from the seas—which I was, by the way…."

Lindsay blinked.

"…but I came here because…..there was nothing for me to have anymore under the waves," he exhaled, inhaled, uttered: "I know what the taste of loss is like…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy flapped and glided over the City with emerald wings. Beady eyes narrowed and glared down with falcon firmness. The buildingtops and skyscrapers were stone giants in a black mist, with a red sand-ceiling stretching over the intermittent specks of electric floodlights and streetfires. The further north the changeling flew, the thinner the citizens and the thicker the rescue attempts until everything was like a giant writhing worm pit consuming some fallen giant's body.

'_The coldest part of it is learning that there is nothing to feel guilty for. And you look down deep inside yourself and try to understand why it is so painful. Tula was born to die……like all of us……why couldn't I just have accepted it when she went? Or Tram for that matter? Praetor Ivan??'_

Raven drifted over the landscape. Her eyes gazing cold and violet along the dark horizon, in search of smokestack skeletons and the tell-tale signs of the industrial complexes. She listened to Cyborg's commands through the communication, guiding her. Her ears leaned in past the curtain of electronic verbalization and brushed up against something else. Something damp and beating. And soon she felt terribly, horribly ripped off from something. But with a gentle shutting of her eyes, she ignored the sensation and flew on ahead.

'_I'm slowly beginning to get a grasp of it. And it's not something that happens overnight. Loss is exactly that, a loss. When people die……when people who ever loved you or that you ever loved die……a piece of you is missing. Something that you have invested your blood and spirit in. And it will never………ever………return to you. But at least……you have memories. And some may say memories are torture. But I for one think that they move me.'_

I blurred from rooftop to rooftop, bounding over ledges, skirting through alleyways, and dashing on smoke-travelling streams northward towards the dirtier, smudgier half of town. I deeply inhaled as I wrapped myself up in the black fog of rapid transport. And my onyx eyes blinked. Snapshots of the day bled in crimson giggles between leaps and I found myself gazing up at a mirroring, humored sky. It didn't make the trip to point z take place any faster.

'_Tula moves me. It has been months since I last warmly felt myself lying in her arms. And yet, she moves me. Her breath still fills me, her lips still silence me. When she died……I had died too. But in that death, I had also learned to live. And I have since learned to live in spite of what deaths I may yet trudge through. The City's deaths. The Titans' deaths. Even your death, Lindsay. It is all part of the story. Just another chapter. A continuation of the silly little spark that ever exploded in our mother's wombs and began the game of cause and effect we all romp through.'_

Robin's body angled forward on the bike. He throttled down the streets, the wind beating back at his black spikes. His gloves were tight. His cape billowing. His whole costume acting as a half-dead icon hanging on by some last act of heroic stubbornness in the face of endless red. A breath escaped his lips with a vaporous mist that betrayed the settling reality of November Autumn. And something invisible glistened in the air like the ice crystals of a polluted Gotham sigh. A lone, flickering lamppost passed by overhead, giving birth to the Boy Wonder for one last time before he rumbled on alone atop the bullet machine.

'_The Titans are mortal, Lindsay. I do not despair over the day that their time will come. Just the same……I do not despair over myself. I know that we have done that which we were equipped to do by whatever energy reigns over the universe. Everything must eventually seep through the bleeding earth, collect into the sea, and return to the sky. What matters……what truly matters……is if we do it beautifully with the chance we have to fit into the pieces……'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

Robin rounded a corner. His lone headlight illuminated the dark and abandoned city streets ahead. The shadows fled and the red sky retreated momentarily to let him pass.

The summits of factories and warehouses loomed in the distance as Robin soared north…north…north….

North…..

Robin's eyemask thinned.

He took a deep breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_You know........for me, it's when I look North." _

_I turned around and looked at him. _

_He stood behind me atop the support tower of the suspension bridge._

"_North is where Gotham City is...," Robin simply stated. "I never told anyone....but that's why I have my room on the north end of the Tower. The windows look in that direction."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Boy Wonder's gloved hands tightened around the handles.

He took a deep breath.

He kept throttling northward.

Along the streets.

Alone and solitary.

A blinking headlight in the soup of black and red.

"_Snnnnkkt—Robin. Do you have time?"_

"Am I almost there, Cyborg?"

"_I just want to talk to you about—"_

"Am I **almost there**?? Cyborg??" Robin practically snarled into his helmet.

"_Yes, Robin!!!"_

The biking Titan Leader nodded. "Good. Then standby for when I—"

"_Robin, you've got to take Starfire to the side!! Speak to her!! Say __**something**__ for God's sake!!"_

"There's no time. We've got to find Terra. Now. Now and **only** now!!"

"_Ya know what, dawg?? I didn't have the guts to say it then, but Beast Boy wasn't all too far from the truth. Terra's gone, man. She's just as well friggin' gone!!"_

"………."

"_I sure as heck don't enjoy admitting that, but it's the best of the worst things we must accept now!! Robbie, Starfire is __**alive**__. She's here. She ain't gone. You should work things out with her while you still have the chance. Before something happens to her like something happened to Terra!! You think this search is really……REALLY going to find anything worthwhile??"_

"I thought you had some hope left, Cyborg….," Robin grunted into the microphone. "I thought you believed in 'miracles'…."

"_And I do, man! I do! I shouldn't be here, Robin. I __**shouldn't**__……be alive. But I am. I'm here. And—so God help me—I'm going to be here as long as I can for Raven. You should have seen her, Robin. I never knew I meant that much to her. To make her cry."_

Robin's eyemask narrowed along the road. "C-Cry??"

"_Starfire loves you, Robin. She's always loved you. Don't tell me you've never seen it……felt it……tasted it. We all know it. She practically tears herself open for you. And after these two years……for what??"_

"Cyborg, enough. We need to—"

"_You're a goddamn ice prince, Robin!!! Stop going on nighttime adventures as excuses and instead start truly living up to people around you like a __**man**__!!"_

"Don't you preach to me, Cyborg…," Robin hissed. "I've grown into a man enough as it is under Batman. Believe me….I've broken through the realm of 'excuses'."

"_Batman isn't here, dawg—"_

"I have no time for love!!!" Robin shouted. "I have no time for love, Cyborg!!! Not when villains are murdering, not when cities are burning, and not when people are **dying**…."

"………"

"If life works paradoxically enough on Tamaran for Starfire's people to equate passion with intelligent action, then maybe she should never have come to Earth. Lord knows I wish it didn't have to be this way, Cyborg. I wish we weren't orphaned freaks in colors and capes leaping over pavement warzones, but I have to live life the way I was destined to. I've given everything I can to Starfire and I will most certainly continue to give her all that I can but I cannot give her myself. It….it j-just can't be afforded. On her part….as much as mine…."

"………_man……that's just you and only you."_

"Yeah…..so shoot me…," Robin grunted. "Robin out."

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!!_

And he was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOSH!!!!

Starfire flew down and landed in a darkened courtyard bordering two warehouses. There were no cars present in the lot. Not even a hint of an entrance or exit by any forces.

The amber-skinned girl stood alone. A gust of cold wind blew at her scarlet hair.

She gazed around…raised the communicator to her lips…and quietly uttered: "C-Cyborg, I have arrived at my destination," she swallowed. "I see no sign of the Dagger or the Dagger's men. Somehow I am doubtful that Terra is here."

"_Stay in touch, Star. The others are almost at their spots too. I'm gonna have us all look simultaneously, as long as Robin permits."_

Starfire nodded. "Understood."

"_Starfire?"_

She blinked her green eyes. "Y-Yes, Cyborg?"

"_Hang in there. Everything's gonna be allright."_

She took a breath and nodded. "M-Most assuredly. Starfire out."

She lowered the communicator.

She sighed.

"…….."

Her gaze settled across the lot and fell on something on the southern edge of one warehouse.

Her green eyes narrowed.

A simple bench rested against the structure of the warehouse. Frozen and naked….like it was stolen straight from the City park.

"…….," the girl hugged herself and slowly breathed out of her small nostrils.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Robin looked up at her. "Starfire…….would it make you happy to know…..j-just to know that I am here?"_

"………_.."_

"_That I do exist? That there is nothing…….nothing in the universe that would keep me from being split from you if I could so much as help it this very moment?"_

"_I…….I-I know that you would never forsake me, Robin," she spoke._

"_But do you feel it, Starfire?"_

_She blinked confusedly at him. "R-Robin??"_

_He leaned forward. "Do you feel it, Starfire?" he asked. "Do you feel that I'm truly here?" A beat. "Do you feel me?"_

"_Robin…I-I….," she scooted away apprehensively. "It is n-not typical of you to speak in such emphatic fashion of 'feeling'…."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire raised a shaking hand to her temple.

She strung a lock of red hair up over her ear.

She shuddered.

She stared.

At the bench…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Do you want to hug me, Star?"_

"……_.," she glanced at him. "Huh??"_

"_Do you want to hug me, Starfire?"_

_She simpered. "Robin…hehehe…..y-you know very well that I am always hugging you as it is. What difference does it make now, silly?"_

_He continued staring at her. "Would you like to hold me then?"_

_Her green eyes blinked. "H-Hold…..you?"_

_He slowly nodded._

"_Robin…..," she breathed. "But….wh-what is the difference?"_

"_You know."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire shut her eyes.

She hugged herself more and gazed downward.

Exhaling melancholily.

"…………"

A beeping sound.

"………….???"

More beeping.

Starfire glanced up. Her eyes opened. "H-Huh?"

There was something on the southern face of the other warehouse.

Something blinking.

Something blinking and wired to black matter.

Starfire's green eyes widened.

_Carbonite……_

"!!!!!" she gasped.

In an instant, the alien girl took to the air, spun, and soared off towards—

_**BOOOOOOOM!!!!!**_

"Unnghh!!" Starfire was knocked off by the concussion of the huge fireball.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Starfire???" Cyborg blinked his human eye wide. He half-stood up with his laptop in the middle of the crumbled laboratory. "Starfire, what happened?!?!"

"_I……I……I-I do not know!! An unexpected happenstance!"_

"Are you okay?? You in one piece??"

"_I am undamaged……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

She floated over a brilliant blaze that haloed the nearby, industrial landscape. Flames that pierced the darkness.

The alien girl panted in the wind and uttered into her communicator:

"A bomb has exploded at the site I was sent to investigate!! It is most harrowing an explosion! I find it suspiciously similar to carbonite charges of olde!"

"_Carbonite??"_

"Yes…," she shakily nodded at the plasma. "I was even able to catch sight of the explosive before it emitted beeping sounds and set itself off!! The entire lot is ablaze before me!! We must get emergency crews out here and—"

"_No!! This is bad news!! Totally bad news!!"_ Cyborg's voice said.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy listened as he walked around the mountain heaps of a scrapyard.

"_I just now ran a cross-scan of the sites where Terra's possible signatures lead to. There is a carbonite residue count there! And it's high!! Everyone……it __**is**__ a trap!! Dagger's trying to bomb us!!"_

Beast Boy froze in his tracks.

"_Everyone……get out of there!! Get out of there now!!!"_

Beast Boy grit his teeth. "Don't have to tell me twice, dude!!!" He sprouted leathery wings, shrieked as a bat, and soared off—

_**BOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I winced at the brightness of the distant explosion.

I heard a beeping sound on the portable of the construction site behind me.

I panted and looked around.

An explosive blinked with suicidal ferocity.

I held my breath, summoned murk, and teleported through the construction site's chain-link barrier and murked down the street—

_**BOOOOOOOOM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!!!" Raven vaulted over the edge of a factory…ran on pale legs….chanted…and picked herself up into the air on glowing black 'wings'.

She soared upwards with glowing eyes and teleported away from the building just as—

_**BOOOOOOM!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEEEEEECH!!!!!_

Sparks flew and rubber burned as Robin skidded the police cycle to a stop.

He rested…panting…staring at four different glowing fireballs from across the abandoned, industrial landscape.

And then….

_BOOOOM!!!_

Far down the road…where he was heading.

Another explosion.

A flaming warehouse.

Robin's eyemask thinned.

He sweat in the darkness.

Panting.

Thinking…..

"_That was close! Too close!!" _

"_Robin, are you injured??"_

"_You made it out too, right Noir?"_

"_I'm sure he did, Beast Boy. Starfire and Cyborg warned us all in good time." _

"_Yeah but……man!! And there I was almost hoping that Dagger had lost all the tricks up his sleeve!!"  
_  
"_Y'all pulled back, right?" _

"_Yes, Cyborg, we're okay." _

"_Robin!! Are you injured??? Please respond!!"_

"It's a diversion……..," the Boy Wonder murmured into his helmet. "Just like at Phaser Labs. Just like with Tempest. Another….diversion….."

"_Robin??"_

The Boy Wonder shook himself out of it and uttered: "I'm all right Star. Listen….Cyborg!! All the traces lead us here, right?"

"_Right, man!! Like you see……it was a trap!! Dagger nearly had all of your cabooses fried—"_

"It's more than that!!!" Robin uttered. "This isn't a dead end!! Now think, dammit!! How could Dagger possibly have erased all of Terra's wanderings with all the energy traces she'd be leaving? Her power's so strong that she'd be nearly burning on the inside, right??"

"_Right. I don't see how on earth Dagger and his men could cloak her……unless they had her in some stationary location."_

"Right," Robin nodded. "And it's more than obvious that Terra was stolen and taken out of Phaser Labs. Now….where in this City would Dagger have to take her to effectively hide her from our sensors while lying still?"

"_I dunno, man……it'd have to be some spot where Dagger could have easy access to lots of radioactivity and—"_

Robin beamed. "I know just the place!!!"

_VRMMM!!! VRMMMM!! _

_SCREEEEECH-__**VRMMMMMMMM!!!**_

The motorcycle turned and burned down another stretch of road. "Titans!! I'm heading towards the location centermost and north of all the traces Cyborg's picked up on so far!! Terra came this way, but she didn't end up in any one of those five spots!! There's a sixth house out there for the sixth Titan!!!"

"_But where at, Robin?? Where could she possibly be??"_

"Where else?!?!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Friday.

November 5, 2004.

3:02 am.

The City.

The Radioactive Depository.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMM!!!_

_SCREEECH!!!_

Robin parked the motorcycle.

He stood up.

He whipped off his helmet and tilted his head up, gazing at the building. Exposed to the cold autumn air.

The radioactive depository stretched up and up like a rusted, jagged half-pyramid set mercilessly against the red cloud ceiling. Stretches of yellow police tape from Decker's sting operation still remained clinging to the many tiers upon tiers of platforms and collapsing, aluminum railings. A few scant doors stretched open to the unsanitary interior where drum barrels of questionable materials lay for the thousands of years they would take for the half-lives to stay true to their numerical promises of deterioration. There was never really anything exposed in the heart of that rusted metal beast, but the foreboding canal stretching synthetically around the ugly warehouse still contained the collapsed, clamshell door of the sarcophagus. A huge tomb of concrete and iron that would rise up and enclose the structure at the first hint of any hazardous leak. It was a miracle that the place did not have to suffer a lockdown when the firefight between officers and henchmen ensued barely a day and a half previous.

A few floodlamps were still on at the site….since it was _supposed_ to be under police surveillance. But that evening….

"…….," Robin gazed towards the gate of the bordering fence. His lips parted.

The bodies of two security guards lie messily on the asphalt of the sarcophagus' bordering courtyard. Their torsos had been hacked to bits by something or someone….

"Titans!" Robin raised his communicator. "Join me at the radioactive depository!! The guards of the police investigation site have been slain!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Somebody is here. Most likely Dagger or his men!!"_

Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, and I had assembled at the far edge of the northern district. We huddled around Starfire's communicator as Robin's voice went on.

"_I'm going in to investigate!! I'll be needing backup as soon as possible!!"_

"Robin….," Raven uttered firmly. "Cyborg has already confirmed that there is a high count of carbonite emissions in the air about these complexes. This half of the City may very well be a powder keg for all we know."

"_All the more reason for me to hurry!! If they discover me trying to track down Terra ahead of time, they might pull the trigger and it'll all be too late!! I'm bringing Terra back, guys. Like I told you before, it's my contract. Wish me luck!!"_

"Robin…we insist….," Starfire uttered. "Wait for us to join you."

"_Trust me, Star. I'll be fine. Keep in contact and hurry to the intersection of Cadmium and Vagrant Street!!"_

"The Radioactive Depository….," Beast Boy nodded. "Got it, dude!!" He shut the communicator off for Starfire and looked at the rest of us. "You heard the leader!!! Let's move!!"

"But….," Starfire blinked. "B-But…."

"After all these months….you think we can actually _argue_ with the guy??"

"……"

"Beast Boy's right," Raven droned. "We go. Now."

FLASH!!!

With a chant and a pair of glowing eyes, she lifted up.

Starfire took a shuddering breath and soared into the air.

I stood alone for a while. My metal hand clenching its fingers.

A chill.

_Red Aviaryyyy……_

"Noir!!"

I jolted.

"Come on, man!!" Beast Boy waved before morphing into a pterodactyl and taking to the red skies.

I swallowed and blurred after the group towards Robin….

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm going in!!" Robin panted.

He ran across the courtyard towards the main building.

"Cyborg, you hearing me?"

"_You nuts, Robbie? I never stopped!"_

He hopped over the sarcophagus canal.

"I'm going to rush in! Whoever's holed up inside will be taken by surprise, if all goes according to plan…"

He ran along the perimeter of the depository's bottom, outer level.

"…that should give the Titans a large enough window to back me up and give the crooks a run for their money!"

He hopped and ran up the second tier, the third tier, the fourth….

"Just sit tight. Terra is as good as found!! I have to be silent now, Cyborg. But don't hold your breath…"

Robin reached the summit of the depository, like the crown of a copper ziggurat. He vaulted over a rusted railing. He approached a pair of double, metal doors. He reached his gloved hand out—

_CRKKKKK!!!_

Robin froze.

_SLIIIIINK!!! SLIII-IIIINK!!_

Something sharp and silver cut an 'x' in the metal body of the doors from the other side and—

_CRAAACK!!!_

A pale-suited leg kicked outward.

**CL-CLANG!!**

The severed door pieces flew into Robin.

WHAP!!

"Ungh!!" he fell on his rear, his back impacting the railing of the topmost tier.

Cl-Clink!! The yellow communicator fell, skipped across the metal floor, and rolled to a stop. Cyborg's voice crackled from it: _"Robin?? Robin!! What is it?? Report---!!"_ CRKKK!!! The tip of a silver broadsword severed the sparkling tool in half.

Robin looked up. And he gasped. "V-Viper….."

"…….," the assassin in gray stood tall before Robin. Menacing. Holding tight to his huge sword and….looking quite alive.

Robin stumbled to his feet with help of the railing. "You're not dead!! Wh-What are you doing here???"

"…….," Viper's head tilted forward and his lips curved upward. The disc in his neck blinked red. _**"To clip your wings, boy…."**_

SWOOOOOOSH!!! Viper blurred forward with his sword swinging up—SLASSH!!! SLASSSH!!!

_SLLLLIIINK!!!_

A glob of blood flew hotly from Robin's shoulder.

"AAAUGH!!" the Boy Wonder screamed and stumbled back.

"**NNNNNGGGAAAAH!!"** Viper spun and slammed his elbow into Robin's chest.

WHAP!!!

The Boy Wonder toppled through the railing—CRACK!!—and fell….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Snnkkktt!!"_

"Huh??" Starfire blinked. In mid flight, she gazed at her communicator. "Cyborg??"

"_Snnkktt……oh god……"_

"Cyborg?? What is it??"

"_It's Robin, Starfire. The radioactive depository. I……"_

"…….."

"_Something's wrong. Very……very……wrong……"_

Starfire gazed up at the red heavens. Her lips parted.

A slow, high-pitched gasp.

Her eyes glowed a hot green.

She burned northward.

SWOOOOOOSH!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THUD!!!

"Nnngh!!" Robin groaned, bleeding. Fallen hard from an entire level up.

"**RGHHHHH!!!"**

An electronic roar.

Robin's eyemask widened.

He stared straight up.

The red sky was momentarily skewered by the silver streak of Viper leaping off the higher lever, twirling his blade, and sailing serratedly down at him. _**"YAAAAAAAAH!!!!"**_

Robin held his breath and rolled to the side.

CLASH!!!!!

Sparks flew from the huge broadsword.

Robin pivoted up to his knees, gritted his teeth, and swung a foot out.

SWOOOSH-CLANK!!!

Viper blocked with a vertical blade. He shouted—**"HA!!"**—and lifted his foot across Robin's chin.

WHAP!!!

Robin fell back.

TH-TH-THWISH!!!

_SLIIIINK!!!_

The mute assassin grazed the other shoulder of the toppling Boy Wonder.

"AAAUGH!!"

Blood flew.

"Nnngh!!"

Blood trickled.

Robin rolled across the rusted metal platform of the fourth tier. He struggled in vain to get on his feet, panting.

"_**Let me see those feathers fly……," **_Viper sneered and ran across the platform, dragging his blade alongside him. _SCRAAA-AAAA-AAAPE!!!_ Sparks flew in a cutting path straight towards Robin's midsection.

Lying prostrate, Robin whipped out his staff—_SNKKT—_wincing.

SWIIIIISH!!!

CLANK!!! Robin blocked with his staff, used the impact to bolt himself up to his feet, and swung with a kick straight at Viper's forehead. "YAAA!!!"

The assassin bent back, ducking the blow.

Robin coiled back, bled, took a breath for strength, extended his staff, twirled it and charged Viper. "WA-TAAA!!"

Viper stepped back, twirling his sword. TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!!!

CLANG!! CLANG!!! CL-CLANG!!! **CLANG!!**

Showers sparked from metal meeting metal as Robin advanced towards him.

But only for a heartbeat--

"**NNGH!!"** Viper raised his knee.

WHUMP!!!

Robin bent from the impact to his chest. He coughed. He sputtered.

TH-THWISH!!! Viper spun, twirling his massive blade horizontally and sailing it at Robin's skull.

Robin gritted his teeth, knelt, and raised his blade. SWOOOSH-CLANG!!!

Another shower of sparks.

Blinding.

Blinking.

Gasping--

THWOOSH!! Viper's boot sailed into Robin's nose.

THWACK!!!

"Nnngh!!!" Robin sauntered back.

"**RGHHH!!!"** Viper jabbed his broadsword forward. _SLIIIIIINK!!!_ He caught Robin's shoulder between the skin and cape. He lifted the blade, hoisted the weight of Robin's body like the bad end of a lever, and slammed him hard through a piece of railing so that the Boy Wonder went plummeting numbly to the third tier of the depository's outer shell below.

CRACK!!!

THW-THWUMP!!!!

"Ughhh…..," Robin rolled across the rusted metal. Severing a few yellow bands of plastic police tape. Wincing. His costume torn. His limbs and upper body bleeding in at least five places.

THWOOSH!! Viper landed nimbly a few feet away from him. He slowly marched towards Robin, dragging his heavy blade. _Scraaaaape……_

"**Your precious stone lolita isn't here, boy. Dagger left with her a long time ago. But this was too perfect for me to pass up. The snake has found its robin's nest. And after the last time we met….I am oh….so…….ravenous…."**

Robin struggled to sit up, supporting himself shakily with his rod. He hissed through clenched teeth. "How….How could you p-possibly be…."

"**Alive??"** Viper smirked. **"It is all so very much obvious now. I do not know how you could ignore it, boy. Your swordsman and archer chopped me into pieces…..and yet I lived. Your dead-as-manure Commissioner tried tossing me into the churning waters….and yet I lived. And such is not the gift of life….but of Death. I know now what I am endowed with. And I know now what I must do. I must cheat Death one last time. For Death, Robin….Death **_**wants**_** you…."** His bulbous eyes narrowed. **"Death wants you first….before all the Titans…..but I'm going to beat him to it. The gladiator that sheds the most blood wins at the end of the day. My blade is absolute. Not even Dagger tried to challenge it. He came after his granite doll and left like the floundering, mortal fool that he is. When I'm done with you and the Titans….I shall be eating the meat from his hands and reli**_**ssssss**_**hing…."**

Robin stumbled up. Holding his staff painfully. Shakily. "Viper, Red Aviary is a term. A couple of words. And nothing more than that!! The only danger there ever was or ever will be is Dagger!! He spent all day ripping this City to shreds…." Robin shook. He snarled. He screamed: "I WILL NOT HAVE YOU DO THE SAME!!!!"

Viper leaned his head to the side with a mad grin. **"But I do not want the City, Robin. I am quite content…..merely to be licking the tangy nectar out of your bleeding heart tonight."** SWOOOOOSH!!! TH-TH-THWISH!!!

Robin braced himself, the staff held horizontally—

CRACK!!!!

Viper severed it in half.

Robin stumbled back, gasping.

Viper grinned.

Glinting teeth.

Like fangs….

"**!!!!"**

The world spun, only to turn into red reflection of the clouds off the assassin's blade--

SLASH!!!!!

Robin twirled from the impact. His cape was ripped off. The yellow article floated off the third tier of the building like a severed wing in the wind and blinded him before the second incoming glint of the blade---

_SLIIIINK!!!_

Robin's face jerked aside. "Augh!!!" Half of the hero's eyemask ripped off. For a gasping second, the startled eye of a frightened little boy glistened at the red horizon growling down at him until Viper's sneering face rose into view.

"_**Peekaboo….."**_

And his metal fist slammed squarely into Robin's nose.

WHAM!!!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!

I ran.

I blurred.

I panted and puffed and skirted around buildingsides and alleyways and avenues and middle streets and side streets and main streets and closed streets and—

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOOSH!!!

The black city was twice as black from beneath my curtained bullet of a murking body.

All I could see.

All I could taste.

The red sky.

The red air.

I looked up.

I panted.

The house of cards fell.

The red furniture dripped from within.

A chill ran down my spine and exploded in my left arm.

_Red Aviary……_

My black eyes flickered a lighter color for but a second and…

_Ana… _

_Ana……how could I not have seen it before now?? _

_It makes so much sense……_

And I was gone before I was there.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM!!! Viper punched Robin.

THWACK!!! Viper kicked Robin.

"**NNNGHAAAAUGH!!!"** Viper swung his broadsword down on Robin.

SLASH!!!!

Another stream of blood from the Boy Wonder's backside.

Robin gasped. His face streaming with at least three types of juices.

He stumbled over and leaned—coughing and hacking—over the rusted metal railing of the third tier. His little boy costume was tattered in a dozen places. Fresh wounds glistened painfully across his arms, back, and lower leg. A shuddering eyelid danced across half an exposed face.

GRIP!!!!

Robin jerked as Viper seized him from behind.

"**Heh…heh…heh….heh…."**

THWOOSH!!

Robin was turned over.

WHAM!!!

He was shoved with the back of his neck pressed down against the railing.

SWIIIIISH-SLIINK!!!

The tip of Viper's broadsword pressed against the Titan leader's trembling throat. Sweat ran down and kissed the blade.

Viper leaned down. Grinning. Sneering. The black metal disc pulsing: **"I almost envy you, boy. Long have I wondered what it meant to stare down the face of death. But……I am on the way to becoming a god. For only in **_**wielding **_**death is a god made absolute. And today, Robin. That death will be yours. You are no longer a hero. For heroes don't die. They merely fade away into the sunset. Look above you, Robin. An infinite darkness laced with haunting crimson. A red aviary for your tattered wings to fly in. In tasting your destiny….I shall have achieved mine. And the Titans will soon follow….."**

Robin wheezed. His one visible eye rolled back as he wheezed. A tear trickled down.

Viper's bulbous eyes narrowed.

"**Embrace the end, Robin…., to your pathetic legacy…."**

And then.

The eye snapped. And it was furrowed. And it was burning…as much as blue burns.

"You want to have Death, shitface???" the Boy Wonder wheezed. His upper muscles coiled. His twitching fingers flexed. "Have an appetizer on my behalf!!! NNNGHH!!!!"

_WHAM!!!_

He slammed his leg up into Viper's groin.

The villain gasped electronically. His whole body cringed.

Robin screamed. He kicked up Viper's body, flipped off him, and vaulted over the railing.

Viper recoiled…

Robin fell. But as he flipped over and fell in reverse…he already had a grappling hook launcher in his gloved hands.

And he aimed.

And—_snarling_—he fired—

_POW!!!_

THWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!!!! The grappling hook soared up at Viper.

Viper looked down.

_THUNK!!!_ The hook ripped through Viper's voice disc, soared through his neck, and—SPLORCH!!—out the other side.

Robin jerked.

_CRKKKKK!!!_ The hook extended its claws and flew back, achoring itself to the rear of Viper's neck.

"NNNNGHH!!!" Robin fell. The cord pulled taut.

SWOOOOP!!! Viper dropped the blade and was yanked forward. CLANK!!!! His body pressed tightly to the railing of the third tier.

Robin swung down until his boots made contact with the second tier's walls. WHAP!! He 'stood' on the wall, his hands gripped tightly to the grappling hook launcher.

"**ZhhhZhhhttt!!!"** the disc short-circuited. _"Snkkk-nkkkkkktt!!!"_ Viper twitched, gurgled, and convulsed.

Robin breathed once…twice…………."AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" he pulled down on the cord with all his might.

_YANK!!!!_

**CRACK!!!** The third tier's railing broke.

The skewered Viper fell long and far.

He cleared the second tier.

"Nnngh!!" Robin released the grappling hook.

THWOOOOSH!!! It flew out of his gloves from Viper's weight. "Oof!!" Robin fell to the second tier's platform.

SWIIIISH—SNAG!!!! The grappling hook got caught and stopped in place around the support beam of the second tier's railing.

_TWNNNNG!!!_ The cord pulled taut.

And Viper hung off the second tier. Hung from his skewered neck on the dangling end of the hook. His body twitched….twitched…..stirred……..and was still. Like a numb pendulum.

"………"

Silence.

"Nngh….mmph….," Robin struggled up to his feet.

He panted.

He was dizzy.

He turned around.

He gulped.

He breathed….breathed…breathed…

He took one step forward.

Two steps.

"…..nngh….," he stumbled.

Panting.

Pale.

Bleeding….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH!!!

Starfire landed on a tall buildingtop overlooking the depository from across the street. She gazed around with nervous, anxious eyes of green.

THWOOOSH-_Plant!!_ Beast Boy perched beside her and turned into a green elf. "Where's Robin?"

"I do not know!! I am attempting to f-find him!!"

"There!!" Raven landed. She floated down while I blurred to a stop on the street below. "I see him---wait……wait….," her eyes narrowed. "Is that…..??"

Starfire craned her neck. Her green eyes were wide.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stumbled…stumbled…..and collapsed against the metal railings.

He slumped against them, panting….bleeding.

The world spun red and dizzy before him.

He coughed.

He hacked.

He trembled.

He became aware of a dangling sensation…something floating.

He glanced down past the railing.

Viper hung.

Dead.

Skewered.

But there was something behind and beneath him.

Clinging to the metal body of the depository.

Blinking…..blinking…..blinking…..

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

Carbonite.

Three times the amount Robin had ever seen in a single glance.

"………"

And he thought he heard his name.

Gasping.

Panting.

He shot his face up.

And…..

_Starfire……_

She stared horrifically at him from a galaxy away.

Eyes round and wet and emerald like the earth.

And Robin's mouth dropped as his entire body turned to ice.

The gray eyemask became a ghost and a warm blue eye quivered.

A red backdrop.

The healing lick of a lighthouse beam.

And he whispered….

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._

"_Annie."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**_

The radioactive depository building vomited a plume of red plasma and flame.

And Robin's body roasted.

Robin's body seared.

Robin's body evaporated into the smoke and haze of the holocaust.

And then the _second_ wave of carbonite plasma erupted….

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

It ate hundreds of feet into the sky.

The edges of neighboring signposts melted.

I was blinded instantly, practically collapsing to the asphalt of the street below.

Beast Boy's eyes were saucers.

Raven's jaw dropped.

And Starfire….

"ROBIN!!!!!" she screamed into Hell. "_ROBIN!!!!!!"_

The entire ground shook.

The depository popped and hissed from the inside out.

"_Snkkkt!! Titans!! The radiation!! Get out of there!! Get---oh god……"_

"It's not safe here!!" Raven uttered, teeth clenched. "Beast Boy!! Noir!! Back up!!!"

"Wait a second!!!" Beast Boy panted. "But what about—" Something green streaked by him. He gasped with a jerk. "Star!! No!!! Nnngh!!!"

He leapt at her in gorilla form, encircling her and holding her back with meaty huge arms.

She struggled and shrieked and wriggled in his grasp.

"ROBIN!!!! _**ROBIN!!!!!**_ NNNNGHH!!!! N'mberuut de X'hal!!! CLATTA SEREK'N MALADRIET ROBIN DE X'HAL!!! DE X'HAL!!!!!!!!"

Starfire bent forward in Beast Boy's grip, panting. Tears streaming. She watched in horror….we all watched in horror as the fire and the exposed radiation from inside the plume tripped the sensors and the gigantic, concrete sarcophagus closed itself like a heated clamshell.

_**WHURRRRRRRRRRRR-CHTUNG!!!!!**_

And it shut tight like an oven.

Starfire tilted her head up to the red sky.

And she wailed.

And wailed.

Till she deflated in the changeling's hands.

An elfin Beast Boy knelt with the melting, sobbing Tamaranian. He panted. He looked over at Raven. "R-Raven??"

The dark girl had her eyes closed. A black aura around her. She faced the flames and ….

Beast Boy swallowed. He wheezed: "R-Rae??"

"…….," Raven's violet eyes opened calmly. She turned her head and softly looked at Beast Boy. A beat. She closed her eyes again and slowly shook her head.

And Beast Boy shuddered. He hugged the convulsing Tamaranian and with his own quiet tears, joined her. "No….no no no no no no no……n-no…….."

Raven was silent.

_**PHWOOOOOOM!!!!**_  
  
Hot flames flickered inside and outside of the sarcophagus. The sounds of sirens and fire squads increases from a distance behind us.

My black eyes thin, I strolled into the courtyard…just beyond the hot dome of concrete. I came to a stop on the asphalt.

"………"

I looked directly down.

Robin's severed cape lay beneath boots. Yellow and tattered like a faded dream.

_Clank!!_

I dropped Myrkblade.

I fell on my knees.

And, with a shudder, I lost my voice for the second time in my life that night.


	178. Someday, That Bird

**178. Someday, That Bird**

The gray morning came like ash out of a dead mountain.

The light sighed down through the stone bodies of the skyscrapers.

Breathing on and off the wounds of gaping glass and steel.

The serrated heart of downtown.

The rubble strewn streets of the urban vertebrae.

Something like whispers scratched and scraped the dried blood off asphalt and sidewalk surfaces.

The shuffling feet of defeated, deafened souls.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The raised highway rested in numb silence.

The L-Train tracks stood naked, sheen with autumnal condensation from overnight.

Across the bazaars and courtyards of the northern district, the rising sun glared gray against the cold granite.

Challenging invisible steam to rise where feet would not tread.

The people…

Housed in their apartments, their flats, their holes.

Too tired, too winded, or too bleeding to come out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the center of downtown, the charred blades of a HIND helicopter dangled in the rays of the Sun.

A cold halo of scorched black splashed outward from the fractured shell of the dead metal bird.

Singed cars, street signs, and shattered newspaper stands bowed to the offering.

And bodies….

Bodies shuffling listlessly.

Dangling faded uniforms and bundles of plastic yellow tape.

The flags of a battlefield.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Lieutenant led his men down Main Street.

He was on crutches.

He was flanked by at least twenty other officers, all answering to him.

He gazed left and right at the ruins they passed.

Charred black jeeps.

Shattered building fronts.

The scattered and shattered remains of satellite dishes fallen from Kobayashi Tower.

The Lieutenant took a deep breath as he hobbled along.

The policemen squabbled back and forth with their radio communicators and uttered inquiries and advice to the acting Commissioner.

But for a moment, their words slipped off his mind.

A sensation like unto the glazed shine of gray in his eyes.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the dozens.

In the hundreds.

Residents peered out skyscraper windows.

People stood pensively before building entrance ways.

They watched with a numb silence as trucks of the National Guard and Red Cross rumbled through the streets of Downtown.

Warm and confused faces of out-of-state volunteers looked out onto the cold, autumn world.

The cold, weathered faces.

The shocked eyes and shattered breaths.

Mothers cradled their children, each as mute as the other.

Young men sat wearily on their haunches, staring at the ground.

Middle-aged people ran hands through their hair as if searching for hidden patches of skin.

Everyone nervous and yet nerveless.

Like the off switch of the City had been jammed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the hospital, a row of white tents were erected as M.A.S.H.'s were expanded outward from the structure.

Volunteers from all over the region hastily erected facilities for treating the most basic of triage.

The most serious cases were moved upstairs into the hospital building itself.

Citizens, workers, and paramedics scrambled back and forth in some panicky action that almost resembled Life.

As more and more trucks rolled into the guarded parking lot of the hospital, dozens upon dozens of citizens lined up.

They had scraps of paper in their hands.

Hastily printed, monochromatic snapshots of loved ones.

They held the papers up, yelped desperately at the passing drivers and faces, and remained ever minding their spot.

Half of them broke down, crying on their knees by the middle of the afternoon.

A few lucky ones sobbed into each other's arms as the Sun passed.

Scant papers started blowing away in the wind.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest lay silently in his hospital bed.

His dark eyes were gazing unblinking past the semented ceiling.

Lindsay sat tiredly…sadly beside him.

She sighed.

He stared.

The world clamored outside in the parking lot beneath the high floor window.

Eventually, there was an earth-shattering knock on the door.

Lindsay looked up.

A nurse walked in. She gazed into the room, glanced at Lindsay, and motioned.

Lindsay blinked. She craned her neck.

Antoine, Jack, and Lillian could be seen through the crack in the hallway outside.

Lindsay exhaled. She stood up. Paused. Rested a gentle hand on Tempest's wrist.

A beat.

Tempest gently closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.

Slowly, Lindsay took her hand off his wrist and walked out to join her friends.

The nurse closed the door behind them.

Tempest opened his eyes again.

And they were moist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jack quietly lead Lindsay down a crowded, hospital hallway.

Whispering something to her.

Antoine and Lillian walked slowly behind.

Jack came to a room and pointed inside.

Lindsay gazed.

There were four beds. Each occupied by a wounded citizen….recovering.

And one of them—her leg in a cast—was Bonnie. And she was asleep. And she was looking more alive than ever.

Lindsay took a deep breath. She bit her lip and looked at Jack.

Jack said something. He smiled gently.

Lindsay shuddered once. She clenched her eyes shut. She started to lean forward….shaking….

Jack gently embraced her and rubbed the small of her back.

Lindsay sobbed against him for the sake of sobbing itself.

Antoine and Lillian sniffed. They both gently walked over and joined the two in a group embrace.

They all shuddered and sobbed as a friendly whole.

And they swayed.

And swayed…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In homes.

In back offices.

In hospital corners.

In diners.

In electronics stores.

In bars.

Every t.v. was tuned to what nearly every channel in the nation was showing.

Helicopter shots of a City bespeckled with rising smoke and crumbling building fronts.

Home video footages of crazed, green-eyed men on the back of homicidal black jeeps.

A HIND helicopter exploding in a brilliant fireball before the camcorder shorts out.

A dark swordsman and a green beast hurriedly rushing crowds of people into a bank vault.

Then….

Sporadic comments by anchormen and anchorwomen with long faces.

Radio calls. Phone calls. Reports. Rumors. Reports of rumors and rumors of reports.

All the while, the orange-splash of the City map for all of the Western Hemisphere to see.

All the while a ticker flashing red rolling across the bottom of the screen.

Info hotlines. Blood and money drives. Volunteer sign-ups.

And eventually…..

Eventually…….

The body tolls.

And everyone watched numbly.

In and out of the City.

Their eyes round.

Their mouths agape.

Their legs and hands shifting nervously.

Throats dry.

Hearts steady.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It reached the streets first.

Paper faster then blood.

On newspaper stands and in stacks alongside convenience store entrances.

'_Robin de Los Titans Es Muerto'_

"_Merle des Titans Est Mort"_

'_Robin ist tot.'_

'_Robin, liber Titanov, Pogib v boyu'_

'_Robin of the Titans Is Dead'_

In the midst of their furious work, volunteers glanced at the headlines.

And citizens.

And wandering victims.

And….

They all paused.

With a sigh of all sighs to come and had come shifting through their tubes.

Shivering.

And yet….

Moving on.

Weaker or stronger.

But altogether broken.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mothers and fathers gasped at first receiving word.

Children cried instantly.

Lonely residents stood in the shadows of their kitchens and bedrooms looking for a place to gaze into and lose themselves unto death.

In apartment hallways, young teenage neighbors hugged and sobbed.

Girls cried over each other's shoulders.

Guys wandered alone and haloed in gray gloom.

Their eyes to the floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At nearly three dozen times in a twenty-four hour period, police officers paused.

Their hands crossed.

Silent.

………

In armories.

Besides squad cars.

Bordering wrecked building fronts.

Alongside rescue operations.

The badges of fallen policemen and officers lay side by side on desktops, window sills, and first aid crates…..like spontaneous altars for the deceased.

And the gray words of the newspaper rang forth.

'_Robin is Dead'._

'_Robin is Dead'._

One officer or another hung a poster taken from his kids' room of the Boy Wonder swinging in action.

It was posted on the corner of the crumbling police department. And in between salvaging the ashes of the landscape, officers and rescue workers gazed at the yellow swish of the young vigilante's cape.

Breathless.

The Lieutenant stared at it.

His face cold and hard….melted into some sort of weathered ore.

He turned and began to hobble away when his crutch got caught in something.

He glanced down.

He knelt—wincing—and picked up a scattered ribbon of yellow police tape.

He stared at it.

He looked again at the poster.

He saw the familiar gold of the hero's cape.

He then fingered the tape…and without much of a thought, he ripped the plastic gold ribbon into a shorter length and wrapped it around his wrist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a half-crumbled apartment, officers were forming a train of men to help guide victims down to the street level.

Every officer had a yellow scrap of police tape wrapped around their wrist.

They carefully helped every man, woman, and child down while the Lieutenant loudly gave commands and directed the ongoing rescues.

As he pointed his finger, the golden scrap around his wrist flapped in the wind.

And people saw it.

And they saw the headlines.

And sooner than they could sob…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A truckload of volunteers rolled into the streets of downtown.

They all hopped out and began unloading packages of goods and supplies.

Each and everyone of them had the golden ribbon around their wrists.

And the waiting, weathered people standing by their damaged homes accepted their supplies and gifts….also with yellow ribbons.

And the police patrolling the streets into the late afternoon.

And the fire fighters putting out the remains of a fire….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The gates of the hospital were growingly lined with scraps of paper with missing person's faces.

Flapping in the breeze.

Most black and white printouts.

Some of them color.

Some of them polaroids.

Only a spare soul or two dared to patrol the images.

And onward into the evening, the mournful loved ones returned to the effigies they erected…

And stapled tiny gold ribbons to the sheets.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The world was darkening again.

The Sun was sighing its head past the horizon of the former holocaust.

A gentle golden haze drifted down across the urban land.

Neighbors actually came together to talk.

A few brave smiles.

A couple of sniffs and choked breaths in between.

Words of recovery….

Of the day to come.

Of rebuilding.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mrs. Fillmore sat on a bundle of sleeping bags in the back of a pawn shop's stockroom.

She gazed off into space while she cradled the heads of her two little girls to her chest.

The sisters curled up against their mother.

Sleeping.

Their faces softly wet.

Mrs. Fillmore gazed up over the distant counter at the front of the store.

Renee and Daniel stood in the shattered entranceway.

Staring out onto the golden street as ambulances and squad cars and firetrucks slowly drifted by.

Daniel's silhouette showed his one arm in a sling while Renee's shadow sported a swollen belly of life.

And as they stared out into the slowly mending desolation….Renee drifted over and wrapped an arm around Daniel's good shoulder.

He leaned his head to the side and let her fair cranium rest in the crook of his neck.

And the two sighed together.

Standing as one.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lisa sat numbly on a cement planter bordering Phaser Labs.

Her black hair seemed tangled and tossed in the wind.

Her one eye was thin.

She stared across the courtyard at Mr. Knight and his two children, Ashley and Greg.

The man was shaking.

His eyes lost since the night before.

Not once did he seem to recognize his offspring.

And yet…they clung to him.

Their faces tight.

Their limbs taut.

Silent.

Lisa took a deep breath.

She felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around.

Her lips parted.

Janice smiled hopefully, with that damnable smirk of hers that would never go away come hell or highwater.

Hell or high water….

Behind her, Hope and Tiffany stood. Both of whom were doing a terrible job of hiding away their tears.

Janice said something.

And Lisa braved a smile of her own, but it was painful.

Janice leaned in and hugged her.

Lisa squeezed her back tighter than she thought she would.

After a shuddering breath or two, Lisa looked over the other girl's shoulder and blinked her one eye.

Alan stood with his hands in his pockets…looking as small and as pale as ever. And yet the world was finally matching him.

Lisa parted, patted Janice on the side, and walked over.

Alan took a deep breath and waved.

Lisa waved back.

The two sat down together.

And talked….

And at some point, Alan rested a gentle hand on Lisa's shoulder.

And Lisa didn't move.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I strolled down the broken streets.

It was dark.

Very….very dark.

The Sun had gone down.

The shattered City still lay in shadow.

I took my shades off and exhaled.

My pace disjointed.

My limbs numb.

I passed by bodies in the murk and autumnal fog.

Things were swimming and vibrating beside me.

Creating a solemn white noise like distant choirs sobbing softly.

Citizens rushing to beat curfew.

Late night volunteers.

Firefighters.

An officer or two stepped up to me on a couple of occasions with stern faces. They were about to order me to 'go home' until they came close enough to see my black eyes. And then my battered body. And then my bloodstained sword. And they saw who I was. And with a burst of wind kicking at the golden ribbons around their arms they swallowed, stepped back, and went away.

_Bloodstained sword……_

I glanced down.

I was holding Myrkblade.

And Myrkblade was red.

_Red Aviarrrrrry……_

I shivered.

I gritted my teeth.

I plopped down on an unearthed shard of concrete.

I sat down.

I reached up and stripped my bandanna off.

A fan of black hair waved in the cold wind.

I bundled the bandanna up, strung it around Myrkblade, and tried to stroke the blood off.

Numbly.

Not entirely aware of….

I exhaled.

The blood had dried.

The stains refused to leave.

And the bandanna was beginning to rip and split.

I gritted my teeth and applied more pressure.

Strands snapped.

The red fabric of the bandanna turned to thread and--

I snarled.

I tossed Myrkblade down.

It clattered and clanked across the broken street and stopped a few feet from my boots.

I panted.

A chill ran up my limb--

I jolted again.

I gripped the circular disc of my prosthetic.

With a hiss, I snapped my metal arm off and threw it down besides Myrkblade.

With my stub of an arm stretched out to the side, I bent over.

I planted my right hand over my naked face.

_And I breathed…..breathed….breathed…._

_The sound……_

_The sounds……_

I shuddered.

I shook.

_I can't remember the sound………_

-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy sat on the edge of Titan's Tower.

Night fell.

It became hideously dark.

He sniffed.

He hugged his knees to his chest for the fiftieth time alone that day.

He burrowed his green head into his legs.

His eyes clenched shut and his teeth grit.

Tears flowed….

And then.

Sounds…shuffling sounds.

Voices.

And….

A halo of light.

Beast Boy looked up.

For the night had been broken.

He sniffed.

He ran a thin, shaking wrist across his cheeks and wiped the moisture away.

He swallowed.

He crawled along the edge of the Tower.

He peered down….down, down towards the rock bluffs and the island abroad.

And his lips parted.

Dozens…hundreds….three hundred….

At least five hundred people had gathered outside the Tower.

Most of them were in their teen years.

High schoolers.

Prep students.

Public school students.

Exchange students.

Citizens, visitors, but mainly citizens.

Weak-eyed, strong-eyed, wet-eyed.

Parents and young adults.

Off-duty paramedics and relief workers.

Even children….little things from grade school.

Old couples hand in hand.

They were holding candles.

As many candles as they could hold.

As they could afford on the after-eve of an Armageddon.

And some of them stood and some of them sat and most of them cried.

And they all had golden ribbons of various materials and various shades tied neatly around their wrists.

And all of them faced the Tower.

With silent applause.

The voices that tears could not wail.

And they remained their for well unto three hours, braving the blackness of night with their mutual, golden glow.

For at least as long as it took for Beast Boy's eyes to go dry.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven and Cyborg stood in the Main Room of Titan's Tower.

They stared out onto the candle-lit vigil.

Breathing softly.

At some point, Cyborg forced his eyes shut.

He turned around and shuffled into the darkness besides the kitchen unit.

His replacement limbs leaned against his side as he took a male posture of stubbornness and stared into the floor.

Raven gazed at him.

She walked over and joined him in the darkness.

And it was only in the darkness that the sorceress actually hugged his center and leaned her blue head against his frame.

And it was only in the darkness that he brought a titanium hand to his face, shook, and cried.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy walked numbly through the long, metal hallways of the Tower early in the dark hours of the morning.

He passed by a room.

Robin's room.

And the door was cracked open.

He glanced at it.

He hesitated.

He morphed into a wolf and slowly trotted in through the crack.

The changeling gazed in…and narrowed his vision.

And with the aid of his canine eyes, he saw her.

Starfire was curled up in the center of Robin's bed.

Surrounded by the remaining, scant scents of him.

She clutched his tattered cape to her chest and trembled.

She had been there all day….sobbing….

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,  
Her hardest hue to hold.  
Her early leaf's a flower;  
But only so an hour.  
Then leaf subsides to leaf.  
So Eden sank to grief,  
So dawn goes down to day.  
Nothing gold can stay.

_-Robert Frost_


	179. Of Things Left Behind

**179. Of Things Left Behind**

"I just got finished talking to the Police Department's Lieutenant not too long ago…," Cyborg said.

Raven looked up across the Main Room.

It was middle afternoon.

The sky was overcast outside.

Everything cold and gray outside and inside.

"There's going to be a memorial for the victims…," Cyborg said. A pause. He swallowed and added: "All the victims."

Raven slowly nodded. "That will be….a long memorial."

"Perhaps…," the android Titan exhaled. "But then again….not too long. They're going to have a funeral on the same day."

"Hmmm?"

"Robin's."

A beat.

Raven slowly raised an eyebrow. "Robin's funeral?"

"It's the City's decision, not mine….," Cyborg ran his left skeletal hand up and rubbed his human head. "…though….I-I almost wished I thought of it first."

"………."

Cyborg cleared his throat. "Ahem….th-they want us there….for when they honor him—"

"Of course we'll be there," Raven said…a little too bluntly for even _her_ own good. She gazed off and was silent.

A beat.

Cyborg stood up. Limping on half-titanium legs he walked across the room and looked out upon the gray world across the grayer Bay. The last plumes of smoke. The news and rescue helicopters swarming overhead. Cranes and lattices of workers attempting to piece together the last shreds of the scarred City.

"You know, Raven…..everyday, we've kinda been reminded about how much we actually do for this City. Sometimes when we cruised back and forth to talk to the Commissioner, people would wave and cheer at us. If we were having pizza out, the occasional gaggle of fans would run up and beg us for autographs and whatnot. And then there's all the t.v. news topics covering us. The documentaries. Toys and merchandise. Even a magazine…from what I hear. We've grown popular and revered throughout the entire world. And I've always taken it with a grain of salt. But now……Today…..when the City is practically dying, it still lends a breath to exclaim its desire….t-to honor us. And to honor one of the fallen. I didn't know until those people with the candles showed up here last night just how much we are truly….truly loved. And now Robin……………."

His voice lingered off.

Raven nodded.

A beat.

She stood up.

She gently, slowly walked over and stood by his side.

"All of us…the Titans…," she began with a soft drone. "We've done our fair share of crying. Starfire. Beast Boy. You. Even…..even m-myself……" She paused for a breath and then uttered: "I think it's time that the City takes up the mourning for us, though….not necessarily in our place."

He gently nodded.

Raven gazed out the window. "When did they say the funeral would be?"

"Two days from now."

Raven grasped his shoulder and shuffled off. "Follow me…"

Cyborg looked at her. "???"

She walked towards the elevator. "Now is the time that I show it to you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Show _what_ to me?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Looks like Raven's healing touch has made it quite bearable at least….," Tempest uttered, a lone finger trailing across his thigh.

He sat on a rock bluff on the edge of the island. His left leg was in a heavy, opposable brace from the hip down. He had crutches resting besides him for easy access as he nonchalantly tossed a rock into the Bay. With a glowing hand of purple, he made a 'hand' of water rise up, snatch the rock, and toss it a little further out—skipping across the surface.

"………," I sat next to him. My hands on my knees. Silent.

Two dark-haired heroes looking out across the gray mist and waters….

"Though I don't think I hardly deserve it….," Tempest muttered, shifting where he sat a bit. "There are hundreds of other people inside that hospital who could have benefited from Raven's added procedures much more than I could."

I was mute. Always.

But….

_If Raven tried to heal everyone in this City……_

I gazed deadpan at him.

_She would have died from the strain or would have opened the mindgate for her father to march on through._

Tempest chucked another rock.

_SPLOOSH!!!_

It sank in an instant.

He grunted: "Still….I won't be able to swim again…ever…."

"…………," I gazed down at his left leg.

"Dagger's blade dug deep….._very_ deep," Tempest sighed. "The lower legs are extremely important pieces of the Atlantean anatomy…but no more important is it than where he stabbed into the meat and muscle. How could a surface-dwelling despot like that _possibly_ know how to maim my underwater days for life?"

Silence.

He threw another stone.

It also plunged.

He sighed. "I suppose you're mad at me……..for not being there……"

I leaned my head to the side.

"For not bearing witness to Robin's final breath….."

I exhaled.

My black eyes trailed off under my shades.

_I'm not mad at anybody for anything anymore……_

"It figures….," he clenched his teeth, swallowed, and then spoke: "I'm always the one to see the picture from the outside. The last time I saw Tula alive, I thought I could not feel anything more painfully intimate than the sigh of her last breath against me. And I was right. My Idyllist days before she died were always about trying to be the outsider. And now….no matter how much I try to stay intimate and in the center…….I am bound to be seeing things from the exterior of the bleeding shell. I was never close enough or dedicated enough to Robin to truly serve the Titan Leader in life. And in death…..instead of mourning for him, I'm sitting here and bitching about my useless leg."

"……………."

"And yet….there is something painfully good about being on the outside….," he rubbed the flesh above his gill slits and sighed. "….I look at the Titans now….and I can see it….I can see it as clear as the Gulf Stream during a midday current. The Titans are defeated."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Not necessarily in politics as they are in spirit," Tempest said. "Starfire has spent the last forty-eight hours sobbing in the shadows. Beast Boy walks around endlessly in the shadows of the Tower. Raven and Cyborg sit around together and say nothing like some elderly couple turning into stone. And you……." He hesitated. He looked at me. His dark eyes narrowed and there was a slight touch of somber amusement as he said: "You don't know how to cry, do you Noir?"

I bit my lip.

"At least….not today……," he said. He gazed off across the waters. "….you're too damn strong. You won't allow yourself." And he tossed another rock.

It skipped.

Then sank.

Tempest was silent, and in the small break in breathing I drifted off.

_I know too well how to cry. _

_But…… _

_I simply don't deserve to do it._

I stroked my metal wrist and knuckles.

The chill was graciously absent for the time being.

I exhaled.

_Someone like me……the person that I am……the thing that was born into 'me'…… _

_I don't deserve to cry. _

_I don't deserve that luxury._

I turned slowly.

I craned my neck.

I gazed up at the Tower.

_Who would have thought? _

_This perfect Heaven would have turned into a perfect Hell._

I closed my black eyes.

_It is……taunting me. _

_Everything. _

_The cold air. _

_The bloodstained streets. _

_The fallen bird. _

_It is all taunting me……_

"Before Lindsay went home to her parents….," Tempest spoke. "….she mentioned something of a memorial. Ya know…for the fallen."

I nodded.

"…..and a funeral for Robin."

I looked at him.

Tempest was staring at the gray waters. "A funeral run by the City. The citizens of this dwelling place are coming together to honor our fallen leader." A beat. He looked at me. "He was….a legend, of sorts…..wasn't he?"

I scratched my neck.

I shrugged.

_All the Robins were……_

"In this 'Gotham City' I keep hearing about as well as here…," the Atlantean rambled with a gesturing hand. "He was….like a savior. Kinda puts the rest of us to shame."

"……," I glanced at him.

He glanced at me.

A beat.

He smirked.

I smirked.

Tempest chuckled.

I shook my head, exhaling.

A brief, upwards beat….

And the gray settled again.

And our gazes were floating towards opposite poles of the world.

And soon we returned again.

"……."

"At the risk of sounding like the party pooper of a holocaust…," Tempest shuddered and gazed up towards the overcast clouds. "But we six are pretty damn lucky…."

I cringed.

"Aren't we?" he asked.

I sighed.

I nodded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwissh!_

The door to Raven's room opened.

The dark girl drifted through.

She walked in alone….and paused.

"…….."

She turned and looked around her shoulder.

Cyborg stood still in the doorway.

Hesitant.

Raven sighed with half a roll of her eyes. "Of course you can step in, Cyborg. I really don't care anymore, you know…."

He simpered.

Slowly, he stepped in…and took a pensive stride towards the center of the room. "You can never be too safe."

"Yeah you can," she turned and walked to the corner of the room.

Cyborg raised his human eyebrow.

Raven didn't notice.

The android Titan hung his half in-tact arms behind his back and gazed around as he 'waited'. And for the first time he noticed that the sorceress' dwelling place looked cheerier than the sunlit environment outside….

_Creeeeak._ The shutting of a wooden trunk.

Cyborg glanced over.

Raven shuffled back, a CD case in her hand. She opened the lid and revealed a DVD-R. In Robin's unmistakably clean marker writing was 'Omega Titan Address'.

Cyborg blinked. "What's…..Wh-What's this?"

"The last secret….," Raven whispered. "The last secret that Robin and I have kept from the rest of the team in founding the team."

Cyborg leaned his head to the side.

She held the disc out. "His last words…."

Cyborg swallowed. "You're……g-gonna share this secret with me, Rae?"

She slowly shook her head. She said: "With everyone."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Knock Knock Knock._

A pause.

Starfire's door opened.

The alien girl peered out.

Her eyes thin.

"Y-Yes….?"

Beast Boy simpered painfully. "Hey….Star…..it's B.B."

She blinked her green eyes. She smiled tiredly. "Beast Boy….it is glorious to see you………" A winded pause. She swallowed, leaned forward and murmured: "How is it that I can w-welcome you this evening, friend?"

Beast Boy bit his lip. He cleared his throat, chased any negative expressions away, and smiled gently. "Raven has….something to show us. All of us. I think you'll want to join us, Star."

"Oh? Is it a mission for us to accomplish? Does the recovering City need our aid so soon?"

"It's not that, Star. It's about……about…..," Beast Boy lingered. He scratched his head awkwardly, his eyes chasing the lines in the doorframe.

Starfire continued peering out. Beyond her in the faint shadows was a circular, pink bed with a twenty-four hour long impression in it. The faint gold scrap of a legend's cape could be seen in the distance.

Beast Boy blinked. He looked up at her. "Starfire?"

"Y-Yes, Beast Boy?"

"I……I just want to say………you probably feel so utterly….alone and stuff right now…."

She deflated a bit, as if pierced by his words. She shook and gazed downward.

Beast Boy quickly continued: "….but you don't have to be alone. Your friends are still here. And they…..," he ran a nervous hand across his bangs and breathed out heavily. "….they are sad too. We all were close to Robin. We all respected him. And though not all of us were….as….as close to him as you were….."

She shut her eyes.

He swallowed and said: "….it just….j-just doesn't work to be on your own throughout all of this, Starfire."

"I assure you that I am quite fine…," the alien girl said in a low, defeated voice. "…mourning on Tamaran undergoes as much solitude as it does mutual engagement—"

"Starfire…."

"In the event that my talents are needed to take on further evil, I shall gladly leave my room and—"

"Starfire, I want to thank you…."

She opened her eyes again. She blinked at him strangely. "Th-Thank me?"

"Yeah….," Beast Boy scratched the back of his head nervously. "Cuz of…well…..I know I've been a real stick in the mud about a lot of things. Well, maybe not a lot of things. Maybe just one thing." A beat. He cringed. "Okay, not a 'thing'….a _person_….."

Starfire stared at him. Her lips slightly parted.

"And…um…..I just want to let you know that…um….," Beast Boy turned away some and hugged his little self. "I'm….really…..r-really thankful. Cuz I've felt so alone in the past. And so angry and stuff….and you guys saw past all of that. And though….though sh-she never did get quite as close to you guys as she did to me…..you made me feel like I wasn't alone in the loss. And….a-and it felt so good….s-so warming. I could never just lie around in my room all day and sink in some hole of death and tears. I could actually go out and beat up crime again. I could make jokes. I…I-I could…"

Starfire pushed the door open.

She walked out briskly.

She tackled Beast Boy in a hug.

Beast Boy gasped…but then lowered his eyes as he hugged her back.

Starfire hiccupped and leaned her head over his shoulder. "I-I am so sorry, Beast Boy. It must be s-so hard for you right now. With Terra taken. Wh-Who am I to constantly mourn by myself when my friends so desperately need me…."

He sighed and spoke into her. "Don't ever be sorry, Star. Please…d-don't be sorry. We're all together in this. Don't let some…st-stinkin' guilt get in the way. We're all together, kay?"

"In-Indeed….," Starfire shuddered. Her eyes moist. "We are….together….."

Beast Boy had a shaking breath.

The two held each other for a spare, warm moment.

Then the hug parted.

Starfire rested her hands on Beast Boy's shoulders and managed a lukewarm smile into his eyes. "Now…remind me what it was you wanted to summon me for?"

He gulped. "It's a message….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We all gathered in the Main Room.

Beast Boy sat cross-legged atop the back of the couch.

Next to him was Starfire, curled up, hugging a pillow to her chest.

Cyborg occupied an easy chair, his titanium and skeletal hands held together in thought.

Tempest sat in another chair…much closer to the center of a group meeting than he had ever been before. His crutches leaned on the arms of the chair to his left. He stretched his braced leg out and breathed gently.

I sat on a stool of the kitchen unit. Near the back. I shuffled playing cards in my metal hand. I had my black shades off.

Raven stood by the computer console. She pressed a button. With a mechanical whir, the main screen of the room lowered. She pulled out the DVD-R. She glanced at us.

We glanced at her.

She slipped the DVD in without any ceremony. With a swish of her blue robe, she floated over and sat on the sofa besides Starfire and Beast Boy….closest to Cyborg.

Everyone's eyes were on the screen as a blue backdrop blipped a few times.

And then…

His masked face…..

"_My fellow Titans. If you are watching this now, then I am no longer with you. Through some circumstance or another, I have died. And there is no other way for me to give you a message right now then through this…"_

Starfire hugged the pillow tighter. Her eyes were thin.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Tempest and Cyborg leaned forward.

Raven and I were still.

The Boy Wonder's face…was smiling.

There was a haunting sense of peace about him.

And from beyond the digital glass he uttered:

"_I can only hope that I passed on in the middle of doing the best for those who most needed my talents. I hope I died doing my best to eliminate evil or to put an end to some banal organization. It was always my life's duty and dream to fight for the rights of justice. I would find it more than flattering—I would find it fitting and even my destiny to perish in the act of doing that which I was inevitably born for."_

His voice crackled out of the speakers and shuddered through the room like invisible ectoplasm.

"_And with all inevitability comes the dark hand of fate. There was always a risk in this business of ours. And in choosing to fight alongside such powerfully gifted Titans as yourself, that risk was greatly amplified. All of you……my compatriots……you are super human. You are metaphysical. You are supernatural. It has been as much as a challenge as it has been an honor to fight evil alongside yours………especially when that evil was geared towards matching the combined immensity of your powers combined. It comes as no surprise to me that you are now watching this message. And certainly, it's no surprise of all of you to be sitting here and listening to me either. I am dead, Titans. I am dead, Titans……and I shall never return."_

Starfire exhaled. Her eyes shut. Green tears gathering.

Beast Boy slid down so that he sat on the cushions next to her. He scooted over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as she began to shake.

Tempest glanced down at the carpet.

Cyborg kept leaning forward.

Raven's eyes lowered, as if she had known this message. Perhaps she recorded it. Memorized it, even. She seemed to be meditating as Robin's gentle voice went on:

"_Each and every one of you must learn to accept this fact. The challenge against evil is not something guaranteed of victory. Nor is it something without its sacrifices. But know this……I am not ashamed to have reached whatever end I have. I put my life—my mind, heart, and body—into this vigilantism. I knew the risks that were involved. I knew the limits of my mortality……of my strictly human talents. But that did not stop me. Sometimes, there are issues that go beyond the confines of life and death. The fact that I gave my life is of very little importance compared to what I did during my life to lead up to the End. And I am proud to assume that the rest of you shall carry on the legacy. That you will all keep fighting. For death is but part of the journey every hero must take. It is not something we should regret……nor feel remorse over."_

I took a deep breath. I looked at the screen. My empty throat sore…

Robin's eyemask narrowed on the monitor.

"_Death is something……that we must all grow beyond……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 8, 2004.

The City Cemetery.

Located on the green plains of the City's Western borders.

On the banks of the river which would eventually stretch out underneath the suspension bridge and flow out into the Bay in the East…..

The people gathered in the hundreds….the thousands….

Masses of quiet, clamoring people.

The sky was still overcast…..but not quite as gray and dreadful as the day before.

For there were splits in the clouds.

And golden streams of light wavered down, illuminating the tops of heads both bowed and straight.

And the masses formed two thick fields of warmth.

Through which, the white gravel walkway between headstone fields was left open.

And a procession of uniformed policemen, officers, and guards marched two-by-two down the space.

Straight and tall.

Ornate and proud.

Carrying bundled flags.

With badges.

And names.

And ranks.

'_The fight does not end with death. If it did, the world would cease to spend. But the Universe is constantly flexing. An endless bend of good against evil and vice versa. And those of us who leave—by whatever tragic or heroic means—are merely handing the sword to the next one in line to defend the bulwarks of eternal principals."_

Monuments were erected.

Clean and polished.

Ivory halos in a line.

Bearing the names of over sixty police officers who perished in the City's siege.

Officer stood.

Saluting.

Those carrying the flags lined up.

A high-ranking officer shouted an order.

Guards raised rifles to the air.

And at command, they fired.

The shots ringing loudly across the ghostly crowd.

'_This of course doesn't mean that death without its pain. For those left behind, something is ripped away from them. I cannot even begin to apologize for this pain that you must be enduring, friends. But I trust that I can face death and I trust that you can endure the pain of it if you all simply understand and put to mind the fact that……there are far greater things to possibly be mournful over. And at the same time, there are even more, greater things to be passionate and thankful for. And it all centers on the fight that we keep taking part in. Even without its concrete victories, it holds the shadow of darkness back. And—as painful as it may be—it brings goodness back into this world.'_

Flags were raised and lowered at half-mast.

A quartet of bagpipes accompanied the ceremony.

And in the ensuing moment of silence…..the deafening nothingness that went on for seemingly forever….

The drier half of the masses' eyes fell on Commissioner Decker's tombstone. A step larger than the others. Added ivory for the legacy of heroism.

The Lieutenant stood with a cane, attempting to stand as straight as he could. He was accompanied by Officers Abbey and Chapman. Fellow workers who survived the Department's bombing. And public officials like City Secretary Allen Bringham, Director of Civil Services Frederick Smith, and even the Mayor. Maggie Sawyer and Commissioner Gordon had come all the way over from Metropolis and Gotham City respectfully. Their heads were bowed and their faces were solid.

The Lieutenant took a shuddering breath, his eyes moist. Many an adult officer tried his or her best to remain still and strong. But like some of the buildings in the City's Downtown, it was a feeble effort that week.

'_My death, dear Titans, it is the beginning of something. It is growth—I believe—and not shrinking back. I wish the best for each and every one of you. And I trust that you will have the strength and tenacity to not let my absence deter the spirit and the dream that is the Teen Titans. What this City needs is a willing and able team. Not a dead legend from Gotham City. And it will be up to you to show that to them……'_

The names of the confirmed dead were read aloud. By the Mayor. By the Lieutenant. By the bodies of the County Offices.

All eight hundred and seventy-two of them.

Open sobs lit the air of the City cemetery.

A few family members even collapsed, their leftover loved ones trying to hold them up.

Lisa was there with her sister. Standing somberly near the middle of the crowd. Looking twice as dark as ever on that day.

Renee and Daniel stood besides the surviving Fillmores. Daniel had his arm in a loose cast. Renee had her arm wrapped around his. She was dabbing at her eyes. Mrs. Fillmore held her two daughters close. They all sighed as one.

Lindsay stood with Phil innocently bouncing against her shoulder. She had a somber face that matched the stone, dark gray of her gown as she stood besides her family members, Antoine, Lillian, Bonnie, Jack, Karen, and even Carman from the diner. There was something cold in the skin of Lindsay's face that hid the freckles…if but for a moment. She was silent the entire time while Phil gurgled.

Ashley and Greg Knight were there. But their father wasn't….

And the names went on….and on….and on….

Like the clouds…

'_I am willing to trust that I have died as Robin. Much the same that I have first joined you, as Robin. I know it is difficult for most of you to understand. And you might even hate me that I have forever been the masked hero before you and not the human being. But I cannot even begin to tell you—even after death—how incredibly important my secret identity is. It risks the security of so many people and so many powers that uphold the pillars of good in this hemisphere that any little hint as to who I am could inevitably send everything crumbling down. This is not your fault, Titans. In essence……I'm inclined to believe that it is nobody's fault. It is but a device through which I achieve the practical mechanization of delivering good and heroism to the masses. And if I was to revealed……even to my closest allies……the sacrifices would be devastating.'_

Suddenly, the entire crowd was moving.

Surging softly on shuffling feet through the ivory-speckled fields of green.

And we were part of the movement.

Raven in a jet black pantsuit.

Starfire in a modest dress of black.

Cyborg in a suit just for him.

Myself in a dark ensemble indicative of my funeral home days.

Beast Boy in a dark brown outfit.

And Tempest hobbling close behind the changeling in black with gray crutches.

Starfire's hair was in a bun…and not once did she hover on that day…..even to the point of lifting her feet a single inch from the ground. And she was amazingly dry the whole time, exhibiting an almost Terran determination in holding back her tears. For what reason….none of us could guess nor desired to guess.

While walking, Beast Boy looked over. Across the cemetery. At other surging crowds.

And….

His lips parted.

He elbowed Tempest behind him lightly and pointed. "Hey…dude….," whispered the changeling. "Look at that…."

"What??" Tempest hissed and glanced over. He blinked.

I looked as well. And in a cemetery under a gray sky, I saw the Justice League for the first time.

The Man of Steel—as ever I've seen printed, illustrated, and photographed at least half a million times each year—walked slowly ahead of the group. His dark eyes were ever compassionate and ever human, in spite of his obvious origins. He wore his trademark red, white, and blue…..and not a soul amidst the hundreds attending complained.

He was followed closely by the Green Lantern, who walked tall and foreboding in a dark suit befitting a funeral. His unmistakable face had a brow furrowed as if there was always a battle to be fought, even under the shuffling feet of a massive funeral procession.

Behind him was the familiar figure of Diana. Her Amazonian body modestly suited in a dark gown. Her strong face was femininely soft and compassionate, as if she was gazing at a wounded child beyond the lengths of golden light that randomly scattered down onto the floor.

A masked man walked behind her….masked in that he had his trademark red cowl and 'lightning bolts' covering his head from the neck up…where all else below was decent funeral attire. His lips did not seem used to being deadpan, and yet the effort to be solemn was evidently there.

And then Martian Manhunter took up the rear of the group, and all of us were only capable of guessing that his exotic garb was the alien representation of ceremonial mourning. He was as silent and straight as the tombstones as he shuffled behind the others. Like a granite bishop chesspiece.

But those five weren't the only ones of heroic ilk among us.

A familiar air followed Green Arrow as he walked along with the shuffling crowd in the distance. His fists were constantly clenched as if he wanted to wrestle death to the ground for one reason or another.

He was more or less accompanied by the strangely deadpan Black Canary, her normally splending golden hair appearing somewhat faded for the time being.

A mysteriously somber gentleman walked at the rear of the group. He was a well-suited man who had reddish-brown hair and a white streak running squarely down the middle.

_So many faces……familiar and recognized……and yet……_

"Batman….," Beast Boy murmured.

"Huh?" Tempest looked over.

"Batman isn't here…," Beast Boy said. And he was frowning. "Not even Nightwing. Or Batgirl. Not anyone from Gotham City except that Gordon guy. Shoot……you'd think someone in the Dark Knight family would friggin' care about Robin. Makes you get ideas as to why he came here to begin with—"

"Shhh!" Raven hissed.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Tempest sighed.

"……..," I pressed on.

Beast Boy stared down at his shuffling feet….looking somewhere between betrayed and angry.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Beast Boy. I have seen you grow up so much since joining us. When you came to the Titans, you were an amateur. A spirited do-gooder……heheh……and on occasion, a total klutz. I can't count the hours I've spent hitting myself in the head at night, trying to understand why in the world I ever inducted you. But over time, I found out. You have bravery and compassion that challenges the very stars to fall, Beast Boy. When worse comes to worse and the Titans find themselves struggling with frustration and to overcome such terrible obstacles……it's your enthusiasm and your innocence that reminds us of the joy we should feel……for we are all fighting for a mighty, mighty purpose.'_

Beast Boy shuffled into the crumbled interior of Phaser Labs.

Completely in uniform.

He looked around at the last of the day's salvagers attempting to clean the interior and remove special items for the demolition squad to move in during the coming weeks.

Slowly, the boy walked over to a barren pedestal.

He looked down.

One petal had survived the cleanup crew.

He knelt down.

He picked it up and looked it over in his hand.

He sighed with a gloved palm over his face and froze….

'_If it wasn't for your faithful insistence, Beast Boy, we never would have given Terra a second chance. We never would have looked at the faults in ourselves and taken the time to realize that we all are really children deep down who are capable of making mistakes. And by your strength alone……we may indeed be able to bring Terra back after all.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Raven, my admiration and respect for you knows no boundaries. You have gone through so much more than you are capable of telling us, much less that which you are __**willing**__ to. There is something in you which I find comparable to myself. An undying secret. A pain or an obsession which you keep close to heart. Only for you……the struggle must be unbearable at times. For every emotion and every inch of passion you give into the fight against evil is a vulnerability to evil itself. Your restraint and your maturity and your patience has matured the team far faster than any prep talk of mine could incite. And I shall forever feel thankful to you for that.'_

Raven floated in the corner of her room.

Between corners of burning incense.

The curtains closed before a gray world outside…

And she had her fingers folded.

And she meditated.

And she chanted.

And yet….minutes into it….

Her violet eyes open.

And she suffered a terrible chill.

She hugged herself in spite of it all.

Visibly alone.

'_I hope that the Titans continue to provide you with the security both you and I sought to acquire when we founded this team. Stick by your friends, Raven. Even if you may or may not become close to any single one of them. For in the end, you will find that your strength has quite firmly woven itself into their collective consciousness all the same that they have contributed to your well-being.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The crowds were gathering at the end of the cemetery.

Besides a cliff that faced out against the rippling river in the west.

There was something tall and shrouded in white in the center of some gravel square erected far away from the other fields of headstones.

People sat in metal folding chairs like a gradually, falling blanket.

A podium rested besides the shrouded object. Facing the crowd.

I stared at it. My hands hanging by my side. Breathing.

"They say Superman is going to read his euology….," a young voice uttered.

"………"

"N-Noir?"

I glanced aside. My lips parted.

Sandy looked up at me. She simpered softly from behind her glasses. She wore a petite gown of black across her even more petite frame. "H-Hello….."

"……," I smiled painfully.

And in a single instant, we both hugged each other. Tightly.

Sandy clenched her eyes shut beneath her glasses. She sniffed, a few drops of salt water collecting.

We parted.

She swallowed painfully and hand-signed: _'We all feel the hurt.'_

I nodded.

I hand-signed back: _'We all feel the life as well.'_

Sandy shuddered into a weak smile at that.

A tall young woman stepped up beside her. Ms. Cartwright. She rested a hand on Sandy's shoulder and looked at me.

"I….'volunteered' to drive her all the way here."

I smiled somewhat.

She smiled somewhat back.

A beat.

She added breathily: "Of course…..I-I had to come myself. I just had to. The opera house…the Titans….where would……." Her voice lingered at the risk of sounding cliché. So instead she cleared her throat and said: "It's being renamed."

I leaned my head to the side. Curious.

"The opera house, in Westhaven," Ms. Cartwright said.

I slowly nodded, still curious.

And Sandy sniffed and blurted: "'Robin Theatre'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Tempest. If this is the recording that you are now viewing, then I know for certain that I have gotten very little a chance to truly get to know you and your talents. But there is nothing denying the strength and the maturity and the experience that I see in you. I know that adapting to the surface world is something full of such incredible challenges for you. And after the utter tragedy you experienced among your own people, I cannot begin to imagine where you summon the strength to motivate yourself further. But I know one thing. You are a Titan. And what all Titans have in common is that we are greater than the obstacles that try to bind us. I have faith and high hopes for your future with Atlantis. Your people will turn around. King Orin still loves you, and the people know that you are far more than some victim to Slizzath. You are an icon. An Idyllist. You live in a paradox that—regardless of all friction—supports the notion that Peace is at the end of the road for all who strive against the darkness. I am supremely proud……and honored……to have you on my team.'_

Tempest stood waist-deep in the shores of the water surrounding Titans' Island.

He dipped his hands down, cupped a generous amount of ocean, and splashed it up into his face.

He shook his dark, wet threads…doing his wobbly best to remain upright.

And with his face moist and hidden, he stared out towards the distant beaches of the City's Southern District.

He could almost spot the clean splendor that was Bayside Plaza.

And a sense of warmth quivered across his left thigh.

Like the laying of hands.

And he lowered his gaze towards the forbidden waters.

And sighed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat, hunched over in the shower.

Warm water running down my naked shoulders and back.

Rivlets of liquid cascading down faded scars…including the fresh one on my cheek.

The flickering lanterlight from the dry side of the bathroom cast the moist interior with crimson.

Besides that, it was utterly dark.

As the steam rose to the ceiling and collected in a sheen.

I hugged my knees to my chest with my right arm while my left stub dipped down into the currents.

And I rocked back and forth….my pelted lungs shuddering.

'_Noir, I do not know where to begin. I have been tested time and time again in my friendship with you. And every time I have come to the same conclusion—as have the rest of the Titans. I do not know anyone else in this world I could trust more than you. You are so selfless, so endearing, and yet so fiercely devoted to the common ideals of heroism that sometimes I feel put to shame. And all the time, you are honorable and subservient……not simply because I'm in charge, but almost as if I'm a better person than you. Which I know is not the case. But the fact that you live to such ideals inspires me……as I'm sure it inspires the rest of us. But most of all, it has been your sacrifice that ultimately won my heart. And everything I do—even unto my most recent death—has been but feeble attempts to live up to the precedents you humbly set in your mission to cleanse the world of pain and regret. We are so much alike……and yet we are so different. Keep on fighting, and never lose your motivation, Noir.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So many people….," Starfire murmured.

Raven rested a hand on her shoulder where they sat amidst the somber masses. "Robin was loved the world over. It is something earned not by egotism…but by humility and sacrifice."

Cyborg leaned in with a smirk. "Which means that the little whipper-snapper didn't have such a big head after all."

"Cyborg!!" Raven breathily snapped.

But…

Starfire giggled.

Raven blinked.

Starfire hugged herself with a quivering lip. "I have just felt…..f-felt a happy thought…."

"…..," Raven stared down at the grass beneath the folding chairs. "I guess you should be proud…..or something."

Starfire sniffed. Her smile slowly melted into something wet as her eyes clenched shut. She leaned over and wrapped an arm around Raven's shoulder.

The dark girl gently returned with a squeeze of her own.

Both girls leaned against each other.

Cyborg had his arms folded. He gazed off towards the river water beyond the cliff and sighed.

Most everyone had been seated. I made way for Beast Boy and Tempest…who had to hobble to get to his spot.

I gave him a metal hand of support. I was about to sit down when I sensed a strong figure behind me.

I turned around.

Wonder Woman had her hands folded before her. "Kal-El is almost ready. I'm sorry you're all having to wait this long. Not even Superman expected a crowd this large to be here, as sad as that sounds. I suppose it is truly a testament."

"………" Slowly, I nodded.

Diana lowered her eyes. She breathed. "To think….I only met Robin that one time….that one time when I visited your impressive base of operations. Hehehe….he didn't trust me one bit, did he?"

I smiled. I gently shrugged.

She blinked and leaned her gorgeous head to the side. "There was something of his distrustful nature that was…..precious, even. Like a youthful shadow of his master…and yet, laced with the energy and shred of optimism that even Batman didn't have. Robin was just the right person for this City. He really was."

I nodded.

A beat.

Wonder Woman groaned and rubbed her temples. "Ohhh….listen to me. Kal-El is delivering the eulogy. Not me. I suppose I just….j-just wanted you to know…..in a way that writing couldn't tell you, Noir…..that I feel for you." A beat. "The whole Justice League feels for the Titans."

I bit my lip.

She walked forward.

I didn't fight the hug that she gave me.

The strong hug that we shared.

"Stay strong, Noir….," Diana whispered. "For Robin….for your friends…."

I gazed over her shoulder at the masses of people attending. Those saddened. Those honored. Those made human.

The hug parted. Wonder Woman waved and walked somberly back to the Justice League's part of the seating arrangement.

I sighed. I shuffled over and sat besides Beast Boy and Tempest.

Beast Boy leaned over, smirking, and whispered: "Can't stop flirting, huh Noir? Even for a funeral, you're—"

Tempest's good foot stomped on Beast Boy's toe.

"Owie!!" he hissed.

I looked at Tempest. I mouthed: _'Thank you'._

"Yeah, no problem."

Beast Boy sat straight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Cyborg. The Titans are now in your capable hands. I know that you have the passion to lead them on against any adversity. But more than that, I know you have the experience and maturity to be the Team Leader from now on. The fact that they will be leaning on you and depending on you is of very little concern to me……for all along—whether or not I've been willing to admit it—I've been leaning and depending on you myself. I don't know where I would be……or where the whole team would be without you. And not just for the facilities such as the Tower and the T-Car, but most importantly for your inner joy. As much as for your inner rage. You have had so much ripped out from you, Cyborg……and yet you are the most human and the most natural among us. You relate to the lives that we protect, and for that you shall be such an incredible fulcrum for the Titans after my passing. I know you have what it takes for the job. And in a way……heheh……I am envious.'_

Cyborg rummaged through his laboratory.

Throwing open cabinets.

Tossing equipment every which way.

Searching…..searching…..searching….

Chaotically.

"Ah-HA!!"

He whipped out blueprints.

He blew some dust off them.

He hobbled over on titanium and skeletal limbs to a table.

He stretched out the blueprints across the table.

Schematics for a sleeker, more high-tech vehicle.

'_The T-Car Beta'_

He smiled to himself.

But for a moment.

He gazed at the specs on it.

'_Seven seats.'_

"………….."

A beat.

He sighed.

He grabbed an eraser from the side of the table.

He rubbed it across the paper.

He whipped out a pencil.

He edited.

He gazed.

'_Six seats.'_

"……………"

A beat.

He snarled.

The android Titan scratched out the entire thing.

Then, with bad handwriting, he edited and produced:

'_SEVEN seats.'_

With a painfully proud smile he sighed and exhaled.

"Boo-ya….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

She hugged herself.

Red hair waving in a fan.

Wisps of gray mist floating majestically by.

And then.

The arm of a huge, golden sun.

Starfire's eyes widened.

She stretched her amber limbs out with a sigh.

She twirled.

She dove through the clouds.

She flew through the obscurity.

And…high above the rooftops of the wounded City below….she looped and barreled and spun through the mistiness.

Joyfully lost.

'_Starfire. You are the best friend I have ever had. The most precious living thing I have ever had a chance to share oxygen with. Only here does the thought of being dead feel sad. I know that you are a strong advocate of life. And as much as I am surprised by your endless well of experience and maturity with each day of knowing you, I cannot help but think of how terribly you will take my going away. I wish that I could be there to comfort you and to support you like I have always enjoyed to do……willingly. But I know that you are strong, Starfire. I know that you have more than enough strength and passion and endurance to support not just my death or the memories of my life but the preciousness of over a thousand of my lives. The people of Terra Firma need so much support and so much hope. And your presence on this world is like a fiery beacon of love and trust, Star. If ever there was a Savior to descend onto this planet from a realm outside of our imagination, it's you. And I deeply hope to be there when your glorious dreams of Peace are realized……even if only in spirit. You captivate me, Star. I know that Life will only be far more livelier the longer and the happier you exist. So keep going. Keep fighting. And keep believing in yourself. It was believing in you that gave me the strength to go on many a time, Star. Maybe you've never known that until now……but now you do.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He was everybody's son. And everybody's brother. And to the young and growing souls of those among us….he was everybody's father as well."

The booming voice of Superman echoed over our heads and across the riverside cemetery.

We breathed deeply and listened in dark silence.

"He did far more than carry on the tradition and legacy of the Boy Wonder…," Superman uttered from the podium. "He became a man. And men are not defined by age or by stature as they are by the pieces of their heart that they willfully give away to those around them in hopes of a better tomorrow. And Robin—in death as much as in life—is still always giving away a piece of himself for tomorrow. Now this City….suffering as it has….is all the more living and breathing and thriving because of what he and his selfless team of heroes have done to protect everyone in the face of darkest adversity."

Starfire had finally given in. And she was quietly sobbing, the whole time.

Raven's face was tight. She lasted longer.

Beast Boy constantly wiped his cheeks with dark brown sleeves.

Cyborg took a few shuddering breaths.

Tempest watched still, his arms folded.

I rested my metal and flesh fingers together, shivering.

"We will never forget….," Superman slowly spoke "….for it is impossible to forget that we are alive. And this City is alive on behalf of Robin. On behalf of the Titans. On behalf of the saviors of Good."

Golden ribbons flapped in the wind, attached to almost every arm of those in attendance.

They matched the scant beams of light that scattered down to the cemetery below.

"This City will be rebuilt. This City will thrive. And the first stone recast….the first foundation laid….stands before us in honor of he who would best preserve the permanence of Life itself."

And that said, Superman stepped to the side and gestured to people in the shadows.

With a great ruffling sound, the shroud was lowered from the tall object before us.

There was no mutual gasp, for in a way everybody knew the symbolism of the effigy.

But those in the closest circle….

Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Tempest, and I….

Our lips parted.

And we gazed at Robin's image.

A fifteen foot statue.

The Boy Wonder with his granite cape waving in the wind.

Staring up into the sky…Eastward…and towards the thickness of the recovering City.

And the words on a golden plaque beneath the icon's boots read:

"'Robin…'," Superman waved. "'…Boy Wonder. Man Remembered. Founder of the Titans.'"

The tears.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_My one wish. My one lasting wish for each and every one of you……is to live. And to live faithfully to living itself. Not just your lives. But the lives of everyone around you. I have seen you do that, and I trust that you shall continue to do that even without my insistence. The sorrow you feel may pass. It may even stay for a long time. Maybe even all of your lives. But you have all of your lives to seek the very opposite of sorrow……and see—once again—the reason to keep on fighting. I can only hope that my legacy supports that. And I can only hope that I am half the inspiration to all of you that you have been the inspiration to me. I leave you with good will, and friendly trust.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-

The day grayed on.

The statue stood fresh and pale.

Even when the masses emptied from the cemetery…

And returned to their lives.

I stood for a good few hours.

Standing before Robin's effigy.

My hands in my pocket.

And….with a sigh….

I mutely turned around.

And walked East.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Good bye, Titans. Keep fighting. Keep fighting……'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When evening fell, the Titans scattered.

Tempest went off somewhere on his own.

Raven and Cyborg had sandwiches in the Main Room.

Starfire and Beast Boy sat on the rooftop, talking.

Everyone was still dressed in their dark dress clothes.

And in spite of all the gray…

A few smiles were shown.

And then night came.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I couldn't sleep.

After a good tossing and turning, I gave up and left the lantern-lit confines of my basement room.

I went outside with Myrkblade. Dressed in black. My dark eyes exposed to the gray waters against the moonlight.

The City glowed in random places from rescue workers' floodlamps.

And…

I danced with the sawgrass.

Striking invisible shadows with Myrkblade.

Posing and unposing.

Getting into meditative stances.

Breathing.

Panting.

Swishing back and forth.

To and fro.

Bobbing back to days of voices and green fields and cedar trees and white and black and red.

And in the delightful dizziness of the Spectrum…

I remembered.

The balance depended on a schism all the same.

And I was that schism.

I was blackness.

Balance.

The dark eyes of neutrality.

Someone who wielded Destruction for the sake of Construction so that the two would cancel out.

And….

Blackness reigned supreme.

The dichotomy was in fact one in the same.

There were no halves.

There were no sides.

Life and Death was all one giant spiraling circle eating itself from the outside in.

And at some point, I froze in the middle of my meditation.

Panting.

Sweating.

Staring out across the dark waters.

A chill ran up my metal limb but faded away into a veil of warmth.

For I remembered the sound.

I remembered the sound….

And in the echo of it all, I realized.

_The contract……_

I exhaled.

Cold vapor into the Autumn night of November.

_The contract………_

My black eyes blinked wide.

I gripped Myrkblade tight in my hand and fought fainting.

_Robin never did get to finish his contract………_

I gulped.

I glanced North at the City. The invisible skyline of Gotham that had to have rested beyond the mountains and fields.

And then I glanced West for some damnable reason.

And I clenched my jaw.

_Terra…… _

_Terra still needs to be found._


	180. We are the Titans part 1

**180. We are the Titans part 1**

"Slowly….over a period of four months…a very much _alive_ Dagger organized with whatever henchmen he had left after the destruction of his old hideout a way to smuggle hundreds upon hundreds of kilos of Dragonflare into the City. This batch of Dragonflare was given extra special, hallucinogenic qualities that would give each individual exposed to it a bloodlust that would make him attack anybody with the distinct heat signature characteristic of _not_ having Dragonflare…since Dragonflare lowered the body temperature by about a staggering four degrees Fahrenheit. Dragonflare was something easily distributed through the air. But even in its gaseous form, it was too weak to take effect. But when Dagger had his henchmen release a mysterious compound of helium, nitrogen, and carbon…it somehow had a reaction with Dragonflare that sparked the hallucinations within the neurological functions of the victims' brains. The bulk of the Dragonflare and catalyst gases were set off in the warehouses and factories of the industrial complexes to the North of the City….while some were also distributed in parts of the Eastern Shipyards. In the end, Dagger had well over three thousand and five hundred of this City's own citizens converted over into mindless killing machines. They used the equipment Dagger smuggled into to sites the Commissioner and the Titans couldn't spot. The men had uzzis, pistols, grenades, shotguns, military jeeps, and access to the Subway Rail System. And while the hypnotized men attacked us in bloody fury, Dagger slipped in under the confusion with both a huge missile trained towards the hospital and a specially armored Mi-24 HIND helicopter with his own men piloting it. The lethal combination was just what he needed to cause Hell to break loose throughout the entire urban domain. And while the Titans were scrambling to counter his attacks and save thousands of people, Dagger's technical specialists hacked into Phaser Labs, short-circuited the construct of Simon Stone, and caused a computer overload that gave juice back to the dormant, robotic parts of Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair. In Dagger's last attack, Reload and Slug were reborn…and they attacked us from the inside out. Phaser Labs was nearly destroyed, and it was just the chaos that Dagger needed to distract us so that his insidious forces could sneak in…..and steal Terra away."

Cyborg finished talking.

I stood beside him, silent, staring into the corner.

On the other side of the dark tent's lightly furnished interior, the Lieutenant sat with his bandaged leg stretched before him. He fiddled with a cane and took a deep breath. "It's all really that simple, huh?"

Cyborg nodded. "Dagger came. Dagger wounded. Dagger conquered," Cyborg gestured. "And yet…he didn't do that which seemed obvious from the beginning. He didn't do what we feared from the implications of his stockpiled weapons and hideouts and rumors of 'Triangular'. He didn't do half of what the Messenger hinted us. He didn't take the City."

"……….."

Cyborg shuddered. "Not yet, at least."

I bit my lip.

The Lieutenant shifted in his seat, wincing. "What about Robin? What did Dagger want him dead for?"

"Dagger wanted all of us dead," Cyborg gestured. He had new titanium limbs replacing the ones he had lost. But they seemed a brighter color than the rest of his silver and blue body. Like something that had to 'grow into' the rest of him. "The despot nearly killed Noir and Robin in hand-to-hand combat atop an apartment complex in the North. Then he tortured poor Flipper into rounding up Starfire, Robin, and Noir into a death trap. And finally, all the places the Titans headed towards in a desperate, last minute search for Terra were all rigged with terrible explosives. The Titans pulled out at the last second, avoiding a flaming death. But Robin—the perfect detective that he is—figured out that the Radioactive Depository must have been the last place where Terra could have been located. Dagger was also the perfect villain. He rigged the explosives there that would eventually consume Robin. It was sorta….his last stab into our hearts, or something. A way to tear a piece of us out forever, as if demolishing huge chunks of this City and killing off hundreds was not Dagger's way of doing that already. Viper showed up at the last second and made Robin's presence at the time of the explosion inevitable. None of us know why Viper was there. Raven, Beast Boy, and Noir here all recall seeing Viper hanging from one of the Depository's railings when they arrived. Robin must have killed him in battle somehow. But no sooner had the Titans arrived that an intense carbonite explosion went off. Much like the type at the prison's Omega Wing. Robin was incinerated in an instant. Whatever shreds of flesh of him that could be left would inevitably have been polluted by the exposed radioactive waists set ablaze by the eruption. The sarcophagus of the depository inevitably closed and—if but for a moment—the enclosed site became an oven holding in a flaming core that became hotter than the Sun. Even if I tried—and I have very much tried—to search for organic signatures of Robin's body through the concrete with my sensors….there would be nothing to find. Robin was evaporated. He died in but an instant….and Raven—who was there at the scene—testifies towards sensing his spirit being snuffed out. We have all lost someone twice as strong as the rest of us. If Dagger were to strike again at any moment now….I h-honestly do not know how well we would fair….without the Boy Wonder."

I ran a shaking hand across my bangs, faced the floor, and sighed.

The Lieutenant nodded. "I get the feeling—though—that you and the other Titans are half as alone as you ever possibly were to begin with."

Cyborg and I looked up.

"Huh??"

"You have an entire City behind you," the Lieutenant said with a hopeful smile. "I wonder if you kids have any idea just how many people are on your side and would _fight_ by your side in the event of another November Fourth."

"That's very consoling….but….," Cyborg stood up on weak legs and smirked. "We're not kids anymore."

"Oh?"

"Most definitely not…," Cyborg said.

I walked over by his side.

The android Titan added: "We are the Titans. Never mind the 'Teen' part."

The Lieutenant leaned his head to the side. "Well…that takes some of the snazziness away."

"Perhaps," Cyborg shrugged. "But I think it's what Robin would have wanted. His last words bolstered it."

"'Titans'……," the Lieutenant nodded. "I think I'm going to like that."

Cyborg glanced out of the slit of the tent flap. "And everyone…seems to be following your command, sir."

"Yeah….fancy that….," the Lieutenant scratched his head. He sighed. "They'll replace me someday, of course. Someday soon."

"They're not going to promote you, sir?"

He shook his head. "This is hardly the job for me. I can feel it. In the way I shake and shiver in the morning and evening. I need to report to someone. I need to follow orders. The City is looking for a new Commissioner. Already, there's news of someone from overseas coming in. Someone who has withstood political and ethnic friction between India and Pakistan."

"A foreigner?"

"Not for long."

"Heh………..," Cyborg nodded. "Well….so long, and good luck."

"Aye…"

Cyborg turned to leave….but hesitated. A beat. He turned and gazed at the Lieutenant. "What's your name?"

"Excuse me?"

I blinked.

"Your name, sir….," Cyborg asked with his human eye thin. "I don't think we….e-ever truly memorized your name."

"……….," the Lieutenant stared. He blinked. He took a breath, scratched his chin, and uttered: "Smith."

"……………"

"……………"

He furrowed his brow curiously at our silent response and repeated: "_Smith_!"

Silence.

Cyborg's lips curved.

So did the Lieutenant's.

Cyborg began to chuckle.

Lieutenant Smith laughed.

I joined in if for but a moment.

"Heheheheheheh!!"

"Hahahahaha!!"

"………!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg and I marched through the central base of the City's reconstruction operations. It was an elaborate matrix of large white tents built around and under the raised highway overpass besides the rubble of Phaser Labs. The high was closed for as long as it took to rebuild the raised structure. At the same time, large groups of volunteers and City workers rushed from post to post, gearing up for various assignments. Eventually, huge truckloads of people throttled off down the City streets with equipment and heavy breaths at their disposal.

The building fronts and sidewalks were cleared and sectioned off down most of Main Street. At specific times of the day, people who still worked around the busily reconstructed parts of the City were afforded specific avenues of carpooling. Two dozen city buses from Metropolis were 'donated' for free transit of workers to and fro during various revolutions throughout the day. Quite a bit of progress had been made, considering. Kobayashi Tower was open to all workers. JCN Broadcasting had recovered and—with new satellite dishes richly applied—normal news resumed across the airwaves. Marilyn Chen, other anchorpersons, and world-famous reporters covered the wounds of the City with rich detail. And in spite of the bleeding headlines of the prior week, things were being casted…..optimistically.

And no one argued.

The Subway system still wasn't working. The functioning staff of the transit's network was bloodily ripped asunder by Dagger's men infiltrating the underground facilities. It was to be a good few weeks at least before anything in the railway system of the City resumed to normal.

The City schools were closed indefinitely. First of all, there was still the risk of continued attacks by Dagger in everyone's heads. A warzone never disappears overnight, and the citizens kept that warily in mind. Children were not allowed to pass to and fro from the downtown campuses until a good deal of the reconstruction had taken place. And secondly….the danger to children was more than evident. The greatest proliferated tragedy of November Fourth was the loss of two school buses full of elementary schoolers. It was perhaps the deepest wound the City had to heal……_if_ it could heal.

The heaviest blow the City took had to have been that inflicted upon the population of industrial workers. The Dragonflare had been proliferated amongst the greater half of the factories and warehouses in the City's Northern District. Many of them had died in the middle of the hallucinogenic bloodlust. If not at their own hands, then at either the hands of the counteracting police…or the Titans. It was enough for the psyche of the City to deal with the horror of having to battle its own citizens to the death. It was even more harrowing for the workers themselves to recover. Nearly forty percent of the previous working body of the City's industrial centers failed to report in soon enough following November Fourth. The body of labor had been drastically cut down the center, and it looked to be a long time before that gap could ever be finished. The damaging effects this had on various companies as well as the stock market was incalculably devastating, since the City itself had such an integral share of the Northeast's shipping and industry…something fitting to rival even that of Metropolis and Gotham City and New York. It was a painful lancing felt by the greater half of the continent, something that the economy would inevitably reel from.

"I've got business at Phaser Labs…," Cyborg muttered as we walked between the tents of the site. "Something that I shouldn't put my hopes up for too much….but I guess I can't help myself."

I raised my eyebrow above my shades and glanced at him.

"Never mind…," he shook his head and sighed. "Forget I said anything."

I shrugged.

We walked on.

"Nnngh…," Cyborg huddled some, getting used to his new titanium appendages. "My cybernetic parts are totally fried…and I mean TOTALLY fried from all the crap that happened to me."

I nodded dazedly, gazing at wandering bodies across the haphazard landscape.

"I've spent all of the last four and a half days that I could trying to reconstruct burnt pieces of my neural net," the android said. "It's kinda like performing brains surgery on yourself while you're doing a dozen other things."

I winced.

"Yeah…," he nodded. "Exactly." He exhaled through his nostrils and paused in his walking. He gazed off towards the wrecked, raised highway. "At this point, I can't even make my sonic cannon, much less fire it. I can't record stuff with my robot eye anymore. And it takes twice as long to recharge….which means I've got to be carrying twice as much battery fuel…which just slows me down and makes me liable to short-circuit."

I stood, staring at him.

"It sucks, man….," he bluntly said. Staring at me. "It sucks to be in charge of a team all of the sudden that you can't present yourself one hundred percent for."

My lips parted.

"In case you forgot…," he chuckled bitterly. "I'm it. Robin had me as next in line. And here I am." He gestured with a cold metal arm and looked towards the ground. "Cyborg, Titan leader."

I simpered. I tried a brave thumb's up.

He glanced at me sideways. "Which also means, Noir…..," he leaned forward and planted his hand on my shoulder while staring into my shades. "…you're number one."

I blinked.

"You're my second in command. Robin promoted you, remember? He promoted you, and I'm going to uphold that by all means. You've earned it all. Our trust. Our respect. And—I'm most sure—the obedient answers of everyone else in this Team."

I exhaled. Shaking a bit.

_Oh yeah. _

_That's right. _

_Second in command………_

"Things will go on the same as they always have…," Cyborg stepped back, removing his hand from my shoulder. "Only, instead of Robin bitching at you all the time, it'll be me."

I couldn't help it. I chuckled breathily.

"Heh heh heh heh heh…," Cyborg uttered.

A beat.

We both sighed.

"And it'll take some work….," Cyborg said. "But I'm sure the other Titans will adapt as well to answering to the both of us."

I nodded, gazing off.

But I exhaled gently….in thought…

_The Titans…… _

_Who exactly are 'we' still?_

_Starfire……Beast Boy……Raven……Tempest……_

My metal fingers clenched, fighting a shiver.

_Are we still……………?_

I winced at a thought.

And, uncontrollably, I looked up. I hand-signed to Cyborg: _'What about Terra?'_

The android's face grew long.

"???" I leaned my head to the side.

He sighed and rubbed the human part of his head. "Terra….Terra…..Terra….."

"……," I stared patiently at him.

He swallowed and said: "The more we try and find Terra, the more we put ourselves at risk."

My heart fell. My throat fell sore.

I frantically hand-signed: _'But Dagger has her. She could be in trouble.'_

"Noir…," Cyborg sighed. "….there is no way we can conceivably trace where she went. And even if we could, Dagger has proven that he knows every move we would take to follow him. He nearly blew _all_ of us up. Much less one of us. If we all go after Terra now, we could all be at risk of far worse than what has happened already. And I shudder to think of what that implicates."

'_Finding Terra was Robin's contract.'_

"It was his _folly!_" Cyborg said.

I winced.

Cyborg didn't look like he enjoyed saying it any more than I possibly enjoyed hearing it. He looked off towards the cold, gray sky of November. "Robin was so….so hotheaded. And I think it was all because of Dagger and what Dagger did. So much loss and so much death and so much….so m-much _defeat_ in a single day finally flipped the Boy Wonder over. I'm not saying it wasn't a noble idea to chase after Terra. But it was all the wrong time and the wrong place. Robin gave his life to find Terra. And to what end?"

A beat.

Cyborg sighed. "I am not going to put us through any more violent risks, Noir. Not now. Not anytime soon. We've got this City…and this City has us. And this City _needs_ us. I'm not about to turn my head on something so real and **here**."

I bit my lip.

He turned and looked firmly at me. "As my second-in-command, I'm going to need you to work with me, dawg. Even if it means putting Terra out of the picture for now."

"………."

"Do you understand me?"

"………..," I slowly nodded. I hand-signed: _'Yes, Cyborg.'_

"I'll be needing you, Noir," he said. "I'll be needing your support and your allegiance _badly_." He flexed his titanium fingers. "Already…I can sense it. The Titans are weak."

I nodded.

"Beast Boy is terribly quiet and dead in spirit. Starfire mourns endlessly in the shadows. Raven is distancing herself from everything. And Tempest is being….well…his usual self, only more depressing." He looked up at me. "I'm utterly confused and mixed over what to do next. And you, Noir……I can't put my finger on it. But you seem almost no different before November Fourth than you do after Robin's death."

"…………"

"I'm not really trying to insinuate anything….it's just that……..," Cyborg fidgeted. "I sometimes worry. Cuz you seem so 'together'. I sometimes worry over what could ever have happened to you long before you joined the Titans to _prepare you_ for the Hell we just went through."

"………..," I glanced aside.

He waved his hand. "Enough of my rambling. Here's my first order for Number One," he smiled weakly. "Go see how Raven and Tempest are holding up. I'm going to Phaser Labs….but I'd love for us to get together something this evening and discuss some things."

I nodded. I started to walk off.

"And Noir?"

I paused. I looked back at him.

"Until I address the topic…..t-try not and talk about Terra."

"……"

"With anyone."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_How do you go on?_

_How do you keep fighting an invisible fight with one Titan missing by invisible means and another torn asunder by an invisible hand?_

_When I joined the Titans, I had little to no idea the immense wounds that my team was carrying. I'm no stranger to pain and sorrow and helplessness myself, but I __**was**__ a stranger to the pains that would eventually make the Titans distrust me when Slade and Jinx ran amok in this City. Terra was something so huge for the Titans. Such a terribly conflicting, emotional issue. Her betrayal, her sacrifice, and her lingering existence on the precipice of oblivion and stone infinity._

_But Robin……_

_Robin's legacy knows no boundaries. He was big before I joined the Titans and even bigger after I sweat and bled with them. His name was something I knew of since childhood, whether or not it was the same Robin. Working with him, I felt like I was allied to the axis of 'Good' itself. I felt lucky, honored, educated, and paled in my comparisons. I learned all over again from the start the lattice work of integrity from fighting under his wing. And I could almost grasp what it meant to possess righteous anger; the surprisingly simple reality that hatred and fury could be whittled down into the simple wielding of justice if carefully put in check during every second of the heated battle._

_It would be rather two-dimensional to sit back and say that it was Robin's own fury and passion that created his undoing. For that is not the case. It was Evil that swallowed up Good. Maybe not ultimately for the world, but ultimately for Robin. And that's probably what I feel the most out of all that happened throughout November Fourth and Fifth. Although Dagger never did 'win back' the City, he took the lives of civilians, the life of Robin, and the body of Terra. And it certainly doesn't feel like it was a victory on Good's side. Evil swallowed up far too much to ever be discredited._

_The Titans and I feel wronged. We feel stupid. We feel ignorant. We feel like something so intensely big swung so invisibly under our radar and ripped a huge piece of us out that we should have kept fastened from the get go. That is anything but a pleasant feeling. Yet, in all of its painful implications……it is a mature feeling. And Cyborg has been the first to insist—time and time over—the echoing words of Robin._

_The teens have grown up._

_We are the Titans._

_And yet I cannot shake this feeling that Cyborg—now the team leader—is only barely noticing the rift forming day by day beneath our very feet. I can see it. I can hear it. And I can feel it. I suppose it's only natural for me. I've been the unwitting observer of the group for nearly eight months since I joined the Titans……as much as I've also been the partaker. And I can't help but notice everything that I could easily have predicted. _

_Cyborg has noticed it too, but I think he's afraid to deal with it. He's afraid to go any deeper than his own patched-up hands can reached. And now that I am Number One……Second in Command……I feel like I am so close to doing something about it, and yet so far from truly having authority._

_And even if I was Robin's successor……what could I do? Robin is dead. Terra is gone. Things have already been set in motion. The Titans are falling apart._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Earlier that day, there was a knock on my cellar room floor.

I looked up from my laptop.

I shuffled off the bed in a t-shirt and shorts and headed the door.

_Schwiish!_

Beast Boy stood before me. Looking somewhat taller than normal. He wore a dark shirt and slacks as if he still hadn't stripped down from the funeral the day before.

"Hey dude….," he waved lethargically. "Uhm….h-have you seen Starfire?"

I blinked my naked black eyes.

"She sorta disappeared after last night. The Titan computer says she's still in the building and stuff….but….," he fidgeted. Looking nervous.

"……," I scratched my chin. I gazed out across the basement of the Tower. The metal catwalks. The open spaces. The storage compartments. The utter, gothic dimness of it all.

And…

I swore I saw a glow. A distant, faint glow of green that only my obsidian optics could have seen.

I held a hand up.

"???" Beast Boy craned his neck.

I motioned with my finger…and crept casually down the length of the basement corridors…

Beast Boy followed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The storage compartments of the Tower.

It was a place I hadn't been to since the Puppet King controlled the Island.

I remembered Control Freak enthusiastically rambling about the dusty, Tamaranian space pod that he saw lying in its compartment…untouched.

And there the space pod was today. Lit up. With an amber girl dressed still in her PJs, half-draped inside.

"Den'draat fermi latto s'iul thendryk maatan," she uttered gently into a speaker of sorts. Console lights bleeped and blipped while alien chimes echoed throughout the small chamber. Her fingers danced gracefully across a pad of sorts. A monitor flickered as she firmly added: "Finulvaat sekluna vran'm thiul dredsam."

"S-Star??" Beast Boy shrugged with wide eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" she gazed over. She smiled drunkenly. "Oh, meno korvax—er…I mean good morning, friends."

"You aren't leaving us, are you??" Beast Boy gasped.

"Leaving??" she blinked. She gazed at the interior of the pod. "Negative. I am not departing. It has been such a long time since I checked on the celestial signals connecting my pod to my home planet. I feel utterly foolish for letting slip the condition of my people for so many weeks on end. My family must be worried sick about me."

"Oh…I see….," Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck. "Whew. I was worried for a second there!! When I came down and saw you sittin' inside this thing, I almost that that you were………well……..ya know……I mean…..after….."

Silence.

Beast Boy gazed at me.

I gazed at him.

He swallowed. He looked towards the floor below and sighed. "Never mind…."

There was a frigid pause between us. Three Titans dressed out of uniform. Stripped to something ghostly and aimless. Our eyes drifted around like unanchored ships in a melancholy sea until Starfire had the warmth to say:

"I will admit, it has been so long since I have seen Tamaran. It would be a shame for me to prolong such an absence from my native world indefinitely."

"What do you mean, Star?" Beast Boy looked up.

She wiggled a lock of hair around with her finger. It wasn't exactly 'toying'. "The green canopies. The steaming lakes. The emerald sunset. My Tamaranian mind has been full of the images of home lately. I cannot detach myself from them. It is almost….a longing…."

"Yeah……," Beast Boy nodded. "So….," he fidgeted. "You think….m-maybe…..you need a vacation?"

She chuckled a bit at that. A weak smile gracing the air. "A vacation…..am I not on vacation here on earth?"

I bit my lip.

"I suppose you are…," Beast Boy quietly admitted. "And….nobody would blame you….if you wanted to go home, Star."

She gazed at the bleeping computer lights. Her eyes were thin. "Nobody…..would blame me…."

"Yeah……"

More silence.

Swiftly, Starfire's button turned a lever.

Blip!

Zzhhhhhhhh…..

The pod powered down.

Beast Boy blinked.

Starfire bravely stood up and closed the hatch with a hiss. "That is something….for me to keep in mind…….and merely that."

"Star—"

"I think I shall travail upon going upstairs and thinking about it."

"Star, just a second. Wait…."

She floated away and was gone.

Beast Boy sighed.

"………," I looked at him. I looked at the pod. I walked over, grabbed the tarp, and covered the exposed metal and door up.

"???" Beast Boy looked at me curiously.

I gazed back at him. I folded my flesh and metal arms and uttered: _'Not today.'_

He nodded. "Yeah…but someday…..," he glanced down the corridor. "Someday….she will leave. The way things are now. The way things are….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I haven't given Starfire enough credit. I thought that she would be totally in a collapsed state after Robin died. And now that Robin has, she has faired much better than I anticipated. True, she has spent her time in excess mourning. But she is trying to move on. She is trying to smile again. Trying to be friendly again. But there is still a sense of distance in her now that was not there before._

_It is only a matter of time before Starfire leaves the Titans. Everybody can feel it. Beast Boy moreso. I'm only half as enthusiastic when I try to assure him that Starfire will remain for the time being. But there's no lying to anyone about anything anymore. If the Titans are indeed breaking up, she will be the first to go. Even Beast Boy would last longer than her._

_Because Beast Boy—more than anyone else now that Robin is gone—knows what it means to punish himself needlessly._

_And no, Diana, I'm not counting myself._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm changing it. Sometime soon. The quickest I can find another name, I'm changing it…," the green elf said. He gazed up from the kitchen unit of the Main Room. "It'll no longer be 'Beast Boy'."

I raised an eyebrow as I walked over. I had a glass of soy milk in one hand. I slid him another.

He took it and began sipping from it. In between swallows, he said: "Cuz I don't feel like a boy anymore. I was a Boy before I joined the Teen Titans. When I was with Doom Patrol. When I was some wyrd-ass child wannabe actor running around and changing into a circus every week. Well…now Cyborg is carrying Robin's dream of us no longer being the 'Teen Titans'. I guess that means we grow up, right? We grow up while the buildings of this City fall down."

I made a face at that, but decided to shrug it off. I sat down, sipping milk. I rested a stool or two away from Beast Boy and was quiet.

And he went on: "Lord knows what my new name will be…," he grumbled. "Heh…it can't be 'Super Garfield', now can it dude?"

I smirked.

He swirled his glass for the sake of swirling itself. "But it's not going to be Beast Boy. No Boy would ever kill a man."

I paused in sipping. I looked at him sideways.

His emerald eyes were dull as he gazed into his glass. "I was wrestling with one of those Dragonflare guys inside an apartment. He fought me. I fought him. A bunch of family members were at stake. So…I turned into a dinosaur, tossed the two of us out a window….and………well……." He sipped the last of his glass. "I stopped being a vegetarian."

"………..," I stared at him silently.

He gazed at something beyond the milk residue settling through the transparency. "So I did what Robin asked us to. I took lethal force. I spilled blood so that people could be safe and that I would survive." He glanced up at me with his green orbs. "I hear you and Robin were really natural at it. Like you had studied the art of killing all along. Tell me….when you have every license to kill someone….do you actually _enjoy_ it, Noir?"

My fingers tightened around the glass.

I kept my face straight.

I cleared my throat and….hesitated.

And it was just as well. Beast Boy said: "When you know that so many people are on the line…do you enjoy teaching evil to go to Hell? Do you enjoy driving your blade in and ending the problem?"

"………"

He twirled the glass around in his hand. "If I had known…..ahead of time…..that Dagger was going to be after Terra……," he took a deep breath. His nostrils flared. "I would have started ripping throats out from the **get go**!!!"

SMASH!!!

He flung the glass against the floor.

Shards went scattering.

And as if he was broken himself, he started to shake and cringe into a sob. Green hands covered his elfin face and after a few sniffs he uttered muffledly: "What kind of a hero is that?? What kind of a hero is that, Noir?? I-I'm glad they took Terra…she wouldn't have to see me b-become twenty times m-m-more evil than she ever was with Slade…."

I bit my lip. I stood up and made to go over to his side.

But he shook and—with tears streaming—shoved me away. "Don't get near me, man!! J-Just don't get near me!" He hopped off as a rabbit and scampered out of the Main Room.

"………." I sighed. Slowly, I knelt down and started picking up the tiny shards of the glass one at a time.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Something happened between Raven and Cyborg. I'm not entirely sure what. It has never been my business to know what goes on between the two. But this November Fourth. This tragedy. It has solidified something between them._

_I suppose it is a good thing, Diana. Cyborg has always been there for Raven. And now—it would seem—Raven is there for him. There is a lot that I'm sure Cyborg feels responsible for following Robin's death. And there is a lot that Cyborg WILL have to be responsible for now that he is the leader of all of us. It is probably of little surprise that the support and emotional restraint Raven held for Robin shall now be transferred over to Cyborg in a much more………personal tone._

_But I have been proven wrong about Raven before. In so many ways. And I would only be foolish to assume anything about her. Much less anything about her and Cyborg._

_There is still one thing that I do know is certain about Raven. And that is that the girl cannot assume anything about herself either. At least……she is not willing to afford herself the luxury of assumption. Of ease of mind. Of an acceptance of the status quo._

_She is ever changing. And yet, she is ever static. And I shudder to see how that precious psyche of hers will be affected by this most recent holocaust._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The Justice League sent us a plaque…," Cyborg muttered later that morning before we both set out. "Heh. We lose a team member to the enemies of our mortal coil and they send us a lousy plaque…"

Raven sat cross-legged in a chair across his laboratory. She had a book in her grasp. Reading, she replied aside: "If I recall correctly, we did not give them a single thing when Hawkgirl left their troupe."

"Hawkgirl betrayed the Justice League during the Thanagarian incident here on Earth….," Cyborg gestured. "Ain't the same thing."

"Oh…forgive me," Raven droned. "Guess I'm not a Justice League, fan."

"And what of Martian Manhunter?"

"My comment still stands."

"Whatever…," Cyborg sighed and switched from reading a letter from the Justice League to a lone blueprint of the T-Car 2. He started highlighting and sketching designs. "I'm glad that Superman delivered the eulogy. And at least Wonder Woman and all the other Justice League people were there to pay their respect. But not Batman? Not even Batgirl or Nightwing? Now that's downright cold."

"Not entirely…," Raven droned.

"Care to explain to me, then?"

"If Batman was to have died a month ago, would Robin have attended _his_ funeral?"

"Pfft! Of course he would!"

"Truly? Think about it, Cyborg."

"………," the android Titan scanned the ceiling of his laboratory. He blinked. "………..damn."

"Exactly."

"What's with those people of Gotham?" Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "I wonder if they just LOVE making each other feel like unneeded limbs." A beat. "But then again…," he relented. "Robin never did truly treat any of us like that. Unless you count Star."

"………..," Raven was silent.

Cyborg gazed over his shoulder. "You saw it too, didn't you? The last night Robin was alive….he totally treated her like crap. I mean….yeah, he could have admitted that he couldn't return the same sort of feelings that Starfire was friggin' laying out right before ALL of us. Anything would have been better than the silent treatment, for God's sake!"

"It matters little…," Raven droned.

"…….." Cyborg blinked. He swiveled around and gestured: "What do you mean, Rae?"

"It would be better for there not to have been any attachment whatsoever…," she said coldly. "Robin died. Starfire had worked hard enough as it was to get close to him to truly be in pain right now. If Robin had started accepting her advances any more than he scantily did, then I do not know how Starfire would be withstanding the resulting sorrow."

Cyborg sighed. "Jeez…Raven….not again…."

Raven glared at him over her book. "Explain what _that _means."

"No, you explain yourself, girl!!" Cyborg pointed. "The other day you were all in tears and crap!! The first time I had _ever_ seen you cry!! And suddenly you're back to your emotions-are-bad policy! Pick a side!!"

"There are no sides to be _picked_," Raven frowned. "What we went through a few days ago was beyond terrible. In terms of our own psyche much less that of the City's. I was obviously not prepared and meditative enough to weather the storm! I buckled…and praise be to Azar that such a loss in self-control did not let something _truly_ evil slip!"

"Raven…you were pleading! Begging!! Imploring me that I _let you cry!!!_" Cyborg shrugged. "I wasn't hearing the words of some Azarathian pupil, then! I was hearing you! I was hearing my friend!"

"What you heard….," Raven stood up slowly, scowling, "….was weakness!!"

"And don't you think that some of us needs to just give in and accept the fact that we're weak at times, Rae?"

"Not me, Cyborg," Raven grumbled. "Starfire maybe. Even Robin. His foolish head of immortality ended him. But I…I cannot afford to be anything _but_ invincible."

"Invincibility is an impossibility….," Cyborg moaned. "Raven, can't you see that?!?! You're punishing yourself!! All your life!! It's not some code of Azarath! It's not some blasted shields against your father's demonic takeover or what not…it's **punishment**!"

"After these years….," Raven shook her head. "You still know nothing—"

"I know a lot more than I ever thought I could, Raven," Cyborg stepped forward. "Because you've shown me! You've given me the opportunity to dig deeper into the mystery that is you and I see so much that needs compassion…"

"Cyborg—"

"…companionship, understanding—"

"Understand _this!!_" Raven slapped her book closed, marched up to him, and hissed: "Robin died because he lost control of his own devices!! Similarly, I can't lose control of what I hold dear!! I cannot…and will not….lose control of my emotions!!!!!"

Cyborg blinked. He pointed: "Raven…"

"What?!?!?!"

"You're angry."

"……………..," she blinked. Her face tightened. She shoved the book into Cyborg's chest.

_THWUMP!!_

His titanium frame actually stumbled back some.

Raven walked—not floated—out the laboratory in a huff. "You're pathetic, Cyborg. You know that? You don't know when to quit. You don't know when to lay off when I downright tell you to and—"

Cyborg breathed and calmly said: "I thought of you down in Phaser Labs, Raven."

_Schwiish!!_

The automatic doors to the hallway opened.

But Raven paused in the frame.

Her body frozen.

Her fists clenched.

She panted.

Cyborg took a moment and continued: "Buried underneath the rubble. Nearly burning alive. I thought of you, Rae. I thought selfish things. I thought that….if I were to die….you would be twice as alone than you ever were. Because after all these months….together we achieved something that has never happened before. You started to trust other people more than the ghosts in your head. And maybe you still feel tough and cold and bitter on the outside….but on the inside, both of us knew that you were relaxing, Raven. You were relaxing because—with or without the same old fears—you were no longer alone. And when you're not alone, there are some _good_ consequences for letting your emotions slip. And I felt that…if I died down there….the one Hell I'd have to deal with is the absence of every newborn feeling coming out of you. And it'd be worse to realize that you would miss out on that too. Because you know that I don't give a crap how much you might beat me up for the things that I say or the way I prod. Because at least you'd be beating me up in some way or another. And I'd accept it. Because I accept you, Raven. I respect you. And I want to be with you. I want to be with you as long as I'm capable of doing so. As long as you're capable of doing so. Before wicked nightmares from the bleeding streets rise up to consume you, or me, or the both of us. Before what happened to Robin and Starfire rears its ugly head again…..but for a new round of victims"

Raven clenched her eyes shut. And even from far behind her back, the android Titan could swear he saw a hint of the moisture washing up her cheeks.

"Cy-Cyborg….," she choked on a breath. She refused to look at him. To look at anything. "I….I-I just can't right now. It's too much…..it's far too much."

"…….."

She took a shuddering breath. "I can't handle all these feelings right now. The horrific reality of it. It'll tear me apart. I….I don't know how the r-rest of you deal with it…."

"I don't know either, Raven….," Cyborg calmly say. "But each day, I'm willing to find out. But…if possible….not by myself. But with others. With you, Raven."

She took a deep breath.

"I…..n-need to be alone…..I need to be away….away f-from you….."

A beat.

She sniffed, swallowed, and regained the firmness in her droning voice. "I wish you could understand."

"I do."

"………," Raven quickly shuffled out of the room.

_Schwiish!!_

Cyborg was alone in the laboratory.

He sighed.

He looked at the book thrown into his arms.

And his human eye narrowed.

The pages were blank.

An empty journal.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat in the Atrium of the Tower, suited up, polishing Myrkblade.

Raven wandered into the room.

She stood in the corner, her arms folded.

She sighed.

I glanced at her.

Silently.

I went back to what I was doing.

A good two minutes later, Raven paced around and started at the sight of me…as if she didn't know I was there.

"Oh….Noir….."

I nodded my head somewhat.

"You are always in the shadows at times, aren't you?"

I shrugged.

I polished Myrkblade.

Silence.

"………," Raven paced around.

"………," I was only half aware.

A beat.

Raven sat down in a chair two spaces from me.

I paused.

I glanced at her sideways.

"………"

I continued polishing Myrkblade.

A few dead minutes into that….

"Cyborg…..," she muttered. "……I think he wants our friendship….to be something more….."

"……," I paused.

I looked her way with an eyebrow raised above my shades.

_Uh………yeah._

_And when were you born?_

"How many times have I told him…..How many times have I told everyone…..," Raven exhaled, hugging herself on the chair. "I cannot afford to get close. It is a liability. A danger."

I stared at Myrkblade, exhaling.

_I know…_…

"My father's demonic influence is not something that can be toyed with. Especially not when the lives of other people are concerned."

I slowly examined the curves in my wooden sword.

Almost all of the bloodstains were gone.

By covering and removing trails of murk, I was able to refine the weapon to its immaculate rigidity.

"What am I to tell him? What am I to say to Cyborg?"

"…….."

"……."

"……."

"…….Noir?"

I blinked.

I glanced at her.

She was looking at me.

Looking at _me_.

And my lips parted.

This girl.

She had walked into the Atrium.

She had walked around.

She was talking her thoughts aloud.

I felt like I hadn't seen Raven for ages.

The dark girl who meditated on the opposite side of the field that I did.

An ally to the shadows of night.

A demon's daughter.

A tragedy and a beauty all rolled into one.

I was seeing Raven's image on the face of the person sitting beside me.

The glossy violet eyes.

The smooth blue hair.

The stubborn strand of azure dancing over the pale brow with its chakra stone.

And I felt like I was being spoken to by the kaleidoscopic vomit of yesterday's omnipotent jester.

I honestly did not know who Raven was anymore.

And if I didn't, then I knew for a fact that she didn't know either.

It was a saddening sick feeling.

I wouldn't mind watching Robin die twice over suddenly.

I shuddered.

I looked away from her.

I returned to my sword.

"…….," Raven stared at me. She hugged herself tighter and gazed off through the floor. "I don't know what to do anymore….."

I took a weak breath. A sore feeling in my empty throat. I thought of some giant, blue statue falling through a boardwalk in the Virginia surf somewhere and crashing into a fountain of white oblivion. Like ivory droplets of Construction melting from an angel's tears. Ana falling apart from the sky like a collapsing comet. Dying words across the moonlit plains of Kansas. And now, a demon whose flames turned to ashes.

_I don't know what to do anymore either, Raven._

Between us there was silence. The silence of two bodies. And it echoed something not even half as heartfelt as that of days lost.

And lives lost.

"_Snkkkt—Noir. This is Cyborg. I'd like us to make a trip to meet up with the Lieutenant before the rest of the Titans start doing recovery work. Please concur. You and I are gonna have to start making these sort of executive trips from now on."_

I nodded. I tapped a button on the communicator to give him my 'affirmative'.

_Chiiiing!_

I stood up.

Raven watched.

I looked at her. "………" I smiled weakly. I pointed out the door.

She nodded.

And I walked off. Sighing.

And Raven sat, sighing.

It was not something new.

It was never any different than it ever was.

We had always given each other the silent treatment.

Only this time….the very same silent treatment hurt.


	181. We are the Titans part 2

**181. We are the Titans part 2**

_The red sky. _

_Viper hung like a fly in silky pendulum strands._

_Robin hobbled across the metal platform. _

_Pale. _

_Bleeding. _

_Wheezing. _

_He looked up. _

_Half an eyemask. _

_Half a blue pupil. _

_The hero. _

_The boy. _

_Breaking down the middle. _

_Capeless. _

_She saw the alien girl. _

_And tears formed. _

_And his lips quivered. _

_A chirping sound filled the air around him. _

_Like an electronic bird laughing a death song. _

_And Robin sighed and Robin gasped. _

_The detonator clicked._

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!**_

_Plasma. _

_Flame. _

_Clouds of hot red orange. _

_They erupted up and through him. _

_The alien girl faded in smoke and ashes. _

_The red sky vomited down into crimson tongues._

_The fire. _

_The fire. _

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!**_

_It crept up Robin's legs. _

_It bit up his ankles. _

_It burned up his thighs. _

_It singed his privates, his hips, his waist. _

_The spaces between his organs exploded in gas and steam. _

_His lungs quivered._

_Filled with smoke. _

_Choked on ash._

_The flakes of his own scorched skin falling into his howling lips._

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!"_

_The concrete sarcophagus raised. _

_The sarcophagus lowered. _

_The tomb was closed._

_And inside…… _

_Alone…… _

_The radioactive depository became an oven. _

_The flame and plasma dancing up came splashing back down. _

_Sloshing over his figure like lava. _

_Flickering off his limbs like red flags. _

_And his skin started melting. _

_Curling into his bone. _

_Sending muscle flapping about and evaporating like shrieking strands of meat. _

_And his eyes…… _

_They popped._

_They hissed. _

_Bursts of blood shrieking up and into the hellfire. _

_And what was left of his senses was the smell his own insides roasting._

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAA-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!"**_

_His dark hair flew off. _

_And in a high-pitch squeal like crackling lobsters. _

_Robin's body melted……melted……melted……and collapsed to the industrial brimstone like a molting wheat sack. _

_**THWUMP!!!!!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" Starfire screamed. She sat up on a windowsill and clutched at her red strands of hair, panting. Eyes clenched shut. "Nnnnnnnnnnnghhhhhhhhh!!!! X'Hal!! _X'Hal!!!!_"

She hyperventilated.

Sweated.

Gasped.

Swallowed.

"……………"

Her green eyes popped open.

Quivering lips opened.

With moist optics, she gazed to her right.

A throng of rescue workers stood—frozen in the middle of their urban excavations. They all stared worriedly at the alien girl.

"…………….," Starfire lowered her trembling hands from her hair. She shuddered. She stood up on wobbly legs and exhaled. "I am…..f-finished with my nap….," she muttered. A brave gulp. "I am….adequately ready to approach the heavy girders that require lifting again…."

Silence.

The workers slowly returned to their work.

The alien girl sighed. She hugged herself. A cold chill….she shuddered…then slowly floated over to reconvene with super-powered excavation in the Downtown district of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Titans stayed together so long not because of the perils they faced—I'm convinced—but because of the friends they had made. Because of how close they had gotten to the companions they each turned out to be for each other. Starfire found Robin. Beast Boy buddied up with Cyborg and eventually met Terra. Despite who would desire or not desire admitting it, Cyborg and Raven found each other._

_But I, Diana, I don't know who I have 'found'. I like to think that I've 'found' all of the Titans. I acquired a family. Something to live for……and don't take that as something unnecessarily grim, but it's the truth. The Titans gave me purpose. Motivation. And—yes—acceptance._

_But now, with Robin dead, I see the iron forges in everyone being challenged like never before. And as much as I'd love to keep this 'family' of mine, I seriously would not desire to stay close to a family that is apart and not whole. I headed East for many things, Diana. Many………personal things. But one of them was that I could not stand to stay in a place that only reminded me of collapse. And of Destruction. And of torture and pain. I had to make a future for myself. A stable future. One that would stay together. And if that meant that the only one single person I would ever 'find' in being with the Titans is myself, then so be it. I've spent a long, long time relying on myself……and trusting only in myself. It should come as no great challenge to me._

_I am worried about Tempest. I don't know who he has found. And I don't think he knows who he has found either. If worse come to worse and the Titans do fall apart, he will be second after Starfire to run off. But what's even more terrible to conceive is……where exactly would he go? Tempest and I are both similar in one respect…we are both banished souls. I have my own reasons for 'banishment', but Tempest has the entire seas……two thirds of the world rejecting him. And on social-political bases to boot. This crime-fighting club was supposed to be a haven for him. But what has it turned into now?_

_Which is why I'm inclined to believe, Diana, that the ultimate answer for Prince Garth does not lie in the Titans……but in the Earth. The beautiful, bleeding earth of this raped City._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay!!" a worker uttered loudly from a large group of hard-hatted men circling a crushed building site. "Let 'er rip!!"

Raven breathed out of her nostrils and droned. "And 'rip' she will…." She posed her fingers meditatively. She lowered her eyelids. Pupils glowed a hot gray, and she chanted: _"Azarath……Metrion……Zinthos……"_

A huge hulk of buildingside lifted up into the cold November air besides the shipyards.

Raven concentrated, twisting her wrists and raising the debris higher and higher.

Nearly one hundred rescue workers and volunteers kept their distance. They stood in the early afternoon sunlight with tools and equipment at ready. They were all dressed for rugged digging and excavating. A good number of them had the trademark yellow ribbon around a wrist or two.

Tempest sat on a pile of crates where the wooden docks met the concrete of the waterside. His crutches rested beside him. He craned his neck and prepared two hands, stretched towards the levitating rubble.

I stood towards the far side, keeping people at bay. Eyeing the floating wreckage through my shades.

Raven breathed steadily….carrying the heavy mass slowly….slowly….slowly….towards a freighter bobbing alongside the concrete barge.

A worker or two stepped out of line.

I whistled, stepped over, and gently shoved them back.

The men swallowed nervously and kept their distance.

Raven's forehead tensed.

The wreckage started to vibrate in the air. Cracks were forming….

Raven hissed out of one side of her mouth: "It's starting to break, Tempest…."

"Right….," the Atlantean shifted in his seat. His dark eyes glowed a hot purple, and his hands followed suit with a violet aura.

_SLOSH!!!!_

A tentacle of water sprouted up from the Bay and circled around the floating bulge of wreckage. The 'tentacle' wrapped around and around until the debris was surrounded like the red stripe on a barber's pole. Then the water fanned out and circled the rubble entirely.

Raven took a breath, concentrated, and enveloped the water 'bubble' with her telekinesis.

Both Titans worked slowly….floating the debris all the way to the freighter.

I blurred over and stood on the edge of the freighter. I whistled. I motioned with my flesh and metal fingers, guiding the Titans' movement of the heap. I gestured them out further so that the debris floated directly over the open bed of the freighter. I gave an 'okay' sign and motioned 'down' slowly. The debris was lowered in a sphere of water and black energy. Then both telekinetic streams were released.

_FLASH!!! _

_SPLOOOSH!!!_

The wreckage was relocated successfully.

Raven exhaled.

Tempest's shoulders slumped and he panted.

A sigh of relief washed over the workers present. Swiftly, they returned to their job. Many of them searching through the crater unearthed by the work of the two Titans.

I hopped down smokily and stood besides Raven. I looked at her blankly.

She swallowed and nodded: "I'm okay."

I smiled hopefully.

The dark girl rubbed her temples. "Only two mountains of junk like that left. I swear…I didn't know the fiends in the black jeeps caused so much damage here."

I shrugged. I gazed off at the dockyards, where seven buildings had been damaged beyond repair. The hundred-or-so men swiftly went about setting up the next to the last relocation.

"It begs the question why Cyborg sent you here…," Raven droned.

I glanced at her sideways through my shades.

"I suppose he wanted to be alone when he went to 'resurrect' his Uncle," she said. She dragged her hood back over her head and stared with concealed eyes out over the gray waters of the Bay. "Or maybe he just wants to be alone in general."

"…………," I gazed at her.

"Not that I can blame him…," her lips were as cold and blue as the dying November air. "…I've pushed him away so much that I'm surprised he can stand. And Starfire isn't talking anymore. Beast Boy can't seem to eat, sleep, or drink peacefully anymore." A pause. She added: "Tempest might just as well be drowning….."

"………….."

"For once….," she uttered quietly. "For once in the Tower, everything is quiet. And everything is peaceful. And I can meditate. And I can read. And I can lie in the shadows uninterrupted."

A beat.

She tilted her head away from me and muttered: "Why….Why…do I now……not desire the fulfillment of all my dreams?"

"……………"

"Robin's death. It is so silencing. So naked. Like bone exposed to a winter flurry of snow. The tiniest heat feels like the hottest furnace. I can almost feel……my father. Without looking. Without so much as trying to _smell_ him." Silence. She looked at me. Past me. "Was this what I truly wanted?"

I didn't answer.

Tempest hobbled over on his crutches.

He sighed.

He said: "How long must we be here?"

Raven instantly grumbled: "You've got better things to do?"

"………never mind," he frowned and started to hobble away. "Why do I even bother asking _you_?"

Raven turned to glare at his shoulders. "That isn't an attitude a Titan should have in public…"

"And just what _is_ anymore?"

"………."

"………."

I sighed.

Tempest was shuffling off…when he paused at the sight of something.

Someone.

His dark eyes blinked. "Oh."

"???" I looked over Raven's hooded form.

A car was parked outside the perimeter of the salvaging sight by the Bayside.

A couple of vaguely familiar teenagers stood around it, some leaning against it.

But standing closest to the 'off-limits' tape was a freckled teenager with stringy-brown hair.

"……..," I glanced at Tempest.

He exhaled. He looked at me. "Erm….sorry, man. But….uhm….."

"???"

"P-Permission to be excused? If just for a little bit?"

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

A beat.

"You're the one in charge, Noir….," Raven reminded me numbly.

I winced.

_Oh yeah._

I motioned Tempest along.

He nodded his head, turned, and hobbled sadly off.

Raven shuffled off and paced lonely along a wooden dock.

And I stood alone.

In the grayness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The guys drove me here….cuz…..well….," Lindsay simpered. "I had to check on you. I-I hope you don't mind…"

Tempest hobbled beside her as they strolled alongside the concrete barges overshadowing the cold Bay waters.

He said nothing.

"I heard about you and Raven and Noir doing work here on the shipyards…," Lindsay spoke. "And I thought it'd be the best way I could run into you. I mean….it's not like I have your phone number or anything. Hehehehehe."

"……….," Tempest exhaled.

Lindsay glanced at him. She bit her lip. She looked off towards the bulk of the City.

Silence.

"I can't swim anymore….," Tempest muttered.

Lindsay looked at him. She took a breath. "Are you sure?"

"Pretty much…," he uttered, his crutches clanking as he spoke.

Lindsay swallowed. "H-Have you even tried?"

"What's the use?" Tempest exhaled. "It's not like there's much left for me in the World of Water."

"………," Lindsay stared.

Tempest hobbled to a stop. He sighed. He looked at her, his dark eyes thin: "What are you _really_ here for?"

Lindsay twiddled her fingers behind her back. "To see you."

"But why?" Tempest blinked. "All I'll ever have to share is death." He gazed off across the waters. "All the Titans have now is this…..breath of death. It hasn't stopped curling the hairs on my arms for days…"

Lindsay ran a nervous hand through her stringy brown hair. "I…..I-I don't believe that."

"…….," he glanced at her sideways. "What, exactly?"

"The Titans aren't so….so deathly…," she uttered. "So many more people would be dead now than there truly, sadly are…..if such was the case."

"What does it matter who is saved or who isn't?" Tempest muttered. "Death is death. It's taken its hold. It's showed its true colors." He gazed back at the waters. "It's shown its ownership over this City."

Lindsay bit her lip. "I….I believe a lot of the living matters."

"Yeah? Why??"

"I'm alive for one….," Lindsay said. "I'm alive because of you."

Tempest exhaled. "Haven't you already thanked me for that?"

"………I don't know."

"???" Tempest glanced at her.

She looked at him closely. "I don't know if I've thanked you, Tempest. A person who is truly thanked……doesn't live so hopelessly."

"………," he stared at her for a bit. He shuffled about with his crutches and hobbled off a few paces and came to a standstill. Facing away from her. His fingers clenched around the holds in the supports. "I was foolish."

"Foolish?" Lindsay leaned her head to the side. "How so?"

"To think that I could 'live' at all….," Tempest murmured. "To think that I could uphold her good will." A pause. He clenched his eyes shut and shook his head. "There were times….th-there were times that I almost blamed her. When I lay in the hospital, my leg born into its useless age……I almost blamed Tula. How could she be so short-sighted? How could she not see the utter failure I would be in a world where the seas vomit me out and the only sanctuary I would have is some blind, bleeding earth?? I shudder to think of Tula as a fool. But if she was a fool, then so was I. We were two foolish, broken hearts who raced towards death in some psychotic hope to preserve the existence of the other. Tula reached the fatal finishing line first. And here I am….suffering alive the Hades that both our juvenile passions earned. I should have done the selfish thing. I should have thrown myself into the jaws of Haetryd. At least…..At least then the purer half of our union would have survived. Golden and gleaming with the pride of Atlantis…even if that pride was a lonely and cold-hearted thing like that which I hold shivering to my own chest hour after hour."

He shuddered.

His shoulders sagged.

He stared at the floor.

Lindsay was silent.

The Atlantean gradually uttered: "I am tired of trying to please her. It's like making love to a gray memory that's fading with each passing second. What hurts the most….even more than the blade Dagger drove in me to end the aquatic horizons of my mind…..is that for a moment there, I must have imagined—however faintly—that I would once again hold tightly to the warmth and life that was Tula _again_. All the time I adapted to the Titans, it danced before me. Like a lantern fish's lure in the abyss. I swam towards it, ignorant of the pressure building up all around me. The weight of pressure squeezing my clamshell sanity to the breaking point. I shall never…..ever reach that solace I have once half-dreamed of. Tula is dead. And with her died the last pure part of me. And all that's left is the seed of a demon…..and the bitterness of a salt-laden bog chased away from the depths of a harbor."

The cold November air gusted over the waters and kicked at their hair.

Lindsay swallowed and took a step towards him.

"You…..truly….truly loved her….didn't you?"

"………," he slowly nodded. Facing away.

"Was all of that love something of pain?"

"……….."

"Does all the warmth you still feel from her bring only sadness?" she walked around him so that they faced. Her face was earnest. "Doesn't it at least fill you with hope?"

"Hope for what?" he grunted.

"That someday…somehow….you'll feel that warmth again?"

He frowned, exhaling.

"Can't you at least…..a-at least believe??"

"What is there left of belief?" Tempest muttered. His eyes fell closed. "What is there left in this City….in this world but the somber longing for a quick, cold tide?"

"Even that?? Even the coldest longing….," Lindsay touched his shoulder. "…don't you think that's….that's some sort of message?"

"Message of what?"

"That something is waiting for you!!" Lindsay emphasized. "Something or someone….truly purposeful!! That you need not be so full of dread!!"

His eyes opened. He looked at her. He gritted his teeth and shook her arm off. "I'm not like you!!"

She gaped at him.

"I don't have to believe in some invisible God to keep sane about things I know have already consumed my bleeding heart!!"

"I'm not saying you have to!" she exclaimed.

"But what is it that _you_ believe?? That after all the torture my comrades and I have already gone through…all we are destined for is some afterlife of _further _punishment if we are not to reach a spiritual epiphany before the mortal Jester consumes us??"

"……….."

"Even when I was but a tadpole in my Idyllist's eyes….," Tempest hissed, "….I learned that Neptune had no saving graces for the suffering masses of the seas. And when Ivan, and Tram, and Tula all fell before the shadow and yet _I_ lived, I realized that if there be gods still minding Poseidon's playgrounds……they are but deaf stoics to the cries of helpless souls. There is no Creator who fancies this world, no matter if It be loving or treacherous. The universe is like a whirlpool…a cosmic swirl of liquid accidents all surging together. And sometimes in the white foam we are blinded into believing in splashes of faint hope and faith. We long for invisible joys that are but the mere side effects of descending friction. Don't try and tempt me with your God. I may not have lived a long life….but I have lived long enough to know that death is even longer…and greater. And death's agents are the only forces that nail together the ever-crumbling structure of existence!!!"

"T-Tempest….please….," Lindsay pleaded with a sad face and tightened her grip on his shoulders. "J-Just listen…"

He snarled. "Let go of me!!" He pushed her arm back.

Lindsay stumbled.

But Tempest stumbled even more so. And he gasped. And his crutches gave way. And he fell over and collapsed on his back.

Lindsay gasped. "I-I'm sorry!! Shoot!! H-Hang on, lemme help you up—"

"NNNGH!! STAY BACK!!!"

Lindsay froze.

Tempest sat up. Panting. His teeth showing. His dark eyes were glowing a hot purple. "Don't you see what I am?!?!"

Lindsay couldn't help it. Her eyes widened.

A purple glow frothed around the Atlantean. His upper limbs heaved along his torso. The Bay seemed to boil around him.

"I am the spawn of Slizzath….the last in the cursed line of King Thar!! I am the vessel of a terrible, wrathful demon!! The absolute, most banal evil in the eyes of your religion and many others, assuredly!! I know death so well not so much because I have suffered it but because I EMBODY IT!!!"

"……….," Lindsay held her ground. Still.

Tempest struggled. On his own, he stood up. He sweated and toiled but finally leaned on his crutches. Hunched over, he panted. The purple light faded from his eyes and something cold and wet took its place like icy glass. "I am a demon…waiting to be born. Much like Raven is the vessel for something so bloody and red and destructive. Noir is a killing machine. Starfire and Beast Boy are fading bodies. And Cyborg is a growingly thicker stone of inhumanity."

A beat.

He swallowed. "All the Titans are….all that the Titans are aiming to be……is death….."

He turned and faced Lindsay.

Pitifully.

He breathed and said: "I'm sorry….that I ever….ever befriended you…."

"…………..," she stared back.

He shuddered. He said: "I first talked to you because that foolish part of me…..that foolish, lovesick part of me still dreamt of invisible things. But beliefs die for the very same reason that they are born. They are things of fancy. And all I've managed to do…..is drag you closer and closer into this depressed whirlpool that my life is. That all the Titans' lives are now." He lowered his eyes and gazed off. "It sucked Robin in. And it didn't spout so much as a carcass back. There's no need for more people to suffer the inevitable pull."

"T-Tempest??" Lindsay murmured. "You sound so….so defeated. So hopeless. It worries me. Please….tell me….are you—"

"I am not about to do anything stupid….," Tempest murmured. "Don't feel the need to try and save me. Fate has already swallowed me up. All I can do now…..is wait. Wait and see how further it can rip me asunder."

"You've waited long enough to see death take its toll…," Lindsay stepped bravely towards him. She sniffed back a tear and uttered: "Don't you think it is about time to wait for what life may bring? To awaken you? To convict you??"

He hobbled off. "You can wait around and practice whatever beliefs you wish to…," he muttered over his shoulder. "Just….do not practice them around me."

"…………….."

"For as little a time you have left….that we all have left……it is the least you can do for yourself……..by staying away."

"Tempest….."

"Don't ever visit me again…….ever…..," and he was gone.

Lindsay bit her lip. She wrung to hands close to her heart and looked down, shuddering. Her eyes were moist and….in the silence of the lapping waves.

She said a prayer.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_It is a very strange and haunting sensation, Diana. Lately I've found myself longing for the Wyldecarde days. Yeah. That's right. I look back and remember the days when I was intolerably alone and hated and ostracized. The days when the only caring thing I did for the Titans was attack them viciously on all fronts with the blade and the playing card. I was a villain. A turncoat. A 'third apprentice'. And yet……_

_And yet……I knew that the Titans were safe as long as I poured my all into the farce._

_I don't have that assurance anymore. There is no evil entity to protect my friends from now. And even if there was—where Dagger is concerned—he has proven an undefeatable foe. And his villainous devices have already sank their fangs into companions and injected such a venom……_

_I feel hopeless, Diana. I cannot do a thing for my fellow friends. There is nothing that can save the Titans from their own despondency. It is a force stronger than any hypnotized army, squadron of combat helicopters, or carbonite explosives._

_There is a queer feeling of optimism in the corner of my mute mouth, though. I look back at history and I try to tell myself that the Titans have been through this sort of thing before. When Slade ripped Terra's image asunder before them, the Titans had to have been left with an irrevocable sense of pain and loss and vulnerability. I almost wonder what Beast Boy was like long before I ever met him. Or the limits of Starfire's joy. Or the thickness of Raven's emotional shields. For the longest time, I was a hapless observer to the recovering emotions of the wounded and reeling Titans. It was their unspeakable grief and pain that branded me as a traitor when Slade and Jinx pulled their brutal pranks. And it was their same scars that held me and didn't let go after I loss my arm to somehow equalize the tragedy of our trust._

_It was but a whisper……It was a but a whisper……_

_For the cloud we all live in now._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"A little further, Mister Beast Boy!!"

"You've got it!!"

"Keep pushing!!"

"_Nnnnghhh……,"_ a large, green triceratops strained. Its nostrils flared. With a crown of leather horns, it shoved and shoved against a mountain of debris. Slowly—while workers haloed the changeling around the site—the morphing Titan pushed the rubble away. His thick dinosaur feet stomped and shifted as the dusty pile was removed from the site, revealing a gaping hole in the pavement that opened up into a basement car park. Workers shouted to each other and quickly descended into the hole, searching with flashlights for survivors or bodies.

Whichever would come first.

Beast Boy pushed the debris to a stop besides a dumptruck with a mechanical arm. The changeling morphed back into a panting, sweating elf. He stumbled back, wiping his brow. A worker or two passed by him, patting him on the shoulder. He nodded breathily at them, found a railing along a sidewalk somewhere, and leaned against it.

Panting.

"………………," he gazed at the fresh hole where the workers were digging.

Silence.

Shuffling footsteps.

"N-Need some water, Mr. Logan?"

"????" Beast Boy turned and looked over his shoulder.

A petite….petite girl with blonde hair stood with a plastic cup of water. She was one of the volunteers…providing refreshments and first aid for the workers on the sidelines. She gazed nervously at Beast Boy. Nervously.

Beast Boy blinked. "How'd you know my last name?"

The girl seemed to wince. "Oh…um………well. It's not like it's a real secret. The papers. The Internet—"

"I'd like some."

"Huh?"

"Some water…that'd be cool."

"Oh. Of c-course. Here you go…," she handed him the cup.

He took it. He sipped thirstily. He swallowed. He exhaled.

"…….."

"……."

"…….did you need something?"

"Oh…uhm….," she shifted where she stood. "I was just gonna….give you more water if you were interested."

"That's kind of you….," Beast Boy muttered. He looked at her sideways. He blinked.

She stared back.

"………," his eyes thinned. "You're a fan, aren't you?"

She bit her lip.

"What's your name?"

She fidgeted. "H-Hope. And…uhm….yes. I am a fan."

"I get this fleeting sense like I've seen you before."

"Well, you fly over this City an awful lot, Mr. Logan."

Beast Boy pointed: "The one-eyed chick. The one that took care of Noir….and the one who was at Phaser Labs when Slug and Reload bought it." He blinked. "You were with her at the funeral."

"Yeah. We're all……really close friends."

"Heh….small City," Beast Boy sipped the last drops of water and gazed off towards the hole being salvaged. "Very….small City…."

"…….."

"Sorry…uhm…..," Beast Boy mumbled, turning the plastic cup over. "I'd normally be all giddy and stuff to find myself talking to an actual 'fan' for once……..it's just…."

"Want more water, Mr. Logan?"

"Hmmm? Oh….yes. That'd be nice. Thanks…uhm….Hope," he offered the cup.

She blushed. She took the cup and walked away.

When she came back, it was refilled.

He sipped slowly this time. Still gazing at the recovery efforts.

She stood behind him, arms folded in the chill of November.

Silence………….

…….

"I….uhm……I couldn't stop crying…..," Hope spoke.

"…….??" Beast Boy glanced over his shoulder.

She sniffed, but put on a strong face. "When I saw them talking about his death on the news."

"……..," Beast Boy looked forward.

"Even the anchorperson was choking. I didn't lose any of my friends or family on November Fourth, but when Robin died….I just didn't know what to do. I was numb. Nobody on my message board posted anything for a good two days either. It's like both the physical and the digital world stopped altogether. I got together with Lisa, Janice, and Tiffany just to cry….it would seem. You must understand, Mr. Logan……almost everyone in this City identify themselves with the Titans. When Robin died….it was like…….like….."

"…………"

Hope took a shuddering breath, a hand clasped over her heart. "I suppose we all suffer from self-insertion sometimes. None of us can really know what it's like for you and the other heroes. But please know…..," she walked around and gazed intently at the side of his face. "It doesn't mean we can't mourn with you or be glad with you if ever you were to just……ask for help."

"………….," he gazed back.

She swallowed and added: "The Titans may have dwindled by one. But in this City….they are over a million strong. You are not alone, Mr. Logan. None of you are. None of you are….."

A beat.

Beast Boy smiled somewhat. Painfully.

"Funny…..," he whispered. "….a year ago, I would have given an arm and a leg to have a loyal fan kneeling before me."

Hope swallowed. "Actually….I'm standing up straight."

Beast Boy bit his lip.

She simpered.

He smiled.

She giggled.

He chuckled.

And then from the excavation—"Hey!! Over here!! Over here!! A body!!"

Beast Boy gasped.

Hope jerked.

The changeling jumped up, dropping the plastic cup.

Water went splashing.

Workers were gathering around a corner of the debris-laded hole in the building and concrete.

Beast Boy jogged over.

Hope watched nervously from the sidelines.

The changeling ran over a ring of debris and knelt besides the worker who had called out. With fervent glances, even more fervent words were hurriedly exchanged. Beast Boy said something. The workers said more things. The changeling pointed. The men nodded. The Titan pushed them aside. A ring of workers stood back.

Hope shuffled up to the crater. She stared down. "……."

Beast Boy took a deep breath. He morphed into a snake. He slithered down through the cracks in the wrecked urban earth. He disappeared from view.

The workers watched. The workers breathed mist into the cold, nippy air. The workers wrung their gloved hands.

Hope bit her lip. She clasped to hands before her chin.

Silence……..

The rock started to shift from below.

The workers stirred.

Beast Boy's voice growled muffledly from underneath the layers. It transformed into something larger and darker.

And then….

The rocks unearthed.

The workers gasped and stepped back.

A huge, green gorilla stood, lifting concrete blocks up high with meaty arms.

Hope gasped.

The gorilla tossed the blocks safely aside. Snarling, he picked up more and more concrete slabs with his animalistic strength. Something wilted and soft was gradually being exposed beneath his burly pose.

The workers closed in.

Hope craned her neck.

Beast Boy let loose one last snarl before shrinking down into elf form. He knelt down besides the crumple form of a blonde, teenage girl underneath the rubble. She lay on her back, a terrible purple bruise on her forehead. Her lips were parted. Her right eye was ever so slightly open, a hint of dried blue. She held a bundle of cloth in her grasp.

The workers crowded around.

Hope watched.

Beast Boy slipped his glove off and felt the girl's neck with naked fingers.

"…………."

His eyes slowly closed. He gazed up at Hope. When his eyes reopened, they were glistening.

The girl above bit her lip.

Beast Boy gazed at the bundle in the dead body's grasp. It was moving.

"……" He leaned his head to the side. He leaned over and opened the bundle.

The others watched.

Beast Boy stood up, and when he did….he had a tiny, shivering kitten in his arms. He cradled the scrawny feline, shuddering. He petted its wet head once or twice before walking up the crater and handing it to a pair of workers. They had painful smiles on their faces as they bundled the tiny cat up in towels and petted it warm. They carried it across the site and towards the circle of ambulances.

Beast Boy stood alone, his torso heaving. He gazed down at the body.

Workers were already gathering around the deceased girl. With a stretcher and blankets. And long faces.

Beast Boy kept staring.

But Hope had turned away.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that afternoon, I stumbled back into my cellar bedroom.

My body was cold and wet from the seaside work in the cold November air.

I shuddered.

I wandered over to the mantle and put Myrkblade up.

I swiveled around.

There was an e-mail alert on the laptop atop my bed.

"……."

I took my shades off.

Black eyes blinking in the dim light of lanterns, I wandered over.

I sat sideways on the bed.

I fingered the laptop.

I opened the e-mail.

I exhaled.

_Kara……_

I scrolled to the body of the text.

'_Dear Jordan'_

'_I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for his funeral. I wanted to. I truly did. But you must understand. I had to—'_

I jammed my finger over the 'delete' button.

The e-mail disappeared.

Snarling, I flung my shades across the darklit room.

_Clack!!_

I ran gnarled fingers through my black head of hair.

Seething……panting…….breathing…..

"…………"

I shuddered.

I swallowed a painful lump down my throat.

I concentrated.

"……….," I gazed with thin eyes at the computer screen again.

Sighing, I scrolled over across the desktop, opened the delete folder, and 'restored' Kara's e-mail.

And then I simply…..put it aside.

For 'later'.

"…………," I lingered.

Sitting on my bed.

Gazing up at the dark shadows.

The emptiness of everything.

The lonely flicker of a blinding lantern.

"……….."

I stripped my boots off.

I placed them on the floor.

I swiveled up till I sat squarely on the bed.

I cracked my flesh and metal knuckles.

I opened a new e-mail addressed to the Watchtower.

I paused……………then typed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Titans' Tower is a big, big place. How it measures up to the Bat Cave or the Fortress of Solitude or the Watchtower, I have no earthly clue. I imagine that after your visit, surely you could estimate, Diana._

_Essentially, it isn't an awkward thing to wander around the Tower all day and get a fleeting sense that everyone is missing everyone else in the multi-level labyrinth. I'm a superhero graced—on occasion—with spatial sense. And even still I've gotten lost numerous times within this structure._

_These last few days, I truly do feel alone in these halls. Ever before, I had the idea in the back of my head that all the Titans I weren't seeing were doing things with each other in their own respect. But now I know that what I see is what I get……and what we all get. _

_We shudder to see each other. And I think that's a sad thing. With Robin gone, you would imagine us desiring the warmth and companionship of each other all the more. But we seem to be pushing away at each other. Crumbling at the mere sight of each other. The fact that we've managed to work together so much on various excavation projects throughout the City is amazing in and of itself. But then what? _

_Even if this City is rebuilt……what will it take to keep us all together? Another evil? Another game of cat and mouse with Dagger? A kick in the rear from the Messenger?_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I paused in the middle of writing.

A chill ran up from my metal limb.

I hugged myself.

A beat.

Inhaling.

Exhaling.

Teeth clenched…

I resumed typing….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Messenger……_

_He was once the only hope I had in this world. When Wyldecarde emerged from me, it was his words that pushed me forward to do the impossible. I owed him the sanity I desperately needed to win back my friends from potential oblivion. _

_Yet still are his words endlessly encouraging and optimistic. But no longer do they give me any sense of warmth or hope. All the Messenger is now is pain. Deception. A brutal laugh and kick in the face. _

_He told me that things would come full circle in the way that I would most desire it. And now Robin is dead. And all strong words have become hallow shells for some kind of pathetic poison pellets. I never imagined—even for a moment—the Messenger being identically a snickering prophet of doom as he once was a beacon of salvation. But it happened._

_And if I were to see him now……well._

_Maybe Tempest is right in his latest ramblings. Faith dies for the very same reason that it is born. For it is built on things invisible……fanciful…… _

_And fleeting._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwiish!!_

Dust flew.

Beast Boy shuffled into the room.

His green eyes dry and empty.

He gazed through the upper room in Titan's Tower.

The purple and brown colors of the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Painting the desert theme.

The bed with the lonely, heart-shaped container of silver resting alone.

A pair of leather goggles hanging off a rack in the corner.

A circular couch facing a wide stretch of windows and a gray city beyond in the even grayer evening fall….

He shuffled over.

He stood before the bed.

He stared at the heart-shaped box.

"…….."

He slowly sat down.

He caressed it with a gentle, green hand.

Breathing slowly.

Silence…….

……..

A floating figure.

Starfire gazed into the room.

"C-Cyborg? Cyborg—Beast Boy!"

"Cyborg isn't here….," Beast Boy grumbled. "He's still in the City. At Phaser Labs….I think…"

"Oh….," Starfire gazed down at the purple carpeted floor. She had an envelope in her hands. Freshly sealed. "I do apologize for the intrusion. I saw the light in here and I only assumed that perhaps he was in here and….." She blinked. She gazed up at Beast Boy. "What are you here for, Beast Boy?"

"No reason…," he grunted.

She swallowed. "But….this is Terra's—"

"Some of the workers were worried about you, Star…," Beast Boy mumbled without looking at her.

She leaned her head to the side.

He trailed his finger around the silver heart. "They said that you suddenly screamed in the middle of taking a nap."

She bit her lip.

"They said you looked stressed and preoccupied the entire time you were moving stuff around and helping the excavation in downtown."

"Truly…," the alien girl nodded. "I was preoccupied. And now I must find Cyborg to—"

"Was it because you lost all hope, Star?"

"……B-Beast Boy??"

"Did you scream because you realized….that more than just Robin is gone?" he shuddered. His brow was furrowed. His lips tight. "That something so much larger has been ripped from all of us and the entire City as well?? One by one?"

She gazed at him.

He shut his eyes.

He exhaled….

"That there is nothing we can do. Nothing we can do at all. For all that was once good is dead…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_They carried the girl's shrouded body away. _

_On a stretchered. _

_Workers bowed their heads. _

_Men and women were silent. _

_Hope watched with a teary face. _

_She glanced over. _

_Beast Boy was walking over towards the ambulances._

_His back to the body. _

_He saw two paramedics gathered over a table. _

_He craned his neck._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You think you've done all the crying you ever could….,"

The Changeling said.

"…..you think you've shed all the tears there is to shed. And when even the most extreme corners of your heart and mind beg for an end….and for an answer…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beast Boy walked to a stop. _

_His lips parted. _

_The paramedics stopped trying to revive the kitten. _

_The tiny thing lay still atop the table. _

_Its tiny jaws stretched open._

_Eyes shut. _

_Whiskers deflated…… _

"…………_," Beast Boy blinked._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"….you wake up."

He swallowed.

He frowned.

He hissed: "And suddenly….the red sky is something too real and too heavy for even stone arms to hold at bay."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The dead girl. _

_Her blonde hair. _

_Her blue eyes. _

_Almost a perfect imitation. _

_Beast Boy was blinking a mental slideshow away just as one paramedic walked past him. _

_With a furred thing bundled up in damp towels. _

_Wrapped and wrapped and wrapped… _

_And tossed into a metal dumpster a few feet away with the rest of the wreckage. _

_CLANG!!!!! _

_The tiny body echoed louder than thunder against the shell._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cl-Clink!!!

The heart-shaped box fell off the bed and rolled to an upside down position on the carpeted floor.

Beast Boy was sprawled across the bed.

Digging his face into the comforter.

Wetting it with leaking emeralds.

"Th-There is no hope for Terra anymore…..," he sobbed quietly. Loud sniffs. Tiny voice. "There is no use to have faith in anything anymore…….it's all so cold….so cold and dead……I almost wish I never joined this team to begin with. I wish I'd never met her…….I wish I'd found better ways to grow up….for the Beast Boy to perish….."

"Beast Boy….," Starfire tearfully murmured. She floated towards him with a hand oustretched. "P-Please—"

"GO AWAY!!!" he shrieked, muffled.

She recoiled. Shuddering.

He quivered and sobbed into the bed by himself.

Starfire bit her lip.

She shook all over.

With hot tears of her own, she gritted her teeth and ripped the envelope and the contents within to shreds.

She clamped a hand over her lips and flew down the hallways.

Not to the exit of the Tower.

But to her room….

The changeling was alone in a ghost's desert domain.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven walked slowly down the abandoned, collapsed corridor of Phaser Labs.

Her robe rustled around her.

She craned her neck and stared into a dimly lit linterior.

Cyborg sat on his knees.

Before a computer console, barely surviving.

Wires and keypads and motherboards and drives rested all around him.

Like loose entrails.

Humming.

Bleeping.

Blinking.

Cyborg typed on anything he could.

Panting.

Eyeing the flickering monitor in a frenzy.

He murmured something to himself.

Like a desperate field surgeon in the middle of a battle.

Trying to bring a wounded comrade to life.

"Come on…….C-Come on…."

Raven watched. Her lips pursing.

Cyborg gritted his teeth.

He sweat.

And….

The monitor flickered.

The speakers crackled.

"_Snkkkt……V……V-Victor?"_

Cyborg gasped…..smiling.

"_V-Victor??"_

"Old man?"

"……………_what happened, Victor?"_

Cyborg swallowed hard. He uttered: "A lot of things, Uncle. But it's good to have you back. Hang tight. I gotta transfer you outta here."

"_Why? What for?? What happened to Phaser Labs? I can't access any of the holographic pedestals."_

"……you mean…..y-you don't remember a thing?"

"_What am I supposed to remember?"_

"……..," Cyborg leaned forward. "Simon…..tell me….."

"…………"

"What day is it?"

"_Why……November Third, isn't it my boy?"_

Cyborg shuddered.

He brought a hand to his face.

"………..," Raven swallowed.

"_Am I………in error??"_

Cyborg sniffed. When he looked up, his human eye was moist. "No, Uncle. You're right. It's November Third."

"_But am I in error?"_

"You're alive, old man….," Cyborg shuddered. "That's enough. Dear God…..it's enough." His gaze fell off. "Otherwise….I wouldn't know where to begin…."

Raven closed her eyes.

"I……..just……d-don't know where to begin……….."

"_Victor?"_

"……….."

"_Victor??"_

Raven left the scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At some point in the middle of crying, Beast Boy looked over at the open doorway to the Terra's old bedroom.

Shreds of an envelope and a letter lay on the carpet.

He sniffed.

He wiped his wet cheek with a sleeve.

He swung his feet of the bed.

He dropped down, small and elfin as ever.

Wobbling, he marched over.

He knelt before the scraps.

He lifted the envelope and letter pieces in shaking, green hands.

His wet eyes narrowed.

His puffy lips parted.

The envelope was legibly addressed to 'Cyborg, Leader of the Titans'.

Beast Boy pulled the ripped pieces of the letter out.

And though he couldn't read the entirety of the ornate writings, he made out a few words in Starfire's decent English.

'……_apologize……'_

'……_return……'_

'……_Tamaran……'_

'……_resignation……'_

A breath escaped his sore throat.

He gazed through the cracked door and hugged the shreds of the forsaken letter to his chest.

And all he saw in the hallway was darkness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat on her round, plush bed.

Half-curled up.

She hugged something to her chest and chin.

Something black and golden.

Her eyes were moist.

And she shuddered into the shadows.

And she sighed.

But she stayed put.

She stayed put…..

With her slow tears.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As night fell, Raven floated over the building tops.

Hugging herself.

Alone.

Cold, freezing winds blew at her blue hair.

She took a deep breath.

Gazing down at the haloed excavation sites and health stations beneath her feet.

And she breathed gently.

And she gazed up into the darkness.

And—for a time—let herself be swallowed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest sat in the indoor pool of the Titan's gym.

Drenched in his casual jeans and t-shirt.

The crutches lying off to the side.

He waded still and dead in the warm, lapping waters.

Numb to their healing fingers.

And he glared across the surface.

Stuck somewhere between fury and futility.

His white specks even tinier in enormous, dark eyes.

His face long.

"…………."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg stood outside Phaser Labs.

His arms folded.

Watching workers forklift the last of precious motherboards and computer instruments out of the laboratory structure.

Watching other workers prepare for demolition.

And he exhaled, long and hard.

He gazed up at the night sky.

The stars struggling to shimmer past the bright light of a floodlamp.

They tried….and tried.

But failed.

Cyborg closed his human eye and awaited the thunder.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat on my knees.

In my lantern-lit room.

Gazing past the laptop.

Hugging myself.

"………….."

I sighed.

I swallowed.

With shivering fingers, I typed…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The Titans…… _

_I don't know what to do anymore, Diana. _

_I don't know what to do. _

_I don't know what to do……_


	182. We are the Titans part 3

**182. We are the Titans part 3**

I couldn't sleep.

My body felt hot, despite it being the coldest month since I joined the Titans.

And when I feel hot, I can't sleep.

I sighed.

I stared up at the black ceiling of my room.

The lanterns were out, and yet with my naked eyes it felt like there was moonlight all around me.

I exhaled softly, my hot arms behind my hot head.

_Maybe I should start using the sleeping mask thingy again. _

_It always did make the world……darker……_

But I didn't really want to sleep.

And yet, I didn't really want to be awake.

I stared at the shadows of the room in hopes that they'd mercifully swallow me up and treat me to a happy oblivion.

But none such happened.

Groaning, I sat up in my bed clothes.

The air felt stuffy.

Thick.

Taunting.

"………"

I slowly stood up.

I cracked my neck…my fleshly knuckles.

I hadn't taken my left prosthetic off that night.

I shuffled across the room to Myrkblade's mantle.

I gently fingered the polished, wooden hilt.

The freezing touch of it.

I exhaled.

_Somehow……I could do with some 'cold'._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was already cooler by the time I entered the lower hallways of the Tower.

I walked down the dark, metal corridors alone.

Shuffling feet echoing against the dull floors and walls.

I was dressed in my combat fatigues. My camouflaged jacket. My black tank-top underneath. My tan pants. The tall black boots where they were tucked in. Myrkblade over my shoulder. Red bandanna. Black shades. The long hair. The old scar.

And the new…

"………," I stared at the floor as I went.

I heard noises…voices as I proceeded down the hallway.

I craned my ear.

I came to the doors to Cyborg's laboratory. They were open…as he seldom left them at times.

Late that night—under the dim glow of computer consoles—Cyborg was slaving away at something. A system diagnostics of sorts. He had his arm braced inside half of an elastic tube. He clenched his teeth, and as a mechanical device whirred and glowed, he struggled to morph his arm into the traditional sonic cannon. But even as the joints started to move and the insides of his translucent titanium skin started to spark and glow bright blue, everything failed. He contorted and strained and tried harder and harder. But the computer consoles buzzed. And the lights flashed red and died. And with a growl, Cyborg yanked his arm out and batted the mechanism away.

CLANK!!

"Dammit!! GOD DAMMIT!!!! Why can't I frickin' WORK?!?!" he pulled at hair he didn't have and groaned in frustration.

I winced.

I shuffled my feet and slowly moved along.

I heard his irate voice meandering down the corridor behind me.

"You're better than this!! Come on!! You piece of shit!! No damn missile's gonna maim your circuitry for life!! WORK, God DAMMIT!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, it was freezing.

Mist from the waves crashing against the rocky bluffs clung to my skin.

I shivered on the inside, but didn't show it. I was used to cold, wet weather. And the wind as well like a Pacific squall. Sometimes, we are awkwardly blessed by the places we were born at.

As I made my cold way under starlight towards the land ridge connecting towards the City, I glanced left.

And far off atop the rock bluffs overlooking the sea, I swore I saw a feminine figure sitting. Her silhouette meditated in a cross-legged stature of painful tranquility. Her robe's hood danced in the breeze.

From that far off, I couldn't tell if she had her eyes closed or if the raven was crying.

I didn't find out.

I turned, and walked towards the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was in stealth mode.

Cloaked.

It was past curfew in the still-recovering City.

And though surely the police forces and guards would have recognized me as a Titan, I didn't want to cause any trouble.

So I felt it best to walk across the City as a ghost.

Much of the rubble had been picked up. They were sent to gathering places where more and more volunteers heaped piles of rubble together and readied the debris for massive relocation to freshly erected dump sites outside the City limits. Word had it that the Dayton Chemical works and its surrounding field—forced closed after Viper's and Killer Moth's attack—had become such a site. Ever so gradually, the City was looking cleaner.

Ripped and charred asphalt was being replaced. Skyscraper windows were refitted. The repairs bloomed outward from the Downtown area and into the surrounding apartments and then towards opposite poles—treating the highway near Phaser Labs as well as Bayside Plaza. Finally the sarcophagus of the Radioactive Depository was cleared while the City Park was revitalized and the Shipyards were made nearly new again.

The side effect was a constant business of volunteers and city officials and construction workers running and rushing every which way at night under the aide of floodlamps and other modes of artificial illumination.

And it was through this soup of nocturnal activity that I invisibly tread.

I gazed at the men and women in their hurried work. They had a pace about them that was like unto a hurried exasperation, rather than the paranoid anxiety of the tragic days just following August Fourth. Most of the violence and destruction had taken place within the streets. Only a few buildings completely collapsed. Most of the structural damage were shopfronts and building faces. Although a building or two in the shopping district burned to the ground.

By that time easily, all of the dead bodies had been cleared away. There were very little sites to truly excavate. And—in turn—there were very few survivors left to be found. The missing was still tolled at eighty-seven people at that point. The grimness of it all grew across the midnight diggers' faces like vines.

I passed on through the thick crowds. Under the bright lights. Beyond the bulk of the work and the toil and the desperation.

It grew darker on my side of the City. But I pressed on. I reached a line of buildingtops. A very familiar line of buildingtops. I blurred up over the structures, reached the rooftops, took off my stealth mode, and comfortably hopped from building to building until I reached a two-story shop next door to a burnt site.

I flipped over into the adjacent alleyway.

I found a rusted fire escape.

I knelt there, crouched low like an assassin in waiting. I took my black shades off. I peered in through a dimly lit window on a rear door of the first level. I narrowed my naked lids.

Renee and Daniel were up. They seemed to be in the middle of rummaging through the back stockroom of the pawn shop. Perhaps just as restless as I was. Daniel's arm hung beneath him in a cast as he bent over and looked around various inventory. At some point he gave up, leaning back, wincing. Renee wandered over towards him and touched the extremity of his arm in concern. He said something with a nod and simpered. Renee looked up at him. A pause. The two slowly…softly hugged each other, and gently rocked in some mute rhythm.

"……….." I smiled. Then I sighed. Slowly, I turned around, and blurred over to a higher set of buildings two blocks down. I headed towards the center of the City. Ascending the buildingtops higher and higher and higher.

I finally ended up on the highest summit in the urban dwelling place. The recently reconstructed spire of Kobayashi Tower. I perched on the side of the fresh steel and peered out across the darkened building tops. It was freezing cold up there, and the wind beat against my face and hair mercilessly in the night.

I slipped my shades back on. I took a deep, freezing breath. I found a level spot on the top of Kobayashi Tower and sat down. Resting my hands on my knees. Calm…despite the fervent urge to shiver. I stared south. Towards Titan's Tower. It seemed especially bright those days, with most of the other lights in the City being switched off so soon after November Fourth. Steel arms stretched outward—glowing—to embrace a hushed sprawl of urban ghosts.

I took a deep breath. I hugged my legs to my body. I leaned my chin down on my knees. I breathed gently.

And a strange warmth….

"………….."

……………

"_Hehehe." _

"_Oops! It's time!" _

"_And the last slice of pizza goes to………"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

"…………_Noir!!!" Cyborg pointed. _

_Beast Boy sat up, clapping. "Wooohooo!!! Yay, nooby!!" _

"_Yes!!" Starfire cooed, cupping her hands joyously to her face. "Woo to the hoo!" _

_Raven rolled her eyes. She slid the open box of pizza across the table till it rested before me. "Here you go. Welcome to the team." _

_I blushed. I nodded and mouthed 'thanks'. _

_We were all seated on the second story balcony of the diner in the City's Downtown. It was late in the afternoon. A golden sunset filtered down on us through the wispy cloud cover of a spring day._

"_Titan tradition!!!" Beast Boy smiled wide. He and Cyborg crowded around me. "You gotta take the last piece!"_

_I simpered. I reached out with my left hand and took it by the crust. For the last piece, it was still warm to the skin. I lifted ceremoniously, gave everyone a shaded glance, and helplessly bit in……………only to be agonized by the undeniable flood of tofu. _

_I shuddered all over and tried my best not to show it. _

"_Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!" Cyborg leaned back, his eyes shut as he laughed. "Never fails!!"_

"_Hehehehehehe!!!!" _

"_The elusive 'give the new member Beast Boy's uneaten slice'," Raven droned, fingering the pages of a book in her own universe across the table. "Soooooooo original." _

"_Hehehehehehe!! Ain't it though??" Beast Boy winked. He looked at me. "No hard feelings, right—DUDE!!"_

_I had just finished scarfing down the last of the slice. I swallowed the crust, sipped it down with some Dr. Pepper, and winked victoriously at the two pranksters. _

"_Wow……it's almost like he enjoyed it!" Cyborg blinked._

"_Is this what you would call……backing of the fire?" Starfire smiled. _

"_Ohhhhhh my burning ego……," Beast Boy feigned death. "Well, I guess if you like tofu stuff that much, we'll share the same pizza from now on when we come here!" _

_I sweatdropped. I managed a nervous smile._

"_THE CEREMONY IS OVERRRRRR!!!" Cyborg dramatically uttered in an opera-ish voice. "Now all that's left is boring training to ass-kick." _

_I nodded. _

"_Can't wait to see you with that killer sword of yours. You don't actually plan on SLICING APART the thugs we fight in battle, right?" Beast Boy winked playfully. "A giant robotic likeness of Cinderblock is one thing. But the Titans aren't so kosher about __**killing**__ actual human beings. Hehehehe……ain't that right, Robin?" _

_The Boy Wonder chuckled some. He leaned forward into view, his crossed arms resting on the table. "Batman always taught me that a true superhero will value life above all else, unless bleak circumstances call for no other alternative."_

_The changeling blinked. "So……" _

"_That means NO KILLING," Robin glared. _

"_Hehehehe!" Starfire giggled._

"_Quoth the Robin, nevermore." _

_Raven raised an eyebrow. _

"_Don't mind Robin, nooby," Beast Boy winked. "One thing about working with this team is you learn how anal a former sidekick from Gotham can be. Rest assured, we have all gotten quite close to Robin's anus." _

"_Ha ha ha ha ha!!!" _

"_Beast Boy, that was uncalled for……" _

"_Dude! Robin! I'm being __**figurative!**__" _

"_Allright then. How'd you like it if my foot got close to your anus……__**figuratively**__???" _

"_Ha ha ha ha!!" Cyborg pounded the table. "Man, this is too rich." He looked at Raven. "You recordin' this in that bejeweled forehead of yours?" _

"_Get a life." _

"_Pfft! Whatever, miss creepy……" _

"_Now that the mainly course has been so ritually consumed……," Starfire lifted a joyous finger, "……we must now embark upon a serving of Terran dessert!!" She leaned her head cutely to the side and smiled at me. "Tell us……what is your favorite ice of the cream, Narf??"_

_I mouthed: '__**Noir'**__._

"_I think it's important that we take a moment aside to talk more about the way we'll be handling things with our newcomer here……," Robin raised a green glove. "If you don't mind." _

_There was a resounding moan from half the table. _

"_Duuuuude……can't we talk strat later?" _

"_Yeah, Robbie. Dessert is a necessity. And I want to be the first to see nooby here toss his cookies after gorging!!" he patted me on the shoulder. "After all, I talked you into staying with us. I should be owed the courtesy, right dawg?" _

_I looked at him with a strange smile and shrugged. _

_The Titans were……very strange up close. _

_It felt strange to realize that I was now one of them……_

"_This is serious, Cyborg, and you know it," Robin said. He was rather content in expression and pose as he laid back and gestured: "The amazing thing about Noir is that he's hardly made an appearance in this City. The press doesn't know about him. And neither do any of the supervillains. As is may seem……you've got quite the uncanny ability to be quick and evasive, Noir." _

"_Yeah……," Beast Boy nodded. "The dude can do his fart-to-invisibility thingy. Gotta come in handy in the girl's lockerroom!" _

_I shook my head. _

"_Boys……," Raven hissed._

"_Raven has always been capable of teleportation and morphing through walls," Starfire said. She blinked Robin's way. "It is due time we be blessed with powers of invisibility!" _

"_Right……and I think we should use Noir's anonymity and stealth to the utmost advantage," said the Boy Wonder. "In other words……he won't be making any dramatic entrances anytime soon. He'll be like the ghost in the rafters. The secret weapon." _

"_Dude……," Beast Boy's eyes narrowed. "What's the point of being a Titan if you can't—like—burst in through the door of a hideout with the rest of us and suddenly go 'BANZAI!!!' like every kid in the nation dreams of?" _

"_Well, he's mute for one thing," Cyborg elbowed him. _

"_Ow!" _

_I snickered breathily. _

_Robin looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before saying: "Though I seriously doubt public opinion is of any concern to Noir……" _

"………"

_Robin smiled at the rest of the Titans: "……he'll undoubtedly get his chance to shine someday. Just—for right now—he's more important to us as an ace up the sleeve." _

"_Ace up the sleeve?" Cyborg's human eye narrowed. _

_Robin nodded with a smirk. "A wildcard." _

"_Ohhhhhhhh……like in the game 'ooh' of the 'know'!" Starfire smiled. _

"………_," Raven flipped a page. _

"_More or less," Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Basically, when there's trouble……and we're called in……Noir stays in the dark." _

"_Naturally." _

"_Until I give the signal. And—as quick as lightning—he dives in—" _

"—_and does to criminals what he did to that Cinderblock-bot!" Cyborg pumped his arm. "Boo-ya!!" He patted my arm. "Man……you're so gonna KICK ASS on this team!!" _

_I blushed. _

_I didn't like the spotlight……_

_But…… _

_I scratched my chin._

'_Wildcard'. _

_I smirked._

_I liked that…… _

_I sensed a pair of violet eyes fixed on me from across the table. _

"_????" _

_I glanced over. _

_Raven was suddenly tilting her head down into the pages of her book. _

_I blinked. _

_Was she looking at me……?_

"_Well, I personally can't wait…," Beast Boy winked. _

"_We may get our chance yet," Robin shrugged. "Word is out on the street that Control Freak has shown up near Town. Some tourists in Westhaven describe a fat man with a strange object in his hand turning the depository of a video rental store into a huge blob monster." _

"_Westhaven?? Dude, what's that?" _

"_A town a day's drive from here. Out in the country," Raven droned without looking up from her book. "They have an opera house there—" _

"_Whatever." _

"_It has been quite the extended period of time since we last dealt with Control Freak," Starfire said with a long face. "I do not look forward to any reunion we may have with him in the foreseeable future." _

_Robin patted her arm with a winking eyemask. "We're more than a match for him, Star. Trust me." _

_She smiled, blushing some. _

_Robin seemed to look past it. "Well……now that the initiation is over with—" _

"_Dessert?" _

"_Training!" _

"_Awwwwwwwww." _

"_Shucks!" _

"_Glorious!!-----er, I mean……The Shucks!!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………"

I took a deep breath.

I slowly stood up.

Facing the cold breeze of Kobayashi Tower.

Staring out towards the glittering 'T' on the bay.

Slowly….I turned around.

I summoned murk.

I blurred down the other side of the skyscraper, leapt, flickered smoke, and landed nimbly atop a line of buildings across the street. I then began to murk my way through the darklit City. Beneath the starlight. Alone.

I made my way into the dark and dank Northern District. Past the temporarily abandoned and shattered L-Train track. Across empty bazaars. Up onto apartment buildings. Raggedy rooftops.

And then….

I skidded to a stop.

Panting…..breathing….swallowing.

Staring across the gap in the street and the cold air at the front of the Norman Apartment buildings.

The lights weren't on that night.

As if some ghost still lived there.

I took a deep breath….and kept staring.

"………."

_Thwack!!_

"………."

_Wham! Smack!!_

"………"

_Whap! Swiish!!_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_THWACK!!!_

"_!!!!" I fell back across the Titans' gym mat from Robin's foot, wincing. _

_The Boy Wonder panted in the pose of mid-kick. He slowly lowered his foot, walked over, and extended a gloved hand down at me. "Okay. That's me four. You……uhm……z-zero……" _

_I swallowed. I took his hand and stood up. _

_He tilted his head up to look into my face. Such a height difference, and yet he was kicking my ass. We were both dressed in the stereotypical sort of kung-fu combat gis. We were alone in the Titans' gym that afternoon……_

'_Training'._

"_Stop __**trying**__ so hard……," he calmly instructed. "It almost feels like you're mimicking me. Do your own thing, Noir. I know you've got the talent. I've seen you. Don't simply __**block**__ me. Strike out. Outstep me. Do something out of balance for once." _

_I took a deep, shuddering breath. _

_Robin didn't understand…… _

_I could ONLY do stuff in 'balance'. _

_It was my part of the spectrum. _

_The one Master taught me. _

_The center. _

_Black._

"_You've faced enough of my attacks this morning……," Robin said. He got into a nimble fighting position utilizing grace that only a man of the Bat could have taught him. "……surely you can predict what I'm going to do. But I'm not asking you to be like water and flow around me. Show me some rocks. Show me something to break the current." _

"…………_," I adjusted my black shades and got into a fighting pose across the mat. Facing him. _

_Robin's eyemask thinned. "Be a little reckless. Forward." His lips moved thinly. "Be __**destructive**__……" _

_My black eyes narrowed beneath the shades._

_Red……… _

_I could do………'Destructive'…… _

_Robin stepped back towards his corner of the mat. _

_He neared the edge, bearfoot. _

_I edged backwards, taking deep breaths._

_Red…… _

_Destruction…… _

_I clenched my fingers and swallowed my scarred throat. _

_Concentrating… _

_Concentrating…… _

_Concentrating……… _

_On the exact opposite thing I wanted to be all the time at the School._

"_Now!!" Robin charged at me. _

_I snarled. _

_RED!!!!!_

_  
SWOOOOOSH!!!! _

_Robin's eyemask widened, for I was flying at him with my elbow raised to his chin-- _

_WHACK!!!!! _

_His body ragdolled backwards in mid-air. _

_I twirled. _

_I grinded my feet into the mat. _

_Howling mutely, I grabbed his midair body and fiercely slammed him into the ground……shoulders first. _

_WHAM!!!! _

_I held him down firmly with one hand while I lifted my other palm up……inhaled……and shoved it murderously down towards his sternum. _

_RED!!!!!!!! _

_CLUTCH!!! Robin grabbed my wrist. _

_I stood over him, panting. _

_He simpered. "That's um……," wheezed the Boy Wonder. "……v-very good, Noir." _

_I sweatdropped. _

_I helped him up without asking. _

_He stumbled back, adjusted his hair, and said: "Me four. You one. Now that's the spirit! No mercy!" He planted a hand on my shoulder. He uttered quietly: "Those crooks out in the urban wilderness won't be showing you any mercy. No need to hold back just because you're a Titan now. It's okay to be badass." _

_I stared at him. _

_Blinking. _

_It's okay……to be badass?? _

"_I don't let any lack of superpowers stop me from kicking butt," Robin gestured. "You're the closest person we have on the team right now to being……'human', Noir. You're just like me……only extra gifted. But I don't think your gifts are superpowers. I think your gifts are courage……tenacity……and the flaming heart of a berserker. And I admire that." _

_I blushed somewhat. _

_He winked his eyemask: "Plus……keep countering my moves like that and—I swear—someday it'll be the death of me!!" He laughed. _

_I snickered breathily. _

"_Now……," Robin stepped back. He got into a fighting pose. "Again." _

_I did a double-take. _

_Again?!?! _

_He rushed at me. SWOOOOSH!!!! "Wa-TAA!!!" _

_I gasped and blocked at the last second. _

_WHUMP!!!!_

_BLACK!!!!—er—I-I mean RED!!!!!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gradually wandered from the Norman Apartments.

I walked along the docksides of the City.

Eyeing the lapping waters besides my treading feet.

The bobbing ships by the piers.

I took deep breaths of the cold, salty air.

I had hands in my pockets.

I gazed out…..out……out….

Across the Ocean.

My black eyes thin.

As if…..

As if I could see a lone freighter on the black waters.

And a band of teenage Titans strapped to torture chairs inside its metal belly.

"………."

"_As soon as I saw your eyes the day after we took you in, I realized they most definitely have to be sensitive to bright lights. So I knew this room would be perfect……"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_In the dim flicker of candlelight, Raven and I finished shoving a bed towards the far wall of a cold, cellar room. We had been working patiently—with aid of the dark girl's telekinesis—to finish furnishing a small, dark, but quaint living quarters within the basement of the Tower. I had intricately screwed in lanterns donated by Raven herself to opposite walls of the small interior. They would provide me with just the tiniest amount of light my sensitive eyes needed to get my way back and forth across the chambers to where the adjacent bathroom lay with its very own shower stall. _

_It was by far the coldest, loneliest, and most somber bedroom choice in the Tower. _

_And I loved it. _

_Because it was __**dark**__._

_Raven turned and shuffled towards a lone candle atop a bedside table placed freshly in the corner. She looked over her shoulder and graced me with her emotionless violet eyes. "This was actually originally going to be my room, once." _

_I leaned my head to the side. Glancing at her. Still recovering my breath from the furniture-movement._

"_Cyborg couldn't figure out for the life of him why his father had this place built to begin with," she paced over with the candle holder in her grasp. "I suppose it was going to be a guard's office of sorts when the Tower was originally planned out to be a police structure. But that all got scrapped of course, and Robin and I moved in here with Cyborg when we settled in to protect this City. Robin had always planned for there to be lots of Titans joining the team. Like……somewhere in the number of twenty-five or something." _

_I blinked. _

"_But……," she sighed boredly. "We settled for five. And now six," she nodded her head at me. "So I don't need this room so much. Not quite so many young annoyances needing to be avoided. I settled for a room halfway up the Tower's floors." _

_I smirked and shrugged. _

_I was proud to be a new 'annoyance'. _

"_I hope the lanterns serve you well. I bought them for this very room……but they're of no use to me upstairs," she shrugged. "Just let me know if you need any more of them. I know just the place to go to." _

_I scratched my head and nodded……but then gave her a sideways glance. _

_Why was she being so……helpful to me? _

_Wasn't she the team loner? _

_It's almost as if-- _

"_As long as you don't mind the storage and random junk in the way to and from the cellar entrance," Raven rambled on. "We have evidence and trinkets piled all over the place……some going as far back as Robin's apprenticeship." _

_I wandered over towards the alcove in the wall. I held my fingers out in the space. _

_A perfect spot for a sword mantle-- _

_I paused. _

_Blinking. _

_I turned around and gazed at her._

_I mouthed: 'apprenticeship?'_

"_Hmm?" Raven blinked. "Oh……you mean you don't know?" _

"……………"

"_I suppose……there is a lot a detail __**not**__ mentioned by the bleeding newspapers after all." _

_I shrugged. I never had time to read newspapers. I had been working a raggedy ushering job to support an even raggedier apartment home for the past few months. And before that, I was……migrating…_

"_The first time we had a showdown with Slade……," the candle-bearing sorceress paced across the freshly furnished room. "Robin was coerced into being his 'apprentice'. Slade had threatened all of the Titans with nanomachines teleported into our bloodstreams. At a push of a button, the obsessive madman could have killed each and every one of us torturously……unless Robin gave into his commands by doing any and every criminal act Slade ordered him too." _

_I listened to her. My lips parted in awe._

"_We all believed Robin had turned evil. We were……so overcome by his betrayal that we couldn't think straight. We fought him just as fiercely as he fought us. And he was winning. He was winning a battle that he did not want to fight, thrashing us within inches of our lives. And all just to save us……" _

_There was something lost in her gaze. Like evaporating mercury. She stared past the blinding candlelight towards the shadows in the room. "In the end, it is always sacrifice that turns the heart of the blind. We realized and understood that Robin was hopelessly innocent in his actions. And when we tried to save him, Slade finally pushed the button. We all fell down dying before Robin's eyes……at the final confrontation in Slade's lair. And do you know what Robin did?" _

_I slowly shook my head. _

_She took a deep breath, looked up at me directly, and said: "He killed himself along with us. He dove into the machine responsible for the nanomachines and shared our poison. He would rather die with us than live—even if it meant him being able to take down Slade by himself." _

_I took a deep breath. _

_Raven finished: "Some superpowers cannot be summed up in starbolts or sonic cannons. Nor in flight or in animorphing. Robin's humanity is three times as virtuous as the rest of us combined. For that……he is more than adequate for the job of leader." She took one step towards me. "You're with the Titans now, Noir. And soon you'll learn that the most powerful thing you can do is the act of being yourself. For it is your virtue alone that won you this……'apprenticeship'."_

"……………_," I stared at her. "…………" I smiled. _

_Wriii! Wrii! Wrii! _

_The alarm to Titan's Tower went off. _

_Raven and I gasped, startled. In jumping, she dropped the candle. It snuffed out on the cold floor of my new bedroom. _

_With the help of my black eyes, I quickly found the candle and held it up for Raven as the alarm howled in the background. She produced a match, fumbled around my arms, found the candle I was holding, and lit it. _

"_Th-Thanks……," she uttered. A beat. She looked at the lengths of our shoulders and arms making warm contact. Something in her cheeks went red. _

"_???" I glanced at her sideways. _

"_Ahem……," she held the candle in one hand and whipped out her communicator in the other with a Star Trek sound. "This is Raven. What's going on?"_

_Robin's voice squabbled: "Titans! Trouble!" _

_The sorceress' violet eyes narrowed. "What kind of trouble?" _

_Curious, I leaned in._

_Robin's voice: "Fang!! He's been sighted robbing the west branch of the First Bank! Last word is……he's scampering across Downtown along Adams Street!" _

_Raven's eyes thinned. "Isn't that near St. Faustina Cathedral?"_

_His voice: "That's the rendezvous point, Raven! Join Cyborg in the T-Car and tell Noir to get down there now!! Have him ride with you if he needs to! Robin out!"_

_Click. _

_Raven pocketed the communicator. "Well……so much for testing out your bed." _

_I nodded—did a double take at her. _

_She blinked at me. "What?" _

"………"

"_You, of course." _

_I nodded vehemently. _

"_What's wrong with you??" _

_I shrugged even more vehemently._

"_Pfft……another boy Titan……," Raven droned and headed towards the exit of my new room. "I swear. You're going to be just like the rest of them." _

_I grabbed Myrkblade off its makeshift mantelpiece and hurried after her. _

_I hope so………_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I walked along the abandoned courtyard of Bayside Plaza.

Towards the docksides.

The beach.

The shores.

The rising tide.

I again looked out across the water.

I spied the glittering sight of the Tower.

My home.

I took a deep breath.

My metal limb shivered, but I ignored it.

The wind……

_Swoooosh!! _

_Plant!!_

"_It's about time you got here!!"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_I held my position up high on the marble scaffold. _

_Perched a few gothic spires away, Robin pointed at me. _

"_Fang's almost here!! Stay in the shadows!!!" _

"_????" I looked down into the street. _

_The other Titans were forming a living blockade. _

_And then……something was rushing at them. _

_Eight legs and six eyes of something. _

_A screech and a human cursing and a flurry of angry limbs announced the presence of Fang. _

_He tossed his money bag away, planted his strong mutant limbs into the ground, and raised his fists threateningly. _

_The Titans circled around him……battle ready._

_I shifted nervously where I was poised. I held my sword in its sheathe in Myrkstaff mode. I looked over at Robin. _

_He whipped out a grappling hook. "Wait for my cue! You're the wildcard!! Don't jump him until I tell you to!!" _

_I looked at Robin. I looked at the distant Fang. _

_And something fell over me. _

_Like the cold shiver of death of my arms of flesh. _

_Something red and destructive. _

_I saw the mortality of the Boy Wonder. _

_A thing, stringy meat of mortality about to be flung into the spider's web. _

_This was no place for anyone NOT metahuman. _

_I gestured towards him, panting. _

"_I know what I'm doing!!" he hissed at his secret weapon. "Now know __**your**__ place!! Be the ghost in the attic, Noir!! Be the Titans' ghost!!" _

_I nodded. _

_He reached a hand out. _

_I reached mind. _

_We pounded our fists together twice and gripped our palms in a shake of mutual camaraderie. _

_And I smiled. _

_And so did he. _

"_Meet you on the flipside, wildcard!!" POW!!! He fired his grappling hook. Clank!! He swung out and into the fray, shouting: "Teen Titans!! Go!!" _

_Robin joined the Titans and they all closed in on the reckless Fang. They fought and they shouted and they sweated. _

_And I waited in the shadows. _

_Like a good little ghost. _

_Watching with these black eyes._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I stopped.

I was halfway across the land bridge to the Tower.

Halfway home.

I had the dark waters on either side of me.

The darkened City to the back of me.

And ahead…..

The West and the East combined.

The stretching arms of steel.

Like a glittering crucifix.

And I took a deep breath.

And my metal and flesh fingers clenched.

As something deeply resonating inside my poltergeist heart dared to frown and dared to smile.

At the same time.

_Dear Diana……_

I took a deep breath.

_I have it all wrong. _

_All the Titans have it wrong._

I took one step forward.

Then another.

Another.

I marched firmly home…

_Robin was not defeated. He was never defeated. _

_He died……_

_But…… _

_It was a victory, Diana. It was a victory because he died while fighting for everything he stood for. He died while stretching his mortality to the limit so that countless, __**countless**__ other people could live._

I ran.

Smiling.

Breath panting ecstatically and agonizingly all the same.

Towards the Tower…..

_Robin died the same way that he lived: an inspirational leader to us all. He died so that we may live on as well and continue saving in his name. And his name—masked by alternate egos or not—is that of justice. And truth. And the preservation of all that is Good. _

_The Messenger may have known it, but he never told me forthright. Robin had the Balance of Morals down way ahead of all of us. Before Slade. Before Viper. And before Dagger. Robin gave flight to the wings before the aviary ever turned red. _

_And that is the greatest victory any caped crusader could have._

I ran to the base of the Tower.

The entranceways.

The doors.

I took a deep breath and smiled. Like a reflection in Ana's eyes. Laced in white.

I reached for the handles to my home.

_The victory isn't over. Not in the darkest cellar of doubt is it over. There's always a candle left to pick up and re-light. There's always something so beautiful and yet so blinding to behold. _

_We are the Titans. _

_And I shall see to it that we stay that way. _

_For though Robin may have died, he still had an ace up his sleeve. _

_His wildcard lives on…_

I pulled at the handles to the doors.

They recognized my signature.

They opened with a huge mechanical whur.

I took a breath and I marched inside.

I had a job to do……


	183. We are the Titans part 4 final

**183. We are the Titans part 4 Final**

_Schwissh!!_

"Friend Noir…are you certain that you need my assistance in this…th-this task??" Starfire murmured, wringing her hands together. She hesitantly followed me on pensive feet as I wandered through the doorway. She looked about with woeful eyes. "I would not know where to begin, and this room….it's….."

I barely glanced back at her. I motioned emotionlessly for her to follow as I carried a large box into the center of Robin's room. I reached a titanium arm out and switched on a desk lamp, dimly illuminating the late leader's dwelling place. The simple, twin-sized bed at one end. The bedside table with its lonely drawer. The tall line of books and books and books and more books against a wall. And a locker stretched up besides some small exercise equipment.

It was a tiny room. A tiny room for such a large icon.

Simplistic.

Starfire bit her lip.

I swiftly began stripping the bookcase of books and items and slipping them into the box. I paused momentarily. "……" I looked up at Starfire.

She exhaled. With a small, nervously-fake smile she walked over. "You are second in command now, Noir. And I shall pay faithful heed to your instructions. It is very true that Robin's room needs to be cleaned out. Most certainly his mentors and comrades in Gotham City might make use of his possessions."

I motioned to the books and then to the box as I slowly began unloading the first batch of items into it. Building from the bottom of the container up, like Egyptian stones.

Starfire floated up to the topmost shelves of books and assisted in lowering the larger volumes. "I apologize earnestly for my most recent….lethargy. I have done my best to assist the City and Titans alike in salvaging the urban wreckage. But I do suppose I could very easily be volunteering to do more. And it is far unfitting of me to neglect necessary tasks."

I shrugged.

I continued storing the box. Slowly. Quietly.

"X'Hal….."

"???" I glanced up at her.

She was holding a huge encyclopedia in her grasp, staring at the immensity of its binding and pages. "Only on scant occasions have I visited Robin's room before. It never truly occurred to me just how much literature he has." She glanced at me with half-soft eyes of emerald. "How truly could our former leader have read so many pages in between battling crime?"

"……," I smiled. I shrugged again, this time slowly.

She shouldered a few more large books and floated down to join me besides the box. "From what I have gathered, those of the Batman's ilk are quite nimble and athletic, but they still place intellect and cunning in the forefront of their talents. As much as Robin struggled to extend the mortal physicality of his talents, his mind was what led him in battle. A mind over body. It is something impossible to try to comprehend…..erhm…..it w-was…."

"………..," I nodded.

A beat.

I gently took the books from her and started piling them in along the bottom. Forming a base.

She floated slowly back up and grabbed more books. Her Tamaranian eyes narrowed across the titles. "_Hamlet_, The Stranger, Edgar Allen Poe….." A beat. She blinked. She looked down at me. "Robin was…quite familiar with death, wasn't he?"

I merely looked back at her.

She floated down with the books and placed them into the box. "What would draw someone so young…so vulnerable…to throw himself into the line of so many unstoppable evils? Someone without superpowers….without alien origins….without so much as a dark spell or curse to draw him into the heated hierarchy of the Balance of Morals?"

A beat.

She exhaled and looked at the huge array of books. "……….," she swallowed and floated back up to them. Trailing her finger across the spines. "Often I have wondered who he truly was. What kind of a sweet, innocent boy he must have been under the visage. How he may have laughed or cried when he was not Robin, when he was relaxing, when he was being human. How he may have needed arms to hold him or someone to embrace when the forbidden tears flowed freely. I am most certain, Noir, that Robin was a tortured spirit. And I do not know who or what he may have lost in order for that to happen. Although…..he did tell me….." Her eyes trailed. They looked sad. "The girl….the girl that Clayface decimated before him…."

I leaned my head to the side. My lips parted.

_He told you about that???_

"But that cannot be the reason why he became what he was prior to his end…," Starfire uttered, gathering more books. "Nor was it Batman that made him who he was, I am certain. Robin had a preciousness that nobody else I have met possess. And I know it, Noir. I know it…" She looked at me half-hoplessly. "I cannot be deluding myself. I cannot be short-sighted, can I?? There was something special about Robin. Something I was not folly for seeing due to being myself…."

I swallowed painfully. I bravely nodded.

"…..," she took a deep breath. She lowered with the books. The bookcase was half-stripped away by now. A quarter of the box full. "Sometimes….I think that Robin was running from something. And a human being like him does not run from something easily. It was not cowardice that drove him to this Tower…this City. But something far greater. Something that no human—nor any living thing—must bear the weight of. That is why I was never truly desiring to speak much of my past. The horrors of War that I bore witness to. The violence at the hands of both villains…a-and heroes…"

She fidgeted with the word 'heroes'. I saw her green eyes averting my gaze.

"???" I glanced at her sideways.

"Ahem…," she cleared her throat and straightened the books in the box. "I did not want to burden Robin with my past. In much of the same way that I think he felt it best to hide his past—himself—from the rest of us. For reasons however foolish, Robin must have felt that his real self did not deserve to dwell with us. He must have feared the effects intimacy would have on us or himself. But I do not think such was a real danger. I…..I loved Robin very much…," she finally exhaled.

I could only listen.

I knew it.

We all knew it.

"I loved him…..regardless….," she sorrowfully fidgeted, shuddered, and went on: "…regardless of whether or not he loved me as well. Though….I-I am almost certain…," she hugged a book to her chest. A Separate Peace. "…he loved me too, Noir. The attention he paid to my adapting to Terran culture. Going out of his way to see to my solace. Withstanding my interplanetary awkwardness when everyone else on the Team could not bear me at times. I….I felt so blessed. Not so much because of the attention…but rather by the intimacy that even until his death, Robin would never admit to…." She took a deep, deep breath and smiled warmly at the peak of it. Her eyes gazing beyond the walls. Slowly breathing out…..then: "Robin's only folly….his only fault….was that his words were never in tune to his actions." She looked over at me gently. "He would never admit that which he openly did….especially when all he did were the wonderful, beautiful things."

"……," I smiled. I nodded. A beat. I looked over her.

"???" her head turned.

We were both looking at a wall beside his exercising equipment. There were picture frames on it. All photographs of different locations. More than half of them were vistas of Gotham City. Some were of Metropolis and New York. But then…at least one…

Centermost.

Larger and brighter than the rest of the photos.

"……" with Starfire watching, I got up and walked over towards the wall. I took the frame down and looked at it in my hands. Starfire floated up and looked over my shoulder curiously.

It was a glorious picture of the Titan's Tower. The Sun bright. The waters glittering around the rock bluffs. The steel and windows shining brightly.

"……," I turned the frame around.

In thin black ink. In Robin's handwriting. Words were sketched on the brown paper of the picture's backside.

'_The Bay. Home of the Titans. And the future.'_

"The future….," Starfire murmured.

A beat.

She clasped her hands together and sighed. "Robin wanted so much for there to be a happier….cheerier….more peaceful future." Her green eyes drifted over the grimy pictures of Gotham and the gray skies of Metropolis and New York. "Something that the youth's line of heroes could be attributed to. And not just his own name." Her eyes fell on the bright photo of the Tower and the City beyond. "He did not care about himself or his life. It was an idea that he was fighting for. A grand….grand virtue."

I looked up at her.

She twirled about and gazed at the dimly lit extremities of the room.

"Everything here….it is so full of memories. Memories of Robin. What Robin was and what he wanted to uphold." She shut her eyes and sighed softly. "And all of those memories….are good memories. Inspiring….just as he himself was an inspiration." She opened her eyes again and looked at me. "Robin has not died. He is alive as long as the Titans prevail. As long as the ideal he fought so heavily for continues to be protected. And that is the unhindered struggle for Goodness and Justice." She leaned her head to the side. "Thank you, Noir, for forcing me to see such again up close. I have been….so clouded. It is rather unsavory."

I smiled. I waved.

She gazed off with a sudden expression of concern. "X'Hal….what have I been doing all this time? What have all of us been doing?"

"……"

She suddenly gasped. "Beast Boy….."

I blinked.

She looked at me, breathless. "Noir, please forgive me. But I must leave you. I promise you that I shall make up for my carelessness today!"

I shrugged, simpering.

"Pardon of the me!" she flew past me and darted down the hallway outside. SWOOOOOSH!!!

I reeled somewhat, but stood upright…balancing the photo in my grasp. A beat. I placed it on Robin's bed. I looked at the books and items that had yet to be excavated. I sighed. A beat. I glanced over at the bedside table. "…….." I walked over toward it. I fingered the handle. I pulled.

It slid open.

But all that was inside…..were glass shards.

The shattered shield of a picture frame.

But nothing else.

"……."

I slowly slid it closed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Beast Boy sat on the circular couch. Facing out the gray windows towards the gray day of the City.

He was alone in the desert-themed room. The silver heart pendant rested alone on the bed in the far side. A cloudy light settled across the red carpet and brown-and-purple color scheme.

Beast Boy hug his knees to his chest and sighed, hiding into himself.

"…………."

"I….erhm…..B-Beast Boy?"

"????" he looked over his shoulder.

Starfire hovered in the doorway, holding her hands together. "I apologize for my unexpected intrusion…."

"Starfire??" he blinked.

She smiled, her cheeks warm. "From one precious room to another….."

"……….," he turned and muttered. "Leave me alone…."

She didn't. "The other day, Beast Boy…," she slowly floated over to the back of the couch behind him. "…I nearly made a decision. A decision that would have or would not have impacted the Titans forever…."

"You almost resigned," he mumbled.

She blinked. "Y-You knew of this?"

"Gotta rip your letters up a little more…," Beast Boy sighed. "I saw all that you wanted to say."

She bit her lip. But said: "They were…what I was _going_ to say…but did not."

"What does it matter, Starfire?" Beast Boy uttered. "You might as well leave. Nothing makes any difference anymore." He hugged his knees closer to his chest and leaned his chin down. "Nothing…."

"Beast Boy?"

"……….."

She floated over and hovered in front of him. "Why do you linger in this room all the time?"

He looked up at her. Blinking.

"Terra's room…," she leaned her head to the side. "Why do you hide away in here?"

"It doesn't matter," he said, looking aside.

"But does it to you?"

He frowned at her. "I thought I told you to go away, Star!"

"You are punishing yourself, Beast Boy!" Starfire exclaimed. She leaned forward: "You are hurting youself—"

"What's wrong with trying to remember someone who's IMPOSSIBLY GONE?!?!" he shouted.

"Nothing, Beast Boy!!!" she shouted back.

He drew back, biting his lip.

Starfire panted. She swallowed and said quieter: "There is nothing wrong with remembering those whom we have lost. However…" She floated over and sat gracefully by his side. She gazed closely at him. "…there lies an importance in _what we do_ with the memories once they are ours to hold in our hands."

"……," he blinked at her. Breathing helplessly. Like a shivering little mammal.

"Long have I lingered in Robin's room after his passing, Beast Boy…," Starfire softly said. She gazed sideways out the window. "….and much like you and this room, I feel like I am gazing out on a cold, dark world. But in fact, the dark, wintry clouds are nothing more than the head I carry on my shoulders. Only when my mind is cleared of regret and angst can I realize how bright the world truly is and can be. I have spent so much time defeated…fixating on the pain of the present to think about the glory of the past…." She smiled gently at Beast Boy. "…and the joy of the future."

"Joy….," he muttered. With drooping, elfin ears he stared at the floor. "What joy?"

She laid a warm hand on his shoulder. "A joy that mimics the happiness that our lost ones gave us while they were still breathing," the Tamaranian girl said. "It feels so long since I have counted everything for joy like every one of my people should. I have only my own despondency as of late to blame for that. Robin was….was such an inspiration. A mentor to his own kind as well as those stronger and faster than him. He did not let faculties of death and time erase his dream, and instead he planted his spirit into the rest of us. So that—with careful observation and commitment—each and everyone of us could prolong his ideals and the fight for Life, Goodness, and Justice."

"Robin's dead, Star. He's dead and sooner or later we all will be—"

"Beast Boy!" she grabbed his shoulders.

With a jerk, he was facing her. Gasping. Eyes wide.

She stared intently at him with something halfway between compassion and frowning. "I do not believe that. X'Hal help me, I do not believe in the victory of death. Life is as strong as we make it. And you and I, Beast Boy, we are alive. And so is Cyborg. And so is Raven. And Noir. And Tempest. And though our mortal boundaries demand an End at some time or another, there is yet time left for us to seize and find glory in. You must see, Beast Boy, it is good and divine to immerse yourself in the warm memories of Terra. But use those memories for good. Do not deprecate yourself. Do not do what I nearly did…and lose the grip you have on the rest of your living companions. Robin and Terra were terrible losses. But there is so much more to be won. While all of us are still alive and still _strong_."

He stared at her. His lips quivered. "Starfire….I'm….I'm too scared…..t-too scared to get close to any of you dudes again…."

She stared back at him.

He sniffed. A tear ran down his cheek. He hugged himself tighter and clenched his eyes shut. "It's happened twice already. Terra….and R-Robin….I'm so scared of it happening again."

"Oh Beast Boy….," she took his shaking figure into her warm embrace. She leaned her chin over his green head of hair. "I am scared too. But my love for my friend is far greater than my fear for them." She smiled painfully. "It always has been…and it always shall be…"

"Cy-Cyborg has been l-leader for f-five days…and he still hasn't said a th-thing about trying to find Terra…"

"I know…I know…"

"Everybody's just so scared!! Everybody's s-so sad and helpless!! I wish Robin was still alive. I wish we could d-do something!! I'm sick and tired of just sitting around and c-crying…."

"So am I, Beast Boy…," Starfire gently stroked his back. She took a deep breath: "But as long as we are together…all of us….I do not believe you will have to be sick for much longer."

He sobbed and shook into her. "I miss Terra so much. I m-miss her…."

"It is okay to cry, Beast Boy….," she sniffed as her tears warmly joined his. "Only do not be afraid to share your tears. Sometimes wh-when people mourn together….it feels a little bit like painful laughter. Everything has a way of going full circle. It is the routine cycle of energy throughout the universe. X'Hal be praised…I came to this planet for more than Robin. And you stayed with this team for more than Terra…"

Beast Boy shuddered against her and murmured: "It's all I have left…"

She smiled, sniffing. "It is all you have the more…."

He sobbed.

She held him closer.

He choked: "Th-Thank you, Star…."

She closed her eyes. "Thank you too, Beast Boy…."

The two held each other in their sorrowful release on the couch.

Near the cracked doorway, a shadow peered in.

The shadow trailed with murk as I returned to stealth mode.

Gazing in, I took a deep breath. "…….." I invisibly palmed my Titan's Communicator and walked down the hallway…towards the stairwell leading to the rooftop.

I chimed Tempest's end of the line….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeeeeeak!!_

Tempest struggled against the metal door of the stairwell exit.

He hobbled through, panting, with his crutches. He emerged onto the sun-kissed rooftop of the Titan's Tower. The waters of the Bay stretched around us. And the gray City beyond. I stood a few dozen feet away with my back to him. My metal and flesh arms folded. My long black hair floating in the breeze.

Grumbling to himself, he hobbled towards me. "Nngh….mmph….got a reason for calling me up all the way here, man??"

"……….."

"I was kinda busy, ya know. Cyborg was giving me some crazy ranting about being at the demolition of Phaser Labs later on."

"………."

"I don't see what the big deal for him is. I mean, he got his Uncle out safely….kinda sorta. They're gonna build a new Phaser Labs there. You think the android was attached to the place for some reason or another or something."

"………"

"Look, are you going to tell me what you wanted??" Tempest grumbled as he hobbled to a stop behind me. He leaned on his crutches, panting in the high winds. "Or are you just going to waste my time like everyone else is lately?"

"………," I slowly turned around. Deadpan. I had a paper in my hand. With my own writing. I passed it to him.

He blinked at it. He took it in his grasp and looked it over.

Flapping in the breeze, he made out what the words said:

'_What would King Orin have his little prince do?'_

"……….," Tempest started to laugh. "Heh heh heh heh….."

I raised an eyebrow above my shades.

"Hoooooo boy…," he chuckled and crumpled the paper up before tossing it across the rooftop. "And so it begins."

I crossed my arms and glared at him.

He smirked at me quite sarcastically. "Ya know….long ago….Beast Boy warned me about you."

"………."

"He said you're like the voiceless, team counselor of the Titans. He told me about the time he balled his eyes out over and over again when he was working solo with you at Westhaven. He said there was something about you that could 'evoke the inner ghosts of the soul to come out of hiding'. Well guess what? Ghosts only exist in the wide world of _beliefs_." He spat.

"…….."

He turned from me and hobbled a few paces till he stopped and leaned on his crutches. Facing away. Sighing. "This team is dead, Noir. Stop trying to bring us back together."

Silence.

"Robin was a very thin thread, holding us all in tact. And when that thread was cut, there was nothing left to hold us together. You see…," he glanced over his shoulder at me. Cold, dark eyes. Like a dead fish. "…King Orin and my Idyllist past has nothing to do with what I am now." He gazed forward again. Away from me. "I was banished from that world. And on account of my leg, I can't make use of the forbidden realm. Much less that which is given before me."

Silence.

He hung his head. "I can't swim for life, Noir. And if Robin was alive, then maybe something would have been found to truly redeem me. To make things worthwhile for me as a superhero. But with him dead, what's left of the Titans to salvage me? They're broken and spiritless. And they should be. Red Death has consumed this City…and it will consume it again. And I am doubly useless to an already useless team with this lameness of mine. I frankly don't know what to do. And guess what? Neither does anyone else. Not even you. It's hopeless to have faith in something from which an entire fulcrum of faith has crumbled from. Everything is like a whirlpool. The elements around us are funneling with the speed of their very own dying energies to become a giant, black deathtrap into the abyss."

Silence.

He re-gripped the handles of his crutches and faced the stairwell.

"There's nothing to hope for, Noir. Not for you. Not for me. And certainly not for this C-"

_GRIP!!!_

A metal and flesh hand hoisted him up on his shoulders.

"Wha--!!!" he gasped.

He dropped his crutches.

SWOOOOOSH!!!!

I carried him across the rooftop, running.

"Hey….H-Hey….HEY!!!!" he panted.

I gritted my teeth. I gripped tighter to his shoulders as my running legs blurred. I trailed murk and--

_THWOOOOSH!!!_

The edge of the rooftop came closer.

We soared towards it.

Tempest's black eyes went wide and his lame leg flailed as he struggled against my grip helplessly. "What are you doing, man?!! What are you doing?!?!?!?!"

I held my breath.

I threw both of us off the top of Titan's Tower.

And we went plummeting….plummeting…plummeting…

In an arc.

Down towards the cold waters far below.

Tempest screamed: "**AAAAAA**AAAAaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaa_—"

_**SPLOOSH!!!!!!**_

Cold spray fountained around us.

My world turned dark and frigid as I plunged into the November waters. I twirled in the Bay, producing bubbles. My black hair and red bandanna swayed through the currents like fishtails. I kicked my feet and rocketed upwards towards the bright surface in bursts.

SPLASH!!!!!

I came to the surface with a gasp. I shuddered from the coldness. The dark waters lapped up all around my shoulder.

Sooner than I could shake the water from my ears, I felt a cold splash and then a fist plowing into my shoulder.

WHAP!!!

I winced in pain and twirled in the water.

Tempest treaded water besides me. And he was pissed. His dark eyes narrowed and his teeth showed as he howled: "You moron!!! You nearly got us killed!!!"

"…………."

He swam towards me. "Even for an Atlantean, and twenty-plus story drop into the waters is a DANGEROUS thing!! You're lucky our necks aren't snapped you stupid whaleshit-for-brains!!!"

I smiled.

"What in Neptune's name is wrong with you?!?! You've got the gall to smile?!?!"

I smiled even more.

"WHAT?!?!"

I pointed at him.

He was treading water.

He was swimming.

"……..," he looked down at himself.

I chuckled breathily—struggling against the shivering cold. I leaned my head back and nearly bobbed beneath the surface as I let out a hilarious exhale.

He bit his lip and looked up at me. His cheeks were fighting between red and blue from the embarrassment and cold. "W-Wow….don't I feel stupid…."

I chuckled breathily and exagerratingly mouthed while pointing: _'You ARE stupid'!!_

I kept snickering…nearly drowning.

"W-Wait…Wait a second!" he gasped. He opened his gills. He plunged.

I watched, my water-sheen shades staring down through the surface--

SPLOOSH!!! Tempest leapt up from the depths and into the air like a four legged dolphin. He arched his back, flipped, and plunged back down. SPLASH!!!

He skirted underneath the surface to and fro.

I smiled…shivering.

He came back up with a gasp. "I can swim…"

_Yeah, no shit……_

I smirked.

"Neptune almighty….I can swim…," he shuddered. He gazed at the City. "As much as I could before…" He spun around and tread water. "Crumbling Atlantis! Maybe even _better!!_"

I looked at him.

He smiled. "You rotten bastard!!" he joined two of his hands together and splashed me cold and hard.

SPLOOSH!!!

I chuckled, shielding myself from the spray.

He leapt at me. "Nnngh!!"

_Ha ha ha ha!!_

We wrestled, dunking each other. Two idiots in the middle of the Bay.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?!?!" He chuckled, wrestling me from behind. "You scaled the bleeding fish!!"

I summoned murk and plowed him across the water like a skipping stone.

"Daah!!" he recovered easily, treading water a dozen feet away. "Don't you know when to quit??"

I winked under my shades wetly. _So sue me._

"Unfair….UNFAIR!!" he laughed and came at me again.

I splashed him and we chased each other stupidly towards the island before our muscles gave out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"D-Did you hear something?" Beast Boy blinked.

"Hmmm?" Starfire looked over. "I am sorry. I did not."

He shrugged.

He faced out across the waters of the Bay again. He and the Tamaranian girl sat on the edge of the rock bluffs of the Tower's island, facing the East Side. Towards the Ocean.

Beast Boy picked up a lone rock, juggled it in one hand, and tossed it across the waters in a trademark fashion.

SP-SP-SP-SPLASH!!! The rock skipped across the waters a few times before plunging in.

"Glorious….," Starfire blinked. She smiled lightly at Beast Boy to her left. "You are quite an expert of the skipping of stones."

"Terra taught me how to do it," Beast Boy said. His lips curved somewhat as he juggled another rock. "She was always good at….rock stuff." He tossed the stone.

I skipped a few times and plunged.

Starfire smiled.

Beast Boy looked up at her. He blinked. "Here….," he tossed her a rock. "You try."

"???" she awkwardly caught it. She simpered. She raised her arm, squinted her green eyes, and threw it.

FLASH!!! PHWOOOOOM!!! A starbolt enveloped the rock. The waters parted six feet deep before the stone exploded a hundred yards away in a huge splash. POW!!!!

Beast Boy winced.

Starfire blushed. "Ooops…"

"What say we j-just…..enjoy the view?" Beast Boy shrugged.

"Agreed."

A beat.

The cold winds were offset by the warm rays of direct sunlight. Even a shred of the clouds were breaking. It eased their skin to a degree.

And then…

"That room…..the one with the desert theme and crap…," Beast Boy uttered. "It doesn't really remind me of Terra."

Starfire gazed at him. "Oh? Then what does, Beast Boy?"

"This…," Beast Boy waved with his arms. "Sitting here. Looking at the Bay. The City. Feeling the Earth beneath us." A beat. He looked up at the Tamaranian. "Being with friends…."

She smiled. "That must be a blessing."

He winced.

She blinked. "A curse?"

"Eh….," he rubbed the back of his neck and gazed out at the waters again. "When Terra betrayed us. I felt the pain of it everytime…I hung out with you guys. Cuz…Cuz she was such a part of us." He hugged himself. "It took a long, long time for that yucky feeling to leave the team for me."

Starfire nodded. "I understand."

He gazed up at her. "You too, huh?"

She gestured: "I felt nervous around all of my friends. Even you, Beast Boy. Suddenly my innocent world did not look so innocent anymore. It was not until much later when I realized that such friendship was stronger than the evils desiring to dismantle it. Everyone and everything in my life—I perceive—is fully redeemable. Even Terra…whom I still extend my love and admiration for, wherever she may be." She took a deep breath and ran a shaking hand through her dangling locks of red. "I think it was not until after Noir's supposed betrayal and ensuing sacrifice that I realized how true my friends were. And how true our bond was…and still is…."

"Y-Yeah….," Beast Boy nodded. A small smile. "Still is…."

"Hehehe…."

A beat.

"Robin was struggling as much as you and I, Beast Boy," Starfire said.

"Robin was?? You sure, Star?"

"Mmmhmm." She nodded. "In fact, I do believe he was becoming a much….m-much softer and gentler person up until the day he died."

"Kinda hard to believe," he muttered. "Considering how…..well……ya know…."

She glanced at him sideways.

Beast Boy bit his lip. "The evening that he died…he was…..r-really cold…."

"An unfortunate response to the terrors of the preceding day, I am most certain…," Starfire smiled. She gazed off across the waters. "I knew Robin, Beast Boy. As much as Robin was willing to reveal unto me of himself."

"…….."

"And there was a scared, and vulnerable little boy crawling up to the surface…," Starfire rubbed her hands slowly together. "I finally realized it the day 'J' supposedly affected his body and stripped Robin of his superficial shields. I saw a side of Robin that I had….always seen before, but had never been awakened to it. He came to this City for one of many reasons….which was to avoid the pain of not being able to save someone once so briefly precious and beautiful to him. And perhaps he was afraid to get too close to me in the same way that you hesitated after his death to be with anyone but yourself, Beast Boy…"

"He was afraid of losing the ones he loved…," Beast Boy muttered.

Starfire nodded. "But….," and she smiled so warmly. "That does not mean he was incapable of loving us. If even secretly. Deep down inside of him where the coldness tried to hide it." She hugged herself and sighed. "He let me hold him that one day…"

"???" Beast Boy looked at Starfire sideways.

"He let me hold him. And I praise X'Hal but for that singular moment. I would give anything to hold Robin right now…or the boy that was beneath the layer of Robin. If only to just….h-have him warm and alive in my arms. And real. But…alas….he is dead." She sighed. She looked at Beast Boy, still preserving her smile. "But I hold tightly to the memories I have of him. For I know that—even though they are all I will ever have of him from here to eternity—they are the most precious things I can and will have. And I am thankful for that. Robin still lives on in my Tamaranian soul because of that."

Beast Boy's lips parted. He gazed down at the stones. "I….I-I wish could be that all together and stuff."

"…….," Starfire leaned her head to the side.

He gulped. "About….About Terra…."

"Oh Beast Boy…," she cooed with a soft smile. "Surely you could try, if you wanted?"

"…..," the green elf rubbed his chin. He gazed across the waters. After a while, he smiled.

Starfire's Tamaranian eyebrows raised.

"There was this one time….," Beast Boy smirked. "Terra and I were playing Kung Fu Chaos on the Xbox. And we were sitting on the couch. Sweating…really getting into it, ya know. And suddenly—like—there's this farting sound…."

Starfire blinked.

Beast Boy gestured: "And I was like….'Dude!! You so let one!' And Terra was like 'No I didn't, that was you!' And I said: 'Nuh uh! I didn't have breakfast cuz I was too busy trying to wake you up!' And then Terra killed my guy on the video game and said: 'See?? That's what you get for being a doo-doo head!!' And so I was like 'Dude!!' And she was like: 'Plblblblblb!!!!' And I wrestled with her. And she pounced on me. And there we were, tumbling all over the floor with the controllers bonking us in the head and she was like 'Say Uncle!' And I was like 'No, you say Uncle!' And she said: 'I haven't got an Uncle!' And I started laughing and saying that that was _TOTALLY_ lame. And so she growled and put me in a choke hold. And then I turned into a snake and morphed back into an elf behind her and grabbed her waist. And she started giggling cuz my gloves was tickling her midriff or something. And she tried to wrangle out of my grasp and then the back part of her shirt lifted and I was like: 'You're wearing a training bra?!?! Aren't you too old for that?!?!' And Terra was like: 'You pervert!' And I laughed and then……………....she punched me."

"…………………….," Starfire blinked.

"……………………..," Beast Boy rubbed the back of his neck. "And then….uhm….._w-we had some ice cream_??"

"Awwwwwwwww!!!!"

"Triple fudge! With marshmallows!"

"Awwwwwwwww!!!" Starfire floated down and hugged the stuffings out of him. "That is sooooo cuuuuuuuuute!!!"

Beast Boy wheezed. "I guess it's something good to remember."

Starfire winked. "I shall have to believe your insistence."

"Although….," Beast Boy's eyes trailed.

"Hmmm??"

He snickered. "We later found out it was a character in the video game that farted."

"Hehehehehe!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It still feels…..so natural. Like breathing. Like opening my eyes after a brief nap…."

I looked at Tempest.

We both sat on the steps of Titan's Tower. Soaking wet. But gradually drying.

The afternoon was waning into early evening. A soft yawn of darkening November.

He rubbed his fingers together and stared down into the concrete with tiny white irises.

"…I know that Raven helped heal Dagger's knife wound some….but that's insane. My leg couldn't be working that soon. It's….It's….."

I leaned my head to the side. I waited until the Atlantean was looking at me squarely before I mouthed: _'A miracle?'_

"……..," he ran a nervous hand through his hair. But a corner of his lips were curved.

I smiled.

He sighed. "Surprises….Surprises….Surprises." A swallow. "Who am I to dictate the energies of this world?" He stared up towards the sky and the steel chest of the Tower running up towards the clouds. "Of this universe?"

"………."

A beat.

He hugged himself and shuddered.

"Tula…what did you know that I have been struggling to grasp sense? There was something on the threshold of darkness….something so small and yet so bright and beautiful. You tried to hand it to me, but your fingers were already cold. What was that paradoxical joy? What is that message of oblivion that I still need to find before the curtain of darkness falls over me and everything I am and everything I know touches the face of infinity and gasps?"

He bit his lip.

He leaned forward.

He exhaled.

"I don't know what there is to look forward to anymore, Tula. And I won't know until I am lost to myself like you fell from my embrace so long ago…."

His dark eyes thinned.

Like he was looking for a lost city in the murky depths of some endless ocean bottom.

His lips parted and the truth came out from his soul in a hissing sensation.

"…until then…..all I have….all that I'll ever have to hold onto……is……..is f-faith….."

"……….," I looked at him.

His mouth opened more. His eyes widened. He tilted his gaze up and stood up on two strong, wet legs. "I need to go somewhere."

I blinked.

He spun around and ran inside the Tower. "Now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wednesday Night Fellowship.

The broadside of the gym inside Urban Faith Academy had a stage erected with carpeted plates four feet off the baskeball sidelines. A cleanly dressed band of musicians in their late teens—students one and all—played two guitars, a drum set, and a keyboard. A chorus of six girls and two boys lined up in the back. Everybody's body rocked with the music as the group played an upbeat version of "Shine, Jesus, Shine". A rather ghetto overhead display light cast words written on transparencies of the lyrics. A volunteer switched the pages as different lyrics were approached. The lead guitarist stood before a mike and would randomly spout out the first lines of the next chorus or bridge of the song so that the congregation could join in.

The congregation….

Well over two hundred students gathered that evening. They stood before a thick arrangement of folding chairs across the floor of the indoor basketball court. They faced the stage and sang the words they knew by heart in a gentle thunder of exaltation. Their bodies rocked back and forth. Some clapped. Some had their hands raised. A few others had their eyes shut…as if overcome by some otherworldly communion.

Three youth pastors of the church/school stood in chairs to the side of the stage. The speaker of that evening had his hands folded and was eyeing the floor. His lips murmured as if he was meditating on the words he was to present that service.

This was the scene that Tempest walked into.

He stood in a dark jacket, a white undershirt, and black jeans. He stood in the back of the gym…barely beyond the reach of the doors. A few greeters were chatting with both regulars and newcomers alike a few feet away from him besides old, brown tables. The entirety of the youthful service could be seen from that vantage point.

Tempest dug his hands deeply into his pocket and stood like a perfect wallflower. As if he didn't already look (or felt) awkward enough, he had on a pair of shades hiding his white on black eyes. Hiding his identity.

He stared at the service. He tuned in to the singing. He bit his lip and let out a winded sigh.

"Hi there…."

"???" he glanced aside.

A woman in her mid forties had shuffled over to him. She seemed quite out of place next to the youths in the building. Her nametag suggested she was an off-duty teacher at the Academy. The woman had on the kindest smile in the world as she gently greeted him: "Are you a visitor?"

"Uhm…..kinda sorta….," Tempest sweatdropped. "To be honest, I'm looking for someone."

"Oh, that we all are. Many are called but few are chosen. We're glad to have you with us this evening."

"………………yeah…."

"You look uncomfortable standing there like that. If you like there're some seats available. Would you like one of our ushers to—"

"Uh…n-no thanks….please…," he simpered. "I think I'll just…erm……," he fidgeted. He smiled nervously and shrugged. "Your God doesn't consider it a sin for one to stand around some, does he?"

She chuckled. "I should say not! I'm just worried about your legs, is all!"

"No no…my legs are…….," he blinked. "…..fine…."

"Here…," she offered him a three-folded printout. "This is tonight's sermon. Pastor Rutland just got back from his missionary trip to Guatemala. He's leading a prayer service after the sermon for the families hurt by recent events in this City. So many people have come tonight, we're blessed to have you as well."

"I see…uhm….thanks."

"You're welcome. God bless…," and she gracefully went back to her greeting table.

"…..," Tempest gazed at her. Then out at the praise and worship again.

The group had finished the previous song. The tempo changed as the keyboarder drifted the music into the next ballad. The volunteer grabbed a new batch of transparencies. The words '_Lord Prepare me to be a sanctuary'_ splashed across the overhead display, and soon the band sang with the choir alternating between male and female vocalists and the meditative congregation in turn.

"Hmmm…..," Tempest shrugged. He opened his pamphlet. His dark eyes scanned down the program of proceedings. The names of the musicians and worship leaders. Pastor Rutland. 'Selections from: Romans chapter Five'.

Tempest blinked.

"Romans….weren't those the guys that bastardized Zeus' and Poseidon's names?"

A beat.

He shrugged.

Time passed.

The congregation grew quieter and quieter.

The band left the stage.

The pastor walked up, approached the mike, cleared his throat, and uttered: "Please be seated."

The congregation shuffled and sat down.

Tempest shifted nervously where he stood.

The man opened a book full of notes down onto his podium, took a moment, folded his fingers together, and spoke:

"Paul the Apostle….in his letters to the Romans….wrote on hope…in the face of struggle and hardship. In the beginning of Romans Chapter Five…if you will turn in your Bibles to the very first verse…" A slight pause as everyone flipped pages then, with a breath: "'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in _tribulations_ also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, _hope:_ And _hope maketh not ashamed;_ because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us'."

After reading, the pastor lifted his eyes and gestured: "I am proud—this evening—to be speaking to so many of you. And I am even prouder to see faces that I do not recognize from my last time here at Urban Faith Academy. I believe that the Holy Ghost is moving in all of us. That—as always—God responds to times of trouble and times of foreboding. I believe that God has an answer to every tool of death and plan of the Deceiver, and God uses us as the vessels for spreading His Word and His Love and His Joy to those most needing. And right now, brothers and sisters in Christ, there are so many people in need of the strength and of the patience given to us by the touch of the Holy Spirit. Tonight, let us pray for those hurt in this City. Let us intercede upon their behalf with the faith that God will return them hope, and that these tribulations shall be the building blocks of something far greater than evil despots could ever dare to crumble."

Tempest took a deep breath. And as the pastor spoke on and the congregation bowed its throng of heads, his dark eyes scanned the gymnasium.

And he couldn't see that which he came for.

He sighed, clenching his fists back in his pockets.

"She's not here…."

Defeated, he turned his back on the sermon….and ran into a freckled face.

He stepped back. Blinking.

She stared at him calmly.

"……"

"……"

She brought a hand up and bashfully moved a strand of stringy blonde hair up over her ear with a rattle of tiny dolphins.

But she wasn't blushing.

"Hey….," she said.

He swallowed. He nodded. "Hey."

"……….."

"……….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a darkened hallway lined with lockers, the two stood. A glint of light filtered in from the cross-hatched glass of the gym/school doors. The echoing voice of the pastor through the speakers filtered in muffledly through the walls, but not so loud that the two youngsters couldn't hear each other as they hushedly spoke across the cold corridor:

"Your leg is better."

"Yeah."

A beat.

"I'm….I-I'm glad…," she murmured.

He half-looked at her, as if she was on fire. "I'm…I'm thankful…."

She glanced at him, her hands behind her back. She danced slowly back and forth from one leg to another. "Thankful? You thought…I-I might not be glad for it?"

"After last time we met, who would blame you?" Tempest uttered.

"…….," she was silent.

He looked up at her. He swallowed: "Are you mad at me?"

Her lips curved somewhat, but she wasn't looking at him. "I have had my time to be mad. And I have had my time to cry…"

He winced.

She went on: "But somehow….I knew we would meet again." She looked up. "I knew you would come."

He leaned his head to the side. Inquisitively.

She replied to the muteness: "Because you're searching, Tempest. From the very first day you paid me a second visit….I knew that you were searching."

"Just….that?" Tempest blinked. "Searching?"

She ran a nervous hand through her stringy blonde hair. "Yeah…."

He fidgeted, pacing gently through the dark hall. "I….suppose you're right. But…."

"But what?"

He had his back to her. He sighed. "It just doesn't excuse what I've been doing lately. To myself. To everyone around me…."

"………."

He turned and looked at her. He took a shuddering breath. "I have to apologize….I…I didn't come to this place to find God or something. I was looking for you."

She smiled. "Duh."

Tempest blinked at that.

She giggled: "Go on…."

"Ahem…," he rubbed his neck nervously and said: "I wanted to see you ever since earlier today when…I felt something…."

"You felt something?"

"It was like….like….," he fingered the air for something. He took a breath. He looked at her and lowered his eyelids as he thought aloud: "Like a spark. A tiny match paradoxically being lit underwater. The very thing I was looking for all this time suddenly appeared before me. It took the moment of my finding out that I could still swim for it to happen. I found it…..only….what I was looking for wasn't an 'it'…."

She leaned her head to the side, lips parted.

He reopened his eyes. He stepped towards her: "It….It was you. You are the hope that I refuse to believe exists. You are…are…," he fumbled. He sighed. He shrugged. "….I wish I could describe it. I wish I could put it in words."

She stared at him. She blinked. "Try….," she uttered.

He complied: "All that I've longed for in these days of my life…all that I've been searching for….it isn't a God. It isn't some way to break a cycle of reincarnation. It isn't Nirvana or Communion. All I want…..is a reason for existing in a world. When more than half the world has banished me from its environment and the scant wasteland that is left is moronic and troublesome to me…." He looked at her. "All I want from hope is hope itself." He swallowed. "When Tula died, all of my hope should have gone away with her. But she knew better. She knew something that I didn't at the time know, because I was so engulfed with my one and only beloved leaving me. She wanted me to live on. To find a purpose of my own that isn't bound to her once beautiful and throbbing corpse."

Tempest paused. He choked a bit…then withdrew into the shadows to hide the moistness in his already shadowy eyes. He shuddered and spoke: "I do not see anything beyond the death that surrounds us. I do not have anything to hope for once my mortality is complete. The fact that my swimming leg is working doesn't do much to console me about the infinite bleakness of the universe. But it did make me think of those around me. Those whom I would have had nothing to do with if Tula was still alive. People like Robin. That moron swordsman who threw me off the top of Titan's Tower earlier today…."

Lindsay blinked.

Tempest looked up at her. He said: "And then there's you. You show me that there's hope to be had in this universe, Lindsay. Because….you have so much hope. And so much gentleness. And so much joy and kindness and optimism…..to a total, asshole stranger like me. Basking in that seemingly stupid compassion and empathy for all things that will someday be no more is what…..makes life worth living. And telling you to never see me again is worse than losing any leg. I'd sooner cut off my lower limbs and live life rolling across dry land than try and push someone as charming and selfless a friend as you away ever again. The long and short of it…I guess…."

And sooner than they both knew it, his hands drifted out and were touching her hands. Gently.

He took a shuddering breath as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I….I am sorry, Lindsay. I am so….so very sorry for being the weak and heartless person that I am. There are so many things in life for me to be thankful for. But I guess…no…I choose…," he looked at her. "I choose to have faith. Faith in you. Faith in my friends. But most of all…faith in you. Because you know something that I don't. And that's a good enough bait to dangle in front of this fish's snout anyday."

She exhaled a giggled and fingered his palms. Her head tilted down, and she seemed to be sniffing for some reason.

He craned his neck to the side. "Linday…..are you allright? Have I said the wrong thing?"

She swallowed and looked at him with a weak smile, her eyes wet. "Though….I would quickly say that you need to have faith in….Someone else besides me. I am glad that you came around, Tempest. It's….answered my prayer."

"Your prayer?"

"Ever since you stumbled into my silly little diner…," she breathed. "…you've been all about saving people. Rescuing folks from the City when everything turned back. Then Bonnie, me, and my friends in the subway tunnels. All your time here you think you've been selfish and a…uhm….," she glanced out at the gym and chose her words: "…butthole, but if only you knew…." She looked at him. "I've prayed that someone or something would save you. And I know you don't…..pr-probably don't believe in God and stuff. But I think He's moving in you. If I need to be the one He uses to show you the light…then I'd be glad to—"

"Is that all the hope that I see is, Lindsay?" Tempest leaned forward. "You trying to save me? Show me your God?"

She quickly replied hushedly: "Has it always been you trying to save me from bullet wounds, Tempest?"

"………."

"Trying to….duck my head down when crazy henchmen jump into the alley or red-eyed freaks with shotguns come charging into Bayside Plaza or—"

Tempest hugged Lindsay.

She let out a breath.

He held her close. His eyes clenched shut over her shoulders. He shuddered and said: "All I want….is the hope of having hope. And I have that right here…" His arms held her tighter. "…I don't know why. But I'm not going to try and find out _why_. Because I've learned…that every time I try and rationalize things…I fall back into the abyss of Tula's dead eyes and I am lost unto myself. I don't want to be alone again….I don't want to be banished again…and most of all, I don't want anyone else I know like Robin going into that black abyss without my having a chance to _join them._ To be with them. To actually be connected to something greater and more purposeful for once."

She took a deep breath over his shoulder and hugged back. "I would like that too, Tempest. Only….," she parted the hug and held his shoulders…looking into his eyes. "….I think life is best living for life, than for death."

Tempest blinked. He swallowed and nodded: "Then I suppose I have a lot to learn…"

She smiled gently. "I think you've learned a lot already."

He simpered.

She hugged him again. She exhaled: "Thank you."

He closed his eyes and spoke in her ear: "Thank **you**."

The two swayed gently in the dark hallway.

At least….

Until Tempest's Titan communicator vibrated annoyingly--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WRII!! WRII!! WRII!!_

"!!!" I jumped. I was halfway through entering the Main Room when the alarms and lights sounded all around me. Raven and Cyborg were at opposites sides of the room. As various symbols of emergency nature flashed across the main computer screen, they both jumped to their feet and met in the center.

I bit my lip. Looking at the two of them.

_I had come in there to speak to them. _

_I needed to tell them--_

"Trouble!" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Already??" Raven remarked.

Cyborg pointed at a map that he typed into view on the screen. "Just north of Downtown! On the corner of Weston and Twenty-Sixth!"

Raven blinked. "That's….That's where the last great excavation is taking place." She looked back at me. Then at Cyborg. "That's where the Jefferson Building was. It fell, remember?"

Cyborg nodded. "It can't be good then. There're reports of gunshots and explosions."

"Explosions…."

A mutual shudder fell through all our weary bodies.

"'Go' time…," Cyborg muttered. He slammed his titanium palm over the intercom button and shouted through the speaker system: "Star!! B.B.!! Flipper!! We've got a problem!! Possible armed shootout in the Downtown!! Meet me at the coordinates that I signal you!!"

I cracked my knuckles. I tightened Myrkblade's ready scabbard behind my back and took a shuddering breath.

_CREEAK._

Both Cyborg and I looked to our right.

Raven was at the window. She had it open and was halfway through stepping out into the cold air. She looked ready to hover City-ward.

"Rae!" Cyborg held his hand up. "Wait for me!"

"What for….?"

"T-Car's kinda sorta on the fritz of death right now," he shrugged. "And my body's still shorted out, so I can't do my boot rockets and—"

"If you need a lift, wait for Starfire," Raven droned. "There're potential victims at this shootout. We need Titans to get there as soon as possible. Now….Noir and I are already ready." She glanced back at me with a nod. "We'll go and take point. You and the other four can come last."

"Raven, I'm the Titan leader!!" Cyborg frowned. "I need to be at the forefront of the action in order to make a good strategy—"

"Not today, you're not!" Raven frowned back. "Noir, let's go—"

Cyborg walked over and—GRIP!! He had Raven by the wrist.

I bit my lip.

"Let go of me!" she hissed.

He pointed with his free hand: "We stick together, got it?!?"

_Guys……_

I walked forward with metal arm outstretched.

"Cyborg, if you want this done right—"

_Guys……please, just--_

"After all the Hell that's happened this week, do you really think I'm gonna just let you go and—"

"Stop trying to _**protect me!!!!**_" Raven shouted.

I winced to a stop.

Cyborg was quieted.

Raven growled and snapped her wrist free of his grip. She scowled at him: "I know what the risk is!! I have always known what the risk in the life I live. I was born with enough risk as it is! I'm sorry if you're so dense in that metal head of your that you couldn't have woken up to the death all around us only after Robin passed away!!!"

"Raven…," Cyborg said calmly. "Please….let's go together…."

She took a deep breath. She lowered her eyes. "You never learn….," and she drifted out the window. !"

I exhaled.

A beat.

I looked at Cyborg.

Cyborg had his fists clenched.

He looked at me.

A snarl.

"You heard the 'Titan Queen'!! Go on ahead, dammit!!!"

I winced again. I tried not to look at Cyborg's huffing figure as I walked up to the door—CHIIIING—pulled out Myrkblade, took a breath, and blurred down. I ran across the cold waters into the cold night and into the colder City.

_I missed my chance._

_I missed it…… _

_What if we were about to head into something terrible? _

_I'd never get the chance again. _

_And only half of the Titans would---_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**POW!!!!**

A throng of police officers shouted and ran away from flaming debris scattering over a barrier.

A military truck screeched to a stop.

Twelve infantrymen poured out with assault rifles.

A sergeant shouted them into formation and ordered them to prepare their weapons.

Across the police force's side of the shootout, Lieutenant Smith scrambled up to his feet and hobbled across the dark intersection north of the City's Downtown. He hissed in pain and reached a hand out to the sergeant while dragging a pistol in the other. "Wait! Wait! Pull your men back!!"

The sergeant looked over, glaring. "This is out of your jurisdiction. I'm out of strict orders to silence any armed terrorists in this City following the rise of Dagger—"

"—until the official reconstruction and excavation of the damaged City is complete….yeah, I know," the Lieutenant nodded. "But hasn't there been enough bloodshed—"

"Sir, I am doing this for you and your City," the sergeant growled. "We have no nonlethal tools anywhere nearby. If we need to quiet this violence, we must act now!!"

**BOOOM!!!**

A grenade exploded out along the perimeter of the half-collapsed Jefferson Building.

The Lieutenant winced.

The soldiers remained alert, weapons raised.

Workers and volunteers hiding far back to the rear of the street gasped and shrieked in alarm.

The Lieutenant panted. "At least wait for the Titans to get here and—"

SWOOOOSH!!!

I blurred to a stop besides the men.

Raven floated down a few feet away with a ruffle of her cloak.

The sergeant did a double-take.

"Smith….," Raven droned.

The Lieutenant looked over.

"The rest are coming soon," Raven said. "Please….we'll handle this."

"……," the Lieutenant looked over at the military officer.

The sergeant took a deep breath. He scratched his chin. "Nnnngh…..wyrd Town."

I simpered.

He shouted to the soldiers.

They stood down.

The sergeant gave us a glaring eyes. He pointed. "You've got twenty minutes."

I held all my fingers up and mouthed: 'Ten'. I winked under my shades.

"……..," the sergeant watched.

Raven and I walked aside with the Lieutenant, slowly creeping towards the center of the shootout. At random moments, jarring explosions and bulletshots would echo from the collapsed building.

"What's the story?" Raven uttered.

"First off, where's Cyborg?"

"He's coming…," Raven said, a little frustrated. "Tell us what we're facing here."

The Lieutenant cocked his pistol and shook. He seemed to be missing an awful lot of sleep.

"Looters," he said.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Looters?"

"Some workers caught them raiding the cash deposits of a department store three blocks from here," the Lieutenant said. He spoke while the three of us crouched beside a couple of other officers and a concrete barricade. "There were six of them. The volunteers tried to detain them. They had a pistol, and went running on foot. Three available police officers pursued them. They holed up in here….and suddenly started launching grenades and machine gun fire out on us."

"Grenades?? That sounds like more than looters."

"Someone went up the eighth floor of Borneo Inc. across the way," he pointed at a tall skyscraper behind us. "They surveyed the collapsed interior of what's left of the Jefferson building. It looks like there was one last cache of heavy weaponry half-hidden under the rubble."

I looked at Raven. I mouthed: _'Dagger'_.

She nodded. "His stuff is like landmines. Who knows how many other stockpiles of his may have survived the warzone?"

"Looks like the looters are making good use of it," the Lieutenant said. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the nearby barricades with a chillingly familiar sound. We flinched. He said: "We can't just wait them out. They've got enough stuff to wipe out half the block!"

"Don't worry," Raven droned. "We'll take them out."

I nodded.

"Just you two??" the Lieutenant panted. "Shouldn't you wait for the other Titans?"

"We've got no time."

"No offense….but even for just you two, this is kinda sorta dangerous. Decker would toss you kids in—I'm sure—but I on the other hand—"

A scraping sound.

"???" We all looked over.

A manhole cover peeled itself off from the inside out. A splash of sewer water, and Tempest vaulted up and into view. He landed. Still wearing civilian clothes, he crouch-walked over towards us. Smiling. "Hey there. Trouble?"

Raven's eyes narrowed. "Where were you?"

"Church."

"……….."

"Long story," Tempest looked at me. He flicked his shades off and into my grasp. "Thanks for letting me borrow them."

I blinked.

_I didn't let you borrow any of my sunglasses--_

A beat.

My black optics narrowed.

_Boy, do you look cheery……_

Tempest smiled. He smiled……and looked back at Raven and the Lieutenant. "So what's the game plan?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The three of us crept up the outer mountain of rubble.

The sounds of six panicked voices emanated from the other side of debris.

I had Myrkblade raised.

Raven had her hood over her head, and her eyes were glowing a slight gray of meditation.

Tempest looked around, found some loose pipes, and flicked his wrist towards them. His eyes turned purple. The pipes shook. He exhaled, and smirked over at us: "Got some water, peops. How're we going to do this?"

"First off, we scout," Raven said. She looked at me. "Noir…use those eyes of yours."

"………," I stared at her.

She looked towards the top of the hill.

I took a breath.

Mentally, I rambled…

_Raven…… _

_About you and Cyborg._

She looked at me again. Her eyes narrowing curiously.

I leaned my head to the side.

_The Titans need you. _

_Both of you…… _

_Not just one each--_

"What are you doing??" she hissed.

I winced.

"There's no time! Hurry!"

"Get a move on, partner!" Tempest merrily winked and kicked me lightly in the rear.

I gritted my teeth.

_Don't make me toss you off another building……_

I covered myself in a concentrated shroud of murk. My body turned invisible. I took a deep breath and slowly crept up the hill of debris. I reached the top. Invisible, I stared down. A beat. I closed my eyes. I took my shades off with a cloaked hand. I reopened my black eyes, wide and attentive.

In my bright world, I saw three figures out in the open. They stood besides open crates of weapons in a square patch of clear concrete. Two figures rested in the shadows of the naked and gaping upper stories above. And the sixth….

I narrowed my black eyes.

I scanned the shadows of the upper stories.

And on the fifth level, I saw…

One figure with a grenade launcher taking aim and--

POW!!!

SWIIIIISH!!

The grenade landed obscenely closed to me.

I gasped and jumped back.

**BOOOM!!**

I tumbled down the debris, lost my stealth mode, and slid to a stop between the two Titans.

"…..," I winced.

"Nice one," Tempest smirked.

I glared up at him.

_You're too happy……_

"What did you see?" Raven asked.

I sat upright. I slid my shades back on. I brushed a pile of debris smooth. I drew a square with my metal finger. I made three dots then held up three fingers.

"Three people…."

I drew a line besides the square. I put two dots between the line. I motioned 'under' with my hands.

"Two taking cover…."

I counted 'up' with my finger, held it up, and then planted a dot on a tiny rise of rubble above the rest of the ghetto 'diagram'.

"They've got a monkey," Tempest said.

"Three groups," Raven said. "The bulk of them are on the bottom." She adjusted her hood and looked at us. "We can take them, Titans. Noir, you're good at close combat. Your speed will be in-their-face and overwhelming. But not overwhelming enough." She looked over. "Tempest. Summon enough water to douse the crooks ahead of time as a distraction for Noir."

"And you, Missy?"

"I'll take the high road," she said. "I'll take out the man high up, then provide the rest of you cover and shielding."

"Gotcha," Tempest winked. He looked over at the pipes. He clenched his fists. With a purple glow, a stream of water snaked up into the air, collected into a thick sphere of liquid, and hovered over him.

I took a deep breath. I clutched Myrkblade's hilt tightly with flesh fingers.

"Okay…..," Raven droned meditatively. "When I give the signal…you first, Tempest. Then you dive in, Noir. And I'll go high."

"Roger."

I nodded.

Raven held her breath. Her eyes glowed.

"……"

She rocketed up into the air. "Titans! Go!!"

"NNNGH!!" Tempest flung the water over the hill of debris.

"!!!!!" I blurred up.

SPLOOOSH!!!

"Augh!!!" five voices cried out from beyond the hill.

SWOOOOOOOSH!!! I blurred over, dove, and raised Myrkblade over my head. Teeth gritting.

I descended on the three foremost gunmen right as Tempest's water had finished fountaining--

SL-SLASH!!!!

I slapped two guns out of their grip with my sword.

The third gasped and was already aiming an uzzi at me.

I skidded to a stop, wincing.

_Crud._

SWOOOSH!! Tempest dove in on an extra burst of water.

WHAM!!! He jump-kicked the creep across the face. The man went plummeting to the concrete floor beneath Tempest's figure.

"Wooo!" Tempest pumped his arm.

I looked at him. I simpered--

WHUMP!! One of the two men punched me in the ribs.

I stumbled back, wincing.

_Dammit. Forgot--_

The second was in the middle of picking up his shotgun.

I swung Myrkblade at him.

CLANK!!! He blocked with the metal of the rifle.

"YAUGH!!" Tempest pounced on his back and put him in a strangle hold. The two wrestled.

I turned and faced the first man.

He growled and swung his fist at me.

"…..," I easily ducked.

He limped past me, gasping.

I raised Myrkblade.

_Yeah……sure…_

THWACK!! WHAM!!! SLAP!!!

I struck him three times in three separate places with the broadside of my weapon.

He stumbled down cold.

I panted.

I heard footsteps.

I looked towards the base of the remains of the building.

The other two men ran out with machine guns. They shouted and took aim.

I gasped and prepared to tackle Tempest and his opponent down--

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

Bullets flew.

FLASH!!!

A black shield curtained down between us and the two coming out of the shadows. Their bullets pinged and ricocheted off, causing them to flinch in surprise.

I panted. I looked straight up.

Raven floated overhead with her hand outstretched.

"Help Tempest!" she shouted.

I blinked. I almost pointed—

_Aren't you supposed be handling--_

"GO AWAY!!!" shouted the man on the fifth floor. He panted hysterically and fired his grenade launcher at the dark girl.

"!!!!"

Raven turned, saw the explosive projectile, and twirled away at the last second.

The grenade fell at us.

I gasped. I blurred. I dove aside with a pulse of murk and slashed Myrkblade up in midfall.

SWIIISH-CLANK!!!

I knocked the grenade up and into the clear center of the debris field.

_**BOOOM!!!**_

Tempest and the wrestling man collapsed from the shaking explosion.

Raven's dark shield fell.

The two men with machine guns ran out, firing.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!!!

P-P-PING!!!

Bullets splashed all around the flames and smoke.

I gritted my teeth and slowly stood up amidst the chaos.

_This is going well……_

"I said….SCREW OFF!!!"

POW!!! **BOOOM!!**

From above.

I looked up.

The man was firing again at Raven.

She skirted past his shot, deflected the grenade away with a flick of her telekinetic wrist and landed a growling kick into his chest.

WHUMP!!!

"Augh!!" he teetered on the crumbled edge of the building. He swung the grenade launcher like a bat.

Raven ducked. She twirled. She flung her palm at him. FLASH!!! A black talon encased his writhing body and shoved all five stories down.

WHAM!!!

The breath was knocked out of him as he impacted the concrete.

He let go of the grenade launcher.

It flew a few feet, landed awkwardly on its butt, and—

Fired.

POW!!!!

And….from the awkward angle…a grenade was launched upwards.

It flew…and it flew…

Towards Raven.

I stepped forward with a sweaty gasp. I whistled. Shrilly.

Her eyes flicked--

The grenade landed in the building face behind her.

She gasped and surrounded herself in an impromptu cocoon--

_**BLAM!!!!**_

"Nnngh!!" the girl cried and flew outward from the concussion of the blast.

Unconscious in midair.

My jaw dropped.

_Raven!!!_

She fell and--

SKRRRTTT!!!

Her robe got caught in a jagged arm of metal jutting out from the building face. She dangled precariously—six stories up—from the torn blue fabric of her outfit.

I panted. I looked to my right. I found a mountain of debris leading up roughly to her level.

Smoke danced out from under my shades.

SWOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred up the debris mountain, leaving the shots of gunfire behind me. Leaving Tempest to fair for myself—which I somehow knew he could and would. Or maybe I didn't care.

I ran to Raven.

But halfway to her too---I stopped.

I knelt in the middle of the inclined mountain of debris.

Breathing heavily.

_No……_

I gazed fearfully at her dangling body.

Her gentle, unconscious form.

_No…………_

I swallowed sorely.

I could have saved her.

I could have easily reached out and grabbed her.

But I didn't.

_I'm not the one. _

_I'm not the one……_

I took a deep breath.

And….

Stayed put.

Raven dangled.

Sounds of gunshots below me.

Crooks gasping and fighting a Titan.

I stayed put.

Raven's blue cloak ripped more.

She was on the edge of the brink.

A relapse of warzone beneath her.

Flame and smoke.

I stayed put.

Panting, I turned around.

I looked over my shoulder.

Black eyes narrow.

Struggling against the sweat coming down my brow.

_Come on……come on……_

Gunshots.

Tempest's shouts.

Raven's cloak ripping.

_Come on……_

Starfire's voice.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

The shrieking sound of a green pterodactyl.

Cyborg shouting orders.

_Cyborg……_

They were here.

The crooks gasped and shouted all the more as the three figures joined the fray.

The enemies were being beaten back.

Tempest said something.

Beast Boy said something back.

And Cyborg: "Hey!! Where're the others??!"

Starfire: "Our friends are unaccounted for!!"

Beast Boy: "Noir?? Raven??"

"Nnngh!!" Cyborg's voice shouted. A slamming sound. Then a thug's body dropping to the floor. His voice panted. "Where's Raven?? Raven???" A dramatic pause. A shadow far beneath me. Then. "Oh no…"

Raven dangled.

I crouched low.

Taking a huge breath.

_Please……Cyborg……please……_

"Oh no…no no no…RAVEN!! HOLD ON!!!"

Her fabric ripped more.

I could still save her.

I stayed put.

Sweating.

Breathing hard.

Stomping sounds of titanium feet rumbled up the mountain of rubble.

Closer and closer.

"Hold on!! I'm coming!!"

His metal and flesh skull came into view. Huffing….puffing…

I timed it just right.

I held my breath and--

SWOOSH!!

I turned invisible with a cloaking shroud of murk.

Cyborg ran right past me.

I stayed perfectly still.

I craned my invisible neck.

I watched….

Cyborg ran up, jumped with a shout, and landed on the half-crumbled ledge just above Raven.

He sprinted towards her, panting.

And Raven….

The girl was just then awaking.

Weak….groggy.

She took one look down past her dangling legs.

And she gasped.

Violet eyes wide.

Face twice as pale.

_RIIIIIIP!!!!_

Her robe finally gave way.

A cry escaped her lips as she fell--

GRIP!!!!

Cyborg's hand grabbed her arm.

She gasped.

And the dark girl was swiftly hoisted up and—before she could so much as utter a word—deep into Cyborg's embrace.

Embrace….

I blinked. Watching like the ghost I was.

Cyborg hugged her petite frame tightly into his metal chest. He had one hand in the small of her back. His other fingers dug into her soft head. His head was tilted over and his human eye clenched shut as he breathed deeply….deeply…

She trembled against him. Her eyes wide and staring past him as if beholding a pale horse.

"Cy-Cyborg….what….wh-what….?" She incoherently uttered.

"Shhh….shhh….just….p-please….," he stammered. "Be here. Just be here…."

She gulped something down her throat. She calmed down some. The trembling lessened, but didn't go away. However…the ferocity in her psyche from earlier that night seemed suddenly gone. So it was with a spirit of awe rather than irascibility that she pushed at his chest and parted their hug some. Some….but not entirely. She gazed up at him.

"Cyborg…..how did you—"

"I almost lost you, girl….," Cyborg shuddered. "Dammit…this is why I want us all together!! This is why I don't want us branching out anymore in this Hellish City of ours!!"

"Cyborg…," she calmly droned. She closed her eyes, swallowed again, and then reopened to gaze weakly at him. "Please, I—"

"Please _nothing!!"_ he said loudly.

She flinched. She trembled.

Cyborg held her shoulders and looked down at her. Straight in the eyes. "We all lost Robin. We all lost Terra. We all practically lost every god damn thing that's been innocent to us in this City!! I am not and will not lose you!! No matter what you say!! And you can shove me all you want and you can yell at me all you want but tough shit, Raven!!"

"Cyborg, I—"

"—need me!!"

She bit her lip.

He took a breath. "And I need you too. But you need me, Raven. That doesn't make you weak. Just admit it for once and be _strong_ in some way that you've never given yourself the pleasure of being so before!!"

"Cy-Cyborg??" Raven shook her head. "It won't work. It'll never work!!"

"Show. Me."

"…………"

"…………"

Raven stopped trembling.

Cyborg never stopped looking at her.

"……….."

"………."

They slowly tilted their heads together.

I craned my neck.

My lips parted.

And my black eyes blinked.

It wasn't until an eternal five seconds later that their kiss ended. And when it did…like the touch of death…Raven fell into Cyborg's chest. Her eyes were brimming with tears like I had never seen them stream before. Even in the lonely, confused depths of Mortuana.

Cyborg held her chest. He whispered: "Are we struck by lightning yet, Rae?"

She sniffed once. She sobbed out a: "No….."

He ran his fingers through her silky hair. "You can do this, Rae." A beat. "**We…**can do this. Whatever it takes. Even IF that 'big bad demon father' of yours shows his ugly head…I'll kick his sorry ass from here to Apokolips. I love you too much to stop short of this, Raven. God, I love you too much…."

She released.

"I love you t-too, Cyborg…," she sniffed. She sobbed. She buried her head into his chest. "I'm so sorry….Azar, I'm so sorry. I never wanted to make you suffer another loss. You or any of the others….I'm so sorry…"

"Shhh….just be here, Rae. Just be here….," he rocked her gently in their embrace. "It's okay….we've got each other….it's okay……"

"I-I'm so scared to do this…..so scared to love you…..I don't know what will h-happen…."

"Shhh….Neither do I, Rae. Neither do I. But we'll find out together, you hear? We'll find out together……Together…."

And she kept sobbing.

And he kept holding her.

And I watched.

Silent.

And…

A smile came to my lips.

So painful.

And yet so thankful.

And painful yet again.

I took a shuddering breath, sheathed my sword, and turned around.

I descended the mountain of rubble.

I didn't know if I was invisible or not anymore.

I didn't care…

I didn't care….

…….

_Dear Diana……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_We are the Titans. _

_In pleasure and in pain. In trust and in tribulations. Our hope and faith endures._

_Starfire has remembered her briefly forgotten penchant for Tamaranian joy. I feel that she's been under these dark clouds of Terra Firma for so long that she's almost adapted to human kind's misery. But all of that is gone now. And though the scars of Robin's passing shall forever remain—as they will in all of us—she has learned to move on. And ironically the same memories that make her cry will be the same memories that make her laugh and shout. For such is the way of mortality. Alien or not._

_Beast Boy's hope with the Titans has always rested on Terra. Or so we were all prone to think. Maybe Beast Boy himself too. I thought—if even for a despondent moment—that Terra's departure at the hands of Dagger would have turned him away from superheroism for good. But I think Starfire has shown him that……that as long as there is death, there is always life to counter it. And his friends are here to give him that life……and to show him what there is left to fight for. The changeling may be becoming a man, but the stubborn spirit of the beast shall remain in the favor of Good. His friends will see to that, at least._

_Tempest may not have found his purpose. But at least he has found a purpose in attempting to find a purpose. There comes a time when a young person becomes too cynical even for his own tastes. I think such is the situation with Tempest. He may not understand a thing about the unfortunate events that have tragically befallen his life. But at least he's got others to misunderstand it with. And maybe—on a new page or something—he'll come to recognize that life is just as strongly bent around mourning as it is around laughing. And both emotional acts—opposites of a kind—still yield forth the same warmth. For all of us._

_Raven and Cyborg……our official and unofficial leaders. What about them?_

_Well……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Some obvious things in life, Diana, are bound to become twice as obvious._

"Dude….like….no way…."

"Hehehe!! Glorious!! You two are so adorrrrable!!!"

"Woo woo woo!! Hey Tempest! Do a cat-call!!"

"Heheh….I think they're humiliated enough as it is!"

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

Cyborg simpered, scratching the back of his neck.

Raven blushed, cupping a hand over her cheek to hide half a smile.

She and he had their free hands joined. In the open. On their side of the table.

Beast Boy was still pumping his arm and cheering.

Starfire was still cooing and giggling.

Tempest shook his grinning face.

And I….

I leaned back with my arms folded.

Smiling.

The next afternoon.

At the pizza parlor's balcony.

Alive.

Well.

A team of six.

"We're….uh….," Cyborg's eyes trailed as he sweatdropped. "Gonna take it slow…."

"Sweep her off her feet, dude!!!" Beast Boy uttered loudly across the pizza parlor. "Oooh! Oooh! Better yet!! Let's take you to the Titans' Tower stairwell so you can carry her up the stairs Clark Gable style!!"

"Hehehehehehe!!!"

"Ah sheesh…," Tempest rolled his white on black eyes. "Neptune almighty…."

Raven blushed some more. "That….was a terrible movie."

"I think that's the first thing I heard you say all day, girl!" Beast Boy winked. He stretched a green arm over the table and pantomimed a microphone in front of the dark girl's lips. "Tell us!! What are you gonna do now that you and Cyborg are officially 'going out'?"

She blinked. "I'm gonna make you drop dead."

"See?" Cyborg shrugged. "Nothing's changed!!" He wrapped an arm around Raven's shoulder and winked. "Nothing at allllll."

Raven grumbled. "Okay….no 'kissy voices'."

"But I wasn't doing a kissy voice!"

"Yeah you were!!"

"Lover's quarrel! Lover's quarrel! Lover's quarrel!" Beast Boy hopped.

_ZAP!!!_

A bolt of black telekinesis knocked Beast Boy down to his butt.

"Oof!!"

"Hey!" Cyborg blinked. "I coulda done that!"

"How can you?" Raven folded her arms and smirked. "Your sonic cannon's on the fritz, remember?"

"Heh heh heh heh."

"Ohhhh!!" Starfire floated down between them and engulfed them both into a Tamaranian death hug. "Friends!! I am elated to bear witness to your coupling!! May your days be full of flowers and puppies and merriment and—"

"Oxygen….," Cyborg wheezed.

Starfire gasped. "Eep!" she blushed and darted immediately back to her seat besides a recovering Beast Boy. "I do apologize…"

"Quite fine, Star…," Cyborg smirked, breathing normally. "Quite fine…"

"Heh heh heh," Tempest chuckled.

Raven smiled.

The alien girl simpered. "I fail to believe that I have not dropped that habit. After all, Robin is always telling me that….th-that……."

A cold curtain of silence fell over the table.

Raven gazed off.

Cyborg closed his eyes.

Beast Boy bit his lip.

Tempest was silent.

Starfire winced a bit…then sighed.

An agonizing beat.

"……….," I looked at everyone. "……" I grabbed my cup of Dr. Pepper. I stood up. I lifted the glass high.

Beast Boy grinned wide. He grabbed his sloshing cup of Root Beer and jumped up, mimicking. "To the Teen Titans!!!"

Tempest and Starfire smirked, stood up, and raised their pitchers. "To the Teen Titans!!"

A smiling Cyborg and Raven gracefully did the same. "The Teen Titans!!"

We raised our cups together.

Cl-Clank!!

We sipped.

We exhaled.

A beat.

We looked at each other.

"………."

We broke down.

"Hah hah hah hah hah!!!

"Hehehehehe!!"

"Heh heh heh!!"

"Man….so lame…," Tempest finished his cup and wiped his lips with a sleeve. "I love it."

"Tradition has its pleasantries…," Raven droned. She smiled ever so slightly, looking at her half-full glass of iced tea. "As well as its annoyances. But not now, I suppose."

"Hey…we earned it, dudes," Beast Boy winked. "Boy…wasn't the Lieutenant happy with us last night?"

Cyborg nodded. "Smith said we're the 'angels of the urban forest'."

"Whatever the Hell that means," Tempest chuckled.

"Yeah, right? Basically…the sleep-deprived sap is glad we didn't kill anyone off in the raid," Cyborg glared over at Raven. "_Anyone_….at all."

"I know you're not looking at me."

"Perhaps next time we should be entirely assembled to approach such a dangerous scene?" Starfire suggested.

"My thoughts exactly," Cyborg folded his arms. "Things are gonna go back to normal soon, folks."

"Oh really…," Beast Boy downed his root beer.

"Yup. Training sessions. Drills. Getting a new pair of T-Wheels," Cyborg winked. "The works."

"Yipee. Sounds like fun," Tempest droned. "But if you'll excuse me…," he stumbled around the chairs and exited the table area. "I gotta get going _today_."

"Where to, dude?"

"Lindsay's at a prayer assembly at her church-school-thingy. I thought I'd go visit her."

Cyborg folded his arms and smirked. "Wow, Flipper. You turnin' religious on us, dawg?"

Tempest looked at Cyborg. "Yeah…….sure…," he winked with a smirk. "Turning religious….cya, creeps." He walked off.

"Tempest is……," Starfire blinked. She turned and looked at us. "…..crude when he is joyful."

Beast Boy shrugged. "Water off an Atlantean's back."

"Heh heh…," Cyborg chuckled and motioned with his half-metal head. "Let's head on home."

"Join hands!! You gotta join haaaaands!!" Beast Boy pointed.

"Pfft. Knock it off, little man," Cyborg rolled his human eye. "It doesn't have to be that rituali-"

Raven's fingers intertwined with his.

Cyborg blinked. He looked down at her.

She smiled, cheeks a little red. "Well? Are we walking home or not?"

"…….," Cyborg smiled crookedly at Beast Boy. "Then again…"

Starfire giggled.

Cyborg and Raven wandered off across the balcony.

Beast Boy folded his arms and sighed. "Dude….," he shook his head and smiled. "That's just…just…..look at them!!"

We did.

"Two years ago, Raven would have sliced anybody's head off for so much as breathing on her neck!! And there she is…a regular school girl!"

Starfire had her hands clasped together….eyes fluttering. "Everyone is capable of finding joy, Beast Boy." A knowing smile, aimed at him. "Provided they learn how to overcome fear and sorrow."

A beat.

Beast Boy nodded. "Yeah….."

Starfire prepared to fly Tower-ward.

"Um…Star??"

"Hmm? Yes, Beast Boy?"

He simpered. "Th-Thanks."

She smiled warmly. "And to yourself, similar respect is endowed." And she flew off in a green streak.

Beast Boy turned. He gazed over at the fading images of Raven and Cyborg.

"Hmmm…," he rubbed his neck. Thinking aloud. "Raven Stone….."

A beat.

He bopped himself in the head.

"Chlorbag!"

He shook his head. He wandered off towards the exit of the balcony.

But when he was at a distance away.

His voice whispered thoughtfully: "Tara Logan……."

And he was gone.

"……………"

I stood alone.

A beat.

I looked closely at my glass of Dr. Pepper.

I took a deep breath.

I guzzled it down in one long gulp.

I swallowed.

I exhaled.

A shiver up my body.

My left fingers clenched.

CLAMP!!

I put the glass down, left a tip on the table, and blurred away.

_Things are coming back to normal, Diana. I can sense it. But there's something else that I also sense._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Not all is finished. Not all is taken care of. The Titans are together. The Titans are safe. But they still have one job. One unfinished piece of business. And if necessary—and it's growingly seeming necessary—I'll have to take up that job on my own. After all, I seem to do things best on my own. It's amazing that I'm on a team at all. I supposed it's my penchant to follow orders._

_Like Robin's orders. He left us all one last order, Diana. An unofficial one, perhaps. But an order nonetheless. It was his contract. His last contract. The final bravery that he died for._

_Terra must be found. Her future must be secured. And as collected and as calm and as……happier as we may be……we are doing nothing about it. Cyborg won't even talk about it. I know that I'm his second in command and should follow his orders faithfully to the millimeter._

_But……_

_Robin may be dead. But his legacy is not. What he stood for prevails. And—as far as I'm concerned—I'm still third in command. And Cyborg's still number one to the Boy Wonder. The last contract must be followed through._

_I've written to you upon the eve of something extreme and wild and horrendously lonely before, Diana. I wrote to you—belated or not—on the night Wyldecarde was born. And now I write you this…for I have learned to trust you beyond that of a simple correspondent……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_We are the Titans. But we are not whole yet. But things are about to change. I am going to make sure of it. I have a job to do……still……_

That night, I slowly walked into the Main Room.

It was dark inside, save for a flickering light.

I squinted my black-shaded eyes and peered in from a shadowed stairwell.

The flickering came from the huge t.v. monitor. A DVD of old home-camera footage was playing across the screen. There was a chill from the November night outside the windows that filtered into the Main Room and matched the snowy edges of the bright recording. The digital visages of Robin and Terra emanated ghostly voices as they prepared for a sparring match across the mat of the Tower's gymnasium.

"_Okay, Terra. Give me all that you've got."_

"_Except my powers, right?" _

"_Use them too." _

"_B-But……But we're inside the Tower! I don't want to wreck this nice g-gym!" _

"_Gimme all you got. I promise you, you won't be able to take me down." _

"_Heheheh……gee…that sounds __**awfully**__ confident of you." _

"_Perhaps. I'm simply going to teach you a lesson in how to overcome an enemy with speed." _

"_It's……uhm……n-not gonna hurt, is it?" _

"_I promise you, it won't……much……" _

"_Okay……r-ready when you are………"_

I took a deep breath.

I gazed downward.

Starfire and Beast Boy sat next to each other on the couch.

They were curled up under a woolen blanket.

Watching the two souls on the screen.

Breathing steadily.

Lips meditatively curved…

They seemed to cling to each other. Their mutual warmth. Their livelihood.

I smiled. Hands in my pocket. Silent.

"……….."

"They feel so content. So warm. And yet they are mourning. Mourning and rejoicing at the same time."

"???" I turned quickly and looked.

Raven walked out of the shadows, arms folded. "They'll need each other's friendship to get past this point in their lives. It's….a good thing, what they're feeling. What we're all feeling."

I nodded. A beat. My eyes trailed.

Raven was dressed in gothic fashion. Black slacks joined up the sides with baby pins. She had on a blouse with mesh sleeves and spider-web designs along the bodice. It was simple, yet sexy.

I recognized the outfit in an instant. An archaic trip long ago to a Hot Topic…

"We're….uhm…..," she fidgeted nervously. Cutely. "….gonna go out and see a movie." A beat. "Cyborg and I," she added….as if clarification was needed.

I slowly nodded.

"It's kinda cold. And I know I left my jacket up here somewhere…," she looked around.

I blinked.

_You have a jacket??_

"I didn't want to disturb them…," she whispered, pointing out at the dim Main Room.

I nodded.

Raven didn't have to disturb anyone.

Her jacket turned out to be draped over a loose chair in the shadows. Where her violet eyes couldn't see.

But mine could. I took the jacket, smiled gently, and handed it to her.

"Thanks, Noir….," she uttered. A slight chuckle. A happy girl. "Your eyes are good for something."

She grabbed the jacket. She made to leave…..

But the jacket pulled tight.

She was anchored in place.

"????" she looked with a curious eyebrow raised.

I was still holding onto a sleeve of her jacket. And my eyes had fallen…bowing at her feet. My smile had left, and something in my face had turned cold and helpless. I swallowed my scarred throat and apologized with a tiny exhale. Simpering, I gently….gently let go.

Raven hugged the jacket to her small self. She breathed. She leaned her blue head to the side. "Things are……..so much more dangerous now, Noir…."

"………."

"Far more dangerous than….I could truly have imagined……e-even in my darkest dreams. And those really _are_ dark…."

"………"

"I may not end up hurting anyone after all…," her voice drifted among herself as it did around me. Like a dying demon's last puff of smoke. "…and….he's shown me that. The persistent, crazy fool………….and…and I love him. I love him, Noir."

"……..," I looked up at her. I smiled. And I meant it. Without having to think.

She took a deep breath. She slipped her arms through the sleeves of the jacket. She shrugged it on and shrugged the coldness of the room off at the same time. Her eyes fell short of my neck and its scar as she spoke:

"Tempest….Starfire….Beast Boy……they have all found happiness in the wake of all this, Noir." She gazed up at my distant, black eyes. "And now, Cyborg and I….." She breathed. "It's about time you find your own happiness too, Noir. It's about time you find that which you desire the most."

I blinked at her.

She nodded. A beat. A breath. Curling fingers. She turned and left.

I sighed after her.

_I already have, Raven……_

I ran a metal hand through my long black hair. Shuddering. I turned and gazed at the Tamaranian and elf on the couch. The ghost bodies of Robin and Terra sparring….dancing….

Warming.

_I already have…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_And now I know what I must do, Diana. And do not be hasty to think it a bleak thing. I may be a hero renown for his quickness and direct strikes. But I do think things out._

_I thought out the reason that I came here. I thought out the reason I chose to become Wyldecarde for a season. And I thought out the deaths at my hand when Robin and I took lethal force against Dagger's hypnotized legions._

_And about this……I have also thought out. I do not like to be melodramatic. I do not like calling what I do 'sacrifices'._

_But I love the Titans. My friends……I love them too damn much to just sit around in this cold Tower and watch our lives go on and go on alone._

_The contract remains…and for that, I shall ever be wrestles until all is done._

_And Robin can finally……finally……be buried._

_In my soul. In my heart._

_And in our names._

_The earth awaits him yet……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_And that earth will not bleed while his Number Two is still on the job._

"………..," I gazed off into space. Dressed in whites. Sitting-cross legged on my bed. Bathed by lantern light. Quiet. "………"

Silence.

"………"

A ringing sound.

"……..," I raised my eyebrow.

I looked down at the laptop before me.

An IM window had popped in place before the letter I was typing to Wonder Woman.

A few messages had already scrolled down.

_**InzeUltima**__**: Noir?**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Noir??**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Jordan, please answer me.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** I know you're mad at me. You've got every right to be.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** But please…..please respond. Just say something. Please.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** I can't stand your silence. It hurts me so much.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** I…..I want to tell you everything. And I do mean everything.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Why I wasn't at the funeral. Hell, why I never ever have shown up. Why I never flew there everytime I so much as heard the terrible things happening to you that I wrung my hands and tossed and turned in bed over.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** I think about you all the time, Jordan. And……and that's kinda sorta got a lot to do with why I've never visited.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Please…respond. Hear me out. I've got a lot to tell you.**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Jordan??**_

_**InzeUltima:**__** Jordan????**_

A long bit of silence.

……

_**SpSquirrel**__**: I'm leaving, Kara.**_

_**InzeUltima**__**: ……….???**_

_**SpSquirrel**__**: I'm leaving the Titans.**_

_**InzeUltima**__**: What???**_


	184. And Collapse

**184. And Collapse**

Five and a half months ago….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwissh!!_

_I walked into the Main Room of Titan's Tower. _

_Dressed in a white t-shirt and shorts. Bare foot. _

_Raven's cloak held warmly over my shoulders. _

_After hours and hours of being stuck with the laundry in the basement corridors of the Tower, I had finally managed to teleport myself free. _

_Night had fallen outside the windows. _

_And the Titans……_

I whistled. 

_No response. _

_A beat._

_I blinked underneath my shades. _

_I craned my neck. _

_And there they were. _

_Sound asleep. Surrounded by counters, couches, and tables cluttered from head to toe with police reports, city maps, and other various urban schematics. The glowing computer monitor above them droned with P.I.P.'s of my personal bio and more city schematics. _

_I had been missing. _

_I had been missing, and the Titans had searched their resources silly to find me. _

_And they had knocked themselves collectively from the exhaustion._

_Beast Boy snored, his body lying lengthwise on a counter in the kitchen area besides a couple of midnight tofu snacks. Cyborg was at a booth in front of a table spread over with newspapers, upon which he was obviously working on the meatball construction of various little beacons. Robin and Starfire snoozed back to back on a couch, their laps covered with police reports. And then there was Raven, sitting cross legged on the floor and leaning her head ungracefully on her arms across a low-lying table._

_I smiled. I fingered the robe around me. I walked over and gently spread it over the sleeping Raven's back. Right where it should be. I walked over, took a blanket that an ill Robin had been using earlier that week, and laid it over the laps of the Boy Wonder and the Tamaranian. I also managed to carry a sleeping Beast Boy over to the more comfortable booth seat besides Cyborg. And for the android, I took a beacon or two out of his hands and leaned him back comfortably against his seat. He stirred momentarily and went back to snoring._

_That done and said, I switched off the monitors and the lights and walked back to the elevator._

_I paused for a moment, turned around, and folded my arms._

_And smiled._

_Gazing at my family. _

_At peace. _

_Together. _

_With a gentle breath. _

"………………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Friday

November 12, 2005

3:31 pm

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………"

The Main Room was cold and empty.

I stood there, staring through the shadowed interior to the gray world beyond the windows.

Alone.

Silence…..

I took a deep breath.

With a metal hand, I parted a drooping bang or two…revealing the fresh scar on my cheek.

I exhaled.

"…………."

I held my flesh hand up.

A letter and an envelope rested in my palm.

Ornately written out.

Addressed to the Titans…but with careful mention of Cyborg's name in the introduction.

The body of the letter was short.

And it was to the point.

More than I could ever say….

I swallowed my empty throat.

I quickly folded the letter, slid it into the envelope, and sealed my voice tight.

With a final breath I gave the Main Room one last glance before turning around….and heading into the elevator.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I leaned limply back against the wall of the elevator.

Everything vibrated and gently hummed as I descended and descended and descended.

I held the envelope in my grasp.

I stared at the floor.

Silence…..

"_I could't stand to be under that red sky anymore," Robin said. "Just like Nightwing....a bird like me has to find a new cage. A new aviary, if you will."_

I blinked under my shades.

I took a deep breath.

"_And I think you're the only other member of our team who understands what it means to feel conflicted over what we're doing here. Is it that we're trying to be heroes in a new battlefield? Or perhaps—Noir—you and I are also running away from something? Something painful? Something that has made us colder and darker than the children we once used to be?"_

I gazed up at the numbers on the elevator controls. The lights trickled down and down and down….

"_I failed this City……We failed this City. The Titans failed. It's the damn red sky of Gotham all over again. I cannot escape it this time. And heaven help me…I have no idea what the Hell I'm going to do…."_

I bit my lip.

My nostrils flared as my throat felt sore.

_How am I going to do this? _

_Where am I going to go? _

_What am I going to do? _

_For the contract……?_

-Ding-

_Schwiish!!_

The elevator stopped and the doors open.

I blinked.

Beast Boy stood. We were a few levels up from where I needed to go.

He stared at me. Quizzical. And yet….slightly knowing….

Of something…

I hid the envelope behind my back.

"You too, huh?" he asked.

"……..," my heart jumped.

"Going to see Cyborg in his lab?"

I exhaled. I…..slowly nodded.

"Yeah….," Beast Boy wandered into the elevator. "Everybody's going there, dude. Starfire. Tempest. It's like some unofficial meeting." He hit a button to close the elevator door. "The poor dude doesn't get any time to fix his plans for the new T-Car. Heh….now that he and Raven are…."

Silence.

The changeling's voice lingered for some reason.

He gave me a half-glance. He pushed the down button and selected the floor for both of us.

"……..," I waited.

And he waited.

And…..

Nothing.

Nothing but humming and the gentle vibration and bitter silence until--

Beast Boy shook.

He sighed.

He hit the 'stop' button.

The elevator paused with a slight lurch.

"????" I glanced at him funny.

He looked up at me, biting his lower lip. He said: "Noir….I can see it. I've learned how to read you, dude. Just cuz you're mute doesn't mean you're unemotional."

"……..?" I leaned my head to the side.

He leaned forward. "Why didn't you….ya know….step in there?? Protest?? Try and 'say' what you really feel for god's sake???"

My black eyes narrowed behind my shades.

_What in the heck are you talking about??_

"Raven!!" he gestured.

I winced.

I looked aside.

_Oh……_

"Dude….everybody knows it!" Beast Boy waved his arms. "You and her…..you had some connection going on!! Back in the day!!"

I gave him a sideways look.

"Okay….maybe not everyone….but **I** knew it!!" Beast Boy waved. "The way she was always protecting you. The way you and only you could give her the silent shoulder to lean on that she needed. Dude…why didn't you just….I dunno….go all berserk the other day when she and Cyborg made out??"

I smiled exhaustingly. I started to hand-sign a 'flying' figure.

"Noir….it's not Supergirl!!"

I winced.

He swallowed and breathed: "You don't like Kara. Just face it!"

"……," I glanced aside.

My metal finger danced alongside the envelope.

_I've got more important things to worry about right now……_

"You only talk to her—like—on the phone or on the computer!! Neither of you have actually so much as _tried_ to see each other in person over the last three months!!"

I gave him a sarcastic smirk.

"Dude….listen….," Beast Boy walked over and put a hand up on my shoulder. "The reason why Cyborg and I kept teasing you back during our trip when you met her is…..well….you're our friend, dude. And after all that crap that Slade and Jinx put you through….after all the loss you suffered……we wanted you to be _happy_. Your biggest revealed crush suddenly being in our midst was too big a thing to pass up!! OF COURSE we egged you on about her!! Anything to get you….I dunno…smiling!! And not smiling just to make us feel better. I worry about you a lot, Noir. Cyborg and I…Starfire….Raven….we _worry_ about you! Cuz you're family and all that!!"

I shuddered.

My metal fingers struggled not to crumple the envelope.

I held my grown, breathing slowly. Firmly.

But I couldn't look straight at Beast Boy anymore.

"Raven can understand you!! Dude….just stand up to her and Cyborg and say something!! Man, I love Cyborg to the bottom of my vegetarian heart….but that doesn't mean I like it when he ups and steals a close person from you! Cuz that's what he did, Noir!"

I sighed. I shook my head.

"He did, man!! He stole Raven! And you know it!'

I chuckled breathily, leaned forward, and pressed a button.

The elevator resumed its descent.

Beast Boy swallowed a sat throat. "Dude….don't keep punishing yourself like this."

"………"

He shuddered. "It's all because of that girl in the painting, isn't it?"

"……..," I finally gazed over at him. My lips parted somewhat….

"That 'Ana' person…the chick with the sword….," Beast Boy whispered. "You….still love her, don't you?"

"…….."

"More than Raven. And definitely more than Kara."

"…….."

"Look….I've learned something from all of this nightmare…," Beast Boy tugged at my arm. He spoke quietly. Sincerely. In that squeaky little voice of his that preserved the dying child inside. "I've learned that you've got to move on. Starfire's showed me that memories are just what I need to _grow_ off of."

I breathed.

_Starfire showed you……_

"Robin's gone. And she counts it all joy because she can change the way she is and the way things will be by simply remembering him. And….," he faltered a bit, but spoke: "Terra's gone. Terra's gone….but I'm not going to punish myself with sadness or guilt. Cuz she wouldn't have me do that. She'd instead have me become a better man. Something for her to be proud of."

I rubbed my temples with my right fingers.

_Terra isn't gone, Beast Boy. _

_I won't accept that. _

_But if believing that somehow gives you peace, then…… _

_Stay as you are……for now…_

"Dude…even Tempest has almost gotten over his doom and gloom with Princess Tula!! He's now being buddy-buddy to that church girl in Downtown!" Beast Boy motioned. He looked earnestly up at me. "Whatever happened to Ana, Noir…..you don't need to let it weigh you down! Don't punish yourself with sorrow or loneliness or anything!! You've got friends here!!" He smiled anxiously. "You've got family. We want to help you….in th-the same way you've always helped us."

I closed my eyes under my shades.

I gently exhaled through my nostrils.

I wanted to tell him….

But even if I could, I knew that I wouldn't.

_I simply can't just 'get over' Ana, Beast Boy. _

_She's more to me than just a simple love. _

_She's much…much more. _

_She always has been._

_And…… _

_She always will be…_

_And it's not because of her that Supergirl and I never get together. _

_And it's not because of her that I let Raven have the happiness that she needs and desires. _

_There are some things that you just can't understand, Beast Boy. _

_And—most likely—never will understand. _

_It is my issue and mine alone. _

_Mine alone……_

-Ding.-

_Schwiish!!_

The doors opened.

I walked out first.

Gaping, Beast Boy watched me leave.

A beat.

He hung his head with a sigh.

He trudged down the hallway loosely behind me.

Muttering:

"I'll never understand the juxtaposition of handsomeness and reclusive behavior…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked into the laboratory.

And…

I froze.

"No! For the last time, Tempest….we're standing by until word comes from the City, asking for assistance of any kind!"

"The City's fine and you know it!" Tempest pointed. He sat across from the relatively….heated room and gestured dramatically. "The night before last was a fluke!! Ever since those looters went to town with explosives, three hidden caches of Dagger's stuff have been located and found! We've _covered_ the City!! We've covered enough to cross _eight_ Cities!!"

"You can never be too cautious anymore, man….," Cyborg mumbled. He leaned over a diagram of the T-Car and—so it seemed—was doing his best to concentrate while the Atlantean far behind his shoulder frustrated him.

Raven sat lonely in a corner with a book in her lap. She eyed the pages and pretended in her beautifully crafted meditation that nothing was happening.

Cyborg said to Tempest: "This City is not the same place it used to be. Even I don't need to tell you that."

"I'm not talking so much about the City anymore!" Tempest uttered emphatically. "Dagger's gone, man!"

"No…."

"Dagger's gone! The battle is over!!"

"No…no…no…no!" Cyborg grumbled. He glared once over his shoulder. "It ain't over, you hear??" He returned fumingly to his blueprints. "There's no telling where Dagger's at now…"

"There's no telling because we _haven't followed his trail_ anymore!!"

"In case you've forgotten….," Cyborg remarked, "…Robin _died_ trying to follow that god damn trail!!!"

Beast Boy walked into this and immediately winced. His whole body cringed, and he slowly….nervously…tried to back out. He heard a whispering hiss. He looked over.

Starfire stood quietly in the corner. She gently motioned towards him.

He swallowed and walked over. They stood in the corner and watched, still. Like statuesque children to divorcing parents having a row.

Tempest walked towards Cyborg's seated backside. "We all know that Robin died. But we all know that—while Robin lived—he never gave up on anything. _Ever._ Do you think he would have us sitting around on our butts when there's still an empty case at hand??"

"There is no empty case….," Cyborg grumbled. "Robin died. It was a trap. It was all a big trap. The young man was headstrong. He was brave….he was our leader….but it was too much too soon and it costed him!!"

"No, Cyborg…," Tempest shook his head. "It was just the right kind of bravery, but Viper or Dagger or SOMETHING got to the Boy Wonder first. And that has _cost us!!_ Dearly. It would be dishonorable to just—"

Cyborg spun around, half-standing up. "Don't tell me what is or is not dishonorable!!!" he shouted.

The whole room practically winced.

I too. I still held the envelope behind my back. But suddenly….it seemed lighter than a feather.

Cyborg took a deep breath and pointed angrily into the numbed Tempest's chest: "You think _you_ know Robin?? You're barely even a Titan, man!! You're still a nooby. You hardly had a chance to know what Robin valued or did not value…so don't go standing there all proud and angsty and give me a speech when I've known Robin the entire Titans' career and now **honor** his legacy by serving in command!!"

Tempest frowned. "If you knew Robin, then you most of all would know—"

"I will not go on wild goose changes risking all that's left of Robin's _friends and family_!!!"

"That's just it, Cyborg!!!" Tempest said with half a bitter laugh. "There you go preaching about Robin's 'friends and family'!! It isn't complete, Cyborg!!" His voice echoed across the laboratory. He took a few deep breaths. He went on, loudly: "It isn't a complete family!! Stop pretending that it is!! Something needs to be done about this and the time is now!! When there's still plenty of dust at Dagger's feet to track him down and—"

"Save it for when I have the stomach for your endless whining, Tempest….," Cyborg sauntered back towards the drawing board. "I swear to God…I don't know how Robin ever stomached you."

Tempest snarled and stepped forward with a shaking fist: "He stomached me because he could believe in impossibilities!! _Like resurrecting a banished soul from an underwater DEMON!!!_"

Cyborg quickly spun around and trudged back, shouting: "THIS…IS NOT…ABOUT YOU!!!"

"Then what is it about, Cyborg?!?!" Tempest shouted back. "Not me?? Not you?? Not Robin?? That's half the Titans there!! What good is it just standing around and doing nothing?!?! We're superheroes for God's sake!!!"

"We're superheroes, not morons!!!"

"The only moron I see here is—"

THWAP!! Raven slammed her book shut.

Starfire and Beast Boy cringed.

Tempest and Cyborg silenced.

I swallowed.

The room was covered in ice.

She stood up, brow furrowed. "The only morons….are teammates who spend all afternoon yelling at each other and doing doubly nothing….," she walked over and stood beside Cyborg. "It's obvious that things are still painful to bear as of late. We need to keep ourselves in check." She looked at the android Titan. "Let's sit down….and breathe a little….away from each other." And she then looked at Tempest, with considerably more of a glaring eye. "And I do mean everyone…."

"…….," Tempest glared at the two of them. Collectively. "Heh….I see how it is….."

A beat.

He ran a shaking hand through his hair.

He looked over at Starfire and Beast Boy. His lips parted some…

The alien girl had a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. The green elf seemed to be fighting the shivers. Starfire had her face gazing to the floor. They looked like the saddest things in the world. And mute….eternally mute.

On the edge of a knife.

Tempest took a seething breath. "Screw this….," he muttered. Then, angrier, with teeth showing. "Screw **all of this!!**" He waved his arm, spun, and marched out the door.

Fuming, Cyborg marched after him. An outreaching Raven was powerless to stop him--

"It's that attitude of yours that pisses me off, Tempest!!" the android Titan shook. "Go on!! Keep walking!! Walk on out of the Tower and never come back, for all I frickin' care—"

Tempest spun around in the hallway and hollered: "Oh go suck on battery, Cyborg!!!" He pointed with an iron finger. "Are you blind?!?! Are you completely and utterly blind as you are hotheaded?!?!" He panted. He gestured towards Beast Boy and Starfire. "Do you not see it?!?! Day in and day out they don't bring it up because they're terrified!! They know that you're going to turn them away with your cold and silent restraint!!! But they're too innocent and too trusting and too god damn sweet to do anything to challenge your suddenly high-and-mighty command, as if that would threaten the very integrity of the Titans!! Well there are no Titans anymore, Cyborg!! Because where there is no trust, there is no team!!!"

"What the Hell do you mean, there is no trus--?!?!"

"We all want to find the girl Terra, Cyborg!!" Tempest exclaimed. He was shaking all over. His breath was ragged…desperate….earnest. "Beast Boy sobs over it!! Starfire laments over it!! Noir hides in his lonely little shell and Raven's been reduced to some shadow of a girl who's now content enough to hid behind your titanium back. Dammit!!" He stomped his foot against the metal floor. The wounded one. "We can't keep living like this, Cyborg!!! We can't keep living like this!! Not while there's still a job to be done and not while there's still—"

I stepped in between them. I faced Cyborg with my finger held up--

Cyborg brushed me aside. "Stay out of this, Noir!!"

I stared about him. My face twisted.

_Hey!! Don't you silence me……--_

"Tempest," Cyborg frowned and pointed. "Terra's gone. Dagger's nowhere to be found. End of discussion." He waved his arms. "Period!"

"You're a coward!!!" Tempest shouted.

Starfire and Beast Boy shivered.

Cyborg sneered: "I'm doing what's best for the team—"

"You're a coward, Cyborg!! God!!" Tempest frowned and gestured. "Robin died because he put himself on the line!! Not the Titans!! Stop making excuses!! I swear!! All you want to do is mope here in the Tower alongside your new girlfriend!!"

Raven blinked.

_STOMP!!_

Cyborg was in the Atlantean's face.

He uttered hoarsely: "At least I have the decent, common sense to not let my 'girlfriend' walk into the jaws of death because I was too full of myself _to protect her_!!!"

Starfire gasped, a hand cupped over her mouth.

Tempest's jaw dropped. He blinked. Once. Twice. Then his face angled into a teeth gritting frown. A demonic surge of purple flickered across his dark eyes. And with a snarl…

His fist flew.

SWOOOOSH-CLAMP!!! I blocked him with a metal forearm.

Cyborg stepped forward—FLASH!!! A black talon of energy pulled him back by Raven's glowing side.

"That's enough….," the sorceress uttered.

I gripped Tempest's shoulders. Holding him…though he was already still, but seething.

I swallowed and looked over my shoulder at Cyborg. Exhaling.

"…………..," Cyborg's snarl left his face. And the part that was still flesh was covered in a cold sweat. He stared in disbelief at the floor and brought a shaking hand to his titanium forehead. "Man…..Just…….," he closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He swallowed. "….keep it cool….keep it cool." A beat. He reopened his eyes weakly and looked at Tempest. "I'm sorry, man. I….I-I didn't mean that…."

"Yeah….," Tempest muttered. Still frowning. His eyes back to dark…but somehow _darker_. "Real sorry…"

Thwump!!

He shook me loose and stormed down the hallway. Alone. Disappearing down a stairwell.

Silence.

Cyborg was panting. He looked the other Titans' way.

Beast Boy and Starfire stared forlornly at him.

Cyborg shuddered. "Look….guys….," he said in a quiet, almost whispery voice. "I'm sorry. Wh-What did you come down here to say?"

"………..," Beast Boy had a defeated look on his face. His voice sounded twice as defeated as he looked down and murmured: "Nothin'….."

"…..," Starfire swallowed. She gently led him and herself away…down the opposite end of the hallway.

Cyborg, Raven, and I stood alone in the hallway outside his laboratory.

A pause………………………

"Was that…..really necessary?" Raven droned, looking at Cyborg.

Cyborg ran a hand over his human head. "I….I-I don't know what came over me. When he started saying that 'girlfriend' crap……about you….it j-just….just threw me over the edge. I…..I always couldn't stand his attitude. But then…."

"Please….," Raven touched his shoulder lightly. "….you don't have to defend me."

"That's exactly it!!" Cyborg uttered, gesturing. "I _don't_ have to defend you, Rae!! The dang fish-dawg shouldn't be bringing you into this. Or Beast Boy and Starfire for that matter." A beat. "Or you, Noir."

"…….," I gazed at the floor. The envelope still hidden.

He looked directly at me. His eyes almost pleading. "I mean…..he's totally off the cuff. Nobody's _that_ desperate over going after Dagger and all anymore…..right?"

"………….."

"J-Jordan….," he uttered intimately. Breathily. "…we….we are on the same page….aren't we? Titan Leader and number one? Terra's gone….she's…..sh-she's gone………r-right?"

I took a shuddering breath. I drew a hand shakily across my face and shades.

I stuck the envelope into my back pocket.

I brought both hands up.

I signed: _'I do not know what the same page is for us anymore, Cyborg.'_

"………."

"………."

Both he and Raven were silent.

I sighed. _'I do not know what the Titans are anymore. I absolutely do not know……'_

I turned around, and stumbled tiredly down the cold hallway.

Leaving the two alone…

…again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside, it was cold.

Windy.

Gray.

The perfect depression of dying November.

Tempest stood halfway down the land ridge.

On the edge of the rock bluffs.

Overlooking the lapping, shallow waters.

His hands in his casual wear pockets.

"…….."

Footsteps.

He looked up, his long dark hair waving in the breeze.

I stood a few feet across from him. My hands also in my pockets.

My hair….

We looked like sick twin brothers….minus the scars and shades/white irises.

He stared at me for a few seconds. He then blinked, sighed, and shook his head. "I dunno what's my problem. I just…."

A beat.

I leaned my head to the side.

He gazed out at the waters. The banished world beneath the waves. The dry land beneath him that was already growing increasingly forbidden.

"…..ever since I learned I could swim again, I felt something like…..l-like a rebirth. I could just as well have been stepping out of the waves and onto these detestable beaches of sand and asphalt all over again. Only—in a brief glance—it wasn't so detestable anymore. I felt like I mattered more than the 'pity Titan'. I felt like I was more special than some cursed shell of Slizzath. I looked out….and I found friends. Not just _her_. But everyone. Everyone that I thought were….heheh….stupid before…."

My lips curved helplessly. But briefly.

A beat.

I walked over and stood quietly at his side.

He took a deep breath and kicked a pebble into the waters.

_Plop!_

Tempest swallowed. He said: "I know you're a close buddy to him, Noir. But Cyborg isn't doing this team right. He thinks he is. He think he's protecting all of you. But he lacks the recklessness that made Robin the hero leader." He looked at me. "He lacks the balls……..literally."

"……….."

"……….heheheheheh."

I chuckled.

He laughed.

I snickered….ignoring the manner of the particular joke.

If it was a 'joke'.

I looked up at the gray skies. The gray City. Everything that had supposedly healed and yet still felt wounded.

_What kind of 'joke' is all this?_

"I thought I came here to be a Titan….," Tempest murmured. "And just when I finally got a hold of my gills in this dry-as-a-rock place….I realized that everything around me has changed. What was once noble is now hollow and dull. Like a blade that refuses to cut. Where will the Titans be if they refuse to trace the blood left by Robin's massacre? Yes…they may be without enemies. But they'll be without happiness and soundness of mind too." He looked at me with a perplexed face. "Your friends…they all knew this 'Terra' girl. They loved her from the bottom of their hearts. And now…..now that one of them is dead….Cyborg thinks that should keep them from going all the way and finding the last living member of their 'family'?"

"…….."

Tempest sighed and gazed out at the waters again. "Tula is dead. And I now know that—because of that—I will never stand staying still in a slowly bleeding world. And if being here….if being with the Titans means letting the earth bleed…..well…."

"……."

He looked at me. "I'm not alone, am I, Noir?"

I bit my lip.

"You're leaving too, aren't you?"

I took a sharp breath.

"Well….," he flexed his legs and took his hands out of his pockets. "…the trick is not to hesitate. You only grow weaker by hobbling around in circles. **You** taught me that."

I rubbed my neck.

_So I did._

"Find something, Noir…," he murmured. "Find a way to…..make the family whole. And no….I don't count. I guess Cyborg has made that clear."

I swallowed. I reached out towards him with an earnest face.

He looked at me. Deadpan. Then…..a small, feathery smile. "Maybe I'll return, Noir. Maybe I won't. But I know one truth now. Even if I am to leave….I don't abandon. Just like you….I've got people to hold true to." And he looked ahead with a firm face. "And more than ever….I've got to go see her now."

SWOOOSH!!

SPLASH!!!

And the fish was gone.

"……..," I lowered my hand. My lips were parted. For beyond the splash and ripples, I was looking Eastward towards some bleak and dead horizon.

And I felt for the first time like I had run into a wall.

_So this is it……_

I stood pale and numb on the land ridge.

Against the November winds over the Bay.

_This is how all that was once glorious and promising ends._

I instinctively clutched the scar over my throat.

_The family was born……and died, Ana. _

I lowered my black eyes.

_We never were whole to begin with it. _

_Robin was everything. _

_And I…… _

_I was not enough. _

_I was not enough to do the job. _

_The Titans are no more. _

_One by one……starting with Tempest……we are falling apart._

I turned around.

Facing the Tower.

It looked like a gray, withering crucifix.

_But after Tempest, who is next?_

A beat.

I shuddered.

I exhaled.

Digging my flesh and metal hands into my pocket……I marched lonesomely towards the Tower.

_Idiot……_

I became a small speck against the body of the island.

_You already know the answer to that……_

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The Sun was setting.

I walked slowly…slowly….

Slowly to the doors of Titan's Tower.

I had my hands in my pockets still.

I was eyeing the ground through my shades.

Silent.

Deflated.

Alone.

"…………."

And when I reached the huge doors to the Tower….

There was a white envelope.

"……..???"

I craned my neck.

_A white envelope??_

The item in question rested wedged in a groove of the huge, metal doors.

Its end flapped in the cold, misty wind of the Bayside island.

"……….," I whipped my hand back and felt my rear pocket for stupidity's sake.

My envelope was still there.

_Nope……I didn't do it……_

I spun and looked down the land ridge.

No one.

Although…

I could swear I saw the distant speck of a car driving into oblivion.

"…….."

I turned around.

I eyed the envelope.

A beat.

With a weary breath, I knelt down.

I picked it up.

I stood up again…and turned it over.

The 'address' on the front chilled me to a standstill.

'_To he who still has a contract to finish.'_

I felt a shiver run up from my metal limb.

I gritted my teeth.

I slowly….slowly ripped the envelope open.

I tore the paper apart.

There was a folded sheet of paper inside.

Folded in a very familiar fashion…

I slid it out.

I opened it up.

And…..

My black eyes read:

'_Dear Noir,'_

'_It is not the end. You know this, don't you? Because—in spite of all that is lost and all that is crumbling apart—there are still questions left to be answered. There are still souls left to be found. There is a family yet to be saved……'_

"………," I trembled.

I took a deep breath.

I continued down the page:

'……_Robin is dead. But you are not. And right now, everything rests on you. As it has always rested on you during these last few months of tribulation. You have the desire to do something for the Titans. But you do not know where to go. And you do not know what to do.'_

'_Life is nothing but an ever-evolving hard act to follow. But even you know that life must come full circle. For as much the Good as for the Bad……'_

My lips parted.

A new breath came to me.

I scanned down to the bottom of the message.

'……_For what you need to manifest destiny, come to 7472 Agatha Lane. Apartment 712. Downtown. Come alone……though I suspect that you are already alone. Which is fine. Though you may start alone, you will arrive stronger. You will return with __**her.**__ You know who I speak of.'_

'_Come now, I await you.'_

'_Sincerely,'_

'_a humble messenger.'_

And the letter ended.

"…….," I looked up towards the City. Exhaling.

_A humble……messenger??_

A beat.

I glanced back at the Tower.

_But……But……_

"……"

I took a deep breath.

I crumpled the note.

I shoved it in my pocket.

And….I started hurrying towards the City.

But….

But not without leaving another envelope in the surprise one's place….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy sat on the edge of his upper bunkbed, hugging his knees to his chest. Rocking back and forth.

"You think….th-they'll make up? That they'll forget the argument ever happened and just….be normal teammates again?"

Starfire smiled gently. "I am almost certain of it. Cyborg has always been one to share the hotness of the head. Poor Tempest has not had many chances to bear witness to that up until now."

"Yeah….b-but Star….," Beast Boy shuddered. "You heard the stuff Cyborg said. He was really…._really_ chewing Tempest out. And vice versa too! Man….what's happening to us to make everything so….so ugly?"

"But not everything is ugly…," Starfire held her hands behind her back. Gently, she rose up and hovered so that she was at face-level with the elevated elf. She winked. "Cyborg's hot head has Raven to cool it."

"……," Beast Boy blinked. Then he smiled and giggled helplessly. Rocking back and resting his hands on the bed behind him. "I guess if Raven's chosen to go steady with ANYONE…..that's a sign that Heaven's closer than Armageddon or something."

"Hehehehe," Starfire cupped her hands to her cheeks and cooed: "They are so cuuuuuuute."

"Yikes. Ever wondered if they had a baby together??"

"Hmmm?"

"I can't imagine a kid who's half circuitry and half spider webs!!"

"Beast Boyyyy," Starfire playfully shoved the changeling's shoulder. "You are indeed cruel!!"

"Hehehehehe! What? Not my baby!!"

"Heeeee!!"

Then….

A chiming sound from Beast Boy's computer.

"Hmmm?" Starfire looked over. Blinking her green eyes. "Does your computer suddenly wish to partake in our conversation?"

"That's an e-mail alert!" Beast Boy hopped down from the bunk bed and scampered over. "Probably S.T.A.R. Labs with a report on Cyborg's uncle!"

"Glorious! I forgot how they agreed to house his Construct!" Starfire leaned over Beast Boy as the elf typed away at the computer. "Please hurry! I impatiently await the tidings of E's Mail!"

"Hold on….it's from a screenname I don't recognize…," Beast Boy muttered. A keystroke. A click of the mouse. Then…. "InzeUltima??"

"I beg your pardon?"

Beast Boy gestured at the e-mail. "Just who in the heck is ??"

"……..," Starfire's face scrunched up. "'Inze'……I recognize that name….."

"You do?"

Starfire snapped her finger, exploding a tiny starbolt. _Flash!_ "Of the course!! Kara!!"

"Supergirl???"

"Heeee!!" Starfire leaned in to the monitor. "Greetings, benevolent Argosian hater of brassiers!!"

"Star---" Beast Boy shoved her back. "At least let me read what she has to say. Jeez."

"Hehehe!"

"Ahem…," Beast Boy's eyes fell across the screen. "'Dear Titans. Anyone who can hear me. Please. This is important. I just got talking to Noir last night and….-'" He paused. Blinking.

Starfire was reading too. Her lips parted. "X'Hal…."

"Dude….no way…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I just can't let this sit, Rae. I'm gonna….I-I'm gonna have a meeting later tonight…"

Raven slowly finished her sip of herbal tea. She daintily placed the cup down onto its saucer. "What about?"

Cyborg leaned against the kitchen counter of the Main Room across from her. He had his titanium arms folded besides a mug of steaming brew. He shook his head, sighed, and looked up at the dark girl. "About earlier. Tempest was right…darn him. We _can't_ go on living like this. I still think going on Dagger's trail right now is a bad idea. Terra or no Terra. But I at least should…ya know….."

"Be a leader and talk it over with everyone?" Raven smirked, sipping again.

"Y-Yeah….," Cyborg sighed. "But….it's tough."

"Mmmmhmmmm."

"How did Robin ever manage getting people around for such talks?"

"Simple…," Raven waved her hand. "He was honest."

Cyborg winced. "Heh….," he simpered. "You think I've been dishonest lately, Raven?"

She placed a gentle hand on his metal wrist. "If at all….only to yourself….."

"……," he looked up at her.

"……," she looked back. Her lips curved ever so slightly. A touch of sweetness.

He smiled gently back. Then a sigh through his nostrils as he leaned back and rubbed the human part of his head. "You think Tempest is gonna…ya know…go back after all this?"

Raven lifted the cup again…but paused. She stared into nothingness for a few moments of concentration before breathing: "I don't know, Cyborg. He's very…..cloudy."

"Yeah….," the android Titan grumbled. At himself. "I can't blame him."

"Heh."

"Maybe Noir will save all our asses again by talking him out of it," Cyborg chuckled.

"……..," Raven froze twice as much. She gazed into her nothingness again, but this time felt something. Her lips parted and her teacup nearly spilled over.

Instantly concerned, Cyborg leaned forward. "What, Raven??"

"……."

"What is it?"

Her searching violet eyes finally found them. And they were round and concave. "No, V-Victor….," she murmured.

He blinked.

She swallowed. "Noir……." And Raven sadly shook her head.

Cyborg was mute.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-Ding!-

7472 Agatha Lane.

The Calvin Towers.

West of Downtown.

The elevator doors opened.

In casual clothes, I walked into the hallway of the seventh floor.

The place was dimly lit.

I glanced left.

I caught the back end of a wealthy-looking woman walking her dog into her flat and—_Thwap!_ Shutting the door.

"…….."

I glanced right.

A solid line of doorways.

Their numbers counted up.

I walked down them.

Eyeing each one through my shades.

'706'

'708'

'710'

Two spaces before a window to a dark-gray night.

I came to a stop.

Apartment 712.

"……."

I took a deep breath.

A beat.

I glanced down at the doorknob.

"……."

I reached for it—

But stopped.

The door was already cracked open.

And from inside, I heard in a sickeningly hoarse voice:

"_Come in, Noir……"_

"…………"

_Okay……_

I opened the door.

Slowly.

_Creeeeak._

I walked in.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood in the front of a lavish, loft apartment.

White carpeting and white walls.

Transparent, glass tables and ornate furniture.

A bar with steel stools looking like some leftover detritus from the 80s.

But all very…very expensive.

And seemingly well-earned.

"……." I stood mutely, not sure what to look for.

And that same hoarse voice whispered: _"Close the door……please……"_

I bit my lip.

I quietly complied.

_Creeeeak._

Thump.

"_L-Lock it."_

"………"

I looked at the door.

There were four rows of bolt locks on it.

I slowly, hesitantly shut them.

Fastening the door in place.

And…

I slowly turned around.

And scanned the room with my shaded eyes.

And my lips parted.

There was a writer's workbench…or at least the barely visible structure of a workbench. It was covered all over with a rain forest's vomit of papers, files, documents, fax sheets.

I slowly paced across the room, closely eyeing the mess.

Polaroid photographs appeared across the table.

Grotesque photographs.

Images of bloody, hacked leftovers of bodies. Lying side by side against warehouse walls splattered with blood. Crimson lines on metal reading _'S-T-R-O-K-E'_ and _'D-E-A-T-H'_ in the flare of a camera flash. Images of dead animal carcasses in zoo cages. Security feed from the psych ward of a hospital, full of patients writhing in mid-scream.

And there were words.

And numbers.

'_Pier 4146'._

'_Pier 7123.'_

'_Gotham City.'_

'_Gotham Chemical Works.'_

'_Red.'_

'_Felix Lighthouse.'_

'_Matt Hagan.'_

'_Aviary.'_

And I kept walking.

And as my eyes wandered.

So did the insane piles of paper.

Away from the desk.

To adjoining chairs and tables.

Things growing in ferocity and chronological input.

'_Omega Wing.'_

'_Jinx.'_

'_Carbonite.'_

'_H.I.V.E.'_

'_Wildebeest.'_

'_Damien Darhk.'_

'_Pulsade.'_

'_Bumblebee.'_

'_J.'_

I blinked.

_J??? _

_P-Pulsade??_

My eyes and body moved further. Up onto couches. Chairs. A schizophrenic mosaic of interconnected idiosyncrasies.

'_Dagger.'_

'_Lexcorp.'_

'_Triangular.'_

'_Nevada.'_

'_Jacob. A.'_

'_Viper.'_

'_Radioactive Depository.'_

I shuddered to a stop.

Staring.

Until….I slowly became aware of a beeping sound to my left.

And a hissing voice in the middle of it.

I turned.

I looked.

My eyebrow rose.

I shifted around.

I walked over towards what turned out to be a bed. A bed decked out with stands full of health-monitoring equipment. Breathing apparatuses. Various gadgetry tracing a single heartbeat.

"_In order for the Sky to turn red," _the voice enthusiastically hissed. _"…the Earth must bleed."_

"……," I craned my head as I came around the side of the bed.

I stared.

"_By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die_," a pale old thing with hoses connected to his mouth and nose hissed as he lie there. _"Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive."_

"…….???" I stood over the stranger, utterly confused.

A shaking hand rose up to his face. He slowly peeled the hoses back. Blake Glover looked at me with a dying grin.

My lips parted.

_Glover???_

"Glad you c-could come, Noir…..hero….," he wheezed. A sickly smile. "The time is short. We have lots to talk about…."


	185. For the Sky to Turn Red

**185. For the Sky to Turn Red**

"No, Mom. I put Phil in his crib! He stopped crying his head off. Can you believe it?"

An almost inaudible voice shouting across the spacious apartment.

Lindsay sat a computer, instant messaging with friends.

She listened to her mother and smiled. "Nah, I don't work tonight!!" she shouted back over her shoulder. "I was going to get together with the gang later!"

A shouting.

She shouted back: "Where else?? Bayside Plaza, of course!! Ya know…maybe one of us should walk into the other room instead of shouting back and for—"

Her mother's voice.

Lindsay sighed. "Yes. I know. I won't have Antoine driving. Not for all the tea in China! Both you and I want my head in one piece, so it'll be Jack or Lillian at the wheel. That'll do the universe some good, in the end."

Suddenly, the phone on a table across the living room rang.

"That's probably Lillian now…," Lindsay got up from her chair and bounded across the room. "I got it!!!"

An affirmative from the other room.

Lindsay smiled, picked up the phone, and held it up to her fair ear. "Hello?"

A beat.

A blink.

Her eyes rounded.

Her smile faded.

Lips parted….

"Wh-What…..??"

Silence.

Lindsay fidgeted.

She brought a nervous hand up and pulled a strand of stringy brown hair up around her earlobe.

She bit her lip.

A beat.

"Really? Where?"

Another beat.

"Of course I will! Er..uhm….," she looked over her shoulder. "Just….give me some time, okay?"

A pause.

"Please….I-I want to meet you. Just….wait for me."

Silence.

"Okay….h-hang in there….," she holstered the phone. She gazed through the wall. Breathing slowly.

Her pupils danced left and right momentarily, as if reading tomorrow's invisible headlines.

But swiftly she went to the computer, signed off, made an about-face for her room, and gathered some warmer clothes for heading out…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a boardwalks across from the Bayside Plaza….

Shortly following a setting sun.

It was well more than two hours before Lindsay's scheduled meeting with her 'gang'.

But she was there. Wearing a red jacket. Her left hand dug in a pocket. Her braceleted wrist holding a cap on her head. She strolled across the wooden planks of the platform as cars drove by slowly along the semi-busy avenue bordering the plaza behind her.

She wasn't there for Antoine, Lillian, and the rest.

As she walked slowly, pensively down the boardwalk…she saw him. A darker silhouette against the shadowy sky and Bay beyond. He leaned precariously on the edge of the boardwalk _outside_ of the railing. Any wrong move, and he could fall into the frigid ocean water below.

But Lindsay knew that it wouldn't be a problem for _him_.

"Tempest…..," Lindsay murmured as she walked to a stop. Her breath came out in vapors through the cold, November air. "What happened?"

"………..," Tempest looked her way. His dark eyes were thin. Empty. He was dribbling from head to toe with salt water. His clothes were soaked. He was even shivering.

But Lindsay figured that was normal of his kind. _Or was it?_

"I….didn't want to leave without telling you…," he simply said. A soft voice.

Her mouth widened. She blinked, a look of shock and concern splashing over. "Leave???"

He turned and leaned forward on the railing with his back to the waters. "I….I'm not saying that I'll be gone for good." He simpered…but melted back down into deadpan. "But….I'll probably be disappearing. For a little while at least."

"But why??" she wandered forward. "Tempest, you looked so happy the last time we parted ways. What happened?"

"……," He ran a shaking hand through his wet, black hair. He gazed through the boardwalk's planks…sighing. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing….is happening." A beat. He looked her way with a sick grin. "Nothing is happening, Lindsay. That's why I must leave."

"……," she stared at him. She gazed off in the distance. Towards Titan's Tower. She then looked back at him. Only her eyes moved. "The Titans. What did they do to you?"

"Nothing that I didn't deserve," Tempest leaned sideways, his left leg dangling 'playfully' over the waters beyond the boardwalk. "It's what they're doing to themselves that's bothering me. And eventually they'll be doing it to the City if they keep going at it."

Lindsay paced over towards him some. "What do you mean?"

"The Titans may be happy. They may be content….," the Atlantean muttered. "But they're lazy. Cowardly. Scared into their shells."

Lindsay glanced over at the City. The growingly brighter nights at light. The larger and larger group of wandering pedestrians. The smiles that were _finally_ beginning to show once again.

"Who can blame them?" she muttered.

"…..," Tempest looked at the freckle-faced girl.

Lindsay stared back.

Tempest leaned over the railing and slowly said: "The light in Titan's Tower is a dim one, Lindsay. It might as well be hidden at the bottom of the Atlantic. The glow that they may have regained they hug to themselves. Like shivering hermit crabs in the cold. Their spirit is such that they will only do what is minimally necessary to preserve this wounded world around them. You're right. Who can blame them? Robin died. They're no longer the young vigilantes that they used to be. What was once wild-spirited has become exhausted and paranoid." Tempest gazed off over the gray waters. "Robin died. But the death of the Titans has only begun. Their courage is only temporary and fleeting these days. And their leader isn't doing a single damn thing to improve that."

Linday swallowed a lump in her throat. "Tempest….you're saying that like you aren't part of their team anymore!"

"…….," he merely gazed at her.

She bit her lip.

"I…..," Tempest winced. "….got in a really bad fight with Cyborg."

Lindsay blinked. "The Titans fight?"

Tempest chuckled.

Lindsay's eyes thinned.

The Atlantean rubbed his neck and cleared his throat. "Ahem….s-sorry…."

"It must have been…..really bad," Lindsay muttered.

He nodded. "It was. But it didn't need to be. I said some stupid things….and Cyborg said some stupider things….—" his fists clenched "--…and what really bothers me is that it didn't need to go that route. We didn't have to let our tempers flare. We didn't have to….yell…."

"Yell??"

"Mmmhmmm."

Silence.

A cold wind.

Lindsay hugged herself. "It's…..really hard to believe. I mean…the Titans….splitting up?"

"And I'm not alone…," Tempest quietly uttered. Looking at the darkening sky. "At least…I don't think so…."

"……."

"Noir is also leaving," Tempest said. Looking at her sideways. "He too can't stand this inaction. He can't stand sitting alone and doing nothing."

"What exactly is the nothing that you're doing?"

"Many things. But one that started this whole cascade," Tempest sighed. "Has anyone ever told you what happened to Dagger?"

"You mean the cruel man who somehow caused the tragedy on November Fourth?"

He nodded.

She swallowed and said: "The News programs have a bunch of theories. Pastor Rutland thinks he's out of Town for a short while. Antoine has this crazy-stupid theory about the Soviet Union being rebuilt and stuff………b-but…."

"But….."

Lindsay sighed. "Nobody really knows…."

Tempest spoke gently: "But somebody should. Robin was the closest to grabbing ahold of Dagger's heels. But he died before the Titans could come any closer. And ever since the Boy Wonder bit the bullet, the Titans have let themselves be defeated. They don't have the gall to take up the reins of the chase from Robin. Even if they've got the biggest bait in the whole wide world to _motivate_ them into pursuing the evil cretin Dagger."

"And what's that?"

"Not a that….a whom."

Lindsay leaned her head to the side.

"Terra."

Her lips parted. "Terra?"

"They know that Dagger has her. And yet…even that's not enough to get them moving. Cyborg at least."

"But…wasn't she a traitor?"

Tempest stared at her. A few seconds passed. He gently said: "Doesn't your religion say something big about 'forgiveness'? Do you believe it possible for any soul to be redeemed…especially after careful consideration of what has caused such a person to go through so much duress and confusion to begin with?"

"……," Lindsay looked down with a sad face. "I guess….I-I guess I just don't know enough…"

Gently, his fingers touched her chin and lifted her freckled face.

He smiled gently at her. "Neither do I, Lindsay."

"……."

"Neither do I….," he leaned back. His dark eyes trailed towards the waters. "And that is why I must leave. I must search….."

"For what, Tempest?"

"I don't know. But when I find it….I'll be back."

He made to dive--

"Wait….," she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"???" he gazed at her, still.

She swallowed. She said: "Can we just….I dunno…."

"………"

"T-Talk a little more?" she smiled bashfully.

He gazed off towards the horizons. The stars were beginning to come out. He sighed long and hard. He looked at her. He smiled. "Yeah…..," he breathed.

Her teeth showed.

"There's no harm in that. No harm in that at all."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slowly….with difficulty….Blake Glover sat up in his medical bed.

"……..," I sat across from him. Gazing at him. My fingers folded together. Flesh and metal.

Patient….

He rested back against pillows. He panted, his mouth hanging open. He looked like the living dead. Or half dead living. I couldn't for the life of me understand how he had gotten so emaciated and sickly in so short a period of time. He gazed at me with a pale roll of his eyes underneath a bald head that had lost almost all of its stubborn comeover. He swallowed a dry mouth, smiled a creepy smile, and gently spoke:

"Do you still think of me as a villain, Noir?"

I bit my lip.

He chuckled. He coughed. He wheezed. He winced….calmed…and breathed again. Smiling, he said:

"At least I am suffering the death fitting for one. In some way or another, we always end in a reason justly imposed by something we have done after our beginning. I have spent many years pricking the urban world for blood to splash around with my articles. Now I am down to my last pint. A terrible, malignant lung cancer has claimed my name….and now my life…..you remember my telling you that, don't you?"

I took a deep breath.

My black eyes narrowed underneath my shades.

I thought about Glover.

I went back to the night the Puppet King had the Tower hostage. Glover, Decker, and a bunch of other famous City names were there under hypnotic control of the supernatural villain.

_No…_

I went back to the Wyldecarde days. Forcing Glover to dispose of the video tape of Jinx and I on the highway. Mock-threatening his neck in front of Robin and Raven.

_No……_

Visiting the estate of Veronica Vreeland. The rich lawn had been transformed into fairgrounds for funding the Westhaven Opera House. I was standing idly with Raven. And….he appeared. A ribbon was on his lapel.

My lips parted.

_That's right………_

I gazed at him. Honest sympathy.

_Five months later and he had practically become a corpse. _

_Nobody deserves that. Villain or not--_

"Only…," he wheezed and gazed up at the ceiling. Resting his tired eyes. "…it isn't really lung cancer."

"…….???" I made a face.

"Oh, my doctors think so. And my associates. Whatever few family members I have left. How much they are deceived like I once was. I had no idea that Dagger was slowly poisoning me from day one…making it look like the hand of mother nature abandoning my awkwardly youthful health…" the middle-aged man mumbled. A beat. He tiredly looked at me again. That same, awkwardly happy smile: "…but nobody truly knows the waves of fate surging across this reddened landscape. They can't see the fingers of Death at work, not accurately." He shifted in his seat and sat as perfectly straight as he could. I had this crazy urge to rush over and help him raise his head to a conversational level. "Even when the stroke of death is dancing across this landscape and leaving ripples in the water that claim hundreds of lives…people are blinded. They are always blinded. I don't know what ever got me into journalism to begin with. It's a giant red herring sailing out of the cosmos like a meteor." He coughed. He sighed: "It took me a long time…and quite a bit of dramatic urging on many fronts to convince me….that indeed I am a messenger. But not the sort of messenger I have tried to be. But something far greater. With a much more valiant purpose."

I leaned my head to the side.

Listening.

Watching.

He strained to lean forward and grinningly utter: "But now is the threshold of destiny. The full circle of the balance of morals being rebooted for the sake of destiny and fate's endless, childish game." He wheezed, and smiled again: "Now….Now is the time for me to redeem myself. For all the years of journalistic villainy. Of blasting do-gooders like you and the Titans. Of seeking to glorify nobody and nothing save me and my own futile devices. Now that I have you here…this tired, dying messenger can do his job. And the wildcard of this battlefront of the war of fates can begin his climactic journey…before the poison inside of me eats my body into ashes…"

I blinked my black eyes.

_Poison?_

Another blink.

_Balance of morals?!?! Wildcard?!?! Full circle?!?!_

_What the Hell?!?!?!?! _

_Have you been talking to---??_

"I'm glad that my assistant Avery was punctual in delivering my letter to your Tower…," Glover laid back in his bed some and gestured with a frail arm. "He's never come close to understanding the obsessive searches I've gone through over the last few months. To him, I'm just an insane…dying man. He can believe what he wants. But now that you're here…I'll leave the final critique to you, Noir. Do you think I am crazy? Or am I legitimate?"

"………"

"Hehehehe…..mrphh….in a moment….you will have no choice but to believe me."

I took a deep breath.

"The Titans….," he almost hissed. His breath was so hoarse. He twirled his finger, swallowed, and uttered weakly: "They are dying….one by one………..you know this, don't you?"

A shudder.

My left arm was just beginning to shiver. Just beginning….

I gripped the metal joints with my left hand.

I swallowed.

I….nodded.

"The team is dissipating…they have been robbed of all hope and almost even all courage…."

I exhaled.

I nodded…..

"Robin's death has struck a mortal blow in your team, young Noir….," Glover said. "And inevitably…this will pull the crime fighters apart. Sooner than later…the Titans will be no more…."

I breathed through my nostrils. I ran a hand through my thick hair and gazed off towards the apartment's tall stretch of windows.

_Tell me something I don't know, old man…… _

_Or else stop wasting my time……_

"This…..is hardly a coincidence…."

"???" I looked at the man with wider eyes.

"This is all merely falling in line with that which was set to transpire since the beginning," he wheezed. "And that very same beginning was—at a time—the absolute end."

I looked at him at a suspicious angle.

"There is a terrible….horrible virus on the loose in this hemisphere, Noir….," Glover said. "A….A worm. A Parasite. To some, it is a destabilizing disease. But to a noble few, it is a ravenous carnivore. And it's that noble few that most count in this case. For one of them is already gone. Lost to the Destruction. Consumed by the stroke of death."

"…….."

"Robin's death was assured a long time ago…," Glover said. "Not a matter of a week. But months. Months ago, his death warrant was assigned. It only took this long for the wheel of time to click into motion along the grooves of fate and swing everything into deadly fruition. A direct line has been cut through the balance of morals. A red, seeping gash. Leaking blood like murking smoke. Summoning all that can be summoned from the powers of Destruction. All aimed at one thing and one thing alone. The death of Robin….the death of Robin and all close to him. An insatiable bloodlust to paint his and the Titan's domain crimson. A red aviary. A rusted grave."

A breath escaped me.

My metal arm twitched.

And the shiver….

_Red Aviary………_

_Does he know? _

_Does anyone know? _

_Jinx……Pulsade……J……Viper…… _

_They all seemed so panicked._

_So anxious._

_So much in a hurry. _

_Foaming at the mouth. _

_But Glover here……before me. _

_Even on the brink of rolling over dead in his bed……he is at peace. He is tranquil. _

_Almost like……almost like…… _

_The Messenger……_

"This murderous rough divide has had its inevitable side effects," Glover said. "And I'm sure you know some of them, Noir. H.I.V.E. has crumbled to pieces and is struggling to rebuild itself. Viper was caught up in the bloodlust and tried to become Destruction itself. Evil corporations have either scattered or banded together to confront the greater evil surging in their midst. And—at ground zero of the red aviary—this City has bled so…so much. Through innocent civilians. Through law enforcement. Through Commissioner Decker. Rachel Mendez. Jean-Luc Blair. Phaser Labs. And….finally….terminating Robin himself."

I swallowed a lump in my throat.

I felt numb.

Glover continued:

"But the death has not ended, Noir….," his pale eyes narrowed across his paler face. "It is merely resting. Coiled. Hiding. Poised. Taking a breath in the afterglow of vampiric fever. The carnivore is sharpening its claws. It is looking for fresh meat. It is seeking the wounded lamb of the group…then moving its way up towards the top. Until the bird cage is drenched in all its extremities with the blood of drained loved ones. The Titans….one at a time. Destruction will terminate them all…sealing their fate."

I bit my lip.

But he gestured and said: "But….Red Aviary is not entirely invisible. It is like a virus. Yes, in fact, like a Parasite to some entities of the criminal underworld."

My mouth moved. I instinctively mouthed: _'Triangular.'_

Glover slowly nodded. "You've been told of this before. By another Messenger. Heheheh…quite the inspirational chap, he."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Triangular….a grouping of the three strongest powers on this continent. Coming from three of the largest Cities. Dagger. Lex Corp. And Gotham City's most ruthless." He leaned his head to the side. "I have done so much research. And even yet…Gotham City remains a mystery. A missing card from the deck. But soon, it will be filled in and exposed to view. But god help us all the day that happens. Do you know why, Noir?"

I leaned forward. Shaking my head. Earnestly curious…

"Because Triangular is preparing for a strike of its own…," Glover said. "The faction knows that its innards are being eaten alive by Red Aviary. The Parasite is somehow pulling the strings of everyone in the criminal underworld. Dagger, Lex Luthor, and the other partners have far too many vulnerabilities and weaknesses to leave unguarded this time that things are coming full circle. True, Dagger invaded this City to acquire what he believes to 'belong to him'. But do you really think he came solely on his own accord??"

"………"

"Even the most powerful men in this world, Noir—evil or not—must bow down to some force at some time or another. Dagger may be invincible to many things. But he cannot escape pure Destruction. No matter how much he stares into the red storm fearlessly. Where Red Aviary moves, he must inevitably follow. The Parasite is manipulating him. And he knows it. Much like Red Aviary has its reaper like grip in Gotham City and Metropolis. Dagger must be where the Parasite is….because Red Aviary needs cover. Red Aviary needs confusion and hell to mask its movements. To make it twice as invisible. After all…it was Red Aviary that struck on August Fourth and Fifth. The Parasite was leading the bloody spear, and Dagger was merely trailing behind like a tattered flag. How else do you think those closest to you perished?"

I looked confused. Very…very confused…

Glover pointed with a frail hand. "My chair…."

"……"

"_On_ my chair."

I jumped. _'Oh,'_ I mouthed. I swiftly spun about, glanced around, found a chair, and lifted a pile of plastic sheets off it.

Photographs.

Flip to the red paper clip….

"…..," I looked at the papers. I found a red divider holding a few sheets at bay. I peeled the other glossy sheets away and shuffled the clipped batch on top.

"Take a good look…."

And so I did.

"……..," I narrowed my eyes.

It was a scratchy, black and white photo of a street from a bird's-eye view somewhere in the City's downtown. A car was parked in a parallel space along the side. Monochromatic snapshots of people walked up and down the side of the asphalt in mid-stroll. Some with children. Others by themselves.

There was a digital counter on the bottom right.

It read: _11/04/2004 9:00 am._

"Does the car look familiar?" Glover asked.

I shrugged.

I flipped through identical photos.

_11/04/2004 11:00 am._

_11/04/2004 12:00 pm._

_11/04/2004 1:15 pm._

_11/04/2004 1:17 pm._

He spoke while I flipped through. "I'll give you a hint…," he smiled weakly. Proudly. "The Police Department Building….before most of its front half collapsed….it has security cameras positioned on the ledges of the sixth floor…."

I bit my lip.

Shuffling.

_11/04/2004 2:00 pm._

_11/04/2004 2:15 pm_.

In the last snapshot, five figures appeared on the sidewalk outside the unseen entrance steps of the Police Department. Four Titans. A Police Commissioner.

I took a deep breath. I knew what was coming next.

I shuffled.

_11/04/2004 2:25 pm._

_Kaboom._

A huge, black charred spot haloing a pillar of smoke rested in the bottom left of the frame. The Commissioner's car had exploded.

I shuffled to the last sheet in the bundle.

_11/04/2004 2:30 pm._

Nothing. The screen was blank. The police department had almost entirely collapsed from the terrorist R.P.G. Camera and all.

_And then all Hell broke loose……_

"Tell me, Noir….would you find Dagger a likely candidate to have—using all his devices—installed the car bomb in Decker's vehicle that so mercilessly ended his life?"

I looked at him.

I nodded with a face like that was the most stupid question in the world.

Glover blinked. "But is it probable….that someone else….morbidly have done it?"

"…….."

He pointed.

"Take a look again."

I hesitated.

"Before the explosion…"

I slowly reshuffled the photos.

I went through them again.

_11:00 am._

_12:00 pm…_

_1:15 pm……._

_1:17 pm………._

….I stopped.

"……."

I went back to '1:15'.

I looked at the photo.

Closely.

My eyes narrowing.

_A manhole cover…._

"…….."

_A manhole cover barely beneath the car had slid open._

"………."

I shuffled.

'_1:17'_

_The dark hand of a shadowed figure was receding from the underbelly of the Commissioner's car._

"……"

I shuffled then to—

_2:00 pm._

And…..

_Nothing……_

_The manhole had resealed._

My lips parted.

I blinked.

I looked up at Glover.

He smiled at me.

"……," I mouthed something.

He answered me without having to read lips. "Not Dagger…," he shook his head. "Nor one of Dagger's men. Do you want to know why I've figured that out?"

Slowly….I nodded. Entranced.

His frail finger pointed again. "On the counter. Across the way."

As gracefully as my anxious self could, I got up and shuffled over to the bar. I picked up a bundle of photos that he was pointing to. Large, glossy sheets. Sandwiched inside a beige folder. I came back and nervously sat by the dying man's side.

"Take a look."

I opened the folder…and wished that I hadn't.

_The Radioactive Depository._

_A surveillance photo from four blocks away. _

_Infrared._

_At night……_

I winced.

"Look at them….carefully….," Glover patiently uttered.

I sighed. I quietly obeyed.

I slowly flipped to the next cityscape snapshot.

The same exact image….or so it seemed.

There was a counter at the bottom right, but I couldn't discern the numbers like I could the Police Department pics.

So, I flipped again.

Nothing.

And again.

Nothing.

And—

_Kaboom._

A huge, mushroom cloud of an explosion from the distance.

A shiver ran up my metal limb.

I swallowed.

I flipped another page.

The cloud of fire descended over the radioactive depository as the clamshell sarcophagus closed up—

"Stop!"_  
_  
I froze.

Glover pointed.

"The far left….in the infrared….hiding in the dark corners of the City…."

"….," I looked.

The infrared snapshot had a sort of monochromatic glare about it. There was so much bright, white-hot madness going on in the distance that everything else seemed nonexistent. As if plunged into a cold abyss haloing the hellfire four blocks away. And yet…in the corner of the visual kaleidoscope, there was a wash-over affect of light trails. And a few of those light trails…

I leaned forward.

….they silhouetted a shadowy figure. Tall. Menacing. Standing on a rooftop of some random warehouse and…

Staring directly at the flaming carnage.

The cremated death of Robin.

And—if I didn't know any better—it was the same figure that showed itself rather briefly from the manhole in the Police Department snapshot.

"He who plants the explosion is he who is responsible for the murders of Commissioner Decker and the Boy Wonder," Decker said. "The exact same person who tried—rather unsuccessfully—to seal Jinx's fate when he planted a carbonite explosive of identical nature in the Omega Wing of the City Prison on the morning of October Twenty-Third. Jinx merely escaped because of her ability to bend fate, as well as her close alliance with Pulsade—a deadly talented assassin—and a young hacker whom you know as 'J'. But even though Jinx survived, she—like Triangular, and like yourself as well—have become mere pawns in a giant chess game run by the very same Parasite that has proven bloody and victorious in the end. The ultimate terminator. Red Aviary."

"………," I gazed numbly at the photos spilling about in my flesh and metal hands.

"Noir…," Glover slowly spoke. "I came into this whole mess by being drawn in by the violent, the disturbing, and the bizarre. A pair of nasty murders at Pier 7123 in Gotham and Pier 4146 in this City. Numbers that coincidentally map out a bayside chemical factory in Gotham where a terrible tragedy happened long ago and remains largely untold. The names of a deadly hit list hinted in letters carved on mutilated victims' bodies. Trails of blood spelling a stroke of death to cover the land. A razor-edged playing card pointing me in a direction that would take me through interviews with invisibly-cloaking assassins, fate-bending sorceresses, a man helplessly possessed by a young hacker and forced to steal a very precious video tape to me, and finally a revelation of a phone call from a mysterious entity with whom—in some awkward fashion or another—I could relate."

I stared at him. Overwhelmed.

Glover took a wheezing breath and uttered firmly: "There is an imbalance in the Spectrum, Noir."

My lips parted.

_The Spectrum……_

His weak eyes narrowed. "You know what I talk about….don't you?"

I breathed heavily.

_An imbalance in the Spectrum……_

I gazed off through the windows beyond his medical bed.

_Destruction. _

_Red. _

_Crimson……_

My fingers clenched.

_But……it couldn't possibly……_

My black eyes narrowed in thought.

_It couldn't possibly be __**him**__…… _

_Could it, Ana?? _

_After all these years……_

I took a deep breath.

My jaw tightened.

_No……not __**him.**_

I inhaled deeply.

_I would know it if it was __**him.**_

_I would feel it. _

_But this…… _

_Red Aviary…… _

_Why haven't I been able to feel—_

Glover suddenly quoted: "'In order for the sky to turn red, the Earth must bleed'."

I looked at him. Curious. Listening.

He finished, reading the words on the back of a photo: "'By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive'."

He held the back of the photo up. He looked at me.

"Red Aviary has had his prophetic introductions, before. And I feel so….so foolish to have not figured it all out sooner. There's so much I could have prevented. So much I could have warned you and the Titans about." He gestured with his other hand. "For this heroic world of yours to be washed with blood, Robin had to die. And he did. That's true. But almost as importantly—if not more importantly—two others must die. And the next one in line for termination…the first of the remaining two….is bleeding as we speak."

"……..," I blinked at him.

"She…..," Glover breathed. "….she was taken by Red Aviary….but in the hands of that which the Parasite controls now. Triangular. Dagger."

I exhaled.

_Terra……_

"She is the next one to die. But it will not be a pleasant death. There is much to be leeched from her. Much to be extracted….to be used towards malevolent goals once again. The Earth will bleed. And once it does…then it will be on to the rest of the aviary to turn red."

I glanced down at the floor.

_Dagger has Terra. _

_He has her……and Red Aviary can strike her at any second._

I gulped.

_He WILL strike her at any second……_

"And then the next in line….."

I looked up.

"….the last hump before the rest of the Titans fall into chaos…."

"………"

Glover took a wheezing breath. "He is as important to the wheel of fate now as he was when the Balance of Morals first went full circle….."

And he flipped the photo around.

And I saw another monochromatic, surveillance snapshot.

But this time….

This time of something utterly familiar.

And I instantly shivered.

**FLASH!!!!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIINK!!!!!!!_

_I drove Myrkblade into Slade…to the hilt. The wooden curve of the blade easily drove out the back of his body. He lurched forward on the object skewering him and convulsed. The opening to his mask was just besides my right ear as he hacked and crimson saliva oozed heavily out from his breathing vent._

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools……….," and his breath faded._

_I inhaled, charged murk, and pulled back._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**FLASH!!!!**

My metal limb jolted.

_Rrrrrred aviarrrry……_

I shivered.

I clutched my shaking, titanium wrist.

My teeth chattered.

I shook all over.

Glover kept holding the photo up. The visual epithet of the dying Slade. The one-armed boy ripping him apart.

"Time of death……03:21 hours…..3:21 am….July Fifth…," Glover spoke. He put the paper down. "There is something very….very special about this date, Noir. Too special to be a mere coincidence."

"………??"

He pointed proudly down at the bundle of photos still on my lap.

I glanced down.

The white-hot plume of the Radioactive Depository engulfing the unseen Boy Wonder inside.

Glover wheezed: "Confirmed shortly after by police experts…….the explosion at the depository went off….at exactly 3:21 am……November Fifth."

The shiver.

The metal arm twitching.

But I couldn't take it off.

Not then.

_Not now……_

"Everything is coming full circle…."

I took a shuddering breath.

"What was once the moment of the Titans' salvation….has turned catastrophically into their death card."

I looked up at them.

"What was once a victory for good and Construction in the Balance of Morals….has spilled over into evil and Destruction."

I stared…listening.

"Life….to Death. White….to Red."

I swallowed nervously.

But then he smiled again…and for the first time that night, I was beginning to feel like I understood why…

"But….what is Black to either side of the spectrum….but a wild card?" He took a struggling breath. He added: "Red Aviary may have the dead man's hand. But the drama play is hardly finished. The act is nowhere near finished. As the first of many, many clues announced to me….'The game is not yet over. The head dealer still has a hand'."

I was shaking still. But no longer for all the wrong reasons. I felt some inevitable fire building up inside of me. And it flickered with every roll of the once-pathetic man's tongue.

"Noir….you again are the wildcard. The Titans…the Justice League….maybe even the very Balance of Morals itself depends on you and your black tenacity once more. All eyes may not be on you, but all the hearts left beating rest in your smoking grasp. This is my message unto you. My purpose fulfilled. You must not let the aviary turn red. Robin's death was inevitable. It was a sacrifice for the rest of his family. You must find Terra. You must take her out of Triangular's grasp. You must hide her from Red Aviary's sight. This is the only way to break the circle now. To tip the balance back. To let Red Destruction wear itself out till the terminator himself is terminated. Just as much as there is an end to Life, there is an end to Death. You are the spirit of the black smoke. The neutral reaper who strikes down both poles of the universe. Now….your task lies before you again. Alone or not…you know what lies before you. You can feel it….on the streams of fate itself."

"……," I took a deep breath. I nodded…..

"And I….," Glover smiled. "….I shall tell you where to go."

"……."

"I shall tell you where to find Terra…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"When you go….what will you be looking for?" Lindsay asked.

The two sat on the railings of the boardwalk's dock.

Legs dangling over the waters.

Tempest gazed up at the stars. The second most beautiful gift the surface world had given him.

_Second most beautiful……_

"Fate….," the Atlantean murmured. "Like the currents of the Atlantic. The waves of the Pacific. The cyclones and the monsoons….." He gazed gently at the freckled-faced teen besides him. "I have lived my life drifting from one tempest to another. And—cursed as I am—not one single squall has managed to end me."

A beat.

He smiled gently and hugged himself. "I….I am the happiest I've ever been…."

"Really?"

"In some queer fashion, yes," he nodded. "I can't explain it. This isn't misery. And yet it is. This isn't ecstasy…and yet….."

"???" she leaned her head to the side.

He looked at her.

Silence.

The stars.

The lapping waters….

"The Titans won't last long as it is….," Tempest said. But then a corner of his lips curved. "And yet…."

"What??" she asked breathily.

He smiled. "I am most certain now….that even if they do break up…..something impossibly Good will bring them back together."

She parted her lips. "How do you know that?"

"Because….," he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. He gazed at her. "Some things are far too beautiful to end so easily."

"……….," she averted her eyes from him.

He chuckled.

She giggled.

A chime of laughter across the waves….

"I do declare, I believe I am getting the vapors," Lindsay giggled.

"How poetic," Tempest gestured as she chuckled on. "I should write your pastor's sermons."

"Nuh uh," she shook her head. Smiling. "Dad would call that drawing inspiration from worldly places."

"Uh huh---what????" Tempest looked at her strange.

"Pastor Rutland," Lindsay said.

"…………."

"…………..," she nodded, smiling. "He's my dad."

"…………..," Tempest blinked his dark eyes. He goofily took his hand off her shoulder and gulped. "Um….I…I-I haven't touched you!"

"Hehehehehe!! Pleeeeease," she playfully shoved him. "It's not like that."

"Ha ha ha ha!" he chuckled. "Seriously! I haven't!!"

She looked at him slyly. "What's keeping you?"

"…………"

"…………"

"…………," he lifted her chin.

Her breath slowly left her.

He leaned forward.

Her eyes narrowed.

Tempest gently…softly…..kissed her on the cheek.

Lindsay was still as a statue.

Her cheek was warm as his breath when he drew back. He caressed the freckles on her face and then touched a lock of stringy brown hair. Softly smiling, he said: "Someday….Someday soon….I will be back for those lips…."

"………….," Lindsay was flushed.

"………….," he smiled. He exhaled. His gills opened and--

SWOOOSH!!

SPLOOOSH!!!!

He dove into the waters.

And Lindsay stared at the endless waves.

The Tower beyond.

The cold, gray night of November.

And…

She felt warmly alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Noir, you must go West. I have been hard at work on my last piece of research. There will be no winning awards for this. This will all be in your hands. Triangular has major holdings in underground hideouts far west on the Continent. In the desert. Where the law of this Nation is difficult at best to reinforce. And like all criminal empires, everything grows like a malignant cancer around one place and one place in particular. You will find the answer to Terra's plight just outside of that cancer. Less than a hundred miles east of Las Vegas, there is a desert ranch in the wilderness known as Shepherd Plain. It looks on the surface as a place for herding cattle. But, in fact, it's a front for one of Triangular's most prominent figures. A close associate to Dagger's. A loyal criminal by the name of……Jacob Anderson. That name must sound at least __**slightly**__ familiar. And it should. But what's important to realize, is that Jacob Anderson is in possession of the most important piece of criminal property that side of the Mississippi Valley. Something known as the Herculean Vault. The Herculean Vault is a specially crafted safe-holding-chamber located somewhere in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. It has been built by the cunning of Gotham criminals, the resourcefulness of Dagger's forces, and the funding of Lex Luthor's empire. It is virtually indestructible to all known forms of law enforcement and those brandishing super powers, as it was specifically crafted to resist even the brute force of Superman himself. Inside the Herculean Vault are countless prized artifacts. Some rumored to be as old as the criminal, secret societies that have robbed them from the cultures of the world for centuries on end. Some others are said to be special secret weapons that could one day end every member of the Justice League and any other superhero organization the globe-over. But there is one thing in the Herculean Vault, Noir, that you must acquire at all costs. It is a Key. But not just any Key……but a Key designed to do two things. One: To find the location of Terra. Two: To open the place where she is being hid. Wherever she is being hid. There are only two such Keys in the world. Both specifically engineered for the secrecy of Triangular's scheme. One is in the hands of Dagger himself. And the other……the last remaining one……is in that Herculean Vault. It is waiting for Red Aviary. It is waiting for the true wielder of death to rush in and steal it in such a fashion that only the Reaper himself can do. You must beat him to it, Noir. You must head West. West into the desert of Nevada. You must work through Jacob Anderson to open that Vault. And you must acquire the Key to Terra's salvation. What you do once you catch up to the girl's statue is in your capable hands. All I can do is point you in the right direction. Time is of the essence. The less ambiguous the deadly truth is……the more that the smoke and mirrors dissipate……all that's left is red. The aviary gets bathed more and more. You are one of the two thirds left to this crimson puzzle. Robin is dead, but you are alive. And Terra remains to be saved. Go to her, Noir. The Earth must not bleed. The sky must not turn Red."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_With fate on your side, Noir……you will once again bring yourself and the Titans Full Circle……in the most absolutely glorious way……'_

Tempest drifted eastward….eastward….eastward….

Hugging his arms to his chest.

His legs straight out.

Like a slowly skimming torpedo.

Gliding through the murky depths.

His eyes were closed.

Almost meditative.

His black hair swirled in the currents.

His gills gently filtered bubbling streams in and out.

"………….."

He approached the frothy bottom of the Bay.

And….

A flickering.

"…………"

A…._flickering……_

Tempest's eyes fluttered open.

White specks on black spheres.

He blinked.

He glanced down.

"…….."

Wonder washed over his face like oil off a fish's scales.

His lips parted.

A stream of bubbles flew out of his mouth and dissipated.

"……."

His eyes narrowed.

He spread his limbs.

He treaded himself upright.

He drifted himself down….down…down…

The flickering happened again.

He came to a stop.

His face frozen in perplexity.

Confusion.

And shock all the same.

He reached two hands down towards the ocean floor.

He picked something up

Something that he was then holding in his palms.

And as he looked squarely at it…..

The flickering turned into a glow.

A red……red glow…..

Red clouds of light shimmering off his smooth skin.

And he immersed himself in the crimson kaleidoscope.

Like a fish staring into a light show.

And…for but a moment….

His magenta-cast figure was still……in thought.

He quickly jerked into action.

He hugged the thing to his chest, spiraled around….

…..and swam north along the coastline.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thwip!

Thwiiip!!

I slipped on my tan slacks.

I zipped them up.

I strung a belt in around my waist.

_Dear Titans,_

Fwoomp!

My black tanktop.

Tight around my chest and shoulders.

Tucked into the waistline of my slacks.

_I am leaving the team. I am leaving the Tower._

I slipped a flesh arm into one sleeve of my combat fatigues.

Then my metal arm into the other sleeve.

_When Robin died, he had a contract left unfinished. A contract that he sacrificed his life for at the last second to maintain. A contract that I cannot ignore any longer the more I sit at home doing nothing._

I tucked the jacket in.

Tightly.

I fit tools and first aid supplies into the pockets of my slacks…my jacket…both the outsides and insides.

_I know I have done things to the extreme before. Sacrificing both myself and the overall peaceful status quo of everything around us. And—as predicted—I am doing it yet again._

I slipped one black boot on.

I laced it tight.

Thwifft!

The same with the other…

_Please, do not be sad. Do not be despondent. Yes, I am leaving you. But I am not turning my back on you. I love each and every one of you far too much to ever abandon you._

I stood up straight.

I took the scabbard in flesh and metal hands.

I looped it over my shoulders and holstered it around myself.

_But this is a task that I must do alone. A long time ago, I discovered a power. A power that fought to balance the factors of Red and White. Death and Life. Both interchangeable. Both comprehendible from behind the black veil of smoke. If I just close my onyx eyes, I can feel it. My destiny. Like fingers of spatial sense. I have a job to do. I have a contract to finish. And as loyal to all of you as I am, I know that this is something that I must do alone. To bring any of you into this……would only paint the Aviary more Red._

I held a red bandanna up to my forehead.

I wrapped it around my head.

Binding the long locks of black hair down.

Tying it in the back.

Tight.

Firm.

_I leave Westward. Do not try and follow me. For soon, I will follow myself back here._

I held a yellow communicator labeled 'T' in my hand.

I gazed at it.

I exhaled.

I dropped it coldly to the ground.

I twirled Myrkblade.

Th-Th-Thwish!!

I leaned forward.

Thwish!!

The sword twirled to a stop.

I slid it into my scabbard.

CHIIIIIING!!!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOSH!!!

I ran up the pillar of the suspension bridge's support.

I jumped up, flipped, and landed in a perching squat.

Plant!!

I stood up.

I clenched my metal fist.

Chasing the shivers away.

And under the lonely night sky…

In the cold, bitter air of November.

I stared over the coming and going cars.

Westward.

"……."

_I will return, dear Titans. I will return._

I took a deep breath.

I closed my naked black eyes.

_But when I do return……I promise you……_

I reopened my eyes.

Jaw tight.

I slid my shades over them.

I saw everything…

…clearly.

_I will not be alone. For I shall have Terra with me. Alive and well. This shattered family of seven shall be a healthy, happy family of seven once again._

I held my breath.

I got into a crouching position.

I summoned murk.

A pulse.

And….

I blurred down the structure of the Suspension Bridge.

I left the City.

I headed West….

_The Earth……must not bleed……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Sincerely,_

_Noir._

"…………..," Cyborg finished scanning down the end of the page.

A beat.

He numbly crumpled the sheet of paper in his grasp. He clenched it hidden in fist and stared up at the ceiling. His eyes rolling back. A painful…exhausted sigh coming from his lips.

"…………."

He looked back down, defeated.

He slowly turned….

…and faced the other three Titans on the other side of the Main Room.

Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire sat anxiously together on the couch.

Staring at him.

Awaiting…..

"What does the letter tell us?" Starfire murmured.

"Noir….has…….," Cyborg's eye trailed. "……….." After a deathly pause, he looked at them again—stumbled—but finally uttered: "…Noir has decided to move on."

Beast Boy hugged his knees to his chest.

Starfire held a hand over her mouth.

Raven blinked. She glanced aside. Icily gazing at the floor.

"But…B-But why….?" Starfire stammered. "Why would our friend leave us??"

"The same reason Tempest undoubtedly has….," Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head. "The same reason….I'm sure….all of us are contemplating."

Sad…sad silence….

Beast Boy's voice wavered a bit as he murmured: "Things must be really….really bad for Noir to leave us…."

Quiet…..

"After all he's done….after all he's ever done to save us…."

Starfire rested a hand on the changeling's shoulder.

The green elf sniffed. He shut his eyes gently and sighed.

"You are sure he didn't give a specific reason?" Raven asked, leaning her fair, blue head to the side. "Did Noir mention anything to you about _why_ he's leaving?"

"Surely our friend thinks of the implications of his actions…," Starfire gestured. "Noir has proven himself a pragmatic hero…."

Cyborg shook his head. "He's gone." He looked at Raven. "Raven….you of all people should know that Noir could never truly find peace with us…."

Raven bit her lip.

Cyborg went on: "Not even the Titans could…c-could secure whatever pain in his past he ultimately hid from us." He gazed off towards the dark night outside the windows. "It's ironic, kind of. Like Robin dying all over again…."

Beast Boy sniffed once more. "So….this is it, then?"

"…….."

"This is how it all ends?"

A beat.

"It is not over….," Raven droned.

Cyborg looked at her.

She took a deep breath and looked up. Deadpan a face as always. "Us four….we are the originals. Minus Robin…we are the Titans that always were….."

"…………," Cyborg gently, painfully smiled.

Starfire looked at everyone. Suddenly, explosively…she jumped up with a raised fist. "To the Titans!!!"

Beast Boy jumped. He gazed at Starfire, wide-eyed. But slowly…his shocked expression turned to something of knowing, pride and joy. He wiped the last drop of frailty from the corner of his eye with a sleeve, jumped up, and joined Starfire's fist with his. "To the Titans!"

Raven's lips were somewhat curved and Cyborg was smiling bright as they both joined the circle with raised fists.

"To the Titans!"

"To the Titans!"

"**To the Titans!!!!"**

Chuckles.

Giggles.

Laughing.

A beat.

They all shared a mutual embrace.

A conjoined breath or two later, Starfire uttered:

"Dear friends. Let us not mourn. Let us do something together!"

"Eat drink and be merry!! Hehehe! How about pizza, dudes?"

"Hooray…," Raven rolled her eyes and droned. "Titan tradition." A beat. "I can think of no better thing."

"Neither can I," Cyborg said. And with a hidden touch of sadness in his eyes, he glanced down at the crumpled letter and swiftly tossed it away when nobody was looking. He warmly wrapped his arms around the shoulders of the three Titans smaller and younger than he as he led them merrily towards the elevator and eventual camaraderie. "Neither can I….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Blake Glover's apartment.

Lonely.

Cold.

Littered with endless, schizophrenic meanderings of paper and photos and names and numbers.

The man lay in the middle of a beeping, wired bed.

He stirred and he stirred and he moaned.

He sat up with a gasp.

A wheeze.

A cough.

He held a breathing mask over his face.

He inhaled.

He turned pale.

He inhaled some more.

And….

A touch of warmth crept over his dying body once again.

He let out a shuddering sigh.

"…….."

He took the mask off.

He blinked…dizzily almost at first….but then with building strength.

With shaking hands, he reached for the wires in his arms.

He pulled them out of the plastic sheathes stuck in his skin.

Snapping, one by one.

He lowered a metal rung of the bed.

Wincing…exerting much strength into so much nothingness…he uncovered himself and swung his legs out and off the bed.

He paused for breath.

Hunched over.

"……."

He slowly….slowly lowered himself to the floor.

Bare foot.

It made him shiver from the cold touch of the surface to skin.

And yet…

He straightened his hospital gown.

And he shuffled forward.

Forward…forward….

To his desk.

He reached a shaking hand out.

He grabbed a sheet of paper.

He held it in his hand.

Reading the words.

Pacing around the apartment.

Pacing.

Pacing.

Because something was still bothering him.

One piece of his research unanswered.

That he couldn't tell the wielder of Black balance.

The one thing withholding his manifest destiny.

His final purpose.

"'In order for the sky to turn red….'"

He paced.

He wheezed.

He read.

"'…The earth must bleed'."

He walked towards the window, coldly shuffling.

Suffering.

Reading….

"'By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die'…."

He came to a stop.

Bowing before his reflection.

Oblivious to the star-studded night beyond the glass.

"'Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive'….."

A wheezing breath.

A slight pause.

He looked up from the paper.

Out through the window.

Onto the Black world.

"'Smoke and mirrors….is what keeps him alive….'"

There was something in Blake Glover's dying pale eyes.

A touch of flame.

A red flicker.

And his optics widened.

At the same time, his pupils narrated.

For he saw.

He saw…..

High on the rooftops.

Across buildings.

Underneath and beyond shadows.

Barely visible in the silhouetting starlight.

The shadowy figure.

The tall, shadowy figure.

Its head like a skull.

Two tails dancing behind the neck in the wind.

Body thin.

Legs firm.

And a red glare.

_FLASH!!!_

Glover gasped.

The red dot of a sniper rifle's targeting system stabbed into his eyes.

His whole entire body went numb in a crimson burst.

And the meaty walls inside his head melted away. Life and Death surged together and revealed the Dark, Black Whole it had always been. A revelation that took half of his breath away and introduced the saving cold of eternity. Carried on the wings of a thundering sound….like joyful laughter and agonized mourning all at once….the queer sensation like that of one hand clapping.

The red dot wandered up to the middle of his forehead.

And the journalist chirped.

"The terminator…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City skyline.

Under the veil of night.

Dark, ghostly.

Few lights and little movement.

Just towers rising into a dead, dead silence.

Silence….

…..

_**BANG!!!!!**_

The briefest of thunders echoed across the structures.

A disturbed flock of sleeping pigeons flapped up into the moonlight and disappeared into the sky.

Like spectres lost in a bleeding bird cage.

There and gone again.

Deflating.

Silent.


	186. The Earth Must Bleed part 1

**186. The Earth Must Bleed part 1**

_I was barely fourteen years old._

_I wasn't alone._

_Matt, Michael, Graham, Ben……most of the guy students huddled along beside me._

_We stood on the side of the country road, surrounded by thin woods that gradually lifted thicker and thicker into the cedar-covered plateau. _

_It was late in the afternoon, the gray sky of a wet Washington day looming overhead as always._

_We waited……waited……_

_Hands in our pockets._

_A few of us chatting._

_Laughing and tossing adolescent insults._

_Until……_

_They came._

_And some of them were boys. Most of them were the girl-students, lagging behind in their own little cliques._

_We had all learned to respect each other and—most of all—enjoy our company as a group. There was a great camaraderie and familial nature about us. And very little thought did we put into the inevitable truth._

_And that truth…_

_In the end, only three of us would stay 'together'._

_I craned my neck, blinking my brown eyes anxiously. _

_The laggers came up, chatting (most) and giggling (the girls). I could see Ginelle and her sister Michelle. Dawn along the perimeter. A bunch of other girls whose names I didn't bother with half of the time. And then—off center—as much in the group as she was out……_

_I smiled._

_She was in the middle of talking to another femme in the clique. Her short-short blonde hair fluttered lightly on the edges with each touch of the cold, moist afternoon. She glanced over. Blue sapphires thinning. And she smiled the angel within—out._

_She waved._

_I waved back._

"_Finally!" I heard Ben utter, but I didn't see him. "Thanks for being on time, people! You're only __**twenty**__ minutes late!"_

"_You could have gone ahead of us!"_

"_Nah, we're too bored to be bored by not being bored by you," Graham said. "But now everything is as it should be. And it should be down the road and into Town. How about in thirty seconds, should it?"_

"_Come on……take it easy. We've got all night."_

"_Yeah……let's use every second of it!"_

"_Remember. Master says 'back at midnight'."_

"_Thanks, Michelle. Once we find a place to eat, what say you go to the restroom and take the front row desk out of your butt??"_

"_I'm just saying--!"_

"_Hehehe……god, I can't believe we're training for anything."_

"_Let's just go. I'm starving already."_

"_We're gonna check out the shops too, right?"_

"_Yeah, whatever. Come on, guys…"_

_Everyone gradually surged down the road. Downhill, ironically enough. Towards the small but healthy town of Tobias. It was that one day in the week when we all got to leave the training grounds and be out in the………'real world' again. Even if the real world turned out to be nothing bigger than a rural village with less than three hundred residents and a bowling alley serving as the nightly hot spot. But when every other day of the week consisted of intense training in the Spectrum……_

_Nobody could complain. If anyone taught us humility and respect for life, it was the Master._

_While everyone moved along, the two of us lingered._

_I looked at her._

_She looked at me._

_A beat._

"_You look silly." "You look silly."_

_Another beat._

_We both nervously giggled at our own comments._

_Ana was a country girl princess. Plaid button-up shirt. Blue jeans. Belt……the boots. She was a perfect tomboy. She was __**the**__ perfect tomboy. It always struck me curiously how she reserved her most outward femininity for the uniform she designed for herself to train in. But I suppose that there's something desperately maternal in the side of the spectrum she leaned towards. White. Creation._

_I wore black. Lots of it. A black t-shirt and black jeans and a black jacket. It complemented my short black hair and contrasted……er……'nicely' with my brown eyes. My sneakers were also dark animals. I stood like an obsidian statue against the cold breezes. _

"_You always wear that," I pointed at her plaid ensemble. "I bet you wore that all the time at home."_

"_Practically slept in it," she said. We slowly walked down the road after Matt, Dawn, and the rest. "My family wouldn't have it any other way. Not that I mind."_

"_You said you were from the South, right?"_

"_Yup."_

"_Where exactly?"_

_She giggled. "I'm not telling."_

"_Cuz, I'm starting to believe you were just pulling my leg," I smirked. "You don't have a shred of an accent."_

"_That's because I repress it."_

"_Do you now?"_

_She winked an ocean-blue eye at me. "You'll just have to believe me, won't you?"_

"_Ugh."_

"_And you?" she looked at me sideways._

"_Hmmm??" I blinked. "OH. Uhm……I already told you. Seattle."_

"_Ah, that's right. A native."_

"_Born and raised."_

"_This place must be boring to you."_

"_Why? Is it boring to you?"_

"_That's not what I meant! I meant……"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Oh poop. There you go tripping my tongue up again!" she playfully pushed me._

_I giggled._

"_Does everyone in Seattle wear such dark, depressing clothes?"_

"_What? These?" I motioned with my upper limbs. "Nah. I'm not into dark clothes."_

"…………_," Ana looked at me._

"_Seriously! These are what I found last time I went into Town! Remember? Two weeks ago?"_

"…………"

"_They've been growing on me……"_

_She smirked slyly. "I just think it's cute." _

"_Er……okay," I nodded. We walked along. A breeze or two. And then I looked at her: "What's cute?"_

"_You."_

"_I'm cute……"_

"_Yeah, you're cute."_

"_What for __**this**__ time?"_

"_You're not gonna be one of the final three at this point," she said._

_My lips parted. "I'm not?! How could you say that??"_

"_Your head is in the wrong place!"_

"_Pfft! It is not!"_

"_HELLO?!?!" she fingered the sleeves of my jacket. "Mr. 'Master, I am certain that I am built for Construction'!"_

"_I am too!" I pouted. I looked down the road at the others walking ahead of me. "White's the only way to go! You won't catch me ripping stuff apart for some universal good!"_

"_And what about……ya know……," she pointed at my clothes. "__**Black**__?"_

"_Pffft……Black's boring."_

"_You sure? Ever seen the students training in that part of the Spectrum? They're lightning quick!"_

"_I don't need to be quick. I just……just……"_

"_Yeah, Jordan?"_

"_I need to be __**there**__."_

"……"

"_For others."_

"……"

"_With Constructive assistance, ya know?" I glanced sideways at her. "I've found a place in the world where—if I practice just right—I can become a living angel." I stared ahead again. An exhale: "I can earn my wings……"_

"_I think you're just encroaching on my field of study."_

_I stuck my tongue at her._

_She giggled._

_A beat._

_She walked closer to me._

_I bit my lip._

_The edges of my cheeks were slightly red……_

"_Ya know……," she said in a lower voice. "Master has told me that I'm definitely built for the White."_

"_Uh huh…"_

"_And in the end……there will only be three students. Three students to take on the Mastery of the Spectrum."_

"_Uh huh………" _

"_And……there will only be one for every color," she said. "Only one Construction adept will move on."_

_I nodded. "Yeah……"_

"…………_Yeah……"_

"………"

"………"

_A beat._

_I suddenly blinked._

_I looked over my shoulder. _

"_Say……"_

"_Yes?"_

"_Someone's missing. Where is—"_

"_Back in the Master's dojo," Ana said. "Training."_

_I blinked. "He's __**still**__ training??"_

_She giggled. "Yeah. You gotta admit……he's a lot more dedicated than both you and me. Heck, more than the rest of the students too!"_

_I ran a hand through my short hair and exhaled. "Jeez……talk about true passion." A beat. I chuckled. I looked at her smirking: "You know what that means, right?"_

"_Hehe……," she nodded. "Yup."_

"_Someone's gonna be 'seeing red' sooner or later."_

"_Most likely," Ana said. And she suddenly hooked an arm around mine and skipped us ahead. "Come on! Let's catch up with the others!"_

"_O-Okay!"_

_And we energetically bounded forward._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Four years later, a face stared back at me. It had weary black eyes beneath dark sunglasses. Long black hair held back in a ponytail. And….as the face turned….

A new scar on the cheek. A young sibling to the 'X' across my throat.

I took a deep breath.

_For every scar……there's a cross-country trip._

I exhaled.

I dipped my hands in.

The face broke in dozens of tiny mirror-crackling rivlets.

I cupped cool liquid in my metal and flesh palms. I splashed my face. I lifted my head towards the setting sun until the droplets drenched down.

I reopened my eyes. There were streaks lingering on my shades. I didn't care. They were impervious, second eyes to me.

After a break, I stood up on the east bank of the Mississippi. A slope of silt and moist earth stretched down into the voluminous river. Across the way, I stared into the shell of . Skyscrapers leisurely stretching towards the sky. A water-spanning bridge cluttered with traffic. And…naturally….the pride of the City, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Its ivory skin glistening in the melting Sun on the western Horizon.

West…..

The one place I didn't want to go back to. Ever.

And yet, the one place I was already two thirds of the way to.

Yes, there would be turning back. But not yet.

Not until I found what I was questing for….or died trying.

And there was no better place to die in……than the West.

I walked over to a mound of dirt and hoisted up a backpack. Myrkblade was concealed inside the pack, along with my scabbard. I had gradually replaced my combat fatigues with black jeans, a dark t-shirt, and a black jacket. The weather was growing colder and colder. And at night—running as fast as my powers could manage on their own—I knew it would be horrendously cold over the Plains. I knew because I had been there before…over a year ago….going the other way.

I also knew that I had some desert ahead of me. So—for the day time—I had acquired some lighter clothes of even lighter colors. As little as I could carry without much difficulty. I had brought a fair sum of money with me for the trip. And already, very little was left. I wasn't sure how I would fair once I got to Nevada, but as long as I got there I would not worry.

I spent little on food and water. Much like my first trip Eastward, my first trip Westward employed the various grueling arts of fasting I had learned when I first ever honed in on my powers under the Master. Food and water were things just as trivial as the human flesh, and similarly just as bound to the Spectrum as everything else. I'd governed my body and mind to balance itself not on the needs of the internal organs, but instead on the bottom, hierarchal platform of Blackness. The middle of the Spectrum. The power that kept watch over the necessities of White Construction and Red Destruction.

I could go for a long….long time without meeting normal human requirements of food and water. Only if I was in desperate need of such fasting.

And I was in need of such…

The Titans were…..

Everything….

I shouldered the backpack.

I turned around and looked across the Mississippi again.

Standing in Illinois.

Flexing my limbs.

_So much Earth……_

I took a deep breath.

FWOOOOOSH!!!

I blurred forward at superhuman speed.

_I can almost see why you liked it so much, Ana……_

My murking feet carried me over the waters of the Mississippi until I blazed as a speeding streak of darkness into and over the landscape of Missouri beyond…

Into the burning sunset.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_The date is November 15, 2004._

_It is four in the morning. Here I have stopped under a lone highway overpass at least fifty-five miles west of St. Louis. After an exhaustive day's quest, I passed out of the Ohio River Valley and am finally on route to cutting through the Plains States. The November air is cold and unforgiving. The winds biting. And all the more so at night. But the faster I blur and the quicker I murk across the landscape, it almost feels like I am outrunning temperature itself. I don't have quite the resilience of White or the tenacity of Red. Instead, my powers just allow me to blend with the elements. If the air is cold and the land frigid, then the smoke that trails from my limbs is liken unto the mist of ice bergs. I have always felt somewhat cold blooded when testing the endurance of my powers. And—indeed—I have been testing such endurance. Over forty-eight hours ago, I departed from the Titan's City. And I have not stopped my pace a bit, save only for the very brief moments when I can afford myself at least thirty minutes of sleep at a time. It is a regulation I have spent incalculable periods of my adolescent days perfecting. And now……it is serving me well._

_But to what end? I have not spoken to a single ally or received any word of comfort since starting this quest. I'm not even sure if there's any legitimacy in writing you these letters. I have no honest clue when or how I can send them to you. But I suppose it's what I need to maintain my sanity. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I can handle myself quite well, and I'm in no need of special assistance. But still, Diana, I can only wish that all of my faculties shall be at pure, functioning levels so that when the time comes—I can use them towards the Titan's good will._

_The Titan's good will…_

_I am miles, rivers, and mountain ranges away from my comrades. And yet……everything I do……everything I breathe……everything I ache for……I do so for them. I do not think of it as selflessness. At the same time, I do not quite see it as a simple obsession either._

_It is……a duty……_

_Robin's contract is not finished. And I suppose you would have to be there, Diana. You would have to be a Titan to understand what it means to live in the shadow of the Boy Wonder's deceased legacy. To feel every morning like there are traces of some warm body's shadow lingering in the corners of the hallways. The Tower feels so much more empty than ever I could have perceived it._

_Robin is dead. The Titans have lost something immeasurably huge. It is due time—I do believe—that the Titans gain something huge back. It would be………beyond egotistical and presumptuous to say that I can provide them with this healing. But I have a belief that something good……something purposeful……something divine will come forth from finding Terra._

_Blake Glover's words so easily, so swiftly, and so succinctly captured my heart that I know—to the very deepest fiber of my being—he is telling as much truth if not more so than the Messenger himself. And I have not seen the Messenger since before Robin's death. Like the Titans, he has dwindled off into silent, unconfessed oblivion. I have not seen the Messenger since our leader died on us. Similarly, I have not seen that exact same spark of joy and boundless confidence in Starfire's eyes. I have not heard the energy in Beast Boy's laughing voice. Raven has holed herself up and released everything paradoxically at the same time. And Cyborg……_

_Well……_

_Dreams do die, Diana. All ideas and all feelings and all emotions are as temporary and mortal as man in flesh. The only answer, then, is to give birth to new ideas in the place of lost ones. And right now, I'm holding to the truest idea that I can fathom. Or that any of the Titans can fathom, for that matter._

_Terra is alive. Terra is waiting for salvation. Terra shall be rescued……and she shall be brought back to the Tower. The threshold of a new dream, realized, golden. Like the eyes of her whom I have never seen when the furious breath of the Earth billows from the ground to sky._

_I know that I am not foolish, Diana. The Earth will not bleed. The sky will not turn red. If I must do the task of ensuring such alone, I will do so._

_And maybe……in time……I'll return soon enough to win back Cyborg's lost spirit. And then blanket the rest of the Titans thenceforth in hope. More than hope. Felicity._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_And……in short……," Ben smirked, his glass raised. "……that is why Master looks like a lovechild of Danny Devito and Willie Nelson!!"_

_Matt spit some of the soda he was drinking and laughed. _

_Ginelle and Michelle giggled._

_A few others rolled their eyes._

_A huge group of us occupied the back corner of booths and tables inside Tobias Village's roadhouse eatery. We had half-eaten dishes and soda pitchers before us. A real night out on the (tiny) town._

"_I'm………somewhat frightened of—" _

"_Of what, Dawn?"_

"_Well……the Master ripping your head off or something during training for saying that!"_

"_He wouldn't do that," Ben sipped from his glass and sat back. "After all, he teaches us that we must fear __**the elements**__ and nothing else!"_

"_Yeah……but he can become the elements," Michael pointed. "All three of them, I might add."_

"_Then he might be a redneck," Ben shrugged. "So what?"_

"_I think Jordan's bored of this conversation. What are you up to, Jordan?"_

_I looked up from staring lethargically into a pitcher of Dr. Pepper. I smiled. "About three bathroom breaks in the next hour. What about yourselves?"_

"_Hehehehehe."_

"_Whatever, Jordan."_

"_Hey! Did you see yesterday when Samuel---"_

_The other half of the booths went about their conversation. _

_I stirred with my straw and stared at the carbonated beverage again._

_And, over time, I realized that someone else was staring at me staring at the carbonated beverage._

"………_," I glanced aside._

_Ana sat beside me. And at my direct attention, she smiled. "Thought you'd be a little bit more cheerful tonight."_

_I simpered. "I am cheerful." I shrugged. I 'pointed' at the glass of Dr. P with an adolescent nod of the head. "I only drink myself to depression on occasion."_

"_Sure………if you say so."_

_I shrugged._

_Silence._

"_I could have sworn……," Ana murmured, gesturing with a graceful hand. "When I first met you here……I thought you had known those guys for life. Especially the boys. You were all over each other with jokes and friendship and whatnot."_

"_Nah, we never knew each other beforehand—"_

"_Right. Which just goes to show……," Ana giggled. "You really know how to make friends."_

_I smirked._

_She leaned her head to the side. "But……lately, you've not been quite on the same page with them."_

_I bit my lip._

_  
"Is there a reason for that?" _

"_I choose my friends……wisely," I said. I gave her a purposefully cliché look of mystery. "And those whom I do choose are few in number."_

"_Awww……you a loner?"_

"_Pfft! Hardly. Heheheheh……"_

"_Did you have friends before you came here?"_

_I winced. And for good reason too._

_Ana kept looking at me as if there was nothing wrong with her question. "Well?"_

_I swallowed nervously and glanced around at the walls as if eyes were peering through them. "Ana……it's……uhm………against the Master's teachings to think much on the past while training. You know how he says that—"_

_She leaned forward. "You want to practice Construction, right?" _

"……_well, of course—"_

"_Here's a little secret about Construction," she winked and whispered. "You always try and remember the Beginning of things. The End doesn't matter, for there's something far more sacred in the essence of an idea than in its inevitable deterioration."_

"_Ugh……," I rubbed my head. "Stop using big words……"_

"_Hehehehe," she giggled quietly. Our little 'quiet side' of the table. "In other words—"_

"_Think about the need. Worry about consequences later?"_

"_Well……not exactly—"_

"_Sounds more like Destruction to me."_

"_Look, you're turning what I have to say all upside down!" Ana waved. "What I'm trying to say is……history is very important. It teaches us how things are reinforced……and how they can be more readily reinforced."_

"……………"

"_So……," she smirked. "Tell me about your friends?"_

"_Just one whom I remember right now……," I thought aloud. I scratched my chin. I stared off across the chattery roadhouse restaurant. "Someone who lived in my neighborhood. School too. Treehouse chum. Heheh."_

"_What was his name?"_

"_Her."_

"………_," Ana blinked. "Her??"_

"_Yeah," I shrugged. "Diana. Diana Meners." I looked at her and smiled. "She had a proper name in Chinese, but I never really memorized it." I blinked. "She could kick the Hell out of a soccer ball."_

"_I bet……"_

"………"

"………"

_We both giggled helplessly._

_I ran a hand through my short hair and exhaled._

"_Do you miss her?" Ana asked._

_I gazed off. A beat. "Nah."_

"_You don't?"_

"_You know what Master says abo—"_

"_Besides that. We already discussed that part……"_

"_Okay then……," I leaned back in my seat and sighed. A beat. I looked at Ana. I said: "I don't miss any friends or family I had a few months back……cuz……what's important is what I'm here for now."_

"………"

"_I mean………Ana, the Spectrum is something so……so grand. And yet so real. It is up to us to learn how to control it before really ugly souls tap into its power. I'm honored to work with the Master on finding the three who will carry on his discoveries. And as that's true……I find myself suspended among so many……t-talented people. I want to make sure everyone is going through this safely. Yourself. The guys. Even the Master and his assistants and—"_

_Ana sighed……then giggled._

"_????" I looked at her strangely._

_She cleared her throat and shook her head. "So the greatest friends you have……are the ones you're working with at all times……and ironically the ones you're most motivated to protect."_

"………"

"_Don't you get it, Jordan?" she smirked. "That is so……so……'Black'. You are an Equalizer."_

"_Hrmph……," I stared back at the Dr. Pepper._

"_You're not a Creator. But instead……like……l-like a shepherd! Diana's like one sheep who you know is either gone from the prairie of your life for good or waiting somewhere else, safe and secure. But all you care about is the flock around you right now. It's as obvious as sunlight! You have a purpose in the Spectrum! And that quite simply is—"_

"_Allright, Miss 'Construction' expert," I smirked at her. "Tell me……what's the epitome of 'White'?"_

"_Hoo boy……," she rolled her blue eyes._

_I pointed: "What about __**your**__ friends before you came here?"_

"……………_," she gradually lost her smile in the same way that she lost her eyes towards the distant corners of the room. Something sadly complex about her seeped to the surface of her face like the criss-crossing lines of her plaid getup. A labyrinth of beautiful streams all working together to build her form and then scatter it across the oblivion of a blatantly 'present' landscape._

_And I felt like I had burned down a rainforest. I swallowed a lump down my throat and said: "I……uhm……I'm sorry. If that's too personal a question—"_

"_Not at all……," Ana smiled swiftly. Like a silver moon, straight at me. "I……am making my friends __**now**__, Jordan…," she said. "Only……I'm not so much trying to maintain them like you are……" _

_I blinked._

_She spoke: "……I'm building them. It's like Creation……when the Earth is separated from the firmaments and given life. The Earth was once……like some giant body of flesh and arteries just waiting to be filled with blood."_

"………"

_She sighed with a peaceful smile and leaned back, hugging her thin self. "I am so happy to be here. Learning the Spectrum. But I know it's not a 'Black' thing. I'm not taking advantage of the people and places around me make myself strong. But rather……I'm using this whole experience………this avenue of friendship……to paint my life new like it was a giant, clean slate. I……I can believe in things now. Much more than I ever could or could not manage to do so before……"_

_I stared at her. Silent. Everything in the distance—the laughing, the joking, the eating sounds—it faded swiftly as I focused in on this mysterious angel before me._

_Ana looked at me again. She smiled: "And I feel like……I've created something very……very special. Right here. Over the last few months."_

"_Oh yeah?" I asked. "What?"_

_She suppressed a giggle._

"_????" I looked at her, humored._

_She glanced away from me, some. The corners of her cheeks were pink. "Ahem……you're a silly person, Jordan. You know that?"_

_I shrugged._

"_And you're wyrd."_

"_Hehehehehe."_

_I took a major sip of my patient Dr. Pepper finally. I tried to look at the others and engulf myself in their conversations._

_But instead……I felt very much distracted._

_I felt……_

_Carried along by the elements. The mental trail of…dark smoke._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kansas City.

Atlantis reunified. Jinx had gotten loose. H.I.V.E. fell. Viper and Dagger came back. Robin and Decker died. And the City of the Titans was nearly leveled to the ground.

Only three dramatic months had passed since I was in Kansas City last.

The place looked the same.

The same roads.

The same apartment buildings.

The same Country Club Plaza.

The only thing different was the freeze in the air from a cold front. I trudged under an amber sky as yet another sunset in as many sunsets greeted my passing. I gazed out towards my right as I walked down a main road. In the cities, I sometimes slowed down to a simple stroll. I needed to break my blurred, murking pace every now and then to 'recharge' as it were; my body and my meditation. And also, I didn't want to accidentally 'run through' a person or a car or anything else of fragile nature. Blurring through urban landscapes was dangerous—I eventually found out. I could do it all the time back in the Titan's City because—for the most part—I had finally managed to memorize the layout of Downtown and its buildings. I knew what walls to run up, what rooftops to jump over, and what angles to glide down.

But here. Kansas City. Halfway across the Continent. All I remembered was…..

"……," I glanced right into a plaza.

I caught a ghostly familiar image of a Borders bookstore in the center of a parking lot.

My shaded eyes narrowed.

Images of Intergang creeps, burning trucks, railroad tracks, kryptonite, and a laughing robot hitman flew across my mental vision.

I took a deep breath.

An hour later…when I picked up speed and blurred out of the western end of Kansas City, I gazed northward some into the endless farmlands and countryside.

And I thought I felt something familiar.

Silken hair and a warm hug under the stars of the blue night.

Inevitably, I forced myself to gaze westward. Away from her.

And I blurred into oblivion.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_November 16, 2004._

_Early this morning, as the sun began to rise, I cleared Kansas. I forgot how easy it was to 'run across' the Plain States. I can bound over the rolling hills and blur over farmland and leap murkingly from pasture to pasture with very little obstruction in my path._

_It is so easy, in fact, that I can nearly forget everything that this state and those surrounding it mean to me. You were there at Robin's funeral, Diana. You saw who came and who didn't come. You saw those who mourned in public and realized those who decided to do things on their own, whether it'd be weeping or paying respect or doing nothing of the sort altogether._

_Sure you must have noticed like I and the rest of the Titans did that Kara Kent did not come. And neither did Batman, or Nightwing, or Batgirl, or even Speedy from Star City. There were famous faces that we all knew. And then a few that none of us recognized. And I know it would have been very shallow of me to imagine everyone of superhero ilk in the world coming to pay the deceased Boy Wonder respects._

_But……_

_Not even Batman and his cohorts? Somehow, I get the feeling that you may know the reason for your fellow Justice League member not being there for the memorial of his former teammate. And I'm not trying to insinuate anything by any means, Diana. I just hope you can at least share this with the Titans: was Batman ashamed of Robin? Was what Robin did in forming the Titans and getting so humanly close to all of his friends a bad thing? Did Robin ruin his own image before all that was left of his heroic self was cast before the fire?_

_Speedy, I can almost excuse. There are issues concerning him which I have made an oath—to whatever powers may be in the universe—not to reveal. The Speedy that Robin made friends with is someone who has passed away long time ago. The redheaded boy underneath the mask of the Green Arrow's sidekick is someone else by now, I imagine. I do not see how it would have been fitting for him to be at a funeral for someone in a field of work that has already long decayed in the red archer's life._

_And Kara……_

_Kara has tried to explain. As she always is willing to explain with great, desperate detail. And the last time I 'talked' with her online, I cut our conversation short. I didn't want to hear what she had to say. And it wasn't out of anger or bitterness, Diana. Honestly. I have already been mad at Kara, and delayed communicating with her because of such resentment. But now……I'm not angry at anyone. Not Kara. Not Speedy. And not Batman's family._

_There should be no more anger now. No more hatred and bitter confusion over a lost thing. For all is not lost. Yes, Robin is dead. But that death shall be remedied. The loss shall be balanced out with an incalculable game. And though she can hardly be a replacement for the Boy Wonder's soul, Terra will bring solace and joy back to the Titans. And furthermore—I am convinced—wrenching her free from the evils of Dagger's and Triangular's hands will bring justice back to this torn, bleeding world._

_This is my obsession and mine alone, now. For I am the Black balance. I am the Equalizer._

_Kansas is behind me. The Rocky Mountains and cold heights of stone are ahead. It will take more than half a day to simply 'blur' over the craggy topography. The difficulty for me is especially great. And not just because of the elevation. But because……as I'm now suddenly realizing…_

_This is the furthest West I've been since I joined the Titans._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Okay……now I'm bored," Matt said. _

"_Pfft! You're not bored! You're stuffed!" said Dawn._

"_I haven't even begun to eat!! Where's that Krispy Kreme?? Someone said they were building a Krispy Kreme in Tobias!!"_

_Graham walked down the sidewalk, shaking his head with a smirk._

"_Matt……if I could eat as many donuts as you and still stay that thin……," Michelle began._

"_It's a secret," Ben spoke. "Matt's using his meditation on Destruction to consume calories for him."_

"_Am not!"_

"_Pfft……that's such crap," Dawn rolled her eyes. "I'm a Destruction adept too. You don't see me feeling some incessant need to take advantage of the powers I'm learning."_

"_Last time we sparred together, you kicked me between the legs," Michael calmly said. "To each his own. Donuts or groin kicks?"_

"_Man……shut up!"_

"_Hehehehehe!!"_

_I leaned back against a lamppost a few steps outside the roadhouse eatery. I smiled, gazing at my fellow students. We two dozen or so of us were spread about the sidewalk of the City block like university attendees on a lunch break. Only, it wasn't lunch. The sky was turning a dark gray as the moist winds of Washington beat away. It was only three hours till the Master's curfew……but……_

_We felt like we had all the time in the world._

"_I just thought of something……," Ginelle said from the side._

"_What? Shopping? The places are all closed, girl."_

"_I always wanted to go on a Camping Retreat when I was a kid," she said. Looking at the rest of us. Smiling. "You know……like……log cabin bunk beds, songs around the campfire, friendship beads----the works!"_

"_You're a bit old for that, don't you think?"_

"_Nobody's ever too old!" Ana suddenly said. A pretty smile as everyone looked at her. "I think a campfire would be great!!"_

"_I think someone would arrest us if we lit something in the middle of the street here—"_

"_I mean the next time we get an evening off from training!" Ana gestured. "Wouldn't that just be………warm and fuzzy?"_

"_Yeah!" Ginelle hopped. "We could use the field out beyond the dojos!"_

"_The __**other**__ field, right? Not the one we train in……," Matt pointed. "Cuz if we set fire to the training area—"_

"_Shut up, Matt," Ginelle looked around. "That's an awesome idea, thank you, Ana!"_

_Ana giggled. "You're too sweet. Don't mention it."_

"_Real camping material, that girl……," I motioned towards Ana and winked at everyone else. "Heck, I bet she had a raccoon as a head pillow where she used to sleep."_

_Ana stuck her tongue out at me. "So I'd be my element. So what? Someone's gotta put the Earth into each and every one of you."_

_Ben blinked. "Say what?"_

"_Even if you're not a Construction Adept," Ana gestured towards the sky and everything beneath. "You all must learn at some point or another to……to respect nature. Mother Earth. How much Life surrounds us and warms us like a blanket at times we least expect it……" She hugged herself, sighed, and smiled. "Even Destruction and Balance must all stop somewhere. Somewhere……strong. And wholesome."_

"_And trippy," Ben winked._

_Dawn shoved him._

"_Ow!"_

"_Sounds extremely ambiguous and wyrd," Graham said. A blink. He smiled: "I like it."_

"_Ana! Camp counselor!! Al Gore spokesperson!!"_

"_Hehehehehehe!!!"_

"_Awwww shucks."_

"_Ha ha ha ha!!"_

_I shook my head and sighed, smiling. "I think you draw quite a crowd, Ana."_

_She smiled back at me._

"_She could draw an even bigger one!" Michelle squealed. "How about a tune, Ana?" _

"_Yeah! A tune!"_

"_Egads……," Dawn ran a hand over her face. "This is so corny……"_

"_Gotta love it," Ben gave a thumb's up._

"_All right……all right……," Ana relented. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her one possession from the past. The one thing that the Master personally gave her pardon to cling onto._

_I smiled as I saw it and smiled even more as I __**heard**__ it._

_Ana brought a little red harmonica to her lips. As everyone silenced themselves, Ana meditated……then played a sweet, somber tune. Like a scene out of some flickering Thirties western, the hand organ music drifted through the cold Washington air, fought against the wind, and evoked some incorporeal spirit of the Earth that only she could touch and see for some reason and yet she desired from the bottom of her heart to share with us._

_Her eyes were closed and her short blonde hair fluttered gently from the fingers of the air. There was a sway amongst us as all giggling stopped and all smirks melted into some sort of half-sleep that carried us away. And for a moment, we weren't confused youngsters training to obtain an even more confusing goal of Spectrum powers. We were just living things. Seeds of the earth that put a day off before sprouting._

_One of us wasn't there that evening. One student. He was off in the clouds of crimson as he felt it best to be. He tasted very little of the earth other than red._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," I gritted my teeth. I strained. I shook. I pulled myself with a metal arm first. My whole body followed, shuddering all over. Sweat and gasps---and I made it. I climbed up onto solid rock and rolled over. Facing the noonday sky. Panting.

It was dry.

So….So very dry.

And hot.

November hadn't done a thing to cool these lands.

Everything was like a frying, baking oven of superheated stone.

My only grace was a thin veil of cloud cover looming high overhead.

After a few breaths, I sat up. I reached into my backpack and got a bottle of water I had managed to acquire with my few remaining funds at an old town along a highway. I sipped a few drops, wiped my brow, and glanced Eastward from which I came.

A huge, gaping valley of dry earth and rock stretched behind me. Patches of sharp sawgrass jutted up at various locations, fighting against the pebbles and natural asphalt of the region. Struggling for moisture that just wasn't there. Sharp mountainsides like the one I had just scaled loomed over beds of earth full of dust and dirt and stone. Buttes and eroded soil formed a nightmarish waltz of Terra Firma.

There was something dirty and clean about this place all at the same time. Dirty in the hard stone that bit into my limbs as I blurred, climbed, and scrambled my way across the harsh topography. Clean in the air and the lack of moisture. I felt like I was in a vacuum. A hot, scathing vacuum.

There was much to outrun.

I stood up on wobbly legs, gathered my strength, and walked forward. And my walk shortly turned into a jog, and my jog into a sprint, and my sprint into a blur. Smoke and murk pulsed through my limbs and soon I was again speeding superhumanly across the landscape. I had a relatively flat plateau ahead of me now, and for a couple of hours the journey would be almost easy.

But there was still one and a half states between myself and my goal.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_November 17, 2004._

_I am entering Utah. I now begin my slightly southwesterly bend so that I may hit the lower tip of Nevada and—hence—my destination._

_These deserts……this dry Earth……it fills my thoughts with things. Things the Titans have told me. Or at least……things they have hinted to me, since they never did truly want to talk about Terra for any long period of time. I was told that Terra lived on her own before she entered the Tower. She was constantly on the run. And she did her best to stay away from places with large populations. Her powers were unstable, and she feared hurting people en masse……like she could very well have done before and felt guilty for._

_She slept in caves. In trees. Besides rivers, both dry and rippling. 'The Earth was her home', as Beast Boy once described. She had only the bare essentials—food, clothes, a flashlight—to keep her sane. She chose a life of loneliness. The lost child with the endless womb of the Earth. Like some uncut placenta from a dying mother. _

_It is so incredibly lonely out here, Diana. The few times I have slept, I've woken up and thought that I was still in the Tower. But as soon as the realization of my present travels hit me, I lost the visions of my friends. Starfire's smile. Beast Boy cooking up some tofu monstrosity. Cyborg giving me a thumb's up and a laughing grin. Raven waving and returning gracefully to her book._

_I have given so much to stay with the Titans. But I get this feeling that I was never really doing my best to be 'a part of them'. I always had my lonesomeness. I always wanted to be reclusive._

_But this loneliness……this is terrible. And not so much because I am without my friends and 'family'. But because I'm getting a feel for the first time in my superheroic life what the girl Terra must have felt. And her loneliness was not just a reality before the Titans. But as she was with Slade. And when she was coerced to alienate them through betrayal. And when everything joyful in her once-precious camaraderie with the Titans quickly turned to hatred and boiling distrust._

_Isolation is a bitter, caustic thing. And I shudder to think how hard it has eaten into her……in that ever-freezing cocoon of stone. The epitome of loneliness is Terra. But for how long? Even if I find her, what am I going to do with a doll of rock? How could I possibly save her from the very same thing that saved the City one day from an entire, damn volcano?_

_In order for the sky to turn red, the earth must bleed. Glover told me that. And if he knows it's true, than I will believe it without a doubt. Dagger wants something from Terra. Triangular too. Maybe even this 'Parasite'……this 'Red Aviary' manifestation does as well. But what is there to be done? Stone and rock can't bleed. But a human being……a little girl……_

_There is much blood to come from that. Terra has been broken before. And never so much more heavily than by Slade. None of us Titans have tried to question it……or even imagine it._

_But something happened. Purposeful or not. Consensual or not. Terra bears Slade's child, Diana. Terra—like Earth itself—is the mother of something. The Creation of a new child is in full gear, with the Balance and the Destruction all paved away in an invisible blueprint that nobody can predict. And I can't help but think……that this is all leading to a frightful nativity. For Terra is doubly precious. And doubly alive. And—perhaps—she could very well become doubly dead._

_I must not let that happen. I'll run a new Canyon into this world with my blurring feet if I have to. I will find Terra. I will free her. And the loneliness—at least—will begin to die. While something else lives on._

_Somehow……_

_Somehow._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_So, what was the inspiration??"_

"_Hmmm? For what?"_

"'_Jordan'." _

_I looked at Ana. We were walking back up the country road behind the other students. Back towards 'home'. The woods got thicker and thicker on either side of the path. The stars and moon alone were lighting our path._

"_Oh……uhm……I'm not sure, exactly," I rubbed the back of my neck and smiled sheepishly. "I never knew my father to be a Chicago Bulls fan……" _

"…………_," Ana looked at me quizzically._

_I shook my head, smirking. "Never mind."_

"_I think it's a good name," Ana said. "Very……fit."_

"_Fit?"_

"_Like you could kick someone's butt or something."_

"_I think it's a little stupid," I muttered. "I've had at least three classmates with the name 'Jordan' before. All girls."_

"_Hehehehe. Glad I don't have that problem."_

"_I still don't get why your name is spelled with one 'n'."_

"_It's short for Anastasia," Ana winked._

"………_whoah."_

"_Hehehe………I know."_

"_Kinda sounds Russian."_

"_Yeah, I suppose."_

_I smiled at her. "What's your last name?"_

"_King."_

"_Oh, never mind then."_

"_Hehehe. Sorry to put your hopes up."_

"_Ever get 'Anna and the King' jokes?"_

"_Just one. You."_

"_Don't I feel special."_

"_Hehehe."_

_Silence._

_We realized that we were lagging behind the rest of the group some. But we kept our pace. Letting seclusion and darkness soothe us. And just the two of us._

"_You really sound beautiful……"_

_Ana looked at me. "Huh?"_

"_Playing the harmonica……" _

_She smiled and looked ahead. "First time I ever heard a harmonica's music called 'beautiful'."_

"_Well, it can be."_

"_How so?"_

"_When you play it."_

_Ana shrugged. "I've loved the mouth organ for as long as I can remember. Even as a kid."_

"_Taught yourself?"_

"_Kinda sorta," Ana stared up at the stars as we walked. "I taught myself a lot of things."_

"_Which……I-I guess makes you so good at Construction," I smiled at her as we went along. "Those who Create don't have people before 'chaos' to show them the ropes'."_

"………_," she was silent._

_I blinked. A bit concerned. "Ana?"_

"_I……I think I'm going to be one of the three, Jodan."_

"_One of the three Spectrum wielders?" I raised an eyebrow. "Ana……h-how could you possibly know that so far ahead of time?" I chuckled. "I mean……hooray for optimism, but we're barely into training!"_

"_I just……I just sense it……," Ana breathed. "Like a prophecy. Something hanging from my neck, trying to fall into the center of the Earth. I'm meant……t-to be an agent of White. I feel it all the more every time we train and meditate and fast. The Master……he has this look in his eye whenever he teaches me. I can see that he knows it……he knows what I'm destined for."_

"_Okay……'optimist' and 'teacher's pet'," I smirked nervously. "Guess it'll be tough to compete with you."_

"…………"

_I swallowed nervously._

_She looked at me. "I mean it, Jordan. You're……You're not made for Construction."_

"_And you know this because you're so certain that you'll wield White in the end?"_

"_Maybe. Perhaps. But that sounds very arrogant," she gestured. "I just……I feel like I'm already seeing and feeling the Spectrum."_

"_Oh?"_

"_Yes. Even before I ever started training."_

_I blinked. "Before training????"_

"_Like it was built into my blood or something……," she hugged herself as she walked against the moist wind ahead of me. "It's paradoxical, I know. Like the circulatory system before the body. Or the firmaments before the Earth was made from it. But I feel……I feel……" _

"………"

_She sighed. "It's like my vision is full of it. Both when I'm awake and when I'm asleep. White eyes. I feel more student than 'Anastasia'. I feel like I can sense the other trainees and their auras. And you……" She looked at me. Her mouth lingered open. "You're like one giant, black hole. All encompassing. Devouring. Cleansing. A soul that—deep down underneath—is self-detrimental and will do all that it can to achieve the tranquility of others even if it means suspending itself in chaos."_

"_Ana……please……," I smiled nervously. "I'm just as selfish as anyone around you. The most I'd ever do for someone is—"_

_Suddenly, she was hugging me. Her warm body pressing into mine. Enveloping me._

_I lost my breath, blinking helplessly over her shoulder._

_She sighed over my shoulder and spoke in a wavering voice: "You just don't know it yet, Jordan. And quite frankly, you don't have to. But I see it. On white streams of purpose and destiny, I see it. When the time comes, all you'll ever think about is the world closest around you. And……and……"_

"_A-Ana?" I swallowed nervously. I rested hands on her shoulders. "Are you—"_

"_If ever that happens……and you cross that threshold……," she pushed back and looked into my eyes. "I……I want to be there. I want to be there to make sure you don't sacrifice everything at your own expense……just for the Spectrum."_

"_Ana," I smiled. "You don't have to worry. "I'm sure that whatever becomes of our training……when all of the Spectrum is finally salvaged, I'll be more than your average……frail human being."_

_She swallowed nervously. "That's exactly why I'm concerned, Jordan."_

_I blinked. I glanced aside, thin brown eyes. "Ana……I think…m-maybe you need to meditate some more."_

_Silence._

_She let go of me. She stepped back, took a deep breath, and smiled painfully. "I already have been meditating," she said. A hand ran through her short, golden angelhair. "This night……it was the best meditation ever."_

_I swallowed. The corners of my face were red. "You're……uhm……r-really friendly, Ana. Anyone ever told you that?"_

"_Yup. Just now."_

"………"

"………"

_She giggled._

_I chuckled._

_The stars yawned._

_The moist wind paused for a moment._

_And as I stared at the joyous blonde thing in plaid and jeans before me, I began to see something more. Like an ivory-hot power surging beneath……and yet vanilla soothing and soft and…_

_Heavenly._

_I exhaled. And something boyish in me died. I couldn't look at her anymore, like Adam thrown out of the Garden. I looked aside, wrung my hands bashfully behind my back, and uttered: "I think we'd better……get back before the Master slams us over the head with curfew."_

"_Yeah, sounds good."_

"_Yeah……"_

"………"

_And so we headed home._

_Briskly._

_But something was different this time._

_Blind, double-blind, or perhaps even paralyzed._

_We were holding hands._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

I walked through a canyon supporting a tiny riverbed. Gentle currents lapped over rows of rocks and pebbles to my side.

I hopped over miniature deltas and rapids and stared up at the wide-stretching walls of a once great tributary.

Spires of half-eroded rock stretched high on either side of the ravine like lightning rods or spears. There were no birds at that part of the region. No stirring creatures. All the life was either hidden…

Or invisible.

I took a deep breath and looked ahead.

I ruled out blurring through the canyons, for they were too twisting or too jagged to navigate without frustration. I would walk along the shallow streams until I found a ravine wall on the southern side that actually wasn't so steep that I couldn't blur up to it and reach a higher plateau.

My body stunk. I had an oily sheen from over four days of endless walking, running, and blurring through lands of dirt, silt, soil, and dust. I couldn't stop for showers. The only 'restrooms' were remote corners of the unpopulated wilderness. I wasn't kidding when I chose to fast most of my food and water. I had survived on three water bottles and some fruit I bought at an Indian Reservation. My physical discipline had won out so far. But already I could feel an unbearable pain working up my stomach and into the fiber of my bones and organs. I would need sustenance soon. And yet—at the same time—I expected the end of my journey to come soon. When I reached the Las Vegas area, I would eat. I had saved up the last amount of money for that purpose alone.

But once every resource was spent and I was refueld…..what then?

I took a deep breath.

I would take it one step at a time.

Alone.

That's how Terra reached her epiphany. And that was how I would reach mine.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_To save Terra, Diana, I feel like I must become her. Her loneliness. Her helpless isolation. Her starving hope in some destination as laughably 'real' as the mirages on the horizon._

_I felt for her. But not quite in the same way that the other Titans loved and admired her._

_I felt for Terra because……because I could see something about her now. Something I had always ignored because it felt just like a reflection off of my self, and what my self had accumulated over years of training and honing in on my powers._

_There was so much about Terra screaming 'Construction'. The essence of white, refracted into Yellow. The spirit and hunger of the Earth. Terra was a mask for something. Something that perhaps Slade knew. Something that Dagger must know all the more._

_And perhaps……it was something that a very old and caring companion of mine once could see and feel. And I wish so much that I could have her counsel and power of insight now._

_For as I had to slowly learn………I was never……ever built for Construction. I have been and shall always be tragically Balanced. She wanted to be there for me when I became the epitome of what potential my essence has. And I wish she was. In more ways than I can imagine._

_And right now……I believe Terra needs another part of the Spectrum to balance her into tranquility. To even out the gifts that even she doesn't know she has. The gifts that I'm sensing……and that I'm dreading evil fiends leeching out of her._

_Time is short. The sky grows dark. And in this dry, desert cemetery……all I can see and touch and taste is smoke and mirrors. A breath that freezes me from the metal fingers of my prosthetic all the way up my body and into my skin and bones. And if necessary……when I return Terra back to the Tower after all this……_

_I'll make sure that it's Terra that returns at all costs. Even if I myself can't return……_

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 18, 2004.

5:34 a.m.

Nevada.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came to a stop on a high ridge.

I looked straight southwest.

In the darkness of the early morning.

My black eyes narrowed, feeling stabbed from long range as if by a hundred thousand flashing sniper rifles.

The City of Lights.

Highway Fifteen bleeding southward and running side by side with the eagerly sloping Las Vegas Boulevard. The specks of urban detritus sparkling like a cyclonic Christmas tree into the center spires of lavish casinos, strobing with electronic lightning. An oasis on fire. The nightly desert ablaze with itself.

_Las Vegas……_

I took a deep breath from where I stood atop the last mound of untouched nature before the inevitable plunge.

_I hate Las Vegas._

It's true…..I had been there before. In earlier travels.

And I did everything I could in the day to get out.

I exhaled.

"……."

I swiveled about…..and turned left.

I headed eastward….

To the distant edges of the municipal district.

To where the casinos died off, the hotels dwindled, the dirty stores utterly disappeared, and the gas stations and tourists traps thinned away like the balding hair of a dying man.

Navigating myself around the expansive Nellis Airforce Base. Past the lonesome stretches of East Lake Mead Boulevard. Beyond Alamo Mine. And somewhere into the off-center desert oblivion.

Where a ranch awaited me. And the start of my adventure.

Shepherd Plain.

And as the eastern Sun rose….a morning reminder of a Tower glistening somewhere over the waters….

My aching mind wandered even further back than the first days of wandering, the months of training, treehouse get-togethers with Diana and other kids from the neighborhood, my family, school, the shadows of my childhood bedroom.

And I had the frightening feeling that….

There was something special about that day.

But I couldn't put my finger on it.

And I couldn't stop moving.

Balance is an ever teetering thing.


	187. The Earth Must Bleed part 2

**187. The Earth Must Bleed part 2**

November 18, 2004.

_There is something special about this day._

_I can't seem to remember what it is, though. _

"…….," I paused in the middle of my walk. My metal fingers clenched.

I let out a confused sigh.

_This day………_

I shrugged it off and moved along.

I traversed the side of a pebbly, dirt road leading down an expanse of flat, flat, flat…….flat desert outside of East Las Vegas. The ground was yellow and brown with stony dryness. I had spent a good part of the day slowly walking towards my destination. I feared that—if I blurred into superhuman speed—I might either overlook the place that I was trying to find or possibly reveal myself to shady characters within the area.

_And just where am I trying to go?_

I stared ahead…down the dirt road. Towards the golden horizon under the hot, noonday Sun.

_Shepherd Plain. _

_This is where Glover said I would find a Ranch. _

_And at this Ranch, I should find Jacob Anderson. _

_And with Jacob Anderson, there'll be a way into the 'Herculean Vault' somewhere in Las Vegas. _

_The Herculean Vault has a key. _

_And that key……will take me to Terra. _

_Even if it's on the other side of the world._

I sighed.

I pressed on. Backpack, shades, and all.

I had found a remote place to change from my dark clothes to a light tank top and gray slacks. My 'desert wear'. It helped little. I was still sweaty…smelly…and downright exhausted.

I at least wanted to get a good look at this 'ranch' first. And I was prepared for anything. So I had Myrkblade out in the open with its scabbard hanging on my back.

I kept my eyes peeled ahead, as a wooden fence appeared. A barrier to hold in cattle on a field barely lush enough to give anything something to graze on.

_Who in the Hell would start a cattle ranch here?_

I took a deep breath and followed the dirt road and wooden fence southeasterly.

_Someone who didn't need to raise cattle. _

_Someone who merely needed a 'ranch' to hide out when the heat got too intense in the City of Lights._

_Who is this 'Jacob Anderson' anyways?_

I became aware of an 'end' to my path. The plateau was cutting off sharply into a nearby ravine. But something rested just short of where the ground dropped off into a dry, hot abyss.

A two-story building. A farmhouse—so it seemed—but with enough space for at least twelve living rooms on each floor. There was what looked like a cattle barn a few spaces away from the building site, and then also storage containers for water. There was not a single bit of livestock on the 'ranch'. No cars. Not any sign of living things.

It looked too surreal.

I felt a nagging suspicion…..

_Could Blake Glover have been……mistaken about this place? _

_What's so special about Shepherd Plain?_

I shook it off. I took a deep breath.

Concentrating, I covered my body from head to toe with a curtain of murk. The black tendrils of energy battled with the noonday sun and heat….but eventually won out. Soon there was nothing to be seen or heard of me as I entered stealth mode and crept on ahead. Slowly. Eyeing the area with invisible, shaded eyes of black.

I approached the front lawn of the ranch. A slight spray of grass lifted up weakly from the earth under the Beating Sun. A brief chill of November wins flew through me and kicked at the brown-green blades. I paused before them. Still cloaked, I reached hand out and poured forth a colorless stream of murk. With spatial sense, I checked the ground and the very foundation of the building. And I could detect no sensors that could take notice of my movement or proximity.

I saw nobody. I heard nobody. And I certainly didn't taste anybody.

"……."

I glanced right—invisibly—towards the cattle barn.

Nothing. Not even flies for manure.

"……"

I looked straight ahead again.

I crept forward.

Towards the front of the building.

The steps.

The doorway.

The parlor windows.

"……."

Everything was still.

A cold wind blew in from November's sigh, again invading the desert heat.

I came invisibly to the door. I breathed slowly….lightly. I craned my neck. I leaned my ear to the door. Listening…..

"…….."

I held my right hand out. I traced the edges of the door. I found cracks and spaces of air passing through the frame. I concentrated…..

I meditated….

I sent a current of smoke filtering in through the door and into the building. With spatial sense, I felt the floor and walls and ceiling for sensors, cameras, or anything that could at least optically detect me.

And I decided to risk it.

I held the murking currents firm.

I took a deep breath…..and teleported through the spaces in the door frame.

FWOOOSH!

I stood in the foyer of the ranch building. Solidified. Exposed and visible.

CHIIIING!

I yanked Myrkblade out of its holding and held it up high. Glancing left. Glancing right.

"……"

Nobody.

"……"

_I have a bad feeling about this……_

I gently lowered Myrkblade and forewent stealth mode as I slowly stepped down an adjacent hallway lined with parlor windows. My shaded black eyes looked every which way. Eyeing the shadows of corners and distant doorways. As I crept down the hallway, I heard a crackling sound. And then….

Voices.

'_Snkkktttt……'_

My eyes narrowed.

I gripped tighter to Myrkblade.

I crept forward.

'_Snkkktt……reporkkkt……skkkt…'_

I approached an entrance way to a room on my right.

There were lights on inside.

I held my breath.

I angled Myrkblade around.

I crept…..

'_Snkkkttuxor……skkt……'_

I snaked around the corner.

I saw the room.

And…..

There was no one.

But…

An office complete with three desks. All cluttered. Covered with printouts and files and sheets of data. It wasn't the after product of a ransacking. But rather—as I surmised—simply a very messy work area.

_But for who?_

There was a communication radio at one desk. It squabbled with spit static while I walked over and stared at the clutter and information detritus.

"_Snkkkt……snkkktktest side of the Stripssnkktktk……crkkkkknderson for the tournamsnkktkkkt…"_

I looked a file of what looked like some sort of budget. Figures in the hundreds of thousands and then in the millions. Issues regarding 'construction' and 'armament' and 'metropolitan favors'. I saw a map of Las Vegas with a tiny square along the central Strip highlighted and circled in red ink. A few spaces over, I saw a queer diagram. The specs for an AV-8B Harrier Jet. The name of Jacob Anderson over and over and over again. And finally…a photograph. No. And artwork. The conceptual sketch of a nonexistent (as far as I knew) casino with fountains and flaring torches on the front lawn…and titled: "Pompeii."

"………….," I took a deep breath.

And then the radio squealed:

"_Snkkkkkttt…10-4. Approaching Shepherd Plain Ranch as instructed."_

"!" I looked at the radio.

"_Hope you got all our boys out of there, or else God rest their crappy souls. Snkkkktttt!"_

I bit my lip.

I heard a rumbling noise.

"?"

I held Myrkblade up.

_It's coming from outside the Ranch………_

I quickly paced back into the front room.

I looked through the parlor windows.

Shaded eyes narrowing against the brightness.

_Vrmmmmmmmm……_

A hummer was driving up the dirt road from which I had come. Dirt and asphalt kicked up before bouncing lightly towards the desert, stone ground on either side. I could see the shapes of people inside. Driving the thing. Riding. All of them….arriving.

I exhaled a mute grunt.

I gripped Myrkblade tighter.

I looked behind me.

I saw a door beyond the cluttered office.

Slightly ajar.

I blurred to it.

CRACK!

I kicked it open.

A dimly lit hallway.

Leading down the length of the house.

I heard the hummer rumbling to a stop in the front lawn of the ranch. The engine cut off. Four pairs of footsteps. Four slamming doors.

I panted.

I blurred down the hallway.

I came to a junction of three doors.

I opened one.

Empty. Dead end.

I kicked open another.

Another office. Cluttered. Maps of Las Vegas on the wall. Crates full of crumpled papers. Dormant computers.

I turned.

There was another door. Straight ahead of me.

It had a heavy lock around the knob.

Footsteps on the front patio.

I took a deep breath. Lifted my right hand. Concentrated. Meditated. Spilled smoke into the lock. Filled it. Jiggled the tumblers-

_CREAAAAK!_

The front door opened.

Grumbling voices.

_Snap!_

The door unlocked. I pushed it open….and found myself staring down a long flight of stairs.

Too long.

I blinked.

The steps went down further than any normal basement would allow. The deeper the flight went, the more rickety and splintery the wood appeared to be. The walls turned from solid walls to almost medieval paneling. Like a French tunnel build during the Resistance.

I raised a confused eyebrow.

Voices. Footsteps.

I spun around, Myrkblade raised.

Breathing gently.

_What am I running for? _

_I could go into stealth form. _

_If I'm careful, they wouldn't even know I'm here. _

_But……_

I gazed over my shoulder and down the awkward passageway. The stairs led down to a glowing, amber-orange light. As if cast from flickering lanterns. An eerie kaleidoscope. Unseen. Hidden.

_I have to learn more from this house…… _

I took a deep breath and crept towards the top of the underground stairs.

_Besides……_

I thought to myself.

_It's not like the ranch is going to stand up and walk away-_

"How much C4 do we need to blow this place anyways?"

I froze in step.

I glanced over my shoulder.

Blinking.

Another voice answered the other thug: "We've got more than enough. There's the barn to attend to as well."

"I'm just saying! They built this place to last! How can we expect in a single blow to—"

"Shut the Hell up. I didn't bring you along so I could hear your shit."

"….now just a damn seco—"

"Eh, let him be. Pffft. Freakin' loser."

"Go to Hell. Christ, I've got such a headache."

"Let's just get this over with."

Footsteps. Closer.

A body walked through the hallway-

"!" I flattened myself down against the first descending steps of the stairs. Cautiously posed, I peered up over the top steps at floor-level at the thug. I held Myrkblade firmly….ready to dash into the occasion if need be.

_Can't beat these punks up. _

_Not yet. _

_Must…… _

_Listen._

The man paced back and forth along the hallway some, staring point blanc at the walls and doors. He was middle-aged. Not too young and not too old. He was dressed in a suit that screamed 'casino bouncer'. A dark black coat eclipsing a white vest and dark slacks below. He had on even darker shades and a cliff of short, greasy-spiked hair. For all his ornate appearance and attire, I could easily surmise that he was nothing but a well-dressed nobody. An underling.

_Jacob Anderson's? _

He paused finally at a doorframe, held up a plastique with a detonator, and placed it firmly—beeping—on the wooden structure.

My lips parted.

_And why are they blowing Shepherd Plain's ranch up? _

_Today of all days……_

"I'm gonna miss this place, ya know….," the man smirked and walked back towards the other half of the ranch. "Especially the fun had downstairs."

"What do you know of that? Pfft….you're such a poser."

"Hey! The boss told me lots about it!"

"Yeah, then you'd be dead. He doesn't share that crap with ANYONE! Save his closest associates."

"Then how come _you_ know so much?"

"I'm _privileged_."

"Heh."

"Say…is there anything special here that we need?"

"Yeah…there sure is an awful lot of shit lying around."

"Don't worry. Everything else we need has already gone to Pompeii. Much better facilities. More central to Vegas."

"All spared no expense by you-know-who, huh?"

"Luthor's a generous man."

"Heh…yeah….when he's got the panic button hidden way up his ass."

"Ha ha ha ha! Say, don't we need to put some of this crap downstairs too?"

"Just a second. I want to check the second floor."

"For what? Left some of your illegitimate children lying around up there?"

"Heheheh."

"God, don't you ever shut up? I just need to make sure no riff-raff, bum freaks broke into the place since we were here last."

"Yeah, good incentive."

"Ugh…my head. HURRY UP!"

"All right, already!"

Wandering footsteps.

Through the ceiling.

The foundations of the ranch house.

"………," I stared down the hallway. A beat. I looked at the C-4 stuck to the doorframe in the distance. "…….." I slowly turned and looked down the flickering-orange passageway beneath me.

A beat.

_I've flirted death before. _

_There's still time……_

Slowly, I got up and crouch-walked down the stairs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The wooden floors and walls were replaced…

With Earth.

Rock.

Stone.

Craggy, yellow desert bowels.

I slowly paced down, holding Myrkblade high.

I rounded a bend…and walked straight into the flickering aura.

And…

I slowed.

Blinking.

Staring at the scenery.

Beneath the unassuming, two-story ranch was an underground world of carved tunneling. And wedged between the yellow walls were obsidian, gothic metal slabs for doors. A secret chamber of sorts.

_What kind of chamber? _

_Dare I ask?_

I had very little time to speculate.

For as I rounded a bend in the rocky passageway, I glanced left into a torchlit alcove.

And I inevitably frowned.

The earthen wall was lined with metal nightmares.

A chair with its seat, back, and armrests lined with sharp, scythe-sharp spikes.

Another chair tilting up to face an array of metal, robot arms…each equipped with such hideous entities as a splitting knife, an axe-half, a hook, and a buzz saw.

An iron maiden that closed in quarters at the head, torso, abdomen, legs, and ankles. Each compartment with drill-like, spiraling spikes.

A wooden rack with leather straps. A headpiece with sharp, bone-piercing screws. A serrated stake positioned at a spot sinisterly between the leg fasteners.

A wall of hooks where dangling blades of various metal shapes and sizes hung in the flickering torchlight.

And everything. The chairs. The metal. The spikes and the blades.

They were all stained a rusted, permanent, red-brown.

And I could smell it.

The smell of torture.

And not just torture.

But another smell. A smell I had borne witness to during my early travels when I happened to traverse through the seedy, promiscuous parts of town.

My metal fingers clenched.

I slowly paced around the torture devices.

I stared down at the stone floor.

The yellow earth was splotching over with dried red.

Crusty and dull.

Rank…

I breathed it in anyways.

My teeth grit beneath my lips.

I fumed.

I looked about.

Across from the torture devices was a lush cheer with red padding. There was an open robe drenched over the back of it. A table next of it held a round tray with an empty champagne bottle and an unlit candle.

"……"

I turned and gazed at the end of the underground tunnel.

I saw three metal doors.

There were tiny, open grates at face-level within the metal slabs.

I walked over to one door.

I leaned up.

I gazed through grate.

Silence.

"……"

I grumbled mutely.

I closed my eyes.

I took my shades off.

Black optics naked, I opened them once again to the dark interior.

…..and wished I didn't.

I bit my lip.

Bile rose to the back of my scarred throat.

I shuddered and stepped back.

Exhaling.

_It's been a while……_

I looked at the next door.

It was slightly ajar.

I walked towards it….barely registering the sounds of footsteps upstairs in the ranchhouse.

_Creeeeak!_

I pushed the door open.

I gazed inside a tiny, dark room of rock.

"………"

There was…..more in there.

But nothing alive….if it even deserved to be 'alive'.

I closed my eyes momentarily. Meditated…swallowed the bitterness down….and turned towards the last door.

A pair of frightened eyes through the gate widened and disappeared with a gasp and a rustling sound.

"…….." I blinked.

A beat.

I took three heavy steps towards the door, lifted my leg, and-

CLANG!

I kicked the metal slab open. Torchlight immediately splashed inwards.

I stood in the doorway, frozen.

My lips parted and my dark eyes curved.

Two thin, shriveled figures scrunched desperately into the corner opposite of me. A shivering teenage boy and a middle-aged woman with brown, splotched hair. Wide eyes froze on me, and they shivered against each other. Skeletal limbs draping with red-stained, scrappy-excuses for shirts. Barely enough fabric left to cover their private parts.

A breath escaped me.

The teenager's eyes brimmed with tears. He mutely gasped and hid his face in the woman's bony shoulder. She shook more and more as I stepped into the room and stood over them.

"N-No nos lastime….," the woman trembled. "Haremos cualquier c-cosa que usted

pide. Por favor….no nos lastime…."

"…….," I stared down at them.

They shivered and huddled against each other.

I looked at Myrkblade in my grasp. I looked at them. I instantly sheathed it. CHIIING!

They jolted.

I held to hands up, crouching. My face round. I gently approached them and mouthed in English: _'It's okay. It's okay.'_

They merely clawed against the wall as if to get away.

A lump formed in my throat.

Then….

Foosteps.

"Damn! This place smells!"

"Come on. Quit whining."

"What sort of shit goes on down here!"

I spun. I stood up straight. With a single breath, I tossed my shades back on, flew to the door, shut it firmly closed, and bounced back towards the two prisoners. The boy tried to scramble away and the woman let out half a weak shriek. I swiftly grabbed them both, hoisted them close to me, covered their mouths with a metal and flesh hand, and extended a cloak of invisible smoke over all three of us. I pressed us back into the hiding place within the shadows as the figures of the two thugs shuffled in through the thin slit of the metal door's grate.

And I listened….observing…..hiding the two….

"Damn! Look at this place! It's like a scene out of Braveheart!"

"Take one last look at it while you can."

"What is this place?"

"Jacob Anderson's 'private underground villa'. Or at least the former one. He's moved up a bit."

"What's he do down here?"

"More of a question of 'who' does he do down here."

"Excuse me?"

"You know all the 'special forgery' Anderson's always asking us to do? Editing missing persons reports?"

"Yeah…we do that all the time."

"Well, those missing persons came down here."

"What for?"

"Mr. Anderson's what you call…..erotophonophiliac."

"Say what?"

"Heh. He gets off by seeing people murdered. And I do mean _REALLY_ murdered."

"Wow. No shit. Look at these things."

"Pfft. I'd rather not. It was enough Hell as it was trying to work in those damn offices upstairs with all the screaming going on at times."

"He'd do it while you guys were working?"

"Anderson does whatever he wants all of the time! Man…two months ago he had this one little brat. Cute as a button. Sheesh. Thought she'd never shut up."

A mean face peered into the chamber through the door's grate.

The two prisoners trembled.

I held them still.

Staring invisibly back.

Frowning.

A second face loomed behind the other one. "Whatcha lookin' for?"

The first pair of eyes narrowed. "I could have sworn Anderson had some more playthings down here."

"Really?"

"Yeah…some dumbass immigrants or something. But no matter….heheh….," he planted a blinking plastique explosive on the stone wall besides the doorway and motioned to the other thug. "Come on. Let's find the other two and get the Hell out of here."

The other shrugged and followed. Their voices grew more distant as they wandered up the stairs. "Kind of a shame to blow this place up. Won't Anderson hate it or something?"

"Nah. He's got all his new stuff at the new place. Or at least, I'm guessing so."

"Oh….besides the fighting arena?"

"Yeah. And I hear there's a match tonight!"

"Kickass! Who's up?"

"Well, there's this guy from Bludhaven….."

Silence.

"……….," I craned my neck. I sensed no disturbance in the light or shadows from the other side of the door. "……"

I took a deep breath.

I stood up, losing the cloak of invisibility.

I shoved the metal door open.

_CREAAAAK!_

I stared out.

The dungeon was empty.

"….."

I turned my head…and got a nose full of plastique.

I winced from the proximity of the blinking light on the detonator.

I took a shuddering breath.

Sweating a bit.

I swallowed.

I stared back into the tiny room.

The two prisoners were still hugging each other. And they were still staring at me. But…for some reason…

They weren't shivering anymore.

"……..," I smiled painfully. I gently stretched a flesh hand out towards them….and motioned towards me.

_There is something special about today. _

_But…… _

_I still can't put my finger on it._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…like….do we have the bombs on a timer or something?"

"Nah. This is gonna be done remote. There's no way in Hell I wanna be ANYWHERE close to this dump when it goes."

"Let's take off, already. The fight's tonight."

"Take it easy. I'm just giving the place one final look over.

"Nnnngh…."

"Jeez…we're gonna be here FOREVER!"

I crept up into the hallway.

I had Myrkblade in one hand.

I extended a field of murk with the other and felt around the corners.

With spatial sense….

I realized the men were safely far away in the front of the parlor.

I took a deep breath.

I looked over my shoulder.

I motioned.

Trembling, the middle-aged woman and the teenage boy hobbled after me. Pale cheekbones. Nervous, round eyes. Eyeing the bright walls and breathing quickly…like dying squirrels.

I walked ahead of them, motioning them to take it slow.

I peered around a corner.

I saw a cluster of the men in the foyer, their backs to me.

"……."

_Not a good time to engage them. Not when they have their fingers on exploding the entire ranch house._

I looked behind me at a room I hadn't explored yet.

_Or when I have innocent lives to attend to……butchered as they may be……_

I slowly opened the door to the room behind me.

There was light inside, filtering through a rear window to the opposite side of the ranch house from the front lawn.

I smiled.

_Good Noir……_

"Hey! You hear that?"

My insides froze.

The two victims shivered.

"Shhh!"

"Listen….."

I bit my lip.

Silence….dreadful silence….

"It's a motorcycle…."

"?" I craned my neck.

I saw the back of all four thugs' heads. They peered out through the sunlit parlor windows. I couldn't see much in the front lawn…save for a cloud of dust kicking up in yellow glory.

"…..," My black eyes narrowed.

"The Hell?"

"Who is that?"

"One of Anderson's freak friends?"

"Bad news….that's what he is."

"You know him?"

"No. Not like I care….," the leader of the group whipped out an uzzi and turned the safety off. "Get ready, guys. We'll smoke him and toss his body into the exploding crapheap if we have to."

"Right behind you…."

A rumbling sound increased, then came to a stop. I saw a corner of what looked like the front chassis of a Harley-Davidson outside. Then…a pair of black boots. A shifting….and then the boots marched towards the front of the ranchhouse.

The four men faced the door.

The leader walked over, opened the entrance, and stepped out onto the shaded porch. He disappeared beyond my sight, but could still be obviously seen by the other three, nervous thugs.

"Hey you! Off limits, pal! Turn around and head back to casino country!"

Silence.

I blinked.

I looked down my hallway at the two victims.

They glanced at me, nervous.

I motioned for them.

They shivered and hurried to my side.

I gently pushed them into the sunlit rear room behind me. I closed the doors gently—but not without holding up a finger and mouthing: _'Wait here!'_

"Hey! Did you hear me?"

I crept back to the passage to the parlor.

I stared out at the half hidden unfolding. Holding tight to Myrkblade.

"I said….turn back!" the voice of the leader said outside. The three continued watching, gripping their uzzis.

A beat.

"Yo! You deaf or something-hey! Hey hey hey! SHIT! Where did you get that-"

**BL-BLAM!**

Gunfire. But it wasn't an uzzi.

My lips parted.

_A shotgun?_

WHAM! SWOOOOSH!

The thug leader's headless body was shoved violently back into the parlor from the outside by a blue streak of limbs and denim.

The other three screamed and cursed. They raised their uzzis and took fire.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

The blue stranger had a shotgun in his hand. A shotgun that suddenly….disappeared.

There was a silver spray of light as the figure leaned back, and soon he was blurring something cold and metal in his hurried grasp like a fan.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

The bullets deflected and flew into the walls.

Everywhere.

The thugs gasped and tried to reload.

A silver light.

The blue figure took a breath and pounced forward. He dove between two bodies, flickered silver, rolled on the ground, and stopped on his knees with two pistols suddenly in his hands and aiming at the back of the two bodies upside down and in reverse.

_B-BANG!_

The two thugs jolted, red liquid spraying.

Guns tropping to the floor.

The woman prisoner hiding in the room was screaming at the chaos.

Nobody heard her or nobody cared.

One of the shot bodies stumbled to the floor, convulsing.

The other lingered, wheezing and gurgling on his feet.

The blue figure stood up. He was dark-haired. Young. He twirled-

A flash of light.

The pistols disappeared.

A spinning thing of silver metal.

_SHVVVVVVV! THUNK!_

The spinning breezed through the man's neck, lopping his head clean off. His body fell wetly to the floor.

The last thug stumbled back, murmuring. Struggling with his gun.

The blue figure turned. Glared. Marched towards the man.

"G-Get back!" the thug struggled, stumbling backwards.

I watched from the hallway.

Breathless.

"GET BACK!" the thug shouted.

The figure's hand flashed silver, turned empty, flashed again, and suddenly held a shotgun.

_The same shotgun as earlier._

Without hesitating, he lifted the shotgun one-handed and took out a meaty chunk of the thug's shoulder.

**BLAM!**

"AAAAH!" the man slumped back against a wall lining the hallway.

"!" I ducked out of view. I sat on the floor—hidden—holding Myrkblade up. My back was to the wall…and I felt the vibration of the wounded thug's shuddering body through the foundation as he slumped against the edge of the parlor on the other side. He was panting. Hyperventilating. Bleeding.

There was a silver light.

Then that same kiss of spinning metal in the air.

_SHVVVVVVVvvvvv-Clack!_

The metal locked into place.

And…..a beat.

The thug's shivering still vibrated through the walls.

I took a deep breath.

_He hasn't been killed. _

_The stranger is sparing him……_

"Wh-What do you want from m-me?" the thug murmured.

The stranger had a voice.

Low and breathy.

Like it could explode from exhaust fumes at any time.

"The Herculean Vault. Tell me where it is. Now."

I blinked.

The thug shuddered through the wall. "Who in the Hell are y-you!"

"Tell me where the Herculean Vault is. Now."

"I-I can't….I c-can't tell you that!"

"…………….," very well.

SWIIIISH-THUNK!

A violent thrust through the walls.

Then a shaking scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAUGH!" the thug bellowed. He whimpered. He trembled through the ranch house.

There was a shuffling sound as the stranger knelt down.

His voice hissed: "I'm going to give you a choice now. Either you tell me where the Herculean Vault is…or we'll find out if your other testicle is just as bloody as its former brother."

"Nnnnghhhh-Jesus!

Please…I'll tell you….mmrphh…..I'LL TELL YOU!"

A nasty, grating sound as something sharp cutted deeper.

The wall vibrated in an agonizing convulsion.

"I'm not….hearing….an answer…..**yet**…."

"Mrmmmph…Pompeii. POMPEII!"

"Too simple an answer. How do I know Anderson has the Vault at his new casino?"

"Nnnghhh! I swear! He's got it! T-T-Top floor next to his o-office! Next to the hidden hangar b-bay! Nnngh….it's there, okay! The Vault is THERE!"

"And the fights I've heard about?"

"Yes! YES! H-He's going to open the Vault t-t-to give away the—nnnghhh—_**reward**_!"

"……………"

"Mmmrphhhnnnghh!"

"……………."

_Slkkk!_

A retracting jolt.

The wall shuddered.

The thug panted…panted…panted…

His lungs somehow refilled.

A shuffling of feet as the stranger stood up straight.

"You've been most helpful…."

"M-Most helpful?" the unseen thug panted. Shuddering in pain. "D-Do you have any god damn c-clue how screwed I am! Anderson's going to kill me now!"

The stranger breathed: "No….he won't."

A flashing aura of silver.

A cocking sound.

Half a beat, then—

_**BANG!**_

The wall exploded barely half a foot from my head as a single bullet sailed through and impacted a doorframe on the other side.

I gasped mutely. I looked to my right.

Warm blood seeped out from the bullet hole in the wall beside me.

On the other side: "…..Anderson isn't the only one in this world entitled to…..pleasure." Monotone.

The sound of someone blowing the barrel of a gun. A flash of silver….and then swiveling, shuffling footsteps.

The ravenous stranger left through the door from which he came.

"……..," I slowly craned my neck. I crept stealthily around the end of the hallway. I peered into the parlor. "……."

Four bodies lay.

Two missing heads.

Blood.

"…….."

I looked left.

What was left of the last thug lay on his side. A rainbow streak of blood arched down to where his leftover cranium rested on the floor. There was a great deal missing from his shoulder and crotch.

"…….."

I gazed up through the parlor windows.

I held Myrkblade and nimbly crouch-walked over the bodies till I had a good hiding place to stare out from….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The stranger walked to his motorcycle. A simple, non flashy motorcycle of faded…industrial metal. It looked like it needed polishing. It also looked like he didn't care.

He was young. Barely past his teen years, and yet adult in the glare of his eyes.

Stone-hard, blue eyes. A royal, bloody blue. A compliment to his blue denim jeans and dark blue undershirt. He had a black, leather jacket thinly veiling his torso. Rusted chains hung from his belt-waist. There was a constant glare about his face, topped with short-short black hair. Like someone back from some military service for about two weeks.

As he walked to his bike, he let out a breath through is nostrils and flicked a pair of silver-tipped fingers.

_Flash!_

In a silver flash of light, a key appeared in his grasp. He instantly saddled the bike and stuck the suddenly-existing key into the ignition. _Vrmmm-Vrmmm-Vrmmm!_

He didn't wear a helmet.

He gripped the handles and seemed just about to take off down the road when—he stopped. His head jerked towards the ranch house.

"……"

His hard blue eyes narrowed.

As if seeing something through the walls.

"…………..hmmph….."

He braced himself on the bike.

Leaned his torso back and up.

Extended his hands.

And….

_Flaaaaash!_

Silver pinpricks of light fluttered over his shoulder, like swarming metal butterflies. And as instantly as the light appeared, everything solidified hard and real into a bazooka.

He squinted one eye, clenched his jaw, and—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!"

My black eyes exploded under my shades.

_CRUD!_

I spun around.

I leapt over the bodies in the parlor.

I blurred into the hallway.

I burst into the room.

I swept a pair of gasping prisoners with my arms.

Trailing smoke, I zoomed straight towards the windows.

I dove—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-__**PHWOOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

The rocket-propelled-grenade flew into the heart of the Shepherd Plain ranch house and exploded in a brilliant fireball. Flames flew up into the bright desert sky for a peaceful moment of oblivion until the flames inevitably consumed the C-4 entities scattered within the blaze of Hell and—

_**BOOOM-BOOOM-BOOOM-BOOOM-BOOOM!**_

The ground practically vomited lava from a brand new crater.

The earth shook.

Thunderous concussions sailed across the desert ravine beyond and echoed for a full forty-five seconds.

The stranger stared at all of this with not even a flinch. His eyes merely narrowed from the cloud of burning dust.

"………..," he sighed. He pivoted the bazooka launcher in his grasp and tapped his silver-tipped fingers against it.

_Flash!_

A dance of silver.

And it was gone.

He gripped the handles of the bike again.

Revved the engines…

And screeched away from the flaming holocaust.

Westward along the dirt road.

Towards Las Vegas.

_VRMMMMMM!_

And all that was left behind was…

Destruction.

……..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was nestled on a craggy ledge just below the dip into the ravine.

I hugged the shivering bodies of the woman and boy to me. Keeping them safe. Keeping all of us from falling down the length of the sloping ravine into the valley below.

I was panting….sweating….shuddering from my last ditch exercise.

The all-too-exhausting act of blurring out of an exploding building with two helpless bodies in my grasp.

As light as they were.

I took a deep breath.

I climbed up onto the level ground, facing a cloud of smoke and the not-to-distant plume of flame and ash that was once the ranch house.

"………."

I stared up at the clear sky.

The smoke and dust climbing.

Red and yellow.

_There is something special about this day. _

_But it doesn't seem to matter anymore._

I turned, knelt, and hoisted the other two up.

They stood by my side, mute, trembling in fright.

They stared at the burning remains of a former realm of nightmares.

It was just long enough for me to zip open my backpack and grab a water bottle for them…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

That night.

November 18, 2004.

7:06 pm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Looks like a concussion. Let's get him checked out. The glass cut and sprained leg can wait. We've also got a dog bite to take care of. Those take priority."

"Yes, doctor," a nurse nodded. She took a clipboard from him and shuffled across the Emergency Room of a busy hospital in Eastern Las Vegas. Hospital beds surrounded by blue drapes muffled the voices of those moaning in pain…being treated to one by one at the hands of physicians and paramedics bustling about the place.

The doctor—a young man of Indian descent wandered out into the waiting room and gazed past the seated figures at a pair of automatic doors. A dark, desert-eclipsed City flashed chaotically outside.

"Dammit…Martha? Where are you?" he took a moment to grumble and rub his temples. "We have these sort of duel shifts for a _reason._"

Then the doors….

_Schwiish!_

A gasp.

"Doctor!"

He looked over. His lips parted. "Mother of God…."

Nurses suddenly flocked around, gasping, as I lead the two weathered, limping souls in. They hobbled…leaning against me. Faces spent with pain and anguish…yet laced with something else. Something warm. Their gangly, thin limbs shivered under blood-stains clothes.

The doctor rushed over. "What happened to these people?"

"Someone grab some wheelchairs!"

"No! Stretchers! Stretchers immediately!"

"Here…easy…easy….," the doctor and a few nurses came over and took the limbs of the two.

I quietly handed the two over.

The doctor took a close look as other spare paramedics swarmed in. "Multiple, aged lacerations. Internal trauma. D-Dislocated shoulder?" He looked up. "What on Earth happened to these—"

He blinked.

"Sir?"

He looked around.

"M-Mister?"

I was gone.

The two prisoners soon found themselves in very capable hands.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

9:08 pm.

Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Mid-Strip.

Lights glittered.

Cars drove in swarms.

People in thicker swarms.

Families and tourists in energetic droves.

Wandering past the fountains and antique spectacle of Treasure Island.

The pale and beautiful architecture of The Venutian and its artificial, glittering streams.

The frothy, fiery fountains of The Mirage. A huge, Technicolor volcano vomiting joyously into the desert night's sky.

People paused to take photos. Pointing, laughing merrily.

"….."

I stumbled through it all like a zombie.

My breath cold.

My body colder.

An ice pick in the desert.

I stared away from the blinding lights to my black eyes and glared at the sidewalk panels beneath me.

Maybe I was weathered by the horrors I had seen that day.

Maybe I was just simply sick inside.

Maybe it was that constant, gnawing feeling that distracted me like everything else.

_Something about this day……_

The spectacle in front of the Mirage exploded again.

I looked over.

I shuddered.

Seeing instead a fiery plume in the middle of the desert.

Where the smell of rust and blood still filled the air.

_Jacob Anderson……is a man doing evil things………underneath all of this?_

A family passed by.

A mother and father arguing about directions.

An infant asleep in the stroller.

I gazed. Smelling and looking like a ragged, cross-country bum.

_All of this is a disguise. For Triangular. And at the same time……for the sick perverts that Triangular hires. What is Luthor doing here? Or Dagger?_

I scanned the glittering horizon all around me.

The carbon monoxide bloodstream of Las Vegas Boulevard pumping north and south.

_Where is this 'Pompeii'? _

_The Herculean Vault is there. No doubt a site of interest for other……gifted fighters besides myself. _

_And Anderson…… _

_Once I found Terra, would she also be subjected to the horrors I had seen?_

A sharp chill ran through me.

And…..surrounded by people who didn't recognize my filthy self.

I hugged my own body to me.

Sighing.

"……….."

"I know what you're thinking….," said a warm….warm voice behind me. "Something has been lost today."

"…..," I blinked. I turned around and looked.

The Messenger smiled at me. His hands in his pockets. "Something special and sacred and precious that you can't seem to remember."

"………..," I stared at him.

He stared back at me. A smile on his face. A broken but honest smile.

Silence…..

……..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several minutes and quite a long walk later…

We sat on a bench just outside the front pavilion of New York New York. A synthetic skyline of skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty stretched tall behind us.

"I was there, Noir," the Messenger softly spoke. "Invisible. Watching with the only eye I could spare….at Robin's funeral."

I took a deep breath. My arms crossed. Staring down past my feet as a cold November breeze dipped down into the desert valley and teased us.

He had his fingers touching...almost meditatively. He sat cross-legged next to me in a fashion that was so cute that I wanted to punch his damn face in.

"There were many people who were at Robin's funeral, Noir," he said with a gentle smile. "Many of them moreso in spirit than in any other form." He looked sideways at me. Those chocolate, almond eyes and the tiny spikes of green hightlights shifting lightly in the wind. "Not everyone can afford to be there physically. But that doesn't mean they aren't sincere."

I took a shuddering breath.

My black eyes shifted a bit from underneath my shades and I gazed eastward momentarily. Towards where the land sloped down into gentle, starlit plains. A house. A barn. A blue-eyed blonde with a cape.

"All I am….all I'll ever be….," the asian Teen gently spoke, "…is a humble messenger."

I took in a sharp breath, looking away from him.

"I tried to warn Robin. I did," he spoke. "But all of that is in the past now. And I am not about to say that the Boy Wonder was foolish. He was never foolish. Never folly in any manner. He knew that which needed to be done….and he did it. His death was just part of a long list of deeds that needed be done to help preserve the Balance of Morals. Otherwise….you wouldn't be here."

"…….," I finally mustered the strength to look at him.

He smiled. "For you, Noir….Robin isn't entirely in the _past_……now is he?"

"………"

He pointed: "His contract. His purpose. His very drive….lives on inside you. That is something he would have been so, immensely proud of." His smile faded a bit to gentle solemnity. "Especially when so many others of his comrades have…….lost hope…."

"………."

"Where does your hope lie, Noir? What drives you to do this? To cross the country so gallantly in an attempt to save a girl you never even _knew_….much less **know** _if_ she still stands in one, stony piece?"

"……..," I gazed back down to the floor.

He placed a hand on my shoulder, smiling again. "It certainly isn't all thanks to the mere words of a redeemed journalist, is it?"

I looked at him again. Lips parting.

The Messenger nodded. "Glover……he has done his part well. He has found his purpose."

"……," I blinked.

"I interceded on his behalf a long time ago. And though he was touched by many others….he worked out in your benefit in the long run. It was what I required of him. Because I knew that when it would become crunch time—and Zeus almighty did it become _crunch time, Noir_—he would do the much needed job for me. And he did. The message was delivered. Much better than I could ever deliver it. Terra is only days away from saving."

I leaned my head to the side, staring at him.

The Messenger took a deep breath. With a sudden shadow over his face, he stood up, dug his hands into his green sweatjacket's pockets, and paced to a stop away from the bench some. "………Glover…..Glover reached the end of his life, much the same way he reached the apex of his enlightenment."

I blinked.

_What?_

He turned and looked at me. A painful smile. "He's dead, Noir."

My heart fell.

"Red Aviary took him."

I gritted my teeth. For suddenly my left arm was shivering. I clutched the metal wrist and panted.

The Messenger swiveled to face me directly. Lights and enthused tourists passed to and fro behind him for city blocks on and on and on.

"And I have been too busy as of late and too occupied with the crazy currents of things to have been there for him. But nobody can be in every place at once. Your heart stays with the Titans—I know—but you must be here. And you know what, Noir?"

I looked up at him. I swallowed a lump down my throat and mouthed: _'What?'_

"When I tell you that you must be here….that is not insistence on my part."

"?"

He took a deep breath. "This….This is your journey, Noir." He smiled. "Your journey and your journey alone. I am only here….to help you this time."

"….."

"And not to force you along your way."

I tilted my head forward, eyes thin.

_You mean…… _

_This all isn't your grand, well-coordinated idea?_

I often wondered if he was a telepath.

I learned to realize it didn't matter one bit.

"You come here to do a noble thing, Noir…," he pointed. "And now that I can offer my services. I'm here to help you. So you won't get lonely and all that jazz. Heheheheh."

"……"

"…..ahem….fine….so you can get Terra safely too. Happy?"

"………," I smirked.

"Million dollar shot!" he dramatically waved his arms. "Now….I've done my bit of research in this lovely city of sin. And I'm bet you're itching to hear all about it so you can go on to the next move."

"……," I nodded fervently.

"Well…..I just realized something," he pointed at me. "You're one sweaty, starving son of a gun."

I bit my lip.

He winked. "Not very dashing to sneak into Triangular's hideouts when you're smelling like Billy Bob Thorton's crotch. Here…." He flicked his wrist and tossed me something.

"!" I caught it with a jolt.

A hotel room key.

"Got a place for you….don't ask me how," he gestured. "I've got 'powers that be' in this place as much as in…..'the next'."

_Yeah, whatever……_

I turned the key over in my palm.

"Go there. And go to bed, Noir," he pointed. "Wash up, get rested…and sleep. That way, you'll be in the right mind and body for me to bore you to sleep tomorrow with all of my glitzy, ambiguous information."

I shuddered forth an anxious smile.

_You got that right._

"And no….I'm not sharing the room with you," he stuck his tongue out. "Never on a first date."

I rolled my eyes.

_Please._

I paused.

He was staring at me.

Silent.

He smiled: "You don't remember what day it is, do you, Noir?"

"………"

He shook his head. "It'll never cease to amaze me. That's one reason why I've always chosen to pick on you, Noir. And not some selfish, shallow dope…..like Speedy for example."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Just kidding. Anyways….you'll remember what this day is soon enough. Or else, my name doesn't start with an 'S'!"

I blinked.

_Your name starts with an 'S'?_

I looked at him.

But he was gone.

"………"

_Just what day is it anyway?_

I sighed.

I looked at the key in my grasp.

I blinked.

Beneath the room number, there was a word.

'_Luxor'._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

11:37 pm.

Past the glittering Sphinx replica.

The obelisk.

The streaming beam of blue light piercing up into the desert sky.

I walked numbly, tired, confused and yet strangely elated all the same.

_The Messenger…… _

_Is he really here to help me? _

_Can things really be helped……if even his words couldn't stop Robin from……_

Before I knew it, I had scaled the floors of the pyramid.

I glanced over the ledge of room doors into the check-in lobby below. The polished, ivory floor reflected electric lights back up at me. I stared up at the inward sloping rows of floors and hotel room doors.

I would have mesmerized if I wasn't so….

_Superheroic……_

I found the room number matching my key.

Fourth floor.

Pyramid room.

I slid the key into the lock.

_This day……_

I twisted.

_There's something special about this day……_

I opened the door and walked into….air conditioning.

_But I just can't put my finger on it._

I closed the door behind me.

And.

I breathed.

Two beds.

A bath.

A t.v.

A sloping window, blue tinted.

Papyrus colors to the furniture.

A single lamp softly illuminating the first mattress and its covers.

And….

There was a folded package of tissue paper on the edge of the bed.

With a single scrap of paper as a note on top of it.

"……."

I walked over.

Dropping my backpack to the floor.

My scabbard.

My shades.

I stood in dust-covered, light shirt and pants.

I picked up the package.

I looked at the note.

And my heart froze momentarily.

'_Happy B-Day, Noir.'_

'_Sincerely,'_

'_the Messenger'._

I took a deep breath.

_That's right. _

_November 18._

_I forgot……_

I smiled crookedly. Painfully.

_I'm……eighteen today…_

A blink.

I looked at the package.

_But how did he know?_

I shook that off.

I lethargically ripped the tissue paper open.

I took out something heavy.

Metal.

With polished wood paneling-

I froze.

My lips quivered.

And though I didn't, something young and dead inside of me wanted to cry.

It was a harmonica.

I swallowed, bit my lips, and hugged the musical instrument to my chest.

A shuddering breath.

_Thank you……_

I gazed out the blue tinted window.

Strangely warm.

_I know I will find Terra now. _

_I will find her._

My black eyes closed.

I shuffled over.

I collapsed into the bed.

An exhale.

_I will………_


	188. The Earth Must Bleed part 3

**188. The Earth Must Bleed part 3**

"..."

I woke up with a warm, sighing stir.

Fully clothed from the night before.

Under the covers of the hotel room bed.

I opened my black eyes, and winced ever so slightly from the stabbing brightness of sunlight settling against the walls.

I blinked...then sat up halfway. A stretch. A cracking of the neck...and I looked down.

Lying on the covers beside me was the harmonica. A queer bedmate if any, but I honestly didn't remember sleeping so soundly before in all my exhausting days of fighting bad guys in the Titans' City. The night before was like a lovely, liquid rock of slumber. And certainly it factored in that I had spent the previous five days running across country at superhuman speeds.

I exhaled, lay back down under the covers, and...cuddled the harmonica close to my center.

A drunken smile on my drowsy face.

_Good morning, Ana..._

"..."

I blinked.

I sniffed.

I made a face.

_I smell like a dead pig._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stripped.

I removed my metal arm.

I limped into the hotel shower.

And...

Steam.

Hot water.

Trickling ambiance.

I leaned against the wall.

Sighing...sighing...sighing...

Shutting my black eyes.

Rivlets of liquid streaming down my scarred cheek and throat and matting my hair against the back of my neck.

_I'm over a thousand miles from home…or what used to be 'home'._

_I'm stuck in the middle of the desert. _

_In Las Vegas. _

_Little to no money. _

_Blessed with just a harmonica and a hotel room the Messenger donated to me. _

_I'm wet. _

_Naked. _

_And inside a Pyramid._

I took a deep breath.

The steam.

The mist.

The vapors.

I exhaled.

_Where am I going with this, Ana?_

My black eyes tried in vain to block out the brightness of the dimly-set lamp on the far side of the bathroom.

_What kind of damage is being done to Terra's statue as I fumigate here like a prince?_

I subconsciously ran a flesh hand down my left arm and cupped my palm over the metal disked stub.

My jaw clenched.

_Pompeii…… _

_Jacob Anderson……_

A beat.

I shut the water off and breathed a cold breath.

_I must go out._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dressed in a black jacket, shirt and slacks, I stepped out of the hotel room and onto the interior balcony of the Luxor Pyramid. I locked the door, swiveled around, and fingered both the keys and the harmonica in one hand.

"………."

I slipped them into a back pocket, feeling the press of Myrkblade into my back—concealed in its scabbard beneath my jacket. I stuck my bound, still-slick ponytail down the back of my jacket's neckhole and wandered briskly downstairs.

After stopping by the checkout counter, I drifted into a little gift shop with whatever spare change I had on me. I was blessed with some fruit and other little healthy welcome edibles via the Messenger's room, but I knew that in this land of deceitful heat, I would need to drink as much as possible. So I grabbed a bottle from a miniature freezer along with a granola bar or two and then headed towards the sales counter.

"You ready, sir?" a young lady pleasantly asked.

I nodded. But then I blinked. My shaded eyes scanned the various trinkets hanging along the exterior of the desk. Tiny memorabilia of Egyptian 'flare'. Anubis plushies and 'sand'-globes with little plastic pyramids inside. And then—in the center of it all—an ordinary deck of playing cards.

"……," I smirked.

I grabbed the packet it and tossed it onto the counter along with my other stuff.

The lady smiled and scanned the deck of cards in with everything else. "Good time to practice for the _really_ big games. Huh?"

I nodded mutely and produced a few bills.

_I'm here on the biggest gamble of my life yet._

Ding!

She finished the transaction, gave me my change, and handed me a small plastic bag of the stuff. But in doing so, she got a good view of my profile. And her eyes narrowed. A pursing of the lips, and she hummed: "You seem….familiar."

I instantly froze over. My insides turned to ice and I bit my lip.

_Crud. I forgot. I'm……famous, arne't I? _

"I can't quite put my finger on it….," she stroked a lock of hair back. Staring at my forehead. My scars. My black shades and silent posture. "OH! That's right!" she beamed. "Haven't I seen you at the Ladies Club down past where the Sands used to be?"

"……..," I blinked.

"Man….when me and the girls go out on Saturday night, I swear—you boys are all the rage."

"……," I smiled nervously.

She leaned back. "Er…..y-you don't work….at the Ladies Club….do you?"

I was silent.

She winced. "Uhm….m-my bad. I could have sworn that-h-h-have a good day, sir!" And she shrunk away with a crimson face somewhere to finish inventory.

I wrapped the handle of the plastic bag a few times around my wrist, took a deep breath, and walked out of the hotel with a helpless chuckle.

_I'm __**almost**__ old enough………I suppose._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside.

On the Strip.

Full daylight.

I treaded.

Northward, I strolled along Las Vegas Boulevard starting at the Luxor.

After passing the clustered intersection at Reno Avenue, I strolled past Excalibur, the casino's multi-colored tiers rising in the daylight like some Disney castle reject. Fading images of magician caps and misguided faeries flittered across my mind's eye and I passed on.

I came to the infamous crossing of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. It was there that I once again graced upon the psuedo-city skyline of New York New York staring across the heavy lanes of traffic at the MGM Grand and its multi-tiered, glossy grandeur. A walkway stretched over towards the lush Tropicana resort which loomed in the distance.

I crossed the street so that I was on the Eastern Side of Las Vegas Boulevard. And from there….

Northward and northward.

I walked by the Monte Carlo, with a white façade that showed in more ivory than I thought a single City could get away with. It looked cleaner a hotel building than anything I had seen on the East Coast. And that scared me.

Aladdin came and went. A glorious stone mock-up extending outward from a synthetic oasis that mocked the Nevada desert.

I stumbled into Paris. A very pretty, yet altogether fake Paris. Complete with a beautifully fake Arc de Triomphe bordering an array of glittering fountains and pools.

Then came the whammies along the western side. The curved, architectural monstrosity that was the Bellagio, devouring an enormous man-made lake in its 'jaws. The immortal Caesar's Palace with its towering, towering white structures and boastful coliseum. The Mirage and it's fountaining, psuedo-volcano of immensity…followed shortly by the hilariously overdressed Treasure Island that made me feel like drowning just from looking at it.

I gladly looked right at an off-chance and bore witness to the Venetian. A towering leviathan of Italian design with multiple buildings hugging the structure's legs.

It was around the point where I passed the Fashion Show Mall that something ran out of me. I came to a stop on the sidewalk and simply….gazed. I wasn't dying. I still had plenty of water and granola bars left. Only….it suddenly seemed to me that all I was seeing were mere, ivory ghosts of glittering souls that only came out at night. There was so much about this City that was hiding under the glamour and the glitz and the gaiety. Manners of evil and depression under the dry bulbs that awaited the desert Sun to melt beyond the horizon.

I still couldn't find Pompeii. And even if I did—I imagined to myself—_what would be the likelihood of my ever doing what I came here for? _

_This is Las Vegas. _

_Dagger—much less Triangular—as most likely had his fangs sunk into this city from its very own, dusty infancy. _

_While people are gambling or photographing their lives away in casinos, Dagger is underground. Slithering out of grasp like a slimy snake. And now Jacob Anderson and a bunch of homicidal low-lifes are grabbing onto the despot's tail and giggling along for the ride._

_How can I even begin to rip the Sixth Titan free of the serpentine intestine if I can't even fine the reptile's trail in the dirt?_

I hobbled on. Eyes glaring past Circus Circus. Staring up at the looming Stratosphere. Lethargically rounding about the Sahara Speedworld and limping southward in an about-face down past Wet 'N Wild and towards the Convention Center. I was somewhere near the newly-constructed monorail and Desert Inn Rd. when I smelled something. Like an infernal machine's best attempt at making a synthetic, crowd-pleasing mimic of sulfur.

I turned.

I looked.

And there it was.

Brand new. Sparkling. The newest bastard to the infantile landscape.

'_The Pompeii Resort and Casino'_.

The construction was an even more exotic one than any of the classic spots I'd seen before. The building was multiple stories. Fifteen floors to challenge the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo. There was an amber-gray quality to it all. Like Mediterranean stucco or something. Fake, of course. And the solid architecture of the building 'melted into' a lumpy half-mountain mound of supposed rock and cooled lava. Polyfoam obsidian. Surfaced just right to weather the heat and at the same time froth forth squirming lines of crimson light like hot molten earth bubbling under the surface. Roman architecture lined the front of the lobby, and off to the sides a scale replica of the Pompeii findings served as a three-block shopping center complete with every little franchise store known to post-modern man.

I took a deep breath. A slight chill…and my metal hand clenched.

"…….."

"_First thing's first……"_

"?" I turned at the voice.

I looked behind me.

There was nobody else on the sidewalk. At least….nobody else on the sidewalk close enough to have whispered in my ear.

But someone _did_ whisper in my ear….

"…….," my black eyes narrowed.

"_A hotel room's fine……"_

I spun again. Looking around.

Nothing.

"……_but we need a base. That is, you need a base."_

I could have sworn I sensed something. Like a green wave of lighted tendrils in the corner of my black eyes. They danced off across the street and towards what looked like a grimier part of Town a few blocks away.

"_After all, this is your mission. I'm nothing but a tourist to you……"_

I briskly followed the fleeting voice. The dance of green. The spirit of silliness leading me down the blocks and into what looked like an abandoned construction site. Shadowed by forsaken steel skeletons stretching three stories up above urban oblivion. And then, there was a crack in fencing and dividers.

The voice hissed gently through it.

"_Care to come into my trap?"_

I raised a curious eyebrow. A beat. I glanced behind me. I made sure nobody was looking….and then I teleported through the crack and into the sectioned-off site beyond.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was a warehouse.

A storage facility.

Something that was not a run-down facsimile of what it most likely never was.

And then and there it looked to me to be a half-dilapidated enclosure with falling ceiling tile, glass frames, and other forms of dust-covered debris. Thin beams of light here and there from the desert sky managed to scatter themselves weakly down and kissing the dark interior. A rack of abandoned tools and workshop materials rested on the shadowed sides. And metals. Lots and lots of metals. Metal….things. Abandoned for some reason or another—I could not tell. Powerless are we to the whims of junk.

I stood in the center of this dark, steel-hidden sanctuary. Alone. Arms folded. Black eyes resting suspiciously beneath resting shades. I knew that this place was most likely condemned. I knew that I could be at risk of any sorts of things falling on my pathetic head at any second.

_But when did that stop me?_

I twirled around. Searching. Searching. Searching for the voice.

"A nice tourist trap this is, eh?" spoke the voice. No longer a ghostly thing surfing the air. There was a spectral flash of green light in my peripheral obsidian. I turned and saw whom I expected. The Messenger with his soft almond eyes and smiling at me from a dusty corner. "You ought to book a room for your stay here! Oh wait…my bad. You already _have one._"

"…….," I smirked at him.

"No need to thank me," he gestured while leaning against a tool table. Dust scattered and a thin beam of light filtered down to kiss the green highlights on his head. "Just believe me when I say…..I get somewhat of a _generous_ allowance in the dimension I'm from. A hotel room is nothing." He pointed. "Just don't ask me to buy you any gambling chips."

I blinked.

_I wasn't going to ask you to buy me any-_

"Birthday party's over," He said. "Now is time to get to work. But…you're way ahead of me on that, aren't you?"

I gave him a sarcastic look.

"You sure as heck aren't walking around to take the fat off those nonexistent thighs of yours, huh?" he paced around, his hands behind his petite back. "If you're looking for someone named Vesuvius, I'm afraid she's not here right now. Want me to leave a message?"

I rolled my black eyes.

"What I'm trying to say, compadre…," he smirked, "…is that as much as every Tom, Dick, and Harry is waiting for you to head on in there and do your stuff…..you've got to take it one step at a time. You need a little reconnaissance. Otherwise, how else are you going to know where the heads are to smash in?"

I nodded numbly. I stared off into the shadows of the shattered warehouse.

_Somewhere in that casino…… _

_Is the Herculean Vault. _

_And Jacob Anderson. _

_And some sort of……'fighting' arena._

_And……_

I bit my lip.

_More of those………dungeons…most likely._

"It's a good thing I did some of the work for you," the Messenger smiled with a wink. "I'm such a damn nice guy, aren't I?"

I gave him a shocked look. Lips parting…

He stretched out his arm and pointed at his watch. And to my black eyes, it actually looked twice as bulky than ever the mysterious monstrosity was before.

"Extra special….," he slurred. "Extra juice." A smile across his teenage, Asian face. "Extra goodness."

"…….," I nodded.

_Uh……okay. Whatever that means._

"It means I managed to have a good, invisible romp through Pompeii-land before the normal restriction of two hours and still get to talk to you."

I blinked.

_Oh……_

"And I might just want to warn you, Noir….," he strolled towards me. A serious shade fell over his eyes as he nodded his head and uttered: "You aren't the only one."

I raised an eyebrow.

"You're not the only one….trying to get into the Vault…."

I swallowed.

_Figures…… _

_Maybe that's what this 'fight' thing is all about. _

_That homicidal stranger at the Shepherd Plain ranch. _

_The one with the powers…… _

_What did he want with the vault? _

_Was he also……after the key? After Terra?_

I looked at the Messenger sideways.

There seemed to be a hollowness to his eyes. As if he hadn't told me anything.

And I wondered…..

_Are there even MORE people after Terra's statue than I could ever have imagined?_

"Pompeii is not a small walk in the park," the Asian teen gestured. "It has multiple tiers going both above…and BELOW ground. It's the Hell moreso than the heaven that you should be concerned with, Noir. I ventured down there as invisibly as I could, and I must say….that's where you must go. No, the Vault isn't down there. The Vault is high up. Near the top of the building. But it's useless to try and get inside. Even for someone as elusive as me. The technology built is especially programmed to fry whatever or whoever solidifies inside the treasure trove of Triangular. To get to the Vault…you must somehow appease Jacob Anderson. And right now, our bastard of a gopher is hiding just where he loves to be. He has a motherload of security though, so it'll take quite a bit of stealthy finangling on your part—as it did for me—to get anywhere near the bottom tiers of the complex. Especially considering that—for all legal intents and purposes—those concealed spots of the Pompeii resort _shouldn't exist."_

I took a deep breath.

"Do you think you're up for the challenge, Mr. Badass?" he smirked.

I nodded.

He had a solemn face. "Then take it slow and steady. There are many eyes watching. Many more eyes than we can guess. I fear—even—the gaze of Red Aviary himself."

I took a deep breath, weathering the chill. Nodding my head.

He seemed to be lingering on something. A shifty shuffle of his feet.

I leaned my head to the side and half-walked towards him with an inquisitive breath.

"Nothing, Noir….I'm just thinking…..," he began. But didn't finish. He looked suddenly very small and very pensive. And I again was bearing witness to the faltering humanoid who supposedly led the Titans and Commissioner Decker astray on the eve of the disaster he tried all of his best talents to prevent. And it hurt—in a subtly sweet way—to think that the young man who had no doubt was suddenly a shell of what he once believed himself to be…as if he had never believed himself to be anything beforehand. And I wished with all of my powers to right that wrong in his cerebral cortex. Robin had died…and I didn't want the Messenger dying on me too. And already his spirit seemed slipping off the edge of his own shame. When there was nothing to be ashamed of.

I smiled gently and considered touching his shoulder with the only 'voice' I could muster.

But he snapped out of it, put on a realistic-yet-fake smile and said: "Hop to, chop chop, Noir! I'll meet you back here in this very spot sooner than naught." He winked. "Consider it….the 'Boy Cave'."

I blinked.

_There was a girl at a gift shop earlier who must be weekly going with her friends to a place called that-_

A flash of green light.

The Messenger was gone.

"……."

I took a deep breath. I trailed my black eyes on the metal bric-a-brac around me before swiveling around, shaking the ghosts off, and teleporting once again back into the light.

As I walked to Pompeii…I wondered…

_What's it like for a Messenger to not get the message?_

_I was never……ever mad at him. _

_Just…from time to time…I might happen to get defeated. _

_We all do._

_But in the end……_

I marched towards the gates of the casino.

I clenched my fists.

_In the end, there are frozen girls to save_.

I momentarily sensed the weight in the harmonica within my back pocket. I mentally reminded myself to thank the Messenger for that later too. And then I strolled into no-angel's-land.


	189. The Earth Must Bleed part 4

**189. The Earth Must Bleed part 4**

The lobby of Pompeii was a virtual, Mediterranean sea shore. The sounds of rushing water and seagulls filled the electronic air, interrupted intermittently by rumbling, volcanic sounds. If I look to my left, I saw scores of new people at the check-in counters, eager to fill the rooms of this brand new, lavish casino. If I look to my right, I saw a fake 'beach' with hard sand carved out of polyfoam and sloaping into a body of water where a wave machine made foamy surf rush up onto the surface, recede, and rush up again. A tiny, extravagant restaurant of sorts was built on this fake shore. Tables and chatting/eating patrons clustered the hard dunes just a few feet before the lapping waves. An expert mural along the rippling waters produced the force perspective look of distance and ongoing Mediterranean seas. A fake 'sky' of blue-turning-black formed the ceiling, with pinpricks of synthetic stars casting a silver gleam across the interior.

The further I walked into 'Pompeii', the darker and gloomier things got. Like some sort of subconscious nod to Bald Mountain or the gates of Hell. I mentally told myself that it was merely a recreation of the actual volcanic disaster itself. And I found this out to be true and truer the deeper I pierced the casino. There would be 'alcoves' in the wall with forced perspective murals depicting volcanic ash billowing over mountain slopes and seas and accompanied by somehow-non-threatening puffs of dark smoke burping out of vents in the hall to give the lateral edges of the interior a hazy atmosphere.

And sooner than I realized it, I was entering the large intestine of the place and the casino tables opened before me. I saw them beyond an obvious barrier of fake Roman architecture, small stone buildings, and mountains of volcanic ash. There was a huge, circular chamber like a gladiator arena purposefully surrounding a cone-like mound of fake earth that quite respectfully imitated Mt. Vesuvius. Fake smoke and flickering flame erupted from the top of the volcano in sporadic spurts. Down the length of the synthetic mountain, a slowly revolving stage formed a 'cave entrance' in the side with a wall of stone that could recede at any moment and make the mountain complete. At that point in time, the cave was open and a lounge-style-band was playing a jazz tune as they rotated, rotated, rotated to please the frenzied audience. But the audience was never truly paying any attention to the mountain. They were engulfed instead in the myriad of gambling stations. First, there were the lines of slot machines. The loneliest of people gathered there, staring at the rolling images at each desperate heave of the lever. Then there were the roulette tables. The craps tables. Card games. People gathered in excited groves. Seventy-five percent of them sweat and groaned. A meager twenty percent of them were cheering. A lasting five percent seemed to be the living dead.

All of this transpired in a roar of clamoring voices, chiming slot machines, and monotone card dealers. The lounge music barely bled through, and sooner than naught the gambling souls' faces became clearer and clearer as did the evident placement of gray-colored, elevator doors along the far edges of the interior until I realized I was practically walking into the casino area and-

"Excuse me."

"….."

"Yo! Excuse me!"

A hand was planted against my chest.

I came to a jolting stop.

I looked up.

At the entrance of the gambling arena, three bouncers stood. Darkly dressed, heavyset guys. The centermost fellow had mean eyes, mean lips, and a mean voice as he said: "Only people aged twenty-one and up allowed in here, pal."

"…….," I blinked at him from beneath my shades.

"You got an ID or something?"

I bit my lip. Sweatdropping.

He motioned: "Then scram! Beat it!"

I took a deep breath.

_Yeah……_

I turned around.

_Really nice casino…_

I walked away from the shadowy three. I wondered to myself what two-bit thugs off the street Jacob Anderson must have hired to occupy his Pompeii. But it mattered little. At least they didn't recognize me as a Titan swordsman in a faraway City where a certain Robin died. I figured that people in the deepest bowels of Las Vegas didn't care much about the rest of the world, only the quasi-dirty oasis in which they lived off of bread in the form of doughy gambling chips. The Pope could die tomorrow and they'd only think a Mosquito bit them somewhere.

And soon I was pacing around the broad atrium of the place. Aimless. Staring at my feet through shaded black eyes and exhaling.

_Now what do I do?_

_The Messenger went through so much trouble to spot out this place and the lower floors for me. _

_The elevators are obviously down there in the casino area where the bouncers are keeping me from. _

_I can imagine no other spot in the casino opening up to the forbidden, lower levels than those elevators. _

_But there's no use trying to get there with those walking mammoths in the way._

_The last thing I want to do is create a row over anything. _

_With all the cameras hanging overhead—especially where the gambling is—Jacob Anderson or anyone else with Triangular could spot me in a second. _

_But I got to get downstairs. _

_I got to see what's brewing in this evil place._

I came to a stop by a sectioned-off display of bodies.

_Bodies?_

"?" I looked up.

My lips parted.

Behind a sheet of glass and covering an area of six square meters was an assortment of gray-colored bodies. All of them were either stretched out on the floor in a twitching pose of agony, or trying in vain to stand up as their torsos 'melted' up out of the ground. One or two of them lying flat out on the side had tiny rows of ivory teeth showing, as well as a necklace or two. My eyes scanned the figures and then fell over to a plaque set against the glass that supposedly explained the physical holocaust.

And I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I thought they were mannequins at first, but in fact they were actual ash 'cocoons' of deceased bodies found at Pompeii. Ash that had hardened eons ago to forever preserve the shape of the instant of death. And what's more, they weren't on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius. They were _here_. Before me in Las Vegas. Stone corpses erected for viewing and amusement. For a moment, I wondered how in the Hell anyone—en masse or powerfully alone could _possibly_ afford to convince historians and preservers to ship these eternal bodies here.

And I realized then the true power of Triangular. Plagued by a Parasite or not, they were real. And they were evil. And they were strong enough to defame death openly in public and get away with it.

_Triangular will do anything and everything they can……even if it means fracturing the sanctity of stone souls. _

_What other stone bodies could they be raping right now as I stand here and mope?_

_Terra…… _

_I must find Terra…… _

_I must sneak past those damn, gorillas. _

I took a deep breath.

I looked behind me.

I shuffled into the shadows.

I concentrated and summoned murk.

_When in Rome._

_Burn as the Romans burn._

I covered myself with a curtain of smoke.

Cloaked.

Invisible.

I stepped out and stealthily made my way towards the casino area.

_Now……just where did the Messenger go?_

I crept invisibly forward. I slithered past the three bouncers. I couldn't help but cast an invisible smile at the loudest of the three. But swiftly I moved on.

I passed down rows of slot machines. Past craps tables with pairs of dice tumbling and people holding their breath. Past the revolving volcano-stage of musicians. I paced myself slowly, carefully, trying my best not to bump into anyone. I knew that the moment I touched someone, the resulting jolt could shove the concentration out of me and I would be as visible as a mechanical rabbit in a Greyhound race.

I snuck until I was at the very mouths of the elevators. But…I couldn't bring myself to go in quite so soon. It dawned on me that even simple elevators like these wouldn't take me down to 'nonexistent' floors. They wouldn't take me down to the basement….unless there was someone important inside to access the necessary tools.

So I waited. As tourists filed in and out. Drunken men with twice as drunk women hooked around their shoulders and laughing. The well dressed. The even better dressed. One or two dressed with a sweating face of financial panic. And then….

My black eyes narrowed on a tall, darkly dressed fellow. In his early thirties. Black slick hair with red, tiger-stripe like highlights flaring towards the back where they ended in frizzy spikes. He had on shades and…a scar across his nose and lower brow.

I smiled.

_Rule number one in thug identification. The one with the scar always has high authority._

He was growling into a cell phone as he walked right by my invisible side and towards the elevators. "Dammit! What do you mean they haven't shown up? Did they panic at the last second? What kind of fighters are _that_ yellow?"

I eyed him. He pressed a normal button as any other person would on the elevator command console. A pair of doors opened. He shuffled in and I followed him snake-like.

"Just as well, I guess. But now it's up to yours truly to break his ass over finding NEW contenders. Dammit. What the Hell am I going to do? You know how Anderson hates it when I just drag in fodder from the streets here!"

DING!

The doors closed.

The man stood in a corner with the phone.

I stood against a wall, cloaked. Breathing gently.

"Yeah. I know. I may just have to get Anderson to contact one of the head haunchos for me," the redhaired man growled. "But nothing from Metropolis, dammit! Nobody can last a second against what freaks _that_ _city_ has to offer!"

He suddenly poked a finger at me.

"!" I jumped to the side as silently as I could.

Click.

His finger clicked a 'hold' button on the elevator console that was behind me just a moment ago.

"Hold on a second. I'm coming down," the man said. He propped the cell phone between his ear and shoulder while fishing around in his pockets for something. He got it. A remote control of sorts. He clicked a button on it.

_Whurrr-Chtink!_

A panel opened up. Three keyholes. Six buttons.

The man pulled out a key. He inserted it into the centermost keyhole. He pressed the right of the two buttons beneath it.

The elevator jerked, then slowly began to move. Down.

I took a deep breath, scrunching up into the dark corner.

"Well maybe it's because Anderson's always having the dirty bastards killed." A pause. "Yeah, I _know_ that the crowd frickin' loves it too! But it really makes the show hard to go on! Pompeii is no longer an idea. It's a _reality._ People are catching wind of this little cubby hole and they're hearing stories and—quite frankly—it's scaring them away!" Another pause. "And personally, I think it's a very bad I idea. I know Anderson thinks he's gonna attract people from all over the hemisphere with this 'open Vault' promise of his, but I sometimes wonder where he's going. He'll not only get suicidal freaks, but some serious ones too. We need extra security and resources, and I don't think Luthor is pulling through as he promised he would." Another pause. "Heh….yeah. He probably wants in the Vault too. So why doesn't he just come down here and show his face? You know the guy from Gotham City has—hold on. I'll call you back." He pocketed the cell phone away.

DING!

The doors open.

A glow of light-green light.

My black eyes squint under my shades.

And….

Roaring.

Roaring crowds.

Heat and the smell of sweat.

And blood.

"_Hooray!" _

"_Yeah!" _

"_Blood! Blood! Blood!"_

"_Woohooo!"_

The man sighed, ran a hand through his red-striped hair, adjusted his suite, and walked out into the mess.

"……," I took a deep breath. Stealthily, I crept out too.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The arena.

I had this feeling of some cross between claustrophobic gladiator rings within a huge, elliptical, dry-hockey-rink. The arena floor was divided by two perfect circles of metal slabs forming the arena 'floor'. Bordering the metal battle zones were a three-story cages of criss-crossing, brown titanium. The bars were spread out enough to keep large bodies inside the fighting areas and—at the same time—give the audience a perfect view of the interiors. And just in case some fighter did feel panicky at the last second, solid sheets of bullet and fire proof plastic surrounded the bars. There were only two openings to each of the cages—for the two different fighters of a single batter to enter through. There was one last, plastic shield of transparency lining the elliptical rise of the arena border, but only reaching halfway to the ceiling. On the raised exterior of the carnage, rows upon rows of ampitheatre-style slabs gave hundreds of bloodlusting, well-suited patrons a gorgeous view of the fights. One particular side of the audience was sectioned off into what looked like ridiculously lavish dining tables and booths for the extra-wealthy of the violence-loving viewers. In the center of the lavish section was one outstanding balcony of polished silver large enough to seat four people. An ornate, medieval shield rested like an emblem on the railing of the balcony with the letters 'JA' emblazoned in prettiful font. A shadowy figure—from my distance—sat in the balcony. I had but one guess as to who it was.

I walked hesitantly into the frothing, cheering crowd. I feared a sudden jolt or a bumping of limbs that might expose me and my location. Nevertheless, I concentrated with murk and kept myself invisible as I sought out a relatively lonely spot from whence I could a bearing on exactly what the Hell was happening. I had lost sight of the red-haired, irascible fellow in the suit. My black eyes gradually wandered to the arena.

One of the empty cages had…..a cleanup crew. They seemed to be busily removing a lump of red, dripping substance from the center of the stained metal. Limping through a door on the opposite side—assisted by workers—was a suited 'gladiator' in solid red with silver crossbands, a silver mask and a crimson eyepiece on the right side of his face. He leaned on a laser rifle as a cane while getting over a minor injury. There were laser rifles on armbands that were smoking still from combat.

Digital monitors flashed and flickered a horrible 'instant replay' of the man frying to death another fighter just minutes before my arrival. A crackling announcer shouted over heavy speakers above the heads of cheering audience members: _**"Winner of the match! Deadshot!"**_

"Wooooohoo!"

"All right!"

"Yeah!"

A good number of people in the crowd were jubilant.

A somber few ripped up pieces of paper and sat cloudy and defeated.

"_**Bet earnings for Deadshot shall be collected outside the Arena in the Atrium. But for now, feast your eyes on the most exciting battle yet! Katarou! A martial arts master that hails from the East! And Firefly! Pyrotechnic genius and infamous rogue from Gotham City! Let the fight begin!"**_

A resounding roar came forth from the crowd. Arms waved, and heads turned towards the rightmost cage in the arena.

"……," I turned and looked as well.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Katarou was a thick, granite slab of a man. He was decked out in a tight black robe with red leggings, crimson sash around his waist, and a crimson crest bordering the back of his tunic's opening. He was bald with stone-hard, Asian eyes. A frown crossed his hard features as he spun a staff at ready and faced off against his opponent on the far side.

The gray-suited Firefly observed Katarou with bulbous, red eyes across his mask. His rocket pack's wings extended. Gas exhaust warbled about him in the air. He pulled a silver pistol with a large, smoking barrel and aimed it at the martial artist.

"Today, one of us dies…," Katarou mouthed. "Shall it be with honor or with bloodlust?"

"Please…," a voice emanated from Firefly's mouthless mask. "Save the poetry, you bloated samurai. All you spiritual-fighter types are just the same. Asking for death. Well wake up, pal. This is about the money. I've no time to waste on your 'chi' or whatshit."

"Rnnngh….," Katarou sneered. "You would call me _samurai_!" He took an angry step forward with his staff extended. "I am Chinese, filthy pig!"

"Correction…," Firefly pulled the trigger. "You're ashes."

_PHWOOOOMB!_

A plume of fire surged out at the man.

Katarou pole-vaulted over the plasma with his rod, twirled in the air, and sailed at Firefly with a flying kick. "RAAAUGH!"

Firefly jerked back. His rocket-pack erupted. _FWOOOOSH!_ He soared upwards with a trail of fire.

Katarou landed. He spun around with his back against the bars and looked up at Firefly.

The pyromaniac flew backwards across the caged area. He reached into his belt, grabbed a handful of flammable pellet grenades, and tossed them down at the man.

Katarou twirled his blade and deflected the pellets. Cl-Cl-Clank!

They exploded along the rim of the cage in three fiery places.

FW-FW-FWOOOMB!

Katarou took a deep breath, ran up the metal bars of the cage, flipped off it, spun in the air, and met Firefly at waist level with a swing of his staff. "Nnngh!"

Firefly fired his flame-pistol.

_PHWOOOSH!_

Katarou barely dodged the flames and smacked the opponent's arm.

THWACK!

"Augh!" Firefly loss grip of his pistol.

WHUMP!

Katarou's knee flew into Firefly's chest. His body followed and the two slammed into the cage wall, then plummeted down hard towards the metal slabs of the arena floor.

WHAM! "Ugh!" Firefly landed painfully on his chest.

WHAP! Katarou landed on his feet. He wheezed from the flames and smoke, but braved a breath as he twirled his rod at ready and glared at the downed Pyromaniac. "Cheater! Do not think that your demonesque weapons of a coward are powerful enough to drown my mastery…."

Firefly grunted as he got up to his weary feet. He reached to his belt and pulled out a cylinder. FLASH! A flame sword erupted from the metal hilt. "I'm going to melt that mouth of yours CLEAN OFF!"

"Hmmph….," Katarou grinned. "So be it." He gripped his staff with both hands and showed his teeth. "The pleasure of your death shall be mine…more than the crowd's." And he charged the suited man with a shout and a swing of his staff.

Firefly stepped back, deflecting with his flame sword. FLASH! He shoved against Katarou.

The martial artist stumbled in reverse.

Firefly swung twice with his flame sword. "Nnngh! HAA!"

FLASH! FL-FLASH!

Katarou ducked and dodged the swings, then dove forward with an impacting staff.

WHACK!

Firefly gasped in pain and flew back from the strike to his ribs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……..," I walked the perimeter of the huge crowd. I eyed the flaming fight in the cage everynow and then, but gradually shifted my attention to the silver balcony on the far side. I walked closer and closer. And soon enough, the face of a middle-aged man could be seen in the center of the platform. An old man who looked young at the same time. A beautiful/ugly paradox. He wore a burgundy coat around a similarly red suit. His hair was black, save for two skunk spots symmetrically fixed above his temples. There was something about the shape of his nose and the curve of his lips and the holes in his eyes that struck me as familiar.

Familiar…

"……"

My lips parted.

_FLASH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" _

_Anderson's wrinkly face cackled. _

_He stood in the wall panel of his frigate's lower cabin laboratory. _

_Wires from a metal wall stuck into the elderly man's body and sparkled as Simon Stone's android form floated apart and pieced themselves together around Cyborg's exoskeleton, forming the shortly-lived Triad._

"_**Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FLASH!_

I shuddered.

I gritted my teeth.

_Of course. _

_They were related. _

_But……how? _

_Is Jacob Anderson the late villain's brother? Cousin?_

I narrowed my eyes at the closer and closer visible visage of the new man in question.

……_Son?_

I froze in place as I noticed the red-haired man from the elevator walk over to Jacob Anderson's side. He whispered something into the man's ear. Anderson looked his way. After a pause, he smiled and nodded. The scarred subordinate took a breath, dialed something on his cell phone, and spoke into it.

"…..," I stared.

_BUMP!_

I gasped as a sickly patient rushed passed me, losing vomit from his lips as he ran towards the nearest stairwell.

I was thrown out of my concentration.

The curtain of murk fell.

And…

I was exposed.

Visible.

Noir.

I took a breath……..and relaxed.

Nothing had happened.

Either nobody had noticed me, or nobody cared. Either way, I sat silently in the shadows of the upper rows of seats while the surging audience cheered and shouted at the ongoing fight.

The ongoing fight….

I looked over once again.

-T-T-T-T-T-

"HYAAA! RAAAUGH!" Katarou slapped with the end of his rod and side-kicked Firefly in the chest. WHUMP!

The man flew back and landed against the metal cage wall. Dazed.

"HAAAAAAA!" Katarou charged at him.

Firefly looked up. He raised his flame sword.

Katarou took a breath, spun, and flew a kick at Firefly's hand.

WHAP!

The sword was knocked away.

Firefly had but one last chance to breathe-

CRACK! Katarou slammed his rod into the center of Firefly's masked neck.

There was a sickly, cracking sound.

Firefly twitched, convulsed, and fell to the floor in a vaporous heat of gases.

THWUMP!

A roar of simultaneous applause and booing from the crowd.

Katarou smirked. "Hrmmph…." He leisurely strolled by Firefly's body. With his staff, he pried a flammable pellet loose from the pyromaniac's belt. He kicked the pellet up and caught in his hand. Juggling it, he strolled to the far side of the cage. He stared downwards with asian eyes shut. "The Vault contains secrets to understanding the finesse and fighting moves of such godly warriors as Red Claw, the Batman, and even the Lady Shiva herself." He spun around and glared at the downed Gothamite. "I shall not let such a prize land in the lap of a pathetic, street dog as yourself!" He held the pellet in two fingers and grinned. "May you be cremated in the same passion by which you lived, bastard!" He flicked the pellet so that it landed in the 'mouth' of Firefly's rocket pack.

Clink-Poof.

_**PHWOOOOOMB!**_

There was a muffled, half-sentient scream of agony from Firefly's body, but it was quickly engulfed in the flames much like his charred corpse as the plasma warbled upwards and upwards into the cave. Katarou laughed at the top of his lungs. He strung the rod behind his back…and bowed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_PHWOOOOMB!_

Cheers.

Bloodlusting cries.

The monitors flickered: _"Victor: Katarou!"_

Winners and losers moaned.

A laser light show was performed by the lighting system above the arena.

I swallowed bile down my throat and glanced up at the balcony.

Jacob Anderson was standing. And he was clapping. And he was smiling. A drunken, almost erotic smile. His eyes flared with some sort of pure ecstasy that almost made me more sick to see than to smell the burning flesh wafting across the smoky interior.

And then…my black eyes shifted left some.

And I saw the red-haired man. And the red-haired man saw me. He lowered his cell phone some and parted his lips. His eyes squinted as he came to the same, general consensus that I had felt that entire time.

I didn't belong there.

He slammed a fist over a wall-panel communicator lining the balcony and shouted into a speaker something I could not hear from the distance and madness of the crowd.

I gulped.

I turned around.

I saw two suited thugs at a stairwell cupping hands over concealed communicators in their ear. After a second or two they froze…then looked my way.

I looked further.

Down a few spaces and at another stairwell, three more darkly-dressed thugs turned my way.

Everyone—in an identical cadence—was marching my way through the thick crowd. And they had pistols raised.

I blinked. I looked up at the balcony.

Jacob Anderson was still applauding. The red-haired man was gone.

_Crud._

I turned around.

I looked up.

An unguarded stairwell.

"!"

SWOOOOSH! I blurred towards it.

A shouting. The thugs scrambled in pursuit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gritted my teeth.

I ran down a darkly lit, metal hallway.

Echoing with the roars of the beating crowd and fights.

I passed by one of the audience members. The vomiting one. He leaned over a trashcan and wretched.

I looked for other stairwells, elevators, shafts….anything that would take me out of that place and away from scrutiny.

I glanced back behind my shoulder.

I saw the line of thugs running at me. The red-haired leader was at the front of the pack. He reached the wretching man and shoved him fiercely out of the way—CRASH—before whipping out a pistol with a silencer.

I sweatdropped.

I looked ahead.

A right turn. Down a brighter hallway.

I took a glad breath and darted down, picking up speed in a murking fashion.

The thugs charged after me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"!" my black eyes bulged under my shades.

_Damn!_

I skidded to a stop.

_Damn damn damn!_

A dead end.

An air-conditioning vent to the underground basement floors occupied the solid wall before me.

There were doors on either side. But I couldn't possibly imagine them leading to anything but utility closets.

I spun around.

I saw the shadows and heard the stomping footsteps of Anderson's security team.

I swallowed.

_What did you do here, Messenger? _

_What did you do here!_

I spun around and desperately looked some more.

And then it hit me.

_This is my quest. _

_My adventure._

I took a deep breath.

_It's not about the Messenger. _

_It's about Terra. _

_It's about me. _

_The last two halves of Red Aviary's domain._

I spun one last time and faced the vent.

"……."

I smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Who is this pathetic bastard?" the red-haired man grumbled to himself. "I swear to God…Anderson's inviting all sorts of shithead freaks to this place."

"Sir!"

"Hold it!" the man shouted.

The men froze. Guns raised. Eyes darting about under shades.

The man took his dark glasses off. He blinked his two eyes on either side of the scar.

Before him was the dead end. And the dark-haired stranger wasn't there.

"Pfft….frickin' jackrabbit." He pointed at half of the thugs, then pointed at the left door.

They nodded. Guns stretched out, they marched over and formed a semi-circle around the door.

He pointed at the other half of thugs and then at the right door.

They approached it along with him.

He raised a hand. He held up three fingers. Two. One.

SLAM!

He kicked in the right door.

WHAM!

The other thugs kicked in the left door.

They rushed in, one gunman at a time.

"Freeze!"

"Freeze!"

The thugs rushed into the opposite rooms until there was nobody else in the hallway. Nobody. Nothing.

But the air conditioning vent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH!

I teleported out of a ceiling grating and landed in a storage room on the first floor.

Kneeling, I took a deep breath.

I stood up.

I marched over towards the door on the opposite side of the dark room.

I tried the knob.

It was locked.

I gritted my teeth.

I reared back, raised a leg, and-

WHAM!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!

The door yawned open forcibly on its hinges.

"Oh!" a well-dressed woman and well-suited man jumped back, startled.

I jerked as I saw them, startled.

They simpered and hurried along down towards the craps table.

I blinked.

_Back in the casino area._

I hurriedly walked forward. Past gamblers and well dressed patrons. Towards the center where the volcano stage rotated and the roulette tables doubled.

I had used too much of my meditative focus in teleporting and scurrying up through the ventilation shafts from the basement levels to where I was now. I had no strength at the present moment to cloak myself. And besides, I was in a hurry. I had to get out of Pompeii and try reentering it on a clean slate. Especially since I finally got to see what Jacob Anderson looked like and there may have been more forbidden levels beneath the first floor to explore and there was always the Vault and-

I froze.

The line of bouncers at the exit of the casino area was extra thick. The new additions to the muscular team were wearing shades and squabbling into radios.

I bit my lip.

Ding!

I looked to my far left.

The elevator doors opened.

A crowd of familiar, well-dressed thugs led by the same red-haired scarface poured out. The man didn't need to look far to see me. He pointed at me and growled something at his subordinates. They all came speed-walking over, shoving slot machine patrons and waiters aside in their furious advance.

I gulped.

I looked ahead.

The bouncers were receding from the atrium. Marching down towards the very same center.

I backed up between two craps table surrounded by cheering patrons. I rested against the outer rim of the rotating Vesuvius and shuddered.

_What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_

Swooosh!

There was a sudden, strawberry-scented breeze that flew over my dark bangs and just as quickly died.

Accompanied by the faintest of pink lights.

"……..," I blinked.

_No way._

My lips parted.

_No way in Hell._

I looked around at the ceiling, black eyes narrow.

_It can't be……_

The thugs and bouncers closed in.

And……

….

In the meantime.

At a local craps table, the dealer prompted the patron to roll his die.

"Allright, lady luck! Here we go! Here we go!" the man cackled with a southern accent. He held two pieces of dice in his palm out towards a ridiculously pretty blonde at his side. "Here. Blow on 'em."

The girl giggled, fluttered her eyelashes, and blew on the die.

"Heh heh! That'll do it!" the wide-eyed gambler rolled the die in his hands. He took a quirky breath…and tossed them out onto the table.

Bystanders eyes rolled with them.

Then the two die rolled to a stop…they were suddenly four die. Two fuzzy, pink pieces of dice landed besides the two white ones that had been tossed.

"Huh? What in tarnation!" the gambler blinked.

The bystanders murmured.

The dealer made a face. "Uhm….," he frowned suspiciously at those surrounding the table. "All right. Who threw those?"

_POW! _

_POW!_

The pink die exploded in purple smoke.

"Aaaaie!"

"EEEEK!"

"YAAAH!"

Bystanders flew back. The gambler stumbled to the ground with the blonde collapsing awkwardly on top of him. The dealer coughed and wheezed from the Technicolor smoke.

FLASH!

Swisssssh-PLOP!

A pretty, petite figure landed from the ceiling.

The dealer looked up—misty eyed—and gasped.

I looked over, and I too was speechless.

Jinx perched atop the craps table. Short-haired as the last time I had seen her. Tiny, pink bangs crowning a pale, silveresque head. Her outfit was supremely different and new. She had long, violet boots sleekly swimming up her legs and stopping like stockings above her knees. A tight black jumpsuit stretched from her upper thighs to her torso, where it disappeared under a half-open old-fashioned coat of bright pink with white frills founding-fathers-style peaking out at the end of the long sleeves' white cuffs. An identically white neckerchief came out from where her pink jacket ultimately closed together at a white collar joined in the center by a bronze locket bearing the likeness of two missing siblings, Fate and Fortune. The new Jinx was looking something akin to a seafearing pirate from Wonderland, or George Washington's effeminate young cousin. But it couldn't be denied that—even with her short short pink hair and accentuated figure of thinness—she looked far more feminine than I'd ever seen her before.

She glanced down at the wheezing dealer with fluttering, pink cat-eyes and Cheshire catted a smile. "Sorry. This game's got a tilt now."

WHAM! Her right boot flew up the man's chin.

His body flew back through the streaming, purple smoke and slammed into three advancing thugs.

I winced.

The red-haired thug and his men stumbled, gasping.

Jinx twirled like a ballerina atop the craps table on one heel. Her jacket tail streaming, she came to a stop and stretched out two frilled hands. "HAAAAA!"

Pink glowing.

FLASH!

Two streams of hex landed in slot machines on either side of the thugs.

POW! CRACK!

The gambling machines exploded. Hundreds of gleaming chips spewed onto the bouncers. TH-TH-TH-THWAP!

"NNNGH!" "Augh!" "UGH!"

They stumbled and tripped over each other under the glittering rain.

Patrons ran every-which-way, shouting. Screaming in terror.

Two bouncers emerged—coughing—through the field of smoke.

Jinx cartwheeled off the table like a gymnast, jumped up, flipped, and landed with a boot in each of the men's chests.

WHAM!

She vaulted off them—forcing them to teeter—and reverse flipped across the casino. She landed upright with two hands outstretched. "HAAAA!" Two pink pulses tossed them through a vertically standing roulette wheel besides the Vesuvius mountain. CRASH!

I blinked. Chaos erupted on either side of me. Purple smoke from exploding pink die filled the casino like a Pompeii scene out of Candy Land.

And then-

GRIP!

A petite hand gripped my metal wrist.

"!" I looked suddenly to my side.

Jinx's cat eyes stared up at me. I could smell her breath. The strawberry evil.

And for the first time.

The first time ever.

Jinx and I had just ran into each other.

And I wasn't doing a _thing_ to smash her face in.

And—as it turns out—neither was she.

"You stupid or something, Ghost Boy?!"

My face twisted in confusion.

"Don't you know an escape when you see one! MOVE!"

She ran ahead and tugged me along.

I scampered nervously after her.

Jinx led me charging past coughing, wheezing patrons and downed thugs towards the front atrium of Pompeii.

Behind me, the red-haired leader and a few of his subordinates recovered. They growled in our fleeing direction and raised their pistols to fire from long range across the hazy domain.

_Thiift! Th-Thiift! Thiffft!_

The five or six or so men gasped at tranquilizer needles landing in their chest.

The red-haired man shuddered. He looked up.

_Flaaash!_

The figure of a gray-suited, blonde assassin appeared above the gambling machines. She hung one-handed from a grappling hook as she turned visible. Blue eyes narrowing, Pulsade twirled her needle gun one last time, aimed, and-

_**THIFFT!**_

THAP!

One last tranquilizer stuck into the red-haired leader's neck.

He gripped it, growled forth a gurgling curse, and fell down besides his compatriots. Unconscious and drooling

Pulsade landed in a crouch and holstered the needle gun.

"Hrmmph…," she breathily grunted. "Dumb sods." She ran through the purple haze, whipping out a shotgun. FLASH! She disappeared with a golden flash and was invisible in mid-run again.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!

Jinx blew a door open with her hex. She dragged me out onto a dark, abandoned level of a still-being-constructed parking garage to the west side of the Pompeii resort. We both ran to a dark corner—scarcely filtered by rays of noonday light. We both panted for a few seconds.

And then she looked over at me with thin, tired cat eyes. "Fancy meeting you here…."

I had an exhausted simper. I wiped the sweat off my brow.

"Do you have any idea….any idea what's going on in this Town, ghost boy?"

"……"

"Better yet," she leaned cutely against a wall and gestured with a frilled sleeve. "Do you have any clue what just happened?"

I stared at her. Waiting…

She stuck her tongue out. "Plblblblb! You've just been saved, sillyhead! And you should be thanking us!"

I raised an eyebrow. A beat. I shrugged and mouthed: _'Thank you?'_

FLASH!

A golden light beside me.

_Prick!_

The sting of a needle in my side.

"!" I swung an arm back.

WHAP!

Pulsade deflected with the length of a shotgun. She frowned, her other hand shoving a tranquilizer needle into me. "You're welcome…," she grunted. WHAM! She slammed the back of my skull with the shotgun's hilt.

"!"

THUD!

I landed hard on the floor of the parking garage. My whole body winced. I would normally have just vaulted back up with a pulse of murk and ripped their ovaries out with Myrkblade or something….but nothing was normal at that moment in time. A horrendous dizziness overcame me, along with a dizziness that I could not fight back. And soon, my world was being encased with a layer of black that my eyes couldn't find light in.

Unconsciousness.

"Nighty night, ghostboy! Hee hee hee!"

And I was gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I swear. We should just kill him. We should always have killed him. But it's always you saving his pathetic arse. I swear, Jean. Sometimes I wonder if you think about him like you once thought about Slade." _

"_Oh please, Leslie. Stop bringing that up. It has nothing to do with this. Besides…after what we've learned, it'd be rather pointless to kill him. That's what Red Aviary wants!" _

"_Yeah. Pity that. I truly loathe this whole bloody ordeal." _

"_Hey! You hopped on the wagon yourself! It was your choice!" _

"_Because I was scared out of my knickers over what would happen to you if I didn't do anything!" _

"_And the rest—" _

"_Horses for courses. That all developed later. Wait till all of this is over. I'll split his bloomin' skull in two." _

"_Hehehehe……just what did he ever do to you?" _

"_He was born." _

"_Feh. As one-track as ever." _

"_And proud of it." _

"_Any word from 'J'?" _

"_Wildebeest is in position. And furthermore, the cute little bugger tapped into the security mainframe of Pompeii. None of the surveillance cameras were rolling when Mr. Longshanks here decided to poke his hairy head into the Arena Level. Our whole operation here was almost blown to the Spanish Armada by this sod!" _

"_You know he's here for a reason. And it won't be easy to turn him back. Not after what happened with Dagger in his City. Not after what happened to his……his team." _

"_Then what do we do with him? If we can't whack 'em and we can't hold him back, what is there left to do?" _

"_He's a good kid. Hehehe…a 'namby pamby' in his own sort of way. Right, Leslie?" _

"_Watch it." _

"_Ahem. Ghost Boy is a goody-goody-two-shoes. If we make him think that we have the upper hand on things……we might be able to draw him away." _

"_How do you mean? A threat?" _

"_A bluff, Leslie. A bluff. We tell him that we have her." _

"_I see. We let him think that we have the girl's statue……" _

"_And that it's actually here. That it's in the Vault! We'll tell him that 'J' found out somehow." _

"_And if he interrupts with our scheme……then he'd be threatening the greatest chance there is to open the Vault." _

"_Exactly! He'll stay in the sidelines……at least until Wildebeest gets into position, wins Jacob Anderson's favor, and allows 'J' the window of opportunity to digitally dig in and to his stuff." _

"_What about afterwards?" _

"_We'll find Terra, Leslie. And we'll find her faster than Ghost Boy can do anything about it." _

"_Well then, Jean. I'll leave the brilliance to you on this one. A bluff it is. I sure hope it's the best card of your sleeve." _

"_Hey! Viva Las Vegas! Hehe……now…how long till he comes to?"_

They weren't the only ones bluffing.

I was awake half of the time.

And….

I had heard everything.

Sitting somewhere, hands bound, legs tied…

I kept my head and neck tipped over.

It was the only way I could hide my smile.

I had the worst poker face in the world right then.

But they didn't have to know that.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wakey wakeyyyyy!"

"……"

"Time to get up, sleepy headdddd!"

"….."

"**Hey!** Open your **damn** eyes!" Whap! Jinx elbowed my ribcage.

I acted a believable wince, shook all over, and tilted my head up.

I was blindfolded. I couldn't see a single shred of light, which meant I was blindfolded very _well_. No doubt the craftsmanship of Pulsade, a mistress of light herself.

But I did have my spatial sense. A slight, invisible fluctuation of murk across the surrounding domain told me enough. I was inside a small room lined with racks of tools and wooden tables and humming electrical equipment in the corner. The ceiling was just as flat as the walls and floor, and on the far end of the rectangular interior was a gaping world lined with rough shingling. Like the rooftop of something. I felt warm desert air wafting in. The distant roar of cars and pedestrians filtering in. We were somewhere high. Somewhere hidden. Like a nest of sorts.

Jinx's petite body was to my left. The new threads hung off her still. I detected Pulsade's thin and undecorated body to the right. She had a gun trained on me. And from her casual posture, I knew that she knew that I knew that.

"The main potency of the tranquilizer has left you," the British assassin mouthed. "But don't be clever dick so soon. One step out of that chair—even if you were to teleport—and you'll be vomiting before you even taste the bile on your tongue. Best to stay strapped in where you are, chum. Oh…and I have an AK-47 trained on that lovely chest of yours too."

I smirked sarcastically.

"We know why you're here…," Pulsade continued her role as captor. "You're trying to be the hero. The cross-country ranger of goodness. There's a sweet damsel in distress that you're giving your heart and soul towards saving as if it'll somehow pull together your pathetic team of sobbing young blokes."

I frowned, eyeing her blindly.

Her voice hummed onward: "You should have stayed put, Mr. Noir. It would have done both you and your friends a lot of good. No doubt you know a lot about Red Aviary by now…."

"……."

"Well, perhaps you don't know enough. Red Aviary doesn't care if you're stationary or if you're moving around arse over elbow at a hundred kilometers an hour over the sand and canyons of this wretched desert heap. He will have his way with those on his hit list. He'll have his way…unless something so unexpectedly foreign and surprising sweeps his target off its feet before he even has a chance to blink his flaming skull eyes."

"We know you're trying to be a big help to your Titans, Ghost Boy…," Jinx's body trotted over. "It's cute! It really is! After the last time you butted heads like the big, lovable oaf you are with Wildebeest and 'J', it became obvious how protective you were over your buddies! But you must realize….," she knelt in front of me. The smell of strawberries. "…we have to interfere. It's for….the better good…."

Admittedly, I made a face.

_The better good?_

"Robin's death could not be prevented….," Pulsade spoke over Jinx's shoulder. "But then again, we were never really planning on trying to save him. We knew about Dagger's interests in the City. Even when Jinx was saved by Red Aviary's bomb in the Omega Wing, we knew that Dagger was moving to cause a breakout of the supervillains at the same time. Every time Red Aviary has made a move, so has Dagger. And vice versa. The two are working together…..though….they are not working **with** each other. At the same time, both of their goals are similar if not equally heinous. Rather than stick around to keep dealing with the present, we spent time preparing for the future. We realized that Terra was the goal of Triangular's and Red Aviary's aims long before Robin ever factored, even if he was a piece of the whole. But it's that grand, disastrous whole that Jean and I here are trying to prevent from taking shape. Yes, Mr. Noir, we are villains. Petty thieves and murderers and hackers and freaks all alike. But what is there worth to fight for—whether you're good or bad—when there's no world left to grab from? Red Aviary seeks total destruction. Triangular seeks total domination. Both parties feed off of each other with Red Aviary eventually coming to heads as the empowering Parasite. Togther—with their combined madness and bloodlust—they'll take whatever was once sane and level in this domain and utterly demolish it. The Balance of Morals will flip over a burning wasteland. The earth will bleed and the sky will turn red. There'll be nothing to fill the bloody cage, leather winged or feather winged."

I took a deep breath.

Jinx's body stood up and folded her petite arms behind her back. "The only one who didn't really agree with our plans was 'J'. And it was a shame…cuz 'J' was what gave us our power of 'intuition' to begin with. He had the upper hand in information. He hacked his way into H.I.V.E.'s databases thanks to that code card you donated me after we last bumped elbows, Ghost Boy. He found out enough about Lexcorp, Gotham City, and Dagger to finally fill in the missing gaps of Triangular. He saw the focal point of evil being around Terra. And though he knew that Robin's death was an integral puzzle piece waiting to be filled before the rest of the Hell unfolded, the rest of us had to convince him of the true necessity at hand. But that didn't stop 'J' from trying to be the silly little angel he is. When it came time for him to infiltrate Titans' Tower and access your team's database first-hand for the last few bits of info about Dagger's whereabouts, he decided to possess Robin's body. And while doing so, he tried to—I dunno—bless Robin the last bit he could. 'J' has the power to do that, ya know. Either he'll wait inside your body like a ghost hailing a taxi, or he'll control your body without you having a say in it. Or…he'll subconsciously strip things away from you when you're sleeping. He must have stripped something out of Robin during that last week or two of the Boy Wonder's life. It must have been his….his attempt at a gift of sorts. 'J' isn't really a bad kid. He's just working with us cuz he wants the same thing, more or less."

I lowered my blindfolded face to the floor. Exhaling. Biting my lip.

I thought of….

_Robin…… _

_Going out with Starfire. _

_Curling on a warehouse floor and crying. _

_Rambling on and on about that girl. _

_That girl that Clayface both created and consumed. _

_The picture frame encircling the bus terminal snapshot. _

_The flashes of green light and Robin's body and the bodies of thugs collapsing every which way._

_A curled hand and finger._

'_J'._

I took a deep breath.

_Premeditated funeral favors……_

"'J' kept his head straight in the end. He combined the information he found at the Tower with that which we all stole from the rapidly crumbling H.I.V.E. 'J' traced it all here. To Las Vegas. Pompeii…a resort hotel being run by some two-bit, psychosexual freak named Jacob Anderson, cousin to the late weapons dealer and former owner of the Westhaven Opera House back east. This is where the combined, heated energies of Triangular and Red Aviary will now converged. For here is where Terra's statue has been taken. Terra is the next piece of Red Aviary's plot. But first and foremost…there is something that Triangular wants from her. Dagger, specifically. They'll take what they want. And then the focus will be on Metropolis, for Lex Luthor's part of the deal."

"But we mean to intervene before that happens…," Pulsade said. She walked over and planted the barrel of the gun coldly against my neck. "Wildebeest is going to join the lovely fight downstairs beneath Pompeii. And all of our bets are on him. We've got a witch of luck on our side…"

"Heeeeee!" Jinx cutely twirled and curtsied.

"…and we're going to make **sure** that nothing gets in the way of Wildebeest winning and getting into that Vault. Once Jacob Anderson opens it for the giveaway prize for the winner, 'J' will hack into the systems and freeze the building. Jinx and I will dive in. We'll take Terra's statue out of the vault. And we'll head out to a hiding place where Red Aviary will not find the frozen girl. That way, his stroke of death will be frozen. He won't terminate as he so plans. The Parasite will stumble, and Triangular will trip over him. Another Balance will be turned upside down. And it'll be up to us—and many others I do suppose—to strike at the heart of chaos."

I tried not to smile.

I knew they were lying.

_Terra isn't inside the Vault. _

_Merely the __**keys**__ to finding her are inside the Vault. _

_And you two……are bluffing. _

_You're really no further to saving the world than I am._

My flesh and metal knuckles stiffened together in their bindings.

_I…… _

_I am not about to let the Sixth Titan fall into the hands of petty rogues and computer hackers. _

_You're not the Titan here._

My teeth showed towards the floor, away from their sight.

_**I am.**_

Jinx tilted my face up.

I was deadpan by the time they could look on my features.

"Tried and true to the very end," Jinx said. I didn't need to see her to know that her Cheshire grin was there. "You really are a benevolent spectre, Ghost Boy. To be honest, it makes me sick. But……as much as we can and probably _should_, we're not gonna squash ya here on the spot."

"…..," I stared at her.

_Gee, how did I know __**that**__ was coming?_

Pulsade grumbled: "We're going to let you go. But if you so much as show your face here in the midst of our operation again." She pressed the cold barrel of the gun deeper into my neck. "We'll be forced to put you to sleep….in a much deeper slumber than Terra has _ever_ been in!"

I took a shuddering breath.

"Don't you see, Ghost Boy?" Jinx uttered. "We're doing this for Terra too. We're saving her so that you and everyone else don't have to! There's no reason for you to interfere!"

I took a deep breath.

_You expect me to believe that you were there for Terra. _

_And yet, with all you knew, you were never there for Robin!_

My mouth went dry.

_You aren't benefactors. You're all still villains._

I exhaled.

A sore feeling in my throat.

_Even 'J'………_

I tilted my head back up.

_So stop insisting that you're doing us a favor, you pathetic motherf-_

"There's no room in this City for any more angels, Noir," Pulsade pulled the barrel of the gun back and repositioned the rifle so that the butt of it reared over my head.

_Here it comes._

"Only badasses."

"Cya!"

SWOOOSH!

I was out again.

Really out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I came to inside a dumpster somewhere.

An alley.

With red sunlight bathing down.

Blinding.

"….."

I stirred, wincing.

My shades were off.

I felt into my pocket.

I found my shades besides the harmonica.

With a metal hand, I slipped them back on.

I looked out with comfortable eyes, wincing from bumps on multiple parts of my body.

Myrkblade was still on me.

_They hadn't stripped that away._

I crawled out of the dumpster and—like a silly drunkard—fell out and collapsed onto the alleyway floor.

I panted….panted….panted….

And then a gentle, boyish hand reached down towards me.

"Well look at you!" the Messenger smiled a half-jester grin. "First day of being eighteen, and already you're sneaking out for blindfolded adventures with costumed, bisexual girls! Shame on the wee man inside of you."

"…..," I blinked up at his asian face.

_I wonder if he'd forgive me if I smashed his face in?_

_As a friend……_

I took his hand and—wincing—stood up beside him. I brushed myself off and exhaled as he paced around me.

"You're not looking half bad. Pretty A-okay in my book. Especially for such a brazen trip into the depths of Pompeii….without HESITANCY!" he leaned on his toes for a second and fell back down to his heels with a smirk and two hands behind his back. "I thought I'd point you in the right direction to infiltrate Jacob Anderson's cubby hole. Not bring half the house down!"

I glared at him.

_You weren't there……_

A blink.

My black eyes rounded beneath my shades.

_Were you?_

He raised a finger: "So lemme guess…..Pulsade and Jinx were bluffing to get you to back off of Las Vegas, huh?"

I gritted my teeth.

_Dag nabbit!_

"A-And….," he chuckled. "Let me also guess….," he leaned forward. "They told you to stay out of from under their noses. They told you to stop looking for Terra. And they told you to stop obsessing over the very same, noble thing that brought you here. Your absolute love and commitment for your friends."

A beat.

I took a deep breath. I nodded…and walked past him forwards the red, sunsetlit street beyond.

He turned, smiled, and shot at my back: "Why do I get the feeling you don't give a rat's ass and you're gonna 'interfere' anyways?"

I froze in place. A beat. I turned and looked back at him. "………" I grinned.

"Heheheheheh," he chuckled and walked towards me. "There has never, ever been a more fitting definition to replace 'Hell yes'!" He slapped my shoulder with a gentle hand. "Where to, pal?"

I smirked. I pointed eastward.

"Yup, thought so," the Messenger dramatically saluted the buildingsides. "To the Boy Cave!"

I chuckled breathily as we both hurried off.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the abandoned warehouse.

Encircled by steel skeletons of forgotten construction sites.

The Messenger and I stood.

Red sunlight filtered through the stuffy air from the desert realm outside.

It sparsely illuminated my hands as I dug through various half-abandoned tools and shards upon shards of metal junk. I was deadpan. Thinking…Thinking….

"You saw him with your own eyes….," the Messenger spoke from the shadows. "Jacob Anderson is a bloodlusting fool. Triangular has been foolish to put him in charge of the Las Vegas foothold. All he'll ever do here is pursue his own interests…while all the while using incompetent men as guards to keep an eye on the Vault and the Key inside. Lord knows what it is Anderson desires to accomplish by opening the holding place of the Key to Terra. Perhaps he's a mastermind after all, and under this huge, desert poker game…..he too may be bluffing. Who's to know? And who's to care? Apparently anyone who wins this 'fighting tournament' he's got thundering across the bowels of his basement arena. It sounds like Jinx and Pulsade have a friend of theirs on that fighting roster. Like an ace up their sleeve. With 'J''s computer finesse, Pulsade's deadly surveillance, Wildebeest's figureheaded brawn, and Jinx's hand of luck all mixing together….they've got a supreme force at work here. They've worked far too long and far too hard to let Project Counter-Red Aviary slip from their grasp. It is the ultimate gamble of their young, natural lives."

I fished through the metal mesh.

The metal mesh….

And I paused.

Teeth firm.

Dark eyes narrow.

"What do you propose to do, Noir?"

"……"

I slowly turned around. I tossed the metal mesh behind my shoulder. And I smiled.

The Messenger leaned his head to the side, eyebrows raised in curiosity over his almond eyes.

I hand-signed something that perhaps he did understand. Perhaps he didn't:

'_There is always one more ace up the sleeve.'_

He stared at me.

I smiled.

So did the Messenger.

"Something tells me…….," the asian teen stepped towards me and spoke, "…that Jacob Anderson is about to meet a new challenger."

I nodded, a big grin.

I reached into my back pocket. I pulled out the deck of cards I bought that morning. I juggled it once..twice…and looked at him.

He cleared his throat. "Ahem……'Hell yes'."

I chuckled breathily.

He laughed. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

I tossed the deck of cards at him and motioned towards the dusty tables full of junk.

I marched over towards a lone switch in the wall.

I flicked it on.

There was a nasty buzzing sound.

Some sparks flew.

But a rusted lightbulb suspender overhead flickered and glowed to life with a steady hum.

_We've got work to do……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clank!

Clunk!

Strips of metal mesh were heaped on top of each other.

I sorted through the pile in the center of the dusty, amber-lit floor.

The Messenger stumbled over with a heap of metal scraps and pieces of junk in his small arms. He wheezed: "How's this?"

I motioned with my head towards the pile.

He dumped them all.

Clump!

I sorted through them, looking for….'good' metal pieces.

"Ah…nothing like a good game of rusted pix stix."

I smiled as he knelt down and joined me.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Craaash!

With a sweep of my titanium forearm, I knocked all the tools and junk off of a table and dragged it out towards the center of the warehouse.

The sunlight was fading outside and the flickering bulb overhead took over as I gathered my chosen pile of junk and dumped it all onto the table. I separated the shards from the mesh from the textiles.

The Messenger was shuffling through a rusted, abandoned locker on the far side of the building. He lifted with a pair of dark, black boots in his hand. "Hey! How are these?"

I gave them one look and then gave a thumb's up.

He tossed them at me.

Snatch!

I caught them, smiled, and put them by the metal mesh.

I then turned around and reached my hand over towards a power tool and dangling cord.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Zzzzzttt!_

I had a visor over my shaded face and was busy applying a welding tool to bits and pieces of metal.

The Messenger shaded his asian eyes as he walked around me and gathered strips of leather to fasten to the insides of mesh sleeves and mesh plates.

I paused in the welding, lifted my visor, and whistled.

He looked my way.

I pointed at a pile of brass and copper strips of metal.

He rushed over and handed them to me.

I nodded, mouthed a smiling 'thanks' and then got to work on the boots.

Visor down.

_Zzzztt!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hey! Fancy this!"

I stopped welding.

Visor up.

I looked across the dimly lit room.

In a thin slit of starlight, the Messenger had found a dusty CD player sitting on a desk and dustily plugged into a grimy outlet in the warehouse wall.

"Of all the infernal marsupials in the world. Hey! I know just the thing to test spontaneity!"

And he reached into the pouch of his neon-green sweatjacket and produced—of all things—a CD jewel case. He took the CD out and popped it into the player. He hit 'start'. The speakers crackled and the sound constantly skipped, but it was very much obviously a thunderous techno track.

"Oh yeah! Woo-hoo!" he grinned and in perfectly absurd euphoria started to 'rave' right there in front of me. "How about some Paul Oakenfold for your tease! Ha HA!"

I shook my head with a breathy chuckle.

"Hey! Hey! I love this remix! Then again, I've never heard it before. HA!" he danced. "Tell me, Noir! Tell me why do they build castles in the sky!"

I couldn't stop laughing. I tried to shake it off, but instead found myself dramatically lifting my face to the ceiling and mouthing: _'Hell yes!'_

"Heheheheheh. 'Hell yes!'"

_Hahahahaha……gawds……_

"MAD COW DISEASE IN THE BOY CAVE! UH! UH! GET DOWN!" he grabbed what existed yet of the metal mesh outfit and 'danced' with it. "Mind if I take your hand, Kate? Gee, you're looking lovely this evening. Had lots of iron in your diet? HA!" The 'two' waltzed to music that they should have been raving too.

_Er…… _

_Wait, I'm confused. _

_Arrghh………hahaha!_

I groaned, my lips sore.

Visor down.

Zzzzttt!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At one point—when the night was darker and quieter—we sat opposite each other across the dusty table. The Messenger had found another pair of welding material and a visor. We both shared the task of melting tiny shards of metal and then……burning them onto the edges and contours of my playing cards. What were once innocent table game pieces became deadly, razor sharp projectiles.

I finished one card.

He tossed me a ready, hot shard of metal.

I took it safely in my titanium hand, held the hot shard in position, slid the card in, and carefully melded the two into one piece while the Messenger prepared the metal for the other corners.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…I got it….got it…..right. Go!"

He held to pieces of metal. Long. Encrusted with rusted bulbs.

He looked away as I knelt before him, aimed the welder away from his body, and—with visor down—melted the two halves of metal together up their length.

And soon, in our midst, a rough metal scabbard was born.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clang!

The Messenger hammered the metal plates into place across the mesh sleeves and shoulders.

Clang!

He turned them and hammered again.

Clang!

Sweating.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sewing.

Sewing.

Sewing.

A pull of the thread.

A jerk.

Tight.

_Snap!_

I took a deep breath.

I stood up and pulled the leather belt up to my shaded eyes for closer inspection.

The scraps of leather had been sewn together perfectly. Copper plates of metal made the pouches easy for popping open at a moment's fly.

Smiling to myself, I took one razor-sharp, metal-laced playing card after another and slipped them into the pockets.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fwoomp!

I slid my torso into the metal mesh outfit. Feeling the weight of it all. My nose full of the evil rust.

I burrowed my right arm into the right long sleeve, and my metal arm into the short one. The mesh ended just at the top of my titanium prosthetic.

_Fitting._

The black bottoms of a jumpsuit were lined along the front with metal plates of brown and gray steel, much like my shoulder and chest.

I slid the leather belt on-Fwimp!—and snapped it closed.

Then came my boots. Clasped shut with copper and brass pieces. Snap! Snap! Snap!

I forewent my bandanna, instead going for three mesh bands with dangling, metal-laced ringlets that fastened my black ponytail into a long stream dangling behind my neck and shoulders.

_Sliiip!_

I slung the metal scabbard over my shoulder, encrusted along the leather straps with sharp bulbs of metal.

But something was missing.

Two things, actually.

The Messenger walked up.

"…..," I glanced over at him. My obsidian optics naked.

He looked clear and twice-as-real in the darkness.

He smiled. "I'd be in love….if only I didn't like girls so frickin' much."

I smirked sarcastically and held my hand out.

_Shut up and give me my damn eyes._

He handed me a pair of black metal goggles with even blacker lenses.

I took them by the leather straps. I slid them on. Two bulbous black lenses encasing my optics. I dragged Myrkblade up from the nearby table, twirled it once—THWISH!—and slid it agonizingly down my metal scabbard.

_**CHIIIIIIING!**_

I stood tall. I took a deep breath. I flexed my arms.

Metal. Metal. Metal. All engulfing me.

_There was a time…… _

_When I wished…… _

_To the bottom of my scarred heart…… _

_That I would never……ever feel this sensation again……_

"So….," the Messenger folded his arms and smirked. "How's it feel?"

I took a deep breath. The burning body of Robin. The sobs of Starfire. The exasperated sigh of Cyborg.

I turned. I looked at him. I smiled.

'_Hell yes.'_

"Hehehehehehehe…..hooooo baby….," he saluted me.

I saluted him back.

He shook his grinning face. "You are going to kick SO MUCH ass."

I nodded.

He leaned forward. He whispered: "Go time."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through the lobby of Pompeii that night.

Bouncers and armed thugs gathered extra-thickly around the entrance to the casino area.

The largest and most irascible of the bunch took one look at me…and frowned.

He held a hand up and marched towards me. "Only people aged twenty-one and up allowed in here, pal."

"……."

"You got an ID or something?"

WHAM! A metal-laced boot slammed unmercifully into his special area.

"!" His eyes bugged. He fell to the floor, gasping. Legs crossed. Lips howling a silent scream.

The other bouncers gasped.

Two thugs marched towards me and raised pistols at my face.

I turned. I looked at them. "….." I brandished a middle finger between the barrels of their guns.

They twitched. Sweating nervously. Perhaps disturbed by the explosive entrance of the pink witch earlier that day in the casino. Or perhaps just scared shitless the stranger standing before them.

"Hold on a second…" uttered a familiar voice.

Everyone glanced over.

Myself included.

The red-haired guard leader from earlier walked over. He stared at me, the scar splashed across his face and interrupted by an inquisitive rise in eyebrows. He looked down at the whimpering bouncer, then back up at me. A beat. He smiled. "You're here for the fight, aren't you? An answer to Anderson's call?"

I stared at him, frowning. I didn't smile. I didn't speak. Icily….I nodded.

The thugs shuddered.

"Ah….what a fine day this is," he said. "Even if it be a last day." He winked.

"…..," I stared.

"My name is Rexxin. Follow me. The next part of the tournament is about to start and we're short one roster."

I nodded. I shifted my metal shoulders.

The guards' guns shook.

I glared at them sideways through my obsidian goggles.

"……"

…and marched after Rexxin towards the elevator doors.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**And for the next round! Ladies and gentlemen! Feast your eyes on the gold cage! Wildebeest, the mysterious monstrosity of muscle and animalistic strength! Versus! Deadshot, the assassin of deadly aim and tenacity!"**_

The crowd roared.

The lights of the arena fixated on the cage, scattering light onto the two combatants.

"Grfff….," Wildebeest nearly snorted. His ivory-white eyes narrowed and he shook his horned, silver-helmeted crown. Arms flexing.

Deadshot stood across from him, cocking his laser rifle. Readying steaming-hot guns on his armbands.

"Heh….my luck. I get a cow."

Wildebeest glared.

"Aim your pretty face towards my boomstick," he hissed through a steel helmet. His red eyepiece glinted as he steadied the rifle against his shoulder and readied for the call to action.

Wildebeest folded his arms, still as a statue. He glanced across the arena at the other cage.

Katarou walked in, balancing his staff over and across his shoulders. His asian eyes were thin as he exhaled through his nostrils. "Pffft….this is humiliating. A true master doesn't take on two-bit recruits from the streets! I'll have Anderson's head for this….," he glanced up towards the balcony where the middle-aged man sat in burgundy silence. "….after I take the secrets out of that Vault."

"…..," Wildebeest's eyes narrowed. He then absent-mindedly glanced up towards the surging crowd up above the ellipse of the arena and its plastic shielding.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Tell him not to look in our direction…," Pulsade whispered. She and a certain sorceress perched invisibly on the metal rafters above the audience. The pulsing light power of the blonde assassin kept them cloaked. "It might give us away."

"Nobody knows we're here, Leslie."

"Do what I say," Pulsade hissed. Her blue eyes narrowed. "And don't call me 'Leslie' unless we're in private."

"Pfft. Suuuure….whatever Miss Sniper-Rifle-Up-Her-Ass!" The pink witch huffed and turned to click a morse code message to Wildebeest via remote. A beat. She looked mopefully over her shoulder. "I wuv you…."

"Save it for later…Wildebeest's time is at hand."

"After he pummeled that ninja guy yesterday….hehehehe!" Jinx giggled. "I think he has nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, well you ready that hex of yours just in case. A lot is riding on this."

"Pulsade?"

"Yes, Jinx?"

"Do you think….Noir will really hold off? I mean…he was the last one to see Glover alive and—"

"You tell me, Jinx," Pulsade looked over. Blue eyes thin. "I was never the one handcuffed to him."

"………….," the sorceress hesitated.

"Hold on a tick," Pulsade glanced down at the arena. "I think the battle's about to start."

"Ooooh!" Jinx leaned over the railings and glanced down at the other cage. "Who's the new meatbag?"

A beat.

Her cat eyes rounded, and her soft lips quivered as something pale and akin to the Third Apprentice of old bubbled to the surface of the loftily perched girl in a throttling case of deadly déjà vu.

"Oh Hecate almighty….," she murmured.

Pulsade blinked. "What is it?" she asked, concerned.

"Oh no….no no no….he wouldn't! He couldn't!"

"What the bloody hell is it!"

"Nnnngh!" Jinx slammed her frilled fists against the railing of their catwalk. "Fiddlesticks!"

"?" Pulsade looked down.

"_**And now! Over in the silver cage! Ladies and gentleman……."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Katarou……versus…..Wyldecarde!"**_

"?" Katarou looked over. A curious sheen fell over his bald head.

_Plant!_

One metal laced boot.

_Plant!_

Another.

I slid down into a crouch.

_**Chiiiii-iiiii-iiiiing!**_

Myrkblade came out of its metal scabbard.

My face lifted.

"……," I glared up.

Black metal goggles glistening.

The converging brilliance of arena lights glinting off my metal-mesh outfit, brown and gray steel plates, and a rigid sharp emblem of the letters '-W-C-' on my left breast.

"…….," Katarou grinned and readied his staff. "My my….don't you look scary…."

My lips curved.

_Don't you know it, dumbass._

There was a disbelieving snort of a blinking Wildebeest in the distance.

A slight shudder and pause in the roar of the crowd.

And something that was purposefully dead and mummified inside of me rose to life again.

"_**LET THE FIGHTS BEGIN!"**_


	190. The Earth Must Bleed part 5

**190. The Earth Must Bleed part 5**

DING

SWOOOOOSH!

I streaked towards Katarou. Myrkblade dragging. Sparks flying up from the metal slab floor.

_Skkkkkrrttt!_

"Rghhh!" Katarou twirled his staff over his head then brought it—two handed—swinging low and wide at my blurring feet.

I vaulted upwards, arms out like a crucifix, forward flipped, and came divebombing down with my feet first. I landed down so close to his rear that our backs almost touched. I brought a metal left arm back, grabbed around his neck in a reverse choke hold, and flung him over my shoulder.

THWOOSH!

CLANG! "OOF!" he landed upside down against the metal cage wall and slumped to the ground.

A roar of the crowd and a flashing of the lights.

Katarou struggled up to his knees, wincing. He looked up at me. Almond eyes thin.

I smiled. I twirled Myrkblade—Th-Th-Thwish!—into a pose. Floodlights glinted off my obsidian goggles. And I smirked.

"Mmmm….," Katarou exhaled. A slight smile as he lifted one knee and planted his foot down. "…I thank you for waking me up." FWOOOOSH! He was upon me.

I lifted Myrkblade vertically to meet his jabbing staff.

CLANG!

He slid his staff between me and my blade and yanked down.

My right arm went with the hilt and I teetered forward.

He pivoted his body and brought an elbow towards my face. THWOOOSH!

I ducked my head instinctively.

"Hah!" expecting that, he caught my cranium under his right arm. With a flurry of legs, he backflipped his body and spun me by the fulcrum of my head caught under his right limb.

I was thrown across the caged area, spinning horizontally in a dizzying fashion. With a pulse of murk, I uprighted myself just in time to land in a dusty slide towards the side of the cage.

Katarou was already charging me with a heavy swing of Myrkblade.

From my near-leg-split of a crouch, I swung Myrkblade up.

CLANG!

Sparks flew as Katarou's grip of his weapon jerked up towards the ceiling. His body jolted and his legs spread.

I took a breath and rolled forward, tumbled between his legs, jumped up on the other side, leapt high in the air, spun, and slingshotted Myrkblade at him like a projectile.

THWACK!

The wooden sword slammed against his backside and bounced back at me.

"Augh!" Katarou stumbled forward.

I caught Myrkblade on its rebound, backflipped, planted my feet into the bars of the cage, and pulsed murk so that I dove straight at the opponent's rear with the broadside of Myrkblade swinging.

WHACK!

Katarou tumbled across the ground from the impact like a ragdoll. "Mmpph!"

I landed, rolled, and got up slowly into a panting stance. Teeth gritting.

Cheers and boos from the crowd.

Chaos from the crackling speakers and the flashing lights.

"_**Wow! Would you look at that fight! Our new challenger is a tricky one, isn't he folks!"**_

Katarou struggled to get up. Sweating. He glared at me.

"You…," he hissed. "You are most annoying…."

I smiled, gripping Myrkblade.

_And you are most screwed._

There was then a voice in my ear. Supplied by an electronic speaker planted in a concealed fashion. In crackling clarity, the Messenger spoke to me from some aloof location.

'_That's it, Noir. Just keep egging him on. ROTTEN egging him!'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere in the surging crowd, an asian teenager with green highlights sat shadowed and smiling. He spoke into a haphazard, ghetto communicator of spare electronic parts while everyone around him cheered and screamed.

"The man is a fake. He's no greater a fighter than those he's butted heads with. His pride in himself is a blind, ignorant one. If you strip that from him—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'—_then you strip him of the only strength he has! The illusion wrought by cowardice! Keep making a fool out of him!'_

I swallowed and mentally nodded.

_I think I can do that……_

He stood up and gripped his blade with a fuming inhalation of resolve. "I am Katarou….rogue apprentice of the True Master! You are nothing but post-industrial, western filth to me! I can finish you in three moves! THREE!"

_So you can count……_

I grinned.

I got into a crouch with Myrkblade in my right hand raised and my metal fingers extended…and motioning him on.

_Come give me a lesson……_

He exhaled through his teeth. Something quite akin to a hiss, and charged me. "One….." Th-Th-Th-Thwish! His staff spun like an industrial fan.

'_Watch it! He'll try to overwhelm you!'_

I smirked.

_Thanks, 'coach'._

I twirled Myrkblade to meet his charge.

Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clang! Sparks flew.

Katarou suddenly spun with a kick aimed at my chest.

WHUMP!

I slid back against the cage bars.

He pivoted from his kick with the full length of his staff sailing at my skull. "RAUGH!"

I ducked my head.

_CLUNK!_

His staff struck nothing but bars.

I slid to the side, twirled up to my feet, ran towards his prone, lunging figure, ran up his rib cage with murking feet, backflipped, and came directly down with a swing of Myrkblade into his torso.

WHACK!

And just as I landed, Katarou and his staff again went plummeting across the caged floor of metal.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrrrghhh-HAWRRR!" Wildebeest went charging across the gold cage with his furred fist of muscle flying.

Deadshot narrowly missed a bone-crushing impact by rolling to the side. He jumped up to his feet, took a deep breath, aimed his laser rifle, and fired at Wildebeest's cranium—_**ZAP! **_

But Wildebeest pivoted his skull so that the silver hood deflected the energy blast. **FLASH**! With a snarl, he spun and reverse-kicked Deadshot in the chest with his heavy heel. WHAM!

"Augh!" Deadshot flew back against the cage's bars.

SNORT Wildebeest ground his heels and charged at the assassin, horns first. Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP!

Deadshot stood up straight. His red eyepiece glistened, and he whipped out a taser whip. ZZZZTTT! He flung it forward. WHHH-PSHHH!

The taser whip wrapped around one of Wildebeest's horns and shot electrocution into his frame.

_ZAAAAAAAP!_

"RRGHHHH!" Wildebeest convulsed in pain in anger. Snarling, he shot a hand out and literally gripped Deadshot by the torso.

"NKKK!" Deadshot struggled to breathe.

With an agonized grunt, Wildebeest tossed the man over his shoulder and across the metal slab floor behind him.

"_**And what an exciting tug of war Wildebeest versus Deadshot is becoming! Hold onto your bets, folks! The show ain't over yet!"**_

Wildebeest shook the pain off and dizzily turned to finish Deadshot. As he did so, he got a morse code message through a communicator of _his own_ to be 'more careful'. He merely grunted in frustration and charged the assassin just as the opponent was getting up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He's slipping…," Pulsade muttered. "He needs to get his antlered head together."

"Who can blame him?" Jinx purred with a moping face. "This is rotten-oranges-bad!"

Pulsade's blue eyes narrowed as she peered over the railing. She gazed upon the silver cage in particular. "I should have paralyzed him. Put him in carbon freezing somewhere. Or just given him a bloody concussion to grow on."

Jinx winced. "You know that wouldn't work either."

Pulsade's knuckles clenched white. "Then see what you can do about making him fall on his bloody arse!" She looked over at Jinx. "You're the ace up our sleeves!"

Jinx bit her lip.

"What?" Pulsade blinked.

"He's um…..," Jinx ran a nervous hand through her pink hair and bore a crooked Cheshire. "He's….good."

Pulsade raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry…," Jinx simpered. "I'm a little shell-shocked."

"Well, just do your best, love," Pulsade sighed, staring back down at the thunderous scene(s). "Or else I might be tempted to pat Red Aviary on the back…" She fingered a sniper rifle.

Jinx gulped. "I like the way you put things across."

"Hexing….please…."

"Right!" Jinx leaned over the railing and raised a hand, charged with pink light.

She aimed at the silver cage…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the back of the stands, the Messenger whistled nonchalantly to himself

He leaned back and forth.

His asian eyes darted left and right.

Nobody was looking at him. Not a single gambler. Not even a guard.

He cleared his throat, stepped back further into the dark, and whipped out something from his sweatjacket's pouch. A rather obscenely bulky pair of nightvision goggles. The sort that one might find on a Hollywood espionage hero. Three green 'eye' specks barreled out from his brow as he stared up at the ceiling rafters…..and smiled. He lowered the goggles, looked left, looked right, and vanished in a veil of green.

_Zaat!_

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

….

_Zaat!_

Up in the rafters twenty feet away from the metal platform where two invisible girls perched, someone else perched. Someone with three green orbs humming. The figure half-hid behind a corner railing support in the curve of the catwalk. A shadowy hand raised a shadowy communicator to a shadowy head.

"You know what they say about working with loved ones, Noir?" the Messenger whispered. "You tend to get distracted. Which goes to show that you and I make a focused team, eh? Anyways. Pulsade is certainly a transparent madame as always, along with her bosom buddette the Pink Pirate. But their thermal signatures aren't so transparent. And if I didn't know better…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!

I smacked Katarou side and danced around him.

I craned my neck.

Black eyes narrowed under my goggles.

I listened…..

'……_I'd say that your old 'girlfriend' is about to launch a lovely handful of fuchsia at your butt.'_

I bit my lip.

I glanced up some.

'_More like………'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx's cat eyes narrowed.

She clenched her jaw.

Concentrated…

And launched a pink stream down at the bottom of the silver cage.

Unseen to both girls, a green triad of green specks bobbed as a figure quickly blabbered into a communicator—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'………_two feet behind your butt! Jump forward! __**Now**__, Noir!'_

I held my breath, timed it just right, and pounced forward—leaping over a stumbling Katarou—and landing on the other side.

CRACK!

A dent formed in the metal slabs where I was previously standing. A collapse that was laced with ever so faint an aura of pink. Something that would quite easily have trapped me and made me prone for a strike by my opponent.

I smiled and took a deep breath.

_Thanks………_

The Messenger didn't reply. He couldn't.

_Keep me filled._

I twirled Myrkblade and faced Katarou as if nothing happened.

The man got up, growled, and charged me. "TWO!" He twirled his staff at my forehead.

_Whatever……_

THWISH! I raised Myrkblade in answer.

CLANG!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Holy pink mother!" Jinx gasped.

Pulsade blinked. "Uhm…."

"How'd he know that I was….where did he….what in the…?"

"Keep…hexing….," Pulsade uttered through clenched, frustrated teeth.

Jinx took a deep breath. With wide cat eyes, she took aim and tried again-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG! CL-CLANG!

My sword clashed with Katarous's staff.

We shoved our weapons against each other, shook, and stared face to face.

Katarou gritted his teeth. He reared his head back.

"!" I couldn't pull back from our tangled weapons-

He shot his head forward.

WHAM!

He headbutted me hard.

I stumbled back, wincing.

The crowd roared.

"_**Ooooh! Cheap!"**_

Katarou chuckled and twirled his staff. "How does pain feel, fool?"

The Messenger's voice squabbled in my head as I stood there wincing.

'_Head's up! She's launching another lavender loogie!'_

I panted.

Katarou raised his staff.

'_Let him charge you!'_

Katarou ran at me, yelling.

'_Stay……still……'_

The opponent came. His staff sailed down.

'_Now! Teleport away now, Noir!'_

"!"

FLASH! I blurred forward and through Katarou in a smoking haze.

Just as I did so, a pink light burst overhead.

A metal bar from the 'roof' of the cage fell and slammed over his head.

CLANG!

"AUGH!"

I solidified and twirled around.

Smirking.

_Never thought cheating would feel so good._

My opponent shook the pain off. "NnnnghhhRAAAUGH!" Katarou spun around with the full length of his rod sailing down at me.

I took a deep breath, saturated Myrkblade with pulsing smoke, and swung it upwards.

_SLASH!_

CRACK!

Katarou's staff broke into two clubs.

"!" he stumbled back, gasping.

"….," I glared at him, swinging Myrkblade down to my side. Smoke danced out from under my goggles and poured down my body.

"Hmph…," he smirked and marched towards me threatening. "So, you have superpowers!"

WHUMP! My leg happily found the spot between his legs.

"!" He fell down to his knees. "Ohhhhh—" THWUMP! He sprawled across the floor.

I looked down at him, glaring.

_So, you have balls._

The crowd cheered.

"_**Ohhhhhh! How many of you want to bet Mr. Chow Yun Fatlike felt THAT, folks!"**_

More cheers.

'_Ha ha ha ha ha!'_

I tried to hide a smirk.

Katarou looked at me, eyes flaming.

I shrugged. A smile.

"Nnnnnghhh—THREE!" He screamed and ran up at me with both shattered 'clubs' swinging like deadly batons.

I dashed back and deflected and parried as he pushed me back around the length of the caged area.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I swear! It's like he knows!" Jinx hissed. She looked at Pulsade, sweating. "He knows when and where I'm launching my hex, somehow! He must have had his spatial sense upgraded up the wazoo or something!"

"He's in for a nitro-glycerin smackbottom, that's what…," Pulsade hissed.

"What do we do?"

"Keep an eye on Wildebuddy…," the blonde pointed. "Above all else, he must make it through this tourney."

"R-Right…," Jinx nodded her short head of pink. "I'll get the cow ahead."

"You do that…," Pulsade squinted again at the silver cage. "In the meantime, let's find out just what our party-crashing bloke has in mind…."

Jinx bit her lip.

An unseen trio of green specks in the distance faded…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Katarou snarled and twirled his two clubs together over my face.

I blurred back.

CLACK!

The clubs sparked together.

I swung Myrkblade up.

CLANG!

I divided the clubs and forced Katarou's arms apart. I swiftly twirled and side-kicked him square in the exposed chest. WHAP!

He stumbled backwards.

I twirled Myrkblade and surged towards him with a smoking propulsion.

WHAM!

I slammed him up against the bars.

He gritted his teeth, locked the clubs in with the metal beams, anchored his weight to them, and flew his legs up.

WHUMP!

I stumbled back.

He unfastened his clubs and rotated at me, both weapons spinning.

I deflected repeatedly—Cl-Cl-Cl-Cl-Clang!—stepping backwards.

He suddenly shoved against one of my deflections and spun with a kick up my chin.

WHACK!

I fell back and landed hard on my back. THWUMP!

"YAAAAAAGH!" Katarou jumped up high and flew down towards me with a sailing kick.

I took a deep breath, vaulted my legs up, pulsed murk, and reverse-somersaulted at the last second.

PLOW!

A dent formed from Katarou's foot slamming into the metal slabs.

I peeled up into a standing position, I held Myrkblade in a two-handed pose.

Katarou spun and flung one club at me.

_Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwish!_

I raised Myrkblade, severing the projectile. CLACK!

He came at me with the other club raised. "HAAAAA!"

I took a breath.

I twirled Myrkblade down and to the left from its upswing, effectively catching Katarou's club and yanking his arms to the side.

He stumbled towards me.

I released my right hand from Myrkblade's hilt and bitch-slapped the opponent across the face.

WHAP!

His face jerked from the impact. He froze in a painful jerk.

I took a deep breath, rejoined my right hand to Myrkblade's hilt, spun a leftward three-sixty and brought Myrkblade up in a diagonal strike.

WHAP! It knocked his arm up and spun his body.

I brought Myrkblade swirling around into a horizontal slam into his ribcage.

THWACK!

He hunched over, wincing.

"!" I snarled mutely and brought my foot up, slamming him dead-on in the skull.

WHUMP!

Katarou fell back and slammed to a stop with his shoulders against the cage bars.

CLANG!

He winced.

He made to move-

I took a breath, flashed a metal hand to my belt pockets, grabbed a fan-full of playing cards, and—

TH-TH-THWISSSSSSSSSH!

CL-CL-CLUNK!

I pinned him to the metal bars with cards embedded into the sash of his outfit.

He struggled. He strained.

I ran at him. Teeth snarling. I ran into a flying jump. I was airborne for a second and a half of flashbulb hilarity before finally slamming the full weight of my being through my metal-laced boots and into his gut.

**WHAM!**

"Ughhhhhhh…..," he groaned.

"….," I stood. Frowning. Gripping Myrkblade in a threatening pose.

"……," Katarou blinked. He grinned. "Four." RIIIIP! He fell loose of the cards and bars. THWUMP! He was down for the count.

I exhaled.

The crowd roared. But only for a short time. When it became rather obvious that I was making no attempts to _kill_ Katarou, half the cheering dwindled into either silence or mild grumbling.

But in my ear—

'_Smoke. WINS. Friendship!'_

And I helplessly broke out into chuckling.

'_Hehehehehe! HELL YES!'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!

Wildebeest's fist slammed into Deadshot's chest.

The man slid back. Parts of his outfit were torn from the beastly opponent's impacts.

Deadshot panted…heaved…fumed…and pointed both of his wristbands out.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! DIE!" his twin cannons glowed and-

FWOOOOOOOM! Spewed forth fire.

Wildebeest snarled and crouched down low with two meaty arms covering his horned crown.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The half-man-half-animal was covered with plasma.

The cage warbled with heat on the inside.

Deadshot spewed flame and flame and more flame until his juice ran out. He lowered his wristbands, panting. And soon he gasped. A frightened fluctuation in his eyepiece.

"…..," Wildebeest slowly stood up. His arms smoldering. White eyes narrow as he snorted. And…THWOOOOSH!

Wildebeest charged the assassin.

The man uselessly reached for his belt to grab a flash grenade-

WHAM!

Deadshot jolted from one punch.

THWAP!

A kick.

POW!

A meaty uppercut across the jaw.

Deadshot's cowl ripped in half, showing half a head of gray hair. He spun in the air a few times before landing cold and hard on the metal slabs a few feet away.

KO'd.

The crowd cheered.

Roars and applause.

Only a few disgruntled mutterings of the losers.

"_**Wow, ladies and gentlemen! Wasn't that worth the while to just see much less win or lose! Winner of the golden cage! WILDEBEEST!"**_

Applause.

Cheers.

Flashing lights.

Wildebeest merely folded his arms and gazed apathetically at the dull body of Deadshot.

"_**And in the silver cage! Winner and newcomer, WYLDECARDE!"**_

Wildebeest's white eyes blinked.

It looked across the arena at the cage on the far side.

A dark swordsman looked back. Dressed in metal mesh and with dark, obsidian goggles. A smirk…and the swordsman waved back.

"……," Wildebeest let loose a light nostril flare. It glanced up at the rafters with perplexity washing over its hairy, mute face. "?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"He knows something's up…," Jinx looked at Pulsade atop the catwalk. "The brute's no dunce."

"Yes…," Pulsade folded her white sleeves and took a breath. "Then the clever chap should also remember that he nearly took Wyldecarde to what you yanks call the 'woodshed' the last time he and 'J' ran into the annoying hero."

"So what now?"

"What else?" Pulsade gestured with a graceful hand. "The Tourney isn't over with. Wildebeest has cages to go, people to beat up."

"And Wyldecarde will also advance, more than likely," Jinx wrung her hands.

"Stop worrying…he's history once Wildebeest is matched up against him."

"True…," Jinx gulped. "Gawd….why does that guy always have to be so…so…."

"Lucky?"

Jinx blinked. She frowned at Pulsade. "That was low."

Pulsade glanced off. There was ever so slight a curve to her cold lips.

Jinx rolled her cat eyes and then looked down at the cages. "This is going to be a long tournament."

"Then grab a bloody newspaper."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door to the silver cage opened.

Workers rushed in and dragged the groaning body of Katarou out.

I slowly stepped out into the main arena. The interior world seemed to grow louder. I looked up at the stands and saw people both cheering and booing. I was as much a blessing as I was a curse in their gambling eyes. My 'name' flashed on bright monitors overhead and the announcer's voice rumbled through the light-crossed air.

'_You have a breath still, Noir?'_

I made a face.

I looked 'up' into the 'somewhere' that the Messenger had to be there and then.

I mouthed: _'What kind of question is that?'_

Whether he could read my lips or not….

'_Well hold onto it, champ,'_ his voice electronically coached. _'You just went all Ken Masters on that guy's ass. You know what that means?'_

"……."

'_You're in it for the long haul.'_

I exhaled deeply.

_Right……_

'_Hoo boy……I just KNOW everything's gonna smell like my gym bag once all this nonsense is over with!'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The tournament went on…

"_**JADE versus RED PANZER!"**_

FLASH!

A pulse of bright light. A green-skinned,green-haired girl backflipped. She landed nimbly in a leg-splitting slide to the side of the golden cage's interior. Sweat glistened off her black and white jumpsuit. Her emerald skin glistened under long locks of tossed hair.

She took a deep breath.

"……"

**STOMP! **_**STOMP!**_

A figure stood tall and menacing before her. Clad in a tight red jacket with black pants tucked into long, dark boots. A 'bald' helmet of silver loomed about the opponent's cranium and gave the appearance of an emotionless machine….as did his smoking/hissing arm cannon which he was presently aiming at the girl.

Jade gritted her teeth.

"Jetzt sterben Sie….," Red Panzer fired.

PHOMP!

A fireball flew in her direction.

"Nnngh!" she vaulted up into a flip.

POW! The metal slabs beneath her shattered and melted.

The girl landed, twirled acrobatically, brought her palms together, glowed a bright green, and produced a 'mace' of solid emerald energy in mid-air. She swung the metal-heavy object directly into the helmet of the crimson destroyer.

"NNNGHAAAH!"

_CLANG!_

Red Panzer stumbled back amidst a flurry of sparks.

The crowd roared. Lights flared.

Red Panzer shook his helmet.

Jade ran at him, her fingers curling into fists. Summoning a transparent, green sword. SLASH!

Red Panzer blocked with his arm-cannon. CLANK!

Jade jolted.

The crimson man hissed, leaned back, and leaned forward with a kick of his booted leg.

WHAP!

Jade teetered.

CL-CLICK! A steaming arm-cannon aimed directly at her face.

She let out a gasp and crossed her arms. FLASH! An emerald shield formed across her upper frame—

_**PHOMP! PHOMP! PHOMP!**_

POW! POW! POW!

Ashes and sparks flew off of Jade's shield.

She was shoved back across the cage. Her shoes grind against the metal with burning friction.

She struggled and strained and fought to keep her concentration against the volley….

….until the volley stopped.

"Huh?" she blinked. She looked up.

Red Panzer ran straight at her with his fist flying. "Tropfen TOT!"

WHAM!

Jade flew from the impact.

Red Panzer knelt, whipped his cannon out, and fired at the girl's twirling body.

_PHOMP!_

_**POW!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**ARROWETTE versus TSUKURI!"**_

THWOOOSH!

An Asian samurai jumped up and grabbed ahold of a set of bars near the top of the silver cage. Decked out in red and black armor, she gripped a katana in the tight fingers of a free hand.

_Thwiift! Thwiift! Thwiift!_

A trio of searing-hot arrows flew up at the woman.

Tsukuri swiftly spun her katana, snapping the projectiles in two. _Cr-Cr-CRACK!_ A final arrow flew at her with an explosive tip. Tsukuri nimbly leapt off of the bars and out of the way.

**POW!**

The arrowhead exploded in a flurry of fire and smoke.

A red-hooded archer came into view. She twirled with a toss of blonde hair and the swish of a white skirt. Angry teeth clenched under pink lips. "Jump all you like, ninja turd!" She reached back to her quiver, produced a silvery arrow, and aimed it across her long red bow. "You're as good a sitting duck to me no matter how fast you hop!"

_Thwifft! Thwifft!_

Tsukuri leapt, bounced off the side bars of the cage, backflipped, dodged the arrows with a twirl of her body, and came spinning down at Arrowette with a glinting slash of her katana.

SWOOOSH!

"YEEK!" Arrowette lunged back and raised her bow.

CLANK!

Sparks flew as Tsukuri grind her blade against Arrowette's weapon.

The blonde archer sweat and strained. Her eyes were thin under the red mask.

Tsukuri's almond eyes glared. She suddenly jumped back, twirled, and jabbed at Arrowette's midsection.

SLASH!

The archer was grazed in the side. Her costume ripped, exposing cut skin along the ribcage.

"Aughh!" Arrowette stumbled back, wincing. Gripping her wound.

The crowd roared.

The announcer's voice: _**"Hah hah hah! There's your money shot!"**_

Tsukuri took a breath and raised her blade to cleave the blonde's head in two.

Arrowette sneered. "That wasn't very NICE!"

SWOOOSH—Her leg flew up.

WHAM! She kicked the samurai square in her mammary glands.

Tsukuri's eyes widened. She shuddered back with a painful jolt.

"RRRRRAUGH!" Arrowette spun around with her bow straight out-

WHACK!

Tsukuri was slammed back across the cage.

Arrowette spiraled to a stop, grabbed two arrows at once, and took aim-

_THWIFFFFFT!_

Swiiiiiiiiiish-TH-THUMP!

One arrow struck the katana out of the ninja's grasp while the other ripped into her sleeve and pinned her to the bars of the cage. CLANK! She struggled to get loose-

"NNNNGHHHH!" Arrowette charged, swinging the length of her bow up like a golf club.

THWACK!

Tsukuri's face jerked up from the impact and a few teeth flew free. She let out a mute exhale and dangled unconsciously from the arrow.

"………," Arrowette panted. The crowd surged and cheered in the distance behind her as she spit on the woman and muttered. "Bitch."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**PANTHA versus JOTO!"**_

"RAWWWWWR!" a howling she-cat with brown hair from head-to-toe ran across the cage on all fours. Chocolate hair billowed from behind the yellow crest of a face mask through which fang teeth viciously showed. Her hands and feet clawed mercilessly at the earth while a slender lion tale danced and wavered behind her. "HRESSSSSH!" she pounced through the air at her opponent.

"Nnngh!" a dark-skinned man in a black costume with yellow bands lifted his arms, caught her in mid-pounce, and tossed her mercilessly across the cage with strong finesse.

The crowd cheered as Pantha flailed in the air from the toss. She angled her limbs just right, impacted with the bards, bounced off, and dove once again at the man.

Joto readied his fist with a snarl.

SWOOOSH!

Pantha flew down to the ground at the last second, slid, pivoted, and swept Joto's legs out from underneath.

"Augh!"

WHUMP!

She dove at him.

He braced himself.

WHUMP! They wrestled, rolled, and ended with Pantha nimbly tossing the man off of her and across the cage with a cat cry. "ROWWWWR!"

SWOOOOSH-CLANG!

Joto landed hard against the metal bars. Wincing.

More cheering.

"RAWWWR!" Pantha landed before him. She pranced left and right on all fours, swished her tale, then lifted up on her hind legs like any other human. She pointed with a gnarled finger and produced an animalistic laugh. "Hresh hresh hresh!"

Joto's eyes narrowed. "Yeah. Okay." He stretched a hand out at her. A hand that glowed orange.

_PHOOOOOSH!_

A plume of fire surged at the she-cat.

Pantha's dark eyes widened. "Rawwr…………oh shit."

FLASH!

The fire exploded against her chin, knocking her back.

Snarling, Joto blurred towards her. He brought his hands into fists. The fingers billowed with lava. Smoke and ash danced on either side of him.

Pantha teetered just as he-

"HAAAAAAA!" he swung a flaming right hook.

**POW!**

"HAAAA!" A left jab of fire.

_**POW!**_

Followed by an impossible, spinning uppercut of a burning kick. "YAAAAAAH!"

FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH! Pantha's body spun upwards, slammed against the ceiling of the cage—CLANG!—and fell down hard on the metal slabs.

CLANG!

"Nrgghhhh….," the she-cat whimpered.

The crowd screamed and howled.

Joto stood, panting. With a flare of his dark eyes, the flames crawled up his forearms…flaring. "What say I send you to the Great Taxidermist in the sky?"

Pantha shook her head out of it. She hissed.

"Skinned cat…coming right up!" Joto ran at her with two joined hands billowing…

Pantha took a deep breath, half-back-flipped, performed a handstand, and—WHOOOSH—flung her feet straight up Joto's incoming chin.

THWACK!

Joto stumbled back. His hands cooled.

Pantha leapt up, spun, hung from the bars of the ceiling by her hands, growled, swung, and pounced down on Joto.

"Augh!" he cried out as she landed on him.

THWOMP!

Pantha straddled Joto's grounded torso. She whipped out a set of fingers, extended her claws, smirked with glistening fangs, and slashed-slashed-slashed-slashed at the man's face.

The rest of his body shook and convulsed in agony.

The crowd stomped their feet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**EMPRESS versus ARGENT!"**_

A pale woman with streaky, black hair dove across the silver cage. Her crossed wrists clenched into fists. She smirked and—in mid dive—produced to blades of white energy. With a shout, she slashed both blades out and at the neck of the opponent before her.

The dark-skinned girl a billowing ponytail ducked, rolled to the side, twirled to her feet like a dancer, and flung a birrage of knights at the gothically-dressed. Th-Th-Th-Thwish!

Argent crouched and raised her left forearm, forming a white shield.

CR-CR-CRACK!

Argent then let out a "HAH!" and jabbed low at Empress's feet with a plasma rapier.

Empress leapt, flipped, and stood nimbly in the corner of the cage with a fan of knives in either wrist. Brown eyes narrow.

Argent panted. Her pale-as-snow skin sheen with sweat. She let out a shout, ran at Empress, and jumped. When her feet came back down, they formed an instant sheathe of white plasma that acted as a slide. Thus, Argent effortlessly glided towards her opponent across the silver cage.

Empress flung a fan of knives.

TH-TH-THWISH!

Argent swung one arm-ful of white plasma. CRACK! She snarled and grabbed for Empress.

Empress spun, twirled her dancer-arms up, and—THFF! She disappeared.

"!" Argent slid through a haze of smoke and slammed into the metal bars. CLANG! "Owie…."

THFF! Empress materialized on the opposite side of the cage. She knelt low and shot a stream of daggers. Thwiiiish!

Argent leapt the blades at the last second, cartwheeled with a shielding arm of plasma—CRACK!—twirled upright, and 'slid' towards the fighter again.

Empress merely twirled at the last second—THFF!—and teleported behind Argent upon which she swung a hand-ful of daggers.

RIIIIIIP!

A huge tear was formed in Argent's jumpsuit. A good deal of her pale backside was exposed.

"!" the woman gasped and grabbed the material of her outfit, hoisting it back up.

The audience cheered and cat-called.

"_**Whoah ho ho ho ho! How's the weather down there!"**_

Argent tilted her frowning face to the audience beyond the outside of the rink. "Hey! You shut your horny faces—"

WHAM! Empress kicked her squarely in the back. She smirked. "You're not very fun." CRKK! A fan of blades. A girlish smile. Th-Th-Th-Thwish!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**WILDEBEEST versus WILDCAT!"**_

Wildebeest snorted. With white eyes narrowing, he eyed the heavy-set human pacing across from him.

A man in a dark jumpsuit with white eyes and blue crests to his helmet motioned the hulking animal hybrid on.

"Come on, you oversized throw-rug!" Wildcat sneered. "You think you can take me on?"

"……..," Wildebeest glared.

A morse code message received.

His nostrils flared.

"Well!" Wildcat growled above the boos and hisses of the encircling crowd. "I haven't got all day for the likes of you, punk!"

SWOOOOOOSH! Wildebeest's fist flew at Wildcat and somewhere close behind was Wildebeest's massive body in tow.

"RRGHHH!" Wildcat expertly ducked low, grinded his muscles into gear, took the brunt of Wildebeest's body, and hoisted him up. "RAAAAAAAUGH!" He twirled on wobbly legs and tossed the behemoth into the row of bars behind him.

CLANG!

Wildebeest landed, his eyes bulging. He shook his head and rubbed an aching, silver-laced brow with a gnarled hand.

Finally the crowd cheered.

Wildcat panted…panted….panted…but then raised his arms to the ovation. "YEAH! WHAT DID I TELL YOU!" He smirked and pointed. "You're just a pathetic little pup—"

SWOOOSH-**WHAM!** Wildebeest ran up and head-butted Wildcat. The man's body was miraculously pinned just between the horns of the huge brute, but not so miraculously the man was thus shoved helplessly towards the wall of metal bars lining the golden cage.

SWOOOOSH-**CLANG!**

Wildebeest's horns went through the bars. Wildcat's body, however, did not.

"OOOF!" he shook and convulsed all over from the pain wracking through his body.

Wildebeest snorted. Planted down on all fours, he rammed his head against the bars again.

**CLANG!**

Wildcat convulsed.

Again.

**CLANG!**

Again.

_**CLANG!**_

Bloodthirsty cheers.

Flashing lights.

The announcer: _**"Ohhhhh! That's going to leave a mark in the morning! Assuming Wildcat believes in reincarnation, folks! HA!"**_

Laughter.

Applause.

The Wildebeest beat away at the homo sapien while high up above in the shadowed catwalks….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whewie….," Jinx simpered. She looked over at Pulsade with bright cat-eyes and managed a grin. "Almost thought the big throw rug was gonna need an extra dash of pink dust!"

"……..," Pulsade was staring at the silver cage.

Jinx blinked. "What's wrong, Leslie? You always laugh at the pink dust joke."

The blonde's eyes narrowed. "He isn't alone…," she muttered above the loud roar of the crowd beneath them. Her sapphire optics were fixed upon the usual dark figure of a metal-mesh wearing swordsman. "He can't be alone. He's got someone with him. That's how he's been able to spot everything we've tried thus far."

Jinx leaned her short head of hair to the side. "Yeah….but who?" she shrugged. "All of the Titans are back home sulking over fallen birds. And even Slade could have told you while he was still alive that the ghost boy is as friendless here in Vegas as he would be anywhere!"

"Hrmm…..something just doesn't feel right…," Pulsade murmured. She looked at the pink sorceress. "Tell me, Jean. Do you sense it?"

"….."

"Your hex? Your…._feel_ for the colors beyond?"

"…….," Jinx took a deep breath. She nodded. "Something is definitely screwy."

Pulsade's lips pursed. "We haven't seen all the fighters that there's going to be, have we?"

Jinx didn't hesitate. She shook her head. "There's something…..going on here."

"……"

"Something wackier than any of us anticipated," Jinx murmured.

"Better give 'J' a heads up," Pulsade fingered a communicator built into her suit.

"Yeah. Maybe he can tell us if there's been any more updates to the tournament rosters while you're at it!"

"Something tells me we'll find out soon enough…."

"……"

"Just keep a protective eye on our 'throw-rug'."

"Yes'm."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The pounding chaos of Wildebeest and Wildcat echoed in the distance as I stepped into the silver ring.

I pivoted my head around, cracked the joints, flexed my limbs, and oozed icily into a fighting stance.

_Chiiiiiii-iiiii-iiiiing!_

I gripped Myrkblade into a threatening stance. I held the blade over my head like a scorpion tail. I glared up through glistening-black goggles and took a deep breath.

The Messenger's Voice crackled: _'Anyone ever tell you that you move like a velociraptor sometimes? No, scratch that. A really bigass chicken……with teeth!'_

I chuckled helplessly.

And at that exact moment, the opponent opposite me in the cage frowned. He was a blonde, young thing with blue eyes.

"Pfft….oh yeah, this is gonna be fair!"

"…..," I looked up at him. Brow furrowing.

He was a tall, nimbly-built teenager in a jumpsuit of turquoise-on-black. He looked at Myrkblade with an ugly face.

"Only a coward will use a blade against a bare-bones fighter!"

"……," I glared at him.

A beat.

I smirked.

CHIIING! I slid Myrkblade back into my scabbard. I looped the scabbard off of me and tossed it out of the cage, through the bars. Thwump!

'_Uhhhhh,'_ the Messenger's voice sounded. _'You sure you wanna walk into that cold and impotent?'_

I cracked my flesh and metal knuckles.

_Tell you what, YOU walk into this cage and start butting heads._

I mentally transmitted the words he couldn't possibly here. I raised my knuckles at the blonde guy across the way and smirked never-ceasingly.

_I know what I'm doing……_

The man smirked. "Allrighty….," he got into a fighting stance.

My goggled eyes glared.

His blue eyes barely twitched.

"_**Hoooo boy! Ladies and Gentlemen, this should be an exciting one-on-one extravaganza! Place your bets!"**_

Cheers.

Flashing lights.

The pounding of the distant Wildebeest/Wildcat fight.

'_Remember, aim for the ventilation shaft at the end of the trench!'_

_Will you shut up for once!_

"_**And now! Fresh blood galore! WYLDECARDE versus HASTE!"**_

_Haste?_

DING

"HA!" he blurred at me.

_Blurred!_

SWOOOOSH!

I blinked. Gasping, I crossed my arms-

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! THWAP! TH-TH-THWAP! SM-SMACK!_

A flurry of hummingbird fast punches, kicks, headbutts, and shoulder-rams soared into my flesh and metal arms.

I jolted and shook and shuddered from the rapid impacts. I somehow managed to block, but the sheer rapidity of the blows sent me sliding back on my very own heels.

"RRRRRRR-HYAAAAA!" Haste spun, pivoted his body, and brought his heel up towards my upper body. "YA-YA-YA-YA-YA-YA-YA!"

In a snapshot of goggled-eyed vision, I could have sworn I saw eight identical pairs of feet flying at me all at once.

WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WHUMP!

I barely blocked. My flesh arm was turning red under the sleeve. The metal arm was hot with friction.

SW-SW-SWOOSH! He spun once, twice, and ended with two hands planted into my ribcage. "YAAAAH!"

WHAP!

I slid back, my rear to the bars.

Smoke formed two trails where my metal-laced boots had grinded across the floor.

I stood stock-still with my arms still folded, aching.

Haste stood still, panting, looking at me. Fists clenched and sweaty face frowning.

"………." I refocused my eyes on him. Two eyebrows furrowed.

FLASH!

My folded arms bubbled with trailing smoke like black flame.

He gulped.

_Well then. _

_My turn._

FWOOOOOOOSH!

I blurred at him. My arms uncrossed. Snarling, I curved down in my approach and sailed with a smoke-trailing uppercut.

WHAM!

I punched him back.

His body lifted, landed, and teetered.

I spun and swung a smoke-trailing right foot up at his skull.

WHAP! He deflected with a raised forearm.

I curved my right ankle around his wrist, took a breath, hopped up, grabbed his blocking forearm with two hands and—yanking with both arms and an ankle—brought his face down into my flying left knee.

WHAM!

I used the jolt of the impact to spin my murk-aided body around his back like a pinwheel and then let go on the inner curve.

THWOOOOSH! His body was tossed like a ragdoll upside-down against the cage walls.

CLANG!

Cheers.

I flipped and landed in a crouch.

Haste grumbled, shook his head, and stood up-

SWOOOOSH! I charged him.

He raised his forearms.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWAP! I let loose a flurry of smoke-sped punches at his upper torso then—SWIIISSSH! Spun around and jabbed repeatedly at his abdomen with a blurred boot. WH-WH-WH-WHAM!

He blocked low, gripped his fingers closed, caught my blurring sole, and lifted with both arms and a snarl. "YAAUGH!"

I was flipped over twice. I landed in an awkward crouch.

"NNNNNNGH!" he blurred up at me and quick-as-lightning punched at my torso, face, chest, abdomen, and upper thighs all at once.

I blurred my limbs and met his advance and swiftly blockedblockedblockedblockedblockedblockedblockedblocked!

All the while, Haste somehow summoned one right arm out of his advancing flurry of limbs, charged it up with red-eyed adrenaline, practically drooled, and—SWOOOOOSH**-WHAM!**

I spun from the impact to the face and slammed with my face and chest against the bars.

A simultaneous cheer and groan from the crowd.

"Hahahahaha! Not so hot now, eh dumbass!"

I winced against the metal bars.

I heard his beetle-scuttling pad of feet rushing up behind me. Thap-Thap-Thap-_Thap-Thap!_

'_Now's a good time for something cool!'_

I gritted my teeth.

I concentrated.

He slammed two fists into my neck.

"!" I pushed against the metal bars, flew back, and turned into smoke form—FWOOOSH!

"YAAAH!" he surged right through me.

I solidified in back of him with a kick to his rear. WHUMP!

He flew straight into the metal bars. _WHANG!_

I spun and side-kicked him in his right ear.

WHAM!

"Ooof!" he landed on the ground. He sputtered sweat and saliva. His whole pained face was sweating as he curled up from the momentary stinging sensation.

I hopped a few times on one foot, twirled my hands meditatively, and brought my lower limb down into a fighter's pose. FWOOP! Murk cushioned out and around me.

I glared.

_You're the only one sweating here, __**hot**__stuff._

Cheering.

Screaming.

Lights.

Haste got up…not so hastily. He looked at me.

"…..," I smiled. I twirled my arms and legs into another martial arts pose and motioned him towards me.

'_Hehehe………Do you really thing that's shit you're dishing?'_

I smirked even more.

"Nnnnghhh!" his eyes pulsed and throbbed. With an adrenaline charged siren yell, he blurred up towards me. SWOOOOOSH!

And again the fight was on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A velvet chair.

A burgundy robe.

Leather trays on varnished wooden trays.

Exquisite glass after exquisite glass of red wine and champagne.

Rows of t.v. sets focusing in on the dual battles.

He watches.

He holds a thin glass of champagne to his lips.

He sips….gently…elegantly.

He lowers the glass.

A beat.

His lips curve.

_Schwissh!_

Rexxin walked in swiftly from the rear doors to the balcony view seat of the arena.

"Sir…," the guard with red highlights and a scarred face spoke firmly as he stood behind the velvety chair. "…about the latest contender. We've looked at the footage of his fight with Katarou. We've identified it. There's no mistaking it, sir. He's Noir. Noir of the Teen Titans."

"……..," the man at the chair placed the glass of champagne down. He crossed his fingers and watched alternately the t.v. sets, the naked arena, and the roaring crowd just beyond the balcony's edge. A breath of air conditioning gently kicked at his hair's skunk spots. He took a deep breath and smiled more….

Rexxin swallowed. He held a communicator in his hand as he gestured. "Sir….did you hear me? Th-That's a Titan out there! Practically a League member in the making! I didn't recognize him at first, but now-well-I have all of my men assembled to spring upon the silver cage as soon as his match with Haste is over. We have every reason to think that he was the one we battled in the chaos that happened earlier in Pompeii's casino upstairs and—"

"Shhhh….," the middle-aged man raised a finger. "…do you…hear them?"

"?" Rexxin made a face. "Sir?"

"In the silver cage…do you hear them?"

"Uhm….we can all hear Haste, sir," Rexxin gulped. "But that 'Wyldecarde' is mute. Which just goes to show, it's Noir! In fact, Wyldecarde is reportedly the image he took on when—"

"He's mute….and he's godly…," the man hissed. He turned and looked directly at Rexxin. A sickly tranquil smile on his cleanly shaven face. "I've never seen anyone move like that. Not even in the old arenas," Jacob Anderson uttered. He turned back and stared at the silver cage on both the monitors and the 'window' into the real deal. "Granted, he's not spilled blood since coming here…..but he has promise."

"Sure….he is a TITAN," Rexxin tried to keep his cool. Judging from his furrowed brow, the blood was definitely boiling like his red hair.

"Is a Titan?" Jacob waved a silly little finger around. "Or _was_ a Titan?"

"………"

"There was so much bloodshed in that City of the crime-fighting youths…," Jacob said. He took a long, thin breath. Like sucking something in. A happy exhale following…. "…and now to think that a little piece of it has stained its way across the country and ended up here." A drunken smile. A beat. He leaned forward with robed arms folded. "No…he's Wyldecarde. A demon of a fighter all the time withheld beneath the heroic façade he once epitomized. The loss of a fine-feathered team leader has pushed him over the edge and now he's here under my very roof to vent his frustrations and what a beautiful venting it is."

"Sir, he's dangerous."

"Very….very dangerous….," Anderson cooed. A chuckle. He looked back at Rexxin again. "He can be…..useful…."

Rexxin blinked. "You mean…..y-you want him to become—"

"One of the four," Anderson nodded. "I am certain that he will make it." He gazed at the monitors again, scratching nonexistent stubble on his chin. "The same goes for that exceptional Wildebeest over there. Only…something tells me he's less reluctant to start tearing some sinewy flesh apart soon." The man licked his middle-aged lips.

Rexxin swallowed. "What will Luthor say?"

"My dear Rexxin…," Anderson breathed gently. "Luthor and our friend from Gotham chose me and chose me specifically. I was to do what I do best…..hehehehe….spend the economic detritus of Triangular lavishly. An underground economy is just like any other form of financial goodness, Rexxin. It must constantly be in….circulation." He gazed down longingly at a streak of blood that was left over from Joto's body being dragged away to the sidelines earlier. "Hot…throbbing…circulation…."

"……..," Rexxin gazed on.

Anderson fingered another glass of champagne. He swirled the stuff in front of his nose and gazed through the diffused light of the slender goblet. "The audience is eating Wyldecarde. He stays as long as he can save his own…._resourceful_ hide. Mmmmhmmm….and when the time comes, we'll slip in the ace that we have hidden up **our** sleeves. You know…the one sent by our Gotham friend?"

"I don't think there's any chance of him losing if we toss him in at this point in the tournament," Rexxin said.

"Ah….but I do want to give these newcomers a chance _at least_," Anderson cooed. "After all….wasn't the whole point of being down here to…..'root out the weeds'?"

Rexxin nodded.

Anderson glanced over his shoulders. "That _is_ what Dagger said, is it not?"

"Yes, sir."

"How many weeds are left?"

"Besides our Gotham connection's gift?"

"Yessss…."

"Three more fighters, sir. One's a bit of a legend from around this part of the country. The other two….well….one's a newcomer."

"Ah. Fresh meat?"

"I dunno. There's something about him, though."

"I gather he's a feisty contender."

"His way of signing up was driving a rusty motorcycle through the security gate of Pompeii's west wing."

"Oooh…how interesting….pit him against the third one."

"Yes sir," Rexxin nodded. He gazed nervously at the silver cage. "Shall we keep our eye on the former Titan?"

"Oh, don't you worry. I have my eye on him….."

"Understood, sir."

"One more thing, Rexxin," Anderson motioned with his glass.

"Yes, sir?"

Anderson smiled with happy eyes upon the guard leader. "When Joto's bloody pulp of a body was dragged away….was it clinically _dead_?"

"…..," Rexxin exhaled. "N-No, sir."

"Ah…," Anderson nodded. "Then gently roll what's left of him downstairs to my new facilities." He stared at the champagne with a sideways grin. "After all this sweaty fight tonight, I do intend to have…..a _relaxing_ evening."

"……yes, sir…," Rexxin gradually turned and marched out of the balcony.

_Schwissh!_

Anderson swirled the glass. He stared out at the nosy arena and brought the champagne to his lips-but paused.

A beat.

He smirked.

He put the glass down on the tray, and instead picked up a goblet of crimson-red wine. He sipped it eagerly…something akin to a breathy sigh of bubbling through his wet lips.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"YAAAAA-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAAAAAAAH!" Haste blurred at me with a rapidly kicking foot.

I ducked, side-slapped, and dodged very blow before surging towards him with a smoking uppercut.

He twirled out of my swing, jumped to the side, coiled, and sprung at me with two flurrying palms. THW-THW-THW-THWAP!

I blocked all the strikes with a metal arm. CL-CL-CLANG! I gritted my teeth, timed it just right, and slapped my titanium wrist around. I grabbed his right elbow and yanked him towards me. THWOOOSH! I raised my fist into his face.

WHAM!

He jolted back from the strike.

I grunted mutely, yanked him over my shoulder, flung him, jumped up on the after recoil of the throw, and jump-kicked his back with a blurring boot. _WHAM!_

He flew sideways into the metal bars.

CLANG!

He fell down, coughing.

I hopped from one foot to another before standing on both and leaning into a meditative pose with arms spaced apart and bent. "……"

"Nnngh—YAGH!" Haste jumped back swiftly to his feet.

My black eyes narrowed under the goggles.

Haste spun. He faced me. Seething. Sweating. Nostrils flaring. His eyes were red and everything was throbbing, throbbing, throbbing….

'_His adrenaline……,'_ the Messenger spoke into my ear from afar. _'……it's off the charts! That guy's a walking piston!'_

I took a deep breath, pacing away from his furious figure.

_Didn't need to tell me THAT, silly._

"Nnnghh….I'm not going to let some stupid shinobi punk like you take me down!" he shouted.

I blew him a kiss.

"!" his teeth showed. "RRRAAAUGH!" He came at me, blurring. Feet practically sparking against the metal slabs of the floor. "NNGHHH!" His foot came at me in a blurred kick at my neck.

I easily ducked, side-stepped, spun, and slammed my smoking fist into his side.

WHAM!

He teetered wildly.

'_That's it, Noir! Keep it cool! Make him blow his top!'_

_Way ahead of you._

I took a deep breath and folded my fingers as my body followed suit into a meditative pose.

Breathing gently.

Gently.

Gently.

_The cedar trees. _

_The sawgrass. _

_The wind……_

"RGHHH! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Haste blurred at me.

"……," I stood absolutely still.

"RAAAAUGH!" he blurred his legs and arms at me at once…somehow.

I simply morphed into smoke.

FWOOOOSH! He flew through me.

I solidified, stuck my leg out in a blink, and tripped him.

THWAP!

"Ah—AH—_AH!_" he wildly flailed before slamming head-first into the metal bars on the other side of the silver cage.

Cheers.

Hissing and applause.

I took a deep breath.

My black eyes were closed gently under my goggles.

"RrrrrRRRAAA**AAAAUGH!**" he shook and quivered all over. He spun around. Eyes red. Arteries showing in his temple, arms, wrists, thighs—through his jumpsuit. "RAAAAAAAAH!" he flew at me in a missile of muscle, sweat, and rage.

"……," I was still as a statue.

_The trickle of water. _

_Dragonflies hovering over the surface. _

_Bubbles…bubbles…bubbles……_

"DIEEEEEE!" he flung both fists at me at once.

FWOOOSH! I morphed into smoke once again….but only half of my body. I kept my hands solidified and—in a blink of an eye—_WOOOSH!_ **GRIP!** I grabbed his wrists behind me and raised them up at a twisted angle from his shoulders.

"Snkkkkttt!" he dangled helplessly from my grip above him.

"…..," I opened my eyes from beneath my goggles. _Flash!_ Currents of smoke warbled out in a gasp of obsidian. I stared point blanc at his face.

"…….," Haste gulped. "Crud. Did it again."

THWAP!

I knocked his arms away.

He recoiled.

WHUMP!

I kneed him in the chest.

"!" he bent over.

I coiled my entire body. Took a breath. A surge of smoke—and—_SWOOOOSH!_ I burst straight up with a pulse of murk, my entire body spinning. When I reached the right altitude, I stuck a smoke-trailing boot out and repeatedly slammed across his cheeks with each spin of my body's axis.

WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP!

After nearly a dozen rapid kicks to the second, the wave of murk dissipated and I dropped to the floor, spun, and uppercutted him one last time.

WHAM!

Haste fell back with a gasp and—WHAP!—landed on the metal floor. Groaning. Unconscious.

"…..," I flexed my arms. A curtain of smoke. Dissipating. Gone. I exhaled.

"_**WINNER! WYLDECARDE!"**_

Cheers.

Exploding lights and sounds.

I cracked my neck and breathed easier.

'_Wow. Play Street Fighter much?'_

I smiled. I knelt over by the bars and picked up Myrkblade and its scabbard from where it lie between the metal bars and plastic sheathe.

From the distance, there was a breath-shuddering groan…then the sound of someone's body hitting hard to the metal floor. Then cheering.

"_**WINNER! WILDEBEEST!"**_

I turned and looked out across the arena.

Wildcat was lying on the ground of the gold cage, twitching. A rather untouched Wildebeest towered over him, hairy arms folded as he snorted. A beat. He looked my way.

"…….," I smiled. I gave a thumb's up.

"……..," he smiled too. A beat. He shook the smile off and frowned at me with a trademark snarl.

I winced, shrugged, and walked towards the door of the cage as the cleanup crew came in.

'_Hey. Don't be making me jealous.'_

I gave the air my middle finger.

'_Heh heh heh heh.'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….," Pulsade's eyes narrowed some more.

Jinx looked over her shoulder. "Leslie? What is it?"

"Wildebeest is going to have a spite soon….," the British assassin murmured. "…I think that is a good as time as any to go out for a stroll."

Jinx bit her lip. "But…but…," she pointed with frilled hands at the event. "We can't leave our post!"

"….."

"I mean….it's….it's our post, girl!"

"Keep close and follow me…," Pulsade gestured before gently gripping Jinx's arm, extending her invisibility with greater concentration, and walking them down the metal platform.

Jinx groaned. "Come on….I'm a big girl! I know my way to the bathroom!"

"Stop mucking about and follow me."

"Hehehehe."

"Bloody doll-humper, I swear."

"You're blussssssshiiiiiiing!"

"_I said __**follow**__**me**__!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Between fights, there rested a shadowed alcove to the side of the arena. Away from the noise, away from the carnage, and—for the most part—away from the blood. And yet, those 'gladiators' awaiting their next battle had as open a view as possible of the gold and silver cages where the combat transpired. The crowd roared endlessly with bloodlust as the tournament continued.

Empress sat at the edge of a bench somewhere, sharpening her knives with a dull stone. She had her legs daintily crossed and her dark ponytail dangling around a neck of even darker skin.

Red Panzer sat in the corner, nodding his head to the wall as if in some sort of battle meditation. His arm-cannon hissed as his unseen lips muttered in German.

Arrowette seemed the most anxious of the bunch. She leaned against a wall just bordering the outside arena, tapping her red bow against the heel of her shoe again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.

Some African-American youngster sitting across from me whom I didn't recognize was adjusting a fireproof 'cloak' of sorts around his neck. He glared over at Arrowette with an angry twitch of his bald-crowned eyebrows. "Do you mind?"

The blonde archer looked his way. Smiled sarcastically…then promptly stuck her tongue out at him.

The young man sighed and shook his head.

Arrowette resumed tapping.

Red Panzer continued meditating.

Empress went on sharpening.

I glanced over.

Wildebeest sat with his meaty arms folded. He seemed uncomfortably close to me….which was merely twelve feet. He stared into nothingness, breathing gently through his flaring nostrils.

A beat.

"……."

He glanced to his side.

Pantha was perched to bare seats from him, her limbs crossed. Her tail swished and her fangs showed as she stared at him. Lovingly.

"_Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."_

"……..," Wildebeest grumbled and stared off again.

I smirked.

_Zaat!_

A flash of green to my left.

I glanced over.

The Messenger casually appeared in my safe shadow, sitting back. He peeled a goggle with three green, glaring 'eyes' off his head and handed me a bottle of water. "There you go, champ. Drink all your heart's content. We're only in the middle of a friggin' desert, ya know."

I nodded my head at the asian teen, took a big swig, and exhaled after a cool gulp.

He folded his arms and smiled gently. "Well…no broken nose yet. For a guy so quick to drop out of the whole 'good guys of Titans' Tower' business, you do seem bent on keeping your fangirls happy."

I glared at him out of the corner of my goggles.

"Okay. Fine. Fangirls _and_ creepy backslidden Catholics with a penchant for dusty basements and watching _Full House_ reruns."

I chuckled helplessly.

"Heheheheh…," he leaned his head back on two folded arms. "Ah….I'm no Burgess Meredith, but I'm bound to get an Oscar in some fashion or another for being here, right?"

I shrugged.

"Well, I suppose it's a noble attempt. A noble lie by a noble savage. Alas, Babylon, your golden gates cry for the huddled masses of Japanese teenagers no more. Your heart has been washed to deluded glory by exuberant reruns of Outlaw Star and far too many origami papercuts…."

I smiled. A beat. I looked at him. Sideways thoughtfully. And in the deadpan of my glare, I'm sure even he could interpret the throbbing question on my head then and there.

_What are you doing here, Messenger? _

_Why are you helping me so much? _

_Why? When it's my mission and not your prerogative?_

He stared at me…then out at the fights.

A deep breath and he uttered: "Even Batman has his sidekicks, eh Noir? Not every loner is entitled to lonesomeness." A beat. He smiled and gestured: "Take Terra for example. The golden mean of this entire….er….'operation'. At one time she was so despondent and so put off by the tragedy bleeding around her that she decided to live a life of perpetual loneliness. And that's what she got. Or so….she assumed."

"…..," I leaned my head to the side. Blinking under my goggles.

He looked my way. A smile. "She's about to be heinously and annoyingly bugged by the biggest fanboys she's ever come across."

"…..," I smiled wide.

"Heheh….as long as you don't get your neck broken on Bullwinkle's crown over there," he pointed at Wildebeest.

"……," Wildebeest looked over. He did a double-take as he saw the Messenger for the first time.

I didn't know whether to flinch or wince or turn invisible or knock myself out.

"Hey! How's the Northern Exposure going, eh? Give us some maple syrup once you're done cavorting with your new date, eh?"

Wildebeest seemed about to get up and do something…when Pantha suddenly rubbed her cheek against him.

"_Purrrrrrrrrr."_

His teeth showed, and the beast seemed ready to break something. Preferably her skull.

So I ended up laughing breathily.

"Heh heh heh heh heh…," the Messenger slapped my shoulder above my metal arm. He exhaled long and hard. "Ohhh Noir. My only hope is that after all of this, you would…..w-would think of me as an ally. And not a villain."

I nodded, chuckling. A beat. I swallowed. I paused. "….." I looked to my left.

The Messenger wasn't quite gazing _at_ me as he was gazing _through_ me. There was a sudden sadness to his almond eyes that stabbed at my soul. His lips were a deadpan line as everything warm I had ever felt from him slipped away in one wet instant. And though he didn't shed a tear and though he didn't moisten a cheek, I could tell that deeply inside that cryptic teleporter, someone was mourning. Like having remembered a day on a hot sidewalk when he glanced down and saw a dead robin between his feet. Deflated and burned to a crisp.

A soreness filled my throat. I swallowed it away and still felt agonized by the fact that there was nothing I could say. And apparently nothing I could hand-signed either. I only wished—in one fashion or another—that I could convey just how good a person the Messenger was. And—no—he was never, ever responsible for Robin's death. He couldn't prevent it just like me and the other Titans couldn't prevent it. We were all crazy pieces of a shattered pinball machine trying to bounce back together again after the biggest and most beloved chunk of us was ripped out by dagger-sharp teeth. And it was the Messenger himself that showed me the solidarity and the invisible power of that transient pinball that my life had so faithfully become four and a half startling months ago when I rediscovered my limbless self in the arms of five, heroic and apologetic companions.

So I gave the metal limb to him too. I placed my left arm on his shoulder, squeezed warmly, and smiled.

And I knew it was more than he needed, though that lace of painful, deadpan doubt would linger on his face in the corner of my black, goggled eyes for hours to come.

He braved a smile, looked at me with rounder almonds and uttered: "What I can do…I choose to do…to help you save your friends all that's left from Red Aviary." An inhale. "All my talents….are yours…."

I nodded at him.

_And Beast Boy keeps trying to get __**me**__ a girlfriend……_

FLASH!

Two figures wavered into existence in the shadows.

The smell of strawberries.

I made a face.

_Ah jeez……_

"Whoah! He multiplied!" Jinx hissed.

Wildebeest looked over, grunting curiously.

"No he didn't, Jinx…," Pulsade hissed back. She glanced over with angry, suspicious sapphires that pierced the darkness and found their way to the Messenger's face. "Who in the bloody hell are you?"

"Hey! The lipstick lesbians! Finally!" the Messenger beamed. "These are the ones you told me about, right Noir?" He grinned dramatically at me and pointed. "The lipstick lesbians!"

I almost pratfalled.

People were looking over.

The roar of the crowd from beyond seemed to dwindle.

"Uhm…..," a pair of cat eyes blinked from the shadows. "…have we met?"

"Oh….," the Messenger shrugged. "Mentally, on occasion…I'm sure. After all, the first time I ever waltzed into Wyldecarde's life, he was drowning in the endless desire of wanting to kick the ever-living-horse-manure out of you and Slade. I'd have held your torso still for him to beat to a pulp too if I had the guts! But then again, I do make it a law not to senselessly beat up any fair creature that happens to possess mammary glands. You do possess mammary glands, right Jinx? I'm sure that somewhere underneath that anorexic Alex Hamilton getup of yours you're bound to have some-"

"So is this your edge, Wyldecarde?" Pulsade sneered with a gesturing hand. Shaking angrily. "This sniveling whelp is what's gotten all our knickers in a twist!"

"Wow…..," the Messenger's lips hung open. 'Mesmerized', he leaned forward with a chin on his hand. "Please, madame. Just keep talking with that dripping accent of yours."

"Sod off."

"I swear! I'm almost aroused!"

"Nnngh….," Pulsade shook all over.

Suddenly, I too was shaking. I had a metal hand over my face. And my lips were trying not to show their curve.

"Hey!" the Messenger brightened even more, looked at the girls, and pointed his thumb at me. "He's laughing! You see that? Do you have any idea how much you two _suck_ now?"

"I've never seen you around that smoking bloke before," Pulsade grumbled. "And I don't find it very sporting when I'm _left out of the bloomin' picture!"_

"Nah, you're not left out," the Messenger waved his hand. "The picture's merely out of focus! There's a simple remedy to that. I'm sure familiar with it. It's something called….'LIGHTING'."

I chuckled even more, shaking all over.

The Messenger pointed at me again. "I swear! He's helpless! He'll rip Cinderblock to shreds but be downed in one punch by Groucho Marx!"

Pulsade pointed at the asian teen's chest. "Now you listen here-"

"Hehehehehehe!"

"Jinx! Quiet!"

"He's funny…."

"Jinx, you're not helping…."

"Ah….right….," Jinx suddenly produced a blade of pink hex. _CHIIING!_ A few gladiators nearby stirred nervously. SWOOOSH! Jinx aimed the blade at the Messenger's chest. "What say we give you a new pair of lips to smile with?"

"Like this?" and the Messenger emphatically grinned.

_**CHIIIIIING!**_

Jinx blinked….because the tip of Myrkblade was at her throat.

"…………," I stared.

"Eh heh heh heh heh….," she leaned back and 'retracted' her hex blade.

"………..," I smiled. I leaned on Myrkblade.

"Better face it, Misses," the Messenger shrugged. "Who am I? I am not a prophet. I am not a God. I am merely….," he looked sideways at me for a moment and then back at them, "…..asleep."

I chuckled again.

He pointed. "And there isn't any getting rid of me. After all, you yourself would have instantly shot my skull in from afar as soon as you saw me down here sharing water bottles with Wyldecarde. Cuz that's your style, isn't it, Mary Poppins?"

"…………," Pulsade glared.

"Essentially….it's not your style _tonight_," the Messenger smirked. "Because _tonight_, the Wyldecarde has played its hand. And it's too late to back out of the gamble at this point. And doing anything to hurt my buddy here—through him or me—would totally make something fishy in the fighting arena business and throw the proverbial, flaming wrench into the heart of Jacob Anderson's illegal enterprise and—in short—make you, Annie Lennox here, Mr. Hacker Extraordinaire somewhere, and Wildebeest there miss the golden bus of opportunity in ever acquiring the statue of Terra."

"………….," Pulsade was silent.

Jinx was biting her Cheshire lips.

Wildebeest's white eyes glared from a distance. His horns seemed to droop in sudden remorse.

"Face it….you're stuck with us….," the Messenger leaned back with folded arms. "Better work on our poker face. Cuz this is all going by Jacob Anderson's rules, and not yours anymore. When worse comes to worse—or as I like to see it—best comes to best, it'll be between Wildebeest and my fine feathered friend here. And to do anything to try and make it otherwise….would just sabotage everything."

"………," Pulsade folded her arms. An assassin shouldn't have to pout.

The Messenger was loving every minute of it. His grin said so.

And so did mine.

Pulsade looked at me. A slight twinkle in her blue eyes. Sarcastically bitter. "So…..the dummy finally scrounges up a ventriloquist, I see."

I frowned.

"Heh heh heh heh….," the Messenger chuckled. A beat. "Oh, you mean to insinuate that _**I'm**_ the ventriloquist?" An innocent blink. A shake of the head. "Oh no, madame. No." He pointed at me. "He's the one you should be worried about sticking his hands up your asses. So if I were you, I'd keep an eye out for myself AND my girlfriend." A lean of the face, and an awkward menace that I had never before seen on the Messenger's face suddenly leviathaned to the surface. "A….watchful…..eye….."

"……..," Pulsade turned her back on him. A beat. "Ya know…..with the patterns and nature of Red Aviary which I have learned through extra-strenuous research along with 'J' to date…."

"Yeah?"

She reached for a half-concealed holster.

Jinx's eyes twitched.

The British assassin sneered. "….I don't see any legitimate reason why saving the whole Western Hemisphere would be put at risk if I just so happened desired to _end your life!" _

SWOOOSH!

She spun around.

Cl-Click!

Pistol clocked.

THWOOSH!

Aimed at the Messenger's forehead.

I gasped and moved to blur a limb at her-

CLAMP!

A pair of hands grabbed the barrel of the gun.

THWKKK!

Twisted.

YANK!

And twirled the weapon out of Pulsade's stretched hand.

"Nngh!" she grunted.

A green streak of light. A sudden knee to her chest.

And suddenly she found herself forced forward—_plant!—_into the barrel of a gun against her forehead. Her gun.

Her gun….in the Messenger's hand.

Aimed between her eyes.

"Eeek!" Jinx helplessly gasped. She seemed at a loss to summon hex.

Wildebeest stood up.

"…………," I sweatdropped.

"………..," a frown slowly turned into a smile again on the Messenger's face. "Now….it seems to me that we're at a disagreement."

"………..," Pulsade's teeth grit angrily.

"And….unless I'm mistaken…..there's a little something queer about an expert assassin like yourself having her very own gun turned back on her. Something about….I dunno….'honor and pride' of the marksman or some bologna. Hehehe….listen to me, I sound like a western outlaw or something, eh Wyldecarde?"

I nodded furiously. Sweating….

"So….are we at a disagreement, Mary Poppins?"

"Say yes, Leslie….," Jinx hissed. "Please! Say _yes!_"

"Bloody….freaking….bugger….," Pulsade shook.

"Are we?" the Messenger smiled like a Muppet.

"………," Pulsade clenched her blue eyes shut. Sighed. Then muttered: "Yes."

"I can't hear you."

"I said YES, you bloomin' septic! Now let me go before Jinx here slices all our heads off!"

"Hey! I wasn't about to—"

THWUMP! The Messenger tossed the pistol into Jinx's hands.

The sorceress nervously caught it. Cat eyes blinking.

"…….," Wildebeest slowly sat down.

I swallowed…breathing slowly again.

Pulsade slowly stood up, the red circle of a gun barrel imprinted on her forehead.

The Messenger folded his arms, sat down, and crossed his legs as if nothing had happened. And he was smiling again too: "Right then. Cheerio, pip pip, and all that luscious crap. I think you've got a Wildebeest to _cheat_ into winning a few minutes from now. Better run along!"

"This….isn't….over…..," Pulsade pointed.

"Heh….," the Messenger smiled wide. "Is it ever?"

"…….," Pulsade stepped back into the shadows and gripped the hand of Jinx. "Let's go…."

"Uhm….k-kay….," Jinx looked helplessly at me.

I shrugged.

"We'll be watching, Wildebeest. Take ca—"

And the pink sorceress' voice disappeared along with her body as Pulsade vanished them both.

The Messenger whistled innocently and suddenly produced a clip of ammo from behind his back.

I did a double-take at it.

"I hate guns…," he mused as he juggled the clip up and down with a smirk. "…but not as much as I love making a self-centered 'murderer of justice' pee in her—ahem—_knickers_ over a bulletless pistol being aimed at her skull for twenty seconds."

A beat.

"Hehehehehehe," he giggled to himself like a schoolboy.

I blinked at him.

_You can be my ventriloquist any day………_

Wildebeest snorted.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen! You've placed your bets! You've doubled the winnings! Now for the surprise special event! The first of many shockers to grace the bloody stage tonight! Two brand new fighters shall go face to face! Blind to each other's powers! What talents do they possess and how will it shape the path of tonight's dramatics! Feast your eyes on the stage for the new challengers!"**_

Thunderous applause. Cheers. The figures of two combatants marching up into the gold cage.

I looked over.

A beat.

My eyes widened under my goggles. I jumped up and walked over towards the edge of the alcove to peer out…as did some other fighters.

The Messenger got up and crept over to my side. "Someone you know?"

My mouth was agape.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

There was a dark haired fellow of Eastern descent and garbed in all sorts of medieval, oriental weaponry.

But I was looking past him.

I was looking past him….at a young man barely out of his teens. A young man who stood tall. Clad in blue jeans, a blue undershirt, and a leather jacket of solid black. Rusted chains dangled from his waist belt as he cracked together knuckles of silver-tipped fingers and paced himself away from the Asian fighter. His face was a constant, stony glare…with even more rock-hard eyes of piercing blue beneath a short roof of jet black hair. Something about him moved mountains in a single whisper. There was a glistening of his silver tipped fingers as he stood still at his end of the cage, and I saw within a flash of black blinking a motorcycling stranger outside of the Shepherd Plain ranch with a bazooka suddenly over his shoulders and gone again.

His head turned and—if even for a second—I could have sworn he saw me across the bars, the plastic, the metal slabs, and the dark shadows.

And something inside of myself small and denied shivered.

_Fright?_

Cheering crowds.

Flashing light.

The applause of a middle-aged man atop the balcony.

The asian fighter bowed before producing a nagin ata and aiming it at his opponent.

The stranger merely cracked his neck. Glaring.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen! Prepare yourselves! For……BUSHIDO versus HULL!"**_

The latter of the two finally struck a pose. With a rustle of his jeans and black leather jacket, he pivoted his arms around and held his fingers together. Tiny bolts of light echoed from the stranger's fingers and in a flash of silver—CHIIING!—a violently exotic sword appeared out of nowhere and into his grasp. The hilt was a circular disc upon which a curved, two-and-a-half foot blade spun almost mechanically within the grooved-track set for it.

_SHVVVVVVVVVV!_

The blade spun and spun until—supplied by a sparking touch of silver fingers—the hilt flickered and the blade stopped impersonating a buzz saw.

_SHVVVVVVVvvvvvv-_Clack! The blade snapped into place. 'Hull' stood ready with his sword.

"……," I blinked.

"_**LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!"**_

Bushido took a deep breath. "I'll be honored to die fighting you."

Hull merely sniffed.

"You will…."

And the two rushed in to meet each other.


	191. The Earth Must Bleed part 6

**191. The Earth Must Bleed part 6**

"Nnnnnnnnnngh!" Bushido charged across the cage. Both hands gripping the long, wooden stalk to his naginata. The blade at the end curved out like the end of a broad katana and glistened in the arena light filtering down through the bars. SWIIIISH! The blade jabbed forward and slashed up.

Hull ran, pivoted his body, and spun his sword around the circular hilt.

_SHVVVVVVV!_

It came at Bushido like a buzz saw.

The oriental combatant twisted his naginata to the side.

CL-CL-CLANK! It batted away the spinning sword of Hull with a shower of sparks.

The awkward, spinning impact of metal-on-metal shoved Bushido aside with his weapon.

Hull kept his feet planted on the ground. He twisted his spinning blade down in a snake curve, knelt low, locked the sword into place—_SHVVVV-CLACK!_—and swung it up like a regular scimitar towards Bushido's head.

SLASSSH!

Bushido spun and twisted his naginata, blocking Hull's swing in reverse. CLANG! Metal met metal. Grinding to a halt. Bushido gritted his teeth and kicked backwards. "NNNGH!"

_Thwap!_

A kneeling Hull took a boot to the breast and fell flat on his back.

Bushido spun his whole body around, nimbly twirled the staff and its blade in his hand, and then brought it swinging down onto the other newcomer's body.

Hull's fingers twitched. His sword disappeared in a flash of silver light as rolled to the side.

CLANK! Bushido's naginata scraped the metal slabs where Hull once was.

Hull jumped to his feet, flicked his wrists, and—_Fl-Flash!_ A pistol materialized in each of his hands with a silver aura. He aimed both at Bushido and fired repeatedly—BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

Bushido held his breath, jumped back, and twirled the naginata over his frame like a fan. Somehow the twirling blade managed to block or defect every shot. He backflipped, impacted the metal bars of the cage, reached a free hand to his back, grabbed the hilt of a katana, and shoved off. FWOOOSH! He dove horizontally at Hull with an outswing of his unsheathed katana. _CHIIIIING!_

Hull stood back and instantly raised his pistols in front of him, one on top of the other. In a silver strobe, they disappeared and a metal staff was in their place…effortlessly fitted into the combatant's strategically placed fingers.

CLANG! Bushido's blade was struck back just inches from Hull's face.

Hull glared and shoved forward.

THWAP!

Bushido landed completely. He stepped back with his naginata gripped in one hand and the katana in another. He paced opposite of Hull with quick, mongoose-like footwork. His almond eyes glaring. Sweat running down his brow.

Hull was immaculate. No sweat. No panting. No sign of wear or tear. He glared at Bushido the entire time. His stone-blue eyes locked on his opponent's. His staff firmly in his grasp.

The crowd cheered around the two cages. Gamblers waved and screamed. Other viewers stopped their feet into the floors between the seats.

Lights glared and speakers boomed.

"You are a fearless warrior…," Bushido murmured. "I can sense it. But I can also sense….that you have a lot of blood on your hands." His asian eyes narrowed. "Tell me….does this violent spectacle please you?"

"Shut up an die." Hull twirled the staff, coiled back, and sprang forward with a heavy jab.

CHIIIIIING! Bushido grinded his katana along the staff and shoved towards Hull.

Hull jerked his dark head aside before he could so much as have an ear lopped off by Bushido's singing blade.

The oriental combatant swiftly jerked his katana back, spun, and swung his naginata down low. SWIIIISH!

Hull leapt up in the air, 'stepped off' the metal bars to his side, twirled, and came down on Bushido. And as he did so, the metal staff silverishly turned back into his exotic blade. Spinning. _SHVVVVVV!_

Bushido rolled out of the way, but not quickly enough—_SLIINK!_

"Nnngh!" he winced, hobbling up to his feet and leaning to his side. A thin wound in his right shoulder leapt blood down his arm to the wooden part of the staff he was holding. He panted…teeth grit in pain.

_SHVVVVvvv-_CLACK! Hull's sword locked into place and he held it high in a pose. His leather jacket and waist-chains settling. A deep breath through his nostrils. And he glared.

Glared…

Cheers.

Boos too.

Murmurs and mutterings of tension.

The lights converged.

Bushido took a deep breath. His legs repositioned over the metal floor. His grip on the katana and naginata staff tightened. After a slight cracking of the neck and shoulder joints-

SWOOOOSH! He came on the attack. He let out a cry, ran, jumped, and spun down at Hull with both blades—long and longer—spinning.

Hull's iron legs braced themselves and he held his sword out horizontally.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK! Sparks of impact.

Hull shoved and swung high. SWIIISH!

Bushido ducked and slid his leg out.

Hull tripped-

"Nnngh!" Bushido jabbed with the naginata.

Hull shoved the extended blade away with his sword. He sprung his legs up.

Bushido slashed down at his middle with the katana.

Hull jumped up, leapt the swing, landed, and swung his blade low.

CLACK! It forced Bushido's katana into the ground.

"!" Bushido tried to pull back, but he was stuck in a yucky position with his grip on the katana's hilt.

Hull released one hand from his circular grip and the silver tips of his fingers started to spark.

Before the young man could produce a pistol or something, Bushido jabbed the naginata straight at Hull's face.

CLAMP! Hull's fingers nimbly grabbed the flat sides of the blade and—

_FLASH!_

In a flicker of silver light, Bushido's entire blade disappeared. Tiny specks like faerie light danced between Hull's fingers and was gone.

Bushido gasped.

WHAP!

Hull kicked him off the ground and let go of his katana with his sword.

But Bushido was shaking all over. He uttered: "My family weapon!" He pointed where the naginata was gone. "My mother's soul is in that!"

"She's on loan!" Hull glared back.

Bushido gritted his teeth. CHIIIIING! He pulled a second katana out in his right hand. He spat something in a foreign tongue, crossed both blades in front of his face, and charged at his opponent. "Nnnngh!"

Hull gripped his circular blade with two hands and started the blade-spinning process. _SHVVVVVVVV!_

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Bushido jabbed, spun, swung, slashed, and lunged with his whole body spinning and both katanas wailing through the air straight at Hull's torso.

Hull merely held the buzz-saw of a blade out, twisting it just right here and there to ward off the double attack on all sides.

_SHVVVVVVV!_

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK! CLANG! WH-WHANG!

Bushido took a gamble by stretching his grips on the katanas as far out to the lateral sides as he could and digging towards the opposite ribs of Hull.

Hull's blade couldn't possibly stretch to both sides at once. So he vanished it with a flick of his wrists, shot both his arms out to the left and the right, and produced a metal pistol in each. _F-FLASH!_

CLANG! CLANG!

The metal pistols stopped both swords.

Hull gritted his teeth and lifted a blue-jean leg.

WHAP!

He shoved Bushido back and immediately aimed the two gun barrels at him. _**BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!**_

Bushido jumped back, twirled, avoided the bullets, and landed in a reverse slide. He sheathed one katana, reached into a side pouch, and produced a fan of shuriken. He let out a shout and flung all three throwing stars in a heartbeat.

SW-SW-SWIIIIIIIIISH!

Hull vanished the guns, brought his hands together, knelt, and met the shurikens at the point of impact.

FL-FL-FLASH!

They vanished into silver light where his fingers haloed.

Bushido blinked.

Hull glared. He cracked his knuckles, uncurled them, and-

FL-FL-FLASH! SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH! Shot the same exact shuriken—materialized—back at the warrior.

Bushido leapt and rolled out of the way.

CL-CLANK! _THUNK!_ One stuck in his ankle.

"Augh!" he winced, hobbling up on his feet.

A padding of black boots.

Bushido looked up, sweating.

Hull charged at him in a curve. His hands were dragging behind him. The fingers curled together. _FLASH!_ The sword reappeared, already buzzing and spinning the blade right at Bushido's forehead.

_SHVVVVVV__**VVVVV**__!_

Bushido hobbled to the side, twirled, and brought his one katana at Hull's cranium.

Hull easily blocked with his blade locked—CLACK!—and brought his leg up again.

WHAP!

Bushido slammed back into the metal cage.

Hull charged.

Bushido weakly brought his katana up again-

Hull's blade spun. SHVVVVV!

CRAAAACK!

Bushido's katana shattered. And the shards went sailing….all over his torso.

He jolted. His eyes wide.

A gasp from the crowd. A beat. And then a bloodlusting cheer.

"Snkkkkt….," Bushido wheezed as pain wracked through his lungs and blood oozed out of his vest.

"……," Hull glared.

Bushido slumped to his knees. Blood was trickling down his arms, wrists, and fingers. It mixed with the sweat and rippled from his panting.

Roars and lights.

Hull disappeared his blade. His fingers tingled with silver as he slowly brought them down—staring into Bushido's face the whole time—and produced one pistol. _Cl-Click._ He pointed it square into the oriental warrior's forehead.

Chanting.

Stomping feet.

Bushido panted, swallowed, and struggled wheezingly to say: "You…h-have fought…well. I am….h-honored…to die….at y-y-your h-hands…."

Hull inhaled.

"Whatever…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BANG!**_

I, Wildebeest, and a few other fighters in the shaded alcove wince.

A thunderous round of applause and cheers soar out from all sides of the arena.

"_**WINNER! HULL!"**_

I looked across the arena.

I could see Jacob Anderson standing in his burgundy robe. Clapping. Smiling…..wide…..

I took a deep breath.

I looked back into the fighting cage.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bushido's body lay amidst a carpet of red brain matter and skull fragments.

Hull disappeared the pistol.

With a flick of his wrist, a silver pulse flashed. He produced Bushido's naginata.

THWOOSH!

Clank!

He tossed it down onto the corpse.

"Your mother loves you….," he droned.

And turned.

And walked out of the cage.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I bit my lip.

It was just there and then that I realized…

The Messenger was gone.

"?" I looked around feverishly.

No sign of my raving friend.

Then….in my ear….

The tiny, crackling speaker.

"_Snkkkkttt……"_

I fingered my ear with a metal hand.

Blinking my black, shaded eyes.

"_Snkkkt……looking for me, Noir?"_

"……."

"_No worries. I'm back at my post. Don't blame me a bit after seeing that guy."_

I took a deep breath.

"_I think you're going to need all the help I can give you from my coaching roost……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**WYLDECARDE versus EMPRESS!"**_

Th-Th-Thwish! Empress spun to a stop, balanced like a ballet dancer on one foot. She smirked across the cage, lifted two fans of knives in front of her face, blew a kiss, and tossed them at me. SWIIIIIIIIIISH!

I swung Myrkblade up in one smoking blur. CL-CL-CLANG! The blades deflected all around me. I held the blade up and ran towards her.

Empress merely spun with a wave of her ponytail and—THFFF! She disappeared.

I skidded to a stop.

Gritting my teeth.

_Oh yeah. Right._

'_Behind you, sharpy!'_

I spun-

THFFFF! Empress materialized with a fist in my face.

SMACK!

My goggles stung into my face as I stumbled back.

People cheered and groaned at the same time.

Empress twirled, knelt, and tossed knife after knife at me. _Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!_

I knelt as well and twirled Myrkblade to block and deflect. _Clang! Clang! Clang!_

She dove at me with a sharp breath.

I leaned back.

THWAP! I kick-vaulted her off me.

She twirled nimbly in the air, flipped, and flew backwards. As she descended, she tossed a razor-sharp discus at my skull.

SWIIIIIIISH!

I gritted my teeth.

I rolled out of way-

CLAAAANK! The discus slammed into the metal slab floor where I just was. Sparks flew. It bounced up towards the opposite of the cage.

I stumbled up to my feet.

CLANKKKK! The discus bounced off the bars and soared back at me.

"!" I blurred my upper body.

SWOOOOOSH! The discus swam through me.

I materialized with a shudder.

_CLLLANK!_ The discus bounced off the ceiling, ricocheted off the bars, and soared down at me once more.

I desperately, madly blocked with Myrkblade jabbing down behind my shoulders.

CLANG!

I shattered the discus into a dozen shards with my smoke-encased weapon.

_THFFF!_

Empress suddenly materialized besides my distracted body, twirled like a figure skater, and slammed a foot across the square of my back.

THWAP!

I tumbled and slumped against the metal bars, wincing.

"Hehehehehehe," Empress folded her arms and nimbly posed with knife points peaking out from between her fingers. She basked in the arena light and the cheers of the bloodthirsty audience. "You're a terrible dancer. I can tell. You're a loss at leading."

I took a deep breath.

'_Man, she's TOTALLY flirting with you. Heheheheh.'_

I smirked.

_Then maybe I should flirt back._

CHIIIING! She stuck a pose, two fans of knives appearing. A coy smile across her dark features. "Give up?"

I turned to face her. I twirled Myrkblade. TH-TH-TH-THWISH! I held the sword in one hand and gestured with hooked fingers with my other as if to say: _'Can I have the pleasure?'_

"Suit yourself," Empress smirked. She spun, danced, and flung fan after fan of knives.

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH!_

I summoned Murk, concentrated, and—FLASH! I teleported.

She frowned, grunted, and also disappeared—_THFF!_

Two seconds of obscurity.

The audience held their breath.

The lights faltered….

_THFFF!_

Empress materialized in the corner of the cage.

She blinked.

I wasn't there.

"Huh?" she murmured.

A swift, bursting cloud of murk shifted up and came to a stop above her.

FWOOOOSH! I materialized over her head, clinging to the metal bars of the cage. I thwapped the top of her head with Myrkblade. _SLAP!_

"Ack!" she snarled and flung two blades up at me. SWIIIISH!

_FLASH!_ I teleported down.

CLANK! The knives struck the ceiling.

Empress bit her lip.

_FLASH!_ I materialized to her side, gripping her right arm.

"Nnnghh!" she frowned, produced a dagger in her left hand, and jabbed at me.

FLASH! I morphed into smoke form, swam along her shoulders, spiraled aroundher right arm, and materialized on the other of her with my metal hand gripping her wrist.

And I squeezed.

"OWWWWWIE!" Empress squealed. She gritted her teeth and swung her elbow into my face-

FLASH! I disappeared, then reappeared with shifting smoke behind her.

WHUMP! I grabbed onto the metal cage wall behind me and struck her butt with two solid boots.

"Duaaah!" she stumbled forward.

I jumped down, blurred six feet, and ended with a heavy upswing of Myrkblade.

THWACK!

The blow from behind sent her literally tumbling head over heels and collapsing against the metal bars of the far side of the cage. WHAM! "Ohhhhh…."

Cheers.

A laughing announcer's voice.

I panted…panted…panted….

Smoke danced all around me as I remained standing, pointing Myrkblade at her downed figure.

'_Hehehehe. Check it out! The Empress' new concussion!'_

I smirked.

"Nnnngh!" Empress stumbled up to her feet, her chocolate ponytail in a tangle and her outfit torn in a few places. She sneered at me. "This your idea of how to treat a lady!"

'_Think we're gonna fight some ladies anytime soon, Noir?'_

I chuckled.

'_I'm at a loss. Think Beast Boy can fly over here?'_

I chuckled even more.

"What's so blasted funny!" Empress snarled. CHIIING! She produced more daggers than I thought a human being could hold. "I'm going to tear that smile off your face!"

I cleared my throat and held Myrkblade at ready.

_Do what you want with my mouth. Not like I use it._

"Nnnghhh!" Empress ran at me and teleported in mid jump.

'_Now, Noir! Myrking FWAH!'_

I blinked.

_Uh………yeah._

FLASH!

We streaked at each other in incorporeal madness….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**HULL versus THUNDER!"**_

_SHVVVVVVVVVVV-Clack!_ Hull's blade locked into position as he paced around another newcomer. His blue eyes narrowed.

A blonde, full-figured young woman strutted across from him. Clad in a tight, tight jumpsuit of converging black, orange, and indigo bands. She smirked and tossed her blonde yellow hair as her eyes thinned at the opponent across from him. "You know….you're as handsome as you are homicidal. That sword of yours the only thing that vibrates?"

"…….," Hull merely glared.

"Hmmm. The quiet type," she winked as the crowd urged them on all around. She raised her fists. Standing tall and firm. "Eager to rip off more than either of us can chew?"

"Only the parts that talk," Hull droned.

"Hehehehe…..well…take your best shot, killer," Thunder expressed something strung up halfway between a frown and a grin. "I hope you don't mind if I put my foot down…." That said, she lifted her knee, tightened her muscles, and-

SWOOOOOSH—_**STOMP!**_

The entire arena shook. The cage rattled. Lights flickered and hundreds of audience members gasped as a steady quake branched out from Thunder's foot and cracked some of the metal slabs under Hull's feet.

"Nnngh!" he gritted his teeth, slipped, and fell from the vibrations.

_**STOMP!**_

More shaking.

Hull struggled to get up.

"Heh heh heh…," Thunder grinned and got into a crouching position. "Ooops! I just put on some weight! More like…three thousand pounds of it! Nnnngh!" **STOMP-STOMP-STOMP**_**-STOMP!**_

She roared in a charge towards Hull.

The newcomer barely had the chance to get up-

**THWACK!** A foot with the impact of a metric-ton slammed into his chest.

He flew back and crashed mercilessly into the side of the metal cage. WHANG!

She hissed, flexed her muscles, and charged towards him. Her thin-looking legs making paradoxical dents in the floor as she came closer and closer. _**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

She swung a heavy fist hot with friction. "NNNGH!" **SWOOOOOSH**!

Hull ducked.

_**CLANG!**_

The blonde's fist slammed into the bars of the cage, denting them outward.

Hull held his breath, rolled forward, jumped up to his feet, slid across the metal floor, twirled, and replaced his sword—FLASH—with a shotgun. _Chtung—_**BLAM! **

Thunder swiftly reached down. She increased the density in her limbs, gritted her teeth, and—_CRKKKK!—_lifted a panel of metal slabs up to block the shotgun spread like a shield.

CLANK!

She then lifted the metal slabs entirely, spun around, swung them, and launched them with a loud shout. "RRRRRGHHH!"

SWOOOOSH!

Hull ran, leapt, vaulted over the mid-air slabs, and came down on the other side with his staff replacing his shotgun in full, silver swing.

SWOOOOSH!

Thunder smirked and merely lifted a forearm.

CRACK!

Hull's staff split in two.

"…..," Hull stood, holding two severed clubs.

"I'm sorry," the blonde giggled. "Did I break your stick?"

_THWACK!_ Both broken pieces jammed hard into her hips.

"AAAAUGH!" she twitched and convulsed in pain. She yanked the tiny clubs out and clutched tiny, bleeding wounds. Teeth clenching.

Due to her extra density, they only went about skin deep. But they were at the pressure points.

The pain…..

Thunder winced all over.

"I'm sorry…," Hull droned. "Did I break your ovaries?"

The woman growled. "Nobody….NOBODY screws with me!"

Hull waved. "I can see that."

"Nnnnghh!" she charged. Producing thunder with each footstep. Like a mammoth howling through the scurrying of a field mouth. _**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

The arena shook. The cage buckled.

Hull stood his ground. A familiar blade reappearing in silver light.

_SHVVVVVVV!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**WILDEBEEST versus PANTHA!"**_

"RAWWWWRRR!" the she-cat leapt with a snarl.

Wildebeest growled and blocked with a meaty forearm.

THWAP!

Pantha grabbed onto his wrist, swung on it like a handlebar, and kicked Wildebeest upside the helmet with a pair of sharp cat-feet.

THWACK!

Wildebeest stumbled back.

Pantha landed on the floor, hissed, ran up a metal wall of bars, clung onto the ceiling, leapt off, and then flew in a rolling 'cannonball' into the small of Wildebeest's back.

WHAM!

The horned combatant's white eyes widened as he teetered over-

WHAM!

He landed snout first.

Growling, he turned over-

THWAP!

Pantha landed on top of his chest.

"…….," he blinked at her.

"……..," she smirked down at him. Fangs showing. She gave his crown a lick.

The audience laughed.

Wildebeest's face went red. Steam came out his nostrils. CLAMP! A meaty fist closed around Pantha's face.

"MMMMMFFFF!" she struggled and clawed and kicked her feet like a cat under a blanket.

Wildebeest snorted, hoisted Pantha up as he stood on his feet, and slammed her down like a palmed basketball into the metal slabs.

WHAM!

Again, into the bars on the side.

WHANG!

He snarled, raised her high, and prepared to crush her into the ground-

Pantha bit onto his ring finger.

"!" Wildebeest wailed, dropped her, and gripped his hand.

On the fall, Pantha gripped ahold of his horns, swung her legs down, and poked his two eyes with her heels.

THWACK!

Wildebeest mooed in pain and stumbled back into the bars. CLANG!

Pantha dropped down and spun around in circles, giggling. Purring, giggling some more.

More laughter from the audience.

Some groaning too.

"_**Heheheheheh! Somebody get them a sandbox!"**_

Wildebeest's fists clenched.

"Rawwwwr!" Pantha hopped up and down. She smirked and winked under her mask. "You're holding back…"

"….," Wildebeest frowned. He reached behind him and gripped a bar of the cage. CRKKKKK-CRACK! He ripped it loose and held it like a huge, titanium newspaper bundle.

"….," Pantha blinked. "Rowr….then again—"

**THWACK**!

The she-cat ragdolled across the cage like a wet sack of kittens. She sounded like one too.

Wildebeest, holding a now-bent 'club', stomped after her. Snarling.

As the crowd applauded.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well….," Jinx sweatdropped and looked across the catwalk at her blonde compatriot. "He's doing okay for himself….assuming he stays impotent for the next few minutes."

"……..," Pulsade stared down at the arena. Silent. Contemplating….

Jinx's cat eyes blinked. "Leslie?" She leaned her head towards her. "You okay?"

"Mmmmm….," the British assassin hummed.

"We're keeping an eye out for Wildebeest…r-right?" Jinx simpered.

"I don't know if he's the bloke we should be watching out for anymore…," murmured the blonde.

"What do you mean?" A beat. "Hehehe….Leslie, you're not still recoiling after what that raving-asian-fuzzhead did to yo—"

"NO!" Pulsade snarled. A little too snappishly for her own good. She bit her lip, shook it off, and stared back down from the rafters as she said: "It's this newcomer…."

"Who? The bloodlusting Hull guy?" Jinx glanced down. "He's cute." A beat. She winced nervously. "Erm….in a Christopher Reeves not-in-a-wheelchair sort of way."

"Jinx…."

"And not dead either."

"Jinx!"

"Ahem…yes?"

"Does he look…..familiar to you?"

"What? Mr. Denim down there?"

"Yes…."

"…….," Jinx's cat eyes narrowed. "I can't say that I remember him."

"Well, given your circumstances with H.I.V.E….."

Jinx gulped. "Yeah….," she hugged her far shoulder with a thin, frilled hand for a moment.

"……," Pulsade gazed at her. She placed a gentle hand on Jinx's shoulder.

The pink-haired sorceress shut her eyes and sighed.

"Keep an eye out on our fuzzball…," Pulsade managed a soothing smile. Her faced hardened once she again trained her eye on the other fight transpiring down below. "I'll fret over our bloody little septic for the both of us."

"Yeah….," Jinx shuddered. "….you do that."

Pulsade took a deep breath. "Sooner or later….," she murmured to herself. "….he'll be doing fisticuffs with Wildebeest." A blue-eyed blink. "Or maybe Mister Smoke and Sword too…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH!

FLASH!

THFFF!

THFFF!

Our cage was a warbling lava lamp of shifting smoke, streaking body shapes, glinting metal, and wooden serration.

Empress and I teleported and blurred and breezed through each other at eye-blinking intervals.

Empress solidified against a wall.

I materialized behind her with a swing of Myrkblade.

She blocked with two daggers.

CLANK!

She stabbed at me.

I turned into smoke form and streaked across the cage.

Empress held her breath and blurred to the opposite side.

_THFF! _

_FLASH! _

_FLASH! _

_FWOOOSH!_

At one point, Empress appeared at one end of the cage and myself on the opposite side.

She spun like a dancer, panted, and tossed three daggers at me.

I jumped back, teleported with the daggers streaking just under my armpits—flashed across the cage, and materialized along with the flying daggers that suddenly found their momentum carrying them back at Empress' prone finger.

SLIIIIINK!

"Nnngh!" she clutched a grazed, bleeding shoulder.

FLASH!

I solidified opposite her again across the dagger-littered, metal floor. I slumped down to my knees as she too hunched over.

She panted.

I hyperventilated.

We were both sweating all over.

'_Wow, Noir! You've sure been exercising your fart force!'_

I clenched my teeth.

_Why can't everyone be mute!_

"Let's end this….," Empress hissed at me. A final fan of knives in her grasp.

I frowned. CHIIIING! I held Myrkblade up.

She stared at me. "….."

I stared at her. "….."

Hot, sweaty, stillness…

The audience held their breath.

"Nnngh!" she ran at me.

"!" I blurred at her.

She took a breath and leapt.

I held Myrkblade up and dove.

_THFFF!_ She teleported.

FLASH! I shifted into smoke form.

A blink.

….

FWOOOOOOOOSH!

I materialized into a sliding crouch, Myrkblade held high and vibrating.

Empress slid to a stop behind me, facing away.

We were both still for a second.

And….

"Ugh….," she dizzily fell over. THWUMP! She lay on the ground, unconscious from my incorporeal blow.

"_**WINNER! WYLDECARDE!"**_

Cheers.

Standing applause.

Flashing lights.

I took a deep breath. I glanced back at Empress.

Her body lay still on the metal slabs. Slowly breathing. Her body rising up and down.

_Oye…… _

_That was too close……_

I lowered Myrkblade. Something red and stringy was dangling off the tip.

My heart froze for a second and I did a double take.

"….."

A brassier hung off my weapon.

"……," I bit my lip…blushing. I shook it off. I twirled Myrkblade—freed of the article—and sheathed it with a coy, Wyldecarde grin. CHIIIIING!

'_Heh. You dirty womanizer, you.'_

_Shut up._

'_How come you never ran off with Slade's boxers, then?'_

_SHUT UP!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SHVVVVVVV!_

Hull held his buzz-saw of a blade up high.

Thunder screamed towards him, fist swinging.

**SWOOOOSH!**

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG! The spinning blade danced against her dense flesh, sending sparks flying.

Hull ducked her lunging knuckles.

She snarled and slammed her foot down.

_**STOMP!**_

A shockwave of thunder flew through the cracked metal slabs at Hull's figure.

He took a breath, leapt up, and stuck his sword into the ceiling of the metal cage. CLANK! He hung one-handed from his embedded blade's circular hilt, flicked a free hand of silver-tipped fingers down, and produced a pistol. FLASH! He aimed down and fired—_**BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

Thunder focused her energy into her palms, held the dense skin up, and deflected the bullets. TH-THWAP! THWAP! She reached down, grabbed a chunk of metal, and tossed it up harshly at Hull. "Nnngh!"

SWOOOSH!

Hull loosened his blade and fell at the last second-

THWAP!

The metal chunk hit him in mid-air.

His body spun, twirled, and landed hard—WHAM!

He winced all over as he collapsed across the cracked, metal floor of the cage. His silver-tipped fingers twitched and disappeared the sword and pistols.

_**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

**GRIP!**

He wheezed as the blonde combatant marched over, grabbed him by the neck, and hoisted him up to near-ceiling level again by her left arm.

He hung helplessly from her super-strength grip. Nearly choking…

The audience cheered and roared.

Panting, Thunder's face curved into a grin. She sneered up at him: "Well there, hotshot….guess you got to live the high life after all. It was a thrill…but I think now's the time I rip your dick off and call it a rap."

Hull wheezed: "Thank you….."

"'Thank you'?" Thunder's face twisted. The young woman giggled. "Hehehe…..for what?"

Hard, blue eyes.

Hull slurred: "For giving me a hand…."

CLAMP! His fingers gripped Thunder's wrist at his neck. The silver tips flickered and-

_FLASH!_

**SPLORCH!**

Thunder's entire left arm disappeared. A spurting, bloody hole resided in her shoulder.

"AAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" the blonde howled, wide eyed.

THWUMP! Hull fell down on his rear, wincing. His fingers still sparkling with silver light. Blood-stained.

"NNNGHAAAAAAAAAH!" Thunder fell back and slumped against the metal bars. She clutched her red-leaking shoulder. Shaking all over. "Nnnngh…my arm…MY ARM!" She lost all concentration. She clenched her eyes shut. Her face was a horrifically tense string of pain.

Convulsions.

Blood.

Blood….

A pair of black boots in front of her. A standing combatant.

"Pssst…."

Thunder's tear-stained eyes thinly opened.

"….say 'ah'."

_**THUNK!**_

Thunder's eyes widened. Hull's sword had plunged into her mouth. The bloody, metal tip burst out the back of her head. Her skewered cranium bled silently as the eyes remained frozen-open in infinite pain.

"….," Hull glared. Not a sweat. Not a scratch on him. He held the sword firmly through her lips and piercing her skull.

The crowd was silent. "……" But only for a little while. They cheered. Waving and applauding. Feet stomping.

Hull took a deep breath. YANK! He ripped his blade out of her mouth.

One could look through her lips and see the edges of the arena on the other side.

THWUMP!

Thunder's carcass slumped to the side.

Hull exhaled: "Don't forget to chew…."

FLASH!

The sword disappeared. A beat. In its place, Hull materialized something else.

Thunder's arm.

THWUMP!

He tossed it wetly on her bloody body and walked towards the cage's exit like nothing had happened.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood on the sidelines.

Barely outside the alcove.

I peered out, sweating, as the blue-garbed stranger marched from his cape.

There was blood staining his silver-tipped fingers.

"……..," I blinked under my goggles.

Hull walked a few paces, froze suddenly, turned his head, and glared at me across the way.

I stared.

He glared back.

A beat.

He exhaled…and slowly walked alone to another alcove where he sat down on a bench, slumped. In brooding, dark thought.

There was a trembling of the figure standing next to me.

"?" I glanced right.

A red-hooded archer with a white skirt gulped. She looked at me with simpering, pink lips. "Good thing I'm scheduled to face _you_ next…," Arrowette stammered.

"…….." I shrugged.

I stared across the arena at Wildebeest's fight.

_This is suddenly……depressing……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mmmmmm…..," Jacob Anderson hummed deliciously.

Deliciously….because he was watching the bloody death of Thunder being replayed.

On all five monitors in his balcony.

Totally ignoring the Wildebeest-Pantha fight.

"……..," he smiled drunkenly. His hands folded together. A whiff of air-conditioning breezing across his smooth-skin and burgundy robe. "Mmmmmm…."

A beat.

He glanced aside.

"……," Rexxin stood patiently. Looking a little patient.

Anderson merely gazed at him.

Rexxin gulped. He hesitated…but finally uttered: "Now, sir?"

A beat.

Anderson slowly nodded. "Yes….it's about time we tested out our Gotham ally's…..gift to us."

Rexxin nodded. He turned, squabbled into a walkie talkie, and briskly marched out of the rear door to the balcony.

Jacob Anderson pressed a button on his chair. Three screens showed separately the live images of Wildebeest, Hull, and Wyldecarde.

"Well then….children….bloody, bloody children…," he leaned forward with his fingers folded together and a devilish grin. "…it's time to teach you the ultimate lesson in massacres. And perhaps, I too shall learn….who the final four will be. But I hope….you're it. Heheheheh….I hope so indeed…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAWWWRR!" Pantha leapt onto Wildebeest's shoulder and started clawing, biting, and kicking madly at him.

Wildebeest snarled, pried the 'club' underneath her belly, and yanked her into the air.

THWAP!

She shrieked as her body twirled up towards the ceiling of the cage.

**GRIP!**

Wildebeest took her by the tail, spun a three-sixty, growled, and slammed her harshly down onto the metal slab floor.

CLANG!

"Mrrrrrrrwwwww," she moaned.

WHAP!

Wildebeest knocked the breath out of her with the club slamming over her chest.

She exhaled, twitched, and let out a furry groan as she fell unconscious.

Both cheers and boos.

Wildebeest snorted and tossed the club to the side.

**CLANG!**

"_**WINNER! WILDEBEEST!"**_

Thunder of the massive, gambling kind.

Wildebeest grunted and turned to limp his hairy way out of the cage—

"_**And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for a truly amazing surprise!"**_

"?" Wildebeest jolted to a stop and craned his head curiously towards the ceiling of the arena.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The audience members sat still.

Looks of curiosity and perplexity washing over their faces.

They blinked and exchanged glances.

Listening…

"_**You have gambled bravely today! Not just in placing your bets, but in coming here to this sacred auditorium of gladiatorial amazement! Jacob Anderson knows how to please a crowd. And today……you will not be disappointed!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**For now we have a secret challenger! A violent aggressor built for only the final rounds of this grand melee! And this twist will certainly rock the socks off each and every one of you! If not strip the skin off a few unlucky fighters! Heh heh heh……"**_

"Erhm…..," Jinx blinked. "This is time for a 'bloody hell'," her cat eyes looked at her companion. "Isn't it, Les?"

"What bloomin' second…," Pulsade sneered. She leaned on the catwalk with one hand as she whipped out a communicator with another. "'J'? Come in. What's going on? This is new! Why hadn't we heard of this!"

She received a morse code message in response.

Her blue eyes narrowed. "One of Triangular's Arkham lackeys? What sort of rubbish is that?" She barked into the communicator.

Jinx gasped.

Pulsade glanced at her.

"Oh jeez…oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez…," Jinx nearly bit her pink fingernails.

"What?"

Jinx gulped. "It has to be. It makes sense. He escaped just recently. The Triangular Gotham guy brought him here! It makes sense! Ohhhhh Jeez. I hope Wildebeest brought his brass knuckles…."

"………," Pulsade blinked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wildebeest, Arrowette, a few other fighters and I craned our necks as Red Panzer stepped into the golden cage. Across from him was a tall, muscular figure under a cloak. His features were hidden. Shadowed. Mysterious…and ominous at the same time.

Even Hull—in the distance—seemed anxious. He tilted his neck to the side and watched from his lonely little alcove.

'_Say Noir. Who's the new guy? We're a long way from Obi-Wan….much less an Obi-Wan on steroids……'_

I shrugged. I absent-mindedly watched the ongoing….'proceeding'.

"_**Red Panzer has bravely volunteered to fight this new aggressor! The stakes have been doubled for this one, folks! For what will this Russian Roulette of matchmaking doom have in store for our advancing combatant? None other than the most ruthless, most bloody, most notorious underground fighter in the history of the sport! Yes…"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin watched from the sidelines. A bit nervous. Shifting back and forth.

He stood by a few guards in the lower tiers of the audience ring surrounding the elliptical arena.

He glanced up at the balcony. At Jacob Anderson.

"….."

The robed man was smiling. Almost aroused.

"….."

Rexxin ran a hand through his red-highlighted hair, took a deep breath, and gazed once again at the caged fighting area.

"_**Yes……it is none other than the most recently escaped convict from Arkham Asylum in Gotham City! The terrible, swamp tyrant from the Bayou!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Red Panzer locked his arm-cannon into position.

Steam settled outward from his mask and metal joints.

He adjusted his red vest and stared sideways at the shrouded figure through his helmet.

"_**The one……the only……."**_

A dramatic pause.

Lights focusing in on the cloaked newcomer.

"Rrrrr**rrrrghhhRAAAH!**" The figure flung off the cloak.

A resounding gasp.

A hissing breath came from Red Panzer's helmet. "Mein Gott…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Killer Croc!"**_

A shudder through the fighters.

A wave of screams and shouts through the crowd.

A distant cackle from the balcony.

My lips parted. My goggles felt like slipping down my face.

The warm voice crackled in my ear's speakers.

'_Ladies and germs……we have us a purse. A blood-sucking, walking purse.'_

I nodded to the stuffy air.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hehh….Hehh….Hehh….," a pale, hard-skinned monstrosity of a human being standing over seven feet with broad shoulders and razor-sharp fingers breathed heavily. He stood across from Red Panzer in ripped blue jeans, shirtless, ridges and sharp bumps along his back exposed. His bald head crowned a twisted face with a heavy jaw full of razor sharp teeth. Gray eyes narrowed upon his meaty opponent. He cracked his razor sharp fingers and hissed: "Rip and tear time, ya Nazi varmint…."

"……," Red Panzer merely stared.

Flashing lights and crimson strobes.

"_**LET THE FINAL ROUNDS BEGIN!"**_


	192. The Earth Must Bleed part 7

**192. The Earth Must Bleed part 7**

"_Feel the Spectrum. Breathe in the White. Glide on the Black. Extend on the Red. The world is a full circle rotating on an endless line. Feel the flex and absorb it into your limbs. There is nothing to see. Sight is but an illusion that seldom makes itself useful. Focus on the feel of the spectrum. The pull and the push. The sharp boundaries in between. Meditate. Center yourself. And let the Winds of Color guide you……"_

_The Master's voice swam through all of us as he paced through our thick, organized groups. He walked around us…but we couldn't see him. _

_We were all blindfolded._

_Bandannas covering our eyes. _

_We were blind, and yet……we 'saw' color. _

_With each progressive day of meditation, we felt the Spectrum. _

_The White Construction. _

_The Red Destruction. _

_The Black Balance._

_There were many of us. Standing in long, solid lines in the center of the Manor's courtyard. With dojos and oriental buildings erected all around us. A line of thick, cedar forests bordering. The mountains climbing up and up and up beyond._

_I twirled my wooden boken in jabs and swings and poses coordinated with the unseen, bodies all around me. _

_I felt them with spatial sense. Graham, Dawn, Matt, Ginelle, Ben, Michelle, Michael……_

_Ana……_

_Even—_

_SWOOOSH! _

_I followed everyone else as I jabbed my training sword high and balanced on one pair of toes. _

_I gritted my teeth. _

_My whole body straining and struggling. _

_I dreaded that part…… _

_It was so impossibly hard to maintain that position. _

_Every muscle in my body wanted to burst. _

_And I could never understand…… _

_How could I possibly meditate like this! _

_SLASH! _

_We all knelt into an excruciating pose of another sort, low and crushing our ankles and knees. _

_I took a shuddering breath. _

_I chased away all inhibitions and fears. _

_This was a hardcore school. I had a Master to appease. I had a Spectrum to learn, understand, and eventually manipulate. _

_I tried to do what he told us to. I tried to meditate. I centered myself. I focused on the Spectrum as a whole, and I searched for the one strain……the one color that I knew had to have defined me. _

_Construction… _

_Construction…… _

_Construction……… _

_I sough white within the blinded darkness of my eyes. _

_And I panted and sweat. _

_Struggling…… _

_For all I could see… _

_Was black._

_SWIIIISH! _

_I followed everyone in a twirling, reverse jab. _

_Standing up. _

_Panting. _

_Construction……………………_

_FWOOOSH! _

_We all twirled. _

_Jabbing our swords out. _

_And mine as well, aiming at…… _

_I let out a breath. _

_I felt her fair, angelic head. The tiny slopes of blonde wisps melting down her head and stopping short of the lower lobes of her ears. Petite lobes for a petite face atop a tall, slender body. Vested. An undershirt and long jump pants. A bandanna of her own over her eyes. The colors of yellow and green that I knew were there and yet couldn't see. _

_And for a moment there, I understood what the Master was trying to tell us._

"…_trust the Spectrum! Not your eyes! Only in the Spectrum do true colors lie!" _

_I didn't have to see Ana to know she was heavenly. _

_I lost some of my meditation, and I smiled. _

_SWOOOOOSH! _

_Everyone around me twirled……but me. _

_THWACK! _

_I gasped and fell face-forward into the courtyard. SPLAT! _

_Mutterings. Gasps. Chuckles. _

_The sighing voice of the Master. Then: "Students, at ease. We've trained enough for this hour. Take a few minutes to compose yourselves……" And his little feet shuffled away. _

_I winced on the ground and sat up. Dizzily. _

"_Heheheh……wow, Jordan. That makes me feel better about accidentally bruising Graham's knee in front of the Master last week!" _

"_Pfft……shut up, Matt," I groaned and ripped off my red bandanna. I blinked at the bright world as dozens of young bodies wandered off in small, chatting clusters with their training swords over their back. A ring of familiar friends hovered around me. I looked up at them, squinting my brown eyes. I snarled: "Who did it?" _

"_You know what the Master would say," Ben shrugged. "You only hit yourself by losing concentration!" _

"………_," I glared at him. "It was __**you**__, wasn't it?" _

_Chuckles. _

_Ben blushed. "Sorry, man. I was just following the meditation." _

"_I know……I know……," I sighed. I ran a hand through my short black hair. "Dang it………how could I be so stupid?"_

" '_Distracted' is more like it……," said a warm voice. And a hand dipped down to me. _

_I looked up. _

_Ana stood over me. Her yellow bandanna draped around her identically yellow vest. Golden, like her hair. "Well? Either kiss it or let me help you up to your feet!" _

_I distinctly heard the giggle of Michelle and a few other nearby girls. _

_Blushing—but trying not to show it—I took Ana's grip and stood up beside her. "Ahem……," I brushed myself off. "In the end, it doesn't really matter HOW it happened. What matters is it DID happen. I fell. And I can't fall during meditation and expect to get good earnings in the Master's eyes." _

"_I wouldn't worry if I were you," Michael patted my shoulder. "It's not like this is a common habit." _

_I scratched the back of my neck. I glanced sideways at Ana. _

_She smiled innocently._

_I glanced again at the others and simpered: "Well……not yet, at least." _

"_Heheh……come on. The Master gave us some off time, and I intend to use it!" _

"_How's that, Ben?" Dawn droned. _

"_How else? Climbing a tree!" _

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_On the edge of the Cedar forest, many of the students sat in the soft grass of the earth or leaned against the lower sprouts of the giant trees or simply utilized the shade in any way possible as they chatted, laughed, and even practiced some of their Spectrum focus. A half dozen or so of the youngest trainees chased each other playfully underneath the canopy. Ana and I had found our favorite spot. A low lying piece of flora with thick branches jutting out just perfect for someone like Ana and I to rest on. _

_And so we did. _

"_Okay……you've got to explain it to me……," Ana helplessly giggled. "Why camouflage?" _

"_Hmmm?" _

"_Your getup! Why the camouflage?" _

"_Oh……," I simpered. "Well……back when the Master pretty much had an open-ended policy for what we choose to wear for training, I couldn't decide on a single color." _

"_Really now…………," she folded her arms and leaned her angelic head against the main trunk of the tree. Her green legs dangled in the air below. "……I thought you were so into black lately." _

"_Yeah……well………," I fingered the army-flavored jacket and smiled. "……I sorta grew attached." _

"_I can see that." _

"_Maybe I'll settle for a black undershirt……," I gestured with a flesh left hand. "Ya know……one of those wife-beater-thingies." A beat. I winced. "Er……" _

"_Hehehehehe," she giggled. _

"_Not that I like the __**name**__, but just the look—" _

"_Tank top will do." _

"_But that sounds feminine! I—ah forget it," I folded my arms and pouted. _

"_Hehehehe!" _

"_You fluster me." _

"_It's too fun not to." _

"_What's with the Yellow and Green?" I smirked. "It's very Earthy." _

"_Yellow is Earthy?" _

"_Well……Solar and Earthy." _

"_Hehehehe." _

"_Still going after Construction, aren't you?" I coyly winked. _

"_Are you talking to a mirror or something?" _

_I blinked. "Excuse me?" _

_She pointed at herself: "I know what I'm cut out for." A haughty smirk fell over Ana's features. "You on the other hand……" _

"_Oh gawds……," I rolled my eyes. "Enough with that! Stop trying to tell me I'm something I'm not training for!" _

"_I can feel it during meditation, Jordan," she spoke in a slightly more solemn toll that only half-surprised me. "It emanates from you. Dark and obsidian." _

"_Bah. I can't be Balance! I just……," I frowned and looked over the heads of the nearby fraternizers. "I just can't……" _

_Ana leaned her head to the side. Soft, caring sapphires. "You don't know what you want to be, do you, Jordan?" _

_I bit my lip. _

_I couldn't look at her. _

"_Jordan……" _

_I sighed. _

"_Jordan……it's okay to admit that." _

_I looked at her sadly. "Not for me it isn't." _

"…………_," she stared. _

_I took a deep breath. A ran a hand over my brown eyes and shut them. "Sometimes, Ana. I wake up in the middle of the night and……I-I don't even know why I came here. I mean……I-I know it's going against everything the Master has taught us, but I've been thinking of the past. Today when I slipped while meditating, that was just a sample of a gradual……__**fall**__ in my training. I can't help but look back and feel like an idiot. I mean……why did I leave my family? They were supportive of this decision and all, but it wasn't like I was bottoming out or anything. I was on the honor roll at school. I was helping my sister out with her homework. I was riding bikes with Diana and a few other kids in the neighborhood. Everything you'd expect from some freakin' sitcom, I had! Why did I feel compelled to leave all of that goodness behind? Why did I hug my family goodbye and hitch the bus here to begin with! And it's not 'just because the Master selected me'. It's a lot more complex than that. It __**has**__ to be……" _

_A bit of silence. _

_I sighed, breaking it. I felt a soreness in my throat. _

_It gradually melted away with Ana's warm voice: _

"_Sometimes, Jordan……," she smiled painfully, "……the best things we ever do involves leaving the best things behind." _

_I took a deep breath, staring through the trunk of the tree beneath us. Silent._

"_Sometimes we leave that which we love to do what is best. And the thing that compels us……it's stronger than gravity. And I think that's just a reminder that the Spectrum is real. And……there is a Balance, Jordan. There's a……a B-Balance of Morals that is far more important than any single one of us and it impresses upon us to do either the right thing or the wrong thing or maybe something strong in between." _

"_I wish I knew what all of that was," I muttered. _

"_So do I at times……," she then took a deep, warm breath. "But I try not to worry much about it." _

_I looked at her. _

"_Call it the power of Construction, but I believe that I am far too strong to let such confusion overtake me. And you, Jordan……" _

"_Yeah?" _

"_I think you are so good at adapting, that you can survive whatever confusion you come up against." She then exhaled with a slightly sad twinge in her eyes. "But not without pain and friction." _

"…………"

_She gazed off through the forest, her face a bit long. _

_And I felt strangely touched. As if a part of me that I never before knew was bleeding had been coddled._

_I don't know where it came from but I asked: "Ana, are you ever going to tell me someday why you left your home to come here?" _

_She suddenly bit her lip and hugged herself. _

_I gently pressed: "Wh-What was it, Ana? You've only hinted of it before……but……what did your father do? After your mother died, what could possibly have happened to make you r—" _

"_I owe nothing to my father," Ana murmured. "Everything comes from my mother," she said. She clenched a fist. "This undeniable power. This feeling of Life and of……of……a blueprint, Jordan. Like the very structure of the Earth shifting through my arteries. I can't explain it. I can only feel it. And I felt it all the more when my mother was alive. And when she was gone, I felt the power lessen. I felt Construction waning. Even before the times when my Father………" _

_Her speech bled into nothingness. She gulped and gazed off. _

_And I felt bad. _

_I looked away._

_But soon in my peripheral vision I sensed her shift and pull something out of her vest pocket. "But my mother lives on. In some fashion or another. I can feel her power inside of me. It's an inspiration. And when I look upon the Spectrum with blind eyes during training, I feel for her. Like yellow-gold fingers melting in and out of the White streams. I feel at one with myself and what has made me when I meditate." _

_I looked at her again. _

_She fingered the harmonica in her grasp. She smiled at me gently. "I may have the memories of her. Even this heirloom……hehehe……," she turned the musical instrument over some. "But more importantly, I have her spirit in me. Something……something strong and impervious to Destruction. Something that she had in her very blood and I got somehow. So I came here—not so much to escape my father—but to be with my mother again. And……And to be with new people. People like my friends, Jordan." _

"………_," I smiled some. _

"_Care for a tune?" _

_I scratched my head. "Uh……sure. Think we have time?" _

"_No." _

_A beat. _

_I smiled: "Yeah, go on and play away." _

"_Hehehehe," she giggled and leaned back. "Got a request or something?" _

"_You serious?" _

"_Dead serious!" _

_My brown eyes wandered as did the tongue in my mouth. I paused, smirked, and pointed: "I got it. Know any Simon and Garfunkel?"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**RED PANZER versus KILLER CROCK!"**_

_Hissss-Cl-Clank!_

Red Panzer aimed his arm cannon at Killer Croc and paced along the rim of the golden cage.

"Hhhhhhhheh heh heh heh…," Killer Croc licked the knife-like teeth along his mutated jaws and snickered. "I think I'll be fixin' to rip the fish meat right out of that sardine can you call a head!"

"Ich werde Sie töten, Ungeheuer!" Red Panzer narrowed the site of his cannon.

"Start screamin'…," Killer Croc's glossy eyes narrowed. "It's the only language otha than English I can translate."

He tightened his scaly muscles, flared his teeth and neck muscles, and pounced: "YAAAAGH!"

Red Panzer hobbled back and fired—_PHOMP!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade and Jinx watched from their post on the rafters above.

"What are you trying to say, 'J'?" the British assassin spoke into the communicator she had. A beat. She listened. Then she responded: "Triangular sent him?"

"Triangular's old fashioned," Jinx stuck her pink tongue out. "This guy is like sending Patrick Ewing back into the Garden."

Pulsade glanced over with thin eyes of blue. "Say what?"

"Never mind…," Jinx moaned and ran a hand over her cheshire face. "Mammoth was a basketball fan back at H.I.V.E. Stupid fuzzhead wouldn't stop talking about the Knicks, I swear to Hecate…"

"Whatever," Pulsade turned back to her communicator. "'J', do whatever you can to trace back to Killer Croc's escape from Arkham. I want to know how he's related to Triangular and who in the bloody Hell this Gotham face behind the madness is already!"

"Give 'J' a rest!" Jinx giggled. "Come on, Leslie! This is Killer Croc! The biggest loser in all Gotham! Heh….whatever in the pink-laced heck Triangular thinks they can get away with by using him is beyond me—" At a loud, clashing sound, Jinx looked down. Her cat eyes widened and she blinked. "Holy shit."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRRRRAAACK!_

Killer Croc had managed to meatbag his way into Red Panzer's side and was busily ripping his arm-cannon apart with biting teeth.

_SNKKKKKT!_

Shards flew and sparks danced and whatever was barren and fleshy underneath the exposed cocoon of titanium quivered and bled in pain.

"Mein fleisch!"

"NnnnngAAAH!" Killer Croc yanked ceiling-ward with his clenched jaw.

_CRACK!_

Red shards flew.

Red Panzer stumbled back, clutching a sparking stub of broken metal and quivering skin.

"Heeeeeeehheheheheh," Killer Croc sneered. He spat out a few strip of titanium and wiped the blood off his mandibles with a scaly forearm. "Sprechen sie blood loss ya friggin' washing machine!"

Red Panzer hissed and reached into his side with a free arm for a luger. "Arschloch!" _BANG!_

Croc ducked.

The bullet bounced off the cage's bars.

Crouching, Crock slowly turned his hardened neck. _CRK-CRK-CRK-CRK-CRK!_ The joints popped. His glossy eyes thin. A hissing smile….and…

SWOOOOSH!

He pounced on Red Panzer. GRIP! Grabbed him by the shoulders. SWOOOOSH! And swung him into the bars.

CLANG!

"Mmmmf!" the helmeted combatant shuddered in pain.

"RrrrrrrrRRRRGHAAAAAAAAAAH!" Croc waved his arms, widened his gaping, serrated jaws, and stormed towards him.

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!

SWOOOSH-SMACK!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From the alcove…..

Wildebeest snorted.

Hull sharpened his sword.

Arrowette bit her lip.

"…….," I stared.

The crowd cheered and the lights and synthetic thunder rolled.

An unmistakable, electronic voice filtered into my ear piece.

'_Well this grudge match has certainly turned into a crock, if you don't mind my bleeding pun,'_ crackled the Messenger. _'Consider Red Panzer as good as dead. But—as horrific as it might sound to a few retarded mothers out there—this battle we're seeing here has little consequence. It's rather obvious that Jacob Anderson has had this reptilian ace up his sleeve for quite a while now. Most likely a consequence of his Gotham connection in Triangular. He chooses to reveal the creep now—undoubtedly to psyche out the audience and those fighting. I think he's trying to turn the leftover gladiators away, Noir. Not all of them. Only those he think don't have the guts to stay here and face the ultimate gore yet. In short, this isn't a contest. It's a __**selection.**__' _

My face twisted. I gazed up through my black goggles in some vain attempt to make eye contact with the lofty, unseen Messenger.

'_Maybe some of what Pulsade and her pink princess said was correct. There are strange things going on here. Stranger than what Triangular could ever show us here at Pompeii on the surface. More than Jacob Anderson's bloody fights and even bloodier fetishes. Something big and nasty and crazy.'_

I gulped.

A shiver ran up my metal limb….

'_Stay strong, Noir. This is still the way and only way to find Terra. But I get the feeling that we're going to find a lot more soon enough……'_

I took a deep breath.

'_Man oh man……,'_ the Messenger's voice lamented. _'Does that guy's teeth rip through __**everything**__!'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RESSSSSH!" Croc's drooling jaw bit into the armor plating of Red Panzer's left forearm.

The crimson combatant struggled, hissed, and yanked away—

_CRACK!_

Strips of red metal peeled into Croc's mandibles.

Red Panzer limped backwards across the cage.

Croc smiled with the metal in his mouth. He chewed it, swirled it around in his mouth, and spat out a resulting cube of crunched metal—_"PTOOIE!"_

Cl-Clank! It landed wetly at Panzer's feet.

"……," Panzer's steaming helmet glanced down at it, then back up at Croc.

"RrrrrrRRRAAAUGH!" He flexed his scaling arms and flared his neck again. Glossy eyes wide. "That was just an appetizer, ya mangy crab! And I sure as hell sick of shrimp!"

Red Panzer hissed. He whipped out his luger in a shaking left hand and fired—B-BANG!

"Nnngh!" Croc spun and exposed his backside.

_PING!_

The two bullets ricocheted off his hard skin.

"……!" Panzer shuddered.

"……," Croc looked over his welted shoulder. He grinned, licked his teeth, and leapt—SWOOOOSH!

And the crowd cheered as serrated fingers swiped at Red Panzer's chest plate.

SLASSSSH!

SLASH! SLASH!

CRAAACK!

"AAAAAAAAAH!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heheheheheh…," Jacob Anderson stroked the top of his right hand with subtle left fingers. His eyes thinned and a brightness about his face seemed to compliment the skunk spots in his hair. "Ohhhh…I brought him out too late. I brought him out _too late!_ Hahahahah…."

Rexxin nervously sweat. "Do you suppose that….the gladiators will suspect something?"

"They are all after the Vault," Anderson hissed, his eyes hungrily drinking in the carnage of the golden cage. "They've come into the bowels of Las Vegas, and they've gone too far for too long to possibly give up now. I know the mind of a criminal, my good man. They will do ANYTHING to get what they desire." He turned and gazed at Rexxin. "Including what we'll have in store for the final four."

"And how do we know there will be any solidarity among the 'final four'?" the chief of security stared.

"It's not solidarity that I'm concerned about," Andersoon cooed. He raised a finger. "But survival." He gazed back towards the arena. "Triangular has been needing an edge lately. What with the confounded 'Parasite' and all that our boss has been muttering about. After tonight, I'm going to give Triangular that edge. And we have the boss' ace in the whole…" he pointed at the reptilian-man. "….to help us out."

Rexxin ran a hand through his red, highlighted hair. "Yeah….but I see plenty of other aces in the whole," he murmured. Glancing at the alcove. "Wildcards, even."

"I've lived a good part of my life in Las Vegas, Rexxin," Anderson raised a glass of quaff to his lips. "With pipsqueak foreigners like these kids, I think **I'm** the one fit for a winning hand."

"………"

"Tell the lighting crew to focus more lights on the blood…," Anderson hissed with a smile.

-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRAACK! _

_CRKKKKK!_

"NnnnghhAAAAAUGH!" Red Panzer fell on his knees. Clutching his side. Blood leaking out of a dozen claw marks all around his jacketed and steel-plated torso.

Gasps and cheers filtered in from the crowd.

A hot, converging halo of spotlights illuminated Killer Croc as he leisurely stepped around the bleeding combatant. Sneering. Hissing through sharp teeth. The tendons in his mutated jaw tightened and uncoiled. "RESSSSH!" He knelt down and gripped Red Panzer's cylindrical helmet in one hand. He glared into his mask.

Red Panzer trembled. Red steam billowing.

"Somethere in that trash can hat of yours, you've got yourself some eyes!" Killer Croc sneered.

A beat.

THUNK! Two reptilian fingers burst through the front of the helmet in separate places, spilling red.

"AAAAAAAH!" the man's face inside the helmet screamed.

"Not anymore!" Killer Croc rumbled. "RESSSSH-HAHAHAHA!" THWUMP! He shoved Red Panzer to the floor, pounced on him, and hungrily sank his teeth into the man's neck-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I winced.

Arrowette covered her lips.

Wildebeest folded his arms and gazed aside.

"……," Hull kept sharpening his blade.

Loud, loud, loud cheers….

I took a deep breath and clenched my metal fist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Rrrrrrrrr-RRREEESSHHHH!"

_SNKKKKTTTT!_

Killer Croc's bloody snout reared up towards the ceiling of the cage.

He swallowed a few strips of man meat, gulped, and licked his crimson lips with a smile. "Hressshh-heheheheheh." He cracked his neck, stood up, and smeared some of the blood across his bare, scaly chest in a long 'handprint'. "I reckon that's a fatality…."

The announcer's microphone whined but for a moment before—

"_**WINNER! KILLER CROC!"**_

Cheers and thundering applause.

He merely hissed at the enormous audience, spun, and kicked Red Panzer's wet body with a growl. "Nnngh! Bring me more blood, ya yahoos!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade's eyes narrowed at the sight. "Mrmmm….," she pursed her lips. "I'm beginning to believe that Wildebeest will need more support than we once imagined."

A beat.

Her blue eyes looked over to the side. "Love?"

She blinked.

Jinx was sickly leaning over the edge of the catwalk's railing. Convulsing.

"Nnngh…," Pulsade rolled her blue eyes, marched over, and grabbed Jinx's shoulders. "Not over the _bloody audience!_" She forced the pink sorceress on her knees and aimed her mouth to the catwalk platform itself. "Now think of some fish and chips or something and get it over with!"

"Bleeaaahck, you meaniiiiieee-BLEACHK!"

"Feh."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I watched from the alcove as a bloodlusting Killer Croc marched his way out of the cage. He raised stained arms and jeered on the loud crowd. He momentarily glared over at us with eyes of green glossiness. Almost akin to mucous. There seemed to be a cold throbbing to the rows of bunts and spikes on his balding head and shoulders. The scales flexed with his muscles as he took a hot breath and chuckled his way over to an alcove of his own.

"………," I stared.

I sensed a shaking to my side.

I looked over.

Wildebeest had his arms folded. Hull was perfectly still. But Arrowette…

Arrowette was trembling.

I took a breath.

_If you didn't want to face death, why did you come to this tournament to begin with, girl?_

A beat.

I stared straight ahead and sighed.

_Maybe this is the nicest thing 'Wyldecarde' has ever done. Kick a few asses and let them live……_

'_You still got your senses together, Noir-pal?'_

I stared up ceiling-ward.

_You don't know what I'm thinking._

'_Hang on to your skin, buddy. Cuz sooner than you know it, somebody's gonna try and peel it off.'_

I exhaled and looked off towards the shadows.

_Yeah, thanks……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Ben yawned. He looked over from his top bunk bed in the cabin. Blinking. "Jordan? Where're you headed off to?"_

_I slid open a paper door to the night-laden courtyard outside. I turned and smiled gently back at the boys in the quarters. I had two wooden pales balanced on a yoke over one shoulder. "Late night water run. The Master needs a barrel full for some meditation he's doing tomorrow. So he sent me on an errand. An errand to the well." _

"_What sort of meditation is the Master doing that requires water?" Ben blinked. _

_Graham was lying back on a lower bunk, reading a book to candle light. "Black Balance." _

"_What's Black got to do with water?" _

"_Well," I shrugged, the wooden pales wobbling. "It's like the Black part of the spectrum itself. You learn to flow with water. And—once Balance is mastered—you can literally stand in the middle of a lake and not get wet." _

"_Yup…," Graham muttered and flipped a page. _

_A beat. Ben smirked: "Gee, you know an awful lot about Black, Jordan." _

_I blinked. I frowned at him, turned, and walked out the cabin. "Go to Hell." _

"_I intend to go to __**sleep**__." _

"_Same difference." _

"_Heheheh……"_

_SWTHHHH-THIP!_

_I shut the paper door hard._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I sighed. _

_A beat. _

_Under starlight, I shifted the yoke of the two water pales over the back of my neck and walked across the white gravel of the courtyard. _

_I hummed a gentle tune to myself, rivaling the crickets._

_The air was cold. It stung my feet and made what little hair there was on my young skin stand on end. _

_I smiled to myself. _

_Sometimes, I thought that God had made me to be a silent person. Or at least a reclusive one. I hung out with all my fellow students. And before joining the School of the Spectrum, I had Diana and other best friends to be with, talk with, and laugh with. _

_But moments like that…… _

_Under the tranquil silence of the night……… _

_I felt a strange type of serenity. _

_The best feeling in the world. _

_No, the __**second**__ best feeling in the world. _

_And then I realized that silent people don't hum. _

_Or at least, they shouldn't._

_I chased the guilt away a good two minutes later by the time I reached the well._

_I rested the pales on the edge of the circular opening of stone. I pulled out the lock of the wooden crankshaft. I pulled at the handle of the primitive instrument and swiftly rotated it. With a gentle squeaking sound, I lowered the bucket that was tied to an uncoiling piece of rope. _

_A minute later, it reached the bottom. _

_I let it gather water. _

_I pushed another level. _

_I cranked the other way. _

_Biting my lips. Straining._

_Gawd, I'm such a wimp. _

_Good thing none of the other guys are seeing this. _

_I sweat. _

_The bucket full of water was nearly halfway up the well. _

_I took a deep breath and kept cranking. _

_I should be stronger than this! _

_All White adepts should be strong. _

_Water shouldn't be such an obstacle for them…… _

_Still, it took me next to forever. A good three minutes before the bucket was up. _

_I slumped the thing onto the lid of the well with a splash and sighed. _

_My arm was sore……but not as sore at my ego. _

_I stared down at the shadowy Earth. _

_Why do I get this scary feeling that I'll be going back home sooner than I thought? _

_A shift. _

_But not a shift in the wind. _

"_?" I raised my face. _

_I stared around._

_My brown eyes blinked. _

_My spatial sense…… _

_My fingers curled against the wooden barrel. _

_Water lapping up and down the sides._

_I slowly turned and looked around. _

_Now where on earth? _

_Another shift. _

"_!" I jerked and looked. _

"_Catch!" _

_Thwiiish! _

_BAP!_

_A wooden boken flew and bounced off my head._

"_Owie!" I rubbed my skull. The corners of my eyes wet as I grit my teeth._

_Ana stepped out of the nearby line of trees. She held a boken of her own. She was still dressed in the yellow vest, green shirt, and greet jumppants from the last time we trained. _

_She smiled, a touch of night wind angelically animating her wisps of hair._

"_Getting distracted, eh waterboy?" _

"_Ana!" I bit my lip. I looked around. I hissed nervously: "What are you doing out here?" _

"_Tossing wooden training swords at you. Hehehehe……what does it look like?" _

"_It's waaaaay past curfew!" I hissed. _

_She pointed with her boken. "You should be speaking." _

_I pointed at myself with a pout: "__**I'm**__ on an errand for the Master." _

"_To deliver him something for morning meditation, right?" _

"_Uh……yeah………so?"_

"_So he won't need the water at his cabin until dawn, will he?" _

"……………"

"_Come on!" Ana whispered with a smile. She motioned with her head towards the forest. "I want to show you something……"_

_I nervously gulped. I glanced back at the cabins. The lights that were out. The students that were sleeping. The Master and his assistant trainers that were all-knowing. _

"_Do you trust me?" she asked. _

_I blinked. _

_I slowly turned and looked at her._

_A serious look on my face. _

_I deeply inhaled. I knelt, picked up the wooden sword, and gripped the hilt tightly. _

"_Of course, Ana…," I smiled. I walked towards her. "You know I do." _

"_Then follow me," she whispered with a giggle and bounded into the forest. _

_I padded after her. _

_Leaving the water behind._

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_There was clearing in the cedar trees. _

_Ten minutes into the forest. _

_Starlight filtered down and gave the blades of grass a blue-green glow. _

_Ana and I padded across the soft earth. _

_Barefoot._

_It was cold. _

_And I shivered. _

_And yet, I shivered……not because of the cold._

"_What are we doing out here, Ana?" I murmured. _

_She stopped and spun around. _

"_Mmmmm……a training session." _

_I raised an eyebrow. _

"_This late at night?" _

"_Why not?" she smiled. She raised her fair hands to the bespeckled heavens. "It's dark! God's got a celestial blindfold strung across the earth." She winked at me. "It's only you……and me……" _

_I sweatdropped. _

"………_and the Spectrum." _

"_R-Right………," I simpered. _

_She twirled her boken and stood in a fighting pose across from me. "So then……get ready……" _

"_Uhhh……," I gulped and twirled my training sword into a ready position. "So……we're sparring?"_

"_More or less." _

"_More or less! Ana, is there even a rule to this?" _

"_Just……attack me and we'll take it from there." _

"_But-" _

"_Trust me, Jordan," she said firmly. Strongly. A touch of windblown concern and caution on the edges of her features. _

_I was nervous. _

_But I was also curious. _

_I decided to do what I was gradually discovering I did best. _

_I followed her lead. _

"_Okay……," I gripped my weapon. I melted down into a coiled pose. _

"………_," she stood tall and firm. _

_Ana. _

_I took a breath. _

_My brown eyes narrowed. _

_A beat. _

_Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! _

_I lumbered towards her. _

_Sword raised. _

_The grass bending and breaking to my feet. _

"_Nnnnngh!" I growled and swung at her- _

_The rest of her body stood absolutely still while her sword arm strongly slashed up and- _

_THWACK! _

_The blonde girl's boken struck across my training sword, slammed across my chest, and sent me flying across the clearing. _

_THWOOOSH-THWUMP! _

"_Ooof!" I winced all over. My butt stinging. "Ow……" _

_She cleared her throat. "Don't tell me that was all you got." _

_I stood up, wincing. "How'd you do that?" _

"_It didn't take much, Jordan." _

"_Yeah, I can tell! You just stood there and—" my speech faltered. I blinked. _

_Ana was standing perfectly still. Resolute. Strong. _

_And her face…… _

_She wasn't smiling. _

_She looked so adult. _

_So serious. _

_So __**strong.**_

"_Try it again……," she murmured. _

_I blinked. "Again?" Another blink. "__**Try**__?" _

_She nodded. _

_I felt a little hurt. _

_Regardless, I re-gripped my sword, took a deep breath, and charged. _

_SWOOOOOOSH! _

_Grass and starlight. _

_Sighing, blurring cedar trees. _

_Ana stood perfectly still. _

_I jabbed forward with my wooden sword. _

_She easily deflected downward. _

_CLACK! _

_I stumbled. _

_She twirled her sword and struck at my rear- _

_CRACK! I deflected in reverse, spun, and jabbed at her head. _

_She swung upwards with her boken. _

_THWACK! _

_Again, the blow was strong. _

_It sent me reeling back. _

_I struggled to keep on my feet. _

_Ana took a deep, sad breath. _

_SWOOOOSH-THUNK! _

_She merely stuck her sword into the earth. _

_And to me, it felt that the whole ground shook. _

_Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. _

_Regardless, a vibrating force of pure strength shuddered through me and I fell down again. _

_THWUMP! _

"_Nnngh……," I murmured. _

_Ana exhaled. Her blue eyes shut. _

"_Jordan……you're trying to hard……" _

"_A-And you?" I shuffled up to my feet, raising my sword again. A bit red-faced. "It doesn't even look like you're trying! Ana, I had no idea that you were so…so……" _

"_What, Jordan?" _

"_Together!" _

"_I am only being naturally," she said in a low voice. _

_I leaned forward, concern on my face: "What are you trying to say—" _

"_You should try and be natural too, Jordan!" she snapped. A slight frown on her face. And it was righteous anger. _

_But anger nonetheless. _

_I jerked back, biting my lip. _

_She breathed in through her nostrils, jaw tight. She twirled her boken and held it across her chest. Her frown turned into a long face as she said: "Attack me again." _

_I blinked. "Ana?" _

"_AGAIN!" _

_I shook. I took a deep breath. I twirled my sword and rushed at her again. _

_She held her ground and—with a swing of power—took me on._

_CLASH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CL-CLACK!

SWOOOSH!

_Plant!_

_PLANT!_

She breathed.

I breathed.

The crowd.

The lights.

The announcer: _**"WYLDECARDE versus ARROWETTE!"**_

"YAAAAAGH!" the red-hooded archer stood up from her landing and fired three arrows at me at once.

_THWIIIIIIIFT!_

I held my breath, leapt back, and twirled Myrkblade vertically with a flip.

CL-CL-CLANG!

I deflected the arrows back at her.

She jerked back and twirled her huge red bow.

CLACK!

She blocked the return of her projectiles.

I landed. I skid backwards. I impacted the wall.

Thwump!

I panted.

Arrowette paced slowly sideways and shot arrow after arrow.

_PTWIFFT! _

_PTWIFFT! _

_PTWIFFT!_

I ducked one arrow. CLACK! Side-stepped another. CLACK! And ripped a third in half with Myrkblade. CRKK!

She increased her pace and her volleying.

_PTWIFFT-PTWIFFT-PTWIFFT!_

I held my breath, summoned murk through my body, and blurred up and onto the metal wall. My speeding feet planted into each and every cross-bar perfectly as I literally ran along the circular wall of the silver cage. All the while, arrows impacted the metal structure just behind my smoking feet.

CL-CL-CLACK!

CRACK!

CLANG!

Arrowette sweat, her pink lips bent in a teeth-clenching snarl. She unleashed arrow after arrow at me in desperation as I circled the cage's wall toward her.

_PTWIFFT-PTWIFFT-PTWIFFT!_

I approached her, running horizontally. As I got closer, so did the launch of the projectiles. I slashed Myrkblade out from the wall. CL-CLANG! I deflected to arrows. Just as I reached her, I kicked against the metal cage, somersaulted through the air, landed in a slide, pulsed murk, and vaulted at her.

THWOOOSH!

"Nnngh!" she twirled her bow up like a staff. SWOOSH!

CL-CLACK! I flipped over her with a spark-flying contact of our weapons. I gripped to the cage bars of the wall above and behind her. I kept my grip and jabbed down at her.

She held the bow up with two hands and held Myrkblade's lunge at bay. After a few seconds of struggle, she pushed up with a shout. "RAAUGH!"

I recoiled up into the wall.

She spun—white skirt twirling—and swung the entire length of her scarlet bow at me.

FWOOOSH! I teleported, shot down in mist form, solidified behind her, and reverse kicked the small of her back.

THWUMP!

She stumbled forward into the metal bars. Chest first. CLANG! "Mmmph!" she winced.

I twirled Myrkblade and charged her under a flash of arena lights.

Arrowette leaned forward against the metal bars, pulled loose an arrow, aimed towards the ceiling, and shot at the upper framework of the cage.

_PTWIFFT!_

SWIIIISH! The arrow flew upwards. CLANG! It deflected off the wall. CL-CLANG! Bounced off the ceiling. THWOOOSH! And sailed down at me.

"!" I skidded to a stop, my black hair tossing forward over my cranium like a horse's tail.

RIIIP! The arrow sailed so close it ripped the lower band loose from my ponytail.

CRACK!

The arrow landed between my black boots.

I sweatdropped.

I looked up.

"RRRRRRAAUGH!" Arrowette charged with a fist in my goggled face.

WHACK!

I stumbled back.

"RRRGH!" THWACK! Her bow slammed across my cheek.

I spit blood.

"RAAAAUGH!" she brought her leg up and kicked my stunned body in the chest.

WHUMP!

I stumbled back.

She inhaled sharply, whipped out an arrow, and launched it at the 'X' shaped scar placed appropriately in the center of my neck.

I gasped and ducked-

_THWIFFFT!_

SLIIINK!

I winced as the arrow grazed my upper right shoulder. But it was only a shallow cut. What really worried me was how the quill of the arrow caught itself on the metal mesh covering my flesh and pulled it across the length of the cage and into the metal bars on the other side.

CLACK!

I struggled, pinned to far wall by the arrow. I struggled to get loose.

"…..," Arrowette frowned. "I'll make it painless for you….," she uttered as she loaded an ice-arrow into her bow.

I shuddered.

'_I don't think she's afraid of you, Noir.'_

I gritted my teeth.

_No kidding._

'_Be Wyldecarde already!'_ the Messenger's voice crackled.

My black eyes narrowed under my goggles.

Arrowette loaded the ice arrow.

I snaked a metal hand to my buckle pouches.

Arrowette aimed at my body.

I pulled out a fan of razor-sharp playing cards.

'_Dammit, do what Wyldecarde will do!'_

_ALLRIGHT, ALREADY! _

I exhaled a mute shout and tossed all three cards in a flurry.

TH-TH-THWISSSSSH!

A glint of serrated metal reflected in the female archer's widening eyes as the three projectiles converged on her cranium.

_RIIIIIIIP!_

"Nnnngh!" she yelped as the red hood was ripped off her blonde head. Exposing her forehead. She clenched her eyes shut, wincing in shock.

THWICK! I pulled the bloody arrow out of the metal mesh of my outfit's shoulder. I took a breath, held the arrow between my teeth, twirled Myrkblade, and blurred at the combatant.

SWOOOOSH!

She opened her eyes. She saw me coming at her.

_THWIFFFT!_ Went the ice arrow.

FWOOOSH! I teleported through it, smoke trailing.

FLASH! The explosion of ice on the other side of me turned my body into a silhouette. The flash of blue ice was blinding momentarily to Arrowette.

Just the moment I needed-

WHUMP! I materialized with a knee slamming into her chest.

"Mmmmf!" she bent over, wheezing.

"!" I pulled the arrow out of my teeth and shoved it into her blonde hair.

CRKK!

The arrow got gnotted up in her golden threads.

I gripped it, used it as a handle, and pulled her over my spinning body.

THWUMP!

"YAAAAUGH!" she screamed as I pulled her viciously by her hair and body slammed her over my neck.

WHAM!

She jolted against the metal slabs of the floor. Wincing all over from the impact.

I took a breath, twirled Myrkblade, and slashed the broadside of it down to slam into her skull….knocking her out.

_Make it quick-_

THWIISH-CLACK!

She raised her bow, blocking from below.

I gritted my teeth and struggled against her.

The determined face of a blonde, teenage girl reflected off my down-tilted goggles.

I fought against her with my blade. Struggling. Sweating. Trying desperately to force her bow away so I could knock her out.

And still she fought back, struggling with an equal—if not greater fervor.

_Allah almighty, no wonder she made it this far-_

"Nnngh….bastard!" she twirled her bow and knocked Myrkblade back.

My grip on my sword loosened.

"HAAA!" she jerked her bow down and to the side. THWAP! It struck my left leg.

My left ankle slid out.

THWAP! She then struck my right foot.

With a scraping sound, my right ankle jerked right.

I suddenly found myself performing a half-split above her.

_Oh no……_

WHAM!

She snarled and sent the bow flying up my crotch.

My whole body jolted with the sensation of a paradoxically burning ice pick being shoved up my groin and all along my spine.

My black eyes clenched under my goggles and I keeled over, hissing through my teeth.

I was in extreme pain, but I was still standing. And I was still standing because…..

_Well……_

_Just 'because'……_

"My apologies to your mother…..," Arrowette muttered.

I reopened my wet black eyes.

Beneath my bent figure, Arrowette had been pulling at the top end of her long bow like the higher half of a flexible bamboo pole. "…cuz I'm about to mess up the pretty face she gave you!"

And she let go of the bow's tip.

_THWK-K-K-K-K!_

The bow flexed up and slammed into my face.

WHACK!

I ragdolled across the cage, my black goggles cracked with tiny cobwebs. My whole face stinging.

WHUMP!

I crumpled on the floor, groaning mutely in pain.

'_Ohhhhhhhhh Zeus on fire! Ha! Man, that had to hurt. Glad you're a superhero, Noir.'_

"……..," I lay icily on the metal slab floor of the cage.

'………_Noir?'_

"……," I barely stirred. Wincing all over.

'_Uh……not good, man. You are getting up, right? R-Right?'_

Arrowette stumbled to her feet. She limped on her arrow like with a cane. She hobbled towards me.

I lay on the floor.

Numb all over.

Muscles melting……

'_Noir! Get up! The key, Noir! The key to Terra!'_

The crowd hissed and booed.

Then a growing number of the audience members began to cheer.

Arrowette leered over me. She took a breath. She yanked the very, bloody arrow out of her hair, lined it with the bow, and aimed at the back of my neck.

"…….." I lay still.

'_Noir! Noir! Come on, Noir!'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx took a shuddering breath. "Well….I guess this will do it. I-I mean…," she looked Pulsade's way and simpered. "No more Wyldecarde, right? He's out of our hair and Wildebeest will ride to the occasion."

"……….," the blonde assassin was silent.

The pink sorceress sighed and spoke for the both of them. "Why does this not feel like a good thing?"

"Point made, Jean…," Pulsade took a deep breath and leaned against a rifle of hers. "…something tells me that with all the other bloody buggers showing up at this holocaust, Wildebeest—and the rest of us for that matter—would have benefited best from having the stupid bloke remain….."

Jinx bit her pink lips.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin's eyes narrowed from the balcony.

"Hmmmm….," Jacob Anderson leaned forward. Smiling. His dainty hands held together. "Unexpected…..Unexpected but interesting……"

"……," Rexxin was silent.

"Heheheheh…..a girl's blood is so much more appropriate," Anderson waved an arm. "I'll look forward to see how much Arrowette dies in the next round….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wildebeest merely snorted at first, but gradually his white eyes turned firm in anxious gazing. There was a nervous twitch about his hairy snout as he stared at the silver cage.

Somewhere across the side of the fighting arena, a reptilian voice snickered.

Everything else echoed with the deafening screams and bloodlusting wails of the crowd.

Hull, on the side and in the dark, watched with crossed arms.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Noir……Noir!'_

Arrowette pulled back on the bowstring.

The arrow was taut.

Its end glistening.

Her lips pursed and her blue, fully-exposed eyes narrowed.

I laid on the floor.

Everything black turning blacker.

My obsidian optics fading.

_So tired. _

_This night. _

_This blasted City. _

_This bloody purgatory. _

'_Noir! Get up, Noir!'_

_I'm so tired of it, Ana. _

_So tired. _

_The Titans…… _

_Robin's contract._

_I gotta find Terra._

_But…… _

_So tired……_

'_Noir!'_

My eyes closed.

The metal slabs iced up into me.

The kiss of unconsciousness.

And the shadow lands beyond.

'_Jordan!'_

_So……weak……_

"_**Be natural, Jordan! Be NATURAL!"**_

FLASH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!

_Our bokens contacted sharply. _

_Wood clapping against wood. _

_The sweat and the starlight. _

_Her burning, blue eyes._

"_Be natural, Jordan! Be NATURAL!" _

"_I'm……trying!" I growled, pushing against her. _

"_No……you're NOT!" and Ana effortlessly shoved against me with her training sword. _

_WHUMP! _

"_Nnngh!" I literally flew back. _

_THWAP! _

_I fell on my spine in the middle of the field. Panting with sweat. My muscles sore and aching from nearly an hour of rushing at her in the thickness of night and only being shoved back again and again and again._

_Ana sighed, running a shaking hand through her blonde hair. _

"_It isn't working, Jordan. Don't you see?" _

"_Do I see? I FEEL!" I shivered. I stood up, panting. "You're insanely good! I-I can't get even near you!" _

"_Yes you __**can**__, Jordan!" _

"_No…I CAN'T!" I barked. "Wh-What are you trying to prove, Ana! You keep telling me to charge you and yet every time you beat me back like I'm a tennis ball! What's the point?" _

"_The point is that you're not being natural." _

"_Yes I am! I'm doing my best to strike you—" _

"_You're trying to be strong, Jordan!" _

"_Ana, I—" _

"_You weren't built to be strong!" she shouted, her golden voice filling the cedar bodies of the woods around us. "You were built to be fast, Jordan! Not monumental! You were built to be fast and speedy, and here you are trying to level me down with a single, pummeling blow!" _

"………_," my brown eyes narrowed and my face melted into a frown. "Ana……" _

_She panted. Her eyes were glossy. "Jordan, don't you see? You weren't built for—" _

"_Don't frickin' tell me that all of this about my learning Balance instead……" _

"_You weren't built for Construction!" she shrieked. Her voice had become desperate and wavering. Like a scared little girl. Desperate and emotional. It scared me just as much as it made me angry and feel abused. "White is not your destined portion of the Spectrum! Your is something far less strong, but all the time far more precious! Resilient! Suffering! Quick and selfless!" _

_I stood up, snarling. "For the last time, Ana……stop trying to TALK ME OUT OF MY TRAINING!" _

"_There is nothing to talk you out of, Jordan!" She pointed at me with her boken. "You're lost! You're constantly shaping yourself to things around you! You're confused! You're living in the present! And you care so much about people it's—" _

"_Stop trying to push me away from the WHITE!" _

"_You don't know Construction!" she spoke with clenched teeth and suddenly flexed her upper limbs. "THIS is CONSTRUCTION!" _

_FLASH! _

_I gasped. Gritting my teeth, I shaded my eyes from a bright…golden aura. _

_I rounded my brown optics and stared in disbelief and shock. _

_There was a glow about Ana. Her blue eyes were ablaze with a platinum, vanilla-gold. Like hot, hot metal on the edges. The brightness seemed to travel down her limbs and trail off her fingers like mist. _

_Or smoke. _

_White, ivory smoke. _

_It sent a blaze of brightness around the previously dim clearing. _

_And I shuddered……my first witness of the Spectrum in physical form. _

"_Ana……," I exhaled. My lips parted. "You……You are an adept……you are already an adept!" _

"_No, Jordan……," she muttered. Her eyes glowing hot-white-and-gold. "……I'm not." _

_My brown eyes narrowed. I murmured: "What?" _

"_This is but a taste of what I know is my destiny……," Ana spoke low as with a tinge of sadness._

_Sadness? _

_She went on: "I have always known the bright end of the Spectrum. In some sense or another. It was……b-born with me……" _

"_B-Born, Ana?" I leaned my head to the side. Curious. Concerned. _

_She dropped her boken. She hugged herself. The white glow started to fade from her blue eyes. "My mother……and her mothers before her……," she bit her lip. A shudder. She said: "We are the daughters of the earth. Somehow—someway granted through time to practice this……this Construction. We never have had a name of it. We never have never had a reason to suspect anything of it until the Master discovered me. He invited me from my terrible home with my terrible father to come here. To learn after so many generations of lost and suffering women at the hearts of cold men and cold society to make good of that which flows in my arteries. You see, Jordan……I know……the Master knows……almost everyone with a good sense knows that I am, was, and shall always be the wielder of the White Spectrum."_

"………_," I stared in utter shock. _

_She looked at me. Her blue eyes glossy. Her lips quivering. "Except you, Jordan. You won't believe it. I think it's wonderful of you to love Life so much and Construction so much but……but………" _

_A beat. _

_Coldness. _

_The depths and unforgiving, upside-down abyss of night. _

_The starlight. _

_The starlight…… _

_She collapsed on her knees in the soft earth and trembled all over herself. A choking sound came from her throat and she sobbed. "……but there can only be one White Learner, Jordan. And I know that's going to be me. And I learn it and you're turned away………" She brought a trembling hand over her fair face and sniffed into it. Tears streaming silver. "……I couldn't go on in this blasted lonely school without you, Jordan. Please……y-you mean so much to me now. You're the best friend I've ever had in so……so long. I'm so selfish. I-I want you to learn that which I see in you. That which I feel with every twinge and shake and prick of the white life within me from so much as seeing you and hearing your voice. God, why can't you see the precious things that you are built for? I'm so scared, Jordan. I don't want to go into this alone. My mother's dead. There's nobody else sharing the White breath of the Earth. I don't want to bear all of it alone……" _

_I took a deep breath. I stared down at the ground as she sobbed. I ran a hand through my short black hair, shuddered, and slowly strolled over to her. _

_I knelt down and—warmly—wrapped my arms around her. _

_She hugged me back without hesitance. Crying into my shoulder. Holding tightly and not wanting to let go. _

_And……as confused and utterly awed as I was at the same, paradoxical time…… _

_I didn't want to let go of her either._

"_Please……P-Please, Jordan……find your nature."  
_"………"

"_Find your Spectrum……I want you to prosper. I want you to be with me……always……" _

"_I'll try, Ana……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I'll try……_

"……."

My black eyes shot open.

Spatial sense……_FLASH! _

Cold metal slabs.

Steel bars.

A cage.

Two bodies.

Mine, lying face first on the metal slabs.

Arrowette, standing behind me.

Aiming something with her bow.

An arrow.

A sharp arrow.

A sharp arrow pointed at the back of my neck and-

_THWIFFFT!_

I gritted my teeth as smoke exploded out from under my broken goggles in slow motion.

FWOOOOOSH!

I teleported up in a blur.

CLACK!

The arrow struck the ground with sparks and smoke-pierced trails.

Arrowette did a double-take and looked up.

I solidified, spinning towards the ceiling.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH! Myrkblade twirled along with my body. The wooden weapon encased itself in murk and glinted with serration. CHIIIIING!

Snarling, I fell down towards her.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade and Jinx gasped.

Anderson leaned forward.

Wildebeest and Hull blinked.

And the Messenger smiled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLASSSSH!

"Nnngh!" Arrowette ducked.

RIIIP!

I cleaned two locks of blonde hair from her.

I landed, twirled, and swung Myrkblade at her cranium.

CRACK! She blocked with the tip of her red bow.

I twisted Myrkblade by the hilt.

_TWKKK!_

I shoved her bow to the side.

WHAP!

I slapped her cheek with the broadside of my sword.

She reeled-

WHAM!

I raised a kicking foot into her chest.

She stumbled back.

"!" I blurred at her.

THWACK! SMACK! WHAM!

The crowd cheered.

Three strikes of Myrkblade tore at her blouse and bruised her skin.

She stumbled against the metal bars.

I charged, Myrkblade raised.

She swung up high with her bow.

SWIIIISH!

I lunged back, the tip of her weapon nearly cleaning my nose off.

She twirled the bow back into her main grip and readied three arrows.

_THWIFFT! THWIFFT! THWIFFT!_

I backflipped, vaulted off the floor with one hand, and flipped back again. I landed in a reverse slide towards the opposite end of the silver cage.

"All right! Time to kiss Hades head-on, you dick!" Arrowette pulled out a fire arrow.

I kept in a crouch. Panting. Vibrating all over with smoke and murk.

SWOOOSH! She whipped the explosive arrow into place, sighted along her bow, and fired-

CHIIIING! I raised a playing card, snarled, and flung it at her.

_THWIFFT! _

_SWIIIIIISH!_-CLANK! The playing card struck her flame arrow dead on before it had a chance to get even a yard and a half away from her.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

"Aaaugh!" she winced and stumbled back from the fireball exploding right in front of her.

A padding of soft-as-water feet.

She looked up, panting.

FWOOOOOSH! A plume of smoke billowed out from the fireball and exploded into her with an upswing of Myrkblade.

THWACK!

She spun.

I spun too, spinning my sword twice.

WHACK! WHACK!

She doubled over in pain.

I spun around once more, twirled Myrkblade, brought it down low, brought it up high, and-

_**WHAM!**_

-uppercutted the female archer fiercely across the chin.

Her body flew halfway up the height of the cage's interior.

And….

She was unconscious before she even hit the ground.

WHUMP!

Before the audience could cheer….Arrowette's quiver of arrows spilled out across the metal slabs.

And…..right at my feet…

A bundle of explosive fire arrows collapsed on top of each other. And inside the center of them was a high-pitched, whining sound.

I panted, sweating all over.

_The sound of a single detonator amongst all of them…… _

_Primed to explode._

A gasp from the crowd.

'_Noir! It's going to blow! Get out of there!'_

I spun around. "!" I looked at Arrowette's body. "!" I looked at the cages and the solid, plastic sheets beyond. "!"

'_Get out of there!'_

I panted. My grip of Myrkblade trembled. The sweat and the lights and the noise…

….

The whining noise stopped.

_Shit._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

The silver cage turned into a huge, flaming oven with both bodies inside being engulfed by the multitude of condensed, combined explosions.

Jinx and Pulsade both gasped as the crowd below them turned silent.

"Ah jeez….," Jinx pulled at her nonexistent tufts of hair. "Ah jeeeeeez….."

Pulsade took a deep breath. "Red Aviary……could he have his way so easily?"

Somewhere in another shadowed part of the arena, an asian teenager stood silent.

Deflated….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_After walking Ana to her cabin, I slowly made my way across the courtyard late at night on the Manor's estate. _

_I approached the well once again. _

_My wooden pales and the yoke were still there. _

"………"

_I walked up to them and realized that they were still empty. _

_Silence._

_  
I gazed at the full bucket attached to the rope. _

"………"

_My fists clenched. _

_I knocked the bucket over. _

_Swiiiiish! _

_SPLOOSH! _

_It splashed loudly in the waters below. _

_I took a deep breath. _

_I concentrated. _

_I lowered my brown eyes. _

_My flexed and unflexed my fingers before gently raising them……and gripping the wooden handle of the crank. _

"………………"

_I took a deep breath. _

_Deep, dark. _

_Black, obliterated. _

_Endless, and without a beginning. _

_Now. _

_Now…… _

_Dynamics. _

_Water. _

_Flowing. _

_Rotating. _

_Burning and spreading molecules. _

_Mist and flame. _

_Smoke. _

_Smoke……_

_Smoke……… _

_Black. _

_Creak-Creak-Creak-Creak-Creak!_

_I was pumping the crank before I knew it. _

_Faster. _

_Faster……_

_Creak!Creak!Creak!Creak!Creak!Creak! _

_Pain. _

_Wood. _

_Faster……… _

_Faster…………_

_CreakCreakCreakCreakCreakCreakCreak! _

_My teeth grit._

_My body tensed. _

_And before I knew it……in a span of less than twenty seconds- _

_CL-CLUMP! _

"_Nngh!" I jerked back from the impact of the water-heavy bucket tipping over the outer edge of the well from being raised. _

_There was a terrible, terrible stinging sensation. _

_I waved my hands. _

_I held the palms up to me in the starlight. _

_I shuddered. _

_My flesh was covered in splinters. Thin cuts. Wooden abrasions. Red blood seeped slowly to the surface like syrup. And I could almost swear……I saw a black outline to the places where my skin opened up. _

_The stinging pain…… _

_The sacrifice…… _

"_It hurts……" _

_I gulped. _

"_It hurts so much, Ana……" _

_I looked up towards the stars above the cedars. _

_Like a little child, my eyes welled up with tears from the pain. _

_But I didn't resist them._

"_But god……it's so right. It's so damn right……" _

_After a few minutes of numb, silent reflection, I turned and headed back towards the sleeping cabin. I would sneak in and fall asleep in my bunk bed besides the rest of the guys. Unnoticed. _

_And about the Master's water…… _

_I'd make sure I awoke an hour before dawn. _

_That way I'd have a chance to bandage my splintery palms……before handling the water. And giving it to him._


	193. The Earth Must Bleed part 8

**193. The Earth Must Bleed part 8**

The crowd around the arena were silent in the flickering light of the bright blaze.

A good many of them blinked and a good fewer of them murmured amongst themselves. As glorious as bloody deaths were that evening, it was of no consolation to any side of the betting game if both players in the cage match perished.

There was a whining noise, followed by the crackling speakers as the announcer's voice broke the silence:

"_**Snnkkkt—Wow! Now isn't that a show! These combatants are hardcore, folks! They'll fight right down to the last smoldering atom! Be patient as our crew clears the battleground!"**_

A squadron of half-a-dozen or so men with large fire extinguishers rushed into the arena. They trained their combined hoses onto the flaming silver cage and began fighting back the dancing plasma.

The audience watched on, mute.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin sighed through his nostrils. He glanced sideways at his boss. "Kinda got extreme there, don't you think?"

"Mmmmmm…," Jacob Anderson smiled, staring at the billowing scene. "Perhaps."

"That sorta cuts the last four into a last _three_," Rexxin muttered. He leaned forward with his eyes thin beneath his scar. "Must I order my men to scrounge up Empress or Pantha or some other near-runner up loser?"

"Not yet…," Anderson raised a finger before folding his hands together. "Let the flames die down, first."

"Sir, they're both dead," Rexxin gestured. "You've proven that this is a slaughter fest. Look for yourself! You're losing gladiators left and right!"

"Indeed," a smile crescented across the leader's face. "And what good it has been doing as of late too. Roulette and her pitiful 'meta-bowl' can run and hide. This is where the money is at. Here in Las Vegas. Underground. In my Domain…."

"Don't forget, sir," Rexxin spoke. "The original plan required a final four. Technically, we can acquire three at most. What with Killer Croc doing some dirty work on the inside and—"

"Even if we have three…there's one final test I want to give them," Anderson hummed.

"Yeah…well….," Rexxin gazed once more at the flames. "Good luck with that now."

"Shhh……look."

Rexxin craned his neck.

"Has it slipped you so swiftly, Rexxin?" Anderson spoke. "That our talented little Wyldecarde is a former Titan?"

Rexxin's lips parted.

As the flames cleared into pillars of smoke, two figures could be seen slumped on the outer arena floor just beyond the metal and plastic barriers of the silver cage.

Anderson dripped: "The stranger with the silver fingers and the brute with the horns are formidable and violent on their own. But there's a purpose in that one." He pointed at a smoking figure kneeling by a female archer. "I think now I know why I was assigned here. By Dagger most especially."

Rexxin looked curiously at Anderson.

The burgundy-robed man murmured: "The Parasite. He hungers for the missing pieces of his palette. East where the land meets the sea, Dagger's battleground turned into the feasting table for the very scourge of our Triangular. But the little red bird that bit the dust all over the news and airwaves was but an appetizer. The Parasite is after Dagger's prize. If he gets the girl, all is lost to us. Especially right now as we speak. But another tender morsel is that Wyldecarde. And if we draw him in and seize the rogue…..well….."

A beat.

Rexxin blinked.

Anderson stared out at the smoking arena as the applause of half-relieved audience members filled the air.

"….we can finally get a meter for where the Parasite is at. We can trace the spirit of Red through that swordsman there as a vessel. For—if you've noticed yourself, Rexxin—he isn't the same reaper that danced around Dagger's playground over a week ago."

"What is he, then?" Rexxin murmured. "Why is he so important, boss?"

"He is important because he is a pansy," Anderson chuckled. "A pansy that _kicks ass._ He is the opposite of the Parasite. At the same time, he is just as powerful." His eyes narrowed. "And just as dangerous to Triangular."

Rexxin took a shuddering breath. "We should have him shot. B-Before the final rounds!"

"Mmmmm…..no," Anderson said.

Rexxin's lips parted-

Anderson raised a finger. "We should use him. Because doing so will make us closest to the Parasite than ever we have been."

Rexxin shuddered: "You know Dagger's not going to like that. That's like playing with fire."

"Dagger doesn't need to know."

The chief of security winced, his red highlighted hair seemingly deflated. "Dagger knows everything…"

"Then let him watch," Anderson exhaled with a grin. "I'm about to do an experiment of my own."

"Sir?"

"Observe….," and Anderson stood up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I panted.

The tips of my bandanna and hair bands were smoking.

I had ashes littering my metal-mesh suit from my having teleported the two of us out of the explosion and ensuing blaze.

I sat on my knees, cradling an unconscious Arrowette with her blonde head in my lap.

I felt her neck with a flesh hand, but didn't need to do it. I could tell she was alive. Breath escaped her pink lips and her body stirred. Very much in tact.

I let out a relieved sigh.

"_**WINNER! WYLDECARDE!"**_

I couldn't help but shudder at that.

_How far is this damn tournament gonna go?_

I looked across the arena as men around me continued to spray the burning cage.

Wildebeest sat inside an alcove with his arms crossed. He gazed at me from the shadows, and there was a stirring of his lips.

_A smile?_

My cracked-goggles scanned the other alcoves.

Hull was sharpening his blade still. Like a habit. His mysterious mind elsewhere.

A few feet away, Killer Croc furiously and repetitively hammered the wall of his alcove with a fist. He formed dents and caused shrapnel to peel off and litter the floor. He looked at me across the floor with green, slimy eyes and snickered. He raised his two scaly fists and showed the blood on his knuckles. The blood he didn't mind leaking from himself. A hissing snicker turned into a chuckle and then a fading cackle as he resumed hammering the walls.

I took a deep breath.

Arrowette stirred in my lap.

I patted her shoulder, laid her down, and hobbled up to my feet.

'_You are full of surprises, young hobbit.'_

I blinked under my goggles.

I gazed up at the metal rafters above the arena.

I tried to imagine a pink girl and a blonde gunsmith hiding in the shadows. And somewhere beyond, a dear and dearer friend.

'_Gotta hand it to you, Noir…,_' the Messenger's voice crackled in my ear. _'…you have a wonderful habit of saving the lives of sexy femmes.'_

I smirked somewhat.

And then….

"_**Snkkkkkkt!"**_

The announcer's speaker system was taken over.

_But by whom?_

The audience silenced and even the firefighting crew stuttered to a stop as a dripping voice filtered through the sound system.

"_**Dear, Dear Wyldecarde. Quite a talent you have of saving my guests' bets……"**_

I took a deep breath.

And frowned.

_Anderson……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Not to mention a talent of saving the very people you're endeavoring to thrash into pieces. Almost too gentlemanly, I might add…"**_

Pulsade and Jinx eyed the speakers all around them as the voice boomed through the interior.

Jinx made a face. "Ick! He sounds like a really, really horny Ron Perlman or something."

"Shhh!" Pulsade hissed. "This is something different. Lend an ear…."

The two girls craned their necks over the railing.

"_**Tell me, swordsman….."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson stood in his balcony, leaning over the side.

A microphone held daintily to his lips.

He smiled and purred: "….why do you wield a blade like a staff? I could have sworn that weapons of that sort were made for cutting and slicing your opponents, not whacking them senseless. Are you certain you were not meant to have….oh….a big stick of sorts? You aren't compensating for something by chance….?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A chuckle flew through the crowd.

Women giggled with their jewelry rattling.

Men doubled over, howling.

Even the warbling laughter of Killer Croc's big throat echoed forth.

I took a deep breath and clenched my sword.

'_Uhhh……okay. This guy never gets out of the house. Don't listen to him, Noir.'_

I exhaled.

_You don't need to defend me from everything……_

"_**This would be a perfect opportunity to show the true colors you were born to uphold! Make use of that sword, Wyldecarde! You see the prone damsel before you. The one who so ruthlessly tried to end your life and nearly accomplished such with a t'wing of her bow. It wouldn't take much to end her. To slit her throat. Go on. There is nothing stopping you."**_

"…….," I slowly glared up at the balcony. A the burgundy figure leaning over the side. The lunacy shining off his pale face even from that distance. My metal fist clenched.

I stood my ground.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What is the matter?" Anderson cooed into the mic. He licked his lips. "Shy? Hesitant? You are young yet and still you have seen so much blood here today. You've smelled its copper taste. What harm would it be to…..spill some more?"

The robed man's last words were laced with a heavy breath.

Even Rexxin shifted uncomfortably, tapping his fingers against his walkie talkie hiding behind his suit.

"Fine then," Anderson said after an uncomfortable pause. His voice echoed throughout the smokey, hazy interior as he went on: "I'll make it easier for you…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The audience members craned their necks and listened.

"_**If you stab her through the gut right now……"**_

A beat.

I took a deep breath.

My black eyes narrowed during the dramatic pause.

"……_**I will give the tournament trophy to you."**_

My heart stopped.

"_**The Vault will be opened immediately for you and you alone. The reining 'champion' of this match."**_

So did everybody else's heart.

A smile.

The distant figure above the balcony gazed across the crowd.

"_**And I'll give everyone here double their normal winnings for participating."**_

A rush of roaring cheers and thunderous applause filled the chamber.

My lips parted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin did a double-take at Anderson.

He went pale all over.

He cleared his throat and said: "Uhm…..sir?"

Anderson merely smiled, his eyes trained on the swordsman.

"S-Sir?"

Anderson held a hand up, silencing the security chief.

Rexxin bit his lip.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cheers: **"Wyldecarde! Wyldecarde! Wyldecarde! Wyldecarde!"**

The audience stomped their feet.

They waved their arms and howled out at me through cupped hands.

My name.

Demanding: **"Cut her! Cut her! Cut her!"**

I felt a shiver up my left, metal prosthetic.

I gripped my titanium wrist.

Shaking all over.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrrryy……_

I panted. Sweating in my Wyldecarde getup.

I glanced through the corner of my cracked goggles.

I saw Wyldecarde shifting uncomfortably in the shadows.

Killer Croc seemed unaffected.

But Hull…

I pivoted my head.

He stood halfway out of his alcove. Partially bathed in the electric light. His exotic sword in his grasp. He stared at me across the arena with stone-blue eyes. Still. Patient—and yet laced with a sense of uncertainty and learning all the same. He waited on me. He observed me.

The move that I would make….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Bugger all….," Pulsade gritted her teeth. "This throws a wrench into the whole bloody thing!"

Jinx stared over the railing. Her face straight. Her cat eyes thin.

Pulsade gripped the electronic device in her ear and hissed: "'J'? 'J'? You little sod, come in! That namby pamby wine-guzzler is turning his own tourney all arse-over-elbow! Hack into the electrical system and rig the pyrotechnic show to fry his bloomin' head off or else I'll shoot it myself! Bugger all!"

"Shhh….," Jinx suddenly murmured. "Take it easy, Leslie."

Pulsade pointed a frustrated finger. "But!"

Jinx held a frilled hand up. "He's not going to do it."

"What?"

Jinx leaned over and pointed at the swordsman. "Watch. He's not going to do it. I swear…."

Pulsade nervously gazed down towards the arena floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Cut her! Cut her! Cut her!"**

I breathed slowly.

Fuming.

"_**Well, Mr. Wyldecarde?!"**_

I looked down at Arrowette.

She stirred, wincing.

Bruised.

Singes on the corners of her red blouse and white skirt.

_Beast Boy's relentless tears. _

_Starfire's wailing voice._

Stomping feet.

Hull's gazing eyes.

_Cyborg short-circuiting. _

_Raven hugging herself in the shadows._

Chanting.

Waving.

Beating.

Beating…

Beating……

_Schoolbuses full of children exploding._

_People gunned down in the streets. _

_Smoke rising from the City._

_Robin engulfed in flames. _

_Terra's statue. _

_Gone. _

_Gone…… _

_Terra………_

"_**Will you take the opportunity…….that is given to you?"**_

I let out a hot breath.

I looked down.

A spilled quiver of red arrows….

"_**Cut her throat already! Spill the blood and claim your prize—"**_

GRIP!

I grabbed an arrow, lifted it from the floor, encased it with murk, spun my body, and—with a snarl—flung it across the arena towards the balcony.

_SWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH!—_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The black arrow soared into the balcony.

Streaked over Anderson's skull.

Parted his white and black hair.

And-

**CLANK!**

Flew into the rear wall besides Rexxin with trailing smoke and cobweb cracks eating into the structure.

Gasps and even a shriek from the crowd.

Rexxin immediately shouted into his walkie-talkie.

Anderson stood perfectly still.

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood beside Arrowette, fuming.

A dozen suited thugs ran into the arena from all sides.

They aimed uzzis at my lone figure.

Cl-Clak!

Clak!

Cl-Cl-Clak!

I had a dozen laser pointers twirling over my skin and metal mesh.

They all stood still, their fingers at the trigger.

I stood still.

Staring at Anderson.

Not once tearing my face from his.

"………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin panted. He looked at his boss with forlorn, worried eyes. He held the walkie-talkie up to his lips. With just one shout, the command to fire would be given.

"……………….," Anderson stared. His face stone. His finger still on the mic.

Silent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………..," I glared up at him.

A beat.

'_Well?'_ the Messenger's breathy voice uttered into my ear. _'What's a polite thing to tell a gentleman like Anderson at a time like this, Noir?'_

"…….."

I smirked.

I leaned my head to the side.

Raised my eyebrows above my goggles.

And startled the gunmen all around me as I jerked my metal hand straight up-

FWOOOSH!

-middle finger exposed.

'_Heheheheheh! Hell yeah!'_

My teeth showed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

Anderson smiled.

He dripped into the mic.

"So be it, swordsman…."

Rexxin let out a huge breath.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The gunmen stepped back, guns lowered.

I stared up at the balcony as a groan of disappointment circulated through the elliptical ring of audience members.

"_**You, mister rebel, are going straight to the Main Event. The Two Cages of Bloodshed. The final rounds and the final betting to determine….the TRUE winner of the prize. The one worthy of it….and willing to spill guts."**_

I smirked sarcastically.

_Suck……my……-_

"_**Wyldecarde versus Killer Croc!"**_

I blinked.

The crowd cheered.

"_**And Wildebeest versus Hull!"**_

Regained cheers and bloodlusting cries.

"_**May the night finally culminate!"**_

Roaring. Stomping. Thunder.

The guards wandered off, eyeing me shiftily.

I took a deep breath and knelt down besides Arrowette's side as she stirred to life.

"Nnnngh….," she looked up at me. Her blue eyes thin. She pursed her lips and uttered: "You…..you didn't end me….wh-why?"

"……..," I shrugged. A smile.

"……..," she leaned her head to the side. "You're…..You're no arena fighter…."

I silently grabbed her shoulders and helped stand her up to her feet.

She leaned on my shoulder and hobbled with me as I marched us to a barren alcove.

"You…..you're a Titan…..aren't you?"

"…….," I was mute.

She leaned in closer to me. "You are! Y-You're that—" she winced, she breathed, she continued hobbling "—dark one who joined back in the Summertime…."

I gazed at her slightly.

'_Supergirl, Noir. Superrrrrrrrgirrrrrrrl.'_

I gritted my teeth and bopped my right ear.

_Owie……_

"I know that I'm desperate but….," Arrowette shuddered. "What's a former hero like you doing here?"

"……."

"Don't you actually have FRIENDS to worry about you?"

I exhaled.

_They're why I'm here. _

_They're always why………_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx stood up and gulped. "Well. Fancy that. They fix our boys up with the worst possible killers imaginable this side of the Rio Grande!"

Pulsade glared at her. "Our _boys_?"

Jinx blushed through her pale visage. "Erm….I-I just mean Wildebeest, of course."

"………."

Jinx sweatdropped. "Seriously, it's not what you think!"

"Yes it is…," Pulsade murmured. She gazed down at the arena. "…and besides, what's so wrong with that?"

Jinx blinked her cat eyes. "L-Leslie?"

"At this point…we need him…," Pulsade whispered. A growling noise from somewhere inside her. She exhaled: "We need the blasted lad….."

"……….."

"Bugger! I hate not being able to kill stupid blokes like him on the spot!"

"Hehehehe…," Jinx leaned over and hugged onto the blonde's shoulder. "I taught it to youuuuuu, didn't I?"

An artery pulsed in Pulsade's forehead. "Watch it, witch. You're not half as lucky as the length of my fist!"

"Hehe….don't I know it?"

"Huh? Oh…._Jean!_" Pulsade shoved her. "You horny tart, you!"

"Hehehehehe!"

Pulsade tossed her blonde head into a pair of helpless hands as she moaned. "Ohhhhh……We are so divinely doomed…."

"I've always wanted a throw-rug…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson tapped his fingers on the edge of the balcony.

Gazing off into space.

Rexxin yanked the arrow out of the back wall. He fingered it and strolled over by the burgundy-robed man's side.

A beat.

"Well, boss?"

"……," Anderson folded his hands together. "When the two matches start…..finalize them."

"….."

"As I had planned."

"Of course, sir," Rexxin bowed his head.

Anderson held a hand up.

"…..," Rexxin handed him the arrow.

Anderson took it, smiled, and waved the security guard off.

Rexxin turned and exited the balcony alcove, squabbling into his walkie talkie.

Anderson gazed as the two cages were filled on opposite sides of the arena.

He twirled the arrow in his fingers. And gradually his grin increased and his eyes flared and something hidden beneath him rose to the surface and hissed as-

CRACK!

-he snapped the arrow in two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Chanting.

Stomping feet.

Flashing lights.

"……..," I stood at my edge of the silver cage. Still singed from Arrowette's exploding arsenal.

"Hresssssshhhhh…..," Killer Croc rotated his neck, cracked it, and flexed his arms as he stood across me. He was easily twice my height. Four times my weight. And I-don't-know-how-many-times as muscular. "Hessssh….heh heh heh….I'm gonna rip your puny balls off!" He reared his claws.

"….." A slight smirk.

_Yeah……_

CHIIIIIIING!

I whipped Myrkblade out, twirled it, and got into a low…smoking pose.

_You go on and do that, champ……_

He crouched to meet my face level. His eyes a slimy green.

Green….

"_**This is it, folks! The moment you've all been waiting for!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T

"_**The beginning of the end! The road to the biggest earnings! Who's willing to see the blood fly and the money roll out!"**_

Cheering.

Whistling.

Noise and lights.

"Grrghhh…..," Wildebeest snorted through his nostrils. He flexed his meaty arms and paced his legs apart like a sumo wrestler. His white eyes narrowed under a silver crown.

_ShvvvvvvvvVVVV-CLACK!_

Hull spun his sword to a stop on the circular hilt. He stood in a nimble pose, one leg bent out and resting on its boot's toe. His other boot flat to the metal slabs. Rusted chains dangled from his belt underneath his leather jacket as his blue eyes hardened on the hulking opponent across him. Silver sparks danced around his metal fingertips.

Wildebeest showed his teeth.

"_**But wait!"**_

Wildebeest burped. He looked up, white eyes blinking.

"…..," Hull gazed up at the lights as well.

"_**What is a gamble if the stakes aren't raised EVEN HIGHER!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I exhaled. My grip on Myrkblade loosened. I tilted my scarred neck up.

"_**You came here to be treated to the greatest show on earth, ladies and gentlemen! And that is what you're going to get!"**_

'_Whoah……who ordered for anticlimax with extra pepperoni?'_

I shrugged to the air.

I was clueless.

But when I glanced down….I noticed…

Killer Croc wasn't phased one bit by this sudden unfolding. He continued glaring at me hungrily. Licking his razor sharp teeth.

My black eyes narrowed under cracked goggles.

_What do you know that we don't know, pal?_

"Heh heh hresssh….," mucous membrane covered his green eyes.

Green.

I gazed…

_My, what green eyes you have……_

"_**There shall not be any more rounds!"**_

A gasp from the crowd.

I looked up.

Just in time to see a coil of heavy chains lift at the silver cage and golden cage across the domain and—

_CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAK!_

The cages lifted towards the ceiling.

And we were exposed.

All four of us.

The beast, the killer, the stranger, and myself.

And only three of us were utterly, totally taken off guard.

"_**There shall be ONE LAST ROUND!"**_

Howling voices.

Cheers.

A few stood and clapped mightily.

'_Hmmm………cute.'_

_Cute!_

I looked down.

Blinking.

A breath.

_Crud._

"_**WILDEBEEST versus KILLER CROC versus WYLDECARDE versus HULL!"**_

"Yes….feast….FEAST!" Killer Croc practically foamed at the mouth.

I gritted my teeth.

_No. _

_A god damn banquet._

"**LET THE MELEE BEGIN!"**

And the first one to pounce on me was the closest and the….hungriest.

"HRESSSSHA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

I took a breath and swung a murk-laden blade at his pouncing hulk of body.

_SLASH!_


	194. The Earth Must Bleed part 9

**194. The Earth Must Bleed part 9**

CL-CLANK!

Myrkblade bounced off Killer Croc's skin.

He merely sneered, landed in a crouch, spun towards me, and swung a massive forearm.

SWOOOSH!

I backflipped, hand-sprung, and cartwheeled away from him. I ended in a slide across the wide-open ellipse of the arena that was now available to the four feuding lot of us. People cheered and lights shone and speakers boomed as Hull and Wildebeest went at it on one side of the arena and a mutated reptilian man rushed towards me on my side.

"Show me that bloody heart of yours so I can start chewin' on it!" Killer Croc hissed. He rushed in with a raised hand full of clawed fingernails. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" SWIIIIPE!

I ducked. A few strands of black hair were yanked out painfully.

I winced.

"HRESSSH!" he slammed his foot up.

WHUMP!

I was caught in the ribs.

I keeled over, sputtering.

Killer Croc leered over me, brought his two hands together, and slammed his elbows into the small of my back.

THWUMP!

_THUD!_

I landed chest-first in the dusty floor of the arena.

"!"

The crowd cheered.

Killer Croc snickered. He raised a sharp heel and prepared to slam it into my pelvis.

I took a shuddering breath.

Black eyes under my goggles opened and poured loose murk.

_Okay then…… _

_Kara's due for a leather purse this Christmas._

FWOOOOSH!

I vaulted up in a column of smoke, Myrkblade spinning in an ceiling-ward slash.

"What the!" Killer Croc's words spilled out and then slammed repeatedly into the broadside of my spiraling katana. WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAP!

I spun one last time in the air, snarled, and flew a smoke-trailing boot into the mutant's face.

WHAM!

He toppled backwards, rolled one and a half times, and ended in a crouching slide against the edge of the arena.

Cheers and lights erupted around him from behind the protective sheathe of plastic.

"Nnnnngh….," he looked up with slimy green eyes. A fresh red welt on his pale cheekbone.

TH-TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade at ready. Panting. Standing firmly in place with a cascade of smoke.

'_Normally, Noir, I'd call that cruelty to animals. But I think I'm gonna make an exception in his case.'_

I breathed out of my nostrils.

_Way ahead of you……_

"Hresshh….heheheh….now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Killer Croc licked his spiny teeth and came charging at my figure. "Warm those succulent muscle-strings for me!"

I stood my ground and charged smoke into my blade.

_Speak to the stick, shitface._

SWOOOOOSH!

We converged with growling leather and swinging wood.

CLACK!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh fuzz! Oh fuzz almighty!" Jinx pulled at her pink hair. "Uhm…..erm…."

"Hexxxx….," Pulsade snarled.

"R-Right…I uh…..dang it!" Jinx leaned awkwardly over the railing and flung a dim streak of pink light. "Haaaa!"

Pulsade watched through a special viewfinder at the explosive action below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SHVVVVVVV-CLACK!_ Hull froze his blade in place and ran at Wildebeest with the sword.

Wildebeest blocked with a heavy forearm.

Hull leapt with a flailing leather jacket and slashed his weapon to cleave the large combatant's limb in two.

FLASH! A splash of pink light.

CLANK! Hull's weapon merely bounced off of Wildebeest's arm. The stranger's blue eyes narrowed.

"Nnnngh!" Wildebeest took the advantage. He jabbed his other hand out.

GRIP!

Hull wheezed in Wildebeest's large meaty hand.

With a snort, the monster slammed Hull repeatedly into the ground like a living club.

WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Hull winced and struggled in the pummeling grip. And yet he didn't break a sweat or bleed one bit. He swiftly vanished his blade, stuck his hands out to the side—FLASH!—and produced the two staff halves from earlier in a dual shimmer of silver. He twirled the metal chunks and jabbed them into opposite sides of Wildebeest's forearm.

TH-THUNK!

"NNNNNGH!" Wildebeest moaned like a cow in labor. He drop-kicked Hull across the arena and stumbled back, gripping his bleeding wrist.

FW-FWOOSH! Hull flipped, landed in a slide, and replaced his two shards—FLASH!—with a pump-action shotgun. _Ch-Chtung!_ He narrowed his blue eyes, took aim at the beast, and—_BL-BLAM!_

The shot flew in a heavy lead spray at Wildebeest's torso.

FLASH!

Pink light.

The shot parted ways and miraculously fanned to either side of the large combatant, completely missing him.

"……," Hull lowered the shotgun from his sight and stared quizzically.

Wildebeest merely cracked his head, grinded his feet, and charged at the stranger with his horned head tilted forward. STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!

Hull let out an exhale. He replaced his shotgun with—FLASH!—his sword. _SVHHHHHH-_CLACK!

He met Wildebeest's two massive horns with the curve of his blade. CL-CLANK! Sparks flew.

Wildebeest shoved Hull across the arena.

Hull held his ground on grinding heels, forming two shallow trenches in the dusty floor as the two shuffled beneath the flashing lights and pumping noise.

Meanwhile….

"HRESSSHA!" Killer Croc pounced at me and gripped my shoulders.

I held my breath and shoved Myrkblade up horizontally against his chin.

He snapped at me with his slobbery, serrated jaws. They glinted in the arena lights like sharpened silver daggers. His mucousy green eyes blinked and fluttered animalistically as he inched his snapping mouth closer and closer to biting my nose off.

"HRESSSSH!" _CLAP! CLAP!_ "HRESSSHAAA!"

I panted, struggling.

_Now why does that sound he's making strike me as familiar……?_

"RRGHHHHH! Freakin'….go….DEAD….already!" he blabbered and headbutted me.

WHAP!

I winced from the wracking pain and stumbled back.

"YAAAAAUGH!" he swung a gnarled right hook.

SWOOOSH!

I ducked.

GRIP! I gasped as his left hand grabbed a black ponytail, yanked me up to his face level, and gave me a VIP preview of his esophagus.

"Hressh….gimme some of them salty brain matter of yours….," he exhaled with fish breath as his massive jaws closed down—

'_Put the metal where his mouth is! PUT THE METAL WHERE HIS MOUTH IS!'_

I snarled mutely and shoved my left prosthetic into his orifice.

CLAMP!

"Snnktkk-snkkkkt—snkkkktt!" he chocked and gagged.

I gritted my teeth, struggling.

I had half of my left, titanium arm shoved down his throat. The material of my prosthetic was just hard enough to hold his slicing teeth at bay. At least at the time being and in the awkward position that he was in.

He coughed, sputtered, gagged, and tried to pull his neck back.

I took a breath and shoved my fist further.

"Nnnnnnnnghhhhhh!" he wheezed.

My fingers dug into his meaty throat. My fingers wriggled, found his uvula, and clamped mercilessly onto it.

"MMMMMMMFFFFF!" his whole mutated face clenched.

'_Hahaha! Take your medicine!'_

I shuddered and swung Myrkblade up.

_Damn straight._

THWACK!

I uppercutted Killer Croc with my sword.

He jerked back, spat my metal arm out, and stumbled back.

I ignored the momentary chill in my prosthetic, twirled my weapon, and spiraled towards the reeling freak with a merciless fan of blurring Myrkblade.

THWACK!

WH-WHACK!

SW-SW-SWISH-WHAM!

I juggled his body with a multitude of smoking impacts before spinning around and giving his lopsided, leathery hide a firm side-kick.

WHAP!

He ragdolled across the arena.

People cheered.

Killer Croc sat up and immediately gripped his throat.

With a hoarse voice that even made me cringe, he wheezed: "F-F-Frickin' cyber-yahoo! For that, I'm gonna enjoy suckin' your sorry ass liver of all its-"

WHAM!

Killer Croc was plowed over by the joint, tumbling and wrestling figures of Wildebeest and a blade-spinning Hull.

"Nnngh!" THWAP! SMACK!

_SHVVVVV-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!_

And they were tumbling towards me.

My black eyes widened under my goggles and I sweatdropped-

WHAM!

All four of us tumbled meatedly across the arena.

The crowd cheered.

The lights flashed and strobed.

I stumbled up to my feet, dizzy.

I found myself staring at a recoiling Wildebeest with a random fist flying.

SWOOOOSH!

I leapt it, blurred through the air in a flip, and came down with a slashing Myrkblade.

THWACK!

Wildebeest stumbled back, shaking his silver-crowned head annoyingly. His teeth showed and he made to charge me-

WHAM!

Hull dove with a jump-kick across Wildebeest's face.

The animal recoiled.

Hull landed, flicked his wrists out—FLASH!—produced two pistols and aimed them at us on either side of him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Wildebeest ducked so that the bullets bounced off his crown.

I twirled Myrkblade, deflecting the shots.

A flash of silver light.

'_Watch yourself!'_

I looked forward.

Hull was charging at me. The pistols dissolved in his fingers and a shotgun appeared in its place.

THWAP! He slammed the butt of the rifle into me at the end of his charge.

I stumbled back, wincing.

Swiiiish-_Ch-Chtung!_ He aimed the barrel at my forehead.

I exhaled-

FLASH!

Pink light.

Hull's shotgun exploded in his grasp. Shot spilled at his feet from the random hex-impact. He seemed stunned for half a second, his blue eyes blinking.

'_Worry about your ego later. HIT HIM!'_

So I did.

WHAM! My blurring foot slammed into his chest.

He flew back into the embrace of a pissed Wildebeest.

"Nnnnnnnghhh!" Wildebeest grabbed Hull in a reverse bear hug and proceeded to squeeze the stuffings out of him-

"HRESSSSSSSSH!" SWOOOOSH! Killer Croc dove in with a mutated 'cannonball' and bowled both of the combatants over.

WHAM!

All three went sprawling across the dirt of the arena.

Audience members jumped up in the strobing lights and cheered and whistled.

I held Myrkblade, breathing hard.

I watched Hull and Wildebeest struggle on the floor while Killer Croc easily jumped up, roared in hysterical bloodlust, and grab for Wildebeest's flesh.

'_Process of elimination. Take out the ugly ones first.'_

I nodded.

_Best idea I heard all night._

So I twirled Myrkblade, summoned smoke into my limbs, and blurred over to Hull….

Hull just stood up. There was a glint of swinging Myrkblade in his eyes. He lifted his fingers—_FLASH!_

_SHVVVVVVV_-CLACK!

CLANG! My blade impacted with his suddenly solidified sword. We struggled with each other's weight. His blue eyes and my black goggles nearly touched. He gritted his teeth. I steamed black vapors.

And then he flicked his wrists.

_CLKKK—SHVVVVVVVV!_

His blade rotated on his weapon's circular hilt.

THWISH! Myrkblade was immediately shoved off.

My body recoiled.

He let out a grunt and jabbed his buzz-saw of a sword at me.

_SHVVVVV!_

I held my breath. FWOOOSH! I turned into smoke form.

The spinning blade swam through dancing, onyx fog.

Hull lumbered forward—

FLASH! I solidified on the blind side of his lunging shoulder.

WHAM! I struck his upper arm with a metal karate chop.

"Nnngh!" he teetered towards me.

I danced around him in a spiral and swung Myrkblade low at his legs.

THWACK!

He fell painfully down to his knees.

I twirled my sword, took a breath, and jabbed at the top of his spine.

He jerked his weapon over his ducking head—

_SVHHHHHH-_**CLACK!**

He blocked in reverse with his sword locked still.

I pressed harder and harder down on him with Myrkblade.

He took a breath….FLASH!

His sword disappeared.

Unguarded, Myrkblade's tip sank towards him-

GRIP!

He grabbed the body of my wooden blade with a reverse right hand.

His left hand solidified an upside pistol and shot in reverse.

BANG!

The bullet whizzed at my head.

I gasped, jerked Myrkblade out, and dove backwards as the hot projectile streaked over my nose in slow motion.

SWIIIIIIIIIIIISH!

THWUMP! I landed—panting—on my back.

A wrestling Killer Croc and Wildebeest lumbered behind me as I saw Hull get up.

The denim-clad stranger spun around, frowned, and produced his sword. FLASH! He set the blade spinning and ran towards me. _SHVVVVV!_ He dug the buzz-saw-action of the metal along the arena floor on a cutting path towards me. _SNRKKKKKK!_

I held my breath.

I rolled to the side.

_SNRRKKKKKK!_

The sparking blade spun past me.

Hull slid, pivoted, and swung the spinning sword back down at me like a razor-edged pendulum.

I rolled to the other side.

_SNRRRRKKKKK!_

A corner of my metal mesh slacks tore off amidst sparks.

Hull raised his sword, locked it into place—CLACK!—and reared his grip of it to stab down at me.

I rolled towards him, bumped into his leg, transformed into smoke form, cycloned up his body, and solidified with a pair of vaulting boots off his torso. FLASH! WHUMP!

Hull stumbled back.

I flipped through the air of the arena. As I descended, I grabbed a fan of razor-edged playing cards in and tossed them in mid air at his blue figure.

SWIIIIIIISH!

Hull spun his blade and slashed it left and right. _SHVVVV!_ CRACK! He deflected one. CR-CRACK! And two more.

Plant! I landed in a reverse slide to the arena's edge. Sweating, I launched a third card.

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH!

Hull jerked his blade aside with one hand and stretched a bare palm out.

FLASH! His silver-tipped fingers absorbed the card on contact. A breath. He jerked into a crouch and flicked his wrist. FLASH!

SWIIIIIIIIIIISH!—The card flew back at me.

'_Dead man's hand!'_

My black eyes bugged under my goggles and I ducked-

THUNK!

The card pinned me to the wall of the arena by my outfit's sleeve.

I struggled to get loose.

Hull let out a grunt, charged at me, and coiled his spinning blade behind me for a heavy upswing up my center. _Shvvvvv!_

I jerked and jolted and fought to get loose.

Hull came closer.

_SHVVVVVVVVV!_

I took a breath. I pulsed murk into my legs.

"Nnngh!" he slid to a stop in front of me and swung the blade up diagonally.

SWIIIISH!

I vaulted my lower body up the ground-

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!

The spinning blade ate into the metal epidermis of the arena wall where my abdomen was.

My legs came back down-

THWUMP!

I had an ankle on either of Hull's shoulder.

He stumbled from the weight.

I gritted my teeth and bitch-slapped him with my left boot.

WHAP! WHAP!

I then held my breath, shot smoke energy through my body, and twisted my entire being.

**WHAM!** The last solid part of my leg flew across Hull's body as I teleported. FLASH!

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWIP! He spun horizontally in the air before—WHAM! Landing hard on the floor. His sword clattered on the ground beside his sprawled figure.

FLASH!

I teleported in an on-all-fours crouch on the arena floor, freed from the playing card and the wall.

I took a breath.

I re-gripped Myrkblade and streaked towards Hull's prone figure.

FWOOOOSH!

He wearily looked at me. He wasn't sweating, but his blue eyes were thin.

SLAAASH! Myrkblade came on the warpath.

He grabbed his blade at the last second and—_SVHHHHH-CLACK!_—deflected.

I pressed against him.

He took a sharp breath, grabbed his circular hilt with both hands, and twisted.

YANK!

I forced to the side, stumbling.

He hopped to his feet with a breath, replaced his sword—FLASH!—with a pair of pistols and unleashed lead on me John Woo style.

**BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!**

I held my breath, hopped, teleported, streaked, and flipped over each expertly placed shot.

Hull's denim-clad legs paced across the arena as he aimed carefully and fired merciless shot after shot, each hand's pistol alternating around the other.

**BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!**

I found myself with less arena space on my side of the battlegrounds. It became increasingly harder to dodge the bullts with what little room I had. So I held my breath, blurred up the transparent shield lining the arena floor, backflipped, silhouetted myself against the waving crowd of audience members and strobe lights, and spiraled down towards the blue stranger with a swish-swing of Myrkblade.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

I deflected a volley of bullets back.

He ducked his head, knelt, and aimed his pistols out again.

I landed, Myrkblade at ready.

Hull pulled the triggers—Click-Click-Click.

A beat.

His blue eyes opened wider.

"…..," I panted.

'_Thatta boy! Go challenge his second amendment!'_

I nodded. CHIIIING! I held Myrkblade up and charged him.

Hull stood up slowly.

I streaked towards him.

He flicked his hands to the side—FLASH!—The pistols disappeared.

I brought Myrkblade back, ready to speedily strike.

Hull took a breath and flicked his wrists again—FLASH! The pistols were back.

_Reloaded._

And I was on him as he raised the refreshed weapons at me-

SLAAAAAAASH-SMACK!

Wildebeest's hulking form flew back into the pair of us.

THUMP! WHUMP!

Hull and I went collapsing separate ways.

In the meantime, a recoiling Wildebeest regained his foot, snarled, and swung a meaty paw at Killer Croc.

WHAM!

Killer Croc took it in the face. He stumbled back, smiling. Mutated lips curved under a trickle of blood.

"That's it, Bessie! Hit it where it counts! Hahahaha!"

Wildebeest snarled. He charged forward with a raised foot.

WHAM!

Killer Croc stumbled back.

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed as a heavy fist flew then at the mutant's torso.

GRIP!

Killer Croc grabbed it, drooled evilly, and brought his elbow forward into Wildebeest's snout.

WHAM!

Wildebeest's horned head doubled back.

Killer Croc then hugged the lumbering beast's arm like a body pillow, lifted his lower body, and slammed both feet into Wildebeest's torso pro-wrestler style.

THWUMP!

The bovine combatant fell down hard.

"HRESSSSSSHHHHH!" Killer Croc stood over him, raising his arms and hissing like a vampiric cobra. His mucous green eyes glossed as he leaned forward with a sneer and uttered: "Where's the beef! All over this infernal arena in about a minute! HA!" He crawled over, reached underneath Wildebeest's hairy body with a pair of pale, muscular arms, and then amazingly lifted the hulking creature over his mutated torso. "NNNNNNGHHHHHRESSSH!" He raised Wildebeest up like a weightlifter as the lights and synthetic thunder spiraled all around him from above. "I AM THE GREATEST!" He stomped over and prepared to slam the entire weight of Wildebeest down onto Hull's collapsed body. "'Ey there, handsome! BULLSHIT! Ha ha ha! Here you go!" And he began to heave-

FLASH!

A pink strobe.

The ground cracked from under Killer Croc's body.

He looked down.

"Hresh?"

CRAAACK!

He fell into an internal sinkhole as the weight of Wildebeest collapsed atop _him_.

THWOMP!

"Nnnnngh….," Wildebeest stirred. He got up on sore feet, reached down into a sudden crater, and grabbed Killer Croc by the leg. "Hrmpph!" He lifted the mutant up.

"RRRRRGHHH!" Killer Croc shook and struggled in the meaty beast's grasp. "Wait till I sink my teeth into your cotton-pickin' keister!"

SLAM!

Wildebeest hammered Killer Croc into the arena floor.

"Ooof!"

Again.

SLAM!

"OW!"

Again….

SLAM!

"SONAVA—"

WHAM!

"NNNNGHHH!" Wildebeest bellowed and grabbed both the head and the ankles of Killer Croc. He squeezed and prepared to rip the mutant wrestler in two-

Swoooosh—_Clank-Clank-Clank!_

A silver-sparkling grenade landed beneath the two combatants.

Both an angry Wildebeest and a helpless Croc looked down. Blinking.

"Rgghh?"

"The Hell?"

_**POW!**_

The two went sailing across the arena from the huge fireball. They slammed down into the ground on either side in smoke-trailing heaps.

"…..," Hull knelt with his flickering right hand extended a few feet from the grenade-crater. "Animals….," he grunted.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!

He looked aside. "Huh?"

SLASSSSH! I came with a silent scream and flinging Myrkblade.

He produced his sword and blocked—CLACK!

I snarled, forced murk through my limbs, and stabbedjabbedlungedstabbedjabbedlungedstabbejabbedlunged-

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!

Hull had no choice but to stumble backwards with a spinning sword outstretched. _SHVVVVVV!—_CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Sparks flew from our rapid contacts.

He finally stuck a foot out and kicked my ankles during my lightning-quick-offensive.

I stumbled and stepped back, panting.

He held his blade up. Frowning. "You….," his blue eyes narrowed. "….are starting to annoy me." FLASH! In place of his sword appeared the bazooka launcher from Shepherd Plain. He aimed an RPG at my skull.

'_Urinate time!'_

My black eyes bulged under my shades and I dove to the floor—

_**PTCHHHOOOO-SWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The rocket-propelled-grenade soared over my sailing body, flew across the arena, and managed to explode coincidentally close to a gasping-and-jumping Killer Croc.

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

A huge fireball threw Killer Croc into the waiting punches of Wildebeest, and the two creatures went at it with their frames lit by the red-hot plume.

The audience cheered and screamed in horrific ecstasy.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin couldn't help but wince. He looked over worriedly at his boss.

"A little explosive, isn't it, sir?"

"Very much so…," Anderson leaned forward. "Very much so indeed."

"I think all four have proven their point. Wouldn't now be a good time to—"

"Shhhh…," Anderson whispered as if to silence the chaos beyond the balcony more than Rexxin's voice. "Give them a little more time, first."

"Sir, if we give them 'more time', there may not be any 'them' left soon!"

"Hehehe…that's what's so fun."

"……"

"_**WOW, Folks! Isn't this the greatest! But the—"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_**show is not over yet! Who will win this dramatic confrontation to end all confrontations!"**_

"Nnngh!" _SHVVVVV!_ Hull spun his blade up at Killer Croc.

Croc held two leathery forearms out and—CL-CL-CLANK!—deflected the spinning metal. He slid back, licked his lips, and dove-

THWACK! –only to be knocked stupid to the ground by a murking downswing of Myrkblade. I spun and jabbed at Hull, forcing him back.

STOMP! Wildebeest flew down from a tall leap and shook the ground, causing all of us to stumble as we fought or stood up. "RGHHHH!" he growled and swung his massive, meaty arms out. WHAM! Hull was slammed across the arena. THWAP! Me too. He spun to punch-

Killer Croc flew in with a snarling kick.

SMACK!

Wildebeest rolled over completely and tumbled to a stop on the arena floor beside me.

"Nnnngh…," he moaned and stirred on the ground.

"………," I winced and helped myself up to my knees with Myrkblade planted down.

Panting, the two of us stared out across the cracked, smoking arena.

Hull had gotten up and was fending off Killer Croc's lunging attacks with a spinning blade and an occasionally solidified pistol. _SHVVVVV!_ Bang! Bang!

"Hressshaaa! Bring it on, Fonze! YAAARGH!"

"……," I looked to my right.

Wildebeest was staring at me.

A beat.

My brow furrowed over my goggles.

He nodded.

I nodded too.

TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade and hopped up to my feet.

"Nnnngh…," Wildebeest sped up into a charge. STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

We ran shoulder-to-shoulder. Him with his furred fists raised. Me with Myrkblade dragging behind like a coiled spring.

We converged on the other two combatants at once.

WHAM! Wildebeest swung his fist hard into Croc's ribs.

THWACK! I slammed Hull upside the skull with the broadside of my sword.

POW! Wildebeest headbutted Killer Croc's chest.

SMACK! I uppercutted Hull's chin with a kick.

"RGHHHH!" Wildebeest raised his fists.

"!" I charged up a huge warbling wave of black energy into my blade.

**SLAM!** Wildebeest's fists came down.

**SLASH!** Myrkblade swung down with an obsidian explosion.

Killer Croc and Hull tumbled and tumbled and tumbled and tumbled and slammed into the far arena wall.

TH-THWAP!

Hull struggled to get up.

Killer Croc somehow managed to get to his feet, howbeit dizzy.

"NNNGHH!" Wildebeest was already charging him with a fist. WHAM! And a right hook. WHAM! And then a left uppercut. SMACK!

Killer Croc jerked every which way from the blows—head first. He slammed into the plastic shield of the arena border from the uppercut.

SWOOOOSH! I blurred over Wildebeest's back, vaulted off his shoulders, and met Killer Croc with a mid-air swipe of razor sharp onyx.

SLIIIIINK!

"HRSSSSH!" Killer Croc hissed and landed hard on the ground, clutching a bleeding cut across his ribs.

I kicked against the wall, backflipped, and landed by Wildebeest's side in a pose. TH-TH-THWISH! Cushioning murk….

Cheers.

Thunder and lights.

Wincing, Hull stood up. He **still** wasn't sweating. He looked at Wildebeest and I standing shoulder to shoulder with a single blink of his stone-blues and droned: "Ah. I see how it is…."

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed.

I frowned with smoke dancing down from my goggles and forearms.

Hull jerked into fighting position. _SHVVVVV-CLACK!_ His blade locked-shut overhead. Blue eyes narrowed. "Try me…."

Wildebeest exhaled.

I clenched my jaw-

SWOOOOSH!

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!

We both charged.

Hull came at us, blade spinning.

_SHVVVVV!_

I blurred forward with Myrkblade and locked his spinning sword still. CLANG!

Hull jerked to a stop.

"NNNNGH!" Wildebeest soared over my ducking head with a fist.

SWOOOOSH!

Hull kicked me back, flipped over the punch, and vaulted off of Wildebeest's shoulder. He flipped again, replaced his gun with two pistols, and fired a volley on descent. BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!

The bullets soared at Wildebeest's hide. I jumped onto his shoulder and twirled Myrkblade. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!

CL-CL-CLANG! The bullets ricocheted off into the floor.

Hull landed in a slide.

I jumped off Wildebeest as he spun around with a mooing roar and charged Hull horns first.

Hull whipped out the two staff-shards and met each of the charging beast's horns.

CL-CLACK!

_SKKKKKKKKT!_

Wildebeest shoved Hull across the arena. The stranger's feet bore dust up with heat and friction. When Wildebeest lost steam, Hull kicked a cloud of arena floor dirt into his white eyes and hopped back.

Wildebeest rubbed his optics, groaning.

Hull took a breath—FLASH!—produced his bazooka, and aimed a last RPG at the bovine combatant's crown.

_**PHTCHOOOOOO!**_

SWOOOOSH! I streaked in and froze with a snarling upswing. SLASH-**CLANK!**

I miraculously deflected the rocket up into the air above the arena. It twirled with a hot vapor cloud and disappeared into the huge black skybox.

_**BOOOOOOM!**_

The t.v. screens shattered, the box erupted with flames, and the cables snapped.

CRACK!

SWOOOOOOOSH!

The hulking electronic device fell-sparking—to the arena floor below.

Hull took a breath and jumped back.

I swiftly teleported out of the way-

_**CRASSSSSH!**_

Thunder and dust….dust….dust…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The catwalks above shook and wobbled from the vibrations of chaos and applause.

Pulsade grabbed onto the railing for support.

Jinx—the perfect gymnast—remained her balance. And she giggled with a Cheshire cat smile. "Awwww….isn't it cuuuuute?" She pointed a frilled finger down. "They're working together!"

"Super….," Pulsade muttered. "This place is going to turn to rubble twice-over."

"Come on, Leslie! Cheer already!"

"Bloody ra-ra-ra. Keep providing your damned hex, girl."

"Plblblblblblblblblb!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hull arose amidst a settling cloud of dust.

He walked backwards from the collapse site of the skybox and stared into the brown smoke with clenched teeth.

Something stirred.

"….," Hull's blue eyes narrowed.

Suddenly, the brown smoke billowed out towards him in the shape of a stabbing swordsman.

"!"

SMACK!

I struck him hard across the torso.

He reeled back and stumbled at the feet of a suddenly charging Killer Croc.

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!" the bleeding mutant's green eyes flared as he swung a clawed fist at me.

SWIPE!

I stumbled back.

SW-SWIPE! SWIIIIIPE!

SLIIIINK!

I howled in mute pain as his claws grazed my right shoulder.

I clutched a bleeding wound and stumbled sideways.

"RGHHHH!" He pounced at me with a lunging mouth full of teeth.

With my wounded arm, I raised Myrkblade horizontally.

CL-CLACK!

He bit onto the wooden body of my blade. Drooling all over it.

"Nnnghhh!"

I frowned.

'_Crikey! Send him back to the swamp already!'_

I gripped onto the hilt with two, smoking hands.

_Chew on this, you motherf-_

FLASH!

I exploded a pulse of murk through my sword and into his mouth.

POW!

He stumbled back, clutching his mouth. "Nnngh!"

SWOOOOSH—Wildebeest charged through the smoke—WHAM! He headbutted Killer Croc.

"Nnngh!" Killer Croc bounced right back and pounced Wildebeest.

The bovine combatant grabbled with him, pushing his weight into the creature.

Killer Croc somehow squirmed his pale neck through the melee of limbs and bit towards Wildebeest's snout.

FLASH!

A pink hex from out of nowhere knocked him back.

Killer Croc stumbled back.

I jerked my metal hand to my belt and unleashed a playing card.

SWIIIIIISH!

The metal object sailed straight at Croc's face.

He saw it at the last second, blinked a glossy eye, shoved against Wildebeest, and opened his razor sharp row of teeth.

_CLACK!_

I blinked.

Killer Croc's face had jerked to the side. A beat. He looked towards me. The metal-laced playing card was planted firmly between his lips. He hissed through the mouthed projectile with a chuckle. "Hressh…Hressh….Hressh…"

Wildebeest's meaty fists jabbed forward and slammed oppositely into Croc's chin and the top of his head.

CRUNCH!

"MMMMMMFFFF!" Killer Croc's lips bled as he spat a lump of playing-card shrapnel out of his mouth. He stumbled back in pain.

"!" I blurred forward. Jumped. Reached a metal hand out. Grabbed one of Wildebeest's horns, spun up it, stretched a leg out, and side-kicked Croc across the bloody cheek.

WHAP!

He spun in place.

I swung around by Wildebeest's horn, perched on his forehead, took a breath, grabbed both horns, and vaulted over them and towards Killer Croc.

SWOOOOSH-PLANT!

I landed with my legs hugging Croc's torso. I clutched onto him with my ankles and—blurring—repeatedly slapped his cheek left and right with the swish-slash of my sword. WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM-WHAM!

He stumbled backwards, spitting bloody drool.

I rid and pummeled the mutant for a good six seconds before—snarling—kicking into a backflip that uppercutted him with my right boot.

WHAP!

Killer Croc flew meatedly onto the ground.

_Plant!_

I landed in a crouch before him.

Panting.

Cheers. Then. Gasps.

**POW!**

"?" I turned and looked. "!"

Wildebeest plummeted to the ground by a proximity grenade.

Hull stood with an outstretched arm. He glared over at me with angry blue eyes.

I took a breath. SWOOOOSH! I blurred at him.

He held his ground.

I swung Myrkblade up—SLASSSSH!

He gripped it effortlessly in metal laced hands.

FLASH!

I was suddenly unarmed.

_Shit!_

WHAP!

His foot lifted.

"!"

I flew through the air from the impact to my chest and landed hard on my back.

FLASH-SWIIISH!

THUNK!

Myrkblade was suddenly thrown at me. It embedded me to the floor by the material of my leggings.

I sweatdropped. I tried to yank it out—

_SHVVVVVV-CLACK!_

I winced all over.

And…

Nothing happened.

I looked up.

The stranger's blade froze at my scarred throat. Hull stared at me. Coldly. And yet….

There was something in his eyes. Something that seemed to answer the question going on in my head.

_Why didn't he drive the blade in? _

_Respect? _

_Fear? _

I blinked under my goggles.

Hull's eyes narrowed. He seemed to be waiting. I could see in his blue orbs and hear from behind my prone head the punches and the grunting fight between a recovered Wildebeest and Killer Croc.

And yet Hull and I remained frozen.

With I at the mercy of his blade.

_Was this it? _

_Did I lose? _

_With my life spared, and Terra—_

_Terra……_

_**BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!**_

I shook all over.

The fighting forms of Killer Croc and Wildebeest froze.

And yet…Hull didn't seem affected. I saw his lips move and I read what they had to say in the manner that only a mute can.

"You and I are on missions too important to die. Both of us."

And my lips parted.

'_Noir? What in the blue Fitzgerald are you doing down there? Making friends! That's my job!'_

A whining sound to the speaker system.

Then….

Anderson's voice.

"_**Ladies and gentlemen. This fight……..is over……"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade blinked.

Jinx's cat eyes widened. She leaned against the railing, gasping. "What?"

"Shhh….listen….," Pulsade raised a finger and craned her blonde head.

"_**We have told you that it doesn't get any better than this. And we meant it."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson stood proudly at the edge of his balcony, waving at the crowd while he fingered the mic and spoke into it.

"This fight is over. And we have champions to the Tournament! Four….Amazing…Champions!"

First, a rush of shock amongst the crowd. Confused mutterings. Even a few angry shouts.

Then—as planned—Anderson expertly rolled off his tongue: "And an arena full….of winning bets."

A resounding roar of approval flew through the arena and made the air deafening as never before.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I lay on the ground, disbelieving.

Gazing past the smoke and ruin at the balcony.

My body worn and panting and sweaty all over.

'_Hmmmm. Interesting. Not that I don't agree with the psychopath. You four are a bunch of believable badasses. But something's fishy like a New England armpit about this……'_

I nodded to the air.

_No kidding._

SHVVVVVV-CLACK! FLASH! "Get up….," a silver-tipped hand reached down to me.

"……," I looked up the arm.

A deadpan Hull was reaching down to give me a hand. "No matter what the man says, the game is far from over. I knew it from the start. This is just the beginning."

"……," my black eyes narrowed under my goggles.

He remained reaching down towards me. "It would be prudent to trust me now, Mr. Noir….," he muttered. "The tournament phase is over. And if either you or I are to get what we want, we'll need to start working with each other."

"………"

'_Seriously, Noir. Do you know this guy?'_

I took a deep breath.

I thought to myself: _Something tells me I'm about to._

I reached a hand up.

He gripped it.

He pulled me up.

I yanked Myrkblade out of the ground, looked at him warily….and sheathed the blade. CHIIIING!

Hulk walked off, brushing the dust off his leather jacket.

I took a deep breath and gazed across the arena under the ringing noise.

Killer Croc was scratching his head as if utterly confused. Somehow it seemed like an act to me.

Wildebeest looked my way. He shrugged.

I shrugged back at him.

Wildebeest pivoted and glanced subconsciously up at a pair of feminine shadows atop a catwalk far overhead.

And I sighed and gazed sideways at the distant Hull.

_What have I gotten myself into?_

A beat.

I ran a shivering, metal hand through my long dark threads.

_Is Terra worth all this madness?_

A shaking…

_Rrrrred Aviarrry……_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Rexxin took a deep breath. "So….we have the four."

Anderson nodded, adjusting his robe. "We have the four."

"You didn't mention anything to Luthor or Dagger about giving all the participants winnings," Rexxin pointed out at the audience. "You know that'll break the bank, right?"

"Yes….Pompeii may be at a financial crisis…."

Anderson spun around.

He faced away from the smoldering arena and the rows of monitors.

He smiled: "But with these four….we'll undoubtedly win back thrice our original treasury."

"…..," Rexxin nodded. "I hope this works out."

"Of course it will….," Anderson grunted. He brushed Rexxin aside and exited the balcony. "Have the four cleaned up and meet me in the arena control room. I want to have a talk with them before the ultimate briefing tomorrow night…."

"And the Vault, sir?"

"They'll get to it….if indeed they prove useful…."


	195. The Earth Must Bleed part 10

**195. The Earth Must Bleed part 10**

A halo of lights.

Flickering security camera feed.

Special effects computer console controls.

The instrument panels and camera control stations of the Arena Observation Room in the belly of Pompei stretched around us.

_Us……_

Hull…

Wildebeest…

Killer Croc…

And myself.

We were all 'winners', as Jacob Anderson uttered at the end of our spontaneous melee. It was a distinction that broke the understood rules of the tournament. And regardless of the grueling anticlimax's awkwardness, the spectators walked away happy from the illegal event. All rich with gambling earnings. It was a boldly suicidal move on behalf of Anderson and his casino's bank.

But somehow, he didn't seem phased by that.

He paced before us—the burgundy robed man—with a drunk grin on his face. Rexxin stood like a red flame in the corner, accompanied by nearly a dozen security guards in the shadows. They all had guns ready, just in case any of the 'superfreaks' present decided to do something.

That meant us….and me.

"……," I gazed silently at Anderson through my cracked goggles. My jaw was tight. My lips were firm. I stood tall and straight in spite of my bruises; the fitting form of Wyldecarde.

"You all must be very very anxious…..," Anderson dripped. He was tall. His skunk spots easily hovered above my brow level. Only Wildebeest and Killer Croc were capable of staring the man down. "…and very very confused."

"Try very very pissed….," Killer Croc hissed.

Rexxin and his guards shifted nervously.

Anderson walked to a stop, gazing over. A beat. He smiled: "And very very empty-handed too, at the time being."

Killer Croc's teeth showed in a mutated sneer. "Hressssssssh….."

Anderson resumed pacing. "All four of you have proven that you have the power, strength, and survivability to truly reach the threshold of the Vault." He gestured with a hand. "But seeing that you are all equally matched, I cannot let a single one of you receive your prize."

Wildebeest snorted.

Hull folded his arms.

Anderson raised a finger: "Now now……you must realize that the contents of the Vault are very important to a man in my position," he suavely placed a hand over his breast and winked. "I run a great risk letting any single one of you so much as see the door to the holding place. Much less entering in. I've grown to respect your varied strengths and tenacities. But now I must learn if I can _trust_ them."

Hull droned: "Does Triangular trust you to handle the Vault like a six-year-old bully?"

Rexxin bit his lip.

My black eyes darted to the edge of my goggles.

"…..," Anderson gazed at Hull. He slowly broke forth a smile: "Why…..what ever are you talking about?"

"……," Hull glared.

"I know of no such 'Triangular'….," Anderson smiled.

"Hrmm…..," Hull's head nodded lightly. "Right."

A beat.

"You know….I would think that some of you should owe me back some of the respect I've shown to you…," Anderson said with a slightly colder tone and a waving finger at all of us….mainly situated towards Hull. "I'm not pushing you all away. After all, I have one last offer."

"An offer?" Killer Croc's mucous green eyes narrowed. "Or a request?"

Wildebeest took a deep breath through his nostrils.

"Heheheheh…," Anderson ran a hand through his black and gray hair. "Quite observant for a swamp water rat."

"Just get to the point."

"My organization is a strong one…," Anderson gestured towards the walls of 'Pompeii'. "And yet, it is still rather new here in Las Vegas. But regardless, our presence here is like an elephant stepping on the moon. The crater of our strong impact will not be forgotten. But in order to claim the right stakes in this gamble of a desert oasis, we need to give the right message to the right people."

"What kind of people?" Killer Croc hissed.

"Very….very….disrespectful people," Anderson purred.

I shifted nervously where I sat and tried to hide it. I felt the peripheral gaze of Hull on my person and tensed up…

"We will discuss it tomorrow," Anderson pointed.

"What is there to discuss?" Hull coldly spat. "Already you have for us a single, irreversible stipulation. Need you delay the inevitable by waiting to brief us on what you want tomorrow?"

"Are you so impatient, stranger?" Anderson chuckled.

Hull's stone-hard-eyes narrowed. "Is your heart so beating?"

A beat.

"You will return to this casino tomorrow," Anderson returned with hard finality. He glared as well. "Or you will not so much as smell the burning force field reinforcing the precious Vault you seek."

"…….."

"Well then….," Anderson half-bowed and slinked out of the room. "Have a good night, gentlemen. What's left of it. Heh…..heheh…."

And he was gone.

Rexxin motioned at us, showing his and his officer's guns. He pointed towards the hallway doors.

"Up we go…"

Hull took a deep breath. "Right….," and he walked out of the room first. Wildebeest followed behind, glancing at me with twisted white eyes. I glanced back at him. He shrugged. I shrugged. We both exited. Killer Croc was the last to leave, and he was grumbling the whole time.

"Cotton picking waste of blood….I swear to God.….I'm gonna sink my hungry teeth into his neck. How's that for a martini?"

Rexxin glared and touched the hilt of his holstered gun. "Don't make me turn you into a new pair of boots, freak."

"…………..," Killer Croc glared back.

A beat.

"BOO!" Killer Croc jerked his razor-sharp mouth at Rexxin.

The guard jumped back.

"Hehehehehehehressssssh….," Crock cracked his muscle joints and walked out finally, under the watchful aim of a company of Rexxin's gunmen. "…right. Enough with this friggin' Popsicle stand. I'm hittin' the bars!"

I glared back through the corner of my goggles. My black eyes narrowed on the visage of Killer Croc.

_Is it just me……or…… _

_Is everything that Gothamite freak saying feel a little……_

……

_Forced?_

I shook it off and made to leave Pompeii.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRRRREAK._

There was a side door hidden in the most shadowed corner of the casino's parking garage.

On the bottom floor.

It was through there that the four of us exited. Rexxin and his men were shortly behind us. And as soon a we were outside, the chief of security slammed the door shut with a grunt.

THWAP!

We all stood in a dark halo for a moment. Blinking.

Feeling like we had been thrown out.

Hardly an honorable exit for four 'warriors' who had risked life and limb and….loyalty to get as far as each of us did through the tournament.

I half-expected an old fashion car to drive by Godfather style through the parking garage and gun us collectively down with tommy guns. But somehow that didn't happen.

There was an uneasy silence among us all until—naturally—the most mutated of us grunted forth:

"Well, I'm beginning to think this is all nothing but a big crock of shit!" Killer Croc said. A beat. He hissingly laughed: "Man, don't I sound rich?"

"……………"

"Well, I think I'll be stickin' around anyways! This Vault is too big to have slippin' out of my damn, oily fingers!"

"……………."

"Land o'Goshen! Don't you punks ever _talk_!"

"Less talking and more dying," Hull grunted.

Killer Croc grinned down at him with a mouth full of teeth. "Then what say we die together! Right now!"

I blinked.

Hull's eyes were bored. "You're not worth the breath."

"Nnnngh…," Killer Croc snarled and raised a clawed fist-

"Rmmmff!" Wildebeest suddenly stepped up, arms crossed threateningly.

Killer Croc looked between Wildebeest and Hull. Mucous eyes blinking. "Saaaay…what is this! I don't like where this is going!"

"It'll be going nowhere at all if you don't wisen up some, you pathetic dungheap," Hull grunted. He started to walk out of the parking garage, his silver-tipped hands in his denim pockets. "If any of us want to have a chance at seeing the Vault, we're going to have to start seeing each other as teammates. Not advesaries."

"And just who made you boss!"

"The same person who can teleport that bigass mouth of yours into thin air if you don't put it to rest," Hull muttered. His stone footsteps echoed against the walls and girders of the parking garage as he faded away in the dark distance of the filtering night. "See you later, alligator."

"…….."

A beat.

"Hrmph….," Killer Moth turned and looked at us. "…he think he's some kind of killer or something?"

"……….," we stared at him.

"Oh. Yeah. Right." He shrugged with a hissing chuckle. "My bad. Well, gotta split kiddies." He cracked his neck joints. "Not many places a Gothamite freak like me can hide in once the sun's up. Gotta find me a sewer. You two enjoy your date."

Wildebeest grunted.

Killer Croc walked over to a drain, yanked the grate off—CRACK!—and jumped down with a grunt. There was a splashing sound, and then he was gone.

"………"

Wildebeest and I stood alone.

Silence.

We looked at each other.

My black eyes remained firm and resolute beneath my goggles.

Wildebeest's white optics narrowed.

"…..," I looked over his shoulder.

_FL-FLASH!_

Pulsade appeared, and beside her was Jinx. A soft light filtering out from the blonde assassin's aura bathed them as the two girls slowly drifted forward and flanked Wildebeest's side.

"Well, isn't this quaint…," Pulsade murmured and folded her arms.

I folded my arms too.

_Stole the words right out of my………never mind._

"I can't believe how unbelievably screwy this all is…," Jinx ran a shaking hand through her short pink hair. "I'm in tune to the strings of destiny and fate. And yet here I've failed to predict all this chaos!"

"Anderson is a complete, bloomin' retard," Pulsade grumbled. She tossed her blonde hair. "I should have figured he would never have opened the Vault for anyone to begin with."

Wildebeest nodded, sighing out of his nostrils.

"Triangular's up to something!" Jinx squealed. She counted the pale fingers on her dainty hands. "If Luthor and Dagger have a hand in this—and whoever sent Killer Croc to the tournament too—then this could be nothing but a huge trap meant to gain everything just for the evil organization's glory, and if Anderson thinks he can-" She stopped. Her pink cat eyes blinked…then narrowed. "Uhm…..wh-why are we all talking like we're perfectly good friends?"

Pulsade bit her lip.

Wildebeest shifted uncomfortably.

I simpered.

_ZAAT!_

"Because maybe that's what we all should be….," the Messenger walked over and leaned against a parked van to my side. He smiled. "….friends." A pause. "For the time being, at least."

"Pfft…don't be cheeky," Pulsade rolled her blue eyes. "I'd be gobsmacked to see the likes of that happening."

"And why not, Miss Poppins?"

"We're both going in opposite, bloody directions!" Pulsade growled and angrily waved a hand. "Jinx and I were doing quite nicely before you and your lovely puppet came pissing around our arena!"

"Your arena….Your direction…," the Messenger examined his short fingernails. "And yet….you guys and my buddy here are after the same thing—ahem—person."

"……….," Pulsade drew silent.

I squinted aside at the Messenger through my goggles.

_What are you doing……?_

He half-smiled at me before addressing the group: "Come on! Spies. Vixens. Oxen one and all…."

Wildebeest snorted.

"—we all value the life and existence of Terra in all our psychotic little ways," the Messenger spoke. "Which is the least any of us can say about Anderson or Killer Croc."

"Yeah….," Jinx murmured. She folded her frilled arms. "And what of Mister Tall-Dark-And-Bloodletting?"

I shuddered.

"This 'Hull' fella knows an awful lot about what he's up to," the Messenger said. A chuckle: "Which is good twenty-meter dash ahead of me because I have no motherfuzzing clue what the Donny Osmond hell-clone is doing here. But rest assured, if he gets ahold of the key to Terra from that vault, it won't be a good thing."

Jinx seemed to shudder at the sound of the Messenger's admittance to knowing that information.

But Pulsade wasn't nearly as convinced. She folded her arms and managed a smirk at the asian teen: "Ah. Brill. For once, the wise-arse is short of the prime in his donkey years!"

"Hey! Only I can make the degrading jokes!" the Messenger blinked his almond eyes. He pointed: "By the way, I've been meaning to ask—"

"Nnnngh…," Jinx rolled her eyes. "I'm tired of this! Go on! What! Lemme guess…you wanna know 'which one of us leads when we dance', right?"

The Messenger stared. He smiled and lowered his hand. "Actually, my inquiry was somewhere along the lines of who goes on the tampon runs, but—"

"This is absolutely bloody pointless!" Pulsade shook her head, grabbed Jinx by the shoulder, and made to leave. "We have no time to waste fraternizing with you pillocks! Even if everything came down to the wire and we both reached Terra at once, we'd obviously clash heads because **we** know what must be done to stop Red Aviary and you lads are entirely cluele—What the bloomin' hell is so funny!"

Wildebeest was snorting a bovine chuckle.

Jinx hissed, and flung a hex bolt above him.

FLASH!

A dead lighting fixture fell atop the beast's head.

CLANG!

"Nrnnngh!" Wildebeest snorted angrily and rubbed his aching, silver crown between the horns.

"I think you're forgetting something," the Messenger took a gentle step forward and gestured. "We have here a true Teen Titan. As far as—ya know—puberty and Promethean superpowers go…"

I glared at him.

He smiled and went on: "At least grant yourself an _edge_ to get to the blonde maiden of the Earth. Link up with a Titan. Sure…you all may be butting heads at the end. That's inevitable. But at least you've got a ticket away from having to butt heads with someone else you'd ultimately wouldn't like. Someone with scales or blue denim and a penchant for throwing a wrench into everything that Counter-Red-Aviary stands for…not to mention a holy-shit-hand-grenade."

"………."

"Now's when you give into the cute asian's blinding charm," the Messenger winked.

"Ugh….you make me sick," Jinx groaned. A beat. She blinked. "I need a shower."

"Never mind…," Pulsade sighed. She pointed at the two of us. "We'll deal with you two gradually. Jinx and I will be covering Bonehead here—" she pointed at Wildebeest "—as always. And perhaps we'll give a thought to sniping the other ugly blokes a half second before you if fate just happens to make that beneficial to us."

"That's my department," Jinx raised a happy hand.

I smiled sarcastically at her with half a sneer following…

"Let's get out of here…," Pulsade grumbled. She whipped out a communicator. "'J'. Come in, lad. Is the Loft Destination clear?"

"Uhm….Leslie….I haven't been able to contact him in over an hour."

"Oh….great….bloody perfect," Pulsade tossed her arms.

"Need help, ladies?"

"NEVER YOU MIND!" Pulsade snarled. "Stupid little blonde sprog, I swear to god I'll thrash for every inch of his…of his…..oh gawds, I'm tired."

Jinx hugged her. "It's okay, girl. It won't be long and you'll be back in your warm terry cloth robe and—"

"Blast it, Jean! How many times do I have to tell you," Pulsade hissed. "Not in front of the nemeses!"

I mouthed: '_Nemeses?'_

The Messenger chuckled.

"But wait, I thought you said the old headmasters of H.I.V.E. were—"

"Enough! Jupiter above! Okay, we're gone. We are GONE!"

FLASH!

The two girls and their horned 'pet' disappeared in a clumsy flash of light.

A beat.

The Messenger turned to me. "Yup. Definitely Jinx."

I looked at him sideways. "?"

He motioned with a thumb. "The one who goes on the runs…," he whispered.

I snickered mutely.

"Hehehehe….ahem….TO THE BOY CAVE!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was still nighttime.

Barely.

The Messenger and I stood wearily on opposite sides of the abandoned construction warehouse. I leaned with my back against a dilapidated wall. He sat on the edge of a table covered with metal mesh and leftover tools from the 'rebirth' of Wyldecarde.

"Beats me what Hull knows about you. But one thing is for sure, I'm getting sick and tired of plagiarists."

I looked at him awkwardly, dazedly from the opposite end of the shadows. The cold desert night wafted in with thin starlight. I had my goggles off, my naked eyes exposed to the shapes and contours of my benevolent visitor.

He gazed up at the partial ceiling, took a breath, and mused: "First some blonde mute kid, then Glover, and now Tom Sizemore with a Star Trek transporter built into his fingers." He gazed across the darkness at me. "That'd land for one hell of a scary honeymoon night, wouldn't it?"

I exhaled. _I don't ever think of such crap……_

"Well, no matter…," the Messenger stretched and seemingly cracked his neck muscles. "I'll be sure to check in on him. One step at a time." He fingered the bulky watch on his arm and smirked some. "Glad to have some added juice here. I get to annoy you and all your friends longer." He winked at me. "I'm like the one Johnny Carson guest who never leaves. You wouldn't believe it, but I've got Yoko Ono hiding under this sweatjacket of mine."

I chuckled breathily before yawning and gazing at the floor.

A beat.

"Noir?"

I looked up.

The Messenger's face was straight. Peaceful. Sympathetic.

"How're you doing?"

A beat.

I shifted my body. I felt the bruises, the cuts, the wounds from a night of being a wild card.

I smiled crookedly and hand-signed whether he could understand it or not:

'_Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.'_

_Give to the Earth……_

"There are so many complicated things at foot now," the Messenger slowly said. "Tools of Triangular being used to the utmost potency. Evil wheels spinning in the criminal underground. And Red Aviary always trailing…trailing…trailing….crimson…."

A beat.

I fought the same damn shiver up my arm.

I sighed….

"The best thing you can do for Terra—or the rest of the Titans for that matter—is rest now, Noir," the Messenger said. "Heck….even I need to take a breather out of this cock-eyed reality you call 'home'. Heh….no offense. But I prefer to lay my head down to sleep in universes where there's a little less shock value and a little more marvel. If you don't catch my drift, that's okay. Something tells me you and I have been in these still waters for a long time, and yet it's all achieving a purpose."

I took a deep breath, hugging myself.

"Hey….," he leaned forward. "Jinx and Pulsade mean well. As bloody and as crazy as they may be, they really do mean well. But I assure you—Noir—that they're not going to get within a foot of Terra before you do."

"….."

"I swear."

I smiled at him.

_I know._

He hopped down from the table, stretched, and took a deep breath. "Well…..nnngh….I've got just one last thing to do before I skedaddle."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Go on and Luxor your melatonin away. I'll meet you here in the Boy Cave, come rain or come shine."

_Don't say it like that-_

Ciao!

ZAAAT!

And in a green flash, he was gone.

"….."

……_or like that._

I sighed. I shuffled over towards a backpack in the far corner of the abandoned building where my casual clothes lie.

I began to change for the night…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson sat in a lavish office.

In a lavish chair.

Before a lavish set of t.v. screens stacked together.

He swirled a glass of wine that reflected off the windows of the twentieth floor.

Outside, distant lights of Las Vegas sparkled, died, were resurrected, and sparkled again.

The local news broadcasts displayed—on numerous t.v. sets—various images of an overturned, abandoned bus on a desert highway.

"…….," Anderson grinned.

_Creeeeak._

Double doors to his office opened.

Rexxin stepped in. The dim light of the richly carpeted interior settled gently on his red hair streaks. He gazed at Jacob Anderson from afar and cleared his throat. associate," Anderson practically cooed.

Rexxin tried to ignore that. Nevertheless, he walked forward and stood at attention.

"Ahem…the combatants are out. My men saw to it that they left the premises."

"Do you think they'll come back tomorrow like I asked them to?" Anderson drunkenly smiled.

Rexxin nearly sweatdropped: "I would count on it, sir. At this point, we need them to do what we need if ever the casino's future is to be—"

"Take a look at this, Rexxin…," Anderson gestured towards the screens.

"….."

Rexxin walked around. He stood behind Jacob Anderson's desk chair with his arms folded behind his back. His eyes narrowed. "What is this?"

"An overturned bus seventy miles south of here…," Anderson murmured. "Carrying Mexican students on a leadership retreat to the Las Vegas convention center this weekend. At least, it was carrying them."

"Mexican Students?"

"Atlantica Universidad del Norte," Anderson said. A beat. He turned and smiled at Rexxin. "An all girl's school. A….._young_…..all girl's school."

Rexxin gulped. "Point being?"

"I've had a special delivery requested…," Anderson gazed lovingly at the monitors once more. "…and judging from these wonderful on-site photos, that task was met by some of our out-of-town associates. There should be a…..bunch of succulent visitors to join Mr. Joto downstairs in the next twenty-four hours."

Rexxin kept his cool. He cleared his throat and calmly said: "Is now really a clear enough time to indulge in such—?"

"Shhhh….," Anderson raised a finger. His face seemed suddenly twisted in confusion. "….do you hear that?"

A beat.

Rexxin looked around. He tilted his head up. His nostrils flared. He frowned. "Do I hear it? I smell it!"

CRASH!

The doors to the office flew wide open.

Anderson and Rexxin spun to look.

THWACK! "Aaaugh!"

SMACK! "Ugh!"

Two henchmen were slammed harshly into the office.

Killer Croc stomped in. Writhing all over. His mucousy eyes wide open and green…green…green…

"You're starving me….," the hissing mutant Gothamite pointed a gnarled finger. "You're STARVING me!"

Rexxin immediately whipped out his walkie-talkie and shouted into it: "Dammit! We need backup on floor twenty now!"

Anderson placed a gentle hand on Rexxin's shoulder. He kept his eyes trained on the reptilian man and uttered: "Now, Mr. Croc, what are you doing here? It's not your scheduled time for refilling. Besides, you should be in the sewers now. The sun will be up in a matter of—"

"Don't you FRICKIN' TELL ME what to do!" Killer Croc heaved all over and stomped towards the desk. "I need it…I need it NOW! The only reason I left Arkham to do your mangy, dirty work was so that I can have it! HAVE IT! _HAVE IT!"_

Rexxin nervously fingered his gun.

Anderson gently held his hands together and smiled. "Well, Croc. You did well tonight. Even if we were so kind as to put you pleasantly towards the end of the tournament."

"Enough talking and more of the JUICE!" STOMP! Rips and tears formed in the carpet under the slimy mutant's feet.

"…………" Anderson smiled. "Very well." He swiveled towards Rexxin. "Rexxin? Be a dear and reward our faithful servant."

Rexxin sighed. "Yeah….sure thing." The security guard walked over to a metal cabinet.

Killer Croc stared, shaking all over.

Rexxin opened the compartment with a special, electronic key. The doors hissed as they gave way. He reached in and pulled out a small, metal briefcase.

Killer Croc was sweating. His eyes glossed over green….green…green…

He drooled eagerly from his teeth.

Rexxin spun around and opened the briefcase.

A trio of syringes rested in padded slots. All were filled with a bright, green liquid.

Croc shuddered.

Anderson adjusted his robe, stood up, and took a single syringe. "You know…the one thing that amazes me about you Gotham spawn…." He graced the glass of the syringe with his finger and walked slowly over to the mutant. "…is how so easily, so eagerly, and so blindly you'll all obsess over a single, trivial thing."

"P-Please….please….I need….frickin n-need…."

"Dragonflare has the wonderful spell of forcing you to do my bidding as long as Dagger and Luthor aren't here to royally bitch-slap you. Such nasty work. Not my style whatsoever." He stood before Killer Croc, smiling. "I prefer to see people hit only if….they bleed."

"…….," Killer Croc stared. Green, bulging eyes. Running sweat. Twitching….Twitching….Twitching….

Anderson's eyes narrowed and he seemed to hiss: "Some obsessions are far more classy than others. You—my little waif—can have your precious, green shit."

THUNK!

Rexxin winced.

Anderson grinned in pleasure at having forcibly jammed the needle at more-than-likely the wrong place in Killer Croc's neck.

But somehow it worked, for as the syringe pumped the green drug into Croc's body, his eyes rolled back…seeped extra mucous…and a liquid sensation coursed through his muscular limbs and seemed to float his scaly skin away on a cloud. "Heh…hehehhhh…..mrmmmmkkkkkk-freakin' gorgeous. Hahahahaha…."

Rexxin made a face.

Anderson's expression tensed.

_YANK!_

The syringe dropped to the floor.

Killer Croc teetered on two legs.

Anderson folded his arms. "Tell me, mister nobody…..if I tell you to do something, will you do it?"

"I….w-will…….hresssh…."

"Including when I tell you to kill the other three combatants at so much as half a moment's notice?"

"Yessssss-ssssshhhh…..hressha…."

"And even cast yourself off the Stratosphere uptown," Anderson pointed and winked. "….if I had no need of you or your legendary carcass afterwards?"

"Yessssssss….."

Anderson's eyes narrowed. "Tell me all that you see and ever will see…"

Killer Croc tilted his bony head up and shut his eyes. His teeth showed.

"Red……R-Red…..**Red…..**hehehehe…._**Reddddddddd……**_……"

Rexxin shifted nervously.

Anderson adjusted his robe one last time and folded his arms. A smirk.

"Tonight, you and the others will have a job to do. But only you will get commissions…three big, bloody, commissions. I'll see to it once this is all over with. Heheheheheh….."

From the shadows of a utility closet—where the three adults couldn't see—there hovered a trio of green, electric-eye specks.

A beat.

The green lights flickered and drew up.

A pair of almond eyes stared out suspiciously. Blinked. And disappeared in a faint, green aura.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked past the lights and the strobing and the throngs upon throngs of hocking taxi cabs until the wisp of a tumbleweed fluttered across the sidewalk and made my exhausted body stop with a jolt.

"….."

I looked around.

_Oh yeah. _

_I'm in Las Vegas. _

_I almost forgot……_

Sighing through my nose, I made my way across Las Vegas Boulevard and into the Luxor Hotel. The sun was nearly rising by the time I got there. I figured that I could afford myself three hours to sleep at best if I wanted to get back out and do some important reconnaissance with the Messenger later that day.

_Or whatever he wants to do. _

_God, Ana, I'm so sleepy. _

_I wish I could hear you play me to sleep with your harmonica._

I smiled drunkenly as I took the elevator up in the cool, air-conditioned building.

_Then again, I spent too much time as it was whistling you awake._

I walked along the interior, slanted balcony.

Strolling up to my room.

Pulling out the right key.

_I still wonder sometimes what our……hehe……'children' would look like? _

_Would they carry on my darkness?_

_Or your heavenly goldenness? _

_Or maybe-_

I twisted the key in the lock.

I opened the door.

I walked into my room—

-and froze in place.

Blinking behind my black shades.

'J' sat on my bed, cross-legged. A little laptop on his little lap as he bent his little head down to eye the screen he was typing madly at. A miniature satellite dish attached to his computer via a long wire was positioned on the windowsill where it was gradually brightening outside.

At the sound and sight of me, he looked over. His green eyes as bright and cheerful as ever. And he gave me a boyish smile. With a breathy giggle, he waved and then freed his typing hands to gesture:

'_Welcome back!'_

"………," my lips parted.

He typed some more, looked at me sideways, and hand-signed:

'_Been a while, old friend. What are you waiting for? Make yourself at home……'_


	196. The Earth Must Bleed part 11

**196. The Earth Must Bleed part 11**

_Midday. _

_Clear blue sky. _

_Cool winds wafting down from the cedar-laden mountains._

_I took deep, steady breaths. _

_My adolescent arms cradled the blocks of wood. _

_Gravel crunched and shifted under my padding shoes._

_After a brisk walk across the open square of the Manor, I reached the threshold of the Master's house. I stepped up onto the porch. I knelt down, hugged the wood to my chest, and wrenched a hand free to remove my shoes. I took a deep breath, rung a tiny bell by a rope, and grasped the paper door. _

_I slid open the entrance into the house. _

_I peered in. _

_A beat. _

_I couldn't see the Master. The sparsely furnished dwelling place rested empty. Calm. Quiet. _

"………"

_I glanced right._

"…………"

_I bit my lip. _

"_Are you intending to finish out my errand, student?" _

_I blinked my brown eyes. _

_I looked up. _

_The old man sat in a perfectly balanced lotus position atop a ceiling rafter. His legs butterflied on either side of the wooden beam. His hands were out to his sides. His back was to me. His bald head shadowed by the proximity of the wooden peak of the interior. _

_I simpered. "Uhm……Y-Yes, sensei. I'm sorry." _

"_There is no being sorry. There is only being. Finish what you came to do." _

_I nodded. I walked over towards a wooden chest lining a wall. I opened it and saw that it was nearly full with small wooden planks already. _

"…………"

_I shrugged it off, placed the new logs gently down, and closed the lid. _

_I turned around, brushed my hands off, and stepped out towards the exit. _

_Halfway through, I stopped almost directly beneath the Master. I looked up towards him and asked: "Is th-that all you needed of me, sensei?"_

_He spoke without looking: "That is all I need, yes, student." _

_I smiled slightly. I nodded: "Just ask if you need another task done." _

"_I know that you will." _

_I blinked. _

_What did he mean by that? _

_I shrugged. _

_I headed for the exit- _

"_Who said that you could leave, student?" _

_I winced all over. _

"_Errr……f-forgive me, sensei. I thought that you had all that you needed—" _

"_But what of your need?" _

"…………"

_His elevated form shifted somewhat. "There is something that keeps you from leaving my house. In spirit more so than in mind or body. Something troubles you. It rattles your very person. How can a shaking mirror truly reflect the beams of the Spectrum?" _

"_I……I……" _

_A beat. _

_I exhaled, a defeated lowering of my eyelids. "Y-Yes, sensei. There is something I'd like to discuss." A beat. I fidgeted. "Confess, really……" _

"_Then confess it. Come join me." _

_I looked up at the rafters. I gulped. "You mean up there?" _

"_Am I a mole beneath the earth right now?" _

"_N-No, sensei. Let me just…ahem……a-alright…," I eyed the vertical support beams to the left and right of me. There were no places to grab ahold with human fingers. But they were close enough that if I moved really quickly…… _

_I exhaled. I got ready to make my move- _

"_Uh uh uh……bandanna." _

_I grimaced, but tried to hide it. "Th-The bandanna?" _

"_Hai." _

_I exhaled. A beat. "Y-Yes, sir……" _

_I pulled a red bandanna out from my pocket. I raised it up to my forehead. I covered my eyes. I tied the ends of the bandanna around the back of my short head of hair. I couldn't see anything. So I shut my eyes to block out whatever vision I had left. _

"_Now……join me……" _

_I took a deep breath. I slid into a leg-splitting crouch. Hands stretched outward and ahead of me. I tensed my muscles. _

_And then……_

_Relaxed……………… _

_Invisible rays of invisible light with invisible color. _

_Red. _

_Black. _

_White. _

_Mixing and parting and mixing and parting and mixing again. _

_A focal point. _

_A beam. _

_Spinning. _

_Gliding. _

_Touching. _

_Dividing. _

_Shapes. _

_Patterns. _

_A plane. _

_A horizon. _

_A second plane. _

_A third. _

_The interior of the household. _

_The vertical beams. _

_The rafters. _

_Air. _

_Wood. _

_Flesh. _

"_Nnngh!" I burst outward to my right in a flying leap. _

_THWAP! _

_Bounced off one beam. _

_TH-THWAP! _

_Bounced off a second. _

_Swung my hands up. _

_GRIP! _

_Grabbed a ceiling beam. _

_SWOOOSH! _

_Spun on it._

_Uprighted._

_Flipped. _

_And…… _

_PLANT!_

…_landed in a squat. _

_I exhaled. _

_Smiling. _

"………………_!" _

_I teetered over. _

_My blindfolded eyes bugged out. _

_**Grip**__. _

_A small frail hand grabbing my shoulder. _

_The Master's. _

_He saved me from a blind fall. _

_I bit my lip. I had to have been blushing all over. _

"_Th-Thank you, sensei." _

"_You are fast, student. Almost __**too**__ fast." _

_I couldn't see him. _

_But……with my spatial sense…… _

_I could have sworn there was a stone smile on his aged face._

_I evened myself out. _

_He let go of me_

_I sat on a ceiling rafter across from him. Cross-legged. Blindfolded, but balanced. _

_I took a deep breath._

"_What is it that you came all the way up here to tell me, young one?" _

"………_," my black eyes shifted against the blindness. "I……uhm……" _

"_Certainly I have summoned you. But even the most obedient servants all have a choice to pursue or not pursue the voice of their superiors." _

"_I like doing things for you, sensei," I smiled gently into the lofty oblivion. "If only I could express just how thankful I am that you brought me to this school and—" _

"_There are many students at this school," the Master's voice said, "…and many of them are as thankful if not more thankful than you, young one. And yet none of them go through the extent of expressing gratitude as you do." _

"………"

"_Are you also observant of your own……selflessness?"_

"_I……I-I……," I turned my head from him. I bit my lip. "I'm not selfless, sir." _

"_Oh? Then what are you?" _

"_I'm………" _

_A beat. _

_A breath. _

_I shuddered. _

"_That's what I came here for." _

"_Ah. So he does think of himself!" _

"_Well, I __**do**__ do a lot of thinking," I uttered. "I get a lot of chance to do it. When getting water and wood for you. When minding the garden outside your courtyard. When……wh-when I'm alone, basically." _

"_Which you are a lot." _

_I hoped he wouldn't blame me for ignoring that last part. I spoke: _

"_And……and I-I'm thankful as always for the fact that I'm here. But……" _

"_Hmmm?" _

_A beat. _

_I sighed. "I'm not doing you or any of this school justice, sensei." _

"_Truly?"_

"_I………I-I can see and feel the Spectrum……but……," I fidgeted. I tried not to teeter off the thin beam I was on. I wrung my hands together regardless. "……I don't know my place in the Spectrum." _

"_Do you mean you don't know what you are adept at?" _

_I bowed my head. I was about to nod- _

"_Or you don't know what you want to do in life?" _

_I jolted._

_I tilted my head to 'look' at him. "S-Sir?" _

_His voice spoke to me from beyond the blindfold. "The Spectrum is the secret breath in all that Life is and all that Life does. But if Spectrum was meant to be more important than Life, then perhaps it would have been something understood by all people at birth even moreso than Life is already understood by every living thing. The Spectrum is a new threshold for human kind, and humans on their own shall always be allies to Life no matter how much they may proliferate Death. It is one thing to devote your life to the Spectrum, but such a lake is difficult to jump to if your life is not footed firmly on the visible shore. Only once we have learn to tread the chaos of the simplicity around us can we swim through the chaos beyond. And even then, there needs to be a balance. A mature handling of what is real and what is surreal. And sometimes that handling comes in realizing that there is no chance of handling things at all." _

_I swallowed a lump in my throat. I spoke to him: "Sensei, I love life." _

"………_I would imagine that you do." _

_Silence. _

_I was hesitating. _

_And he knew it: _

"………_but there is something you love more than life, is there not?" _

_I took a deep breath. _

_He went on: "Something……Something more chaotic than the steady strength of White……" _

_I felt it coming. _

_I knew it was. _

_But it felt icy cold regardless of all my psyche did to prepare for it. _

"_Something as smothered in Black as it is laced with White and Red. Something so incredibly lonely—in that it is surrounded by confusion—that it appears almost horrifically enticing. It pulls you in like the deepest, darkest hole in the universe. And going into that hole is painful. And yet, you receive that very same joy from that pain. From that emptiness. From that solitary fulfillment." _

_I clenched my jaw. _

_Nevertheless, I took another breath and said: _

"_More than anything, I want peace." _

"_More than Life? More than Death? More than Construction and Destruction?" _

"_I want Balance." _

_It was cold. _

_It was curt. _

_It was full of bitterness and resolve all at the same time. _

_I felt bad and liberated for saying it. _

_I felt…… _

"_To be Balanced does not necessarily mean to be alone, young student……" _

_I exhaled painfully. _

_The edges of my blindfolded eyes were wet. _

_He went on: "……as long as you realize that every disjointed soul in the universe is a shared piece of a grand whole, you are never alone. There are always opposite ends of the Spectrum to equalize the Equalizer. And……" There was a warmth to his voice as he added to the bleedings parts of my being "………there is always time to Equalize yourself. Especially in my school." _

_I took a deep breath. A tear or two trailed down my cheeks. "I……I-I don't know where to go from here, sensei." _

"_That is the surest sign yet……that you are going in the right direction." _

_I sniffed. I smiled…… _

_Painfully. _

_The Master spoke beyond my blindness: "Do not feel troubled, young one. There is equal respects for all sides of the Spectrum. White, for its relentless strength and steadfast defense. Red, for its unquenchable passion and direct retribution. And Black……Black for its endless tolerance and selfless devotion." _

_I tilted my head down towards the floor that I knew was far, far below me. _

_The Earth. _

"_The obedience you show, young one. You show it not just to me. But to your friends. To your fellow students. And to her." _

_I froze. _

_Her blue eyes fluctuated in my mind's vision for a second and faded off into riverwater. _

"_She is a perceptive one. She too knew where you rested. Where you stood. Even where you drowned." _

_I tilted my head back up. Lips parted…… _

"_It is not my place to pull students to me who experience turmoil and flux. But she is White. She is Construction. So very excellent at Construction. She cannot help but try and shed the light into your gray heart. Perhaps it is selfishness. White and Red are defined by their very forwardness or reserve. And as much as it is a part of their being, they must not feel regret for it. In the same way, you must not feel regretful for your devotion. For your sacrifice. For your sympathy." _

"…………"

"_She will reward you, young one. Listen to her. Dwell upon her. She will make you complete and healed. As much as he who is destined for Red will keep you fueled and enflamed." _

_I took a deep breath. _

_And somehow I knew. _

_I knew…… _

_I was going to be a member of the final three. _

_I must have been more sure of it than Ana was. _

_For, after all…… _

_Ana was about as confused as I was. _

_But I had the legitimate excuse to be afraid. _

_And to embrace that chaos. _

_She needed me. _

_She needed me more than she ever thought I needed her. _

_Or maybe it was reciprocal? _

_Maybe the Master's dream was finally coming true. _

_And the Trinity…… _

_I relaxed. _

_I took a deep breath, and exhaled. _

_No…… _

_Nothing is sure yet. _

_Red still needs to be filled. _

_And if it's __**him**__…… _

_A beat. _

_I thought of Ana. _

_I thought of myself. _

_I thought of…… _

"…………"

_I couldn't help but smile. _

_This is absolutely perfect. _

_My god…… _

_So perfect. _

"_Go, young one." _

_I snapped out of it. _

"_She awaits you."_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_The other half of the students were just finished with training. _

_A bunch of them were walking in groups back to the households and courtyards. They joked and balanced their boken training swords over their shoulders. Bandannas of varying colors were tired around their wrists and necks. I saw Ben, Dawn, Michelle, Mat, and a few others. _

_And then…… _

_She was in the tree. _

_Half-climbed. _

_Hugging herself in her green and yellow get up. _

_Her angel-short hair deflated. _

_Her blue eyes round. _

_She seemed like a melting statue. On the brink of falling into the Earth from which she came and being swallowed up. _

_The cool, mountain wind kicked at her._

_The edges of her shirt kicked up a bit, letting a pale midriff show and be concealed again. _

_She seemed impervious to the temperature change. _

_A statue. _

_An extension of the Earth in ivory. _

_I walked up to her, and briskly, energetically—climbed up the tree. _

_She actually jolted. Startled. As if I had suddenly become quicker than she had ever seen overnight. _

"_Are you okay?" Ana asked. _

_I looked at her. _

_I smiled. "Couldn't be better." _

"………_," she leaned her heavenly head to the side. Quizzical. Blue sapphires blinking. _

"_I saw him," I said. "I saw the Master." _

_She seemed to shudder at that. As if suddenly guilty. She hugged herself and stared into the thicker and thicker line of trees edging the forest. _

"_Wh-What did you have to talk about?" Was her mumbling. _

_I leaned back casually against the thick body of the tree branch. I rested my arms behind my neck. I took a deep breath. _

_A beat. _

_I gazed off. Towards the Manor. The students, the sunset, the cool oblivion rounding the horizon._

"_Talking is overrated……," I uttered. A pause. I smiled sideways at her. "Kinda like the Master once taught us. The world is a strangely prettier place when you ignore your eyes and throat." _

"………"

_I tilted my head to the side. _

_Ana was hugging herself harder. Her face was long. _

_I hated that look. _

"_Ana, I don't know what my future holds for me here in this school……," I pick at some bark and speak slowly. "You're always focused on the past. And lately I've been stressing the future. And……I just don't know, Ana." _

"_Don't know what, Jordan?" _

"_Anything." _

_She looked at me. _

_But I wasn't looking at her. _

"_I'm confused, Ana……," I said. "All I know, all I feel, all I sense……spatially or not……is __**now**__." _

_She blinked. Her lips parted. _

_I took a deep breath and braved a painful smile at her. "And……I'm selfish. I'm selfish, Ana." I swallowed and finished weakly: "I don't want to be alone here." _

_She sniffed. She scooted over on the tree limb. _

_I helplessly leaned against her. _

_She let me. She cradled an arm around my shoulder and let me lean my head against her neck. _

_And I shuddered. "I need Life. I need it so much. And I can't master it. I don't know how else to receive it……then to be near you." _

_She stroked my head and said in a soft, shaking voice: "I will willingly show you that Life, Jordan……if you're so willing to stay here and show me Balance." _

_I smiled, my eyes wet. _

_Ana gulped and hoarsely added: "Th-Thank you, Jordan……" _

_I closed my optics. I took a deep breath of the mountain air. A deep breath of Earth. _

_Of her. _

"_No, Ana. Thank you." _

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

Little hands.

Little typing hands.

A glowing laptop.

Coiled wires and scrolling green on black text.

'J' paused in the middle of his instrumentation. He looked up at me from where he sat cross-legged on the hotel room bed and hand-signed:

'_I saw every bit of the fight. I was hacked into Pompeii's control systems the entire time. I even had access to the arena's matrix. I lowered some of the flashing lights on the silver cage side of the underground tournament. I do not know if you noticed or not.'_

"……..," I stared at him. I stood in the far corner of my Luxor Hotel room. Arms folded. Still dressed in my tattered Wyldecarde getup.

He gazed up at me for a moment. Green eyes blinking cutely under a halo of platinum blonde hair. I half-expected him to ramble to me about 'seeing dead people' all of the sudden. Instead, he rubbed a hand across his scarred neck, smirked even cuter, and signed:

'_I take it that the lights were not that spectacular. I understand. Pulsade thought it was a waste of energy. I cannot wait for it to click through hers and Jinx's head that I knew you were coming a long, long time before the girls knew it.'_

I briskly whipped my metal and flesh hands about and signed back: _'What are you doing here?'_

'_Counter Red Aviary. I am in this thing just as much as Wildebeest and the two ladies you keep butting heads with.'_ 'J' giggled mutely. His face went a little straighter as he added: _'I guess it would be stupid to try and ask what you are doing here.'_

'_You seem to know everything. You tell me.'_

'_Still spiteful?'_

'_I have had a long day.'_

He nodded. A wink. He then jumped as if struck by a crazy thought and pointed all around him: _'This place is really nice! They even had juice squeezers in the ice box!'_

'_J'……_

'_And you have two beds. What is with having two beds?'_

'_J'……_

'_Have a special friend here that we do not know of? Do not worry. Jinx and Pulsade would not be jealous. Although Wildebeest might.'_

I walked over.

I fingered the top of his laptop.

I glared into his face.

Click!

I shut his laptop closed.

"………," I took a deep breath. Looking in his dangerous green orbs. Using the full extent of my height and girth to……stare the petite preteen down.

He fearlessly looked back up at me.

And smirked.

He signed: _'Could it be you are bunking with this magical asian kid who keeps following you around?'_

It took every facet of my being to ignore that.

And I signed: _'We are not on the same side, 'J'.' _

His face fell. It wasn't so much as a pout as a painful reminder. A reminder of something he evidently didn't believe in. For he soon replied with a flurry of fingers:

'_We never really became enemies. Did we, Noir?'_

I took a deep breath. I thought of Robin. When he was alive. The crying voice of his that came out like a dying animal filtered through a wind tunnel. The bottled up emotions that he let loose without truly deciding to. The sad look on Starfire's face as she ran mental circles around an enigma. And the awful rift in sanity formed when the shining bird went far too quickly and far too coldly into that dark oblivion of the night.

'_We were never really friends, 'J','_ I finished signing before I realized it. I held my breath.

'J' held his. But soon shook it off. _'If only you knew,'_ he signed. _'Counter Red Aviary. We are working for Terra's and the Titan's benefit too! Jinx and Pulsade are too hardcore in the way they handle things. They are used to being villains. They refuse to work with anyone else benevolently after the same goal unless they absolutely have to. Please do not let their personalities dissuade you, Noir. What we are doing is the only way to stop the come back of all that would wish to wield Destruction on this pure landscape. It is all a game of give and take. We sneak into evil corporations and rig up tournaments. You run around with that sword of yours and beat people's heads in. It is all for the same means!'_

By the time he was finished hand-signing, I couldn't control my shaking. I wasn't so much angry at him as I was suddenly and utterly frustrated.

_Blake Glover. _

_The Messenger._

_Jinx and Pulsade. _

_Hull._

'_J'._

_Why in the blue Hell must I always……ALWAYS……be in the dark? _

_I am friggin' tired of high-and-mighty travelers, messengers, vigilantes, and computer hackers telling me where to go and what to trust in and what to believe in and what to be afraid of and what to call 'good' or 'evil'!_

'_You will leave with your equipment in ten minutes or I will take that laptop of yours and show your prostrate gland what it truly means to have a 'bunk buddy'.'_

"……..," he blinked. He giggled breathily.

I clenched my fingers.

He kept on giggling.

I fumed.

I snarled-

CHIIIIING!

'J' jolted all over, covering himself.

SWOOOOOSH-THWACK!

I heaved in mid-swing. A chair lay in splinters where Myrkblade hovered at the end of my grip. Trailing smoke.

I panted…panted…panted…

Staring at the wreckage through my cracked goggles.

_Screw Vegas._

'J' gulped.

I turned and glared at him over my shoulder.

He shakily gestured: _'I am sorry, Noir. There is nothing I could have done.'_

I breathed in through my nostrils.

Chiiiiing!

I sheathed Myrkblade.

I looked at him and signed: _'You could have done anything. Anything.'_

'_I did all I could for Robin.'_

'_You __**used**__ him.'_

'_I gave him a chance to get out of the rut he was in!'_ 'J' emphatically signed. _'I tore the walls down for him so that he and—'_

'_That 'rut' was his life, you little turd. Why is it that after so many months you are still playing God?'_

He frowned and stood on his knees as he gestured: _'If you were in my position, you would have done the same thing!'_

I marched towards him one step. _'If I knew even a fraction of what you knew, I would have saved Robin instead of ripping his life apart in some awful excuse for a toddler's weekend getaway!'_

'J' bit his lip.

I tried to breathe easier.

But I couldn't stop the fingers from spinning…

'_Robin did not ask to be a part of this. It was not his place to die. And yet he did. If I knew of a way to prevent it, like you and Jinx and Pulsade and Wildebeest did, I would have done so.'_

'_Noir, sacrifices had to be made,'_ 'J' said with a sad yet firm expression. _'We could have saved Robin. But Terra would still be in trouble. Dagger and Triangular would still be wielding a path of destruction. Red Aviary would be stronger and bloodier. Do you understand? We needed to sacrifice. And Terra's situation in all of this—we realized—is more far-reaching than Robin's ever was.'_

Something lifted in 'J''s face.

Something hard, rigid, and glinting in the electric light.

My metal prosthetic.

He leaned back a bit. Swallowing his scarred throat. Glancing nervously from it to me and back again.

I kept it held there for half a minute. I slowly retracted my arm so that I could gesture with my black eyes trained on the boy:

'_You would dictate to me about sacrifice? 'J', you do not save people by sacrificing bits and pieces of them. You truly redeem the world by giving away pieces of yourself. I only wish you were a bit older. Kids like you are too young to save the world and not screw up.'_

"……," he was silent.

I sighed.

I ran a metal hand over my face.

A chill.

I fought it.

I turned around.

I gazed through the translucent, inclined window of the side of the hotel room.

I hugged myself and took a deep breath.

"…….."

_Why am I here? _

_This is the City of Sin. _

_Full of spilled blood and violent entertainment. _

_People sacrificing money and throwing their lives away. _

_A hive for killer despots and misguided villains. _

_Why do I need to be here? _

_The Titans were allright, minus an Atlantean or not. _

_Cyborg was rounding out, despite a few arguments over the team's direction. _

_Raven was as content and sound of mind as ever I had witnessed of her._

_Beast Boy and Starfire were managing with their guilt. _

_They didn't need me to trek across half the country to save a girl who is already dead as stone._

_Hell, they might not even need me at all._

_What am I doing here? _

_I'm turning into a villain again. _

_The relentless blade of Wyldecarde. _

_Wired in to invisible blonde assassins and cryptic asian teenagers and little Anakin Skywalker wannabes and killers of the night of all sorts of scale, hair, and skin._

_What difference does it make if I go with this shitty game Jacob Anderson is putting us all through? _

_Why must I make others bleed to prevent the bleeding of the earth? _

_How real is Red Aviary, a fiend I have not seen and probably never will see until I am dead and done with? _

_The Balance broke a long time ago. _

_Life faded. _

_Death won over and was scattered away._

_I am so, utterly alone. _

_The Master was wrong. _

_Infinite chaos leads to infinite eternity within the infinite black. _

_With the Titans…… _

_With the Messenger…… _

_With my memories…… _

_I am myself and myself alone._

I hid my goggled face in my hand.

I sighed.

Blotting out the world into blackness.

Like a flesh bandanna.

_This is hopeless. _

_Terra can't be saved. _

_And even if I did, what could I do with a statue? _

_How would it save the Titans? _

_Make them happier? _

_Keep them safer from invisible red evils?_

_Why do I have to constantly fill my life with the scars of battles I was never even a part of to begin with? _

_I should just leave this damn City. _

_Leave the Messenger. _

_Let Counter Red Aviary have their way. _

_And……I dunno…… _

_Knock on Kara's door. _

_Sweep her off her feet. _

_And fly off to some planet not covered by the Green Lantern Corps. or something._

A beat.

I groaned mutely.

I lifted my hand.

_She wouldn't understand either._

I fingered a harmonica on the nearby table.

_Nobody…… _

_Nobody understands. _

_Raven……_

Typing noises.

"……," I turned around.

'J' had his laptop open. He had a serious look on his face, even though quite evidently he wasn't taking my threat to make him leave the room seriously.

And by the sign of me standing there dumbly, neither was I.

He gestured without looking: _'I wish there was a way to convey that I only mean to help you, Noir. I know my methods do not live up to your standards. And in a way, they do not live up to mine. But one thing is for certain, I do not like to kill.'_

I wasn't certain if he meant that as a jab at me personally or not. And then I realized, _there are some things even a kid like that couldn't know._

I simply sighed in response and hung my head a little.

He alternated between typing and hand-signing: _'Jinx and Pulsade may only be here for Terra. But like you, Noir, there are people with eyes open to all the blinding lights of this world. As well as all the dangerous that such lights illuminate.'_

A final keystroke.

_Tap!_

He pointed at the screen.

"……."

I groaned inwardly, walked around, and stared over his shoulder.

My black eyes narrowed on an Internet site he suddenly had popped up. A local news article concerning a crashed bus missing dozens of students from a Mexican all-girls school.

"……."

He looked straight up at me. Round green eyes. He signed upside down: _'The Vault is not the only place in Pompeii holding valuables.'_

"……..," I looked down at him.

He held up a finger. A finger that curved down and tapped a key.

An alternate window popped up. Showing a 3D underground diagram of Pompeii. The basement levels.

My lips parted some….

He zoomed in on rows of wireframe rooms equipped with labeled icons representing 'saws' and 'spiked chairs' and 'iron maidens' and 'leechers'. The doors showed schematics for elaborate locks, shackles, and wide one-way-mirrors stretching across what looked like prison compartments.

A dungeon.

I clenched my fists.

_Anderson……_

'_He will most definitely torture them. Slowly. With pleasure,'_ 'J' signed. He bit his lip. _'Any time now. Though, I am pretty sure he will wait until he requests of you, Hull, Wildebeest, and Killer Croc to perform this upcoming mission for him.'_

"……." I looked towards him. I shut my eyes and exhaled. _'Will you people……PLEASE……STOP……USING ME!_

He tapped my arm.

I looked at him.

He smiled weakly before signing: _'You know of what Anderson has done to people like this. You saved two of them at Shepherd Plain.'_

I nodded.

'_They are safe now. They are back with their families. I checked the hospital databanks after you dropped them off.'_

I blinked.

_They're safe?_

'_I want to help these poor girls beneath Pompeii too. But I cannot do it on my own. Even with……'_ He hesitated.

I waited for it.

'J' hugged himself before letting slip: _'……my powers.'_

I nodded.

'_And Jinx and Pulsade………they would think it is a waste of time. And Wildebeest is too busy working for them to help out. And all of this in the middle of the tournament's unpredictable ending……'_

The boy sighed.

He looked up at me.

'_Please, Noir. I know you want to stop Anderson at least. If you just do this. If you just try and stop what is going on in those dungeons, then I will be happy. You can decided to do whatever you want with Terra. I promise you, Counter Red Aviary will take care of her once we find her.'_

My eyes narrowed under my goggles.

My jaw clenched tight.

_Was I that obvious? _

_Could this little kid so easily pick up on what I was thinking and what I felt and what I wanted to—_

'_I will help you to the best of my abilities in those dark and dangerous halls from my station,'_ 'J' gestured. _'Will you accept?'_

"…….."

I groaned inwardly and tilted my head up.

_Ana……ay gevalt……kill me now……_

I gave a thumb's up.

If 'J' still had a voice, he'd be giggling with joy. His mouth exploded in a 'great!' and he bounced up from his knees and-

THWOMP!

I sweatdropped.

He hugged me, leaning off the bed.

My arms dangled dead at my sides.

"………"

He exhaled, let go of me, and fell back onto the bed.

A smile.

A gesture: _'We are going to kick so much fanny! Invite that cool looking asian friend of yours too. I bet he knows karate.'_

I blinked.

I raised a finger—

TWHAP!

He closed his laptop.

Yawned and stretched boyishly.

And smiled across the room at me with thin, green eyes.

After a breath or two, he gestured: _'Well, the important thing now is to rest for the night. A lot is going to happen tomorrow, so……'_ He curled up on the bed, rested two hands under his cheek, and dozed off with a smile.

"!" my mouth gaped wide.

_Hey!_

'J' slept.

_HEY!_

'J' slumbered.

I gritted my teeth.

I half marched towards him.

I raised my fists….faltered…raised them again…and then convulsively hand-signed: _'Not again, you selfish little son of a bricklayer! Out of my room! OUT!'_

"………," 'J' was in dreamland.

I lowered my hands.

I sighed.

I gazed stupidly at the bed on the other side of the room.

"…….."

I gazed at 'J'.

"………"

_Well, as long as one of us is sleeping._

I was restless.

I flipped a light off.

Stripped off my black goggles.

Tossed my scabbard into a corner.

SLUMP!

And fell down into the last solid chair resting in the corner of the hotel room.

"……."

I gazed beyond the shadows. Beyond little 'J' and his still form.

Everything was gradually being lit by the slowly rising sun outside the hotel.

In some way or another, I could never outrun the light.

I sighed.

"……….."

I gazed to my side.

A table.

The harmonica.

"………"

I picked it up.

I looked it over.

The faint morning light glinted off the metal between the varnished wood.

A beat.

A painful curve to the corners of my lips.

_I'm not half as alone as I think. _

_Am I, Ana?_

Another glint off of the harmonica.

Like blue eyes.

Then gone.

"…….."

I lifted the instrument to my lips.

Fingered it correctly.

And gently played…..

And it happened to be '_Kathy's Song_' by Simon and Garfunkel.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Simon and Garfunkel?"_

"_Hehehehehehe. Yeah." _

"_Never heard of them." _

"_You never heard of them? Sheesh, for a girl with a country flair you sure are uneducated!" _

"_Pfft! Name one song by them." _

"_Sound of Silence." _

"_Jordan! Silly, that's a FOLK song!" _

"_Well it's all greek to me! Darn good greek, if you ask me." _

"_Hehehehehe." _

"_Sexy, straight out of the beach Greek." _

"_Ah jeez. You're talking like the other guys." _

"_You should be thankful." _

"_Pfft. What's gotten into you lately?" _

"_Oxygen." _

"_No, I mean……you seem so……so……" _

"_So what, Ana?"_

"_For the last week, you've been so……happy." _

"_But I'm a happy person!" _

"………"

"_Honestly, I am." _

"_For a while there, I wasn't sure." _

"_Maybe you didn't know me well enough." _

"_And now?" _

"_And now………and n-now……I don't know what to know myself." _

"…………"

"_But I'm willing to let you teach me." _

"_Yeah……hehehe……uhm………th-that's what Construction is for, right?" _

"_I have no clue. I never practiced it." _

"_Hehehehe." _

"_I'm a Balance Adept, remember?" _

"_Sure. Hehehehe." _

"_So, gonna teach me?" _

"_What?" _

"_The harmonica, of course!" _

"_Oh. Right. But I don't know any Simon and Garfunkel tunes." _

"_Then just start me out simple." _

"'_Mary Had a Little Lamb' it is." _

"_Pfft!" _

"_Seriously, Jordan! Learn the basics……then someday—I bet—you can play any song you like." _

"_I'll always have a piece of you with me." _

"_Wow. How poetic. I'm swooning already." _

"_On with the damn song." _

"_Allright. Now………pay attention."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I'm flying. _

_Through a cedar forest. _

_The moonlight reflecting off the polished wood all around me. _

_Seas of branches. _

_The giggles of children chase me from below. _

_My eyes are brown. _

_My hair is short. _

_I dip down into a dive. _

_Smiling. _

_Breathing in the mountain. _

_The Earth turns into the sky. _

_And the sapphire clouds swim past me. _

_Ana darts behind each and every one of them. _

_Giggling. _

_An angel and her coy games. _

_I fly after her._

_I spiral through a plume of blue. _

_Rocketing over the plains of Kansas. _

_Eastward. _

_I see Kara on top of a barn. _

_With Wonder Woman. _

_And 'J'. _

_And the Messenger. _

_They wave at me. _

_Ten million giggles being born from the womb of Renee. _

_Daniel's smiling face fading with the moon. _

_As the horizon twirls. _

_And I spin with it. _

_Flying straight down towards a Glittering Bay. _

_The Tower that stretches above it. _

_Cyborg and Raven on the rooftop. _

_Holding each other. _

_Sharing a cold but slowly warming breath. _

_Starfire dancing over the waters in green streaks. _

_An emerald porpoise diving out of the water and turning into a hundred, scattering jelly fish. _

_Tempest sits on the dock with Sandy, Blake Glover, Commissioner Decker, Lieutenant Smith. _

_They wave at me. _

_Dark eyes, freckled skin, cigarette smoke. _

_I dive into the waters of the Bay. _

_The waters turn into cold, moonlit air. _

_The skyscrapers of the City blur on either side of me. _

_A black hallucination with trailing laughter on the corners. _

_Smiles filling the gaping holes in the asphalt. _

_Chuckles shoving away the fallen skyscrapers and shattered windows. _

_And into the mouth of the bleeding Earth. _

_I shudder. _

_For the shiver has interrupted my flight. _

_I'm naked and in chains as I'm dragged into the core of this world. _

_The cold, freezing rock. _

_The empty cavern. _

_Terra. _

_Crucified in stone. _

_Terra. _

_Eyes blue and mouth agape in pain. _

_Terra. _

_A cracking sensation. _

_Spiderweb fractures branching out from her clothed uterus. _

_The smell of blood. _

_Rusted. _

_The copper end of one of Dagger's knives. _

_CRACK! _

_Terra's abdomen explodes and the rest of her stone self shatters. _

_Out from her destroyed womb flies a metal, prosthetic hand. _

_Titanium fingers trailing with red smoke fly up at me. _

_I try to scream, but my neck is bleeding with a gaping hole. _

_I'm surrounded by bleeding entrails on a rusted, metal floor._

_CLAMP! _

_The fingers clamp around my empty throat._

_My eyes bleed and turn black. _

_The world turns blinding as flames erupt from the hand's titanium joints._

'_JORDAN! WHAT DID YOU DO?!' _

'_For the sky to turn red……'_

_I fly into the abyss. _

_Red streams. _

_Scarlet seas._

_Rrrrrred Aviarrrrry………_

'……_the earth must bleed.'_

_Terra's tear-streamed face. _

_Her scream. _

_The sobs of Ana. _

_The harmonica falling to the ground. _

_To the earth. _

_BANG! _

_Explosion. _

_Red smoke. _

_A single eye. _

_Opening. _

_Crimson. _

_RRRRRRRED AVIARRRRRRY! _

_Flying in. _

_Flying in. _

_Plummeting to an infinitesimal nub. _

_A girl being engulfed in mud. _

_A radioactive depository. _

_The haloing flames. _

_A blue-eyed teenager tilting his head up to the sky as the flesh peels off his quivering bones. _

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat up with a jolt.

_Robin!_

Th-Thump!

The harmonica rolled onto the sunlit floor.

I sat on the edge of the chair in the hotel room.

Panting….

Sweating…..

Black eyes naked and wide.

"………….."

I ran metal and flesh hands through my long black hair.

Still shivering.

_Rrrred Aviaryyyy……_

I hugged myself.

Gritting my teeth.

Rocking back and forth.

A beat.

I sighed.

I relaxed.

I stare down at the harmonica.

"…….."

_Never alone. _

_Never alone…… _

_Right, Ana?_

A beat.

All was not silent in the room.

"……..?"

I looked up.

'J' was still on my bed.

And he was…..

Shivering.

_Shivering?_

I craned my neck.

_No…… _

_Sobbing……_

I gently stood up.

I walked to the bedside.

I leaned over.

"……"

'J' was all curled up.

Hugging himself.

Tears streamed from his eyes and ran down his cheeks.

Mute little breaths escaped from his nostrils.

And all the while—I knew—he was asleep.

"…….."

I took a deep breath. I took his laptop, I dragged it off the bed. I bunched up the wires around it. I took the sheets at the end of the bed and quietly, gently draped them over him. I tucked in the edges.

'J' sobbed…..shook a bit more….then unconsciously clutched the warm fabrics to himself, sniffed, and slept quieter.

"………," I exhaled and stood back.

Arms folded.

Black eyes thin.

A beat.

_You aren't a villain, 'J'._

I glanced out the window.

Gently breathing.

_And…… _

_And I'm still not a hero._

I fingered the 'WK' on my metal mesh.

_And the Titans aren't safe. _

_Not yet._

I sighed.

I grabbed a handful of the clothes and shades I came to Vegas with.

I went into the bathroom and started the shower.

_Silly fools and their selfless games. _

_I've got a damn statue to find._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Diana,_

_There has to be absolute lunacy in a person who absolutely hates Las Vegas staying in Las Vegas. Furthermore, there must be even further lunacy in such a person sticking to a villainous identity just so that he can win the approval of a despot insane enough to hand over the key to the Titans' salvation. _

_And I am not using Wyldecarde to the ultimate benefit of evil by any means. Even Jacob Anderson has learned that I'm too good of a person to live up to his bloodlust. And that might be my undoing. _

_But I don't care. For once in my life, I'm going in a straight line. I'm not bouncing from left to right like I was trained to do. _

_In a way……I'm taking up the slack for the missing adepts around me. I'm choosing to be—with as much strength as I can muster—to wield Construction. To save the Earth, I must be the Earth. I must preserve life at all costs. I must lay low and be affirmative more than aggressive. As paradoxical as it my sounds. _

_And you know what, Diana? I don't want to be here. I don't want to be anywhere, really. Sometimes I just want to roll over and die. But a long time ago, I believed in something. And from that time of sureity, I made friends. And—for the life of me—I just simply can't ignore friends. And I sure as Hell can't quite when I'm this far bringing peace and order back to the holes in their lives._

_I will find Terra. I will. I don't care how many times I have to repeat it. I will find Terra. I will find Terra. _

_And there are so many people here now. So many fiends and half fiends and rogues and villains alike. Messengers and killers and hackers and gamblers. Witches and snitches and turncoats and molesters. I have chosen from the very beginning to make this plunge into the heart of darkness. It was not Glover. It was not my green-clad buddy from beyond. It was me. _

_Just like when I chose to go East to begin with. _

_Learning to be a hero is somewhat like playing the harmonica, Diana. It's messy. You spit all over yourself. You try to accompany the mouth organ to folk songs that don't fit but you love anyway because they remind you of something human that you may have lost. For me, being a hero is constantly being reminded that it's me second, the world first. _

_The world. The Earth. The Earth Must Not bleed._

_I have to get going now. Keep safe. Keep faith. Keep sacrificing._

_Sincerely,_

_Noir_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 20, 2004.

10:03 am.

Across the Pompeii Casino.

'_The Boy Cave'_.

I wandered into the dark interior of the abandoned site.

Dressed in a black jacket with a white undershirt and khaki slacks.

I turned around, hands in pockets.

Gazing with my normal shades.

_Where is he? _

_I thought he wanted me to meet him here……_

"……."

I took a deep breath and huddled in a shadowy corner full of junk.

_Please don't let me __**feel**__ alone tonight, man……_

A shuffling sound. Creepy. Menacing. From behind.

I craned my ear.

_Not the Messenger's normal entrance……_

"The multi-dimensional stranger that you're looking for isn't here, Mr. Noir."

My black eyes widened under my shades.

_That voice!_

"And I seriously doubt he'll be showing up anytime soon either."

CHIIIIING!

In a half-second blur I whipped out Myrkblade, spun, and jabbed—snarling—at the intruder's blue eyed face.

Hull jerked his head to the side and effortlessly gripped the length of my sword with silver-laced hands.

FLASH!

And Myrkblade was gone.

I stumbled back, empty handed.

Panting and sweating.

_Shit!_

Hull stood immaculate.

Across from me.

Glaring with his blue, hard-as-rock eyes.

FLASH!

He aimed a pistol at me, standing leisurely with his gun arm outstretched.

"………." I glared.

We faced off between the shadows.

A beat.

"I have not come here to fight you," he uttered.

"…..," I blinked.

FLASH!

The gun was gone.

He pocketed his hands into his jeans. The rusted chains dangling along his thighs rattled.

"I've come here because you and I need to talk. It's rather inevitable, Mr. Noir. Our paths would cross at one time or another. Though—to be honest—I wasn't expecting it so soon."

"……," my lips parted. I leaned my head to the side.

_Who…… _

_In the Hell…… _

_Are you!_

"You come here in search of a girl….a former Titan…..," Hull said. His blue eyes narrowed. "Tara Markov."

I take a deep breath.

"Please believe me…..I'm not after her myself."

_You're not?_

He gestured: "But at some time or another, I will have to meet her. Seeing that within her lies the next great crises to affect this world of ours. Even bigger than what brings you here."

I made a face.

_Bigger than Red Aviary?_

"I'm not about to make any broad steps, Mr. Noir," he said. "But I would rather see you with that girl's statue than the team of the witch and the assassin."

I did double-take.

_What does this guy NOT know! _

_Dammit, why am I always the freakin' last-_

"I would rather see you take Terra back to your City to bring solace to the team that lost Robin," he said. "But first….," and he started pacing out of the construction site….motioning me after him with a finger. "….there are a few things you must know about Markovia."


	197. The Earth Must Bleed part 12

**197. The Earth Must Bleed part 12**

November 20, 2004.

12:34 pm.

The Sun shone heatedly down across the Nevada Valley, drowning the City of Lights in desert gold. Vapor rose from the streets as tourists, citizens, and random wanderers alike walked the sidewalks and courtyards of the hot urban cityscape.

East of Las Vegas Boulevard and the heavier clusters of casinos, there stood a library. Four stories tall. Two basement levels and plenty of floor space. Cars were parked outside and a miniature park with quaint benches and a fountain or two rested alongside the main building. Parents watched their children play with a bouncing ball around the site as the day wore itself on.

There was a cold steel motorcycle parallel parked near the front entrance of the library where people swiftly entered and exited. The body wasn't polished. It was like industrial metal spat out from a factory. The seats were of a dull leather, and rusted metal chains dangled off the cross bars and joints.

Upstairs—through the dim glass of the building's third story windows—some movement could be seen inside the library.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I followed Hull past rows upon rows of book shelves.

Silent.

Hands in my pocket.

I glared at the back of his head the entire time.

My jaw clenched.

_I want my sword back……_

I gazed around us as we swiftly traversed deeper and deeper towards the center of the building. Citizens, nearby university students, and old folks were busily engaged in reading, scribbling notes, rummaging through rows of literature. Nobody seemed to pay any single notice to us. It was the quietest and most relaxing part of Las Vegas I had seen yet.

_Does this creep think he can waltz around in public so easily?_

I glanced again at the stranger. His black leather and blue denim. His empty….empty hands of silver-plated fingertips. He looked as normal and as human as everyone else around me, although with a dash of badass added with every twinge and squint of his hard-as-stone blue eyes.

_I guess he can……_

I nervously bent my neck lower to hide my 'X' shaped scar. I had my shades pressed firmly over my black eyes and my dark ponytail hidden down the back of my jacket.

_I only hope I can remain so anonymous too……_

Creeeeeak!

Before I knew it, Hull had opened a dusty wooden door to an even dustier room. The lights were dim inside. There were no windows or openings in the walls of any sort to let light from the rest of the library into the chamber. It felt like a hidden vault all in itself.

_Do we even have clearance to be in here?_

Everything about Hull's body language shouted: 'Screw that'. He walked into the room, left the door open for me, and waited.

I walked in after him. Nearly sneezing from the dust that rose from my feet. It was dark inside. With a certain ancient brownness to the shadows. Like suffocating sepia. I felt like I had walked into a faded newspaper from a century and a half ago.

_Creeeeak._

The door shut.

Darkness.

We were alone.

After a few seconds passed, I realize he wasn't about to turn on the main light.

So I took my glasses off.

With black eyes blinking nakedly, I gazed across the room and saw his form and figure like one would see a coatrack on the opposite end of a bedroom when waking up in the morning.

"In the life I live, I have barely enough time to do anything other than _move_," Hull said. "I'm like you in that respect, Mr. Noir."

My bare black eyes narrowed.

_Don't start drawing comparisons, pal._

He walked past an old, wooden table in the center of the room and shuffled over towards a rack of extremely huge, hard-back books.

"All too often we find out in our violent, machine gun lives that everything we do or say is but an aftershock of history." He grabbed a huge, brown book. With very little strain, he lifted the massive article and hoisted it over to the center of the room. "We spend the extent of our days working to cancel out everything our mothers and fathers have erected before us to tear down. And everything we've established is ironically set for the same breakdown by those to follow afterwards."

THWOMP!

Dust flew and scattered.

I coughed.

Hull was unaffected. He stood above the table where the book lie and stretched his hands out. The silver tips sparkled and started to glow a pale gray. It was a dim light. Enough for him to see with, and still not enough to blind me.

I gazed at him. Still holding my guard up.

"The reason that you are here, Mr. Noir. The very same thing you are trying to help your friends back East with……it started over ten millennia ago. But only recently has the endless crises of eons made itself manifest in flesh. Such fragile, sacred flesh."

"……," my black eyes narrowed.

He glared back at me with unfalteringly blue. He opened the book wide with an archaic yawn of crackling papers.

"From Markovia……"

I looked down at the first page.

There was a yellowed, faded engraving print of a grand European castle positioned atop a row of forest-covered mountains. Spires lifted up and up and up into the sky with classical, baroque intensity. Beneath the illustration was a symbol. A coat of arms. The royal name splashing forth in regal intricacy.

'_MARKOVIA'_.

The coat of arms displayed a sword, a scepter, and what looked to me to be a…floating mountain. A dislodged piece of earth. A very wyrd symbol…something I would imagine seeing from a documentary about secret societies such as the Freemasons or Skull and Bones.

_Mystic……Mystic Europe._

There were words beneath the emblem. Paragraphs. Written in languages and font I couldn't quite understand. But I could recognize.

_Belgian._

_And……_

My black eyes narrowed.

_Russian?_

"Years ago, the last Royal Elementals finally began to vanish."

I looked up.

Hull kept staring at me. Unblinking. He firmly spoke: "They were the ultimate generation of their kind. The last to survive of three specially-chosen families who began long before most of history can remember."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Mesopotamia. _

_Ten thousand years ago._

_A village rests within the deltas of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Sweating farmers with sun-red skin till the fields and gather livestock. Women gather by the riversides with their children with baskets. _

_In the distance, a temple under construction rises ever-so-slowly skyward. Birds cry out before flocking in huge droves over the land. A cold wind, and then a return of the hot and humid sun._

"_**They lived off the Earth. The world beneath them was the only thing they knew. It was civilization on the brink of looking skyward, and making eternal aspirations for the unattainable that would lead to millennia of endless warfare. Mankind did not suffer from a singular 'fall of sin'. Paradise was something to be lost day by day. Year by year. Life by life. In fact, there may never have been a Paradise. Human beings are so apt to dwell on invisible things. But at one time, we all only needed the Earth and each other to find meaning in."**_

_A trio of children run up a hill above the farmlands. Two boys and a girl. Their dark skinned bodies sweat and pant as they giggle and chase each other among the high grass. The sun shines down on them. Bright. Clear._

"_**There was once a world that—with or without hardships—was void of perpetual suffering, poverty, and mayhem. It was a world where human kind was still an infant. Society was selfless. And 'God' was as real as the air you breathed or the smiles you shared, and certainly nobody invisibly important to swing a sword over."**_

_The children run down the other edge of the hill. They tumble, sit upright, and laugh some more. One of them gets up and shouts in a lost language for them to go back up the hill and tumble back down again. Another one giggles and says something else with a coy smile. The third shakes his head, looks up to the sky………and gasps……_

"_**But the World would have to grow up eventually. The Earth would bleed. The sky would turn read. In countless ways throughout the ages. And someone……some thing……some force from beyond had to prepare the once innocent world for what was to come."**_

_All three children stand up. Their lips quivering in fear. They stare skyward at a bright light shimmering down towards them. Fluctuating. Pulsing- _

_FLASH!_

_The children gasp. They are no longer on the hill. They are lying in a triangular fashion across a plane of infinite brightness. White light is all around them. A queer sensation of weightlessness. Of emptiness and fullness all the same. A stagnant, stale pocket of the universe where time and space were illusions._

_The children gaze up in one accord at a growingly bright light. And that light takes on a humanoid form. Androgynous. Powerful. Overwhelming._

_The Being's eyes open up._

_FLASH!_

"_**The children were granted a vision. A taste of things to come. The Being gave them insight into the inevitable path that the Earth would tread. The wounds that were to be taken. The pain that was to be born in endless, endless labor." **_

_**The children are flying.**_

_Over planes._

_Fields._

_Battles._

_Cities._

_Slums and metropolises._

_Wastelands and forests._

_Cemeteries, hospitals, graveyards, schools._

_Bodies and bodies and bodies._

_The Oceans._

_FLASH!_

"_**And then they were shown……the demon……"**_

_The children shake with fear. _

_They fly at a million miles an hour over waves of black obsidian._

_The waves turn red._

_And at the end of the echoing horizon._

_Barred teeth._

_Antlers._

_Four flaring eyes of red._

_And a shrieking, hot mouth of flame._

"_RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWR!"_

_  
FLASH! _

_The children sit on the grass-laden field._

_Panting._

_Eyes wide and sweat slicking their skin._

"_**The children were returned to their lives. But they knew as much as the mystical Informer knew that the world was but a dream teetering on an endless, red abyss of Destruction. The Demon would someday have his way with the world. With his three-fold powers, he would consume the amplifying sins of the world and use them to rip the Earth asunder like a prisoner would waste a woman."**_

_The children shudder._

_A golden light spreads amongst them._

_They glance up, shivering._

_Three bright orbs descend._

_Entering them._

_Lighting them with a different shaded aura each._

"_**So the Being granted them three elements. Three powers to pass on through their future generations. Powers that would be harnessed secretly and refined with each successive offspring. And in the event that the Demon struck early, all three families would rise to the occasion."**_

_One of the children, a boy, raises his hands and stares mesmerized at flickering flame dancing at the end of his fingers. _

_The second, a girl, hugs herself as a yellow-gold-glow shimmers from her eyes._

_The third, another boy, shivers and looks down as black mist billows out from his shoulders._

_They examine themselves and find ornamental markings burned into their skin, just above their hips and abdomens._

"_**Fire. Earth. And Smoke. The first three Elemental Families. Bearing the birthmarks of their calling, they lived on to spread their powers and essence through their bloodline. And when human civilization spread from the Fertile Crescent…..so did they."**_

_A thin caravan of nomads walk across the sand dunes of ancient Egypt. A gritty wind blows in their faces. They cover themselves with shawls and stick close to the livestock in their progression. _

_At the head of the group is an old woman. The eldest of the family. She bravely pushes her wrinkled, worn self forward ahead of her offspring. Searching the desert landscape with dark eyes for some sort of oasis._

_There is a shudder, and supernatural red flame billows out from beneath her shawl. She tries to hide it…and presses on against the sandstorm._

"_**The family of Fire migrated into Africa. Many of their successive generations would serve seats in the Egyptian Royal House. In Ethiopia. And in the many tribes spreading into the Serengeti."**_

_A thick caravan of bodies and wooden carts and livestock cluster along the River Delhi. Homes are gradually built. Simple wooden skeletons at first. Then—onward into the growing civilization—brick and stone._

_Above the gathering clusters, an aged man stands upon a hill with his successive sons and daughters. They point out across the land, mentally plotting households and buildings to be erected along the deltas. _

_The one man takes a deep breath. He looks down at his caked and dry hands. Tendrils of smoke trail at his fingertips……_

"_**The Smoke Elementals headed East. Populating the Subcontinent. Southern Asia. And—over the course of millennia—a few of their familial strands would migrate even into the Pacific Islands."**_

_Cold, frozen tundra. _

_Icy winds._

_Overcast gray skies blowing, freezing, shifting._

_A heavily bundled group of human bodies trudge through the snow. Mountains rise in the distance._

_They gaze up into the frigid air._

_Unfaltering._

_A man in the centermost cluster of the group bravely drags a wooden cart full of provisions on his own. As his muscles strain against the cold, he grits his teeth and opens his eyes. _

_They glow with a golden yellow aura._

"_**The families of the Earth traveled West. Past the Caucasus Mountains. Into present-day Europe. It would be this family that would forever change the destiny of all three Elementals. For the good……but also for the bad. The carriers of Fire and Smoke lived as peacefully as possible on their corners of the Old World. They preserved their bloodlines by not engaging in any major conflicts or wars of their countless ages. But the generations of Earth…..were far too brash to not lend a hand in the anguishes of their times."**_

_Across an elevated hillside, two converging armies of Greek soldiers charge each other. Infantrymen with swords and shields clash in a bloody fray. Shouts of war and agony fill the copper-rusted air. _

_Far away, with the City of Athens glimmering in the distance, a ring of generals stand atop a hill and overlook the battle. They relay messages with runners and smoke signals._

_The centermost general stares with hard eyes. Eyes that—for a moment or two—glows a bright gold._

"_**They were there during the Peloponnesian Wars. They stood in the chambers of philosophers and rulers when Socrates died. They lived on through the reign of Alexander. And eventually took active part in the forming of the Roman Empire."**_

_On a dark day. _

_Outside of Jerusalem._

_Quietly weeping bodies gather on Golgotha._

_Three figures._

_Three crosses._

_The centermost tilting His head to the sky with a final voice and a final breath._

_Roman centurions gaze on. Stakes and hammers by their side._

_One holds a bloody spear. His eyes thin as the cloud cover rumbles. There is a flash of gold light, and then his lids close as he tilts his helmeted head away._

"_**The Earth Elementals never meant to be despots. They never wanted to support the bloodshed of the empires they fought with. They merely wanted to have a place of high enough standing so that when the day would come that the Demon would strike, they would have the manpower as well as elemental strength to fight a unifying war against the grandest of evils. And one day, the first breath of the Demon came into being. Centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire…during the Crusades of Medieval Europe…the Demon's agent, manifested in a man, came into being."**_

_CRACK! _

_The heavy oak door smashes open._

_A final contingent of swordsmen shout in an Arabic tongue and rush the door to a dead-end chamber, undergroundr. They raise curved blades on the attack._

_A throng of knights with chain mail and red cross emblems on their shields charge into the room. They slash at the defenders with double-edged swords._

_Limbs and necks are hacked._

_The defenders fall to the floor, clutching their bleeding wounds. One by one they lose to the invaders._

_A tall, panting knight stood over the last man. He shouts in a Germanic tongue and brings his sword down through the victim's skull._

_THUNK!_

_The head divides wetly in two._

_The knight rips his blade out, kicks the body to the floor, and spits on it._

_With the last defender dead, the knights look at the corners of the room. Large stacks of wooden crates full of golden trinkets, religious icons, and ceremonial objects were line up against the walls._

_One knight turns and shouts out through the passageway door in Latin._

_A man steps in. A monk. Unrealistically tall. Eyes a rich brown color. He drapes the hood off his balding head and approaches the room of carnage with an air of religious piety. He turns and mumbled at the knight in Latin._

_The knight speaks back and points to the end of the room._

_Gazing, the man approaches the crates. He opens the foremost one. His brown eyes light up with a sinful light of greed. He dips his pale hands in and pulls out a shawl. Jewish in design. Simple and yet……_

_He clutches hard to the fabric._

_Smiling._

_A row of teeth that deserves fangs._

_A thin chuckle escapes the monk's lips._

_The knights shift uncomfortably, but look on nonetheless._

"_**A monk on a bloody crusade to Zandia discovered what he believed to be the prayer shawl of Christ. And indeed, it was special. For it empowered the man with perfect health, long life, and near invulnerability. But the power he gained was not a holy one, but something of perversion. Something of demented greed and lust for blood. All the things that the Demon stood for. All the things that the Demon sought in an agent that would pave the way for his inevitable consumption of the World. The agent's name….was Brother Sebastian."**_

_Sebastian stands atop a hill overlooking the craggy mountain slopes of Zandia. He folds his arms like a perfect dictator, grinning down as enslaved masses labor to build the first of many temples in his honor. Gone is the pious look and dress of a Christian monk. In its place, Sebastian wears a blood red body of armor. A cape dances from behind his shoulders. And fastened directly about his neck like a fancy noose is the prayer shawl._

_The wind blows at his tall and menacing figure as he stares out at the seas beyond Zandia… _

_And sneers……_

"_**As soon as the Church heard of Brother Sebastian's turn, they sent a contingent of the Crusading armies to eliminate him and retrieve the prayer shawl. That very army was led by the strongest and most elementally inherited member of the Earthen families."**_

_At the shores of Zandia, hundreds of ships unload infantrymen with swords, pikes, and spears. They march in formation to the shout of well-armored captains on either side of their flanks. Leading the charge—dressed tall and heavy in a silver coat of armor emblazoned with the image of a floating mountain—is a tall Priest. Blue eyes glaring under a mat of blonde hair. He holds a shield with a cross on it. His hands grip tightly around a longsword. He shouts at his men, aims the sword forward, and leads the advance. _

_Shouting soldiers answer his call. The earth thunders with the hundreds upon hundreds of marching, armored feet._

_They head in a mass of metal and flesh towards the rising slopes of Zandia._

"_**And on that day, the fall of the Elementals would tragically begin. For the Priest did not know just how powerful the Demon's Agent had become. In councils prior to the Crusade, the Priest met with the families of Smoke and Fire to suggest an all encompassing attack. And when they disagreed with the tactic, he made the folly of going on his own. Six thousand years of generations preparing for the counter attack against Evil had been thrown to waste in one vainly brave attack."**_

_The battlefield. _

_The Crusaders line up in thick lines on the Southern Half. Clad in glinting silver armor. Red crosses. Gold and red flags dangling off their spears and pikes._

_On the North Side, the Zandian armies—former Crusaders stood to answer the invasion. Their armor is of a dull, red-painted metal. Their blades are crooked and mercilessly sharp. They let forth a bloody chant and shout in one lusting voice._

"_SANGUEN! SANGUEN! SANGUEN!"_

_The Priest stands before the Crusaders. His blue eyes thin as he stares at the assembled army. His face in disbelief. And then……he gasps. _

_Brother Sebastian steps to the front line of the Zandian defenders. His cape and shawl blowing in the wind. His red armor and red sword seemingly aglow in the center of the field. He snarls with a white brim of glistening teeth and raises his sword with a shout._

"_SANGUEN!"_

_The Priest frowns. His eyes glow a hot yellow. He raises a hand and shouts to the rear line of his men._

_The archers march into place. They arm their bows with armor piercing arrows._

_Another shout._

_The archers aim towards the sky in an angle._

_Brother Sebastian screams. He charges forth. The Zandians thunder down from the Nothern Side of the field._

_A few dark-gray clouds scattered between the earth and the sun, and in the glint of bright gold-_

_THWIFFFFFFT!_

_A sea of arrows flies up, outward, and down into the Zandian bodies._

_TH-TH-TH-THUNK!_

_The front row of charging men fall in bloody, screaming pain. Arrows protrude from their bodies._

_But Brother Sebastian knocks the projectiles flying down at him away with a wave of his red sword. He shouts and grins in bloodlust as he continues leading the Zandian charge._

_The Priest aims his weapon at him from afar and shouts a command._

_The Crusaders shout back._

_And…they charge forward._

_Two thundering masses of glinting silver and dull red surge into each other on the plains of Zandia like two multicolored seas converging on a galactic shore._

_The impacts of blade to bone to armor to blade again sound off through the air like wet, molten rain. Soon blades are swinging, glinting, twirling. Shredding skin and bone and flesh and sinew. Cries of the fallen. Of the victorious. Of the strugglings. Sparks and body fragments. Sweat and crimson._

_All under the apathetic, pale sun._

_The Priest hacks his way through two Zandian shoulders, grits his teeth, and rams through a row of men with his heavy shield._

_Sebastian effortlessly cleaves two crusaders in two and stomps across the field._

_In the middle of the dripping battlefield, the two meet. Almost surprised to see each other face to face in the carnage._

_The Priest wastes no time. He twirls his double-edged sword and rushes at Sebastian._

_Sebastian grins, grips his sword with two hands, and holds it out at ready-_

_CLANK!_

_The weapons deflect._

_The Priest hobbles back._

_Sebastian swings._

_The Priest ducks, jabs forward, and brings his blade on the upswing._

_Sebastian effortlessly knocked the sword to the side and raises a free fist. He grins. Red energy courses down from his neck, charges up in his arm, and explodes outwards._

_Wide-eyed, the Priest tries to shield himself-_

_CRACK!_

_His shield explodes from the cross out._

_The Priest stumbles back, panting._

_Sebastian marches across the battlefield. Leering over the Crusader. Chuckling evilly. His brown eyes flash red as crimson as soldiers continue fighting and hacking and slashing all around them._

_The Priest sneers back. He clenches his fists. His eyes glow a bright gold as he summons the Earth Elemental within him._

_Sebastian pauses. His red eyes narrow._

_The Priest lets out a shout and lifts a glowing shield-arm up._

_CRUNNNCH!_

_The soggy ground beneath Sebastian rises to the air and explodes._

_POW!_

_Dirt and soil fly everywhere._

_Sebastian flails in the air over the battle and lands hard on the ground several feet away. His sword is lost._

_The Priest gets up, hacks two charging Zandians to the bloody death, and then charges Sebastian……shouting._

_Sebastian gets up. His eyes flash red. There's a gust of demonic wind lifting up his cape, and he charges his wrists with red energy._

_The Priest jumps over a pile of carcasses and swings his blade towards Sebastian's torso._

_SWOOOOOOSH-CLAMP!_

_Sebastian blocks with his bare red hands. The crimson energy shields his skin as he shoves against the Priest's blade and starts jabbing, swinging and swiping at him with red claws of demon energy._

_The Priest hobbles back, ducking, side-stepping, dodging the blows._

_A few of the battlers watch wearily as the two opposing leaders determine the route of the confrontation._

_Sebastian keeps approaching the Priest, laughing maniacally and swinging superpowered fists of red crimson._

_The Priest jumps back and raises his sword to defend._

_GRIP! THWAP!_

_The blade is wrenched from his grasp._

_The Priest stands defenseless._

_Sebastian sneers and reaches for his neck._

_Eyes glowing gold, the Priest shoves his arms towards the former monk with a scream._

_Two pieces of earth beneath a pair of Zandian soldiers unearth and sail towards the demonic leader._

_Sebastian blocks them with red glowing arms._

_The Priest picks up a nearby scabbard and dives at the villain._

_Sebastian holds him back and charges a red hand to plow through the Priest's face._

_  
Snarling, the priest brings a string of rocks and pebbles sailing down on a collision course. _

_Sebastian narrows his eyes, rears his fingers, and—SM-SM-SM-SMACK!—demolishes the row of projectiles before finally digging his claws in._

_THUNK!_

_The Priest jerks. His golden eyes wide. His mouth hanging open._

_Some of the ailing Crusaders stand shocked in the middle of battle._

_The Zandians snicker and roar in pleasure._

_Sebastian's red eyes narrow as he burrows his hand through the Priest's armor and deeper and deeper into the general's heart._

_The red energy pumps into the Crusader's heart. And his life peels away._

_His eyes thin and—as Sebastian lets go—he falls to his knees…and then onto his back._

_THWOMP!_

"_**The last Crusader to oppose Brother Sebastian……was defeated."**_

_The Priest lies on his back. Coughing. Sputtering blood. The gold in his eyes start to fade. But they hang on. They hang on._

_The Crusaders back up and start to retreat in peril._

_The Zandians chase them across the bloody battlefield._

_In the meantime, Sebastian paces around the Priest's lingering body. He licks the man's blood off his fingers, smiles, and picks up his red sword from beneath a fallen soldier._

_CHIIIIING!_

_He marches up to the Priest. He raises his sword._

_The Priest looks up at him._

_A final strobe of his golden eyes._

_And……frowning……the Priest hisses in Latin._

_Final words._

"_**With his dying breath, the highest ruling descendant of the Earth Elementals planted a curse on Brother Sebastian's head. A curse that was filled with all the power invested in the hundreds upon hundreds of generations proceeding the general's tragic life. A curse filled with the vengeful spirit of the Earth itself that could not be denied."**_

_Sebastian's eyes narrow._

_The Priest's lips stop moving at his last syllable._

_The gold fades in his eyes._

_He slumps down to the earth._

_Snarling, Sebastian raises his red sword to cleave the insolent Crusader's corpse in two._

_And then……a gold aura explodes from the general's dead body. It sinks into the ground, charged up, and blasts directly outward in a wave of thermal energy._

_FWOOOOOSH!_

_Sebastian and dozens of Zandian soldiers are sent sky high as thunder explodes across the land. Those fleeing from the battle and pursuing those fleeing can not help—if but for a moment—to turn around and look in awe and fright at the supernatural devasation._

_In the meantime, Sebastian lands hundreds of feet off. Bones in his body breaking. Bones in his body—like all trivial injuries of his invulnerable person—will soon heal with demonic fervor. But as he lies there, coughing up blood, he can't help but feel._

_A weight upon his life._

"_**The curse……the curse was that every generation of Sebastian's to follow……every man that would carry on his infernal name…..would be limited to only one hundred years of immortality. And at the end of such a century, the very own son of each generation would rise up and kill his father to claim the right to bear the power of the shawl."**_

_THUNK!_

_Sebastian blood's elderly eyes bulge._

_He lets out a mute scream of pain……then slumps to his knees at the entrance to his Zandian palace._

_THWUMP!_

_A dagger rests in his back._

_Blood trickles and collets around a pair of boots. Feet belonging to a tall, middle-aged man of handsome features and red-brown eyes._

_The son of Sebastian Blood._

_He stands above his father. His hands dripping with red. His face deadpan……cold._

_And ever so slowly melting._

"_**With each passing generation……with each century that followed……the curse showed itself to be true. And not merely a coincidence."**_

_THWUMP!_

_The son of Sebastian Blood, now an elderly man, screams as he plummets over a cliffside in Zandia. His body breaks and bleeds to death against the rock bluffs of the seaside below._

_Standing atop the cliff—his back to a two-hundred-year old Zandian village—is a second son. The descendant of his deceased father._

_He looks down at his elder's battered corpse……and smiles in the ocean wind._

"_**With each successive rule……with each bloody overthrow…..the generations of Sebastian Blood realized that their immortality was just as limited as their quest for power. And the world would never be theirs unless they could somehow end the curse that bound them to their own evil."**_

_A man wearing the red cape and shawl stands in a cave beneath the mountains of Zandia._

_Deep pits of bubbling red liquid hiss and steam around him._

_He lifts his arms before a huge congregation of red-robed followers and shouts at the top of his lungs in Latin._

_The body of devotees join in. All in one accord, they raise their palms to the ceiling of the cavern, produce a dagger, and slowly slit the skin of their palms._

_Blood dribbles down……joins the pool……and fills the air with a sinister, copper smell._

_And they all inhale._

"_**Finally, four centuries ago, one of the descendants decided to take it upon himself and his future offspring if need be to route out and eliminate all the remnants of the triad Elementals. To accomplish this, he collected all of his faithful followers and founded a religious sect determined on eliminating the last spiritual stronghold against his powerful expansion in the world. With the Elemental Families gone, his power would be endless. And the terrible Demon that fed him the waves of Destruction would become lord over all. The name of this sect……this operation……is the Church of Blood."**_

_THWISSSSH!_

_THWOOOOOSH!_

_Arrows sing through the Serengeti air._

_Three herdsman turn around._

_TH-THUNK!_

_THUNK!_

_Arrows skewer their necks._

_They fall down in bloody heaps._

_The oxen they had been guiding by rope leash bellow and charge off towards the desert horizon._

_One man spins around, gasping._

_His mahogany brown eyes widen._

_A red-caped figure flanked by four robed archers charge at him._

_The elderly tribesman tosses off his cloak, crosses his arms, and summons up a wave of magical fire at the last second-_

_CHIIING!_

_THUNK!_

_His body jolts._

_Brother Blood skewers the dark-skinned man with the length of his red sword._

_A pause._

_He yanks it out._

_Blood spurts out of the man's body._

_A flash of red flame……and then nothing._

_THWUMP!_

_The tribesman falls to the ground, dead._

"_**One by one. The Church and its leader hunted down the family members of the Elemental Protectors."**_

_CHIIING!_

_A Chinese swordsman runs to a stop on the Great Wall. Panting. His black hair disheveled and hanging about his armored shoulders._

_Brother Blood perches on the edge of the Wall. His red sword glinting. He glares at the Asian from under a menacing skull mask and leaps with a bloodlusthing shout._

_The swordsman blocks Brother Blood, parries, and slashes his blade at him._

_Brother Blood kicks him off and then proceeds to attack with a flurry of jabs, swipes, uppercuts, and twirling slashes of his sword._

_The Chinese swordsman backs up the length of the Wall until he nearly stumbles down a flight of stairs._

_He grits his teeth._

_Concentrates._

_A burst of smoke energy flies out of his mouth and surges at Brother Blood._

_Blood jumps out of the way._

_A cloud of smoke billows where he just was……and then the smoke parts as four arrows stream through from four hiding archers._

_The swordsman gasps._

_TH-TH-THUMK!_

_The arrows pierce the asian man's chest._

_He gurgles blood, stumbles, drops his sword, and collapse to his knees in front of Brother Blood._

_The cult leader smirks. His eyes flash red as he screams and slashes the swordsman's head off._

_THWACK!_

"_**The Elemental generations of the Smoke and the Flame were helpless. They knew little of the Church of Blood or its insatiable witch hunt for the innocent. The worst case scenario was happening. Two thirds of the original humans assigned to protect against the Demonic entrance were eliminated. The last ones to remain were the descendants of Earth. The distant offspring of that same Priest who failed in his Crusade to stop Brother Sebastian, but somehow succeeded in creating a violent, static flux. For the pattern to be stopped…..the golden warriors had to be slaughtered. The Brother Bloods were going to see to that."**_

_A woman in dark cloaks runs through the streets of Venice. _

_She's sweating and breathing heavily._

_Panic seeps across her pale face._

_She runs around gathered artists, merchants, sailors from the nearby ports._

_She runs alongside a canal with blue, lapping waves._

_She turns and looks behind her._

_Three robed figures with rapiers are in hot pursuit._

_She gulps._

_She turns and looks ahead._

_  
She gasps and skids to a stop. _

_FWOOOSH!_

_Brother Blood leaps down from a balcony. He grins at her from beneath a skull mask. CHIIIIING! He produces the family blade._

_The woman steps back. The robed figures gather behind her._

_At the last second, she tenses up. With a frown, she clenches her fists and summons a gold aura._

_The buildings start to shake._

_The street splits in two._

_Rocks and stone start to levitate._

_Brother Blood takes a breath and charges with his red sword swinging._

_The robed church members attack from the rear._

_They converged on the woman just as she screams and unleashes a wave of dirt and thermal energy._

_POW!_

"_**All of the Earth elementals in Western Europe……died. But the curse did not end. And even Brother Blood and his descendants knew that somewhere, somehow, a piece of the Earth family survived. And indeed they did. The relatives that Brother Blood slaughtered in Italy and the Holy Roman Empire were decoys. Self-sacrificing loved ones to those who truly carried the bloodline of the last surviving Elementals."**_

_Off the plains of Siberia. _

_Where the ice met the colder concrete forged by empires of old and new._

_A coach rides to a stop._

_Lavishly dressed monarchs stand before the sweeping entrance of a palace._

_The coach opens and a slightly less regally dressed family steps out._

_All blonde._

_Blue eyed._

_Thin and frail in build._

_And seeming to have a golden aura about them._

_The monarchs smile and embrace the newcomers._

"_**The last of the family sought asylum in Russia. And always they would be on the go. Spending years in one remote part of the huge expanse to another. The czars accepted them as eternal guests of their royal households. And what was once a family of European warriors throughout the ages became lost in the regal, bureaucratic shuffle of monarchs, diplomats, and ambassadors. But their powers did not fade. The power of the Earth remained in their blood. And it always dawned upon them that someday, somehow, Brother Blood and his murderous generations would one day catch up with them to end the curse once and for all. And if that were to happen…..there would be nothing protecting the world from the forces of demonic destruction."**_

_In the northeast part of France. _

_Bordering Luxembourg and Belgium._

_A horse-draw carriage carries a blonde princess through an elevated, forest road._

_She gazes off towards the side. Dressed in frills and lace befitting a belle. Her lips part in wonder as she observes the mountainsides and the green forests unfolding before her. And a huge castle built in the midst of it. Spires stretching high towards the blue, crystal clear sky._

"_**To safely preserve even the thinnest remnants of the family's blood, the czars helped the Elementals spread themselves throughout Europe. Marrying into dukes, counts, and royal families. And the biggest and most ornate coupling of all…..was between a young daughter of the Elemental Family…..and the monarch of the small country of Markovia."**_

_The princess daintily approaches the center of the castle's courtyard, escorted by well dressed servants. _

_Shadowed by the music of bards._

_Haloed by the gasps and giggles of handmaidens and ladies hiding behind the nearby hedges of the royal paradise._

_A tall man well above the princess' age stands before her. At the sight of the girl, he smiles, bows, and gently offers a hand._

_The princess blushes. But she maintains her dignity, curtsies, and takes the hand of the Prince of Markovia._

_Her future husband._

"_**King Viktor Markov I. A man who separated himself from France during the Jacobin terror of the Revolution. He gave the maternal passage of the Elemental family a safe haven. Markovia would be the home for the absolute last generation of those gifted with the Powers of Earth. And such a tiny, prosperous country would be a home and a safe haven for nearly two hundred years."**_

_In the royal gardens of Markovia…… _

_In the shadows of the castle upon the mountain._

_Outside the villages._

_A King and Queen dressed in nineteenth century, regal attire watch as their children laugh and play amongst the flowers and hedges._

_The Queen sits down on the grass, her wide skirt spreading. She cutely summons the children to her and holds her finger up. After a beat, her blue eyes glow a hot gold. Her fingers dance._

_Soil from the garden lifts up, forms into the air, and produces the shape of a fluttering butterfly._

_The little children giggle and clap their hands._

_The Queen smiles and makes the earthen butterfly 'flutter in the air around them._

_The King shakes his head, smiles, and folds his arms as he watches._

"_**The Markovs lived in peace. In harmony. Safe with the powers being passed along through the queens. And even safer with the kings and their alliances to neighboring nations. They had no enemies in all of Europe. No enemies except one……"**__  
POW! _

_BAM!_

_Shells explode across the no-man's land. _

_Soldiers huddle in the trenches, clinging shakily to their rifles and bayonets._

_Biplanes zoom overhead, daring to soar over German and Prussian territories to drop handheld bombs._

_Dead bodies are draped over the rows upon rows of barbed wires lining the trenches. Gas masks dangle off the faces of the living and the dead._

_As the shelling continues, a shadowed soldier marches through the trenches. Flying mud from nearby explosions litter him wetly as he sops through the cold and dank earth of France. He steps down into a literal burrow in the ground where supplies are kept and candles are lit. Wounded and gassed men lie moaning on white cots. Catholic nurses tend helplessly to them as they cough up blood and grip eye sockets that refuse to work._

_A group of officers are gathered with a few royal physicians to heal a commanding officer. A blue-eyed, blonde prince of Markovia. He lies on his back. Sputtering. Convulsing. His eyes are turning gray from a gas explosion to his upper body. His life seeps from him._

_The shadowed soldier steps forward and leers over the body. Tall. Menacing._

_The officers and physicians look at him. Panting._

_They blink in confusion and shout in French at a nun._

_Two nurses hurry over to guide the shadowed stranger out._

_But he knocks them back._

_They gasp._

_The officers stand up straight, fingering their revolvers._

_The stranger lets loose a glistening grin. He removes his uniform's hat. Red-brown eyes glisten with bright crimson._

_SLASH!_

_He rips his uniform off with an unsheathing of a red sword. A crimson cape dances on his shoulders. A prayer shawl……_

_The officers shout at the man in a mix of French and Belgian. They raise their revolvers._

_Brother Blood lets out a shout and blurs at them._

_SLASH!_

_THWACK!_

_Two arms and a head are cleaved off._

_Blood._

_Screaming._

_Brother Blood hacks the rest of the officers in twain._

_The nuns scream and stumble to run out of the burrow._

_Wounded soldiers on the nearby cots gurgle and shake helplessly in horror._

_And Brother Blood marches towards the young, Markovian prince._

_Snarling._

_Smiling._

_Licking his teeth._

_The half blind, convulsing blonde looks up at him. Twitches. Gasps……_

_THUNK!_

……_and loses his neck._

"_**Brother Blood had found the Elementals. The incessant warrior spirit inside the bloodlines brought the passionate Markovians to the surface during World War I. It would be next to impossible from then on to forever hide the last family of the Earth. And by the late 1930s, Brother Blood's hunt had come to a close."**_

_The lights are out at Markovia Castle one fateful night. _

_Not a single bulb or candle is shimmering._

_And yet, there are flash-strobe auras of silver blighting the land. Brightening the mountainsides. Illuminating the forests beyond and below the royal summit._

_A lightning bombing of northern Europe._

_The blitzkrieg._

_German Lutwaffe soar overhead in thick squadrons of bombers. They pelt the northern hills of France and the slopes of Markovia with relentless, fiery explosives. Thunder starts to spill across the land as red blazes form in the distance._

_Sirens mounted on the wall of the castle are wailing……wailing……wailing._

_The moaning of an electronic ghost._

_And a fiery glow gets closer. Closer._

_Surging._

_A single, helmeted servant bravely rushes out onto the open courtyard of the Palace._

_He runs to the edge of the road leading into the castle square._

_He peers over the guardrails and down into the country side._

_The winding road leading up to the Tower is flickering with torchlight. A dead give away to both bombers and locals alike that……_

_A shady group of invaders are approaching._

_The servant gasps. Under the thunder of the shelling that is coming closer and closer, he turns and scampers back into the castle._

"_**Brother Blood was too busy leeching off life forces of those dying in Hitler's prison camps. But he did manage to conspire with Baron Bedlam of the neighboring territories to arrange a coup in the capitol of Markovia. The King's men and soldiers—as sparse as they were—had gone to the nation's villages during the air raid to protect Markovia's people. The castle was defenseless……"**_

_Baron Bedlam grins. He leads the torchlight progression with a shout. _

_Dressed in black, under the guise of night, and totally ignorant of the approaching blitzkrieg…Bedlam leads the torch-laden charge into the gates of the castle._

_Markovian servants rush out with make-shift weapons to protect the monarchy._

_But Bedlam and his force easily riddles them to death with machine guns and bolt action rifles._

_Bodies fall to the floor, bleeding across the torchlit courtyard._

_And the forces rush into the Palace._

_Bedlam first._

_Tossing torches into rooms and treasuries._

_Ripping furniture and cabinets apart._

_Searching……searching……_

_For the Royal Family._

"_**King Viktor V had ushered his family into the last chamber of the Castle where they would be safe. He forced his wife, Queen Katrina, to take the one-way escape route that would take her through the ancient tunnels of the mountains and off towards the region of France still safe from Nazi Germany's advances. The Markovians—once surrounded by friends and allies—were suddenly engulfed in animosity and death. There was no choice. Viktor gave his life to fend off the ravenous Baron while his wife escaped."**_

_The woman clings a crying, infant boy to her chest in ornate swaddling clothes. Tearfully, she pleads and clutches to the King. _

_But Viktor forcefully shoves her into the passage way._

_He kneels down, panting, and gives her a lasting kiss._

_She sobs and backs into the dark corridor._

_SLAM!_

_He shuts and locks the fake wall in place behind her. He turns and whips out a royal sword…facing the pounding doors as the invaders rush in._

_Baron Bedlam emerges first. Smiling._

_The King shouts in French and curses him._

_Bedlam merely shrugs, smirks, and whips out a revolver._

_BANG!_

_Inside the passageway, Queen Katrina shakes. She clutches her crying infant to herself and tries to silence her with her own tears. She murmurs in a Russian dialect, passed along by her mother and the mothers before her. Slowly, somberly, she turns about and hobbles down the dark passageway with the child in her arms._

"_**Katrina had in her possession the last princess of the Markovian family. Her name was unknown at the time, for the little girl was barely a week old. But in exile or not, she was heir to the throne. A throne that no longer had its castle. For later that evening, the blitzkrieg consumed what was left of the castle and the countryside. There was nothing in the end for Baron Bedlam. Markovia had been desolated. And what Brother Blood desired, he got. Or so he perceived. For the Queen and the Princess survived. And they scattered far west in secret transit the same way many close relatives of the Markovians had fled beforehand when the War and Brother Blood's wrath grew hotter and hotter. Westward. To America."**_

_Katrina huddles inside a cramped, ship's cabin. She surrounds herself with cloaked immigrants. Coughing. Hugging themselves in the cold. _

_Outside the portholes, the Atlantic Ocean bobs up and down. The sky is gray, like the smoke clouds of burning French villages._

_The people are lucky to leave France—and the War—behind them. And yet they submerge themselves in their misery. For the oceanic transport brings very little promises when the destination is a huge empire that hasn't even bothered to enter the conflict against the Axis._

_Katrina opens her cloak some. Her disguise. Her impoverished alter-ego. She soothes the stirring infant in her grasp and rocks her. Hiding back her tears. Her apprehensions. Her sorrows._

"_**It was supposed to be the land of promise. Of freedom. But all that Katrina and her baby princess needed was sanctuary. And a huge, huge countryside to hide themselves in. Full of deserts. Forests. Rivers. Full of Earth. The Elementals would lose themselves in the wasteland. And Brother Blood would be none the wiser."**_

_Modern day._

_A year and a half ago._

_A desert canyon stretches to the horizon._

_Stone-amber land going as far as the eye can see._

_Dirt and dust shifting all about._

_A thin figure stands on the edge of the precipice._

_An almost emaciated scarecrow of a body against the setting Western Sun._

_Golden hair waving in the wind._

_Thin arms hugging herself._

_Clutching to a worn, tattered backpack._

_Breathing._

_Sighing._

_Existing……_

"_**Three generations later, she was born. And who exactly her father was and whatever became of her Earthen mother may never be known. But out of that desperate, lonely nomadic dissemination of the once-royal bloodline, Tara Markov was cast into the wasteland of her desolate future. Maybe the mothers before her who carried the Elemental Power taught her not to trust the world. For somewhere—somehow—there would be a Brother Blood seeking to sink his teeth into her and end her precious existence."**_

_She huddles in a cave as it blows with gales outside in the cold desert night. _

_A tattered blanket is all the girl has._

_She clutches it to herself._

_Arms covered in long sleeves of a tight white shirt under a gray tank top._

_Legs curled under blue shorts._

_Shivering._

_Trying to hold the tears back._

_Her body shakes and a piece of her shirt rides up her tummy._

_Exposing the birthmark just above her abdomen._

_Eternal._

_Branding._

"_**She was haunted. For she never truly understood the ten thousand years of harnessed, Earthly powers endowed to her. She lacked the meditation to control the gift she would some day depend on to save all existence if need be. Earthquakes followed her everywhere she went. The ground split open and threatened to swallow her in her sleep. And worst of all……people got hurt. People went through suffering. Merely because she existed. And this shut her away into an isolated bubble. Like icy glass. Not so much afraid of the world as she was overwrought with guilt over her inevitable threat to the existence of it."**_

_She cooks a hunted jackrabbit over a fire on the edge of a canyon. Gazing up at the clouds as the smoke from the stew rises. _

_A cold wind blows at her. She gazes off over the nearby mountain range. Her blue eyes blink. She sets the instruments of cooking down and scampers up a southern ridge of mountains. She reaches a summit, and looks out._

_Her blue eyes squint._

_And—from afar—she can see it._

_Land where the moisture graced the hillsides. _

_A huge Bay stretching around a huge City._

_And in the center of the Bay._

_A Tower._

_Gray and glinting._

_Shaped as a 'T'._

_And she runs a hand through her silky blonde hair._

_A butterfly pendant glistens in the Sun._

_And her lips part._

_With awe and curiosity……_

"_**The last princess. The Maiden of the Earth. Who could imagine the loneliness? The loss? The helplessness she must have gone through? All of those years of living alone in the wastelands, seeking to find herself and afraid of what may be revealed. And yet she persisted. And she certainly showed the golden shades of her Elemental. In the face of other depravity. And even when the dark powers of the Demon seeking to claim the Earth sent his spirit to root her out."**_

_She hugs herself, gazing out across the mountain ridges. _

_When a huge rumble swims through the earth._

_The girl turns around._

_She gasps in horror._

_A mound of dirt rises up._

_An explosion of soil and rock._

_A huge, arachnid tail emerges. Then—with a shrieking noise—a horrendously gigantic scorpion burrows up from beneath the earth's crust. With rows of amber-angry eyes, it raises a pair of huge pinchers and stabs its tail down at the girl. _

_She leaps out of the way._

_Dust flies and rock crumbles._

_The girl slides down into the canyon and runs for her life._

_The huge scorpion chases, its mandibles warbling as it shrieks in evil spirited bloodlust._

_The girl looks far ahead of her._

_In mid-sprint, she sees a rock bridge stretching over a canyon just before a dead end in the carved earth._

_She grits her teeth and—with eyes glowing yellow—heatedly dashes towards the bridge in a desperate attempt to lure the huge arachnid beast into a trap._

_And overhead—barely within her peripheral vision—five teenage superheroes rush to the scene atop the ravine's precipices._

_And on another ledge of rock a slight distance off._

_Alone and unseen._

_A dark figure in black and brown metal mesh glares down at the fiasco of destiny._

_His emblazoned eye thin…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stared at Hull.

Silent.

Still.

His face is aglow with the faint silver glinting off his fingers. Gray sparks flicker and he walks towards me slowly. Hard blue eyes remaining fixed.

He finishes his historical recount: "When Terra joined the Titans, she was not just a random child with amazing superpowers. She was the product of countless millennia forging Earth Elemental powers that were bestowed upon human kind unimaginably long ago. She is quintessentially Mother Earth incarnate. Or at least…..she was. Before her tragic apprenticeship with Slade ended in her freezing in stone."

"…….," I took a deep breath. I folded my arms and leaned my gazing head to the side.

"You seem dubious." He gestured at the dusty books all around us. "Do you wish to research for yourself and find what I've just told you? I seriously doubt you or I have the time. What with our date with Anderson this evening."

I frowned.

"You think I'm wasting your time? Whatever the case is, you don't believe me," he said. His blue eyes narrowed. "And I know it, Mr. Noir."

I blinked.

I scratched my head with a metal hand.

I nervously pointed at him and mouthed something.

He nodded. "I am empathic. I can sense people even when I can't see them. I know when they are hiding something or not trusting or simply out to betray the rest of those surrounding them in the bloody arena we call 'life'. It's a side effect of my powers. I am sensitive to……life energy, for I suppose you can all it as such. My body is a living, walking energy core….capable of storing a limited amount of matter converted into streaming electrons which I must take apart and then piece back together quark by quark at a moment's notice."

In the dark, he flicked his right arm to the side. Silver-tipped fingers sparked.

FLASH!

His sword appeared.

_SHVVVVVVvvv-CLACK!_

He spun it to a stop, gripping the circular hilt.

"Bluescythe…," he gestured with the sword, "…is half of my arsenal. I have spent a long, long time forging it into something stronger than even adamantine. Not an easy task, I assure you." He looked at me. "The rest of my weapons cache comes from whatever I can pick up. A good sized room stockpiled with weapons is about my limit. Right now, I have enough weapons 'stored' inside of me to support a third world country's army. And what I use up by the expulsion of blades, firearms, and ammo…..I replace along the way. You can only imagine the sort of preparation I needed to make in stockpiling for my participation here. All that you or the other combatants have seen is but a taste of what I can unleash if I need to."

_SHVVVV-FLASH!_

He disappeared the sword and stood empty handed before me.

"All that stands between my fluctuating energy core and the naked air outside is what you see before you. This shell….this….this hull of a body…," he lifted his hands and flexed his silver-tipped fingers. "…I must keep it in good care, for a breach of the energy inside my hull would be most detrimental to the entire continent." He lowered his hands and spoke with a serious squinting of his eyes. "A detonation of my inner being would roughly equal three hundred Hiroshimas, give or take."

I blinked.

"I do not tell you this so that you may feel threatened. I began to exist for a very specific reason. A reason that changed as I gradually evolved. As I became the person you see and hear speaking to you. I tell you of my powers because I want you to know the extent and fervor to which I will go to enter Anderson's Vault. And hopefully you can feel convinced that such an earnestness is not aimed at stealing Terra's statue from you or those girls attempting to beat you to that very same goal."

I leaned my head to the side.

Perplexed.

He took a deep breath and said: "You may go ahead and 'speak', Mr. Noir. I'm empathic. I can sense emotions from life forces, but not actually _thoughts_."

"……," I hesitantly raised my hands. And I gestured:

'_What is it that you are after?'_

And indeed, he understood me.

And he responded:

"Does it truly matter? I let your actions speak for yourself, Mr. Noir. And I've given you the grace of both seeing my actions and hearing my words. And the fact that I haven't tried to kill you yet should hopefully give the message that I have no intention in thwarting you or your allies' plans. I think it shouldn't have to concern you what I'm after for here in this pathetic City."

I frowned.

I hand-signed:

'_I do not owe you anything, jerk.'_

"Why the hostility? If you keep from getting in my way, then I shall keep from getting in yours," he half bowed with a dangling rattle of his chains. "It is as simple as that."

My teeth showed.

My hands blurred: _'No, it is not! You are more than just a mere opponent of mine. You are a murderer. A cold-hearted killer. If I need to, I shall and __**will**__ get in your way. You are not my boss, you homicidal moron.'_

Hull merely blinked his hard blue eyes at me. And he slurred: "You would know a homicidal spirit when you see one, wouldn't you, Mr. Noir?"

I froze.

Swallowing.

He went on: "Are you and I truly so different? In the long run? When all we have in this black, black universe is just ourselves to be judged and—"

I held a hand up in a simple fashion of telling him to 'SHUT UP!'

He was silent.

I sighed.

A beat.

I gestured: _'I will not allow anymore needless deaths in this pathetic charade. If I see a chance to stay your sword arm, I will.'_

"I kill because I need to," Hull grunted. Frowning. "The lives of the many are far too numerous in multitudes to care about sparing the life of the few."

My lips part in horrid disbelief.

I hand-sign: _'What could anything that you are doing possibly be for the good of the many?'_

"If only you knew how much danger the 'good of the many' is in, Mr. Noir," he said in a breathy voice. "And how much danger the 'many' themselves are in…."

"……."

"Total…..utter….annihilation of all existence," Hull spoke. Glinting blue stones. "The Gaia Sphere."

A chill ran through me.

But it wasn't my metal arm.

_The Gaia Sphere? _

_Why do I have the distinct feeling that……_

I rubbed my forehead above my dark optics.

Exhaling painfully.

……_that I have heard that before?_

"The Earth Elemental lingers as we speak, Mr. Noir," Hull paced around the dusty old book room and spoke to me. "Her spirit is alive, but frozen in stone. She is sought after by many. But now she is in the hands of one. Dagger will—if he can—tap into the Earthen reserves hidden in her statue. You must certainly know what I mean."

I stared at him. And then my lips parted.

_My god. _

_No way……_

"There is yet someone stronger than Terra. Stronger…..in that he doesn't exist yet."

_He? _

_My god……how could you possibly know all of this!_

_Where is the Messenger!_

_Where is-_

"If you are to find Terra, I suggest you do so quickly. I will assist you if need be when the time comes and the Vault is open. But from then on, I must go my own way. I must go and prepare for the Gaia Sphere. And certainly we will meet again when that dark horizon comes."

I hand signed something: _'Can I ask you a question?'_

"By all means."

'_Are you human?'_

"Are you dead?"

I was silent.

He stared at me for a moment, then flicked his arm at me.

FLASH!

Swoooosh-Clutch!

I grabbed Myrkblade in two hands. Blinking my naked black eyes.

He points at me with a silver finger: "Finding Terra is more important than ever any of us can comprehend right now. Let whatever motivates you motivate you. Just….find her. Save the Earth. Keep the Demon at Bay, obsidian one….."

And he walked towards the door. Opened it to the bright library interior beyond. And exited.

I stood there in the dark.

Sighing, I slipped on my shades and twirled Myrkblade.

_Great, just what I need._

I sheathed my weapon.

_CHIIIIING!_

_Another lecturer._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was walking.

Somewhere.

Staring down at my boots.

Hands in my pockets.

_Blake Glover told me that Red Aviary was seeking either me or Terra next. Or perhaps both of us._

_It was part of the ring of Destruction that was to inevitably consume the Titans, in that—for some reason—Red Aviary seeks the utter annihilation of all that's good and heroic in that City by the Bay._

_How is it that Robin died in a single blink of an eye and Terra's complexity is the sort that requires a billion eyes blinking everywhere at once to get even a fraction of the picture that's at hand here? _

_Jinx, Pulsade, and 'J' are using Wildebeest because they want Terra._

_Hull is here for one thing or another, but it's obvious that he's trying to protect Terra too._

_Dagger has Terra, and god knows what he's doing to her poor, stone body. _

_The Messenger……why is he ever in the middle of all this? What's so important about my dimension that keeps dragging him here?_

_And Killer Croc……aww, screw that._

I sighed and dug my hands deeper into my pockets.

I barely recognized that the ground passing under my feet was suddenly carpeted.

Air conditioning cooled my body…

_Red Aviary wants Terra. _

_And supposedly he wants me._

_But if that was the case, shouldn't I be dead already?_

_Terra has already been seized. Dagger has her. Triangular holds the stone rook._

_If Triangular is so easily at the mercy of the Destructive Parasite, why hasn't Red Aviary climbed through the bureaucratic cobwebs of evil and devoured her already?_

_Or perhaps Terra is dead. And this entire adventure into the vault is a wild goose chase just because Glover was so vague to have told me 'go to Shepherd Plain'._

I groaned.

I rubbed my temples above my shades.

Teeth clenched beneath my increasingly chapped lips.

_But if Terra was dead—then a really bad scenario according to Hull would be in effect right now. _

_Some……some Demon would be threatening the world._

_God, where have I heard that before?_

_And if Terra is dead, and Red Aviary has already killed her…… _

_Then perhaps Red Aviary would be this Brother Blood?_

_From the sounds of it, the guy and all his fathers before him are the ultimate essence of Destruction._

_They bring an end to themselves in a cursed fashion that mirrors the way they seek to bring an end to the living, thriving world._

_And here I was……all along……_

_Helplessly assuming that Red Aviary could very well be……_

_Just possibly be……_

I shook my head.

My eyes shut beneath my shades momentarily.

And I sighed. Partial relief.

_It can't be, Ana. _

_He's probably dead by now._

_From the last I saw him, he could very well have imploded._

_His passion was too much._

_Too much…… _

_You know as well as I do whom he chose to follow in the end._

_I knew that it was always just you and me, Ana._

_Just you and me……_

I opened my eyes and resumed staring at the carpeted floor.

In the cool interior of…..somewhere.

_This Hull guy is a phony. _

_A murderous, homicidal phony._

_It's enough to believe that Terra may be some long lost princess of a desolated, European kingdom of yesteryear._

_But……_

_Elementals?_

_Christ's prayer shawl?_

_Church of Blood?_

_If it was all important, the Messenger would have told me._

_Yes……_

_The Messenger……_

_He would have told me._

_I……_

_I trust him……_

I bit my lip.

A hidden breath.

And then I nearly bumped into a strong arm facing straight out at me.

Palm first.

"What are you doing here?"

I blinked.

I glanced up.

"……."

_Oh. Right._

I had somehow walked my subconscious feet into Pompeii.

I stood in the center of the casino's first floor.

A very familiar bouncer stood before me. Frowning.

Familiar because…

I smirked.

He was the one whose crotch had become intimate with my foot.

And at sight of my grin, I saw a trace of fear resurface into his eyes. He mumbled, stood besides his fellow bouncers, and murmured: "You're h-here awful early, aren't you Wyldecarde?"

"……," I glanced up at a clock.

_Three Thirty p.m._

I looked at him.

Glaring.

A beat.

"Y-You need to see Jacob Anderson, right?"

"……"

Slowly, I nodded.

He gulped. He motioned towards an elevator.

I half-bowed, and followed him as he took me there.

He pressed a button.

DING!

The elevator doors opened.

I walked in.

He regained a brave frown as he leaned in and said: "This will take you straight to the floor where Anderson's office is."

I nodded back at him.

"No screwing around on the way there," the man uttered and pointed up at a camera with a red light on the metal side panels of the elevator car. "We'll see everything if you try to break into our treasury or some shit. Got it?"

"….."

I raised my metal hand.

I cracked the titanium knuckles.

He shook and sweatdropped.

I formed my hand—slowly—into a thumb's up.

A menacing, dark smile.

He gulped. "Allright then. Since we're in agreement….." He eagerly hobbled backwards out of the elevator doorway.

DING!

I was closed in.

I rested back against the metal wall and sighed.

Staring down at the slab of a floor.

A beat….

'_Snkkkkt!'_

I jump.

There's a crackling in my hidden earpiece.

My lips part.

_The Messenger!_

Eagerly—like a puppy rushing up to the front door as the master returns—I dug a finger into my ear canal and adjusted the frequency on the communicator.

'_Snkkkkkt—Wooh boy! Mr. Wizard I am __**NOT**__. You still there, tall-dark-and-dashing?'_

I smiled.

_It's good to have friends……_

'_I just got back from doing a lot of homework. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to meet you in the Boy Cave, Noir. I hate to keep a handsome man waiting.'_

I rolled my black eyes.

I leaned against the wall as the elevator started to hum and vibrate.

And…..

I simply waited….

The Messenger's electronic voice spoke to me:

'_I did some further snooping here in Pompeii after you walked away from the fights. And I found out a few crazy things. But one of them craziest of all.'_

I raised an eyebrow into the naked, claustrophobic air.

Curious….

'_Killer Croc. He is definitely working for Jacob Anderson. The dumb brute is a pawn. And to make things even less sexy, they've got the reptilian rook hooked on Dragonflare.'_

My lips part.

_Dragonflare……_

'_I smell the Dagger at work here. Something tells me that it is only a matter of time before the Parasite himself catches up with this dry, desert corner of Triangular and sooner than we know it we'll be dealing with the Hand.'_

A shiver up my metal arm.

I wince and weather it….

'_Whatever it is that Jacob Anderson's gonna send you on an errand to do, Noir, be watchful. Killer Croc is a wild card set to crush the Wyldecarde. Oh, and that blue-eyed-hunk-of-a-skull-basher too.'_

I simper.

'_You weren't accepting candy from dark-haired strangers while I was gone, were you, Noir?'_

I bit my lip.

'_Hey. I can't blame you. The guy's a cryptic, walking pinup for both Freud and Skinner to make love to. But whatever he may have told you, what's important now is this City……this Vault……that statue of a girl……and some smoke and mirrors Reaper out to get the Balance of Morals really……really screwed.'_

I took a deep breath.

Shuddering.

'_You have to trust me, Noir. Like you always have. Or at least I hope you have. Been seeing other annoying, asian kids?'_

I couldn't help but smirk.

_I do trust you……_

'_Well, just to make you jealous. I did a little fraternizing of my own while you were gone. And I think I met a certain someone who's willing to ignore the roost-ruling of Jinx and Pulsade just long enough to give you and I a break from psuedo-villainy.'_

I blinked.

_Say what?_

My mouth dropped.

_You mean……you met with the munchkin!_

'_Wyldecarde, retire your goggles for now. It's time for Noir to take the stand. Hehehe. Snkkkt—okay, you little muppet! Now!'_

CH-CHTINK!

The entire elevator jolted.

I leaned against a side with a metal arm, gasping.

The vibration stopped.

The movement of the car came to a standstill.

I exhaled.

_The Hell……?_

Sparking sounds.

I looked at the elevator panel before me.

The buttons and numbers flickered as the light behind them died.

And then—in hilarious perfection—a string of eight or so lights stayed lit against the dulled rest of them. The buttons formed a curved line. An obvious letter.

'J'.

I smiled.

I looked up.

The camera light flickered from red to green.

A beeping sound.

The 'J' vanished, and the third tier basement level buttons lit up.

_Cht-Tung!_

Whurrrrrr.

And I descended to the dungeon levels of Pompeii.

I took a deep breath.

Smiled.

And unsheathed Myrkblade.

CHIIIING!

I felt like two, invisible wings were sprouting out from my shoulders.

In the feathery forms of two unseen friends.

One mute.

The other who couldn't stop from talking his ass off.

'_I think you've got a bunch of cute, Mexican chicks to save before showtime, buddy. Go show them that not all dark and scary people are as evil as they are benevolently badass.'_

The buttons on the panel flickered as a distant hacker shaped the lit panel into a text like 'smiley face'.

I shook my head.

_Maybe I'm not so alone in chaos as I thought, Ana._

The elevator reached the basement levels.

The car came to a stop.

The lights flickered out.

'_Go get 'em, tiger. And be careful.'_

I took a deep breath, gritting Myrkblade tightly by the hilt.

_I always am._

And the doors opened.

DING!


	198. The Earth Must Bleed part 13

**198. The Earth Must Bleed part 13**

"Come in, in…..," Pulsade muttered to herself. She rapidly performed Morse Code strokes on a communicator in her grasp. She sat on an overturned bucket in the rear of the loft utility shed atop some tall Vegas building somewhere. "Come in…..you little snot…..where could you have gone at a time like this?"

"He's a boy, Leslie," Jinx winked and strutted past her with a huge, silver crown with two holes in her grasp. "Boys are always off in their timing. For all we know, 'J' may have just hit puberty and is spending his time hitting on some chicks who will actually hit on him back."

Wildebeest snorted angrily as Jinx approached her from the far side of the shed.

Jinx jumped back. "Eek! Ermh….eheheheheh….," she simpered and offered up the silver crown. "What am I talking about? Silly witch Jinx! 'J' is an absolute a-angel!"

Wildebeest grunted. A slight curve to his lips. He took the crown out of her grasp and slipped it over his horned head like a helmet. He cracked his neck joints, fitted into the scant 'armor', and folded his arms. The trademark Wildebeest 'pose'.

"Well, you certainly look……," Jinx blinked her cat eyes, "……bovine." A beat. She smiled a Cheshire grin and whipped out at least twenty pairs of combs, brushes, and shampoo materials. "Now how about a little sprucing before you go kick butt for the Triangular gangsters!"

Wildebeest snarled and flung a meaty fist.

"Nnngh!" Jinx skidded back on her long boots, dropping her various tools of the hair trade. "Hrmph! Fine!" She folded her frilled arms and turned up a pale nose. "A cow of few words. A cow of true words. I can take a hint."

"Nnrrghh…," Wildebeest walked towards the door of the shed and gazed out on the bright world.

Jinx spun and walked girlishly towards Pulsade. "I swear. Why didn't we get a slightly less dumb dumb-ox to be the focal point of this mission?"

"'J' had ties to Wildebeest. The big, hairy bloke was our simplest and most effective tool with the time constraints that we had and _still do_ have." A sigh. A toss of her platinum, blonde hair over her shoulders. Pulsade exasperatingly continued her Morse Code transmission. "Though right now, I think we should most be questioning the usefulness of 'J' himself."

"So he's a little off-time," Jinx smiled and shrugged. "Forget what I said earlier. You know I was joking, Leslie. Hehehe." She walked over and leaned over the back of Pulsade's shoulders cutely. "He's pulled through for us countless times. Las Vegas is a crazy city. Forgive even a computer hacker for getting lost once!"

"That's not it….," Pulsade said. She gazed up from the communicator and moved a loose strand of platinum out from her forehead. "..I'm thinking 'J' isn't quite lost at all."

Jinx blinked. "You think he's doing something we wouldn't want him?"

"And who can blame the little bugger…," Pulsade murmured. "All four of us are in on this project to counter Red Aviary. And yet we hardly ever meet. That is to say, we hardly ever meet with _him_. You and I are lucky to be around each other, Jinx. But the lad's all by himself. With only sporadic visits from his hairy mate over there and the usual computer laptop to keep him company. I don't think it would be that hard for him to sway…"

"But Les…," Jinx gestured with a frilled hand, "…'J' came to us. He supplied us with half of the information we needed. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be this far! We wouldn't be this close to having Terra's statue!"

"……," Pulsade was silent.

Jinx draped a hand over her shoulder. "Counter-Red Aviary _means_ something to him. He wouldn't give up now. Not when he's this far."

"I hate not knowing things…," Pulsade said hoarsely. She tilted her gaze up to the corners of the ceiling. In firmer voice she thought aloud: "…what could make a little sprog like that go all the way that he has? It doesn't help us to be in the dark about him. When the crucial moment comes, he could switch."

A beat.

"S-Switch what?" Jinx murmured.

Pulsade frowned. "**Sides.**"

"You mean…..like Wyldecarde? The Titans?"

Pulsade nodded.

Jinx leaned back and ran a hand through her short, pink hair. "I wouldn't put it past 'J' to try and help out Wyldecarde a little. After all, he and Noir _did_ have some background together."

"So you've told me…."

"But even still. His loyalty is with us, Leslie. I'm sure of it."

"It had better be…," Pulsade muttered. "Or else this might end up being a really short trip."

Jinx made a cute face as she thought 'hard'. She tapped a finger against her temple, glanced across the shed, and smirked. "We could always ask Wildebeest what makes 'J' tick."

Both girls looked over.

Wildebeest merely whinnied.

"Bloody fat chance in that going well," Pulsade said.

Jinx giggled.

Pulsade looked Jinx's way. And there was ever so slightly a softening to her determined lips. "Bulls only have a load of one thing to dish out."

Jinx hugged herself and doubled over, laughing.

Pulsade took a deep breath and curled a single strand over her ear….

"I must admit, I expected to see this place with a little less levity."

The girls froze.

Wildebeest's white eyes widened. He looked over towards the shed entrance.

"……," Hull stood. His hands by his side. Stone blue eyes glaring. "Is this what you would call a 'din of conspirators'."

"It's him!" Jinx shrieked.

"Nnnngh!" Pulsade snarled, jumped up, and whipped out an assault rifle from behind her back.

Hull crouched.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

FLASH! Hull produced Bluescythe. _SVHHHHHH-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!_

Bullets ricocheted and flew all across the shed.

Wildebeest and Jinx ducked and covered their heads. Flinching.

Pulsade gritted her teeth and stopped firing.

_SHVVVVV-CLACK!_ Hull spun his sword to a stop. Frozen in a fighting pose. He glared.

Then he said: "Care to make a little more noise? I don't think all of Las Vegas Boulevard heard you yet!"

Pulsade spat: "What do you want?"

"The same thing that you girls want. The same thing that Wildebeest and the hacker want. And also the same thing desired of Wyldecarde and those Titans lost from him but unconsciously lending him their spirits all the same."

"Hecate on a bike!" Jinx shuddered and stood up with her feline teeth gritting in a wince. "Does _everyone_ want that frozen, dumb blonde!"

Hull slowly shook his head. "No. As much as I am concerned with Terra, it is not my place to…acquire her."

"Bollocks!" Pulsade frowned, still aiming her machine gun. "Do you really expect me to think that you killed your way up the tournament ladder just for shits and giggles! Don't make me more cheesed off than I already am." She squinted a blue eye and fingered the trigger. "I should clean your Nancy Boy face right off with lead, so help me God!"

"I entered the tournament. I ended lives. And I became one of the final four," Hull spoke. "…..for the Vault."

"Say what?" Jinx blinked. "You mean…..you want something else in there besides Terra?"

"And just what is it do you think Killer Croc wants?" Hull replied. "Terra too? Sorry, Miss Shortcake, but the only little girls Killer Croc munches on are the ones that are relatively **living**."

"Get to the bloomin' point!"

Hull glanced from Pulsade to Wildebeest.

Wildebeest's muscles were tense and his eyes thin. He seemed ready to pounce the swordsman at any time.

"……," Hull looked back at the girls. "I don't want Terra. But I know who do. And I know who **will** get her. And it's not you two."

"Heh…..well isn't that sweet?" Pulsade's lips softened slightly from behind the gun sight. She kept aiming. "I respond to threats with caliber, chum. It would do you well to pick another topic."

"And it would do you well….," Hull took a daring step forward towards the gun. He stared at Pulsade the entire time. "…to have an open mind about the part Wyldecarde is playing in all of this. You shouldn't be working against each other. You should be working together."

"Righto….," Pulsade hissed. "Bullet-in-the-brain time…"

Hull held up a hand of silver tipped fingers. His blue eyes were thin: "Think about it. I know you're not like this. You're the tolerant type. You yourself once said that it is always special when the greater whole cooperates. Isn't that right, Miss Monarch?"

Jinx gasped, a hand cupped over her mouth.

Wildebeest blinked.

Jinx looked over at Pulsade, panting. "Leslie…."

"…..," Pulsade's lips parted. She lowered the rifle as her iron features melted into wet confusion and shock. "How….d-did you know my family name?"

Hull lowered his arm. "They told me everything. Everything was given to me….before they shipped me off to the first, fatal assignment."

"………….."

Hull took a deep breath and admitted: "H.I.V.E."

Jinx leaned her head to the side.

Pulsade lowered the rifle completely. Her mouth lingered, and then: "You….were in H.I.V.E.?"

Hull slowly nodded.

A beat.

Pulsade swallowed: "I thought-…bloody hell…-I thought you were familiar….."

"I didn't think you would make it free, Leslie….," Hull spoke. He glanced over at Jinx and then back at her. "And to be honest, I'm glad that you're not so lonesome on the outside like you thought you would be."

Pulsade's eyes seemed to be searching something in his face. And then, with a gasp, she uttered with a feminine breath: "Michael….."

Hull slowly nodded.

"M-Michael!" Jinx blinked. Her head darted back and forth. "Who the Hell is Michael?!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A dark metal hallway.

Just like any dark metal hallway.

Cold and glossy to the touch of my wandering, black eyes.

I crept through the basement corridor. One silent foot after another. I held Myrkblade up as I slid along the dark gray walls, doubly dark with a lack of substantial lighting.

I felt like I was spelunking the intestines of a giant, unused four-cylinder engine. Everything felt stale and industrial and….

Virginal. In a cold, emotionless sense. Menacing.

"….."

My black eyes narrowed under the shades.

I flexed my free, metal fingers.

Smoke billowed out ahead of the toes of my boots.

Murk 'felt' around the turns in the metal corners. Tendrils of black mist went shifting between the walls far away where my vision couldn't go.

And everything was still barren.

Empty.

Abandoned…..even…..

I took a deep breath.

_Three minutes of slowly walking the twists and turns of this place. _

_And no door. _

_No structure._

_Nothing between the elevator and where I am now._

I thought of the tiny, claustrophobic hell built in the tunnels beneath the Shepherd Plain ranch. The dank rock. The rusted, almost medieval decay to everything.

And…

_The stench……_

I sniffed the air.

Blinking.

_I can't smell anything here._

I took a deep breath and pressed ahead.

_Maybe that's a good sign……_

Pompeii lay silent ahead of me. Over twenty-five stories of casino weight and steel. And I knew that there was a fighting arena and droves of nightclubs and gambling idiots stacked on top of me. But I felt a strange sense of isolation. Like this basement level was purposefully and strategically constructed to muffle out the sounds of everything else in the world. Including the City of Lights itself.

I shuddered.

My lips tightened into a frown.

_Torture chambers. _

_They're all the same……_

I rounded a final curve.

And let out a breath.

At the end of the slate metal hallway rested what looked to be a pair of doors.

One automatic.

The other…..

I squinted.

A dim, red bulb rested above the dark gray corner.

The body of the door was red. The material wasn't wood or metal, but instead some sort of bulbous velvety texture fastened to the frame with a dozen geometrically placed 'buttons' or bolts. Like something out of Captain Nemo's cabin or whatnot.

I made a grimacing face.

_I guess that's Anderson's door._

I re-gripped Myrkblade and marched towards the far end of the hallway.

_One of them's gotta open._

As I moved on, the Messenger's voice cracked in my ear.

'_Hey, you still there, Noir?'_

"……"

I blinked.

'_I'll take that silence as a yes.'_

_You'd better._

'_I've got a tracer on the communicator in your ear. I'll let you know once you're getting close to the prisoners. The reconnaissance I did a day and a half ago should come in handy.'_

I smirked.

_Resourceful son of a gun, aren't you?_

His voice continued on:

'_I'm still working on an escape route. 'J' chipped in with a few schematics he dug up on research of his own. There's got to be a safe way to get those students out of the casino without Anderson or any of his psychosexual goons taking notice.'_

I nodded. I approached the doors. There were electronic locks on each of their locks. Lit up. Colored red.

I exhaled and paused before them.

Standing under the dimly-stabbing light.

_Why……Why is 'J' helping me out?_

_The Messenger could just be making it all up, but that's not like him. At least, I don't think so. _

_Maybe the talk I had with 'J' got him energized to risk his computer neck and help me here. Then again, he seemed so intent on saving the students himself……without me 'mentioning' it._

_Doesn't he know that helping me out so closely can't be cool with Jinx and Pulsade? Heh, even Wildebeest would riding his butt about this. I was only there to find Terra, not necessarily sabotage what the sorceress and assassin had planned. Though I suppose in the end, I would have to do just that. _

'_J', what are you trying to do? Is what's happening to the Messenger happening to you? Do you also feel responsible for Robin?_

The communicator in my ear canal crackled loudly.

I winced and cupped the side of my head.

'_Snkkkkt! Mega-shitaku! Noir, make like the wind!'_

I blinked.

"?"

'_MOVE!'_

CLICK!

The doorknob.

My lips parted.

Creeeeak—SWOOOSH!

The door opened.

Rexxin walked out and stopped with a jolt.

He blinked.

He stared me straight in the face.

"……………"

A beat.

He blinked again.

His eyes trailed left.

"……………."

His eyes trailed right.

"…………….."

A beat.

I stood in front of him.

Holding my breath.

Still and pale as a statue.

And….

Invisible.

In a split second, I had covered my body from head to toe literally in smoke.

I was cloaked.

And it took every ounce of strength inside of me to preserve such visual evasion.

Rexxin looked left and right again. Breathing gently. His scarred face just inches from my nose.

"………….," I held and held and held my breath. I didn't dare exhale on him. Not even to save my lungs—which were startled and half empty at the time I spontaneously decided to freeze.

"……….hrmph….," Rexxin shrugged. He walked out.

I bit my lip. My cloaked body jerked. I side-stepped with slinking, silent-as-a-snake limbs and fitted myself around him so that our bodies didn't make contact.

He backed into the hallway and produced a plastic card. He turned and closed the door behind him. He slid his card through a groove in it.

Beep.-

The knob locked. The light on it flickered red and stayed that way.

"………..," I huddled in the corner besides the velvety-red door. Shaking from the intense effort of holding my breath. My vision turned blue and my dizzy head began to reel and nod a few bare inches from the security header's shoulder.

He exhaled and walked down the hallway.

I began to relax-

His feet stopped.

I froze again.

He turned.

I bit my lip.

My invisible face a doubly-invisible blue.

"…….," Rexxin walked towards me.

I scrunched against the wall.

His arm stretched out.

I slid down the wall with a shift of murk and performed an awkward limbo beneath his wrist.

Tap-Tap-Tap……

He tested the red-glowing sensor on the velvety door's knob.

"……….," he nodded to himself. He spun. He walked down the hallway. Loudly. With echoes. At the corner, he produced a walkie-talkie and spoke into it. Squabbling.

Then.

Silence.

"…………," I rolled over onto the cold metal floor. Gasping. Sputtering. Sighing. Groaning mutely….

'_Snkkkkkt……Dammit, Snake! This is supposed to be a one-man sneaking mission!'_

I sit up achingly against the wall. I hissed angrily.

'_Heheheheh……good job, man.'_

I ran a hand over my sweaty brow. Took another breath in as many breaths. And pushed myself up to my feet.

'_Hey, I'm typing a bunch of crap to 'J' as we speak. Wait for me to get the little shrimp to give you a hand.'_

"…..," I blinked. I looked around the cold, dead end.

'_With the doors, silly ass.'_

I mouthed: _'Oh.'_

I stared at the two doors.

A beat.

_Nah. _

'_J' is a good hacker. _

_But he can't take me __**directly**__ to where I go. _

_Not yet._

So I focused on the plain, metal door. Ignoring the red velvety one.

_Jacob Anderson has got to be too smart and challenging for that._

Indeed, as I stared at the red-lit knob of the plain door, a whirring sound could be heard. The light started to flicker. Soon, the light turned from red to green. And something in the frame clicked.

'_Heheheh. Haley Joel Osment's got a digital finger of gold!'_

I smirked.

I pressed my weight gently against the door.

I took a deep breath, uncloaking and summoning murk instead to pulse through my limbs at a single command.

'_Into the belly button of the beast.'_

I nodded to the air.

My feet shift.

And-

SWOOOSH!

I dashed in through the door.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

My black eyes were immediately stabbed under my shades.

I squinted my optics. My face scrunched up.

Monitors. Rows of them. Camera feeds in monochromatic, flickering glory.

A security control center.

_Fitting……_

I eyed around the shadowed corners of the room. Trying to find something that Rexxin would have been working on there. Some evidence of what was so important. And most especially—a hint as to where I was to go next.

A hint as to where a certain group of innocents were located……

'_Hang on a sec-a-tron, Noir. 'J' is doing a calculation. He thinks you might be in the security hub of the basement levels.'_

I gazed all over the monitors.

_Yeah……way ahead of you, handsome._

'_Allright. J and I both agree. Look for a switch device for the camera feeds. There should also be a grid showing the layout of the underground facility. You can use the cameras to get a bearing of the place before you move on next.'_

I walked over and stood before a line of consoles. I squinted my black eyes under my shades and studied every curve and angle.

_I know my way around these kinds of places. Don't fret._

Naturally, the Messeenger didn't hear me. But he went on: _'J thinks that Jacob Anderson is upstairs in his private suite. He won't be down there to interfere or anything.'_

_I hope not._

I fingered a joystick and tapped it around.

I saw a camera feed on a monitor to the top left of the consoles twist and turn at my command.

I paused.

I looked at the monitor.

It displayed a still, monochromatic stretch of hallway.

"……"

I twisted the joystick some more.

The camera feed wobbled.

_Sensitive……_

I sheathed Myrkblade and freed both my hands. I cracked my metal and flesh knuckles. I fingered the joystick with a metal hand and tapped a toggle button with my right.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The monitor flickered through over two dozen cameras. All of them were showing various views of the hallways beyond the velvety door. They were much darker than the immediate, winding passages. The walls were a thick black color. The ground consisted of industrial, metal 'cobble' design. There were grates in the floor constantly where the walls reached the bottom. Like a reservoir of sorts.

_For the blood……_

Indeed, as I tilted the camera up, I saw the nightmare. A playground of torture chairs, ceiling-suspended buzz saws, drills, acid I.V. bags, branding irons, and rows upon rows of blades mounted on the walls.

I took a deep breath….more out of relief than anything.

_None of the blades were stained._

This was a fresh facility. Shepherd Plain was being set to explode for a reason. Jacob Anderson had just….just recently moved out of his 'old' playground and was jumping into the new one as I infiltrated that stronghold. Whatever was going on with the Tournament and the Vault and Triangular, Anderson was undoubtedly expecting the fruits of some nasty labor roll in. This Hellish domain beneath Pompeii was undoubtedly a 'reward' to himself. Something he must have felt he earned. And for all I knew—maybe he did earn it.

I toggled the camera over twice more….

And I found them.

Rows of grated metal doors.

Jail cells.

Prison chambers.

"……," my black eyes wandered to the right. Over to a computer screen I hadn't specifically noticed before.

There were what appeared to be EKGs and Heart Monitors lined up…..enough for over twenty-five people. All of the life signs appeared to be okay. But that could mean anything.

I exhaled.

I looked at the security feed again.

_Pain is but a piece of torture……_

I toggled the camera over.

I got a glimpse of the interior of the prison rooms. One by one, I toggled through them. And I was gifted with dark, infrared images of young, shivering figures chained up to the walls. They all looked warm and alive…except for one figure in a solitary room at the end of the toggling. And that figure was much larger and seemingly older than the rest.

My eyes narrowed.

_Who is that?_

'_Gotten a fix yet, Noir-boy?'_

I wanted to hit him suddenly. Sighing, I walked over to a stretch of consoles on the left and tried to find a switch or a set of controls that would help in getting the velvet door unlocked.

Across the beeping wilderness of buttons and lights and switches, I inevitably got lost. And I started to sweat.

'_Hey, J's got an idea. Before we do anything, the security feed needs to be taken care of. We can't have there being anyone from upstairs knowing that you're down here, right?'_

I looked up at the wall.

_Right……_

'_He says to look under the consoles where the chairs go for a red glass box against the inner wall.'_

I knelt down.

I shoved a desk chair aside.

I looked under once crevice.

Then another.

_There._

My black eyes caught a red container hugging the side. Concealed….but not quite hidden.

'_Once you find the container, it should say 'Fire Alert' on it.'_

I lowered my shades till the top half of my eyes were naked.

I read the text in the dark.

_Right._

'_Hit it.'_

I curled my metal fist into a ball and-

SMASH!

I shattered the container.

Th-Thwap!

A plastic card fell out.

"…….."

'_You should find a card in there. It's used for emergency escape hatches and evacuation protocols. 'J' thinks he can reprogram it for a better use. So once you have the thing, slip it through the central card reader on the middle console. Trust me. This will make Macgyver roll in the grave.'_

I exhaled.

I brushed the shards aside on the floor and hid them beneath the shaded alcove.

_They'll find that eventually……screw it._

I stood up with the card.

I walked over to the central console beneath a wide array of monitors and security feeds.

I slipped the card through a reader and stopped about halfway.

'_Good, Noir! 'J' is reading the card data! Now……hold it in the spot!'_

"……..," my fingers remained frozen around the card. I breathed lightly. I eyed the security feeds.

'_Okay. Now. With a free hand or something……open the plastic hatch just to the left of the camera feed control stick.'_

I glanced over.

I saw a gray, translucent sheathe.

I opened it.

Click.

There were a series of digital record buttons and features.

'_Hit the big red button that looks like Bill Clinton's nose.'_

"….."

I did so.

Click.

'_Hold it also.'_

I bit my lip. I held the card and the button.

'_Hold it……'_

"…….?" I looked up at the security feeds.

A red light was blinking on all of the monitors as the infrared bodies of the prisoners inside their cells stirred and twitched mutely.

Ten seconds.

Fifteen.

Twenty….

'_Okay. Let go of the red button, Noir.'_

I did so.

The flashing lights on the screens stopped.

'_Now……keep the card inside the reader. 'J' is still working on that.'_

I inhaled.

_Okay……_

'_Got your metal hand free?'_

I looked at my metal fingers hovering over the red button.

'_If so, crack open the console you just hit record with and pull out the wires from underneath.'_

I nodded to the unresponsive air.

I balled my metal hand into a fist again.

CRACK!

I smashed the console open. I lifted the top display. A bundle of multicolored wires frothed out.

'_Okay. Cut the blue and the red wires.'_

"…….'

I looked at my metal left hand.

I looked at my right hand on the card.

_Uh……yeah._

'_Quickly, Noir.'_

_Dammit! I know……hang on._

I gripped a bundle of red wires in between two metal fingers.

I took a deep breath.

Concentrated.

Sent murk warbling up through my arm and—with a jerk—exploded it through the titanium digits.

Snap!

The red wires severed.

I grinned.

I gripped the blue wires, concentrated, and did the same with them.

Snap!

'_Good job. 'J' says all the correct wires are severed.'_

_Yeah, no shit._

'_Now for the not-so-sexy part.'_

I raised an eyebrow.

'_Stick a metal finger into the socket just left of the reader you've got the card in.'_

"?"

I glanced over.

I saw a black hole for a cord of sorts to go into just to the left of where I got the card inserted.

_The Hell?_

'_You can handle it, Noir. Trust me. Think of it as a trip to get a small pox shot.'_

_I just may have to see a doctor after this anyways._

I took a deep breath. I raised my finger over the socket. Tensed. And-

Thunk!

_Zzzzt!POP!_

The shock was painful but—as the Messenger said—bearable. I didn't have a low pain tolerance, after all.

And yet—even I knew that an average socket would have done more than just make me wince. Something about my titanium finger had made the console short circuit and blow a fuse before it could so much as piledrive me with all its juice.

I looked down and saw some smoke rise, but the card reader was blinking. Madly.

A whirring sound.

The monitors flickered.

'_Heheheheh……now……cue the Mission Impossible music.'_

I narrowed my eyes on the monitor.

Snow filtered through the screens, and gradually the infrared images of the prisoner compartments and the hallway turned into…….older infrared images of the prisoner compartments and the hallway.

The card reader beeped and blinked as it used my emergency fire escape key as junction through which 'J' reprogrammed the security feed.

After a few seconds, the reader blinked and beeped with a green light. The monitors flickered one last time…and—

'_Viola.'_

They repeated the exact same twenty-seconds of recording I did earlier over and over again in a loop. Which meant the prisoners appeared always still inside their chambers. The hallways appeared always dark. And—most importantly—the hallways appeared always empty and devoid of all intruders…..especially those with wooden katanas and long hair.

I blinked.

_Okay……now that's just cool._

'_Now. To get you into the chambers……'_

I blinked.

I looked out the door towards where the velvety passageway rested.

'_J and I are working on that.'_

I took a deep breath.

_This is taking too long._

I looked around the room with my black eyes.

_I can't afford using that much time._

My eyes rested on the computer console.

"….."

I followed a tube plastered against the gray metal wall and rising up into the ceiling. A very familiar design.

My lips parted.

_Wire transit._

I walked to the consoles, bent over, and fingered the plastic half-tube.

"….."

Chiiiing!

I produced Myrkblade.

I took a breath.

I angled the tip just right, sharpened it with a covering of murk, and slowly cut along the length of the tube.

_Snkkkkkkt!_

I slit open the tube. I gripped the plastic with metal fingers and pried it open with use of Myrkblade. I exposed the wirings from the camera console center going up into the ceiling where—inevitably—they would branch out and lead to the cameras.

'_Uh……Noir? What are you doing, pal? There's nothing on that side of the security room according to my schematics.'_

But I kept at my job. Breathing gently as I spread the wires and made as much room inside the tube where the cut was as I could.

_You're but a tourist in this dimension, Messenger. Let a noble savage do a job in his land for once._

I stood back.

I rested my arms to my side.

I smirked….then shut my eyes.

And concentrated.

_Time for a trick I've done at the Tower a long, long time ago……_

I covered myself in smoke. I let a curtain of murk curl down my body and collect around the height of my person. I was once flesh and metal became steam. Shifting and shaking in the form of a person. And sooner than naught, that form broke apart and—with a laughing hiss like red hot steam—it all shot forward and-

FWOOOOSH!

Into the tube.

Along the wires.

Up the ceiling.

Out through the branches.

Spiraling around the wires.

Collecting around one.

Twirling.

Dancing.

Rocketing.

Shooting downward.

Sliding.

Plummeting.

Reaching a culmination of the wires.

Plastic and electronics.

The rectum of a security camera.

The edges around it.

Air pockets.

Holes.

Holes….

Holes!

POW!

SWOOOOSH!

I teleported into the hallway beyond.

THWUMP!

I tumbled on the floor and rolled to a stop.

Panting.

Gasping for breath.

"…….."

I looked up.

The camera wobbled….wobbled….and was still.

"…….."

I took a deep breath and stumbled up to my feet, flexing my solidified limbs.

I took a deep, final breath and composed myself.

_Never gets old._

'_Whoah-doggy! Noir, how'd you get in the hallway so fast-"_

I stood up.

I looked towards the ceiling.

I smiled….blindly.

'…………_never mind.'_

I dusted myself off.

'_Mexican girls. Now.'_

I nodded to the thin air.

I gripped Myrkblade and marched cautiously down the black metal hallway.

My boots clanked and clacked with the grated floor.

Everything still smelled stale. A perfect environment for a bloody aroma to corrupt.

_Not if I can help it._

A shuddering.

Muffled.

I turned a corner, and jolted.

There was a blade in my face.

"……..," I stared with shaded eyes at a still buzz saw resting erect just an inch from my nose. I craned my neck and looked around. There was a bed with robot arms attached and stretching every which way in purposeful disarray like the spread legs of a spider crab. One arm had its blades stretched towards my head as I turned the corner.

A beat.

I swallowed.

I walked around the clean serration.

Past the torture devices in the center of the dimly-lit, black corridor.

And towards the grated prison doors beyond.

I heard another shuffling sound.

Like a whimpering voice.

I took a deep breath.

I approached the first-most door.

I peered in.

There were gasping sounds from the inside. Shuffling bodies in the darkness. Rattling chains and reflective orbs of frightened eyes.

_Bingo._

I stepped back from the door.

I held the length of Myrkblade out and summoned smoke energy into it.

A breath….

And I jabbed the blade into the frame between the wall and the door.

I supplied energy…energy…energy….

And pulsed.

_Why do I find myself in this situation so much?_

POW-CRACK!

The door broke open and fell loudly on the hallway floor.

CLANG!

I didn't even flinch. I stepped inside briskly.

I was surrounded by shuddering breaths and sobs.

I whipped my shades off.

With naked black eyes, I saw five girls in uniform. A definite sign of private school education. They huddled against the walls at the sight of me, their tan bodies shivering. I saw no noticeable damage to their clothes or person.

_Thank God. _

_He didn't get to them yet._

Most of them flinched as I came close, but one or two leaned out towards me and murmured in desperate whispers:

"¡Ayúdenos! ¡Ayúdenos, por f-favor!"

"Shhhh," I hissed. A metal finger before my lips. I slid in half of Myrkblade and began severing the shackles on each of the girls. One by one.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

They stood on wobbly legs, rubbing their arms. Shivering.

I wandered swiftly over to the other half in the dark room. I freed them as quickly as I could.

Crack! Crack!

"¡Por favor, senior!" One tugged at my jacket and whispered. "¡Hay otras! ¡Están en los otros cuartos!"

I waved before nodding and then motioning them quietly to 'stay here'.

"…….."

I mouthed: _'Aqui!'_

"…….."

I rolled my black eyes, shrugged, and rushed out of the room.

I made for the next chamber's door.

CRACK!

CLANG!

There were ten prisoners cramped in there. The room was hot and full of the clink-clanking of chains and shuddering voices. A foul smell lingered in the air. I wondered how long those people had huddled in there without a bathroom.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

One by one, I freed them. I marched out of the room and found the young women gradually forming a pool of nervous humanity in the black hall. They murmured amongst themselves and eyed the interior with fleeting eyes. They most eagerly avoided sight of the torture devices downaways.

"¿Dónde estamos? ¿Qué va a suceder?"

"T-Tengo miedo…"

"¿Las cámaras fotográficas no nos v-verán?"

"Deseo s-salir de aquí..."

I was glad indeed that the security cameras were happily 'malfunctioning' during all of this mayhem.

CRACK!

CLANG!

I went into the third room and freed the last of the prisoners.

Crack! Crack!

And yet—as I ushered them out into the dark hallway, I couldn't help but feel that there was something missing.

"Senor!"

_Or someone……_

"Senor!" one of the taller girls rushed over to me and grabbed my shoulder. She pointed down the hallway. "¡Allá! ¡Allá! ¡Hay un hombre en ese compartimiento pasado!"

"……..," I stared blankly at her.

_Yeah……_

The girl pouted. Bit her lip. And spun to face the others. "¡Rosa! ¡Donde está Rosa! ¿Rosa habla ingles, verdad?"

"E-Estoy aqui…."

The girls looked over.

So did I.

A trembling petite teenager walked over, her hangs wringing together. "¿Cómo puedo ayudar?"

The tall one pointed at her: "¡Venido aquí, Rosa! Rápidamente. Dígale en inglés que una persona pasada permanece adentro eso compartimiento."

"Sí, uno momento," the girl paused. 'Rosa' cleared her throat. Looked up at me. And struggled forth: "Ehh…a…a m-man ehhh…is…is inside last room….," she pointed down the hall. "Alli. There! A man…in th-there." She bit her lip. "Ehhh….is…is dañado. Muy dañado. Significo…..is….ehh……not in g-good health…"

I nodded. I held a finger up.

The girls backed up.

I walked towards the last door.

I peered inside.

There was a shadow.

Lying down.

In the corner of the dark alcove.

"…….," I narrowed my eyes.

I stood back and pulsed murk through my sword.

The girls gasped, shuddering at the explosive superpowers.

POW!

CLANK!

I cracked the door off its hinges. I wandered into the room. Naked black eyes open.

And from what I saw in the dark…..

I grimaced.

_Ah jeez. _

_Damn it all……no……_

I shuddered, but tried not to show it. Because the man inside was still alive.

"Snnnkkkkt…..f-finally someone friggin' comes…..," he uttered. Sputtered. Spat. And groaned. "….a little too late, though."

I took a deep breath. I kept my distance from his shadow. I could recognize him by his voice more than anything. He had fought at the tournament.

_Joto._

"Bet you got some kickass escape plan too, huh, stranger?" he wheezed. A faint glow of ash-like flame gathered around his arms and faded again with his voice. "I'd join you….but I think it'd be tough for either you or me to stuff back what needs to be inside my belly for the trip."

I bit my lip.

He wheezed, sputtered, and said in a dark voice: "This place. This whole god damn place…..it's not worth a Vault. It's Hell on Earth."

I took a shuddering breath.

_I know._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I've changed throughout the years. In a lot of ways, I'm the killer that H.I.V.E. always wanted me to be," Hull gestured from where he stood in the bright half of the shed's interior. His blue eyes narrowed. "And yet—I am also the rogue that H.I.V.E. always seemed to….'accidentally' produce."

Pulsade took a deep breath, staring at him.

Wildebeest was silent.

Jinx shuddered: "Yeah, well, good thing H.I.V.E. went bye-bye."

Hull turned and looked at the pink witch. "H.I.V.E. was never destroyed. As a matter of fact, it was merely transferred into far more strategic hands."

Jinx's cat eyes blinked.

"What?" Pulsade made a face. "But….the Bludhaven Academy was nearly decimated! 'J' helped in spreading viruses throughout the other installations!"

"And Viper killed the Headmistress!" Jinx cackled. "What could possibly be left of that poopy-headed organization!"

"It has evolved…much like I have evolved," Hull said. "And now it exists for a whole different reason than the terrorist motive from whence it was spawned."

"What happened to you, Michael?" Pulsade murmured. "Was it the experimentation? They were always dragging you into laboratories for weeks at a time…."

Jinx again cast the blonde assassin an awkward look. "Wait. Answer me this. How do you know this creep!"

"Jinx," Pulsade looked back. She motioned with her ever-cautious assault rifle. "This 'creep' was the most exemplary student of H.I.V.E. before your time."

"None of that matters now," Hull said.

Pulsade looked at him. "You would say such a thing? Michael, you are alive! I thought they had killed you like they had killed the rest of them!"

"In a way, they did…," Hull said in a low voice. "Thus, I for one should know that it takes more than a conspiracy to kill something." He looked at Jinx. "Even death itself."

Jinx frowned back. "I'm not just about to have some silly high-school reunion here ruin Counter Red-Aviary—"

"You can do whatever you want with your 'Red Aviary'," Hull said. "I, for one, would be the last person to deny the importance of it all. The Balance of Morals is very…very real."

Pulsade squinted a suspicious, blue eye. "And how do you know all this?"

"I've become…..," Michael glanced at her, "….sensitive." A beat. "And I see a few others have gone the opposite direction."

Pulsade bit her lip.

Jinx planted her hands on her hips.

Stomp!

"….," Hull looked up.

Wildebeest stood beside him. Cracking meaty knuckles. Snorting with a frown.

Hull replied to the animalistic warrior: "There are many real things in this dark frontier we're charging into. Red Aviary is part of it, but not the only part." He looked the girls' way again. "What's happening here is but the groundwork of something so unimaginably huge a danger that the world we stand on will never be the same again—triumph or no triumph against the adversity."

"I fail to see how anything could POSSIBLY be worse than if Red Aviary hits the fan!" Jinx frowned with folded arms. "Maybe you should get lost and not try and scare us!"

"Maybe you should listen to me," Hull said. "Maybe you should understand that I'm here for the purpose of addressing the next great threat. And because of that, I have no interest in the girl of stone." He looked at Pulsade. "—save for the fact that I want Wyldecarde returning home with her. Not you four."

Jinx hissed: "And just why should Ghost Boy get all the gold?"

"It's the only way to let Red Aviary run itself into the ground."

"But that's like frickin' giving the spirit of Destruction an easy plate!"

"Exactly."

"……….," Jinx blinked. She frowned. "Allright. Enough of this fluff." She charged a frilled wrist with pink energy. "Let's see how unlucky your top two vertebrae get if I blow on you—"

Pulsade pressed a hand to Jinx's shoulder.

The pink witch halted.

Pulsade lowered her rifle and took a step forward. "Leave, Michael."

Hull took a breath. "You're not going to take any of my advice seriously, are you?"

"We are enemies now," Pulsade frowned. "If you came all the way here in hopes of motivating me or something, then forget it. That may have worked in the past, Michael. But not today."

Jinx looked at her. Blinking.

"You're a much stronger person, Leslie."

"I've changed," Pulsade pointed. "You do what you came for. But don't interfere with us. And if you so much as get in the way of Counter-Red Aviary….I swear that nothing will keep me from ripping that blooming head off and feeding it to the remaining ghosts of H.I.V.E. if ever I run into them myself."

"Spoken like a true H.I.V.E. terrorist."

"I don't see you leaving yet."

"………," Hull nodded. He turned and made for the exit while Wildebeest eyed him warily.

Jinx fumed. "Yeah! Get lost, creep! If you're so intent on handing over Terra to Ghost Boy, why don't you speak to him yourself!"

"I already did," and he was gone.

A beat.

Pulsade exhaled. She looked down towards the floor, partially deflated. "Bloody hell…."

"Leslie?" Jinx looked with concern in her cat eyes. She gently squeezed the assassin's shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

Pulsade stared up with tired, blue eyes. "How much more complicated can things get?" A beat. She snarled and flung the communicator to the floor. "And where in Prince Albert's name is that computer-shagging sprog!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Noir. 'J' tells me that the security rotation is about to go into effect! It's just a matter of time before someone goes down there! You gotta move out now!'_

I gritted my teeth and palmed a hand over my ear as if to respond: _'Just a damn second!'_

Joto's figure shook again with a cough. His hands glowed a flickering flame of orange and faded again.

Behind me, the girl named Rosa trembled. "H-He is….muerto?"

"Cute kid…," Joto sputtered. "Somebody shut her up."

I whistled, snapped a finger, and pointed out into the hallway.

Rosa nervously scampered out and joined the gaggle of girls huddling outside.

I stepped towards Joto and made to lean down and examine him-

"N-No!" He coughed and groaned. Flickering flame. Darkness again. "Get back!"

I halted.

"I'm screwed, man. Done deal. And I'll be doubly damned if I let you leave without so much as razing this pathetic shithole of a place!"

I bit my lip. I slowly nodded.

"So you better hurry up…cuz I'm gonna cremate this dungeon."

I froze.

Blinking.

I mouthed in the darkness: 'What!'

"It's the last thing I can do….and the last thing I wanna do!" He coughed and sputtered. "So ya better head for the hills! And take all of those senoritas with you!"

I clenched my fists.

_Don't be a moron. _

_Let me just-_

I reached for him.

"NnnnghAAH!" FWOOM! His arm was encased in flames and punched at me.

WHAM!

Murking, I slid back from the fire-elemental punch.

I winced all over.

The girls in the hallway gasped.

"Go, dammit!" he wheezed. "Nothing's gonna stop the will of a dying man! Especially a dying man this frickin' stubborn! Now, I've given you a warning. So take it! Take it and leave!" A red-orange glow. He shook and convulsed all over. "NnnnnghhhRAAAAAH!"

**PHWOOOOM!**

A ring of fire billowed around him.

_Shitness omega!_

I slipped my shades on, winced from the bright flames, and dashed out into the hallway.

Surrounded by trembling prisoners, I looked around in a frantic, visual search for an exit.

_A secret compartment? _

_The velvety door?_

I looked around.

The temperature rose.

Sweat bulbs and steam.

A few sobbing voices.

A door.

_A door!_

Better yet, it was a new door I hadn't seen before. It was in the opposite part of the winding, torture chamber than that of the velvet entrance. I whistled at all the students and motioned them along with me.

All the while, the temperature of the place increased. Joto's flames started to seep out into the hallway. And soon I got the feeling that a biological bag of napalm was just on the verge of going off…

SWOOOSH!

I teleported through the surging bodies of prisoners and reached the door.

A few girls jumped back.

They murmured and clung to each other.

'_Noir? 'J' and I are worried. What's going on down there?'_

I gritted my teeth and stabbed at the doorframe with my sword.

_Gimme a sec!_

CLANK!

I stabbed.

I pulsed murk.

I twisted and pulled.

The door wouldn't budge.

_Come on……Come on……_

The flames flickered behind us.

The walls stung with heat.

The girls sweat and sobbed.

CLANK!

_Come on! _

_Open!_

"S-Senor…," the tallest girl walked forward.

"?" I glanced at her.

She snaked a hand around me, and turned the door's handle.

_Creeeeak!_

A shadowed passageway opened cool and inviting before us.

"¿Vea? Se abre."

I simpered at her.

FWOOOM!

Flames.

Shrieks.

I held my breath and shoved them all out, two at a time.

They dashed desperately into the corridor.

There was a resounding scream as Joto's powers reached a climax….

I shoved the last girl into the passage.

'_Noir. Now would be a very good time to develop telepathy and tell me what in the wide world of fudge you are up to!'_

PHWOOOOOOMB!

A wall of flame vomited out of Joto's chamber and rocketed down either side of the corridor.

I held my breath, dashed into the cool passage, and slammed the door shut behind me.

_I'm kinda sorta TOAST!_

CLANK!

_**PHWOOOOOOOSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wildebeest stood along the edge of the rooftop. Staring down at Pulsade.

The blonde assassin approached the beast. She had a half-sphere of sorts in her grasp. She held it in the palm of one hand and produced a bright charge of light in the other. FLASH!

"All right. Here you go…."

She seemed to 'shove' the light charge into the half-dome. The crystalline object flickered for a second before taking on a faint, gentle glow. Pulsade offered the item to the Wildebeest before her.

"Good for six full hours of steady usage. Assuming you _need_ that much time to actually not be seen. Depends on what that robed namby pamby asks of you and the other three yahoos you're fighting with."

Wildebeest nodded with a grunt. He clipped the half-dome to his silver crown and pressed it. Click. FLASH! Pulsade's charged light extended over him and turned him invisible. A beat. Click. FLASH! He reappeared again. He nodded a somewhat 'thankful' snout towards the British blonde and grunted.

"You're quite welcome, Mr. Sirloin. Now be a good cow and get the Vault open for us tonight."

"……," Wildebeest looked off towards the Nevada Horizon.

Jinx stepped forward with a smile. "Awwwww….don't worry, big guy. We'll get in touch with 'J' as soon as we can. I'm sure the little squirt's doing okay!" She winked a cat eye. "In the meantime, you do your part and I'll do mine. I'll be trailing you throughout this little 'mission' thing, got it? After all, that's the drill."

Wildebeest sighed through his nostrils. With a final bow, he turned around, clicked the half-sphere—FLASH—and climbed invisibly down the buildingside….destined to charge his cloaked way to Pompeii and rendezvous with the new 'employer'."

Jinx walked over and leaned against the side of the building. She sighed. "Only a matter of time and we'll be on the safest ground in this Red Sea in a lonnnnng time."

A beat.

The pink witch looked over at Pulsade.

Pulsade was gazing off towards the afternoon sky.

Jinx wandered over. "Leslie….don't let that Hull creep mess with you. All that stuff he was saying about H.I.V.E. and the past. I know as much as Wildebeest knows that he was making it all up! In fact, he was just talking out of his—"

"He was telling us the truth."

"…………oh," Jinx blinked. A wince. "Well….in that case…..WHO IN THE WILLIAM SHATNER IS HE!"

"Jean…."

"WHAT is WITH this CITY!" Jinx spun around and randomly spat out pink flashes of hex as she angrily paced and warbled: "First it's Ghost Boy coming to town with that nasty sword-swinging of his! Then some asian kid who can embarrass the heck out of you is joined to his hip in between teleporting all over the place! Then Killer Croc climbs out of the swamp like some skin moisturizing commercial reject! And now here comes Donny Osmond's evil twin with a badass sword and rambling about the dangers of the world and whatcrap-

"Jean…..," Pulsade sighed and gestured at her—

"Rghhh!" Jinx pulled at her nonexistent length of hair. "Why do things have to be so complicated! What's up with the Balance of Morals! And WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT HULL!" Jinx planted her hips into her side and frowned cutely at the blonde. "'Michael', is it? Some….EXCEPTIONAL former student of H.I.V.E.'s?"

"………"

"I need to know these things, Leslie! I need to know how much poop we're standing up to our panties in! I need to know what this Hull guy means to Red Aviary and us getting Terra in one piece! And—heh—Michael. There's a handsome name if I ever heard one! Lemme guess…once upon a midnight dreary, you and 'Michael' were a little closer than mere pupils--"

Jinx froze.

A beat.

She blinked, for her lips were on the receiving end of Leslie's kiss.

After a few seconds, Pulsade drifted back. She gazed into Jinx's face and cupped the witch's chin with a gentle hand.

"……..," Jinx blushed. "Or n-not…."

"What you need to know….," Pulsade whispered, "…is that I'm just as confused about things as you are. And I would never…ever hide something from you if I could help it, Jean."

"…….."

"I don't know why Michael's back. But one thing is for certain. He means to me as much now as he ever meant to me in the past."

"He's….an e-enemy?" Jinx remarked shyly.

Pulsade slowly nodded. "And I need you….to make sure….he doesn't get in the way of things."

"……"

"You're falling behind, Jean," Pulsade lowered her hand and stepped back. "Better catch up with Wildebeest."

"Eeep!" Jinx cutely cupped her hands around her rosy lips and winced. "I-I'm sorry! I was so busy being a female dog—be it a pretty female dog—that I didn't think about—"

"Shhh….just go….we're counting on you," Pulsade said. Her voice started to rise above a whisper. "I'll keep in contact. If you need me for anything….any emergency with Wildebeest or Anderson or anything at all…..I will come to your aide. Understood?"

Jinx nodded. "Y-Yes, Leslie. I'll be on my way."

"Thank you, Jinx."

The sorceress jumped up and balanced herself on the building ledge. But soon she paused and looked over her shoulder. "Leslie?"

"Yes, Jinx?"

"I'm sorry about—"

Pulsade lifted a finger. "Neither of us have anything to be sorry for…," her eyes narrowed. "…unless we fail to stop this Red Aviary."

A beat.

Jinx smiled a half-cheshire and warmly inhaled. "Right. Ciao." And she jumped off the building and blurred down towards the ground in a pink streak of light.

Once alone, Pulsade hugged herself. She watched as the pink light leftover from the blurring witch faded into lonely nothingness.

"If anything, Jean….," the blonde assassin muttered to the rooftops' winds. "…we both have everything to be thankful for…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The girls all murmured and shuddered in the dark.

Heat was wafting in from the burning hallway beyond.

I fought to swim my way through them and towards the front.

A few scared hands latched onto me, pleading in two or three dialects.

I gritted my teeth and sweatdropped.

_Stop……drowning……me……with……latin……ESTROGEN!_

'_Noir, you there?'_

_YES! Er……oh wait……_

'_Noir, I hope you got those kids out. Cuz if that's you heading down the lateral corridor, then keep taking them straight out. But you gotta hurry.'_

"?"

'_The Anderson appointment upstairs is in a couple of mere minutes!'_

I nearly pratfalled.

'_Just hurry and get them out of there! We'll take it all one step at a time!'_

I nodded to the air.

I whistled….again and again.

I let the girls follow the sound of my voice as I lead the pack down the hallway.

Away from the suffocating heat.

Towards absolute darkness.

Upwards and upwards, as the hallway was raised and seemed to be ascending rapidly to some location….

I stretched a metal hand forward and felt with my spatial senses.

There was a door at the end.

And beyond that….

'_Noir, listen to me. 'J' says that he's got this part covered.'_

I cupped a hand over my ear and carried on.

Listening curiously as I walked,

'_What I want you to do is cloak the very SECOND you open that doorway to the light.'_

I blinked under my shades.

'_You got me, Noir?'_

_Uhhh……_

I exhaled.

_Okay._

Four feet from the door.

The girls all followed.

Trembling.

Anxious.

Reaching for the door.

I reached for it first.

Two feet.

I touched the handle.

I took a breath.

Concentrated.

And-

FWOOOOSH!

Light poured in.

FLASH!

I cloaked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Blinking at the light, the girls poured out to a sunset world at the edge of the Pompeii's parking garage. They shaded their eyes and looked directly out. As clarity returned, they saw two white vehicles. A pair of 'Vegas People Shuttles'. A young driver stepped down from the door to the foremost vehicle and approached the group.

"Uhh…..," he blinked. He glanced at a computer printout in his hands like this was the wyrdest thing in the world and then faced the group of Mexican students again. "Which one of you….erhm….ordered two shuttles from online?"

"………..," the girls blinked at him.

"Uh……the…th-the two shuttles for a city tour that stops at the police department?" the driver emphasized with a lean.

"…………."

"Erm….do any of you speak English?"

"Si. Rosa."

"Oye! Rosa!"

"Como?"

The driver groaned and ran a hand over his face. "Mrmmm….I hate these Saturday transits…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOSH!

I materialized.

Panting.

I perched atop a lamppost four dozen feet away alongside the main structure of Pompeii. I took a deep breath, recovering from the strain of both cloaking and murking at the same time to get out of there.

'_Good job, Noir. For every schoolgirl saved, there's a virgin in Heaven waiting for you.'_

I did a double-take and cupped a hand over my ear.

"?"

'_Okay, so I made that one up.'_

I smirked.

''_J' says that there was a terrific temperature increase in the dungeon just as you left. Since when were you carrying explosives with you?'_

The smirk left.

I sighed and stared off.

"….."

'_Never the matter. Get your tight ass up to Anderson-er-not necessarily in that connotation.'_

I rolled my black eyes.

I nodded to the air.

'_I'll meet you along the way.'_

_Whatever._

I lowered my hand, summoned murk, and prepared to blur up the buildingside for a shortcut through the exterior shell of the structure. But I paused for a moment, turned and faced the lower half of Pompeii, and gazed forlornly past the image of the girls loading onto the inconspicuous shuttles.

_Hmmmmmm……'Joto'……_

A beat.

_I wonder if he has a family?_

_Ah well……something to definitely look up when I meet back with Cyborg at the Tower._

I tilted up to face the building's height.

_When I meet back with the rest of the Titans……with Terra by my side._

FWOOOOOSH!

I blurred up the building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMM!_

Hull drove up to the front entrance of Pompeii. He skidded his industrial steel motorbike to a stop. He gazed up at the tall, artistically mutated casino.

"……."

He took a deep breath. Not a sweat on him. Not a bit of moisture on the edges of his eyes.

He kicked the bike into gear again…and moved to park it into the huge garage.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

STOMP!

Wildebeest landed invisibly in an intersection, waited for a semi to drive by, snorted, and sprinted his way down Las Vegas Boulevard.

It was a very risky was of running to his destination. Cloaked or not.

But at least in between the loud rows of traffic, the sound of his heavy-sprinting feet could be drowned out.

His white eyes narrowed as the asphalt blurred beneath him.

Pompeii loomed in the distance. Tall and blazing.

He grunted as if disgusted at the sight of it.

Regardless, he pressed on….leaping over traffic and taking his approach further by jumping from building top to building top with his muscular, hairy legs.

T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx flipped, streaked-pink, and blurred from roof to roof.

She cartwheeled through a sea of metal antennae like a gymnast, flipped onto another rooftop, ran to a building ledge, and skidded to a stop.

Panting.

Gazing up with pink eyes at the sky.

The Sun was going down.

The Nevada desert was turning a dull amber.

In a matter of an hour or two, the Casino lights would flicker to life in answer to the early evening of November.

The sorceress took a deep breath and fingered her frilly cuffs.

"When this is all over with. You and me. The Bahamas. No looking back."

A beat.

"Y-Yeah….."

She sighed, charged up pink hex, and leapt her way in a constant trailing of Wildebeest.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……"

Pulsade sat on the edge of the tall building.

The shack yawned open on the roof several feet behind.

The blonde assassin had her sniper rifle with her.

She was absent-mindedly polishing it.

Staring out at the setting sun.

The firmness in her face was replaced with a soft deadpan.

As her blue eyes searched and searched…

But fell only fell back with a sigh…or two….or three…

Again and again.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Typing little fingers.

A laptop on a dining table.

Soft lights and the ambiance of eating patrons, click-clacking plates, and a humming kitchen in the distance.

'J' was at a booth in the corner of a Denny's. He typed with one hand for a moment and sipped a glass of orange juice with another. He kept his green eyes on the laptop's screen as he kept at it.

A waitress wandered over eventually. She fought off an awkward expression, smiled, and asked: "M-More juice, sir?"

'J' looked up. The boy smiled politely and nodded with a mouthed: 'yes'. He slid the glass over.

The waitress took it…but paused. "Erhm…..you've been here for nearly two and a half hours, sir."

'J' returned to his typing. He nodded without looking.

"Are you….waiting for your parents or something?"

'J' paused. He seemed to think about that for a while. His tongue searching the insides of his mute mouth. A beat. He looked up at the waitress with a big grin and mouthed: 'sure'.

"I see….," the waitress nodded. Her eyes fell down 'J''s form.

The hacker was sitting on a phone book so that he could reach the laptop on the table.

"More orange juice, c-coming right up!" the waitress sashayed away.

'J' resumed typing. He whistled innocently to himself. His green eyes darted across the interior of the Denny's. When nobody was looking, he uncoiled a wire with a little blinking dish out from the laptop and pointed it directly through the wall beside the booth he was 'waiting' in.

Unknown to anyone else in the City, the little blonde hacker thusly connected a point blanc signal between himself and the computer matrix of a cable station just next door to the restaurant along the boulevard. After a bit of static, 'J''s laptop connected to the airwaves, pirated itself along three times as many satellite frequencies as normal, and zeroed in as a collective Whole on the Pompeii casino's infrastructure.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOSH!

I teleported through an air pocket in a twenty-second story plate of glass window.

I tumbled across a utility closet, gasping for breath.

_Ugh……always a rush._

I stood up. I shook the murking cobwebs out of my head. I swiftly headed for the hallway outside.

Creeeak!

I opened the door to the utility closet.

"Hiya!" Supergirl stood directly in front of me.

I jolted back, gasping mutely.

But I wasn't so much shocked at the sight of Kara staring me directly in the face….as I was shocked at the sound of her voice.

_Why does she sound like?_

'Supergirl' giggled, then flickered into nonexistence with a wave of light. In her place, the Messenger stood…brandishing a pair of watches. "Got your hopes up for a moment there, didn't I?"

I made a face.

_The fudge?_

"I got a little something for ya…," the Messenger tapped the topmost watch on his arm. It was ever so slightly less bulky than the one I always saw him wearing…for some reason. As he tapped the watch, a little light flickered and he once again turned into 'Supergirl'. "It's got enough juice for about a dozen hours. It'll cast life-like holograms from every angle…completely masking the person who wears it." A flash of light, and Supergirl again disappeared. The Messenger stripped the watch off him and juggled it one-handed. Smiling. "A little gift from….," his asian eyes wandered. "…a 'professor' back at home.'

_Yeah. Whatever._

He tossed it at me.

"!" I nervously caught it.

"You might put it to good use," he pointed. "Though I warn you. If you think making yourself 'turn into' Batgirl for a moment would be ample revenge for what I just did, think again. You're a heck of a lot prettier than most chicks in this dimension anyways."

I smirked sarcastically. I stuck a tongue out at him.

"Hehehehe…I rest my case!"

_Consider your case rested………ew…_

I slipped the watch on my metal wrist. I tightened it and took a deep breath.

_Kinda like Cyborg's trick. _

_Only, I don't see why I need it if I can cloak and stuff. _

_But…… _

_Ce la vie._

I looked up at my friend.

_I've long learned not to second-guess gifts from the Messenger. _

"Well…now for your big date," he patted me on the shoulder. "Never go for Anderson's bra-strap on the first night. It doesn't go well, I swear to you."

_Go to Hell._

"Heheh….I'll keep an eye out for you, Noir," he said. Stepping back. Fingering his trademark watch. "The other eye I'll have on Killer Croc. Considering he keeps his trunks on."

I nodded.

"I'd keep an eye out for him the most….although….," and his asian eyes squinted in serious expression. "…at this point, I wouldn't trust my own mother on this mission. You and these three punks you're 'working with'…..don't think for a second that the free-for-all has ended."

I nodded.

"No matter how much Mister-Denim with that spinning sword of his has flirted with you."

I frowned.

_Hey!_

"Hehehe. May the homophobia be with you, Luke!"

FLASH!

And he was gone in a green strobe.

I shook all over.

_Next time, I'm going to wring your scrawny little……_

A beat.

I sighed.

I walked out into the hallway.

_Kill Anderson. _

_If anyone._

_Kill. _

_Anderson. _

_Right. _

_Thank you, God._

And I made like the wind.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

DING!

Elevator doors opened to a lush waiting room.

I stared out…blinking.

Hull, Wildebeest, and Killer Croc stood at random spots in the red room.

They were all looking at me.

"You're late…," Killer Croc said with a half sneer. Ultimately, he smiled.

I simpered. I walked out nervously. Whistling to myself.

Hull stared at me as I passed by.

I sweatdropped and tried not to look at him. I subconsciously found myself standing conspicuously close to Wildebeest's strong side of all people.

With a knowing grunt, the huge ox didn't complain.

And thus….

Silence.

Silence….

Silence…….

Some infernal clock in the distance of the room ticked.

The air-conditioning was…._well_….off. It felt disgustingly warm in there.

Warm and humid.

Killer Croc was sweating like he was back in the swamp.

Wildebeest shifted from one leg to the next.

I nervously twiddled my flesh and metal thumbs.

Hull was still. Immaculate. He sat down on a chair. Not a bead of sweat on him.

"My only question is….," Killer Croc finally spoke, breaking the eerie silence. "….once the job is done. Who do I get to sink my teeth into first?"

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed. But he didn't even grunt. He stood still with his arms crossed.

"Cuz….ya know…hehehehehresssh….," Killer Croc licked his lips. "In the end, only one of us is getting into that Vault….no matter how much we work together. It's all gonna come down to who impresses Mr. Sissy Boy in a Robe the most!"

"………….," I gazed at him for as long as my stomach could bear before I finally turned away with a groan.

_Damn. He IS faking it._

_I can see the Dragonflare in his eyes…… _

_I wonder if Hull knows this?_

Ironically, the blue-eyed stranger chose then to speak: "More than one of us will get inside the Vault."

Wildebeest glanced over. Squinting curiously.

Killer Croc hissed, his limbs flexing. "Hresssh…..and how do you know THAT!"

Hull looked boredly at Killer Croc. "I had sex with Steve Irwin last night."

A beat.

"……."

"……."

"……."

"Hrmph….," Wildebeest snorted. "Hrmmph-phh….." Again. "Hrmphhh hrmm hrmm hrmm hrmm!" And he was chuckling. It came out like a guttural cow sound.

And perhaps that's what prompted me to join in. Somewhere between the Hull's ridiculous line and Wildebeest's cackling, I too was snickering mutely.

Hull even had a slight curve to his lips as he stared Killer Croc's way.

"Nnnngh!" the mutated man from the South shook all over and bore his claws as he marched once or twice across the lush room. "What do you think this is! Some kind of joke—"

_Creeeak!_

Killer Croc froze. He spun around.

We all turned and looked.

Rexxin opened a pair of wide, oak doors at the end of the waiting room.

Jacob Anderson walked liquidly forth. A glass of champagne in one hand. A playboy robe in the other. He smiled drunkenly and cooed; "Welcome, gentlemen."

"……………," we all stared back.

He gestured richly: "So….shall we begin?"


	199. The Earth Must Bleed part 14 final

**199. The Earth Must Bleed part 14 Final**

Beep. Beep. Beep.

**CLINK!**

Beeeeeep-Ding!

**WHURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-CHTUNG!**

**KLAK-KLAK!**

The huge metal doors opened to a four-story tall, hidden chamber built at the very top of Pompeii. A metal interior the size of a condensed hangar had been constructed in the casino's summit. It had 'Triangular' written all over it in red tape. And as I gazed into the dimly lit, gray interior…I knew that it couldn't have been imagined by any crackpot axis of evil _other_ than Triangular.

"You four lucky gentlemen….are now inside the holiest of holies…Heheheh…at least…the holiest thing the likes of you will _ever_ get a chance to grace…."

Jacob Anderson was speaking to us. All the while, he paced before us slowly into the depths of this dark, metal hollowness in the skies of Vegas. Rexxin and twelve guards patrolled the edges of our group with guns, tasers, and even a laser rifle or two. It felt like the galley of some terribly huge, evil space cruiser or something.

Jacob Anderson passed by what looked like trophy exhibits of costumes, weapons, and villainous props encased in glass sheathes. He adjusted his robe while skirting around a stand where the huge wrestling trunks and spandex tank-top of a muscular warrior resided. Through my shades, I could spot a pair of metal arm-bands attached via red rubber hose to the neck piece of what looked like an S&M mask.

"All my life, I have withstood the futile pursuit of 'morality' in this bleeding world of ours…," Anderson dripped with a grin. "…I have outlasted the pressure of a society where perfect freedom is squelched by freakish superheroes and an increasingly hardcore police force."

He ran his finger along a glass case surrounding an explosive Jack-In-The-Box with the letter 'J' emblazoned in purple font all around it.

"And yet, I have kept my profile low. I have indulged so much…given just what I needed…and received a great deal more in return. Heheheheh. Whoever said that the world was a reciprocating balance was lying. I'm living proof that the selfish people, the greedy people, and the hungry people….are the ones who truly triumph."

I walked slowly. Taking long, calm breaths. I had replaced my shades with the goggles of Wyldecarde. And though I wasn't in the garb from my tournament adventures, there was little doubt that the wardrobe change had any effect on those around me. And then I realized: perhaps the fact that I was or once was 'Noir' meant very little to this man.

This man…of unpredictable obsessions.

"I've made friends in the right places. But that still doesn't change the fact that there are those out there with whom my ideas and the ideas of my greatest allies clash….," he brushed past a stand displaying the seized battle armor of an Apokolips Parademon in Metropolis. "…only now in my beautiful, beautiful life can I safely say that I…..I can easily squash those who don't agree with me. And not all 'organisms' that crawl this earth and like to call themselves human can truly afford that."

He spun around. With a twirl of his robe he held his arms out and smiled. "Behold…."

The four of us stopped.

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed.

Killer Croc's mutated jaw was locked.

Hull was silent.

"…..," Anderson smiled. He held his arms up to his side. "My pride and joy…"

We all looked up.

The others seemed unaffected, but I couldn't help but jump a bit in shock at the utter…wyrdness.

There before us inside the four-story compartment stood an AV-8B Harrier Jet. Complete hulking turbofan engines, one thousand pound bombs, Maverick missiles, cone-shape machine gun mounts, and a closed cockpit for a single pilot. The thing stretched for nearly fifty feet from nose to tail with a thirty foot wingspan.

And it was inside.

_How in the heck did he get that thing in here?_

"This was a gift…," Anderson walked over and patted the landing gear. "….from Lex Luthor himself."

Wildebeest snorted.

I took a deep breath.

_Really……_

"It's a slightly refitted model per Luthor's electronics. But it's just as serviceable as any other military craft. I saw some military time myself when I was young—"

_I find that hard to believe._

"—so after I was granted a chance to test-flight it, I fell in love. In exchange for my establishments here in Vegas for Luthor's benefit, I was given this. So you see? It helps to be….respectable of those in charge."

Killer Croc grinned.

Hull flexed his silver-tipped fingers and gazed at the floor.

"Rumor is that this wonderful craft was piloted before me by the infamous John Corbin himself," Anderson said.

I looked at him. Curiosity piqued.

"Before he joined with Luthor, that is," the robed man said. He smiled. "He lost his chance to ever pilot it again when he tried to take Luthor's life. Tsk tsk tsk…," he shook his head. "And to think that Luthor gave Corbin the body of Metallo! Oh, but surely you all know this. No able-bodied warriors emerging this far after the tournament could possibly NOT be in the know! Thusly, you should realize that you are all but ants in a giant collective. And tonight…I'll be enlisting a group of soldiers."

"I ain't no bug. I just want into the damned vault!" Killer Croc hissed.

Anderson frowned: "Did I say you could speak out of place, freak?"

Killer Croc clenched his fists.

Anderson grinned.

I watched them. I glanced aside to Wildebeest.

Wildebeest glanced at me.

When none of the guards were looking, I hand-signed: _'It is an act.'_

Wildebeest nodded silently. He knew.

Anderson went on. "Metallo isn't the only one of his kind to suffer a fall because of disrespect. As a matter of fact, the entire organization he worked with prior to his sudden and inexplicable arrest at the hands of Superman has been falling down the tubes." Anderson walked away from the Harrier. We all followed. "I am talking about Intergang, gentlemen," said Anderson. "Intergang is foolish. Intergang is pig-headed. Intergang is upstart and immature." A beat. He turned and looked at us. He grinned. "And Intergang is here."

Wildebeest grunted.

"In Vegas?" Hull uttered, blue eyes narrow.

Anderson nodded. "And they are the last of the great….entrepreneurial groups of Vegas to pay respect to Pompeii's power. They're stubborn and they refuse to give tribute to my allies and what all of us stand for. Because of that, they rapidly losing friends and support and—alas—power. Their faculties and bases of operations in Vegas have shrunk to the bare minimum. They are like a life raft in the middle of the Nevada desert. They've considered moving back to Bludhaven, but the fall of the H.I.V.E. Academy there has made support of the transition scant at best. They could go back to the late Bruno Mannheim's base in Metropolis, but then Intergang would be helpless to the vengeful strikes of Luthor's forces in retaliation for their rogue treachery. The long and short of it is….Intergang is a dying beast. But within its belly, Intergang has swallowed many glittering treasures. And most of them explosive and still state of the art. Waiting for Intergang to die is like the stockpile of the former Soviet Union being put up to auction. And I'm sure the truly wisest among us would agree that if the America had only went in and finished the Soviets off proper—heheheheh---we'd have a little less nuclear detritus hovering about the globe."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeak!_

Two, plush double-doors opened up to Jacob Anderson's office.

He led us in while Rexxin and his men watched from the sides and rear. Their weapons were still held at ready.

Anderson paced towards a blank wall of the office. He slipped a metal object out of his grasp. A remote of some sort.

He turned to us.

He spoke again: "Intergang refuses to go down in its own blaze of glory. And being that their last station of operations is here in Vegas, a full-out assault on behalf of my allies' forces would be detrimental to our….hidden image. So we have waited long and hard for a covert opportunity to pop up. And when I say 'covert', I mean explosions limited to a single City Block." He winked. "And now such an occasion is taking place. This very evening. Intergang is making a last ditch effort to preserve its deteriorating empire. A trade is being made. A special device crafted by the technological geniuses still lingering with Intergang is being delivered into the hands of a prospective group of Southern Asian proprietors. It is a small device. Most likely fit for a suitcase; nothing bigger. And yet its importance is worth its own in trillions. What exactly this device is matters little."

Killer Croc hissed: "You want us to get it for you…"

Anderson nodded. "And you will. And you will do so by any force necessary. As long as you seize that suitcase….and bring it back here. To this….very….room….."

"And why should we do that?"

"…..," Anderson turned around. He aimed the remote at the blank wall.

Click.

WHURRRRR-SHLACK!

The wall parted and slid open like a giant, paper screen. Revealed on the other side was what looked like a box of solid, invulnerable titanium. A huge, elephant sized door resided pale like celestial ivory at the end of the 'box'. It felt like a good twenty-five people could be housed inside the thing. An unbreakable time capsule.

My lips parted.

_It's……_

"The Vault," Hull muttered.

Wildebeest whinnied.

Killer Croc's green, glossy eyes widened. He seemed about ready to drool at any given moment.

Anderson smiled. "The one who brings me the suitcase will be brought a key to the Vault. And any singular treasure that he sees fit inside….will be his…."

Killer Croc grinned wide.

Wildebeest's eyes were firm.

Hull seemed a bit more silent than he already was. And I think I knew why.

_It's all rather……too good to be true._

_Better watch it……_

I glanced suspiciously at Killer Croc as my mind wandered.

Anderson's voice broke me out of it: "This is the mission set before you. And it will not be a matter of the best man winning." His eyes narrowed. "But the most vicious……"

Killer Croc sneered.

Wildebeest's fingers flexed.

Hull leaned his head to the side. He inhaled and spoke: "So….where is the transaction taking place?"

Anderson smiled knowingly. He clicked the remote and closed the covert doors while at the same time uttering: "Caesar's Palace."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 20, 2004.

Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.

7:22 pm.

In the center of the City of lights…

A white limousine pulled up to the front entrance of the casino.

Two more limousines protected it. Black limousines. At the front and at the rear.

In the distance, a pair of black SUVs parked with engines rumbling. Shaded men in the driver's and passenger's seat talked calmly into communicators wired into their ears.

And if that wasn't enough, there were three speed bikes equidistant from each other circling the casino. Each bike had suspicious-looking compartments on the right and left side. Gun-sized.

All eyes of the suspicious circlers were on the entrance as—in perfect coordination—the white limousine parked with the black vehicles in front and to the rear of it. A man stepped out. Heavy-set. With shades. Followed by another bodyguard type. And finally…four lanky gentlemen dressed neatly. The eldest of them—a gray thing with bronze sunglasses—was carrying a briefcase.

A shiny, leather-black briefcase.

"**All of Intergang's available forces will be there. They will have armed guards. Armed escorts. At least five getaway vehicles. And two dozen hired hands placed strategically across the City to protect the exchange if anything should go wrong."**

Inside Caesar's Palace,

Rows upon rows of slot machines and craps tables were flanked by mimics of ivory Roman architecture.

The ceiling was illuminated with fake blue sky and fake white clouds.

Through a thick crowd of activity, the darkly suited individuals made a moving train.

They slithered through a crowd gathered around roulette games, skirted through a thick group of tourists, and made their way up a slow graduation of steps towards where a dining area resided.

"**The group that they are meeting with….they too will be armed. But they are not the point of interests in this operation. At least, not if you four move quickly enough. Their part in this tangled web if an extreme gamble at best. They are too far away from home base and too suspended in a foreign element of danger and risk to try anything desperate, even if it means preserving the device they are anticipating. They'll run at the first sign of chaos. Especially if you deliver that chaos….effectively."**

Six Asian men in suits with shades sat at a table. They looked up as the dark group moved towards their dining table in the center of the area. A few of the bigger men in the group shifted and kept their hands to their ides. To their hidden holsters. They eyed the incoming group warily. Cautious…

The head of the group said something and stepped aside. The old man with the briefcase walked up, and showed his luggage.

The gentlemen at the table slowly nodded…and gestured towards open seats.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!

I blurred over the glittering building faces of Vegas.

Hopping from wall to wall.

Rooftop to rooftop.

I slid down an angle of neon lights, leapt up in a blur, crossed the street, clung to the far side of the building, and ran across it with smoke-trailing ankles.

I ran level on a stretch of casinos and looked left.

Heading south along Las Vegas Boulevard—opposite of me—was a leaping, muscular figure that could only be Killer Croc. His reptilian form jumped from building to building. And though he moved slower than me, I could tell that there was very little standing between him and the destination. When obstacles would get in his way and push would come to shove….he would decimate.

I could have sworn I saw a glint of grinning teeth as we ran parallel to one another.

I took a deep breath, stared ahead, and resumed my blurring trek towards Caesar's Palace.

"**It is of little concern of mine how each of you choose to perform this swift task. Of course, there are the expected stipulations: you must not reveal the identity of your employer. That's me, if you're too numskull an organism to equate such in your head. You must keep an oath of silence. How you choose to work in the presence of each other is also up to you. Team up. Break down. Maim. Kill. Preserve. Destroy. Do whatever your black hearts tell you. For such obsidian instinct is the greatest strength you can ever take advantage of. This is a world where the surging of blood like the streams of the oceans puts things into timely motion. The rising and setting sun is often red for a reason. Those who are blind to its crimson are those who are suffering the downdraft of our turbulent world. They are the sort of people who never make it through the tournament. Who never make it to grace my charge…."**

Jinx flipped over an air conditioning unit atop a building, twirled through the air with flaring coattails, and landed in a nimble crouch on the roof's edge. Still squatting, she stared down with thin cat eyes at the glittering streets below.

She extended a hand.

Her pupils flared pink.

Her lips pursed.

She sent a thin, invisible field of hex. She sensed the shifts and surges of fate in the air. Like a network of karma. And in her cute, fuchsia head she unraveled the string of cause-and-effect trailing the invisible Wildebeest like ripples in a stream. She sensed him running straight down Las Vegas Boulevard.

A girlish breath.

Her cat eyes danced right.

A speeding motorcycle of industrial metal was surging down the road. It veered in and around traffic as its denim-clad passenger gripped hard to the handles. Heading straight towards Caesar's Palace.

Jinx instantly frowned. A pink fire burned in her eyes. Slowly….hideously…a cheshire grin smile snailed across her face.

She stood up, charged up hex in two hands, and flung them down at the blue motorist.

"HAAA!"

FLASH!

"**My cousin….a dead man who flaunted his worthless years in Westhaven far East from here…..he was utterly, horribly afraid of death. His last days were spent in and out of prison and asylums, doing his vain best to find some infernal cure to mortality. He beseeched Dagger, Slade, and even the worthless Intergang itself. And in the end, the thing he feared most consumed him. He went into that black night struggling and fighting. And sometimes I wish—a benevolent thought for once—that he knew the truth. I wish that he knew that death is not something to be feared. As a matter of fact, bloodshed….is an ecstasy. Why must the red river that flows from our vessels be anything but a warm, satisfying thing? I have spent my years embracing death. And death has blessed me. Death has blessed me……oh so nicely. If some of you don't return tonight, I won't admonish you. Rather, I'll embrace you. The liquid world outside the mortal coil is like an endless hug. We will not be lonesome out in that blackness. We shall be complete. We shall be……soothed…."**

_VRMMMMM!_

Hull gunned his motorcycle down a stretch of open lanes on Las Vegas Boulevard. Lights glittered on either side of him as tourists lined the night's street.

He was just passing the Mirage on his right when a streak of pink light surged down from above.

He looked at the last second

FLASH!

_POW!_

The hex struck the middle of his bike. The metal framework shattered.

CLACK!

Hull gritted his teeth and braced himself as

CRKKKK!

The rear of the bike split from the front. The part of the vehicle he was sitting on grinded into the asphalt with sparks before spiraling around, smacking off the side of a minivan, and rolling over onto the sidewalk of an intersection.

CLANK!

Hull fell off, rolled, tumbled, and smacked into a lamppost.

WHUMP!

A momentary beat of silence.

Then

SCREEECH! SCREEEEEE-EEEECH! CRKKK!

Three or four cars skidded to a stop where his bike's wrecked remains were.

Nearby tourists and pedestrians gasped and gathered in a distant halo. Chattering. Uttering. Gasping.

"……..," Hull slowly stood up. Tall and straight. He blinked. He shook his head and dusted the flakes of asphalt and metal shards out of his hair. There wasn't a bead of sweat or bloody scratch on him. He glanced over at his wrecked bike. "…………….hrm."

A rather obese Elvis impersonator ran over, huffing and puffing. He looked at the wreckage, and then at Hull. Panting. "Lordy, fella! You okay?"

WHAM!

Hull bitch-slapped Elvis in the face without looking.

THRUMP!

The man fell hard to the concrete. Out cold.

A random woman shrieked.

Two tourists took photos.

Hull cracked his neck, curled his silver fingers, and marched swiftly towards Caesar's Palace as pedestrians gathered around the downed impersonator behind him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Make it back with the briefcase, and I will reveal to you the Vault. Make it back with the briefcase ****alive****, and I might just think twice about setting you up as a trophy inside the thing. You'll leave Pompeii after all of this a little more immortal than you ever thought you could be. And there will be people in high places most…..assuredly aware of your able-bodied services. Especially my friends in Gotham and Metropolis. There are many lords of the bloody land looking for faithful servants…."**

"The security outside of Pompeii says all four have left, sir," Rexxin spoke with one hand cradling a walkie talkie. He gazed across the lush office with shaded eyes beneath his red highlights. "Should we send a recon team?"

"Not necessary, my boy…," Anderson sauntered daintily towards the elevator. He pressed a feather-light finger against the call button. He gazed over his shoulder and thinly smiled. "Why should you send minnows before a barracuda?"

"……," Rexxin blinked.

Anderson cooed: "Your concern is cute. But frivolous."

Rexxin's scarred brow furrowed. "We only trust one of them for sure, sir. And that's as far as that damn green juice can carry him."

"And that's fit for an army."

DING!

The elevator doors opened.

Anderson stepped backwards into the compartment. He hit a button, hung his arms behind his robed figure, and smiled. "I go down to…..relax. Let me know when they're back."

"Will do, sir."

"Just when you do…give me some time to get dressed again."

DING!

The doors closed.

The elevator lowered.

"………..," Rexxin shuddered.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Plant!

I landed nimbly on a lamppost in front of Caesar's Palace.

I took a deep breath, hiding above the halo of light, and stared with black eyes at the bright whiteness of the light-casted front of the casino.

I could see the black limousines and SUVs covering various parts of the building's front entrance.

And—beyond the circulating traffic and surging of pedestrians—I saw a few black motorcyclists parked and squabbling into walkie talkies.

I took a deep breath.

I prepared to cloak—

'_Don't look now,'_ the Messenger crackled into my ear.

I leaned my head to the side.

I blinked under my shades.

'_But Wally Gator's got a VIP invite.'_

"?"

I looked at the side of the casino.

The distinctly reptilian figure of Killer Croc was pouncing two security guards. He grabbed them both, banged their heads together before they could scream, and tossed them—bloodily—crashing through a side window.

He hopped through the gashed hole and disappeared within.

'_Violate. In. Public.'_

I sneered.

_Dammit!_

'_Get moving, Marc Anthony. Caesar's in trouble.'_

CHIIIING!

_Screw cloaking._

FWOOOOSH!

I blurred towards the broken building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

DING!

Anderson stepped out of the elevator.

He took a warm breath, adjusted the robe around himself, and….slinked down the dark gray hallway of metal.

In the basement.

His feet moved swiftly.

Gently.

Like rippling waters.

A mucousy dance.

A red, velvety door rested at the end of his trek…

"**Go and make your destiny. Go and shed blood. Be the criminals you have fought the underworld to prove. Become gods of the darkness. Drinkers of the endless, almighty red. Become….become….become…."**

Anderson reached into a pouch in his robe.

He produced a plastic key card.

He marched towards the door.

Faintly aware of an exotically pleasing scent.

Like burning wood chips….

"**We are what we live. Death. Blood. It all comes full circle. This beautiful…bleeding earth. Don't feel ashamed….to taste it…."**

He slid the card through the reader.

Beeeep!

A touch of warm air vented through the bottom of the velvety door and kissed his ankles.

"Hmmm….hehehe…."

He smiled.

He grabbed the knob.

He twisted it……and pulled

**PHWOOOOOOOMB!**

Backdraft.

A tongue of flame vomited out from the compressed, dungeon room and billowed towards Anderson's skull.

The man gasped. He fell to the floor.

FLAAAASH!

Sparks and tendrils of flame…

A few embers sizzled at the end of Anderson's half-gray hair. He sat up in a singed robe. Panting.

His eyes stared into the flaming Hell of the once immaculate dungeon. Everything inside was roasting. Everything that could have been alive. As well as the tools. The torture devices. The beautiful blades and the grated floor and the jail cells.

Everything burning.

Melting.

Ruined.

Anderson's eyes widened.

His face exploded in a huge, gaping mouth as angry red arteries built up in his cornea and he screamed at the top of his lungs:

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the man with the briefcase stumbled out from the table, panting. His chair fell to the casino room floor. The others at the table jumped and looked across the Caesar's Palace interior in a desperate search to find the origin of the elder's outburst.

Killer Croc, shirtless, heaving, teeth glaring….marched towards the gathered group. As he passed by a random waiter, he grabbed the man by the shirt, lifted him up one-handed, and threw him through a dinner table full of gasping patrons.

"Whoah!"

CRACK!

"Hiya, folks," Killer Croc hissed. "It's 'die time'."

The elder hugged the briefcase to his chest and shivered all over as he stepped fearfully backwards. "It was Triangular, wasn't it! Triangular sent you! Why can't they leave us alone!"

"You're too juicy…."

"Roscoe!" the elder stuttered.

A burly henchman stood up, whipped out a shotgun from under his vest, and aimed it at the freak

CRACK!

Killer Crock knocked the weapon out of his hand.

"Nnngh!"

GRIP!

Croc grabbed the man by the neck.

Lifted him.

Licked his lips.

And

"HRESSSSH!"

THUNK!

sunk his teeth into the gunman's neck.

The henchman's dangling body jerked and convulsed as red rivers trickled down his neck and chest.

The other gatherers watched, wide-eyed.

Killer Croc bit a sizeable chunk of the man's neck away, swallowed, and exhaled like after a gulp of soda. "Ahhh…."

THWUMP!

He dropped the man.

Leering, he stared at the shady, Malaysian dealers. Blood dribbled from his mutated jaws as he chuckled. "Heheheheheh….," and growled: "Beat it."

The men chattered earnestly in a foreign tongue and all made a collective, mach five bee-line for the far end of the casino.

Women shrieked in the background.

Tourists called madly for security guards.

Killer Croc bloodily stomped towards the Intergang huddle.

The heavier-set men of the group shakily trained laser-guided pistols at the intruder's forehead.

"Awww…..gonna try and see how many times them bullets can bounce off my skin?" Killer Croc winked a mucous-green eye. "Go on ahead, fellas. I've done it myself a hundred times."

"This deal was our last chance….our last! And you had to come and ruin it!" the elder hugging the briefcase stammered. He managed a frown and spat: "For the last time, we don't need to join you! We don't owe Triangular anything!"

"Nope. Perhaps not," Killer Croc shrugged. Then wide, grinning teeth. "But you do owe me your liver."

The man blinked.

"Hresssh….," Killer Croc licked his jaws, leapt, and dove towards the men.

Tourists shrieked.

The air stung with sweat and adrenaline.

The thugs tried to fire

SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH-TH-TH-THUNK! Three playing cards soared down from the ceiling. Trailing murk, they burned their way through the air and stuck bloodily into Killer Croc's chest.

"OOF!" the scaley-skinned freak was knocked back in mid-dive. He rolled along the ground and gripped the projectiles sticking partially into his skin. Wincing. "Yowcha-momma! That friggin' hurts—"

SWOOOSH! I materialized and landed with a murk splashing boot slamming into his chest. THWUMP!

"SNKKKKT!" he wheezed.

I snarled and kicked his blood-stained jaw.

WHACK!

He tumbled down the steps of the dining area and rolled to a stop against the slot machines below.

I took a breath and flexed my smoking, metal fingers.

_When push comes to shove……_

I spun around.

The Intergang group looked wide-eyed at me. Lost between confusion and shock.

"…..," I eyed the briefcase.

_Now, to begin my thieving days._

CHIIING! I held Myrkblade high and charged at them.

The elder shouted.

The thugs fired.

BLAM! BLAM! BL-BLAM!

I gritted my teeth and teleported.

FWOOOOOSH!

The bullets streaked through me. In the form of obsidian steam, I surged past the bodies of the burly body guards and solidified with an upswing of my sword.

SWIIIISH-CLANK!

The elder gasped. The handcuff chains to his briefcase had been expertly severed.

I spun and lifted my foot—WHAP!—across his torso.

The elder collapsed into a pair of thugs. "Ooof!" All three men collapsed hard to the floor.

Two other thugs still standing fired immediately at me. BANG! BANG!

I dove, grabbed the briefcase, rolled along the floor, blurred up in a vaulting jump and dodged the bulletfire all the while. PING! P-P-PING! P-PING! I twirled in midair from my vault, held the briefcase under my sword arm, and flung a fan of razor-edged-playing cards back at the thugs upon my descent.

SWISSSSSSSH-CL-CLANK!

The guns were knocked from their grasp. They stumbled back, gasping.

In the meantime I landed, spun around, and ran for the entrance of Caesar's Palace casino. Everywhere tourists and gamblers and employees were running every which way amidst the chaos. Playing chips spilled left and right. Champagne glasses and silverware littered the dining area's floor. And just at the white-pillared gate where my exit was

"YOU!"

"FREEZE!"

Two security guards ran up and blocked my way. They raised tasers—sparkling—and trained them on my figure. "WE MEAN IT!"

I skidded to a stop. Panting.

_Tasers?_

My black eyes blinked under my goggles.

_I guess everyone in this City is desperate……_

I gripped the briefcase in a metal arm and raised Myrkblade in the other. Ready to strike them unconscious

"RFFFFH!" a deep-throated, mooing sound. STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!

Two meaty hands grabbed each guard by a shoulder and flung them across the casino in opposite directions.

"WAAAH!"

"YAAAK!"

They collapsed through a craps table and a line of slot machines each. CRASH!

I blinked.

"Rghhhh….," Wildebeest snorted and grinded his hooves at the sight of me.

I sweatdropped. Simpering, I signed with half a hand: _'Hi?'_

STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-"RGHHH!"-**WHAM!**

I dropped the briefcase as my ragdoll body flew back and crashed through a dining table. SHATTER!

Wildebeest whinnied through his nostrils, glaring. He marched over, knelt, and picked the briefcase up between two thick fingers.

And then

BANG! B-BANG! BLAM!

The Intergang thugs—recovered—were firing lead volleys at him from the center of the dining area.

Wildebeest swiftly ducked and angled his head so that his silver crown and plated horns could deflect the projectiles. CL-CLANG! PING! He crawled over, picked up a poker table with one hand, and held it before him like a shield. He thusly marched backwards with the wooden plate safely taking the brunt of the bullets and giving him the time and energy to slither out from Caesar's Palace.

The elder shouted at his thugs as they reloaded and fired more and more fixated pistol blasts from their high position.

In the meantime, a certain Killer Croc was stirring on the casino floor. He struggled to his feet, hissed in sharp pain, and pulled the bloody tips of the three playing cards out from his chest. _Thwip! Thwip! Chtink!_

"Nnnngh……," he exhaled and slumped with a painful shudder to the floor. He balled his pale hand into a fist and punched the carpet. Grumbling. "Mrmmf….somebody gimme a rock…." Slowly, he pulled himself up, looked across the interior landscape, and saw the bovine combatant backing away from the bullet spray. The swamp freak hissed, glanced over, saw a roulette table, and bounded over towards it. He gripped the roulette table, pulled at it, hissed, and broke it free from its support beam. CRACK! Hoisting the heavy wheel overhead, he marched over towards the scene and shouted: "Hey ya Bessie!"

"Mrmmf?" Wildebeest snorted and looked over from behind his table-shield. White specks blinked.

Killer Croc reared the huge wheel back. "Winner take all, loser bite my ass! RGHHH!" He tossed it like a hulking frisbee.

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH-SMACK! The roulette wheel caught Wildebeest upside the hairy chin. THWUMP! Wildebeest dropped the table and stumbled back.

"HRESSSSSSSSSHAAAA-AAAAAAA!" Killer Croc ran, jumped, grabbed an ornate chandelier overhead with his gnarled hands, swung, and flew down at Wildebeest sharp-feet-first.

WHAM!

The two meaty competitors tumbled and wrestled and collapsed in each other's flailing arms at the far end of the casino. They fought and struggled and grappled their way through tables, pillars, and glass displays. Debris shattered and rained the floor all over as teeth met horn met claw met fist.

To say the least, they both dropped and ignored the briefcase. The treasured item lay on the floor a dozen feet off on the open ground.

"There it is! Grab it!" the elder Interganger shouted. "There's still hope if we can get it back to home base!"

Of course, I heard this. Groaning, I stood up amidst the splinters of the table I had collapsed through. I looked over with a disheveled face of black strands and saw two thugs dashing towards the abandoned briefcase with the rest of the Intergang group still-alive following.

I picked up Myrkblade, gritted my teeth, and blurred towards them.

The first two thugs reached the briefcase.

The elder spun around, saw me, and gasped. He pointed at the trailing gunman and shouted: "Put a hole in his virgin neck!"

Two bodyguards twirled about and instantly aimed uzzis at my skull.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I twirled Myrkblade during my charge and deflected the bullets. CL-CL-CLANG!

A ricocheting projectile or two struck a few wine bottles atop a table near one of the gunmen. He gasped at the shattering shards in close proximity to him and fell back.

The second thug squinted one eye and crouched directly behind a circular dining table. He fired potshots with his uzzi. POW! POW! P-POW!

He and his gun stood in the way of me and the briefcase. So I aimed myself at him. I ducked the first few shots, pulsed murk through my lower limbs, and vaulted high towards the ceiling. SWOOOSH!

He looked up.

I came down from my jump.

He raised his gun and fired at my descending figure. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I twirled Myrkblade in mid-air—CL-CL-CLANG!—and landed with two heavy feet impacting the far edge of the table. WHUMP!

His end of the table violently shot up and—WHANG!uppercutted him across the chin. Two teeth flew with bleeding trails, and he was down for the count.

_Plant!_

I landed.

A breath.

SWOOOSH! I blurred towards the elder and his two guards.

They huddled together with the briefcase, facing me. The elder reached into his coat and whipped out—of all things—a red painted grenade. "Whoever you people are, enjoy a one-way ticket to Hell!" Cl-Clink! He pulled the pin and tossed the explosive. THWOOOSH!

Cl-Cl-Clank! It landed at my feet.

"!"

My boots scraped into the ground as I forced myself to a stop, flickered smoke, and rocketed off towards the other end of the—

_**PHOOOMB!**_

Gambling tables flew apart from flying shrapnel as flames spiraled up to the ceiling and singed a hole into the upper floor. Frightened citizens on all parts of the building gasped and ran for cover. Slot machines on the bottom floor tilted and collapsed into one another. The vibration caused a few support pillars to crack and collapse, loosening the ceiling so that it crashed down over Wildebeest and Killer Croc. The two combatants gasped and dove out from the rubble just as the heated dust and soot clouded over them.

_**THRUMP!**_

Wildebeest was pinned by a fallen pillar. He struggled and strained with heavy muscles to burrow out from his imprisonment.

Killer Croc leaned against a cracked wall, coughing from the flying dust and debris. With watery, mucous-green eyes he glared towards the exit of the Palace casino. He saw the scampering bodies of three surviving Intergang members running off with the briefcase. He hissed, flexed his gnarled limbs, and ran in heated pursuit.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What's wrong? What's wrong!" a shaded thug by the white limousine asked.

The elder hugged the dusty briefcase to his chest as he and his two guards ran out from the chaotic building. "It's a bust!"

"Who—"

"Triangular!"

"Ah shit!"

"We're moving…now…," the elder gestured and all but threw himself into the center compartment of the limousine. "NOW!"

"R-Right away!"

"Let's move it!"

"Go…go…blow this joint!"

The thugs jumped in after the man and slammed the doors shut. The drivers and other gunmen rushed into the white and black limousines and the dark SUVs. With squealing tires and revving engines, the Intergang caravan tore-asphalt by throttled out of the front driveway of Caesar's Palace as fast as their tires could carry them. The gunmen on the black ninja bikes waited behind, keeping cover.

Killer Croc ran out of the collapse entrance of Caesar's Palace. He fumed, drooling, his limbs flexing with heavy breaths. His green eyes turned greener as he hissed and sought with bloodlusting energy the target of his wrath.

He saw the white limousine rolling off in the distance. And—inevitably with it—the sacred briefcase.

"Nnnnnghhhhresssssh….," Killer Croc leaned down, picked up a light fixture—SNAP!—and prepared to throw the heavy metal object like a long-distance discus at the center of the caravan. And there was no doubt that he could accomplish such either. "Let me show you what 'totaled' means, buttcheeks!"

FLASH! Pink light suddenly exploded directly above Killer Croc's head.

The fireak glanced up. "Rghh?"

CRKKKK! A chunk of the building's entrance broke free and collapsed atop of him.

"AAAAA—" SLAM! Killer Croc was buried.

Swiiiiish-_Plant!_ Jinx nimbly landed in a crouch atop the croc pile. She stared out towards Las Vegas Boulevard with thin cat eyes and frowned at the sight of the escaping caravan. A ruffle of her purple coat, and she dashed directly into the front casino area of Caesar's Palace.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wildebeest was gradually pulling himself free of the rubble.

Nevertheless, Jinx ran up to him and waved her hands in the air with girlish frustration. "What in Hecate's name are you waiting for, you overgrown Care Bare! We're going to lose the entire Herculean Vault open house on behalf of you!"

"Nnnnghhh!" Wildebeest snorted angrily.

"Don't give me none of that nostril! We need you to pull through, Hecate-darn-it!" She gripped him by the horns and tugged and tugged and tugged with pink glowing hands. "Get your….hamburger fanny….outta there"

**POW!** A patch of rubble exploded just to Jinx's side.

"Ack!" the pink-haired girl flinched.

"……," I gritted my teeth and pulled myself—murking—out from under the dust and debris with Myrkblade. I struggled up to my feet, wiped my goggles clean, and glared over at Wildebeest and Jinx.

They stared back. White eyes and pink eyes blinking.

"…..," bowed. A beat. I turned and blurred out the exit. FWOOOOOSH!

Jinx deflated with a sigh. "Well that's just phweetacular….."

CRACK!

"EEK!" she fell on her rump as Wildebeest suddenly and forcibly ripped himself out.

Snorting like a possessed bull of Zeus, the bovine warrior stomped up to his feet, flexed the debris and dust off him, and ran stormingly out the entrance of Caesar's Palace—shredding bits and pieces of the doorframes apart in the process.

"……..," Jinx sighed. She jumped up to her booted feet and brushed the dust off her short pink hair. "Where the boys aren't…..is where I'd like to be…."

And she ran out with a pink burst.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

As the caravan of black and white limousines and SUVs sped north along The Strip, the three Intergang motorcyclists lingered behind. They squabbled to each other via radios and walkie talkies. All the while, they looked over their shoulders for any sign of trouble or dangerous pursuits.

"_Snkkkkt—All clear on the West Side! How does it look over there? Snkkktt!" _

"_They've all left! Nobody's in pursuit! Not even—snkkkt—a damn squad car!" _

"_All right, guys! Let's move! Anything can happen on the way back to base!"_

One cyclist close to the Caesar's Palace entrance brought the radio to his lips while straddling his black ninja bike. –Beep- "Copy that. Moving out." -Beep-

He stuck a key into the ignition. He cranked the engine.

_Vrmmm-VRMMMM!_

As the bike roared to live and vibrated between his legs, he took a shuddering breath and looked over his shoulder.

One of his two distant partners could be seen on the other side of the rubble-strewn building front. He saluted the front cyclist from afar.

The man waved back with his radio.

FLASH!

A glint of silver.

The cyclist blinked and looked straight ahead. "Huh?"

Hull was running straight at him, a pistol pointed at his chest.

BLAM! BLAM! BL-BLAM!

The cyclist's body jolted and danced atop the bike from the bulletfire. He quivered, spat blood, and leaned back on the seat.

FLASH! Hull disappeared the gun, ran, and jump-kicked over the front of the bike.

WHAP!

Hull kicked the Interganger's corpse off the motorcycle and straddled the seat in one swift leap. His silver-tipped hands instantly grabbed the handles and throttled the engine forward.

SCREEEEEEECH! The front tire performed a wheelie before slapping back down with the bike burning madly onto Las Vegas Boulevard and streaking north.

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!_

The other two cyclists still lingering around the Palace saw Hull rocket after the caravan. Squabbling to each other, the men grabbed uzzis from their bikes' side gun compartments and zoomed swiftly after the blue speeder.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I blurred out of Caesar's Palace and came to a smoking stop alongside Las Vegas Boulevard and looked around. Spinning. Panting.

Frantically trying to find the escaped caravan.

'_Hey Noir, are you at a crossroads?'_

I swallowed at the sound of his crackling voice in my ear.

_YES!_

'_Try really, frickin' North.'_

"!"

I spun and looked up the Strip.

A beat.

I bravely slid my goggles off and squinted my bare black eyes.

Between the stabbing lights of casino fronts on the left and right side of the huge highway, I saw few speeding pinpricks. Car tale lights. The caravan…and a rapidly pursuing cluster of bikes, one far ahead of the other two.

I shuddered from the inside out.

_Hull………_

'_Look, Noir, I don't know how exactly buddy-buddy you are with that sword swinging diehard and stuff, but I do know this. Everyone else in this pathetic City sucks but you. Okay, maybe not Arrowette. She's pretty damn fine. But that can be saved for later. There's another blonde who's REALLY needing your help right now. And it'd probably be safest that you get to that briefcase first. And when I say 'first', I mean before Hull.'_

I took a deep breath.

My fingers clenched around Myrkblade as I broke into a sprint.

Heading northward.

_Hull told me not to get in his way._

I clenched my teeth.

I summoned murk and turned my sprint into a blur.

_Something tells me that—during this whole ugly trip—I've been doing people a lot of favors._

FWOOOOOSH!

I blurred at full, smoking speed along the Strip.

_Maybe it's about time I did myself one for once._

'_Don't forget to look before crossing the streeeeet!'_

_Oh shut up._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMM!_

Hull veered left and right around taxi cabs, minivans, buses, and finally came to a straightway. He gunned it. The engine of his ninja bike vibrated like mad as he rocketed towards the caravan.

A pair of black SUVs mined the rear, blocking any and all access to the limousines.

Hull's blue eyes narrowed. As he stared icily against the biting wind, he freed a few fingers to summon a weapon

BLAM!

P-PING!

"…..," Hull looked behind him.

The two other cyclists—veering around the last of the thick traffic themselves—came upon the straightway and took the time to fire their uzzis from long range.

BL-BL-BL-BLAM!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

The projectiles soared through the air and splashed all around Hull.

Hull jerked his motorcycle left and right, avoiding the sparks of bullets-against-blurring-asphalt.

P-P-P-P-PING!

One or two bullets strayed and struck the rear tail-lights of the rearmost SUV. The Intergang thugs inside shook and gasped from the jolt. They glanced back suspiciously.

"Sh-Shit!" One of the motorcyclists cursed. He motioned to his biking partner and shouted: "Move along side the bastard!"

The other nodded.

Together, they accelerated.

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

The two bikers approached Hull from behind.

"….," Hull glanced straight ahead.

The rearmost SUV—sensing his pursuit—backed off from the rest of the caravan and decelerated so as to get a better view of Hull. Two thugs poked their upper bodies out of the rear side windows and aimed magnums at the speeding Hull.

BLAM! BL-BLAM!

Hull veered left and right as tiny potholes formed in the asphalt of Las Vegas Boulevard beneath him.

The SUV thugs adjusted their aim and fired again.

BL-BL-BLAM!

Hull ducked his head and screeched to the side.

In doing so, he decelerated.

He felt the presence of the two bikers close to his rear. They aimed converging laserpoints on his neck with their uzzis.

He took a deep breath—

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Hull swung hard left. The bullet streaks criss-crossed where his body was.

The thugs on the cycles and the SUV watched him jerk westward suddenly.

_VRMMMM!_ Hull found himself in his desperate dodge to be swerving right into the side of a taxi cab. He gritted his teeth and kicked a denim leg down against the asphalt while expertly balancing.

TWHAP!

He somehow forced his bike to hop off the Strip just enough so that he—CLANK!—struck the side of the taxi, streaked right in the air—SCREEEECH-VRMMMM!—and landed on both wheels in a slide back towards the right.

And as he did so, he rammed straight into the side of the leftmost cyclist.

CRUNCH!

"Nnngh!" the cyclist swerved right, nearly bumped into his partner, and recovered. Gritting his teeth, he jerked left at his handles and shot an elbow towards Hull.

Hull took the brunt of the blow and swerved left and right to keep his bike balanced.

The cycling thug gritted his teeth and kicked his leg out.

THWUMP!

Again, Hull recovered.

"Shoot him! Shoot him!" the rightmost rider shouted above the blurring noise.

"Nnngh—" the left one aimed his uzzi directly left in mid throttle.

And then Hull jerked to the right with a flaring of his teeth.

CLANK!

He jolted the driver. The thug's gun-arm flailed and let loose an unconscious stream of bulletfire. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! Bullets ricocheted off the road, splashed at the rear SUV's heels, and forced the rightmost biker almost onto the sidewalk.

"Whoah!"

Hull immediately shot a naked right arm out and grabbed the disoriented biker next to him by the neck. He shoved his head forward and decorated the handlebars with the man's face. THWAP! WHAP! SMACK! He then snarled and struck an elbow into the bruised man's nose. CRACK! The driver winced and convulsed in his seat.

There was a honking sound, and then a screeching of the SUV in front of them.

HONK! HONK!

The rightmost biker—recovering—shouted: "Greg! WATCH IT!"

The man gurgled and looked ahead. His bleeding eyes widened at the mudflaps of a semi truck trailer directly in front of their speeding battle.

Hull mercilessly grabbed the thug by the back of his neck, pushed him and the weight of his bike through him, and forced the Interganger under the rear wheels of the semi-truck as they blurred by.

CRUNCH!

The fuel tank of the crushed ninja bike ignited and swiftly took care of whatever flesh of the thug may have existed the demise.

**POW!**

The flames erupted, consuming the rear of the semi-truck. The hulking vehicle skidded, lost control, and jackknifed across The Strip—forcing at least three rows of cars behind it to screech to a stop and pile up fender to fender. SCREEECH! CR-CR-CRUNCH!

"NO!" the other biker shouted. In a fit of rage, he burned rubber sideways towards Hull with his uzzi flaring. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Hull merely stuck a right hand out and absorbed the bullets between twinkling fingers of silver. FL-FL-FL-FLASH! When the gunman swerved into him, he severely backhanded the driver.

THWAP!

"Ugh!" the biker jolted and decelerated dizzily from the blow.

Hull throttled ahead, driving one handed. He held a flickering right hand up as he eyed the SUV still close to him.

Those in the rear continue to eye him, squinting, aiming—BLAM! BL-BLAM!

Hull again swerved left and right to avoid the magnum fire. Once they were reloading, he steadied his bike, aimed his right palm out, squinted a blue eye, and flinched his silver-tipped fingers.

**FLASH!**

The biker's uzzi fire exploded outward from the blue stranger's touch and found its way into the chest of one of the SUV thugs.

TH-THUNK!

"Snkkktt!" the man bled and fully plummeted out the side rear window of the vehicle. His rag doll body tumbled across the asphalt, forcing Hull to swerve around him.

The blue-eyed swordsman saw the thug in the back of the SUV desperately prepare a grenade.

"…."

Hull glanced back.

The biker was still dizzy. He drove a quarter of a second behind Hull at a lower speed.

Hull took a deep breath. He swerved his bike a little to the left and stretched his arm out. FLASH! _SHVVVVVV!_ His spinning Bluescythe appeared. He held his breath. _CLACK!_ He steadied the blade on its circular hilt, aimed in reverse. With one twisting hand, Hull decelerated his bike and hit the brakes at the same time.

_SCREEEECH!_

Hull shot back in the chase. Straight towards the biker.

The thug looked up at the last second.

"Huh?"

THUNK!

His body jolted. Bluescythe impaled him through the chest.

Hull released the breaks and reaccelerated his bike.

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

Impaled on the sword, the biker was lifted off his bike—which crashed and tumbled sparkingly across the asphalt—and was hoisted forward, forward, forward towards the SUV.

Struggling to hold the corpse's weight, Hull looked ahead.

He saw the thug in the rear of the black vehicle whip out two grenades and crawl towards the side window.

Hull gritted his teeth, gunned his bike forward at maximum, and lifted the thug's body at the last second.

SWOOOOOOSH-CRASH!

Hull flung the thug's body into the rear compartment of the SUV, completely pulverizing the granadier inside.

CRUNCH!

The SUV swerved wildly left and right.

Hull took the time to drive up alongside its left flank. He looked right and saw the driver struggling to keep the wheel steady amidst the chaos. The stranger swiftly disappeared his red-stained sword, flicked his wrist, and prepared a shotgun in its place. He aimed straight through the driver's side window and

BLAM!

A wet crimson splash appeared on the inside windshield. The SUV screeched and swerved and veered left.

Hull throttled his bike ahead of it, disappearing the shotgun.

The black vehicle zoomed perpendicularly across Las Vegas Boulevard, ramped over the median full of lit palm trees, and crashed into the gated border of the Treasure Island resort beyond the opposing lanes of traffic. The grenades inside consumed the holocaust in the end.

_**PHOOOOOOMB!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped and darted right amidst my blurring.

Bright, fiery plumes from a semi-truck and an SUV stabbed my black eyes through my goggles.

I gritted my teeth and leapt blurringly from palm tree to palm tree along the median, catching up with the murderous swordsman and the body of the caravan.

_I think Dante's peak has just reached the crust of Vegas……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMM!_

Hull caught up with the last SUV. He throttled forward on his bike to pass along the left side of it and reach the limousines.

SCREEECH! The driver of the SUV swung the onyx vehicle left, ramming into Hull's side.

CL-CLANK!

Hull struggled to keep his ninja cycle upright. He skirted left, veered around a minivan, and came back right towards the speeding SUV.

The side windows of the SUV rolled down as two gunmen swiftly aimed shotguns out and fired away—**BLAM! BL-BLAM! BLAM!**

Hull dodged the first few sprays of lead, swiftly jerked his right arm out, and flicked his silver-tipped wrist. FLASH! Bluescythe appeared. He spun the blade long its hilt while speeding on the bike and sideways deflected the subsequent shotgun sprays.

**BLAM! BLAM!**

_SHVVVVV_CL-CLANG! CLANG!

One thug aimed high.

**BLAM!**

Hull ducked, jerked to the right, and slid in towards the SUV. He positioned the hilt of his sword up close to the wheel-wells of the SUV and accelerated. The spinning blade cut through the aluminum body of the vehicle like a meat slicer.

CRKKKKKKKK!

Sparks flew. Shrapnel scattered over the asphalt. And then…Bluescythe's spinning blade ate its way into the front left tire.

**POW!**

The SUV swerved and screeched.

The driver panicked.

The vehicle jerked a few times before finally fishtailing and spinning well over three hundred and sixty degrees across the multiple lanes.

_VRRRMMMM!_ Hull veered around it and rocketed towards the rear black limousine.

And the SUV:

_SCREEEECH-CA-CLUNK!_ It rolled over onto its side, slid for over twenty feet, and came to a smoking stop. The Intergangers inside were thoroughly dizzied.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I hopped up onto a line of rooftops of the Fashion Show Mall. I ran north, blurring over the structures and staring right across the glittering landscape. I could see the tumbling vehicles…the chaos leading a trail up Las Vegas Boulevard as Hull got closest to the briefcase than all of us. It looked like a solid spear of destruction and reckoning was being shoved through the City of Sin's heart.

I panted.

Gripping Myrkblade tightly.

_Was this what Anderson had in mind?_

I gulped.

_Nobody knows what anyone has in mind anymore. Least of all Anderson or Triangular or any other thug or hood in his stupid town._

I jumped onto another rooftop, pulsed murk into my feet, and leapt so that I perched on a tall lamppost.

_Counter-Red Aviary……Jinx and Pulsade and Wildebeest and 'J' know a little of what's going on. And apparently Hull does too. _

_And I……? _

_Even if I knew anything, it'd make little difference. _

_This has turned into one gigantic, senseless holocaust. _

_Destruction……Destruction……_

My metal arm shivered.

I gritted my teeth, sweating.

_Maybe Red Aviary is a lot closer than even Glover would have had me believe._

I caught my wind and prepared to blur up to the limousines and intercept Hull when—to my undeniable earshot—I heard the grinding noise of a huge truck honking and going far too fast than should be allowed.

"?"

I glanced right.

I groaned mutely.

_Ah jeez……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"C-Can't this damn thing go any faster!" screeched the elder inside the white limousine, hugging the briefcase to his chest. "Intergang will be nothing but someone's bureaucratic bitch if we don't make it out of this City—"

"Sir! Our escorts are gone!" shouted someone from the driving compartment.

The thugs riding with the elder blinked.

The leader with the briefcase gasped. "The limousines?"

"No. The utility vehicles. Half our arsenal's gone!"

"It's up to us now," one of the bodyguards muttered.

Another said: "It's one of them!" He pointed out the rear window. "One of Triangular's! He's catching up fast!"

"No way…."

"Motorcycle! He jacked it from one of our guys!"

"Shit…"

The elder shuddered. "Try to lose them."

"Sir, at this rate we should just give up—"

"Try to LOSE THEM!"

**HONNNNK! HONNNNNK!**

Everyone shuddered.

The elder's lips parted. With thin, gray eyes he turned and glanced out the rear window. "Now what in the Sam Hell…!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The honking noise merely accentuated a loud rumbling sound in the distance.

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

"?" Hull silently slowed the bike's acceleration some and looked behind him.

The glaring lights of a semi truck illuminated his figure as it road up menacingly. It was going unnaturally fast. Sparks billowed outward from its wheel-wells and front gears.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the truck's driving compartment, a panicked, bearded man yakked into his radio's mouthpiece.

"I'm serious! I'm in deep shit here! My truck won't stop accelerating and I'm in the middle of a traffic nightmare on Las Vegas Boulevard! I'm heading north at—gods—eighty miles an hour! Hell, I don't even think I'm controlling this frickin' thing anymore! What in the world is—"

SMASH!

A meaty, bovine hand crashed in through the side window, gripped the man by the neck, and flung him out onto the median between palm trees. "WHOAH!" WH-WHAP!

The truck kept accelerating on its own. Standing atop it like a very hairy street surfer was Wildebeest. He flexed his throwing arm and balanced himself as he rode the engine compartment of the careening truck.

The huge vehicle moved as if on its own north, north, north. It accelerated magically…zeroing in on the three limousines.

Wildebeest's white eyes narrowed. He began to flex his lower muscles.

All the while, a pink aura was glowing brighter and brighter beneath the grill of the truck…joining the unearthly sparks flying from its punished engine.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx ran parallel to the careening truck on the east side of Las Vegas Boulevard.

She hopped from hoteltop to hoteltop and leapt blurringly over glittering casino structures on streaks of pink energy.

As she did so, she tossed hex bolt after hex bolt to her left. Each pink stream of light shot directly into the engine of the semi-truck, and through sheer powers of luck was the vehicle pushed beyond its man-made limits.

"Nnngh….Haaa!" Jinx shot a final, huge pulse of pink.

FLASH!

It practically exploded inside the truck engine, causing it to rocket forward towards the rear bumper of the trailing black limousine.

Jinx Cheshire-smiled while running….panting.

"Have some cow to go, you fuzzheads!"

She leapt off to the side, out of view.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCRKKKKKK!_

The battered, smoking truck engine zoomed up the lane.

Its headlights all but blinded Hull.

Gritting his teeth, the denim stranger had no choice but to pull fiercely to the side.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!

The huge truck burned past him.

Hull panted, keeping his distance.

In the meantime, the shadow of the truck bore down on the black limousine.

Wildebeest coiled his legs.

The thugs in the limousine let out a helpless scream as

CL-CLACK! The front grill of the truck rammed into the limousine's rear bumper.

"RGHHH!" Wildebeest whinnied, jumped, and descended hulkingly on the hood of the limousine.

CRUNCH!

The vehicle's front literally flattened from the impacting weight of Wildebeest. The last two-thirds of the vehicle's length tilted up in the air as the car resembled a half-snapped, burnt breadstick. Sparks flew. Shrapnel exploded.

And Wildebeest—his feet digging into the black limousine's hood—flexed once more.

WOOOOSH!

And he leapt off the crumpled vehicle towards the white target ahead of him.

A desperate snort. A mid-air moo--

CLANK! Wildebeest's outstretched hands dug into the rear compartment of the white limousine. He hung on. Dragging. Dragging. Wincing from the asphalt he was bumping violently over. Summoning brute strength to hang on.

Whatever was left of the black limousine behind him spun back and was subsequently crushed by the unmanned, careening semi-truck. Both vehicles went collapsing and spilling aluminum strips all across the lanes of The Strip.

Hull found himself headed straight for a wall of burning debris.

He gritted his teeth and veered hard left.

_VRMMMMM!_

He ramped over the median and faced a thick throng of head-on traffic.

HONK! HONK!

SWOOOOOSH!

Cars swerved. Buses screeched to a stop. Taxis careened and spilled over.

Hull skirted around them, desperately swung right through the crashing chaos, and spilled back onto the north lanes with the dragged bovine way ahead of him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the white limousine's passenger compartment, even the bodyguards were panicking.

"We've got a cow….," one sweatdropping gunman pointed through the rear window and shouted. "We've got a cow!"

"TRY AND LOSE 'EM!" the elder with the briefcase shouted.

The driver: "HOLD ON!"

He yanked hard right.

_VRMMMMMM!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEEEECH!_

Wildebeest's white eyes widened and he grunted awkwardly with the strain of clinging ahold of the rear bumper as the white limousine made a mad dash-swerve off of Las Vegas Boulevard and onto Convention Center Drive, heading East.

The thick-bodied combatant's legs lifted up in the air during the insane turn. His lower body nearly clipped off the top of a taxi or two screeching to the stop in the intersection, and then he was being dragged again…struggling to keep hold of the vehicle.

SWOOOOOSH!

A conspicuous, black streak of smoking energy soared straight after him.

Hull—in the meantime—slowed his bike to a stop. _SCREEECH!_ He rested in the middle of the street. Straddling the ninja cycle.

"……."

He looked at the speeding limousines.

"……."

He glanced left some.

A beat.

He twisted the handles and turned.

_VRMMMMMM!_

He burned straight towards some back alleys behind all the glitter and bright faces of urban Vegas.

Taking a shortcut…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The two limousines zoomed down Convention Center Drive.

The black limousine pulled out and into the left lanes.

The white limousine on the right half of the road was lurching and jerking about. For good reason too.

The heavily-horned Wildebeest clung to the rear of the vehicle and gradually pulled himself up its body. His weight pressed down onto the rear of the targeted car, forcing the wheel wells dangerously close to the blurring asphalt.

Wildebeest still managed to perch himself on the wobbly back of the limousine. He crawled towards the lavish, central compartment. The panicked forms of thugs and the briefcase holder could be seen inside.

Snarling, Wildebeest raised a meaty arm and brought it down—CLANK!—again—CLANK!—and again—CRACK! against the top of the aluminum body.

The limousine dented and cracked and fractured from bovine punishment.

He whinnied through his nostrils, frowned, and crawled over to the side. GRIP! He reached a hand around and grabbed the back left suicide door. He pulled…pulled…pulled at the lid.

In the meantime—_SCREEECH!_ The black limousine decelerated from up front and positioned itself parallel to the left side of the white vehicle. The side windows rolled down and three thugs pointed guns out at the clinging intruder.

BLAM! BL-BLAM! BLAM!

P-P-PING! The bullets bounced off the beast's sliver crown.

Clinging on, Wildebeest flinched from the deflected impacts. "….." He snarled. He glared at the vehicle. He showed his teeth from beneath his snout and

CRKKKKKKKK!

peeled the suicide door out of its frame. Bolts and aluminum shrapnel flew. The Intergangers inside gasped at the inrush of air.

Wildebeest held the hulking door in front of him like a shield.

BL-BL-BLAM! BANG!

He deflected the bullets.

CL-CL-CLANG!

He then flung the shield with a snarl at the black car.

SWOOOSH-CRUNCH! The door smashed through the windows, rattling together the thugs inside. The black car veered off to the side momentarily.

In the meantime, Wildebeest turned back to the car. He gazed in through the naked door frame and prepared to slam his fist into the compartment.

The elder inside shouted above the wind: "The plating! Switch on the plating!"

The driver slammed his finger over a gray button.

Beep!

CHTUNK! CHTUNK! CLANGGGG!

Metal panels closed beneath the doorframes and windows of the limousine, producing a thick plate of shielding separating the interior compartment of the vehicle from the outside world.

Wildebeest blinked.

The vehicle was rigged.

Intergang to the core.

While riding the speeding 'tank', he slammed his fist again and again into the metal shield. Barely dinting it. CLANG! WHANG! THUD! No use.

Wildebeest snorted.

He stood up straight atop the limousine, snarled, and brought his foot up to slam down.

SWOOOOOSH!

Something black materialized in front of him.

"Rghhh?" He glanced up.

THWACK! went my sword up his chin.

"NRRRGH!" he fell on his back—CLANG!—nearly sliding off the back of the limousine.

I winced, but twirled Myrkblade to another ready-to-strike position.

_Sorry, but I have no choice but to 'tip' you._

SWOOOOSH! I stabbed at him again.

CLAMP! He grabbed the tip of my smoking blade with a meaty palm. Growling, he lifted his leg and slammed it into my chest.

WHAP!

I flew back with my sword, backflipped, and landed precariously on the front hood of the white limo. I swung my arms and tried to keep balanced.

The whole car wobbled.

The madness of Las Vegas blurred around us.

Wildebeest leaned forward, stumbled up to his feet, and raised his fists.

CHIIIING! I aimed Myrkblade at him.

He glared.

I gritted my teethSWOOOSH! I blurred at him.

He swung a fist. THWOOOSH!

I ducked down. I slid between his legs on murk. I jumped, reverse-kicked the back of his neck, spiraled up, spiraled down, and swung Myrkblade hard across his neck.

WHACK!

He stumbled forward.

I landed on the car behind him. I brought Myrkblade back—held my breath—and stabbed at his backside.

He lifted a foot and reverse kicked me in the chest.

WHUMP!

I bent forward, wheezing.

"NNNGH!" Wildebeest spun with a flying fist.

WHAM!

I was struck hard in the side.

I flew off the limousine towards the broadside of a commercial bus in the neighboring lane.

"!"

I repositioned my ragdoll body in mid-air, landed on the bus' lengthy side with blurring legs, 'ran' along the outer aluminum face and glass, and vaulted back to the limousine across a full lane of honking taxis with a forward flip and a sword-strike.

CLANG!

I struck Wildebeest hard between the horns.

"Mooo!" he clutched his cranium and moaned.

I landed in a panting perch before him. Wincing.

_You can hit me for this later._

CLANK! I stabbed Myrkblade into the roof of the car, swung my legs up, and kicked him hard in the gut.

WHUMP!

"!" Wildebeest flew off the back of the limousine and went smashing through the front dining area of an Arby's. CRASH!

I knelt again on the white car, took a breath, and proceeded to try and slice through the metal plating beneath the white aluminum with my sword

CLACK! The black limousine had come back, and it was purposefully ramming the dented rear bumper of the white one.

THWUMP! "!" I exhaled as I was jolted from my position on the car roof. I tumbled down and landed face-forward on the black limousine's hood.

I winced…then gasped.

_Its hood?_

The black limousine pulled back.

I realized that my upper body was resting on the black vehicle and my lower legs were planted on the white limo. So as the black limousine pulled back, I had a sea of blurring asphalt opening up beneath my chest.

"!" I stabbed hard into the front bumper of the black limousine and clung to the white limousine with murk-clinging feet. For a few agonizing seconds, I formed a human bridge between both parting vehicles. My muscles and skeleton stretched and I began to sweat and pant and realize that all of this was freakin' suicidal and

SCREEEECH! The driver of the black limousine found a solution in slamming on the breaks.

I gave up, but not entirely. I kicked my legs off the white limo's rear. THWUMP! I flew forward, rolled onto the windshield of the black limo, pulsed murk into my legs, and vaulted off the front of the onyx vehicle entirely, and flew towards the off-speeding white car with Myrkblade outstretched.

_Arrrrrrgh!_

SWOOOOOOSH!-CRACK! I stabbed Myrkblade barely into its loose, rattling bumper.

My feet blurred along the ground as I ran to 'catch up' with the speeding vehicle.

Panting…panting…panting…dashing…

The bumper rattled one last time—CRACK!—and dislodged completely from the dented vehicle.

I jumped the falling slab of metal, yanked Myrkblade out, and collapsed awkwardly onto the white roof of the limo.

Catching my ride.

I panted…panted…swallowed a gulp, and returned again to stabbing into the wild, metal 'steed'.

The limousine screeched and swerved and drove madly beneath me, trying to toss my figure off.

I gritted my teeth and kept ahold like a psychotic rodeo warrior.

_Have you ever met my old friend Simon Stone?_

CRRRRK! I stabbed into the metal plating. CRKKK! Again. CRKKKK! Again.

_SCREEEEECH!_

The limousine swerved madly to the left and burned a blurred-asphalt path north through Las Vegas, parallel to the monorail track to our right.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hull could hear the maddening, vehicular wrestling match blocks away from where he burned rubber with his motorcycle.

He calmly sped around the edges of a Wet N' Wild pavilion and zoomed towards the roads running north and south.

There was a crowded intersection ahead of him. It was blocking his way.

"Hrmm….," He mumbled. He looked to his right. He immediately jerked on the ninja cycle's handles and zoomed towards a small white building with a steeple.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a chapel.

A four foot and a half tall, balding man and a towering Swedish woman stood holding hands with fluttering, happy eyes at the altar. Tourist cameras dangled from their shoulder-to-shoulder bodies.

A colorfully dressed priest with bejeweled glasses and a Bible smiled from behind a 'piano' podium and said: "On behalf of the First Church of Elton John, I pronounce you man and wife. Now you may kiss the—"

SHATTER!

Hull ramped through a tall stain glass window on one side of the sanctuary.

_VRMMMMM!_

He knocked three pews down and sent nuptial tourists running and screaming as he burned through the interior on his bike and smashed out the other side.

CRASH!

The colorful priest dropped his Bible and clutched his glasses. "Holy mother of f—" The podium tipped over and fell on him. "OOOF!"

The bald man and voluptuous Swede tumbled on the floor, French kissing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

With a splash of stained glass shards, Hull flew out into the adjacent street and throttled south.

_VRMMMMMM!_

On an intercept course….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!

I took a breath.

I stabbed.

CLANK!

I took a breath.

I stabbed.

CRKKKK!

I was eating away through the metal shell.

I jabbed Myrkblade into it.

I gritted my teeth.

Smoke danced out from under my goggles as I pulsed layers and layers of murk mercilessly into the metal dermis.

The white car kept swerving and veering madly beneath me in an attempt to throw me off.

Finally, it resorted to pressing on the breaks.

_SCREEECH!_

I couldn't help it. I slipped and tumbled onto the front of the limo.

THWUMP!

My legs slipped under.

"!"

I stabbed into the hood with Myrkblade and hung on the front grill of the white car. Panting. Holding on for dear life.

And then the shadowed driver through the unguarded windshield frowned and slammed on the gas.

_VRMMMMMM!_

I jolted again, clinging on desperately to the front of the car. My feet dangled beneath the body and it was a struggle in and of itself to keep my lower limbs from grinding into the blurring asphalt below.

"…….," I winced. My muscles shook. I clung hard to the hilt of Myrkblade. The sword started shifting….threatening to crack off a chunk of aluminum and send me collapsing and being squashed by the looming, clunking vehicle of white.

_Nnngh!_

My metal left hand slipped.

"!"

I half-dangled on the front of the car. Nearly falling back into the heated street. I panted. Sweating around and beneath my goggles. My black hair danced against the asphalt. The world was heated, glittering, burning and loud. And the white car roared against me. The tires rotated and spun and groaned to the left and right side of me.

'_As much as I would love you to have a shiny new briefcase, Noir-buddy, it'd kinda sorta suck if you died right now.'_

I wheezed in response to the crackling voice in my deafened ear.

'_Snkkkt—Looks like you could need a hand. But they deserve a fist even more so.'_

I panted. I glanced sideways through my sweat-stained goggles.

I saw my metal hand dangling just above the speeding asphalt of the street inches beneath me.

I looked up.

The driver craned his neck, seeing whether or not I was being finished off as he applied…applied…applied more pressure to the gas.

I frowned.

SWOOOSH! I jabbed my metal hand down into the street. _SKKKKKRKKKKKKKK!_ Sparks flew as my metal fingers dug into the blurring asphalt. My whole body shook and the heat of burning friction traveled up my arm before any shiver could jolt me.

The driver blinked.

I showed my clenched teeth, heaving. Sneering.

_SKKKKKRKKRKKKKK!_

My metal fingers dug and dug. I snatched pebbles and pebbles of gravel. Pebbles that were glowing hot. Hot red like my metal hand was. And once I got a titanium palm full, I let out a mute scream and flung my prosthetic straight at the windshield.

FWOOOOSH!

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLAK!

The debris pelted the windshield like hot lead spray from a shotgun. A few of the amber-red pebbles actually ate through the glass and kissed the chest of the driver inside. He let loose a burning yelp and jerked at the controls.

The car vibrated less and lurched back.

_The gas was released……_

I took advantage of the deceleration by clamping onto the hood of the limo with my red-hot metal limb. Applying force to that and Myrkblade's hilt, I shifted my weight and flipped up onto the car's hood. CRKKK! I pulled Myrkblade out, chose the moment when the driver was disoriented, and prepared to stab my way in through the driving compartment's glass—

_VRMMMMMM!_

"?" I blinked at the sound to our right.

I turned and look.

My black eyes thinned.

_Aw Hell._

Hull had caught up. And—driving over the unsuspecting rear of a taxi cab—he was ramping his ninja bike right at me.

I winced.

_**WHAM!**_

The missile of a motorcycle struck me hard in the side, and both me and the vehicle went flying off like a rocket over the edge of the road.

Hull—in the meantime—had backflipped off the midair bike and perched on the hood of the white limo in place of me. He gave me a last glance before grunting, trotting over towards the roof of the speeding car, and fingering the spots of metal plating where I had previously been stabbing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOSH! I soared outward with the bike. The world spun. My body was dizzy and wincing and blinded and—

'_Stop flying, Noir……'_

I shuddered amidst the weightlessness.

'_Only Mary Poppins can fly, Noir. Get ahold of yourself!'_

I blinked. Two black eyes twitched under a pair of goggles through which a world spun ballet with a midair motorcycle.

'_Prove to me you're not Mary-Freakin-Poppins! GET A GRIP OF YOURSELF!'_

I gasped.

_Gravity! Freakin' A!_

SWOOOSH! With a pulse of murk I uprighted myself towards the earth and cushioned a cocoon of smoke around my person. I expected to plummet and splatter against the concrete or slam bone-brakingly-hard against a brick wall or shatter through a set of neon lights or—

TH-THRUMP!

I collapsed on cold concrete, rolling to a safe stop.

And….

Still.

"….."

I blinked.

I heard the crashing of the black bike far below me.

_Crunch!_

I shook my head. I bit my lip.

_Wait a second. _

_Far below me?_

I glanced down.

I was about two stories up from the street. On a raised track made out of concrete.

_Raised track?_

I stood up on wobbly legs. Blinking beneath the dark, confusing night.

My lips parted.

_The monorail……_

HONNK! HONNK!

A glaring, stabbing light.

I looked straight ahead.

A streamline engine was heading towards me like a big, glass bullet. Lights flashed and the operator inside punched his fist against the horn.

**HONNK! HONNK!**

My jaw dropped.

_The monorail!_

**WOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**

I took a deep breath, blurred my feet, and vaulted directly upwards.

The sleek cars zoomed beneath me.

I flipped, plummeted back down, straightened my feet, and planted myself on the elevated train.

_CLAMP!_

I inevitably tripped and collapsed forward.

THWAP!

_Ooof!_

I winced and hugged the roof of the monorail car. Panting. Sweating.

'_Better start skedaddling, Noir! Now's not the time to make love to Epcot transit!'_

I stood up on the traveling monorail car, wincing.

_How the Hell does he see all of this?_

Standing on wobbly feet, I looked out to my left on the road parallel to us. And though it was appearing further and further away, I saw the definite sight of Hull wrestling with the same damn limousine from earlier.

My black eyes narrowed…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hull took a deep breath in the whipping winds of the high speed night.

He flexed his silver-tipped fingers.

He leaned down over the aluminum gash in the white car's rooftop.

He spread his hands out and palmed the exposed metal plating below.

He concentrated.

His silver digits flickered white.

Sparkles like pixie sparkles and—

FLASH!

He vanished a roughly circular slab of metal and produced a gaping hole into the central compartment.

The elder and two thugs looked up as the blurring wind rushed in.

"Look!"

"It's another one!"

"Shit almighty."

Hull's blue eyes narrowed.

The elder half-stood in the car. Frowning upwards, he dug a hand into his vest and produced a red grenade. "Leave us…the Hell…ALONE!" The graying man pulled the pin out of his grenade. PING! The bodyguards flinched as he tossed the live and ticking, crimson explosive at Hull's forehead. "NNNGH!"

Hull exhaled. He swiftly—effortlessly stretched his right hand out. FLASH! The live grenade disappeared in his palm with a flicker of silver light.

The elder blinked.

The bodyguards' jaws dropped.

Hull sneered. "Now….give me the briefcase…or I'll make your head disappear next."

The elder hugged the leathery object to himself and whimpered.

But the bodyguards sweatdropped. One pounded on the back of the driver's compartment and shouted: "What are you waiting for! Shake him!"

"Here we go!" And the driver gunned it straight forward.

The elder looked through the front compartment and frowned: "No, you idiot! Are you crazy!"

"!" Hull turned and looked behind him. His teeth grit and he clamped hard to the sides of the car's roof.

CRACK!

The limousine burst through a metal fence.

SCREEEECH!

It drove offroad and onto the open courtyards and lots between buildings of the Sahara Speedworld. Nightly tourists screamed and ran every which way to avoid the dented, smoking, madly careening vehicle. The limo swerved left and right, knocking over trash cans and barely scraping past abandoned hot dog stands. Under the lamplights and glowing signs, Hull struggled to stay clinging on. His lower legs flip-flopped. The chains along his denim pants rattled. He finally lifted a hand free, grunted, and rematerialized the metal slab of armor plating he vanished earlier. With a growl, he slammed it into the glass windshield of the car.

CRAAACK!

The driver gasped and strained from the invading shrapnel. He ducked his head, dodged with his torso, and madly swung at the car wheel.

_SCREEE-EEE-EEEECH!_

The limo spun a few three-sixties before slamming sideways through a gate on the other side and sliding madly back onto Las Vegas Boulevard.

On this northern section of the stretch of thick lanes, unsuspecting cars and trucks swerved madly to avoid the intruding limo. Vehicles crashed into each other. Sparkling pileups occurred with car horns being stuck on and aluminum bits flying high into the air.

And…Hull was thrown off the white limo.

Th-Th-Thrump! He tumbled to a stop in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard. He seemed stunned, but there was not a single red cut or bead of sweat on him.

HONK! HONK!

He looked up.

The Intergang black limousine had returned for the rescue. It bore down on Hull from twenty feet off.

Hull took a breath and jumped gruntingly to his feet.

SCREEECH!

Hull looked to his side.

The white limo got away, burning northward along Las Vegas Boulevard.

Frowning, a helpless Hull turned and faced south against the oncoming, black vehicle.

Its headlights flared at him. Thugs leaned out their windows and aimed their guns.

Hull flicked both hands to the side. FLASH! He produced Bluescythe—_SHVVVVV-CLACK!_—and locked it into place. Ready to slice the charging vehicle in half when

A red glinting.

Hull's blue eyes squinted.

A red, bright dot appeared on the blurring front tire of the limo and—

_THRIFFT!_

A bullet traced in from out of nowhere and exploded into the Intergang vehicle's tire.

The black limo jolted, shook, tipped, and slid sparkingly with a loud scrape towards a stretch of palm trees in the median. _SKRKKKKKK!-CRUNCH!_

Hull watched, silently. Holding his sword.

The driver in the car panted, confused. He tried in vain to start up the black limo again when another red light zeroed in. This time, the laser blurred through the front windshield and trained on the center of the thug's forehead. The driver gasped—

_THRIFFFT!_

The driving compartment of the black limo turned blindingly red.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade camped out on the cross-hatch skeleton of a radio antenna across Las Vegas Boulevard.

She lowered a smoking sniper rifle from her blue-eyed gaze and took a deep breath.

She mumbled to herself against the high winds kicking at her blonde, wavy strands.

"Bollocks….I hope I don't wake up regretting just doing that later…"

A beat.

She took a deep breath and whipped out a communicator. "Allright, 'J'. Time for you to work some magic of your own, lad."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Suddenly, inexplicably, the lights to all traffic bordering Las Vegas Boulevard turned red.

The motorists further away from the mayhem thought nothing of it. At least for the first few minutes. Then as the red lights lingered on and they started honking their horns in angry confusion, they all bore witness to a beat-up, white limousine throttling north along the road. Alone. Conspicuous. And practically falling apart in the middle of the naked Strip.

-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the limousine, the bodyguards and the man with the briefcase shifted nervously.

The elder leaned forward, hugging the leather package to his chest. Panting, the graying Interganger looked out the front driver's compartment and saw all the stopped traffic through the cracked and shattering windshield.

"I don't like this….," a bodyguard said. "What are they all waiting for?"

"We stand out like a sore thumb."

"Triangular must be doing this…," the elder hissed. "Dagger. This is so much like Dagger."

"No way. Triangular may be here in Vegas, but Dagger's working far East, right?" the driver murmured. "Remember all the hell the Titans went through—"

"Hush up!" the elder frowned. He pointed down the road. "What say we make a detour through—"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

About a hundred feet in front of the lonely, zooming limousine…a manhole cover in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard started to twist and lift from underneath.

_Scrkkk……Scrkkkkkkk-kkkkk!_

Two pale, muscular arms pushed up from the huge, metal disk from below.

"Nnnnnghhressshaaa….," Killer Croc clenched his teeth and strained as he pushed up from below in the sewers. CL-CLANG! He knocked the disk aside, grabbed ahold of the asphalt, and hoisted himself up mightily onto the top of the road. "Nnngh!" He looked straight ahead. With mucous green eyes curving, he smiled a mutated smile and chuckled: "Hressh….Hressh…Hressh….all part of the food chain." CLAMP! He slammed his foot down over the edge of the manhole cover. The rusted metal disk flipped up into the air. He caught the spinning thing, aligned his upper limbs just right, and sneered: "'Ey you! Catch!"

SWISSSSSSSSSSSH! The disc went flying straight for the limousine.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A bodyguard gasped. "Whoah!"

"Look out!"

The two thugs in the back grabbed the elder's shoulder and threw him down to the limousine floor. "Ooof!"

The driver's eyes twitched and focused on a sharpling spinning, heavy disc of metal flying straight towards the windshield….and him.

"AAAAAAAAAA—"CRUNCH! The driver's head was lopped off as the metal disc sailed into the driver's compartment. The corpse's legs weighed onto the gas pedal as the dead hands twisted the wheel and

_VRMMMMM!—SCREEECH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The limousine slid, spun, flipped on its side, and went careening over the median.

Killer Croc jumped up and down like a giddy schoolboy before hissing in bloodlust, literally crawling on all fours, and scurrying over towards the 'kill'.

The elder climbed out of the smoking wreck. He poured his aching, trembling body out through the gash that Hull had made. Blood was trickling down from his gray head as he stumbled to his knees, got up on wobbly legs, and hugged the briefcase to him.

FWOOOSH!—PLANT!

Killer Croc landed in front of him.

"Boo!"

"Nnngh!" the elder stumbled back. "Keep away!"

"What's the matter?" Killer Croc grinned bloodlustingly and stomped slowly towards the man. out of grenades, Pops!"

"I know what Triangular will do with this thing…," the elder frowned. "I know what _Luthor_ will do with it!"

"And ya know what I'm gonna do to you if don't hand it over?" Killer Croc gestured.

The elder gulped, shivering.

Killer Croc grinned. "I'll give you a hint. It's gonna be a hulluva lot more slow and painful than what I'm going to do to you if you _do_ hand it over."

The elder's lips parted.

"Hresssssssh….," Killer Croc's eyes flickered green as he raised his muscular, sharp arms and pounced. "GIVE IT—"

SWOOOOOSH-**WHAM!** Wildebeest dove in with a fist.

Killer Croc flew back and slammed broadly into a lamppost. CRACK! Denting it.

Wildebeest snorted.

Killer Croc gritted his razor sharp teeth, frowning. Heaving. Hissing—then roaring.

"RRRRGHAAAAARAAAASHAAAA!" He flailed his limbs, flexed his muscles, and charged straight at the beast like a demon. Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp! WHACK! He punched Wildebeest across the snout. WHAM! He kicked the bovine warrior in the chest. "HRESSHAA!" He reached forward, grabbed Wildebeest by the horns, and headbutted him in between. WHAM!

Wildebeest stumbled back, dizzily.

A drooling Killer Croc pounced at the beast.

Wildebeest snarled and launched a mighty uppercut.

WHACK!

Killer Croc flew back.

GRIP! Wildebeest caught the swamp freak by his legs and slammed him repeatedly into the abandoned asphalt of Las Vegas Boulevarde. WHAM! SLAM! POW!

In the meantime, a nervous elder sweatdropped and trotted away Inspector Clueso style with his briefcase beneath his arm. As the two warriors duked it out, he looked around desperately for some safe haven bordering The Strip….and eventually his gaze rose towards the heavens.

Taking a deep breath, the graying Interganger ran across abandoned lanes of opposing traffic and headed towards the tall spire that was the Stratosphere.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile, back at the second…crashed SUV. A few injured Intergangers rested unconscious besides the overturned vehicle. One thug was still on his feet, pacing desperately around the wreckage and listening into a squabbling radio frequency on his communicator.

"_Snkkkt……snkkkt……snkkkt!"_

"Come on…..come on!" the thug panted, sweating all over. "Gimme the scoreboard, you morons! How screwed are we!"

The communicator crackled and scratched.

"_Snkkkkt—snkkt—The white limo is down! The Triangulars caught it!"_

The thug gasped. His shoulders slumped as he listened….

"_Just south of Main Street on Las Vegas Boulevard—snkkktnkk—a fight taking place between Triangular agentssnkkktssnkkt—sending reinforcements immediately! Snkkkt! Boss appears to be fine. Last seen running towards the Stratosphere on foot with the Device!"_

The thug let out a sigh of mixed relief.

Just then, an Intergang bodyguard walked up.

"Whoah!" the thug jumped back and frowned. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

The bodyguard simpered.

The thug leaned his head to the side. "Where'd you come from! Aren't you supposed to be in one of the limos?"

The bodyguard scratched the back of his neck and shrugged.

"Doesn't matter," the thug sighed. "Look. You and I gotta jack a car and get over to the Stratosphere right away!"

The bodyguard's eyes widened in curiosity.

The thug pointed at his communicator and hissed with emphasis: "The Boss is on his own! On foot! He'll be dead meat by himself at the Stratosphere if we don't get over there now and protect him against Triangular's other agents!"

The bodyguard smiled. He mouthed: 'thank you'.

"……," the thug blinked.

CHIIIIIIIIING! **THWACK! **

The 'bodyguard' struck the thug clear across the skull with the broadside of a wooden katana.

"Nnnngh" THWUMP! The thug fell down hard…cold.

I took a deep breath. FLASH! The holographic disguise flickered away as I fingered the watch that the Messenger had given me.

I looked at the LCD screen of the thick device.

Half of the crystal-black 'bars' were missing.

_Still some juice left. _

_Heh……gotta hand it to his dimension for whoever made this thing._

I walked over. I picked up the communicator that the thug hat dropped. Taking a deep breath, I pocketed it away and turned to face the northern horizon. Through my black goggles I could see the spire of the Stratosphere stretching high above the glittering gulch of southern Nevada…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWUMP!

The elder stumbled in through the doors of the tower's base, startling a few customers.

He looked at them all shiftily and marched towards the central elevator shaft, hobbling a bit from injuries sustained in the white limo crash.

Ding!

The bottom doors of a double-decker elevator opened. A trio of partying tourists hobbled out, laughing drunkenly. They looked at the hobbling, bleeding elder with his briefcase and laughed some more.

He shuddered. He moved past them and jammed his finger over the close button of the elevator. The doors closed, and he was barely aware of a blue form shuffling through the front lobby outside before he was shut safely inside the compartment.

He took a deep breath. He pressed a button to go up.

With a hum and a gentle vibration, the elder was hoisted up to the top of the Stratosphere. Fast.

He let out a huge sigh. He slumped back against a wall of the elevator, hugging the briefcase to his chest. The centripetal force of the quick ascent massaged his body from the inside out. He began to relax…..

_Scrkk!_

"……."

_Scrkkk-kkkk!_

The elder blinked.

The sound was coming from the floor of the elevator car.

He looked down.

_Scrkkkk!_

A beat.

_CRACK!_

The blue tip of Bluescythe shot up through the floor between his feet.

He let out a shriek and hobbled to the far side of the elevator. Sweating. Gray eyes wide.

CRACK! CRKKKK! The blue blade carved up and up into the compartment. Wind started to escape from the shifting pressure of the inside and outside domain.

"N-No…..leave me alone! Jesus!" the man hobbled back towards the elevator doors

Ding!

He had reached the top of the Tower. The doors open just in time for him to fall back and collapse onto the upper lobby floor.

"Ooof!"

A few tourists and an employee or two looked at him curiously.

He stumbled up to his feet. "H-Help me!"

"……..," they all shifted nervously. Confused.

"Help me!" he ran past them, panting, and made for a flight of metal stairs.

Someone hopped up through a hole in the elevator floor and gripped a sword before marching out…

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He panted….panted…panted…

He scrambled up the steps.

He shoved his way past an employee.

He ignored cries of exclamation and anger and burst his way through an off-limits door.

CLANG!

The cold, thin winds of the Nevada Desert air ate at him as he burst out onto the night.

He ran across a clear, gray floor on the summit of the Stratosphere. Around him, the roller coaster and vertical catapult on the spire's top spun and launched and made all kinds of noise, doubly deafening with the endless screams of excited thrill seekers. Tourists. Organisms.

The elder felt horrifically alone on top of the world.

He hobbled across the clear space besides an outside maintenance closet and array of antennae. As he approached the side railing of the top, circular tier…the man spun around and looked at the doorway through which he exited. His breath showed in the November crispness. He shivered all over.

There was no one following him.

He couldn't help but shudder.

"Nnngh….."

He turned around

WHAM! Hull's fist flew in his face.

The man sputtered and stumbled back

GRIP! Hull grabbed him by the shoulders, frowned with hard blue eyes, and tossed him over the railing.

THWUMP!

"AAAAAAUGH!" the elder screamed, tumbled, and slid precariously close to the sloping edge of the Stratosphere top. A shoe fell off of his ankle and he looked down in horror as it dropped, dropped, dropped to the glittering pavement sea incalculably far below. "Ch-Christ….," he shuddered. He scrambled up to his feet, still holding onto the briefcase.

THWUMP!

The glass and metal surface beneath him shook.

He wobbled on old, weak knees and looked up.

CHIIIIIING! Hull stood before him with Bluescythe. Frowning. His lips slowly moving: "End of your life, Mister. Give me the briefcase and I'll make it quick."

The man frowned. He held the briefcase at arm's length towards the edge of the tower and pure, thin air. "Maybe I should just send it on ahead of me! Would that make you sweat, punk!"

"…..," Hull glared. He stretched a free hand out, flickered his fingers, and produced a heavily sparking taser that burned the air with blue beams. _ZZzzzztt!_ "It is not too late for me to hoist your worthless body onto level ground and attach this to your scrotum."

"……………."

"Give me the briefcase. Now."

The man shivered all over. His gray hair kicked in the wind. A shudder….a sigh… he brought the briefcase back around and tossed it at Hull.

Hull disappeared the taser, grabbed the briefcase, and held it under one arm. "That's a good man…"

The elder sneered. "You're going to ruin this world! You and Luthor and Dagger and the folks in Gotham! You're nothing, do you hear me! You'll kill off Intergang and all the other little anthill empires surrounding your feet until al your murderous energies are exhausted and some flippin' Parasite bites you in the back! Do you hear me! Triangular is a ghost! As dead a spirit as H.I.V.E.!"

Hull droned: "Then I suppose we'll all get to know each other sooner than we think."

"…………," the elder fumed.

FLASH! Hull disappeared Bluescythe. He actually seemed about to leave when he stopped, paused, and turned to face the elder once more. "Oh by the way….," FLASH! "—this belongs to you." And he tossed something into the man's chest.

The elder caught it, leaning back. He looked down at his hands and saw a very familiar red grenade. A very familiar….and live grenade. "Ah…Ahh!...Ahhh!" he helplessly juggled the explosive and tumbled back…back…back….over the side of the Tower. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Hull turned and walked away.

**BOOM!**

An amber flash and a red splash.

Hull didn't so much as look back.

A few tourists down below were curious as they found the parking lot showered upon with mysterious red ribbons.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes later, Hull marched out of the ground level entrance of the Stratosphere with the briefcase under his arm.

He wandered over to a lonely motorcycle he found resting in a compact parking space.

Straddling the vehicle, he produced a few tools out of silver, thin air and proceeded to hotwire the motorcycle.

Once he got the engine running, he gripped the handles and prepared to throttle back south

_CHIIIING!_

The tip of Myrkblade rested at his throat.

"…….," he turned and looked at me.

I stood beside him. My smoking-sharp sword kissed the nape of his neck. I frowned with black vapors washing down from my goggles and mouthed: _'Give it'._

He coldly droned without so much as moving from the bike: "I told you not to get in my way, Mr. Noir."

I pressed the blade more firmly to his neck. Glaring…

His blue eyes thinned. "Don't….make me hurt you…."

_Don't make me care._

I saw his flingers snake over and press against the briefcase.

Silver fingertips kneaded the beat-up leather.

"In the briefest of instances…," he uttered, "…I can take the precious briefcase farther away than you could ever touch it. No matter how deeply you hack into my shell of a body."

"……..," I glared.

He slowly stood up from the bike.

I kept my sword pressed to his throat, eyeing the briefcase against his fingers.

He stood straight and tall and nonchalantly produced Bluescythe in his opposite hand. FLASH!

We stood, facing off.

"I will not let you defeat me, Noir…," he glared. "Not so much because of all I have done to help you. But because if you were to tear me apart…the entire city of Las Vegas would not benefit at all from the breach of my energy core."

I kept the sword trained on his throat. My shifted my feet some. I started summoning murk for a very, very, very quick teleport…

With his briefcase in sight….

"Let us not come at odds, Mr. Noir. Let us work together. We can enter the Herculean Vault as one." His blue eyes were solid. Dry. "I can have what I seek and you can get to Terra's key like you deserve."

I sneered.

_I'm really, freakin' tired of people TELLING ME WHAT TO DO._

SWOOOOOSH!

A shadow encased us both.

"……."

"…….," I blinked under my shades and looked up first.

In the amber lamplight of nearby parking lot bulbs, Wildebeest's unconscious body flew meatedly down at us.

Hull gritted his teeth and dove out of the way.

I gasped and blurred

**WHAM!**

Wildebeest formed a crater in the concrete earth.

The concussion threw me into a nearby minivan. SHATTER!

Hull rolled and collapsed dead cold against a dumpster. CLANG!

The briefcase slid across the ground.

A pair of scaley feet padded over and stood above it.

Killer Croc panted. Scratched and bruised all over. His muscles shook and flexed from having tossed the bovine warrior onto us. He knelt down, scooped up the briefcase, and stood back up with a cracking of the neck. P-P-Pop! "Hresssha…..nobody gives the Croc the shaft…"

His mucous green eyes glared as he stared at Wildebeest's unconscious body, Hull's, mine

I was gone.

He blinked. "Mrmmphh….." A beat. "Hresh…screw it. Sniff you jerks later." And he swiftly turned around, hugged the briefcase to himself, and ran south along the decimated, Las Vegas Boulevard.

The two warriors rested still and numb under the legs of the Stratosphere Tower.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a Denny's across town, the one waitress again wandered to the table. She thought of the little, blonde boy waiting all by himself and she sighed. This was not the type of shift she enjoyed.

"Mister…we're starting to get a little worried. Even my manager. Do you have parents that are supposed to meet you here? Have you got a phone number we can call them by? You've been really quiet and—" She came to a stop, blinking.

The booth was empty. The table was clean save for a single, empty glass. A lone phone book rested on the seat cushion where the boy previously was.

"………….huh…..," the woman hummed. She shrugged. Walking over to the booth, the waitress collected the glass. She saw a tip. A meager dollar, she thought. But when she looked down at the table, a breath escaped her. A gasp worthy of three Franklins.

And they were.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pompeii.

10:03 pm.

Killer Croc huffed and puffed as he ran up a long stairwell where the parking garage bordered the actual casino.

He hugged the briefcase to his sweaty, bare chest the entire time.

On a higher floor, he ran towards a door leading into a lush hallway.

WHANG!

He kicked it open with a snarl and ran down the length of the interior. Lines of hotel room doors were on his right. A stretch of immaculate, tinted windows were on his left. The glittering stretch of Las Vegas could be seen out the transparent sheathes. It was made twice as glittering from ambulances, firetrucks, and emergency lights gathering in random spots along The Strip. Lives were lost that evening. There was collateral damage and other chaotic consequences of the night's supposedly 'covert' chase. In the next few days, there would most likely be news stories and special bulletins and frantic press events covering the massacre from head to toe.

Right then and there, Killer Croc cared only to get to Z after all the Hell he went through since A. The green in his eyes flickered as he ran heatedly along the windowed hallway and turned a corner

And nearly plowed Jacob Anderson over.

"HRESSH!" he skidded to a stop. Sweating. Clutching the briefcase to his slick chest. "Nngh….Land 'o Goshin! Don't ya ever scare me like that again!"

Anderson merely smiled. A thinness of his eyes professed a drunken pleasure. He shrugged, adjusted his robe, and pointed a dainty hand towards the treasured object.

Killer Croc fingered the briefcase. "Yeah. I know. I got it! Won't the bosses back East be proud?"

Anderson motioned with his fingers.

Killer Croc frowned: "Now you wait just a damn minute, ya pixie! You said that Rexxin and the other guys were gonna give me more of the good stuff for doing this! Well, here I am having broken my back for you and I want my part of the pay!"

Anderson rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious! Just tell me that you've got it! The good stuff! You've got more of that whoppin' Dragonflare, right? Right?"

Anderson nodded.

"A-And you'll give it to me?"

He nodded again. Chuckling breathily.

Killer Croc's scaley features softened some. "Well, shucks. That's simple now, ain't it?" He handed the briefcase over. "Sorry I ever doubted you, Pops."

Anderson walked over.

Killer Croc grinned.

Anderson grinned back….and slammed Croc in the face with his fist.

**WHAM!**

Killer Croc dropped the briefcase and flew back impossibly far from the frail punch. But he felt the stinging of the blow and he knew that Anderson had indeed punched him. And yet still, the jab seemed impossibly strong. Like titanium.

Titanium.

"Hressha….wait a second…," Killer Croc stumbled up to his feet in front of the stretch of windows. "You're—"

SWOOOOSH! Robe billowing, Jacob Anderson ran a streak straight at the mutant. He jumped in the air with a sailing kick. And as he flew in with his foot sailing, the drippingly smooth visage of Anderson peeled away with a flicker of light and instead transformed into the smoke-warbling missile of an airborne Wyldecarde.

WHAM! I slammed my boots straight into Killer Croc's chest.

**SHATTER!**

The reptilian thug went sailing out in a spray of glass towards the cold concrete of Las Vegas far below. "AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…..!"

CRUNCH!

He crashed through the roof of a pickup truck. A resounding echo wafted up against the surface of Pompeii, and then faded into the ambiance of the glittering, Nevada night.

I took a deep breath, standing against the wind rushing through the gash in the window. My black locks of hair beat in the wind and I fought a shiver flying up my metal wrist.

'_Snkkkt—See you later, Alligator.'_

I smiled.

_Thank you, Messenger._

'_I might say, you're pretty damn-ass-quick! Oh, and handsome too.'_

_Yeah, that's enough. You can stop now._

I heard a beeping sound.

I glanced down at the watch.

All the bars were empty. The power cells were drained.

_Guess it has a limited life in this dimension……_

I stripped it off and tossed it out the shattered windows after Killer Croc.

_It was fun while it lasted._

Taking a deep breath, I spun around, and hobbled over to the briefcase.

I scooped it up, flexed my limbs tight and protective around the item, and made for the elevator.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWOMP!

A desk chair flew across the room and tumbled against a book case.

SHATTER!

A wine glass impacted with the wall.

"Nnnngh!"

A seething, red-faced Anderson swept his arm over the desktop inside his office, knocking down the lamps, stationary, and picture frames.

He leaned over the desk, pulling at the skunk spots in his hair, panting….panting….hissing….

A beat.

He swallowed. Sweated. And turned around.

"…..," Rexxin was staring. A walkie-talkie rested in his frozen grip. He stood between two armed guards silently. "S-Sir….are you okay?"

"It's gone….all of it!" Anderson hissed. With each step he heaved and shuddered more. "Burned! Melted! Ruined!" He gripped Rexxin by the collar and practically spat in his face. "After all I've done for Triangular in this City, do you think I deserve this!"

"Erhm….," Rexxin nervously gulped and uttered through the corner of his lips: "We conducted a search to figure out why the basement levels were torched. We can only guess it was Joto. That warrior was too dangerous to keep down there in the first place, sir."

"Nnngh!" Anderson shoved Rexxin back and heaved, pulling at his hair again. "Don't tell me what is or isn't dangerous. What is or isn't deadly! What is or isn't…isn't…b-b-beautiful….." He sauntered over towards a bookcase and leaned against it with his crossed arms. He looked like he was on the brink of sobbing. "I know beauty. I built it all for beauty. I deserve more." He pounded his fist against the bookcase and hissed. "I **deserve more!**"

The bodyguards shifted uncomfortably.

Rexxin cleared his throat, running a shaking hand through his red-highlighted hair. "The students. The ones from Mexico. Word is that two shuttles full of exchanged students showed up at the downtown police department. It must have been shortly before the fiery explosion that they went off."

"It must have been because and **only** because I have an incompetent security team….," Anderson slurred, frowning at Rexxin over his shoulder.

Rexxin clenched his jaw. He stood silent and still, but his free knuckles clenched tightly.

"Sir…I am sorry for what you've lost…but there're more important things right now," Rexxin managed to grumble. His voice rose in urgency as he frowned and said: "The four that we sent out have all but torn Las Vegas apart in their 'mission'. Word is in that Intergang's forces are thrown and torn left and right in a path of destruction leading north from Caesar's Palace to the Stratosphere. The police and fire squads are crawling all over The Strip. Triangular may be able to squelch some of the information and hide some of the evidence—but—sooner or later the heat is going to track this debacle here. I suggest we send some men out and try to bring the four back so we can work out something about all this! I mean, this is insane!"

As Rexxin rambled on, an eerie light sparkled back in Anderson's eyes. He lifted his head, stood up straight, and smiled dreamily towards the walls of the room.

"The four….the warriors….of course….heheheh…," he smiled a freakish grin and shook his head. "Of course…of course….of course! It's one of them! It has to be!"

"Sir?"

Anderson adjusted his robe and glared off into the shadows of the room. "Oh, they've done their job already. Somehow, I can feel it. They'll come here and they'll ask to get into the Vault. And I will do my part in granting them what I want."

"Sir, how can we go with the original plan now? If Dagger or Luthor find out about this—"

"We're doing exactly what we've been told to do….," Anderson hissed. He straightened his hair and then adjusted his robe with a grin. "And I will see to it that the task appointed me is complete. Utterly…. Anderson's eyes narrowed. "Down to the last bone…."

"What do you have in mind, sir?"

"What I've always had in mind. Only now….it's personal," Anderson cooed. He giggled. A sideways crack of his neck and a slight twist to his pupils. He blinked back to a grinning stare towards the ground and hugged himself. "The late firestarter has an accomplice. Tonight….he will be mine. From the inside…..outttttt…." And he twisted his fingers with a high-pitched giggle.

Rexxin gulped.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ding!

I hobbled out—and jerked to a stop.

Black eyes blinking under my goggles.

Hull and Wildebeest stood.

Wildebeest had his arms folded.

Hull held Bluescythe and was glaring.

Both looked at me and the briefcase in my grasp.

_How did they……?_

"…..," I swiftly jerked into a fighting stance. CHIIIING! TH-TH-THWISH! I held Myrkblade out and pointed at them. Teeth bearing.

_Allright. Let's finish this……_

Wildebeest snorted indignantly.

I blinked under my goggles. My lips parted.

"Lower the sword, Mr. Noir…," Hull droned. "It's okay."

"…….."

'_Snkkkt……hmmm. I think I know where this is going……'_

I swallowed.

'_Still, be watchful.'_

"None of us will be taking the briefcase in alone," Hull muttered. A beat. He glanced at Wildebeest, then at me. "But if we do it together…."

"………," I glared.

"I don't want the girl," he said. He pointed at Wildebeest and then at me. "But you two do. How you work it out is between you two. But at this rate, none of us will make it inside the Vault alive. And I'm sure you know where I stand on all this." He finished with a knowing glint in his eyes.

I exhaled. A slight content curve to my lips.

I looked over at Wildebeest.

He stared back at me, white eyes thin.

I holstered Myrkblade. I swiftly hand-signed: _'Can I trust you not to turn me into cud right away?'_

Wildebeest whinnied. His lips curved into a furry grin. A proud snort.

I smirked back at him.

'_Snkkkt—Boys will be boy. You can believe that I relate, right?'_

I rubbed my skin beneath the ear where the communicator crackled.

Exhaling.

_You're not such a loser, Messenger. Keep cool……_

I slowly, hesitantly marched forward. Wildebeest and Hull parted ways some. Together, the three of us walked down to the large wooden doors of Anderson's office.

Gladly minus an annoying reptile.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………," Anderson sat at his desk. His hands held together. His usually liquid-serene face hard and straight. He stared patiently, quizzically at us.

Rexxin and about twelve body guards stood on the sides of the room. They seemed a little too nervous for their own good. Or our own good. Or anyone and everyone's good.

Wildebeest, Hull, and I stood before the desk. I was in the center. Wildebeest was to my right. Hull was to my left. I glanced at them. I took a deep breath. I lifted the briefcase, placed it on the desktop, and slid it quietly over to Anderson.

"…..," he looked at the briefcase. Then up at us. "You are….?"

"We're bringing it in together," Hull droned.

Anderson's eyes thinned.

Wildebeest snorted and folded his arms…as always.

"All three of us," Hull said, as if needing to clarify. "We want into the Vault."

"……..," Anderson smiled his trademark, eerie span of teeth. "But of course…," he cooed. He dragged the briefcase a few more inches towards him. He whistled and snapped a finger at Rexxin.

Rexxin pointed at a guard.

The thug walked over and produced a spark tool. He handed it to Anderson.

Anderson nimbly twirled it, and flipped the switch. _Flash!_ He guided the flaring object across the locks of the mechanism. Melting and snapping them one by one.

Hull's breath was shallow.

Wildebeest's eyes thinned.

I shifted a bit where I stood. The bruises, scrapes, and sweat from three days of collective mayhem weighed down on my battered self.

Anderson kept meticulously slicing open the leather briefcase.

'_Hmmm……making the primary incision……snkkkt'_

My lips quivered.

'_Steady……dry……palms……don't sneeze……'_

I bit my lip. My nostrils flaring.

_Dammit. Don't make me snicker at a time like this!_

'_Hehehehe……'_

_I swear, does he hear my thoughts or not—_?

Flash! _Creeeak!_ The last lock melted away. Anderson swiftly opened the briefcase. He stared inside. A beat. Another beat. He smiled.

The three of us relaxed a bit more.

Rexxin too.

Jacob Anderson looked up. A soft grin on his softer face. "It's here…," he purred. He swiveled the open briefcase around some and showed it to us at double-arm's length. "Property of Intergang. Now property of yours truly." A pretty wink. "Good job."

The three of us looked.

My black eyes narrowed beneath my goggles.

A sea of Styrofoam or some other soft material cradled a crystal-clear cylinder of sorts. It was a flimsy five inches long, and the transparent center of it was pierced with cross-hatches of what looked like computer chips. It seemed like a….key to insert into something.

'_Don't get your hopes up. That's not the thing that'll take us to Terra.'_

I took a deep breath.

'_Kinda interesting looking though, isn't it?'_

My black eyes darted around the room under stationary goggles.

_Messenger, where in the Hell __**are**__ you……?_

"Make that the last time you ever see it…," Anderson said. He closed the cylinder shut tight inside the briefcase and handed it to one of Rexxin's men. He said to Rexxin: "Make sure it's sent to Metropolis right away. I owe Luthor that, at least."

"Yes, sir."

Anderson turned and faced us, his hands folded together as he grinned. "Gentlemen….you have just seen the richest 'exchange' in Las Vegas in a long, long time. And I owe that to you. That cylinder will fit in a nice, comfortable place thanks to you."

"I'd pay to see that," Hull droned.

Wildebeest snorted. A slight curve to his lips.

"……," Anderson's smile teetered on the brink. He was faking something. I could see it. "I bet you must have a lot of pride to talk to me that way…," he cooed. "Does killing people in a cramped arena make you feel more complete?"

"Does it make you orgasm?" Hull asked.

I flinched.

Anderson let out a flippant laugh.

Hull glared: "I tire of redundant statements."

Anderson stopped laughing. A beat. "Hmmm…."

**SLAM!**

The guards jolted. Rexxin's hand reached to his holster.

We all looked at Wildebeest, who had his fists resting hard on the edge of the desk. He blew out of his nostrils and glared.

A beat.

"Right…..," Anderson adjusted his robe. He stood up. "….rather impatient now, are we?"

I took a deep breath.

'_Wait for it………'_

He slowly turned. He shuffled towards the blank wall.

"Very well….," his hand reached into his pocket. He cradled the remote in dainty fingers. "……prepare to be rewarded."

Hull leaned his head to the side. Glaring.

Wildebeest leaned forward, anxious.

Cl-Click!

_WHURRRRRR-__**SCHLACK!**_

The wood panels of the office's wall parted ways and the pale complexion of the Herculean Vault's huge, hulking door was revealed.

I gulped.

Anderson gazed back at us. A liquid smile. He turned and aimed the remote again.

Click.

Lights blinked all across the front of the structure. Blinking red and black and green and then solid green. A dozen vibrations and clicking noises announced over two hundred security devices being shut off from the inside out.

A second pressing of the remote.

Beep!

_**TWISH!-HISSSSSSS!-WHURRRRR—CHTUNG!**_

Steam frothed out as the huge lid of the Vault opened upward. It was a slow, agonizing process. Even more agonizing to watch. I felt like a criminal for the first time there. Waiting for the womb of some undefiled plunder to show itself before me. I was hungry almost for something I couldn't touch or see. It was a disgusting feeling. Like bloodlust. Greed. I had to remind myself…

_This is for Terra. _

_This is for Terra._

I glanced nervously / sideways at Wildebeest.

He stared at the Vault just as hungrily. Just as determined.

I fought back the shivers.

_For Terra……_

**CLANG!**

The door locked into place.

Anderson stepped forward once more and pressed his remote a fourth time.

Click!

Lights flickered on.

A kitchen-sized compartment resided in. Made of pure white panels. It was like the inside of a computer-manufacturing cleanroom, in some slightly claustrophobic way.

'_This is it. Cross your metal fingers.'_

I did.

Anderson smiled at us. "Step on in….," he purred. He looked over our shoulders at the guards and nodded.

Rexxin and the thugs nodded back. They crowded up behind us.

Hull, Wildebeest, and I huddled together some.

Anderson stepped straight into the Vault.

I followed.

Then Hull and Wildebeest.

Then the guards.

We filed in like perfect little school children, leaving the office behind us barren.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I thought of Raven first.

How happy she was the last time I saw her.

Well, maybe not happy.

But 'content'.

In my head, I envisioned her cuddling in the embrace of Cyborg.

His titanium arms swallowing her up.

And it didn't bother me in the least.

They fit in with each other like yin and yang.

A tiny niche between the friction of the Spectrum.

I thought of Cyborg's dark skin.

How it seemed colder than the metal shell I saw last before leaving for the West.

He couldn't get himself fixed, and he couldn't believe himself.

He was lost, and the more he felt lost the more he hid in Raven's shadow.

And then there was Beast Boy.

His smiles were falling by the wayside like loose grain from a ripped sack.

His voice grew deeper and deeper.

Not with testosterone or with growth.

But a different kind of a maturity.

A "beast" that was losing its "boy".

Huddled alone and cold and contemplative in the dark corner of desert-themed room.

Starfire was holding him.

Starfire was strong.

Starfire was smiling, but it was a different sort of grin.

A smile more akin to stone and mountainside than wind or Sunny breeze.

A lot had died in the City, but Starfire had lived.

She lived for her friends.

She lived for the Earth.

Her beloved little oasis in the chaos of the galaxy.

And Tempest was drifting away.

His dark eyes turning darker and yet unyielding to the demonic violet of his past.

He sobbed and sighed and smiled all at once.

And for a moment, I thought he would explode.

And he had nobody to lean on.

For he had been rejected for the very same thing that liberated him: common sense.

And awkwardly gracious compassion.

And all the Titans—like shadows—settled and slept beneath the feet of her.

Her….with her stone still hair.

Her glazed granite eyes.

A gaping mouth of pain and overwhelming shock.

The tiny life nestled in the crust of her unseen womb.

Terra weighed on us all.

Miles apart or arms enclosed.

I felt the breaths and heard the voices of them all.

Like a waterfall in my head.

Cascading and splashing off everything these black eyes saw.

As I finally stepped into and explored the Vault.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Everything was white. Brightly lit. And blinding. It was a struggle for me to keep my black eyes wide open under the goggles. I finally resorted to closing my lids almost the entire way and just using spatial sense to guide myself in after Anderson.

And yet, when I entered the thick of the Herculean Vault and the footsteps of everyone gathered around me in echoing cadence, I finally gave in.

And I looked.

I looked at the glittering, gold treasures on white shelves.

I looked at the strange, silver guns on glass pedestals.

I looked at the glowing cylinders of metaphysical energy. Priceless paintings. Medieval antiques. Unimaginably expensive looking jewelry. Technological remotes, fiberoptics, boxes, cubes, crystals. What looked like a half-bird, half-dinosaur fossil. A black-and-white photo of the JFK assassination from an angle I had never seen before. A lock of jet black hair besides a plaque with a nazi swastika on it. A velvet, burgundy bag with a Catholic cross embroidered on it with gold and seemingly housing something. Glowing green rocks that absolutely had to be Kryptonite. A shattered, golden angel with wings stretching out and connected to another pair of severed wings. A huge, gray slab of stone with English grass stains on it. A thick sphere of plastic transparency housing a copper-red clump of rusty rock. An elaborate, Egyptian face mask. And even a jar of preserving fluid containing a dismembered hand that….did not look human.

As I gazed about the white room full of stolen treasure, Hull and Wildebeest beside me were likewise gazing around. Wildebeest seemed to be searching for the same thing that I was. Hull—in the meantime—seemed to have found his aim. His eyes locked onto something. And I soon realized it was the velvety purple bag with the Catholic cross from earlier. And that made me curious…

'_Snkkt—it's not that far from you, Noir.'_

I jolted a bit. I held a hand rather conspicuously over my communicator ear. I didn't think much at the time of how it must have looked.

'_The Key. It's there somewhere.'_

My black eyes swam around the white shelves, the plastic-clear stands, the white walls, the whiteness….the whiteness….the whiteness…..

'_The Key is flat. It is gray. It'll look like a huge, titanium, 'floppy disk' but with grooves and parts that light up along the curved side.'_

I looked and looked and looked.

And….

My lips parted.

Over in the corner.

Behind Anderson.

Almost shrouded in the darkness.

Was Terra's Key.

And as I turned and glanced to my right some…

I realized that Wildebeest was scanning the opposite side of the white interior with his thinning eyes.

_And he hasn't seen it yet……_

I considered quite adamantly teleporting over, grabbing the key, and practically blurring my way bloodily through as many guards and thugs as I could just to get out of that whole damn building with what I sweat and toiled over to touch when

"Behold, the holiest of holies, gentlemen…," Anderson said. He trotted across the room with an obscenely cute sway of his body and approached a two-handled, gray device situated in the center of the Vault's far wall. "…few can enter here to see this place. And even fewer live to make use of it. Consider you three very…very lucky…."

I bit my lip.

'_Here comes the hitch.'_

_Yeah……_

I nervously glanced at the guards.

They all had their hands to their holsters.

As if preparing for a sudden explosion.

A sudden explosion that they knew about.

That the Messenger knew about.

That Hull and Wildebeest may or may not have been oblivious to.

And that I was now suddenly and heart-racingly suspended in.

There was a stomping sound behind us.

Startled, Hull and Wildebeest immediately spun around.

I was a bit slower in rotating to glance out the entrance to the Vault.

Killer Croc marched up and stood—heaving—by Rexxin's side. His muscles were scraped and cut in a dozen places. Only by sheer brute strength did he suffer the fall from so high and survive my jump-kick. He curled his fingers and snarled…mostly at me. And yet—despite the sharp stinging sensation of his surprise entrance—he did not make a move to kill me. Or any of the other two. He simply stood his ground.

_Like a good little soldier._

"I see…..they all made it here….without me….," Killer Croc sneered.

Anderson chuckled, running his hands over the gray device he stood before. "Oh, you were quite useful in the long run, my good lizard. You were the hardcore, raw violence that drove these three here. The briefcase is now in my hands, thanks to you. Thanks to them. Thanks to everything."

Wildebeest started to growl and clench his teeth.

Hull slowly turned and glared at Anderson. "So what have you concocted…?" he droned. "What is the trick that has all three of us screwed in the end? What plan have you worked out with your love-partner here?" He pointed at Killer Croc.

"_Hresssssssh……"_

I was shivering. I couldn't help it. I saw the signs of this setup from long ago. Mostly thanks to the Messenger. But even Hull seemed—however slightly and without admittance—to be somewhat in the dark about this revelation. And that scared me. It scared me to think that this perfect stranger suddenly knew a little less than he seemed built to facilitate.

Anderson merely smiled. "I'm not that brilliant of a man, Mr. Hull. Merely lucky." He gripped the gray device and turned around. He aimed it at us. "What truly brought you here is not so much my deceptiveness as it is your pathetic, stubborn wills. Here all three of you are…having braved death and beat-downs and expulsion to reach this destination. You are the only three crazy enough to have gone this far. And that can only mean one thing. You are collectively—yet uniquely motivated in undermining everything that my allies and I stand for. You seek to do that which will shatter the very foundation of the strongest criminal organization in this hemisphere. Dagger chose me in particular long, long ago to watch over this City. To set up a tournament that would attract you. To lure you in with the Herculean Vault. I had no clue until I saw you just who Dagger was concerned with. But I am quite sure he knew. And he was right. All along, he was right. Dagger's conspicuous enemies have gathered here. And it is now my job to do-away with you."

Wildebeest sneered.

Hull was silent.

Anderson whistled. He motioned with his head towards the far corner of the room.

Rexxin nodded. As Killer Croc and the other guards held us at bay, the red-headed security head marched across the vault—and to our collective fear—picked up the Key. The Key to Terra.

Wildebeest shook.

Hull's eyes narrowed.

My fists clenched.

_Damn!_

Anderson walked towards us with the device. "Take the Key, Rexxin. We'll be relocating it once these three are taken care of. Dagger no longer needs to be separated from it. It's done its job by staying here."

Hull eyed the device in Anderson's hand. He droned: "What is that? A newfangled sex toy?"

"Heheheheheh….unfortunately not," Anderson winked. "This…is the product of years of toil under Luthor's scientific funding. After many, many blueprints and technical specs were stolen from S.T.A.R. Labs, an exact duplicate of Superman's Phantom Zone Projector now rests within Triangular's grasp. And now I'll have the pleasure of testing it out on you three."

Wildebeest whinnied. His white eyes blinked wide, shocked.

Hull glared. "You think that thing will send us to the Phantom Zone……"

"Mmmmmhmmmm….it's a rather torturous place, according to the notes taken by Dr. Emil Hamilton. Impossibly strung up between dimensions. A surreality of chaos in and of itself. Once you three are in the Phantom Zone, you will know nothing but torment in limbo until Dagger or Luthor or any of the Gothamites of Triangular decide to drag you back into this world. And depending on how long we leisurely choose to take—heheheheh—I'm quite sure the torture will be succinct enough to break even the most iron wills among you. Eventually, Dagger's biggest enemies will become his most faithful servants."

'_The Phantom Zone……hehehehehe—snkkkt!'_ the Messenger's voice crackled. _'People have such cute words for the Middleverse.'_

I shivered.

'_Stay strong, Noir. You're not alone.'_

My black eyes darted around the white room full of enemies.

'_You're not alone………'_

"……."

"So was that your plan?" Hull seethed at Anderson in the meantime. "To summon Triangular's biggest conspiring enemies and suck us into the Phantom Zone so that we'd convert over to your infernal side?"

"I had no plan besides that which was given to me," Anderson cooed. "I merely just wanted to have fun on the side." His teeth showed in a gnashing hiss. "And oh what an unpleasant thing it was to find my heavenly domain in flames this evening…."

I gulped. He was glaring straight at me.

"How incessantly annoying that I have to preserve the one ruthless fighter here who was once a Titan….," Anderson growled. An evil smile. "I assure you, Mr. Snow-White, once you are ejected from the Hell awaiting for you….there's nothing that will hold you back from _killing_ when Mr. Dagger and his successors tell you to."

I wanted to chop his head off then and there.

But I knew I wouldn't….

GRIP!

A scaly hand on my left shoulder.

I looked up.

A drooling Killer Croc loomed over me. "How about I just take a bite out of Jr.'s neck here? Hressssh….," he licked his sharp jaws and exhaled: "I don't like 'em anymore than you do, Pops."

"I hate to refuse torture….torture that bleeds, that is…," Anderson shrugged. He clicked a button on the Projector. He aimed the glowing device at us. Humming. "Still…running on Dagger's path….I shouldn't have to feel too bad." His eyes thinned from a wide, cheeky grin. "They say you can hear screaming through the portal if you concentrate hard enough."

"You know….not all of us are after the girl of stone…," Hull said.

Rexxin glance between the denim-clad-stranger and Anderson.

Wildebeest was shifting nervously, panicky.

Anderson chuckled. "Are you trying to make an excuse to escape your imprisonment?"

Hull slowly shook his head. "I'm simply telling you what to keep in mind when my blade's sinking into your throat."

FLASH!

Hull's Bluescythe appeared.

Guards shouted and trained laser-targeted pistols at his forehead.

Hull raised the blade. He angled it from afar at Anderson. He froze in such a position, red lights dancing all about him.

I panted, watching.

Wildebeest shuddered.

"Cute attempt to frighten me…," Anderson said. He stretched the Phantom Zone Projector out at full length. "…but I tend to like blades."

"You're really going to be liking mine, then…," Hull said. "…after I get what I came for."

"My good sir, you are outnumbered. How young and foolish can you be?"

"You'd be surprised."

"Hrmphh. You're worst than the former Titan there," Anderson breathed. "What is it with you youthful butt-kickers and your incessant belief in stopping something that is inevitable? The battle Triangular is having with the Parasite is none of your concern. You should have left Death be. Death is the only retribution for each and every one of us."

"The Reaper is but the beginning….," Hull spoke. "Even if the sky were to turn red…an aviary painted crimson….there're things to be feared in a bleeding earth. Terribly, cosmic, frightening things."

"You don't know fear…," Anderson fingered the Projector's trigger. "…not yet."

'_Now for the fun part……'_

"?" I leaned my head to the side.

FL-FLASH!

FLASH!

Two girls suddenly appeared on either side of Wildebeest with an unfolding of bright light.

Pulsade held out a shotgun in one hand and an uzzi in the other. She trained the shotgun at Anderson's skull and the uzzi at the guards.

"Allright! Freeze! The first bloke who moves loses something his mummy gave 'em!"

Naturally, at least two guards gasped, aimed their guns at the two girls, and pulled at the trigger.

Jinx saw them. "HAAAA!" She launched a wave of pink.

P-POW! The two pistols exploded from the hex. The thugs gripped their wrists and winced.

Killer Croc snarled and marched towards the two.

CHIIIIING! I held a smoking Myrkblade to his neck.

The reptilian mutant froze, suddenly sweating.

Guards around me planted pistols and uzzis into the back of their neck.

GRIP! GRIP!

Wildebeest held two of the very same gunmen's necks with his meaty fists. They gasped and sputtered.

Rexxin shouted an order and aimed a gun at Wildebeest in one hand while carrying the Key in the other.

_SHVVVV-CLACK!_

Bluescythe stopped at the base of Rexxin's throat.

Rexxin sweat.

Hull glared, holding his sword out at the security leader's throat while guns were trained on him along with the Phantom Zone Projector.

Heated, sweaty silence.

The room had suddenly become a nervously quiet cobweb of Pulsade aiming guns at guards and Anderson who was aiming the projector at Hull who had his Bluescythe trained on Rexxin's neck who had his men aiming at Wildebeest who was gripping two thugs who were threatening me who was about to rip Killer Croc's neck apart who was preparing to charge Jinx who was keeping the guns and bullets at bay with her illuminating, pink hex.

I glanced through my goggles at Jinx.

Jinx's cat eyes darted across the way at Wildebeest.

Wildebeest looked at Rexxin.

Rexxin eyed Pulsade wearily.

Pulsade's eyes narrowed on Killer Croc.

Killer Croc's mucous green eyes trained on Hull.

Hull kept glaring at Anderson.

Anderson took a deep breath in the middle of the standoff inside the claustrophobic, white Vault and uttered: "All right." He smiled calmly. "So…it begs the question." He glanced over liquidly at Jinx and Pulsade. "Who in the beautiful blazes are you two?"

"Enough with the gallivanting about, you bloody pillock!" Pulsade hissed. "Now have your salmon-headed sod over there hand over the Key or else it's sixes and sevens for the whole lot of you!"

Killer Croc slurred. "Err…..huh?"

"That's British for 'you're all screwed if you don't cough over the key to Terra'!" Jinx cackled. Her hands glowed a brighter pink with emphasis.

Wildebeest snorted.

Rexxin hissed, sweating onto Bluescythe's metal while he kept his one gun outstretched. "This is a trap! Some stupid freaks have been following these three the whole time! Probably some rejects from H.I.V.E.!"

"You bite your tongue…," Pulsade hissed. "Or I'll rip it out for you."

"Okay, who ordered the psycho bitches from Hell!" Killer Croc hissed.

I intensified the warbling smoke at the end of my sharp sword, frowning at Croc.

"So you want the Key too?" Anderson looked aside at the blonde assassin and pink sorceress amidst the shaking, tense weapon 'exchange'. "Dear madame, the infamous lady of stone is far within Dagger's grasp. Not even these three could have had any chance of retrieving her."

Wildebeest sneered.

"We'll decide that for ourselves!" Jinx frowned. "Now unless you want your yucky guts splattered all over that yuckier robe of yours, you're gonna give us what we want!"

I saw the key in Rexxin's hands. I imagined the throwing distance between it and Jinx and Pulsade and Wildebeest. I bit my lip and—for a second—contemplated a mad teleport across the room full of weapon toting standoffers to grab the key

"Hresssssh….the Boss is not gonna be down with this!" Killer Croc sneered, his green eyes glancing down at my blade against his neck. "Come on…we can take these losers!"

"Shut up…," Rexxin panted against Bluescythe.

"Your move, man! Shoot the blonde and I'll bite that little pink pixie's head off—"

"I said shut up, you god damn freak! Jesus!" Rexxin panted. "Don't you punk kids know who you're screwing with! Dagger is going to be roasting your ovaries over an open fire if you so much as think that you can—"

"Dagger is a mere man. And trailing his pathetic arse is something far more Deadly than even his dark arts can counter…," Pulsade glared. She kept aiming her guns unshakingly at her targets. "The Parasite is far more dangerous than the proverbial intestine we're all marinating in. You think this is a powder keg waiting to go off? None of us are prepared—even in the slightest—to face the Destruction of Red Aviary."

"Red Aviary!"

"The fudge is that! Hresssh…."

"You speak of myths, child…," Anderson frowned finally. "I find it amusing that you are all so delusional. It'll be a pleasure to toss you into the torturous zone along with these other wastes of breath."

"You go ahead and do that, pal!" Jinx squealed. "Ever been castrated with your own, dislodged teeth before? It's quite a noble experience. By the whim of Hecate, maybe I can give you a little sampler!"

"Rghhh!"

"Sir, we have to do something…"

"Quiet, Rexxin, Quiet…."

"I am so going to bite your little estrogen heads off!"

"Why, you're an upstart lizard-shagger, aren't you? Give it your best shot, mate. I'll give you my best shot. Clean through your bloomin' spine."

"Sir, we have to take them out now."

"I'm quite aware of that, Rexxin. I'm quite aware."

"Listen, you stupid-heads! We just want the Key! Give it to Wildebeest, and we'll leave like good little girls and their farming cow!"

"If you just think that Anderson would hand that over and jeopardize all of Pompeii and Triangular too—"

"You have nothing to think of, Yank. Your head will be off soon if you don't shut up."

"Rghhhressssh! I'm going to tear you all apart! I swear to Jehosophat!"

"No, you're not! You there! Give us the bloody Key!"

"Even if you took the key, girl, the rest of my forces in this building would eradicate you."

"Nuh uh! Pulsade could kill all of them! Isn't that right, Pulsade?"

"Jinx…a little more concentration on the fisticuffs here…."

"On the count of three, sir, I'm giving my men the order to open fire."

"Rexxin…."

"One—"

"Your life is as good as over, punk!"

"Two!"

"You frickin' idiot! I've got a sword to my throat! You've got a sword to your throat!"

"Three—"

A clearing throat.

Everyone was silent.

They all looked over at the one who made the utterance.

Hull still had his exotic sword trained at Rexxin's nervous throat. He glared at everyone with hard blue eyes and said: "I can tell that the rest of you will gladly kill yourselves for that Key. I, on the other hand, am here for something entirely different."

Killer Croc blinked. "You want something else from the Vault?"

"Ehh?" Jinx sweatdropped.

"Naturally…," Hull said. "And seeing how nobody is yet threatening anyone about it, I feel it is high time I raise the stakes a little."

I sweated nervously as I watched him flex his free arm out and flick his wrist.

FLASH!

Beep-Beep-Beep!

A black cylinder the size of a mayonnaise jar rested in the palm of Hull's hand. It blinked all along the length of its dull-dark body. A computerized ticking sound came from it.

"This….," Hull said gracefully as he held the device for all to see. "…is a compressed, carbonite explosion. It's not big enough to take out an entire building, but I assure you it can and will incinerate an entire room."

There was a collective shudder through all of us. I in particular had a hard time holding onto my sword. A shiver flew up my spine at the sound and sight of carbonite, and I thought of…

_Robin……_

"I've been keeping it in secret storage inside myself until now," he said. "While you're all killing each other for the Key, I'll swiftly kill everyone entirely if I don't get what I want. How's that for a proposal?"

Rexxin sneered.

Killer Croc blinked.

Pulsade's eyes narrowed as she muttered: "Always the upstart one. H.I.V.E. merely magnified what was in you, Michael."

"I'm not Michael anymore….," Hull muttered. "And soon….we will all be dead."

He let there be a fit of silence.

Then Hull finished with a growling voice: "Give…me…what…I…want…."

"What is it that you want, punk!" Killer Croc hissed.

Hull motioned with his head over at the velvety satchel with the Catholic cross on it. "You give it. I take it. I leave. The rest of you can do whatever the Hell you want with each other. But—to be honest—fighting amongst yourselves will more than likely preserve more lives than ever refusing me. This is your situation. I give you ten seconds to consider it."

"You freakin' selfish son of a—" Rexxin sweated.

"That item you seek is too priceless," Anderson frowned. "Even for you."

"You've got three seconds now," Hull hissed.

"Give it to him!" Jinx squealed. "Give it to him already!"

Wildebeest grumbled.

"Calm down, Jinx….," Pulsade hissed.

"One second…," Hull sneered.

Everyone shivered.

I charged up smoke and contemplated dashing towards Hull instead.

Anderson fingered the button on the Phantom Zone projector.

"For the love of God! Someone do something!"

_ZAAAT!_

A green flash of light inside the Vault.

I blinked.

_What? Ah jeez……_

"Well hello there!" the Messenger waved. He sat cross-legged and petite on a white counter to the far side of the Vault. "Hope I'm not interrupting anything!" he happily bubbled.

Jinx blinked her cat eyes.

Hull paused in the middle of his destructive threat. He looked over at the Messenger with thin, inquisitive eyes.

I bit my lip.

"Okay…now who in the Hell are you!" Rexxin shuddered.

"I'm the Hell in a good mood, do you know why?"

"…….."

"Cause I'm gonna be leaving this stupid City soon. I and my pal Wyldecarde there! But first, I gotta take care of something first." He cleared his throat and looked over. "Hey there! Handsome!"

I craned my neck.

The Messenger giggled. "Not you…"

I blushed.

"The other handsome!"

Killer Croc blinked. "Hressh?"

"Wanna show you something…," and with that, the Messenger whipped out a small, metal briefcase. "Look what I found in your boss' cubbyhole when you weren't there!" He opened the briefcase.

And Killer Croc gasped. His green eyes wide. His entire body shaking.

There were two normal slots inside the briefcase for green-colored syringes to go. But those two slots were quite evidently—as observed by everyone in that room—empty of all Dragonflare.

"It's gone…."

Anderson's lips parted. "How did!"

"It's gone…….," Killer Croc's razor sharp teeth showed.

Rexxin panted. "Uhm…..not good."

Croc's eyes flickered green. He hissed and started to shake all over in a biological rage. "What….d-did you…do with it!"

"I…I…," Anderson looked like the ghost had left him. With a pale expression and a shaking of the Projector in his grasp, he looked Rexxin's way. "….I-I thought I had that locked up in my safe!"

"It wasn't in the Vault, sir! Someone must have gotten to it!"

"Hressssssssh….," Killer Croc started to convulse and twitch in violent bloodlust. "You….ch-cheated me…..I want that stuff. I want that stuff NOW!"

Anderson was breathless.

The Messenger smiled. He clapped the briefcase closed and leaned back casually on his hands. "Well, now that that's over with. Who's for lunch? I hear that there's this great place for a Cuban sandwich just south of the strip joints—"

"HRESSSSSH-RED! Give it back to me! Give it back!"

"Croc, get a hold of yourself!" Rexxin panted. "For God's sake, this is not the place for—"

"RRSSSSSH!" Killer Croc meatedly backhanded me in the chest.

THWUMP!

I fell with Myrkblade through the streams of guns' laser targeting.

Holding my breath.

_This is it_

"Jinx! Ground 'em!" Pulsade shouted.

"HAAAA!" Pink streams flew.

Killer Croc dove at Anderson.

The pink energy hit the ground and caused two guards to fall.

Three others fired. BL-BLAM!

From the floor, I madly slashed Myrkblade up with a field of smoke and deflected the shots. CL-CLANG!

Wildebeest grunted and tossed the thugs in his grasp at Killer Croc.

WHAM! All of them collided in mid-air and slid into Anderson.

"OOF!" Anderson fell down hard.

The Projector hit the floor. CL-CLANK! _ZZZZZZZT!_ A bright stream of hot-gray energy surged across the room and enveloped three guards at once.

"AAAAAAAAAAA" _ZWOOOOSH!_ In a bright, blinding pulse they were projected torturously into the Phantom Zone.

Pulsade let out a shout and dove across the floor of the Vault. She fired with her uzzi and shotgun in mid-air.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Four guards fell down bloodily, their bodies being pelted all over with lead spray.

Rexxin screamed.

Hull gritted his teeth and shoved the man forward—THWUMP!—into Wildebeest.

The security head and bovine warrior went falling.

The key fell out of Rexxin's grasp and slid across the floor.

Jinx and I gasped and dove for it—colliding into each other. "OOF!" "!" We collapsed on the floor under a ricocheting rain of bullet shell fragments.

BL-BLAM! RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Priceless paintings and technical devices on translucent stands all around were shot to shreds. The walls of the Vault formed dirty bullet holes.

Hull slid over to the velvet bag. He picked it up, hoisted it over his shoulder, and swiftly tossed the carbonite explosive across the room.

THWOOOSH!

The Messenger smiled and leap-frogged off the side of the Vault. "I got it!" He dove for the carbonite.

Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeep!

Just as the fiery explosion went off, the Messenger gripped its shattering shell and swallowed it up with a green teleport.

_ZAAAT! _

_SHWUP!_

He was gone.

My mouth exploded in a sharp gasp.

_Messenger!_

Killer Croc got up, snarled, and gripped Pulsade from behind.

Pulsade dropped her weapons and struggled in the huge reptile's muscular grasp.

"Leslie!" Jinx shouted. She jumped up to her booted feet and formed a blade of hex energy. CHIIIING! "Let her go, you creep!"

"Hressssh! R-Red!" he prepared to bite down into her shoulder.

"No!"

Pulsade gritted her teeth and held out hot, glowing hands. "Lights out, everyone! Lights out!"

I gasped and clamped my hands over my goggles.

_**FLASSSSSSSSH!**_

No manner of shutting or blocking my solid black eyes could ever perfectly spare me from the tormenting brightness that Pulsade could produce.

I knelt on the ground, panting. Smelling the rusted scent of blood and smoking lead rising up all around the small, heated room. I kept myself blinded, summoning the smoke energy to feel about the room and 'see' with my spatial sense.

_The Messenger…… _

_He………He……_

I forced myself to concentrate.

I stretched a metal hand out.

With shifting waves of smoke.

I felt the bodies on the floor.

Some living.

Most dead.

I sensed Rexxin. He was beating. Living. But unconscious. I felt around the floor with smoke senses for the Key. But I couldn't find it.

And…

I couldn't find Anderson either.

There was a colliding sound. Like muscle against muscle. Fist against skin. I heard a further scuffle, then an interchange of Killer Croc hissing and Wildebeest snorting and I knew that they were duking it out.

And…

_Hull?_

_Where was he?_

GRIP!

Someone or something was tugging my arm.

A dainty, desperate grasp.

"!" I exhaled and found myself being dragged to my feet and out of the Vault.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

And soon, I felt it was safe to open my eyes.

So I did so, and through my goggles I saw Jinx pulling me to the side of Anderson's office.

She looked at me with desperate, pink optics and wrung her frilled hands. "He took off with it! I couldn't stop him!"

I panted.

_Who? _

_Hull with that bag? _

_But why would we need to_

"Anderson! That stupid baka's got the Key! He ran off with it!"

I heard fighting sounds.

I looked behind me and saw Wildebeest and Killer Croc locking limbs and going at it inside the Vault.

I gripped Myrkblade and tried to blur over to help the bovine warrior

Jinx gripped my shoulder. "No! You gotta help us!"

I looked at her.

My black eyes narrowed under my goggles.

I mouthed: _'Why?'_

"Cuz….cuz…j-just because! Pulsade went running around after Anderson, but she has no clue where he is! Neither do I! If any of us….ANY of us want to see Terra getting out of Dagger's hands, we gotta help each other out! Who cares if what we intend to do with the key once we get there!"

I shuddered…but nodded.

_This whole damn weak has been one existential romp right after another._

I took a deep breath.

A shiver ran up my metal limb.

_But how can I do anything now? _

_He…… _

_He died, didn't he?_

ZAAT!

The Messenger appeared to my side. Dusting his hands off. "Whew…almost had my mutation burned out of me," a wink of his asian eye. "Not to mention a few good hairs singed."

I looked at him. I gasped and smiled wide.

"Yaak!" Jinx jumped back. "Dammit, just **who** are **you** already!"

"Hehehehe. Silly lesbian, trivia is for kids." He looked over at me. "Sorry about the sudden Croc-harassing. That whole debacle in the Vault was only going to end up in flames anyways and I was bored so—"

THWUMP!

I hugged him.

The Messenger's eyes bugged. He smirked and patted my back: "Yeah, I know. You love me. But for homophobia's sake, Noir, I suggest you save it for a certain blonde girl of stone. Providing you or I poison Beast Boy first."

I stumbled back, cheeks red. I swallowed and smiled a '_thank you'._

_I've seen too many deaths lately. God help me……_

"Uhmmmm," Jinx blinked at the two of us.

The Messenger glanced over at her. "'Uhmmm' what? He's on this floor still, ya know."

Jinx gasped. "Anderson?"

"No, Balkie. Who do you think I'm talking about!" he looked at me. "I suggest you go catch him. He does—kinda sorta—ya know….have the _KEY!"_

I nodded. I twirled Myrkblade and blurred out of the room.

"Hey!" Jinx hissed and ran after me in a pink streak. "Wait up!"

The Messenger folded his arms, shook his head, and smirked. "They grow up so fast and die so..so…" A pause. "Aw heck. Forget the 'die' part."

A smacking sound.

He looked over, arms folded. "Wuh oh." ZAAT! He disappeared just as Killer Croc flew through his position and slammed into the carpeted floor.

"NNNNNGH!" Wildebeest leapt up high and flew down on the reptilian freak with a heavy fist. WHAM!

"HRESSSSSH!"

WHAM! WHAM! POW!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson ran through the hallways.

Panting.

Sweating.

His robe was disheveled.

His half-graying hair was waving every which way.

There was utter chaos and loss splashing over his face.

And yet, there was the incessant little twinge.

The curve of his furthest lip that somehow urged him on.

Hobbling through the hallways of Pompeii.

He clutched to his chest the Key to Terra.

Heavily breathing.

He reached a pair of metal doors and pressed a touchpad.

Beep-Beep-Beep!

CHT-TUNK!

Schwisssh!

The doors opened.

He hobbled in.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I ran down the hallway first, feeling with my spatial sense.

Eyes thin and concentrated behind my goggles.

My blurred legs carried us through the interior of Pompeii's upper levels.

Searching…searching…

For scampering feet. A shivering body. A sluggish soul.

Any sign of Anderson's body.

I suddenly felt four shapes run down from around the curve in the hallway towards us. But none of them were Anderson.

"There!"

"Freeze!"

"Move, and you're dead!"

Four thugs.

I took a deep breath and teleported forward—FWOOOSH! SLASH! I solidified with an upswing of Myrkblade.

THWACK! A breathless guard went sailing back through a wooden door. CRASH!

The other three aimed their guns at me from up close.

BL-BLAM! BANG! BANG!

I knelt and twirled my sword, deflecting. CL-CL-CLANK!

They shifted position and aimed at me again.

"HAAAAA!" SWOOOOSH! Jinx sailed in with a jabbing, pink blade of hex.

CH-CHIIING! She severed two pistols in the guards' grasp.

They shuddered and stumbled back.

Jinx gritted her Cheshire teeth, spun, and flew an acrobatic boot up in a sideways swipe.

WH-WHAP! She slapped the cheek of one thug with her foot and coconutted his head against the skull of the man beside him. Both fell as the fourth and final guard aimed at Jinx's chest.

BLAM!

Jinx vaulted up with a pink pulse and clung magically to the ceiling.

I dove forward.

Jinx reached a hand down.

I grabbed it with a titanium hand, swung on her grip, and deftly kicked the sole of my boot into the thug's sternum. THWAP!

The man fell back. "Nnngh!"

Three more thugs ran in from the distant elevator and stood around the fallen guard's body. They aimed their weapons at us and fired.

BL-BLAM! BANG!

I dodged two bullets, swung Myrkblade, and knocked a third back at the three.

SWIIISH-PING! One gun was deflected out of the centermost thug's grasp.

"Nnnngh!" Jinx dove down from the ceiling, flipped, planted her feet on my shoulders, and vaulted forward in a steady dive with both hands flinging hex. "HAAAAA!" FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!

The pink strobes pelted the two men on either side of the centermost thug. Their bodies ragdolled in the air from the repetitive blows of the hex, and then they collapsed.

The last man pulled out a spare pistol and loaded it.

Jinx landed from her dive and proceeded immediately to cartwheel, flip, and gymnastically vault her body towards the remaining lackey.

He aimed at gun at her just as the two converged.

Jinx performed a hand-plant at the last second, bent her upside down legs forward, and gripped the man by his neck.

THAP!

He choked for breath.

Jinx nimbly bent her legs forward again, hoisting the man by his neck over her body and back down the hallway

SWOOOOSH—WHAM! And into the blow of my charging, titanium fist.

"Ughhh—" WHUMP! The man collapsed to the floor.

Jinx flipped up to her feet.

I gripped Myrkblade, taking a deep breath.

She looked at me.

I looked at her.

She nodded.

I nodded.

"Let's keep moving…."

FWOOOOOSH!

We both blurred down the hallway in pink and black streaks.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

WHAM! Wildebeest's fist flew into Killer Croc's chest.

Grunting, the huge horned combatant gripped the reptile by the throat and flung him out of the Vault.

THWOOOOSH!

Killer Croc landed on his feet, slid backwards, and winced as he stopped.

STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!

Wildebeest charged.

Killer Croc crossed his arms.

WHAM! Wildebeest impacted Killer Croc and shoved him across the office.

Through a wall.

SMASH!

Through another room.

CRASH!

And through another wall into a security station.

Monitors and camera equipment flickered against the bodies of the two beasts as they exchanged meaty fists and butted heads and clawed and stabbed at each other.

"HRESSSHA!" Croc pounced on Wildbeest's back and prepared to bite into his neck.

Wildebeest grunted, gripped the mutant's rib cages, and tossed him over his shoulder.

Croc landed back against a network of computer cables and monitors.

Wildebeest charged.

Snarling, Killer Croc yanked a monitor off a desk via its fiberoptics and whipped it mercilessly into Wildebeest's snout. "HAAAH!" CRACK!

Wildebeest skidded to a stop, rubbing his snout painfully.

Croc lunged at him.

Wildebeest snorted and performed a last minute uppercut.

WHACK!

Croc flew up.

Hi the ceiling—THUNK!—and came crashing down into a solid wall of computer mainframes.

CRACK!

_ZZZZZZZZT!_

The electronic innards sparked all over Killer Croc, shocking him.

The freak's muscles contorted and his scaly skin burned. He let out a long, guttural scream and slumped down to his knees—groaning.

THWUMP!

He was down for the count.

Lying face-first to the floor and trailing smoke.

Wildebeest grunted….took a deep breath, and turned around to stomp out of the room.

He grinded some dust onto Killer Croc with the soles of his feet as he did so.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**WHURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-CHTUNG!**

**KLAK-KLAK!**

The huge metal doors opened to the four-story, hidden chamber of dark gray inside the top portion of Pompeii.

Anderson breathlessly hobbled in.

He limped past the glass displays of trophies.

Stolen items.

Priceless rarities from around the world.

The half-graying man stumbled to a stop.

Shivering all over.

He hugged the Key to his chest.

His eyes trailed….trailed…and trailed the room.

Until they came to rest on one thing.

One huge, hulking thing in particular.

"…….," Anderson grinned. With a breath, he pocketed the Key into his robe and awkwardly climbed a thin set of metal ladders.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HAAAA!" THWACK! FL-FLASH! WHAM!

Jinx was plowing her way through a thick guard of gunmen. They quickly collapsed across the length of the Pompeii hallway in the wake of her fateful might.

In the meantime, I ran straight ahead to a door at a dead end. Double doors. Metal.

I rammed my elbow into it.

WHAP!

It failed to budge.

I gritted my teeth.

I rammed again.

WHAM!

Nothing.

_Come on, dammit! Now's not the time to be stubborn!_

CHIIIING! I raised Myrkblade. I squinted my goggled eyes. I stabbed down directly between the touching frames of the doors.

CRACK!

I strained and pushed and cut with the sword. I pumped murk into it, trying to force the two panels open.

Straining…

_Come on……come on……_

"Ghost Boy! Hurry up!" Jinx shouted in the middle of her fight far behind me. "Get that door open before we lose the old fart!"

I hissed.

Struggling with Myrkblade against the panels.

_I'm……trying!_

I finally yanked Myrkblade back. I considered punching through the friggin' thing with my metal wrist when

FWOOOSH!

The doors opened on their own.

I stared directly into the next chamber.

And—

_**FLASH!**_

Green light.

"………….," I blinked. I suddenly realized I was sitting with my butt on the floor. I tried to get up, but I was horribly…horribly dizzy.

I winced and all but collapsed on the ground.

"Ghost Boy! Nnngh!" WHAP!

"UGH!"

I planted a hand on my forehead. I took a deep breath. And—just like that—the dizziness was gone.

I wearily stood up, shaking my head. Breathing easily.

_The Hell was that?_

I gazed into the room beyond.

Where the doors had opened on their own.

The green light was gone.

My lips parted.

_The Messenger?_

THWUMP! A final guard fell to the ground.

Jinx ran to my side, panting. Her short pink hair laced with sweat bulbs. "Good job getting the door open!"

I blinked at her.

"Uh….yeah."

"Come on!" she ran down the hallway.

I awkwardly joined her.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and I found the huge metal doors of the Hangar open.

We both ran in, surrounding ourselves in the dark gray haze of the interior.

We spun around, looking every which way.

I lifted my goggles momentarily and glared at the darkest corners.

There was no exit. No opened doors. No other way to get through the room save for how we entered.

"It's a d-dead end!" Jinx panted. "He had to have come in here, right?"

I slipped my goggles back on. I took a deep breath. I tried using spatial sense.

"Dang it, where is the numskull!" Jinx hissed and raised her fists cutely. "I am SOOOO going to kick his fanny for this and—"

She paused.

"?" I suddenly realized why.

There was a strong scent of fuel in the air. Mind numbing. Dizzying. And soon after that—

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

A deafening sound of jet engines.

"…….."

Jinx and I slowly turned.

And looked.

At the Harrier Jet.

"Ahhhh….Hecate damn…."

I bit my lip.

The room heated up to an intense friction.

The Harrier Jet was lifting up.

Its landing gear retracting.

Its cockpit full.

The aircraft pivoted with a hideous hiss and trained its nose at us.

Its wings chock full of armaments and missiles and machine guns.

Just like we—or I—remembered it having back during the 'tour'.

The silly little photo atop the table in the Shepherd Plain ranch.

_Freaki' A……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the cockpit, a robed Anderson was strapped in.

His hands flew over the controls and sticks of the vehicle with fluid grace.

Like a dozen little things washing up to him on the shores of natural memory.

He seethed, his eyes glaring.

The liquid smile of his returned sporadically in a heaving manner.

"Only I know who truly rules the roost…."

He clicked a few buttons.

Flipped some controls.

Readied the machine guns.

"….I have proven time and time again that death is merely a toy to me…."

He gripped the sticks.

He trained the targeting system on the pink and dark teens.

"…and the lives of insolent little tools of the Underworld are but dust on my wings…."

His teeth showed.

His eyes flared.

"….and I will not let you steal the roost away from me. Heheheheheheh. No….N-No. My Cousin was weak. He went down because he refused to get his hands dirty."

His fingers floated over the red buttons on either stick.

His voice hissed outward and bounced against the glass, inner-'egg' of the cockpit.

The Key in his pocket rattled.

"Heheheheheh! I am about to get so….so very dirty! Heheheheh. Give me pleasure! Give me _**PLEASURE!**_"

And he jammed the buttons down.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Jinx shrieked.

I took a breath and blurred into her.

P-P-P-PING!

Heavy caliber bullets exploded violently in the metal floor and wall where we once stood.

I dove with Jinx onto a stretch of floor beyond.

The screamingly loud Harrier rotate and pivoted about, its guns firing a streak after our tails.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

I forced Jinx to her feet as we ran around the circumference of the hidden hanger.

P-P-P-P-PING! The bullets trailed. CL-CL-CLANG! They ricocheted off metal bulkheads.

Glass displays of trophies and precious items shattered and exploded helplessly from the burning onslaught of bullets.

CRASH!

SHATTER!

CR-CRINK!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heheheheheheheh!" Anderson jammed on the controls.

He leaned over.

Hyperventilating.

His eyes round and sheen on the side-sockets with sweat.

"Fly apart, my children! FLY APART!"

He jerked on the controls, jamming the buttons again.

The whole cockpit shook.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Glass and shattered metal fell all around us.

Inexplicably, I tripped on a fallen shard and landed hard on the metal floor.

WHOMP!

Jinx gasped.

The bullets streamed out way heatedly through the air.

She planted her feet in the ground behind me, gritted her teeth, and glowed her eyes a hot pink as she shot forth her arms. "_HAAAAAAAAAA!"_

I winced.

FWOOOOOSH! The pink hex parted the incoming stream of bullets. FLASH!

The heavy caliber parted ways and exploded on either side of us. A few of them ricocheted off the back walls and bounced their way back to the Harrier Jet by sheer 'luck'.

CL-CL-CLANG!

PING!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!" Anderson bounced around in the cockpit.

One eye squinted closed, he seethed and flipped open the transparent cover to another red button. "Let me smell your roasting, succulent meat!"

Click.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**CH-CHTUNK!**

A missile on the right wing loaded into place.

Jinx's cat eyes widened and her body deflated. "Aww phooie…."

I gasped, jumped up with a pulse of murk, and grabbed the sorceress.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The missile flew at us across the claustrophobic interior.

I hoisted Jinx up to her feet and blurred the two of us off towards a far corner—

_**POW!**_

Flames erupted across the hangar.

The Harrier wobbled, its right wing contacting the floor once and sending sparks flying.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson shook again in his cockpit.

He gasped.

His eyes twitched at the bright plume of fire just beyond his cockpit and jet's nose.

As if in horror at what he had done.

"It is all crumbling….m-my beautiful roost…," he murmured.

An angry fire built into his eyes.

And just as quickly as the fury was there, it was replaced with a panicky emotion.

"I….I still have the Key…"

He fingered the tool in his pocket.

His lips shook and quivered like a random sanitarium patient.

"As long as I have the Key….it'll all be okay. I'll just…g-give it to Dagger….yes….y-yes!"

He whipped out a remote.

He aimed it at the hangar's ceiling through the cockpit.

Teeth gritting.

Sweating.

"He'll make it all better. He'll understand! These damn freaks have taken everything away! It's their fault. Not m-mine! I can get it all back. All of it! Heheheheh….all of it BACK!"

Click.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Above the closed-in flames and flickering lights.

Above the shattered debris and wrecked Hangar Floor.

Red lights started to strobe red and rotate.

A loud buzzing sound filled the already deafening chamber.

And slowly, the Hangar ceiling above began to split….and divide…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade perched atop an antenna on the rooftop of the Pompeii casino.

High above the glittering night visage of Vegas, she scanned the horizon with high-tech binoculars.

Her teeth hissed and she constantly uttered in a breathy tone:

"Bugger….Bugger all…..Damn it…."

She lowered the binoculars.

She frowned.

"Where _is_ he!"

STOMP!

Blinking, Pulsade looked down from the antenna. Her platinum wavy hair danced in the breeze.

Wildebeest had climbed up from the edge of the rooftop. He marched towards her with a slight limp.

"Killer Croc handled?"

"Nnngh…," Wildebeest shrugged as if to say 'more or less'.

"This is all going to Hell in a hand basket," she seethed. She looked out again with her binoculars. "I can't find a bloody sign of Anderson anywhere. For all I know, he could have had an exit route made underground for him by Triangular."

Wildebeest grunted, his fists clenched.

"I swear…this night couldn't possibly get any bloomin' worse—"

_CRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!_

"……….," Pulsade blinked. She glanced down with thin, sapphire eyes.

"Nrghh?" Wildebeest made a face. He looked beneath his feet and snorted in surprise.

The entire rooftop was dividing in two. Like a giant, hairline fracture. With a shake and a loud, mechanical whurrrrr….the rooftop to the Pompeii casino building opened up to reveal the flaming Hangar Bay just beneath it.

The antenna Pulsade was perched on shook violently.

The girl grunted and tried to keep hold.

In the meantime, Wildebeest was charging over from the sliding 'rooftop'.

Pulsade lost her grip. She fell with a gasp

CLUTCH! Wildebeest caught her, leapt, and perched himself on the very edge of the rooftop. He carefully set Pulsade down.

The blonde assassin got her bearing and looked up with suspicious, squinted eyes. "Well, if this isn't just cheery…"

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE! _

The Harrier Jet lifted up into the glittering, Las Vegas Night. Its jets thrusted with a constant exhaust. Its nose and wing wobbled in the air from the technological acrobatics.

Pulsade raised a hand. She charged up a sphere of light. She took a deep breath and launched it at the cockpit.

FWOOOOSH-FLASH!

The light exploded harmlessly on the inside of the craft, and it read to Pulsade via invisible streams of light energy the contours and the details of the person housed inside.

And she gasped as she 'saw' him. "It's that bloody Anderson sod! And he has the Key!"

Wildebeest snarled. He made a running charge

Pulsade reached a hand towards him, shouting: "NO! Stop, you big oaf!"

SWOOOOSH-CLAMP!

Wildebeest grabbed onto the wing and pounded his fists into the Harrier Jet's shell.

The craft veered violently to the left in its hover.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Augh!" Anderson shook inside.

He glared out the cockpit at the horned warrior to his left.

He snarled and calibrated by pivoting the Harrier's hovering wings.

THW-THWUMP! Wildebeest could be seen flopping about on the outside of the craft. Grabbing a desperate hold and attempting to dent the metal with pure, brute force.

"Nnngh….," Anderson growled. "I will not let you freaks ruin everything! Not now! Not ever!"

And he prepared to switch the Harrier jet into forward motion

FLASH!

A bright light illuminated the interior of the cockpit.

"AAAAAUGH!" Anderson clutched a hand over his eyes, nearly blinded.

The light grew brighter and brighter, raising the temperature inside the jet.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade panted.

She gripped her right wrist with a left hand and flexed her right fingers.

A steady, golden beam of light flew from her limb and shone inside the glass bubble of the cockpit like a torch.

The jet wobbled more and more as Wildebeest took advantage of the distracted pilot and tried to pry himself into where Anderson resided.

"Bugger all….," Pulsade sweated and clenched her teeth amidst the strain of focusing her powers so. "Get him out of the sardine can already!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Hangar—besides the flickering flames—Jinx and I lay on the ground.

Safe.

And rather awkwardly entwined.

Jinx panted against me from the diving collapse. She swallowed and murmured as she stared off into space: "Okay….I think I wet myself."

I winced.

_Yeah. Uh huh. Thanks._

WHUMP!

"Oof!"

I shoved her off me.

I jumped up to my feet, jumped through a flickering wall of flames, and stood in the center of the hangar.

Panting, I stared up directly and found starlight.

Among other things….

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!  
_  
The Harrier Jet spun in the air, a clinging Wildebeest on its wing and a desperate Pulsade blinding the pilot inside.

FWOOOSH!

Jinx streaked over and came to a pink-trailing stop beside me. "Yeow! Those flames are hot! So where'd the old fart fly off to?" She blinked her cat eyes. She looked straight up. She gasped. "Hecate! Wildebeest!" Another gasp. "Leslie! Omigod, she's gonna strain herself unconscious!"

I took a deep breath.

_You know, I don't hate you half as much as I used to…… _

_But would you please shut the hell up?_

CHIIING! I gripped Myrkblade and leapt up with a pulse of murk. I bounced off the walls of the hangar, flipped, and blurred my way to the rooftop.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh….mmmff….," Anderson struggled against the blinding, heated light.

He reached a hand across the cockpit and jammed a finger over a launch button.

Beep-Beep-Beep!

_**PFFTOOOOOOO!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A small rocket soared through the air.

"Leslie!" a voice shrieked from below.

Pulsade's eyes widened amidst her flash-lighting strain.

The projectile was heading straight for her.

She cut off the energy and jumped at the last second—

_**SHWOOOOOSH!-**__**POW!**_

"Nnngh!" her body was launched from the nearby explosion.

WHUMP! I grabbed her by the waist with a hooking arm. I set her down on a piece of solid rooftop.

Jinx blurred up and knelt by her side. "Leslie! Leslie! You okay!"

"Nnngh….I'm frickin' sick of explosions….."

"Don't ever put your pretty skull into that kind of suicidal trouble again!" the pink sorceress scolded.

Pulsade pointed a weak arm. "Tell that to the cow…"

"Huh?" Jinx blinked. She looked up and over. "Whoah, shit."

"NNNGH!" Wildebeest flailed as the jet finally tossed him off. THWUMP! He landed with a thud on the other side of the still-solid rooftop that even forced _my_ knees to wobble.

The Harrier Jet pivoted around, faced North, and switched to its rear thrust engines. It started to speed off.

"It's getting away!" Jinx shouted.

Wildebeest snarled. He stomped over, ripped an A/C unit out from the rooftop, and tossed it like a hardball at the back of the Harrier.

Just as the jet rocketed off—CLANK!

The metal box hit it.

The jet was forcibly tilted down.

_**SHOOOOOOOOOM!**_

It took a swift descent along the northern wall of Pompeii.

CHIIIING!

I gripped Myrkblade and approached the edge.

A desperate Jinx stood in my way. "Wait a second, are you nuts! That's a Harrier Jet, Ghost Boy! You can't take on a Harrier Jet!"

"…..," I looked at her. A beat. I shrugged. I shoved her aside, blurred, twirled Myrkblade, and dove madly over the edge.

The girls gaped.

Wildebeest blinked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

I dove…dove….dove….

Down the face of Pompeii.

My body streaked down past the rows of glass windows.

Head first.

Towards the glittering landscape.

The thruster fire of the Harrier Jet.

I narrowed my black eyes under my goggles.

I spread my arms out as the wind kicked at my long black hair.

And just as Anderson started to angle the jet up and out towards the horizon of Las Vegas

SWOOOOSH—CLAMP!

I stuck Myrkblade into the wing of the craft. I dug the smoking sword in, swung around, and perched atop the shell of the craft. With a single breath, I whipped out a fan of razor-sharp playing cards and flung them at the cockpit window of the steel beast I was riding.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CL-CLANK!

Anderson looked up at the cracked part of the cockpit.

He saw a dark swordsman on the other side.

He gasped.

"You!"

He snarled and jerked hard on the controls.

"Damn you!"

_**SHHHHHHH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

The aircraft barreled right.

I gritted my teeth and clung desperately to the metal wing of the craft.

The glittering world spun around me.

The noise and the lights.

Vegas Hell.

Anderson pulled us out of the roll.

He dove the jet down in a negative arc.

SWOOOOOOOOSH!

We burned through the air towards the buildings of Las Vegas.

Westward.

We skirted over the top of the monorail.

Over buildings and antennas and glittering spires.

I clung hard to the wing, wincing.

SWOOOOSH!

A steeple appeared in the distance.

A miniature Eiffel Tower.

The Paris Hotel and Casino.

The craft banked loudly to the side and jolted up and down in a wobbly format.

I grunted and lost my grip.

FWOOOOSH!

I flailed in the air.

I pulsed murk in my legs.

I flipped.

Descended.

And—THWUMP!

Landed in a desperate perch in the middle of the 'Eiffel Tower'.

I panted and looked off towards the sky, expecting to see the Key leave me forever with the burning escape of the Harrier Jet.

But that didn't happen.

I shivered and gulped as I saw the heavily armed jet bend madly around in the air, sail back at me, and switch back to its vertical hovering thrusters. The craft leveled off at a hundred feet away. 'Staring' directly at me.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson gripped the controls.

Panting.

Heaving.

But the grin came back to him in its usual, liquid grace.

He stared at the swordsman clinging to the tower opposite him.

"It was you…..," he purred. A chuckle. "Heheheheheh! It was you! Never mind the pyrokinetic freak in the dungeon…it was YOU who stole my precious girl-toys away! Heheheheh….I bet you are sooooo proud. I bet you are just BUBBLING inside…."

He fingered the launch buttons.

He hissed: "I should have known better. A former Titan. A goody-goody two shoes. There's only one place where your guts deserve to hang. I'll see you roast in HELL before this night is through!"

He jammed his finger over the buttons.

"Haaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

_**PFFFTOOOO! **_

_**PFFFFFTOOOO!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

My black eyes bulged.

Two red-blinking missiles flew directly at me.

I took a deep breath and kicked off the tower—

_**POW! BLAM!**_

Eiffel shattered in flames and black debris.

I plummeted and landed on the ground in a cushion of smoke.

Flaming shrapnel flew and bathed the scale model Arc and nearby fountains. The streets burned black from the blaze and nearby cars on The Strip swerved to a stop in horror.

I panted.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

I looked up.

The Harrier Jet burst through the flames.

…and came right at me.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

My whole body flinched.

_Shit!_

P-P-P-P-P-PING!

Potholes exploded in the ground in a trail at me.

I turned, blurred, and streaked across Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Jet burned after me.

Its bullets shattered the asphalt. Splintered palm trees apart. Exploded a parked car or two in its path—**BOOM!-POW!—**and followed the heels of my smoking feet.

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_

I blurred over to the Bellagio. With the scale of this chase the way it was, I suddenly saw the curvature of the huge, towering hotel as a part of the 'ground'. I streaked over water and concrete and reached the building, upon which I blurred in a heavy turn vertically across its concave surface.

The Harrier Jet bent along with me.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Windows and building faces of the Bellagio beneath my feet exploded from the projectile punishment.

CRK-CRK-CRK-CRK-CRKKKKKK!

I gritted my teeth, reached the end of the building, and side-flipped off in a huge leap that send me smoking back towards Las Vegas Boulevard.

THWOOOOSH-_Plant!_

I landed on the asphalt and streaked north along The Strip.

And the Harrier was at my heels.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Pavement exploded from the pelting caliber all around me.

I held my breath and teleported left and right in the middle of my sprint to avoid the blasts.

As I passed Caesar's Palace, my path was obstructed by the collapsed shells of damaged and discarded vehicles from the Intergang chase hours ago. These aluminum bodies were quickly ripped to shreds by the relentless Harrier's arsenal behind my back.

**CRASH! SHATTER! POW!**

Aluminum shrapnel rained on me.

I gripped Myrkblade tightly and urged my aching self faster.

I looked over my blurred shoulder.

I could almost see Anderson's face through the cockpit.

Laughing maniacally.

A prince with the last ounce of his rich kingdom throwing a fiery tantrum.

I frowned.

_I'd let him crash and burn if only he didn't have the key……_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The bullets splashed and exploded closer to my rear.

I took a deep breath and streaked left over an intersection.

The Mirage appeared before me on the West Side of the Strip. The huge, synthetic volcano boiled with red light.

The Harrier Jet closed in on me from behind.

Pedestrians shrieked at the sight and ran every which way.

Emergency vehicles covering the damage from earlier screeched with higher levels of sirens and crashed into each other.

SWOOOOOSH!

I streaked past.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

The Harrier Jet pursued.

The thrust and afterburn of the jet forced palm trees to rip out of their roots and cars to turn over.

CRUNCH! CRKKKK! CRASH!

I approached the Mirage. The 'volcano'. The pocket of water surrounding it.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

From behind me

"!"

A missile.

I took a deep breath and leapt over the fence and towards the volcano just as it 'erupted' with hot, tall splashes of red-illuminated water.

SPLOOOSH!

And then the muscle hit dead-center.

_**BOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The landmark of the Mirage exploded in ironic, billowing flames.

Pedestrians nearby shrieked and ran from the blaze.

Cars swerved opposite from which they came.

The Harrier Jet came to a burning stop in mid-air, hovering with venting thrusters just barely in front of the tall plume of fire coming from the 'Volcano'.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Haaaa ha ha ha ha ha!" Anderson shook all over, laughing his head off.

He grinned and shook and twitched as he looked at the beautiful blaze.

"Roast…..," he purred. "Hehehehehe! Roast, you pathetic waste of guts! Hehehehehehe!"

And then

SWOOOOSH!

The flames parted.

Anderson gasped.

A plume of steam materialized into a leaping swordsman.

Snarling, I flew straight over the jet's nose with a downward swipe of Myrkblade.

CRUNCH!

The wooden sword ate its way into the cockpit.

Spider web cracks formed in the glass.

I perched on the jet's nose and stabbed down repeatedly.

CRKKK! CRKKKKKK! CLANK!

"Noooooo!" Anderson shouted.

He sweated.

He panicked.

He switched the jet to forward thrust and pulled back hard on the sticks.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I gasped and held onto the jet for dear life as we climbed, climbed, climbed into the cold Nevada air.

Freezing winds kicked at my hair and clothes.

I shivered all over, using a smoking Myrkblade and a ring of titanium fingers alone to cling onto the craft.

Below us, Las Vegas turned into a black board pierced by glittering lights all over.

Like a piece of fool's gold held before a candle in the dark.

The jet banked around, spun, and plunged back down towards the gaping cityside.

I shuddered.

_Okay…… _

_Noir versus the Harrier Jet round two._

I lifted my titanium hand—hung by the hilt of Myrkblade—and jabbed my prosthetic back into the metal skin of the craft.

CRACK!

I ripped my metal way in and squirmed my fingers around, trying to damage something…some integral part of the craft….something that would bring it down.

But as I soon discovered, Anderson was bringing the craft down for me.

SWOOOOOOSH! We plummeted towards something tall and stone-like.

I looked up.

I gasped.

_The Stratosphere……_

Anderson jerked on the controls.

FWOOOSH!

The Harrier Jet flew sideways with my flailing body aimed at the concrete-and-steel stalk of the large tower.

I took a deep breath, summoned murk, and teleported to the wing of the plane just as we grazed the neck of the Stratosphere at three hundred-plus miles an hour.

_SCRAAAAPE!_

Anderson cursed muffledly inside.

FWOOOSH!

He evened the jet.

He dove straight down.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

I held on for dear life.

The g-force and winds tried to peel me off.

The jet reached street level. It swingspan occupied three-fourths of the side streets lanes as we rocketed towards Downtown Las Vegas. The tops of cars and vans and buses were burned to a crisp.

And then—telephone wires.

SWOOOOSH!

The Harrier dipped down to a stretch of open roadway till its belly nearly scraped the asphalt.

A dozen strings of black, electric wire flew at me like garrotes.

I swiftly pulsed Myrkblade with smoke, 'straddled' the cockpit on my knees, and twirled the sword in front of me.

THWACK!—THWACK!—THWACK!—THWACK!—THWACK!

I severed each black wire as I came to them. The sheer separation of forces by my Black Balance kept the electricity from surging through my sword and into me.

And then

THWOOOSH!

A bright white thing, thicker than the electric wires.

A banner.

I tensed. I held my breath and leapt up

WOOOOOSH!

The white banner screamed past between me and the jet.

And before I could even descend, our throttling bodies reached an intersection.

The Harrier Jet started to swerve madly left.

"!" As I came down, I stabbed Myrkblade out and dug it smokingly into the upturned wing of the jet.

CLANK!

**YANK!**

The Harrier turned and madly burned down the street at the second floor level.

My feet flailed beneath me as I hung onto my blade that was stuck into the wing. I kicked my feet as they flew into the buildingside and ran across the heatedly-blurring vertical surface before kicking off, twirling on Myrkblade, and perching once again on the body of the jet.

The afterburn and sonic sweep of the Harrier caused rows upon rows of windows to burst and explode behind us. The flying shards of glass melted from the heated exhaust.

Anderson evened the planed out, rose up, dipped down, rolled again, and did everything in the expert-pilot's book he could think of to shake me off. All the while, trench-like rows of building fronts and neon lights blurred past either side of us.

I looked into the cockpit.

Anderson was glaring at me.

I glared back.

And then I saw him gasp in horror and grip the controls tightly.

"?"

Looking in front of us, I realized why.

The Freemont Experience.

The Old Strip of Downtown Las Vegas, now enclosed in a huge 'tunnel' of overarching plasma screens.

We were headed straight towards it.

_Oh no…… _

_No no no… _

_Not even you're that insane!_

He snarled and pivoted the Harrier sideways.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

I flailed and grabbed onto the upper wing for dear life…halfway down its length.

And we rocketed into the 'tunnel'.

_**SWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The upper, left wing of the Harrier Jet ate into the plasma screen ceiling while the lower right wing scraped into the paneled slabs of the closed-in tourist street.

_**SCRAAAAA-AAAA-AAAAAAAPE!**_

Sparks flew from both contact points. Red hot embers showered all around us. And the antique neon lights glittered into my goggles and blinded me. The flickering plasma ceiling. The lights. The shattering, melting lights. The poles holding up the ceiling nearly clipping me and the top/bottom of the Harrier apart as we squeezed, squeezed, squeezed through the 'tunnel' faster than cometfire.

FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!

A bright light.

I looked straight ahead with thin eyes.

My lips parted.

The dangling, neon leg of Glitter Gulch's Vegas Viki loomed ahead of us. Of _me._

"!" I finally vaulted up off the wing in the blurring tunnel.

The Harrier Jet's wing severed madly through the neon limb.

_**CRACK!**_

Sparks flew.

Flames erupted.

I sailed through the air, plummeted across Freemont Street, and found my feet connecting with the wall of the Pioneer Casino. In half a second I outran the Harrier Jet and its pursuing cloud of flame and neon shards. I jumped off the building face, dove straight over the waving hand of a neon cowboy, and reached out in time to grab back onto the Harrier Jet as it swooped by. The antique buildings exploded in neon shards and flame behind us.

_**PHOOOOOOOM!**_

I clung to the harrier jet as we billowed through the tunnel and exploded out the other side.

Exiting the flaming Freemont.

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

I lost my sweaty grip.

Swiiiish!

I flew off the jet, twirled in the air, and planted on a curved building front of waving, neon light patterns.

Panting, I looked up.

The Harrier Jet spun around. It arched up high, dove, and came back down at me in the middle of the glittering street.

I clung to Myrkblade, standing on the neon facings. Holding my breath.

The Jet hovered to a slow descent and fired at me—_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

I gritted my teeth for an instant, but then blurred away

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLACK! Bullets exploded in the building.

The Harrier hovered in pursuit.

I ran atop the blazing neon lights, jumping and flipping onto multiple casino fronts of identical, glowing stature.

All the while the Harrier fired.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The neon walls beneath my feet flashed and exploded into glass fountains.

Pedestrians everywhere were screaming and fleeing.

Cars swerved into pillars and building fronts, crunching to bits.

I faced a tall, glittering crest of neon lights on a street corner. I ran straight towards it and blurred up the facing.

The Harrier Jet fired a missile.

_**PHOOOOOOSH!**_

I leapt off the top of the neon lights and backflipped high into the air.

The missile struck the neon facing beneath me.

_**POW!**_

Fire and glass rose to meet me in slow motion.

Upside down, I spread my arms out, closed my eyes, concentrated

_**PHWOOOOOSH!**_

The flames ate up into me.

I took a breath and converted into smoke form. I traveled into the flames, coiled around the plume, and as another burst of fire erupted outward—I launched myself straight at the Harrier Jet with Myrkblade swinging.

SWIIIIISH!

Time resumed normal speed.

Anderson was too slow to react.

I flew into the front of the craft and slashed Myrkblade down at its nose in a smoke-solidifying punch.

THWACK!

The hulking jet literally tipped forward in mid over.

I planted my feet on the cockpit, blurred up to the tail, grabbed the metal fin, flipped around, avoided the heat of the thrust, dangled, and gave myself perfect view of the missiles hidden beneath the shadowing wings.

Sc-Scrkk!

I produced a fan of playing cards.

A mean curve to my Wyldecarde lips.

_Turn your head and cough, handsome._

SWIIIIIISH!

I flung one card each into a missile on either side of the Harrier.

**POW! P-POW!**

The whole plane shook from the proximity explosion. The engine started to smoke. Anderson inside flailed about. He desperately lifted the craft on its thrusters towards the sky.

Dangling, I snarled.

_Oh no you don't!_

I flipped up to the top of the plane.

As we accelerated and burned south through the air of Vegas, I managed to struggled the backbone of the craft and resumed stabbing into the cockpit.

I snarled mutely with my effort. Doing anything I could to get at that Key. To rip the damn shell open.

All the while, the jet lurched and shook with its flight over the glittering desertscape. I had wounded the big bird. Its days were numbered. The issue was trying to keep Anderson from killing the both of us…or at least getting the Key from him before _he_ died.

I really didn't care anymore.

I stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed—

CLANK! CRKKKK! CRACK!

Anderson inside was flurrying his hands madly at the controls.

He was hyperventilating.

Seething.

And then…

Something cold, bright, and blue illuminated off his cracked cockpit.

Panting into the winds, I looked up.

And I saw a very familiar sight…howbeit blinding.

_Luxor……_

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

We soared straight towards the pyramid. Straight towards its summit. The glowing, bright beacon of a top.

_What the Hell does he think he's doing?_

I didn't wait to find out.

I pulsed a heavy wave of smoke into my blade and stabbed it into the metal body of the bird.

I finally started to cut and carve into the pilot's compartment.

Air hissed in and out amidst the tumult.

I strained, gritting my teeth.

_Go……join……the HIND!_

Then Anderson dipped the jet down.

SWOOOOSH!

Towards the tip.

I gasped

Anderson jerked at the controls.

The Harrier rolled away at the last second, but not without a slight contacting jolt

CL-CLANK!

I was thrown off the jet. WHUMP! I landed on the glass slope of the Luxor pyramid. I slid and slid and slid, desperately trying to produce friction with my footing and keep my from careening into the ground. Finally, I encased my legs in murk and managed to perch steadily on the West Face of the sloping pyramid. I stood up, panting.

The HIND pivoted around, hovering. Wobbly. Smoking.

I panted, gripping Myrkblade. Bruised. Red in a few place from the heat. My goggles were cracked and my hair was a tangled mess, free of a few metal ponytail holders.

We faced off…one last time.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Anderson panted….panted….panted….panted….

And sneered.

He clutched tighter to the sticks and fingered the red buttons.

"I don't care what happens anymore. The world was not supposed to be this way. MY WORLD! I spent so many years to get to where I am. And to have you strip it all down in an instant!"

He leaned forward.

Teeth showing.

Hissing the words that he knew or didn't know I could not hear.

"As long as I destroy you, you little shit, this day will be worth the waste of breath it took to embrace!"

He jerked forward at the controls and slammed the red buttons down.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Harrier Jet came on the slow, charging attack.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

I bravely held my ground, teleporting into smoke form to avoid the bullets that streamed through me and shattered into the hotel rooms behind my heels.

_**PHOOOOOSH!**_ A missile launched.

I twirled Myrkblade up—THW-THWISH—**CLANK!** I deflected the missile up into the air.

_**PHOOOOOOO-OOOOOSH!**_ Another.

SWISH-**CLANK!** Teeth gritting, I knocked the other one away two.

Both went spiraling to the courtyards on either side of us, exploding into brilliant flames that light the night.

Finally, the Harrier picked up speed. Nose first, it surged towards me on a homicidal path.

I held Myrkblade back. Snarling. Smoke billowing out from under my goggles and wrists.

_Give me the god damn KEY!_

_fffffffffffffffFFFFFHRVVVVVVVEEEEEEE!_

I could see Anderson's screaming face.

And then…nothing but metal.

I charged and charged and charged and shook all over….and released

FWOOOOSH!

forward in smoke form.

I teleported straight through the engine thrusters.

_**SCHWUMP!**_

A cold hard pause

_**POW!**_

I exploded out the rear side of the thrusters, solidifying into flesh. Trailing smoke, I plummeted through the air, rolled, and landed in a collapsing stumble onto the ground below. Breathing deeply.

In the meantime, the inside engines of the charging Harrier Jet had been totally, utterly demolished from my smoking 'passage'. The inner workings of the metal shell began to implode on themselves. A gasping, horrified Anderson banged desperately away at the controls…but nothing could change the fact that his huge, pride bird—given to him by Luthor—was now flightless.

But it was speedless.

CLUNK! It impacted the glass surface of the Luxor pyramid.

_SCRKKKKKKKKKK!_

It slid up, up, up the face.

Sending sparks flying.

THWOMP!

It sailed over the illuminated tip—crackingly shorting it out—and flipped. The Harrier Jet then landed chaotically on its back, slid down the East side of the pyramid, plummeted off the side, tumbled over the ground, and came to a crashing…smoking halt against the side of the huge Sphinx replica.

CRKKKKK!

And…..

Everything stopped.

Silence, save for the hissing of hot metal and the distant warbles of hundreds upon hundreds of emergency vehicles tending to the torn City of Lights.

Anderson was stuck beneath the hulking aircraft. The cockpit was shattered, and he grunted and he strained and he sobbed in his futile effort to get out.

Until a smoking hand snaked in, gripped him by the shoulder, and yanked his smoking figure out from underneath.

"Yaagh!"

I lifted Anderson up by a metal hand.

Frowning.

Holding Myrkblade in the other.

He struggled and shook and dangled in my grasp.

"Nnngh! You little piece of filth! What could possibly….POSSIBLY be so important that you would do this to me! That you would need to break into my vault, ruin my life, and steal all that Triangular gave me!"

I glared. My black eyes narrowed under my goggles.

"You selfish, pathetic, punk! I want it all back! I want it all back now—"

WHAM!

I slammed him down to the ground…with my knee oh-so-conveniently positioned between his plummeting legs.

He wheezed and cringed all over.

WHUMP!

I dropped him like a used tissue to the ground.

He curled up and coughed. Tears rolled from his eyes. "Nnnghh! I'll rip you open…I'LL RIP YOU OPEN FROM THE BLOODY CENTER OUT—"

THWACK! I kicked him yet again. In the exact same spot.

He wheezed, whimpered, and was silent.

I spat.

_Take a cold shower, you slimey son of a bitch._

CHIIIING!

I sheathed Myrkblade, took a long….calming….breath….and knelt down to reach into his robe's pocket.

I picked forth the key.

I stood up, looking it over.

My black eyes round under my goggles.

A gentle wind rushed down over the charred area and fallen Harrier.

And I thought of the cold Bay.

The Tower.

And four helpless friends needing a lost egg returned to them.

And that was enough to make me realized that—amidst all this mayhem and Destruction—there was a purpose.

_Now……just to find the door……_

I closed my flesh fingers around the key, and turned towards Las Vegas Boulevard—

FL-FLASH!

Pulsade.

Jinx.

I blinked. Standings till.

"Cheerio, Mr. Noir…," Pulsade nodded. Cl-Click! She aimed a pistol at my forehead. "Hand it over."

"……..," I glared.

"Yes…..the…uhm….th-the ugly part…," Jinx simpered and rubbed her neck with a frilled hand. "We all knew it had to come to this."

"Hand it over, lad…," Pulsade droned. It was lacking her usual bitterness. She and I both knew that this was a job she needed to get done. For her sake, at least… "Red Aviary will creep up on you and everything Balanced in this world if you don't give us the Key to Terra."

I only gripped harder to the key.

Jinx bit her lip. Nervous.

Pulsade took a breath and squeezed her finger around the trigger. "Give it up now….it's two against one. Not even the Harrier you downed was that dire a situation you're now in."

I exhaled.

'_Snkkkt'_ (in my ear)

My eyebrows raised.

'_Pfft! It's not 'two against one'!'_

My lips parted.

_ZAAAAT!_

"!" Pulsade's head looked to her left.

FLASH!—ZZZZZZT! A blindlingly bright taser slammed into her ribcage.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaa!" she convulsed and dropped to the ground. Smoking. Numb.

"Leslie!" Jinx shrieked.

The Messenger stood with a sparkling cylinder in his hand. He smiled and waved. "Heheh. How's that for a 'divine spark'!"

I smiled awkwardly.

"You…..," Jinx charged up pink hex in her hands and snarled at the asian teen. "What business have you ever had in Counter-Red Aviary's affairs! Just who are you! What brings you here to constantly rub your annoying ego in our faces!"

"The same reason you handcuffed yourself to Noir one month ago!" he examined his nails, grinning. "He's a regular, handsome guy!" He looked at me. "Ain't that right, Noir?"

I gave him the bird.

"Heh heh heh…."

Jinx seethed: "Are you trying to say that you're gay?"

"Nope," he held his arms cutely behind his back and winked. "I'm trying to say that you're screwed. But only if you persist in getting in Noir's way."

"We want the best for this world! What Noir's doing is suicidal! Red Aviary will catch up with him and every other superhero!"

"Correction…," the Messenger pointed. "What Noir is doing is courageously reckless, which is the least that can be said about you four and your conspiring, bloody ways of dancing around the criminal Underworld! Let a fellow Titan save a fellow Titan. It's the only formula that can work right now."

"I swear to Hecate," Jinx shook her pink head. "You're so full of—"

"Jinx!" a wincing Pulsade hissed from where she lay on the ground. "Take him out!"

"HAAAA!" Jinx flew at the Messenger with a bladed hex of pink.

SWIIIIISH!

I gasped.

But the asian teen suddenly doubled back and coiled his body up.

And as the serrated Jinx reached him—

_ZAAAAT!_

He flickered with a green light and suddenly I saw him on the other side of Jinx with his fist stretched out like a stone-hard karate move.

Jinx froze. Her whole body seemed to shake for but a second before she collapsed like a dead ragdoll on the floor.

THWUMP!

"…..," I blinked.

"Jinx? Jinx!" Pulsade murmured.

"Nnngh…c-can't….move….," Jinx's cat eyes blinked wide.

Pulsade snarled up at the Messenger. "What did you do to her, you bloody sod!"

The Messenger straightened up and flexed his muscles. Grinning. "Why….I simply vibrated her spinal cord. The easiest way to get to a solution is to let the solution charge through you, I always say. Well…er….I-I guess I never say that, but you get my point." He winked. Cleared his throat. Pointed at the grounded sorceress. "She'll be fine. But the paralysis will last for two days. Maybe four. I suggest you stock up on diapers a little early."

Jinx blinked. "D-Diapers?"

Pulsade growled and tried desperately to get up on aching, electrified muscles. "You can't do this to us! Not after all we've been through!"

"Oh, but we already did," the Messenger bowed and spoke. "You see Counter-Red Aviary was doomed to failure from the start. But fret not. I can already see that you girls and your hairy and not-so-hairy boyfriends will come into the play of things at another time. You just gotta respect the fact that…." He pointed at me. "…God kinda sorta has someone else selected as the leading role."

I simpered.

"Who the bloody hell are you then?" Pulsade sneered. "The chorus?"

"You better believe it, lady. Ta-ta. Don't let the asphalt bugs bite." He turned around and placed a hand on my shoulder. Leading me away. "Once around the park then, Thames?"

I smirked, nodded, and strolled away with him.

"Don't you walk away, Wyldecarde! Don't you do this! Red Aviary will consume you! You hear me, Wyldecarde! He will consume you!"

We left earshot of the catastrophe…especially Pulsade's yelling voice.

The Messenger glanced at me. "So….what do you think?"

I took a deep breath.

_I think……_

I bravely slipped my goggles off.

I tossed them into a nearby gutter and sighed.

With a smile.

_I think I'm no longer Wyldecarde for the week……_

"That's a fancy looking key you've got there," He smirked and pointed.

I held the prized item up. The trophy of my Las Vegas success.

_Heh……_

"I suppose now it's time to grab us a statue…," the Messenger said.

I smiled at him, leaning my head to the side with curious black eyes.

He took his arm off my shoulder and shrugged: "Why….unless you don't want me to go with you, I don't have to! It's not like there's anything else blocking up my schedule save for a boring lecture back at home regarding how excitingly depressing my dimension should be when it really isn't and—"

I held a hand up, rolled my black eyes, and gave him a thumb's up.

He smiled. "I'm only more than happy to help…" He bowed. "A Titan…a swordsman….a gothic, southern belle…" He glanced up at me curiously. "You don't fall under the latter, do you?"

I snickered breathily and shook my head.

"Ah! But of course…..there has to be something keeping me excited about my hometown reality," he shrugged. "I do way too much things in this dimension," he sighed. He smirked at me and suddenly held up a training bra in his fingers. "Guess what Jinx didn't quit!"

My lips parted. I doubled over in a fit of mute laughter.

"Heheheheheheh!"

I clutched a metal hand over my mouth and shook my head.

The Messenger flung the article behind him into a pair of bushes and shrugged. "Hey! Don't look at me! I don't grab 'em…I merely just run right through 'em! Heheheheh!"

_Hahahahaha!_

He winked and pointed dramatically outward: "TO THE BOY CAVE!"

_To the Boy Cave!_

He disappeared in a green flash as I blurred off.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a lone building across the expanse of Las Vegas.

Wildebeest climbed up and hobbled tiredly across the cold, windy rooftop.

The glittering gulch around him echoed the sounds of emergency sirens and honking, anxious motorists.

The bovine warrior merely snorted and entered the tiny rooftop shack that was Counter-Red Aviary's hideout.

But as he did so, he let loose a grunt of curiosity.

He flipped a light on.

With white eyes thin, the beast stared across the interior of the shack.

It was empty, save for the teammates' equipment.

There was no blonde assassin.

No pink sorceress.

And—as Wildebeest worriedly noted—there was no little blonde computer hacker with his happy green eyes…

"Nnngh?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

An hour later, emergency crews and squad cars gathered around the horrendous wreck at the Luxor Hotel.

Pedestrians, workers, and tourists alike formed a solid line around the closed off area.

Everyone wondered at the sight of a crashed Harrier Jet lying upside down besides the Sphinx.

Police squabbled and forced the people back.

Helicopters with bright light beams hovered over the scene, converging on the chaos.

Observing, reporting, documenting….

A limousine pulled up to a stop outside the ring of confusion. The middle compartment's window pulled down.

Rexxin gazed out, his scarred face sporting a new bruise from the Vault scuffle. He stared out of the vehicle at the emergency sight and squinted his eyes.

A beat.

"Mr. Anderson….," he murmured. A beat. "He's gone…."

Indeed, the robed figure was missing from the crashed site. And there were no police officers engaged in arresting anyone. Nor did the ambulances house any injured/dead bodies.

Rexxin blinked. "Did someone…..t-take him?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

As sirens and warbling noise filled the air, a panting Pulsade pulled a limp Jinx into a nearby alleyway between casinos. Light from a few distant hotels and hovering helicopters filtered down into the cold, wet ravine of brick and concrete.

Pulsade knelt down and leaned Jinx up against a wall.

Jinx couldn't move anything below her head. She murmured: "This is so pathetic. Leslie, I'm so sorry. I hate being useless and making you drag me around…"

Pulsade checked Jinx's body signs. "Well…," she breathed, still panting. "It's not like it's any different from what I normally do."

"Ohhhh….," Jinx pouted, gazing numbly off towards the alleyway shadows. "…that's so cruel of you."

The blonde assassin looked Jinx straight in the cat-eyes. "That was meant as a joke…."

Jinx blinked. "A joke?"

"Mmmhmmm…," Pulsade rubbed Jinx's arms. "That's all the last few days have been…," she looked off with a sigh through her nostrils. "One big…worthless joke…."

Jinx gulped. She strained to move her pupils to the corners of her eyes and look at her partner. "It's all my fault. If I'd just sensed that green-flashy-asian kid and done something to knock his lights out, we wouldn't be—"

"Shhh….no, Jinx," Pulsade insisted. "It is not because of you that we failed."

"But what was it?" Jinx murmured. Her pink eyes seemed a bit moist. She sniffed like a little child. "You. Me. Wildebeest. 'J'. We all worked so hard. Noir even helped us with the security disk that got us exploring the rest of H.I.V.E.'s crumbling bases. And all just to end up here? A month later alone in some cold, decrepit alleyway?"

"You have to admit…," Pulsade tried to smile. It came out more like a wince. "It is slightly romantic."

"Romantic…heh….," Jinx did her paralyzed best to roll her eyes. "If this is your idea of 'romantic', Leslie…I'm in it for the long haul."

"Heheh…"

"But still…was it all for nothing?" Jinx whispered. "Were the fates wrong? What if this is all just a big joke and Red Aviary doesn't even exist?"

"He exists all right," said a deep voice.

Jinx gasped.

"!" Pulsade stood up and fingered an uzzi at her side.

"…..," Hull stood in the middle of the alleyway fifteen feet away. A purple satchel hung over his shoulder. Bluescythe was in his right hand. He stared at the two girls with cold, hard eyes of blue. "And Red Aviary exists all the more now that Mr. Noir is at the lead of things."

Pulsade blinked. "M-Michael?"

Jinx frowned. "Hey, is it that _Hulk_ creep?"

"**Hull."**

"Leslie. Quick. Tilt my face in that direction."

Pulsade nervously lowered a hand and did so.

Jinx stuck her tongue out at Hull.

Hull's eyes narrowed.

Pulsade let go and Jinx's cranium flopped back to where it was staring.

"What do you want….?" Pulsade hissed. "To gloat?" She fingered the uzzi some more. "It's more than bloody obvious that you were on the swordsman's side the entire time."

"You'd be amazed how similar we are in that respect."

"We're not similar at all, Michael….," Pulsade grumbled. "And we never were…."

Silence.

Jinx blinked at the alleyway walls, her eyes searching the furthest corner of her sockets that might allow her but a glimpse of the two former H.I.V.E. students.

Hull took a deep breath. "No…perhaps not." FLASH! The sword disappeared as he was suddenly unarmed. "But you and I are commonly unaligned with any single force."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Simple…," Hull treaded gently through the alleyway towards the two girls. "Are we evil? Or are we bad? You're an assassin, Pulsade. You kill to get the job done. Jinx…you may be clean now, but you've shown a far greater disrespect for life in the past."

"Watch it, poopyhead!"

"And I…..," Hulsade gestured with a silver thumb. "….I think I don't need an examination for you to get the analogy here."

"Imagine that I'm clueless…," Pulsade grunted. "What are you trying to say?"

"Red Aviary is not about who is good or who is bad. But rather, it is about who wants to maintain a balance. A balance that insists that life and death alternate accordingly. But as of late…a Parasite to the system has formed. And he'll do everything in his interests to tilt that balance over to Destruction and total Destruction. That's where paradoxes like us come in. And maybe it takes a little bit of Death to fight Death itself back."

"……," Pulsade stared.

Hull came to a stop, he dangled the velvet bag before him before disappearing it into his energy core. He flexed his fingers and stood up straight. Harmless. "Let Noir have this war, girls. With his Balance, he's the soundest thing we have battling Red Aviary."

"Why are you here?" Pulsade asked. "Why, Michael? Why are you sticking your nose into Red Aviary when you obviously have your heart set on bigger, much more obscure things?"

"Where there's obscurity, there is chaos. And where there is chaos, there is danger for all Balance." Hull bowed his head some. "Who am I to tell you that times of great confusion requires strategic operatives?"

"…….."

"Red Aviary is coming to pass. You two did your part. You pointed Noir along his path. Soon, I too will have to do my part. But it won't be about pointing Noir on his path. But rather….the whole world will be involved."

Jinx murmured: "The whole w-world?"

"Gaia Incarnate. Gaia Imploded. One or the other….it remains to be seen," he turned and walked away. "Until we meet again."

Pulsade took one step and called out after him: "And just what are we supposed to do now!"

Hull came to a stop. He looked over his shoulder with a squinting eye. "You're asking me?"

Pulsade swallowed. "I'd ask my own Mum if she was still alive…."

Jinx bit her lip.

Hull shrugged his shoulder. "True….I maintained that Noir would get to Tara Markov first. I even told him that before this chaos finally resulted with something. And I still believe that Noir will be the first to get to Miss Markov. But…." He turned and looked at them fully once more. "…there is one thing I didn't tell him."

"What's that?" Pulsade asked.

"It may be up to him to free Terra. But he won't be the one to nurture her come time of the Gaia Sphere."

"……"

"Don't be despondent. You two girls are far more important than you can possibly imagine." And he left. Blending into the shadows.

"……….huh…..," Jinx murmured.

"Wh-What?" Pulsade remarked.

"The world is full of them."

"Hmmm?"

"Crackpots."

"Oh…."

A beat.

Their bodies and their breaths lingered in the alleyway.

Pulsade knelt down and slipped her arms under Jinx's shoulders.

The pink sorceress grunted: "I agree…it's about time we returned to the home baseerm….Leslie?"

The blonde assassin wasn't carrying Jinx. She was hugging her. Holding the paralyzed, petite witch close to her chest. Resting a hand in her pink hair.

Sighing……

Jinx murmured, suddenly concerned. "Leslie….is e-everything okay?"

Pulsade took a deep breath and leaned her chin atop Jinx's cranium. "I dunno, Jean…," she murmured. "I have no answers anymore….."

"You did all you could, Leslie. We'll make it out of this defeat! M-Maybe we can track Noir down and somehow catch up with him in time to get—"

"It's not the defeat that I'm thinking about….," Pulsade whispered. "Somehow….I think I'm more scared of the triumph we'll one day see."

"S-Scared? You, Leslie?"

"Shhh…..," Pulsade closed her eyes and held Jinx close from behind. A nightly gust of wind kicked at her blonde strands. "Just stay with me for now, Jean. Be still….."

"………," Jinx simpered. Her eyes wet. "I-I think that's doable…." She smiled some, but it faded. She relaxed in the other girl's arms.

Both ladies stayed that way…softly hidden in the alleyway's darkness.

Absorbing a world temporarily lacking of red.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the abandoned construction site, I leaned back against a rusted table with the key in my grasp.

The Messenger squatted atop the table behind me. He had a little glow-light on his bulky watch which he was aiming over my shoulder to illuminate the Key in my grasp.

The Key….

I fingered the object all over with metal and flesh digits. I looked for a switch. An activation device. A button. Anything to make the Key work.

"Glover gave you the message, right?" said the Messenger. "About the Key being able to point you in the right direction and all that jazz?"

I smirked somewhat.

_If you're trying to make me nervous, stop. Las Vegas is practically burning around us. Not that I mind. _

_God, I hate this City……_

In one way or another, I was eager to get out of there. I worked harder to find an answer to the device. But—for all I knew—Terra could have been located in Las Vegas as well. And finding her could be a matter of walking across the street and opening a random manhole cover.

Or…..perhaps….

Terra was across the world. In some Gibraltan Fortress near Spain. Guarded by ungodly amounts of armaments and armed guards all working for Dagger and Triangular.

I sighed….

"Keep it cool, Noir…," the Messenger patted my shoulder. "The fact that you've made it all this way on your own proves something."

I paused and glanced at him with a sarcastic face.

"What!" He smirked. "You _too_ have done it on your own! So what if I helped a little?" A beat. "Or Hull, or 'J', or the late Glover….god rest his ticker tape…"

I smiled.

"Because I know for a fact that you are alone, Noir," he said. "You're alone…so long as the Titans aren't nearby."

I sighed depressingly at that.

My hands paused as my mind floated back to the Tower.

And then the briefest flashes of a monument's ivory cape.

Robin's effigy against a cloudy sky.

I bit my lip.

_I was going to right everything. _

_I was going to bring justice back to this crummy world. _

_I was going to help sew shut the gaping wound in my friends' heart. _

_Terra…… _

_It all comes full circle to Terra. _

_She turned to stone, and in her place I came. And in her place Slade used me to make that wound in my friends' heart deeper. _

_And in Terra's place—like her—I saved the Titans. _

_And in Robin's place, I shall give the Titans back a teammember. _

_A teammember they hated and loved and all around wondered in awe at. _

_And—as Hull dictates—she's the last of her Earthly kind this side of the universe._

_There is much, much purpose in that. _

_Thank you, Messenger, for trying to console me. _

_But…… _

_I'm not alone. _

_This is but the world clicking in motion to save itself._

I suddenly realized something.

I placed my fingers at strategic points around the key.

I concentrated.

I short murk into it.

Andfiddling around with the inside of the device, I found the switch.

And—with murking fingers—I pushed it.

**Click.**

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep.

"Houston, we have an alarm block."

I blinked as the Messenger leaned over my shoulder.

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep.

"Or…..," he smirked. "….we have a time bomb?"

I glared back at him.

_Not funny._

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep.

He pointed, his eyes on the Key. "Try waving it around a little."

I made a face.

"Trust me!" he cutely smiled.

I groaned mutely and aimed the Key at different spots in the room.

At first, I didn't notice a difference.

The he did.

"Wait! Stop! Keep aiming it right there."

I did so.

The beeping continued.

_What's the difference?_

"Listen carefully…."

I did so. And soon I realized…

The beeping had intensified.

Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!

"Try left a little…."

So I pivoted.

Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!Beep!

"Now just a tad bit more…."

I pivoted.

**Beep!Beep!Beep!Beeeeeeeeeeeep**-Click!

A tiny LCD screen on the Key popped open, displaying digits.

"There!" the Messenger jumped down off the table. "That's it! That's the direction Terra's in!"

I blinked.

_Direction!_

I looked where I was pointing.

And I judged….

"Northwest…," the Messenger said, reading off some sort of digital compass built into his watch. He stuck one hand into his sweatjacket's pouch and gestured with the other. "Terra is somewhere northwest of here. And if I'm right…" He stumbled over and read the LCD screen of the device in my hand. "Ah-HA! The number of miles away her housing chamber is located! And according to those numbers, she must be located at……" The Messenger blinked.

I looked at him curiously.

"Oh no…..hahahahahaha….oh nooooooooo….heheheheheheheh!" he stumbled back as if 'shot' and wrapped a hand over his laughing face's forehead. "That's so hysterically perfect! Oh nooooo ho ho ho ho ho! Ha ha ha!"

I looked at him, panting. I mouthed: _'What?'_

"Just tooooooo hilarious!" he hugged himself and spun to a stop against a wall, facing me.

'_What!'_

He smirked at me. "Well, Noir. You tell me." A wink. "What other place in Nevada northwest of Las Vegas is _always_ the stereotypically, cliché spot to hide something of conspiratorial value?"

"………."

"Especially when such uber-ambiguous demigods like Dagger and Triangular are involved?"

"…….."

He smiled at me.

And…

I got it.

My mouth hung open.

_Cl-Clank!_

I dropped the Key.

_Oh no……_

"Hehehehe….oh yes!"

_Oh no………_

He giggled like mad and hugged himself against the wall of the place.

_No no no no no no no NO!_

I cupped metal and flesh hands over my black eyes and moaned mutely.

_How far must this crazy adventure go!_

The Messenger cleared his throat, kicked off the wall, and marched across the abandoned construction site. "Pack your bags, Noir….we're going on a road trip!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime, Anderson was being dragged somewhere.

He noticed it when he looked beneath him and saw the floor moving.

He saw the floor moving because his eyes had opened.

And he was now awake.

"Nnngh!" he struggled and realized he was dangling from someone's gnarled grasped, being led somewhere inside a carpeted, dark interior. "Wh-Where am I?" the disheveled, robed man murmured. He glanced up. He gasped: "You!"

"…..," Killer Croc glared down at the Pompeii owner he was dragging. His scaley skin was bruised and burned in a few places form his last scuffle with Wildebeest. And furthermore, the green bloodlust was gone from his eyes. Returning to the surface of the freak's face was the angry expression of an abused thug. The all-too-familiar look of someone who was horribly, irreversibly pissed off. "There's been a call from Dagger," he hissed. "Things have hit the crapper here. My Boss from Gotham needs to see you."

"Your Boss?" Anderson murmured. A beat. He suddenly and explosively gasped. "Him! You mean he's HERE!"

Killer Croc nodded, continuing to drag Anderson down the hallway.

"N-No….NO!" Anderson struggled. "Let me go! Let go of me this instant, you pathetic freak!"

"I'm not your puppet anymore….," Killer Croc hissed. "You stopped giving me the good stuff, remembered?"

"I….I-I…."

"Now it's time for my Boss to give you some good stuff of his own…," the reptilian man growled. He kicked open a door, breaking his way into a darklit antichamber where a couple of well-suited mobster-like thugs waited with tommy guns in hand. "….in good 'ol Gotham frankness. The direct way is always the best way to deal with things. Especially involving sniveling jerks who waste away a good casino when they have one in their hand!"

"But Pompeii isn't lost! I can save Pompeii!" Anderson frowned. "Look, I got Luthor his god damn computer cylinder from Intergang! Don't I deserve some respect!"

"Tell that to my Boss' face…," Killer Croc said. He reached the crooked wooden door to a huge room and chuckled. "Hopefully for you…you'll choose the good one."

Anderson shuddered.

_CREEEEAK!_

Killer Croc hoisted the door open and

FWOOOSH!

Tossed Anderson inside.

WHUMP!

"Ooof!" Anderson landed in a splash of tossed hair and rumpled robe.

Killer Croc and a few armed thugs marched in and stood quietly behind the fallen man.

Anderson struggled to his knees, wincing all over.

He looked around the room and gasped.

It was really two rooms. Or so it seemed. The interior had been split ruggedly down the middle. On the left side was a clean cut, spotlessly furnished library. On the right side, everything had been tossed, torn, tattered. Furniture lay in splinters and the ground was randomly spotted and soiled. There was a frighteningly solid line dividing the chaos from the order. Anderson knelt on one end of it…a knee both on the good side and on the bad. Following the line into the darkness with his eyes, Anderson saw a figure sitting in the shadows. His face obscured. His left hand flicking something up and down constantly in the air. Something small, metallic, reflective.

A gnarled voice echoed out from the shadowed side of the dichotomous chamber. Whispery, hoarse, and subtly bitter: "Jacob Anderson…Las Vegas' pretty boy. How goes the village? Is it under lava, yet?"

Anderson trembled on his knees: "L-Look….there was a mole! Three moles! Two girls and some Asian kid! They ruined everything at the last second! And that blasted young lad in denim with the carbonite of his. And the former Titan—"

"You should have expected all eventualities, Anderson. Luthor gave you the money to build Pompeii. Dagger gave you the edge to build it. And I gave you the men to run it….."

The figure stood up. He slowly walked out from the shadowed chair, a foot marching on either side of the dividing line. A black pantleg. And a white pantleg. A coin flipping….flipping….flipping….

In a leathery-blue hand.

"There are over a dozen former Gothemites lying dead in that blasted hotel of yours. Money you could have spent on better armaments and security around the Vault has instead been wasted away on lavish fighting tournaments and melting torture chambers. What should have been a clean-cut and simple operation to preserve Dagger's operation has instead turned into a farce that has given away—single handedly—some of the criminal underworld's most valued possessions to the enemy. Do you expect me to be pleased with this, Mr. Anderson? I am most….most annoyed. And when I'm annoyed, Triangular gets bothered."

Anderson shivered. His head tilted up as the man's face came into the scant light.

Followed by another face, blue and mutated.

"We are all unique and separate….," Two-Face said. His left side glaring. His right side cool, collected. He flipped the coin again and again and again and—Caught it. Snap! "…we are a whole. We function separately, and yet for the same purpose. If my sniveling lackeys can't do the job for me, then I falter. And when I falter, the rest of Triangular falters. And when the rest of Triangular falters…." His normal and mutated eye glared. "…Red Aviary comes to pick at us like a god damn vulture."

"Please….I can make it better…."

"No…," Two-Face shook his head. "You can't."

Cl-Click!

Two-Face whipped a magnum out.

Anderson gasped. His knees wobbled.

"I've been told that you're a man who loves death, Mr. Anderson….," the Gotham villain cocked the pistol. "Your love of tournaments and insatiable appetite for torture shows that you are most at home with bloodshed." He aimed the barrel of the gun at the man's shivering forehead. "Would I truly….truly be punishing you if I let you become the product of your own obsession?"

Anderson murmured: "P-Please…..please….." There was a wet spot on the divided carpet directly beneath the shivering man's legs.

Two-Face hoarsely breathed: "No…No….it is not in my place to decide whether or not you are truly still useful to me and my allies…."

Anderson's lips quivered.

"Let us let fate have its say….," Two-Face lifted the coin into view. It showed a solid 'heads'. "Good side says you live to be pushed into some menial job where Luthor, Dagger, and I don't have to look at your blood-sucking face." He spun the coin around and showed a 'heads' with violent, jagged slashes all across the metal surface. "Bad side says I decorate my thinking room with your pretty brains."

Anderson froze.

Two-Face lifted the coin up in his blue hand.

He flipped it.

The coin spun.

Glinting.

Anderson watched his life rise up, spin, fall, and land on the floor.

THWOMP!

Two-Face's shoe stomped over it.

Anderson gulped.

A beat.

Two-Face drew his heel back.

It landed with the solid face up.

"Looks like the good side wins….," Two-Face whisperingly declared.

Anderson let out a huge breath. "Whew….."

_Plant!_

The barrel of Two-Face's magnum rested between Anderson's eyes.

"But there's just one thing…"

Anderson gasped. He looked up.

Two-Face coolly glared. "Today's 'Opposite Day'….."

A smooth finger pulled the trigger.

And Anderson screamed: "NOOOOOOO"

_**BANG!**_

The thugs in the back with their tommy guns blinked.

But Killer Croc watched unhindered. And he grinned a mutated smile.

Two Face waved the smoking gun around, and pocketed it. He adjusted his jacket and turned sideways to the good half of the room.

"Cart his carcass away….dump him out in the middle of the desert. Let the cops find him. It's better to have them scared than anything…"

The thugs nodded. They picked up the carcass of a robed figure and dragged it out of the room. A red streak traced over the dividing line.

Killer Croc marched forward.

Two-Face looked at him. His mutated eye glared. "Well?" he hoarsely uttered. "You back with us, Scales?"

Killer Croc smiled. "In and out of the cesspool. Bein' on that Dragonflare stuff almost feels like being back in the swamp. Only….less mosquitoes."

"…….," Two-Face turned his good side towards the reptile. "You're lame."

"Hresh….."

"Where's the cylinder headed?"

"The guys back at Pompeii have it ready to send to Luthor."

"Go ahead and have it sent."

Killer Croc gestured: "Shouldn't we wait for Dagger to do his part?"

Two-Face shook his halves. "It's just as well. I've been in contact with the man. He should have the goods sent to Metropolis soon anyways. It'll be close enough to a dual shipment."

"You think Dagger got anything worthwhile out of the bitch?" Croc grinned.

"The hell that I know….and the hell that I care for that matter…," Two-Face marched back over to his shadowed chair. "We are old things, Scales. Gotham City will crumble to ashes some day. Even the Riddler and the Joker must feel it. Rupert Thorne has fallen by the wayside. The Penguin is a shriveled shadow of what he once was. The criminals despots that once shook the world are now nothing but bureaucratic wastes of oxygen diluting their fear through grapevines and pies in the sky."

He turned around.

He slumped down in his chair.

His faces hidden.

He flipped the coin and continued speaking: "All we can do now is team up with pathetic 'Triangulars' while on the run from something so Deadly that we can't even stop it. It's the worst way of going out to pasture I ever imagined. And something deep and rotten inside of me is laughing."

"Heh. You? Rotten? That's a laugh," Killer Croc folded his meaty arms.

"Your sarcasm suits you well. I hope you're smiling like a good crocodile when Red Aviary slits your throat as well as mine."

"Hehehehehehressssh…."

A deep breath, Two-Face spoke: "Bring news to Rexxin. He's being promoted. He'll be running things at Pompeii while all of this shit in Las Vegas is sorted out."

"What about you, Boss?"

"I'm going back to Gotham."

"So soon? The hot stuff is in Metroplis now!"

"True that, but this holocaust here in Vegas has proved to me something," Two-Face flipped the coin in the shadows. "Red Aviary may be close on our tails….but a few upstart punks are a lot closer. And this is all trailing back to Dagger's lovely job in the Titans' City. I feel like we may be a lot closer to Destruction than we might think. And I need to go back to Gotham to start preparing for things."

"Like what?"

"Gotham City….something big is going to happen there. I can feel lit. Like the cold ringing sound of a quarter on a metal floor. It's time that we prepared. I'm going back to Gotham to check on Mr. Wesker and Mr. Hagen. So soon after the Arkham breakout, and things are _already_ starting to fall to pieces. I want my plane prepared in the morning."

"Yeah, yeah…I hear you….and what about what I want in all this?"

The coin-flipping paused.

A beat.

Two-Face's hoarse voice: "A face-to-face meeting with Red Aviary?"

Killer Croc palmed his fist. "Yesssssssss….."

"…………….hrmph……do whatever you want once Dagger's plans come full swing."

"Grrrreat….," Killer Croc smirked, turned, and marched out of the room.

Once the reptile was gone, the coin started to flip in the dark again.

"I can't think of a better way for you to die……..ya stupid suitcase."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 21, 2004.

10:33 am

Rachel, Nevada

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A pleasant old lady at the sales counter of a small restaurant smiled and handed a family their credit receipt.

"Thank you! Have a nice day! Thanks for joining us!"

A bell to the front door of the place ringed a couple of times.

The sounds of plates and dinnerware and eating patrons could be heard in a gentle ambiance in the distance.

The walls and booths and ceiling of the place were decorated cutely from head to toe with toy flying saucers, alien portraits, newspaper clippings about UFOs, and other galactic trinkets. A juke box in the corner of the place was playing _'Flying Purple People Eaters'_.

The woman looked up as two bottles of water and some granola bars were placed on the counter.

"That all?" she smiled neighborly. "You sure you don't want to hang around and eat something warm with us today?"

I smiled gently. I slowly shook my head and mouthed: 'no'.

"Well, all-right then. That'll be 6.27 please."

I fished into my jacket pocket. I wore a casual pair of jeans, a white shirt underneath, a baseball cap, and the usual backpack on my shoulders. A harmonica rested in my back pocket.

"You good at playing that thing?" the woman asked, gesturing towards the mouth organ.

I smiled and waved my hand side-to-side as if to say 'somewhat'.

I fished out the cash and handed it to her.

She bagged my drinks and snacks and handed the change back to me. "You have a good day!"

I pleasantly mouthed: _'Keep it'_. And walked out the door.

"Heheheh…okay then. Take care, now!"

D-Ding!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the hot, desert sun…I walked to the edge of the parking lot of the Little A'Le'Inn.

I reached back and zipped the plastic bag of foodstuffs into my backpack.

A bus poured out of the parking lot, honking. Kicking up dust as silly tourists inside waved and whistled at me.

I smiled and waved back at them.

They vanished along the desert vastness.

Silence….

I took a deep breath.

I reached into my pocket.

I pulled out a note that my friend had scribbled on.

My shaded black eyes read it.

'_Dear Noir,'_

'_Meet me out by the Black Mailbox.'_

'_Sincerely, Noir.'_

'_P.S.: Try and keep cool.'_

"……"

I pocketed the note away and stared southward along the desert horizon.

Past the Coyote Summit.

Beyond the 'Extraterrestrial Highway'.

Towards the rise in the earth where—beyond—I knew lay 'Bald Mountain' and the forbidden land hidden beneath it.

Area 51.


	200. Resurrection

**200. Resurrection**

_The boughs and leaves of the cedar trees rustled in the breeze, forming a gentle ambiance that was music in itself. Nature filtered a whispery hush downwards in a spiral to the earthen floor. It was the greatest tune life could have, and it was being horrifically and ridiculously interrupted with blaring, blowing sounds of spitting breath through a mouth organ. _

_I held Ana's harmonica to my lips, trying in a calamitous style to perform 'Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star'. Every note I produced had the sort of rhythmic quality befitting a can of rusty nails being rolled across a gravel front yard. _

_The blonde-haired angel sitting across from me on the shaded grass outside the Manor was awfully patient. But her suppressed grin grew and grew until I inevitably gave up with a desperate gasp and all but dropped the mouth organ. _

"_Okay, you can laugh now…" _

"_Hehehehehehehe!" _

_I groaned and rolled my brown eyes. "There's an analogy about kicking a dead horse that would fit itself nicely in this moment." _

"_Wh-What do you mean? Hehehehe…," Ana wiped a tear from her eye. _

"_It's no use! I can't learn this!" I smiled awkwardly before handing the harmonica back to her. "I think drums are the only instrument ever in my future." _

"_That's what everyone says." _

"_Yup. So here I am one extra fish in the sea. Now take your damn harmonica." _

_She giggled and pushed it back into my chest. "Keep it." _

_I blinked. "Keep it?" _

_She gave me a proud smirk. "Don't give it back until you've learned how to play just right!" _

_I blinked. "You just kissed your harmonica goodbye forever, ya know that?" _

"_I most certainly did not!" Ana leaned back and laid herself down on the grass with her hands behind her head. "That harmonica means far too much to me! I'd kick the tushie of anyone who so much as tries to steal it from me!" _

_I winced with a sweatdrop. "Guess I'd better learn to master it, huh?" _

"_Y-Yup!" _

_I shrugged. "Figures." I laid myself down on the grass opposite of her. My head was by her feet and her face was near my ankles. There was about two feet between us on the warm grass. We stared up through the cedar-filtered sky and… _

_Breathed………_

_A beat. _

_Fourteen-year-olds and fourteen-year-old sighs. _

"_You know what I think sometimes, Ana?" _

"_What's that, Jordan?" _

"_I'm like an apprentice." _

"_Well, duh." _

"……_an apprentice of yours." _

_A beat. _

_Ana leaned her head up. "Huh?" _

_I smiled, my cheeks a bit red. "Well……it's kinda true if you think about it." _

"_Do me a favor and think it for me," Ana said with a confused smile. "What do you mean……'an apprentice of mine'?" _

"_I just……owe so much to you," I shrugged. "And you're so willing to teach me. I-I'm sorry! I can't help it. I feel like you're tutoring me and stuff." A beat. I looked at her with an earnest rise of my eyebrows. "N-N-Not that I find anything bad in that or whatnot! I think it's kinda cool, actually." _

"_Jordan……heheh……," Ana sat up and hugged her knees. "I've never taught you anything." _

"_Never taught me anything!" _

_She held a hand out. "Before you say anything……" _

"………"

_She hugged her knees again. "If anything, you've been complementing me. Just as I've been complementing you." _

_I leaned my reclined head to the side. Facing her. "This has something to do with Balance, I'm guessing?" _

_Ana nodded. "Jordan, ever since you found……f-found your part of the Spectrum, what have you noticed about yourself?"_

"…………"

"_About your __**training**__……" _

_I bit my lip. "Er……it's……uhm……," I simpered. "A……A l-lot easier……" _

_Ana nodded. "You're in your element, Jordan. And when you're in your element, you do that which is most natural to you." _

_I took a deep breath. I gazed back up at the interrupted sky. "I follow what other people tell me……" _

_Ana slowly nodded. She gazed aside: "And I'm natural at telling other people what to do. Giving orders. Giving strength……" _

"_Giving life," I winked. _

"_Hehehe……yeah. The Master loves to say 'Life', 'Death', and 'Balance'." _

"_So you're saying that it's my place to depend on you," I scratched behind my ear. "……and it's your place to point me in the right direction?" _

"_Not very macho sounding, I know." _

_I snickered. _

_She looked at me funny. _

_I gave her a smirk. "I never thought of it __**that**__ way." _

"_Oh…g-good…," she hugged herself and stared off. There was a rosiness to her cheeks. "Cuz I was afraid……" _

"_Afraid of what, Ana?" _

_She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. As long as we just understand……," she looked at me angelically as always. "Whatever we do……however we handle things……it is all natural. For it is part of the spectrum. And we should never……ever……feel ashamed." _

"_Like, I should never feel bad about following others around?" _

"_Mmmhmm," Ana smirked. She winked. "And I shouldn't feel bad about being a female dog at times." _

_I laughed. _

_She giggled. _

"_That's cruel, Ana," I shook my head. "Don't be down on yourself……" _

"_I'm not being down on myself," she stuck a cute tongue out. "I just feel thankful that in the long run……well……" _

_I looked sideways at her. "?" _

_She hugged her knees to her chest. "As natural as it is to follow us around……being 'Black', you'll inevitably be the ones to keep me and 'Red' together." _

_I nodded slowly. "It'll be up to me someday to rescue Construction………if need be." _

"_Right." _

"_But of course," I glanced off towards the forest. "The Master has told me of that." _

_Ana nodded. _

_Silence. _

_I smirked. I looked back at Ana again. "And just what does 'Red' do?" _

"_Whatever the heck he wants." _

"_Hahahahaha!" _

"_Hehehehehe." _

"_Ohhhh man……hahaha………so true…………" _

"………"

"………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 21, 2004.

12:04 pm

Groom Lake.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……."

My feet shifted in the desert dirt alongside the roasting asphalt.

I walked along a road in the middle of an infinite dryness.

The world spun flat around me and the sun wavered up off the ground and snaked around my limbs.

I was sweating. But I wasn't suffering. It was unlike any other 'November' I had felt before. Yet I wasn't there to enjoy an afternoon stroll.

My backpack hung over my shoulders. The scabbard to Myrkblade rested inside of my jacket. My shades were slick with a thin sheen of moisture. As my feet moved, my lungs inflated and deflated and my breath fought the warmth of the cooking air around me.

And I tried to think. And I tried to imagine.

_If this was the life Terra lived. _

_Before she joined the Titans……_

I kept my mind occupied with that. It was the best thing to keep me distracted from what I about to. From where I was about to stick my nose in….

I fingered the Key. It was in my combat fatigues pocket. As real as my bruises from Vegas were. And felt.

A deep breath, and then I stumbled upon something.

My feet grinded to a stop in the dirt.

I froze.

I looked up, an eyebrow raised.

There was the mailbox. And the mailbox was…..white. Whitewashed over. Pale against the desert landscape.

I blinked under my shades.

My lips parted some.

_ZAAT!_

"Heheh….I know what you're thinking."

"?" I spun and looked.

The Messenger stood beside me in the roadside dirt. He smiled and pointed: "The Black Mailbox……isn't Black…," he said.

I did a double-take at him. For he was no longer dressed…..'Messenger styled'. His usual, neon-green sweat jacket and stone-gray slacks were replaced with…._well……_a black jumpsuit of sorts. For all intents and purposes, it was a uniform of solid onyx. A stretching, spandex like material. He had a utility belt of dark green and what looked like shoulder-pads or crests of an ornamental green and yellow as well. A bundle of light equipment hung over his shoulders and around his torso, among which I saw bundled cable, a grappling cord, and what looked like a three-'eyed' set of infrared goggles.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

_Do I……know you?_

And yet, the Messenger's trademark smile was there. His soft, warm almond eyes. The green highlights to his short hairtips.

_Okay……no worries._

"It once was black, of course," he gestured to the box. "But years of redneck tourists and nerdy conspiracy theorists visiting this site to scribble or sticker things all over the poor container sorta ruined that. Who can blame someone for wanting to give it a little makeup job? I mean….this mailbox _does_ belong to someone…."

I scratched my head with a metal hand.

_It's just a mailbox, I don't see what the big deal is……_

I looked at the Messenger.

_You watch the History Channel a lot, don't you?_

He paced around towards me. Gazing down at the dirt road of the partially forbidden desert. "Ya know, Noir…the world is a goofy place. Nobody seems to want to tell people everything. And even when they do, it's always little bits and pieces of informational appetizers." He stopped and folded his arms. Smirking knowingly at me. "Sounds like someone you know?"

I gave him a sarcastic smirk.

"Heheheh," he scratched the back of his neck and simpered. "I think I'd make a good parent. What do you think?"

I glanced at his equipment over his shoulders.

_Sam Fisher is a dad……right?_

"I think it was Plato who said that ruling powers are entitled to make 'noble lies'," my ghostly friend gestured. "The idea that those in power—to protect the status quo of the people—can very well twist truth to their advantage. For their advantage is the advantage of all society, fruity philosopher-kings and Greek slavery aside."

I blinked.

"The long and short of it is…," the Messenger gazed at the whitewashed mailbox as he spoke, "…society for the last umpthousand years have been under the impression that our leading quacks in the high seats can and will deceive us for one reason or another. And to an extent, that is very well true." He winked at me. "And to an even greater extent, that's a big load of cat scat."

I bit my lip.

He pointed: "There's a lot to be proud of in America yet, Noir. Be pessimistic all you want. Call the U.S. a resource-grabbing first world culture or an huge-ass homefront for monopolizing corporations, but there is still a lot about this country to be respected and—furthermore—to be trusted for."

I watched as he turned about and paced circles around the mailbox. "Yes, the U.S. Government has lied about Area 51. In this universe it has, at least."

I leaned my head to the side. Listening….

"But its lies have greatly been outweighed by the suppositions of the international citizenry," he said. "There's indeed an awful lot of stuff in Area 51 that supposedly _shouldn't_ be there. But at the same time, there's a lot of stuff not at Area 51 that—quite frankly—isn't even at any spot on Earth."

I took a deep breath.

_Is this all supposed to interest me?_

He stopped walking and looking at me. "What was once a subtle, safe little box of lies concocted by the government has been thrown open into the marketplace of free ideas and twisted into something, much….much larger. And the government has simply taken the fifth and allowed 'we the people' to make up stuff about Area 51 as we see fit. And over many decades, there exists a breadbasketful of cockamamie theories all deviating from the unknown truth. And that truth, Noir…," he paused for emphasis, "…is that the government knows just as much about Area 51 as the people."

I did a double take. I mouthed: _'What?'_

He smiled. Almost proudly. "Yup," he nodded. "Area 51 has not been property of the American Government of the United States for at leastohtwelve and a half years now."

"……..," I stared at him blankly.

"Oh, believe me. I've done my research. The best sort of research a….'traveler' like me can make," he winked. "And things are pretty much the same in about four hundred fifty thousand and twenty-one alternate realities quite similar to this one. Area 51 has seen its glory days, but now it's gone the way of the Edsel and Sega Hardware."

I flinched and waved my hand.

_Wait……wait! Hold the phone……_

But he went on, pacing: "The U.S. Government is hardly the omnipotent thing that so many people presume it to be. Rather, just like all bureaucratic entities, it is subject to power shifts and intrigue and…well…buying out. And a while back, such a sale took place. And Area 51—as big or as little a commodity as any other mothballed train wreck in political history—joined the endless, global auction of postindustrial detritus. Its greatness only exists in two things. One: its legend. Two: the despotic owners of Area 51 who have used the obscurity of their purchase to turn the former Air Base into something that has brought us here today….to save something of perfect innocence from being torn from the inside out."

I exhaled.

My lips parted.

I mouthed: _'Triangular……'_

The Messenger slowly nodded.

He said: "Don't be surprised, Noir, to realize that Dagger owns and _has owned_ Area 51 like so many other iconographic things in this nation of ours."

"……," I gazed off across the flat, desert horizon.

He patted a hand on my shoulder: "Believe me. Dagger's power in this part of the hemisphere far exceeds ownership of a presumably top secret installation. He alone holds far greater weight than two first world armies combined. What he did to your City should be but ample proof of that…."

I took a deep breath. I nodded.

_But why are we here, Messenger? _

I ran a shivering metal hand through my hair.

_Is it because of the hand? _

_Or the dagger?_

"The reason I tell you all this, Noir, is not just for cliché 'prep' and jazz…though I do enjoy giving that….hehehehe…."

I smirked at him.

_You sure do……_

"But rather," he shrugged. "I just want you to know that what you're about to do….what _we're_ about to do is righteous." He smirked. "And you shouldn't feel bad about…..breaking the law."

"………," I simpered.

_Uh, yeah. Thanks._

"Leave your backpack."

I blinked at him under his shades.

He adjusted the equipment on his back as if to point out he had what we needed. "Put it somewhere where only you can find it…on the return trip from Area 51."

"……"

"When you have Terra."

I took a deep breath.

I nodded, and slipped the backpack off.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Five hundred feet from Groom Lake Road.

Outside the Restricted Boundary.

The both of us lay flat on our stomachs on an upwards sloping crest of earth.

We peered over the brush and desert heaps towards a hindered horizon.

Beyond the dip, the earth drifted down into the plain that would eventually yield the outer barrier and structures of Area 51.

And even then, the site would be incalculably far from the visible eye.

And yet we rested there, scouting.

For reasons I weren't entirely sure of yet.

I laid with Myrkblade's scabbard exposed over my back. I had stripped of my jacket and had on a black, sleeveless shirt tucked into my tan combat fatigues. The trademark red bandanna hugged my black bangs to my forehead while the rest of the onyx locks hung back over my shoulders.

I felt hot.

Dirty.

Sweaty.

I panted, gazing through moist shades.

I glanced right at the Messenger.

He was staring through his three-lensed goggles at the obscured horizon.

After a pause, he finally lifted the goggles, smiled, and pointed out while glancing at me.

"Straight ahead, and to the right some. Do you see it?"

I squinted my black eyes. The desert landscape was so bright. So reflective. I was having a headache from the punishment to my retinae.

But I saw it. And 'it' was a lonely pole of sorts. A pole with a white box and antennae-like equipment strapped to it.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Magnetic sensors. They surround the entire site. Thousands of them. Maybe tens of thousands," the Messenger said. "It's amazing what 'wonders of the world' in international engineering the common public never hears about."

I took a deep breath. I scanned across the tan landscape. I saw a dozen more poles suddenly. All identical. All of them…..

"Yup, magnetic sensors," the Messenger said. "They detect living things, androids, cyborgs, and even—to some extent—astral projections of various physical and metaphysical beings. Basically any organism that might—for any sexy reason—try and waltz into the Groom Lake picnic zone." He pointed and spoke: "However, with the lovely Dagger dynasty throwing a twist into things, you can bet your flying monkeys that those sensors have been equipped with aeroflammable fragment expulsors."

I gave him a dumb look.

_Huh?_

He looked at me and said proudly: "Upon sensing invading bodies, the surrounding devices emit two things into the air. Glass dust and flammable gas. Upon detection of further movement by the foreign element, the poles ignite the gas in the air. The glass turns into solid shrapnel and shred apart all living flesh within a one hundred and fifty meter radius between the sensors. Phoom! Instant silicon barbecue."

I made a face.

"And no….," he shook his head. "Mesa no think you can 'outrun' that, maverick."

I took a deep breath. I gazed out at the landscape.

_I could always teleport…… _

_But… _

_For all I know, I've got countless miles ahead of me. It might be a day's worth of careful navigation before I could so much as reach the 'fence' of Area 51. That is……if Area 51 has a fence. _

_And even still, the farthest I've ever teleported in open air is barely half a football field in length. To go any further would be impossible, if not dangerous. _

_I've never given it much thought, but I could very well separate my molecules to the point that they could never come back together again if I pushed myself just a __**little**__ to 'far'._

_What's left then to avoid those sensors?_

_I could try and cloak myself and waltz past them. _

_But that makes me weightless, not void of temperature. Even at night, those sensors could spot me. _

_I could destroy the sensors, but that would only wreak havoc._

I sighed.

_If only Raven were here. _

_She could teleport me there. She could teleport __**us**__ there. Messenger included. _

_Her powers allowed her to shift through earth and floor and walls. _

_But even then—wouldn't the sensors detect that as some sort of astral projection and ignite the fiery trap at first touch of her soul self?_

"The wheels in your head turning, Noir?"

I went a little cross-blackeyed. I snapped out of it and gazed at my friend.

He seemed to be watching me intently. Smiling. "Don't mind me. I find it amusing."

I frowned.

"Take it easy. Sheesh," he sat up on his knees and cracked his neck. "Well, you can think up stuff all you want. But you won't make a redeemable solution. And don't take that the hard way, it's not because of a lack of intelligence or anything. Just a lack of superpowers."

_Jeez, thanks._

"Hehehe. Well, you are a quick little devil. And quickness is just what may be up our avenue right now," he said. A beat. "Especially since we've already been spotted."

I gasped. I sat up. I looked around. Desperate and panicked.

"Shhhh," he hissed at me as if it meant anything. "Calm down. There's not much they can do anyways…."

"?" I looked at him, panting.

"Back in the day," he gestured. "They'd have these bumbling dudes in camouflage drive up in Jeep Cherokees and 'binocular' visitors to death. Today, they seem to have fallen short of that. But with Dagger involved, I wouldn't doubt it if there're—like—tiny ass nanomachines whizzing around our head as we speak. Taking blood samples from our ear lobes and cornea. Ya know….processing DNA and doing all the good stuff. I bet they know your favorite boxers color by now."

I made a face. My skin was pale.

"Hehehehehehe!" He all but doubled over. "Of course you know I'm joking about half of the crap I say."

I groaned mutely.

He cleared his throat, and swiftly his face took on a certain solemnity. "The time has come. We must go."

I looked at him strangely. I hand-signed something that he most likely couldn't understand.

Though he did seem to have a good knack for reading off my 'face'.

"We can't wait till sundown," the Messenger said. "Not now. Not after all the time we took in Vegas to get the Key. Dagger has been hard at work at something…something terrible. And he's been working ever since he first pulled out of your City. Ever since he headed west and brought Terra here."

I took a deep breath.

My metal fists clenched.

"And besides…," he smiled ever so slightly. "Daytime or nighttime matters little. Cuz we'll be going underground."

"……..," I gazed southwest in the direction of Area 51.

_But of course……_

He stood up beside me.

I stood up too, feeling bewildered.

_And just how are we going to get there?_

He cracked his knuckles and planted his hands on his hips. He smirked up at me. "Now here's where I come in…"

I gazed down at him.

_You don't say._

"I can get us in Area 51. In fact, I did some reconnaissance this morning while you were arriving in Rachel."

I leaned my head to the side.

"Things are just as I imagined them. Dagger's and Triangular's people are speeding things up inside. There's only so little time before all is lost. So we might as well do things with as much swiftness as possible and as little explanation as possible. Kosher?"

I took a deep breath and smiled weakly.

_Yeah…… _

_Kosher._

He pointed at a watch on his hand. 'A' watch because it was _different_ than before. Bulkier, if that was even imaginable.

"I got me here a special order. A once-in-a-blue-moon helping hand, I suppose you could say," the Messenger said. "This thing should give me a little bit more 'oomph' while I'm here."

I squinted my eyes at the device.

_Just what in the Hell is up with these funky Rolexes of yours!_

"But what I'm about to do…," he said, "….is gonna take a lot out of me regardless. I can get you inside the base, Noir. But once we're inside….I'm going to have to depend on you more than you can depend on me. Though—if things go as planned—we should hold fairly even ground." He slipped on his goofy, three-eyed goggles and smirked. "I've trained with the best."

I looked him straight in the three circular objects and tried to keep a straight face.

_Someone has got to find you a woman……_

And then he held his hand out. "Noir, take my hand."

"……..," I bit my lip.

He rolled what must have been almond eyes beneath his goggles and smirked sarcastically. "For the love of Jocasta…I'm wearing gloves!"

I simpered nervously.

I took his hand…..

"Whatever you do…," he spoke. "Do not—and I repeat—DO NOT let go! You're used to freaky stuff, right?"

I gazed at our hands holding.

_I should say so……_

"Then be ready for anything at this moment more than ever." And with that, he took a deep breath and reached his free hand to the watch on the wrist holding mine. "Now….this _might_ cause underwear stains."

I took a sharp breath.

Click.-

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!**_

_I instantly tilted my head up and let out a mute scream. _

_And I was surprised to see green vapors streaming out of my mouth. _

_My black eyes widened, for I realized the entire desert was nothing but a sea of green vapors._

_I was looking at the desert, and the desert was looking at me. A pair of green eyes. I froze. Two green balls of light. Three balls of light. Four. I was being surrounded by ghosts of green. I nearly slipped free of my scabbard in stumbling backwards earthward, for I could no longer feel my feet. I could no longer feel the earth. The center of gravity of all things that were was surging straight up to me, through me, and out the top of my head. My black eyes exploded and laughed into a forever-emerald oblivion. _

_And yet it was painless. _

_Like a dream._

_Free floating. _

_Shapeless. _

_I took me half a second to realize that my right hand still existed before I felt it nearly-slipping from the Messenger's grasp. _

_His fingers tightened around my palm. _

_I shook, shivered, and looked at him. _

_He looked at me with his goggles glowing. Jade orbs. Flickering pixies. _

_His lips were as calm and as serene as ever in this green-wavering madness. _

"_**Hold on, Noir!"**__ He said. __**"Hold on! We're going in!"**_

_I shuddered. I never felt so defenseless in my life. _

_This was not my element. _

_This was not my element…… _

_He gripped tightly to the length of my right forearm in two hands……and surged forward. _

_**FWOOOSH!**_

_The desert land of green waves splashed between us._

_**FW-FWOOSH!**_

_We passed through the sensors. Unnoticed. Untouched. Unharmed._

_**FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

_And then open stretches of desert. Tiring, tan, open stretches. Shrubbery and rocks peeling away into thinness until the barren Dead won over and we were surging over pure, green skin. Smooth as the sky. The mutated, unseen kaleidoscope of Groom Lake up close._

_And then there were fences. _

_And there were circular, metal things in the ground. _

_I could see the metal things because I could see through the ground. _

_I could see through the earth. _

_I could feel the weightlessness, the impermanence of everything. _

_Matter, light, energy. _

_The bodies that swam around in between. _

_Like poisoned goldfish in a glass pitcher being poured off the side of a fifty-story building._

_I glided along in the Messenger's gasp as the world evened out. _

_And the fences passed through us like streams of dust._

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

_Green. _

_Green._

_Everything green. _

_Everything a dancing cloud that was so bright and yet it didn't blind me. _

_I felt the tendril energies of all the world's souls anchoring and unanchoring to me at once as we hurdled through the last barrier and—_

_Like a comet, everything soared towards us. _

_And I gasped again._

_With green streams… _

_Area 51. _

_The warehouses. _

_The white satellite dishes. _

_The bunkers. _

_The geometrically awe-inspiring structures. _

_The runway. _

_Abandoned jeeps. _

_Abandoned guard shacks. _

_I was too busy in the thrill of accelerated descent to try and 'see' anybody. _

_A guard. _

_A henchman. _

_A scientist. _

……_alien? _

_We plunged towards the warehouse. Its white shell of a body was horrendously contrasting with the green waves. _

_I looked at the Messenger._

_He smiled. _

_Like a surfer. _

_A happy entertainer riding the nose of some celestial, killer whale. _

_And leaping—with me entwined—deep into the bowels of the base's white entrance. _

_And down. _

_Underground. _

_To the Earth._

_**FWOOOOSH! **_

_**FWOOOOOOOOSH! **_

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_HRAAAAAA!"_

_CL-CLANG! _

_Myrkblade flew down and struck the length of Choral._

_A fifteen-year-old Ana held her ivory wooden sword with both hands gripping tightly to the blade's hilt. She gritted her teeth and shoved off with a growl. _

_I leapt back through the forest-side clearing. I spun. I burned black smoke into my blade and came at her from the side with a rotating attack. "RGHHHAAAAH!" _

_SW-SW-SW-SWISH! _

_Ana stepped steadily backwards, her sword pivoted and held iron-still to the side. _

_CL-CL-CL-CLACK! _

_She brought a foot up and kicked me in the side. _

_I stumbled back. _

_She took a deep breath. And her sapphire blue eyes flashed a bright yellow. "Nnnngh!" FWOOOOOOSH! With a single downswing of Choral, she launched a fan of hot white steam at me. _

_I dove to the side, rolled, jumped back up to my feet, blurred, dashed up a tree, vaulted off, and spun at her with a smoke-trailing katana. "YAAAAAAAAH!" FWOOOOSH! _

_Ana kept her feet firmly planted to the Earth. As always. She gripped her sword on both ends and stretched it up horizontally at me. _

_WHACK! _

_I struck the middle of her sword. _

_She pushed off at me. _

_I flipped back. _

_She charged Choral with white steam. _

_I slid back and shot black smoke into Myrkblade. Seething. Dark smoke pouring out the sides of my brown eyes. _

_Ana raised her sword up. Tendrils of white mist billowed from it. _

_I gripped Myrkblade in two hands and held it to my side. I shifted my feet. I took a deep breath. Flexed. And sent waves of smoke surging through my blade. _

_Ana kept charging. Standing perfectly still. As the white steam intensified, an invisible wind billowed at the tall grass surrounding her. _

"_Nnnnngh……," I summoned the dark power of Balance through my center, meditated for but a second, and exploded towards her. "RAAAAAAGH!" The trailing Myrkblade cut a searing path through the waving grass. _

_Ana braced herself. Her legs strong. Her blue eyes glowing a brighter gold……platinum……ivory. _

"_HAAAAA!" I brought Myrkblade up, twirled my whole body, and teleported directly in front of her and jabbed!—jabbed!—jabbed!—jabbed!—jabbed!_

_Ana produced a thick shield of white mist in front of her body. The black, smoking sword splashed against the Construction. No matter how quickly I jabbed or struck, the strength of Choral and her channeled White held me back. And then _

_CLANG! _

_Our blades struck. They pressed against each other lengthwise. _

_I leaned into her, straining. _

_She leaned into me, straining. _

_Smoking Myrkblade. _

_Steaming Choral. _

_Black eyes. _

_White eyes. _

_A beat. _

_A pause. _

_And _

……

_**POW!**_

_Ana's ivory blade exploded in white intensity. _

_My ragdoll body was blown back as if from a giant's sledgehammer. _

"_Whoahhhhhhhhhh—"THWACK! I slammed back into a cedar. "OOF!" I fell down hard on the ground, dropping Myrkblade. THWUMP! CL-CLANK! "Ugh………" _

_Ana's white eyes melted away to her normal, angelic blue. She gasped and dropped Choral. "J-Jordan!" She rushed over and knelt by my side in the tall grass. "Oh jeez, Jordan! I'm sorry. Are you okay? I didn't mean to make you…erm……g-go kerplunk that bad!" _

"_It's okay, Ana……," I sputtered. Hoarse. I looked up at her with thin, brown eyes and smiled weakly. "I-I know how to take a beating…" _

_She bit her lip. "Ohhhh……," she hugged me. "Why do you have to be so intense when we spar?" _

"_Me? I'm intense? Sorry, Ana, but you get a little desperate when you feel like you're beating a giant wall of calcium!" _

"_Hey!" Ana frowned. "Just because I know hot to use the strength of Construction doesn't mean that—" A pause. Her blue eyes blinked. "'Calcium'?" _

_I simpered. "Yeah. Ya know……like teeth?" _

"………"

"_Big……strong……wh-white teeth……" _

"…………_," Ana snorted. She cupped a graceful hand over her lips as her blue eyes curved. "Hehehehehehehe……" _

_I smiled crookedly. "Heheheheheh……" _

"_Hehehehehehe!" she hugged herself and fell back on her rear in the dirt. "Is that the best you can come up with? Teeth!" _

_I chuckled and shrugged. "It was Ben who called my mastery the color of poop!" _

"_Hahahahahaha!" _

_I rubbed my aching shoulders and sighed. Chuckled. Shook my head. _

_And as Ana's giggling faded, the two of us became aware of another set of laughs. And elderly set of laughs. _

_We both stood up and looked as one over at the shaded spot beneath a nearby cedar tree._

_Beneath the branches, the Master sat. His features hidden by the shadows. His legs crossed in a squat beneath his small frame. _

_His voice……laughing. _

"_I now know why I have chosen you young ones for your half of the Spectrum. You are like siblings." _

"_Siblings?" Ana blinked. "Ew." _

"_?" I looked at her, an eyebrow raised. _

"……_," Ana blushed. "Er……what I mean is—why do you say 'siblings', sir?" _

_I looked the Master's way again, secretly humored._

"_So competitive. So much trying to outprove one another. You do well to rely on your own ends of the Spectrum. But sometimes the best way to ensure victory is to ensure defeat. You must surrender yourselves to the other colors, reach in, grab that which is only marginally foreign to you, and turn it around in your own favor. And—in the end—it will be in the favor of all ends of the Spectrum."_

"………"

"………"

_Ana an I exchanged glances. Blinking. _

"_Jordan……," the Master's voice uttered. _

_I winced, sweatdropped, but tried to hide it. I turned and looked at him from far away and under the tree. "Y-Yes, sensei?"_

"_Why did Ana defeat you?" _

"_Uh……," I looked at her. _

_Her pretty eyes fluttered. She made a show of sporting a highly feminine smile. _

_I refused the urge to kick her in the shins. _

_I looked back in the Master's direction. "Because……sh-she was too strong?" _

"_She is always too strong. You know that." _

"_Yes, sensei." _

"_But where she is too strong, you can be too fast. Much like where she is strong and you are fast, the Red Adept is cunning." _

_We both nodded at that. _

"_You understand strength and cunning, do you not, Jordan?" _

"_I do, sensei," I nodded. "I have well familiarized myself with all ends of the Spectrum including my own." _

"_And you understand the nature of Construction?" _

_I nodded _

"_And you still—deep down inside—favor Construction above all else?" _

_I blinked my brown eyes. _

_Ana bit her lip. _

"_Is this true?" _

_I took a deep breath. I glanced sideways at the angelic girl as I answered him: "Yes, sir." _

_Ana looked away, silent. _

_I spoke firmer. "I respect Construction the most." A beat. I added: "But I know my place." _

_The Master chuckled from beneath the shadows. "Heh heh heh……I do not doubt your surety in Balance, young apprentice. But I do think that—as a maintainer of Black—you must keep a focus as well on your blending of White and Red." _

_Ana leaned her head to the side. Curious. _

_I took a deep breath. "What must I do, sensei?" _

"_Pick up your swords. The both of you." _

_A pause. _

_We did so._

_Awkwardly. _

_Ana graced Choral. _

_I fastened my fingers around the hilt of Myrkblade._

"_Prepare to spar. Again." _

_We both nodded. _

_We paced twenty feet from each other. _

_In the swaying tall grass, we turned and faced each other. _

_We bowed. _

_Ana held tight to her sword. _

_I twirled Myrkblade. _

_But before any of us could go at it again _

"_Hold." _

_We froze._

_Sideways, we glanced at the tree the Master sat under. _

"_I want you to concentrate on your opponent's grip on the Spectrum, Jordan. Anastasia, you too." _

"_Yes, sensei." _

"_Remember. The Spectrum can be seen from many angles. Like blind men to the many parts of an elephant, the whole has many strange and different parts. But it doesn't keep the whole from being an elephant. You, Jordan, are Black. And you, Ana, are White. Hold true to the color that defines you. But at the same time, remember that the Spectrum is but a conglomeration of many colors. Many shades. Many hues. And they are all related, while all different. There is a little White in Black. There is a little Black in White. And—even in all of that—there is always Red. And the hidden blends of the Spectrum are best felt when you are sharing as much of the energy as you are clashing together the heat of the fight. Friction is but one of many ways of fusing together, or at least showing us of little perspective where the fine lines in the universe reside." _

_We both nodded. _

"_Yes, sensei." _

"_Yes, sensei." _

"_Now……again. Engage each other," as shadowed arm beneath the tree waved a finger. "And seize that which you sense in the other. Embrace the White. Embrace the Black. And if there be Red in you as well, make use of it as the Spectrum guides you to." _

_A beat. _

"_Proceed." _

_I took a deep breath. I faced Ana. _

_Ana gripped Choral with two hands. Her feet firmly planted. _

"_Don't expect me to do any crazy flips anytime soon," she winked. _

_I took a deep breath and charged black smoke into my blade. "And don't expect me to sit around like a dumb log." _

"_Har har." _

"_**Hardy**__ har har," I winked back. FWOOOSH! Smoke danced outward from my upper body and through my blade. I blurred at her, gritted my teeth, and spun with Myrkblade swinging high. "Nnnngh—YAAAAH!" _

_She held her breath and powerfully brought a steaming Choral to block. _

_CLANG!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………."

Silence.

Darkness.

"……………."

I took a deep breath.

I felt a gentle hand shaking my shoulder.

"Yoo hoo. Morning bells are ringing, brother Noir. Time to wake up."

"……….," my black eyes fluttered open. My shades were off. But as I first graced the setting, I realized it didn't matter. It was comfortably, comfortably dark.

The Messenger smiled down at me. His black-suited figure seemed to blend in with the shadows of the place, even for my obsidian vision. "You didn't handle reentry so well," he smirked. "Kind of surprising, really. I think your pansy meter just went up in my head."

I shook my head and wearily rubbed my shut eyes before reopening them again, blinking.

"Hehehehehe……I'm just joking, of course."

_Whatever……_

I realized I was lying down.

I sat up, rubbing my head. My solid head.

My solid body.

The solid Earth.

The solid…..

"…….," I blinked.

_Where were we?_

I looked around.

Dull, gray metal.

Walls and floor.

Ceiling…..

Everything was paneled like it had been segmented together with cubicle, metal slabs. We were in some claustrophobic, endless tunnel coming from pure darkness and eating into pure darkness. And everything was cold and the air was thin.

_We're underground._

I looked at a nearby patch of wall. The gentle glow of the Messenger's green-eyed goggles hanging behind his shoulders splashed across thick, yellow numbers sprayed to the gray metal in an emotionless, industrial fashion. Military font.

'_51.'_

'_51.'_

'_51.'_

I took a breath.

The Messenger stretched a hand down.

I looked up. I accepted it with a metal wrist.

He hoisted me up to my feet.

I stood on wobbly legs at first, but eventually balanced out.

I shifted my body, feeling Myrkblade where it should have been. My possessions—of what I carried—still in place. My sleeveless black shirt. Even my bandanna….

_Guess everything made it out of that green nightmare in one piece._

"I will admit," he spoke, handing my shades back to me.

I took them.

He continued: "You _did_ handle it quite well the first time. Some of my friends back home puked for hours afterwards. Me? I take it all in stride. Cuz really, that's all it is. 'Striding'. The universe is nothing but a string of corridors separated by infinite doors. And—with a little wind under your mutant wings—you can find a way to shift through the frames without touching the doors if you like. The novelty of it all is that I've since learned to take others with me. Granted—one at a time—but it works in dire situations. Speaking of which…," he showed off his bulky watch, "…it didn't suck out half as much as I thought. Heh." He smirked proudly. "I might be able to help out a little more than I thought."

I eyed the blackness before us. I comfortably slid my shades through a belt latch on my fatigues. I took a deep breath.

_The more the merrier, I guess._

I widened my black eyes to gain the most light from the darkly lit interior as I could. I perceived the corridor going onward for—at least—one hundred meters.

It was hard to tell.

_This is Area 51……_

"Something's wrong," the Messenger said.

I gazed at him. "?"

He simpered. "Or something's good. Perhaps one in the same."

I made a face.

"The upper tier has been evacuated. Area 51's got a tight-as-virgin-lobsters security, right?"

I shrugged, then nodded a general 'yeah'.

"Well, today it isn't. Triangular…Dagger…whoever….they've got their men gone from the outer service and the first basement levels. I was expecting to see a wandering gunman or two on the way here through the Middleverse, but so far—nada. Unless they're all out for tea or the Dead Poet's Society, I get the feeling that this place—Area 51—is being abandoned for a reason. But we can't worry too much about that. Nor can we expect _everyone_ to be gone. The deeper we go, the thicker the security—any security—will be. Because only 'down' into the Earth of this forbidden place is where we'll find what we're looking for….what Dagger holds hostage."

I took a deep breath.

I fingered the Key in my fatigues' pocket.

_The door to the hiding place…… _

_Terra……_

I stepped passed the Messenger, gazing into the darkness. I held a hand out—palm up. I produced a flickering plume of smoke. I relaxed. The plume—like a black candlelight—flickered haphazardly toward the two of us.

_Air current. _

_The air is shifting._

I closed my hand, extinguishing the murk.

_There must be an exit from this corridor somewhere ahead of us._

I turned and looked at him. I pointed down the corridor where I was facing.

The Messenger nodded. "Yeah." He smirked. "I know."

"?" I raised an eyebrow, my head tilted to the side.

"No….not just because of reconnaissance," the Messenger gripped his three-eyed helmet and switched it on to a higher intensity with a whining sound. The three green specks glowed brighter. "I've been here before. To Area 51…." His almond eyes traced the shadowed walls as if he was looking through them. For all I knew, maybe he could. "Of course…when I was here before, it was five years ago. In another dimension. My dimension." He looked at me. He smiled. "Had to bust a few of my bosom buddies out over some crazy, unfair fiasco."

I blinked. I mouthed: _'You?'_

"Er…scratch that," he simpered. "I wasn't busting anyone out. But I was here. And if anything—I was at least a happy haunt at the time." He slipped the goggles over his head. The same, goofy 'spy' look again. "All right then, enough of Messengerpiece Theatre," his lips curved under the triad of green 'eyes'. "Let's do this thing J. Edgar Hoover style….without the garter straps, of course."

I smirked. I motioned down the hallway.

"What? Me lead? The only dance I do is with glow-sticks," he gestured. "Take the helm, bright eyes."

I rolled my black optics and crept on ahead of him.

He followed behind me. "Oh….and try and be quiet. Someone might hear us."

I wanted to stick my tongue at him, but saved it for later.

Crouch-walking, we hustled along through the shadows of the metal corridor.

A silent, infiltrating team.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I saw it first.

Thin streaks of light pouring in from below.

A grate of sorts.

I held a hand up.

The Messenger behind me crouched to a halt.

I crept ahead, bending down.

When I reached the grate, I was snaking my body.

I squinted my eyes and looked down through the slits of metal.

There was a tiny alcove. About six inches deep and four feet square. Blinking lights splashed across an array of wires. It seemed to be a conduit of sorts.

"It's a switch….," the Messenger whispered.

"?" I turned and looked at him.

"Imagine a doormat. Programmed to read the biological signature of a certain, honorary guard or something. All he'd need to do is stand over it and thus trigger something to open."

"…..," I gazed around at the dull walls of paneled metal.

"Could be a secret door. A control panel. Something nearby, whatever it is. Obviously our bodily signatures don't match what the grate here needs, but….."

I looked at him. I smirked. I gazed down at the grate.

_Every lock can be picked._

"It may be possible to trace where the wires from this sensor go and find the actual contraption. There, it can be tricked manually. But none of us are quite the size of mice to accomplish that, so--"

I held a metal hand up to silence him.

His whispering voice cut off.

I took a deep breath.

_I can handle this……_

I leaned down and pressed my body to the grate.

Right shoulder first.

I turned my head from the blinding, blinking lights.

I took a breath.

Concentrated……

FWOOOOSH!

My whole right arm turned into flickering smoke while the rest of my body stayed solid.

I carefully seeped my smoking molecules down through the grate. I surged my essence all around the array. I found the central wiring system. I followed the network. I shot my smoking limb into the tubing. And—with a breath—I teleported half of my body mass down the tube. My legs evaporated up towards my torso in flickering murk as I did so, trying to keep the last pieces of my weight solid as I reached…reached….reached….

And found the mechanism.

A breath.

A pulse

THWISH!

_Click._

**CHTUNG!**

The corridor shook as a panel the size of a piece of wall vibrated and slid 'open'.

I took a breath and retracted—FWOOOOSH! The smoking extensions of me shot back into my solid person. I rolled over across the grate, hugging myself. Sweating…panting…and regaining my strength from the awkward—but effective 'teleport'.

**CLACK!**

A doorway in the side of the corridor opened completely.

As I stood up, the Messenger smiled beneath his glowing goggle-eyes. "I get a feeling your future wife is going to have the most perfect honeymoon, Noir."

_Shut the Hell up._

I motioned him along as I crept through the doorway, Myrkblade held high.

He crouch-walked behind me.

We emerged into a light-gray glow….

And silvery white halls.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It felt like some cold and depressing hospital.

A white tile floor. Polished and reflecting. Empty metal gurneys lining the hallway. Equipment on rollers. Abandoned nurse's stations. Even a wheelchair or two. It was too big to be a regular 'infirmary'. It seemed as if this underground medical center was just as voluminous and important as the rest of the 'air base' itself. Half of the overhead, fluorescent lights were off. And even seemed half as dim as they needed to be. The entire power of Area 51 seemed to be in the middle of some massive conservation. And on top of that, there wasn't a soul to be seen in the white hallways. It was like an underground ghost town.

And we were the specters…..

I rushed forward and knelt behind a gurney. Hiding myself from the rest of the hallway. I peered around from the side of the metal object, peering down the medical corridor. Checking to see if the coast was clear. I turned and looked over my shoulder. I saw an 'okay' sign from the Messenger—who was also kneeling against the wall at a corner. Half-concealed.

I took a breath.

I swiftly scurried out a few feet further down the hallway. I stopped behind a large wheelchair. I motioned at the Messenger without looking.

On silent feet, he crouch-walked to the gurney behind me. His goggles were dimmer. His lips tight in stealthy concentration.

In such textbook fashion, we slithered down the hallway and made it to an intersection. One path lead to a utility closet. The other hallway branched off to a dead end.

The Messenger crouched at my side and tapped my shoulder.

I gazed sideways at him, my naked black eyes thinned.

He pointed towards the dead end doorway.

I nodded.

I scurried over towards it.

The Messenger snaked along the wall with me.

I held my hand up.

We both froze outside the door.

I lowered my metal hand. I planted my digital fingers to the floor beneath the door frame. I took a deep breath. I carpeted the tile with murk. I sent the smoke billowing gently into the room from under the crack of the door. I 'felt' the room with spatial sense. And…

I froze.

_Two bodies. _

_Two bodies sitting down…… _

_Just on the other side of the door. _

_To the left……_

I took a deep breath.

I looked at the Messenger.

He looked at me.

I held up two metal fingers. I pointed 'left' and motioned 'sitting'.

He nodded.

I gripped Myrkblade in my right hand.

The Messenger pulled out of his utility belt what looked like a standard issue tranquilizer gun.

I held up three fingers.

Two fingers.

One.

I formed a fist.

The Messenger flinched.

I twirled Myrkblade, bolted up, and—

WHAM!

I kicked the door open and blurred in.

The Messenger jumped in after me.

I spun and slashed Myrkblade at the first neck I saw.

CHIIIIING!

The Messenger aimed his tranquilizer at the other body in the room.

I froze and jumped back with a mute gasp.

_Shit!_

The face was pale. Without eyes. Without a mouth. Glossy. Inhuman.

And…..

Wearing a pilot's suit.

"……….," I panted. My heartbeat slowed some.

"Heheheheheh….," the Messenger chuckled. He lowered his tranquilizer gun and motioned at his 'man' with his head.

I looked.

The other sitting person was identical. Pale face. No eyes. No mouth. Glossy and with jointed limbs.

"Dummies….," the Messenger said as we stood before two seated mannequins. "For pilot tests. Experimental ejector seats and parachutes and what not. The kind of stuff people may indeed have mistaken for a crashed UFO spaceman at Roswell. I'm surprised there aren't a billion of these silly things lying about this place."

I shuddered.

_Could have warned me……_

I looked around the room.

_What the Hell is this place anyways?_

It looked to be a medical room of sorts, but at some point it had been converted to something else. Half of the walls of the place had been repaneled…as if metal plates were eating their way into the drywall. A bunch of equipment and chairs and stacks of clutter had been shoved to the far sides of the room. And at the opposite end of the interior from which we entered.

"……," I stared with thin black eyes. My jaw dropping.

It was….a door. But I could have sworn—from looking at it—that it was a waterfall in frozen motion. Like liquid mercury being strung between the ceiling and floor in rubberband fashion. Or someone taking a slab of wet concrete off a sidewalk and standing it magically on its side. I could have sworn I did and didn't see my reflection in the rectangular 'slab' at the same time. But something inside of me—human or not—told me that it was a door.

"Ah! Good!" the Messenger whispered as he walked over towards the warbling mass. "We're at the extension!"

I looked at him. Black eyes blinking.

_Extension?_

"Half of what Area 51 is today was built within the last fifteen years following the handover," the Messenger said. "All underground, of course. In this universe's, it's Triangular's doing. In mine, another fella's. It all goes hand in hand."

_Uh huh……_

He twisted one of the lenses of his green goggles and 'leaned' towards the mercury slab.

I stood beside him, cautious.

"Hmmm….thermal source on the other side….," he murmured. "The door panel is beyond the wall. This is meant as an exit, not an entrance. Sort of a one way thing. Perfect, unassuming way for us to enter the bottom tier of the facility."

I nodded.

_I'll take your word for it._

"I'll handle this," he said in monotone. "Wait here."

I bit my lip.

He walked towards the slab, touched his watch, and—

_ZAAT!_

He was gone in a green flash.

I was alone.

I took a breath.

I fingered the Key in my pocket again.

I leaned back and forth.

A little paranoid, I turned and looked over my shoulder towards the creepy, dim-gray hallways of the underground hospital.

_So I wonder if this is where they keep Rosemary's Baby……_

FWFWFWFWFWUP!

"?" I spun around.

The mercury slab 'peeled' out from the center. It looked something akin to a four knives cutting out from a bar of butter, starting from the inside and exiting in an 'X' shape. Before I knew it, the liquid metal had vanished entirely as if shrinking into the frame it was suspended in, and I saw through the wall to the other side where an eagerly waiting Messenger leaned against a blinking, bright pedestal.

"You have a five second window. I suggest you—ya know—hop over!" he hissed.

"!" I blurred over as quickly as I could, just in case. I stood beside the Messenger at the top of an inclined passageway. The walls were a dark metal this time. A dark black sort, like the corridor before the infirmary. But everything here was wider and less claustrophobic. It felt……nice.

Then, behind me:

FWFWFWFWFWUP!

I turned.

The slab of liquid mercury rested shut. Again warbling. Reflecting. Solid….or so it seemed.

"We're in," he whispered.

I scratched my head.

I looked at the Messenger.

I pointed Myrkblade curiously at the slab.

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" the asian kid whispered with a smile. He tapped his goggles, making them glow brighter. "The Wriklarx make the sexiest architecture."

I mouthed: _'Wriklarx?'_

"S'ok. You wouldn't know them," he turned and lead the way down the dark passage. Down…down. "They tend to keep to themselves a lot. Most Andromedans are reclusive like that. It's quite fascinating really."

"………..," I blinked. My lips parted and I gazed at the slab again. Breathless. I lifted a shaking finger

"Come on. I think I hear guards…."

I awkwardly stumbled and hurried after him.

As silent as I could be….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Snnnktt! Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Thirty. Transport In Progress. Sector Charlie Zero. Standby."**

The emotionless, electronic voice boomed against cold, dark walls of nondescript metal. The speakers and dim lights of the underground facility loomed two stories above a huge, open space. It looked like a hidden warehouse of sorts, complete with metal crossbeams and rafters overhead. But what could have been storage for unimaginably exotic aircraft or alien technology was instead a gigantic waste of space. The huge, yawning corridor stretched from a southern array of two-tiered metal catwalks across the way to a narrow, black corridor leading far into the shadows. On the right side—at bottom floor level—was a line of windows looking into a brightly lit control room of sorts.

_Well…… _

_This is rather anticlimactic._

But the interior wasn't **empty** by any means.

Finally, there were guards. The uniformed sort. Clad in dull, blue jumpsuits. They carried what looked like aerial assault rifles—quite the overkill for such relatively 'closed' quarters such as the likes of the basement bowels we were in. They were also armed with outrageously large grenades strapped to belts on their chests. They stood in formation around the black corridor on the far side of the 'warehouse', evidently guarding it. Their faces were somewhere strung between impatience and fear. If indeed there was something crazy afoot, they knew it a lot more than either the Messenger or I did.

_What on earth is going on here?_

"**Snkkt! Sector Bravo One is Evacuated. Sector Charlie Zero standby."**

The Messenger and I crouched on the top metal catwalk on our side of the warehouse. The descending corridor through which we traversed stretched behind us. We could look through the grating of the catwalk straight beneath us and see two or three guards standing shoulder-to-shoulder.

I exhaled gently. Eyeing blackly the interior. Strategizing….

"Whew…," the Messenger whispered. "All you need is some bald guy petting a Persian cat."

"……….," I slowly looked over at the Messenger.

He gazed back at me. Grinning. "Or some British chick with a black bikini and a machine gun."

"………"

A beat.

I sighed.

He suppressed a giggle. Cleared his throat. Then trained his goggled eyes towards the far away control room.

"We need to get there somehow…," he murmured. "Number one: it may help us shed some light on just what that intercom voice is squawking about. Number two: it may tell us just exactly where in this underground bingo hall they've got Terra housed. Number three…." He linked at me. A sideways tilt of the head. "Soda machine?"

I smirked. I gazed at the control room. A figure or two wandered around darkly against the light of the small, glass-cased alcove. I then scanned with black eyes the walls, panels, and floor extending outward from the room….

"We'll have to take out the morons in there too. But nicely—if possible. Every moron has a mother. Myself included."

I looked right. I froze. I squinted my eyes at a ventilation shaft built into the flat metal wall just to the side of our catwalk platform.

"…….."

I then looked over at the Messenger.

He saw what I had been gazing at and simpered. "Ah yes. Okay. The Middleverse is one thing, but that—" he pointed "—is a tight squeeze. So, uhm—"

I grabbed his arm.

He sweatdropped.

On weightless, murking feet I ran across the platform, dragged his petite body with me, and jumped.

There was the briefest of half-seconds during which random guards could look up and see our gliding bodies. But sooner than naught, we vanished as I teleported myself—and the Messenger in tow—through the thin metal grates of the panel and into the ventilation shaft beyond.

FWOOOOSH!

Then….

Silence.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Twenty-Five."**

Inside the Control Room….

Two men in uniform typed at computer stations. Monitors with scrolling DOS-Prompt text stood before them. They silently, dutifully typed away at the consoles before them. As the intercom crackled overhead and the men outside in the warehouse chamber stood at ready, the two men were unaware of a shaking motion to the metal grate of the ventilation shaft just above and behind their heads.

The screws came loose from the inside out. The grate lifted and slid into the dark interior of the shaft. Slowly….like a snake…the body of the goggled Messenger dangled upside down. A metal hand was gripping one of his thin, black-covered legs. While hanging, he aimed a grappling hook in two hands. Stealthily, he launched a dart into the neck of the rightmost technician.

_Thiiift!-Thap!_

The man groaned and slumped over instantly.

"?" the assistant looked over. He spun around in his desk chair. At sight of the Messenger, he jumped up to his feet and opened his mouth to shout

_Thiiift!_

The tranquilizer hit just to the right of his throat.

He swaggered, groaned, and fell.

THRUMP!

The Messenger exhaled. He looked 'up' and jerked his arm in the air. "Ding-Ding."

I dropped him.

He flipped and landed in a squat on the control room floor.

THWOOSH!

I teleported down and stood beside him.

He crouch-walked over and slid the bodies and chairs aside. Kneeling beneath the outside view of through the Control Room's windows and slipping his goggles off so that they hung behind his shoulders, he slithered his hands up and typed madly at the keyboards.

I murked over to the door and pressed myself against it, keeping a cautious ear to the metal frame. Listening and feeling with spatial sense for anyone incoming…

The Messenger typed and typed and typed and typed.

A string of text appeared on the computer monitors.

"Okay….," he quietly murmured. "It says here that there's an airplane in Hangar Twelve on the surface. It's a huge cargo jet of sorts. Configuration number……errr….ergh….c-can't recognize it…."

I nodded. I pressed myself against the door. 'Listening'. Myrkblade held tightly in my metal and flesh grasp.

The Messenger typed some more. He read the scrolling text and said to me: "A large shipment is being sent out. Destination…..hmmm….," he blinked. He looked at me. "Metropolis."

I leaned my head to the side. Lips pursed….

"A bunch of cylinders containing….some sort of energy. There're no details save for some indecipherable numbers," he said. "But there's a shipment definitely being flown to Metropolis, with two other passenger planes set to carry people away elsewhere. _Lots_ of people. It would seem as if this whole facility is being evacuated! Heh….Area 51! Evacuated!" More typing. He squinted his almond eyes. "And it's all being done hurriedly. We're at the tail end of it, in fact. It looks like everyone is trying to get this place cleared out in less than twenty-two minutes from now. Something else is happening too….somewhere in the ballpark of thirty-five to forty minutes."

"……..," I took a deep breath.

_I don't like the looks of this._

"We may be very well on the brink of one of Triangular's next big moves," the Messenger said. "And if Triangular is doing something big….," he thought aloud. He looked at me. "Then that must mean Red Aviary is also—"

I pulled the Key out of my pocket it held it up for him to see.

He swallowed, simpering. "But of course."

I smiled and nodded.

_But of course………_

I slid the Key back into my pocket.

The Messenger typed and typed and typed and brought up a schematic. He leaned forward and rubbed his chin. "Hmmm…..well, that's simple enough."

I blinked.

_What?_

"The dark hallway just outside beyond those guards eventually branches off into three directions. An elevator, a storage facility, and…some final extension. Guarded by a door." He looked at me. "Most likely _the_ door." He glanced back at the computer. "Whatever it was, over ninety percent of Area 51's power reserves have been relocated to that sector of the underground base."

I slid my shades on and paced over towards him some. Looking curiously through my black lenses.

"And….heh…..it might tickle you to know," he smirked, "….none of that stuff was there five years ago…in my dimension."

_How cute._

"So….now maybe—while we're here…," he cracked his knuckles and typed some more. "I could perhaps shut all the lights off and give you and I a tractical advantage over those goons outside"

_**CRACK!**_

The door burst open from the outside.

The Messenger and I spun up to our feet.

Six guards armed with AK-47s stormed in military style and formed a phalanx against us.

"FREEZE! HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Cl-Click!

Klak!

Click!

"…….or not," the Messenger grinned crookedly and raised his hands.

I bit my lip. I slowly…hesitantly raised Myrkblade in my grasp and hung it over my head.

The leader of the squad glanced nervously at the two unconscious workmen on the ground. He frowned at us: "Who sent you! Intergang! Is this some sort of recompense?"

"It's quite simple, really," the Messenger smiled. "We're Avalon Ladies in disguise. Care to suck on some mascara? It's made from whale fat!"

"Allright, you clown. Shut the Hell up. Simmons…clean 'em….," the man motioned with his AK-47.

A lesser guard marched towards me in his blue fatigues. He eyed Myrkblade and waved his own gun to hand it over.

I…..hesitated….

"Don't play any smart shit with us, creeps…," the captain frowned as his four companions and himself kept their guns trained at us. The one man reached for my gun. "You have no idea who you're screwing with."

"Kevin Bacon?" the Messenger asked.

I exhaled.

The guards all looked at the Messenger, including the one trying to confiscate Myrkblade.

"Kevin Bacon is everywhere, man," the Messenger went on. "I bet he assassinated JFK and buried him in Jimmy Hoffa's grave after making love to Amelia Earthart's clone."

"Hold it!" the captain said.

The guard beside me jolted to a stop.

The captain motioned to the Messenger. "Search him first. But be careful. He may be dangerous."

"Pfft….," the Messenger rolled his eyes. "Gawds. I'm so frickin' tired of people thinking I can kick ass just because I'm asian."

The guard walked over to him. "Shut up, before we turn you into a pincushion you lousy—"

FWOOOOSH! The Messenger's foot flew up.

THWACK! The guard's chin lost two teeth as it tilted up to the ceiling.

With a second breath, the Messenger spun and karate-kicked the man in the chest.

WHAP!

The guard dropped his AK-47 and stumbled back.

The Messenger ran forward, vaulted forward, hand-planted off the collapsing man's shoulders, and flew with a plummeting jump-kick into two guards across the small control room.

WH-WHUMP!

A fourth guard gasped, aimed his AK-47, and—_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The Messenger spun around.

The bullets whizzed at him.

He held his breath and—_ZAAAT!—_streaked in a green bolt towards the man, solidified, and slammed a kung-fu chop into the man's chest.

WHAM!

He flew out the doorframe.

A fifth guard swung the butt of his rifle into the Messenger's back.

Without turning around, the Messenger flexed his shoulders. _ZAAT!_ He teleported in a green flash so that he stood behind the lunging guard. _ZAAAT!_ He gripped the man's ribs, spun, and slammed the unsuspecting gunmen into a row of metal lockers. CRUNCH! Then he elbowed and kicked him in the spine. THWACK! WHAM!

"Ughhh" WHUMP! The man fell cold.

"………………..," I blinked.

_Well……… _

_All right, then._

I gazed left.

The Captain stared. His mouth ajar.

I snapped out of it.

TH-TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade and slammed it across the broadside of his back.

**THWACK!**

The man stumbled madly over to the computer consoles.

I spun my body and kicked him in the ribs.

THWUMP!

His body catapulted out through the glass windows of the control room.

CRASH!

He tumbled amidst a sea of glass onto the warehouse floor.

A dozen men with AK-47s ran up to the chaos. Gasping. Taking aim and shouting.

I gritted my teeth.

_AAAAAAAAAAUGH!_

I blurred out at them.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I teleported through the window, streamed around the bullets in smoke form, and solidified with a maddeningly strong upswing of Myrkblade.

TH-THWACK!

Two guards went flying—screaming—up to the ceiling before collapsing down hard from my blow.

Two guards on either side of me aimed their guns at my skull.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I twirled Myrkblade viciously left and right with a mute snarl.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

The men repositioned their weapons to fire again when—

_ZAAT!—__**PLANT**__!—ZAAT!—__**PLANT**__!_

A green-porting Messenger nimbly…acrobatically solidified with flying kicks impacting the chests and torsos of a handful of guards, knocking them down as he vaulted back up into the air, teleported—_ZAAT!_—before the bullets could pierce his body, and landed on the ground only to perform a circular lead sweep that grounded three more guards at once. TH-TH-THWUMP! Men tumbled and scrambled desperately for their weapons as the Messenger swiftly regained his footing and proceeded to take on two other guards at once with a flurry of lightning-quick punches and twisting kicks.

I had very little time to marvel

SWOOOOSH! I teleported into at thick cluster of guards and spun with Myrkblade outstretched.

CL-CLANK! SMACK! SL-SL-SLINK!

I smacked upside the skulls of two guards, slammed another in the gut, and triply grazed the arm bloodily of another.

"Auugh!" the latter gasped and clutched his shoulder.

I twirled over and slammed my metal fist into his face.

WHACK!

He fell back into another guard.

Two others hobbled up to their feet and aimed their AK-47s at me.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I streaked over to a nearby wall. I ran up vertically, the bullets ricocheting just behind my blurring feet. As I reached a certain height, I vaulted up off the wall, gripped to an overhanging metal rafter with my prosthetic hand, and swung Myrkblade down at my feet, deflecting bullefire.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

The bouncing bullets streaked back down through the warehouse air at the guards, knocking a rifle out of one of the men's hands. CL-CLACK!

"Aaaugh!" he stumbled back as his partner desperately whipped out a grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it up at me.

THWIIISH!

I gritted my teeth.

_ZAAT!_

In a green flash, the Messenger appeared in mid-leap before me. He grabbed the grenade as one would grab a football, fell, and teleported again—

_Z-ZAAT!_

In a blink, the Messenger reappeared on the left side of the warehouse while the grenade reappeared far away on the right side.

Cl-Clink!

**BOOOOM!**

The whole room shook.

Heat from the explosion disoriented a few guards. The Messenger leapt upon them, grappling with one man's figure, swinging his petite body around the man's torso, and sticking his legs out so that his body slapped two men across the cheeks—WHAPWHAP!—just seconds before he brought his minute weight swiftly down and slammed the body of the man he was grappled to against the cold, metal floor—WHAM!

I looked down to my left.

The struggling captain and two other recovering guards hobbled towards the Messenger with pistols raised.

Snarling, I teleported so that my feet kicked off against the metal rafters of the ceiling. Th-THWUMP! I dove down through the air, glided on murk, crossed my arms, and—with a mute shout—uncrossed them with a metal fist slamming into the skull of one guard and Myrkblade tripping out the feet from beneath a second.

WHAM!

TH-THWAP!

Both pistol-bearers fell down hard.

The captain jumped back, gasping.

I landed from my dive, rolled on the ground, hopped up, and twirled Myrkblade at him.

SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASH!

I gave his cheeks to scars, grazed his shoulder, knocked the sword out of his hand, and slapped his skull hard with the broadside of Myrkblade.

WH-WHAM!

THWUMP! He fell down.

I panted. I spun around.

The Messenger was busy twisting and dancing around the arm of an unlucky guard before positioning himself behind the man's back and swiftly slamming his elbow down into the man's shoulder, dislocating it.

CRACK!

"AAAUGH!" the man shouted and rolled over onto the ground.

Another guard stumbled up and fired a pistol at the Messenger.

BLAM!

The Messenger flinched—ZAAT!—and disappeared in green light.

The guard looked around. Panting. A shadow loomed over him. He looked up.

WHAM!

Myrkblade struck him between the eyes, breaking his nose.

He coughed, sputtered, and fell down at my feet.

"…..," glared.

Cl-Click!

I looked to my right.

Two last guards stood off to the side. Pistols aimed at me. They were bruised freshly all over, and they fumed in frustration.

"Last move you ever made, freak. Dagger's got a catacomb in Hell for you."

"…..," I frowned.

_ZAAT!_

A little asian demon appeared behind them.

"Helloooo," he sing-songed. "Candygram!"

TH-THWISH! He spun with a graceful, high-flying kick.

WHACK! He heel-slapped the rightmost thug across the back of his skull.

"Nnngh—" the man fell down cold.

The other thug gasped and aimed his gun point-blanc at the Messenger.

The almond-eyed warrior swiftly ducked

BANG!

and lurched forward in a powerful pair of knuckles sailing into the man's gut.

THWUMP!

The guard stumbled back, wheezing.

The Messenger performed a crane-like jump kick.

CLACK!

He kicked the pistol out of the man's hand.

The guard gasped and looked up at the air-spinning pistol.

Smiling, the Messenger hackey-sacked the pistol in the air once…twice…with a giggling "Oh!—Ohhh!" at the expert trickery…

The guard lunged for the gun.

SNATCH! The Messenger grabbed it in mid-air at the last second.

Whump! The guard fell to his knees from his dive.

_Plant!_ The Messenger held the gun barrel between the man's eyes. "Made you lunge!"

"……….," the guard suddenly shivered. Gulping.

"……..," the gun-toting Messenger smiled. "You can wet your pants now, bub."

The guard's knees began to wobble.

Two seconds….four….

The Messenger winked. "Good boy."

TH-THWACK! He uppercutted the man's chin with his foot.

"Nnnnngh….," the guard fell over. Whap! Unconscious….

"………..," I whistled.

"Yup…really sick and tired of it…," he tossed the pistol away and smirked at me. Arms folded. "The world's full of closed-minded bigots. Loveable, closed-minded bigots…mind you. But I prefer to 'love' perfect strangers with a toe to the molars from time to time. Don't you?"

He giggled…and in so doing, he was utterly oblivious to the onrushing charge of a suddenly-awake guard stabbing a combat knife into his petite back.

"!" THWOOOOOSH! I teleported forward, blurred _through_ the Messenger, and solidified in the path of the knife.

CLAMP! My metal fingers grasped around the blade before it could so much as eat through my sleeveless shirt.

**THWACK!** My swordswinging hand flew straight up, and the guard's impacted body spun three times like a dramatic, midair top before collapsing ragdoll style on the floor.

And all was silent.

"…….," I exhaled. I dropped the knife to the floor. Cl-Clank! I slowly turned around.

The Messenger wasn't facing me. His shoulders were slumping and his head was hung in a sigh.

"…..," I smirked. I patted a hand on his shoulder.

He smiled weakly, eyeing me sideways from behind. "God bless you, Noir. Somebody in this world has got to remind me I'm not omnipotent."

I shrugged.

_You're not omnipotent. _

_You're just cute._

My smile faded and I gazed off at the two and a half dozen unconscious bodies littering the warehouse-room floor around us.

I sighed.

_Which probably explains why I'm being butchered up all throughout my life……_

"So…..uhm….," he nervously ran a hand through his sweat-laced bangs and smiled at me. "Go time?"

"**Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Twenty."**

We both shuddered.

I nodded and whispered: _'Go time'._

Swiftly, we both dashed down the dark corridor / tunnel beyond…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

There were lights in this chamber.

But for some reason….

It felt darker than all the others.

Regardless, dim red lights led the cold way on. They strobed with a gentle intensity. Like the emergency signal of evacuation. Or something even more dire.

There were no guards in this tunnel. At first, it seemed ludicrous that the only resistance would be that short-lived defense in the large chamber outside the control room.

But then again, Dagger had proven himself a man who ruled by the art of expendability.

The Messenger and I hurried down the dark corridor, and as we did so the shadows seemed to swallow us up more and more. The red strobes grew dimmer. And as the cold eeriness grew around us…

"Look!" he hoarsely uttered with a pointing finger.

My black eyes narrowed through the shades.

We came to a stop.

Gazing up.

Panting….breathing deeply….

A huge metal door. Not bulky and insanely armored like Anderson's Vault at Pompeii. But strongly reinforced all the same. There was a circular design in the center. Like an extravagant bullseye. A tiny slot formed in the center like a squinting iris.

"Noir….," the Messenger swallowed and looked over at me. "The Key…."

I took a deep breath, nodding.

_Right……_

I reached into my pocket.

I pulled out the flat, gray device.

"……"

I poured murk into it and switched it on.

Click.

It lit up like mad and—

_BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!_

"Mikey….I think he likes it…," the Messenger smiled some. He 'pointed' at the door with darting, almond eyes.

_Hold your horses. I'm doing it._

Taking a deep breath, I walked towards the huge slab. I slipped the diskette-like key inside.

_Whurrrrrrr-Chtink!_

It accepted the Key.

The door lit up. The inner circles to the outer circles strobing.

A beeping noise, louder than the Key made.

And—

**CHTUNK! **

_Hissssssssss-ssssssssss-sssssssssss!_

**VMMMMMMMM-CLANG!**

The door opened. Much quicker than I imagined. But….I wasn't about to complain.

I looked over at the Messenger.

He looked at me.

We both smiled.

"Well…," he said with a deep breath. "…it was good for the key. You suppose it was good for the door too?"

And I helplessly smiled.

THWIIIIISH!

THWIIIIII-IIIIIISH!

THWIIISH!

CLANK!-CLANK!-CLACK!

I jolted. Three knives had flown in from the shadows. Two were stuck—wobbling—in the metal frame of the door. And the third….

"!" I looked at the Messenger.

He stood, breathless. He lifted his arm.

I blinked.

A dagger was embedded in his watch. Digging deep into the bulky device. And it started to spark.

_Zzzzt-Zzzzzt!_

The Messenger began to fade in and out of my reality with a green haze.

His lips parted.

_Zzzt!_

He looked at me.

I gaped at him.

He spoke curtly. Desperately. With a sound that flickered out of recognition just as his body swiftly inexplicably vanished.

"I'm so_rr_y, Noir. _Bu_t I'm out. Yo_u're_ on yo_ur_ own, _no_w. Yo_u'r_e on y-y-your-_r-r-r-r o-o-o-own-n-n-n-n….."_

**ZAAAAAAT!**

And he was gone.

"…………..," I stared into the wall.

Utter silence reigned behind me.

_Silence._

"………………!" I gasped. I spun around

THWIIIIIIIIIIISH! A fan of knives flew at me.

I snarled mutely and swung Myrkblade once.

SLAAAAASH!

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

I deflected the knives.

But another pair flew.

I jumped backwards, desperately.

THWIIIISH!

SLIIIINK!

One blade ripped through a thick cluster of my black hair. A few strands were wripped—bloodily—from my scalp.

I fell on the ground, wincing all over. More blades landed all around me. CL-CL-CL-CLANK! I scurried through the door-frame—panting—and slammed Myrkblade up over the first wall console I could see on the other side.

BEEP!

**WHURRRR-CHTUNG!**

I sat in the dark.

On the other side of the closed Door.

Panting.

A drop or two of blood trickling down my forehead from my head of hair.

_He's here. _

_He was following the entire time……_

I stood up on wobbly legs.

Taking a deep breath.

Gripping to Myrkblade.

_Could Red Aviary also be here?_

I flexed my metal fingers.

No shivers….

I took a deep breath.

I turned around.

A faint, increasingly bright gray light appeared in a distant stream down the corridor.

I jogged briskly towards it.

Alone….

Alone with the Contract.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_HAAAAAAH!" SWISH-SWISH-__**CLACK!**_

_Myrkblade grinded down into Choral. _

_I pushed into Ana. _

_Ana shoved back at me. _

_We both sweat._

_The cedars and the tall grass and the gray sky—_

"_Nnngh!" she kicked her foot out. _

_WHAP! _

_I flew back, flipped, and landed nimbly. _

_THWOOOOOSH! I immediately blurred at her with a flurry of jabs. _

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! _

_She produced a bubble of steam that deflected each of my smoking lunges. _

_CLA-A-A-A-A-ANG! _

_She spun and slashed Choral hard. _

"_Nnngh!" _

_FWOOOOSH! _

_A wave of bright whiteness soared at me. _

_I jumped up high, flipping. _

_Ana repositioned herself, tilting her torso upwards. _

_I plummeted at her, Myrkblade sailing at her cranium. _

_She brought Choral up over her blonde head. _

_In mid-descent, I smirked. _

_FWOOOSH! _

_I teleported down and materialized beneath her with an upswing. _

"_YAAAAGH!" _

_She gasped and deflected in reverse. _

_CLANG! _

_I stumbled back, panting. _

_With blue eyes blazing ivory, she snarled and spun with a downswing of her white katana. _

_I deflected. _

_WHACK! _

_My knees wobbled. Smoke billowed all around me as I struggled up against the Construction-Pressure of her Choral. _

"_That was……dirty cheap……," she strained to say. _

_I struggled against her, panting. _

"_And you are……damn strong……"_

"_Just as strong as always," grunted she._

_The Master cried out from beneath the cedar tree: "Now, apprentice! Focus on the entire Spectrum! Seek for an outlet!" _

_I wheezed, my smoking eyes clenched shut. "Is he…….t-talking to me……?" _

_Ana smirked, her optics misting. "I'm not the one being screwed." _

"_Search the Spectrum!" he shouted again. "Branch outward from the Black!" _

"_I……I-I can't!" I hissed, lowering even more on my knees from Choral's relentless pressure. _

"_Don't let me embarrass you more than your testosterone can handle, Jordan!" Ana half giggled. _

_But I wasn't in a laughing mood. I sweated and strained and shook all over. "It's……too strong! I-I gotta teleport out of it!" _

"_No!" the Master shouted. "That is the art of Balance! You will not win, and you will not lose that way! You will only be! Branch out! Seek and experiment!" _

"_I………I-I can't!" I hissed. "I'm not……b-built for Construction!" _

"………_," Ana couldn't help but bite her lip amidst her pressure. _

"_I……I-I'm not the adept of Life!" I shook all over. My upper arms felt I was going to break and let Myrkblade and Choral sail down and cut me in half like Swiss cheese. "I can only r-run away!" _

"_Jordan……" _

"_I……I-I……" _

"_Jordan!" _

_My brown eyes popped open. The black smoke settled some. I stared up, gasping, at Ana. _

_Not once did she lessen her strong field of steam. She took a deep breath and said: "You're the Equalizer, remember?"_

"…………_," my lips quivered. _

_Her blue-gold eyes narrowed. "More than anything, you want peace. And there won't be any peace if the spar goes on forever." _

"…………"

_She firmly hissed: "Break……the Balance……save yourself………Save Me." _

"…………_," I blinked. "………" My eyes flickered white once. _

_Ana jerked back _

_**FLASH!**_

_Something……Something exploded outward from my sword. Something gray. Like a leaning of Ebony into Ivory. And before I knew it, Myrkblade—the obsidian wooden sword—was trailing the faint residue of white steam for but a second. And Ana—the poor girl—landed on her butt a good twenty feet away. _

_WHUMP! _

"_Owie!" she winced. _

_I slumped down to my knees. Panting. I lifted a flesh, left hand and marveled. _

_Tendrils of white. _

_Tendrils of white were fading. _

_And gone just as soon as my heart skipped a beat. _

"_Life……the White Spectrum……," I murmured. I looked up at nobody in particular with my jaw dropped. "But how did I—" _

_Beneath the Cedar Tree, the shadowed Master said: "You are Balance. You are what you are because of the mixture of Red and White. Because of the other ends of the Spectrum. You won because you realized that you weren't alone. You were a part of the Whole. And for the better part of the Whole, you defeated the force of Life as it was presently crushing you." _

"_D-Defeated?" I murmured. _

"_It means that you kicked my butt," Ana smiled—wincing—and hobbled up to her feet. "And before you say it: No, I didn't go easy on you." _

_I simpered, my cheeks a bit red._

"_Do you understand now why you are what you are, apprentice?" the Master asked. He was standing then. Pointing: "Sometimes sacrificing yourself is really just a way of sacrificing others……for the common good of the Whole." _

"_Yeah……yeah……I guess so……," I murmured. My lips curved ever so slightly in wonder. I then cleared my throat, simpered, and uttered: "I-I mean……yes, sensei. Yes indeed." _

_His elderly voice chuckled. _

"_Hehehehe……," Ana giggled and sheathed Choral behind her back. CHIIING! She drifted over and hugged my left arm. "Guess you got to wield some Construction after all." _

"_Yeah……g-guess I did." A beat. I squinted at her. "Did you two plan this?"_

"_Nuh uh…," she fluttered her sapphire eyes prettily. "What would ever give you that idea?" _

_Hoo boy……_

"_That will be all for this afternoon, students……," the Master said. "Get ready to repeat training with the Red Adept tomorrow. Then I shall consult you on your mission to perform blind training." _

"_Yes, sensei." _

"_Yes, sensei." _

_And he walked off through the waving high grass towards the Manor below the hill. _

_I took a deep breath. "It never fails, Ana……" _

_She looked at me sideways. "What do you mean, Jordan?" _

"_Everyday……for a full year of training here……," I murmured against the winds of Washington. "……I have not once ceased to learn something new." A beat. I looked at her with thin, brown eyes. "I wonder if any of the lower students are half as lucky?" _

"_Awww……Jordan……," she tugged me towards the forest. "Don't you ever stop thinking about others for once?" _

_I stumbled along with her. "Wh-Where are we going?" _

"_I'm pooped. Let's go find the tree." _

"_Heheheheheh……all right……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_A circular room._

_Red bricks. _

_A rusted, copper smell in the air. _

_And as everything drew closer. _

_There Ana was. _

_Floating on white bolts of energy. _

_Slowly rotating above a pedestal. _

_Her eyes a hot white glow. _

_Her mouth hung open. _

_An endless, endless scream……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

A bright chamber opened to me.

Wide.

White.

Circular.

A thick ring of computer consoles lined the bottom floor.

The second floor was a metallic cobwebs of thin catwalks, crossbeams, support pillars, and….

Arms. Robot arms. Dozens of robot limbs and tools and laser tips hanging off of locked-in-position motors.

And everything converged on the center of the circular room like the dangling can-can dance of a hundred Daddy-Long-Legs made out of silver and aluminum.

There was a distant, electric hum about the place.

And I realized that this was it.

This was where all the power of Area 51 was being relocated.

And this was where……

"……."

I crept forward.

Slowly.

Step by step.

Pacing around the dangling, robotic arms around me.

Some with blades.

Some with saws.

Laser pointers and pins.

And drills and needles.

And drills and needles.

And drills and needles, needles, needles.

Needles.

Needles.

I took a deep breath, rounding one sharp spike after another.

_These shards…… _

_They look fit………fit enough to cut through rock. _

_Solid earth. _

_Stone…… _

I came to a shuffling stop.

My black eyes gazed down through my shades.

And I saw…

Two desert-colored feet.

Pale.

Stone.

Boot-laden.

Severed from the pedestal.

The gone.

"……," I swallowed.

I moved forward.

I pushed two dangling robot limbs aside.

And emerged through the center of the forest on a raised ring of metal to see….

_Her……_

My lips parted.

Terra the statue stood before me. In one piece. Her arms still outstretched. Her apprentice outfit still emblazoned. Her hair waving in rock-hard solidity. Her glossy eyes frozen as ever.

I walked towards her.

I leaned down some.

I looked up close at her face. Her neck. Her torso, arms, abdomen.

Everything……seemed okay.

"……"

My black eyes narrowed suspiciously.

_Something is terribly, horribly wrong here._

I slowly gazed around.

I looked at the robotic arms.

The needles.

The carving equipment.

_It looks like all that was done to her was the earthen pedestal being broken off harmlessly from beneath her feet._

I gazed back at 'Terra' again.

_Why is she still in one piece? _

_Why is she……alone in this room?_

_Unguarded? _

_With—_

"**Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Twenty."**

I clenched both flesh and metal fists.

_This has got to be a trap. _

_A hoax. _

_Or something. _

_They couldn't possibly be handing Terra over to me like this. _

_Not Triangular. _

_Not Dagger._

"……"

I turned around.

I faced the computer console across the way.

Beyond the forest of dangling robot arms.

I took a deep breath.

_There's one way to find out……_

I rushed over, brushing some of the arms aside with Myrkblade.

I reached the computer consoles and sheathed my sword. _Chiiing!_

Many of the monitors were left on. With blinking lights and diagrams and models and the like. A dozen schematics that I could barely recognize.

I saw a touch-screen with a control for at least half the robot arms. I saw an 'up' arrow. I lingered a metal finger above it. I looked over my shoulder. I touched the screen.

Beep!

_Whurrrrrrrrr-Chtung!_

A good deal of the robot arms and needles and tools lifted up towards the catwalk-webbed ceiling. I saw an open view of Terra.

_Well, guess I know where they 'operate' from._

I fingered a few keyboards.

I typed my way through a few windows on one of the computer and brought up a program in the background.

It was a string of miscellaneous information.

Or……

_Not so miscellaneous._

My shaded, black eyes scanned the scrolling text.

**Extraction Completed: 11/19/2004**

**Thermal Dispersal: 11/20/2004 **

**Shipment Date: 11/21/2004**

"……."

I scrolled down.

**Thermal Quantity: 800,000 Units. **

**Destination: Metropolis **

**ETA: N / A**

I bit my lip.

I tabbed over to another window.

I saw a note left in a saved, sent e-mail.

I swiftly read it:

**Dear Monsieur LaSalle,**

**The Extraction has been completed and the Thermal Shipment is underway. You shall receive at the agreed location the payment for your services. We trust that you will be happy with the delivery, and shall make no mention of our partnership or your subsequent acquaintances with anyone else within Triangular. **

**Sincerely,**

**Dr. Helga Jace  
Senior Staff Member of Lexcorp**

**European Medical Bureau**

"…….."

_Extraction……_

_Thermal Units……_

I exhaled.

_Thermal…………_

I turned around.

I looked up.

I stared at the robotic arms.

The needles.

The spikes.

"……."

I spun around to the console again.

I typed madly.

I flipped through program files.

_God in Heaven. _

_Everything here is like an open book. _

_They __**really**__ didn't expect anyone to infiltrate this far into Area 51._

_Or did they………?_

I finally found a diagram marked 'Thermal Extraction'.

I maximized it.

My eyes narrowed.

It was a 3D diagram of a petite, female body with a dozen glowing points all around her body. As if at pressure points. The arms and limbs and tilted head of the girl's body was identical in every way to Terra's.

I found a legend that coincided with the glowing points.

Phrases like—

**Thermal Extraction Point 1a. **

**Thermal Extraction Point 3c**

**Thermal Extraction point 2f**

And down…

A little further below on the screen:

**Capacity of 800,000 units reached. **

**Subject still producing further energy. **

**Interior extraction canceled.**

**Proceed with shipment.**

I breathed in and out through my nostrils.

Tapping on the keyboard.

_So they were……taking energy out of Terra. _

_But the energy isn't limited, apparently. _

_Then why is she still here? _

_If there's a flight leaving at Hangar Twelve……and headed for Metropolis…… _

_Why not take her statue? _

_Why just leave her here? _

_Why treat her as if she's been…… _

_Been spent……_

"…….."

And then it hit me.

I gasped..

_Monsieur LaSelle. _

_A "delivery"………_

A chill ran through my body.

_Oh god, no………_

I frantically flipped through the windows on the screen.

_Please, no……………_

I found one list of text.

With a diagram.

And it stabbed me.

A sore spot formed in my throat.

**Final Extraction Completed: 11/20/2004**

**Delivery Confirmation: Affirmative **

**Date: 11/20/2004**

And the diagram again showed a schematic of a girl's outline, identical to Terra's.

And the glowing points….

They were all positioned around her abdomen.

I panted.

I spun around.

I blurred over to the circular pedestal.

I knelt in front of Terra's stature.

I took my shades off.

I stared up close to her thighs.

Above her groin.

Below her navel.

And—with naked black optics—I saw them.

Holes.

Tiny ones.

Positioned strategically at circular spots all along her stone-cased womb.

_Jesus……_

And I turned and looked up.

At the robot arms.

The needles.

The tiny, tiny drills.

The exotic, spiked-nose devices.

Like little energy rifles.

I ran a shaking hand through my hair and slipped my shades back on.

Sweating.

_But how? _

_It wasn't a C-Section._

_And Terra…… _

_Simon Stone himself said. _

_She was at a month and a half. _

_What possible good could those……those __**needles**__ do?_

I panted.

I rushed back over to the monitors.

I flipped through the programs and windows once more.

_Come on……Come on…… _

_You're an open book, I know you are. _

_Somehow, you want to give me the answers. _

'_Fess up, god dammit!_

I found something.

I clicked on it.

**Matter Transmutation Efficiency 99.99 **

**Date: 11/20/2005 **

**Project: Final Extraction**

I scrolled down.

And….an image.

A queer cross between an ultra-sound and a computer diagram.

It looked to me like a thick capsule lined with organic tissue.

And attached to the processed 'tissue' on one side of the transparent capsule was a pink cord attached to a floating, living embryo.

Isolated.

Remote.

And the title beneath it….

"**Gaia"**

My heart froze.

And something inside of me slowly seethed.

Fighting the bile down my throat all the while….

_They took it. _

_Those sonsabitches took it……_

My brow furrowed at the screen.

_And what Hull said……_

My black eyes wandered towards the edges of the computer monitor.

_What in the blue Hell does he know!_

Something reflected in the computer screen's glass. A face from behind my shoulder. Cold. Glaring. Merciless.

Dagger.

"!"

I spun around.

A body barely blurred in my peripheral.

CHIIIIIING!

I instantly held Myrkblade out.

I looked left.

I looked right.

Panting.

Seething.

A beat.

Still……

"…………….."

Silence.

"……………."

"You're too late, Jordan."

I jumped.

I held Myrkblade out ahead of me.

Facing the forest of dangling robot arms around Terra.

Feeling the hair of my neck stand on end.

My black eyes darted around under my shades.

I shuddered all over.

"Oh, you could save the girl. But it is the child that is gone. Gone….a great distance. More than you can even comprehend traveling. More than any….'messenger' can travel…."

I clenched my teeth under taut lips.

_**WHURRRRRRR!**_

I jumped.

Gripping Myrkblade, I looked directly up.

Stepping back.

The rest of the robot arms retracted and lifted upwards towards the metal-web ceiling.

And there Dagger stood.

Leaning casually against the metal railing of a catwalk.

With both hands.

My lips parted.

_Both hands!_

I looked at his right hand.

He applied his weight to it naturally.

It was healthy.

It was whole.

It didn't even have a cast to it.

I flexed my metal limbs…..

_But……B-But I thought I—_

"I said a long time ago that I wanted two things. I wanted my City back, and I wanted the earth," he frowned down at me. His eyes narrowing. "After much toil and hard work, I have succeeded halfway to my goal. I have the earth. It is inevitable now that I get back that which belongs to me. ALL……that belongs to me."

My right fingers tightened around Myrkblade.

I shook all over.

Fuming.

Dagger let go of the railing. He stepped back as if inviting me.

_You don't need to, asshole._

FWOOOOSH!

I leapt to the side

_Plant!_

I kicked off the wall.

I flipped.

Cl-Clank!

I perched on the metal railing of the catwalk.

"……..," crouching, I stared across at Dagger.

He stared back at me. Silent. Casual. Cool.

"……." I dropped down to the catwalk. I stood a few feet from him. Myrkblade held at ready.

"……," he flexed his fingers. Ch-Ching! A dagger appeared in either palm. He twirled them slowly between his fingers.

Silence……

_Hissssss!_ Steam from a nearby, robot joint gently billowed across the catwalk we were standing on. High above the 'altar' where Terra rested.

Terra…..the ravaged.

"……."

"……."

I raised Myrkblade in two hands. Holding it over my head.

I took a step forward.

Dagger gently pivoted, shifting his legs.

Twirling his two knives higher.

"……"

"……"

A beat.

Th-Thwish! I lunged forward.

He brought his knives together.

CL-CLASH!

Sparks flew.

The two blades grinded against the length of my smoking sword.

Chiiiii-iiiiiiing!

He shoved me off.

I stepped back.

I took a breath.

He took a breath.

A beat.

"……"

THWIIISH! I came at him again with a high swing.

He stepped back across the catwalk, deflected my slash with one blade and jabbed at my head with the other.

I ducked my head, grunted, and kicked my leg out.

TH-THWAP!

He stumbled back.

I twirled towards him with a heavy swing of Myrkblade down the center.

He ducked low, grabbed the railings with two fingers stretching out from the metal blades in his grasp, and shot his legs up.

WHAP!

I stumbled back.

He spun at me across the catwalk, a dagger jabbing with each twirl.

I held Myrkblade vertically and deflected each swipe.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

I shoved Myrkblade against one of his contacts at the last second and jabbed at his side.

He trapped Myrkblade between two criss-crossing daggers and effortlessly pushed against me.

I stumbled back.

I took a breath.

Staring across from him….

And he stared back…..

"……"

"……."

_Hissss……_the steam billowed between us again.

"**Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Fifteen."**

"Tell me, Jordan….," Dagger emotionlessly droned. "…what did you feel when you saw Robin die?"

I shuddered. I suddenly didn't have the strength to frown at him.

"Did see it as history being repeated?" he uttered. "You. Your friends. A holocaust?"

I breathed heavily out through my nostrils. I paced backwards with Myrkblade raised high.

He moved towards me slowly…steadily. His blades twirling.

"You have a new scar, Jordan," he eyed the line on my cheek. "A little less mysterious than the last one. And a little less disabling. But it will never leave you, Jordan. Just like so many things—as I have tried to convince you to realize. You are who you are because of what we shaped you to be. The School of the Spectrum….your past….Balance…that means nothing. You are the Black Eyes. You are one of the last remnants of the Experiment. Running around like you keep doing will not solve anything. Look at Terra. It didn't save her."

I stopped backing up.

Mutely, I snarled.

"Are you truly so surprised? Terra was ruined to begin with. Slade saw to that when the lecherous terrorist saw it in his best interest to mark the girl far more permanently than ever we could have marked you. Rather secretly, I admire him slightly for that. Not for methods as much for his tenacity. When he was alive, he knew how to ruin lives. He just didn't know how to take them. And for that, I recognized him as a fool."

He stopped a couple feet from me. The hiss of nearby robot arms passed between us as he talked with twirling blades.

"Red Aviary….the Parasite. That is an evil that does not sleep until all that is good in this Balance of Morals is dead. Red Aviary is absolute. But at the same time, Red Aviary is subject to its own devices. When I first saw the wave of Destruction fountaining through the land, I helped establish Triangular not so much to preserve Lex Luthor and Two-Face…but instead to prepare the greatest counter-offensive in criminal history. Things are in movement here in this base, and with the appropriate things gathered, I am about to out-leech the Parasite. Red Aviary will run itself into the ground. And I—never mind Luthor and Dent—will be the one to reclaim what is mine from the ashes. You must think outside the circle, Jordan, to reign over this world. And that includes the repetitious ones."

I practically hissed at him.

_I killed you once, shithead. _

_I can kill you again. _

_How's that for friggin' Full Circle?_

CHIIIIING!

I charged him.

He swiftly leapt up over my swing.

SLASH!

I looked up at him.

He flipped in the air, hooked an arm out, spun around a robot arm, and flung a knife at me.

THWIIIIISH!

I raised Myrkblade with a pulse of smoke and severed the blade into shards.

CRACK!

He flipped off and glided towards the far side of the catwalk. In his descent, he unleashed a steady stream of blades. TH-TH-TH-THWISH!

I jumped back, swinging Myrkblade at my legs.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG! I hit back the knives. I struck the catwalk, rolled backwards, and reverse-somersaulted into a standing position.

Dagger swiftly ran at me across the metal platform, twirling his blades and preparing to toss a few.

I looked to my right. I swiftly slashed a 'bar' loose from the catwalk railing—CR-CRACK!—spun, and kicked the airborne shard at him with a swiping foot. THWAP!

Dagger braced himself and took the blunt impact of the bar to his chest.

WHUMP!

He slid back.

I blurred at him with a swinging sword.

He slipped the daggers into his sleeves, positioned himself, and expertly caught me while angling his torso to avoid Myrkblade's serration.

I gasped

"Nnngh!" he grunted and flung me clear over the catwalk.

I flew hard into a sea of dangling robot limbs.

CRASH!

A few of the arms snapped and fell.

As I fell…

Straight down to the metal floor outside of Terra's 'altar' ring.

CLAAAAANG!

"!" I winced in pain. I was pinned down by a pile of metal limbs. I struggled and grunted and strained to get free.

THWOOOSH-_PLANT!_

Dagger landed effortlessly in a crouch beside me. Twirling a knife, he walked over and rested a foot on the pile above my chest.

I winced and wheezed even more, glaring up at him.

The stone form of Terra rested frozen-still behind him. Her arms still forever-spread like trying to embrace a broken, fallen dream.

"Robin never finished his contract, Jordan," he spoke to me. "Just like you never losing your scars. And coming all the way across the country to rescue a girl who died a long time ago saving a City that isn't even hers or the Titan's to begin with…..that is so, so incredibly foolish. Especially if you think that a broken, raped maiden of stone is ample replacement for your friends long-lost 'Boy Wonder'. I asked Robin when he was still alive whether he feared the hand or the dagger. And I do not believe he realized the essence of the real dilemma here. Red Aviary and I are just the rippling surface to something far, far grander. And I'm certain you know this, Jordan. As much as you run around everyday like a bat out of Hell, you're trying to deny it. The universe is a calamity falling out of yours and the Titans' reach. And how ironic it will be….when Construction itself will yield—however paradoxically—the same effect as Destruction. I would love…absolutely love to see the Parasite's obsessive 'Balance of Morals' then."

I panted. Fuming. I fought and fought and fought to get free from my metallic imprisonment.

And then…something blinding and glowing-gold shone on me.

I stirred still, panting.

Dagger held in two, cold little fingers a vial. And—for a moment—I expected there to be something pink and glowing inside of it.

_Déjà vu._

Indeed, there was something glowing. But it wasn't pink.

It was yellow. A hot, gold-platinum yellow.

"So you came to get Terra? Here….you can have a piece of her…."

He stepped back. He raised the vial over his head. A breath. He tossed it down to the metal floor.

_CRACK!_

An intense wave of heat.

The ground a few feet from me started glowing.

The metal began congealing.

And something beneath the surface…bubbled….bubbled….and bubbled…..

Dagger backed up into the shadows of a conjoining hallway.

"Enjoy the fruits of your labor, Jordan. Though…it really wasn't much labor, was it? As always….you were always depending on the guidance of others. Messengers, assassins, and computer hackers alike. Such an aimless thing, Balance is. Today, it may very well bury you forever…."

I watched nervously as something rose out of the metal surface. Something glowing with the same, golden-glowing intensity as the vial Dagger had tossed to the floor. The heat of the thing's proximity was unbearable. I began to sweat all over.

"In a matter of minutes…," Dagger said, "…Area 51 will change from urban icon to urban legend…as Lex Luthor's sattelite ion cannon shall level everything within a three hundred mile radius to the ground."

I gasped. I looked in his direction with twitching-wide black eyes.

"My compliments to the Earth…," he droned and bowed into the exiting shadows. "…she has served me well. Much fairer….than ever she had served Slade."

Dagger was gone. And in his hideous place, the golden-glowing figure pouring out from the metal floor took shape. Lava-like liquid cooled into a walking, stone golem. Bits and pieces of intestinal metal pipes and electrical wiring from beneath the floor coiled around the monster's limbs. I faintly recognized the beast as one of the summoned creatures produced in the City when Terra operated through Slade's power-enhancing suit during her apprenticeship. The newspaper and magazine clippings of the City's terrorist occupation well-documented the things.

And there I was with a close-eye view.

_The Thermal units…… _

_Dear God……everything is going Full Circle._

I shifted and struggled under the metal limbs.

Straining……

_If Dagger can't milk Jinx for all the damn hex she can have…… _

_Then he'll leech a pregnant little terrakinetic girl while she's frozen and helpless. _

_And now 799,999 Thermal units are leaving Area 51. _

_Undoubtedly Metropolis bound. _

_Christ……it'll be a holocaust the likes of which November Fourth had never seen._

**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**

The stone joints of the golem shifted and cracked as it loomed over the only potential victim its lumbering, infantile mind perceived.

Me.

I took a deep breath.

STOMP!—STOMP! The ten foot, glowing monster of thermal energy stormed towards me.

I concentrated murk…..

The beast raised its hulking limbs up like two meaty arms.

I let out a silent shriek and teleported—

_**WHAM!**_

The robot limbs shattered and the metal platform shattered further in a crater.

I leapt upwards in a billowing plume of smoke. I solidified, flipped through the air, and landed before a stretch of computer consoles.

_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_

The golem spun around and launched a flaming spray of rocks at me.

FWIIIISH!

I gritted my teeth. Hugging Myrkblade close to my chest, I dove and rolled sideways along the ground.

CRUNCH!

The computer shattered into sparking bits.

I leapt up, swung on a dangling robot arm, and perched by the center of the room. Panting.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

The beast lumbered about and stormed towards me. It raised its arms.

I flinched and ducked.

**WHAM!**

A crater formed in the ground….barely two feet away from the feet of Terra's statue.

I gasped.

Slowly, I snarled and glared at the brainless beast.

_Stay away from her!_

CHIIIING!

I exhaled a mute scream and leapt suicidally at the burning golem.

CL-CLAMP!

I straddled its 'head' with smoke laden legs and mercilessly pummeled its backside with Myrkblade.

CL-CLANK! CHUNK! THWACK!

_**CRKK!**_

Its arm reached up and grabbed me by the neck.

I wheezed.

The beast tossed its limb down and slammed me into the metal floor.

WHAM!

I winced all over

THWAP!

Its 'foot' pressed into me.

I wheezed. I hissed and spat for breath.

It brought its two upper limbs together and prepared to hammer down on me.

I summoned murk and teleported up the golem's leg and torso.

FWOOOOSH!

I solidified with a vault off its chest and an upswing of Myrkblade off its faceless head.

THWACK!

The beast lumbered back.

I flipped backwards, planted my feet into Terra's stone shoulders, took a breath, and shoved off.

THWOOOSH!

I slammed into the beast with my sword first.

**CRKKKK!**

It stumbled back as I pressed my weight into it and forced it crashing backwards into a computer console.

CRUNNCH!

It twitched and shook in the sparks….the sparks dancing all around us.

I straddled it again and jabbed Myrkblade repeatedly into its exoskeleton.

CRACK! CRACK! CRKKKK!

Snarling….

"**Sector Charlie Zero Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Ten. Proceed to destination spots."**

_Aaaaaaaaaugh!_

I raised Myrkblade up high and stabbed down hard.

**CRACK!**

Fractures formed in the creature's shell.

_**CRKKKK!**_

It slammed its upper limb up across my chin.

Blood flew from my lips.

I fell back in a twirl

**GRIP!**

A tentacle of stone extended from the creature's other limb, twirled around me, constricted, and slammed me against a wall.

WHANG!

And then against another wall.

CLANG!

Against the floor.

WHAM!

And then tossed me across the room.

FWOOOOSH!—CRACK!

I snapped through two robot limbs and tumbled across the metal floor behind Terra's 'altar'. I coughed and sputtered. Aching all over….

**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**

The golem marched towards me.

I stood up on wobbly knees, leaning on Myrkblade. Wheezing and wincing all over. My black shirt was tattered at the sleeveless edges and my hair was in disarray. A bruise rested over my left black eye and I wiped a trickle of blood away from my mouth with a metal limb.

Heaving.

Seething.

**STOMP!**

_**CRKKKKKKKKK-KKKKK-KKKK!**_

The golem flailed its arms. Sparks of flame billowed out from the hairline cracks I had formed with my sword-punishment. Like a balrog. A taunting demon from the underworld.

I hissed.

Th-Thwish! I twirled Myrkblade and held it tightly behind me.

_You…… _

_You are not the essence of Terra. _

_You are corrupted. _

_God help 'Gaia' if Triangular perverts it too!_

_**CRKKKK!**_

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!** The golem charged at me.

_The very reason you are born…… _

_The sole reason you were 'extracted'…… _

_Is to die today!_

CHIIIIING!

I blurred at the creature. Dragging Myrkblade behind me in two strong grips. Exhaling long and hard as I ran, ran, ran

_AAAAAAAAAAH!_

Sparks trailed as I skidded to a stop and swung Myrkblade up in a viciously smoking uppercut.

**SLASH!**

A huge cut sliced up the golem's middle.

The creature lumbered back. Shuddering. Flames started to erupt from within the huge slice.

I screamed breathily and merely charged the creature, striking and swinging and slashing and hacking.

**THWACK! WHAM! SMACK! CRACK!**

Blow after blow after blow, I knocked the golem back on its lumbering legs till it skewered itself on the large drill of a hanging robot arm.

CH-CHTUNK!

The golem twitched all over.

I froze in place. Panting. Bleeding. My sweat-sheen black eyes followed the arm up to a glowing, blinking machine.

_RAAAUGH!_

I repositioned Myrkblade like a javelin, hopped-stepped-leapt forward and threw it—THWIIIIIIIISH!

CRACK!

The blade struck dead-center in the box-like machine, shredding it in two.

Sparks traveled down the arm, into the spike, and overloaded the drill. The matter transmuter pulsed and exploded into the innards of the fiery automaton of earth.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

I stumbled back, panting. My black eyes squinting.

A plume of flame. Two…

The creature twitched for one last time and

_**BOOOM!**_

I fell back from the blast wave as fire and gravel and lava ash rained down around me.

An unbearable heat surged throughout the room…sizzled…then cooled.

And all that was left of the golem was a pile of partially glowing rubble.

"………."

A beat.

"………."

I stirred.

I struggled up to my knees.

I dragged, pulled, and crawled my way to my fallen sword. I picked it up…still smoking. I tried to stand….but…

I was battered.

I was bruised.

And I was….I was…..

I shuddered.

Th-Thwomp!

I lay on my back.

Staring up at the shattered, webbed ceiling.

Panting.

Throbbing in pain.

Singed in some places.

I shut my black eyes under my shades and panted…panted….panted….

_I can't do it, Ana. _

_I can't. _

_Dagger is right. _

_I've never, ever done it on my own. _

_It's been the Messenger……or the Titans……or even Supergirl or Blake Glover or 'J'. _

_Now Hull and perhaps even……_

I shuddered.

_Red Aviary…… _

_Red Aviary is a fake. _

_Death comes to us all. _

_It isn't incarnate. _

_It isn't alive. _

_Sure, the Master may have been able to tap into Destruction……_

_But to what ends? _

_I am as alone as I ever was. _

_We are all as alone as we ever were meant to be. _

_I failed to save Terra. _

_In the end……_

_In the end, Ana, the earth __**did**__ bleed. _

_And what is there to be saved for the sky? _

_It is a burning place where no birds dare go. _

_Here, back home, Gotham, Metropolis…… _

_Robin was just the beginning of a long, crazy fall. _

_And this was all crazy to begin with. _

_I let the Titans down, Ana. _

_I threw myself out of the frying pan and into the fire. _

I tilted my head over.

Towards the 'altar'.

Towards Terra.

I exhaled painfully……

_Less than half an hour to get out of this crummy place…… _

_And I wouldn't even have the strength to carry a dead statue of a dead girl out of here. _

_What's the point, Ana? _

_Where's the hope? _

_Where's the……_

"………"

My lips parted.

I slowly…shiftily…sat up on my aching rear.

Staring at Terra.

Staring at her….

_Ana……_

My black eyes blinked.

A breath escaped my scarred throat.

_Ana……could it be?_

I struggled up on wobbly legs.

I limped across the metal landscape.

Over the scarred panels.

Past the smoking pieces of smoldering, golem debris.

I all but fell into Terra's open arms.

I leaned against her.

Staring down close.

Her glazed eyes.

Her frozen face and hair.

Her petite frame.

"……….," I panted. Fading in and out. Back and forth. Forward and….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I still don't get why your name is spelled with one 'n'."_

"_It's short for Anastasia," Ana winked at me under the boughs of the cedar tree._

_We were fourteen years old. _

_We were happy. _

_We were…._

"………_whoah."_

"_Hehehe………I know."_

"_Kinda sounds Russian."_

"_Yeah, I suppose."_

_I smiled at her. "What's your last name?"_

"_King."_

"_Oh, never mind then."_

"_Hehehe. Sorry to put your hopes up."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I owe nothing to my father," Ana once murmured. "Everything comes from my mother. This undeniable power. This feeling of Life and of……of……a blueprint, Jordan. Like the very structure of the Earth shifting through my arteries. I can't explain it. I can only feel it. And I felt it all the more when my mother was alive. And when she was gone, I felt the power lessen. I felt Construction waning."_

_I looked at her as she gazed off. _

_She looked so alone. _

_Like a scarab stuck in the bottom end of an hourglass._

_Ruthlessly disseminated and ejected down through the pinball tilt of time. _

_And history….._

"_But my mother lives on," she said. "In some fashion or another. I can feel her power inside of me. It's an inspiration. And when I look upon the Spectrum with blind eyes during training, I feel for her. Like yellow-gold fingers melting in and out of the White streams. I feel at one with myself and what has made me when I meditate."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I reached a shaky hand up.

Breathing raggedly….

Shaking all over.

I cupped Terra's stone-frozen cheek.

The intercom warbled and the whole facility seemed to shake with a dark, dark urgency.

"**Report to Hangar Twelve in T-Minus Five."**

But I ignored it.

I was drifting.

Straight through her golden…hot white eyes….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The reason that you are here, Mr. Noir. The very same thing you are trying to help your friends back East with……," Hull spoke to me inside the old, dusty room of the Vegas library. "….it started over ten millennia ago. But only recently has the endless crises of eons made itself manifest in flesh. Such fragile, sacred flesh."_

_I listened to him. _

_Silent. _

_Suspicious. _

_And yet…… _

_Curious. _

"_The last of the family sought asylum in Russia," he said while pacing. A gesture of the silver-tipped hand: "The power of the Earth remained in their blood……"_

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_Ana said to me: "I have always known the bright end of the Spectrum. In some sense or another. It was……b-born with me……"_

"_B-Born, Ana?" I leaned my head to the side. Curious. Concerned._

_She hugged herself. "My mother……and her mothers before her……," she bit her lip. A shudder. She said: "We are the daughters of the earth. Somehow—someway granted through time to practice this……this Construction. We never have had a name of it. We never have never had a reason to suspect anything of it until the Master discovered me. He invited me from my terrible home with my terrible father to come here. To learn after so many generations of lost and suffering women at the hearts of cold men and cold society to make good of that which flows in my arteries."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Markovia had been desolated…" _

_Hull explained._

"_And what Brother Blood desired, he got. Or so he perceived. For the Queen and the Princess survived. And they scattered far west in secret transit the same way many close relatives of the Markovians had fled beforehand when the War and Brother Blood's wrath grew hotter and hotter. Westward. To America."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……."

My lips quivered.

I ran the hand up Terra's cheek to her temple.

The eyes….

The eyes……..

A breath escaped me sharply.

_Oh God……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Ana and I sat in the cedar tree after my training. _

_She handed me the harmonica. _

_I smiled and played a tune._

_Fluently. _

_After nearly eight months of practice, I had it down pat._

'_Bookends Theme' by Simon and Garfunkel. _

_I messed up one line or another. _

_Ana helplessly giggled. _

_I smiled at her, shrugged, and continued at it. _

_As the sun began to set on her angelic visage. _

_Her skin turned gold. _

_And her bright, blue eyes….. _

_How they sparkled……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….."

My eyes squinted.

I started to look _through_ Terra.

I started to see.

I started to see……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_The stars were out. _

_We were on the large, outstretching branch of the cedar tree. _

_Ana and I. _

_She leaned her soft, angelic head into the crook of my neck. _

_I rested an arm around her. _

"_So……'King'……huh?" _

"_Hehehehe…," she tiredly cooed a giggle forth. "For the umpteenth million time, Jordan, yes!"_

_I smirked. "I just think it's so cute." _

"_Cute?" _

"_Anastasia King. It's like you belong in Camelot or something." _

"_Feh. Camelot. Give me the Alamo anyday." _

"_Heheheh……" _

_She sighed. Smiling. Her eyes closed. _

"_Well, what's your mom's maiden name?"_

"_Hmmmm-mm?" _

"_Ya know……the name your mom had before getting married?"_

"_Nnnngh……," she snuggled up against me. "M……M-Mark-………." She drifted off._

_I chuckled. "Say what?" _

_She slept against me. _

_I shook my head and gently stroked her short wisps of hair……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I swallowed a lump down my empty throat.

I took a deep breath.

I half 'hugged' Terra and breathed into her stone ear.

My eyes shut.

And I thought.

I thought.

I thought:

_Terra… _

_Terra, you are a child of the Earth. _

_Awake, Terra……_

The lights began to flicker.

Red strobes.

Emergency signals.

I held onto Terra tighter and breathed more. I tried to use vocal cords. Vocal cords that weren't there.

Indistinguishable whispers filtered out through my numb lips.

_Arise. _

_Arise and embrace Construction. _

_It is your element. _

_You were born with it. _

_As Ana was born with it._

I shuddered.

A shiver ran up my metal prosthetic.

I chased it away with a strong breath.

_Ana…… _

_Ana, your cousin…… _

_Ana, your sister……_

_Ana, your blood._

I clenched my eyes shut.

I concentrated.

Smoke billowed out under my shades and the ends of my fingers grasping the statue.

_The hot, glowing-gold blood of the Earth Elementals. _

_You are the epitome of Construction, Terra. _

_Wake up to it. _

_If you are too weak to do it……_

I lingered.

I pushed off against Terra.

CHIIIING!

I raised Myrkblade.

I breathed steadily.

Smoke wafting off of me in vapors…..

_If you are too weak to do it……then let me grasp the Construction inside of you……_

I raised Myrkblade high.

I angled it into her.

Holding my breath.

_For I am the Equalizer._

I meditated.

_I am the Balance._

I released.

_I found it in Ana and I shall find it in you!_

CRACK!

I stabbed Myrkblade into her stone forehead.

A few chips and shards fell.

I raised the katana.

I stabbed in again.

_CRACK!_

Hairline fractures spiderwebbed out from the corners of Terra's rocky forehead.

_Arise, Terra. _

_Awaken the Life within. _

_The White Construction. _

_I promised Robin at his very own 'grave' that I would finish the contract. _

_And I know now that I won't finish the contract. _

_I will do more than that. _

_I will be saving a __**life.**_

_Moreover than the Titans. _

_Now……arise!_

CRACK!

_Arise!_

CRKKK!

_**Arise!**_

**CRKKKKKK-TKKKT!**

I gasped.

I opened my black eyes.

There was something beneath the surface of the stone layer.

Something pale.

Something….Something….

I palmed my hand over it.

I panted…hyperventilated…

I tilted my head back.

Smoke billowed out of my face, mouth, shades, nostrils……

A plume of black mist.

Then…..

FWOOOOSH!

Everything shrunk back into my being.

For a second, I was incredibly dry and stale.

Then

A flickering of my eyes.

From black to white…..

And back again.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

I switched into gray steam and shot….into Terra's forehead. Into the crack. Through the fractures. And disappearing beneath.

And.

Silence…….

……

……

……

……

…….

_**Crack!**_

_**PPPPPOWWWWWWW!**_

In slow motion, the girl's golden-gray statue exploded.

From the inside out.

Expanding in a bubble of flying debris.

Crumbling bits and shards and shapes.

Rock pieces of 'hair' and 'chest' and 'arms' and 'shoulders' and 'face'.

'Legs' and 'abdomen' and 'feet' and 'thigh' and 'stomach'.

Like an atom expanding.

Its particles flying out into an endless cloud.

Fine dust.

Ash in the air.

And the nucleus.

The very center….

It spun and rotated in a cloud of solid obsidian.

With tiny wisps of white light dancing on the corner.

The dust blanketed the corners of the room.

The scarred interior was pelted with rock and stone and pebble.

The shards broke into tinier shards and tinier shards.

Until everything practically faded into the thin invisibility of the underground air.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

And…

Time resumed.

Wh-WHUMP!

I landed on my back in the center of circular altar.

And…

Cradled in my arms.

Naked, pale, shivering.

Her blonde hair tossed like forsaken silk over her immaculate forehead.

She coughed and sputtered over my shoulder.

Vibrating.

Skin gathering moisture.

Goosebumps.

She shivered and coughed and wheezed.

Blue eyes clenched shut.

Tearing.

A pause.

A gasp for breath.

More sputtering.

I panted….heaving.

I held her close, cradling her.

She shivered all over from the cold and clung her bare body to the only piece of warmth there was.

Me.

I looked at her face.

At her hyperventilating rebirth.

_Go, Jordan. _

I jerked.

I looked across the room.

Smashed computer monitors.

A dint in the glass faces.

No….

_A reflection?_

_Her blue eyes. _

_Her short, angelic hair. _

_A smile and a deadpan solemnity all the same._

_Waving. _

_Motioning. _

_Go, Jordan. Go! _

_Go!_

I gasped.

I stumbled up to my feet.

Carrying Terra, I blurred out of the room.

Under the dangling robot arms.

Under the flashing strobes.

The cold redness at my heels.

The crimson countdown in my head.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrry……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the surface.

Hangar Twelve.

They loaded the last of many huge crates full of yellow-glowing vials into the back of the craft.

An elevator ascended from deep below.

The doors opened to the loud noise of jet engines and vent fuel.

Dagger stepped out, his face a frozen glare as ever.

A man walked up to him, said something, and saluted.

He merely nodded back, twirling a blade.

The man gestured towards a second, smaller jet and motioned for Dagger to follow.

Dagger walked in his place.

Marching towards the smaller aircraft.

Flanked by bodyguards.

As he ascended into the craft, he paused to look behind him.

At the elevator doors.

The passageway to the world below.

"…….."

He gave an order to someone.

The person saluted and ran off towards the larger aircraft where the vials were last loaded.

Dagger's plane closed up, and rolled along the runway.

And alarms and sirens started to sound off all across Area 51.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Up, up, up….I ran.

Winding passageways.

Staircases.

Metal catwalks.

Towards the surface.

Ascending.

Ascending.

Haloed by red flashing lights.

A crackling intercom.

An ear-splitting sound of Hell.

All the while, she shivered in my protective arms.

Shuddering like a wet animal dragged up from the deepest, coldest river.

Her silk hair settled over clenched eyes as she hugged her naked self.

Tears rolled down her tense cheeks.

Petite lips moved….shuddering….murmuring.

"B….B-B-B…Bea….th-th-they………s-so c-c-cold….th-they….they t-t-t-took………they t-took…."

"…….."

I was silent.

I was mute.

I gazed past her. Past the walls. Past the blurring madness.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted us up a flight of stairs with a vaulting pulse of murk.

FWOOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Three jets.

A large black thing.

Two smaller black things.

Virtual 'Vs' in shape and contour. Emotionless, exotic aircraft.

The centermost one…the hugest….

It carried the cargo.

It approached the runway.

And in the glistening sun of a perpetual Navada, its thrusters set off.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CL-CLACK!

The titanium panel kicked open from below.

I hopped up and found myself blinded.

_Ah! Jeez!_

Terra clung to me, shivering.

I panted and refocused my black eyes.

_The outside world……_

I was surrounded on all sides by Area 51.

The Sun glared overhead.

The heat.

The air.

The Earth.

I tightened my cradling hold on Terra.

Panting, I turned around. Holding the naked girl. Suddenly realizing that I had absolutely no clue where to go or what to do or what to rely on

_**FROOOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHVVVVVVVVV!**_

Terra gasped.

I spun with her and looked up.

My black eyes blinked.

A giant 'V' of a black aircraft soared off the runway with hideous, human thunder and rocketed towards the horizon.

I watched it…breathless.

Once it reached a certain layer of cloud cover…the 'V' vanished completely. Magically cloaking as it inevitably soared eastward.

To Metropolis.

I blinked.

_Is that thing even supposed to exist?_

FWOOOOOOSH!

FROOOOOOOSH!

Two tinier, black jets soared off in the same direction….banked in opposite angles, and parted ways.

Area 51 now had a population of two.

And soon I realized why.

Terra murmured something indistinguishable.

"?" I glanced at her.

Her blonde hair started to rise.

So did my black strands.

I looked down and saw flakes and pebbles of dirt on the desert floor start to rise up in the air.

A static charge filled the air. Sparks danced between my teeth and at the end of my fingers.

I looked straight up just in time to see the bright, distant flash of a green light.

Luthor's Ion Cannon.

_SHIT!_

I clung Terra to myself and

FWOOOOOOOOSH!

Blurred due East.

Hopping over landscapes.

Speeding over rugged terrain.

A line of fences came.

_Nnnngh!_

I teleported us through it.

FWOOOOSH!

Terra gasped and wheezed.

I kept running.

The metal chainlink of the fence behind us began to crackle and spark.

The wind died out over the desert.

The cloud parted.

The horizon blacked out as the sky above turned green and

_**PHHHHHHBBBBIIIIIIIIISSSSSSHHHHHHHHH!**_

The world behind us exploded.

Area 51 burst into green plasma and upshot Earth.

A mile down below the site, the soil and rock and thermal layers were instantly vaporized.

Sonic blast waves soared outward at three-hundred-and-sixty degrees across the Nevada wasteland.

A hot, fiery stream of soil, suit, and ash soared after that.

Then, a resulting plume of green, fiery plasma.

And….

I stopped running.

Because I came upon the sensors.

And already, I could smell the gas in the air from their infernal security code triggering from the presence of Terra and I.

Trapped…..

_**PHWOOOOOOSH!**_

I spun around.

Terra and I both looked back.

My black eyes wide.

Her blue eyes finally…weakly opening. And seeing with sapphire softness the face of her doom.

Our doom.

**PHW-PHW-PHW-PHW-PHWISH!**

The blast wave slammed through crests of earth and rock and soil and boiled towards us like the impervious Hand of Zeus.

I gritted my teeth, spun around, and pointed my back protectively against the wave of chaos. I took a snarling leap over and through the sensors as

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMBBBBBBB!**_

The wall of chaos hit.

Terra and I went flailing through the air like missiles.

And as we plummeted back towards the shattered Earth….

The wave of green plasma enveloped us.

Roasting.

And blinding out the blue sky with dust and rock.

_**FFFFFFLLLLLAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!**_


	201. Gray Days part 1

**201. Gray Days part 1**

Three Days Ago

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thursday

November 18, 2004

3:21 pm

The City

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Besides the Bay.

The Shipyards rested silent under a light-gray sky.

The chill of November drifted over the waters in a fine mist and dissipated softly.

Waves lapped gently up against the wharfs beneath the warehouses and storage houses.

Fishing boats bobbed up and down lightly along the docks.

And for a moment, nobody was around to stir.

And nothing rolled about to make a sound.

And all was….

Silent….

……..

_**POW!**_

A flaming hole opened wide in a warehouse.

An amber-hot explosion billowed high in the sky.

Pieces of wood and metal shingles littered the nearby blocks as the smoke began to rise.

Four dark figures ran from the warehouse. Trenchcoated maniacs with black goggles and jetpacks nestled snugly over the top of their black articles where their shoulderblades were hidden.

They carried with them bags of stolen electronic goods. The inner workings of expensive nautical equipment.

From behind the shattered warehouse, a dazed citizen hobbled out, pointed shakily, and uttered: "Help! S-Somebody! They're making off with out product!"

The tallest member of the dark group twirled about with a wave of his black trenchcoat and grinned a crescent moon under his goggles. "That'll be enough chatter out of you, pillock!" He aimed a pistol at a hanging sign alongside the warehouse. BANG!

P-POW!

The sign fell down and shattered over the citizen's skull. CRACK!

"Nnngh!" the man fell down hard.

"Ha ha ha!" the gunman twirled his weapon and ran back to join with his group. "Fine rubbish-hole this City has turned into! Fit for the plundering!"

_SCREEEE-EEECH!_

A throng of police squad cars swerved into view.

The four men gasped and nearly dropped their goods in alarm.

The leader skidded to a stop, frowning.

The car doors opened. Lieutenant Smith and twelve other officers held their guns at arm's length.

"You just picked the _wrong City_ to try and rob, Einstein!" the Lieutenant hissed. "This is just a routine patrol you're looking at. Unless you want the rest of the quadrupled force coming in and proving you a point…I suggest you put those weapons down and hit the ground. Now!"

"Awwww….why so feisty?" the trenchcoated leader merely smirked. "Did some big bad Dagger come by and knock over your City? Well here…" In a flash, he reached into his trenchcoat and unleashed a wave of small black pellets which he tossed out en masse at the barricade. "Show me some tears! Ha!"

THWOOOOOSH-_P-P-P-P-POW!_

The pellets exploded all around the gasping police officers.

_HISSSSSSSSSSS!_

White steam of tear gas rose up like ivory arms and suffocated the law enforcement.

The cops coughed and wheezed. The Lieutenant and his fellow officers stumbled back, short of breath and their faces tearing up. A good many of them dropped their weapons. Those still armed found it helpless to do anything as they crawled out from the white cloud and gazed red-eyed at the four suspects.

**PMMBCHOOO! **

**PMMMMMBCHOOOO!**

The trenchcoated thugs' jetpacks went off all in one accord.

The leader snickered and strapped his bag of stolen stuff under his rocket pack's chest strap. "Sorry, blokes. But this is a pathetic party. Whatever becomes of this City shall fall into the hands of the Buzzard Gang! You may have foiled us once, but the Buzzard Gang is here to stay! And we're gonna teach this sniveling Town of yanks to keep a stiff upper lip and a certain amount of respect for us as well! Or else we'll be robbin' your flats as well! Ha ha ha! Buzzards away!"

And with such a melodramatic utterance in effect, the leader and his rocketing trio of companions inevitably found their flight being cut short by four strategically aimed Starbolts.

FLASH!

FL-FLASH!

_FLASH!_

All four men fell to the ground.

"Ugh!"

"Ooof!"

"Bloody Hell….," the leader winced. He stood up with a ruffling of his trenchcoat and frowned. "Who threw that!"

FWOOOSH! A green-glowing Tamaranian flew down.

"Ah shite…"

Starfire frowned. She charged a starbolt in each feminine wrist and spoke: "Your dastardly malevolence ends forthwith!"

The leader sneered: "Darling, do you and your prattish friends not know the meaning of _redundant_?"

Starfire let out a shout and hurled a starbolt at the gang.

FLASH!

The leader ducked.

POW!

The thug standing behind him shouted as he was forced back against a lamppost from the blast. "AUGH!" CLANG!

The leader stood back up, wincing. Frowning. "Right, then. BUZZARDS! ATTACK!"

The other two thugs leapt at Starfire. In mid-air, their jetpacks burst in orange heat and lifted their wretched bodies skyward. With trenchcoat tails flapping like moldy wings, the men snarled under their goggles and reached for the Tamaranian girl.

Starfire swiftly twirled past the hurtling two in mid-air and sent a starbolt flying into the back of one of them. FL-FLASH!

"Ugh!"

Starfire prepared another bolt to launch at the second attacker when the first man she impacted on the ground suddenly shot up and grappled her from behind.

"Aahk!" she grunted.

The two wrestled and fought in mid-air.

The leader watched from below, laughing his head off. That is…until he heard a charging sound and a snort to his left.

"Huh?"

He glanced over.

A green bull grinded its hooves and rammed into him.

WHACK!

The Buzzard Gang Leader went tumbling across the street of the shipyard. Kicking up dust.

The bull leapt into a green elf. A frowning Beast Boy crouched, took a hot breath, and charged after the tumbling leader's body.

Cyborg and Raven were close behind. The sorceress spread obsidian wings of energy while the android Titan raised a metal finger and shouted: "Titans! Go!"

Raven floated towards Starfire and her combatant. Looking aside with violet eyes, the dark girl flicked her wrist and summoned a manhole cover with black telekinesis. "Azarath….Metrion….ZINTHOS!" FLASH! She hoisted the big metal disc up and effortlessly tossed it at the man grabbing ahold of Starfire's back. SWIIIIISH!

Starfire saw it. She expertly lunged her skull forward in time

CLANG! The manhole cover skirted past her red head and slammed hard into the thug's face.

"Ooof!" his jetpack sputtered. He limply let go of Starfire and fell to the pavement below. THWUMP!

"X'Hal….thank you kindly, Raven," Starfire murmured.

Raven pivoted in mid-air, looked over Starfire's shoulder, and droned: "Watch your back kindly, Starfire."

The Tamaranian's emerald eyes widened. She spun and looked behind her

"RAAAUGH!" two flying thugs swarmed at her, swinging taser-staffs. _ZZZZTT!_

Starfire gasped and flung a starbolt at both men.

FL-FLASH!

They blocked the energy blasts with their staffs and came upon her.

Starfire threw all her weight into one thug and kicked the other with a backwards foot, sending him spiraling towards Raven.

"Who-ah-ah-ah!"

Raven gritted her teeth and crossed her arms to produce a last-second black shield. FLASH!

CL-CLANG! The man slammed into Raven, jetpack first.

**PHOOOMB!**

"Nnngh!" the blast shook through Raven's shield and shoved her levitating body into the front of a warehouse. THWAP! Raven floated swiftly down and collapsed on her knees, panting and wincing.

_ZZZTT!_

Sparks danced in front of her.

"…..," she glared up.

The thug who had slammed into her now stood before the girl. He dangled his taser-staff threateningly in front of her face and sneered. "Hmmm…I think I'm famished for some roasted poultry…"

She droned: "Touch me with that thing and _you'll_ be the one roasting…" Her eyes flickered red once.

He looked past it. He raised the staff over his head. "That's happening no matter what, lass. Open wide—"

CLUTCH!

The man gasped as a huge, titanium palm enclosed over the top of his skull. He looked through the edge of his goggles at Cyborg, standing behind him.

"……," the bionic teenager frowned and growled: "Hands off the girl." FWOOOOSH! He shot his arm back, flinging the man across the street and into the side of a semi truck trailer.

"WAAAAAA" WHACK!

The thug fell to his knees beneath the dented truck, wincing.

Meanwhile, Cyborg helped Raven up.

She dusted herself off. "Great…am I supposed to be your damsel, now?"

"No," he returned with a human wink. "You're supposed to watch me kick ass." He turned and ran straight towards the man with a raised fist. "RAAAAAAAAGH!"—POW!

Raven watched with sleepy eyes. "…………," the corner of her lips curved ever so slightly. She flew up and joined Starfire's battle.

In the meantime, the Buzzard Gang leader was squaring off with a green lion.

They paced across from each other on the sidewalk in front of an abandoned fisherman's market.

The huge, emerald cat growled and eyed the leader threateningly.

The villain merely smirked under his goggles and produced two pistols. Cl-Clak! "Silly little sprogs…did you really think prison was going to keep us in forever?"

The green lion's pale eyes narrowed.

The leader went on: "This City—its prison, its streets, its law enforcement—it's all nothing but a bloody pile of rubbish full of holes! Bad guys waltz in and out left and right and claim what they want! And even if you _Titans_ actually do anything about them, we'll all just be bustin' out of the sweatbox in a matter of months to repeat things all over again! Do you kids actually think you're making any progress here! HA! This is nothing but a huge spring break fiesta for you lot! Pizza Parlor's downtown, shorty! There's nothing to see here! Nothing to see here but LEAD!"

The lion bore its fangs. It leapt with a snarl.

"Have it your way!" the leader leaned back and fired with both pistols. BANG! B-B-BANG! BANG-BANG!

The lion morphed into a green snake and 'coiled' around the bulletfire in midair. The serpent landed on the Buzzard Leader's shoulder.

"Augh!" he snarled and grabbed the reptile's tail.

The scales turned to fur as a mongoose appeared in the villain's grasp and swiftly bit him in the wrist. THUNK!

"DAAAH! GOLLY GAZOOKS!" the man shrieked and swung his arm with a grunt towards the building nearby.

Beast Boy flailed towards a flagpole.

The main aimed at his mid-air body with both guns. BANG! BANG!

The mongoose morphed into a monkey in mid-air. The emerald primate grabbed the flagpole and swung up on it, twirling over the bulletfire. He then perched on the flagpole, morphed into a kangaroo, and leapt mightily down at the leader with huge feet kicking.

TH-THWAP!

Struck in the chest, the man stumbled back.

Beast Boy vaulted up in the air and came back down as a ram with horns sailing towards the man's skull.

With a twirl of his trenchcoat, the Buzzard Boss grabbed the changeling by his horns and slammed him hard into the sidewalk.

WHACK!

The animal winched in pain.

_Thwump!_

The Boss…..sat on him.

"HA! Goin' anywhere now, yank?" the leader sneered and reloaded his pistols. "Don't you worry a bit! I'll have you going to the afterlife in a jiff—YAAAK!"

With a trumpeting sound, the ram turned into an elephant and lifted the leader up twelve feet.

The man nearly rolled of the pachyderm's butt. Instead, he caught a hold of himself, took a deep breath, and smirked: "As much as I'd love a zoo ride, I've got the arses of my mates to save." He rolled over and pivoted his jetpack in a key position against the elephant's hide. "Ta-Ta!"

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

The elephant's gray eyes bugged. It swiftly morphed into a shrieking, frantic Beast Boy. The green elf ran with smoke billowing from ashes on his rear end before desperately diving off the nearby docks into the Bay.

SPLASH! _Ssssssssssssss!_

In the meantime, Cyborg was swinging his fist madly at a Buzzard member with a taser-staff.

"Hrrrrgh! Yaaaah!"

The trenchcoat wearing thug ducked, dodged, and sidestepped the android Titan's blows.

"Arrghhh!" Cyborg snarled, his human eye flaring. "Be a good Briton and break for tea!"

"….," the thug momentarily stood still, blinking. "…that's about the bloodiest, most stereotypical insult I have ever hear—"

WHAM!

Cyborg slammed him in the face.

The thug's body went flying until he smashed through the windshield of a police squad car.

_SHATTER!_

"Nnnngh….," he groaned, unconscious.

Cyborg looked over—panting—at a group of cops.

The Lieutenant and his comrades were still wheezing from the tear gas.

Cyborg simpered: "Uhh…s-sorry about the car, man."

"It's—"COUGHCOUGH"—allright."COUGH!COUGH!

Cyborg spun around.

"…….."

He looked up.

Starfire and Raven were alternately dueling with the one airborne Buzzard. Raven provided shields while the other girl shouted and flung starbolts.

The thug twirled his staff, deflecting the blows. He let out an insane laugh and zapped electrical sparks at the two girls.

The she-Titans drew back in mid-air, prolonging the fight.

Cyborg took a deep breath. KL-KL-KLAK! He switched his arm into a sonic cannon and aimed at the airborne thug. Careful not to hit the girls with his blast.

His arm started to glow a bright blue.

"Damaged eardrum, coming right up…."

But something inside his cannon snapped. The glow left his arm and the charge drained.

Cyborg's human eye widened. "Huh!" He looked at his arm incredulously…and gradually frowned. "Dammit! Don't do this to me! How come you still ain't working! For the love of—"

"Pssst!"

"…….," the Titan leader looked over.

_ZZZZT!_

A staff-taser was shoved into his neck by thug.

"Aaaaugh!" Cyborg gripped his throat and fell—sparking—to his knees.

Standing above the wincing Titan, the goggled crook smirked. "What's wrong? Your wanking hand made in Malaysia, septic?"

WHAM!

Cyborg's fist found the thug's groin.

CL-CLANK! The man dropped his taser and stumbled back, hissing in pain. His legs crossed.

Cyborg stumbled up, cracking his necks. "Some things are still made in the good 'ol U S of A!" He flew at the man with a fist. "RAAAUGH!"

WHAM!

In the meantime, Starfire and Raven were flying backwards together as their opponent shot pulse after pulse of huge, electrical splashes.

_ZZZZT! ZZZZZT!_

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" the thug on his rocketpack billowed after the girls and pressed them towards a buildingside. "And just who are you two! The Supermaids!"

Starfire tried in vain to outpower his incoming electrical onslaught with starbolts. "Raven! His advancement is most formidable! Shall we split up?"

Raven struggled to keep the shield held around them as they floated back…back…back towards the building front.

"Starfire….," Raven hissed.

"?"

"Hug me," the dark girl grunted.

Starfire blinked. "R-Raven?"

"Just do it!"

Starfire blushed and hugged Raven from behind just as the two slammed back into the building front.

The thug lifted his taser-staff and produced a hot pulse of electrical friction in the air. He summoned it into one giant ball of plasma and wielded it over his head. "Hot girl on girl action coming right up! RrrrrrrrrRRRAAAUGH!"

FLAAAAASH!

Raven and Starfire held each other as the big bulb of energy enveloped them—

**POW!**

A fiery crater was left in the wall of the buildingside.

The thug flew up to it and hovered in the air. "Make that 'melted'….," he snickered. He tilted his goggled face back and laughed; "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

In the meantime, a dark portal opened up in the rooftop of the building. Raven poured up through the teleportation with Starfire holding onto her. Swiftly, the two girls ran over to the buildingtop's edge and peered down at the levitating, laughing crook.

"Can I have a lift?" Raven droned.

"Most surely…," Starfire smiled. She held her hands together. "Alley of the oopness!"

Raven took a breath, vauled off Starfire's palms, flipped, and soared down with gliding telepathy towards the crook.

"Ha ha ha ha haHa?"

**WHAM!**

Raven sailed her foot down into the man's chest and shoved him down, down, down….into the middle of the street below.

**POW!**

A bubble of black energy exploded. When the obsidian traces cleared, Raven hovered above a huge, bowl-shaped crater with an unconscious thug lying bruised and twitching inside.

Raven dusted her hands off and hoisted the hood back over her blue head with finality. "Loser…."

A footstep.

"….," Raven looked over.

Thwissssh-CLAMP! The Buzzard Boss tossed a remote mine before her feet.

She gasped

He winked and pressed a remote trigger.

**BOOOM!**

"Ugh!" Raven flew across the street from the concussion.

"Raven!" Starfire swooped down.

The Boss saw the Tamaranian on descent. He swiftly brought out his taser-staff and fired at her body in mid-air.

_ZTTTT!_

Just as Starfire reached Raven

_ZAAAP!_

The bolt of electricity hit.

"Nnngh!" Starfire cried out in pain. She managed to keep ahold of Raven's body with aching arms just long enough for her to fall—CLANK!—ricochet off an awning piece, and roll to a stop on the cold pavement.

Raven tumbled limply to the side.

Starfire winced all over, still twitching from electrical bolts. She tried to get up

THWACK!

The sharp end of the taser-staff pinned her skirted thigh to the ground.

_ZZZZZZZZT!_

"AAAAAAAAHHH!" Starfire screamed in pain.

The electrical flashing of the Leader's weapon reflected against his smiling teeth and goggle-lenses. After a few seconds, he relinquished the shock.

Starfire flinched and rested limply against the ground, panting. Shaking in pain.

"My…what a pretty little butterfly…," the Buzzard cooed. Chuckling.

_Zzzt—Zzzt!_

Starfire winced: "P-Please….it h-hurts…."

"Shhhhh….you didn't say Simon says…"

Starfire's green eyes squinted in pain and bewilderment. Her face was sweating and she panted in agony.

On the side of the battle-field…

"RAAAUGH!" Cyborg slammed his fist into the thug's chest.

WHAP!

"Nnngh!" the man stumbled backwards.

GRIP!

Cyborg grabbed him by the jetpack and dug his titanium fingers in.

_CRKKKK!_

POW!

The rocket pack burst and flew straight up.

"YAAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEE!" the Buzzard on the pack struggled and desperately unhooked himself seconds before the rocket spiraled northward and exploded in mid-air. **BAM!** The thug fell straight down, his limbs flailing. "AAAH!"

CLUTCH! Cyborg caught him.

The thug gasped.

Cyborg waited for only half a second before body-slamming the thug down over his metal knee.

WHUMP!

"UGH!" the man's eyes rattled inside his goggles and he was limp. Sighing into unconscious.

Th-Thrump! Cyborg dropped the man to the floor.

He dusted his metal palms off and placed his knuckles against his hips. "Boo-ya, guv'nor…."

"Cy-Cyborg…," a voice weakly entreated him.

He looked over. His human eye widened. "Raven!" He rushed over and knelt by the blue-robed girl. "Raven, are you—"

She helped herself up with his hold, but wincingly pointed over: "N-Not me….look!"

Cyborg glanced over. "Star!" He raised a fist and ran to the scene

"One more step and I paralyze her the waist-down!" the Buzzard Leader snarled.

Cyborg skidded to a stop, gritting his teeth.

Raven floated over, frowning: "Let her go! **NOW**!"

"Why should I?" the Boss smirked. He twisted the end of the staff against Starfire's thigh and chuckled. "Would anything I say make you take back the blows you've given to my mates? I dare say NOT!"

"Starfire! Hang in there!" the Titan leader called out.

"Nnngh…X'Hal….the electricity…," Starfire winced. Her eyes teared green. "I cannot…m-move…."

"If you so much as hurt her…," Raven hissed, "I'll make you wish you'd never been born."

"And just what makes you think you're strong with or without her, lass?" the Buzzard snarled. Smiling. "What makes you think that your _laughable_ team is anything strong anymore?"

Cyborg and Raven frowned side by side as the man spoke on. They had their fists clenched and their limbs ready to spring into action at any moment. The police barricade—recovering from the tear gas—watched nervously from beyond the edges of the shipyard.

"You are half in numbers than that of what you once were…," the Buzzard Boss hissed. "And furthermore…you are half the courage. But then again, you were never much of anything even when the Boy Wonder _was_ alive…"

The Titans tensed. Their jaws were tight as they tried to compose themselves.

Across from the scene, a dripping Beast Boy pulled himself up onto the docks from the Bay. He shook a few drops off him and gazed over at exchange from behind the Buzzard Boss' back. He gasped: "St-Star…..no…."

"Heheheheh….face it! The only reason you numskulls ever throttled us was because of that one sword-swinger who nearly killed me in my sleep! All happenstance, I'd say! But Robin…he wouldn't have done shite against the Buzzards! Some defender he was! And you call yourselves heroes just because you carry on some pathetic, childish dream of his. Look around you, Titans! Look at the crumbling rubbish you call a City and tell yourselves that things are working for 'justice' or 'freedom' and other cockamamie pies in the sky! Robin died because he was a fool. Just like you underaged pugilists are fools! I can't believe the cops here are such namby pambies that they don't have the guts to say it to your faces themselves!"

"Nnngh…d-do not….," Starfire stirred.

_Zzzt!_ The Boss sparked the taser staff some more.

Starfire winced.

"What's that?" he asked, amused.

The Titans shifted nervously…angrily.

"D-Do not ….talk about Robin….that way…," Starfire whispered. Shaking in pain from where she was pinned down.

"Mmmmf…heheheheheheh….," the Boss snickered.

From the sidelines, a dripping Beast Boy frowned. His teeth showed as he climbed totally out of the Bay on wet feet and padded stealthily towards the scene.

"Heheheheh!" the man raised the staff up.

Starfire sputtered.

Cyborg's and Raven's jaws lowered.

"Maybe it's not that I shouldn't talk about the stupid bird boy that way…," the Buzzard sneered. "But instead…maybe you shouldn't have the ears to listen! So off with your pretty 'lil head! Ha ha ha ha!"

Starfire stirred and tried in vain to fly away. Numb.

The Villain brought his staff over her head and—sparkling—slammed it harshly down

THWAP!

A scaly tail knocked the rod away.

The Buzzard Boss gasped: "What!"

**SNAP!**

The jaws of a green crocodile sailed its teeth into the man's upper arm. THUNK!

"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" the crook shouted in torture.

Starfire gasped.

Raven's eyes widened.

The reptilian changeling twirled behind the man.

With his arm stuck in the green beast's jaws, the man crumpled over hard onto the pavement floor. THWUMP! He lay on the ground, blood pouring out of his arm. He panted, swallowed, and screamed: "AAAAAAAAAA—"

WHAP!

A gorilla's foot slammed across his face, knocking a pair of teeth out.

"Nnngh!" morphing into elf form, Beast Boy straddled the trenchcoated man's chest and repeatedly pummeled the man's face in with his gloved fists. WHAP! WHAM! POW! "Don't you touch her, you JERK! Do you stupid" —WHACK!— "killers" –WHUD!— "_ever" –THWACK!— "_…..LEARN!"

Raven bit her lip.

Her hair and robe fluttered as the Titan Leader rushed past her: "Beast Boy!"

The thug coughed and spit blood. His goggles cracked and his one-good arm flailed as he desperately gurgled a plea of mercy.

"RGHHHH!" Beast Boy's eyes flared as he gripped the man's collar and lifted his bruised face to his. "Has this City bled enough as it is without stupid creeps like you coming in and trying to ruin more lives! So help me, I'll—"

Cyborg's heavy arms grabbed around Beast Boy's waist from behind. "That's enough, Beast Boy!" The android Titan hoisted him back.

"Nnghh! Let me go!" Beast Boy flailed in the Titan Leader's arms. "I need to show him—"

"No you **do not**!"

"He—"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Cyborg tossed Beast Boy aside.

Th-Thwump! Beast Boy rolled off into a lamppost. Barely wincing, he jumped up and charged back towards the leader.

Cyborg's hand blocked the changeling's chest: "One more step and you'll be hurting Starfire—and the rest of the Titans—more than that asshole ever will…," he said, firmly.

Beast Boy frowned at Cyborg. He was seething. With a furrowed brow, he glared over at the Buzzard Boss.

Raven had just floated over and was swiftly cupping her hands around the man's bleeding crocodile-wound. "It's a clean cut…," she said. "Not like normal, wild reptiles. He shouldn't have half as many infections—so I should be able to heal most of his wound in time for paramedics to arrive…"

The man twitched and groaned all over. "Nnngh…it hurts…._it hurts!"_

Raven couldn't help but frown. She droned beneath her breath: "…though it is awfully tempting to just let him bleed to death."

Cyborg ran a hand over the flesh part of his head and shuddered: "Just do what you can, Rae, please? Thanks." He looked over to his other side: "Beast Boy."

Beast Boy was gone.

"…..," Cyborg looked across the street.

The green elf huddled on the sidewalk several feet away. His back was to the rest of the Titans. He hugged himself in silence and gently rocked…rocked…rocked…

"…..," Cyborg sighed. "Lovely job you're doing with your team, Vic…." He paced past the screaming man as Raven tended to him. Police officers and recovering cops limped over from the fading tear gas and handcuffed the unconscious three thugs. Eventually, Cyborg reached the side of Starfire. He knelt down and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey…..you allright, Star?"

Starfire winced….but managed to sit up. "I believe I am….undamaged…." Tenderly, she rubbed two Tamaranian hands across her thigh. A sigh, and she said: "Though I sincerely hope you do not mind if I insist on hovering about the Tower for the next earth-day or two."

"Heheheheh…," Cyborg warmly chuckled. "Permission granted. What's a leader to do?"

Starfire smiled back. Her usual, warm smile. But there was something diluted about it. Like too much water mixed into a bitter broth. She lowered her green eyes and looked away.

Cyborg's smile had long faded before hers. With a deep breath he softly said: "Sorry you had to go through that, Star. Who knows? Maybe Beast Boy was the smartest of ours. I only wished I had pummeled the guy's face in before he went all crocodile on his ass and—"

"Do not despair, Cyborg…," Starfire hugged herself. "I am fine. I am…."

Cyborg placed a hand on her shoulder.

She shook and gave in. She leaned against his titanium chest while still sitting on the pavement and let forth a shuddering breath. A green tear streaked down her cheek. She sniffed. "Why do so many m-miscreants insist on p-plaguing this innocent, beautiful City?"

"I have no answer to that, Star…," Cyborg said. "All I can say is….that's what we're here for."

"I know….truly….I kn-know…," she breathed.

A beat.

"Come on…," Cyborg stood and helped Starfire up into a hover. "Let Raven and I take you home."

"C-Can we wait for Beast Boy?" she stammered, leaning on him.

"……," Cyborg looked over at his huddled figure. A beat. "Yeah…," he smiled again. Gently. "We'll do that…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_This is Marilyn Chen reporting for JCN Broadcast News. Just hours ago, four international rogues known as the Buzzard Gang were apprehended when they attempted an explosive robbery of a nautical supplies warehouse in the East Shipyard by the Bay. It's the first intense criminal act of its sort since the weapons cache looting incident on November tenth. Although Acting-Commissioner Smith's forces were quick to respond, it wasn't until the combined strength of the Titans' intervention that the Buzzard Gang was finally forced into submission. There were no deaths, but casualties include minor concussions for a few of the warehouse workers and what appears to be a deep laceration on the upper body of the Buzzard Gang leader. The head criminal is in stable condition at the Prison infirmary as of fifteen minutes ago. When questioned regarding the Titans' possible connection between the leader's grim injury and the Titans' intercession, Smith had very little to say, only that he 'hoped that the citizens of this City would stand behind the Titans more now than ever'. With volunteers pouring into the City and repairs of damages from November Fourth at an all-time peak, many city officials and downtown job-workers alike have expressed their concern over urban safety. But as recent polls suggest over the last two weeks, the City has been experiencing a lull in criminal activity the likes of which we have not seen since following the last defeat and death of Slade. People's hopes have risen and more and more citizens are returning to their jobs. In about a week from now, public schools are scheduled to resume as the City tries to go back to a sense of normality. We can only hope that recent calamities such as that incurred by the Buzzard gang are but a fluke in the pattern of things, and not a taste of things to come. For JCN Broadcast News, this is Marilyn Chen. Good night."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's been two weeks…..well…..almost two weeks. Heh, I never thought that after what happened to me years ago…that I'd be capable of aging. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't get a few wrinkles from the last thirteen days alone. It's hard to believe that he's gone, and the reins have now been transferred to me. But I make do, ya know? And…to be honest, sir. I'm learning. I'm learning this whole 'leadership' biz. And it can be quite stressful at times. Not that my teammates aren't working up to par or some crap. They're A-okay in that department. But….I was never much of a motivational tool. I'm a tool in _other_ respects. But even there, I'm lacking. I can't seem to quite figure it out. But I guess what Dagger's missile did to me really fried my circuits beyond normal repair. And then when Slug and Reload brought the house down at Phaser Labs—literally—well, it didn't help one bit. I hate feeling useless. Especially at a time like this. But none of that is any excuse. And certainly it doesn't excuse what my teammate did when he flipped loose and took all that had happened in these last two weeks and slice it all over that Buzzard creep's arm. But…that sort of stuff happens. I'll be willing to answer for whatever might befall the Titans because of this. I….I-I guess that's what I came here to say. Robin was the eloquent one. Not me…."

Cyborg's voice lingered, as did his gaze. He stood across Lieutenant Smith at sunset outside the tents and portables erected around the gradually rebuilding Police Department. Volunteers and officers filed about in the background doing one task or another. Everything was looking cleaner, straighter, grayer.

And it was depressing…the balance that chaos wrought. The City seemed to be turning from rubble into one huge gravestone.

The overcast sky didn't help much. Cold November winds dipped down between the building sides and brushed between the two men as they stood apart.

A beat.

"Why do you do that?" the Lieutenant asked.

Cyborg re-fixed his gaze at the Lieutenant again. "Pardon?"

"Why do you call me 'sir'?" the young officer asked. The wind kicked at his hairs. He smiled ever so slightly. "That's kinda….creepy."

Cyborg shrugged. "I just thought it was respectable. I mean, you're….you're….."

"…….."

Cyborg winced. "You're….D-Decker's replacement, right?"

"Hardly," the Lieutenant said. Not so much curtly as it with under-emphasis. "They're working on getting a replacement. I'm what you would call a Bureaucratic marsupial."

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Marsupial?"

"I'm not a rodent. And I'm not a weasel. But I'm something else that they can drop between the gaps of red tape till they can get someone psychotic enough to fill this quagmire…," he sighed and gazed off towards the slowly fixed faces of the City. "…I can only hope the head honchos choose someone willing to love this quagmire half as much as I do."

"Sorry…I didn't know…," Cyborg said.

"Nothing to be sorry about. I don't care if I get promoted or not," Smith said. A soft smile. "I only want to see my men and women make it through this in one sane piece."

Cyborg rubbed the human half of his head. "Now that I think of it, you couldn't replace Decker."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I don't think I've seen you smoke a single damn cancer stick once, dawg."

"Heheheh….well…thanks for kicking the 'sir' down the toilet," the Lieutenant said.

"Heheheheheheheh."

A beat.

"Or…O-Or as the Commish would say…," Smith enthusiastically added: "'Down the shit-can'."

"Hahahahaha…got that right!"

"Yeah…heheheheh…"

Silence.

November winds.

A chill.

A sigh.

"How is he doing?"

"Hmmm?"

"Mr. Beast Boy."

"To be honest…we hadn't gotten a chance to talk to him much after we returned to the Tower," Cyborg said. "He's been….hiding out in rooms lately."

"A young boy or girl's best friend is his own bed, I gather."

"Usually, it's not his room."

"Oh? Whose is it?"

Cyborg took a deep breath. "It's…..complicated….."

"Oh…..okay…."

Another pause.

"W-Will he be allright?" Smith asked.

Cyborg gave him a sideways glance. "Shouldn't you be more concerned with reprimanding me for what he did today?"

"Ohhh….Mr. Cyborg…," the Lieutenant exhaustingly rubbed his neck and gazed off towards the grayness again. "You're right. I haven't been smoking. But I have been doing a lot of not-sleeping. And I think it's because nothing is as it ever was. And—sure—nothing will ever be the same after November Fourth. But right now….right now it is still a war zone. No battlefield is ever clean of its blood this quickly. When the heat of violence still lingers, you've still got the ever present need to use a force a little bit wider than your fist to deal with the residual diseases. The National Guard is here for a reason, ya know. They may not be _pitching in as much as they should be……nnngh……_but, nobody can deny that they're here and that the reason for that is the ever-present need to go beyond regular enforcement with the random wackos rising up and wanting to feed off the loss of life. Those Buzzard creeps aren't robbers. They're vampires. They should have known better to do what they did. The cocky bastards didn't stop to think that this City is stacked to the teeth with five times the police and ten times the armed defenses. There's a powder keg with this City's name on it yet, and the only thing I could ever blame you Titans for in the event that you explode a little is not doing so soon enough to stop these morons. I will admit one thing. The main heat of battle is long gone. Dagger is out of the war zone. And the lethal force that Robin called forth for you and the Titans out of necessity has lost its usefulness. I can tolerate extreme force at this point in time. But it's good that you stopped Beast Boy when you did. Not that he would necessarily have crossed the red line entirely. But….still, I am overall glad for the way things turned out. Now, there may come a time when November Fourth will become a fading photonegative in everybody's head. And—who knows—the tragedy we all faced may already be just an afterthought for those living far outside the city limits surrounding us. And at such a time, there will be accusations. And there will be fat preachers blaspheming all the heroes that risked their life and neck in this urban jungle when the death-swarms flew in. And at such a time, there will be many a finger pointed at you, the police, and myself included. And I won't mind. Because I'll look back and remember….r-remember this. Remember the sadness. The gray cold and November mist that just….seemed to linger in the air. And I'll know that the blood that was shed from our enemies was done so for a reason. Because no sane person having gone through what we've gone through would afterwards—with a sane mind—sit back and tolerate this coldness forever. I don't want you to feel guilty, Cyborg. I just want you and the Titans to remain ever on the guard. After all, shame may be the one thing that could—indeed—push any one of you over the edge. Same with the rest of us too…"

"Still…," Cyborg said with a breath. "I'll see what I can do to talk with him. Robin would never have tolerated an act of lethal force that extreme as what Beast Boy did to the gang leader."

Smith leaned his head to the side. "And what of you? Cyborg, leader of the Titans?"

"I would have smacked his god-damn face in if I were only close enough."

"Heh heh heh…"

"But seriously….," Cyborg flexed his fingers and gazed off into some angry corner of the gray globe. "What he was doing to Starfire…….phew…..it burned all of us on the inside."

"……..," the Lieutenant nodded. A beat. "I lost a lot of men and women on November Fourth."

Cyborg bit his lip.

The man continued: "Officers. Co-workers. Friends." A beat. "Even a family member."

Cyborg's lips parted somewhat…

But Smith went on, uninterrupted: "Still….I can't imagine what it must be like for the Titans right now. With Robin dead and two other members leaving….basically with half of the 'family' gone….it must be….be hard…."

Cyborg took a deep breath. "We manage. We…..m-manage…."

Smith had soft eyes. "How do you do it? How do you live in that godawful, lonely Tower everyday and wait for the world to explode around you just so you can throw yourselves into chaos and somehow come out victorious?"

"I suppose it's the stupidity of it all that makes us all so close," Cyborg said. "And…I-I don't like to see that as painful, sir."

"…….."

"I like to see it as wholesome."

The Lieutenant smiled somewhat. "Well then….godspeed."

"Same with you, sir—er….I mean…."

"Heheheheh."

Cyborg shrugged. "Seriously. Good luck on the search. Are you sure you don't need our assistance?"

"I'm not really sure. But I'll call the Titans the very first moment a hideous lead pops up," the Lieutenant said with a sigh. "But to be honest….I don't think there's any hopes of making heads or tails out of it. I mean…who would kill Blake Glover?"

"The man was a nasty-ass reporter for most of his life. How could he _not_ make enemies?"

"Yes…but an enemy that would remove his head with a high round sniper rifle and then burn the man's apartment complex to a crisp afterwards? Believe me, I was just happy at the time to find the rest of the building saved from the flames. So far, the news only thinks it was a kitchen fire. Glover may still be alive for all JCN knows so far. But you know and I know that that won't last forever."

"Still….it's an assassination," Cyborg said. He pointed: "Eyewitness accounts of the gunshot and the shell that remained of Glover's body confirmed that."

"Indeed…"

"Y'all haven't found more evidence, have you?"

"Seriously, Cyborg, we'd tell you if we did," Smith said. "Right now…I'm a lot more concerned with getting this City back to ship-shine shape."

"I suppose future holocausts can wait till later…"

"……yeah."

A beat.

"Well then…I'd better be off. A teammate's waiting."

"Fair well and safe trip," Smith waved.

"Yeah. You too, dawg."

"Good bye."

"Peace out…."

Cyborg walked away from the site. As he distanced himself from the tents, he turned his head and looked over his shoulder.

The Lieutenant was gone. Inside his tent 'office. What remained of where they conversed was just gray, November air.

Cyborg frowned a bit: "When it all comes down to it…the Titans are down a detective. Bet that sucks for you guys."

And he walked two blocks down…to where Raven waited for him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay…it's been nearly a week. Gawds….what do you think has happened?"

"What?"

"You know what I'm talking about! Noir and Tempest! They haven't been seen with the Titans in—like—seven days! I'm starting to get scared…"

"Take it easy, Hope. I'm sure they're fine. Heh….probably eloped together or something."

"Pffft! Not funny! Janice, don't you get it! Something is up! Why else would they be gone?"

"They're breaking up…."

"L-Lisa?"

"It's simple. The Titans are breaking up. What more do you need to know?"

"Heh. Lovely and morose there, Lisa."

"Eh."

"You really think so? I just figured that the two hunks needed time to recover and—"

"You forget, Janice. I've seen Noir. Up close. He's hardcore about _everything._ He's just as badass in real life is they make him look like on t.v. and in the magazines."

"Your point?"

"My point is, he wouldn't leave the Titans unless he had a damn good reason to. He's not the sort to…._take vacations_. Remember, this is the same guy who broke the law and pretended to be Wyldecarde just so he could distract the Titans from Slade. Now that takes guts."

"Heh. Guess that's true."

"Then wh-what about Tempest?"

"Tempest is a pansy."

"No he is not, Lisa! Take that back!"

"Hush up, Hope."

"He's a pansy. Whatever, just let him crawl back to his Ocean. He's here for a month and Robin's death was more than he could take."

"Well, I don't rightfully blame him."

"Robin…..gods…..it's hard to believe that was only two weeks ago."

"Yeah….."

"H-Have any of you bothered calling Tiffany, lately?"

"Erm…."

"I have."

"What'd she say, Janice?"

"I didn't get through to her. Tiffany's mom answered. Supposedly, Tiffany's off in Keystone."

"Keystone City? Why's she way out there?"

"She's hanging out with a relative of hers. A cousin, I guess. So that got my hopes down…"

"Ew."

"Ahem…go on, Janice."

"Anyways. I left a message with Tiffany's mom."

"Any word on why she went out of town?"

"Yeah, and without telling us?"

"Her mom says that November Fourth really freaked her out. I didn't say it over the phone, but I was like 'yeah, no shit'. We're all freaked by November Fourth. But with Tiffany…."

"She really liked Robin."

"……"

"……."

"…….yeah, no shit."

"Hehehehehehehe……..heh……"

"But still, I suppose it does kinda sorta suck."

"What exactly are you talking about this time?"

"The Titans splitting up. Especially starting with the members of the group that were so……"

"Potentially hot?"

"What's with the 'potentially', Hope?"

"Sorry, Lisa. I was just saying—"

"I suppose the sexiness factor goes down when they _turn their backs on our City._"

"Hey! Don't discredit them! They went through a lot when Dagger sunk his teeth in! Just like the rest of the Titans!"

"Then why are they gone?"

"Maybe…M-Maybe they had important things to do?"

"Or maybe they just realized that things are pretty much pointless."

"Gotta love you and your gloominess, Lisa."

"Lisa….why are you so down all of the sudden?"

"……"

"Ya know…I finally got to meet him. I finally got to meet Beast Boy."

"Really now?"

"Mmmhmm, I did. And…."

"You didn't tackle him on the spot and get pregnant?"

"Pfft! No, Janice. I…."

"……"

"It was not an easy time. For any of us. I…I-I didn't see him as the hero I based my message board and fanfics on. He was……j-just like me. He wasn't having fun, that's for darn sure."

"That's interesting, Hope."

"Yeah. I…I-I figure that all the Titans are really like him. In that th-they're like us. And if Beast Boy was so hurt by the stuff that happened with the City and Robin…and yet he still stayed…what could possibly have made our favorite swordsman and merman leave?"

"Sexy chicks in Metropolis….?"

"Hardy har har….you know, you've been nothing but a real bitter basketcase during all this, Lisa. At least when you were at the funeral you had the nerve to—"

"My god damn neighbor committed suicide last night."

"……"

"……"

"So excuse me if I'm just a big friggin' careless about what Noir and Tempest did with themselves."

"God….y-you don't mean—"

"Yes, Janice, Mr. Knight. Turns out he had a spare revolver hidden in his dead wife's sock drawer. Guess he didn't want to face his kids after screwing up his family royally under the influence of Dragonflare."

"………….."

"What….wh-what about his son and daughter?"

"What about them? They're frickin' screwed. Just like us and the Titans, god dammit. I don't really care anymore. I just want school to get its ass into royal gear so I can live in the numbing routine and maybe gain back some of my sanity."

"…………."

"Nnngh……why did I even come here tonight? This damn club is pointless."

"W-Wait…Lisa. Come back. Don't go…"

"Sniff you morons later…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What did he have to say?" Raven asked, blue-robed arms folded.

Cyborg shuffled past her. "I didn't need to come here. I'm the Titan leader for god's sakes. Beast Boy is mine to deal with…"

The two walked slowly down the sidewalk southward.

"You act as if the Lieutenant said something bad to you."

"Hardly. I just……," the android Titan sighed. He stared down at the sidewalk panels passing beneath them. "……everything that ended up happening today wouldn't have been so nasty had I just been a good little robot and done the job Robin asked of me."

"As much as I would love to hear you ramble on about your authoritative incompetence the entire walk home…," Raven droned, "…I'm going to cut things short by telling you to deal with it, or else."

"Or else what?" Cyborg glanced at her suspiciously.

"Think of something along the lines of a lamppost shoved up your disk drive."

Cyborg chuckled. His lips curved gently. "You'd make a nice camp counselor some day, Raven."

"Feh."

"Sometimes I wonder if it's really you and your maturity that this team manages to lean on these days," he said. A beat. A sideways wink: "And to be honest, I think that's downright excellent."

"When I started the Titans…," the dark girl murmured as they walked along, "…I did it with full assurance from Robin that I wouldn't have to be responsible for leading us when—"

"Yes, Yes…I know, Rae. I know," Cyborg sighed. "The Titans rely on me now. But…."

"But what?"

"Would you feel bad if I said that sometimes I think I rely on you?"

"…….."

"It might sound a little egotistical, but I think that's how the rest of the Titans rely on you. It's through me. Heh. Indirect love. How you like that?"

"You're wyrd."

"I indirectly love you too."

Raven suddenly hugged herself. She came to a complete stop along the gray slabs of sidewalk.

Cyborg lingered slowly and eventually halted a few feet ahead of her. He turned and looked at her. Curiously. "Rae?"

The dark girl took a liquid sigh. She slowly gazed up at the Android Titan. It was a wounded, dangerously emotional look.

Cyborg gently treaded towards her. He spoke: "Rae….what's wrong? What are you feeling?"

She bit her lip. She gazed off. "You….haven't told us the truth, Cyborg…."

"………."

"You haven't told us the truth about Noir."

"What do you mean?"

She looked up at him. Firmly. "Why did he really leave us? It wasn't to 'move on'. It was to do something else, wasn't it?"

"………," Cyborg's gaze averted itself from her eyes.

She droned: "Terra…..he went to find Terra…."

Cyborg took a deep breath and muttered towards the cityscape: "He disobeyed me. Directly. He went away solo without permission—"

"The fact of the matter is he went a way for a _reason_, Cyborg!" Raven exclaimed. She clenched her fingers into fists and seethed: "You lied to us!"

"Rae…"

"You lied to **me**."

"And why have you waited till now to say something about it?" Cyborg exclaimed with a heavy shrug of his metal arms. "I know as well as you do that I can't pull the wool over your eyes! Hell, I don't even _like_ doing it! Much less trying to!"

"Then why did you? Why did you lie to us?"

Cyborg sighed. He rubbed the human part of his head. "Ever since Dagger up and left this City…I've felt like life has been doing nothing but putting our hopes up. The first time it was with a possible lead to find Terra. Then Robin died. After that, it was a feeling that we were all drawing together. Then Tempest mouthed off and left. And with Noir….."

"……," Raven stared. Frowning.

Cyborg looked at her directly and slowly shook his head: "Terra won't be found, Raven. You know this as well as I do. And Noir….he…..god bless him, he sacrifices himself so much! So much so that….th-that it's a selfishness in and of itself!"

"Heh, that's rich—"

"It's a _selfishness_, Raven. He goes and tries all that he can to do the impossible, even if it means sacrificing himself. And he doesn't seem to care about how much we all worry about him the same way we do about the rest of our teammates, but instead he thinks that the trophy at the end of his suicidal endeavors will somehow win our favor over our anger at him that even we don't want to admit. And now that he's going after a pie in the sky….dammit…what could I tell you guys? We've all suffered enough as it is."

"You're so worried about being a good leader, Cyborg," Raven said. "You should know that a good leader doesn't tell lies to his teammates. No matter how noble."

Cyborg gave her an incredulous look. "Excuse me!" He leaned forward and pointed with a gaping mouth: "Look…just who was it who created that blasted Confidentiality Agreement with Robin way back in the day?"

"……," Raven bit her lip. She hugged herself and looked away.

A beat.

Cyborg sighed: "Rae, I'm sorry. You're right. You're right in that…wh-what I did was cruel. And you and the Titans have every right to be angry at me. But…" He shifted over and placed a gentle, gentle hand on Raven's shoulder. "It's all right to be angry…at Noir too…."

"I…..I don't know what you're talking about…," Raven muttered.

"Rae…."

She shuddered.

He leaned into her, but without getting too intimate. "Noir has always and will always be a great friend. And who knows….maybe we will see him again. S-Sometime…"

"Wh-Where did he say he was going anyways?" Raven asked breathily.

"Westward," Cyborg shrugged one arm. "Westward to come back with Terra. God….I'd hate to see him at the tail end of a wild goose chase. But I know I can't stop him. Even you, Raven. As empathic and wise as you are…you wouldn't be able to stop him either. He's got a stubbornness the likes of which could have challenged even Robin. And—in fact—I think he was the one to inherit it from the Boy Wonder after Robin left us so tragically. It's okay to be angry at Noir. It's okay to feel…a little bit abandoned…."

Raven took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She gazed down towards the center of the earth and whispered: "Why do I still worry about him, Cyborg? What is it about Noir that keeps me thinking that I should s-somehow be responsible for all the stupid things people do to him and that he gets himself into?"

"You're both alike in a lot of ways. But different enough for me to tell who the mature one is."

"……"

"If you want, Rae. I'll announce it to the other Titans. I'll tell them that Noir's gone on some little mission of his. But—to be honest—I just don't know how they'll take it. Beast Boy, especially. They might all jump on some crazy, phantom bandwagon and try and join him or something and as a Titan leader who needs to keep all of us focused on this City, I—"

"No, Cyborg….I just….," Raven sighed. "…..I feel like everything is a dream sometimes…."

Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "Rae?"

"All of my life, I've known real absolutes. Absolutes that dictated the demon danger inside of myself. Absolutes that told me that emotions were dangerous and any day at any time I could let my father out onto this vulnerable dimension. But it feels as if—as of late—those absolutes have faded away. And now I find myself slowly embracing emotions that at one time would tear me apart. And….and it's so ironic that I'm allowed to share in these feelings upon the very moment when the immediate world around me becomes unbelievably more hellish than ever a Azarathian nightmare I've envisioned before. My entire life, I've pushed away the prospect of happiness for fear of the supernatural consequences such may have. And now—when happiness is suddenly a lot more open and tangible to me—I find myself in a bitterly ironic world where happiness is the one thing I can't be afforded. I wish Robin did not die. And I wish Tempest and Noir were still with us. I know that things must be the way they are like I have always accepted them throughout my life, but now…..—"

"You don't want to do it alone…," Cyborg finished for her.

She hugged herself tighter. A sniff escaped her nostrils. "N-No…."

Cyborg gently hugged her.

Raven leaned back into him and breathed shudderingly.

"You're going through a lot of changes. Changes so big…I can't truly understand," Cyborg said. He squeezed her gently. "But you're still Raven to me. And I love you for that. You don't have to be alone anymore, Rae. I don't understand the crazy nature of things either. I don't know why Robin had to die or if Tempest will ever come back or if Noir will be okay or not. But I don't want to lose what we still have. Not the Titans. Not this City. And most of all, not you. That's why I did what I did, Raven. That's why I lied…to protect what's left. And you can hate me for it if you want. And you can even tell the Titans the truth or I can. I just want us to stay together as long as possible. The Lieutenant was right about one thing. It's like our family's been cut in two. I don't want it to fall into pieces anymore than you do. Forgive me if I'm desperate in the things I do to preserve things. I'm just as bad as Noir when it comes to extreme measures. I suppose that's just guys' way. Sorry we have to be such numbskulls."

Raven sniffed again. "Yeah…I'm truly sorry…"

Cyborg chuckled somewhat.

Raven sighed and gazed out along the City. "Let's….Let's go home…"

"Don't want to be seen as the 'Mighty Raven' tearfully hugging the crap out of a robot in public? Heh…can't blame you."

"No…I need herbal tea…," Raven droned.

"Ah…but of course…"

She and Cyborg parted and began walking homeward again.

After a moment of silence, Cyborg simpered: "So…you still mad at me?"

"Of course, stupid."

He winced.

"But….," Raven nonchalantly wiped the corner of her eye with a sleeve and curved her lips ever so slightly. "I'm always mad at you. Always have been always will be."

"Heheh…guess it wouldn't be the same otherwise."

"Exactly."

"Yeah…."

A beat.

Raven said: "He said he wouldn't come back without Terra?"

Cyborg nodded.

Raven exhaled: "That…..is a shame."

"Exactly what I thought."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later that Thursday evening.

At Titan's Tower….

A cold, November night blanketed the rooftop darkly.

He sat in the center, hugging himself. His elfin ears drooping. His jumpsuited body huddled alone.

He gazed out at the blackening night over the cold waves of the Bay below. The City glowed faintly beyond…still not half the glittering splendor that it was in days prior to November Fourth.

The Changeling sighed.

His eyes thin.

Sitting……

"……….."

A blanket was gently laid over his shoulders.

He gasped with a start

"Shhh….," a gentle, amber-skinned hand pressed against his shoulder. "You need not feel the need to move, Beast Boy. You merely seemed cold to me, and I desired to alleviate such."

Beast Boy's lip quivered. He murmured without turning to look over his shoulder: "S-Star?"

The Tamaranian hovered behind him, gently folding her arms behind her back. She shivered a bit in the cold winds of the tower rooftop but chose not to show it. "Yes, Beast Boy. It is I. But I shall not travail upon interrupting you further. Feel free to enjoy your own reclusion. I must admit….it his quite peaceful up here this evening."

"………"

She took a deep breath, turned, and hovered towards the stairwell: "Have a good night, Beast Boy—"

"Starfire…," he bit his lip and uttered: "W-Wait…"

She froze. She gazed over towards him gently. "Hmm?"

"………………h-how's your leg?"

"I….am uncertain…," she simpered. Cheeks red somewhat. "I have not tried walking since we arrived at the Tower."

"………….."

"But your concern is m-most appreciated."

"Heh….yeah….," Beast Boy muttered and leaned his chin over the knees that he hugged to his ches. "I'm sure it is…."

"……..?" Starfire leaned her head to the side.

Beast Boy shut his eyes tight. He took a breath and managed: "Don't feel bad, Star."

"Feel bad? Why, whatever for, Beast Boy?"

"I…I-I don't want you to think that you're the reason that guy got his arm tore up the way it was."

"But Beast Boy, I do not think that at all!" A beat. She seemed to think hard for a second. Then she added: "And neither do I fell ill-will towards you and your choice of battle-tactics today!"

"Star…I went ballistic on the dude. It wasn't right. It wasn't the sort of crap that a Titan's supposed to do. And yet I went in there all violent and nasty and stuff and nearly ripped his arm off. I don't care how nasty a crook is. You don't just…..y-you don't just…….."

"…………..," Starfire floated over and hovered directly behind him. "Beast Boy. There is a time and a place for righteous anger. I do not believe that you would have hurt that fiend beyond the extent of a true hero. I sensed your anger and felt that it was a protective one. Please understand me and my Tamaranian ways. I am _honored_. For what you did for me—as heinous as it may feel and certainly indeed _be_—it was a showing of sacrifice. And no sacrifice goes without praise. At least in my alien eyes."

Beast Boy sniffed. He hid his face in his knees and waveringly muttered: "I just can't believe he did that to you, Star. He would have killed you. After all the times you and I and everyone else in this City nearly died, he would have just taken your beautiful life away. I'm sick and tired of these stupid psychos! I'm sick and tired of all the evil in this City! And most of all, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! I mean…h-how could the dude have just _done that_? He hurt you, Star. He hurt my friend…and he laughed about it. He freakin' laughed about it…."

"Garfield….," Starfire knelt down behind him and embraced the elf warmly. "I have dealt with a great deal of pain and cruelty in my life. More than I have been willing to admit to my dearest friends. Even Robin when he was still alive. Please understand that although the pain that the fiendish gang leader dealt to me was awful today, an even greater pain for me would be to see my living friends undergoing such endless anguish for no reason."

Beast Boy hiccupped. He rubbed the tear-streaks on his cheeks and finally looked at her.

"I promise you, Garfield…," she smiled painfully. "I shall not perish anytime soon. I will preserve the Titans in blood as much in name for as long as my green spirit can muster…"

"Oh Star…," he shuddered and clung to her. He gently sobbed over her shoulder: "I'm just so scared. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to lose Raven and Cy. Not like Robin. Not like Tempest and Noir."

"I know, Garfield. I know…."

"Everything keeps falling apart. It's….It's almost worse than when Terra died…"

Starfire bit her lip.

"I'm almost glad she's not here…she doesn't have to see things like we do…."

"That is where I think and feel differently, Garfield…," she said. She pushed their hug gently apart so that they could look in each other's faces. "I feel bad that Terra is not here. She will not travail upon seeing and feeling the Titans' greatest triumph yet."

Beast Boy shuddered: "What triumph is that, Star?"

"I do not know yet…," she smiled gently. Her green eyes were moist, but in a warm way. "But I thank X'Hal that I have a chance to find out."

Beast Boy closed his eyes. He swallowed and breathed: "It never fails….never…ever fails…."

Starfire leaned her head to the side. "What do you refer to, Garfield?"

"Why do you have to be so….so endlessly happy and uplifting, Star?"

She bit her lip. "Erhm…."

"You know what? Scratch that…," he hugged her again. "…just exist."

The Tamaranian gazed northward. Across the Bay. Somewhere out of sight where a gray, caped monument rested. "I shall do my best…."

And the cold November winds carried the night away…

Into the sunrise.

Another gray sky.


	202. Gray Days part 2

**202. Gray Days part 2**

"_It's a simple truth, Phil. The Titans are young. It's quite obvious that beneath all of the costume and vigilante splendor, they're simply children—" _

"_Teenagers?"_

"_Same thing in my book."_

"_Ah……do continue."_

"_For two years, they have been successful enough to defend the City and fight crime without suffering a single fatality amongst them. And now with Robin's passing, they've entered a world that is new to them. And it's devastating. Especially for heroes of such a young age and—dare I say—innocent caliber."_

"_But would you agree, Mr. Bringham, that when the former Titan Terra turned to stone at the end of Slade's Occupation that then TOO the Titans felt what loss is?"_

"_That isn't quite the same thing, Phil. Also keep in mind that Terra had betrayed the Titans. The last moments up to her supposed redemption were that of the Titans being in opposition against her. With Robin's death, they had lost both a 'family member' and a iconographic leader all the same. The devastation in this case takes on a whole new angle. And also recall that Terra's statue was stolen just hours before the Boy Wonder's horrific, burning demise."_

"_True……true……"_

"_That, and the City's holocaust, and all that has transpired within the last two weeks have combined to jostle the Titans like nothing has ever challenged them before—I'm convinced. Already it is rumored that Cyborg is doing nothing to reclaim Tempest and Noir—who have already left the team. Whatever the Titans once were for this City, they are no longer. And whatever they are now…it may indeed be nothing at all. I think this is the beginning of the end."_

"_Very interesting perspective………and now how about you, Frederick Smith? Since Blake Glover couldn't be joining us today, it looks like the microphone is going to you sooner than you'd anticipate."_

"_I think it's too early to tell what will happen to the Titans, Phil. First of all, I don't think of them exactly as children. They've endured unimaginable hardships and tribulations prior to these horrific events……and I am talking about things that not even of three of us can imagine, Mr. Bringham included."_

"_Mmmhmm."_

"_Right."_

"_I think the tenacity of the Titans is far too great to fall apart at events even as dire as these latest incidents. Superheroes are resilient. Young or not, their experience is relative. And oftentimes it is they who shape and form the City in which they live and defend. The fact that our population hasn't entirely abandoned the metropolitan area and the City is being rebuilt is a testament—I believe—that the Titans themselves are only prone to rebuild. Even if—temporarily—members of the party leave for the time being."_

"_But what Mr. Bringham brought up is a valid point. Robin __**is**__ the first case of one of their numbers dying. The Titans are meeting an obstacle they had never encountered before. Wouldn't this break the pattern?"_

"_No, Phil. I don't believe it will. I believe the Titans have been and shall always be stronger in numbers than ever they were strong with just Robin or just Raven or just—"_

"_You believe that they're a competent team?"_

"_I most certainly do."_

"_And these latest rumors about the City hiring members of the Justice League………"_

"_I'm convinced that we don't need the Justice League here. Yes, the JL have proven that they can protect entire metropolises as a team. But the Titans have proven that here as well. Yes, there was such terrible……terrible loss of life and spirit on November Fourth. But it would have been so much worse if the Titans hadn't intervened on Dagger's plans. Does anyone here remember the sacrifices Cyborg made to protect the hospital from the ballistic missile? Or Beast Boy with the sonic concussion streamer? Or—"_

"_But the ultimate sacrifice was made Robin. A sacrifice one too much. And just who benefited from that? Certainly not the Titans!"_

"_But how do we know that, Bringham? The things that happen with the Titans are—like all supeheroes—almost always behind closed doors. For all we know, what Robin did was not in vain! Maybe the reason why the Titans are so reclusive is because they're working on something! Perhaps Tempest and Noir left not so much on their own accord but rather to enact some sort of secret operation—"_

"_Gentlemen, I'm sorry to interrupt. But we must have a word from our sponsors."_

"_Understood."_

"_Fine by me. I'm running out of breath!"_

"_Heheheheheh."_

"_Very well. You've been watching the "Weekly Table". When we come back……'The League Question'. We'll hear more from regional experts about the possibility of entreating the Justice League for emergency intercession upon the event of future, urban terrorism. Are the Titans truly enough to protect this City? And if not, to what extent do we need to hire more metaphysical protectors? What impact does such brazen villainy at the hands of mysterious people like Dagger have on the world's growingly sympathetic view on vigilantism? More on this in just a moment. I'm Phil Garrison. Thanks for joining us……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 19, 2004

Friday.

Titan's Tower.

10:23 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……Azarath Metrion Zinthos….Azarath Metrion Zinthos….."

She floated just a foot or two above the edge of the Titan's Tower rooftop.

Her legs buterrflying gently.

Her arms apart and her fingers touching.

Meditating.

Meditating….

Meditating……..

The words rolled off her tongue and filtered out into the November wind blowing under the bright sun.

She shivered. Whatever skin that was exposed shook from the cold.

She didn't care.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……Azarath Metrion Z—"

She stopped in mid-chant.

Her violet eyes fluttered open.

A beat.

She lowered herself gently to her feet.

She padded over to the rooftop's edge.

She leaned against the ledge and gazed out across the inner body of the Bay.

Past the Suspension Bridge.

Westward.

"……………"

A breath.

"If all else fails….I hope you find yourself, at least….," she said to the West.

And she turned.

And she descended through the stairwell on the rooftop.

Leaving meditation…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire hummed in the Main Room. Wearing a white apron, she hovered back and forth in the kitchen unit between dishes and skillets and pots full of white, cooking substances. The air had a stale smell about it that was…faintly 'edible'.

Raven padded into the room from the side stairwell. She paused. Blinking.

A beat.

"Starfire….."

"Hmmm?" Starfire looked over. She smiled. "Fair morning to you, Raven! You seem to be done early with your meditation."

Raven's violet eyes narrowed. She craned her neck curiously and looked. "……….you're making tofu?"

"Indeed. Tofu mlorgnok."

"……really."

"Yes. It is a combination of soy products and the customary dish from my planet."

"Uhm….wouldn't you need some special ingredients fro—"

"Merely some seasoning. Seasoning that has proven edible when Noir was still here," Starfire said. A sigh…but a content curve to her lips. "He was brave in allowing himself to practice his palette on my native cuisine."

"Right. I was the one to help him hobble to the bathroom a few times."

"Indeed, Raven. You were quite the supportive companion to Noir in his time of need. Whether he was vomiting from my food or simply requiring a warm hand to—"

"Where's Cyborg."

"……," Starfire blinked. "Why….he went to Town early this morning. I caught sight of him while I was starting here in the kitchen."

"I see……"

"Would you like a sampler of meat substitute Tamaranian mlorgnok?"

"Eh….," Raven droned. She waved a disapproving hand. "That stuff would better be given to Beast Boy."

"But I **am** making them for Beast Boy."

"…..," Raven blinked. "You are?"

"Mmmmhmm. We are going to enjoy the City today. We hear that the cloud cover is breaking…"

Raven looked out the window.

The Bay stretched towards the City under a wavering sky.

Half-gray.

"Y-Yeah….."

A beat.

Raven looked Starfire's way: "Did Cyborg say exactly where he was going?"

"Indeed. Phaser Labs."

Raven looked surprised. "Phaser Labs? But they leveled it to the ground…."

"Oh no, dear friend. The _other_ Phaser Labs."

"…….."

"The new one."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven floated down the half-constructed stairs of a fresh, basement laboratory to an even fresher pavilion. Phaser Labs was being rebuilt, and half of the structure—from a project already underway during November Fourth—resided in the Western District just between the park and the rich housing complexes. There was a lush, free feeling about the 'new' Phaser Labs. The large, flat, two-story structure was far away from the original site where it was constricted by towering hotel buildings and a passing highway overpass.

There was a sparkling sound in the bare-bones laboratory. As Raven descended the steps, she paused with a hand resting on the railing. She was dressed in a casual pair of dark-gray jeans and a long-sleeved sweater for the cold November City. She gazed gently from where she paused and saw Cyborg kneeling at a huge console standing out in the barren room. It was a computer mainframe of sorts, and he was just putting the finishing touches on installing it.

_Whurrrrr-Zzzt!_

_Chtunk!_

"There…..," Cyborg muttered to himself. He didn't so much as see a peripheral glimpse of Raven.

The dark girl watched as his titanium fingers worked the console. A turn of a knob. A flip of a switch. And

"_Zztttt-zkkkk!"_

"Yo! Simon! Are you there, old man?"

"_Snkkkktttkk!"_

"Hey! Wake your glitchy head up!" Cyborg smacked the side of the console. THWACK!

Raven momentarily found it hard to keep a straight face. However, she kept a serious expression as the speakers crackled one last time and a flickering image popped up on the tiniest of holographic pedestals.

"_V-Vic? Victor, is that you?"_

Cyborg took a deep breath. He smiled ever so slightly. "Welcome to your new home, ya old fart."

"…………_,"_ the hologram's eyes darted both left and right. A pause. A flicker. He looked tinily at Cyborg. _"Not very sexy, now is it?"_

"Feh! What do you know?"

"_This is the new facility……"_

"Of course it is. You're telling me you've never seen it?"

"_The schematics, I have,"_ the hologram nodded. _"So, yes……in theory I've born witness to this place."_

"Ah. So you spent long hours reading the blueprints?"

"_Vic, I __**was**__ the blueprints."_

Cyborg winced. "R-Right…."

The hologram smirked and pointed a flickering 'finger' at his skull. _"I'm not entirely here. Remember?"_

"Yeah. Something to that extent."

A beat.

"_So I guess I'll be staying here for quite a while,"_ Simon Stone folded his chests and treaded back and forth on two hands as if trying to shake dust off his holographic shoes. _"It'll give me enough time to think up superior security algorithms the likes of which even Dagger can't hack into. Won't that be a sight to see."_

"……….."

"_Victor?"_

"……….."

"_Come on. What's troubling you, kid?"_

"Nothing I can complain about, Uncle Simon. I just……"

A beat.

Raven leaned her head to the side. Gently listening.

"A lot has happened in the last two weeks. And something tells me they could be happening for the better if I'd only done things a little differently…"

"_We spend way too much regretting stuff, my boy…,"_ Uncle Simon said. _"Valuable time that can instead be spent making things better."  
_  
"Heh. Damn straight."

"_Do you feel like things have been going wrong?" _

"……_."_

"_In your hands?"_

"Ah…jeez. Thanks."

"_Heheheh……don't mention it."_

"Ahem…..I dunno, Simon. I know that by keeping a watch on the base here in the City…by keeping whatever teammates I can on these grounds….I've saved them an awful lot of further pain and strouble."

"_True. True."_

"But there's still pain, ya know? Not just with Robin gone. But this whole Terra stuff and Noir and Tempest ditching us. I know I can pursue any and all three of them. But each route only divides us. It only separates the team further. Tell me…what should I do? Should I keep things the way they are…safe but going nowhere? Or should I do start the Titans on conducting a search? It might make them happy, but I'm more than certain it'll screw us in the end. What am I missing here? What am I doing wrong?"

"_I'd love to be the magical faerie uncle who could just…whisk all those troubles away, Vic—" _

"Faerie!"

"_Bah! Fine. Just 'magical Uncle'."_

"Heh……okay……"

"_But I wouldn't be able to make the decision for you. Nobody can make the decision for you. This is your team. Your leadership. Your contract. Make with it as it has been given to you. By Robin or by providence or whatever. Do what's best for the team. Would you rather them survive and be miserable? Then go that route. If you'd want to risk them but give them a sense of route, then do that! But if you can find a golden mean in the middle of it all……" _

"That's exactly where I want to shoot," Cyborg muttered. A sigh. He hung his head and rubbed his hand over the human part of his skull. "But it's not so easy these days."

"_Why's that?"_

"Noir and Tempest left, Simon. It's just me, Star, Beast Boy, and Rae now. Four of the original five. I'm not gonna lose that for the life of me. But there's….there's such a rift. And I believe it's my fault."

The hologram tilted his head to the side.

"_What kind of rift are we talking about here?"_

"Well, ever since Raven and I…….erhm…..," Cyborg blushed some. "….ever since we got closer…."

Simon smirked mischievously. "Mmmhmmmm…"

Cyborg tried to ignore that. "She and I have been together on 'rearing' the new Titans. And Starfire and Beast Boy….I don't think they're really spanking excited about the way things are."

"_I see……"_

"How I've decided to keep us here…rather than search for Terra."

"_You don't want to let them down. After all—if it's Dagger we're dealing with—finding Terra is infeasible at best." _

"See! Now that's what I thought--"

"_Spoken like a true android,"_ Simon said. _"Calculating. Estimating. Deducing……"_ A beat. _"But not spoken like a Stone."_

Cyborg frowned: "Now what's that supposed to mean?"

"_You want my advice or not, my boy?"_

"………."

"_Now……,"_ the hologram gestured with his hands. _"What is it that has kept you and me so rambunctiously 'alive' in spite of all the electrical odds against us?"_

"Uhm…….c-circuitry?"

"_Bah! Think, kid! THINK! The Stones may not look it, but we're all still flesh! We still carry on the blood of our name __**inside**__."_

"………"

"_**Family**__, Vic. __**Family.**__ Family has been more important to us than anything else. Now…keeping the Titans here and not going after Terra protects the crime fighting team only so far. What about the family, Vic? What about those you've grown to love."_

"I suppose you can say that I'm doing this out of love, old man! I'm keeping the whole crazy lot of us safe!"

"………"

Cyborg sighed. He drooped his shoulders and breathily admitted: "It's not a labor of love for the family. It's a love for safety…."

"_And who are we to forget……that the best families are those that purposefully survive through strife?"_

"…….."

"_I hear that Robin died fighting. And quite a fitting thing, that……,"_ the hologram flickeringly smiled. _"The one thing that defined the past leader of the Titans was his overall stupidity."_

"Heheheh…..you got that right."

"_What I mean to say is, he took risks, Vic. He took risks……__**all the time.**__" _

"Yeah…..he never let anything stop him. Not even…..f-fear…."

"………"

"Simon. We lost so much on November Fourth. Look at you! Look at the cruddy new 'labs' around you! You lost so much! We've lost so much! Please give me a break! I-I did what was best for the Titans. I….."

"_If you are so sure of things, why are you here alone, Vic?"_

Raven took a deep breath. Her hand gently rose up the stair's railing…

"I…..I let Noir go West on his own…," Cyborg uttered quietly. "I know he's fast and stubborn and hard to catch once he sets his mind—and feet to something. But I could have stopped him ahead of time. If nothing else, I…..I-I could have given in. I could have given in and actually agreed to help him f-" Cyborg froze. Blinking his one human eye. He turned slowly and gazed at the stairwell leading up from the laboratory. "……"

Nobody was there.

A beat.

"_Something wrong, Vic?"_

Cyborg sighed. "Yeah….," his eyes shut and he gazed towards the floor. "Something is…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven walked a few feet out along the walled exterior of the partially constructed labs. She froze and leaned back against the wall. Hugging her sweatered arms to herself. She sighed and shut her eyes some.

"…….."

A beat.

A cold breath of hair kicked at her blue bangs.

She gazed up towards the partially gray sky. The Sun fighting to break through.

She uttered: "Noir isn't always right, Cyborg. He sacrificed himself for the Titans once, he didn't have to do it again." She gazed blankly through the sight of the Labs. "I'm….I'm proud of you." A beat. "Proud of you and angry all the same. And I'm certain the other Titans feel the same, in that they appreciate the decisions you've made."

A beat.

She walked off and muttered to herself: "In fact, right now I believe they're content as can be…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Star…I swear…this is the best stuff I've eaten since…since…..do babies eat things in their mother's womb?"

"Hehehehe," Starfire giggled. She cleaned off the last of her plate of tofu mlorgnok. "I am quite ecstatic that you would like it. History has proven that my cooking endeavors here on Earth have proven more calamitous than otherwise."

"You can't go wrong with Tofu, I guess….," Beast Boy said. He suppressed a hearty belch, simpered, and said: "Excuse me."

"You are excused. Tamaranians take no offense to the glory-burp—"

"No, I mean….hehehe…it's not the tofu that counts. Thanks for making lunch, Starfire. You're always such a nice…dudette."

"If you insist," Starfire winked. She put the spent plates away in a cooler.

The two sat on a blanket in the middle of the City Park under the early afternoon sun. Around them—across the green expanse of clean cut grass—families were sparsely returning to the outdoorsy scene. Mothers walked briskly on the paths with their strollers. Couples gathered on benches alternately with old people. And then there was even a few kids on a distant playground set.

Starfire dusted her hands off. "I must state however…"

"Mmmm?" Beast Boy asked, sipping from a juice box.

"You and the rest of my friends have always been insistent on complimenting me for almost the littlest of duties I perform. In fact, it was just the other day that Cyborg said something to the extent that my laundry skills were most analogous to a huge explosion."

"………..," Beast Boy blinked. "Da Bomb?"

"Erhm…," Starfire blushed. "Yes."

"Hehehehehehe!" Beast Boy hugged his chest and plopped over against the blanket and grass.

Starfire pouted, her arms crossed. "I fail to see the connection of week-old laundries and highly volatile agents of destruction!"

"Ohhhhhhh Star…..," Beast Boy half-sat up on his elbows and smiled over at her. "After all these months…do you ever _stop_ being so….innocent?"

"I….uhm…."

"And nice?"

"Cease and desist, Beast Boy…," she simpered with a red face and looked off. "You are becoming the Fluster."

"The fluster? What the f—" Beast Boy's eyes widened and he slapped his hands over his lips. "Er…I mean…."

"Huh?"

"….never mind."

"Oh….."

A beat.

"Th-Thanks again, Star. Seriously….," Beast Boy said. His voice was a bit lower. A bit straighter. He laid his head back and gazed up at the upside down crevices in the clouds. "I hope you haven't…uhm……that you haven't done all of this cuz…..ya know…."

Starfire glanced at him sideways with bright green eyes. "Huh?"

He bit his lip. "….because of what happened yesterday."

"Beast Boy…," she gently insisted. "I desired companionship. You are a dear friend to me. I only wanted to enjoy the day with you. I would have proposed this outing negligent of what transpired yesterday."

"S-Sometimes….though….," he hesitated but for a moment before letting it out: "I think you're trying to protect me."

"…..p-protect you?"

"Perhaps 'protect' is not the word," he murmured. A deep, warm breath. The rays of the Sun were gently striking them. The cold shadow of the November clouds faded some. "Every time I've ever been in a funk, you've been there to quickly hug me right out of it, Star."

"I am……sorry?"

"N-No! Don't apologize! P-Please!" Beast Boy smiled nervously. "I'm just trying to say—"

"Say what, Beast Boy?"

He took swallowed. His eyelids closed and he gazed towards the Earth. "I just wish you didn't feel like you had to do it sometimes…"

"……"

"I wish I was a bit more stronger. I wish I didn't have to flip out all psycho-like at criminals and cry to my pitiful self afterwards. I wish…..that I was more of a man."

"Being a male…," Starfire paused. She resumed: "Being a _Terran_ male requires the stimulation of versatility all the same as resilience against emotions, I gather. You only learn to guard yourself against extreme feelings by being willing to exercise the very same passions you fear may overtake you. When I see you getting angry or sad, Beast Boy, I do not see a failure in his own gender. I see a Terran who is evolving and growing up. Who is maturing."

"Failing my own gender….heh….that's rich," Beast Boy chuckled.

Starfire smiled. At his mild laughing noise, at least.

A beat.

Beast Boy mumbled: "I've been…..thinking about her a lot lately, Star."

"Mmmhmm…," she gently nodded. She too lay down and gazed at the sky. Her hands rested between the earthen blanket and her red head of hair.

"But….it's been good thoughts," he said. A gently crooked smile. "Good, happy thoughts."

"Do you desire to share them, Beast Boy?"

"……….."

Silence.

He took a breath, scratched his chin, and gradually uttered: "I think I make myself look like an idiot more than I truly am….."

"Hehehehe…if you insist."

"……"

"Ahem. Do please continue, Garfield."

"But there's one thing I've kinda come to accept. And it was a long time ago, no matter what jokes I'm sure I made about it."

"What is that?"

"I found out that I'm….erm…..I'm not quite….the Casanova that I thought I was."

"……?"

"The ladies of this world aren't all trying to crawl all over me."

"………"

He turned his head and looked at her past the cooler. "Can you believe that, Star?"

"Eep! Huh?"

"Can you believe that?"

"I…..uhm….I-I-I would not know, Beast Boy…b-because….erhm….y-y-your earthly ways of courtship are m-most…uhm…strange to me…," she simpered nervously.

"……….," Beast Boy's eyes narrowed.

Starfire bit her lip and slowly gazed off.

"Ahem. Well….I'm not ladies' man. I grew out of that ego-rut when I met Terra. You know why?"

"Why, Beast Boy?"

"Because I loved her. And she loved me. I j-just knew it. And….And for the first time….for the first time, I had a significant other in my life. I had someone I was in loved with and who was in love with me. And…..I-I could just feel it. I could….almost touch it. I could fluff it up and wrap it around me and sleep in it…," he hugged himself with a distant, drunken smile. A sigh. An exhale: "You know the feeling, right? The **feeling**?"

"Yes….," Starfire murmured into the half-gray skies. "I most certainly do…."

"Anyways. I knew that I was in love. And I felt that. And it was both warming….and scary…."

"Hmm?"

"Very…wicked….scary. I mean….wow! There I was! My heart entwine with another, warm living person's soul! That's uber deep eternal stuff! Cupid with a shotgun!"

"Hehehehehe….indeed."

"I was scared about being the person she wanted. I was scared about whether or not I could give her the things that she needed. If I could make her happy. If I could keep her trust. If I could…..uhm…..lift seventy pounds."

"Eh?"

"An-Anywho…..all that scariness….it all faded away…when I so much as saw her. Felt her hand in mine. Felt her hair. Her smell…egads, Star. What is the secret to girls smelling so good?"

"X'hal beg your pardon. Whatever do you mean, Beast Boy?"

"Pfft! Don't be coy, Star! What's with you girls and smelling heavenly all the time?"

"I am most certainly not the coy! I know very little of what you mean. Besides—as intense studies on my behalf have proven—the Terran sense of smell is nearly seventy percent more efficient than a Tamaranian's on behalf of highly evolved nostrils and mammalian nasal cavities. That is most likely why—according to Raven—I have been so unaffected by the supposed hideousness of yours and Noir's and Tempest's laundry when I—"

"Ah, never mind. Anyways, Terra smelled like heaven."

"Did she truly?"

"God, freakin' vanilla was built into her skin! She used to get freaked out cuz I…uhm…I-I…….," Beast Boy suddenly blushed.

And Starfire seemed suddenly interested. "You did what, Beast Boy?" Thin, knowing eyes.

He gulped. He murmured: "I sniffed her shoulders."

"Her shoulders?"

"Remember that one time we all went to the beach?"

"Do you refer to Lake Weston?"

"No. Up by Metropolis. The Ocean. Cyborg drove you, me, and Terra there. It was about three weeks before….you know…."

Starfire nodded.

"Ahem. Yeah, well. Terra and I started getting giggly and drunk off of Mountain Dew. We laughed and tossed sand at each other under Cyborg's robo-umbrella. And then we made a trade off. I'd get to smell her skin and…..erm…."

"Yes? Hehehe…..what bartering did you employ yourself in?"

"Ew. Dude, Star….that sounds totally wrong."

"Hrmm?"

"Nothing happened."

"Nothing? But for a moment there you seemed ready to admit—"

"She snuggled my pointed ears."

"………………..Meep?"

"……..huh?"

"She did what?"

"She…erm….sn-snuggled my ears, Star."

"………."

"Simple as that."

"Oh, b-but of course. I am not attempting to disprove that. But…..I-I am merely curious…."

"Hoo boy….here it comes…," he winced.

"How….did she manage to snuggle your pointy ears?"

Beast Boy blinked. "Oh….um….."

"They are most petite, gentle and—hehe—admittedly cute. But I do not see how she could—"

"I dunno how she did it. All I know is that she…erm…snuggled them. She said that she did and I remember her smiling at the time. So….yeah. I got vanilla skin. She got my ears. Not the fairest thing in my book, but as long as she was happy. Hehehehe……..whew…."

"Hmm?"

"Nothing just….," Beast Boy subconsciously traced a finger over the tip of his elfin left ear lobe. "…..j-just….sometimes I can still feel her."

"Truly?"

"Yeah. I'll be taking a shower andoh wait. Scratch that. Ahem. I'll be lying in bed. And—you know how you spend the entirety of a cold, wintry night tossing and turning to find that perfect spot in the core of all your bundles of blankets and comforters and sheets where you're all warm and toasty?"

"Hehehehehe….most assuredly I do…."

"It's whenever I find that spot that…..like…I-I feel her. It's like I'm there on the beach again in my mind. I'm leaning back. My head's in her lap. And….sh-she's snuggling my ears."

"…….."

"I……I-I tend to go to sleep like that. Half-dreaming, I guess. Sometimes I wake up happy. Sometimes sad. But I always…always sleep nicely."

"That is a comforting thought, Beast Boy."

"Yeah…..," he sighed. He hugged himself as he stared up at the sky. "It is…."

"……."

"…….."

"…….."

"…….."

"……..I do not know what I have ever said previously, but now seems to be an exemplary time to make a confession," Starfire said.

Beast Boy looked at her curiously. "A confession? About what, Star?"

"When I….When I fell in love with Robin….," she murmured. There was a lingering residue to her voice. Like a repressed guilt. "….it was not love at first sight."

"Heh. It only works for some."

"But there was definitely something about Robin that caught my attention immediately," she said. Her cheeks were a little red.

Beast Boy raised his eyebrow.

"I was….erhm….," Starfire hesitated. "He……I felt…."

"You were infatuated."

Starfire jolted. She looked at Beast Boy, blinking.

He smirked. "Don't look so surprised! That's how it starts most of the time, I guess. Though we don't want to admit and stuff."

"I have no trouble admitting the fact that Robin was……most attractive," she murmured. "Sometimes, though, I feel guilty."

"Huh?"

"Er….I **felt** guilty," Starfire said. "That was at a time before my infatuation with Robin turned into true admiration."

"Are you wanting to spill your guts about the infatuation, Star?"

"Eeep!" she blushed.

"Hehehehe…," he nearly rolled over. "That's it, isn't it?"

"I…I….," she lingered. A biting of the lip, then a brave smile: "I am merely delving into a warm, happy thought."

"Yeah. Uh huh. Very _warm._"

"Hrmph….vn'clatta siul chlorbag….."

"Huh?"

"Erm….n-nothing…," she simpered.

"I'm waiting with baited breath."

"On my home planet, the Tamaranian people are far less….._heterogynous_ in appearance."

"Amber skin goes a long way round, huh?"

"Oh, most assuredly!" she nodded towards the sky. "Not to mention the long, scarlet locks of hair. Green eyes. Eyebrows."

"….."

"Erm….eyebrows that are not quite as strangely low as humans…."

"Hehehehe."

"All Tamaranians are tall. Both the males and the females. We grow our hair long. The men do not hesitate to possess flowing, full beards. It is a sign of an embrace of X'Hal's maternal gift-giving to allow our bodies to grow so showingly. To ever stunt the growth of our hair or to cut our flowing locks is a sign of sadness and mourning. For it signifies a lack of joy in the continuation and power of Life."

"I see……"

"When I came across sweet Nova'm in Carolina of the North, I was shocked and horrified that he would consider butchering his hair so short. I realized that he was too busy being scared and angry and sad because of what that terrible Booker was doing to him. But since we all intervened on his life, he has embrace life. He has been ever-so-joyous. You remember seeing him last time, do you not, Beast Boy? Was not his hair long and exquisitely handsome?"

"You're asking the wrong guy, dudette."

"Huh?"

Beast Boy shrugged. "So he looks like a little David Cassidy who dunked his head in ketchup. So what? Yeah, his hair was long. So I believe you there."

Starfire gave him a shifty-eye before continuing: "Well there are a few Tamaranians who are born quite differently from the rest. Again…I do stress a 'few'."

"Their hair doesn't grow long?"

"Close. They have dark follicles."

"Black hair?"

"Mmmhmmm. It is a rarity. My sister—amazingly enough—is one such example."

"Blackfire?"

"Though….," Starfire winced momentarily. "…the circumstances of her darkened locks are of a slightly different nature."

"Huh?"

The Tamaranian shook her head. "It is not of importance. What I desired to emphasize is that—black hair is a rarity among my people. And—amazingly enough—it is considered uniquely preciousness for that very same rarity."

"So….like….."

"Erm…," Starfire bashfully admitted: "Dark haired males on my planet are…..m-most attractive."

"Really?"

She fanned herself.

Beast Boy took an uncomfortable breath and glared off. "Really…."

"Ahem. Where was I?"

"David Cassidies."

"Indeed! Well, when I came to this wonderful Earth and engaged in missions of saving the innocent under Robin's professional tutelage—"

Beast Boy snickered.

Starfire blinked. "What?"

"Are you gonna tell me that you fell for Robin merely because you had a penchant for dark-haired dudes?"

Starfire simpered: "It is not quite that bleak and simple….."

"I frankly wouldn't care too much, Star!" he smiled. "Wanna know a secret?"

"I guess so…."

"Cyborg used to have this thing for Asian chicks," Beast Boy winked across the picnic blanket. "Back before his accident—the one that made him all robocopicon—he shared a history class with this Chinese-American girl that he couldn't take his eyes off of, or so he's told me during many a Halo session."

"Indeed…."

"Anywho. When I asked him about it, he said he was over all that stuff. He said he thought it was awfully closed-minded of him to feel that way towards any particular race or breed of people without any further regard for their character, culture, family life…yadda yadda…."

"Sounds noble."

"It's boring! So what if we fall for Greeks or Chinese or Swedes or whatnot? I think Cyborg's being a little too hard on himself. I also think—hehe—that he lost a little too much when he became a cyberdude."

"I am afraid I do not gather what you mean."

"Erm….it's okay. Ahem. That was rather mean-ass of me anyways. So…back to you and Robin's _luscioussss dark hair._"

"Hehehe. Do not exaggerate it in that manner!"

"Well, is it an exaggeration?"

"…….."

"Heheheheh….well?"

"I was……in awe of Robin," Starfire said. She gazed off towards the green horizon of the nearby park land. "He was the first boy I met on this planet. The first _person_, in fact. And—as time would dictate in passing—he was the only boy I would come into contact with. Everything I first learned about this planet, I learned through him. We were……close. Perhaps with or without meaning to be. I look back and I realize that—initially at least—he only desired to assist me in blending in with this culture. But as was inevitable, we drew close. It was camaraderie at first. But gradually it became trust. And friendship. And….."

A pause.

Beast Boy stared at her. Interested….

She smiled a bit at herself. A silly expression. She boldly went on: "One day—early in the Titans' legacy—we were all collectively battling Cinderblock as he broke into the City Prison to free Plasmus."

"Yeah….," Beast Boy nodded. "I remember that."

"Sometime before the altercation between Robin and Cyborg—it is almost hazy at this point in time—a particular blow dealt by Cinderblock sent Robin's vulnerable body flying. Th-This was sometime soon after Jinx, Gizmo, and Mammoth had briefly taken control of Titan's Tower. I had once presumed Robin to be dead, and my eyes had been opened to just how fragile a fighter he truly was underneath his brazen leadership. So when I saw his body flailing about from Cinderblock's bludgeoning, I felt for the first time an intense need to….t-to save him. So I flew up and I embraced Robin and…."

"Y-Yeah? What then? A Hollywood kiss?"

"N-No! Do not be ridiculousing me!"

"What happened?"

"I…..," Starfire smiled softly and hugged herself as she stared up at the sky again. "I suppose I held him far longer than I originally anticipated. It was not my intention to embarrass our team leader. It was not until later that I learned how ill male Terrans feel about…erm….b-being cradled. Especially by females."

"Yeah. That's a fact. Heh."

"But when I held him….the strangest thing happened."

"…..?"

"My right hand was positioned gently beneath his neck. More along the back of his head, actually. And….A-And….," Starfire lingered for a moment, and then gestured in the air: "Terran boys—with short hair and all—have a strangely unique feature."

"What's that?"

"On the back of the neck there are…tiny hairs. Like soft, downy rows of thin follicles. It is something that you never find on the back of a girl's head or anyone on Tamaran, for that matter. Long hair simply eradicates that phenomenon."

"Hehehehe…you call tiny hairs on the back of a boy's neck a _phenomenon_?"

"……"

"Ahem. S-Sorry. Do continue, Star."

"I felt those hairs on the back of Robin's head. His black head of short hair. And for some reason during that very instant, all of that puzzled me. And I was in the middle of saving this one boy who had done so much to win my trust and friendship and help me adapt to this strange, beautiful world and…and………at the same time, he was so fragile. And yet so strong. So brave and foolish all at the same time. He did not belong there fighting a monster such as Cinderblock, no matter how many metaphysical beings were assisting him. And yet, who was I to force him to desist? He had been employed in the art of vigilantism all his life that he possessed and would later prove to master far more arts of crime-fighting than the rest of us combined. I did not desire to, but I had to put him down. I had to let him return to combat and lead us against Cinderblock, Plasmus, and eventually Slade. And….And…."

"You fell in love…," Beast Boy murmured.

Starfire nodded. She hugged herself again with a wavering, warm smile. "I knew then and there that I desired more than anything else to get to know Robin more. He was….the epitome of my joy on this planet."

Beast Boy slowly nodded.

A beat.

Starfire sighed through a thin space in her lips and let her gaze fall aside towards the grassy horizon again. "On my home planet, Beast Boy, I am an ordinary girl…."

"What do you mean, Star?"

"I would be comparable to any school student you were to point out on the streets of this City. I am merely a face in a crowd of so many people who look so very much alike. My only extraordinary gift is an almost unnatural desire for space exploration and a loving family that has and shall continue to support me. I have stated before and may further—shyly—admit that my stay on this planet has roots in what your Terran educational system might call a….a…."

"Exchange program?" Beast boy said. "Dude, Star! That's wild!"

"I thought you were in the know…."

"Robin hinted it to me, but…," Beast Boy paused. He giggled. "I just think it's cute."

"In what manner?"

"To hear you call yourself a 'normal, everday schoolgirl' of some faraway, Tamaranian institution. How could possibly just be an average citizen of your home planet? Pfft! I don't buy that! You've got a princess or something, Star…."

"Hrm….," Starfire tried to hide her blush. "You are impossibly jocular at times, Beast Boy."

"I don't care. You're a princess, Star."

"I am flattened, Beast Boy, truly--"

"Flattered."

"What of the ever. But I am humbly as you see before you," Starfire spoke.

"I can see that!"

"Goodness……"

"………….but I still don't buy it!"

"X'Hal! Impossible! Ineraat thrak'm siul jerkynkk ttlo!"

"Hehehehehe. I think that means I REALLY flustered you."

"I am most tempted to resist the tofu mlorgnok of future happenstance!"

"Eeeek! Okay. Shutting up now. SHUTTING UP NOW!"

"Hehehehehe," Starfire giggled. A beat. She sighed. "But I am truly very little on my home planet compared to what I have become here. But if I had a choice…I….I-I think I would have left long before 'Starfire' ever became the cultural icon of this part of the hemisphere."

Beast Boy did a double-take, his jaw parting some. "You're saying that….th-that you would have left the Titans, Starfire?"

"Indefinitely. I do not see that as preposterous anymore."

"Whatever for?"

"Robin…," she breathed. A beat. "I stayed mostly because of Robin." She gazed aside at Beast Boy. "But as time wore on, and I realized that Robin and I—for the time being—were not a legitimate possibility, I found myself finding so much more to stay on this planet for. The fight for justice. The defeat of evil. The spreading of glory. My wonderful, wonderful friends."

"All the reasons you're staying with us now….," Beast Boy murmured. A beat. He gulped: "R-Right?"

She nodded.

He breathed.

"I stayed here for the greater good of such lovely, Terran people," she said. "And this wonderfully nice Earth…this….this new Home of mine…."

Beast Boy smiled. Gently.

"And I would take in stride Robin's feelings. X'Hal knows that I could never force him out from his own shielding. Even though I am convinced of his confessed, mutual respect for me in the end…it only served to confirm my hypothesis that I would never…ever get close enough to him to learn of his identities. His intimate personality. And—even—his pain…."

"I guess it's a hard kind of rejection…," Beast Boy murmured. "To find yourself falling in love with someone who….in a sense…betrays you of what you're willing to learn about him….or h-her…."

"Robin never rejected me, Beast Boy."

"But….the night he died—"

"He merely rejected himself, I am certain of that…," Starfire breathed. "I do not desire to give myself undue credit…but in those last few weeks, days, and hours of Robin's beautiful life….I saw a shadow in him I had never had the strength to admit spying before. He restricted himself, Beast Boy. He had a way of dealing self-punishment. The reasons for why he resisted love and joy….I only wish I knew. I still wish that it will someday be revealed to me yet. But one thing is for certain, by X'Hal's honor…..Robin did not reject me. If there was any rejection…it was of a chance to truly free himself. I do not hate him for that. Similarly, I do not hate myself for living forever in the abysmal mystery of everything in the wake of his death. I truly am grateful for the way things are now. Both the sorrow and the growth. Pain is but another stretch in the path of obtaining true joy. Though I wish Robin were alive today, I also respect the will of X'Hal…and all of this has happened for a reason. If the memories of Robin are all I am blessed with…then I shall count the blessing tenfold."

Beast Boy nodded. A shuddering sigh. "I've had only the memories of Terra to bless me this last year….."

"……..," Starfire reached a hand over and gently pressed his shoulder.

He cupped his hand over the back of hers and smiled towards the sky. "….not to mention friends. Friends are often half of old memories. A very….g-good half."

"Yes….I suppose they are…," Starfire smiled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So, they're making you do twice the thumb-printing for this stuff?"

"What for? Heh…for a City this ravaged, there's been an amazingly small amount of looting. The authorities aren't concerned about loads of stolen stuff. They trust the citizens trying to recover from Hell. And I don't blame them. I've got no reason to press you about any of this stuff. I'm merely going with county law."

"Oh, understood. I'm not complaining or anything. I just—"

"Oh, and sign at the bottom of this sheet too, sir."

"R-Right. Thank you."

"No problem."

"I just wonder…"

"Wonder what, sir?"

"I'm from out of town. I saw all the news programs on Dagger's destruction and stuff. And…uhm…."

"Yeah?"

"You sure you folk want to stay cooped up in this place?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, with Slade and Dagger and all…this place has been a virtual warzone!"

"I'll have you know that Slade is long gone. He died in the last battle with the Titans! That creep is no more."

"T-True. I suppose he's history."

"Dead history."

"Right. But what about Dagger? That man was never caught. He struck so suddenly and stealthily and left—on his own choosing I've heard."

"Perhaps he did. He's a cold-hearted killer. Just like the rest of them…only with more explosions. He's different and—yet—he's exactly the same. And as long as he's the same…then he's nothing that the Titans can't handle. It's tough being in this City for my wife and I. Heck, it's tough being in any City nowadays without some clown-faced psychopath trying to bomb you into insanity or a masked creep threatening to burn your whole family alive. But the way I see it…the closer we live to the Titans, the safer we are. I wouldn't give this place up for Metropolis or Star City any day. And I'm pretty sure my wife Renee feels the same way."

"Oh? I'm sorry, I haven't had a chance to meet your wife."

"She's upstairs. Sleeping. Ya know…erm…."

"……..?"

"She's over six months expecting."

"Oh, wow. Congratulations!"

"Hehehehe….damn straight! I'm gonna be one HELL of a daddy!"

"Ha ha! You sound pretty enthusiastic!"

"In times like this, you have to be enthusiastic. You mustn't let….l-let gray and depressing things overwhelm you. The world has this really crazy way of fixing itself up. Most people don't believe that. But that's because more people are turning up younger and younger. And it's not until you start to grow up that you begin to believe in just how frickin' strong life is against death. It's not until you become mega-adult and responsible. It's not until…..you start to father a new life into this world…that you begin to believe in it. You believe in it…and start being wary all the same."

"I can only imagine…."

"It's amazing being a parent…….heh….listen to me. Ahem. I mean…a _future_ parent."

"Could have fooled me."

"I stick by Renee at all costs. I'll do the same with my child. And in the midst of all that—nameless or not—I've got a purpose. And I want to uphold that purpose. And if that means doing the stupid thing and braving another gray day so that this City can once again smile on me and my wife all Sunny like….then I'll go in balls first. No pun intended."

"Right…..heheheheh."

"Damn. Pretty intellectual conversation over trading in a toaster!"

"Yeah. Damn bread. Hahahaha!"

"Heheheheh. Here you go, sir. Just as I counted."

"Thank you. A pleasure doing business with you, Mister….—"

"Call me Danny."

"I wish you good luck, Danny."

"Same to you, sir. Travel safely."

"Something tells me that I'll do just that."

"Heheh…right. So long."

"So long."

_D-Ding!_

"……………………………………….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Later…

Friday night.

In the hazy interior of a poetry café…

Cyborg drifted in. Cyborg drifted in…and he was clothed. Jeans. White shirt. Jacket. His titanium body was blanketed in civiliany. He drifted in through the door with two hands still cold from the November night outside stuck in his jacket's front pouch. His brow furrowed inquisitively under a dark-green woolen cap over his bald crown. A human and red eye gazed over the round tables and towards the podium flanked by jazz players.

A familiar dark girl stood atop a small stool so that she rose above the podium. She too was dressed to blend. The sweater and jeans. Fingerless, black gloves. Graceful yet practical Raven. She gazed up from the podium momentarily at Cyborg across the way as she shuffled a written poem on paper before her.

"……," Cyborg took a deep breath and hung in the back corner.

The thin audience that night coughed and cleared their throats into silence as the sorceress gradually dripped forth: "The Songbird's Sky."

A beat.

A breath.

Parting lips:

_The Songbird's Sky_

_In the red sky the gold bird flies-_

_Not caring if he lives or dies_

_The fate of fellow fowl_

_Reflects in his eyes_

_And they're on the rise_

_And they're on the rise_

_0_

_He may have met a bloody surprise_

_A muddied dagger of dark disguise_

_But feathers and flames_

_Offer up his prize_

_It needs only to rise_

_It needs only to rise_

_0_

_There's a sacred sun yielding golden skies_

_An amber ensemble of the songbird's sighs_

_Like a windborne whistle_

_Neither far nor nigh_

_It's on the rise_

_It's on the rise_

_0_

_0_

A beat.

"Ahem…th-thank you…," Raven droned.

Eager clapping. She was becoming a regular there. An accepted regular. Under a shower of snapping fingers and distant cymbal rushing, she wandered down from the podium and shuffled over to a table conspicuously seated right next to Cyborg standing in the corner.

"Hey….," Raven whispered first.

"Hey….," Cyborg returned.

Raven sat down, adjusted her sweater, and stared up at him.

A beat.

"………you're not naked," she said.

Cyborg simpered. "Yeah. It's a new nasty habit of mine."

"I thought you didn't ever get _cold_," she uttered.

Cyborg shrugged. "I lowered my temperature a bit."

Raven blinked. "You what?"

"Er….yeah."

"But….why?"

"It's probably the only part of me that I **can** tweak right now…," Cyborg groaned. "Everything else about me is still on the eternal fritz. Even Uncle Simon is at a lost. Friggin' sucks, I swear."

"You have my sympathy…," Raven said. A beat. She added: "I truly mean that."

"Heheheh…it's okay, Raven," Cyborg smiled gently. "I think I actually _do_ know when you are or are not using sarcasm these days."

"Wow. Heaven forbid."

"Yeah. Hehehehe…speaking of forbidden, that was a darn nice poem you shared!"

"Feh."

"Did you write it? You wrote it, didn't you?"

"Maybe I did…."

"Cuz it's……optimistic," Cyborg's human eye blinked. "Kinda sorta."

"Yeah….it is, isn't it?" Raven said.

Silence.

"………..you look nice," Cyborg said.

"Really now…," she droned in monotone.

"It's the sweater. You look good in red, Raven."

"Heh…now that's ironic."

A beat.

Cyborg swallowed. "You're still mad at me about not telling the truth…."

"Well of course I am."

The android Titan winced. "I can't blame you."

"Then don't," Raven sighed and leaned back in her chair while gesturing at the table. "Sit down."

He did so.

"What brought you here, Cyborg?"

"Well….I know you're pissed at me and stuff….but….," he bit his lip.

"………"

"I'm selfish, Rae. I can't stand not being near you."

She slowly nodded. "Yes. That's true."

A beat.

"So….here we are…," Cyborg sighed and sat back. He gazed around the café. "Wow. It's been a while."

"I suppose it has."

"Like…right after Dr. Light turned the City dark," the Titan Leader mumbled. "Remember Munchkinana and stuff?"

"**Mortuana**_……_"

Cyborg winced. "Right…."

"It doesn't matter, really…," Raven hugged herself and gazed into nearby candle light. Someone else ascended the podium and read off a deeply rhythmic poem. The audience murmured and snapped their fingers as the jazz lingered on in gentle, hazy ambiance beyond. "The land of dead is just that in _name_ only. It's amazing how triply morose the reaper shows itself to be to me with passing adventure. I swear…Dagger held more death than any single demon in the once-blackened City."

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head beneath his cap. "Yeah…..that's something I wouldn't argue with. It's always bothered me just how cruel living things can be. Much less all that wyrd crap from beyond the grave."

"…….."

Cyborg gazed gently at Raven. "You did write that poem, didn't you?"

Raven took a deep breath.

"Do you think Robin's given us a…..sunshine of sorts? A figuratively clear sky to re-draw the slate of this City in?"

"I don't know, Cyborg…," Raven practically grunted. "The point of writing poetry is not knowing or doing…but speculating."

"…………………have you ever written a poem about me, Raven?"

"………," she hugged herself tighter. She sniffed: "No."

A beat.

Cyborg slowly, gently shuffled over and wrapped an arm around her.

She leaned helplessly against him with a shudder. "Sometimes….S-Sometimes I hate you so much, Victor…."

"I know, Rae. I know."

"You sh-show me that I failed in something in this world…," she murmured. "You show me that I've given in. Given in to emotions. Given in to intimacy. Given in to being a….human being….."

"Mmmmhmmm…."

She closed a pair of wet eyes and swallowed a lump down her throat. "And I've never felt more safe…..in such chaos…."

He smiled somewhat and gently kneaded her shoulders with his titanium fingers. "I can't honestly say that I want 'chaos' for you, Raven. But…..I've never felt more safe either."

"……."

"I'm sorry that I can be such a meatheaded dunce sometimes…," Cyborg said. "But I'm not sorry that I've risked making you happy or pissed or anything….if it means being this close to you in the end."

Raven took a deep breath.

"Do you know what the sky looked like as I walked across town searching for you, Raven?"

"No. What was it, Cyborg?"

"…..I didn't pay attention. The sky's boring when I've got a sexy little sorceress like you to cuddle with," he winked.

"Hrghh…," Raven pouted. "You're pathetic."

"Hehehehe…boo-ya…."

Raven's lips curved some. She gently breathed through her lips: "Robin would be proud of you, Cyborg. Don't you worry about that."

"Eh…," he shrugged one arm while holding her closer with the other. "…I tend to care about the birds that still walk among me…."

"Yeah. Thank Azar."

"Heheheheheh….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside.

A pale moon shone down.

It bounced off the buildingtops and the waves of the Bay.

And floated back up towards the Sky.

Half gray….


	203. Gray Days part 3 final

**203. Gray Days part 3 Final**

_Di-Ding!_

"Hello! Welcome to Carman's Dinerwhoah. You guys?"

"Hey, Lindsay."

"You aren't busy, are you?"

"Uhm…j-just waiting on two tables right now. Business is kinda slow this time of day, but it should pick up in an hour or two."

"How long's your shift for?"

"Till nine. Why do you ask? Is something up?"

"We just love hanging around with you, girl!"

"Well, if you guys don't mind. I kinda sorta have to do my job. I can't talk much."

"Eh…Carman's a sweet guy. He'll understand."

"Antoine's right. When's your boss ever yelled at you?"

"That's because I've never slacked off. And I'm not about to! Now excuse me—"

"Hold on, girl!"

"I'm serious, Lillian. I gotta—"

"We stopped by your apartment earlier, looking for you. Your mom said that you were working. So we came here. But not without delivering this…"

"…….wh-what is this? A package?"

"Your mom said it came in the mail for you while you were gone. There's no return address."

"Eeep! I know nothing about it! Gosh…I bet Mom threw a fit."

"Antoine sweet-talked her out of any suspicion. We supposed it was a secret admirer. Who's a parent to get in the middle of that!"

"Er…..y-you didn't have to do that guys. I have no secret admirers. I don't know who could have sent me that—"

"Maybe a certain fish-tailed hunk?"

"…………"

"Hehehehe. What does Carman say about blushing while on the clock?

"Don't you guys have jobs of your own?"

"Eh."

"Hasn't occurred to us."

"What a wyrd economy we live in…."

"Well, we're gonna go check on Bonnie. Want to give us a call later? It's Saturday night! We should do something…."

"Assuming all the theatres are back open. Man….I don't think Bayside Plaza's ever gonna be the same…."

"Uh….okay. I'll do that. But—please! Take this thing with you! I don't want a creep package lying around in Carman's diner! It's….icky."

"You'd better hang onto it, Lindsay. Or else Bonnie's gonna think we got her a present."

"She's lying on the couch in her house with her leg still in a couch and you guys _still_ aren't giving her a present?"

"Well, Antoine's got a Babylon 5 tape he was bringing…."

"Was not!"

"Hehehe. We'd better go, Lindsay. You take care."

"Sure thing, Lillian."

"Cya, Lindsay!"

"Goodbye, girl!"

"See ya, Jack! Antoine!"

"Bye!"

"Bye!"

_D-Ding!_

"……………………………………….ick…..cardboard paper…….is a Christian schoolgirl stalker material these days or something?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 20, 2004

Titan's Tower

Saturday

3:45 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay, Raven….," Cyborg walked across the huge training gym of the Tower's insides and planted a hand on the dark girl's shoulder. "Are you ready?"

"……..," Raven looked up. Her cloak was off. She stood in her black leotard. She took a deep breath. "Yes….."

Cyborg smilied slightly. He nodded, turned, and walked back towards the other end of the room.

Starfire and Beast Boy stood side by side in uniform. Watching. Patient….

"This will test your ability to use extreme, telekinetic powers on large objects…," Cyborg walked over to a huge, metal block. It was a gigantic cube of solid, industrial metal. The dark-gray surface was broken and lined with scrappy fissures. "We've all seen you move entire semi trucks and small yachts….but often in such cases, you've had some sort of kinetic energy or momentum on your side." He palmed the metal surface. A resounding echo filled the chamber. The hulking, metal object had to have weighed at least a ton and a half. "Today….you will be weightlifting. Weightlifting with your mind. And we're not talking about hollow vehicles that happen to be in your vicinity." He gestured to the huge metal cube…..

…and then gestured to an identical, equally heavy and hulking block of metal on the other side of the training area.

"We're talking about dense, intensely strong material. Spread apart. And certainly not child's play."

"I don't see any children here…," Raven droned.

"……..," Cyborg smirked. He turned to Beast Boy and Starfire. He nodded.

"Got it, dude," Beast Boy cracked his knuckles, morphed into a huge gorilla, and bounded over to the block opposite of the cube Cyborg was palming.

The Titan leader looked over. "Star?"

"Y-Yes?"

He pointed to a thick, silver cylinder on the floor. Like a heavy pole. "You know what do with that, right?"

"Yes, sir," She nodded.

Cyborg closed his eye, sighed, and smiled; "You don't have to call me….'sir'."

She bit her lip.

"Remember me? Cyborg?"

"Victor?"

"Heheheheh," Cyborg half-shrugged. "That'll do too."

Starfire smiled gently. "Affirmative…," she flew over and effortlessly lifted the huge cylinder with her alien strength.

"Nrghh….," the green gorilla uttered.

"Stand by," Cyborg said. He gripped the bottom edges of his huge block and looked over at Raven. "You ready, girl?"

Raven took a deep breath. She flexed her petite arms with the inhalation of her lungs. She then relaxed….closed her eyes….and folded her fingers meditatively. Standing on the far side of the room with either block ahead and on either side of her….the dark girl nodded.

"Okay, Beast Boy. On the count of three!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…."

"One!"

"Azarath…..Metrion……Zinthos….."

"Two!"

"Azarath…………Metrion…………..Zinthos………"

"THREE!"

Cyborg strained. He lifted with his legs and let his bionic strength raise the huge, hulking block.

The green gorilla on the other side gritted his pointed teeth and lifted with emerald, burly muscles as well.

Both blocks rose up parallel to each other in the middle of the training room.

Starfire took a breath and flew up with her cylinder. THWOOOSH! As Raven meditated, the Tamaranian girl hovered between the two lifted blocks and positioned the cylinder so that both of its silver ends popped tightly into a hole in the facings of the cubes. The thing looked like a huge, disproportionate pair of dumbbells or lifting weights.

"It is fastened!" Starfire exclaimed. "The weights are joined!"

"Now, R-Raven!" Cyborg strained.

The dark girl's eyes flashed open. Bright, glowing gray. She flexed her fingers forward: "Azarath…..Metrion…._**ZINTHOS!"**_

**FLASH!**

Black energy encased both huge blocks. The two black-metal-boxes shook and wobbled for a second in the air until the ink-like energy covered them both and the cylinder between them. They became a cohesive body of heavy metal, secured perfectly in the center of the room.

Cyborg looked at Beast Boy.

The gorilla looked back.

Both nodded…and drew away from the metal blocks. Letting go and taking a few, sweaty breaths.

And Raven was floating the huge pair of weights. Levitating in the center of the room. Hovering in black, glass-like darklight.

Raven gnashed her teeth. Her whole body hunched over and her very fingers shook with bolts of black dancing off her digits. She struggled and strained and shook with the convulsing effort. Her temples throbbed and her whole face became like a tensely wrapped sheet of plastic over bone.

"Nnnngh…..nnnn-nnnngh!"

Beast Boy shrunk back into an elf. He gazed up at the two hovering gibraltars of metal and uncontrollably burped; "Whoah…."

Stomp!

Cyborg stood forward and pumped a fist. "Boo-ya! You got it, Rae! Don't let go! Concentrate! Concentrate!"

Beast Boy smiled and joined in. "Yeah! Go for the record!"

"Just one minute for now! Keep it steady! Keep it going!"

"You're doing great, girl!"

Starfire floated down and stood besides the two Titan boys. "Ode to the hooray! Do not desist, Raven! The two metal masses float most magnificently from your brain fingers!"

"Nnngh….I-I…..don't n-need you…..," Raven hissed. She sweated from her brow to her shoulders to her chest. "…t-to _coach_ me!"

"We're just rooting for you girl!" Cyborg smiled and called out. "Keep focused! You got it!"

"Uhhh….dude?" Beast Boy pointed and gently muttered to Cyborg. "I don't think she got it…."

Cyborg bit his lip.

The metal blocks were starting to tilt side-to-side. Unevenly. Wobbling in mid-air.

Raven's legs started to buckle and her arms trembled. Her temples looked about to explode in two successive bursts.

"Hoo boy…..," Cyborg whispered.

"GO RAVEN!" Starfire leapt like an alien cheerleader and clasped her hands together. "Mind over metal shall succeed! He he he he heee!"

Cyborg put on a brave smile and joined the Tamaranian in shouting: "Just a little bit longer, Raven! You can lift more than this! This is just a snapshot of what your strength can really do! So chin up and kick ass!"

"I…..I'm doing that….can't you see!" Raven hissed.

The metal cubes started to teeter more and more….

Beast Boy bit his lip. He whistled innocently and stepped back with raised hands. "I'm out," he whispered.

Cyborg nudged him.

Whap!

"Ow!"

Starfire giggled: "Go Raven! Go Raven! Go--"

"Nnnnghaaaah!"

FLASH!

_**CRUNCH!**_

"……………….—Raven?"

Starfire blinked.

She and the boys looked, their shoulders slumping.

The two cubes had fallen hard to the training room floor. Forming cracks in the ground. The cylinder had detached and it rolled with cold echoing sounds to a stop by the leftmost cube.

Raven fell to her knees far away. Panting. The bangs of her hair a soggy mess.

"………….yeah…well….," Beast Boy planted his hands on his hips and smiled up at Cyborg. "Quite the throwdown, huh?"

"……….," Cyborg glared.

Beast Boy simpered with a sweatdrop.

Cyborg took a deep breath. He marched over past the cubes and knelt beside Raven. "Hey….are you all right?"

Raven panted, then hissed: "What does it look like?"

"You almost had it going there. Just a little more 'oomph' and you would have—"

"There is no added 'oomph', Cyborg….," Raven swallowed and breathed heavily with a shudder. "My mind can't handle it. The matter I'm trying to levitate is too dense. Too big. If the 'bar' in between them doesn't snap in two, then my head will!"

"That's not gonna happen, Rae!" Cyborg gently gripped her petite shoulders and lifted her to her feet. "You were concentrating quite find! You know what I think? I think your head's built with a sort of telekinetic gag reflex. Once your head knows that it's lifting far too much than you can chew, it'll cancel out."

"And that's just what happened—"

"No…," Cyborg shook his head. "You gave up!"

"I did **not** give up!" Raven hissed. Angry, violet eyes.

"Then do it again!" Cyborg pointed. "Show me that you can last longer!"

"This is pointless….," Raven hugged herself and glared towards the floor with a huff. "I fail to see how this will assist me in the public arena. Unless our enemies suddenly develop a fetish for huge blocks of metal—"

Beast Boy smirked and raised a finger: "Ya know…Slade seemed awfully turned on by steel. You forget that?"

"Who asked you?" Raven snapped.

"Heheheh…shutting up now."

Raven fumed. "I just….hate being weak."

A titanium finger under her chin.

Her gaze slowly lifted and met Cyborg's face.

He smiled down at her. "You, Raven? You would consider yourself _weak_?"

"………"

"How about this for a training session? I keep calling you cutie…and you punt me clear across the City with that head of yours."

Raven blinked.

"Hehehehehe…," Starfire uttered.

Beast Boy folded his arms and smirked.

Raven muttered: "You're a loser."

"Don't you know it?"

Raven sighed. She wiped her brow with a sleeve and gazed at the floor. "Sorry. I should have told you that I was losing my grip of the weights."

"Yes….," Cyborg nodded. "You should have."

She bit her lip.

"But only because we want to help you find a way to meditate better and succeed," he said. "That's what the training is all about."

"Yeah……"

A beat.

Cyborg suddenly brightened. Slowly, he smiled with a secret softness. He whispered: "Let's do it again, Raven. I've got an idea…."

She glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"Just get into position like last time. Let's start by the book."

"Ugh."

"Well?"

"Fine…fine….hope your idea works….."

"Damn straight, girl. Beast Boy?"

"On it….," and an elf leapt into a green gorilla that treaded over to one cube.

Cyborg walked to the other. He glanced up: "Starfire? Oh, you got it."

She nodded, grabbing the cylinder and flying up into the air.

Raven stood at the far side of the room again. She took a deep breath. She centered herself. Her body relaxed…..

Cyborg and Beast Boy lifted the weights.

Starfire connected the two via the silver cylinder.

A countdown.

A chant.

Glowing gray eyes.

Raven parted her legs, stretched out her arms, gritted her teeth

"_Azarath Metrion __**ZINTHOS!"**_

Cyborg and Beast Boy let go. Starfire floated away

FLASH!

The huge blocks floated. Wobbling in the air. Encased in black.

Levitating….Levitating…..Levitating……………..shaking……

Raven breathed deeply through her lips like a woman in labor. She then held her breath and concentrated. Her whole face tensed. Her eyes shut tightly. Her arm muscles tightened and—in time with the pulsing of her temples—black tendrils shot out

Flash!-Flash!-Flash!

Raven's shoulders heaved….heaved….heaved….

And suddenly.

A pair of titanium arms wrapped around her waist from behind.

"!" Raven gasped. Her glowing eyes wide. Still levitating the weights, she glanced over her shoulders. "Cy-Cyborg? What?"

"Shhhh….," he whispered gently above her ear and leaned into her back. Hugging her gently. "Keep still."

"………," Raven breathed. Blinking.

"Concentrate……you're not alone……"

Cyborg's left metal hand gently drifted up along her shoulder from behind and wrapped its fingers around her wrist.

"You can do it, Rae. These punk weights are nothing to you…."

"This….Th-This is cheating, Cyborg….," Raven panted. "How can I be 'training' when I'm not alone?"

"Do you ever fight alone in the field?"

"………"

"Be calm, Raven. Concentrate. Keep them up. Keep them in the air…."

"I…..I-I….."

"I know you think you can't. But I'm here to say you can."

"I am also here…," Starfire closed in. She gently hugged Raven's shoulder from the side. "You can do it, Raven."

Beast Boy crept up and warmed Raven opposite of Starfire. "Show us what you got…."

Raven trembled in the group hug of her fellow Titans. She swallowed and breathed raggedly as she strained and strained to keep the weights afloat. "Guys….please….you don't have to do this—"

"We want to, Raven."

"You're our friend. Our teammate."

"And we love you….," Starfire added.

Raven bit her lip. Something shook through her torso and nearly caused her wrists to jerk off angle.

"Don't you see, Raven? Feeling….Feeling gives you strength….."

"I……..I….."

"We're fewer than ever we were before, Raven….," Cyborg said. "Robin died. Tempest and Noir left. But even you have to admit….we're also stronger than we've ever been before…."

Raven's throat was sore. Her eyes glowed brighter. Her wrists relaxed.

The weights stopped wobbling.

Starfire smiled. She lovingly rubbed her cheek against Raven's shoulder. "Heeeee…..you are in the company of warm benevolence, no?"

"…………..," Raven inhaled through her nostrils. "….no."

Starfire and Beast Boy blinked.

Raven's lips were firm. "I **am** warm….."

And her wrists tightened as her fingers clenched into fists.

She raised her arms.

Cyborg looked over the blue head of Raven as the weights lifted higher and higher into the air.

Towards the ceiling.

Beast Boy's mouth dropped in wonder.

Starfire smiled pleasantly.

Raven clenched her teeth. She brought her two fists together.

The weights were encased in a solid sheet of translucent blackness.

"Nnnnnghhh…..," Raven concentrated…concentrated…..

A breath.

The others kept holding her.

"…….._**RAUGH!"**_

Her fingers parted.

_**CRACK!**_

The two weights broke through the cylinder, crunched into each other, and imploded.

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

Raven jerked her elbows back.

The crumpled pieces of metal bowled out into a sphere, spun, and fluttered to the training room floor in a soft pile of dust-fine debris.

Raven slumped back against Cyborg's chest, panting. The android Titan gently hugged her and stroked her forehead from behind, whispering gently into her ear.

Starfire clapped her hands and jumped up and down. "Hoooray! Finely done! Finely done!"

Beast Boy walked over to the metal dust and scratched his green head of hair. "Well….that'll end a training session uber quick."

Starfire spun and smiled at Raven, her hands clasped together. "Congratulations, Raven!" A beat. Starfire's face melted into concern. "R-Raven?"

The dark girl's eyes were closed. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she sniffed a few times and hiccupped.

Raven was crying.

"Dude…..," Beast Boy walked over, his mouth agape. "Raven….are you okay?"

"It's all right, Raven….," Cyborg patted her shoulder and held her close. "Relax…."

She sniffed. She clung to his shoulder and gazed at the floor. "I….n-never thought it possible…."

"……."

"……."

"G-Giving into feelings…..," Raven shuddered. Averting her eyes from everyone. "I never thought I could do it and not…..put myself….and e-everyone I love in danger….."

Starfire smiled warmly. She brought a finger up and wiped a tear from her green eyes before gently cooing: "You are not the demon you think yourself to be, Raven. I believe it is time you gradually embraced warmth for what it is. For what it has to offer you."

"I……," Raven clenched her eyes tightly and burrowed her face in her hands before shakily uttering: "I-I love all of you….I r-really do…..I don't ever w-want demons to consume you….."

"And I don't think they ever will, Rae….," Cyborg spoke over her shoulder, holding her tightly. He whispered: "Be happy, Raven. Be happy. At a time when there is so much tragedy—everyone is afforded at least one miracle."

Raven shuddered. She swallowed hard and panted as a few tears trickled through her fingers and down to the floor. She lowered her arms and leaned back against Cyborg. "Th-Thank you…..," she breathed. "Thank you all…."

"Eh…..it was the least we could do," Beast Boy winked. "Now….how about feeling happy with some cheese and crust!"

"Erg?" Starfire blinked.

"PIZZA TIME!"

Cyborg and Starfire chuckled/giggled.

Raven sniffed. Her lips curved slightly….

"Downtown! Let's head on out!"

"Hehehehe! Glorious!"

"Come on, man!" Cyborg half-frowned. "We're always going to that place! Can't we be a bit more original?"

"As long as we get moving! Dang!" Beast Boy tossed his arms. A beat. He brightened, smiled mischievously, and pointed at the dark girl: "I know…..let's let Rae decide!"

"Yes! Hehehe!"

"Whaddya say, Rae?" Cyborg eased back and rested his hands on the girl's shoulders. "Up to some therapy-pizza?"

"Therapy-pizza. My gawds…."

"Shhh! Let Raven speak!"

"………," Raven hugged herself and sighed. A beat. She looked up. Her cheeks were flushed. "Wh-Why should we go out for pizza……?"

"……………………," they all stared at her.

"…………………," she finished: "When we could stay here………….and make it?"

A beat.

Beast Boy blinked. "Dude….make our own pizza?"

"We have never travailed upon doing that before…," Starfire murmured.

"So?" Cyborg shrugged with a smile. "Who says we can't?"

"…….."

"…….."

"……..."

"Can I shower first?" Raven blurted.

"Hehehehehe!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Heheheheh….sure, Rae."

"Glorious! This shall be of much felicity!"

"Gang way! Elf on a mission! I gotta prep the kitchen!"

"Oh no you don't! You'll conspire to tofu us to death!"

"Owie! Let go of me!"

"We go together, little man! Starfire, help Raven shower er—"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Cyborg?"

"Th-That's not what I meant, Star—"

"Hahahahahaha! Way to go, _TEAM LEADER!_ Perv to the max! At least Robin was a freakin' eunuch compared to you!"

"I meant to say help Raven TO THE shower—"

"I think I can find my bathroom on my own, Cyborg. Thank you very much."

"Hehehe! Cyborg, does your mind linger in the City sewer liquid depository?"

"Huh, Starfire? Oh wait….you mean the gutter?"

"Don't mind him, Star. He's got showering Titanesses on the brain."

"Man, shut up dawg!"

"Ruff! Ruff!"

_WHAP!_

"Owie!"

"Hehehehehe."

"Allright. Kitchen time. Kitchen BITCHING time!"

"Stop dragging me! RAVEN! HELP!"

"Sorry. We're going to shower."

"_What_! YACK!"

"Meet you guys upstairs later."

"Heeee!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At Carman's diner.

Break time.

Lindsay sat down at a small table in an even smaller backroom behind the kitchen. She slumped in a chair and let out a huge sigh.

A beat.

She slipped a shoe off and rubbed her heel.

Wincing….wincing…relaxing.

A beat.

The freckled girl looked at the table. Her lips firm.

"……….."

A brown package addressed to her apartment rested in open view where she had left it. Mysterious. Frightening, even….

Lindsay fidgeted.

The clattering of plates sounded off in the background of the eatery.

Carman shouting for orders.

The dinging of the entrance door.

It all surfaced in Lindsay's eardrums before drifting back into the subconscious ambiance yet again.

A beat.

She took a deep breath.

"Well….," she shrugged. "What the He—" Her eyes bulged and clamped a hand over her mouth. A beat. She nervously looked over her shoulder and squeaked: "H-Heck?"

Silence.

She exhaled. She took the package in gentle hands and turned it around a few times before finally grasping the paper and tearing it open. Strip by strip. Side by side.

She sniffed the air subconsciously, as if concerned about an awkward odor coming form the mysterious package. Something that would alert her and force her to immediately wash her hands or toss the package into a garbage can before running for cover from some terrible explosion.

She opened the package further….and nothing happened.

Save for when she had it unwrapped entirely….for that was when she saw the contents inside.

And when she saw the contents inside, she paused. Her lips parted and a breath escaped her. She reached her hands in and cradled in her smooth palms a crystal dolphin ornament. It was sparkly. Clean. Graceful. Bought for a high price.

"Wow…..W-Who…..?"

She barely had time to ask the thin air before the sound of the question itself faded away into oblivion. She turned the dolphin over and found a little, white note tied to the crystal animal's tail by a string.

She turned the note over, unfolded it, and read in tiny, handwritten ink:

'_I'm still thinking of you, Lindsay. I am sorry to be gone. But I will not be gone forever. Here is something to show you that you are in my mind. Always.'_

She bit her lip. A sniff. She smiled: "It's him………..It _is_ him……"

A beat.

Her eyes traveled down the page more.

'_I cannot tell you where I am now. I cannot tell anyone. But please know that I am gone for a purpose. I have found something, Lindsay. Something very important……though I cannot entirely explain it.'_

Her lips parted. Concern washed over her eyes as she further read:

'_I hear that Noir has left the Titans. If that is so, I can only hope by the whim of Poseidon that I run into him. Noir needs to see this. Something tells me he's the only other Titan right now who isn't blind.'_

"Wh-What?" Lindsay exhaled.

'_Pray for me, Lindsay. Pray for the Titans. Sincerely, Garth.'_

"…………"

She hugged the ornament to her chest.

She exhaled.

A beat.

"………..Be with him, God. In the name of Jesus…I pray….," her throat went sore. "Be with all of us…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Wait! W-W-W-Wait! Don't drop it!"

"I'm not dropping it," Raven droned. "I'm passing it to you!"

"That thing's too big!" Beast Boy fidgeted in a ridiculously large chef's hat. "How can I twirl dough that large!"

"Then change into something bigger and get a stool," Raven said. "I'm tossing it, so you better catch it."

"Uh uh!" Cyborg called out from where he stood on another stretch of kitchen counter space. He was busy spreading cheese over a pan of circular dough prepared earlier. "Don't be having him turn into a gorilla or nothing! I don't want green hairs in my dish!"

"Don't worry. I'll do a velociraptor or something," Beast Boy dragged over a table to the kitchen counter where a huge, crater-like mess of baking powder and kitchen utensils and toppings had formed explosively across the domain. The huge T.V. screen across the Main Room blared with a local band performance. The night was dark and cold outside, whereas everything was cozy: "Un animale senza pelliccia," Beast Boy insisted.

"I was only joking about the stool….," Raven blinked.

Beast Boy giggled. "Raven? Joking? Okay…we're making this pizza extra big! I don't want to survive eating it to see tomorrow morning turn upside down!"

"Hey! Whoa whoah whoah! Not so fast!" Cyborg called out from where he was fixing the first dish. They were all wearing white aprons. "We're not done with the first one yet, dawg! Can't you two wait?"

"You forget, Cyborg!" Beast Boy stood up on the stool. "That's the meaty pizza! This one's the veggie one! In other words…MINE."

"I might have some too," Raven droned.

"Well just don't rush it! Not that it matters much, cuz I'm not eating any of it," Cyborg winked a human eye.

"Har har….," Raven smirked.

Beast Boy clapped his hands together and held his palms out towards Raven. "All right! Put 'er there!"

Raven levitated the baking dough in the air, spread. "Velociraptor or no?"

Beast Boy rolled his green eyes. "Just toss the thing."

"Have it your way….," Raven flicked the dough at him with a black spark of energy.

Beast Boy nearly teetered before he caught it. "Whoah!"

"Easy, little man!"

"HA!" Beast Boy stood evenly on the stool and began tossing the dough overhead. "Crisis averted! Master chef Beast Boy in the house!"

"Did you just say Master Chief?"

"No. Master CHEF. Clean the wax out of your metal holes, dude."

"Uhh…"

FWOOOSH! Starfire flew in with at least six jars of toppings squeezed precariously under her aproned limbs. "Friends! I have brought the top of the pizza in all their homogenous glory! Shall we travail upon spreading them!"

Raven walked over and grabbed a jar or two. "Don't carry so much at once, Star. You'll drop them…"

"I have taken ample measures to be careful!"

"Hey…caution is the way to go!" Beast Boy said, eyeing the wheel of dough as he tossed it. "Look at me! I'm being an example!"

"You'll be a puddle if you don't hush up," Raven said. She set jars onto the counter along with Starfire. "Ready for toppings, Cyborg?"

"Am I ever? LOAD IT!"

"How shall we present the load?" Starfire blinked.

"Already got the first layer of cheese done," Cyborg said.

"Okay then….," Raven nodded. "Uhm….," she reached a clean hand into a jar. "Pepperoni…."

"Jalapenos! Jalapenos!" Beast Boy chirped. "All your jalapenos belong to us!"

"Shut up, man!" Cyborg barked. "This ain't even your pizza!"

"I'm being _artistic!_"

"Try making an art out of balancing that second dish and shutting the heck up!"

"Hehehehehe….you all ENVY ME for my elite pizzatronic skills!"

"This is your first time making pizza, Beast Boy," Raven droned as she spread slices of green peppers and sausage cuttings. "This is everyone's first time."

"Boo-Ya! Looking good!"

"Hehehehe!" Starfire giggled. "Might I suggest one final topping to complete the glorious edibility?"

"What's that, Star?"

She produced a glowing, gold jar. "The most heavenly nectar!"

"Uh oh…," Raven blinked.

"Ahhh…Star!"

"Planet Gross-Out! Help! We're being invaded by mustard!" Beast Boy cackled.

"Awwww…," Starfire pouted. "You do not share the same taste in fine, Italian ambrosia?"

"Mustard on a pizza, Star?"

"It is not delivery!" the Tamaranian beamed, brandishing the jar. "It is dijonaise!"

"Pfffft," Cyborg keeled over. "Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!"

Beast Boy giggled and nearly dropped the pizza.

Starfire blinked. "Did I say something amiss?"

"Was that a….._pun_, Starfire?" Raven smirked.

"Hehehehehe…dude, that kicked so much ass!" Beast Boy shook all over in mid-toss.

"I……I think so?" Starfire blushed.

"Ha ha ha ha…wooo! Gonna be feelin' that for weeks!"

"Here, Star….," Raven took the mustard. "I have a solution."

"Hmmm?"

Raven spread the mustard over two slice-lengths. "These will be the pieces you eat. We'll slice them accordingly to you. Sound fair?"

"Glorious! Thank you, friend Raven!" Starfire giggled.

"I think I'm gonna vomit….," Cyborg moped.

"Save it," Raven capped the mustard jar closed and gestured towards the pizza. "All yours."

"Into the oven with you, foul foodstuff! I hope you emerge a better soul!"

"Less reeking and more roasting."

"Hehehehe!"

"Could you get the oven door for me, Star?"

"Most certainly…," the Tamaranian floated over and opened the lid.

Cyborg slid the pizza into the oven. "Therrrrrrrrre we go. Man, that's gonna be _good._"

"I had no idea that group cooking would be so enjoyable!"

"The more the merrier…..and the saltier," Beast Boy said.

Raven shook her head. She gazed over across the Kitchen Unit to the T.V. at the end of the Main Room. A beat. Her gentle smile left her as her lips parted. She waved a hand at Starfire. "Starfire! Quick!"

Starfire looked over. "Hmmm?"

"Turn the volume up on the t.v.! Hurry!"

"I shall!" the alien girl uttered in a concerned breath. She flew over to the t.v. station.

Cyborg looked over from closing the oven. His human eye blinking.

Beast Boy gazed up from tossing his dough. His jaw dropped. "Dude…."

Raven drifted over beside Starfire as the volume on the screen rose. The screen displayed the text: "Special Bulletin" beneath shaky footage from a helicopter of a city streets under the shroud of night being spotted with flickering flame and debris. Clusters of squad cars and rescue vehicles gathered around an extravagant building set of statues, palm trees, a Sphinx, and a Pyramid. What looked to be a crashed jet was at the center of the screen.

"_This just in. Sources say that an undisclosed number of people are dead after a string of chaotic incidents rocked the streets of Las Vegas. Earlier tonight there was a high speed chase involving multiple crashed vehicles running north along Las Vegas Boulevard and—according to eyewitness reports—a __**harrier jet**__ has made a crashed landing within the front pavilion of the Luxor Hotel……"_

Beast Boy finally let the dough drop and drape over his arms. He watched with a gaping mouth and wide eyes.

Cyborg leaned over the kitchen counter.

Starfire and Raven huddled together. Blinking.

"……_whether or not the Harrier jet is connected to incidents of explosions and fiery damage along the northern districts of Las Vegas as well remains to be a mystery. But from the footage being gathered as we speak, the extent of what has transpired recently in the city is enormous and unimaginable. Although it is far too early to estimate, officials are claiming that there has been damage incurred at over a billion dollars in repair. As to who or what caused these strings of chaos, no one is quite yet certain. We shall provide the news to you as quickly as the story develops. Please, keep tuned in."_

"X'Hal……how many people were hurt in that….," Starfire murmured, two hands clasped before her sternum.

"Dagger?" Beast Boy breathed. "Could it have been….Dagger?"

"Las Vegas….," Raven droned quietly. A beat. Her eyes widened. She spun around and looked at Cyborg, panting. Horror twitching in her violet eyes.

Cyborg looked back at her just as concerned. But after a while….he shrugged.

Raven took a deep breath. She gazed down to the floor and hugged herself. Swallowing.

Silence…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside….

The moon shone down clearly over the Tower.

The waves were cold, but they weren't quite as dark.

And over the City, the stars were twinkling through the sky.

The sky…a dark blue.

Clear.


	204. Emmaus

**204. Emmaus**

"_Jordan?"_

"_Yes, Ana?" _

"_I had a dream last night……"_

"_Oh? Do share."_

"_I dunno. You might think I'm going nuts."_

"_Heh. Insanity's up to interpretation."_

"…………"

"_Hey, it's okay. You can trust me. So don't worry if you want to share. But I won't force you to—"_

"_It was a scary dream. But………at the surface, it doesn't look so scary."_

"_Since when did dreams have a 'surface'?"_

"_Hehehehe……true."_

"_Sometimes when I have nightmares, the only reason any of them are scary is that they are __**telling**__ me that I need to be scared."_

"_Yeah. That happens a lot."_

"_To you?"_

"_Well, just this time." _

"_Uh huh."_

"………"

"………"

"………_so, um—"_

"_I dreamed I was in the desert."_

"_Y-Yeah?"_

"_And……um. I was alone."_

"_Alone in the desert, got it."_

"_I kept wandering around across the dry, arid landscape. I couldn't find anyone. Nobody I knew. No family. No friends."_

"_Uh huh………"_

"_And I got this gnawing feeling that—even if I found someone, I wouldn't want that."_

"_You'd want to stay alone?"_

"_No. Not really. But I felt that……if I found someone, I'd put them in such horrible………horrible danger………"_

"_Yikes. That's depressing."_

"_Yeah……I………I found nobody in the desert. And I was kinda relieved because of that. But as the nights wore on………and I slept alone in the terrible cold of the desert………and I started dying of thirst and hunger………I realized in my starving head that I would live the rest of my life like that. And eternity would be the same. I would be alone. I would be aimless. Forever."_

"_Wow. Been a while since I had a dream like that……"_

"_And the scary part came when……wh-when I realized that as bad a fate as that lonely future was, I preferred it over the other scenario."_

"_Being around others."_

"_Yeah. And that just……j-just made me feel horrible. Like a monster. Like a menace to society…………and……th-that's just such a horrible feeling, Jordan. To feel so evil. So banal. And……it really got to me. I couldn't go back to sleep because I suddenly felt myself and all of the White power surging inside of me and I stopped to wonder……what will we all be when we leave this school, Jordan? Will we be happy citizens? Or will we be……w-will we be freaks?"_

"_Oh Ana……"_

"_Horrible, horrible freaks?"_

"_Ana…come here. Trust me, Ana……a monster is the last thing any of us would ever be. Most especially you."_

"_I came to this School w-wainting to improve m-myself, Jordan. I'm afraid of these p-powers of ours sometimes. I don't ever want to become a m-monster. I don't want t-to lose c-control of things. I don't want to lose control……"_

"_Ana……if there's anything I've learned from you, you're the epitome of control. You're wise beyond your years. You're supportive……motherly……you wouldn't hurt a fly. Don't you see? Construction……it makes you a billion times more benevolent than you could ever not be! No, Ana. You'd never be a monster. That was just a dream. A scary dream and nothing else."_

"_Y-You don't think I-I'm a monster, J-Jordan?"_

"_Ana……"_

"………"

"_You are an angel………"_

"…………_an……a-angel………"_

"_Mmmhmmm. An angel."_

"……………"

"……………"

"……………_an…………angel………"_

"_And I promise you—if I have anything to do with it—your life will be a good dream. And nothing but that."_

"_Hehehehehe……"_

"…………………_? What?"_

"_You're so cute when you try to protect me."_

"_Pfft! It's the least I can do! You're always protecting me, Ana!"_

"_Hehehehehe. I dunno, Jordan. It seems addicting to want to protect you."_

"_See? What did I tell you? An angel!"_

"_Hehehehehehe……yeah………"_

"_An angel………"_

"…………"

"…………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The desert.

November 22, 2004

Monday.

Eastern Nevada.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I paused for breath in the swealtering Sun.

Before me stretched plains of amber-yellow dryness.

Rock-hard earth and boundless shrubbery.

Canyons, ravines, sharp hills and buttes.

I wiped my brow. Streams of perspiration danced down my black shades.

I adjusted the backpack straps over my white t-shirt. It was extra heavy from a bundle of foodstuffs and water bottles I had bought after speeding my way to a lone gas station alongside the highway. I had absolutely no money left on me. I didn't think there was enough to support me on the trip back East…back home.

And as for supplies befitting _two_ people……….

I shrugged that thought off me with a shuddering sigh.

_The now. _

_Always live in the now._

I took a breath, rounded a rise in the hill, and blurred the rest of the distance to my northwesterly destination.

I made these trips as short as possible. And with my speeding, murk-empowered sprints….I succeeded greatly. I didn't want to abandon her for too long a period at a time. And yet something told me that here—in this desert oblivion—she was far safer than ever imagined.

Still, she could have been even safer.

I zoomed over hills, past ravines, and then made for a high mountain top. A rise in the earth stretched towards the hot, orange sky of the desert. It was conveniently curved in a fashion that freed it from most of the rising, heat vapors of the cooking soil. And just in the undercurve of the mountain summit where a cool shadow rested three-fourths of daylight…..there was a cave. Not too deep of a cave, but spacious enough for twenty souls.

And as of late, it only needed room for two…..

FWOOOOSH!

I blurred up the flat side of the mountain. I ran vertically through the sheer momentum and clinging power of murk. And when I reached the lofty cave's mouth

Th-Thwish!

I flipped up.

I came back down.

_Plant!_

I landed in a crouch.

Panting.

I looked into the dark alcove. Twice as shaded as the southeasterly mountain facing.

And….

_She's still here. _

_Thank god._

I wondered if that was how a father felt. Or at least, a protective older brother. In spite of every logical thing telling me that the young girl I was momentarily leaving alone would be safe….I still felt paranoid. And that paranoia spawned something further: a level of protectiveness I haven't felt since the day I was fighting to protect the City and Titans from Dagger's invasion.

I stood up, took a breath, and slowly sauntered over towards the inside of the cave. I slumped the backpack off of me and set it on the rocky floor. I knelt and dug into the contents. My sweating body reveled in the shade and coolness of the place. And while my flesh and metal hands dug into the contents of my pack, I gazed up and stared at her. Breathing slowly.

I still couldn't get over the….sight of her. Her alive. Her real. It was like basking in the aura of some infantile goddess, and yet I had never 'met' her before in my life.

But the Titans…..

She was sitting up. Her legs crossed. Her thin torso hung by even thinner arms. She was clothed in a black shirt and jacket draping over her shoulders. She wore khaki pants that covered her legs and abdomen.

They were my clothes. And—naturally—they utterly and completely dwarfed her. She looked like some woman who had spontaneously shrunk and the clothes around her kept their balloon-like size. But at least she was _clothed_. She was no longer the shivering, naked girl whom I had to hurriedly evacuate from Area 51 twenty-four hours ago. Most of the shivering had gone away—in fact—though not all of it. I checked up on her constantly like a hospital patient. And although she appeared fine and dandy in almost every aspect imaginable, she still showed….'signs'. 'Signs' of _what_, I couldn't quite put a flesh or metal finger on. But she looked and felt like an invalid. Unimaginably frail. Like a princess who was forced to run the mile and was just now recovering. Her breaths were thin, drawn out, and weak. Her heart rate was slow…much like her molasses-moving limbs and slowly blinking eyes. She barely spoke. All that came from her lips in the first few hours was half-intelligble gibberish. Like the whispering ramblings of a schizophrenic in the shadowy corner of a white dining hall. The skin of her brow, her arms, and her stomach was pale. Icey. But it was all gradually…..gradually warming. Everything that confirmed that she was indeed a person recovering from over a year of living in solid stone.

Miracles don't happen overnight. But Terra was an exception.

I was not one to make anything of the judgment. But it couldn't be denied: she was….._immaculate_. In spite of her ordeal, her eyes were always a lively blue. Her breaths were thin—but solid. And her hair……it maintained a gold-silk shine. Straight, disheveled, tossed or taut…it stayed beautiful. Unique. Angelic.

It….

_It showed signs._

_I have no doubts now……_

I took a deep breath. I slowly grabbed a water bottle and some granola bars. The brunch of champions. Nomadic, desert champions.

_But how was it possible? _

_She never told me about her relations outside of her deceased mother or her terrible father._

_Were they……cousins? Once or twice removed?_

_Sisters?_

_Twins?_

_No, not twins. Not by a longshot._

_She is younger. More petite. Smaller of build. More fragile, even……_

_It's difficult to imagine the Construction flowing through her so strongly._

_And yet it's there. I had felt it. In some ways, I still feel it._

_And dare I say……it's almost the strongest I've ever felt it. Only……not the same as I have felt it before._

_Those days at the School……_

I closed my black eyes. I breathed slowly. The sweat faded and the coolness took over. The opposite pole of the desert.

I shivered…independent of my metal prosthetic.

_Who is she, Ana? _

_Why did you never tell me about her?_

_Why did you never tell me anything about the Earth Elementals?_

_Markovia?_

_The line of destiny surging in you._

_Were you self conscious?_

_Did you want to preserve yourself?_

_Preserve me?_

_Or perhaps………_

_Perhaps you didn't even know?_

I ran a hand through my hair.

Shuddering.

_You are an angel, Ana. _

_Always were._

_Help me._

_Help me with your relative._

_How can I protect the protector?_

_How can I preserve Construction itself?_

_How can I bring her to the surface……before I bring her to the Titans?_

_Or would that be the solution?_

_How far does the Equalizer's authority go?_

"W-Warm……..it's warm….."

My black eyes flashed open.

Through my shades, I gazed across the cave.

She was a shadow. A dark sihlouette against the brightness of the cave's mouth. She lifted an arm up—draped in the sleeve of the jacket I had given her. And she 'felt' the air. Like a little child would stick her arm out of a window while riding in a fast-speeding car down the highway. Invisible currents of air streaked around her finger in some netherworld of the golden mind. And as my black eyes sought shapes and lines in the darkness, I saw cold lips pursing warm and blue eyes wetting sapphire and a stone-gaze of a face melt, melt, melt into the living girl she once must have been.

"……heat……I-I……I never……"

Somehow, these felt like the first coherent words I had heard from her since the rescue.

I leaned my head to the side, listening closely.

Mute….

"…..n-never thought…..I……w-would feel it again……"

Silence.

A small gust of wind blew into the cave.

Cold.

She seemed immune to it.

The jacket danced on her shoulders before shrinking back to a rest on her limbs.

She turned her hand over a bit more. Staring at it. As if mesmerized by the flesh as she slowly….slowly curled her pale fingers.

"…….the d-desert………"

I raised an eyebrow.

"….I……am back in the desert….again………somehow…….."

Silence.

She hugged herself. She gazed out towards the yellow brightness beyond. The endless, dead fields of the Earth.

"….somehow………..I always end up here……"

A strand or two of golden, silken locks blew in the breeze.

"……..endlessly dry……forever stone……."

A beat.

"But…..b-but…………," she hugged herself tighter. "…….why am I here? Wh-Why am I w-warm again?"

I took a deep breath. I hoisted a water bottle and some food and crept across the cave. I knelt in front of her.

She looked up at me. Sapphire blue eyes. Like glossy glass.

"…….," I gently smiled. I held the water bottle and granola bars out before her. As if an offering to the goddess.

"……….," she stared.

I swallowed. I smiled and held a finger up. I then proceeded to unscrew the water bottle—

"I know you….," she murmured.

"……," I froze. I stared up at her slowly.

She was staring at me. Or through me. Thin eyes and parted lips of wonder….

"You…..were there……off and on…..," she breathed. "I…..saw you……in th-the cave……in the labs…..and just now……"

I leaned my head to the side. A bit….awestruck.

"I….I saw everyone…..," she suddenly shivered. A nervous swallow. She averted her gaze. "The….The T-Titans. Everytime th-they visited. Everytime they talked to me, I heard them. And when th-they dropped flowers and p-pretty things down at my feet, I felt them." A beat. "You were there too. Though….only as of late…."

I slowly….slowly nodded.

Her gaze rose up again. "Wh-Who are you?"

"………..," I gently smiled. I thought of hand-signing, but it was most likely pointless. So I mouthed: _'A friend.'_

Her eyes fell. Fell to the scar on my neck.

"Y-You can't talk…..," she exhaled.

I slowly nodded, unscrewing the bottle. I raised it up to her face

_Clap._

A pale hand closed over the lid.

She leaned forward towards me with thin eyes.

And for the first time, I felt a little scared…

"Is he alive?"

"…………..?"

"Did he make it?"

I breathed nervously. I gave her a perplexed look.

She shook a bit. "Beast Boy. When the labs crumbled around me…and those two androids killed everyone….as the City outside was being ripped apart….did Beast Boy live?"

I bit my lip.

_Slug. Reload. _

_This girl really __**did**__ see everything while she was……'imprisoned'._

'_She's asking you a question, Jordan.'_

_Yes, Ana._

I smiled gently.

I nodded.

Terra closed her eyes. She leaned back, hugging herself tighter. A deep breath…but when she exhaled, it came out chokingly.

I started.

She brought a hand to her mouth and 'bit' the back of her wrist as tears slowly started to trickled down her face. She hiccuped and her body shook. When her lips moved, the voice that came out was a wavering thing of uncontrollable sobs.

"He…..n-nearly killed himself….for me…..," she shuddered. "In the laboratory….a-after I was moved…..h-he turned human for me. The experiment……I-I have never s-seen him so desperate. So on f-fire to save me. When I saw him t-turn from green to pale….I shouted his name. But n-no sound came out. And wh-when Cyborg was lying battered and b-broken on the laboratory table….I b-begged to hear if Beast Boy was okay. But none of the scientists heard me. And wh-when I was taken away…." She shook dreadfully. "A-A-And when that c-cold, cold man took me deep undergrond….and th-th-they began drilling….and drilling….and d-drilling…." She nearly teetered over. The tears streamed. Her voice was like a dying mouse. "….I c-c-cried his name. I k-kept c-crying his name but it wouldn't stop. It wouldn't stop. Beast Boy, it wouldn't stop….it w-wouldn't stop, B-Beast Boy….."

I took a deep breath. Smiling painfully, I scooted over and enveloped her in a hug.

She fell against my chest, sobbing. Trembling all over. Her tears formed a damp spot right at my collar bone.

I wrapped my arms around her. Warming her. Absorbing her shivers.

"I th-thought I d-d-didn't have any f-friends…..I _don't_ h-have any f-f-friends. Th-Then why would Beast Boy nearly kill himself? Wh-Why am I here? Why can I feel again?"

I gently whispered: 'Shhhhh' and slowly stroked the hair out from over her brow.

_Stroking her bangs…… _

_That always……soothed Ana……_

Terra sobbed and hiccuped less. But still she shuddered: "I j-just wanted to know…..I just w-w-wanted to kn-know for sure…..if he nearly killed himself b-because he w-wanted me back as a f-friend….or if th-they all just n-needed me alive so that I could go on trial. S-So that I could f-face my reckoning….."

I bit my lip at that.

"M-Maybe then….I-I wouldn't have hurt so much….wh-when they took my baby from me….," she said in a low, muttering voice. "M-Maybe I wouldn't have t-t-to have felt sad for more th-than me….."

I exhaled.

_Another subject for another time. _

_For when she's with the Titans……_

I gently coaxed her to sit up straight.

She looked up at me, frail.

I offered her the water bottle.

She slowly nodded. Trembling hands reached up for it.

I helped it into her grasp and steadied the bottle as she took a long, full swig. As I took the bottle away, she swallowed and seemed to bask in the flow of liquid down her esophagus. Filling her. She shuddered and gazed towards the stone floor.

A breath.

She said: "I am a m-monster….."

I blinked.

"All he ever wanted was evil….," her face tightened up into a bitter frown as twice-bitter words oozed out from her lips. "….all the drills ever got was evil."

I felt something painful stab its way up my heart and into my throat.

Silent and mute….the only thing I could do was sit there.

Sit there and feel _uncomfortable._

"If they were still my friends before….they won't be friends anymore…..," she ran a shaky hand through her hair. "It's only a matter of time……only a m-matter of time….."

I took a long, deep breath.

_Hoo boy. _

_Yeah, this is going to be fun._

I unwrapped a granola bar and handed it to her.

She looked at it….and took a long, lethargic time in taking it from my hand and chewing a bite off it. She hummed with a mouthful just before she swallowed. She reclined—more like melted—to the floor of the cave some more and ate quite obviously by her lonesome.

And whether she meant it or not, that felt like a good cue as any to leave her alone.

So I waved to get her attention.

She looked up tiredly at me.

I smiled. I pointed at myself. I then performed a two-tone whistle to signify a signal to call me 'with'.

She blinked up at me and blushed as she uttered: "I-I can't whistle…."

I bit my lip.

"……..," she gazed at the granola bar. She swallowed. She looked up at me: "M-Maybe if I burped….you could come running for any reason?"

"…………."

"…………."

"………….," I snickered.

She smiled.

I chuckled breathily and then sighed…..

_Yeah…… _

_Beast Boy's still your friend, Terra._

_I think you've got nothing to worry about……_

Her smile left her as she gazed off into her own little world.

I paused, inhaled, and turned around.

I walked across a cage, swiped up a water bottle of my own, and blurred out the mouth.

Leaving her to her ever familiar solitude….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I didn't realize how soon evening was coming to past until I climbed the top of the mountain's peak and found myself gazing out towards a glorious, desert-amber sunset.

It was November.

November meant shorter daylight.

November also meant colder weather, but it could have fooled me.

I sat down on a precipice to rest a little.

I gazed Eastward, my back to the warming sun.

I watched the horizon grow dark and darker. Like a black line. The kissing toes of a vortex of some sort.

I brought the water bottle to my lips…

But hestitated.

My face melted into a sad frown and I lowered the bottle entirely.

Exhaling…..

Staring at the valley below.

"……………….."

I shuddered.

_Red Aviary…… _

_According to Glover, there are two major targets he is after now._

_Myself._

_And Terra._

_Once we are gone, he will be after the rest of the Titans._

_And then what?_

_The deaths of so many heroes will cause the Balance of Morals to flip over and bring forth the apocalyptic rush of Destruction?_

_I still find that preposterous._

_But then again……who am I to reject a pessimistic prophecy?_

I gazed westward.

Towards home.

Towards the Tower.

My comrades.

And……

I shuddered.

_I……can't deny this feeling. _

_This dark, foreboding feeling._

_That the world around me has been a Hell of a lot darker since Robin died._

_The sky has looked a little redder._

_The air tastes like copper in the throat of my being._

_My entire trip to Nevada has been a swift, breathless sprint._

_Like something is eating at the heels of my feet._

_With red fangs. _

_A scythe-like breath._

_Devouring. Consuming._

_I shivered._

I clutched my metal limb.

_Rrrrrrred Aviarrrrrry……_

Snarling, I finally gave up and grasped the disc where the metal joined the flesh.

CLICK!

Hisssssssssss-Chtomp!

I detached the metal prosthetic.

The chill left me as magically as always.

I exhaled…..

_He is here._

_Somewhere nearby. _

_Maybe he doesn't see me._

_Maybe he doesn't smell the scent of Terra's livelihood._

_But he's here._

_In Nevada._

_He's catching up to me._

_He will consume both of us if I don't get us out of here soon._

I shut my black eyes.

Resting my left stub and balanced on my right palm, I leaned back.

Lips tasting the dry air as the sun set and the desert grew colder…..colder………colder……..

_When I bring Terra to the Titans…… _

_Will she really be safe?_

_Will we all be safe, for that matter?_

_Red Aviary wants to end us all._

_And if I bring Terra back to the Titans……_

_All the eggs will be in the basket._

_The scythe could swing down……_

_And cleave us all apart as one._

_In that case, Terra is like a bomb. _

_A diseased capsule._

_Maybe that's why Cyborg was so hesitant to find her._

_He wasn't afraid that Robin's contract would end a bunch of our lives in the process of finding her._

_But rather……  
_  
_Cyborg knew that somehow Terra would destroy us all once she was in our presence. _

_But……_

_That's bull, isn't it?_

_Terra isn't the problem._

_Red Aviary is._

_And the Titans have proven and will continue to prove that they're resilient enough to face anything and everything._

_And Red Aviary is one in the line of many villainous elements that we can and will inevitably defeat._

_No matter what Glover said._

_No matter what the Messenger spouts off._

_And no matter what lengths Pulsade, Jinx, 'J', and Wildebeest go to seize Terra for themselves._

_Red Aviary is as mortal as the red breath he breathes._

"…….."

A soreness overcame my throat.

_But…… _

_If that's true……_

_Then why is it that Robin died? _

_And died so easily?_

I hugged myself with one arm.

Exhaling…..

_Glover said that it was Red Aviary that killed Robin. _

_And from the evidence presented, I believe him._

_I believe him on __**that**__ issue at least._

_But if it was Red Aviary, why kill Robin first?_

_Was it to simply end the existence of the Boy Wonder?_

_Or……_

_Perhaps……_

_Perhaps it was to start a chain of events._

_A chain of events that would all be happening in sequence under the watchful eye of Red Aviary?_

_With far more order and cold calculation than even Dagger is capable of?_

_Or perhaps Dagger is actually accepting Red Aviary?_

_The Parasite if a plague to Triangular. _

_But Triangular would love to see the Parasite run his way into the ground._

_Even if that meant giving the Parasite—Red Aviary whatever he wanted. _

_For the time being……_

_And if that's true……then……_

_The only reason Dagger left Terra in one piece after……'extracting' what he wanted from her was so that I could somehow miraculously save her._

_And I did save her._

_She's sitting alive._

_Beneath me._

_In the cave of a desert mountain._

_And if Dagger wanted her alive._

_And if Red Aviary wanted her alive._

_What is the purpose of me possessing her?_

_Is there something nefarious in Terra being taken—in my arms—back to the Titans?_

_Could something that seems so good, so redeeming……be actually a danger?_

_And what of what Dagger has accomplished? _

_The extraction._

_The essence of Terra manufactured into his control._

_The advent of an army of thermal golems to fight for his cause._

_Weapons fit to destroy an entire City……now being shipped to Metropolis._

_The Gaia Sphere._

_While I'm taking Terra back to the City, there'll be a whole 'nother bloody paper chase to worry about._

_I was at the forefront of discovering such a nightmare._

_Who am I to simply toss all that I've learned to the fire?_

_This is not only Triangular and Red Aviary that I'm talking about._

_But……_

_Terra's child._

_Terra's horrifically stolen child._

_The Titans love Terra far too much for me to let that dwindle into oblivion, no matter how healthy and whole a Sixth Titan I bring back into their waiting arms._

_They would surely rise up with me……to get to the bottom of all this._

_They would help me save Terra's child._

_After the letter I sent them—and from news programs most likely covering the chaos at Las Vegas and Area 51 by now—they'd put two and two together and realize that I'm onto something._

_And if I were to contact them somehow, they'd be all ears._

_And they'd assist me._

_But……_

_Is that me speaking?_

_Or Dagger and Red Aviary speaking through me?_

_When I became Wyldecarde and fought the Titans to save them._

_I was breaking the circle to create my own destiny._

_A destiny in which I was more than the tiny, silver ball inside a pinball machine._

_I was the paddles. The gravity._

_I was distracting the Titans so that Slade couldn't get to them._

_Eventually I had to rip off a piece of myself to ensure that the circle was broken._

_But what now?_

_I feel like a red cloud of Destruction is shoving me along over the desert._

_And that no matter what I do or what decision I make, I'll only be completing the damn circle._

_And just how could I break it this time?_

_What parts of me are left to rip off?_

_Would I need to sacrifice a leg? An arm?_

_Would I have to sacrifice my own life to ensure that Red Aviary bites it and Terra and the other Titans survive to take on Triangular by themselves?_

_I took a deep breath._

I ran a right hand through my black locks of hair.

_Somehow……I wouldn't doubt it. _

_I would do………_

_I __**will**__ do anything and everything to ensure the safety of the other Titans._

_And if they'd have to mourn another teammate's death after Robin so that Terra and the rest can live._

_Then so be it._

_An Equalizer makes as many pacts with Life as he does with Death._

_It is what I went to School to master. It is the path I have chosen to tread. The dead-center bullzeye of the Spectrum. _

_But what must I do to shake off Red Aviary?_

_What must I do?_

_What sacrifices?_

_What fights?_

_How do I break the circle?_

_How do I break the circle……_

I ran my hand over my face.

Sighing.

Sighing…..

Slowly enveloped by the dark evening.

"…………………………"

'_You always think too much, Jordan.'_

I lowered my hand.

Tiredly, I turned my head and looked behind me.

_She walked up from around a rise in dirt and stone. Her hands behind her back. Her angelic smile beneath calm blue eyes as the wind fluttered at her short wisps of gold. She sat down beside me and stared out towards the East, hugging her knees to her chest. _

'_I suppose the Black Adept must try to encompass all sides of the Spectrum at once. It's like a torture of absorption.'_

_I don't know what to do, Ana. _

'_That was always the most honest statement you could ever make. The Master told you that, right?'_

_Yeah. I guess Balance students are just damned with uncertainty._

'_I think uncertainty is the greatest surety you can have. Hehehehehe……gotta love paradox, right?'_

_Right………_

'_You don't think as much as you __**do**__, Jordan. You're an activist. You get the job done. You leave thinking to the wind.'_

_I've always thought I was rather stupid. Keanu Reeves fodder, ya know?_

'_Ick. Don't even go there.'_

_What's the point in saving everyone and everything I love if I can't even think for myself?_

'_That's why you have people like the Messenger. And 'J'. And me.'_

………_I-I never thought of it that way._

'_Why do you think people are always trying to think for you, Jordan?'_

_Because I'm stupid? _

'_Hehehehe. No. Because they're your __**friends**__. They're there for you to help complete the parts of you that need……th-that need solace, Jordan.'_

_Solace?_

'_Solace and comfort. Ever since the days of the Experiment, Jordan, you've been nothing but a huge saint of self-sacrifice. You tear yourself apart in so many ways. And you do it without thinking because……well, because I know that thinking hurts you, Jordan. You have so many memories that you'd rather forget. When you think, you dwell on the sad stuff. And doing that slows you down. It keeps you from swinging that blade. It keeps you from running across the country and saving modern, sleeping beauties.'_

…………

'_Jordan, you're not constantly moving and constantly saving people to escape something. You're doing it so that people won't ever have to experience something that they'll eventually want to escape from. You're the equalizer. You force the pain to rest in the arms of the pain-givers and you push the joy back into the hearts of the benevolent-innocent. You're a hero. Not a coward. Don't ever think you're stupid. Silence and stupidity are two different things. And you commit to the better of the two.'_

_Ana……why haven't you told me?_

'_Haven't told you what, Jordan?'_

_About Terra. About your relations. About your history as an Earth Elemental? _

'_I told you lots, Jordan. And you remember it. You remember me telling you how Construction was always a part of me. And how I felt it in my blood. In my mother. In parts of me that were lost and parts of me that were dying and parts of me that were living all the same.'_

_It surprised me, Ana. But when I found her……and I fought to release her from her imprisonment……it suddenly all made sense._

'_You felt the White power inside her?'_

_Yes, Ana. And I still do. She feels……she feels like you, Ana._

'_Hehehehehe. Should I be jealous?'_

_No! I mean……she…_

'_Hmmmm?'_

…………_she makes me think of you. Because she's only just a taste……a taste of an angel……_

'_She is an angel, Jordan. Just like me. Only……to different people.'_

………_the Titans……_

'_They long for her, Jordan. They miss her. With all that has happened to them lately, they __**need**__ her. What brought you out this far West surely holds such monumental power. Or else, why would you be here?'_

I took a deep breath.

Nodding off towards the dark horizon.

_Good point……_

'_I know how much you hate coming back here, Jordan. I know how much you hate just……looking in this direction.'_

I bit my lip.

I swallowed a lump down my throat.

'_But this time……with this issue……you didn't hesitate to blur out here the fastest you could. And to save Terra. And to risk your reputation and life in Vegas to do it. And then to risk all else in Area 51. What you did was so swift, so passionate, so undaunted……'_

_So red……_

'………_yes, Jordan. So Red. So very Red. You cut through this country like a knife. Almost blindly.'_

_This……this is what I want. This is what I want so much. But……But it is also what Red Aviary wants……_

'_You cannot rule that out, Jordan. You cannot rule anything out at this point.'_

I brought my face into my right hand.

Sighing.

_I should have just let Wildebeest enter the Vault. I should have let Counter-Red Aviary break into Area 51. Then they would have sealed Terra away somewhere that neither Red Aviary or Triangular would have known about. She might still be in stone, but she'd be safe._

'_Do you really believe that, Jordan? As much as it took passion to defy all odds and opposition and free Terra, who are you to deny that it was best that you found her?'_

_Both Hull and the Messenger insisted that I be the one to free Terra……_

'_And when ultimately you did……'_

_Only my powers could free her._

'_And what did you discover?'_

_The extraction. The Gaia Sphere. The dark words of Hull made manifest. Triangular's one true power through Dagger……_

'_Do you think Counter-Red Aviary would do anything about all of that? Do you think Terra's future……Terra's child……Terra's essence……could all be entrusted in the hands of rogues who were—for the most part—all once former criminals? 'J' aside, of course.'_

_Of course……_

I sighed and lifted my face up to the dark sky again.

_Red Aviary behind me or not, it was up to me to find and rescue Terra. And……there's a purpose in that……and there may still be……_

'_Still be what, Jordan?'_

_A way to break the circle. Even if I don't know what the circle is._

'_Indeed.'_

_But how, Ana? How can I keep things from falling into the hungry monster-mouth of Destruction?_

'_Jordan……look at me.'_

I turned to my left.

I gazed through my shades, breathing gently.

_She leaned forward. Blue eyes warm. The angelic smile……_

'_You used Red to get here. You used White to get Terra freed from stone. And in between, you used Black to survive. But there remains one special task for Black to perform……a self-defining task……'_

I took a deep breath.

_Sacrifice……_

_I felt her warm hands gently grasp the nub where my arm once was. Where I chopped it off meatedly in a dark alley. After our last great conversation…… _

_So much like this._

_Full……Circle……_

'_You have sacrificed so much of yourself. But that is not the issue now. As Robin's death and Terra's salvation have both showed you……there is a different center of attention. And you must not quite sacrifice a piece of you this time to stop Triangular and Red Aviary. It is time that the Hand that wields the Dagger be severed. Not yours.'_

…………

'_I know you will make the right choice, Jordan. Oftentimes the right choice is the painful one.'_

_Ana……_

'_Remember. I have always and will always love you.'_

_Ana, wait—_

'_No………matter………what…………'_

_Ana!_

I shot my right hand out into air.

Thin air.

And nothing but……

"…………..," I exhaled.

I was alone.

The sun was practically below the Western face of the earth.

And everything was cold and dark.

I took a deep breath.

I refastened my metal arm.

I shivered from the shocking chill….sighed….and made my way back down from the peak with a nervous swig of my water bottle.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

When I returned to the cave…

Terra was sleeping.

Golden-soft-silent in her little corner.

She trembled a little in her sleep.

Cold.

I took a breath.

I went to my backpack and produced a large towel.

I walked over and gently draped it over her form like a blanket.

Then—with some desert brush and twigs I had gathered over the last twenty-four hours in the corner…

I assembled an indoor campfire.

Using my metal fingers as flint to produce sparks.

A gentle blaze burned in the cave.

Close enough to Terra to warm her. I gave her the best 'sleeping spot' that the cave could afford closest to the flickering flames.

From where I sat for the next hour or so, I was undeniably cold.

I shivered…but endured it.

My mind was performing circles.

Literally.

I suddenly felt lost.

Like….

A monster wandering aimlessly in the desert.

And here some black-and-white Frankenstein spawn was on the verge of inevitably chunking some golden girl into the drowning waters.

I bit my lip.

_I will not hurt her. _

_Everything I have done._

_All that I have worked for._

_It has been to __**save**__ her._

_How could anyone—much less Red Aviary—turn that against me._

I didn't want to think.

I didn't want to think…..

Terra stirred some more in her sleep.

She seemed suddenly restless, despite the warming embrace of the fire.

The unknown father in me lifted up to my throat.

I suddenly had the harmonica in my grasp.

The Messenger's birthday present.

_Friend……wherever you are. _

_I hope they're selling plenty of watches._

_Cuz I need you right now……_

I gazed at Terra for a few seconds before bringing the mouth organ to my lips.

I closed my shaded eyes.

And…..

Gently played a tune.

"_Homeward Bound"_ by Simon and Garfunkel. Naturally.

The tune wafted through the cold cave.

Bounced against the walls.

Floated over the flickering flames.

And soothingly poured over Terra's slumbering features.

And I….

_I was in the tall grass. _

_With two other students._

_And we were dancing to our swords that were dancing to the wind._

_And he said something._

_And Ana rolled her eyes._

_And I laughed._

_And the rainclouds of Washington rolled over._

_And we sat far away from the lower apprentices._

_Hidden from the eternal droplets in some oriental alcove built in the center of the Manor._

_Ana had her harmonica out._

_He was telling crude jokes._

_I sat back with my hands behind my head._

_And I……_

_I just stared at her._

_The angel._

_Her sapphire blue eyes._

_Her thin, tomboy body._

_The country-flavored breaths that blew through her lips into the red instrument._

_And that hair._

_The short, golden wisps that I wanted to softly run my hands through._

_That I want to softly run my hands through._

_That I will always want to run my hands through._

_As many as half of those hands that I could ever afford._

_And when the music stopped…… _

_And when Ana lowered her arms and fell back into the curtain of rain._

_She was crying._

"……….," I blinked.

Terra was crying.

I gazed over.

I blinked.

Brown pebbles of rock and earth were floating around her as the blonde shook and shivered nearby the fire. Tears rolled out from her eyes as the dust particles orbited her. A subconscious, glowing aura of her golden powers working about her. The Earth Elemental in mourning.

I pocketed the harmonica and walked briskly over to her.

I stopped just a foot away, gazing down.

The sleeping, sobbing Terra was clutching herself. Hugging her center with two shivering hands.

Clutching her womb…..

"………," I took a deep breath.

I looked aside. I reached a hand out and effortlessly 'plucked' a glowing pebble of earth from the air. The golden glow faded as I palmed it.

Staring….

"……….."

I swallowed a sore lump away.

I tossed the pebble behind my shoulder. I shuffled through the orbit of rocks, knelt down, and gently hugged Terra.

She again trembled against me. Perhaps awake. Perhaps not. Definitely crying. Hiccuping. A bottle of sorrow.

Of loss.

The broken Mother Earth.

I cradled her head to my chest.

A gentle hand rested in her hair.

Golden, silky hairs.

_Like Ana's._

_But not……_

And I took a painful inhale.

_I can't do it, Ana. _

_I can't take her back to the Titans._

_Not now._

_Not this second._

_Everything and everything around us is a bomb ready to go off._

_The Gaia Sphere._

_Dagger's new 'toys'._

_I can't take her back to the Titans……_

_But I will need the Titans to make any progress._

_But……not without making it too obvious. _

_Or else Red Aviary might find us all._

_And gather us together against my wishes._

_And slaughter us as one._

_I have to keep Terra safe._

_And yet……I can't keep the two of us prime targets together._

_Not for long._

_I have to take Terra somewhere._

_A waypoint._

_Somewhere where she'll be safe._

_While I track down Dagger._

_While I learn what Triangular's up to._

_And then._

_Then I can gather the Titans._

_For then I might know……_

_I might know what Red Aviary is doing. And will do. _

_I might be on the other side of the fence for once._

_Instead of marinating in this terrible Sea of confusion as always._

_Where our heads can be lopped off at any time._

_But where, Ana? _

_Where can I take Terra?_

_Who will look out for her? _

_Who will look out for her?_

_Who………?_

I gazed out the cave.

Sighing.

Absorbing the girl's trembling.

"………………."

And my breath left me as my jaw dropped.

_Who…… _

_Who indeed……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 25, 2004.

Smallville, Kansas.

7:32 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"MmmmmMMM! Wow, Martha! You've really outdone yourself this year! I swear, a Thanksgiving Turkey this delicious is downright illegal!"

"Hehehehehe….," Martha Kent sat across from John at the dining room table, pouring herself some more cranberry juice from a pitcher. A radio nearby was playing holiday music as the family dined together. "Don't give me all the credit."

"Oh?" John Kent leaned his head to the side. "Are you suggesting that—"

"Is it really a big secret, Pa?" Kara winked before chewing a final slice of buttered bread. "Mmmmmfff…I helped her out this time," she said with a full mouth. The blonde swallowed and winked a blue eye. "Micro vision catches all of the spices in the filling, so I just helped Ma put in the most bang for the meat's buck! What you're eating is a super-turkey! And you better be thankful!"

"Shucks," John scratched his gray head of hair. "Now how come Clark never helped us out like that in the past?"

"Maybe because he was better with a tractor than he was in the kitchen, John."

"Or maybe because he wasn't a girl!"

"Pa! That's cruel!" Kara stuck her tongue out. "Don't make me melt those glasses off of you!"

John Kent devilishly smirked. "You mean after the last two pairs?"

"Oops!" Kara cupped a hand over her lips, blushing. "I completely forgot about that. SorrySorrySorry!"

"Heheheh. Don't be so hard on yourself, girl," John patted Kara's shoulder. "Clark went through about twenty pairs."

"Twenty….my gosh," Martha gasped. "I forgot it was that much!"

"Twenty?" Kara remarked, awe-struck. "He melted twenty pairs of glasses with heat vision?"

"Not counting his own, of course."

"Hehehehehe!"

Kara giggled too.

"Too bad Clark's too busy with some of those goons in Metropolis to be here with us tonight," Martha sighed. She put on a brave smile. "It'd be much more wholesome for him to be with his family rather than doing fisticuffs with….Living Wire is it called?"

"_Livewire_," Kara emphasized. "And ya know…if he just let me go to Metropolis and clobber the bitch for him, then maybe he wouldn't have to be away from home—Eep!" Kara again blushed. "Darn it, I'm so sorry! I know how you guys hate for me to say the 'b'-word at the dinner table."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Mr. Kent mused while sipping juice.

"John!"

"Heh heh heh."

"I swear. You're impossible."

"Somebody pass the Turkey shoe."

"You mean leg?"

"Yeah. That."

_Diiiiing-Dong!_

Martha gasped and shot up. "What's that? Air raid?"

"No, Ma…," Kara smiled. "It's the doorbell I had installed a week ago. This house _needs_ to enter the twenty-first century at some time or another."

"Lord have mercy…scared me out of my wits!" Martha fanned herself. "Just what is someone doing visiting us on Thanksgiving this late?"

"Probably the Ferguson's son," John uttered. "You've got him addicted to those pumpkin pies."

"Well, he's not going to steal any from us! Desert is strictly set aside for three people!"

"You mean Clark's not going to get a doggy bag?"

"I should say not! For preferring to be with Liver Wire than with us!"

_Diiiiiiiiing-Dong!_

"Heavens! There it goes again!"

Kara uncontrollably giggled. She placed the napkin down and stood up. "Don't worry. I'll get it."

"Tell Ferguson Jr. to take a hike….with holiday cheer!"

"Hehehe…," Kara bounded out of the room. "Will do!"

Kara hummed to herself as she proceeded through the interior of the Kents' farmhouse.

The windows outside were a dark blue as evening fell.

Cold air wafted in, and she got a chill.

"Brrrrr…..it's like summertime on Argos after the blast wave…."

She reached the front entrance, opened it, and gazed through the screen door with a cheerful voice:

"Hellllo! Do you come bearing gifts for the pilgrims--" she stopped dead short. Her smile left, and she blinked…..blinked…..

"………," I stared up at her. A limp Terra in my arms. Dirt and dust covered us both. A few whisps of murk trailed off my figure from the hurried, blurred sprint I performed in getting there in so short a span of days.

Kara stared down at me from the threshhold. Her lips moved but no voice came out. Her blue eyes were not so much as wide in shock as they were….

Melting. From the sight of both of us. Me…..and the forbidden goddess in my arms.

"Kara? Who is it, honey?"

Kara jerked. She kept her eyes on me as she tilted her face sideways some and murmured: "Ma….Pa….w-we've got visitors…."


	205. Bookends Theme

**205. Bookends Theme**

I laid Terra gently on the couch. I positioned a soft blue pillow under her blonde head of hair.

The frail girl let out a long sigh as she reclined. She coughed once…twice…

I offered her a glass of water.

She took a sip, swallowed, shuddered, and rested on the furniture.

She wasn't about to sleep, yet she wasn't about to walk around either.

She just needed to……

To be still….

Like a statue.

I took a gentle breath and spread a homemade quilt over her. I felt her forehead for good measure….smiled….and patted her shoulder before standing up and slowly shuffling my way out of the darkened living room.

I dug my hands in my pockets, staring down at the floorboards as I slowly paced across the place. I found myself standing in a halo of light beside a grandfather clock and stairs leading upwards to the second story of the house.

I paused, my feet lingering.

"…………"

I looked up.

John and Martha Kent huddled together as one in the soft light of a distant, kitchen lamp. They held their hands and craned their necks to silently gaze into the room where the mysterious goddess reclined.

And Kara….

Kara stood a few feet away from them and to my right. She also was staring, but there was a certain worrisome distance spelled out in her eyes. She made a big deal out of fiddling her fingers and made an even bigger show of trying to conceal it.

A beat.

I gazed at them all. I waited. Waited…

John Kent spoke first: "So she is Terra? The one stolen from your City?"

I gently nodded.

Martha Kent swallowed. "The girl who once worked for Slug?"

"…………"

"It's **Slade**, dear….," John patted Martha's shoulder. A beat. He looked at me sideways: "That _is_ true, right?"

I again nodded.

"But how…..h-how did you find her?" John scratched his gray head. "Didn't that awful man who led the attack on November Fourth ship her away? I mean—"

"Do any of the Titans know about her, Jordan?" Kara asked.

I shuddered. I calmly gestured for 'something to write on'.

"He needs a writing pad…," John said.

"Hold on," Martha wandered into the kitchen. "I know where I left one. I'll go fetch it."

Kara drifted forward, hovering. She gazed into the living room and murmured: "That's really Terra?"

I nodded.

"She's so….so….."

I mouthed: 'Skinny?'

"…………I was going to say 'young', but that too…."

I bit my lip.

Martha padded back into the room. She had a drawing pad in hand. "Here, son. A pen too."

I bowed halfway. I gently took the items from her. I scribbled on the paper. A quarter of a minute later, I heald the top sheet up for everyone to see:

'_I've told the Titans that I'm looking for her. But they couldn't possibly know that I've actually found her.'_

"But how? How did you find her? She wasn't just….tossed into your arms, was she?" John asked.

I again scribbled.

I again showed them the note:

'_Has anything shown up on the news about Las Vegas?'_

Martha gasped and held a hand over her heart: "Y-Yes! The City was devastated all over! Oh, I fear for the poor people who live there!"

"………….," I took a deep breath.

Kara's blue eyes were thin. "You were there….."

I swallowed.

"You were there, weren't you, Jordan?"

I slowly nodded.

I scribbled.

'_An Area 51?'_

"Area 51?" John made a face. "What's that got to do with anything?"

I made a face. My lips parted in shock….

"Erm….," Mr. Kent scratched his head again. "Is that supposed to be important?"

"You were at Area 51 too?" Kara gasped. "Kela almighty…..just what were you up to, Jordan?"

I took a deep breath.

_Dagger…… _

_If he an anticipated Area 51 going 'kaboom'…… _

_Maybe he also anticipated a way to cover it. _

_A man like that has to have a lot of power to hide the utter annihilation of a military base from the Earth's surface via ion cannon blast. _

_No doubt, Luthor is working with him. _

_But how much of that do the Kents need to know?_

I scribbled….scribbled…….scribbled…..

Three quarters of a minute later, I held up the paper:

'_I rescued Terra from Triangular, the people responsible for November Fourth. I want to bring Terra back to the Titans. But I can't. Not right now. Something's come up.'_

"What do you mean you can't?" Kara remarked, blinking. "She'd be safe with the Titans, wouldn't she?"

"………….," I bit my lip. I slowly shook my head.

"Good heavens….why not?" Martha murmured. "Is it the nasty people from November Fourth? Are they after her?"

"Are you afraid of some trap being sprung if you brought her back to your home?" John asked.

_God, these people are inquisitive. _

_Goes to show they're related to Clark Kent._

I scribbled:

'_Can you folks keep a secret?'_

John and Martha exchanged glances.

Kara swallowed. She put on a thin, brave smile: "Jordan….you can trust us."

"After all you did to save our necks back in August…," John said.

Kara winced.

"….you have our word, our trust, and our debt," John finished.

"By all means…," Martha nodded.

I took a deep breath. As much as I wanted to, I didn't want to dwell on their invitation.

_Not too much, at least._

I scribbled.

I held a note up:

'_I do not want you to get too involved with this.'_

I flipped a page.

I scribbled again.

My right hand was starting to cramp, but I ignored it as I held the next page up:

'_But at the same time, I feel that you couldn't possibly get involved.'_

"H-Hey….," Kara shrugged with another hopeful smile. "What's unassuming little Smallville for?"

"Aside from a certain Brainiac," John gestured. "We've been positively untouched!"

I felt a metal chill up my left prosthetic.

I shivered….openly.

Kara noticed it. Her eyes widened a bit.

I shook the shivers away, sighed, and scribbled:

'_I need to make a trip to Metropolis.'_

"What?" Kara floated towards me some. "You need to see Clark?"

'_I might. But at the moment, I'd rather not get Superman into this. I'd rather not get as many people into this as possible.'_

"Why not just tell Clark?" Martha asked. "He and Supergirl—" she pointed "—can help out with anything!"

"Yeah, Jordan! You're with friends now! SUPERfriends!" Kara winked.

I bore a weak smile for but a few seconds before swiftly replacing it with a sigh and scribbling, scribbling, scribbling:

'_Things have come up about Terra. The girl will not truly rest until a few mysteries are unraveled. In fact, I myself will not rest until things are unraveled. I have to chase down Triangular in Metropolis. And the reason why I don't want to attract too much attention is because I feel like I'm being chased by someone.'_

"Chased by someone?" Kara remarked.

John asked: "But who?"

Harsh, pen-stroke scribbles:

'_Red Aviary'._

There was a chill about the room. It was the same chill I always felt. But—seemingly—the light in the evening shrouded house dimmed some and I saw the Kents shift uncomfortably.

But there was still confusion all around.

"Red Aviary?" John blinked.

"Sounds like a big red bird….," Martha blinked.

I simpered somewhat, but visibly shivered again. I hugged myself.

"Jordan…..," Kara drifted over with a concerned look on her face. She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. The first time Supergirl and I had come into 'contact' in months. It was a haunting sensation. Hauntingly warmed. Hauntingly healing. I gently stirred to the side to break the contact without making it look too cold. I suddenly felt 'unworthy' for some reason. Kara looked at me and said: "What is wrong? What brings you here? What could be so terrible that it'd keep you from going home to your friends? Especially now that you have Terra?"

"………."

I turned around.

I paced past a dining table still covered with Thanksgiving items.

I stood before a darklit window.

Staring out onto the starry plains of Kansas.

A beat.

I sighed, turned around, and gazed at the Kents.

They all looked at me.

Silent.

Concerned.

Patient…..

"……………."

I slowly scribbled.

I took two and a half molasses minutes.

The pen stroked across an entire sheet.

I wrote small, legibly.

I then shuffled over and handed it to the Kents.

Kara first.

I let them huddle and pass it around as it was read:

'_For the last four and a half months, there has been a rise in evil. This evil does not have a name or identity save for 'Red Aviary'. All I know is that this evil is the embodiment of Destruction, or the color Red on the Spectrum. If you don't understand that, it is fine. This is an evil best felt and not understood. I have felt it. Jinx and Psimon and Viper and others sensitive to the Spectrum of Construction and Destruction have felt it. Something red and carnivorous is rising up in the criminal underworld. It has become a Parasite to an evil corporation embodying Dagger, Luthor, and Gotham City's criminals; otherwise known as 'Triangular'. Red Aviary was not the mastermind of the attack on my City on November Fourth, but it was there. It is what killed Commissioner Decker. It is what killed Blake Glover. And it is what killed Robin.'_

About three minutes later, the Kents collectively finished and looked up at me.

"My word….how come the other Titans don't know about this?" John Kent asked.

I took a deep breath. I folded my arms and stared aside for a few seconds.

"………"

I held a hand out towards Martha Kent.

She walked over and handed me the notepad again.

I flipped a page, angled the pen, and scribbled:

'_I don't know. But they had to have felt it when Robin died. Much like I did. But because of Robin's death, they've accepted defeat. They've huddled up in the City. In the Tower. They have very little hope left. Destructions thirsts for them all.'_

"If this is all true, Jordan….," Kara hovered in front of me, leaning her blonde head to the side. "Then how come they're all still alive? If Red Aviary is so ugly and badass, how come it hasn't taken them out?"

I took a deep breath.

I flipped a page…and found nothing but cardboard backing.

I did a double-take.

"Erm….," Kara blushed and pointed: "Just use the back of the pages you've already written on."

I nodded.

I scribbled:

'_Red Aviary hasn't taken them out because they aren't the next on the list.'_

"The 'list'?" Martha blinked.

"Who's next on the list, then?" John asked.

I pointed at me.

"…….," they all stared.

I walked over.

I pointed into the living room at Terra.

"You……Terra….."

"B-But why?" Kara asked breathlessly.

I raised my right hand. I concentrated. I billowed smoke in a little black plume over my palm. Tendrils of darkness danced towards the ceiling.

They all watched. Half-mesmerized.

I extinguished the smoking showcase.

I took the pad again and scribbled long and hard:

'_I am Balance. Terra is Construction. Right now, we represent half the poles of a Spectrum that secretly governs the way fate works. Red Aviary wants to shift that Spectrum into Destruction's favor. And to do that, Terra and I have to be eliminated. And once that is done, the Spectrum will wield pure Destruction for the first time in ages. Nothing will stop Red Aviary then from destroying the Teen Titans. One by one. And after that, who knows? Maybe even the Justice League will fall to Red consumption.'_

"Like…..L-Like some sort of angel of death?" Kara blinked.

"Hmmm….the Justice League…," John remarked.

"Clark….," Martha clung to John's shoulder.

He hugged her from aside.

I took a deep breath. I looked at Kara.

She softly looked back at me.

"………….," I scribbled:

'_Red Aviary is after me first. He has to cross over balance before he can get to Construction-Terra. When I rescued Terra from Dagger's hands, I may have done just what Red Aviary wanted. In acquiring Terra, I got both the embodiments of Construction and Destruction into one place. I made it easy for Red Aviary to kill off the obstacles in his way with one fatal swoop. And that swoop will be infinitely times more fatal if I bring the two of us—Terra and I—into the midst of the Titans. I can't walk into the lion's den like that. Not that easily.'_

After a minute and a half of reading, the Kents looked up at me.

"So….you want to do something that this invisible enemy of yours can't see," John Kent said. "You want to throw him off?"

I formed a sphere with two fists then brought my hands apart. I mouthed: _'I want to break the circle'._

Kara paced—hovering—in front of me. "Bringing Terra here instead of to Titan's Tower is one way to do that, I guess." She stopped and looked at me dead-on. "But how's going to Metropolis helping at all, Jordan? Won't it complete the Circle for you to go there?"

I leaned my head to the side: "?"

"Won't you be attracting attention? Wouldn't Red Aviary follow you? Wouldn't he….wouldn't he _find_ you?"

I shrugged.

"And don't act like it's no big deal!" Kara practically shrieked.

John and Martha jumped even.

Kara frowned and pointed at me: "Don't put yourself into some dangerous arena here, Jordan! What you're talking about sounds really-REALLY scary and I don't like the sound of you being a martyr! Not one bit!"

I took a shuddering breath.

_Ana and Raven were always trying to protect me. _

_Now Kara…… _

_Gawds……it's a damn pattern, isn't it? _

_There's one circle I'll never break._

I shook it all off and scribbled before handing the pad to her:

'_As much as Red Aviary is a threat, so is Triangular. I've just learned of something terribly bad happening, and it involves an airplane shipment to Lexcorp of Metropolis. I have to investigate.'_

"Yeah? And just what do you have to investigate?"

I sighed as I scribbled and scribbled and presented:

'_Terra's child. It was stolen from her.'_

Martha gasped.

John's eyes narrowed.

Kara was silent as she continued to read:

'_Somehow Dagger has synthetically copied the essence of Terra's power. He and Luthor have at their hands the power to make an army. A terrible army of earth-elemental destroyers. Golems, if you will. I fought a single one of them and almost died in the process. I don't know what Luthor may have in mind, but I sure as Hell don't want to let Dagger get away with whatever he has planned. November Fourth was just an appetizer to something far greater and disruptive. I must go to Metropolis to get to the heart of all this. Red Aviary or not. This is a nightmarish situation that involves hundreds of thousands—maybe even millions of people as much as it involves just the Titans, myself, and other superheroes.'_

"In that case," Supergirl looked up from the pad and walked towards me with arms gesturing. "Let me come with you, Jordan! We can get to the bottom of Dagger and Luthor together! And maybe once we get some solid clues, we can get Clark and his super-'league' to help out!"

"……………..," I stared at her.

John and Martha looked at each other nervously.

"……………..," Kara swallowed. She gently breathed: "I-I can't come with you….can't I, Jordan?"

I ran a hand through my long black hair. I inhaled deeply. I gazed into the living room.

Kara walked over and stood beside me.

Terra rested on the couch. Trembling every now and then. There was a sharp breath….like a choked sob every other second.

"………….you need someone to protect her….," Kara murmured without looking at me. "….to keep her safe if Red Aviary decides to circumnavigate you and rip off her head. And yet…..she has to be kept safe….and way from you. Away from Balance."

I looked at her. I slowly nodded.

"…………well……hehe….," she simpered weakly. "I've always been known around Smallville for my baby-sitting skills. So what the Hell, huh?"

"………," I smiled.

Kara swallowed. She looked back at her foster parents. She spoke breathily to me: "But….Terra…..she's a felon. A villainous apprentice in her own respect."

I clenched my jaw.

"What if……I-I mean…….how would I know, Jordan? How would I know that she isn't going…g-going to….."

I slowly, slowly shook my head. And I shrugged. I lifted the pad of paper and wrote slowly on it before presenting the words to Kara:

'_I can't make any guarantees. This is up to you, Kara. It's your house. Yours and the Kents.'_

"…………," she gazed aside. There was a coldness to her eyes. Cold and lonely.

Guilty.

I planted a hand on her shoulder.

"……," she looked over at me. Eye level. We were always both…so tall.

"……….," I smiled. I took my hand off, scribbled, and held up the notepad:

'_I want you to make this decision as Supergirl. Not as anyone else.'_

"Past mistakes set aside, right?"

I winced at that. I didn't want to go there….

I didn't.

Kara ran a hand through her platinum blonde hair. She looked at Terra. She exhaled: "Kela, just look at her. What a scrawny little thing. She's been stone all this time, right?"

I nodded.

"How could anyone that emaciated ever do any damage?"

I bit my lip.

"Besides….," she muttered to herself more than anyone. "It's not like she's ever been up against an Argosian before. I know how to spank someone when she's been naughty."

I shrugged.

_Whatever._

Martha Kent suddenly drifted in and stood amongst us: "You said she lost her child?"

We both jumped.

_Had she been listening to everything we said?_

"Her very own child?" Martha repeated.

I blinked. I snapped out of it. I wrote on the notepad:

'_It is called the 'Gaia' project. Terra's baby has been extracted from her in some sort of embryonic stage. It was at three or four months at the time. I think the statue preserved its internal development.'_

Martha's face went tight. "No mother—no matter how dark her past may be—deserves to have her very own child ripped from her like that."

"…………," Kara and I exchanged glances.

"John? Get a warm bath going upstairs! And Kara…get some new sheets for the guest room! The poor dear's been through an awful lot, I'm sure…." And with that, Martha Kent drifted into the living room and knelt gently by Terra's couch. She stroked the girl's head and whispered something motherly. None of us could hear.

"Guess that settles it," John smirked. "Kara. We've got work to do."

"Yes, Pa….," Kara sighed. She looked at me. "This will be an interesting Thanksgiving."

"?" I raised an eyebrow.

_Thanksgiving?_

I looked over at the dining room table. Half an eaten turkey stood in open view.

_Oh……right. _

_Damn, what's the date? _

_I'm eighteen, right? At least I think so……_

A hand patted on my shoulder.

I looked up.

John Kent was a tall man. "You've done the right thing, son…," he said with a proud wink. "All life is precious. And you went through an awful lot—I'm sure—to ensure Miss Terra's….."

I took a deep breath as he and Kara parted ways to tend to 'guest duties'.

_God…… _

_I hope so._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The guest room.

Three months ago Starfire and Raven had used it to sleep the nights that we the Titans and Supergirl tracked down Brainiac and the Kryptonite.

Today, it was the sleeping quarters for a certain blonde girl.

Terra had taken a long, soothing bath. Kara had donated one of her nightgowns, a power-blue girly; thing that was built for someone much taller than Terra, so suffice to say it covered and warmed the petite girl adequately. She sat on the edge of the half-uncovered bed while Martha Kent sat beside her. The old woman gently brushed Terra's golden locks into smoothness and braided them for bed. It seemed like an unnecessarily tiring, exhaustive ritual. But Terra didn't complain. Instead, she stared into the candlelit corners of the retro-furnished room and murmured:

"Who….Who are you people anyway?"

"Hmmm?" Martha smiled gently. "Oh….nobody in particular. We like to keep to ourselves. The world is a big scary place, and we've got a big son tackling it day by day. For his sake and for ours, we like to hang around in the shadows and be quiet about it all. It's rather peaceful when you're granted a chance to sit back and rest. Relax. To feel the Earth slowly turn beneath you rather than get sucked up in the maelstrom of busy people in busy places."

"I…..I guess I've never had a chance to relax….," Terra numbly said. "I'm always….al-always on the run….."

"Mmm….yes…but tonight you get a chance to relax. I promise you that. We're going to take care of you, little one. Don't you worry."

"You……you shouldn't be doing this……do you know who I am?"

"I only know who I see before me now. A little girl who needs to sleep and close her eyes for once," she started brading Terra's silk-golden hair. The old woman chuckled gently to herself: "Oh my….I suppose I've always been warm to having a daughter. When our son entered our lives, I was mothering him more than a woman should legally mother! Hehehehe…I still do treat him like a child sometimes, even though he's all grown up. I suppose that's why I was so elated when Kara entered our lives. I could have someone to…in a sense…take care of again. And a daughter at that! Someone with whom I can relate. Someone I could treat as a part of myself. Someone whom I could help raise up while showing her the joyous things this world has to offer."

"It…..It m-must be nice to be a mother….."

"Hmmm…indeed," Martha nodded, braiding Terra's hair. "I suppose I will never know….."

A beat.

Terra's tired blue eyes thinned somewhat. She turned her head to the side and looked at Mrs. Kent through the peripheral of her vision. "But…But I thought—"

Martha slowly shook her head. "I've never given birth. At least….," and her eyes were cast aside as she paused in braiding momentarily. "….not truly."

"………"

Martha put on a soft smile. "Before we adopted our boy Clark, I had two miscarriages. I was devastated at the time. John and I thought we would never become parents."

Terra bit her lip. She gazed down at the floor and murmured: "I….I'm sorry."

Martha finished the job on Terra's hair. "It is….a very sad thing to lose your own child. And to lose your child before you have the chance to see what may become of him or her. All those memories that you could have….you see them all dance away into the endless night like stolen breaths and giggles and it's heartbreaking…"

She gently placed her hands on the girl's shoulders.

Terra shuddered.

Martha whispered: "But I found that life still goes on. There is still a warm sunrise after a stone-still sleep. Good things come to those who wait. And after the tears and heartaches I endured, I was blessed. Clark came along. So did Kara. And now…hehe…I have the chance to spread my joy in life to you. You have such beautiful, manageable hair, Terra. The things I would have done at your age to have such!"

Terra's lips curved slightly. "Y-Yeah….it's…..it's my mother's trait…."

Martha gently said: "And I am certain—one day—it will be your daughter's trait as well."

Terra sniffed. She bit her lip. "You people are too kind…….what am I doing here?"

"Shhhhh…..," Martha stood up and gently laid Terra down on the bed. "You are resting. We're going to look after you."

"Wh-Why? Why are you looking after me?"

"Hehehe…to be honest, Miss Terra. I'm not entirely sure! The world of superheroes is awfully confusing to me. But I know what must be done in this case. And in your case…you must rest easy. There'll be a bright day tomorrow, and we'll work out things then if necessary."

"Heh….'superheroes'….," Terra bitterly chuckled to herself and turned her head on the pillow. "You _really_ must not know who you're talking to."

"I'm more than willing to learn," Martha said. She covered Terra with the covers and tucked her in. She leaned over and winked: "Only if you're willing to share."

"………," Terra looked up at her. She murmured: "I think….I-I think I'd rather learn more about you…."

"That can be done too…," Martha knelt her old self by the bed and spoke to the girl. "Like in what way can I educate you?"

"How did you come here? Where is this place? And who the heck is Clark?"

"Oh! One thing at a time! My ears aren't as sharp as they used to be! Much less the head they're attached to!"

Terra winced. "S-Sorry…"

"Nothing to be sorry for, child. Hmmm….I suppose I can start with John and me."

"Y-Yeah….there ya go…."

"Years ago, I moved in from Texas. My father was a prospective farmer, but after a famine season…."

Martha went on with her 'retrospective bedtime story'.

All the while during this scene, I was gazing in from the hallway outside. Staring through the crack in the door at the two. Watching Terra lying in bed. Her eyes trained on Martha. Her face a little warmer and a little softer than the stone-cold ghost I had nursed back in the Nevada caves.

I took a deep breath.

My black eyes thin under my shades…..

"……………"

A tall body walked up and stood behind me.

"Martha's sometimes…….too motherly for her own good," John Kent said.

I slowly turned and gazed up at him.

He looked down at me. He smiled gently: "I suppose she finds herself to be the unofficial 'nanny' to all young superheroes. Clark and Kara are obviously lucky in that respect. And Terra there…" he pointed with a nod of his head "she's a rather gifted gal too, isn't she?"

I slowly nodded.

"'Construction', huh? So what….she can erect a barn without wearing a hard hat?"

I simpered.

_Well…… _

_Thermalkinetic geological manipulation is a more exact phrasing. _

_But……_

I folded my arms.

I took a deep breath.

_Construction is simple enough in my book. _

_It's what Hull sorta confirmed. So…… _

_Yeah……_

"You know…there are a lot of newpaper articles and a lot of editorials written about that girl," John Kent said. "And all of them make big show of talking about Terra's villainous apprenticeship under Slade and how she brought an entire City single-handedly to its knees."

I winced.

I hesitantly nodded.

"Word is that she could create earthquakes, volcanos, and all sorts of terrible calamities through the simple flick of the wrist."

Again…..I nodded.

"But…," and he held up a finger. "…rumors are that at the last second, she turned against evil and saved the City from the very danger Slade first forced her to make. Terra saved the Titans. She earned her redemption though she sacrificed her body into permanent stone."

I swallowed.

_Yup…… _

_Very textbook, that._

"There're a lot of people who'll think she's still a villain even if you were to bring her back to the Titans today," John Kent said. "And there may even be people willing to believe she's turned to good."

I slowly gazed up at him.

He gazed back at me. "For the sake of security, I'm going to go with the minority believing her to be good. Especially since she's staying under my roof for the time being."

I smiled crookedly…and nodded.

"Mr. Noir, I said that we owed you a debt for what you and the others did for us months ago…and I meant it," Mr. Kent said. "But don't take us to be mercenary people. We like to help out whenever we can. You and the Titans have drawn close to Kara, and in spite of….in spite of _what happened_ when you were in Kansas last, we would still gladly have assisted with this whole Triangular and Red Aviary business. But there's something I think I want you to know…."

I leaned my head to the side.

"Martha and I….we've seen Clark and Kara make mistakes in the past. Mistakes that we aren't entirely proud of. And after each occasion, we've found it in our heart to forgive them. As long as Clark and Kara have been willing and able to move forward. And they have. And we're proud of them. I'm certain that you and the Titans have come to terms with what Kara did rather foolishly in the past…."

I kept smiling.

_I've come to terms with it, I think. _

_But the Titans……nobody but Raven knows. _

_And she……_

I continued listening to Mr. Kent.

"….but even still, sometimes it takes a lot more….a lot more for Kara herself to come to terms with."

My lips parted somewhat.

Concern expressed itself in my face.

He rubbed the back of his head and nervously uttered: "Kara has…..not been her usual, lively self over the past few months."

"……….."

"She's gone out with her friends less. She's canceled two or three of her after-school activities. She barely even talks to Clark or bugs him to let her go on adventures and so-forth. And that _really_ concerns me."

I gently nodded.

Listening…

"When she's not alone in her room, she goes out for lonely flights at night. And as much as she's always enjoyed—hehehe—going 'vroom' when the sun's down….her flying adventures as of late have been…….unenthusiastic. Like she's drifting more than flying. I don't think I've ever even seen Clark look that gloomy."

"………," I gazed aside.

"I dunno. I'm not entirely sure why I'm telling you all of this…," John murmured and gazed down the hallway. "I guess….I-I guess that now that an actual 'friend' of Kara's is here in the same household. I was hoping that….oh……," he bit his lip. He eventually added: "….that someone who understands her more than a pair of old country bumpkins could reach out to her."

I raised an eyebrow.

_I understand her more than the Kents?_

I gazed out a distant window. At the plains of Kansas. The starry night's sky. Some planet named Argos far away that had forever become an icy sarcophagus for all of Kara's fellow-beings.

_Perhaps……Perhaps that is accurate……_

"Anyways….I shouldn't be bothering you," Mr. Kent said.

I looked up at him again.

He patted my shoulder and smiled: "You've been all over the country, it seems. You need to rest just as much as Tracy there."

_Terra._

"We've got a shower and a fresh set of Clark's old clothes. Hehehe…I'm sure you know the drill. And—no offense Mr. Noir—but you smell like a prairie dog!" he chuckled, waving a hand before his nose as he walked off.

I blinked after him.

_Don't you mean a 'squirrel'._

I sighed and walked away.

But not without gazing into the guest room one last time.

And seeing Terra….

Terra….just starting to slumber.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I showered.

I knew that this wasn't the City.

This was Kansas.

And I probably had to preserve the water supply.

But for a minute and a half at least…I lingered.

As I always do.

I pressed myself against a wall, leaning forward.

Exhaling heavly as the icy-cold water battered my bruised and scarred body.

I stared down the drain as a few icy currents carried a few red streams from my days-old wounds down into the black oblivion.

I shuddered.

My metal arm was off. It rested on a bathroom sink outside of the shower stall where I lingered.

But the cold water gave me the shivers enough.

And as I watched the red streams.

I wondered.

I wondered if soon I too would be carried away.

Inside or outside of this humble paradise in the center of the nation.

I swallowed nervously.

For I knew.

I knew that soon I had to be traveling East.

And as much as I didn't want to, I had to do it alone.

And for but a moment, I dreaded the East as much as I ever dreaded the West.

For East was where Robin died.

And East was where Red Aviary was sure to find me.

I bit my lip and clutched the metal disk at the end of my left stub.

_Red Aviary may very well find me. _

_Find me and rip me apart. _

_But I'll save Construction before that happens. _

_And someone else. _

_Someone else could become 'Balance'. _

_Who knows? Maybe it'd be someone I knew. _

_Maybe……_

I blinked my naked black eyes.

_Raven?_

I shook that off.

Shook the drops off.

And finished showering.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Still damp from cleaning, I stepped out into the hallway wearing Clark Kent's old slacks and white t-shirt from his high school years.

Toweling off my black mess of hair, I ran into Kara.

"…….," I lowered the towel and stared at her.

She stood with her hands behind her back. A bashful smile. "H-Hey, handsome…."

"………..," I gently smiled back.

She leaned her head to the side. Her lips pursed and she stretched a hand forward.

I stayed still. I didn't flinch.

She traced with two gentle fingers the scar on my cheek.

"This is new….," she murmured.

I thought of Dagger.

The City.

I swallowed a lump down my throat and nodded.

She lowered her hand. "Why is it that I get the feeling that…every time we meet, you're bound to get a new scar?"

I shrugged.

"Come twenty years from now…hehehehe…I-I might not even recognize you."

I smiled darkly at that.

Kara then fidgeted. Her blue eyes fell to the wayside.

And for a minute there, I was sure that I saw the shadowy ghost that John Kent warned about.

"Jordan…..I….I-I never really thought I'd see you again," she said. She hugged herself. "Two weeks ago…after all Hell broke loose in your City….I was so scared that you were gone. And when Robin died, I just knew….I-I just knew that you would take it so…so hard." She bit her lip. "But still…I couldn't…I-I mean….I didn't feel th-that I could………….."

She lingered.

"……………," I stared silently.

And the 'sound' of my silence must have been deafening to her. "Kela….I-I can't do this….," she murmured. "Do what you have to do here, Jordan," she mumbled and turned around. "Don't let me break your concentration."

My lips parted. I reached a metal hand out for her

She flew into her room and quietly—but firmly—shut the door closed behind.

"………," I sighed. I ran a hand through my damp hair and walked down the stairs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I met John and Martha Kent in the kitchen. They were finally cleaning up the Thanksgiving dinner that I had inadvertently interrupted.

"She's asleep now," Martha said.

"?" I looked at her from the sidelines.

"Miss Terra," she winked. "Poor thing's exhausted. I frankly don't blame her…."

I mouthed: 'oh' and slowly nodded.

"You want something to eat, Mr. Noir?" John Kent said. He motioned to the turkey that he was in the process of wrapping in tin foil. "We made plenty!"

"Yes, we almost hoped Clark would have come on by. And we keep telling him to bring that lovely Miss Lane with him. But I doubt that'll ever happen."

"Eh…you know you should leave Clark alone on that subject, Ma…," John Kent nudged. "What with Superman and all that confusing stuff with—"

"Ahem…not in front of guests, dear."

"Oh…r-right. Ahem. So…how about it, Noir? Turkey leg?"

I politely smiled, raised a hand, and shook my head. I fought a yawn.

"Ah…tired…," Martha said. "With all that's on your mind, a good night's sleep would be perfect. You know, there's still the couch in the living room."

_Uh uh. _

_I'm not having __**my hair**__ braided._

I shook my head and pointed out the screen door.

"Huh?" John blinked. "You can't be serious. It's not like you have all the Titans with you!"

I nodded.

_I know. _

_I just……_

I gazed up invisibly towards Kara's shut bedroom.

……

_I n-……want to be alone._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Kents had a new barn.

The old one was destroyed when Braniac's secret 'cove' built beneath the farm was destroyed by his own devices. Inevitably, a plot of land including the barn had been eradicated above the site. Luckily, the Kents were able to reconstruct everything from the land to the barn that replaced the old one. And somehow I didn't doubt that they had a little 'super' help along the way. The new barn was slightly larger than the old, and it was equipped with new…clean-looking farm gear. Spared no expense. I wondered where such humble farmfolk may have gotten the funds to replace all that which they lost. But I suppose when you're the 'parents' of Superman—Supergirl too—you get some fringe benefits.

I found a wooden ladder and climbed to the loft at the top of the barn. I heard a rustling of feathers and wandered if owls had been quick enough to find this place a shelter after so few months.

But I shook that off.

Before an open barn window that let in the soft blue light of Kansas stars, I spread a blanket over hay and laid my tired head down to sleep.

As I did so, I gazed directly outward and saw that I could spot the light in Kara's bedroom. The dimness inside was hidden by translucent, girly draperies. The lair of Supergirl was a concealed, cold mystery.

And I left it as such.

_None of my business._

I sighed and stared at the heavens through the barn window.

The stars.

The shadows of Argos.

Two teenagers months ago spiraling through the air and laughing verbally and mutely in the warmth of joined oblivion.

_None of my b-business……_

I took my shades off and wrapped myself up in that cold blanket of thought and turned over.

Sleeping….

Like a bleeding spectacle atop a lone rock in some field in Washington.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I wasn't dreaming.

And yet, I had visions.

Visions of Red.

Strange, nameless, crimson things swimming for me in the nether.

Dagger, Killer Croc, Luthor, and Anderson stood on either side of a long, narrow gauntlet.

And I was sliding down a chute into the screaming mouth of Robin.

As he was being eaten on all sides by red and amber laughter.

And the Messenger winked and Glover rolled over.

And the Titans fell dead in between.

And the Titans….

….Fell dead in between.

……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I didn't feel my black eyes trying to moisten until I heard her.

Gently climbing up the wooden ladder to the loft.

"?" I sat up and looked out the barn window.

The light to Kara's bedroom was out.

And my lips parted. I spun around and looked

"Shhhh….Jordan….," she pressed her fingers to my lips. As if that meant anything.

I blinked. My naked eyes wide.

_K-Kara?_

Her face was somewhere between deadpan and just plain dead. She crawled over on all fours and sort of…'melted' into me. A hug. A very, very intimate hug.

I swallowed nervously where I sat. I gently touched her shoulders

"Just be still, Jordan….," she whispered. "Don't push me away. Not now. Not when you don't have an excuse…."

I bit my lip.

She buried her head in my shoulder. Her whole body was trembling. This was Supergirl, and I knew that she knew that I knew that she could crush or break me at any second with her Argosian strength. And yet she didn't. She couldn't.

She murmured: "You're always pushing me away, J-Jordan. Even when we're far away from each other, you're doing it. Please, Jordan. Stay still. For you if not for me."

I exhaled. I looked down at her.

She looked up at me. Her blue eyes were glossy.

I slowly shook my head and murmured something indistinguishable to her.

_I'm alone in this, Kara. _

_And I have to be alone._

She understood and yet she didn't understand.

She looked me straight in the black eyes and whispered: "When was the last time you cried, Jordan?"

"………….."

Her lips painfully smiled. "Was it when we were last together?"

"…………..," I shuddered.

_It was._

I planted a metal hand over my face.

_Oh god, it was……_

"Shhh…Jordan…..," she hugged me.

I shook and melted into the hay-strewn floor of the loft.

I clenched my black eyes shut as tears poured out of them.

Hot, scalding tears.

Like Gethsemane blood.

"Don't push it away…," she murmured into my ear from behind. "Stop running….it's okay….."

I sobbed.

I pounded the loft floor with a metal fist, shook, and cringed.

_Robin's dead. _

_Robin's dead, Kara. _

_I wasn't there to save him. _

_I let him die. _

_And the Titans. _

_We're falling apart. _

_We're all falling apart…… _

_Cyborg's cold as ice. _

_Raven's farther away than the horizon. _

_Beast Boy cries and Starfire sits in silence. _

_Tempest is gone. _

_All that I've ever sacrificed to maintain. _

_All that I've ever hacked myself to pieces to save. _

_Is dying. _

_All of it, dying. _

_Robin. _

_Terra's child. _

_All dying……_

Kara stroked my back. She laid herself down and hugged me from behind. We both formed two shivering bodies spooning together on the cold blanket.

And I sobbed.

And I shook.

_Everything is coming full circle. _

_Full circle of death. _

_I'm sick…and I'm tired……of running scared of something I can't even see. _

_And I'm so scared. _

_So scared of Red Aviary. _

_I've never been so scared in my life._

And Kara held me.

Warming me.

Her chin over my shoulder.

Her arms around my waist.

And for some reason, I felt like—this time—she was never, ever going to let go of her 'ghost'.

And that made me feel like the luckiest and the dirtiest man alive in the world.

And I cried for a solid hour.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There was something I wanted to tell you, Jordan. Weeks ago. Right when you announced your decision to leave the Titans. To go on this little adventure of yours. This…virtuous little adventure. I wanted to tell you, Jordan—I wanted to explain to you why…wh-why I didn't come. Why I never came."

I was staring out on the blue-lit expanse of Kansas. My eyes were tired…but pleasantly so…from crying.

I gently gazed over at Kara.

She sat up next to me, hugging her knees to her chest. "Most especially….why I didn't come to Robin's funeral. I wanted to explain all of that…"

"……..," I slowly nodded.

She swallowed a painful lump down her throat and gazed out at the cold, Kansas November. "When we met, Jordan, it was not the prettiest thing in the world. And don't try to deny it."

"…………."

"I reached to you. And I felt for you. I truly did. But at the same time, I was….I was being an idiot. I let Brainiac and Metallo control me. Because I wanted to keep Ma and Pa safe. I didn't think asking for your guys' help would have been enough to take care of those creeps living underneath the farm. I thought I could devise a plan to work around it all without getting any of you good guys hurt. And…it worked. Mostly. But not without scarring you. And I'm sorry for that, Jordan. I have been and shall always be sorry for that. But at the time…..I had one of my dreams come true. I got to meet you in person, Jordan. And I felt that…th-that if I reached out to you, I might do something I wouldn't regret. I might be able to touch the cold mystery inside of that 'badass Noir' and have a friend amidst the whole mess that was going on. M-Maybe….someone closer than a friend. And….and if only you had any idea how much you truly blessed me, Jordan. You showed me that…in spite of all my errors…I had become a woman. I was—deep down inside—and still am someone that my own mother would be proud of. And that means the world to me. An entire world of people that I had previously lossed. I shall n-never forget that feeling of….j-joy and revelation…."

I smiled gently. But the smile didn't last long. I expected Kara to share something less than cheerful.

And she did:

"But something else stayed in its place. Guilt. I'd done a bad thing to you and the Titans, by giving you over into Brainiac's hands. And though it all turned out right in the end….y-you can never change the fact that you've hurt people. I was happy when you and I got to 'talk' over the phone or online, Jordan. But….B-But…."

She hugged her left arm and gazed off.

I craned my neck. Looking at her. Anxious….yet…._patient._

"I was hoping…waiting….dying…..f-for you to do it, Jordan….," she sniffed. Her eyes were getting wet.

I blinked.

She looked at me. Her face was hurt.

"I was hoping so desperately that you'd invite me to the Tower…"

My heart fell.

I averted my gaze as I felt a wound inside of me. Self-inflicted. I swallowed a lump down my throat.

_Somehow…… _

_I know exactly where this is going……_

"Close people should never let rotten things just sit….and fester….," Kara sniffed. "Especially in silence."

"…………."

"A-And I know I could very well have brought it up…..that I was dying for you to invite me into your presence again. Cuz it would mean the whole world to me. Because I was too guilty and too…..too much feeling like utter shit to ever consider asking that we get together again. Because what? Because I still had a few k-kinks in my emotional armor to work about all the bad crap I had done and you were sitting there all comfortable in the Tower with your friends and your security and your soundness of mine?"

I looked at her sideways.

She sniffed and wiped a tear from her cheek. "No, J-Jordan. I'm not mad at you. I-I know it sounds bitter of me and all…..but….I-I just couldn't handle it. I'm Supergirl. I'm supposed to be better than some punk teenage girl using her friends and….and…." She shuddered. She looked straight at me. "….and getting away with it."

"……….," I stared.

"I still don't understand it, Jordan….," she murmured. "After all these months. After all that has happened since our tribulations here in Kansas with Metallo and Brainiac. Wh-Why did you forgive me? Why did you save me? Why…..Why……." She hid her face with her hand and shuddered. "……..Why must you be so good? It's painful for me. Especially when you're so silent….and you've got so much….m-much coldness, Jordan. Such cold mystery and such a painful past that none of us can even guess about much less challenge. Don't you see, Jordan? It's difficult! I don't know what you're thinking, even when I believe that you're 'talking' to me over the phone or the Internet all I can think with all the distance is that the black-eyed face that I can't see is merely hiding so much disgust and hatred and apathy for me. I can hardly bear it…."

My fingers clenched about tiny stalks of straw.

I gazed down between us.

My heart felt bathed with ice. Ice that had always been there. Something that I had been constantly blind too…perhaps because of some lonely comfort I endlessly embraced.

"I felt miserable about myself. I felt like I was being punished. And I felt that that punishment was not enough…," Kara murmured. "And…I-I did stupid things. Twice as stupid, cuz I never told you, Jordan. I stopped hanging out with my friends so much. I kept to myself. I slept more than usual. I…..I-I've been depressed. I hate to think that I'm a fallen superheroine. I hate to think that I'll forever feel bad for what I did to you and the Titans. And what I nearly did to Ma, Pa, and—Hell—all of Kansas!"

"………."

"……….," she gazed up. Lips quivering. "I….I-I didn't come to Robin's funeral, Jordan….because……b-because I thought you would find it an insult."

"………..," I looked up at her.

"I thought that you would hate me. I was s-so down and depressed….I thought that my being there would have been a shame to the memory of Robin."

I painfully exhaled. With curved eyes, I shook my head and mouthed: _'No, Kara, no……'_

I placed a warm hand on her shoulder.

Too warm.

She looked at it.

She shut her eyes.

She took a deep breath and fought back to tears: "I guess…..I-I guess that all I want to know, Jordan……."

She opened her eyes. Firm. Hard. Tearless for once.

"…..do you truly love me anymore?"

"……….," I stared at her.

And behind Supergirl's shoulder, I could see the darkened bedroom.

A bedroom darkened by lack of light and lack of joy.

Where John and Martha Kent were helpless to save their foster child from afternoons of depression.

A child who had separated herself from her friends, her life, the Sun.

All because of….

_Because of me? _

_No…… _

_Because she truly is alone. Or actually, she's always been alone. Her entire planet was wiped away. Her loving mother and family died. And on one night……one beatiful night in Kansas, she had all of that loneliness replaced by the warm arms of a black-eyed swordsman who found it fitting and best at the time…… _

_To forgive her. _

_And to embrace her. _

_And……to love her. _

_That was also at the same time when Kara did that which she was most regretful for. _

_And she hurt the ones she cared about most. And the ones she cared about most had just recently been funneled down from an entire planet of Argosians to five teenagers with a sixth and darkly-mysterious young man at the forefront. _

_And that man was someone who could only return all of Kara's warm words with cold silence. _

_And that was someone with so many of his own self-absorbed problems that he was too blind to see Kara marinating in her own identical depression hundreds of miles away. _

_And that someone—me—could not do anything short of wander on his own. In transit. In silence. In self-sacrifice. _

_Balancing himself……in a world where the other ends of the Spectrum had turned invisible and fleeting. _

_I was forever alone. And with Kara attached to me, she too would be alone._

And it was only half a sad conclusion—for both of us—when I looked over at Kara. And I took a deep breath. And….I slowly shook my head. And mouthed:

'_No'_.

Kara took a sharp breath. And it almost surprised me to realize that it was a wholesome, warming breath. And I saw life return to her face in such a redness that I realized I hadn't been looking at a 'living' Supergirl all of Thanksgiving night.

"I understand….," she murmured. A hearty swallow. "And I……I-I don't….t-truly love you either, Jordan……."

I nodded.

A beat.

And then she drifted forward. Hugged me. And whispered warmly into my ear with a choking shudder:

"B-But I still want to, Jordan……," she said. "I st-still want to love you…."

I inhaled. I hugged her back. Just as warmly. Reciprocal.

"Someday………," she whispered. "……s-someday…….."

I slowly, slowly nodded.

As I looked over her shoulder this time, I realized something. The moon had started to reflect off the window glass of her upstairs bedroom. It had a rippling effect akin to waves. Waters. Atlantic Waters under a boardwalk somewhere. A bitterly familiar feeling. In the back of my head, I hummed the 'Bookends Theme' by Simon and Garfunkel.

She parted the hug before I did. And she looked realistically happy. Relieved.

"So much for the Tabloids, huh?"

That comment woke me up. For all its silliness, I suddenly felt sad. The soreness rose in my throat for but a second until I told myself that I was just as lonely then as I ever was.

Balance and Balance.

I meditated…and I didn't need to cry.

Not again.

"Jordan….," she spoke, holding my hands and running her fingers along my flesh and metal knuckles. "I will look out after Terra. Ma and Pa will take care of her while I protect her. But……" She looked up at me. "Won't you consider me going with you to Metropolis? What you're up against sounds really…really dangerous. I'd protect Terra all fine and dandy. But I'd more than gladly protect you in a heartbeat." She leaned her head to the side. "Why do you want to do this alone? What's so terrible about Red Aviary that you'd want to distance me and the others from?"

"……….," I gazed aside. I sighed.

A beat.

I shrugged. I tried to gesture the answer to her, but it failed miserably.

"Some things…..probably can't be said, huh?" she smiled nervously. "Just like how you cried earlier…," she mumbled. "Things are better left to be felt."

I smiled A gentle nod.

_Exactly……_

Kara crawled over and perched before the window the barn. She hugged herself. Her back to me.

"……….," I stared at her from behind.

A beat.

"If you won't enlist my help….and you don't want Clark to know about this 'mission'….."

A beat.

"Then at least let me give you a firm foothold," she said.

I raised an eyebrow.

She looked back at me. Firmly.

"Let me take you to Metropolis."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Terra sat on the front porch of the Kent's house early the next morning. She positioned herself cross-legged on the swinging chair. Bundled in a blanket. Dressed in denim shorts and a white t-shirt fitting her tomboyish person beneath it all. Her blue eyes were gazing at the grass of the farm just beyond the wooden steps of the porch. She was silent.

A beat.

A pair of black boots appeared before her.

"……….," she stared up.

I was in my usual combat fatigues. Camouflaged jacket. Black undershirt. I had my trademark shades on, and my red bandanna, and Myrkblade strung over my back in its scabbard.

I stared at her.

Terra stared at me.

A beat.

"…………," I smiled.

She blinked. "You're…..Y-You're leaving….aren't you?"

I slowly nodded.

"………," Terra leaned her head to the side. "I….I-I think all of my vision's back. I….I-I don't feel quite as numb anymore."

I raised an eyebrow.

"……….you're really creepy looking, ya know that?"

I simpered.

I nodded.

A beat.

I rubbed the back of my neck.

I shrugged.

I…….waved.

I turned to go.

"What's your name….?"

"……….," I turned and looked at her.

Terra hugged herself under the blanket. She shuddered: "You….Y-You have a name, right? You're a Titan to come after me. Doesn't the p-person who saved me have a name?"

"………..," I slowly walked over. I knelt in front of her. I placed a metal hand on her thin shoulder and with the other, I gripped the side of my shades….and slipped them off.

Naturally, Terra gasped. She shrunk back some from my naked black eyes. She bit her lip.

The dark optics stared at her. Harmless. Blinking.

"……….N-Noir….," she murmured.

"…………," I stared.

"They…..Th-They have said your name….," she whispered. "On visits. In the labs…..you're the new Sixth Titan."

I slowly shook my head. I raised seven fingers. I pointed at her.

"Me?" she blinked. "I'm……I'm not a Titan…."

My heart fell.

She gazed aside. "I ruined that long ago…."

I held my hand under her chin.

I gently had her look at me.

I lifted my other hand.

FL-FLASH!

Black smoke billowed between the fingers.

Terra's lips parted.

I held the black tendrils of steam before her for a few seconds. I then moved the blackness over with my hand and pressed it into her palm. I closed her small fingers over the smoke and let her absorb it….

FLASH!

Her eyes strobed a hot golden color. There was a white aura about her.

She gasped at it….

But it slowly faded.

Calmingly.

Soothingly.

She sat in wonder.

I stared at her and mouthed: _'You have a family.'_

"………"

Squeezed her hands together, ran a hand over her bangs, smiled, and mouthed: _'Stay here. Rest.'_

I then got up, and with a tightening of Myrkblade scabbard around my shoulders, I turned and walked off towards the edge of the farmland.

Terra stared.

Terra sat.

Terra healed.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Through the kitchen window of the farmhouse, John and Martha Kent watched the swordsman walk away.

John hugged Martha to him with one hand.

He took a deep breath.

"It's almost…..sad to see someone so young have to walk alone. Even when he has 'teammates' somewhere surely worrying about him."

"Do you think he knows what he's doing, John?" Martha murmured. "How could someone by his lonesome save a good chunk of the world?"

John Kent chuckled. "Martha, honey, if there's anyone on this planet who should know a thing or two about one lone man saving the world…." He looked at her and winked. "It's us…."

Martha smiled. She snuggled up to John's side. "Yes…..Yes…..I suppose we have far too much to believe in than we give credit…."

John silently nodded.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I reached the front of the farm where the gate rested shut.

I came to a stop.

Supergirl was waiting.

THE Supergirl. Red, white, and blue outift and all.

_My god……that tube skirt…… _

_Won't she reconsider? For the sake of pneumonia?_

"Ready to take a ride?" she winked.

I rolled my black eyes under my shades.

"Okay…so it's more like a 'latching' than a ride….er….th-that is…."

I hand-signed something.

She didn't understand, but that was fine.

"Just hold on…."

She walked behind me and hugged me from behind. An arm under each shoulder. Her chest to my back.

I blushed….slightly.

"This is gonna be quick….," she said as she started to lift us up and Kansas disappeared in haze and blue distance below. "….and I gotta fly high. So I hope you're used to high altitudes."

I nodded blindly.

_I'm used to anything._

"And Kela on high, I swear…is Myrkblade gonna be poking into me during the whole trip?"

I groaned mutely.

"Hehehehe! Hang on!"

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

We rocketed eastward.

Northeastward.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 26, 2004

4:32 pm

Outside of Metropolis

T-T-T-T-T-T-

We got there in record time.

Soaring over cloud tops and flying high above where anyone or anything (Red or not) could spot us.

Per my request, Supergirl landed me on the outskirts of the City.

Where the mountains leveled down along the slopes that fed into the Metropolitan Highway.

And everything led into the tall, glistening City of Metropolis.

Metropolis, with its beautiful spires.

Metropolis, with its gleaming Bay and clean main streets.

Metropolis, with thousands of transport systems weeding in and out and bridges, bridges, bridges—_my god, bridges were everywhere._

"I have friends in this City!" Supergirl spoke above the noise of the cold, November winds beating down into the mountainsides.

It was very….very cold.

Winter.

"If you happen upon the Daily Planet, there's a kid there named Jimmy Olsen! He knows how to keep a cover story secret if it means a photo shoot for him in the future!"

I simpered.

_Okay……_

"Then there's Steel just North of the Industrial district. Yup, that's right. His name is Steel. He's a lot less showy than Superman and the Justice League. He'll lend a helping hand if you need one! A pretty damn heavy one too, if you know what I mean!"

I nodded, smiling.

She stared at me. She swallowed and leaned forward with a gentle voice this time: "Jordan….are you sure you don't want me to go with you?"

A beat.

I placed a hand on her shoulder. I smiled. I nodded.

She lowered her eyes. A shudder. "I hope you know what you're doing!"

I leaned my head to the side, gazing towards the blue horizon.

_Lexcorp. _

_I'm starting with Lexcorp._

I waved at her.

I made to leave—

**Grip!**

I was jerked back.

Before I could protest, I was in a huge embrace.

Supergirl clung to me.

A warm breath over my ear. Choking:

"You take care of yourself…..got it?"

I nodded.

I hugged her back.

"You promise not to get hurt…and I promise not to let Terra get hurt! There! It'll be an even exchange among superheroes!"

I smiled.

She smiled.

We parted ways.

We sighed.

Her eyes went aside.

My eyes went aside.

Silence.

Cold.

The way it had always been.

She took to the skies: "I gotta go back. Cya…."

I started to wave…

But she was gone.

A beat.

I took a deep breath.

I spun and faced Metropolis.

And into the urban navel of the world…

I went.


	206. Metropolitan part 1

**206. Metropolitan part 1**

The day that I got lost inside the underbelly of Titan's Tower, I experienced a queer sensation. I was surrounded by familiarity. But that same familiarity was choking me. Deceiving me. Forcing me to run circles in the center of something that I thought I knew but in all reality was only throwing me into further and further chaos. When the Titans' alarm sounded, I felt utterly helpless. For though I was in the thick of it all, the thick of it all was suffocating my senses. And I couldn't get out of the very thing I walked into for the life of me.

Walking into Metropolis felt a little bit like that.

I had seen buildings before. I had walked through dozens of big cities before. I had developed a love for randomly strolling through urban areas and getting a mental layout of the place. Of main streets and plazas and courtyards and downtowns and industrial districts.

But Metropolis overwhelmed me. Its towering buildings had an amplified, concrete translation of being bottom up in the center of a vast field of corn. If I took a side street into a clearer part of town, I'd only find myself wandering between the stalks of four more buildings; each as tall if not taller than the ones that were previously swallowing me up. And then the streets turned into bridges that scaled up, up, up with the height of Metropolis till everything turned into a vast, three dimensional maze of vast length, cluttered width, and numbing height. And people….people….people filled the streets. People on foot. In cars. On people movers. It was like the City of the future. Metropolis—like Tokyo—was an undeniable glimpse of the future before the future itself came. But the signs of overcrowding that Tokyo showed, Metropolis seemed to make up for. The high-rises already doubled as apartments, restaurants, golf driving ranges, helipads, shopping malls, theatres, hotels, schools, laboratories, and everything. Bridges for walkways, bridges for driving, and bridges just-for-kicks interconnected all of these spires. Metropolis had an airlife as much as a ground life.

Wandering around in that municipal mayhem on November 26 made me realize just how complex human society had become. Urban society had made its proverbial haystack, and all of the monumental chaos just _begged_ for a gargantuan needle to swim through it all and protect the reinforcement of the towering quagmire. And more then than ever did I thank Terra Firma's lucky stars that Superman had become that much-needed needle.

I'd been to Metropolis before. Only two times. The first time was just a brief walk-through. I had come East from my long, cross-country trek. I took one whiff of the big city and immediately had the fecal matter scared out of me. So I traveled south some along the Metropolitan Highway and found the bayside Town beneath the Titan's Tower. And I never looked back.

The second time was an even briefer occasion. H.I.V.E.'s Academy in Bludhaven had just been sacked, and Robin, Raven and I decided to deposit the goons-of-war into Maggie Sawyer's and the police department's capable hands. Disruptor, Charger, Deuce, Gizmo, and a few others found a home in special prison wings.

On both occasions, I barely touched the surface of this City. And for good reason too. I think Robin in his living years even was scared of marshalling a City like this. Batman and Green Arrow must have felt the same, for all I cared. Metropolis was huge. It was a job for Superman.

Which made me wonder why in the blue Hell I was waltzing into that place to begin with. The last week and a half had been nothing but pushing, pushing, pushing forward for me. It made no difference if I was sliding testicles-first into Las Vegas on the advent of a mafia apocalypse. Or if I was sneaking into Las Vegas with nothing but a sword and an asian best friend to toss at an underground sea of thugs.

Speaking of which…

_Where is the Messenger?_

My shaded black eyes narrowed.

_Then again……do I really need him now?_

_Smallville._

_Metropolis. _

_These are all decisions that __**I**__ have made. Me, myself, and I._

_And besides…… _

_What did the Messenger know about the Gaia Sphere crap? _

_Or the fate of Terra's captured 'essence'? _

_And if he knew anything, was he hiding them from me? _

_Hull seemed to have known more in that department. Or at least, the sword-swinging ice prince was selectively telling me things as well._

_This is my mission. _

_X'Hal willing, I can keep it mine as long as I can._

I paused on a sidewalk somewhere.

Blinking.

'_X'Hal'………_

I smiled.

A warm, fuzzy thought came to me.

Scarlet hair and raised, Tamaranian eyebrows.

Laced with Beast Boy's laughter and a spilled tofu.

Cyborg giving me a high-five.

Raven in the corner with a book, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

The thought came and left with a sigh.

And I was alone in the urban maze again.

_Right…… _

_Don't forget. _

_Don't forget the main reasons why you're here……_

I pressed on, whatever and wherever 'on' was. I was looking for Lexcorp. That is to say, I was looking for a building with access to Lexcorp's main files where I might be able to dig up some hearty dirt on Triangular.

Ultimately…….

It didn't help that this was Metropolis, and just about every other skyrising building I saw was plastered with the sleek 'L' of Lexcorp in one fashion or another. Lexcorp Waterfront Suites. Lexcorp Industrial Management. Lexcorp Phone Co. Lexcorp National. Lexcorp International. Lexcorp Gardens. You name it.

_I suppose every branch of heaven inevitably roots itself in a demon every now and then._

It was a good hour into my mindless trek that I finally saw Lex Luthor for what he was. He was Metropolis. Much in the same way that Dagger 'was' the City back home. Only, Lex Luthor had the gall to brag about it. Dagger owned people and places in a covert way. Luthor kept a public face that kept his image from ever possibly being blemished. Dagger relied on the blemish of his figure to strike fear into the hearts of his adversaries. Both despots were incredibly different yet identically tricky in their stylistic rulings. But both were equal candidates for Triangular. Secretly I wondered who pulled whose strings the most.

And what of the Gothamite?

_Awww……screw it._

_Where's that damn HQ?_

I summoned to mind many a briefing the late Robin had given us when discussing future needs for national, superheroic intervention. He had shone us slides and diagrams of Metropolis, covering quite exquisitely the 'headquarters' of Lex Luthor. I remembered that the chief Lexcorp building was a virtual obelisk stretching high into the sky. It was sleek. Black. And it had a curved head with huge transparent glass facings serving as the windows to Lex Luthor's black, black office.

On a more helpful note, the Lexcorp building was the _tallest structure in Metropolis._

I tilted my headup.

Skyscrapers….skyscrapers……skyscrapers…..

_Yeah. _

_Useful information. _

_If I could __**fly**__._

I told Kara and the Kents and myself over and over and over again that I wanted to keep a low profile when venturing into Metropolis. And I meant it. I didn't want Triangular knowing that I was tailing them. I didn't want the Justice League reacting to me and thus showing Triangular I was there. And most of all I didn't want….

_Red Aviary……_

I felt a chill. A chill just like any other chill. My metal fingers twitched. I ignored it the best way I could and moved on.

_Most of all…… _

_I can't let Red Aviary find me…… _

_As much as I may deserve to fester in death's academy some day soon or sooner, I mustn't die yet. _

_Not now. _

_Not while I have a job to do. _

_A mission to follow. _

_Robin's Contract is over. _

_It's done. _

_Now begins Terra's contract. _

_And, inevitably, a way to save the rest of the Titans. _

_But……without bringing them into it. _

_Without bringing them into the jaws of death._

_Because—even if he doesn't know where I'm at—Red Aviary is following me. _

_He may even be in Metropolis. _

_I don't rightly know. _

_I don't even want to know…… _

_But…… _

_It is only a matter of time. _

_It is only a matter of time……_

I took a deep breath.

_I must hurry._

Hurry, I did. In as 'inconspicuous' a way as possible. Much to my futile refusal, John and Marth had donated me twenty bucks for the trip into Metropolis. I didn't see much use in the highly gracious offer until I was halfway into City limits and remembered….

'_Shit.' _

'_I'm a Titan.'_

I had to conceal my identity before everyone around me.

So, I jumped into a thrift store at the outskirts of the City.

I changed into black slacks with a black, long-sleeved turtle neck that could cover the scar on my neck and the metal nature of my left arm. A jacket from my Las Vegas days I wore over this, and underneath that I concealed a good bit of my ponytail and Myrkblade's scabbard. I even found a cheap pair of black sunglasses to replace my wide, trademark ones. My combat fatigues, I stuffed into my backpack and hurried along in my trek.

_Wow…… _

_A cheap outfit of all-black. _

_Eh……a little 'less conspicuous', I suppose. _

_Not like I've done any modeling outside of uniform for the Titans' Magazine._

A beat.

I blinked.

_We have a magazine?_

I shrugged that off and kept searching for the infernal spire.

I figured that Downtown would be the ideal spot for Luthor's diamond-in-the-rough to be. So, I simply followed traffic.

I walked along the clustered, elevated freeways.

Past nose-to-nose cars. Very….futuristic looking cars.

Everything about Metropolis screamed 'tomorrow'.

It was nearing late afternoon.

The Sun was beginning to set.

I soon realized why the traffic was so thick. It was the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday. Shopping malls of multiple stories were being harrassed with all sorts of clustered, metallic attention in the parking lot while pedestrians filed in and out of the stores with shopping bags. I wondered if I should have counted my luck or bit at my curse. The more shopping, the thicker the crowds, and thus the more danger could be caused to innocent life.

If…..

If…….some sort of chaos broke loose.

_But why was I feeling paranoid?_

I paused at an intersection as a few shoppers wandered by.

I scratched my chin.

_Wasn't there…… _

_Wasn't there someone on the loose in Metropolis right around now?_

I looked up at the nearby building side…..and discovered 'it'.

'It' was an electronic ticker a la Wall Street built around the curved corner of a tall bank building. Workers on elevated platforms were erecting boughs of holly and candy canes already on banners and lampposts. The holiday spirit was striking the commercial district. And in between news briefs and stock exchange info, the ticker of flashing light bulbs read a Metropolitan equivalent to an amber alert:

'_Livewire still at large. Justice League baffled. Mild skirmish with the electrokinetic rogue reported at Lexcorp Power Center. Mild injuries sustained. Reward of 100,000 for Livewire's present location and any available info.'_

I whistled.

_Livewire……right…… _

_I've seen and heard her on the t.v. before._

I couldn't help but wince.

_Sheesh. Do all villains come in stereo?_

I sighed.

I filed past thick crowds of people.

Men in trenchcoats talking on cell phones.

Families waiting on sidewalks as the amber sunset started to bathe the City.

Dogs on leashes keeping their barking to a minimum because of the cold.

The cold….

I exhaled. Vapor left my lips. I clenched my fingers in cheap, slacks pockets.

_Winter…… _

_This will be my first real winter on the East Coast. _

_Already……I don't think I like it._

I shuddered.

_Just pretend it's Seattle, Jordan. _

_You can handle Seattle. _

_You can handle……_

I looked up.

Again, the spires of Metropolis.

Again, the thick chaos.

The feeling of being lost.

And no Lexcorp HQ to be found.

I thought of stopping somewhere and asking directions……being desperate.

But….

_How many citizens here can understand sign language anyways?_

I took a deep breath and stubbornly walked alone. Forward. Onward….

_I wonder…… _

_Have I truly gotten accustomed to life as a mute?_

_I was lucky to have known sign-language ahead of time. _

_And the fact that I so much as __**survived**__ the injury dealt to me five or so years ago is a miracle in and of itself……_

I gently rested a hand over the 'X'-shaped scar on the small of my throat.

I sighed.

_But…… _

_The only people I've gotten along with are a scant few in the Norman Apartments and the Titans. _

_There's Renee and Daniel, of course. _

_And Sandy. _

_And acquaintances I've met through the Titans, like Speedy, Diana, and Simon Stone. _

_But……my life……my way of living…… _

_It's really cut down. _

_I stopped making friends like I used to. _

_I stopped being so……so extroverted. _

_I……became silent. Not just 'mute', but __**silent**__. _

_And dark. _

_Did……Did I really have to do that? _

_When Viper was first defeated and Cyborg mused about making me a 'voice box', maybe I should have actually……considered his offer._

_Maybe it would have given me a chance to be 'Jordan' once more, and leave a little bit of 'Noir' to the dust……and 'Wyldecarde' to the ashes._

_But what then? _

_Did I really want a voice? Even an artificial one? _

_Would it really have benefited me……to have screamed when Robin died?_

I bit my lip.

_Eh…… _

_It's the truth. _

_I am 'dark'. _

_I……might as well be silent._

I reached another intersection.

A clock tower rung.

I looked up at a nearby church.

An antique clock stroked.

_7:00 pm_.

_I guess not that much time had passed……_

The bell tolled.

A commercial bus came to a stop in front of me. Engine humming. Hydraulics hissing.

I sighed and ran a hand over my bangs.

_What am I thinking?_

_This is going to take all night………_

The bus hissed again. It drove off down the road.

And as its broad, aluminum body passed….

The Lexcorp Headquarters appeared. Its obsidian, nasty self. Stretching up from the urban horizon.

The final bell tolled.

I smirked.

_Then again……_

Just as I made a step forward onto the crosswalk

_SCREEEEEECH-CRUNCH!_

People gasped.

A few women shrieked.

I looked over.

The commercial bus had slammed dead-on into a lamppost.

After a few seconds, I realized why.

The lights inside the bus were flickering on-and-off. The engine was sputtering. It was like the 'juice' of the machine was being sucked out.

And….

The nearby lampposts were flickering on when they didn't need to. The sun was setting, but it wasn't _that_ dark.

Stoplights strobed like mad.

Building fronts flashed before the lights and appliances inside burnt out.

Finally, the neon sign of a busy shopping mall enjoying the fruits of Black Friday sparkled and exploded. **POW!** Pedestrians ran screaming as huge shards of glass, plastic, and plaster littered the street corner behind them.

Metropolis—at least in my pocket of the City—had turned into an echoing sound chamber of fright and catastrophe. Lights still flickered and electric displays still sparked as everyone ran and surged past me…

But I stayed still.

Frowning.

_Yeah. _

_I think this is obvious by now……_

When she appeared, it was with as much fanfare as one may give to an electrokinetic nymphomaniac with a penchant for pyrotechnics and homicide. She appeared by sparking out of three separate lamposts in blue streaks and solidifying in mid-air flight. A pale-faced grin beamed under a stalk of blue, bride-of-Frankenstein hair. Her outfit was a thumb-length from being defined as a birthday suit with its jagged designs of blue, black, and white. She twirled about like a punkish ballet dancer in the air and when she spoke….I somehow envisioned battle tank treads grating against gravel.

"Wooo hooo! Black Friday! In about five hours, you're gonna become Red Saturday!" she rubbed her hands together and eyed the shrieking, fleeing pedestrians beneath her hovering figure. "Hiya, folks! Sorry I couldn't join ya earlier…." Her rubbing palms produced tiny bolts of hot blue. "I was kinda-sorta detained by S.T.A.R. Labs and their nasty silicon jail cell. I thought I might miss the fashion season! My-My, if I do say….you'd all look rather sporting in BURNT SKIN TODAY!"

_ZZZZZZTTTTT!_

She rained blue death down on the citizens.

They shrieked and jumped, hopped, and leapt as the bolts ate at their heels.

_ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTT! _

_ZZZZTTT!_

"Hehehehehehehe….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Livewire tilted her head back and continued launching electrical sparks down at the innocent. "That's right! That's right! Number one shopping craze this holiday season is positively electrifying! How about some seven hundred thousand amps for your tease? Ha ha ha ha!"

One random bolt flew over my head and exploded the neon sign of a pawn shop beihnd me.

**POW!**

I ducked low, wincing.

People ran past me, screaming.

Gritting my teeth, I stared up at the malevolent maiden through my shades.

_Yeah……  
_  
_Schizophrenia's early this time of year._

_Am I sure I didn't wind up in Gotham City instead?_

I turned my back to the loud chaos and eyed the towering image of Lexcorp HQ.

"………."

I turned and looked at Livewire.

"………."

I sighed….

_Red Aviary can wait…… _

_Right now, Blue's the one threatening life._

I fingered my backpack and looked around nervously as people ran by and bolts of blue exploded various electrical transformers and equipment along the city street.

_But…… _

_Gotta keep a low profile, Noir. _

_Can't let these people see you_

I turned to my left.

"………."

A phone booth.

"………."

I looked at Livewire.

A beat.

"………."

I smirked.

_Yeah, alright……_

I blurred past the panicked citizens, stepped into the phone booth, shut the door behind me, and ducked down low.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"KAPOW!"

Livewire aimed at a minivan.

_ZZZZZTTTT!_

**BOOOM!**

"Hehehehe..,"she twirled and aimed at a Burger King's sign. "KABLAAM!"

_ZZZTTT!_

**PHOOOM!**

"Hehehehehehe! Heeeehehehehe!" Livewire spun again and faced the shopping mall beneath her. A huge semi-truck doing a delivery was parked in the back. Livewire summoned a huge, pulsing orb of electrical energy and squinted her eyes. She aimed at the fuel tank beneath the truck's engine. "Now for the grand finale! Batter your Turkey with this, you bourgeoisie Santa-humpers!"

_ZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT!_ She charged, charged, charged, and flexed her limbs to launch the pulse. "YAAAAAAAAAA!"

FWOOOOSH!

A black streak of murk ran up a building, bounced off, and soared at her.

She glanced right, her eyes sparkling bright with a hot blue. "eh?"

THWACK!

A smoking sword briefly solidified just enough to give her the uppercut of her life.

"OUCHIES!"

She soared off in a blue, ragdoll streak over the shopping mall till she sailed through the sixth story space of a high-rise building under-construction.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

TH-THWOMP!

She slammed onto the hard concrete floor of the half-built building and skipped like a pretty blue stone across the interior.

"Ooof!" Thwap! "Ouch!" Whump! "Ugh!"

She finally slid to a stop. Her elbows and knees sparkled where they were scabbed.

"Nnnnngh…," she stirred and shook her head. "Mmmf….god…was I just hit by a fart?"

FWOOOSH!

Something streaked to a stop several feet in front of her on the sixth floor.

"Nnngh…," she looked up. Blinking. "Who the fuzz are you?"

CHIIING!

I held Myrkblade up, taking a deep breath.

Fully garbed in my trademark combat fatigues.

Frowning.

But….

Inside I felt like smiling.

_Good…… _

_Get her out of view of the outside world. _

_Now you can kick ass._

I stood firmly with my back to the setting sun.

Around us stretched a thin cobweb of concrete and steel support beams over a wide, concrete floor. Power tools and pieces of lumber and other detritus of Metropolis construction crews littered the dusty landscape around us. Behind her several feet away was a partially finished 'building face' composed of freshly plated sheets of glass. This was likely to become an office complex of sorts.

"Nice stick you got there, ninja-butt!" Livewire spat as she stood up. She reared her fists. "Saaaaay…..you look familiar. You ain't one of those Justice Lamers…."

I gritted my teeth.

"Oh hey! I know!" she smiled like a jester and sexily struck a pose with one hand on her hip and the other pointed daintily towards me. "You're one of them Teen Tykes! The one with….ya know….the smoking sword and the long black hair!"

I held my smoking sword up as my long black hair drifted in the breeze.

"Heh…I rest my tight little case," she winked. Then frowned as sparks danced between her fingers and teeth in a menacing manner. "Now what's a moron like you doing all the way in Metropolis ruining my fun?"

"……..," I stared.

"I just got out of holding and all you and the Justice League cares about is cramping my style!" she floated up into the air and charged a huge pulse of electricity in both arms. "Do you know when was the last time I had a decent holiday for Christ's sake? All I wanted was to have a little holiday cheer by burning as many lucky, rich saps to a crisp as possible! Can't you at least afford me that?"

TH-TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade, held it in one hand, and motioned her on with my metal fingers.

_Come spin your dreidel, bitch._

She frowned, eyes sparkling hot-blue. "Fine….have it your way, kiddo." FLASH! Her electricity gathered into a bright, blue ball. "You're a hot little number, smokie! But I'm about to make you even _hotter!_ RAAAUGH!"

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT!_

I felt the air boil as the bright orb soared at me.

My black eyes twitched.

I dove to the floor.

FWOOOOSH!

The sparks singed the back of my camouflaged jacket.

I slid on a curtain of murk, rolled forward, vaulted up to my feet, and blurred at her.

She grinend wide and shot two wrists towards the concrete floor. "HA!"

FLASH!

I took a breath and leapt the sparks.

I twirled over her head.

She spun around.

I impacted a steel girder with my feet, kicked off, and soared down at her.

She braced herself, two blue-and-white hands outstretched.

I snarled mutely and swung Myrkblade at her.

THWOOOOSH—CLAMP!

She grabbed the end of my smoking blade.

"….," I blinked.

She winked.

_ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT!_

Sparks traveled up the black layer of smoke covering my blade and surged into my body.

I felt like I was on fire.

Sparks danced out of my black eyes and flickered out from the edges of my shades.

After getting the shock of my life, I fell back as if from a concussion blast and landed hard on the floor.

THWUMP!

I winced.

_Yeah…… _

_That was smart……_

"Hehehehe!" Livewire twirled in the air and summoned a huge pulse in her right hand. "Yes, waiter! I like my tender meat _well __**done**_!"

FLASH!

A bright blue bolt surged towards me.

Collapsed on the ground, I braced myself—

_**ZZZZZZZZTTTTT!**_

The ground warbled with hot blue sparks.

My body evaporated into a column of burning smoke.

"YES!" Livewire pumped her arm and clapped her hands. "Hahahaha!" She smiled up at the crispy smoke. "I guess all those teenage hormones were really flammable, huh?"

Suddenly, the smoke congealed thickly in the air.

"…..," Livewire blinked. "Waitaminute—"

FWOOOSH! I solidified into a descending jump-kick.

**WHAP!**

I struck her in the chest with the heel of my boot.

"OOF!" she went sailing back, smashing through two sets of lumber before collapsing to a sparkling heap besides discarded equipment. TH-THRUMP! "Unghh…."

I landed in a crouch. Cracked my neck. Twirled Myrkblade. And blurred at her. THWOOOSH!

She stood up, rubbing her shoulder. Frowning. She shot a wrist out and enveloped a corded power-saw in electrical energy.

_ZZZZTTT!_

VVVVVVVHHHHH!

The saw rose like the sharp head of a orange-corded snake and shot at me.

I skidded to a stop, gasping.

THWOOOOSH!

I ducked as the saw swished overhead, lopping a strand or two of black hair.

SL-SLINK!

Livewire laughed in the background as the saw snaked around and came at my rear.

VVVVVHHH!

I swiftly ran 'up' a metal girder and leapt off it with a backflip.

CL-CL-CLANK! The saw kicked up sparks as it bounced off the girder after me.

I landed and immediately shot myself towards the rear of the saw.

I swung Myrkblade.

SN-SNAP!

With a flash of sparks, the cord cut loose.

CLANK!

The saw fell to the floor.

"Rghhhh…," Livewire frowned and flung blue sparks at a bundle of equipment surrounding her. "Allow me to redecorate your face!"

I landed—perched to a pile of lumber. Sweating.

_Do all villains these days come with 'Nutra-Suck'?_

FWOOOOSH!

My black eyes blinked at an incoming squadron of 'alive' power tools. Drills. Riveters. Nail guns. Sanders. Even a can-opener.

_BZZZZZZZZZZZZ!_

_Save the mental one-liners for later._

I took a breath and dashed across the length of the haphazard interior.

A riveter ate at my heels, pounding sharp-tiny potholes in the concrete floor upon which I tread. **Clank!-Clank!-Clank!-Clank!-Clank!**

I held a breath, leapt, and swung with my arms encircling a steel girder above.

THWOOOSH!

The riveter sped on beneath me.

I hung, panting…until a ring of staples imbedded themselves into the girder around my head.

CL-CL-CL-CLUNK!

I looked up.

A staple gun flew at me.

P-P-P-P-POW!

I dropped down, twirling Myrkblade and deflecting.

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

I crouched on the floor.

Two powerdrills surged at me. One on either side.

I leapt up.

CR-CRACK! The drills collided with a shrapnel explosion.

I backflipped across the interior of the half-constructed building. Livewire's mad laughter echoed in my airborne ears. I looked left and saw her floating, hugging herself, sparkling tears of insanity rolling out of her smiling face.

_PLANT!_

I landed behind a pile of lumber.

SWIIIIIISH!

A sander flew at me.

I twirled Myrkblade up.

CLANK!

I batted the power tool up.

I grabbed its cord. Swung it like a slingshot. And let it loose in Livewire's direction.

THWIIIIISH!

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…….!" Livewire opened her teary eyes. "Huh?"

WHUMP!

The sander slammed into her gut.

She flew back and struck hard into a steel girder. "Ooof!" She slumped down to her butt. Wincing. She painfully stood up, hissed, and barked at me: "That's the second time you hit a girl today! What kind of a gentleman are you?"

I gave her the bird.

"…….hrmph…..right then," she flexed her nimble limbs. Smirked. And presented sparkling fingers. "Time to burn off those tiny balls of yours."

I merely smirked.

_Fat chance of that happening._

_ZZZZZZZZTTTTT!_

I swiftly blurred out of the way.

The blue energy struck dead center in a pile of lumber, setting it ablaze. **FWOMB!**

I rolled to a crouch and held Myrkblade up.

She shot again. "YAAUGH!"

_ZZZZZTTTT!_

I took a gamble and swung my murking blade.

FLASH!

I deflected the blast up towards the ceiling.

FL-FLASH!

The blue bolt bounced off and struck down into a nearby radio besides Livewire.

POW!

The radio exploded, forcing her to jolt and shield herself.

FWOOOOSH!

A rush of wind.

When she lowered her arms and looked up, I was swinging at her with Myrkblace.

CHIIIIING!

"Great Eisner!" she teleported into a blue streak and materialized away from my swing. Behind my back she flung a bolt of electricity. _ZZZTTT!_

I teleported before the energy could strike. Smoke blurred. I materialized beside her and swung at her legs.

TH-THWAP!

She was tripped. She fell with a gasp. As I swung at her again, she teleported in blue energy behind me and kicked me in the butt.

WHUMP!

I stumbled forward.

"NNNNGH!" she flung a ball of hot sparks at my cranium.

FWOOSH! I teleported and materialized in place, facing reverse with an upswing of my sword. CLANG!

I struck the bolt back at her.

She flexed her limbs. FLASH! Teleported. FLASH! And solidified in a rushing charge towards me with a wink, blown kiss, and sparkling fist.

_ZZZZZTT-THWAP!_

I was struck hard in the chest. The combined force of impact and blast of electricity sent me sprawling backwards, tumbling, towards a humming generator to the side of the half-constructed floor.

"Hmmm…," Livewire hovered in place and boredly 'examined her fingernails'. "I could play this game with you all day, kiddo. But…no offense…" She winked. "I prefer the big girl's playground. Give me Wonder Woman or Supergirl anyday. You're just a little brat in the sandbox. A sore temptation to rob the cradle if I've seen any in my life—but still a brat."

I stood up wearily besides the power generator. I panted, smoked, and held Myrkblade high. Feet ready to move….to strike…

"You really just don't give up….do ya?" Livewire spat. She looked at the generator and smiled. "What you have in beauty you sure-as-hell lack in brains! YAUGH!"

_ZZZZTTT!_

She flung a blue pulse into the generator.

FLASH!

The generator started to spark and vibrate dangerously.

"…..," I looked at it.

The generator had wheels.

I smiled at Livewire—THWUMP!—and kicked the generator towards her.

THWOOOOSH! The rolling 'bomb' started to glow and spark just as it reached the electrokinetic maniac.

Her pale eyes widened and she waved her arms: "No-No-No-No-No!"

_**POWWWWW!**_

Flames and smoke and shrapnel.

_Yes……_

I slowly paced towards the billowing scene.

Eyes glaring under my shades.

"………."

"Nnngh!" she 'collapsed' out of the flaming debris. She coughed, wheezed, and hacked. "Ughh…….no thanks, I didn't order any pizza with nitro-glycerine today…."

A beat.

She looked up at me. Glaring.

I glared back.

"………that wasn't very **nice**!"

FLASH!

She produced a huge pulse of blue in her right hand and shot it at me in a sparkling stream. _ZZZZZZZTTTTTT!_

I braced my legs. I held Myrkblade up.

FLAAAAAAAASH!

I was shoved back with my heels grinding into the concrete floor.

I flinched and winced as the shoving sparks of electricity surged mercilessly against my sword, threatening to leap off and lick at my frame.

My skin twitched at the mere grazing of blue energy.

Livewire kept applying force. More, more, more, and more lightning.

I was eventually shoved all the way to the wall of glass sheets and

CRACK!

The energy stream relented just as I was shoved back against the glass with a jolt. My impacting body formed cobwebbing cracks through the transparent material. The window nearly shattered.

Wincing all over, I looked over my shoulder at the sunsetlit Metropolis outside the half-built scraper. I saw something. And I brightened.

"Looks like you're at the end of the line, creep!" Livewire shouted. She hovered up to a hot levitation as she charged pulses of electricity in both wrists. "If you're lucky, they'll make a cornerstone of this building out of your grave! But what the Hell am I talking about!" She raised her wrists and charged the pulses further. "You're gonna be cremated! Ha ha ha ha!"

Smirking, I faced her again and raised Myrkblade.

Standing in place.

In place….

"Rghhhhh!" she hovered towards me, flinging a left hand full of electricity.

_ZZZZZTTTT!_

I bravely held Myrkblade up and twirled it to the side. CLANG! I deflected the blast.

"YAUGH!" she flung her right handful.

_ZZZZZTTTT!_

I braced myself even more and swung Myrkblade again. CLANG! My whole body tensed and shook, but the blast was deflected.

"Grrrrrr!" Livewire impatiently shook and burned all over. "Why…won't….you….DIE?" SWOOOOSH! She soared at me, charging a huge….huge pulse of blue. "Rrrrrrgh!"

I stood my ground. I charged Myrkblade.

"Rrrrrr-rrrrrrrrrgh!"

I gripped the hilt of my sword tightly in both hands. Teeth gritting.

"RRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Livewire came at me. She brought both wrists together and burned the air with a heated friction as the sparks danced, dance, danced and surged at me.

SWOOOOOOOOOSH!

I stood…….but…..at the last second.

I ducked.

Livewire flung the electricity. "RAAAAUGH!"

**FLASH!**

I teleported out of the way.

Livewire couldn't stop. She sailed straight through the glass windows.

SHATTER!

And once outside the construction site's sixth floor, she saw herself sailing straight towards a huge, white structure of metal.

A water tower.

A water tower plastered with black text: "Metropolis Shopping District."

The girl screamed like a burning tank: "NOOOOOOO!"

CRUNCH!

Her blue-streaking body burned its way into the white shell. Water splashed in side.

A beat.

…..

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!**_

Inside, the freakish girl shrieked and screamed as her body convulsed from the electricity mixing violently with the liquid.

I materialized from smoke form and stood before the gaping hole in the glass frame. I shaded my black eyes and squinted at the hotly-blue glowing crucible.

The whole ordeal lasted a full minute….and Livewire was quite adequately fried. The water evaporated and soon I saw the devilish damsel lying dormant in the bottom of the water tower's draining puddle. She moaned once or twice….and was out for the count.

I took a breath and leaned on Myrkblade.

Smiling…proud….

_I suppose the juice was worth the squeeze._

A strong voice suddenly sounded off behind me.

"Let me guess. You were trying to stay under the radar and yet you couldn't resist saving some people…"

"?" I spun around. I looked up. I gasped.

Superman hovered before me. In the flesh. The same icon I had seen months ago in Smallville but somehow far more…legendary in appearance with the sunset of Metropolis looming in a thin frame behind him.

Hard, dark eyes glared at me as he folded his arms and said: "I know the feeling. It's hard. Especially when you're in a city for reasons you shouldn't be."

I backed up…almost to the window.

I nervously shook, swallowed, and mouthed: _'How……How……'_

"You should know better, Noir," he said. "People don't just walk into Metropolis without the League knowing. Not anymore these days."

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

_But……How?_

'_Your mind. It is full of distress and urgency. It shines forth like a beacon, Jordan.' _

I blinked.

My heart froze over as my head throbbed.

I looked around.

Black eyes darting about.

Superman was still. Silent.

'_You come to this City looking for something on your own. By why, Jordan? Why alone?'_

I couldn't help it. I shivered. I got a chilling flashback to Braniac's wires squirming around me and his electronic brain raping its way into my brain.

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists.

_Who……are you……?_

Superman tilted his head up.

"You can come out, J'onn. There's no reason for any ambush this time. Noir managed to take out Livewire before we got here."

'_I can see that……'_

Fwooosh!

A flash of dim, green light.

"?" I turned, panting.

I saw a ghostlike entity seep down through the ceiling of the interior and solidify into a familiar image.

Robed and dignified, Martian Manhunter stood before me.

"I shall alert the others," he said to Superman with a clear-eyed gaze.

"Good," the Man of Steel nodded. "Because they're on their way."

Martian Manhunter looked at me.

I panted.

His brow furrowed.

'_Please. Calm down, Jordan.'_

I seethed.

'_Whatever it is that troubles you, surely the League can be of assistance.'_

I snarled and blurred at him.

CHIIIIING!

Even Superman jumped.

I gripped Martian Manhunter's robe in my metal hand and held the tip of Myrkblade to his alien neck.

_Get out of my __**head!**_

"………," he merely stared.

I sweated all over.

FLASH!

Suddenly my body was encased in a glowing green aura. Constricting. Like a shield.

Shuddering, I looked to my left.

Green Lantern floated into the construction site's sixth floor. He had his ring outstretched, holding me at bay. "Now just what in the Sam Hell is happening here?"

"Everyone stay calm…," Superman walked over and placed a hand on Green Lantern's shoulder. "I think we just caught Noir by surprise…"

"'Noir'?" Green Lantern's emerald eyes narrowed. "Is this the punk who tried to take Livewire out on his own?"

"That….he managed to do…," Martian Manhunter monotonously droned.

"Looks like he was about to gut you, green-stuff," Green Lantern glared. "From what I see."

I frowned at him.

_ZH-ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHIPP!_ "Yeah. Looks like clear case of telepathy phobia in my book!"

"….," I blinked. I looked to my right beyond the green force field and was startled by a tall, red-suited man with yellow bolts crowning his head.

"Welcome to Metropolis, darkstuff!" the Flash pointed and smirked. "Where the law is still true and the aliens still probe ya!" He wrapped an arm around Martian Manhunter's shoulder and leaned against his side. "Such a rude alien. You didn't mean anything by it this time, did you, Marvin?"

J'onn droned: "You are breathing on me."

"It's called carbon dioxide. You should try it sometime!"

"Flash," Green Lantern pointed at the water tower. "Quit yapping and return Livewire's body to S.T.A.R. Labs."

Flash shrugged. "Figures. Superman and GL are always sweeping damsels off their feet. I sweep them off of water towers." _ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHIPP!_ He was suddenly to my left and at the gaping hole in the windowside. He waved and winked at me. "Hey! Teen Titans! Cool bunch of crime fighters! I'd join them myself if I wasn't such a hot, dashing, adult superhero!"

"We don't have all day….," Green Lantern groaned.

"Pfft! Fine. Go and punch the lights out of a Citadelian battlecruiser for all I care!" _ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHHHHIP! _A red streak blurred over into the water tower, scooped up Livewire, and then blurred south under the sunset.

Green Lantern turned and faced me…still not relinguishing his shield. "So….are you going to tell us what you're doing in Metropolis with that itchy-hilt-finger of yours or do I need to drag your mommy into a corner for a PTA meeting?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Superman smirked.

"I can slap his cheeks with leather gloves later."

"He's mute," the Man of Steel pointed.

"Say what?"

"It was simply a misunderstanding," Martian Manhunter uttered.

I turned and looked at him.

The alien droned on: "Clearly Noir is very sensitive to mental communication. I often forget how unaccustomed humans are to telepathic interference. If you were to lower your shield, Green Lanter, I am quite certain that he will relinquish his wielding of his sword."

The alien looked at me.

'_Am I acting too presumptious?'_

I winced a bit…but eventually sighed and lowered my sword.

_Presume away._

He nodded.

'_Thank you, Jordan. And my apologies for startling you.'_

I clenched my teeth under tight lips.

_Whatever……_

"Allright, double-M. You'd better be right."

"He always is," Superman said.

FL-FLASH!

The green shield subsided.

I took a breath. Chiiing! I sheathed Myrkblade and walked slowly to a dark corner.

"Superman, you've met him before," Green Lantern folded his arms. "Any idea what he's doing here?"

Superman drifted over: "Noir. A week and a half ago, you quit the Titans. And after all this time, you end up here. Alone. Why?"

I faced away from the League and folded my arms.

Frowning.

_Crud. _

_Crud almighty. _

_This is not what I wanted to have happen. _

_I did __**not**__ want to come into contact with the League. _

_I just…… _

_I musn't attract attention. _

_Not at this rate._

_I musn't._

'_What do you fear so much that forces you to embark upon this City alone, Jordan?'_

I shook, spun around, and snarled.

_Okay, you can __**stop that already!**_

"…..," Martian Manhunter's face furrowed.

Green Lantern looked between us. "Okay. You two need a time out or what?"

"I think Noir has some explaining to do," Superman said.

I looked at him sickly.

_Who are you? _

_My Kindergarten teacher?_

"J'onn…," Superman spoke aside to the Martian. "Ask him what he's doing here. What it is he wants."

_ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHIP!_ "Why the interrogation? Isn't it obvious? He trashed Livewire to a pretty pulp, didn't he?"

Green Lantern glared at Flash. "Aren't you supposed to be going to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

"I already did."

"Bah."

"Boy is _Hamilton_ thrilled," Flash folded his arms and smirked. He looked at me: "So what's he doing again?"

"That's just it," Superman shrugged. "We don't know."

"It does not seem polite of me to pry at this moment," Martian Manhunter said. "I fear that we will not get any answers if I force myself upon him."

I made a face at that.

"What? Is he telling you that?" Green Lantern asked.

"Guys. Does it matter? The kid's a superhero! Like us!" _ZH-ZH-ZHIP!_ He stood beside me. "Hey..uhm….ahem…," he pretended not to be looking at me as he spoke beneath a breath: "Is it…uhm….true that Raven meditates nude?"

"……," I backed away from him and into….a strong form.

A warm hand fell onto my shoulder. And for some reason, I suddenly felt comforted. At ease. Safe amidst this sudden circle of interrogating superheroes….

"Noir has been through a lot. More than any of you can imagine. Whatever has brought him into this City, I'm sure it's for a noble reason. Who are we to question the decisions of a Titan? Especially in recent aftermath of Robin's horrible death?"

"And you would know this….why?" Green Lantern looked above me. "Because he's written to you, Diana?"

"…..," I blinked. My lips parted as I turned and looked over my shoulder.

Wonder Woman stood behind me, a hand on my arm and her other against her hip. She uttered: "Just call it woman's intuition."

"……"

She looked down at me. She winked and whispered: "It's okay, Noir. You're among friends here."

"……….," and I finally smiled.\


	207. Metropolitan part 2

**207. Metropolitan part 2**

"Terra?"

…………

"T-Terra?"

…………

Kara walked into the downstairs living room of the Kent's house. Dressed in a sweat and sweatpants for around the house. She carried a bundle of blankets.

The darkness of the Kansas night lingered outside the windows. The dim blue of starlight reflected off the wide stretches of open farmfields and gave the illusion of a house drifting in the middle of a waving, tall-grass sea.

Kara stood at the entrance of the living room. She held the blanket bundles to her chest and gazed about.

The fireplace was lit. The flickering embers were still warm. Toasty. The logs crackled and spat ashes out against the transparent glass guard circling the hearth. A halo of comfy heat billowed out from the center chamber, chasing away the cold creeping in through the rickety, wooden corners of the old farmhouse.

Terra sat on the couch. Her legs curled up. Her arms hugging herself. Dressed in a large t-shirt and shorts, the still-frail blonde was obviously shivering, obviously huddled, obviously cold.

And she was making a good show of denying it.

"H-Hey, Terra….," Kara awkwardly walked over to the couch and held the blankets out. "Ma said you were down here alone. And….heh…I know that fireplace will only do so much good. Especially this time of year. I thought that you might be cold and……" Her voice drifted off.

Terra half-looked at the Girl of Steel. Her blue eyes remained lowered. Perhaps out of reverence. Perhaps out of shame. Perhaps out of both. She clutched herself tighter and shivered once…twice…as she gazed into the blazes.

Kara bit her lip.

A beat.

She smiled awkwardly and fluffed a blanket out. She spread it over Terra's lap and lower torso.

Terra flinched once…but gave in. Snuggling into the blanket. Shuddering. "Th-Thanks….," she whispered.

"You're welcome," Kara said. The supergirl swallowed. "I….I-I just want you to know that….th-that Jordan asked me to take care of you. And I'm going to do that. No matter what. You're safe here with us, Terra."

"J-Jordan?" the blonde murmured.

"Oh. Uhm. Noir. Noir asked me to take care of you."

"So….th-that's his name….."

"Yeah…," Kara nodded.

A beat.

Kara ran a hand through her platinum blonde hair. "So…..uhm…."

A beat.

She smiled again, a painful endeavor. She waved nervously and said: "I'll….ch-check up on you later. I gotta put this fire out eventually anyways. At least, that's what Ma wants. I think the fire's just fine being left to burn out the way it is, but….." Her voice lingered again.

Terra was silent.

Stone.

Snuggling in the blankets.

"…….y-yeah…..," Kara muttered, her eyes to the floor. "The extent of my life's excitement….."

"……….."

"Y-You know where I am if you need me…," Kara gestured and slowly turned around to leave the room.

Then Terra muttered something.

Kara paused, turned, and asked in spite of her super-hearing. "What was that?"

Terra took a deep breath. She uttered: "Everyone is…always offering me blankets…."

Kara shrugged. "I guess it's because…..well….you look so cold….."

"Is th-that it?" Terra murmured.

A beat. "Well, I don't know," Kara said. "To be honest. Why do you think it is?"

"…………."

"Ugh….what am I saying?" Kara planted a hand over her face and shook her head. "That's a stupid question if ever I heard one. Sorry…just….d-desperate to get you to talk, I guess. You've been like a stone ever since you got here." A beat. A hard grimace. "Ah jeez….I-I didn't mean that. I—"

"It's all right….," Terra murmured. She curled up under the blanket and clutched it to herself. "I just….."

A beat.

Kara tilted her head to the side. Listening….

"……….," Terra sighed. "Last time I was sleeping on a couch…," she murmured, "…it was at Titan's Tower. When I was _first_ at Titan's Tower….before everything else happened…"

"Uh huh…," Kara leaned against the doorframe to the adjacent highway.

Terra said: "Three nights in a row, Beast Boy kept checking in on me. Sometimes in the middle of the night."

"Peeping Tom?" Kara smirked.

Terra's lips curved ever so slightly in the corners, but her voice denied it. "He seemed to think I was unbelievably cold. Like I hadn't ever slept in a cave in the desert at night before. Like I was lying when I said that the Earth was my home and I knew how to weather its extremes and find comfort in any condition. Like I was some sort of princess….."

"…………."

"I…..I-I never felt so special before……so beloved…b-by someone who—at the time—was a total and complete stranger. Well….actually I-I was the total stranger. Beast Boy…..he…………..," Terra lingered.

Kara folded her arms and said: "He made you feel good about yourself? Sounds like you had a lonesome life before you joined the Titans."

"He made me feel so terrible….," Terra mumbled.

Kara winced.

"Especially when I later rejoined the Titans…," Terra shut her eyes and slowly spoke. "I didn't….I-I didn't have the nerve to tell him…..that I knew…..I knew….."

A beat.

Kara swallowed. "Y-You knew what?"

"I knew that he was there," Terra shuddered. "I knew that he was hugging me in my room on the nights that I was crying in my sleep. I didn't want him to know that I knew that he was holding me. That he was trying to comfort me. I….I-It was all wrong……but….I-I couldn't make him stop. N-Not for the life of me. I wanted everything to feel like those first few days of crashing in on the Titans' couch. I wanted to feel like I was just some poor little princess needing a blanket or two…..and maybe some person to cuddle with me…….."

Silence.

Kara ran a hand through her bangs again and sighed hopefully: "You'll get a chance someday, Terra. I'm sure of it. Once….uhm…..once Jordan gets his little mission out of the way, you'll meet up with the Titans. You'll get that chance to be with Beast Boy again."

Terra sniffed. "I-I'm not sure I want that anymore…..," she hid her face in the side of the couch as the fireplace crackled and flickered soft amber. "….I can never…t-truly go back. Not after what I've done….."

"…………….," Kara opened her mouth to say something. But she didn't. She slowly turned around and walked lethargically up the stairs to the second floor of the Kents' house.

Terra shivered by herself…

And quietly cried.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kara stood halfway up the stairs.

In the dim light, she hugged herself.

And sighed.

"……………."

She gazed down at the first room floory.

Staring through the walls at the unseen Terra.

Her blue eyes tired…narrow.

"…………………"

She tilted her head back.

She shut her eyes.

She groaned.

"Jordan…..you idiot…..why do I always let you have your way?"

A beat.

She gazed back towards the first floor again.

She nervously toyed with a lock of blonde hair over her ear.

"You're going to get screwed in a freak-spawning pool like Metropolis. Damn it….why couldn't I go with you?"

She fidgeted.

She stared at the wall.

Slowly…gradually, her head tilted about and gazed towards her rom.

A beat.

She murmured, her eyes thin: "Maybe you couldn't have a Supergirl come with you….but it doesn't mean somebody can't still help you. Howbeit……..invisible……"

A breath of wind through the cracks of a nearby window.

Kara smiled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of Kara's bedroom window, the Girl of Steel sat cross-legged atop the farmhouse's roof.

She cradled a portable phone between her chin and shoulder, all the while hugging herself amidst the cold breezes of Kansas November nighttime.

"Hello? Babs?"

A beat.

"Yeah….th-this is Kara…"

Another beat.

Kara took a breath and smiled softly: "Remember that favor you said you owed me for….ya know…..dropping by and beating up the Clock King months ago?"

……

"Yeah….uh……..I-I think I got a need. That is to say……a friend in need……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 16, 2005.

South Metropolis.

S.T.A.R. Labs.

9:21 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You look like you've seen a lot of hard action, Noir. I spot at least five new scars on you since the time I saw you at Robin's funeral."

"…………."

"Noir?"

"…………"

"Noir, are you okay?"

I was staring out a window of the side of the S.T.A.R. laboratory. Out at the glittering waters of Metropolis' dark Bay.

I took a deep breath.

I turned around.

Across the crystal clean laboratory, the Justice League stared at me.

'Most' of them.

Superman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, the Flash…

And Wonder Woman.

I stared back at them.

I firmly raised my hands and signed: _'Who here understands sign language?'_

'_Ahoy there,'_ one responed.

I glanced over.

Green Lantern.

"You got something to say?"

I looked at him.

I hand-signed: _'My business in Metropolis is my own. I do not want to attract attention.'_

Green Lantern's emerald eyes narrowed. He hand-signed back: _'You seem to have Wonder Woman's attention. What does she know that we do not?'_

I gazed at Princess Diana, then at Green Lantern again.

'_You ask her.'_

The galactic guardian sighed.

Martian Manhunter droned: "Perhaps it would be easier if I were to translate the boy's words for the rest of us."

"Yeah….," the Flash nodded. "I could use subtitles for 'mute'."

Diana smirked slightly.

Superman looked at me. "How 'bout it, Noir?"

"………..," I looked at the Martian.

He stared at me. Or at least I thought so. I couldn't make heads or tails out of those alien eyes of his.

_Wouldn't Raven love to be here…… _

'_Why is that, Jordan?'_

I winced.

_I wished you would warn me before doing that._

'_I thought I did……' _

_True……True……_

A beat.

_I never wanted to run into the League. I stopped Livewire only because she was going to hurt people if I didn't do anything to intervene. And even then, I fought her off where nobody could see me. This was supposed to be a covert venture in Metropolis. The less attention I gather, the better._

"He came to Metropolis without the intent of attracting attention," Martian Manhunter said aloud, sideways to the League. "Livewire was a casualty of circumstance. He was merely trying to protect people."

"Pfft! What is he, stupid?" Flash smirked and planted his hands on his hips. "The whole point of being in Metropolis _is_ to attract attention!" He winked and pointed at himself: "That's why I moved in from Keystone, to tell the truth."

"……………," Wonder Woman and Green Lantern stared at him.

A beat.

"What?"

"…….," I turned and looked at Martian Manhunter.

_Just __**why**__ are you here anyways? All of you?_

"He wants to know what we are doing here," the robed extraterrestrial said.

Superman gestured: "Ever since the Watchtower was destroyed in the battle with the Thanagarians, we've set up a temporary base of operations here in S.T.A.R. Labs. I still have a few allies here in the laboratory. Many are assisting with recent plans to reconstruct a new and improved Watchtower, among a few other things I have planned for the revitalization of the League."

I squinted my black eyes at him.

_You make it sound like the League is in some sort of limbo or something._

"We have seen finer days, yes," Martian Manhunter said. "The loss of Hawkgirl has been most problematic."

"Yes…," Green Lantern folded his arms and grunted with a sort of indignance. "_Most_ problematic….."

I looked at him curiously.

"This City needs superheroic intervention more than any other," Wonder Woman said. A slight smile: "When you wean Metropolis on Superman, it's hard for it to develop a palette for anyone less protective."

"Heh….," Flash winked at Martian Manhunter. "She said 'wean'."

"Hrmm…."

"I don't think it's we who need to be giving any special explanations…," Green Lantern walked towards me and pointed. "What's so special here in Metropolis that makes you sneak in under our noses?"

I frowned and hand-signed at him: _'None of your business.'_

"As protector of this galactic sector—much less this _continent_—I'm pretty damn sure it **is** my business!"

"G.L.! Come on….," Flash zipped over and patted his shoulder. "That's like you tightening the noose around Nightwing's neck for giving Blockbuster a hard time miles away from here!"

Green Lantern merely glared at me: "Let's just say I've gotten….sorely wary of people doing sneaky things in the Titans' midst."

"………."

Superman walked over. "It's one thing to be suspicious. But it doesn't mean we can't be at least understanding, Green Lantern." The Kryptonian faced me and waved a hand: "Noir, you left the Titans. Why was it?"

I folded my arms and glanced aside like some stubborn teenage son.

"Noir, Robin's death was hard on all of us. Even for those of us who knew him more in lore than loyalty. I spent an agonized night trying to formulate a eulogy befitting the Boy Wonder the day of his honorary funeral in your City. I can't imagine how much harder it must have been to spend so many nightmarish hours defending your City from Dagger—from death and destruction—just to see Robin's life extinguished in such a disheartening fashion as you did. But sometimes sorrow can be equally motivating as it can be paralyzing. And I only hope….I only hope that it hasn't pushed you in some dangerous, futile direction. I know, Noir, that the life of a superhero is something bent entirely on movement at times. Even if that movement may be going nowhere."

I shook my head, groaning mutely.

_You don't know anything._

Martian Manhunter looked at Superman: "You do not know anything."

The Man of Steel blinked.

"Hey…maybe he was just—ya know—going on some vacation?" the Flash shrugged. "I'd come here to get my mind off of things, especially considering the Hell that boiled over in the Titans' City."

"Yes….but you don't go on vacation with a sword strapped to your back," Green Lantern said.

"Look who's talking! Sheesh, G.L.! You wouldn't even take that ring off for a Burger King drive thru!"

I took a step towards the group, catching half of their attention.

I hand-gestured and 'thought' at the same time:

_If I had my way, I would have simply vanished at the first sight of you, Superman. But I knew two things. One: The League would track me down. Two: You all would find that suspicious. But please understand, there's nothing to be suspicious about. I'm merely here to perform an investigation. I need to find out about a few things. Only then will I know if there's a sufficient enough concern to be wary of…a wariness befitting of the League, much less me._

"He is here on investigation," Martian Manhunter said. "He is not entirely sure as to the gravity of what he is researching. It is not deserving the League's attention until he learns more."

"If it's no big deal, then maybe it wouldn't hurt you to _share_, Noir," Green Lantern said.

I sighed. A hand over my face. Shaking my head….

_Keep your mind focused. _

_Narrow your thoughts._

_Say only that which needs to be said._

_Without exposing……what's at your heels……_

I looked up.

Martian Manhunter was staring fixedly at me.

But I sensed no returning thoughts.

Despite what I had just 'said' to myself.

"…….."

I took a deep breath and concentrated:

_I was at Las Vegas. During the catastrophe._

"He was in Vegas," Martian Manhunter said.

Flash gasped.

Superman's and Green Lantern's eyes widened.

Wonder Woman was silent.

I continued:

_I learned from the evil powers and corporations there about a hideous danger. Something tied in with Lex Luthor. A terrible danger that could threaten my City, Metropolis, and other countless regions abroad._

"A conspiracy," Martian Manhunter droned. "Luthor's involved. A threat to many cities."

"Lex Luthor?" Superman remarked breathily.

I nodded.

_In alliance with Dagger and the top criminals of Gotham City. It is a huge, triangular axis of evil. We're all on the verge of something. Something nameless and terrible. Something that will dwarf November Fourth like it was just a sand castle._

This time, Martian Manhunter directly answered me: "You were intending to intercede Lex Luthor on your own, were you not?"

I bit my lip.

"You believed that he would give you answers?"

I clenched my teeth.

_He __**will**__ give me answers._

"He will also overwhelm you with his security and defensive measures. Luthor is a very dangerous man. Even more dangerous when trying to convict him."

"What's he saying?" Green Lantern asked.

"Lex Luthor is up to something," Martian Manhunter said.

"You believe him?" Superman asked.

"Heh….," Flash scratched the back of his neck. "Don't we all know better that—if it's rumored Lex is up to something dirty—than he's up to something dirty?"

"What is that man planning that is so nefarious, Noir?" Wonder Woman asked.

"He is being ambiguous," Martian Manhunter said. "I….." He looked at me.

I looked at him.

"….I sense much danger. An unspeakable danger…," the alien's eyes narrowed. "But it is not Luthor…."

I bit my lip.

"Something else…."

"Yeah? Like what?" Flash asked.

I suddenly jolted.

I felt a chill.

Shooting up my metal prosthetic again.

I shuddered.

I bent over.

I clenched my arm.

Wonder Woman's lips parted. She shifted forward: "N-Noir? What is it?"

I was sweating.

The chill paralyzed me.

I winced all over.

_R-Red Aviarrrrrry……_

"He's not looking too hot," Green Lantern said shiftily.

"Yeah, no kidding!"

I slumped over against the window of the edge of the laboratory.

Panting.

I looked out.

My black eyes were thin.

I saw the Metropolis waters through the dark glass.

Black waves tossing.

Turning.

I blinked.

I saw the land morph about.

Something rose out from the rocky bluffs.

Like a tower.

A bright light strobed at the top.

Pulsing across the land.

And the sky….

It was red.

It was….

Red…..

_Rrrrrrrrreddddd Aviarrrrrrryyyy………_

I shuddered.

I clutched my metal wrist tighter.

A cold flash.

I swallowed.

_The earth…… _

_It has bled._

_And the sky……_

_The sk-sky………_

I tilted my head up.

I envisioned the tower growing taller.

The pulse of light burning brighter.

The sky turning…….redder……

_He's here. _

_Somewhere in this City._

_He……knows………_

_He already knows where I am……_

'_Who, Jordan? Who knows?'_

_Get out of m-my mind……_

'_What is it that has you in such a grip of panic?'_

_Red Aviary…… _

_I……_

_I-I can feel him……_

_Already……_

'_Jordan?'_

_Robin……_

"Jordan?"

_Robin……he's coming after me next_

"Jordan!"

A strong hand gripped my shoulder.

I snapped out of it.

I closed my black eyes. When I reopened them, the Bay outside the window was back to its cold and dull normality.

I shuddered.

I turned and looked up.

Wonder Woman was bracing my shoulder. She was concerned. "You looked like you were about to collapse for a moment there. Are you all right?"

I took a nervous breath. I flexed my metal knuckles. The chill was gone.

"……..," I nodded.

I slowly stood up straight and looked at the group.

A beat.

"…….."

I hand-signed: _'Where is Batman?'_

"Batman?" Green Lantern said aloud. "He isn't here."

I gave him a look.

Superman stepped forward: "Batman hasn't been with the League….in a while."

I leaned my head to the side. I mouthed: _'Since when?'_

"The Thanagarian incident," Superman said. "He's had important business in Gotham City. There have been numerous escapes from Arkham Asylum. Killer Croc, the Ventriloquist, and Clayface were among them."

I nodded.

_I know the Killer Croc part._

A beat.

I ran a hand through my hair.

_Still……when Robin died……_

"Are you sure you're okay?" Wonder Woman asked. "Noir, if there is such a dire need to investigate Luthor, the League would surely—"

"No, we wouldn't," Green Lantern interrupted.

Wonder Woman glared over at him: "And why not?"

"Because we have more pressing things," the man said. "More _concrete_ things!"

Wonder Woman pointed at me: "In case you haven't noticed, Noir here has taken care of Livewire all on his lonesome."

"And do you think he will take care of Parasite and Volcana all on his lonesome as well?" Green Lantern gestured. "The League has business elsewhere. We can't be divided at a time like this. Besides, the kid's rather insistent on keeping secrets."

"Who's saying that we're divided?" Wonder Woman frowned. "Green Lantern, you know that my loyalty has always been and shall always be with the Justice League first—"

"I'm not questioning that, Diana," the man replied. "I just think we've got better things to do right now than waste time over an angsty little sword-swinger who—" he glared at me "—obviously wants **nothing** to do with us in the first place!"

I glared back.

Superman was sighing.

We all looked at him.

He rubbed his forehead and said: "Why are our tempers so short? Let's keep the main focus in check…" He looked up and said: "Green Lantern's right, Diana. The League has important threats to deal with. And it's prudent that we deal with those right away and leave Noir's supposition for what it is. Supposition."

"I'm sure he has more to tell us," Wonder Woman said. "If we would just give him some—"

"Green Lantern," Superman ignored Wonder Woman and spoke to the guardian. "I admire you keeping us all in line. But give Noir some credit, please. After all, he's not a bad guy."

"Do any of you even wonder what he was doing in that Vegas mishap to begin with?" Green Lantern remarked. "I just don't like the fact that he's hiding stuff."

"But he is benevolent," Martian Manhunter said. "I can sense that."

"And the alien's always right!" the Flash winked.

"Hmpph…save it for later," the Green Lantern said. He marched out of the room through a pair of automatic doors.

I watched him go.

"Don't mind him, Kiddo…."

I looked over at the Flash.

"He still has his feathers ruffled from the loss of someone else's feathers," he smirked.

"Flash….we don't know that for sure," Wonder Woman said.

Flash folded his arms and looked at the Martian Manhunter. "Marvin?"

The alien's eyes narrowed. "It is not my place to say."

"Pffft! I swear…you're all too adult for your own good," he dashed out through the automatic doors after Green Lantern before they closed. "The guy's lovesick, I tell you!" _ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHIP!_

_Schwissh!_

"Superman….," Wonder Woman looked across the room at the Kryptonian. "…back when we started the correspondence between our team and the Titans, I thought the intent was to support each other's organization when the time would require our combined strength. Why can't we intercede on Noir's behalf?"

I looked at Wonder Woman, then at Martian Manhunter.

_I……don't……need……help……_

"He insists that he does not require assistance," the alien said.

Wonder Woman frowned and forced me to look up at her. "Yes you **do**, Noir! You can't do this on your own!"

I shook my head and made to walk away from her—

"Jordan…."

"………..," I looked up at her.

The Amazon's eyes were cold, but earnest. Entreating. "You need help….we've found something…."

My black eyes narrowed.

Her lips moved: "_We've_ found…..something…."

I deeply inhaled.

A chill ran up my metal arm.

I clenched my titanium wrist and tried not to show it.

Wonder Woman swallowed. She looked up and over at Superman.

Superman waited for her eye contact, took a breath, and said: "I'm not denying that the League and the Titans must rely on each other, Diana. But we need time to know more about why Noir's here. Until when or if that happens, we need to deal with League business."

"But….didn't he say—"

"Lex Luthor is _always_ up to something," Superman said. A slight smirk. "Trust me. I know him more than anyone."

Wonder Woman slowly nodded. "Yes…."

Superman wandered over to me.

I tilted my head up to look in his eyes.

"…….," he rested a steely hand on my shoulder. He said: "If you want us to be of any help—leaving you alone or fighting by your side—you need to help us _understand_ a little, Noir. You get it?"

"………"

He chuckled slightly to himself and folded his arms: "It'll never cease to amaze me."

"?"

"You 'dark' types," he said. "Batman's always insisting that he can take care of all sorts of monstrosities and horrors on his own. And you know what amazes me the most?" He turned and headed for the door, but not without glancing over his caped shoulder and winking: "He's somehow right……."

"………..," my lips curved slightly.

"We have company," Martian Manhunter droned.

Indeed, right as Superman reached the doors to the laboratory, they opened up and Professor Hamilton stood before us.

Superman stepped back. A cold breath. He uttered: "Professor…"

Hamilton tried to maintain a deadpan face, but ever so slight a glare protruded from the corner of his human eyes. "Superman…."

"Did you--"

"Livewire is contained…..for the moment….," the man adjusted his spectacles and said: "As always, she suffered the usual trauma from the water-induced shock you vigilantes always seem to put her through as the coupe de grace."

"That was not our doing," Martian Manhunter said. "Noir incapacitated her."

"'Incapacitated'…..hmmmm," Hamilton turned and looked at me. Eyes thin.

"……….," I stared back.

He spoke: "The younger they are….the darker they get…."

Superman frowned: "Noir saved a lot of people. Livewire is a homicidal maniac. One second too late, and she would have--"

"I know….I know…," Hamilton sighed. "It just seems as if all the metaphysical beings are coming to Metropolis. There was once a time when we were free of such constant, chaotic anomalies." He turned and looked squarely at the Kryptonian. "There was once a time when we were…..clean."

Superman's eyes narrowed.

Wonder Woman planted her hands on her hips and glared at the scientist: "Professor…what was it that Superman did to make you hate him so much?"

"Hate him? No….No, Wonder Woman, I do not hate any of you…," Hamilton sighed. "I merely doubt. Sometimes…" His gaze drifted off. "…sometimes I feel I'm the only person in this City who doubts."

"Hard feelings set aside, Hamilton," Superman gestured, "Thank you for letting us assemble here. Green Lantern and the Flash are presently assembling a reconnaissance mission to search the location of the Parasite and Volcana. The League will be busy for the next few days."

"And maybe sometime soon you'll have a new Watchtower so I wouldn't have to sacrifice some of this City's highly-funded research space," the Professor said. "Now if you don't mind…I have a Metropolis University team coming in to perform some expensive botany experiments. The swifter you get to action, the better."

"You mean the sooner we're out of your sight," Wonder Woman muttered.

"Your words, ma'am. Not mine."

"J'onn, let's go…," Superman walked out of the laboratory.

Martian Manhunter silently morphed into an incorporeal form and sunk through the floor.

I found myself drifting past Hamilton and wandering down the hallway towards the exit. Wonder Woman walked beside me.

And she was speaking: "Before you run out into that dark night on your own, Noir….please hear me out…."

I gently nodded without looking. Unlike everyone else in that City, I wasn't going to give her the cold shoulder.

_I've come to trust people named 'Diana' in my life……_

"I know that something haunts you, Jordan. I don't know what it is. But it's filled you with a fear. A fear for yourself. A fear for the League. But most of all…a fear for your friends….."

I couldn't help but shudder.

I flexed my shaking left hand…

"You found her, didn't you?" she glanced aside at me. "You found Terra?"

I looked at her. Surprised.

She gazed forward again. Deadpan. "If nothing else, come to the Eastside Apartments. Building B. Room 1307."

I leaned my head to the side. Curious.

"Yes….," she said. "My place…"

I bit my lip.

She looked at me. "This is important. I've followed you through the last letters you've sent me. I wouldn't be beckoning you if what's been discovered wasn't important to the desperate young man who wrote to me on the lonely trip to Vegas."

"…………"

"I'll let you go through Metropolis alone. Though I personally doubt it'll help, I know you feel it's the best to keep a low profile that way…"

And before I knew it, we were outside of S.T.A.R. Labs.

The cold November Night stretched overhead.

She turned and faced me.

"But above all else….be careful, Jordan," she placed a hand on my shoulder. "There are very….very frightening things taking place at this moment in time. And it might intrigue you to know….it all stems from your City." Her eyes narrowed. "It all starts under the shadow of the Titans…."

"……..," I gazed at her.

She took a breath and flew off into the dark night, travelling north along the Alantic Coast of Metropolis.

_The shadow of the Titans……_

I watched her fly away.

I felt a chill beyond the November night.

Something rising up inside of me like a terribly bright and lonesome lighthouse.

_Don't you mean, Diana…… _

_That everything stems from __**me**__?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked through Metropolis on foot.

I _walked, _not _blurred_.

As much as I felt like something was creeping up on me, I couldn't shake the fact that….

Any little move.

Any swift dash against the wind…

And I might attract attention.

_But who? _

_What?_

_Was he really here?_

_Was the Parasite eyeing me?_

_Was the bane of Terra about to become the bane of me?_

I hugged myself as I walked along the Eastern Districts of Metropolis.

The shipyards.

The marinas.

Factories. Warehouses. Wharfs. Boatdocks.

Cold mist from the Ocean billowed in.

Clinging to my limbs.

Chilling me.

_Chilling……_

I shuddered.

I looked behind me.

_No one……_

I crept on ahead.

Metropolis had a dark side.

And I was walking straight through it.

Dark, rickety wooden buildings.

Pale yellow lights dangling off of weak and weary lammposts.

The distant clanging bell of a rusted buoy in the waters.

I felt like the intestines of the Atlantic Ocean were beckoning to me.

Some field of worms squirming in ravenous delight.

I knew I was walking on two solid feet, but I felt like collapsing or falling any second.

Not from something invisible.

But something very bright.

Loud.

Red.

_Red……_

I paused.

I looked over my shoulder again.

I bit my lip.

_I've felt this before…… _

_This……_

_This feeling……_

I crept on forward again.

_The night Robin died. _

_I felt it._

_Like red fingers._

_The fingers that armed and set off the carbonite detonator._

_The breath that killed the Boy Wonder from afar……_

I shuddered.

_Robin……_

FLASH!

'_Robin!'_

_My arm was frozen. _

_My whole body shivering._

_Rrrrrred Aviarrrrry……_

'_R-Robin!' the voice cried out again. A girl's voice. _

_I spun about._

_I stared down a rusted catwalk caked in brown mud._

_A dark-haired little thing was being enveloped in a golem of slime._

_She reached a hand out to me, crying: 'Run, Robin! Hurry!'_

_I panted. _

_I looked down at my hands._

_Black gloves._

_Red, black, and yellow tights._

_An eyemask……_

'_ROBIN!'_

_I looked up._

_Starfire was squirming in Beast Boy's arms._

_Screaming._

'_N'mberuut de X'hal! CLATTA SEREK'N MALADRIET ROBIN DE X'HAL! DE X'HAL!'_

_She and Beast Boy were hidden by flames._

_Close flames. _

_Flames all around me._

_I looked around with blue eyes._

_Shuddering._

_The carbonite explosion went off._

_My skin started to melt._

_The sarcophagus closed around me._

_I tilted my head back and screamed._

_An evaporating laugh of hell._

_The crackling white static at the corners of a monochromatic snapshot._

_Of a bus depot in Gotham City._

_A girl in red with black hair._

_Fading away…_

_Mud glopping all over it._

_The glass of the picture frame……_

_Shattering._

_**CRACK! **_

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled forward and landed against a wall.

THWUMP!

I leanded against it, shuddering mutely.

Shivering.

My metal arm wanted to convulse.

_Rrrrrred Aviarrrrry……_

I sweated all over.

_It's happening again. _

_Again._

_Full Circle._

I gulped.

I panted.

I crept forward, looking over my shoulder across the darkness of the shipyards.

Cowering….

_He is here. _

_He sees me._

_I can feel him._

_I can feel him._

_Red Aviary……_

I stumbled over a pothole full of muddied water.

I hurried my pace and numbly ran around a nearby warehouse.

I planted myself back against a wall.

Hyperventilating.

Black eyes wide.

My metal arm twitching with each ice pick stab of shivers billowing into me from the prosthetic.

_Rrrrrrrrred __**AVIARY!**_

My head pulsed.

I groaned mutely and clutched my head.

I fell on my knees, throbbing in pain.

_I…… _

_I have f-felt this before……_

_I have felt it._

_But……why am I feeling it again?_

_It is not my element._

_I am Balance._

_I am BALANCE!_

_Not Destruction!_

_I hugged myself._

I stared up at the clear, Metropolis sky.

My black eyes twitched and I could have sworn….

The stars bled crimson.

_He is consuming me. _

_He is c-consuming me……_

I clutched my head and shook it.

_No…… _

_No………I must keep going._

_I mustn't let Red Aviary find me._

_I must stop Triangular first._

_I must ensure Terra her life!_

_Her child!_

_The T-Titans!_

_RRRRRRREDDDDDDD AVVIAARRRYYYYYY. _

_Nnnnnghhh!_

_**FLASH!**_

_I gasped. _

_I was thirteen years old._

_My brown eyes teared as I sat on my knees._

_In the tall grass._

_Watching lines of students practice in perfect coordination._

_The swinging of their wooden bokens._

_The misty sky of Washington drifting over._

_Ana giggled._

_I looked over._

_The two of them were walking towards me._

_The other students and the tall grass faded into white._

"_Fallen down again, Jordan?" she giggled. Blonde hair. Eyes like an angel._

"_Some Balance!" he said. "Always so clumsy……," he said……_

_My brown eyes narrowed._

"_Always so clumsy……," he smiled._

_I exhaled._

"_So……c-c-clumsy……"_

_His hazel eyes strobed __**RED!**_

_**FLASH!**_

"_AAAAAAAAAAUUUGHHHHHHHH!" _

_We heard him scream._

_His voice echoed down the chambers._

_Ana and I shivered._

_We couldn't do anything. _

_We were tied to the damp walls._

_Huddled in the darkness of the dungeon._

_Waiting our turn……_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHHHH! MY EYESSSS! MOMMMYYYYY!" _

_**FLASH!**_

_Gripping Myrkblade._

_Standing on a platform of rusted metal._

_Surrounded._

_Surrouned._

_Surrounded by red._

_I panted._

_I bled._

_Bodies._

_Entrails._

_The ring._

_The ring……_

"_What did you do, Jordan?"_

_I tilted my head up. _

_My black eyes flickered._

_And I grinned._

_And I laughed._

"_**JORDAN, WHAT DID YOU DO?"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Robin screamed. _

_Robin roasted._

_Robin slumped into a pile of ashen pieces._

_And somewhere someone laughed._

_Like the demon in the ring._

_Like the parasite in the belly of the half-slain beast._

_Hidden hellfire._

_Flashing._

_Strobing._

_Two orbs of red._

_Two orbs._

_Swallowing the fire…._

_**FLASH!**_

I coughed and sputtered.

Curled on the street floor.

Shivering all over.

Shuddering….

"…………………….."

"Uh…..yo…ahoy there, kid…."

"…………………….."

"…………..you don't look so hot……"

I stirred.

Wincing.

I looked up with weak eyes, shaded.

A ridiculously obese sailor in a blue jacket and equally blue cap squinted down at me with a Popeye frown. "You got the runs or somethin'? Heheh…bet you ate some of them rotten steak sandwiches over at the Pelican Corner. Eh? That stuff can send you reeling for a week."

I groaned mutely. I clutched my metal limb. The chill had faded. I sighed…..

"Hey, you got a home, pal? These aren't exactly the safest streets in da world…."

I tried to stand up…when I felt another body walk up and offer me a hand. A feminine hand.

"Whoah! Where'd you come from?" the fat sailor frowned. A beat. He brightened. "Oh…M-Miss Sawyer! I-I didn't know…"

"At ease, Bibbo. I'll take care of this poor sap."

I looked up weakly and saw the blonde, short-haired police commissioner of Metropolis. She was giving me a hand, which I gladly took, standing up on wobbly feet.

I blinked.

Panting.

_Margaret Sawyer?_

The woman adjusted her brown trenchcoat and looked at me with a firm gaze. "Noir, you're a long way from Titan's Tower. You should know better than to walk through this part of Metropolis. Sick or not…collapsing in the middle of the street is just _asking_ for some creep to take advantage of your throat."

"Whoah! You mean to say that this kid here's one of them Titans?" 'Bibbo' remarked. "Heh. Does Supes know about this visitor?"

"I'm sure he knows plenty…," Margaret Sawyer mumbled. "But right now, I'm worried about getting this hero somewhere safe." She looked at me. Eyes thin. "Come with me, Jordan. We've got to get somewhere."

My black eyes narrowed.

_Jordan………_

A beat.

I slowly nodded at Sawyer.

Understanding.

"Well then…official business and stuff, I guess…," the fat sailor shrugged.

"None of your concern," Sawyer guided me down the streets of the shipyard. "Keep eyeing the street like you always do, Bibbo. You're priceless in that aspect."

"Priceless….heh…," Bibbo grunted with a smirk and waddled off towards the docks. "…if only my third wife called me that…."

His voice faded as he faded in the shadows of the Eastern District.

Sawyer and I walked together.

"Wonder Woman was considering your feelings when she let you walk to her apartment on your own," the Commissioner said. "But she was not considering the same danger that plagues you. The darkness that paralyzed you just now…"

I glared at the blonde woman beside me.

_You aren't who you look like……_

Sawyer nodded. In a fluctuation of green light, she turned into a he. A Martian Manhunter he.

"Maybe now you will consider canceling the 'solo' nature of this mission."

I exhaled.

_And lemme guess, you want the League to help me._

Martian Manhunter unemotionally uttered: "What League?"

I blinked. I looked at him, surprised.

"The Titans, Jordan, are not the only teammates to experience trouble in these times. The League has felt an intense, all-consuming evil. Perhaps it is the same thing that brings you here to Metropolis. Perhaps it is something else altogether. But whatever the case, now that you are here….we need your insight as much as you need our support."

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

_Thanks……seriously._

"You are most welcome," he said. "The death of Robin created a terrible rift, Jordan. A rift that is as real as it is covert. This goes beyond the average conspiracy theory. This deals with the very fabric of what superheroes define 'good' and 'evil'."

I nodded shakily.

_The Balance of Morals._

Martian Manhunter said: "Call if what you will."

I gazed back nervously towards the shadowed warehouses behind us.

"Jordan, what was it that you experienced when you collapsed back there?"

I sighed.

I looked forward.

_I'm……I'm not sure……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I rang the doorbell.

Standing alone in the apartment hallway.

Before room '1307'.

"………"

The door opened.

Diana. Jeans. A t-shirt. Jacket.

"Good. You made it already," she nodded. She opened the door wide and drifted back into the room. "Come in."

I ducked into the doorway. I stood in the atrium of Wonder Woman's—er—Diana's apartment.

She closed the door behind me.

She stood.

I stood.

A beat.

"You too, J'onn," Diana said.

A fluctuation.

Martian Manhunter rose up from the floor and solidified. Robed and tall stature and all. "He collapsed on the way. I was keeping an eye on him just in case. I escorted him the rest of the way from the shipyard to here."

"……..," Diana nodded. A sigh. She turned and looked at me: "Something _is_ really chasing after you. Isn't it?"

"………," I bit my lip. I nodded.

Diana closed her eyes. As if gravity was settling in. But she didn't look surprised. "The Justice League is falling apart, Jordan. It might not look like it on the surface. But people are scared. Confused. Heroes even. You're not the only one wandering alone, Jordan. We're all drifting aimlessly in our own way."

"……..," I listened closely.

Martian Manhunter spoke: "The other members of the League do not know that we are meeting here. And it is not our desire to conspire against them. We are merely wanting to assist you. Because you may be onto something far more dangerous than what the rest of us see at eye level." His alien optics narrowed. "You sense….something beyond the average _Spectrum."_

I swallowed.

_Yes, I suppose I do._

I couldn't help but glare at the two.

_But how did you two know to contact __**me**__? _

"_It was not our initiative to contact you," Martian Manhunter said._

A young voice uttered deeply from the far side of the room: "It was **mine**."

They both turned to look.

So did I.

And my jaw dropped.

"…….," Tempest walked into the apartment atrium. His dark eyes firm. "I found something, Noir." He stood straight with his hands in his pockets. "And I need you to see it."


	208. Metropolitan part 3

**208. Metropolitan part 3**

"Tempest came here over a week ago. Around the same time you left the Titans and headed west," Diana explained. "He came here with the intent to appeal to the Justice League. But as soon as I saw him, I knew that the League would only pay partial interest in what he had to share. After all, if the Titans spat him out…."

"The Titans didn't 'spit me out'," Tempest corrected. He leaned against a wall in the living room area of Diana's apartment. "But they just as well could have. Or at least in time, I'd probably be given the boot." He turned and looked at me with his white-on-black eyes. "Certainly you felt it while you were with the Titans, Noir. The utter…..the utter coldness of what we are now….or rather, what _they_ are….."

"………………," I stared at him.

His dark optics narrowed. "I've been keeping track, Noir. As much as I can since I've been the one of us two still closer to the Titans….geographically…"

I nodded. I leaned forward, curious.

"Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy…..the four are still together. They've had very little crime or mishap to deal with since Dagger's invasion of the City and Robin's death. But the incidents they have dealt with—well—have been a tad bit dramatic."

I raised an eyebrow.

"There is an iciness seeping through the Titans' ranks. Something cold and hard and….yes….laced with hate. They don't hate each other….not yet. But they survive by a felicity as thin as eel skin. They're prone to break down at anytime. They may look like a team on the outside. But something's gotta give. And soon. I don't know how long they'll remain as the four shadows of Robin. But it is only a matter of time before they break apart. I predict Beast Boy will be the first to leave. He'll probably take on another name and try and find other people to hang out with. Maybe his Doom Patrol of old. And Starfire? She may stay on this planet. But I think the City is too sorrowful a reminder of Robin for her to stick to it. Cyborg and Raven look destined to stay with each other for the long haul. But even if they do that…what would become of the 'Titans' group of old? Would they get recruits? Who would join them? Speedy? Supergirl? Nova'm? Certainly not I at this point in time. And you……"

He pointed at me.

I stood dead still.

He smiled tiredly. "I should have known that you would have left the Titans. I wrote Lindsay about it. I've _been_ writing Lindsay about it. You remember Lindsay, right? Daughter of God? Freckled-faced maiden of virginity?"

A sap-happy sigh momentarily escaped Tempest's lips.

A beat.

I frowned and cleared my throat.

He snapped out of it and shook his head. "R-Right….back to the topic at hand…."

Diana smirked somewhat.

Martian Manhunter merely stared.

"I mailed her and I told her that I knew you had left for a reason, Noir. Just like me, you couldn't stand the cold, short-minded leadership of Cyborg. You've sensed it…a deliberate hesitance and paralyzing _fear_ on the android Titan's part. Haven't you?"

I bit my lip.

"Cyborg's the worst thing to happen to the Titans since Slade,' Tempest spat. "The best he'll ever do to preserve the Titans is to seal them away in some cold ball of depression and _do nothing_ about the wicked things afoot."

I held my mute tongue. I wasn't….._that_ pessimistic about Cyborg.

_But still. _

_Tempest is right……to some extent._

_Cyborg……_

_I expected more from you._

_Robin's death was terrible and all, but……_

_Why were you so afraid to finish Robin's Contract?_

_Why couldn't you take a risk and have us pursue Terra as a team?_

_It was the most obvious thing to do after Dagger did his damage._

_If you'd just been a bit more brave, maybe I wouldn't have to have—_

"You committed mutiny, Noir."

I looked at Tempest.

He stared squarely at me. "I swam away, and you committed mutiny. It didn't take me too long a drift in the Sea to put two and two together and clap my fins at the realization." He smirked. "You went to find Terra, didn't you? And I bet you succeeded. Cuz you're too Zeus-damn of a regular kind of trout!"

Diana cleared her throat.

Tempest simpered: "Sorry, princess."

"I sometimes wish you Atlanteans would be a little more respectful of who sits on Olympus…"

Martian Manhunter suddenly spoke: "While you ventured west across the continent, Prince Garth skimmed the sea shore."

"Not really 'skimmed'," Tempest shrugged. "More like 'happened upon'."

I leaned my head to the side and mouthed: _'happened upon'_?

He nodded. "It was sitting on the ocean's floor about a mile out from the City shore. All alone. I noticed it because of a bright red light. Something very queer and unnatural in any body of water that close to land. And when I put my hands on it….I…..I-I felt it. I felt that….that it had so much terribly to do with the Titans. And bringing it to the attention of Cyborg and the rest of the team could somehow…." He bit his lip and suddenly hugged himself in a nervous fashion unfitting of 'Tempest'. "I dunno. Somehow it might put the Titans in danger. _Deadly_ danger. The Titans' bane or something. Th-That's what I felt at the time…so I headed north along the shore with what I found."

"And he came to us," Diana said, gesturing. "When I say 'us', I mean the Justice League."

"But Diana and I felt that Superman and the others would not understand the implications of what Tempest brought," Martian Manhunter said. "Tempest told us about the Titans post-Robin, and it seemed an identical story to what the League was going through."

"Superman's vision has been narrow as of late," Diana said. "Green Lantern is constantly irascible and ill-tempered. The Flash is living in the now. And Batman….." A pause. "Batman is nowhere to be seen."

"The League is no longer functioning as a cohesive unit," the alien continued. "A fissure has formed in our ranks. With the arrival of Tempest and his artifact, I began to sense a cause in all of this schism. There is…a spirit of sorts at work in this region. Someone or something wishes to cleave the forces of good in two. And with the death of Robin, that has started."

I took a deep breath.

_Red Aviary……_

"Whoever it is has harnessed a power comparable to Death itself," the Martian stated. "Starting with the Titans and spreading to the Justice League and—now I fear—the defenders of Gotham and Bludhaven, a terrible stroke of Destruction is threatening all that was once whole."

Diana spoke up: "I think that Batman knows more than all of us combined." She turned to look at me and Tempest with an earnest expression. "There's a reason why he wasn't at Robin's funeral. I've worked with Batman long enough to understand a little bit about him. He doesn't _mourn_ the dead just like anybody else. When a hero dies, he busies himself in unraveling the mystery behind such a fatality. Perhaps the death of his former sidekick managed to touch his heart beneath that black leather costume of his. But regardless of emotion, he's most likely exerting himself in Gotham or abroad to find out just what it was that killed Robin off…" Her eyes narrowed. "…and exactly what it is that thirsts for the rest of us."

"………………..," I looked at Tempest.

_Just what in the Hell is this thing, already?_

"I believe he is ready to see it," Martian Manhunter droned.

Tempest nodded. "Right. Hang tight, Noir…" He wandered out of the room momentarily.

"We……uhm….."

I looked over.

Diana was speaking. Or trying to. "W-We sensed that you were coming to Metropolis through this thing. It seems to…..to respond to your presence…"

I raised an eyebrow.

"You'll see," she said.

"………………"

I turned and faced the empty ends of the living room.

_I guess I will……_

Tempest walked back in. He had with him a brown box…or chest of sorts. It had ornamental Greek designs on its outer shell, and I realized that it must have been a possession of Diana's, used presently to house whatever it was that Tempest was wanting to show me.

What he _was_ showing me.

He set the chest down on a coffee table and looked up at me.

A breath.

"Allright…hold onto your dorsals…."

He slowly, gently opened the chest.

_Crrrrreak._

My black eyes narrowed….and then squinted as a dim, red glow reflected off my face and shades.

Diana and Martian Manhunter also narrowed their eyes.

I saw the first glint of it.

The shadows.

The countours.

And……

_Red Aviarrrrry……_

Thwooosh-CLUTCH!

I flew my right hand to where my flesh joined the metal appendage on my left.

I shuddered and shivered and shook.

Cold chills ran through me at the sight of it.

I struggled to breathe straight….like I was being choked.

"…….," Tempest stared. He backed off from the chest and pointed at its contents.

After the initial convulsions, I shuddered, took a breath, and stood at ease.

A beat.

I swallowed nervously and craned my neck to look straighter.

"Did you sense something, Jordan?" Martian Manhunter said. "I take it that you respond to it as much as it responds to you…."

I shakily nodded.

Inside the chest—glowing in red—rested a mask. But not just any mask.

Slade's mask.

The metal plate with its dichotomous black-and-brown facings and its emblazoned left eye. Slits for breathing like the vampiric teeth of a skull.

It was battered. Stained in a few places from when I slew the ill-fated Terrorist to death. And bits and pieces of algae from the sea lined its surface in a few spots.

And it was glowing. Dimly, but obviously. A crimson-red glow.

Red…

"……………….," I slowly breathed.

"Like I said….," Tempest spoke. "I found it out in the Sea. Beyond the harbor. A mile out, in fact. I only know from what I read….but isn't that kinda sorta where—"

I nodded.

_Slade's frigate on July 5._

_Far out at sea……_

"……………"

I walked closer to the mask.

The red eye pulsed….pulsed….pulsed….

I came within a foot in distance.

The eye stayed a red glow. Brighter.

I stopped.

A beat.

"Jordan…..," Diana murmured.

I raised a finger, silencing her.

I took my shades off.

With naked black eyes, I stared at the mask.

The mask stared back at me.

Red vapor drifted from the metal breathing slits.

"……………."

Tempest bit his lip.

Martian Manhunter stared as a statue.

I crept forward….forward……and leaned down a bit. I flexed the fingers of my right hand….and reached down towards the mask.

Slade's 'face' smoked with an unnatural red. There was no smell. No fumes. No rise or drop in temperature.

Just…………

"…………," I stretched my hand towards it. An inch away from my digits touching. My skin twitched. Black smoke suddenly unfurled from beneath my fingernails.

Without my command….

Tempest blinked.

I leaned my head to the side.

My right hand shook once…twice…

The mask—

_**PHWOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHH!**_

An explosion of _**RED**_ light. Like the vomit of Hell. Surging up from the tiny metal mask and splashing up against me. Consuming me. Surrounding me.

Tempest shouted.

Diana gasped.

"Noir!"

"Jordan!"

"Don't move, Noir!"

I was convulsing in the red cloud.

My face tilted towards the ceiling.

My black eyes flickered white once….twice….

Black converged with red and my metal arm was covered in ice. Freezing my blood. Shattering apart like glass and crumbling the rest of my body with it down the black hole of the Spectrum.

_**FFFFFFFFFFLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!**_

_A pier in Gotham City. _

_Five men rush out of the shadows._

_They see something and gasp. _

_It surges towards them on a cloud of red._

_They rip and tear apart._

_They scream and gurgle in their own blood._

_Splashes of red against the warehouse wall._

_**FLASH!**_

_Another pier. _

_The City of the Titans._

_Ripping men apart. _

_Hacking off limbs._

_Slumping their bodies against the red-splashed wall._

_Carving names, names, names……_

_**FLASH!**_

_Bodies in the hallways. _

_The 'Lexcorp' symbol on the wall._

_Entrails dangling…dangling._

_A flashlight._

_Carbonite._

_**BOOOM!**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Men in the psychiatric ward. _

_Slapped to gurneys._

_All of them._

_All of them._

_Twisting and screaming._

_Dragonflare surging in their wide eyes._

"_**RRRRRREDDDDDDDDD!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Planting the carbonite under Decker's car. _

_Watching from a distance._

_Four Titans._

_One cop._

_Car door opening, closing._

_Click._

_**KABLAAM!**_

_**FLASH!**_

_A boy. _

_A tattered costume._

_Blue eyes. _

_The radioactive depository._

_He stands above the explosives and looks up towards the stars._

"_Annie."_

_Click._

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Glover stands before the glass. _

_He looks out._

_A red light on his forehead._

_From far away he gasps._

_From far away, his lips move._

"_The Terminator……"_

_Click._

_**BANG!**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Beast Boy slumps to his knees on the Tower rooftop. _

_He pants all over._

_Bleeding. _

_Things beep all around him._

_He gasps._

_He lifts his head and his eyes are tearing._

"_Oh god……"_

_Click._

_**KAAAAPOWWWWWWWWWW!**_

_Flames envelop the elf's body. _

_Titan's Tower collapses in a fountain of fire underneath him._

_The sky turns red._

_**FLASH!**_

_Battered and bruised, Starfire collapse on the floor. _

_She moans and twitches._

_SWOOOSH-KLAK!_

_A shotgun aims point blanc at her skull._

_Red vapors._

_A strobing eye._

_Click._

_**BLAM!**_

_Starfire's head is replaced with a green sea._

_And someone somewhere shouts:_

"_NOOOOOOO!"_

_**FLASH!**_

_Up. _

_Up._

_Splashing at the surface._

_Tilting a head up to the sky._

_Wishing the night to bleed red._

_The fountain fall of feathers. _

_Screaming._

"_**RRRRRRRRREDDDDDDDDDDD AAAAVVVVIARRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYY!"**_

_Lightning. _

_Thrashing._

_Streams of red._

_Vapor and fire._

_Destruction._

_Destruction……_

_DESTRUCTION!_

_**FLASH!**_

"_I'm the one you want!" _

"_Annie! No!"_

"_Aaaa-AAAUGH!"_

"_YAAAARGH!"_

"_NO!"_

"_Heh heh heh."_

"_BRING HER BACK!"_

_**FLASH!**_

"_He's dead…," Batman says. Kneeling by the water-logged corpse on the shores of Gotham River. "He's been dead for two weeks." _

"_So it wasn't a hoax?" Batgirl shudders. She gestures: "Mr. Drake really was working for Two-Face?"_

"_And now Two-Face has finally paid him back," Batman's eye slits narrow. "In full……"_

_Th-Thwap! Landing boots and the flicker of a yellow cape._

_Batman and Batgirl turn and look over their shoulder._

_She gasps. "H-He followed us……"_

"_Let me see him."_

"_Robin……," Batman points. "Stay back."_

_The boy marches towards them. "Let me __**see**__ him!"_

"_Robin!"_

_The boy runs._

_Batgirl jumps up and grabs his shoulder. "No, Robin!"_

"_I wanna see him!"_

"_No!"_

"_Dad!"_

"_Calm down, Robin!"_

"_Dad! Daddy!"_

"_He's gone. You don't need to look at--"_

"_DADDY!"_

_**FLASH!**_

_He shivers in a dark, dank alleyway. _

_Seven years old._

_Hugging himself._

_Teeth chattering._

_His blue eyes misty as the tears run down his cheeks._

_And he sniffs._

"_Daddy……y-you promised……you promised……"_

_He hugs himself from the cold._

_The red sky of Gotham stretches overhead._

_The red sky._

"_You p-promised you'd come home with Mommy t-tonight……"_

_And he sobs._

_**FLASH!**_

_The red sky._

_Smoldering remains of Titan's Tower. _

_Nearby, on a beach._

_Where the ocean laps up and down the sand._

_Bodies lay. _

_Cybernetic hackjobs._

_Titanium skin and mushy flesh core._

_And a blue robe._

_Draped over a bloody pulp of pale skin._

_Half sunk in the surf, a dark-eyed corpse with red gashes across his gills._

_His torso half-cleaved._

_And……_

_The figure stands._

_The red figure._

_Breathing……hyperventilating._

_Venting red._

_Red fumes._

_Red vapors._

_He tilts his head up._

_Flickering light._

_One eye. _

_Two eyes._

_One eye._

_Two eyes._

_**FLASH!**_

_Two eyes of hazel. _

_As he comes at me, red sword swinging._

"_YAUGH!"_

_I block._

_CL-CLANK!_

_He presses his sword against me._

_I press my sword against his._

_He grits his teeth._

_His hazel eyes flicker red._

_My brown eyes flash black._

_He shoved against me._

_I stumble back._

_He swings._

_I block._

_He pivots his sword and slashes down at my feet._

_FWOOOOSH!_

_A red stream of energy parts the earth and burns my feet._

"_O-Ow!" I wince and stumble back._

"_Nnnngh!" he pivots and shoves a red-billowing foot in my chest._

_WHAP!_

_I fall back against the tall grass. "Ooof!"_

_I drop Myrkblade._

_He stands over me……panting. Smirking. "Not half bad, huh?"_

"_Yeah……," I wince and rub my singed feet through my shoes. "Not……h-half bad."_

_He gasps, his hazel optics wide in concern. "Aw shit! Jordan, I didn't mean it!"_

_He drops his red blade and kneels beside me._

_A hand on my ankle._

"_Did I burn the skin?"_

"_Almost……," I wince. Smiling. "I can't expect anything less heated when sparring with you."_

_He pants and runs a hand through his thick black hair. "Damn……I-I couldn't help myself! Sparring with you is always so……so……"_

"_M-Macho?" I wink._

"_Er……," he simpers. "I guess I kinda like hitting Ana less."_

"_Yeah……same here……unless she's kicking our butts like she normally does."_

"_Yeah……hahahahaha!"_

"_Hehehehehehe!"_

"_Heheheheheheh……"_

_A beat._

_He starts to shudder._

_I look at him, concerned. "Hey……"_

_He shudders some more._

"_Y-You all right?" I place a hand on his shoulder._

_He shakes._

_He looks at me._

_His eyes moist._

"_I-I'm so sorry, Jordan. The last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt you."_

"_Hey. It's okay!" I shrug with a smile. "We were just sparring. Boys will be boys. Besides, it's practice."_

"_I-I know……but……," he hugs himself. He sniffs and clenches his eyes shut. "The training that I've been going through. The Red stuff……with the M-Master……"_

"_Yes?"_

"……………_it's j-just so scary, Jordan. I could be so……so dangerous. I'm s-so afraid I might hurt you someday. You and Ana……"_

"_And why on earth would you ever do that, man? Wise up. It's just the Spectrum."_

"_It's s-s-so much m-more than that, Jordan……," and he starts to sob._

_I bite my lip. I wander over and hug him with a single arm. "It's okay, man. We're here for you. We're not ever going to let you get consumed by Destruction. You hear me?"_

"_I h-h-hear you, Jordan."_

"_Ana's Construction. And I'm the Equalizer. We all lean on each other. We're a trinity. You got it?"_

"_I got it………I got it………I-I……I g-got it……"_

_And the cold winds of a Washington morning kick at our bodies._

_And the air drifts ever Eastward…………_

………

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….."

"Jordan……"

"………….."

"Jordan?"

A hand stroked over my forehead.

I shifted.

A beat.

I was lying down.

I opened my black eyes.

Thinly.

I saw the popcorn ceiling of an apartment complex.

I stretched out flat on a couch.

My head was in somebody's lap.

"You seem to be coming to…."

Diana's lap.

"………," I winced. I sat up.

Dizzy.

She braced me with her hands my shoulders.

Tempest 'sat' on the floor, leaning his head to the side.

Martian Manhunter stood as tall and as stone-like as ever in the corner of the living room.

I rubbed my head, sighing.

"You were unconscious for about fifteen minutes," Diana said. "We were afraid for a moment there that the mask sent you into a coma."

"Technically….," Martian Manhunter droned, "….it was."

I shakily nodded.

I lifted my left arm….only to realize that my left warm wasn't attached to me.

I looked at the stub with its metal disc.

"…………"

I looked at the two League members.

Diana simpered. She pointed at the table: "It's right here."

I glanced over.

My metal arm rested next to the box. The chest was closed. Slade's battered, glowing facemask was hidden from view. And from 'touch'."

Martian Manhunter drifted over and pointed at my metal prosthetic: "Two minutes into your collapse, the red energy was streaming fixedly around your titanium appendage. I surmised that it was the source of your seizures. Tempest and Diana took it off—and like I predicted—you rested quietly afterwards. There may be a connection of sorts….but I am at a loss as to what."

I shrugged.

Dizzy again.

I rubbed my head with my right hand.

"Jordan….," Diana craned her neck. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Better yet," Tempest pointed. "Can you tell us what in Poseidon's name is going on with that glowing thing?"

I shuddered, swallowed, and looked at the closed chest. My naked black eyes glanced halfway towards the alien.

_It's drenched in Destruction energy. The red end of the Spectrum. The reason why it responds to me is that I'm the Black part of the Spectrum. Balance. When I came into contact with the Destruction, my meditative self compensated by leaning towards the White end. Construction. But the power of Destruction was too great. The only way my body could handle it was to……to shut down, I guess._

"Any reason why the dead Slade's mask would be so closely tied to Destruction?" Martian Manhunter asked.

I sighed and rubbed the back of my head with my right hand.

_I don't know……_

"Truly, you don't?"

I bit my lip.

I truly didn't know.

Though a part of me didn't even want to 'know'.

"Is it unnatural for this sort of phenomenon to occur?"

_I am always channeling the power of the Spectrum into useful objects. Myrkblade, my sword. It becomes a way of wielding Balance in the physical world. Just any object could do that when in my meditative grasp, but not quite as well as Myrkblade. Because I have closely tied this wooden sword with the power of Black. In some way or another……Slade's mask has been intimately connected with Red. And a high concentration of it._

"Is there anyone in the world with the power to do this if she or he so wanted?"

"……….."

"Jordan?"

_There is one person. But……_

"…………," the alien stared at me.

I looked up at him.

_I don't know if he's alive or dead now. I just……I don't know._

"………….," the green being nodded. "I understand."

"Well I'd like to understand too…," Tempest folded his arms and frowned. He gazed over. "Just what's up with this thing, Noir? It seems to share the same power as yours, but a different fashion statement. Any light you can shed on this guppy?"

I stood up. Legs wobbling. I walked over to the coffee table and picked up my metal arm.

_Ever since Robin died, I've been chased by Red Aviary. Before Glover died, he pointed me west to Vegas……where the Messenger helped me beat Killer Croc, Jinx, and Pulsade to Terra. I rescued Terra from Area 51 shortly before the place blew up like a giant Roman candle. I took her halfway across the Continent and deposited her in the safe hands of a good friend of mine. There, she'll be safe. I came here to Metropolis alone for two reasons. Number one: I learned of things at Area 51 that lead me to pursue Lex Luthor personally. Number two: I felt Red Aviary closing in on me. Red Aviary is that Destruction. Someway or another, he seeks to destroy all that is considered 'good' in this world. He'll catch up with me sooner or later. I don't want to risk Terra being in the crosshairs of his wrath. It'd be far worse for her to die than for me……since she represents Construction in and of herself._

Martian Manhunter voluminously translated my thoughts for the other two, for which I was secretly grateful.

I attached the metal arm to my disc.

Click-Hissssssssssssssss!

I winced….weathered the chill….and sighed as I regained motor control.

_Terra was pregnant with Slade's child when she was sealed away in stone. A horrible thing happened to her in the hands of Dagger while she was still imprisoned in rock. Her thermalkinetic energy was stolen and processed into vials of easily accessible material that can summon stone golems on Dagger's and Triangular's command. Such weapons were flown over to Metropolis. Somewhere in this City, Luthor is receiving a deadly……deadly shipment. In the meantime, something else was distracted from Terra's body. Her own child. Barely past the embryonic stage………but somehow preserved in transit. Her child has been labeled 'Gaia'. And from quasi-prophetic words I've heard back in Vegas, I'm prone to believe that some sort of dark destiny will come to past regarding Terra's Gaia._

Martian Manhunter translated.

And when he was done:

"Great Hera….," Diana uttered. "What a cruel thing to have done…."

"Where is Terra now, Noir?" Tempest asked.

"……………," I stared at him.

His lips parted and his dark eyes thinned. "You mean you won't even tell _me?_" He hugged himself. "Pfft! That's cold. And for a guy who lives around fish, I should know!"

"I believe the mask and its red responsiveness to Jordan proves something," Martian Manhunter said. "Red Aviary is closely tied to him. Him and Terra. Red Aviary will use anything to get to the two of them first, before going forth to eliminate the rest of the Titans in some fatalistic vendetta. We may be Jordan's trusted allies, but we could also be his worst follies."

Tempest punched his fist. "Not if we act fast!" He looked at me. "Tell us what we should do, Noir. Where can we go to throw this Red Aviary off?"

"I don't think it's possible to deal with Red Aviary," Diana said. "After all….that's not what Jordan came here for…."

Tempest blinked.

The Amazon stood up and looked down at me. "Luthor and this 'delivery'……it's as real a threat as Red Aviary, if not more took a deep breath.

_Triangular has a Parasite. That Parasite is Red Aviary. If we defeat the host, the Parasite will have nothing to feed on. Red Aviary will bubble up to the surface. All that was once deadly and hidden will creep into the light for us to slay._

Martian Manhunter translated.

"Then we must help you with getting to the bottom of what Luthor has in store," Diana said. "At all costs."

I nodded.

"We can do that," Tempest said. "Diana and double-M here have proven most useful to me and I'm sure they'll help you out just the same."

"Yes…," Diana folded her arms and smirked. "Quite the courageous group we've assembled. Though I must say……Tempest is a handful to bunk with."

I raised an eyebrow. I looked over at the Atlantean.

He blushed. "I've….uhm…..I-I've sorta been crashing in her bathtub."

I simpered.

"Never made so many trips to Long John Silver's," Diana shook her head. "For an Atlantean, he seems intensely attracted to grease."

"Not true! I just like their 'hushing pups'…."

I groaned mutely and ran a hand over my face.

Martian Manhunter walked over to me. "This has been your mission from the start, Jordan. You came here with the intent to investigate Luthor. We standby your decision."

I gazed at him sideways.

_Well jeez……isn't that flattering._

He spoke: "I merely trust your judgment. You are wise and courageous beyond your years, Jordan. Your defeat of Slade four months ago was exemplary. And you showed great tenacity when battling the Gordanians on planet Tamaran."

"……………….," I blinked. My eyes narrowed. _Excuse me?_

Martian Manhunter merely stared. "………..you……….you have no access to that memory?"

My lips parted.

_What are you talking about? When was I ever on Starfire's homeworld?_

The alien cleared his throat. "I do apologize….I am obviously in error."

"…………….," I blinked. _Uh…………yeah._

"Luthor's headquarters may hold the answer to what Jordan seeks," Diana said. "But it will be no easy task to infiltrate the criminal landscape. Long since Superman came to Metropolis and the League in turn, the man's nefarious defenses have gone sky-high."

"It'll take an entire army to get into Luthor's place," Tempest groaned.

I nodded with a sigh.

"No," Martian Manhunter said.

We all looked at him.

He frowned: "It will take careful planning." A beat. "And cunning."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 27, 2004.

Saturday.

10:32 am.

Lex Luthor's HQ

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The man sat in his plush office hair.

Swiveled around to face out the window of his lofty, top-floor office room.

The spires and bridges of Metropolis loomed beyond.

An entire City under his command.

More or less…..

The sheen of his bald head shone in the combination of the electric light and the morning Sun.

He frowned as he spoke heatedly into a portable phone.

"And I'm telling you, my resources have run dry on that front. Frankly speaking, Kasnia is old news! It is a dinosaur! The financial need for bullets and bombs will fade away along with the blood of the fallen wastes of breath that call that European hellhole a home! Now I've pitied the state before. I've funded it. I risked neck and name and fortune over it. And to what end? It is a bad investment! Do you hear me? Nothing more! I'll wait until another pitiful war renders the country into a crater fit for mining ore…or maybe another one of Vandal Savage's playboy rampages before I so much as give that country as second thought again! Good day, Mr. President!"

CLAK!

He slammed the phone on its hook.

Sighing.

"…….."

He stood up.

He walked over to the stretch of window.

He gazed out onto the City.

Body tall.

Head glazed.

Eyes……….tired. Emaciated on a healthy head. Weary over years of frustration.

"………………….."

The collar of his black suit shifted in a sudden rush of inside air.

"Huh?"

He turned.

He looked over his desk.

A partial gasp….then a smirk. "You……"

He paced over to the desk, gesturing.

"How did I know that I would soon be seeing your pimply face right here in my office at some time or another….?"

CLAMP!

A metal, titanium hand slammed onto the desktop.

The black-haired swordsman stared at him. Frowning. Black eyes thin behind obsidian shades.

"At a loss for words?" Luthor throated. "Or is nature's tradeoff for your freakish powers a little case of…..permanent laryngitis?"

The swordsman's teeth gritted, showing.

Luthor paced slightly on his side of the desk, gesturing: "You know what happened in Vegas was a catastrophe to begin with. I told Harvey Dent from the beginning that hiring Jacob Anderson to run the show at Pompeii was a mistake. But was I listened to? No. Not a bit." He frowned suddenly. "Lexcorp is the back-end of Triangular. No matter what you should hear from anyone. Or anything."

"…………," the dark-haired teenager merely glared.

"So what did you come here for? To harass me? Did you need some wonderful information of some sort or another?" Luthor sat down comfortably in his chair nd folded his arms. "You do know that I'm not a villain, right?" He smirked. "I am merely a highly valuable citizen of this City. With his fair share of…….shady business relations. But we all have them. So do you, I might add. Some superhero…fighting like an animal in basement cage fights to get what you desire. And just what is it that you desire? Some sort of….reprieve now that Robin is dead and the cute little City you and the Titans protect has been raped by my strong and unassumingly quiet associate with a penchant for knives?" He leaned back in the leather seat. "You know, I stopped investing in Kobayashi stocks shortly before the grand assault on your hometown. I suppose if you want anything to prove me guilty of—then there you have it. Insider trading. Heheheheheh…." His bald brow furrowed. "Now if there's anything else you want, you can just get the Hell out of my office and I'll consider not ordering my security men to turn you into a lead pincushion."

CHIIING! A glinting, sharp object in the swordman's right hand.

THWIIIIIIIISH!

THUNK!

A razor-sharp playing card landed in the chair cushion between Luthor's legs.

He half-gasped, composed himself, and plucked the card out from the middle of his thighs. _Rrrrip!_ He held the item up to his eyes.

The ace of spades.

In red ink, words were scribbled:

'_I'm about to kidnap back what you kidnapped from Terra, you penis-headed son of a bitch.'_

Finally, Lex Luthor snarled.

He stood up and slammed the card—shattering—into his desk and spat at the former Titan.

"You can't threaten me! I can have you hung up to dry, you little punk!"

The black eyes of the swordsman narrowed.

Luthor seethed. Luthor shouted. Luthor vented his anger….opening up.

_Opening….himself….up……_

"I'll tell the Justice League about your violent little romp with the Harrier Jet clear across Vegas! And then I'll tell them how you came here to threaten me! Ohhhh…how the world will weep for the once-hero turned Wyldecarde. Your crime fighting career will be over. You understand me? I'm bigger than you. Bigger than this City! And—so help me—bigger than Triangular!"

"…………………………," slowly, the swordsman nodded. He turned around…..and marched off towards the elevator. The doors opened. And he entered in. And went down.

Luthor took a deep breath.

He sat down in his chair.

A beat.

He folded his fingers.

"…………"

He composed himself, and smiled.

He flipped on an intercom system on his desk.

Click.

"_Yes, Mister Luthor?"_

"We have…………an unwanted guest taking a trip down the elevator. Stop the car on the Eleventh floor. Janitory level. Have the Eighth Squad take care of him……with finesse….."

"_Right away, Mister Luthor."_

Beeeeeeeeep.

Luthor leaned back and sighed.

With a smile.

"Well, Dagger…..looks like I got to him first…….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the elevator….

The swordsman stood tall.

Like a statue.

He took a deep breath….

And spoke:

"It worked, Jordan. Luthor lost his temper."

With a fluctuation of light, the black-haired teen morphed back into Martian Manhunter.

"He opened his mind to me while he was venting."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_I found the access code to the inner sanctum of Luthor HQ.'_

I stood—cloaked—at the end of a metal-laced security corridor on the thirtieth floor of the building.

A sliding door and a numberpad rested before me.

I clung to the wall, breathing gently.

Invisible.

'_The number is 1212.'_

I took a deep breath.

And smiled.

_Good work._

I ran my metal finger over the number pad.

Beep-Beep-Beep.

Klak!

_Hissss._

SCHWISSH!

The door slid open.

I crept on through into the darker lair beyond.

_This is it. I'm going in. _

'_Diana, Tempest, and I shall standby for assistance on the outside.'_

_Understood._

'_Good luck, Jordan.'_

_Same to you._

I passed under the door.

It closed behind me on its own.

SCHWISSSH-CLANG!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Move! Move!"

"Out of our way!"

Three guards rushed down a corridor on the janitor's mantenance level on the eleventh floor.

They shoved weary cleaners, mechanics, and workers away in the grimy bowels of the between-floors interior of Lexcorp.

The blue-collar workers who'd seen it all merely obeyed as the burly men rushed by.

All three filed up before the elevator doors.

Two raised pistols.

The third whipped out a flame thrower.

They waited….waited….waited….

Ding!

The elevator doors opened.

"Let 'em have it!"

**PHOOOOOOOOOMMMMMB!**

The flames billowed into the elevator.

Hot.

Red.

A burning orange.

The workers in the back cringed, went back to their duties, and tried to ignore the carnage.

"Okay! That's enough! He's toasted!" shouted one gunman.

The guard in the middle cut off the flame thrower.

They all stared into the smoking interior of the elevator….

And blinked.

"What in the—"

"Wh-Wh-Where's the body?"

The third one scratched his head and gazed into the elevator.

There was not even a single speck of burnt ash….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The rooftop of Lexcorp HQ.

An incorporeal green form of Martian Manhunter teleported through the top shell of the black building.

It soared up through the clouds where Wonder Woman hovered, hoisting Tempest up by an arm.

The green, translucent form of Martian Manhunter gave a signal.

Wonder Woman and Tempest waved.

They both looked down at one at the building.

Waiting………..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Luthor tapped his fingers on his desk.

Tapping.

Tapping.

Tapping.

He paused.

A beat.

He flipped a few switches of his intercom system and spoke into it:

"Doctor…..Doctor Jace…."

A beat.

Luthor's brow furrowed. "Helga! Confound it, woman! Are you there?"

"_Snkkkkt……a little busy, Mister Luthor. What do you want?"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A computer console in the wall of a white, white laboratory crackled with the wealthy despot's voice:

"_We had an intruder, Helga. Someone was nearly onto us. Tell me……how far are you in the process?"_

A redheaded woman with blonde hair operated on a body behind a white sheet. Her facial features were hidden by a metal face-mask and black working goggles. With gloved hands, she applied frightening sparking-tools to the body lying on the gurney beneath her. Two assistants hovered about as she went on her Frankensteinesque work somewhere in the belly of the building.

"Everything is going along quite well," she uttered slowly in a Scandinavian accent. "We're just about to make use of the gift Anderson had stolen from Intergang for us. Perhaps it was the only useful thing he ever lived to do."

"_Hurry. If the Justice League gets on our backs now, it could spell trouble for us and our business partners. I don't want what happened in the Titans' City to happen to Metropolis." _

"_Do not worry. You men of power are always so anxious."_

"_Yes. But not Dagger. Dagger has a bottom line that he won't accept as being crossed."_

"Dagger is but a mortal. I shall provide for you immortal support, Luthor. Trust me…." She gestured towards an assistant.

The man carried over a metal briefcase. He opened it up. A very familiar cylinder of translucent crystal appeared in the foam frame inside.

Dr. Helga Jace took it in gloved hands and walked over to the head of the body she was working on.

"If worse comes to worse….we'll just have to test our enemy's metal…."

She reached down and grasped the body's skull.

A reflective, harder-than-titanium skull.

She popped open a hole in the top…and slowly slid the clear cylinder in.

"….and we'll have something far….far greater than metal to meet the challenge."

_Sliiiiiink-__**Klak!**_

_Two eyes flashed open._

One human.

The other glowing white.


	209. Metropolitan part 4

**209. Metropolitan part 4**

'**DING!'**

'**All personnel of the Ceti Department Three.'**

'**Standby for power redistribution of all main systems.'**

'**Project Enkidu II is underway.'**

On the thirty-fourth floor laboratory of the Lexcorp Building…

Four scientists in standard labcoats huddled around various, futuristic computer consoles built into the white, chrome body of the HQ's interior.

A rather young nooby looked up, adjusted his glasses, and uttered: "P-Project Enkidu? Already?"

An older scientist at a microscope droned: "From what I hear, things are heating up with Luthor and his business partners. He's got that Swedish chick working in high gear on the project."

"Swedish chick?" the younger made a face. "Do you mean Dr. Helga Jace?"

"Yup. She's been Luthor's teacher's pet for months now," the older smirked, adjusting his microscope. "We have a joke around the board as to how the bimbo got her job in such high places to begin with."

"She's a scientist with high esteem from Europe," the younger one blinked and gestured: "Doesn't she deserve a little bit more respect?"

"With the way budget cuts have been shredding us apart over the last few months? Pfft! Jace is bad news, man. She's all part of Luthor's 'new plan'."

"N-New plan?"

Another scientist in the rear of the room spoke up: "Right as you came here, kid, Luthor's been rebuilding Lexcorp's experimental boards from the ground up. He fired almost everyone in Alpha Department and Beta Department One through Four. About ten floors of laboratories beneath us have been closed for three months! Purely mothballed!"

The older scientist added: "Sooner or later, Luthor's gonna ditch us all. He'll switch all of his experimental fundings to S.T.A.R. Labs now that Hamilton is more open to negotiation. It'll be the end of our happy little genetic discoveries here."

"That's….th-that's awful!" the younger scientist exclaimed.

The others had a good chuckle.

"Heh heh heh."

"Man….you _are_ new to this place, aren't you?"

"I-I just moved in from Powers Inc. weeks ago! I don't want to lose my job here at Lexcorp!"

"Cheer up, kid. I'm sure we've all got a few months here at least. As long as Jace keeps Luthor distracted with whatever the Hell she's doing."

"Is what they say about Project Enkidu true? Th-That Lexcorp might be bringing back—?"

"Kid, finish that sentence and you _will_ have to worry about your job."

The younger scientist winced. "S-Sorry…"

"Just get back to work," the older one grumbled. "Let's _all_ get back to work."

'**Ding.'**

'**All personnel of the Ceti Department Three.'**

'**Power redistribution will commence in t-minus fifteen minutes.'**

"Nnnngh….I'd give a good mind if that intercom would _shut up!_"

"Hehehehe…."

Th-Thwump!

A scientist in the far corner of the laboratory suddenly collapsed. Unconscious.

The other three looked over.

"What?"

"Dr. Vermeer. Are you allright?"

FWOOOOSH!

A black shadow of smoke billowed at them from the collapsed scientist's side.

"Whoah!"

"Look out"

I solidified in the center of the three, spun on the cold laboratory floor, and swung Myrkblade outin my twirl.

TH-TH-THWAP!

I tripped all three labticians in succession.

One fell back and slammed hard against a computer console. CLANG!

Another toppled through a table full of vials and instruments. SHATTER!

A third simply fell on the floor with a gasp.

I spun up to my feet, twirled Myrkblade, and slammed the broadside of the sword across the third man's ribs…knocking him out.

TH-THWAP!

"Nnnngh……"

Everyone in the room was unconscious.

"…………….," I spun around. I looked up towards the ceiling. I double-checked visually on the security camera in the corner near the entrance. It sparked and sizzled from when I slized the cord free in cloaked mode just shortly before pouncing on the first of the four scientists.

I exhaled with a relieved breath.

A beat.

I turned and walked over to a computer console.

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades, studying a screen.

Nothing unusual.

Text displayed a statistical experiment on: _'Chlorophyll Count of River Algae Collected In Metropolis Canals'._

I made a face.

_Biology……_

I turned and sauntered down the rest of the laboratory's length.

_For some reason……I always preferred physics._

I came to a door at the end of the room.

There was an iris scan on a pad to the side of the frame.

"………."

Chiiiiing! I sheathed Myrkblade. I took a gamble by walking over to the oldest of the scientists and hoisting him up over my shoulder. I dragged his groggy body over to the door, propped him up, and forced his eye open before the reader. I then placed his palm over the handle.

_Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz-Zzzt-Zzzt-Beep!_

Kl-Klak!

Thwump! I dropped the man and stood before the laboratory door.

It opened with a hiss, leading into a much longer and more elaborate working area. At least a dozen computer consoles lined the walls and center kiosks. A huge viewscreen of sorts stretched in flickering plasma across the right wall. At the far end of the room was a thick, metal door labeled: "Beta Levels". Yellow tape criss-crossed the titanium surface, forbidding access.

"…………"

I gazed curiously back towards the grounded bodies on the floor of the previous room.

_What was it the men were saying about the lower laboratories? _

_That they were cleared out?_

_That the workers inside were fired?_

I gazed at the yellow-crossed door again.

_Why? _

_What's going on here?_

I flexed my flesh and metal fingers.

_No matter. _

_I'm here to learn about the Area 51 shipment._

_Not the mothballs of some despotic corporation._

I crept up to a computer console.

I tapped the monitor.

A beat.

I typed away at the keyboard.

_Beep-Beep-Beep._

I bit my lip.

The monitor flashed: _'Access Denied. Higher Level Security Code Required.'_

I groaned mutely.

I gazed back at the first room with the grounded scientists.

_Any luck I might be able to rip out their brains and work from there?_

I tried typing again.

_Beep-Beep-Beep._

No luck.

I exhaled and kicked the computer console from below.

Cl-Clank!

A beat.

"…….."

_Well……there's always interrogation……_

I turned and made to walk back into the previous room—

_Snkkkkkkt-Bleep!_

The monitor I was just at flickered to black DOS prompt.

"…….," I froze. I slowly turned and look. My black eyes thin.

A green text square blinked at the corner of the monitor.

Two seconds.

Four.

_Snkkkkkkk-kkkkkt!_

All the other monitors in the room simultaneously flickered black. Green on black. Little emerald squares pulsing around me.

"………," my lips pursed.

_Okay…… _

_What the Hell?_

Suddenly…

On the computer nearest to me, a string of text appeared at length as if someone was presently typing. Speakers crackled in a very monotone, digital voice the words of the string of text:

'_GOOD MORNING NOIR. IT'S GOOD TO FINALLY COME IN CONTACT WITH YOU.'_

"……," I looked left and right.

A bit nervous……

'_OH NO, YOU DID A FINE JOB OF DISABLING THE SECURITY SYSTEMS. BUT NOT BEFORE I BURROWED MY WAY INTO LEXCORP AND WATCHED YOUR VERY ENTRANCE.'_

"………"

'_YOU SEE, I KNEW THAT YOU WOULD BE CONTACTING LUTHOR. WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU WERE GOING TO METROPOLIS, I KNEW IT WAS THE ONLY THING YOU WOULD BE DOING.'_

"……….," I gazed down at the keyboard.

A beat.

I nervously reached my hands over…and typed: _'And just where are you located? Alpha Department?'_

'_WHAT? YOU THINK I AM INSIDE LEXCORP HQ? OH NO, NOIR. I AM FAR, FAR AWAY. BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T HELP YOU.' _

'_Help me?'_

'_YES. IT IS WHAT SUPERGIRL ASKED ME TO DO.'_

I blinked.

I typed: _'Supergirl?'_

'_SHE'S QUITE ENAMORED WITH YOU, NOIR. NO MATTER WHAT SHE SAYS.'_

I made a face.

I typed: _'What, are you two friends?'_

'_I GUESS YOU COULD SAY THAT.'_

'_Fat chance. I know Supergirl. She tends to not do well with people who can't talk back to her.'_

I smirked.

Turned around……

And was graced with a string of text on two computer screens straight across from me:

'_SUPERGIRL MAY HAVE HER SECRETS. BUT I TEND TO KNOW KARA JUST AS WELL.'_

"………" I froze.

'_YOU KNOW. KARA KENT?'_

"………"

'_WHAT I MEAN TO SAY IS THAT YOU CAN TRUST ME, NOIR.'_

I slowly walked over to the computer console.

I typed: _'Who are you?'_

'_IN CASE IT HASN'T OCCURRED TO YOU, A FRIEND.'_

'_Lemme guess, a hacker.'_

'_CALL ME THE 'ORACLE'.'  
_I sighed.

'_Is that so?'_

'_EVER HEARD OF ME? YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE.'_

I shook my head and ran a hand over my shaded face.

_I am sick…… _

_And tired……_

_Of all these conspiracy theorists……_

_And hackers……_

_Trying to tell me what to do!_

'_I SEE YOU CAN'T TYPE YOUR WAY INTO THE SECURITY-GUARDED SYSTEMS AT LEXCORP. I CAN HELP. I CAN CRACK THE CODE IN AN INSTANT. I'VE ALREADY GONE HALFWAY THERE. OTHERWISE, HOW ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING TO YOU?'_

The digital voice rang droningly through the thin, metal chamber.

I leaned my head to the side.

_Well……maybe I'm not __**that**__ sick of it……_

'_NOW, ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME HELP YOU OR ARE YOU GOING TO BE THE TYPICAL, DARK SORT AND JUST KEEP TO YOUR GLOOMY SELF?'_

I typed on the console:

'_You say that Supergirl sent you?'_

'_YES. SHE DIDN'T WANT YOU RUSHING INTO METROPOLIS ALONE. AND SHE WAS RIGHT. YOU'VE WORKED WITH WONDER WOMAN AND MARTIAN MANHUNTER, HAVEN'T YOU?'_

'_You're Kara's friend allright.'_

'_OH, AM I NOW?'_

'_Yeah. You've got spunk.'_

The computer voice attempted a 'laugh'. It came out emotionless and wacky, in an unintentional sort of electronic way.

'_AH, BUT I PREFER BRAINS OVER SPUNK.'_

'_Don't we all.'_

'_ANYWAYS, YOU ARE SEEKING INFORMATION ON A SHIPMENT. A SHIPMENT OF DANGEROUS THERMAL ENERGY VIALS TO METROPOLIS.'_

'_Yes. Most emphatically.'_

'_I AM CONDUCTING A COMPUTER SEARCH AS WE……'SPEAK'.'_

'_You've broken past Luthor's firewalls?"_

'_YES. NOTHING TO IT. KINDA LIKE TISSUE PAPER TO A KAMIKAZE TORPEDO. I'VE SEEN POST OFFICE NETWORK SYSTEMS WITH STRONGER SECURITY.' _

'_What's someone like you doing trying to hack into the post office?'_

'_YOU'LL BE AMAZED HOW URBAN TERRORISTS THESE DAYS MANAGE TO SHIP DEADLY MISSILE GUIDANCE COMPUTER CHIPS.' _

'_Ah, so you intervene?'_

'_I HAVE A TALENT. I LIKE TO USE IT.'_

'_So, Oracle, that's what you are? Some sort of digital vigilante?'_

'_YOU GOT THE VIGILANTE PART RIGHT. SUDDENLY INTERESTED IN ME? YOU WON'T GO FAR.'_

'_Two can play hard to get…'_

'_REALLY NOW? IS THAT WHY YOU DUMPED KARA?'_

I gritted my teeth.

A breath….

I typed:

'_I didn't dump Supergirl.'_

'_OH? THEN WHY DID IT ALL END?'_

'_It's complicated. First off, what did she tell you?'_

'_IT'S FINISHED.'_

'_She told you that the relationship is finished?'_

'_NO, I MEAN THE SEARCH. I'VE FINISHED SCRAPING THE BOTTOM OF LUTHOR'S BARREL. GIVE ME A SECOND TO PROCESS THE INFORMATION.'_

'_By all means……'_

I sighed and drifted back from the computer console.

As the multiple computer screens strobed the little blip of green light at the end of the 'Oracle's' last words, I let my black eyes drift across the dim, gray interior of the laboratory. I once again found myself gazing at the huge doors at the far end. With the yellow tape plastered across them.

"………"

I drifted over towards them.

I fingered the button on the console to the side of the frame.

No response.

I surmised that it must have been an elevator of sorts leading towards the lower laboratories. The laboratories that were mothballed. Still, it seemed like an awful lot of dramatic effort to close off the passage to the lower levels. I figured that Lex Luthor must simply have a low tolerance for people trespassing on his experiments. That or…..

I narrowed my black eyes.

I placed a hand against the metal surface.

I spilled some smoke through the cracks of the elevator doors…and discovered the thing was airtight.

_This isn't a barrier. _

_It's a door to a __**prison**__._

_Before I could speculate further…._

The nearest monitors to me flickered green text as the speakers unemotionally crackled:

'_I HAVE RESULTS, NOIR. YOU MAY WANT TO LISTEN IN.'_

I leaned my head to the side.

Standing silent.

Patient, but anxious….

'_INDEED, THE SHIPMENT WAS RECEIVED.'_

I exhaled deeply.

'_THERE IS AN AIRSTRIP NORTHWEST OF HERE. JUST OUTSIDE OF METROPOLIS MILITARY COMPOUNDS. MOST LIKELY, DAGGER HAD IT ARRANGED THAT THE TOP SECRET JET CRAFT LAND CLOAKED AND A CARAVAN OF VEHICLES CARRY THE MATERIAL IN AT RANDOM INTERVALS INTO THE CITY IN UNMARKED SEMI TRUCKS. LOOK HERE:'_

_ZZZZT!_

The long plasma screen along the right wall flickered to life and displayed three box-shaped security camera snapshots.

I turned and looked at blurred photos of semi trucks rolling into the loading docks of some basement garage.

'_THESE SNAPSHOTS ARE IN THE SECURITY ARCHIVES FROM TWO DAYS AGO WHEN THE FIRST SHIPMENT OF VIALS WAS RECEIVED. THE REST MOST LIKELY CAME WITHIN THE LAST FORTY-EIGHT HOURS. BUT WHATEVER THE CASE, ALL SHIPMENTS HAVE ARRIVED. THEY WERE LOADED INTO THIS VERY SAME BUILDING.'_

I nodded.

I leaned forward and typed on a random computer console.

'_Where are they now, Oracle?'_

'_UNKNOWN.'_

I frowned.

'_Unknown?'_

'_THAT INFORMATION ISN'T AVAILABLE. I SEARCHED AND SEARCHED. I'M SORRY.'_

'_I thought you said Luthor's firewalls were nothing to you!'_

'_IT ISN'T A FIREWALL, NOIR. LEXCORP SIMPLY DOES NOT HAVE THE INFORMATION ON WHERE THE VIALS ARE NOW. MOST LIKELY THAT INFORMATION HAS BEEN DELETED. AND I DO MEAN 'DELETED', AS IN WITH UNTRACEABLE PROGRAMS FOR THE PROGRAMS THAT HOUSED THAT INFORMATION HAVE LIKELY BEEN DELETED AS WELL. THEY MOST LIKELY EXISTED AT ONE TIME, BUT THEY'RE HISTORY NOW.'_

'_You know this?'_

'_AN ASSUMPTION. GIVE A HACKER A CHANCE TO WORK OFF OF INTUITION EVERY NOW AND THEN.' _

'_You're a woman, aren't you?'_

'_I'M NOT TELLING.'_

'_Yup.'_

I leaned back, folded my arms, and sighed.

"…….."

A beat.

I turned to another console and typed:

'_Try this. Search and see if anything comes up under 'Gaia'.'_

'_PROCESSING……'_

I flexed my fingers.

I waited.

The green text light on the screens blinked and blinked and blinked and—

'_DONE. NO RESULTS.'_

I gritted my teeth.

_Dammit!_

'_WHAT A PECULIAR QUERY. WHATEVER DOES 'GAIA' MEAN.'_

'_None of your business.'_

'_WOW. NO WONDER YOU DUMPED KARA. TOUCHY.'_

I groaned mutely.

A beat.

I typed:

'_How about 'LaSelle'?'_

'_GIVE ME A SECOND.'_

Silence.

Blinking.

'_NOPE. NO RESULTS EITHER.'_

I bit my tongue again.

A beat…..

I gazed back into the laboratory from whence I came.

"……….."

I turned back to the keyboard and typed: _'Dr. Helga Jace. Try that.'_

'_ALRIGHT, PROCESSING.'_

I bit my lip.

I rocked side to side, anxiously.

The text light blinked.

'_I GOT SOMETHING.'_

I smirked.

I typed: _'Shoot.'_

'_DR. HELGA JACE. SENIOR STAFF MEMBER OF LEXCORP'S EUROPEAN MEDICAL BUREAU. HIRED BY LEXCORP ON NOVEMBER 18, 2002. HER PREVIOUS PLACE WAS EMPLOYMENT WAS THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSAL MEDICAL FACILITY, LOCATED IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.'_

My black eyes narrowed.

_Belgium…… _

_France……_

A beat.

I blinked.

_Markovia?_

'_EXPERIENCED IN ARTS OF METAPHYSICS AND MUTANT GENETICS. SHE'S UNDERTAKEN NUMEROUS JOBS FOR DIFFERENT MONARCHIES THROUGHOUT WESTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE. HEY, I GOT SOME CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION HERE TOO. SHE WAS BORN IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. THE YEAR……1912.'_

"……..," I blinked.

'_THAT'S A RECIPE FOR A DINOSAUR IF EVER I HEARD ONE!'_

'_No kidding……'_

'_THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF CENSORSHIP ON HER PROJECTS FOR LEXCORP. DEFINITELY FISHY. SHE'S INVOLVED WITH SOMETHING CALLED PROJECT ENKIDU II. I SUPPOSE IT WOULD HELP TO KNOW JUST WHAT PROJECT ENKIDU I IS, BUT THAT IS GONE JUST AS MUCH AS 'LASELLE', 'GAIA', AND THE PRESENT UPDATE ON THE VIALS.'_

I sighed.

I gazed across the laboratory.

Lips firm.

Thinking……

'_NOIR, IF YOU WERE TO APPROACH LUTHOR OR DR. HELGA JACE ON THIS PERSONALLY, YOU MIGHT BE MORE ABLE TO COME UP WITH INFORMATION. ANY INFORMATION. YOU'RE THE DARK SORT. I TRUST THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO INTERROGATE.'_

'_Some things are easier said than done, Oracle. I'm sure roughing up the world's second richest man on Earth seems easy from behind a computer desk, but I'd rather attract the least amount of attention as possible.'_

'_AND HOW LONG DO YOU SUPPOSE THAT WILL LAST, TITAN?'_

"…………"

'_I WILL PROTECT YOU, NOIR. GO TO LUTHOR OR JACE. I'LL DISABLE THE SECURITY SYSTEMS ON THE WAY THERE. IMAGINE ME AS YOUR FRIENDLY GHOST IN THE MACHINE. THE BUILDING OF LEXCORP HQ WILL BE 'WORKING' WITH YOU FOR ONCE.'_

I sighed.

Frowned….

And typed:

'_Don't tell me what to do.'_

'_WOW, AREN'T WE THE FEISTY ONE?'_

I typed more:

'_I did not come here to Metropolis to bang heads in. I came to find answers. To help Terra. And to help the Titans.'_

'_AND TO HELP YOURSELF?'_

'_That's not as important.'_

'_SEE? KARA WAS RIGHT TO CALL ME IN. YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF AT THIS RATE UNLESS I TALK YOU OUT OF SOME STUPID THINGS.'_

'_If I die, I die. Besides……I'm the 'one who dumped Supergirl', right? Maybe it'd take a load off of her blasted shoulders for me to end up gone one morning.'_

'_I DON'T LIKE TO SEE YOU TYPE THAT, NOIR…'_

'_What do you care? You have no clue what I'm up against. You don't know what's out to consume me and my friends.'_

'_I'M WILLING TO LEARN, NOIR.'_

"………..," I stared at the screens. Silent.

'_LET ME HELP YOU……'_

I sighed.

I typed: _'Sorry, Oracle, but I've let myself trust you too much.'_

I turned.

I marched towards the tightly-shut elevator doors.

CHIIIIING!

I whipped Myrkblade out.

The last two computer monitors flanking me flickered: _'NOIR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?'_

I was silent.

Smiling.

_Relying on 'intuition'._

CLANK!

I stabbed my sword between the cracks in the elevator door frames.

I gritted my teeth.

I applied pressure.

I pulsed smoke through the blade and slowly….slowly….slowly forced the airtight structures apart.

'_NOIR, YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO DOWN THERE.'_

I ignored the hacker.

I kept stabbing.

Parting.

Prying the doors slowly apart.

_So Lexcorp's database has lost all digital information regarding Terra's essences and 'Gaia'?_

_What's to say about material evidence? _

_Departments Beta and Alpha are long abandoned and mothballed._

_I would bet my last arm that there's something to be found there._

_Cold and neglected. _

_But at least……_

_Concrete._

CL-CLANK!

I pressed harder and harder.

Teeth clenched.

Applying pressure.

Struggling….

'_NOIR, I AM NOT KIDDING……,'_ the monitors flashed and the cold, unemotional voice crackled. _'……DO YOU SERIOUSLY THINK THAT LUTHOR WOULD WASTE PERFECTLY GOOD LABORATORIES IN HIS VERY OWN LEXCORP?'_

I panted, forcing the doors apart.

Tearing at the yellow tape.

_Shut up before I rip those speakers in two……_

'_THAT IS ALL PRECIOUS FLOORSPACE TO LUTHOR. PROJECT ENKIDU ISN'T THE ONLY THING BOILING IN THOSE SCIENTIFIC HATCHERIES. KRYPTONITE WEAPONS, BIOLOGICAL AGENTS, THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF BIZARRO……THEY ALL CAME FROM THOSE LABORATORIES. HE WOULDN'T GIVE UP ON THEM UNLESS HE HAD A GOOD REASON TO!'_

I kept stabbing.

Mute.

_Good. _

_The more precious, the more honest._

_I'll find what I need down there……_

'_AND LUTHOR HAD A GOOD REASON TO GIVE UP ON THOSE LABORATORIES. A VERY BLOODY, GOOD REASON, NOIR. THINK OF TRIANGULAR AS A LIVING ANIMAL. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PARASITE IS DISCOVERED IN ITS BELLY?'_

I froze in mid-stab.

Panting.

"…………"

I gazed at the monitors, leaning on my smoking blade.

'_AN IMMUNE SYSTEM TAKES OVER, NOIR. AN IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT ZEROES IN ON THE PARASITE'S DAMAGE AND QUARANTINES THE NASTINESS BEFORE IT HAS A CHANCE TO SPREAD AND CAUSE DAMAGE TO THE REST OF THE HOST.'_

"………," I stared at the door.

I suddenly felt a little bit….

Uncertain…..

'_SOMETHING HAPPENED IN THOSE LABORATORIES. SOMETHING THAT FORCED LUTHOR TO FALL ON HIS KNEES AND BEG TO COEXIST WITH DAGGER AND THE GOTHAMITES. SOMETHING HORRIBLY BAD—FOR HUMANITY AS MUCH AS FOR LEXCORP. AND I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT SIMPLE MOTHBALLING. BUT RATHER, A HIGH-RISE CEMETERY.'_

"……….."

I made a face.

I didn't touch the keyboards.

A good half minute passed.

'_YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?'_

I smirked.

'_FINE THEN.'_

_SNkkkk-kkkkt!_

The speakers crackled.

The plasma screen on the right flickered.

I turned.

I looked.

Snow.

Then….

Security snapshots.

Grainy ones.

Black and white.

Hallways.

Laboratories.

Computer consoles and doorways and experimental stations.

Bodies wandering through them.

Some with clipboards.

Others in discussion.

Even others typing madly away at computer consoles.

'_JULY 29, 2005', _the Oracle stated through the speakers. _'3:00 A.M. LUTHOR'S NIGHT SHIFT.'_

I narrowed my black eyes.

The experts and lab technicians dissertated. Conversed. Went about their work throughout the winding, metal corridors of Beta and Alpha departments.

'_AND……'_

The plasma screen fluctuated.

A new set of photos.

Very much identical to the first.

Only….time elapsed.

People were in different places, different positions, different stages of business.

'_3:15 A.M. THE SAME MORNING OF JULY 29.'_

I took a deep breath.

I shrugged.

I sighed and gazed at the regular images of scientists.

Workers.

Lab coats and notepads and clipboards and ball point pens.

'_NOW, WATCH……'_

_SNkkkkkkt!_

The screens flickered….and all turned black. And for a moment, I thought that the Plasma viewer had turned off. But—in fact—the pictures-in-picture had actually started displaying security feeds of the same hallway as before.

Only…

The 'lights' were out.

The metal hallways were dim.

And there were….

Things streaking the metal walls.

'_3:30 A.M. FIFTEEN MINUTES PAST THE LAST RECORDED PHOTO. SOMETHING HAPPENED INSIDE THE BETA AND ALPHA LABS, NOIR. SOMETHING BAD.'_

I walked over towards the screens.

My black eyes narrowed.

The things…

Streaking the wall.

Black and white marks. Streaks. Splashes.

"……….."

My lips parted.

_Blood. _

_It's……blood……_

One screen showed a criss-cross of dark, ink-black streaks on a dim floor beneath a dangling light fixture snapshotted in mid-sparks.

The next screen showed a plane hallway littered with debris. At first I thought the debris was merely bits and pieces of a shattered door or wall panel. But one piece of shrapnel was strangely pale…strangely bloody….and possessing _fingers._

Then the third picture. It was blocked out partially by a massive gray object in the bottom right. I soon recognized the gray object as someone's forehead. A scientists was depicted in mid-scream, howling for help straight into the security camera. Blood was trickling down his face in a ink-black line. And behind him was a shadow. A dark shadow. Thin. Nimble. Something sharp hung over its shoulder. Two tails dangled behind its head.

"……….."

_SNKKKKKT!_

'3:45 A.M. THE FINAL SHOT BEFORE THE CAMERAS DIED TO THE LABORATORIES.'

Dark hallways.

Dark streaks.

Blood….Blood….Blood….

Everywhere.

No bodies. No movement.

The total, hellish opposite of the snapshots from the three screens previous.

'_INEXPLICABLY, EVERYONE INSIDE OF THOSE LABORATORIES DIED. AND THEY DIED BLOODILY. HACKED TO PIECES. RIPPED APART WHILE THEY COULD STILL SCREAM.'_

I took a deep breath.

I felt a chill up my metal prosthetic.

_Rrrred Aviarrrry……_

'_AT FIRST, LEX LUTHOR SIMPLY TRIED TO HIDE IT. HE WAS SCARED TO DEATH, QUITE HUMBLED BY PURE PANIC FOR SUCH A 'POWERFUL' MAN. SOON THERE AROSE THROUGHOUT METROPOLIS MISSING-PERSONS REPORTS. CONSPIRACY THEORIES. PARANOIA. AFTER ALL, TWENTY-SEVEN PRODIGIOUS SCIENTISTS DON'T ALWAYS DISAPPEAR OVERNIGHT.'_

I took a deep breath.

'_LUTHOR NEEDED A WAY TO COVER HIS TRACKS. IF PEOPLE GOT WORD OF THE UNEXPLAINED MASSACRE IN HIS VERY OWN HQ, THEY WOULD SCRATCH THEIR HEADS. THEY WOULD INVESTIGATE LEXCORP. AND EVENTUALLY THEY WOULD COME TO THE BLOODY LABS AND THUS LEARN ALL ABOUT LEXCORP'S EXPERIMENTAL NO-NOS. HE COULDN'T HAVE THAT. SO HE SEALED OFF THE LABORATIES COMPLETELY. AIRTIGHT. TIGHT SECURITY. THE WORKS. AND HE SOUGHT HELP IN NEW PLACES TO HELP ERASE THE TRUTH USING POWER BEYOND JUST HIS DEVICES ALONE. THAT'S HOW HE JOINED TRIANGULAR FOR GOOD……AND THAT IS HOW THE PARASITE HAS LUTHOR IN HIS NOOSE. WHO KNOWS HOW IT WORKS WITH DAGGER OR THE GOTHAMITES. BUT IT ALL ROOTS FOR LEXCORP IN THOSE FORBIDDEN FLOORS, NOIR. THE BODIES OF THE FALLEN ARE STILL DOWN THERE. STILL ROTTING. IT IS A PRESERVED MASSACRE. AND TOTALLY………TOTALLY OFF LIMITS. ANYONE WHO ENTERS THERE WILL NOT ONLY HAVE LEXCORP AND TRIANGULAR TO DEAL WITH, BUT THE DEADLY BREATH OF THE PARASITE TO BEAR.'_

"………."

I inhaled deeply.

Clenching my fingers.

I shut my eyes.

Concentrated.

Calmed down…..

'_DON'T GO DOWN THERE, NOIR……'_

I opened my eyes.

Smoke billowed out from under my shades.

I gently returned to the door, raised Myrkblade, and continued hacking my way in. Literally.

CLACK!

CLANK!

CRACK!

'_NOIR? FOR KARA'S SAKE. STOP. DON'T GO DOWN THERE. I FEEL THAT I HAVE WARNED YOU ADEQUATELY ENOUGH.'_

I kept breaking my way in.

Forcing the airtight crack wider. Wider.

I thought the words the Oracle could not hear:

_I have to go down there._

_I know because……_

_You, evidence, and my very own gut all tell me……_

_That it's the last thing I __**want**__ to do……_

CRKKKKKK!

CLACK!

KRKRK—SCWISSSH-CHTUNK!

I forced the doors open.

The yellow tape snapped.

The elevator entrance yawned open.

I stared in…and felt my hair lift up as a pressurized burst of air rocketed outward into my face. Air full of decay. Hideous and foul.

My face scrunched up instinctively.

I exhaled……inhaled.

And coughed.

Black eyes watering.

I gritted my teeth.

I exhaled….and slowly inhaled again.

_The stench…………_

I covered my lower face momentarily with a flesh forearm, gripping tightly to Myrkblade.

Shuddering.

_Hell boiled over down there, yup._

_That's for sure……_

I gazed into the elevator shaft.

Cables dangled before me.

And far below—at least three stories down in the darkness—was the top of the elevator car.

_Yup……absolute……boiling Hell………_

A beat.

_I'm going in._

I gripped the sides of the opened doorframe.

'_NOIR, FOR THE LAST TIME……'_

_Oh, go play some solitaire._

And I jumped down.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was dark.

Dead dark.

As I sliced my way with Myrkblade through the top of the elevator car and 'slithered' down to pry the door open to the mid level interior of the Beta Laboratories, I was surrounded in next-to-pitch black. A tiny light lacing the floor-button console of the car's inside was all I had as a guide. I tried to press the 'open' button. There was half an electronic whurr. The doors refused to open.

I took a breath. I jabbed Myrkblade in between the elevator door panels.

I forced them apart with smoke pulses.

FLASH!

CRKKK-KKK!

The doors flew open.

THWUMP!

A pale arm fell between my feet.

"……," I stared down.

With the doors open, a scientist's corpse from the hallway beyond fell into the elevator car chest first. His hand was outstretched…most likely 'gripping' the shut doors of the elevator when he died.

My shaded eyes followed down his torso…and found out that all there was _was_ a torso. The legs abdomen-below had been hacked off. Mercilessly.

"……."

Blood.

Dry blood.

Brown. Rusty. Copper smelling.

"……"

I looked up.

A dark hallway. Scattered with fragments of flesh and labcoat shreds.

A beat.

I lifted one leg.

Then another.

I stepped over the dead body, squeezed through the force-open doors of the elevator, and walked out onto the hallway.

Emergency lights were still working. Barely. They flickered and sparked from up above. A dim, red glow. It was the best they could do after over three months of constant glowing. Luthor's product, sparing no expense. Even the dead had a nightlight.

But it was still, very very dim.

With each flicker of the lights, I could only see more shadows attached to the faintest of shadows.

"……"

I took a breath.

I shut my eyes.

I took my shades off.

_1……2……3……_

I opened my black eyes.

Naked and blinking.

Bodies.

Pieces of bodies.

At least three persons somehow spread across the entire, metal-thin atrium of the laboratory.

I exhaled.

My breath showed in vapors.

White and pale in the air.

There was something wrong with the air conditioning.

_Or was there?_

I shivered.

My metal fingers flexed.

I held Myrkblade up in two hands…..and crept forward.

Over the blood-stained metal.

Over scraps of flesh and an occasional dismemembered limb or two.

I gazed down with naked black eyes at the corpses I passed.

Indeed, they had been hacked apart.

By something very, very sharp.

And yet…..

It didn't seem like a very clean job.

Only…..efficient.

Whatever it took to kill the scientists.

Slowly or quickly.

It mattered little.

I shuddered…and moved forward.

My body haloed by the dim strobe of flickering emergency lights.

And gradually….gradually…

The shadows grew darker.

And the metal floor took me down a small flight of stairs….and around a curve of red-rusted walls.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On my right.

The silver-light wall in the dark read: 'Beta Department Two'. That is, I assumed it read as such. For what I could see with my black eyes was inevitably blotted out with red-brown streaks of dried blood by the time 'Two' appeared.

"……"

I turned and looked straight down the hallway.

A single body was in the center of the room. Somehow, the scientist's head and feet had been separated by about twenty feet. The other bits and pieces of the body sort of 'filled in the blank' between the two dismembered parts.

A laboratory door was cracked open to my left.

I gazed in.

"……"

I stuck Myrkblade in.

With the emergency lights flickering, I pried the doors open as with a lever or crowbar.

CRKKK-KKKK!

I forced my way into the shadowed lab.

A computer console was sparking in the corner.

A woman's body was draped over an office chair.

Part of her scalp was missing.

As I walked forward, cockroaches scurried out of two holes in her skull.

I came to a stop.

"……."

I shuddered.

I moved forward.

I walked around her dangling corpse and came upon a system of filing cabinets.

_Potential evidence……?_

I pulled at one of the drawers.

It was stuck.

_Locked……_

I stepped back. I gritted my teeth. Smoke pulsed through my leg as I gave the metal filing cabinet a heavy, murking kick.

PHWOOOSH-CLANG!

The locks shattered.

All three drawers slid open.

I stuck my hand in and looked through the spaces.

Nothing but medical equipment.

I took a breath.

I scanned the rest of the room.

Doing my best to bear with the unending stench of the dead filling the cold interior.

My breath filtered out in the flickering emergency lights.

My black eyes came upon something.

A map.

Blueprints.

I grabbed the bundle and unrolled it.

The paper was splattered with brown-dry blood. But I could tell that it was most definitely a layout of the laboratories Alpha through Delta.

I scanned the pages till I found where I was.

Beta Department Two.

I was in a room that doubled as a medical supply closet and a data entry station.

A series of corridors gradually winded down via steps and an elevator shaft to the Alpha Laboratory, nestled deep within the center of the tall skyscraper on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors.

And the reason that mattered to me was….

'Experiment Records' was in a small room in Alpha Department Two.

_Into the belly of the beast……_

I gripped Myrkblade and ripped out just the section of the map I needed for the venture.

I half-stuck it into my pocket, swiveled around, and shivered my way out of the deathly supply station.

I walked back out into the main hallway and followed the descending labyrinth. Stepping over more dry puddles of rusted blood.

Trying to and trying not to look at the dead bodies all the same.

I bit my lip.

And a part of me seethed on the inside.

_How could anyone…… _

_Lex Luthor, Dagger, Triangular……_

_How could anyone so easily hide this mayhem from the public?_

_From the suffering families of the victims?_

I slowly exhaled.

_Furthermore…… _

_How could so many scientists in so many rooms be slayed in such little time?_

I ignored the next wave of shudders or two and proceeded on my way……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was a floor lower at Beta Department One when the hallway went completely dark.

"……," I came to a stop.

The emergency lights were completely dead there.

I found myself facing a corridor of pitch black.

A tangible wave of darkness stood before me.

Something that my naked black eyes couldn't pierce through.

And as much as I could simply have used spatial sense for the long haul ahead……

"…….," I glanced to my left.

A utility locker rested at arm length.

I balled my metal fingers into a fist and slammed my limb into the lockers.

CRACK!

The thing shattered open.

I ripped the broken panels off like banana peels with my titanium appendage.

I squinted my black eyes.

Inside the locker was a pair of flashlights.

I took one and gripped it tightly in my left hand.

I turned it on.

_Click._

A pale-yellow halo of light splashed on the wall and danced with every movement of my arm.

"…….."

I aimed it at the darkness, following the glow with my eyes.

The halo ate its way into the blackness and showed the wall on the opposite side like a slideshow projection. Pannels, streaks of dried blood, and industrial letters of the laboratory floor appeared and disappeared within the small circle.

I took a deep breath.

_Better than nothing._

My black eyes narrowed.

_There's no turning back……_

I crept forward into the pure darkness with just the flashlight to guide me.

I pointed Myrkblade and the electric torch out side-by-side. Moving cautiously. As if…..

As if I might see someone or something…..

My heart was pounding…if only for natural instinct.

I swallowed and pressed onward.

My breath vapors mingling with the flashlight's dim amber glow.

As I crept…crept…crept…

…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pure hallways of darkness.

The bodies were less.

The blood a little thinner.

The metal, claustrophobic walls a little closer.

I came upon the second elevator shaft…leading to the Alpha levels.

And….

The doors were already opened.

"………"

My feet echoed nakedly against the barren walls.

I could only hear my breath besides that….

I crept towards the elevator door.

Crept….

Crept….

I pointed my flashlight out.

An empty shaft.

Save for cables.

"……"

I pointed up.

Naked air. Going as far 'up' as the skyscraper could allow.

A sky of black.

"……"

I pointed the flashlight down.

Three levels down, the top of the elevator car appeared.

Cold.

Dormant.

Dangling.

There was an open set of doors just a floor above it.

_Alpha Department Two………_

_My destination……_

I tucked the flashlight away momentarily.

Everything turned to solid black.

I relied on spatial awareness as I gripped the sides of the elevator doorframe, shivered at the cold metal touch….and leapt down into the shaft.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Thwooosh!

_Clank!_

As soon as I reached the pitch-black bottom—the top of the elevator car—I froze.

My body solid.

Like a statue.

"………."

I frozed because right then and there…

I knew that I wasn't alone.

"………………………..," I panted.

I shakily reached for my flashlight with my metal hand.

And for Myrkblade with my right.

Chiiii-iiiii-iiiiing.

"……"

_Click._

Red.

Lots of it.

At close inspection, the amber halo of the cold flashlight revealed the top gears and cable joints of the elevator strewned with dried blood. Strips of flesh. Organ scraps. And other essential gore that announced in every language that someone met his bloody death in the gears of this thing beneath me.

"….."

I slowly stood up.

I turned around.

And as I turned around, the amber circle of light danced across the red-stained walls of the elevator shaft, across the rusted metal doors, and into the hallway.

A hallway….full of pale faces. Elbows. Thighs. Bits and pieces of bodies frozen forever in the throes of death. Dismembered. Disjointed. Disconnected from life.

The Lexcorp graveyard.

"……."

I slowly….silently stepped into the hallway.

My feet made squishy, crunching sounds between my shoes and the metal floor.

I bit my lip.

Cold vapor wafted out through my nostrils.

The stench was the strongest.

So strong, it almost paralyzed my nose to the smell to begin with.

And as the flashlight turned…turned….turned….

Bodies and bones and scraps of flesh blurred in and out of sight in the amber circle.

Red and brown splashes adorning the walls.

And it was so quiet.

So damn quiet.

A chill ran up my metal limb.

And I shivered.

Because I knew.

I knew…..

_He's here……_

"………."

The flashlight moved some more.

More bodies.

Dead scientists.

Tattered labcoats.

Walls coated in dried juices.

Everything else pitch black….black….black…..

_He is……here…… _

_In this very same building._

_On this………very same floor………_

I swallowed.

The dead faces gaped.

The half-decayed eyes crawling with little, squirming things.

Clear.

Emotionless.

Save for the tooth-ful howls of terror.

_Rrrrrrred Aviarrrrryyyy……_

I shivered.

I clenched my teeth….

And crept forward.

Squishing….crunching….squishing…crunching….

The amber circle started to shake.

I had to re-grip Myrkblade's hilt.

My breath was short…but visible all the same in the dim light I produced.

I moved on.

Across the soggy, littered hallway.

Following the dancing pixie-glow of the electric torch.

I felt a cold rush of air suddenly.

I froze.

"……."

I looked over my shoulder.

"……."

I momentarily pivoted my grip of the flashlight and shone it back over my shoulder.

A beat.

Nothing.

I saw nothing.

I closed my eyes. Breathing gently. Meditating.

I sensed nothing.

I reopened my eyes. I followed the amber glow again.

Nothing……

But……

_Red Avvvvviary………_

My metal arm shivered again.

The flashlight shook.

I bit my lip…concentrated…and calmed the prosthetic.

_Dammit…… _

_Why won't it stop doing that?_

A beat.

I exhaled.

I turned, pointed the flashlight ahead again….and crept along through the unholy 'graveyard' of Alpha Department Two.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was passing by numbers.

Numbers above the doors.

I found this out by lifting the flashlight up to each laboratory entrance.

The amber light revealed eight digit numbers above every frame.

'38392810'

'39104820'

'40281948'

I was at a loss as to what they meant.

But then something trivial came to mind.

Trivial, but helpful.

I took the blueprint scrap out of my pocket.

I stared at the number of the 'Experiment Records' room that I was headed for: '57583902'.

"…….."

I put the scrap back away, tilted the flashlight up, and scanned the numbers in the cold, dark air.

Two doors away, I found it.

A frame that was half open with someone's leg partially sticking out through the panels.

'57583902'.

I took a deep breath.

I walked over.

I pried the doors open.

Gritting my teeth.

"……."

CRkkk-kkkk-krak!

The doors opened.

I made to step through—

_**FLASH!**_

"_Tempest!" Lindsay shouts on the smoking, ruined streets of the City. She points: "Look out!" _

_Battered and bruised, the Atlantean stumbles up to his feet. He grips his side, pants, and turns around._

_SCHLIIIIINK!_

_A two-edged sword rips through his neck from gills to gills._

_Lindsay screams: "NOOOOOO!"_

_Tempest gurgles, rolls his dark eyes back, and falls gazing dead towards a red sky above Kobayashi Tower._

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled over the dead scientist and collapsed against a table.

CR-CRK!

I nearly dropped the flashlight.

I was shivering all over.

My metal arm the most.

I panted.

Sweating all over, despite the intense….intense cold…..

_Rrrrred Aviarrrrrry……_

I swallowed.

I looked over my shoulder.

Black eyes wide.

"……….."

Nothing.

Nothing but darkness.

And the vapors of my breath in the corner of the flashlight's glow.

"…….."

I pushed myself up straight.

I hobbled around the table.

I came to a row of filing cabinets.

Panting, I yanked them open.

One by one.

With the shaking, amber light….I perused through as much as I could.

Titles and names of experiments flew viciously past my sight.

'_Volcana Rebirth.'_

'_Brainiac Contact #1.'_

'_Kryptonite Excavations.'_

'_Vandal Savage's Bloodstream.'_

'_Trident Clones.'_

I flipped and flipped and flipped through files.

Suddenly, a wave of dizziness overcame me.

A dizziness…and then a chill.

I shuddered.

A gasp—

_**FLASH!**_

_POW! _

_P-POW!_

"_There're two many!" Lieutenant Smith shouts from behind a squad car. He fires a pistol madly at lumbering, gold giants in the ruined streets._

_Eventually, the commanding officer spins around and shouts to two other cops._

"_Crews! Blenden! Send for backup! We've already lost contact with the Titans! After what happened to the Tower, who knows how many could be—"_

_SWOOOOOSH! _

_A shadow billowing red smoke soars __**through**__ the Lieutenant._

_THWACK!_

_Smith's head falls off._

_His blood-soaked body slumps to the floor._

_The other two cops scream in horror for the entire two seconds before the red cloud streaks at them and rips them each in half._

_SLIIINK!_

_CRKKK!_

_**FLASH!**_

"!"

I fell against the filing cabinets, spilling papers everywhere.

Panting.

"……."

I gripped my metal hand and stared with weak eyes down at the scattered pages.

And in the dim glow of the shaking flashlight, I saw something.

Names.

Words.

"……"

I knelt down and scooped up a handful of papers.

My lips parted.

'_Pertaining the product to be housed at Area 51.'_

I swallowed.

I shakily flipped a page and stabbed the flashlight down onto the sheets.

'_Following the Dragonflare distribution back east, forces are under way to clear out the experimental chambers for Dr. Jace's arrival. Dagger's edge has been given. Dent is supplying the coverup needed in Nevada. But more money will be needed for the final movement of product.'_

My black eyes scanned down the pages.

'_Lexcorp itself cannot handle this project alone. A memo to all executives. Meetings with the representatives of the Wayne Foundation, Powers Incorporated, Queen Company, and Vreeland International shall commence on July Fifteenth in anticipation of the beginning procedures. All operations in Gotham City shall be covered in this commission.'_

"……..," I exhaled. A blink.

_The Wayne Foundation? _

_Powers?_

_Queen? _

_Vreeland?_

"………"

_But those are all legitimate business entities……_

My black eyes trailed off beyond the amber circle of light.

_How in the Hell are they involved in this deadly, Triangular mess?_

A beat.

I flipped through a few more pages to a last sheet.

I scanned over it.

'_Preparation of the nether chambers now complete. Once the nature of the Product is accurately ascertained through Dagger, the business talks shall commence. Luthor suggets a competent force of fifty men and women to operate the channels and submerged passageways. We are still working on a way to supply power regularly to the facilities.'_

"……."

I flipped one more page.

And I saw a photo.

A photo that looked to have been taken underwater.

A photo—grainy as it was—depicting a tunnel built into the earth.

Completely filled with water.

And on the side of the tunnel….huge pipelines.

Carrying electricity, oxygen, and illumination.

"……….."

_Kl-Klink!_

"!"

I spun up to my feet and aimed both Myrkblade and the flashlight out the door of the Experiment Records room.

Silence.

Nothing in the amber light on the outside.

No movement.

Just still…..air.

"……………," I breathed gently.

Standing as still as a statute.

Mute…..

"…………….."

……………….

_Klink._

I shuddered.

My metal arm twitched.

I stuffed the notes, files, and photos into a back pocket of my fatigues.

I slowly…..slowly….crept out towards the hallway.

I flashed the flashlight one way.

Stained walls.

Dead bodies.

"….."

I flashed the torch the other way.

Dark-brown streaks.

Cold vapors from my breath.

"….."

I walked forward

And stumbled with a sudden wave of shivers—

_**FLASH!**_

_Raven floats backwards, her tattered robe billowing. _

_She clutches a bleeding arm for but a second before summoning strength, summoning a pose, and chanting: "Azarath……Metrion……ZINTHOS!"_

_A field of debris rises up from the ruined streets around her. Illuminated by a red sky, the shrapnel and shards spin around her like an atomic shield as she faces a shadowed figure and utters:_

"_You killed Robin, didn't you? Now Starfire and Beast Boy. I should have known all along……," she seethes. She shouts: "I should have known all along!"_

_SWOOOOSH!_

_The red-trailing figure soars at her._

_She flings the shrapnel at it._

"_YAAAGH!"_

_SLICE! SLIIIINK! CHIIIIIING!_

_The red cloud breaks through and rushes up to her. _

_Something explodes through Raven's body and SPLORCHES out her backside in a crimson fountain._

_She gasps and tilts her head to the red sky._

_Gurgling._

_Eyes wide and leaking red tears…_

_**FLASH!**_

I was on the floor.

Besides a dead scientist.

Panting.

Shivering all over.

_Rrrrred Aviaryyyyy……_

I gritted my teeth.

I hobbled up to my feet and limp—freezing—down the black hallway.

My flashlight dancing.

My scarred face and neck sheen with sweat.

I was terrified.

I felt more afraid than when I fought my way onto Slade's frigate the night that he died.

More afraid than in the howling caverns of black Mortuana.

Shivering more than on the day Dagger's Dragonflared armies ripped apart the very same people I had sworn to protect.

_Red Aviary…… _

_He is here._

_He is preying on me._

_Tracking me down like a wounded gazelle._

I panted….panted…panted…

Hobbled forward in the cold dark.

_I got what I came for…… _

_Did I?_

_Or did it matter anymore?_

_This is a death trap…… _

_The tiger pit for the most hunted soul in all of the Western Hemisphere._

_Teetering on a blade's tip formed by red vapors._

_It's not that I should have listened to the Oracle. _

_I just should never have been born._

_I should never have been born……_

_Terra._

_When he takes me._

_He'll be coming after you._

_I can't let that happen._

_I can't._

_Kara……please……_

_I……I……_

I came to a stop.

Shivering.

Blinking.

For I had seen something.

"….."

I tilted to the side.

I lifted the flashlight.

I illuminated the wall to my left.

And….

The blood.

The blood took on a pattern.

Rising up towards the ceiling in stalks, only to meet a space…and only for that space to be topped with a layer of red.

Like the billowing clouds over a dark landscape.

Over a dark bay.

My breath wavered.

The vapors lingered in the air.

My mind wandered….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Noir…"_

_Glover slowly spoke to me from his sick bed in his apartment complex._

"_I came into this whole mess by being drawn in by the violent, the disturbing, and the bizarre. A pair of nasty murders at Pier 7123 in Gotham and Pier 4146 in this City."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I traced the red bands of dried blood on the walls.

Stepping over bodies.

Shivering.

Slowly breathing.

Naked black eyes tracing….tracing….tracing….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Pier 4146._

_The Titan's City. _

_Lieutenant Smith gestured to Glover._

_Glover approached the inside of the warehouse._

_He eyed the wall._

_Above the bodies—the heaps of flesh—the warehouse wall was plastered in red blood._

_Across the wall—in wickedly thin lettering—the blood reads: 'Stroke'._

"_**Numbers that coincidentally map out a bayside chemical factory in Gotham……"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……_**where a terrible tragedy happened long ago and remains largely untold."**_

_Pier 7123._

_A photo._

_Bodies lining up against a warehouse wall. _

_Stalks of bloodstains stretching up above them._

_The crimson letters spelling out plainly: 'Death'._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

My flashlight followed the dead bodies.

The stained blood.

The hackjobs.

And….

I came to a stop.

At a door.

And I looked above.

With the flashlight shining….

Illuminating the number.

'29531958'

"……….," My black eyes narrowed.

A beat.

_I'm no math expert……_

_But……_

"………."

My lips parted.

_29531958……_

I swallowed.

_It's 7123 multiplied by 4146……_

My metal arm shivered.

I took a breath.

I walked forward….and wrenched the automatic doors opened with Myrkblade.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The names of a deadly hit list hinted in letters carved on mutilated victims' bodies. Trails of blood spelling a stroke of death to cover the land. A razor-edged playing card pointing me in a direction that would take me through interviews with invisibly-cloaking assassins, fate-bending sorceresses, a man helplessly possessed by a young hacker and forced to steal a very precious video tape to me, and finally a revelation of a phone call from a mysterious entity with whom—in some awkward fashion or another—I could relate."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRKKKKK!

I forced the doors opened.

I stumbled in.

It felt arctic inside.

Freezing.

My teeth chattered.

I calmed my nerves some.

I aimed the flashlight in.

The room was a conference hall of sorts.

A meeting table in the center had been shattered to splinters.

The pungent order of blood and organs filled the room.

Hideously stronger than ever before.

I walked forward.

Flashlight trailing the floor.

And….

Meeting bodies.

Eight….bodies….

Eight bodies with letters carved on them.

Ripped and scratched into the last stretches of flesh left.

"'T...R...V...G...K...T...J…G…'"

"………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Glover held the photos from 7123 and 4146 up for me to see._

_The bloody warehouse walls formed a perfect landscape of a Bay in Gotham City. _

_With a lighthouse towering and strobing in the center._

_The two words in the space between the bloody 'waves' and the bloody 'sky' becoming one._

'_Death-Stroke'._

"_By his breath they freeze, by his breath they die. Smoke and mirrors is what keeps him alive."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

The amber light crept up the black wall.

There they were.

The brown-red stalks.

Four-month-old blood.

Caked and staining.

"………"

And I raised the flashlight up.

Up.

Up.

And found two words written across the conference room wall in fading life juice.

'**Hello, Noir'**

I blinked.

_**CHIIIIIIIING!**_

From behind.

A red glow.

"!"

I gasped and spun around—

_Clamp!-Thwomp-Thwomp-Thwomp-__**Thwomp-THWOMP-**__**THWOMP**__**!**_

A rushing shadow.

Billowing red smoke.

Something flying. Something glinting.

I jumped back and ducked.

**SWOOOOOOSH!**

CRACK!

The flashlight shattered.

My black eyes twitched as I was bathed in absolute darkness.

_Red Aviary!_

CHIIIIING!

Something came bleeding through the air towards me.

I howled mutely and raised Myrkblade with two hands.

**CLANG!**

Sparks flew.

The snapshot breath of a tall body pressing down against mine.

_With what? _

_A sword?_

_Claws?_

FWOOOSH!

A cold, searing force of icy breath.

I was shoved back.

I slid through a sea of splinters and body parts.

Shivering all over.

My metal arm hissing and begging to pop.

I couldn't see a thing until—

**FLASH!**

The shadowy figure lit up like a Roman Candle.

A red cloud billowing out from tiny, thin arms.

Like the ashes from an angry Balrog.

Red vapors pouring out of the face.

Making the features indistinguishable.

I shuddered. Breathless.

A blink.

**FWOOOOOOSH!**

He was on me.

_Shit!_

I spun and twirled Myrkblade to meet the red stream.

CL-CL-CLANK!

I was shoved back.

_But by what?_

CHIIIING!

Red hot serration.

Swinging down at me.

On crimson streams.

I rolled out of the way.

The precious paper files and photos fluttered out of my back pocket.

I tumbled through a pile of shredded skin and brown stains.

I rested on propped elbows, panting.

In a fading red glow, I saw the papers.

I reached a shaking metal hand for them

THWAP!

The red glow strobed as the papers exploded from a crimson cloud's impact.

The evidence…completely shredded.

I hissed through clenched teeth.

_Shit!_

FWOOOSH!

The red streams shot at me.

I jumped to my feet and murked blindly out into the black hallway.

A cold fire at my feet.

Red tongues of Death.

Destruction.

_Rrrrrred Aviarrrryy!_

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_

The black hallway was a catacomb of dead bodies lighting up with red at the last second.

The red cloud gathered thicker and thicker at my heels.

The brighter the corpse-filled labyrinth became, the closer he was.

I summoned energy and prepared to bolt my body forward in smoke form—

Red vapors shot forward….

…and encircled my metal appendage.

I winced all over.

_Arrrrrghhhh!_

_**FLASH!**_

_The girl in red points at me. _

_Her short black bangs shaking in the wind._

"_Robin! Run, Robin!"_

_Mud caking the hallways._

_Catwalks crackling._

"_Don't you see? I'm not real!"_

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled.

I fell.

I slid on the cold metal floor of the Alpha Laboratory.

Shivering so much, I couldn't feel up or down.

I slid and slid and slid and slid.

Past bodies and limbs.

TH-THWAP!

Into a door.

Wincing.

I opened my black eyes wide.

**Tall grass.**

_N-No……_

**Cedar trees.**

_No!_

**The Washington sky……gray.**

_It's not REAL!_

_**FLASH!**_

_Ana giggles. _

_He laughs._

_I crawl on all fours._

_Over the grass and soil._

_Panting._

_I shake._

_My brown eyes close. _

_A cringe._

_My black eyes open._

_I look up._

_Tears bleeding red._

_Ana spins on white bolts of energy._

_Within the pedestal. _

_He screams at the top of his lungs._

_Some skeleton across the way leers over a catwalk._

_Someone else, spinning a knife in his nimble hands._

_And someone is laughing._

_Laughing._

_I'm standing up suddenly._

_Staring down._

_Rusted metal._

_Rusted blood._

_Entrails and limbs._

_And I tilt my head up._

_And I'm laughing._

_Laughing……_

_**FLASH!**_

I gasped.

I clutched the 'X'-shaped scar on my throat.

My naked black eyes blinked.

FWOOOOOSH!

The shadowed figure streamed at me with red trails.

Swinging something.

I gasped.

I pressed up against the doors.

_Doors! _

_Elevator doors!_

SWOOOOOSH!

The figure pounced.

Strobes of red flying at me.

_RRRRRRRRREDDDDDD __**AVIARY!**_

My eyes flickered white once and fade back to black.

I held my breath, concentrated, and teleported backwardsFWOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

into the elevator car.

CL-CLANG!

I landed clumsily with Myrkblade against the metal floor and wall of the car.

Panting.

Shivering all over.

My metal arm convulsing.

And red seeped in after me.

Eating at my legs.

Squeezing along the walls.

Red vapors.

A crimson ice settled along the walls as

WHANG!

The elevator doors pounded in from the Alpha Laboratory hall.

I shuddered.

I struggled to get up.

WHANG!

The doors shook.

The car rattled.

My hair curled.

The plastic of the button panel started to crack.

The emergency light fixture above me shattered.

Metal started to squeak as cold, cold Destruction seeped its way into the very atoms of everything around me.

My metal arm felt like it was going to implode.

**WHANG!**

The doors dented in.

I panted.

I stared down.

_The floor…._

SWOOOOSH-CLANK!

I stabbed Myrkblade down into the metal ground of the car.

I pulsed murk.

I struggled.

I sliced….sliced….sliced open the floor.

WHANG! WH-WHANG!

The doors dented and dented.

They started to crack.

With a hissing-click-click-click-click, Red Aviary's crimson breath filtered inward hungrily for me.

I felt like hands of Destruction were reaching in towards me.

Trying to fill the gaps in my throat that were missing.

And rip me apart from the inside out.

I let out a mute scream and shoved Myrkblade down through the fresh tear I made.

_CRKKKKKK!_

CRASSSSSH!

The elevator doors shattered.

SWOOOOSH! I teleported and dove down through the crack in the bottom of the elevator car.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I plummeted.

I fell.

I soared down the elevator shaft.

Down in pure darkness.

With a blur of red billowing above me.

I held my breath and shot Myrkblade out in front of me.

CLANK! CLANK! SCRKKKKKKK!

Sparks flew as the smoke-enveloped blade ate its way into the blurring shaft wall and grinded my body to a dangling stop right before the fifteenth story's doors.

I hung.

Panting.

Shivering….

CRWNNNG-CRWNNNG-CLONG!

"…..," I looked over my dangling shoulder.

The elevator cords were shaking.

"….." I looked up. "!" I gasped.

The elevator car was full of red cloud. Shaking. Vibrating. Jolting downward…downward…

Being severed….

_Jesus!_

I panted and faced the doors I dangled before.

I snarled, swung my legs up, and kicked the panels.

CLANG!

Again.

CLANG!

Again.

CRWWWWNNNG!

The heavy elevator far above me jolted and lurched downward more like a death weight.

I held my breath, hung by my right arm, and swung my titanium limb into the doorfram.

**SMACK! **

**SMACK!**

**SM-SMACK!**

My shivering prosthetic dented the panels inward.

Crunching the frame and supports—

_**SNAP!**_

From above.

I stupidly glance up.

_SCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPEEEEEEEE!_

The red glow was gone.

In its place was a series of fireworks sparks shimmering down at me as the elevator car plummeted on a deadly collision course.

The Death Express.

Destruction.

_Rrrrredddd Aviaryyyy_.

I raised my fist one last time and swung with all my might at the doors before me.

_Aaaaaaaaaaaaughhhh!_

SWOOOOSH-**SMASH!**

The doors fell off the frame.

I held my breath, swung my legs, and tossed myself in.

_Plant!_

I landed in a dark utility shed.

A breath.

I spun around, reached into the shaft, grabbed Myrkblade's hilt….

…and jerked the weapon in with me.

_**SWOOOOOOOSH!**_

The plummetting elevator car barely skimmed past my retreating limb and Myrkblade.

It flew down the shaft with its ripping, tearing 'tails' of elevator cords trailing wildly behind.

SL-SL-SLINK!

They ripped into the frame—and the room—forcing me to jump back before nearly getting grazed at a hair's width.

Th-Thwomp!

I landed on my rear.

Panting.

Sweat filtering down around black eyes wide.

_**THUDDDDD!**_

…was the sound of the elevator crashing below.

I gulped.

I jumped up to my feet.

Panicky, I spun and dashed towards the first door I saw.

A thin, metal frame with a thin line of light beneath it.

_Light……_

CRACK!

I kicked it open and immediately flinched as I stumbled into a room awash with bright, electric light.

Like a squirrel caught in the spotlight of a semi truck, I froze with my flesh and metal arms raised over my head. I was a terrible sight—I imagined—with my camouflaged jacket and black undershirt soaked with cold sweat and my hair and fatigues disheveled from the flight in the deadhalls.

"Who is that?" uttered a voice with a Swedish accent.

A beat.

"…………."

"Oh my………ha….ha ha ha….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" a woman's voice chuckled merrily.

"…………," I slowly lowered my limbs and squinted my black eyes open against the brightness.

A woman scientist stood in the middle of a brightly lit laboratory. Beside her was a gurney with a body on it. A body hidden by white veils and sheets erected beside her. She laughed in a gut-wrenching manner, her face and eyes disguised by an operating mask and magnifying goggles.

After her hysteria dwindled, she stood up straight and gestured: "It's you! The Black Eyes! I thought I'd never…ever see you again. Much less alive."

"…………..," my black optics narrowed if that was possible.

_That voice. _

_I……recognize the voice……_

"I wonder if Dagger knows. Oh, I bet he does. He'd ramble on that the Parasite is all about you and such nonsense. Perhaps it's true. Perhaps it's not. But fancy you being here on the eve of Triangular's greatest moment."

"…………"

"I can see that you don't recognize me. It can't be helped. You were the most naïve of the three. Though….to be honest….you didn't scream the loudest."

My lips parted.

_She was…… _

_Part of the Experiment?_

She slowly gripped her goggles….and her mask…and peeled it off.

A shaking of red, strawberry locks.

She struck a 'seductress' pose and smirked at me.

"Hello, specimen. My….how indeed you have grown…."

My lips parted.

_You………_

I felt my fingers instantly clench into fists as murderous thoughts swam bitterly into my head.

_**You**__………are Dr. Helga Jace?_

Red Aviary had long faded.

The past came throttling hotly to the front.

_But……she looks so……so……_

"I know what you're thinking……," the woman winked. "I'm quite the young fox, aren't I not?"

"………."

"I was responsible for Project Enoch…," she cooed. "I'm sure you've heard of it before. It was something I worked on…..long before I got my hands on you. Long before your New Master took command of the Eyes….."

"……….," I seethed. Teeth clenched. Blood boiling.

_You……… _

_I will………_

_K-Kill……you……_

"You met my precious darling, didn't you?"

I blinked.

"My precious…little Terra….," she murmured. A feminine sigh from her lips. "The most gifted of all the children I ever worked on." Her eyes thinned. "Of course you had to have met her. For one….she has eyes like someone else you know. Or at least—if Dagger still had his way—she _could._"

I snarled mutely.

I took a step towards her-

"And you were at Vegas!" she pointed. "Thus…you unknowingly helped me with my greatest contribution to Triangular yet!"

I froze in mid step.

Blinking.

_Wait a damn second. _

_The cylinder……_

_Anderson's precious, Intergang cylinder……_

Dr. Jace smiled. "Oh….how I longed for a reunion of this sort. I almost wished it was White Eyes I'd be meeting first out of you three. She's definitely the most talented of you bunch."

"………."

"Not thrilled to see me, boy? Well….Mommy's got you a playmate. Besides…..I think it's time you two made up."

I blinked.

_Who the Hell are you talking about?_

"**Snkkkt! Helga! There's an intruder alert! Noir is still in the building! He's on your floor—"**

The Doctor glanced halfway at the intercom system, smirking: "I know, Mr. Luthor. The Black Eyes is right here. And my….he's gotten handsome."

I gritted my teeth.

Luthor's next, electronic words shook me: **"If Project Enkidu II is finished, then send John after the damned punk!"**

"But wouldn't Dagger—?"

"**Do as I told you!Snnkkkktt!"**

"Hrmmm……heheheheheh…..very well," Dr. Jace murmured. "Besides, my Dagger days are over with."

I icily marched towards her.

She stood her place: "Let's see if my improvements are still in that body of yours…."

And she snapped a finger.

_Snap!_

_Zzzzzt!_

Suddenly, the body on the gurney rose in a sharp shadow.

I skidded to a stop.

I looked over.

The shadow beyond the white sheets sat up, turned, and 'looked' at me.

A familiar voice. Haunting. Laced with ever-so-slight an accent. And a metallic ring….

"Oh…..well doesn't this beat all? Ha…hahahahahaha ha ha ha haaaa! Oh how finely succulent the day of vengeance is!"

"Do your dirtiest, John," Dr. Jace folded her arms and smirked in my direction. "I intend to watch….every….bleeding….second…."

"Nnnngh!" the body jumped up from behind the sheets.

I raised Myrkblade at the last second

FWOOOOOSH!

A titanium form billowed through the sheets.

Face half flesh and half glinting metal.

SWOOOOSH!

A fist—

**WHAM!**

I felt like I was struck by adamantium.

I soared back, tumbled, toppled, and slid hard into a computer console.

CLANG!

"……," I winced, standing on wobbly legs.

I jerked my shades out of a belt pocket and slipped them over my black optics.

And I gasped…..

"Heheheheh….," Metallo stood up from his striking crouch. He turned his neck about, cracked metal joints, and smiled at me. Half-flesh-and-half-skull-smile. "Well hello there, little squirrel. Remember me?"

"………," I blinked.

"No? Pity. I happen to have faint….fleeting memories of your face," he hissed. A glinting smirk. "And the ever-shitting need to punch the Hell out of it."

FWOOOOSH!

And Metallo charged me across the laboratory.

"RRRRRRRRAAAHHH!"

SWOOOOSH—SMACK!


	210. Metropolitan part 5

**210. Metropolitan part 5**

THWOOOOSH—THWAP!

I landed hard against the laboratory wall.

My side of the room jolted from the smoking impact.

I slumped down to my knees, wincing in pain.

"YAAAUGH!" Metallo—the former John Corbin—charged me. SWOOOSH! His titanium fist flew.

I took a breath and rolled to the side.

SMASH!

A crater was formed in the sword by the homicidal android.

I rolled up to a kneeling position and unsheathed Myrkblade. CHIIIIING!

Metallo pivoted his head to the side. The flesh half of his face amused. The metal half frozen in a skull-smile. My smoking sword reflected off his cold, bright eye. A whurring noise. His voice slithered across the room with a metallic ring:

"Aww…and how it gradually comes together…"

I stood up on my knees, breathing heavily. Pointing Myrkblade towards him.

"The sword. The black eyes. The scars on the post-adolescent skin…," he murmured as he slowly stood up like some metal automaton. "When I lost my Kryptonite core, I dropped a pretty handful of colorful memories. Memories that most defnitely fester in the gaping abyss left in Intergang's dying place. I have been bounced around all over the place, squirrel-boy. Luthor. Intergang. Solo. I was even offered a part with the Injustice League. Heheheheh….what a trivial establishment. And here I am back in Luthor's cold, ruthless lap. But I'm not angry. Not anymore. I no longer need to feed off Kryptonite's pathetic energy to make myself strong. Luthor is on his knees before me now. He needs me to keep Triangular alive. And in the meantime, he's given me license to pummel those half-faded visions of youthful miscreants responsible for my last and final, amnesiac defeat. Supergirl. The Teen Titans."

His human eye narrowed as he pointed at me.

"You….Noir…."

I frowned, breathing heavily.

_Everyone's gotta have angst these days……_

"He was like…a poor, lost child…"

I glanced aside.

Dr. Helga Jace leaned against laboratory equipment, her arms folded across her hideously youthful chest. "When S.T.A.R. Labs coughed him up in pieces, I felt for him like a mother would feel to an abandoned orphan. I put him together, replaced the ghetto trash excuse for 'technology' that Intergang's thugs had stuffed him with, and improved him ultimately with the wondrous cylinder that the heinous criminal incorporation was holding back. Ohhhh…how can I help it? I am such a sympathetic sap for the lost and depraved prodigies of this world."

She cooed….dripped into a flippant laugh….and thinned her eyes at me with a lick of her lips and a final breath:

"And a firm, benevolent admirer…."

I frowned under my shades.

_Benevolent my a……_

SWOOOSH!

WHAM!

Metallo's kick caught me off guard.

I flew up in the air, backflipped nimbly, and landed with my feet planting against the metal wall of the laboratory. I reached a metal hand up and grabbed a coil of wires connected to a ceiling unit full of electric tools.

Metallo ran towards me, raising a fist to uppercut me off my perch.

I took a breath, covered Myrkblade in smoke, and severed the wires I was tethered to. SNAP! _ZZZZZT!_ I swung on the wires and shot my legs out, contacting Metallo's chest.

WHUMP!

He staggered back a step or two.

I stuck Myrkblade in under his armpit, swung myself around, and wrapped the length of the bundle of wires around his torso just in time for the electric juice to catch up.

_**ZZZZZZTTTTTT!**_

"Nnnnnnnghhh!" Metallo convulsed and fell to his knees, smoking from various metal joints.

Swoosh-_Plant!_

I landed in a crouch behind him.

Dr. Jace was clapping. Smiling.

"Quite excellent," she smirked. "You still put agility to good use." She folded her arms from the sidelines again and smirked. "You know, the Experiment increased your speed by about one hundred and twenty percent…."

"………," I stared at her. Blinking.

"RAAAUGH!" Metallo suddenly lurched up to his feet, grabbed the very wires shocking him, and pulled. CRKKKKK! He yanked the ceiling unit of tools down via the wires, swung on the cords, and flung the huge shrapnel slingshot at me.

I meditated in a split second, reverse cartwheeled, and backflipped high just as the wreckage went hurtling under me.

CRASH! It plowed its way into a wall of computer consoles in the back of the laboratory.

I landed in a backwards slide.

"RGHHHHH!" Metallo charged at me, fist flying.

I gritted my teeth in mid-slide and twirled Myrkblade up.

SWOOOSH! He punched.

CLANG! I blocked.

TH-THWISH! He brought a knee up.

I held Myrkblade in two hands like a staff and shoved his appendage down. THWOMP!

He spun and brought an elbow to my face.

I took a breath and—FWOOOSH!—teleported my face in and out of smoke form, expertly missing the brunt of his impact.

He stumbled, not expecting to hit pure air.

I shouted mutely and stabbed Myrkblade into his chest cavity….

….only to find he no longer had a chest cavity.

CLANK!

He froze.

I blinked, leaning against Myrkblade against his chest.

_N-No more Kryptonite?_

**GRIP!**

His hand was around my scarred throat.

I panted and wheezed for breath.

He lifted me up, sneered, and hissed: "Bottom's up."

THWOOOSH!

He dramatically lifted me up to the ceiling and shouted as he flung me hard to the floor.

CRACK!

Fractures formed in the laboratory linoleum.

I gasped, my lungs empty of all air. My legs twitched and jerked above me, aimed towards the ceiling.

Metallo let go, leaned back, raised a titanium foot, and brought it down towards my center with a growl.

SWOOOSH!

I rolled to the side with a jerk…

CRACK!

The concussion of the heavy slam tossed me across the room like a rolling ragdoll to where I slumped up hard to the support legs of a metal gurney.

I winced, coughed, and sputtered on the floor.

"You know….we tried to make you super-human….," Jace pleasantly narrated as she sauntered over towards me. She half knelt, her face a tempting distance from my convulsing metal fist. She smiled at my weak frame and smiled: "And some ways, we did make you super. But half-super just doesn't cut it. Not in this City."

I frowned at her, still trying to catch my breath.

She chuckled femininely to herself and stood back up: "Resume playtime, my children."

And as she stood up straight, the sight of Metallo plummeting towards me in a flying kick encompassed all I could see.

"YAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

I winced and encased myself in murk at the last second.

FLASH!

Metallo struck dead center.

CRASSSSSH!

The two of us went crashing through the floor of the laboratory and collapsing into an office room of the story below inside the skyscraper. A desk was smashed to splinters. Working citizens jumped up from their chairs and filing cabinets. They shouted and cried in horror before running away from the landing warriors.

"RGHH!" Metallo lifted me up from the collapsed crater of the office desk and raised his other fist. He smiled half metal and skin. "Kansas…..," he hissed.

I tiredly gazed down at him from the choking grip. "Yes…..I believe it was Kansas…," he murmured. A laugh. "Hehehehehehahahaha!"

SWOOOOSH-WHAM!

He punched me in the face.

I winced and convulsed.

"How could I ever…"

THWOOOSH-THWAP!

"….have been clobbered…."

SWOOOOOSH-THUD!

"….by an anorexic little punk like you…."

THWIIIIIISH-SMACK!

"……in _Kansas?"_

FWOOOOOOSH-**CLUTCH!**

I caught his last punch with a titanium fist.

I looked at him. Frowning. My nose bleeding and my shades cracked on the side.

_Maybe a house fell on you._

FLASH!

I bolted into smoke form, teleported my wrap-around way down his metal limbs, and materialized in a sword swinging crouch on the office floor behind his rear.

_I see France……_

THWOOOOSH-THACK!

I swung Myrkblade up behind the evil android's legs, pulsed murk into my limbs, and hoisted him over my shoulders as if with a huge lever. I jumped in a murk-quick flash, spun, and slammed a flying foot into his midair ribcage at the end of my toss.

CLANK!

"OOF!" Metallo's body went flying through into a cubicle, smashing through a sparkling computer station and a wooden desk. CRASH! "Rrrgh…," he groaned and tried to get up…

FWOOOOOOOOOSH! I blurred towards him, Myrkblade swinging like a buzz-saw.

CLACK! CLANG! SMACK! THWACK! THWUD! WHAM!

I repeatedly delt murking blow after murking blow, shoving Metallo's jolting body through wall after wall of cubicles.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!

I finally slammed him through one last cubicle wall and shoved him mercilessly against a string of filing cabinets.

CRUNCH!

Papers and files and folders littered his metal body.

I stood on two firm legs, screamed mutely, and swung Myrkblade down the center of his forehead.

SWOOOOOSH-**CLACK!**

Sparks flew and Myrkblade stopped dead against his forehead, not even leaving a mark.

I winced all over from the jolting vibration.

"……," Metallo's frown turned into a subtle smirk as he reached a metal hand up and gripped the length of my blade. "Sorry, chap. I'm only 'half-and-half' on the outside." THWOOOSH! He shoved up on Myrkblade.

I was jolted into the air of the office building.

Metallo grunted, aimed his wrists at me, and produced two surprise laser blasters. Cl-Chtunk! Cl-Chtunk!

**Z-ZAP!**

_**POW!**_

I was deflected across the office space and into a water cooler. CRACK! I tumbled to the floor as the heavy water spilled to the ground and burst in a blue splash.

"……..," I stirred, holding onto Myrkblade with a trembling arm. My body smoked from Balance and the laser blast combined.

Dr. Helga Jace stared down from the hole in the ceiling, her arms folded. "John, be a good boy and teach Noir the fine lesson of being naughty." She smiled. "Sitting in the corner of death for eternity sounds like ample lesson-learning."

"My dear woman…," Metallo stood up and flexed his metal joints. "You're even more nuts than I am!"

She merely smirked.

I stood up on wobbly knees.

"Hey, squirrel!"

I looked up, wincing.

Metallo was suddenly holding an entire office desk over his head. "Luthor wants you dead. I so happen to want you deader. So let's give that catching arm of yours a try! NNNGH!"

THWOOOSH!

He tossed the huge, hulking desk at me like a missile.

I gasped and raised Myrkblade up over my head.

The desk reached me….

I snarled and swung Myrkblade down with a serrated wave of smoke.

CRA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-ACK! I sliced the accelerated furniture piece into halves on either side of me. CL-CLUNK! CLUNK!

Once the splinters parted, I saw Metallo sailing at me with the assistance of ankle rockets.

"Hahahaha! Strike _TWO!_"

_**PFTOOOOOO!**_

THWUMP!

He shoved into me, rocketing.

The two of us soared across the wrecked office space.

Dr. Jace's head turned as she watched from above.

THWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! Metallo shoved us through a pair of double doors….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!

…and into the thin hallway beyond.

Workers gasped and ran every which way from us.

THWUMP! Metallo shoved me against a wall. He snickered, raised a fist, and sailed it at my skull.

I jerked my head to the side at the last second.

CRUNCH!

Metallo's fist formed a hole in the wall.

I kicked both feet out at him.

THWAP!

His body stumbled back but jolted from his fist anchored inside the cracked wall.

I twirled to the side, swung Myrkblade up, and slammed it into his inner elbow.

CL-CLANK! CRK! His stuck fist flew out of the wall and comically into his own chin. THWAP!

"OOF!" the android stumbled back and clutched his face. "God damn googly moogly!"

_Nnnngh!_

I flew into him with an elbow.

THUD!

He stumbled down the hall towards an open window shining in bright sunlight.

I swung Myrkblade up, uppercutting the android across the chin.

CLANK!

He twirled.

I stepped forward with a downward swing across his back.

SMACK!

He teetered.

I jabbed Myrkblade into his side, flexed my muscles, and kicked my foot along the length of the sword and into his metal ribcage.

THWAP!

Metallo fell on his back and slid a few feet across the linoleum.

I ran, jumped, pounced, and came down at him with a visciously stabbing sword. SWIIIISH!

He clapped his hands together over my blade just inches before it sliced its way into his metal throat. THWAP!

I struggled and strained to jerk Myrkblade free. I was straddling his grounded, metal figure.

"Heheheheh….this is rather forward of you, isn't it boy?"

I blinked.

Cl-Clak! His ankle rockets protruded outward again and aimed beyond his heels.

"Let's get some good 'ol sunshine, shall we?"

_**PFTOOOOOOOOO!**_

Together we slid from the propulsion across the long hallway floor and straight towards the window.

I fought and fought to pull Myrkblade out from his grasp, but he hung on.

I soon faced the window and winced.

"Bad day to forget a parasol! Ha ha ha ha ha ha…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHATTTTTER!**_

Metallo and I soared out the side window of the Lexcorp HQ skyscraper and plummeted from over twenty feet above the gaping Metropolis below.

Our bodies twirled and twirled in mid-air.

Four stories down, we drifted and collapsed hard across a curved black rooftop—thankfully with Metallo landing first like a bad coin.

CL-CLANK!

I jerked off of him with Myrkblade and rolled till I tumbled into an antenna. Clang!

I winced.

"Nnnngh!" He jumped up. He flexed his muscles towards the bright blue sky. "Mmmmm….smell that cool, fresh air!" He swiveled his head Linda Blair style and smirked at me. "It could use a touch of copper! HA!" He then proceeded to bear razor sharp robot fingers and slice down at my neck. CHIII-IIIING!

I raised Myrkblade at the last second—CLANG!—blocked, and jumped up onto my feet a good space away.

Metallo growled and leapt at me across the rooftop. "RAAAAUGH!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwissh!_

Dr. Helga Jace walked out onto an open balcony on the side of the Lexcorp building.

"**Helga! Is Project Enkidu II in effect?"**

Jace leaned against the balcony and spoke back to the intercom blaring out from the hallway behind her.

"The boys took a tumble inside the lab and the office below. Your typical sort of male roughhousing…." She smirked. "Emphasis on the rough."

"**Blast it! Not in my building!"**

"Don't fret, Mr. Luthor….," the Swedish born vixen purred. "My children have taken the fight to the streets."

"**Is Corbin doing us the favor he said he would?"**

"Be patient, Luthor. Be patient….," she smiled and ran a hand through her wind-whipped hair of red. "I told Corbin he could have his way with the boy a little bit before he pulls through for the plan." A beat. She added: "And ruins the boy's life…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH! SMASH!

Chunks of rooftop flew from Metallo's fist.

I jumped, flipped and landed behind him.

His torso spun freakishly with a massive punch towards my frame.

FWOOOSH!

I backflipped.

I landed meditatively with one foot atop the antenna. I balanced my powers, turned my lower body weightless, and pivoted my upper body to jab—CLANK!—stab—THWAP!—and slash—CLANG!—at Metallo's skull.

He jolted from the impacts, shook, growled, and swung a foot into the antenna.

I leapt up at the last second.

CRACK!

The antenna shattered in fragments.

I flipped over Corbin….

_CLUTCH!_

A metal hand gripped my flying ankle.

"……!"

He smirked. "Hehehehe…HA!" THWOOOSH-WHAM!

He swung he hard into the ground.

I winced.

**GRIP!**

He encircled my neck with his metal fingers and leered down at me….._squeeeeeeeezing…_….

"Coming to Metropolis was a mistake, boy," he whispered. "Luthor's too powerful to let you live. Dr. Jace is too smart to let you breathe. And I'm too _pissed_ to let you go fast and painless…."

His metal hand constricted hard around my scarred throat.

I stirred and convulsed, my whole body wracked in pain and suffocation from the base of my spine downward.

He leaned his half-faces down to my nose and hissed: "I don't know how, Noir. But you were once the end of me. Or at least you almost were. And once Triangular has had its little fun with the stone-bitch's golden blood…..I just might see to the Titans' death myself…."

My black eyes narrowed.

'_Stone-bitch?'_

"…….."

I frowned, my blood boiling.

_I going to rip you a new disk drive for Terra, crapface._

THWUD!

I slammed two murking knees into his chest.

He staggered back, loosening his grip on me.

I screamed mutely and teleported into an explosive, flying uppercut into his torso.

_THWACK!_

Myrkblade flew across his face, tearing loose a shred of fake lip-skin.

He fell and tumbled hard across the rooftop, leaning precariously over a fifteen foot drop below.

I landed and stood up with renewed fury. The chill in my arm was gone. Every frozen shake and shiver of my body from the close encounter with Red Aviary in the deadholls of Lexcorp had gone.

Metallo struggled up to his feet.

I sneered at him, panting.

_I did not come this far…… _

_Burrowed my way into Lexcorp's hive……_

_And experienced a brushed with Death itself……_

_Just to be schooled by the god-freakin' __**TIN MAN!**_

FWOOOOSH! CHIIIIII-IIIIING!

I soared at him, Myrkblade dragging from a two-handed grip with sparks flying.

Metallo looked up. His robot eye flickered.

_Aaaaaaaaaaugh!_

I swung Myrkblade up into his face.

**CLANG!**

His skull spun three comical times.

I blurred into him.

THUD!

We both sailed as one off the edge of the rooftop and plummeted…plummeted…plummeted…

Towards the broad windows of an MCA Records building below.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a plush office lined with framed, golden records…

A well-suited businessman slid a sheet of paper and a pen across a burgundy desktop. "Well, Mr. Johnson……just sign this contract and your career begins!"

Across the table, a young cowboy leaned forward in the chair and reached for the pen: "Well, I reckon we have a deal—..."

_**CRASH!**_

Metallo and I sailed through the windows and smashed through the desk.

The men fell back, crying in surprise.

My assailant and I tumbled before he tossed me off with a titanium kick towards the far walls. "Nnngh!"

THWOOSH!

I flew against the side of the room rear-first. THWAP! I fell down along with a row of framed records jolted off the wall. Th-Thud!

Metallo growled and jumped to his feet.

I stood up.

He charged across the office.

I looked to my side. I shot a metal out. CRASH! I shattered the glass of a frame, grabbed a golden record, covered it in murk, and flung it at his rushing figure.

THWIIIISH!

CLANK! He jolted as the recorded embedded itself into his chest.

CRASH! I shattered free another record and flung it with a mute snarl. THWIIISH!

CLAMP! He caught it between his teeth. A smirk. He yanked the records out of his mouth and chest and crushed them in either hand. CR-CRK!

I frowned and held Myrkblade up

THWOOOSH!

He charged.

I winced…

CL-CLANK! THUD!

He shoved me…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SMASH!

….through the office wall.

Down a twelfth-story hallway of the MCA Records company.

And…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRASH!

Through a ladies' restroom where frightened occupants shrieked and hid desperately in their stalls.

And…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!

Into another hallway and—with a struggle of murking and titanium limbs….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SHATTER!

Out a window so that we plummeted into the air of Metropolis towards a raised highway full of speeding, two lane traffic.

THWOOOOSH-TWHAP! I landed in a slide of murk.

CRUNCH! Metallo landed in a fresh crater of asphalt.

A semi-truck and two taxi cabs screeched to a crunching stop behind him, clogging traffic heading west.

"……," he slowly, menacingly stood his metal self up. Facing me. Smiling.

I stood, panting, sweating. Gripping Myrkblade hard and facing back at him.

_So much for a covert romp through Metropolis._

My black eyes darted up through my shades momemtarily. Scanning the bright blue heavens of the cold November air.

_Diana? Tempest? J'onn?_

"Nnngh!" Metallo grabbed a piece of guardrail, ripped it out from the side of the raised highway, and held it over his half metal skull like a bigass club as he paced towards me.

I gulped.

_Mommy?_

"It's a high fly skull to left field….," Metallo smirked. Then snarled with a charge. "_Nothing but daylight! YAAAARGH!"_

SWOOOOSH!

I vaulted up.

CRUNCH! The guardrail club slammed into the asphalt.

I backflipped and landed in a sideways perch on the driver's side of a sports car in the Eastbound traffic. The driver gasped and swerved left and right. I let the momentum of the vehicle carry me towards Metallo, upon which I held Myrkblade out to the left and clipped him in the side.

_CL-CLANK!_

He spun from the impact.

I jumped off the car, vaulted off the stalled semi-truck trailer, flipped, sailed down at Metallo, and slammed his skull down with Myrkblade.

CLANG!

He stumbled back. He re-gripped his 'club', snarled, and swung the ghetto bludgeon at me.

THWOOOSH!

I jumped back, dodging.

He snarled and swung at me again.

SWOOOSH!

I ducked.

_SCRAAAPE!_ The club dragged on the ground, sparked, and lifted up as Metallo swung his body three hundred sixty degrees and launched the guardrail chunk at me completely.

TH-TH-TH-THWISH!

I teleported through the projectile.

The driver of the semi truck engine shouted and leapt out just as the club sailed in through the glass and shattered its way into the cab. CRUNNNCH!

I solidified with a panting breath.

SWOOOOSH-SMACK! Metallo charged a well-timed fist full of titanium into my chest.

I slid back—THWAP!—hit the side of a speeding, eastbound van—and bounced awkwardly back towards him.

_**WHUMP!**_ His fist flew into my gut.

I wheezed, coughing. Wheezing.

He smirked and flung me dead into the path of moving traffic.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!

I tumbled to a stop before a tow-truck.

The driver slammed on his brakes.

_SCREEEEEEEECH!_

Eastbound traffic finally grinded to a halt with ten cars in a row slamming into each others bumpers, bumpers, bumpers.

CRUNCH! CRACK! CRKKK!

The tow truck lurched…lurched…and lurched towards me.

I wearily raised my head….and sweatdropped at the sight of the smoking vehicle's front end barely stopping an inch before my nose.

_That was close._

THWUMP!

Metallo's palm at the back of my hairy head slammed my cheek up against the truck's grill.

WHANG!

I winced.

His fingers closed around my skull and slowly began to constrict….and crush it….

"You shouldn't play in the street, squirrel….," he knelt by the front left tire and sneered at me. "Got robot insurance, creep?"

I gritted my teeth, struggle, and stabbed Myrkblade hard into the front tire.

_**POW!**_

The air blast topped Metallo over. "Dammit!" THUD!

I breathed easier with his grip off my head. I jumped to my feet, ran up the front grill of the truck, flipped, and came down on Metallo's chest with a heavy stab of Myrkblade.

He snarled, gripped my my blade, and held the tip of the smoking serrration away at a breath's length. His robot eye flickered and his ankle-rockets flared.

I whimpered mutely.

_Not again……_

"Want a ticket to ride? Hold onto your organs, blood-for-brains!"

_**PFTOOOOOO!**_

We rocketed east on the highway, twirling and spiraling over, around, and between both stalled and moving cars. Exited motorists gasped and jumped or leapt out of the way as our rocketing flight thundered down the raised street. The power of Metallo's thrust forced windshields to crack and windows to shatter as we blurred, burned, and accelerated between rows of swerving cars.

FWOOOOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a black four-door car travelling west on the highway.

A Tori Amos CD was playing.

The windows were down and the cold November air was blowing in.

"Can I switch it to the radio?"

"Huh?"

"I said, can I switch it to the radio?"

"What for, Don?"

"I wanted to check on the weather forecast."

"Fore-what?"

_**PFTOOOOOOOOO-SHOOOOOOOM!**_

"What in the—...?"

"Look out!" she pointed.

He jerked hard at the wheels as a half-man-half-robot and a swordsman flew directly overhead.

_SCREEEEEECH!_

The windows shattered.

They covered their faces protectively.

"Dag nabbit!" she shrieked.

_SCREEEEECH-CLANK!_

The car spun to a stop against the guardrail.

"……"

"……"

A beat.

_POW!_

The engine smoked…..

"……okay," she blinked.

"Good thing we took your brother's car for this trip..."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heheheh…ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOM!**_

I tangled messily with Metallo's rocketing body. We both turned over so that I was facing the blurring asphalt of the highway beneath us.

I gritted my teeth and stabbed Myrkblade smokingly down into the concrete.

_SCCCCCCCCRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPEEEE!_

Sparks.

Pebbles.

Debris.

After a good fifteen seconds of dragging the billowing blade, my sword stuck hard enough into the highway to anchor me.

_**YANK!**_

"YAAAH!" Metallo cried as we jolted forward—back against his thrust—and down with him slamming hard into the highway asphalt.

CRASH!

I jerked free of him.

His ankle rockets went haywire, pushing him scrapingly against the asphalt and through two pickup trucks.

CLANK! CLUNK! Both vehicles skidded to their sides, the drivers inside bouncing around in their seats.

I winced.

Traffic screeched to a halt around us.

I stumbled up to my smoking feet, panting. Eyeing the vehicles and motorists around me.

_This isn't good._

_Too many people. _

_Too much risk._

"HEY! NOIR!"

I looked up.

Metallo stood, lifting a freaking Volkswagen Beetle over his head. The driver inside shrieked and jumped out at the last second.

He faced me, smirking. "This Bug's for you."

"…..," I frowned back.

"Nnnngh!" he flung the car at me.

THWOOOOOSH!

I twirled Myrkblade, held my breath, and blurred towards the hurled vehicle.

FWOOOOSH!

I teleported, murked through the vehicle, and exploded out the engine compartment with a snarling swing of Myrkblade into Metallo.

SWIIIISH-CLANG!

He jolted back from the impact, gripped my body as I flew into him, and teetered us over the concrete barrier guarding the edge of the raised highway.

THWAP!

He pressed me down, forcing my torso over….over…over the edge.

I struggled and sweated.

I turned my head and looked over my shoulder at the hundred foot-plus drop.

"Ready to go for a tumble? I bet you're not a flying squirrel! Hahahaha!"

I frowned up at him.

I planted my feet nimbly between his ankles.

He blinked. "Huh?"

I sneered.

_You wanna fall?_

THWOOOSH!

I vaulted us both over the edge of the highway so that we plummeted towards the yawning City Streets of Metropolis below.

"What are you..," he gasped in the cold, rushing air.

I concentrated, teleported into smoke form, and enveloped his body in blackness. I pulsed murk towards the sky and throttled his hulking metal form down, down, down towards the center of the earth like a bullet at four times the force of gravity.

_Then let's __**fall,**__ you god damn rust bucket!_

"YAAAAAAAAA…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Below the highways….

At a busy intersection sidewalk….

Two girls….

"Uhmmm," one wrestled with a road map. Her eyes squinting. "I think we're on the corner of eighty-ninth and Walgreens…." A beat. She blinked. "Ugh. This is stupid." She looked over at the other girl. "I can't make heads or tails out of this map, Stephanie! Help me, will ya?"

"Mimi, does this _**look**_ like Chicago to you?"

**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH-**_**THUD!**_

A black smoking missile from above.

"Ackies!"

"Shit!"

The girls and a throng of frightened citizens were jolted and forced running from a huge, murking crater.

Two vans were knocked over and a parking meter shattered, littering the next block and a half with coins.

CRASSSSSH!

In the center of ground zero, a curled robot twitched and groaned.

FWOOOSH!

I solidified on the crumbling sidewalk above the crater, standing with Myrkblade in my grip. The wind blew at my hair and bandanna as dust from the blast zone rose and fell.

"…………..," my black eyes narrowed on the android.

His human eye was closed.

A beat.

A finger tapped my shoulder.

"….?" I turned and looked over my shoulder.

Standing out from a crowd of shocked onlookers, a red headed teen with a jacket and a flash camera. A Daily Planet insignia was on his collar. "Noir? Noir of the Teen Titans?"

"……….," I warily nodded.

He gave a thumb's up and smiled a freckled grin. "You kick ass, man!"

"……..," I smirked and gave a metal thumb's up.

Ch-Chtunk! Chtunk!

I gasped. I looked down into the crater.

Panels in Metallo's titanium shoulders had opened up, revealing an armament of tiny missiles.

"Press conference is over, smokey!"

_FOOOOOOOOM!_

The missiles flew at the edge of the crater.

I gasped. I glanced at the crowd of Metropolitans. I jerked back to the missiles and swung Myrkblade up.

THWOOOOSH—CL-CLANK!

I deflected the missiles into the air.

They exploded high overhead with a descending cloud of flame and smoke.

_**POW!**_

Everyone flinched, myself included.

_**PFTOOOOOOOM!**_

Metallo flew out of the crater and clotheslined me, sending the two of us flying skyward and towards the buildings across the way.

The crowd gasped and turned to watch, shuddering.

The redheaded guy aimed his camera and took a snapshot.

_Flash!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOOOOOSH!**_

Metallo shoved me through the air once more.

"Getting a rush to the head yet? HA! Must be annoying……having to deal with capillaries."

I twirled Myrkblade out.

_Wow, you're lame AND a loser._

THWACK!

I stabbed Myrkblade into his back.

"Nnngh!" he tilted our trajectory.

I twirled Myrkblade again…and stabbed.

THUD!

_Winning combination._

We spiraled up, down, and collapsed onto something.

CL-CLANK!

THUD!

Something silver.

Something fast.

Something….moving.

"…..," my black eyes reopened from a wince and found us collapsed atop a speeding monorail heading east through the heart of Metropolis.

"Nnngh!" Metallo was already jumping up to his feet.

I twirled up into a stance.

He rushed at me atop the speeding in-transit train cars.

I braced myself with Myrkblade held out straight.

THWAP!

His fist sailed at me.

I absorbed it smokingly into my blade and slid towards the front of the train.

Metallo braced himself and readied another volley of mini-missiles. _Ch-Chtunk!_

"Smile for the napalm, handsome!"

"…..," I glanced left.

Rows of lamposts blurred past me alongside the monorail track.

I twirled Myrkblade and swung a blast of smoke energy leftward.

SL-SL-SLINK!

Three lampposts severed, their top halves tumbling towards Metallo.

CLANK! The first one struck.

"Nnnngh!" His missiles shot off-course (**PHOOOOOOSH!)** and expoded into a warehouse wall. **KAPOW!**

The other two lammpost halves slammed into his metal body, shattering into streaming shrapnel.

"Ooof! Nnngh!"

I ran, jumped, and used the momentum of wind above the speeding monorail train to slam my kicking feet into his frame.

WHAM!

And it happened to be right as the train was speeding around a curve.

THWOOOOSH!

We both plummeted towards the east shipyards of Metropolis.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a dock stretching into the Bay waters, a tall young man with dark spiked hair knelt besides his moored yacht and diving equipment.

As he was tightening the ropes tying the vessel to the platform, his cell phone rang.

He swung it open and up to his ear.

"Ben here."

A pause.

He smirked: "Heheheh….well, it depends. What are _you_ wearing?"

SWOOOOSH-CRUNCH! Metallo and I landed on the dock behind.

The wood split, launching the flailing citizen into the cabin of his yacht.

"Crapness!" **THUD!**

I perched atop Metallo, pummeling him with my titanium fist.

WHAM! THWAP! SMACK!

He snarled and kicked me off him with his legs.

I flew back, twirled, and landed in a slide across the wood panels.

He jumped up. Snarling. Flexing his metal arms.

I twirled Myrkblade. Th-Th-Thwish! I frowned at him.

Ch-Chtunk! He popped open two wrist laser blasts and raced at me. "Nnnnghhh!"

Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!

"….!" I blurred towards him.

THWOOOOSH!

Our metal and smoking bodies ran down the length of the wooden dock, met in the center, and collided with a swing of Myrkblade and a blast of point-blanc lasers.

**KABOOOOOM!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the Eastward highway full of halted, smoking cars…

Motorists walked over to the edge and faced the shipyards.

An explosion of smoke, fire, and flinging wooden splinters fountained up from the Bayside.

**Fwooooosh!**

They muttered and gasped with wide eyes.

"Whoah…."

"Would you look at that!"

"Is Superman fighting another baddie?"

"Nuh uh! Didn't you see? It's the Titan! The smoking one!"

"Oh my god…they're killing each other!"

The smoke, fire, and splinters started to settle and fall in the distance…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clank!

Clatter!

Clang!

The debris littered the docks, yachts….and waters.

Sploosh!

Splish!

Gush!

A beat.

……..

"Yaaaaaaa!"

Metallo's flailing, metal body fell from a mysterious, great height and plunged deep into the waters like a six-ton brick.

_**SPLOOOOSH!**_

Another beat.

……

Fwoooosh!

I drifted down on a cushion of murk and settled meditatively atop the water's surface.

I stood on two smoking feet.

Balanced atop the waves.

Panting….Panting….Panting….

"….."

I stared down into the dark, splinter-littered water.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Bay….

Bibbo hobbled out of the cabin of his rusted, clunker-of-a-fishing boat.

"Nnnngh….," he yawned his fat jaw wide and rubbed his head. Wincing. "Mmmmf….afternoon already?"

The obese sailor glanced across the Bay.

"……"

He blinked.

A swordsman was standing on the water Jesus-style in the center of a demolished, wooden dock.

A beat.

"Yeah…that's it…," Bibbo muttered. "I'm laying off the bottle this week."

And he hobbled back into his cabin.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……"

I stared down into the water more.

Nothing but black waves.

"……"

I sighed.

_So I guess huge-ass metal golems __**can't**__ swim. _

_Chiiiiing!_

I sheathed Myrkblade.

_I hope you rust to death, you pathetic refrigerator-humper._

I proceeded to walk murkingly on the water land-ward…..

**SPLOOOSH!**

A metal hand reached up, grabbed my ankle, and yanked down.

I gasped for breath—

_Shit!_

**SPLASSSSH!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was dragged under water. A dark body glinted in a shimmering, stray ray of light. His titanium wrist rose and bubbled towards me. I was hit in the chest. I gasped in pain, only for air to rush into my mouth. Seawater. I gagged and convulsed. Another fist. I pulsed all over in pain. I struggled. I fought. I wriggled like a fish. An electronic snarl. Metallo's howling half-skull face drifted momentarily into view. A head-butt. I lurched back in the water. The aquatic world twirled. I shook and quivered at the end of my breath. The smoke began to fade. A harsh grip of metal fingers around my leg. Spinning. One-eighty. Three-sixty. Seven-twenty. Ten-eighty. Metallo spun, spun, spun, and spun me before letting me go like a flesh catapult.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SPLOOOSH!**_

I sailed up out of the water.

I dripped and blurred towards a warehouse on the dry shipyards.

I concentrated at the last second and cocooned my body in murk

CLANG!

I slammed into the warehouse wall. No limbs broke thanks to my shielding, but it sure-as-Hell hurt.

And then I sure-as-Hell fell down to the concrete floor.

THWUMP!

I coughed, sputtered, and winced. My black hair a wet dampness. I clutched my ribs….groaning mentally in pain.

_Ohhhhhh……snap._

'_Jordan? Jordan, is that you?'_

I sputtered again.

My black eyes blinked weakly under cracked shades as I gazed Bay-ward.

No Metallo. Not yet.

_J-J'onn?_

'_Jordan, you are no longer inside Lexcorp HQ……'_

I coughed. Teeth gritting.

_Yeah……no Yogi-Bear-flaming shit……_

Sploosh!

Metallo's half-metal skull appeared.

Then his shoulders.

Then his tattered torso.

Dripping.

Grinning.

He marched like a full-sized toy soldier out of the Bay waters and stepped menacingly towards me.

'_What is the problem, Jordan? Are you being attacked?'_

I winced and struggled to get up and reach Myrkblade's hilt.

_M-Metallo. _

_Shipyard._

_I need help._

'_Metallo? The android agent of Intergang's?'_

I snarled, body pressed back to the warehouse wall as Metallo marched closer.

_No, Pauly Shore's gay lover. Who do you think? Now be a good martian and send some bitch-slapping green tentacles or something!_

'_Be patient, Jordan. We are providing assistance.'_

"You're all wet, squirrel," Metallo winked his human eye. "May the universe smile on your carcass. This will be fine vengeance….even if the depths of my mind fail to summon the succinct reverie in your demise."

Chiii-iiii-iiing….

I pulled out Myrkblade, panting.

_Depths of your mind…… _

_That's a paradox if I ever heard one……_

SWOOOOSH!

He rushed at me with a heavy fist.

I exhaled….

Too weak to do anything.

To live….

"RRRRGHHH!" He snarled and—…

**CLUTCH!**

An iron strong, armbanded wrist gripped his fist.

Metallo lurched.

He tilted his head aside.

"Awww….bloody hell."

I looked over.

"……," Wonder Woman frowned. "Hands off….the kid." SWOOOSH-**WHAM!**

She sailed her knuckles into his titanium chest.

_SCRRRRRAAAAAPE!_ Metallo slid back across the concrete of the shipyard, his metal feet spitting sparks.

The Amazon let out a warrior cry and flew straight at the android, hands flying. WHAM! WHANG! SMACK! P-POW!

Metallo jolted, stumbled, shook, and bent over from the constant assault.

Wonder Woman didn't relent. She pummeled him harder and harder. Snarling and shouting with every heated blow.

THWACK! CLANG! SM-SMACK!

"………," I watched. Blinking.

_Dear Diana……_

_God……if only I was a little older……_

_Perhaps……_

SPLOOSH!

I looked weakly to the side.

Tempest leapt out of the Bay water, landed, and ran towards me. He placed a hand on my shoulder and squinted his dark eyes at me. "You okay, man?"

I wheezed and shakily nodded.

"I guess Luthor had a rook up his sleeve," he simpered. He gazed over—as I did—at the Wonder Womany assault. "Triangular will do anything to keep you from discovering what you want from this Town, huh?"

I bit my lip.

_Actually…… _

_I discovered quite a lot……_

SWOOOSH-**POW!**

Wonder Woman's fist slammed heavily into Metallo's chest one last time, tossing the half-robot to the floor in front of a fork-lift.

CRACK!

Metallo collapsed in a miniature crater.

Wonder Woman swiftly then proceeded to whip out her lasso, twirl it, and loop it around the android's right ankle.

Th-Th-Thwip!

Snpp!

Metallo looked at his foot wearily, then gazed up the lasso's length towards the Amazon.

"Oh please, darling, must you?"

"YAAAAUGH!" Diana yanked up on the cord.

THWOOOSH!

Metallo was tossed skyward.

Wonder Woman shouted and jerked down on the cord.

SWOOOSH!—**CRACK!** Metallo slammed into the concrete like the heavy end of a mace.

"RRRRRGHHH!"

SWOOOOSH—**CRACK**! And into a warehouse wall.

"RAAAUGH!"

**SWOOOOOSH-SLAM!**

And into a lammpost.

CRK! The light peeled off and fell—BONK!—atop Metallo's metal head.

"Augh! Zeus almighty!"

Wonder Woman sneered down at him. "Don't patronize me…."

Metallo weakly smiled. "All right then, Wonder-Wench. But it's only fair to break it to you…." And he produced his dual wrist-lasers…that protruded twice as far as ever I seen them do. "I've gotten a Hell of a lot more bark than my bite these days."

_Wrrrrr-__**POWWWWWWWW!**_

Two bright streams of yellow energy converged on Wonder Woman….burning her.

"YAAAAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAAARGH!" The Amazon twitched and convulsed.

Tempest and I gasped. Dark eyes, both….

Metallo smirked.

The lasso heated up and uncurled from his ankle.

He roasted…roasted…and roasted Wonder Woman.

And finally…..he cut off the laser stream.

Wonder Woman fell to her knees, smoking all over. Her body panting and her eyes shut in weakness and pain. Her outfit was tattered and singed, and though there wasn't a mark on her goddess-like skin, it was obvious the superheroine was greatly….greatly….tortured.

Metallo stood up and marched over towards her. "I'm not just a two-bit tin man anymore. I'm not working for Dagger. I'm merely doing him a favor. His petty Triangular alliance will survive superheroic scrutiny…and in return…." He smirked and tapped the metal part of his skull. "…I get a fine and dandy technical enhancement. Courtesy of the late Jacob Anderson and a strikingly young-looking redhead. The world's a goofy place." He gripped Wonder Woman's forehead with metal hands and blew a kiss. "But it could do with one less village idiot." And he stepped back, snarled, and uppercutted the dazed Amazon's chin with his foot.

THWACK!

"Ugh!" Wonder Woman fell hard to the shipyard floor with a groan.

I was too weak and battered to do anything.

Tempest….

"Dammit!" He gasped and ran over.

I helplessly stretched a hand towards him.

_N-No! _

_Wait!_

In the meantime, Metallo leered over Wonder Woman. He raised a foot to crush her prone head.

"As much as this is going to mess up my 'shoe'…," he smirked and brought his foot down

THWOOOSH-THWACK!

Tempest's flying kick slapped him across the 'flesh' cheek.

"Ooof!" Metallo stumbled back.

Tempest stood before him, fists raised. "That's as far as you go, you oversized dildo!"

"Gee….I'm complimented," Metallo smirked. "And who might you be? Will Wheaton after a sex change?"

The Atlantean frowned and pointed an angry finger: "Go back to the scrapyard where you belong."

"HA!" Metallo waved a jolly hand. "I know you! You're Aqualad! Aquaman's little choir boy!"

Garth sneered: "His name is King Orin…."

"Ohhhh, I bet that's what _you_ call him….heheh…hahahaha!" Metallo all but doubled over. "What do you know! Aqualad! I've read up on you in the Titans archives! Shirley-Temple-Hell! They should have just called you **Guppy-Boy**! I swear! Don't you know, lad, that you've got the lamest, most useless, insufficient powers in all of the known—"

_**SPLOOOOOOOOOSSSSSHHHHH!**_

A sudden, hot torrent of water soared into Metallo's torso.

He coughed, sputtered, and flailed his arms.

Tempest surged towards him with a pulse of purple energy. His fingers slammed into Metallo's gaping mouth and shot telekinetic sprays of water down his throat, flooding his inner circuitry.

SPLOOOOOOOSH! SPLIIISH!

_ZZZZTTT-ZZZZTTT-ZZTTT!_ Metallo sparked all over, his torso smoking.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHH!"

The robot smoked, groaned and fell down. CLANG!

Tempest stood in a bubbling puddle. His eyes strobing a dark purple as he frowned, fists clenched.

"'Glub Glub'," he droned.

"Nnnnngh….," Metallo groaned. Sparking. His metal and flesh lips curved. "G-G-Good show, handsome…." He stretched a laser wrist out. "But I've got the perfect hook and line for you."

_**ZAAAAP!**_

Tempest gasped and dove to the side.

Metallo re-aimed from the ground, trailing Tempest.

_**Z-ZZAAAP! ZAP!**_

Tempest flipped, dove, and jumped out of the way of the blasts.

At the last second, Metallo aimed up……at a sign of a warehouse door hanging heavily over the Atlantean's dark head.

_**ZZAAAP!**_

SNAP!

The sign fell free.

I limped forward, gasping.

_Look out!_

TH-THUD!

The sign collapsed hard onto Tempest's back. CRKKK! It shattered into splinters.

"Nnngh!" Tempest stumbled, his back hunched over.

Metallo jumped up, shook the drops off him, sparked a few final times, and stomped over with a two-armed swing into Tempest's ribcage.

THWOOOOSH-_WHAP!_

Tempest stumbled and landed coldly at my feet. Groaning unconscious.

I panted.

_Crud……CRUD!_

STOMP!

I looked up.

Metallo smirked. He stomped towards me.

"Enough toying around, ninja-freak. Don't you see? Resisting Triangular is hopeless. The bloody Parasite that we all fear and dread is what gives us strength. Surely you felt his burning-cold breath. Why can't you sit down and sniff the fumes of our organization's burning vigor as well?"

I took a deep breath, concentrated the last shred of strength I had left, and swung Myrkblade towards Metallo's skull.

SWOOOOOSH-_**CLUTCH!**_

Metallo gripped the edge of my sword.

He smirked.

"Sit down……like the good doctor said, you've been a naughty little chap."

And he lifted his leg, flexed his metal muscles, and….

**THAP!**

….—kicked me hard in the chest.

I flew back.

SMASH!

I sailed through the door of the warehouse. I landed in a sea of splinters. Shadowed by the dark interior of the building.

I ached all over.

I had no energy left.

Like my comrades, I was on the verge of agonized collapse and unconsciousness.

I looked up weakly as Metallo stood overhead. His hands on his hips.

He smirked and said: "Embrace the end of your career, Noir. Everything has worked out just as I hoped. Just as Luthor, Dagger, and the Gothamites planned. Indeed, you came to Metropolis. And from here on out….you go no further. At least…not the Noir everyone thinks they know."

A distant, beating sound in the air.

He smirked and gazed up towards the sunny sky. "Jolly good. News helicopters." He winked at me. "I want everyone…._everyone to see this……_" That said, he popped open a panel in his wrist and tapped a button.

I thinned my eyes at a pulse of light that showered over his figure.

_Zzzzt!_

_ZZZZT!_

_FLASH!_

A blink.

I gasped.

There I stood.

'Me'.

Or at least….

A holographic 'me' that encompassed the body and frame of Metallo.

The perfectly shaded, camouflage-clad, scarred swordsman smirked at me and 'spoke' in Metallo's voice: "I want everyone to see 'me'. He he he he he….heh heh heh heh…."

My jaw dropped.

_No……_

He turned around just as a green streak and two red streaks rushed towards the scene.

"Here they come now!"

I flinched and struggled to get up.

Failing.

_Please…… _

_No……_

"Hehehehe….'Titan! Go!'," and Metallo 'cloaked' in a holographic curtain of 'smoke'.

I panted.

Sweating.

_Please……Ana…… _

_N-No……_

_ZH-ZH-ZH-ZH-ZHIP!_

The Flash blurred up to the scene, skidding to a stop and gasping at Wonder Woman's unconscious body.

"Whoah! Holy smokes! Diana!" the red-suited hero rushed over to the Amazon's body and felt her vital signs. "Hang in there! Wally's here!"

I gasped.

I tried exhaling.

'Speaking.'

Nothing came out.

I…

I was mute….

Mute and hidden in the shadows where I couldn't move from.

FLASH!

Green Lantern lowered in an emerald strobe of flight.

"God almighty….," he exhaled. He stepped onto the hard shipyard ground and stood over Wonder Woman and the Flash. "What heaven's name happened here?"

"I dunno!" the Flash desperately uttered. "I just rushed here and saw Wonder Woman lying unconscious and…" The speedster looked over. "Whoah! Another!" He blurred over—_ZH-ZH-ZHIP!—_to the Atlantean's body. "He looks pretty beat up!"

"Tempest?" Green Lantern made a face. "What is Tempest doing here in Metropolis?"

FWOOOSH! Finally, the Man of Steel himself flew down and floated above the scene with a red furl of his cape. "Who did this?"

"You're asking the wrong Flash!"

"It had to have been someone tough to have taken down both Princess Diana and Aquaman's protégé," Green Lantern knelt by Wonder Woman, feeling her forehead. "Quick, Superman. I think we should take them to S.T.A.R. Labs. Hamilton may not like us, but at least there's still an ounce of him that's human…"

FLASH!

'Noir' appeared in a strobe of smoke behind Green Lantern.

I screamed mentally…

'Noir' smiled, grabbed Green Lantern's shoulders, and flung him with Metallo's strength towards the Atlantean's body.

FWOOOOSH!

Kneeling by Tempest, the Flash looked up. He gasped. "G.L.!"

WHAM!

The green hero slammed into the red.

Superman's eyes widened.

'Noir' wasted no time. He blurred over with holographic smoke replacing the flare of ankle rockets. He skidded to a stop in front of Flash and slammed his foot up the man's weak chin.

THWACK!

"Nnnngh!" the speedster fell down hard.

Green Lantern sat up, snarled, and raised his ring-hand: "You! What are you…?"

**GRIP!** 'Noir's' supposed 'titanium' left wrist gripped over Green Lantern's ring fingers and constricted…

_Crkkkkkk!_

"Aaaaaugh!" the green guardian flailed as his finger bones were crushed.

'Noir' smiled and flung Green Lantern by his injured arm into a warehouse wall.

THUD!

I shivered all over.

"NOIR!" Superman shouted. He floated overhead. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but it ends **now!**"

The Man of Steel's eyes flickered red as two heat beams shot out of his eyes.

Metallo flickered his holographic field, making him invisible. The same effect of 'Noir teleporting'.

I shuddered as I saw a shadow of the masquerading android perch on a warehouse wall, 'vault off', and grab ahold of Superman in mid-air.

CLAMP!

The two wrestled in mid-air.

Superman gritted his teeth and clutched 'Noir's' throat. "Nnnngh! S-Since when w-were you this p-powerful?"

The fake swordsman smiled straight in Superman's face and 'mutely' mouthed: _'Since I decided to kill you.'_

I was breathless.

WHAM!

Metallo headbutted Superman in 'Noir' mode.

"AUGH!" Superman fell down from the blow and splashed into the Bay.

'Noir' landed, looked in the shadows towards me, and winked.

"……"

Metallo then grunted, leapt high into the sky with fake trailing 'smoke', and dove after Superman to continue the horrendous act.

**SPLOOOOSH!**

And that is where and when I fell unconscious...


	211. Metropolitan part 6

**211. Metropolitan part 6**

November 27, 2004.

Saturday.

Smallville.

Kents' farm.

11:23 am.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"W-Was there something you were wanting to show m-me?" Terra murmured.

Kara looked over at her and smiled. Her blonde hair blew in the Kansas wind.

The two girls strolled along the outer fencing of the Kents' farmland. The walk took them over risings, falling fields of tall grass and cow pasture. The sky overhead was crystal blue. The November air was thin, but fairly merciful that time of day. Still, the two donned a sweater and a jacket for their trek. Terra was the one in a jacket. Kara's jacket. It seemed two and a half sizes too big on her petite frame.

"I just wanted to get you out."

"Out?"

"Yeah, girl. You've been frozen in stone for how long?"

"I…..," Terra gazed out towards the wind-swept fields. "….I-I'm not exactly sure…."

"I guess I can't blame you," Kara ran a hand through her golden bangs before pausing to hide her arms behind her back and glance sideways at Terra. She had to glance downwards. She was at least three quarters of a foot taller than the Earthen maiden. "Being stuck that long must make time fly. Though….i-it doesn't make it pleasant one bit, I imagine."

Terra hugged her jacketed self and looked towards the ground. "I….remember….s-some things."

"…….."

"Images. Movement. Lights and sounds. I don't think I had…..the same senses we are all used to. It was almost like I was part of the rock and soil around me. I was the cave that I was stuck in for so long. And then later, I was the soil encasing the basement at Phaser Labs and then the bedrock around Area 51's subterranean mazes. But everything was moving but me. Including the rock. The world and all life was in motion except for me and…and….." She lingered.

Kara bit her lip. She cleared her throat and resumed the walk by leading the two-girl caravan up the green hill.

"What do you feel now?"

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"Well, you're no longer frozen, right?"

"Yeah…."

"You still feel the Earth? You feel the rocks 'moving' and stuff?"

"I always feel the Earth," Terra said. The arms hugging herself seemed to soften a bit. Her lips moved gently: "The Earth is always alive, no matter where I am. Sometimes, the Earth is my friend as much as my home. It's the one friend I've never….s-seemed to have done wrong. It kinda feels like it's calling to me. Like it did the days I ran through the desert alone. Sleeping in the cave wasn't cold to me. It was like nestling in an ancient mother's womb. I've always felt like I had one last thing to fall back on. One last soul to cling to. It's the soul we all spring out of and must return to at some point or another. Dust to dust…."

Terra realized that Kara was no longer moving.

"…..," she glanced up. Blinking.

Kara smiled.

"What?" Terra raised an eyebrow.

"I could have sworn for a second there that you were about to smile while talking…," the Girl of Steel commented.

Terra bit her lip. She turned away with her cheeks slightly rosy. "I was not…."

Kara giggled. "What are you trying to prove, girl? That you can stay morose and somber longer than a Puritan grandpappy? Didn't you just come out of hibernation? Hehehehehe."

"……"

"T-Terra?" Kara uttered with concern, blinking.

The girl shuddered, her back to Kara. She eventually said: "I don't deserve to smile. I really….sh-shouldn't be happy about anything…."

Kara sighed. She rubbed her forehead achingly for a moment before uttering: "Terra, I didn't take you out here on a walk so that you can be hard on yourself. If I wanted that, I would have let you just continue to sit on your butt in the shadows of Ma and Pa's house moping to death! I wasn't given charge of watching over you so that you could beat your brains in with guilt over…over…st-stuff in the past!"

Terra suddenly, explosively spun and faced Kara with a snarl: "You don't know my past! You don't know what I've done! So don't tell me what to or not to feel guilty about!"

Kara leaned back, her lips parted. She blinked, regarding the petite blonde like she was a whole different person.

"…….," Terra's frown melted away and she took a few deep breaths. Looking wounded. She gazed up at Kara with sad blue eyes, narrowed her optics momentarily, and droned: "You……you……"

"What, Terra?"

"……..y-you're Supergirl….."

The Argosian couldn't help but smirk….then giggle.

Terra bit her lip.

"Hehehehe….," Kara ran a hand through her wind-blown hair again. "You just _now_ realized that?"

"……," Terra nodded.

"Yeah. Thank goodness I am Supergirl," Kara mused. "Another mood swing of yours, and I might be begging for Kryptonite instead!"

"So that's why Jordan brought me here…," Terra mumbled. She gazed guiltily towards the Earth. "He needed someone powerful enough to watch over me. In case I might….in case I m-might start hurting people again…"

"Hey….," Kara spoke firmly and placed a hand on the blonde petite's shoulder. "Jordan didn't drop you off in my charge so that I might imprison you. He wanted me to protect you."

"What for?" Terra mumbled. She shut her eyes. "I certainly don't deserve protecting…."

"Don't you say that!" Kara snapped, frowning. "You hear me? Jordan may be a moron from time to time, but he doesn't sacrifice himself for nothing! Now he risked his handsome little neck to make sure you got here. And I know that he did that for a reason. The Titans need you, Terra. Not so that you can face some Kela-awful judgment. But so that they could so much as _wrap their arms around you_ again! They love you, Terra! You need to give yourself some damn credit already!"

Terra shuddered. "What could I do to help them? I nearly killed them…..I wouldn't be anything but a curse…."

"Terra…."

"I hurt Beast Boy. I hurt Starfire. I hurt Robin…"

"Terra, Robin's dead."

Terra gasped. With wide blue eyes she looked up at the Girl of Steel. There was a neutral pause for but a second, but then the corners of her sapphire optics moistened as true shock and sorrow took over.

"N-No…..how?"

"It was just weeks ago…."

Terra's fists clenched under her jacket-sleeves. "Was it Slade?"

"Slade is also dead."

"………."

Kara leaned forward. "Terra….a lot has happened while you were frozen," she quietly said. "A lot of victories. And even more tragedies. The Titans are disbanding. Whatever family they once were….it's dwindling into oblivion. Now I'm just Supergirl, so maybe I don't know crap about the Titans and maybe I don't know crap about you. But I know true need when I see it. And I saw it in Jordan's eyes. The pain. The longing to make whole something that was….that was once so dear and sacred to him…" Kara hugged herself and shuddered as the midday winds of November suddenly became a tad bit colder. She exhaled and added: "…who here doesn't know what it's like to lose so much in so little time?"

Terra closed her eyes.

Kara shuffled about before eventually saying: "Please, Terra. Stay strong. If not for your sake and if not for mine…for the Titans. Because they want you back in their flock. They want to….start over again. They want to start everything over again. And maybe….live life with a little less loss this time."

"……..," Terra swallowed and stammered: "Then why am I such a secret?"

Kara gazed Eastward unconsciously and replied: "I really don't know, Terra. I saw in Jordan something frightening….something very frightening reflected in his black eyes." She turned and looked sincerely at the blonde girl. "I don't care what you were or what you've done. But stay close to me, Terra. Stay close to me. Let me protect you. Please."

Terra bit her lip. "Would you protect me….f-from myself?"

Kara stared. She smiled gently. "Yeah….I'm Supergirl. I think I can force you to sit in the corner if I need to."

Terra's mouth curved ever so slightly.

"Come on….," Kara motioned and wrapped an arm around Terra's shoulder as she guided the two of them back to the farmhouse. "….Ma's baking Apple Pie. You've never lived until you've eaten Ma Kent's Apple Pie."

"I-I guess I've never lived then…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And so, I told Beast Boy: 'the next time you turn into a puppy on me I'm going to swat you with a paper'!"

"Hahahaha….egads. Then what happened?"

The two girls strolled into the kitchen of the Kents' through the back screen door.

Terra smirked somewhat and said: "He turned into a Siamese cat and I couldn't help it. I had to cuddle him."

"I get the feeling that you and Beast Boy cuddled a lot."

"Well….half of the times he was a mammal, sure."

"Hehehehehe!"

"Hehehehehe!"

"Ma? Pa?" Kara looked around the kitchen. "Where are you?"

The Girl of Steel craned her ear. She heard concerned whispers coming from the living room. The sound of earnest voices filtered out from underneath the crackling T.V. speakers.

"What's going on? Is the game on?" Kara drifted into the living room.

Terra followed…only to nearly bump into Kara's backside when the Supergirl froze at the sight of the T.V. screen and gasped loudly.

The Kents were similarly glued to a television. Breathless.

Terra looked, and upon seeing the national news bulletin, she too widened her blue eyes.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

11:32 a.m.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I'm Angela Chen for Metropolis News. We bring you now live to the Smithtown Shipyards on the Eastern shorelines of Metropolis for this surprise bulletin. About an hour and a half ago, three members of the Justice League were found lying unconscious by the Smithtown warehouses after what appears to have been a dramatic fight with a powerful assailant. Wonder Woman and the Flash suffered concussions while Green Lantern appears to have a broken arm. Also found at the scene—in what is baffling investigators—is the unconscious body of Tempest, formerly known as Aqualad of the Teen Titans. All four heroes are reported now to be in stable condition, and as you can see in the camera shot behind me, they are presently being attended to by various emergency crews including three volunteer physicians from S.T.A.R. Labs. Superman—who was found awake but quite dazed at the scene—had this to say earlier:…"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a large screen covering the northeast wall of the Daily Planet's editorial workroom, the news bulletin flickered. The tall image of a bruised, tattered, but otherwise still-in-one-piece Superman clutched his far shoulder and uttered to the row of mics around him:

"_**It was Noir……It was N-Noir of the Teen Titans. I don't know what's gotten into him or how he got so powerful. But he somehow managed to overwhelm the rest of the League, and it took all of my strength to so much as shake him off me. He eventually blurred off before we could do any considerable danger to each other. I don't know where he is now…but I promise…I WILL get to the bottom of this. It just doesn't make any sense……"**_

"_Superman!" _

"_Are you sure it was Noir of the Teen Titans?"_

"_Was it Wyldecarde?"_

"_Was Tempest also trying to attack the League?"_

"_Did Noir give any reason as to why he attacked you?"_

The Superman on the screen waved a hand and scooted off forcefully towards the rest of the League. _**"I'm sorry. But nobody can make any more assumptions until the League and I try to get to the bottom of this……"**_

"_Are you trying to say that you don't believe Noir has gone villainous again?"_

"_Are you attempting to protect his innocence?"_

"_**I don't know. It just doesn't make sense. My team and I have to work together. Now please, I must go…."**_

"_Superman!" _

"_Superman!"_

_As the image returned to the live broadcast of Angela Chen, Perry White ran a hand over his balding head, sighed, and turned around to stroll down the aisle of writing stations._

"Sheesh. It seems so much easier these days for a good egg to go rotten." A beat. He smirked somewhat: "Good for the Daily Planet." He gazed right and paused at one particular desk. "Good job, Miss Lane. You were there right on time with the rest of our 'squad', weren't you?"

"And how…," Lois Lane hummed. She sat with her legs crossed and her body half-reclined at her desk while scribbling notes down in between assaults on the computer keyboard. "I've seen more sensibility at a witch-hanging ceremony. The soonest people hear word of betrayal and superheroic treachery, it's like their adrenaline turns into steroids right inside their jugular veins."

"Heh. Tell me about it."

"I was lucky to slip in there and out with my head in tact, much less enough information for the byline I'm writing for you."

"You're the best, Lane," Perry White pointed. "Make me count on you."

She smirked as she returned to her keyboard. "And what about Clark Kent?"

"He's the best too. So just keep working."

"Say, where is Smallville anyway?" Lois Lane glanced around. "You'd think he'd choose one of his little disappearing acts for a day when the League _wasn't_ getting double-crossed in our very own City…."

"Knowing that diligent bumpkin," Perry White gestured as he walked away. "He's probably flown all the way to Titans' Tower already for an exclusive commentary!"

"Heh, that's rich," Lois smirked. She called out after Perry: "You know how much Clark hates to fly!"

Across the hustle-and-bustle of typing and phone conversations, a certain redhead teenager with a camera ran up to Lois Lane's desk, panting. "Lois!" Jimmy Olsen breathed. "You won't believe what I just saw!"

"Save your breath, kid," Lois Lane boredly mumbled while typing furiously. "There's a lot going on today that I can't believe."

"It's about N-Noir!"

"Pfft. What isn't?"

"Lois! I….like…I saw him! And so did a bunch of other people!"

"That's impossible, Jimmy. The only people around the Smithtown Warehouses were the helicopter cameramen when they caught Superman battling Noir from above."

"Noir wasn't battling Superman when I saw him…," Jimmy Olsen said. He leaned forward. "He was battling _Metallo_."

Lois Lane paused. She looked at the teen. "Say what?"

"There're a bunch of people on the Eastbound highways who saw them too! And then under the monorail just outside the shipyards! I've even got some pictures!" Jimmy Olsen waved his camera. He blushed slightly and added: "I gotta develop them of course, but…."

"Jimmy…," Lois leaned forward. "This isn't one of your pathetic, pimply attempts to save the last shred of decent respect the media has for that sword-swinging former Titan young idol of yours, is it?"

"Of course it is!"

"Well then…," Lois Lane gathered her purse, stood up, and walked around the edge of her desk. "Show me some of these witnesses, Jimmy. If nothing else, it might give my article a slight spin over the others. You have any idea just how many newspapers are going to be castrating the image of that smokester tonight?"

"Absolutely. So let's go!" the young Olsen spun around and ran down the busy workplace. "I'll drive!"

"Jimmy, you can't drive." Lois followed.

"D'oh! I keep forgetting…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City.

Titan's Tower.

1:25 pm.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_The synopsis of the fight now is that Tempest and Wonder Woman did battle with Noir at least ten minutes prior to the rest of the League's arrival. Superman, the Flash, and Green Lantern responded to reports of destructive combat taking place all throughout the eastern districts of the City stretching from Lexcorp HQ to the Shipyards. Upon approaching the scene, Noir leapt out of the shadows and attacked Green Lantern and the Flash. The Flash was knock unconscious and so was the Green Lantern, only after his arm was severely fractured. The fight then moved on to a duel between Noir and Superman that took place in the waters of the Bay. Superman and Green Lantern report that Noir exhibited strength far more evolved than what is typically known of the Titan swordsman. The reason for the sudden and spontaneous assault is anyone's guess. But—for the time being—a bounty has been placed on Noir's head. The law enforcement of Metropolis is seeing to the capture and imprisonment of Noir for questioning. Authorities as far as Gotham City and Keystone City are working cohesively on the search for the former vigilante. More on this development as it unfolds, we shall bring to you. I'm Angela Chen reporting for the Metropolis News……"_

Beast Boy and Starfire sat side-by-side. Glued to the Main Screen. They had already gone through the typical waves of shock, horror, sorrow, and disbelief. Now their faces were numb sheets of confusion and somberness. Things froze over twice as much from Cyborg's raised voice in the Main Room background as he spoke loudly into the communicator wired to a computer console.

"Look, Commissioner Sawyer, I assure you….I have no freakin' clue what Noir's doing in your city. But I assure you…he would _not_ and does _not_ go on attacking superheroes out of the blue! It's just not like him!"

"…….."

"Yeah, I know what the cameras saw! I know there's 'footage' of Noir attacking Superman and the Justice League. And you know what I think, Sawyer? I think anything's possible in this day and age. Especially when there're so many bad folks running around all over our country in invisible little droves just dying to make good people look bad!"

"…….."

"Well _of course_ I think it's a conspiracy! What the friggin' hell else could it be? Noir is not a villain! He's not! I swear on my own digital heart!"

"…….."

"No…..no no no no…I don't know what Tempest is doing there either. The Titans have been stuck here in this shredded City of ours trying to hold the fort. Forgive us if we have a little bit of _tunnel vision_, ma'am. It's hard enough keeping our eyes on the latest looting job, much less….."

"…….."

"What's that?"

"………"

"No, we have no clue where Noir intended to go in the first place! That's just what I'm trying to tell you, Commissioner Sawyer. He never told us!"

From the sidelines, Raven stood with her back to the kitchen unit's counter. At the sound of Cyborg's last utterance, she glanced over. Eyes soft….reflecting. Silent.

Cyborg continued: "Do us a favor. Have Superman talk to us. Or Green Lantern. Or Wonder Woman. Somebody! We'll clear this out. I promise you! Noir's not going to do anything that will threaten your City."

"…….."

"Yeah……uh huh……"

"…….."

"Will do, Ms. Sawyer. Thank you."

"…….."

"Bye…."

Click.

Cyborg sighed, rubbing a hand over the human part of his head. He gazed at the floor, silent.

Starfire murmured: "I find this prospect as equally unbelievable as it is horrific. Why would our friend do this? Even if it was for some benevolent gain akin to the fiendish, former acts of Wyldecarde, why would he assault the unfortunate Justice League?"

"Yeah….and what's everyone's favorite mer-man doing there too?" Beast Boy shrugged.

"Someone's impersonating Noir," Cyborg murmured. "That's gotta be it. Someone's trying to make him look bad!"

"Dude….," Beast Boy moaned. "The footage clearly shows Noir laying it heavy on Superman. Unless three camera crews are all working together to make up some digitally-enhanced crap, that _was_ Noir doing the beat-down!"

Cyborg spun and frowned at the changeling. "It's an impersonation, dawg! Don't be so quick to jump at Noir's throat like you were last time he looked to be evil!"

Starfire bit her lip.

"Hey!" Beast Boy jumped up, frowning. "I believe in Noir just as much as everyone else here! Don't try making me feel guilty for guessing, Cyborg! Heck, you're the leader here! If it's anyone's fault for letting Noir trip over the sadness of Robin's death and abandon us, it's you for not keeping a firm grip on him!"

Cyborg pointed: "Don't you…."

FLASH!

The lightbulbs overhead flickered from black energy streams.

The two boy Titans froze. "….." They gazed over at Raven.

She stood with her black-encased finger pointing. She sighed. "Everyone….calm down. Let's think about this gently without leaping on each other's throats."

"Yes….friends…," Starfire nodded. "Let us keep our larynxes to ourselves…."

Cyborg groaned quietly. After a moment he looked up at Beast Boy and said: "B.B., Noir likes to do his own thing. No matter what. And sometimes he goes to way too dramatic lengths to get the tasks that he wants done…."

"No….Noir has the guts to do what's right!" Beast Boy frowned. "Unlike some people, he doesn't just wait around for things to fix themselves or people to find help on their own."

"…..," Cyborg glared. "Just what are you saying….?"

Beast Boy pointed: "He went out to find Terra, didn't he?"

"…….."

"He went out to track down Dagger and get Terra back!" Beast Boy gritted his teeth. The elf shook all over as he angrily uttered: "And we all let him go! Just like that! I bet Dagger did something to him! Reprogrammed his brain or some crap! Noir could be all evil and brainwashed now into attacking the Justice League and it's all our fault! But it's most of all _your fault_ for not having Robin's gall to smack Noir out of it or at least offer the rest of us a chance to help him out!"

"Beast Boy, you don't know anything," Cyborg said, his voice rising. "_We…_don't know anything. I kept a promise to Robin to maintain the Teen Titans after his death. I wasn't about to sacrifice any of us on some wild goose chase that could have ended the whole of us like Noir's predicament!"

"Yeah…good job keeping us together, Cyborg…," Beast Boy's green eyes thinned. "You kept us so much together, Tempest has been knocked unconscious over a hundred miles away and Noir's on the lamb from the Justice League. Good job, Vic…" The changeling started to walk.

"Hey!" Cyborg frowned. With one marching foot forward he shook a fist: "Don't peg this all on…"

A gentle hand on his shoulder.

He looked to the side.

Raven slowly shook her head.

Cyborg exhaled…even as Beast Boy uttered from the far side of the room:

"I'm sick and tired of sitting in this god-awful, gray, depressing town while the rest of the world crumbles down on itself. We aren't the only sob stories in the world, Cyborg. Vegas….Metropolis…that's where the craziness is now. Though….heheh…guess it all isn't half as 'crazy' as being cooped up in this Tower feels…"

The changeling entered the elevator through its doors, spun around, pressed a button for a floor, and faced in through the Main Room.

A frown: "We're just gonna sit out on finding out what's wrong with Noir, aren't we? So help me…I might almost stampede on over to Metropolis by myself if I have to! _Without the Titans!_"

Starfire wrung her hands. She looked at Cyborg and Raven.

They were silent.

The Tamaranian girl looked over at Beast Boy. "Garfield. Wait!" She flew over and zoomed into the elevator car just before the doors closed.

Ding!

The two Titans were gone.

Raven and Cyborg stood alone.

Cyborg sighed, rubbed his head, and gradually said: "He's not going to last long. Not with us, at least. I've tried everything to keep him focused on _here_ and _now_. But no matter what I do, B.B. just won't let it drop. He won't stop thinking about…about Terra."

Silence.

Cyborg eventually gave into the quietness and gazed over at the dark girl. "Rae?"

Raven looked bored. Numb. "Margaret Sawyer…..why did you lie to her?"

"……," Cyborg's human eye blinked. "How do you mean?"

Raven hummed a second or two before folding her arms and uttering: "She obviously asked you about why Noir left. And you know why he left, Cyborg. We both know now that it was most likely Noir in Las Vegas when the shootout happened and the Harrier jet spontaneously fell from the sky. All this time that the Titans have been working hard to rebuild this City, Noir has been on a journey. An exodus of some sort. Maybe something wonderful has happened. Maybe he found Terra. Or maybe something terrible has happened. Maybe Dagger and the rest of Triangular got to him. He's too far away for me to truly sense. But one thing is for certain. He is in trouble now. The degree to which he is in danger remains to be seen. But it won't be easy for him on his own anymore. Whatever he's doing, he'll need support. He'll need us…."

Cyborg muttered: "How do we know that he wants our help, Rae?"

"……."

The android Titan gestured: "Beast Boy can say what he likes about me 'not having a firm grip on Noir' and whatnot. But when it comes down to it, Noir is a grown young man. He did what he chose to do independent of us. He's the sort of swordsman who can and will work alone. And although I know he'll do anything he can do and will do to get his goals, I think attacking the Justice League is way below him. Even for Wyldecarde."

"So it was a hoax?" Raven blinked. "That wasn't really Noir attacking the Justice League?"

"You tell me, Raven," Cyborg said. "You know Noir better than I do." He paused. He clarified: "You know the _dark Noir_ better than any of us do…"

Raven sighed. She accepted that with a cold breath before replying to Cyborg: "I….I can only hope…."

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Hope….Raven?"

She hugged her left shoulder with a gentle right hand and gazed off towards the far end of the Main Room. "Beast Boy is……right to be mad at you. To some extent."

Cyborg winced a little at that.

Raven went on: "But…..But I think Beast Boy….c-could be mad at Noir too. Or at least, he should…."

Cyborg leaned his head to the side.

The dark girl exhaled: "It was our distrust in Noir that made him become Wyldecarde. Perhaps it is his…distrust in **us** that has made him go rogue like he has. After all this time…Noir can't seem to think we're salvageable allies to him? I may be new to emotions….but that is cold. So very cold. I hope Noir learns from all of this that…some things can't be done solo."

"Then….Noir is wrong?"

Raven frowned. "You both are!" she barked.

Cyborg winced, smiling nervously.

Raven sighed. "I am…..exhausted…," she paced around the corners of the darklit Main Room. "Exhausted by all this distrust. All this pain. All this anger. The Titans are falling apart. And at the time I feel the ripping separation the most, I am powerless to stop it…"

Cyborg placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "I know. There could have been a better time to start opening up to emotions than in the aftermath of a holocaust. But that's part of what will make you grow into who you are now. New and refreshed…."

"Noir and Tempest….," Raven muttered. "If we went to Metropolis now and tried to assist them…..," she gazed back at Cyborg weakly over her left shoulder. "…that would only put us in the center of this violent spotlight. And Noir….he would distance himself from us…and only avoid authorities further…."

Cyborg nodded slowly. "If Noir needs his help so much, he would contact us. And the way he'd do that…"

"Is to come to us….," Raven droned. "To come here…."

Silence.

Cyborg said: "This is not the Titans' issue. Not yet. Not until…he decides to come here. To become a Titan once more. And until then…" He smiled gently. "The invitation is open."

She nodded. Her eyes closed. "Of course it is…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beast Boy stood on the edge of the Titans' Island rock bluffs.

His green eyes followed the rise and fall of the surf.

He was silent, still.

Statuesque.

Starfire sat a few rock ledges above him, hugging her knees to her chest. Also gazing out onto the Bay.

She said: "Cyborg is doing the best he can for us, Beast Boy. Truly, he is. There will always be people who shall do what it is that their heart and passion tell them in spite of the ruling opinion of authority. Tempest chose to leave for his own reasons, as did Noir. And whether or not they were searching for Terra or getting involved with Triangular may indeed be our concern. But it is not our situation. We gave an oath to protect this City. There are millions of people here, each of whom I would love to consider as dear friends. Friends as dear as Garth and Jordan. My heart reaches out for Tempest and Noir. Most exceedingly, it does. But I cannot let the worry of my being interfere with the task set before me….set before us. The task Robin would gladly have entrusted us…"

Silence.

A breath of cold November wind blew at Starfire's red locks and the edges of Beast Boy's bangs.

"Please, Garfield….," Starfire gazed at the changeling. "Do not think that I desire to admonish you. I agree whole-heartedly with the words you gave to Cyborg. I too must be honest in announcing a certain amount of dissatisfaction with our new leader's decision making. But I care too much about what is left of our stressed team to want to risk breaking us apart anymore than we already are in an attempt to win back those members of our flock who have left as of their own choosing."

"…….."

"I do not want to lose my three friends…," Starfire added in something more akin to a whisper than all else she uttered against the wind. "I do not want to lose those still left who are the closest entities I have ever gotten to know in my intergalactic life…" Her last whispering words were laced with moisture on the edges of her eyes. She rubbed one eye dry and exhaled.

"…………..," Beast Boy was facing away from her. He gently shuddered and gazed even deeper into the Bay Waters. "……..I so….so want to pack up and leave…….."

She bit her lip. "Do you…t-truly, Garfield?"

The elf slowly nodded. "It's no longer……..fun. No longer….no longer fruitful. It's like….it's like everytime we save people, it's only to just put off something far greater and more terrible than whatever we've faced before….." Beast Boy hugged himself. He turned and gazed at Starfire. His face was solid and still, but two tears were streaming down his emerald cheeks. "I don't want to make jokes anymore. And that scares me. It scares me more than Noir being 'bad' and Cyborg sitting around doing nothing." He finally shuddered. He ran a hand over his face and clenched his eyes shut. "I just….don't want to be a Titan anymore…."

Starfire sniffed. She put on a brave smile, stood up, floated over, and gently hugged the elfin boy.

"I will not argue in any fashion whatsoever with you refusing to be a Titan," she said. "I only insist that you agree to remain my friend…."

Beast Boy hiccupped. He hugged her tightly and mumbled into her shoulder: "Th-That's just it, Star. No matter how much I want to leave….I can't imagine myself not having you around……I-I don't know what to do….."

"Shhhh…….you do not need to know, Beast Boy. Sometimes the answer can best be found by waiting…"

He shook and quietly sobbed against her: "What's to wait for, Starfire? What do the Titans ever have in store for them that's worth looking forward to anymore?"

"Garfield, I have held dear to something all my life. During the Gordanian attacks on my homeworld….when I traveled through space alone….when my sister turned treacherous…when Robin was being tortured by Slade…when Wyldecarde attacked us….and when Robin died……during all such occasions, I have believed and still do believe that there is something incredibly, wonderfully good awaiting each and every one of us. The universe is something of a balance. And with so much tragedy and pain levitating around us every day, it is no doubt in my mind that there will soon be unveiling a great joy to counter-react to all of that. I wait with each day for something glorious. Even if that gloriousness is not for me in this life. I have faith. And I have friends. I hold onto both the best that I can. I hold onto you, Garfield. You and Cyborg and Raven. Even if we do not agree with each other. Even when the days we experience are gray and cold. I feel a warmth because I know it awaits all of us."

Beast Boy merely sniffed and clung to her: "I w-wish I had that sort of tenacity, Star…."

She stroked a hand through his green hair and gazed off. "You have far more than you know to be thankful for, Garfield…."

And the cold, November sky lingered overhead.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

S.T.A.R. Labs.

2:10 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest was lying on a medical bed.

"………."

Slowly, his dark eyes opened.

He squinted at the light of the laboratory and groaned ever so slightly.

When he tried to sit up straight, a gentle pair of hands steadied his shoulders.

He gazed over. Blinking. "Poseidon Alive…..wh-what happened?"

"Shhh…," Diana whispered. Her face was deadpan. "It's starting."

"What is?"

"The meeting," she hoarsely said.

"What meeting?" Tempest looked over her shoulder and shut up.

On the other end of the laboratory, Green Lantern paced left and right. His arm in a cast. Superman stood tall and resolute as ever in the corner. His cape and costume was still tattered from an unpleasant battle at the Shipyards. The Flash seemed in one piece. He sat on the corner of a laboratory bench with his hands propped boredly on his knees.

"I want to know….I just want to know….what advantage did the little punk see in beating the three of us senseless?"

"I'm more concerned with just _how_ he was able to beat us three senseless," Superman added.

Flash shrugged. "Maybe he trains with Sammy Sosa?"

"NOT the TIME!" Green Lantern growled.

"Okay! Look…so we're all a little baffled by the former Titan's drunken Irish brawling!" Flash shrugged. "No reason to get testy!"

"Testy?" Green Lantern remarked. He frowned and waved his cast with a wince. "Look what he did to my hand! Maybe if you had one of your running legs broken and your powers reduced to nil, you'd be a little less forgiving, pal."

"Hey! I'm not so happy that he threw me around like a ragdoll myself!" Flash then looked at Superman and smirked. "But, gawds, you? You haven't been smoking some Kryptonite over night, have ya Supes? How'd he ever land a punch on you?"

Superman frowned. "I don't know. And all I can do is guess. Maybe he was surgically enhanced. Maybe he's a lot stronger than we have ever given credit, and all his time with the Titans he's been holding back on revealing all his powers."

"Or maybe he's gotten a little assistance…," Green Lantern gestured with his one good hand: "…from someone outside of the circle of 'good'."

"Meaning…..?"

"Maybe he wasn't so much as trying to track down Luthor…," Green Lantern's eyes narrowed. "As he was trying to do a job for him…"

Wonder Woman stood up, frowning. "Or maybe it wasn't Noir at all."

"Say-a-what?" Flash blinked.

Green Lantern turned and looked: "Diana, what are you trying to say?"

"Have you considered that it wasn't really Noir? That it could have been a decoy? Something to confound all of us so that a secret enemy could sneak past our sight undetected?"

"That is a possibility…," Superman nodded. "It wouldn't be the first time someone has tried to exploit Noir."

"Yeah….," Green Lantern interjected. "And it wouldn't be the first time the dark-haired lancer has gone over to the 'dark side' either, hypothetically speaking." He turned and more-or-less faced the rest of the meeting as a whole as he gestured: "Face it. This kid has done a lot of stuff. But he's also bad news. Unpredictable. A wildcard. One minute he'll be on the good side. The next, he'll be delivering underhanded moves disguised as the enemy. When he turned against the Titans, I was the one who almost suggested we intervene. And after Slade died, even then I wasn't too sure about this guy."

"And I thought I pulled through in that area…," Wonder Woman walked forward, frowning. "I performed the correspondence. I wrote to Noir and he wrote to me. I assured the rest of you that he was benevolent all along. And still is so to this day."

"Anybody can write anything, Diana—"

"So I went to the Tower to see him for myself!" she insisted. "And I found everything that I had seen in words. More so. Noir is someone who would literally give an arm or a leg to maintain justice. He wouldn't dash it all away in a single moment for no apparent reason!"

"But nobody truly knows Noir," Superman said. "Even the Titans are ignorant of his past from what I hear. He takes risks on his own on multiple occasions. And since Robin's death, Noir has taken it upon himself to leave the Titans. And to what ends? Just yesterday evening after searching in futility for Volcana and the Parasite, Green Lantern and I I finished reexamining the footage from the Harrier jet incident in Las Vegas."

"We're convinced…," the galactic guardian added. "The 'swordsman' who tangled with the jet. It had to have been Noir. Now…for what nefarious reason was he battling such a war machine in the heart of the criminal underworld?"

Flash smirked. "Maybe he had a little disagreement with the poker hands at Caesar's?"

"Noir is up to something," Superman said. "Whether it's good or it's bad….it certainly does not help that he keeps the nature of his actions from us."

"Besides…," Green Lantern nodded. "If his blatant attack on all of us at the shipyards wasn't a sign of some sort of ill-intent, I don't know what was—"

Tempest growled and struggled to his feet. "Nnnngh! You're all a bunch of morons!"

"Whoah….did my voice just echo?" Flash blinked. He looked over. "Oh right. Say…what's fish-boy doing here anyways?"

Wonder Woman turned and gasped: "Tempest! Don't try to walk…"

"Nnnngh!" the Atlantean tripped and fell dizzily to his knees. He winced as Wonder Woman walked over to help him back up. He shouted at the rest of the League: "Noir wasn't going out of his way to attack you! As a matter of fact, he did his best to save Princess Diana and I! He was battling _Metallo!"_

Superman's eyes widened.

Green Lantern made a face: "Metallo?"

"You're dreaming, kid…," Flash smirked. "That rusted dude's scrap metal. Blueboy here made sure of that the minute he laid his hands on 'em…."

"Well nuts to you, you dry-finned fruitcakes!" Tempest wheezed, leaning against the Amazon. "Metallo was there! Luthor got ahold of him. He made him stronger, far more powerful than ever, and he practically beat the ever living plankton out of Wonder Woman and I before Noir could so much as go into round two with him! I wouldn't doubt Metallo could clobber all three of you! It's amazing that Superman never once fell unconscious."

"But that's impossible!" Green Lantern shook his head. "It was Noir that attacked us! We all saw him—"

"Green Lantern, it's true…."

The three League members looked over.

"Diana?"

Wonder Woman sighed. "It was Metallo that attacked you. I don't know how. But it had to have been. He fought with Noir…and then Tempest and I tried to stop him."

"But that still doesn't explain anything," Superman shook his head. He pointed: "If Metallo was there, I would have sensed his kryptonite core."

'_**Simple. He wasn't using a Kryptonite core……'**_

Everyone jolted, silent.

"I know that voice….," Flash dramatically exhaled. He smiled at Green Lantern. "I think it's that chick at the Burger King drive through come to profess her love."

_Flash!_

A green, translucent form swarmed up from the metal floor of the laboratory and solidified into Martian Manhunter.

"Nope. My bad." Flash shrugged. "Just E.T."

"Metallo no longer needs Kryptonite…," the alien hero monotonously droned. "He has instead been supplied by a special power-enchancing computer cylinder. An object that was obtained forcefully from the dying hands of Intergang in Las Vegas." He turned and gazed at Superman. "This is all in thanks to a European physician named Dr. Helga Jace. She is presently employed….by Lex Luthor."

"J'onn…where have you been?" Green Lantern remarked. "In case you haven't noticed….the League and Metropolis is having a little crisis ever since Noir showed up."

"I was there during your unfortunate entanglement by the Shipyards," Martian Manhunter said.

"No way!" Flash stood up, shrugging. "And you didn't think to give us a hand? Man, that's cold. Even for a Martian!"

"I knew that you three would survive the assault," the alien said. "At the present, I was most concerned with rescuing Noir from the site. He was most vulnerable at the moment. Physically and strategically. If Metallo failed to force all three of you into unconsciousness, he would most likely have fallen back on an alternative plan that would have involved Noir's death. With things that have been at stake as of late, I could not let that happen."

"Wait a minute….," Green Lantern's eyes narrowed. "So you're saying it _was_ Metallo that did that to us?"

"Exterior holographic illusion," Martian Manhunter said. "It is one of the many upgrades Lexcorp has afforded the android assailant now that he is back in their wicked ranks. Metallo attacked all of you in the form of 'Noir', hoping to turn you against him or at least create as much confusion as possible. Whatever it would take to hamper Noir's efforts in tracking down the movements of Luthor and Triangular right here in Metropolis and possibly abroad."

"You've got the 'confusion' part all right…," Flash rubbed his head.

"How do you know all this?" Green Lantern asked.

Martian Manhunter's clear eyes narrowed. "I have just finished deliberating with Noir myself."

"You know where he is?" Superman remarked.

"Better yet….you helped him escape?" Green Lantern exclaimed.

"He helped him escape…," Wonder Woman stepped forward with Tempest hanging behind. "Escape from Metallo. Triangular in general. And yes—to some extent—from the League."

"Diana, what's going on here?" Superman walked forward. "You and J'onn have been hiding something from us."

Flash blinked. "They have?"

Superman continued, staring at the Amazon. "You know more about Noir and his purpose here in this City. You've known about it all along. What is it?"

Wonder Woman took a deep breath. "The reason Noir is here…the reason Tempest is here…is that something terribly wrong is happening in this City. And it's all rooted in Lexcorp."

Green Lantern groaned. "Not this again…"

"It is more than Supposition! Something dark and Destructive is goading Triangular into launching a horrific attack one of our major Cities. Supplies being carted through Lexcorp itself are making up the bulk of this threat. And running parallel to this pressure cooker of a situation is the spirit of Death itself. Something that wishes to tear us all apart more than we are already torn!"

Superman spoke: "Diana, please—"

She pointed: "And you know it too, Kal-El! You know why Batman has been gone all this time! You know why he's sealed away in Gotham City. He knows something is up and he is preparing for the worst while the League here runs around chasing two-bit thieves!"

"At least _some of us_ are doing our jobs," Green Lantern glared. "All this time we should be tracking down Volcana and the Parasite…you and J'onn and Tempest here have been having some sort of treehouse club conspiracy?"

"Oh ho ho ho!" Flash smirked. "I don't like the sound of _that!_"

"Knock it off, man! This is serious!"

"Sheesh, G.L. Loosen up that ring, will ya?"

"It has been proven time and time again that the League's interests have dwindled," Martian Manhunter said. His voice came out numb, without any outward intention of bold bitterness. "Our sights settle now on transient threats. We are no longer willing to dig deeper like Batman has on his own to discover what has been at work in this hemisphere since the horrific death of Robin and the rape of the Titans' City. The few of us who could have taken it upon ourselves to search far into the heart of this present darkness."

Superman finally frowned and pointed: "So you couldn't trust us to help out? Not for once?"

"Couldn't trust you?" Wonder Woman frowned. "Superman, we could hardly even reach you! You've been so wrapped up in Metropolis and Metropolis alone since you delivered Robin's eulogy! And you, Green Lantern, after what Shayera did to us, it's no wonder you've closed up and…"

"Don't bring her into this! She's got nothing to do with this issue! Why did you two keep secrets from us?"

"Secrets? We tried to tell you…."

"No, you worked independently from the League. You obviously dragged the Titan Tempest into this. And to what end? Just what could you have done to Lexcorp that we don't even know about?"

"Green Lantern. You must bear witness to what we have to relate to you. Metallo is not the only threat Lexcorp has resurrected. Their fellow agents in Gotham City are on the rise with such a deadly force that it is no wonder Batman has not resurfaced."

"Stop changing the subject!"

"Dude, G.L.! He's not changing the subject! Just let him…"

"And just who's side are you on, Flash?"

"What? Side? For the love of Ted Turner! We're all League members! What's gotten into everyone?"

"Everyone try to calm down…."

"You should speak, Superman. Great Hera, what I'd do for just one man in this world who would listen to what I have to say for once…."

"I'm trying to be open and reasonable, Diana. But you must understand. You went behind the rest of the League's back! How should I react to that?"

"We are not the only ones holding things back."

"J'onn, are you accusing me of lying?"

"Gotta hand it to him, Supes. The green guy knows a lot."

"And he obviously hides a lot too! So what if Superman has his secrets? He and Batman have a confidence the likes of which none of us should argue with!"

"Even if it threatens the very integrity of multiple Cities? There is a lot at stake here! We must be assisting Noir! Not debating over him and what he stands for!"

"And just what brings Noir back into all of this? He's just a kid! A reject from the Titans! How could this possibly be so wrapped around _him?_"

What was once a back-and-forth argument turned into a ring of squawking and voices with higher, higher, and higher volume.

Tempest watched it all. The frowning face of Green Lantern. The looks of shock and betrayal on the Man of Steel. The impatience of Wonder Woman and the cold, unaffected gaze of Martian Manhunter. The Flash seemed helplessly lost…and secretly wounded.

And all Tempest had to do was blink. And he was in the Tower again. And he was yelling at Cyborg. And Cyborg was yelling at him. And Raven was fading into the shadows. And Starfire and Beast Boy were holding…holding each other. Shivering from a deep, distant cold. A cold that rose on supernatural flames of ice. Something heavy and Red. Destruction on frozen teeth-feet. Screaming and shouting and lunging for all heroes everywhere.

The black hole. All-encompassing. Ravenous.

Tempest felt a shiver of his own and he hugged himself for a moment in pure terror. Terror.

'_**Now, Prince Garth. Now, go……'**_

Tempest gasped. His white-on-black eyes trailed across the room. His sight fell on Martian Manhunter, and soon he realized that the alien was half-gazing at him.

'_**This bickering shall go on indefinitely. It is your one and only chance to go.'**_

Tempest narrowed his dark eyes.

'_Go where?'_

'_**The northern edge of the Bay. By the Metropolis River. That is where you will find him.'**_

Tempest smiled ever so slightly as the argument increased louder and louder in the background.

'_Noir……'_

'_**Yes. Noir.'**_

'_But……what am I to do once I find him?'_

'_**He discovered a few things while in Lexcorp HQ. A few……vital things.'**_

Tempest slowly walked backwards away from the group. He approached a window that was cracked open to the Southern Bay Waters of Metropolis. Through the corner of his eyes, he could have sworn he saw Wonder Woman looking at him….and stealing a smirk.

'_You guys……you're just distracting the rest of the League!'_

'_**Because Diana and I now know for a fact that the League is unfit at the present time to work together on this situation. You and Noir must take care of tracking down Triangular's thermal arsenal. The future of this hemisphere may very well rest in your hands.'**_

Tempest slithered halfway out the cracked window and braced himself on the wind-blown buildingside. He gazed down at the sun-glittering waters and exhaled. Emptying his lungs completely.

'_Funny how I have to save dry land before I get used to it.'_

'_**Hurry.'**_

'_I am. Though……an explanation would do……'_

Tempest angled his body, dove, and splashed cleanly into the Bay waters.

_SPLOOSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_**Noir found something. Something far more real than the mask you uncovered off the shores of your City. Noir found Red Aviary. Or perhaps it would better be said, that Red Aviary found him. In the dark belly of Lexcorp HQ, an unholy graveyard of slain scientists resides. In the very deathly air where Triangular's answers hovered, Red Aviary prepared a trap for the former Titan. Noir barely escaped with his life. And also…he barely escaped with partially revealed truths about Triangular. Names, images, figures.'**_

'_Yeah? Like what?'_

'_**Business corporations. Seemingly innocent economic entities have been providing the bulk of strength for Triangular. The evil organization exists thanks to members of Gotham City, Lexcorp, and Dagger. But at the same time, there is something through which those organizations function. A sea of red tape. Covert, hidden agendas all wrapped up into one long string of yarn interconnecting the hidden branches of Wayne Corp, Powers Incorporated, and Queen Company just to name a few.'**_

'_Companies with secret projects yielding secret side effects?'_

'_**Precisely. These industries may not even know it, but Triangular is leeching off of them just as much as the Parasite—Red Aviary—is leaching off of the tripartite axis of evil.'**_

'_Yeah, but how? What could these companies be doing to help them out? Funding? To what extent? It all has to fall within the hands of Triangular, right? Especially all this thermal arsenal crap……'_

'_**The hands of Triangular may indeed circulate the dangerous elements of their strategy. But the circulation must be housed in a series of vessels nonetheless.'**_

'_So these companies……are housing the weapons? The essences of Terra? They're acting as shipping points? Unofficial warehouses and distribution centers?'_

'_**More than likely. The question remains of whether or not Lexcorp has already begun such circulation. Hopefully—and by all means we put our hope in this—that next step has not happened yet. But when it does, it will be here. It will be in Metropolis. It will be under our very feet and unless we do something to stop it, we will regret it forever. The time to act is now.'**_

'_You can bet Neptune's dreadlocks on that. So where does Noir come in? Do you guys have a plan?'_

'_**He has a plan. For he found something. An image during his dark searches in Lexcorp HQ before Red Aviary stalked him.'**_

'_Just what did he find, exactly?'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And no sooner did the two drop down that Metallo took the air with his ankle rockets! ZOOOOM! He plowed into Noir. POW! The two went flying and wrestling through the air!" a little black kid excitedly spoke and gestured. "I'm telling you, it was him! Metallo's back! And he's gonna try and hurt every hero in this Town starting with Noir!"

"I see….," Lois Lane scribbled on her notepad. She gestured towards an intersection where a crater in the asphalt resided behind yellow tape. "And you're saying that impact site was caused by Noir and _Metallo_?"

"Uh huh! Uh huh! And ask my big sister! She was on the monorail train when the two of them fell on top of it and started duking it out some more!"

Another citizen walked forth from a ring of curious pedestrians surrounding the press woman and testimonial. "No need to ask anyone else. I saw 'em."

Lois Lane narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Saw who, sir?"

"Noir and that metal punk. The kid's right. They took the fight to the monorail. I saw from where I was workin' on a power line earlier today. Living in a City where Blueboy flies around, you start to get an eye for freakish things. I heard energy blasts and sword impacts, so I turned and looked…and there the monorail train whizzes by with the two of them grappling and stuff. It looked like a fight to the death! I tell you!"

Another person waved an arm from the back of the group. "I saw them two! I saw them on the highway! Metallo picked up a Volkswagen Bug and flung it at the Titan!"

"Yeah! I saw them too!"

"It was Metallo! He's back in town!"

"Why would Noir beat up on the Justice League after fighting him?"

"Noir kicks ass! He wouldn't do anything wrong!"

"It's gotta be Intergang or something! Metallo's probably bringing a whole bunch of filth back into this City!"

Mutterings.

Concerned voices.

Arguments.

An ambiance of earnest voices vibrating across the intersection.

Lois kept scribbling and scribbling on her pad but she couldn't catch up. She lost room on her paper and gave up. Sighing. Rubbing her temple stressfully.

Jimmy Olsen walked over to her, the camera dangling around his neck. "See?" he shrugged. "We've got tons of Eyewitnesses! And they're just waiting for honest-to-goodness folks like us from the Daily Planet to unearth and expose for testimony! With the news shows…Noir's only gonna get a bad rep!"

"Maybe he deserves a bad rep…," Lois Lane mumbled. "That helicopter footage is hard to disprove."

"Lois!" Jimmy barked.

"I know….it's just a lot to absorb, that's all…," Lois Lane said. A sigh. "So complicated." She smirked and pocketed her notepad away in her purse. "Perry's gonna love it."

"Yes!" Jimmy cheered.

"Hey! Miss Lane! Interview me! Interview me!"

"I saw Noir too!"

"I even got a photo of that Metallo creep! Put that in your paper!"

"Yeah!"

"Over here!"

"Interview us!"

"Please!"

"Miss Lane!"

Jimmy Olsen second-naturely took a photo of the crowd.

Lois folded her arms and muttered: "Clark, eat your heart out…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_**A passageway.'**_

'_A passageway?'_

'_**Something underwater. A huge tunnel of sorts. It ran along the Eastern face of the landscape as it fell into the Bay.'**_

'_So I guess this is where I come in handy……'_

'_**So Noir assumes.'**_

'_While hanging around in this City and keeping under the League's radar, I went for laps along the Metropolis River. I found lots of 'tunnels' and 'pipes' embedded into the groundwork. But only half of them were open. The rest were sealed off. Old, retired drainage pipes from illegal sewers is my guess. God, you land-dwellers are so disgusting.'_

'_**You forget. I am not Terran.'**_

'_Oops. Yeah, that. Sorry Mr. Alien.'_

'_**Noir believes that one of those passageways may be a key.'**_

'_One of tunnels? Even if they are sealed?'_

'_**You will have to inquire him of that.'**_

'_Oh joy. And just what if we find something? What then?'_

'_**That, Prince Garth, is a matter of the unknown.'**_

'………'

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Titan's Tower.

In the cellar room.

A door cracked open.

A dark, petite silhouette stood in the frame.

After a moment, the figure flicked a wrist.

_Fl-Flash!_

Black streams of energy rose up and telekinetically switched the gas lanterns on.

Raven walked into the room of the Titans swordsman.

She stared coldly at the barren walls.

The empty bed.

The abandoned shrine where Myrkblade was once held along with its hilt.

The walls were plain. Absent of posters. Absent of anything……distracting…..

Raven wandered over and sat on the edge of the bed.

Her eyes fell to the floor….between her feet.

Something cold ran a chill over her robed self.

Something akin to the foggy puffs of smoke rising over a radioactive depository.

Cold…….where the red flames _should_ have been hot.

The bitterly frigid touch of Destruction….lingering in the air.

Raven shuddered.

She hugged herself, slowly descended till she laid on the bed, and gently….drifted away.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_**You shall receive help.'**_

'_From who? Noir and I aren't enough?'_

'_**Diana and I wish we could help you. Whatever you find on this venture, it will most likely be stronger than even the Justice League as a whole to face.'**_

'_I suppose two former Titans can do for the moment. You guys have done what you could, I guess.'_

'_**A time will come when our generation shall pass and it will be up to a younger array of superheroes to take charge of the future and all its Red fate. This present day is most harrowing. And yet—at the same time—it is but a preview.'**_

'_A preview to what?'_

'_**It may not be the life of me to say or find out.'**_

'_Lovely pep talk you're giving me. So how can I find Noir?'_

'_**Follow the flying thoughts of the gulls, Prince Garth. They shall guide you.'**_

'_Yeah……th-that sounds doable.'_

'_**I shall leave you be. Diana needs my help at S.T.A.R. Labs.'**_

'_Hey J'onn.'_

'_**Yes, Garth?'**_

'_Thanks. For everything.'_

'_**Sooner than the League thinks, we will be owing our gratitude to the Titans.'**_

'………'

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Seagulls were flocking over the northern edge of the shipyards.

The afternoon was passing and the gray November sky was fading over the cold landscape.

Fresh newspaper covers fluttered over the cold concrete stretches of the shipyards.

The headlines flashed and flashed.

_**Teen Titan Noir, Teen Traitor?**_

_**Noir Assaults the Justice League: Scheme or Mixup?**_

_**The Return of Wyldecarde: Metropolis Mayhem at the Hands of Noir.**_

_**Superman and the League at Odds over Noir's Action**_

SPLOOSH!

Tempest leapt effortlessly out of the water and landed on the edge of the shipyards.

"………."

He gazed across the landscape.

The warehouses were abandoned.

The streets of Metropolis beyond in the northern district were run-down, ghetto, poverty-stricken.

"Phew….," Tempest marched forward. "Dark and depressing. Just Noir's style….or Raven's….or both of theirs…." He blinked. "…..or their future kids'…."

He walked, walked, walked, and lingered to a stop beside a dark warehouse alleyway.

Cold November winds.

The gulls cried, cried, and fluttered away.

Tempest exhaled and rubbed his chilly arms.

"This is whaleshit…," he muttered. "Noir isn't here. Martian the Honest Manhunter my scaley—"

_Flash!_

A hand appeared uncloaked from a smoky silhouette in the shadows and grabbed Tempest's shoulder.

"RENZUKKAN RASPBERRIES!" Tempest jumped. He spun around—shivering—and sighed in relief. "Dear Neptune….so it is you….."

"………," I stared at him from the shadows. Cold. Deadpan. again.

Tempest ran a hand through his wet hair. "Uhm….hiya, Noir….."

I numbly waved.

He winced. "Uh….so……uhm…..y-you're framed again. That's some bummer, huh?"

"……………."

"You….y-you okay and stuff?" he asked, his head tilted to the side in an attempt at 'concern'. Honest, Antlantean concern.

"…………….," I smiled. Weakly, but I smiled. I gently, slowly nodded. Exhaling through my nostrils.

He bit his lip.

I walked out into the light, my hands in my combat fatigues' pockets. Myrkblade hung over my shoulder as the cold November winds blew at my hair. I shuddered only once, but tried to hide it. I couldn't seem to look Tempest straight in the dark eyes, though.

"J'onn sent me here," he said. "So it appears we've got some place to infiltrate or something, right?"

I nodded.

"Something….that might explain Triangular's connections abroad?"

I nodded again.

"Something that……m-might finally show us just where in the Hell those thermal essences of Terra are?"

I sighed….and nodded with an even weaker smile.

"Well….," Tempest shrugged. "Now's a good a time as any to get cracking. But…like…where should you and I _crack_ to anyways?"

I fished around in a back-pocket. I pulled out a scrap of paper I had used to sketch on. A modest recreation of the photo I had seen on the Alpha Laboratory levels of the infernal Lexcorp interior. I held it up for Tempest's visual examination.

He squinted his white-on-black eyes. Studying the rendering from top to bottom. "Yeah…J'onn said something about a tunnel you had envisioned and stuff. And this looks like a large pipe I have seen during one of my swims through the River." He gazed up at me. "But….Noir….the thing's clogged up. How're we supposed to do anything with it?"

I shrugged. I pointed at him.

"Nice….," Tempest groaned with a rolling of his dark optics. "Lovvvvve it when things are dumped on my fins."

I smiled helplessly. Weakly….

"So….I heard we've got some help during this raid….," Tempest handed the slip back to me and mutteringly added: "And boy are we gonna need it."

"And boy are you gonna get it…"

Tempest blinked. He looked over my shoulder. "Who the….?"

A tall man walked out into the light. African-American. Bald. Clad in a Prototype suit plated across the torso with heavy slabs of metal armor. "Looks like Wonder Woman and her alien pal need a favor. And I've owed the Amazon woman a few things since last time Luthor reared his ugly head in the South District of this Town."

Tempest blinked. "Uhm….forgive my oceanic traits…..but….just who in the Seven Seas are you?"

I chuckled mutely and patted Tempest's shoulder.

The 'stranger' smiled. "A friend of Superman…a friend of any hero. Now if we're gonna crash in on Luthor's dark, secret party….I suggest we get too it before sun down."

"Uh….okay. Sure….why the Hell not?"

"You're Aqualad, I gather…."

"Close. Tempest. And to whom am I confusedly speaking?"

"I'm Irons. John Henry Irons….," the man slipped on a form-fitting, slate metal mask over his forehead. He hoisted up a heavy iron club from his side and uttered: "But you can call me Steel."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

Lower District.

4:34 pm.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sitting in a dark chair…

At a dark desk…

Inside a dark room…hideously split in two…

Collapsing into shambles one side and standing straight and tall on the other….

Two-Face sat.

Flipping a coin in his ugly left hand.

Glaring at a crackling video image of Lex Luthor's face on the two-way communicator.

"_It's a 'go', Dent. Jace's project worked without a hitch. Metallo was brought back online, stronger than ever. He framed Noir for me, and thus gave more open breathing space for you."_

"It's not enough to _frame_ a punk-ass kid like that, Lex….," Two-Face gutturally uttered. "You should have torn his head off. And the heads of the whole god-forsaken League too if you had the chance!"

"_That is not how I work, Dent,"_ Luthor's image leaned back with hands folded. _"Not all of us enjoy the anonymity of the shrouding underworld like you. I have a reputation to maintain. If I slaughter……too many famous souls, I will become conspicuous. I don't want my legacy to end. Especially with this……this 'Parasite' breathing down our necks."_

"Speaking of whicccccch…..," Two-Face hoarsely uttered. He caught the coin in mid-flip and clenched his mutated fist around it. "Red Aviary…..Dagger says he was there."

"…………"

The villain leaned his two glaring halves forward towards the screen. "In your crummy building, ya eggheaded loon!"

"_So what if he was? I only wish Noir died from it and my job would have been done without having to hire Metallo."_

"Our business is not to out right kill the kid…no matter how much we want to…," Two-Face hissed. "We don't want to give Red Aviary what he hungers for…."

"_No. Not in the least……"_

Two-Face resumed flipping the coin. "Dagger also says that Red Aviary is heading here. Right as we speak."

"_To Gotham?"_

"Red Aviary is catching on. He knows too much. He's relying on hunger alone. And you know what?"

"_Humor me, Dent."_

"Noir…..the little punk's gonna come after him."

"_To Gotham? __**Noir**__ chasing __**Red Aviary?**__"  
_  
"Yes……isn't that the way it's always been?"

"………_I………I never thought of it that way before."_

"You'll get plenty of time to think of it now. Cuz I have no doubt that I'll be having to deal with the damn stooge with my own men sooner or later. But just as well. This is where Red Aviary began. And this is where Red Aviary will end. Or so…that's what Dagger says."

"_You and me, Dent. We rely on that knife-fetishist far too much."_

"Far too little, if you ask me….," Two-Face flipped his coin. "We gotta deliver soon. How long until those vials make their transit?"

Lex Luthor's image smiled. _"Two……Hours……"_


	212. Metropolitan part 7

**212. Metropolitan part 7**

November 27, 2004.

Smallville.

Kents' House.

4:56 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dialing. _

_Dialing. _

_Dialing. _

_Pause._

_Crackling voice._

'_Hi, this is Clark Kent. I'm sorry I couldn't come to the phone right now. If you leave a name and a number, I can get back to you. Thank you, and have a good day.'_

'_**If this is a business related call, please press '1'.'**_

'_**If this is a personal call…..'**_

_Click._

_BEEP._

"Hello? Clark? Clark? Are you there? Th-This is Kara. I-I've seen the news. And….I'm worried. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm pretty sure you're okay and all. You can get past bad scrapes just fine. But….B-But I know that Noir isn't the bad person you think he is. Please, Clark. Call me back. I will….I-I will explain everything. Noir's in Metropolis for good reasons. He couldn't POSSIBLY be the one who attacked you! It's gotta be some…s-some conspiracy or something. Please. Call Ma and Pa's house. I wish I could leave and go there to talk to you in person…but…I-I can't. It's kinda complicated. But I gotta speak to you. About Noir. About…..everything. Th-Thanks…..uhm…..bye…."

_Cl-Click._

Kara placed the phone down on the receiver. Sitting in the dim glow of a tableside lamp in the living room, she sighed.

"……….."

"You knew Noir closely…."

Kara blinked. She turned and looked over her shoulder.

Terra stood at the bottom of the stairs in the shadows. Hugging herself. Eyes weak. "……Didn't you?"

Kara took a deep breath. A slight smile. "Yeah…we uh…..he and I…." She bit her lip, sighed, and glanced aside. "I dunno….."

Terra leaned her head to the side. "Oh? I…I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's okay," Kara waved. "It was all just a…crazy thing…"

"So whatever happened between you two…," Terra spoke, "….it's over now?"

Kara walked over and sat on the back of the couch. She was silent for a few seconds before uttering to the floor: "He's part of a team. A team that he loves more than anything. 'Family' that he would blur across the country for, run alone into Metropolis for,………….chop off his arm for….."

Terra slowly nodded. "I….I think the Titans are lucky to have had him…."

Kara smiled weakly. "It's not that I'm jealous or anything. I get this sense that Noir has lost a lot in his life, and the Titans are very special to him. Perhaps….they're the only thing special to him. And whether or not I was ever in the picture frame of his life……I only felt like a shadow. An illusion. Some glint of a reflection off the surface of glass. I-I felt like he was communicating with me over long distance just to make me happy….but…..b-but….I…."

"…..you weren't happy….."

Kara looked up.

Terra softly uttered: "You felt bad. Self-conscious. Every time you saw him on the news or heard his name on the radio, you felt that distance all the more. And you wondered to yourself….'how was I ever close to this person'? 'He doesn't really need me'. 'He doesn't really love me back, because if he did….he would be doing all he could to come and save me'."

"…….," Kara painfully smiled.

Terra sighed and said: "I thought a lot about Beast Boy both times I was with Slade. And I came to realize, it wouldn't work. No matter how much I wanted it to. He had his family. And I had….myself. Some girls are simply….simply alone…."

"Hmmm….you got that right," Kara murmured. "……." She looked up at Terra. "But you love him now…..r-right?"

Terra bit her lip.

Kara blinked. "I….I'm sorry….I thought you….."

"Beast Buy must think I'm dead," Terra murmured. She hugged herself tighter and looked aside. "I might as well leave it that way…"

"You really don't expect the Titans to give up on you!" Supergirl stood up, paced over, and gestured: "Terra, they're your friends! They would do anything to…"

"The Titans didn't give up on me, Supergirl. **I** gave up on **them**."

"………"

"I'm sorry Noir never really showed you much affection. But in a way….I'm also glad for you…," Terra said. She slowly crept up the stairs. "When you get close to someone….it only hurts all the more. It hurts all the more once betrayal happens…."

Kara stood alone. Gazing into the shadows of the steps like a deflated doll.

"Girl…..," Kara whispered. "I know exactly how you feel….."

There was a twitching of something in her eye. Like a shadowed hero in the chambers below the earth dancing to Braniac's paralysis waves and suffering from Metallo's kryptonite. Kara ran a hand over her face….

And shuddered.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

Lexcorp HQ.

5:03 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mr. Luthor, I have been more than happy to provide my services. But please understand, I never assisted Red Aviary for the sake of profit. My rewards are like….l-like warm breaths in the air. I am honestly….simply….a loving mother. A mother who has lived the years of over three mothers combined and—with the helping hand of technology—can live further the span of over nine times as many daughters. Heh heh heh heh….life is like a chain of circles. And I….merely flutter through the loops to my fancy. Strengthening and reinforcing the bindings. There are so many poor…poor children out there with special gifts just waiting to be pushed along the right path. I have had the happy privilege to be among so many of them. My little treasures back in Markovia….they owe their very lives to me. Without my help, they could never have gotten past the bigoted, prejudicial scrutiny of the mere mortals living within the region. I helped children survive the death camps of World War II, and during my tours of the Russian Landscape I saved hundreds of others from Stalin's genocidal purging by giving them happy, warm homes in my clean and efficient laboratories. True…a scant few of my children did not live too long to reap the rewards of my operations, but not all life is respectable and punishment is very real. But—oh—so many of my children turned into such beautiful, beautiful beings. I try my best to follow every one of them. The Twins from China. The pyrokinetic boy in the Virgin Islands just about to make headlines by now. The last two Markovians….heheheh….of course. But working for you, Mr. Luthor, and having a chance to give John Corbin a new beginning as well as see the metaphysical subjects of Lexcorp's exploits….I have been given the biggest surprise of all. I saw a child of the past whom I thought was lost to me. The Black Eyes. He is alive. And though I take with a slightly sad heart the fruits of Metallo's holographic doing, I must say that it was joyous being able to see such a beautiful—howbeit stubborn—former pupil of mine. His body is so….grown up, scarred, changed. And his memory….oh ho ho….the boy pushes it all so far away from him that I wonder if he willfully denies the very things he knows to be true about himself. When Dagger chanced upon him, the cold despot himself must have found at least slight amusement in pricking the Black Eyes' vessels. I wonder if the boy realizes just how evolved he is? Or if he too knows where the other two sides of the Spectrum are today? Or if…perhaps…he doesn't even care? Whatever the case, he is in dire straits now. Sooner or later, he will realize that his dark gifts are no longer the Balance that he once learned…but are something much more constricting. And he will no longer be fit to blend with the moralistic family he flocks with. He'll come crawling back to his past on his hands and knees—much sooner than the other two, I imagine, and most likely it will be Dagger who finds him, recruits him, and revitalizes him into the shadow I so happily crafted him to be. So thank you, Mr. Luthor. Thank you for this wondrous opportunity to be on the front line for something. It is the greatest show on earth…and so much as breathing the beating air of this inevitable battlefield of youth and ancients is positively scrumptious….."

Dr. Helga Jace finished speaking.

Lex Luthor sat across from her. In his big leather chair. His back to the sunsetlit Metropolis.

With hard eyes and harder lips he slowly uttered: "Dr. Jace, I want you to pick up your check, turn around, and kindly get the Hell out of my office….._and city……"_

The redhead smirked lusciously. "Hmm…." She stood up with a manila envelope in her grasp. "I can see now. Triangular is a most….serious operation."

Luthor pointed: "There is no 'Triangular', and you were never here. Got it?"

"Heheheheh….I got it…," she winked. She turned around and sauntered towards the far door. She stopped midway and uttered: "Oh….Mr. Luthor…."

The balding villain rubbed his temples. "Nrghh……Yes……?"

She looked over her shoulder. "The Red Destruction that was in your Alpha and Beta Laboratories….the Parasite….."

"Yeah? What about it?"

"It was never a power foreign to me…," she said. "For the two years I worked for you, I felt a growing sense that Red would be on its way here. It is only a matter of time before destructive forces become fit to destroy themselves simply by existing. Five years ago—when I worked on the Experiment—the Balance of this world was challenged far greater than it had ever been challenged before. And I fear—no—I _anticipate_ that the Spectrum has been tilted." She turned around completely and smirked. "The Parasite that you face is a certifiable danger indeed."

"You think I don't know that?"

She raised a hand: "I am simply telling you to keep on the look out. Whatever it was that bestowed the Redness to this fiend….it is far stronger than ever I have faced before. Even during the birth of the Eyes."

"Ma'am….," Luthor groaned. "…my patience is running thin; which means the same for your life if you don't leave."

"Heheheh…but of course," Dr. Jace 'curstied'. "My well wishes to your organization, Mr. Luthor." Her eyes momentarily thinned like cobra optics as she hissed: "You will need them…."

"……"

The European Doctor left through the office doors.

_Creaaak……_

Silence.

Luthor sat at his lone table in the lone building in the lone sky above Metropolis.

He folded his hands and leaned forward for a moment.

"…….."

His fingers drifted over and tapped a button on his desk.

_Schwwwwwisssh!_

The plates of windows wrapping around the building exterior behind him slid up and opened to the high altitude of Metropolis. Cold November winds whipped in.

Luthor turned around, got up, and walked over till he stood before the open City. He gazed at the spires of Metropolis. His arms folded behind his back. His smooth nostrils gently inhaling the cold air….

"……."

His eyes narrowed.

"Happy hunting, Death…..," his eyes then closed. "We're all waiting for you….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Bay waters of Metropolis….

Tempest, Steel, and I….

The three of us were submerged at least one hundred feet below the cold surface of the November waves. Steel had pried free a slab of concrete from the ground of the abandon shipyard. We three stood on the slab while Tempest—with expert concentration and a powerful glow of violet—channeled us through the waters with a bubble of air surrounding our 'pocket'. In such submariner fashion, we skimmed the surface of the northeast land wall. The rock face on the edge of Metropolis dropped almost straight down in a vertical fashion. Various abandoned pipes and huge tunnels stuck out at sporadic moments where fluids used to be pumped out in days before intense environmental regulations took over. As we passed each tunnel, we persisted on submerging through the currents to find the next ones in line. We were looking for one tunnel….and only one.

"I feel embarrassed saying this, Noir…," Tempest murmured. "….but I can't see for dolphin poop. Keep those eyes of yours pealed. Maybe you can guide us along to the next tunnel."

I nodded. With my shades off, I bore my naked eyes ahead of us and pointed downward some.

Tempest lowered us on the floating platform and brought our 'bubble' along the wall towards the next destination.

"Wow…you're really good at this, kid!" Steel remarked. His heavily helmeted head gazed around at the spherical, domed-walls of water wrapping about the concrete slab and the three persons. "Tell me, do all Atlanteans have the magic finger like you do?"

Tempest smirked with his eyes a flaring purple. "Only the sexy ones."

"Ah, yeah. I hear you," Steel nodded. He re-gripped his hammer before leaning on it and looking over my shoulder towards the passing length of the wall. "As long as you can keep this up for a while longer, it's A-okay. Normally I can swim…when I'm not wearing pure, wrought-iron metal for swimming trunks."

"Try carrying a loud-mouthed Cyborg and an angsty sorceress all across the Atlantic in one of these 'bubbles'," Tempest murmured.

"Sounds like you've had experience."

"Experience…migraine…..all in the same book."

I smirked, continuing to scan….

"So what's your part in all of this, Stucco?"

"**Steel**."

"Whatever. What's gotten you wrapped up in Luthor and Triangular?"

"Triangular, I dunno about. But Luthor and I go way back. I was a technology specialist for the creep….back when we all knew him as a _pretty-average creep_ and not the sort of world-takeover sucker that the damned skinhead's proven to be…."

"Right…..so I heard," Tempest nodded. "King Orin was once captured by Luthor during his vigilante days. They performed terrible experiments on my king and former mentor…" The Atlantean's meditative fists clenched momentarily. "The first surface-dweller I ever knew about was Luthor. Not a very flattering portrait of land people in general. Forgive me if I sound bitter….but I got lover a lot of it."

"Uh….yeah….sure…," Steel glanced up at the warbling wall of water just a few inches over his towering skull and gulped. "Loud and clear…."

"So why did you ever work for the eel-sucking creep?"

"I was actually working for Metropolis…," Steel waved an iron glove. "Project 'Protoype'. It was gonna revolutionize law enforcement and city maintenance. But of course there were flaws with the Prototype. Flaws that I was wanting to re-program and fix, but Luthor was too insistent on using the project as it was. It nearly consumed the test pilot, Sergeant Corey Mills by corrupting his brain through the neural uplink of the Prototype suit. Thankfully, Superman put everything in order…but Luthor went Scott free. I left Lexcorp soon after that, but I couldn't rest. As much as Luthor's incompetence got in the way, I felt like I was at least partially responsible for what happened with the suit. So…day in night in my own neighborhood, I reworked the Prototype and added….erm….enhancements…"

Steel waved the club around and shook his shoulder armor.

He smirked and went on: "I was going to test the subject out….when Metropolis went on the loose in my very own district and I had to suit up early to save Superman and my very own neighbors."

"Alas….," Tempest smirked as he glided us down. "The birth of a superhero."

"Yeah. Sure. Whatever."

"So what's 'Steel' been doing since then?"

"Keeping things real with Superman,' Steel uttered. "Laying the hammer down on a few murderous punks here and there….but never quite the same big boys that Supes handles. Besides…I can afford to live—how should I say it—a down-to-earth life, if I can."

"Then why in Neptune's name are you joining us here?"

"Like I said. I owe the Justice League a favor."

"So you're helping Titans?"

"Heheheheh….all super-friends in my book."

"Super friends……feh….."

I held a hand up.

"What is it?" Tempest asked. His violet-glowing eyes widened. "Ooh…another tunnel….gee…how wonderful."

I motioned us forward some.

Tempest inched the bubbled platform towards the vertical wall.

Steel leaned forward.

I squinted my eyes and stared through the wavering water at the sight. "…….." I shook my head, sighed, and motioned us downward more.

Tempest shrugged. "There're plenty of fish in the sea…," and he moved us forward.

"Man…I was just counting the minutes before you'd finally say something like that."

"Ah, of course. And I've been waiting for you to make some joke about the alkaline metals."

"I can tell you're a thrilling conversationalist."

"Sarcasm…," Tempest smirked. "I love it. Say, Noir, after we're all finished saving your pathetic dry land and crap…we should have this guy over for parties."

I shook my head, lips curved.

"He'd be the clown!"

"Yeah, I can be the mayo in your knuckle sandwich, shrinky-dink!"

"Ooooh….wow….my scales are having goosebumps! A paradox issued by everyone's most beloved Steve!"

"_**Steel!**_"

I finally hissed for some quiet.

Tempest cocked his head to the side and looked at me. "Why so serious, Noir?"

"………"

"Look, I know it sucks to have all the Western World's media and government officials making love to the fanciful prospect of you having gone 'bad' and attacked the Justice League, but you gotta keep a good countenance, man! Besides…it's not like you and I are Titans anymore anyways.

"……," I blinked my black eyes. I turned my head and gazed at him curiously.

"What? Don't try to deny it!" Tempest said. A bitter smile. "But just because we're not with the Titans, doesn't mean we can't still work to help them….."

"…….," I slowly nodded.

"Are you kids ever going to return to that City of yours?" Steel asked. "I saw the news footage of what you all went through, and…damn…."

"………..," Tempest was silent.

"………..," I was still.

Steel winced under his mask. "Ah….alright. I think I'll yak on only about the mission." He swallowed. "What are we looking for here anyways?"

"Well…if I catch the drift of Diana, J'onn, and Noir….Lexcorp may be doing something to transport a very dangerous package covertly abroad."

"What kind of stuff are we talking about?"

"Do you remember some scrawny blonde thing joining the Titans, betraying them, and then taking over a certain City for Slade using cosmically significant powers of earth-moving?"

"Uhhh….yeah…."

"Put some of her blood in a bottle, shake it around, and spill it out onto a busy Metropolis or Gotham City intersection for kicks."

"Yikes."

"And then multiply that bottle by about seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine."

"Double yikes."

"Yeah….kinda makes it all seem worthwhile to skim the bottom of Metropolis Bay like some Zeus-forsaken pool sweeper."

"Whatever happened to the first of those 'bottles'?" Steel smirked. "Someone decided to celebrate News Year's early?"

"Poseidon forbid…," Tempest rolled his glowing eyes and glanced over. "Dammit…are we there yet, Noir?"

I held a hand up.

Tempest stopped the floating 'pocket'.

I motioned with a metal hand towards the underwater wall.

Tempest inched us over.

We approached a tunnel. A tunnel that was significantly larger than all the rest. A tunnel that was significantly familiar, like the photo of an abandoned laboratory full of dead and dying scientists. A tunnel….that was sealed off by slabs of concrete.

"Don't tell me this is it…," Tempest murmured.

I walked towards the edge of the wavering wall of water. I squinted towards the huge, blocked pipe. I gradually nodded.

"This is it…," Steel smiled.

Tempest groaned.

I took a deep breath. I eyed the shape and contour of the pipe.

_It's certainly big._

_Big enough to……fit a submarine?_

"What do we do now, Noir?"

I turned to face Tempest. I pointed a metal hand at the wall.

"Bring us in?"

I nodded.

Tempest shrugged and hesitantly uttered: "Aye, sir…."

Steel and I stepped back.

Tempest concentrated. He 'swam' us towards the pipe. Closer and closer. The slab we all stood on nearly touched the concrete blockage of the tunnel. The bulging dome of water pressed up against it. Tempest expertly warped and re-fixed the pocket of air so that the solid wall of concrete before us presented itself dry and tangible. The weight of the entire Ocean fluctuated behind us.

"Okay, Noir….," Tempest uttered, straining to compensate for the bubble's new 'shape'. "You gonna hump the wall or what?"

I gave him a sarcastic look before sauntering up to the concrete and running my hand across its surface.

"You sure this is the thing Diana and J'onn said that you saw when inside those halls of Lexcorp?" Steel asked.

I took a deep breath.

_I wasn't sure…… _

_But I was going to find out……_

I walked up to the concrete.

I pressed both hands against it.

I leaned my head forward, closed my eyes….

And….

Concentrated…….

"Noir….that's thick concrete….," Tempest hoarsely uttered. "I seriously doubt that the old sewer systems of Metropolis can afford a doggy door these days…."

I took a deep breath. As I exhaled, I released a curtain of smoke. Murk trailed out of my hands, fingers, shoulders, and shut eyes. The smoke ran down my hands, out through my opposable digits, and covered the concrete slabs like ink. I felt….felt…..felt….

Steel whispered. "That's some trippy stuff he's doing." He glanced over at Tempest. "Say…doesn't that robe-flowing woman with the Titans also have dark-looking powers?"

Tempest snickered and gave Steel an amused look. "'_Woman'?"_

I whistled.

The two looked.

I stepped back some, glanced at them, and smirked.

My smoke field was drifting _into_ the concrete. I had found a 'crack'. And that crack ran straight up and down the slabs in a solid line.

"So it is a door….," Steel murmured.

"I wonder why I didn't feel it in the currents," Tempest blinked.

"Noir's smoke must be….uh….thinner than polarized water molecules."

"Is that true, Noir?"

I shrugged.

_I have no damn clue._

"Well….it's still a rather thick barrier," Tempest murmured. "We're just as screwed as we would have been if we didn't find THE tunnel."

"Screwed, my ass!" Steel smirked. "Step aside…'thick' is my game." He produced his hammer.

"Yeah…uh….I'm gonna listen to him," Tempest said. He gazed at me. "Stand back, Noir."

I nodded and backed up.

_Yes sir._

Steel stood before the exposed, dry wall of concrete and gripped his heavy bludgeon. "Okay now, people. Brace yourselves."

"Man….do you _really_ have to say that…"

_**THWACK!**_

"Neptune almighty!" Tempest gasped and steadied the slab they were on as the entire pocket shook and warbled from the intense blast.

Steel snarled, curled his muscles under the strong Prototype suit, and swung again. "RRRRGHHHH!"

_**TH-THWACK!**_

Steel slammed his hammer repeatedly into the concrete wall with unforgiving force.

_**THWACK!**_

It finally started to crack.

"You know…you could just….uh…._chisel_ your way in or something, right?" Tempest smiled nervously.

Steel grunted and swung his club. "Open sesame, you big granite bitch!" _**THWACK!**_

I couldn't help but smirk.

_Sometimes a guy's company is the best company._

_**CRKKK!**_

The concrete busted open.

Tempest protectively shot his hand out in the nick of time and prevented a wall of water beyond the crumbling concrete to flow into the 'bubble'.

FLASH!

The tunnel tore open from the inside out, revealing an ascending tube of rusted copper going up, up, up towards a distant…faint glow.

"Ha!" Steel smirked and leaned back on his hammer. He took a panting breath before proudly uttering: "Looks like Triangular's found itself three surprise proctologists!"

"Yeah…uhm….'ew'….thanks," Tempest nodded. He looked at me. "So, what do you say, Noir? Alley oop?"

I nodded with a breath.

_Alley oop away……_

Steel braced himself while Tempest angled the pocket of air for us to levitate up and into the tunnel.

"I'll try to make it slow. No need to give us all the bends."

"Man….something tells me we've got worse things to worry about where we're headed."

"Gotta love your optimism, buddy."

I took a deep breath.

Then….

A chill.

I shivered, winced, and clutched my metal hand.

I panted and sweated from a sudden, sharp cold as we rose up through the pipe.

I looked over my shoulder.

My black eyes thin with fright.

_Red Aviary…… _

_Here? _

_But……how? _

_And why?_

"Hey man….."

An iron hand on my shoulder.

I glanced up.

Steel leaned forward. "You okay?"

"Noir just likes to be dramatic," Tempest smirked.

I swallowed and squint my eyes at the brightness on the end of the ascending tunnel.

_Yeah……I'm just a drama queen……_

I flicked out my shades from a pocket and slipped them over my black optics.

_A drama queen with Death riding up my stockings._

CHIIING!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Whurrrr-Clang! _

_Whurrrr-Clang!_

"Load that last train up! We gotta get moving, people!"

"The north bound tunnels are open, sir. Luthor has given us the go-ahead."

"Right. Let's make it quick. I don't want anymore delays, what with all the shit going on up at the surface."

"Reports are in. The League is still gathered at S.T.A.R. Labs. They're distracted. Nobody can possibly know that we're here."

"Understood. Allright, people! Did you hear that? Let's MOVE!"

_Whurrr-Clang!_

"………," Tempest watched and listened to all this with his head barely poking out of the water. There was a huge underground chamber. A docking bay of sorts for huge, underwater transport submarines. Loading mechanisms lead from the moored submarines' opened backsides and stretched towards the north side of a series of platforms raised above the lapping waters. What looked to be thick, metal supply trains with open cars rested on tracks leading off towards a dark tunnel heading west north west. There was an identical tunnel aimed southward, but it was blocked off at the time being. Another platform above the tracks stretched via metal stairs and catwalks towards a glass-encased control room overlooking the underwater docking station. The place was crawling with guards. They weren't uniformed, but they ware darkly-identical-enough outfits to signify that they all worked for the same, nefarious organization. In the glow of yellow-amber lights flickering overhead on the surface of the underground chamber, the 'Lexcorp' insignia flashed on rifle butts and shipping crates. Robot arms hanging from animatronic lattices above carried wooden crates full of racks…which were then full of yellow, glowing vials. The train cars were being loaded heavily. The shipment was in order.

_Whurrr-Clang!_

The robot arm deposited another crate before sliding via the lattices back towards the open submarine transports. The workers up in the glass compartment flurried their hands over the controls in diligent focus. There was not a pleasant, happy face among the bunch.

"Hrmmmph….," Tempest murmured. "All you need is Charon and his raft…"

A guard strolling across a nearby platform uttered to another gunman: "What did you say?"

"Huh?"

Tempest bit his lip….and re-submerged.

_Sp-Sploosh……_

The two guards twirled….looked over the edge of the platform…..but saw nothing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest drifted down and stood on the floating slab of concrete in our dry bubble.

Once he landed, Steel slapped him across the top of the head.

_Thwap!_

"Ow!" Tempest winced. "What the flounder?"

"Thanks for the cab fare and all, Mr. Gills, but don't be giving us away like that!"

"I wasn't giving us away!"

"You kidding me? I nearly saw you…"

I whispered with a finger over my lips.

Both looked over at me.

I gestured questionably to Tempest.

"There's this one film Beast Boy showed me soon after I joined the Titans," the Atlantean droned. "'Bonding James' or some crap."

I made a face.

"Yeah. You get the picture. Quite an elaborate underwater facility for having been built by land-dwellers," he folded his arms. "I do admit….for I've seen them all!"

I gazed up beyond the distant surface of water.

"……"

"Well, the shipment's here," Tempest said. "The vials and everything. There appears to be tunneling built for carrying subterranean train cars through the continent. Undoubtedly they're headed north. The southern exit is blocked."

"Heh….the Underground Railroad," Steel murmured. He gazed at us and gestured. "Literally."

I nodded.

"They're still loading the vials onto the train as we speak…," Tempest murmured. "If we act now, we might be able to stop the transport."

I took a breath.

_Or better yet…… _

_Find out where the shipment is going to……_

"So how do we go about doing this?" Steel palmed his heavy hammer, smirking. "Full frontal assault?"

"Gee," Tempest rolled his eyes. "Are you related to Cyborg at all?"

Steel frowned at him. "No. I'm _Black Lightning's cousin_. What the Hell kind of question is that anyways?"

"I was only making a comment!"

"Yeah, keep your comments to yourself, snow-gills."

"Hahahaha….ahem….," Tempest looked at me. "So what do we do?"

"……," I smirked.

_What do we do indeed……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slowly….

Quietly….

The surface of the water parted. Like a hot knife to butter. Behind the backs of guards on the platforms above, I lifted up through the 'hole' in the water. Beneath me, Tempest was concentrating on parting the underground seas…while Steel raised me up with a strong hand holding each sole of my feet.

I balanced myself on the iron hero's palms as I ascended…ascended…ascended….

The guards were eyeing the robot arm as it passed by. The workers in the distant control room were busy behind the glass.

I took a deep breath. I re-gripped Myrkblade, flexed my lower limbs, and….

_Fl-Flip!_

I vaulted up, twirled in the air, and came back down.

Steel swiftly knelt as Tempest sealed the water up beneath me.

I shot smoke into my ankles right as I plunged.

_Plant!_

I balanced in a half-squat on the water's surface, smoke pouring down my limbs. I took a deep breath, concentrating.

"……….."

The guards shifted. They started to turn around…

I narrowed my black eyes under my shades. Concentrating….

_Fwoosh……_

I cloaked over. Invisible.

"……….."

I eyed the guards walking back and forth.

Their dark faces.

The stiffness in their gait.

I exhaled….

_Yeah…… _

_Classic henchmen._

"………"

I gazed left.

_WHURRRR-CLANG!_

The robot arm deposited more packs of vials.

I took a breath.

I gazed right.

A series of platforms, metal steps, catwalks, and other assorted walkways led to the lofty control room.

"……..," I slowly crept towards the far side. One smoking, cloaked foot after another. Inching over the waters. Silent. Stealthy….

It was a torturously slow process, in that I didn't want to make any waves or sounds that might alert the entire chamber. My two colleagues waited for me below the waters in hiding. The only way we could tackle this job was to do it the professional way.

The slow way….

I bit my lip as I inched…inched….inched towards the dry metal platforms several feet beyond.

_I just hope that my strength holds out……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was nearly below the horizon over wintry Metropolis.

Cars that had jammed the highways during rush-hour were spreading thin as they rumbled on home.

People dotted the sidewalks less and less as arrays of lights started to twinkle to life all across the urban domain.

A few clusters of emergency lights circled and strobed at key spots along the Eastbound express lanes and the Shipyards where the day's explosive battles took place. Policemen and investigators examined the sites for every square inch. There would be no swift night's sleep for them on that soft evening.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In an office overlooking the darkening City, Margaret Sawyer spun from gazing out the windows and gave Lois Lane a suspicious glare.

"What? Metallo?"

"I know it sounds stupid…crazy even….crazy and stupid, perhaps," Lois Lane gestured as she reclined besides the female commissioner's desk. "But from all the testimonies I've heard, it sounds like a viable reason enough to believe that Metallo was in Metropolis today."

Maggie Sawyer folded her arms and leaned her head to the side. "I'm guessing you're wanting this to somehow explain the incident concerning Noir of the Titans?"

"…..," Lois Lane narrowed her gaze. "I'm just trying to confer with you about something, Sawyer. Did or didn't your task force find evidence of John Corbin at the scenes of destruction? Or is that classified?"

"Something tells me that even if it was classified, who are you to give a damn?" Sawyer smirked.

Lois Lane shrugged. "A reporter's gotta do what she's gotta do."

Sawyer gazed out the window again. Sighing. "I went all over those sites today. I spoke to Superman, Green Lantern, the owner of the shipyards. There's no reason in the world that Noir would have attacked the Justice League and wreaked havoc on other parts of Metropolis so spontaneously. However…at the same time, photography doesn't lie. As much as you may have testimonials written down of Metallo fighting Noir, I've got the footage of the Justice League entangling with him at the shipyard and the words of the League members themselves to disprove. And that's not something I'd either enjoy doing or _plan_ doing."

"Then what of all the people I've interviewed?" Lois Lane asked. "Or that fight on the Metropolitan highway? What's to say that Metallo wasn't here at least, causing the trouble to begin with?"

"Lois…Lois…," Sawyer murmured and paced across the room towards her. She folded her arms over her brown coat and said: "Please don't think that I'm trying to disprove what you're saying. You know…with all my heart, I believe that the Noir kid is a good person."

"You do? Isn't he kind of dark?"

Sawyer chuckled a bit. "Not everyone who works a good job totally matches their field. I was….a good friend of Commissioner Decker from the Titan's City. His death was dear to me. But I believed in the Titans long before that because….Decker was a hard and distrusting man, and yet he _trusted_ the Titans. I tend to respect that. And thus, I respect Noir. If I can find something legitimate to prove him innocent, I will. But as police chief of this City…."

"You have to go by the books," Lois Lane nodded. "Got it. And I….," she winked. "….I got to work with a typewriter."

Sawyer smiled. "I've not been known to come in conflict with the Daily Planet."

Lois Lane stood up, swiped up her purse, and headed out the office. "Let's keep that our little secret, shall we?"

"If you could call it that," Sawyer nodded with the back of her hand to her hip. "Good luck, Lois."

"Same to you, Miss."

"……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the front entrance to the Metropolitan City Police Department, Jimmy Olsen waited.

Lois Lane exited the building and walked out onto the roadside towards her car.

Jimmy anxiously rushed to her side. "Well? What did she say?"

"What do you think, kid? She's as trustful as always of superheroes. But unfortunately, this City she helps run isn't quite so trusting of collateral damage….much less attacks on the League. It's gonna be a long while before anyone important starts to see Noir as anything more than a common miscreant."

"For crying out loud!" Jimmy Olsen waved his arms dramatically. "Didn't we talk to enough witnesses? People _saw_ Noir battling Metallo! This City isn't stupid, is it?"

"No…not for the most part," Lois smirked. She unlocked and opened the driver's side of her parked car. "But things take time, Jimmy. All we can hope to do is….push destiny forward a little bit."

"So you believe it's true?" Jimmy blinked. "You believe….uh….th-that there's some sort of setup or frame-up here?"

"It's not what I believe that's important," Lois said. She gazed over the top of the car at the 'sidekick'. "But rather….what's important is what Perry believes. What Perry believes will make a top-selling headline." She winked. "AND photograph."

Jimmy smiled. He pumped his arm. "Yes! Allright!"

"Let's move…," Lois ducked into the driver's seat.

Jimmy took shotgun: "Can I hum the C.H.i.P.S. theme?"

"No."

"Awwww."

Lois buckled up, started the car, and sped down Main Street towards the Daily Planet building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I pressed myself against the railings on a metal platform.

Breathing slowly.

Cloaked.

_Clank-Clank-Clank-Clank._

A guard marched firmly down the steps, a hair's length away from me.

"……..," I took a deep breath.

I gazed up towards the top of the flight of metal steps.

The control room….

I slowly, meditatively walked upward.

I felt…a distant chill in my metal fingers.

I curled my invisible fist.

Trying to concentrate.

_Not this time, Red Aviary. _

_Not this time……_

_This day's been too crappy to end on a bleak note now._

_The same thing with my life…_

I made it to the doorway.

I pressed myself against the wall.

I waited….waited….waited….

"….."

_Schwiiish!_

A guard walked out.

I took a deep breath and blurred on through just as the doors closed behind me.

_Schwiiish!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the control room, two guards minded computer networks while a third worked at the robot arm controls.

"This is station 2-B reporting," one guard spoke into a microphone. "Four more loads of the shipment and the transport is a go. Everything is running with one hundred percent efficiency. No setbacks. Over."

"_Snnkkkt…Good. Don't let Mr. Luthor down. Keep us informed. Snkkkkt……"_

The other computer worker gazed over. "While you're at it, ask if Station 1-A is done playing with themselves while we do all the dirty work."

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Heheheheheh."

The man at the robot controls smirked…..then promptly jerked back when an invisible metal fist slammed into his nose.

POW!

"OOF!" he fell back, along with his chair. _CL-CLUMP!_

The robot arm outside whirred to a stop.

The two computer workers gasped, jumping up. "What in the?"

_FWOOSH!_

I materialized in a smoking column above the collapsed man's body.

"It's him!" one worker pointed. "That…That….Th-Th-That…That _guy_!"

"……," my shaded eyes narrowed.

"Isn't it?"

"BAH!" the other guard knocked his comrade aside and pulled out a pistol. "Shoot him!"

_BLAM!_

I twirled Myrkblade once. THWISH-CLANK!

The bullet sailed back at the man.

THWIFFT! PING!

The gun flew out of his hand.

"Augh!" he gripped his wrist.

I snarled, repositioned Myrkblade as a javelin, and launched it at his figure.

THWOOOOOOOSH-_SCHLUNK!_

The blade sliced between his shirt and his skin, shoving him back and pinning him to a mainframe. The sword's smoking length sliced into the electronic guts, causing sparks to fly and electrocute the man being pinned to the device.

_Zzzzzztt!_

"DAAAAAA-AAAAAH!" the man jolted, smoked, and groaned into unconsciousness.

"Oh jeez…Oh jeez…."

I turned. I glared at the last standing worker. "……"

He shivered, biting his lip. He panicked, spun around, and ran—THWOMP!—promptly into a metal wall. "Nnngh…." Cl-Clump! He collapsed on the floor.

I exhaled.

_Everything's easy after Area 51._

I marched over, grabbed Myrkblade by its hilt, and ripped it out of the mainframe. The second man's body fell asleep to the floor.

_At least……I hope so……_

I glanced out the window of the control room towards the watery platforms below.

"….."

Nobody around the submarines, train, and catwalks seemed affected by the explosive events inside the room.

I noticed a few gunmen scratching their heads concerning the now-still, robotic arm. Judging from the pacing of a few others on patrol, I realized it would only be a matter of time before some henchman returned to the control room at the top of the stares.

_Better do what I can do quick._

I walked over to the robot arm controls.

I dashed my eyesight around. Looking for controls for the train or something.

_No luck._

I spun around. I headed for the half-fried computer stations.

_Ah-HA!_

There was an underground train grid. Some elaborate passageway system connected Metropolis, Keystone City, Central City, Gotham, and beyond.

_But not the Titan's City. _

_Should that……be a good sign?_

I didn't have time to think. Only smash.

Digitally smash.

I fumbled with the controls, desperately looking for information….any information that could assist me in canceling the train's passage.

And then I found in a computer window…

"….."

My eyes narrowed.

I highlighted a string of text across a statistical board.

'_ARRIVAL FIXED AT GOTHAM CENTRAL DEPOT. TRANSFER TO WAYNE CORP. TRANSIT APPROVED. SIGNED: WILLIAM B. FOX.'_

"…..," I blinked.

_William B. Fox?_

I rubbed my chin.

_Isn't that the son of Lucius Fox?_

CLANG!

I gasped.

I spun around.

The door was denting in from the outside.

CLANG! CLANG!

I bit my lip.

_What in the Hell?_

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

I winced.

_The train!_

I frantically fiddled with the computer controls.

_Crap……Crap……Crap!_

_**CRACK!**_

The door exploded open.

I winced. I looked up. I gasped at the figure in the window.

Standing tall and powerful….her hands on her hips….her red cape flowing…

Supergirl.

I blinked.

_Kara?_

I shakingly pointed.

I mouthed: _'What are you doing here?'_

Supergirl smiled.

Supergirl spoke.

And when Supergirl spoke, a slightly accented voice of an adult male rang out from her lips: "Oh, so you like this look? How could I have guessed?"

I groaned mutely.

_Shit, it's you……_

"Heheheheheh…," 'Supergirl' smirked and unloaded a small rocket from her back. Ch-Chtunk! "Smile for the birdy!"

_**PFTOOOOO!**_

I desperately jumped to the side.

_**POW!**_

The explosion knocked me across the room from behind.

CL-CLANG!

I fell into the robot arm controls, wincing.

'Supergirl' marched towards me, a throng of surprised guards gathered behind the figure's back. In dazzling, glittering light….the holographic veil unfurled and Metallo leered over me. "Luthor figured that there would be a smoking chink in his armor, so he sent me here to oversee the operation and officially crush any and all jackasses that might try to befuddle him further."

**GRIP!**

He grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and lifted me up. His half metal and flesh face sneered up close at me. "What's the matter, Noir? Beating up the League disguised as you and having a go at ruining everything your image stands for not enough for you? It was _almost_ enough for me. But I suppose I could never have enough pleasing vengeance until after I've peeled your skin slowly away, inch by inch. You came down here to this secret, aquatic lair on some petty crusade of revenge, didn't you? Well, boy….hah hah hah haaa!" He started to strangle me. "You reap what you bloody sew!"

I wheezed and convulsed in the android's grip. My black eyes thin.

The guards watched emotionlessly.

Metallo constricted me…constricted me….and chuckled.

Then….muffled….on the other side of the glass: "Hey! Clunkatron!"

Metallo blinked. He gazed out the control room window. "What?"

Tempest and Steel hovered on the other side, levitating on the concrete slab atop a wavering tentacle of magical water. Tempest frowned with purple-glowing eyes while the iron hero standing beside him hoisted his hammer over his shoulder and tossed it at the glass. "Try this on for size!"

SWOOOOOOSH!

The reflection of the flying bludgeon reflected off Metallo's robot eye.

"Aww….hell."

_**SHATTER!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of the front entrance to S.T.A.R. Labs, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter paced under the stars.

"I swear….Green Lantern is so closed minded…," the Amazon grumbled. "He's taking Superman and Flash along with him on his bitter voyage of ignorance. And about Superman…he just KNOWS what Batman's up to. He has to!"

Martian Manhunter jerked to a stop. His alien eyes wide.

Wonder Woman faltered too, looking at him with concern. "J'onn? What is it?"

The green being murmured: "It has begun…."

Wonder Woman's jaw dropped. "They found Triangular's operation?"

He nodded. "The power of Luthor in this conspiratorial game hangs in the balance. But there are greater concerns at stake now."

"Yes? Like what, J'onn?"

"Noir is not alone….he is in danger….again…."

"What?"

Martian Manhunter looked at her squarely. "While he, Prince Garth, and Mr. Irons do their job….they're being watched. The Parasite is waiting…."


	213. Metropolitan part 8

**213. Metropolitan part 8**

_**CLANG!**_

An iron hammer to Metallo's face.

"OOOF!" the android flew back and slammed back straight through a computer console.

_**POW!**_

_CRACKLE-CRACKLE!_

CRKKKK!

Computer station after computer station in the subterranean control room exploded and sparked in succession.

The guards who had rushed up behind Metallo were jolted and thrown about in surprise.

_**PHOOOOOOM!**_

Steel flew in on Prototype jet boots before landing and running over to the grounded Metallo. "Lemme at his rotten, sniveling face!"

Metallo dizzily stood up just in time to receive a flurry of merciless fists from Mr. Irons. **WHAM! WHACK! CLANG!**

The helmeted avenger pummeled and forced Metallo across the length of the room towards the smoking corner.

In the meantime, the guards in the room recovered. They aimed their guns at the backside of the attacking Steel.

SPLOOOSH-SPLOOOSH-SPLOOOSH!

Three 'tentacles' of water shot into the chamber and promptly wrapped expertly around the wrists and ankles of the gunmen before whipping them up into the ceilings and walls.

TH-THWIP!

**WHAP! SLAP!**

The gunmen collided, grunted, and fell unconscious.

SPLASH!

Tempest vaulted wetly into the room, landed, rolled, and ended in a kneeling position upon which he produced two levitating spheres of salt-water above either wrist….flicking them towards the last standing guards.

SP-SPLAT! The water 'bullets' struck the men's mouths, choking them. They gagged, dropped their weapons, and stumbled-writhing to the floor.

Tempest smirked, standing up. "Grow some gills, you yahoos."

TH-**THUNK!**

"AAAH!" Steel's body flew from a fierce blow across the control room till he slammed up against a locker on the other side. CLANG! "Nnngh…," he was imbedded in a 'crucified' position against the dented material.

"…..," Tempest glanced right.

Metallo stood tall and strong in the corner opposite of Steel. He pivoted his metal head, cracked his joints, and uttered mechanically: "Right. Let's start that one over." His foot positioned itself over the handle of Steel's grounded hammer and slammed its heel down over the bar. THWAP! TH-TH-TH-THWIP! The hammer spun straight up in the air. Metallo expertly jabbed his hand out, grabbed the long handle, and swung it too like a javelin….this time back at Steel. "NNNNGH!"

Tempest winced.

THWIIIIIIIIIIIISH!

Steel shook himself out of it. He looked up from where he rested in the body-dent. He gritted his teeth and clapped his hands up in front of his face at the last second

TWHOOOOSH-_CLNNNNNGGGGG!_

Steel's palms expertly landed on either side of the hammer's head before his own weapon could come hurtling through his mask. The long metal bar-handle shook and wobbled to a stop.

"Whew….," Steel murmured.

_ZAAAAAAP!_

Metallo's laser blast landed in the ceiling above Steel. Chunks of metal and earth collapsed and buried the hero.

_CRNKKKK!_

"MMMMF!" Steel struggled beneath the rubble.

Tempest gritted his teeth. He looked over at Metallo.

The half-flesh android smirked at him, walking over with his high-powered wrist laser aimed at the Atlantean.

"Time to fry and batter you, boy!"

Tempest stood as if in a spotlight. He glanced left and right. "…." He glanced up.

_Fire sprinklers……_

Metallo's laser rifle charged.

Tempest smirked at the android. "You know….you really need to wash your mouth out."

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo cackled, then smirked. "Please, guppy, is that the best you can come up with?"

Tempest shot his hand out.

Metallo sneered and flicked his wrist laser. The barrel glowed.

Tempest's eyes flickered purple as he aimed his fingers at a sprinkler above Metallo, burst the water free from the high spicket, and gushed a sharp jet of water down and into a floating ball of aqua right in front of the android's firing laser.

_ZAP!_

_FWSSSSH!_

A burst of steam exploded in front of Metallo from the point-blanc detonation.

"Augh!" he stumbled back.

Tempest meditatively swung his arms and deposited bursts of water into the air from the sprinkler system all through the ceiling. He concentrated the dozen independently balls of water into dense spheres and proceeded to strike, hit, smack, and whallop Metallo from all angles.

WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAP!

Metallo jolted, grunted, and growled.

Tempest continued the punishment, chuckling. "Come on in, pal! The water's fine!"

"I will not….be schooled….by a….urchin-humper!" Metallo snarled before desperately aiming both wrist-lasers straight down into the ground and firing. _**ZAAAA-AAA-AAP!**_

Waves of heat billowed out along the ground in short waves, giving Tempest the nasty sensation of hot foot.

"Nnngh!" he jumped, his toes burning. He lost concentration, and the balls of water splashed down to the floor.

Metallo snarled and charged at him.

Tempest gasped, jetted two charges of water down from the spinklers, coiled the aqua around his feet, and vaulted himself up in the air.

Metallo's metal arms grabbed nothing. He stumbled with an electronic gasp.

Tempest forward-flipped over the android, landed in a slide, and twirled about with his back to the smashed computer consoles.

Metallo growled, grabbed a chunk of robot-arm controls, and ripped it out of the control room's foundation.

Tempest sweatdropped. He glanced up yet again at the sprinkler system.

Metallo spun around. He held the chunk of metal devices high above his head. He snarled and prepared to hurl it.

Tempest grunted, jerked his purple-glowing arms, and ripped two lengths of pipes out from the sprinkler system.

_CRKKK-CRKKKK!_

"NNNNGH!" Metallo flung the heavy debris across the room at the Atlantean.

Tempest expertly aimed the pipes straight at him and unleashed a high-pressured torrent of telekinetic water.

_SPLISSSSSSSSSSSHHHH!_

The water tore into the debris in mid-air, stalled its momentum, and sent it throttling back straight into Metallo's chest.

_CRUNNCH!_

"NNGH!" Metallo snarled and tore the debris up. "You're really PISSING me off!"

Tempest smirked. "How literal can you be?"

"THIS!" Metallo then proceeded to run, jump, and propel one of his impregnable flying kicks straight towards Tempest's skull.

Tempest gasped. He twisted his hands.

_CRKKKKKKK!_

The entire network of sprinkler system pipes wetly popped out from the ceiling, bent and twirled like snakes in mid-air, and swiftly coiled around Metallo's body in mid flight.

_CRKKKK-CLANNNNNG-GGGG!_

Metallo jerked to a stop in midair.

Tempest leaned back. Metallo's metal foot ended barely an inch from the Atlantean's nose.

"Nnnnnngh……nnnnnghhh!" Metallo struggled, paralyzed in the metal pipe-web.

"Hooo boy….," Tempest smirked. "Boy was that cl…."

_PHOOOM!_

An ankle rocket of Metallo's blasted against Tempest's forehead.

The Atlantean was blown back against the control room's wall. SWOOOSH-SMACK!

"Nnngh!" he slumped hard to the floor.

Metallo grumbled: "And once I get down from this infernal mess I am giving you SUCH a scaling!"

_**CRASH!**_ Steel burst out of the pile of rubble with his muscles flexing in fury. "RAAAAAAAUGH!"

Metallo glance over. His robot eye dimmed a little. "Awww shitstain…."

**GRIP!** Steel swept up his hammer, charged across the room to the pipe-tethered Metallo, and swung with all his might. "Give me some candy, you piñata-ass punk!"

SWOOOOOSH-**SMASH!**

Metallo ripped free of the pipes and slammed into the far wall.

Steel leapt upon him and continued pummeling with his hammer, shouting a violent war cry.

And it was at around that very pounding moment that I finally regained my breath.

I slumped up into a sitting position, wincing, rubbing the finger-marks of Metallo on my scarred neck. I inhaled deeply and gazed at the heavy-impact fight.

"…………."

I groaned mutely.

_I wonder if it'd make any difference if Diana volunteered a 'can opener' for us instead……_

I gazed left.

A guard sputtering on salt water was struggling to get up.

I leisurely picked up a rock-sized piece of debris, juggled it in a metal hand, and threw it smokingly at the thug's skull.

Thwooooosh-_THAP!_

His eyes crossed. He slumped over and laid cold on the ground.

I picked up Myrkblade. I struggled to my feet. I glanced over again at the metallic fight.

Steel was still laying it on thick with his hammer.

Metallo backed up into a corner, blocked, and countered with a jabbing fist or foot or laser blast. The battle was gradually getting even.

Tempest rested on the ground, worse for wear.

I bit my lip.

_Yeah…… _

_Nap time over, Noir……_

I prepared to blur over there, when….

"Whoah!"

"Shit!"

"They found us!"

I jerked. I looked over to the opening to the control room.

Three fresh guards stood, gasping, gaping at the wrecked, wet interior. Two of them had guns raised and the other was fumbling with incendiary grenades.

"Cover me! I'm going to roast them!"

"Just chuck the damn bombs!" Metallo shouted beneath Steel's punishment. "I can survive! The others can't!"

Steel blinked under his mask. He turned and gazed at the doorway. He gasped…for he was in no position to relent his attack on Metallo and stop the grenadiers from roasting half a dozen lives. So he looked at me and uttered:

"Noir! Jump 'em!"

"Rrrghh!" Metallo growled.

"…..," I gazed over at the doorway guards. They prepared to launch three grenades.

_Solo job. _

_Yeah…… _

_I can do that._

TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade and blurred towards the exit.

The two gunmen flanking the grenade-tosser gasped and fired.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

I teleported through the streaming bullets, teeth gritting.

Three grenades flew.

I exhaled and materialized with an upswing.

CL-CLANG!

I deflected two grenades out the doorway.

THWOOOSH! The third zoomed at my head.

GRIP!

I clutched it with a metal hand, flicked the titanium wrist, and tossed it back out as well.

C-CLUMP! It bounced off the head of a guard ("Ouch!") and twirled off to land along with the other three on the water-edged platforms of the cavern below.

Cl-Clank! Clank!

_**POW!-**__**PHOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The guards jolted as a fireball lit up below and behind them.

I wasted no second.

I leapt at them….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH! TH-THWAP!

I plowed into the two gunmen and kicked my way through the grenadier in the center.

SMACK!

I landed with my legs spread and my feet planted on the railings of metal stairs leading down to the waterside platforms.

Two distant thugs ran in front of the fresh flames and fired madly at me.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I slid down the railings on smoking feet, all the while twirling Myrkblade left and right.

CL-CL-Cl-CLANG!

I reached the end of the railing, vaulted off with a pulse of murk, and flipped over the two men.

They dumbly spun around….

_Plant!_

I landed in a squat behind them, between them and the fire. I spun with a leg sweeping out.

TH-THWAP!

I tripped them.

"Ooof!" SPLASH!

"Dah!" SPLOOSH!

They fell into the waters on either side of the precarious platform.

I stood up, breathing heavily.

"There!"

"Get him!"

BLAM!

BL-BLAM!

Pistol fire.

Bullets streamed past me.

"…….," I turned and glared at the south side of the chamber.

Three gunmen standing on the platforms near the loaded train cars aimed and shot at me from a distance.

BL-BLAM!

BANG!

I looked right into the grenades' fiery blaze. I stuck my hands towards the flames, coursed murk through the billowing smoke of the inferno, and produced a thick wall of smog sweeping across the platforms.

My body disappeared from the gunmen's sight.

They stopped firing and blinked. Their necks craning.

"Huh?"

"What the…?"

FWOOOOSH! A pillar of smoke shot out towards them.

They gasped and tried to aim again….

FL-FLASH! The smoke parted as I teleported into the midst of them with Myrkblade swinging.

THWACK! SMACK! I struck two guards hard with the broadside of my sword and sent them collapsing across the platform.

Cl-Click!

I spun.

A pistol to my forehead.

The third thug smirked. "Come get your first kiss of lead, sweetheart—"

FWOOOSH! I teleported.

The man gasped and fired. BANG! BANG!

But I was gone.

He blinked. He looked left. He looked right.

A shadow….

"H-Huh?" He looked up.

I hung on the robot arm high above the platforms by my metal arm. I was in the middle of twirling my blade and chopping off a metal grappling 'finger' from the device. CL-CLINK! Thwoosh! The object fell.

The man gritted his teeth and aimed his gun up at me. THONK! The debris landed squarely on his head. He grunted, rolled his eyes, and fell down hard.

I exhaled….

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

_P-PING! PING!_

Bullets danced off the robot arm around me.

I winced and gazed westward.

On the far side of the cage—taking shelter behind the vial-covered train cars—four gunmen took awful aim and tried to pincushion me from afar.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

BANG! BANG!

BL-BLAM!

I swung around till my body hugged the east side of the robot arm. I used it as a shield against the bullets for a few second before striking Myrkblade against a metal pylon in the rock ceiling of the cave. CL-CLANK! I thusly propelled myself on the dangling arm across the rest of the cavern's length till I hung approximately over the hiding gunmen. I grunted and stabbed Myrkblade sharply into the support joints of the arm.

_CRKKK!_

The arm fell.

I vaulted off it in mid-air.

"Look out!"

"Aaah!"

"Jeez!"

The men gasped and leapt/dove every which way.

_**CRASH!**_

The arm smashed loudly into the ground, forcing the thugs to tumble across the ground from the concussion.

As I landed on the rear car of the 'train', the golden vials were rattling from the chaos.

I glanced at them……sweatdropping.

_**SMASH!**_

"AUGH!"

I jerked and looked up towards the now-distant control room.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOM!**_

Entangled in each other's grappling arms and propelled by dual pairs of ankle/boot rockets, Metallo and Steel soared fierily out of the roost and across the cavern.

My body turned as I followed their burning trajectory over the platforms, the train car, and into the western wall.

_**CRASH!**_

I winced.

SWIIISH-_CLUNK!_

The two fell hard from their impact.

They were still entangled in their mutual wrestle, miraculously. Metallo shouted and kneed Steel in the chest before slamming him against the front train car. CLANK! The vials rattled. The two struggled. Steel shouted: "RAAUGH!" He lifted Metallo and spun around till he had the former Interganger's metal skull in his glove and was slamming the villain's cranium repeatedly into the cave wall. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Metallo snarled, spun his head around, and 'bit' onto Steel's gloved fingers. "AAAAUGH!" Steel jolted. Metallo wrapped around the man, gripped him by his shoulders, and slammed him into the ground. CRKKK!

"Ooof!" Steel struggled, pinned chest-down to the cavern floor.

"Hrmmmm….just like old times, isn't it Irons?"

"Wait till I get my hands on you, you ugly-ass, overpaid…."

Metallo gripped Steel's helmet and started to crush it in.

_CRKKKK!_

"NNNGHH!" Steel winced inside his suit.

Metallo snickered. "Reunions are so sickeningly suit, aren't they, chap? Alas….your career as a sardine can climaxes!"

SWOOOOOSH! I streaked towards the two and ended with a heavy upswing of my smoking blade.

_**SWACK!**_

Metallo was jolted into a sitting position atop Steel's back. "AUGH!" He rubbed his cheek and frowned at me with half-a-face-of-flesh furrowed. "Gee, I'm sorry. I didn't know he was _yours!_"

I glared, shades glinting.

"Get OFF me!" Steel kicked his feet back with rocketing boots.

_**PFTOOOM!**_

Metallo was propelled back towards the front engine of the underground train. CLAMP!

Steel hobbled up, dragging his hammer off the ground. "That…..stunk….," he hissed.

I helplessly nodded.

"Oh boys!" Metallo waved, winked a human eye, and produced an array of tiny missiles out from his back shoulders. Ch-Chtink! Chtunk! CLAK-CLAK! "Would you mind taking the flak for me?"

I blinked.

_**PFTOOO-PFTOOO-**__**PFTOOOOSH!**_

The flaming projectiles soared in.

Steel gasped. He looked at me. He looked at the missiles. Behind us, recovering thugs shouted and scrambled away as Steel charged at me and gave me a bear hug. "Noir! Get down!" He aimed his iron-plated back to the onslaught.

_**P-P-POW! **_

_**POW!**_

Flames erupted all around us. The missiles impacting Steel's back billowed in a parting fountain. I was slightly singed…but otherwise unscathed.

I panted in his grasp, sweating.

Steel shook inside his suit…groaned…and murmured with a tired chuckle: "Yeah…I'm gonna be wearing a lumbar harness under the Prototype for a weak after that…"

SWOOOSH-SMACK! Metallo sailed in with a flying kick and plowed the two of us over.

TH-TH-THWAP! Steel and I rolled before collapsing across the sealed-off, southbound tracks.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo cackled merrily before smirking. "You two are a couple of push-overs!"

"Okay….," Steel grunted and stood up with his helmet. "Now he dies…."

I nodded wearily.

CHIIIIING!

Metallo flexed his metal arms and got into a fighting stance.

Steel palmed his hammer, glaring.

I held Myrkblade up, smoking dancing down from beneath my shades.

Metallo merely smirked, his curled metal knuckles clenched.

The Luthor-hired fiend beckoned us.

Steel and I faced off from him across the tracks.

Hammer and Myrkblade and titanium muscles.

Flames settling in the distance.

Smoke and mist in the air.

"……"

"……."

"……."

A _BEAT._

SWOOOOSH! I blurred towards Metallo.

He ran at me, snarling. Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp! "YAAAAUGH!"

I ran, jumped, and spun with Myrkblade slashing outward like a helicopter blade. TH-TH-THWISH-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!

Sparks flew off of Metallo's body as I repeatedly struck him.

He swung a fist at me.

I teleported into smoke form, billowing through Metallo's torso.

Metallo lumbered.

Steel charged. "RAAAUGH!" He jabbed his hammer-head straight into Metallo's gut.

The android fiend clutched it with two hands and pressed Steel's charge to a stand still. **GRIPPP!**

I solidified behind Metallo's back, spun, and swung Myrkblade homicidally towards his neck joints.

Metallo wrenched a hand free from clutching Steel's hammer and shot it blindly behind his head. **CLUTCH!** He caught the length of Myrkblade in a titanium palm.

I jerked and yanked and fought to pry the blade free.

He smirked and tossed me effortlessly over Steel's shoulders.

"!" my black eyes bulged as I flew over my companion.

Steel wrenched his own hammer free. "Nnngh!" He spun and swung the weapon hard at Metallo's skull.

Metallo ducked, stepped back, smirked, and aimed a wrist laser rifle. "Ha!"

Steel gritted his teeth beneath his mask, braced himself against his hammer, and aimed the Prototype's glove-gun back at the android.

Metal and flesh teeth. Narrowing eyes.

Metallo fired. _**ZAAAAAP!**_

Steel fired. _**ZAAAAAP!**_

The two streams of glowing energy met in the center of the chamber by the train cars. _**FLASH!**_ The point of contact of the two beams strobed and pulsed brightly. The android and the hero struggled to overcome the other opponent's array of power.

In the meantime, I had tumbled hard to the ground besides a collapsed group of half-unconscous thugs. I stood up, rubbed my hair head, and saw Steel's predicament.

"….."

I desperately looked to the side.

A thug with a vest full of grenades groaned before sitting up dizzily. "Mmmmf….is it Saturday again?" He opened his eyes. Blink-Blink. "Oh right. My job."

THWACK! Myrkblade popped him atop the head. He moaned and slumped unconscious. I reached down and snagged a high-powered grenade from his vest. Panting, I looked over at the fight. I clutched my left metal fingers around the explosive, tensed my jaw, and blurred.

FWOOOOSH!

In the meanwhile, Steel and Metallo were still struggling to overcome each other's laser power.

"Heh…..some upgrades _you_ got!" Steel sneered while focusing…focusing…focusing the glove-gun. "Just what is Luthor giving you for helping Triangular get a few chuckles in, huh Corbin?"

"Quite simple, my good sir…," Metallo smirked. "In this confusing, criminal underworld…he's giving me an upper hand." Ch-Chtink! A wrist laser appeared on his other limb. "_BOTH_ of them!"

Steel's jaw dropped wide under his mask.

"Heh heh heh…," Metallo aimed his other laser at Steel's skull. The barrel started to glow.

Steel braced himself…

SWOOOOSH! I blurred up, ducked beneath the laser flash, and landed in a skidding stop before Metallo.

"Huh?"

_PLANT!_ I shoved the grenade into his metal jaws.

"Mmmmmf!"

I gritted my teeth angrily, flicked the pin free with a metal thumb, then slapped my forearm with the blunt-side of Myrkblade.

WHACK!

_Pop!-Hisssss!_

I swiftly detached my metal prosthetic from my torso and jumped back.

Metallo broke his laser-contact with Steel and stumbled back, comically trying in vain to shake loose a grenade and a detached metal arm that was keeping the explosive stuck in his jaws.

Steel and I hobbled back, watching.

_Cl-Click!_

Metallo's eyes widened.

"Mmmmmmmffff!"

_**POWWWWW!**_

His android body was engulfed in flames.

Steel flinched.

I glared, frowning into the fire.

_Gonna spit or swallow that……shithead?_

Flickering fire.

Then…

SW-SW-SWOOSH-**CHUNK!**

My metal arm landed—still in tact—at my feet, embedded into the ground.

"…..," I knelt down and re-attached it. Wincing momentarily at the chilling sensation that sent haunting shivers through my body.

Steel walked over and patted my shoulder. "Good job, man. You put the money where his mouth was."

I shrugged.

"…."

I glanced aside.

_Just where's Garth, anyways?_

Eventually, the flames dissipated.

The smoke cleared.

The two of us watched the figure of a steaming, singed android appear…slumped against the train cars and the slightly disheveled vials.

"……………..," Metallo suddenly whirred to life. He stood up in a mechanical jolt. All of his fake 'skin' had been burnt away, and the automaton was simply that….a metal skeleton with a hideous, gaping skull glaring at us with charred metal outlining where the bulk of the grenade went off.

"Ewww….god….," Steel shook his head. "I swear….do they always come so nasty underneath?"

I shuddered.

Metallo shook and stood up on wobbly legs. He tilted his head to the side. His mechanical eyes flickered. The voice of John Corbin came out of the machine….but for some reason now—with only the pure skull of the metal monster facing me—I could no longer make the mental connection.

"Well now….I seem to have gone naked…."

"You're gonna be spare parts if you don't give it a rest, Corbin!" Steel frowned, pointing. "Face it! We came, we saw, we kicked your ass! Now surrender before we call in the Justice League to REALLY tear you apart! This shipment is going nowhere!"

"Shipment? What shipment?" the jaws and metal teeth of the android clenched tightly as he leaned his head to the side, and I realized that it was the golem's best attempt at 'smiling' with the Corbin _cover_ off. "Oh…pitiful me! You mean the golden essence lingering in the lovely train cars behind me! My mistake!" He reached two hands stealthily behind him. He grabbed a pair of vials. "I did not intend to _steal_ them! I only meant to SHARE THEM WITH EVERYONE!"

With a metal-ringing snarl he flung the vials at us.

I gasped.

Steel frowned. "Enough games!" He raised his hammer and began to charge. "Consider your face scrap metal, punk!"

I gripped his shoulder and held him back.

He jerked and looked at me. "What, man?"

_Crash!_

_Shatter!_

The vials broke into the ground before us.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….," Metallo chuckled. "Heh heh heh heh…"

"What's he chuckling about?"

I didn't pay attention. I was too busy staring at the rock floor before us. I gulped.

"………"

………

FL-FLASH!

Two warm, golden halos appeared in the ground by the tracks.

The whole cavern started to shake.

Out from the hard earth, two mounds of shifting, gold-glowing gravel started to form.

Steel gasped and doubled-back. "What in the devil?"

I shuddered.

The two mounds rose up and up….and started to melt and form into two separate, vaguely humanoid figures.

In an all-too-familiar menace, two golems of glowing gold formed straight out of the earth. Both equally as strong and as dangerous as the single devastator I fought within the bowels of Area 51.

_Not a time for a rematch……_

"Well aren't you pretty….," Steel murmured to the nearest automaton.

**ST-STOMP!**

The two ten-foot golems faced us with heavy feet like a pair of metaphysical, lava sumos.

"They'll be the quickest date you ever had….," Metallo amusingly uttered. He grabbed three more vials, grunted electronically, and tossed the golden cylinders behind us.

_Sh-Shatter!_

_Shatter!_

I gritted my teeth and spun around.

**CRKKKKK!**

**CRKKK-CRKKK!**

Three glowing spots in the earth rose up behind us.

We were soon surrounded by five hulking golems of earth.

Five times the ordeal in Area 51.

_Not good……_

"My compliments to Hell," Metallo waved his hand, stepping backwards. "I hear its chambers are rather vacant for new imbeciles this time of year. Dosvidan'ya!" And Metallo spun and ran towards the front train engine along with two awakening, groaning thugs.

"Noir!" Steel pointed at the train. "He's going to get away with the shipment! Stop him!" A beat. The man winced under his helmet. "Sorry to give orders…."

I shrugged and gripped Myrkblade.

_I don't mind orders._

FWOOOSH!

I blurred forward.

I could see Metallo and the two goons jumping into the engine compartment and starting the train down the tunnel…

**SWOOOOSH!**

THWACK!

I grunted, clotheslined by a glowing-gold arm.

CL-CLUMP!

I landed hard on my back, exhaling.

"Noir!" Steel shouted.

Two golden rock beings stood menacingly above me. Flickering puffs of flame billowed out from fine cracks in their stony exoskeletons. Their earthen tentacles waved and whipped down towards my fragile form.

I winced.

"NNNGH!" Steel rushed in with a hammer and a hulking shoulder of metal.

CL-CLACK! The stone tentacles smacked off of him.

He barely stumbled, spun, and swung his hammer dead-on into the left golem.

**CRUNCH!**

The right one wrapped his tentacles around the hero's back and started to constrict the Prototype suit.

_CRKKK-KKK-KKK!_

"Nnnnghh!" Steel struggled, squirming in the grasp.

In the meantime, the three other golems to our rear stomped towards us. The leftmost and rightmost of the trio opened gaping holes in their chest and launched hot spray of fiery gravel. _**PFFFTFTTFTTTOOM!**_

The grappled Steel was in the blast zone.

I summoned what little strength I had and vaulted up with a twirling, smoking spin of my sword. **SLASH!**

The wave of murk deflected the hot spray off to all corners of the room.

FWOOOSH!

I landed, gripped Myrkblade, took a breath, and blurred towards the three monstrosities.

They all flung and flailed their earthen limbs and tentacles at me in succession as I streaked by them.

_**STOMP! ST-STOMP! THWOMP!**_

I ran up the body of the leftmost, vaulted off, twirled in the air, repeatedly struck the center and right one—TH-TH-TH-TH-THWACK!—and landed in a perch on the western wall of the cavern. _Plant!_

Panting from my position, I sweated and glanced northward through sweat-stained shades. The train was moving northward. The cars full of vials rattled and clanked as they moved along the tracks through the big, cylindrical tunnel leading out of 'Metropolis'. There was a huge, heavy vibration shaking throughout the chamber's interior. The mouth of the railroad tunnel was closing. A door….

_It was sealing the exit behind Metallo and the escapees!_

I gripped Myrkblade and prepared to leap into action……

**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!**

I looked right.

Two golems in my face….**CRUNCH!**

I screamed mutely and tumbled to the floor after two automatons smashed and shattered the face of the cavern wall I was perched to.

THWOMP!

A third planted its foot over me. Applying pressure.

I winced and struggled.

Through thin black eyes, I gazed forward along the ground towards the tunnel.

The huge, heavy door was closing in like the spiral lens of a camera.

I struggled and strained to get free from the being standing on me.

"RAAUGH!" Steel smashed himself free of the monster holding him. The other golem got up just in time to face the brunt of his hammer—SMACK!—and then a direct blast from his glove gun. ZAAAAP!

I tried to squirm free, but the golem atop me just weighed in more and more.

I finally snarled, concentrated, pulsed murk through my body, and….

**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!** I teleported up through the creature's body via its inner cracks and fissures. I solidified with a leaping jump out through the top of its glowing 'crown'. **POW!**

The golem would take a half minute at least to recover, during which I came back down, kicked my legs off its torso, and vaulted forward in a roll. I jumped to my feet, streaked past Steel, and gave him a blurring sword-slash to his nearest opponent for assistance.

TH-THWACK!

One of the golems battling Steel stumbled. He took the opportunity by grabbing its legs, gritting his teeth beneath his mask, and heavily swinging the monster around and into the bulk of the other's body. CRUNCH!

I ran and ran and ran towards the doors.

The train was a distant speck now.

The faint echoes of Metallo's electronic laughter registered down the curved halls.

The spiraling doors closed…closed…closed…

I gritted my feet, blurred, and leapt

FWOOOOSH-_**THWAP!**_

I slammed into solid concrete with a jolt. The northbound tunnel doors had closed.

Thwump! I slumped to the floor.

_Dammit! Shit!_

I pounded my metal fist into the ground.

Steel managed to run over and slam his hammer into the fresh wall of concrete.

**CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!**

"Nnnnghh!" he grunted. "It's no use! Only someone like Superman can punch through these walls! They're built to withstand the pressure of the friggin' Ocean!"

_**ST-STOMP!**_

Steel spun around.

I stood up on wobbly knees.

The five golden monsters marched towards us as one solid line of earth.

As they stood shoulder-to-shoulder, the cracks in their arms and torsos spouted out flames that congealed with one another to form a molten layer of plasma eating its way towards us.

I raised Myrkblade nervously.

Steel gripped his hammer.

We planted our backs to the huge door, cornered. Out of options.

**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**

The golems approached. Their raised their flaming tentacles.

I bit my lip.

Then….

_**SPLOOOOOOOSH!**_

A torrent of heavy seawater slammed and cascaded over all five of them. Steam exploded up towards the metal-laced ceiling of the chamber as the monsters on the tracks shook and convulsed from the aquatic punishment. The seawater ate into their frames and cooled the molten insides.

Steel and I panted. We glanced to our left.

A weary, bruised Tempest stood on a column of water protruding from the underground harbor. He strained and gritted his teeth as his eyes glowed a brilliant purple. His aiming wrist shook and tensed.

FW-FW-FW-FWIP! Tentacles of water shot up from a dozen different places in the water lining the platforms. The ocean spat out and congealed into one huge, cylindrical wave of liquid splashing over the golems. Cooling them. Hardening them.

Steel and I got the idea. He strained his muscles around his hammer while I raised Myrkblade.

Steel charged in.

I rushed forward.

Sp-Sploosh! We splashed through the salt water, swinging.

**CRACK! **

**SMACK! **

**CLANG!**

Chunks and huge pieces of stone flew and splattered. The golems were battered to pieces. Two more swings of a huge metal hammer and a few added slices of a smoke-laden katana…and the monstrosities were completely leveled.

SPLASH!

Tempest's watery punishment ended.

He groaned and teetered towards the platform.

FWOOOSH! I blurred over, raised my arms, and caught him just in time. I steadied him on the ground…dizzy.

"Nnngh…," he rubbed his head and wearily smiled. "I swear…sometimes her freckles light up when she laughs."

"……?" I made a face.

"S-Sorry…," Tempest cleared his throat. "That's how I meditate during battle."

I shrugged

_Works for me._

"Good job, kid…," Steel hobbled over, the hammer balanced over his shoulder. "But….I'm afraid we're a little too late…"

Tempest squinted his dark eyes. He approached the huge tunnel door. He placed a hand against the thick concrete. "Heh…typical Terran build. The best way to resist water is to build something super THICK."

"Well that same thickness is what's allowing the damned train escape…," Steel folded his arms.

"……..," I gazed off.

"After what we all did….," Tempest murmured. He turned and gazed at the crates with the Lexcorp symbol on them. "I suppose we could try and use this sort of crap to incriminate Luthor. But what's the use?"

"Yeah…," Steel took off his helmet. A heavily-sweating John Henry Irons rubbed his bald head. "I'd rather chase this guy on foot than with red tape. But…dammit…we were so CLOSE!"

I slowly nodded. I gazed down at the tracks. I could still feel the faint vibrations of the faraway train taking off. But it all faded away.

"…….."

And then.

The lights flickered.

_Zzzt! Zzzt!_

"H-Huh?" Tempest blinked. "What in the….?"

Irons gripped his helmet in one hand, the hammer in the other. He gazed around, concerned.

My eyes winced momentarily from the light change.

But then the flickering stopped.

I looked all around.

"….."

My eyes settled on a computer console besides the northbound tunnel door.

"….."

I walked towards it. I glanced at the tiny monitor. Silent.

"What is it, Noir?" Tempest asked, walking up behind me. "Some glitch?"

My lips parted as I graced the tiny monitor.

'_GOOD EVENING, NOIR. FANCY MEETING YOU HERE.'_

"……..," I smiled.

_The Oracle……_

'_YOU'RE ALL OVER THE PLACE, AREN'T YOU? NOT TO MENTION UNDER THE SKIN OF BOTH THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AND THE LAW.'_

"Who is it?" Irons walked up, his head leaning to the side. "Some kind of hacker?"

I raised a finger to silence him….

'_OF COURSE YOU AREN'T GUILTY, BUT YOU SURE ARE RECKLESS. LEAVE IT TO ME TO LEND YOU AND YOUR PALS THE HELPING HAND THAT YOU NEED.'_

I brought my hand over a keypad. I typed swiftly.

'_Do you know where the train is heading?'_

'_MORE IMPORTANTLY, I CAN HELP YOU TRACK IT DOWN.'_

I blinked.

'_BUT TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, IT SEEMS TO BE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR GOTHAM CITY. MOST INTERESTING.'_

"One of Triangular's allies is in Gotham City…," Tempest spoke. "But what in Hades' name could they be doing with the vials there?"

'_OPEN SESAME, NOIR. OPEN SESAME.'_

CH-CHTUNG!

The three of us gasped.

The spiraling doorframe opened slightly. _WHURRRR!_ It vibrated and shook with just a tiny sliver/crack open.

'_THAT'S THE BEST I CAN DO, NOIR. BETTER DO YOUR DUTY WHILE YOUR CAN.'_

Irons' palm landed heavily on my back. "Go, kid! It's up to you!"

"Neither of us are fast enough to catch up with that train….," Tempest added. "This was your mission from the start. Don't let us down…."

I exhaled.

_Yeah…… _

_Typical._

I comically saluted the computer console, ran towards the tunnel door, and dove with a smoking teleport through the thin crack at the last second—FWOOOSH!

_**CLANG!**_

The door closed behind me.

Irons and Garth stood alone in the chamber full of unconscious thugs.

The computer monitor flickered one last time.

'_I GUESS YOU TWO ARE THE CLEANUP CREW._

Zzzzt!

The monitor faded.

Tempest made a face. "Why are all ambiguous computer entities so smartass?"

Irons shrugged and slipped his helmet back on over his head. "Since giant puppets of rock grew from exploding test tubes and started attacking people."

"True that…"

And they both wandered off to collect the cold thugs' bodies.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

And I was rocketing north along the cylindrical train tunnel.

Moving as fast as my blurring legs could propel me.

_FWOOOOOSH!_

I gripped Myrkblade in one hand and clenched my metal fist on the other side of me.

My black hair and bandanna tails whipped as I sped, sped, sped….

Dim tunnel lights streaked over me on the curved ceiling of the tunnel. Every three and a half miles—I judged—a door leading to an elevator contraption of sorts would appear embedded into the side of the long chamber. It was beyond my understanding just how anyone—much less an evil corporation like Triangular—could have afforded the time, money, and effort to construct this sort of thing. And the fact that it was now being used for the nefarious purpose of harboring and transporting Terra's essences….

It all seemed too perfect. Too perfectly evil. Even if I couldn't catch up with the train, exposing this place would be enough to hurt or damage Triangular.

But I _was_ going to catch up with the train.

I was….

FWOOOOSH!

The tracks blurred beneath me. The lights streaked above me. The tunnel took a gradual ascent, bending up and then back down. And in such rise and fall, I saw the distant cars full of fragile cargo rattle before me. And far ahead of the trailing lot was the engine with the piloting android and pair of thugs.

I tensed my muscles and angled myself faster towards the back of the craft. I approached the rearmost car and prepared to jump….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the train engine…

"You buffoons! Can't this thing go any faster?" Metallo griped.

"What's the hurry, Corbin? You got what you wanted from Luthor! Those three creeps are far behind us locked away in the loading area!"

"Yeah! Our job is as good as done!"

Metallo's metal skull glared. "You just never learn anything, do you?"

_Cl-Clamp!_

A vibration ran up through the speeding train.

The two thugs gasped.

"Wh-Wh-What was that?"

Metallo craned his neck and looked out through the rear window frame of the car.

A certain black swordsman was clinging a metal hand onto the rear car and blurring his feet along to jump on.

"That, my good friends….," Metallo electronically hissed, "….is the typical sensation of life tossing you some shit salad." He raised his foot to kick the train engine door open….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANK!

I looked up from where I roughly gripped the speeding train car.

Metallo appeared several feet ahead on the train. He stood in the gaping doorway of the train engine in front of the two thugs.

"Be a good squirrel and go 'splat' already!"

Ch-Chtink!

Chtunk!

Two mini-rockets propped up from behind his back.

I bit my lip.

_**PFTOOOOOOM!**_

I let go of the rear train car and hopped back.

**POW!**

The projectiles exploded in the train tracks behind the car.

I jumped up, drifted in the air from my velocity, and impacted the charred ground again with blurring feet. I jolted…slacked a bit in persuit…but maintained a swift running stance after the train.

Metallo stepped out onto the middle of the first car and braced himself between the rattling crates of vials. "HA!" He unloaded two more rockets. _Ch-Chtink!_ **PFTOOOOM!**

I blurred left.

**POW!**

I blurred right.

**P-POW!**

Metallo gritted his skeletonous teeth and pointed two wrist-lasers at me.

_**Z-ZAAAAAAAP!**_

I held my breath, blurred left beyond the trailing golden beams, and ran up the blurring wall of the tunnel. My smoking legs brought me up along the curved ceiling like a motorcyclist inside a spherical cage. Before I could 'trip' over a ceiling light, I vaulted off, flipped, dodged another laser stream—**ZAAAAP!—**and landed in crouch in the center of the middle-most car.

"…..," I gripped Myrkblade and stared up at Metallo. Waiting…

Metallo aimed his laser at me, but hesitated.

"S-Sir! Don't shoot!"

"The vials!"

Metallo hissed. "I know that….you bloody imbeciles….." Cl-Clak! He retracted his arm-rifles and marched towards me down the rows upon rows of crates.

I stood up, twirling Myrkblade at ready. The speeding train cars vibrated and shifted beneath us as we blurred northward through the curved tunnel.

"Going to show me your ticket, Squirrel?" Metallo curved his skull-like teeth in another vain attempt to 'smile'. "Or am I going to have to just throw you off the Orient Express?"

My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

_Just try and show me your pitching arm, deadbolt._

Metallo glanced over his metal shoulder. "Speed it up."

One thug gasped.

The other uttered: "B-But….But Corbin! At a higher speed we might—"

Metallo pointed with a sharp metal finger. "Do what I tell you or I'll lubricate the train wheels with your blood…."

The thugs winced.

"Y-Yes….sure thing, Corbin…"

One of them gripped a lever and pushed it all the way forward. "Nnngh!" Cl-Clak!

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMMVREEEEEE!_

The walls and ceiling became a solid streak of blue and gray. The air billowed for a second against us and then became paper thin as we approached a suicidal velocity. A queer warmth rose from beneath us from the nightmarish friction of the chugging train wheels against the hot metal tracks.

"One tumble at this speed and you'll become this tunnel's new paint job….," Metallo bowed at me eloquently and said: "That high enough stakes for you, boy?"

I aimed Myrkblade at him, getting into a ready stance.

_The only grave you dig is your own._

His robot eyes flickered. "So be it…."

FWOOOOSH! He rocketed towards me.

I braced myself.

"RRRGHH!" He swung a left hook. THWAP! Raised a knee. WHAM! And uppercutted with his right hand. THWACK!

I blocked with my smoking sword the best I could. I slid back towards the rear car. I took a deep breath, and pulsed Myrkblade out at him. FLASH!

He stumbled.

I charged with a forward jab—CLANK!—a high-end swing—THWACK!—and a low blow to his knees—CL-CLANG!

Metallo took the brunt of my blows and slid back less. The vials on either side of us rattled.

Metallo shouted electronically and forced his shoulder into me.

WHUMP!

I slid back an entire car's length. The rear car.

"!"

I pulsed murk into my feet and clung to the train car just half an inch before I could fall off the very back of it.

I teetered…teetered…

Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp! Metallo charged me with a heavily swinging fist. "NNNNGH!"

I braced myself, timed it just right, and teleported straight through him. FWOOOSH!

This time, Metallo skidded to a stop and teetered. His arms flailed on either side of him as he nearly fell off into the blurring madness behind and around us. "Wh-Whoah! Aaagh!"

I spun around, twirled Myrkblade, and slashed the weapon towards his rear.

He suddenly steadied his two arms behind his back and gripped the length of my blade.

"!" I struggled and strained to yank the weapon free from his grasp.

SWISH-CLANK! He spun his skull-like head around and chuckled at me. "Heheheheheh….how's your father?" _**PFTOOOM!**_ He flipped over me with a blast of ankle rockets, anchored to my eight by my sword. He landed behind me, put his weight into his descent, and swung me by my very own weapon towards the front of the train. "HA!"

I flailed through the air with my sword past rows of rattling crates and landed hard on a shaking train car twenty feet up. TH-THWUMP!

"RAAAAUGH!"

I looked up in time to see Metallo leaping through the blurred tunnel and sailing down at me with his menacing jump-kick aimed at my person.

I gritted my teeth and somersaulted backwards.

_**CRKKKK!**_

Metallo's foot smashed through the train's floor and got stuck. "Nnnngh! Blast it!"

I jumped up to my feet, twirled Myrkblade, and slammed him hard across the metal face.

CLAK!

"AUGH!"

Again.

SMACK!

"Dammit!"

Again.

CLANG!

"RRGGH-RAAAUGH!" he shot an arm out, gripped me by the neck, and tossed me toward towards the engine.

The thugs gasped and shut the door just in time.

THWAP!

I slid up against it, wincing.

Metallo pried and pried….

_CRKKK!_

He snapped his foot free from the smashed hole and hobbled up into an angry stance.

"Nnnnnghh……"

_Whurrr-Clak!_ He aimed a wrist laser at me.

"I'm starting to wonder what ever possessed me to spare an inch of your neck when my amnesiac self battled you in Kansas."

_ZAAAP!_

In molasses time, I saw the heated laser soar at me. I took a breath. I glanced up at the blurring ceiling. I decided to risk it…

FWOOOSH!

I dove straight up, teleported my body upside down, and made contact with the ceiling.

Metallo pivoted and re-aimed his laser. _ZAAAP! ZAP! ZAAA-AAAP!_

I blurred in a swift burst-second curve down along the curved tunnel, down the wall, and towards the train tracks. FWOOOSH! I disappeared under the cars.

"………," Metallo blinked. "Huh?" He marched over on metal feet to the edge of the platform and aimed down at the blurring mayhem of the underground world beyond the heavily speeding cars. "What in the devil? Did he give up on life that easily?"

A vapor of smoke rose up behind Metallo.

"……..," he turned and gazed down. "Hrmm?"

Smoke puffed out of the hole in the train car that his own kicking foot had earlier made.

"Oh fiddlesticks…."

_**FWOOOSH!**_

I teleported up out of the hole directly beneath him and solidified with a heavy, two-handed swing of my sword.

_**THWACK!**_

I fiercely uppercutted the android.

He flew off the train. He slammed against the blurring wall of the tunnel. Chunks of metal sparked off him as he grunted and was ricocheted back onto the train two cars down and near the rear.

I blurred towards him.

He barely got up on his knees…..

_**THWOOOOSH-CLACK! CLANG! SMACK! THWACK!**_

The android jolted and shook and wobbled from every heavy impact of my sword to his person. He stumbled and teetered further back towards the edge of the train.

I sweated, snarled, and struck harder and harder.

_**CL-CLANK! THUD! WHAM!**_

Just a few more strikes….

And he'd be over the edge.

He'd be over….

_**FLASH!**_

"_I'm the one you want!" _

"_Annie! No!" _

"_Run Robin!"_

_**FLASH!**_

I gasped.

I dizzily shook and fell to my knees.

A chill was covering my body.

Spreading up from my metal prosthetic.

I panted…

_No. _

_Not here. _

_Dammit, no!_

My metal arm throbbed up my shoulder.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrrrry._

I dizzily wobbled. The speeding and blurring of the tunnel around me. The speed and the clanking vials and the sweat.

_No._

_NO!_

"NNNGH!"

I looked up.

Metallo's foot.

**WHAM!**

I fell and tumbled back four crates' lengths.

"Should have stuck to your second wind, boy….," Metallo electronically uttered in a humored voice. He stomped over, raised his foot again, and kicked down at me.

I numbly blocked with Myrkblade.

Cl-Clank!

He growled and kicked down again.

I prepared to block…

_**FLASH!**_

_Nnnngh!_

"_Jordan, run!" _

"_Ana?"_

"_We have to get out of here!" _

"_Ana, what is it?" _

"_Someone's taking over the school! Someone's…" _

_SM-SMASH! _

"_AAAAIEEEE!" _

"_AAAAUGH!" _

"_BEN! DAWN!" _

"_Run! Get out of here!" _

"_No, Ana! We stay together!" _

"_But-But……" _

"_Where is……?" _

_ZZZZT! _

"_AAAAH!" _

"_JORDAN!" _

_**FLASH!**_

SLAM!

Metallo's foot flew into my ribcage.

I winced all over.

I rolled across the train cars.

Coughing. Sputtering. Barely holding onto Myrkblade.

"Heh…….heh…….heh…….," Metallo loomed above me. "What's the matter, Noir? Train rides make you sick?"

I wheezed, my eyes tearing.

_R-Red Aviary…… _

_He is here…… _

_If I die, I hope to god he rips you up too, jerk._

**GRIP!**

Metallo had me by the neck. He growled and pivoted my entire body up into the air and down to the edge of the train car. THWAP! He shoved my head down towards the blurring tracks beneath the sparking wheels. He pressed my skull further and further. My black hair already started dancing and beating against the hot ground. Embers danced over my skull from the friction.

_FWOOOOOOOOSH!_

"You know what I find so very charming about you, Noir?" Metallo hissed as he pressed down on me. Choking and threatening to scrape my head against the blurring madness. "You're a walking magician's stone. I can look into your black eyes as you die right now beneath me. And do you know what I see? Doom. Doom for the Titans. Doom for all heroes who try to serve good. Doom to all that cling to what is balanced and considered the status quo in this world…."

I winced and hissed and wheezed in his grasp. But I was more attuned to the shivering sensation throbbing up my arm. I could barely even feel Metallo's weight on me. All I sensed or saw was red. Like a billowing crowd of crimson flapping after us in the endless night. Clicking and hissing and shrieking. Thirsting blood from the earth and a sky painted red…

"It is time for a new order. A time for the Underground to consume the world above. Lawfulness is an illusion, Noir. And Triangular will erase the dream by _killing off the bloody dreamers!"_

The chill lifted for but a second. I gasped, embracing the cold tunneled world. The train cars. The rattling metal. The framework. The reality of it all. The medium through which the Spectrum settles like sand in an hourglass.

And I snarled.

_You're not the one who murders, punk. _

_There's someone FAR more evil and badass than you. _

_Open your eyes……or simply GO TO SLEEP!_

I grabbed Myrkblade, swung it up and under the train car, and slammed a pulse of smoke into the underbelly of the car.

FLASH!

Black murk ran along the length of the last car we were on. The energy slammed into the joints of our car to the next, and exploded.

_**CRACK!**_

Our car shook. The vials rattled.

"What?" Metallo looked towards where our car was splitting off from the other trains. His skull-like jaw gaped. "No!"

I pulsed murk through my legs and kicked him off of me. WHUMP!

He stumbled back.

I jumped up.

He made a mad dash for the rest of the train as it rocketed away at a leap's length.

"No! You bloody idiots! Slow down! Wait! Wait!"

I ran after him. I dove. I grabbed his feet.

CL-CLAMP!

"OOF!" he fell down, tripped, and plummeted off the front edge of the car. "AAAAAAAAAAH--"

CRUNCH!

His shout was cut short by body being caught under the hot wheels of the train car. Indestructible metal met indestructible metal. The result…the framework of the train car fractured. _CRKKKK!_ The train car jumped off the tracks. Sparks flew. The car skidded left with hot embers spreading. CLAK! I jolted as the car smacked against the left wall of the tunnel. The car skidded right, hobbled over the tracks, and smacked against the right blurred wall. CL-CLAK!

I fell on my rear.

_WH-WHUMP!_

RATTLE-RATTLE!

Another slamming into a wall.

_CRUNCH!_

**RATTLE!**

Three dozen vials flew out of the crates and littered the car's platform all around me. Glowing a hot gold.

I gasped, spinning my gaze around at all the dangerous, viable essences strobing all around me.

I panted. And as the train slowed down enough (one hundred miles per hour 'slow') I madly jumped off.

Just in time too. The wheels finally snapped off and the whole car upended before cascading suicidally in a sideways slide down the entire width of the tunnel.

_SNKKKKKRKKKKKKTKKKKTTKKKK!_

I dove through the air, impacted the ground, and rolled…rolled…rolled across the tracks.

When I finally came to a stop, I gazed up—panting—at the scant fraction of the golden shipment crashing to a heated stop.

_**POW!**_

The train car exploded.

With a sudden chill, I blinked.

_Exploded?_

A hot, golden glow erupted amidst the rubble of the collapsed car. The entire north face of the tunnel started to strobe a hot yellow. Thousands of vials were melding together and burning as one. I was no expert on thermal metaphysics, but I imagined that whatever giant golem all of those vials could conceivably produce wouldn't _possibly_ be capable of supporting its own power and immensity.

The only possible outcome….

I gulped.

_Volcano……_

The gold-hot tunnel started to strobe and bubble and burn. A raw smoldering smell filled the air.

I hobbled up to my feet, bruised and panting all over.

I gazed southward.

Metallo's cold, metal body lie limp.

"….."

I glanced ahead of me.

Miraculously, there was a crevice with an elevator platform. One of the many that covered the tunnel every three and a half miles.

_I'm screwed if I stay down here any longer. _

_Red Aviary…… _

_I…… _

_I have to get out of here._

I streaked towards the doors.

I ripped their cobweb-metal frames open.

SL-SLICE!

A golden aura bathed me from the north side.

The heat became unbearable.

I sweated and jammed my fist over a green button on a rusted console.

CL-CLANK!

_WHURRRRRRR!_

The cage-like elevator took me up the shaft. Slowly. Rattling.

I leaned over the side, glancing down at the bubbling hot, gold earth.

_Come on……Come on!_

The vials melted.

The hot yellow burned a ring.

A shaking sensation filled the tunnel.

A deep, resonating earth-quake.

The unofficial wrath of Terra multiplied a thousand-fold.

The vibrations ran up the elevator shaft.

The cagey car shook.

Rattled.

And I in it.

_Nnngh!_

CL-CLANK! _CLAK!_

The elevator jolted.

I gasped. Barely up the shaft above the tunnel.

_What the Hell?_

I slammed my fist over the button console again.

_Slap! _

_Slap!_

_Slap!_

A chill ran up my spine.

Shivers.

Shaking.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrry……_

The elevator was stuck.

Something had messed with the gears.

I was in the breathing tube of a giant, impromptu pressure cooker.

_**RUMMMMBLE!**_

The gold started to froth and explode.

I looked up the shaft.

Panting.

Sweating.

Shivering.

'_Run, Robin!' _

'_Jordan, move!'_

'_AAAAAAAAAAH!'_

'_Click-Click-Click……__**Feed me, son…….'**_

I gasped.

A shuddered.

_That __voice__. _

_In m-my head? _

_My arm……is f-frozen……_

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMBBBB!**_

The gold thermal energy erupted.

A tentacle of flame and fire ate its way up the shaft and towards me and the cage.

I shivered.

_Red Aviary…… _

'_**FEED ME'.**_

I twisted my whole body and stared up the shaft.

_Not today._

"!" I jumped.

_P-Plant!_ I bounced off the wall.

I murked smoke into my limbs.

_Pl-Plant! Plant! Pl-Pl-Plant!_

I bounced like a vertical hopscotch up the shaft.

My murking limbs propelled me higher, higher, higher.

I barely glanced down below.

_**PHOOOOOMB!**_

The flames ate up after me.

The elevator car groaned and snapped as it fell free into the rising wall of fire.

_**FWOMB!**_

_Shit! Shit! SHIT!_

I kept bouncing and leaping up till my smoking feet blurred so fast that I expertly shot myself up the vertical wall and simply 'ran' up as fast as I could.

And as fast as I could turned out to be a hair's width from total, fiery oblivion.

My murking trails evaporated in the flames at my heels as I rocketed up, up, up.

_FWOOOOOOOSH!_

The climb went on forever. The heat, unrelenting. The sweat and the panting and the blinding aura at the edge of my shades….

_THERE!_

A sliver of light above me.

A door.

A partially-sealed lid to the outside world above.

I burned with all my might towards the exit with the fire at my rear.

_Aaaaargh!_

FWOOOOSH!

And I made contact.


	214. Metropolitan part 9 final

**214. Metropolitan part 9 Final**

_**CRACK!**_

A lone 'manhole cover' in the middle of the forest slammed open.

My body murked out, leapt to the side, and….

_**PHHHHHHWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHH!**_

A plume of hot fire billowed out from the hole behind me.

I leapt out blindly, arms flailing.

Evening time.

A hill.

Lined with trees.

Sloping…..down….

_Th-Th-Thwomp-Thwomp-Thwomp!_

I tumbled and rolled down the hill. Wincing. Shivering from my metal arm up. Clutching desperately to Myrkblade.

The tunnel elevator exit vomited flames and sparks in a red glow that pierced the night. Like a suburban volcano.

I rolled down the elevated forest. I slammed against the trunks of trees, gasped, and fell over a sharp lunge.

As I fell over a steep cliff, I saw the spinning world beyond me. The spires of Metropolis stretched high and spun skyward with trailing flashes of windowlights. I was North of the City along the mountain slopes. The rest of the train car was throttling towards Gotham, and there I was spiraling dangerously towards oblivion.

I took a breath, summoned smoke into my body just right, aligned my frame with the earth, and glided down. I brushed past the tops of pine trees, beat down through branches and limbs, and plummeted into the soft, dark earth.

I pulsed murkblade just in time.

FWOOOSH!

I landed in a crater. Clumps of soil and fluttering flocks of leaves settled around me.

And….

Everything was still.

"……..," I stood on wobbling knees. Bruised all over. Still shivering.

The erupting sound of the explosive fire dwindled and softened in the background.

And with shaded, black eyes I gazed before me and saw a tree-shaded, stone-dotted field. Dark and gray stones. Headstones.

_A cemetery……_

I exhaled.

Cold vapors left my mouth in the November air.

_Jesus Christ._

I shivered all the more.

I hugged myself with one arm while trailing Myrkblade with the other.

_It's not cold. _

_It's……_

I shuddered.

_Red Aviary……_

I spun around.

I looked behind me.

More headstones. Pine tree trunks. A faint blue aura from starlight above.

"……………"

_Towards the City, Jordan. _

_Just…… _

_Head towards the City……_

I turned around.

"…….."

I took one step.

Two.

I shuffled across the graveyard.

Past headstones.

Mausoleums.

Granite crosses, angels, even a gargoyle or two.

I crept along.

Shuddering.

Feeling ice in my limbs.

Like the Alpha and Beta laboratories.

Like the carbonite-scented winds of the Radioactive Depository.

Like……

_**FLASH!**_

_Lying on a rock in the center of a dark, wind-swept field._

_Gasping. _

_My voice gone. _

_Blood and muscle leaking from my throat. _

_Shuddering. _

_Lying on the rock. _

_Gurgling. _

_Crying. _

_Crying…… _

_Alone._

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled.

I braced myself against an old headstone.

I panted….panted…..panted.

I looked up.

At the tree branches.

At the waving pine needles above the dead.

_Not here. _

_Not yet. _

_For the Titan's sake. _

_For Terra's……_

I winced, braved the shivering, and moved ahead.

One sluggish foot at a time.

_You can kill me later._

_Just…… _

_Let me finish what I need to finish. _

_The contract……the mission…… _

_The Equalizer._

My metal fingers flinched.

I grabbed my left wrist.

Wincing.

Trying to control the shivers.

I couldn't take the arm off.

Not then.

Who knows if I may have needed….?

_**FLASH!**_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGH!"_ _Robin screams and bellows as he burned in the flames._

_A pair of eyes levitate huge and menacing behind him. _

_Two burning optics. _

_A flicker. _

_They zero down to one._

_**FLASH!**_

_That…… _

_B-Breath……_

SLUMP!

I collapsed over a stone cross.

Panting.

Shuddering all over.

_Ana……it isn't him. _

_It can't possibly be. _

_But……it tastes of him. _

_Smells and breathes of him._

_Did we ignore him when he most needed us? _

_Did we abandon him when the School caved in? _

_When all that we learned was suddenly perverted? _

_And he…… _

_He let them consume him._

I opened my black eyes.

Sweating.

Shaking.

_He gave in. _

_But…… _

_Was it all giving in……for us?_

Fl-Flash!

I blinked.

A bright, red strobe.

A piercing, crimson beam.

A laser.

A laser sight.

Trained on my forehead.

_No!_

I gasped and ducked—

_**POW!**_

A sniper bullet sailed in through a dozen branches and exploded madly into the center of the 'cross' stone.

_SHATTER!_

I rolled on the floor.

The red laser point trailed me.

_**POW! POW! P-POW!**_

I desperately murked, dove, and tumbled out of the way.

PIFFT! P-PIFFT! Clumps of dirt blew up from the projectiles.

I slid up with my back to a headstone.

Panting.

Shivering.

The red dot lit my chest. Heart's side.

_Rrrrred __**AVIARY!**_

I held my breath and teleported.

_**POW!**_

A gashing hole ate through the gravestone from the high caliber.

I limped up to my feet, blurred in and around headstones, weaving….

I leapt over a long gray slab, tripped over another tomb, and came splashing down onto the cold dirt path between the rows.

THWAP!

I winced.

A red glow…

"…..," I turned and looked up.

The branches were swaying. The air crew colder. Staler. Something shifted and something leapt and soon a red, billowing body was sailing down at me on crimson streams.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

I made a face of horror. Adrenaline and fear and urine…

I rolled out of the way.

SLIIIINK! Something ate into earth and stone behind me.

I dove with a mute howl and rolled down an incline in the path.

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-__**Stomp-Stomp**__**-STOMP!**_

Something red and frothing cold flames surged after me.

I rolled to my knees and sprang forth.

SLIIIIICE!

Something sharp cut up the earth behind me.

My legs shivered numb to meet my metal prosthetic's throbbing in my chest.

I rolled from my landing and collapsed over a string of gravestones besides a tall pine tree.

The red-streaking figure blurred past me, and as it did…a trio of dark black spheres lifted up and fell down around me.

Th-Thump! Thump!

I gasped, black eyes wide.

_Carbonite charges._

Click-Click-Click-Click-Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!

I panted. I looked up.

The pine tree….

I pulsed murk and vaulted up.

_**KABOOOOOOOM!**_

Flame and granite shrapnel flew up after me.

I twirled in the air, planted my feet against the body of the pine tree trunk, and pushed off.

_**PHOOOOMB!**_

A cloud of flame burst up after me, enveloping the pine tree.

I burst through the amber fires in a streak of murk. I sailed out like a mid-air torpedo over the burning graveyard and down towards the lower slope of the forested hill. I slapped through tree branches and pine needles and saw a nimble figure billowing forth red, standing on a branch and facing me. Something lifted in the figure's grasp. Glinting. Double-edged. Serrated and ravenous.

Cold.

_RRRRREDDD AVIARY!_

I flew into the jaws of death.

My black eyes twitched.

A glint.

A touch of cold.

_**FLASH! **_

"_J-Jordan! Oh god…what did they do to your eyes! What are they doing to the two of you!"_

_**FLASH!**_

I flew my mouth open in a mute howl and raised Myrkblade.

Something inside me pulsed.

Like the first breath of a child after labor.

Springing forth from the womb.

The most painful movement in the world.

Life.

FL-FLASH!

My black eyes flickered a brief white and returned with a swing of Myrkblade straight through Red Aviary.

_**SL-SLASH!**_

And somehow…

I broke on through.

FWOOOOSH!

I sailed out into naked air.

Plummeting.

Soaring down the countryside.

The world spun.

The trees vomited and swallowed me interchangeably.

Metropolis did flips and….

THWIIISH—SLAP!

I landed hard on the angled, shingled rooftop to a building.

_Oof!_

I rolled, tumbled, and ragdolled painfully off the structure.

Th-Thwump!

I landed hard on asphalt with a shattered shield of murk.

I tumbled one last time and ended against the tire of a hearse.

Thud!

I winced.

"…….."

I looked up.

Shaking all over.

_A funeral home. _

_A parking lot………_

Only a few cars populated the concrete space.

Six bright lampposts illuminated the lot.

Crickets chirped in the elevated forest and cemetery all around me.

Flies and other nightly insects fluttered around the bright lamps.

The old, brown building of the funeral home rested comfortably in the dark.

The hearse, also silent.

And….

And the chills had faded.

Red Aviary had retreated.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and smiled painfully.

_I…… _

_I made it……_

**THWOOOOOSH-**_**GRIP!**_

I wheezed for breath.

_**HOIST!**_

I was raised mercilessly to a face.

A skull-like, metal face.

Joints and jawline smoking.

Entire titanium exoskeleton steaming from the golden fires below.

"You look worse for wear, Squirrel boy….," Metallo hissed. "Nnngh!"

He shoved me against the hearse.

CL-CLANK!

I exhaled painfully and fell to my knees.

The automobile had dented from where I was slammed into it.

I hunched over, coughing up blood.

Wincing….

"Don't think you can win my sympathies after leaving me to roast down there in that god-forsaken tunnel….," Metallo bent over and leered at me. "Triangular lost a good fraction of their commodities thanks to you."

I looked up. Wheezing.

_**SLAM!**_

His fist flew in my face.

I ragdolled across the pavement of the parking lot. My shades flew off.

"But worst of all…," I heard him tread slowly towards me. "You made me lose a bit of my decency. And I do not like that. No, not one bit."

I struggled to get up. I planted Myrkblade into the ground and hoisted my body skyward.

I opened my naked eyes.

_FLASH!_ The glow of the parking lot lamps stabbed my eyes blind.

I clenched my eyes shut and howled mutely.

_Aaaagh! God!_

FWOOOSH-**THWUMP!**

Metallo's foot slammed into my ribcage.

I tumbled blindly across the lot and up against the body of a van.

I struggled to my wobbling knees and stuck my metal arm out. Murking.

As soon as I kicked my spatial sense into gear, I felt Metallo flying at me with a fist into my sternum.

"RAAAUGH!"

**WHAM!**

The breath left me in a huge wheeze.

I bent over.

He forced me to stand up with a strong knee to the forehead.

WHAP!

I stumbled back.

I sensed his arms rushing at me.

_Gr-Grip!_

He grabbed my shoulders, took a digital breath, and head-butted me mercilessly.

SMACK!

I flew back against the window of the van.

CRACK!

Spiderweb fractures formed in the glass from where my skull impacted.

"RAAAUGH!" I sensed Metallo's fist come hurtling at me.

I ducked.

_SHATTER!_

Under a rain of glass shards, I blindly struck Myrkblade against his chest and then performed a jab to his face. CL-CLANK! SMACK!

He took the impacts and—growling—grabbed my sword arm before flinging me hard across the lot and into a lamppost.

THWAP!

SLUMP!

I landed on the ground. Bleeding. Bruised. Almost broken.

The thundering footsteps of Metallo announced his angry advance.

He came to a stop before me.

I faintly sensed his metal jaws tightening as he hissed and said: "Some way or another…all heroes will fall. Whether it's Triangular, the Parasite, or your own bleeding heart." He leered above me, clenching his fists. "Morals are shifting. The world changes anew. Kiss your stupid legacy goodbye."

_Ch-Chtink! Chtunk!_

The sound of mini-rockets loading.

I began to fade. Murk dried up and shrunk back into my body. My spatial sense flickered. I breathed my last breaths…and they were cold and copper ones.

Then….from the edge of the lot…

_Swish-Swish-Swish-Swish-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-__**CLANK!**_

Something struck Metallo and he jolted.

"Augh!" A stumbling noise. A whirring. A gasp. "Bloody land 'o Goshen! Not! You!"

SWOOOOOSH-**THWAP!**

The clanking sound of Metallo's body rolling across the lot lit my ears.

I panted.

I felt a swish of air.

A warm wind.

Then—

_CL-CLANG!_

"Augh!" Metallo electronically roared. His feet made stomping sounds. Standing up. "What? NO!"

_SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-__**CLANK!**_

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep._

SWOOOSH!

_Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!_

"AAAAAAAAAA…."

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

The entire parking lot shook.

Heat.

Flickering amber light through the membrane of my eye lids.

I shuddered.

A last breath of wind.

Then….

All was still, save for the crackling noise of distant flames.

"………………….."

I took a deep breath.

I winced.

I crawled across the lot.

I felt around.

I murked my fingers.

I covered the asphalt with spatial sense.

And…

I found them.

My shades.

CHIIIING!

I sheathed Myrkblade, reached down, and slipped my shades on.

Once covered, I fluttered open my black eyes.

I winced some at the bright flames.

Everything came into focus.

The dented cars.

The bright lampposts.

The ball of fire.

Even scrapes and spots of blood on the gravel.

My blood.

I stood up on wobbly feet and limped towards the fire.

A crater had formed on the edge of the parking lot from a high-impact explosive.

Trees and railing had parted on the edge of the lot….leading to another slope that gradually angled down towards the City.

It was where Metallo inevitably plunged from the projectile.

_But how?_

_Who?_

I took a deep breath.

I gazed sickly past the flame.

And….

I froze.

My heart stopped.

My black eyes widened.

"……….."

I limped.

Limped.

Limped across the lot.

Towards a lamppost besides the fire.

Th-Thwump!

I fell on my knees.

I kept going, regardless.

Half-crawling.

Half limping.

I willed myself with every aching muscle and ounce of strength toward the lamppost.

I gripped it.

Hugged it.

I raised myself up.

Panting.

Tensing.

Till I came to eye-level with what I saw.

And I was still.

Cold as a ghost.

My lips parted.

I raised a metal hand up and yanked something sharp out of the metal stalk of the lamppost.

Gazing at it.

Mind blank.

"………"

It was a birdarang….


	215. By Any Means

**215. By Any Means**

"_Terra! Stop! We're your friends!"_

"_**I don't have any friends……REMEMBER!"**_

"_Now, apprentice!" _

"_**RRRRRGGHAAAAAAAAH!" **_

"_TERRA!"_

_**RUMMMBLE!**_

"_You attempted to annihilate us." _

"_Did you think we wouldn't take it personally?"_

"_NO! I will not tolerate failure, apprentice. I will not permit you to run away! You will stay. You will fight! You will win!"_

"_You can only save yourself."_

"_**I….don't….need….SAVING!"**_

_**CRASSSSH!**_

"_I trusted you! We trusted you! We gave you everything and you treated us like dirt!" _

"_Finish her!" _

_**FLASH!**_

"_You promised to fight at my side forever. And that's a promise I intend to make you keep." _

"_**I have no choice."**_

"_Terra! No!" _

"_It'll be the last thing you ever do!"_

"_**Hope you're not expecting a goodbye kiss."**_

"_Terra! You can't!"_

"_**Watch me."**_

"_TERRA!"  
_  
_**CRUNNNNNCH!**_

"_**And now I never want to see your face……"**_

_**CRKKKK! **_

"……_**.again."**_

_**FLASH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hmmm….nnngh…," Terra stirred, shook, sweated, and shot up from under the covers clutching her blond head. "Nnnngaaaah! Aaaah!"

She gasped.

She panted.

Blue eyes wide.

Shivering.

"…………," she gulped.

Sitting up in the center of the bed in the Kents' guestroom during the middle of the night, the petite girl hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth. There was a frightened trickle of moisture at the corner of her sapphire optics….sapphires that slowly morphed into a glowing gold. She shook once….twice….and then her face tensed into a harsh frown as she clenched her wet, glowing eyes shut and lightly growled from deep inside her being like a tiny tremor on the rise.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 27, 2004

Late at night….

Kara couldn't sleep.

Her mind was racing and her limbs tossed and turned under the covers.

So perhaps it was with a slightly torturous incentive that she decided to keep the windows to her upstairs room open. The cold night winds of November wafted in and chilled her. Freezing her body just the same as her mind had been forced into limbo.

The faint t.v. images of Metropolis news broadcasts flickered in the edges of her vision and dwindled away in the dark corners of her bedroom. Over and over again the helicopter footage of a darkhaired swordsman pouncing on Superman and the Justice League repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated…

Like the jolting repetition of a music record matching the goosebumps on her skin.

Another cold draft hissed in through the windows.

Kara shivered.

She wrapped a blanket around herself, curled up, and sighed towards the nearby wall.

"……………"

A heavy breathing sound. Running footsteps. An echo from the farmland outside.

"……………?" Kara shot up in bed. Blinking. She kicked the sheets off her and sat up in bed. "…….." She craned her neck and tilted her ear up to the cold, drafty world. Super hearing…..

Silence.

And then.

Footsteps.

Bare feet.

Running across the green cow fields.

Southwesterly.

Kara's lips parted.

Clad in a blouse and pajama bottoms, she flew over to the window and gazed out.

Her blue eyes squinted.

In the faint glow of starlight, she saw a blonde flicker waving and then gone. A shadowed figure rushed towards horizon. Slowly, but desperately hurried by human standards. Every now and then there would be brief strobe of gold. Then darkness.

"Terra…..," Kara uttered hoarsely.

Silence.

The figure faded into the Kansas countryside.

"Crud!" Kara opened the window wider to the cold November night, perched in the frame, and flew out in a super burst.

Fwooosh!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra was running. She was always running. But there was something tenfold frantic about it this time. Something impromptu. Nightgown and sleeping shorts impromptu. Hair tossed and body freezing numb from the wintry blasts impromptu. She hopped over fences, hobbled a bit, and gathered strength as she blindly ran…ran….ran….

"Terra!"

She kept running.

"Terra! Stop!"

The petite blonde bit her lip.

Kara flew around and hovered directly in front of the girl with her hand outstretched. "What do you think you're doing?"

Terra skidded to a stop, gasping. She hugged herself. Breathing heavily. She swallowed, clenched her eyes shut, and shook her head. "I don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know what I'm doing alive."

Kara breathed with her lips parted. Her exhales showed in a mist. She trembled only slightly at first. And as the concerned washed over into perplexity, she touched down and walked slowly towards the thermalkinetic ex-Titan. "Terra, what happened? Was it some kind of bad dream? A panic attack? I-I just want to help!"

"I don't need your help…," Terra hugged herself, her eyes still clenched. Her words sounded bitter. As if they were squeezed at the last minute through a tube of sandpaper onto a burning floor. "I don't need saving!"

"Terra….listen….," Kara reached a hand out. "Just calm down…"

Terra's eyes flashed open. And they were glowing yellow. And she was snarling. "I don't need _**saving!"**_

Terra's hand flicked out.

The ground shook under Kara.

Supergirl looked down. "What….?"

_**RUMMMBLE!**_

_**POOOFT!**_

A clump of earth exploded beneath Kara.

The Argosian gasped and tumbled to the ground a few feet away. She shook herself out of it and looked up—shocked—at Terra.

The petite ex-Titan heaved all over. Her eyes burning yellow. Her blonde hair and nightgown blowing in the freezing wind. "Why is everyone trying to save me? Why you? Why Noir? Why?"

"………," Kara blinked.

"Don't you get it? Doesn't anyone get it?" Terra panted. She shook her fists and squealed: "I don't need saving! After all I did….after all the decisions I chose….I'm a villain! Slade's apprentice! I never wanted anything good for the Titans! For the City! For the World!"

"Terra….," Kara hobbled back up to her feet. "Just relax and _think_…."

"SHUT UP!" Terra shouted, breathing heavily. "You don't know anything!"

"….," Kara stared.

The blonde hobbled backwards away from Kara and desperately breathed: "Nobody seems to freakin' think right anymore! I brought a City down to its knees! I wiped out the Teen Titans! I won an entire _region_ over for Slade! And I have no regrets! Do you hear me?"

"Terra…"

"NO. REGRETS."

"Terra, listen to me!" Kara shouted. The wind was cold. Teeth stung as their mouths opened wide. "You redeemed yourself! You stopped Slade! You saved the City! You saved the Titans at the cost of yourself. Dammit! Are you trying to say that suddenly you forget that?"

"I don't _**care about the Titans!"**_

Kara winced.

"I hurt them all before!" Terra gulped. Shook. And clenched her eyes shut again. "And I'll j-just hurt them again!"

"Terra…."

"I have to keep moving. I have to keep running!"

"Terra….!"

"Every Town….every hero….every person on this damn continent is in danger as long as I'm nearby!" And she started to run southward along the field again.

And Supergirl reached out to her. "Terra! Stop!"

Terra snarled and spun with flashing gold eyes. "Let me _**GO!"**_

_**RUMMMMBLE!**_

A huge clump of earth ripped out from the field and flew at Kara.

And it was then and there that the Girl of Steel frowned and swung her fist into the debris with a shout. "RAAAUGH!"

_**POW!**_

The resulting concussion blast sent Terra flying back six feet and tumbling to the ground. _Th-Thwump!_ "Ooof!" Terra exhaled and instinctively covered herself as pebbles, rocks, and pieces of dirt littered all around her.

Kara hovered just above her. Fists clenched. Heaving. "Terra….you **WILL** stop! Do you think this is some damn game? Do you think I just asked you over for a slumber party? Right here? In Smallville? The home of Superman's loving but vulnerable parents?"

Terra looked up at Supergirl. Trembling. Shivering. Eyes wide.

Kara frowned and continued: "Jordan dropped you here in my lap for a reason. He risked his freakin' neck and reputation to make sure you made it out of that stone prison okay. He gave his arm for the Titans and he'd just as easily give his life for you. And when he came to Smallville of all places—after months of our not seeing each other—and he carried you in like a sick, lost lamb….do you think I volunteered? Do you think I wanted to have one of the world's most notorious, dangerous youngsters in the very house of my _foster parents?_ But no…I just **had** to cater to Jordan's wishes! Cuz Kela forbid I ever disappoint him after he's barely done a thing all these months to pay attention to me. How doomed the world is with Red Aviary and shit running around, so I have to risk my neck and sanity by looking after a girl I've only read about in the newspapers and even then I've been shaking at my boots at the prospect of meeting without a fist to the face! And after all he's done and after all I done, the best you can do is be a little self-deprecating bitch about all you've done and all that's been done to you? The universe sucks, Terra. And sometimes we suck along with it! But grow up! You could be the nastiest woman in the world for all I care. But whether you like it or not…and whether I like it or not…you're my responsibility and I'm going to make sure you last just as long as Jordan needs for the Titans to reunite with you because there are things in the world heroes have got to do by default!"

"I'm not a hero….," Terra hissed. She stood up on her knees and shook a fist. "I'm not like you, Supergirl! You don't know anything…."

"_I know enough!"_ Kara shouted. Seething. "Allright, you wanna know the truth, Terra? You'll never be alone! Even if you run out there into the god-awful countryside and waste your life away in caves and deserts! I'll be there with you, every step of the way! Cuz I'm a traitor and a bitch too, Terra!" Kara shook. She ran a hand through her blonde hair, shuddered, and glared towards the Kansas countryside. "I've put up with Jordan's silence and distance because I can't even imagine the unfathomable pain I've dealt to him and everything he's stood to protect. When the Titans came here, it was I who set them up for Braniac. And it was I who nearly lost Ma and Pa without telling Clark. And it was I who let Robin, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and ultimately Jordan himself fall into imprisonment and near-doom! I thought I was doing what was right. And I had no regrets. You get that? NO REGRETS!"

Terra trembled. Her eyes were wide. She was silent.

Kara hyperventilated momentarily. She calmed a bit….shuddered….and moaned: "Only now I regret it…..I regret it so much. And I know how painful it is to do all the wrong things for all the selfish reasons. And I know what it's like to be alone. To sit in the dark and cry when nobody sees me because first all of my people died millions of light years away on some frozen hellhole of a planet and now I want to die far away from all my friends. But I haven't given up, Terra. Because at the same time I also know what it's like to be loved…." Kara swallowed. Her eyes were wet and she hugged herself. Her voice choked. "And I know what it's like…t-to be forgiven. When Jordan….When Jordan…….." A soft breath escaped her. A shaking. And then she tensed herself back to strength as her fists re-clenched and she glared Terra's way. "People get second chances, Terra. I know you aren't the cold thing you might have grazed upon in the headlines like I have. You have a purpose. The Titans love you. They have forgiven you. Kela help me, so have I. And I will NOT let you run away and stay the bitch forever! I will NOT let you punish yourself for so many months like I have! At the expense of my friends….Ma and Pa….Clark………." A sad breath. "…..Jordan…."

"…………."

"Terra….you have done horrible things…," Kara gently added. She walked over and held a hand down towards the petite blonde. "…but you have also done such wonderful, wonderful things. And somehow, that's enough. You're a Teen Titan. You're a true friend. Not some tramp Slade used and threw away."

"Used?" Terra murmured. A rising in her voice. "Thrown away?"

"…….," Kara stared.

Terra scooted away, glaring daggers at Supergirl. Teeth showing. "I chose to become evil…..I chose to betray the Titans………I….am….evil!"

Kara swallowed before bravely murmuring: "And did you choose to have Slade's baby?"

"SHUT UP!" Terra screeched. "SHUT! UP!"

Kara clenched her jaw.

Terra shook all over. "Do you have any clue what I was?" A swallow. "What I had?" Twitching eyes. "Wh-What I lost?"

"……….."

"Wh-What I lost…..Wh-What I had torn from me…..and even through all the stone it screamed and it screamed and it screamed as it was t-torn from me…..," Terra started to hyperventilate. She wobbled on her knees. Hands that were digging into the tall grass of the Kansas field suddenly dug into her hair as her nostrils flared and something torturous snapped in the center of her being, and it took several reverberations like a shockwave splashing outward from deep inside till it all collected with her lungs and her eyes clenched shut and her howling face lifted up to the sky. "NnnngrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-_**AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAH!"**_

The sound was like the labor pains of the Earth itself. The sinewy rippling sounds of a mother inside out. Something tearing away at the membrane and the cords snapping like bridge supports. Crunching. Bleeding. Bleeding. Bleeding…..

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-HAAAAAAA**_-HAAAAAAAAAAAA-_AAAAAAAAAA_!" Terra wailed, gasped for breath, shook…and imploded. Softly. Shuddering. Wilting into the center of herself with tight eyes leaking crystalline. She heaved and hyperventilated and sobbed. "Beast B-Boy…….Robin……I am s-so...sorry…….e-everyone……I am so….so…..sorry….." She wrenched her palms into her eyelids and bent over, leaking. "I am so sorrr-rrrr-yyyy……..nnngh…..god……..I am s-so sorry…..Starfire…..Raven….Cyborg…..so s-s-sorrrrrry…….."

Terra all but collapsed into the earthen soil. Her sobs were gentle flows until ever so random a vision ricocheted through her burning sapphires.

_Starfire being tossed over a cliff._

_Cyborg falling into the abyss._

_Robin being buried in rock._

_Raven drowning in mud._

_Beast Boy pinned under a boulder. _

_Everything collecting in darkness. _

_Everything ripping through the heart of the City._

"I am so sorry…….I am s-so…..s-sorry……"

And Kara stood. Silent. Deadpan.

Six feet from the sobbing girl on her knees.

And never connecting.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

That very same evening.

Clark Kent's loft apartment.

"I hear you Lois. Yes…that's….th-that's very exciting but…." The 'disguised' Man of Steel paced with a cordless phone held to his ear. The cold blue night of November Metropolis lingered outside. There was a loneliness to the rigid, simple place. Like half a fortress of what it could have been.

Clark's spectacled eyes narrowed.

After a bit of electronic squabbling from the other side, he replied: "Yes, well, Jimmy has good hunches every now and then. Sometimes I'm envious that you get to work with him….as much as I count my blessings that he's choosing to annoy you instead of me from time to time…."

Squabbling.

Clark sighed. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and leaned against a wall. "Lois. I gotta ask….Why are you doing this?"

A pause.

A squabble.

"Th-This! Why are you telling me about your _headline?_ I'm Clark Kent, remember? You never share your glorious articles with…me….."

A moment of squabbling.

Clark's dark eyes trailed the ceiling as he listened….listened….listened…

His lips parted. "You want to justify Noir's innocence? Just like that?"

…….

"Heh. Who are you and what have you done with Lois?"

…….

"I mean, this isn't like you! Why are….?"

……..

"Uh….m-me? Now Lois, you aren't just trying to squeeze some gossip out of me, are you?"

……..

"Y-Yeah. I know that's below you But still….."

……..

"Oh…..you really….you really think that way…..huh?"

…….

"N-No, I agree!" He gazed into a picture frame. In the low lighting, he saw more of his own face than the still life beyond the plane of glass. "Sometimes……Sometimes doing the boy scout thing is all that really matters, Lois….."

…….

"As a matter of fact….," his lips curved in the corner ever so slightly. "I think I…..just might have some sources to _help out_ in this article. Mmmmhmmmm. Noir will just have to count his lucky stars. And as for Metallo…..eh…..you know him better than I do. I'll let you do your worst."

A chuckling squabble.

"Tomorrow at lunch? One o'clock? Sounds good. Something tells me with the amount of information we both have to process, we'll sure as heck need it! OH! And Jimmy too…..heheheheheh."

………

"Heheheh. All right."

………

"You too, Lois. Take care."

_Click._

Clark Kent leaned over the hung receiver. Gazing stonelike across the room.

"Imagine that…..the sky must be falling…."

Silence.

"…………," Clark slowly gazed towards the open windows to his apartment's balcony.

The curtains swayed.

The cold air mingled with the glass furniture nearest to the open window.

"…………..," the Man of Steel's eyes narrowed. He stood up. He turned. He walked slowly…slowly towards the window. He stood halfway out on the balcony. Staring out at the spires of Metropolis. The rich blue night. The sparkling lights growing ever…ever….ever in the distance.

Gentle winds.

Cold currents.

"…………," Clark's head jerked to the side. He craned his near. Blinking. He frowned and turned to face the shadows of his apartment with his back to the balcony. "Okay, Noir….," he folded his arms. "I know that you're in here."

…………………….

He spoke to the empty apartment corners. "Relax. I'm not going to beat you up or turn you in or anything. The League had a long…long talk about you. And….well…..I only have questions. As I'm sure you do too…."

……………………

He raised an eyebrow. "Well? You came here for a reason, didn't you?"

………………….movement.

Clark glanced left.

I limped out from behind a love seat, uncloaking. I leaned weakly to one side, balanced on a hurting knee. I was bruised all over. Parts of my outfit were visibly tattered. My lip and nose leaked dry blood.

Clark's eyes widened. His lips parted some as he lowered his arms and murmured: "My lord…..what happened to you?"

"………..," I merely glared at him. Black eyes thin under my shades.

"A gang?" Clark remarked. "The Mafia? Triangular?" He blinked. His eyes hardened. "Metallo…..," he exhaled.

I slowly nodded. And I slowly treaded towards him. It would have been a menacing gait on my part had the Kryptonian been anyone else.

"Noir. Everything that's happened….well….it's obviously a result of two things," Clark raised a finger like a teacher as he spoke. "One: Fissures in the Justice League which even I have been blind to…until now…" In saying that, the Man of Steel's voice was momentarily sad. Human. He brought it back up to the tough Kryptonian surface as he glared back and said: "And two: A lack of communication. From the get-go, if you had simply told us what you were up to without trying to be so aloof….without being secretive….and certainly without working silently with the confidence of Diana and J'onn alone, then maybe nobody could have exploited our mistrust of each other."

I glared even more. I marched towards him. Breathing hard. Almost seething…..

"What have you got to say, Noir?" Clark asked.

I gritted my teeth.

_I'm not in the mood for being patronized……_

Clark explained: "Noir, I can read lips."

I paused in my pacing momentarily. Blinking…..

"It's a side-effect of a talent of mine," the Man of Steel said.

"………"

Then, in the voice of Wonder Woman, Superman said: _"Precise muscle control and lip movement can produce anyone's voice,_" and he returned to Clark Kent's throat. "I used it one night when I had to impersonate Batman to save the Dark Knight from Braniac."

_Whatever……_

"What brings you here, Noir?"

I stared at him. And, as I have done with so few people on this earth, I moved my lips as succinctly and slowly as I could to articulately 'utter': _'I'm not the one being secretive here, Superman. You are.'_

Clark Kent raised an eyebrow. "What secrets do I have to keep from you, Jordan? Months ago, you learned all that there is to know of me. Why don't we talk about what's important now? About Metropolis? About Metallo and what's gotten you into this mess?"

I shook my head.

My lips moved: _'None of this is important.'_

"It isn't?"

I glared. I marched towards him. If I had a voice, I would have hissed: _'Where is Robin?'_

Superman blinked. In a gentle exhale, he slowly shook his head and said: "Noir……Robin is dead…."

_FWOOOSH-__**THWUMP!**_ I shoved the Man of Steel up against the wall with my hands to his collar.

He winced…out of surprise only. When he gathered his wits, he glared at me with eyes that could burn holes in my skull and grumbled: "Watch. It."

I didn't care. I stared him in the face close enough so that he wouldn't go cross-eyed trying to read my lips: _'You have an oath of confidence with Batman……'_

"With Batman?" Clark gently pried me off him with steel arms and straightened his shirt. "Of course. But what does that have to do with….?"

'_What has Batman told you that he has not told the rest of the League?'_

Clark's quick response didn't surprise me: "Absolutely nothing that I'm inclined to share."

My fists clenched….

"Noir, I'm not alone. None of the League has heard exclusively from the Dark Knight in weeks. Even before Dagger's attack on November Fourth. And you know what? That's typical, Noir. Batman does his own thing and rarely does he ever talk to me….much less share anything about what he's up to…."

I leaned my head to the side. Eyes thin.

_Share Anything About What He's Up To………… _

_You just said more than you can chew, Superman. _

_Thanks……_

"Noir, what happened? What brings you here? Why are you trying to interrogate me of all people?"

_Chiiing!_  
0  
Superman blinked.

I held a razor-sharp birdarang before him. Slightly beaten up. Expertly thrown. Picked up at the site where I barely survived Red Aviary and even more-barely survived Metallo.

Superman's lips pursed. "Where did you find this….?"

I stared at him: _'Does it matter?'_

"Was it here? Was it in this City?"

I glared: _'Someone saved me from Metallo. I think I know who it is. I think you know who it is too.'_

"Noir, I…have….no….clue….," Clark pointed. He gazed at the birdarang helplessly as he gestured: "You think this means something? Don't you realize that Batman's entire troupe uses basically the same prototype? Batarangs. Birdarangs. Nightarangs. They're bound to be interchanged at some point or another. If someone helped you, Noir, it could have been Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman even. Quite simply, I think you'd know more about where Batman is than I would at this point!"

I caught his eyesight: _'At least if I did, I would have the gall to __**share**__ what I knew……'_

Clark frowned. "Noir, Robin is **dead**! Why won't you face up to that?"

I wanted to hiss….

_Don't tell me not to face up to Robin's death……_

I spun around in an angry huff and paced across Kent's apartment.

The Man of Steel spoke firmly behind my back: "Do you know why the Justice League showed up at the funeral at the last second? Because none of us could believe that Robin was dead either, Jordan!"

I winced. My face softened into a sad melting. I didn't dare show him. I hugged myself and made it look from behind like I was folding my arms angrily….

As he said: "All of us flew to the radioactive depository where the carbonite explosive went off. I listened with super-hearing for any signs of movement from within. Green Lantern scanned the sarcophagus with his energy ring! J'onn even went incorporeal and _flew through the radioactive interior_, Noir! There was no body! There were no remains! Nothing! We never told you that we went that far to examine the disaster…because there was no point in telling you. The Titans already knew it, and finally the League knew it. Robin is dead. He died fighting for justice. He died a hero. Why don't you rest easy and simply accept that!"

I shook. My teeth clenched.

_No…… _

_I'm not one to sit and mourn endlessly. _

_I'm not…… _

_I'm not……like……like…… _

_I'm not like Cyborg………_

I spun, and when I faced Superman I was frowning again. _'Robin had a contract to finish. And when all the Titans stayed in one place because they felt overcome and defeated, I made an effort to risk all I had and loved……to honor the __**death**__ of Robin by fulfilling his last living goals. I have spent the last two weeks __**burying**__ Robin, Superman. I am not denying anything. But __**this**__…'_ I lifted the birdarang. I gestured madly at it. Black eyes wide. Panting. _'I do not believe that this is some cruel joke from Triangular. I want answers. I want answers now.'_

"And I have none to give you, Noir," Clark said. "You may have run around across half the country for a noble cause. But there's nowhere to go now."

"…..," I merely frowned.

He went on, nodding: "That's right. It's time to put your frantic headless chicken run to an end, Jordan. I'm sure you've done all you could for the late Robin's sake. But now you're only hurting yourself." He gestured out the cold, open window. "Have you so much as taken a look at my fellow citizens? They don't know whether to trust or fear you anymore! Everything you do, these lofty enemies of yours are only one step ahead. But instead of taking your time and strategizing, you're slicing straight into the heart of darkness and it is feeding off your burning passions, Noir. It's feeding off your passions and transforming you into something you're not. Or at least…transforming you into something you're not supposed to be! You're in trouble, Noir. You're in deep…deep trouble. Metallo and Lexcorp pinned it on you good. But it is not too late to remedy all that." He pointed at his phone on a distant table. "Do you know what I was doing right before you came? I was talking to Lois Lane of the Daily Planet. As a matter of fact, she _called me._ She's asking for my help in making the greatest, most controversial newspaper article of the year. She has NEVER asked for my exclusive assistance in a headline…much less a headline that she herself first proposed! She believes _that much_ in the message being given. She believes in you, Noir. Because she's working on a comprehensive review of testimonies and new evidence that proves you were battling Metallo right before the widely telecasted 'confrontation' of the Justice League at the shipyard. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Noir. If I can work with her on this…the League will then be working through me. 'Clark Kent' will be the inside agent making things right in this propaganda monster trying to chew you alive. You can be saved, Noir. You can walk back home to the Titans a free and safe person…but only…._but ONLY_ if you give it up. Only if you stop pushing deeper…shoving sharper. Only if you take a calm breath….do the thing that Robin himself would do…..and let this fall into the hands of bigger, stronger, more collected people. And I promise you…Noir….I _promise_ that the League will get to the bottom of what Triangular and Luthor is doing with the 'deadly shipments' you've intercepted."

"……," I gazed at the birdarang in my grasp. It seemed so tiny all of the sudden. So precious. And yet…so sharp.

Just like him….

I bit my lip, gazing earth-ward.

_Superman……what do you know…… _

_What do you know of what 'Robin himself' would do?_

I clenched my flesh fist around the projectile. Shuddering. And when I reopened my angry eyes, I glared up at Clark Kent and said:

'_Superman, that promise of yours means nothing to me……'_

He looked hurt. Genuinely. "That makes me sad, Noir. I only want to help you."

'_You would help me by telling me all you know about Batman's distracting 'investigations' as of late…'_

"And I can't. Besides, there's no point…," he pointed. "Batman would have to say the same exact things I would….since he knows more than anyone else how gone Robin is."

_You're lying…_

I growled mutely and marched towards the window, brushing past Clark Kent with a limp.

_I won't believe that until I see Batman himself face-to-mask……_

Clark spun around. "Noir, where are you going?"

I stepped out onto the balcony and pointed 'northwest'.

He blinked. "Gotham City?"

_That's where the essences of Terra are. That's where Batman is. That may be where……_

I stood up on the balcony. I pocketed the birdarang away. I prepared to blur my way down the buildingside….

"Noir….it's a wild goose chase! You wouldn't know where to go!"

I turned over my shoulder to gaze at him. Black eyes thin. My lips moved: _'Care to give me pointer? A Dark Knight chess move?'_

"………"

I exhaled.

_Typical……_

I turned back towards the balcony edge….

"Noir, I know about the job you gave Kara."

I jolted to a stop. Heart beating. Cold. November winds, cold.

I gulped.

He stepped towards my back. "You left that girl with her. That 'Terra' girl…."

I slowly turned and gazed at him. Less frowning. More like a deer in the headlights.

His face was somewhere between stone and human. "I know that Kara is strong and resourceful. And I know that she can look out for more than just herself and Ma and Pa. But that Terra….as much as you're honoring the Titans in saving her….she is also quite strong….and formidable."

"…….."

His eyes thinned threateningly. "It is one thing to let you cavort around the country on these vengeful pursuits of Triangular. But when it comes to dropping a potential threat in the home I was raised in….in the laps of the only family I have and love on this Earth……..that comes awfully close to crossing a line that you've been dancing on ever since you limped out of Vegas."

"………"

"I want you to stop, Noir. We've all let you go on this parade long enough. We can't let it go anywhere further."

My eyes thinned.

_We__?_

"Call it off, Noir," Clark Kent instructed. _Instructed._ "Go home." _Commanded._ "Bless the Titans the only way you can right now…..by not being separated from them."

I frowned. A teenage glare.

_You're not my damn parent……_

"Do you understand me?" the man behind the glasses said. A thin visage hiding a poster. A lunchbox. Some faded newspaper front page photo with motion blur. The red and blue streak of Metropolis zooming by and disappearing in a blink. Unreal. Alien. And suddenly soulless. "This is not a request. I am telling you. Head on home….now…."

"………"

"The League will take it from here. Don't put yourself into further trouble."

"……..," I turned. I gazed towards the Metropolis cityscape.

_I'm rather used to 'being in trouble'._

"Noir?"

_FWOOOSH!_

I streaked into smoke form and shot down the buildingside.

"…..," Clark walked over to the edge of the balcony as the last of the murk trailed and faded. He leaned with his hands against the balcony railing….and sighed.

……………

"They keep getting darker and darker….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Plant!_

I landed on the rooftop of a lone warehouse somewhere across the Eastern Downtown of Metropolis.

Where exactly?

I didn't know.

_I didn't care._

I came to a smoking stop, the birdarang in my flesh hand.

My metal fist clenching.

My eyes moved.

And my eyes darted.

Back and forth.

And soon, my legs were moving.

Back and forth.

To follow the eyes.

And my body moved.

Back and forth.

After the legs.

But then wobbling.

And rocking.

And shaking.

And as the sweat poured and the gravel beneath me shifted I began to grit my teeth together like a fault line and before I realized that I was forgetting I had no vocal cords, I was doing my best to scream with a well-angled kick slamming straight into an A/C unit.

_WHANG!_

I spun and slammed my titanium fist into a ventilation tube.

_CLANG!_

A haggard breath.

Twitching black eyes.

I shook once more.

Spiraled.

And slammed a smoke-laden leg through a t.v. antenna.

_CRACK!_

Gravel and shrapnel flew.

Then….

Terminal silence. Biting. Bitter. Cold. Cold winds. The November blueness of Metropolis. All encompassing. All surrounding.

I panted and I shivered….not because of my arm…not because of Red Aviary….

But because the heated, bleeding Earth had just stopped spinning and was pinned to a top beneath me by Superman's two-edged tongue.

And I couldn't believe it.

I couldn't believe _him._

I shuddered.

I hobbled back.

I sat down—_plop!—_on a ledge surrounding the three-story warehouse rooftop.

And I hyperventilated.

Sweating.

Face numb.

I ran a shaky, left hand over my brow.

I gulped.

I dared….I fought…I looked.

I looked at my right hand.

At the birdarang.

The red contours.

The sharp points.

The jagged metal familiarity.

And somehow I heard his voice.

And I saw the other Titans gazing at him.

Nodding.

Obeying.

Believing..

_Believing……_

I bit my lip.

_I don't believe it, Ana._

I clenched my black eyes shut tight.

I hugged the arm with the birdarang into my gut.

My whole body tensed.

Tears fought…struggled…..pounded at the inner lids….

_But I want to. _

_Maybe wanting to believe something is just as good as __**believing**__ it. _

_Or……better?_

My right hand clenched around the birdarang.

It clenched….and clenched.

_Superman……_

I rocked back and forth.

Concentrating.

Distracting.

Concentrating.

Distracting.

White and Red.

Fighting for the center.

The Center…..

_Superman……_

I take a shaking breath.

Angry.

Sad.

Confused.

Hopeful….

_Superman is lying to me……_

My right hand clenched and clenched and clenched.

_He knows something. _

_Where Batman is. _

_Where the heat is in Gotham._

Clenched and clenched and clenched.

The sharp edges of the birdarang chiseled into the skin of my palm.

The Cold November air laughed its way onto my bruised skin.

Almost colder than Red Aviary.

The numbing sense of distrust….

_And where Batman is…… _

_I just may find hope, Ana. _

_I just may find hope. _

_And Terra's essences…… _

_And Dagger's circles. _

A sharp shudder.

Tears finally squeezed and screamed out of my eyes.

I shivered.

_I'm so tired, Ana. _

_Superman wants me to rest. _

_He wants me to go home. _

_But I can't. _

_Dear God, I can't. _

_And you know it, Ana, I can't rest._

_I have to stop Triangular. _

_I have to eclipse Red Aviary. _

_I have to break the Circle……… _

_And Robin……he is……he is……_

I opened my eyes.

I sought solace in the dark blue horizon.

I only saw a kaleidoscopic mess of tear-skewered lights.

My fist shook.

Tiny streams of blood trickled down between the knuckles.

_Superman has the answer to Batman. _

_And I must find out._

_I must find Batman and find the answer._

_I must find the end, the break, the finality. _

_No matter what tries to stop me._

_I must, Ana. _

_I must……_

Something in the sky.

Something that made me twitch.

Something that almost gave the mute sob a sound.

A contract in the stars. A death warrant. A child falling to sleep never to wake up again.

And for half a second, I almost wished the Messenger was there.

Because it all felt so god damn familiar.

_I must find out…… _

_I must go…… _

_I must find out…… _

_I must go…… _

_I must find out…… _

_Find out………………_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 28, 2004.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

A bright blue sky.

November coolness settling in.

Citizens in and outside of automobiles….

Bundling up.

Preparing for the cold.

And yet…..

Hopeful.

Smiling.

Passing by, passing by.

Working, moving, breathing.

Waiting for December to roll in.

Waiting for Tomorrow to softly take Tonight's hand.

And gently fall…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Daily Planet Building.

Main Office.

3:24 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jimmy's pictures clearly show Noir battling a shadowy opponent in these parts of Metropolis at this time. Now…compare these to the helicopter film footage from the shipyard battle with Superman and the rest of the League. You'll notice…when the helicopter frames are frozen, that Noir isn't trailing half as much smoke as he did in the others. What's further—in this shot here where he's wrestling with the Man of Steel—he is missing a scar. Not just any scar, but a scar that he gained just recently on his cheek during the invasion of Dagger in his City. Which means that the person fighting the Justice League—if indeed an imposter—is using an old image or composite taken of Noir to create the façade. What kind of composite? Oh…I'm figuring that it may be a computer file of some sort. A masking hologram. And who could possibly utilize a full-body holographic projection with portable energy supply?"

Jimmy blinked. His lips parted. "Metallo…."

Clark turned and looked over his shoulder at the redheaded youngster. He smirked. "Precisely. The same fiend that eyewitnesses from all over Metropolis are testifying to have seen."

Murmurs. Hushed voices of excitement and consideration. A good half of the Daily Planet personnel had gathered around the desk where Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen were most centrally located among the skeletal pieces of their developing article. Evidence and eyewitness reports were scattered betwixt them.

"Whoah…"

"That's amazing!"

"Noir might not have done that stuff after all!"

"Nice work, guys!"

"Oh, we're not finished yet…," Lois leaned a hand to her hip and smiled wryly. "We have over a hundred testimonies to somehow compress into an overview of what happened on the Metropolitan Highway and Monorail Train just shortly before the Shipyard fight. But we may indeed be onto something."

"Yeah….heheh….," Jimmy Olsen held a thumbs' up. "Won't Perry White be surprised?"

"Not surprised….," uttered the old voice of the editor as he strolled obesely into the Main Office. His hands were on his hip and he had half a smirk. "Lois Lane….so you're writing a paper that goes against all other news stories, challenges the authenticity of law enforcement, and strives to re-shape the way an entire City is thinking about a rogue hero?"

"Yessir!" Lois saluted.

"Nope…not surprising in the least," Perry White smirked. "But something to be proud of all the while."

"Hey, chief…who am I to let you down?"

"But working with Clark Kent!" Perry scratched his balding head. "Now _there's_ a surprise."

"Heh….," Clark Kent sat at the desk besides Lois. He rubbed the back of his neck. "You're not alone."

Perry then turned and glanced at everyone else. "The spectacle won't last forever. You've got tomorrow morning's headlines to read this once-in-a-lifetime massacre. So get back to work, people! Nothing to see here!"

The columnists and editors murmured and chattered and shrugged as they gradually dispersed and returned to their stations.

Perry White looked at the freckled photographer. "That means you too, kid."

"Awwww….," Jimmy Olsen pouted. "But I'm working with Lois and Clark too!"

"Heh…sure you are….," Perry White half-frowned / half-smiled in a way that only he could.

"It's okay, Perry….," Clark smiled. "He's telling the truth. I don't know where this article would be without his photos and go-between with the eyewitnesses."

"See?" Jimmy Olsen proudly beamed.

"Oye…what is the world coming to….?" Perry White rubbed his temple, turned around, and waddled back towards his office. "I'll be at my desk……contemplating early retirement."

"Heheheheh…."

"Keep up the good work, you three!"

"Will do, chief!"

As the three were alone at the desk, Jimmy practically hopped with a pumping arm. "Man! This is so cool!" He smiled at the two adults. "It's like we're on a mission from God or something!"

"Saving a mean-looking Titan is hardly a godly thing, Jimmy," Lois said. "But it might make us more famous than gods."

"Come on, Lois," Clark smirked and pointed. "Face it. You've got to have some sort of inner relief that we're doing the right thing."

"Oh jeez….," Lois rolled her eyes. "There you go, Smallville. The one thing I was afraid of about deigning to ask for your help in this."

"What?" Clark leaned back in the chair with his arms behind his back. "That I'd….open your eyes?"

"No, that you'd go all boy-scout on me about this thing."

"Oh…that….heheh….," Clark mild mannerly adjusted his glasses. "I guess some things come naturally to me."

Jimmy chuckled.

Lois sat on the edge of the desk and gestured: "Seriously, thanks Clark."

"Wow…the world really IS coming to an end. You're thanking me."

"Heheheh! I'd say!" Jimmy added.

Lois' eyes went thin. "Don't you have a camera to clean somewhere?"

"Nope."

"Perfect….," Lois gazed back over at Clark. "What I mean to say is…I may be good about digging into all the dirt, but you do an awesome job of making mud castles out of the evidence."

"How so?"

"Just the way you were eloquently explaining to our co-workers here just how everything points to Noir's innocence! I swear, if you write the article like that you might get a pullitzer. And damn, wouldn't I want to hang myself then!"

"This is your headline more than mine," Clark shrugged. "I'm just glad to be…..part of the 'team'."

"'Team'," Jimmy winked. "I like that."

"I take it you believe that Noir's innocent?" Lois said.

Clark made a slight face. "Sure! D-Don't you, Lois?"

"I only wish to prove that he didn't attack the Justice League….," she digressed. "But you gotta admit, Clark. That kid is one creepy guy. The way he dashes around and beats peoples' brains in with that sword of his. Often solo. Nomadic. He's not your average hero…"

Clark took a deep breath. "You gotta look deeper than that, Lois."

"Uh huh….," she droned boredly. A smiling boredom. "Yeah, right…."

"Seriously!" Clark smiled. He gazed at the document on the computer monitor shimmering before him. "When you're willing to wait just any hero out—even the strange ones—they'll only turn out to have the same interest as ourselves. Prosperity…."

_**SHATTTTERRRR!**_

The wide stretching glass windows exploded inward from outside. In a thunderous span of seconds, over a dozen workers shrieked and ran from the onrush of cold air, cold shards, and cold noise.

Jimmy looked, widened his eyes, and flinched just in time to bat off the brunt of glass shrapnel with the back of his jacket.

Lois gasped and all but fell on her back.

Equally surprised, Clark Kent jumped up, pushed Lois off the desk, and protectively placed his body first towards the gaping hole.

The glass cloud spread, settled, and quieted. A gentle ripple of air. Silence. Then…..from the gashing hole…

_FWOOOOSH!_

A streak of black billowed in and landed 'kneeling' atop a nearby desk. Smoke solidified into tight muscles and a bowed head with unrestrained, flowing black hair. A black tanktop and tattered tan fatigues. A metal hand clenching onto a long, wooden sword. Murk and murk and murk settling….

Workers huddled further and further away from the shatter-site. Murmuring. Fearful….and yet staring…

Lois Lane's eyes widened. A hand to her lips: "Oh my god…."

Jimmy Olsen took a brave step forward, eyes squinted.

"…………….," I slowly tilted my head up. Two black goggles glistened.

Jimmy murmured: "N-Noir….?" he shook his head. "No way….Wyldecarde!"

"…….," I grinned. _**FWOOOOSH!**_

I pounced.

Everyone in the Daily Planet office flinched, but Clark Kent most of all.

Because it was him that I was leaping at.

**GRIP!**

I grabbed him by the collar with my right hand and yanked him to the side.

Overcome with awkwardness and shock, Clark Kent lumbered right where I jerked him.

I snarled and slapped the broadside of Myrkblade across his spine.

_**THWACK!**_

"Nnngh!" Clark let out a grunt and allowed himself to teeter across the floor until he tumbled down and into a desk.

A woman shrieked. Two men cursed in shock.

"Hey!" Jimmy Olsen cried out. He ran towards me before Lois could grab him.

"…..," I glanced aside. _Fwoosh!_ I jerked my right arm up—wounded palm oustretched—and gripped Jimmy's forehead.

He jerked to a stop in my grasp, panting.

"……," I smiled wickedly. _Thwump!_ I shoved him off with a pulse of murk.

He flew back fifteen feet, landed in the seat of a desk chair, and rolled about another feet till he collided comically with a water cooler. Cl-Clamp! "Ooof!" He winced. He blinked. He brought a hand to his forehead, rubbed off a trickle of liquid, and brought it to his eyes.

Blood. My blood.

"No way….," he looked at me…lips gaping.

I lowered my hand, the bloody palm still scarred from the previous night's birdarang clutching. I slowly, icily turned around and marched towards the grounded Clark.

Jimmy Olsen hobbled up to his shaky feet. "He's real! H-He's really Noir!"

People watched nervously as I stood before the stirring reporter. _SLIIINK!_ I threateningly slid the strength of Myrkblade between the Man of Steel's skin and his shirt, forcing him to sit up and face my Wyldecarde goggles dead-on.

He growled angrily and whispered: "Noir! What in Krypton's name do you think you're doing?"

I stared at him dazedly. My icy lips moved so he could 'read': _'Tell me what I want to know, Superman…'_

His spectacled eyes narrowed. The faint trace of burning red heat lingered in his alien pupils. "I'm more than a match for you and you know it."

And to that, I smiled. A villainous smile. _'Clark Kent is not.' _

The Kryptonian's mild-mannered jaw dropped. He gazed over at his many co-workers and friends in a fit of horror. Clark's friends and co-workers. Lois. Jimmy.

"Noir….," he gazed up at me. Gently shaking his head. Murmuring. "…you wouldn't."

I winked under my goggles. _'Noir is not here right now.'_

And with a mute snarl, I lifted Myrkblade, hoisted his heavy body up with a pulse of murk, and flung him across the office.

FWOOOOOSH—_**SMASH!**_ Clark's body shattered like an anvil through a huge wooden desk. People gasped and cringed all around.

"Clark!" Jimmy shouted before anxiously running towards the scene. Two strong co-workers gripped the boy's shoulders and held him—struggling—at bay.

"Stay back!"

"You'll get hurt too!"

"_Clark!_"

Superman 'groaned' and 'convulsed in pain' in the center of the splinters. He had no choice. He knew it. I knew it. He gritted his teeth and glared at me. I marched towards him.

"What do you want from him?" Lois shouted.

I didn't look at her. Instead, I kept my goggled eyes trained on the mild-mannered reporter. _'You know what I want, Superman. What is Batman up to? Tell me where to go in Gotham City to find him.'_

Clark clenched his teeth and firmly uttered out loud: "I can't give you what you want, Noir."

_**WHACK!**_

He spit as my boot went flying across his cheek.

Thwiiiiish-**CLAMP!** I gripped him by the neck. I hoisted him up with a metal hand. Or maybe he was assisting secretly with his flight to protect the illusion of helplessness?

I didn't care.

In the peripheral of my goggled vision, I saw the frightened sets of eyes. The gaping mouths. The worried co-workers.

"Oh my god…."

"That Noir freak! What's he doing?"

"Someone call police!"

"Hang in there, Clark!"

I inhaled.

_I must keep him in sight of everyone else. _

_Or else, he could turn the tables. _

_And I can kiss my ass goodbye._

_As if I'm not already………_

I glared up at him. I moved my lips so that only he could see:

'_Give me what I want to know, Superman. I do not care what __**oath**__ you have with Batman.'_

He hissed and wheezed: "I can't do that. You wouldn't imagine what would be at stake."

'_How about I try stabbing you and let all of upper Metropolis see the Man of Steel beneath the reporter?'_

"You think you can simply ask anything of me, Noir?" Clark breathed. Shook. "I've been through all sorts of torture before."

I frowned. _'So have I.'_

"……..," he stared blankly.

I moved my mouth succinctly with a bitter, half-concealed smirk: _'This is not a __**request**__.'_

His lips parted.

'_I……am……telling……you……'_

THUD! I slammed him to the floor. People gasped as I dragged 'Clark' over to the edge of the building. The shattered window. Towards the gaping air of Metropolis. A forty-story drop. I gripped him tightly with my metal hand, snarled mutely, and flung him out.

Lois gasped.

Jimmy shouted.

_CHIIIIIING!_

Clark's dangling, human body jerked. He found himself hanging precariously five hundred feet from the ground. Myrkblade was pinning him barely by the white office shirt to the building face. The man who could fly was in the awful predicament of being the man who shouldn't fly.

I whipped out a fan of razor-edged playing cards. Preserving my villainous smirk, I drew one out and tossed it at him.

_Thwiiiiiish-CLINK!_

Clark winced.

The projectile landed in the building face dangerously close to severing the thin scrap of shirt material still hanging Clark from the wobbling Myrkblade.

I leaned over and moved my lips: _'Tell me how I can find Batman, or Clark Kent __**dies**__ right here……right now……'_

"Noir! This isn't you! Not the real you! Think rationally for once!" Clark struggled and grunted. "Don't throw your life away like this!"

_Thwiiiiiish-CLANK!_

Another card…this one ripping a few tiny strings loose from the shirt. A slight tear. Clerk lurched down from where he hung with a jerk, shuddering.

I frowned. _'It is the life of your identity that is being thrown away, Superman.'_

Even those inside the interior of the Daily Planet could hear the man shout back at me: "We were going to save you, Noir! We were defending you! We had the proof that you were 'good'! This is how you repay us?"

_Thwissssh-CLACK!_

The shirt almost shevered.

Clark sweat.

The streets and speckled crowds of Metropolis sidewalks loomed wide and stretching beneath him.

I took a deep breath and held up a final card: _'Goodbye, Clark. You had your warning……'_

Superman shuddered. He gazed up. His supersight went into gear and his eyes narrowed.

"……..," I looked up.

Something was flying in from the distance. Something glinting, as if with reflective arm bands.

Something inside of me wept dearly.

_Diana……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wonder Woman soared through the cold air of Metropolis.

Trained on the chaos happening on the top floors of the Daily Planet.

A huge gaping hole in the glass….

"And just what is happening here?"

She smirked at first.

Challenged.

Intrigued.

But the closer she got, the Amazonian warrioress gasped. Her flight wilted into a limp hover.

"Great Hera…..no….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sweating, Clark Kent couldn't help but smile.

"Finally….someone came to my aide for once…."

_CHIIING!_

Myrkblade yanked out.

Clark gasped as gravity took control of his alternate identity….

**GRIP!**

I hoisted him up to me with a metal hand. I stood on the edge of the shattered window space, hugging Clark's back into my chest.

"Noir!" Wonder Woman shouted.

Daily Planet workers, pedestrians on elevated highways, and citizens on neighboring rooftops….

They all looked up and gawked.

As Wonder Woman flew parallel to Clark and I.

She raised her hands, fists clenched.

She frowned.

Her voice boomed at me in a way that shook my soul: "Let that man go! **NOW!**"

CHIIIIIING!

Clark clenched his jaw as I held the sharp, smoke-laden length of Myrkblade into his neck from behind.

Jimmy, Lois, Perry, and the other workers inside shuddered. Watching with wide-eyes of fear.

I panted. Stuck. Clutching to 'Clark Kent' from behind. Holding the blade to the Man of Steel's invulnerable throat like some petty, cornered thug.

Wonder Woman stared from where she hovered. She glared at me.

I gulped.

I couldn't help it.

Everything inside of me was crumbling.

Her stare.

This day.

The black goggles glinting back at my sensitive, naked optics with biting glass.

I hid my face from Diana's gaze and all but cried into Clark's shoulders. But I had no tears. My black eyes were as wide and as empty as possible. There wasn't a single cell in my body that wasn't shivering. Quivering. Flashing cold, cold, and colder. Beaten, torn, and tortured from endless days of running from a red cloud of Death that had eaten my friends, my City, and my life apart from the inside out.

_Was I going insane? _

_Robin, you are dead. _

_Or are you? _

_For once, I refuse to believe the obvious. _

_And that makes me worse than Cyborg. _

_It makes me worse than any of the Titans who mourned by moping in the dark solitude of melancholy back at the Tower. _

_I let it all get to my head. _

_Robin is dead. _

_Why am I here? _

_Why have I broken the invisible virginity of my name and shattered my face into a dozen villainous smirks? _

_Noir is dead. Finally. _

_Wyldecarde reborn. _

_Wyldecarde freakin' reborn. _

_I let Robin's death drive me insane. _

_Only……he isn't dead. _

_Or is he?_

I clenched my eyes shut.

Shaking.

I no longer knew if I was holding Clark as hostage or if I was desperately hugging him. He could crush me like a toothpick, and yet he couldn't crush me like a toothpick. He was Superman, but he wasn't. I was Wyldecarde, but I wasn't. Everyone and everything in this damn world was frolicking around and masquerading as someone else or something else because of this silly thing called 'Death' and 'Morality' making a game out of the grand struggle for existence, peace, and happiness.

_My ultimate happiness…. _

_Robin reborn. _

_And if it took Wyldecarde to do that….then so be it. _

_It took Noir to bring Terra back from the dead. _

_Two out of nine lives. _

_Red Aviary will be the judge of when this bastardly swordsman bites it. _

_Red Aviary…… _

_Not Superman. _

_Not Wonder Woman. _

_And sure as Hell not gravity……_

All this time, Wonder Woman's warriorlike countenance was fading with each waking second she realized how damn serious I was. Her eyebrows raised and she gazed helplessly at Superman.

Superman gazed helplessly back.

Floating like a cloud of dust, Wonder Woman herself lip synced: _'Superman, do something.'_

Clark Kent swallowed and mouthed back: _'I can't.'_

"…….."

Then….

Sirens.

Helicopters.

An amplifier in the distance…growing louder. From the air. Beneath beating rotary blades. Loud and angry. Forceful. Maggie Sawyer: **"**_**Noir! This is the Metropolitan City Police! Let go of that man and surrender!"**_

I started to hyperventilate. The November world turned colder and I felt like some stupid little child caught walking out the door with stolen bags of candy in his pocket. That icy frozen kiss of a knife. A knife called 'guilt'. Vindication. Conviction.

And oh how my whole damn life is full of _**guilt.**_

"_**I repeat. Noir, you are under arrest! Give that man up now, and we shall take you into custody!"**_

I tightened my limbs.

I reopened my eyes. Dry but pulsing. Panting. Struggling for breath like I was drowning in myself. My metal arm felt like a cold and useless thing I picked up as a souvenir. Because the day I hacked my real arm off and saved the Titans was also a cold and useless thing to do. And every life I saved and every villain I punished was just a game delaying this inevitable fall. Something I had built for myself. For I became a murderer that day. I was going to murder Clark Kent. A man just as fake and just as invisible as Dagger or Red Aviary or Oracle or Gaia or the Messenger or any other transient thing that had been running our lives like true ghosts of smoke and mirrors.

"Noir….let him go….please….," Diana said. Suddenly, that soft voice from the correspondence letters. Also an illusion.

It hurt most of all. And that pain stung into my right palm like the serrated kiss of a birdarang. And Robin's scream was suddenly sucked out of existence, pulled out of the Radioactive Depository, and flung into the darkness somewhere. Somewhere cold. Somewhere alone. Without friends.

But alive.

And I thanked the ever-living world for that pain, even if it meant embracing oxygen as a villain forever.

CHIIING!

I added a layer of smoke to Myrkblade and pressed it deeper into Superman's throat.

Wonder Woman gasped.

In the looming helicopter overhead, Maggie Sawyer gave a signal. A window slid open. An expert sniper appeared with a long-barreled rifle.

And the noise and the writhing newspaper editors and the shivering and the November cold…cold…cold….

"'Gothe Nightclub'."

I froze.

"'Gothe Nightclub', Noir…," Clark Kent breathed against my sword. "It's situated in Southern Gotham City, by the riverside docks. A major hive for criminal powermongers and crime scum. Ironically, also the favorite weekend spot for William B. Fox…son to Lucius Fox, co-CEO of Wayne Corp."

"……..," I trembled. I summoned whatever strength I had in 'Wyldecarde' to glare at him.

He continued—quite calmly—to say: "Batman related to me that he believes there is a stockpile of hidden weapons and tools for Triangular being hidden beneath the Gothe Nightclub building itself….under the watchful guard of a Gothamite sect of Triangular being headed by none other than Harvey Dent, Two-Face himself. Batman told me that he is watching the nightclub closely….because in the event that the enemy discovers him and the stockpile goes off….well….it may become a job for Superman….."

"……..," I gently exhale.

He tilts his head back: "Noir….it never…._ever_….needed to come to this. No way on Earth did I desire for us to come to odds. But now that we have…." He gazed at the open air beneath him and the people viewing the chaos from nearby building tops. "…..I'm not about to let it get any worse. It's not my place or position to act like God. Whereas you….." But his speech faltered there.

Silence…save for the beating of the helicopters.

Wonder Woman watched….and listened….and she was shocked.

"In Clark Kent's apartment….," Superman whispered. His head was tilted aside so that Wonder Woman couldn't see his lips. This message was to me and me alone. "In the bookcase. Inside 'The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood'…..there is a small computer chip with a button on it. It is a tracking device. Once activated, Batman will—without delay—come hurriedly to the site of the beacon. I have one in possession always, and so does Batman. It is part of our code to each other. I promise you, it is there. And if it isn't…..and if I'm lying to you….well….I think we both know where you can find me again…._Wyldecarde_……"

"…….," I took a deep breath. Biting my lip.

_Thank you……_

He exhaled…keeping his calm. "Now….Noir….will you please let Clark go?"

"…….," I nodded.

'_Yeah……'_

FWOOOOSH!

I tossed Superman down.

Clark gasped, plummeting.

Wonder Woman started…

Swooosh!

I dove past Clark's flailing body.

_THRIIIFT!_

A sniper bullet whizzed towards me.

I swiftly blurred into thin air, cloaking in my descent.

And in the meantime, Wonder Woman dashed down through the air and effortlessly swooped Clark up in her arms.

_CLUTCH!_

A breath of frustration and a breath of relief mutually shared on the rooftops.

Random citizens inside the Daily Planet and on highway buildings below started cheering for the 'citizen's' life. And slowly, icily….the betrayal of an ex-Titan would settle on everyone's shoulders.

Wonder Woman was similarly numb as she cradled Clark, floating gently down the length of the Daily Planet building.

"Hera Almighty….," she murmured. Her head shaking. "I can't believe it…." She looked directly at Superman. "Can you?"

"……."

"Kal-El?"

"Noir means business…."

"Noir has _gone insane!"_ Wonder Woman exclaimed. "Never in my life would I imagine him capable of being so….so….."

"Evil?" Clark gazed over at the Amazon. "I do believe it was you writing back and forth to him when he 'betrayed' the Titans."

"……….," Wonder Woman shuddered. "This is not good."

"I know," Clark murmured, gazing off. "Batman won't be too cheerful."

"I could worry less about Batman right now," Diana said. "Let me get you to a hospital facility. Better yet, S.T.A.R. Labs. It looks like Noir gave 'Clark' a beating. If it doesn't look like you're injured, it might raise suspicion…"

"No, Diana…," Clark said. "Later."

"Later?"

"We're not finished with Noir yet….," the Man of Steel icily said. "Not by a long shot…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH!

I teleported through the crack in the windows of Clark's Apartment and stumbled into his living area.

I panted.

I slipped my goggles off.

The sounds of sirens and City helicopters searching echoed outside.

For the first time in months, I was again 'on the run' from the Law.

_Full Circle. _

_Full Circle……_

I rummaged around the room with my naked black eyes.

Looking for the bookcase….

Tall?

Thin?

_There!_

I looked through it.

_Robin Hood……_

I picked out a book.

I flipped through the pages.

A tiny black object fell out and littered the ground at my feet.

_Th-Thap!_

"…..," I closed the book. I knelt down. I picked up the tiny chip.

There was a button on it. Shiny. Resonating.

I took a relieved breath. The only relief I was sure to have in the days to come. I slipped the chip into a belt pocket and bolted towards the door. I set my internal 'bearings' for Northwest. Gotham bound.

_Full Circle…… _

_Break…… _

_Break the Circle……_

_Terra……Robin…… _

_All the chains shall be reconnected. _

_Or else……consider my life forefeit. _

_Then again……my life is forfeit either way by now. _

_Rrrrred Aviarrrrry._

A chill.

A shiver.

I teleported outside.

_THWOOOSH!_

And made like the god damn wind.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_She is crying._

_But trying not to. _

_The stinging welts on her skin…… _

_The punishment for failing the latest test. _

_The schematics of the Titans…… _

_Lying haphazard across the rusted metal chamber. _

_And windows of jagged contours illuminate through the amber underglow of heated rock all around. _

_She is on her knees. _

_Wilted. _

_Struggling to stand up after the blows dealt to her ankles from his bo-staff. _

_She tries with all her might to stand up. _

_As she has been trained to…… _

_He paces and paces and paces and paces… _

_Before her……_

"_Twenty seconds, Apprentice…," Slade's emblazoned eye apepars before her in profile. "………I am counting twenty seconds since I ordered you to stand up……"_

"_Y-Yes……I know……I-I'm trying……"_

_Slade faces her directly. He hisses. "To __**whom**__ are you speaking?" _

_She bites her lip. She struggles and manages to stand on one knee. "M-Master."_

_His emblazoned eye narrows. "You are weak, apprentice. I thought you could withstand pain. I thought you were a woman……not a mere, uncontrollable child!"_

"_Yeah, I can withstand pain……," she grits her teeth and glares at him. "Cuz you're constantly whacking me with that damn stick of yours every other second…"_

_SMACK! _

_Her face jerks aside from the blow of his backhand. _

"_If you sense a flaw in your learning process then be bold enough to __**state it**__, apprentice!" Slade shouts. "Do not go branding it on me……" _

_She trembles. She forces herself to look at him. She sniffs……perhaps because of tears……perhaps because of the oozing blood leaking out of her left nostril._

"_Must you forget what I've done for you, girl?" his eye glared. "I showed you how to control your powers……I taught you how to master your gifts……I gave you the chance to witness and take advantage of the weakness of the Titans. You don't……care for the Titans still, do you?"_

"_N-No……" _

"_You still love them?" _

"_No, Master!" she clenches her fists and finally—wincing—stands up. "I hate them!" _

"_They were your friends……" _

"_I DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS!" she shrieks. She suddenly heaves in an explosive half-sob that she swiftly and sharply suppresses just in time to reiterate: "I only have you, Master! I only have my future and this City to win over for you, Master! My future is with you!" _

_Slade marches over and raises his fist again: "Then why are you __**CRYING?"**_

_She flinches. _

"………_," his fist stays. He lowers his arms and holds them behind his back……gazing off towards the amber lights lining the lair. "Perhaps……I've made a mistake."_

_The girl shakes. She tries to train her eyes on him. She tries to be strong. She tries to learn. But she can't keep still. And she can't keep from bleeding. Her nose. Her body. Bleeding…… _

_Bleeding………_

"_Perhaps I should have never let you enter the Titans' Tower to begin with……," he gestures without looking at her. "Perhaps I should never have given you the chance to see how weak the Titans are compared to what I have improved in you. I thought you were promising. I thought you had………my __**touch……**__" _

_She shudders, fights her nerves, swallows, and says: "I want to have your touch, Master." _

"……………"

"_I-I want to prove to you……that I can and will be your apprentice. I will fight by your side……and I will eliminate the Titans. I will do that which you ask of me. With your wisdom. With your strength. With your touch, Master……"_

"_My touch……," he hisses. A suddenly low and hoarse voice. He snakes around. He paces past her, a hand gesturing: "But you do not show me……the apprentice that I desire……" _

_She closes her eyes. She sighs……_

_**THWAP!**__ He suddenly trips her. _

"_Nnngh!" she lands on her rear. _

_TH-THAP! He is suddenly on her. Kneeling. Lying. Pressing. _

_Her eyes widen. With a gasp she falls on her back. Hair tossing. _

_And a hot voice puffs out of his mask's breathing slits. Turning cold like the touch of death on her skin. Red? Black? White? Invisible? "I will give you my touch…," a demon's voice. "I will make you my apprentice!" A gloved hand flying down._

_Her trunks. __**Rrrrrrip!  
**__  
"N-No……" _

"_If I must brand your worthless weakness in the only __**way I truly can**__!"_

_His shadow consumes. _

_Her eyes flee from it. _

"_P-Please……!" _

_Somewhere in the glow of the amber earthlight she sees it. The thin shadow of a flailing puppet being ripped in two. _

_Bleeding. _

"_Don't……No!……N-NO!" _

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NOOOOO!" Terra shot up, sweating.

A pair of warm hands on her shoulder.

"NNNGHH!" she shrieked and tried shaking them off….till she realized how soft and gentle they were. And she tensed. Panting. "……….." She gazed up.

"………….," Kara smiled. "It's just a dream. You're okay now….."

Terra shivered. She gazed around.

The Kents' house.

The Kents' living room.

The Kents' couch.

Afternoon light turning amber in the curtained windows.

_Amber….._

Terra bit her lip. She closed moist eyes, curled up, hid in the recesses of the couch. "It is not just a dream….."

Kara knelt by the couch. A soft look on her face. She gently strokes Terra's shoulder. "Haven't you cried enough for a week?"

She sniffed. "H-How did I get here….?" Terra murmured.

"You had quite the….sob last night…," Kara smiled nervously. She massaged Terra's upper arm. "It was like a knock-out punch. When you finally stopped weeping, you all but collapsed in the middle of the field. I brought you back."

"Y-You carried me?"

Kara chuckled lightly. "I can carry a cement truck for one hundred miles. I seriously doubt your yogurt-diet body is of any consequence to me…."

Terra closed her eyes. She sighed. "……" A sniffle. She murmured in that mopey little girl's voice. Low. Guttural. "Do you know what I've done?"

"………..tell me."

"I hurt the only true friends I ever had….," Terra said. "….and for what? For whom? The one person who trashed my life far worse than it ever was before everything went to shit."

Kara bit her lip. "Yeah. What a pretty galaxy we live in."

Terra turned her head around and gazed sleepily at the Girl of Steel with thin blue eyes. "And…..I almost hurt you. Last night….when I was a total bitch. I'm…..I-I'm sorry….."

"Pfft….," Kara rolled her eyes. "You SO did not 'almost hurt me'."

Terra bit her lip. "You sure?"

"Postitive," Kara smiled. "And besides….," she sighed and sat back with a gentle gaze towards the corners of the room. She mutteringly admitted: "You aren't really a bitch, Terra. I'm sorry for what I said…."

Terra sniffed. "Why should you be….?"

"Because I should be setting an example…," the Girl of Steel spoke. Her eyes drifted gently out the amber, curtained windows. The lingering, nonexistent drone of a soft…soft farmhouse. "I've tried to stop hating me. So why should I be down on you? After all, you have every reason to fling huge clumps of dirt at me. Heh. After what I…I n-nearly done to the Titans. I can't blame you." A pause. She looked at Terra straight. "You love the Titans, don't you?"

"………."

"Come on….," Kara smiled. Her teeth showing. "I know you do……"

"……….," Terra smiled. Halfway into the couch cushions. "Yeah….," she half-murmured. "I….I do. I do love them."

"……."

"It's just….," Terra's smile left as she gazed off. "At one time, I hated myself so much. For how uncontrollable and frightening I was. And I didn't want to believe all that about me. And someone made me think—if just for once—that I could feel better about myself by pinning all my troubles on others. On the ones I loved. And for a while I actually thought…..that the only one I could ever love….." She shuddered. She breathed: "….would have to be the person to show me such hate. And p-pain." A gulp. "And anger….."

Silence.

Dry November coolness.

Two pairs of blue eyes shifting. Wandering.

Terra clutched herself. Her hands tightened suggestively close to her womb as she squeaked: "I-I-I'm just so scared to go back to them, Kara. I love them…..but I'm scared th-that they won't love me. That th-they'll hate me. And wh-who would I be to blame them? I'm the worst Titan there ever was….the worst adversary their ever was…."

Kara gently pushed aside a strand of blonde bangs hanging over Terra's forehead. "And you know what? Some of the worst people turn out to be the most loveable….or 'most loved'. Either way, same difference." Her eyes gazed up into the wall. "The power of forgiveness….it's a stupidly sweet thing. For the longest time, I felt hurt by it. I felt hurt by him. But….t-to be honest….."

Terra gazed at her. Momentarily curious. The sniffles gone.

Kara hummed shotly. Smiled. And looked at Terra. "There are two places where pain lies. One is the sort that never heals or—at best—takes a long time. The other is equally painful….only….where that pain is, so is purpose."

"You're thinking about Noir, aren't you?" Terra whispered.

"Hrmm….maybe I am," Kara said. "Maybe getting to know you has taught me that guilt is nothing but a silly barrier for most…..angels."

"I-I thought it was over between you two…."

"Would you be the last person on Earth, Terra, to doubt the power of rebirth?"

"…….," Terra's cheeks went red. "I….I-I suppose I would be the last person…."

"Hehehe. And what about you and that green fuzzhead?"

"Beast Boy?" Terra stirred. "I wish he was in my dreams more."

"Yeah. But something tells me that pretty soon, you won't have to rely on dreams anymore."

Terra bit her lip. "I….I-I would rather like that, actually…."

"……."

Terra shook. She swallowed and curled into the couch again. "K-Kara?"

"Yes?"

"W-Would you do me a f-favor?"

"Anything."

Terra sniffed. She clenched her eyes tight and murmured: "W-Will you…..hold m-me? Pl-Please?"

Kara shifted and sat up. "Of course, Terra…"

The Girl of Steel crawled onto the couch and laid beside the earthen maiden. She gently hugged Terra from behind. Terra shrunk back against Kara's chest and gently gasped and sobbed. For the next silent hour or so, Supergirl merely held her. Whispering gently into the blonde's ear. Giving Earth a place to melt and temporarily die….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 28, 2004.

Outside of Northern Metropolis.

5:38 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood on a mountainside.

Panting.

Pausing in my blurred sprint to gather my bearings.

I was Northwest of Metropolis.

I stood on the higher elevations of the region through which the Metropolitan Highway cut.

This stretch would end up at Gotham City if I gradually followed it.

In a sense, it would lead me to the first of many destinations.

Destinations acquired as of late….

Back in my traditional garb of camouflage, black, and tan fatigues—shades and all—I stood beneath a fan of autumnal canopy. Fiery red and amber leaves stretched overhead. The fall of Fall. The cold red death of vegetation. Winter was coming. Everything was dying.

Dying….

_Red Aviary………_

I gently clutched my metal arm.

"……."

Nothing.

No shivers.

Just…..stillness.

I let out a breath.

_How could I be so calm? So collected? So at ease? _

_After what I've done………?_

I reached into a belt pocket.

I pulled out the black chip.

The signal beacon.

_Will it really work? _

_Will it help me find Batman? _

_And then……after Batman……_

_What? _

_What am I doing this for? _

_Why am I going to Gotham City? _

_It's not all about Triangular or Two-Face or William Fox._

_It's about insanity. _

_Pure and simple insanity._

_The crazy notion of life…… _

_A vain belief. _

_Vain……_

I clenched my palm around the chip without breaking it.

I frowned…..

_No…… _

_For once in my life, I can be afforded to have __**faith**__ in something. _

_So God help me……if there is a God…… _

_I'm not going crazy. _

_I'm doing this all for a reason. _

_Noble or not. _

_Wicked or not. _

_I can't slow down. _

_I must break the Circle. _

_I must go to Gotham._

I exhaled.

I slid the chip back away.

I flexed my limbs, summoned smoke, and prepared to blur down the fiery, autumn countryside. I would follow the roaring sounds of distant automobiles speeding north long the Metropolitan Highway. I wouldn't need to rest or stop. Unless I starved or—of course—died.

_There's yet a ghost still trailing this 'ghost'……_

_I must be swift._

And yet, as I took my first step forward….I realized I wasn't quite swift enough….

_Swiiiiiiiiish……_

"….," I paused. Blinking. I glanced southward.

I saw two specks of light. Glinting. Like ivory skin reflecting the west-setting sun from a far way's off. And the first of the two specks flashed red. Quantum redshift. It was sailing at me. _He_ was sailing at me. Red cape.

I gasped. I flinched to blur away….

_**SWOOOOOOOSH-**__**WHAM!**_

Superman slammed into me, shoulder first.

The soonest I blinked, I saw the world upside down. I gasped and flailed about as I realized I was being knocked two hundred feet away in a span of three seconds. I plummeted down the inclined slope of the mountain, summoned murk at the last second, and somehow managed to shield myself as I plummeted and collapsed madly through rows and rows of branches.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FWIP!

I struck a tree trunk.

WHAM!

And collapsed down to the soft soil…

THWUMP!

"………………."

I winced.

I struggled shakily up to my knees.

My whole body stung as if impacted dead-on by a sledgehammer.

I barely had a chance to look up when…

**SWOOOSH!**

The trees parted. Leaves fell in a column. Superman soared down, arced fowards, and flew at me. My world was suddenly enveloped by two fists and a pair of glaring eyes.

_**WHAM!**_

I was knocked back. I toppled. Tumbled. I uprighted myself with murk and slid reversely on two smoking feet.

Superman stood before me. Glaring. Silent. Marching.

I panted, wincing. I reached a metal hand back to my sword's hilt….

_ZZZZZZZZZZ__**ZZZZP!**_

A pair of heat-rays soared over and enveloped my metal prosthetic. My left limb glowed amber and burned. I howled mutely and shook my metal wrist before clutching it to myself.

_STOMP!_

Superman's marching foot.

My black eyes flickered.

A steel fist to my chest.

WHUMP!

The wind left me from Superman's blow.

I leaned forward, wheezing.

Hacking.

Superman effortlessly then grabbed my shoulder, spun, and flung me out of the forest.

FWOOOSH!

I twirled in the air and landed in a hard, tumbling roll to a stop at the top of a grassy hill. The Metropolitan Highway's roar seemed distant now. The only sense I had was the throbbing reality of pain. Nothing inside of me was broken. The Kryptonian knew somehow the ways to deal massive blows without causing significant damage. But how it stung…how it stung so bad….

He flew down and stood before me.

"Get up….," he grunted.

"……..," I struggled. Panting. In pain.

"Get up….," he took a few steps towards me. Frowning. With not so much menace as it was fervor, he authoritatively pointed: "This is what you wanted, isn't it Noir? Blow for blow? Punch for punch? I told you that I couldn't sacrifice Batman's confidence. I told you to go home. But you chose to do your own thing. As a matter of fact, you outright attacked me. In front of others. And that is downright cold of anyone….much less a hero. Or should I say a former-hero?"

I clutched my ribcage. I squinted at him. Heaving…wheezing….

His dark eyes thinned. "I promised you I would tell you the truth and let you have the beacon. And I've held true to that promise. But I didn't say that you could get away with it, Noir. This has all gone far enough. You've only hurt yourself in this. If I let you go, you might hurt Batman, the Titans, and even Kara with this crazy crusade of yours."

_Crazy crusade……_

I glared at him. I stood up straight…resolute. I boldly moved my lips so he could see: _'Kara only hurts herself. She is an adult hero of her own choosing, Superman. You should respect her as such.'_

Superman practically snarled at me: "You talk about respect? I would like to see **you** respect her, Noir! I would like to have seen you paid her so much as an afterthought all these months she tore herself to death with depression and loneliness! You don't respect her….you're just _using_ her!"

My eyes widened a bit. But then, I couldn't help but smirk. Chuckle even. _'So she told you about how I made her moody all these months?'_

"……..," he stared at me.

I clenched my fists. _'Did she ever tell you how she nearly caused the destruction of my friends and I? And your very own mother and father when she teamed up with Braniac to get the Kryptonite from Metallo months ago?'_

"……….," Superman was still. As if something was washing over him. Something cold but not entirely unexpected. Some of the anger had left, and a resolute numbness filled the cup in its place.

'_She did tell you? I hope you have that much trust to share such truth. Betrayal is a very painful thing, Superman. But what comes around goes around.'_

"Is that why you ruined your image and nearly destroyed mine today?" Superman balked, gesturing. "Because of what Kara did?"

I wanted to hiss again: _'You know exactly why I did what I had to.'_

"Noir, Robin is dead!"

'_And so is everyone else, then!'_

"………," Superman seemed halfway between perturbed and confused.

I seethed. I lip-synced: _'So everyone else is also dead……if Robin is indeed gone. The tides of Red Aviary carry on over from him to Terra and then to me. But neither Terra or I have died yet. Although Red Aviary has tried to consume me on countless close shaves, he has failed. He is holding back. Otherwise, I would be gone by now. Red Aviary is holding back……and I believe it is because something is wonderfully wrong. The sky overhead is soft and cold. Not red and searing. The Hell that should be washing over is but a purgatory and I must find out why and in order to find out why I must go to Gotham City but for me to go to Gotham City I need to have you and every other damn member of the Justice League get off my friggin' BACK!' _

"If you so much as take one more step northwest, Noir…," Superman pointed with a frown. "Your legacy is over."

I almost wanted to smile. A bitter thing. _'My legacy died five years ago……'_

I turned around….

_Th-__**THWIP! **__SNAG!_

A sharp, strong cord wrapped around me. Tightening. Tugging my arms to my sides.

I gasped and struggled.

I looked up.

Holding the other end of her lasso, Wonder Woman floated down. She glared at me. "You're going no further, Jordan….."

"Wonder Woman….," Superman gently waved and said: "I had him…."

"You did NOT!" the Amazonian snarled. "He is almost half as fast as the FLASH. And perhaps twice as cunning! I know him, Kal-El. He can out-maneuver you. He can out-maneuver **us**. We must restrain him now…."

"Diana…."

"And just what were you waiting for?" she snapped at the Man of Steel. Then she frowned at me. "Noir shows no hesitancy to do the unthinkable, why should we wait before turning him in?"

"……….," I stared weakly at her.

Her sharp gaze softened ever so slightly in perplexity as she uttered: "What was it, Jordan? How did we fail? J'onn and I worked so hard to assist you. Prince Garth and Mr. Irons nearly gave their lives to assist you in tracking down Metallo's and Lexcorp's arsenal. Why did you have to turn on us, Jordan? What could possibly have made you go over the edge?"

I strained and struggled in her lasso. Eyes thin. Teeth clenched. Seething….seething….

Like a madman….

"Jordan…," Wonder Woman tightened the lasso even more to restrain me. "Robin is dead. You are obsessing over this. It is driving you mad…."

_Like a madman……_

"We can help you, Noir…," Superman said.

_Stop……coddling……me……_

"It's never too late…."

_I……am not……your child………_

"Just let us take you in. We'll do what we can….to clear your name….."

_I attacked you. It was my choice. MINE!_

"To give you a lasting chance….."

_Wyldecarde……incarnate……_

"Stop struggling, Noir. Let us save you."

_I have……no regrets. No regrets……_

My black eyes pulsed. Something familiar. Something on the white end of the spectrum and housed deep inside of me. Like the heart of the earth vomiting out in flickering flame. Pure passion. Pure will. What I once wanted to train for but had to switch for the sake of the three Adepts. And it all made sense to me, and I wondered if any of the other Titans besides Terra ever…..ever got into the position to taste of such an epiphany themselves.

I tilted my head up and snarled.

'_**I……don't……need……SAVING!'**_

**FLASH!**

I teleported into smoke form. My murking body traced and circled up Wonder Woman's lasso before solidifying with a flying, snarling right hook across the Amazonian's face….metal fist.

_RAAAAUGH!_

_**SMACK!**_

"Nnngh!" Wonder Woman recoiled from the impact.

"Diana!"

I teleported behind her, gripped her shoulders with a metal arm, spun, screamed mentally, and sent her flinging straight into Superman like a missile.

SWOOOOSH-_**WHUMP!**_

The two League members fell back over the grassy floor of the hill and rolled to a stop.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

And I was blurring.

Streaking.

Dashing.

Roaring over the countryside.

Over hilltops.

Mountain ledges.

Forest canopies.

Blurring through branches.

Leaping over summits.

Teleporting around boulders and paintingly…exhaustingly…tracing the Metropolitan Highway Northwest. Northwest. Northwest.

The cold November bit at me.

Cold fingers of something red and hidden.

_Where? _

_In my hollow eyes? _

_In my head? _

_What does it matter anymore? _

_Robin…… _

_Ana…… _

_What does it matter anymore? _

_Will you please tell me? _

_Sh-Show yourelves unto me? _

_Teach me…before there is nothing rational, nothing moral, and nothing heroic left to listen?_

My lungs heaved.

I ran and ran and ran.

My meditation was thrown off kilter.

My smoke was running thin.

The powers of the Spectrum stared to fade.

Dwindle.

Like the strength of Samson with his hair chopped off by a razor sharp wildcard.

Soon I was limping.

Hobbling.

Fighting every ounce of spirit in me to keep from sobbing.

_**FLASH!**_

"_Don't you see, Robin?" she asks. Eyes sad. Black bangs drooping. "I'm not real."_

_**FLASH!**_

"_Hold onto me, Jordan…," Ana whispers to me in the dark as we hear his screams echoing from beyond the shadowed chamber. Tears flowing. Hearts pounding with each echoing howl. "I'll p-protect us……"_

_**FLASH!**_

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools……….," and Slade's breath fades away……_

_**FLASH!**_

_Clark Kent dangling from Myrkblade at the Daily Planet. Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane stand back, horrified. Wonder Woman shouts at me. The helicopters. The helicopters……_

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled.

I gasped.

I skidded to a stop at the peak of a mountaintop. No, a cliffside. A sharp vertical drop leading down to a wide river basin bordering the highway. Clumps of dirt from my braking boots toppled over and littered flutteringly down to the river's watery surface a suicidal distance below.

I stopped there, gathered my balance, and panted. Gazing towards the wide open, world. Westward.

_Westward and amber. A setting sun. _

_A red sky._

I clenched my metal and scarred hands.

_What are you waiting for, Red Aviary? _

_You want me to go to Gotham City. _

_You want that, don't you? _

_What is it there that I would find? _

_What am I giving everything up for? _

_What is it, Red Aviary? _

_Who are you?_

I spun around, shivering.

_And just when are you going to end me already……?_

**GRIP!**

"!"

I struggled for breath.

**FWOOSH!**

I was hoisted up at muscular-arm's length.

"………," Superman glared. He had caught up to me and was now gripping me by the throat above the mortally-neckbreaking fall. "End of the line, Noir. No……more……games……"

I wheezed. I dangled. I struggled….

"As soon as you pass out….I'm taking you back to your Tower….whether you like it or not…."

I rolled my black eyes back. I hissed a tiny inhalation.

His steel grip tightened.

I quivered all over….shook….and desperately moved my lips: _'What are you going to do, Superman? Lobotomize me? I will always have the knowledge of Clark Kent in my head. Take me in now, and you will never hear the end of it……'_

"Even someone as rebellious as you isn't that desperate," Superman returned. "Somewhere inside that confused body there still is a hero, Noir. The rest of you…the angsty detritus….it needs to be exorcised…."

My breath…my consciousness….my blood was fading.

'_I am dying Superman……,'_ I convulsed and struggled. I urged my lips onward: _'But I am not alone. I am merely the first.'_

"…………."

'_Red Aviary……will use me as the springing board he needs. Whether or not Robin is dead……for some reason……I must die too. Only I matter to him……and thus……only I can figure him out. We share the Spectrum. Black……and Red. I don't know of any other souls besides Terra……and the ones I have lost sight of……who can relate to him……other than me. I'm here. I'm alive. And it is my responsibility. And if I don't go to Gotham City……and trace the fate of Robin……and the Triangular arsenal……it will only be more inaction. Just like Cyborg's inaction. The Titan's. And now the League's. You don't know what to do, Superman. And neither do I……but I __**feel**__ that this is right. I can……sense it. The Red Spectrum……Red Aviary……it all starts and ends in Gotham City. I must go……I must end this……and something tells me that deep down inside……you………y-you want that too………'_

"……………," Superman gazed fixedly at me.

_Through me?_

My lips parted…..and stayed that way. A final exhale. The world turned back. I started…….to sleep……

"…………"

And then the light returned. And the oxygen returned. I didn't realize it until I inhaled that Superman had given my scarred neck room to breathe again.

I wheezed, shook, swallowed, and gazed at him. Shocked. Curious. Listening….

"Noir….you will no longer be in my hands. If Batman or the GPCD catches you…there is nothing I or the League can do…."

I swallowed. I weakly moved my lips: _'The only hands that I am in are my own……'_

"…………," Superman took a deep breath. A sad face. Soft….perplexed….sympathy washing over anger and retribution. "When you find out the truth……_if_ you find out the truth…….we would be happy to learn of it too."

"…………"

"Batman has far too many secrets…..," Superman murmured. "The rift….if there's a rift…..it begins there. In Gotham."

'_I……know……'_

Silence.

Superman whispered: "Good luck….."

And he dropped me.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FWOOOOOOOOOSH! _

I fell.

I plummeted.

Soaring down the vertical cliff face.

I spun around.

I took a deep breath of the cold air biting its way forcefully into my face.

I billowed murk through my limbs expertly and 'glided' towards the waters.

And just as I reached the surface, I spun about. Teleported. Solidified. And cushioned my feet in smoke energy.

Balanced on the waters.

Ripples ringed out all around where my heels made 'contact'.

A pause.

"…….."

I flexed my limbs.

**FWOOSH!**

Another ring of ripples.

I took a deep breath. I blurred over the waters, splashing up leg trails. I glanced behind my shoulder momentarily…glancing up at the distant cape-flowing speck that was Superman.

And the last remaining shred of hero in me thanked him before I rocketed towards the horizon.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………," Superman stood tall and strong on the cliff. Gazing down. Watching the streaking swordsman run upriver. Fading under the guide of amber sunsetlight. He took a deep breath, his muscular chest rising and falling. "…….."

Thwoosh!

Wonder Woman landed, breathing heavily.

"I just caught up! Where's Noir? You had him, did you not?"

"……..," Superman nodded over the cliffside.

The Amazonian gazed over. She looked straight down….eyed the plunge into the waters….and gasped. Her eyes went wide….and then she snarled and raised her fists to the Kryptonian: "You dropped him!"

"Yes, I did…," Superman turned and slowly walked southward.

The Princess shook after him. "Was it really that terrible for you, Superman? Did you have to protect your precious secret identity so much that you ended Noir's life?"

"Noir is safe, Wonder Woman….," Superman quietly said. Deadpan. "I let him go…."

Wonder Woman's face fell. She blinked, her arms dangling by her side. "But….," she gazed towards the distant river and caught the faint trace of water ripples going in a straight line northwesterly. "I don't understand……what he did…."

"He did….and has constantly been doing….everything any one of us would do if we were him," Superman slowly said. "If we truly had faith in invisible things still, Diana. If we were still a legitimate team that looked out after each other without distrust or conspiracies." He glanced over his shoulder. "Without having to suspect one another of dropping young heroes to their deaths."

Wonder Woman bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Superman. I thought…..Hera, I don't know what I thought….," she ran a hand through her thick black hair and sighed. "I swear….I never thought Noir could treat you the way he did at the Daily Planet. It was so cold….so…so….."

"Familiar?"

"………," Wonder Woman frowned. "It isn't that simple. Shayera is different. She…."

"Terra was different from Noir….," Superman said calmly. "At least, at first they were both extremely different." He turned and faced Wonder Woman directly. "And yet…when Noir joined the Titans and bad things started to look worse…."

"They suspected him of working for Slade…," Wonder Woman nodded. A deep breath. "And they ostracized him without a second guess."

"There was no trust with the Titans then," Superman said. He gazed at the Sunset. "They were split. Indecisive. Afraid….and hurt……"

Silence.

"The League has never truly recovered from the battle with the Thanagarians….," the Man of Steel said. "You and J'onn were right. Green Lantern and I could never….open our minds. It takes….harsh things like this to rip us back to the vulnerable spectrum of things. One thing is for sure now….we are no longer asleep."

Wonder Woman walked over and placed a hand on Superman's shoulder. "Let us assemble the team, Superman. John. Wally. J'onn….even Bruce if we can. We have things to talk about. The sooner the better. Before even more young ones start turning against us…."

"Batman will have to fend for himself," Superman said. "He's out of our hands."

"Fend for himself?" Wonder Woman blinked.

"He's got Noir to handle."

"Surely you don't think that…."

"Batman and his team can more than handle Noir," Superman gazed northward. A deep breath. "For the love of Krypton….the only reason I let that boy go where he's going is that I can't think of a better way to reach Bruce."

"……….."

Superman gazed at Wonder Woman. "This crazy, convoluted world of ours could do with a few messengers." A pause. He smiled.

Wonder Woman managed a slight smile. A sigh, she gazed earth-ward. "I still can't believe what Jordan has done. Does he realize how much trouble he is in?"

"Trouble….yes….and he's been there before…," Superman turned around. "He's bold, brash, and hardcore." He took to the skies. "Perversely…I think Robin would have been proud of him."

Wonder Woman glanced northward one last time. "Yeah…..," she uttered. "Robin…._would_ have……"

Silence.

She tossed her hair in the cold wind and flew after Superman towards Metropolis.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

7:03 pm

Diana's apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You let him go?" John Henry Irons practically went bug-eyed. He stood up from the sofa and practically gripped his nonexistent hair. "After he nearly killed Superman?"

"He didn't nearly kill _Superman_….," Diana spoke from her computer chair to the side. She wore casual clothes and had her hands in her lap. Calmly posed. "He threatened _Clark Kent._"

"And that's supposed to be any less bad?" Irons cackled. "I swear to god! You guys are _way_ too soft on that kid!"

"Noir isn't your petty turncoat villain," Diana replied. She leaned her head to the side. "There's something driving him. Something far stronger than any of us have felt or seen. We thought we could contain him…but it's actually something else. Something that I don't think even Noir understands completely. The only way to stop him is to silence him completely. That isn't our style."

"Well it can be my style if you want!" Iron pointed at himself. "I mean, I fought with the guy! I was all down for beating Metallo's metal skull in and giving Lexcorp an underground hangover! But _punching and fighting members of the Justice League?_ That's just low! I suggest we start a search. If we comb the area between here and Gotham City, we just might…"

"I didn't ask you all to come here to suggest an interception party to track down Noir," Diana said.

"…….," Irons gazed at J'onn in the corner.

Martian Manhunter silently stared back.

"…….," Irons looked down at Garth. "What do you think, kid? He's your teammate."

"……..," Garth sat hunched over on the far end of the sofa. His hands clasped together and hung between his parted legs. He looked like a collapsed scarecrow. With dark eyes round he sighed and leaned back. "So many times….," he droned, "…the Titans told me of how much it hurt when Noir battled them. When he punched them. When he became the Wyldecarde and made a few days in early July a living Hell. But now that I've heard of what happened to you and Superman…." Garth glanced over. "….I frankly think it's scary. I-I….I don't know what to think. I never thought Noir had it in him."

"I sensed desperation in him…," the Martian said. "It is quite a zealous desperation. For a short time, I was not able to differentiate between his anger and his sense of duty. What he did to Kal-El is truly nefarious. We must not overlook that."

"I know….," Diana rubbed her forehead. "I know……"

"I'll….I'll tell the Titans…," Tempest murmured. He stood up on numb legs. "That's what I'll do….they have a right to know."

Diana looked up. "But….Garth, you're in hiding!"

"I…..," he cringed slightly, shook…and sighed. "I-I have an obligation….."

Diana stood up and walked over to him. "So do I. I am the correspondent of the League. And Noir attacked a member of the League."

"Make that _two_," Irons said…his arms folded.

Diana exasperatingly nodded, looked down at Garth, and placed a gentle hand on the Atlantean's shoulder. "You're as much in the center of this recent turmoil as the rest of us. We equally deal with Noir in this. Allow me to formulate a message to the Titans. They need to understand what we do."

"Understand what?" Garth shrugged. "We don't understand a single damn thing!"

"Perhaps….."

Everyone gazed over at Martian Manhunter.

He continued: "Perhaps…..that is precisely all we need to acknowledge."

"…….."

"…….."

"…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A doorbell.

Footsteps.

The door to the apartment opened.

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen stood in the hallway.

Their faces brightened.

"Clark!" Lois exclaimed.

"Wow!" Jimmy smiled. "You're actually standing!"

Clark Kent stood, holding the door open with one hand. His other arm was in a sling. He had bandages over his forehead and on a patch of his neck. White and secure. 'Healing'.

"Wow….how could I not expect you two?"

"Are you in one piece, Smallville?" Lois invited herself into the apartment. Jimmy followed. "I'm surprised they let you out of the hospital so early."

"Oh….you know me…," he pleasantly smiled and shrugged. "I've had at least three tumbles with a tractor back at home. Broke two legs once in a day."

"Ow…..," Jimmy winced.

"Please…," Clark closed the door after them and gestured towards the living room. "…sit down."

"Jeez, Clark…," Lois glanced around at books on the floor. "Did your bookshelf have a car accident?"

He shrugged. "I was in the mood for Crime and Punishment."

"Heh. Fitting."

"I couldn't find the darn thing for the life of me. Guess I got sloppy."

"You? Heh….sloppy?"

Jimmy was already kneeling on the floor and picking up books. "After today, I don't think anyone can blame you…."

Clark sighed and put on a gentle smile. "Perhaps….."

"Well…of course we wanted to check up on you," Lois sat on the edge of a couch and gestured. "The office is an absolute wreck. Perry's sent most of the editors home and a cleaning crew is already up and at it. It's gonna be the biggest repair job since Jax-Ur and Mala invited themselves over way back when."

"Heh….yeah. I remember that."

"……," Jimmy was biting his lip. He was slow about picking up the last of the books.

Clark gazed over. "Jimmy? Something up?"

He looked softly up at the mild-mannered reporter. "Clark….you _sure_ you're all right?"

Clark smiled. "I know I'm gonna have a hard time tossing and turning tonight. But I'm sure I'll manage."

"N-No…I mean….really all right?"

"……."

Jimmy shuddered. He closed his eyes and placed a few books on a nearby coffee table. "When I saw him……n-nearly kill you…..I just….I j-just…."

Clark reached a hand over: "Jimmy…."

"I can't believe I almost frickin' tried to defend the creep!" Jimmy barked, freckled face frowning.

Clark bit his lip.

"I mean…he was so cold! So ruthless! How could the Titans ever have inducted an ass like him? Pfft…they're better luck without him."

"Now Jimmy…," Clark murmured. "Don't say that…."

"_Clark……_"

He looked over.

Lois had an eyebrow raised. Half amused. Half confuzzled. "It's off."

"What is?"

"The article, dimwit!" Lois said. "You think anyone in Metropolis is gonna have the gall to defend that murderous, punk twit? Especially us of all people?"

"………"

"Heh. I mean…talk about the perfect waste of twenty-four hours!" Lois absent-mindedly whipped out a makeup compact from her purse and examined herself as she spoke. "I feel so incredibly stupid for giving into the notion that Noir was worth looking into beyond that of a common thug. I dragged you into it too. Hrmphh. Some good that did. Noir's a villain. Plain and simple. Even all the stuff that quackjob Glover once said about him has pretty much come true tenfold, god rest his slimy soul." She clapped her compact closed.

_Snap!_

"………," Clark was gazing through the floor.

"….Smallville?"

"……"

"Clark?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So….what do you make of it, Luthor?"

The balding man stood against the curved windows overlooking the night-laden Metropolis. He turned his head and frowned at Metallo. "I think it makes up awful queerly for how much you bungled everything up today?"

The robot man was absent of all his 'skin'. So he stood in a trenchcoat that hooded and hid his metallic skull. He performed a mock 'bow' from the other side of Luthor's office desk and uttered: "Sorry my 'liege'….," he stood up and said with a bitter voice: "But it's not just Noir that we're dealing with anymore."

"How do you mean, Corbin?"

"When I tried to track the little runt down an deal with him permanently…," Metallo murmured, "…I was dealt with a sudden distraction. And in the worst way."

Luthor's eyes narrowed. "How bad?"

"Let's just say….," the trenchcoated automaton leaned forward with his metal palms against the desk. "….that the Parasite of Triangular may have a bit more fuel to burn than we all estimated at this point…."

"…………….."

The metal skull's teeth clenched together in an invisible 'smile'. "It will all make sense…..in Gotham…..one way or another…."

Luthor turned and stared out at the nightly Metropolis again.

"Heh…..good _luck_, Dent."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………….," Diana sat silently at her computer. Rubbing her chin. Legs crossed in her chair.

Alone.

"…………."

She gazed at the e-mail prompt.

The address was set to Titan's Tower.

A secret, priority channel of communication.

"………….."

The Amazonian finally sighed, rolled her chair directly over to the computer, and started typing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Dear Titans,_

_As much as I regret disturbing you in the shadow of your loss and mourning, I bring news that may be distressing to you. By the time you get this message, however, I predict that you will already have caught wind of developments here in Metropolis. They will be frightful and numbing to you. But it is important that you hear mine and Superman's side of this recent unfolding with Noir……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Detroit, Michigan.

8:34 pm

John Stewart's apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The unmasked Green Lantern sat half-reclined on his couch.

Eyes thin.

His ring-arm in a splint.

He stared at a widescreen t.v. that was playing back…over and over again…helicopter footage of the Justice League shipyard battle with 'Noir'.

His eyes traced every element of the fight.

Anything that could constitute as holographic trickery.

Noir's movement. Noir's blurring. Noir's teleporting.

"…………."

At some point, his eyes twitched.

And then his eyes widened.

"Wait a second….," he mumbled to himself. He fumbled for his remote with one good hand. "Hold the phone…." He clicked it desperately.

Freeze frame.

"………."

John sat up completely. Squinting. He stood up. He walked over. He knelt in front of the t.v. screen. Staring at the corner of the freeze frame.

"………."

He sighed in frustration.

Silence.

He slowly glanced over towards his computer station across the apartment's width.

"…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Noir did attack Clark Kent. He did fight Superman and I. He was ruthless. He was cold. He was Wyldecarde. It horrifies me to think that the one trusted ally I've had over long distance in writing would so swiftly do such terrible things to my team members without a second thought. And yet, I realize that in first being exposed to this sensation from him……I may be seeing a part of him that I have always conceptualized in text but never truly grasped until now._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What Noir did was bad…," Clark Kent said, sitting in a chair across from Lois and Jimmy. "….and….well….I'd be lying if I said I won't be having nightmares after today. But….But it can't be as simple as him just wanting to end my life. Was he working for someone? Was he being…I dunno…mind controlled? It's not uncommon for some despot somewhere to want to _use_ a Titan. It's happened to Robin, it's happened to Terra, and it's even happened to Noir. But who's to say it's not happening again? That's just it. I don't know. Uncertainty rules overall, right?"

"Clark….he was interrogating you…," Lois pointed.

"……," Clark blinked under his spectacles. "I beg your pardon?"

"We could see his lips move….," Lois said. "The former-Titan might not be able to talk. But he was certainly speaking to you!"

"What did he have to say?" Jimmy asked. "What was he asking you?"

"……….," Clark leaned back…resting his arm in his sling. He took a deep breath. "I'm not exactly sure…."

"………."

"But I think all he wanted was……," he smiled slightly. Bitterly humored. "…..was something akin to freedom."

Jimmy made a face. "Freedom?"

Clark nodded. "Till Death do him part….," he muttered.

"…….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_What Noir is doing, it is all a mission. A mission that he has only hinted to me about. Something that started in the fires and bloodshed of your City. When Robin died, a contract needed to be finished. And Noir completed that contract, Titans. He rescued Terra. Terra has been freed from the stone. Now the fate of her child and her essences rest in the hands of ominous forces that J'onn and I had sensed and worked along with your fellow comrade Tempest to resolve. We could never have gotten as far as we did without Noir's assistance—predating the attack on Clark as it did. But now, we are clueless as to what's going on. Triangular is regrouping. A deadly arsenal of thermalkinetic energy has been rerouted to Gotham City. Terra's child remains to be found._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

John Stewart copied the video footage onto his computer.

He tweaked with special imaging programs and brought up frame-by-frame snapshots of the Shipyard fight.

Typing and moving the mouse laboriously with one hand, the galactic guardian anxiously leaned forward towards the monitor.

Squinting.

Magnifying the upper corner.

Magnifying.

Magnifying.

Magnifying.

_Freeze!_

Click.

"…………."

John stared at a fuzzy image. The fuzzy image of a tall, shadowy figure. Slender, deadly, dark. Two tails dangling behind his head.

"…………," John pursed his lips. "Now who in the devil is _that_?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

New York City.

9:34 pm

Central Park.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

She whistled as she walked down a lamppost-lit lane in the center of the grassy knolls.

Darkness wafted through Manhattan and clouded around her.

But fearlessly she treaded alone, smiling to herself.

Clad in a trenchcoat and trucking a heavy satchel over her shoulder.

Her breath trailed in the air in vapors.

Dwindling ice in the air.

November freeze.

Born of Swedish blood, she didn't so much as shiver.

She walked to a still standing position underneath a single lamppost.

And….

Waited.

"…………….."

She pivoted her neck. Cracking it. Tossing beautiful red hair….

_**PMMBISSSSH!**_

"……," she turned around.

A huge gaping light hovered in the middle of the air. Pulsating. Fluctuating. Like a column of plasma.

A whirring, electronic sound emanated from the center of the light. Like a giant, robotic beetle trying to claw its way bloodily into the dimension.

"……..," Dr. Helga Jace smiled. "Monsieur LaSalle…." She slowly, entrancingly unzipped the satchel and exposed its sacred contents to the light. "……speedy delivery….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Noir may be a villain now. I honestly do not know anymore. As much as I know him, I could know him even better. But that is where you come in. Titans, I entreat you……come to Noir's aid. Superman believes that he can fare by himself in Gotham City. And that may be true to an extent. But no matter how successful Noir is in achieving whatever goals his 'mission' acquires of him, there is still something dreadful……something deathly clinging to his heels. And it will consume him all the more alone if it gets the chance. He is the next pray to something called Red Aviary. I fear for his life more than I do for Terra or anyone else caught in this full circle of mayhem……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I rounded a hill.

Panting.

Having run for miles.

But I couldn't stop.

I passed New Jersey.

I passed Bludhaven.

And now….beyond the hills…

"………..," I gulped. Virgin black eyes turned round.

A red sky.

Blood red.

And depressing smoke and hazy gloom climbing ever so infinitely towards it. The collected sighs of millions of shadowed souls. The life…the death…the aura of Gotham City.

I took a deep breath. I cracked my joints and willed my smoking limbs into one last stretch of sprinting.

_Okay Batman……Dent……God…… _

_You've got some explaining to do………_

And I took the time—however momentarily—to marched on towards my last exodus. Where I had fought all Good and become all Bad and destroyed myself to achieve.

And I would finish this mission…and I would find some answers….with all the effort my soul could muster.

By any means necessary.

The November night chilled me and Red Aviary killed me……

One crimson step at a time.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Smallville Kansas.

Kara and Terra sat on the front porch of the Kents' house.

Two rocking chairs.

Two afghans to fight off the cold.

Mugs of hot chocolate.

Terra looked at the Girl of Steel.

Kara said something. Something long and melodramatic. Ending with a laugh.

And Terra smiled. She smiled….and she took a sip.

Warming ever so gradually….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_We can hate Noir all we want. Distrust him even. But when fate catches up along the circle and consumes him, which one of us will be next? The League is barely assembling back together, and I dare say the Titans are needing reinforcement as well. When Red Aviary comes for us……will we have wished for Noir to have survived for our sake? Or given himself over into the jaws of Hades as sacrifice? How far will we let him go? How far will he let himself go? _

_I entreat you to consider an alliance. The Titans with the Justice League. So that we might confront this threat together—unhindered by the Boy Wonder's death and strengthened in numbers. _

_For, Hera forbid, I fear there may not be any time left. _

_Sincerely,_

_Princess Diana._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City.

Titan's Tower.

10:23 pm.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg sat at the computer.

Slowly, his human and robot eye scanned down the Priority One letter from Wonder Woman.

"……."

Behind him, the wide screen of the Main Room flashed news images covering the assault inside the Daily Planet building. Starfire and Beast Boy watched in numb shock. Raven had retired to her room suspiciously early. The room was twice as dark as the starlit night outside. Some of the November cold had crept in and clung to the walls.

Silence, save for the half-mute squabblings of Angela Chen on the Metropolis News.

"……," Cyborg gazed from the computer and looked over his shoulder.

At the other Titans.

And their backs were to him.

"……," Cyborg turned back to face the e-mail.

Coldly…

Methodically…

He moved the mouse over to the document window…

And swiftly deleted it.


	216. A Hard Act to Follow part 1

**216. A Hard Act to Follow part 1**

"_She...sacrificed herself. And I went on to live instead," Robin says as we stand atop the Suspension Bridge of the Bay. Looking West. _

_I'm looking at the black and white snapshot that he's sharing with me. A faded, static-plagued freeze-frame of a bus terminal. A lonely young girl stands in the middle of the wandering, Gotham crowds. _

"_I...I relive that moment. In different ways...dreaming...flashbacks...passing thoughts. And yet they're all the same. The creaking catwalks. The rusted metal. The putrid mud. That damn red sky and that lighthouse...all of Gotham City, for that matter...It...it wasn't enough at first to drive me away. I was...s-sad for the next few days, of course. But I got over it. It's what superheroes do. They get over things. But as the months waned on...and I started seeing things from a new perspective...Batgirl's independence, Nightwing's incessant hatred of Batman's crime-fighting politics...and the jaded opinions of a cynical Gotham City population...I started to see things differently about Gotham City. There were no absolutes. Not even in crime fighting. So...many of my mental shields fell away so that I could...re-analyze things. And I remembered her. I remembered how small and frightened she looked. I remembered how lovely and full of life she was the moment she started remembering things...even if the return of her memories meant her undoing. I remembered the few times she said my name aloud. It sounded so sweet...so full of trust. L-Like she had known me all of her life even though it was just one evening of breath, life, and couldn't stand to be under that red sky anymore. Just like Nightwing...a bird like me has to find a new cage. A new aviary, if you will."_

_I gaze at the picture frame. _

_I gaze West. _

_I gaze beyond._

_Robin points at the picture frame. "But I took that with me. And nobody knows about it, Noir. Not Raven. Not Cyborg. Not even Starfire. I...I've only told you, Noir. I've told you because...because you're very tolerant and mature. And I think you're the only other member of our team who understands what it means to feel conflicted over what we're doing here. Is it that we're trying to be heroes in a new battlefield? Or perhaps—Noir—you and I are also running away from something? Something painful? Something that has made us colder and darker than the children we once used to be?"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 28, 2005

Gotham City.

South side.

11:34 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was cold.

Damn cold.

My flexed my metal fingers and realized that my prosthetic wasn't acting up again.

And that almost surprised me….as if I expected my arm to explode upon so much as walking into the city limits of this place…

I was perched atop a rusted watertower on the roof of an eight-story, brick building. The faded letters of 'Gotham City' crackled and groaned into grime behind me. A frosty November wind blew down with fumes of some pollution somewhere….everywhere….inside and outside everything.

Gotham City was like the cold, steaming backside of some age-old sleeping dragon. Everything was like onyx scales hammered into one another from age and silent suffering. Wrought iron metal fences, windowsills, building spires, and retro ornaments abounded. For every skyscraper ledge, there was a gargoyle or 'angel' with gothic wings stretching upwards like a statue from a World's Fair that had missed the rapture of saints. Structures, spires, and cornerstones alike all fell into some half-neglected puzzle that spelled out a City that could have reached towards heaven but decided against it at the last second…perhaps because of some old, old secret that only the buildings themselves knew. For where Metropolis fished in the breath of tomorrow, Gotham City was a giant mausoleum to yesterday and everything was beautifully, horrifically, and gothically old…old….old…

There was something very inhuman about the buildings. The ones that stretched tall and the ones that laid humbly low to the ground as well. They were like pious monks who rejected the world for some puritanical belief in the unstoppable power of death and gloom. The sky was the only thing to fight the dark gray and black brooding buildings, and the best that the horizon could muster was an endless, ever-pervasive urine-yellow at day and blood-red at night. The celestial field had been reduced to the bare biological horrors of life kicking against the stone. Crime and city routine were both the same; as hard as rock. Rock carved by big names standing on the shoulders of little people. And the lofty, arc-like bridges connecting one branch of stone to another in unreasonably high places were like desperate pleas for sanity. Sometimes chaos isn't explosive, but rather a cold and silent eternity. A snake wrapped around everyone's hearts and just waiting for sleep to nearly finish us off before it slowly and unemotionally squeezes.

The November freeze tried and tried desperately to rain frost down onto the gray cityscape, but for the life of it not a single flurry of snow could be forged. The City continued its ever-pervasive dark stretch before my equally dark eyes. And with the sky bleeding down onto the barbed skyscraper sparks and the rust and grime everywhere merging into one I came to one single, inevitable epiphany.

_How in God's name could a child grow up in this City and stay sane?_

I inhaled frosty air. My black bangs and bandanna ends whipped in the breeze. I narrowed my black optics and lingered on the skyscrapers and heights of downtown just north of me before turning and looking south once more.

'_Gothe Nightclub……,'_ Clark Kent had said. _'Batman related to me that he believes there is a stockpile of hidden weapons and tools for Triangular being hidden beneath the Gothe Nightclub building itself….under the watchful guard of a Gothamite sect of Triangular being headed by none other than Harvey Dent, Two-Face himself.'_

I took a deep breath.

Flesh and metal fingers clenched….

'_A major hive for criminal powermongers and crime scum. Ironically, also the favorite weekend spot for William B. Fox…son to Lucius Fox, co-CEO of Wayne Corp.'_

I gazed and gazed….

And in the middle of the slumlike warehouses and abandoned factories of the land towards Gotham River, a quartet of searchlights billowed gaily through the air. Piercing the deep red glow of night.

I took a deep breath, stood up straight, and concentrated murk through my limbs for the inevitable 'jog'.

_Well…Ana…… _

_It seems I'm always having to crash in on a party of some sort or another these days……_

A part of me….a little heroic part smiled.

I momentarily forgot the bastard with a sword making things tough for the population of Metropolis.

And I blur over the rooftops southward…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Years ago, I had thought that Robin died. It was before I joined the school of the Spectrum. And the Robin who had become legendary was the one who later became Nightwing. There was a space in time when Robin went missing. Batman no longer fought crime and brought in the Joker, Riddler, and Two-Face to Justice with the Boy Wonder at his side. Many people had all sorts of speculations. That Robin had gone on to better things. That the real person Robin was had outgrown his mask. Or that he had horrifically died during one of the Dark Knight's missions.

I was so inclined to believe the latter. And looking back, it's hard to imagine how or why I was so pessimistic. Things hadn't gone for worse in my life. I wasn't even a cynical teenager yet. What excuse did I have to think such dark and depressing thoughts?

I respected the first Robin. When I read up on him in my dad's newspaper or when I saw snapshots of him on the news, I thought that he was an equal for Batman. He was tall, well-built, agile, and courageous. He had a sort of dashing approach to crime fighting the likes of which acrobats surely envied. Tight-rope walkers. Stuntmen and daredevils. To him—much of America gathered—fighting crime was an inspiring game. A game…..

When he became Nightwing, I was almost disappointed. Of course, I was much older than. I had trained in the Spectrum. I had learned to become darker….and to _respect it._ When the former Robin turned out to be alive, I had a hard time believing he had simply grown up to become the future ass-kicker of Bludhaven. I never saw life as allowing people to dramatically change. Of course, I wasn't one to deny 'change' itself. The Spectrum had altered me greatly. But many of the things I held dear to myself after my schooling appear identical to myself prior to it. But in secret, unconscious ways. Freud may be a misogynist jerk, but he can dunk over a lot of self-centered arguments.

Nightwing was always dark. Even when he was Robin. The only thing that kept 'Robin' from being dark before the Bludhaven era was some sort of resistance. Some self-denial of what he was and could have been. And from the way I learned to envision it, it's a very sick and twisted thing to put on a mask when fighting crime. And I don't mean eyemasks or cowls….but rather personalities that serve only to blind ourselves to who we really are and our potentials. Even the most unmasked heroes….Superman, Black Canary, Aquaman……they call only serve stupidity if they 'mask' their true nature from themselves. And for Nightwing, I sensed that the man took a long time to embrace that which was truly within him and harness it expertly in the black and electric-blue package that now strikes fear so succinctly into the hearts of Blockbuster's henchmen.

I was far too distracted at the time of the second Robin's rise to the seat to make a pop-culture estimate of his potential. Later I was told that his personality in the first year of serving alongside Batman was typical. A clown. A showoff. A jokester and dancing heckler of all things criminal much like the moniker-bearer before him. Overnight, my life flickered into a grayer horizon. And the soonest I could open my black eyes and look at the world once again…the new Robin had changed too. And he also disappeared. But somehow, I didn't want this legend to die.

And when I finally met him in the City, I understood why. He was barely fifteen years when he grew up. Much like me. And much like me, he was on the run from something….but chasing ten million as many things all the same. And I learned that even the greatest heroes are cowards in that their heroism outshines their cowardice infinitely. And I didn't need a mask to myself, as he didn't. There was nothing we were denying about ourselves. There was only a million things that we were tackling at once. And the point of existence was not to speculate or mourn but to fly, leap, and lead. And we did just that…to the best of our abilities.

When Robin died, I was greatly saddened. Overwrought. And paralyzed.

But I couldn't stay in the City with that sadness. No, not like the other Titans. The Boy Wonder and I were both on the run from things. And when Robin passed away, that only meant I had to run some more. And whatever he was once running from, I too was beginning to run from. It was as if some flickering red torch had been passed to me. A breezing breath. My arm shook and twitched and gnawed at me from the inside out. The gift I gave for the Titans ate its way up my shoulder and shock my nerves. For the life of me, I couldn't stay still. I had to run across country. I had to turn stone to bread…or in this case, Terra. And I had to…I had to…I had to find answers in Gotham City, no matter how many Supermen I attacked or Batmen I interrogated.

Because after that last night with Red Aviary and Metallo….I started to get a terrible feeling of déjà vu.

I had speculated a Robin's death before. And it had turned out quite naturally to be nothing but a case of growing pains.

Forging cold into freezing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Even from across the street on a rooftop, I could hear the heavy bass of the building's inside reverie pounding…pounding….pounding.

The Gothe Nightclub was a queer, trifold blend of the new, the old, and the older. The stylistically retro cab cars and limousines of Gotham City filed in line along the street before the dance club. Prim and well-dressed chauffeurs stepped out to patiently open the door for rich patrons to step out. And when the patrons stepped out, they hardly looked like the aethetically suited businessmen and/or bank workers of Gotham City, nor did they look like the formally dressed ladies of the City that always resembled a 1940s snapshot to me. Those waltzing into the four story red-mortar building were dressed…..gothically. Medieval gothically. Roaring-loud flashes of red, silver, and 'glittering' black. Frills and seams and trailing coats. Harlequin tails and bells and cuffs. Many had their skin painted pale…_or was it paint?_ I saw plenty a pair of black eyeshadow…on the faces that weren't masked as if they were pulled straight out Mardi Gras or a Three Musketeers movie. Some dark and oblong types looked fairly much like vampires, and for all I knew (or cared) perhaps they were….

They were young, pale, existential things. The men looked like women and the women looked like corpses. And they reeled and giggled and laughed their way into the lavish, flashing establishment with young breaths, young cackles, young legs.

Young.

Some artistic take on the Great Plague of Europe had merged with the gothic Modern of Gotham City. Two old things came together, and the fulcrum was populated by young, drunkenly-reeling-and-raving parasites beneath a relentless, neo-techno beat. And I saw in a kaleidoscopic blinking of my eyes some inverse reflection of the ash-frozen bodies huddled in the center of Pompeii in Vegas. And I felt just as equally ashamed of humanity from the breath of it all.

_Full Circle……_

I watched as young, questionably rich Goths wandered into the club and slightly older, drunker waifs hobbled out. Tall, iron-strong bouncers lined the front, brass gates. Torches were lit on either side of the entrance…perhaps in pathetic homage to the hellish purpose of that place. The entire building had 'scum' written all over it—John Wayne style expletive aside. I may have made quite a dirty name for myself in Metropolis, but there was still enough of a crime-fighter left in me to know that those driving up to and being let inside the building weren't made rich just by doing data entry or office work. These people were inevitably the children of Gotham City's elaborate, criss-crossing underworld. The simple-minded, simply-blinded heirs to criminal funds. The spenders and gluttons of blood money. Everything that Batman had fought long and hard to beat back with an ugly stick. The national news had done its worse in incriminating Batman for his dark, vigilante ways. But not until I actually stood there across the Gothe Nightclub did I understand just how much a savior Batman and his troupe were. This City bled and wreaked of evil. It made my City—even on a Dagger day—appear whiter than the snow that refused to fall on the Gotham streets around me that night. You would have to grow up in an urban hellhole like this to truly reach the understanding and psyche that Batman inevitably possessed to its finest degree.

I remembered my escapades in Bludhaven. I remembered barely surviving the gang rapists and the gunmen and the random murder squads in the god-forsaken streets. But at least that deplorable City had an excuse to be the apocalyptic nightmare that it was. Gotham, on the other hand, was a thriving entity. Families lived and grew there. Women and children. People who grew, laughed, cried, and died. It was as much a home as Metropolis or Central City or New York or any other major center in the nation. But to think that beneath the stitched lines of the gothic, wrought-iron flesh there was a palpitating madness of crime…and that on top of the mafia, the gangsters, the warlords murdering each other just for a few diamonds or so their kids could fornicate in lavish nightclubs, despots such as the Joker and Two-Face and other madmen made everything else a Hell for the region. I had this overwhelming feeling that Gotham City was a suicidal venus fly trap trying to eat itself into oblivion, and Batman stood solely in the jaws trying to rip the stalk apart before the inevitable feeding. It was no wonder that Robin left this place.

_Somewhat ironic that he would only live to die somewhere else._

"…………"

I reached a hand down to my combat fatigues.

I felt a pocket.

The sharp, jagged birdarang rested there.

"………..," I exhaled.

_Keep it together……_

I squinted in the direction of the searchlights and flickering torches of the building's front courtyard. I eyed the windowless facings of the structure. The single brass doorway being covered by bouncers. The cars lining up…and those in bastardized medieval-celebratory garb lingering outside.

_What's the celestial likelihood that Batman will be covering this place tonight?_

I ran a hand through my thick black bangs.

I tensed my jaw.

_Or William B. Fox for that matter………?_

I watched the multitude of bodies flooding into the establishment. I shuddered.

_I can't cloak my way in. That place is most likely crawling with people on the inside. People and hormones……heh. _

_I'm liable to bump into someone. But if it didn't matter if they saw me……_

I gazed right.

"…….."

I gazed left.

"………," I leaned forward from my rooftop. My black eyes narrowed under my shades.

There were three costumed bodies huddled around a burning trashcan. Talking and laughing drunkenly about something.

"…….." _Chiiiiing!_ I slowly whipped out Myrkblade and blurred off….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Heheheheheh!

"That's exactly what I'm talking about! **HIC!** I mean, what's all this about—**HIC**—a limit? I was barely touching any of the-**HIC!**-glasses! I bet it's because I'm an old fart! They can let any of them jailbait drink all the good stuff they want cuz they gots more money, I tells ya! **HICC!**" He was a middle-aged man. Tall. Dressed in an 'Executioner' getup. Complete with a fake plastic axe with fake painted blood. He wore leather leggings and a leather vest over a black-as-night tunic. And a hood rested over his head. Black, pliable leather. A thin slit let his eyes gaze through to the flickering flame in the oil drum as he warmed his hands and slurred further with a vaporous voice: "I used to be a long-running business companion to Rupert Thorne! _Rupert Thorne!_ **HIC!** Now thossssse were the days of partying, my friends!"

"Heheheheheh…."

"Yeah….."

"Amen to that!"

"You didn't have to worry about not 'fitting in' with some god damn young crowd. You were well respected. You got your own name inscribed in the lights of the underworld—figuratively speaking—and that all mattered at some time! Some time…before a mangy Bat flew in and decided to make things really annoying. Egads….please tell me one of you guys has a Scotch."

"Nope."

"Sorry, man."

"Ehhhh…**HIC**….you all suck…."

"Hahahahaha."

"Say….can we take a look at your wallet?"

_FWOOOSH!_

I leapt down into the alleyway.

A few shady bystanders gasped and hobbled back. Blinking drunkenly.

"…..," I stood still, gripping Myrkblade's handle. I turned and faced the one with the dark cowl and axe.

"Whoah…**HIC**…," he narrowed his hooded eyes. "Why do yous look f-familiars? **HIC!**"

"…….," I marched over to him. I stood up straight. I looked at where his head reached its top point compared to mine.

"Say….I-I seen yous in the paper!" the middle-aged moron said. "You're dat kid….dat Titan kid making things miseriseriserab-b-b-ble for the Justice League and them folks at the **HIC!** Daily Planet…."

I fingered a sleeve of his shirt. His vest. I turned and compared my profile to him. My eyes thinned.

"What's a **HIC** badass punk like you doing here in Gotham…."

_**THWACK!**_ I slapped Myrkblade across his forehead.

"OWWWW!" he bent over.

**THUD!** I slammed my metal fist into his gut.

He wheezed, fell onto his knees, shook once or twice….and collapsed on the ground.

_Th-Thrump!_

_Ch-Chiing!_ I sheathed Myrkblade, knelt down, and began to peel the costume off the man's body.

"…………..," I paused. "……….." I glanced to my left.

In the glow of the flames, the others in the alleyway stared blankly at me. "Oh….um…."

"D-Do ya think you could give us his wallet once you're done stripping him?"

My eyes narrowed. I smiled sarcastically….then….

SWOOSH-_**CLANG!**_ I kicked the metal barrel towards them. Ashes and fiery embers splashed across the alleyway as they ran, shouting.

I groaned mutely to myself.

_Frickin' rats……_

And I proceeded to try on my new….'wardrobe'.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two girls identically dressed as pale-pale witches hooked their arms together as they giggled their way into the establishment.

The bouncers held the door open for a brief time, and then closed them.

"…….."

They gazed over.

I walked into view, using the fake executioner axe's long handle as a walking stick. I made a point of walking quickly _into_ the brass door frame of the building's entrance flanked by torchlight.

It didn't surprise me in the least that the heavy-set ushers refused to open the said door of brass.

"Hold on there, chief…," one pointed.

The other walked over. Palming his fist. "Didn't we just throw you out and tell you not to come back till a week from now?"

"……….."

The first bouncer smirked. "You're out of your league, gramps. The Gothe Nightclub doesn't cater to impotent fogies…"

_**TH-THWUD!**_

The bouncer's eyes went familiarly cross-eyed as he let out a familiarly painful squeak and slumped to his knees with his thighs crossed in a familiarly painful fashion.

THWAP!

"……..," I glared.

_Speak for yourself……speak for all of us……_

"Hey!" the bouncer pulled out a brass knuckle and slid it onto his right hand. "Not cool!" he frowned.

"…..," I turned towards him.

He came at me. "Rrrraugh!"

I stepped back. With my hood fluttering from my movement, I twirled the axe, encased the plastic prop in murk, and covered the handle with just enough black energy to….

_Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwish!_

The prop spun like a bo-staff, slapped the man across the face two times, and then twirled to a stop with the plastic axe 'head' heavily slamming atop the man's wrist.

**THAP!**

"OWCH!" he comically exclaimed and dropped the brass knuckles to the floor.

_Cl-Clang!_

I twirled the axe prop back down and leaned on it.

He gritted his teeth at me. "Why you…." He stopped, blinking.

I held my metal hand up to his face. Middle finger viciously exposed. For a second or two, he regarded the queer prosthetic digits cross-eyed. And it was just long enough for me to pulse a wave of smoke energy up my titanium limb and exploding out in flash through the fake fingertip.

_**FWOOOSH**__**FLASH**__**!**_

He flew back and slammed against the curve door inlet of the building front. THWAP! "Nnnngh…."

I lowered my arms, shrugged my shrouding executioner outfit back straight over my shoulders, and marched firmly through the brass doors and into the beating bass.

_Pfft……Bouncers……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gothic, industrial techno.

Blinding lights.

Flashing laser streams and the sense that the whole air of the interior mad house was pulsing…pulsing…pulsing.

Even with the combined shroud of my shades and hood, I could barely even squint my eyes at the indoor spectacle.

The Gothe Nightclub was filled to the brim with rave dancers, drinks and drinkers, waiters and bouncers. People writhing. People groping. People laughing, twirling, and falling. I wondered for a second just how soon the sky was going to fall and why I wasn't privy to it until waltzing in there. And then it occurred to me that the criminal underworld was doing this all the time. Copulating with the moment. Dancing for the sake of dancing, even if the dance shoes were fashioned out of the metaphorical skin of countless of victimized citizens.

Humanity has its rectum as much as its lips.

The interior of the Nightclub stood in tiers. Rings of balconies three spaces high running for at least fifty feet. The platforms gained more and more dancing space the lower everything went. And when things finally reached the bottom floor…it resembled an enlarged, Elizabethan theatre. And in place of where Hamlet would be romancing a skull or Juliet stabbing herself, there was a DJ station where all the throbbing, pulsing mixes came from in wired, industrial electronica.

A piece of me suddenly and inexplicably wished the Messenger was there.

_On to another subject, I look positively ridiculous._

I stood awkwardly in the corner, holding onto my axe and shifting nervously with my leather executioner's getup and black hood hanging over my cranium. I must have looked like the angel of death….strolling into the place to deal it a final retribution. But I wasn't about to wreck everything. Not just yet. I had to know what…or who I was looking for.

People writhed past me.

Dancing.

Laughing.

Some nearly fighting…until bouncers strolled over and meatily accosted them.

A girl once bumped into me, took a few lingering sections to peel her body off my leathered chest, and fluttered her bloodshot eyelids in an attempt to pur: "Excuuuuuse me…hehehehe…" And she twirled and ran off. She was dressed as a medieval clown. I shrugged it off.

I decided to make my way down to the first level. So, forward I crept. Past vapor-spread laser lights. Raving bodies with arms tossed to the ceiling. Jingling bells from harlequin masks, painted skin, and the occasional side-swipe of a razor sharp, red painted fingernail.

I gritted my teeth amidst my 'swim' through the criminal brine. I wasn't quite the agoraphobic person, but something about my long days of sprinting across the country and fighting angels of Death inside blood-stained hallways hadn't prepared me for this much…..contact. I almost wished for the cold taste of Red Aviary over these random body parts grinding into me. There was so much pale skin flashing from beneath frilled sleeves that I began to wonder if people were getting nude or not.

_What was there for these yahoos to hesitate about? _

_This hive was as good as dead…morally speaking. _

_And though I'm not an expert on morals….something tells me that after leaving that place, I would be._

By the time I got to the second level, I started to smell things. Nasty, human things. Underneath the glitter of the Gothe Nightclub lights and the pounding bass. I looked down at my shuffling boots and wished I hadn't. There were pools of vomit in random places on the floor. Along with other questionable juices. Some of them red. Some of them….other colors.

_No wonder Clark Kent was so hesitant to tell me about this place. _

_Screw Batman, he was trying to protect me. _

_Heh……some hero I am……_

I drifted past a bar where workers were busily, busily mixing drinks and sliding them towards eager, gothic patrons. A few rich brats in sexily-altered Baroque dress stood on stools chatting…flirting. A group of 'vampiric' young men sat at a booth, reading something over a candle. They were all red-eyed. _God, I hope those are contacts……_

I came to a stop on the corner of the second floor and shuddered. In the distance, I spotted thin, cylindrical cages within which dancing girls in the bare essentials of medieval under-apparel had somehow fitted themselves in. And they served their claustrophobic purpose of raving eye-candy. A few obese 'court jesters' huddled around the nearest of two cylinders. They cackled, cooed, and took long swigs of the bottle while the dancing girl euphorically giggled herself into caged madness.

I ran a hand over my cowl and sighed into the blackness.

_I wonder how Smallville's doing right now……_

Pounding noise.

Sonic mayhem.

Bass. Vibrations.

Lights.

_Kara……Terra……how are they working out?_

I removed my hand and gazed into the nearest wall where only the shadows of the pit of sin catered to me.

_I hope Cyborg's taking good care of the Titans. He can get all the help he can get. Especially since……Especially since……_

I sighed. I hugged myself some. It wasn't the type of posture an 'executioner' might take. But I didn't care. I didn't imagine anyone looking at me anyways.

_Cyborg's 'number one' is not coming back._

_How could I?_

_What could the Titans do……with someone as dirty and low as me now? _

_I attacked Superman……in the cape or not. _

_There's no coming back from __**that**__. _

_I don't care how good a track record I may have. _

_There are just……some 'unbreakable' laws of this particular universe._

I sighed.

I gazed up towards the ceiling.

_I bet the Messenger would agree with me on that one……_

Somewhere to my right, two Nightclub workers met. Nearly bumping into each other.

"Chuck! Thank god! Hold on a sec….I need you to deliver a message for me!"

An envelope was thrust into the fidgeting hands of the other person.

"Wh-Wh-What's this, Vick?"

"That's _Mr. Trent_ to you! Now deliver this to Booth Number Seven on the bottom floor. It's urgent. One of our…business' partners needs to spread the word."

"Booth Number Seven? Ain't that Fox's…."

"Shhhh!"

"……..?" I craned my neck and looked at the two.

"Just deliver the message, shut up, and then you can clock out. More or less in that order."

"Uhm….."

"Do it, Chuck. Or I'm employing you on broken-bottle-duty tonight!"

"Eep! Y-Yes sir, Mr. Trent! R-Right away! Message delivered!"

"Well then…get your ass going!" the manager hoarsely uttered. "And don't let me see you flirting with that god damn 'dead witch' chick on the second floor party table! She's Roland Dagget's niece, ya know!"

"She told me she was the fourth resurrected princess daughter of Sangre Phillipia the Fourth."

"Someone's gonna have to resurrect YOU if you don't get moving!"

"Y-Yes sir!" and the subordinate ran off—trembling—with the envelope in tow.

The manager shook his head. "Frickin' Vampiress-humper, I swear to god. He'll get his throat bitten out in due time……," he gazed over at me. He blinked. He frowned. "Hey! Ashtarth! If you want a table, you gotta pay with more than heads, pal!"

"…….," looked behind me.

I was leaning at an empty table. And just a few rave-bodies away, a party of brooding 'chamber mistresses' stood tapping their lacy heels besides a waiter waiting to seat them.

"…….," I smiled sarcastically. A smile that the manager couldn't see from under my hood. I made my way towards the stairs leading down….

"That's more like it…," 'Mr. Trent' uttered and marched off.

I turned and gave him a raspberry he couldn't see either. I cleared my throat and quickened my pace….distantly trailing the messenger heading downstairs with the envelope.

Downstairs to booth number 'seven'.

_Fox……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hahahahaha!" a young, thin-haired African American sat in the plush center of a booth. A medieval mistress clung to either side of him, cooing and giggling as he smiled and spoke to a group of lushly dressed 'gothicks' around him. Unlike the rest, he wore a simple business suit. Casual business. It seemed like there was a silent privilege at work, allowing him to get away with a lack of costumed formality inside the Nightclub. "And…like…the whole mother effing stock share crashed! And my dad's like: 'JUNIORRRR'. And I said: 'Before you yell at me, think about this. How could I predict that Joker would blow up the entire building in central Downtown just because the C.E.O. called the clown a fish-lipped guppy-sucker?' Hahahaha! And do you know what my old man said to me?"

"What's that, Billy?"

"Tell us, Billlly."

"Oh…he went on this tirade about how one day I would have to take over the business from him and I'd have to gear myself towards working with Bruce Wayne in cramped, stuffy offices. And I said: 'Pops, that's not the life I want to live! I want to live in the moment! Make friends in high places!' He winked and drifted his hands down to a thigh of both girls flanking him. "And maybe _lower_ places to…you dig? Hahahaha!"

"Hehehehehe!"

"You're such a pushover, Billllly!"

"Hahahaha! Ain't it the truth though? Egads! I love coming here! No pun intended…."

"Hehehehe!"

"Say, girls, have you ever met a good old friend of mine? Jacob Anderson was his name…."

"Noooooo."

"Can't say that we have…."

"Ah. What a blast he's been to hang out with! You'd find him rather charming….a go-getter at any party! Only….er….his head seems to have spontaneously blown apart a couple of days ago at gunpoint."

"Oh no! Hehehehe!"

"Hahahahaha…ewwwww gross!"

"Hey…what comes around goes around. Again….no pun intended. Hahahahaha!"

The nightclub worker approached the table. The party of ten looked up the booth amidst the sound and the fury.

"What do we have here?"

"Don't disturb Mr. Fox's stay for too long…," a heavy-set thug in residual medieval wear uttered…slipping a hand into his vest and glaring. "What do you want?"

"Hey…take it easy, rook!" Fox winked. He leaned forward and placed his hands together, smiling at the messenger. "How can we help you?"

The subordinate bit his lip. He produced the white envelope. "Special letter for Mr. William B. Fox."

"Yeah? Who from? Roxxie? That young rrrrrascal?"

"I don't know sir. Mr. Trent gave it to me."

"Ahhh….Mr. Trent…," Fox leaned back, beaming. "Well…I sure as Hell can trust him. Isn't that right, folks?"

"Hehehe….you said it Billlly!"

"Yup! Sure thing!"

"Slide it here, pal….," Fox gestured.

The messenger nodded. He placed the envelope onto the table. But just as he started to slide it across the top….

_CL-CLAMP!_

A smoke-laden axe head stabbed the envelope into the table.

Two of the girls shrieked. The men jumped.

Fox blinked. "Hrmm?" He looked up and smiled. "Ah….fresh! And who might this be?"

"……..," I glared. I reached a hand up and slipped my cowl off. I shook my black hair back—once exposed—and glared through shades that reflected Fox's blinking face.

"Mmmhmmm….okay…..I'm still bored. Who're you supposed to be?"

One of the heavy-set party members gasped. "Mr. Fox! This kid…."

"Like….Oh my gawd!" one of the girls gasped, her frilled hands to her face. "It is him!"

"Yeah….I'm missing something…," Fox leaned forward and motioned. "Care to educate me, pal?"

_CHIIIIIING!_

Myrkblade stretched out and stopped just at Fox's adam's apple.

People around us gasped.

The heavy-set ones stood up with pistols at my head. "Freeze it, punk!"

_F-Fwoosh!_

Myrkblade billowed threateningly against Fox's nape.

"W-Wait!"

"Hold your fire…..," the thugs sweated.

I stood there, Myrkblade sharply carving into the outer layer of Fox's skin.

"Oh jeebus….Oh jeebus…..!" the messenger trembled, spun from the table, and ran off into the raving obliviousness surrounding. "N-Not again!" he shrieked.

"Oh….my gawwwwd….," the frilled girl from before repeated…slowly this time. She gazed at me with a flushed smile.

"……," my black eyes narrowed in the peripheral vision of her.

"I seem to….uh….b-be….uh…..at odds here….," Fox smiled nervously. Sweating. "You….uh….you're here for…uh………." He blinked. He blurted with a wide smile: "You're here about Triangular, aren't you pal?"

The gunman on my left, aiming. "Snkkt! Mr. Fox! Shut up!"

The gunman on my right, aiming. "Hey! Don't you tell the boss to shut up!"

"He's gonna blow everything!"

"Just keep cool, man! Keep cool!"

"Yes….," Fox raised his hands and waved at everyone trembling at the booth. "Everyone calm down. Just because my throat's about to be carved out by some poster-boy samurai doesn't mean the end of the world…..th-though it does kinda sorta mean the end of my world, but anyways…..ahem…….h-h-how can I help you, M-Mister?"

I glared at him. I was vaguely aware of the bouncing shape of a full-skirted French Belle walking up from behind me with a fan. But I kept my attention focused on the man's whose larynx I was threatening.

'_We need to talk,'_ I mouthed.

He didn't seem to read lips as well as Superman could.

"Can't you talk, pal? Cat got your tongue? Cuz he sure as Hell doesn't have your sword at the moment! Sucks to be me! Hahahaha!"

"Hehehe! Good one, Billlllly!"

"Guys! Shut up! Don't you see we're screwed?"

"We're gonna give you on the count of three to get your sorry-ass sword swinging self out of our sight…."

"Pssst…..ten…."

"What?"

"Count of ten."

"Dammit! Why not three?"

"We have no time to discuss time!"

"Just shoot the bastard!"

"Sh-Shut up! God!"

"Shhhhh," Fox again waved a hand. He was sweating onto my sword but trying not to make a show of it. "Now now….surely this entrepreneurial salad slicer didn't come all the way into Gothe just to rip me apart in open public? Hahahaha…erhm…th-that's more like Bane's style or Killer Croc's. Not him." He thinned his eyes at me and smiled coolly. "We just need to discuss a few things…a few Triangular things….now don't we?"

"………," I tensed my fingers around Myrkblade's hilt.

_I want to kill him already……_

"Eh-Eh-Eh-Ahem……..," uttered a feminine voice from behind.

The thugs looked.

So did I….glancing behind my shoulder.

The French Belle stood before us. Waving a fan. Her head crowned by a tall, Antoinette style wig of lavish golden follicles. Her skirt flowed around her like an upside mushroom of colorfully adorned lace and crinoline.

"Excuse me, ladies and fine gentlemen….but could I have a word with Monsieur Fox?"

Fox sweated. He bit his lip. He looked at the Belle. He looked at me with my sword at his neck. He looked at the stranger again. "Sure!" he crookedly smiled. "We're not busy!"

I sweatdropped.

"Look, lady….there's a crisis going on here!" one gunman grunted. "Just who are you anyways?"

The woman narrowed her eyes at us. Blue eyes haloed in a black patch, very mask like from under the shade of her outrageously huge wig. I suddenly felt the sense that something deadly and clownish was stabbing its way down my spine.

"Oh…..," she replied demurely. "I'm nobody special. Just a big **FAN!**"

And with that pun unrolled, she flicked the fan in her grasp forward. _P-POW!_ A pair of roped tasers spat out like a James Bond gadget and stuck into William B. Fox's chest.

_ZZZZ-ZZZZTTT!_

"DUAAAAAAAAAH!" Fox convulsed and shook all over before collapsing unconscious. "Unnngh….y-you guys….h-handle the tip." _**THUD!**_

"EEEEEEEEK!" The girls flanking him shrieked and scurried off.

I gasped, stepping back.

"HA!" the Belle whipped off her whig with a black-lipped grin, revealing in full the pale face of a kinky 'doll' crowned with alternating red and black tales ending in white puffs.

"Jesus!" one of the gunmen immediately—without question—stopped aiming the gun at me and trained it instantly on her. "Quinn! Quinn! It's Quinn!"

"Son of a….," the other thug aimed.

"Hand off, boys!" Harley Quinn shouted, ducked down 'into' her hoopskirt, and suddenly kicked the entire dress like a detachable rocket booster towards us. FWOOOMP!

"Aaaaugh!" they shouted and shielded themselves.

I swiftly vaulted myself out of the way and perched on the balcony edge of the second story. _FWOOSH!_

_**CRUNCH!**_

The hoop skirt must have weighed a ton! It crushed comically through Table Number Seven, effectively sending splinters and the ragdoll bodies of the two thugs collapsing everywhere.

I panted….wide-eyed.

"WOOO! TOUCH DOWN!" the legendarily nefarious Harley Quinn jumped up and down. She laughed as she twirled in her red and black poker art jumpsuit. Somewhere in the distance, I swore I heard the sounds of cuckoo clocks and springs snapping. "You should just see what my bloomers can do! Too bad we don't have a plate of tank armor nearby!"

She girl-stepped towards the booth, humming.

By now, a good part of the floor had cleared away as gothic rave-dancers regarded the villainous vixen with horror. A trio of bouncers rushed down with brass knuckles.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Quinn smiled gaily and cartwheeled _through_ the incoming thugs.

TH-TH-TH-THWAP! SMACK! WH-WHAP! Her spinning limbs and kicking feet expertly slapped each thug aside the face and chin as she rolled, bounced, flipped, and somersaulted through them. She stood up, wobbled dizzily for a second, and bopped herself on the head as if that would clear out the cobwebs. "Nnnngh! Mr. J was right. I'm putting on weight! Must be all of them kidney pies. Mmmmm….kidneys…."

As she was about to pounce on Fox's unconscious body….

_Fw-FWOOSH!_

I dropped down in front of her.

_CHIIIING!_

Myrkblade pointed at her skull.

She blinked for just a second before stepping back, smiling wide, and waving a hand: "Now now, Ninjy-Winjy!" She whipped out a gun from….somewhere. A gun with a red boxing-glove at the end of it. "It's not polite to show me your sword on a first date!"

"…..," I frowned.

_Lady, if you think that some pathetic little clown prop is going to keep me from protecting whom I came here to interrogate……_

_**POW! SWOOOOSH-**__**CRACK!**_

The boxing glove slammed into my chest.

I was tossed up onto the stage, where I smashed through the DJ station and effectively brought the techno music to a screeching, ear-splitting halt.

Everyone shook, groaned, and clutched their palms over their ears—even the 'vampires'—as the high-pitched squeal ricocheted through the Nightclub.

But not Quinn. The coy clown twirled the gun, 'blew' the barrel…and looked at the trigger for a second or two before uttering: "Heh….nineteen eighty-three…" She tossed the weapon behind her shoulder and sashayed to the wrecked table. "Good year for gloves."

"……," I winced. I pulled myself achingly out of the shards and debris of the DJ station. I rubbed my long head of hair as the noise of techno music soon gave way for the noise of screaming, fleeing dancers.

A handful of thugs however—under the direction of a hotheaded and sweating Mr. Trent—came rushing down the platforms against the flow with shotguns in tow.

Harley Quinn hummed to herself as she slung a cold Fox over her back. She gazed up at the security, brought a pair of fingers to her lips, and whistled almost more shrilly than when the speakers squealed.

"Hey! Red!" she shouted to the air. "Now's your cue!"

_**CRKKKK!**_

_**SHATTER!**_

The walls of the Nightclub collapsed in two places. Giant, thick vines of green snaked in.

The incoming thugs gasped and struggled as thorny stalks magically encircled and wrapped around them as if from giant man-eating plants on the outside.

I watched, wide-eyed.

Mr. Trent pulled at his hair.

His men shouted and winced in pain as the constricting thorns stabbed into them.

More and more vines smashed in from the outside of the building, forcing people to run every which way.

There was an uncoiling sound from straight above. And a gentle, deep….womany chuckle.

I glanced up…panting.

A pale, redheaded female in a pixie-tight leotard of black lay reclined on a descending plant stalk. She propped her head sexily on black-gloved hands and winked at the chaotic crowd as she lowered to Harley Quinn's level before the 'theatre' stage where I sat.

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes…," Poison Ivy murmured. She eyed the thugs quivering in the stabbing thorn-tentacles holding them in midair. "What's in a name? That which we call a rose…By any other word would smell as sweet…." She quoted and sat up with her hands in her lap.

"Hmmphh!" Harley leapt with Fox in tow and landed atop the vine.

I stood up weakly, gripping Myrkblade.

As the vine started to lift, Poison Ivy blew a kiss towards the rest of the Nightclub. "Poison knows no words. For as soon as you taste the sweetness…you are far too _dead_ to speak of it. Fox comes with us, you sex-craved imbeciles." She produced a handful of pollen….very deadly pollen. "The rest of you—like sperm—can just _die……"_

And she flung it into the masses.

And I gasped….


	217. A Hard Act to Follow part 2

**217. A Hard Act to Follow part 2**

The bundle of poison pollen flew.

The fleeing partiers paused to flinch.

The vine-wrapped thugs gasped and shouted in horror.

And as the dangerous pellets made their gradual descent in a curved arc to the floor…

_Th-Th-Thwish! _

I flipped through the air—vaulted by a pulse of murk—and snatched all of the pollen in one blurred swipe of my metal hand.

**GRIP!**

Poison Ivy merely blinked.

_Plant!_

I landed in the middle of the Gothe Nightclub's bottom floor. Panting.

"Yowsers!" Harley Quinn shuddered. Holding a dazed William B. Fox over her shoulder, she turned and gazed at Poison Ivy. "We've got a show-off, Red!"

"Another pathetic _husk_ is more like it…," Ivy sat up on her levitating vine, propped up a shapely leg, and aimed a wristband crossbow over it and towards me. "Say your prayers Mister……._'Noir'_, is it? My my, little boy…you're a long way's from home."

I turned and glared at her. I raised the pollen in my metal hand to throw back.

"Hmmmm…..heheheheh…," Ivy chuckled in a low, womany throat. "If you actually think that I would be vulnerable to my very own toxins…."

I repositioned my arm and tossed the pollen at Harley Quinn.

_Thwissssh!_

The clown girl all but dropped Fox. "AAAAACK!"

Ivy's green eyes widened. She dove to the side at the last second and blocked the incoming pollen with her chest.

_PFFFT!_

Quinn flinched. "Red!"

FWOOOSH!

Quinn then looked up…to see a murk-flying foot sail into her face.

**SMACK!**

The clown flew off the vine and slammed into a lattice of speakers. CL-CLANG! "OOF!"

Fox tumbled towards the ground.

Perched on the vine, I reached down and grabbed him by the collar. I took a brief second to breathe…

_SM-SMACK!_

I jolted from an elbow to the back.

Poison Ivy stood up behind me, joined her hands together, and slammed them down on me again. "You should ask permission before taking a ladies' seat!" _**TH-THWUMP!**_

I plummeted off the vine.

Fox fell after me. **GRIP!** Ivy caught him and was hoisting him back up onto the green branch.

WHUMP! I landed on the ground, winced, and propped myself up on my knees. I looked up and saw the window through which the thick vine had entered. It was within sword's slice of me.

So I…..

_TH-THWISH-__**CHTUNK!**_

Green goo spilled and splashed out from Myrkblade's scarring entrance.

The whole vine shook and quivered like it was a lizard tale, and some paranoid part of me could have sworn I heard the vine make a 'shrieking' noise.

Poison Ivy must have heard it….or felt it. She turned and gazed wide-eyed at my damage and shouted: "My baby!"

I saw Fox dangling from her grasp. So I ripped Myrkblade out, snarled mutely, and slashed in again…twice as deeply.

_**CHT-CHTUNK!**_

**RIIIIIP!**

The filaments and membrane of the vine shredded and…

_**SNAP!**_

The green monstrosity fell across the length of the Nightclub floor.

_**SLAM!**_

To put it lightly, Ivy and Fox went for a tumble.

The unconscious playboy was sprawled on the ground between two booths. Ivy rolled over to a stop besides an abandoned 'dance' cage. She moaned and struggled to get up.

At the same time, the thorny tentacles that had encircled many a thug disassembled. And a handful of bouncers and henchmen serving the nightclub fought their way free of the vegetable material and marched towards the center of the floor. Frowning. Cocking pistols and pumping shotguns.

"Now! Now!" 'Mr. Trent' shouted from the top balcony. A safe distance away. "Let 'em have it!"

I panted.

_Guns. _

_I can handle……guns. _

_As for now……_

I looked over.

Again, Fox body lay dormant like a fumbled football.

_Grab the money and run._

I dashed towards him.

"Hey! Whoopee cushion!"

I skidded to a stop. Blinking.

"HEY!"

I spun around.

Harley Quinn charged me, swinging a rubbery red bludgeon straight at my face. "I said Whoopee _**CUSHION!**_

_**WHAM!**_

The rubber gag slammed into my skull and caused my body to spin three times before tossing me into a balcony support pillar. THUD!

"HA!" Harley Quinn tossed the whoopee behind her shoulder. "From Mr. J with love!" She then proceeded to whip out a flame thrower from….some other orifice in her black and red costume. "THIS….however…belongs to yours truly!"

_**FWOOOOOMB!**_

My black eyes bulged. I held my breath and leapt over the flames.

Two booths crackled and exploded from the consuming flames.

I flipped and hung by my metal arm to a balcony ledge.

"Come 'ere, kid!" Harley ran up beneath me and aimed her flame-thrower up. "Granny's got a cure for ya zits!"

_**FWOOOOMB!**_

I dropped down. Flame and ashes danced down onto my backside. I rolled over and stood up…breathing heavily.

Harley snarled and re-aimed her billowing weapon. "Stay still, ya frickin' squirrel!"

I snarled.

_Dammit, only one person can call me……_

**FWOOOOOMB!**

_SHIT!_

I blurred along the length of the dance floor.

Harley giggled and trailed the tongues of fire after me.

I ran, teleported under a table, leapt over a stool, and dove past a bar full of beverages….

_**POWWWWW!**_

The bar exploded when the liquids came in contact with Harley's fire.

A hot, steaming burst erupted out towards her.

"Whoops!" Quinn stepped back, disengaging her flame thrower. She made a cute face of guilt. "Don't want a repeat of the Toys 'R Us incident."

Padding…stomping….thunderous feet.

She glanced left.

"Huh? Oh snagglepuss…."

**WHAM!** I rammed into her, shoulder first.

She stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth and swung Myrkblade up.

_CHT-CHTINK!_

I shattered the framework of the flame thrower.

Little bursts of plasma started to vomit forth from the weapon.

"Snap!" Quinn tossed it towards the wall.

_**BLAM!**_ The flame flower exploded in billowing swirls of amber and red.

"Oooooh….," Quinn's masked eyes sparkled. "Pretty!"

SLASH! Myrkblade swung.

Quinn backflipped.

I braced myself.

She somersaulted back and perched atop a table.

"Let's dance to a different tune, shall we?" She spun and froze in a pose with three razor sharp playing cards. "MY TUNE! HA!" She spun again and tossed the projectiles.

_THWISH! TH-THWISSSSSH!_

I blinked in half a second and then backflipped.

_SWIIIIIISH!_

One playing card grazed my twirling legs, ripping a line of fabric through my fatigues.

I landed facing away from Quinn. I expertly shot my metal hand behind my back.

CL-CLAMP! I caught the other two playing cards.

My lips curved slightly.

I pulsed murk through my prosthetic and enveloped the cards with smoke. Holding my breath, I spun around twice and flung the murking cards back at the clown girl. _TH-THWISSSSSH!_

Quinn's eyes bulged. "Eeep!" she crouched low and covered her head comically.

SL-SLICE! Meanwhile, the cards shredded through the support structure of a speaker-holding lattice behind her.

She stood up and grinned wide. "HA!" The lattice teetered and fell down towards her back. "Silly ninja! Only my therapist can use my talents against me! And he's six feet under!"

I leaned on Myrkblade and waved.

"Huh?"

_**CL-CL-CLANG!**_ The lattice fell, pinning her to the floor.

"Hey! Nnngh….nnnghhh! Get me out from under here! A girl can only handle so much pressure these days!"

_Whatever……_

I turned around, suddenly overcome with immense curiosity as to how the rest of the hellish nightclub was fairing with Poison Ivy.

BL-BLAM! BLAM! BANG!

A line of thugs were firing bullets at what looked like an army of….weeds _crawling_ towards them. While they were preoccupied with the flora footmen, Ivy was running towards the center of the room with a familiar victim over her shoulder.

I clenched my teeth.

_Fox!_

"Ahhh…the Nightclub scene…," Ivy breathed in the air of the chaotic room before reaching into a 'pocket' of her leotard and producing a handful of seeds. "To every criminal underground, there is….another underground." She tossed the seeds into the middle of the floor besides the collapsed vine.

_**SP-SPLORCH!**_

A corrosive green acid formed a large puddle. Steam and smoke rose towards the ceiling. A hole was ripped freshly into the floor, melting through to a tunnel below.

I looked at it. Gulping.

"_Batman related to me that he believes there is a stockpile of hidden weapons and tools for Triangular being hidden beneath the Gothe Nightclub building itself……,"_ _Clark Kent had said._

"Ta ta, Triangular. It's been a real pleasure giving you displeasure…" And she leapt down the fresh hole with Fox, but not without uttering: "Coming, Harley?"

I didn't immediately dash after her. I stood stock still, trying to process what she said…

_Ivy knows about the Triangular? _

_What in the……_

"Nnnngh!" POP! A comical sound effect announced Harley Quinn prying herself free of the speakers' lattice work.

I spun around with Myrkblade just in time to spot Harley skidding to a stop before me.

"Now now….I have no time for babysitting…," Quinn sexily winked and waved. "But if you're lonely, I know who to recommend." And she brought two fingers to her mouth and shrilly whistled.

_CRASH! SHATTER!_

A pair of windows looking into the Nightclub shattered on my right, a balcony level up.

I turned and glanced

_THWOMP!_

I was slammed to the ground by one of two mangy hyenas. Red leashes twirling like second tails, the two furry animals hissed, growled, 'laughed', and flung their jaws at me.

I raised a metal hand up to catch the teeth of one. I had to swing Myrkblade up and use its broad side to block the bite of another.

I struggled and jerked and fought with the two bloodlusting animals as Harley twirled up over me, cupped two gloved hands beside her face, and cooed: "Awwwww…..they want to plaaaaaaaaay! Be nice, babies! Bite the bones off BEFORE chewing them!"

"_Harleyyyyyy!"_ Ivy's voice echoed from the tunnel.

"Eeep! Right! Go time…," she blew me a kiss. "As much as I'd love to cradle-rob….ciao!"

I snarled, fighting with the hyenas.

Harley Quinn acrobatically flipped, somersaulted, and dove herself down into the acid-burned tunnel into the basement levels of the Gothe Nightclub.

Soon, the henchmen of the place—joined by Mr. Trent—fought and shot their way through the attacking _plant monsters_ and ran to the hole. They jumped in, one at a time. Weapons ready. Tempers flaring…shouting.

"Get them!"

"Don't let them escape!"

"We gotta get Mr. Fox at all costs!"

They were soon drowned out by a snarling, drooling hyena face in front of my eyes.

_SNAP! SNAP!_ Its jaws bit at my nose.

I dodged, jerked my face, kicked up steam, and….

_**FWOOOSH!**_

I teleported straight up _with_ the hyenas in tow. I solidified right as I reached a balcony underside. I twirled and slammed into the overhang with the hyenas hitting it first.

WH-WHAM!

They yelped like Chihuahuas with their tails being bitten.

All three of us plummeted and fell awkwardly in three places across the nightclub floor.

CRUNCH! One hyena through a table.

TH-THUD! Myself off a bar counter.

CRACK! Another hyena through a chair.

Then…

Silence…..

………

The nightclub had been cleared of patrons, save for those knocked out and lying in various strewn spots.

All the thugs still awake had rushed into the tunnel beneath the acid-burned floor. Distant gunshots and shouting sounds echoed beneath the chamber.

I groaned mutely. Clutching Myrkblade, I limped to my feet and hobbled towards the hole. I looked down and was graced with a basement of yellow brick leading off into a pure, cylindrical tunnel of solid concrete. And from there, the sounds of combat emanated.

Of course I was going to go down there after them….and by 'them' I imagined _everybody_.

_And to think I couldn't sink any lower……_

I sighed.

"………"

SWOOOSH-_THWUMP!_ A hyena pounced on my back.

_CRUD!_

The two of us plummeted—"laughing" down into the basement.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beneath the Gothe Nightclub was an age-old series of catacombs. Almost as old as Gotham City itself. Whatever nefarious purpose the catacombs once served, they were now but a bridge connecting to a very new and very expertly constructed tunnel lined with glazed concrete leading southward. Uninterrupted. Ringed with lights. Perfectly round and cylindrical in nature.

And such a perfection was being pierced by two sexily clad criminals scurrying their way down the long concrete 'tube' with Fox in their grasp. Behind them, a throng of gunmen and thugs charged, reloading shotguns and other dangerous firearms.

"Harley…allow me to congratulate you on your punctual klutziness."

"Duaaah?" Harley blinked. In mid-sprint, she frowned over at the poisonous redhead. "Well excuuuuuse me, princess! In case you didn't notice, I was kinda sorta tackling some kung fu reject with a case of gas! I thought you said this place didn't have the superheroic heat on it!"

"Well, there was always the threat of Batman!" Ivy huffed and puffed while carrying Fox. "That's why I cultivated the special mutant Vitis mustangensis to aid us on this raid, but as it turns out some lucky skunk turned out to have super-powers."

"Say Red…do you think there's really gonna be a point to all this concrete spelunking? I mean, I'm a sucker for a 'light at the end of the tunnel' and all, but…."

"Less speculation and more perspiration, Harley…."

_**BANG! BL-BLAM!**_

Shot and bullets flew over their heads.

"EEEK!" Harley covered her cranium.

"Oh for the love of ferns…," Ivy spun around, snarled, and flung a handful of seeds behind them. "Get out of our hair already!"

The green pods struck the walls and floor of the tunnel. With a rumbling sound, they sprout out mutant tentacles that ruptured and grew at an alarming rate into thick, pulsating vines. A cobweb of green plant membrane covered the tunnel's passageway from wall to wall to ceiling to floor. The pursuing thugs skidded to a stop.

A sweating Mr. Trent ran up and shouted: "Blast your way through, dammit! Don't just stand there!"

The men pumped their shotguns and fired at the web of green.

BL-BLAM!

POW!

BLAM!

Plant skin shattered. Green goo splattered. The vines quivered and shook but held their ground.

Mr. Trent stepped back and distanced himself from the line of gunmen. He whipped out a cellular phone, cupped a hand over his opposite ear, and squawked into it: "This is Trent! Yeah, I know the boss ain't here! But this is an emergency! Seal the second layer of the southbound tunnel! NOW!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Harley glanced behind them—panting—at the sight of the gunfire assaulted plant wall.

"You think that will stop them, Red?"

"Just long enough…," Ivy grumbled and slowly carried Fox forward.

_SCHLIIIINK__**…THUD!**_ A huge slice of doors closed in the middle of the tunnel like an aperture and blocked the southward path of the two women.

"…..," Harley blinked at the barrier. "You think that will stop **us**, Red?"

"Nnnngh…," Ivy grumbled. THWUMP! She practically tossed Fox into Harley's chest. "Hold the phone."

Quinn dangled Fox over her shoulder. "Do we really need this chump alive?"

"What we want to see is at the end of this tunnel….," Ivy said. She pressed a button on her armband and produced a steel cutter. She went to work on the door. _Zzzzztt!_ "The son of Lucius is just insurance…..for now. In the end…who knows? He might serve as a good shield."

"Hehehe….I get his head when it's all done?"

"Ugh…..Harley…."

"What? The babies might be hungry after they're done with Mr. Sword-Person!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**BL-BLAM! **

**BLAM!**

Shotgun blasts ate and ate into the plant.

"It's no good!" one thug panted. He craned his neck and looked through the cracks in the vine at the two vixens on the other side. "We're doing jack to these branches and the girls are cutting on through!"

"Hurry up! Fire closer!"

"But sir….at point blanc….!"

Mr. Trent snarled. "Do you realize what Dent will do to us if those two see too much?"

_FWOOOOOSH!_

Trent nearly spun off his feet as I blurred by.

Two gunmen likewise gasped and teetered away from me. "Wh-Whoah!"

I solidified in front of the vines, panting and writhing with hyena scrapes all over. I frowned, charged Myrkblade with smoke, and slashed-slashed-slashed-slashed-slashed-slashed-slashed at the vines.

SLICE!.SLICE!.SLICE!.SLICE!.SLICE!

The thugs behind me blinked.

I ripped faster through the branches with my murking blade than their shotguns could have done on their own.

"Say….," one henchman muttered and pointed: "Just whose side are you on, anyway?"

Still slicing rapidly, I glanced back at them. "………"

"Does anyone really care?" Mr. Trent shouted. He pointed to the edges of the vines. "Cut through!"

They lowered their shotguns, raised pistols, and fired at the vines on either side of me.

BL-BLAM! BLAM!

SLICE!.SLICE!.SLICE!

With our superpowered and ballistic efforts combined, we started to crack and break through the mutant plants.

I panted and sweated….

_I can worry about alliances later. _

_Right now……Fox……_

T-T-T-T-T-

"Almost there….," Ivy grunted, working hard on the cutting tool.

The door still stood firm. The thinnest of cracks ate through it.

"Almost……..th-there….."

_RIIIIP!_ BANG! BANG!

The plant wall started to give way behind them.

"Chop chop, Red!" Harley sweat, holding (hugging?) Fox's body and biting her lip at the sight of the pursuers making headway behind them. "Chop chop, Red! Chop choppity chop chop!"

"Nnngh….that's good enough…," Ivy grunted. She clicked the cutting tool back into her armband, stood up, produced an acid seed and launched it into the hairline fracture she had formed in the door. "Ha!"

_PFFFT! SSSSsssssSSSSSSssss!_

Steam and smoke.

_CRKKKK!_

The acid burned the cut through.

"Harley?"

Quinn passed Fox to the redhead, narrowed her eyes, twirled about, grunted and—"NGHH!"

SWISH…**SMACK!**

The clown girl kicked the severed door chunk off its frame.

CL-CLANG!

"Open sesa_**us**_!" Quinn cheered.

Ivy rolled her green eyes.

_**CRACK!**_

Trent's men and I ripped through the plant wall. I jumped on through, twirled Myrkblade, and gazed down the tunnel at them.

"Eeek-ness!" Quinn uttered.

"Go, Harley! Go!" Ivy shouted.

Quinn jumped through the door frame.

Ivy headed out after her, dropping seeds as she went.

I took a breath and….

FWOOOOOSH!

I soared after them, murking.

And then the seeds started to sprout and mutate behind the girls. The first of a line of them morphed slimily into a walking, man-sized venus fly trap. Flower petals yawned open with mucous dripping, sharp teeth that snapped at me. **CLAP! CLAP!**

I skidded to a smoking stop, flailing just inches before the creature.

The killer plant paced around on gnarled roots and lunged at me. _HISSSS! _

I flipped back.

_**CLAP!**_

The jaws bit at mid air.

I held up Myrkblade.

The plant redoubled. Four companions marched up alongside and charged at me and the thugs.

"Look out!"

"Smoke 'em!"

BL-BLAM!

POW!

The henchmen fired shotgun volleys and pistol blasts at the creature.

Lead and green slime flew. Hissing, mutated shrieks filled the air.

In the middle of the barrage and chaos, I blurred forward with an upswing of Myrkblade and sliced through one plant after another. SL-SLINK! THWACK!

Goo and green spray splashed.

I held my breath, teleported through the mass and hacked and slashed my way while the henchmen shotgunned after me. Together we formed a line of destruction obliterating the plant golems as we dashed after the two escaping mistresses.

Mr. Trent in the distance squawked yet again into his cell phone: "They're breaking through! Initiate the third layer's defenses! Do it!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We're almost there, Red!" Harley shouted as they reached the last length of the long tunnel. "Just a few more frolicking feet and….."

_ZZZZT!_

A web of heat lasers fired up in a criss-crossing web, blocking their way to the last door.

"Ahhhh…Giminy Krakow!" Quinn halted, frowning.

"This is too much to be called Harvey's work…," Ivy walked to a stop. Her green eyes were thin as she thought aloud. "Dagger must be digging deeper into this City than we thought…"

"Yeah….sure….Dagger, Triangular…they all sound sexy. Now can we please PUSH ON THROUGH?" Harley shook. "I sense all nations of the world trying to butt rape us and…"

CRKKKK!

Another plant bit the dust far behind them. Gunshots and sword slashes and smoke.

"Aaack! We'regonnadieWe'regonnadieWe'regonnadie!"

"Hush up! Hold him again!"

"I already am!"

"Oh whatever….just catch your breath!" Ivy walked over and knelt in front of the field of lasers. She planted two seeds firmly in the ground. She coaxed them. Breathed on them….she guided the sprouting vines as they poured out and stretched and grew and stretched and grew and….

_Snkkkkkkkkkkkk!_ The vines extended in two separate direction and snaked their way through the laser fields. They wrapped around each other and formed a double helix before touching cleanly on the other side like a bridge.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime, I slashed through a lasting plant and burst my way through the shattered door frame…

**GRIP!**

I let out a silent shout and fell chest-forward to the tunnel floor hard.

THWUMP!

I winced.

I looked down at my feet.

A wounded plant had its vine wrapped around my ankle. It flipped and flopped around in its own green 'blood', writhing and shrieking as it tightened its grip on me.

I snarled and slashed and hacked at the quivering vine in a vain attempt to free myself. I sweated and looked down the last of the hallway.

Harley and Ivy were at the laser field.

Just about to escape.

I panted….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ivyyyyyyyyyyy….," Harley shook.

"Stop squealing already!" Ivy groaned and gave the seeds one last pet. "Now, my darlings!"

The vines instantly thickened and shifted outward. In so doing, they expanded into the path of the lasers, blocking them.

_HISSSSSSSSSS!_

Smoke and steam rose from where the spiraling vines were impacted by the lasers. But as the helix expanded, a 'tunnel' of sorts was formed arcing through the criss-cross of heat breams, allowing for safe transit.

"Now, Harley!"

Quinn snarled and drop-kicked Fox in the butt. "Boys _first!_"

THWUMP!

The man's unconscious body comically pinballed through the tunnel and landed clean on the other side.

Harley expertly dove through, slid through the crevice made by the plants, and rolled to a perching stop on the concrete floor beyond.

As the tentacles started to melt away, Ivy climbed in. She glanced back at the last second….

SWOOOSH-_SPLORCH!_

The wet, soggy remains of a dead killer plant flew into her face.

"Nnnngh!" she swiped the slimy entrails off her face and dripped in horror.

FWOOOOSH! Myrkblade swinging, I blurred at her.

She crawled reverse through the tentacle tunnel, aiming a wristband crossbow at me and firing poison darts. _Thwift! Thwift! Th-Thwift!_

I swung Myrkblade back and forth in mid-sprint. CLANG! CLACK!

Ivy snuck through to the other side and hobbled back.

_PFFTTTTTSKKK!_

The tentacles burned to ashes.

The criss-cross of lasers solidified.

I skidded to a stop, panting.

"Okay, Red! Let's make like the Siberian wind!"

The two girls dragged Fox with them through the end of the tunnel.

Behind me, rushing feet and voices.

I glanced behind, breathing heavily.

The henchmen charged, pumping their shotguns.

Mr. Trent was shouting into his phone: "Seal the exit! Seal the exit now!"

_WHURRRRRRRRR!_

I spun and looked ahead.

The door that the girls were running through was swishing shut.

I held my breath, pulsed murk, and leapt forward.

"H-Hey!" some thug shouted.

_FWOOOOSH!_

I teleported through the heat lasers and solidified at the end of my dive on the other side.

I rolled to my knees and stopped to inhale. My body was 'smoking' in several places.

_WHURRRRRR!_

The thick and heavy door panels were only inches apart.

I shot forward, blurred, and squeezed through in the form of steam at the last second.

FLASH!

_**CLANG!**_

I made it as the tunnel was sealed off.

The lasers deactivated.

Trent and the henchmen skidded to a stop at the end of the tunnel, panting.

"……SHIT!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the other side of the door, there was but a few scant feet left to dash until myself and the two women I was pursuing skidded to a stop before a rusted metal railing overlooking a lofty, dark interior.

Harley freed a shoulder from carrying Fox and whipped out a goofily large revolver. "Bang goes your head, Wakko!"

Poison Ivy aimed her cross bow.

I raised my sword.

And for a span of five seconds, the three of us stood….threatening each other. Silent.

"…….."

"…….."

"…….."

We all lowered our weapons as one. Blinking dazedly.

"……………………"

We walked over and gazed past the railing at the bottom floor of the factory we were suddenly in.

And….

The ground was clean. Empty. Void of any and all things. Lacking souls, lacking instruments, and certainly lacking any and all pieces of the 'weapons arsenal' that Superman said Batman had assumed to be there.

Judging by the fact that us three individuals—who seconds before were at each other's throats—were no longer in the act of trying to kill one another….I surmised that Harley and Ivy were just as shocked by this sudden revelation of a missing cashe as I was.

"What in Rhea's name?"

"Red! It's gone! There ain't nothing here but nothingness! And a whole lot of it!"

"But….I-I don't understand….," Poison Ivy murmured. Fugate and Tetch said they spied it here! Even Crane had dirt on this lousy garden hole!"

Harley Quinn shook. "D-D-Do you think it was a setup? Th-That they were tryin' to rid us just like…," she gulped, "…the Parasite?"

"Not possible….," Ivy shook her head. "…that would connect them to Triangular…."

I looked at the redhead.

She looked at me. Her pale face suddenly snapped and she pointed her crossbow at my face.

I gritted my teeth and aimed Myrkblade into her throat.

CHIIING!

"And just what are **you** doing here?" Ivy hissed. "Nobody…I don't care _how_ young or stealthy could have possibly found this place out without going through all the trouble like we have!"

I frowned at her.

_Don't get me started in defining 'trouble'……_

"Darn it….," Quinn squinted. "Just why does this kid look familiar to me?"

"Because he's a blasted Titan, Harley. Now be a good girl and help me out!"

"What? Can't handle him on your own?"

"Nnngh….not here, Harley….," she hissed. "Not now…."

"Sheesh…you never let me tease you!"

"What are you talking about? Of course I…."

"I'm not talking about _that!"_

I growled mentally in frustration, holding Myrkblade to Ivy's throat.

_Why, God…… _

_Why is my life always full of __**frickin' LESBIANS?**_

"Eh….whatever," Quinn aimed her clownish gun at my forehead while I was trained on Ivy. "Kiss your virgin face goodbye, Orlando _BOOM!"_

"……..," I started to sweat.

_**POW!**_

I flinched….but I was still standing. The blast hadn't come from the gun, but instead the nearby doorway of the tunnel.

All three of us gasped and spun to face the fresh, smoking hole.

A line of gunmen with tommy guns and shotguns filed out, frowning. Trained on us. Mr. Trent also emerged. But…walking through the center in a tall, stonelike gait that announced himself as the proprietor of the explosion was a face of legend. Rather….two faces of a legend. He flipped a coin with a gnarled blue hand and glared at us. Flipping. Right eye calm and collected. Flipping. Left eye bulging and monstrous. Flipping. Flipping. Flipping.

I gulped.

"Harv….," Ivy smirked ever so slightly. Her green eyes thin. "Still dealing with the devil as always?"

"Everytime I wake up, Pam…," the iconographic villain uttered in a hoarse voice that shook my bones up close. He flipped. Flipped. Clutched. Pointed. "As for you and your clownish girlfriend…..still flirting with death? You might not find death here, dollfaces. But you sure as Hell found trouble."

"Gee, I dunno, Harv….," Poison Ivy flipped her scarlet hair and leaned sexily back against the railing. "It looks to me that 'trouble' left this place long before we got here." She pointed with a backwards nod of her head to the empty floor of the factory. "So where did all your big, bad toys go anyhow?"

"They were never here to begin with…," Two-Face resumed flipping the coin and stepped up before the ladies, Fox, and I. "I got wind of the Bat sniffing this place out long ago. So when I told Triangular, we kept the Gothe Nightclub glistening while the goodstuffs were carried away. There's no nest like an empty nest if you ask me." Flip. Clutch. Glare. "Or _me……"_

"Hmmph!" Harley Quinn upturned her nose. "Undoubtedly the work of Mr. Wolf here!"

"Fox."

"Whatever! Gawd, you're such bologna!"

"Sir…they've seen too much," Mr. Trent said. "We can't let them warn anyone…."

Two-Face glared specifically at Poison Ivy. "Pamela….who's on your team? What is this I hear about…a second 'warfront'?"

"Hey?" Quinn pouted. "Why're you asking all the questions to Red anyways?"

_Cl-CLAK!_ Two-Face aimed a gun with her good hand at Quinn. "Cuz when she opens her mouth, she actually makes _sense, you bumbling waste of estrogen!"_

"Eepness….," Quinn backed into the railing with Fox.

"You know how we work…," Ivy gestured. "Two blossoming roses in the mud of this putrid City. There's absolutely nobody in this City we'd join forces with. It's just not how it goes, Harv. You know that."

"What I do know, Ivy….," his mutated side squinted. "…is that you have a history of lying to one face and kissing the other! I think you're in a plot to wreck Triangular and what it stands for. And that makes you worse than an enemy to me. That makes you weak…."

"And since when were you one to sell yourself out to an underground empire, Two-Face?" Ivy suddenly leaned forward and growled. "It's the stupidest most suicidal no-no in the book! Sooner than you think, you'll have the Joker and the Riddler on your back like bees to a dandelion! You'll be stabbed from all sides sooner than that maniac Dagger will have time to stab you in the back himself!"

"Then why after so many months am I still standing?"

"…….."

Flip. Flip. Flip. "This is a different world, Ivy. Things are changing. The weak villains will be weeded out by the Parasite. One by one. And only those safe in the arc of Triangular will survive to see the world of a new balance. It's as simple as that. You chose to tread water…and for that….you'll drown…."

"Where's the Parasite going to strike next, Harv?"

"I'm done talking to you…."

"_Where's the Parasite going to strike next_?"

"Maybe the question you should be asking….," Two-Face pointed. "Is why are you so frightened? You couldn't possibly be that scared….unless……you have tasted of that frozen, red breath yourself?"

"…………"

Two-Face's 'faces' turned and trained on me. He hoarsely hissed: "Only once you've brushed close with the blade of the Parasite can you truly be frightened into doing…._anything_……."

I clutched to Myrkblade like it was a blanket.

I gulped and stared at the line of guns, thugs, and _faces_.

I felt a chill.

Again, in my metal arm.

_But why here of all places? _

_Is……Is he nearby? _

_Rrrrred Aviarrrry……_

"How do you do, Noir?" Flip. Flip. Clutch. "I've heard a lot about you. You gave us all a fine headache in Vegas. But….to be perfectly honest…..I wanted the whole western ordeal to be over with as soon as Dagger finished what he went there for. That's why I sent Croc in…as an ear into the place. The Dragonflare merely cooked his brains for a few short days like I expected. He pulled out in the end. Both you and he weeded out another weakling before the Parasite ever had a chance to. The world is a smarter places without its Andersons."

"………," I stared.

"Just what did you come here for?" Flip. Flip. Flip. "Was it because of what Metallo did to you? Or perhaps because the stone girl's child still hasn't been found? No….No….it's something else that brings you here." He pointed at his mutated half's skull. "I know what it means to have a dark, obsessive force yanking at the puppet strings in the attic. There's a cold and silent space inside each of us, kid. A tabula rasa of obsidian ink. And somewhere in your void, a red cloud burst and nearly ripped you asunder. What did you see in that crimson vortex? What pulled you here? It couldn't have been the train of golden vials….because at this point, you'll never guess where that is. Something far more moronic dragged you to Gotham…and that intrigues me like a rat trying to eat its own tail in starvation."

I shivered from my metal arm…and something else. My legs shifted. I felt the weight of the birdarang in my fatigues' pocket. I sighed….

"No matter….," he growled. Flip. Flip. Clutch. "Shoot them. Shoot them all."

Ivy frowned. Harley gulped. I shivered.

Mr. Trent gasped. "But…B-But boss!" He paced over and quivered before Two-Face with a shrug of his arms. "Mr. Fox! At least get the bitches to cough him off!"

"Nnnnghhh!" Two-Face shoved him to the side and yelled. "Who are you to talk? It is not up to me to decide! This is in the hands of fate!" And he readied his coin for a strong flip.

I blinked.

_Is he for real?_

"Two-Face! You're crazy! If Lucius' son bites it, the heat will be on to Triangular!"

"By that time it won't matter. The hammer is about to fall," Two-Face said. "We will be done here and a second November Fourth will go as planned!"

"……..," my quivering jaw dropped.

"Red….," Harley whispered. "It's just as we feared. Will you-know-who be…."

"Shhhh!" Ivy hissed back. "Any time now. Just hang in there…" And then the redhead glanced at me.

I squinted curiously under my shades.

_What's going on here? _

_Who's doing what? _

I subconsciously scooted over and stood in the 'firing range' with the two women and Fox…as if I suddenly felt in the same boat as them. _Perhaps I was in that boat all along?_

The thugs were silent. Every gunman tensed and stared as Two-Face flipped the coin of destiny.

It spun in the air with a metallic rush of wind. Thin. Mute. Resolute.

Molasses time. Like oozing motion. The pin rose, flipped, fell…and landed in Two-Face's mutated palm.

_Sl-Slap!_

His other hand clasped over it.

"…………..," Two-Face opened his hands. He looked at it.

We gulped.

"…………," he glanced up at us. Both eyes calm.

Ivy sneered: "I don't like that look."

And Two-Face pointed: "You won't be seeing it for very long," he turned and looked at the thugs. "Shoot them!"

"N-No!" Mr. Trent started. "Fox!"

A subordinate gladly elbowed the man in the chest.

WHUMP! "Oof!"

"You heard the boss…," the thug smirked. He stood, cocked his gun, and aimed. "Ready, boys?"

Cl-Clak!

Clak!

Cht-Chtunk!

"OmigodOmigodOmigod!" Harley hid her face in Ivy's shoulder. "Red! Hold me!"

Ivy rolled her eyes. "Time for an early Spring…." And she shrilly whistled.

The gunmen blinked.

Then…

A vibration.

A shaking through the metal framework of the factory. The empty air echoed the metal clanking until…

_**SMASH!**_

The wall beside us exploded as a mass of flesh poured on through. I could barely see through the dust and wreckage as a thick, hulking foot slammed down and caused a wave of unearthed metal flooring to rush towards the gunmen and knock them all off their feet.

THWOOOSH!

"Whoah!"

"AAAH!"

"D-DAAH!"

I braced myself against the railing.

Harley and Ivy fought for their footing.

"Nnnngh….," a sleeping Fox groggily smiled. "Just how I like it, baby. The rest of you girls keep the water bed counterbalanced….zzzzzzz…."

"What in the devil?" Two-Face groaned.

The dust cleared.

A giant stepped into view. _**STOMP!**_ "Buenas Noches, Senior Dent. Have I arrived at a bad time?"

Two-Face shook his head and groaned. "Ah great….they got to you before we did."

I blinked. I squinted at the stranger.

"Si…pero I chose my allies on account of my own intuition….," Bane said with a nod of his head. "But I'm afraid you….are on the losing side of the fence, tonto."

"Will someone….please….," Two-Face snarled out of one face. "….shoot the overgrown tumor?"

The first row of guards who got up whipped out their tommy guns and fired madly.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Bullets ricocheted everywhere.

Harley and Ivy ducked.

I flinched.

Bane ducked, grab a solid slab of metal paneling, and held it in front of him. Bullets flew off it in maddening sparks. He charged with the impromptu shield and slammed his entire weight into the gunmen like a rampaging bull. "NnnnnghhRAAAH!"

_**CLANNNNNG!**_

The thugs' bodies went sprawling.

Two other gunmen aimed shotguns and fired.

**BL-BLAM! **

**BLAM!**

Bane side-stepped the blasts, raised his foot, and slammed it down like a sumo wrestler. "YAAAAH!"

A wave of unearth metal flew and knocked the men back into the cylindrical tunnel behind them. Th-Thwump! "Oof!" "Nnngh!"

Two-Face fell from the vibrating chaos. A pair of black boots stood before him. He looked up weakly.

"Hrm….," Ivy knelt down and smiled, her lips pursing. "You know…there was a time when I would have interpreted this as you proposing to me…."

Two-Face merely hissed: "The only proposal I have for you is a lead slug between your eyes."

"Cute….but futile."

"Whatever happened to you and that dumb blonde being 'two lonely roses in the mud' and crap?" Two-Face growled.

"You know me….only kissing one face at a time…," Ivy trailed her gloved fingers along his chin and said: "You know…once all this is over and Triangular finds itself collapsing under its own weight, I'm going to have to kill you."

"And I'll enjoy taking you with me."

"Heheheh….I'm sure you will, Harv. But as for now….," and she kissed him on the human cheek.

He blinked. Then his eyes rolled back. "Ughhh…." THWOMP! The poison kiss knocked him out. He lay silent on the cracked metal platform.

Ivy stood up, hands on her hips. "Dream of…less bloody things………you ugly piece of shit." She blew him a second kiss and girl-stepped away.

In the meantime….

**POW! SMACK!**

Bane's menacing fists flew through thug after thug, massacring them against the walls and leveling the entire place to the point that I thought the steroid-induced cretin would bring the entire ringed platform down.

As for myself…I stood on the sidelines. Watching. Blinking. Allowing Bane to do more complete of a job than I ever could.

**THWACK! CRACK!** "Ughhhh!"

"Kinda makes you wish you had popcorn! Don't it?"

"…..," I gazed at Harley.

She held Fox while winking at me. "Ya know….you're kinda cute when you look confused, kid."

I blinked.

_Shouldn't I be chopping your head off right about now?_

"**RAAAAUGH!"**

Bane spun and next flew his fist towards me.

I winced all over with Myrkblade held up.

"………"

Nothing happened.

I panted and looked up, seeing Bane's fist stop just at my forehead. Every other thug had been crushed into unconsciousness behind the towering behemoth and now he stood blinking at me from behind his tight black mask.

"…….oye," he paused and pointed. "Donde es esta muchacho?"

"His name is Noir…," Ivy stepped up and folded her arms. "He came here from Metropolis."

"He did?" Harley stupidly uttered.

Ivy rolled her eyes and continued: "He's a former Titan. In trouble with the law for attacking the Justice League and the Daily Planet staff."

"Do you know what he's doing here?" Bane asked.

"Nope."

"……..should I spare him?"

I bit my lip.

Ivy looked at Bane. Then looked at me. Then looked at Bane again. "Nah."

I shuddered.

"Bueno…," Bane launched his fist at me the rest of the way. **"RAAAUGH!"**

I took a breath and backflipped.

_CL-CLANK!_

The railing snapped where Bane's fist went through.

I landed and slid back to the wall.

Bane stood tall and seethed at me.

I snarled and twirled Myrkblade at ready. TH-THWISH!

He faced me directly and pumped his arms. A cord connected to a wristband pumped a green serum into his neck. His arteries throbbed. His muscles bulged. Teeth gritted like a set of granite ivory in two serrated rows as red eyes glistened in bloodlust. He raised his mountainous limbs to the ceiling and shook the entire chamber as he roared a battlecry: _**"RAAaaaaAAAaaaaAAAAAAAAUGHHH!"**_

"…………..," I sweatdropped.

_Yeah……uh……__**no.**__  
_  
CHIIING!

I sheathed Myrkblade, turned, and ran.

_I'm not THAT crazy._

"Coward!" Harley squealed.

"Let him go," Ivy said. "We need to take this sniveling playboy back to the others."

"Mmmmm…..," Fox drowsily murmured. "So….much….._PINK_…."

Bane eyed a propane tank embedded into the factory wall. He smirked under his mask. "Not without un poco fun…." He grabbed the tank with meaty fingers, snapped it loose, and hoisted it over his head like a football.

In the meantime, I dove off the outer platform, landed on the empty floor of the factory below, and dashed towards a dark tunnel.

"Go long, you little mosquito! HA!" THWIIIIIIIIISH!

I looked behind my blurred shoulder.

My black eyes bulged. I pushed myself faster into the black tunnel with a pulse of murk.

CL-CLANK! The tank struck the metal surface of the inner tunnel, bounced, ruptured, and…

_**PHOOOOOOOOMB!**_

A wave of fire and shrapnel ate at my heels, caught up, and propelled my flailing body forward like a cannonball.

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several minutes later….

A heavy-set body smashed through a wall of a factory.

Two petite females carrying a dazed African American snuck out after him.

Bane lead the two to a lone black moving van in the parking lot.

The women and Fox snuck into the back.

Bane slid the rear doors shut, dashed to the driver's side, and jumped in.

The engine roared loudly in the empty night, but then puttered into a low pur.

The vehicle drove out of the parking lot….and down the road….

……

……

But not without a shadow emerging from the sidelines, aiming a silent gun, and firing a blinking tracking device that sailed two hundred feet and landed securely on the rear mudflaps of the van.

_Pow! Thwiiiiish! Cl-Clank!_

Beep….Beep….Beep….

The van trailed off.

…..

The shadow on the edge of the parking lot spun about and ran off into the distance with the wave of a long black cape….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….."

I stirred.

"……….."

I stirred again.

The first thing I did when vision returned was I checked my limbs. The flesh ones. Everything was in tact from what I could tell. _Then_ I checked my metal prosthetic. Still in tact. _Still shivering._

_God, I hope that's just a bad habit and not an 'omen'._

Speaking of omens….

I sat up in the dark tunnel and rubbed my groggy head. I looked in the direction from which I was 'blown'.

A line of flames and burning shrapnel were all that remained of the propane tank that chased me.

There was no point in returning from whence I came. If not a layer of burning plasma, I'd have a mountain of steroids and muscles to face up to. And I wasn't quite in the mood for that.

'_Bane', huh?_

I hobbled up to my weary feet and adjusted Myrkblade's sheathed over my shoulders.

_For a man whose body just SCREAMS 'wrestler', he's got one heck of a pitching arm……_

I clutched my shivering metal arm and limped towards a cold, red light at the end of the tunnel. _Outside Gotham night……I guess._

I took a deep breath and let my mind do what it always did best.

Agonize…..

_Okay……So…… _

_Two-Face is the last point of Triangle. Or at least one of the 'Gothamites' that Triangular is composed of. _

_Two-Face is obviously trying to protect William B. Fox, the son to Lucius Fox……co-CEO of Wayne corps. Or at least……Two-Face's men wanted to protect Fox. Two-Face could care less with his coin running the show. Frickin' psychopathicon._

_The Gothe Nightclub ONCE housed a weapons arsenal for Triangular. But that arsenal is gone now. Perhaps…in anticipation of Harley, Ivy, and Bane? Maybe in anticipation of me? Maybe just for the friggin' hell of it? _

_What WERE Harley and Ivy up to anyway? Why did they have Bane involved? Their main goal was to see the nonexistent arsenal of Triangular, but I guess they captured William B. Fox as a fringe benefit, and now they're making away with him. And it doesn't sound like they're working alone. Something's rotten in Gotham's Denmark and for once it doesn't have a single damn thing to do with Red Aviary. _

_Or wait……does it? The Parasite IS Red Aviary. Different name. Same demon. Triangular has a foothold in this City, and something tells me that a lot of other villains know it. And they aren't too happy. _

_So what is this, a warzone? Where is the shipment of Terra's essence? Where is Gaia? _

_Hell……where is Batman?_

I sighed.

Walked.

Took a deep breath.

"……"

I felt the birdarang in my pocket again.

I bit my lips.

_One thing at a time, Jordan. One thing at a time._

I gazed forward as the light intensified. A rushing sound gently increased as I walked on. A sound like…..like water on rocks.

_I need to get to Fox. More than anything, I need to find out what part he had in Terra's essences being taken to Gotham City. Because if what Two-Face has rambled on about concerning a new 'November Fourth' is true……then I may not have much time before…… _

_Before…… _

_I don't know, what. But I can feel it. It isn't a good thing. _

_It isn't a good thing at all._

I reached the end of the tunnel.

And.

I stopped.

A sharp chill ran up my metal hand and into my cranium.

Forcing my optics to widen.

"……."

I reached a trembling hand up and took off my shades. I gazed with naked black eyes out.

I stood in a tunnel emerging onto a huge Bay. Black waters lapped rock bluffs all around me. Sawgrass stood in sharp stalks waving at the sky. A red sky. Red reflection on the waters. Red glinting off the sawgrass. And red clouds billowing coldly downwards. And in the distance…standing tall…standing pale….standing strong….

A lighthouse. With a pale strobe of light twirling…twirling…and _**FLASHING**_ at me.

My jaw dropped.

_This place…… _

_This is……This is where……_

My metal arm shook.

I clenched the fingers.

I looked down, shivering all over.

_I've seen it. _

_Someway……somehow……I-I have……_

I sweat. My black eyes trained on the floor. And for a pulsing second, I could have sworn I saw obscure clumps of light brown.

_Is that……Is th-that……_

A _**STROBE**_ of lighthouse light. The brownness was caked and crumbling. Ancient.

I shuddered.

_Is th-that……mud?_

Another strobe.

Another chill.

Something rocketed up inside of me and exploded in icy fire through my spine.

_**FLASH! **_

_RRRRRED AVIARRRY!_

_**FLASH!**_

"_Run, Robin!" _

"_Annie, no!" _

_**FLASH!**_

"_Bring her back!" _

"_I can't! She's gone!"_

_**FLASH!**_

"_Robin, no!" _

"_NnnnnghRAAAAAUGH!"  
_  
_**FLASH!**_

"_Sometimes……there are no happy endings……"_

_**FLASH!**_

I stumbled.

I leaned onto a metal pipe with my metal hand.

The titanium digits shook and quivered and gripped tightly to the metal.

I sweated and shivered all over.

Panting….panting…..panting….

_Red Aviary……_

I gulped.

_This is it…… _

_This place…… _

_This is the center of it all…… _

_Of everything that has happened and will happen……_

I looked down beneath me.

The light brown matter was gone.

Perhaps blown away by the watery November winds….

Perhaps never there to begin with….

_Red Aviary is here…… _

_He may not be here to kill me. _

_But somehow……he's here…… _

I looked up at the wall.

"……"

My metal fingers had burrowed holes in the pipe.

Forming cracks from the shivering limb's penetration.

_He is a part of me. _

_And I can't shake him._

I stood up on straight on wobbly legs.

I put my shades back on.

I gazed bravely up at the strobing, blinding lighthouse.

_All I can hope to do……is unfold this mystery before he catches up with me…… _

_Or worse off…… _

_My friends._

I took a deep breath. I summoned murk into my body and prepared to blur out onto the waters.

_I need answers. _

_I need to know what Harley, Ivy, and Bane are up to. I need to know the 'allies' that they are collectively working with._

FWOOOOOSH!

I dashed out onto the cold waters of the Bay.

Running against the freezing, November wind.

Kicking of watery spray and bending around to climb my way northward over dry, urban land.

_And in Gotham City……_

_As legend tells all superheroes…… _

_There is always one place where you can get good info._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 29, 2004.

The IceBerg Lounge.

1:23 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The normally hopping nightclub establishment was rather barren.

Less than a third of the tables were filled that evening.

The band that was hired to play atop the ice platform in the center of the sea lion pool was sent home.

Even the bouncers positioned at their usual stations were yawning.

Pacing—more like waddling—across the foyer of the icy cool club was a fairly confuzzled Oswald Cobblepot.

He griped and muttered and mumbled to himself, momentarily pausing now and then to lean on a leather umbrella or adjust the bow-tie of a suit no patron had the chance to see that evening.

After a few seconds of this putrid pacing, a sexily leotard 'pigeon' lady with dark hosiery and a derby hat walked over with a bundle of menus and bit her lip as she said: "Gee, Mr. P….if you keep moving around like that, you'll cause trouble for your blood pressure! You know what Dr. Greene said about…"

"Confound it!" he waved his umbrella at her. "Don't patronize me, you puny-minded princess! This has nothing to do with my circulatory system. Can you not see that my financial oasis here is suffering from a deplorable drought?"

The hench-girl flinched, hugging the menus to her chest. She smiled nervously and said: "B-But I'm sure people will come around! You're the gentleman of Gotham City! The Penguin reformed! You're an inspiration to us all!"

"Mrmmm….muddlefeathers….poppycock….bah! If I needed some cheering up, I would have chosen a quiet spot to busy myself with today's grim stock report…………….and perchance the obituaries…."

"It's just a slow night, boss! Things will get better! You'll see!"

"I'll be seeing pink elephants in pantaloons soon enough," the Penguin rubbed his monocle with a hankerchief and grumbled. "I know exactly what is going on here. The cackling cowards of this City are on the rise, and they've infected all of my…._easily persuaded_ clientele with bloated balderdash about 'Parasite' this and 'Red Reaper' that. Goose feathers! If I had a shot of bourbon for every time I've heard a patron calling in and excusing himself from my Lounge on account of some 'triangular conspiracy' I would have lost three livers and laid a golden egg by now! Pfft! I'm retiring to my roost now. Be a good kitten, Lark, and make sure the fledgling dredges humoring my establishment have flown the coop by Two."

"Y-Yes sir, Mr. P…."

The obese 'former' villain waddled up a set of icy-white steps towards the upstairs office of the nightclub. stairs. If I survive this wretched recession, I'll be installing an escalator! Bah…no sense of leisure for the fine feathered fellow these days…."

The henchgirl sighed to herself, hugged the menus, and trotted off towards the front of the club. Something streaked by her as she passed the frozen pool. Something flickering smoke and then gone again.

"Ackies!" she nearly spun. She looked around.

Nothing.

"…..," she gazed into the pool. "Hrmphh…I do wish Mr. P would feed them pups more fiber…." She waved her nose, made a face, and trotted on.

…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Penguin locked the door to his office behind him.

Still mumbling to himself, he turned around and waddled to his desk side. "--it…where did I put my daily reports?"

He searched a few drawers of his desk….paused….and tilted his bald head up.

"………"

He turned around.

He gazed behind his chair.

The window was open.

The curtains shook as a cold November wind blew in.

"…………..nnngh….," the Penguin sighed and planted his hands into his hips. "All right, Batman. What in the blazes do you want from me this time….?"

_FWOOSH! _

I materialized and shoved him back into the desk.

"Nnnngh!" _WH-WHUMP!_ He shook his head, his lips making a goofy bird sound. He blinked beadily at me. His lips into a curious smile. "You? Why….you aren't Batman. A little bit younger and more bird-brained, if you ask me."

"………," I glared at him. I slowly marched forwards.

He stood up and straightened his suit. "Somehow I thought that you might walk into this City. Quite a wild card you are, my tempestuous Titan. What's with all this hodgepodge chaos you've busied your bumbling body with in Metropolis? Trying to become a villain, are you? Here's a word of advice, my dear delinquent. You are better off sticking to the gray edges of the fence!"

SWOOOSH….**GRIP!**

I had my metal hand around his throat.

"Snnkkkt…..," the Penguin wheezed. "Not much for woards….are we?"

I kept glaring fixedly at him while…with my right hand…I dragged over a notepad from his desktop and scribbled on it. I held the words up for him to read.

His monocled eye tilted over and read the page.

'_Do you know where Harley and Ivy's new gang is located?'_

"Hmmm….," he smiled at me. "Now aren't we the peeping tom?"

"…………"

"Hrmph. Stiff feathers, huh?" he shifted in my grasp. "Who's to say if I know or not? I'm in a rather pitiful pinch as of late. There's no early worm for this bird to snatch these days. If you want information…it will cost you."

I gritted my teeth at him. I mouthed: _'Not in the mood.'_

CHIIIIIIING!

I brought Myrkblade out and held it to his chest.

_If I threatened 'Clark Kent'……I can certainly scare the shit out of this Pokey wannabe._

I blinked.

_Wow……so this IS the makings of a villain……_

To my surprise, he merely laughed at me. An effeminate, haughty laugh. I somehow envisioned the Planters Peanut man in afterglow.

"Oh…how the cycle never ends," he rolled his beady eyes then smirked at me. "Tell me, chap. What dangers do you promise to assail on my plentiful person? Are you going to slice me? Dice me? Send me dangling out the window? Kick a table into my face? Slice off my neck and feed it to the hyenas? Or maybe just boil me alive in my own juices while piranhas eat at my exposed intestines? Blah blah blah…"

_Th-Thrump!_

He shoved me back with an indignant frown.

"Go home, you _lackey_!" he hissed. "You don't frighten me. You're young and foolish! Reckless, perhaps, but hardly threatening!"

"………..," I stared at him.

"Hrmph! Honestly! Do you think there is a single threat, death wish, or malevolent intent that has _not_ been impressed upon me by some Bat-creep, Cat-creep, or Night-creep in some way or another?" He folded his arms and turned his nose up at me. "There is absolutely nothing whatsoever in the golden books of Gotham City that will get me to spill forth anything you would want to…."

**WHAP!**

I kicked him in the face.

"OOF!"

He flew back into his chair.

The chair flew back into the wall.

I marched at him. One step. Jabbing Myrkblade. Two steps.

_**SLIIIIIII-IIIIIII-IIIIINK!**_

I sliced the length of Myrkblade into the cushion of the chair squarely between his legs.

"DuAAAH!" Penguin convulsed all over, his monocled eye widening.

"…..," I whipped off my shades. Demonic black smoke danced from my eyes.

_Wanna bet I'm a clean cut, pal?_

He sweated. He looked from me back down.

I gripped Myrkblade with two hands while gritting my teeth and pulsed waves of smoke into the blade.

_**FL-FLASH!**_

The whole sword billowed and vibrated serrated energy into the chair and right up against his groin.

"I…..I….."

I pulsed it even more.

The smoke bit at his thighs.

Tiny delicate seams in his pantlegs started to curl and shred open.

_Riiiiiiiiiip!_

"AH! Allright! Confound it!" he waved a hand desperately, wildly. "I shall talk! I SHALL TALK!"

"………….."

He panted. "I will talk….I-I will tell you about the association of Miss Isley and Miss Quinzelle. Just…pl-please….put that bastardly blade away!"

"…………..," my lips curved.

_SLIINK!_

I pulled the blade out of the chair.

The Penguin rested his hands on his thighs. Polkadotted boxers showed dangerously close to the center. He bent over and exhaled…sweating all over.

I stood up straight and menacing above the man. Still smirking.

_Now we're getting somewhere, Ana……_

And I sheathed my sword.

_CHIIIIING!_


	218. A Hard Act to Follow part 3

**218. A Hard Act to Follow part 3**

"Word is on the street that the two maidens of malevolence are no longer working by their pretty little selves…," the Penguin sweatily uttered. He dabbed his forehead with a rag while sitting in the November chill of his open office window to cool off. "What exactly they are _'working'_ on remains a mystery that even my most feathery of friends cannot elicit an ear from in this gothic battleground of ours….."

I eyed him warily, sharpening Myrkblade from where I sat in the corner perched atop a filing cabinet. I kept in the shadows, my shades hardly a glint of the lamplight on the far side of the room.

I had to maintain my menace….

"But I certainly know that there is quite a few fellow miscreants on their side," Mr. Cobblepot leaned back and sighed. Still sweating. The thighs of his pants hilariously shredded. "Whether or not they purposefully led this tense troupe also remains to be seen. But quite obviously, the malicious Bane from the south was their first 'recruit'. Word has it that the Clock King and the Mad Hatter have recently joined some hidden alliance, and there is no doubt in my mind that the ladies' club is inherently same establishment entertwined with those two posh fledglings'! Bah!"

I leaned my head to the side. I pointed with Myrkblade towards the bottom 'floor' of the Iceberg Lounge and then motioned with my head for emphasis.

"Hrmmm?" Penguin blinked beadily at me. "My business? Wree! What business of yours is this business of mine?"

_CHIIIING!_ Myrkblade formed sparks along the edge of the filing cabinet.

Penguin wobbled in his seat. "Um…Um…Um…Um….N-N-Not that I have a problem sharing with you—of course—my good fowl. Ahem. Things have been drier than a month's old sack of bird seed here. There is plenty for the pecking, but the flocks have all gone south for the winter. There's a bird-catcher in our rye, Mr. Swordsman. I don't see how anyone on either side of the dramatic fence could not be aware of it…."

"…..," I leaned my head to the side. Black eyes thin.

"Why….," he leaned his balding head forward some and hushedly said: "I'm speaking of the Parasite, of course! Now there's a name just about as big as Triangular and Dagger and other pish-posh! I'm not one for conspiracies, Titan. I'm thoroughly convinced that it was a celestially divine aneurysm that exploded John F. Kennedy's head and an upstart ostrich that buried Jimmy Hoffa. If you needed information on the inner tickings of some criminal underground apocalypse, I'm not the one to tell you of it. I don't have my talons dug quite as deep as they used to be. If there's anyone here who is in the know, it certainly isn't me. You've sensed this Parasite, haven't you, boy? Why else would you be here?"

I took a deep breath. My metal limb shivered once. I ignored it and kept my gaze fixed on him. I put Myrkblade down and gestured two 'pointy ears' atop my head of hair.

"Batman?" Penguin blinked. "Heh! Heavens be for the swallow! I haven't seen the likes of that caped canary of obsidian for nearly a month now! And normally I would be counting my golden feathers for joy, but there comes a time when a…ahem….dignified businessman such as myself comes to find a greater of evils at hand." He adjusted his monocle and looked serious as he said: "This Parasite, Titan…..this red reaper of mystery and ill ilk….he has been causing quite a fatal stir among the trees and nests of Gotham. The grimy streets are no longer safe for the robbers _as well_ as the robbed. Dare I say…it would almost seem like there's no need of Batman these days whatsoever! And the same goes for that former Boy Wonder Nightwing and the ever-trivial Batgirl! Someone or something has been making Night a panicky purgatory for anyone with the gizzard to raise a pistol! And this isn't something out of pure vengeance or some madcap pursuit of justice, my boy. No…this is a monster. A predator and a prowler and a pestilence incarnate! Something swift, something cold, something that smokes red ash and breathes upon its victims something that makes them shriek 'red!', 'Red!', 'RED!' before they die. Quite the tale to tell over a flickering fire out in the country, I do say…."

I took a deep breath. Lips firm. Limbs numb…

_Tell me something I don't know……_

"Calendar Girl….Lock-Up….Boxy Bennet…Baby Doll…," the Penguin counted his petite fingers. "Even a few associates of the Royal Flush Gang. They've all died quite horribly and—might I add—quite secretly in the last few weeks. But they were merely detritus of the grand mess of things. They were either young or foolish. Maybe both. One by one, they were consumed by the reaper of Gotham's transformed streets. And the fiends of higher order caught wind of the bloody feathers flying. And now you have sides being taken. Triangular….and this troupe of which Pamela Isley and Harley Quinzelle partake. All I know of Triangular is a certain Two-Face. The rest of the Gotham City seems up for grabs when it comes to an opposing side. But…like all flightless birds….I could very well be falling short."

"……..," I jumped down from the filing cabinet. Myrkblade in hand, I marched over towards the seated bird-man and glared down at him.

"Wree! What?" He clenched his fists and frowned up at me. "You want more information? I'm a dry sponge now, Titan. There is nothing left to squeeze from me…….." He then rubbed his chin in thought. "Although……"

I raised an eyebrow.

"In speculating on where exactly in this quaint cove the new 'troupe' may be nesting…," Cobblepot murmured, "….I can't help but envision somewhere low to the ground yet built for the skies. Some place hollow enough for any strenuous, interior devil-plotting….but at the same time a veritable fortress against any and all red streaming invaders from outside."

"……..," I gritted my teeth.

_Who named you the Riddler?_

"I'm speaking of the abandoned Gotham International Airport, of course….," Penguin turned up his pointy nose. "It's a lost classier than that new posh 'Powers International' that has been build north of town. Bah! But who am I to judge old winds and old wings? Ahem. Gotham International Airport is a graveyard for old ghosts of flight. But in the last few months, it's circulated in the mouths of the underworld as a dreamlike spot for a headquarters. With so many new factions picking sides in this dark domain of ours, I wouldn't doubt it if you found_ something_ of interest there. Assuming the Batman doesn't beat you to it. Heh. I thought I'd never hear myself say this, but God rest his leather-beat soul. Constant disappearance and a dead songbird from your Town has got to weigh heavily on his pointy head!"

**GRIP!**

A metal hand around his neck.

He wheezed: "Erm….r-right. I shall make no mention of the deceased Robin. There's a g-good boy….."

"…….," I released him. I swiveled around. I marched out of his office and through the door.

He exhaled long and hard as he leaned back in his chair. "You're quite welcome….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I walked along a lengthy, ornamental hallway upstairs in the Iceberg Lounge. There was a door with a 'porthole' window at the far end ahead of me, gradually leading me to an exit. But as I walked, I kept my black, shaded eyes towards the floor. I took a deep breath and let my mind wander.

"_I can't help but envision somewhere low to the ground yet built for the skies," the Penguin had said. "Some place hollow enough for any strenuous, interior devil-plotting….but at the same time a veritable fortress against any and all red streaming invaders from outside."_

My optics narrowed darkly at the carpet.

_Harley, Ivy, and Bane have a fortress built………in a flight control tower? A hangar? A run-aground aircraft carrier?_

I ran a metal hand through my black hair and sighed as I dragged Myrkblade.

_Whatever happened to good, old fashioned warehouses?_

"………"

_I wonder what Speedy is up to at this moment._

I couldn't help but smirk.

I reached the door….

I looked up. I gazed through the porthole. I came to a sudden stop, gasping wide. I immediately jerked my body up against the wall and cloaked invisible…._FWOOSH!_

**THWUMP!** The door was kicked open. Hissing beneath his breath, a disgruntled Killer Croc stepped into the hallway and marched oppositely in the direction from whence I came:

Mr. Cobblepot's office.

The porthole door swung back in place, and there I stood invisibly. Pressed flat against the wall. Panting….numb….

"………."

I gulped.

I glanced down the hallway at the back of the pale, shirtless monstrosity. The first I had seen of him since Vegas…..

_What in God's name is __**he**__ doing here?_

I blinked.

_Well, granted, this IS Gotham City……but……_

I clenched my jaw.

_I've got more than Red Aviary and Batman to beat to the punch. Triangular's undoubtedly doubled now that they've been harassed by Harley and Ivy and also witnessed me in town._

I slowly shuffled over to the door and prepared to teleport under and through it.

As I started to hear the first of a new set of scuffles emanating from Cobblepot's office, I glanced back and smiled with a bead of sweat.

_See you later……_

FWOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOSH…THWUMP!

Penguin grunted as he was shoved up against a wall.

Killer Croc gripped his shoulders and snarled, his glistening teeth in the bird-man's face.

"Hressssssh….for the last time, **TALK!**"

"And for the last _time_, you rambunctious reptile!" Penguin hissed back. "I've given all the information I care to give for tonight!"

"Why you little….," Killer Croc snarled and raised a serrated hand. "Want me to rip that gizzard out from under your fat chins?"

"Save your breath…I am quite thoroughly _over it_ tonight!" Penguin said. He made a show of adjusting his torn pants and shoved Croc's arms off of his suit. "The late bird does not get the worm here, my friend. Or in this case…the late lizard."

"What?" Killer Croc dumbly blinked. "Look, dodo bird…"

"Watch it."

"I just came from a rather head-split Two-Face angry because you didn't think to tip us or Mr. Trent at Gothe Nightclub about a certain bunch of bitches and their Bane on a leash making things tough for the big boys! Now you're holding out on us and I want to find out why, Cobblepunk!"

"And I'm telling you! You're late! Someone beat you to the punch!"

"Now who in the world could….?" Killer Croc froze. His reptilian eyes narrowed as he saw something. He walked over to the filing cabinet and ran his finger along the scratch marks.

Penguin winced and held two hands up. "Now don't be too hasty, Mr. J-Jones…."

"RrrrrgHHRESSSHAAA!" Killer Croc picked the filing cabinet up and launched it out of the nearby window. CRASH!

"My Penthouse!" Penguin ran to the window.

THWAP!

Croc bitch-slapped the waddling man across the room before shaking his angry fists to the ceiling. "NOIRRRRRR! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME IN GOTHAM! I'm gonna RIP YOUR FILTHY PIG HEAD OFF! You HEAR ME?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU SMOKING RUNT? YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR MAKING ME LOOK BAD IN VEGAS!"_

I perched on a buildingtop across the street.

In the cold wind, I turned and gazed at the brightly-lit Iceberg Lounge.

"………….."

I smiled.

I saluted, sheathed Myrkblade…CHIIIING!….and dashed off westward.

Towards the abandoned airport….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 28, 2004

Titan's Tower

8:37 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven drifted into the Main Room and was again graced with the endless squabbling of the Metropolis News Report. Wearing a blue sweater and jeans, the dark girl headed towards the kitchen unit and prepared herself some morning tea. She glanced over yet again at the t.v. set.

A tired looking Beast Boy squatted on the couch.

"……..," Raven blinked while stirring a small mug. "You're **still** watching the news?"

"Why not?" Beast Boy murmured. "It's not like there's anything else I can do…."

Raven sipped from her mug and paced across the Main Room. "You could always go out on patrol. Cyborg's meeting with Lieutenant Smith right now as we speak. There might be a new problem to solve in the City."

"Like what?" Beast Boy asked tiredly. "There isn't anything that happens in this City anymore. Nothing serious. Besides the Buzzard Gang, it's like the storm came and left. Some cruel joke that stole Robin away. Unless Smith needs help dragging a cat out of a tree, I don't see what this place needs the Titans for anymore."

"Gee….your words are soooo awe-inspiring," Raven droned as she padded over to a window and gazed out at the cold Bay while sipping. "Try to be anymore cheerful and I might be inclined to bash my head with a baseball bat."

Beast Boy frowned at her. "In case you haven't noticed, Raven…," he gestured towards the screen. "Our former teammates are going to Hell in a handbasket! Helicopter footage shows Garth's body lying around all beat-up. And Noir's wreaking havoc across Metropolis! So forgive me if I'm not as cheery as I used to be. Heh….funny how the _only_ constant in this Tower is your sarcasm!"

"…………," Raven slowly glanced over at Beast Boy. It wasn't a contemptuous gaze. But rather, deadpan. "Have you considered actually going north to run into Noir, then?"

He folded his arms and frowned at the t.v. "More sarcasm?" he muttered.

"Not this time."

"…………..," he looked over at her. Sadly. "My leaving would be what you want, isn't it? It's what you and Cyborg would want?"

Raven's lips parted some. She leaned her head to the side: "What do you mean….?"

"You two want all of the Titans gone until it's just you two in the Tower…all private and stuff….to have your happy romance all to your cold, reclusive selves and let the rest of the world rot."

"That's not what Cyborg and I want and you know it," Raven said bluntly.

Beast Boy ran a hand over his face. He sighed and took a while to utter: "I'm s-sorry, Raven. When you and Cyborg first got together….I-I was happy. I truly was. We've all been through a lot, and it'd only help us to….t-to find ways to get all the more close to each other. And I knew that you with your emotions actually _needed_ someone whether you wanted to admit it or not. So when Cyborg stepped up to the plate, I was happy. I still am….but…." He gazed at Raven sideways. Green eyes soft. "I miss the old you, Raven."

"The old 'me'?"

"The part that….th-that wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind. Unemotional…though a bit cold. You could always be depended upon as an honest observer. Quiet. Independent. Mature…."

Raven took a deep breath, steadied her cup of tea, and asked: "What am I now…Beast Boy?"

He bit his lip and looked off before admitting: "You're still quiet….still unemotional, for the most part. But….not quite so inedependent. And…..And sometimes I think…."

"Yes?"

"…….th-that you've been hiding behind Cyborg as of late…."

"……"

"I-I don't know what he's promised you, Raven. And…heh…I bet it's none of my business. But, it hurts, Raven. Because I know that I'm right about a few things. And don't tell me I'm being self-absorbed. I know that….that I'm right about needing to go find Terra. And I know that I'm right about this City no longer being the center of all things chaotic. And I know that both Starfire and I are right when we see this 'family' of ours slipping apart and further disintegrating. There was a time when you would so obviously see all that too, Raven. But whether you see it or not now…..you choose not to say anything about it. And Cyborg will block and block and block reality like some terrible, constipated ostrich…and you'll be hidden there beneath all his feathers. I don't know why, Raven. Maybe because it's comfortable for you. I-I know it'd be comfortable for me too. But I'm on the outside. I see Cyborg towering over the rest of us as leader and self-appointed psychobot. And….I can't stop thinking of Terra. And Garth. And Jordan. And I wonder if you really think about them too….and if you still care about them…but somehow feel obligated to pretend there's nothing going on in your blue head about it at all. Because Cyborg's not saying anything…."

"…….," Raven raised the cup of tea to her lips, but she didn't sip. She murmured: "Of course I care about them…"

Beast Boy didn't hear her. "I'm not leaving the City. Not now. Even if Garth was being beaten by a million traitors or if Noir was dropping a bomb on New York. I've realized that….with the way things have gone….there's still far too much to risk losing what's left here. Starfire. You. Cyborg. As painful and senseless as it all may be, I want to cling onto all of is. And maybe…heh….maybe like you and Cyborg….I'll learn to push the rest out of my mind."

_Click_

Beast Boy flipped the t.v. off.

He stood up and dropped the remote down to the couch.

Raven's lips parted. "What are you doing?"

"Cyborg's right…," Beast Boy said. "Robin should never have let us go after Terra. It was foolish and fatal to begin with." The voice coming out of his mouth was far more bitter than even Raven could coldly concoct. It was like a frosty tape recording played at slow speed. "And Tempest and Noir were being selfish when they pity-partied themselves out of this Tower and City. And look at them now…." He swiveled about and walked firmly out of the Main Room. "Good riddance…," he muttered.

Raven gazed after him. She almost said something….almost reached for him.

But as if cast in lead boots, she stayed still. And sighed.

"…………….."

Raven looked back out the window.

"……………."

Her violet eyes narrowed.

There was a figure. On a bike. In the middle of the land ridge connecting the island to the main land.

The figure drifted back and forth, a teenage girl with brown hair. She seemed hopelessly and stressfully strung inbetween two decisions….two decisions heading in two directions: to and from the Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lindsay fidgeted.

Clad in a sports jacket and a sweater and jeans, the freckled girl stood on her bike and looked up at the Tower. Her breath showed vaporously in the cold November winds whipping in from the Bay Waters.

She bit her lip, shook her head, and with a shudder—swiveled around to pedal back to land…

"You know…we do have a doorbell…"

"?" Lindsay looked over her shoulder.

Raven floated gently down and levitated a few feet away, her sweatered arms crossed. "Some people use it….."

"…….," Lindsay smiled crookedly. "H-Hey…," she nervously uttered.

"……..," Raven stared coolly back. "You seem…….anxious."

"You sense that?"

"Do I 'sense' that?"

Lindsay winced. "It's said that you're a telepath."

"Empath. Close enough."

"Uhm….."

"Was there something you wanted to discuss with the Titans?"

"Y-You remember me, right, Miss Raven?"

The dark girl's lips curved ever so slightly from that address. "Yes. I think you're the girl who finally got Tempest to shut up and stop moaning just days before he left."

"Huh?"

"I remember you, Ms. Rutland," Raven nodded. "Something is on your mind. And it doesn't take a telepath to see that."

"I….I-I thought I should share some things with you guys," Lindsay said.

"Well, you can share them with me."

"It's about Garth……a-about him and Noir…."

"…….," Raven blinked. "Jordan?" she remarked.

'Who?"

Raven winced. "Nevermind. What is it, exactly?"

"Well….," Lindsay ran one hand through a lock of hair over her ear lobe before showing off a few envelopes from beneath her jacket. "I've got these letters and…."

"……."

Lindsay said: "I-I-I think it's about time I started sharing what Tempest has been telling me…."

"…….," Raven nodded. "First thing's first. It's a little too cold here."

Lindsay nodded and rubbed her shoulders. "Y-Yeah…."

"Let's go somewhere a little warmer, shall we?" Raven flicked her wrist.

"Sounds nice to m-MEEEEEE!" Lindsay all but hugged her bike handles as Raven lifted the two of them up off the bridge, a hundred feet in the air, and out into the chilly November City.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A very familiar poetry café.

With a very familiar haze inside.

And a very familiar jazz drifting softly throughout.

Raven and Lindsay sat at opposite sides of the table. It was warm inside, so Lindsay stripped down to her sweater as she fanned out the envelopes before the dark girl and spoke:

"Tempest….has been in correspondence with me over the last week and a half. He's been writing to me. Reassuring me of…..of things," the freckled girl took a deep breath and gazed at Raven. "Letting me know he's alright."

"Might I say…," Raven blinked. "You don't look entirely pacified…"

"It's a little…. events as of late," Lindsay said. "I mean, what this City has been through. What you Titans have been through. And now…the crazy stuff going on in Metropolis and whatnot……"

"………"

"Ms. Raven, I do not believe you should distrust your friend Noir. Even in spite of all the bad things he's supposedly done. I trust Tempest…and Tempest has written me that—although he's depressed over the way things have gone—he still trusts Noir. He trusts Noir, because the two of them fought alongside to uncover some sort of conspiracy. Something….involving Lexcorp…and Metallo…."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Metallo?"

"Tempest says that he was meaning to work with Noir all along. That the two were bound to meet up and fight alongside each other even long before Noir saw to the resurrection out west…."

Raven leaned forward. "Excuse me….what was that?"

Lindsay blinked. "Hmm?"

"'Resurrection'? What Resurrection?"

"You mean, the Titans don't know?"

"……."

Lindsay cleared her throat. "Garth says that he saw Noir shortly after he came back from Las Vegas…"

"I know that Noir was in Vegas…," Raven nodded.

Lindsay continued: "….after successfully rescuing the girl from stone."

There was something like a harp cord being struck in Raven's head. Her lips parted and a breath escaped her. "He….He did it……"

"R-Raven?"

The dark girl blinked. He violet eyes gazed off towards the hazy corners of the jazz club. "Jordan did it. Someway. Somehow………..he got Terra loose….."

"Terra? You m-mean the traitor?"

"…..," Raven glanced firmly at Lindsay. "Terra the _Titan._"

Lindsay winced. "I-I'm sorry…"

"N-No….it's okay…," Raven lifted a hand as her violet eyes drifted through the table. "It's just……….whoah……..that's unbelievable…."

"The way Garth made it sound in his letter, it sounded like something really important to the Titans. Yet at the same time, I think he felt a little distant about it all. He's really doubtful and lost, Raven. He feels lonely in Metropolis. Twice as lonely with being banished from the sea and all……I worry about him…."

"……….."

"R-Raven?"

Raven snapped out of it. "Did he say where Noir took Terra?"

Lindsay seemed a bit taken back. She blinked and uttered: "Oh….um. No. Apparently, Noir was very….very secretive about that."

"………."

"Garth mentioned something that Noir rambled on about. Some sort of 'spirit of Death' chasing after him and Terra too. An all encompassing….scary Destruction entity…."

"Destruction….entity…..," Raven murmured.

Lindsay opened up an envelope, spilled out a letter, and pointed at two words in Atlantean font.

'_Red Aviary'._

Raven bit her lip. There was something in her body. Like a pausing of her heart's ventricles. A momentary jolt to the senses that were not so much in recoil as they were sinking. Sinking into some sudden abyss.

And it reminded her something….or some things.

_The Messenger's lecture on Triangular._

_Viper's homicidal ramblings._

_Noir sitting in a booth at Denny's long ago, shivering. _

_Shivering……_

"……..," Raven's violet eyes narrowed on the unseen horizon. She spoke without looking to Lindsay: "Did Garth have anything to say on what Noir was going to do because of this….._Red Aviary_?"

"That's where he got rather secretive…," Lindsay sighed and slunk back in her chair. "It's wyrd, ya know? I mean…he'll share so much in his letters to me about the stuff he's dealing with up to a point. And then he sorta….digresses. As if he's afraid that telling me too much might either….endanger me or make me seriously scared for him. And…well…I-I am scared for him. I wish he wouldn't throw himself into isolation. I heard that he's banished from the Oceans. That must be so terrible. And to keep himself from….well…his friends! His teammates! I mean….why does he have to be off in Metropolis anyways? Doesn't he know that he's welcome in the Titan's Tower!"

"Yeah…..," Raven murmured. Her eyes trailing. "He should be……."

Lindsay's eyes narrowed. "Raven?"

"Cyborg….," the dark girl whispered breathily to herself. "There's a lot bigger things than we can imagine…."

"Raven?"

She looked at Lindsay again.

The freckled teen said: "That's about the third time you've blacked out on me. I-I'm sorry…am I telling you all of this at a bad time? With the way things have been, I know it must be hard…."

"I've dealt with pain and crises all throughout my life, Miss Rutland," Raven gently said. "I should be well equipped to handle anything now." And yet, she gulped. "I thank you for sharing what you have with me, I really do. A lot of it I've heard before. Some of it, I haven't. Either way, it's all very helpful. And….I-I'll be sure to process the information the best I can. For the Titans. And for Garth."

Lindsay nodded. "Th-Thank you. That's….that's a good thing….," she bit her lips and her eyes trailed the sides of the table.

"Hey….," Raven leaned forward and placed a hand on Lindsay's wrist.

The citizen seemed rather surprised at the dark Titan's touch. Her attention was instantly grabbed.

Raven said: "You have showed great faith in Garth. And if he's in Metropolis, I don't truly think he's alone. I believe he's in good hands. Undoubtedly, the Justice League is looking after him…."

Lindsay nervously said: "G-Garth wrote that the Justice League is falling apart."

"………"

The teen shuttered: "There's s-so much depressing things going on all at once across this nation. I do not think it's a coincidence. If I didn't know better, I'd say the Adversary was trying to ruin the spirit of good and righteousness by offsetting the spiritual balance."

"I can vie for the 'imbalance' part…," Raven said as she stood up. "But regardless, Tempest is a very adaptable, strong person. I'm sure you don't need to worry about him."

Lindsay managed a soft smile. "I know…..he's been in my prayers since day one."

"Prayers?"

"Mmmhmm," Lindsay nodded.

"Well…I'm sorry, but, I think I need to go," Raven spoke. "I need to look into something…"

As the dark girl spun around…

Lindsay stood up and pensively added: "Y-You've been in my prayers too, Raven…."

Raven stopped beyond the table. "……"

"All of th-the Titans, for that matter….."

Raven sighed. She glanced over her shoulder slightly and said: "I hope that means something for all of us…" And she walked off.

Lindsay hugged herself and shared a lonely curve of the lips. "Soon enough, I know it will….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Raven passed through the Titans' garage upon entering the tower, she saw Cyborg hunched over half a shell of what would eventually be the 'T-Car 2'. Welding sparks flashed from Cyborg's opened arm-panels, and whirring mechanical sounds filled the air as the android Titan loudly fixed together engine pieces and body plates.

Raven stopped. She stood, petite in sweater and jeans. A touch of the November cold dwindled on her blue bangs and shoulders. She gazed over at Cyborg's back as he worked intently.

"………"

She shuffled over. She stood directly behind him.

He was oblivious. Between the noise and chaos of intense mechanical work, he didn't sense her looming gently behind him.

"………."

Raven reached a hand out to touch his shoulder…..paused……paused some more……sighed, swiveled, and walked out of the garage………

"Something on your mind, Raven?" Cyborg asked.

Raven grinded to a halt. She blinked. She looked over her shoulder. "Just wanted to say……….."

"………yeah?"

"Good morning."

"………," Cyborg paused. He looked over his shoulder at her with a thin black protection visor over his eyes. He 'tapped' a button on the side of his head and retracted the visor into his brow so that his half natural eyes peaked. He smiled and cheerfully said: "Well, good morning, cutie…."

"………," Raven's lips curved somewhat.

Silence……

"Uhm….w-was there something you wanted to…."

"I'll be in my room," Raven said suddenly and padded off. "….meditating."

"……..," Cyborg sat alone. And he blinked. "Uh………okay." An awkward tilting of his head. A few seconds later, he shook it off and went back to his work. "Well allright!"

Welding. Welding. Welding.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

When Raven entered her room, she very quickly and very firmly shut the door to her room. It was as if the weight of the world was like a giant ocean and the hallway outside had become its drain. She leaned back on the door as if to keep the pressure out and murmured breathily to herself in rapid pants which she had hidden from Cyborg….

"_Red Aviary…………Red Aviary………"_

Images flew through her head. Images of swordsmen and different colored eyes and dark waters and even darker horizons until it all rattled against the inner walls of her head and she couldn't shake it loose and reorganize everything anew.

"Nnnnngh…," she rubbed two fingers against her temple. _Instant headache._ "I must…..narrow the visions down. But how?"

Silence…..

She stopped rubbing her head. She tilted her head up. Her lips parted.

"Not how…._**who**_……"

Her breathing returned to normal. She glanced over towards the opposite end of her dark, forbidden room. She rushed over to the closet and gathered the first of many items she would need for…

An intense meditation.

"Time to get to work….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 28, 2004

Gotham City.

Abandoned Gotham International Airport.

9:32 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The land slathered about the abandoned airport was brown, the buildings a rusted amber grime, and with the sunrise at an angle everything looked orange and baking. If what I was seeing was merely a snapshot photo that I was looking at from outside the glossy surface, I would have guessed the temperature of the location was somewhere within the roasting ballpark of ninety vaporous degrees Fahrenheit.

But the reality to it was much more frigid. The Gotham Air had dipped down to about fifty-five. It would be my first winter on the East Coast, and I heard it wasn't anything to look forward to.

And yet, it hadn't snowed. Not yet. Not even a single white flake. I felt like the horizons were laughing at me at all sides and refused to show a single saliva strand of it.

Which was just as well. I wanted and needed the urban landscape to be spotless for my search.

_Search for what, exactly?_

Terra's essences of course.

_Then how come I hadn't found any yet?_

This is Batman's City. I need to find him more than likely to get anywhere.

_And you haven't seen Batman because……_

Clark said he was covering the Gothe Nightclub. Once I figure out what's up with William B. Fox and Harley and Ivy's allies, then I might have a direction I can take on finding Batman AND figuring out what Triangular did with Terra's powers.

_But is that why you are really here?_

I groaned mutely.

_Rgghhh……_

I gripped a handful of hair from where I perched on a high fence top.

_Stop asking so many questions, Ana……_

Silence.

I took a deep breath of the cold air.

_Of course I'm thinking about Robin……_

I refocused my mind and stared across the forsaken airstrips towards the stretch of the airport beyond. Dilapidated tarmacs and crumbling flight control towers rose here and there. The buildings for loading passengers were half standing too. It seemed as if everything was hit by some terrible earthquake in recent history, which completely boggled my mind because from what the Penguin said I assumed that the airport could very well have been open 'yesterday'.

It would seem that neglected spots in Gotham City simply had a penchant for falling apart or collapsing. Who was I to judge accordingly?

And just where the Hell in all this deconstructed mess could a secret troupe of villainous entities be hiding? With Fox no less?

"_Some place hollow enough for any strenuous, interior devil-plotting….but at the same time a veritable fortress against any and all red streaming invaders from outside."_

It only half-surprised me that—after rethinking the Penguin's words—the solution came within seconds of scanning the horizon.

I saw it.

An elliptical, elongated dome.

Fifteen stories tall and nearly three football fields long.

A mammoth structure….certainly a wonder of the world in its glory days.

The Gotham International Zeppelin Storage Hangar.

The only thing still brilliantly immense and in tact in the whole area. I wondered if the airport itself croaked because of the money it must have taken to construct the gargantuan thing. And to what end? Sure, zeppelins and blimps were _'big'_ in Gotham City, but nobody needed to go _that_ far. And then I speculated that what I was seeing presented Gotham City in its finest essence. A giant paradox of success and failure. Where the American dream met the urban nightmare, and for every great rise in aviation there was doomed a fall in architecture. The temple to the red sky had been built and fallen to the philistines. And undoubtedly I was about to go in Hebrew-prophet style and find out a few things for myself.

_Pfft…… _

_Typical._

I took a deep breath, leapt down off the fence, and blurred across the airport towards the huge building.

_I wish the Titans were here. Anyone. Even if it was just Beast Boy to……slow me down. _

_Or something._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I found the horrifically tall exterior of the elliptical hangar……easy to climb.

I blurred up the side and found a metal catwalk lining the top crest of the structure. After walking along the sunlit platform, I gazed downwards at a series of intermittent trap doors until I felt inclined to inspect one of them. I yanked the structure open with a slight battle with rust and found a metal-laced crawlspace of sorts leading down into a compartment just above the inevitable cavity of the fifteen-story tall, hollow building.

I snaked down into the thin space…..the passageway lid slamming close behind me with an annoying, industrial thunder.

I winced, but shuffled on unhindered. The cold air was cut off from outside, and the claustrophobic intestines of metal felt rather insulated. Warm. But not annoyingly stuffy.

It went on for quite a length, making me wonder if it was a secret passageway or an air vent or maybe just a surprise home for crows and squirrels. I became aware of faint vibrations twitching through the thin metal surfaces. I gradually surmised them as voices. Voices….far away. But because of the voices' solitary presence in such a big, open, empty belly of metal…they shook the walls around me like pin drops at the bottom of a huge well. Perhaps it was just the sensitivity of my murking, spatial awareness. Regardless, I followed the 'voices' till I came to a grated panel. When I looked down through the grated panel, I nearly fainted. A one hundred and fifty foot drop into smooth concrete yawned beneath me. There was something blocking part of my vision of the floor. Something thick, huge, and yet…..light….

_A blimp? _

_In a zeppelin building? _

_Gee……'what are the odds'?_

I clenched my jaw.

_But……this building's supposed to be condemned along with the rest of the Gotham International Airport. _

_Right?_

"…….," I leaned my ear to the grate.

There were voices indeed….

But I couldn't hear them clearly.

Nor could I see whom the voices belonged to.

"………."

I sighed mutely.

_The only thing you can do, Noir, is let gravity take control……_

I shifted forward and positioned myself over the grate.

I tensed, expecting the panel to snap at anytime from beneath me.

I took a deep breath.

_Chiiiiing!_

I pulled Myrkblade.

I sat cross-legged on the grate.

I inhaled.

Meditated.

Inhaled….

Meditated…..

"…………"

And switched into smoke form.

_FWOOSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I billowed down and morphed through the metal grate. A half second after, I solidified with Myrkblade jabbing upwards.

_Cl-Clack!_

"!" I hung on the hilt of my blade, stuck into the bottom of the shaft I had just ported out of. In so doing, I dangled suicidally over a hundred and fifty feet above the murderously solid ground below me. I gazed beyond my flailing feet and saw a lopsided interrupted by a tethered blimp taking up barely a quarter of the huge hangar's space. And beyond that, white concrete with a cluster of figures mumbling in the distance.

I dangled and dangled and quivered, hanging….

_Yeah…… _

_Real cute._

I spied the blimp. I knew it was a large airship. But tethered as it was in this relatively titanic interior, it seemed like a dwarfed insect. I didn't think anyone was in the ship. And for that matter…_why_ would someone be in it? No doubt the blimp wasn't there for tours of the City. This huge hangar was supposed to be out of service. The presence of the vehicle then was a purely nefarious thing. A huge splash of 'Vreeland Cosmetics' stretched across the length of the airship's side provided ample cover.

_Unless this is actually a nazi establishment for distributing explosive lipstick……_

The voices….

The figures….

I may have been dangling like an antichristian mistletoe, but I could sense myself getting close to them. And yet, I had to keep the proprietors of this lair from seeing _me_.

So I swung my limbs, angled myself towards the blimp, and swiftly….

Leapt.

_Swiiiish!_

In mid fall, I cloaked my body and converted the lower half of my limbs to steam with great concentration. I reached the blimp. I tensed my smoking frame and morphed even more…

_FWOOSH!_

I all but splashed like a drop of water onto the top of the blimp. I recoiled and solidified with two feet expertly planted across the top of the floating vehicle. It took exhausting meditation—I was panting heavily—but I managed to disperse my energy into the air through Balance and prevent the entire airship from so much as wobbling.

"………."

The voices became distinct finally….

I snaked along the blimp slowly…slowly…slowly….

Head leaning…

"_What will we do with him? It is quite simple! At twelve o'clock noon exactly, we shall carry Mr. Fox's brutish brat of a son five hundred feet over downtown Gotham City…directly above Thirty-First and Main to be exact…and we shall proceed with the ransom that Mr. Crane and Mr. Tetch have concocted."_

"_Yeah? And just how much moolah are we gonna get out of this?" _

"_Harley, we've gone over this. The ransom money isn't important." _

"_Eh? It isn't?" _

"_Hardly, my misguided maiden! What we desire here is an attention-getter! Something that will reach the hearts of Triangular and show that illegitimate bureaucracy of blood and bad bank checks just how weak they are! I suspect that it has been a long time since they've been bitten by the same Parasite they work hard to elude. And time is an awful thing to waste……" _

"_Madre de Dios, old geezers like you are far too presumptuous, Senior Fugate. Have you thought of Batman?" _

"_Quite so indeed! We have __**obsessed**__ over that man! The caped crusader is like a coiled spring just waiting to tumble the machine of chaos into its next confounded tick. But that is hardly our concern if we keep our collective minds expertly attuned to the task at hand. I believe Mr. Tetch has the bat problem solved for our inevitable rendezvous with the belfry!" _

"_That right, Hatter?" _

"_Indeed, I suspected that there may be some foul play about the wing. So I figured that curtailing a squadron of pilots would be our thing. If the bat shows up to interrupt our quest. More than a few angry propellers will show him who's best!"_

I inched my way—invisibly—to the sloping tip of the blimp. I stared down with thin black optics and saw a group of frightening icons gathered in a circle far below me.

"But I dun' get it!" Harley rubbed her head of hair. She was maskless. The clown 'face' and hat hung in a pocket of her tights. Dual blonde ponytails glistened in frazzled madness for all to see above a pair of crystal blue eyes. "Wouldn't ransom money help us? I mean this is a nice roof over our heads and all, but wouldn't it be a little…..mmmm….I dunno…." She smiled. "_Splendid_…..if we took it upon ourselves to do some shopping?"

"For what this time, Harley?" a bored Poison Ivy sat on a pile of mortar shells and gestured with a pixie hand. "Polka-dotted thongs?"

"No! I'd never think of such a thing!" Harley folded her arms and turned up her nose. "More along the lines of C4 frisbees!"

"We don't have time to blow up the poodles in Gotham Park…."

"But they were laughing at my babies! And my babies were born to laugh at! Not be _laughed at!_"

Bane sighed and mumbled with a hand over his mask: "Esto es absurdo…"

"Eh?" Harley glanced over.

The South American mercenary gestured: "This is a non-negotiable ransom we're pulling. But we're going to _make it look like_ we want money, when really all we want right now is to stick it to those sangre-sucking idiotas in Triangular. Now the Mad Hatter has gone through a lot of trouble to mind control a special squadron of the Metropolitan Police Air Unit to keep things in check around downtown when we drop the Fox. If Dagger or Dent so much as try to bring the Blimp down….or if the Batman shows up his cabeza fea, NNNGH!" _SMASH!_ He kicked a metal beam loose along the wall of the structure so that strings of steel peeled off like a wet noodle. "Muerte por el puño de acero…"

"…….," Harley blinked. "Oh." A pause. She looked over. "And just what message are we givin' Triangle? That Lucius Fox's baby boy explodes on contact?"

The Clock King walked into view. "Triangular—I'm persuaded—is getting too big for its plebeian britches!" He adjusted glasses with minute and hour hands on them and gazed his old face at the others while speaking with his upstart, twangy voice: "All huge empires must wind down, including them. It is up to us to show them how incredibly fragile they are." He gazed Bane's way. "The three of you did a find job making a mess of their deplorable dance hall, though it troubles me to realize the elusive weapons cache has vanished."

"It has _not_ vanished…," Bane gritted his masked teeth and glared over with hidden, red eyes at the frail-sized man. "Dent has simply moved it. The split-headed cerdo is playing games with us. I honestly don't know why we didn't kill him when we had the chance."

"Because it's foolish to exterminate the three major players of Triangular, remember?" Ivy gestured. "Luthor, Dagger, Harvey….they must all live. Eliminating one of them might forever hide from us the true whereabouts and potential threats of the _Parasite._"

"Heh….Harvey….," Bane gazed seethingly at Ivy. "You speak of him as su amor, chica. That does not settle right with me."

Ivy frowned. "I am very much over Two-Face, Bane." _Fl-Flik!_ She aimed a poisoned-laced arrow at him from her crossbow. "And I'll be over your dead body if you don't speak to me with some god forsaken _respect!"_

The Mad Hatter stepped in, smirking: "Who's making personal remarks now?"

"Everybody! Take a chill pill! Yeesh!" Harley twirled about, ponytails tossing. "Think y'all would cheer up if I started jugglin' grenades or somethin'?"

"_**No."**_

Harley winced. "Eep! Fine…can't a woman be a girl for once?"

"As much as I'm all for diabolical schemes…," Ivy laid back sexily on the rack of mortars and waved a petite arm: "…won't dropping the son of the biggest company on earth's co-CEO raise attention from more than Triangular? What will the police think of us? Lucius Fox is a rich man. He will have far more resources in this City racing after us than Triangular would…"

"I wouldn't be so sure…," Bane grumbled. "I had a long talk with Senior Nygma weeks before we all came together. The genius hombre speculated that well over ninety percent of the City was under control in some way or another by Triangular's influence."

"Ninety one percent and three-quarters, to be exact!" the Clock King indignantly clapped the tip of his minute-hand cane to the floor and uttered: "And such was before the turbulence of the Eastern Seaboard! Imagine an earthquake in reverse, ladies and gentlemen. November Fourth and Vegas were aftershocks. And the further we go back in time, the more concentrated the space of bloody events until the density of chaos is too great and everything comes to a frictional focal point! POW!"

Harley shook. "That don't sound too pretty…."

The Mad Hatter drifted over. "Ah, but all the more for our expediency! Diligent progress in place of episodic….lunacy…."

"Er….what?"

"Meaning…," the Mad Hatter tipped his hat. "We have ventured through the looking glass of distrust and found a wonderful, inverted reflection on the other side, my dearest! Ah…the many days we squandered over this City like axe-bearers! Selfish bloodmongerers! Thinking only of ourselves and not of what ourselves could become! There are more fulfilling things to do than running about all day, painting the roses red! We now must work together or…..or very soon _we may all end up dead."_

"Sometimes what you need is a bigger fish to make a kingdom out of the rest of the pond," the Clock King smirked.

"And this is all about some invisible death guy named the Pancreas?"

"The _Parasite_, Harley."

"Whatever! This is so screwy….," the blonde clown dreamily looked off towards the horizon and murmured to herself: "I wish Mr. J was here…."

Ivy groaned.

"_Fear……"_

Everyone looked to the shadows.

Even I craned my neck.

"_Fear is what makes us strong…,"_ said a raggedy figure who had been in the dark crevice of the hangar's support structures. He had been there the entire time, but somehow it wasn't till then that I noticed him with the other villains. His voice had a certain, vibrating iciness to it. Like a frosty breath being blown through a thin plastic tube. I shivered. _"I joined this rather finite club not for its likelihood to succeed, but for its unlikelihood."_

Bane frowned. "Stop being a pessimist, Crane. That's not what we inducted you for."

"_Pessimist……heheheh……that's one of the cheapest insults I've taken in years……,"_ a pale, thin hand gestured a splintery wooden staff. _"I am always experimenting, dear citizens. And this is the greatest experiment of all. Because it almost……scares me……"_

"Just come through with your part of the bargain and we'll be quite satisfied," the Clock King chirped.

"_Fear not………Fear not indeed,"_ a pale hand pointed. _"Once Triangular's arena has been located, my newest gases will render the bureaucratic infrastructure shattered and useless. Dent's side of the balance will crumble. This lovely 'Terrible Troupe' of yours will stroke its own death."_

"Yeah, whatever," Harley looked at the others, smiling. "Who's for pizza?"

Bane ignored her. "Crane….how were you able to increase your stockpile so?"

"_Why……Mr. Langstrom, of course…,"_ the pale hand from the shadows pointed across the hangar.

My black eyes followed the finger.

"_He was……gracious to share some of his chemicals. And in the meantime, he seems to be suffering a bit of relapse in his condition?"_

"Condition?" Ivy blinked. Then she slowly smiled: "Oh….I get it."

"_He may be useful to us during our beginning operations……"_

At this point, I was swiftly sliding down the blind side of the blimp. When I reached open air, I jumped down and softened my landing with a cushion of murk. I fought to maintain my cloak…and eventually succeeded. Sweating, I paced over to the utility closet far away from the villainous discussion and worked on tweaking the lock chained to the door.

I was rather too preoccupied to hear:

"……_but remember, it takes fear—adrenaline—to activate his……__**true**__ self……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The City.

Titan's Tower.

Raven's Room.

9:55 am.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven lit the ring of candles sitting around her on her bedroom floor.

She set fire to a stick of incense, leaning out of the pouring lids of containers full of Azarathian, magical concoctions.

A glittering sense of mana filled the air. Like a spirit charge. Something fresher than the cleanest autumn breeze. It was chilling, but not as low temperatures go. But rather….low density of chaos. Distractions. Elements of the world…and _self._

Raven sat down, dressed in her traditional black leotard and blue robe. She crossed her legs and held her hands together before her chest.

Eyes closed.

Deep inhale.

Gentle exhale….

Deep inhale.

Gentle exhale…….

"…….."

She opened her violet eyes.

"……"

She reached a hand forward. Forward to an object hidden under a shroud….

She pulled the cloth off, revealing a picture frame. A painting of a girl. Blonde. Angelic. Green pants and yellow vest. A white wooden blade in her grasp.

"…….," Raven wrapped her hood over her charka-embedded crown and closed her eyes with finality. She rested her hands on either side of her knees, fingers touching meditatively.

And….

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……..Azarath Metrion Zinthos………Azarath Metrion Zinthos….."

The heat from the candles and the smell of the incense mixed in the center. _Her_ center. The universe's center. Blending and spiraling and blackening….

"_Azarath Metrion Zinthos………Azarath Metrion Zinthos………Azarath Metrion……"_

A jolt.

"………."

Raven opened her eyes.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_She flies over a landscape. _

_A gray and indistinguishable landscape. _

_The clouds are thick and the seas are cold. _

_But everything blends. _

_And then everything fades. _

_And the Tower looms into view. _

_Cyborg is working on the T-Car 2. _

_Starfire is gardening outside in the cool morning air. _

_Beast Boy lies on his back in bed, gazing ceiling-ward and thinking. _

_Raven stretches her hands out. _

_The world freezes. _

_The Tower. _

_The Bay. _

_The City. _

_The girl tenses her grip. _

_Violet eyes pulse a hot, glowing gray._

_The world implodes in on itself, only to reveal more worlds identical to the previous ones warbling on the outside. _

_Like reversing the splashes of a stream of water drops, Raven goes backwards in time. _

_She sees tears flying back up into the ducts of friends, Titans, citizens._

_She sees Tempest and the Titan swordsman run away._

_She sees Robin's monument in the City Cemetery morph back into a solid block of granite._

_Burning holes in the City patch up by magic and…… _

_Steaming screams fly into Robin's mouth as he's evaporated in the flames. _

_Raven grits her teeth and jerks an arm out. _

_Everything freezes. _

_She struggles. She strains…. _

_She rips the exploding carbonite of the radioactive depository out from the rest of the universe. _

_She sets Robin's death aside in a black-magic bubble. _

_She takes a breath and plunges back in._

_Everything reversing. _

_Commissioner Decker's entrails flying back into his gut right before the flames disappear and his car transforms into a solid thing. _

_Viper's ragdoll body flies back up the huge river dam. _

_Jinx runs backwards into prison and the Omega Wing fixes itself. _

_Raven takes a deep breath. _

_She plunges faster…farther……deeper…… _

_Mortuana disappears and appears and shrinks into whiteness like a momentary puff of smoke. _

_Tula comes to life in Aqualad's arms. The two kiss. The two part. And Chasma starts plotting evil… _

_Mad Mod appears and disappears in a blink, followed by a lopsided masquerade under the dangling feet of the Puppet King. _

_Then……a car ride. _

_Buzzing countryside. _

_California. _

_Kansas. _

_North Carolina. _

_Virginia……_

_Raven winces, slows, and breathes heavily. _

_She drifts by the Atlantic at a slow pace momentarily. _

_A boardwalk. _

_Two shadows over the water. _

_A single voice. _

"……………"

_Raven takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and pushes the scene away. _

_She propels herself further into the past._

_Back to the Tower. _

_Late, midnight conversations with Robin and Cyborg. _

_Beast Boy crying and Starfire confused. _

_Slade's face. _

_Wyldecarde flipping about and striking each Titan in turn at a construction site. _

_Raven grips everything to a halt again. _

_She pulls herself forward. _

_Wyldecarde resumes striking the Titans. _

_Slade's face again. _

_Beast Boy and Starfire. _

_Jinx._

_Frigate. _

_**SLIIIIIINK!**_

"_!" Raven freezes it. _

_Slade is impaled on the sword of the one-armed Noir. _

_Blood dripping out of his mask. _

_Silhouetted like a skeleton against the front, circular window of moonlight. _

_A shiver……… _

_Cold. _

_Like a breath. _

_Raven rips the scene out. _

_She places it in another black capsule besides Robin's fiery death. _

_She flexes her fingers. _

_Grips everything hard… _

_And practically flings it back. _

_**FW-FW-FW-FWIP!**_

_She plunges head first into chaos. _

_Time shrinks and space expands. _

_Snapshots growing smaller and smaller and smaller……_

_Blur……Blur……Blur……Blur……__**RED!**_

_She digs her talons in. _

_She grabs an anchor. _

_She climbs her way into a single photogenic pore. _

_And splashes into the Vreeland fairgrounds. _

_Where a disguised Mumbo Jumbo is taking a photo of all the Titans while Sandy looks on. _

_Raven stands in front of the rest of her teammembers, bored and disgruntled. _

_And just as the inevitable snapshot of the magic camera rips her personalities apart and flings them among the rest of the troupe……_

_**FLASH!**_

_Raven freezes it. _

_She walks over. _

_She stands before the long haired swordsman. _

_She tilts her head up. _

_Gazes at him. _

"………"

_She reaches two petite hands up. _

_She grips his shades. _

_She gently slides them off. _

_Two bulbous black eyes are exposed to the twinkling-still night. _

_Obsidian optics exposed to her soul upon the point of magical contact. _

_When everything dark and cold blended. _

_Raven shakily reaches her hands up. _

_She opens his black eyes wider. _

_She pulls it into a portal. _

_And she drifts on through._

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

_Blurring Westward. _

_Across the Country. _

_Images burn by her. _

_Some recognizable. _

_Like the wrought-iron cage holding the four-eyed Rage at bay. _

_Or the antlered shadow lingering on the bloody steps where her mother's corpse rested. _

_More or less. _

_Raven shudders and ignores it. _

_She peers out from her soul self and into his. _

_And soon the blurring mountainsides turn into sweeping tall grass. _

_As a field stretches open beneath a raincloud sky. _

_Bordered by cedar trees and oriental buildings in the distance. _

_And there is where she finds the blonde angel first. _

_She sees Raven immediately—of course—and waves. _

_And a short-dark-haired boy with brown eyes practices with his sword beside her, smiling. Giggling about something. _

_And beside them, a boy with wavy black hair and hazel eyes. Thin…almost frail. Concentrated on the field and the invisible spectrum beyond. _

_The spectrum…… _

_Raven stands in the tall grass._

_Panting. _

_She stretches her aching arms out. _

_Grits her teeth. _

_Struggles as her fingernails feel like splitting beneath her digits…… _

"_Nnnngh……Nnnnghhh!" _

_She successfully tears the sky open, and there stretches light._

_Blinding light. _

_In bands……layers. _

_Spectrum. _

_White, black, red. _

_And the whole world unnaturally teeters right. _

_And rolls Raven into the red. _

_She slaps against it. _

_Splashing crimson puddles. _

_She freezes and burns at once. _

_She pants heavily and presses one hand into the scarlet puddle. _

_She feels her hand starting to decay with each second marinating in the crimson quaff. _

_She can't waste any time…… _

_She pivots around. _

_She gnashes her teeth. _

_She points one hand at the young swordsmen in the field. _

_FL-FLASH! _

_Then she drags a stream of black magic over to the two bubbles. _

_Slade's death. _

_FLASH! _

_Robin's death. _

_FLASH! _

_She connects them all as with a long lash and shudders, growling at the puddle of red eating her alive…_

"_Red Aviary……" _

_The world shivers. _

_Like a cold wave through metal joints. _

_She can almost feel it in her left arm. _

_For some reason…… _

"_Red Aviary…………" _

_More rumbling. _

_More shaking. _

_Raven hisses: "Show yourself. It is time you stopped hiding, you coward!" _

_Mist in the air. _

_Red mist. _

_The swordsman in the field flicker. _

_Slade twitches. _

_Robin melts. _

"_You've haunted this land and my friends long enough! Now I order you to SHOW YOURSELF!"  
_  
_**RUMMMMMBLE!**_

_The bubbles start to shake and crack. _

_The black streams holding everything together grow taut and pull at each other. _

_A tension fills the air like an opera singer's voice to a wine glass. _

"_By the powers invested in me of the will of Azar! OBEY!"  
_  
_**FLLLLLAAAAAASSSSSSH!**_

_The bubbles shatter. _

_The grass blows away. _

_Two out of three of the swordsman fade while Robin collides with Slade and twirl into a spiral. _

_Raven watches, panting. _

_Suddenly powerless. _

_The swordsman who survives is the hazel – eyed adept. The scrawny skeleton of passion. He twirls into the abyss where Robin screams and Slade dies and somewhere from deep beyond like a Balrog crawling up the navel of the earth is a deep, fluctuating red……Red……__**RED! **_

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

_Raven gasps. _

_She stands shaking between two billowing, flaming eyes of scarlet. _

_Dripping crimson. _

_Maroon vapors. _

_A coldness. A smoke. Red smoke. Reflecting against itself like a hall of mirrors. _

_The eyes fly closer and closer to Raven until one of them disappears all together and only the left eye encompasses her vision as deep beyond Slade shatters apart and Robin screams his last scream and all the ashes and all the lava and all the embers of a two-legged hell come rushing out of the woodwork, swinging a two-edged sword into the nape of Raven's neck._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg walked through the hallway of the Titan's Tower. He had gone up to his lab to retrieve a car construction manual before retuning to the garage down below. He was a little behind on putting together alternators, and he thought a little bit of last-minute homework would do the trick.

He whistled as he paced his way down the hallway……

Past Raven's room.

"………………….."

"………………………………_**RRRRREDDDDD AVIARRRRRRYYYYYY!**_"

Cyborg gasped.

_That voice……_

He dropped the book and spun towards the door. "Raven?"

He ran to it. He tried to pry it open. "Nnngh!" He could hear her voice desperately heaving form the other side. "RAVEN! Hold on, girl!"

He jumped back, gritted his teeth, and rammed the door with all his might. "YAAAUGH!"

CL-CLANG!

Red smoke blew out against his face as all the candles in the cold ring were snuffed out at once.

He barely flinched. He panted and gazed in.

There Raven was, writhing as if possessed in her kneeling position. She gurgled, her neck twisting.

"RAE!" Cyborg ran over, knelt by her side, and cradled her. "Raven! Snap out of it! You hear me? Snap out of it!"

"Mmmmf…..," Raven cringed all over. "……." Her violet eyes snapped wide. She ran a hand to her throat, shaking. There was…blood on her throat. Blood leaking out in the shape of an 'X'. As if an invisible fingernail from beyond was trying to carve her a hauntingly familiar scar…."

"Raven…..," Cyborg murmured. "What in God's name were you doing in here?"

But her eyes are wide as she visually traces the last of her trance…

And sees him….

"Great Azar…..," Raven gasped.

"What, Raven? What is it?"

She gulped. She shook all over and clung to Cyborg. "He's alive, Cyborg…."

"……….?"

"H-H-He's alive!"

"Who is, Raven?" the android Titan asked.

She would have answered, but she fainted in his strong arms instead.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City

Abandoned International Airport

Zeppelin Hangar

10:05 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeeak!_

I slowly, stealthily pushed open the door to the utility closet.

As soon as I did so, I heard a voice.

A very….awake and annoyingly energetic voice.

_Fox……_

"And so that's when I told him, 'Being rich is not about giving! It's about getting! And donating to the Saudis once in a while! HA!'"

In the shadows, a weak….nervous voice replied: "You're a horrible….horrible human being."

"God, I hope so."

"Why d-did these creeps ever kidnap you?"

"I dunno. Must be a white thing…OH! Hey! Lookie here!" Fox's shadow nodded towards me.

I held a finger over my lips. _"Shhhh……"_

I closed the closet door behind me. I reached for a lightswitch and squinted my eyes.

_Click._

The first thing I noticed as electric light spread pale and amber across the thin interior was a pair of bodies. Fox in his business casual from last night's Gothe Nightclub fiasco….and a blonde, middle-aged lab technician complete with lab coat and boots. The second thing I noticed was at least fifty crates of assault rifle ammo stacked up all around the two chained to a pipe.

"……..," I bit my lip. I cleared my throat and marched towards them, trying to look 'strong'. I marched towards the two and mouthed: _'I am here to get you out.'_

"What was that?" Fox blinked. "I couldn't hear you, kid."

I fought back a frown. I repeated my lip-sync.

Fox shrugged and looked at the blonde scientist. "I can't a single word he says. Teenagers these days…they're ruder than Scorcese on Easter."

"He's mute you rich-ass twit!" the blonde barked, convulsed, breathed steadily to calm himself, and looked at me as he weakly uttered: "P-Please….you have to get us out of here. These people are insane enough as it is individually, much less 'working together'!"

I knelt down and tried to think up a way to cut them loose from their anchoring chains.

"Now I know Batman has been missing as of late…," the scientist said. "But someone….SOMEWHERE has got to do something! The Scarecrow! H-H-He's bastardizing my experimental chemicals into some sort of new, mass-produced fear toxin! It could mean trouble for the masses! No matter what these people might be planning!"

"Awwww…," Fox blew a raspberry. "Quit your whining!"

The blonde frowned at him. "Have you not a shred of human decency in you?"

"I would have if we were rescued four hours ago! Heh!" He turned and smirked at me. "Where were you when my bladder needed it the most? I tell you what, you haven't tasted of death till you find yourself having a bathroom break narrowed down to a soup can in the hands of the Mad Hatter! Ha! Once you've tinkled right in front of a little pale-faced rat of a man who looks like some lecherous reject from a Disney film….you start to get a little frazzled! God, I'm hungry. Got any cigarettes, pal?"

I gaped at the man….

"A sword! SWORD!" the man panted. "You got a sword! Use it t-t-t-t-to cut us l-l-loose and we can get the hell out of there!"

"Calm down for Krishna's sake!" Fox muttered then smirked at me. "Heh….meet my new pal, Dr. Langstrom."

"Nnngh…..mmmf…."

"He keeps grunting like that whenever he gets really steam-kettled about the things I say. I think the guy's got a blood pressure problem."

I blinked.

'_Dr. Langstrom'…… _

_Why does that sound familiar?_

"Nnnngh!"

I look over at the man.

He's sweating. Convulsing. "My….anxiety levels…..the….th-the Scarecrow….has affected….m-my synthetic enzymes…..so th-that if I get too nervous or agitated…."

"Ah, the wonders of male PMS," Fox rolled his eyes. "Hey, Mr. Sword-Pimp! Wanna go out and grab some tampons cuz from the looks of it you sure as Hell aren't gonna be swiftly getting us out of this closet within the hour! Which is fine by me, really. I was getting into a lovely debate with Doc L here about the grand narrative myth of the poor and destitute proletariat as proliferated by propaganda conspirators such as Karl Marx and Oprah Winfrey. HEY! I'M A SMART MAN! E equals M….C….cubed, punk!"

"Nnnnngh!" Langstrom started to shake and quiver all over. There was a vibration to his voice, low and nasty. "It's happeniiii_iiiiiiing_!"

I leaned back, panting.

_What in the tu-tu prancing HELL is wrong with this City?_

**POW!**

The closet door bust open.

I gasped and spun around.

"Que va!" Bane cried as he stood in the door frame. Ivy with a cross bow and the Clock King with his serrated cane stood in a line, facing us at a distance. "What's happening here?"

"Who's this ill-dressed juvenile?" Clock King frowned.

"It's Noir!" Ivy breathed. "From the factory below and beyond Gothe!"

_CHIIIIING!_

I whipped out Myrkblade, smoking.

"Cool!" Fox beamed.

"NNNNGHHH!" the sight of my close weapon seemed to agitate Langstrom even more.

I looked at him nervously over my shoulder.

"Well…muchacho….," Bane paced over towards me. Smirking under his mask. "Looks like you dropped into the right place."

SWOOOSH-**SMACK**! His boot slammed into my chest.

I let out a breath and flew back till I landed in Langstrom's convulsing lap.

"Heheheheh…," Bane shrugged and smirked. "You wanted to come here and make friends? Well meet. Dr. Langstrom. He's quite the….sociable type."

"NnnnnRAAAAAAUGH!" the blonde technician shrieked beneath me.

"Man!" Fox glared over. "Just what is your problem……aw hell…."

"?" I spun and found myself gazing into an almost-lycanthrope face. Shrieking into my black eyes.

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_

I gasped wide and fell flat on the floor with my sword.

THWAP!

Langstrom's boot clamped over my thigh and ripped apart as a huge mammalian talon burst out.

Still tethered to the pipes on the far side of the room, the man convulsed and shredded loose bit by bit of his labcoat and shirt until—before my twitching gaze—the Man-Bat loomed over me.

"Eheheheh….feeding time…."

"_WRESSSSSSSSSSSSH!"_


	219. A Hard Act to Follow part 4

**219. A Hard Act to Follow part 4**

I backed away from the mutant, leather-winged creature that _was_ Dr. Langstrom. The Hyde-esque monster was still chained by his ankle to a metal pipe at the back end of the utility closet. He thrashed about and shrieked his Man-bat snout off. His wings knocked tools and canisters and metal wracks to and fro.

CLASH!

CLANG!

"WRESSSSH!"

"Whoah!" William B. Fox hopped back at the end of his chain. "Hot tamale! Hot tamale squared!"

**GRIP!**

Bane grabbed Fox with one hand and snapped apart his chains with the other. The tall, beefy mercenary stood up with the son of Lucius Fox slung over his shoulder.

I turned from the lashing Man-Bat and gasped. I made to pounce on Bane and somehow wrestle for Fox back…..

_Yeah right._

FWOOOSH! _Sp-Splat!_ A pair of green seedlings flew into my chest. Suddenly, slimy emerald vines sprouted out and started to wrap around me. I gasped and struggled with my arms hugged to my side. I couldn't even reach back to Myrkblade.

"……," Poison Ivy smirked, her body still leaning forward from having thrown the seeds. "Pardon my green thumb, she has a mind of her own…"

_She?_

THWUMP!

I collapsed on the floor, constricted by a tube of green vines covering my torso and upper abdomen. Like a fly in silk webbing. I struggled and inched about to get loose.

"Pathetic gusano…," Bane muttered. He carried Fox out of the room. "I'll be back to _break_ you….."

"Don't bother," the Clock King smirked. He leaned on his pointed cane and stared down at me. "The perfect foil of a trespassing insect is the insect itself! Like a fly, your days are quite numbered, boy!"

I gritted my teeth and started summoning smoke to somehow strengthen my arms in breaking out of the binding….

The Clock King went on: "Bane, Harley, and even the Mad Hatter to some extent thought Dr. Langstrom was expendable. But Dr. Crane and I insisted that we keep the man for such an occasion as this. You see….the Doctor has suddenly become a very open physician. He's ready for an appointment, and I believe you're his first walk-in!"

"_WRESSSSH!"_ Man-Bat jerked at his chain and slashed and bit at the walls of metal racks. _"WRESSSSSSSH!"_

I struggled to my knees, smoke pouring out of my eyes as I fought to concentrate.

"An interesting thing that the Scarecrow told us about the Man-Bat's syrum. It takes ahold whenever Dr. Langstrom is agitated. But this time, the Man-Bat is deliciously affected by the Scarecrow's fear toxin. Which creates a paradox, since the Man-Bat is inherently devoid of all fear. So the best thing he can do when imprinted upon an attacker is to transform that fear into a testosterone induced rage….a bloodlust!"

I finally stood to my feet. I took a deep breath….

**WHUMP!**

The Clock King kicked me in the rear.

"!"I stumbled straight into the Man-Bat's chest. I shoved the two of us back against the pipes he was chained two. Cl-Clang!

With a twirl of his cane, the Clock King tipped his hat as he stood in the doorway and smiled. "I do believe he's imprinted himself upon you. Do play nicely, young chaps. We'll be back after disposing of Fox to collect your bones, Mr. Noir."

_SLAM!_ The door shut loudly behind him.

I turned my head and glanced through the corner of my shades, panting.

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_

"…..," I gulped. I turned and looked at the creature I was collapsed upon.

Leather wings flapped about me. Man-Bat reared his head, eyes a pale haze. He snapped his jaws at me. _CLAP!_

I leapt back.

THWUMP! I landed on the floor of the 'closet'.

"_WRESSSSH!"_ Man Bat flapped his wings and 'hovered' at the ceiling of the closet. The chains dangled from his levitating legs to the pipe until he straightened his entire body and flung his sharp talons down at me.

THWOOOSH!

I held my breath and rolled to the left.

Cl-Clack! Sparks flew as some concrete was unearthed.

"_WRESSSSSH!"_ He dove down again.

Bound by the green vines, I rolled to the right.

Cl-Clack!

Man-Bat landed on the floor. CLUMP! He snapped his jaws down at me.

I rolled backwards and awkwardly landed against a pile of paint cans. They rattled and rolled every which way. I winced and struggled up to my feet.

Man-Bat thrashed around at open air. His winged arms and sharp talon feet kicked random metal objects and debris at me under a fountain of shrieks and bellows.

CL-CLANG!

SMACK!

CRACK!

I squirmed my way to the door, slid up to it, and rammed my shoulder into it repeatedly.

THWUMP!

THWUMP!

TH-THWUMP!

The closet door wouldn't budge.

I gritted my teeth, sweating. Heaving.

_Okay, Jordan. _

_Concentrate! _

_Teleport out of the vines. _

_Teleport out……of the __**vines**__! _

"_WRESSSSSH!"_

I turned. My black eyes widened.

Man-Bat glared at me as if suddenly more sentient than previous. He hobbled back, planted his feet against the pipes, and leapt at me with winged arms wide and a row of razor sharp teeth snarling at my scarred throat.

THWOOOOOSH!

"_WRESSSSH!"_

I clenched my eyes shut.

Accepting death….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the closet door in the zeppelin hangar, Bane carried William B. Fox towards the blimp as the rest of the villains gathered.

"Whoah! What was all the noise?" Harley Quinn frolicked over. "Is the Doc goin' a little batty?"

"Nrgghhh….," Bane hissed. "Get out of my face, mujer."

"Hey!" Quinn frowned and folded her arms as she glared at the back of Bane's meaty body. "Tu es 'misogynist creep', bub!"

Ivy placed a hand on Quinn's shoulder. "Let him pout, Harley. He didn't get to bust a certain swordsman's head in."

"Whoah? That creepy kid from the Gothe Nightclub is here?"

"That he is," the Clock King nodded and passed by. "And by the time we return, he will be in pieces. To the airship!"

"Oooh! A blimp!" Fox remarked as Bane carried him to the piloting bridge beneath the bulk of the dirigible. "Are we goin' on one of them snazzy City tours?"

"_We_ are," Bane said. He opened a metal door with a creak. "You, on the other hand, are going to fall from over fifty stories up into a sea of concrete. He tossed Fox in—"Oof!"—and climbed into the bridge after him. Harley and Ivy were swift to leap up after.

Clock King leaned on his cane and glanced aside at the Mad Hatter. "Jervis….my dear fellow, now would be a good time to take advantage of the long-range transceiver you have installed in the aircraft. We'll be needing your wing boys soon enough."

"Ah…but of course," Mad Hatter half-bowed.

Clock King smiled. He turned and gazed at the utility closet.

"……."

He lifted his cane, twirled it, and climbed up into the dirigible.

"Hrmmmph! His heart would have stopped beating twenty-one and three quarters seconds ago. A pity I could not stand by to see it…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………………..," I stood wincing. Leaning back against the closet door. "……………"

I opened my black eyes. _I was in tact. But how?_

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_ the jaws of the Man-Bat howled and snapped right in front of my shades. The length of the chain had snagged, holding the beast at bay by a few mere inches. His lings flapped a warm breeze into my body as he struggled and strained to cross that last sliver of distance and rend me asunder. The base of his chained tether pulled and yanked and groaned at the metal pipe-anchors holding him down.

"……….," I sweatdropped.

_If you exist, God, I hope you're a sexy Asian woman._

"_WRESSSSH!"_ Man-Bat stretched and bit at my face. _Snap! SNAP! CL-CLAP!_

I snarled and flung my foot up.

THWAP! I caught the Man-Bat in the chest. He shrieked and bent over.

I didn't think….

_Thwoosh!_ WH-WHUMP! I head-butted him.

Man-Bat stumbled backwards, shaking his dizzied head.

I teetered, nearly falling over in my green-vine straitjacket.

_Yeah……I'm never doing that again._

I shook out of it. I concentrated murk into my limbs. I took a deep breath. Two. I tensed my smoking body and…

_FWOOOOSH! __**POW!**__  
_  
The vines snapped apart as I expanded in a smoking cloud, spiraled, and morphed back into the swordsman.

I exhaled….

_Green Peace is going to hear from me about that……_

"_WRESSH!"_ **GRIP!** Man Bat reached a coiled stretch of wing forward and gripped my ankle. He snarled and yanked back.

"!" I fell topsy-turvy.

_Aaagh!_

THUD!

I landed hard on my back.

SWOOOSH! Man-Bat pounced on me. _"WRESSSSSH!"_ Drooling on top, the creature laid its weight into me and flung its neck down to my scarred throat.

I gritted my teeth, burst murk through my vessels, and teleported so that I solidified on the creature's back. FWOOOSH!

CL-CLACK! Man-Bat's toothy bite sailed into the concrete floor.

I raised a metal hand and brought it down against the creature's neck.

CL-CLANG!

"_WRESSSSSSSSSH!"_ Man Bat pivoted and bitch-slapped me with a reverse wing of leather.

_THWAP!_

I flew back towards the _rear_ of the closet and landed against a metal rack. WHANG! I winced as paint cans and metal tools littered me from above. But I wasn't half as horrified as when I realized I stood just a foot or two from the base of the tethered chain vibrating beside me.

_Which meant……_

"_WRESSSSSSSSSSH!"_ the Man-Bat sailed at me with perfect slack to his tether.

I backed up against the pipes, and just as the creature pounced on my body….

_CHIIIIIING!_

Myrkblade glossed over with black energy.

Man-Bat snarled and brought his fangs down.

I shouted mutely and raised Myrkblade in a horizontal position.

CLAMP!

The serrated teeth closed around the length of the blade as his weight pressed into me. I had only my sword keeping the creature from eating into my chest cavity.

I snarled and struggled with the beast. Murk warbled through my body and billowed out from under my shades. I sweated and struggled. I looked over Man-Bat's hairy shoulder at the door.

There was a sudden vibration emanating throughout the thick structure of the building. Groaning….creaking…..as old as all of Gotham International's abandoned history.

_Dammit……they're taking him away! _

_They're taking Fox to the 'drop-zone' in Downtown!_

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_ a serrated claw flew at my face.

I swiftly ducked it with a smoking blur.

CLANK! The claw ripped into the pipes behind me. A puff of high intense steam shot out and struck the Man-Bat's face.

He leaned back, shrieking.

I shoved him further, wrenched Myrkblade free, dove, slid underneath him, and rolled forward onto my knees. I ran desperately towards the closet door, this time vine-free….

**GRIP!**

But not bat-free….

THWUMP!

I landed on the closet's concrete floor with Man-Bat's mangy claws around my ankle.

I spun about with my back to the floor, panted, and glanced panickedly at the beast.

He pulled me at him and reared his head to sink his fangs back down at me again.

I had no choice but to fight him off with Myrkblade sailing upwards.

CHIIIIING!

CL-CLACK!

"_WRESSSSSH!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**WHURRRRRRRRRRR!**_

The loud, rumbling noise vibrating throughout the structure belonged to the huge, gaping doors of the zeppelin hangar opening wide to the amber-bright day of Gotham outside.

_**WHURRRRRRRRRR…..CLANG!**_

The doors locked wide open.

The blimp 'came' to life. The turbines on either side of the dirigible spun and swiftly propelled the craft forward. With a patient drift of its immense weight, the airship poured out of the elongated, domed hangar.

Sunlight cascaded over its length of the blimp, illuminating the mock words _'Vreeland Cosmetics'_. The airship tilted violently upwards and rose in the air.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the bridge of the vessel, Ivy was in control of the flying ship. She expertly pulled the throttles for lift and acceleration while maintaining balance and steering.

"Awwwwwww….," Harley pouted beside her. "Pleeeeeeease, Red! Just let me fly it! This once!"

Ivy smirked ever so slightly. "I don't trust the hemispheres of your brain to function as one. Much less your hand-eye-coordination!"

"Hey! You're speaking to a clown girl who can hit a clay dove at fifty feet with a gag spray flower!"

"And if I need you to crash this blimp into a clay dove somewhere schizophrenically affixed to a spot on the Earth in your mind….I'll think about it, Harley."

"Hrmmph! Don't you psychobabble me! I'M the former psychiatrist!"

"Ladies….," Clock King marched over, the cane leaning over his shoulder. "Must you here?"

"Hrmmm…."

Harley grinned. "Feh! What are you, impotent?"

"…………," Clock King glared. He looked over at Mad Hatter. "Jervis?"

The ornately clothed pale-cretin adjusted his hat and operated the controls of a high-tech computer device beneath a viewing window of the bridge. "Soon my entranced valkyries will fly in our name, but the Gotham Airforce will be to blame."

"Whatever gets the choppers covering us, the better…," Clock King leaned on his cane. In approximately one hour and forty-five minutes, we see if Foxes can fly."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask something about that too!" a grinning Fox waved from a metal chair in the far corner where Bane was tying and binding him. "When y'all say that you're gonna drop me fifty stories into a sea of concrete, do you mean to drop me fifty stories into a sea of concrete with a _parachute_, or are we all just talkin' to each other metaphorically? Hehehehe….."

_THWAP!_

Bane knocked his breath loose with a fist to his chest. "Para Dios….shut up."

Clock King smirked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_

Man-Bat slashed, thrashed, and bit at me.

I twirled Myrkblade up. TH-TH-THWISH!

CLANG!

I made contact with his teeth and knocked him back.

I rolled out from under him.

He shrieked and swiped a serrated paw down.

I leapt up from a pulse of murk, spun and dodge his swipe in mid-air, came into contact with a wall and bounced off with my feet, and went flipping over him…trailing smoke.

Man-Bat reached another hand up and grabbed my mid-air ankle.

I twirled and slashed Myrkblade downward.

THUD!

I smacked him clear in the forehead.

He shuddered and stumbled back, shaking his snout and clutching his skull.

_P-Plant!_ I landed by the pipes again.

I panted and looked towards the door.

_I got to get out somehow……_

"……..," I gazed down.

The chain connected to Man-Bat's ankle rattled and shook from his limping form.

"……..," I eyed where the chain connected to the pipe.

I looked up at Man-Bat again.

Then the door.

"……..," I took a deep breath.

_I hope to God I don't get traumatic claustrophobia from this._

TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade and slashed it down.

SNAP!

I broke the chain free.

Man-Bat snapped out of it and looked at me.

I charged him.

He billowed his leathery wings open and readied his jaws.

I held my breath, blurred into smoke form, sloshed around him, and materialized beyond.

I ran towards the door.

Man-Bat twirled, hissing. Clear eyes glaring at me.

I slid to a stop before the door.

I spun and faced him, Myrkblade raised.

"Nrrrrghh…._WRESSSSH!"_ Man-Bat lifted up, flapped his wings, and soared at me.

I braced myself. Gripping tightly to my hilt. Smoking and ready to strike…

_THWOOOOOOOSH!_ He sailed at me and crossed the length of the utility closet in a heartbeat.

I took a deep breath, lowered my eyes, and gently morphed into smoke form just as….

"_WRESSSSSSSH!"_

ZOOOOOOOM! _**CRACK!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door of the utility closet shattered.

Man-Bat slid out amidst the shrapnel spread of door parts. He stirred on the ground, groaning in pain.

In solid form, I hobbled over him and stared—squinting—at the bright sunlight billowing in from the freshly opened hangar doors.

The blimp was flying off and upwards at a steep angle. Turbines propelled it along on either side of the craft. The thing was practically two hundred feet in the air by now.

I shuddered.

Grounded.

_Great…… _

_Now what do I do?_

"Wressssh……"

"………?" I glanced down.

A wing at my ankle…

_Aw criminy……_

THWAP!

I was tripped harshly to the ground.

WHACK!

I shuddered, the breath leaving me.

THWOOOSH!

Man-Bat lunged at my body in a full-winded pounce.

Lying on my back, I slashed Myrkblade up.

He absorbed the blow into a winged elbow and then swiped at me madly with both bloody claws exchanging. SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

I snarled and pivoted Myrkblade left and right to block. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

He shoved me across the hangar's concrete floor.

I deflected and slid from him.

He finally leapt up with a flap of his wings and jabbed both of his talons down at me. _THRASH!_

I backflipped.

CRACK!

Bits of flooring shattered and scattered.

I stepped backwards.

Man-Bat hovered in the air. He shrieked and then flew off in an arc.

I panted. I glanced out of the hangar's 'mouth'.

The blimp floated away….further and futher.

I gulped.

I looked again at Man-Bat.

He swung low, shrieking. _"WRESSSSH!"_

I spun and twirled to avoid him….

_FWOOOOOOSH! SLIIINK!_

His talons grazed my shoulder, drawing blood.

I howled mutely in pain and stumbled forwards.

TH-THWUMP!

"……," I looked down.

I was leaning against a conspicuous, pyramid stack of mortar shells.

"WRESSSSH!" _FWP! FWP! FWP!_ The Man-Bat flew around me, wings flapping.

"…….," I glared up at him. A metal hand slowly snaked towards one of the shells.

The mutant hissed, twirled around, and dove down at me again…fangs wide. _"WRESSSSSSSSH!"_

I gritted my teeth, tossed a shell up, spun, and struck it in mid-air with Myrkblade like a baseball bat.

TH-THWACK!

The shell toppled towards him.

Man-Bat's eyes bugged and he spiraled downward in a last minute dodge.

The shell flew into a wall-face of the large hangar.

Clink! _**PHOOOOMB!**_

Fire and shrapnel flew.

I stepped back, shading my face.

"_WRESSSSSH!"_

Man-Bat dove at me from behind.

I swiftly gripped a mortar by its tail, spun, and flung it at the beast.

He flew up at the last second, chain dragging like a tail.

The mortar flew past him, slid along the ground, and ruptured against a joint in the open door.

_**POW!**_

Shrapnel flew. Cracks in the doorframe formed.

Man-Bat flew up high.

I gripped another mortar.

SWOOOOSH! Man-Bat dove straight down at me.

I aimed up at him…..and paused, realizing that if I missed AGAIN the explosive would only come straight down…and hit me.

"_WRESSSSH!"_

I sweatdropped and dove down at the last second.

SWIPE!

Sharp talons knocked the explosive out of my hand.

At the same time, the dive of Man-Bat tossed the stack of mortar shells over.

CL-CL-CLANG!

A sea of explosive bodies surrounded me.

Th-Th-Thwish! Overhead, the one shell flipped towards the ceiling, paused in midair, and sailed back down as gravity took over.

Back down towards me….and all the other explosives surrounding.

I panted. I looked to my left.

The last of the dragging chain's length slid along the ground and past me.

I didn't think. I tossed my metal arm out and grabbed it.

**GRIP!**

My whole body yanked and I was dangling at the very end of the metal chain attached to Man-Bat's ankle. And at that precise second, Man-Bat was flying ceiling-ward with a flapping of wings that 'dragged' me up towards the top of the spacious interior and far away from the sea of mortars….

….as the falling explosive fell and burst in the middle of them.

_**POW! **_

_**POW! P-POW! POW! POW!**_

_**KABOOOOOM!**_

I winced all over, clinging hard to the metal chain as a ball of fire exploded beneath me.

Man-Bat shrieked in response to the explosion and seemed to flap his wings and fly and dive and dart all about in the air randomly.

Which wasn't very settling to me. I was yanked and pulled and flung every which way above a growingly hot fireball of mayhem. The entire floor of the spacious hangar had become a virtual lava pit.

I looked up at the hairy, demonesque body flapping leather wings above me.

I took a deep breath. CHIIING! I sheathed Myrkblade, gripped the chain with two hands, and started to 'pull' and 'climb' my way up the length of the chain to the flying form of Man-Bat.

_Somehow, when I told myself I wanted to 'meet Batman', this wasn't quite what I had in mind……_

"_WRESSSSSH!"_

The creature flew higher and higher towards the ceiling, twirling about and trying to shake me from his ankle.

I gritted my teeth and climbed up.

FWOOOOSH!

Man-Bat twirled and glided along the northern wall of the interior.

I twirled and flew straight into the metal. I held my breath, blurred my legs, and kicked against the wall flying beneath me. I 'ran' vertically for a short length before vaulting off, spinning around, and landed squarely on Man-Bat's back.

"_WRESSSSH!"_ he shrieked and tried to shake me.

I merely held on with my legs like a rodeo psychopath and lunged forward to grip his neck. I twisted and pried into his cranium painfully.

He shrieked and twirled about, nearly tossing me off.

I tried to hold onto my breath, his neck, and my lunch….all at the same time.

Smoke and fire billowed beneath us as the flames crept towards the edges of the hangar.

_Ah……the glorious razing of a Gotham City villains' headquarters._

I looked up.

I saw a cross-beam of metal flying directly at my face.

I bit my lip.

_Any chance Red Aviary can come and kill me now before I burn to death?_

FWOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The streets of Gotham City.

The retro cars on the road and the smartly dressed pedestrians on the sidewalk.

Life bustled to and fro along the feet of the gothic skyscrapers.

Daytime…the only safe harbor of this dark City.

Veronica Vreeland rode a limo through Main Street that late morning. She had the window half-rolled down as the rich redhead frowned and squawked into a cell phone:

"Listen! I have no time for incompetence in the family business! My father and I worked hard to get Vreeland Cosmetics back on a good foot! I don't want some two-bit CEO of mine trying to 'reinvent' the advertising campaign! We had enough trouble as it was making it through the recession _without making_ stupid stunts!"

"……."

"NO! I _didn't_ ask for a blimp to be rented out in our name! What gives you that idea?"

"……."

"What? Now who in the world could possibly…?"

The glass separating the passenger compartment from the driver's seat lowered. The female Chauffer turned her head and uttered: "Uh…..Ms. Vreeland?"

The redhead put the phone down. "WHAT?" Silence. She blinked. She glanced out the window. She looked up, gasped, and dropped the phone.

_SCREEECH! _

CRUNCH!

Vreeland jolted as her limo collided with another car. The Chauffer shouted angrily at the other driver, but Vreeland was too dazed by what she saw to do anything but stare within the jolted, smoking vehicle.

Outside on the sidewalks, crowds of men, women, and children muttered to themselves and pointed upwards.

A blimp marked 'Vreeland Cosmetics' hovered overhead, looming between buildings. Turbines pumping, pushing the airship along. There was a set of loud amplifiers set along the bottom of the dirigible's bridge. As a feminine voice crackled loudly down into the streets and alleyway of Gotham City, a static broadcast interfered all t.v. channels in the surrounding districts and simultaneously broadcasted:

"_**Dear Gothamites, the thorns and the rosebuds all the same. What happens when you leave a garden unchecked? Weeds grow. And lately, the biggest weed of all has taken nasty root in this gothic dwelling of ours….."**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the pilot compartment of the aircraft, Poison Ivy leaned over the controls. Smiling. Speaking her Troupe's message into the mic:

"We certainly do not appreciate a hideous, secret wraith haunting our own playground…encroaching on our Act. But most of all, we don't appreciate former rogue allies of ours treating us like dirt for the sake of a new order…."

Harley giggled quietly.

Mad Hatter smiled and clicked a special button on his computer device.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop one of the Gotham Police Department buildings, two pilots were working on an engine compartment of their city-issued helicopter.

The radio besides them crackled in timing with the distant, booming voice of a set of airborne amplifiers far across the rooftops. _**"Gotham City is like a beautiful field of luscious fruit. The only way to seize that which is sweet and filling is to treat it with expert care. But this new team of powermongerers hae no sense of finesse. Their solution to the land is to slash and burn the farm like pyrotechnic misogynists!"**_

One pilot gasped. "Ted! You hear that voice?" He stood up and wiped his sweaty brow from his heavy mechanical work with a rag."Doesn't that voice sound like….?"

_**CL-CLANG!**_ A wrench flew across his skull.

"Ugh!" he fell hard to the ground. THWUMP!

'Ted', the fellow pilot stood with a blank expression on his face. He held the wrench in his hands and looked off towards the horizon for a few seconds until turning numbly, closing the engine compartment, and stepping into the pilot's seat of the helicopter. The rays of morning sunlight glinted off a computer chip flickering just behind his ear.

Beeping.

The helicopter started, rose to the air, and joined a growingly thick squadron of choppers flying from the south to rendezvous with the blimp.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flip. Grab. Flip. Grab. Flip. Grab.

Two-Face sat at the chair to his grimy office. Leaning his chin boredly on one hand. Flipping a coin with his mutated one. He glared at a t.v. screen displaying the face of Poison Ivy.

"_**We are talking about Triangular. And we know you are here in this City. And we've got someone you may possibly find valuable in the remote abyss of your mutually numb souls!"**_

Poison Ivy stepped back. The mounted camera showed the interior of a zeppelin bridge. Fox sat in a chair, a long clownish revolver being held against his skull by a clown girl in black and red. Harley Quinn blew a kiss at the camera. Fox chuckled nervously…sweatdropping.

Flip. CLUTCH.

"……..," Two-Face glared at the screen.

_THUD!_

The door to his office kicked down.

Killer Croc ran in, huffing and puffing. "Dent! I just got done ruffling the Penguin's feathers! Word is that Fox is being held captive by…."

**BLAM!**

Two-Face fired a gun into the ceiling.

Killer Croc winced.

Two-Face hissed and pointed at the screen with his smoking pistol. "Quiet while my ex-girlfriend is bitching…"

Killer Croc looked at the t.v.

"Wuh oh….," he uttered.

Suddenly, the image of Fox sitting in the captive chair was replaced by Bane's masked face up close. **"Hola, Two-Face. We also know you are watching this. Here is a message for Triangular. Either your conspiratorial team disbands and pays our Troupe double for every spoiled gig we've suffered at the hands of your dominating union…or we'll toss the boy billionaire out the window for some fresh air….all twenty-five falling seconds of it."**

"……," Two-Face's human eye narrowed.

"**Any interference on behalf of Triangular…or the Gotham City Police…and it's el muerte for the sniveling, overgrown brat. Adios, Gotham City."**

_Blip!_

"Hrssssssh….," Killer Croc clenched his sharp fists and snarled. "That oversized, walking S&M reject! I am SO fixin' to sink my teeth into his neck for what he's done to me. And now that he's barking up our backs…."

"Make a phone call," Two-Face grunted.

"…..," Killer Croc looked over. "Excuse me?"

"Call Wesker," Two-Face fingered his coin. "Tell him to send his best men in. Take that bloated bird down."

"Uhhh…okay, Dent….," Croc blinked. "But….uhh….didn't they just say that if we messed with their blimp at all they'd kill Fox?"

Two-Face twisted his neck around. "Mmmmm….perhaps. But then again…with so many of them villainous morons out there in the open, I'm surprised any of them are gonna survive."

"…………"

"The little Wayne Corp. shrimp is expendable. I don't care what Dagger says. Besides, it looks like the sky will run sooner than sunset…."

Flip.

Grab.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm sorry to interrupt your proudly broadcasted words…," the Mad Hatter crossed the pilot compartment and gestured with soft hands out the window. "But I do believe you'll soon hear the drone of my birds."

Ivy leaned her head southward and saw four helicopters coming in from the distance. She smiled. "Good work…," she glanced down and blinked. "For a midget."

"Charming," Mad Hatter smiled. "I'm sure."

"Triangular will want to dominate us," Bane gestured. "They operate through implementing a chilling factor. Whatever we're in for, it will be violent and explosive more than likely. If those helicopters don't hold back our enemies, I may just have to break them ourselves."

"Ah, but you forget!" the Clock King shuffled over. "We still have Dr. Crane's fear gas as a backup!"

"Say…where is that anorexic coot anyways?" Harley Quinn remarked.

"He said he was patrolling the airship," Ivy remarked. "'Doing his rounds'."

"Ah….the paranoid mind of a genius," Mad Hatter waved.

The others glared at him.

He merely smiled back.

Ivy groaned.

"So…y'all scientologists or something?" Fox smiled from his chair.

Harley slapped him with a clown glove. THWAP! "ONLY I CAN MAKE THE GOOFY SIDE JOKES!"

"Jeez, girl! Slap me a little lower so then I can have a reason to _kick_ you!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mugsy!" a heavy, muscular thug ran the length of a plush, gangster apartment and waved a cell phone. "Mugsy, where are you?"

"Over here, Rhino…," a thinner man stepped out of a bathroom, zipping up. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing….just HELL BREAKING LOOSE!" Rhino shouted. He pointed out the slanted window of the top story, highrise loft. "Bane's gang has Fox and they're in a zeppelin downtown ready to drop the shithead!"

"Don't you mean Clock King's gang?"

"No, it's quite obviously led by……Wh-WHAT ARE WE ARGUING FOR? Two-Face called. Get the Boss! We need to give that damn Troupe a message from Triangular they'll never forget!"

Mugsy nodded. "Right away!" He ran down a hallway to a pair of large, gothically adorned double doors and knocked on them. "Hey! Pssst! Boss!"

"_Who iz it? Show your lousy face! Id betta be good for tryin' ta distoib me!"_

_Crrrreak…_

Mugsy slid the door open and gazed in. "Boss?" His head looked around. "Boss, where are you?"

"_Uz' lookin' at him, ding-dong! How many times do I have ta remind you ta look at my face when you gots somethin' ta say? Want I should pump you full of lead or whats?" _

Mugsy sweatdropped. "Er….n-n-no, sir. We just…"

"_Time to do some of Triangular's dirty work, huh?"_

"H-How did you know?"

"_I've got good ears, jucko! What do you thinks stuffed in dis head of mine? Wood! Brains, I tell ya! I figger'd it wuz only a matta of time before thems rats decid'd to bite at our feet! You an' Rhino get da good stuff whiles'I get you-know-who to get off his lazy ass and do somethin' good for a change."_

"Uh…y-yeah. Sure, boss."

"_Hey! Dummy! Wake up, ya blockhead!" _

"_Y-Y-Yes, sir?"_

"_We've got a bunch of chumps ta squash and you're juzt sittin' over there growin' fungus out of your armpits?"_

"_I-I'm sorry, sir. I was tired, I-I guess…uh…."_

"_Get over here and help me get dressed, dummy! I need to look good when I'm dishin' out Armageddon on their sorry asses!"_

"_Y-Yes, sir. Right away sir……"_

Mugsy scratched his head as he closed the door. "Yeesh….never fails to creep me out…"

He turned around and was nearly plowed over by Rhino who was hugging a bazooka and a bundle of rockets to his chest.

"Did the boss say he was ready?"

"……..," Mugsy blinked. He made a funny face at the explosives in Rhino's grasp. "Yeah…as soon as you remember to pack the atom bomb you left in the kitchen's sink!"

"…..uhh….."

"God…chill out…," Mugsy marched off towards the front room where his gun holster was. "Everybody in this town just needs to chill out!"

"Ergh…."

"And maybe get a lobotomy….."

"…….all right….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back in Downtown Gotham City….

The dirigible started hovering in a circle around the summit of the R.H. Kane building. Already, police cars were swarming the streets. Officers pushed pedestrians out from the shadow of the stationary airship. Helicopters swam in a circle around the craft…keeping patrol. Although they were marked 'GCPD' on the sides, it was quite obvious that the men inside the pilots' seats were anything but their normal selves. Glazed eyes twitched in tune with the bleeping of chips behind their ears as they circled…circled….and circled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the blimp, Ivy looked over at the Mad Hatter. "Are you certain that your buzzing _drones_ are going to keep a good tally on our opposition?"

"Hmm…hmm…hmm….," the costumed villain smirkingly laughed. "My dear…I am not half as senile as I would beguile myself to succeed for our creed. I'll have you in perfect faith that our operation here is quite safe."

"You guys for real? Or am I just lucky?" Fox mused.

"Red…he's starting to scare me…."

"Don't fret…," Clock King looked at his pocket watch and grinned. "For we are exactly forty-five minutes away."

"Away from what?" Fox asked.

Clock King stumbled over and shook his cane in the man's face: "From dropping your shrunken head out of this blimp when Triangular's counter-force is here to see it!"

"Ohhh….," Fox blinked. "Wow…what a rush! You gonna tape it?"

Bane groaned and stared out the window of the pilot's compartment with his arms folded. "Por favor, Dios, how pathetic can this day get?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Downtown Gotham City.

The blimp hovered.

The helicopters circled.

The bright November sky snailed towards noon.

……

_FWP! FWP! FWP!_

"_WRESSSSSSSH!"_

Man-Bat flew over the rooftops in a downward arc.

And I was perched on top of him, forcing a chain around his neck. Gripping Myrkblade in the right hand. We sailed down towards the elevated scene The cold air blisteringly beat against us. My black hair streamed behind me and the Man-Bat's leather wings whipped.

The freakish Hyde-monster hissed and tried steering left.

I jolted atop him.

_Oh no you don't……_

FWOOSH! I billowed murk into my sword and smacked the length of Myrkblade back against Man-Bat's rump.

_THWACK!_

"_WRESSSSSSH!"_ Man-Bat shook and contorted in mid-air and angled himself once again straight in the direction I aimed him.

I smirked.

_That's a good freak…_…

The blimp drew closer.

The air windier as the buildings and alleyways yawned nearer below us.

_I have to get Fox out of there alive…… _

_Not that I care much about the moron myself…… _

_But…… _

_He's the source for questioning when it comes to Triangular and the funneling of Terra's essences through Wayne Corp. _

_Though it bugs me a little that……if Batman hasn't questioned him already by now…… _

_Then does that mean that I'm onto something that the Bat isn't? _

_That's disturbing……Disturbingly scary._

"_WRESSSSH!"_ Man-Bat tried steering off again.

THWACK!

"_WRESSSH!"_ Straight.

I shuddered.

_Guess I'll have to make a name for myself……………again……_

There was a loud beating in the air.

"……," I looked to my left.

Two of the helicopters had spun off their path and were zooming towards me. I saw miniguns mounted on the bottom of their bellies. Aiming at me. Beginning to spin.

"_WRESSH?"_ Man-Bat blinked.

I gritted my teeth and sweatdropped.

_For every rider, there's a bandit._

I looked ahead. At the blimp.

It was five hundred feet away now.

_Better blitz it._

Th-Thwish! _THWACK!_

"_WRESSSH!"_ Man-Bat flapped his wings madly. _FWP! FWP! FWP!_

We soared up and arced towards the blimp.

The helicopters followed, firing.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets trailed after us, sailing through the air….over the rooftops…and eating at Man-Bat's feet. The freakish flier twirled left and right, spun around radio antennas, and dipped under an elevated bridge between skyscrapers once while all the while avoiding the bulletfire. He seemed used to this and I wondered if he really needed me and the chains to manhandle him through the cityscape.

SWOOOOOSH!

We glided over the top of a skyscraper, nearly grazing the gravel of the rooftop.

The helicopters streamed after us, following low. Aiming. Firing.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

"_WRESSSSH!"_ Man-Bat flew up.

I twisted my upper body around and twirled Myrkblade in reverse, deflecting bulletfire to give the creature an easy ascension.

**CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!**

I heard turbine engines.

Sweating, I looked ahead.

We were practically running into the blimp.

The helicopters disengaged, not wanting to damage the craft.

"_WRESSSSH!"_ It soon became apparent that the monster I was riding wasn't about to pull away from the dive anytime soon. We soared straight towards the undercurve of the zeppelin's outer shell.

Man-Bat snarled.

I winced and held Myrkblade in front of my face.

SWOOOOOOOOSH! SMACK!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_RIIIIIIIIIIP!_

We made a tiny hole as we punched through. Man-Bat and I went tumbling. We landed hard and rolled across the metal floor of the inner shell. Metal latticework and criss-cross support beams stretched all around us on the inside of the zeppelin. Man-Bat rolled into a pillar (**CLANG!)** and was out cold. I struggled to get up on my feet, using Myrkblade as a staff.

_I think I'll stick to riding ponies from now on._

I stood up….and paused.

"………"

My black eyes blinked under my shades.

I gripped Myrkblade lightly. Cold. Sweating.

"…….."

_There's somebody in here……_

I turned around.

A brown, crooked skull-mask (_face?_) breathed into my shades, fogging them: **"Boo."**

_AAAAH!_

I teetered back, losing my balance.

Scarecrow raised his pale arms. His skull face (_mask?_) clattered loudly as he twirled a splintery staff and slapped me across the face with it.

**THWACK!**

I fell back from the frail man in tattered black.

THWOMP!

Myrkblade went clattering away from me across the metal works.

I winced and tried to pull myself up by a lattice.

"Nnngh!" Scarecrow ran up, the yellow-roped 'noose' around his neck dancing. He flew his scrawny foot into my chest. It had a piercing sensation when it slammed into my ribs. WHUMP!

I bent over, wheezing.

_**THWACK!**_

The staff again struck me, slamming down into the base of my skull.

I laid across the metal platform, spititng blood.

"Noir…..the dark Titan….," Scarecrow paced lightly around me. His voice was cold. Vibrating. Like a hollow bell being sung to in monotone and rolled across a cold closet floor. "…or should I say the _other_ dark Titan…."

I winced. I struggled up with shaking hands.

He came to a stop before me. "I sense that you don't want to be here. And the only reason people….heroes and villains alike….choose to be places where they'd rather not be is because fear tells them that their comfort zone only means death."

I sat up. I gazed at him. I looked aside at Myrkblade. "……"

He reached into his dark cloak. His skull _(mask? face?)_ leaned to the side. Two pixel yellow eyes gleamed beneath the shade of his hat. "You must be the most noble Experiment of all. Tis a pity I have not the time to study you…."

I held my breath.

_FWOOOOSH!_

I blurred past him. I slid across the metal platform, gripped Myrkblade, and spun around to face him with the sword raised…

SWOOSH! _SHATTER!_

A vial of red gas exploded beneath my feet. I coughed and wheezed. My black eyes watered.

Scarecrow 'bowed' with his staff raised. "But….maybe I can still study you……a little….."

I coughed. I clutched my throat, making a face.

"Heh heh heh heh…."

I felt a boiling in my blood.

My hairs stood on end.

My heart rate increased.

_That gas……_

"**Heh heh heh heh heh**!"

I panted.

A chill ran through me.

Not Red Aviary…

But…

But….

_The Scarecrow…… _

_Freakin' duh. _

_He……_

I gulped.

I looked in the Gotham villain's direction and horrifically wished I hadn't.

When he finished bowing, he lifted his face up.

The 'skull' contorted. Flesh grew over it. Like leeches of red and brown pulp mixing together. Slimily reconnected with capillaries. Throbbing. But the face didn't entirely reform. It was a butchered, burned, corpse of an expression. And a tattered eyemask hung over it all like a 'surrender' flag.

_No……_

"_What's the matter, Jordan?" _Robin limped towards me. The cloak shrunk into a singed uniform of red, green, and black. The skin hung off his arms. Smoke billowed out from his orifices. _"Frightened to see me?"_

_N-No………_

"_Not man enough to see what happened to me? What happened to the one Titan YOU COULD NOT SAVE?"_

I stepped back.

Shuddering all over.

Waving Myrkblade and a metal hand.

_B-Back off!_

"_If I burn……,"_ Robin sneered. He flexed his charred limbs and fire breathed out of him like a balrog. _"Then you're going to burn with me!"_ And he pounced. _"YAAAAAAUGH!"_

_**NOOOOOOO!**_


	220. A Hard Act to Follow part 5

**220. A Hard Act to Follow part 5**

November 29, 2004.

The City.

Titan's Tower

11:01 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven sat on the edge of her bed, hugging herself. Rocking gently forward and back with her eyes gazed on the floor amidst the extinguished circle of candles. Her face was straight, but her eyes were round. She breathed gently…desperately quick…

"………"

Cyborg walked into view. He handed her a hot, home-brewed cup of tea.

She took it with a shaking hand. The cup rattled with the saucer some before she smoothly brought the quaff to her lips and sipped.

Relaxing……..

Cyborg knelt by her beside and leaned his half-metal head to the side. "So….you gonna tell me about the vision you had while meditating? Or am I just gonna have to worry about why you're doing a blender impression all day?"

Raven finished sipping. She rested the cup and saucer on her thigh before emitting a shuddering exhale. "……," she raised her eyes and looked Cyborg's way. She opened her lips but took time to quietly, lowly mumble: "It was more than your average meditation," she said. "I was…..I was reaching back into someone else's mind."

"Someone _else's_ mind?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

"There are parts of me that are…._how should I say_…..telepathic?" Raven blinked at him. She seemed somewhat calmer. She mouthed: "On seldom occasions, circumstances force me to become more….'intimately' involved in a person's psyche than from simple empathic reflections. Usually such circumstances involve collision with my soul self when I'm venturing along the astral plane or a communion of brain waves or….."

"That time when Mumbo split your personalities apart….," Cyborg pointed. "You had a telepathic relationship to us then, didn't you?"

Raven nodded. "When my personalities were 'spread' among you and the rest of the Titans, they scooped up a piece of each and every one of you before returning back to me. I couldn't shake off what I took from your minds even if I tried. That's how I got visions that made me doubt Noir just before Slade's last venture. Among other things….."

"……….."

"………..," Raven sighed. She absent-mindedly stroked the top lid of the teacup. "I went back and I explored the psyche fractions I received from two of my teammates. Robin….and Noir…."

"Uh huh…..," Cyborg leaned forward. "And what did you see?"

Raven ran a hand up against her forehead. She closed her eyes….and sighed……

"………."

Raven opened her eyes and gazed numbly towards the wall stretching before her. "It was…hard to see much. The emotion was so sharp. So hot….boiling…..," she hugged her far shoulder. Sighed. And uttered: "Trigon has forever polluted the traces of Noir in my head because of the rage that consumed him when I was 'scattered'. And Robin was always so….so very complex. It was hard to make heads or tails out of him in the real world, much less the mental….."

"………"

Raven glanced aside at Cyborg. "I'm not sure what to think at this point. Only that….there is something very, very dangerous still at work in this continent. Something cold and….and Destructive. I think it very well sings of the warnings the Messenger gave us. And…..And it's related to Triangular, Cyborg. Somehow….what ever sparked the November Fourth catastrophe here is still alive and ticking and _ravenous_……."

"I'd say it was pretty dark ominous!" Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head.

Raven gave him a sideways glance. "Huh?"

He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You would have been practically shivering into a little shrunken ball in the corner of your room had I not gotten here earlier when I heard you scream! I don't think I've ever seen you so scared before, Rae. Mortuana's holiday stay included…."

Raven glanced back down at her hands. The fingers still twitched and shook against the saucer lid. She bit her lip and 'absorbed' herself into Cyborg's gentle touch. "I don't believe…..I-I don't believe that Noir is as bad as everyone in the public is thinking he is, Victor…."

Cyborg chuckled. "Heh heh heh. If it's Noir we're talking about, I know you don't think he's guilty, cutie."

She took a deep breath. "There are…..far darker things at play right now. Things to be more concerned about than Noir's endless, melodramatic search for……whatever it is that he searches for."

"Now there's something to perplex even a telepath!"

"Yes…..I suppose…"

"Heheheheheh…."

"………………," Raven again took a deep breath.

Silence….

"Rae?"

"Yes, Cyborg?"

"When I first came in here and found you on the floor….you said someone was alive…."

"Uh huh…."

"Someone in your vision."

"Yes…."

"Who is it, Raven?"

"………"

"Who's 'alive'?"

"……..," Raven gazed at him through the corners of her eyes. She spoke: "Cyborg…..if something dangerous was to happen to any one member of our team and you knew about it….you would tell me, wouldn't you?"

"Why….yes! Of course, Raven…," Cyborg leaned forward. "You can trust me. I know I've made some goofups as of late….but…..you can trust me."

"………….," Raven swallowed. She opened her mouth. She hesitated.

"…………," Cyborg stared at her. Quiet. Silent. Patient.

A pause.

"It's Dagger…," Raven lied.

Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "Dagger?"

"Yes…."

"I didn't know he died to begin with!"

"It's a vision," Raven shrugged. "I can't explain every bit of it."

"But of course…."

"I think it just means that….Dagger is still around. Wh-Whether we see him or not," she again concocted.

Cyborg half-stood. "Want me to run a scan of the City? Do you think Dagger may be secretly somewhere trying to….?"

"N-No…please….," she pulled him back down. She tried to say something, fidgeted, but then just leaned her petite body lightly against his frame.

Cyborg blinked. A little confused. A little warmed….

"I….I think one thing I've learned from you….," her lips curved ever so gently. "….is that I should learn to just rest instead of running around with my head cut off. I'm not the same paranoid, morose girl I used to be. At least…I don't think so…."

Cyborg playfully shrugged and gently stroked the incessant blue strand out from her right temple. "Works well in my book. I'm here, Raven…..you don't need to be afraid."

"Hmmmmm….," she leaned against him. But where he couldn't see, her half-smile left and a pale look of hopelessness and alienation washed over her face like a moonbeam. She almost dropped the saucer.

Cyborg held a gentle arm around her and remarked with eyes towards the ceiling. "Fear….it's such a trivial thing…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

Zeppelin Inner frame.

11: 11 am

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Nnnngh! _

_No……_

_**NOOOO!**_

I hobbled backwards, shaking my head desperately. Panting. Quivering all over.

Robin limped towards me down the aisle of metal lattices in the belly of the blimp. His flesh hanging off him in ribbons of burnt brown and red. He drooled bloody saliva as he leered at me and hissed: _"You could have run faster, Jordan. You could have gotten to the Radioactive Depository in time to save me! You've defeated Cinderblock……killed Slade……fought the underworld of Las Vegas……and taken on Superman himself in your own personal vendetta, but you couldn't have spared a single smoking second to be there in time to __**save me?"**_

I gritted my teeth.

Panting.

Sweating.

_No…N-No……_

I scrunched back against a metal pylon besides Man-Bat's unconscious body. My metal and flesh fingers tensed and my bladder thanked its lucky stars that it hadn't been fed any liquids for nearly twelve hours.

_Robin is dead. _

_Robin is DEAD! _

_You're just……You're just……_

I clenched my black eyes shut. I squealed mutely. A pulse. Two pulses.

"……"

I reopened my optics.

Through the shades, I saw a flicker of a thin, gangly figure. A pale thing with Scarecrow's hat, Scarecrow's tattered cloak, Scarecrow's ropelike 'noose', and Scarecrow's pixel-eyed 'skull'. But that all too quickly dissolved into a dream…replaced by Robin's melting face as the zombified Titan gripped my neck with burnt finger bones and hoisted me up.

I wheezed…struggling for breath. Overcome with two scents. _Robin_ and _burning flesh._

"_You're the worst thing that ever happened to the Titans……,"_ Robin stepped towards me, seething. He had a melted sort of half-grin. _"You abandoned the team! The team that needs you! The team that I spent my LIFE trying to uphold!" _

I panted.

Cold sweat.

I eyed Myrkblade on the floor far beyond.

It seemed to grow thorns and tiny spider fangs in plain sight.

I hugged my right hand to my chest.

"_You're a shame to me, Jordan……"_

I flinched at that.

"_You're a SHAME to me!"_ and he charged on rotting feet.

I mentally screamed and dove for my blade.

THWACK!

Robin's splintery bo-staff flew across my scarred cheek.

I twirled from the impact and collapsed against a metal lattice. Panting.

Ana walked towards me. Choral billowing bright steam. She frowned and hissed: _"You know what I've always hated about you, Jordan? You're so selfish. Even when you gave a limb for the Titans, you were only thinking about how to clear your name! What else could you've been trying to achieve?"_

I shuddered.

I looked down at my metal prosthetic.

Blood and pulp was oozing out of the titanium joints.

I wetly clenched my metal fingers and felt the snapping of tendons and muscles. Ripping.

I screamed breathily and rolled off the latticework and down onto the floor.

Ana loomed above me. She raised her ivory, steaming sword. _"You really are a selfish prick, aren't you? The only way you'd ever truly save the Titans is by ENDING YOURSELF, Jordan!"_ THWIIISH!

I gasped and rolled out of the way of the strong, earthen sword.

White foam splashed behind me.

I leapt up dizzily to my feet and spun around.

**GRIP!**

Supergirl's steel-grip clutched tightly around my throat. She forced me back against the metal wall of the interior and cut off my oxygen.

I wheezed and gagged….

Fingers flexing helplessly….

Her blue eyes burned a heat ray red. _"You attacked Clark….you hit Diana….you threatened the League…..and frightened hundreds of citizens."_ I felt a melting heat consume me. _"Just what part of you in this exodus is left to be called 'heroic', Jordan?"_

"…..," I shook. Strained.

"_Worst of all….,"_ Kara sneered and started to crush my scarred throat. _"You killed my ability to fly. You sucked every ounce of joy in my life away, Jordan. You and your silent indifference……the worst fate I could ever have is to turn into you, and I have NOIR to thank for it!"_

THWOMP! I was tossed against the latticework.

I slumped to the ground.

Numb.

Twitching.

Raven stood before me. Glaring. Her eyes glowed a hot white as she extended her graceful wrists towards me and discharged a black field of energy. _"And I never want to hear you breathe again……"_

_**FLAAASH!**_

_Aaaaaaaaaaugh!_

Somewhere.

In the darkest corners of the zeppelin's belly….

A brown skull's jaw curved….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Below the circling Zeppelin in the city streets of Gotham, police barricades shoved a growingly perplexed and panicky crowd of citizens back. Among them was an incredibly angry and incredibly verbal Veronica Vreeland. Three officers with their combined efforts had to drag the rich heiress away from shaking her fist at the rogue airship with her namesake.

The barricaded once though, to make way for a line of three squad cars to rush up to the scene. Retro-style police vehicles with swirling lights and screeching tires. All three came to a swift stop alongside the Kane building beneath the shadow of the blimp.

The middle car opened up, and two people stepped out. One, a mountainous guerilla of a human being with almost more obesity than a sidewalk could handle. Two, a thin and hard-lined woman with tan features and glaring eyes. They were both detectives, and they were both staring up at the levitating scene.

"Whew….," the obese officer whistled. "I guess the Hindenburg had a bastard child! Heh….," he glanced over at his partner and smirked. "Where's Jimmy Paige when ya need him?"

"…..," the woman glared at him. She glanced over at the first car.

The side door opened, and Commissioner Gordon stepped out. Gray hair, gun holster, and badge. Everything about him stood in a frame of pretend frailty, wrapped about by a large brown coat. He took one spectacled look at the zeppelin and sighed: "Every bad egg takes to the skies these days…"

The two detectives marched over.

"We have six square blocks cleared away surrounding the Kane building, Commissioner," the woman said.

"Better make it ten, Montoya. Has there been a ransom broadcast of some sort?"

"Indeed we have, Commish," Detective Bullock stroked his two chins and frowned. "Turns out these are your typical, egotistical clowns! Only this time…a whole nest of them!"

"So far, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Bane have been identified," Montoya gestured. "They were all on a broadcast sent across the City earlier…presumably from the airship. It turns out that they have Lucius Fox's missing son William as a hostage."

"Now if that isn't the strangest combination of fiends I've heard of yet….," Gorgon ran a hand through his gray hair. "We've known those two femme fatales to work with the metaphysical likes of Livewire….but Bane?"

"I don't think them punks are alone!" Bullock barked. "There's a certain clown about all of this! I can smell it!"

"Not the Joker's style," Gordon shook his head. "We would have seen his smiling face by now if he was behind the ransom."

"We've looked over the broadcast a few times since we recorded it," Montoya said. "It's not exactly a clear message. In fact, I don't think the kidnappers are attempting to speak to us at all! More than likely, they're attempting to contact some other group in Gotham besides the police force!"

"They made some references to…ehh….'Triangular' or some crazy duckshit!" Bullock said. "God, how I hate conspiracies! They're like hemorrhoids only with nasty teeth!"

"It doesn't sound comforting one bit…," Gordon said. "We could very well be dealing with a criminal gang war taking place in our skies. And it is absolutely the WORST time for Batman to be on hiatus!"

Montoya's chocolate eyes widened: "You mean you still haven't heard from him, Commissioner?"

"Ehhh…," Bullock shrugged. "Batman, Shmatman! The boys and I have got this one covered!" he pointed at an assembling SWAT team jumping out of a parked truck that was suddenly there behind him. "We'll give those two girl scouts from Hell and Frito Bandito a message! And if they or any criminals they're talking to try to show a little too much smartass lip, we'll give 'em some smartass lead!"

"Don't push it, Bullock!" Gordon pointed. "For all we know, those maniacs might not be flying that thing up there on helium! What if they have hydrogen or some sort of toxic gas mixture pumped into that thing?"

"We must think of William B. Fox above all else!" Montoya said. "The loss of his son would be crippling to Lucius Fox….and it would inevitably strike a heavy blow to all of the Wayne Corporation! Think of the impact such would have on this City!"

"I'm more worried about the sky right now…to be honest….," Bullock blinked. He was gazing upward.

"What was that?" Gordon asked.

Bullock whipped out a toothpick and chewed on it while pointing with his other finger. "Those choppers up there….ain't they our birds?"

Montoya and Gordon gazed up at the circling aircraft. The four helicopters buzzed around the center where the airship hung.

"I don't remember calling for air support," Bullock scratched his scraggily black hair under his detective's hat. He glanced over. "Any of yous?"

"……….," Gordon's eyes thinned. "What the devil?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Forty-Five minutes…and counting….," Clock King gazed at his watch and grinned.

Bane stomped over, teeth clenched. "Will you stop….doing….that…..por favor?"

The old man blinked up at him. "Eh? What is your problem, my good fellow?"

"That incessant countdown es absurdo and fills me with the urge to smash something…," he leaned forward and growled: "_Inside a big, bloated airship where smashing things is una idea muy estupida!"_

Clock King leaned back. Blinking. "One angry language at a time, please…."

"Yeah!" Harley grinned from a lofty windowsill where she playfully squat with knees bouncing. "Chill out, rubber head! Don't get your enchiladas in a twist!" She jumped down and girl-stepped towards Bane. "We got it all over this City…AND Triforce!"

"Triangular….," Ivy rolled her eyes from the side.

"Eh, whatever. I never did pay attention in Geomitron Class," the clown girl waved. Then she cutely snarled: "Lousy, stinkin' rotten teacher used the slapping stick like a fifth limb!"

"My my, Harley….," Ivy smiled and said: "You went to a Catholic school?"

"Yeah….," Harley winked. "But after I grew up and met Mister J, I dropped by the 'ol grounds and dropped a Smiling Bomb in the Communion Chapel! KABOOM! Heh…bet they're all Christian scientists now!"

"We should never have chosen to abide by this pathetic 'execution drop' appointment," Bane folded his arms and glared the Clock King's way. "The longer we wait out, the more we'll collect the police on our backsides…"

"Correction, my masked comrade…," Clock King twirled his cane and saluted. "The longer we wait, the more Triangular will pour out of the woodwork and expose themselves! Dr. Crane's handiwork will immobilize them, and all of Gotham City will stare at them in the moment of defeat! And how can they possibly resist so tempting a bait as that worthless pile of meat we're going to toss over the side in….oh…..forty-three minutes and twenty-eight seconds….

"_**STOP IT!"**_ Bane shook.

"Ahem….," William B. Fox simpered from where he sat tied to the chair in the back of the pilot's compartment. "As much as I enjoy sitting around and listening to you guys discuss my inevitable death and all, maybe now would be a good time for me to either ramble on like a total and complete fool—which I'm not, it's only in fashion to be so these days—or perhaps I can endeavor to sweet talk you all with the only delectable, criminal sugar available to this metaphorical Ragnorak of the underground we have festering before us."

"Uh…….huh?" Harley blinked.

Clock King gestured: "He wishes to negotiate on Triangular's behalf."

"Ohhhhhhhh….well isn't that smexxy?"

"Let him waste his breath," Bane hissed.

Clock King chuckled once. "Agreed…."

"Hold on a second….," Poison Ivy strolled over, a hand planted into her lip. "Why _don't_ we question him while he's here?"

"What?" Bane blinked under his mask.

"My lady…have you gone mad?" Clock King gestured. "We're here to stick it to Triangular! Not talk over tea and crumpets!"

"Boys….Boys!" Ivy smiled warmly. Her voice dripped: "Be nice to the poor young hostage." She faced Fox and sexily traced his chest and chin with a black gloved hand. "After all, he's far too handsome and smart and…..rich to be in a situation like this. What a pity….you poor thing…."

"Uhm….," Fox simpered. "Is it suddenly hot in here? Or am I the only one erect?"

"Poor widdle Foxxy woxxy….," Ivy leaned her puffy lips towards his cheek. "You're scared….aren't you?"

"Uhm….sure, lady. Very scared. I've never been this scared since I bought out a million dollar shares of Victoria's Secrets using my dad's stocks just so I could get a catalogue every week!"

"Shhhh….," Ivy pressed a finger to his mouth and cooed: "Let's not think on the past." A womany, warm breath. "Let's think on the present."

"Oh! I do that all the time! I'll let you know that I…Mmmmfmmmfmmmfffff!"

Ivy kissed him dead-on.

Clock King averted his eyes.

Bane muttered something.

Twenty sultry seconds later, Ivy removed her lips.

Fox blinked….blinked….then dazedly groaned with his head tilted forward. Drooling…… "Nnnngh…."

"Yeesh, Red…," Harley faked wretching. "It really creeps me out every time ya do that!"

Ivy stood up straight and fluffed her red hair. "The toxin should take over in less than ten seconds. He should be able to tell us anything and everything we ask of him."

"An interrogation serum….," Clock King leaned on his cane and smirked. "Ingenious."

"Will it actually work?" Bane asked.

"Of course," Ivy leaned on her hip. "It's how I get Harley to tell me where she's been hiding my garden gloves."

"……….," the men stared at her.

Ivy rolled her green eyes. "Oh for Demeter's sake…" She frowned and cackled: "I put it in her _breakfast cereal!_"

"Ohhhhh…."

"But don't those silly bloated gloves make great 'cow udders' when you fill them with milk, Red?" Harley beamed. "'Moooo! I'm a big cow! Moooo! I just set fire to Chicago by kicking over a lantern that some bloated dumb blonde left in the barn! Mooo! Mooo!'"

"Muchachas…," Bane shook his head. "Que terrible…"

Ivy glanced over. "What was that?"

"Hrmmm….," came a distressed hum from the computer console on the far side.

The other members of the Troupe glanced away from the dazed and intoxicated Fox.

"Oye…Hatter…," Bane stepped over. "Que es?"

The short, pale villain clutched his green top hat to his head and shut his eyes in concentration as the device broadcasted his mind control abroad. "There seems to have been a trouble with my faithful birds. A piercing entrance into our flying fortress which none of us heard."

"There's an intruder?" Clock King gasped. "Where?"

"Inside the belly of our beast….," Mad Hatter opened his eyes and smiled. "But I do believe he's become the Scarecrow's feast."

"I don't like the smell of this…," Bane mumbled.

"I'll check it out!" Harley bounced. "Besides…stick figure Crane must be lonely!" She skipped off down a metal corridor. "You know hard it is to make him laugh!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_THWACK!_

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Dr. Joseph Crane cackled as he kicked me in the side.

My body went sprawling limply across the lattice work….even further from the gently resting Myrkblade.

"What is it that you see, 'brave' Titan?" the pale, tattered figure sneered down at me. His skull (face? mask?) at a twisted angle. "What is it that you hear? For someone as dark as you….I am so very….very tempted to find out."

I struggled. I crawled slowly on four limbs….

He took a hissing breath, twisted his frail body about, and struck me hard in the ribs with his splintery staff.

_THWACK!_

I curled over.

Coughing.

Wheezing….

"The frightening 'heroes' among us quadruple in numbers…..," the Scarecrow hissed. He lowered his staff and stood tall and menacing above me in the zeppelin's interior. "Those with shady pasts….scary powers….and wicked mean streaks…..they rise in greater and greater numbers each day. You are but a taste of a somber tilt to the Balance of thingsssssss……I wonder what the Parasite seeks in you that he foregoes in all of us."

I panted….panted….panted….

I looked up towards him.

Eyes thin.

Refocusing.

Black…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_He's coming for you, Jordan……,"_ Dagger said while twirling a blade. He stood over me inside the zeppelin. Eyes endlessly cold and emotionless. _"……he will tear you apart. But it will be quick for you. When Red Aviary then goes to take out Terra and the rest of the Titans……THEN it will be slow. THEN it will be torturous. And what's worse……you won't be there to protect them……"_

I shuddered.

I gulped.

Sweating, I looked over towards Myrkblade.

I saw the strange, shirtless figure of a scientist in a labcoat.

Man-Bat's vicious mutagen had worn off and Dr. Langstrom had 'returned'…..although still unconscious.

But I couldn't help but breathe in sudden confusion and…yes…mixed hope…

_Why does he not scare me? _

_While……_

THWOMP!

A foot kicked me hard in the side.

I winced all over and rolled across the metal floor.

I looked up, panting.

Hull marched over. He pointed with an angry, silver finger. _"You are a pointless organism, Jordan. How could ever……EVER think that the universe and all that moves and breathes in it could be saved by someone as pathetic and insignificantly small as you? You might be able to interrogate Clark Kent, take down a Harrier Jet, and piss off Triangular……but you cannot move mountains! And you cannot bring Robin back from the dead! And you cannot……escape……__**DEATH!"**_

Hull leapt up, whipped out Bluescythe, and cut through the air down at me.

"RAAAAUGH!"

_SHVVVVVVVV!_

I dove out of the way.

I felt a searing pain through my ankle where he cut me.

I rolled halfway towards Myrkblade and was compelled to grip my leg.

I winced all over before pantingly lifting my fingers and looking at my flesh and metal palms.

Blood draped across them. Blood that shifted and lifted up into dancing vapors of cold, cold red.

I gasped. Shivering.

The red vapors pulsed and flew into my face. And I caught a breath of hallways filled with bleeding bodies and spilled guts. And the hallways spread out so that they were no longer the Alpha Laboratories of Lexcorp, but rather a rusted metal platform forming a ring of mutilation around me with the shadow of someone's high-pitched laughter throbbing in the distance.

A familiar echo.

I hyperventilated.

_No…… _

_Please……N-No…… _

_None of this is real. _

_My mind…… _

_It is fighting against me. _

_I'm being torn apart from the top down like with a butter knife……_

I clutched my skull through long locks of black hair and hissed painfully through clenched teeth.

"_This is where it ends, Jordan……"_

I panted.

I looked up.

Eyes watering.

The Messenger marched towards me. Wearing all black. His green goggles hung around his neck and a tranquilizer positioned itself in his hand, aiming towards me with acid-tipped needles.

"_Right where you began……," he snarled._

_No……please……_

He stood on the metal rust. The blood boiled. The dismembered bodies curled and moaned. A skeleton flashed in the corner besides a man twirling a knife.

"_Full…Circle……"_

_No!_

And he fired.

THWIIFT!

TH-THUNK!

_AAAAARGHHH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

My body convulsed all over as if being dealt with by electrical shocks.

I hyperventilated, coughed, sputtered, and all but melted into the metal floor.

I hiccupped like a baby as tears trickled down and coated plates of the lattice work.

And above me, Scarecrow hissed. A half-attempt at laughter. He stood over me again and raised his staff above my shoulder blades.

"Panic…boy….," he murmured. Cold and vibrating. "It's called _mortality._"

SWOOOSH!

_THWACK!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Form a perimeter!" Bullock shouted to the SWAT teams in the City Streets. "I want guns posted on either side of this building! If this is where that blasted blimp's gonna float around forever! Then this is where it'll fall if it needs to!"

Squad leaders nodded, turned, and shouted to their subordinates.

SWAT members filed off towards the far side of the street.

Bullock strolled over towards a string of squad cars behind the barricades and flicked his toothpick into a nearby gutter. "Hey Renee….any news on what those choppers are doin' up there?"

Montoya walked over, snapping a cell phone shut. "It's beyond me, Harvey. Gordon didn't order any of our men in the air! Neither did we!"

"Yeah…I know…something's screwy…," Bullock scratched the back of his thick head. "Give a shout out to HQ. See if somebody gave a bogus communication by accident or somethin'!"

"Don't bother," Gordon said.

The two looked over.

He marched up with two other police officers and a bruised, drowsy helicopter pilot.

"We've just got word from all around the departments!" the Commissioner gestured. "This here is Graham Smith. He's a pilot from our South District Department!"

"I-I-I can't explain it….," the man shook and winced. The officers behind steadied him. "My buddy and I were just working on the chopper for the next emergency when suddenly he clobbers me from behind with a wrench! When I started to come to, he was already taking off with the helicopter and heading here! I swear….it's like he was possessed or something!"

Montoya gasped. "Possessed!"

Bullock gulped.

Gordon folded his arms and frowned. "You know what that means….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hmmmm….," the Mad Hatter smiled. He turned his head somewhat and gazed at the others as he said: "Curiouser and curiouser boils the kettle. The City grows ready to test our medal!"

"Gordon's not the kind of person to do anything desperate," Clock King huffed.

"Yes…but the two-bit morons who work for him are," Ivy said.

"………..," Clock King glanced aside.

Bane was silent. He looked at Fox as the young heir started to gurgle and grin. He then looked at Mad Hatter and nodded. "Let the birds feast….un poco…."

Mad Hatter grinned toothily and rubbed his gloved hands together. "Ah…joyous! Off with their heads…." And he twisted his head about and adjusted the dials on the electronic computer console.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In one of the four hovering, circling helicopters…

A pilot gripped firmly the controls. His body stood straight and rigid. His face was deadpan…emotionless….robotlike.

There was a flickering of light. A buzzing noise. The computer chip behind his ear flashed and strobed.

The man's irises dilated.

"………."

A slight hum escaped the pilot's throat beneath the beating mayhem of the helicopter blades.

He gently pushed at the controls and angled the helicopter downwards and in the direction of the streets looming beneath the rotating blimp.

In loud, nightmarish coordination….the three helicopters rotating cyclonically about the Kane building dove down and joined the first bird's side.

All four made a mind-controlled sweep of the City Blocks.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What do you mean you can't make contact with the choppers?" Bullock squawked into a squad car radio while Montoya stood beside him. "We have them things installed inside every bird! If all else fails, we could at least morse code those turncoats freakin' ears off!"

Montoya gazed up.

Her eyes widened.

She tapped Bullock's heavyset shoulder and murmured: "Uhm….Harvey…."

"Don't tell me to calm down!" he continue to shout into the radio. "I've got Goodyear's evil twin hanging overhead and fifty expert marksman with itchy trigger fingers trained in on the bigass balloon!"

"Harvey!"

_Swish…Swish…Swish…Swish…_

"Eh…hang on, H.Q.," Bullock tapped the mic. "I think there's some interference…"

Montoya tried shaking him. "Look up in the sky, stupid!"

So he did. And he gasped. "Jumping Joan of Frickin' Ass!"

_**SwishSwishSwishSwishSwish!**_ The helicopters swarmed down in a line. A compartment opened in the bottom of each, exposing a minigun….loaded…spinning…

From the sidelines, Commissioner Gordon was already jumping into an alley with two other cops. He shouted to the detectives. "Montoya! Bullock! DUCK!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

P-P-P-PING!

Bulletholes and potholes swum through the cars and asphalt towards the pair.

Bullock yanked Montoya and dove behind a barricade.

CL-CL-CLANG!

Bullets ricocheted off of lampposts, fire hydrants, and barricades all around them.

_**SWOOOSH! **_

_**SW-SWOOOSH!**_

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The air heated and shook from the speeding aircraft. They blazed through, kicking up air and dust. Echoing across the street as they spun around, skimmed the tops of other squad cars, and resumed firing. Police vans exploded. Glass buildingfronts shattered. Cops and SWAT Team members and city workers alike ran every which way and dove comically behind newspaper stands, hedges, and low walls to avoid the bullet spray.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beneath the streets where the helicopters thundered, the spacious City sewers of Gotham stretched into the gathering darkness.

The broad tunnels lapped and rolled with grimy, shadowed rivers.

A beacon flashed….flickered…and grew in brightness. A motorboat full of thugs throttled slowly into position besides a platform where a metal ladder lead to a manhole cover above.

Standing at the bow of the motorboat was Mr. Trent from the Gothe Nightclub. He looked disgruntled. Angry. Vengeful. He lead the advance with a waving hand. He turned his neck and shook his arm over the dozen heads of thugs armed with Tommy guns.

Two more boats full of Triangular's nastiest Gothamites crested into view on the underwater stream. About fifty gunmen total came by Trent's beckoning.

The man held a fist up.

The three boats slowed down besides the metal ladder.

Trent took a deep breath. He and the others bore witness to the dull shakes of exploding police cars and machine gun impacts above the concrete ceiling above them.

"……….," Trent then looked into the water. "You gonna come up or what?"

_SPLOOSH!_ Killer Croc surfaced in the sewer water. He turned and glared a pale, bony frown at the 'subordinate' ring leader. "Better thank your lucky stars I know my way around this place!"

"This has been a long, smelly frying pan," Trent said. He pointed up at the manhole and towards the gun battle noise. "That had better not be the fire."

_Splash!_ Killer Croc jumped up onto the brick platform and walked to the metal ladder. "Bane and company just gave Triangular an invitation. Well, Two-Face thanks we should meet them for tea head-on. And more than that…we'll come bearing gifts…"

A good half of the thugs subconsciously nodded and cocked their Tommy Guns.

Trent sighed: "This is the making of a really ugly trap…."

"Or a good meal at the end of the day….," Croc licked his mutated lips. "Wait here….I'll get a gander…."

And he climbed the ladder up to the manhole….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOOOOOSH!**_

The helicopters climbed to the top level of the Hampton Building positioned across from the Kane.

The rotary blades of the 'birds' sliced the air and lifted them up just to dive down for a second machine-gun-spitting spin.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The beating sounds of the blades and ensuing explosions grew more and more distant in their cacophony.

Silence……..

A stairwell door opened on the Hampton rooftop.

Mugsy peered out, pistol in hand.

He glanced left.

"……."

He glanced right.

"……"

He glanced up.

The zeppelin loomed a mere ten stories higher from where they were.

Mugsy exhaled. He rushed out onto the rooftop, whistled gently, and motioned behind him.

Rhino tip-toed out behind him. He had a bazooka and a bundle of rockets in his grasp.

Mugsy found a perfect spot on the edge of the roof. He propped up a metal brace.

Mugsy planted the bazooka on it like a mounted rocket launcher. He positioned the spare rockets behind them.

"Remember….," Mugsy whispered. "We don't take down the target until the other three groups are in position. We're depending on Croc and Dent as much as they're depending on us…"

"Uhhh….why are you whispering?"

"…………er….did you hear a thing I said?"

A voice barked from the shadow of the interior stairwell: _"Just what are you blockheads doin' loafing about? Get them rockets ready or we'll be tossing your sorry flamin' butts at the huge helium bag instead!"_

Mugsy and Rhino winced.

"Y-Yes, Boss!"

"Sorry Boss!"

They swiftly went about their task.

A short, thin shadow stood in the doorway. His arms were propped up, and a voice came from within the space of his torso….or at least…_someone_ within that space.

"_We better pull through for Triangular or else Triangular will be pulling our limbs off! You like to get a new stretch on living, boys?" _

"N-No, Boss…."

"_Then start cracking! Sheesh……I swear da only thing you two are good for iz donating carbon dioxide 'n methane to da atmosphere!"_

"_Wow, sir. That was a very intelligent analogy you just made……"_

"_Did I ask yous for a frickin' commentary, dummy?" _

"_N-N-No, sir!" _

"_Then keep your trap shut! Sheesh! How am I to talk with your lips movin' half the time?"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Clink! _CREEEAK!_

A metal door yawned thinly open

Harley Quinn peered through.

She blinked….then grinned wide.

I was twitching on the floor still. Scarecrow intermittently and viciously hit me with a foot or his staff or a fist. I was bruised and bleeding and coughing my way across the floor. Totally powerless.

"Now here's a laugh if I ever saw one!" Quinn stepped over and planted her hands on her hips. "I gotta be frank, Crane. You've got that kid positively floored!"

Scarecrow spun and snapped in a sharp, dagger-cold voice at Quinn from beneath his shaded hat. "Quiet, you! I am _experimenting!"_

"No….you're supposed to be tellin' us when so much as a fly gets in this here zeppelin that's not supposed to! We're kinda short on spiders, ya know? And I don't think Charlotte's selling herself. She's got all eight legs in a nunnery since that damn pig showed her a thing or two about men." She tip-toed into the center of the row of metal lattice work and spotted Langstrom lying on the floor. "Hey!" She pointed. "Ain't that the werewolf bat guy? What's he doing here?"

"For the last time….," Scarecrow shook. "_Leave!_ I have this intruder MORE than handled!"

"Hrmphhh! I'm telllllllling on youuuuuu!" Harley giggled and danced insanely. She clapped her hands and grinned. "You've been a bad scarecrow! No brain for you!"

"Nnnnnrghhh….," the brown mouth of the 'skull' clattered. Crane reached a pale hand into his cloak and fingered a vial of red fear gas. "Don't tempt me, you brainless wench…."

"Whatcha gonna do? Suffocate me with some of your fear-fart?" Quinn stuck her tongue out and did a raspberry. "The only think I'm afraid of is eating fish! I'll have you know that I'm a former psychiatrist and I know what to do if I hallucinate a giant walking mackerel! Just count to three and…"

BONK!

Scarecrow conked her on the head with his staff.

"Owwwwieeee….," Harley rubbed her jester-hat-laden head and pouted. "….you're a big meanie!"

"And you won't stop _talking!"_

"Oh yeah?"

"……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was curled up.

Lying in darkness.

Or so I thought….

I couldn't stop trembling.

I couldn't.

I felt like I was lying prostrate on a rock in the middle of a field of tall grass.

A familiar feeling.

Cold winds.

Cold breaths.

Like metal.

"…….."

Metal floor.

Metal lattices.

Metal support beams.

I panted.

I tilted my shaking head up.

Wavering black eyes opened and gazed forward.

I saw two bodies.

Renee.

Daniel.

Both bleeding.

Both screaming in pain.

Facing each other and cursing my name out loud.

I shuddered and clenched my eyes shut.

Teeth gritting as I strained to lose sight….lose consciousness….lose life….

Anything.

"……….."

My muscles relaxed.

A cold sweat turned into a warm flash as my body sharply inhaled.

My parched lips opened….

_Lose sight…… _

_Sight……_

I gulped.

My eyes were clenched shut.

And in the darkness, all I felt was the metal interior of the zeppelin around me.

My aching limbs.

The naked reality of it all.

Without sharpness or blood.

"……."

I opened my eyes again.

Renee and Daniel were gone.

In their place stood two bodies.

Two bodies that flickered in the shape of a scowling Scarecrow and a bickering Harley Quinn before swiftly transforming into…

FLASH!

Tempest with his gills ripped out.

Diana broken and bleeding.

I clenched my eyes shut.

Tensing again.

But….

Taking firm breaths.

Firm….meditative breaths….

_My eyes…… _

_I see what I fear most…… _

_I'm consumed by what I fear most…… _

_As long as my eyes…… _

_As long as my eyes are open……_

I clenched my flesh and metal fists.

Inhaling.

Finding my balance.

_In the darkness…… _

_In the blackness……… _

_There is the Equalizer………… _

_And the Equalizer doesn't cower from fear………… _

_He absorbs it, consumes it, and suffers from it……………… _

_But only to dish it the flipping __**hell**__**back**__**!**_

Smoke poured out of my eyes. My limbs tensed and covered with murk. I felt outward in spatial sense and grasped the bodies. The _true_ bodies. The Scarecrow. Harley Quinn. Dr. Langstrom on the floor. Myrkblade across the way.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And furthermore!" Quinn squealed. "The Wicked Witch of the West wouldn't have been so evil if the house hadn't fallen down from the Kansas tornado to begin with!"

"………..," Scarecrow uttered: "What in Lenin's name are you talking about?"

"What?" Quinn spat. "Ain't you gothic types avant-garde?"

"Allright…..you forced me to do this…."

SWOOOOSH!

TH-THWACK! My kicking leg went flying across Scarecrow's backside.

He fell onto the ground, chest forward. WHUMP! "Ooof!"

Harley Gasped. She reached for her clown gun.

I spun a roundhouse kick into her neck.

"EEK!" she twirled from the impact and slammed back into a metal lattice. CL-CLANG!

Both villains stirred. They struggled up to their feet and looked my way.

Harley gasped.

The beady, blinking eyes adorning Scarecrow's (mask? face?) twitched.

"…….," I stood before them. Hands in fists. Smoke pouring down my bruised and aching body. Murk slithered out from beneath my shades. And in the light of an electric bulb nearby, even they could see that my eyelids were utterly…completely closed.

"Uh…..the kid's blind….," Harley pointed. She glanced blankly at Scarecrow. "Crane? Is that supposed to happen? He ain't looking for snapdragon!"

"You imbecile!" Scarecrow warbled as he stood up. "Isn't it obvious? The boy is spatially aware! Quick! Help me disable him…."

My teeth snarled as black clouds billowed all around my body.

_What's the matter, Scarecrow? Afraid of the dark?_

THWOOOSH! I blurred towards Crane and slammed an elbow into his chest. THWUMP! His thin frame stumbled back. I snarled and spun with a blindly coordinated knee into his abdomen. Whap! Followed by an ankle against his legs. THRUMP!

The man was tripped and fell down hard to the metal floor.

Harley let out a shout and cartwheeled towards me.

I meditatively leaned back with both hands spaced apart. I felt the air. The murking currents. Her spinning limbs and the direction in which they moved…pivoted….

Harley came up from a somersault. CHIIIING! She produced a razor sharp playing card in either hand like a pair of daggers and sliced at me.

SWIIIISH!

I leaned back at the last second, darting.

CL-CLACK! Both cards came together in a splash of sparks. Grinding aces.

"Eep!" Quinn shuddered.

I blurred forward and gripped her shoulders before kneeing her in the chest.

WHUMP!

"HACK!" she coughed and bent over.

I flipped her over me and reverse-kicked her body into a metal pylon.

SWOOOOSH! CL-CLANK!

On his knees, Scarecrow growled and swung his staff at my feet.

I sensed the swing.

I pulsed murk in my ankles.

THWOOSH! I leapt straight up.

Crane's swing met thin air.

I flipped in place. I came down.

Scarecrow clattered his jaw and shoved his staff straight at me.

FWOOSH!

"……," he stared.

With perfect, smoking balance…I stood one-footed on the end of his staff. Smoke danced all around me as…in a single breath…I leapt and swan-kicked him upside the chin.

THWACK!

"Ughhh!" he fell back and collapsed across the metal floor.

I twirled in the air and landed in a half-split. Ankles and palms touching the ground. Coursing murk through the floor. 'Feeling' the room. Searching for Harley. Finding her behind me. Running. A mallet in her grasp being swung down towards the back of my skull.

"RAAAAAAAUGH!"

SWOOOSH! I swung my metal hand back blindly and gripped the handle of the mallet an inch before the bludgeon could so much as touch my hair. **CLUTCH!**

"Nnngh! Nnnnghh!" Quinn struggled and struggled to yank my grasp free.

I took a breath, spun, and sort of….'breakdanced' my body up into a murking, upside down ballet twirl. I clung my feet to a metal cross beam above me via murk, re-gripped the mallet, and twisted it from Harley's grasp.

YANK!

Cl-Clatter!

She hobbled back. Gasping.

_Plant!_

I landed. I took a deep breath. Eyes still closed, I felt for her movement. "……," I looked directly left at her.

"Ackies!" she stumbled back, lip murmuring.

"…….," I marched towards her.

She simpered. She said: "Y-You wouldn't hit a girl, would you….?"

_**SMACK!**_

I slapped her with a metal hand.

She spun and smacked against the metal lining of the interior besides the gash Man-Bat and I had made in our entrance.

"Ughhh…..never on a first date….," Harley's eyes spun.

I felt along the floor. I found Myrkblade. I ran towards it….slowed….and gripped the weapon by its hilt. Th-Th-Thwish!

Eyes clenched shut, I smirked.

_Ah……that feels good._

I took a deep breath.

I felt a flickering sensation through the corners of my eyelids.

Like a line of horrid red trying to break its way through.

But I fought it.

I kept my eyes closed.

I relied on spatial sense as the visual hallucinogen wore off.

_I once outran a harrier jet. _

_I can sure as Hell outrun a poison._

Harley limped…struggled to her feet….

"Mr. J was right….beauty school's still looking up for me…..th-that or maybe moving to Amsterdam…."

I marched at her.

"Oh, for Criminy's sake! I give up already!"

I frowned.

_Not good enough._

FWOOOOSH!

"EEEEEK!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOOOOSH!**_

The helicopters soared over and faded into the distant air.

The streets surrounding the Kane Building were practically bleeding all over with bulletholes, steaming, hot metal. Shattered buildingfronts and ripped-up concrete. The bullet impacts dotted the urban landscape like a rash. The mayhem was outrageous…

Silence……..

"………….," Bullock peeked his head out. He blinked. He limped out, followed by a dazed Montoya and a handful of other officers…SWAT Team members….and firefighters.

"Madre de Dios….," Montoya murmured.

"Uh….yeah…Madre de Doodoo…," Bullock rubbed his head. "What the Hell's gotten into them?"

""We couldn't possibly have suffered that many traitorous officers with a security system as strict as our department's!" Montoya exclaimed. "No…they have to be under the influence! Mind control….brainwashing….even telepathy!"

"Mind control? Telepathy? HA! Renee, this is Gotham City! Not Metropolis…."

"But still…."

"Look on the bright side!" Bullock smiled. "At least they're gone!" He gazed across the street. "Now where's the Commish?"

"_Hiding because they're still here, you dumb cluck!"_

"Whazzit?"

_**SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!**_

All four helicopters descended, their miniguns armed and rotating.

Montoya ducked. The other officers dove every which way. Bullock stood alone and shrieked like a baby.

"Yowsers!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

At that same moment….

"_Steady……Steady, ya clowns……"_

Mugsy and Rhino sweated…

They pivoted and aimed the bazooka carefully.

With a rocket propelled grenade loaded, they aimed the projectile up towards the blimp with the grisly voice from the stairwell commanding them on.

"_Easy does it……Easy……Easy……"_

"It's now or never, boss…," Mugsy whispered.

"Yeah…we got them!"

"_You'll shoot the boid when I tell ya to shoots the boid, ya blockheads!"_

"……."

"……."

"……._Okay now! Shoot the boid!"_

Rhino tapped Mugsy's head.

Mugsy pulled the trigger…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

At that same moment….

A manhole cover opened a few blocks away.

Killer Croc squirmed out, grunting.

He rested with his mutated chin above the asphalt and glared straight up at the length of the Kane Building and the noonday sun up above.

"Nnnngh….," Croc muttered. "Frickin' sunshine…."

Before he could motion the train of thugs in the sewer to climb up after him….

_**PFTCHOOOOOO!**_

A bazooka shot up from the Hampton building.

He glanced over and his reptilian eyes lit up.

"Oooh….heheh….I'm likin' that!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

And at that very same moment…..

"Tell us….what is Triangular planning?" Ivy asked.

The drugged Fox rolled his head as he sat at the end of the . "Nnngh….P-Project…..Projeccccct…."

"Yes?" Bane leaned forward. "Yes?

"Nnngh….P-Project Famona…."

Ivy raised a red eyebrow. "Famona?"

"Famonnnnna….," Fox drunkenly smiled, his eyes wide shut. "On weekends….I like to be called _Famona……"_

"……….uhm….," Bane blinked.

"Gah!" Ivy tossed her arms. "Damn it all! The drug's not making him spill about Triangular! It's making him spill about his filthy personal life!"

"Hehehehe….yes….I'm a baddddd girrrrrrl!"

"Well perfect…solamente perfecto!" Bane grumbled.

"Good news everyone!" Clock King beamed, waving his watch. "Ten minutes till!"

Ivy groaned.

Bane shook his fist. "For the last time…."

**CL-CLANG!**

The metal door burst open.

Mad Hatter spun around, gasping.

SWOOOSH! TH-THWUMP! Harley was tossed into the pilot's compartment.

"Harl!" Ivy gasped.

THWOOOSH! Scarecrow was tossed in.

"My word!" Clock King gasped.

SL-SLUMP! Dr. Langstrom slid to the ground besides the doorway.

Bane hissed: "Bueno…."

"……," I limped in. Eyes clenched shut. Smoke trailing down my body. I flexed my limbs and felt the room. Felt the people inside. The bodies and the villains and the stuff in between.

"Hehehehe!" Fox drooled and rolled his head. "Johnny on baby, light my fire!"

_CHIIIIING!_

I pulled Myrkblade out, smoking twice as heavily. I took deep breaths and measured myself up against everyone else….soon to find out that I was only measuring myself against one meaty person in particular.

"Well then, swordsman….," Bane cracked his knuckles and marched towards me. "I was looking for a little excitement. Are you brave enough to fight me to the death ahora?"

"…….," I glared blindly at him.

_After today……it'd take a lot to scare me…._

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

"What in the….?"

"R.P.G!"

"It's headed straight for us!"

Ivy gasped.

Bane spun around, jaw gaping.

"………," I gulped.

_Except maybe that……_

_**CRASSSSSSH!**_


	221. A Hard Act to Follow part 6

**221. A Hard Act to Follow part 6**

_**SHATTER!**_

The glass windows of the pilot's compartment exploded everywhere as the flaming bazooka sailed through.

Clock King, Poison Ivy, and the Mad Hatter ducked…flinching.

I dove murkingly to the side, rolling out of the way of the burning projectile's trajectory.

Bane stood his ground. His teeth clenched and his muscles tightened as the weapon flew directly into his chest.

_**SWOOOOOOOSH-THWUMP!**_

He caught the nose of the rocket propelled grenade in two meaty palms.

"Nnnngh!"

He slid back two meters from the thrust of the bazooka rocket he was gripping. He planted his heels firmly into the ground at the last second, pivoted his weight, and spun around with a massive swing of the explosive.

FWOOOOSH!

He flung it back out another window in the direction from which the threat entered. "RAAAAUGH!

_**CRASH!**_

The glass shattered outward. The rocket flew out, spiraled, and exploded ten meters off the hull of the zeppelin's bridge.

The airship rocked from the explosion.

The villains—both conscious and unconscious—rolled around from the jolting.

Bane struggled to stay on his feet. "Nnnngh…nngh!"

In the meantime, I had gotten up on my knees and was catching my breath. A burst of smoking energy coursed through me and I propelled myself blurringly towards the lone chair where Fox was strapped in. CHIIIING! I produced Myrkblade and began slicing at his bindings. SN-SNAP! SNAP!

"MMmmmmm….," Fox drooled and grinned—drugged—at me. "Mommy….are the Pop-Tarts done?"

"……," I paused and raised an eyebrow above my shades.

_Yeah………_

**GRIP!**

A meaty hand around my shoulder.

I winced.

_Ah shit……_

**SWOOOSH!**

Bane tossed me across the room and into a window.

SMACK! CRKKK!

Spider web fractures formed in the glass.

I slumped to the ground, panting. Weakly holding Myrkblade.

St-Stomp! Bane stood before me, cracking his knuckles. "Time to pay for your tuition, kid…."

I gritted my teeth and looked up at him.

My eyes flickered.

Bane's image faded. A limbless, sparking Cyborg levitated in his place. Smoldering and hisssing: _"All hope is lost for you, Noir. As it is loss for the rest of the Titans!"_

"!" I clenched my eyes shut. Hissing….panting….

_Scarecrow's potion…… _

_It's not gone from my system yet._

_I-I gotta do this blind……_

SWOOOSH-SMACK! Bane's foot slammed into my side.

I ricocheted of the wall and tumbled across the room. Coughing up blood. Eyes clenched shut more in pain than in desperation.

_Right……THIS will be easy……_

I stretched a hand outward and sent a pulse of spatial sense outward towards the rest of the cabin.

Bane was marching towards me. Arms outstretched. Muscles rippling to pull me literally apart….

From the distance: _PFTOOOOOOOO!_

Mad Hatter's Voice: "It is another fiendish fowl! Incoming off the bow!"

A shudden yanking to the controls.

I gasped and steadied myself. My black eyes flickered open for but a second under my shades. I saw a smoke-trailing projectile out the window. It soared beneath us and exploded. Rocking the craft from underneath after barely missing.

_RUMMMMBLE!_

Poison Ivy's Voice: "Dent? It _has_ to be Two-Face! He's trying to fend us off!"

Clock King's Voice: "N-No! We cannot be off time! We must stay on schedule! Someone help me drop the Fox!"

Bane's snarling voice: "Like Hell we will! We need to keep this blasted balloon up in the air! HATTER! Send in your choppers!"

"Right away!"

Bane's Voice loomed over me: "I'll take care of this pathetic little…."

I was already leaping towards his 'form'.

FWOOOSH!

TH-THRUMP!

"DAAAUGH!"

I found myself entangled with his torso. I teleported, perched on his shoulders, and slammed Myrkblade repeatedly into the square of his head.

THWACK! SM-SMACK! CLANK!

Either his mask or his skull bore the brunt of my blows. Perhaps both. He grunted and absorbed it all as he lumbered about, arms flailing. He finally managed to grab me by a leg and fling me around like a caveman club against the walls and flooring of the place. "HAAAUGH!" THWAP! "NNNGGGH!" CL-CLANG! "RAUGH!" SMACK!

The last blow sent me rolling till I inevitably struck a wall.

WH-WHUMP!

I winced all over. Hacking…

WHAM! His foot pressed down into my hip and pinned me to the floor.

I mutely yelped in main.

"Nnngh….heheheheheh….," he stood 'on' me. Applying more and more pressure. More and more weight. He leaned his head down and hissed: "Adios, hermano. You're a laughable guerrero. Daring…but laughable. Mis condolencias para los demonios en El Infierno."

I took a deep, painful breath under his weight.

_I'll show you 'El Infierno'……_

I stretched my left hand out. I extended the titanium thumb, its metal digit pointy and jutting out sharply. I swiftly swung my wrist around and jabbed my thumb straight into the center of his ankle. _THUNK!_

"Augh!" his body jumped back as with a hotfoot.

I sensed him standing on one leg.

I snarled mutely, spun up, and slashed Myrkblade out…tripping his other leg.

TH-THWUMP! He landed hard on his back.

Panting…eyes clenched….I got up on my knees and sprang towards him with Myrkblade swinging madly.

_Aaaaaaaaugh!_

THWACK!

In the background, Poison Ivy tried to revive Harley Quinn. Clock King bit at his fingernails. And a desperate Mad Hatter adjusted the dials of his computer console while shifting his mind-controlling top hat around his pale cranium.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down in the lead-peppered streets of Gotham City, Bullock and a dozen other officers were still flinching. Still breathless. Still frozen in front of the line of police helicopters and their spinning miniguns.

"……….."

But no high caliber bullets fired. The pilots inside looked dazed. Zombie-like. They blinked under their flight goggles and visors before a desperate breath surged through each and every one of them simultaneously. They jerked at their controls and swiftly pivoted all four choppers around until they beat their way upwards in heated formation.

Bullock bliked. He swallowed down his lunch.

As the rotary blade noises decreased and the air-vibrating aircraft swished away, Montoya and a dozen other cops walked over with guns at ease.

"Que raro…," Montoya blinked. "What is up with them?"

"They look like they were totally stoked!" Bullock uttered. He swished his hat off and dabbed the bulbs of sweat gathering around his scant strands of black hair. "I'm surprised I didn't see no marionette streams in them flight compartments of theirs!"

Another officer remarked: "It makes no sense! Why'd they stop and turn around?"

Bullock turned and frowned. "What's it to you? You regret that I'm not swiss cheese right now?"

The officer simpered.

"He's got a point, Bullock….," Commissioner Gordon walked back out with his own entourage. "There's no reason to explain why they stopped. But there is to explain why they've taken off."

"Huh?"

Gordon pointed straight up towards the summit of the Kane Building. "Look for yourself!"

Bullock and Montoya tilted their faces up.

Police and SWAT Team members also gazed.

A commotion ran amongst them at the sight of a fiery explosion dissipating off the side of the huge 'Vreeland Cosmetics' Zeppelin. The four helicopters flew up to join formation again around the craft. They were moving much faster than ever before now.

"Well how do you figure that out?" Bullock murmured. "There's a party up there and I think we're not invited!"

"Mind control….," Montoya thought aloud. "What's the likelihood that Jervis Tetch might be in on this gig?"

"Mad Hatter? Oh gods…here's elementary school all over again!"

"We need more backup!" Gordon said, half commanded. "Looks like Batman's not showing for this one! We're alone!"

"The way I like it!" Bullock pulled out his gun and cocked it. "Morgan! Harry! Get the Seventh Precinct here! Montoya…how's about you and I get a little more familiar with these losers?"

Montoya smirked and loaded herself with a shotgun from a nearby squad car. She glanced over: "With your permission, Commissioner."

"Take some men with you…," Gordon nodded. "And keep in contact! Report when or if you learn exactly what in the blazes is going on up here!"

"Come on, doll! Let's go!" Bullock ran ahead. Montoyoa motioned, and three other officers ran with the two detectives as they made a bee-line for the Kane building. None of them paid much attention to the unsealed manhole cover lying just besides their sprinting feet as they approached the structure…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Ya blockheads! Ya missed a second time!"_

"They're really high up there, boss!" Rhino nervously shuddered. "I told ya we should have ran up the Kane Building!"

"_What are ya? Stupid?"_

"Duh….."

"_Save your breath! I'm smart enough to know the answer to that question! We can't go inside the Kane Building cuz CROC has got the Kane Building!"_

"Whoah-Whoah-Whoah!" Mugsy remarked. "Croc's in on this?"

"_This is Triangular you oversized dodos! EVERYONE is in on this!"_

"Yeah, but is he on our side or….?"

"_He's on the side that wins! Now stop yakking! The zeppelin's tryin' ta get away! Yous rats blow it out of the sky before I stuff you in my Tommy Gun and shoot you to kingdom come myself!"_

_  
_"Y-Yes, boss…."

"_Don't waste the bazookas this time!"_

Rhino loaded another missile into the launcher.

Mugsy steadied it.

They both aimed.

The shadowed figure in the stairwell of the Hampton Building rooftop uttered: _"Fire!"_

_**PFTOOOOOOO!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bullock and Montoya were running up a stairwell with a tall, gothic stretch of windows bordering it and filtering the bright noonday sunlight from the outside world.

At the sound of the bazooka launch, they both gasped and spun to look. The three cops with them also froze.

They braced themselves as a spiraling rocket skimmed the surface of the Kane Building and arched up towards the blimp circling overhead.

Fire and smoke trails fogged up the window frighteningly close to the trembling, ascending officers.

"Gazooks!" Bullock barked. "Who phoned in the Apocalypse early?"

Montoya pumped her shotgun and frowned: "Let's get a move on…"

And they hurriedly rushed up…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

From the piloting computers: _Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Poison Ivy's Voice: "Another bogey!"

Beneath me, Bane fought back my stabbing Myrkblade and glanced aside to snarl: "Hattttter?"

"I am working….on it…..," the petite mind-controller struggled to say.

I raised Myrkblade with a sharp breath to even more sharly carve into Bane's skull.

He gripped me by the scarred neck.

I wheezed.

He grunted and head-butted me.

_**WHAM!**_

I quivered, shuddered, and fell back cold on the floor.

THWUMP!

Exhaling…..

_That……_

………_hurt._

"Nnnngh….," he stood up. I sensed him shaking his head and groaning. "Hatter?"

"Fear not…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

_The missile sailed up…up….up…._

It soared straight towards the body of the zeppelin.

Rhino and Mugsy stood on their tip-toes.

Arms pumping.

Faces bright.

"Come on…."

"Gettin' there……Gettin' there!"

The figure in the stairwell was silent.

_**SHOOOOOOM….POW!**_

Stray minigun fire sailed in, pelted the rocket, and exploded it in midair. A frothing amber-and-red explosion mushroomed downward in the air from the point of combustion.

"Auugh!" Mugsy flinched.

"God dammit!" Rhino gritted his teeth.

"_Yous blew it!"_ the figure shook.

**SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!**

Two of the four helicopters suddenly descended upon the explosive party atop the Hamptom Building. The pilots inside gazed numbly as they trained their beating aircrafts' weapons on the three figures.

"Yaack!"

"Oh Mary Mother of Mohammed!" Mugsy quivered.

"_Eh……super……"_

And the miniguns began to rotate.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mad Hatter smiled a toothy grin.

"Hello…would you like some _tea?"_

Bane shouted: "Smoke 'em!"

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

Something big and metallic speedily blurred past the pilot's compartment of the blimp.

Both Mad Hatter and Poison Ivy gasped and looked out through a shattered window pane.

"……..," Clock King stared confusedly at Bane.

"What in the world was that?" Bane uttered.

SWOOOSH! **GRIP!** I teleported up and grabbed him in a metal-armed choke hold.

He snarled and gripped his neck to pry me off of him.

I struggled to stay on as he paced around the room and proceeded to slam his backside into metal support struture after metal support structure.

CLANG! SMACK! WHAM!

I struggled and winced…clinging on…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Whats you standin' around for? SPLIT!"_

Rhino and Mugsy yelped like little girls and spun around to run away.

"_No! Grabs da bazookas! Grabs da bazookas, ya blockheads!"_

"Nuts to that!"

The two helicopters began to fire.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The bullets barely began to trail at the heels of the two henchmen when suddenly the helicopters' fire was cut short by two explosions. A pair of missiles flew in suddenly and took out both helicopters in one fatal swoop.

**FWOOOOOOOSH-****POW! **

**FWOOOMB!**

Shards of helicopter chunks and rotary blades splashed about heatedly.

Rhino and Mugsy spun around, panting.

As the two aircraft littered the edge of the Hampton Rooftop and the distant streets below, another hulking metal body flew into view.

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

A HIND helicopter.

Two pilots were inside.

They saluted the henchmen darkly for a split second before the lumbering, metal beast took up to the air around the Kane Building again.

**SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!**

"Hey!" Rhino smiled wide.

"_Well, whaddya know? It's one of Dagger's birdies! We be lucky chumps, eh boys?"_

"You can say that again, boss!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Down in the streets of Gotham, officers and distant, onlooking citizens pointed up and gasped.

Murmuring.

Commissioner Gordon stared through binoculars.

His graying eyes thin.

He lowered the device and squinted further.

"A HIND Helicopter…..military issued….," he looked through the binoculars again. "N-No…..scrapped! It's the same model as that killer that swarmed around the Titans on November Fourth…."

An officer walked up. "We've got backup, sir." He glanced up nervously at the fiery battlefield in the air. "Where in God's name did that helicopter come from? It took out two of our birds!"

"That's a good question, son. A good question indeed…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!SWOOSH!**_

Inside the belly of the HIND beast, the pilot of the lower cockpit pivoted the vehicle around until the blimp was in the chopper's sights.

"…….," the pilot reached down with a free hand and flipped a switch. "We've taken down two of the targets, Mr. Dent sir. The Troupe's flying headquarters is in view."

"_Good…,"_ Two-Face's crackling voice electronically hissed through the sound system. _"My thanks to Dagger for being such a benevolent partner in a time of need……"_

"What are your orders, sir?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two-Face sat at the desk in his hideout's office.

He flipped a coin and glared a mutated eye towards the intercom beside his seat.

"Take out the other two birds. But leave the airship to Croc and Trent. I want those stupid punks to get the picture. Triangular rules the roost in anyway we see fit. They're nothing to us."

"_Understood, sir. HIND out."_

_SNkkkkt!_

Two-Face switched the intercom off. He stared blankly ahead through space. He flipped his coin.

Once.

Twice.

Grabbed it.

"…………."

Silence.

"Heads: we blow 'em out of the sky. Bad Heads….the Parasite roasts their asses first."

Flick.

Flip.

The coin took on a spinning arc and landed in the darkness of the floor beyond Harvey Dent's desk.

"………..heh….," Two-Face ran a blue hand over his face and sighed. "Perfect….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The pilot flicked the intercom off.

He turned around.

He motioned to the pilot in the upper cockpit.

The second man returned an 'okay' signal.

The front pilot re-gripped his controls and pushed the HIND forward.

**SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!**

Air beating heavily, the hulking craft curved around the zeppelin and zeroed in on the remaining two helicopters.

**FWOOOOOOOOSH!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the blimp's pilot compartment, Harley Quinn was just starting to come to. Scarecrow still laid dormant. Poison Ivy sat behind Harley, her hands on her shoulders. She glanced out the window at the circling HIND and said: "Its Triangular's all right! Has 'Dagger' written all over it!" She glanced across the compartment. "Bane, don't you think….holy honeysuckle!"

"Eeep!" Harley ducked and Ivy with her.

SWOOOOSH! I soared over their heads and blindly slammed into a console of sorts.

CRUNCH!

I winced. Sparks danced on either side of me.

I heard Mad Hatter gasping just to my right: "N-No! Not here, Bane!"

I made the mistake of opening my eyes. I was momentarily grazed with the image of 'J' (Mad Hatter), Aqualad (Clock King), and Speedy (Scarecrow) burning in flames. But running through the flames was a big, meat-muscled demon with Bane's growling voice. "YAAAARGH!" The demon sailed his burning 'claw' at me.

I clenched my eyes shut and teleported away. FLASH!

SWOOOOSH! **CRKKKK!**

There was a terrible cracking sound indicative of Mad Hatter's electronic device being crushed by Bane's misguided girth.

"Nooo!" I sensed Mad Hatter's body clutching his hat and yelling. "My pretty birds!"

"……," I flicked a wrist. I felt for his hat. My spatial sense found it….and soon, so did my sword.

SWOOOOOSH! SLIIINK!

I sliced the apparel of his head. The electronics inside sparked and sizzled dead.

"Bah! Impossible!"

"……," I smirked blindly.

TH-THWIP! A cord of some sort latched around my chest from behind.

I gasped.

"Time to bury you, Titan!" Poison Ivy's voice shouted. And she proceeded to yank hard on the slimy green vine she had produced. "Nnngh!"

I was tossed across the room like a blind yo-yo.

THWOOOSH-_CRACK!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime…

"Nnngh…," the pilot of one of the two police helicopters came to. He dizzily eyed his cockpit and the length of the Kane Building stretched far beneath him. "What in the….." He blinked and droned: "What am I doing up here?"

Silence…save for the beating noise of the chopper.

"……….," he looked up.

He saw the zeppelin. Huge and menacing. Encompassing half of his cockpit window alone in its immensity.

"Good lord!" he gasped.

_**FWOOOOOOOSH!**_

A HIND helicopter suddenly surged into direct view, its missiles flaring.

The pilot's eyes bugged. "Good lord_ier_!"

_**PFTOOOOOO!**_

Hellseekers streamed towards his aircraft.

He gritted his teeth, unbuckled, and kicked the die door open. With a rush of air, he leapt out of the aircraft. "Yaaaaaugh!"

In almost perfect synchronization, the pilot of the other surviving police chopper simultaneously leapt out. Both men pulled open their parachutes and drifted down softly towards the quiet streets below as the missiles in the chaotic streets above sailed into their targets and impacted.

_**POW! **_

_**PHOOOM!**_

The air-beating HIND soared over the mid-air flames and circled around the zeppelin at a distance.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mad Hatter stood, gazing out a cockpit window and trembling. "They….jumped! My pretty birds jumped and went to flames!"

Bane grumbled, standing up and rubbing his aching head. "Save the obituary!"

They both turned and looked at the opposite end of the room.

Ivy was yanking me back and forth with her green vine around my waist.

I was tossed against a metal pylon, a bulkhead, and the floor on several occasions. SM-SMACK! CLANG!

I winced, bleeding in a few spots. My combat jacket was heavily tattered. My black hair disheveled.

Still, I forced my black eyes shut. For fear of the poison gas. For fear of what actually letting myself 'see' would do. For fear…..

"Nnngh!" Ivy tugged again.

THWOOOSH! I was yanked into the center of the room.

"HA!" A thin foot slammed across my cheek. THWAP!

I jerked from the impact, spitting blood.

I hissed and oppened my eyes by accident.

The cockpit was a burning City Park with the bodies of the Titans lying dead and bleeding all around me. Jinx in a metal mesh apprentice outfit cartwheeled towards me with a Cheshire Cat Grin from Hell. She chirped in Harley Quinn's voice: _"Hold 'em still, Red! Brace yourself, kid! This is for ruining my punchline!"_

I clenched my eyes shut. I tensed my feet.

Harley's spinning, rotating limbs blurred at me and spun with a head-splitting jump kick towards the center of my cranium. "HYA!"

"Idiotas!" Bane barked. "Don't you see that the chico _senses movement?"_

SWOOOSH! My metal arm lifted. **CLUTCH!** I grabbed Harley's clown foot on the rise and held it before it could smash into my face.

"Er…..," Quinn sweatdropped.

I gritted my teeth and shoved against her.

FWOOSH!

"YAAAAUGH!" she flew back and slammed into Mad Hatter's tiny form. TH-THWUMP! "Ackies!" "OOF!"

"Harl!" Ivy remarked.

_And as for you……_

I gripped the green vine and yanked with all my might.

SWOOOSH!

"Auugh!" Ivy's body flew towards me.

I gripped Myrkblade and slapped her over me like a cricket stick.

THWACK!

She exhaled, twirled, and landed quite awkwardly in the stranded Fox's lap.

_PL-PLANT!_

"Nnnngh…," Ivy snarled and raised her fists at me from where she 'sat'. "Wait till I fill your intestines with thorn bushes, I swear to…"

"Heheheheh…," a drunken Fox hugged her from behind with one arm freed from my rope-cutting earlier. "Heeeeeey, cutie!"

"Daah! Let go of me!"

He cooed into her ear. "Wanna show me your rosebud? HIC! Heheheheh….I'll show you my dandelions!"

"Let…go….of…..me….you…..stupid……sweaty…..nngh…..MAN!"

I exhaled.

_Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!_ (From behind.)

I flinched. I leapt straight up and backflipped.

Bane charged beneath me, grabbing nothing but air.

I stuck Myrkblade into the ceiling of the compartment. CH-CHUNK! I hung by my hilt and kicked him in the back.

THWUMP!

He stumbled once. "Nnngh!" He spun with a snarl and fiercely backhanded me in the chest. "RAAUGH!" WHACK!

Myrkblade was yanked out of the ceiling, along the rest of my body. I flailed until I landed in a sliding stand across the floor. I panted, holding Myrkblade.

_SLIIIINK!_

Something slashed across my shoulder.

I howled in pain and ribbed my bleeding backside.

"Heheheheh….," the Clock King's voice chuckled beneath me. "Your sense of time needs to be a little sharper, my boy…."

I spun, frowning.

My spatial sense caught the slicing down-swing of a huge minute-hand cane.

I dodged my skull to the left and swung my metal hand up. _GRIP!_ I caught the slicing cane. I jabbed Myrkblade towards the face of the spectacled man.

His lips curved. He too sidestepped, gripped the cane's handle with two wrists, and twisted.

My metal hand was wrenched from the sharp bludgeon. I teetered back.

Clock King spun on one tow and jabbed his cane down low at me. "En guarde!"

I jumped back and planted myself against the wall, barely avoiding the tip of the sharp blade.

"Stiff upper lip now!" and proceeded to slice the cane up through the air to lop off my nose.

I flattened myself against the wall, took a breath, and teleported into smoke form at the last second.

FWOOOSH!

His hute 'minute hand' sliced through black smog.

I morphed across the room and solidified with a pose of Myrkblade. I gritted my teeth and swung at him.

He twirled about and held his cane horizontally across his chest. CL-CLANK! Our weapons grinded together.

He leaned forward, smirking. "You're timing's off. Allow me to wind you down to size…"

He swung his cane down at my feet.

TH-THWAP!

I was tripped.

I landed on my butt before him. TH-THUMP!

Clock King chuckled, reached into his jacket, and produced an explosive pocket watch. He spun the thing on the end of a golden chain like a slingshot. "Here comes _Rush Hour!"_

"No!" Bane stretched a hand out. "Not inside here!"

"HA!" Clock King let the explosive watch fly.

I lifted two feet and kicked his shins at the last second.

Th-Thwap!

That jolted the man's whole body. "Ughh!"

The watch he tossed consequently flew over my head, bounced off a demolished computer console, and sailed out the nearby window…

_**PHOOOOMB!**_

The resulting explosion sent us rocking every which way inside the floating disaster.

"Arrrgh!" Bane clutched his skull with angry fingers and all but ripped his mask off. "I swear! I am surrounded by total frickin' idiots!"

I stood up on wobbly feet. Struggling to keep a grip on Myrkblade.

_Must……get……F-Fox……_

Bane snarled. He clenched his eyes shut and ran like the berserker he was straight at me. "Someone…anyone…GET THE JOB DONE!"

_Yeah……sure…… _

_Take it all out on me…_

**THWACK!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Near the top of the Kane Building stairwell, Bullock paused before the top level door to gaze out at the wobbling Zeppelin.

An explosion on the side of the bridge of the aircraft could be seen fading.

"Did that just come from inside the ship?" an officer panted.

"Something's going on inside of the zeppelin," Montoya muttered. "A firefight?"

"We're here to find out…," Bullock grunted and shoved the door open.

And Killer Croc grinned in his face. "Howdy!"

"…..," Bullock started. Eyes wide. Then he sighed: "Aw nuts…..not you…."

**GRIP!**

"HrresssshhhhHHHAAA!" Killer Croc mightily flung the obese detective over hid gnarled, pale shoulder.

FWOOOOSH! "WAAAAAIEEEE!" Bullock flew out onto a loft lounge and smashed through a set of chairs. CRASSSSH!

Montoya gasped. "Harvey!" She pumped her shotgun and charged out of the stairwell along with the other three officers. They immediately froze—not at the sight of Killer Croc—but rather in response to the huge line of gun-toting thugs aiming their barrels at them. About fifty in a count. And at the forefront of the group was Mr. Trent from the Gothe Nightclub.

"Hello, Missy….," Trent smirked. "Unless you want yourselves pumped full of more lead than you can spit out, I suggest you put your guns down…."

"…….," Montoya frowned. She grunted over her shoulder at the other officers. "Lower 'em…."

The cops nervously dropped their guns.

Montoya's shotgun fell to the lounge floor.

"Oh super….," Bullock struggled on his back like a big fat turtle amidst the chair splinters. "Wally Gator and Pals…."

Killer Croc paced over across the lush interior. "It's a pleasure seein' your fat keister too. But I'm kinda sorta fasting today…," nevertheless he licked his sharp teeth.

Trent motioned to his closest thugs, who marched over and manhandled Montoya and the three officers to stand over above Bullock.

"Yeesh….," Montoya's nose scrunched. "You smell like the sewer!"

"My kind of crowd," the shirtless Killer Croc shrugged. Smiling toothily. "But don't you worry. You'll be smelling plenty of it from here on out. The Gotham sewers are always the best place to dump the likes of your carcasses…."

Montoya hissed: "What's keeping you from shooting our brains out now, you dumb cluck?"

"Reneeeee….," Bullock sweated nervously.

"Simple…," Trent interjected. "We've gotta conserve our ammo."

Montoya blinked. "For what?"

A humming sound.

Killer Croc glanced out the windows of the Kane Building's top floor patio.

The heavy bulk of the zeppelin loomed outside.

He smiled. "For the grand finale…." He turned to the thugs and pointed a gnarled hand out the doors. "Everyone! That's our cue! Move your tails! GO!"

Trent cocked his pistol, grinned, and led the charge.

The thugs shouted and growled in fury as they charged out the door, bursting the entrance open. _CR-CRACK!_

The officers watched helplessly, shadowed by a chuckling Killer Croc.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Trent and his fifty-odd men ran out onto the sunlit patio as the blimp drifted closest to them. He took aim with a squinting eye and shouted as he fired first: "Let's give them the old Gotham greeting!"

"Let 'em have it!"

"Woooo! Ha ha ha ha!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

BLAM! BL-BLAM!

BANG!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

BANG! BANG!

The barrels of the guns burst in flowery splashes of amber and yellow as streaks of heated lead burned through the air and sailed hotly into the inflatable chassis of the blimp, the turbine engines, the metal bridge underneath, the fans, the rudders, and every other bit and piece of structure from 'head' to 'toe'.

TH-TH-THUNK!

P-P-P-PING!

CLANK!

POW!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the zeppelin, Bane was kicking me again.

TH-THWACK!

I rolled across the floor of the pilot compartment, wheezing. Sputtering.

Bane stomped towards me, seething. He raised his hands to smash down on me when the compartment suddenly became Swiss Cheese.

P-P-POW!

CRACK!

SHATTER!

Bullets streamed through and punched hole after hole through the metal structure of the interior. Kaleidoscopic pinpricks of sunlight shone through the fresh dots. Harley was grazed in the leg bloodily. The last remaining shreds of the Mad Hatter's hat was blown off his skull as he gasped. Shrapnel littered the lap and shoulders of William B. Fox, and an entire pylon collapsed on Bane's shoulders.

SWOOOSH! CLANG!

"Nnngh!" the huge mercenary struggled with the metal bulkhead.

"It's Triangular!" Clock King shouted. "They beat us to the punch! Infernal wretches!" He frowned and pointed at his 'teammates'. "If we had just stuck to my schedule…"

"I….am going….to BREAK YOU old man!" Bane shouted. "This was doomed from the start!"

"Harley! Stop clutching your leg!" Ivy shouted.

"Owieeee, Red! A bullet bit me!"

"Just keep still," Ivy crushed a seed in two fingers. It morphed slimily into a ring of vines which she wrapped tightly around Harley's head like biological gauze. "We'll have you out of here soon!"

P-PING!

CR-CRACK!

"We'll do no such thing!" Clock King shook his fist. "We must not show weakness! We WILL fight back against Triangular!"

"Uhm….," Harley frowned. "I distinctly remember saying 'OWIEEEEE'!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

POW! CRKKK!

More and more holes exploded around Harley and Ivy's side of the pilot compartment.

Ivy clenched her teeth. "You know, boys…it just occurred to me. The winter time is the absolute worst part of the year to try planting good seed…." That said, she promptly hoisted Harley over her shoulder, turned towards the smashed windows on the other side of the compartment, and ran. "You can have the troupe on your own. Ciao!" She dove overboard with Harley in tow.

"WAAAAAAIEEEEE!" Quinn shrieked.

At the last second, Ivy shot her wristband crossbow with a grappling hook. She embedded the cord into a building and swung off towards urban obscurity as more and more bullets sailed into the compartment behind us.

Bane struggled still with the bulkhead. Just as he was about to toss it off of him, another stray bullet struck the ceiling above him and caused it to collapse even more. CRASH! "OOOF!" Pipes burst loose. Gas steamed everywhere. Consoles, controls, and lights started to spark. Somewhere…everywhere….I smelled smoke starting to billow forth.

"Noooo!" Clock King shook furiously. "This is an absolute travesty! What happened to decent villains anymore? Nothing is ever done by the book! It is all chaos! A carnival of crass cruelty! Red, tooth, and claw! Have all the gentlemen of the underworld gone to ruin?"

Mad Hatter shook, swallowing. "Might I advise another occasion to vent…" He gestured. "…to triumph this day, we were not meant."

"I am not a coward…"

"You're dead once I climb out of this loco metal heap!" Bane snarled muffledly from under the debris.

Clock King sweated. "Then again…."

"Nnnngh….," the Scarecrow finally awoke. He stood up with his jaw clattering. A pale hand stroked his bony (temple?) (mask?). "My dreams in the darkness have turned bright….I dislike it…."

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

P-PING!

"Huh? What?" he looked up at the shattered compartment. The urban world started to descend outside. "Confound it! What did you imbeciles do?"

Clock King hooked his arm around with him. "Crane…it is time we exited the not-so-friendly skies…," he smirked and waved his cane. "Your fear gas is still loaded in the warehouse as backup, correct?"

"Most certainly!"

"Then…away we go, my good man….," he ran off, helping a limping Scarecrow along with him. "Bon Voyage, Terrible Troupe! You lived up to your name! Feh!"

"You dirty…rotten….," Bane cursed as he started digging his way out. "…Voy a motarle!"

"Red, tooth, and claw, Mr. Bane," Clock King tipped his hat. "Red, tooth, and claw…." He then looked Fox's way. "I hope you enjoy dying the less-fashionable way. But I suppose there _is_ something romantic about burning flesh."

"Hehehehe….," Fox leaned back and forth and drooled. "….so….many….petticoats…."

Clock King and Scarecrow made a run for it. A heavily panting, nervous Mad Hatter scrambled after them. "W-Wait for meeeee!"

"NnnnnghhRAAAUGH!" Bane shoved the debris off of him.

All the while, I stood on the sidelines. Gathering my breath. Praying that none of the stray bullets sailed through my body as the blimp was mercilessly pelted from the outside with gunfire.

I sensed a stirring on my left side.

I glanced over. I dared to open my eyes….

My vision was fuzzy. And the sight of sunlight stabbed my heart with paranoia and adrenaline. But the hallucinations seemed to be wearing off….

Dr. Langstrom stirred awake besides me. Rubbing his head. "Nnnngh…." He blinked. "Where in god's name am I?"

I bit my lip. I looked at him. I looked at Bane struggling to his feet. I looked at the sparkling controls. I looked at the bulletholes increasing alongside the compartment's hull.

Langstrom fought to stand up on the rapidly teetering aircraft's floor. "Ughh….I….my god….I-I think I was transforming again!" He blinked. He looked directly at me. "J-Just who are you?"

**GRIP!** I siezed him by the arm.

He gasped. "What the….?"

WHAM! I kneed the scientist in the chest.

"Ughhhhh!" He bent over, sputtering. Wincing in pain. "That…..hurt…." His eyes reopened, and it was no hallucination of mine when he frowned and those very same eyes flickered a pale yellow. "That……_H-H-HURT!"_ Fangs grew out of his mouth and his body started to grow coarse hair a mile a minute. _"Wrssssssshhhhhh……"_

_Yeah……_

I looked at Bane.

_CATCH!_

SWOOOSH! I tossed him across the compartment.

Bane turned around.

"Como?"

**SMACK!**

The blimp lurched suddenly right as Langstrom's body sailed straight into Bane's. The two slammed into a window support structure, weakened by bulletfire. CRAAAACK! The beams gave way and the two flew with a spray of shrapnel out and into thin-air.

"Aaaaaaugh!"

"_Wrssssh!"_

I leaned wearily against a computer conosle, panting. I limped across the inclined blimp bridge towards Fox…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!

Bane and Langstrom tangled in mid-air as they fell…fell….fell over the spires of Gotham below.

"Nnnghh! Oye! Let go!" Bane hissed.

"_Wrrsssssshhh!"_ Langstrom's scream turned into a shriek as his face turned into huge fangs. Man-Bat shrieked in Bane's face and flapped menacing, leathery wings.

"……….," Bane blinked under his mask. "Bueno…"

_SM-SMACK!_

The two slammed down onto a rooftop, much to their surprise.

Man-Bat flapped about, shrieking.

Bane jumped up to his feet. He tried to get his bearings when…

SWOOOSH-_THWACK!_

Man-Bat's wing bitch-slapped the mercenary across the rooftop.

"NNNGH!" Bane flew back and crashed through a huge t.v. antenna.

CRACK!

Man-Bat stood up on his hind quarters and shrieked, wings flexing. _"WRESSSSSSSH!"_

Bane gritted his masked teeth. He stood up, picked up the very same antenna he smashed through, and launched it at the mammalian monstrosity like a javelin. "Nnnngh!"

SWOOOOOSH-THUD!

Man-Bat was knocked back. It shook its fanged snout, hissed, and roared angrily at Bane. _"WRESSSSSH!"_

Bane frowned. He flexed his arms and tapped a button on a wristband. _Click!_

Venom pumped through his orange tube and fed into his neck. Arteries throbbed visibly. His muscles flexed and ballooned out like a mountain of expanding lava. He shook granite-tight limbs and heaved. His breath snorted vaporously in the November air like a giant ox or bull.

"……," Man-Bat's clear eyes blinked.

"Si….I've been waiting ALLLLL DAAAAY to _break_ something!" and Bane charged at the winged mutant. "RAAAAAAUGH!"

_**THUD!**_

Man-Bat went sailing for twenty feet.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

P-POW!

BLAM!

BLAM!

Even from down below in the Gotham streets, the onlooking police and citizens could hear and witness the distant gunfire from the Kane Building summit sailing into the blimp. The dirigible began smoking, its bottom rear half deflating. It 'crunched' halfway and tilted earthward. Slowly descending. Gradually plummeting. A column of flaming smog billowed heavenward.

"It's a war zone….," a cop muttered.

Gordon was breathless. He whipped out a communicator and shouted into it: "Bullock! Montoya! What's going on up there?"

Silence.

"Detectives? Respond!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I've lost contact with you! Please answer me!"_

Bullock's hand jerked towards his communicator.

"HRESH!" Killer Croc spun and snatched the communicator away.

Bullock gasped.

"……," the reptilian freak smirked, popped the communicator into his mouth, and chewed the sparkling electronic to bits. _Crkk! Crkkk! Crkk-Crkk!_

Montoya made a face.

Croc flexed his neck, swallowed, and licked his jaws. "I like your minutes…."

"Stuff it, ya oversized purse!"

CLAMP! Croc's sharp fingers clutched Bullock's neck. The other officers gasped.

"Ohhhh….how you wound me, chump," Croc sneered. "Just sit back, shut up, and enjoy the show…"

The officers nervously watched the trigger-finger mob fire volley after volley of lead into the body of the blimp. All the while they whooped and hollered like Confederate Soldiers going AWOL and shooting deer for sport. Suddenly, overhead, the HIND zoomed above the burning dirigible and hovered over the building tops.

**SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!**

**FWOOOOOOOSH!**

The framework of the building trembled.

Killer Croc sneered.

Trent laughed maniacally.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SN-SNAP!

SNAP!

I ripped the bindings off of William B. Fox's hands with Myrkblade.

The drugged heir giggled and cooed. "Oooh…are we going for a ride around Tampa Bay? Drop me off at the strip joints! ALL OF THEM! Ha ha ha ha!"

"……," I sweatdropped and worked at his leg bindings.

SNAP!

"Hehehehe….let me hold you. I've had my shots!"

I took a deep breath. I looked over my shoulder.

The world outside the windows dipped forty-five degrees as we started to plummet….

"Ring around your rossssieeee….hahahaha! What's the matter, lady? Out of beer? I bet THOSE kegs are fermented! HA!"

I exhaled.

I turned back around.

_I hate to be politically incorrect. _

_But……_

SMACK! I punched him in the gut.

"Oooof!" the breath left him and he slumped forward. Out cold.

I took a breath. CHIIIING! I sheathed Myrkblade and hoisted him over my shoulders.

_That's better._

_GROAAAAAAANNNN! _

_CRKKKKK!_

The entire airship shook and wobbled.

I strained and struggled for grip.

I took a deep breath.

Managing Fox's weight on my wounded shoulders.

_I'm agility based. _

_On strength based._

_Son of a……nnngh……_

_Keep……moving……_

I counted my lucky stars that the fear gas was wearing off and desperately 'climbed' my way across the cabin towards the rear of the ship where an exit might be located….

_Exit to where exactly?_

GROAAAAN!

I hurried….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAUGH!" Bane charged. Venom-pumped fist flying.

SWOOOSH! SMACK!

"_WRESSSH!"_ Man-Bat helplessly took the brunt of the steroid induced bludgeoning. THWACK! THUD! _"WRSHHH!"_

Bane snarled, brought both his hands apart, spun, and slammed ten pairs of knuckles across the mutant's chest.

WHAM!

Man-Bat flew off, slammed through a metal chimney, and lie limp on the rooftop. Stirring….wincing….nearly out for the count.

Bane heaved. Panted. Seethed. The venom was still pumping into his neck. Arteries in his throat throbbed. A week's fill of fury and frustration came to a boiling point and he could rip a hole through the Earth if he had to.

_**SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!**_

"……….," the meaty mercenary spun around. With round, bulging eyes he glared up as the HIND circled overhead.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The lower compartment pilot of the HIND looked every which way through his black bubble of a window. He spoke into a mic while controlling the craft.

"No sign of the fleeing targets. They must still be inside the falling dirigible. Unless, of course, there's more to this rooftop than meets the eye."

"I think I just spotted movement!" the other pilot uttered. "There! Wrecked debris! And one of the subjects! Langstrom! He's down! Should we finish him?"

"Negative," the first pilot shook his head. "The other target's more important. Switch your visor to thermal imaging…"

_**SWOOOOSH-**__**CLAMP!**_

A South American mercenary on steroids was suddenly clinging to the front nose of the helicopter.

"Holy shit!"

"Whoah!"

"_NNNNNGH!"_ Bane snarled muffledly from the outside. Teeth gritting and arteries throbbing, he raised a fist that could move mountains and sailed it straight into the cockpit bubble of the mid-air, hovering behemoth.

SHATTTTERRRR!

Glass spilled with sunlight all throughout the lower cockpit.

The front pilot's face was splashed with sharp shards. "Grrgggggllgggg!"

The other pilot screamed: "AAAAAAAA---!"

Bane roared, raised his fist again, and flew it in a second time.

_THUNK!_

And blood splattered all across the interior controls.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

BL-BLAM!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

POW! P-POW!

BANG!

The fifty thugs on the Kane patio fired and fired and fired and fired…

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

BL-BLAM!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Click!

Click!

Click!

Click-Click-Click-Click!

"I'm out!"

"Me too!"

"That did it!" one shouted. He marched over and pointed down at the burning, descending dirigible. "Look! Thar she blows! Ha ha ha ha!"

"Yeah! Hahahahahaha!"

"Way to go, boys!"

"Yeah! We smoked them!"

"Classic! Woo! Ha ha!"

Trent smirked. He pocketed his pistol away and lit a cigarette.

"This will go down in history! Cleaning the Clock King's clock! Ha!"

"Delivering the hammer to Bane….never thought I'd see the day…"

"Maybe Dagget will hire the likes of us again?"

"Dagget…Schmaggot….it's Two-Face all the way!"

"Triangular, baby!"

"Hahahahaha!"

Trent smiled proudly. He took a puff of his cigarette. "…………." A shadow in the noonday sun suddenly appeared around him. "Hrmmm?" He exhaled a vapor. He looked up. "……." His jaw dropped. The cigarette flew out of his mouth.

_Swoooooosh!_

A dozen thugs looked up too.

"Huh?"

"Whoah!"

"Holy shit!"

"RUN! RUN!"

_**SSSSSMASSSSSSH!**_

The smoking metal body of the HIND landed explosively across the patio. Fire and ash and chunks of metal flew every which way, crushing over twenty thugs in a single burning instant. Bodies twitched…crushed and lacerated into wet red shreds. Those still alive under the collapsed aircraft clutched what was missing from their persons and howled endlessly in pain.

Before the rest of the shaken mafia could struggle back to their feet….

SWOOOOSH-_PLANT!_ Bane landed after the HIND on the patio. He instantly grabbed two thugs by the scruffs of their necks—snarling—and tossed them reverse over the side of the balcony where they plummeted to their death.

"Aaaaah!"

"Jesus! Aaaaaugh!"

Bane snarled. His eyes flaring. His muscles throbbing from the venom.

A line of trembling thugs all aimed their guns at him.

Click!

Click!

Click!

They panted.

Jaws drooped.

Whimpering.

"NnnnnnggRRAAAAAUGH!" Bane stomped towards them, shoulders first.

WH-WHAM! POW!

Thugs' bodies rolled and bounced across the patio floor, one or two of them sickly landing on their neck with vertebrae snapping. _Crkk-Crkk!_

Bane ended each charge with a backhand of his forearms. "Raaaugh!"

Bodies went flying every which way.

One or two more thugs slipped over the balcony side, screaming forty-stories to the pavement below.

A stupid henchman whipped out a dagger and dove—yelling—at Bane's back.

Bane merely grabbed the man by his ankles, swung him high up into the air and flung him head-first back down to the patio floor. _SPLKKK!_ His cranium burst in red jelly.

The leftover thugs screamed and ran back into the open lounge of the Kane building.

Bane caught up with a straggling half-dozen of them and crushed skulls together, headbutted nose cartilage into brain matter, and dislocated shoulders with massive, gripping palms. He stood momentarily in the bloody shower of the carnage and flexed his red-stained torso to the Gotham Sky. "RrrrrRRRRAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!"

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp_-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

"?" Bane looked straight ahead.

"HRESSSHA!" A reptilian shadow charged madly out of the lounge and dove like a missile into Bane's chest.

_WHUMP!_

Killer Croc and Bane tumbled across the bloodied patio, slammed through the balcony railing—CRACK!—and plummeted over the space above the streets below.

SWOOOOOSH!"

"Raaaaugh!"

"HRSSSH!"

As the two soared off like a pair of meaty rockets, a dazed Montoya and Bullock sauntered to the door along with their officers and looked out beyond the horror.

"Mi Dios….."

"Holy…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!

Bane and Croc sailed over the street-space and landed on the rooftop of a thirty-five story building across the way.

TH-THWAP!

They grinded together through the gravel before Bane grunted and kicked Croc off of him.

_Whap!_

Croc landed on his scaley feet and flexed his pale muscles.

Bane hobbled up to a standing menace. He clenched his teeth. "Well…if it isn't everybody's favorite second best….?"

"You owe me a broken leg, big guy….," Killer Croc pointed a sharp finger. "…and an arm….and a shoulder…and a pair of _ribs!"_

"Yes…and a skull and an ego…," Bane seethed. "So…they have worthless sewer filth like you working for Triangular?"

"I go where the green stuff takes me…," Croc said. "And you know what green stuff I'm talking about, don't ya?"

"Don't care…," Bane paced around Croc. "I prefer red myself…."

"Hehehehehehresssh….stole the words out of my pretty mouth," Croc paced around Bane. "Yes, I do the dirty work for Triangular. Pretty proud of it too! However…this is just between you and me…."

"So what?" Bane managed a slight snicker. "So you can even a useless score?"

"You're smiling, Bane," Croc said. "That means your neck is softening up. Running out of that green slime stuff, ain't ya?"

Bane motioned Croc forward. "I can still finish you off, scum."

"I'll be sure to laugh over that," Croc's eyes narrowed. "After I'm done stripping the bones from your neck with my _teeth!"_

"Nnnngh! Let's fight to the death."

"Always glad to lead the dance!" Croc surged forward. "NnngHRESSSSHAAA!"

"RAAAAUGH!" Bane flew in with his fist sailing.

The two muscular behemoths clashed in the center of the rooftop.

_**THUD!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!

I kicked a door open and dashed across the twisted metal compartments of the blimp's precarious interior.

Everything was groaning around me.

Lattice work of metal crunching.

Bulkheads bending and shrapnel and rivets popping.

The 'exiting' turned out to be a nearly seventy degree uphill blur as the blimp plummeted….plummeted…plummeted…

I panted…sweating instensely.

My body ached to its limit as I trucked Fox along.

I summoned murk to push me along. To make my limbs move. To empower myelf in a way that only an adept of the Spectrum could.

_How was I to have the strength to interrogate this loser after all of this was said and done?_

_How was I to tap into Wayne Corp?_

Fleetings images passed through my head in the belly of that dying, dirigible beast. Raven meditating. Cyborg and Beast Boy sharing a joke. Starfire humming gently to herself. Tempest treading water in the Bay. The birdarang…the birdarang….

The birdarang…

And then….

_Rrrrred Aviarrrry……_

I gasped.

I nearly collapsed.

Wincing.

Knees wobbling.

I panted….panted….panted…..

_Red Aviarrrrrrryyyyy……_

I gulped.

A sharp chill ran up my metal limb.

Like a beacon. Like the lighthouse. Flashing and pulsing over the dark bay waters of a clay-strewn Gotham.

_My god…… _

_It can't be……_

_N-Not here……_

_Not now……_

I shuddered.

I reshuffled Fox over my shoulder and pressed myself crazily onward.

_Red Aviary. _

_He followed me._

_He followed me into Gotham City._

_And now……I am in the absolute heart of it._

I shuddered and kicked open a blindingly bright doorway to the outside air.

CRACK!

_I am uttertly……hopelessly……screwed._

I dove out.

FWOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWACK!

Killer Croc elbowed Bane in the chin.

THUD!

Bane kneed Croc in the stomach.

SLASSSH!

Croc teetered back, snarled, and swiped Bane bleedingly across the chest.

THWACK!

Bane's hands slapped on either side of Croc's skull.

"Hressssha!" Croc clutched his head and stumbled back, wincing all over.

Bane held a hand over his bleeding chest, teeth clenched.

The two panted…standing in a stalemate across from each other atop the rooftop.

"You are so dead….," Croc hissed.

Bane hissed back: "You first, you snake!"

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

"………," the two blinked at each other.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

A vaporous red chill filled the air.

"Que in el mundo?" Bane murmured.

Killer Croc blinked. "D'You hear that?"

The two glanced over.

Nestled between an antenna and an A/C unit…

Three explosives _suddenly_ there.

Strung out in a row.

Beeing. Blinking. Strobing.

Bane's jaw dropped. "Carbonite!"

"Holy…."

Bane leapt off towards the distance.

Killer Croc likewise dove as inevitably….

_Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!_

_**PPPPPPPOWWWWWWW!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The first thing I did when I ran along the top of the partially deflated blimp was gasp at the familiar noise.

My body tensed.

Deep inside, something froze over. The sound of the explosion resonated in my head and I could have sworn I heard the screaming voice of Starfire followed by the grinding sarcophagus of the radioactive depository.

Positioned precariously atop the descending blimp-top, I turned and gazed left at the top of a thirty-five story building as it rose past me and Fox.

A huge plume of fire vomited outward from the summit like a volcano. Hot, flesh-melting fire.

_A carbonite blast……_

"Fancy this unfolding! That's what should be happening to Fox, boy!"

"!" I spun and looked towards the rear of the zeppelin.

Clock King stood before me, leaning on his sharp cane. He was flanked by Scarecrow and Mad Hatter. The smoking, flaming stern of the airship framed their three iconographic figures.

"You should both be burning….everyone interfering in the structure of this City should be burning! Triangular…Two-Face…and now a two-bit Titan like yourself!"

I was only half-listening to what he had to say. Because the chill rushing up through my metal arm was unbearable. My whole body shook and wobbled. My insides were turning to ice and I nearly fell or nearly dropped Fox or nearly all of such in between.

Clock King's lips moved, but only muffled echoes came out as the smoke beyond him became an all-encompassing horizon swallowing the carnage and noise.

"No wonder the great Batman and his troupe haven't showed up as of late! They must be ashamed! They must be ashamed of how pathetically cold and unartistic this City's rogues have become!"

I looked past him. My black eyes turned round. A breath escaped me. Vaporous. But not because of the November air.

Time slowed down as I saw the first red streams of him. Crimson clouds. Scarlet mist. He pierced through the smoke and ran out of the smog. With feet of ice, he came blurring down the length of the zeppelin behind the three villains. Straight towards me. They just happened to be in the way. That was all. They didn't need to be there. And they didn't see it coming. In molasses motion….in frozen sluggishness, what could they have done?

I stood stock still. Iced to the bone. And as the figure ran closer and closer like a demon sperm out of Hell, reality came screaming towards me. And I knew for once that the fear toxin of Crane had gone away. For this was the real horror. This was the nightmare come true. Every part of me throbbed and ached in utter horror. Paralyzing fear. The same thing that pounced on me in the cemetery….that stalked me in the Lexcorp hallways….that loomed over me when Robin was blown to bits.

And somehow, I felt like it was a part of me. A ticking time bomb inside the mitochondria of my cells just waiting for the proverbial sands of time to run out so it could all stop pumping life juice and I would fall down to the ground, a corpse that I was solely born to be. And this spectre…this ghost….this smoke and mirrors…it was simply pushing the hour-hand along faster. It was pushing me over the cliff earlier. It was reeling death in and shoving it down my throat.

Red Aviary wanted to jump-start my last breath, and as it billowed towards me along the length of the zeppelin, it dropped a string of carbonite charges and extended outward from its red-vapor-obscured form a two-edge sword of red fury.

CHIIIIIIIIIING!

I saw it. I saw the Mad Hatter turning around slowly. The Gotham Villain of a solid decade and a half of infamy bearing his eyes open wide for the last time as his whole body flinched and his screaming lips kissed the sword.

_**SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!**_

In slow motion, Mad Hatter's chest opened like an exploding pot pie in the microwave. The white of bone, the red of meat, the wet ribbons of everything in between splashed like reverse dew drops and vomited sideways off the body of the zeppelin.

Scarecrow got a (face?) (mask?) full of his teammate. His jaw clattered in the wet soggy horror before the red-billowing phantom blew past him and shoved the scrawny figure off the edge of the dirigible, screaming.

Clock King was the last to turn around. And when he did so, it was the slowest of all. It took an agonizing eternity for his body to completely do a one-eighty. And when the back of his tranquil head was finally facing me, it divided. A sword came down the hat, danced down the skull, swam down the neck like a knife to butter, and parted the genteel villain apart like slices of bread loafs, giving room for a frothing fountain of freezing, wet red to scream towards me.

_Rrrrred Aviary!_

My black eyes flickered. A touch of white against the inner black lenses.

And….

I fell.

I simply dropped back and fell beneath the swing of a sword tip.

SWOOOOOOSH!

I fell.

I fell…

I fell…….

Down the buildingside.

Fox's unconscious body flailing under my arm. My numb arm. My numb body and thin eyes.

Sleeping.

Descending to the earth.

Gazing up at the silly airborne whale that was the blimp.

….

….

….

_**PPPPOWWWW!**_

The 'whale' exploded. And when it did, time resumed.

I blinked.

FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!

I gasped.

I was plummeting a story-per-second.

The exploding, flaming blimp was soaring after me.

I panted.

I spun.

I faced the blurring buildingside beside me.

I gritted my teeth.

I flexed an arm free from around Fox.

I gripped Myrkblade's hilt.

CHIIIIING!

I produced the sword.

I held my breath.

I stabbed into the glass and concrete of the Kane Building.

_SCRKKKKKKKKCRKKKKKKKKKCRKKKKK!_

Sparks flew.

Pebbles and shards scattered.

I grinded, grinded, grinded into the building.

Desperately slowly our descent.

And yet as I did so, the flaming debris of the blimp flew closer down at me.

A burning wall of death.

To finish me off.

_Crud! _

_God in heaven!_

I billowed murk into the sword.

Panting.

FLASH!

The blade turned even sharper and carved deeply into the buildingside.

_FWOOOOOOOOSH!_

The hulk of the blimp was upon me. The heat curled my hairs. Scraps of burning metal grazed my body and Fox's.

I clenched my amber-stabbed eyes shut and planted my feet against the breast of Kane.

_Nnnnnnnaaaaaaugh!_

Murk pulsed through my ankles.

FWOOOOOSH!

I kicked off the building with Myrkblade yanking free.

I 'flew' sideways away from the tower.

The blimp breezed hotly past me.

_SWOOOOOSH!_

I flailed in mid-air, twirled about, and sailed down to the buildingside across the way.

I panted.

_Balconies. _

_Alcoves._

_Awnings._

_AWNINGS!_

I desperately glided the heavy pair of us with murking limbs down…out…down…out…down….out….forward….

FWOOMP!

Fox and I landed smack-dab in an awning.

_RIIIIIIIP!_

We collapsed through and crashed through a dining table on the balcony beneath.

CRASH!

Fox tumbled to the left.

I tumbled to the right.

I flinched, clutching my metal arm as the chill lessened….lessened….lessened….

I panted. Sweating all over. Teeth clenched.

_Red Aviary……he's gone……_

I shut my eyes tightly.

_He's gone, Ana……thank God……h-he's gone……_

I gulped.

_F-For now……_

I didn't so much as flinch when the blimp wreckage landed in the Gotham streets below.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRASSSSSSH! **_

_**PHOOOOOOOMMMMBBBB!**_

Officers and city workers ran away from the cloud of fire and collapsing debris in the center of the street.

People were pushed back safely from ground zero.

Radios squabbled.

Panicked voices shouted commands.

Sirens wailed as firetrucks swarmed to the scene.

Commissioner Gordon stood outside of the blast zone, staring with his aged eyes wide. "Good God almighty….."

The fires of the blimp crackled…billowed smoke.

"………," Gordon tilted his head up.

He gazed at the balcony floors of a building across from Kane.

The Hampton Building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………," I struggled and strained to get up.

Panting.

Eyes weakly shut.

_Don't pass out…… _

_Whatever you do……_

_Don't p-pass out…………_

I got up on my knee. Shuddering. I stood up. I held Myrkblade loosely, trying to regain my breath.

"……………."

I blinked.

I realized something.

_Fox……he's missing……_

Desperate, my black eyes darted around.

I saw a body. A thick, heavy-set body. A thug was carrying Fox's unconscious form away.

_Dammit! Who the Hell?_

I snarled mutely and ran towards him.

The thug turned and glared at me. His muscular face shouted: "Mugsy! Jump 'em!"

SWOOOSH! SMACK! A thinner thug dashed out with a fist flying across my cheek.

"!" I stumbled back, hacking.

'Mugsy' stood, his fists raised at me. "Take Fox, Rhino! I got him!"

"He's a _Titan_, Mugsy!"

"He's about to croak! I can handle him!"

"_Da punk's right…,"_ a corny, villainous voice said in a mafia styled accent. _"……he's at da end of 'is rope! Give me the chance to administer da coipe'de'grace!" _

"………_.," _I squinted into the shadows.

My shaded eyes spotted a figure walking into the light. He was a balding old man with gray hair, large, reflective glasses…and a small, mopey mouth. Cradled in his arms was wooden puppet of super-deformed build dressed to look like a bastard child of Al Capone and some Dick Tracey villain. A tiny 'cigar' rested in the puppet's mouth as he bore a scar and carried a pathetically tiny tommy gun. The wooden mouth of the doll moved as a grunt voice said:

"_I've always wanted to off a Titan! Must feel like stealin' candy from a Baby! Heh! Than stabbin' it in the little shrimp's jugular!"_

"……….," my brow furrowed.

_Who the Hell is this Imp?_

"Boss…just get the job done, will ya!" Mugsy hissed.

"Yeah! We got Fox back, Scarface! Two-Face will have your little wooden neck if you don't finish him off quickly!"

The puppet turned its head to shout at the thug: _"Who are ya callin' wooden?"_

The old man cradling the puppet simpered: "Y-You, Mr. Scarface…"

The puppet's arm moved and 'slapped' the old man in the face. _"Rhetorical statement, dummy! What do I pay you for, Professor? Honestly!"_

"……..," I blinked.

'Scarface' turned and 'faced' me. _"The Fox kid goes back with us where he belongs, kid!"_

"……..," I stared quizzocally at the elderly Ventriloquist.

Scarface was suddenly hoisted in the path of my black eyes. _"'Ey! What am I? Air? Look at my kissah when I'm talkin' to ya!"_

"……."

_You've got to be friggin' kid of me……_

Cl-Clak!

The Tommy Gun aimed at me.

"_You know what………screw it! No monologue for you! Kid heroes dese days! Bah! They've all got attention defficate disorder!"_

"M-Mr. Scarface," the Professor bit his lip. "Don't you mean attention def---…"

"_EVERYBODY SHUT YOUR YAPS!"_ He aimed the gun again at me. _"Especially yous, choir boy!"_

I took a deep breath….then stepped towards the puppeteer…

_BANG!_

The 'prop' Tommy gun ricocheted off the rooftop between my feet.

I gasped and hobbled back.

_Holy……!_

"_That's right! Better recognize Triangular, handsome!"_ the puppet leaned forward and practically spit out its cigar. _"ALL of Triangular!"_

I panted. Utterly exhausted. Devoid of energy.

Sweating, I looked over at the two thugs with Fox.

_I have no time for this. _

_Even if I could grab Fox, I wouldn't have the energy to run off with him._

_And to where?_

_For the love of Allah, I'm not about to be pincushioned to death by Howdy Doody's illegitimate brother……_

"_Dance, kid!"_

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I merely stepped back….and like on the zeppelin before….I fell.

FWOOOSH!

The Professor gasped.

"H-He jumped!" Mugsy murmured.

"_Serves him right!"_ Scarface 'cocked' his tommy gun and raised it towards the sky. _"Let's go home, boyz. Nothin' ta see 'ere….heh…" _

"_Sure thing, boss!" Rhino smirked and carried Fox off as the three retreated into the Hampton building._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

FWOOOOOOSH!

I fell into the belly of Gotham.

And as air and buildingsides once again blurred past me….

I seemed to enter a dream.

My black eyes grew thin.

I all but dropped Myrkblade along with my soul.

Somewhere, Ana's smile swam through my fingers and I clung onto it like silken strands above the Elysian Fields.

And I had this sudden…goofy urge to just….

Let go…..

_Heh…… _

_Red Aviary won't find me there……_

But before I could drift away, the rocketing world around me snapped roughly to a stop when…

_TH-THWIP! _

_**SNAP!**_

A leather whip lashed out and wrapped around my ankle.

Y-YANK!

I gasped, dangling still above twenty-stories of death.

The fires of the blimp and the lights of squad cars danced below me.

"…………..," I panted.

There was a shadow.

Then…

A deep, womany voice.

Purring.

"Are all Titans this clumsy?"

"…………..," I dangled.

"Hang on, little man…."

_FWOOOOSH!_

I gasped as I was hoisted up and gripped by a strong, shapely forearm. A body that was used to leaping from building ledge to building ledge did just that, but with me in tow. I saw the world as a bobbing ocean, with the fiery chaos and detritus of Triangular and Red Aviary and the Terrible Troupe receding away like the morning tide. And soon everything grew comfortably dark as the Earth drew near and the endless alleyways and dark brick walls of Gotham City ate us.

_Us? _

_Who's us?_

"My god…you're lighter than I thought! Hrmph…all the better."

_Who……?_

FWOOOOSH!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Commissioner Gordon stepped out onto a balcony.

A balcony where an awning was ripped, an eating table lay smashed, and shell casings from a Thompson semi-automatic rested underfoot.

An officer escorting Gordon on the elevated floor above the burning scene whistled. "Something definitely happened up here! I wonder if it has anything to do with the gang war in the skies?"

"…….," Gordon studied the scene with thin eyes. Speculating. Studying….

"Commissioner?"

"Whatever it is…we're too late…," he walked out to the edge of the balcony. He glanced down.

Burning blimp remains. Police and rescue squads.

"………."

He glanced up.

The top of the Kane Building. HIND wreckage. Charred buildingside and officers mapping out chalk and yellow tape on the patio for the massacre.

"Gawd….ya know….it feels kinda like November Fourth all over again. Only….hell….this time it's close to home….," the officer murmured.

Gordon took a deep breath. "Yes. It does feel like that." He eyed a thin slice in the Kane buildingside rivering down the glass and concrete facing. Like a sword scar. "And as a matter of fact…..I think some of November Fourth was _dragged_ here in person too….."

"Sir?" the officer curiously blinked.

Gordon scratched his chin. "A hunch….."

Silence.

"Did we have photos taken of the blimp when it fell?"

"Yes, sir. They're under scrutiny by the evidence team as we speak."

"I want to take a look at them as soon as I can," Gordon said. "And I want a call patched through to Maggie Sawyer of Metropolis."

"Maggier Sawyer?"

"Again….," Gordon gestured. "A hunch…."

_Scrkkk……! "Commish! This is Bullock! Come in!"_

Gordon picked up his communciator. "Gordon here. What is it, Harvey?"

"_Renee and I have something to show you, chief."_

"Can it wait?"

"_Better yet……SOMEONE to show you, Commish!"_

"…………I'm on my way," Gordon pocketed the communicator away and shuffled off the balcony.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The stranger let me down on a metal fire escape in a dark alleyway four stories up.

I sat smack down and leaned against a railing.

Panting….

Dizzy….

She stood before me, stretching taut limbs. "Phew! Last time I'm carrying someone that distance! That's a job for Batgirl…."

"……….," I clenched my eyes shut and meditated for just enough energy to summon a last stretch of vision.

Meanwhile, I heard…

'_Mrowwwww……'_

"Isis! Hehehe…did you miss me?"

I opened my eyes.

A woman stood in the shadows. Clad in a gray and black bodysuit. Cuddling an egyptian feline to her chest. The woman had on a mask with gentle, sloped ears. A whip was bundled at her side.

"Don't mind the stranger…," Catwoman nodded towards me. "He's on our side…..relatively speaking."

I leaned my head to the side. Utterly confused.

Catwoman smiled down at me while 'Isis' blinked its slitted eyes. "Forgive me, if you will. I meant to come to the 'battleground' much sooner. Guess I got there just in time. Batman may have vanished, but it's good to see some quasi-heroes doing something brave for this bleeding City."

"…………."

"Oh for mercy's sake, Mr. Titan! Don't look so glum. You've apparently got a lot to do in this City….but don't spend all your nine lives in a day."

"…………"

"I'm only here to help you. And…..perhaps….you can also help me?"

"…………."

"Mr. Titan?"

"…………."

"Noir?"

I had already long collapsed, unconscious.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the center of a ring of ambulances and paramedics, a weary Bullock and Montoya stood with a throng of other policemen.

Gordon walked onto the scene. "Yes? What is it?"

Montoya bit her lip.

Bullock—somberly for once—bore a straight face and stepped aside to point the way towards a stretcher being loaded into one of the ambulances. "Take a look for yourself…."

Gordon craned his neck. His jaw gradually dropped….

The Scarecrow was bandaged all over. His arms, lower limbs, parts of his shaded cranium. His jaws clattered as two pinprick eyes twitched in time to his writhing body beneath the bandages and restraints on the stretcher. "Nnnngh….Nnnghh! Ugh….Oh G-God….R-Red…he's after me….after us…all of u-us! Nnngh…R-Red…..RED! Ohhhh Goddd…nnghhh…fhefhh…..R-R-Reddddd….."

Gordon stared. Stone silent.

Bullock leaned in. "What on God's green earth would freak the shit out of the _Scarecrow?"_

The writhing villain was shut away in the ambulance and away from the noonday light.

Gordon swallowed and ran a hand through his gray hair.

Shakily.

"What indeed…."


	222. A Hard Act to Follow part 7

**222. A Hard Act to Follow part 7**

Terra was sweating.

Biting her lip, she aimed the pitchfork and stabbed neatly into the clump of hay atop the tractor-hitched wagon. She pivoted on a stool, yanked out a wad of yellow-gold straws, and stepped down. She walked into the barn through the tall doors and dropped the hay in a cluster in the center of the wooden interior. She took a break to breathe, pivoted around, and trucked herself back to the tractor to mount the stool and dig forth another cluster of hay.

She was clad in overalls and a white t-shirt. Her golden blonde hair was hung in a ponytail. Her blue eyes were thin with determination…straining almost, as she did the 'work'.

Halfway through fishing out the next cluster from the bail, she turned about and gasped slightly at the proximity of Kara hovering before her.

"….," Kara smirked. "You're really tense, you know that? You sure you find this 'relaxing'?"

Terra simpered. "I-I just wanted to help. After all…you and the Kents have been kind enough to let me stay here and stuff. It only seems right."

Kara shrugged. "You volunteered. You're the guest. I wasn't about to make you do farmwork. And besides, after so many months in stone…"

"Please, Supergirl…," Terra smiled and shoved her way past Kara with the pitchfork towards the barn. "I've gotten a good wind since I came here all invalid-like. I'll have you know I'm no wimp! I have been and shall always be a country girl…"

"Do tell…"

"Er….though I'm used to the country where there's more cactus than _hay_…."

"Heheheh…."

"Why do you need all this hay anyways?"

"You complaining already? Some country girl you are!"

"Th-That's not it! Just…."

"We do this every year. Especially around winter. The animals are gonna be staying in the barn a lot more. Especially when it snows. You don't want bovine hypothermia, do you?"

"Uhm….g-guess not…."

"And besides, the hay has this….nasty habit of disappearing magically each year."

"You don't say!" Terra dropped her last cluster with the other strands of hay.

"Yeah. I think it all goes to the same vortex in space and time where left socks run off."

"Hehehehehe…," Terra leaned on her pitchfork and smiled at Kara. The smile soon turned to a playful frown. "Say….aren't you supposed to be milking the cows or something?"

"I know very well what my chores are or aren't at the Kents' farm, Terra…"

"Well? Aren't you?"

Kara shrugged. "Already did it."

"……," Terra blinked. "But that was…..f-five minutes ago!"

There was an anguished 'moo' sound from the distance.

Kara blushed. "Er….yeah. It kinda freaks them out a bit when I do it that fast…."

"Interesting…."

Silence……

"You handle a pitchfork nicely for someone with such toothpick arms."

"Oh…please….pffft….," Terra rolled her eyes and approached the tractor trailer again. "You'd better not start the 'chicken legs' joke that the Titans plagued me with."

"Hahahaha….'chicken legs'? What cruel monster thought that up?"

Terra bit her lip. "Beast Boy…a-actually…"

Kara winced. "Oh….uhm…."

"S'ok. I put a stink-bomb in his boots for it. He doesn't call me that anymore."

"Hehehehe…okay."

"Huh….," Terra, trance-like, paused and stared off in silence. Her lips were parted. "Listen to me…..'he _doesn't_ call me that'…."

Silence.

Kara touched-down and walked gently over to Terra's side. "Feeling like…..seeing your friends?"

"I dunno….," Terra's hands fidgeted on the handle of the pitchfork she was leaning against. "I've been thinking about them a lot lately…..but….."

"…….."

Terra looked up at Supergirl. "Noir….he has a good reason for asking you to look after me **here**, right?"

"I should say so."

"The same reason….wh-why he isn't with the Titans right now," Terra murmured. "Even if he wants to be…."

Kara shrugged. "I could never fathom Jordan's respect for the Titans. I've never been in his head. Though, I have…._felt_ him in a sense. I know what he's sacrificed. _Almost_ know what he's sacrificed."

"I still can't believe that Robin's dead….," Terra shook her head and murmured. "I'd hate to think that….that…."

"That what, Terra?"

"That the last things I'd ever said to him were……were mean things….," Terra's voice went lower. "Wh-When we fought…."

A bit of silence.

Kara took a breath and said: "C'mere. I want to show you something."

Terra looked at the trailer, then at the barn. "Uhm….but what about….?"

Kara swiftly took the pitch fork from Terra, tossed it into the trailor, unhitched it from the tractor, carried it—floating—to the barn, and dumped the golden straw all over the floor.

Terra planted her hands on her hips. "Show off…."

"Yup!" Kara tossed the trailor aside. "Proud of it too!" _CRASH!_ The Girl of Steel winced, but shook it off. "Ahem…now come on…"

And she took Terra by the hand and practically dragged the amused girl off.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The attic of the Kents' household was surprisingly lacking in dust. The loft was a place of frequent visits. A sort of cleanliness ordered itself around the trunks, the old wardrobes, the boxes, and other containers of retrospective goodness. The Kents seemed a sort of people to coexist with their memories in the present. It was a wholesome, homely feeling. Terra almost felt like she was being hugged by four pairs of arms by simply stepping up there.

Kara was busy fumbling her strong-as-steel hands softly through a box in the far corner. She opened it, ruffled some paper, and motioned Terra over with a sideways nod of her head. "Come here….take a look…."

Kara drifted over. The thin, round sihlouette of a third story window shone sunlight in and illuminated the two girls.

As Terra walked up, the taller blonde turned about and held forth a newspaper. Old…but still white, without the amber-stained touch of elder years.

Terra gently took it and gazed at the headlines. Her blue eyes thin.

"……."

'_SUPERMAN TRAITOR OF THE WORLD.'_

'_KRYPTONIAN ALLIANCE WITH APOKOLIPS.' _

'_DARKSEID'S SON REVEALED.'_

Terra whistled.

"Wow….scandalous stuff…," Terra tilted her head up and smiled softly. "Good thing they've got editors to scare these jokers off, eh?"

Kara merely blinked. "Wow…you _really_ did sleep in caves….didn't you?"

Terra blushed. "Uhm….am I missing something?"

Kara pointed at the newspapers. "That really happened. Almost two years ago."

Terra's jaw dropped. "Superman….went bad?"

"Mind control."

Terra exhaled as if that somehow put her at ease. "Really…."

The Girl of Steel nodded. "He was zapped during a space mission. Granny Goodness and the Female Furies basically tortured Clark and reprogrammed his head so that he'd fight for….erm….the 'dark side', I guess. While Superman was under the assumption of being Darkseid's son—no pun intended—he conquered one or two planets and busted heads of a few civilizations. And then when he came back here to Earth…..well….," Kara hugged her opposite shoulder, stared off through the dimly-lit window, and sighed. "…it wasn't pretty. The world's armies went against him. Even I…had to fight him. And I didn't know what was going on at the time. It was a tough fight beating back Darkseid with Superman brainwashed that time. And New Genesis couldn't do a thing about it. Some…wacky galactic politick. I guess Earth is a little too unimportant for most civilizations these days."

"Kinda makes you feel small….," Terra murmured. "Earth…that is…."

"Hey, I wouldn't live anywhere else," Kara winked with a smile. "This place rocks."

"Hehehehehe…yeah….r-rocks….," Terra said. A sigh. Her smile faded as she gazed over the headlines. "I feel stupid for never having heard much about this." A pause. She looked up. "I-I'm guessing S-Superman came around…."

"Oh ho yeah…," Kara chuckled. "That's for darn sure. You can't keep a super-powered boy scout down forever. He came back with a vengeance, struck a heavy blow to Darkseid, and Apokolips has never been the same since. But….it was difficult for Clark…er….'Superman' to get a good footing here on Earth again. S.T.A.R. Labs and their leader Emil Hamilton never really trusted him again. Lex Luthor got a lot of political backing for his evil empire. And the international governments started cracking down on vigilantes more. It wasn't really until the Justice League came about that Superman started to get a second wind. But…gradually….people did learn to forgive him. And accept him. Cuz….heroes don't just fade away, Terra. There's something about them that makes heroes…..simply loveable. No matter what."

Terra was biting her lip. "Is that why you're showing me this? To tell me that I'm loveable?"

Kara winked. "What? You couldn't tell from the dozens of times Ma begs to braid your hair?"

Terra couldn't help but smile. Howbeit a thin smile.

Kara pointed at the headlines: "There were nuts out there wanting to burn Superman at a stake. To castrate him. To ostracize any and ALL aliens who'd appear on this planet. But….they all gradually came around. Everyone but Hamilton, perhaps. Freakin' loser….pfft…."

"…….," Terra slowly placed the paper back into the container from which Supergirl had retrieved it. She murmured: "Were the headlines any big when I helped Slade take over the City….?"

"……," Kara scratched the back of her neck. "There were….headlines, yeah……"

"And?"

"…….," Kara smiled gently. She added: "I knew the Titans would come around. But in so expecting…I didn't imagine them beating the snot out of your anything…."

Terra winced a little.

Kara went on: "I couldn't imagine how a former member of them would simply….'turn evil' overnight. That just doesn't happen, Terra. Not in the Balanced world we live in."

"I was never really a hero….," Terra hugged herself and stared off towards a wall.

"Oh?" Kara craned her neck. "You never kicked crime's butt with the Titans?"

"Er….."

"You never carried a bunch of people out of a burning building with a safety platform of stone?"

"I…I-I…."

"Never even rescued a kitten from a tree?"

"I wasn't a hero for _**long**_….," Terra bashfully digressed. "Not for long at all…"

"But you were a Titan, Terra," Kara placed a hand on her shoulder. "And there were other headlines. Headlines about the 'Sixth Titan'. And about the good things she did while she was still a fiery extension of this heated, passionate Earth. And I think those headlines mean something. Much like Superman's legacy meant something before he went bad for a time. Heroes aren't perfect, as much as people would like to dream. Sometimes….we are vulnerable. Weak." She gazed off thoughtfully as she inhaled and added: "Tempted to do the right thing the 'easy' way, to our detriment…."

"I was never zombified….," Terra murmured. There was a lacing of anger in her voice. "I was never mind-controlled." She furrowed her brow as she gazed Kara's way. "I chose to do what I did to the Titans. I was _evil._"

"But were you not brainwashed?"

"……….."

"I can't ever….EVER imagine you doing what you did to the Titans without any provocation, Terra…," Kara said She leaned her head to the side. "When Noir first dropped you off in my and Ma's and Pa's lap, I was a little scared. But now that I've gotten a chance to see you…..well…..no, Terra, you're not a little girl who 'needs saving'. Rather, you're like me. You're strong. You're powerful. But you're also blonde."

"……snkktk….," Terra snickered.

Kara giggled. "And….well…life doesn't always smile on chicks like us, does it?"

"No ma'am…," Terra shook her head with a slight smirk. "It sure doesn't…."

Kara's eyes were thin. "The Titans……did something to hurt you. Didn't they?"

Terra bit her lip.

"Not trying to say they deserved any of the bad things that happened to them, but…--"

"Beast Boy….," Terra breathed. "He said that he would trust me no matter what I did….or what I was…."

"………."

"….and when he found out about Slade and I….when he found out what I had done…..he br-broke his promise. He said I didn't have any friends….," Terra closed her eyes and shuddered. "Didn't he see? I…I was begging for help. Slade did so much for me and my powers…but I couldn't say 'no' to a single thing he said. I wanted the Titans to save me. I was living with them, fighting alongside them, working with them…but I still felt helpless. Slade controlled every little thing I said or did and I just wanted out. Even if it meant no longer being with the Titans. Just….being on my own again. Like I had always been. But when Beast Boy pushed me away……….e-everything that Slade had said about the Titans—every false thing—it all became true to me. And it suddenly made sense why I was trying to destroy them and hurt their feelings in every way possible. They were inferior. Pathetic. Weak. Dishonest…shallow……"

Terra took a sharp breath.

She clenched her teeth.

In an exhale, she looked ready to collapse: "I was so blind….so selfish……b-but most of all……most of all I was scared……," she hugged herself. "Scared of the Titans. Scared of the law. Scared of my powers. And….scared of Slade…….."

Kara listened silently. Nodding a little here and there.

Terra glanced at her sideways and murmured: "I still….fear that the Titans wouldn't want to be my friends. What kind of forgiveness…what kind of CRAZY forgiveness could possibly eclipse th-that?"

"I dunno…," Kara shrugged. "But it worked with Clark and the world. And it worked with me and Jordan." She leaned her head to the side. "I don't see why it wouldn't work with you."

"Heh….cute analogy…."

"Is it really?"

"………"

Kara patted Terra's back: "You're loved, kiddo. Those Titans….I'd be surprised if they didn't tackle you upon sight."

"But I can't try my luck with them," Terra shuddered. "Not now…."

Kara nodded. "Red Aviary—as Noir puts it—is a real trouble. The worst thing you could do to the Titans….the worst thing you could EVER do to them is die. So we gotta keep you safe. We gotta keep you hidden. Hang in there, Terra. Although, something tells me you're pretty good at that…"

Terra smiled nervously. "S-Something tells me….that you're helping me be pretty good at that."

Kara shrugged, a smirk. "I try my best."

Silence.

Terra breathed: "So….uhm……more chores?"

Kara ran a hand through her blonde bangs. "Eh…..I could do that in a heartbeat. I was really just letting you get exercise earlier."

"Oh……"

"………."

"………."

"………," Kara brightened. "Wanna do our nails?"

"Hehehe….sure."

"Last one downstair's a rotten egg!"

"No fair, Miss Speedy!"

"Hehe…you've got powers too!"

"I don't think I should risk pulling Superman's childhood house apart…."

"Good point. Besides, the stairs are made for walking slowly…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 29, 2004.

Gotham City.

3:24 pm

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………………"

Sounds.

Light sounds.

Crying….mewing sounds.

"…………………"

A meow. Close to my head. Purring. Fish breath. Tiny puff of breath. Whiskers. A feline lick at my scarred neck. Another meow. And….

Cat hair.

"……………….," my face tensed. My nose twitched.

_Jinx………_

"………………."

I blinked.

_Jinx………?_

My black eyes flew open.

A dark overhang. A cool amber sky looming beyond. The tops of buildings.

I squinted, wincing. My eyes were naked. The sunlight was stabbing. And yet, it could have beeb worse. I remembered that I was in Gotham City. I had survived….._what? A gunshot? An explosion? Chubby monkey space ninjas? God……I can't seem to keep count anymore……_

Another meow.

A tail to the face.

Hairs in my mouth.

I helplessly spat and sat up, feeling the breeze of high altitude in the blistering November. Gotham City hissed frigidly at me. And yet…it still wouldn't snow.

Not even a single, blasted flake of white.

"Not a cat person?"

"……….," I turned around. Black eyes thin. I eyed a woman sitting cross-legged on a chair atop the balcony of a loft apartment where we were situated. It was a rather affluent pad. Something you would only find in possession of a rich businesswoman………or _cat_ burglar.

"You look like you'd like dogs more," Catwoman said. The 'Selina Kyle' of newspaper headlines. She sat in her gray jumpsuit of night-prowling sexiness. Her cat-eared cowl was off, revealing a voluptuously adult female with cascading blonde hair and two rigidly green eyes. "I'm guessing….golden retrievers?"

I took a breath.

_I hate dogs……_

An Egyptian-'styled' cat trotted away from my person and leapt up onto Miss Kyle's knees, rubbings its cheek along her abdomen.

"I guess it's no surprise that you would come here eventually, Mr. Titan," Catwoman said. "Gotham is quite the haven for the dark, silent, and brooding types. Heheheheh….which makes me wonder just what in the blazes I'm doing here every other season."

I nodded dazedly. I wasn't about to pounce upon this woman and handcuff her because of the blatantly criminal acts of burglary she had committed in the well-documented past. After all, Catwoman had just saved my life. And at this point in time, exactly who was I to determine who deserved to go to jail and who didn't?

I sighed miserably. I gazed towards the side with my black eyes dry…

"It's rather stupid of me to be here now to begin with…," she murmured. She was looking over something in her nimble hands, and I soon realized they were my shades. "With so many Gothamites both good and bad dropping like flies. Look at me. I'm the gray end of the spectrum." She glanced at me. "God vomits out the lukewarm, right? I don't stand a single chance."

"………….," I breathed gently.

"But I _had_ to come," she went on. Her hand gracefully petted the head and neck of her cat Isis. "I had to find out just what in this ugly City actually made _Batman_ go into hiding. Or even worse…." She looked pointedly at me again. "If indeed he's…..you know…."

"……," I blinked my bare eyes. _Did she expect me to have an answer to that?_

Of course not…

"What did I find? A City in chaos. vigilantes, and criminals alike all going into hiding. My old 'buddy' Roland Dagget hit the road. The Joker and the Riddler haven't been heard from in ages…without so much as a demonic titter or a riddle to point us in their nefarious vacation directions. Clayface's escaped and gone missing. Two-Face, Killer Croc, and the Ventriloquist have joined together in a totalitarian regime spreading throughout the country. And everyone who stands in the crossfire of this latest organization and those trying to preserve the old, insidious seeds of Gotham suffer from a Red harrier the likes of which this City hasn't seen since the Phantasm." With a digressing gesture, Catwoman then said: "On the flipside, common citizens are being attacked less and less. You got some people doing the smart thing and leaving town. Though…I must admit…," and her green eyes went sad momentarily. "I miss not being able to get in contact with my old friend Maven. She's so….vulnerable on her own….."

Silence.

Selina Kyle sat up straight and tossed me the shades.

_Clutch!_ I swiftly snatched them in mid-air. I slipped them over my face and adjusted my eyes to a comfortable openness…

She stood up, cradling Isis and then balancing the little feline on her shoulder. She walked over to the apartment and opened the glass doors some. I realized then—with my dark optics working fully—that there were at least a dozen cats lounging about in her apartment. I was afraid to walk in and smell the place. But…for someone as notoriously experienced as Selina Kyle, something told me that she had a way around protecting a household from feline scents en masse.

"Of course, it is not like this only in Gotham City…," Catwoman said. "Metropolis…..Central City….Keystone….something is spreading through this nation like a cancer. You've felt it yourself haven't you?"

"………"

"Heheheh….from all the news programs concerning Las Vegas and Metropolis' Bay, I assumed you had," she let Isis drop down and frolick into the apartment. She closed the doors behind the cat and turned to face me again. "And for that matter…this cancer has had a nasty habit of making you look bad."

"……," I bit my lip. I looked away from her.

"What? Do you think I actually _believe_ you're the Justice League – throttling villain that the papers make you look like? Even that stuff you did in the Daily Planet…..some people have to do what they do in order to get to the center of things. And you are oh-so-rock-solid set in the center of things…," her green eyes narrowed. "Aren't you, Noir?"

I stared back at her.

_You have no idea……_

"That's why you were there in Vegas when Two-Face's satellite establishment crumbled like a deck of cards. That's why you were there in Metropolis when battlescars sprang up all throughout the City. And that's why you were here…just hours ago…to witness the stroke of death upon the most evil of Gotham's fire-breathing dinosaurs. It takes a lot to kill the Clock King and the Mad Hatter. It takes an awful lot more to scare the living daylights out of the Scarecrow. But you, Noir. You lived through it all. With a little bit of calamitous bumps, sure. But you survived…..and that is utterly amazing…," she leaned her head to the side. "There's something in you that pushes the cancer away. Or…at least…re-shapes it. If there's anything that'll turn Gotham City's malignance up on its head and bring Batman's troupe out of hiding….it's you….."

I take a deep breath. I feel something in my pants' pocket.

_Can it bring a flightless bird back from the dead……?_

She couldn't answer that.

She drifted forward and said: "And as long as you hold an answer…._any answer_ to this mess, I want to help you."

_Naturally……_

I sighed. I ran a hand through my black hair. I gestured 'money'.

She smirked: "I only get what I can steal. I don't let people pay me anything. The cat may be a scavenger at times, but it's built to be a predator."

My black eyes narrowed.

"I want to see Batman again…," she murmured. "I want to know that—while his image has faded from the streets and his sidekick has left this mortal coil—he himself may still be alive. And if he is indeed still around, I want to be the one to ultimately help him. I owe him more than even the tabloids can assume."

I fought an urge to smirk.

_Have you ever met someone named 'Wonder Woman'?_

"Don't get me wrong, I'm no cradle-robber," she winked at me as she walked towards the balcony edge. "I didn't spend all of my nine lives just to find you. I happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. You should feel lucky. But don't think you should repay me. Call this a mutual….operation…."

I sighed.

_And just what 'operation' is this? _

_I've got things to do, lady. _

_I can fetch mice and tip milk bottles over later……_

"Fox….William B. Fox…..you need him for some reason, don't you?"

"……," I blinked. I fervently nodded.

"I may be able to find him," Catwoman slipped on her feline cowl and strapped her whip to her belt. "If indeed he's in the hands of that dissociative, puppet-fetish freak…I'll have an edge. I've dealt with the Ventriloquist before. He's double-crossed me in the worse way. 'Revenge' doesn't even begin to describe the word."

I nodded.

_Right. _

_I can understand 'revenge'._

_At least……I think I can……_

"But he could be anywhere in the City. The fact that he wants to stay here so much makes me think that he's definitely with Two-Face's troupe to stay."

I…..nodded.

_Freakin' duh._

"But no worries….," Catwoman smirked. "I've got….._friends_ in the streets. Four-legged friends."

"…….," I blinked.

_You've got to be kidding me……_

"Specially trained. Specially loyal. Each of them is fit with a special collar with a tracking device and a microphone. The soonest one comes in contact with the Ventriloquist in his lair—be that in the Downtown, the South Side, the Bay Docks, the Industrial Complexes…..we'll be sure to find out and work from there. But as it is, such will take a while. So why don't we go for an….afternoon on the Town?"

I walked to the balcony. I gazed out against the cold, biting wind of November. I heard distant siren sounds. I saw the smoke from the Blimp in downtown and from the industrial complexes in the East and North rising up to form the looming, dark smog that haloed the corners of the amber Gotham Sky. And ever on the horizon were the licking tongues of red eating 'day' to a bloody pulp. The city had just suffered an apocalypse of sorts, and yet it crept on stone and slouching with the patience of a hallow mountain full of smokesouls. A volcano that had died and neglected to forget about its lava-induced gag reflex.

"………."

I blinked.

_Wait a minute._

I gazed left at Catwoman, curiously.

_Night on the town?_

"To see if you're a lucky charm, Titan," she winked a green eye under her mask. "If I can't bring the Batman out of hiding, then maybe you and your miracle-making can."

"……..," I bit my lip.

"Heheh…don't worry. As much as I'd love to test your resolve at it, I'm not going to take you out thieving."

I exhaled in relief.

"There's one spot in Gotham just perfect to find Batman…..and I bet if we went there now, we might…_might_ just be lucky…."

I fidgeted. I remembered and felt—like a suddenly huge weight—the chip that Clark gave me, now resting in my pants pocket. I thought about the button on it. The tracking device that would supposedly bring Batman to me.

Nearly twenty-four turbulent hours in Gotham City already, and still I hadn't mustered up the courage to use it. Perhaps because I believed that it was too good to be true. Perhaps because I was just scared…

_Scared of what? _

_Superman and Diana may have tolerated my rogue actions in getting where I was then._

_But Batman? _

_I'd die for sure…… _

_I'd just…… _

_Die._

I shuddered, but managed a convincing smile.

"All right then…..let's dance," Catwoman stepped out onto the balcony and whipped out her…..whip. "Follow the feline….and try not to get distracted," she winked.

I gulped.

_P-Protect me?_

SWOOOSH! She dove over, slashed her whip out, and swung outward via a gargoyle head on the building front. Quite the suicidal expert.

_Nine lives indeed._

CHIIING!

I produced Myrkblade, pulsed murk through my limbs, and blurred out after her.

Across the spires of day-dim Gotham….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Through the alleyways…

The side streets…

The rooftops, the fence posts, the aqueduct ridges…

The avenues and corridors of Gotham City….

Creatures stirred. Little creatures. Whiskered, fleet-footed creatures. Meandering around garbage cans. Stealing fish from shipyard markets. Fighting, hissing, mating, living.

Existing.

And every once and a while, a stranger would appear amongst the strays.

A cat.

Calico, black, Siamese, Persian, tabby…..

…with a tag around its neck.

A tag with a tiny, gray electronic device. Blinking and shimmering in reflective sunlight.

The afternoon waned.

The amber sky gradually thinned, giving way to the gravity of the red sphere overhead.

And the cats minded their business. Their lonely, petite, finicky business…

Except…

Except when a strange, meandering set of human feet plodded past them in the cement, grass, or muddy puddles. And in such cases, the feline of observance would blink a slit eye, adjust its whiskers, and softly pad after the shoe-steps. Slick and silent in the dark. An angle of mammalian prowling.

Tiny, furred missiles all working on Selina Kyle's beat….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" William B. Fox laughed his head off. He leaned back in a plush chair and held his hands behind his back. "And that's when I thought—sheesh, if she's a clown girl…I wonder what else on her body is painted red! HA!"

Mugsy and Rhino winced simultaneously. They cleared their throats and adjusted their collars before looking across a dark-lit warehouse at the Ventriloquist.

'Scarface' sat comfortably in the propped arms of the Professor. His dummy white eyes glared twistedly at the rich heir before his wooden jaw danced and gruff words echoed forth: "Yous either got a load of guts, or you're just anotha crackpot like da rest of us…"

"So sue me!" Fox winked. "I can afford it. I was almost zeppelin zucchini, but I lived to sing, dance, and masturbate regardless. Fancy that? I bet that makes me a god of sorts…"

"It waz pure luck that gots you outta dat mess," Scareface 'pointed' as he writhed atop the Professor's grasp. "Never mind godliness or that sort of crud. Yous got to realize, the boyz 'n I pulled an awful lotta strings to get you out. And it's not so yous could sit 'round and gloat about it!"

"What's to gloat?" Fox smirked. "I'm much more smart or successful than the four of you quackjobs combined! Not to mention decent and richer!"

"Uhm….," Rhino looked at Fox, then glanced nervously at the Ventriloquist before humoringly added: "D-Don't you mean _'the __**three**__ of you quackjobs?'"_

"Ehhh….he's pretty right on," Scareface shook his wooden head. "The Professor here doesn't count."

"Uhm…I-I…."

"You got somethin' to say, blockhead? If so, give me a stake knife and I'll carve it out of ya!"

"N-No need, M-Mr. Scarface!' the old man holding up the puppet gangster shuddered back from his own arms. "I-I've got nothing to say!"

"Good. Now keep your mouth shut and your eyes open," 'Scarface'grunted. "You can keep your lips sealed, can't ya?"

"Um…..," the Ventriloquist sweated…

Fox blissfully interrupted: "Say, if our bosses Two-Face and Dagger aren't too busy, maybe one of them could do the favor of…..erhm…..ya know….killing what's left of the sons of bitches that decided to blimp me to death?"

"Don't ya get it, kid? It isn't in Two-Face's place to kill off them bubs that tried ta smoke yous on the airship."

"Then how did they bite the bullet anyhow? I figured they were all high-strung suicide-machines, but I frankly didn't expect the resulting biopsycohological explosion of their frustrations to take place until they were at home and got friendly."

"Wow, yous really do live under that rock you call yo father's ass, don't ya?" Scarface chuckled, the tiny stub of a cigar dancing in his gnarled, wooden mouth. "Heheheh….why don't you do us a favor of showing us exactly what yous useful for?"

"………," Fox smirked. "Very well. It's being rather fashionable for me to be threatened to death by wyrd-ass social marsupials of dramatic flare nowadays. I'd might as well quit while I'm ahead…._quitting_ while I still _have_ a head. I'm getting the hang of being kidnapped and having my genitalia threatened in various, counter-misogynist fashions. But if I get the hang of that for too long, I won't be _hanging_ much anymore. Now would I?"

At that point, Mugsy shouted: "Just do the damn transfer!"

Silence.

"Sure…why not?" Fox rolled his eyes, jumped out of this chair, and shuffled across the warehouse to a dusty-but-efficiently 'modern' computer console sitting in the shadows. "You're the ones paying for apocalypse. I might as well deliver."

"Say….," Scarface murmured as he was trucked over towards Mugsy via the Professor's grasp "Way to go with your persuasive talents, kiddo."

Mugsy simpered. "Really?"

_Th-THWACK!_ Scarface bitch-slapped Mugsy across the back of his head and neck. _"No!"_

"Ow! Sonofa….," Mugsy hissed.

"Only I get to make a blockhead out of the brat……you **blockhead**!"

"Ugh….," Mugsy sighed.

In the corner of the dark warehouse's interior, Rhino chuckled to himself. Mugsy glared at him.

Sooner than naught, Fox was sitting in the lone digital station, and he was typing madly away at the keyboard in such an ear-rattling fashion that it almost appeared to be a talent.

"I owe it all to Pops for giving me those Mavis Beacon typing lessons," Fox smirked. "Not to mention the colt revolver under my pillow and a book of 'Surviving Silicon Valley' on my shelf at home."

"Wow…they really made a book like that?" Rhino blinked.

"Nope. I lied. Just seeing how stupid you guys really are. I must say, it almost impresses me. But there's this one thing I have against nut jobs like you…."

"And what's that?"

"Intelligence, self-taught computer smarts, and about three layers of clothing."

"Heh. Real cute. Don't expect me to go on any pamper runs for you, you oversized billionaire baby."

"You judge me too shallowly, Hippo…"

"_**Rhino!"**_

"Do you know why Two-Face and Triangular REALLY pulled me out of the aristocratic mire to help out with things on the parasitic front?"

"Cuz you're the one thing in the 'Fox' family who's minutely less flaccid than your dad's ding-dong?"

"Cute, Walrus, but no. It's because I've lived all my life as a fine-feathered fanatic of my dad's networking. I learned to type on the computer before I could pop a hot chick's bra strap….which—for me—is saying something."

"Uh huh….."

Fox typed and typed and typed. His head rocked side to side in a puppet ecstasy in and of itself. A demonically cartoon grin, and he purred: "Not only have I protected Triangular from all sorts of exterior hackers—'J', 'Isomer', 'the Oracle', I've seen them all—but I've given you the one and only avenue through which to….how should I say…._rock and roll?"_

"Damn kids….," Scarface muttered. He gazed up at the Professor. "Why must every one of them be an artist these days?"

"Gee….I-I dunno, Mr. Scarfa—"

THWAP!

"DUMMY! I _told you_ not to speak!"

"Y-Yes sir, Mr. Scarface…I-I-I-I mean…."

_THWAP! _"Grrrr…..," Scarface's wooden head slowly turned about. "You done, Fox?"

"HA!" William B. Fox jammed a key down and grinned wide. "It be donnnnne."

"I trust that's a good expletive?" Mugsy sweated.

Fox swiveled about. "Ladies and gentlemen…..—and the 'ladies' means _you_, Elephant."

"Bite me," Rhino grunted.

"The stone bitch's essence has entered the wondrous, winding world of red tape….," Fox turned and gestured towards the computer screen. "….wherever the computer glip goes, the vials are sure to follow…."

Ventriloquist stepped forward.

The cold white eyes of Scarface 'narrowed'.

A blinking icon appeared on an eye-friendly program responsible for the inner workings of a convoluted infrastructure. An hourglass spun digitally, and the huge glossy font of bold, gothic letters shimmered in lavish pointlessness.

'_Wayne Corporation'._

"In other words….," Fox blew a kiss and giggled drunkenly. "The Son of the Burning Zeppelin now proudly delivers the Bureaucracy Bomb…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of a warehouse…

In Eastern Gotham…

Beneath the shadows of smoke pipes and industrial spires…

A brown-spotted cat peered in through a grimy window at three men and an elder holding a goofy, wooden puppet. The feline's tail flickered and danced. After a moment, the cat shook its head and fur, licked its paw, and spun about to trod casually towards the center of the City.

As it moved, a tiny gray device hanging from its collar shook and rattled.

And blinked victoriously…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

The tramlines.

The rush hour traffic.

The sidewalk-surging sighs that rose up to mix with the sky-borne smog…

Gotham City was turning darker. Like touchstone laced with crimson. A city that bled so much from so many years that its life juice dried into a perpetual, obsidian blackness.

The grime and the grit overran and overthrew the last traces of amber daylight.

Like an ink spot growing in the center of some patch of skin.

Wrinkled with age, but stretched tight with exhausted glossiness.

Life on a corpse was routine. The harvest field emptied up in the sky. And thus a sunset of blood red came into being.

Like it did every night.

Again….and again…and again…

And again.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_I look up on this City and wonder how Robin could ever have grown up here. Just what was the child beneath that mask? Who was the boy who had to suckle from the breast of some bleeding, granite dragon? Was there something under the gnarled, armored plates of this smoggy leviathan that glittered with a luster that the criminal underground so fought and struggled for? Was there a belly of jewels? A golden egg? What? _

_What spoiled, decaying thing rolled itself over and spread its pale liquid eyes for Robin to embrace? This City is like a shark that eats you blind where the water meets the blood meets the abyss. It is something so dark…I can almost breathe it. Like the annoying, drifting flatulence of an exhaust truck engine looming ahead of you in traffic. Something that is mildly irritating and yet you know pollutes you a whole lot more than you could ever think. _

_Robin's days were always numbered. He was born in this City on cyanide pacifiers, and they labored and made love to themselves in his vessels till the inevitable day he'd roll over and cough up his mortality. What good did the Titans do for him? Were they his distraction? The living epithet of what little life he had left to squander on birdarangs and burglary stings? _

_Could it be possible that Red Aviary was born the day Robin was? And the two were really just opposite poles twisting around the fulcrum of this shihole City till they collided explosively at the radioactive depository? _

_And if that be true……and since Red Aviary is alive……what or who would make up the other pole? Who in this inverse 'Spectrum' of darkness and further darkness could provide the balance? The red-streaming equalizer? _

_If Red Aviary comes to consume us all……does that mean…… _

_That Robin is alive?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 19, 2004.

Gotham City.

7:32 pm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The madness had cleared away from where the zeppelin crashed.

The fires had gone out.

And—undoubtedly—the blood had been washed out of the streets.

Instead, now the Sky bore the crimson of the nightly scythe.

And in the middle of this maroon madness, a spotlight struck the sparse clouds looming over the land.

A spotlight with a symbol in it. The black, indifferent wings of a sinister bat.

Catwoman and I were perched atop the Gotham City Police Department building in Downtown. The smell of burnt zeppelin filled our nostrils, a queer sensation akin to God ruining a turkey in a huge, celestial oven and opening the steaming window down towards earth.

We stood on either side of the Bat-signal. Per Selina Kyle's initiative, we had aimed the lantern-light sky high and brightened the intensity for a sharp piercing of the night's blackness.

In hopes of summoning….

Just that.

In hopes of 'summoning'.

Catwoman knew whom we sought. She was rambling as we stood patiently forty-four minutes into the strobing spectacle: "It was when he saved me from Professor Milo's rabid formula that I realized just how…uniquely Batman cared about this 'fearless' cat burglar you see before you…."

I squinted my shaded eyes past the bright signal stream and gazed at her.

_I wonder…… _

_If I was to randomly drop on King Orin's lap…… _

_Would he too just start talking about his life of fish-slurping just because I'm friggin' mute?_

"There was no reason for the caped crusader to have….heh….'come to my rescue'," the masked woman smirked. Her green eyes were vibrant. "I was merely on a mission to retrieve poor Isis from the torturers who had kidnapped her. I was fresh out of police custody, and the whole world knew me as a kleptomaniacal vixen and nothing else. I had no redeeming qualities that anyone could think of….and yet Batman chose to investigate my concerns and risk his own life for me. How does a woman see that in a man and somehow not feel……_sacred?"_

"…..," I gazed off towards the blood sky.

_I once 'saved' Kara. And yeah, she felt sacred. So sacred……it's made her want to roll over and die._

I sighed.

Selina Kyle seemed to not notice. "I always come back here to Gotham just to see him," Catwoman said. "There are lovely things to steal here, yes. And indeed…plenty of industrial psychopaths attempting to suffocate priceless wildlife preserves—the thing that irks me to no end. But it's really all about that man…with that cape…and that cowl….and that dark, dispassionate voice being betrayed with a smile and a quickening of a heartbeat when we used to spar over the rooftops. Like black dust off of concrete mountains….embraced by the cyclone and screaming silent in pursuit of one another's shadows…."

A cold breath of November air.

Still….no snow.

Absolutely no snow whatsoever.

I fought the urge to shake a metal fist at the stubborn _lukewarm_ of it all. I froze…and yet I burned. I didn't want to be there. And yet, I all but hugged to the Bat-signal.

_All I want to do……is sleep…… _

_Ana……God……Red Aviary………whoever's out there……_

_Can I please just get a chance to sleep?_

"A thief's life is not as romantic as it may seem….," Catwoman was murmuring by that point.

I took a deep breath.

_Neither's a samurai's……_

"I really….have no true allies here in Gotham anymore. Not even Maven's here these days…."

_Allies?_

_Don't you mean 'friends'?_

"Batman is simply **it**…in and of the fact that he is not **it**…," Catwoman said. She gazed sideways at me. "And thus it worries me all the more—in this damnable, dying city—that there is no sign of him." She gestured towards the bright lanternlight atop the roof beside us. "And nothing to say of him answering this 'call'….."

"……….," I felt a hand around my pocket.

I fingered the black chip Superman had 'given' me.

"………..," I exhaled.

_Yeah…… _

_Now's the time. _

_I feel life slipping from this evening already. _

_Bring on the Knight._

**Click.**

The special beacon clicked and strobed in my pocket.

Away from Catwoman's sight….

"Don't think that my trust in you is slim, Mr. Titan," Catwoman crossed her arms and gazed outward as she spoke: "But I think it's a bleak happenstance with the only two people wanting to stand up and do something in this City are a whip-slashing burglar feeling lovesick and a sword-swinging rogue traversing both sides of the fence….."

I sighed….

"_I don't know. Seeing you two on my roof spells a recipe for significance in __**spades.**__"  
_  
"……….," Catwoman and I gazed at each other. "…….." We turned and looked over our shoulders.

Out from the top stairwell and onto the barren helipad of the GCPD Building walked Commissioner Gordon. A certain Renee Montoya was situated at his side. Both gazed at us until Gordon calmly and fatherly said: "First off, let me just say that I would have rather you _asked_ before using our little toy here…."

Catwoman grinned. She gestured towards the bright lanternlight. "Why, Commissioner? It's not exactly yours. Or has it become the 'Gordon-Signal' overnight?"

I was fidgeting. The sight of two police enforcers…especially such powerful ones….

I started to inch my nimble way towards the rooftop.

Montoya's chocolate eyes widened and she reached swiftly for her pistol. "Oye…."

Gordon held a hand out in front of Montoya. "Easy, detective. Easy…."

Montoya's jaw dropped some. She gazed at the Commissioner, then at Selina and me.

After a beat, Gordon himself trodded over. Slow steps in his long, brown coat. He thinned his graying at me as he came within metal arm's distance.

"……….," I stood still before him. Like a frightened jungle creature suddenly overcome with curiosity. But in this case, it was respect. _This was the Commissioner James Gordon of Gotham City. _He looked at me with his mature eyes. Eyes that had stared down the barrel of many a gun and made many more a criminal freeze in interrogation. And he was looking upon me like a father would overlook his son in a situation that called for more pride than reprimand.

It felt so confusingly good, it hurt….

It hurt like Hell.

"You can and will do anything for a cause, wouldn't you, Mr. Titan?"

"……."

"Or should I say 'Noir'?"

"……."

He paced around me. "I…..talked with Maggie Sawyer. I talked with her extensively during the time following the Terrible Troupe's zeppelin crash."

At the sound of anything remotely indicative of 'Metropolis', my throat went sore. I gulped and awaited his words as he gently circled me: "They've been…coming up with new evidence in recent tours of the battle scenes in the skyrising City. Traces of titanium alloy as if shredded off the metal limbs of some automaton. Erroneous light patterns on the nationally broadcasted entanglement of the Justice League with the 'invading swordsman'. Things that not only have the police department has discovered…but things that the League has assisted in understanding more. Green Lantern himself has theorized for scientists and investigators that something of holographic illusion was present during the shipyard debacle…..for reasons yet unknown…."

A pause.

He stopped moving.

He slowly turned, half-gazing at me. Half…._glaring?_ "The only thing that has no hope of an alternative solution is the event inside the Daily Planet editorial offices. The attack. The unmerited assault on a lonely press worker. That cannot be explained, Titan. Not in anyway….favorable….."

"…….," I took a deep breath. I averted my black eyes from him. But with my dark shades on, he couldn't see much of a difference to tell…

"All my years of dealing with Batman, I've……allowed myself to brush aside some of his ferocious tactics," Gordon said. "It is not so much out of direct respect for the man of mystery as it is contempt for the greater evils of this world. Evils that hold no sway over right or wrong. Evils that can't seem to maintain a balance like the darkness in the Batman's vendetta that simultaneously empowers him and holds him at bay. I think I see in you something, Noir. Something that makes me wonder…..has your arrival here started some sort of confirmed prophecy? Like a prodigal son of sorts entering upon the threshold of a red, all-consuming evil?"

"………."

Catwoman smiled and folded her arms while gesturing: "Good to see you too, Commissioner."

Gordon turned and glared at her. "Scratch that. There're two unexplainable things about this situation. The Daily Planet attack and you."

"Great to see I'm rising to the top….," she winked a green eye under her mask and cat-cowl.

I continued to feel the chip in my pocket. The blinking and pulsing and strobing of it all. Silent but echoing deafly.

_Calling Batman……Calling the Dark Knight by the beacon……_

Perhaps it was a signal meant only for the ears in fine tune with the clouds of the spectrum.

The voices of the mortals on the rooftop limped on and dragged me down to neanderthalian level: "We have a rendezvous to make."

"Yeah? With whom, Miss Kyle?"

"William B. Fox."

"Lucius Fox's son? What beef could you possibly want with that brat?"

"Not 'beef' in this case. Something more akin to….'processed dead meat'. There are evil things afoot. The son of Lucius Fox is very much a part of it, whether we like to imagine the dirty truth or not. Exactly what it is that he's nefariously doing….well…I'm not one to speculate. But I do land on my feet everytime. And—in a lot of ways—so does this kid," Catwoman gestured towards me with a nod of her softly 'eared' head. "He got far closer to saving William Fox than any of us even managed to gently touch the breath of his name. Noir has been traveling long and hard to get here…this bloody end. And the quest stops with Batman. So if you'll excuse us, Commissioner, we only need your light for just a little bit longer—indeed—and we'll be out of your flax hair."

"Batman will not come," Gordon droned.

"Why not? What is it that you know and we don't?"

The old officer shrugged under his coat. "Nobody knows nothing about nobody anymore…."

Montoya smirked.

"Great….," Catwoman rolled her green eyes. "Now you're starting to sound like one of Dagget's 'brilliantly' hired thugs…"

"There's a great lack of 'brilliance' in this City right now…," Gordon said. "Simply because there has been a great absence of 'the know' as a whole. None of us know where Batman is. None of us know where these dying villains are taking their aching breaths….all we know is that the more we try to know things the more we realize that some _unknown_ group out there **knows** more than everyone else combined!"

Silence…..

Montoya glanced at me.

And so did Gordon: "But you….you know something, don't you? At least….a lot more than the rest of us?"

"……..," and then Catwoman was staring at me.

I mutely groaned and ran a hand over my face.

_I never asked to be the center of bloody attention._

I felt a chill in my metal arm.

"……," I tilted my head up.

Montoya jumped, as if startled by my alarmed stance.

Gordon's eyes narrowed. "What brings you to Gotham City? And what leads you to nearly kill yourself on board that zeppelin?"

I gasp slightly, ignoring the growing chill in my metal arm. I glance directly at Gordon.

He nods. "You were there. Don't try to deny it. We found the sword marks in the building from when you feel off the exploding airship. You saved William B. Fox's life, didn't you?"

"………"

"And something tells me that you didn't exactly _want_ to do it…," Gordon said. "And you didn't _want_ to be in the zeppelin where you were nearly cooked in the first place." He dug his hands into his coat pockets and spoke into the snowless wind: "Everything you did….was against your will. And tell me….where is there more of a _villain_ than a _hero_ in that?"

"………"

"It's not too late to seek help, Mr. Noir….," Gordon spoke. "It's not too late to….make an example of the Titans, whom you once belonged to. Tell us what you know….and we'll tell you what we want to know. And altogether….we might get to the bottom of this nightmare, even if Batman's nowhere to be 'hailed'."

"……..hrmmph….," Catwoman glanced over at me and sensually winked. "Everyone's wanting to _hire_ you these days!"

I looked at her…past her….exhaling….

_What am I doing here? _

_I'm supposed to be doing this alone. _

_This is all well and rapturous…… _

_But…… _

_Red Aviary is after me, not these burglars and bobbies. _

_Prowlers and police……_

I shuddered. The Batman-summoning chip blinked in time with the light's strobe. Another gust of wind…another chill.

_Gotham City is closing around me. The lone trek of a haunted soul becomes polarized and loops itself around other helpless icons._

_Is this what happened to the Dark Knight? _

_Did Batman choose to have Batgirl, Nightwing, and the late Robin on his side? _

_Perhaps all he ever wanted to do…… _

_Was sleep?_

"Don't waste this opportunity, Noir….," Gordon spoke. "I'm not one to extort or intimidate you. You can go out on your own if you want…."

"And maybe we should do just that," Catwoman said.

"But I need you…and you need me. The force would benefit from your input with Batman gone…."

"There's no need to may attention to these chumps. They are utterly…utterly clueless about the death slicing through this City. At least you and I have the upper perch, Noir…."

"Do what the Titans would have you do, Noir…."

"Do what your instincts tell you are right. Land on your feet and keep going forward. Claws barred if you have to…."

I clenched my eyes shut between the three. The light of the Bat-signal had become suddenly blinding. I thought that if I concentrated really hard, I could just sleep there.

But instead, I found myself concentrating murk. For what reason did I let the smoke billow about me? I'm not entirely sure.

But my spatial sense felt it. First it was a chill, but not the Red Aviary chill. Rather, it was the sensation of being watched without a collective consciousness about it. And then….

A laser.

A red laser burning through the smoke vapors dancing above my head.

Perhaps Catwoman, Montoya, and Gordon saw it. Perhaps that's why they were gasping half a second before I spun around in slow motion, unsheathed Myrkblade…._CHIIIIIING!……_and swirled it at half-a-breath's beat.

THWIIIIISH! CLACK!

I sliced apart something. Something sharp, small, and serrated. It broke apart around me in tiny pinprick shrapnel, barely avoiding my person.

Catwoman gasped.

Montoya instinctively whipped out a pistol and shoved Gordon back towards the stairwell. "Sniper! Sniper!"

_Sniper……_

I panted. I extended my metal hand out with a curtain of murk and felt for where the laser was coming from.

And just then, a body sailed in from 'where the laser was coming from'. An invisible body that pulsed blindingly at the last second when a pair of feminine legs slammed into my figure.

_Pulsed……_

WHAM!

I toppled over the bat-signal and flew off the edge of the GCPD building.

"Noir!" Catwoman shouted.

Too late. I fell and fell and plummeted downward towards the streets below.

A pulsing, shimmering form streaked after me before Catwoman could pounce it.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOSH!

I gritted my teeth, flipped my body with billowing murk, and aimed my feet earth-ward before I could see just exactly where they were going….

_THWOMP!_

_SLIIIIIIIIIIDE!_

I impacted a rooftop and slid reverse across the gravel till I came to a stop right at the edge.

I held Myrkblade up, panting. Eyes thin and glaring through my shades. Looking for the 'enemy'….

"………"

_Cl-Clump!_

A patch of gravel parted 'magically' a few steps in front of me.

"……..," I glared.

_Show your face. _

_I know it's you……_

TH-THRIFFT!

Two air blasts.

Two streaming projectiles flew at me.

I twirled Myrkblade up and slashed one into small shards.

CRACK!

Half a breath and half a thought later, I blurred my metal hand up and caught the next projectile.

_Snatch!_

I took a breath. My black eyes refocused on the tiny shard in my hand while the rest of the world turned fuzzy.

And my lips parted some.

_A tranquilizer dart……_

"……."

Blink. Blink.

_But that isn't an assassin's style at all……_

FL-FLASH! A blinding strobe of hot light shot from beyond my hand.

My eyes burned. I dropped the dart to the rooftop below me. I stumbled back, wincing all over.

_Nnngh………god!_

I heard the shuffles of light feet. I sensed spatially her lithe body twirling at me with the butt of an invisible sniper rifle.

I pivoted to the side and shot my arm blindly out.

I clipped her rib cage.

She spun and slammed an invisible foot into my chest.

WHAP!

I slid back. I nearly fell over the edge. I teetered….tottered….and braced myself.

Her body came charging with a spinning kick.

Still blind, I took a sharp breath and flipped forward.

I vaulted over _her_ body and landed with my back facing where her invisible spine was.

I reached back and grasped open air. The open air yielded silky-long hair. With a mute grunt, I yanked at her hair, pulled her weight over my body, and tossed her across the length of the rooftop.

TH-THWOMP!

Gravel flew.

Her powers were jolted out of her.

She winced and slouched visibly before me. Her whole body tensing with heavy breaths.

Pulsade….

I could barely see her, still recovering from her optical punishment.

"You dauntless….mindless git!" she spat. She suddenly jumped up, yelled, and charged at me with the sniper rifle stabbing at me.

I merely swung Myrkblade up.

CRACK!

Tranquilizer darts fell in a shower between us.

Pulsade expertly twirled through the mess with a spin of her platinum blonde hair. She landed against me with a fierce elbow to the sternum.

WH-WHAP!

I stumbled back.

She swept my feet out from under me with a nimble leg.

I collapsed on my rear, almost dropping Myrkblade. WH-WHUMP!

She pulled out a taser and leapt down at me.

I couldn't help but blink my aching eyes underneath her.

_Taser?_

SWOOOSH-CLANK! Myrkblade flew up and pressed up against her stabbing, holding the sparking weapon at bay. I struggled and strained to keep Pulsade off of me. She inched the taser closer to my chest, panting heavily….almost animalistically in the struggle to dominate me.

_What's happened to her? _

_Her professionalism……it's all gone…… _

_Did I seriously piss the Brit off in Vegas or what?_

I gritted my teeth and shot my legs up.

I forced her into a flip over me.

She twirled about and landed on her feet.

I vaulted up into a standing position.

She charged at my back, taser jabbing.

I held my breath, timed it, and teleported in reverse—FWOOOSH!—through her and solidified with a slap of Myrkblade across her shoulders.

_THWACK!_

"Nnngh!" Pulsade stumbled and ran into a t.v. antenna. She dropped the taser and simply…..leaned there over the metal webbing. Breathless. As if she too had run across half the countryside to get there, only without the aid of murk.

"…….," I stared at her for a few calming seconds before slowly…gently lowering Myrkblade.

She looked at me, sweating. The anger in her eyes had faded some, and a blue desperation twitched beneath a mat of sweaty blonde hair. "Have you seen what's happened to me, lad?" she panted. "I-I can't kill anymore. Everything is wrong….everything is s-so wrong…."

"……," my black eyes narrowed.

I listened….

"This City…this bloody City…this whole bloody land….," she shook her moist head miserably and swallowed. "Death is dividing it. And never did I imagine it getting this bad…even back when I was deluded to think Counter-Red Aviary stood a chance in Hell to sod off the Red Reaper for good….."

"…….."

"You…..you will not give up….," she murmured. "And now you have stolen my edge. You and that…that bloody asian daft with a fungus for a head! Do you know that everything is falling apart now?" She stood up straight and gestured wildly, just short of shouting at me: "Jinx is devastated! After her paralysis, she can barely muster a spirit to see into the fabric of Fortune! Wildebeest has gone AWOL and…there is no sign of everyone's favorite little computer bugger!"

"…………?"

"'J' is gone, Noir!" Pulsade exclaimed. "The little shrimp turned up missing as soon as you disappeared and snatched up Terra somehow. Area 51, huh? How bloody perfect! Tell me, Titan, is Terra with aliens now? For surely they abducted our poor, pathetic J too!"

"……..," my lips parted as the first feeling of regret since Clark Kent's debacle stabbed me.

_J is missing?_

_My god……what else could be wrong in this exodus?_

"…….," I ran a shaky hand through my long black hair. Biting my lips.

_J……what trouble did you get yourself in now……?_

"……."

_Come to think of it, Terra IS in the company of an alien……_

"Do you really think you can do it, Noir?"

"….," I gaze up at the 'assassin'.

Pulsade's face is desperate. Frighteningly emotional. It sinks in deeper than tranquilizers.

"Do you really think you can take on the full force of Death? There is nothing in this City that will aid you in saving the Titans. This is the lion's den of the proverbial Babylon collapsing all around us and all you can do is dig….dig…._dig!"_

"…….," I kept gripping to Myrkblade. Eyeing her warily. Allowing her monologue to come and go….as always…

But….with _Pulsade? _It was very strange. Very strange indeed….

"Only a fool would go balls first into Gotham City when there's so much else to be done. What Michael has led me to see is downright frightening. Noir…we MUST find Terra! We must find Terra NOW! Jinx and I….we can hide her. We can hide her until the storm is over. The REAL storm."

_Fat chance……_

I frowned at her.

_Who are you to tell me what to do? You don't know Terra. I don't know her either, but I feel her a hell of a lot more than you ever would. The Construction that flows through her vessels. The throbbing white power of it all. The Blood of Earth in gold and ivory. Ana's breath and the summer wind. I feel Terra as much as I feel Red Aviary and I'm not about to have a couple of estranged lesbian fallouts induct her into a runaway clan!_

I billowed Myrkblade full of murk and shoved it Pulsade's way, forcing her back.

_If I choose to go balls first into this nightmare, that's not your concern. As paradoxical a statement as that is…… _

"You're insane, Noir! Completely off your bike!" she growled. "Do yourself a favor….do Terra and the Titans a favor….back off….back off from the Red…."

I gritted my teeth, frowning.

_Don't tell me what to do. This City was built on insanity. I'm no newcomer to the mortal coil being twisted about a serpent's tongue here……_

Then at some point, she didn't back away from the sharp tip of my blurring blade. She gazed at me with the tired eyes of a woman suddenly and droned: "Michael….w-was right….don't you understand, Noir?"

"…….."

"I…..," she bit her tongue once, fought off the last of her cold stubbornness, and exhaled: "I-I want to help you……"

I shuddered.

"We need each other. You and I and Jinx and Terra….there are greater things than Red Aviary at work here….this is the shallow waters of a turbulent sea storm to come. Don't you care about…the Gaia Sphere?"

A breath escaped me. Warm. Earthy. Like it was sucked out of me by a raping predator. I shook and nearly caved in on myself.

_Gaia Sphere…… _

_I'm……I-I'm keeping track of that…… _

_Aren't I? _

_William B. Fox……Wayne Corps……Lexcorp…… _

_The essences of Terra. _

_Dagger……Triangular……_

I helplessly wrenched a metal hand over my face.

Wanting to implode….

_Names. Names. Names. Name._

I sighed….painfully. Sorrowfully.

_Why is nothing ever concrete anymore? _

_The Titans. _

_Their hands…… _

_I forget…… _

_I forget…………_

"Noir…."

I looked up at her.

Pulsade crept up. Slowly. Sincerely. Her lips parted and spoke with a gentleness I envisioned only being reserved for Jinx prior to then and there: "Let us work together. Let us relax and….escape the deaths together so that we can investigate an even greater terror. Something….that might affect the whole Earth. Something….th-that will ensnare the entire univ…--"

FWOOOOSH! _PL-PLANT! _**TH-THWIP!**

A leather whip encircled Pulsade's ankle.

The British assassin gasped.

"….," Catwoman smirked. She snarled and yanked hard at the whip.

Pulsade's body flew up like the weighted end of a mace.

I gasped and half-reached for her--….

FWOOOOSH!

Pulsade was flung off the buildingside. She twirled and landed awkwardly across the top of a semi-truck trailor speeding beneath the buildingside. Weakened from the unexpected toss and impact, the blonde was carried back into the cloaking darkness from which she came.

And her words lingered about me like poison knives hung on strings.

"There….now isn't that a job well done?" Catwoman smirked.

"…….," I found myself gazing beyond the buildingside.

Lingering….

The night hadn't felt so cold for but a moment. Snow was as much a fictitious thing as it was nonexistent.

_Hull……what have you told the girls? _

_What have you told Counter-Red Aviary that you haven't told me? _

_Is it my right to know? _

_And will it help me……find out what happened to J?_

"Noir!"

I realized that Catwoman was speaking to me directly.

I looked at her.

"Are you all right?"

_Why don't you grow your hair out, dye it black, switch to something skimpier and call yourself 'Diana'?_

"Do you know who that optical ninja was?" Catwoman folded her arms and frowned like a disgruntled cat. "I swear….things are only getting more and more confusing. You should have seen the look on poor Commissioner Gordon's face…."

Then….

From Catwoman's jumpsuit.

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Catwoman brightened. She whipped out a plastic device with an LCD screen. She smiled and rang forth: "Success…..Amelia has found something…."

"……..," I stared at her.

She glanced back at me. "Amelia….my _cat_ in the industrial section. Her mic has picked up the Ventriloquist's voice with a vocal recognition of a factor of ninety-five percent."

"……," I leaned forward.

Catwoman breathed: "He's in a warehouse. Industrial district. On the corner of Brilliance Avenue and Squall Street. Warehouse Storage B. It's supposed to be abandoned…..heh…..always a warehouse."

"……," I nodded.

Catwoman walked towards me. "Quick! If we both hurry there, we might find the Ventriloquist in the act of exploiting William Fox. Better yet, we m-might….even find…..f-f-find………..nnngh…..," and Catwoman suddenly slumped forward in a dazed manner.

I caught her with a hooked right arm. My metal arm held up a littered tranquilizer bullet. A tranquilizer bullet that I had stealthily pricked Catwoman's forearm with while she was talking to me. Now she was unconscious, and I was minus a female partner.

_Just as well…… _

_Pulsade is right._

_I am killing myself. _

_This mission at the moment is mine and mine alone. _

_I need not drag anyone else into the line of Red Aviary._

I knew this feeling to be true because—even as I gently lowered Catwoman to the rooftop and reclined her slumbering body—I felt the chills. The shaking and shivering in my metal arm.

_He's getting closer._

_He knows that I'm learning……and learning more……_

_Rrrred Aviary……_

I took a cold, vaporous breath and picked the plastic sensor out of her hands.

I followed the blinking LCD display across the City.

Blurring.

Hurrying.

_I better move and move now._

And the Batman beacon blinked constantly in my pocket….nearly neglected….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

9:23 pm

Industrial district.

Warehouse Storage B.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRACK!**_

I kicked the door down and dashed into the warehouse.

CHIIIING!

I held Myrkblade up high.

I glanced around.

Black eyes peering into utter blackness.

Blackness……

"………..?" I craned my neck.

_No lights?_

I looked left.

I looked right.

No bulbs were lit.

No candles.

Nothing to rescue the shadowed interior from the red night outside.

The place was barren…dusty….haphazard…wasted….

With no sign of the Ventriloquist or his two favorite goons or Fox.

"………"

_What is this? Another trap?_

I felt the chill in my arm. But it was haunting. Distant. Not on the back of my neck like so many other times Red Aviary had been. But he was there. Somewhere. In the City. Hunting me down. Foot by foot. Inch by inch. He barely missed me on the zeppelin….I would be a sitting duck in some abandoned warehouse.

And yet, I crept forward.

_A frickin' 'reconnaissance cat' can't be wrong…… _

………_right? _

_Gawd, this City is so crazy……_

I crept forward through the shadows.

Nothing but darkness.

Swarming….like opaque mist.

And then….

I nearly bumped into it.

A station. A computer station. Seated for just one person.

"………," I walked around it and gazed at the seat before the dusty desk.

_Hmm……_

My black eyes narrowed, visually estimating…..

_Yes……I suppose it could sit someone Fox's height._

There was a distant sound.

Like rushing wind.

"!" I spun with Myrkblade raised.

Panting.

_Who the Hell is that?_

My heart was beating heavily. Both Red Aviary and Pulsade I could somehow sense when they were sneaking up on me.

_But this? _

_Who the Hell is this?_

"………….," I gazed around the warehouse.

Silence.

Silence…..

Silence…………

"……………."

………………………

**SWOOOOOSH!**

I gasped.

I spun around.

Someone was gliding down at me in a blue streak.

_Gliding!_

**SMACK!**

A fist to the sternum. But not just any ordinary 'fist to the sternum', but an expert fist that struck five nerve joints at once and filled my torso with a gun trigger burning sensation that made me wish I had the vocal cords to scream as ever.

TH-THWUMP!

Before I knew it, I was being tripped and forced—rolling—along the floor of the warehouse towards a moonlit window.

I grunted.

The body was _gliding_ at me again. Landing. Running, jumping, karate-kicking.

THWOOOSH!

I jumped up and flipped over the karate kick. No sooner was I airborne that I felt a strong pair of arms—arms fit to break bricks—wrap nimbly around my upper shoulder like a psychotic ballet dancer and fling me around with two centripetal force swings.

I knew where I was headed. I could feel the breaking glass before my black eyes registered the image of the warehouse window I was being thrown through.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRAAAAAASSSSSSSH!**_

I shattered through the pane and landed on the rooftop of a building partition next to the warehouse.

I was bleeding…bruised…and still burning from the near-paralyzing punch to the sternum.

The blue-streak glided around me.

A rustle of wind, and I sensed the figure landing. Fake 'wings' closed under his armpits. An elastic pair of prosthetics to a body suit.

_A human being. _

_Powerless……but powerful. _

_A spectre._

_Who in God's name?_

It wasn't until halfway through trying to stand up on my wobbling feet that I realized the beacon to Batman was no longer blinking in my pocket. It was if someone somewhere cut the signal off on the receiving end.

And then I gasped.

Gazing at the subject before me.

_Is it……? _

_Could it be……?_

But no. His voice was different. Younger. Breathier and angstier.

"Looking for death, Noir? It does seem to follow you an awful lot wherever you go these days. But not anymore…."

I shuddered and limped backwards from the shadow.

He emerged in the red aura of the night's sky. Eyemask thin and long black hair fluttering icily in the snowless wind.

"…it's about time justice caught up with you," Nightwing said. "I'm here to make sure of it….."


	223. A Hard Act to Follow part 8

**223. A Hard Act to Follow part 8**

Elsewhere…

On the outskirts of Gotham City…

Inside a run-down apartment…most likely abandoned…

Lit by a ring of tiny candles edging two hastily assembled cots and mini laptop stations…

A hand was flipping a coin. But it was not a gnarled, mutated hand belonging to a vicious underground criminal. But rather a pale, petite thing with expert digits flicking the coin upward and upward and flexing expertly to catch the item on the downfall.

After twenty successive flips, the hand finally clasped over the coin, paused, and opened it up before a pair of thin, pink cat-eyes.

"……..," Jinx blinked. Then exhaled. "Heads forty-times in a row….," she murmured. She gazed out a distant, red-tinted window peering out into night. "Heh…..what are the 'odds'?"

Silence.

The short-haired sorceress stood up. She wore the tell-tale signs of someone post-bedridden. There were lines formed in her skin from lying sideways in tangled sheets. A sort of bleariness surrounding her pink eyes. And an extra thinness to her already lithe figure, as if fasting had become a way of life for the last week. Clad in a long, hanging t-shirt, she shuffled across the shady apartment flat and stood before a half-boarded window. She turned the coin around and around in her hands and gazed out at the southwest wasteland of runoff, urban Gotham City. The dilapidated buildings and dust-ridden suburbs were once sprawling, sunlit communities. But now they were merely a stretch of impoverished detritus connecting Gotham City's southern region via rusted capillaries to the cancerous, banal Bludhaven. It was a place Jinx didn't want to be. And yet there was Red Aviary nesting in Gotham City, a person she didn't want to see. The pink witch was strung halfway between two ugly fates. A past and a future. And in the present, she needed her balance. But she felt oh-so-very alone at the moment.

"Faye…Fiona….," she murmured into the cold November wind shifting in through the wooden boards. "I wonder if you two are better off than I am now….."

She flipped the coin.

It rose.

It fell.

And just as her palm snatched it, the tattered curtains of the next window down the room billowed.

Jinx looked over, not bothering to see which side of the coin landed up. She pivoted and planted her hands on her hips. "Well? How did it go, Leslie?"

The curtains billowed again. A cascading flush of golden-platinum light shimmered in a column, giving way to a blonde assassin. A very disheveled, breathless blonde assassin. The tell-tale signs of a battle (a battle without victory) bathed her body.

Jinx's jaw dropped some. "Great Hecate!" She rushed over and grasped one of Pulsade's shoulders. "What happened?"

Pulsade muttered, her blue eyes thin. "Bloody Noir happened…."

Jinx blinked. "Well, I can see that. But…jeez! I thought you had the ball dropped on him! Ghost Boy is godly…but not _that_ godly!"

"Don't be a Yank and rub it in…," Pulsade shrugged Jinx off and walked mopingly towards the cots. "…this evening has met its fine end in the lavatory. Need I say more?"

"Are you upset that I couldn't be there?" Jinx frowned, her arms folded. "You saw me during the trip here, Leslie! I can barely walk-straight still after what that poopy-headed asian kid did to me! 'Paralyzed for two weeks' my fanny! Pfft! Hecate Almighty, if only I could have been there. We both would have clobbered the Ghost Boy. I know it!"

"No we wouldn't have, Jean…," Leslie slumped down onto a cot and started discarding her heavy guns, equipment, and concealed weapons off of her body. All except one or two, of course. Model assassin. "…it's been proven far more clearly than the crystal ball of your Hex that going fisticuffs one on one with Red Aviary is just not our lot in life. I don't know what that bloke has, but there's more to Noir than just a sword and dashing looks. Bullocks, how does someone _that_ suicidal last so much as a day in this City? With Red Aviary breathing down his neck of all things?" Pulsade gripped at her golden hair, hunched over, and moaned. "I do not know what to do anymore, Jean. I simply…..d-do not know what to do anymore…."

"Still….I hate myself….," Jinx sighed and ran a hand through her uber-short pinkness. "I hate being so weak. Especially when you of all people need me, Leslie. You…needing _me_."

"Much blooming good a side-comment or a tittering joke would have done against the face of badarseness…."

"Hey!" Jinx pouted. "I'm more talented than that, ya know! I'm no Harley Quinn!"

Leslie suddenly looked sick. Perhaps it was the Briton's attempt at 'smiling'. She said: "It still would have been rather evenly matched. Noir happened to have a cat up his sleeve. A catWOMAN, to be exact."

"You've got a 'cat' too…on occasion…," Jinx smiled and girl-stepped over to stand before Pulsade. After a while, her smile faded. "Leslie….don't fret. Please. We can try again. I…I-I'll start practicing to get my limbs and hex back in order. You can help me train for a few hours, th-then we'll both go out and try to track Noir down again! I promise I won't fall down on you in battle. Besides…I-I think I feel my strength coming back to me! My powers too! I just made this coin land heads eighty times in a row! How's that for promise?"

"That's just it, Jean….," Pulsade murmured. She rested her face in the palm of an exhausted hand. "I do not believe it is Noir that we must seek after all. Red Aviary may or may not consume him. Face it…that Asian bloke and Michael were both trying to teach us the same lesson in two different ways. It was never our place to be Counter-Red Aviary. But….I still believe with all of my heart that there is one person we must attend to. And, quite frankly, she is far more important than Noir will ever be. With what is to come….with the way the world and its trailing energies of fate are trailing down into some celestial shower drain in the sky." She parted a few fingers and glanced through them upwards at Jinx. "That is the extent of your vision, yes?"

"In a funky translation, sure…," Jinx simpered. "Terra is as important as she has always been. But I thought that Noir…."

"I don't believe he's the key that we both have seen him as…," Pulsade said. "He's part of the war, yes. But right now, he's fighting an entirely different battle. It's not our place to deal with him. Not here in Gotham. We should be where Terra is. That's where the true direction of the War is going."

Jinx sat cross-legged on the floor before Pulsade and hugged herself. She glanced aside, sighing. "……..," her pink eyes blinked. "….Terra could be anywhere in this world. And though the Earth may be a small place…what's to keep an 'Earth Maiden' from hiding in her very own element?"

"You're tuned to the energies that dominate this landscape, Jean," Pulsade boredly said. "Can't you….I don't know….sense Terra's Earth-energies? Fateful connections? Movement traces? Bob's your uncle?"

Jinx bit her lip. "I….I-I could if she was in the room….maybe in the vicinity. I'm just….n-not quite as strong as she is, ya know?"

"I can speculate…."

"Noir…..that Ghost Boy has some ability to….I dunno….," Jinx gestured in the air. "….he can sense stuff. Not like I can…but kinda sorta like I can at the same time. I know most of the times when he's in the same building. Heh…I-I can even feel him now. More or less. Way across Gotham City. All the time we were in Las Vegas, I never felt Terra. I always assumed it was because she as in stone, but…."

"Area 51…," Pulsade uttered. "The place was blown to rubbish shortly before Noir's eastward trek. Not just by anyone…but by one of Luthor's ion cannons, incidentally enough. When we brushed by Lexcorp in Metropolis, it turned out that the smoking Titan had come and gone. And he was alone at the time. I deduce that Terra was dropped off…..somewhere. Somewhere between Area 51 and Metropolis. We know enough about Noir's trek to say just that….but far too little to think of anything else. By God….if we only had that little blonde sod to help us out with this…."

Jinx pouted with a sigh. "I'm worried about J. I never thought I would be this much. But the little munchkin grows on you, doesn't he?"

"If it raises your flag, love…."

Jinx stuck her tongue out.

"I take it that it's next to impossible for you to seek out and find Terra with your hex sensitivity dealing only with those bare bullocks facts?"

"Leslie…," Jinx held her hands up in emphasis and gestured: "Imagine this really…bigass haystack. Like…the size of the U.S. Midwest….Louisiana Purchase and such fluff. Now….pretend there's a needle digging its way down into that haystack. Kay? Now….pretend that the very same haystack is anorexic and just as golden-blonde as the rest of the hay straws…."

"A simple 'I can't find Terra for us' would have sufficed, Jinx."

"I wish I could help, Leslie….I really do….," Jinx hugged herself again. She looked aside. A few seconds…a few heartbeats…and her eyebrows rose. "….however."

Leslie blinked.

Jinx looked up. "According to those you interrogated on the way through Metropolis, a few nutcases actually dropped some of the shipment making its way into Gotham City….righto?"

"Righto…."

"And if that shipment really…..REALLY contained the 'essences' of Terra….then…."

"Then what?"

"If I-I was to get a hand on one of those essences….those vials….I-I might be able to get a reading then."

Pulsade's eyes thinned. "You might be able to…tell where Terra is?"

"Erm….," Jinx nervously scratched the back of her neck and stammered: "Terra's power is so….so earthen. It's such a concentrated, inhuman elemental hybrid of Fate, Stone, and a little bit of Noir's talents mixed in….even if Terra doesn't realize it. Such a crazy combination would be unlike anything I normally run into. If I got a hold of some…just a _little_ bit of it, I couldn't even begin to guess what huge effect that may have. I could find Terra in an instant or…."

"Or what?"

"I could overload from the sensation….and k-kinda sorta die."

"………….."

"Leslie….," Jinx leaned forward and earnestly spoke. "If you have any clue as to where some of this stuff could have been dropped on the way here to Gotham, it's imperative that we find it. Ghost Boy may be keeping Red Aviary occupied for the moment. But at some time or another, either Death Incarnate or the Titans themselves are going to be flocking to Terra. At that point, she'd be far out of our reach. And….well….how will we ever come close to tracking down the Gaia Sphere if Mother Earth is _gone?_"

"…………," Pulsade sighed and leaned back on the cot. She swallowed. She looked at Jinx. "All right…."

Jinx brightened.

The assassin said: "I think I know where we might be able to dig up something smashing…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Before Robin died, he told me briefly about the 'Boy Wonder' that preceded him. He told me how he was Batman's protégé. How, in some fashion or another, the first Robin had grown up with Batman from an adolescent age even younger than the Titan leader himself. I was told of how Robin the First trained in every art that Batman was proficient at, and that at some point in his life he took a few years to go out on his own and train all throughout the world both the honorable and forbidden arts of fighting mastery. The young man had become an epitome of flying fists and kicking feet and spinning limbs. He became one with the wind, and his chi found some magical spot between agility and strength so that he could run circles around the most nimble of thugs and yet land both Bane and Clayface with a single punch to the chin—no small feat. Indeed, the first Robin had come close to being Batman's equal…and so independently had his intense training taken him that he actually socked Batman in the chin once himself, threw away his old cape and mask, and donned the dark black and blue icon of 'Nightwing'. The youthful vigilante….the Dark Avenger of Bludhaven…..the third most-feared name of criminals and rogues in all the world…

He stood just a few cold meters away. And he was going to arrest me.

"A funny thing what time does to us, Noir…," Nightwing said. His eyemask was narrow. His voice was rock solid and razor-sharp, much like a late bird I once knew. Much like the Batman, I assumed. "It changes us. Matures us. While others suffer from the gradual bump in the road of life and land disfigured, wretched."

"………," I glared at him. Myrkblade held tightly in my flesh-grip. Black eyes set firm beneath a pair of shades.

"I'm ashamed to see you as the latter," he said. "After all, you did fight alongside Robin while he was alive. You served the Titans for…what is it now? Six months? Seven? Half a year, Noir. That's an awfully short time to play the hero…….and then become the villain…."

My jaw tensed. I kept staring.

"What was it that tipped you over the edge, Noir?" He spoke as he paced around me.

I began to pace opposite him. We stood off against each other in an ever-revolving circle.

"Was it the things Dagger did to your City? Was it how viciously Robin died? Or was it that the Titans you once knew and loved were breaking up and you no longer had the lifestyle necessary to exercise your incessantly violent motives? Something tells me that the swordsman who takes a habit of wreaking havoc across Vegas and Metropolis is but a shadow of what you once were and perhaps still are in the dark, dirty recesses of your mind…."

I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my cool.

_Jeez……this guy's a real dick._

I helplessly sighed.

_Funny how detectives like Batman's troupe have a way of bullshitting and making other people feel truly guilty about it……_

"Let's face it, Noir…," Nightwing murmured. "We both know the truth. It was _Superman_ that you attacked. Superman and Diana."

"……," I blinked under my shades.

_He's good……_

"And for what did you perform such insanely violent acts against a vastly superior crime fighter? Just to get a beacon to summon the Dark Knight?"

_Real good………_

"This has gone too far, Noir," Nightwing hissed. "Everything. The breakup of the Titans. The inefficiency of the Justice League. The death and collapse of the Terrible Troupe….and all throughout, you have been a key pawn. YOU are the most significant element of the chaos ripping through this continent. Everywhere that both good and bad sides of the fence have suffered, you've been there. From the Justice League getting their asses kicked at the Metropolis shipyards to the destruction of Area 51. You're a bad luck charge. And I personally think that Batman is being an absolute moron by letting you go on your frivolous little dance across the crime scenes. Well, I think differently. I'm going to put a stop to it all…by putting a stop to _you."_

I took a deep breath.

_So…… _

_Batman __**is**__ around. He is alive……_

"………"

I made a face.

_Wait a damned second. You're gonna stop it all by doing what?_

"Give it up, Noir…," he pointed at me…specifically at Myrkblade and uttered in a low, threatening voice. "It's over. If I must whallop the truth into you, I will. But for your sake….I hope you make the right decision. Give yourself up."

"………"

"_**NOW!"**_ Nightwing shouted.

And I couldn't help it. I shivered. And at first, I thought I was merely buckling from the unearthly strength and authoritarian voice coming out of his mouth. And that was indeed true—to some extent. But there was something else. Rather….._someone_ else…..

_Rrrrrreddd Aviarrrry……_

I gritted my teeth. They wanted to rattled against each other. I shuddered and as I held Myrkblade—shaking—my shaded eyes scanned the urban horizon of industrial factories, smokestacks, and warehouses around our rooftop.

_No…… _

_Not here. _

_Not now! PLEASE!_

"Did you hear me?" Nightwing growled. His fists clenched, he marched towards me.

I panted. Sweating. Cold in the colder wind. I stepped back as he stepped forward.

_Red Aviary is here._

_He's watching. _

_Like a half-hungry cat. _

_He is toying with me. _

_God in Heaven, why doesn't he just strike? _

_I thought he was Death Incarnate. _

_But not……_

"Give….yourself….up…..," Nightwing slurred. _SL-SLIINK!_ Two glistening, razor-sharp nightarangs appeared in his grip. "Now….."

I came to a stop.

Silent.

Breath held….

"…….."

I stood up straight. I took a deep inhale. I furrowed my brow, braved the shivers running up my left prosthetic, and stared directly at Nightwing.

And….for some reason…he stopped.

We stood across from each other again. Facing off.

"………..," I sheathed Myrkblade slow….long….

_Chiiii-iiii-iiiing!_

I let my hand linger on the hilt.

I flipped it back in front of me.

I breathed deeply.

I flexed my limbs meditatively.

I balanced myself on my left foot outstretched and my right toes tilted downward in the boot. With my flesh and metal hands bare, I faced him in a fighting position.

Hand to hand fighting position.

His eyemask narrowed some. His lips lingered some before speaking, as if a far corner of the Bludhaven avenger found something to smirk at before he relented to utter: "You don't want to do that…."

"……..," I merely glared at him. Trying not to shiver.

_You're right. _

_I don't want to do this. _

_Nightwing, you are one of the eight top martial artists in the whole freakin' world. _

_There is no way in the seven layers of chocolate-fudge Hell that I can beat you._

A shiver ran up my metal arm.

Much stronger than the last.

The taste of the Reaper.

A wraith-like gust of smoke and mirrors frigidity.

_But I may be able to keep you busy. _

_Prolong the fight. _

_Just long enough…… _

_Just long enough to show you something darker than mute words can convey._

"……..," he stared at me. "……………hmmph…..all right." CH-CHIING! He sheathed his nightarangs. He took a fighting position not much unlike my grasshopper stance. His mighty limbs became as thin and needle-sharp as rose stalks. He glared at me from across the rooftop in a straight line. "Any way you choose to be brought down….I assure you….I will deliver…."

I took a deep breath.

_I'm betting on it._

A cold gust of wind.

I didn't shiver from it.

I was cold enough as it was.

The wraith was coming closer.

The breath of Red Aviary howled its way beneath the distant highways.

Over apartment complexes.

Between skyscrapers.

Settling in curtaining gales upon the factories.

The spires of the industrial section.

In the warehouse, the abandoned computer of Fox and the Ventriloquist lingered. The one that Selina Kyle's feline friend had found. I needed to leech that machine for what it was worth.

But as for now….all I had to care about was survival.

Not where Nightwing was concerned. I'd gladly let him 'kill' me just about any other day.

But Red Aviary……

I had to fight.

I had to fight….and fight long.

"………….," Nightwing glared. Quiet. Silent. Dark and brooding. Like an obtuse mirror.

Our long black locks danced in the wind. Two nimble, thin bodies poised across from each other in identical fashion. Dark eyemasks….dark shades….

Black and camo.

Black and blue.

A distant observer would think us twin brothers on the verge of a parricidal feud. Something the likes of which only frozen fists and knuckles could make under the cold red sky of Gotham. Like roaches converging in the dead organ of a giant animal autopsy. The world was dying around us. Being cleaved in two. Red Aviary took many names to take many souls and thus take many levels climbing up to the summit of the moral layer of Balance. My solution was to fling myself against the invulnerable. Nightwing's solution was to end me. It was a winning combination. And with the icy halo zeroing in on the two of us with each prophesying frozen throb of my metal arm….time was of the essence.

The quietness lingered for a dozen minutes at least. I had a sudden epiphany; that I was fighting Robin again. In sorrowful silence, his eyemask floated up from the dark nether and ran into me. Those small, taut limbs spinning and blurring and sailing their heated way into me. The spars we had in the gym. The laughing fits at how ridiculously close we came to tearing the training facilities down with each successive 'session' we enjoyed. The bo-staff and the Myrkblade singing through the air. His cries, my breaths, and the sweating rush of an endless competition in which I could never…ever….ever defeat him.

At least, not without my powers. And here I had agreed to Marquis of Queensbary Rules on steroids. Nightwing was a heck of a lot stronger, taller, older, bigger, and—perceivably—_badder_ than Robin was when he died from a mere _explosion._ How flawed would I have been to assume the two shared the same fighting style on behalf of being trained by the Bat? And even then, how well could I fair? Better yet….how long could I _stay alive_?

I took a deep breath. I attempted to meditate. I reminded myself of the Spectrum. How everyone and all things are in tune to it. And how everyone is equally capable of possessing the Power, Balance, and Destruction of the Spectrum. And how everyone can be on the same page with each other if they focus….just focus. Like wind over the tall grass. Rain against the cedars. Snow upon….

_There's been no snow in Gotham yet……_

FWOOOOSH! And in just that spare blinking second, Nightwing had suddenly and speedily crossed four meters to rush up into me.

_Holy crap!_

"Rrrghh!" a forearm to the chest. WHUMP! "Nnngh!" A backhand uppercutting my chin. THWACK! An arm grappling my right limb. FWOOMP! "NnnngRAAUGH!" a tight body spinning, blurring, and tossing me across the rooftop. FWOOOOSH! TH-THUD!

I rolled across the gravel, tumbled, took a breath, and vaulted myself up with murk.

TH-THWISH!

I landed on my feet.

_Pl-Plant!_

One breath.

One blink.

And he was speeding towards me again.

"RAAAAUGH!" a sailing fist.

I crossed my flesh and metal arms in front of my face.

**GRIP!**

His fist chose not to punch but instead to grab my wrists in one tug. I was pulled forward in time to meet an elbow to my forehead.

WH-WHUD!

I teetered back.

Nightwing stepped towards me, tangling his foot with my left ankle. I don't know how he did it, but he twisted his limb around mine and pulled at all the wrong nerves at once. A sharp pain jolted up my pelvis like a bullet going off in my bottom kneecap. I instantly buckled…inevitably falling into him. And he was ready with a fist across my scarred cheek—_WHAP!—_and a hand planted against my sternum. _SMACK!_

The impact shoved me. In all actuality, the blow should have paralyzed me. But through sheer endurance and whatever shielding powers I may have possessed in my ragdoll body, I survived…merely sliding in reverse across the gravel in a frozen-still stance.

_Scrkkkkkkk!_

I came to a dusty stop. The soles of my boots red with heated friction. I stood still as a statue. My cheek bruised. My lips already bleeding. A few teeth just as numb as my lower left calf.

"……….," my black eyes widened from the long running wince. I took an aching breath. The chill of Red Aviary had intensified. I was still awake. I was still alive.

And Nightwing was coming at me again.

"Nnnngh…!"

_Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!_

Closer…..Closer….

I remained frozen.

_Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!_

"RAAAUGH!" he sailed a flying kick at me.

_Now!_

I gritted my teeth and raised my metal fist up to the left of my neck.

THWAP! I blocked his sailing ankle just a second before it could have knocked my cranium off-kilter for good.

For half a second, a one-legged Nightwing stood off balance, gasping.

The second half a second was me gripping that leg with the same metal arm, twisting, and tugging down.

Nightwing countered acrobatically, as I expected him to do. A youthful finesse pivoted his weight in my metal-handed grip and allowed his opposite foot to fly at my in mid air.

I blurred both limbs over and grabbed his left foot before spinning and swinging him hard into the ground like a club.

THWAP!

"!" Nightwing's entire face cringed. Mask and all. He looked 'up' at me breathlessly.

I stared down at him and realized that—for one second too long—I was still holding onto his ankle.

He planted both of his palms into the rooftop in reverse, shoved up, spun his body horizontally, twisted, and used my grip of his ankle to wrench myself free of his twirling form and leaning off towards the side.

He vaulted up to his feet, spun at me, and swung a karate chop at my ribcage.

I spun to face him and blocked his left handed blow with my right hand.

He snarled and swung his right fist out.

I too blocked it, knocking his limb aside with a metal wrist.

He then jumped up and kicked me swan-style in the chest.

TH-THWAP!

I stumbled backwards.

He ran, dove, rolled on the ground, came up behind me, and swung a fist into the back of my head.

I reverse gripped it with a metal hand.

He easily pivoted his arm and elbowed me in the spine….right at a crucial nerve.

_POW!_

"!" I shrieked mutely and leaned forward, gasping for air.

**GRIP!**

He grabbed me by the waist, spun, and flung me across the rooftop.

THWOOOSH!

My body flailed for a breathless second until I found myself plummeting towards a t.v. antenna….a t.v. antenna which I promptly grabbed around the metal stalk, swung on, and propelled myself back at him.

He leapt easily over me.

I landed on the rooftop. Rolled. Jumped up to my feet. Spun around.

SWOOOOSH! Nightwing's fist in my face.

WHAP!

I stumbled back, coughing…sputtering.

"Nnngh!" He came at me with a fist to my chest.

I blocked it with my knee, then kicked my leg out straight.

TH-THAP! I caught him in the thigh.

I spun with a high-flying kick towards his cranium.

He blocked with his right limb, snaked the upper arm around my ankle, and jerked upwards.

"!" I gasped and helplessly fell till my own hands planted into the rooftop and prevented my skull from striking the floor.

He held me in a reverse 'wheelbarrow' position. He brought his other arm around, bore the elbow, and prepared to fiercely strike me in a spot where my leg was not made to _bend._

I tensed my ankle muscles and shoved the tip of my boot pointedly in the sensitive spot of his back shoulderblade.

TH-THAP!

He winced and lingered in his administering blow.

I took the moment to inhale, stretch my muscles, 'curl-up' towards him, grip his shoulders, and use my weight to pull him down into a reverse body-vault.

THWOOOSH! He twirled in the air this time, but not without effortlessly flipping and landing squarely on his feet. When he _did_ land, however, he heard the pitter-patter of gravel and looked beneath him to see that he was nearly tossed over the edge of the warehouse. For a split second, his eyemask actually widened. He slowly turned and gazed back at me.

Sweating, I had returned to a standing position. I twirled my arms and faced him again. Silent. Patient.

Shivering….

_Red Aviary is nearer. _

_I can feel him. _

_Just a little bit longer……_

"Hmm….you're a much bigger showoff than I thought," Nightwing murmured, cracking the joints in his arms and neck as he readied himself once again for action. "Robin must have rubbed off on you while he was alive…."

I took a deep breath.

_Flatten me before you flatter me, handsome._

FWOOOSH! He came at me.

I winced.

_Then again……_

"HiYAA!" he jumped at me with a flying knee to my chin.

I ducked back just in time to avoid his blow.

He landed and immediately swept a leg out.

I backflipped it.

….or so I thought.

_TH-THWAP!_ His fist slammed into my airborne body.

I tumbled across the rooftop.

He came at me, black hair billowing like the cape he gave up.

I stumbled up to my feet.

THWAP! BAM! SMACK! POW! I only heard four sounds of impact, but I could have sworn I felt _nine_ blows to my person. His punches and strikes and chops were so fast, they surely had to have defied the speed of sound.

At the end of some string of punches from…somewhere, he swiftly appeared to my left and swung a heavy blow to my ribs.

THIS time I blocked. And it was a good thing for my bones too.

**GRIP!** A metal and flesh hand enclosed around his hand.

He hissed at me: "Face it, kid. You're not fast enough…."

I fiercely shoved his and mine combined wrists down into his own groin area. TH-THWUMP!

"NNNGH!" He bent over.

_**WHAM!**_ I fiercely uppercutted him.

Nightwing flew back and landed on his butt.

Half a second later, a queer thing happen. My body spasmed all over…as if the nine blows he had dealt me took their precious five and a half seconds to take effect. I screamed in mute agony and fell on my back. THWOMP!

Nightwing was up in the second. _Versatile bastard……_

"You're _beyond_ redemption……," he snarled and charged at me.

I winced, lying on my back.

_Dude. Just deal with it._

He ran, jumped, and flew down at me with a missile of a kick aimed at my center of gravity. A horrifying move that I had witnessed Metallo do one too many times. "YAAAAAAAAUGH!"

I fought the tearing muscles and screamed my arms up to grip his sailing foot.

_**THWUMP!**_

It took a pulse of murk and all the strength in my prostrate body, but I managed to absorb the kinetic energy of his flying kick into my shoulders and shove it back out at him, flipping his agile body over my head.

TH-THWISH!

Nightwing twirled in the air. His feet met the stairwell atop the roof and planted against it.

I stood up. I looked at him, panting.

_TH-THWOOSH!_ Nightwing vaulted towards me, fist flying.

I raised my right wrist to block the heavy punch.

THAP!

I blocked it…and of course he predicted it. He grabbed my wrist, spun around it, and slammed his knees into my chest.

SL-SLAP!

I stumbled back.

Nightwing vaulted off me, backflipped, landed, flexed his lower limbs, and charged at me like a black haired bull.

I grounded my feet into the rooftop and flexed my metal and flesh wrists.

I snarled.

He snarled.

"RAAUGH!" a left hook at my face.

GRIP! I palmed my flesh hand around his knuckles.

"NNNGH!" he swung a right hook.

**CLANG!** My metal hand mercilessly caught his punch.

"Aaaugh!" he yelped in pain. He gritted his teeth and shot his right leg out.

I twisted my left leg around it. TH-THWUMP!

Then his left leg rushed forward.

I similarly blocked it.

All of our limbs were locked.

So….

"NNngh!"

"!"

We both must have thought of it for the same time, for the hard parts of each of our skulls found themselves colliding loudly in the cold November air.

CL-CLONK!

"Aaaugh!"

"……!"

He stumbled back.

I teetered in reverse.

A groan. A gasp. A temporary migraine on both sides of the fence. Then….

Black eyes and masked eyes meeting.

"…."

"….."

"…..heh." FWOOSH! He came at me and brought a fist to my chest.

_**WHUMP!**_

I bent over, wheezing in pain.

THWAP! He uppercutted me.

I flew up in the air.

I came down.

"HYAAAA!" he spun a kick into my ribcage.

_**WHAM!**_

I ragdolled across the rooftop and rolled to a stop. Gasping. Coughing up blood.

"…..," Nightwing wiped a single trickle of red off his lip. He took a deep breath and marched menacingly towards me. "As much as this is making an otherwise stale…deathly night exciting….you're only prolonging the inevitable. Don't make me go all out on you, Noir…."

I hissed in pain, glaring a thin black eye up towards him.

_Deathly? _

_You don't know deathly……_

I shivered more and more.

I felt like my blood vessels were freezing.

I shuddered as I fought my way up to my knees.

_Just you wait……_

His eyemask narrowed in disbelief at me. "You can't be serious….."

I took a deep breath, meditatively posed my arms into fighting position, and stood ready across from him.

_Robin mustn't have told you anything. _

_When am I ever not serious?_

"……..," Nightwing raised his fists and spread his feet apart.

I took a deep breath.

Shivering from the inside out.

_Come on. _

_Come on……_

THWOOOSH! He came at me.

I tensed and readied my limbs.

He flew two punches.

I blocked(!), blocked(!) and swung a right hook at him.

He ducked, grabbed my arm, and twisted from the side.

I winced and teetered towards him.

He shoved an elbow into my face.

I palmed his elbow with my other hand, shoved him back, and twirled my whole body to meet his twisting of my arm.

He helplessly shook and jolted from my body flipping and wrapping nimbly around him.

I came down…knelt in the gravel…and pulled at his grip of me with all my might.

I swung him over me and let him fly across the gravel rooftop.

I don't know how he did it, but he somehow twirled about in the air and grabbed a palm-ful of black hair belonging to yours truly.

I winced all over as I was yanked forward by my very own roots and tossed into his awaiting fist as soon as he was grounded.

WH-WHAP!

I jolted backwards.

He spun at me, two karate-chops flinging across my sternum.

TH-THWAP!

I gasped, the air was knocked out of my lungs.

He spun and slammed a foot so hard into my abdomen that I thought my appendix might burst.

WHAM!

I flew back, rolled across the ground, and hobbled back up to my knees.

FWOOOSH! He rushed me.

I coughed, swallowed a glob of saliva and blood, and swung a blind metal fist at him.

He effortlessly ducked the blow, paralyzed me with a single punch to my collarbone, twirled around me, and slammed two joined fists across my top vertebrae.

I stumbled forward on numb, unbalanced feet.

He spun and slammed his foot into my right ribcage.

TH-THUD!

I winced all over. I felt like I was going to snap in two.

And then for show…he ran, dove, grabbed me by the shoulders, spun over me, knelt on the ground, and flung my flipping body across the rooftop and slamming through the metal antennae.

CR-CRACK!

I fell on the rooftop amidst a shower of metal shards and shrapnel. I shook…quivered…and fell flat against the structure. Wheezing. Blacking out.

Shivering…..

_Stay awake, Jordan._

_Stay awake…… _

My body shook all over.

I was growing numb.

I could feel him….

His red vision enveloping my haggard form.

His vaporous crimson mystique warbling in anticipation of my dying breath.

Or the one he ceased to end on his own. Its own. Her own.

_Whatever. _

_Ana…give me strength. _

_I can't fall now. _

_Keep me awake. _

_I don't care about the pain…… _

_Just keep me awake._

_Please…_

I panted.

I struggled up to my knees with trembling forearms.

_Step! Step! STEP! __**CLUTCH!**_

Nightwing grabbed a handful of my hair and forced me to look up with a harsh yank.

I gasped, my black eyes stabbed by starlight.

He frowned down at me and raised his foot. _To do what? __**Step**__ on my face? Son of a……_

"The further this goes, one of us will die…," he uttered. "Time to end it now."

_Gee, you catch on quick._

SWOOOSH-**GRIP!** I caught his foot and shoved against him.

"Nnngh!" he hobbled back on one leg.

I took a breath, pivoted my aching limbs, and more-or-less breakdanced my body up with a vault of murk, tripping and concurrently kicking him off a few feet before I jumped into a standing position.

TH-THRUMP! Nightwing stumbled and hopped back to face me.

I weakly aimed myself at him, fists raised.

He rushed at me.

Chilled to the bone and practically freezing from my prosthetic down…I could do nothing but block…

Or _try_ to block…..

THWAP! SMACK!

WHAP!

WHAM! P-POW!

Fist after fist. Elbow after chop. Knee after foot. Snarling teeth, glistening eyemask, long black locks billowing and a breath of hot air as limbs spun, limbs launched, limbs contacted….

WHACK! THWACK! POW!

I danced in the air as if being riddled by half-invisible bullets. One punch knocked my shades clear off, clattering across the rooftop. I coughed, spat, and chewed up blood before falling back numbly and collapsing utterly atop the rooftop.

I wheezed…helpless….

There was no way I could defeat him.

And even if I switched to using Myrkblade then and there, he had enough tools and tricks up his sleeve to end me then and there.

_Besides……_

GRIP! He picked me up by the collar of my camo jacket and hoisted me to his face.

_Besides…………_

"It's over, Noir….," Nightwing frowned and breathed hotly…angrily into my face. "I'm bringing you straight to GCPD…."

My black eyes were thin. Weak. Twitching as I gazed past him.

A laser light.

Shimmering.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. And with my naked vision, I could see the same with Nightwing's skin.

_He's finally here……_

"………," Nightwing blinked under his eyemask. He spotted the elusive red dot lingering on my forehead. "What in the Hell?" He turned. He looked behind us.

In the distance, across the warehouse rooftop…positioned atop a factory between smokestacks.

_Rrrrrred Aviarrrrry……_

An unearthly, thin figure. Dark. Billowing red smoke like flames. But cold. Chilling. And aiming a sniper rifle with a heated laser beam that zeroed in on the two of us combined and…

"!" Nightwing gasped and shoved the two of us down.

_THWIFFT! TH-TH-THWIFFFT!_

Bulletholes in the gravel of the rooftop exploded open all around us. PAFT! P-PAFT! PING!

Nightwing gasped. He grabbed me and protectively rolled the two of us out from the exploding bullet marks.

P-P-PING! PAFT!

He rolled us both to the edge of the roof. He snarled whipped out a nightarang, and tossed it maddeningly towards the distant smokestacks where the sniper resided.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!_

The dark figure billowed red, pulsed, and leapt up into blurred oblivion.

FWOOOOSH!

"…….," Nightwing trembled. His breath showed vaporously in the November air. But something else was causing the chill. "What in god's name was that?"

"……..," I panted. On the verge of utter collapse.

He stood up, hoisting me limply along with him. He gulped and uttered with a round eyemask: "No way….Batman….B-Batman was right?"

"…….."

"Nnnnngh! No way!" Nightwing snarled. "He can't always be right! Not about this! It's impossible!" Nightwing looked all around us. "He died! He…."

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH!-CLANK!

Nightwing spun and looked.

The nightarang had been thrown back. It landed in the rooftop beneath us both. And a string of carbonite explosives were tied to it.

"!" Nightwing gasped. "Shit!"

Swiftly…mercilessly, he tossed me off the rooftop and suicidally dove behind…

_**PHHHOOOOMMMMBBBBB!**_

And a plume of maddening fire shattered the warehouse in two. As we plummeted four stories towards the rock hard, bone-breaking alleyway below….a collapsing mass of burning debris soared after us.

There was hardly enough clean oxygen left for our last breaths.

_**CRASSSSSSSH!**_

And something vaporous and red billowed above us.

Beating the air with crimson.

Like laughter…..

_Clicking_….laughter….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sometime that evening.

Or perhaps later that morning…

In the darkness of some underground place far south of Gotham City.

……

A light appeared.

Small.

Sharp.

Piercing the darkness.

It rolled closer and closer into view.

Reflecting off cylindrical, concrete walls.

A giant tube.

A winding tunnel running north and south.

The underground railway of Triangular.

A tiny, electric train vehicle ran the tracks until the tracks gave way to collapsed debris and gnarled, molten remains of a heated explosion at least a day old.

The vehicle moaned to a stop.

There were three people inside.

One adult and unconscious.

The other two petite…feminine.

One hopped out, clad in her usual outfit of frilled, purple jacketry. She landed as if from a ten foot, gymnastic plunge and raised her arms. "Ahhh…to be back out on foot again. Too bad there's no fresh air to enjoy, eh Les?"

"Whatever….," Pulsade murmured. Her right hand was glowing a bright beacon of light as she stood up from the small train car's seat. "…..feel free to jest all you want, now that we're out of the thick of it. You wouldn't believe how much trouble it was for me to distract the station blokes while you hexed from the shadows."

"Well….good job enlisting the help that you did," Jinx pointed and winked.

"Yes….indeed," Pulsade looked at the man in question and _kicked_ him out of the train. WHUMP! "There's a nice chap."

The man fell over. Numb. Unconscious. His eyes glazed over. There was a tranquilizer needles stuck in his throat.

Pulsade hopped out, stepped over him, and stood besides the pink-eyed witch. The British assassin kept holding her glowing hand up, illuminating what turned out to be a collapsed mess of molted, fresh slade.

"Brill….," she murmured. "I should have known…."

"What?" Jinx blinked. She walked over and stood before the black rock. "Am I missing something?"

"Take a good long look, love," Pulsade gestured with an exhausted wrist. "Isn't it obvious?"

"…….."

She sighed. "The transport suffered a few jolts—indeed—when shipping the essence of Terra to Gotham. Most likely, the cargo boiled over, congealed, and formed this molten mess."

"Wow….instant volcano…," Jinx's cat eyes blinked. "Girl, if only I had that recipe back when I was with H.I.V.E. I would have made a science project fit for _Gizmo_ to drool over!"

"Yes, well, drool all you want. This has been a wild goose chase…," Pulsade groaned and ran a hand over her face. "Just like everything else in our bloody projects…."

"Not necessarily….," the short-haired sorceresses girl-stepped towards the mess.

Pulsade blinked boredly at her. "Jean….what in the bloody hell are you doing?"

"Turn your light out."

"…..excuse me?"

"Your hand. Extinguish it for Hecate's sake!"

"Nnngh….fine…fine…"

Pulsade lowered her hand, concentrated, and turned out her metaphysical glow. And to her surprise, she could still see that end of the tunnel with relative comfort in spite of the light's absence. "What?"

"Shhh….," Jinx leaned over and pointed at the molten rock. "See?"

Pulsade leaned forward, her blue eyes narrowed.

The rock was glowing. Something beneath the debris was still glowing gold and hot. A lingering flame.

"….well if that doesn't just take the biscuit…," Pulsade uttered.

Jinx smiled proudly at her. "If your theory's correct, that _be_ Terra's powers….right?"

"Erhm….."

"Right?"

"I don't know about this, Jean…"

"Call it a hunch…," Jinx cracked her knuckles and smilingly approached the debris. "I bet if I tap into this lovely mine, I'll find exactly what we need."

"And just how do you know that?" Pulsade frowned.

Jinx looked over her shoulder and winked. "It's a Secret."

Pulsade rolled her eyes. "Right. Jolly ho, then. Keep vaguely knocking the fourth wall."

"Huh?"

"Never you mind…."

Jinx strongly exhaled in an '_okaaaaay'_ fashion before positioning herself nimbly above the ashes. She took a deep breath. She pointed her palms out towards the fire. She closed her cat eyes. Concentrating…..concentrating….

"……………."

Her hands glowed a hot pink. Almost instantly, she shuddered.

Pulsade started, concerned. "Jean! What is it?"

Jinx's forehead was tense. "It….is definitely r-resonating……with the Earth Maiden's powers…."

"Can you trace her with it? Can you figure out where the lass is?"

"I…..I…..," Jinx swallowed and strained. "I think I can. Just hold on a second…."

Pulsade fidgeted. She stood but a few feet behind Jinx just in case…

_FL-FLASH!_

A huge strobe of pink. It throttled up Jinx's limbs and pulsed in her cranium. Just as she shrieked, a hot flash of golden light emanated from the burning pile and tossed her back.

"J-Jean!" Pulsade shouted and positioned herself just right to catch Jinx's flailing body.

Th-Thwump!

The blonde assassin reeled back, landing on her rear. She cradled Jinx's back to her chest and leaned over the girl's shoulder. "Jean….," she hissed. "_Jean! Snap out of it, love! What happened?"_

Jinx stirred…twitched…and opened her eyes. The usual pink eyes were replaced with a hot glow of gold. She gasped and stammered: "L-L-Leslie….Leslie…I…"

"Shh….," Pulsade caressed her cheek. "Calm down….."

"I saw….I-I saw, Leslie…."

"Saw what, Jean?"

Jinx swallowed. She shook her head as the gold slowly faded back to the pink. "Not what….**who**…."

"….."

"And _where_…..," Jinx hissed. A slight, shady smile as she passed out. "Who and where….."

"………," Leslie looked up. Her blue eyes traced the cylindrical walls of the tunnel. "And where in God's name is she?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra gasped.

She shot up in her guest bed in Smallville, Kansas.

Trembling.

She hugged the covers to herself. It felt suddenly colder in there…and yet…

Warm.

Warm all the same.

Like a billowing flame in the center of the earth.

_Crrrreak……_

The door opened.

A bit frightened, Terra glanced over.

Kara stood in her pajamas. She leaned her head into the room and softly uttered; "Terra?"

"Y-Yes?"

"I was just up getting a glass of water…I thought I heard something in here. Is everything all right?"

Terra gulped. She held her hands up. There was a tingling sensation at the tips of her fingers. Like golden pinpricks dancing with faerie gasps.

"I……I don't know….."


	224. A Hard Act to Follow part 9

**224. A Hard Act to Follow part 9**

Prelude to a revelation……

November 29, 2004.

Gotham City.

Industrial District.

11:24 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The first thing I noticed about the flames was that they were blinding me. My shades were gone, and my black eyes were naked as they reopened to the flickering world.

I winced and tried sitting up. My body ached from the top down and stung especially in a few areas. I was surprised that no bones were broken. But then again, perhaps I would find out more things as the night wore on.

I was in an alleyway. A rock-hard, concrete ground lie beneath me. Brick walls and mortar flanked me. And everything was reflecting an amber red with splashes of ash dancing all around. It was hot, and through thinly squinted eyes of obsidian I noticed the crumpled building shards around me. The flames burning brightly, but softly…in that there wasn't a raging inferno about to consume my aching body.

_But why am I still here?_

I stood up on wobbly legs. I shifted Myrkblade in its hilt over my shoulders. It was still there. I breathed softly.

_The chill. _

_It's gone._

_Does Red Aviary think it killed me?_

_Or has it simply gone away to toy with me later?_

I straightened my long black hair some and squinted across the fiery, claustrophobic landscape.

_Me……what about me? I'm not the only one……_

I gasped.

I looked around.

I dashed to and fro among the burning wreckage. Stabbed by each pulse of flickering red. Sweating…straining…searching….

I leapt over a smoldering pile of rooftop debris, teleported under a fallen crossbeam, and emerged where the alleyway was a little devoid of smoke.

And there I saw him. Lying on the ground, a perfect mirror to myself with his eyemask facing away. Long black hair a tangled, explosive mess. He too was in one piece, as much as I could assess. I wasn't about to ask him anything….and he being unconscious had a little something to do with it.

_He must have……saved me._

I blinked.

_When the carbonite went off, he must have tossed us off the rooftop._

CRKKKK!

I looked above.

A section of roofing to the half-exploded warehouse was starting to crack and collapse over us. Over _him_ more than me.

I bit my lip.

_Every good deed……_

I knelt.

I gripped Nightwing's shoulders.

I strained, tensed, and slid his muscular body out from where he resided. It was a slow, molasses type of thing but I managed to drag him across the length of the alleyway. Clumps of burning embers and drops of ash littered a glowing trail after us. A few glowing sparks danced off of Nightwing's boots as I picked up the pace….struggling.

And naturally it was mere seconds between my clearing the way from the burning part of the alleyway and the actual wall collapsing where we once were.

_**CRUNNNCH!**_

Hot smoke and ash flew.

I wheezed, my black eyes tearing. I clenched them shut to solace myself for a few seconds. Comforted in darkness as the heat came and went and I gently dropped Nightwing's upper body down to the floor.

And somewhere in the cooling of the air, I felt it. The two dozen fresh bruises and welts across my body from the horrendous fight four stories up. I let out a mute yelp of pain and leaned back against the dry alleyway wall, panting. Wincing. Clutching an upper arm of flesh.

"………"

I shuddered after the first sensation of…senses washed through me.

_Jesus……welcome to Gotham, Noir…_

I limped blindly around Nightwing's body and stood in the halo of distant flame heat.

_So……Batman's alive. Nightwing is a dick. Batgirl is………I dunno. And where does that leave me? Gordon seemed about ready to accept me with half-open arms after he had his talk with Maggie Sawyer from Metropolis. But obviously the Batman troupe is after me for what I've done during my roguish romp. Or then again, maybe it was just Nightwing?_

I opened my eyes finally.

A stabbing thing…

Nightwing's body lingered in the shadows of the fire-kissed alleyway.

I took a deep breath.

I turned and forced myself to look at the rest of the building.

I winced and tensed my face in pain as my black eyes faced the flickering red tongues directly.

_The Warehouse. _

_What chance is there that the computer station is still in there?_

_Undoubtedly, it belongs to Fox. It may have the exact thing I need to track him down. Although……I have to wonder._

_What the Hell's the use anymore?_

CRKKKKK!

I jolted.

I heard and _felt_ the infrastructure of the building start to collapse in on itself. There was a groaning noise of steel bending into steel. Center beams and pylons buckling. The remainder of the roof crunching inward.

If I didn't move quickly enough, whatever computer could possibly be in tact within the structure would be…no more.

I groaned mutely and started the arduous process of surging murk through my limbs.

_Never think, Noir. _

_Just do._

_**Do.**_

_FWOOOOSH!_

I blurred up the outer wall of the building, dashed over the flames, came to a window, leapt off, bounce against the opposite alleyway wall with my feet, and dove through the frame.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHATTER!**_

I flew in with a splash of glass shards.

I met the floor.

Rolled.

And came up on my knees.

As soon as I gave the place a frantic look, a billowing clump of burning debris fell before me.

**CRASH!**

I held a metal forearm before my face, wincing. Shielding myself against the splash of ash.

The interior of the warehouse was a hellish sea of collapsed debris, dancing flames, and crackling embers. A red-orange glow filled the place. My eyes felt like they would fall out from the blinding sensation. I clenched them shut…tearing. I took a deep breath and crept forward, holding a metal arm out as I crouch-walked across the burning compound. Feeling with spatial sense for….

_A structure. _

_An item._

_Furniture._

_Electronics._

_A shape._

_A SHAPE!_

I felt a wave of heat.

I gasped and dove forward.

**CL-CLANK!**

A mound of burning debris landed behind me. The ringing sensation of steel filled the room.

I winced, brushed myself off, and crept forward again.

The oxygen was growing thin.

Whatever smoke billowed about, I re-shifted so that a 'bubble' of clean air followed my body and cut me a clean path through the crackling madness. I knew I wouldn't last long with the limited, breathable air that was in there. But I wasn't planning on staying for very long anyways.

_Fox? _

_Where the Hell do your put your STUFF?_

TH-THWUMP!

I tripped over something.

"!"

THWAP!

I landed hard on my chest, my lower body draped over a 'tray' of sorts.

I opened my pained eyes thinly and glanced behind.

There was the computer station. A little smogged and sooted, but in one piece.

_Heh……don't know my own strength of observation……_

I flipped up to my feet…winced again…and finally stumbled over to the station. I typed madly at the keyboard and stared at the screen.

"………"

Blank.

"………"

I blinked.

I looked at the computer tower.

_Shit. It's not on, dumbass._

I madly jabbed the on button.

Nothing happened.

I gritted my teeth.

I looked around.

_No outlet? _

_No cords?_

_For crying out loud, the building is BURNING DOWN ALL AROUND YOU?_

_Do you think power would be on through that?_

Then I paused.

Thinking…..

"…….."

_How would Fox have this computer working in such an abandoned interior anyways? _

_The warehouse was practically falling apart on its own before Nightwing, Red Aviary, and I paid it a fiery visit._

"……," my black eyes widened.

_A……generator?_

I dashed around the backside of the computer.

Indeed, there was a small gas-powered charger.

_Hell to the yes! _

_Petroleum? Erm……well, it's not like I'm going to be in here long anyway……_

I frantically primed it and pulled on the starter cord.

The generator revved and shook. Sputtered. Died.

I gritted my teeth, re-gripped the cord, and pulled again. Yanking.

Repeatedly, the generator shook and throbbed and vibrated.

All the while, distant pylons and steel girders fell. Crashings and cracklings and thunderings filled the ruptured interior. My little 'pocket' of air grew smaller. The smoke began to envelop me more than my powers could hold them back. And I was concentrated enough as it was on the computer's generator.

_Come on……Come on…… _

_The end of Gotham City and my life as I possibly know it, and here I'm stuck with a Y2K bastard child!_

A few more cranks, and the engine started running.

_VRMMMMMMM!_

I gasped.

_Yes! Yes! I love the Y2K bastard child!_

**CRASH!**

A burning pile of ceiling pieces fell uncomfortably close behind me. Under the shower of ashes, I flinched and madly typed away at the computer.

I brought the system through DOS mode, into a windows prompt, and finally to a screen that very cheerfully said:

'_Please insert password'._

"……," I snarled mutely and kicked the computer desk. CL-CLUNK!

_Dammit to the seventh layer of Hell!_

The floor shook.

The metal steel pylon above me started to groan and cave downwards. Bits and pieces of red ash embers floated down to settle on me.

I gritted my teeth and typed madly at the computer.

_I suppose I can bullshit._

_williambfox_

Beep-Beep!

'_Password Incorrect.'_

_sonoflucius_

Beep-Beep!

'_Password Incorrect.'_

_snivelingshitstain_

Beep-Beep!

'_Password Incorrect.'_

I shook and punched the monitor's plastic frame, seething.

_Don't you smart-talk me, you Majel Barrett wannabe!_

_Snkkkkt!_

The screen suddenly flipped back to DOS mode with a blinking green line.

"……….," I bit my lip.

_Dear Allah, what did I do?_

The steel girders above me groaned more.

Flames started to billow downward. The hairs on the back of my neck started to curl beneath my sweat-stained locks. Bulbs of moisture formed on my forehead as I stared up with quivering black eyes at the inevitable collapse.

_Beeeeeep! Beep! Beep! DING!_

"?" I glanced at the monitor again.

A string of text read in green:

'_WILLIAM B. FOX, IS THAT YOU?'_

"…….." My mouth dropped.

I typed: _'Oracle?'_

After a while….the monitor 'replied'.

'_NIGHTWING? IS THAT YOU?'_

'_Oracle! This is Noir! How in God's name did you find this computer?'_

'_REMOTE INTERNET HUB. WIRELESS. I NEARLY HACKED MY WAY IN WHEN FOX LAST DISCONNETED.'_

"…..," I craned my neck and peered around the edge of the computer. I saw a blinking device attached to the back of the computer tower. _Ah. I see. Neato._

'_IS NIGHTWING ALL RIGHT? I AM SORRY ABOUT WHAT HE DID. WE TRIED TO STOP HIM.'_

I blinked.

'_Yeah, he's alright. Who the Hell is 'we' exactly?'_

There was no response….

_**GROAN!**_ The ceiling above cracked. More ashes. More metal shards snowing down.

I took a deep breath and typed with a flurry of metal and flesh hands:

'_Look, I have no time. This building I'm in is going to collapse soon and take out both me and the computer.'_

'_FOR GODS SAKE, NOIR! GET OUT!'_

'_Not until you help me find where Fox went to!'_ I typed, face firm and concentrated as I glared nakedly at the screen. _'You're the expert hacker here. Stop wasting online time and track the son of a bitch!'_

'_NOIR, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO DO WHEN YOU FIND HIM?'_

'_Let that be my concern!'_

'_YOU CANT DO THIS ON YOUR OWN ANYMORE! ITS TOO RISKY! YOU AND NIGHTWING ALMOST DIED TOGETHER!'_

I felt like tossing the monitor across the burning room.

'_Just give me Fox's god damn coordinates and we'll worry about the Angel of Death later on! I'm about to be oven-roasted any second here!'_

'_HOLD ON. DOWNLOADING………'_

I stood.

I fidgeted.

I flinched at every crumble and collapse of building fragments around me. I took a nervous breath. I bit my lip…

_**GROAAAAAN!**_

I looked above.

The ceiling started to break.

_DING!_

I looked down.

The monitor splashed: _'I DIDNT FIND FOX, BUT I FOUND THE PROFESSOR!'_

I took a breath. _Good enough……_

'_553 JUNCTION STREET. THE BELGRADE BUILDING. FIFTH FLOOR. LOFT APARTMENT, ROOM 433a!'_

_**FWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The debris came tumbling down.

I blurred my body and vaulted away from the computer.

_**SMASSSSH!**_

The desk and electronics imploded under the weight of the flaming wreckage.

I panted, spun about, and streaked my way through the rest of the building.

Pockets of fire plumed up on either side of me. Windows shattered, spraying me with glass and embers. I shielded myself with murk-laden hands as I outran the collapsing ceiling forming an upside down domino crunch-time behind me. Debris trailed my heels, exploded, and propelled me forward as I dove like a torpedo straight through a pair of rusted double doors with the flaming tongues of amber in m y peripheral optics.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

CRACK!

I dove through the doors, rolled across the parking lot, got on my knees, jumped up, and ran forward in a black bolt.

_**PHWOOOOMBB!**_

The collapsing warehouse vomited a wave of fire directly outward…eating at my backside.

And I ran….westward.

Out of the industrial complex.

Long before the emergency sirens could begin their wail.

And long before anything short of Red Aviary could catch sight of this half-blind, panting speeder making his way towards the downtown apartments.

It would be only a matter of hours before the sun rose and I would be no longer useful in the blinding light. Hopefully I could force the Ventriloquist to cough up some information before that happened.

Either that….or death could be the solace for me….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

553 Junction Street.

The Belgrade Building.

The loft apartment of the fourth floor was a spacious, luxurious thing. Sloped, glass panes formed the ceiling. A skylight that showed the red sky of the Gotham night in tinted illusion. Inside, the lush carpet was spotted with furniture here and there. Polished woodwork. Mahogany and cedar. It looked like a rich carpenter's retirement home.

At the moment, it was populated by half a dozen thugs…two of which were Mugsy and Rhino. The two common lackeys of the Ventriloquist stood anxiously in the electric-lit corners of the place, their hands in their pockets. Their lips being bit and toyed with by their own teeth and tongue in a sweating manner. They looked and acted and felt like a giant guillotine was going to fall down and slice the building in two. Something akin to silent aftershocks of the fallen, flaming zeppelin from earlier.

Rhino stood at a long stretch of window before a fire escape. A thin, brick-laid alleyway between the two apartment buildings stretched coldly down below. An urban abyss. Thin and grave-like.

"I don't like it…," Rhino grunted. He cracked his knuckles and nervously shifted where he stood. "…why did Two-Face send so many of his creeps here? Can't we protect the Professor and Scarface on our own? We've always done that…."

"You saw what happened at the Kane Building today, Rhino…," Mugsy whispered back. He lit a cigarette, took a puff, and blew out through the window above the fire escape. Scarface didn't like struck matches _inside_ the apartment. "…that zeppelin may have been shot down by Trent and his boys, god rest their damn-dirty souls, but something else brought it to flames. Rather…._someone else."_

Rhino gulped. "The Parasite?"

"None other if you ask me."

Rhino stared at the four other thugs.

The four other thugs glared back. They looked like they wanted to be at any gig but _there_.

"Heh….you'd think we'd have cheerier soldiers on our side. If the Angel of Death was to jump on 'em, they'd shit and run….not necessarily in that order."

"Perhaps….," Mugsy puffed again. "But we wouldn't, right?"

"Right."

"When the Phantasm was in town, we never gave a thought towards hittin' the road," Mugsy said. "Or during the whole Batwoman fiasco. _Batwoman……_BatWOMEN."

"Heh. Yeah, that was rich."

"Look at the bright side, Rhino. We got Fox. We stopped the Terrible Troupe. And we even gave that punk-ass swords guy a good butt whooping to keep him at Bay!"

"Damn kids. Think they can turn the world upside down."

"I know…screwy, ain't it?"

A breath of wind.

Mugsy's cigarette smoke flickered.

Rhino turned, blinking out into the thin, tall alleyway. "What was that?"

Mugsy shrugged. "Hell should I know?" He finished his cigarette and flicked it out the window. A creaking sound from the distance, and Mugsy adjusted his coat and smacked Rhino's shoulder to point at the double bedroom doors across the way. "Hey….the Professor's comin' out."

"Finally…"

All six guards turned to see the gray-haired elder shuffle his way out of the bedroom. He slowly closed the doors behind him, gulped, and nervously uttered: "Sc-Scarface says to be on the lookout. This might be our most dangerous night working under Triangular yet."

"Heh….perfect….," murmured a thug.

"Any word from our boss?"

The Professor bit his lip. "M-Mr. Dent called t-to say that Fox was transported s-safely back to his apartment. Dagger's working on something to c-cover for Fox's 'supposed' kidnapping. We don't want all of Gotham to know that the Troupe had him. If Triangular was revealed, it would w-weaken our image."

"What about Scarface, Prof?" Rhino asked, his head nodding. "What's he wanting us to do?"

There was a muffled shouting. And it honestly….sounded like it was coming from the other side of the bedroom doors.

"_Keep it down, yous mugs! Scarface is tryin' to sleep! Just keep your kewl and keep yous peepers open and maybe ya might not have anything ta worry 'bout! Now keep it down!"_

The Professor simpered.

One of Two-Face's thugs ran a hand over his brow and groaned: "Ay gevalt….just my luck, spending the night guarding a split-headed puppeteer…"

_Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! __**WHAM!**__  
_  
Rhinos marched over and threw his fist into the thug's gut.

"Ohhhhh!" the thug wheezed and fell over.

The others gasped.

Rhino growled and pointed an angry finger: "You respect what Mr. Scarface says! You hear? He's smarter than the rest of us combined! And if it weren't for his intervention, we'd never would have gotten Fox out of that zeppelin your stupid teammates blew out of the sky!"

"Hey, man….," another thug helped the fallen one up and frowned. "…a lot of our buddies died today trying to take that zeppelin down. You can take your wooden puppet of a boss and shot if up your…."

BLAM!

The four Two-Facers winced.

"……," Mugsy held a gun aimed towards the ceiling. The barrel smoked as he glared at the others, frowning.

"_Hey! Who's shootin' who out there, ya blockheads? I'm tryin' ta sleep!"_

"No problem, boss!" Mugsy smirked and holstered his pistol. "Just a damned mosquito."

"……," the thugs glared.

"That's much better….," Rhino folded his arms. "Heh….thanks, Mugsy."

"No problem," the thin man looked over. "Prof. We got things covered out here. You take care of Scarface, got it?"

"Y-Y-Yes…..will do…," and the old man turned, opened the doors, and shuffled his nervous self in.

Another gust of wind.

"'Eesus….," Rhino shivered. "You think that—by this time—it'd start snowing!"

"I could care less about the weather right now…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The bedroom was just as lush as the apartment's living room. Only, there were less windows and more space occupied by a queen-sized bed within which was situated a familiar, ugly puppet clad quite goofily in a pajama top and bottom.

The Professor walked through the room to a wardrobe, where he gathered bedsheets to add to the queen-sized bed. A small, canvass cot lay in the far corner of the room for him to sleep in.

"_Slack…slack……slack! That's all yous good for these days, ya blockhead!"_

"I-I'm sorry, Mr. Scarface. I will attempt to be quicker."

"_You better be! This is the greatest job you're ever gonna get! Do ya know how lucky ya are ta work for me? One boot to ya fanny ta kick you outta dis house and you'd be swimmin' in shark fodder, pal! Street sharks! They'd eat yous alive and nobody would give an old fogie like you a job with dis economy we're livin' with! It's a cryin' shame, so that's why I gots ta cry my bleedin' heart all over for yous! You better be grateful ta me!"_

"I-I am, grateful, M-Mr. Scarface. Honestly I am. I-I want to take care of y-you in anyway I can!"

"_Then throw on one of thems blankets! I'm freezin' ma keister off 'ere! Can't get a good, decent night's sleep anymores! You think Two-Face is gonna let us have any rest now thats the Parasite has made anudda move? Nosiree, we'll be makin' gravel out of the streets searchin' for the rest of Triangular's opposition befores that red wraith arrives again!"_

The Professor smiled some. "You said it, Mr. Scarface. We sure are hard-working folks. W-We'll show this City a thing or two…"

_FWOOSH!_

A body solidified behind the old man.

The Professor turned around.

**GRIP!**

A titanium hand clutched around his neck.

He gasped---

THWOOSH! I tossed him across the bedroom.

He landed smack-dab against a dresser. TH-THWUMP! "Oof!"

"_Hey blockhead? What's going on?"_

The Professor looked at me and gasped. He trembled all over and scrunched up against the dresser.

"……," I marched towards him. Naked black eyes glaring. Trailing smoke out the edges…

"It's….I-I-It's the T-Titan!" the Professor stammered. "The one w-with the sword!"

"_What?"  
_  
I leered over the Professor.

He took a deep breath, inhaling heavily. Before he could scream…

_CLUTCH!_

My metal hand clamps over his mouth.

CHIIIII-IIIII-IIIIING! I slide Myrkblade out of its sheathe and press the tilt up against the Ventriloquist's talented throat.

"Mmmf! Mmmmmfff!" he sweats and stares at me with wide eyes behind his glasses.

"……," I glare right in his face. I lip-sync in a way that only a ventriloquist can read: _'Tell me where Fox is…'_

"MmmmMMMMMmmmfff!" he shook all over.

"_Don't yous tell him anything, you hear!"_

"……," I blinked. I turned and looked at the bed.

Scarface stood perfectly still. And yet the voice sounded like it came naturally from him.

"_Not a word, Professor! He's not wanted in my hideout! Guards! Guards!"_

I gritted my teeth and slammed the ventriloquist's head back up against the dresser.

WHUMP!

"Ooof!" he cried.

'_No more games!'_

"M-Mr. Scarface! H-Help!"

"_Show some balls, ya blockhead! Hey you! Smokeshit! You ain't gonna get nothin' out of him, ya hear? Or it it's out on the street with him! YOU HEAR THAT, BLOCKHEAD! OUT ON DA MOTHER FLUFFIN' STREET! HA!"_

"Ohhh….don'thurtmedon'thurtmedon'thurtmedon'thurtme!"

"…….," I looked at the dummy on the bed. Then at the man quivering in my grasp. Then at the bed again.

_You've got to be frickin' kidding me……_

TH-THWUMP!

I tossed the Ventriloquist aside. _Whap!_ I marched towards the queen-sized bed.

The dummy in tiny pajamas lay there.

"_Hey! What are you doing!"_

I grabbed a handful of bedsheets and yanked him mercilessly towards the floor.

FWOOMP!

Scarface effectively tumbled off and rolled across the floor.

"_Ooof! Ow! Why I oughta……!"_

_STAB!_

I stuck Myrkblade down into the floor, caught the dummy between its wooden body and its pajama coverings, and hoisted him up like the end of a marshmallow stick.

"_Whoo-ooah!"_

I snarled and swung him against a bedpost.

THWACK!

"_OW!"_

I let out another mute shout and slapped the puppet up against the wall.

WHAM!

"_OOF!"_

I then walked over, stood beneath a ceiling fan, and lifted the beat-up dummy via Myrkblade up into the path of the blades.

THAP!-THAP!-THAP!-THAP!-THAP!-THAP!

"_AUGH!AUGH!AUGH!AUGH!AUGH!AUGH!"_

"St-Stop!" the Professor nervously shook and reached out from beyond the bed. "Y-You are hurting him!"

I gritted my teeth and flung him towards the floor. _THWOOOSH!_ WHAM!

The dummy bounced once or twice from the impact. Its pajamas were torn and its googly eyes rolled back.

"_Why ya rotten, good for nothin'—"_

WHUD! My boot clamped down over the spot between the doll's legs.

"_AAAIGNNNGKKKKTT!"_

I bent over and frowned. Lip-syncing 'to the dummy'.

'_Tell me what I want to know.'_

"_Not in a million years, ya hockey puck! Not now, not ever!"_

"……," I looked at the Professor.

The man trembled, shaking all over.

"…….," I looked at the doll.

_Dammit to Hell. _

_If I could get some information out of Superman of all people……_

_I sure as heck aren't about to let a wooden piece of crap talk me down._

**STAB!**

"_Aaaaugh!"_ Scarface 'screamed' as I ripped Myrkblade through one of his tiny ankles. I dragged him over to a desk. I slid open a couple of drawers, pulled out a switch blade.

_FL-FLICKTTT!_

I flipped it open.

_THAP!_

I slammed Scarface down onto the table top and gripped the knife with the blade aimed down at his face in a metal hand.

"_You wouldn't freakin' dare……"_

CLAMP!

"_AAAAUGH!"_ the voice warbled as I jabbed the tip of the knife blade down into the forehead of the dummy. In agonizing slowness, I carved letter after letter. Starting with a ripping, shredding 'W'…then onto a chip-peeling 'H'….and then taking my slow time with a twisting, jagged 'E'.

"_AAAAUGH! JEEBUS! HAVE YOU NO HUMANITY YA BUCKET HUMPER?"_

"N-No! Stop it!" the Professor ran over. "You're hurting him—"

WHUMP! I raised a foot, kicking the Professor back.

He landed against the side of the bed. "Ooof!"

I carved and carved and carved. Forming a phrase all across the dummy's skull and face. The screaming noises continued, although the dummy was perfectly…absolutely still.

"_NNNGH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DUMMY? DON'T JUST SIT THERE! COME AND HELP ME!"_

"I-I can't, sir! He's too strong!"

"_AAARGH! JEEBUS ALMIGHTY!"_

I finished carving.

I gripped the back of Scarface's skull, hoisted him around, and shoved him in the Professor's face.

The Professor shivered, wincing. His thin…twitching eyes got a close-up view of the words carved into the puppet's 'skin'.

'_WHERE IS FOX?'_

"_Well, ya blockhead? What's the torturer got branded on me?"_

"H-H-He wants t-to know where William Fox is, sir…."

"_Well we ain't gonna tell hi—"_

Before 'Scarface' could finish his sentence, I twirled him around and mercilessly stabbed the knife into one of his plastic eyes.

_CHTUNK!_

"_AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGHHHH!"_

"M-MISTER SCARFACE!"

"_ALL RIGHT! I'LL TELL! I'LL TELL!"_

"……," I smirked ever so slightly.

_I didn't have the angel of death after me and half the world thinking I'm a bad guy, this might actually be 'fun'……_

"_He's at his apartment. HIS apartment! As in the one belongin' to da Fox Family! Lucius and Son and whatever girls hang around that nasty-ass place!"_

I dug the knife deeper.

"_NNNGH! Off of M-Main Street and Twenty-Fifth Avenue! Near the Venetian Theatre, ya know? Arrgh! Top floor! Top five floors, to be exact! R-Richest apartment in Gotham City! I swear! I swear that's where he is! Back with his dear old dad!"_

"………."

"P-Please….let him g-go…."

"_That all you wanted, p-punk?"_

I had frozen.

For in the middle of my being relayed the news, it had hit me. The shivers.

And it was a hell of a lot stronger than ever it had been before.

_Red Aviary. _

_Red Aviary has found me……_

I shook. I moved….

And as soon as my limbs moved, I felt as if ice was crackling deep inside of me.

My breath came out in a vapor…even inside the apartment bedroom.

_Red Aviary is here. _

_Oh god……h-he could even be in the damn building!_

"_Wh-What are you standing around for? I told you want I wanted……"_

THWOOSH! I tossed Scarface into the Professor, knife and all.

"Ooof!" the man haphazardly caught the scarred puppet, trembling.

I panted and dashed numbly towards the door.

From the other side, the pitter-pattering of thugs' feet sounded.

"_Hey!" _

"_Hey Boss!"_

"_Something's wrong!"_

"_What's going on in there?"_

I panted.

I looked left.

I looked right.

_Window!_

I felt iciness creeping up on me. My black eyes could have sworn they saw red vapors in the corner of the room. The door burst in. Six thugs gasped and reached for their guns. The Professor or the Ventroloquist or 'Scarface' was laughing, or maybe both. I ran. I ran towards the window. Bullets sounded off. They formed vapor trails as they soared after me. I turned my body into a smoking bullet and dove out the window.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SMASSSSSH! _

_I flew out in a stream of glass and bullets._

THWIIIIISH!

THWISSH!

THWIIIIIIIISH!

I took a deep breath, pulsed murk, and vaulted off the alleyway wall across the window through which I shattered.

_Plant!_

I bounced off the wall, twirled, flipped upwards, and came into contact with the apartment building. I concentrated, clung to the structure with murk, and ran straight up to the glass panels above the loft living room. I gathered in my peripheral vision the image of half a dozen scrambling thugs darting about underneath and trying to keep up with me. I ignored them and reached the rooftop, and for a moment the red sky of Gotham City stretched before me.

Red.

Bleeding red.

And there was a stabbing coldness about it.

Like the sweeping flash of a lighthouse beam.

Waters lapping up against infinite bluffs beyond the horizon.

I shuddered, my breath leaving trails.

I wanted to collapse there.

Collapse…die….whatever.

As long as I woke up when it was till dark.

My black eyes twitched naked.

For it still struck me as wyrd.

Such a cold, November holocaust.

And no snow.

_I have to get out of here. _

_I know where to go._

_Fox's very own home of all places._

_Unless the 'dummy' was lying to me…… _

_But at this point, I don't freakin' care._

_Red Aviary is here._

_Red Aviary is here……_

But as soon as I made a move to dash over the rooftops.

"NnnnnnnNNNGHRAAAAAAH!"

_Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!_

"?" I looked to my right.

On the adjacent building top, t.v. antennae and huge a/c units were being smacked, smashed, and batted away by an impregnable force. I soon saw why…

A venom-induced Bane was charging in my direction. Or at least….in the apartment's direction. I just happened to be in the way.

And as the cold fingers of Red Aviary crept up my esophagus…

I fell to my knees atop the glass panes and all but dropped Myrkblade.

_Oh……fantastic……_

"RAAAAAAUGH!" Bane jumped, soared across the alleyway, and slammed down into the glass panes along with me.

_SHATTTTTTERRRRR!_

And together, we made a second entrance into the apartment.

Prelude to a revelation...


	225. A Hard Act to Follow Part 10

**225. A Hard Act to Follow part 10**

SWOOOSH!

TH-THWOMP!

I landed hard on the apartment floor with a halo of glass surrounding me.

THWOOOSH!

**WHAM!**

Bane landed, smashing through a coffee table of mahogany and sending splinters flying.

"Nnnngh…," he snarled, teeth gritted and neck throbbing in tense, venomed glory. He panted…heaved…and stood up, his every joint popping.

_SL-SLAM!_

The double doors to the Ventriloquist's bedroom flew back open from Rhino's kick. Mugsy and the other four thugs rushed out, shouting. Weapons drawn.

"It's Bane!"

"And the kid!"

"They're back!"

"Smoke 'em!"

BANG! BANG!

BL-BLAM! BLAM!

Bullets exploded and impacted the carpet all around me. I flinched and gasped, my naked eyes twitching. My body….freezing.

_Rrrred Aviary……_

"RAAAAUGH!" Bane picked up a huge slab of splintered table and held it against the bullets. He shielded himself, warded off the first volley of gunshots, then heaved the furniture chunk straight at the line of thugs.

They gasped and jumped left and right.

SM-SMASH! The table splinter tore what was left of the bedroom doors off the hinges.

Rhino rushed in, whipping out a grenade. He yanked the pin out with his teeth, grunted, and tossed the projectile as strongly as he could.

_THWIIIIIISSSSH!_

It reached Bane.

Bane charged and back-handed the grenade away.

THWAP!

The grenade flew across the room, bounced past my flinching body, and rolled out the window and beyond the fire escape of the cold alleyway beyond.

_**POW!**_

The building shook.

The floor vibrated.

Bane was charging across the interior, arms swinging.

Rhino picked up a wooden, cedar statue and raised it to swing like a club into Bane's incoming skull.

SWOOOOSH! **CRACK!** Bane charged into Rhino, absorbing the statue and smashing it into wooden shreds as if it was a toothpick. The mercenary grabbed Rhino by the neck, spun, and flung him against a wall forcing a rich painting to rip and collapse to the floor. CL-CLANK!

Mugsy got up on his knees and fired round after round with his .45. BLAM! BLAM! BL-BLAM! BLAM!

Bane dodged, sidestepped, and rushed across the room. One bullet bounced off the metal part of the mercenary's helmet. Bane merely shouted all the more and brought his foot down where Mugsy was. SWOOOSH!

Mugsy held his breath and rolled to the side.

_**SMASH!**_

A hole in the carpet formed.

Mugsy lay helplessly on his back.

Bane pivoted, brought his hands together, and snarled as he prepared to break the man's ribs in two with dual fists.

WHUMP! THWUMP! Two of Two-Face's thugs jumped on Bane's shoulders and tried to double-choke hold him from behind. Bane struggled, thrashed about, and stomped across the apartment trying to loosen them.

The other thugs gradually got up to their weary feet.

I too was struggling to stand. Every bit of my insides was shivering. I felt like I would snap in two like a twig. I shuddered and exhaled cold vapors.

_Rrrrred Aviarrrrrry……_

_Don't you all see? _

_He's here. _

_He's here. _

_I have to flee……_

I turned around to blur out the window--

"Where do you think you're goin'?" Rhino frowned. WHAM! A fist to my face.

I sputtered and stumbled back. Weakly.

_GRIP!_ He had me by the throat. He yanked me around and planted a gun into my skull. _Cl-Click!_

I shuddered. Suddenly too weak and too blinded and too numb to do anything.

Rhino stood behind me, fiercely holding me with his pistol to my head. He looked towards the bedroom doors and brightened. I soon found out why.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bulletfire ricocheted all around Bane and the two thugs.

Bane came to a stop. He ceased struggling with the two men and glared over at the door.

There, the Ventriloquist stood. The _Professor_ stood…jittery and nervous. A scarred 'Scarface' sat in his arms. Letters carved in his head. His leg skewered and the switchblade still stuck in one googly eye. He looked like a zombie Fraggle in the arms of Harry Truman's evil twin. And in his tiny wooden grasp was an even tinier—but lethal—tommy gun….with a smoking barrel.

"_All right, yous mugs! Scarface says playtime is over! And unless you want to go nappy-nap for the better long years of eternity, I suggest you keep your hands in ya lap and shuddup! Bane…Noir….I'm talkin' ta yous!"_

"……," I shuddered…nearly collapsing in Rhino's grip.

"Usted pedazo de basura…," Bane seethed as the thugs peeled off him. The henchmen stepped back at a safe distance from Bane and trained their guns on him. Mugsy joined them. The tall, seething mercenary started to 'deflate' as the venom decreased in his body and Bane's angry resolve took cognitive function. "…you would stand by while my entire team was ripped to shreds." He shook a fist at Scarface across the way. "Whatever happened to our alliances of old, _hibrido_? Does that mean anything to you?"

"_Look, yous overgrown fruitcake!"_ Scarface snarled back. He seemed ready to fall apart. The knife wobbled in his plastic eye-socket. _"…ya signed ya own death warrant da moment yous decided to team up against this here Red Aviary!"_

"You cling to your criminal monopoly….you are weak! You are debil! All of you! Demasiados debiles! Because of you pathetic whelps, what scant number of Gotham City's elite is left will be laid bare before the consuming breath of the Parasite!"

"Boss….," Mugsy hissed. "What are you doing? Shoot 'em! Don't let the creep talk anymore! This is _Bane_, for God's sake!"

"You're next, chico!" Bane pointed. "Each and everyone of you! I swear on the graves of Fugate and Tetch, I am going to break all you up to Two-Face's split cabesa! Do you hear me? Voy a romperle!"

"_Heh! You're one ta threat!"_ the Professor shook as the dummy swiveled to gestured towards me with his machine gun. _"Looks like your friend got heres before ya did! How's that for bad coordination?"_

I merely shuddered. I was sweating…and yet I was freezing alive. I looked straight up in Rhino's grasp through the shattered ceiling panels and saw a sky.

A red sky.

Dripping….

Bane snarled: "He's no friend of mine! Once I'm done with you, I'm going to snap him in half! You Triangular shitheads messed with the wrong mercenary!"

"Don't you talk to the boss like that!" Rhino shouted.

"_I'm warnin' yous, punk! This is the last night yous ever gonna see!" _

"Que va! I want to see you just **try** and shoot me!"

"Watch him!"

"He's gonna bolt for it!"

"What are you waiting for, boss? SHOOT HIM!"

"_Don't yous give me orders!"_

"For Christ's sake, just….j-just…………hey……hey, what's wrong with him?" It was the voice of Mugsy. He was looking at me. Blinking.

I shivering heavily.

Hanging off of Rhino's wrists like a crucifix.

Panting…hyperventilating…

_Smoke and mirrors. _

_By his breath……I am freezing. _

_By his breath……I am dying._

"_Hey! Yous! Smoke kid!"_

"…….," I clenched my eyes shut. But I couldn't chase it out of my obsidian optics.

_Red flames. _

_The earth vomiting. _

_Menstruating. _

_Blood and ice. _

_The wraith. _

_The reaper. _

_The Terminator._

"Uh….b-boss? I got a funny feeling…."

"Do any of you feel that chill?"

"_HEY! TITAN! I'm talking to yous, ya monkey!"_

"…….," I tilted my head up. I opened my black eyes. Somewhere deep inside of me, an adolescent boy dropped his red sword and collapsed in a field of tall grass surrounded by cedar trees. That boy suddenly turned into me…who swiftly turned into a caped vigilante with Robin's eyemask howling in sheer terror. The rush of a thousand ice birds flew out of his mouth and blanketed the landscape till they collapsed into the earth in exploding flesh and feathers. Red splashed upward, drenched the sky, and saturated the muddy earth with tears. And out from the waves emerged in frosty fervor an ivory watchtower with a swirling, pulsating light that flashed out the room and pulsed my black eyes _**WHITE!.**_

The Professor gasped. Scareface shook.

Bane's masked eyes narrowed. "Que en el nombre de Dios….?"

_Fwoooosh………_

A breeze bellowed in from the November night outside. Lightly at first.

And then…

The lights started to flicker.

I shuddered instantly. _God, no……_ I shook…my knees wobbling. _I can't go anywhere. I can't……_

Another gust of wind. No, not wind. _Breath._

_FWOOOOSH!_

Wood splinters clattered on the floor. A chandelier swung. Lamps shook and wobbled as the lights flickered more.

The thugs looked around. Shifting nervously.

Mugsy gulped: "The Hell is that…..?"

A light just above the Professor sparked white….white….white….

The old man looked up, lips quivering. "Uhm…..M-M-Mister Scarface?"

"_What is it now, ya blockhead?"_

White….white…..white…………….._**RED.**_

_ZZZZTTT!_

The lights blew out. One by one. POP! _POP!_ P-POP! **POP!**

Sparks and glass shards fell across the shivering bodies in the darkened apartment.

"Aaugh!"

"Jesus!"

"The H-Hell?"

"M-M-M-Mister Sc-Scarface?"

Pitch black.

But I saw it.

I saw _him._

Gasping.

_He's here._

**FWOOOOSH!**

A streak of red.

People's eyes lit up in a crimson flash and were swallowed up by black again.

All except the Ventriloquist.

He jolted….

_**THWACCCCK!**_

…and was still.

Rhino shook behind me, his neck craning across the darkness. "B-Boss?"

Silence.

Then…

_Th-Thump!_

Two things rolled out onto the open floor like wooden balls.

Scarface's knife-pierced skull.

And another head. Wet and red-trailing across the carpet. The Professor.

"Holy shit!" Mugsy shouted. **FWOOOSH! **_**SNINNKKKTTT!**_ Mugsy jolted, his mouth stuck open wide. A red, two-edged sword was piercing through his skull and coming out through his lips.

"MUGSY!" Rhino screamed.

"Dios Mia!"

"The Parasite!" thugs shook in the dark. They ignored Bane, whipped out dual pistols, and fired madly at the opposite side of the room.

BLAM! BL-BLAM! POW!

The bullets sailed into Mugsy's writhing, dangling body. Some sailed past him…only to be consumed in a swirling red vapor. _**SNKKKKKKKTTTT!**_ For a moment, I thought Mugsy was spontaneously undressing his coat. It turns out he was actually being ripped in half down the middle. A burst of lung matter and intestines, and something swam out of his torso with a flaming leap towards the other side of the room.

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Red trails.

A kaleidoscope of crimson strobes, accentuating a different caricature of screaming lips on each and every one of the thugs' faces.

"Aaaaaugh!"

"NNNNNGH! JESUS!"

"GET IT! SHOOT IT! SHOOT ITTTT!"

_RRRREEDDDD AVIARRRRY!_

I shook all over.

Black eyes rolling back.

The sky falling. Red leaking. Red laughing.

_**SLIIIIIIICE!**_

"NNNKgggRAAAAUGHAAA!"

_**SP-SPLORCCH!**_

A shoulder blade went in one direction. A rib cage went in another.

Spinning red vapor. A singing sword with a gleaming, ornamental hilt.

One thug ran out of ammo and stumbled one second too much. "AAAAAAAA—" _**FWOP!**_ His head spun on his neckhole and rolled off.

Bane gasped. He flexed his arms and swung a meaty fist into the red vapor.

The red cloud spun and 'splashed' in place.

Bane's arm snagged. His face tensed. When he brought his hand back….it was missing. "AAAAAUGH!"

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

The red streak was over me. Freezing. Trailing red frost in the air.

I gasped. My eyes flickered white and I convulsed all over.

_Annie…… _

_Annie, run. _

_You are real. _

_Please, go. _

_Stay alive……_

**SLAAAAAAASSSH!**

"AAAAAUGH! GODDDDD!" a thug was writhing, his shoulder cleaved to his hip by a gut-ripping sword. His head twitched every which way and bellowed…bellowed…bellowed before swallowing the barrel of a red-trailing shotgun to the mouth. _**BLAM!**_ His mind flew across the room in a sugar spray.

"Oh Jesus….Oh Jesus…Oh Jesus….," Rhino let go of me and stumbled backwards.

I limped forward. Freezing. Shivering. Hyperventilating.

My left arm was….

Dead.

Dying.

Rebirthing….

_RRRREDD AVIARRRY!_

_A body washing up a river. _

_Batman and Batgirl. _

_Screaming in their arms. _

_Three years. _

_Scars. _

_Scars… _

_Scars………_

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

The red vapor soared straight towards me.

I gasped and flew myself to the floor, trembling.

"AAAAAAAUGH!" Rhino shouted before he lacked the vocal cords to shout anymore.

_**SLIIINK!**____**SLAAASH!**____**THUNK!**_

One last thumb was limping across the room. Grasping for the window. His eyes bulging.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

The figure rushed towards him.

I took a shuddering breath.

_You're a hero, Jordan. _

_You're a God Damn HERO! _

_GET THE HELL UP!_

CHIIIIIIIING!

I sliced Myrkblade out into the red-warbling air and ran across the kaleidoscopic hell hole. Yelling mutely. The blade held high.

I blurred smokingly towards the back of the red-vapor.

The figure stopped. The crimson trails receded into a silhouette darker than my own Balance. A head turned. Tails. Red and black. A gnarled gloved outstretched. A flickering flame.

_**FLASH!**_

_Ana. _

_The Master. _

_Sitting on the sidelines. _

_Watching the red one with his blade. _

_Dancing in the tall grass. _

_Ripping the soil out. _

_Reaping the green fields. _

_Panting. _

_Concentrating._

_Hazel eyes strobing……strobing……__**RED!**_

_**FLASH!**_

I fell back.

My eyes were flickering white.

Fading.

Ice all over my figure.

I panted…sweating.

I looked up.

SPLOOOSH!

A fountain of hot red blood from the last thug drenched me.

I got a mouthful of the copper meat juice.

I sputtered and stumbled back.

Eyes streaming with tears.

"Nnnnnghhhh!" Bane hobbled, clutching his missing wrist.

I coughed, spat, and looked across the room at him. I stood with my back to the cold window. The November backdrop. The Month that was born to kill me.

Bane shook. Bane bled. The legendary mercenary of Gotham looked up. Dark eyes concave under his tense mask. He saw me.

I saw him.

And both of us saw the streak of red as it bathed over his face, cascaded to his side, and speedily sliced its way from his rib-cage to his rib-cage.

_**THNKKKKKKKKTTT!**_

FWOMP!

Bane fell in two halves. And his torso was still 'alive'.

"_AAAAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAUGH! NNGHHAAAH! MRAAAHAAAAAAAAUGH!"_

A figure solidified above him. _CH-CHTUNK!_ A glint of metal aimed at Bane's throat.

_**BLAM!**_

Bane quieted.

………..

_**FWOOSH!**_ The figure looked up at me.

I gasped.

He marched towards me. Dripping with red vapors….red breaths….red murk….red blood.

I took a shuddering breath. I raised Myrkblade. Shaking.

_CHIIIIIIING!_

Red Aviary raised his two-edged blade.

I stepped back once…twice…then stood my ground.

_Give me strength……Ana……_

And Red Aviary charged.

_Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!-Stomp!_

His sword held high.

_**Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!**_

I snarled, black eyes reflecting the incoming red wall.

_Give……me……STRENGTH!_

SWOOOOOSH!

I screamed an empty, scarred breath and slashed Myrkblade at the incoming reaper….


	226. A Hard Act to Follow part 11

**226. A Hard Act to Follow part 11**

…and my metal arm pulsed numb.

My sword-swing faltered.

I limped forward, Myrkblade at an awkward angle.

My life faded in half a breath.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ Red Aviary was upon me.

_**SLAAAASH!**_ **CLANK!**

Myrkblade was knocked from my grasp.

_Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!_

I gasped, my head spinning over my left shoulder.

The blade flew out the window and fell onto the alleyway before.

And Red Aviary…

_**WHUMP!**_

I was kneed in the chest.

_**SLAAAASH!**_

Grazed in the shoulder with the double-edged sword.

_SLIIIINK!_

Bleeding, I teetered…teetered…teetered back.

_CH-CHTUNK!_

Another glint of metal.

A boot flying up to my bare face.

_**SMACK!**_

I fell backwards.

I rolled.

THWUMP-TWHUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP!

….out the window.

…..onto the metal catwalk.

…..and landed with my back slouched against the rusted railings.

_**SWOOOOOOSH!**_

**PLANT!**

The barrel of a shotgun to my throat.

A shotgun gripped tightly in a red-gloved hand. A gloved hand where black metal fingers showed through. Metal fingers sewed…hacked…and clamped onto pale, rigor mortis skin. And red vapor…red vapor…red vapor seeping out from the folds in the glove like the exhaust of a hallow, metal golem.

"_**Hccccckkkkk-clik-clik-clik-clik—Hellllllo Noirrrrrr……."**_

My heart stopped at that voice.

_That Voice!_

"_**Finallllly…..Hcckkk……I am strong-clik-clik-clik-enough to consssssume youuuuuu……"**_

I followed the shotgun up the red glove to a black-sleeved arm. Up the black-sleeved arm to a black right shoulder.

_Oh no……_

"_**The chassssse is overrrrr…….clik-clik-clik-clik……y-you pulsssse white likkkke a beacccon….Hccckkk….brighterrrr than even Terrrrrra hersssself……."**_

A black torso. Quivering. Shaking. Clothed in stretched obsidian. An abdomen covered in red. Black fatigues…stretching down the legs till they branched into red flares surrounding red boots.

_Please, God, n-no……_

"_**With your patheticccccc breath out of the way……Hcckkkk…..Terrrrra will not sssstand long…..and the casssscade ssssshall consume the land in full……."**_

My black eyes washed up.

Moist.

Quivering.

My jaw hung over in an eternal gasp.

The black neck rose to a cowl. A velvety mask stretched skin-type over a skull-like head. Breathings slits were sliced into 'mouth' area and red velvety tails hung off the back, rustling in the wind. The right half of the cowl was solid black. Immaculate. The right half was red. Crimson.

And it sported a single, curved eyeslit where a red-glowing soul shimmered through….

"_**I rrrrrreally sssssshould thankkkkk you, Noir—clik-clik-clik-clik—For thisssssss immortal epiphanyyyy…,"**_ Slade hissed down towards me. He aimed the shotgun squarely into my scarred throat. I sat helpless, scrunched back against the metal fire-escape railing overlooking the cold alleyway floor. Black smoke quivered beneath red vapors.

And it started snowing.

Tiny white flakes settling, shifting around us. Cascading between our heated…shivering contact. Red tearing onto the bleeding earth below.

"_**You gave me a giftttttt….Hcckkkk…YOU gaveHckkME a rebirrrrth! A hand to the reinssss of death!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_July 5. _

_The frigate._

_SLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIINK!_

_I drove Myrkblade into Slade…to the hilt. _

_He leaned towards me……skewered on the blade._

"_**All the pain Dagger and I put you thrrrrrrough…..Hcckkkk-clik-clik-clik! All the hatred you had pent up insssssidee of yyyyou……"**_

_"Snkkkkkk…..y-you are a ffffffool, Noir. Hckkkk!…O-Only fools tear themselvessssss up for friends. Only f-fools……….," and his breath faded._

"_**It conssssssumed you…..Hcckkk! The heroiccccc sssssoul cccaved in….the demon wasssss let loossssse…..Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! You willed me Death….andHcccckkkKKKONLY DEATH!"**_

_I inhaled. A beat. I let my breath go in a hot, soundless breath._

'_I hope you fucking burn.'_

_**SLASSSSSSSH!**_

_Smoking, Myrkblade divided Slade's torso in twain._

_The despot fell back from a fountain of spurting blood and sailed through the circular window of the frigate._

_**CRASSSSH!**_

_**FLASSSSH!**_

_Beneath the churning metal body of the Frigate, Slade's body plunged…plunged……plunged into the depths of the Bay. _

_Blood trailed red…… _

_Surging downwards with him. _

_And the lingering sharpness of smoke and murk flickered in his open, gaping wounds……_

"_**You had killlllled me, Noirrrrr……Hcckkkk! But in ssssso doing, your blurrrrrring blade pulsssssed into me the sssssseed of the Spectrum……"**_

_Slade's mask slides off, trailing blood and murk from the Titan's sword. _

_The shadowy figure of the villain drifts to the ocean's bottom. _

_The smoke circles around his dying figure. _

_Enveloping._

_Enveloping……_

"_**Hcccckkkk! The SSSSPECTRUMMMM…..clik-clik-clik-clik! Neverrrrr in all my sssssearch for tipping the Balance of Moralssss did I truly grassssp the SSSpectrum till thennnn…..Hccckkk! It wasssss not a thing of life givinggggg….clik-clik-clik-clik! Butttt a ficccckle angel of DEATH! And death wassssss what I wanted…..it wassss what I sssssserved the City with. The TITANSSSS WITH! HCKKKK! Clik-Clik-Clik-and you had DRIVEN it into ME! AND I TASSSSTED DEATH! Hckkkkkk! And I….BECAME…..DEATHHH! HCKKKKKK!"**_

_The dangling limbs of Slade's body suddenly twitch……tensed……curled…… _

_And the cloud of black smoke surrounding him quivered……warbled……and changed color. _

_A deep, bleeding red._

_The head of the shredded soul shook and rocked and spat out red bubbles. __**FLASH!**__ A vaporous red cloud emerged from his wounds. And his legs started kicking. And his torso started spinning. And he darted up……up………up………towards the star-lit surface of the bay. _

_Beneath him, discarded in the muddy floor of the water, the cold steel face mask resided. And suddenly……it started flickering a frigid, flickering red. Empowered with Destruction._

"_**It allllll made sssssense to me! The wheelsssss that turn thisssss patheticccc world arrrround…Hckkkkk! The nooks and the cranniessss of the Balance of Moralssss! The power of the rrrrred blade….and all my many errrrrorsssss before hand. The errors…clik-clik-clik-clik….of a MORTAL!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Slade twirled a bo-staff. _

_Robin, dressed in metal mesh…brown and white……_

_He whipped out a cracked metal bar and faced off against Slade. _

_Together, the two dueled and fought across the length of Slade's undercity lair of gears and machinery……_

"_**All I wantttted……in all my terrrorisssssm……in all my asssspirationssss……wassss an apprenticcce……"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Slade stood before a row of monitors in a volcanic hideout. _

_Wearing a high-powered suit, he lifted his arms, shouted, and flung his arms forward in the naked air. _

_On the flickering, electric screens……Terra clad in cybernetic white and gray flung her arms in identical fashion. _

_A quarry of unearthed stone and gravel soared mercilessly at the Titans._

"……_**.sssssomeone to carry on my legacccccy……to furtherrrrr my name and perfeccccct my powerssssss….."**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Terra sat in the corner. _

_Half naked. _

_Bruised……bleeding…… _

_Clutching shreds of a uniform over her nether regions. _

_She shivered and sobbed…outlined by a shadow. _

_The figure of Slade walking coldly……away……_

"……_**.no matterrrr what I did……how much I ssssstruggled…….RRRRobin and the Titanssss ruined my cccclaim to immortality…….."**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Slade's dark body swam towards the surface of the Bay. _

_Swam and swam and swam and swam…… _

"_**But sssssoon I transsssformed……and I no longerrrr needed to strive for that goal! For I am immortal now, Noirrrr. HcckkkkkkKKKK! I have CONSSSSSUMED the RED! All that was weakkkk inssssside of me had been terrrrminated! And in a crimssssson breath I awoke and sssssaw every puny life that ever oncccce stood in my way! Clik-Clik-Clik! And I sssssaw the fault linessss and the breakssss in my enemiessss! And I ssssswore….with the ssssscream of my firssssst breath that I would seize the one most insssssolent in the face of my powerrrrrr and takkkke hisssss world and bathe it in the blood of all he onccccce held dearrrrr and fought for!"**_

_Slade reached the surface. _

_A twitching. _

_A breaking._

_**SPLASSSSH!**_

_A dark head flew back in the air. _

_Lips flung open above the waves. _

_Towards the black sky and wishing it to bleed._

"_**RRRRRRRRRRREDDDDDDDDD AVIARRRRRRRRRYYYYY!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_A group of thugs inside the warehouse at Pier 7123 turned and gasped. _

_A limping, bleeding figure leapt towards them, swinging a fishing gaffe._

_CRKKK! _

_One thug's skull caved in. _

_The others fled. _

_The figure shivered in place. Flickering red from his wounds. Breathing….bleeding crimson vapors. He cracked his shadowed neck and leapt upon the fleeing numbers, hissing like a panther._

"_**I had at my dissssposssssal the esssssence of DEATH! Everything I toucccched collapssssed and died. I had become the asssssassin of fate…..the REAPER of thisssss weak-hearted world! Hcccckkkk! And with each death I caused…..I beccccame ssssstrongerrrr……"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Pier 4146. _

_Thugs screamed as they were hacked to pieces by a two-edged sword. Stained read. _

_Slade hobbled after them, shredding them to corpses. Draining their bodies of blood. Mixing the crimson juice with vaporous hand and splashing images on the warehouse wall. He then 'wrote' words with the bloodied tip of his sword and carved letters into the flesh of the mangled bodies._

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! And I started the sssssnowball effect of Destruction! With the toolssss at my disssposal……I sssshredded my way up the criminal ladder!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_Lights still flickered in the laboratory hallways of the Lexcorp building. _

_His blade freshly dripping, Slade sauntered over ripped and dismembered bodies. _

_He carried a bundle of tools to a laboratory counter. _

_He activated a robot arm. _

_Bleeding……but not dying……the dark figure spread out on the tabletops cybernetic parts. Motors and mechanisms. Dirty……rusting gears and machinery…… _

_With the assistance of the robot arm, and without anesthesia, the ripped reaper began riveting replacement fingers and motorized innards to mix with his pale, zombified flesh. _

_Quivering and billowing red vapors from the inside of his torso like some concealed Dragon._

"_**I torrrre into Lexcorp…….I ripppped into Dagger…….I carrrved my way into the Gotham City criminal underrrrground. They had no choice but to bow down to the wills and chillssss of a leeching Parasssite……a Parasite that would become—Hcckkkk—a CARNIVORE!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

_A fiery explosion ripped through the Omega Wing of the City Prison. _

_Burning plumes rose towards the morning sky. _

_And across the Plain, situated on a mountain slope with his metal-twitching fingers to a carbonite switch…… _

_Slade stood. _

_Glaring. _

"………"

_His shadowed face was aimed at the horizon. _

_Dressed in red and black with a sword and shotgun sheathed over his back, he lifted a two-tailed cowl of obsidian and crimson over his face. His breath came through the slits in the velvety material. Intermittent and shaking from his 'dead' lungs working to function equally with the motorized cybernetics crammed inside of his hollow chest. _

"_Hccckkkk……Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik!Hckkkkk!" he wheezed. _

_CHIIIIIING! _

_He raised his blade to the sky. _

_Concentrated…… _

_And summoned red murk without so much as an after thought._

"_**I am now morrrrre than death itsssssself! I am a pessstilence……I am the Avatar of Destruction! I am a Deathstroke! An angel of fatality if ever there was one!"**_

_**FLASH!**_

'Deathstroke's' slitted eye narrowed down at me as he stood in the red light of the Gotham sky. His shotgun barrel pressed firmer against my throat as I shivered on the floor of the fourth-story fire escape.

Swordless.

Breathless.

Helpless.

Snow falling.

Falling softly….

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! But I cccccannot be death…..no….I cannot be dddeath asssss long assss there issss a Balance to UPSSSSET my power! And you are that balance, Noirrrrr. Not Terrrrra. You. And it is becausssse of you that the sssssky did not turn red, even if the earth bled! The Aviarrrrry was not painted red! The firsssst apprentice laughssss at me. And to root him out……I musssst dig into the thickesssst meat of all!"**_

As he hissed thusly, a cloud of red and crimson murked out of his limbs and orifices. Ice cold. Ghostlike.

His one eye flashed _**RED**_ beneath the cowl.

"_**I musssst dig you outttt of the mortal coil! HERE! IN GOTHAM! Where the birrrrd's first blood was RUN!"**_

I panted.

My whole body went numb.

But for another reason….

_The sky……d-didn't 'turn red'? _

_The Aviary……untouched. _

_Slade……Deathstroke……what he says………_

My lips quivered.

Dry mouth. Dry tongue.

Swallowing.

_Robin……i-is alive?_

"_**Embrrrrace imbalanccccce, Noirrrrrrr….clik-clik-clik-CLIK!"**_ Deathstroke's twitching metal finger curled at the trigger. _**"Your so-called 'experiment' of a life endsssss today……"**_

I clench my jaw and tense my body. Because….

Because all of this time, I've been gently meditating and concentrating a field of murk out from my right hand. And I had extended a carpet of near-invisible murk along the metal surface of the fire escape, beneath Deathstroke's feet, and bubbling up behind him.

"_**Hcckkkkk-KKKKK!"**_ His finger pulled.

I gritted my teeth.

I pulsed murk, shooting a burst up and out of the splotch of smoke at his heels.

_**POW!**_

"_**AAAUGH!"**_ He lurched forward.

_**BL-BLAM!**_ The shotgun fired.

I yanked my dark head aside.

_**CLAK!**_ A section of metal railing broke away.

Deathstroke swirled. Deathstroke snarled. Deathstroke swung the butt of his blade down at me.

Murking, I rolled out of the way towards the bloodied apartment.

CL-CLANK! The shotgun rifle strikes bare platform.

I jump up, shivering.

Deathstroke wheels about. A strobe of his one eye. He pumps his shotgun. _Ch-Chtunk!_

"!" swordless, I let out a mute scream and charge at him.

He aims. He fires.

SWOOOSH! I dive.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

**WHUMP!** I plow my body into him.

"_**OOF!"**_

_Nnnnghh!_

The two of us topple…topple…and crash through the railing of the fire escape.

**CRACK!**

Our bodies fell down the cold, snow-littered alleyway.

We flailed.

A red blur and a black blur.

In four flurrying stories, we slapped and snapped through a pair of tattered clotheslines.

CRPP!

SNPPP!

We jolted, bounced, twirled, and collided with each other.

The blood and white world spun.

November freezing laughter.

I entangled with him and he entangled with me.

And we both slammed into a garbage dumpster, Slade first.

_**WHAAA-AAAANG!**_

I rolled off.

Deathstroke rolled off.

I twitched and writhed on the ground. Panting. Wincing. Snow-stabbed.

Quivering with red pulses, Deathstroke stood up. _CHIIIIII-IIII-IIING!_ His two-edged sword rang icily into the claustrophobic air.

I gasped and looked all over the cold alleyway floor.

_There!_

Myrkblade rested a foot away.

I slapped a metal arm towards it. Grasping snow and gravel. Plodding…plodding…

_Gripping!_

I clenched my metal fists around Myrkblade's hilt.

"_**HCKKKK-RAAAAUGH!"**_ Deathstroke's sword came down at me.

I held my breath. I pulsed murk through my limbs.

FWOOOSH!

I rolled out of the way.

_**CLACK!**_

Sparks flew off a fresh scratch in the concrete.

I rolled.

I jumped up to my feet.

I spun to face him with Myrkblade in my left palm—

_**SWOOOOOOSH!**_

Slade's sword swam at me and sank into the wrist.

A burst of red smoke—

_**SHATTTTTTTERRRRR!**_

My metal forearm broke into a thousand pieces.

Myrkblade went flying, embedding into a wall somewhere. _Cl-Clank!_

_AAAAAAAUGH!_

I throbbed all over with iciness.

Clutching the shattered metal stub where my prosthetic once existed and hobbling back.

_RRRRREDDDD AVIARRRRRY!—__FLASH__!_

A gasp.

A pant.

My black eyes quivered at glinting metal singing at me.

_SLIIIIINK!_

A cut across my left knee cap.

_SLIIIIIIINK!_

A graze across my right.

I hung my mouth open in a helpless, empty howl.

TH-THWUMP! I landed on my knees. Quivering. One-armed.

Deathstroke stood before me. A gentle starfall of white flakes shrouding his red and black figure. Red murk billowed and he raised his sword above my skull to cleave me in two.

"_**Give me alllllll the RRRRRED!"**_

I merely quivered. Breath vapors. Black eyes thin.

_I failed, Ana._

Deathstroke swung his sword down.

_SLAAAAASH----_

Thwoosh-Thwoosh-Thwoosh-Thwoosh-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-**CLANK!**

A batarang thundered its way into the fray and knocked the sword out of Deathstroke's grasp.

"_**AAAUGH!"**_ the red smoking reaper clutched his half-metal hand and hobbled back. _**"Clik-Clik-Clik!"**_ He looked up.

So did I.

Three dark shadows were perched on the fire escape.

The largest one…the centermost leapt down. A billowing of a leathery black cape. Singing winds like a dark choir forever lost in the shadows and crevices of Gotham.

_SWOOOOSH-__**SMACK!**_ Batman landed with a gloved fist across Deathstroke's face.

The reaper stumbled back, blood and red smoke flying loosely from his cowl.

I gasped, breathless.

Batman marched past me. Darkness incarnate. Two ivory eyeslits narrowed and a voice that would chill the layers of Hell echoed forth: "Hello, Death. Remember me?"

"**Hccckkkk….Batmannnnn," **Deathstroke leaned his vaporous head to the side. **"How'sssss the kidddd?"**

Batman cracked his knuckles. "I'll tell you later when you're six feet under." FWOOOSH! Before any of us knew it, the Dark Knight crossed ten feet and was pummeling two fists across Deathstroke's face.

THWACK!

WHAM!

POW!

Deathstroke lingered back.

Batman snarled and raised a final fist to cave Red Aviary's face in.

But then Deathstroke's foot touched his dislodged sword. He flexed his upper torso and summoned a wave of murk in the fashion that only I was taught.

"_**RAAAAAAAAUGHHKKKKKKK!"**_

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

A bubble of red energy forced Batman back.

"Unnngh!"

Now in the clear, Deathstroke kicked his sword up into his grasp, twirled it—TH-THWISSH!—and charged at us.

Instead of engaging the reaper, Batman suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and hoisted me up to my feet. He backed up….just in time for two more figures to leap down from above.

Dizzily….I gasped again.

Nightwing.

Batgirl.

"Nnnngh!"

"Hiyaa!"

A nightarang and a batarang were tossed simultaneously at Red Aviary.

THW-THW-THW-THW-THWOOOSH!

Deathstroke snarled and slashed his sword at the projectiles on the charge.

CLACK! CRKKK! He raised his blade and came at the two.

Batgirl and Nightwing dashed to opposite sides in time for Batman beside me to aim forward with a grappling hook and…

**POW!**

The cord surged forward and wrapped around Deathstroke's body. Constricting him. TH-THWPP!

"**Nnngghhh! Clik-Clik-HCKKK!"**

"We got him!" Nightwing shouted, grinning.

"Now's the time!" Batgirl panted. "Batman! Finish him off—"

"_**You ssssshall finisssh nothing…..,"**_ Slade hissed red vapors. _**"I am already DEAD! NRRRAAAAUGHKKK!"**_ SNAP! He ripped the bindings apart with a pulse of murk and suddenly leapt high.

The three vigilantes gasped and looked up.

My black eyes weakly trailed.

Deathstroke flipped two and a half stories up and over us. As he sailed thusly, he let loose three carbonite grenades like a bomber.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

"Carbonite!" Batgirl shouted.

"MOVE!" Nightwing added.

Batman was already flinging me across the alleyway with a muscular arm as he himself leapt…

_**PPPPOWWWW!**_

The alleyway filled and ruptured with red, billowing plasma.

Fire escapes groaned, snapped, and fell crashingly into the inferno below.

I rested on the ground. Sputtering. Blacking out. I looked up. Panting.

Batgirl and Nightwing were sprawled out behind me.

And Batman….

I gasped.

The Dark Knight lingered on his knees, bruised heavily. He groaned…positioned closest to the fire.

And out of that same fire, the burning 'corpse' of Deathstroke dove through.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

"_**HCKKKKKKKK!"**_

CHIIIIIING!

Trailing embers and crimson vapor, he streaked towards the Dark Knight on red blurring feet. Blade raised. Aiming at the Gotham Avenger's cowled skull.

"_**Prepare to enter into legend, Batman!"**_

Batman shook his skull and looked up. His eyeslits widened.

FWOOOOSH! I teleported before him with a right hand outstretched towards Deathstroke.

"Noir!" Nightwing shouted.

I gritted my teeth. Deathstroke's blade came down on me. In a single breath, my right arm shook and exploded a black pulse while my eyes flickered a white-as-snow _**WHITE!**_

_**FLASH!**_

"**AAAAUGH!"** Deathstroke reeled and flailed backwards in surprise. His body soared airborne from the Equalizer's resistance.

In slow motion he seemed to linger there. Above the flames. A demon in his own right.

_Skkt!_ Batman whipped out an explosive batarang. "NOW!" He shouted.

Nightwing and Batgirl whipped out explosive projectiles of their own.

"Noir! Get down!" the heroine panted.

I dove to the cold alleyway floor just in time.

THWOOSH!

THWISSSH!

THWOOOOOOSH!

All three birdarangs weaved and arced through the burning alleyway till they converged masterfully as one on Deathstroke's airborne body.

THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-THWISH-BEEP-BEEP-BEEEEEEP_**-BOOOOOOOOM!**_

The alleyway billowed with flame once more.

I was knocked back with a mute grunt, landing between Batgirl and Nightwing on the cold concrete.

Batman shaded himself with his cape. He stood up…a dark leathery silhouette against the amber nightmare. He tilted his masked face up, craning his neck, looking.

"…….."

He gazed upward.

As did Nightwing and Batgirl.

Slade's supernatural shadow stood on a melting fire-escape above the blaze. He glared down. One red eye pulsing like a distant lighthouse beam. The two tails of his cowl dancing in the wind. A puff of red vapor escaped his form. He sheathed his sword, slowly turned around, and blurred off in a vaporous streak towards the distant chaos of the night.

Death had taken a holiday…..

For now….

"He's gone!" Nightwing gasped. Catching his breath and hobbling across the heated alleyway. The sparse snow was starting to melt into slosh in the corners from the flames. "I don't believe it! And we almost had him too!"

"………," Batman stared into the fiery oblivion.

"It didn't work, Batman! Noir here merely got Red Aviary out into the open! But he's still alive! And Triangular's using his threat to do whatever the Hell they want!"

"……..," Batman turned around with a swirl of his cape. "We're going home…," he droned.

Nightwing frowned. "But Batma—"

"Now!" Batman growled. He stared down at me. "How is he doing?"

"……"

His eyeslits narrowed. "Noir?"

I was fading out.

The cold and numbness had gone away with the shattered remains of the metal prosthetic Simon Stone had given me. But with it, the night and the lights of the flame went away too. My black eyes tilted back and I slept….slept….slept…

"N-Noir!" Batgirl gasped. She knelt down, looked over me, and shook my shoulders. "Noir! Stay with us! Stay with us, Noir!"

Slept….slept….slept….

"N-Noir!"

"Take him back……he…..needs…..assistance……"

"Right……..Bat………man…………..call…………..Thompkins……."

"N…..o…..i…r…..!"

_I survived him. _

_I survived him, Ana._

Slept.


	227. A Hard Act to Follow part 12

**227. A Hard Act to Follow part 12**

"_Jeez, is he __**still**__ training?"_

"_He's got to, Jordan. You know how much concentration it takes for what he's learning." _

"_I don't get it, Ana. I mean……what's simpler than Destruction? You rip through things……you break stuff……you turn the sky a little 'red'. What's the big deal?" _

"_Hehehehehe……you really need to meditate deeper." _

"_The Master says I'm doing fine……" _

"_Yeah. Cuz you aren't thinking. You're just __**doing**__. Speaking what comes out of your head. Hehehe……I can understand learning the Black art of being impulsive, but no need to be dim-witted!"_

"_I'm not dim-witted. I just……well………how can Red require any more time and concentration than Black? I've __**felt**__ some of Red, Ana. The same as I've felt some of White. There isn't much there to carve the meat from." _

"_That's just it, Jordan. There __**isn't**__ a lot to be had in Red. The adept that studies it must rely on his own strength as much as that of the Destructive side of the Spectrum. It's a very……very lonely journey. Not like you and me. Black depends on and reinforces both poles……and White reflects on all life in general." _

"_Yeah……I-I guess you do have a point." _

"_When you're a Red adept, the only thing you have as a friend……is ultimately Death itself." _

"_Right……" _

"……………"

"……………"

"……………"

"………_still……we should have gone bowling half an hour ago." _

"_Hehehehehe……don't worry, Jordan. He'll come." _

"_Yeah……heh……I hope so." _

"_After all, the three of us are inseperable……right……?" _

…………

………

……

…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

November 30, 2005

Early morning.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hmmm…….Hrmmm…."

"How is he now, Leslie?"

"Oh….horrifically wonderful!"

"_Horrifically?"_

"The way in which he physically recovers is remarkable! It's like he hasn't suffered a single blow or cut to his body, the way his insides are ticking. But if you look…he's quite obviously in a banged up shape."

"Is he metahuman?"

"Oh, I wouldn't know from just one examination, Dick. Besides…I think his 'powers' are something he only exercises when awake."

"P-Please, Leslie. Call me 'Nightwing' at the moment. Who's to say if he's waking up or not?"

"Dick…take it easy. Of course we're going beyond the 'masks' with him. Especially at this point in time."

"…….yeah, sure."

"Dick!"

"Are we serious? Batman, how much can we trust him now that he's _here_?"

"All this time we have been 'trusting' him. And he hasn't let us down."

"But aren't you forgetting what he did in Vegas and Metropolis and--?"

"And aren't you forgetting how he dragged you away from the burning warehouse after Deathstroke interrupted your little brawl?"

"………."

"He didn't come all this way to be brainwashed and sent back home. That's where Superman was in error. I'm not about to make the same mistake. We all know how a vigilante passion can't simply be suppressed. With Noir, it's either prison or the battlefront. And I think we need him more on our side than on no side at all right now."

"I'm sick of all this tapdancing around fate! Why can't you just interrogate him and have it done with, Batman? Like the old days!"

"These _aren't_ the old days, Nightwing."

"Yeah, I know. 'Triangular'. 'Red Aviary'. 'Balance of Morals going to shit and whatnot'. Yeesh. I've seen better days in Jury selection."

"Batman's right. This is a threat unlike any Gotham—or the rest of the world for that matter—has ever faced before. And in case you haven't noticed it….we're all dealing with an element that Noir here seems quite familiar with."

"I hear the 'reaper' nearly took your head off, Bruce."

"We managed, Leslie."

"Did you now? And just how close was it? A hair's width? For goodness' sake, the evils you people fight get only worse and worse. I'm afraid that whatever comes next will be worse than the grim reaper incarnate. Today the angel of death. Tomorrow……what, a black hole?"

"Is he seriously recovering?"

"As serious as I am a trained physician! Despite my old age, I know a trouper when I see one. The boy has terrible…terrible scars all over his body. Most of them are years and months old. But a good handful are still fresh. I've treated them…since he's been long overdue. I think a good shower and bed for a night would do him good. Almost reminds me of your old days of training in Asia, Bruce."

"Hehehe….a regular guest, for sure…."

"Let it rest, Batgirl…."

"Sheesh! Well if you aren't Mr. Grumpy today, Nightwank!"

"I greatly suspect that those black eyes of his are sensitive to lights. And though there aren't many lamps in this place of doom and gloom, a good pair of shades will do him wonders."

"Understood. Alfred…will you grab some sunglasses from the utility wing?"

"I would if I could, sir. Heaven forbid you should be working down here and find the sudden inspiration to vacation in Bermuda. But fear not, I believe there are some in the glove compartment of the Batmobile."

"Less chat and more charity, Alfred."

"Well noted, sir…"

"Do you suppose he knows?"

"Knows what, Batgirl?"

"Everything."

"Everything that we know?"

"…….."

"Hardly. But there are things he knows that most certainly we don't. That's why we need his cooperation."

"Well, if anything, it'll probably be like a litmus test. After we 'hear' Noir out some, maybe we'll know whether or not that kid has been telling us the truth."

"He has been, Nightwing."

"How do we know?"

"Call it a 'hunch'…."

"Pfft…you and your hunches."

"I think he's proven his honesty by now……………Batgirl? Any sign of Fox?"

"I've been checking all day. No sign of him. He could be using a new call sign."

"Keep at it. There's a chance Noir might not know where Lucius' son ended up after all."

"I'll also check on Kara and see how Miss Markov is doing."

"Good."

"…………"

"Nightwing, something troubles you?"

"I'm just wondering how long Noir's been faking sleep while we've rambled endlessly around him."

"Precisely three minutes."

I groaned mutely.

I stirred where I lay on some lone medical bed somewhere.

"G-Good heavens!" the voice of an old woman right beside me shook as her frail body jumped. I sensed an echoing of her voice against cavernous rock. "I-I must be getting careless! I didn't even realize the patient had awakened!"

"It's okay, Leslie…," a warm, feminine voice. Young…yet mature. A thin, caped figure drifted over into my ring of spatial awareness and placed a gloved hand on my shoulder. "Take it easy, Noir…..you're with allies now…."

My black eyes fluttered open.

It was dark.

A dark place.

But one of the voices had been right. My eyes couldn't handle the stabbing glow of a lamp or two nearby.

So, I clenched my eyes shut…cringing some. I realized I was shirtless. Swordless. I lied there in my fatigues and boots and long hair in a fan beneath my head. I sat up, face tense. A right hand over my clenched-shut eyes. And my left hand….

….

_My left hand. _

_Shit, it's gone. _

_Gone for good……_

I blurred my right hand to the metal disc of a stub on my left limb. The shattered stump of the metal prosthetic must have been removed in my sleep. I was back to the one-armed nakedness I had always been since July fifth. Now…nearly five months later…I felt just as wounded.

Yet, twice as lost.

"Easy….Easy…..Slade isn't here. He couldn't possibly know where any of us are. Not here."

I took a shuddering breath. I tried to 'picture' the room in my mind with spatial sense. But as much as I could define shapes, bodies, people….I couldn't feel the walls. Wherever we were….it had to have been _big._

"There now, keep still….," a gentle hand on my shoulder. The old lady. "I'm just going to check your pulse and blood pressure again, now that you're awake."

Blindly, I nodded. I lowered my right arm and sat up straight as an ice-cold stethoscope was pressed up to my bare torso. Responding to the woman's light words, I breathed heavily and tilted my head in the direction of the largest of the bodies.

"It was a close call, Noir," Batman's voice said. "_Too_ close, almost. But it was necessary. We had never gotten that near to Red Aviary before."

"…………."

"I didn't expect us to truly take him down. But now we know that we can withstand. Together, at least."

"But what if he gets stronger?" Nightwing's voice drifted over, directed towards Batman. "It looks like all he needs to do is kill more people to increase his grasp on Destruction. He's called the 'Parasite' for a reason, you know. The more people he consumes, the more badass he is. It's like some sort of soul-eater or something…."

The woman—the physician—was wrapping a blood pressure band around my right arm. She constricted it firmly around the upper limb and relaxed it. My pulse throbbed…

Batman's voice replied to Nightwing: "I've dealt with vampires and 'soul-eaters' before. Trust me. Red Aviary is a new and deadly entity."

"It sorta figures you'd have run into a vampire since I left the Cave. What, with you never seeing the light of day and all…"

Again, the warm womanly voice uttered from the side: "Do you think we need to call the Justice League?"

"What Justice League?" Batman's voice said. "They were already in the initial stages of breaking up even while I was incapacitated…..long before November Fourth." The Dark Knight's presence shifted over towards the front of my circle of sensitivity. "Right now, they are in transition—as I'm sure Noir is quite aware. If we were to contact them at this point, only one or two at most would join. And right now, we can't do with just _half_ a League. Whatever group is seeing to Deathstroke, it has to be solid and unified. No matter the size."

"Heh. Guess I'm lucky to be with the 'home team'."

"I think we're being unfair to Noir. Shouldn't we fill him in?"

"I was going in that route," Batman said. I sensed his body turn towards the distance. "Alfred, you're back."

"When you said 'glove compartment', sir, you neglected to mention the emergency land mine disposal switch positioned wondrously in the path of the drawer handle."

"Thanks, Alfred….."

"Risking my neck for sunglasses is exactly what I'm paid for, sir."

Heavy, booted footsteps. A swish of a cape.

"Here, Noir…."

"….," I reached my right hand out. My fingers brushed a thick leather glove. Icy cold. I winced, ignored it, and took the shades. They were sleek. Perfect. I couldn't complain one bit.

I slipped them on….

"…….."

I was gazing upward. And stalactites were stabbing down towards me. Rows upon rows of them. High up on a dark, domed ceiling of jagged earth. A glistening sheen from nearby lamps flashed off of them, and suddenly—without much provocation—a throng of bats flapped their shrieking way down in a curved arc.

I flinched instinctively.

The bats swarmed up into an alcove behind a row of stalactites and shrieked into silence.

Someone giggled.

I cleared my throat, sat upright, and looked around.

And indeed…we were located on a flat alcove of stone extending from an even larger platform above us. Medical equipment and healing tubes and special racks rested around me. In the distance, computer consoles and miniature laboratories dotted the enormous interior. And then—even further up and outward was a long series of stone steps leading up…up….up…somewhere.

_Ah. _

_The BatCave._

_I guess I should be thrilled……but……_

"Well, you seem fine to me…," the old woman said.

"…..," I glanced at her.

She smiled ever so slightly and stepped back. A gray-haired lady with soft eyes and a stone-wrinkled face made for frowning as much as grinning. She was dressed modestly in a purple shirt, gray jacket, and a grayer skirt. She seemed out of place in this vigilante purgatory.

"My name is Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Certified physician, I assure you…," she winked.

_What isn't 'certifiable' about this place?_

She went on: "Luckily, you'll be able to stand and walk. Just do so slowly. You're just as versatile as these rascals. I should have known better than to expect less from a Titan." She turned her head and glared in the direction of one of the heroes. "Though I must state….half of his bruises could very well have been avoided on behalf of _one_ individual here!"

"Look, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"……," I glanced left.

Nightwing stood a few feet off, leaning back against a rack of medical supplies. He looked a little tense behind his tight black eyemask as he shrugged and said: "But at the time, it was the most logical choice! Noir was fighting his way to his own doom. And face it!" He pointed at me and directly uttered: "The guy is reckless! He won't hesitate to fight Superman and Wonder Woman of the Justice League if it means him getting what he wants! What consolation did we have that he wouldn't fight us either?"

"Simple…," Batman marched into view. His tall dark visage and glaring eye slits as cold and chilling as ever. "…up until this time, Noir has not been given what he's wanted. And we have what he wants. If we work together for the same means, there'll be no need for conflict. End of subject."

"Heh….," Nightwing folded his arms. "Naturally."

"Don't you think we should give Noir a choice?" the woman's voice asked.

I looked over.

A redhead in black tights and cowl. Yellow and blue cape. Batgirl sat at a huge-ass computer and gestured: "We owed him just as much as he now owes us. I don't think we should obligate him…."

"Considering the nature of what we're dealing with," Batman droned, "I don't see how he'd reject."

Batgirl made a face. "Did you _ask_ him?"

"…….."

Nightwing smirked.

'Leslie' the doctor shifted where she stood.

"………," with a little disgruntled hesitance, Batman's head turned and looked at me. "Noir, if I was to tell you that together and with our combined efforts we'd track down both Deathstroke and the stolen thermal energy of Terra, would you be willing to form a temporary partnership with us?"

"………," my black eyes narrowed under my shades.

All masked eyes were trained on me.

The doctor and an old, balding fellow in a butler's uniform also stared at me.

_Batman's asking me to __**join**__ his side on fighting Red Aviary…… _

_Slade must be even more powerful than even I've witnessed._

"……."

I glanced once again at Nightwing and then at Batgirl.

_Then again, Batman's got a large enough family as it is._

I looked at Batman.

I silently nodded my head.

Batman's pointed mask tilted forward back at me. "You are an excellent team player, Noir. Wonder Woman shared that with me from your correspondence. I'm sure we'll find much to help each other with."

"Yeah….," Nightwing groaned and flexed his upper limbs. "And how about no more beating around the god damn bush?"

"It is getting more and more violent out there…," the doctor said. Her face was tight. Her eyes thin. "…what use is adding one more member to your team? An outsider of the Titans, at that? That terrible reaper will only rip you apart all the more viciously!"

"I say….," the butler exhaled.

Batgirl stood up. "Dr. Thompkins….why such bleak hope? Don't you see that we have an edge now?"

"You mean him?" the old woman pointed at me. "Hasn't he been tossed around enough as it is?"

"Don't look at me!" Nightwing smirked.

I would have shot him the bird if my metal hand wasn't broken in a thousand pieces and lost in a Gotham City street somewhere….

I glanced around absent-mindedly….and saw Myrkblade in its scabbard lying on a distant tray besides a bundle of my tattered shirt and jacket.

_Okay. _

_Good to have 'friends' nearby…_

"Noir has a power quite similar to Deathstroke's," Batman said. "Whatever Slade is now, he's a completely different person since the day Noir 'killed' him. After my first encounter with Deathstroke, I knew that even I was no match for his supernatural touch of death. I had to assault him craftily, and with help."

"So that's why we sprang forth at just the right moment…," Batgirl spoke in my direction, as if they had all been 'explaining' themselves to me the whole time. "Your coming into this City brought Red Aviary out into the open. A confrontation was inevitable. And we were there to assist you in the nick of time."

I exhaled.

_Yeah…… _

_In the 'nick of time'……_

Images flashed through my shaded vision. Bane screaming as he was chopped in half. The Ventriloquist's head rolling across a red-strobed floor.

I bit my lip.

"Face it…," Nightwing groaned. "We were just using him," he pointed at me. "I don't see what the big deal is. He doesn't seem much of a match for Red Aviary on his own either."

"Nobody in this City is," Batman said. "But at least Noir might be able to tell us where he is."

"And Fox?"

"One thing at a time," Batman then faced me. "Noir. This a situation of dire urgency. Lots of people—both good and bad—are getting killed. But you don't need me to tell you this…"

I shook my head.

"Some things are unpreventable at this point in time. Even I was misled by the red herrings of Red Aviary long before his bloody revelations. We need as many experts on Slade's tail as possible. If you work with us, we might get closer to him than ever before. We may be able to end death before death can end the Titans. Isn't that what you want?"

_Boy…… _

_This guy can be psychologically appealing…… _

_But……who am I?_

I nodded.

_Yes._

_I want the Titans safe._

_Whether I'm being used or not……I just don't want them to die……_

_Please……_

"Then now is as good a time as ever to ensure our trust….," Batman said. And at that, he stepped back and gripped the edge of his cowl. He glanced out the corner of his eyeslits at the other vigilantes present.

Batgirl nodded and reached for her hood.

Nightwing—with a slightly hesitant sigh—limply grasped his eyemask too.

I barely had a chance to blink. In almost ceremonious fashion, all three of them unmasked….

"Hrmmm…," the 'butler' looked over at Dr. Thompkins, sleepy-eyed. "Not quite the bashful bunch they used to be…"

"I'd say."

My black eyes were narrow. I couldn't help but lean forward on visual examination….

Nightwing seemed to me like just any tall, dark, and handsome fellow without his eyemask. Blue eyes. _So what? I wonder if I'll look like him in a few years with all that long hair and stuff……plus a few added scars and black eyes._

I couldn't for the life of me recognize the sapphire-eyed redhead that had replaced 'Batgirl'.

But Batman…..

_Holy shit. _

_That's……kinda funny in a way……_

"…….Greetings Jordan," Bruce Wayne startled me with the verbal address of my first name. He reached a gloved hand out and processed a manufactured smile that seemed to betray all the iconography draping off of him. Two hard blue eyes that were once hidden under a mask's chilling eye slits gave way to a prominent channel of trust and honesty. I didn't know if I was being charmed, brainwashed, or something in between. But I felt safe. Protected. And scared all the same. "Welcome to the BatCave," the 'boy billionaire' said. Anything but less than a _man._ "I think we've met before…"

My black eyes blinked. My lips pursed and lip synced as I numbly shook his head: _'Westhaven……'_

He nodded. "During the hostage situation initiated by former H.I.V.E. members. I was there in person….or half-person."

_Yeah. I get you._

"He's a little….'mute' without his left hand," 'Nightwing' uttered. "Don't ya think?"

I glanced over, wrenching my eyes from Bruce Wayne.

_Who the Hell is this?_

Wayne answered with an almost telepathic punctuality: "Dick Grayson. My ward."

"Former ward," 'Dick' folded his arms. "A man's gotta go out on his own eventually. Billionaire foster parent or not…"

"Indeed," the butler rolled his eyes.

"Alfred Pennyworth," Dick smirked and pointed the elder out. "Who hardly needs any alternate identity."

"Yes…," 'Alfred' examined the cuff of his suit's sleeve. "Heaven would rue the day a 'Bat-Butler' descends on the criminal streets of Gotham…"

"Alfred has been with me a long time, Jordan," Bruce Wayne gestured. "You'll have no problem trusting him along with the rest of us."

"Oh, my dreams of extortions daily fly out the window," Alfred added with a smirk.

"Ahem….," a certain young woman cleared her throat.

I glanced over.

The redhead smirked, sitting with legs crossed again in the huge computer's chair.

"Looks like Babs is getting jealous of attention," Dick said. "Hardly exemplary…"

"Hey! I just thought I'd join in…."

"Jordan, meet Barbara Gordon. Before you let her flirtatiousness overwhelm you, keep in mind that her father keeps a gun under his armpit at all times."

"Flirtatiousness? Pfft! You're a dick, Dick."

"Charming as always…"

"…..," I leaned my head to the side. _Barbara………__**Gordon**__……… _

"Of course, it's important that this caped secret stays here," Barbara said. "With the 'capes', if you catch my drift."

"Jordan doesn't wear a cape, Babs."

"Oh hush."

_Gordon……as in……Commissioner James Gordon relation? What are the odds of--_

"The Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department is my father," she remarked with a slight rosiness to her cheeks. "Given circumstances…..I-I'm sure you can understand how important our alternate identities are."

_Ah. _

I smirked slightly and nodded.

_I think I'm beginning to catch the drift of all this……'masked identity' stuff……_

I blinked.

_Hey……wait. Didn't Kara say that she and 'Batgirl' were friends? Then wouldn't that mean--?_

"We have all made life pledges, Jordan. We're all dedicated towards fighting crime in all its forms, bringing to the world the least amount of casualty and collateral damage as possible," Bruce Wayne said. "In this global sphere, the stakes rise higher and higher. Sooner than naught, the madmen who live to threaten the people grow in number. Because of that…certain sacrifices must be made. And even the most isolated amongst us must reach out and join with team members to support the common good. Somehow, I think you know this, Jordan. You came a long way to find yourself…and you found the Titans along with it. Would you consider yourself different now?"

I looked at him.

I breathed lightly.

_All right, tell me straight. How much do you know about me and my life? _

_Dammit……this is all so screwy……_

I took a deep breath and ran a hand through my thick black hair.

_Bruce Wayne is Batman…… _

_Wayne…… _

_Wayne Corp…… _

_William B. Fox is using Wayne Corp, isn't he?_

_Does that make Bruce Wayne—or Batman for that matter—an accomplice to Triangular? Or is Wayne Corp not in it like I'm quick to assume? And if Bruce Wayne—er, Batman has been so caught up in Red Aviary—who is Slade—all this time, then how come he's been disappearing from the Justice League and the Gotham City crime scene for so long? Or his teammates for that matter—excluding Nightwing……_

And then my mind again leapt back to 'Bruce Wayne'. And I remembered scant images in newspapers and t.v. press conferences from my youth about the rich man that everyone in the world knew. And I vaguely remembered back in my pre-Spectrum School days an interview with Bruce Wayne, and the camera displayed a young man sitting with him. Almost a direct clone of Bruce Wayne, howbeit younger. Thinner…less muscular. And that had to have been Mr. 'Dick Grayson'. The ward….the adopted son of Bruce Wayne.

And then my head twisted some more. My brain wrench inside out. And somewhere in the middle of it all, it felt like floodgates opening.

_Bruce Wayne had a……second 'ward', didn't he? Years later? Some……Some kid. Also a dark-haired adoptee. Some lucky rich punk now……_

"Jordan, we know that this must be a lot for you…," Barbara Gordon said. She bit her lip and added pensively: "B-But it's simply like this: we want you to trust us. We're not here to use you or tell you what to do or show you the places where you need to go. I gather that….that a lot of people have been doing that to you lately."

I looked at her lately.

_And just how much do YOU know too?_

"Hackers…messengers…counter-terrorists….," Bruce Wayne rolled off his tongue. He caught my attention and gestured: "You've been a very….popular rogue, haven't you?"

"……..," I nodded exhaustingly.

"A regular MVP," Alfred smirked. "I do say he deserves a trophy. Perhaps if we lend him one of Master Dick's. He never comes back to the manor to dust them off anymore…"

"You're pushing it, Alfred."

"Regardless…," Bruce Wayne slipped his cowl back on his face, as if he felt a lot more relaxed and complete with the mask on. Indeed, there was certain regained iciness when Batman faced me and uttered: "I reiterate that we have no reason to force you to do anything."

"Except keep our friggin' secrets of course…," Dick uttered.

Barbara rolled her eyes.

"……..true," Batman grunted. His eye-slits narrowed. "But….like I said, we have what you want, Jordan. And we're not about to hold back."

"……," I leaned my head to the side, blinking curiously.

"…….," Batman turned to the nearby shadows of the cave and said: "You can stop hiding already, Tim. Come on out…"

"…….?" I blinked.

_Tim?_

A voice emanated from the shadows. A voice that startled me down to the bone with its familiarity. _"Always. It never fails. Couldn't it have waited? I was……taking my time……"_

"Now."

An obedient shifting of feet. Light feet. In my peripheral vision, I saw a body morph out of the darkness. Red. Green. Yellow. Black. Black spiked hair. White eyemask. The plastic casting of a legend turned to blood and skin and lips. Bit lips. A slight nervousness and a slight forwardness jumbled together in a smoky ambiguity as if billowing from a fire hundreds of miles and twenty-six days ago. Something that was, but shouldn't have been. Someone blissfully unreal, until his voice once again shot out from the shadows and ricocheted into my ears in the subtle fierceness that only he could summon.

"I know….I've long since been tired of playing this 'game' with everyone….," Robin said, standing alive and illuminated on the sidelines of the open infirmary. "Most of all you, Noir…."

"…………………………………."

Robin took a deep breath. His head tilted towards the side, and I knew he was averting his gaze. "Yes, Noir…," he said without looking. He straightened a loose flap of cape that had subconsciously draped over his right shoulder. "I'm not some doppelganger or illusion. It's Robin. I'm….I-I'm alive…"

"…………………………………," I pivoted where I sat on the medical bed. I swung my legs off and jumped down to my weak legs. I wobbled for a moment.

Dr. Leslie Thompkins started, but Alfred held her back. They stood silently. Everyone stood silently.

But me….

I limped towards the Boy Wonder. One-armed. Scarred. When I reached him halfway, I slid my right hand up and slipped my shades off. With natural black eyes I stared at him, and he was as blindingly real as the first day I awoke in the Tower after destroying Cinderblock's android and faced the 'gentle' interpretation of the caped crusader and Raven.

We stood a few feet from each other. Two ghosts. One miraculously immaculate and the other beautifully beaten.

Robin's lips curved ever so slightly. And I didn't know if he was manufacturing a grin or suppressing a legitimate smile. All I knew was that he was there. And he was speaking…no, stammering: "I am….I am still proud of you, Noir." He took a deep breath. "I always am."

"……………..," I dropped the shades to the floor. I placed my right hand on his left shoulder. I leaned my head to the side. My black eyes thin.

His eyemask narrowed, as if confused.

Ten solid seconds of confusion.

"……………."

I fiercely hugged him.

He let out a gasp for a moment. Over my shoulder he saw Batman only half-gazing at the embrace. Dr. Thompkins and Alfred were smiling. Dick seemed distracted, while Barbara looked a little misty-eyed.

I shuddered, my one arm wrapped around his back as I clenched my eyes shut.

"It's….uh….o-okay, Noir….," Robin spoke against me. "What Batman and the others said were right. We're safe from Slade here…."

Robin wasn't hugging me back. He wasn't even trying. And that was what told me—once and for all—that this wasn't a dream.

And I couldn't help it. I cried. Silver trails leaked from my black optics as I squeezed him and shook all over.

_Did I ever stop believing, Ana? _

_Dear God……did I ever stop believing……? _

_The Titans……we are whole. _

_We always had been. _

_So god damn beautifully whole…… _

_Tempest was right. _

_Cyborg had it all wrong. All the Titans have had it all wrong. What are we falling apart for? _

_It's a miracle……it's a miracle……but……_

I parted the hug. After unashamedly wiping the tears from my cheek with my right forearm, I looked at Robin and with quivering lips mouthed: _'H-How……?'_

Robin straightened his uniform, cleared his throat, and spoke in an artificially composed voice: "Humble intercession. Nothing more."

I made a face, my black eyes thin. _'What?'_

Robin knelt and picked up my shades. "To be honest, I'm a little surprised you of all people didn't figure it out yourself." He stood back up and handed me the shades. "But then again, if Slade—Red Aviary was fooled, then so you could have been. It was absolutely….." He sighed with a little bit of remorse and triumph mixed painfully together. "….it was perfect. Just how he said it would work."

I leaned my head to the side. _'Who?'_

There was a flash of green light in my peripheral vision.

"_Alas, all the world's a stage."_

Batman turned to the shadows once again, this time with a different tone in his voice: "We came close to Red Aviary."

"_Let me guess……just close enough to smell his cigar, but still 'no cigar'……"_

"In a manner of speaking. We wouldn't have survived without Noir's intervention."

"You mean _you_ wouldn't have survived!" Dick smirked.

Batman glared.

"?" I spun about, confused. I jerked to look at Batman….then jerked to look at the shadows.

A petite figure walked out. "In case you haven't figured it out, Noir….Batman and his team didn't catch up to Red Aviary on his own. He needed two wildcards. The second is you. The first….," the Messenger stood out in the open, his hands in his sweatjacket's pouch. "….was me."

"……," I stared, gaping. I glanced at Robin.

Robin smirked at me.

I glanced at the Messenger again.

He smiled. He softly spoke: "Noir….a long time ago, I told you something. _Promised_ you something, actually. I said: 'It may be a week. It may be a month. But eventually….things will come full circle. Full circle….in the way you would wish it.' And they're starting to, aren't they?"

"…….," I shakily slipped my shades on and smiled helplessly at him.

He gazed at me with a soft grin. The same smug, asian look that the punk teenager had ages ago when I sat-dismembered-on a bed in the Titans Tower infirmary after the 'death' of Slade. It was immaculate…something that only Robin could punch. And Robin did. Long ago….at the end of a bloody November Fourth that everyone who was or wasn't there remembered. And somewhere in the Messenger's grin, I fell in and drifted backwards to the sound of his voice….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_November 5, 2005._

_The City. _

_3:02 am._

_VRMMMMMMMM! _

_Robin burned down the wrecked and scarred industrial section of the City. Ashes and crumbling buildingsides from Dagger's onslaught could be seen all around……littering the asphalt. The Boy Wonder gripped firmly the handles to the 'borrowed' police motorcycle and headed towards the radioactive depository._

**I could have sworn I preached a morale to you Titans. Something that obviously fell on deaf ears. When there is a gruesome death—be it a villain or superhero—you must ALWAYS HAVE A 'BODY' TO CONFIRM IT! Think of Dagger, Noir. You let him fall into the dark, rain-strewn streets of the City. He came back. Think of Slade. Skewered on a sword and tossed into the sea. Same story.**

_SCREEEECH! _

_Robin parked the motorcycle_

_He stood up. _

_He gasped and ran over to the gate of the radioactive depository. _

_Two guards' bodies lay on the ground. Their torsos hacked and ripped to shreds. _

"_Somebody is here!" Robin shouted to the Titans through his communicator. He ran up the tiers of the radioactive depository, attempting to scale the top of the industrial complex. "Most likely Dagger or his men! I'm going to investgate!"_

**Viper was no less different. Up until that fateful night, he was yet another 'disappearing body'. Commissioner Decker may have ended the mute assassin's attempt to drown the City in a terrible, biological pestilence……but he hadn't killed off Viper's ego. The madman was obsessed with Red Aviary more than the rest of us. Instead of making him wise, it made him selfish. He wanted to 'become' the essence of Death itself. To prove to the world that he could be the very same reaper that had bombed the Omega Wing of the prison and ended Commissioner Decker's life, among other things of course. But seeing that so many people had already died on November Fourth, Viper had to aim higher. So he took to the skies…and he found a lone bird in the aviary of death. That lone bird happened to be Robin….Slade's intended target of the carbonite charges at the Radioactive Depository.**

_CL-CLANG! _

_The door at the top of the depository shredded and kicked out from the inside. _

_WHAP! _

"_Ungh!" Robin was impacted by the doors, he flew back and slumped against the railings. When he looked up, he gasped: "V-Viper……You're not dead! Wh-What are you doing here?" _

_The mute assassin leered over him with his broadsword. He smiled and the metal disc in his throat flashed a red light: "__**To clip your wings, boy…**__"_

_SWOOOSH! SLASH! SLASH! _

_SLIIIIIIINK! _

"_AAAAAAUGH!" Robin shouted, bled, and fell back._

"_**NNNNGGGAAAAHH!"**_

_WHAP!_

**But Viper was no god of death……He wasn't close to the immensity of Red Aviary. And Red Aviary was holding back. He was holding back for just the right moment. Viper's presence only assisted Slade. It only made Robin weaker. So when the time came…..Robin wouldn't have the strength or speed in him to outrun the fires of Hell.**

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Robin screamed and yanked back at his grappling hook. _

_Viper, his neck skewered, fell over the railing of an upper tier, fell down a level, and hung with a snag! when the grappling hook hung his ripped cranium from a distance. With a final quivering, the assassin died. _

_And Robin was bleeding. _

_And Robin was torn._

_And Robin was limping…. _

_With half his eyemask torn away to bear a blue eye to the red sky… _

_He fell on his knees. _

_He heard and saw and smelt the carbonite. _

_And he gasped…for when he looked up. _

_He saw the Titans on a nearby rooftop. _

_Raven. Beast Boy. _

_Starfire…. _

_Starfire was staring down at him. Her green eyes wide…and growing wider with the moistening realization of what was soon to be obliterated. _

_And something inside of him shot back in time with a peculiar, homesick breath as the carbonite ignited._

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep._

"_Annie."_

_**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

_The radioactive depository exploded all around him. _

_But just bare milliseconds before the flames could evaporate his figure…… _

_A body appeared behind him. Green. Shimmering. _

_In a leap, the body grabbed Robin from behind, swallowed him in a chest-level hug, and vanished the two of them in an indiscernible emerald flash against the rising amber heat._

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAAT!**_

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Robin screamed at the top of his lungs. He screamed and shook and screamed some more, because he was being consumed all over by pure plasma and fire. Noise and chaos filled his ears and at the end of his scream, he inhaled deeply……_

……_only to realize he was inhaling deeply._

_He was alive. _

_And yet…… _

_He wasn't burning. _

_Half an exposed eye wide, Robin hyperventilated. Sweating all over. And yet, there was no noticeable heat. _

_In fact, the burning flames enveloping him seemed far away. Like on the outside of a snowglobe of comfortable staleness. In fact, Robin hardly felt anything at all. It was like his senses were sucked out of him. And he didn't feel temperature……nor hunger……nor exhaustion. _

_And everything was laced with green. An emerald fire that billowed more brightly than the amber madness trying to swallow him. The radioactive depository naturally roasted all around. The metal railings melted. The iron plates curled and turned to lava. Viper's body was skeletonized and soon vaporized in a tornado of molten ash. _

_And the heavily breathing Robin realized then and there that someone's arms were encircling him in a vice-like grip from behind. Like a guardian angel. _

_He murmured amidst the noise: "What……Wh-Wh-What?" _

_The Messenger tilted his head forward and murmured in the Boy Wonder's ear: "Hello, Mr. Timothy Drake." _

"……………"

"_Robin is dead." _

"…………_b-but……," Robin swallowed and gazed up. The sarcophagus was closing. The radioactive depository and everything that burned inside was sealed up like a giant oven. A fiery tomb. "H-How……?"_

"_Shhh……let me concentrate, Timster. It always takes a little extra gusto to handle __**two**__ people in the Middleverse. Now work with me……I'm going to move us far……far away from here. But I'll need you to relax and stay still. One little jolt to upset my balance, and we just might resurface in your dimension. I'm not about to become asian cuisine, what about you?" _

"_I……I-I……" _

"_Right then: 'or roasted crackers'. My sympathies to the Caucasian race. Ahem……and on we go!" _

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSH!**_

_Robin gasped. The Messenger seemed to be flying the both of them straight through walls. Through flames. Through the outer shell of the sarcophagus. Before the Boy Wonder knew it, they were both soaring straight out of the glowing epicenter of the bombed industrial complex altogether. And—as the green pair picked up speed—they soared out of the City and through the waters of the Bay and into mountains and trees and nightlit slopes and…… _

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAT!**_

"_Ooof!" Robin tumbled across the forest floor of a mountainside just north of the raped City. _

"_Nnngh!" the Messenger too rolled into a tree. He winced and giggled ever so slightly to himself: "Hehehe……argh……should have strapped seatbelts to my ass. I swear, I'll never get it down right like Kurt does……" _

_Robin scrambled up to his feet, shaking all over: "What the Hell just happened?" _

"_Easy now, Tim……," the Messenger caught his breath and sat up with his back to the tree. He waved a hand at Robin: "I swear……as funky as it felt, I did NOT impregnate you……" _

"_What……in the HELL……," Robin panted and shook all over. "Just HAPPENED?" _

"_You're dead!" the Messenger shouted back with a sudden frown that silenced the Boy Wonder. "That's what happened!" _

"………_," Robin clenched his fist. "Dagger……damn him! He was leading us all into a trap! He was using Terra as bait!" _

"_Very good, Robin. Now if you'll just calm down and—" _

"_NO!" Robin shouted. He ran, leapt, and jumped up to a tree branch. He stood, looking down the darklit mountainslope at the City. Ninety percent of the lights were off, so the distant burning spot of the Radioactive Depository shone like a beacon. "If I was nearly wiped away that easily, the Titans will be too! I have to go back and……" _

_**ZAAT!**__ The Messenger suddenly appeared on the branch beside him. "Don't bother. They're fine." _

"_Are you nuts?" Robin glared at the asian teen. His one blue eye was as cold and menacing as his ivory-clear eyemask, but the Messenger didn't falter any. Robin pointed down at the City and said: "After all Dagger's done to day, he's not going to friggin' stop till all of my teammates are dead!" _

"_It wasn't Dagger who 'killed' you, Robin. It was Slade!" _

_Robin jolted. His lips parted. "Slade?" _

"_Yes……and I assure you," the Messenger jabbed a finger into Robin's scarred chest. "……all he wanted to target—at least now—was you." _

"_But……B-But……," Robin stammered. "Slade is __**dead**__!" _

"_Yup……darn tootin'," the Messenger knowingly smirked with a nod. "And as a matter of fact, he has thus __**become**__ death……" _

_Robin's optics thinned. "What do you mean?" _

"_Robin, don't you get it? Slade is Red Aviary……" _

"…………"

"_I can't believe it took me this long to figure it out, but I did……," Messenger leaned back on the tree branch and gestured: "Slade is Red Aviary……the Parasite of Triangular. Somehow he manipulates and prods the criminal organization forward to accomplish his own means. Somewhere in the course of gaining metaphysical powers of Destruction, Slade has found weakspots in the Dagger, Metropolitan, and Gothamite sectors of Triangular. Because of the threat he poses to them, the only strong actions Triangular can perform……they __must__ perform in the shadow of Red Aviary. And here in this City……on the bloody holocaust that shall forever be known as November Fourth……Red Aviary slithered his way in. And Dagger took the opportunity to waltz in the shadow of his true lord and master. Slade targeted two people. Commissioner Decker……and you. Decker was just a last minute charge for the red will of the Reaper. It was you whom Slade wanted, Tim. All of the last twenty-four hours of pain and suffering has just been Dagger's way of dancing around the main scheme at hand. Slade has wanted you. In the same way that for some obsessive reason or another he has __**always**__ wanted you. Only this time, he's not holding anything back. He wants you __**dead**_. _And for all intents and purposes, you __are__ dead." _

"………_," Robin gazed outward at the City. Then down at himself. "But……B-B-But……" _

"_OF COURSE YOU AREN'T DEAD!" the Messenger barked, then rolled his almond eyes. "Sheesh! So literal! All right, Mr. Puritan……maybe it's about time I made something clear." _

_He stretched a hand out and playfully shook the Boy Wonder's gloved hand. "Hello, Mr. Drake. I'm a mutant. And as your friendly neighborhood mutantman, I have a unique power or ability that gives me an edge of espionage and ass kicking, as well as making me score with the ladies. Since the latter part of those fringe benefits haven't happened yet, I've been a little too preoccupied with hopping around from dimension to dimension as my funky genes see fit. It so happens that I also have access to a silly place that act as layers between dimensions. And this silly place is called the 'Middleverse'. Ever heard of it? I swear to God, it'll be covered from head to toe with tourists in about two decades from now." _

"_Uhm…… _

"_Anyways, a cool thing about the Middleverse is that—even though to some percentile extent it coexists within the same relative frame of a universe the likes of which you and I are familiar with, it is enough out of phase with reality to not subjects travelers of its emerald pathways to the ills and wills of natural elements. A good example of that would be……ahem……FIRE!"  
_

_Robin gazed numbly down at the flickering amber spot on the northern tip of the City. "The Radioactive Depository……you……" _

"_Yup. I 'hugged' you to safety. For the time being, at least. You see," he gestured while eloquently speaking: "There's a snazzy side effect of going into the Middleverse." _

"_What's that?" _

"_Being severed from physical elements is one thing. It goes without saying that the same thing is accomplished on the metaphysical side of things as well." _

"…………"

_The Messenger leaned forward and smirked: "Red Aviary only knows that as soon as the carbonite went off, your 'life essence'—if you will—disappeared. Being a fresh wielder of Destruction, Slade depends on the Red end of the Spectrum to determine if his flightless targets go 'kerplunk' or not. The Middleverse ripped you away from his proximity senses, and bringing you here will undoubtedly reinforce that. After all, now that Slade thinks you're dead, the last place he'll be going is north. Because it's WEST where they've taken Terra……" _

"_Wait a second……hold on……," Robin held his gloved hands up and glared suspiciously at the Messenger. "Red? Destruction? Spectrum? I mean what the crap?" _

"_Isn't it obvious, Tim?" the Messenger asked. He raised a finger: "On July fifth, when Noir thought he killed Slade, he was right. BUT……what he didn't know was that the vengeful act of killing him—so enforced by Noir's powers—also gave Slade the reins to the very metaphysics that ended his……'lively' life." _

"………………_," Robin merely stared at him. _

"_I don't know how much Noir has told you, but there are many shades to the ass-kicking grey of the swordsman's sexy powers. He only encompasses one of them. A rather……heavenly balance of Construction and Destruction. In willing Slade dead during the climactic frigate entanglement, Noir unwittingly focused all of his Destructive poles into finishing the masked terrorist. Slade—his mind twisted enough in favor of Destruction—seized upon the Red end of Noir's Spectrum, and now he has become a Parasite of the Balance of Morals in this neck of the world. Everything that Slade has ever wanted to do, he is now fulfilling: immortal life, death and destruction to all his enemies, and—ultimately—ruining the lives of the Titans. And to do that, he has to start at the beginning. He has to target and eliminate the first 'apprentice'. He has to kill you, Tim. He has to bathe the sky with your blood……make the bird's aviary a red place. And all the Titans in turn will follow, but in a pattern. Terra is next. She is the second apprentice. And the third apprentice? As cute and adorable as Jinx is—no. It's Noir. They're both in line for the red blade to fall. And then after that, God help the Titans and everyone else in this part of the world that claims to be 'good'." _

"_That's impossible……," Robin shook his head. "Slade couldn't possibly get away with it. He'd……" _

"_Be found out? Whether Triangular likes it or not, they're working for Slade. Slade need only threaten their inner criminal heartbeats, and they'll do whatever he prods them to without argument or dispute. Dagger's the one person with enough guile to stand up to Slade—after all the two have worked together with much friction before. But Dagger isn't a stupid man. He knows how powerful Slade is, and he knows that Slade—as Red Aviary—is only getting more and more powerful. All that Dagger can hope to do is somehow find loopholes in the parasitic system that will grant him the opportunity he needs to break through and impart his own will on the battlefront. Hence……why he stole Terra away. Terra is inevitably in line for a gruesome plot that will reshape the landscape as we know it. Thus we are dealing with two fronts here, one against Red Aviary—Slade, and once against Triangular—Dagger. Slade wants to kill the Titans……Dagger wants to rule the Western world. And both villains—entangled in the web of each other's evil—are spiraling their way towards a dual apocalypse. And that spiral began tonight. With the devastation of this City………and with the death of Robin."_

"………………_," Robin hopped down from the tree branch. He marched over to a clearing in the mountainside forest where the elevation gave him a grand view of the darkened city and the reflecting, red sky. "It's all so preposterous………and yet, it makes so much sense." _

"_Glad I could finally frickin' reach you……heh……," the Messenger said from the tree branch above. "Dagger had found me out. He was most certainly having a ball making me look bad before the late Commissioner and the Titans when our search for the carbonite turned up badly. But alas, there still remains a fat lady in heaven and she has yet to sing." _

"…………_," Robin took a deep breath. He fingered the shredded corners of his eyemask and tensed his jawline. "Slade……after all these years, he has what he wants. Ultimate power……yet in ultimate death." He gritted his teeth. "That twisted bastard……As soon as I regroup the Titans, we'll shove him into Dagger's face and see who survives. And then I'll smash in the head of whoever's left, god dammit!" _

_Swoosh! Pl-Plant! The Messenger leapt down and stood behind Robin, shrugging: "How can Robin lead the Titans when he's dead?" _

"……………_," the Boy Wonder turned around. He gave the Messenger a suspicious glance. "What are you saying?" _

"_Robin's dead, Tim," the asian teen pointed. "And it would do the world a lot of good at this moment in time for him to stay dead—" _

"_NO!" Robin snarled and shook his fist. "Absolutely not! I cannot and will not abandon my friends right now! They need me! They—" _

"_They will hurt all the more if you go back to them, Tim." _

"………"

"_Do you think Red Aviary is stupid?" the Messenger gestured. "Slade may not 'sense' you anymore. But he'll be back. He'll be checking on this Tower to monitor the Titans, all the same as Triangular's been monitoring the Titans for some time now. At the first sign of you being alive, he will strike harder to end your life. And I can't save you all the time, Tim." _

"_It's a chance I'm going to have to take……," Robin grumbled and started to march down the hillside. _

_The Messenger called after him: "And even if you manage to survive his second strike……what then? As it may be for the moment, Slade's strategy is aligned with his obsession! He wants you, Tim. He wants the First Apprentice! And if he can't have you dead……then he'll have to kill other Titans out of place to summon you out of the mortal woodwork!" _

"………_," Robin came to a stop. He spun, his lips parted some. "He wouldn't……" _

"_What else is beneath Slade by now, Tim? You would know that more than I could ever tell you……," the Messenger spoke in total solemnity. _

_Robin's gloves fisted and he shook momentarily. After a few seconds, he sighed: "Exactly……how much danger are the Titans in?" _

"_How much danger have they ever been in?" _

"…………"

"_Nothing compares to now, Tim. Nothing compares to now……" _

"_But they're my teammates………m-my friends……" _

"_The very same thing that made you do the impossible before…," the Messenger stepped towards him. "And in so doing, you saved them." He placed a hand on their shoulder. "And what Noir did when he had his back up against the wall……it hurt the Titans, but it saved all of you all the same. Tim, who am I to teach you that we must often do exactly what we do not want to do for all the good reasons?" _

"_And just what will 'playing dead' do in this case?" Robin growled. _

"_You have other friends, Tim," the Messenger leaned forward. Eyes thin with emphasis. "Other……family members……" _

"……………"

"_Allies whom……are endowed with far securer secrecy than the Titans, if I may be so bold. Now's the time to go back home. Now's the time to reclaim old trusts. Re-strengthen yourself, build back up, and take on the covert angle that will fight Red Aviary on his very own front." _

"_Batman……Gotham City……," Robin murmured. _

_The Messenger nodded. "I'm sure Bruce still has an eye out for his younger 'son'. Now's a good as time as any for the bird to return to return to the roost." _

_Robin gave the Messenger an evil blue eye. "You've never explained to me how you know so much……" _

"_Oh what? About the strange secret of Bruce Wayne? About the wonderfully mild-mannered Timothy Drake who became his ward years ago? Pfft……I'll have you know, __**Robin**__, being a ghost means more than just walking through walls and scaring homophobes. I've learned from the best myself, but thankfully for me—they're far away in another dimension. If you're ever there, feel free to look up every ugly secret about me and my 'identity' as you and your detective talents see fit. But I assure you, it's hardly anything of interest. Besides……I'm not the one who is being sought after by a red-smoking reaper of death." _

_Robin sighed shudderingly and gazed again towards the City. "I am……" _

"_Actually……ahem……you're __**DEAD!**__" the Messenger grunted. "__Terra's__ the focus now." _

"………"

"_Slade is going after her. Dagger thought he could pull the wool over Slade's red eye by stealing her and using her for his own purposes. And to an extent, Dagger will succeed. But sooner or later, Red Aviary will catch up with him. That is……unless someone a lot speedier and a lot more 'experienced' in the Spectrum was to catch up with Terra first……"_

_Robin exhaled: "Noir……" _

"_Do you really think your 'number two' will sit around for long, given the circumstances?" The Messenger stepped up beside the Boy Wonder, crossed his arms, and gazed out at the City. "While you obsess over fighting crime, he obsesses over the safety of his friends. Even dead friends……heh. Something tells me that he'll go after Terra in a heartbeat. In essence, he'll hold Red Aviary at bay. After all, it is the 'right' thing to do." _

_Robin glanced over: "How do you know this?" _

"_In due time," the Messenger looked back. "A recent acquaintance of mine will reach an epiphany, and such an epiphany will run concurrently with him giving Noir a very important 'message'. I think we're about to see a new world that smiles upon Blake Glover." _

"_The reporter?" _

"_Da Man!" the Messenger winked. "And it's awfully nice of him to act as a substitute teacher for me. After all……I'm going to be a little bit indisposed with you, Mr. Drake." _

"_How do you mean……" _

"_I can't think of any safer harbor……," the Messenger gestured. "Than I helping you get to Gotham City by the 'highway'." _

_Robin took a breath. "You mean the Middleverse……" _

"_I've always wanted to 'go long'." _

_Robin stared out at the City. He took a deep breath. _

"_This will be a turbulent time for the Titans, Tim," the Messenger gently said. "It will be a turbulent time for all of us. But mark my words……as long as you and Noir are in different places right now, Red Aviary's wrath will be postponed. And that will give you and the Bat-Troupe just the amount of time you need to build up and figure out just what the Hell is going on with Triangular and the red-smoldering Slade. There may be a chance to save the world……AGAIN." _

"_Yes……we've done the impossible before, haven't we……?" the Boy Wonder murmured._

"_I'm not sure who this 'we' is, but I'm flattered nonetheless……" _

_Robin smirked ever so slightly. "Why are you doing all this?" _

"_Doing all what?" _

"_Saving me. Investigating this dimension. Trying to help us stop this threat." _

_The Messenger scratched his neck and 'searched the stars' with his eyes as he spoke: "As a certain little bird once YELLED into my face……" _

_Robin winced._

"'_This is not my City'. And……'This is not my blood'. But you know what?" He looked at Robin directly. "It sure as Hell is my war……in that the lives of innocence and the balance of morals are at stake." _

"…………"

_The Messenger extended a hand and pointed north beyond the mountain: "Now are we going or what?" _

_Robin took a deep breath. "Yes. But first…I need to do a few things." _

"_Ah. I understand." _

_Robin gazed out at the City for the millionth time. He sighed: "Forgive me……" _

"_What should you be sorry for?" the Messenger asked with a gentle smile. "The Titans will grieve. And they will weep. But the ultimate sorrow will be held for them—and not you—provided you choose not to do what's smart right now……" _

_Robin took a deep breath. "I just hope that they can last……" _

**It turns out that Robin had preparations for this sort of eventuality. That's a good vigilante detective for you. He had goods stashed away somewhere. Up in an observatory, where a former employee of Wayne Corp worked, the Boy Wonder had all sorts of Bat-esque gadgetry just waiting for an emergency grab. Prior to this occasion, he only had to rely on the cache once. But a revisit was inevitable.**

_Inside a darkened laboratory the next day, Professor Chang worked on a robotic arm that he was welding to a mesh of electrical circuitry and mechanisms. As he hummed and toiled away, a pile of newspapers showing bold headlines of November Fourth's tragedy and the Death of Robin rested in discarded, ignored piles on the floor. _

"_Dum de dum………hrmm hrmm hrmmm……," he chuckled to himself. A shine glinted off his red goggles as he breathed a synthetic vapor. "Tsk Tsk……what a shame. All the more room for bad boys to grow, I suppose. Hrmmmm……yes……heheheh." _

_THRIFFFT! __**SNPP!**_

_Chang jolted from a tranquilizer shot in the back of his neck. "Daaugh! G-Great……Quarks Alive!" THRUMP! He fell over his work bench, unconscious. _

_TH-THWISH! Pl-Plant! Robin landed in his tattered uniform from a hole slid open in the laboratory ceiling. _

_**Z-ZAAT!**_

_The Messenger appeared beside him. _

"_Friend of yours?" he smirked. _

"_Hardly……," Robin grunted and ran past the man, snapping the tranquilizer dart out as he breezed by. He used a remote control to open a vault in the side of the room. "I'm the only one granted access to this chamber. It's for emergency re-stock of birdarangs……explosive discs……including parts of my R-Cycle." _

"_Courtesy of a certain rich 'dad' back at home……" _

"_That's up for interpretation," Robin grunted. He walked the length of the vault's interior, grabbing items by the handful. He reached a metal rack where a cloak of sorts resided along a length of space. He whipped the cloak free and revealed what looked like hover-droids equipped with sensors and cameras. "Before we leave the City, I'm going to release these." _

"_Awfully big for hummingbirds, aren't they?" _

"_They're probes. I'm sending one into every major City while Red Aviary is still around. Metropolis. Gotham. Central City. Keystone. Star City……where was it that you said Noir was going?" _

"_Vegas." _

"_Heh……figures," Robin rummaged through the droids, switching them on one by one with an electric hum. "If Slade or Triangular shows up again in any of these places, I want to know where and how and to what extent. If I need to come out of hiding to save a Titan's hide, nothing's going to stop me from doing so at the last second." _

"_You know……I just realized……'Chang' is such a stigmatizing word for a Professor. I mean……Hell……look at him! His face makes him look like a frickin' Asian goldfish or some-crap." _

_Robin turned his head and glared. "Are you even listening to me?" _

"_Tim……," the Messenger marched over. "You know as well as I do that you can't just 'up and go' to one of these Cities now! Your place is in Gotham. You need to regroup with allies who can keep your secret. You need to redouble your efforts against Red Aviary, or else any slight revelation of your existence could throw the whole plan into a loop!" _

_Robin took a deep breath. "Well……," he muttered. "……at least I want to send these probes out. Monitoring my footsteps is the least I can do." _

"_If you're gonna do it, close the damn vault door behind you," the Messenger gestured. "It'd do us no good to have 'Professor Wan Tan Soup' here wake up see evidence of your smexxy existence." _

"_Consider it done……," Robin pressed a button on his remote. _

_All in one accord, the android hoverbots glowed and floated out the vault door into the laboratory. They wound their ways through the halls till they reached the inner dome of the observatory. From there, they exited and hovered off to separate, invisible spots along the horizon. _

"_Skedaddle time?" the Messenger asked. _

_Robin took a deep breath. He glanced at the cloak. With a last thought, he grabbed it and hoisted it around his shoulders. "Almost……"_

**I try not to take things for granted. Thus, when I told Robin that he needed to fake his death to maintain a sense of order against Red Aviary's chaos, I knew that I had to relent to some things. I had to understand and keep in mind that what Robin was doing was hard. And it was mostly hard because of what it meant to him and his friends. He was abandoning them. He was abandoning them to save the Balance of Morals—and in turn, to eventually save them as well. Now Robin is one to sacrifice himself. But at the expense of his friends? He's had to suffer that before. And just like then and now, it was all…..ALL because of Slade.**

"_He was everybody's son. And everybody's brother," Superman gave his speech before the memorial crowd gathered at the funeral service in the City Cemetery one gray day. "And to the young and growing souls of those among us….he was everybody's father as well. He did far more than carry on the tradition and legacy of the Boy Wonder. He became a man. And men are not defined by age or by stature as they are by the pieces of their heart that they willfully give away to those around them in hopes of a better tomorrow." _

"………_," Robin stared. From over one hundred feet away. Beneath a tree, shadowed……robed in black. _

_The Messenger stood beside him at a finger's distance. He whispered to the Boy Wonder: "Tim……we have to go now. We cannot waste time any longer. If Red Aviary was to come back and sense you here, everything will be over with." _

_Robin merely took a deep breath. Through his tattered eyemask, he stared into the crowd and found the profiles of the Titans. But one face in particular he stared at in prolonged measure. A red head. Green eyes. A gentle, teenage alien clad in black. _

_The Boy Wonder's lips parted and he exhaled softly: "……Starfire……………" _

"_Tim?" _

_Robin blinked. He shook his head, sighed, and looked the Messenger's way. "I'm ready," he muttered. He extended a hand. "Let's go……" _

"_You'll be back, Tim……," the Messenger said. "And under better circumstances, I promise you." _

"_We'll what Batman has to say about that." _

"_Indeed."_

_**ZAAAT!**_

_They vanished in a green flash. _

_Superman went on with his eulogy, uninterrupted. _

_A cold, November wind. _

_And…… _

_A green-skinned member lined up with the Justice League slowly turned and gazed behind the congregation. With thin, scanning eyes Martian Manhunter stared at the background. _

"……………"

_Wonder Woman whispered to him: "J'onn……something wrong?" _

"………_," the green leaguer looked back towards the outside podium. "Nothing, Diana," he whispered. "Nothing to worry about……" _

"………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There was a slight surprise waiting for us when we arrived here at the Bat-Cave," the Messenger said. He looked at me. "Or Wayne Manor…..depending on how you see it."

I blinked. Nodding.

_Yeah, that makes sense. _

_But…… _

_What surprise?_

"Batman was indisposed. You think the Dark Knight is THAT cold that he wouldn't even attend his dead sidekick's funeral? I mean come on!"

"I dunno…," Dick Grayson folded his arms. "It's rather an intriguing concept….."

Batman curtly uttered: "Wrong sidekick."

Barbara giggled.

"Hrmm….," Dick uttered.

"Truthfully, I was indisposed," Batman took the reins of speaking as I listened. "'Wasted' is more of the correct term for it. Deathstroke is so cunning and deathfully empowered an individual that he slid even beneath _my_ criminal radar. As it turns out, he was claiming lives in Gotham City long before the Titans' metropolis was ever put into play. Only—since Dagger has shared no special interest in Gotham City, our town didn't suffer the same holocaust as yours. Red Aviary's movements were silent….swift….and deadly. Many people were suffering from Slade's carnivorous attacks, and I was to find out the hard way."

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Gotham City._

_October 29, 2004._

_1:23 am._

_Downtown._

_SWOOOOSH! _

_Batman swung via grappling hook cord and landed on an eight-story apartment rooftop. He unfurled his cape and glared over the edge, his eyeslits thin. _

_A man was running across the busy city street that night. A heavy-built man with a buzzed head and hefty muscles. Eyes that were used to glaring were full of widening, white-laced fright. He ran straight through traffic, forcing cars and trucks to screech to honking halts as if they mattered little to his life. Like there was a greater threat eating at his heels. _

"_Hrmm………," Batman murmured to himself before standing up straight. "Well aren't we in a hurry?"_

**I had been doing twice as many routine patrols during my night beats, especially since the escape of arkham inmates Killer Croc, Clayface, and the Ventriloquist about a month before. I was hoping to catch a stoolie in the act of hanging by his own noose so that he could 'fess up to me exactly who was responsible for the breakout. I had no idea that something as big as Triangular was at work in Gotham, although Two-Face's recent exploits did both puzzle and worry me. That night in particular, I caught a recent parole subject from Blackgate making a run for it through the City. Very suspicious indeed…..**

_The man ran directly down the alleyway, heavily panting. Sweating all over. Terrified…..then…._

_FWOOOSH! Batman lowered down with a glide of his cape. He crouched before standing up menacingly before the muscular man. _

_The former inmate skidded to a halt, gasping. "Y-You!" _

"_Bolton……," Batman growled. He marched icily forward. "It's often I find 'Lock-Up' on the run from the law. Tell me, Lyle……just what are you up to this time?" _

"_Batman……y-you don't understand! You've got to help me! I……I'm being followed!" _

"_That's exactly what I was going to ask you about……," Batman leaned his mask into the man's face. "Who's chasing you? Who are you dealing with this time? I thought it was below you to associate with 'criminal scum'!" _

"_I-It's nothing like that! Please listen to me, Batman! 'Lock-Up' is way behind me! In the past! I'm just Lyle Bolton now! A gymnasium janitor! LOOK! There's something out there that doesn't see through shit to understand that! I-I'm a target!" _

"_Why? What for?" Batman jabbed a gloved finger into the man's chest. "What have you done to get hunted down for?" _

"_Will you wake up and smell the bat pellets for God's sake?" Bolton was panting and sweating all over. "I told you! I've gone clean! But that doesn't matter to this creep!" _

"_Who?" _

"_I DON'T KNOW! Everyone in the streets is talking about him! I'm surprised you haven't heard! The 'Grim Reaper'! The 'Parasite'! Word is that he ended Baby-Doll and then took out Calendar Girl and now he's out to RIP ME APART!" _

"_Bolton, take it easy! This doesn't have to be an interrogation. I just want the truth," Batman hissed. "Why are you running? Do you feel like you are in danger? Have you SEEN who it is that's chasing after you?" _

_Bolton hyperventilated. He pulled at nonexistent hair and murmured: "I-I-I swear! I-I see him out of the corner of my eyes! It's like he's some damned ghost waiting for me! He's gonna eat me up!" He gripped Batman by the cape and pleaded like a weak, wounded animal. "Batman! You've got to save me! I'm sorry for what I've done! I'm not Lock-Up anymore! You hear me! I'm not!" _

"_Bolton! Control yourself!" Batman wrenched the man's meaty hands off him. "At least give me the chance to……" _

"_!" Bolton gasped. His eyes twitching. He pointed a finger over Batman's caped shoulder: "It's him!" _

_A red glow. _

"………_," Batman slowly turned his head. His mask's eyeslits widened._

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

_A red cloud of sorts surged down the alleyway. A red blade shot out of the vapors. _

_Batman gritted his teeth, he whipped out two batarangs. CHII-IIING! _

_The red collided with him. _

_Batman tried jabbing into the vapor, but was knocked fiercely aside by the smoking force. _

"_Nnnngh!" _

_The red converged on Bolton. _

_The man stumbled back, screaming. "Aaah! AAAH! __**AAAAAH!"**_

_**SLASH! SLASSSH! SLIIIINK!**_

_Batman weakly knelt up on the alleyway floor. What he saw made him gasp. _

_Bolton's body lay in three, soggy pieces. Standing over him……billowing from the dark cracks of his red and black suit……was Slade. _

"_Slade?" _

_**FWOOOOSH!**__ Red Aviary smokingly spun around. His one eye glaring crimson out of his cowl. _

"_**Batman……a pleasssssure. Hckkk—clik-clik-clic……Long have I dreamt of our firssssst time meeting. Hcckkk!--But like alwaysssss……,"**__ he lifted half a metal and flesh hand. A plume of fiery red smoke danced in his twitching palm. __**"…..I'm tradddding the gloriousssss occassssion for a chanccccce to get to know your ssssson….."**_

"_I thought the Titans had finally defeated you……and that you had gotten what you deserved……," Batman stood up and readied a taser from his belt. ZZZTT! "But I should have known better. There was no body found in the Bay. It was erroneous to hope for your death." _

"_**Oh…..but I am dead…clik-clik-clik-Hcckkkk! Far more DDDDDEAD thannnnn you cccan possssssibly imagine-hckkkk!"**_

"_I will not let you touch Robin again……," Batman paced around Deathstroke, taser ready……sparking. "And as for you, I don't care what new tricks you may have learned. You're still the same criminal and murder that you were before……"_

"_**Heh…….heh………heh……..,"**__Deathstroke twirled his sword. TH-TH-THWISH! He pointed it—billowing—at Batman. __**"…..I am betterrrrrrr than I have ever been beforrrrrre. Death itssssself yieldsssss to my command….."**_

"_I am not afraid of death," Batman breathed._

"_**You most certainly won't be…..hckkk—clik-clik-clik……becausssse soon you will not have a HEAD TO FEAR WITHHCKKKKK!"**__**FWOOOOOOSH!**__ Deathstroke charged Batman. _

_Batman gritted his teeth and rolled to the side._

_**SLIIIIIIICE!**__ Deathstroke's billowing blade ripped up a slice of alleyway floor. _

_Batman jumped up and jabbed his taser into the square meat of Deathstroke's backside. "Nrghhh!"_

_ZZZZZT! POW! P-POP! PFFFT! Smoke and flame erupted from the muscles and flesh in Slade's hollow body from the sparking weapon. _

_Deathstroke merely writhed, clicked, and grunted as his shredded innards and hidden mechanics grinded with each other._

_Batman's taser exploded in overload. __**POW!**__ "Augh!" he stumbled back, gripping a gloved wrist. _

"_**Yesssssss….hckkkkk! Give me a tasssste of what it meansssss to feel pain again!"**__ Deathstroke spun around with a twirl of his cowl's red tails. __**"It makesssss what I'm going to do to you that much more fulfillingggg!**__" _

_**FWOOOOSH!**__ He leapt on Batman._

_THWAP!_

_Batman grappled with him, holding back the sword. _

_But as Deathstroke's face slits reached Batman's mouth, a vapor of red exchanged between them. And like a poisonous gas, it weakened Batman and sent him sprawling back, clutching his throat._

"_**Pardon my sssssmoke……," **__Slade slurred and spun with a flying kick across the Dark Knight's face. _

_WHAM! _

"_UGH!" Batman flew and slammed into the alleyway wall beneath a tall stretch of metal fire escapes. He leaned weakly against the wall, coughed, and hacked. Red fumes were lingering around his lips and face…suffocating him. _

"_**You'rrrrre pathetic, Dark Knightttt….hckkkk!"**__ Deathstroke sheathed his red blade behind him. CHIIIIING! __**"But still….clik-clik-clik!—Killing your wormy life will give me the sssstrength I—HCKKK!—need to finish off your pathetic squire….."**__He whipped out his shotgun and aimed high towards the supports of the fire escape four floors up from the ground. __**"If Robin can'tttt be my apprenticccce in life…..hckkk!-clik-clik-click—He will be sssso in DEATH!"**_

"_N-No……," Batman coughed. He stretched a hand out. "R-Robin……"_

_**BLAM!**_

_CLINK!_

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_CLANK! _

_The supports to the fire escape snapped off from the murk-charged shots. The weight of the bottom four floors took over, and the fire escape platforms and railings collapsed. Burying Batman in a metal grave. _

_**CRAAAAAAAAASH! **_

"_Nnnngh!"_

_**CLANG!**_

_Then…… _

_Silence. _

"_**Hckkkkk!"**__ Deathstroke holstered his shotgun along with his sword behind his back. He breathed red vapors in short bursts as he reached to his side belt. __**"Sssssleep ssssoundly, Batman….."**__ He produced a carbonite grenade and clicked it on. __**"And assssss for the—Hckkkk!—face inside of that mask. Your sssecret shall be clik-clik-clik!—safe in flamessss."**_

_He raised his hand to toss the grenade onto the metallic pile._

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

"_**Snkkkt?"**__ Deathstroke hissed and glanced aside. _

_A pair of headlights blinded him before the onrush of the Batmobile. The vehicle took up the size of the entire alleyway as it burned rubber down the claustrophobic length and fired a large 'grappling hook' out of its front fender._

_POW! SWOOOOOSH-SMACK!_

_The hook slammed into Deathstroke's stomach and shot his smoking body down the length of the alley. When he impacted a wall on the far end, the grenade rolled too the ground, beeped along the side, and ignited the carbonite._

_**KAAAABOOOMM!**_

_Flames and plasma ate through the alleyway but came short of where the Batmobile had screeched to a halt. The large grappling cord extracted back into the fender, but the hook had been blown off. SNPP! _

_After a momentary stillness, the glass door to the Batmobile slid open. SWISSSSSSSH! _

_Batgirl unbuckled and leapt out of the driver's seat. She stared at the flames, panting. Then she looked at Bolton's bloody remains. Then she looked at the pile of metal shrapnel piled on top of the hidden Knight. "Batman!" With a twirl of a yellow and blue cape, she leapt out of the car, ran over to the pile, and started pulling slab after slab of metal off of him. _

"_Nnnnngh!" Batgirl heaved and struggled. CL-CLANK! CLANG! "Mmmmff!" THWANG! Finally, she uncovered him. She gasped at the sight of his eyes closed……a huge, ugly welt on his forehead. She felt his pulse, gulped, and shook his figure. "Batman……snap out of it! Say something! Bruce? Bruce!"_

**I was rather fortunate to have Batgirl on a beat that night as well. If it wasn't for her, Deathstroke would have come back and finished me….as we all know that the single explosion in the alleyway wasn't sufficient enough to finish him off. Batgirl brought me back to the BatCave, but I wouldn't be reached for over a week. I had survived the attack, but the concussion was a serious one…..and I was in a coma for a long time. During which, the horrors of November Fourth unfolded, as well as Red Aviary's and Triangular's infamy in Metropolis and Gotham City…..which was incessantly climbing.**

"_I got the fourth call from the Justice League in a row today, Alfred," Barbara Gordon said as she stood beside the medical table in the Batcave. "This time, it was Superman. Clark has resorted to asking for me or Nightwing. He must know something's up. He must know that something else is terribly, horribly wrong……" _

_Alfred paced around the other side of the table, administering to Wayne's health. "I assume you're following along in the best of Master Bruce's intentions." _

"_Yes. Only HE can make contact with the Justice League for some godawful reason," Barbara tossed her arms and sighed. "I wonder if I'm doing the right thing in sticking to that rule, Alfred. With what's happened to the Titans…………w-with what's happened to Robin, would you do things differently?" _

"_I would most certainly investigate the issue of Robin's disappearance……" _

"_Disappearance?" Barbara made a face. "Alfred, Tim was instantly vaporized in that explosion!" _

"_Ah……but do you see here how Master Bruce is still alive? And over the last forty-eight hours, his health systems have been improving. Miracles happen, Miss Gordon. I've lived long enough around capes and cowls to know that." _

_Barbara sighed and stared off into a rocky abyss. "Or maybe you've just lived so long that death is of little consequence to you anymore." _

"_Ah, that too." _

_Barbara gave him a sarcastic smirk. _

_There was then a signal flashing on the Bat-Computer a few tiers up. _

_Barbara turned to look. "Hmmm……another message from Superman?" _

"_Hardly," Alfred put some tools and needles aside before walking up the steps. "That's my cue." _

"_Oh……right. Someone's at the door of the manor." _

"_Quite so. And lord knows it's my purpose to be Master Bruce's number one diversionary tactic. Do watch out for him while I'm briefly gone, will you?" _

"_Heh……," Barbara folded her arms and looked over at the unconscious man on the medical bed. "What else am I good for these days?" _

"………………"

_The redhead sighed. "Hang in there, Bruce. I'm sure Tim will be fine……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I woke up shortly after Robin's arrival. It wasn't until after then that I started my initial planning with everyone on the old 'team'," Batman said. "If I had only been around when Robin most needed it, I swear….I would have been there the fastest the Batjet would have taken me. Even still, I soon realized that supersonic speed wouldn't be enough to save the Titans. Deathstroke was far stronger than I had given him credit. And making a show of going out into the criminal public to forcibly stop him would not get the job done."

"In other words," the Messenger winked. "My plan was golden."

I simpered.

"I more or less had to take the reins of things when I arrived back in Gotham," Robin said. "The Messenger had pointed the way. Batgirl and Alfred had preserved the Dark Knight. And all the while, the Titan's City was losing focus. Vegas, Metropolis, and Gotham City would become the aim of Deathstroke's plans….as you could concurrently find out, Noir. But at the time—early November—the wheels of fate hadn't come full circle into Gotham. There was still time to…..strengthen up….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_November 10, 2004. _

_Gotham City._

_Wayne Manor. _

_2:32 pm_

_Dinnnnnng-Donnnnng! _

"_Just a minute! Just a minute……pfft……rubbish. Everyone's so blasted impatient about ruining a billionaire's afternoon these days."_

_Creeeeak!_

_One of the two front doors opened and Alfred peered out from inside the Manor's Atrium. _

_His eyes widened: "Good god!" _

_A beaten and cut-up Robin was leaning on the supporting arm of the Messenger. _

"_Hiya, Jeeves," the Messenger smirked. "Uh……does this bird belong to you?" _

"_I……erhm……er……ahem……," Alfred sputtered nervously before sticking his nose up. "Never seen him before in my life! Shoo, you strangers!" _

"_Nnngh!" Robin shoved the Messenger aside and stomped through the door. "Alfred, it's me, Tim." _

"_D-Dehrm……" _

"_I need to see Bruce. __**Now.**__" _

"_That w-will be most difficult, Master Tim……," Alfred said, watching nervously as the Messenger whistled his way in after Robin. "Y-You see……erm……Bruce is……" _

"_What, Alfred? I'm sure Batman can be interrupted no matter what he's doing," Robin gestured at himself. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kinda sorta dead." _

_The Messenger smirked and pointed: "He's kinda sorta dead." _

_Robin glared, then turned back to Alfred: "Slade's alive. He's out to kill the Titans……while Dagger of Triangular is out to control the Eastern Seaboard. I need to see Bruce to talk over a counter-operation. Where is he?" _

"_He……ahem……is in a coma, Master Tim." _

_The Messenger blinked._

_Robin's jaw dropped. "He's what?" _

"_He……h-had a nasty run in with some murderous fellow who was streaking 'red flames' as Miss Gordon put it. Quite a harrowing situation. It's quite miraculous that he survived at all, to tell the truth. Much like you, Master Tim. Good heavens……how haven't you bled to death!" _

"'_Streaking red flames'………," Robin murmured. A pause. He turned towards the Messenger. _

_The asian teen somberly nodded. _

_Robin gritted his teeth and shook his clenched fists. "Slade………" _

"_P-Perhaps you should see a doctor. Ms. Thompkins is back in town and—" _

"_RAAAAUGH!" Robin spun suddenly and slammed his foot through a nearby, expensive vase. _

_SHATTER! _

_Alfred cringed, fidgeting over the fallen shards. _

_The Messenger looked elsewhere, silent. _

_Robin stood in place……seething. He snarled: "__**Where is he**__?"_

'**Mad' doesn't describe how I felt then and there. It was then I realized that indeed there was no turning back. The Titans may have been the target of Deathstroke's new, metaphysical agenda……but they weren't the only ones vulnerable to him. The Messenger was right. Slade was indeed bent to make a 'red aviary' out of my life. And he started at home, where I was most intimately sensitive. Where everything in my life began and—with his insistence—it could very well have ended as well. Deathstroke had willed Batman's death. And maybe—as far as he was concerned—he succeeded. For it gave him the will power and motivation necessary to come after me. Bruce's predicament was only a precursor to November Fourth, but it shook me all the more. Because it struck at home. Red Aviary……meant business…..**

"_So let me get this straight…..," Dick Grayson stood in his black clothes and leather jacket, leaning up against the Bat-Computer. "Slade is alive. He's been zombified or something by a manifestation of the Titan Noir's power when he was 'killed' on that frigate four months ago. And now that he's realized the full extent of his deathly powers, he's on a rampage to eliminate all Titans and—what—challenged some sort of Balance of Mortality?"_

"'_Balance of Morals'," Robin corrected. He sat on a bench, shirtless, while Leslie Thompkins huddled behind him and tended to his wounds. "It's what Slade obsessed over the last time we faced him. He wanted to pollute all the Titans with the same nanomachines he once used to control me when I was his 'apprentice'. Only—that time on the Frigate—he planned to torture us to death until we either succinctly perished or willed ourselves over to his side." _

"_The idea is an experiment in and of itself," the Messenger said, standing a little way's off from Alfred and Barbara. "But a very realistic one. If you kill enough superheroes and absolute do-gooders in one fatal swoop, the result is a blackhole that chaotically sucks in every subsequent defender of justice along the spiritual-whatever plane nearby. If Red Aviary—Slade kills enough heroes and people, a snowball effect will take shape. Tilting the so titled 'balance of morals' and letting evil and Destruction have a hand at holding the greater weight in this universe for a change." _

"_That's utter bologna!" Nightwing barked. He gestured wildly: "Who says there's a discernible essence of right and wrong in this universe? Slade's utterly insane!" _

"_You're right, Dick," Robin frowned. Wincing a little from Dr. Thompkins' administrations. "It's total, utter insanity. But that total utter insanity has robbed my City of its Commissioner and hundreds of innocent people. And need we overlook the violence that has taken place in Gotham City? The violence that nearly took Bruce's life?" _

_Barbara glanced forlornly at the medical table where Bruce 'slept', then turned her attention back to the group: "I did extensive research while on the Net this morning. A terrible tragedy has taken place at Lexcorp a while ago. A massacre inside the Lexcorp HQ building itself. Whatever is truly Red Aviary's strength, is stretches out beyond the constraints of Gotham and the Titans' City." _

"_Sounds like a clear case of the apocalypse to me……," Dr. Thompkins murmured. "And if Bruce's and Tim's near death isn't a personal testament to that, I don't know what is." _

"_I know this sounds wyrd……," Robin hesitantly uttered, "……but I want to 'stay dead'. As long as Slade thinks I'm out of this mortal coil, he'll start on a pattern of movement that we can more readily observe and respond to." _

"_Slade will be after Tara Markov next," the Messenger nodded. "With the 'first apprentice' now dead, the 'second apprentice' is his target. Fortunately—or unfortunately—Dagger has Terra's statue hidden. He too is trying to prolong the escapades of Red Aviary, but for his own nefarious purposes. But all the better……because we've got a wildcard slicing its way onto the dealing table. Noir—the same Titan whose powers are most related to Slade's infamy—is about to start a trek. Pretty soon—yes, even tonight or tomorrow night I gander—my good friend Blake Glover will be delivering him a message. I intend to rendezvous with Noir in Vegas. I promise you all……I'll see to it that he helps get Terra to safety." _

"_Exactly who is this joker, anyways?" Dick gestured at the Messenger. _

"_Oh, the same as always," the Messenger shrugged with a smirk. "Only minus the face paint, a few inches, and a sexy clown henchgirl. Say, any of you Mark Hamill fans?" _

"_Ignore his joviality," Robin spoke to Dick. "He saved my life. He knows a Hell of a lot more about this ordeal than I do." _

"_And how do we know that?" _

"_Correction, Robins," the Messenger lifted his finger. _

_Both boys looked over on subconscious impulse. _

_The Messenger said: "I know a lot about what's going on. Ghost vision goes so far, ya know. But when it comes to Slade……I believe the expert is the most recent ghost of all. Yon chirping-dead-guy right there. Say, you look handsome in 'lacerations'. It's a nice color for you." _

"_Save it," Robin droned. He turned to face Barbara. "You said that there was an incident in Metropolis a while ago?" _

"_Yes. A bloody massacre of its lab technicians," Barbara nodded. "I downloaded security feeds during a night-long hacking." _

"_Metropolis is one of the three poles of Triangular," the Messenger said. _

"_Exactly," Robin nodded. "I have a feeling that some answers as to the relation of Triangular to Slade might make themselves known if that place was to have a further examination……" _

"_I'll see what I can do," Barbara said. _

"_I dunno……," Robin scratched his chin. "Someone might want to go in there and investigate in person." _

"_Like any of us are in the condition to do that!" Dick exclaimed. _

"_There's also a group of Triangularites in this City, and we must find out who……," Robin stood up. _

_Thompkins complained: "Tim, I'm not finished yet—" _

"_Any word on the escapees from Arkham?" _

_Dick shook his head: "Clayface, nope. Killer Croc, nope. Ventriloquist……he may be in this City. Word is out that Rhino and Mugsy his two favorite lackeys were seen in the upper apartment complexes." _

"_What about the Joker?" _

"_Out of Town. Same with the Riddler. There's been no sign from them for a while." _

"……_who left would possibly be capable and willing to strike a deal with Triangular?" Robin thought aloud. "It'd have to be someone who would find the deaths of smaller, two-bit villains like Lock-Up and Calendar Girl as collateral damage. And you can rule Thorne and Dagget out, because they couldn't afford these days to take such familial risks." _

"_Right." _

"…………_," Robin's eyemask lit up and he palmed his fist with slight pain. "Two-Face! He's still at large AND he's had connections with Lexcorp before! Why didn't I think of it before?" _

"_Too busy shooting down HINDs?" the Messenger remarked. _

_Robin spun to face him, again making Dr. Thompkins jump. "Messenger……do you know anything about Two-Face's involvement?" _

_The asian teen shrugged with a smirk. "You're a detective in this case, Boy Wondrous!" _

"_It __**has**__ to be him," Robin said. Then with a slight, soft sigh he added: "Who else would Slade persuade to ally with Dagger? There's no one else in this City who has hurt me as much as Two-Face has. No one except………" _

_The Messenger leaned his head to the side, curious. _

_Robin shook his head. "Never mind." He looked up. "Nightwing!" _

"_Huh?" _

"_Pay the Penguin a visit. If anyone's got information, he knows. And I can't interpret him myself without blowing my cover!" _

"_Erhm……" _

"_Batgirl! When you're done reexamining Lexcorp through the computer, see what you can do with your dad's influence to check on Maggie Sawyer's files regarding Lexcorp embezzlement. If they're circulating funds in an awkward fashion as of late, that might point us in the right direction!" _

"_Uhhhh……" _

"_Alfred! Could you get my old R-Cycle ready?" _

"…………_," the butler was suppressing a smile. _

_In fact, everyone else seemed on the verge of either laughing or shouting. _

_The Boy Wonder's eyemask thinned. "What? What am I missing?" _

"_It would seem that Master Tim has gotten quite used to being a team leader……" _

"_Y-Yeah……," Dick chuckled. "Quick, Barbara! Chant 'azarath metrion zinthos' so you can begin a computer search of Metropolis! Hahaha!" _

_**CLANG!**__ Robin's fist slammed into the bench. "Dammit! I'm not kidding around here!" _

_The others were silent. _

_Robin pointed with a frown: "Bruce's practically dying. I'm supposed to be dead. And if something isn't done soon, Terra, Noir, and the rest of the Titans are going to bite Slade's red blade! Or even worse……Triangular could get the upper hand of things and November Fourth will happen all over again!" _

"…………"

"…………"

"…………"

_Robin took a calmer breath, but there was still laced anger in his voice as he said: "And if any of you wants to start doing something to get a little order in this chaos going, then be my guest! But we gotta start moving now! How else can we outrun Death?" _

"_Tim……," Thompkins placed a hand on his bandaged shoulder. "Be a little calm. I know that none of us have been what you've been through as of late, but this is all a little hard to digest." She looked around at the others. "As for the rest of you, you should take Robin a little more seriously! Hasn't his days with the Titans and battling Slade proven something to you? Or does it take another hundred deaths of his own City's innocent civilians to wake you all up to what's going on here?" _

_Alfred and Dick looked aside. _

_Barbara walked over and stood before Tim: "You are certainly not the same twelve-year-old punk who stowed away in the Batmobile and became a charming part of all our lives." She bent over and hugged him gently. "We're proud of you, Tim. And by all means, we'll go where you point us. This is your battle as much as ours……" _

_Robin took a deep breath. Something soft and reserved inside of him said in a relatively foreign, human voice: "Th-Thanks, Babs. I'm just……mad at what Slade has done. To my City. To Batman." A breath. He glanced to the side. "To my friends……" _

_Dick walked up and pointed towards the infirmary, smirking: "Well, don't be too mad for too long." _

_Barbara and Robin spun, gasping. _

_Bruce Wayne was stirring to life on the medical bed. _

"_Blessed be!" Thompkins exhaled with a grin. She made her elderly down the steps and hurried to the billonaire's side to treat him to wakefulness. _

_Alfred smiled: "Well……it certainly feels like Christmas all over again. In some morose……awkward way." _

"_Which means my cue to leave……," said the Messenger's voice. _

_Everyone spun and looked up towards the top of the stairs leading out of the Bat-Cave. _

_The asian teen waved: "When things get happier, that's when I walk off. Lord knows, it's a wyrd pattern. I'm only available for sunshine housecalls. Anywho……" _

"_Las-Vegas-Ho, I take it?" Robin smirked. _

"_More or less. I usually wouldn't touch one myself……," a blink. "Oh, you mean 'are you GOING to Las Vegas'! HA! Oh……yeah. You're a real killer, Robin." _

_He must have been rolling his eyes beneath his mask. _

"_I need to meet a certain swordsman. A __**good**__ one. I promise you, I'll be back. And when the time comes……it will be __**you**__ whom Noir will be needing assistance from." _

"_Sounds reasonable to me." _

_The Messenger picked something out of his pocket. An extra, bulky watch. "Here……catch!" _

_He tossed it. _

_Dick caught it. He glanced up. "What's this?" _

"_Communication. Whenever I drop into this universe, drop me a message in turn. It helps to touch base." _

"_What about Noir?" Robin called up. "Shouldn't he know that—" _

"_Robin is dead, Tim. Remember that," Noir pointed. "Noir will know the truth. In time. Right now, he needs to have Terra on the mind. And nothing else. Once things become clear, he'll look back and see all that's been accomplished……and maybe he won't be so mad at me." _

"_When you don't like the message, don't shoot the Messenger." _

"_Exactly. Bonjour, Batcave."_

_**Z-ZAAAT!**_

"_Wyrd……," Dick shook his head and tossed the watch into Robin's gloves. "Here ya go, Tim. Merry Christmas." _

_Robin swiftly tossed it back. _

_Dick nervously caught it. _

_Robin pointed: "Presents can wait. Let's all gather around the tree……," and that said, he nimbly ran and leapt down to the rocky tier where the infirmary was. Alfred and Barbara slowly followed. _

"_B-Bruce!" Robin called out as he came to the bed. "Can you hear me?" _

"_R-Robin……," the Dark Knight winced. His blue eyes thin. He reached out: "Slade……h-he……" _

"_I know, Bruce……," Robin gently took the billionaire's hand in his. "I know……far more than you could possibly know……" _

"_He said……th-that he was going to kill you……" _

"_And in a way he did, Bruce," Robin swallowed. A hopeful grin. "But only part of me." _

"…………_wh-what happened?" _

"_One thing at a time……," Thompkins forced Wayne to lie down straight. "As for now……rest."  
_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"We soon formulated a plan," Robin said. "As soon as Batman regained his strength, we would all conceal our presence from the Gotham Community. As long as I was under an 'oath of silence', so would the rest of the troupe be. And if we were instead revealing ourselves on our nightly beats, that could have left us still vulnerable to Slade's vengeful attacks. In the meantime, we operated covertly to investigate Lexcorp and Two-Face all in one fatal swoop. But you know how observations ago. Everytime you investigate something in the physical world, the observable subject is _altered_ in some way. The same is true of Triangular. We didn't want to reveal ourselves to them until we had a firm enough grasp of what they were up to. We're still not there quite yet. But the only reason we came out into the open, Noir, was to keep you safe and perhaps have a strike at Red Aviary himself."

"Which we did and failed, by the way," Dick added.

"I was personally trailing the Terrible Troupe up until their fateful run-in with Slade and Triangular on the zeppelin," Batman said. "I first noticed you at the factory south of the Gothe Nightclub. It was the first time any of us had seen you in Gotham…..especially after the Metropolis incident. I decided to work with Batgirl to track you and the Troupe down all at once. You did everything I expected you to. From interrogating Penguin to attacking the Troupe head on. You're young, reckless, and fearless, Noir…..but at the same time you are quite effective. Regardless, I wanted to be there in the event that you needed salvation regardless of anything. When you fell towards the burning zeppelin remains following your first meeting with the Ventriloquist, I was poised to swing in and save you. But much to my own surprise, Selina Kyle beat me to it. I wanted to know her involvement with this whole ordeal. And seeing that you were safe for the time being, I kept at a distance to observe. During the meeting with Gordon….and even the fight with the light-elemental assassin girl, I was observing you."

"Though, I have to admit," Barbara winked from afar. She sat at the computer still. "I beat them all to it."

"Ah jeez…..," Dick rolled his eyes. "Here we go…."

"?" I looked from Dick to Barbara with curious black eyes.

"We got to know each other quite a bit before, Noir," Barbara said. "And I don't mean the late-night chats I have had on occasions with Supergirl. But as of late, Kara's been asking me to keep a lookout for you. Especially since you insisted on going to Metropolis alone after giving her charge over Terra."

"…..," I squinted towards her.

_Now wait just a damn minute……_

Barbara smiled proudly. She performed a single key-stroke on the Bat-Computer. Text flashed and the speakers vibrated:

'_HELLO, NOIR. THIS IS THE ORACLE.'_

I bit my lip.

_Dag nabbit. Son of a--_

"She's good, isn't she?" Robin smirked.

_Heh._

I tried hand-signing, but again forgot I was only one-armed. So I sighed.

"It was my pleasure to…..erm…..save your butt from time to time," Barbara said. "Besides, it's been a blast. I've never had a chance to put 'the Oracle' up to this much good use."

"Everyone's got to have a dissociative personality these days," Alfred gestured.

Thompkins chuckled lightly.

"Besides…..you and your regular 'hacker' buddies," Barbara gestured. "As it turns out, the infamous 'J' had disappeared from the digital scene! Somebody had to take his place, right? Now…..isn't it just fantastic that Kara telephone me when she did? It was great for the both of us, I'd say!"

I nodded dazedly.

_She has a point there……_

The Messenger suddenly marched into view, his hands held firmly behind his back. "'Disappearance'……is such a hazy word these days. Wouldn't you all agree?"

"What are you getting at?" Dick asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Messenger smirked and looked in the Dark Knight's direction. "Batman, what has Slade been trying repetitively to acquire that you've always had?"

Batman shortly answered: "A sidekick."

"'Apprentice' is more like it. Someone to follow in the bleeding terrorist's footsteps," the Messenger gestured. He paced in front of me, looking at his feet. "Now…..if someone doesn't do what dear 'daddy' desires, what does he do with them? He beats them up and threatens his friends—such was the case of Robin. Or he abuses them and claims them in the worst ways possible—the case of Terra. And with Jinx….."

"He resorts to murder in the end," Robin murmured.

"Exactly," the Messenger paused and looked up. "Doesn't this pattern seem a little too vicious to come from nowhere?"

Barbara said: "Perhaps…..P-Perhaps Slade was an unsuccessful father once?"

"Unsuccessful is a good term for it," the Messenger nodded. "But then again, so is 'unloving'." The Messenger suddenly swiveled around and spoke straight-square in my face: "Isn't that right, _Jericho?"_

I made a wyrd look. Blinking. And then I gasped, for a dizzy sensation throttlingly came over me. I lurched forward, feeling like I would wretch. But then my eyes twitched….a low green glow enveloped my vision. I fell on my knees and gasped as something passed out of me in an emerald stream and solidified in a small human figure on the Bat-Cave floor.

_**FLASH!**_

"Thar she blows," the Messenger smirked.

I gasped for breath, nearly falling over. Robin had run over and was supporting me by my shoulders. I looked up….and gasped.

There was 'J', huddled on the floor. Hugging his little self. He glanced up with wide green eyes at the Messenger like he had been shot. He then flashed me a frightened, apologetic face before scurrying over into a dark corner of the infirmary.

"Whoah! What in the Hell?" Nightwing jumped as the little blonde ran by. "Was that kid….._inside_ Noir?"

"A 'jumper'….," Batman murmured. "It makes sense now."

"It's that hacker!" Robin whispered hoarsely to me in amazement. "The one that was inside of me before Viper came to Town!"

I panted….panted…

I looked into the corner and caught sight of the trembling shadow of 'J'. Hiding. Shivering….ashamed…..

"How on Earth did he ever get inside of you?"

I shuddered, shaking my head and breathlessly mouthing: _'I don't know……'_

"You don't?" the Messenger knelt and smirked at me. "Cuz I've been keeping myself bottled up about it myself. I'm pretty controlled, even when I'm jealous. But it was in Vegas, Noir."

"……….."

"Don't you remember?"

"………..," I gazed off into the dark expanse of the cavern. Thinking.

And then.

It hit me. Like it really did _hit_ me. In the hallways of Pompeii. After the confrontation in the Vault…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Ghost Boy! Hurry up!" Jinx shouted in the middle of her fight down the hallway far behind me. "Get that door open before we lose the old fart!"_

_I hissed._

_Struggling with Myrkblade against the panels of the metal double doors._

_I finally yanked Myrkblade back. I considered punching through doors with my metal wrist when--_

_FWOOOSH!_

_The doors opened on their own._

_I stared directly into the next chamber._

_And—_

_**FLASH!**_

"…………_.," I blinked. I suddenly realized I was sitting with my butt on the floor. I tried to get up, but I was horribly…horribly dizzy._

_I winced and all but collapsed on the ground._

"_Ghost Boy!"_

_I planted a hand on my forehead. I took a deep breath. And—just like that—the dizziness was gone._

_I wearily stood up, shaking my head. Breathing easily._

_I gazed into the room beyond._

_Where the doors had opened on their own._

_The green light was gone._

_THWUMP! A final guard fell to the ground behind me._

_Jinx ran to my side, panting. Her short pink hair laced with sweat bulbs. "Good job getting the door open!"_

_I blinked at her. _

"_Come on!" she yelled and darted in with a pink blur. _

_I awkwardly stumbled in after her._

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jericho….or 'J' as Noir affectionately knows him by…..heh…..," the Messenger stood up and smiled at 'everyone'. "….has a talent. He can jump into people's bodies by making eye contact with them. From there, he either subliminally controls their motor functions, or simply sits inside the person's head and takes a 'ride'. In Noir's case here," he pointed at me, "…Jericho took the latter option. I'm pretty damn sure Noir was in control of everything at all times. Otherwise…..heh…..I would have noticed. I'm quite observant that way."

I panted as Robin helped me up to my feet.

"You okay?" he asked.

I nodded shakily and wiped my sweaty brow.

_Jesus, Ana…… _

_I can't believe it…… _

_I just……can't believe it…… _

Barbara was slowly, gently walking towards the alcove where 'J' hid. A look of concern was on her face.

Batman drifted over by the Messenger's side, gazing at the shadows. "No wonder Jericho had so much insight. Hackers don't normally get that far in tracking down their enemy, Counter-Red-Aviary or not."

"Indeed," the asian teen folded his arms and nodded. "It was Jericho who hopped into Gary Sills' body and stole the video footage of Noir's battle with Jinx on the City highway, an incident that got the late Blake Glover into this whole thing. And it was also Jericho who 'hopped aboard' Robin at a press conference and used the Boy Wonder's position in Titan's Tower to catch up with the crew partially responsible for the Omega Wing bombing at the prison."

"Yeah….," Robin muttered. "I remember that."

"………"

"But why jump into Noir?" Dick scratched his head. "What's Jericho's game? I thought he and the girls he was working with split up a week ago!"

"What else is he doing it for?" the Messenger smirked. "He's trying to get closer and closer to Red Aviary. Much like we are."

"But why?"

"Simple enough," the Messenger pointed. "Jericho….is Slade's _son._"

"……..," I gazed at the Messenger, then over at where Barbara Gordon knelt. And I saw those two green eyes from that little body look timidly at me. And I remembered the boy crying mutely in my lonely, decrepit room of the Norman Apartments as I tried to hug his sobs away.

_It makes so much sense now……why he was so obsessed with Slade……why he pushed me to join the Titans to fight him. _

_He felt responsible. _

_He……he still feels responsible. _

_God bless him._

"Hey…..," Barbara spoke into the shadows. She reached a hand out and touched Jericho's shaking shoulder. "It's okay…."

The boy sniffed and tried to jerk away from her, but he was collapsing in on himself. With his own tears.

"We're not mad at you….," she murmured. "We want to help. You can trust us….it's okay…."

The boy sniffed, wiped his eyes, and fell forward into Barbara's arms.

The redhead gently hugged him, rubbing a hand across his back. Very motherly…caring…

_Kara has good friends._

I sighed and turned to look at Robin.

Robin turned to look at me.

And everything everywhere—if but for a partial second—felt warm and happy at once.

But an iciness rose to my brain and forced my lips to mouth:

'_So what the Hell next?'_

Robin nodded and said: "That's what I'm alive for."


	228. A Hard Act to Follow part 13

**228. A Hard Act to Follow part 13**

"Jordan, take a look here. This is a prototype that I have been working on. I seriously doubt it'll match the craftsmanship of your previous prosthetic to the 'T', but that's mainly because it's just a piece of a whole unit that has yet to be completed yet, and its fusion technology wasn't exactly designed for your neurological cybernetics. Regardless, I believe that I can get the apparatus to work. In fact, I had been planning on it."

"……………," I was looking across the Batcave. Staring at a bench besides the computer. There 'J'—or _Jericho_ sat with Barbara by his side.

The redhead was still in her Batgirl costume, only maskless. She spoke pleasantly and gently with the short, blonde thing to her right. The adolescent nodded with a somber face and locked his eyes to the floor. Barbara seemed to be trying to cheer him up….to ease him. But he was distracted. Or….perhaps resisting any urge to smile.

"……….," I took a deep breath.

"…….Jordan?"

I suddenly realized that Batman had been talking to me and _I hadn't been paying attention……_

I winced, turned, and looked at him.

His eyeslits thinned as he pushed forward for my examination a tall, slender object stuck on a pedestal's rod. It looked like a long black glove. Yet, it stood rigid….like an arm was filling the solid obsidian handpiece. I noticed Robin in my peripheral vision, standing alongside Batman. Nightwing, Alfred, and Dr. Thompkins were discussing something in the background. _And the Messenger? I had no idea……_

The Dark Knight spoke, pointing to the glove: "I said……this is a prototype that I've been working on as of late. It may be only an arm so far, but it's one piece of a suit I have planned. A very….special, state-of-the art suit. Whoever will wear the suit will be augmented in areas of strength, agility, and stamina. Not to mention durability. It's how I plan to fight crime in the next few decades." Batman's face drifted over towards Robin. "You can't stay young forever."

The Boy Wonder couldn't help but smirk some: "Speak for yourself."

"…….," I smiled.

Nightwing walked up: "What's this? A new Holloween Costume?"

"It's the Suit Prototype I've been telling you about, Dick."

"Nice. I only see a hand, though."

"Because that's all I've built," Batman says as he slips the glove off the pedestal. "A 'hand'." He fingered it in his grasp and adjusted little wires at the bottom end of it. "So far, I've tested it in environmental simulators and various technological extremes. It's survived ballistics, friction, and point blanc serration. In short, it's worth the twenty million dollars I've put into the glove alone."

Nightwing whistled. "Whew….Bruce—I swear—you and your _Bat-Pocket_ will never cease to amaze me."

"You've got two birds with one stone," Robin added.

Batman swiftly stretched the glove out, repositioned it, and held it out towards me….

"…………," I blinked at it. I looked at Batman.

He was emotionless with or without his mask. He said: "You'll find that the circumference of the 'glove' matches the disk on your left arm. Try it on…."

Nightwing's jaw dropped.

Robin was silent.

I took a deep breath, gently took the 'glove' in my left hand, and nervously brought the black material over to my left stub. I struggled in awkward bashfulness to match the ring of the glove's 'opening' to the disc attachment.

Batman suddenly pulled out a remote and clicked it.

_Beep!_

The black 'glove' sparked.

_Schnnnnnnnnkkttt!-Tumpt!_

I gasped and jumped. The wires magnetically sunk into my metal disc in a circular fashion. A few more sparks, and then the glove attached in a vice grip.

Batman pressed another button on the tiny remote.

_Beep!_

_Vrrrmmm—Tchnnkt!_

The black material of the glove seemed to 'tighten' around an invisible hand of sorts, so that my wrist and fingers and forearm were just as hard and durable as any titanium limb before it. I found that with so much as a simple though, I could flex the fingers and turn the wrist at will. Quite nimbly too. However….it felt a lot number than my titanium prosthetic that was courtesy of Cyborg and Simon Stone. In fact, I wasn't sure I could _feel_ anything with my left arm at all.

_Heh. Guess that makes me 'normal'._

"Try 'counting' from one to five…."

I looked at Batman. I looked at my finger. I held one finger up. Two. Three. Four. Five. I clenched my fist. I relaxed. I retrated the fingers. Four. Three. Two. One. None.

"Okay….," Batman nodded. He stepped back. "Now, Jordan, hold your 'new' hand out."

I did so.

_**THWACK!**_ He stabbed into it with a sharp, slicing batarang.

I gasped.

_CRKKK!_

The batarang split on contact with my black knuckles and fell to pieces.

I exhaled a sigh.

"Good," Batman spoke. "The exoskeleton has achieved maximum, pliable density. It's an _adamantine_ polymer. Highly rare. Highly expensive. But it will protect your left limb from everything short of a nuclear explosion at ground zero. Though I doubt the rest of your body could handle such as well."

I nervously smirked.

He tossed the remaining shards of his batarang into a container and turned back to face me. "It should be a suitable, temporary replacement of your titanium prosthetic. Use it wisely." His eyeslits narrowed. "I'll need it back when we're done with Red Aviary and Triangular."

I nodded, rubbing my left arm and getting used to the powerful numbness.

_Thanks very much……just…… _

_Too bad for the 'temporary' part……_

"Always the crazy-ass philanthropist, Bruce," Nightwing shrugged, folded his arms, and smirked. "What ever inspires you to share such expensive toys with such perfect strangers these days is beyond me."

"Simple," Batman glanced at Nightwing before staring straightly at me. "Now Noir can talk to us."

"………..," I blinked.

Two eyemask and a cowl stared back at me. Triple cold. A mentor and his protégés.

I couldn't help but sweat a little, even if I had no conceivable reason for doing so.

After a few pauses of bearing their eyesight, I relaxed….however.

For Robin was there.

My right hand and my 'new left hand' moved in motion with each other. And I had a voice again:

'_Do you think Deathstroke knows anything about Terra?'_

Somehow I had no doubt that at least one of these three vigilante lessons could understand my sign-language. And I was right.

Batman answered: "There is no way of knowing if he's aware of what you've done with Terra or not. The only times we have run into Red Aviary have been moments where any or all of us have nearly died. The rest we fill in the gaps through researching those of Triangular most hit hard by Slade's deadly rampage. And even there, the details are still sketchy."

"Dagger's finished with Terra," Nightwing said, his arms folded. "Right now, at least. He….'got what he wanted' from her."

I took a deep breath and mouthed: _'Yeah, I know.'_ A pause. I glanced at Robin.

He stared back at me.

I swallowed and hand-signed in Batman's direction: _'If you three knew that Terra was revived without me telling you, then I can only imagine Deathstroke somehow discovering it himself.'_

"All we know is that you did it somehow, Noir," Robin spoke suddenly. "Where you left Terra….well…that's to anyone's guess."

I spun and looked at him with surprise. Shaded black eyes blinking.

He bit his lip. "I…..I-I brushed up a little……after the Messenger said that we'd be crossing paths again…"

"………"

"He did his friggin' sign-language homework already," Nightwing grinned. "God! I kept urging him for so many months."

"Pffft….shut up."

I ran a hand over my face.

Robin's lips parted. "Noir? You okay?"

I lowered my hand, and I was chuckling breathily. Shaking my head.

Robin pouted.

"Hrmmm…..," Batman exhaled.

"Yeah….this is really going somewhere," Nightwing rolled his masked eyes.

I cleared my throat, faced Batman again, and hand-signed: _'Did the Messenger tell you how important it is that Terra live?'_

"As much as he has surely told you."

I frowned. _'You want to 'give me what I want', Batman? Stop being taciturn.'_

"…………………"

Nightwing fidgeted.

'_I have been separated from the Messenger's guidance for a long time. Has he indicated that Terra is in any sort of conceivable danger?'_

"No, he hasn't."

I took a deep breath.

'_Good. I know I should not be too concerned. I left her in capable hands. But now that I seem to have more solid allies on my side, I wonder if maybe—'_

Batman interrupted: "It would be foolish to keep you both together. That's exactly what Red Aviary wants. An easy target to eliminate both at once."

I winced.

"You are aware of this yourself, I'm certain."

I nodded.

_Yeah…… _

_It's why you left Terra back in Smallville and went to Metropolis alone to begin with, Jordan you dummy!_

"If that's the case……," Nightwing scratched his brow and glanced aside at Batman. "Then maybe we shouldn't even have _Noir_ and Robin together? Or wait…..Red Aviary thinks Robin is dead?"

"He _did_ assume that," Batman spoke. "The Messenger's plan worked perfectly to the point that it gave Noir time to save Terra and gave us the cover to investigate Triangular. But Slade is not so easily fooled. He knows that something is wrong."

I hand-signed: _'He is so strongly connected to the Spectrum that he can specifically fixate on his targets and tell whether or not they are still alive.'_

Robin 'read' my hands to the best of his ability, strained some, and said aloud: "But….how? His powers don't seem anything similar to yours and Terra's….besides, Terra's not—"

'_Yes she is.'_

Robin did a double-take.

I took a deep breath. _'Terra……has a lot of things in her that only I can possibly __**understand**__. It would take a long explanation. But quite simply, her powers are as much tied to the Spectrum as they are tied to the Earth. It is a matter of varied, physical manifestations.'_ I looked Batman's and Nightwing's way. _'As for Red Aviary, his manifested element is red smoke. Such as mine is black smoke. But where I concentrate on maintaining balance, he concentrates on proliferating destruction. So when a life is destroyed—on either the black side or the earthen side of the Spectrum like Terra and me respectively—then Slade, as wielder of the Red, is capable of feeling it.'_

"What about Robin?" Nightwing asked to the air in general. "Last time I checked, he wasn't a smoke Jedi by any means."

Robin bit his lip and looked aside.

Batman glared the Boy Wonder's way before looking towards the other two of us and saying: "Robin made himself quite known. When he should have been still and silent, he instead went out into the open night and—"

"And who's going to blame me, Batman?" Robin barked. A slight snarl. "What Noir went through in Vegas was one thing….but in Metropolis, he was going to die! Slade knew that Terra was hidden and she couldn't be destroyed! So he decided to catch up with Noir and it was in Metropolis that Red Aviary sprung his trap! You and Nightwing and Batgirl and even the Justice League were going to let Noir lose his head on his own if he wanted to and I couldn't settle for that!"

I took a deep breath. I faced Robin and hand-signed: _'Robin, I was not entirely alone. Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman were assisting me and Tempest and Steel were—'_

He interrupted, marching towards me and pointing: "No, Noir! You were alone in Lexcorp and you were alone outside of that funeral home!"

I blinked, my lips parted.

_So he was there……_

"…..," Robin lowered his arm. He stared down at the floor and sighed. After a while, he looked up and spoke to me: "While you were in Metropolis, I couldn't just sit back and walk. The things that were happening to you made me sick. Hell, what's been happening to all the Titans has bothered me. It's so hard to follow the Messenger's plan, Noir. I thought I could do it at first. I thought I was strong enough. But when I saw my team members splitting apart…some going on their own…others turning to ice at the Tower….I couldn't stand it. And finally, one night, I broke. It was after the supposed 'attack' on the Justice League by the shipyards, and I there was nothing to friggin' hold me back anymore…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_What have you found, Babs?" _

_Batgirl sat at the Bat-Computer, typing away like mad. Her bright blue eyes scanned the screen as she read aloud: "Well, there are two converging pieces of evidence that I've found while hacking my way into the Lexcorp Mainframe. For one, there're at least a hundred documents all indicating signed agreements and money transfers between suspected leaders of Intergang and Lex Luthor's organization." _

"_Sounds like a sell-out." _

"_Indeed. Intergang hasn't been doing too fancy as of late. Everyone in the criminal underworld between here and Central City is waiting for the terrorist organization to collapse in on itself. I wouldn't doubt it if Lexcorp, a former financer in Intergang, was buying out the assets of the crumbling business." _

"_What's the other piece of evidence?" _

"_This." She typed. _

"_A computer chip?" _

"_Not just any computer chip. It's a special silicon cylinder bred by the best of Intergang's lingering scientists. It was set to be transferred with Malaysian agents in a secret meeting at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas." _

"_Triangular got involved……huh?" _

"_Yes, and most likely a certain long-distance friend of ours as well." _

"_So what happened to the chip? _

"_It was flown to Metropolis shortly after the destruction of Area 51. It was then brought to the labs at Lexcorp where Dr. Helga Jace—a European national working for Luthor—incorporated it into Project Enkidu." _

"_Project Who?" _

"_Enkidu…," Batman stepped up. "Ancient mythology. Enkidu is the golem of sticks and mud that fought Gilgamesh." _

"_Lexcorp is trying to create a golem?" _

"_Not quite," Batgirl spoke while typing. "I think 'Enkidu' represents a piece of technology they're trying to resurrect. And in this case, an automaton or android…" _

_Nightwing's eyemask narrowed in thought. "And if this is Intergang's technology that we're dealing with……then the first thing they'd want to resurrect is—" _

"_Metallo." _

_Batgirl, Batman, and Nightwing swiveled about and looked up a tier of the cave. _

_Robin stood on the edge, his face tight and lips firm. "Superman scrapped Metallo after Supergirl and the Titans fought him in Kansas. But to do so, Superman had to work at least partially with S.T.A.R. Labs in Metropolis. It's little doubt nowadays that Emil Hamilton has a nasty opinion of Superman. I don't think it's beneath Hamilton to have been sweet-talked by Lexcorp or Intergang into coughing up the parts and pieces of Metallo, if it meant reestablishing a fiend capable of tackling Superman and holding the 'powerful Kryptonian' at bay." _

"_We have no direct evidence to confirm that, Robin," Batman said. "None of us have directly gone to Metropolis since—" _

"_And maybe it's about time that we did!" Robin snapped. "Don't you see? It __**WAS**__ Metallo! That would explain the eyewitness testimony of Noir battling someone in random parts of the City preceding the Shipyard fight with the Justice League! And Metallo's shown in the past that he can learn new tricks. What's to say he hasn't developed some sort of talent for exoskeleton camouflage or holographic manipulation? I think that was a nefarious, mute bogey that attacked the Justice League! A bogey made out of titanium, not Noir's flesh!" _

"_We won't know for sure until we see Noir in person, Robin," Batman said. _

"_We should wait for him to come to us? Are you nuts? He might be dead or in prison by then!" _

"_Tim……," Batgirl stood up and gently pointed, "…you know the plan. Noir __**will**__ come here on his own. We have no choice but to leave him to his own devices. If any of us so much as get close to him, Red Aviary might suspect something and—" _

"_Screw Red Aviary!" Robin shouted with a wave of his gloved hand. "Screw all of this hiding around in the dark! I didn't become Team Leader just so that I could watch my friends be ripped apart one by one! That isn't responsibility! That's just stupidity!"_

"_Robin, the 'stupid' thing would be doing something brash that would end your own life!" Batman responded curtly. "And right now we can't risk losing you. Not when we're this close to solving the puzzle!" _

"_Yeah……well I think I'm not close enough," Robin murmured. He spun and ran down a dark corridor of rock leading into a shadier section of the Batcave. "I'm going to intercept him! The least any of us can do is give him something to breathe for!" _

"_Robin!" Batman shouted. He spun with a twirl of his cape and made to run after the Boy Wonder. "Wait--!" _

_Nightwing gripped the Dark Knight's shoulder. "Let him go, Bruce………" _

_Batman hissed and pointed: "He's in over his head! He's letting the whole Titan's Leader thing get to him!" _

"_And are you any less a leader, Bruce?" Nightwing asked. "If it was Robin or me limping across the country and having the shit beaten out of us, would you hold __**yourself**__ back?" _

"……………_," Batman was silent. But his muscles relaxed. He no longer jerked to go after Robin._

_In the meantime, Batgirl bit her lip._

_Nightwing smiled. "Face it. The kid's like me. He's growing up to be a regular jackass. But something tells me……he's going to be a mature jackass. Something I'm sure all of us could have wanted. Especially at that age. Right, Babs?" _

"_I could do with a little less ego," she folded her arms and pouted. _

"_He knows how not to lose his head, Bruce," Nightwing went on. "I'm sure that if he manages to go deeply into Metropolis……he won't let his pimply face show." _

_Batman straightened his cape and paced off to be on his own. As he icily walked off, he said: "He's still reckless, Nightwing. If this Destructive Threat catches up with him because of his last-minute joyride, it won't be us who's to blame." _

_Nightwing called out after him with a shrug: "It wasn't even __**our**__ threat to begin with!" _

_Batman walked on, silent. _

"_Hrmph……," Nightwing folded his arms. "Talk about ego." _

_Batgirl giggled. _

_Nightwing glared. "What are you so cheery about?" _

"_You're such a cute little family." _

"_Oh hush." _

**When you would end up coming into Gotham, Noir, Nightwing's opinion was bound to change slightly. But at the time, it was flattering to look back and realize that he was rooting for you and me…..for the both of us in some sense. However the ruling majority vote, I couldn't stay put. Yes…..I put everyone and everything in jeopardy. But who's to say it was for naught? When I arrived in Gotham at the last minute, you were nearly biting the bullet from both Red Aviary AND Metallo. You would have died, Noir, hadn't I intervened. You know this, don't you? Then perhaps you'll know that I'm not reiterating this so that you may feel bad or so that I may brag and feel good about myself at your expense. You've given just so much to this whole escapade, it was about time that someone gave something back to you. And as your leader……as the one who appointed you as my Number Two, I felt the need to help you thusly. Nothing—not even the Messenger's wise words—was going to hold me back.**

_VRMMMMMMM! _

_Robin gripped the handles of a sleek black motorcycle. He drove through frigid air of the Metropolitan Highway at Sunset. The traffic was thin where he was, but in the distance he could spot a few vehicles going south in the lanes ahead of him. _

_Robin took a deep breath, bearing the brunt of the cold, whipping winds of November. He reached a hand up to an intercom button on his helmet and clicked it. _

_Beep! _

"_Cloak mode." He mouthed._

_The motorcycle responded with an electronic chime. A whirring noise. Then…… _

_ZZZZT! _

_With a few white bolts of electricity, the exoskeleton of the motorcycle started refracting light till—at a blink of an eye—the vehicle looked like one with the road. A holographic blur was extended over the body of Robin. As he sped up, the Boy Wonder wasn't exactly invisible………but he was definitely quite difficult to pinpoint with the highly technological, light-bending devices at work. _

_In such streaking fashion, he burned down the highway as night fell. _

_And soared straight into Metropolis._

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What happens next…well….," Robin adjusted his cloak and spoke. "….you know."

I leaned my head to the side. With my new left hand and my right hand I gestured sign-language.

Robin's eyemask thinned. But he lost concentration and shook his head: "I-I'm sorry. I'm still new to someone—?"

"Noir asks if it was you who attacked Metallo outside the funeral home," Nightwing said. He smirked. "Want me to hit him over the head for you?"

"Yes..I-I MEAN NO! Er….," Robin ran a hand through his black hair. "Yeah….that was me."

"………," I smiled. I reached a hand into my fatigues' pocket and produced the birdarang. I handed it out to him.

Robin seemed a little startled. He blinked under his mask, took the object in a gentle gloved palm, and tested its cracked weight. "Heh. Guess I left a souvenir."

'_Enough for me to follow,'_ I hand-signed with a smile.

"Yes," Batman nodded. "And apparently enough for Deathstroke to notice too. That's why his attacks on Noir changed."

I turned and looked at Batman curiously.

He said: "Noir, when was the first time you truly came close to a brushed encounter with Red Aviary?"

'_Lexcorp. In Metropolis.'_

"Did he make an attempt on your life there?"

I shuddered. _'For all intents and purposes, yes.'_

"And after that?"

'_At the cemetery outside of Metropolis.'_

"Which was the last time Noir nearly went toe-to-toe with Slade before Robin dropped in," Nightwing nodded. "More or less."

"If that's the case, let's assume that Red Aviary was still in the vicinity of Metallo's attack in front of the funeral home. And when Robin dove in and did performed his little interception to save Noir's neck, Slade saw it. But Slade couldn't catch up with Robin….because Robin was still exercising the stealth that the Messenger had warned us to use in this case."

"Then the only one Slade could follow along at that point was Noir."

"Exactly. And since Terra is somewhere Slade doesn't know, then the only member of the three primary targets Red Aviary can consume is Noir. And even though he wanted Robin, he felt that attacking Noir further would bring Robin out of hiding so that he could deal a deadlier blow to his preferred target. But in order to attack Noir sufficiently without Noir speedily escaping like he did both times in Metropolis…."

"He had to consume more souls," Robin slurred. "And feed Destruction."

Batman looked at me. "After Metropolis, when was your next run-in with Red Aviary?"

I took a deep breath. _'The Zeppelin.'_

"And were you the primary target of that incident?"

"………," I didn't even need to answer that.

"The Terrible Troupe was," Nightwing said. "The Mad Hatter. The Clock King."

"The same can be said about Bane and the Ventriloquist," Batman said. "I'm also willing to bet that killing Bane in particular gave Red Aviary a significant 'boost'—if you will—to his powers. Assuming that Destruction feeds off the intensity of murderous potential in human beings as much as their rage."

Nightwing glanced over at me. "Does that sound right, dark eyes?"

"……," I slowly nodded. _Pretty much, yeah._

"Then….well…..i-it was a good thing that all three of you went to save Noir's butt," Robin murmured. "If even _then_ you could possibly have been a match for how charged-up Red Aviary had become."

"The only thing we ever hoped to do in going in there was getting Noir out safely," Batman said. "And we did. I was intent on taking Deathstroke out while the opportunity presented itself. But it's obvious by now. He's far too strong to be taken down by our combined efforts, even."

"But now that we have Noir with us….," Robin pointed. "And the Messenger. Hell, Jericho even…..what is that? Seven against one?"

Nightwing made a face. "Seven?"

"Yes….," Robin nodded. "Exactly."

"……."

"Robin….," Batman leaned forward. "Even if we knew where and how to contact Red Aviary at this point in time….we still don't know exactly how dangerous he is. Nightwing, Batgirl and I may be able to face him with little consequence. But something tells me that it is Noir and yourself that he's after. And putting you two in the line of danger to be consumed by Deathstroke is the last thing we can do in this case. Slade is on a rampage. Regardless of who else he kills, as long as he eliminates you two….he'll go on to catch other heroes and vigilantes around the world without warning. And Batgirl, Nightwing and I won't be fast enough to catch up with him."

"All the more reason for us to intercept him now!" Robin emphasized.

"Are you willing to take the risk?"

And to that, Robin was silent. I was only half-surprised.

I admitted mentally to myself with a sigh that…..now that I knew Robin was alive and we were together, I would happily have sat out a World War Three Thermonuclear Holocaust in that damned cave. There was something indescribably wonderful about standing there next to him. I was tired. Beat up. Scarred and mangled by Slade and Dagger combined over a month of Hell. And yet—in spite of all my pain and exhaustion—I was engulfed in a background of endless euphoria solely because Robin was alive. It's a very queer yet common sensation. It's like when you're sick as a dog and yet you feel ecstatic because the drug medication is slipping in and you can gradually feel your senses tingle and your respiratory tubes slip back into working order.

I was afraid to try hugging Robin again. Not so much that he would punch me in homophobic neurosis, but rather that I might faint from the effort of trying to move more than a millimeter.

_Does anyone here have a Bat-Bed?_

"Quite frankly, where would we begin on a search to chase down Deathstroke?" Nightwing spoke. "The guy sorta comes and goes and kills as he pleases."

"There is very little evidence to follow Slade's movements with," Batman said. "It would be futile to try and track him. Triangular, however, is a good foot we can start on."

"But didn't you say that Noir might be able to help with Red Aviary—"

"I did. But something tells me he isn't such a good beacon anymore."

I made a face. I leaned my head to the side and hand-signed: _'What are you talking about?'_

"Noir, tell me…," Batman spoke, "…when you had your metal arm….your _old_ metal arm….were there any glitches with it?"

"………," I blinked. My black eyes traced the ceiling, walls, floor. The telling shadows of the Batcave. I shuddered and hand-signed: _'Yeah.'_

"What, exactly?"

_Well……_

I gestured: _'There was always a problem with sensory transmissions through my prosthetic. I do not think all the nerves in my arm transferred correctly into the electric components of the machine. Every so often I would experience what I would call a 'chill'. My body would suddenly feel cold and I would shiver all over.'_

"Did this increase in time?"

_What is this? A doctor's visit?_

'_Yes.'_

"The closer you got to Red Aviary?"

I was about to answer….but then I paused. "……." I went on ahead and gestured: _'Yes.'_

"Were there other symptoms?" Batman asked. Hie eyeslits narrowed. "Possibly….hallucinogenic?"

"Say what?" Nightwing remarked.

Robin slowly looked at me. Curious. Wyrded out.

"……..," my lips parted. I slowly hand-signed: _'How did you know?'_

"You haven't felt any of these symptoms since your arm shattered and we brought you to the Bat-Cave, have you?"

_No. I hadn't._

I slowly shook my head.

"……..," Batman turned. He walked over to the Bat-Computer. He punched a few keys and produced a digital model of my former metal prosthetic. "Production of Simon Stone, I assume. Victor Stone's Uncle?"

"Yeah….," Robin walked ahead and stood before the computer, his arms crossed. "After Noir sacrificed his arm to stop Slade, Victor worked with Phaser Labs to get Noir a cybernetic replacement. It's just as well, because a good number of people from the police department were also getting prosthetics at the time. Viper's rampage had lopped a lot of limbs, so believe-you-me the citizens were quite happy to receive the surface they did."

"But Noir got a special model."

"Absolutely. Cyborg insisted on it. Pure A titanium. The same material that goes into his cybernetic exoskeleton. But—at the time—the only one besides Cyborg himself who knew how to build such tech was Simon Stone. And he's since been reduced to an artificial computer construct."

"Because whatever was once human in him was exploited by Anderson and Slade prior to Dagger's first defeat," Batman said.

Robin nodded: "Right. It was the same incident that freed Rachel Mendez and Jean-Lu--…." Robin froze. He squinted his eyemask at Batman. "What are you getting at?"

"Simon Stone has worked for nefarious people before," Batman said. "And in a vulnerable, digital alteration of his human consciousness too…."

"Meaning what exactly?" Nightwing said. "Stone was under the influence when building Noir's arm?"

"Not entirely," Batman said. "But it's possible that a certain subroutine could have been built into Simon's digital construct that would have subconsciously affected the manner in which he produced Noir his new prosthetic."

"What's that got to do with Red Aviary, though?"

"I think I understand….," Robin murmured. He looked more and more gradually in my direction as he slurred in thought: "Whether he meant to or not….back in the days before we saved him, Simon Stone worked _for_ Slade's and Dagger's interests. All those androids of Slade didn't come from nowhere, exactly. And when Simon was freed and employed at Phaser Labs to construct an object for a dismembered Titan, it's possible that he was carrying with him an ancient program undetected from his days with Slade."

"But to what purpose?" Nightwing asked. "To give Noir the chills? Perhaps….to disable him every time he came close to Slade so that he'd die easier?"

"Not exactly," Batman spoke. "We're dealing with metaphysics here. The Spectrum—as much as we can perceive it—is almost something 'magical' to behold."

Nightwing looked at me. "That right?" he smirked.

I merely bit my lip.

Nightwing turned to Batman again. "Go on."

The Dark Knight did: "Destruction is very parasitic….invasionary. Slade thrives through 'possessing' things as much through killing them."

"What _things_?" Robin asked.

"His two-edged sword. Carbonite. Even shotgun pellets," Batman gestured. "Anything that Red Aviary can 'charge' with the cutting force of his Spectral power and use towards his advantage." He then looked over at me. "Or perhaps….simply things that he was close to upon the moment that the epiphany of Red hit him."

"………"

"When you went to Metropolis, your friend Tempest had something to show you, didn't he, Noir?"

I took a deep breath.

_The mask. _

_It had the red vapors of Destruction 'charged' into it. _

_Much like smoke can charge into my Myrkblade._

_And when I so much as touched the red vapors…… _

_I felt Destruction like I had never felt that raw slice of the Spectrum since my days at the School._

"Your arm was very much like that, Noir," Batman said. "Someway…somehow….Slade imparted upon you a piece of Destruction so that by the time you got the prosthetic Simon Stone made for you, the powers of Destruction messed with your circuitry…intensifying with proximity to Red Aviary or _thoughts_ regarding him."

I shuddered.

_All those times I got the shivers. _

_They were all warnings._

_A piece of Red Aviary was with me this whole time……_

"With the manner of Simon Stone's technology, your prosthetic arm was deeply tied to your neurological systems. Is it true that you had hallucinogenic experiences whenever your metal hand thusly acted up?"

I nodded.

"Like….," Nightwing shrugged. "What kind of hallucinations."

I took a deep breath. I hand-signed: _'Voices. I would hear the name of 'Red Aviary' being spoken slowly. Like someone hissing it in my ear. Then my vision might go out. Dizziness. And……'_

"And what, Noir?"

'_I saw a lot about my past. When I've been exposed to Destruction before,'_ I spoke.

Batman's eyeslits narrowed at my beating-around-the-bush.

"Anything else?"

I looked hesitantly at Robin.

He leaned his head to the side, curious.

I shuddered: _'Yes. I had visions.'_

"What kind of visions?"

'_Robin visions.'_

"Excuse me?" the Boy Wonder murmured.

'_Memories that undoubtedly belong to him. I cannot explain it. I do not know how my head could have thought up some of the things that I saw.'_

"It makes sense," Batman said.

Nightwing looked at him. Googly-masked. "It does?"

"Robin is Slade's first and only obsession," the Dark Knight spoke with an edge of teeth-grating bitterness. I saw his gloved hand curl up into a fist. "I wouldn't hold it beyond him to pass forth any and all fixations regarding Robin's pain and agony."

I looked hesitantly towards Robin.

He was gazing at the floor in a forlorn manner.

I shifted nervously where I sat and felt guilty….for some reason.

"It may have been possible for Noir—with that metal arm of his—to have detected when and where Slade was close beforehand," Batman said. "But now, that is not the case. Pursuing Red Aviary is out of the question. Howbeit, now that Gotham City has become a crucible for both the Parasite and Triangular, it's time that we came out into the open. Some of us, at least."

"Triangular ahoy?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes, Nightwing," Batman turned about and faced us directly. "Noir, the Ventriloquist said that William B. Fox went back to his and his father's apartment complex, correct?"

I nodded.

"Though I doubt such an obvious clue into Triangular's movements would be thrown so violently to the wind, I think Fox is due for another visit."

I mouthed: _'Another?'_

"Batman and I have been trailing Fox off and on throughout this whole ordeal," Nightwing explained. "Only…with the whole Zeppelin thing, we couldn't get close enough without revealing ourselves…which was against our code at the time. You, on the other hand, didn't have any problem showing your face and kicking ass. Heh. Funny how I didn't seem to understand that at the time…."

I 'smirked'. _Yeah. Funny._

"In the meantime, Batgirl—or the Oracle—will conduct more computer searches so that we can track down Fox on both fronts."

"Classic," Nightwing remarked. "Utterly classic. Who's for a soda?"

"What about us," Robin asked.

Nightwing turned and squinted. "When you say 'us', do you mean 'all sniveling Titans present'?"

Robin frowned.

Nightwing smirked.

Batman walked into view. "Robin, you know the drill. As for you, Noir…."

I stood up straight. At attention.

"……….get some rest."

I sighed.

_Thanks and no thanks……_

"What about Jericho?" Robin asked.

We all looked over to where Barbara was finished talking to the blonde boy. She said something. Jericho nodded. Barbara walked up and trotted this way.

"He may be useful in assisting us…," Batman said. "But we can't let him alter our mission whatsoever. We're here to stop Red Aviary at all costs. The fact that Slade is Jericho's father mustn't hold any weight. He needs to understand that."

"One of us needs to talk to him," Nightwing said. "I mean…one of us besides Babs. Barbara's a great mother and all, but she's good at making little kids feel better. That's about it."

"And you know this….how?" Robin asked.

Nightwing shrugged: "She took vocational day-care as a minor while at community college."

"Barbara went to community college?"

"What are you guys saying about me?" Barbara walked up.

"Nothing."

"Nada."

"…………"

Nightwing simpered. "So what's the little mutant got to say?"

"My sign-language is getting a little rusty…so it was I who did most of the talking," the redhead said. "I basically calmed him down and told him that everything was all right and that we meant him no harm. I figure that he knows enough as it is about his father being Red Aviary and all. Something tells me he's had it in expectation for a while now that he'd be coming to conflict with Slade. It was just a matter of time. And 'jumping' into Noir was his way of hurrying up to the battle front."

Nightwing shivered. "Brrrr….what guarantees that that isn't going to happen again with him? That the little shrimp isn't going to hop into each and every one of us at leisure?"

_**ZAAAAT!**_

"Because we all know he's here," the Messenger said, standing between us. "Me, on the other hand, I can 'hop' around as I pretty damn well please." He smirked.

Nightwing sighed.

"Want to press your luck?" Batman droned.

The Messenger gulped, shook it off with a grin, and faced Barbara. "Here ya go, marvel girl," he tossed her a writing pad and pointed. "I spent the last hour or so hanging around Fox's apartment complex. You might find that happier than a lingerie shopping spree. But…heh…what would **I** know?"

Barbara's mouth hung open. "These are…..satellite frequencies…."

The Messenger nodded. "I've got some fanciful smanciful techno-props of my own that come in handy now and then. The only difference is that I don't slap on a 'bat' prefix onto any one of them. Basically, those are emissions coming from Fox's home sweet hell-hole."

"Of course!" Barbara beamed. "Fox is using a satellite connection to beam himself across the country's power grid!"

"And Lexcorp could very well be providing the boost in orbit!" Nightwing added.

Barbara stammered happily: "With this information, I can get over one hundred and fifty percent closer to tracking down Fox than ever before! Messenger, you're beautiful!" And she pounced at him.

_**ZAAT!**_ He disappeared.

Barbara hugged nothing but mid-air. "Huh?"

_**ZAAAT!**_ In a green flash, the Messenger appeared above and behind Batman on a higher rock tier. "Not that I'm gay…," he shrugged with a smile, "…but I prefer belles over bats."

"Um….."

The Messenger turned and looked: "Brucey. If you were to go and pay a certain Fox a visit, you'll find that he's most…..where you want him."

Batman turned around. "Thank you very much for your assistance."

"Hey. I'm flattered that you trust me!"

"………," Batman glared.

"Right then. Shoot the goofy asian kid," the Messenger glanced over at Jericho, then looked at me. "Sorry to cut a reunion short, Sonic, but I think Tails over there could use a bit of a pep talk."

I bit my lip.

"Hey! I'll be back!" the Messenger winked. "Just tap your heels together three times and say: 'I want MASH reruns."

I folded my arms and frowned.

"Yup. Just shittin' ya. Gotta go recharge. Ciao!"

_**ZAAAT!**_

Robin rubbed his temples, sighing: "I often wish benevolent visitors from another realm kept their schizophrenia at home."

"Heh…I hear ya, Tim," Nightwing nodded. He looked Batman's way. "Remind me again why you, Mr. Tall-Dark-And-Ominous, were so willing to listen to what that rave hall reject has to say? And don't use the 'he saved Robin excuse'."

"He saved Robin."

"Bravo," Nightwing rolled his masked eyes.

Batman pointed: "He only wants to help us."

"You sure there's no ulterior motive?" Barbara asked.

"Only that he derives extreme personal pleasure from helping us out…," Batman said.

Nightwing smirked: "And you're okay with _that?"_

"As long as his pleasure doesn't involve tossing pies of hydrocholoric acid into people's faces or laughing gas, sure."

"Dun dun dunnnn! Batman delivers a punchline!"

"Not now…not anytime…," the Dark Knight wandered up the rock tiers towards where the Batmobile was parked. "Nightwing…care to join me?"

"Oh NOW he asks politely!" Nightwing smirked and trotted after Batman. "I suppose distance makes the heart grow polite-er."

"What heart?"

"My point exactly…."

And Barbara pointed to the computer with her new data. "Sorry, Tim. I gotta go. If anyone shows Noir around, it'll have to be you." She briskly jogged over to the Bat Computer to 'become' Oracle.

"I don't think that will be a problem," Robin said with a thin smile.

I turned and faced him. I smirked.

He looked at me.

We were both alone.

"…………," he pointed. "How do you like the new arm?"

I looked at the black 'glove' stretched to work like a limb. I worked my left appendage and produced a numb thumb's up.

"You'll get used to it, I'm sure," Robin nodded. "Bruce's technology is always top-notch. Heh…why do you think I trust my birdarangs and R-Cycles so much?"

I slowly nodded…understanding…

_Boy Billionaire……has a boy billionaire…… _

_Yes. _

_That all makes sense now. _

_Lucky Robin._

I took a deep breath. Images flashed before me. The City under a gray cloud. The sarcophagus of the radioactive depository. Starfire and Beast Boy walking through hallways. Looking towards the floor.

I exhaled sadly.

_Lucky Robin………_

The Boy Wonder looked past me for a moment, and then directly at my face. "I agree. You really should talk to him, Noir."

I nodded.

_I know. _

_I wasn't hesitating._

I turned around.

I walked down the tiers of the Batcave.

_At least…… _

_I don't think I was._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'J'…..Jericho was seated on the bench. His hands in his little lap. Staring down at the floor.

As I walked up, his bright green eyes blinked up at me. He smiled. As happily as he could. But it was honestly half a smile. I supposed he was as exhausted as I was. He was 'inside me' for quite a while, after all.

I walked over and sat on the far end of the bench. I sighed. I planted my fake and real hand on my knees, took a breath, and smiled vaguely at him.

"………," he giggled breathily and hand-signed: _'You look like a wreck.'_

I blinked. Bruised all over. Minor cuts here and there. My black tank-top in tattered disarray over an exhausted torso. I nodded and ran a hand through disheveled black hair before hand-signing back: _'Pains before beauty.'_

He smiled. And sighed. He felt warmer since I had came. Perhaps indeed we had a friendly attachment.

I hand-signed: _'So, Jericho……' _

He interrupted: _'Call me 'Joey'.'_

"…….," I blinked. _Okay then._ I snapped out of it and hand-signed: _'So, Joey, it looks like we are both in a pickle.'_

'_Everyone is in a pickle these days, Noir. Even my old friends.'_

'_What made you leave them?'_

'_Who?'_

'_Jinx, Pulsade, and Wildebeest?'_

He gestured with a straight-face: _'I knew going into the Vegas tournament that Wildebeest would not stand a chance of getting the key to Terra's location on his own. And even if Pulsade and Jinx were to stage a covert attack in the Vault like they did at the last second, they would still have been outnumbered. And none of my hacking techniques would have kept Anderson or Rexxin or any of their men from overwhelming my teammates. And then when Hull and Killer Croc came into the picture, the situation got even more complicated. When you arrived, I was so thankful. I knew that we had another—'_

'_Wildcard',_ I added.

Jericho bit his lip and nodded.

I hand-signed: _'But my being there was not enough? You needed to actually jump into me and control me?'_

The little boy took a deep breath. He smiled slightly and gestured: _'No, I did not plan to mind-control you while I was IN you.'_

'_Then why did you?'_

He looked at me funny.

I looked at him funny. I gestured: _'You were controlling my actions half of the time, right? Why the Hell else would I take on a harrier jet all on my lonesome?'_

He giggled breathily and hand-signed: _'That was all you, my friend.'_

I blinked. _'It was?'_

'_Yes.'_

'_How come?'_

'_It is rather simple,'_ he gestured. _'Once I was inside of you, I realized the only thing I could do was reside in your shell of a body. I could not control it. Even if I wanted to. There is……'_ He hesitated.

"……….?" I leaned my head to the side.

He thought about it, then finally gestured: _'……There is a special power inside of you that keeps anyone or anything from truly taking control of you. I think that is why Raven's demon father could not control you forever that one time when Mumbo Jumbo was on the loose. And I also think that has something to do with why Slade's nanomachines from the carbonite failed to hurt you like it tortured the rest of the Titans when Jinx the Third Apprentice rounded them up back in July.'_

My black eyes narrowed. I gestured: _'A special power is inside of me?'_

'_Yes.'_

'_I have no idea what you are talking about.'_

Jericho giggled silently and shakily hand-signed: _'Of course you do not!' _And he kept giggling.

I pouted and folded my arms.

Jericho wiped a tear away and stopped snickering. He sighed and looked towards the floor.

I stared at him. The son of Slade. Such an innocent, life-loving, benevolent little thing. Even when Jericho was being an annoying little jackass, the worst I could ever do to him is hug him. In a lot of ways, I owed my 'superhero career' to his spirit of justice and innocence. I've learned to respect and hate and wonder about him. But still, I feel like I could never know enough. And perhaps….in a lot of ways….Jericho could never know enough. And that was why he was there, chasing a father who surely didn't love him to the point that the boy had to find out why. Or maybe the boy wanted to eliminate his father?

"…………"

I took a deep breath. I caught his attention.

He looked at me.

I gestured: _'Batman and the rest of us are going to do our best to stop Slade, Joey. Regardless of anything. Do you understand that? Regardless of __**anything**__.' _

He slowly, gently nodded. He understood.

I went on: _'Joey, you have done some things that I am not proud of. You jumped into Robin's body and used him without permission. You joined forces with the murderous Pulsade and the unpredictable Jinx. And all the while, you were hacking into various computer mainframes and breaking every digital law known to man. But at the same time, I cannot help but feel that I and everyone else here owe you something incomprehensibly big. About as much as we all owe the Messenger.'_

Jericho hugged himself and retreated to the opposite side of the bench as if he was unworthy of such testament.

I merely leaned forward and continued: _'I think now is a good time to stop hiding behind laptops and bodies and start working with people in person. Yes, you are closer to Red Aviary that you have ever been before. But things will not be pleasant here. I do not know what it is that you are trying to achieve, Joey. But when or if the opportunity presents itself, I will eliminate Slade by all means.'_

Jericho was only half looking at me when he shuddered and nervously hand-signed: _'Yes, I know. You have killed him before……'_

"…………," I blinked.

_Oh shit. _

_I didn't think of that until just now. _

_Shit……_

I sat back with a sigh.

Jericho was looking off into the shadows. He didn't seem mad at me. At the same time, he didn't seem proud. He just looked….wasted.

_I killed his father. _

_I killed his father, and yet…… _

_He still supports me. Although……_

'_You were right, Jericho,' _I hand-signed. _'My mind was full of wrath and hate when I killed Slade. And because of that, my powers manifested in his mangled body the breath of the red side of the Spectrum. The hate transferred over into his corpse and somehow the demented spirit inside of it grasped hold and willed nothing but an unearthly breath to pant the aviary of our world red. Deathstroke walks the land now because of me. I cannot shake that feeling for the life of me. But at the same time, I was not the one who killed Commissioner Decker or the people at the two warehouses or the underworld Gothamites or the scientists or Lexcorp or the Mad Hatter or the Clock King or the Ventriloquist or Bane or anyone else that Triangular has massacred in conforming to the Parasite's actions. Your father does not exist anymore, Joey. He is a ghost of what he once was.'_

Jericho swallowed. He gestured: _'Then perhaps he is like us, Noir. Ghosts.'_

"………….," I stared past him.

Jericho's green eyes were wet as he signed forth: _'I just want to understand why his last thoughts on this planet was about killing, and that is what brought him back. Why could he not have been thinking about trying to see me for a last time? Or trying to change his life?'_

I sighed. _'I do not know, Joey. I do not know. I am sorry that you ended up bearing the brunt of his legacy.'_

Jericho shuddered. His shoulders shaked.

I thought about it before actually hand-signing it, but eventually I conveyed: _'I am sorry I did not know that you were inside of me all this time. Perhaps if I did, I would have closed my eyes a bit more. It must have been really hard for someone like you to have seen what you saw through me.'_

Jericho broke down.

I scooted over and gave him a one-armed hug.

He leaned his head against me, hiccupping…but not quite bawling or sobbing like the shivering mess he was when he first exited me in the Bat-Cave earlier.

I took a deep breath and gently kneaded his shoulder.

_If ever there was a time that I 'earned' a little brother…… _

_Perhaps that's now?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was stabbed with daylight before I could take note of the immensity of the place. And exactly what that 'place' was had very little question. But still, to behold it…..

"Wayne Manor…," Robin voiced as he led me down the open hallway. "In all its glory."

I squinted until my black eyes could adjust to the shades' tinting of the light. I realized I was looking down the hallway of a very modernist/gothic mansion. Heavily framed windows stretched ten feet tall with curtains billowing with the inrush of cold November air. Outside, the morning of November 30 was peaking with frost lining the tops of row upon row of pine trees. And off in the distance beyond the topographically chaotic wilderness was the gray-brown expanse of Gotham City. Beyond that, the Ocean. A thin blue line against the bright amber yellow of the sky.

"I know what you're thinking," Robin murmured as he led me forward. "'Robin grew up here'. Well, a part of me grew up here. I was born in the streets of Gotham City. My mom died when I was really young. I had a deadbeat dad who dealt one time too many with Two-Face and it bit him in the end. Same old story." He shrugged. "You've probably heard it a billion times. Nothing special, only….I happened to get lucky. Very lucky."

I looked around the lengths of the hallway as we passed through the back of the manor. Bookcases, portraits, and knights' armor lined the walls. It was breathtakingly lavish…strong….gothic.

_Heh. _

_Who would have thunk it._

_Robin is really just a rich kid. No wonder he thinks he can do and get anything he sets his mind to. But then again, 'born on the streets'? Guess that explains his rough edge. Living like that can be a real eye-opener. But…… _

_But perhaps 'Robin' and 'Tim' are two different entities? Much like Batman is far different from the warm and benevolent Bruce Wayne I've seen at televised press conferences. And if that was the case, who was I talking to and walking with just now? Tim? Or Robin? Here I was in his mansion, completely knowledgeable of his name and identity……and yet he hadn't taken his eyemask off in my presence for a second. In many ways, he's cementing back into place the 'Robin' that had died so long ago. _

_But who was Tim?_

"One day, my dad was gone when he should have been hanging out in the apartment. And Two-Face was stopping by to get him to spill about some drug deal or something. I was the only one there. Two-Face and his goons questioned me. Roughed me up some…and would have killed me, hadn't Batman jumped in at the right moment and cleaned their clocks. He was hurt badly in the process, and somehow I managed to get him and I to his Bat Speeder….which took us to his Bat Cave. I learned of his secret in a heart beat. The rest…..is history…."

I nodded.

_But history is often wrong._

"Since then, I've been raised by the best, taught by the best, and trained by the best. I wouldn't be what I am today if it weren't for Bruce Wayne's commitment to a life lived on protecting justice."

I tilted my head sideways. An invisible question mark must have popped over my head.

For the Boy Wonder looked over his shoulder and said: "In a nutshell, his parents were gunned down to death in a dark alleyway when he was a kid. He swears his life to stopping crime by any just means necessary. Long and short of it."

I nodded.

_Yeah. I can buy that._

I glanced up.

One of many portraits of 'Thomas and Martha' Wayne appeared in gloriously sized canvass.

_The death of loved ones will drive someone to live life in almost any direction possible._

"Here….we've got a guest room for you," Robin said as he opened a door. He peaked in. "At least, I think it's a guest room…..Yup." He turned and faced me. "There's a walk-in bathroom and everyth--" He paused.

I was staring directly at him. Smiling. I mouthed: _'So……'Tim?'_

He smirked sarcastically. "Timothy Drake…," he reached a hand out. "Pleased to meet you, _Jordan."_

I reached a metal hand out and shook his glove. Nodding.

_God, this is so freakin' wyrd……_

"Named after my uncle. On my mother's side. Or so I'm told….," Robin retracted and folded his gloved hands behind his back before leaning against the wall. "Ugh…or maybe not. I honestly don't know."

I shrugged.

I walked into the guest room.

It looked lavish, howbeit a bit dusty. Dark shadows hung everywhere like ink-black curtains. One sniff, and I could have sworn I smelled the rusty old library room Hull had once escorted me to in Vegas.

"There aren't any windows, so it gets pitch-black in there during most of the day," Robin said. "I know because I used to do my preliminary night-training in that room. Not much. Just….meditating and practicing my balance in the dark."

I nodded. I turned towards him. I gradually hand-signed: _'You must be a good learner.'_

He nodded. He hand-signed back with enough degree of accuracy: _'When I have enough time on my hands, I am.'_

I smirked somewhat….then took a deep breath as I gestured: _'It must have been torture for you, Robin.'_

He sighed. "You're the one to talk about torture, Noir…"

I raised an eyebrow.

He turned around and stood before the tall window of the hallway. Looking out onto the bright morning landscape. "I've been practically impotent in this place. The Messenger maintains that I must do what I can along the rest of the team to track down Slade and Triangular. But how can I do that when I must also keep a low profile? I've gone out a few times. Often wearing a darker, less noticeable outfit than the red green and yellow you see before you. I've broken down and gone to Metropolis on my own—like you know for yourself—but on all other occasions, I've pretty much been forced to live life a hermit crab and give Barbara a little hand with her computer ventures or toss Batman and Nightwing advice as to where to go next in their search for Fox. I feel truly like the rest of the world sees me as, Noir. Dead. Utterly and completely dead."

I slowly nodded. I gazed gently into the carpet.

Robin leaned forward on the window sill and sighed. "Only…..I'm not dead. And I'm almost ashamed of that."

"?" I looked at him funny from behind.

He glanced over his shoulder some. "I knew it from the beginning. I'd be letting you and the rest of my team down. The Titans are falling apart without me. You and Tempest ran off—just like I imagined you guys would—and Cyborg….dammit….as much as I want to smack him for some of the indecision as of late, I still owe him a lot of thanks." Robin sighed defeatedly. "Cyborg's keeping the Titans out of harms way while you, Terra, and I try to root out this whole Red Aviary mess. I really don't want Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast Boy jumping into the whole matter and complicating something that isn't their fault to begin with. At the same time, I hate them not knowing the truth. I hate them thinking that I'm dead and thus honoring the spirit of a hypocrite."

I took a shuddering breath.

_You aren't the one at fault Tim. It was I who killed Slade and……and did something to him to make him come back. _

_Somehow……_

"Slade is a psychopath. Plain and simple,' Robin said. "I should never have engaged him back when the Titans and I were still young. Then maybe he never would have rubbed off on me and tried to terrorize our City more. The only reason Slade has ever…..EVER plagued our City continuously is that he's had an obsessive interest in the Titans and in the Titans' leader, me. My being obsessed with him is exactly what drew him into the ring of fire….and what drew us in consequently. It's his fault that he ever became permanently fixated on my fate. If it wasn't for me, Slade would undoubtedly had stayed dead when you stabbed him on the frigate."

I sighed.

I hand-signed: _'I seriously doubt any of us are to blame for the demonization of Slade.'_

Robin shook his head tiredly. "Nnngh….I'm sorry, Noir. But I'm just gonna _pretend_ that I understood what you last 'said' and then I'm going to hope it was something to the extent of 'Yes, Robin, I agree. It is time for bed. Even though it is morning.'"

I smiled. Drunkenly. I yawned and teetered back and forth some as if on cue.

"I….I-I honestly do not know what is in store for the both of us, Noir," Robin said. "This whole thing with Red Aviary…Triangular…the Messenger….we've all been taking it one step at a time. But know this: never have we made any sign of progress until you showed up in town."

I hand-signed: _'Lucky me.'_

"Heh. I guess you can say that." He scratched the side of his head and glanced aside.

Silence.

I leaned my head to the side. I gestured: _'Robin? Was there something you wanted to tell me?'_

He smiled crookedly and exhaled: "I…….I….."

"……………"

"Maybe when you wake up, Noir," he said. "Assuming you'll sleep."

'_Damn straight I will.'_

"Heheh….," he walked by and patted me on my shoulder. "Rest easy, pal. Maybe things will clear up after some shuteye."

I nodded.

I stumbled into my guest room.

Into the entrancing darkness.

"I'm proud of you Noir…."

"……," I froze in place. I hobbled out of the room and glanced down the hallway.

Robin was gone.

Nothing but the cold November air and morning light.

"……..," I smirked.

_Dead son of a bitch._

And I shut the door behind me.

Spun around.

Took two steps into the darkness.

And flopped asleep on the large bed.

"……………………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a shadowed room.

In a shadowed part of the Manor.

A dark, light figure wandered inside and locked the door behind him.

He sighed.

He stripped of his cape.

Of his belt.

He ripped his gloves off and took off the top half of his tight costume.

He tossed it all in a heap in the corner and hobbled towards a bed.

He sat on the edge of it.

Lingering.

"………"

He gazed into a bedside table.

At a drawer.

He slowly reached a hand over.

He opened the door.

_Creeeeak._

It was empty.

"………"

The figure looked up.

He stood.

He hobbled across the dark bedroom.

He made it to a table full of newspaper clippings.

He spread the front page of one out.

The headlines read: '**TITANS MOURN DEATH OF THEIR LEADER'**

There was a picture of elite figures of society and superheroes lined up at the City Cemetery.

And the camera was focused on the young heroes. The Titans. In the center of the group was a redhead dressed in graceful black. Her head bowed. Her green eyes open, but thin and sad in reverence. Her forehead tilted and she looked to be in the middle of a soft, somber inhalation.

"…….."

Gazing squarely at the photo, the figure reached a hand up and stripped off his eyemask. A boy stood hunched over the desk in the shadows of the room. Two dull blue eyes were shrouded in the darkness. The gentle voice of some timid stranger came out in a helpless exhale.

"Star…."

And then the dull blue eyes shut.


	229. A Hard Act to Follow part 14

**229. A Hard Act to Follow part 14**

November 30, 2004.

8:32 a.m.

Smallville, Kansas.

Kent's' House.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The radio on the kitchen counter crackled forth the voice of the morning news over breakfast.

"……_just outside of Topeka where a privately owned jet is said to have crash-landed on a long stretch of highway. According to reports, no vehicular traffic was involved in the crash and—amazingly—the plane remained in one piece after what experts believe to be a sliding stop of about one hundred meters without landing gear. When investigators reached the site, there were no pilots found. Police are calling this one of the most bizarre incidents in Kansas' history, but nobody can complain about how extremely lucky commuters are for there being no apparent injuries from the fiasco. People are still on the lookout for whomever may have piloted the craft, especially since the owners were found safely back at their ranch home outside of Metropolis along the East Coast early this morning. In other news………"_

"Heh…..," John Kent smirked and flipped through his newspaper at the kitchen table. "…looks like Smallville is moving up a notch!"

"Mmm….heaven forbid," Martha murmured.

Kara drifted in around that time. "Morning Ma. Morning Pa. Wow….breakfast already?"

"Having a guest around the place again is doing me wonders!" Martha mused. "I've been letting myself get out of the practice of things. But here I am getting up early in the morning again. Cooking. Ha! I didn't know I had any of it still left in me."

Kara half-winced. "Well…uhm….g-glad Terra's here to teach you how to slave again, Ma."

"Pfft….don't talk like that," Martha Kent rolled her eyes. "It feels good to be getting up early again like in the days before those corporations started moving in all over the place. Citrus farming? Out here? Ludicrous!"

"Floridians should stay Floridians…," John Kent muttered.

"A gray term as it is already!" Martha added. "Have a helping for yourself and Terra, darling. Are you both eating in the family room again?"

"Yeah. We like the sunlight there," Kara said, spooning herself and Terra two plates of scrambled eggs, grits, and sausages.

"Very well. Just use the table and don't spill anything on the floor."

"Heh….I'll be sure to clean her bib off," Kara winked and hovered out the room.

"Lord have mercy! Argosian sarcasm is even worse than Kryptonian these days!"

"Whatever you say, Martha…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra sat on a couch, her hands folded in her lap. Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved, button up shirt that seemed two sizes too big on her. But then again, Terra looked tiny in many ways. She gazed out the window with her lips parted and her blue eyes thin in a sort of thoughtful posture.

"Are you always looking so contemplative?" Kara mused.

Terra blinked and looked up at her. "Huh?"

"Hehe….nevermind. Here. Munch time."

Kara set down two plates on the coffee table with forks.

"I wish I could say we have orange juice…..but um…..Ma and Pa have this thing about citrus produce---"

"Y-Yes…," Terra nodded. "I heard." She sat down quietly on the floor, scooted quietly towards the table, and brushed aside a golden strand of hair quietly.

"…..," Kara looked sideways at her. "Still shaken up from last night?"

Terra sighed and picked at her grits. "Utterly confused is more like it…"

Kara swiftly dropped down and sat cross-legged at her plate besides Terra. "You said…..Y-You eventually said that it felt like something inside of you?"

"Or someone….," Terram muttered.

Kara paused in the middle of forking some scrambled eggs and looked at Terra.

Terra glanced back. "Don't get me wrong…," she bit her lip and glanced aside. "The child was…..n-never inside of me long enough to reach that stage where I can feel it move around. Or….at least….it never _grew_…."

"Right…..," Kara nodded and quietly ate some breakfast.

Terra picked at her grits more. "But….what I felt last night…..I….I just kn-knew that th-that's what it had to have _felt_ like."

"Mmmmfff…..something only…mmf…a mother would know." Kara swallowed. "Right?" She took another bite.

"Yeah….I guess….," Terra nodded. "Like a bolt from above. Some….divine epiphany. I felt like a part of me far away was pulsing and reaching for me."

Silence.

Kara chewed.

Terra looked over at her. "Supergirl, have you ever been pregnant?"

Kara choked, coughed, spat out some eggs, and wheezed. "Ahem….uhm…..chkk…..n-no. Not myself…at least—NO….N-No, I haven't…."

Terra winced. "Stupid question…I know…"

"No. Not really, it isn't."

"…….."

"Terra…," Kara said softly. "Do you believe there's something that's……"

"That's what?"

"Worth investigating?"

"N-No!" Terra enthusiastically uttered. "I-I mean……I don't think so…."

"Something you would _like_ to investigate?"

"……….."

"Mmm? Terra?"

"I….am concerned….but……," Terra closed her eyes, leaned back, and sighed. "There's so much going on right now. I dunno. I think I'm just…..letting stuff get to me."

"Hey….," Kara smiled and placed a hand on Terra's shoulder. "….you've been frozen in stone for a long time. It's a really big difference to be here and alive so suddenly."

"I-I've only been here a week…. to what? Months in rock? Terra…you've gone through a lot. Admit it. But I want you to admit something else. I want you to admit….that you have a lot of good things going for you. And a lot of people that love you."

"……," Terra looked at Kara straight. She leaned her head to the side. "I can't help but think that……y-you didn't volunteer for this 'job', Kara."

"So?"

"It's just….erm….n-never mind," Terra bit her lip and faced her breakfast. "It's stupid of me."

"No. Go ahead. Please."

"……," Terra's eyes looked Kara's way. "I almost find it…..a l-little difficult to believe that you could be so willingly kind to me after so short a time of knowing each other…."

"Hey….I try my best," Kara winked. "I was yelling at you a couple of days ago, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, but I deserved it."

"Hehehehe…no really, Terra," Kara sighed and leaned back with a contented gaze towards the brightly lit windows. "….if only you had any idea how much I wanted….a friend. Someone to hang out with. A sister….a fellow superhero….anyone here at the farm besides the always-loving Ma and Pa."

"Might as well be 'me', right?" Terra half-simpered.

"No…," Kara looked seriously at the blonde. "You're a Titan, Terra. Whether you admit it or not, you're a superhero just like me. Only…you got a few rough spots to work over. And guess what? I've got rough spots to work on too. And I think we really relate. And it's been…….no….it _is_ a pleasure and an honor to help you out. I wish I could….just share with you how happy and proud I am….."

"Heh…..," Terra smiled painfully and hugged her knees to her chest for the moment. "D-Didn't think I'd be getting any 'new' friends in my life."

Kara leaned forward. "Surprise, surprise," she smirked. She slapped the back of Terra. "Now eat! The eggs won't disappear on their own."

"Ow….," Terra pouted and rubbed her shoulder. "You have palms of steel."

"Funny thing you'd know that and not Jordan," Kara sat up. "Once you're full, we'll talk more about what happened last night…'kay?"

"'Kay…."

"I'm gonna go get some salt. My eggs could use more sodium. Yourself?"

"Hehehehe….all right."

Kara drifted out of the room and back into the kitchen.

Terra sighed. She lightly murmured to the air: "I wish I could prove I was a superhero……"

She picked at her grits. And munched. Munched. Munched.

"……….."

One minute.

"………."

Two minutes.

"……….."

Three.

"……….?"

Terra looked over her shoulder.

Silence.

"……..," she looked at her half-eaten plate. "…….." With a slightly concerned look, she scooted out from the coffee table, stood up on morning-stiff legs, and walked briskly into the kitchen.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra wandered into the kitchen. "K-Kara?"

"Shhh…," John quietly whispered. He held a finger up. He and Martha sat side by side, staring wide-eyed with ears craned towards the radio.

Across the kitchen, Kara hovered…frozen by the radio. Her hands wrung together.

"……_this very moment police are forming a perimeter around downtown Smallville where reportedly a group of cross-country bank robbers from Central City have holed themselves up in the Blue Pin Bowling Alley. A schoolbus is inside the parking lot with half of its elementary school occupants missing, and as of this moment authorities believe that the robbers have them hostage at gun point. A bomb threat has also been reported, and right now the standoff is going into its second hour……"_

Kara's eyes widened.

Terra gasped breathily, a hand over her lips.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titan's City.

8:55 am

Urban Faith Academy.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A bell rang, signifying the end of first period.

Students filed out in the outer hallways of the school.

The cool air was warmed gently with sunlight outside the metal overhangs.

Lindsay emerged from her classroom door. Dressed in a modest blouse and skirt, she adjusted the backpack over her shoulder and headed across the leaf-littered courtyard to the doors that led to her hallway locker. Her face was deadpan…quiet….almost melancholy. A glance or two from fellow students, and she managed a smile and maybe a half-giggling 'hi'. But soon she was trekking alone across the courtyard under the cold November breeze and fall of flora. She brushed a strand of stringy brown hair away from her freckled brow and approached the doors to the inside of the Academy when a figure in a blue sweatjacket and hood approached her.

"Lindsay….we need to talk…"

"Um…," she murmured. "I-I'm kind of in a hurry. I'm being graded on a speech in debate class next and—"

The stranger lowered the hood, revealing a blue head of hair and a chakra stone set in a pale forehead. "Lindsay, it's me," Raven said.

Lindsay gasped and stepped back. "R-Raven?"

"This is serious…," Raven said. Not sternly. But still…with rigid importance in her voice. "…if it's a hall pass that you need, I can get you one."

"………," Lindsay blinked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the empty gym of Urban Faith Academy….

Raven and Lindsay stood next to each other beneath a basketball hoop suspended from the metal-mesh ceiling. The lights were out, and only the glare from the morning Sun snuck its way in. Their voices echoed forbidden against the lone walls and floor as they spoke hushedly onward….

"What kind of vision do you say you had?"

"It has something to do with Noir….," Raven said.

"The other Titan who left, right?"

"Yes. But the vision wasn't exactly _his._ But still, what I saw had a great deal to do with him. It's as if there's some sort of all-pervasive force at work around us that's closely tied into Noir's powers…or at least the sensitivity of his powers."

"Really…."

"I spent all night on the Titan's Computer, looking up police records that we've shared with the Department's Data Systems. Since Commissioner Decker's Death and the tragedy of November Fourth, a lot has opened up about bizarre instances that have transpired in this City over the course of the last few months. Strange…horrifying things. Like blood lusting animals at zoos acting as if they're possessed. Power outages and curious computer software glitches. An entire psychological ward full of Dragonflare addicts who were the first screaming numbers to poor mercilessly out onto the heart of the City during Dagger's invasion. Coincidental, creepy things all happening simultaneously at twenty-one minutes after three in the morning on November Fourth and previous. Somehow, I think there's a dark…dark pattern at work. Something far too dark for any of us to overlook. Something that the Messenger was only _trying_ to get to the crust of when he warned us the days prior to this City's holocaust."

"And…..," Lindsay blinked, "…..you think this is all related to your vision somehow? The one connected to Noir?"

"I'm pretty sure of it," Raven nodded. "And furthermore, I think Noir knows a lot more about this situation than I ever could on my own. And it might—at least—just begin to explain the incident in Metropolis in which he was involved. As well as the chaos at Las Vegas and just yesterday in Gotham City."

Lindsay looked shocked. "N-Noir was in Vegas during that jet plane attack?"

Raven nodded. "The News may be hesitant to admit it, but the Titans and I see it. We don't know what to think on our own. There has to be a reason…."

"Wh-Why have you…erm…………," Lindsay bit her lip.

"Hmm?"

"Wh-What can I do? I-I mean….you called me aside for a reason…."

"Lindsay….," Raven leaned forward. "I need to get in contact with Garth."

"…………"

"This is very, very important," Raven emphasized. "I'm speaking of more than just Noir here. But what bloody thing consumed our City nearly a month ago may be again on the rise. I want to cut the snake's body in half before the head reappears. Wouldn't you want that too?"

"I…..," Lindsay looked pensively to the side. "Garth wants to k-keep the things he says to me secret…."

"He can trust me, Lindsay," Raven said. "**You** can trust me. I'm a Titan. A teammate of his."

"Still….," Lindsay bit her lip.

"……..," Raven leaned back. She took a deep breath. "Lindsay, I'm sure that Garth has told you a lot of…..unpleasant things about the Titans. And….to be honest….he's probably right."

Lindsay looked at the dark girl.

Raven continued: "We've treated him like he was foolish and trivial on many occasions." She paused. She reiterated: "**I** have treated him unfairly on several occasions. And…I am sorry for that. I can see that I'm wrong now."

"………"

"I really….really need to touch base with him. He's in Metropolis for a reason, I know it. If I can communicate with him, I can learn more of what's going on here. The safety of thousands can be assured. Including himself. You've told me yourself how concerned you are about Garth."

"I have….."

"I can't force you, Lindsay. But please….if you can find a way….I wouldn't know where to begin to thank you."

"I….n-never thought you would be this…this…."

Raven raised an eyebrow.

Lindsay said: "Humble…."

Raven smirked somewhat. "Now I'm **not** so sure of what Garth's been saying about me."

Lindsay smiled crookedly…but it soon faded with a sigh as she closed her eyes, swallowed, and shudderingly admitted: "He….H-He is going to be meeting with me soon."

Raven brightened. "He is? When?"

"Soon. This e-evening…..coincidentally," said the schoolgirl. "He's going to give me a call as soon as I get home from school and we're going to meet out by the beach just south of the Bayside Plaza. It's…It's k-kinda sorta our 'place'."

Raven decided to skip that for the time being: "If you're going to get in contact with you ask him about my meeting him there too?"

Lindsay was silent for a short span of time.

Raven stared at her. Shifting uncomfortably.

"………..," Lindsay breathed. "Okay……."

Raven exhaled. "Good. Neither him or you will regret it."

"But….h-how do we know he'll accept?" Lindsay asked nervously.

"…….," Raven took a breath. "Tell him….that I will only be there."

"Only you?"

"And Cyborg won't know that I'm meeting him."

Lindsay gave Raven a strange look. "You're…..not telling your Titan leader?"

"No, Lindsay."

"But….B-But….," Lindsay looked confused. Hurt even. "Why not? Shouldn't he care?"

Raven turned aside, glancing down the glinting floor of the indoor basketball court. She inhaled and uttered: "Cyborg……wouldn't understand."

"………….why….wh-why is that, Raven?"

"I don't know why," Raven shook her head sadly. In a hushed breath, she added: "That's what scares me. And I don't do 'fear'."

"………."

"……….," Raven glanced at Lindsay and swiftly said: "I need to make a few trips today. I'll drop by to check and see what Garth said later."

"Okay. Godspeed, Raven."

"Heh….won't argue with that."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

9:02 am.

Gotham City.

Downtown.

Fox Family Loft Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"William! For God's sake! Slow down and talk to me!" Lucius Fox panted and walked hurriedly to follow the footsteps of his exuberant son pacing to and fro across the lush apartment.

William Fox had bundles of documents and papers in his hands. Like a drunken-happy workaholic, he shuffled through the various manuscripts, rearranged them into brown folders, and formed a swiftly growing pile of material on a lamp table nearby the door leading into his personal suite and computer office.

"Son! Don't you hear your father's voice when he's speaking to you?" Lucius raised his volume, attempting a stern look on his grown offspring that fell short. "You just appeared out of nowhere! And after a twenty-four absence! We thought all manners of evil had happened to you! There's even rumors confirmed by the police department that you may have been hostage to those terrible supervillains in the zeppelin that fell downtown! Won't you at least tell me where you've been all this time?"

"Sorry, Pops," William chirped and shuffled through bundles of files and folders. "Really intense business stuff. The stock market's a jungle these days!"

"Stock market?" Lucius about went googly eyed. "William, this isn't about no stock market! All your associates are out of town! How could you be conducting that new business of yours?"

"I found myself new associates," William winked as he paced by. "Charming fellows, these. But not quite the high and mighty royalty like you're used to dealing with. Here at the dirty bottom, we have to wriggle and squirm our way through the detritus of capitalist dreams. Quite disgustingly beautiful it all is! You Big Whig types wouldn't understand…."

"I'm not a Big Whig, William, I'm your father! Now, dammit, you're having me worried!" Lucius gestured. "And that's not half as bad as how your mother's doing! She's practically having a heart attack as we speak!"

"Good. It'll help her build character…," William rushed to his door, paused, and 'smiled' back at his father. "Don't mind my frivolous absences, father dear. I don't enjoy it any more than you do. But when you're thinking, you can't be grinning. Am I right or am I right?"

"William, for the last time…"

_THUD!_

William was in his suite.

Lucius shook. His fists clenched. He trembled all over. "Ooooh…..mrff….," he turned about at the sound of a doorbell and stomped to the bottom floor of the loft apartment. "…Woodsheds are in short supply these days…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside his suite, Lucius sat down at one of three computers strung in a row in heavily wired chaos. He took a deep breath, grinned wide, and flew his fingers over the keyboards.

"Time to tap into Triangular….hehehehehe….oh, I'm not paid enough as it is for this…."

He connected into a network via a satellite connection. As he fixed himself into the digital realm for which he was born, he sat oblivious to a small blinking tag embedded into the wall beneath his desk. Opposite the desk's underside was a wide window open to the cool, semi-frosty November air.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across from the skyscraper where the Fox loft apartment was located, another skyrise stretched towards the amber-colored heavens of the cold Gotham morning.

Atop a gargoyle, Nightwing perched. He hid behind a rusted aluminum wing while staring into the apartment through a pair of electronic viewing goggles. A sensor dart gun rested in a holster on his thigh. He held a communicator with his free hand up to his mouth and spoke into it:

"Allright, Babs. The Fox is in the hole. Try tracing him now."

"_Please, Nightwing. Call me Oracle."_

Nightwing made a goofy face. "Aw sheesh….you serious?"

"_For now, at least."_

"Heh heh…all right…."

"_Is he the only one logged on in his apartment?"_

"In his room, yeah, as far as I can tell," spoke Nightwing as he gazed through the binoculars. "I don't see why Lucius or Mrs. Fox would be surfing the Internet right now. They've been worried sick about their son, hardly the mood to go visiting Ebay. Man, I tell you what….that William B. Fox is a total asshole."

"_Reminds me of someone else I know."_

"Yeah, real funny, Oreo."

"_ORACLE!"_

"Pfft…whatever."

"_Hehehehe."_

"You do my job, and I"ll do mine."

"_Yes. Please do keep an eye out on him. I'll need to know if he leaves the station with his computers still jacked in."_

"Want me to sneak in and do some insider trading for Wayne Corps?"

"_Triangular. This is all about Triangular."_

"Gee….I dunno, Oracle."

"_Hmm?"_

"Just a hunch," Nightwing smiled. "Batman has those, so I'm entitled to some too."

"_Right. Sure."_

"Something tells me that Triangular is striking much closer to home than anyone's previously hypothesized."

"_Say, where is Batman anyways?"_

"He's doing his part. Or so he told me before flew the coop."

"_He abandoned you?"_

"Oh….you know Bruce. Always working undercover."

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lucius Fox opened the front door to his apartment. He blinked and brightened some. "Bruce!"

Bruce Wayne smiled. "Lucius! Hey there!"

Lucius gladly let the rich heir in. "What brings you here?"

"I heard that William came back."

Lucius produced a long-winded sigh. "Yes….that he did."

Bruce's eyes thinned. "You say that as if it's a bad thing."

"I wish I could say it was an entirely _good_ thing….," Lucius uttered in a defeated tone. He gestured towards a coat rack as he closed the front door.

"Thanks…," Bruce hung his jacket and walked with Lucius to a couch in the foyer. "William is a busy man these days. But these constant disappearing acts of his….doesn't that worry you?"

"Heh…you're telling me…," Lucius sat down in an easy-chair across from Bruce. He sighed and rubbed his temples: "The boy—er—man is a great business associate. An even better whiz with the computer. He's got a lot going for him…but….my darling and I are just simply _exhausted_ by him."

Bruce smirked mischievously. "He brings more panic attacks than progress?"

"I wish."

"Oh?"

Lucius gestured: "I know he won't admit it, but he goes to nightclubs. Dance halls. Not the innocent ones for the kiddies, Bruce. But the really heavy ones. Heck, I wouldn't put it past him to have stopped by the Stacked Deck Club or even a bardello or two. He's a bad apple, Bruce. I don't know where I went wrong."

"That's tough to hear, Lucius…," Bruce leaned forward and held his hands together. "I wish I could relate so I could give you some advice on what you're going through. When Dick grew up and went to college, he went on an extended vacation right after graduation without warning me. Turns out he visited half the world training in martial arts and stuff. Heh…can you imagine that? I was afraid for a while there that he was turning into some sort of mercenary for higher in South America!"

"It's not the same, Bruce…," Lucius said. He looked up with a sad face. "Please don't take that the wrong way. You've raised Richard, and now you have Timothy to watch over…"

"Off and on, yes…."

"But to have your own biological child just…..just go off on his own and make the family name look so flimsy a thing…"

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "You don't think William's…..dealing with the _really_ bad crowd, do you, Lucius?"

"………," Lucius fidgeted.

"Lucius," Bruce smiled. "You can trust me. How long have we worked together?"

The man smiled a little and breathed easier. "You're right, Bruce. I've been wanting to tell someone these things anyway. You wouldn't mind lending an ear, would you?"

Bruce gestured wide, smiling. "That's what I'm here for, Lucius. A friend in need."

"Heh heh…all right."

"……," Bruce glanced out the nearby window when Lucius wasn't looking.

Far away on the adjacent building front, the black and blue figure of a long-haired vigilante perched with binoculars.

Bruce's lip curved upward….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

9:07 am.

Wayne Manor.

Bat Cave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Bruce is meeting with Lucius as we speak. We might be able to work out a tripartite operation here, Oracle."_

Nightwing's voice filtered in through the speakers of the Batcomputer.

Barbara sat at the computer station, clad in her entire Batgirl gear save for her cowl. She typed maddeningly at an interface hacking its way into Fox's satellite feed while at the same time responding to another part of the station where Nightwing's communication was coming through.

"Pulling a triangle on Triangular. I never heard a more perfect plan!"

"_Yeah, well as long as Bruce and I do the dirty work. You just keep to that keyboard."  
_  
"Eh….heheheh….," Barbara chuckled sarcastically. "You don't think this is 'dirty work'?"

"_What? It can't be that hard!"_

"Easy for you to say, _Nightwank_!You try doing something as highly illegal as the Oracle's job with the likes of the F.B.I. and C.I.A. swarming over the digital security grid!"

"_Illegal? You never told us that that was illegal, Babs!"_

"ORACLE! And since when did that stop us? Vigilantes and hackers……it all derives from the Poetic Genius!"

"_Yeah, whatever, Mrs. Blake. I'll try to keep you in touch about Fox and company."_

"You do that."

"_And Oracle?"_

"Yes?"

"_No surfing for Green Lantern Porn."_

"Oh go eat a pigeon!" Barbara raspberried and flipped the communication off. She typed and typed and typed and typed. After a moment, she turned her redhead at the sound of heavy breathing to see Robin busily, sweatily engaging in the training equipment of the Batcave behind her shoulders. "Timmmmmm….," she cooed. "Unless my biological clock is fooling me, you've been up for the past eighteen hours. I think we would all benefit from you getting a rest."

"Jordan can rest….," Robin panted. "Jericho can rest." Robin sweated. He was hopping acrobatically from heel to palm to knee to heel to palm along a set of tall metal poles. He paused every now and then to keep his nightmarish balance—muscles at the shivering point—before hopping along to trade limbs some more. "I can't. Even if I try. It just doesn't work these days."

"The mind of a leader far from home?"

"The spirit of the dead."

"Ah, of course."

"Please, Barbara…," Robin hopped and balanced and hopped—flipped—and balanced. "Do what you're doing. At least you're putting yourself up to something useful."

Barbara paused in typing. "…….." She looked over her shoulder with half-a-frown. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

"Clarify for my ear drums. They're angst deficient."

"It's not angst!" Robin grunted, struggling upside down to hold his balance. "You wouldn't understand!"

"I wouldn't 'understand'? Hehehe…sounds like angst to me, Tim."

"Shut up…."

"Are you this blunt with your teammates?"

_Th-Thwoosh!_ Robin flipped and landed off the side of the metal poles in perfect coordination. He took a deep breath, frowned, and marched over towards a bench where a towel lay folded. "I don't want to talk about my teammates now….," he icily murmured.

"……..," Barbara's smile instantly left her. She gulped and immediately returned to her computer hacking. "O-Okay…."

Robin dried his brow and torso off. He sighed…absorbed in his own body odor. The rusted scent of it all. Heat and dirtiness. He lingered, and he slowly dropped the towel. A blank face washed over his complexion, followed by an icy drip towards the nearest edge of the black underground ravine. He stared over calmly. His body feeling grimey all over. He spotted through his eyemask dangling cords and platforms from the rocky ceiling above.

He inhaled deeply. A slight cool sensation, like the distant breath over above-ground November wafting through the tight corridors. And then he shivered….

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two years ago.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Keep it going, Tim. Concentrate. Maintain your balance……"_

"_I'm……t-trying……," Robin struggled. He hung one-armed from one of the swinging platforms suspended from the cave's rocky ceiling. "……th-this isn't so easy, you know……"_

_Batman stood on the edge of the cliff facing the black abyss where Robin suspended. He glared with heavy-set eyeslits and his black cape folded about himself. "You've done this dozens of times before. Just keep focused." _

"_Y-You must be th-thinking about the wrong Robin…," the petite Boy Wonder hissed and shook from where he dangled. "I'm not an Amazing Grayson! Circus acts isn't my bag……" _

"_Quit joking!" Batman snapped. "You're in no position to be jocular! Get with the program!" _

"_I……AM!" Robin snarled. _

"_No you're not! You're letting your self-doubt and emotions get ahold of you!" _

"_Batman……" _

"_This is the third time in the row! Now, we're not going to have a repeat of last night's events. Keep……FOCUSED." _

"_Batman, for the last time……I am not—" Robin pivoted and swung. He leapt for the next hanging bar……and missed. He gasped. "Aaaugh!" _

_Without saying a word, Batman reached into his utility belt, produced a Grappling hook, aimed at the falling sidekick, and fired._

_POW! _

_THWISSSSSH! THWNNG! The cord wrapped snug around Robin's ankle. _

_The Boy Wonder gasped, fell, and dangled at the end of the cord's length. Pure black depth opened up beneath him. A seemingly bottomless fall into the belly of the Batcave. _

_Batman gritted his teeth, pulled, and dragged Robin up onto the Cliffside._

_Robin panted, sitting up and regaining his balance. _

_Batman marched over and knelt by his side. "What did I tell you? You keep losing it! You need to just relax, find your center, and—" _

"_I don't need to __**relax**__!" Robin snarled and shoved Batman. "Nnngh!" _

_The Dark Knight hobbled back. A bit surprised. "Tim…what has gotten into you?" _

"_Mmmf……," Tim stood up and tried adjusting his cape. He batted at the folds in the polymerized titanium fabric and tried to breathe straight. It didn't work. _

"_Lately you've been nothing but short-tempered, irascible, impulsive………" _

"_Nnngh!" Robin finally gave up and flung his cape off his person completely. He clenched his fists and seethed: "I can't get it together, Batman. Not the way you want me to!" _

"_Tim?" _

"_Not here!" _

"_Robin……" _

"…………_," the Boy Wonder quieted at that. Exhaling slowly. _

_Batman paced a bit. "I want you to wash up. Call it an evening." _

"_Huh?" _

"_You're overworked. You need rest." _

"_Bruce, I'm not overworked……," Robin said. _

"_Robin—" _

"_I'm NOT!" the apprentice shook. "Why do you insist that I am?" _

"_Have you listened to yourself?" _

"_Since when do you ever stop training because you're __**overlooked**__, Bruce?" Robin pointed. "Is taking naps in the middle of a big assignment on the Joker's tail going to save more lives in Gotham City? Is lazing around while Two-Face is on the prowl going to bring your dead parents back?" _

"…………_," Batman stared. "Tim……I never thought I'd hear myself say this to __**you**__, but you're pushing it." _

_Robin spun and faced the abyss. He took deep breaths……still seething. _

_Batman gestured behind his back: "Something has been on your mind, Tim. These last few months, you've been sloppy in your fighting. You've outguessed your enemy and needed your neck saved more than once. And it's not because you're falling short of your fighting techniques or underestimating the enemy. It's like……It's like you're trying too hard. I've never seen you this aggressive, Tim. As a matter of fact, it's a good thing. I'm proud to see you this hardcore. But you seem to be exerting it in all the wrong directions. You're losing focus. I wish you would share with me why before you __**really**__ lose it in the line of action." _

"……………_," Robin took a deep breath. He hung his head and kept his gaze away from Batman as he said: "I feel like I'm nothing here, Batman." _

"'_Here'?" _

"_Gotham City. The Batcave. This whole place……," Robin motions towards the abyss. "The most I can ever be is a shadow. A shadow of someone much stronger, much angrier, and much darker than myself. No matter what I can do, I feel like I stop just short of achieving justice……" _

"_And just what is it that you've been wanting to achieve instead, Robin?" Batman leaned his cowled head to the side. "Revenge?" _

_Robin shook his head. "Honor." _

"…………"

_Robin sighed. He spun around. He spoke in a low, muttering voice: "I feel nothing here but death. Death that……I can't climb out of. The bird cage is stacked to the ceiling with corpses. Morose sounding, I know. But trust me, Bruce, this isn't the Scarecrow gas talking." _

"_Okay……" _

"_This is about more than my dad's death and my bearing the cape or any of that 'legacy' crap……," Robin clenched his head with gloved hands like he was about to burst for a moment. He shook……exhaled……and wheezed: "I just need room to breathe. To……I dunno, to 'fly' or something. I feel surrounded by death here……" _

"………………_," Batman walked over and braved a hand resting on Robin's shoulder. "This job can be consuming at times. I wish you had told me earlier how you felt." _

_Robin suddenly snarled and shook Batman's hand loose. He gave him an angry look: "You think this is a 'job' to me?" _

"…………"

"_Well it ISN'T!" Robin shouted. He marched away from the training area and up the steps past the Bat Computer. "Not anymore, it isn't!" _

"…………_," Batman turned and gazed up after the Boy Wonder. "You still haven't recovered from that girl, have you?" _

_Robin stopped in his tracks. Tensing…… _

_Batman continued: "The incident with Clayface. You won't forget about it……" _

_Silence. _

_Robin took a deep sigh. He spoke in a low voice: "Dick was right, Bruce. You __**are**__ cold……" _

_And he exited the Batcave. _

_The Dark Knight stood alone. After a few seconds, he knelt and fingered the yellow cape of the Boy Wonder. Discarded. Tossed away……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………..," Robin took a deep breath. He swiveled about and marched back to the metal poles.

While Barbara typed madly away in the background, the Boy Wonder took a deep breath and vaulted so that he was balancing atop the poles again.

He held his breath, grunted, flipped, and balanced his tense body one limb at a time.

"I've been dead for a lot longer than a month…..," he muttered under his breath.

Then silent…..focused exercise.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

9:36 am

Smallville, Kansas.

Kents' House.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"K-Kara! Wait! Wh-What are you doing?"

Supergirl marched through the upstairs hallway of the Kents' house, swiftly fastening her cape to the back of her costume top. "You heard what the radio announcement said. Those creeps in downtown Smallville have two things that I'm not kosher with. Hostages and explosives. And not just any hostages. There's a frickin' _schoolbus_ in the line of fire!"

Terra frantically tried to keep up. "But, you're just one superhero. How do you expect to take them all on?"

"Terra, I'm Supergirl," Kara managed a wink as she slipped on one glove after another. "Believe it or not, that's supposed to mean something these days."

"But….B-But…."

"But what, Terra?" Supergirl rushed down the stairs as the petite blonde followed. "I have to do this. What's your problem, anyways?"

"It's not you I'm worried about," Terra said. "It's the whole hostage situation! How can just one person handle all that pressure?"

"Heh….you've lived with me for over a week and already you don't give me credit!"

Terra winced. "S-Sorry. I'm just thinking that…"

"Thinking what?"

"If y-you had someone else go with you to—"

"NO! Terra, no!" Supergirl spun once they were at the bottom of the stairs. She placed two hands on the blonde's shoulders and looked sternly in her face. "You're place is here."

"But…."

"No, it is! Jordan asked me to keep you safe, not throw you into unnecessary danger. You'll have a chance to prove yourself someday, Terra. But it's not when some nasty 'Red Aviary' is out to end you. Got it?"

Terra sighed. She looked towards the floor. "I understand…."

"Good…," Kara nodded. She leaned her head to the side and softly added: "Hey…."

Terra looked up.

Kara smiled: "Some heroes redeem themselves by knowing when to hold back."

"…….."

"I'll be back sooner than you can think!" Kara marched off through the house. "Don't worry about me!"

"…….," Terra stood by herself at the bottom of the stairs. She took a breath and silently muttered: "….not this hero…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Supergirl marched out through the screen door, tightening her gloves.

John and Martha Kent were there, looking anxious.

"Kara…," Martha stepped forward. "Are you _sure_ you need to see to this?"

"I'm a Superhero, Ma," Supergirl uttered. "I can't just sit back. Not for this one."

"But what would Clark—"

"Clark be damned…no offense."

"Uhm….n-no offense taken…"

"Be very careful, Kara," John said. "They have a lot of hostages in there. Don't do something impulsive."

"I think that's one thing I've learned over the last few months, Pa," Supergirl winked. "Not to be impulsive."

"Oh Kara…."

Supergirl walked forward and hugged Martha Kent.

"You be careful…"

"I will, Ma."

Supergirl stepped back. "Pa….keep an eye out for Terra. And…uhm….k-keep her indoors as much as possible while I'm gone."

"Will do…."

Supergirl took a deep breath. She turned around, took two bounding steps, and then took to the skies. FWOOOOSH! She soared skyward, arched around, and made her way through the crisp morning air northward towards downtown Smallville.

John and Martha watched, pensively, side by side.

In the background, Terra stood at the screen door of the house. She watched Supergirl make her danger-bound flight. Then—making sure nobody was watching—the earthen maiden bit her lip, stepped back slowly, and ran towards the opposite side of the house.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titan's City.

10:28 am

Western District.

The New Phaser Labs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Things are all pretty much starting to get rolling, Miss Raven," uttered a young scientist. A scraggly-haired fellow with thin glasses and a white labcoat draped around his thin figure. He marched into the basement laboratory of the place as the dark Titan out of uniform followed. "S.T.A.R. Labs was generous enough to lend us some supplies to salvage our database from the destruction of our old institution during November Fourth. It's amazing that we survived in any piece after that."

Raven nodded. "Very well, Dr. Abrams. But if I could check on just one thing in the database."

"Sure," Dr. Abrams nodded. "By all means." He walked up to a wall of computer consoles and turned to smile at her. "Should I summon Dr. Simon Stone? He's heavily integrated into our system and would surely be happy to—"

"No, thank you," Raven raised a hand. "I would like it if you looked up the information for me."

"…..oh…well…c-certainly!" Dr. Abrams blinked. He turned around and started fiddling about with the dials and keyboards of the consoles to warm the system up. "I'm quite flattered, really. Nobody's asked me directly to bring up information from the scientific database before."

"This happens to be a question regarding November Fourth, to be exact," Raven went right to the point.

"Ah. Sounds important."

"Phaser Labs—that is—the Phaser Labs of old was always conducting scans of various sorts on the City, right?"

"Mmmhmmm. Lord knows with all the metaphysical phenomena that just FLOCKS to our metropolis, it would be a sin not to have!"

"Show me the list of scans taken of the Radioactive Depository upon the carbonite explosion and shortly following…."

"Hmmmm…," Dr. Abrams took on a grave face. He nodded and proceeded to bring up the data. "Still a subject of extreme scrutiny, I take it….?"

"Is it ever…," Raven muttered.

The scientist typed and produced a list of schematics on the monitor. "There you go, Miss Raven. Same data as always," he gestured. "No trace of biological matter. No trace of synthetic cloaking. No residue of any organic kind whatsoever."

"That's what keeps bothering me…," Raven uttered. "No traces….no traces….no traces…" She paced forward. "Viper and Robin would be totally vaporized in that explosion, right?"

"Absolutely. The fires were beyond intense."

"Then it's rather obvious that there would be no traces of **them**," Raven said. "But what of something else?"

"Like…."

"An interference."

"Intereference?"

"Teleportation technology. Matter-to-energy transformation?"

"That's a rather far shot, Miss Raven," Dr. Abrams nervously uttered. "The odds of it are—"

Raven frowned. "Did I ask for a hypothesis or for data?"

"Ahem….true. Excuse me…."

"Could there be any such readouts?"

"It is highly improbable at best," Dr. Abrams said. "The scanners pick up a lot of chaos on behalf of the radioactive static. I doubt any energy source could have adequately pierced the explosion to have accessed the Radioactive Depository even if that was an option."

"………," Raven sat back, rubbing her chin in thought.

"I'm sorry, Miss Raven. There's not much else that can be said—"

She lifted a finger. "How about….a chronoton search."

"Chronotons?" Dr. Abrams blinked. "You mean…the sort of energy substance that Slade once used in his detonators?"

"Hypothetically, he used them," Raven spoke. "Truth be told, nobody has managed to make a chronoton detonator."

"True that. The technological expense to make a bomb that could stop time is unimaginably high."

"Still….were there any fluctuations of chronotons at the site upon the explosion?"

"Let me conduct a search….," Dr. Abrams said, performing a key-stroke.

"…….," Raven patiently waited.

"…………," the scientist's brow furrowed. "Hmmmm…"

Raven leaned forward. "What is it?"

"No chronotons were picked up at the area…..but…."

"But what?"

He turned and looked back at her. "There _does_ seem to be…..wh-what I can best describe as a chronological fluctuation."

"……."

"We never thought to look it up before, but according to my readings here…..time slowed down by a least a factor of two point eight microseconds at the center of the explosion."

"…….," Raven took a deep breath.

"The factors for something like that would have to be astronomical….," Dr. Abrams stammered.

"So…there was a fluctuation at the radioactive depository…," Raven murmured. "At the time of Robin's death. A fluctuation that involves the bending of the space-time continuum."

"Apparently so….," the man adjusted his glasses and blinked at her. "But….to be honest, Miss Raven…even with this new data, anything is possible at this point to conclude."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Yes……," _Raven's voice said through security feed_. "Anything's possible……" _

The black and white image of Dr. Abrams in the corner of the basement laboratory spun about and typed furiously on the computer console. _"Permit me some time to investigate this further. I'm most intrigued as to what this might mean……"_

"_Keep me informed if you can,"_ Raven said. Her image spun about and marched back upstairs. _"I have someone I need to meet later today."_

"_Will do."_

A titanium finger reached across the Titan Main Computer and turned the security link off.

_Blip!_

"……," Cyborg sat back in his computer chair in the Main Room. His human and red eye lingered on the monitor. He folded his hands together, took a deep breath, and thought……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

10:32 am

Downtown.

Fox Loft Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"And then there were these strange folks driving a black limousine…," Lucius listed on.

Bruce Wayne leaned forward. "Black limousine?"

"They looked like businessmen. But….there was something in the way they wore their suit and hat that bothered me, Bruce. It all looked too tight. Too….tense. As if suspicious of the city scene around them."

"If I were you, Lucius, I'd have known better than to let William just waltz into a _black_ limousine!" Bruce smirked.

"I know….I know….," Lucius sighed. "It's just that….he _told_ me that he was attending an important committee meeting. I don't want to question the boy! Listen to me…he's a YOUNG MAN now! Nnngh….if only he was more….open about his activities, I might not be so suspicious of him."

"Has he ever showed you the…..fruits of his labors?"

"I've seen some of his stock market progress…but that's paltry to me," Lucius replied. "The way he sounds so enthusiastic about what he's doing, you'd think he was making far more extraordinary progress. You'd think he was working for Powers or some other organization."

"Heh….that'd be rather insulting. Working for the competition?"

"And even if that was it!" Lucius gestured. "I wouldn't mind! As long as he was honest with me!" He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "I can't believe how desperate I got…."

"How desperate?"

"……."

"Lucius, you can trust me. Come on. Spill it. How desperate did you get?"

"I had two of the apartment's security guard tail him one night," Lucius murmured.

"Oh?"

"They followed him to some abandoned shopping mall on the western end of Gotham City. The Diamond Plaza. You remember it?"

"How can't I?"

"They said he just walked in there by himself! Straight from his car…which was parked illegally in the lot, I might add."

"Interesting….."

"I mean…what's up with that, Bruce? I don't know what to think anymore…"

Bruce leaned back, his eyes thin. "You'd think someone should go there and…check things out sometime…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Is Bruce still there?"_

"Yup," Nightwing nodded from opposite the apartment complex. "Still yapping away."

"_Ah. You know him and Lucius……"_

"How's the Oracle's end of things?"

"_Making some progress thanks to the Messenger's boost. Just a little more time and I might actually get into the heart of William's elusive digitizing."_

"Well keep at it, Babs. In the meantime I—whoops! Hold it…I think I'm getting a message from Bruce. Hang ten."

"_Got it."_

Nightwing clicked his communicator and switched frequencies. "Yeah, Batman?"

"_Dick. I need you to do a favor for me."  
_  
"Oooh…I like the exploitation sounds of this," Nightwing smiled.

"_Wisen up. This is serious." _

"Go ahead, Bruce."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lucius was on the far side of the room, getting drinks.

Bruce Wayne was speaking into a hidden microphone in the cuff of his sleeve. Keeping his voice down.

"I want you to go and investigate Diamond Plaza west of here."

"_Diamond Plaza? What the Hell are we gonna find in that run-down heap?"_

"Perhaps a hideout for Triangular….some sort of clue as to what we're dealing with," Bruce whispered. "It's hard to say. All I know is that Lucius' bodyguards saw William walk in there alone at night not too long ago. Probably before he was held hostage by the Terrible Troupe."

"_Ah. Interesting."_

"You bet. Think you're up to an investigation?"

"_To make you look bad? Anything, Bruce."_

"Hush up," Bruce frowned. "I can't just leave Lucius so soon. It'll make things look suspicious."

"_Yeah, whatever. Take a swig of the good stuff for me, will ya?"_

Bruce Wayne lifted an eyebrow. He gazed out the window at a distant blue figure on an adjacent building top. A blue figure that saluted and bounded away.

Bruce took a deep breath. "Where did I go wrong…."

"Where did you go wrong with what, Bruce?" Lucius walked up with drinks.

Bruce spun around, smiled, and took a glass. "I should have been visiting you more often, that's what!"

"Heheheheh….oh, don't be so hard on yourself, old friend! After all…you've got the busiest schedule of any Wayne I ever knew!"

Bruce winked. "Anyone can get out of a habit…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

10:42 am

Wayne Manor.

Bat Cave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Raaaaugh!" Robin shouted, spun, and flung his gloved fist into one metal target.

CLANG! _Beep!_

Another one shot up out of a hole in the floor behind him.

He spun and flew his boot up into the metal stalk.

"YAAH!"

THWACK! _Beep!_

Two poles shot up on either side of him. A red dot opened up in each and blasted a hot laser at the Boy Wonder.

He grunted, backflipped, and landed in a half-split beyond the two.

The poles pivoted and fired again.

He dove forward, rolled, dodged the lasers, hopped up, spun, and kicked both poles in rapid succession.

CL-CLANG!

_Beep! Beep!_

Three poles flew up and trained their lasers on him.

Robin panted…sweating all over.

The poles fired.

He grunted and vaulted his body up in the air.

He flipped forward, lasers streaming by him.

Time seemed to slow down.

He gazed at the twirling black ceiling of the cave.

His breath was short.

Eyes twitched under his mask.

And suddenly…

His lungs froze over.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two Years Ago.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………_," Robin stood on the edge of rocky Bayside bluffs. His back was to a metal railing. Just behind it, the R-Cycle rested in waiting._

_Under the red of the Gotham night sky, dark waters tossed and turned in the Bay. _

_A lighthouse stretched up high and stabbed the evening with bright ivory beams. _

_In the distance, a rusty dark factory loomed by the water. _

_Robin gazed intensely at it from afar. _

_He took a deep breath, his arms folded. _

"…………_.."_

_Vrmmmmmmmm…… _

_From behind, the Batmobile rode up._

"……_," Robin glared at it over his shoulder. _

_The top door slid open….and Batgirl jumped out. _

_Robin chuckled bitterly. He stared back out across the Bay. "Batman sent you?" _

"_Actually…," Batgirl frowned. "No." She stepped forward. "I came searching for you on my own." _

"_But he gave you the Batmobile, right?" _

"_The same as he lends it to me every night I fight crime when he's not using it," Batgirl said. She hopped over the railing and stood behind the Boy Wonder. "Face it, Tim, he isn't quite as watchful over you like he used to be. He knows better than to treat you like a child." _

"_Why not?" Robin muttered. "He's done so for the last two years…." _

"_Tim? What's gotten into you?" Batgirl waved her arms. "Gawd, is it like every Robin to end up pissed off at his older partner and run off on his own?" _

_Robin sighed. "Barbara….I'm not pissed off at Batman…." _

_She blinked under her mask. "Well…you sure look it." _

"_I didn't say I wasn't pissed. Just….not at Batman….." _

"_Then what is it, Tim? What's gotten you so riled up?" _

"_I DON'T KNOW! OKAY?" Robin shook. "It's not fun anymore! It's not a thrill anymore! Everything is suddenly so dark and so lifeless!" _

"……_," Batgirl leaned her head to the side. "Well of course it is, Tim…." _

_Robin sighed. _

"_Maybe you're just waking up to it…." _

"_Maybe I am….Maybe I'm not….what does it matter?" Robin ran a hand through his hair. "But this City is overwhelming…." _

"_You can't handle fighting crime anymore?" _

"_I didn't say that!" _

"_Then what are you saying, Tim?" _

"_I'm not strong enough, Barbara…," Robin shook. "Not here. Not in this place. I'm not strong enough to face the challenges here. I feel weak. Helpless. Pathetic…." _

"_Batman says that you've been slipping as of late. Being clumsy. Giving the enemies an extra shot that has nearly ended on you on several occasions over the last few weeks," Batgirl gestured. "Could it be that you're telling yourself that you're helpless? And because of that……you're losing your cool?" _

"_Thanks, Barbara. But no," Robin hung his arms by his side and clenched his gloved hands. "I wish it was that simple. But things are changing. I'm changing." _

_She couldn't help but smirk. "Lordy Lordy……am I about to see the unfolding of a 'Nightwing II'?" _

"_Hardly," the Boy Wonder muttered. "It'd take a thermonuclear winter to bring that about." _

"_Then what do you want to do, Tim?" _

"_The name's Robin…," he spun and glared at her through his mask. "It has been……and shall always be. At least until Robin can do a decent thing to save his name before he dies……" _

_He paced past her. _

_Batgirl spun and shrugged; "Why, Tim? Why this lack of belief in yourself?" _

"_I said……call me ROBIN." _

"_No! I think you need to listen!" she pointed. "When was the last time you WERE Tim, Robin?" _

"………_what the Hell does that mean?" _

"_Exactly what it sounds like! I don't care how dark and angsty Bruce and you boys like to be with your capes and masks and whatnot……but you have a human side! A very precious, sensitive, emotional human side! It's good and all to try and emulate the Dark Knight from time to time……but give your other self a chance to breathe, will you?" _

"_I'm not emulating Batman……," Robin shook. He spun and shouted: "I'm only trying to be myself!" _

"_Then 'yourself' is a total machine! Robin, you need to relax! It's okay to be hardcore, but you're driving yourself into walls! You're swinging for bad guys' skulls and hitting nothing but air! You're out of balance! Give Robin a vacation……give Tim a chance to breathe!" _

"_I don't need a vacation! I am myself!" Robin shook. "It's Tim who's been far too dominating lately! It's him who needs to hibernate for a while! Lord Help me, I don't need that creep's helplessness!" _

"_Don't you hear how dissociative you're sounding? You're staring to scare me, Tim……" _

"_It's Robin that's scaring you……heh………maybe that will be my 'edge'," Robin spun and gazed out at the dark waters of the Bay again. "Imagine, Barbara. The Boy Wonder incarnate. The wrath of the former sidekick turned into a badass that nobody has ever imagined before." _

_Batgirl blinked. "'Former'?" _

"_I've got to go somewhere, Barbara……" _

"_Where, Tim?" _

"_Someplace where I'll be free to wear this mask at all times……," Robin said. "Someplace where Tim doesn't exist. Where I can perfect Robin into the most perfect, strong, able-bodied guardian this continent has ever seen." _

"_Are you doing this for ego?" _

"_No……I'm doing this for myself," Robin spun and frowned. "My true self." His fists clenched and a growingly deep voice growled out from inside of his tense figure. "And if I can help it……nobody will ever cry out my name in torture or helplessness ever again!" _

_Batgirl shuddered. Like an ice-pick was driven through her. _

_Robin marched past the feminine vigilante, hopped over the railing, and mounted his R-Cycle. _

_Batgirl was left gazing out across the waters. Towards the light-house. The factory. _

"……………_Tim," she spun around. "Were you hurt somehow? Did something happen to you that you can't forgive yourself for? Is that why you're doing this?" _

_Robin slipped on his helmet, kick-started the R-Cycle, and gripped the handles. _

"_Timothy Drake is dead."_

_**VRMMMMMM! **_

_**SCREEEEECH—FWOOOOSH!**_

"………_," Batgirl watched him speed along the road. _

_Zooming southward._

"…………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….."

Robin spun and descended towards the triad of laser-blasting metal poles.

ZAP!

ZAP!

Z-ZAP!

FWOOOSH!

Robin descended in the center of them, hand-sprung, and kicked one hard.

CLANG!

Two zapped at his figure.

He vaulted up, spun his body, gripped the stalk of one, swung on it, and slammed his foot into another.

THWACK!

He vaulted off that spun, landed in a kneel, and slammed his fists into the last one.

"RAAAUGH!"

THWACK!

The poles descended.

Four more rose up around him.

Lasers heated up.

Robin reached into his utility belt, whipped out his bo-staff, and extended it. _Crkktt!_

ZAP!

Z-Z-ZAP!

ZAP!

"RRGHHHHH!" Robin spun, twirling his staff, deflecting laser blasts coming in from all sides of him.

The poles fired and fired.

Robin twirled in the center of them like a billowing green and red tornado. He rolled to the side, hopped up, and smacked one hard across its center with his staff.

CLANG!

"Nnngh!"

He spun, twirled, dodged another blast, and shot his foot up into the laser barrel of a second pole.

SMACK!

Two last poles fired at him.

He twirled his rod, deflected, rolled forward, jumped up, and swung with all his might.

SWOOOOSH! _**CR-CRACK!**_ From the monumental blow, both metal stalks shattered and fell apart.

"RAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Robin shouted, vessels pulsing in his neck. Shrapnel and sparks flew around him.

The whole training area sparked. The pole short-circuited. They fizzled and powered down. Glitching.

"……………," Robin panted. Sweating all over. Face tense with clenched teeth. He gripped so hard to his bo-staff that it might snap in half. "……………"

Cl-Clang!

He dropped his staff with a shudder.

He fell to his knees and gripped his hair and face with two gloved hands. He shook all over. He seethed. "Rrrrrghhh-NNNGHH!"

THWAP! He punched the floor and all but slumped over, panting.

After a few deep breaths, he hissed to himself: "Dead….dead….you're still dead….always have been….."

He gulped and sat back on his hind quarters, leaning his wrists over his knees and resting…resting…resting….

Hidden eyes were hiddeningly shut under a thin eyemask.

"Dead…."


	230. A Hard Act to Follow part 15

**230. A Hard Act to Follow part 15**

November 30, 2004.

11:03 am

Downtown Smallville.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two police squad cars, four state trooper trucks, and two firetrucks formed a perimeter around the Blue Pin Bowling Alley. Practically the entire rag-tag police force of Smallville and two neighboring Kansas counties were there in the center of the Town for the biggest standoff the place had seen in decades. Nervous officers squabbled into fifteen-year old radio communicators while in the distance an anxious group of 'local militiamen' had also gathered: in other words a dozen or so local farmers of all ages with shotguns and pistols at ready. The local sheriff was desperately trying to shove the gun-toting vigilantes back while a throng of firefighters were in the busy process of forcing back an even larger and more desperate group of people—the parents of the countless number of schoolbus riders taken hostage inside the building. Mothers and fathers and relatives shouted, sobbed, and pleaded for their loved ones' lives. Everyone was shaken and horrified. There were rumors of the local Army Base supplying two trucks full of soldiers in an emergency supply of tactical ops footmen for the incident, but even that was a gray hope at best.

The local deputy and a young cadet stood with shotguns besides one of the squad cars. The cadet nervously held his firearm and glared out at the Blue Pin Bowling Alley while the deputy stammered into the communicator: "Men! Men! We need more men! Never mind the creeps inside Blue Pin! I need help holding the citizens back! This is an absolute disaster in the making!"

A voice screeched back over the radio frequency in the cold morning air.

The deputy frowned: "Jacobson, is that you again? Carn sarn it, how many times do I have to tell you—this is the POLICE'S FREQUENCY! Yes…Smallville has a police force! Now shut your damned transceiver down and go back to your scrawny cows! We've got this handled!"

"H-Hey," the cadet murmured hoarsely to the deputy while motioning to the radio. "Ask Jacobson why he was late for last week's auction at the Grangerfords!"

The deputy grumbled: "Son, this isn't the time."

"S-Sorry, Pa…"

_SWOOOSH! P-Plant!_

A body landed and perched atop the squad car.

The deputy jumped back, dropping his radio communicator. "Land O'Goshen!"

"Holy….!"

Supergirl hopped down besides the two men. Her platinum hair and red cape fluttered in a sudden breeze. "Pardon the intrusion…"

"S-Supergirl?" the deputy blinked hard. "Wh-What in tarnation are you doing way out here?"

She shrugged. "Crop dusting. Now, what's the situation?"

"Uhm….er….I…."

She smiled. "Hey….I'm here to help."

The Deputy gulped. "By all means." He turned and pointed at the Bowling Alley while the Girl of Steel watched. "Five creeps with guns and TNT are inside there with an unknown amount of innocent civilians and school children in there. Most terrible thing I ever did see."

"I listened to the radio…," Supergirl paced a bit, eyeing the abandoned schoolbus and the cold and lonely building in the center of the small parking lot. "They're from Central City, right?"

"Right. Bank robbers. The TNT they have is leftover explosives from blasting vaults open. They supposedly have a lot of stolen green on them. I never thought they'd resort to threatening lives, though."

"Well said," Supergirl nodded. "As a matter of fact…why would they be stopping in Smallville of all places? I mean, no offense."

"I…er…."

"Even if it was a matter of running out of gas, they're far enough out of Central City to have stopped by a few places without anyone noticing them or any confrontations whatsoever. But something's gotten them spooked. You don't just take a bunch of innocent children hostage without any reason—no matter how diabolical you are. The last thing they'd want right now is attention. So something must have made them assume that the attention was on them regardless."

"Uh…..y-yeah….," the deputy scratched his head.

"None of that matters at the moment," Supergirl said. "Right now….those kids have to be rescued." She glanced over her shoulder and sighed. "Before those country soccer moms rip this whole place to shreds."

"We're all waiting for a coordinated negotiation tactic," the deputy said. "We're thinking of using the militia as an emergency attack measure. But that's chaotic at best. Truth is, we have no legal way of going about this with the limited number of men we've got."

"Then maybe we should scratch the men and start with a _woman_," Supergirl walked back over to the squad car. "Give me something to write on…."

"………"

"……..please?"

"Oh…uhm…r-right…," the deputy spun and faced the cadet. "Son. A notepad….."

"…….."

The deputy gritted his teeth and snapped a finger. "Dammit, son! Stop staring at her udders and give me a notepad!"

"Oh….uhm…r-right, Pops!" the officer reached in and threw the man a clipboard.

The deputy passed it to Supergirl.

Supergirl swiped it up and darted up in the air.

'What are you doing?" the man asked.

"Scouting the scene," Supergirl said. She flew up till she was a dozen feet above the nearby telephone poles. The surrounding crowds first caught sight of her, and there were a good many gasps that silenced even the most furious and mournful of the bunch. She hovered up high, staring with thin eyes of concentration at the building below. She stared and stared and stared and stared. After a pause, she scribbled on the notepad an elaborate outline of the place and the positions of bodies and gunmen and hostages all the same. Soon she hovered back down and slapped the clipboard back into the chest of the deputy.

"There you go."

"Wh-Wh-What is this?"

"Approximate locations of the hostages and assailants," Supergirl said. "If you are to strike, strike at these locations I have here listed. The back door and the side windows."

The cadet whistled as he looked at the sketch.

The deputy stammered: "H-H-How did you know--?"

"X-Ray vision."

"X-Ray?"

Supergirl sighed. "Once you sell enough turnips, buy a ticket, fly to Metropolis, and go see a dentist. Maybe then you'll understand. Now if you'll excuse me…"

_Fwoosh!_ She flew towards a telephone pole overshadowing the building.

"Now what are you doing?"

"Silence the crowds!" she called back. "I'm going to listen in on the creeps."

"Better do what she says, Pa."

"I KNOW THAT, SON! Ahem….erm….let's get these folks quiet."

"Sure thing!"

"And show Vic the drawing! Whew…..of all days to be coached by a blonde…."

"_I heard that!"_

"Er…S-Sorry Miss Girl of Steel!"

Supergirl sighed She perched atop the telephone pole, bent over, and craned an ear towards the scene.

Amazingly, the crowds surrounding the Blue Tin Bowling Alley quieted.

"Heh…real show stopper," she whispered. Then she silenced herself as she listened and she heard….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The children sobbed. In shivering clumps of shaking limbs, rattling backpacks, and moist eyes they gathered in the corner and sniffed, murmured, and hiccupped a storm.

"Get those brats to shut up!" a bearded thug shouted.

Another fiend marched over and aimed a semi-automatic at them. _Cl-Clak!_ "Shut your traps! You hear me?"

They sniffed and murmured into silence. Four adults and the bus driver was at the center of the cluster, attempting to solace the children all the while glaring at the captors.

The bearded one—the obvious leader—paced back and forth across the bowling lanes.

A man guarding the back door with a shotgun gulped and uttered to the leader: "Listen, Joe. We should just give up. This isn't worth it!"

"You shut the Hell up, Mic…"

"I'm serious! Whatever got us last night, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with this town!"

"Have you just woken up now, Mic?" the bearded 'Joe' panted. He was a sweating, nervous mess. "You try to explain to me what could hunt you down in the middle of the night without leaving as much as a trace!"

"Joe…."

"You try and tell me what speeds after you on the Kansas highway and pelts your car with invisible death beams when you're hundreds of miles away from freedom!"

"Joe, we're all a bit frazzled okay! But this isn't some government conspiracy! This has got to be—"

_Cl-Clik!_ Joe aimed a gun at Mic from afar. "You shut the Hell up! I know exactly what happened to us! We're being abused by the system, man! Something is after us! Something that THEY sent!"

"Who is 'they', Joe?"

"I DON'T FREAKIN' KNOW!" Joe shook all over. "But we're gonna be sending them a message! No freakish shit shooting pink crap at our asses is going to make us go down without a fight! If the government wants a score to settle, we'll give it to them! We'll give it to them in blood!"

Two other men were guarding the front door. One murmured to the next: "He's losing it. I told you Joe was unreliable because of his war background."

"Yeah…but can you explain what happened last night? I know I can't."

"Shh…he's looking this way…"

"You jerks got something to say?"

"Ahem….no, Joe."

"You must have been hearing some of the cops outside."

"When are they gonna start negotiating anyhow?"

"Who the Hell cares?" Joe frowned. "How's this for negotiation?" He juggled a bundle of TNT in the air. "Unless an FBI shithead comes here and explains just what they sent after us last night, we redecorate this place with these kids' intestines!"

"…………..wouldn't that take us with it?"

"WHAT DOES IT MATTER AT THIS POINT?"

Mic sighed and stared out the crack in the back door, holding tight to his shotgun.

"Pink….light…..," one of the guards whispered again to the other. "…perhaps….it was a Justice League member or something?"

"This far west? Pfft…dream on…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….," Supergirl made a face. "Okay….," she murmured to herself. "Wyrd….."

A beat. A blink. She stood up, hovered, and sighed.

"The stranger they are, the harder they fall."

She again scanned the building. The City blocks surrounding it. The ground. The Earth.

She smirked to herself.

"Hope they've paid for their shoes."

She flexed her muscles and flew down to street level.

Unbeknownst to her…in the distance….

Two figures stood agilely atop a bank building in downtown Smallville. One said something to the other, and the other nodded. With a wave of a graceful arm, the two disappeared in a brief flash of light.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

11:15 am

Smallville Farmland.

Kent's House

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…_sources say that—of all people—Supergirl of Metropolis has showed up at the scene! The stakes of this standoff seem to get higher and higher. Authorities are telling locals to keep quiet as the Girl of Steel seems to be preparing an operation of sorts. I tell you what, listening audience, this is something Kansas is not used to at all!"_

"My my….I hope she doesn't make too much of a show!" Martha uttered, a hand over her heart. "John…do you think she'll handle herself….responsibly?"

He managed a smile. "I'm sure she has this whole thing handled, dear."

Martha turned and gazed across the kitchen. "Where's our guest? She might want to know how Kara's doing."

"I'll go check on her. Just rest here."

"……"

"Hey….," John lifted Martha's chin gently. He smiled. "No worries…."

"……," Martha smiled. She hugged him.

He gently embraced her back, patted her shoulder, and marched off. "I'll be back."

"Okay, dear…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Terra? Terra?"

John Kent wandered through the farmhouse. His voice grew louder and more clear as he approached the guest room.

"………Terra?"

He pushed the door open and wandered in.

"Terra, are you--?"

He paused.

Blinking.

The window beyond the guest bed was open ajar. The closet spilled open, with old clothes belonging to both Clark and John spilled about. The curtains billowed with the cold November air.

John walked to the windowsill and leaned against it, peering out.

There was a huge, brown pothole about the size of a tractor ripped out of the farmland earth.

His gray brow furrowed. "………uh oh."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Her blonde hair flickered in the air like gold flame. She clung to the grass layer at the top of a soaring comet of dust-trailing earth. Her blue eyes flashed a hot platinum and she gritted her teeth in concentration, willing the clump of earth forward in the air.

She was short of breath. This took a great deal of concentration out of her body. Months of being stone had made moving stones a challenge. And yet, she pressed herself forward.

Clad in an impromptu black, long-sleeved turtle-neck and tan baggy shorts.

Terra rocketed northward over the Smallville landscape above normal eyeshot. She made good time, even though the chilling air bit and froze her.

_SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

11:22 am

Bayside Plaza

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was cold. Frost lined the corner of the concrete courtyard and peppered some of the umbrellas over the dining tables.

A few patrons were out and about, chatting sociably. It was nearly noon, and the lunch rush was late in arriving. Even less people were filing in and out of the movie theatre. The cold had driven them away. At least for the time being.

Raven didn't seem to mind. She sat at a lone table with a steaming cup of coffee. She stirred it absent mindedly with a tiny plastic straw. Clad in her blue sweatjacket and jeans, she stared off into space. Her stubborn strand of blue hair flipped-flopped in the cool breeze. She took a deep breath. Gazing dazedly. Still.

"…………."

A body walked up. Graceful. Dressed in a red turtleneck sweater and vibrantly pink slacks.

"Ehrm….R-Raven? Am I intruding?"

Raven looked up. "….." She blinked. She leaned her head to the side with a curious pursing of her lips: "St-Starfire?"

"……," the casually dressed Tamaranian smiled down at her. "I did not expect to see you out here. Would you mind if I joined you?"

"…………"

"It will not be for long, I assure you."

"Oh….uhm….it's okay, Starfire…..uh….," Raven shook her head as if she was snapping free of some vision or another. She gestured gently towards a chair across the table. "Feel free. I have no problem."

Starfire scooted the chair out, brushed away a few tiny white flakes that melted from her warm touch, and sat down. "You look nice in blue."

"Uh….thanks. I'm always wearing it."

"Hehehehe…..true."

"And you're rather……..pink."

"It is a most aesthetic color, is it not?"

"If you say so."

"Relaxing to a cap of the chino?"

"Uh…..yeah," Raven blinked. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was flying."

"In that?"

"Mmmhmmm."

"Why not in uniform?"

Starfire shrugged. "I thought of going on a patrol. Then I thought of going for a walk. Then I decided to do both. I am always in-between decisions these days, or so it seems."

"Yeah, me too…..I think…."

"Indeed…."

Silence.

Raven blinked. "Wait." She looked at Starfire strangely. "You go on patrol?"

"I do now, more or less," Starfire smiled nervously.

"I didn't know that…."

"There are so few of us guarding the City now," Starfire said. "I deduced it was a logical thing to do. Besides, I am gifted with flight. Who am I not to perform such a duty now and then?"

"Does Cyborg know? Or have you just volunteered?"

"I am volunteering," Starfire gestured. "Besides, flying is always a joyful thing. I do not mind."

"Even in this weather?" Raven sighed and hugged herself with a slight chill. "Gotta hand it to ya, Star. You know when to warm things up."

"I am fascinated that you have decided to brave the weather yourself, Raven."

"……..what's that supposed to mean?"

Starfire smiled: "Only that you were often one to let days pass by inside your room. Hot or cold weather….you decided not to face any of it. I imagined that you were sensitive to the elements, and by avoiding the extreme degrees you made yourself even more sensitive."

"Er…..y-yeah. I guess…."

"I suppose it is part of how you are changing," Starfire said pleasantly…yet softly. A mellow sort of contentedness. Like the cold flakes falling and settling every so often. "I am not one to expect a joyous person out of you so soon, Raven. But I am glad to see you more open. More open to the world in general."

"Heh…," Raven pushed the strand of blue out from over her fair forehead. "I didn't know you were trying to 'improve' me."

"I know better than to do that," the alien giggled.

Raven's blue eyes were thin. "Gee, Starfire. You're changing too."

"Am I, now?"

"I'd say so."

"I did not come to Earth to stay the same as I was when I left Tamaran."

"Then what **did** you come here for?"

"…….," Starfire's green eyes searched the corners of their sockets. Then after a beat, they darted back at Raven as the redhead said: "To cherish things."

Raven smiled ever so slightly.

"And to learn to love life more."

"You loving life more? Heh….you'd practically explode."

"That is certainly an interesting hypothesis," Starfire winked. "Alas. I have not exploded. But I have benefited all the same."

"Have you, Starfire?"

"……," Starfire played with a few fallen specks of frost as she spoke with somber, gazing eyes: "I needed to be reminded of dark things, Raven. Surely you are aware of darkness…"

"Right….."

"….darkness reminds us of the warmth of light. M'ul den ranzatt bi nul mun'rmthiul. 'Too much brightness and you can be blinded'," Starfire smiled gently at Raven. "Robin was….._is_ the best thing that ever happened to me. But I realize now that I spent far too much of my energies fixated on him. After the fifth of November, I nearly contemplated leaving the Titans. And that made me realize that my priorities needed to be reevaluated. It is safe to love someone. But a Tamaranian soul—hehe—especially a Tamaranian girl is far too susceptible to enchanted, all-encompassing romance. And I had that for Robin. And when Robin perished, a good part of me perished too. And it has taken a Terran month for me to be….reborn. X'Hal…I feel much stronger than ever I was before. And I was always stronger, Raven. Always. Yes, I have benefited. I have improved. I now have a new life to be re-acquainted with here on Terra Firma. I shall devote all of my energies to it. And should the—_Qu Ped?_—strike me again with the elusive arrow of Terran-Greek lore, then it shall. But not any time soon. The Titans are my priority. As they always should have been. At the same time, I do not regret anything I may have been before….or any way I may have acted. When you live life obsessing over the past, you only tear yourself apart. I desire to be my entire self, Raven. The Tamaranian….the Titan….hehe….and the Terran."

Raven took a deep breath. She gazed into her coffee cup and murmured in a low voice: "You speak as if you're sure Robin's dead."

Starfire blinked. She leaned her head to the side. "Hmm? Raven? What did you say?"

Raven winced. "Uhm…..ahem. N-Nothing."

"……," Starfire nodded. "I see….."

"Don't mind me, Star," Raven sighed and leaned back. "I'm happy for you and all. I'm just…..well…."

"You seem lonely."

Raven glanced up.

Starfire had a sympathetic look on her face. "And that saddens me. Is Cyborg not willing to accompany you?"

"I don't know….."

"You haven't seen him today--?"

"Starfire," Raven interrupted with a sigh. "I don't know if Cyborg and I are working out…."

Starfire inhaled. "Ohhh….that is too bad."

"……"

"I was….most enthusiastic for you two…."

"……"

"But…whatever reasons you have, I'm sure they're for good reasons."

Raven looked up at Starfire surprised. "That's it?"

"Hmmm?"

"That's all you're going to say?"

"Uh…."

"Wow, Starfire. You really _aren't_ the hopeless romantic you used to be!"

"I am…sorry?"

Raven shook her head, sighed, and leaned forward on a propped arm. "No. I'm the one who's sorry. I didn't really mean what I just said."

"Then you and Cyborg are--?"

"I don't know what we are," Raven murmured. "I just wanted someone to bounce off of. I thought you would argue with me to be more patient with him."

"How do you feel he is deserving or not deserving more patience, Raven?"

"I don't feel like I can trust him, Star…," Raven mumbled. "Not just personally. But…as a Titan. He's acting more like a complete turtle shell than a leader. And—sure—it could just be that his style of leadership is different. But I can't help but think that he's doing all of this ineptitude on purpose. All he does is sit in the laboratory or garage working on the new T-Car. There's no progress being made with the team. He's isn't making any attempts to contact Noir or Tempest. I feel like the greatest the Titans will ever be is what they are now. And—sorry, Starfire—but this isn't the way it should be. I never wanted to be an authority figure and judge our team like this. But we're terrible. Azar help us if one of the super criminals is to escape from the Omega Wing sometime soon. I don't think we'd be together enough to tackle a new threat. Especially in a postwar City like the one we limp through now."

An uncomfortable bit of silence.

Starfire bravely spoke up: "This….Th-This is surely not all Cyborg's fault."

Raven looked up. "…….well…."

"Do you think?"

Raven sighed. She rubbed a temple. "He isn't helping…."

"Have you told him of these concerns you have?"

"Kinda sorta…."

Starfire looked at Raven sideways.

"What? He gets the picture."

"Hehehehe….I would hope so."

"Well…," Raven sighed. "I'm out on the Town to….," she lingered. She lied: "To collect myself. Then maybe I can go to him about it."

"I hope you do, Raven," Starfire said. She bit her lip, but eventually expressed: "Do take my advice. It is a very prosperous thing to let your feelings be expressed before it is far too late to express them. Regardless of if they are good or bad feelings."

Raven took a shuddering breath. "Yeah. Good point…."

"Raven….," Starfire softly spoke. She reached a hand out and touched Raven's wrist.

The dark girl didn't flinch. She merely swallowed and half-looked weakly at the Tamaranian.

"You can trust me. I am your friend. If there is any issue pressing your heart, I am more than willing to talk to you. I would be honored to be in your counsel."

Raven nodded. "Duly noted, Star…."

Starfire smiled. "I suppose I shall let you be to your own reclusion for now. I pray that thoughts reach you wholesomely."

"……."

"N'lattu de X'hal," the Tamaranian winked, tilted her head up, and gently flew upward.

_Fwoosh!_

Starfire inhaled. "And I would be gladdened….if you could trust me more….," she added to the wind.

But Starfire was gone.

Raven rolled down a sleeve and looked at her watch.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

11:30 am.

Western District.

Diamond Plaza.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The interior of the mall was dusty.

Gray.

Cold and decrepit.

A ceiling panel above the shadowed dwelling place shook, clattered, and fell free from its support.

_Cl-Clang!_ It echoed after landing two stories below.

A pair of legs snaked out from the space where the ceiling tile was. Suspended from a cord, a figure slid down. Dark. Sleek. Nightwing shimmied down past the second story balconies and landed at the base of a broken-down escalator. He stood on two feet and looked around. He breathed, vapors visibly showing. He glanced left and right one more time before whipping out a tiny flashlight device which he held in the palm of his hand. A mist-and-frost littered beam glowed palely out from his device as he crept across the junk-strewn floor of the age old shopping complex. His agile feet made little shuffling echoes as he paced his way past decayed plant decorations and mildewed signs. He reached one hand up to an earpiece and tapped it.

"You there, Alfred?"

A voice crackled that only his ear canal could register.

"_I hear you loud and clear, Master Dick."_

"Is the Oracle still toiling away on Fox's digital ass?"

"_Ahem. Yes, in a manner to speak. I fear for Miss Gordon's poor, abused tailbone at this point."_

"Don't be an old lecher, Alfie. Only me and maybe Tim's allowed to think of Barbara's butt."

"_Why Tim?"_

"Because I know I can beat him up for it. Now what did you pick up while I was running across town per Bruce's orders?"

"_The Diamond Plaza was once a fashionable place to be, Master Dick. I shopped there many a day when I was bright and young. Got most of Master Bruce's beloved loafers there, I did. Tis a pity they had to close down." _

"Yeah…," Nightwing stepped past rows of run-down shop fronts. Gates half-hung in windows, rusted and crackling all over. "When was that exactly?"

"_Nineteen Ninety-Two."_

"Heh. Peculiar year."

"_I believe the benefactor of the plaza was a Republican."_

"Ah. Never mind then."

"_Like many other growingly grimy spots in Gotham's Western District, the City's been taking its sweet time trying to bulldoze the place. Mayor Hill has spent his whole dynastic term attempting to raze it, but a lot of local investors keep stepping in the way."_

"I thought dinosaurs got sick of red tape."

"_I beg your pardon?"_

"Never mind, Alfred," Nightwing stuck his nose into a collapsed Babbages and shone his flashlight all around inside. Rats and cockroaches scurried. "Anything that might explain why the son of Lucius Fox would be nefariously interested in this place?"

"_Haven't the faintest clue, sir. If he was shopping for discount suits, he could just have gone to Sears. They sell just about the same quality, I'm sure."_

"Hardy har har," Nightwing mumbled and walked on through the cold and dark corners of the place. "Either Triangular's got some secret fetish for this shithole or this is a wild goose chase. Either way, I'm socking it to Bruce when I get back for making me snoop around here."

"_You used to enjoy it when he sent you on these vigilante errands, Master Dick."_

"Heh…yeah," Nightwing smirked. "But that was back when I was young and before I learned to give a rat's—"

_CRRRRAACK! _

"AAAAAAAAH!" The floor collapsed beneath Nightwing and the black-haired hero fell into a sudden, crumbling abyss.

_CRASSSSH! _

_THRUMPPP!_

"_Master Dick? Nightwing? Nightwing!"_

"Pfft…hckkk!" Nightwing coughed, sitting on his butt on a pile of dust and debris a full flight below the floor of the plaza. "Nnngh….bleahck!"

"_Respond! Are you okay?"_

"Hang on a damned second….Pfft….Jesus….," Nightwing scrambled for his flashlight and stood up. "Jeez….someone should up a friggin' sign. 'Caution! Hazardous When Shitty'!"

"_Where are you now, Master Dick?"_

"Good question, Alfie…," Nightwing waved the flashlight around. "Hmmm…unless I knew better, I'd say this was some sort of basement maintenance hall for the plaza and such…"

"_My word. I didn't think they had one under the Diamond Plaza. Everyone needs to have a secret, I suppose."_

"Nothing interesting except……," Nightwing's words trailed off. His eyemask narrowed. He pointed the flashlight forward some.

"_What is it?"_

Nightwing smiled. "I think we have us here a jackpot, Alfred."

"_We have?"_

"Mmmhmmm….," Nightwing trotted forward.

As he advanced, the flashlight in his grasp revealed what appeared to be a massive hole in the bottom of the plaza. And that hole was cylindrically line with concrete. And rising up out of the hole was what appeared to be railroad tracks. And resting on the railroad tracks was an abandoned, slightly scorched, slightly dented railcar with several empty crates scattered freshly abroad. None of the crates had a single trace of dust or dirt lingering on them. And they all had the 'Lexcorp' symbol.

Nightwing smirked. "Jackpot indeed."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

11:42 am.

Downtown.

Fox Loft Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

William B. Fox had three computers operating at once.

On the leftmost one, he had two windows popped up. One was a stock trading website, and the other was an IM conversation.

The center window had a swiftly scrolling green on black DOS prompt flashing.

The rightmost computer had a……movie playing.

Fox was busily switching between slurping a straw in a soda can and scarfing down a Slim Jim. He typed maddeningly fast on the centermost computer. He dug his way into the digital infrastructure of a huge network, bypassing firewalls like white picket fences out the window of a commuter bus.

He whistled to himself between gulps and swallows as he rolled his chair to the leftmost computer and clicked a few stock buy/sell options before typing in the IM window and speaking aloud: "_Yes. I happen to be a sexy Swedish schoolgirl. Virgin? Are you kidding me? How about you? Age? Sex? Location?"_ He chuckled to himself. "Heheheheh."

He rolled back to the middle screen. Hacked some more.

He took his soda can. Slurped from the straw.

He glanced at the 'movie' on the right screen. He smiled and chuckled. "Heheh! Woo! Didn't know they could squirt that far!"

He gazed. Stared. Shifted in his seat….then snapped out of it just long enough to place his soda down, return to the center station, and hack…hack…hack. After a dozen lightning-fast keystrokes, he stood up, turned around, and walked across his cluttered 'office' room towards a mini-fridge in the corner.

As he moved, the centermost screen—unbeknownst to him—flickered once. The text froze for half a second before continuing to scroll. Howbeit…it did so this time with something of a slowdown or lag….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wayne Manor.

The Batcave.

That very moment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Woohoo!" Barbara pumped an arm. "Yes!" She typed madly at the computer screen. "We're in!"

Alfred looked over from another station and inquired: "Excuse me, Miss Gordon. But who's this 'we'?"

The redhead in Batgirl's clothing spoke as she continued typing: "Even with the Messenger's directions, I couldn't dig into Fox's satellite feed on my own. It'd take over a thousand keystrokes a second. And since I'm only _half as godly as that_, I thought I'd get another demigod to help me."

"Another hacker?"

"Mmmhmm….," Barbara spoke aloud as she typed: "How're you holding up, Isomer?"

A string of text poured across the Bat Computer's screen.

'_I AM DOING FINE, ORACLE. WAITING ON YOU.'_

"Isn't he a darling?"

"Pardon me, Oracle. But how do you know it's a 'he'?"

"I don't, Alfred. Creative license."

"And how do you know you can trust him? Is that also creative license?"

"This 'Isomer' has helped me on over a dozen digital jobs before. I've helped him too. Sort of a cat-back-scratch principle in Internet form."

"And you're using Master Bruce's expensive computer for such a gambling relationship?"

"Er….yeah. I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with that, provided the ends justify the means."

Alfred sighed. "Again, I am thankful to the sureity of my weekly salary."

"Keep cool, Alfred," Barbara talked while typing. "Lord knows Isomer and I are."

"Indeed. Would it interest you to know that Master Dick seems to be in the process of discovering a breakthrough in the research on Triangular?"

"Yeah, sure, Aflred. Whatever," Barbara typed. "After you, Isomer."

'_INITIATING TRACKER PROGRAM……NOW.'_

Click! Barbara jammed the 'enter' key.

Text scrolled madly down the screen.

Barbara blinked. She stood up, her mouth ajar as information tracking William Fox's digital activities flickered and flared before her eye.

"Whoah……fascinating….fascinating…….keep it coming…..k-keep it coming!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fox Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The centermost computer screen was flashing.

Text that had been reviewed hours ago…days ago…months ago were scrolling backwards.

A white bar was replacing the green and highlighting every bit of information.

William B. Fox walked back lazily.

He was chugging on a beer glass.

He glanced lethargically at the monitors.

"…….!"

His eye bulged.

He dropped the glass and spit out a mountain of beer.

He took a deep breath.

"Shit muffins!"

He bolted, dived towards the computer.

He pounded on the keyboard.

Hit the escape key.

Panted…sweated…panted…sweated…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Barbara murmured as she read off the text scrolling across the screen.

"Powers….Vreeland….mirror networks….yes….yes…..branching servers…..interconnectivity….hmm….pirated mainframes….show me the host….show me the host!"

"Master Dick. What is it that you see?"

"_Everything, Alfred! This is like an open sandwich and the raccoons have invaded!"_

"Pardon?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Diamond Plaza.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nightwing crept past the crates, shining his flashlight over package after package with holes for hundreds of nonexistent glass vials.

"This is the smoking gun if ever we needed to find one! Forget whatever the Oracle's searching for, we might be able to incriminate based on this!"

"_Isn't that being a little hasty, Nightwing?"_

"Not at all, Alfie!" Nightwing smiled and picked up a clipboard. "I have it here before me! Shipping plans! Transport utility files! And….whoops….hold it…."

"_What is it?"_

"This is definitely the shipment of Terra's essences that came from Metropolis. Ya know….the underwater facility that Noir, Steel, and Aqualad supposedly stormed in on?"

"_You mean Tempest?"_

"Whatever. Fish by any other name," Nightwing flipped through pages and shined his flashlight on the typewritten material. Vapor billowed from his lips as he scanned and read: "It's just figuring out where the heck it all went to next that's the problem."

"_Would it explain why young Mr. Fox went there?"_

"For the same reason any of Two-Face's local goonies came here! To overlook the material! Or at least the loading center before the stuff got here! Hold on….," Nightwing flipped a page. His eyemask narrowed. "Holy crap…."

"_What is it?"_

"Ha ha ha! Ohhhh…Bruce is so going to get a kick out of this!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fox Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh!" William pulled at short, fuzzy hair before frantically jamming his fists over the keyboard. "Stop being leeched you DOS piece of dolphin excrement!"

The IM on the left computer blinged.

He frantically rushed over and typed on it: _'afk'_.

He rushed back to the centermost computer and performed an emergency keystroke he had programmed into the mother program. A program to cancel all functions. The screen paused momentarily…but kept on going.

"Shitness omega!" William panted. "This has to be a double-team or some crap! Probably that 'J' bastard or…or…." He gasped. "Oracle….."

_Riiiing! Riiiing!_

"**Dah**!" he jolted his hand to his cell phone, lost grip of it, played an impromptu game of hackey-sack, and lifted it to his ear. "_What_?" He shouted. A beat. A blink. "M-Mr. Dent! I….I-I-I….W-Well of course I-I'm covering tonight's b-big getup but…b-b-b-but…." He glanced nervously at the computer. He bit his lip. He tensed up. He grunted: "I have to put you on hold."

Angry squawking on the other line.

"YES!" William shouted into the phone. "I SAID! I….WILLIAM BEDFORD FOX……AM PUTTING….YOUR SCHIZOPHRENIC WHITE ASS….ON _**HOLD**_!"

He growled, shrugged, and tossed the cell phone out the window before kneeling before the computer and banging his head literally against the keyboard. "_COME ONNNN-NNNNNN_!" he pleaded.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on…we can go deeper…," Barbara typed and typed. Her blue eyes flickered across the screen. "What are you using, Fox? What winds do you sail to?"

She keyed herself into a string of data.

She scrolled down.

She checked server addresses.

She dug further and further.

Deeper and deeper.

"Isomer, you keeping up?"

'_YES. TRY THE ADDRESS I AM SENDING TO YOU.'_

"Beautiful! Give it to me!"

"_It's all right here, Alfred!"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Diamond Plaza.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nightwing's masked eyes scanned the flashlight-lit information lying before him.

"The shipment was headed from here straight towards the warehouses located at Fiftieth and Main!"

"_Fiftieth and Main! Good lord, that's—"_

"Exactly," Nightwing frowned and tossed the pages aside. "Triangular's been under our noses the entire time! I mean….I thought we had hints in the past, especially from what Noir found out, but now this…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fox Apartment.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh!"

_Crack!_

"Nnnnnghh!"

_Whack!_

William B. Fox had a fire extinguisher in two hands. He was mercilessly hammering away at the monitor and keyboard, bashing the computer desperately to electrically sparking bits.

He panted and sweated with the entire effort.

There was a knock at the door.

"_Billy? Honey? Are you okay in there?"_

William sweatdropped. "Uhhh…y-yeah, Ma!" He reached over and subconsciously exited out of the 'movie' on the far right computer. "Just doing a little….d-day trading! Nothing to worry about! Nnngh!" _CRACK!_ "Go talk to Dad or something!"

"_Lucius just got done talking to Bruce and drove off to the office!"_

"Then go talk to your vibrator! Your son's busy!" William growled. "Nnngh!" _CRACK!_ "Okay, screw this." CL-CLANG! "This computer came from my loins…it might as well go where my loins went!" He knelt down, gripped the tower in two heavy arms, and pulled…pulled…pulled….

"Nnnnnghhhhh!"

He strained, struggled, but finally snapped the mangled computer free of the wall jack.

_CRKKK!_

_ZZZZTTT!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**BLIP!**

The computer image went blank.

Barbara's fingers froze in mid-typing and her mouth gasped at the last string of data she saw.

"Wayne….," her blue orbs blinked. "Wayne Corporation! Fox has been channeling Triangular's and Lexcorp's activities through the Wayne Corporation!"

"_That's exactly where it was sent to, Alfred!"_

Barbara blinked, and swiveled around to look at the butler's station.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Diamond Plaza.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nightwing gritted his teeth and clenched a fist. "The Wayne Building. They've sent the essences to Bruce's company's very own vault! Triangular was using our very own assets all along! And we didn't even know about it!"

"_Absolutely, Dick!"_

He blinked under his eyemask. "Babs?"

The 'Oracle's' voice went on: _"And they used Vreeland's company and Powers Inc. to double as mirror sites so that his bureaucratic network finagling would be less noticeable! But Isomer and I just dug our way in thanks to the satellite linkup the Messenger promised us. Fox has been using his dad's computer programs and his technical know-how to dig into Bruce's company and tap into the secret inner sanctums of the network almost more intimately than Bruce himself uses them! I wouldn't be surprised if—at this point—William B. Fox and Two-Face themselves know who supplies Batman and the Batcave with all its technological goods!"_

"Well, Triangular had the wool over our eyes pretty damn good," Nightwing uttered. "Cuz I've found what's left of the train that shipped Terra's contained powers here. They're at the Wayne building's warehouses as we speak!"

"_Omigod! You're kidding me?"_

"I wish I was, Babs. We gotta split and make for home turf!"

"_How did you learn this? Was the answer lying out in the open at Diamond Plaza?"_

"Hell yeah!" Nightwing nodded. "It's almost too good to be tru---" He stopped himself. His eyemask thinned. "Wait a damn second…." He turned. He flashed a look at the underground train tracks. There were beeping, blinking objects lying scattered across the slanted tunnel of cylindrical concrete.

Nightwing hissed.

"C4…."

"_What?"_

"Scratch that, Oracle! Triangular IS covering their tracks!" he turned and ran the fastest he could across the maintenance basement. "They're just one day too god-damn **late**!"

"_Oh no…Nightwing! Get out of there!" _

"Way ahead of y—"

_**BOOOOOOM!**_

A wall of fire slammed up behind Nightwing.

"AAUGH!" his body flew like a ragdoll.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The speakers crackled electronically.

Then a rush of white noise.

Alfred gasped: "My word…."

Barbara gasped and leaned forward to the mic, eyes wide. "Dick?" She grabbed the communicator. "DICK!"

Static……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wayne Manor.

Training room.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The interior was dark.

Gray light scattered in from thinly shuttered windows.

Cold air lingered, giving the interior a lightly frosty feeling.

Hidden in the shadows, weightlifting equipment and other exercise machines lingered.

There was a white training mat in the center of the domain. A place used for wrestling and fencing practice.

Instead, Robin was dressed in a white gi. He took deep breaths, performing something that looked like concentrated, slow and precise tai chi exercises. Only…he would break out every now and then into sharp jabs and forward, advancing maneuvers…attacking invisible opponents. Slicing and kicking and decapitating nonexistent figures.

He sweated. He breathed deeply. And all the while, he bore a furrowed brow of determination behind his eyemask. Concentrated. Serious.

"……."

He darted forward. One fist after the another. A high kick. A spin. A low block. An uppercut. A frozen forward-push.

"…….."

He spun and helicopter jump-kicked into a roll, standing up with two uppercuts, a jab, an elbow, a rising knee and a forward lunge with his fist.

He froze there.

Panting.

Sweating.

His gi damp from his own juices the torso down.

"……."

He icily stood up and balanced on one foot. Concentrating. His eyemask thin as hidden dull eyes faded to a blindness beneath his mask.

And he concentrated.

Concentrated…

Concentrated……….

"…………………………."

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two years ago.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRRMMMMMM!_

_Robin rode on through the rain. _

_It was midday. _

_Overcast._

_Storming. _

_Rain splashed and sloshed over the mountainous, two-lane highway. _

_Droplets swam over his helmet's visor. _

_He gritted his teeth and gripped the handles as he sped on and on. _

_He drove on into oblivion. _

_Much like he had been driving for the past twelve hours. _

_Winding aimlessly. _

_Going north. _

_West. _

_East. _

_But mostly gaining south. _

_He sped until he knew that—surely—his motorcycle would run out of fuel. _

_He grumbled…..sighed….and kicked into a higher gear._

_**VRMMMMMMMM!**_

_He didn't care. _

_Rain splashed high in ravines on either side of him. _

_He burned around the mountainside in a steep curve. Nearly slipping off and flying maddeningly into the solid wall of thick forest to his left._

_He didn't know where he was……only that he was close to the Eastern Seaboard. _

_Even through the rusty scent of the storm and thunder, he could sense the salt of the End of the World. _

_He had passed countless cities and town, only to end up in nowhere. _

_His eyes grew thin under his eyemask. _

_He was soaked from the top down. _

_And if a wave of rain hit him. _

_He just might let himself be consumed by it. _

_He just might…… _

_Fly into it. _

_He just might—_

_**HONK! HONK!**_

_Robin snapped out of it. _

_Two big lights brightly blinded him. _

_He gasped. _

_He was speeding straight towards an incoming semi-truck. _

_**HONKKKK!**_

_Robin cussed aloud but couldn't hear himself above the noise and thunder. _

_He jerked on the handles. _

_Left._

_SCREEEEEECH!_

_He slid sideways and ramped off the grassy gnoll. _

_And plummeted…… _

_Through the forest. _

"_Nnnngh!" he leapt off the bike just before he could slam into a tree._

_CRNKKK! The bike wasn't so lucky. Its headlights strobed through the forest. _

_And Robin was flying. _

_He gasped and twirled his cape-flickering body. _

_He soared through tree trunks, nimbly pivoted, and dodged the wooden forms as he sailed past them. _

_Then he hit the forest floor. _

_THWOMP! _

"_UGH!" he bounced. Twirled himself. Dove. _

_THWAP! _

"_Augh!" he rolled across the grass. _

_THWP-THWMP-THP! __**THUD**__! He landed against a tree trunk. _

"_Nnngh……," he winced. Eyemask thin. He looked up. Lightning glinted off the rain soaking the front of his helmet's visor. _

_And he gasped. _

_He rolled to the side-- _

_SWOOOOSH-__**CRUNCH**__! The bike slammed into the tree he was just lying against. _

_Mud and water and shrapnel flew. _

"_Augh!" Robin covered himself, dodging the heated collision. _

_He winced……shivered……and stood up. _

"………"

_He turned around. _

_In the soaking rain, he gazed at the wasted, crumpled body of his R-Cycle. _

"…………_," he clenched his fists. He shook all over. "Rrrghhhhh!" He growled, unlatched his helmet, and flung it against the vehicle. "RAAAUGH!" _

_CLANK! _

_It bounced off and hit him in the ankle. THAP! _

"_AUGH!" he limped and hopped on one foot. "Shit! Dammit! Piece of…nnghh!" He kicked the R-Cycle……with his bad ankle. "NNNGH! SHIT!" He slipped. "DAAUGH!" He slid down the muddy mountainside, tumbled, bounced against two tree trunks, and collapsed chest-first against a rocky promontory littered with rain and pine needles. "………ughhh……" _

_Silence. _

_Rolling thunder in the distance. _

_Rain. _

_Rain._

_Rain………… _

"…………_," he slowly……achingly stood up. Drenched all over, he heaved. He kicked at the wet earth. He grunted. He shook. He shouted: "Why couldn't you have just friggin' run away?" _

_Empty breathing. _

_Empty panting. _

_Rain. _

_Thunder. _

"_Why? Why? WHY did you have to just fly into him and die?" he shivered and shook. Teeth clenched. He gripped his wet black hair and growled. "Nnnnghhh! I know……I KNOW ALREADY!" _

_Lightning. A loud roll of thunder. _

_Robin shouted back to the chaos: "I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH! OKAY! I'm trying. I'm trying, God dammit!" _

_He kicked at the earth again. Another splashing puddle. _

"_I'm……I-I'm……I'm t-too weak……," he panted. A little quieter. A little……softer. The voice of a jaded, blue-eyed foster-child to some boy billionaire miles away. "I couldn't save you even if I tried……I should never have taken you where I taken you. I should never have gone that distance. It's because of me that you're gone. It's because of me that……that y-you died……" _

_Wet exhales. _

_Wet, mapped hair. _

_He ran a hand over his face and shuddered: "I was……too fake. You were the real one. But I……I wasn't real enough……" _

_Silence. _

_A flash of lightning, glinting. _

_Like his teeth. Clenched. Showing. Furious._

"……_I wasn't trying hard enough……," and with his new voice, the strength returned. And the boy faded and some Wonder took over. "……but I will be now. One hundred percent. I won't make the same mistakes again……I won't………You Hear Me?" He raised his fist. "NEVER AGAIN!" _

_Thunder. _

_Host moisture. _

_Robin panted. He took a deep breath. He froze. _

"………"

_He tilted his face down. _

_His eyemask thinned, as he if he was looking for something. Something that he saw a glinting hint of. _

"…………"

_He jumped down from the rocky promontory. He snaked his way down the muddy mountain side. He carefully climbed down between tree trunks. He wound his way in and around trunks and soggy heaps of leaves and pine needles. He finally came to the end of a sloping ridge where the trees parted……and gazed downward at an urban locale crescented around a thick Bay where a huge, bright-gray Suspension Bridge stretched across. Tall towers stretched skyward, eating up the sky. Industrial complexes made up the northern end just beneath him, with a prison to his east……a huge triangle-shaped compound. But what caught his eye the most was an interesting icon positioned in the center of an island floating in the Bay. Something he had read up on……seen illustrations and photos of. _

_He took a deep breath. Soaked from head to toe……but awash with something else. Inspiration? Awe? _

_Regardless, he kept gazing at the huge 'T' dotting the watery, stormy landscape. _

_The Stone Tower._

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…….," Robin's eyemask widened some. He was still balanced….still posed in a strained manner in the center of the training room's mat.

In the gray light…..the cold air.

"……."

He tightened his jaw.

He flexed his limbs.

He spun, kicked, spun again, and shot a fist out.

_Thwoosh-__**GRIP!**_

Bruce's palm caught his hand.

He jolted, a breath escaping him. Half-wincing, the Boy Wonder glanced up.

"……," still dressed from his 'research' with Lucius Fox, the billionaire glared darkly down at him. "Aren't you going without sleep?"

"……….," Robin frowned.

_Grip! Yank! Thwoosh!_ In three solid moves, he tossed Bruce Wayne nimbly over his short form.

The billionaire flipped through the air, planted his feet against the wall, kicked off, and landed in a fighting pose across the mat. "Okay….may I ask what made you do that, Tim?"

"You're breaking my concentration….," Robin muttered and continued exercising across the mat. "….Leave."

Bruce stood up straight, brushing his black bangs aside from the 'tumble'. "You call this exercising? You can do this in your sleep. Speaking of which…I think you should get some."

"I'm not doing anything useful….I'm not being needed for anything useful….," Robin grumbled and 'fought' his way across the imaginary battlefield with swift, jabbing motions. "The least I can do is prepare myself."

"For what?"

"Heh….my question exactly."

"Pushing your body past the limit is not preparation…it's punishment."

"Bruce….I've spent the last two years having four teenage teammates bicker and pester me about 'pushing myself past the limit'. I've constantly proven them wrong. I don't see what I have to fear from you."

"I would not have you fear me, Tim," Bruce shook his head. "You're no criminal."

"The name's Robin," the Boy Wonder grunted. "And would you leave already?" He frowned as he spun with a blind kick. "If I'm going to meditate, I need to do so without interruption."

Silence.

Robin saw something out the corner of his eyemask.

He turned…jerked….and reached a hand out fast-as-lightning.

_Grip!_

He caught a bo-staff thrown at him.

"………," Robin stared at it. "……." He stared over at Bruce.

The glaring billionaire picked up a bo-staff of his own and tossed his coat and tie off. "If you're going to train….at least train in a way that's advantageous to you. Kicking and punching invisible enemies is below the apprentice I trained…."

"…..," Robin in his white gi eyed Bruce's white button-up shirt and black slacks. "You're joking…."

Bruce stepped onto the mat and twirled the staff at ready. TH-TH-THWISH! "Am I one to joke?"

"……..," Robin tensed his body and turned to face Bruce. "No….not at all….."

Bruce faced off against his sidekick.

Robin faced off against his mentor.

A thick body and a nimble body standing across from each other on the white mat. In the gray light. The cold November air.

"……."

"……"

A muscle twitch.

Robin rushed. _Pad-Pad-Pad-Pad-Pad-Stomp-Stomp!_ "Nnnngh!" he jumped and jabbed down at Bruce. THWOOSH!

Bruce pivoted the left side of his bo-staff up and blocked. _CL-CLANK!_

Robin's left foot immediately jabbed at Bruce's ribs.

Bruce blocked with his right elbow and shoved against Robin.

Robin flipped back and landed on solid feet in the center of the mat. He faced up and raised his staff just in time for Bruce's heavy charge.

SWOOSH! JAB! THWOOSH!

CLANK! CLACK! CLANG! Robin gritted his teeth, absorbed the blows, and shove back.

Bruce teetered back. He swung high. WOOOSH!

Robin ducked low and swept his leg out.

_THWAP!_ Bruce was tripped. He flipped back and handstanded with one palm. He jabbed his staff out at full length.

THWAP! It caught Robin in the chest. The Boy Wonder stumbled back.

Bruce rolled forward from his hand-stand, knelt, and swung his staff at full length.

Robin blocked awkwardly. _CLACK!_ He gasped and stumbled back.

Bruce dove forward.

Robin vaulted over him with a frog-leap.

Bruce rolled and jumped up to his feet, spinning around.

Robin landed, slid across the mat, and spun around.

They faced off yet again.

A blink.

A breath.

Bruce twirled his staff.

Robin twirled his.

Bruce charged.

Robin charged.

_Pad-Pad-Pad-Pad-Pad! _

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

"RAAAUGH!"

"Nnngh!"

_**CLAAA-AAAANG!**_

Master and apprentice met in the center of the grey training room, forcing their weight against each other. Straining, metal-to-metal bo-staffs criss-crossing.

"Nnngh…..skkkt….."

"Mmmfff…nnngh….," Robin sweated all over. "You…..are……being…e-easy….on m-me….."

"How do you know that, Robin?" Bruce hissed. "A lot of…..m-months have passed….s-since we last did this…."

"You're one to b-bluff…..," Robin strained. "You were always one to bluff…."

"And you were always one to s-second guess…."

Robin growled. "Not…t-t-TRUE!"

Bruce glared. "Show me."

Robin gritted his teeth. "Nnngh!" he jumped back.

Bruce lunged forward.

Robin slid under him, rolled between his legs, and came up with a reverse kick.

THWAP!

Bruce stumbled forward towards the mat's far edge.

Robin spun and charged at him. "RAAAUGH!"

Bruce spun mightily with a high-swinging staff at full length. SWOOOOSH!

Robin bent back at a near ninety degrees. The metal length of Bruce's staff brushed over his nose. At the last second, Robin flung his staff and left, hooking wrist up and clamped around the middle of Bruce's weapon. _YANK!_ He kicked his left foot out.

TH-THWAP! Bruce's right knee gave way.

Robin shoved forward with his grip of the staff.

Bruce stumbled back.

Robin bent back up, jumped, and spun a kick at Bruce's face.

Bruce flung up an elbow, blocking and locking the pit around Robin's foot.

Horizontally positioned, Robin jabbed his staff down like a cane into the floor and swung his other foot up and across Bruce's chest.

THWAP!

Bruce's grip loosened from the Boy Wonder.

Robin fell down, rolled off of his staff-stance, and jumped back up to his feet.

Bruce dove down at him with a downswing.

Robin raised his staff and blocked horizontally.

_**CLAAA-AAANG!**_

Again, the two crime fighters locked positions.

With the mentor forcing his weight down on the Titan Leader.

And the apprentice fighting to keep his buckling knees from giving out beneath him.

"I gave up trying to think I was b-better than you….," Robin hissed. "If this doesn't prove it, I don't know what does…"

"Is that what all of this is about, Tim?" Bruce grunted. "T-Trying to prove yourself to me?"

"Call….me…ROBIN!" he shouted back.

"I know who you are! Do you?"

"NO, Bruce! YOU DON"T!" Robin strained and shouted. His whole body shook all over. "Not even I know who I am! The only person who knows me….nnghh….is SLADE! RAAAUGH!"

THWUMP!

Robin shoved back.

Bruce stumbled in reverse.

Robin came at him—THWOOSH!—swinging—CLANG!—contacting—CLANG!—growling: "Deathstroke knows my every weakness!" CLANG! "He tore into my City…" CLACK! "He dragged Dagger with him…." CRACK! "He ruined the Titans' lives….." CLANG! "And he KILLED me!"

Bruce blocked and blocked and deflected and found himself pressed to the end of the mat until--

SWOOOSH-_CLACK!_ Robin pinned Bruce down, forcing his staff against his. "And now the only way I can possibly get an edge over him is to give up the last remaining shred of my being that's strong, Bruce! Why? WHY must he ruin EVERYTHING in my LIFE? Doesn't he already have a son? Wasn't Jericho enough for him? Why does Deathstroke insist on consuming me and killing Terra…Noir…the Titans…and everyone and everything else in my life in turn? Aren't I good enough for him alone? Aren't I strong enough?"

Bruce was struggling against the metal staff of his former sidekick's. "Tim…."

"For the last time….don't call me—"

"Robin…."

"……," the Boy Wonder was silenced.

Bruce hissed. "I am sweating…."

"……," Robin's lips parted. He saw the beads of sweat on the billionaire's brow. And that was enough for him to…..relinquish his pressure on the staff, and withdraw.

"…..," Bruce relaxed and stood up. He took a deep breath and wiped his brow.

"…….," Robin spun around, his back in a slump. He dropped his staff to the mat. _Th-Thap!_ "You're not Slade, Bruce. I….I couldn't make Slade sweat…….N-Not on my own."

"You did worse….you made him bleed."

"Noir 'killed' him, Bruce….not I…."

"And what would that mean, Robin?" Bruce gestured. "Would Slade's defeat prove something to you finally? Would it make you become something you always wanted to be?"

"………"

"No….," Bruce shook his head. "Even if you defeated Slade….even if you stood over his carcass with his blood justly spilt for once and all in your gloved hands….you wouldn't feel solace. Not you, Robin. You would go on and on….tearing yourself apart for some god-forsaken reason. Because it wouldn't stop with Slade for you. The name 'Robin' means something else in your mind. Something…far more hardcore than even Deathstroke to wield Death itself to understand…."

"I'm weak, Bruce….," a lone voice uttered from beyond Robin's shoulders. "…..I'm weak…."

"Why?"

"Because Robin has died…but Tim lives on…."

"Robin…," Bruce stepped over and stood directly behind the Boy Wonder. "I became Batman….not to prove myself…but to keep embody something. Something for the heartless scum of this City to fear. It was never about _becoming_ something. I will never truly 'become' Batman…not until I'm truly dead. I have to work day and night to _embody_ that cape and cowl. To keep producing the fear that holds the incessant hand of evil. 'Robin' was no different. Until you became him. You started living it all for Robin, and not for justice."

The Boy Wonder spun around with a snarl: "That's not true! I know more than to hold so many cards for ego—"

"Who said anything about ego, Robin?"

"………."

"We can only aspire to become immortal," the billionaire said. "But a dream is a dream. We only get halfway to our goals before the end consumes us. The key is figuring out what to do to make the most out of the middle point. For none of us can be…..one hundred percent…."

Robin clenched his fists and glared toward the shadowed corners of the room. "I can…."

"Really?" Bruce asked. "Is that what the last two years of your life have **proven**?"

"…………….," Robin sighed deeply.

Bruce twirled his staff, walked to the side of the room, and gently laid it to rest against a rack. "I had to deal with that myself….a long time ago…." He hung his own dark head. "………..when I was Robin."

"……….?" The Boy Wonder spun. His eyemask twisted in curiosity and confusion. "YOU….were once Robin?"

"…….," Bruce nodded.

"_**A**_ Robin?"

"_**THE**_ Robin," he said with a hint of a growl.

Robin winced. "S-Sorry…."

"Don't be…," Bruce turned around and walked back towards his apprentice. "…I know I'm not sorry. But at one time, I was. I so terribly was. And I couldn't stop being sorry. I couldn't stop….tearing myself to pieces. Each and every day. Hating myself for not being that which I could have been….which I should have been."

"………," Robin curiously leaned his head aside.

"In Japan," Bruce spoke. "During my worldwide training. I was Robin…for a short time." He gestured in the gray, frost-filtered light while talking. "I stopped would be arsonists trying to burn wooden dojos to a crisp. I attacked and took down a gang of thugs all on my own. I got myself scraped up pretty bad and had a Hell of a time trying to explain it to my sensei the following morning's training session. I was so young….so eager…..so………._hardcore_……"

Robin listened. Silent. Still.

Bruce went on: "For two weeks on end, I nearly quit all of my training just for the sake of being 'Robin'. I sweated…I toiled…and on one night, I finally nearly killed myself. A gang of assassin ninjas sprung upon me. I fought two of them off, heavily injured one…but I suffered two shurikens to my leg before I escaped. I nearly bled to death. I only had Alfred to stitch me up…_without_ anesthesia…."

Robin winced.

"…..I realized then that I was trying my hardest….my futilest to become a machine. And I was not. I wasn't even human. I was the ghost of a child trying to become the vanquisher of his dead-and-gone parents. I realized…from the pain and the agony….that I couldn't replace them. Nothing I could do….no amount of blood I could spill could replace them. Nothing I could do could fill in the gaping wound their absence left in my person. I would only be—"

"Halfway….," Robin murmured.

Bruce nodded. "But though I couldn't be one hundred percent………..Though I _can't_ be one hundred percent…that doesn't erase the fringe benefits of my doing the best I can. I save lives, Robin. I save lives and I bring justice to the face of monsters of every shape and size that terrorize this world. As….Do….You." He pointed. "And I'll be damned if I just sit back and watch you fall short of that after everything I've done to teach you and point you in the right direction."

Robin clenched his fists and stared off to the side. "What I am, I've made. I only do things to myself…."

"You didn't need to tell me."

"…….."

"Do you need to tell yourself?"

"I'm smart, Bruce!" Robin pointed at himself with a jabbing thumb and frowned. "I don't need reeducation!"

"Then maybe you just need a rebirth?"

Robin's eyemask went thin as he sighed and stared at the floor. "What good….does even fifty percent do….when Slade cancels it all out? When he snuffs the light out of all I am and all I've ever done?"

"But he hasn't snuffed the light out, Robin. You're still alive and standing."

"………"

Bruce took a deep breath and ran a hand through his dark black hair. "Robin…..I don't know where exactly it was when and where I failed Dick…..or at least where _he thinks_ I failed him…"

"Right….."

"But I know when and where it was that I failed you…."

Robin looked up. His lips parted somewhat….

Bruce was looking away from him by that point. "It was after Bolton's death….in that alleyway…..when Deathstroke practically ended me….." He took a deep breath. "I realized in the fading blink of life….that I had left you to your own devices. Devices identical to that which absorbed me when I was your age. I let you spend two years trying to find yourself but only falling into a maelstrom of wrath and frustration. And there Deathstroke was….streaking his merry, Red way to your City to end yours and the Titans' lives. And I couldn't do a single thing about it."

He turned and faced Robin.

"When I woke up and saw you….I knew that a purpose had been planned out. Perhaps what the Messenger says about a Balance of Morals is true. I've never been a spiritualist. It's not in my blood. But, Dammit Robin, you've been granted a second chance. Now you can beat yourself into a red pulp during all this and count yourself as 'useless'. And I haven't the authority anymore to step into that and 'upset' you. But there's a difference between fighting to become a demigod and fighting to become something _practical._ And I want you to find that difference. I don't care who you've been trying to prove yourself to over the last three years since you shifted emotional gears on me…on all of us….but it's about time you decided to leave the dead to the dead and the living to the living."

"………….."

"That's all I have to 'bother' you with," Bruce said. He grabbed his coat and marched out of the room. "You may continue on with your exercising."

"B-Bruce….," Robin reached a hand out.

The billionaire kept marching icily on.

"…..," the Titan leader sighed, gazing at the mat.

Silence.

"………………."

"One thing's for certain…."

"?" Robin raised his head.

Bruce's voice said: "Nothing can begin to express how immensely proud I am of you, Tim…."

Robin spun to look.

But he was alone.

"……………….," his lips curved somewhat. After a quiet moment he sighed and hugged himself. He gazed out the thinly-shuttered window and let the frosty air settle around his still figure.

Eyemask dull…fading….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bruce walked into the library, the coat slung over his shoulder.

His face deadpan.

"………"

He approached the grandfather clock.

But before he could open the metal door and pull on one of the pendulums, the hidden door opened.

_Crrrreak!_

A cold rush of air and the echo of bat shrieks.

Alfred rushed out and nearly bumped into Bruce Wayne's chest. "S-Sir!"

"Alfred? What's wrong?"

The butler gulped. "C-Come quickly to the Batcomputer, sir…."

"What is it? Is it Nightwing? What happened?"

"We….a-are concerned, sir. We don't know."

"Well! Don't just stand there! Lead the way!"

They both rushed down the stone steps.

The grandfather clock entrance slid icily shut behind them.

_Clang!_

And the clock's tone struck.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Noon.

Smallville.

Downtown.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…**please! All we want to do is negotiate! There is no need for innocent lives to be harmed! Let us simply have a friendly conversation!"**

The sheriff's voice echoed with more or less enthusiasm through the bullhorn from behind the police squad car where he was perched. The other cadets and firefighters watched with uncertainty, all eyes trained on the Blue Pin Bowling Alley.

From the sidelines, the crowd—a little quieter—bunched together and worriedly craned their necks to observe the standpoint. Their blinking eyes shuttered in tune with their firmly beating hearts. From the background, a thin figure pushed in and stared out between two adult bodies in the crowd.

It was a small, teenage girl. With golden, silk-blonde hair. Pensively, she adjusted the long sleeves of her black shirt hanging off her petite hands and gazed with blue eyes towards the scene. Terra bit her lip and looked….looked….looked…till her eyes fell on someone.

The Girl of Steel.

Supergirl was silent. Still. Her arms folded as she stood solidly behind a firetruck, safely out of view of the establishment or the nefarious people inside. She glanced over at the sheriff just as the old enforcer looked at her and breathily sighed:

"I really don't think they're willing to communicate. Something really scared them out of their sanity. I can't imagine what…"

"I think I can," Supergirl said.

The sheriff blinked. "You can?"

"No time to speculate….," Supergirl clenched her fists. "Only to act."

The sheriff bit his lip. "Are you…..sure?"

The Girl of Steel's blue eyes narrowed. "How long do you want to leave those kids in the hands of those creeps?"

"………….good point."

Supergirl waved her arms and motioned everyone to distance themselves. "Get back everyone!" she called out. "Superhero transit underway!"

The deputy walked up, scratching his head. "How do you plan on entering? All the doors are covered according to your Xtra-Ray vision!"

Supergirl winked. "Who said anything about using a door?"

"……."

"……."

Supergirl took a deep breath. She meditated. Clenched her eyes shut. And…. spun…. spun…. spun…. spun… _spun…… spun…… spunspunspunspunspun!spun!spun!spun!spun!SPUN!SPUN!__**SPUN!**_

_**DRKKKKTKTKKTKKTKKTKKTKTKKKTT!**_

The local officers gasped and murmured as the Girl of Steel turned into a virtual drill and burrowed her way straight down into the meat of the street, kicking up asphalt, gravel, concrete, dirt, dirt, dirt, sand, and rock. The ground shook for but a moment, then turned still as the friction in the hole faded and everything turned from red to black.

"……"

"……"

The deputy and sheriff leaned over and stared down the hole.

"You don't suppose that will gather water, do you?"

"Do I look like a gee of a logist to you?"

A prairie dog randomly leapt out and clasped onto the face of the sheriff. _WHAP!_ "MMMFFF!"

"Holy--!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Blue Pin Bowling Alley….

Joe was pacing and pacing and pacing, the TNT bundle stuck firmly in his gnarled hands.

The cluster of kids sobbed quietly in the gentle embrace of the adult hostages. But apparently their sobs were not quiet enough.

An artery pulsed in Joe's forehead as he turned and shouted with bearded ferocity: "Dammit…what did I tell you kids?"

"Take it easy, Joe…."

"You shut the Hell up, Mic! We're screwed after today! You hear me? SCREWED!"

Mic rolled his eyes back and groaned.

Joe merely hissed.

Then….

_Rummmmble……_

"……."

"…….."

"………"

The five assailants looked at each other curiously.

The man by the hostages looked around, fidgeting with his semi-automatic.

Mic blinked.

The two guards at the door stirred uncomfortably.

Joe sweated…..

_Rummmm-mmmble!_

"What the Hell is that?"

Mic shrugged.

Silence…….

Then.

_Rummmmmble—__**RUMMMBLE!**_

The bowling alley shook momentarily. Furniture and lamps rattled.

"An earthquake?" one guard murmured. "In _Kansas?"_

"Why not? They happen in Japan, don't they?"

"……."

"Don't they?"

"That's not really a good analogy, you dumbass."

"Well I was just—"

"Shhh! Listen!" Joe hissed.

Everyone quieted.

"…………………………….."

"The rumbling….it's coming from over there," Mic pointed across the interior.

Joe shuddered. "The bathroom….."

They all stared at the ladies' room on the side of the bowling alley's interior besides the shoe lockers.

"……………," Joe sweated profusely. "The damn government….they stuck an agent in the bathroom the whole time….probably with the pink lasers!"

"Uhm…..Joe?"

"Mic, go screw yourself!" Joe spun and pointed at one of the two guards at the front door. "Larry! Check it out!"

"Why me?"

"Because you're Irish!"

"…………I'm not Iri—"

"GO CHECK IT OUT ALREADY! I HOLD THE TNT!"

"……..phwee…..," the guard limped across the bowling alley.

Everyone watched….nervous.

He cocked his pistol. Glaring. He approached the ladies' room. Vibrations could be felt from within. A little rumbling.

Joe bit his lip, still sweating.

Mic watched calmly.

The hostages huddled together….shivering.

"…..," the guard fingered the nob. "……..pink lasers….," he murmured to himself. A beat. He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and flung the door open. _FWOOSH!_ He aimed his pistol in and all but pratfalled at the sight. "The Hell?"

Inside the tiny one room restroom, a huge hole was in the tile just next to the toilet. Supergirl stood, brushing a strand of blonde hair up underneath her hairband as she studied herself in the mirror. She turned and smiled. "Looks like I missed the crapper by half a meter." She then frowned. "Hey! Jerkface…ever heard of knocking?" Her fist flew into his face.

**WHAM!**

The thug flew back, tumbled, and collapsed against a bowling trophy display case that cracked upon contact.

The other four gasped.

"What in the…the…Hell?" Joe shuddered.

The fiend guarding the hostages readied his machine gun and ran to the bathroom.

_CRKKK!_ There was a terrible tearing sound from inside.

The guard ran up and his eyes bulged.

SWOOOOSH! A tampon machine flew out. _CLANG!_ It struck the guard in the face and plowed him over.

Supergirl marched out, dusting her hands off. "Ahhh….yeah," she smiled. "The day's _finally_ looking up."

"Nnngghhhaaah!" Joe spazzed and pointed a twitching finger. "Krypton conspiracy! Waste her!"

"Try your best, half-bakes!" Supergirl clenched her fists and squatted into a launching position. "Frazzle me and win a prize!"

Mic and the last standing guard fired with shotgun and pistol. BL-BLAM! BLAM! BANG! BANG!

Supergirl took a deep breath and flew through the pistol fire at the guard by the front door. She slammed her elbow into him, effectively forcing his body up against the metal doors, and forcing the metal doors to explode and buckle outward to the bright outdoor November.

_CRUNNNCH!_

"Ooof!" the thug grunted and rolled hard to an unconscious stop outside under the gasping halo of the watching crowd.

Mic pivoted, pumped his shotgun, and fired at Supergirl. _BLAM!_

Supergirl spun, quick-as-the-wind fanned her hands out, and 'caught' the spray of shot as if with a softball catcher's mitt. She then bolted towards the man in a golden blur and smirked, standing before him. "I believe this is yours, hotstuff…," she threw the shot—still burning hot—in the thug's face.

"AAAUGH!" Mic dropped the shotgun and gripped his face, stumbling backwards blindly.

"NO!" Joe hollered.

Supergirl spun. She frowned and pointed at him: "And for you, bozo….you've outdone your lane rental. Turn in your shoes….preferably—turn in your feet sticking up in the air like a good cockroach!"

A few kids from the hostage crowd giggled.

Supergirl smirked.

Joe hissed and fingered the TNT bundle behind his back. "You're even nuttier than I am!"

"You're one to talk….," Supergirl marched forward and shook a fist. "Like to shove your ego where your rectum is? Assuming you have enough room left there as is—"

"Nnngh!" Joe tossed the TNT bundle at the Girl of Steel.

She gasped and caught it. Her blue eyes widened. The countdown timer read: _'0:15'_.

"…..," she frowned up at the thug leader.

He smirked back at her.

Supergirl took a deep breath and shot straight up through the roof, hugging the explosives to her chest.

_CRKKKK!_ She burst through to open sunlight. The hostages gasped.

Joe took a deep breath. He ran towards the side door, grabbing Mic's aching shoulder along the way.

"Come on, lazy bones! Let's get out of here!"

Mic gritted his teeth as he was dragged along: "I wish I could see your ass to kick it!"

"MOVE!" _CLANG!_ Joe kicked the door open and they were out.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Above the rooftops of Smallville, Supergirl shot skyward. She accelerated towards the clouds with her hand outstretched. When she reached a certain height, she spun, snarled, and flung the TNT bundle upwards with all the impromptu might she could muster.

And two and a half seconds later—

_**BOOOOOM!**_

The compact explosives went off, sending a fiery concussion blast surging down through the air and thundering towards her.

_FWOOOSH!_

"Nnngh!" Supergirl recoiled from the blast, toppled, soared down over the heads of dozens of flinching onlookers, and smashed smack-dab straight through one end of the Smallville watertower and out the other. CRACK! CRUNCH! She landed sprawled out across a rooftop, wincing.

A half-second later…

_SPLOOOOSH!_

A torrent of water plunged out of the water tower like a spicket and doused her from head to toe.

Supergirl shivered from the cold November moisture and stood up, her golden hair a matted mess. She squeezed her cape out and examined her completely soiled outfit.

"Heh….yeah….thank you, Misogynist God…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The two panicky thugs bolted out from the backside of the Blue Pen Bowling Alley and rushed into the parking lot.

"Shit! Cops!" Joe hissed at the sight of the barricade.

"Uh….yeah, Joe! What'd you think?"

Joe panted. He glanced over at the schoolbus. "There!"

"You can't be serious…"

"You know how to hotwire a bus?"

"Guess I can learn—_WAAH!_" Mic was yanked after the leader as they piled onto the bus.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Behind the police barricade, a cadet tapped the deputy's shoulder. "Uh…..Pa?"

"Hmmm?" the man walked over.

The cadet pointed: "Aren't those strangers hotwiring the bus?"

"Oh for the love of Quaker Oats…CALVIN! THEY'RE MAKING A RUN FOR IT!"

The sheriff stumbled out of an ambulance, claw marks across his face. He snarled through a blowhorn, making nearby paramedics cringe and cover their ears: **"Take 'em down, boys!"**

BANG! BANG!

BL-BLAM!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

P-P-PING!

PING!

"Come on, Mic!" Joe sweated.

_VRMMMMM!_

"Yay Mic!"

"Just needed some lovin'….AUGH!"

_THWUMP!_ Joe shoved the his hot-wiring partner aside, gripped the steering wheel, and shifted the groaning schoolbus into gear. "Thank you Kansas for giving us this tank! HA!"

"Joe! Get us out of here, will ya?"

"Will do…"

_SCREEEECH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The bus tore forward…straight towards the barricade.

The cops shouted and ran every which way.

_CL-CLANG! _

_CRUNCH!_

The schoolbus plowed through the vehicles and zoomed across the street.

A thick crowd of people stood in its path. They shouted in fear and swarmed to run off, only managing to trip and climb over each other. A carpet of living beings inevitably stretched before the careening vehicle.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the schoolbus, Mic was making a wincing expression.

"Dammit, Joe! Those people are in the way! You're going to make asphalt apple sauce out of them!"

Joe grinned psychotically. "So maybe I will…."

Mic gawked at him.

_VRMMMMMM!_

The bus bore down on the helpless citizens.

And then….suddenly.

A golden glow…..

Joe blinked. "Huh?"

_**CRKKKKKKKTTTT!**_

The asphalt rose up in a sudden 'ramp' of dislodged earth.

"AAAAAAH!" the two men shouted.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMM!_

The schoolbus rocketed over the sudden mountain of raised asphalt.

Their bus took to the air, its wheels spinning. Pebbles and tiny shreds of soil and dirt trailing.

In such chaos, the hulking automobile completely missed the hapless bodies of innocent citizens flinching far beneath it.

After a good two seconds of flightless wonder, the bus fell and crashed headlong into a coffee shop.

_**CRASSSSSH!**_

The vehicle lodged into the building at a downward forty-five degree angle. Its rear tires spun nakedly.

After a few seconds—as the gasping crowd stood up in looked in wonder—the two dazed criminals stumbled dizzily out of the vehicle….only to be ensnared by wrapping tentacles of pure stone.

_CRKKK! _

_CRKK-KKKK!_

"Ack!"

"The the--?"

They struggled until the stone 'tentacles' hugged the air out of them, then they hung breathless….unconscious from their imprisonments.

And soon everyone wordlessly observing the scene blinked and noticed that one person was standing in the middle of the nearby street where the bus was eventually headed. A petite person…a teenage girl in tan slacks and a large, long-sleeved black shirt with her hands outstretched. Her eyes were fading with a momentary gold glow as her whole body heaved with the split-second struggle that was her concentration to launch the bus away from potential harm. Panting….Terra relaxed her limbs and nervously brushed a fountain of silken blonde hair away from her forehead.

It didn't take geniuses—city mice or country mice—to figure out she was the culprit behind the last minute, metaphysical salvation. Murmuring voices exchanged between the people. Awestruck and marveling….

"_My lord! Did you see that?" _

"_That girl……she did it!" _

"_Who is she?" _

"_She saved all those people……"_

Terra suddenly and inevitably found herself in the spotlight. She bit her lip and hugged herself, looking over her shoulder nervously at everyone staring at her. As if the whole population of Smallville was burning her alive.

And then someone—a teenager—gasped and pointed:

"_W-Wait! It's her! The former Titan!" _

"_Who?" _

"_It's her!" _

"_Omigod!"_

"_It's----"_

Terra's whole system froze and stabbed her inside out. She clenched her eyes shut and shook. She couldn't bear to hear them. She was too afraid to find out the verdict. The infamy or the legacy that her stone life was…

So she fought back tears, panted, and ran across the street. Once reaching an intersection, she jumped. Just in time, a circle of sidewalk cracked and flew up to meet her feet—stop sign and all. She gripped tightly to the sign and held on as her 'lift' took her out of the City limits and bore her southward in a golden blur.

People gasped and pointed and murmured to one another in greater fervor.

And at around that time, Supergirl—a wet mess—flew down and perched atop the bus. She frowned in confusion at the whole scene, especially the two tentacles of earth wrapped about the remaining escapees. "What in Kela's name?" A blink. She looked up. She squinted her blue eyes and saw….the distant speck of a golden earth maiden fleeing towards the horizon. Her lips parted. "No way…….she didn't….."

In the background, the police officers started helping hostages file out of the Blue Pen Bowling Alley. Families tearfully embraced their loved ones while the other three suspects were arrested.

And on a distant bank building, there was a flicker of light like two young figures making a run towards the edge of the structure and vanishing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra was hyperventilating.

Facing the biting wind.

Her blonde hair a cascading, horizontal mess.

While riding the clump of flying asphalt, the girl ignored the fields and farms blurring beneath her and clasped the sides of her head. She winced and shivered all over.

"They hate me….I-I just know it…..I-I can't make a difference anymore….it's not the same….it's not the SAME!"

She clenched her teeth.

Her squinting eyes leaked tears that turned to ice in the cold, wintry winds.

"I'm not a Titan….I'm NOT! Nnnngh! I can't face the public. I-I can't….I can't face my friends!"

She panted and hiccupped.

She hugged herself, her eyes shut.

"Slade…..why did I let you die alone? Maybe Jordan's wrong….m-maybe the world would be a b-better place if Red Aviary found me……"

She sniffed. She shook.

"Kara……B-Beast Boy…..I'm so sorry…..after all you've said and done for me…..I-I'm so sorry….."

So wrapped up in herself, Terra didn't notice the Earth rapidly flying up towards her.

Until the last second.

Her sapphire eyes opened.

She gasped.

She clenched her fists and pulled at invisible reins to yank her flying platform up.

SWOOOOSH!

She crashed into a cornfield, but at a small enough angle to merely be sent sprawling through the cushioning ears.

"Waaaah!"

_Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwoosh!_

Terra tumbled, rolled, and collapsed in the middle of two thick rows of corn. The platform dug into the cropped earth somewhere, plowing down over two dozen stalks.

"……………….n-nngh…."

Terra stirred. She slowly, achily got up. She winced and stood on wobbly feet, rubbing her knees.

She sighed.

"I-I can't even land like a hero….," she deflated breathily.

Silence.

"…………_you never land with the lucky side up."_

Terra gasped, her blue eyes wide. She parted her hair and pushed the strands behind her brow. "Wh-Who's there?"

Silence.

Nothing but tall ears of corn waving in the cold wind.

Terra shivered. She stepped back in the row.

Glancing left and right.

"………………_you really are too hard on yourself, Terra."_

Terra gasped and spun around.

A short-pink-haired mistress in violet, jacketed attire stared calmly at the earthen Titan. "We should have imagined such."

"Wh-Who are you?" Terra gasped, stumbling back.

"Listen….please….," Jinx bit her lip and slowly stepped towards Terra with two pale hands outstretched. Her cat eyes were inquisitive…pleading. "I just want to talk. No obligation….no threats…..no nothing…."

"I-I don't know who you are!" Terra murmured. "I-I-I…..I-I need to go back home!" she spun and marched the other way down the row.

"J-Just where is home, Terra?"

"Stop calling me that!" Terra clenched her eyes shut while facing away from the pink sorceress. She waved her long-sleeved arms and hissed: "I just need to go! I need to find Kara and apologize! Leave me alone….whoever you are!"

"But where is home, Terra?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Terra spun and shouted. "Just who are you? Another freak, I bet!" Terra shrieked. "Another super-powered nutjob who wants to run my life for some ulterior reason or another! Well I've HAD IT! I have enough strange people and old wounds in my life enough as it is! Don't you see how screwed up I am? I don't need anymore! LEAVE! ME! **ALONE**!"

Terra panted. Terra gasped for breath. She would have turned and ran as was her trademark style to do so…hadn't she been taken back by the look of hurt and reluctance on Jinx's face.

"…….," the pink-haired vixen took a shuddering breath and said: "I-I understand that you want to keep on running, Terra. And you know what? Who are we to force you to listen to us? But please…..realize that we can feel for what you've been through…."

Terra spun around, hugging herself and frowning. "No you can't…."

Jinx gestured with a frilled hand while talking: "You can't stop running. And it's no longer because you're afraid of leaving disaster everywhere you go. But you're haunted by something. The loss of someone you care for. Someone you would give your whole life….and reputation to be with."

"………," Terra shivered. Biting her lip.

_Clip! Flip! Snap! _"………..s-someone……..someone you feel is as much a part of you as your memory can dictate."

Terra slowly turned around and glared at Jinx. "How could you possibly know what that feels like? Furthermore….why would you care? Don't you know who you're talking to?" She jabbed a finger at herself and snarled: "I'm a villain! I'm the rogue of the Titans! I am Slade's apprentice!"

Jinx swallowed and somberly said: "So am I…."

"…………."

"Terra…please….at least listen to us. We want to help you. That's what we came here for. We knew that we would find you here. We need to deliver you a message."

"……..," Terra's blue eyes thinned. "Who's this 'we'?"

_FL-FLASH! _

A blonde assassin in a gray jumpsuit appeared besides Jinx.

Terra gasped.

"…….," Pulsade looked calmly at Jinx, then sighed and leaned a hand against her hip in a seemingly bored fashion as she said: "Jean and Leslie, at your service, lass. You wouldn't believe the incredible lengths we've gone to speak to you in person."

"…………really now….?"

Jinx nodded. "Only….now that we've found you, it's for reasons different than what we originally anticipated."

"Like what kind of reasons?"

Pulsade said: "We believe we can help you find your child…."

"………," Terra blinked at them. Her mouth agape. She squinted her eyes suspiciously for a few minutes before finally uttering: "I'm listening……"


	231. A Hard Act to Follow part 16

**231. A Hard Act to Follow part 16**

November 30, 2004.

12:45 pm

Titan's City.

Bayside shore.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The surf rolled in and out along the sand.

Cold air kissed the frothing waves.

An overcast sky reflected a gray aura off the salt water as a thin ripple waded its way through the waves. A dark head appeared. Glossy. Cascading with thin sheets of water. Tempest emerged from the Ocean, marching with stone-stiff feet. Clad in his trademark wetsuit, he shook the long black strands of wet hair out from his forehead and glared with white-on-black eyes towards the dryer part of the shore.

"………."

Lindsay stood there, hugging herself in a sweater from the cold wind. But she wasn't alone. Raven was perched beside her, her hand stuffed in the pockets of her sweat jacket.

"……..," Tempest took a deep breath. "So…….it wasn't my imagination. You must really be desperate…."

Raven bit her lip, but eventually uttered against the wintry winds: "Yes."

Tempest smirked ever so bitterly. "Humbled….too…."

"………..," Raven was silent. Glaring.

"Heh….," Tempest shrugged. "Should have known better than to push my luck there."

Lindsay stepped suddenly forward.

"……..?" Tempest turned and looked at her.

The freckle-faced teen simpered and offered a white cloth. "I-I brought you a towel."

"Why?"

"It's cold, and walking out of the water like that…you must be freezing!"

"Lindsay, I've spent a good amount of my 'sidekick' days traversing the cold currents of the Artic Circle as well as…."

"…..," Lindsay looked pensively away.

Tempest cleared his throat, smiled, and took the towel: "Thanks. Really….it means a lot."

Lindsay smiled nervously. "It's….g-good to see you, Garth."

Tempest dried his hair some before wrapping the towel over his shoulders like a shawl. "Ahh…..writing to you was the only thing that ever kept me sane."

"You sure that Wonder Woman's bathtub was the only thing you shared?" Lindsay asked.

Tempest made a face. "That's the first thing you have to ask me?"

Lindsay blushed.

"How's the larva?"

"Phil? Same little pooper as ever."

"Ah. Well, good to hear that one nice thing about this dry-ass City hasn't changed. Heheheh…"

"Hehehehe!"

Raven cleared her throat. "Tempest….about my being here…."

Tempest looked over tiredly at her. "Look, Miss Gruesome….do you mind? J-J-Just _what_ do you need to know? The world's screwed! That's the long and short of it! There, are you happy?"

"Tempest….."

"Some red-farting stringray's out to poison the whole surface world. What do I care? You know…the Titans were never really together on a whole lot of things to begin with, much less Pangea and the above-ocean continents…."

"Garth!"

"……..," Tempest squinted at Raven.

The dark girl breathed to calm herself and said: "Cyborg doesn't know I'm here."

Lindsay looked surprised.

"………," Tempest leaned his head to the side. His lips curved somewhat. "Really…..?"

"Yes. Really."

"Why the lonely game all of the sudden? Huh? Didja catch the Titan leader sleeping in bed with another toaster?"

"Cyborg is……mistaken over a lot of things….but he's not alone," Raven said. "A lot of us have been blind. But then again, a lot of us weren't looking far to begin with. We kept our eyes locked on the ground….suppressed by the gloom and disaster that has plagued this City. Only the likes of you and Noir were willing to think outside of the box. Because of that, you two know things now that I am only _just starting_ to catch wind of. And I need to know more….I _w-want_ to know more, Garth. I believe the Titans may be in more danger than November Fourth ever promised…."

"Ever heard of 'too little too late'?" Tempest chirped. "Sorry, Princess Misery, but your words are water off a tortoise's back."

"Garth…."

"S-C-R-E-W-O-F-F! You know what that spells? 'No'!"

Lindsay suddenly touched his hand. "Garth…please….speak to her…."

The Atlantean seemed suddenly taken by the contact with the schoolgirl's grasp. He blinked. He gently traced her fingers with his. He murmured: "Neptune almighty…..you feel so cold….."

"…..," Lindsay bit her lip.

Tempest looked her in the eyes.

"Raven only wants to do what's right…," Lindsay whispered. "Please give her some ear. I know that you have been through a lot. Lord knows, I can't imagine. But at the same time….you haven't been here these last few weeks, Garth. It's a whole different world. And a very….unpleasant one at that."

"………….."

"Please…….."

Tempest took a deep breath. He gently caressed her chin and whispered back to her: "Don't ever beg me to do anything…."

Lindsay merely blinked.

Tempest turned, gazed at Raven, and took a deep breath. "All right. Let's talk."

Raven nodded. "Good."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

12:51 pm

Western District.

Dark alleyway.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnghh…..Nnnn-Nnnnghh!" William B. Fox struggled, strained, but finally succeeded in tossing a severely smashed, charred computer tower over the edge of a dumpster and into the garbage.

_C-CLANG!_

He leaned back against a brick wall and exhaled, wiping his sweaty brow. His clothes were disheveled and he seemed out of breath.

A dark alleyway stretched around him. Rusted metal fire escapes and paper garbage strewn through the side streets. Mist and steam rose hideously from random metal grates and manhole covers. The sounds of distant emergency sirens, barking dogs, car engines, and other audible detritus of inner city slums danced down the six-story walls surrounding him.

"Bah….all gone to shit," he murmured. "Shit on a shit cracker…." He adjusted his jacket and stepped back from the dumpster. "Dent's going to kill me……heh….if only I wasn't so valuable to him." He shrugged to the air. "Oh well….I'll just get a new computer, trace those two hackers down, and send their home addresses Triangular's best wishes—" He turned around to jog off but ran right into Batman's growling face. "AAAH! Hare Ch-Christ! I-I mean, Jesus Kr-Krishna!"

"Make a habit out of talking to yourself, Fox?" Batman grunted.

Fox stumbled back, blinking…..twitching. "Whoah…..man….you're really tight in person!"

Batman's eyeslits narrowed. "Don't be an imbecile. Drop the act."

"Act?" Fox stepped back, limping with nervousness. "Ehheheheheheh…," he sweated and shakily shrugged. "What act?"

"Your immaturity only goes so far. I know you're a talented asset for Triangular. I'm here to discuss your…business practices."

"Triangle who?" William simpered. "Mr. Batman, please….I love what you do for the City and all, but picking on me? That's way low, man! There's this guy who goes to the Gothe Nightclub. His name's Ernie. Tax evasion up the god damn wazoo! Go pick on him! I'd pay to see that!"

SWOOOSH!-**GRIP!** Batman hoisted William up by the collar of his jacket.

"Looks like you need a little reeducation, you overgrown infant!"

"Hey!" Fox frowned. "Who're you calling _overgrown?_ WAAIE!" CLANG! He was tossed back against the dumpster, wincing.

Batman stood over him, pointing: "It was you who bridged Triangular's gap in secretly transporting Luthor's and Dagger's shipment of the thermal energy containers. You lived an affluent, extravagant life as your father's heir to the co-ownership of Wayne Corp's infrastructure. But that wasn't enough for you. You had a taste for the exotic and bold…so you dealt with the Gotham night scene. The _criminal_ Gotham night scene. And maybe it was Luthor that drew you in first. Or maybe Dagger. But at some point or another, Two-Face came into the picture. And you found yourself so hungrily engulfed in a bureaucratic enterprise of evil you couldn't pull out to save your filthy life! You decided to use your own father's connections to help out your criminal playmates while at the same time reaping the profits of a hacker's dream—access to the hugest criminal library of unauthorized information this world has ever seen."

"HEY!" William frowned and pointed with a shaking finger. "Seven hundred and fifty _thousand_ GIGABYTES of porn! That is not criminal…that's the ninth wonder of the world, my friend! SNKKKKT!"

Fox was suddenly at the receiving end of Batman's gloved fingers encircling his throat…threatening.

Batman sneered: "Because of you, half a million units of volatile, metaphysical thermal materials are hiding in the vaults of Wayne Corp. under random access codes, and my former partner may very well be a singed carcass."

"Oh y-yeah?" Fox hissed for air. Struggling to smile. "Good for him! Snkkktt!"

Batman's grip tightened. He spoke through clenched teeth: "You aren't even worth the mere seconds it'd take to choke you to death…."

"Oh….you ARE a hater!" Fox wheezed. "I've read up on how you love to beat up on poor defenseless brothers!……..or wait, is that _Green Arrow?"_

"I'm going to give you on the count of _five_ to tell me those codes and what Two-Face has guarding the vault inside Wayne Corp!"

"Seriously….Batman…..if you're s-so smart….," William B. Fox wheezed. "….don't you know that my buddies would be right behind me?"

"……..," Batman frowned.

Fox pulled out a remote…and clicked it. It beeped with a red, blinking signal.

Batman gritted his teeth and grabbed it, dropping Fox.

Fox gasped for breath…but soon was smiling.

Because….

_VRMMMM! _

_SCREEEEEECH!_

From around the corner, a black van pulled up. The sliding side door swung open and four henchmen along with two drivers pulled out, all armed with Tommy Guns.

Batman made a face and dove behind the dumpster.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

P-P-P-PING!

P-PING!

William shrieked and covered himself as bullets ricocheted down the alleyway past him.

Batman crouched behind the dumpster, shielding himself from the shower of lead.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

PING! PING!

CL-CLANG! PING!

The men cussed and hissed and moved in closer for a clearer shot.

"It's the Bat!"

"He finally showed his ugly face!"

"Waste him!"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Fox shouted above the gunfire and chaos. "Just…ehm…sh-shoot around me, boys!" And with a scampering breath, he crawled out on all fours and swiftly made his way towards the van past the gunfire.

Batman saw him. He swiftly grabbed a batarang, tied a black cord to it, spun it over his head, and launched it after Fox's figure like a fisherman casting a line.

_SWIIIISH-SLINK!_ The birdarang hooked through the back of William B. Fox's jacket.

"Augh!" he cried out as he jolted to a stop, the birdarang catching and holding him taut at the end of the cord.

Batman gave it some slack, looped a bundle of the cord over a metal fire escape's support beam, and yanked down hard on his end.

SWOOOOSH!

"YAAAAAK!" Fox was effectively hoisted up like the unlucky end of a pulley system. He dangled in open view of the gunfire blazing through the alleyway. He flinched and twitched all over.

The thugs grunted, shifted positions, and struggled to shoot around him at Batman.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

P-P-PING!

P-PING!

BLAM! BL-BLAM!

"GET ME DOWN FOR THE LOVE OF JOHN MADDEN!" Fox wailed.

Batman gritted his teeth and dangled the man between the waves of hot lead. "Tell me about the Wayne Corp. Vaults! It can't all be a digital process! Someone has to be there to receive the shipment! Posing as security guards! Employees! Tell me who!"

"I don't know! I work behind a desk, man! A pretty comfortable desk at that—until this morning, that is!"

"_WRONG ANSWER," _Batman snarled and yanked at the cord.

Fox swung side to side by his jacket. He yelped and shrieked.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

_SW-SWIIIISH! SWIIIIISSSSH!_ The bullets streamed past his twitching figure.

The thugs cussed in frustration, shifted their aim, and marched down the alleyway further to get close to the vigilante behind the strings.

"I'm not going to ask you again!" Batman hissed.

"Nnnngh! Hagan! It was Matt Hagan's job!"

Batman's lips parted. "Clayface? So he's the one representing Two-Face at Wayne Corp….." He jerked at the cord and growled: "Tell me how!"

Fox swung. A bullet or two ate through his pantlegs. _SN-SNIP!_ He gasped and shouted: "H-He's not there! But he had something t-to do with it! Something about 'Dagget's Formula Samples' or some shit! He was responsible for planning Two-Face's operation at Wayne Corp since his breakout from Arkham! Th-Th-That's all I know!"

"And where is Clayface now?"

"I don't know!" Fox shouted. He glanced with bulging eyes down at the thugs. He sweated and shouted: "You stupid yahoos! Stop firing at me already!"

"Shuddup, Fox!"

"Dent says you're expendable now!"

"WHAT?"

"Say your prayers….," a thug whipped out a grenade. "You AND the bat!" _Cl-Clink!_ He pulled the pin out of the grenade.

Fox whimpered.

Batman saw the explosive. He dropped the cord and shielded himself at the last second with his cape splashed over his upper body.

"AAAAH!—" _SPLAT!_ Fox landed hard on the alleyway floor. He was out cold….

"Fire in the hole!"

"Heh….one fried bat coming up!"

The thug tossed the grenade.

_Thwooosh!_

Batman peaked out from under his blast-shielding cape.

The grenade twirled, descended, and sailed towards the opposite end of the dumpster.

_Thw-Thw-Thw-Thw-Thw-THW-THW-THW-THW-THWISH! __**CLANK!**_

A nightarang sailed in from high above and collided with the grenade in mid-air. The explosive was knocked back across the alley.

Batman gasped.

The thugs shouted and ran back.

The grenade crashed through a window and ignited inside the building.

_**POWWWW!**_

The alleyway shook. Glass and dust and fiery debris billowed out from the shattered window.

In the amber light of the flickering flames, Nightwing glided down. His outfit was a little singed and his long black hair was believably frazzled. He landed, rolled, leapt over a mound of smoking debris, and pounced upon two thugs at once with meaty arms plowing.

"AAA—"

"DAA--!

_TH-THRUMP!_

He grounded the thugs and vaulted off.

The four other gunmen gasped and aimed their Thompsons at the hero.

Nightwing snarled and tossed another nightarang.

_SW-SW-SW-SWISH!_ The projectile sailed down the alleyway and landed with its sharp end plugging into the barrel of the first firearm to be triggered. _CLANK! __**CRACK!**_ The gunshot backfired and shattered the gun explosively in the man's twitching hands. He yelped and fell back, forcing another thug to collapse and roll across the ground.

The other two ran back and hid behind a fire escape, firing back all the while.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

Nightwing flinched. A thick, gloved hand grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back behind the dumpster before the whizzing bullets could rip him apart.

P-P-P-PING!

Nightwing panted for breath.

Batman frowned, bracing his back up against the dumpster besides him. "Never throw yourself into the open like that."

Nightwing smirked bitterly and gestured: "You're welcome."

P-PING!

CL-CL-CLANG!

Nightwing peered ever-so-cautiously around the edge of the swiss-cheesed dumpster to spot the villains' positions. "I barely escaped that site you flauntingly told me to investigate," he spotted one gunman scramble over with his gun to join the other two behind the fire escape steps. "I nearly got burned to ashes, but I managed to find out where Luthor's shipment arrived in Gotham….and where it was headed to next."

Batman nodded. He reached into his utility belt and grabbed a batarang and a handful of smoke pellets. "And I just found out that Clayface is indeed being employed by Triangular since his Arkham escape. He may be responsible for an insidious plot on Wayne Corp."

"Oh. Yeah. Great." Nightwing tossed his arms and spoke above the bulletfire and metallic collisions. "Great progress. Why don't you ask them if Two-Face is Harvey Dent while you're at it?"

_P-PING! CLANG!_

Batman quietly, hurriedly stuck a smoke pellet into each of the sharp points of the batarang.

Nightwing griped: "In the meantime, I got myself into another fine mess…_AGAIN_ cleaning up after **you**! Is this why Robin is so angsty as of late? Cuz you make him do all the hardcore stuff while you sit back and reap the research?"

Batman finished attaching the pellets and flicked the batarang to full extension.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_PING! P-PING!_

Nightwing's eyemask narrowed as he groaned at Batman: "Batman? Do you even care how screwed we are?"

Batman glared back at him, his throwing arm raised. "You talk too much…." He grunted and tossed the batarang with all of strength.

_Thw-Thw-Thw-Thw-THW-THW-THW-THW-THWOOOSH!_ The projectile with the smoke pellets attached boomeranged through the thin alleyway until it grazed up against the north wall and scraaaaaaaaaped along the brick. Sparks struck, and the grating metal projectile lost one smoke pellet after another. The tiny explosives fell in a cohesive, smoggy line effectively clouding up the position of the crooks behind the fire escape.

_PFFFFFFFFFFFFT!_

The gunmen gasped, coughed, and struggled for breath. They stopped firing and covered their mouths with frantic hands…limping all over the place. A split second later, and a dark figure burst out through the fog. Two of the gunmen looked up with watery, bloodshot eyes to see Batman's leather fists flying into their faces.

SWOOOOSH-SMACK!

_THOP!_

"Nnngh!"

"Ughhh….."

FL-FLOP!

The men fell down hard.

Batman spun around, a gas mask on.

The last thug wheezed, cocked his Tommy Gun, and aimed it point blanc at the Dark Knight.

"WHOAH!" the thug was suddenly lifted into the air from behind. Nightwing—also wearing a mask—wielded the man's body over his shoulders and tossed him violently into the fire escape.

CRACK! A metal support severed and a whole flight of rusted steps collapsed hard on the man, pinning him down. CRASH!

"Nnnngh….."

The smoke cleared.

Batman took off his mask.

Nightwing too. The nimble hero in black and blue took a deep breath and turned to face his former mentor. "Clayface? That doesn't make much sense. I know he's powerful, but how can a creep like that sneak in under Wayne Corp's noses by himself?"

"Fox said something about 'Dagget's formula'…," Batman said. "I don't think it's an escaped Clayface that we're dealing with as much as it is his essence."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"I'm not entirely sure, Nightwing. But there's one way to find out."

Nightwing blinked under his eyemask. He glanced around. "Say….speaking of which, where is that creep Fox anyways?"

Batman scowled. "Weren't you watching him?"

"Man! I thought you were!"

"…….."

"…….."

Both legends turned and looked down the alleyway.

The black van started with a jolt. Its engine purred. A bruised and weary William B. Fox sped down the alleyway and beyond conceivable view.

_VRMMMMMM!_

Nightwing ran a few futile steps towards him. "Nnnngh!" he kicked the wall. "Dammit! How the Hell can that guy's luck last out?"

"Never mind him…."

Nightwing spun around, eyebrow raised.

Batman was handcuffing one unconscious thug after another. "We've done enough research for a lifetime of chasing Triangular. It's time we take action….before Red Aviary does."

"Then that means….?"

Batman's eyeslits narrowed. "Come on. We're going **home**."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wayne Manor.

1:03 pm

West wing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………"

He sat on the side of a large bed in the center of an even larger room.

A very old, spacious room. A room that made the bed look like a lone egg in the center of a great sinkhole.

There were antiques lying all around. Juvenile antiques. Rocking horses. Toy soldiers and building blocks. Rubber balls and choo-choo trains. All sorts of happy little carpentry and wind-up gizmos that accentuated the room of a child.

The boy's back was to a tall stretch of windows, outside of which scraggly, barren branches swayed in the frosty breeze of late November. The wind howled and caused shadows to dance inside the dark, gothically lonely room.

"………."

He hug his knees, perched on the edge of the bed. He stared down into the shadows with a thin eyemask. His white training gi was worn out….wrinkled with dried sweat.

After a long silence, he sharply inhaled and looked up.

He squinted at the wall across from him and the bed.

A tall, antique portrait of immense proportions rested across from him.

It was an impressionist piece that depicted a lone archer with a green cap and a red feather in the middle of twisted, magical woods. A sharp, modernist representation of 'Robin Hood'. The archer aimed the arrow at some unknown target and posed in such a heroic manner for what seemed an eternity.

And the boy stared at it. Meditating. Resurfacing.

Floating…….

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two years ago…

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We should have a name," he said. _

"………_?" the dark girl looked at him. She raised an eyebrow beneath a chakra stone bejeweling her pale head. "A name?" _

_Robin nodded. "I get the sense there isn't much style and finesse in Azar where you're from……n-no offense." _

"_None taken at all." _

"_But if we're to have an established team in this dimension……we should have an established name." _

_Raven shrugged. She leaned back against a tree in the middle of a forest somewhere. A secret meeting place. The birth of legends. _

"_Don't look at me……," she murmured. "The only reason I'm willing to start this with you, Robin, is that I need enough people around me in case—" _

"_We already covered that, Raven," Robin curtly said. _

_Raven bit her lip. _

_He tried to smile. It came out as a weak thing: "Let's try to dwell on……something more promising, okay?" _

"……………'_kay," she murmured. _

_He stretched his arms over his head, took a breath, and paced across the woods. He came to a stop and paused in thought. He spun and faced her. His lips moved……he hesitated……thought again……then spoke: _

"_In Azar……did you get a chance to study mythology? That is……this world's mythology?" _

"_Yes. A little bit." _

"_Are you brushed up on Greek?" _

"………_kinda sorta." _

"_It's okay if you're not," Robin said. "Of what little I studied, much intrigued me……and much disinterested me all the same. There is as much sexuality as there is as much violence. A waste of time……a filler of time. It depends on your mood. It depends nowadays on your perspective." He turned and looked at her solidly. "But one thing that always bothered me dealt with the ascension of Zeus……the God of Mt. Olympus. I can understand his anger against his father—Cronus—for eating his siblings. But when he rose to power……he didn't just overthrow his father. He overthrew all of his father's brothers and sisters, in essence the ruling deities of the universe. And I often wondered what they did to have been deemed unworthy and cast out of the heavens, so to speak. There were twelve of them in all. The Titans. They ruled for such a small fraction of Greek mythological backstory, during which they embodied the earth, the harvest, and nature. And in a flash of cultural plot shifting, they end up on the bottom of the ladder. Cast to Tartarus or Hades or……some hole in the ground or ocean. I forget where. But what does it matter? The gods overthrew the Titans, and they brought humanity to the world. Passion. Emotion. Everything that consumed us then and consumes us now……" _

"_It's all mythology……," Raven droned. _

"_Is it only?" Robin remarked. "What part of us feels that……in spite of the way we are now and the way the system looks, there is more lying beneath the surface than our tiny selves want to relate?" _

"…………"

_Robin took a deep breath. He clenched his fists and spoke with fervor: "You have powers, Raven. You could flatten me in an instant." _

"_I wouldn't be so sure." _

"_Shhh……just listen to me for a second. P-Please……" _

"………"

"_There is a greater power, Raven, in each and every one of us. And I don't mean some humanistic self-esteem motivational crap. I mean……something that we can only tap with one hundred percent concentration. And dedication. And……commitment……" _

"_You mean to be more than human, Robin?" _

_He glared at her. "I am more than human, Raven. Somehow……I must prove that to myself. I'll dig deeper into my being than ever a person has dug before. I'll find that power. And I'll attribute every energy to it. And—at the risk of sounding forceful, I would be honored if you would do the same." _

"_I can't possibly share your form of meditation, Robin," Raven sighed. "Already I can sense that it is……self-destructive……" _

"_Then let me be the judge of that," he said. "I've destroyed myself before." _

_She squinted at him. "I'm afraid I……don't understand……" _

_He nodded. "That's fine. I don't expect you to understand. In fact, I would rather that you not try to. Or anyone for that matter." _

"…………"

_Robin leaned forward: "I want to make an agreement, Raven. A……A 'confidentiality agreement'. Whatever was once human in me is dead. All I am now to you……all I'll ever be on this team……is Robin." _

"_And all I'll ever be is Raven," the dark girl nodded. "You didn't need to coax that out of me." _

"_Right……" _

"_But if you and I are supposedly 'dead'……in all confidence……," she gestured, "……what does that make us in your opinion? Gods of justice?" _

_He shook his head. _

"_A god isn't good enough. Gods achieve praise. They work for egos……and not for supreme, resolute power. Not for nature……but rather for ideals. I'm no longer a hero of ideals, Raven. I left that in Gotham. I want to serve and become an essence. An absolute that criminals cannot shake, because there is no conceivable way for them to break the laws that bind their ineptitude under my merciless cape and cowl." _

"_You don't think that's godly?" _

"_No……," he shook his head. "I'm a Titan. And I won't bring this team into fruition……unless everyone is willing to be a Titan also……"_

"_How long do you think that will last?" _

"_Until the gods win out……but even then," he folded his arms. "My name……my essence……it will live on forever……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He sat in the room.

Taking a deep breath.

He hugged his knees tighter to his chest.

His masked eyes fell from the painting and back to the shadowed floor of the juvenile room.

The cold of November crept in.

The freezing afternoon.

He envisioned the chill of an ice skating rink.

The autumn night air wafting through a City Park.

The cold varnished wood of a bench beneath a lone lamplight….

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Starfire…..would it make you happy to know…….j-just to know that I am here?"_

"………_.."_

"_That I do exist? That there is nothing….nothing in the universe that would keep me from being split from you if I could so much as help it this very moment?"_

"_I…..I-I know that you would never forsake me, Robin…"_

"_But do you feel it, Starfire?"_

"_R-Robin?"_

"_Do you feel it, Starfire? Do you feel that I'm truly here? …………Do you feel me?"_

"_Robin…I-I………..It is n-not typical of you to speak in such emphatic fashion of 'feeling'…."_

"_I don't feel typical today, Starfire. And….I-I don't understand it. It's like I'm a whole 'nother person. Maybe I'm losing my mind. Maybe I never had my mind to begin with. I've spent so many years hammering myself into two completely different identities that I've found myself having to seek solace in some third, emotionless, cold identity. And for one moment last night…I caught a glimpse of what it means to be warm again. To be simple. To be honest and….sincere. I feel like I'm going to lose this glimpse very soon, Starfire. And I know that once I lose it…..I will see things clouded again. And I know I may be fine with that. But when I woke up from that dream of dreams last night….I wasn't thinking about myself. I wasn't even thinking about the girl. I was thinking about you, Starfire. You have a great need….a great need that is so obvious that….it's a tragedy that I keep pushing you away. And—to be honest—it's a tragedy that I keep holding myself back."_

"_Robin I…I….I can tell that you are far too vulnerable for your own good right now. This is not necessa—"_

"_Do you want to hug me, Star?"_

"………_Huh?"_

"_Do you want to hug me, Starfire?"_

"_Robin…hehehe…..y-you know very well that I am always hugging you as it is. What difference does it make now, silly?"_

"_Would you like to __**hold**__ me then?"_

"_H-Hold…..you? Robin……But….wh-what is the difference?"_

"_You know."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………."

The boy took a deep breath.

He bowed his head.

He slowly peeled his eyemask off.

A soft face hid in the shadows.

And when he gazed back up at the painting….

A stranger somewhere sniffed.

And he collapsed.

With his face in his hands.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Smallville, Kansas.

1:12 pm

Cornfield.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"LaSalle. It is only a name. But it is an important one nevertheless. For some inexplicable reason, it is the ultimate name in a list of numerous data strings all twisting together to point in one direction. And it is there that your child has been taken, Terra. Or at least, your child as we conceivably know 'it'. The partially formed fetus has been clinically labeled 'Gaia' for some archetypal reason. The last person it was in the hands of was Dr. Helga Jace, former Scandinavian scientific prodigy from Europe. Jace was employed by both Dagger and Lex Luthor as of late. But all of her experiments have been cut short of making the delivery of 'Gaia' to LaSalle. Both Jace and the path of Gaia end there from all of our research. We had someone to help us……to 'prod' us along, actually. A former….associate of mine. From H.I.V.E. Academy. But that doesn't matter. What's important is that this 'LaSalle' now has your child. And we can't any longer find this entity on our own accord. But we believe that you may be able to find it. You have…..a power, Terra. A power that fuses you to your 'unborn' child. That queer, golden-glowing sensation you said you felt the other night? That was us contacting you through another piece of your essence….that which was extracted from you at Area 51. In much the same way, 'Gaia' can draw you to it. Hence, the only way for you to find your child is for you to take up the hunting ground yourself. Through any other means, we are helpless. All of us. And the more time that passes by, the further away LaSalle is taking 'Gaia'. And the further he does that, the less likely it'll be for your child to be found. Maybe now you can see why we were so desperate to find you…..and why we resorted to what we had to in order to track you down. This is very important, Terra. But….I don't really think I need to tell you that….do I?"

Pulsade finished speaking, taking a deep breath. She gazed somberly at the blonde. In the meantime, Jinx stood besides the assassin…shifting nervously. Biting her lip.

"……..," Terra sat cross-legged in the earth. Between the rows of corn. She hugged herself and gazed into space with liquid blue eyes before slowly glancing up, brushing a fountain of golden hair out from her brow, and squinting as she murmured: "Dr. Helga Jace…….?"

Pulsade nodded. "Does that name seem familiar to you?"

"Well, yeah! But….," Terra breathed. She looked off towards the stalks of corn and exhaled. "N-Not just because of the whole Area 51 stuff. It's……something else….."

Jinx looked at Pulsade.

Pulsade took a breath and said: "Perhaps….because she was heavily involved in the history of Markovia?"

"M-Markovia…..," Terra murmured. She looked the girls' way, her mouth agape. "_THE_ Markovia?"

"The very same…."

"Don'tcha know you're royalty, girl?" Jinx nervously smiled.

Pulsade frowned and blindly elbowed her.

"Owchies! Pfft….meanie…."

"……..it all makes sense now…," Terra uttered.

"This is a lot to digest….I….I-I wish there were other circumstances under which we could share this with you," Pulsade said. "But bloody fate and all…..that just isn't the way the cookie crumbles…."

"I'm……a princess?" Terra blinked.

"Hehehe…yup!" Jinx smiled.

Pulsade glared.

Terra gulped. "I….never knew my mother. I mean….I _felt_ her…..like a strength resonating inside of me, but I never had much of a chance to see her while she was alive. But when I did…..I sensed there was something deeper than an average human being. I belonged to more than just her womb. She carried in herself a fiery-golden blood. It is something that I feel in my arteries too." She gasped and placed a hand over her lips. "M-My child….Gaia……it t-too carries this power. A….royal power…."

Pulsade bit her liip.

Jinx took a soft breath, walked over, knelt, and placed a gentle…brave hand on the blonde maiden's shoulder: "A lot of people have used you in the past. I think they wanted a bit of this power for themselves."

"Don't press it, love…..," Pulsade quietly growled.

Jinx barely gave the assassin a glance before earnestly continuing: "I've had people use me all my life. They've stripped my memory from me just to have their way with my powers. Dagger and Slade….they both took pieces of me like they took pieces of you. Though….I-I'd be lying if I said I went through the same as you. Anyways…..I-I think I can understand to some extent how…..angry and fearful you may be right now. But please, you can—"

"—trust you?" Terra frowned at Jinx. "Let me guess….I can trust you with my very own life?"

Jinx blushed. "Erhm…..let me phrase it carefully…"

"Nnngh!" Terra shoved Jinx back and jumped up to her feet. As her clenched fists shook, so did the soil right beneath them…ever so slightly. "You know an awful lot for two roguish girls hopping across country just to talk to me! You're sooooooo adamant about saving my unborn child, huh? 'Gaia' is what you call it? Did you name it yourselves? Or just steal it from Dr. Jace? Are you on some vengeful quest to seize her?"

"Terra—" Jinx stammered.

"Or do you want to stick it to Dagger and this mysterious LaSelle creep?"

"Terra, please—"

"What if I don't give a damn about who I am or what's going to happen to me?" Terra hissed. "I'm not much of a cutup hero myself, you know! Ooooh…let's have Terra join the nomadic ROGUES' GALLERY! Yes…she's just perfect for that sort of bitchy villainous crap! Who the Hell are you?"

Pulsade shoved Jinx aside, marched towards Terra, and growled: "Allright, you grotty sod! We're villains, got it? I'm a killer and little miss puss-in-boots here is a terrorist/former apprentice of Slade!"

"Leslie…don't—"

Pulsade silenced Jinx with a wave and spat at Terra: "This isn't the first time we got nearly close to 'seizing' your bloody arse! You know what our original plan was? To steal you in stone and lock you away somewhere so that Red Aviary wouldn't rip apart your useless, rubbish self and then take on the whole fabric of the working world along with you! But as it turns out, things slipped from our grasp! Noir got to you first….and now there are bigger buggers to fry than Red Aviary!"

"Like what?" Terra shouted. "Why do you want to track down my child so much?"

"Leslie, just let her—"

Pulsade yelled: "Because we don't want all of bloomin' Existence to end!"

Terra blinked, eyes wide.

Jinx winced.

Pulsade seethed, frowning in the earth maiden's face.

"…..," Terra's expression contorted. "Say what?"

"Don't bother asking, tramp….," Pulsade folded her arms and huffed with a glare. "You couldn't possibly understand. Even we don't understand. But as miserable and 'Rogues' Gallery' material as Jinx and I may be, we do happen to love this thing called life. And there are certain puzzle pieces….certain prophecies that interlock and point to….a black hole. An end to all things. Dark secrets hiding in the corners and turning out overlooked because they're even darker than the Red Aviary conspiracy itself. This is all a mask of things to come. The 'Gaia Sphere' is where the fate of the world….no….the fate of the _universe_ will be tested."

"Wait…wait…wait……," Terra waved her hands. "…..you're saying that I'm somehow tied into the fate of the universe?"

"Don't be gettin' a big head about it, lass….," Pulsade murmured.

"………," Terra smiled drunkenly. "What are you girls smoking?"

"It's not like that….," Jinx sighed. She looked at Pulsade. "I told you she wouldn't understand…."

"Right. Cheerio then," the assassin rolled her eyes. She turned around and waved towards the pink-haired sorceress. "Come, Jean. Let's blow…."

"Uhm….," Jinx fidgeted.

"You're leaving?" Terra asked.

"You wouldn't care."

"Don't use reverse psychology on me! It won't work!"

"And we're not! Leslie—" Jinx motioned to the blonde Briton. "Please….don't give up so soon…."

"You want to save the universe, Jean? You do so on your own. I wouldn't give a shag about it…."

"That's not true!" Jinx frowned and stood in Pulsade's face. "When I was down and out for the count thanks to that nerdy asian guy in Vegas, it was you who was minding the reins! Not me!"

Pulsade sighed. "Not this again…."

"And when 'J' and Wildebeest bottomed out on us, you still kept us on the right path! You didn't have us give up! Not with what you learned!"

"Jean, it's hopeless. It's—"

"Tell that to Hull!" Jinx hissed. Then, with a sarcastic twist: "Oh, I'm sorry….'Michael'."

Pulsade blinked.

"What? His words don't mean anything to you anymore? Feh….I guess mine won't either in due time!"

"Jean, that's not true…."

"Is it?" Jinx folded her arms and looked away from the assassin with a pout and upturned nose. "If this is how quickly you'll put down a firm ideal, then you'd might as well put me down too!"

Pulsade seethed with a hot, angry breath. "I do not….give up on things…."

"Then what are you doing now?"

"It is hopeless! You try convincing her! Quite frankly, I don't blame her for not believing us!" she looked over at the petite blonde. "After all, you've had it up to _here_ with rape, exploitation, angst, and Bob's your uncle!"

Terra blinked.

Jinx gripped Pulsade's arm fiercely.

And the assassin actually winced. "Ow…." She gave Jinx a hollow, surprised look.

The sorceress murmured bitterly: "I don't care what cards fate deals us. We've met nothing but roadblocks throughout counter-Red Aviary….and now that this is making us stumble, does that mean I'm going to give up?" She shook her head. "You promised me—Leslie—that you would help me find out everything that I had missed. Even if it meant finding Fate and Fortune….two sisters that don't even exist. When you told me that….in the shadows of my nights of sobbing and misery….I found something to believe in. It was a warmth that I've never given up on. I love you for it, even if I hate your freakin' guts with each waking second I collapse through life with you."

"……," Pulsade's lips parted. A soft breath murmured: "J-Jean?"

Jinx turned from her and glared at Terra. "We won't force you to work with us, Terra. But….please…._please_ consider it. But know this….regardless of what you decide to do, we will still deal with Gaia in our own way. No matter what. We will prevent this chaos in the long line of fateful, ambiguous calamities from occurring."

"I couldn't join you….," Terra shook her head.

Jinx took a sharp breath. "I wish you would."

"You're murderers….thieves…and _liars!"_

"You think we don't know that?" Jinx exclaimed. She took a bold step forward. "But we're changing! Or at least we're trying to! Haven't **you** ever had the urge to **redeem** yourself?"

"………..," Terra wrung her hands and glanced nervously aside.

"……………," Jinx sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Jean…..," a gentle hand rested on her shoulder.

The sorceress nearly flinched. She slowly gazed to her side.

Pulsade looked at her with soft, apologetic sapphires. "We….We _really_ should be going….."

"…………….I know," Jinx deigned.

Terra glanced up, biting her lip.

"Quickly…," Pulsade mumbled. She turned and walked down the row of corn with a slight glow to her limbs. "….before it's too late and—"

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWPPP!_

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

Supergirl burst out of the stalks of corn in full flight, plowing Pulsade over.

**THWOMP!**

"Ooof!" the assassin went sprawling.

Jinx gasped.

Terra jumped back, wide-eyed.

"Rrrrrrngh," Supergirl hovered, fists drawn. Teeth clenched. "I found you…."

"Leslie! Are you all right?"

"Nnngh….Jinx? Who's the bloody missile?"

SWOOSH! Supergirl spun around.

Jinx's cat eyes dilated. "Eep!"

_ZZZZAAAP!_ A pair of heat eyebeams shot at the sorceress' heels.

"AAACKIES!" Jinx hopped on one foot.

Supergirl stomped her foot down.

**WHAM!**

A mound of earth swam through the soil and exploded up beneath the witch.

Jinx fell on her butt. "Ooof!"

Pulsade stumbled up, absent-mindedly reaching for a side-arm.

SWOOOSH! **GRIP!** Supergirl wrapped her fingers around the assassin's throat and lifted the dangling human.

"Not a good idea….," the Girl of Steel—still soaked from the water tower—uttered angrily.

"Kara! W-Wait!" Terra waved.

"Snkkt….Y-You know this Kr-Kryptonian?" Pulsade wheezed.

"ARGOSIAN!" Supergirl barked. "That's the second time some scumbag got my race wrong!"

Jinx stumbled up to her feet. "Leslie!"

"Don't just st-stand there….do something for bloody mercy's sake!"

Jinx hissed and summoned two blades of hex out of her wrists. FL-FLASH! _CHIIING!_ "You put her down NOW!"

"Or what?" Supergirl glared at her. "You'll Declaration-of-Independence me to death? I know you thuggettes! You got into Noir's hair and that makes me want to kick your ass!"

"I'm warning you…."

"And here you are digging into this innocent young girl's skin! That makes me want to kick your ass even more! Then toss you into prison! Then visit you and kick your ass again!"

"Kara…p-please….just…..hold on for one second….put her down," Terra urged.

Supergirl looked at Terra, bug-eyed. "Put her down? Are you crazy?"

"That would be a smashing decision…."

"SHUT UP! I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU!"

"Please? Please put her down?" Jinx pouted.

"Let's not g-get hasty!" Terra stammered.

"Terra, what did these sleepover riff raffs do to you?"

"Jinx! I'm losing oxygen…"

"Ack! Um…..," Jinx bit her lip, flinched, and flung hex. "HAAAA!"

A streaking wave of pink flew.

Terra blinked.

FLASH! Suddenly…..Supergirl's white shirt ripped apart….from the top of the 'S' to the bottom.

The Argosian shrieked like a kindergartener, dropped Pulsade, and instantly covered herself. "Kela Almighty!"

Pulsade scrambled to her feet, twirled to Jinx's side, and nervously whipped out two uzzis which she aimed at the Girl of Steel. Upon noticing the alien's predicament, she faltered with a twisted expression. "Uhm…."

"Ooops….," Jinx sweatdropped.

"Brill, love…," Pulsade muttered with clenched teeth and half-glared over at her partner. "What in the devil's name made you do _that_ of all things? You know she can pulverize our heads to rubbish!"

Supergirl spat at Jinx: "Are you out of your mind, you salmon-headed bitch?"

"S-Sorry…," Jinx winced. Her cheeks went red. "Erhm…..It w-was the f-first thing I could think of…."

"……..," Pulsade blinked. She was silent.

"Nnngh!" Supergirl shivered in the cold farmland wind and hugged her arms before her chest even more. "I swear…as soon as I cover myself up, I am so shoving this cornfield up through your rectums and pulling it out of your throat!"

"Uh…."

"Huh?"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW I'LL DO IT BUT I WILL!"

"Ahem….," Terra coughed nervously and walked over to Supergirl. "Kara…allow me…" She undid her cape from behind.

"But honestly….," Pulsade raised an eyebrow. "No brassier?"

Jinx nodded. "Must be a Kryptonian thing."

"_ARGOSIAN!_ Terra, what are you—?"

"Here, Kara…..," the blonde undid the cape and hung it over Supergirl's front.

"THANK YOU!" The Girl of Steel fixed it to her and tied one end around her neck so that it acted like a halter top. "Okay…" She raised her fists and walked forward with the ghetto attire. "Who dies first?"

"Steady, Jinx…," Pulsade stepped back, uzzis aimed at ready.

Jinx kept her pink hex blades raised. "Uh huh."

"Just wait for a well timed breeze and run…"

"EVERYONE!" Terra jumped between them. "Stop!"

"….."

"….."

"….."

Terra took a deep breath, pushed some golden strands out from her brow and murmured: "Okay….just calm down. Kara, don't pulverize these two. N-Not yet."

"Why not? Isn't it obvious?" the Argosian glared. "They were the ones who ambushed those robbers at the Blue Pin Bowling Alley. In a way, _they_ set up the whole dangerous hostage situation and stand up to begin with."

"And we were watching over the event the whole time," Pulsade glared back.

"Yeah!" Jinx nodded and waved her pink-trailing energy blades. "I wasn't about to let anything fatal happen!"

"You expect me to believe that!"

"She's right though, Kara," Terra gently grasped the Girl of Steel's shoulders. "Nobody got seriously hurt in the end."

"Of course _you_ would know that, Miss Vigilante!" Supergirl barked at the earth maiden. "Nearly blowing your cover to Red Aviary by showing up and rocking the party out of its pants!"

"Look, I saved people! Okay?" Terra frowned.

"I wouldn't have let the bus squash those citizens—" Jinx began.

"SHUT UP!" "SHUT UP!" Supergirl and Terra both shouted.

Jinx winced.

"Is that what this is all about?" Pulsade remarked, her mouth ajar in realization. "Red Aviary? Supergirl, you're protecting Terra in hiding….aren't you? Did Noir set you up for that!"

"Ghost Boy!" Jinx gasped. "That stupid….fuzzhead genius!"

"Don't go that far, love…."

"Don't talk about him that way! You've nearly killed him on multiple occasions—"

"Hey! We're casual friends now!" Jinx frowned.

"Ohhhhh sure."

"Who are you, anyways? His girlfriend?"

"……," Supergirl blinked. "Okay. Now you die."

_Cl-Clak!_ Pulsade's uzzis cocked. "Wanna bet your eyes are invulnerable, _alien?"_

"EVERYONE!" Terra shouted, pumping gold-glowing fists.

_**RUMMMMMMMBBBBLE!**_

The other three girls wobbled where they stood.

They winced and looked Terra's way.

She frowned at them all in turn.

"….we….all….need….to talk……"

"Yeah?" Supergirl hissed. "What about?"

"My child…."

"What about my child?"

"They know where it is, okay? Or at least they might! But I need you to give them an ear, Kara!" Terra said loudly. She took a breath, calmed down, and said in a quieter tone. "At least…..just bear with them….I have. And….I-I think there's a whole point to this."

"………………..," Supergirl glared at the two.

Pulsade frowned, her fingers itching at the triggers of her guns.

Jinx simpered and cutely waved a pink hand…sweatdropping.

"……………….nnngh…," Supergirl lowered her fists. "Fine….FINE!"

Pulsade took a breath and lowered her guns.

"Whew….," Jinx murmured and limply 'hung' where she stood.

"But first….," Supergirl's eyes were thin. "I need a shirt."

"_And a bra…"_

"JEAN! SHUT THE BLOODY HELL UP!"

Terra simpered innocently.

Supergirl groaned and rested a hand over her face. "Jordan help me…..I'm going to regret this…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

1:22 pm

Bayside.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

They huddled under the wooden support stilts of the local boardwalk south of the Bayside Plaza. Under double shadows beneath the gray sky, they positioned themselves just aground of where the surf rolled onto the sand. Moist, motted wood with barnacles rested on either side of them in flanks.

Tempest was in the middle of speaking: "I figured it was Slade the moment I found that wyrd-ass, glowing red mask of his in the Bay. But what I'm trying to get at is how in Hades' name did _you_ figure out that Red Aviary was Slade?"

"It's based on a vision I had during meditation," Raven said. She gestured while talking: "I dug deep back into my past and explored one of the branching mindsets that invaded my subconscious. In this case, Noir's."

"And what does Noir's head have to do with Slade?"

"Just will you listen?"

Tempest folded his arms and sighed.

Lindsay stood between the a few feet off. She glanced at them both pensively.

Raven said: "I shared a long distance subconscious with Noir. It happens with everyone I come into deep, empathic contact with. You're a telepath. You should understand. It's like a long distance, diluted version of mental cohesion."

"Uh huh…."

"Ever since the Titans bore my personalities during Mumbo Jumbo's camera incident—before your time—I've had connections with each and every one of them. But…I-I can't just……._delve_ into their psyche whenever I want to. The only way I can access their minds with such a connection is on rare occasions in which mentally significant events register a large enough pulse for me to fixate on. And in that case—even—that requires intense, gambling meditation."

"And on this occasion, you just so happened upon a chance memory of Noir's…."

"I know it was Noir's," Raven said. "It dealt with when he killed Slade. There was a transference of _his_ consciousness into something else. Noir's powers even seem capable of some sort of….mental impression. And the only person at that time and place on that frigate it could have happened with was Slade. And in my vision, I saw two lives that I thought had been snuffed away. The first is Slade."

"Apparently so," Tempest nodded.

Raven swallowed. "And the second….is Robin."

Lindsay gasped.

"…..," Tempest's dark eyes narrowed. "Robin?"

Raven nodded.

"……you're telling me that you think—"

"Robin's alive?" Lindsay murmured.

"Think of it! There was no body found at the site of the explosion," Raven said. "And as much as evaporation can answer the problem, even still there are strange things popping up. I just today discovered at Phaser Labs that an unexplained anomaly took place at the Radioactive Depository coinciding with the carbonite explosion….yet conceivably independent of the fiery blast!"

Lindsay looked in shock at Tempest.

"……," Tempest took a deep breath. "But Raven….you _sensed_ that Robin was 'gone' the night that explosion ate him up. Are you going back on your word now?"

She shook her head. "Not at all."

"Then how can you friggin' explain Robin possibly being alive?"

"I can't!"

"Then what the Hell is the point of assuming something that's obvious?" Tempest cackled.

"Because of my vision, Garth!"

"Because of your vision…."

"Yes!" Raven exclaimed. She leaned forward and pointed: "Slade is alive. Against all odds, Noir's stabbing sword didn't end him. I sensed in that transfer a wave of Destruction and Rage SO TERRIFIC that it gave rise to something within Slade's carcass that wasn't in there before. Something that embodied the very Death that consumed it! Something…Something very much tied into Noir's powers….and his _past._"

"You don't say….."

"Garth," Lindsay frowned. "Don't be sarcastic with her, for goodness' sake!"

"What? I was just—"

"Listen to your girlfriend, Garth."

Tempest blushed.

Lindsay smiled proudly.

Raven cleared her throat and went on: "There is a lot about Noir we don't understand. Much of it, I've learned not to question. The last time I did….the Titans were hunting him down for reasons he was innocent of. I never wanted to make that mistake again. And for good cause, I admit. But at the same time, I blinded myself. All the Titans blinded themselves. We seized the peace that transpired after the supposed death of Slade and the defeat of Dagger. We went on 'vacation'. We focused our energies on trivial fiends like the Puppet King, Mad Mod, and Dr. Light. But all the while, something wicked was brewing. Something that used rage and murder and bloodlust as a darkly magical fuel. And trust me…._I know __**rage**__._ It holds a power beyond 'intense'. I think that Slade exists…but he exists not as what he originally was, but as something new. A reaper. Red Aviary."

"I'll agree with that," Tempest nodded. "But how does that support the idea of _Robin_ being alive?"

Raven hugged herself, stared down at the dark-gray surf, and sighed. "I don't know. I saw flashes and traces of him in my vision. Things that….that made me _feel_ that he was alive. But when I try to logically place it together, the best thing I can come up with is that…that…."

'What?"

Lindsay leaned forward too, curious….

Raven looked up at them once again. She said: "Robin was almost always on the forefront of Slade's mind. When he tortured the Titans…he had his eye set on Robin first. Even manipulating Terra was a means of getting to Robin."

"Terra is alive and in the flesh, Raven."

"…………..," Raven blinked.

"Noir got her out of…whatever prison she was in," Tempest said. "She's being kept somewhere. Somewhere….where he's almost unwilling to tell me and Princess Diana and J'onn."

"…….," Raven's lips parted. "Then it is true….."

"Did you sense this too?"

"Yes….but not from the vision."

"If Robin indeed is alive, then how does Terra fit into all of this?"

"Maybe because Slade's trying to kill them?" Lindsay remarked.

The two Titans glanced at her.

"…….."

"…….."

The freckled schoolgirl blushed and drifted back. "Er…s-sorry to butt in…"

"No, Lindsay…," Tempest rested a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "That makes a whole lot of sense." He blinked his dark eyes. "…….." He looked over at Raven. "Uhm…..d-doesn't it?"

"Slade wants to kill Robin….Slade wants to kill Terra…….," Raven's eyes were thin. But soon they gradually re-widened. "Slade wants to kill Noir! Noir is on the move! On the run! Supporting the other two and…a-and supporting us!" She looked brightly at the Atlantean. "Don't you see?"

"See what?"

"Red Aviary wants a clean sweep! He wants to eliminate the Titans one by one! Feeding off those whom his rage is attached to the most! Robin, the First Apprentice. Terra, the Second Apprentice…."

"Noir? The Third Apprentice?" Tempest raised an eyebrow. "But I thought Jinx was—"

"The explosion at the Omega Wing! Remember? The Messenger seemed always to hint that Red Aviary was behind that!"

"Poseidon above….," Tempest rubbed his temples with thin fingers. "Someone replace my aching brain with my gills…."

"And with the apprentices killed….Slade will consume the highest objects of his wrath…," Raven said. "And possessing Destruction….he'll take out the rest of the Titans—maybe even the rest of all heroic leagues this side of the hemisphere—in turn!"

"That's one Hell of an awful lot for one bad guy to do," Tempest uttered. "How can Slade be that powerful?"

"He isn't. Not yet. He's doing it covertly," Raven said. "Besides…he's having Triangular to give him cover!"

"The Parasite…..," Tempest hissed. "It's all coming together….."

"Garth….," Raven craned her neck. "Where has Noir gone now?"

"……….."

"If he went west to save Terra and if he went to Metropolis to investigate Luthor…that leaves one pole of the triangle left. He's gone to find Robin, hasn't he?"

"Raven…when Noir attacked Clark Ke—er….," Tempest sweatdropped and glanced aside.

"…..," Lindsay blinked innocently.

Tempest cleared his throat and started over: "When Noir attacked _you-know-who_, he did it—I am told—because he was desperate to find Batman. And Batman's been missing for weeks on end at Gotham. Noir demanded to know where the Dark Knight was so—"

"—he went directly to the source," Raven nodded. "With force."

"Undoubtedly Noir has gone to Gotham to seek Robin out, but that's a trail that's next to impossible to follow," the Atlatntean said. "No matter how many freakin' dirigibles burn to the ground."

"We've all been watching the news carefully at the Tower," Raven said. "Even with all our heads put together, we still can't make heads or tails out of where Noir could possibly be at."

"And with three Titans' heads being given the pushover….that's got to be pretty tough."

"…….," Raven blinked. She squinted: "Don't you mean _four?"_

"Do you seriously count Beast Boy?"

"Ah. Point well made."

"So what do we do?" Tempest shrugged. "Hell, what do you want _me_ to do? All I have is an ash-tray of a metal mask plate and all it does is glow red and keep me awake when I'm crashing in Princess Diana's tub."

"By yourself, I assume," Lindsay said.

"Yes, by myself—dah! What in the name of Poseidon is up with you, girl? Raven…did I miss some tsunami of jealousy since I last left Town?"

"What?" Lindsay planted her hands on her hips. "That's not—"

Raven raised a hand: "It's rather obvious that Noir's on his own, no matter what. But it doesn't mean he can't be….traced somewhat. And where he is, Robin is. And where Robin is…that's where the answer lies. Since Terra is hopelessly lost to us."

"And just how can anyone expect to follow Noir at this point?"

"………," Raven took a deep breath. "How indeed."

Silence.

Raven stood tall. "Thank you, Garth. But I have to go now."

Tempest did a double-take. "You do?"

"Mmmhmm," Raven nodded. She looked Lindsay's way. "Take care of him, will you?"

"Uhm….s-sure…."

"Make sure he doesn't spread word of this conversation. Or you yourself for that matter."

"You can trust me….," Lindsay smiled helplessly.

Tempest patted her shoulder and winked proudly. "You can trust her."

Raven half-bowed. "Very well. So long," she made to leave--

"Raven…."

"……," the dark girl stopped. She turned and looked.

The Atlantean looked at her somberly. "Aren't you……going to share all of these visions and hypotheses with the other Titans?"

"………."

"Well?"

"No, Garth," Raven shook her head. "I'm not."

He squinted his dark eyes. "Not even with Cyborg?"

"Not even with Cyborg."

"Why? What in the Pacific's name is keeping you?"

"The same thing that's keeping you from rejoining us, Garth."

"………."

"Do any of us need to describe it out loud? The rift?"

Garth sighed.

"Besides….," Raven glanced aside. "'Loose Lips Aid the Enemy'."

"Huh?"

"Something to an extent of a World War II propaganda slogan," Raven said. She took a deep breath and her lips curved somewhat. "It was….Robin who shared it with me."

"Sounds like him. What's it mean, though?"

"It means……the less we know about Red Aviary….the less Red Aviary knows about what exactly he's missing. Or at least…what he thinks he's missing."

"Raven, aren't you tired of all this beating-around-the-seakelp secrecy?"

"Absolutely," Raven nodded. "Which is why I must abide by it. Farewell."

And in a black energy pulse, she sunk into the sand…and teleported out of there.

Lindsay shuddered. "G-Garth?" she turned to look at the Atlantean.

"Hmmm?"

She took a deep breath and said: "If Raven's right…then that means Slade's alive…."

"Yes….it would appear that way….," the Atlantean hesitantly agreed.

She swallowed and uttered in a fearful voice: "H-Hasn't this City lived through enough terrors?"

"……..," he smiled and rested an arm around her shoulder. "But don't you see? If Raven's right, Lindsay…..then Robin is alive too….."

"………," she smiled weakly at that.

"Come on….no worries….," Tempest helped her up the shore towards drier sand. "….isn't there some 'Babel' written that tells you to put your faith in Dog?"

Lindsay giggled. "Ohhhhh Garth…..you're such a fish out of water…."

"…………'Babble'?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Hehehehehe………hey…I-I brought some things to eat. Why don't we go somewhere that's warmer?" _

"_Why not? I've been dying to talk to you. Might as well eat with you too."_

The voices of the two teenagers crackled in Cyborg's earpiece.

He lowered a pair of electronic binoculars and took the earpiece out. He juggled both in a titanium hand.

Silent.

"…………."

From where he stood atop a distant sand dune on the beach, he gazed sadly at the spot beneath the boardwalk. Slowly exhaling.

"………….," he turned and walked slowly away….being swallowed in the gray overcast light of the afternoon.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

3:47 pm

Wayne Manor.

East wing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SW-SWISH!_

Myrkblade swung through the air, dividing light flakes of frost as they flittered to the ground.

"……….," I stood out on a balcony in the cold, chilling air of November. I was clad only in my tattered black tanktop and tan fatigues. I flexed my new, black-gloved 'limb' of a left arm as I gripped Myrkblade with my right….stretched myself and twirled about….and meditated.

_SL-SL-SLASH!_ I sliced at the air and jabbed forward. _THWOOOSH!_

I paused.

My muscles tensed.

I kept the lunging position.

Focusing my aching muscles.

Meditating.

Billowing murk from my body.

"…….," I inhaled sharply.

I spun.

The broad face of the huge and luscious Manor flashed before my shaded, black optics.

I spun with a pulse of smoke, came to a stop, and balanced on one foot with Myrkblade pointed outward….my black left fingers guiding the wooden, obsidian-glossed blade.

After several straining seconds, I cascaded down into a forward lunge, cartwheeled, slashed widely at the air, spun, and came up with another one-foot-balanced pose.

I froze there.

Panting.

Shivering a little in the breeze.

I blinked…a little blinded by the glint of yellow Gotham sunlight off the white frost settling on the window sills and elevated balcony floor around me.

_It's my first winter in Gotham, Ana. _

_And will it bring a little more death than a normal solstice?_

"…………," I blinked.

Jericho stood before me. Peering out the opened, windowed doorway of the balcony. Watching me in mid-meditation.

But then the meditation stopped.

I stood straight, taking deep breaths. Regaining my composure. _Th-Thwish! CHIIING!_ I freed my flesh and fake hands and gestured: _'Hi'._

"………," he smiled nervously. Cutely. _'Hi,'_ his small hands said.

I swallowed. I looked around at the flakey, frosty weather. The gothic manor. The age old death of it all. I took a deep breath of the chill, then looked at him again…hand-signing:

'_We are in Batman's house.'_

He giggled breathily. _'Yeah'._

I smirked.

He smirked.

Silence.

My smile faded.

So did his.

"……….."

"………."

I cleared my throat. I gestured: _'I slept in. Or at least, I slept for as long as what I call 'sleeping in'. I needed to meditate. So Alfred showed me this balcony. God bless him. It's been a while for me.'_

Jericho nodded. He signed: _'Alfred is cool. Butlers are cool.'_

I nodded. _'Yeah……'_

'_Yeah…………'_

Silence.

He sighed. He gestured: _'I could not sleep.'_

'_Me neither,'_ I signed.

'_I am happy for what the Batman troupe is doing to check up on Triangular, but my father is still out there.'_

'_As long as Robin or I do not show our faces, I trust that Red Aviary will not be of great interference.'_

'_Somehow I do not believe that. I wish I could help them get more on track with things.'_

'_I would trust them,'_ I hand-signed. _'They know what they are doing. Batman especially.'_

'_But still……'_

I squinted at him through my shades. _'Joey, what is it do you know?'_

He bit his lip.

'_Do you have a smoking gun where your father is involved? If so, spit it out now.'_

'_I do not know how to defeat Red Aviary,'_ Jericho signed. _'I wanted to get this close to him to find out perhaps how.'_

'_Was that the only reason you hitched a ride inside of me?'_

"………"

I took a breath and strolled over towards him: _'Joey, there is something else. I know it. You have always felt responsible for Slade and what Slade did. I wish you would not. Slade may be a terrorist, but he obviously did not pass down an awful lot of his horrible side to you, to be honest.'_

'_I do not know.'_

'_I do,'_ I signed. _'And I am sure the others know too. You are innocent, Joey.'_

"………."

'_You do not need to be involved in this.'_

He looked up at me. His green eyes were sad…but all the same determined. _'I want to be involved. He is my father. If one of your parents was evil, you would want to intercede on their behalf too!'_

I hand-signed: _'For me, Joey, it is the other way around.'_

He made a face and mouthed: _'Huh?'_

I sighed. _'Never mind.'_ I knelt down to his level and gestured: _'Give me one good reason why you are here right now.'_

He looked at me with a frown and signed: _'Some of us have no choice but to follow where the scars lead us.'_

At reading that, I swallowed painfully. I fingered the 'X' on my neck in silence. "……." And then I gazed at the diagonal slash on the kid's throat. I tentatively fingered it.

He did not flinch. If he trembled, it was only because of the frosty air.

I drew my hand back and gestured: _'You told me long ago that your father gave you that scar. It makes sense now that I know your father is Slade.'_

He sighed. He lowered his eyes momentarily before raising his hands and gesturing: _'It was long before he was Slade. Long before he was Deathstroke. My father was just a careless man who took chances. Apparently, his aspirations meant more than I did to him. One gamble of his lost me my voice. My mother hid me away after that. She did not live long, due to unfortunate circumstances.'_

'_And you have been on your own ever since?'_

'_Not exactly……,'_ his hands lowered. He gazed off into space. A warm smile came to him. He looked back at me and hand-signed: _'……I had a good friend to look up too eventually.'_

I smirked. _'Wildebeest.'_

'_Yes.'_

'_Where is he now?'_

'_Secret.'_

'_Of course,'_ I stood up. _'What about the lesbians?'_

He looked at me confusedly.

"……." _Idiot. He's a pre-pubescent boy! _I hit myself and reiterated with a swift hand gesture: _'Jinx and Pulsade?'_

'_I learned of them after I began hacking. After I first caught wind of Red Aviary. We never planned to work together until weeks preceding the explosion at the Omega Wing in your City's Prison.'_

I nodded.

He signed: _'They have been okay company.'_

'_What did you see in them?'_

'_They kept to themselves.'_

I twitched. _'Yes, I imagine.'_

Silence.

I leaned my head to the side. I hand-signed: _'Did you always have your powers?'_

'_For as long as I could remember. But I never used them until after I became mute.'_

'_Did your mother know about them?'_

'_Yes. In fact, she trained me.'_

I nodded.

'_Did she ever teach you about not taking advantage of people with that power?'_

Jericho winced. _'Not again with that……'_

I frowned. _'I am serious.'_

'_Are you my big brother?'_

'_Possibly.'_

"………..," he blinked. _'What are you getting at?'_

I took a deep breath and smiled: _'When all of this nightmare is over, would you like to become a Teen Titan?'_

His lips parted. He leaned his head to the side: _'Do you mean it?'_

'_Would you rather sleep in Wildebeest caves all your life?'_

He seemed to be at odds to keep his hands steady enough to gesture: _'Do you even have the authority to grant me that?'_

"I should say so," uttered a voice from inside the manor.

The two of us turned to look.

Robin stepped out in full uniform. Cape, mask, utility belt and everything. He smiled as he strolled into the frosty atmosphere…dangerously exposing his soul to the visible Gotham 'spectrum'.

_How long had he been there 'reading' us? Dead son of a—_

"Noir is my number two, after all…," he walked over and slapped me on the back.

I simpered.

Jericho blinked curiously up at the Boy Wonder.

Robin folded his gloved arms and said: "'J' as a Teen Titan. Hmmm….well, you did leap into my and Noir's bodies without asking and nearly gave us hangovers….."

Jericho winced.

"But if I can forgive a certain _someone…," _he 'glared' at me playfully "…for long ago putting on a Slade apprentice outfit, goggles, and royally beating the Hell out of me and my teammates…..then I'm sure I can forgive someone for renting my brain for a night or two." He leaned forward and smiled at the little blonde. "You would be more than welcome at the Tower, Jericho. In fact…as an honorary Titan-in-training…..I think it would be beneficial of you to help us…."

Jericho pointed at himself and mouthed: 'me'?

"Why not?" he stood up. "You manage to wrangle your way into every other situation!" He smirked at me, eyemask thin.

"……..," I gawked at him.

_Who are you and what have you done to Robin?_

I glanced at Jericho. The body-jumper was standing in perfect visibility there a few steps _away_ from Robin.

"Noir….."

"……"

"_Jordan……"_

I looked up at the Boy Wonder.

He took a deep breath. "He won't be the only one…..returning to Titans' Tower when all of this is over, will he?"

"………"

Robin took a deep breath and clumsily hand-signed: _'Chicken meander over again happily swaying.'_

"……," I smirked. I mouthed: _'Just __**say it**__, man.'_

He rolled a pair of invisible eyes under his mask and said: "What I mean is…..it's time for the Boy Wonder to be reborn. But this miracle's not gonna happen alone."

"……..," I smiled.

_Awww Hell yeah._

"Come on…," he motioned Jericho and I along. "We've got a meeting….underground.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Batcave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

It felt like the night before the Normandy Invasion….

….for some reason….

"We know this….," Batman spoke to the troupe en masse. "…there is a seed planted by Triangular in Wayne Corp. At the same time, the shipment of Terra's thermal essences is there. We must seize it at all costs. Combined, those vials will produce an army that even the Justice League couldn't handle on their own. We do not want that to fall permanently in either Dagger's or Two-Face's hands."

We stood about in a crescent around the Bat-Computer in the BatCave. Barbara sat in her computer chair. Alfred stood beside her. Nightwing leaned against a rack of tools and weapons. Jericho sat with his legs dangling on a counter's edge. Robin and I stood side by side near the shadows.

Batman spoke on: "This is an effort that will require all of our combined strength. I would love to go it alone, but—"

"Save it," Nightwing smirked.

Barbara giggled.

"Very well then," Batman grumbled momentarily before facing Robin. "Tim….the soonest you and Noir show yourselves to the Gotham cityscape—"

"Red Aviary may very well spot us," Robin nodded. "Yes, Bruce. We know."

"I do not want to put you in that predicament. But at the same time—"

Robin raised a hand: "Batman…..you're responsible for your 'troupe'. Let me be responsible for my own team as well."

"Your _team?_" Nightwing made a face.

Robin smirked and hugged an arm around my shoulder.

I grinned and did the same to him.

Jericho leaned in and all three of us waved.

"Oh brother….," Nightwing rolled his masked eyes.

Alfred smirked: "And to think I was making them breakfast just this morning. Ah….how they grow up."

"Thank you, Alfred…," Robin cleared his throat, broke our embrace, and brushed himself off.

Jericho giggled breathily.

Dick's finger pointed at the little blonde: "Him. It's him I'm worried about."

Jericho blinked.

"What about him?" Barbara remarked.

"Master Dick has a point," Alfred gestured. "He is a tad bit young for this sort of endeavor."

"No younger than I was when I started," Robin folded his arms and smirked.

"Well, if you aren't just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!" Nightwing remarked to the Boy Wonder. "I think something with this cabin fever has made you delirious. You realize the danger of what's going to happen?"

"Absolutely."

"Then why are you willing to go through with it again? Why risk your neck over Red Aviary when we can do so for you? As adults?"

"Don't we all have to grow up?" Robin said. "I left this mansion two years ago to become something more than human. All I found was death. I've been given a second chance, and I'll be damned if the only part of me that returns is only half of what I could be…." Robin took a deep breath. "…..only half of what I should be."

"I beg your pardon?"

"…..," I glanced at Robin.

The Boy Wonder's face was straight. He calmly uttered: "I am…..starting to realize what I have missed by trying to be something that only robbed me of myself. Most of all…..I'm finding things being left behind that I never opened my eyes to before. I've had this….this mask on for too damned long."

"And it's still on your face, sunshine."

"Yeah, Dick? Well, maybe because that's what Red Aviary sees in me. The only thing he sees in me. And if that's what he wants to see, so be it. I'm not letting Tim through for him to massacre as well. I'm not shedding hero until all of this madness is done for. After all….it's that innocent little person I'm fighting for…..as well as…..those left alone in my Tower who….who miss what they never got to see in him."

I smiled proudly.

"……..," Nightwing nodded. "Uh huh." A beat. He looked at Batman. "So what's the plan again, Bruce?"

"We'll be staging an attack on my own business."

"Oh boy."

"Covert to the last second. A team effort. We'll rely on Noir's stealth for some of that."

I nodded.

"Nightwing and I can slip in after him," Robin added. "We're agile enough."

"I get it….," Nightwing nodded. "But we'll need a communication branch for so many people." He looked over. "Jeeves?"

Alfred bowed. "I would be delighted to take the computer controls…" He stood up and glared. "_Without_ the annoying pet names, thank you very much."

Nightwing rested his arms behind his head and smirked.

"Batgirl," Batman looked over. "Fox mentioned encryption codes randomized at the vault. We'll need to break into that. I'll be needing…..the 'Oracle's' expertise in that area."

Barbara smiled and proudly rubbed her hands together. "Absolutely."

"Ever considered switching job careers?" Nightwing smirked.

Barbara stuck her tongue out at him. "Ever thought of switching pant sizes?"

"Supposedly Clayface is at work at the vaults as well," Batman said. "I'll be there to see whatever threat that might bring up. I've dealt with Clayface before. Whatever tricks he may have up his sleeve—vicariously or not—we'll be ready for him."

"…..," I nervously glanced over at Robin.

He took a deep breath. A frown and a chill alighted his figure at once, but he seemed strong enough to brave it. _Hell, he just looks 'strong' all over. Damn……what dreams in the darkness have summoned this mood swing now?_

"And what of the lil squirt?"

"Who?" Barbara blinked. "Tim?"

"No. Jericho."

Barbara giggled.

Robin shook his head.

Batman looked over.

Jericho looked back….curious.

"With your permission, Robin….I have the perfect plan for his talents."

"I'll be all ears," Robin said. "Provided that Jericho is all spirits."

The boy smiled hopefully.

"Guess that covers us," Nightwing said.

"Except for Red Aviary….," Barbara said. "What if Deathstroke should eventually poke his head in? He _is_ the Parasite of Triangular after all…and this is going to be Triangular's home turf."

I hand-gestured in front of everyone: _'I will be the 'beacon'. If Red Aviary comes, put me in the front line.'_

"Are you serious?" Nightwing said.

I nodded. _'He is using the spectrum. Bastardized spectrum, yes. But I am most equipped to meet him.'_ I took a shuddering breath. _'I will need backup, of course.'_

Robin patted my shoulder: "And you sure as heck got it."

Jericho nodded.

"Guess this will be Noir's chance to redeem himself," Nightwing said.

"How do you mean?"

"What…with the infamy he's built for himself after Metropolis and all…."

I sighed at the reoccurrence of that reality. I stared downward.

_Yeah. _

_Vigilante 'rogue'._

"What infamy are you talking about, Nightwing?" Batman said.

Nightwing gazed stupidly at the Dark Knight. "Uhmmm…."

"I have photographic evidence here….," Batman spoke in a heavily scripted voice as he wandered over to the computer, leaned over Barbara, and brought up a set of pictures with a keystroke. "….evidence that clearly shows that Noir—the dark Teen Titan—was under the mental influence of the Mad Hatter during his turbulent escapades in Vegas and Metropolis…."

Robin's and my jaws dropped. A set of obviously photoshopped images splashed across the screen of a Mad Hatter 'lair' and articles of mind control set to my coordinates.

Barbara suppressed a smile: "Yes…..quite convincing. This will….give my daddy and Maggie Sawyer all the evidence they need to acquit Noir…."

"Uh….right…," Nightwing cleared his voice with comical fakeness and nodded. "…after all….Noir is a perfect angel…."

"…….," I gazed dumbfounded at Batman.

"……..," He gazed back at me. "Did you have a question, Noir?"

He wasn't dropping the 'act'. That holy cape and cowl…

I hand-signed: _'Is that like a legitimate detective to do?'_

He stared back at me. He answered verbally: "A noble lie. After all….it's not legitimate for a hero framed for things he didn't do….to remain so, is it?"

"…………."

Barbara leaned over and whispered hoarsely at me: "Pssst….thank you, Batman."

I snapped out of it. With a numb hand and black prosthetic I gestured: _'Thank you, Batman.'_

"You have nothing to thank me for…," and with a wave of his cape he walked past me as if no conversation had begun. "Okay. We move out in ten minutes! No delay!"

"……..," I stood there. Numb. Black eyes blinking. I flexed my highly expensive, black 'glove' of a left limb before my eyes as Batman's last words resonated echoingly in my mental ears.

_All of this……absolutely all of it…… _

_I have never felt so respected in my entire life._

"Congratulations, Noir….," Tim whispered proudly to me. "For finishing the Contract."

I took a deep breath. A sudden warmth washed over me. I smiled and gripped Myrkblade's hilt tightly.

_What the Hell are we waiting for?_

CHIIIIING!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

7:02 pm

Downtown skyline.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

The skyscrapers.

The rooftops….the rooftops…..the rooftops…..

Night fell.

The sky bled from amber to red.

Searchlights illuminated the towering structures all about as window-speck lights started to glow one by one.

Atop a thirty-story summit, a grappling hook attached.

Batman climbed up, silhouetted against the crimson cosmos.

He squinted his eyeslits off into the horizon, turned, and motioned along.

Nightwing flipped, leapt, and perched beside him.

He stood tall….nimble.

He said something to Batman above the rush of the cold, frosty wind.

Batman nodded.

Batgirl swung and landed, adding a comment.

Nightwing replied.

The redhead adjusted her map, cape, and spoke one last thing.

Then Robin glided in and landed besides the three previous silhouettes.

And shortly behind him…trailing like a second cape…I alighted the rooftop in a billowing, black haze.

Batman said something to Robin and I.

The Boy Wonder nodded.

He gestured to me.

I smirked and saluted.

Batman pointed out towards the towering Wayne Corp building in the distance. He pointed out his grappling hook….fired….and swung off.

Batgirl and Robin fired and swung off in similar step.

Nightwing extended the 'flaps' built beneath his suit's arms and glided after them.

Finally, I twirled Myrkblade and blurred down the buildingside in pursuit.

And in such coordination, the five of us heroes rushed towards the inevitable showdown.


	232. A Hard Act to Follow part 17

**232. A Hard Act to Follow part 17**

November 30, 2004.

Titan's City.

3:57 pm

Bayside Plaza.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Mmmmmm…..mmmm….," Tempest hummed with mouthfuls of seafood pasta. He forked through his plate and swallowed and nodded: "Definitely Upper Gulf Stream. Above-Trench schools. Only….with a few gazillion surface-dweller synthetic preservatives bucketed sloppily over it, but hey….I'm not about to complain. Beneath all of it is a lovely taste of home."

"Hehehe…," Lindsay leaned her chin on her hand and smiled at him from across the table on the shadowed edge of the Bayside Plaza. "My….you certainly _have been hungry_ today."

"Don't mind me," the Atlantean shrugged and forked through the leftover scraps of the pasta. He was clad in a jacket and a pair of sunglasses that Lindsay provided over his wetsuited figure as a meager, last-minute disguise in the gray shadows. "Skimming the seaboard and making like a torpedo through the cold Atlantic to get here kinda sorta takes a lot of calories out of me."

"S-Sorry…."

"Nothing in Zeus' name to be sorry for! Besides…," he raised the shades momentarily and winked a white on black eye at her. "…whoever thought Princess Diana was a good cook was screwing his mental self. Wonder Woman's too busy to fill in that stereotype. It was lasagna t.v. dinners everyday at her place."

"Hey! Lasagna is good!"

"Sheesh! So much cheese! What is it with surface dwellers and milk byproducts?"

Lindsay shrugged. "A mammalian thing, I guess."

"Heh….I hear that…..," Tempest nodded. He ate. He chewed. He swallowed. He paused. "………." He gazed thoughtfully at Lindsay.

"………," Lindsay was staring to the side. Breathing gently to herself. Mellow.

"……….," Tempest placed his utensil down and pushed his tray aside. He leaned forward: "Of course….tasty fish is the last thing I've been missing."

She smirked. "I don't expect you to try and make me feel better…."

"Why do you need to be 'made' to feel better to begin with?" Tempest leaned his head to the side. "Lindsay, do forgive me. I feel like an utter blowhole. Which is besides the point," he gestured. "What I mean to say is….I feel like I'm missing something."

"I've enjoyed b-being able to talk to you again over the last few hours…."

"So have I," Tempest nodded. "After Raven left, I felt like the Poseidon-forsaken continent sprouted flowers again. What's wrong?"

"When we're done meeting today…," Lindsay murmured. She hugged her far shoulder and gazed pensively aside. "…..y-you'll be going back to Metropolis, won't you?"

"…………that was kinda sorta the plan."

"Why, Garth?"

"The Justice League is going through some major changes right now. It's obvious by now that I've been a major player in their circumstances lately. They trust me now. They need my input as they try to reintegrate Diana and J'onn back into the group while working a bunch of the kinks out. Red Aviary needs to be addressed. And it looks like Mr. Irons may actually be joining the group…especially since the Batman has been absent lately and—"

His voice lingered at the sight of Lindsay. A sad, sighing sight.

He bit his lip and said: "B-But none of that really matters…."

"Does it?" she looked at him. "This whole Slade-Returning stuff sounds really serious. The Justice League needs you, Garth."

"……………..yeah…..they do….," he nodded. He took a deep breath. He said: "But looks like I'm needed elsewhere more…."

Lindsay shook her head. "What do I know?" she brushed a lock of stringy brown hair up over an ear and exhaled. "I'm just like any other citizen of this City. I'm your average schoolgirl. I work at a diner and go to church two to three times a week. This isn't my subject area to dictate in…"

"Isn't it?"

She looked at him. "Garth…don't you think a League full of superheroes is enough to take care of Metropolis?"

"They're fractured, Lindsay. They're trying to form themselves back together while—as Raven believes—a certain apocalyptic fiend may be ripping 'morals' asunder in Gotham City. A bridge needs to be made across this proverbial gap of heroism. They need someone with smarts about this whole crappy scenario. That fish happens to me, funnily enough."

"I know…but…."

"But what, Lindsay? Please…I want to know…"

"It's so selfish of me," she uttered, shaking her head with a hand over her face. "So very selfish…"

He smiled. "I can do 'selfish'."

"……..," she looked up at him. "….don't you think this City needs you too?"

"………."

"The media's afraid to talk about it. People at school avoid the subject. But….the Titans are worse off than the Justice League. It's….It's so sad. It feels like November Fourth never ended, Garth. The same gray, cloudy sorrow has persisted from the beginning to now. We need help. We need all the help we can get."

"Lindsay…..," he breathed. "I…."

"But again, I don't know anything about what's really going on. It's just hard. It's just—"

"I wish I knew what it was like in this City," Tempest murmured. "Over the last month. The last few weeks." He looked sadly at her. His black eyes were thin. "Face it, I didn't leave the Titans because I was trying to go on some all-important quest to figure out some mystery behind the Red Reaper and what not. I left because…..because I was a coward. And because I was fed up with the Titans and their sorrow."

"Garth, th-that's not true!" she gasped.

He softly smiled and raised a finger: "J-Just…Just bear with me for a moment…."

"………"

He took a deep breath and said: "When I was banished from the seas, my last hope—however fleeting—was in the surface world. And as if it isn't obvious enough already, Atlanteans don't hold too favorable an opinion of…." He winced as he tried to find a way to put it: "…..the upper dust wasteland."

Lindsay blinked at that.

"Ahem….," he went on. "The Titans gave me a second chance. And I grabbed it. When Robin died, I was hurt. But not so severely as them. I didn't expect to survive long enough to see his career come to an end anyways. Much less my own. What really sank the knife in was Cyborg's attitude and Raven's indifference about the way things should be handled from there on out. I knew that we were just sitting around, sulking in sorrow over Robin's death. I knew that this 'Terra' needed to be saved from Dagger at all costs. _Noir_ knew that Terra needed to be saved. He couldn't say anything about it. I could. And I mouthed off vehemently. It wasn't a good thing to do. And I hurt from it. I hurt more than from Robin's death. Because being treated so coldly by the Titans told me that something far more permanent than flesh and blood had perished in this dry, gray land. I couldn't stay here for long, Lindsay. Not while that grayness persisted. Not while everything was still dry and….lifeless. I had to get my fins damp. The dampest I could get them. I had to go out and seek answers. And indeed I went out. But all I found were more questions. But at least _that_ pushed me in a good direction. And now with Noir's propulsion throughout Gotham City and Raven's coming-about…..well……things are just _now_ starting to look up. I guess….I guess I wish you could see that, Lindsay. But at the same time….I wish I could see sorrow. I wish I could see true sorrow. Sorrow as _you have known it._ As the Titans and everyone else in this City has known it. And maybe I will yet. I just….I just have to keep moving for the time being. Because I believe that this is not a war to be fought in one place…but constantly on the go. And…..yeah. It hurts. It hurts only being able to see your face….on paper or in my head or both. Only being able to touch you through the stroke of a pen…yeah, that sucks like calamari. I hoped that meeting you in person could solace some of that. But….heh….leave it to a male guppy to expect solutions to be so……simple."

Silence.

He looked at her. "I can't stay here, Lindsay. Not now. If there's any painfully valuable thing the Titans have taught me, it's that doing exactly what you don't want to do is often for the best. I don't think Noir ever wanted to leave himself. I don't think he wanted to become the framed brunt of media's attacks after the misunderstanding in Metropolis with Metallo and the League. I don't think he wanted any of that crap to hit his proverbial fan. But he's endured all of it for the best. And things are coming together. They all are. I've looked at Noir with admiration for that. And now I look at myself. I look at the distance I've kept from you…the distance I still feel I need to keep from this City to cross the Red gap….and I have to tell myself it's for the best. But…..But it's even tougher to try to tell you that. Cuz so much as looking at you….hearing your voice….smelling your silly scent……..it makes me want to sit down and cry for reasons even Robin's 'death' can't explain."

More silence.

He absent-mindedly picked a little more at his pasta and stared past it with a sigh. "Gee….I'm good with words….aren't I?"

"…..," Lindsay exhaled through her nostrils and gazed off to the side. She was frozen like that for a while. Then there was movement in the corner of her eyes. A body moved over. And then a pair of lean arms were hugging her from behind. Gently. She strongly inhaled.

"…….," Tempest leaned his chin on her shoulder from behind. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Lindsay. The best thing I can do…the most permanent thing I can do now…….is this……"

She bit her lip and closed a pair of moist eyes. A hand reached up and rested over one of his wrists. "'This' is….g-good……"

He shut his dark eyes and gently kissed her ear through a gentle flow of hair. He breathed: "Could we at least have the leisure of giving death a 'holiday'…."

She managed a weak smile. "I've always been under the pretense that Life will eternally defeat Death someday…."

"Hmmm….," his lips curved gently. "You ought to teach me to sing to that tune someday."

"Then maybe you'll come to church with me soon?"

"Ahem….one step at a time, diner girl."

"Hehehehe…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

5:43 pm

Hideout.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A coin flipped through the air of a run-down office room before landing in the palm of a gnarled, blue hand.

Two-Face's fingers clenched around the object.

A twisted face twisted twice over as a mutated eye glared at a miniature viewscreen.

"Things are boiling down on us, Lex," Two-Face hoarsely uttered. "When the zeppelin fell, it took with it a good number of the Terrible Troupe….most of which was the Parasite's doing. But it cost me a good number of men too. I'm worn thin. And I've had to make things go slowly, especially now that the Bat has finally showed his face again. Just as I suspected…he's been turtling in the belfry this whole time. Watching like a hawk. I wouldn't be surprised if he knows that we have the good stuff in the Wayne Corp. vaults."

"_Mr. Dent, you did employ Hagan's talents, did you not?"_ Luthor leaned forward on the monitor's display and uttered. _"If you're short of men, his help will be priceless."_

"You think I don't know that, baldy?" Two-Face contemptuously growled. "Yeah….Clayface was helpful with his formula samples. The infiltration of Wayne Corp. went off without a hitch. But don't think that it'll stop there. Right now we're poised to begin the final phase of the shipment."

"_What exactly are you waiting for?"_

"Dagger's prerogative," Two-Face said. He flipped his coin while talking: "You know how it is. The Parasite moves….Triangular moves. Dagger's got the best gauge for when that Red Streaker's moving around again. And lately, he's been rather dormant. Rumor's out that some major targets of the Parasite's are combining together inside of Gotham City and that's what got him all brooding and crap."

"_Hmm……lucky for me that the spotlight's off Metropolis."_

"Heh….yeah, Lex," Two-Face clutched his coin and glared. "Luckyyyy…..," he hissed.

"_Besides the men Hagan 'trained',"_ Luthor's eyes narrowed. _"What kind of security are we talking about in regards to the goods?"_

"I lost the Ventriloquist to the Parasite the other day…."

"_How unfortunate. Another psychopath bites the dust. Why am I surprised?"_

"Shut your trap. I've got the Croc."

"_That oversized lizard won't be enough to stop either Red Aviary or any surprise counter-attack by the League. You know that."_

"Then what do you suggest?"

"_I'm sending you my best man,"_ Luthor's lips curved. _"He's strong enough to pulverize an army, much less a few darkly-caped fledglings. You can thank me later."_

"Right….."

"_What about Hagan himself?"_ Luthor asked. _"Have you heard from him lately?"_

"Never stopped talking to him since he flew from Arkham," Two-Face said. "Don't you worry your pretty face about that."

"_How reassuring. Well……I would say 'Godspeed', but I sincerely doubt he is on our side."_

"Luthor, when all of this is over, we will not know a greater freedom."

"_Is that what Dagger told you?"_

"It's what I **feel** numbnuts."

"_Poetic to the last. Don't call me again unless someone important dies again."_

"Right. Get off my screen."

**Blip!**

"Nnnnrgh….," Two-Face flipped his coin a few times, glaring at the empty monitor. "……." He paused. He glanced quietly across the room.

Flanked by two mean-looking thugs with pistols, William B. Fox sat disheveled and frazzled on a beat-up, leather couch.

"So…..are you two still bosom buddies or--?"

"Shut up, you pathetic infant!" Two-Face growled. He pushed his chair back, stood up, and paced across the room in his suit. The coin flipped and sang through the air as he talked: "If it wasn't for you, I'd be free of any Bat-humping goody-goods!"

Fox smirked. "If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be manhandling Wayne Corp. so easily to begin with!"

Two-Face stopped in his tracks. He glared down at Fox. He pointed a gnarled hand and growled: "You watch it, punk. I could off you in a freakin' second!"

"And you won't because….?"

"Your father's too rich. I'd much rather dump the Gotham River into your carcass than give him a reason to hunt me and the rest of Triangular down!"

"How quaint," Fox leaned back with his arms behind his back. "Gotta face it, Harvey. I'm not all that bad. I was the only person to drive away free from Batman and Nightwing's caper in the alleyway. Right?"

"Cuz you're the only one of my rescue team to have urinated in his britches and fled from the heat of battle? Don't insult me…"

"Feh."

Two-Face stood before a boarded window and stared out at the darkening urban landscape of Gotham City. He sighed against the gentle flow of frosty cold air. His coin flipped. His mutated eye lowered its lid. "If what the Oracle found out from your computer files what I think was found out, we could be running into trouble this very night. Word travels fast in Gotham. Even in the old school style. Ya know…" He turned and curled a half-blue lip. "Word of _mouth._"

"I only saw Batman and Nightwing. Who else could possibly be on their side? Assuming they survived that scuffle in the alleyway…."

"They did….," Two-Face pointed. "And anyone could be on their side. From the Justice League to the Titans to Entrigan to the Creeper. Were you born yesterday in this City or is your face just stupid?"

William examined his nails and smirked: "Hmm…I dunno…can I take the Physical Challenge?"

_Cl-Clak!_

"……," William blinked. The barrel of a pistol rested between his eyes. "Then again…."

"Nnnngh….," Two-Face growled. "What say I send your brain to the digital airwaves…._permanently_, hacker?"

Fox gulped.

From the distance, a cold voice throated: "The fools are the worst ones to exterminate, Dent."

"……..," Two-Face lowered his pistol.

Fox nervously glanced over.

Dagger emerged from the shadows, twirling a knife in his hand. He stared coldly at the bunch in the office and uttered: "They're the most reliable at times. Always ones to fall back on and give commands to. You know this."

"I don't need a lecture, Dagger….," Two-Face holstered his pistol and muttered. "I just kicked Luthor off the videophone. Why don't you give my faces something less stressful to talk to?"

"Keep your priorities straight," Dagger said, his brow furrowing but his eyes remaining icily firm. "Things are coming to a heated climax tonight."

Fox blinked. "T-Tonight?"

"The Bat….," Two-Face's fists clenched. "I knew it! He's onto us!"

"It's bigger than that…," Dagger said.

"Red Aviary?"

"No….and I've seen to that."

"How?"

The cold man twirled his blade to a stop and gripped the handle. "I've kept things in…..perspective. I don't think it'll be we who will have to worry about Red Aviary any time soon."

"We're partners, Dagger," Two Face growled. "Don't treat me with too much ambiguity. Remember, you're in my turf now. Not Anderson's or Luthor's. Does this even look like Area 51 to you?"

"Hardly," Dagger shook his head. "Things are even more tame."

"………."

"If you want to know answers," Dagger paced forward, twirling his blade again. "Then I shall tell you. I shall tell you and you alone. And these are things that even Luthor doesn't know."

"………," Two-Face's eyes narrowed. "I'm listening."

"………," Dagger glanced aside.

So did Two-Face. He then realized that Fox was the center of attention. He pocketed his coin away, snapped a finger, and pointed the guards at Fox then out the door.

The thugs nodded and roughly hoisted the billionaire hacker-heir off the couch and out of the room. The door was shut behind him.

"Talk away, Dagger…," Two-Face said.

Dagger leaned his head to the side. "Mr. Dent….have you ever wondered exactly why _Wayne Corp._ of all companies is integral to Triangular's plot?"

"…………………………."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

Downtown.

7:55 pm.

Wayne Corp. Building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside.

Where snow was gently falling…not in a flurry, but in a soft-laden drift…

Robin, Batgirl, and I were perched across the towering Wayne Corp. Building.

We sat and crouched around metal, gothic gargoyles stretching out in the frosty air.

The red sky stretched coldly over us. A brisk November wind kicked at my hair and the other two heroes' capes.

We waited.

Silent.

Steady.

Eyes trained on the target across the space.

Batgirl was scanning the streets and nearby lofts with a pair of electronic binoculars. Her red hair fluttered as one wavy piece of scarlet. She said quietly…stealthily: "I can see Batman and Nightwing. They're scouting out the opposite facings of the skyscraper. It won't be long now, and then we can begin the operation."

"Thanks for keeping us posted."

The redhead's lips curved under the seeing instrument. "You're the bird here. I'm surprised you aren't giving the place the good 'ol eagle eye, Tim."

"Love you too, Batgirl."

"………," she lowered her binoculars and blinked through her mask in the Boy Wonder's direction. "Jeez…aren't you going to scold me for not calling you 'Robin' in uniform?"

"Too late now. Besides, who cares?"

"………..well allrighty," Batgirl returned the binoculars to her masked eyes and scanned forth again. "Moving right along…."

I glanced at Robin. I then looked at Batgirl from the side. Thoughtfully. Her thin figure. The beautiful red hair. The slowly breathing form that denoted lungs used to exhaling words of wisdom. Gloved fingers built for typing as much as karate chopping.

_So……this is Kara's 'friend'? _

………

_Yeah, I can see that._

I ran a hand through my long black bangs.

I glanced over.

Robin was looking at me. He smiled.

"…….?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You've been rather quiet lately, Noir," he said.

"……," I blinked. I hand signed: _'Yeah. I hope so.'_

"Heheheheh," he chuckled.

_Okay. Now I'm really worried._

I leaned my head to the side. Curiously.

"What?" he leaned back against a gargoyle and shrugged like a petite, eyemasked Fonze. "Forgive me for affording a smile on a day of rebirth."

_Day of……rebirth?_

_Hmmm……_

I hand-signed: _'Robin, may I ask what has happened to you?'_

"Why? Do you hate it?"

'_I am not sure yet.'_

"Heheh," he folded his arms and stared over the skyscrapers edge. "Yeah. Me neither, to tell the truth."

I scratched my head. Confused.

He took a deep breath, and his plastic grin became something more permanently somber. But there was still that awkwardly fresh enthusiasm lacing his voice as he said: "For the longest time, I've not really been living, Noir. It matters little if I 'died' or not on November Fourth. Robin never had much of a solid body to be evaporated or tossed into some grave six feet in the ground. I've been about as real as that monument they erected in our City Cemetery. I'm just…….I'm just an ideal, Noir."

"…….."

He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair. "I've achieved what I shot for two years ago. And back then, I thought I would only be good enough to become _fifty percent_ perfection. My best bet was to be half an essence of something…..something hardcore. Unbeatable. Badass. But I proved myself wrong….again. I became more than Robin. I….I was a Titan. I was a force for all forces to reckon with. And as much as I may have angsted about it or my nemeses may have taunted me about it or you and the other members of the team plagued me about it….my weaknesses were nothing. Working for Slade, I could beat the stuffings out of all my former peers in spite of their powers. Seeking revenge, I nearly killed Slade and many of his metaphysical monstrosities during over a dozen occasions. Normal humans don't just _become_ that. I'm not trying to be full of myself, Noir. I'm just telling the truth."

I nodded. _'You are the Boy Wonder, Robin.'_

"Yup….damn straight," he muttered. He gazed at me through the side of his mask. "But is that enough?"

"……….."

"How far do you have to go to become even better than perfection?" he sighed. "Perhaps….you need to go further into yourself…and decrease from that one hundred percent. Perfection….isn't perfect, Noir. Why would my teammates be disabled in sorrow after my absence if I was perfect? I may have been the best Robin ever, but I was never the best human ever. And a human lives with his weaknesses. A human knows when to separate personality from vigor without leaning too obsessively towards the latter. A human knows……knows that an idea is not something built on blood. It will only consume itself when bearing witness to its own weight in meat…."

Silence.

A drift of frosty wind.

A shudder…like the wave of an ivory lighthouse's illuminated sweep through the red sky.

"I never bought Starfire flowers, Noir…"

_That caught my attention._

I looked at him. Curious….

"All the time I ever knew her…," he murmured. Gazing softly through the falling flakes towards the towering immensity of Wayne Corp. "…I never got her a single rose. Or daffodil. Or baby's breath…or whatever the hell they're all called. And why is that?" He took a deep breath and stirred where he reclined against a gargoyle. "I've saved so many people I've practically saved them from saving themselves. And to what end? To die a fake death and send the world spiraling into some read-streaking oblivion. And somewhere Starfire lingers in the Tower…around a cemetery…over the rooftops of a City turning grayer by the hour. And all for nothing. Because the ideal is still alive. The Robin lives life as a ghost. And if he goes the way he was always made to go, he'll haunt the gray City and her gray sighs forever. And what inhuman part of me—no matter how hardcore—could possibly ever want that?"

"……," I inhaled. A gentle smile. I shrugged and shook my head.

He gazed at me. "Not a single day has gone by that I haven't thought about her, Jordan. And….and perhaps that means…..there was a part of me that was alive those two years of being a Titan leader after all." He shuddered and rubbed the back of his neck while looking off towards the crimson horizon. "….Tim was there. Tim was there the whole time. How can I deny him further?" His eyemask thinned and I pictured a pair of unseen eyes closing underneath. "How can I….hurt Starfire further? Or you….or the rest of the Titans for that matter?"

Silence.

I shifted where I was kneeling. I bit my lip. I glanced at him again through my shades with a soft breath.

_Am I hearing what I think I'm hearing……?_

"Just….the s-sound of her voice…," Robin murmured. "….whenever she would so much as say my name, I felt like I had become part of something more precious than anything in the world. How could anyone care so…whole heartedly about another person in spite of all his weaknesses?" He sighed and seemed to hug himself slightly. For a moment, I saw a flash-eyed glimpse of the little boy who was crying in a warehouse soon after Jericho left his body. "….how could I ever…._ever_ have taken that for granted?"

I swallowed. I smiled crookedly and hand-signed: _'I do not think you ever took Starfire for granted, Robin. I think you took yourself too seriously.'_

He narrowed his eyemask. "I-I'm sorry. My reading sign-language still needs more work. Could you repeat that?"

I winced. _'I said, I think you have nothing to worry about……'_ I simpered.

"Heh….it doesn't help to push away the symptoms when the source is the problem, Noir," Robin said. "But after tonight, that's all going to change. Robin will live again. And in turn….he'll drag a relic to the surface. I hope that'll be enough….t-to remedy the loss of the Titans….once all of this is said and done and we return to our loved ones."

_Hmmm……_

'_Loved ones'……_

I smiled at that.

"I owe it all to you, Noir," he said. "Here's to a successful mission…." He held a gloved hand out.

I smiled. I extended my flesh hand.

We gripped each other. Palm to palm. We tightened our hold and parted with a snap of fingers before colliding our fists back together and pointing.

I winked a black eye.

He chuckled. "Heheheheh….still got it, Number Two."

I chuckled breathily.

_**ZAAT!**_

"God, whatever happened to the age-old pinky swear? Must have fallen with the Soviet Union."

"Waah!" Batgirl jumped, juggled her binoculars, nearly dropped them, but grabbed them at the last second. "Whew….darn it. You make me feel amateur everytime you just _appear_ like that."

"I wish I could say I'm sorry," the Messenger shrugged with a smile from where he stood on the ledge above us. "…but I make it a habit to startle redheads. I could never do it back home without 'Polyphemus' getting pissed off and blasting a hole through my chest."

"What's up, Messenger?" Robin asked.

"Well if you aren't bright-eyed and bushy-caped!" the Asian teen winked. "Lemme guess. You switched tights."

"Make it quick or else I'll sick Noir on you."

"He wouldn't kill me. He's my friend."

"Wyldecarde then."

'_I will do it, too.'_

"Alright, Alright," the Messenger rolled his eyes. "I hear you three are on a mission."

"Yes," Batgirl nodded.

Robin's eyemask thinned: "What about it?"

"Uh uh…wait for Batman and ex-Robin first."

_SWOOSH! _

_THWIISH!_

As if on cue, Batman and Nightwing returned via grappling hook.

"Speak of the devils!" the Messenger sing-songed.

"Waah!" Nightwing gasped and teetered. Batman caught his shoulder. "Whew….dammit….frickin' nerd!"

"Hehehe…I know, right?" Batgirl smirked.

"Messenger…," Batman spoke against the cold wind of the elevated perch. "What brings you here?"

He dug his hands into his sweatjacket's pouch. "The same thing that always summons me to appear."

I bit my lip.

"Something's wrong, isn't there?" Robin stood up. "Let us have it!"

"I wish I could, Mr. Red Breast," the asian teen uttered. "However, I can tell you what _isn't_ wrong."

"How do you mean?" Nightwing asked, his eyemask thin.

"I've been hopping all over Gotham City over the last few hours," he said. "There isn't a sign of Red Aviary…….anywhere."

"………."

Batgirl shifted nervously. "Th-Then that means…."

"I think he's waiting for something," the Messenger said. "It's not like him to disappear. But it is like him to brood."

"Deathstroke isn't blind," Batman spoke. "He has to know by now that we're organizing something."

"And then he must know that Robin and Noir are both together….and out in the open," Batgirl added.

The Titan leader and I exchanged glances.

"Perhaps he knows that, perhaps he doesn't," the Messenger spoke. "I just thought you all needed to be….updated on his absence."

"We're about to perform a heavy strike on Triangular," Nightwing said. "Perhaps at the same time, Red Aviary will strike." He glanced at the others. "Much in the same way that Deathstroke attacked the Terrible Troupe when Noir and Triangular were battling them at the zeppelin and Kane Building!"

"That's a risk we're going to have to take," Batman uttered. Frowning. "We've come too far to back down now. But only if we all agree."

"I'm all for this operation," Batgirl said. "Triangular's just as dangerous as Red Aviary if you ask me."

"I'm in too," Nightwing nodded. "It's about time I kicked some ass…..besides Noir's, of course."

I gave him the finger. The left finger.

"Hey!" Batgirl smiled. "That prosthetic's coming in handy already!"

Nightwing muttered.

"You know I'm sure as Hell in," Robin said. He glanced at me. "Isn't that right?"

I gave a thumb's up.

"Then you'd better hurry," the Messenger gestured. "There's a nest full of triangle-humpers in that place."

"Yes. We know," Batman said. "Nightwing and I just scouted the place. The usual security guards are on patrol. But if I'm right—"

"And you usually are…," Batgirl added.

"—then we might not be able to trust Bruce Wayne's own employees."

Nightwing leaned his head to the side. "This all comes full circle to Clayface, doesn't it?"

Again, Robin shuddered.

And again, I noticed.

"If what I assume is correct, we might have a……very interesting fight on our hands."

"Hmm….," Batgirl smiled.

Nightwing folded his arms. "I can deal with….'interesting'."

"Man…I like you guys," the Messenger winked.

Batman glared at him. "Are you done with your warnings?"

"Do you want me to be?"

"Here….," Batgirl tossed him a communicator. "Keep it on that frequency. It's a dial tune or two away from the one we're using to talk with Alfred."

"Ah. The all-hour-Butler-Channel."

"If you learn anything new about Red Aviary…," Batman spoke. "Contact us. We will be most appreciative."

"As if we aren't already," Robin said.

I smirked.

"Right then," the Messenger saluted. "Sure beats embarrassing lesbians in Vegas."

_**ZAAT!**_

Robin did a double-take. He gave me a strange look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

I sweatdropped and lied: _'I have no clue.'_

"Noir…."

I looked Batman's way obediently.

"We're going in. We need you to take point with your stealth. Nightwing and I have spotted a good entry point. I'll guide you over the communicator since I know the place. Nightwing and Robin will follow suit as you prepare the way for them. Then Batgirl and I will take care of the rest."

I took a deep breath. I nodded.

Batman whipped out a communicator. "Alfred. Come in."

"_I'm here, Master Bruce."_

"We're about to begin. Standby."

"_With bells on my rested feet. This feels like the old days, sir."_

"Let's make it so that today will be an 'old day' for us in the future."

"_Agreed."_

"Nightwing. Robin. Get yourselves ready."

"Right on."

"Way ahead of you."

Batman looked at me. "Okay Noir….showtime."

I took a deep breath.

_The Equalizer knows how to follow directions._

I stood up straight. Flexed my smoke-charged limbs. And pulled Myrkblade out.

_CHIIIING!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wayne Corp. Building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CLANK!_

A grate to a ventilation shaft in the ceiling flew off its hinges and fell on the floor of a dark utility closet.

_CLANG!_

I dropped down, Myrkblade in one hand. My black left 'arm' extended. I drifted towards the closet door, under which a thin crack was spilling light across the glinting tile floor.

I pressed myself up against the door. I leaned an ear against it. Taking a deep breath, I stretched my black hand down and felt with a current of murk under the door and along the floor on the other side. My spatial sense kicked into gear. I bodies.

"_Snkkkt—Master Jordan, are you there?"_

I blinked my black eyes in the dark. I smirked.

_Master Jordan……heh…… _

_I wonder if that makes me part of the family now……_

I tapped a tiny button on the extra-tiny communicator in my ear. A simple morse code response.

"_Very well. Master Bruce is sending me data concerning the security net. There is a camera that does sweeps of the hallway just outside that eleventh story closet room. Unless he's mistaken, the camera should be tilted away and giving you plenty of access…………and………now!"_

I took a deep breath.

FL-FLASH!

I teleported through the current of murk under the closet door's crack and solidified on the other side. I was in an amber-lit hallway of luscious proportions. The walls and floor looked and felt like marble. Highly expensive. Highly regal.

Highly 'Wayne'.

I looked up. I squinted.

Through my shades, I saw besides a light a whirring, tilting camera. It was angling itself to face me.

I took a deep breath, flattened myself against the wall, and covered my body with a fountain of murk. Cloaked, I invisibly….slowly crept my way underneath and past the camera. I made my way towards the far end of the hallway and slinked around a turn.

"_Keep an ear turned in, Master Jordan. There should be two guards at a station around the bend. Master Bruce wants you to disable them and hide them somewhere. That shouldn't be much trouble for you. Just……whatever happens, do not let them trip off the emergency alarms. Dick and Tim are making for the utility floor where a service elevator waits for them. But for that elevator to take them down to where they can aid you, they need you to clear the path. In the meantime, Batman and Batgirl are working their way to the security network hub downstairs to see if they can give you an edge. Good luck, Master Jordan."_

I took a deep breath and invisibly blurred along.

_And thanks to you too, Super Jeeves._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Upstairs inside the Tower…

A huge air conduit opened cylindrically to a utility room. A huge metal turbine spun slowly, filling the dark interior with a continuous groan and hum.

After an awkward stillness, a laser beam shot out from the cylinder-side of the fan.

_ZAAP! ZAP! Z-ZAAAP!_

Each shot successfully ripped through contact points of three metal bars covering the fan's area like a great. The 'lid' of the new hole crackled and fell over. _CL-CLANG!_

With a breath, Nightwing timed himself just right and rolled through the cylinder just barely dodging the blades of the fan.

"Nnngh!"

Robin did the same, following right after him.

"Mmmf….now that's an interest."

"Don't steal my lines."

Robin smirked. "Well aren't you confuzzled!"

"Shhh!" Nightwing crept forward towards the wide doors of the service elevator across the way. "Your Titan buddy is hopefully paving our way as we speak. We've made good time, hopefully he has too."

"Noir's one of the fastest people I know," Robin whispered back. He half-winced; "I mean that in a good way."

"But of course."

"What's gotten you so edgy?"

"I _hate_ waiting," Nightwing pouted with his hands on his hips.

"So? Let's think of something constructive before our lift arrives."

"Like what, Einstein?"

"…….," Robin glanced over. He saw a few garbage basins on trays…full of black plastic bags.

He smirked.

He walked over and rolled the trays back and forth. "Hmmm….I think it's take out day at Wayne Corp."

"?"

"Here….give me a hand….," and Robin reached in his utility belt for something.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I snaked around a corner.

I squinted my invisible eyes.

I saw at a fork in the marble, reflective hallway a desk. And two security guards were positioned there. One sat at the desk, his face lit with monitors as he eyed what I imagined to be security feed. The other was leaning against a wall, looking sick. He had his face in his hand and he was moaning.

"…….."

"_Snkkkt……are you there still, Master Jordan?"_

I tapped my earpiece with a black finger.

"_Batman thinks those hired hands are not what they appear to be. Before you do anything, do give them a look over, will you?"_

I took a deep breath.

I reached a hand up, and lowered my shades. My cloak faded, but I snuck back in the shadows and watched with naked eyes from there. Concentrating on every line and contour of their bodies in the brightened aura of my vision. And then…

The standing guard moaned.

The one sitting looked up at him with an indignant rise of his eyebrow. "Hey! Psst….what's your problem?"

"It's….w-wearing off….."

"What's wearing off?"

The guard removed his hand from his face, and his eyes and nose and mouth were all…….'drooping'. That's the best way I could describe it. A melting pumpkin sort of a thing.

"Nnnngh…..wh-what do you think?" he gurgled.

I made a face.

_Oh lovely. Shit almighty……the Hell?_

"Already? I thought you used half a can earlier!"

"I-I was saving for….t-tonight….the boss thinks something big is happening."

"Save your breath. The more you talk, the more your face changes. You're looking less and less like Officer Brandon."

The nametag of the 'melting'-face guard reflected _'Brandon'_. He said: "Look…will you help me out?"

"Pfft….all right," the sitting guard rolled his eyes and opened a drawer. He pulled out a can which he unscrewed and handed to the other person. "There. Make good use of it. Don't expect me to bail your ass out everytime."

"Don't need to tell me twice, man…," the standing one reached a finger in…took a gloop of some brown mudlike putty, and spread it over his face. "Yeesh….I hate this job. My mother won't even recognize me!"

"Shut up and become Brandon again already."

The man finished spreading the mud over his face. He then put the cup down and applied both sets of fingers, 'shaping' his lips and mouth and eyes back into normal shape. Soon, he was the clean-cut profile of an ordinary security guard….or so I sickly surmised.

"There….," he sighed like a refilled drug addict. "That's taken care of…."

"Don't be so sloppy next time. This night's important."

"Alright already…_Mom!"_

"Mind your post."

"I'm doing that…I'm doing that…sheesh….."

I was well into retching-mode at this point. I somehow found my cool and shuddered, flexing my limbs and shaking off the willy-nillies.

_God……metamorphs are so gross. Good thing I spent the time at Wayne Manor meditating and not pigging out on Alfred's French cooking._

"_Snkkkt! Well? How's it look?"_

_Speaking of which……_

"_Do they seem peculiar to you? The guards, that is……"_

I tapped my communicator.

'_H-E-L-L—Y-E-S.'_

"………"

I cleared my throat.

I tapped again.

'_G-O-I-N-G—I-N.'_

"_Very well. Good luck—"_

SWOOOOOSH! I blurred out in an instant.

"….?" The guard sitting at the post looked up. "Huh?"

I snarled, leapt over the desk, and slammed my foot into his face.

"AAAA—!" SPLAT!

I made a face as I descended in mid-air.

_Did his face just make a friggin' 'splat'?_

_Frickin' gross goose god almighty!I _

THWOOOSH-THWAP! The man fell back against the wall in his slumping chair. My foot managed to make a crater in his cranium. And….it was stuck.

"!" I gritted my teeth and fought and yanked and struggled to pry my foot free from his mangled, muddy orifice.

"HEY!" the 'Brandon' poser gasped and ran towards me. He reached to his side for a pistol.

I took a deep breath and jabbed Myrkblade towards him.

_SLASH!_

He pulled his gun out….but not for long.

_CRACK!_

The murk-laded blade smashed his firearm apart.

He winced and skidded to a stop.

I took a deep breath and yanked my body outward with a pulse of smoke.

_SPLORK!_

I popped free of the sitting man's face, spun towards the standing guard, thwacked him hard in the side with Myrkblade.

WHACK!

He teetered.

_Plant!_ I landed. I snarled and swung my black fist into his face.

_SPLUNK!_ A crater formed in his head. He gurgled as a putty-soft cranium oozed around my fist.

I gritted my teeth and shook….shook….shook my left arm.

_SPLUT!_ I jerked it free.

The man collapsed on the floor, hissing and emitting muffled cries. He frantically brought two hands to his face and assisted a rebuilding process.

I stood in place. Shuddering.

"_You idiot!"_

I spun and looked behind me. I blinked.

The guard in the chair was 'pulling' his face back together with two nimble hands. Mud solidified into skin and tactile facial pieces as a pair of lips matched a growingly distinct voice accompanied by an identifiable frown. "Are you actually stupid enough to attack us here? Do you have _ANY_ clue just how holed up we all are in this place and—"

_SPLAT!_ Myrkblade temporarily divided his skull in twain.

_Shut up……_

THWOMP! He fell over on the ground…twitching into unconsciousness as a generic 'face' gradually reformed on its own.

"Snkkkt…grrgggkktt….," the other guard hissed and twitched as he tried to reform his face.

_Exactly what is their advantage by doing that to themselves?_

I let him be for the moment and walked over to the security feed. I nearly pratfalled from what I saw.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A dozen black-and-white security monitors displayed various, random interior locations of the Wayne Corp building. The images ranged from marble hallways to money vaults to high-level offices to lobbies. But two or three monitors in particular displayed what appeared to be an underground warehouse of sorts lined with huge, bank worthy seals and metallic doors. In the shadowed corner of one such large interior, a couple dozen innocent people were bound hand and foot and twitched helplessly under the watchful eye of what appeared to be robotic sentry guns. Most—if not all of the individuals were security guards and inner sanctum employees. Patrolling the far corners of the warehouses were men dressed as security guards with guns. And many of them quite remarkably shared a face or two identical to the ones being held captive. In the distance of those few camera footages, conspicuously glowing vials rested in packages heavily guarded.

All of this could be seen across the electrified wall of the bottom floor security network center.

Two guards sat at chairs before the images. Their postures were casual….lazy….at ease. One fingered a can of muddy cream as he spoke to the other: "How long do we have to keep those creeps alive anyways?"

"That's up to the boss, man. But I seriously doubt they'll live to see the goods leave this place."

"I wish I knew more about what exactly it is we're guarding," the man with the can spoke. He fingered his face with muddy cream and malleably adjusted his features to look like a photo of an actual security guard resting on the security camera controls. "Especially if we're butchering our faces just to work here."

"Heh…the pay's pretty damn good. Not to mention fringe benefits," the other winked.

"Heheheheh…yeah," the man gave himself a high brow. "On weekends, call me 'Susan'."

"Hahahaha!"

_Th-Th-Th-Th-THWISH!_

A birdarang flew in and knocked the can out of the one guard's grasp. The cream spilled all over his crotch. His abdominal area promptly began to melt into bioorganic putty.

"AAAAUGH! SHIT!"

The other guard jumped up. "What in the—"

SWOOOOSH! Batman billowed around a corner of metal wracks and slammed a fist into the 'guard's' chest.

_WHUMP!_

"OOF!" the man wheezed and bent over. His face shifted to another contour.

"Nnngh!" Batman uppercutted him.

_SPLAT!_ The man's face exploded and some drops of mud splattered on a camera monitor. His body slumped to the ground and twitched for as agonizingly long as it took for his cranium to reshape.

_Thwap! Thwomp!_ Batgirl marched in, depositing two unconscious guards on the floor of the dark security network room. She dusted her hands off and said: "That takes care of the lobby. Now if I can just get into the security systems, we can give Noir and the others some breathing space."

"It's now or never…," Batman marched over to the man seated.

He was clutching in vain at his melting thighs, whimpering. He looked up at Batman.

"Better keep a firm grip on yourself," the Dark Knight said before promptly grabbing the chair and tossing the man out of it.

_Fwoosh! _"Aaaah!" THWOMP!

Batman offered the seat to Batgirl, which was covered with splotchy brown mud. "Care to sit down?"

She made a face, cleared her throat, and shuffled over to the computer console. "I-I think I'll stand. Thank you."

"Suit yourself….," Batman tossed the seat blindly over his shoulder—effectively knocking back out a thug who happened to be stirring awake at the time.

_THAP!_ "Ugh…."

_Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-T-T-Tap…_ Batgirl typed heavily on the keyboard. "Alfred, come in."

"_I'm here, Miss Gordon."_

"Give Noir the green light. I'm clearing his level of all security feeds. He should be free to proceed through his floor and bypass the operator controls of the service elevator."

"_Aye, right away. Good work."_

"Why thank you, Alfred."

Batman leaned over her shoulder. "While you're at it, get us more shots of the Vault area. I want to see exactly what we're dealing with."

"Right away," she nodded and hacked into the security systems. "Erm….I-I need an omega level authorization code."

"Bruce Wayne's password is 'TMW42'."

"Hmmm…," Batgirl smiled. "'**T**homas and **M**artha **W**ayne?'"

"Right."

"What's the '**42**' stand for?"

A thug suddenly recovered, pulled out a club, and charged Batman's backside. "Raaaugh!"

Batman blindly raised a gloved fist and backhanded the thug in the face. _SP-SPLAT!_ "Nnnskkkt!" THWOMP!

"That's a trade secret."

"Gotcha….," Batgirl typed her way in. "Accessing…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

One by one, the security monitors behind the desk blacked out.

I was in the middle of laying the unconscious bodies of the two 'guards' behind the desk.

_Hope they don't congeal together. Ickk……_

"_Snkkkt—You have clearance, Master Jordan."_

"?" I looked up.

One by one, the cameras' red lights were fading to black. They stopped whirring and sweeping the marble interior.

"_I suggest you make haste for the service elevator."_

I nodded.

_CHIIIIIING!_

I pulled Myrkblade out once again and stomped my way down the hallway. Cloaking invisibly halfway down the shadowy corridor.

_FW-FWOOSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Nightwing were busy in the utility room, rigging the garbage tray on wheels with various, dark objects. Nightwing was attaching rough 'weights' made of metal pylons to the front of the tray to give it bulk.

"I'm not much of a Macgyver fan. But if this works, Robin….I'm hiring you for the next Stargate t.v. spinoff."

"Wow….Batgirl's right. You _are_ a nerd."

"Eh?"

"_Robin? Nightwing? Your turn is almost here."_

"We're getting ready, Alfie," Nightwing said.

"_I beg your pardon?"_

"We've got a gift…," Robin smirked. "Triangular or bust."

"_Oh dear. I hope Master Bruce will approve of this."_

"Who's to fret over Batman? This is Titan prerogative!"

Nightwing gave Robin a suspicious glare. "Hey….does that suddenly make me your subordinate?"

Robin shrugged with a smirk. "You said it first."

"Heh. You're a Robin for sure."

"Done!" Robin grabbed the tray. "Help me roll it to the elevator."

"Gotcha."

"Alfred!" Robin spoke, wheeling the tray across the utility room. "Tell Noir to—"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_go all out in the hallway outside the elevator doors! Titan Leaders' change of plans!"_

Alfred sat at the Batcomputer with a hand cupping the communicator over his ear: "Are you sure that's such a wise idea, Master Tim?"

"_Trust me. This will kill a lot more birds with one stone than Red Aviary ever did."_

Alfred smirked. "Now that's the spirit." He hit a switch on the Batcomputer. "Master Jordan. Robin issues a new command for you to—"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_take out the guards of that floor with all the force you can muster. Do not worry about stealth anymore. Trust him."_

Three guards stood at one end of the marble hallway before the service elevator.

One made a face and glanced at the others. "Did you hear something?"

_FWOOSH!_ I solidified behind him, uncloaking with a downswing of Myrkblade straight through his skull.

_SPLAAAT!_ His putty head divided. He dropped his gun and twitched.

I snarled and kicked him in the rear. THAP!

He stumbled forward head first—like a bull—straight into another fake guard.

"AAAA—" _SQUISH!_ Their heads collided wetly and morphed together. They struggled with a cranial tug of war, writhing and pulling at each other's soggy heads.

The third guard gasped and aimed his pistol at me. BLAM! BL-BLAM!

I blurred towards him, jerking Myrkblade up left and right to deflect the bullets. SWIISH! CLANK! SWOOSH! CLANG! I ran and leapt into him with a flying kick. TWHAP!

He flew back and slammed his head first into the wall. His skull flattened into his neck and took its sweet time to stretch back. In the meantime, the other two behind me split apart and fell down unconscious.

I took a deep breath. I eyed the elevator. I eyed a gray—doored room next to it. I walked over and tried the knob. It was locked. I lifted my black hand into view, took a breath, and plunged it at the door with all my might.

_CRACK!_

The 'glove' prosthetic easily smashed through the lock.

"……," I smirked.

_Well, that's promising._

I kicked the battered door open.

I marched in.

I slipped my shades down and peered through the darkness till I fount the utility elevator's controls.

"_There's a piece of security hardware controlling elevator from inside that closet. If you were to somehow disable it, you could re-route controls of the elevator to your location and—"_

SLASSSH! _CRKKKK!_ I ripped an electrified black box to shreds. _POW!_ The hallway echoed with the sizzling destruction. The startled, angry cries of distant 'guards' sounded from a nearby room and grew louder in response.

I smirked.

"_Well……Master Tim's wildcard certainly gets the job done when there's a need for loudness."_

I nodded to the air, took a breath, and cloaked so as to blend in with the shadows of the closet and hide…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap!

Batgirl typed and typed and typed and typed and brightened.

"There!" She struck the enter key hard. "All camera access to the Vaults!"

Subsequent, monochromatic images popped up on the screens.

"Hostages!" Batgirl gasped.

"They're the ones being replaced…."

"So Two-Face or Dagger had these men copy Clayface's formula so that they could impersonate the actual staff of Wayne Corp?"

"Facial feature by facial feature…"

"Then that explains how they took over the security infrastructure so quickly!"

"If they got in this far….," Batman's eyeslits narrowed. "There's nothing to stop them from going further."

Batgirl gazed at the Dark Knight, blinking. "You mean…."

"They may know Bruce Wayne's secrets," Batman said. "**All** of them."

Batgirl bit her lip.

Batman pointed: "Quick. Zoom in on the shipment. I want to map out a perfect ambush route."

"On it."

"The soonest Nightwing, Robin, and Noir join up…we're going to rendezvous with them. If we're to take that shipment, we have to do it the quickest way possible."

"And what about Bruce Wayne's assets?"

Batman's jaw tightened. "In this situation…..those are all expendable."

"………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Six guards wandered nervously down the hallway. At the far end was the service elevator. They held their guns and looked around…then came upon the bodies lying on the floor.

"The Hell happened to them?"

"Someone was here…."

"Are they alive?"

"Yes. Just give them time to…..pull themselves together."

"Ickk….god, I'd hate for that to happen to one of us!"

"Shhh! Someone's here!" a guard pointed towards the smashed closet.

"……."

"……."

"I'm going in," a tall, buff fellow said. He whipped out a taser in one hand and held his pistol in another. "Cover me!"

The others nodded and readied their firearms. _Cl-Clak! Clak!_

The man drifted forward. He neared the closet. Closer….closer.

_Ding!_

Everyone jolted.

_Schwissssssh!_ The service elevator opened up.

The guards raised their pistols.

………

A garbage tray rolled out by itself. It made a light grinding noise against the marble floor.

A good few guards raised their fake eyebrows.

The tray came to a stop amidst them, weights dangling on the far sides.

"……"

"……"

"Uhm…."

One guard stepped forward.

He looked inside the tray.

His eyes widened.

A dozen explosive birdarangs/nightarangs rested on black plastic bags. One in the center started blinking. _Beep. Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeep!_

"CRUD!" the guard spun around and motioned towards the far side of the hallway as he ran. "MOVE IT! MOV—"

_**POW!**_

"UNNGH!" the men flinched.

And…..chain reaction.

_**P-P-POW! POW! BLAM!**_

The concussion and fiery blast sent all six flailing against the walls.

TH-THWAP!

SMACK!

_SPLUT!_

Their bodies were paralyzed momentarily as their torsos and heads suffered putty deformations. The whole room was thus silenced…cleared.

The smoke and ash faded.

"……," I marched out of the closet…uncloaking.

I stood above a crater in the marble where the garbage tray used to be.

"….." I smirked. I turned and gazed at the elevator.

Nightwing and robin appeared from around the edges of the wide doorframe. They smirked and gave thumbs' up.

I returned with a salute.

_CLANG!_

A door to my side suddenly kicked loose.

I gasped.

I spun—

"_HRESSSHA!"_ a pale, muscled figure flew at me.

THWACK! A gnarled fist flew into my chest.

I slid back, gripping Myrkblade and wincing.

"Hresssh….," Killer Croc glared and drooled at me. He stood shirtless with his upper limbs flexing in bloodlust. "I still remember you from Vegassss….boy. I reckon it's about time I taught you the meaning of 'pulling your rectum out through your mouth'!"

I groaned. I squinted at his forehead. _Any luck that skull's made of putty too?_

THWOOOOSH-_THWACK!_

Myrkblade slammed straight into his skull….and stopped there.

"……..," a wincing Killer Croc flinched all over and frowned twice as much. "Hresssssssssssh….."

I bit my lip.

_Uh……I think I only pissed him off……_

SWOOOOSH! He charged at me. SMACK! A sharp fist slammed into my shoulder.

I literally spun and sprawled across the hallway.

THWAP!

I landed on the floor besides a half-solid thug. I shuddered in pain.

"RRRGRH!" Killer Croc punched his fist through a firebox and ripped out a fire extinguisher. _CRKKK!_ He held the red tank over his head and loomed over me. "Word of advice, Smokey! What happens in Vegas….**STAYS** in Vegasss!"

I flinched, expecting the bone-crushing blow.

"HRESSHA!" he wielded the red bludgeon---

SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH! _CLANK!_ A birdarang flew and embedded into the machine. Piercing it. _**POW!**_ It exploded in Croc's scaly grasp, covering him from head to tow in CO2.

"AAAAAAUGH!" he flinched and fought off the painful shower.

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-P-PLANT! _THWISH-THWISH! Robin ran and vaulted into the mutant's back. WHAM! His steel-tipped boots slammed into Killer Croc's spine.

"AAAUGH!" the freak ragdolled across the marble hallway floor.

Robin landed, gritted his teeth, produced his bo-staff, extended it—_snkkt!—and charged Killer Croc. _TH-TH-THWISH! The staff twirled.

Nightwing ran over and helped me to my feet, wincing. We both looked over.

"Nnnngh…," Killer Croc rubbed his powdered head and tried standing up.

_TH-THWACK!_ The metal staff flew across his skull.

"OW!" He shouted.

THWAP! The end of the staff pinned his head to the ground by his throat.

He looked up and gasped, his mutated jaw gaping. "Y-You!"

"Hello, Croc….," Robin snarled. "Remember me? Gee…I'm whooping your sorry, scaley-ass! Just like old times!"

"But…But…B-B-B-But….!" Killer Croc scrambled to crawl backwards, shivering all over. Eyes wide. "Y-You're dead!"

Robin smirked. "Am I?" He grinded his staff into Croc's throat.

"Nnnngh!" the reptilian man writhed.

Nightwing smirked and whispered at me: "Can I have a 'hell yeah'?"

I nodded. My lips moved twice.

Robin leaned over and leered at him. "You should know I'm way too hardcore for Death, Croc." He leaned back up and raised the staff over his head. "After all….I'm a hard act to follow."

TH-THWISH!

_**THWACK!**_


	233. A Hard Act to Follow part 18

**233. A Hard Act to Follow part 18**

November 30, 2004.

Smallville, Kansas.

8:02 pm

Kents' House

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………_the police have made a complete survey of downtown Smallville since the capture of the robbery suspects. Authorities now say that the bank burglars from Central City actually had less explosives on hand during their taking of the young hostages at the Blue Pin Bowling Alley than previously assumed. Regardless, that does not in anyway subtract from the brave actions of Supergirl when she made her surprise appearance at the standoff to save the day. After Supergirl disposed of the last TNT bundle, two of the robbers attempted an escape from the Bowling Alley through the school bus that previously carried the young child hostages. Their dangerous, life-threatening move was prevented by an unexpected turn of events. An earthquake of sorts seems to have taken place in the downtown blocks, miraculously re-routing the schoolbus safely away from the vulnerable crowds and into a distant store front. Authorities are still at a loss as to what last apprehended these murderous crooks. Eyewitnesses state fantastical testimonies of having seen a strange, metaphysical youngster at the sight with her glowing hands extended toward the earthquake phenomenon, but these claims have yet to be investigated. Supergirl herself was not available for comment on either the possible presence of another powerful entity besides herself nor her reasons for being in Smallville on the day of the near-disastrous standoff." _

John Kent took a deep breath. He was sitting—reclined—in an easy chair facing the gently flickering fire of the Kents' hearth.

Martha walked in quietly with a mug of hot cocoa. She pensively glanced over from the radio on the nearby table over to her husband as she sat down. "John…y-you said you heard from Kara an hour ago, right?"

"Yes, sweetie. She called earlier. Terra was with her."

"A-Are they both okay after today's events?" Martha asked, cradling her mug. "I feel so bad about Terra running off like she did…."

John ran a hand over his gray head. "They're both doing fine. But…they won't be home in a while."

Martha's lips parted. "They won't? What in lord's name for?"

John slowly shrugged, staring into the fire. "I wish I could say…."

"I'm worried, John. What if the media or investigators or some other people swallow up Kara and Terra over this? People have got to be suspicious after what happened today…."

"I dunno, Martha," John sighed. "I think people are a little too joyous to be suspicious now…"

"Mmmm….perhaps….," Martha sipped from her cup. She paused. She looked up again: "Do you think this is something Clark should know about?"

John smiled. He looked over. "Martha….I think you and I both know what's going on here…."

"………," the old woman took a deep breath. "She's a superheroine. This is her calling…."

John slowly nodded: "They can all remain farm boys and farm girls for only so long."

Marha sighed and glanced aside. "I wonder what it is that's dragging them all down this time? Dark Seed again?"

"Darkseid? I doubt it. Maybe Luthor….but…..I don't think it's really our place to know."

"And if this is really Kara's place now, we may not have to ever know about it…just sit back and be thankful."

"Heh…well put, Martha."

"……."

"…….."

"…….well, who's going to feed the chickens now?"

"I dunno…," John scratched his head. "I was thinking about that young boy at the McPherson farm. You know….Tobey?"

"John, honey?"

"Hmmm?"

"……..Tobey is a girl."

"Oh. Then…..cow milking?"

"Hehehehehehe…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Smallville countryside.

8:12 pm

Abandoned barn.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look, I don't get it. If something is so important that it involves Terra this much, why don't you tell us? What's with this holding back?"

Terra was sitting in the corner of the rustic, run-down place. She hugged her knees and looked up with a nervous, little-girl face.

Kara stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at both the pink-haired sorceress and the blonde assassin. "Well? Gonna talk **now**?"

"We're not holding back….," Pulsade boredly sighed. "We simply don't have all the answers."

"And lemme guess. Having Terra with you two is gonna _help you_ find all the answers?"

"……," Jinx bit her lip. "Y-Yes…."

Kara tossed her arms. "Perfect. Want her to sign a contract too?"

"I beg your bloody pardon?"

"I may not know Terra like a Titan would…," Kara murmured, frowning. "But I'm not about to let her repeat history!"

"Repeat history?"

"Don't you see? She's been through enough shit to last a lifetime! People only want to use her! I'm doing my best to provide her with the opposite of what she's been dealt with for ages! I'm trying to give her comfort! Prosperity! A safe harbor to rest in until it's time to be back with the people she really loves and who really love her!"

"There's nothing wrong with you taking care of her or her being in the hands of the Titans…," Pulsade growled. "We're not saying that—"

"Then it's settled!"

"No! It's not! If she wants to find her lost kid, she can't let herself get swallowed up in events as of late! If anything, you and the Titans should be helping her! Not us!"

"What do you think we've been doing?" Supergirl cackled.

"No!" Pulsade pointed. "You're too bloody stuck in this Red Aviary business!"

"So were **you** at one point!"

"Is that what the Noir chap told you?"

"Sh-She is right, Leslie…," Jinx murmured.

"Shut up, Jean," Leslie said. She turned to face Supergirl again. "We were wrong, okay? We admit that…"

"If you were wrong before, you can be wrong again."

Pulsade shook her head. "Not this time."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because I don't want to be here, that's why!" Pulsade snarled.

"Leslie….," Jinx touched her shoulder.

Pulsade tossed her arm off. "I didn't mind being arse over elbow in Vegas, as long as it meant getting Red Aviary off my and Jinx's fannies. But now everything really is all sixes and sevens. I was almost glad when Hull and Noir dropped in on Counter-Red-Aviary and ruined everything to rubbish. I wanted to get away from boiling events as far as possible! But that wouldn't be the…..the right thing to do…."

"Who's this 'Hull' you keep talking about?" Supergirl made a face. "That's the fifth or sixth time I've heard you talk about him."

"He's a former H.I.V.E. student like ourselves. Wise and smarty far beyond his years. A real bad-arse……and someone I hesitantly trust….," Pulsade finished with a murmur.

Supergirl raised an eyebrow. "'Hesitantly'?"

"Got us both there," Jinx pouted.

Pulsade elbowed her.

"Owie!"

"Hull has been in the thick of it."

"What is 'it'?"

"The dog's bullocks. Super secret, intense secrets lying underneath all things that are. I don't know if you're a closet fan of conspiracies, Supergirl. But this is where it all starts to snowball down the hill."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Neither do we…..and……"

"We're scared," Jinx filled in.

Supergirl frowned. "So that's why you're after Terra. Cuz you're scared?"

"……"

"……"

Supergirl pointed; "That's still selfish, no matter what you call it. No deal, girls. If you want Terra, you're gonna have to go through **me** first. And unless you have a kryptonite dildo hidden in your utility belts or something, expect to lose a lot of limbs in the process."

"That's an insult!" Jinx hissed. She looked with sad cat-eyes at Pulsade: "I don't do 'utility belts'!"

Pulsade growled. "Nnnnrrrrrgh…..You don't give us enough credit, Kryptonian…."

Supergirl's fists clenched. "For the **LAST** time!"

"Kara….," Terra murmured.

"Quiet, Terra. I'm soooo going to smash these cheerleaders' faces in—"

"KARA!" Terra jumped up.

"…….?" Supergirl turned to her.

Terra stood in the corner of the run-down barn, sighing. "I…..I-I want to find my child…."

"……….."

"Maybe they're being selfish. Maybe they ARE trying to use me…..but don't you get it?" Terra's eyes were sad and her face was softly stretched. "I don't really care…."

Supergirl's lips pursed. "T-Terra……"

"I….I-I want to go with them," Terra nervously said.

"……….."

"…..Would….W-Would you go along too?" Terra wrung her hands behind her back and looked sheepishly towards the dirty floor. "….t-to protect me?"

"………..," Supergirl ran a hand through her platinum hair. She looked at the two villainous vixens. "…….." She looked at Terra. "……." She gazed heavenward towards through the broken shingles of the barn's rooftop. "Mmmmm…….Kela…….why me?"

"Hehehe…," Jinx smiled and winked a cat-eye at Pulsade. "Blondes…they always give in eventually…."

"Bloody straight," Pulsade nodded. A beat. She blinked and did a double-take at Jinx.

Jinx smiled proudly.

"But….," Terra spoke.

Everyone looked at me.

The blonde earth maiden clenched her jaw tight and sternly stared. "I'm the mother. And—to be frank—the mother has some stipulations….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

Wayne Corp. Building.

8:17 pm

Underground Vaults.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hostages shivered in the corner of the metallic dwelling. Guards, employees, Wayne Corp. Office workers. They all huddled against the wall, bound and gagged. Four fake-faced thugs stood above the two dozen men and women, keeping them under the gun. They exchanged glances with those guarding the vials across the basement expanse.

On the other side of the vaults, six huge 'trays' of metal containers holding the golden vials rested under shadowed ceilings. Metal walkways stretched overhead, occupied by men with machine guns and sniper rifles. Men with ordinary uzzis and shotguns stood all around the vials. They stood in waiting, as if on the verge of an intense invasion from every golden nook and cranny around them.

"What do you think the deal is?" one crook muttered to another. They both bore faces identical to a pair out of the hostages, thanks due to a metaphysical, muddy formula. "The Boss has twice as many of us on guard tonight. Something's gotta be up…"

"All I care is that I'm being paid a hell of a lot for this night," the other hissed back.

"Have you actually seen any of that green?"

"Nah, man. It's all credit now…."

"Heh. That's what scares me."

"……?" the guard looked at the first.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say the Boss expected something bad to go down today."

"Uh huh….."

"Remember how Trent and all his guys bought it at the Kane Building when Bane showed up with Dagger's HIND?"

"How can I forget…?"

"We're not supposed to be that expendable, man. But the Boss hasn't said a word about it. I think he's too wrapped up in himself and this Triangular crap."

"Shhhh! Careful who you call 'crap', man…."

"So what? The Boss' dog isn't here to bark at us now…"

"Speaking of which….," the other thug glared across the vaults. "Where's Croc anyways?"

"Remember? He went up with the other boys to check out the upper floors."

"Yeah? Well, he hasn't been back in nearly twenty minutes!"

"………."

"Something's up, man. Be on the look out…."

"Don't need to tell me twice…." _Cl-Clak!_

"………"

"………."

"……..sniff…sniff…."

"What is it?"

One thug made a face and glanced at the other. "Do you smell….smoke?"

_FW-FWOOSH!_

I materialized behind them.

TH-THWISH!

_THWACK!_ SPLUT! One man's cranium divided muddily from my blow. I kicked his feet out from under him.

The other spun, gasped, and raised his pistol at me.

_CRNKKK!_ I crushed the barrel with my left, black hand. WHUMP! I kneed him in the chest and shoved him on the ground. THWAP!

"It's that sword kid!"

"The Titan! The one from Metropolis!"

"Get 'em!"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Bullets landed all around me. P-P-PING! I made a show of running, jumping, and landing on the back of the man I just shoved back-first into the ground. Murk billowed down my legs, pulsed out of my ankles, and spread over the body of the man so that he glided sleekly over the extra-sleeky metal floor of the underground vault basement. In beautifully comical fashion, I 'surfed' the man's body several meters, spinning Myrkblade behind me to deflect bullets from vial guards, men on the upper walkways, and those surrounding the hostages.

CL-CL-CLANG!

CLANK!

"Nnngh! H-Hit him, you idiots!" the man shuddered beneath me.

I took a deep breath, vaulted off of him, flipped, and landed with my two feet slamming through his face.

_SP-SPLAT!_

"Skkktkkskkkktt!" he muddily gurgled.

I then dove forward with a breath.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

PING! P-P-PING!

Bullets flashed and bounced all around me.

I murked, rolled forward, and slid side-ways towards a wide elevator doorframe.

I ended in a fighting pose, Myrkblade raised high.

A crescent of fifteen gunmen lined up all around me. Weapons aimed.

Cl-Clak! Clik! Klak-Klak!

Tommy guns, uzzis, shotguns, and sniper laser lights trained at me from every crook in the place.

"Freeze, Titan!"

"……….," I frowned.

"We don't know how you got in here….," a high-ranking thug with a shotgun growled. "But no ghost—no matter how lucky—sneaks into the basement of Triangular and expects to live."

"Shouldn't have come here alone, ya dumbass!"

"Hahahaha!"

"………..," I smiled.

_I couldn't agree more……_

**DING!**

The elevator doors opened.

The thugs' jaws dropped.

I took a breath and flattened myself against the ground.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! _

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! _

_TH-TH-THWOOSH!_

Two birdarangs, two nightarangs, and an explosive batarang soared out from the elevator car and straight at the guards.

CL-CL-CLANK!

CLANG!

TH-THWACK!

Nine of them were disarmed immediately by the streaking projectiles.

"Augh!" "Nnngh!" "Dah!"

Then the beeping batarang struck in the center.

_**BOOOOOM!**_

Bodies flew left and right, landing hard on the metal ground.

Those in the 'crescent' still standing winced, glanced over me at the elevator, and gasped.

Three heroes leapt out. Nightwing and Batgirl on the sides. And Robin—quite alive—in the center. He posed with his bo-staff twirling as I stood up beside my leader. Th-Th-Thwish! Robin glared. "Now…..someone was saying something about a ghost?"

"It's R-Robin!"

"Screw that…it's the whole Batman Troupe!"

The thugs trembled. "Th-Then that means…."

"NNNGAAAUGH!" Batman ran out of the elevator, tossing something heavy over his head. Killer Croc's body.

SWOOOOOSH! _WHAM!_

Killer Croc slammed through three guards at once.

The others backed up and rejoined the thugs on the other side of the vault.

The riflemen and crooks on the overhead walkways trained their weapons in our direction.

Batman walked up besides Robin and I. "Feeling alive?" he uttered.

Robin nodded. He eyed the dozens of regrouping enemies and readied a fan of birdarangs. "Today is a good day to be alive to die…"

"For a moment there, I thought you were dropping that hardcore half of you."

"Seriously, Batman….," Robin smirked. "I'm beginning to think I was intimidating you…" Robin looked at me and squinted half of his mask in a 'wink'.

I winked back at him through my shades, smirking.

"I think I'm going to be out of a job soon," Nightwing murmured.

Batgirl giggled.

Red sniper laser sights swarmed up around us.

"Ahem…," Nightwing cleared his throat.

"Titans….Heroes…," Batman readied two batarangs and crouched in a ready position. "…..let's go save my business."

"Oh, if you say so."

The lasers 'blinked'.

_PFFT! _

_PFT-PFFT!_

THWIISSSH! THW-THWIISSSH!

Robin and I charged forward, spinning and twirling our respective staff and sword.

CL-CL-CL-CLACK!

CL-CLANG!

We deflected the sniper fire.

During the split-second time it took the walkway thugs to reload, Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl ran beside us and skidded to a stop with a violent toss of their projectiles.

_TH-TH-TH-THWISH! _

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH! _

_**CL-CL-CLANK!**_

Batarangs and nightarangs sliced apart riffles, knocked pistols through the air, and mercilessly slapped thugs upside their skulls.

Guns shattered and littered the floor. A handful of crooks fell over the platform railings with a cry. "Waaaaaugh—" THW-THWAP!

Through the raining chaos, the rest of the fifty-to-sixty thugs charged towards us with guns of all shapes and sizes, shouting an underground warcry: "RAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

Batman clenched his jaw and shouted. "Now! GO!"

"Hell yeah!" Nightwing extended his costume's wings and glided in. _FWOOOSH!_

Batgirl shot her grappling hook—POW!—CLANK!—and swung forward.

Batman charged, swinging bolos over his head.

Then Robin and I streaked forward with weapons raised. "HIYAAAAH!" SW-SW-SWISH!

All five of us met all five dozen of them in the center of the metallic arena.

SLASH!

SM-SMACK!

THWACK!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Bullets whizzed past me as I blurred a zig-zag around the first layer of thugs and exploded with a spinning slash of Myrkblade in the center of the insane crowd. TH-TH-THWACK! There bodies flew like living, human-sized shrapnel against their counterparts.

Robin burst through these clumping, colliding individuals with an upswing of his staff. SMACK! "RAAAUGH!" He jumped, spun, flung his foot out, and kicked two thugs across their muddy cheeks. SP-SPLAT!

The men stumbling back from Robin's blows soon found their legs wrapped together beneath them by the weights of Batman's flung bolos. They teetered….tottered…and fell into Batman's iron fists as he charged through. **WHAM! THOK!** The Dark Knight smashed two faces in and uppercutted a thug coming at him with a butt of a shotgun. Another crook aimed a Thompson's machine gun at Batman's skull. RAT-A-TAT-TAT! Batman performed a gliding slide towards the man, tripping his ankles out from underneath him. "Wh-WHOAH!" _CLUTCH!_ Batman caught the crook's body before he had a chance to fall down. The Dark Knight stood up, weightlifting the thug and throwing him with a growl through three uzzi bearers on the sidelines. "RRRRGHH!" _TH-TH-THWUMP!_

As the enemy bodies ragdolled across the 'arena', two more with double pistols ran up. Batman glared at them. The men prepared to fire when Nightwing glided in from behind them and hooked an elbow around each crook's neck. He dove forward, flipped, and rolled up on his knees…tossing both men forward in the inertia of his acrobatics. And he was smirking.

"Yaaaaaiiee!" the men shrieked as they flailed over the heads of the battlefield and collapsed against a recovering group of beaten thugs on the other side. TH-THUD! In the meantime, Batgirl swung over the crowd, released the handle of her grappling hook on an upswing, and flipped three full times before descending on a gunman's shoulders. _TH-THAP!_ She vaulted violently off him, plowing him to the floor. She twirled nimbly in the air, landed in a slide, and then performed a handstand with her lower body twirling outward in the air. She slapped the craniums of four crooks with her kicking feet, reducing them to muddy splotches. They collapsed on all sides of her as she stood up, produced two handfuls of explosive pellets, and tossed them hard to the floor.

BL-**BLAM!**

The bodies of two crooks flew through the air.

SWISH! Nightwing glided in and slammed his elbow into them, knocking them to the floor. **THWAP!** Guards came in on all sides of him. He snarled and spun a roundhouse kick downing two thugs before he elbowed his way into a gunman, disarmed him of his Tommy gun, and uppercutted him with the rifle's butt. _SP-SPLAT!_ He spun and tossed the gun into the chest of another thug. WHUMP! He smacked the man's muddy face in with a left and right hook, then kicked his chest and sent him flying back into the back of another. WH-WHACK! "OOF!"

Batgirl was karate-chopping and kicking two men on either side of her. One grabbed her from behind while another aimed an uzzi at her chest. She struggled for a moment before gritting her teeth, acrobatically lifting her legs, and then jerking her lower body back down to propel the man gripping her from behind into the uzzi bearer before her. TH-THWOOSH! _WHAM!_ Another thug came up from behind her. She spun blindly and kicked the pistol out of his grip. THWACK! The man gasped as she hoisted him up with a hand around his throat.

"I cracked the security code that kept you numskulls hiding here in the vault!" Batgirl smiled. "Now, how about I crack what's left of your skulls?" _THWACK! SPL-SPLAT!_ Her karate chop divided his head before she spun with a cry and flung the man across the domain.

Nightwing was punching and dodging bullets as he stumbled backwards towards her.

Batgirl backflipped form a sudden trio of guards reaching out for her.

She and Nightwing stood back to back.

TH-THWISH! Nightwing produced two metal clubs and spun them from each forearm. Sweating, he looked over his shoulder and smirked at Batgirl. "So…this is how we 'catch up', huh?"

"Wanna buy me dinner once this is all said and done?"

"Whatever it is…don't make it _pudding_!"

"Heheheh…," Batgirl produced two batarangs. "I think that's the entrée surrounding us right now."

"Heheheheh….I love it when you're badass."

"Save it."

The guards closed in all around the two. Batgirl and Nightwing fought back to back. Batgirl let out warshrieks and tossed batarang after batarang at the advancing gunmen. Nightwing grunted and twirled his clubs, deflecting bulletfire and smacking skull after muddy skull of the Triangular thugs.

In the meantime, Robin was vaulting over the crowds. He twirled through the air, spinning his staff, and came violently down on a clump of gunmen. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

"RrrrRRAAUGH!" THW-THW-THWISH! CL-CLANK! He slammed through two uzzi bearers with his steel boots and slashed his staff out, splattering the shape-shifting skulls of three men in a row. He rolled along the ground, stood up, and immediately slammed his foot into an incoming thug with a switchblade. WHAM! He spun back, twirled his staff all around him, and repeatedly struck limb after skull after backside of a dozen, assaulting crooks. TH-TH-THWACK! WHACK! SLAM!

"Nnnngh!" he severely reverse-jabbed a man in the stomach behind him. **WHUMP!** He then backflipped and came about with an upright down kick of his boots into the same man's shoulders. WHACK! The man stumbled into a thick crowd of writhing, pained thugs. Robin landed, reached into his utility belt, and flung his arm back out with a fan of exploding discs. _THWIIIIISH!_ **BLAM!** Bodies flew and landed out-cold on an empty stretch of metal floor. Robin smirked, stood up, and charged at a thick group of men firing at him. BL-BL-BLAM! RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! BANG! Robin twirled his staff, deflected the shots, cartwheeled to the side, leapt up, and shot out a fan of birdarangs in mid-air. THW-THW-THW-THWISH! The projectiles swished down and stuck into two guns, a wrist, and a shoulder. TH-TH-TH-THUNK!

"Augh!" "Nnngh!"

Robin flew into the guards, spun, and tripped all of them with a single downswing of his bo-staff. _THWISSSSH!_ TH-TH-TH-THUD! One last thug stood before Robin, trembling with a gun in his grasp. "……..," Robin glared at him. The thug gulped, simpered, and dove into the ground himself. THUD! "……." Robin smirked.

In the meantime, I was blurring through the flanking crowd of men. I twirled Myrkblade, deflecting bullets from random marksmen around me. I murked towards a heavy-built man in front of me. Just as he fired his shotgun—**BLAM!**—I teleported through him, materialized on the other side, and stabbed Myrkblade in reverse. _SLIIINK!_ The blade slid in between his skin and the material of his shirt. I teleported again so that I was holding Myrkblade forward. I gritted my teeth, charged black smoke through my upper body, and spun…swinging the man around and into the wall beside me. WH-WHAM! I took a deep breath….then paused. My black eyes twitched under my shades. I noticed red streams of lasers skewering the smoke billowing up around me. I took a breath and ducked just in time—_PFFT! PIFFT! THRIFFT!_ Sniper fire streaked over my head. I rolled forward, dodging more bullet impacts behind and aside me. I jumped up and ran towards the side of the vaults. The red laser sights streamed after me. Six or seven of them from the men on the walkways above. _THRFFT! PFFT!_ I ran up a wall, flipped off it, twirled smokingly through the air, and slashed Myrkblade in the air. **P-PING!** I deflected two sniper bullets back up, smacking a rifle out of the hands of one of the men. "Augh!"

Robin looked up, sweating. He saw the gunmen on the walkway. He shouted at me. "Noir!"

"?" I looked towards him.

He ran in my direction past Batman slamming the faces in of a few gunmen. "Alley oop!"

I nodded. CHIIING! I ran, dodged bulletfire, and slid on one knee.

Robin cartwheeled, flipped, and jumped at me.

I gritted my teeth, held my flesh and black hand together, and surged murk through them.

_PLANT!_ Robin's boots landed on my palms.

I pulsed murk and shoved my arms up.

The smoke energy propelled the Boy Wonder up…up….up…

He bolted up, flipped once, and landed nimbly in a crouching perch on the metal railing of a walkway thick with thugs.

_CL-CLANK!_

The snipers gasped and stared at the Titan Leader up close.

Robin glared. "You guys looking for some attention?"

"Hit 'em!"

Three snipers aimed at his forehead.

Ignoring the glowing red spots on his forehead, Robin gritted his teeth, produced a metal disc, and tossed it. _THWISSSH!_ It flew at an angle and bounced off between the left and right metal platform railing. CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! The ping-pong projectile zig-zagged past the men, raining them with hot sparks of friction. They flinched and jolted from the burning shower. "Augh!"

"RAAAUGH!" Robin then dove forward with his staff. _TH-THWACK!_ He plowed through the first sniper and ran down the length of the elevated walkway. Swinging his staff, he knocked them one by one off the platform.

THWACK! "Aaaaugh!"

SLAM! "Yaaah!"

CLANG! "Waaaaieee!"

Unlike the other thugs on the ground, their skulls and body parts didn't splatter in muddy manner. They were apparently backup….not masquerading replacements of the Wayne Corp. guards.

"The more the merrier…," Robin ended with an uppercut that slammed the last sniper virtually against the ceiling. _THWACK!_ "That's my lesson for life!"

BL-BLAM! BLAM!

"?" Robin looked over. He gasped and ducked from lead shot impacting the metal platform all around him. Shotgun-armed men from a platform across the way were laying in cover fire from afar.

BL-BLAM!

BL-BL-BLAM!

P-P-PING! CL-CLANG!

Robin took a deep breath. "Okay Tim….j-just leave the talking to me," Robin quietly murmured. He tensed his muscles, breathed in deeply to give himself strength, and shot back up with an unleashing fan of explosive discs. "YAAAAAAUGH!"

_SWISSSSSSSSSH!_ The projectiles soared right under the ceiling and exploded around the support bars of the platform. **P-POW!** The bars shattered. The walkway groaned, and a good third of it broke free from the ceiling and fell to form a forty-five degree slab with the floor. SWOOOSH!

On the ground, Batgirl and Nightwing swiftly leapt out of the way before the platform's end could strike. _**CLAAA-AAA-AAANG!**_ Those crooks who were nearby on the floor fell down, stunned by the heavy impact. Those still on the walkway gasped and slid down the angled platform and rolled painfully across the floor.

POW! CLANK! Robin fired a grappling hook and swung onto the top of the platform to take out the remaining thugs.

I looked overhead as my leader sung. I was panting. Sweating. I paused amidst the thunder and heated chaos of impacting bodies everywhere to look around. My black eyes suspiciously traced the amber-tinted metal of the basement. The vault doors. The shadows and the nooks and crannies of the place.

"…………."

My brow furrowed.

_Where's Red Aviary?_

_Where are you, Slade? _

_This is it. _

_This is 'out in the open'._

_Why haven't you attacked Robin and I or the rest of the team yet? _

_Did Triangular suddenly become valuable to you?_

I shuddered and shook the eeriness off before swiftly twirling Myrkblade and blocking the gunfire from an advancing set of muddy-butchered men with Tommy Guns advancing towards me on the left. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! CL-CL-CLANG!

In the meantime, Batman was punching through the splattery faces of two more crooks with his gloved fist. "Rrghh!" WH-WHAM! _THUD!_ He took a deep breath, his black cape settling around him. He looked around and found his part of the underground fight clear. In fact, the thugs were starting to fall unconscious in increasing number around them. A good half of the Triangular guards were lying cold on the floor with their muddy, shape-shifting parts slowly trying to reshape into normalcy.

"Something's wrong….," he panted. His eyeslits narrowed. "This is too easy…"

He looked over. He saw Batgirl finishing off a cluster of men around her. Beyond, the hostages rested unguarded. Stirring….frightened.

"Batgirl!" Batman shouted, pointing across the vaults. "The place is clearing out! Get those men and women out of here!"

She nodded. She kicked the face-in of one last thug before dashing over with a batarang and cutting the bindings of the first innocent person she reached.

"Now to get to the bottom of this mess….," Batman grunted and prepared to dash over and help Nightwing…when a body stirred and stood up tall and menacing behind him.

"Hressssh…."

"……….," Batman turned around.

**WHAM!** A scaley fist slammed into his mask.

"Nnngh!" Batman slid back, teetering from the muscular blow.

Killer Croc limped towards him, rubbing his bruised skull and frowning. "Hrrssshh….you taught yer kid rough, Batsy…"

"Waylon Jones…," Batman clenched his fists and stood across from the Croc. Pacing… "Come to make me laugh?" the Dark Knight droned.

"Hresssh….heheheh…," Croc's glistening jaws grinned yellow and serrated. "You always know the best insults…."

"And you're a waste of my time."

"Thanks fer the invitation, _pal! _HRESSH!" and Killer Croc pounced the Batman—

**SOCK!** Batman immediately uppercutted the Southern wrestler.

"NNNGH!" Croc rubbed a bleeding jaw. "Hressh…FINE! I get the SECOND HIT!" SWOOOSH! WHAM!

"UGH!" Batman's face jerked back.

"RAAAUGH!" Killer Croc charged and gripped Batman's shoulders. **CLUTCH!** He forced his massive weight down on the caped crusader.

Batman struggled gainst him. "Nnnghhh….NnnngHHHHAA!" he slapped Croc's forearms away. He flew a right hook across Croc's cheek.

WHAM! The reptile's head jerked aside.

A left hook.

SMACK! Killer Croc teetered back.

Batman gritted his teeth, reached back, produced a batarang, and stabbed it towards Croc's shoulder--

**GRIP!** Croc grabbed Batman's glove. Gums bleeding, he turned his pale face and snarled at Batman for half a second before---"RRRRGH!" _WHAM!_ He headbutted the Dark Knight.

"AAUGH!" Batman jolted back. _CRKKK!_ One of his cowl's trademark ears snapped off.

"HRESSSSHAAA!" Croc spun and flung Batman across the vault.

TH-TH-THWUMP! Batman rolled and landed chest first, stirring and wincing.

Killer Croc stomped towards him, flexing his upper muscles. "Heh heh heh….should have stuck to your filthy Batcave, ya varmint! Yer kids are gettin' better than their 'Papa', Batsy! Unlike you, they're not afraid to show their faces! They're not afraid to take chances! They're not afraid to—"

Batman sat up, his cape unfurling to reveal a grappling hook in his hand. **POW!** SWIIIIISH! The grappling claws of the hook flew and closed tightly around Killer Croc's groin.

"SNKKKkkktttt!" the reptile went cross-eyed. "_Momma!"_

Kneeling, Batman yanked back on the grappling hook cord with all his might. "NNNGHH!"

_YANK!_ The grappler lifted Killer Croc off his legs by his groin and slammed him back down to the vault's metal floor. SMACK!

Batman limped up, frowning. "Don't judge a father 'till you become one, _scum._"

"Grrrr….," Killer Croc stood up, teeth glistening. "Why I oughta—"

SWOOOSH-THW-THW-THWP! Weighted bolos flew in and wrapped around the mutant's neck, suffocating him. "Snkkkttt!" he clawed in vain at his blue face.

Batman charged over and stopped with a black boot flying up Croc's face. _THWACK!_

"HRSHSSKKKKT!" Killer Croc rolled across the floor.

Batman slumped halfway to a crouching position where he stood, panting. While Croc was out of it, he stared across the heated battle scene. His eyeslits thinned.

There were four guards still standing besides the vials. Standing 'at ease' with their rifles in their grasp. They hadn't moved to attack the caped crusaders at all.

"…..," Batman stood up straight and swallowed. "What the Hell are they waiting for….?"

"Hressh!"

"……," Batman looked over.

Killer Croc hopped up to his feet, grappling hook-less. He pulled some slack on the bolo wrapped about his neck. Hissing, he lifted the cords to his mouth and bit straight through it with sharp teeth. _SNAP!_ He palmed the weights, snarled, and flung them one by one at Batman.

Batman raised a forearm and deflected the first two. _THWAP! WHAP!_ But took the brunt of the third and fourth in his chest. WH-WHUMP! "Ooof!" he exhaled and stumbled back.

Killer Croc pounced him.

Batman lifted in time to bear the brunt of Croc's tackle, and soon the two were again grappling their way across the sidelines…

In the meantime….

"HAAA!" Nightwing spun and slapped the ends of his metal clubs across the faces of two thugs. SP-SPLAT! He pivoted and kicked their bodies down with a lean leg. TH-THWUMP! A few lasting thugs fired at him from the side. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! Nightwing ran forward, pivoted, dodged the streaking bullets, and leapt straight up. In mid-air he spun and tossed his clubs off towards the men in an arc. _TH-THWISSSSH!_ One metal weapon slammed a leg out from under one thug, grounding him. Another stunned the trigger-hands of another. _SMACK!_ In mid-air, Nightwing held his breath, extended his arms, produced his gliding wings, and drifted down in a fast dive towards the last two. _PLOW!_ He slammed them to the floor, rolled forward, and jumped up to his feet. He panted…sweated…and brushed a fountain of long black hair out from over his brow. "Damn, I'm sexy."

He looked over and saw Batgirl freeing half of the hostages already. "You got them?"

"Yeah! They're out of here in just a sec!" the redhead panted back.

"Good…," Nightwing picked up his clubs and marched across the metal basement towards where I fought the last of the grounded thugs. Robin was knocking a few final snipers off the metal walkways above. "I've got the rest of the place." He smirked.

SL-SLASH! Myrkblade swam through the air, severing the ends of Tommy guns.

The guards gasped and stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth, twirled, blurred at them, and teleported through three bodies with an upswing of my smoking blade.

_TH-TH-THWACK!_

I froze in position.

The bodies of the thugs behind me lingered for a moment…jolted as if impacted by invisible munchkin fists, and collapsed hard to the ground.

"…..," I panted and stood up.

**DING!**

"…..?" I glanced to my left.

Elevator doors were opening.

_What the--?_

There were two bodies in the elevator. I couldn't see the second one in the back of the car from the one in the foreground. A thin figure in a trenchcoat. He raised his fists at me.

_Yeah, okay._

TH-THWISH! I twirled Myrkblade and charged the figure—

_**WHAM!**_ A metal fist slammed into my chest.

"!" I rolled and tumbled twenty feet clear across the vaults.

"Whoah!" Nightwing hopped over me, his eyemask wide.

The trenchcoated figure murmured from a distance: _"You're getting sloppy, squirrel. Must I beat your face in till it's bad as I've made it look in front of the league?"_

I looked from where I lay painfully on the ground. _Aw hell no……_

Batgirl gasped from the sidelines: "Nightwing, who's that?"

Nightwing had a disgusted look on his face: "Robin Leach?"

"Charming…but no…," the figure tore his trenchcoat and hat off, revealing the full-body skeleton of Metallo. A titanium skull face tilted to the sides and emanated an electronic voice of the jovial fiend: "Looks like there's a lot of skeletons in Bruce Wayne's closet. Ha…hahahaha!"

"It's Metallo!" Batgirl uttered.

"Yeah, no shit…," Nightwing twirled his clubs, let out a warcry, and charged the Metropolitan fiend. "Yaaaaugh!"

I gasped and waved my black hand. _No! Don't--_

SWOOOSH! Nightwing jump-kicked the metal menace. _THWAP!_ He bounced off and fell clumsily on the floor. THWOMP!

"Heh…how do you do," Metallo gestured a 'hat tipping'.

"Nnngh…," Nightwing winced on the floor. "N-No shit…."

**GRIP!** Metallo gripped the long-haired hero by the neck and lifted him up high. "Why…oh WHY am I always being called on to clean out Triangular's belfry?"

"I-I guess Rosie the Maid was out of town…," Nightwing wheezed.

"Oh…is that a robot joke? Hahaha! I'm going to have fun killing you, boy!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH! _CLANK!_ A batarang embedded in Metallo's metal skull.

"……….'ow'…..," he murmured. He turned and glared.

Batgirl had charged up and was producing a fan of bladed projectiles in either hand. Behind her, the hostages rushed freely into an elevator and escaped the nasty scene. She glared at Metallo and uttered: "Put…him….DOWN."

I stepped up besides her with a smoking Myrkblade lifted menacingly.

"Ahhh….to once again be a god amongst insects…," Metallo repositioned Nightwing in his grip and flung him like a javelin at Batgirl. THWOOOSH!

"YAAAUGH!"

Batgirl gasped and stretched her arms out to grab the airborne hero--

WHAM! Nightwing slammed into her, head-first.

"Ooomph!" the two toppled and tumbled across the vaults floor.

I streaked towards Metallo, Myrkblade swinging high.

SLAASSSH!

He raised a metal hand. **GRIP!** My smoking blade jerked to a stop in his palm.

I struggled, yanking at the hilt.

"HA!" he kneed me in the chest.

WHUMP!

I wheezed.

He spun three hundred and sixty degrees, twirling me around him and stopping so that I was tossed at Batgirl's and Nightwing's recovering bodies.

_WH-WHUMP!_

All three of us tumbled across the metal floor.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Metallo raised his skull-face and laughed electronically. "You're all over yourselves with fear! How fitting…" _CHTUNG!_ He extended a laser rifle from his forearm and aimed at the three of us. "Roast in Hell, you pimply sods…"

SW-SW-SW-SWISH! CLANK! A birdarang sailed into his forearm, disabling the laser rifle with dancing sparks. _ZZZZTT!_

"Augh!" Metallo stumbled for a moment. He glanced up. "Oh fudge….not you…."

"Yes me….HRAUGH!" Robin glided down with a metal staff slamming across Metallo's skull.

**CLANG!**

"AUGH!" Metallo stumbled to the side. "Die, you yellow-caped bugger!" He lifted a foot and fired a rocket blast from the metal sole.

Robin backflipped the fire, shot a grappling hook into the bottom of a mangled walkway, and swung with his metal boots into Metallo's chest.

THWAP! Robin gripped Metallo's torso with his ankles, nimbly held his strained upper body up, and repeatedly pummeled Metallo's cranium while perched on his reeling frame. **CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!**

Metallo stumbled back a dozen feet. "NnnnngghhhAAAAUGH!" he flew a fist finally into Robin's rib cage.

THWAP!

"Oof!" Robin fell off. Before he could backflip—

**CLUTCH!** Metallo got a metal handful of the Boy Wonder's cape. "Yaaaugh!" he swung Robin by the titanium polymer article into the ground. WHAP!

Robin winced.

Metallo raised his foot to crush the Titan Leader's skull. "Do me a favor and die again, Robin. You were too lazy about doing it the first time—"

_SWOOOSH!_ I slid on the ground, knocked Robin away, and gripped the bottom of Metallo's foot with my new, black prosthetic. _**SHOVE!**_

Metallo flew up and landed on his back. _WHANG!_ "OOF!"

Batgirl cartwheeled over and staddled his chest. Nightwing dove and stood on his shoulders.

"Show us your off-switch, jerk!" Batgirl shoved a taser into the outer shell of Metallo's energy core.

_ZZZZZZZTTTT!_

"YAAAAUGH! Damn flies!" Metallo fired his ankle rockest.

_**FWOOOMB!**_

I was blown back from the blast, rolling across the floor.

_**PFTSHOOOOOOOO!**_ Metallo slid across the metal basement at a high speed. Batgirl and Nightwing clung on for their lives.

"The rodeo clown who lasts the longest gets an aneurysm from yours truly! Ha HA!" And Metallo angled himself so that he rocketed up into the air. Nightwing and Batgirl dangled, trying to jab him open with their projectiles.

Robin and I hopped to our feet and rushed beneath them to assist.

And in the meantime, the second figure marched out of the elevator. Flipping a coin in a gnarled blue hand.

"……….hrmm……," Two-Face grunted. He flipped. Flipped. Flipped. Clutched. "……." He calmly looked over Batman's way….

Or…._Batman's and Killer Croc's way……_

"RGGH!" WHAM!

Killer Croc stumbled back from Batman's fist. He snarled and came back with a charging elbow.

THWAP!

Batman reeled.

Killer Croc spun about and gripped him from behind. Trying to pop his neck off.

Batman struggled…gritted his teeth…and rammed the back of his head into Killer Croc's face. WHUMP!

"Hressh!" Croc winced and lost some of his grip.

Batman then kicked his leg up backwards, slamming Croc's upper thigh. He grunted and tossed the reptile's hulking weight over his shoulders and into a wall.

SWOOOSH-**WHAM!** Croc landed and slumped on the ground upside down. "Ohhhhh…..," he moaned.

Batman panted, clutching his bruised ribs. His cape and cowl were tattered as he limped towards Killer Croc.

"Gonna f-finish me off…Batsy…?" Killer Croc grumbled.

Batman produced a batarang. "Don't tempt me…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Hckkk……ckkkk…..**

"_Hressh……just wh-what kept you hiding in that nasty cave of yours for so long? You scared of the same thing Triangular is?"_

_Batman looms above Croc, his batarang hand raised. Red streams cascade all over his figure and dance off his forearm like a flickering flag. _

"_I don't fear. I challenge." _

"_Truer words were never before spoken by a coward……" _

"_And you make a good example. Working for Two-Face and Dagger? I didn't think you could sink so low, Jones……"_

**Snkkktkktk! Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Hckkkkk…….**

_Killer Croc stands up, red fountains sloshing around him and morphing through the air in crimson laughs. _

"_Notice where Mad Hatter is, Batsy? Lock-Up? __**Bane?**__ They've all tried to be 'smart'. But none of them were tough enough to outlive the Parasite. Now I may not be the smartest kid on the block…but even I know when it's time to call it quits on the solo act and start supporting the real go-getters in this world!"_

"_You're just a common thug, Croc. Always were. Always will be." _

**Hckkk-Clik-Clikkkkt!**

_Red streams._

**SWOOOSH!**

_Killer Croc rears his arms and coils his legs. "And you're just a corpse, leather boy! HRESSH!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Killer Croc leapt at Batman.

Batman flung his birdarang.

_SW-SW-SWISH!_

SLINK! The projectile grazed Killer Croc's shoulder, splashing a red stream.

Croc took the pain and threw his weight down on the Dark Knight.

TWOMP!

"Nnngh!" Batman tossed himself back, rolled down, stood on his shoulders, and kicked Croc over and off him.

"HRESSSSH!" Croc flailed and tumbled across the floor.

Batman jumped up and charged him.

Croc stood up and crossed his arms to block Batman's incoming punches.

"RGHHHH!"

THWAP! SMACK! WHAM!

In the meantime, Metallo was hovering in the air on ankle rockets. Batgirl and Nightwing hung off him, doing their best to pummel his upper, metal body with sharp weapons and expert fists.

CLANK!

SMACK!

SL-SLAP!

"Hahahhaha!" Metallo clenched his skull teeth in a fleshless attempt to 'smile'. "Tickle me…do I not scoff?" He flexed his mighty titanium limbs outward.

WH-WHAP!

Batgirl was backhanded. "Uff!" she gasped, winced, and fell hard to the distant floor below.

"Batgirl!" Nightwing shouted.

"Go join her, Romeo! Hahahaha!" Metallo's head spun one hundred eighty degrees and skull-butted Nightwing off his metal shoulders.

THWAP!

"Augh!" Nightwing flailed before gliding to the floor.

SNAP! Metallo jerked his back into forward position. "Ah…that's better…."

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! __**CHTUNK!**_A birdarang flew up and stuck with its sharp wing digging into Metallo's robotic eye.

_ZZZTT! _"AUGH!" Metallo twitched and convulsed from an electric shock fountaining down his body from his skull.

Robin stood beneath him with his throwing arm outstretched. He frowned and pointed. "Noir! Bring him down!"

I nodded. _FWOOOSH!_ I ran and jumped with a murk-pulsing vault. I soared up, flipped, planted my feet against the bottom of a metal walkway, and shoved off. THWOOOSH! I soared at Metallo's backside with Myrkblade swinging at full propulsion.

_**THWACK!**_

Metallo went sailing down towards the floor.

Robin stood ready with his bo-staff twirling, raised back like a bat, and sailing forward at the point of impact.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CLANG!**_

_Metallo's body tumbles across the floor with a frothing cloud of red.. _

_He freezes on his knees, groans electronically, and struggles to get up. _

_Noir lands behind him. Smoke dances out of his eyes as he twirls his sword and mercilessly pummels Metallo's skull from behind. CLANG! CLANK! _

"_Augh! Go crawling back into some volcano!" Metallo hisses and backhands Noir. _

_THWAP! The smoking swordsman falls back. _

"_RRRRGH!" Robin flips in—smoking red--and lands with a staff striking Metallo across the chest. CL-CLANG! _

_Metallo jolts to his feet and wobbles. _

**HckkkkKKKkkktttt! Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkktttt…….**

_Robin advances on Metallo, spinning and twirling his bo-staff. _

_CL-CLANG! SMACK! THWACK! _

_Metallo stumbled back, readies a laser rifle, and fires at Robin's ankles. _

_ZZZZAP! _

_A puff of red. _

_Robin has leapt up. He leaps in the air, lands with his ankles on Metallo's shoulders, and twists with his feet. "Rrraugh!" _

_CK-CK-CK-CRK! Metallo's skull is forced to twist around. _

_Robin flips off, lands, billows red, and slams his staff up Metallo's reversed snout._

_**THONK!**_

_Metallo stumbles. Grunting electronically. _

**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkttt!**

_Nightwing glides in on the scene with a vapor of red and slams his fist into Metallo's metal ribs. _

_Metallo stumbles, twists his head back into a key position, and swings at Nightwing. _

_Nightwing backflips out of the way. "Too slow, Robby!" _

"_Keep jesting. It'll make it rewarding once I pull your tongue out." _

_Robin snarls and charges Metallo's behind with trailing red murk. "Not if we pull your attitude out first!" _

_SW-SWISH!_

_CLUTCH! Metallo grips Robin's staff and kicks him back with a red splash. _

_Noir leaps back in with a black streak and thwacks Metallo three times with his obsidian blade. _

_Metallo slams his foot into the metal floor._

_The shockwave forces Noir to jump back. _

_Nightwing dives in, slamming clubs into Metallo's skull. CL-CLANK! Sparks fly. _

_Metallo shrieks and grabs Nightwing, tossing him across the vault. _

_Noir and Robin advance again and the fight goes on._

**Hckkkkk……**

_In the meantime, Batgirl sits on the floor, rubbing her head. She slowly stands up, red vapors cascading around her figure. She pulls out a couple of batarangs, facing the Metallo fight and panting. The red focuses in on her…highlighting her. Giving her an aura of dancing red. Oblivious, she takes a huge breath for strength and makes to run toward the Metropolitan android._

**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-SNKKKKKTTT-Hckkkk……**

**SWOOSH!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Just as Batgirl began her charge, she heard a voice to her side—

"I wouldn't bother. Metallo's the least of your worries."

The redheaded crusader froze in place and looked over. Her eyes widened. "Two-Face! You're…--"

"Here?" the villain raised an eyebrow above his mutated optic. He flipped a coin as the four thugs that were still guarding the golden vials stood by his side. "This is Triangular's most important commodity. Of course I had to be here to see to the goods' protection…."

"You call this a master plan?" Batgirl frowned. "This is senseless mayhem! You put so many lives in danger and filled a good number of your own goons with Clayface's formula…and for what? They're instant pudding, Dent! Good job!"

"Only the lackeys are, Batbrat…," Two-Face hissed and gestured towards the grinning guards flanking him. "These elites…however…got the cream of the crop."

Batgirl bore a strange face. "Wh-What?"

"Don't mind their silent treatment," Two-Face flipped his coin and hoarsely narrated. "We had to temporarily sacrifice their vocal cords."

"What in God's name for?"

Two-Face's normal eye squinted. "For ripping you trapped vigilantes to shreds, of course…."

The guards disposed of their guns. _Cl-Clank! Clank!_

"……," Batgirl blinked.

They grinned and stepped forward. Suddenly, their entire upper bodies turned to a brown sheen. Their forearms liquefied into slender, whipping tentacles. _Sllpppp!_ In place of their hands, glinting metal axe heads appeared…glistening in the electric light. _CHIIIING! CH-CHIIING!_

Batgirl's jaw dropped. "Oh poo….."

"Enjoy being _pieces_, snookums…," Two-Face gestured.

The contorted, muddy faces of the thugs tensed. The tentacles twirled overhead and all converged on her with eight serrated blades of metal.

THWIIIISH! THWOOOOSH! SLASSSSH!

Batgirl gasped and jumped back.

_CRRRKKK! CL-CLANG!_ Sparks flew as the metal axes contacted the floor.

Batgirl stepped backwards.

The half-mud golems snarled mutely, spun, and slashed at Batgirl from all angles.

TH-TH-THWISH! SL-SLASSSSSH!

Batgirl held her breath and backflipped out of the fray, twirling to avoid the slashing metal.

CL-CL-CLAAACK!

Batgirl landed in a crouch, wincing. She was graced under her left breast and along her right thigh. Some blood dripped as she stood up, batarangs fanning. _CHIIIIING! _"Nnnagh!" she clenched her teeth and launched the projectiles out.

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! The projectiles severed five tentacles. SN-SN-SN-SN-SNP!

The muddy limbs plopped to the ground.

Batgirl watched as the 'thugs' merely walked forward, stepped on their own lost limbs, and sucked them back into their bodies. The severed tentacles reformed, producing an assortment of sharp axe heads, maces, and nightmarish drills.

Batgirl stepped back, wincing. "Double poo…."

TH-THWOMP! Nightwing suddenly landed beside her. "Nnngh!" He hopped up, clutching a shoulder. "Batgirl? We could REALLY use your help with Metallo right about now."

"Uhm….," Batgirl merely pointed.

"Huh?" Nightwing turned and looked at the half-morphs. "Oh, how pretty."

_SLAAAASSSSH!_

Batgirl shoved Nightwing out of the way. The two split up and dove in opposite directions as the bladed weapons landed and cracked the floor where they were standing.

Nightwing stood up, clubs raised.

Batgirl rolled into a kneeling position with a new fan of batarangs.

"Take your pick….," Two-Face growled. "Only **I** have the power to silence you!"

Two thugs went after Nightwing.

Two chose Batgirl.

Tentacles whipped in the air, divided into four per thug, and slashed dagger and mace ends at the two heroes. SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!

Nightwing defended with a flurry of his clubs. CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

Batgirl acrobatically leapt, flipped, and jumped about to dodge the blows while tossing in a batarang now and then.

In the meantime, Robin and I continually converged on Metallo. He had both of his laser rifles protruding from his forearms and was firing madly at us.

ZAP! Z-ZAP! ZZZZAP!

Robin and I passed each other while circling Metallo and hopping, dodging, outrunning every blast we could. We finally froze on either side of him and blocked a laser blast at us each.

CLANG!

CL-CLACK!

The laser blasts bounced back and struck both Metallo's front and back. FLASH!

"Augh!" he jolted.

"Rrrraugh!" Robin dove in, swinging his staff overhead.

Metallo snarled and shot a hand up.

**CLUTCH!** Metallo gripped the Boy Wonder by the neck.

"Snkkktt!"

"What is it with you and your incessant habit of _staying alive_?" Metallo growled.

Robin struggled, but managed a grin. "What's to complain about, Corbin? Aren't you a little used to immortality?"

"Oh….PLEASE!" Metallo rolled his one good eye. "Eat my heart out!"

"I think I'll stick to first base," Robin's eyemask winked. He wrenched a hand to his utility belt, produced a vial, and dumped its contents onto Metallo's wrist. "Here's some purified acid for your tease!"

_SSSSSSSSSSSsssssss!_ The outer metal frame of Metallo's forearm melted away.

"HA!" Metallo smirked and leaned his skull forward. "Like that's gonna really do any good…."

_SWOOOOSH!_ I murkingly blurred up and flung my sword through his half-melted wrist. _CRACK!_ Metallo's forearm severed. **SNAP!**

"Augh!" Metallo dropped Robin, stumbled back, and clutched his smoking stub. He frowned at me. "Damn you…."

I frowned at him and produced a black middle finger.

"Nnnnnrghh!" Metallo clenched his skeleton teeth and raised his stub of an arm to club me with.

_TH-THWP!_ A taser cord lassoed around the exposed circuitry in Metallo's stub.

"Huh?"

Robin—on the other end of the taser cord—smirked and clicked a red button.

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!**_

Metallo jolted and convulsed all over from his arm straight to his core. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" He fell smoking to his knees. SL-SLUMP!

"From Edison with love, jerk!" Robin shouted.

"……..," I smiled.

In the meantime, Batman was giving Killer Croc a left and right hook. Thwap! SMACK!

"Hresshaa!" Killer Croc stumbled back, painfully shaking his head.

Panting…Batman stared over the reptilian mutant's shoulders.

The Dark Knight saw Nightwing and Batgirl tackling the unearthly thugs and their tentacled, muddy menace.

He frowned.

"I'm gonna skin ya alive, punk!" Killer Croc bloodily growled and gave a last death charge.

Batman reached into his utility belt.

Croc came upon him.

Batman gritted his teeth and shot his foot up, uppercutting Croc across the chin.

_WHACK!_

Croc jolted in place, stunned.

Batman's hand reached out, holding a grappling hook. He fired over Croc's shoulder. **POW!**

THWOOOOOSH!

The hook sailed through the air and landed across the vaults against the metal wall, just beneath the ceiling.

CL-CLANK!

Batman pressed the button, pulled on the slack, and thus propelled himself forward along the cord's length. He hooked an arm out and grabbed Croc by the chest.

_SNATCH!_

"Raaahh!" Croc shouted in surprise.

SWOOOOOOSH! Batman gritted his teeth, swung, and dragged Croc through the air. Right as he reached his cornered comrades, he let go of the grappling hook launcher, sailed down with Croc, and shoved him in mid-air with kicking feet into the metamorphing thugs.

**WHAM!** SP-SPLUTT!

Croc slammed through the tentacles of the clay golems. Half of them splattered across the floor as the mutant reptile-man tumbled cold to a stop. "Ughhh…."

Batgirl and Nightwing gave a thankful breath, smiling Batman's way.

"We're not out of the woods yet…," Batman pointed at the two remaining freaks.

"That's all you flew in to do? Hen peck us?" Nightwing readied his clubs and paced away from the two other tentacled beasts. "How about fighting _alongside_ us for a change?"

"Less complaining and more whalloping," Batman frowned.

"Hehehe…," Batgirl readied batarangs and paced besides Nightwing. "He said 'whallop'."

"Another time, Batgirl…"

SL-SL-SL-SLASH! The tentacles came bearing down on them again.

The two younger heroes jumped back, avoiding the sharp serrated ends of the mud limbs.

Batman produced an ivory-plated batarang. He grunted and flung it into the muddy chest of one beast.

_SPLORCH!_ Beep-Beep-Beep! **FLASH!** A white blast, and the muddy thug iced over with frost. It froze, tipped over, and shattered.

"Allright!" Nightwing beamed, blocking the blows from the last changeling. "Another one down!"

"For now," Batman pointed. The first two downed thugs were already beginning to solidify. "You deal with the last one while I—"

"Batman!" Robin ran up, shouting. "Look out!"

"?" Batman spun. He gasped.

Two-Face fired a pistol at the Dark Knight. _BLAM!_

Batman barely jerked to the side.

SLIIINK! The bullet grazed his side, spilling blood.

"Augh!" Batman hobbled.

Robin gasped, gritted his teeth, and ran towards Two-Face.

_SL-SLOOOORCH!_ The two downed thugs suddenly morphed up and swung their entire torsos like huge blades at the Boy Wonder.

CL-CLANK!

CLACK!

The Boy Wonder gasped, jumping back from the swings.

Another 'blade' tentacle soared at him.

He tried blocking with a flimsy bo-staff.

SWOOOSH! I teleported and solidified in front of him with Myrkblade raised, smokingly serrated.

_SPLOOOOOOOORCH!_ I divided the quivering mud tentacle in two so that it parted around Robin and I.

Robin took a breath. "Thanks." He produced two electrified discs which he promptly tossed around my body at the monstrosities.

SWISSSSSH!

TH-THUNK! _ZZZZTT!_

Robin tried running to Batman, but the second beast was promptly driving us both back with jabbing, slashing blades of axe-heads.

In the meantime, Batman gripped his bleeding side and winced.

Two-Face stepped in front of him, pistol smoking. "The same old bat as always….," Dent growled hoarsely. "Those dirty wings of yours can only keep you in the air for so long." _CL-CLIK!_ He aimed the pistol at the Dark Knight's head. "Stick to the ground…._six feet_ in the ground."

Batman grunted and tossed a batarang.

SW-SW-SW-SWISH!

A veteran Two-Face was already ducking. The batarang avoided his body completely.

But it gave Batman the second he needed to pull out a last grappling hook, aim at the far wall, and fire. **POW!** SWIIISH! **CLANK!**

Two-Face snarled and fired at the caped vigilante. **BANG! BANG! BANG!**

YANK! Batman soared through the air at the end of his grappling hook cord. Two-Face's bullets whizzed after his ankles.

Two-Face clenched his teeth, pulled out a second pistol, and dual-wielded…strafing to keep up with the flying Batman. **BL-BLAM! BL-BLAM! BL-BLAM!**

SWIIISSSH! _WHIZZZ! THWISSH!_ Batman twirled and flew past the shots.

Two-Face paused, squinted his mutant eye, re-aimed, and—**BLAM!**

SWISSH! _SN-SNAP!_ The single bullet broke the grappling cord along the wall.

"Unnngh!" Batman instantly fell. He landed in the jagged, metal rubble of the collapsed ceiling platform across the vaults. CR-CRASH!

Two-Face marched towards him, both guns tilted ceiling-ward and smoking.

"This was a loss for you and your crack-team from the beginning, Batsy!" Two-Face growled. He stepped up on a collapsed metal pylon and glared down at Batman. "You think you can finish off those four gifts from Clayface? Not in your life. Croc and Metallo, certainly. But as long as I see to it, none of you will survive your own ambush. You see….we weren't going to ship the goods until much later. We just wanted to call you out of the woodwork to finish you off. Then there'll be nothing to stop Triangular from a continental domination of every city in _sight_!"

"It's never that simple, D-Dent…," Batman stirred. He propped his back up against a collapsed platform and heaved, at gun-point. "….and you know that."

_STOMP!_ Two-Face's foot clamped over the Dark Knight's ankle.

"Nnngh!" Batman winced. Teeth gritting…bleeding…

"I thought I knew a lot of things…," the mutated mafia boss sneered. "…but there's always more to learn. For instance, you're a lot weaker than I ever imagined, Batman." Both his eyes narrowed as he added through the corner of his curled lips: "…or should I say…_Bruce?"_

"………," Batman clenched his jaw. Eyeslits narrowed. "So you know…."

"Allow me the second or two to bask in the other hilarity of it all…," Two-Face hoarsely spoke. "….Harvey Dent's lifelong colleague and friend Bruce Wayne….is Batman. It's pathetically humorous and ironic at the same time."

"Why don't you show me your best laugh?"

"Not surprised, are you?"

"Are you?" Batman returned. "I figured Dagger would tell you eventually all he knew. And Dagger's proven to be a man who knows a lot, but only sparingly uses his godly knowledge…"

"He's surely opened the doors of Olympus to me, Brucey….," Two-Face spoke. "I consider this my pay off for busting my asses so much for the creep. He wouldn't share this secret with Luthor. But he would with me….I respect that."

"Really now?" Batman tilted his head to the side. "What other secrets has he shared with you, Two-Face?"

"Nnnngh….."

"How about exactly what he was going to do with this shipment of the girl's essences once my team and I were finished?" Batman asked. "Certainly he told you that…."

"My lips are sealed…," Two-Face's eyes narrowed. "All four of them!"

"You're not being very fair, Harvey…."

"Since we're on a first-name basis now, Bruce….allow me the honor of killing you."

"Not without me telling you one last….secret."

"And just what's that?"

Batman frowned further. "Dagger has only one reason for sharing any 'special' information with his cohorts. And that's if he expects them to lose at the hands of the enemy."

"You sniveling clown!" _Cl-Clik!_ Two-Face leaned till he was face to face with Batman and aimed the pistols squarely into his chest. "How can you possibly get out of _this_ one? You're at your last breath!"

Batman's lips curved ever so slightly in the corner. "And here it comes…." He shouted: "Jericho! **NOW**!"

And Batman's eyeslits strobed a bright _**EMERALD.**_

**-CONTACT**

_FLASSSSH!_

A green figure of spectral energy floated from the Dark Knight into Two-Face's body.

"Nrghh!" the mafia boss jolted. His eyes flashed green and melted back to normal. Then they widened as he gasped. "Wh-What…..?" _Clak! Clank!_ He dropped his pistols and looked at his hands helplessly. "Wh-Wh-What's happening to m-me?"

"Dig into him, Jericho!" Batman growled.

"NnnnnNNNGRAAAAAAHH!" Two-Face twitched and jolted back. He gripped his skull and writhed…..writhed…. "RAAAAAAAAUGH! NNNGHHH! M-MY HEAD! IT'S….IT'S RIPPING APART FROM THE INSIDES!"

Batman stood back up with no effort whatsoever, fists clenched. "Dig into him! Find out the secret!"

"Nnnnghh! Auugh! RAAAAUGH!" Two-Face fell onto the ground, convulsing. Eyes bulging. Breath heaving. "N-NO! Get out of me…..GET OUT OF ME!"

"Find out what Triangular's doing!"

"NOOOOOOOO!"

On the other side of the vaults….

I could barely register Two-Face's tortured screams. Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl and I were busy with the muddied golems—all four of whom had recovered from their splattered and icy fates and were surrounding us. Robin and I formed the outer shell, protecting Nightwing and Batgirl with our bludgeons while the other two desperately flung the very last of their projectiles into the muddy mass of tentacles.

SL-SLASH! SLASH! TH-THWPP!

CL-CL-CL-CLANG! CRACK!

SW-SW-SW-SWISH! TH-THUNK!

Batgirl clenched her teeth. "I-I'm almost out of batarangs!"

Robin grunted and slapped back tentacle after tentacle.

Smoke billowed out from under my shades as I struggled and slashed lightning fast at all the attacking limbs.

"Whatever your smoking gun is, Batman, better make it quick!" Nightwing sweated.

Back at the metal pile, Two-Face was still twitching all over.

Batman stood over him, shouting firmly: "Now, Jericho! You must get the answer now!"

"Nnnnnnghhh!" Two-Face sweated profusely, hyperventilating. Convulsing and gripping his skull. "N-No! I-I won't! I WON'T TELL YOU!"

"It's now or never!"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAUGH!" Two-Face howled, his mutant eyes streaming tears that he would never leak in real life. He looked at the four of us battling the clay beasts. He twitched. He gritted his teeth till the calcium nearly cracked…..and then with a groan, his eyes rolled back. He jerked a hand to his pocket and pulled out a device.

Batman started, nearly pouncing on the body. But at the last second he decided not to, because--

SWOOSH! Two-Face's limp arm aimed a high-tech pistol of sorts at the four of us. Rather….at the monsters _around_ us.

_WRIIIII-IIIII-IIIII-IIIII!_

A high powered, sonic blast emanated from the device…converging on the monsters.

Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and I flinched, clutching at our ears in momentary pain.

"Nnngh!"

"Augh!"

_WRIIII-IIII-III-IIIII!_

The waves vibrated at our skin, swam around us, and impacted the four henchmen. Their muddy tentacles warbled and shrank back into their brown torsos. Muddy drops splattered all around as the cluster of freaks shook, shivered, and fell to the metal floor all at once.

PLOP! PL-PL-PLOP!

We watched, panting.

The muddy monsters twitched…convulsed…and solidified into the four thugs. The metamorph power left them, and they were down for the count.

_CRACK!_ The sonic device shattered as Two-Face's fist numbly fell to the floor. He let out a lasting groan, and was silent. Still.

"…………….," Batman took a deep breath.

Robin, Batgirl, and Nightwing stood at ease. Breathing easier.

"The sonic device…," Batgirl rubbed her head. "It….It stopped them!"

"Didn't Two-Face say that only _he_ had the power to silence the thugs?"

"Heh…go figure," Robin shrugged.

I whistled and pointed.

Everyone looked.

Metallo was standing up, still twitching from eletical sparks. He glared at us…then grinned. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Ohhhhh….man! Not even Clayface can save the day! God, I'm loving Triangular by the second!"

Robin pointed with a frown: "Give it up, Corbin! The party's over—"

"Oh please, Bird Boy…you make me laugh…," Metallo walked over and scooped up Killer Croc's unconscious body. "Call me next time you die and are reborn. I could care less about the damned vials."

Batgirl gasped. "Look out! He's going to—"

"Too late!" Metallo cackled. _PHFTOOOOOO!_ His ankle rockets exploded and propelled him upward. "Hahahaha! Flying the _concrete_ skies!" He aimed a laser rifle out of his wrist upward and blew a hole through the metal ceiling of the vaults. He soared up and flew an exit through the shell of the Wayne Corp. skyscraper.

"Dammit! Dammit all!" Nightwing shouted and kicked at the metal floor. He then glanced nonchalantly at the sixty-plus bodies of unconscious, defeated thugs and recovered golden vials. "Hrmm…..okay. Maybe it's not _so_ bad…."

Robin sighed. "I'd call it a victory." He turned around, smiling. "You did great, Noir." A beat. He raised an eyebrow. "Noir?"

I was running over to Batman. I panted and knelt besides Two-Face's body. CHIIING! I sheathed Myrkblade and desperately shook the crook's form. Biting my lip. Mutely pleading. I looked helplessly up at Batman.

"Shhh….," the Dark Knight softly uttered. "Give him time…."

"…..," I nervously shifted in place, looking down at Two-Face's body.

Waiting.

………..

Two-Face twitched.

My heart jumped.

_FL-FLASH!_

In a green glow, the body of Jericho solidified—trembling—besides Two-Face. He let out a breathy moan and fell back.

I swiftly caught him and gently held him from behind.

Jericho shook his head and rubbed it, wincing. His little green eyes were thin.

I smiled breathily and patted his shoulder, glancing at him face-to-face.

He looked at me, managed a weak smile, and nodded as if to say 'okay'.

Batman tilted his head forward. "You did good, Jericho. Perfectly as we planned…."

Jericho gulped and merely shuddered. He looked at the indoor 'battledfield' and bit his lip.

I gave him a brotherly hug from behind. He leaned back against me and relaxed, taking a breath.

The other heroes walked over and gathered around us, silently drinking in the quiet aftershocks….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the front steps of Wayne Manor, the police had not only squad cars but huge prison vans and shipping trucks swarming the night-lit street under a drowning barrage of police lights and floodlamps.

Special medical teams from both Gotham Labs and the Gotham department of S.T.A.R. Labs were there to treat the dozens of defeated guards whose bodies still consisted of a great deal of Clayface's formula. Two-Face himself was taken in a straight-jacket to a special ambulance with the words 'Arkham Asylum' splashed across it. He seemed busily twitching and mumbling incoherently.

"Wowsers!" Bullock stood in the middle of the street, literally directing traffic as criminals and forklifts of golden vials were hoisted and moved every which way. "This is like a law enforcement jackpot! Keep it moving, people! Let's get this trash out of here before the flippin' media shows up!"

"Relax, Harvey…," Montoya drifted by with two handcuffed thugs groaning from their battle wounds. She winked at him and smirked; "Sit back. Have a donut."

"……..," Bullock blinked unbelievingly at her. "Heh…," he scratched his head and smiled. "Guess tonight is a victory, eh?" He turned. He frowned and shouted: "HEY! YOU! BE CAREFUL WITH THOSE VIALS! BATMAN SAYS THEY'RE IMPORTANT!"

In the meantime, on the far side of the scene, Commissioner Gordon stood beneath a single street lamp. Seemingly by himself. He dug his hands into the pockets of his long brown coat and spoke to the air: "This is absolutely incredible! You're telling me that you've been hiding out all this time solely in preparation for what appears to be the biggest anti-criminal sting operation in Gotham City history?"

A pair of eyeslits glistened in the shadows. Sporting impromptu bandages wrapped around his ribs and standing in the dark, Batman uttered: "Harvey Dent is part of a trifold criminal organization known as Triangular. Dagger—who launched the attack on the Titans' City November Fourth—is the ring leader of the group. The other partner is none other than Lex Luthor. A study of those vials and the materials shipping them should prove that."

"Lex Luthor….wow….," Gordon ran a hand through his gray hair without turning back to look at Batman. "After all these years, we finally get some dirt to throw at that creep. Heh…never thought I'd live to see the day."

"Believe it, Jim…," Batman's voice said. "This may very well be the first in a long line of clues that'll eventually explained all the slaughter that's plagued this seaboard, including Vegas."

"I really look forward to that. Hey Batman? Next time you want to take an extended vacation like you just did….heh….that's fine by me."

"Don't be so hasty…," Batman said. His shadowed cowl tilted aside. "Did you get those files from the Mad Hatter's lair?"

"That I did. But don't bother. I was pretty much sure Noir wasn't as he seemed. He fought with you just tonight, didn't he?"

"Yes. He was invaluable."

"Go figure. The media can be so cynical these days. I do my best to make sure Barbara and I are never around a t.v. if we can help it."

"Soon after this, I'll be contacting the Justice League. It's high time I filled them in on the recent situation. For a while, it was too dangerous even to inform _them_."

"Now what about these vials?" Gordon pointed. "I know they point to Luthor and all…but what's so special about them anyways?"

"They constitute a dangerous weapon of geothermal proportions. If it's possible, I would like a sample of some to study in the Batcave's labs. I need to trace every iota of evidence there is to get from this ambush."

"Batman…you _more_ than have it. All of Gotham City's going to be in debt to you. Bruce Wayne especially!"

"That reminds me. Make sure Two-Face is well treated in Arkham."

"Why's that?"

"He suffered a terrible, mental collapse in the middle of our battle in the vaults. Psychologically, he's a complete…utter mess right now. I doubt he remembers anything about what happened here….much less anything about _who he is_, for that matter."

"I guess he'll be sharing a room with Dr. Crane then. The Scarecrow's been out of it ever since we recovered him from the zeppelin crash. Kinda tragic what's happening to these villains. But at the same time, the sour side of me wants to say 'just desserts', ya know?"

"Don't feed that side of you, Jim," Batman said. A slight curve of the lips. "At least….not too much."

"Heheh….I hear ya…," he turned. "Ya know, Batman, I've been too busy with these latest investigations myself. I suggest we both take breaks of our own. Heck, I haven't seen Barbara in weeks!" A pause. The elderly commissioner blinked. "Batman?"

The shadowed buildingside was bear.

"Heh…..up to his old tricks," Gordon shrugged and walked away….towards the thick of the crime scene.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Three blocks away from Wayne Corp….

Crowds walking the nightly sidewalks could see the spotlights and twirling siren strobes of the thick cluster of police cars and prison vans. A helicopter was already hovering overhead, observing the scene between skyscrapers.

Dick Grayson straddled a lazily idling motorcycle at the opening of an alleyway. He was in a leather jacket, black shirt, and black jeans. His wavy, Nightwing hair was slicked back and hung behind him. With heavy blue eyes, he glared at the sight. Taking a deep breath.

"…….."

Suddenly, a female figure sat on the backseat of the bike behind him. A pair of arms softly hugged him from behind. "Guess who?"

Dick blinked. "Babs?"

"Hehehehe…," Barbara Gordon tossed her red hair and winked at him. "So what's this about you giving me a gentlemanly ride home?"

Dick squinted at her over his shoulder. Amused, he smirked. "I didn't say anything about—"

"Oh Dick….you really are an idiot, aren't you?" she smirked.

"……," he rolled his eyes. "God…what's with you lately?"

She shrugged. "I'm happy to have the family back together…..in a sense."

"What? You mean me and Tim? Not getting empty Robin's nest syndrome, are you?"

"Heh….not exactly…," she toyed with a lock of his black hair. "But 'empty' is a good start."

"…..," he smiled. "Want me to give you a ride home?"

"Dick! I thought you'd never ask! After all…a girl's feet do get tired."

"Yeah….," he revved the engine. _Vrmm! Vrmmm!_ "Especially with you sailing them into Metallo's butt a few times."

"Hehehe…I thought he'd never go down."

"Robin and Noir are trying to make the job easier for us. I think I know how Batman feels!"

"Ah….heaven forbid."

"Oh yeah…right," Dick cleared his throat and did away with the kickstand. He brought the bike out into the street. "You know that….I don't 'do' helmets….right?"

Barbara hugged his waste for support. "I think I can trust ya…for once."

"Allrighty then."

_VRMMMMM!_

Their hair flickered as he drove them quickly down the street and away from the fight scene for good.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a dining room at Wayne Manor, Robin stood before a stretch of curtained windows.

He spun around and smiled. "It stopped snowing. I take that as a good sign."

Alfred was pouring glasses full of root beer at the table where Jericho and I sat. "El Nino is in effect, Master Tim?"

"Heh…yeah…sure, Alfred," Robin walked over and folded his arms. "Ah…the sweet taste of victory."

Jericho giggled breathily.

I smirked at him. Like Robin, I too was still dressed sweatily in my scuffed-up outfit. I gestured: _'A triumph worthy both of Titans and bats.'_

"Yeah…but not the Justice League."

I chuckled breathily.

Jericho gestured: _'Does this make me a Titan now?'_

"Pfft…so eager," Robin rolled his eyes under his mask. He nodded a 'thank you' to Alfred and took a glass of root beer. "Joey…if I can come back from the dead, surely you can become a Titan…even at your age."

Jericho smiled proudly.

'_Besides, you earned it,'_ I gestured.

"Indeed," Robin nodded.

"I assume you're all having an intelligent conversation," Alfred stood back and suppressed a smirk. "And not making jokes about me."

'_Colonel Mustard! In the drawing room! With the wrench!'_

Jericho shook again with mute giggles.

I smirked and took my own glass.

Robin raised his: "To the Titans! Vicariously kicking butt in Gotham City!"

Jericho raised his glass.

So did I.

Alfred shrugged and saluted.

And we all drank….root beer.

After a good chugging…

"Ahhh…," Robin sighed. _God, he looked so happy._ "You know…," he broadly smiled. "This makes me miss the pizza place in the center of our Town all the more."

I nodded whole heartedly. I placed my glass down: _'Anytime now, Robin. I am waiting for your cue. We can return.'_

"Yes….we can do that…," Robin nodded as the warm thought washed over him. "We can…….finally return."

Silence.

It was then and there that I noticed how sad Jericho was looking. His green eyes rested on the table.

I looked at him sideways. I again gestured: _'Something is troubling you?'_

He bit his lip. He hesitantly hand-signed: _'I am glad to have been of assistance, but I am somewhat disappointed. Disappointed and worried.'_

"……"

'_I did not get to see my father. Not once.'_

I nodded. I made sure Robin could see me as I hand-signed: _'Red Aviary did not show up. Not once.'_

"Were you ever going to share with us what you shared with Batman?" Robin asked Jericho.

The little blonde kid looked at Robin. He gestured: _'Triangular was planning to ship the vials of Terra's essences to Titan's Tower.'_

Robin's lips parted.

I leaned my head to the side, curiously.

Jericho went on: _'I guess somehow, the stuff being at Wayne Corp. would allow that to happen.'_

"God…that's scary…," Robin said.

I looked at him.

He looked back at me and said: "You ever wondered how the Tower and the Titans' team got its funding for all its material and utilities, Noir? Well now you can know. The City hasn't been funding us all this time. It's been Bruce."

I took a deep breath. _Jeez……that makes complete sense now._

"Silas Stone—Cyborg's father—built the Tower for other purposes. Raven, Cyborg, and I just refitted it before Beast Boy and Starfire joined the group. And Bruce Wayne—with all his billions—supplied the team with what made the Titans' infrastructure tick. Heh….guess having a former sidekick of his lead the team does wonders, huh?"

I smirked and nodded.

Jericho gestured: _'The vaults of Wayne Corp.'s basement must have been where the utilities that went to the Tower started. Some team—working secretly for Bruce Wayne—would then ship the stuff covertly from there to the Titans' Tower.'_

I nodded and hand-signed: _'And the same thing was going to happen with Terra's vials.'_

"Dagger never expected his November Fourth invasion to take over our City at all…," Robin uttered. He clenched his teeth and tightened his fists, nearly breaking the glass of root beer he held. "It was all a god damn distraction. All those hundreds of innocent lives lost at the Titans' hands….and just to keep us busy while he stole Terra, took her to Area 51, and forged from her an arsenal for the **true** invasion of our City. All the while using Red Aviary as both his bane AND his cover…."

"How utterly horrible…," Alfred scowled.

I took a deep breath. Gazing through the table. I thought to myself…

_Only…… _

_That bane of Dagger and bane of US didn't show this evening. _

_Red Aviary wasn't there at the vaults. _

_Or……w-was he?_

Suddenly…

_**ZAAAT!**_

"M-My word!" Alfred jumped back.

The Messenger appeared in the corner. And he looked desperate. His face was stricken with a breathless panic that I've rarely seen in the asian teen.

I immediately stood up.

"M-Messenger?" Robin stammered. "What is—"

"Where is everyone?" the Messenger hotly demanded. "Where're Batman and his team?"

"……," Robin and I exchanged glances.

I shrugged.

The Boy Wonder looked at our visitor. "M-Most of us are here. Bruce Wayen's heading back. Barbara and Dick are—"

The Messenger rushed over and gripped Robin's shoulders. "Call them! Get them here! Get everyone together and safe! NOW!"

"Messenger? What's wrong?" Robin dropped his root beer and gripped our friend's hand.

The Messenger gritted his teeth: "It's Deathstroke! I know where he is now!"

"Do you? Well clue us in!" Robin frowned. "He didn't freakin' show up at all to take me and Noir out the whole damn night!"

"That's because he isn't _out to get you_ right now! He never killed Noir, remember? He still isn't strong enough!"

My jaw dropped.

Jericho blinked, confused.

"Then….Th-Then….," Robin stammered. "Who is he after--?"

"I said CALL EVERYONE TOGETHER!" the Messenger shouted. "NOW!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik!**

_Amidst a cloud of red streams, Dick and Barbara walk from his motorcycle to the front steps of her apartment building. They pause on the steps, looking at each other. Dick has his hands in his pockets. Barbara's wrists cling together behind her skirt. _

"_Here's looking at you, kid…" _

"_Hehehehe……wow. You made a joke." _

"_Yeah, I guess I did."_

**Snkkkkkt! Clik-Clik-Clik-Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik!**

"_You know……you were really great this evening." _

"_Yeah……ahem……I thought so too." _

"_Ohhh……Dick! Big head as always." _

"_And look at you. I've never seen you smile this much in—" _

"_A long, long time."  
_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dick scratched the back of his head. He took a long, mellow sigh. "Yeah…..a long, long time…."

Barbara's eyes averted towards the side.

"…..ya know….Babs…."

"Yes, Dick?"

He gazed off absent-mindedly. "You and me…..we were never…"

"Never what?"

"…….," he glanced at her. He smiled. "We were never available much."

"You think that changed any?" she winked. "You've got that Blockhead in Bludhaven to worry about…"

"Block**buster**," he grunted.

"Whoever."

"And here you are swinging around with Batman all the time," He said. "Sometimes I feel…"

"What? Jealous?"

Dick did a double-take. "You're one to jump to conclusions, aren't you?"

She shrugged. "That's the gymnast in me."

"Yeah, I suppose so."

"Y-Yeah…."

Silence.

"I…..I really like this…."

"Basking in the afterglow of a good, old-fashioned throttling of crime?" Barbara shrugged. "Who doesn't?"

"No….," he took a step closer to her. "This….."

She gazed up at him, lips parted.

"Barbara….," he nervously scratched beneath his ear. "I-I know I'm not really much of a Casanova….and I can be really full of myself and into my career and stuff…..but…..yeah….b-being with the 'family' again and having a chance to see you in action and just how much you've grown and how much smartness you put into your talents and all, it….I-I guess it makes me want tommmmfffff!" His blue eyes bulged.

She was leaning up on her toes, kissing him. Red lips to his. She gently stroked his shoulder and leaned back. "You were saying?"

"……," he blinked. "….damn hacker, you…." He smiled. "Encrypted the words right out of my mouth!"

"Hehehe…ewwww…is that a 'nerd' joke?"

"I'd knew you'd like it!"

She punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow! That hurts now!"

"I'm glad!" she stuck a tongue out and giggled.

He smiled, his cheeks a little red.

She sighed. She twiddled her thumbs and glanced aside, cheeks red too. "You think you might….I dunno…" She glanced up at him with pensive blue eyes. "….be free again sometime soon? I mean…battling BlockParty has gotta be time consuming."

"Funny thing just happened."

"What's that?"

He winked and hugged her. "A weekend just opened up."

"Ohhh…Dick…," she squeezed him back and said against his chest. "How long from now?"

"Haven't decided yet."

"Oh, you!"

She shoved him away.

He chuckled. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Not tonight?"

"Fine. Tonight," he saluted and walked back to his bike. "We'll chat till we can't keep our eyes open. It'll be like the old days!"

She cupped her hands over her lips as their distance grew. "At least this time we don't have Statistics Honors to flunk because of it!"

"Yeah! Or World Economics!"

"You said it was Calculus!"

"That was the old Dick!" _Vrmm! Vrmm!_ "And the old Dick was a liar!" _SCREEECH! Vrmmmmmm!_

She waved as he left. "The old Dick was a dick….," she smilingly murmured. She took a deep breath, turned around, and walked into the apartment lobby.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Barbara Gordon reached the door to her apartment.

She reached into a small purse and produced a key.

She fit it to the keyhole.

She paused.

"……….."

She darted her head aside.

She looked down the right end of the hallway.

_Nothing……_

"………."

She glanced down the left end.

_Emptiness……_

"………."

She shuddered.

She shook it off.

She inserted the key.

Twisted it.

And opened the door.

_Creeeeak._

Some mail deposited through the small door slot rested on the welcome mat.

She knelt down with a breath and scooped them up.

She shuffled them against her tummy.

"DSL bill….heheh…great…."

She walked into her apartment, slipping her shoes off in the process.

She closed the door.

She turned around to face it.

She locked the door.

She slid a bolt shut.

She fastened a latch-key—

_**KL-KLAK!**_

_PLANT!_

Barbara gasped.

The mail dropped to the floor between her ankles.

The barrel of a shotgun was pressed against the back of her head.

"_**Hckkkkk……clik-clik-clik……"**_

Red smoke billowed out around her.

A mist of breath left her shivering lips.

Wide-eyed, she glanced right and saw the blazing red-eye of Deathstroke's cowl.

"Aaa-!" he breath was cut short by a metal and flesh hand cupping gnarledly over her mouth.

"_**Hcckkkk……Batgirrrrrrrl….snkkkttt!"**_ Slade hissed into her ear. _**"Or ssssshould I say-clik-clik-clik-kkt……ORACLE?"**_

Barbara shivered. Sweat ran down her brow and froze into red drops from the cold vapors billowing from his cowl's slits.

"_**You'rrrrre a terrrrible vigilantttte to have letttt me ssssneak up on you….,"**_ Slade hissed. _**"I'm beginning to thinkkkk-Hckkkk!—that a computer hacccker is a better career choicccce for you…."**_

Barbara whimpered as the barrel of the shotgun traveled down the back of her body.

It stopped right at the base of her spine.

"_**But that'sssss a job you that can takkkkke sssssitting down…."**_

_**BLAMMMM!**_

Barbara would have screamed if she felt the pain.


	234. A Hard Act to Follow part 19

**234. A Hard Act to Follow part 19**

November 30, 2004.  
Gotham City.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Their hands were all over and around her.

Leather straps and plastic.

Tubes and needles and tubes and needles.

Rattling sounds.

A ceiling. An elevator doorframe. Electric lights. Red sky. Polluted, crimson smog blotting out the stars.

There were voices.

And there were faces.

Uniformed strangers.

Men. Women.

Fingers pointing.

Hands joining.

Arms hoisting.

More rattling.

A tilt to the world.

Plastic tubes and cases pressing.

Sliding…gliding….drifting into an ambulance.

Beeping and blinking.

A distant twirl of something vaguely resembling a world.

Some voice trying to act motherly.

Then jabbing in a needle.

But with no pain.

A pair of lips shuddered, encased in an oxygen mask.

Blue eyes rolled back.

Doors slammed shut.

A siren through the ceiling wailed.

Like a reaper scratching through the walls of a mausoleum with dead cat claws.

There were more hands.

And more wires.

And more needles.

Jabbing and jabbing and jabbing.

She shuddered.

Squeaking a voice.

A name.

Heartbeat.

Heartbeat.

Heartbeat….

She couldn't feel a thing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham Countryside.  
Mountain road.  
11:43 pm

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bruce Wayne drove north along the country roads in a brown convertible. He wove around hillsides, steep drops, and mountainous faces of the topographical scenery.

He took a deep breath of the air blowing against his face. He managed a contented curve of his lips. He gazed to the right.

The glove compartment had opened ever so slightly ajar. A Dark Knight uniform and a softly packaged bunch of golden vials hid inside. He reached a hand over once on a straightaway and cautiously clapped the compartment closed. It took merely a quick change in his personal lockerroom at the Wayne Corp. building to switch to the aristocratic 'persona'. A thorough interview with investigators brought everyone up to date with the huge brawl that had taken place downstairs in the skyscraper's vault. A disaster in the gradual making had swiftly been reversed. The damage suffered by Wayne Corp. would be great, but nowhere near as great had Batman and his troupe not intervened. A lot of families were about to be reunited with the hostage-taken employees. It was a night to rejoice rather than to worry.

_Vrrrrmmmmm!_

Bruce turned a final corner and spotted the gates to Wayne Manor up ahead. He absentmindedly reached for the remote under his dashboard that would trigger the gates to open from afar…but then he noticed something.

The gates were already open.

And a single, glaring headlight was burning through, zooming Bruce's way.

The billionaire's eyes narrowed. He slowed his convertible and veered to the right.

_VRMMMMMMMM!_ A motorcycle sped past the car. Motorcycle with a darkly dressed, black-haired young man on it.

Bruce's lips pursed: _"Dick……?"_

_SCREEEECH!_ The motorcyle swerved and braked with a sideways slide. Dick breathlessly glared Bruce's way. "There you are! I've been trying to get in touch with you!"

Bruce slowed his vehicle to a stop and half-stood in his seat. "What's going on, Dick? What's the matter?"

"You mean you haven't heard?"

"…….."

"It's Barbara, Bruce!" Dick uttered fiercely. "She's been hurt. _Bad."_

"……………….," it took Bruce Wayne three seconds to figure it out. Six seconds total to brave an utterance: "Deathstroke….."

Dick gripped the handles of the bike and more or less motioned with his head southward. Towards the City. "They're taking her to Gotham Central Med! The Commissioner should already be there by now. I'm going down to check on her."

"I'm going with you."

"Sorry, Bruce, but not even the devil could catch up with me tonight…," Dick hissed to the air and gunned it. _VRMMMMMMMM!_ He bulleted dangerously down the mountain roadways, kicking up gravel.

Bruce performed a tricky three-point-turn. Once his convertible was angled out just right, he steered with one hand while he dialed on a car phone with another. He picked the phone up and raised it to his ear.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Riing! Riing!_

Alfred was pacing around the study. When the phone ran on the nearby table, he immediately went towards it and picked it up.

"Sir?"

"_Alfred, have you—?"_

"Yes, sir. It's quite terrible."

"_Have you heard any details?"_

"Your emergency tracker would educate you far more better than I could. But the reports we've gotten are very grim indeed."

"_When did it happen?"_

"We figure shortly after Master Dick dropped Miss Gordon off at her apartment. That's where it took place, sir. In her home. The neighbors supposedly heard a huge gun blast and—"

"_Alfred, I'm in a hurry. This is undoubtedly the work of Deathstroke, which means that he has a greater grip on all of us than I ever imagined. Tell me. Robin and Noir. Where are they?"_

"I…..erhm…..it's th-the same as with Master Dick, sir. I couldn't exercise restraint…"

"_What do you mean, Alfred?"_

"They left already. And they took our young blonde guest with them."

"_Where did they go? The hospital?"_

"Not exactly, sir."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

December 1, 2004.  
Downtown Gotham City.  
12:13 am.  
Apartment Buildings.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Where the street was previously filled to the brim with ambulances and paramedics, now police squad cars of various shapes and colors heavily populated the asphalt and even the sidewalks. A crowd watched curiously on the sidelines as officers filed in and out of one of the apartment buildings…heading up towards a higher floor. Towards a particular room. There had to have been at least fifty officers there.

The world turns when the daughter of Gotham City's police commissioner is shot.

A breath of wind….

Robin landed from a high swinging grappling cord. He perched on a neighboring building's rooftop and gazed at the apartment being concentrated on. He was breathing heavier…more raggedly than normal. Vapor visibly left his mouth in the cold, wintry air.

_Fw-Fwoosh!_

I came to a blurring stop, smoke trailing. I looked worriedly at the apartment. Then at him.

He glanced at me. He motioned silently for me to keep my position.

I nodded obediently.

The Boy Wonder fired another grappling hook. POW! _Cl-Clank!_ It embedded into the building across the way. He swung over and perched on a fire escape…landing conveniently outside of Barbara Gordon's platform. He kept a low profile, snuck up to the window pane, and stared in through the glass. He thinned his eyemask, visibly concentrating.

Dozens of bodies swayed back and forth. Studying the room. Covering the rooms from head to toe. Flashbulbs strobed as photographic evidence was taken of the room. Everything looked neat and orderly. Except for…

Robin gulped.

From where he craned his neck outside, he could see the front door of the apartment's atrium. There was red…red….red….

Everywhere.

The Boy Wonder shuddered. He clenched his fists, calmed himself with a deep breath, and looked fixedly at the investigators.

"………"

His gaze finally rested on Montoya. She looked tired. Drained. Wounded….

She was directing people around, feeding off information of those conducting the investigation.

She was the source.

"Okay, Jericho….," Robin whispered. "See the woman that I'm staring at? That's the one. Now….let's do it just like we planned….okay? Just wait for a good moment for her to look this way…..wait……….wait……….."

Montoya spoke to one officer.

Her chocolate brown eyes were thin.

She sighed and nodded, saying something to a pair of men. Another person walked up. She turned towards him and started speaking. Her eyes darted up. They aimed in the general direction of the window….

"Now, Jericho!"

Robin braced himself for the dizzy sensation.

A green light pulsed out of his eyemasks and—

**CONTACT**

_FL-FLASH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FL-FLASH!_

Montoya blinked. She stumbled and rubbed her head.

"Nnnngh…."

"Montoya?"

"Renee, you okay?"

"Yes….I….just…," she stood more steadily and shook her head. Rubbing her temples. "….Th-This has been a lot to take in one evening…."

"The doctors are taking care of her now. Let's do what we can here."

"Hey….you need a break?"

"Me?" Montoya clenched her jaw and shook her head. "Never. Now…where were we?"

A man was going over samples and gesturing to parts of the room as he said: "There were some lead shot found in the doorframe. We think it went clear through the victim's body upon point blanc shot. No cartridges were found, although one left an impression in the blood at the atrium of the apartment and we've having experts attempting to determine the exact gauge from it….which is rather difficult, if you can imagine…"

"Right…."

"There're no footsteps in the blood. Seemingly no organic traces left. No signs of a struggle with the victim, but we're still not sure if all the blood here is entirely Barbara Gordon's. We're looking into that with random sampling."

"What about that door?"

"Hmm? What door?"

Montoya pointed towards a large, wooden door with a metal frame on the far side of the apartment. "Where's that lead? Miss Gordon's bedroom?"

"No, ma'am. We haven't been able to get in there yet."

"Why not?" Montoya asked, making a face.

"It's….it's sealed tight. Metal reinforcement. And there's a numberpad that needs a four-digit string code for it to open."

"Something that only Miss Gordon knows, no doubt…."

"Right. And with her incapacitated at the moment, it's next to impossible to open."

"Not impossible, officer. If someone could sneak into this apartment, blow a hole through the Commissioner's daughter, and then slip away without a trace….then anyone can and _could have_ gone into that room."

"Very true, ma'am."

"What did Barbara want protected in there, anyways?" Montoya spoke, more to herself than to anyone. She ran a hand through mahogany hair and shuddered. "Did she keep valuables in her apartment? Real gold or silver instead of a bank account?"

"We think it's a panic room of sorts," one officer said. "A place to go to for safety. No windows, just one huge…heavy door."

Another officer gestured: "She is the daughter of Gotham City's Commissioner, after all…."

Renee nodded. "True….true…."

"Guess she was in the wrong place at the right time."

"Less speculation and more searching," Montoya said. "Try and find a way inside that door."

"Yes, ma'am."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the outside of the apartment, Robin remained perched on the fire escape.

He took a deep breath and gripped the window frame from the outside. He tensed his muscles, concentrated…and slowly….gently….lifted the glass open without making a sound or performing a jerking movement of any sort. He produced a birdarang and stuck it in the window frame just beneath the glass, holding the window open. He then reached into his utility belt and pulled out a dart gun of sorts. He exhaled, steadied himself, squinted one half of his mask, aimed through the crack in the window, and fired.

_Pifft!_

A tiny dart with a sleeping potion flew through the interior and struck Renee Montoya in the neck.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Th-Thap!_

Montoya jolted. "Nnngh…," instantly, her face tensed. Then the skin on her face softened. Her eyes rolled back…closed…and her body seemed to 'hang' in air for a moment.

"……."

Then her eyes suddenly flickered back open. A green light strobed momentarily over the chocolate pupils, and she stood up straight and tall. A new determination falling over her features. She cleared her throat, marched across the apartment, and approached the officers at the door.

"You know what? That's going to take too long…," she said.

One officer looked back at her. "Ma'am?"

"Go get some of the laser cutters from the S.T.A.R. Labs crew down in the street. That should help us get inside the electronics so that we can hotwire the system and bypass the security."

"…….," the offices exchanged glances. After a moment, they glanced back at Montoya as one of them said: "Ma'am, we'd be glad to…b-but none of us are really that much of an expert on—"

"I think I can do the trick," she suddenly smiled.

"Ma'am?"

She cracked her knuckles. "You don't excel as a detective just by pushing paper, now do you? I have a hand at…hacking. As long as you get that tool, we should be able to make this go a lot faster. Now….go down there. Both of you. I trust you can do a delivery job well enough."

"Uhh…s-sure thing!"

"Right away!"

The officers left, taking one or two of the investigators with them. The side of the apartment closest to the window was barren.

"………..," Montoya gazed mutely at the other side of the interior. Once the coast was clear, she turned and gestured to the window in perfect sign-language: _'Okay. Now!'_

Robin opened the window, dove in, and gently rolled to a kneeling position on the ground. The entire entrance was perfectly soundless. He crept over and tilted his head up to look at Montoya directly. "You in there, Jericho?"

Montoya nodded. "I'm here, Robin. Renee's 'asleep' at the moment."

"Can you tell when she'll 'wake up'?"

"As long as we don't jostle her in the….erm….next hour or two, it should be all right. Besides, she's dreaming."

"Good dreams?"

Montoya took a deep breath. "Would _you_ have good dreams after today, Robin?"

The Boy Wonder winced at that. "I'm almost disappointed you can't talk normally all the time, Jericho."

"I'm not about to complain. Especially tonight," Montoya mumbled. She pointed momentarily green-flickering eyes towards the reinforced door. "Should I _really_ hack into that? Or do you know your friend's code?"

"Of course I know it…," Robin ran over as the 'detective' followed. "The 'Oracle' only trusts her friends. Her _real life_ friends."

"Ah. So this is where Barbara keeps her computer network hub," Montoya nodded. "That's not a bad idea."

"Yeah…well…it didn't work like she wanted it to," Robin muttered as he typed away at the number key.

"…….," Montoya sighed. "I-I suppose not…."

Robin made a face in the middle of inserting the code.

"What's wrong? Is the code not working?"

"It's working all right, I just….j-just get a funny feeling…."

"Like what?"

"Like someone's been in here before us. _Recently._"

Montoya bit her lips childishly. "D-Deathstroke?"

"………," Robin took a deep breath and reached for his metal staff. "Stand back. There might be something bad on the other side of this door."

The 'detective' nodded.

Robin half-glanced at her. "And that's not _your_ body you're using now…"

Montoya took a breath and stepped back quite a distance.

_Snrkkt!_ Robin extended his staff. He reached a gloved hand out, held his breath, waited a few seconds, and….

_Click!_

_HISS! SCHLOCK!_

Montoya looked over her shoulder nervously.

Nobody came that way.

Robin stepped aside.

The door slid open.

Robin walked forward. He disappeared into the room. Silence.

Silence………..

"…………………," Montoya shifted nervously where she stood. She looked towards the other side of the room again. Nothing. She waited. She leaned left and right. Finally, after a breath, she walked forward and pensively….entered the room.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Immediately as Montoya entered the room, the foul copper smell of blood filled her nose.

She took no more than three steps and stopped dead in her tracks.

Gasping.

There was a trail of blood in a solid line creeping across the carpet. Slash marks from a sword scarred the ground and scraped furniture and smashed in rows of computer monitors like the whiptail of a charging dragon. Lights were sparkling….crackling….shooting tiny electric bolts here and there. The trail of madness led to the far wall where a 'U' of a desk with computer stations rested. But everything was I disarray. Monitors had been tossed to the floor. And a wall that was once blocked off by towers and hardware equipment now stretched pale and barren.

…..Except for the lines in red blood splashed in tiny, fine print across the wall's surface to resemble legible words.

Barbara Gordon's blood….

It read from corner to corner….

'_I missed you this evening, Robin. Barbara was in the way. Unless I get your life once again quivering in my hand too, I'll be visiting the rest of the loved ones of yours that are also in the way. Starting with the Titans, Robin. Starting with the Titans. And next time, I promise to aim higher.'_

Montoya's lips quivered. Her eyes flickered green as tiny tears squeezed out of the corners. She cupped a hand over her lips and murmured: "F-Father….no….."

"……………," Robin took a deep, seething breath. Both his fists were clenched. He stared at the voluminous words long and hard. He studied the way the first sentences dripped with fresh blood and how the last few words were like dried out amber. Barbara had to have been bleeding to death the entire time Slade got the life juice necessary to produce such a long 'letter'. And to Robin….

Montoya looked nervously at the Boy Wonder, hugging herself. Trembling.

Robin shook….shook…..positively vibrated……..and then was still. His fists were clenched so tight that—if it weren't for the gloves—he would likely rip his own palm open with his fingernails.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……….," I stood restlessly on the rooftop away from the apartment complex. The police lights strobed in the faraway street and fed the air below and above me with a pulsating red aura. It disturbed me….made me want to look over my shoulder with paranoia. I shuddered to breathe.

Silence…..

_Sw-Swish!_

I positively jumped.

I glanced over.

Robin had landed with a shivering, young blonde under his arm. Jericho looked shaken up.

My black eyes squinted under my shades.

_Jeez, Ana. What did they see down there?_

I gestured to Robin: _'What is it?'_

He glared at me. Fuming.

"…….," I blinked.

_Robin looks…… _

_Like Robin again……_

I bit my lip.

_I haven't seen such a glare from him since…… _

_Since I was first 'Wyldecarde'……_

I shivered at the thought.

He marched past me, stomping.

I again gestured while mouthing: _'What did you find?'_

He stopped with his back to me.

He stood alone on the rooftop.

The cold wintry winds blew at us all, but while Jericho and I shivered in the slight flake-fall of frost, Robin was unshaken.

He was inhuman. Strong. A statue. A shaking, charging statue.

_Tim? _

_Where's Tim?_

A growl escaped his throat. Something I had heard curse Slade in many a frustrated tongue before. The same voice that had yelled at Wyldecarde, cussed out Johnny Rancid, and challenged Dagger when the whole City of ours was burning. It was Robin incarnate. Back from the grave like never before that night…

"Rrrrrrrrrrrr_rrrrRRRRR__**RRRRAAAUGHHHHH!"**_ he snarled and kicked a t.v. antenna clear out of its ceiling brace. _**CRACK!**_

Jericho and I winced. Two hapless mutes…

Robin then ran, approached a twirling A/C sphere, and kicked it too off its foundation.

_**CRKKK!**_

He stood. Lungs heaving. His hair a disheveled mess, much like his cape.

"…….," I slowly…hesitantly approached him from behind. A hand reaching towards his shoulder, gently….

Robn spun around. Robin glared.. Robin pointed. Robin said: "Get **him** inside of **you** and follow me."

Jericho shuddered.

I leaned my head to the side and mouthed: _'Where?'_

Robin took a deep breath. Staring off. Glaring towards the red sky. "The Hospital…..," he deflated.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Barbara Gordon was carted into the operation room of the Gotham Central Medical Center. In no time at all, a thick group of expert physicians had clustered around her needled and tubed figure and proceeded to further needle and tube her. They assaulted her with plastics and medication to keep her dwindling body alive.

Voices muffled to each other. Sharp commands. Numbers and operating tool names. Blood packets. More blood packets. Electrical equipment. More light.

The chief surgeon wandered in, sterilized and wearing gloves. He looked swiftly over notes and stats being provided by another masked nurse. He nodded, gave a command, and walked over to the patient.

Suddenly, a voice uttered behind him: "I think you'll be needing another pair of hands, Doctor…"

He turned and looked. His eyes widened a bit under his cap. "D-Dr. Thompkins!"

Leslie Thompkins walked in, also sterilized. Suited cleanly for the operation room. "I hear the Commissioner's Daughter is in bad shape. Let's not waste any time."

"Doctor, all respect intended….b-but I thought you retired! You've been plagued with chronic arthritis for the last few years and--"

"A doctor never retires," she said, muffled through her mask. "Where her hands lose out, her mind winds. At least let me be an extra set of eyes. I've dealt with this sort of condition before."

The doctor took a deep breath, and he seemed almost to smile under his mask. "Good to have you along, Dr. Thompkins. Please…we need to hurry."

"Let me have a look. Where's the worst of the damage?"

"As you see here, the blast from the suspect left most of the sacrum in disarray. There's extensive damage to the coccyx, but the sacroiliac joints are almost completely gone."

"Any remaining tissue from the spinal cord along the lower sacrum?"

"We think the nerves may have been broken even higher up with the duress experienced by the rest of the backbone from the intensity of the impact, which is the least to say about her liver, pancreas, and upper smaller intestines. I've never seen anything like it. This sort of a blast at close range should have driven a hole through her entire body. But everything seems directed specifically into the vertebrae."

"It's not our job to question it, only to fix it."

"Right. We're going in. Nurse! Let's have someone by Doctor Thompson's side throughout the operation too. Doctor, I may need more than just your brain after all."

"For this girl, I'd donate a good few of my spinal fluid any day…."

"One thing at a time. Henson! More blood, stat!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……..," the Commissioner sat in the hospital hallway. His head in his hands. Bent over…hunched.

Silence…save for the shuffling sounds of nearby officers in waiting and the distant beeps of ICU equipment.

Bullock was in the room. He forewent the toothpick, choosing instead to wring his chubby hands and glare at the floor tile.

And a few chairs away, Dick Grayson sat. His arms folded. Also hunched….staring at the floor.

"…………….."

A body walked by.

Dick looked up. His lips parted some. Weak eyes managed to widen ever so slightly just to take in the sight of the newcomer and register his existence….

Bruce Wayne strolled through the hallway. He stood before Commissioner Gordon for a few seconds. His face was long. His hands were in his pockets. He stared through the old man seemingly. Silent. Waiting.

"……………..," Gordon's gray eyes didn't move an inch as he muttered: "Th-They say that….even if she lives…….she will be paralyzed throughout half of her body……"

Bruce took a deep breath.

He gazed over at the distant doors to the operating room. Cold and blue. Silent.

"I heard Dr. Thompkins came to assist the surgery…."

Gordon was silent.

Bruce looked over: "She's good, Jim. She won't let the worst happen to Barbara."

"The worst has already happened…," the Commissioner murmured.

Silence.

Bruce ran a hand through his dark hair. He walked over and knelt in front of the Commissioner. "Jim….," he said in a low voice.

The gray-haired man looked up.

"The best is yet to happen…," he gently squeezed the father's forearm. "Hang in there. Keep faith in your daughter. Barbara's a fighter. She'll make it through this…."

"…………," James Gordon merely tilted his head down and rested his face in his hands. He shook a bit. Silent. Shuddering.

On the sidelines, Bullock stood. Staring at the two gentlemen. A sad face stretched his usually pudgy face. Than his features hardened into a frown as if a thought melted over him. He clenched his fist, spun silently around, and stomped down the hallway….brushing violently past a pair of quietly conversing police officers.

Dick Grayson stared at the ceiling. He too grew tense. He stood up and—with limbs tight—marched the opposite way down the hall. He placed a hand on Bruce's shoulder.

Bruce Wayne looked up.

Dick motioned with his head towards a stairwell and marched silently towards it.

Bruce nodded. He gave Gordon a final pat on the shoulder, slowly stood up, and walked after his former ward.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The door creaked and filled the stairwell with echoing, reverberating noise. Dick wandered in and held the door open.

Bruce pushed through after him.

They walked onto a platform of the eighth floor and let the door close on its own behind them.

An echoing slam, magnified by the claustrophobic metal and cinderblock walls. Then, silence.

Silence….until Dick, leaning back against a wall with his arms crossed, faced Bruce and said: "How'd it happen, Bruce? How didn't we see him trailing us the whole time?"

"Deathstroke must be more powerful than we imagined. His powers must be able to emulate the stealth of Noir by now, if not perfect it."

'Why didn't we consider these options before?"

'We did consider these options, but—"

"But _what?"_ Dick glared.

Bruce stared back. Firmly. "I had no idea that Red Aviary would have an inkling to our alternate identities."

"You had no idea? Bruce, isn't it obvious? He trailed Barbara and I!"

"And you didn't sense him?"

"Look, don't you dare pin this all on me!" Dick snarled and marched towards Bruce, finger pointing. "You think I haven't had a second go by tonight without feeling like shit for what's happened? You're the expert detective of us all, Bruce! You've fought the Joker, Ra's Al Ghul, and the Royal Flush Gang! How could Deathstroke possibly be any stronger or any smarter than what you've faced already?"

"Dick, I took all the necessary precautions I could," Bruce said, eyes glaring back at him. "I kept us under the radar. I had Robin and Noir concealed. Only when it was critical to strike at Triangular did I have the troupe go out into the open en masse like I did. I expected us to be safe—if not a formidable force—in a group as opposed to one on one. But Deathstroke isn't like any of the fiends you or I have faced before. He doesn't get any reward save for death itself. His power is solely the loss of other people. He doesn't use henchmen, he doesn't use psychotic weapons, he simply does that which he hungers for. Murder."

"He hasn't murdered Barbara, Bruce!" Dick growled. He **mutilated** her! And what for? Don't you dare freakin' tell me it's all just to get at Robin and the Titans!"

"………"

"Nnnnghh!" Dick spun and kicked the metal railing of the nearby stairs. He stood. He heaved. He spoke with his back to the Billionaire: "…I was there, Bruce. I was there….right at her apartment doorstep, practically. Why couldn't I have stayed and protected her? Why did I leave her alone? Why couldn't I _tell_ that Slade was nearby?"

"I wouldn't have done any better, Dick, honestly," Bruce said. He gestured while talking: "And quite frankly, neither would have Noir…"

Dick turned around, blue eyes thin. "Even though he's—"

"I believe Deathstroke is out of his hands now. He's proven to all of us that he's more than capable of claiming whatever victims he chooses. He's a bastardized pole of the secret, spectral energy that Noir has studied. I don't think Noir can manage a silver bullet anymore. I don't think any of us can….not right now, at least."

"Then what? We try and grow stronger or some crap?" Nightwing shrugged. "I'm sorry, Bruce. But Deathstroke's won this battle…"

Bruce's lips parted. "Dick?"

"The Titans have enough resources to save their own pimply asses for all I care," the former ward gestured with a frown. "The only person who could possibly need **my** help now is Barbara. I'm not about to let her down….again."

"Dick, this isn't over…"

"For you, maybe it isn't!" Dick growled. "Dammit, don't you see, Bruce? This isn't some beat on the town where you end up stringing up a couple of robbers on a street corner light near a bank robbery. This isn't one of those times when you beat the Joker up and throw him back into Gotham. This is a black hole. It's sucking us up. It's sucked up so many lives—both good and bad—in this City already. We're just next in line. I don't see how throwing ourselves right into the line of fire is going to help us end up any better than Barbara!"

"Dick, we're heroes…"

"We're human, Bruce! Hell, at least I am! You and Robin can have your hardcore shit for all I care! Nightwing's on the coat rack till Barbara pulls through this, I swear to God!" and Dick marched towards it, reaching for the door.

Bruce's hand grabbed the younger man's wrist.

Dick looked up, glaring.

Bruce leaned forward and spoke in the Dark Knight's voice: "Long ago…I told you that something terrible might happen. That because of the sanctity of your alternate identity, someone you know or love might suffer a terrible fate. I asked you then if you would have the integrity to stand up for what was just and continue the fight. You told me 'yes', then. Was that a different Dick I knew? Someone less likely to let the fear of evil persuade him into oblivion?"

Dick slowly nodded: "You're right about one thing, Bruce. This does deal with someone I know and **love.**" He took a deep breath. Nostrils flaring. "I love her, Bruce. So help me God, I never stopped loving Barbara. If it takes oblivion for me to make up for the Hell that's happened to her tonight, so be it. You're on your own, Batman. But something tells me….you're used to that…"

The door creaked as Dick opened it and returned to the hallway.

Bruce stood alone.

Gazing down at the metalworks of the platform beneath his feet.

He let loose a deep sigh, alone in the stairwell.

The door creaked again, swung back, and closed with thunderous echoes.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bruce stumbled out of the plaza entrance of the hospital.

Immediately, he spotted just outside the elliptical driveway for emergency vehicles the first of many t.v. news vans to assemble at the location. Technicians and reporters were scrambling to get a broadcast ready detailing the Comissioner's daughter's tense situation.

Bruce sniffed indignantly. He didn't want to be asked any questions. So, the easily recognizable billionaire pulled his collar up around the back of his neck and made his way through the shadows towards his distant convertible.

Before he got to the parking lot—however—he already heard muttering voices nearby. People were tilting their heads back and looking up.

"…….."

Bruce glanced up.

The bat-signaled shimmered in the air.

Illuminating cloudcover over the red night.

"………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FW-FWOOSH!_

I murked up to the top floor of the hospital.

Robin swung down and landed beside me in a crouch. He took his sweet time standing up. His fists were still clenched as he breathed gently and marched towards the elevator shaft's top engine compartment from far.

In the meantime, I braced myself, took my shades off, and gazed intently at the rooftop just beside me.

It took very little time. With a dizzy sensation that shook me from the head to the knees, Jericho exited out of me.

**FL-FLASH!**

In a green strobe, the young blonde appeared to my left. He stood up and gulped nervously Robin's way.

I gazed at my leader too.

Silent.

He glanced back at us. Glaring. Eyemask like an iron helmet visor.

I said nothing.

_He wants to go alone again……_

Robin gripped a panel of the elevator engine compartment. He growled. _CRKK!_ He yanked the 'door' open and jumped inside. Soon he would be producing a grappling hook and lowering himself down the elevator shaft to where Barbara no doubt was. But the compartment door closed before I could watch him do such.

I could only stand there and sigh.

Shifting nervously.

_Robin……alone……_

Jericho nervously side-stepped to my left.

I brought a black hand over and gently ruffled his hair before resting a hand on his shoulder.

He leaned against my hip, shuddering. For a second, I thought I was going to see him cry again. But I figured, he had run out of tears.

I bit my lip.

_Had Robin begun to lose them?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City Downtown.  
Police Department Building.  
12:52 am.  
Rooftop.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_POW! _

_Cl-Clank!_

SWOOOOSH!

Batman swung over via grappling hook.

He landed on top of the Police Department Building where the signal shimmered towards the Gotham Sky.

Eyeslits narrow, Batman marched forward and stopped at the sight of one may fingering the switch to the giant , bat-emblazed beacon.

"Always prompt as usual," Detective Bullock frowned and stepped out of some shadows. "But like most homing pigeons these days, you only come out when there's no noise being heard."

Batman uttered coldly: "Bullock, what is it? What's the problem?"

"Jeez Louise!" Bullock shrugged his shoulders and marched forward some more. "Haven't ya heard?" He frowned. He pointed across downtown. "The Commissioner's Daughter has been snapped in two by some deranged lunatic with a shotgun for a sex toy! You telling me you don't know about that?"

"I know all about the Commissioner's daughter," Batman hissed. "I don't need you to tell me."

"Heh…yeah…I bet."

Batman glanced at the signal, then at Bullock. With a suspicious glare he uttered: "Bullock, what did you summon me for?"

"Just….this….," and the detective coiled his body with clenched teeth and a tight fist.

Batman easily saw it minutes ahead of time. He stepped back and gripped Bullock's thrown punch with his gloved palm. _TH-THAP!_ "Bullock, I know this is hard for you. It's hard for all of us! But the last person you should be taking your frustration out on is me!"

"Is that so, wise cracker?" Bullock yanked his arm back and sneered. "I'm not half as lazy as I make myself look sometimes! Up until that god damn holocaust in lil' Barb's apartment, I was interrogating some of the creeps you and the Bat Troupe brought in this evening! Yeah, you're right about Triangular and all that shit. Sure you're right! You're always right! But then there's a little something those idiots were telling us that you neglected to mention! Something about a Parasite! A Red Reaper streaking his god damn metaphysical way across Gotham and murdering big name people left and right! And that's something that explains the deaths of the Terrible Troupe when that zeppelin hit town! And the murders of Bolton! And of the warehouses by the pier! And what's more…**you knew about all of them!"**

"Bullock, you cannot even begin to understand," Batman firmly said. "My partners and I have been on this case for over a month now. We're so close to catching this fiend in the act that it's almost laughable."

"Was the Commissioner's daughter being wasted **'close'** enough for you, jerk?" Bullock gestured. "You know, I don't see some sort of courageous vigilante fighting darkness under cover! Instead, I see a winged rat panicking and fighting for his life! And thanks to him making things noisy for a force a hell of a lot stronger than him—or anyone else in the City for that matter—it's the REALLY innocent people who bite it in the end! How's that for **'laughable'**?"

"Bullock, I've taken every precaution I could. Every tool at my disposal I've used to track down Triangular and this 'reaper'. I cannot fathom how Barbara Gordon suffered the way she did, but I promise you with my word….I **will** find this psychopath. And I **will** bring him to justice."

"Justice? HA! What good can you possibly do now, Batsy? You think the Commish is gonna be your friend after this? I'm surprised if he doesn't hate you more than I do! And that's say a lot!"

Batman grunted: "I don't have time for this…" The Dark Knight turned and headed towards the buildingside with a grappling hook. "The last thing I need to be doing is arguing endlessly with you while Miss Gordon's life hangs by a thread. If there's any stopping what's left of Triangular and the Reaper, I need to continue my work. Now."

"Ah! Fine! Just ride off into the night like you always do!" Bullock shouted. "Go on ahead! It's not like I care! You know why, Batsy? Because I'm sick of your unlawful romps across this City and I'm sick of all the grime and disease you bring to fester in Arkham, and most of all….

Bullock turned towards the bat signal..

He seethed…he heaved….

With his obese girth, he gripped the sides of the bat signal and lifted with all his might. "Nnnnghh…..NNNNnnnghhhh!"

Batman's lips parted as he watched.

"NnnnngghhhAAAAAUGH!" Bullock mightily tipped the hulking signal over the edge of the rooftop. The iconographic device snapped free of it power source, fell past the windows the entire height of the Gotham City Police Department, and smashed with a discharge of glass and shrapnel on the street far below.

_CRKKKK!_

A few seconds later, cars screeched to a halt, honking madly as a traffic jam around the fresh crater formed.

Sweating….hot red….Bullock turned around and glared at Batman. He spat: "….I am sick…and TIRED…..of cleaning….after you." He wiped his brow, panted for breath, and further grunted: "No more, Batsy! Do you hear me?"

Batman silently faced the building edge again, fired his grappling hook, and swung off.

Bullock ran to the edge and shook his fist. "The charade ends now! I swear, I'll get as many good guys on my side and shove this vigilante act right back up your ass where it came from! No…MORE!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batman swung up to the high scaffolds of an archaic cathedral in downtown Gotham City.

He landed and perched on a ledge besides a string of gargoyles.

A light frost started to fall as he wrapped his cape back over his shoulders and crossed his arms.

Hunched over, the brooding Knight tilted his mask towards the streets below.

His eyeslits thinned to oblivion.

He took a deep, fuming breath.

"……….."

The eyeslits opened again.

And he just sat there, still as stone.

Glaring into the urban abyss….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hospital.  
1:22 am.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The operation was going into its second hour.

Thompkins hovered around the operating table while the other surgeon and two other physicians were busily reaching in with tools and separating folds of flesh while the leftover bone was tended to.

Various utensils and supplies were redistributed in a line towards the operating table.

Instruments minded by a nurse or two beeped on the sidelines.

A hissing, faint breath underscored the entire scene.

Nearly seven people total were working on Barbara's life.

In an a/c ventilation shaft built into the side of the room, Robin climbed up—barely squeezed through the vertical tunnel. He strained to keep himself upright as he gazed out the thin slits in the metal. He could barely see from where he was located…but in between the bodies of the surgeons enwrapped in sterilized material…circling….

He could have sworn he saw a bit of pale flesh.

Barbara's silent skin.

Robin shuddered.

His eyemask went round as he bit his lip.

"…….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……," I stood on the rooftop of the hospital. Shuffling a deck of cards in my hand. Gazing towards the dark red horizon of Gotham.

I was silent. Still. And I barely registered Jericho a few feet off gesturing in the air: _'In my digital days as 'J', I never thought I would actually see the Oracle. I never planned on seeing her get hurt like this either. It is very sad……'_

"…………."

Jericho looked over at me.

He gulped.

He whistled.

"…….," I looked at him numbly.

He shakily hand-signed: _'Noir, are you okay?'_

"………," I sighed. I gazed off again.

'_Noir?'_

I flinched.

I pocketed the cards away.

I brought a flesh and black hand up.

And as Jericho watched me, I hand-signed….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"It's all my fault, Barbara….," Robin murmured. Quietly. Keeping the whispering echoes of his own voice inside the shaft. "I failed you…."

Beeping sounds.

Feet shuffling.

The operation lingering….droning on….

"Red Aviary…..Slade….he wanted me…..and he knew all about me….," his fists clenched and Robin shook all over. "….he hurt you to get to me…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jericho leaned his head to the side. He seemed hurt. He hand-signed: _'What do you mean?'_

I looked his way. Defeated.

I gestured: _'Just what I said. It is all my fault. I am the reason Red Aviary ever existed. I am the reason why anyone died. I am the reason for Barbara being like this.'_

Jericho bit his lip. He gestured: _'That is not true and you know it! You have done your best all this time to stop Red Aviary and save your friends! Terra and the Titans owe their lives to you!'_

'_Soon they will lose their lives because of me.'_

"………"

'_I gave it to him, Joey. I gave your daddy 'death'.'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I obsessed over Slade. I gave him every bit as much passion as he gave to consuming me…"

Robin shuddered.

Unseen eyes clenched shut under his mask.

"And to get to me, he's used my friends. Just like all the times he's ever used my friends. Torturing them….to get to me…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_You were right to warn me about my anger, Joey. About my hatred. I never defeated Slade. I only helped him. I made him stronger the first second I put on Wyldecarde's uniform and struck blows against the Titans. I thought I was changing things. I thought I was……breaking the circle. But I was not breaking the circle. I let things repeat. I rebooted all of this crap so that it could spin around and kick us in the ass once again. There is nothing heroic in that, Joey. Your father still breathes and kills because of me. Because of the Red that I gave into for but a split second……when all I was trained for was Black. There's no mercy for such irresponsibility. Only death. And there has been……so……so much death……on my account………'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I've been so selfish, Barbara. So selfish. I've chosen the easy ways out. I've hidden in the dark. I tried to escape from the Red Menace coming to eat me alive. But each second I avoid him, Slade only gets stronger. Because he consumes more. And more. And _more_. And before I know it, he'll consume me. But with my last breath, I will look around….and all my friends will be gone. Why? Because he will have annihilated them. Each and every one of them. Heroes and innocents who deserved anything but the gruesome fate given to them. Who am I to determine who lives and who dies? This is a bloody aviary for which I am the bird. I mustn't let the prowling cat toy with its prey any longer. I must….feed his appetite. I must feed him. And poison him. And rip him from the inside out for every torturous lead pellet he ever slugged into you. I….I-I must…….I m-must….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Annie! No!" _

"_R-Run, Robin!" she points at him. Reaching out from the quivering mass of mud. "H-Hurry!"_

_He gasps. His eyes quivering under his mask._

_She disappears into the darkness._

_And as her voice muffledly fades……_

_He feels his life suck out of him……and then shoot back in._

_For he is so terribly……torturously alive._

_In the shadow of her._

"_NO!"_

"_Heheheheheh…," Clayface snarls._

_CHIIING! Robin whips out a birdarang and flings it with a furious shout of hatred: "RAAAUGH!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I shuddered.

I took my shades off and rubbed my black eyes.

Jericho was silent, biting his lip.

I shook and looked off towards the growingly foggy world.

Panting…..

The corners of my obsidian optics moist….

_Ana…… _

_Ana, I'm so sorry……_

_You have so much faith in me._

_But……_

_I failed them._

_I failed my new family……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin exhaled.

Weakly.

He shivered, nearly causing a rattling sound to give away his position in the shaft.

"I…I-I failed…," he murmured. "I was….weak….t-too weak…."

He planted two palms against his eyemask.

He gritted his teeth.

He hissedly breathed in through his clenched jaw.

"I let you die again, Annie……I l-let you die….," he lifted his hands and clenched his hair. He squinted through the grate at the doctors swarming around Barbara. "God help me, I let you die…….."

Silence.

He swallowed a lump down his throat…and began to slide himself stealthily towards the bottom of the shaft. And in so descending, a frown further and further crossed over his face with an accompanying snarl:

"I can't do it. I-I won't do it. N-Not to you. Not to you, Starfire. I….I'm not returning….," he reached the bottom. He crawled back the way which he came. "I'm not going back to the Titans. Robin is dead. So long as Tim lives, he is dead. Until Tim dies too…rest easy. So help me God, I'll give Slade what he wants. I'll give him me…and I will bring him with me to the land of Red to watch each other burn…."

And he crawled off into the darkness.

Somewhere, the ghost of a boy was left behind.

Again….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Creeeak._

Jericho and I both looked over.

The metal door to the elevator engine room opened and Robin snaked out.

_Sl-Slap!_

The door closed loudly behind him.

With a tight face, he marched towards us. There was a firmness about his cadence that I hadn't seen since the day Dagger invaded a month ago.

"Noir. Jericho." He grunted. Perfect authority. Perfection. _Perfection._ "Return home to the Manor."

"………?" Jericho and I exchanged glances.

"I mean it," Robin pointed. "As Titan leader, that's a command." He coldly pointed. "Take care of Jericho and watch your back. Stay at the Manor and wait for me to contact you. I'm going out on patrol."

Jericho blinked. He mouthed incredulously: _'Patrol?'_

"I won't be having any arguments," Robin said. He looked my way. "Tell Bruce if you see him—Dick too—that I won't be back for a while."

I held my hands up and gestured wildly.

"….."

I bit my lip. I hand-gestured: _'Tim, what is wrong? Is Barbara okay?'_

He merely glared at me. "She's hurt," he said. "And it's 'Robin'. Thank you."

My fists clenched. I gritted my teeth, glaring Robin's way.

He turned his caped back to us and headed for the side of the rooftop. Reaching towards his utility belt. "There isn't much sunlight left. So excuse me. If I need to start at all, it's now—"

_FWOOSH!_

THWAP!

Robin was struck in the back. Hard.

"Augh!" he stumbled and fell on his chest. THWOMP! In a second, he spun around with a birdarang raised and looked around. Teeth showing.

Jericho was on the side of the rooftop, gasping. A hand over his small mouth. But besides that….

No one.

"……..," Robin breathed. He paused…then blinked under his mask. "Noir?"

_CL-CLAK!_ His birdarang was suddenly propelled from his hand.

Robin gasped.

He spun and jumped up to his feet.

He walked backwards, panting…panting—

_THWAP!_

"Augh!" a punch to the back of his shoulders sent him stumbling to the ground again. He crouched up, snarling: "Noir….."

Silence.

Nothing.

Jericho trembled.

Robin stood up. "Noir….cut it out. I said…GO HOME."

Silence.

"……," Robin took a breath. He turned again to the buildingside. But just as he was about to walk—

_TH-THWAP!_

He tripped.

"Augh!" he acrobatically angled himself upright, snarled, and twirled around with his bo-staff outstretched. _Snkkt! SWOOOSH!_ "I SAID KNOCK IT OFF, GOD DAMMIT!"

SLIIINK!

Sparks flew off the bar and splashed against Robin's face.

"Nnngh!" he dropped the bar and stumbled back, clutching his chin and neck.

_Cl-Clang!_ The bar landed on the rooftop. _CRACK!_ It broke in half.

Robin gasped and jumped down to grab for the shards--

WHAM!

He suddenly twirled and rolled to the side, wincing.

He stood up. "Nnnngh! Go ahead, Noir! GO AHEAD!" he shouted to the air. "You think this day hasn't gone to shit enough already? You think my life isn't shitty enough as it is? I don't need you, Noir! I NEVER NEEDED YOU! LEAVE ME…THE HELL…ALO—!"

THW-THWAP!

He wheezed as the air was knocked out of him. He painfully recovered with a flying kick aimed straight at the air.

His foot came to a stop at eye level. _CLUTCH!_ Robin gasped. He barely had the chance to catch his balance when--

TH-THWIP! He was tossed back by his foot. He collapsed hard upside down and rolled across the rooftop.

"Mmmf! Ugh! Augh!"

He struggled on his knees. Panting. Sweating. He looked over. "J-Joey! For god's sake! He's lost his mind!"

Jericho shivered. He backed off….

"St-Stop him!" Robin panted.

Jericho hid pensively behind an a/c unit.

Robin shuddered. He stretched a gloved hand out. "H-Help me!" a voice inside of him trembled.

TH-THWAP!

He was shoved back.

Robin snarled and dove through mid-air, grabbing nothing.

TH-THWAP!

He rolled across the ground.

He braced himself against the elevator engine compartment and stood up. Knees wobbling. "Nnnngh! Damn you, Noir! What have you got to prove? Go ahead, kick me! Kick me when I'm down! You _always_ choose moments like these to show your true colors….**DON'T YOU**?"

Robin swallowed. He looked towards the rooftop. He reached into his utility belt, produced a grappling hook, and made a dash for it. Just before he could leap and fire--

_FW-FWOOSH!_ A smoking body barely appeared as it rammed into him.

WH-WHUMP!

Robin went tumbling across the rooftop like a ragdoll.

He winced, struggled to get up on his knees. Heaving all over. "I hate you Noir….I h-hate you…….you're so damn powerful…..you think you're a Titan….w-well you're not…..I'm the f-first Titan there ever was…and I-I know you're not one of them!" He tilted his head up and shouted: "YOU'RE A TORTURED FREAK! Don't think I don't know, Noir! Don't think I don't know that you aren't what you ever worked yourself out to be!" He stood up, shaking all over. Fists clenched. Spitting. "I became a Titan through blood and sweat! I broke myself into what you see today! It took YEARS to become Robin! YEARS, Noir! And you? You're just an accident! An experiment! What do you know what it's like to work so hard to save lives and do the impossible? You're selfish….y-you're pathetic! And I hate you! I….HATE…**YOU!"**

Robin slumped down on all fours. He shook. He quivered. His face around his eyemask clenched and he let out a long, shrieking wail: "Rrnnnnghhhhrrrrraa_aAAAAA__**AAUGGGGGGHHHHH**__!"_ He sat up and punched the rooftop till his knuckles bled under his gloves. "_**RAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHH!"**_ He seethed. He pulled at his hair. He bent and scrunched in on himself. He quivered. He gritted his teeth until they positively cracked and finally let out a gasping shudder: "I-I hate you, Slade…..I hate you….." He hiccupped. He sniffed, and the voice of a teenage boy came out. "I hate you so much, Slade. Leave my friends alone….leave me and m-my f-f-friends alone….." He sniffed. He slid down to his side. He curled up and hid his soggy-masked 0face from the red night sky. "L-Leave me alone…..B-Barbara….Star…..S-Starfire….leave me alone….I'm so weak. He'll only hurt you." He sniffed. Shuddered. Sobbed. "I-I-I'll only h-hurt you……I'll only h-h-hurt y-you……I'm so sorry…..I-I'm so sorry I'm not strong enough…..I-I'm not strong enough to live, Starfire. I'm n-not strong enough to l-live…..I'm s-so sorry……"

The boy shook and gently cried in the middle of the cold, night-laden buildingtop.

A distance away, I materialized in a cascade of smoke.

_Fw-Fwoosh!_

I took a deep breath and leaned back against the elevator compartment. Staring naked-eyed at my leader…and at the young man slowly—but finally—peeling out of him.

_Always, Ana. Always…… _

_The best things to do are often the ones you don't want to do……_

I shuddered.

I ran a hand through my hair.

_Thank you._

_Thank you for reminding me……_

I looked to my left.

Jericho nervously looked at me. As if he couldn't tell if I was a criminal or not at that point.

And perhaps he didn't care. For I knew I didn't.

I only wanted Robin to stay alive.

I gazed at the collapsed, quivering crusader and waited.

I waited….till I knew it was a good time.

And I would then go to him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.  
1:33 am.  
Titan's Tower.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Frost was settling gently outside of Raven's room.

And yet, she tossed and turned with the covers of the bed unraveled like a hot summer afternoon.

Eventually she gave the restlessness up with a groaning sight and stood up.

She ran a hand through her silky blue hair.

She gazed at the floor.

"………."

She stood up.

She shuffled over to her wardrobe.

She put on a long, silver-blue robe.

She tied the sash and fitted on slippers.

With an empty teacup that needed refilling, she walked slowly….lethargically out of her room and into the cold metal hallways beyond…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes later, Raven descended on the lower levels of the shadowed Tower interior.

Noise was drifting gently inward along with an amber, particle glow.

Contacting sounds…like bone against wet meat.

Raven blinked. Her violet eyes thinned and squinted in the brightening aura as she turned the corner and….

Entered the gym.

"Nnngh!" Th-Thwack! "Haugh!" Wh-Whump! "Nnnnngaugh!" Sm-Smack!

Beast Boy was busily punching, boxing, thrashing the living Hell out of a worn punching bag. He was dressed in his usual trunks from his jumpsuit, except he had replaced the top piece with a white tank top that looked just about as 'Robinesque' as the equipment he was late-night-training with.

"…….," Raven blinked. "What…..are you doing?"

Beast Boy jumped. He turned, fists raised.

Raven's teacup rattled once.

Beast Boy blinked. His face softened and his green eyes rounded. "Oh….R-Raven…eheheheh…," he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, I was….uhm……exercising."

"I can see that, but why?"

"I felt like it. Why you walking around in a robe?" he half-smirked and returned to the punching bag, boxing it. Th-Thwump! Th-Thwap!

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not about to become the first boy to see me walking around in lingerie."

"Heh….poor me," Beast Boy smirked without looking at her. "That's Cyborg's department, right?"

"……," she said nothing. Her eyes were cast aside some. "So…..erhm….you're certainly very……….sweaty."

"Ain't I, though?" _Th-Thwump! Thud!_

"Beast Boy, just exactly what are you doing?"

"Garfield," he droningly corrected.

"……okay…," she tilted her chin forward. "…Garfield…."

"I never really trained enough. It hurt in the field, ya know? I'd always run out when trying to chase down a common criminal and stuff. It's really depressing."

"Beast B—er, I mean Garfield," she uttered. "You can morph from a mouse to a killer whale in under ten seconds. That takes metabolic dexterity the likes of which we can't even dream about."

"I'm not talking about the 'animal' me," Garfield said. He grunted and punched the bag fiercely. TH-THWACK! It swung, and because of that he grinned. "I'm talking about the ME me." He smirked and showed off a profile while flexing his…….modest biceps. "Gettin' there, eh?"

"…………'eh'," Raven murmured. She sat down on the cushion of a weight lifting seat. Legs crossed. "Keep it up, champ," she droned.

"Figured you'd say something like that," he spoke with boredly thin lips as he proceeded to again assault the bag.

_Thap! Wh-Whack! Wham!_

"………….," Raven took a deep breath. "So….you decided to change your name after all…."

"Yeah," Garfield muttered between panting strikes. _Th-Thud! _"Nothing solid yet. Thought I'd get _myself_ solid first, ya know?"

"Uh huh…."

_WH-WHAP!_ He rested against the bag for a moment to gain breath. "I was thinking of…I dunno….Animan…. about you take a breath first?"

He turned and squinted at her. "What about you, Raven? What's up?"

"Nothing…."

"Liar."

She raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You're sitting here, dressed in a robe, and talking to me," Garfield pointed. "Of course something's up."

"……..," Raven sighed and glanced aside. "I can't sleep."

"You and me both….generally speaking, of course," he walked over and dabbed a towel to his green forehead. "….don't mind me, Raven. I'm fitting to be as strong as an ant someday. An ant in proportion to a human being, of course. Get it? If an ant was the size of a person, it could lift a steamroller and—aw forget it."

"So…tell me…," Raven leaned back, resting on her hands with the teacup in her lap. "…when did you start on the steroids?"

"Hardy har har. This is all natural, girl."

She nodded. "Figures. You still look like a scarecrow."

Garfield would have glared at her….but instead he looked dumbfounded.

Because she was giggling. Lightly. Like the snow outside…

He leaned his head to the side. He smirked. "Heh….now, that's cool."

"Hehehehe….ahem….huh?"

"You. Giggling. That's cool."

"……," Raven took a breath and gazed towards the floor. "Yes……it…it feels good…."

"That's cool too. Heh…for a second there, I thought you were going off the deep end."

She—rather quickly—looked up at him and spoke: "Why's that?"

"………," Garfield blinked. "Well…uhm….." He scratched the back of his neck nervously and leaned against the punching bag. "You've been going out on these walks lately and…..haven't been talking to Cyborg much lately and stuff."

"There's nothing to worry about, Garfield."

He looked at her sideways. "Who said I was worried?"

She bit her lip and tried to hide it.

He went on: "You really should pay him a visit, Rae. He's been acting….a little warmer lately. Something tells me it's taken the android a little longer to cope with Robin than the rest of us. Not much blood left in his vessels, ya know. Who can blame him? Anyways….he seems a lot more sure of himself and stuff. The T-Car 2 is almost ready! Can you believe that?"

"With the way Cyborg's been keeping things to himself….," Raven nodded. "Yeah. I can believe anything."

Garfield looked at her sideways. "Dude….you're so full of wyrd, ambiguous comments these days. You're almost worse than Cyborg."

"Yeah, well…--"

"No matter," Garfield flexed his forearms again. "Cyborg's kinda made me rethink things a bit. I should stop thinking about doom and gloom so much and pick up my own hobby. A productive one! Not some…television brain-rotting garbage like days of old. I think I can make a real kung fu master out of myself! Or at least…a John Wayne street brawler."

"An elfin John Wayne….."

"Yes, little misssssy!" Garfield winked.

Raven's lips curved ever so slightly. "Now that….I would like to see."

"Nuts to that…," he walked over. "Look at _this."_

She shifted uncomfortably. "Uhhh….Garfield? What are you about to—"

"Shhh….don't be so skittish," she knelt before her, lifted a bicep, and flexed his arm. "Watch…."

So she shrugged….and did….

What was once a green, sweaty elfin forearm suddenly developed reptilian skin. Green 'shingles' waved across the epidermis and made the flesh tough as stone. At the same time—quite remarkably—the humanoid nature of the arm remained the same and didn't convert over to a lizard's or crocodile's limb at all.

"Hmmm….," Raven squinted. Staring with interest.

Garfield bit his lip, concentrated and….

The scales shrunk away and formed coarse green fir. The wrist flicked, the hand turned over, and the fingers extended sharp bear claws. But again…it didn't turn into a paw at all.

"Fascinating…."

"Now for the grand finale…," Garfield uttered. His voice was hoarse, indicative of a slight strain.

Raven watched as the boy's left arm stretched out and flexed just right. The fingers closed tightly while the thumb jutted out. The green epidermis turned dry and stiff, and claw-sharp 'teeth' formed along the inner lines of the digits. In the meantime, the right arm loosened into a whiplike structure with suction cups forming at the end of every finger. And yet—in some vague way or another—the two limbs stayed humanoid.

"…..that's a new trick."

"Isn't it, though?" Garfield took a breath and jerked his arms back. They swiftly morphed back to elfin hands, which he flexed and rubbed together. "I'm splicing."

Raven blinked. "Splicing?"

"Mixing animal DNA with my own," Garfield smirked ever so slightly. A soft pride. "It's kind of an augmentation of my normal body's strength without going all the way into animal form or what have you."

Raven leaned her head to the side. "You….You can do that?"

He shrugged. "Apparently. I've been practicing with my eyes too. Ya know…turning them into cat and owl eyes on occasion. I can make myself see better for short periods of time. And then, there are other tricks."

"Like what?"

He turned around with his back facing hers and bent over like he was about to…..deliver something. "Check…._this_….**out!"**

_SCRPPP!_ A row of miniature stegosaurus spikes protruded from his back. "Haaa! Yeah! Record breaking time there!"

Raven jolted ever so slightly. "That's…..n-nice…."

"Yup! You bet!" Garfield smiled proudly. "Ahem…excuse me." He concentrated. Strained. _SLNNKK!_ The blades shrunk back in….but a string of holes were left over in his shirt and shorts from the protruding dinosaur anatomy. "Dah! Dammit!" He spun around and pointed his back away from Raven, blushing. "S-Sorry…."

"Hehehehe…..," Raven shook. She leaned her head to the side and smiled ever so slightly. "Thanks, Garfield…."

"Erm….," he walked backwards till he was where he left his towel. He wrapped the article around his waist to hide the hole in the back of his trunks. "F-For what?"

"I guess just talking to you is what I needed," Raven murmured. Gazing off. "Thanks for that…."

"……….," the green elf blinked. "Wow….."

She looked at him. "What?"

"Just…..Wow."

"What Wow?"

"Pfft! You know."

"…….y-yeah…..I guess I do."

Silence.

Some discomfort.

A breath and a sigh.

It was Garfield: "I'll go to bed soon. Lord knows how long I can really do this."

Raven shrugged. "Whatever keeps you busy."

"Is that what really, truly matters?"

She looked up. "Hmm?"

"Being busy…," he gazed off as he spoke. "…there hasn't been enough going on in this City of ours for me to _train_ to. Sometimes I wonder if all the criminals hung out here just cuz of Robin. People in the Bat Troupe do tend to attract bad guys wherever they go."

"Yeah….."

"This team will need somebody with good martial arts, ya know."

"I'm not too terrible myself, actually," Raven said.

Garfield smirked at her. "Is that a boast?"

"Eh…."

He raised a fist and winked. "Wanna spar right now?"

"No thank you…."

"Not when it's so late at night?"

"No, not when I'm wearing a robe."

"Oh….r-right….," he blushed and adjusted the towel around his trunks. "I guess….I'm overdoing it. Robin always overdid it. At least, he had an excuse and all."

"What do you mean, Garfield?"

"He didn't really have any superpowers. Ya know. That whole schtick all over again. Gotta suck when your elemental power is hair gel."

"I think we all underestimated Robin no matter how many times we denied it."

"True…true…," he nodded. "…and I know I could never take his place….but………." He lingered.

"What, Garfield?"

He began boxing with the punching bag again. _Th-Thwap!_ "I want to sorta continue where he left off. He was like a brother to me, ya know? We didn't get along quite as well as Cyborg and I. But we didn't fight much either. And all the while, he was a real inspiration to me." Th-Thwack! _Whap!_ "I'd like to make him proud. If even only in memory. I'll build myself up….I'll kick ass for a change….and become a better hero all around! Heh….if only Terra could see me now."

Raven bit her lip. She closed her eyes. She sighed. Something escaped from her mouth, and it said: "I don't think you need to worry about Terra, Garfield…."

He paused again in boxing, wiped his brow, and looked at her. "H-Huh?"

"…………….," she stared at him.

He gazed curiously at her. Calmly. Unexpecting…. "What do you mean, Raven?"

Silence. She stood up. "What I mean is….." Hesitancy. She sighed. "…….Terra liked you for who you were. And I think we all know that. You never needed to grow any muscles to impress her."

"…………..," he smiled. "Yeah….heh…guess I can admit that. Thanks, Raven."

"Don't thank me….," she droned and walked towards the exit of the gym with her teacup.

"Hey, if you're going upstairs…I left my Space Ghost collection in the DVD player. Go on and watch some. It might help you go to sleep….heh…."

"Thanks, Garfield…"

"No problem," he smirked and approached the punching bag again. But before he could raise a green fist--

"Changeling."

He froze.

"H-Huh?"

"'Changeling'," she uttered as she left the large interior. "That's a new name for you."

"Kinda boring, don't you think?"

"Hardly," she shook her head and then was gone. "Because you're changing…._Garfield._"

"……….," he stood. Staring off. "……'Changeliiiiiin'……" A pause. He chuckled, shrugged, and whalloped the punching back.

_THW-THWACK!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven turned a corner.

She paused.

She nearly dropped the teacup.

She hugged herself.

A long, winded sigh.

Concave eyes.

"………"

She brushed a loose strand away from over her brow….and walked further down the hallway towards the stairs.

Trailing darkness.

And cold.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.  
1:40 am  
Hospital Rooftop.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood silently.

Gazing at……_him_.

The sky was releasing a thin drift of whiteness.

Breaking the red.

Littering the edges of the rooftop and melting away in softness.

I felt surrounded.

_Surrounded in you, Ana._

I drifted forward.

And as I did so, I could see that he was sitting up straight.

Slowly…heavily breathing.

His neck and spikey-black head of hair bent over.

Somewhat hunched…

There was a paleness to his cape all of the sudden. Like some wilted towel exhausted from a day-long playtime. His costume suddenly seemed like something stitched together with inhuman means. A thready, unraveling illusion. Like the cold, dusty nastiness of the moon's surface up close. I felt I knew it, and yet there was a side I hadn't seen. A part that hid in darkness when the twirling acrobat absorbed the light and took to the rooftops.

And as I stood over him, patient. Silent…

I could see that his eyemask rested wrinkled, ragged in his gloved grasp. And the mask looked big when it was off of him. Like it was one size too large for his hands. Small hands. Small hands that must have been better fit for gripping bicycle handles or holding a dog leash or pitching a baseball than beating up criminals.

A breath escaped him. With shivering, visible vapors that danced in the air. His voice was thin…whispery…and higher than I ever imagined it before. Like a baby bird erupting out of the muffled resonator of an egg shell.

"………," he took a long, vexing breath.

I stood still. My black hair tossed in an icy wind.

He shuddered.

I didn't.

There was a softening.

A melting shoulders.

He pivoted…turned around…and gazed up at me.

The wettest blue eyes I've ever seen on an organism. And by then, they were dry.

Still, Tim Drake sniffed and bit his lip before averting those sacred sapphires and uttering in a voice I only half heard before then: "I've never run away from a-anything in my life before, Noir…..," he clenched his jaw before managing: "….I've **limped.**"

"…….."

He shuddered. Hugging himself in the cold currents. Dark hair shadowed his blue orbs for a moment so that they were like two mirrors to a red sky momentarily. "I never ran away from Annie. I'm sure she knew that. She knew that….b-before she died…._as_ she died. I was there with her…._for_ her……"

"…….."

"Could there _be_ bravery in that?" Tim asked the air more than me. "What have I been abandoning all these years?"

I took a deep breath. I gazed aside. I didn't know any answers to his questions. Besides, he wasn't asking me.

He knew….

He knew………

More than I ever could.

"I've been killing myself," he murmured. A sniff. A forearm rubbing his eyes…moistening. "I-I've been k-killing myself, Noir. It h-hasn't been Viper…or Dagger….or Deathstroke. It's been me the whole time. Slade….Slade is only an extension of what I….what I always wanted to be….." He closed those sapphires and shuddered, tilting his head back. "Slade is perfection. He is an ideal. He is……_death._"

Silence.

His eyes opened. And when they did so, there was a seashore fierceness transforming through them. Something that I felt—instantly—would make Hull run for the money. Would rip apart the Joker in a second. I nearly fell down flat on my face there from the sight of that aquamarine furnace.

_Why….Why in the __**Hell**__ did Robin need a mask?_

"But I…am….not…….death…..," he hissed. His fists clenched and crinkled the eyemask even more. "I am life….so heaven h-help me…." His face contorted. He raised a forearm and literally bit down on it as if to choke back a sudden sob. But that sob turned into a furious snarl. "…..I will n-not become Slade. By his hand or mine…..I won't. I won't. I'm weak….so very weak. But I am not….evil."

"………"

He tilted his head up. He looked directly at me. And his lips quivered: "How do you do it, Jordan?"

"…………?"

"How do you do it? How do you……..live life so perfectly detached from yourself or your past? You don't even have a mask….."

I took a deep breath.

_Oh Tim…… _

_I do have a mask._

_I was given it permanently years ago………don't you see?_

I reached a black hand down. I gripped his shoulder. Rather forcefully, I yanked Tim up to his feet.

He gasped a little. And I knew then and there that Robin was gone.

But not obliterated…

Robin lingered somewhere inside this strange, petite boy standing before me. Somewhere inside this stranger I had often wondered about, but now could stare at. And linger in awe….

But instead, I forced him to look at me directly.

And I hand-signed: _'I learn from people. Especially my leaders.'_

His jaw was dropped. He slowly shook his head. Incredulous. "What….What could you _possibly_ learn from a weakling like me?"

I took a deep breath. I mouthed: _'How to be resurrected. The REAL you……'_

"…….," he tightened his jaw and inhaled sharply. The moistness lingering around his eyes finally dried to oblivion and something shot down his arms, tightening in his fists.

I raised a flesh hand. I grabbed his palm. I squeezed it up high between us, released, and slapped our grips together before crushing his fingers.

He crushed mine back.

A shared breath.

The Titan grip.

We released with a loud snap and punched each other in the shoulder.

Tim uttered in a darker voice that felt more like _home_. "Deathstroke won't have any of the other Titans. Not if I can help it….not if WE can help it."

I smiled.

He smiled. A soft breath. So human. So….emotional.

_Hello, brave new world._

"We need to meet with Batman," Tim said firmly. He fingered his mask, smoothing it in his gloved hands. "Knowing Bruce, he won't sit still for long. Nightwing? I don't know. But there's no time to lose. We need to figure out what Deathstroke is planning next." He placed the eyemask back on. The blue orbs disappeared. Robin stood before me. "Together. Meaning….I'm going with you."

I nodded.

_Now we're talking!_

A breathy gasp to the side.

"?" Robin and I looked over.

I blinked my shaded eyes.

Robin marched forward: "Joey?"

We both approached the young blonde.

He was crying, gripping his head. Straining….as with a terrible headache.

I knelt down and placed my hands on his shoulders, a concerned expression washing over my face.

"What's wrong?" Robin asked, leaning over.

Jericho looked up, his green eyes pained. He sniffed and hand-signed: _'It came to me after you and Noir fought. I cannot believe I overlooked it before.'_

"What are you talking about?"

Jericho clenched his blonde head, hissed, and shuddered. He hesitantly hand-signed: _'There was more to Two-Face's head then I thought. Yes, Deathstroke is dangerous. But Triangular still is not dead.'_

I shivered.

Robin's eyemask thinned. "Triangular? How?"

The boy hand-signed: _'The fight in the vault……when we ambushed Two-Face and the muddy goons……'_

"Yeah? What about it?"

'_They were not the ones being ambushed. __**We**__ were.'_

"…….."

"…….."

"…….the hell?"


	235. A Hard Act to Follow part 20

**235. A Hard Act to Follow part 20**

December 1, 2004.

Smallville, Kansas.

12:07 am

Field.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So let's go over this one last time…," Pulsade murmured. Hours had passed. By then, the girls sat in halves. One on one side of the barn. One on the other sides. Two pairs of youngsters leaning against the dilapidated, wooden walls. Facing dazedly against each other. "…you want us to help out the Titans…and then you'd be willing to perform a search for your child?"

Terra nodded, lightly hugging herself. She brushed a blonde strand aside and swallowed before saying: "I may be in a lot of trouble at the moment. But they're in it deeper than I am. Above all else, I want to find my child. But I have…..a duty to perform."

Jinx blinked. "What duty could possibly be more important than finding the kid that was taken from y--" Pulsade interrupted her with a gentle hiss and a firm hand on the pink sorceress' shoulder. She took a breath and calmly gazed back the other way.

Supergirl was glaring at them. After a second or two, she turned to the earth maiden and nodded her head: "Please continue, Terra…."

She did. "The Titans are in a lot of trouble right now. Whoever this Red Aviary is, he's out to make their lives a living Hell. I think this is all somehow has its roots in me. I mean…..I don't know why, but Noir says he and I were essential puzzle pieces to this really nasty, bloody situation everyone seems to be in now. Robin died because he was the first guy on Red Aviary's hit list. Supposedly, I'm next. And until I'm dead—or else Red Aviary is—the Titans won't see the end of it. I can't let them go through this madness anymore. Especially after all that I've done to them. It just….j-just wouldn't be fair….."

"……..," Pulsade gazed silently towards the floor.

Jinx looked suddenly super-sensitive for some reason. She hugged her knees to her chest and remained quiet.

Terra looked over at the Girl of Steel as she went on: "I owe the Titans my life. I….I-I owe _you_ my life, Kara…."

Supergirl managed a small—but very honest smile.

"I'll let the Titans and the superheroes of this nation have my life for all it's worth first…," Terra said. She looked back over at the two roguish females. "Then I'll go with you to wherever we need to go."

"And I'm going with her," Supergirl said sternly. "You got that?"

"Yes….I do believe we 'got' it," Pulsade droned.

Supergirl only frowned more.

Jinx dripped: "So….uhm….I guess that means the two of you are gonna go hiking east or something—?"

"You'll be coming with us," Terra said.

Jinx's cat-eyes bulged. "Nmiaow?"

The earth maiden pointed: "Think of it a test. A way for you two to prove that we can trust you!"

"I….I-I don't like it, Leslie…," Jinx bit her lip and looked over nervously. "You know what the Titans would do if we so much as stepped into their City again? I don't care how much Ghost Boy may have warmed to me—er, at least I think he has—but the other kids can't be too kosher with us—"

"We agree," Pulsade nodded.

"Good," Supergirl said.

"Eek! No, we do not! Not that quickly!" Jinx pouted. "Leslie, let's talk this over! We—"

"Jean, you know what's at stake here."

"Yes, but—"

"But what?" Pulsade looked over. Not sternly. More deadpan… "'Gaia' is more important than either of us can imagine. Including our own existence."

"But…B-But…"

"Don't you want to do what's right and all that terrible mush?" Pulsade poetically struggled to say. "If I can give in, then sure as the Queen's arse you can!"

"Erhm…."

"Don't let go of a chance to redeem yourself, Jean."

"………"

"Redemptions is never painless…….remember that….."

"……..," the Third Apprentice shuddered….but eventually nodded with a quiet face.

Pulsade turned and looked at the two blondes again. "We'll go with you. We'll…..help you, protect the Titans. And…..if you so agree to it…..we'll gladly let the two of you partake in—or even lead this new mission. After all….it's far more intimate a situation for you than it is for us."

"But…B-But we're more than willing to anything," Jinx said. She swallowed and added as sincerely as she could: "W-We mean th-that….."

"………………….," Terra strongly inhaled. "Good. And…uhm….th-thank you….."

Jinx smiled ever so slightly.

"We aren't leaving tonight, though….," Supergirl said.

The others gazed at her.

"Huh?"

"It's late. And might I remind you…," the Girl of Steel smirked in a subtle way as she added: "…my first job right now is to tend to the Titans' long-lost guest."

"Erhm…."

"And it's way past her bedtime. And if I may be so frank, it's way past mine too."

Pulsade calmed herself with a deep breath before half-groaning: "Lasses….we _must_ act quickly. Red Aviary is consuming the eastern landscape quicker than one can imagine. But I **assure** you, La Selle is carrying Gaia away at a pace so fast that even time can't dictate it!"

Terra bit her lip.

Supergirl said: "We'll be the judge of that." The Girl of Steel pointed. "Meet us here at exactly noon tomorrow." She glanced over at the petite blonde. "That okay with you?"

Terra nodded.

"Right. It's official then."

"Wh-Where are you two going?" Jinx asked.

"Never you mind…," Supergirl escorted Terra towards the opening in the side of the broken-down barn. "Some things must _remain_ secrets."

"And wh-where are _we_ supposed to sleep?" Jinx barked, shrugging her frilled arms.

Supergirl nonchalantly waved: "Hey, you chose to fly out here. You make the decision, girls! Adios!"

Jinx and Pulsade were alone.

"Nnnngh….," Jinx ran a hand over her face. "So far….away….from my bed….."

Pulsade glared. "You don't _have_ a 'bed'."

"I know….," Jinx long-faced. "That's why it's so far away."

"Ugh…."

"How're we gonna pull this one off?" the sorceress asked, yawning.

Pulade ran a hand through her platinum blonde hair and glanced out at the starlit fields. "I don't truly know, love. Perchance we'll find a cow to hollow out and sleep inside."

Jinx winced. "M-Must you be so dramatic?"

"And must you be so bloody dainty? Come on! Grab a rusted sickle from the wall there…"

"…………."

"You know that I'm kidding, right?"

"………….."

"So blame me for bloomin' trying…."

"I'm using your face as a pillow tonight, limey."

"Pfft…whatever."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra and Supergirl strolled across the wintry-cold fields of Kansas, away from the barn.

Terra hugged herself and murmured: "H-How can y-you not be cold in that getup?" she nodded towards Supergirl's trademark hoopskirt and tanktop.

Supergirl merely smirked. "I hear this coming from a girl who wore shorts in the desert at night?"

"Touché."

"Don't worry about me, Terra. Not on a night like this. Don't worry about me at all…."

Terra bit her lip. "You think the farmer whose crops I landed the huge slab of concrete in will be mad about his damaged corn?"

Supergirl shrugged. "Things 'fall' down onto Smallville a lot, so it seems. I wouldn't be worried about it."

"Okay….."

Silence…..

Supergirl stopped and glanced over at the smaller female. "Terra….are you sure of this?"

"I…I-I do trust them, Kara…," the earth maiden shakingly said. "At least, I want to trust them—"

"No, I mean going back to the Titans…," Supergirl shook her head. "Are you certain you can handle meeting them so soon?"

Terra sighed. "I'm more worried about….if they would be willing to meet _me_ right away."

"………."

"Beast Boy was my best friend, Kara. He was with me to the very end. But….I dunno. I hurt him. I hurt him very…very badly. I can't imagine things staying the same…."

"You said you remembered stuff that happened to you while you were stone, right? Didn't you say Beast Boy put his life on the line to save you once?"

"Yeah….but I was a helpless statue then….," Terra bit her lip. "Things are……different now….."

Silence.

A cold wind.

Terra shivered. "Nnngh…I can't stand this cold. I used to stand it all the time in the desert. But not now…."

"Then let's go home," Supergirl walked over and took the girl's arm.

Terra glanced down. She took a deep breath. She glanced back up with helpless eyes: "I'm scared, Kara. I'm scared that….th-that The Titans wouldn't let me look for my child. I'm scared th-th-that they wouldn't even h-help me. And what would I do then?"

"………you already have one volunteer," Kara smiled hopefully. But she knew it was to little avail.

Terra's eyes were moistening. She tried to hide her face from the Girl of Steel. "I don't think I can r-really afford friends, Kara. I'm not worthy of your help."

"Don't say that…," Kara placed both hands gently on Terra's shoulders. "Hey. Look at me."

Terra did so, sniffing.

Kara's eyes thinned in the twilight. "Don't be down on yourself. Not anymore. Lord knows, everything else in this world already has. And that's gotta stop."

"…….," Terra squinted her eyes shut. She shuddered: "Wh-Why did they have to take so much away from me? Why did they have to rip out the one thing that made me worthwhile…..?" She hiccupped. Shook.

Supergirl bit her lip. She softly drew the petite girl to her and hugged her gently. A gloved hand caressed the back of her hair. "I dunno, Terra. The universe is a cruel place. But you know what? It's also a fickle place." She smiled gently. "Things will come around. Somehow, they will. I want to be there for you when it happens, too…."

Terra sniffed. She wiped her moist eyelids with a sleeve. "Th-Thank you…."

"Hey…what are superheroes for?"

"……………y-yeah….."

"Come on…let's take the high road," Supergirl hugged Terra's waist from behind and lifted skyward.

Terra let out a slight gasp, but then closed her eyes and relaxed against the cool winds as Supergirl flew the two of them southward over the shadowed farmlands.

To the Kents' House.

The night would need the most sleep they could give it.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

1:55 am.

Titan's Tower.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………"

Raven sat in the shadows of the Tower's atrium. Alone as always.

She held the teacup from earlier in her lap. It was still empty for some reason.

The dark girl gazed at the black, windowless giant doors of the Tower for a long time in some sort of secret new meditation technique. Minus the chanting.

She breathed softly. A separate peace.

When Cyborg walked in, it was delightfully unannounced. For a few seconds, both Titans knew of each other's presence. But they said nothing of it. They made love separately to the dark corners of the room until Cyborg became the first to blatantly utter:

"It's always like this nowadays."

Raven didn't turn to look at him. Her response was more numb than bitter. "Like what?"

Cyborg sighed, rubbed his human head-half, and gestured: "All four of us. Alone. Shuffling in the dark. Then meeting…quietly. Like this. Once a day or something."

"…………"

"I have my excuses of course," Cyborg murmured. "I've been locked up in my lab lately. For a good cause….I-I think. I may not be repaired yet, but in spite of my bugs…I got my new baby off the blueprints. The T-Car II is ready for action. Record time too, if I may say so myself. Took all day and night…but it was worth it."

"…………."

"Just…..it m-might come in handy…….ya know…….in the future. For th-the team….."

"…………."

Cyborg sighed. He shuffled across the atrium, still behind Raven's back. He leaned against a lone chair and gazed her blue way. With a thin human eye he murmured: "Raven, is it over between us?"

A bit of silence answered him. She inhaled slowly through her nose and—still without glancing back—said to the air: "Cyborg, I know that you've been spying on me."

"……….."

"I could sense it. Azar knows, it's the only thing about you I can sense lately. The only thing you've given me the freedom to sense. Everything else about you is……..missing, somehow."

"I'm here, Raven."

"No you're not….," Raven turned and gazed at him. Cold eyes….but gentle eyes. "No, you're not here, Cyborg. You think you are. I-I know I'd like to think you are too. But you really aren't." She swallowed. She gazed back towards the doors. "Come to think of it….none of us are really here anymore. It shocks me. I thought we were all stronger than this."

"Raven--"

"I thought we didn't have to resort to secret meetings……or spying….."

Cyborg winced at that. He was about to say something—

"I'm guilty too, Vic," she said.

Cyborg bit his lip. "D-Don't say that, Rae…."

"But I am. I need not say it to know that it's true." She again glanced at him through the side of her vision. "I should have told you that I was visiting Phaser Labs. I should have told you that I was meeting up with Tempest. I….honestly can't blame you for spying."

"I thought you would have sensed me, Raven," Cyborg muttered. "I figured…it was the only way I could have been a part of those meetings anyways."

"Was it what you feared?"

"………..how do you mean?"

"Just tell me, Cyborg…..," Raven spoke in a low voice. "…tell me what is so wrong….about actually _doing_ something for a change?"

Silence.

She went on thusly: "Why did Noir have to leave, Tempest have to alienate himself, and Garfield and Starfire sink away into themselves….without either you or me doing anything to help the dying team out?"

"We haven't had all our faculties, Rae. You've been getting more accustomed to emotions. And ever since November Fourth, my malfunctions have been--"

"Those never stopped us before," Raven clenched her fists around a fold in her robe as she clenched her jaw. Her eyes were thin. Hurting…. "Why now, Vic? Why have we given up?"

Cyborg slowly marched towards the back of her. "We don't have to….give up, Raven."

She turned and looked at him.

He swallowed and nodded: "We can start the Titans out on the right foot. Anytime."

"You speak like a month of Hell hasn't already passed."

"……"

Raven sighed. She relaxed her fingers and stared down into her teacup. "Beast Boy is no longer Beast Boy. He's 'Changeling' now. He's been up all night too. I just got done talking to him, in fact. Garfield's willing to change. In fact, he already has. I've never seen him so….so strong. So autonomous. In perfect coordination with himself. _Evolving_, Vic. He's _evolving._"

Cyborg listened, his head leaning to the side.

Raven stirred. "And Starfire….She's far more adult than I've ever been. She's still joyful, if at least in a passive sense. But she's learned to absorb Robin's death, rather than obsess over it. She's moved on, Vic. She and Garfield are both moving on while you and I hold this team down and it's not right……it's n-not right at all…."

Cyborg exhaled. He glanced at the floor. "……"

Raven stood up. She looked at him tenderly and said: "I….I am so thankful for what you've done for me, Cyborg. You've opened my eyes. You've given me joy….you've given me grief….even anger and annoyance. But all of this isn't enough. Because I could change all day for the better…and it could make us both happy. But what about the world around us, Cyborg? I feel that….the worst thing the two of us can do together…..is to be together. Because we'll never change, Vic. We'll never grow out of this rut. The bloody wound that Robin's death made will never seal as long as you and I are hiding under the skin. It just isn't right……"

Cyborg shifted where he stood. He gestured and stammered: "I-I can get the Titans together. I can fix things, Raven. Really, I can. In a day or two, you won't know th-that—"

"Victor….."

"……..yes, Raven?"

She gazed at him, lips parted. She slowly shook her head: "I don't want it to be fixed."

"……………"

She placed the teacup down on the chair. She shuffled over, straightening her robe some. When she stood chest-to-face with Cyborg, she looked up at his brown and red eyes. She bit her lip, closed her violet optics, and leaned forward. She hugged him fiercely.

He softly exhaled and hugged her back. Gentle, titanium arms. A distant reminder of the miracle that re-forged his charred self.

Raven shuddered. A crystal drop or two leaked out of her clenched lids as she pressed her face against his titanium self.

"I-I don't ever want to l-leave you, Cyborg. B-But as much as we've l-learned together….I-I can't handle this m-misdirection. And I-I know you h-haven't meant it. You've done the same thing I've b-been doing all this time…"

"Wh-What's that, Rae?" he spoke, trying to keep his voice straight.

She leaned back, swallowed, and tried her vain best to keep her cheeks dry as she gazed back up at him: "Haven't you felt it? The transferral?"

"………"

"You are what I used to be, Cyborg…," she softly said. "You hole yourself up in your rooms. You obsess over your own hobbies. You keep the Titans at a distance and treat their inquiries and hopes and dreams with a bitter distance. And it's not your fault, Vic. It's not. I….I-I passed it onto you. I know I did."

"Rae--"

"After all you did to warm me up, I only filled you with such….such cold….."

"Raven….c-cutie….," he pressed a titanium finger under her chin.

She stared shakily at him, sniffing.

He smiled gently. "No, Raven. I've been…..so happy. So very happy to get to know you. And—as it seems—to _help_ you like I have. But don't blame yourself for what I am or what I do. Don't take that upon yourself at all. P-Please…."

"……."

He gently broke their hug, but kept his hands gently on her shoulders as he tilted his head down and said: "I've got a lot to learn, Raven. And….I don't ever want to drag you down with me when I'm wallowing in my own lessons."

She shook her head: "Vic, I--"

"Shhh…," he smiled. A painful thing. "Let me learn about myself, Raven."

"…………….," she stepped back out of his arms. A shudder. She nodded: "All right….."

Cyborg ran a hand over the human part of his head. He glanced aside. "I'm….I-I'm sorry……I'm sorry about spying on you. The fact that I couldn't find another way to find out what was going on….as if I _need to find out_……ugh….it's so wrong. I don't know where to begi--"

"Don't." She simply said. A curt drone like the Raven days of olde. "I want to forget that there've been any secrets."

"Like Robin supposedly being alive?"

"I believe it, Victor."

He nodded. "I understand."

"……," she squinted her eyes at him.

He cleared his throat. "I-I mean….I understand that you feel that way."

"………," she slowly turned around. She picked up her teacup from the chair and fingered it with her back facing away from Cyborg. "I'll be leaving tomorrow…."

Cyborg's lips parted. "L-Leaving, Rae?"

Her head nodded. "For Gotham City…."

He took half-a-step towards her. "But….why?"

She turned around. A strong glare. "To find out the truth once and for all."

"Raven, the likelihood of—"

"I know," she said, a graceful hand raised. "Whatever you're going to say, I know. I'm going anyways. I need to find out for myself."

And she shuffled past him.

Cyborg turned. In a low voice he said: "Raven, I just got the T-Car II made. She deserves a test drive. If you want to go and try to find Robin in Gotham City, then at least let me give you a ride there—"

She paused and looked at him: "Cyborg…," she shook her head with a sigh. "That's not going to fix the way things are between us and you know it."

He simply nodded. "Right. But it **will** get you to Gotham City with less hassle."

"………."

"It's only an offer," Cyborg gestured. "The least I can do……" He took a bit of tongue pulling to honestly add: "As a _Titan Leader."_

"………….," she nodded her head. "I'll think about it, Vic. Thank you."

"Whenever, Raven…."

"…….."

"…….."

She turned.

She walked away.

Cyborg stood in the shadows. The darkness of the Tower's atrium.

He flexed his fingers and gazed down towards the floor.

Still……

"………………………."

Suddenly, a light gold aura blinked across the room. There was a gentle chiming sound.

"?" Cyborg stretched a metal hand to his hips and unholstered a communicator. He could tell from an LCD display that the message was coming from outside the headquarters. He flipped the communicator open with a Star Trek sound. "Titans' Tower. This Cyborg. How can I help?"

"_Cyborg? Wow……I-I didn't expect you to actually be up this early in the morning. Uhm……ahem……th-this is Dr. Abrams from Phaser Labs. Is Raven there by chance?"_

"……," Cyborg glanced at the distant elevator that had long closed to carry the robed beauty upwards. "It depends. What's up?"

"_Well, you're the Titan Leader. I think you might want to come look at this recent finding I've made."_

"What about, exactly?"

"_You'll have to see for yourself, sir. But it has to do with the Radioactive Depository on the night Robin died."_

"……………"

"_Th-There's a new development, sir. Something we never factored in before."_

Cyborg nodded to the air. "Understood, Dr. Abrams. Stay where you are. I'll be right there…."

"_Very well, Cyborg. Abrams out."_

**Blip.**

Cyborg holstered the communicator again. He took a deep breath, turned around, and headed towards the large double doors of the front of the Tower….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham Countryside.

2:20 a.m.

Wayne Manor.

The Bat-Cave.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Batman," Robin spoke. He pointed to the pensive, blonde boy as he spoke: "Joey says that we're missing something. Triangular _knew_ that we were going to be intercepting them at the vaults."

"Exactly…," Batman nodded while in the middle of examining golden vials under lab equipment. "They tried to ambush us. Two-Face thought that the combined forces of Killer Croc, Metallo, and Matt Hagan's chemicals could make an impregnable gang of thugs. He was right….but we had an ace up the sleeve."

"But that's just it!" Robin exclaimed. Excitedly…anxiously….he took a deep breath and rambled: "It looks like we defeated them. And for all intents and purposes, we did. It was a tough fight. All of us nearly died. And—yes—Batgirl suffered in the end from Red Aviary. But that's just it. I don't think Deathstroke factors in on what's crucial here…."

"Tim. Barbara's spine has been shattered to dust. How crucial do you want?"

"Give me a chance here!" Robin snapped.

"……," Batman icily went on with his analyses.

"I don't think Two-Face expected Red Aviary to be there at the vaults at all. From what Jericho hints to me, Triangular had one last trick of their own. Metallo…Killer Croc….the Clayface wannabes….they were all red herrings! Distractions! Do you think we won so completely and devastatingly against Two-Face for no reason whatsoever?"

"I don't believe in luck….," Batman said. He looked up momentarily. His eyeslits were narrow. "We went in there and did what we had to do. Two-Face lost almost everything he's worked his whole criminal life to achieve, Tim. His sanity went along with it. If that's a red herring, then Harvey Dent is far more psychotic _and_ self-deprecating than ever I've given him credit for. And I know him. Trust me."

"I do trust you, Bruce," Robin raised his arms. "But…..I think there's been some wool pulled over your eyes, just like it's been pulled over mine."

Batman refocused on the experimentation as he said: "Time will be the deciding factor."

"Time?" Robin did a double-take. "_Time?"_ He crazily gestured. "Bruce, we don't have time! Triangular's one thing, but Deathstroke's out there just waiting to make a second strike!"

"Which is exactly why we should not venture out into the danger zone. At least….not now."

"…….," Robin's eyemask thinned. "What are you getting at….?"

Batman paused momentarily. He didn't share the Boy Wonder's eyesight as he said: "It was gross negligence on my part to assume that Deathstroke would only go after you and not someone else on the team like Barbara."

"'Gross negligence'?"

"I should have anticipated that each and every one of us would be in danger as long as Red Aviary was alive. Deathstroke is a lot better informed than I thought. On….,"

Robin shrugged. "We all put our lives on the line! We _always_ put our lives on the line! Barbara too! You…Y-You can't just put down a good opportunity to reevaluate the enemy just because someone out there proves he's a little smarter than the average psychopath!"

"Robin, you don't know what you're talking about."

He frowned. "Bite your tongue! I'm not some kid in a cape anymore!"

"………," Batman turned and stared at Robin straight on. For once, it didn't look like a tough glare from the Dark Knight…but rather a mutual mask of weariness. "Robin, if one of your Titans was to reach a near-death experience because of Slade…..would you allow the rest of them to back out in the open again for _any sort_ of investigation?"

"………..," Robin bit his lip. He looked aside.

Batman took a deep breath. "You're right. You're not a kid anymore." He grabbed a rack of vials and walked across the open 'laboratory' to a processing vault of sorts which he sealed the capsules in. Robin followed him. Batman spoke: "I could spend all day arguing with you about our relationship as it is nowadays, Tim. Are you still my apprentice? Am I still a father to you? Are we partners…or are we comrades? You may think what you choose to think. You may be analytical like Barbara, stubborn like Dick, or even sarcastic like Alfred. The one thing I have no power over is you." He keyed through a couple of instruments across the vault device where the vials were in. "You are yourself, Tim. You are a legendary fighter….a great team fighter….and a perfect complement to the name 'Robin'." Batman finished keying. He turned around. He folded his arms and spoke firmly: "But if I have any word in it, I will not have you go out there into that urban hellhole again. Not until I figure out what is making Triangular and Red Aviary tick on my own. I nearly lost you once, Tim. Nightwing himself nearly died. And now Barbara will never…ever be the same again. I would be a fool…and absolute _fool_ if I did not take this responsibility on myself right now…"

"Your 'responsibility'?" Tim remarked, doing a double-take.

"I'm going back out to check on Dick," Batman said. "If Deathstroke knows that Barbara Gordon is Batgirl, then he mustn't be far away from catching up on the rest of us. I'm going to try and talk Dick into coming back here."

"To do what? Play backgammon? Bruce…he wants to _be with Barbara!_ Why can't you at least give him that? Give _them_ that?"

"I will….if I must…," Batman said in half a growling exhale. "But if he values Barbara's prosperity further, I hope he'll do the right thing and take this situation maturely….by not putting himself needlessly in the line of Deathstroke's fire."

"Is that anything better than what you're doing?" Robin exclaimed. He frowned and pointed: "Bruce….if Gotham City out there is so incredibly dangerous, than Slade will be out to end you just as much as the rest of us! If this is so godawful true, then I can't let you go alone—"

"I'm not going to argue with you, Tim…," Batman marched on.

Robin jumped in his path. "Dammit, Batman! What happened to you? Was it Jim mourning over Barbara? Was it Bullock cussing you out again? Was it something that Dick said? What? Cuz you're being so God damn selfish right now that—I swear—I almost want to hit you!"

"And what is holding you back, Tim?" Batman solidly droned.

"……..," Robin stepped back. He took a shuddering breath: "Because I'm not used to you being wrong….."

"…………"

"Bruce…..you know who you sound like? You sound just like Superman. You sound like Superman when he nearly squelched Noir of all he could do for his own teammates. If Noir hadn't done some quick thinking, he wouldn't be here with us right now. And quite frankly, I don't know how far we'd be without him or Jericho to give us a silent, helping hand. Deathstroke got to Barbara. And that tears me apart as much as it tears at you. But it could have been worse. Much….much worse…."

"Tim, I you and I are a lot alike," Batman leaned forward. "Neither of us are afraid of anything. We're hardcore. It's part of us….Nightwing too. And it will never leave. What I'm doing is not selfish. It's for everyone's good. And if that means putting myself into danger above everyone else—"

"You might do that, Batman," Robin snarled and pointed at himself. "But I don't swing that way."

"Tim--"

"I'm not _**all**_ hardcore, Batman! I'm a human being, **okay**?"

"……….."

A bit of silence.

Robin took a deep breath. He then exclaimed—just as loudly: "I…**can't**…defeat…Slade! And neither can you! Not on our own!"

More silence.

Robin calmed a bit. Then, in a lower breath, he said: "Do you know why? Because Slade is hardcore. That's all he is, Batman. Whatever was remotely redeemable and human in that nasty shell of his melted away the day Noir drove his sword through the madman's chest. I'm more than that. I'm more than Slade. I'm human, Batman. It's taken me a long time to…t-to grasp that. I can't defeat Slade on my own. I can't understand Triangular on my own. I need more than Noir and Jericho in this. I need **you**. I need you with me. Please, Batman. We'll get nothing by hiding out again while one or two of us goes out to scout the abyss around us like scared little bats without a belfry."

"……….," Batman took a deep breath and walked past Robin. "This is my City. If Deathstroke was to attack me….I would gladly take him with me."

Robin's jaw dropped. He gaped after Batman: "Bruce….I won't let you go away like that!"

"I'll be back, Robin…," Batman moved towards the platform where the Batwing rested. He reached to his utility belt and produced a remote that unlocked the craft from afar. "The last person you have to fear about is me…"

"Damn it, the _Titans_, Bruce! Deathstroke is going after the _Titans_ next!"

"………," Batman stopped at the aircraft. He turned around. "……how do you know this?"

Robin seethed. "He told me."

"He….._told_ you?"

Robin hung his head. "We w-went to Barbara's apartment. All three of us. Jericho and I broke into the Oracle's room…."

"Tim….," Batman took a few half-steps towards him. "There was an investigation going on at the time. You know how risky that was. Why did you do it?"

Robin ignored that. "I found Deathstroke's message," he shudderingly said. "Written in blood. Batman, Slade will go after the Titans next if he can't get to me. You and I….we're still safe. It's the ones like Barbara…Dick….Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg…..they're the ones in trouble. I cannot let my team fall under his sword. Not for anything in the world."

Batman pointed: "Nor can I let anything happen to you in turn. I'm going to face it, Robin. Head-on." He turned once again to the Batwing. "When I return, the vials should be completed with their analysis. The theories you and Jericho have about Two-Face and Triangular, we can discuss then. Right now…stay here. I need you at your prime, Robin. I need you…._alive."_

"Bruce. There's no time--"

_SCHLUMP! __**HISS!**_

The hatch to the Batwing closed. The platform rotated around. A 'door' opened in the wall of the Batcave. A runway 'bridge' popped up between the platform and the door. The jet turbines of the Batwing flared up….and launched the craft loudly out of the cavern and up through the door's rocky passageway like a rocket.

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

"……..," Robin stood stock still. His fists clenched for a moment…then relaxed. With a sigh, he turned about and marched towards another tier of the Batcave. "Stubborn piece of guano…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I sat in the study inside Wayne Manor. I hunched forward in a chair, exhaling gently.

Across from me, Jericho sat beneath a large mantle painting of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He hugged his knees and rocked back and forth. His eyes seemed distant.

"…….."

I leaned my head to the side. Through shaded eyes I blinked and regarded him. I sighed and hand-signed gently with a flesh and synthetic wrist: _'Is it the shipment? Is there something wrong with the vials?'_

Jericho hesitates before hand-signing back: _'I do not know.'_

'_Is it that Two-Face was blocking you from reading something in his head?'_

'_I do not know.'_

I bit my lip. I eventually gave in and gestured: _'Did Metallo and Killer Croc escaping have anything to do with it?'_

Jericho looked up at me directly. Green eyes moist and fearful.

I was 'silenced'.

"…………………."

I stood up.

I paced past the darklit window. Frost drifted down through the air in a sideways curtain. Whiteness split the red momentarily, and I felt attracted to the glass veil in the center of it all…..

_Why do I feel helpless here, Ana?_

I gazed out at the wonderland trying its futile best to become 'wintry'.

_Is Joey just afraid to tell me what's bugging him? _

_Or is he really clueless? _

_I was never one to do visions. Red Aviary's effects on my metal arm only confused me. _

_I suppose you were always best at premonitions, Ana. _

_I wonder if Terra experiences the same……_

A sliding noise.

Jericho craned his neck.

I turned around, eyebrow raised.

The grandfather clock inside Bruce Wayne's study slid open.

Robin walked into view from the drafty-cold cave passageway behind and beneath him.

I gestured: _'How did it go?'_

Robin sighed. He gestured back at me: _'Fishing boat calculate the leaf mother.'_

I winced and snapped a finger before fervently gesturing: _'Save it. Just read and __**talk**__ to us, Tim.'_

Robin winced. "Y-Yeah….sorry…."

I shrugged.

Robin ran a hand through his spiked black hair and shuddered: "You know Batman."

I shook my head. So did Jericho.

The Boy Wonder rolled his eyes under his mask. "Well….you know him a big if you know _me._"

I nodded with a slight smirk.

Jericho was still.

"Batman wants us to stay here in the Manor while he goes and attempts to round up Nightwing…"

And at that, I frowned.

"I-I guess he thinks that once we get those vial samples of Terra's essences tested on, everything will unfold itself. But….Jericho's not the only one paranoid. I don't think Triangular's done for. I just….don't feel it in my bones."

I nodded.

"Dagger is far too strong and versatile to just drop out on us…even if Lex Luthor has potentially lost a great deal of security and Two-Face has—well—lost his mind. Not that I don't mind either of those latter prospects, of course…."

_Of course._

"Damn it….," Robin sighed, rubbing his temples. "We're just NOT going to get anything done waiting around in this crudhole."

Jericho bit his lip and seemed ready to gesture something--

The Boy Wonder looked over. "Yeah? What is it?"

Jericho hesitated.

Robin smiled for good measure. "Joey….it's okay. We value your input. If you have something to tell us…by all means…."

Jericho swallowed. He signed: _'I have this one memory that I think is Two-Face's. It did not come to me immediately when I entered him. He was doing his best to repress most recent memories. Things that go back a month ago…'_

'_His dealings with Traingular,' _I added.

Jericho nodded. _'There was this one memory that he was trying very, very hard to hide when we recently defeated his goons beneath the Wayne Corp building. And……I think it has something to do with the vials.'_

"Something important?" Robin asked. "Something we should know about?"

Again, Jericho nodded.

"What's this memory about anyways?"

I looked steadily at Jericho.

He thought for good measure about it and eventually gestured: _'It is a memory of a room.'_

"A room?"

'_Some place high tech. With lots of equipment. Labwork. Machines. Computers.'_

I scratched my dark head of hair. I glanced curiously at Robin.

"Erhm…..," he shrugged. "If it's Two-Face we're dealing with….perhaps he's recently been to Metropolis to check out Luthor's installations at S.T.A.R. Labs?"

I nodded.

_Yeah…… _

_Triangular, all in the buddy. _

_That makes sense._

Jericho waved his hand.

We both gazed directly at him.

Jericho gestured: _'It was not in Metropolis.'_

"How do you know?"

'_There were windows in the room.'_

"Yeah?"

'_The sky outside was night. It had a hue of __**red.**__'_

Robin leaned back.

I gestured at him: _'Gotham City.'_

"Yeah, I know….," he nodded. "But that could be any place. Especially in the hands of some nefarious crooks this big."

I turned to the young blonde. _'Joey, was there anything you saw through Two-Face's eyes in particular? Did you see what they were working on? Did you see what the laboratory was experimenting with?'_

Jericho seemed to strain a bit. He shuddered and signed: _'I am sorry. I only know silly little details.'_

"Like what?" Robin asked.

'_The people he was talking to……the lab technicians……they all wore blue uniforms.'_

"Uniforms?"

'_Like jumpsuits. The sort of stuff you would see on Star Trek.'_

"……..?" I blinked.

_Okay, I give up._

I looked helplessly at Robin and was utterly floored by the actual look of contemplation on his face.

"Blue uniforms?" Robin asked. He leaned his head to the side, lips pursed. "With…..gold cuffs?"

Jericho gasped. He stood up and excitably signed: _'Yes! Yes, they did!'_

Robin nodded, fists clenched. "That's Gotham Labs. No doubt about it."

I gave him a sarcastic look. _'Rather obvious, do you not think?'_

"Believe me…Gotham Labs would be my last choice…," Robin murmured. "They're a very decent, clean science center. For as long as the Labs have been in effect here in Gotham City, they've remained untouched by Thorne, Dagget, and any of the supervillains. The place has helped as a holding place for metaphysical criminals who randomly happen upon Batman's City….like Livewire, Plasmus, and Clayface."

I mouthed: _'Clayface?'_

"Could be possible that that's where Triangular processed the chemicals from Matt Hagan's samples."

'_Yes, but how?'_

"Simple, Noir. They have Dagger on their side. That man has enough tricks up his sleeve to take over ten million Gotham Labs in a lifetime. Much less…a single laboratory, as Jericho seems to be telling us."

The blonde boy simpered and signed: _'Come to think of it, I believe I remember seeing beakers and glass tubes full of brown stuff.'_

"Good enough for me…," Robin nodded. "Unless Gotham Labs was spontaneously conducting a worldwide survey on stool samples, I think we're on the right track."

I gestured: _'So what do we do?'_

_**ZAAAT!**_

"You go take a geeky gander, of course," the Messenger said.

Jericho jumped.

Robin turned and gazed at the asian teen, who now appeared to be leaning against the study's desk with a bulky watch displaying strings of data for the dimension-jumper himself to see.

"And what have _you_ been up to all this time, Messenger?" Robin asked.

"Oh….the usual. Risking my neck in between quantum realities to snoop around grimeyville," he spoke, his almond eyes not touching our visage once. He seemed momentarily preoccupied with the digital strings across his clunky watch like a beauty queen with her compact. "Not that Gotham City's an ugly place, I'd just rather choose more Disney-esque places to be jumped on by gang rapists. Ooops…I'm sorry, that was bad taste on my part. You think the little gold-haired kid there is old enough to handle 'Disney' jokes?"

"………," Jericho blinked.

I rolled my black eyes and gazed at Robin.

The Boy Wonder cleared his throat and faced the Messenger. "Uhm…."

"Uhmmmmmm……," the asian teen looked Robin's way finally…..smirking.

Robin scratched the back of his neck. "Seriously…I assume you were--"

"All over Town," the Messenger paced over, ignoring his watch now. "I was hoping to find the nasty-ass intruder of Barbara Gordon's spinal column. Unfortunately, I didn't sense any signs of him or his gun or his lovely singing voice anywhere within the urban area. He's elusive. Just as elusive as I am. And that scares me. I'm always losing myself these days, much less a red-breathing, death-incarnate, Darth Vader wannabe. Oooh…hey! Nice books Mr. Wayne has here. How about some Kerouac?"

"Could the jocularity wait, Messenger?" Robin folded his arms and frowned.

"Heheheheh….Timmy Tim Tim….," the Messenger looked over and his face solidified into something coldly serious. It shook us inside out. "…..what more can be lost tonight than a simple chance to smile for once?"

"……………," Robin gazed aside with a sigh.

The Messenger gently strolled over. "The Batman….he took off in the Mother Hen Plane, didn't he?"

"Has anyone ever told you that I love your allusions?"

"Nice try, Robin. But you ain't getting' any."

"Uhm…..?"

"I imagine that Bruce Wayne isn't wanting to join you on your march around Jericho."

"And you're right, he isn't," Robin nodded. A raised eyebrow of suspicion. "Why? Is there something the entire Bat troupe must be together for?"

"I'd say yes if it were true."

I nervously, painfully cleared my throat.

"……….," the Messenger was silent.

Robin slowly spoke, breath soft…then growing firmer: "We owe it to Barbara…..we owe it to the Titans….we owe it to a lot of people to find out _exactly_ what's going on with Triangular. I don't want to find out that what we did was in vain. Now….I think a trip is in order. And any help we can get—Batman or not—would be very much appreciated."

Jericho bit his lip at that.

I merely smirked and folded my arms.

_Saw that coming a mile away._

I only saw Robin's profile, but I could have sworn there was a smile on him too somewhere…

"Hmmm…well….that's very interesting….," the Messenger gestured as he tapped on his bulky watch and said: "Cuz there was one unique thing I kinda sorta found out…"

"What's that?"

Jericho leaned forward, curious.

"I couldn't quite find Red Aviary _in the act_. But I did find a little bit of where he was."

"How, exactly?"

"Inter dimensional thing. Death leaves a strange trail. It doesn't show much in this universe save for in the absence of light…."

I shuddered at that.

_Yup. _

_Mortuana……_

"Remember the Diamond Plaza?" the Messenger said.

"How could I not? It's a crater now…and Nightwing almost became a hole in the ground himself too."

"Well, Red Aviary was there."

"Deathstroke? When?"

"Not too long ago. I think he was….following the shipment of Terra's essences."

"So the Parasite was checking on its host….."

"Indeed," the Messenger nodded. "Triangular had a ghostly, red caboose. But—get this—Deathstroke followed the trail of the vials. But he didn't follow it to the _Wayne Corp. Building……_"

Jericho looked at me and Robin interchangeably.

Robin hung his arms at his sides and said: "Lemme guess…..Deathstroke's trail leads to Gotham Labs…."

"……….," the Messenger leaned his head to the side. "Now…where ever did you get that idea?" He winked.

I smirked. I looked proudly at Robin.

He took a deep breath. "Well…first thing's first. Who's in?"

I reached a black hand out.

Jericho was second.

Robin was third.

The Messenger shrugged: "It's kind of out of my neck of the words….but Hell, sure. I'm all for a Boys' Night Out." He slapped his hand down on ours.

"Good….," Robin nodded. He backed up. "If we're all going to investigate Gotham Labs….then I won't feel bad about what I'm about to do."

Jericho looked nervous.

I blinked.

"And what—my dear bird—pray tell is that?" you-know-who chirped.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_The Batmobile?'_ I hand-gestured dramatically. Sweating cold. _'We cannot just __**steal**__ the Batmobile!'_

We stood in the batcave besides the elusive, dark vehicle of sleekness. All four of us.

"Jericho and the Messenger separately came together to point us in the direction of Gotham Labs," Robin bravely said. He fished around in his utility belt. "I think there's something hidden there that's being directed by Triangular. We can't overlook that. No matter how victorious we may have been in the Wayne Corp. Vaults…..or how tragically Barbara has suffered before us."

"Gawd…," the Messenger exhaled with a grin. "I swear, when it comes to speeches, you and Scott must trade notes across dimensions."

"Who?"

"Never mind. So, Grand Theft Wonder…..what's the plan?"

"Jericho hops into one of us two," Robin gestured at him and myself. "We drive the Batmobile to Gotham Labs. From there, Jericho and I can combine our computer expertise to remotely hack into the security network of the laboratories while Noir goes ahead as stealthy reconnaissance."

"And what about yours unruly?"

"I don't know…can you do your walk-through-walls-green-flashy trick for us?"

"I think I can lend Noir a hand," the Messenger nodded with a smirk. He gazed at me. "We do so enjoy our illegal romps together, don't we pal?"

_Screw you too._

"Whatever help we can get, I'm glad, for," Robin said. "Even yours."

"Flattered. Untruly. Now….how do you expect to get away with bartering the Batmobile?"

"With **this**," Robin finally pulled out a remote from his utility belt. He clicked it.

**Blip.**

_Scnhhhhhhk!_ The glass door to the Batomobile slid open to reveal the spacious front seats of the vehicle.

Jericho immediately shined forth the boy in him as he mouthed: _'Ooooooh.'_

I whistled. I grabbed Robin's attention and pointed at the remote he had. I gestured: _'How did you manage to get that?'_

"I….uh…..grew up on the streets," Robin said. His cheeks a little rosy. "I know how to grab something valuable…when necessary."

I nodded and mouthed: _'Riiiiight.'_ A smirk.

"Don't look at me like that. And wipe that grin off your face!"

I didn't.

"So what if I….borrowed a few things from my teammates before I grew up, wisened up, and became a Titan? It was too easy. Batman's car key. Nightwing's bo-staffs. Alfred's magazine collections and Barbara's Victoria's Secret catalogue…they all fell victim!"

"…….."

"……."

"……."

Robin shook his head and ran a gloved hand over his face. "Wait…aw Hell, what am I telling you that for?"

I chuckled breathily.

"Ughh…."

The Messenger also had a laugh or two.

"…..," Jericho blinked. He looked at me and signed: _'I do not get it.'_

I cleared my empty throat, smirked, and patted his head.

"Stop laughing! I was…uhm….barely thirteen then. You know how that goes…."

"I'm not sure…," the Messenger smirked and folded his arms. "Why don't you tell us?"

Robin glared. "The Hell are you still doing here?"

"Being educated on how Robin robs from the feminine and gives to the hormones."

"You're supposed to be doing reconnaissance at the labs."

"Oh, my bad. It's go time?"

_It's go time._

"By all means! Wagons ho, kiddies!"

_**ZAAT!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

3:01 am

East District.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VROOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The Batmobile rocketed down the streets of Gotham.

Inside, I was pressed nervously back into the passenger seat. My right hand fished about desperately for the Jesus bar on the right side of the driving compartment, but discovered it wasn't there to be found.

In the meantime, Robin nonchalantly piloted the veritable, exploding rocket of a vehicle with one hand while fumbling suicidally with a communicator with another and speaking into it:

"Are you on this frequency, Messenger?"

"_If I'm sputnik, I sure as Hell gained a few pounds!"_

"Hardy har har. We're getting close to the labs. Are you in position?"

"_Yup. Like a true missionary. Send in the clowns, Tiny Tim. And when I say clowns, I mean badass, smoking urban samurai."_

"Yeah…well I only have one."

"_Noir? Pfft……sure. Whatever. He'll have to do."_

I couldn't help but frown at that.

Robin smirked. "You need to lighten up."

I did a double-take at him.

_Jesus Christ, who are you again?_

**VROOOOOOOSH!**

_**SCREEECH!**_

We screamed around a corner as I slammed up against the side of my door. Wincing.

_Seatbelts are an illusion, I see……_

I adjusted the straps around me and fought for breath.

"Heheheheheh….," Robin gripped the wheel tighter. "How I've missed the oblivion of the moment…."

I exhaled nervously and glanced out the wide, curved windows for any sign of a red-streaking pursuer.

Nothing.

"…..it's the best oblivion there's ever been tonight…," Robin murmured. Something was momentarily distant in his masked visage. Something cold and remorseful. Like the flipping blur of a redheaded doll, it came and went and soon he was in 'Titan-Leader' mode again…..as I've always admired him.

"Messenger….stay tuned."

"_I thought it was 'stay tuned for a brief message'."_

"Do you want me to toss Noir your way or not?"

"_All right already. Let's get Medieval on this laboratory's buttocks. JAPANESE medieval that is!"_

Robin mumbled: "Whatever that means."

"_Hai."_

Robin pressed a switch. The window to the Batmobile opened ever so slightly. The Boy Wonder looked at me: "We're gonna swing by Gotham Labs, Noir. You ready to teleport?"

I took a deep breath. _CHIIIIIING!_ Smoke trailed from my freed sword and upper limbs. I looked at him…and nodded.

"Okay…here we go…."

He turned at the wheel.

We began to purposefully fishtail and drift around a bend in the building-lined road.

I took a deep breath and concentrated before undoing my safety belt and bracing myself before the window.

_You hang tight too, Joey……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham Labs.

3:03 am

Front Entrance.

At the front, drive-in gate of the labs….

A blue-uniformed guard sat at his terminal.

It was in the middle of the night.

Some godawful radio program was squawking through a transceiver at his station.

He sat down to a crossword puzzle of sorts…..

….and sighed.

……

………..

……………

_**VROOOOOOOOSH! SCREEEEEECH!**_

The main raised an eyebrow and looked up out the window of the gate. "Huh?"

The sleek, black body of a glistening vehicle careened past his vision.

Something shot out of the body.

Something swift, breathless, blurry.

_FW-FWOOSH!_

The guard's whole body jolted, shook, and shivered.

He blinked and stood up, looking all around the Gotham Square just outside the gated entrance.

"What in the….?" He murmured to himself. "Did a gust of wind just……blow right _through_ me?"

Silence.

He sat back down at his station.

Scratching his head.

"………………nngh," he snapped out of it. "Frickin' nightshifts…."

He went back to the crossword puzzle, explosively ignorant of the shadowed figure now standing inside the gated compound of Gotham Labs and creeping towards the two-story buildings….

Cloaked.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin slowed the Batmobile around a building and into a dark alleyway a mere block from the labs.

The engine purred into morose silence as the Boy Wonder parked the vehicle, half-pivoted his body towards the passenger's seat, and relaxed.

"Okay, Jericho…..n-now's a good time as any….."

A moment of silence.

Then a green aura.

Robin shook as out through _Tim's_ eyes, the body jumper Jericho appeared and materliazed instantly in the passenger seat besides him.

Jericho took a solid, deep breath.

"Hey there…," Robin breathily murmured, managing a smile. "Guess you really enjoy riding shotgun, huh?"

Jericho simpered. He playfully managed a tongue sticking out.

"I've got the satellite feed of the Batmobile's onboard computer alive and ticking," Robin said. "What say we give it a shot and try to lighten our friends' load some?"

Jericho nodded. He cracked his little hands as Robin pressed a button and converted half the dashboard to electronic keyboards and miniature monitor displays.

_Whurrrr-Chtung!_

Jericho started typing a mile-a-minute.

Robin—in the meantime—assisted with a few keystrokes from a sister stations in the driver's seat while simultaneously reaching for his communicator.

"Messenger…."

"_Yeah, Big Bird?"_

"We're cracking our way into the system. How's your progress?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Oh…you know me….," the Messenger whispered. He hung upside down from a tiled ceiling via a grappling hook cord. With three-eyed high-tech goggles of glowing green, he aimed a tranquilizer dart at the unsuspecting backsides of two security guards in the atrium of the Gotham Labs building. "…..always wedging Noir's door open a little tad more…."

_Th-Thifft! _

_Thfft!_

The two pricked individuals had barely half a second to utter 'huh?' before dumbly falling to the linoleum floor with fading breaths. Unconscious.

There was no way that could go unnoticed. The Messenger—hanging—glanced right just in time to see two guards march out of the security hub station with guns raised.

They took one look at the human chandelier and aimed at the Messenger.

"Freeze!"

"Hold it right there!"

"Gentlemen…..pals one and all…," the Messenger smiled like a green-eyed Cheshire cat in the dark. He shrugged: "For once, I am strung up."

The two guards blinked at him….

_Fw-FWOOSH!_

I materialized with a cascading veil of smoke, swinging Myrkblade up high to whallop the two men across their skulls.

TH-THWACK!

WHAP!

"Nnngh…." THWUMP! Both fell coldly to the ground.

The Messenger twirled and landed from the ceiling upright just as I walked to him.

"Brilliant as always….," he simpered. "But….aren't we the pawns of somebody's voyeuristic evil?"

I held a finger up. I pointed into the far corners.

The Messenger craned his neck to see….

Two security cameras in the place already had their sparking hot wires severed, thus switching the apparatuses off. The work of a smoking-sharp sword….

The Messenger smirked at me. "You better thank your lucky stars and garters that I'm hetero…."

I shrugged and marched towards the security hub station.

_Save it for when the weather gets warmer……_

As we infiltrated the internal infrastructure of the Laboratory, I sent a morse code to the Batmobile. _'W-E—A-R-E—I-N.'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"They're in," Robin said. He glanced over at the little blonde. "Any chance we can disable the rest of the facility's defenses now?"

Jericho nodded dazedly, working at a breakneck speed with the Batmobile's computer desktop. He typed…typed…typed his fingers off. He motioned for Robin to input a similar string of data.

The Boy Wonder digitally complied.

Jericho whistled while he worked, made the keyboard sing like poetry, and finished with a slap to the enter key.

He smiled.

"Hmm….showoff," Robin winked under his mask. Then and there, he received another morse code message.

'_W-H-A-T—A-R-E—W-E—L-O-O-K-I-N-G—F-O-R.'_

Jericho glanced at Robin.

Robin swallowed and said into the communicator: "We'll get to that once we're all in there. As for now…"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_you and the Messenger try to plot your way into the center of the place. Jericho and I will give you access to the inner sanctum. Any of the doors aglow with red lights on their keycard swipers are no-nos until they turn green. Got it?"_

I nodded, gazing at rows of monitors displaying security feeds.

The Messenger verbally replied into a makeshift communicator: "Roger, Robin. Robin, Roger." He glanced over at me. "I've always wanted to say that."

_Your cheeriness is a drug._

I was busily, mentally mapping the complex out in my mind from all of the security cameras. I gathered that there was a basement floor three levels down where a service elevator led to the true, nitty-gritty facilities of Gotham Labs. Most likely, that spot was the highest security level. Jericho said that his vision of Two-Face's memories had windows looking out onto the red night sky. But regardless, if there was anything to be had from this place….I figured below the Earth was where the solution would be.

"Figure we should split up?" the Messenger asked, looking over my shoulder.

I nodded without looking at him.

_Guess he's on the same page as I am. There are two key ways to do this. Above ground. Below ground. _

_I'll take the ugly route……_

I pointed at myself, then at the security grid's layout of the service elevator and the basement floors. I pointed at him and designated the higher floors.

The Messenger shrugged. "Suit yourself. Just don't turn into a naked mole rat or nothing on me. Squirrels are fine. All other rodents….not kosher."

_Yeah. _

_You stay Asian. _

_Or something……_

I shrugged, waved at him, and hurried along my way as he went along his.

_Fwoosh!_

_**Zaat!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I hope they remember that these are normal citizens we're dealing with inside the laboratory…," Robin muttered while typing. He paused. He said: "Unless….of course……they all really turn out to be working for Triangular in the long run, which would make half of Gotham City a croc of conspiracy fodder….."

Silence.

Robin sighed. "I can feel it already. The ulcers are starting again…"

Jericho whistled.

Robin brightened. "Ready? The central protocols?"

The younger one fervently nodded.

"Allright…let's initiate."

Jericho inserted one last string of commands into the network.

Robin complied.

"There….that should do it. Messenger? Noir? You've got the green light. We'll be there to join you PDQ!"

'_O-N-E—S-E-C-O-N-D—P-L-E-A-S-E'._

Robin leaned his head to the side. "Noir?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The keycard console of the central service elevator beeped as it flashed from red….to green.

_**Bleep!**_

SWOOOOSH! SMACK! The body of a blue-uniformed guard flew into the elevator doors, denting them.

"Ughhh…."

**BLAM! BLAM!**

I skidded across the hallway on a carpet of murk and leapt up to dodge heavy caliber gunshots.

Another man was coming at me with a magnum, his uniform scuffed up from a slight wrestle with me earlier. He gritted his teeth, squinted an eye, and fired—_**BLAM!**_

I blurred to the side, ran a few feet along the wall, jumped off, teleported, and materialized with a fist in his face.

_TH-THWAP!_

The man flew back and landed with his head slamming into the wall of the hallway.

"Nnngh!" He fell down and was out cold.

I took a deep breath.

I marched over and stood above him.

With the very tip of Myrkblade, I turned the gun over where he dropped it.

_A revolver. _

_A magnum at that. _

_Not standard issue weaponry for guards of a city laboratory such as this………_

I took a deep breath and bit my lips.

_Great. _

_Another pit of vipers._

I turned. I examined the elevator doors.

The light was green on the keycard console.

_Show me the way, Dante……_

I walked over, opened the elevator, and stepped inside.

As I did so, I could have sworn I sensed something. Something….bright. Glinting. Reflecting off the smooth shine of the metal walls and bulkheads and corners around me.

Something……..**red.**

I shivered and spun about, Myrkblade raised high.

I felt suddenly and claustrophobically engulfed by the elevator.

So terribly alone.

"………"

I gulped.

_Is he…… _

_Is he here? _

_I don't know, Ana. _

_I……really don't know. _

_I can't sense him anymore like I used to. _

_But yet…… _

_The Spectrum………… _

_There's something that puts me so much at unease with this place. _

_And it's not so much the prospect of running into Slade. _

_It's………something else. _

_Something's terribly wrong here……_

Nevertheless, I walked into the center of the elevator, press a button, and lower myself to the bottommost basement level.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Intruders! Intruders!"

"Man, shut up! We know already!"

"S-Sorry…."

"Get ready…he's coming up through the stairwell!"

Four gunmen lined up in the hallway, positioning themselves behind lab equipment, a metal bulkhead or two, and a cart on wheels. They aimed revolvers at the door at the end of the second story hallway.

They waited…..

Waited…………

Waited……………….

"…………….?" The foremost member of the pack craned his neck.

"Just where is the little shit?"

As if on cue, the door swung open with a creak.

Half the guards gasped.

With trigger fingers, they re-cocked their guns.

_Cl-Clik! _

_Clak!_

But….

No one came out through the door.

It simply yawned open, lingered, and fell back in on itself.

"…………….," one guard blinked.

"Uhm…."

"A ghost?"

_**ZAAAT!**_ The Messenger appeared at the rear of the group and slammed his foot up between the guard's legs. **WHUMP!**

"Mmmmmnnnakkkktt!" the man hissed and fell, cross-legged.

"HA! Who says you don't learn anything past puberty?"

The other three turned, gasped, and took aim.

_**BL-BL-BLAM! **_

_**BLAM!**_

The Messenger grinned, ducked, and—_**ZAAAT!**_

He teleported in a green pulse, reappearing between two thugs whom he swiftly collided into each other…craniums first.

The last guard aimed at the asian teen, shaking in his own boots.

"……..," the Messenger icily looked up and smirked at him. "Allright….who else wants some Fei Long for their tease?"

"S-Screw this j-job!" the guard shivered. "I-I'm not paid enough for this shit!"

"Mind being a good little panty-pisser and tell me who exactly it is that pays you?"

"Screw off, man!"

"Wow…you're a real charmer," the Messenger got into a 'leaping crane' posture. "Ever wondered what it felt like to have your kidneys kicked straight into your bronchial tubes? It's rather electrifying, to tell the truth…."

"Shut up! You can just kiss….my….--"

_CRKKK!_

The ceiling tile above the man collapsed. Robin dove down, bo-staff first.

"RAAAUGH!"

_**THWACK!**_

The man was plowed to the ground instantly. Down for the count.

The Messenger smirked and stood up straight, clapping his hands. "Bravo. If I might say, Robin, it was nice of you to dro--"

"Don't you dare…," Robin pointed a stiff finger.

_Cl-Clik!_

The two looked down the hallway.

One of the thugs had struggled up to his feet and was aiming to magnums at the teens.

"Nobody moves….nobody suffers."

"But you'll still kill us, right?"

"Damn straight, shitheads!"

"Ah…that's original."

"Do me a favor, pal…," Robin gestured. "Look me in the eye when you kill me."

The man's eyes twitched towards the Boy Wonder. "Huh?"

Robin stared.

An exchange of green light.

**CONTACT.**

_**FLASH!**_

The thug gasped and dropped his guns. "Wh-What the Hell? M-My body!"

"Hey Robin," the Messenger winked. "Pick a wall. Any wall."

"Hrmmm…," the Boy Wonder pointed across the way. "How about that one, Joey?"

The thug found himself unwittingly holding up the 'OK' signal.

"Dah! What's going on with me—WAAAAH!" He found himself sprinting straight into a metal wall. Just as he flew into it, a green astral projection leapt out, backflipped, and landed nimbly in the form of a blonde pre-adolescent.

_**THWAP!**_ The guard slammed face-first into the wall. He groaned and fell down unconscious.

"Ooh-Rah!" the Messenger waved. "Ten points!….Unless the French are judging this year, of course…."

Robin strolled over and patted Jericho's shoulder. "You did good, Joey. Really…"

The blonde looked up, smiling nervously.

"Did you…er….w-want to 'hop back in' one of us or are you—"

He shook his head.

"You sure?"

He nodded.

"Okay. Just stick by my side, got it?"

Jericho obeyed.

"I'll protect you if you just do what I say," Robin re-gripped his metal staff and marched down the hallway. "Okay. This way. Let's move!"

"The model father in the making…."

"Oh shut up. Come on."

"An…OXYMORONIC father….heh….."

The three of them hurried along.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwisssh!_

On the bottom basement floor of Gotham Labs, the glass elevator doors of a transparent shaft opened to a blue, blue room full of hydraulics, dangling cords and tubes, and various other foggy machinery. Everything felt cold like the wintry world outside and up above. I felt like I was in the ghastly intestines of a two-hundred foot tall refrigerator. Everywhere, the metal joints were hissing and billowing out puffs of cold steam. An ongoing whurrrr of mechanical ambiance filled the domain, entrancing me.

_What is this……a cryogenics lab?_

I looked around, slowly walking out of the elevator car…

_I guess I shouldn't doubt that. I heard about Gotham City being a centerpiece for freezing technologies. Guess this is where it's all at._

I looked around. My black eyes followed crossbeams and pipelines and electrical conduits amidst the synthetic fog.

_This sure as Hell wasn't part of Jericho's vision………or was it? Still, I must explore. I came all this way……can't let anything of Triangular's possibly go unnoticed……_

I strolled forward through the misty domain.

I soon realized I was coming upon the metallic ledge of a platform beneath a lower tier of the basement floor where further equipment resided. I looked through a half-fogged window and saw what looked almost like smooth, metal caskets or escape pods lying dormant on the metal laboratory floor below me.

_Whoah……freezing stasis chambers? Far out._

"……….."

I bit my lip.

_I shouldn't stay here for long. What if…… _

_What if Red Aviary was here?_

I shivered at that. But then again, it _was_ cold down there.

I was about to turn around and head back upstairs when something caught me.

I took a second look through the glass.

My black eyes squinted.

_One of those capsules. _

_It's……rather large. _

_And it looks much more 'brand new' than the others._

"………"

Curiosity got the better of me. Again, that awkward…terrible feeling that was gnawing at me more than the Messenger's jocularity that evening. I strolled around the stretch of fogged windows and hobbled down the steps to the lower tier. I walked, my fatigues murking through puffs of steam. Down the row of chambers I walked. And they were all empty.

Then I approached the large capsule. I could see that there was a glass face to it just like all the others.

I leaned over it, brought my black forearm over, and wiped the glass face clear.

I peered in.

And…..

I froze.

Almost literally.

My heart stopped…and my lips parted as a breath escaped.

"…….."

_Oh………my god._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Jericho….is this it?"

The blonde nervously swallowed…and nodded.

Robin walked forward through the laboratory. Indeed, there were stations much like Jericho described. Instruments and equipment much like he described. And finally….windows looking out onto the red sky of Gotham like he had described.

But….none of the vials and beakers full of muddy brown, experimental substances the likes of which Two-Face must have seen….

"Whatever was here…," the Messenger spoke, "…it's gone now. Or….maybe not. We need to search the place, don't you think?"

"You're asking me?"

"Hey….somebody's gotta stroke your ego."

Robin frowned at him. He turned and looked at Jericho. "Think things my click with you?"

The boy hesitantly nodded.

"Okay. Take your time."

'_**R-O-B-I-N'**_

The vibration and morse code of Robin's communicator made him jump. He swiped it up and said: "Y-Yes, Noir? What is it?"

'_**C-O-M-E—D-O-W-N—T-O—T-H-E—B-A-S-E-M-E-N-T—R-I-G-H-T—A-W-A-Y'**_

Robin made a face. "Noir…can it wait? I think we found the room that Jericho remembered. Besides, there are still guards crawling around and it's rather obvious by now who they work for and—"

'_**C-O-M-E—D-O-W-N—R-I-G-H-T—A-W-A-Y—T-H-I-S—I-S—U-R-G-E-N-T'**_

"………," Robin took a deep breath. "Okay, Noir. I'm coming."

'_**B-R-I-N-G—J-E-R-I-C-H-O'**_

Robin raised an eyebrow. He looked at Jericho. Then at the communicator.

"Okay. Stay tuned."

_Blip!_

"New dinner arrangements?"

"Noir must have found something big," Robin said. "Perhaps what we're looking for. I'm taking Jericho with me. Do you think you can investigate this room on your own for the time being?"

"Hey…..with the friends in my head," the Messenger winked. "I'm never alone."

"…….."

"Sheesh! That's an Arkham joke! Ahhhh never mind. Yeah, I'll be okay."

"Good. Contact us if you need anything," Robin motioned Jericho along and exited the laboratory with his bo-staff raised at ready. "Hopefully…this will be a worthwhile diversion…."

"High hopes decimate the rubber trees."

Robin and Jericho were gone.

"Awww….poop on you too," the Messenger rolled his eyes and opened a freezer full of….samples. "Hmmm…." He smiled devilishly. "Speaking of which…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwissh!_

I heard Robin and Jericho entering without even looking. B ut I didn't bother to turn around. I was so….engulfed in what lie before me.

"Noir?"

"……….," I stood numb in the midst. Leaning against the capsule. Breathing slowly….steadily….

"_Noir?"_

"………."

Robin finally came down the steps. Jericho lingered behind him.

"Noir….what the Hell is it? What is this place?" he craned his neck for a moment, paused, and walked over with a finger pointing. "And just what is that thing?"

"……..," I slowly…icily turned towards him. "……" I wiped the fog off the glass once more and let him look.

And he walked over.

And he did look.

"………….."

His lips pursed.

Dazed, he looked up at me.

I looked back at him.

A beat.

He motioned to me to get onto the other side of the capsule.

I did so.

He pressed a few buttons and hit a release mechanism.

I pulled on a lever.

Jericho watched from the stairs as we opened the metallic, casket-like sleeping capsule open wide with an exhale of gases.

_HISSSSSSSSssssssss………_

Once the two of us had the thing open, we leaned over and gazed at the person inside as if the glass obstructed the truth. And it hadn't. There he lay in the full metal and flesh. His right arm missing. His feet and boots partially melted into dull stubs. And scuff marks and burn marks all across the dark skin peaking around the metal.

"Cy-Cyborg…..," Robin murmured. He slipped a green glove off and felt our fellow Titan's neck. He swallowed. "H-He's got a steady pulse. But….l-look at him! He's so damaged….like….like….." A beat. Robin's jaw dropped. He looked up at me.

I looked over Cyborg at him.

"Noir…what the Hell is this? D-Do you know—"

I shook my head steadily. My black eyes were thin with….utter confusion.

And right then and there, Cyborg gasped loudly.

Robin and I jumped back.

At the end of Cyborg's inhale, his frost-encrusted human eye popped open. A jolt. A second jolt. He shot up with a loud snarl: "Nnnnnnghh! SIMON! Nnnnkktt—snkkt! Rrrghhh!"

Robin and I steadied him.

"Cyborg! _Cyborg!"_

"Nnngh—Nnngaaaugh!"

"Vic! Calm down! It's all right! You're okay…"

"No…NO!" Cyborg shouted. He looked at us, fuming. His right stub of a metal arm sparked. "It's _**NOT**_ all right! Don't you get it?" He looked at me and gripped the collar of my camouflage jacket. He hissed: "What….day….is it?"

I looked at him…breathless. If I had a voice, I'd be stammering.

"Cy-Cyborg….I think you should lie back down. Catch your breath—"

"WHAT…DAY….IS IT?" he snarled, shivering from reawakening.

I looked at Robin with nervous black eyes.

Robin swallowed and said: "December First…"

Cyborg did a double-take. "Say what? Oh…JESUS almighty!" He clamped his one hand over his forehead. "Nnnngh—shit……Shit….SHIT!"

"Cyborg….what are you doing here in Gotham City?"

"Gotham City? I was freakin' hoping you'd tell me! JESUS! I knew it…I knew it the VERY SECOND everything started to short-circuit and malfunction!"

"How long have you been in this thing, Vic?"

Cyborg glared at Robin. "When the Hell do you think? Ever since Dagger sent the mother of all viruses to Phaser Labs and reprogrammed Slug and Reload to bring the house down on me!"

"……," Robin was wordless. His lips quivered. "But…..B-But…."

"Robin….," Cyborg said in a lower—but snarling voice. He gripped the Boy Wonder's forearm and forced him to stare the android face to face. "Robin….where….am….I?"

"……," Robin looked at me.

I looked at him….shrugging.

Robin looked at Cyborg, swallowed, and said: "Gotham Labs…Downtown Gotham City—"

"No!" Cyborg hissed. "The _**other**_ 'me'."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

3:21 am

Phaser Labs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Schwissh!_

Cyborg entered the basement laboratory.

"Ah….Cyborg…g-glad you could make it."

Cyborg turned. He looked over. He smiled. "Dr. Abrams. I think you had some stuff to share with me."

The scarcely-shaven scientist nodded with a grin. "Y-Yes….and…um…I-I'm sorry, Mr. Stone, for forcing you to come so early in the morning."

Cyborg shrugged as he walked over. "Quite allright. I don't really have a regular sleeping schedule, ya know. I'm only as good as the national power grid stays in tact, you catch my drift?"

"Heheheheh…I believe so. Ahem. Please….look over here…."

Cyborg squinted his human eye as the doctor guided him over to the wall of computer consoles and schematics. "Is this the radioactive depository studies you told me you were working on?"

"Yes, sir. After Raven came by here to inquire as to special readings of the place, I did some further studies and I have to conclude that….that something happened the very moment Robin 'died;."

Cyborg placed his hands on his hips. Staring up at the schematics. "Is that so?"

"Yes…very much," Dr. Abrams calmly—but excitedly—wrung his hands while smiling and explaining.

He turned to face the computer consoles and gestured towards them as he spoke.

"I did a study of time-space anomalies within the core of the depository, and I found that there was indeed a calculable occurrence of out-of-the-norm disruption transpiring at the site right before the ignition of the carbonite explosives. Approximately half a second before, to be precise. And—furthermore—there was a second discharge of space-time friction occurring right at the end of that half-second duration. What that suggests is—in my hypothesis—the entrance of a small body into our dimension, and an exiting of that body from our dimension with double the mass. I know this might sound preposterous, Cyborg….but I thought that you—as the leader of the metaphysical Titans—would understand. Or at least…possibly accept the fact that….indeed…..something may have interceded on Robin's behalf."

Turning around. Dr. Abrams smiled at the Titan. "Y-Yes….I think we might have a viable theory here to work o—"

_**SWIIIIIIIISH!**_

_**SL-SLICE!**_

Dr. Abram's skull was divided in half by a huge metal axe.

_**TH-THUNK!**_

"Grkrkkk….skkskkkrtkk_kSKS__**KSSIT**__KKkkskk_tkrrtkktt..gllrgts…"

_**SCH-SCHLUNK!**_

The axe pulled out wetly, dripping brain matter.

TH-THWUMP!

Dr. Abrams' carcass deflated to the floor.

The red-stained axe lingered in the air. It was suspended from the end of a long, quivering tentacle of brown mud. With a slimy echo filling the laboratory, the tentacle of mud shrank back and receded into Cyborg's body mass. The mud took the shape of a human hand…and suddenly morphed into the blue and silver trademark titanium of the android Titan.

"……..," 'Cyborg' flexed his hand. Good as new. "……." He gazed up icily at the computer consoles. He walked over, actually stomping through Abrams' body, and deleted the program and the findings of the Radioactive Depository thereof.

At some point, an intercom switched on.

_Beep!_

"_Dr. Abrams? Is everything okay down there? We heard some noise."_

'Cyborg' looked over. He flipped a switch. He leaned his face over to the intercom and spoke in the deceased Abrams' voice.

_Click._

"Everything's fine, Vicki. I'm just showing Cyborg some new nonlethal weapons we have proposed for the City this coming year."

"_I see. Just checking up on you."_

"Heheheh…thanks a million as always, Vicki. Abrams out."

_Click._

'Cyborg' stepped back. He took a breath. And his human and red eyes both glossed over to a bright amber brown as he walked over Abrams' corpse once more, converted his lower body to a cushion of mud…and absorbed the corpse completely into him.

Being sure to gather the blood and brain matter in the process too….


	236. A Hard Act to Follow part 21

**236. A Hard Act to Follow part 21**

December 1, 2004.

Gotham City.

3:21 am

Gotham Labs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jericho sat aside on a laboratory counter top far away from the cold mist of the sleeping capsules.

I stood in a corner of the fogged-up basement, still numb.

Cyborg sat raggedly on the side of his capsule. As Robin and the Boy Wonder's tools treated some of the broken joints in Cyborg's titanium shell, the android Titan spoke:

"It all clicked for me at the last second. Absolute…positively…made sense. When Uncle Simon was reduced to android parts while employed with Anderson, his basic intelligence and construct was remanufactured by those in alliance with Slade and Dagger. Simon may have redeemed himself in some aspects…and—yes—my Uncle's personality still exists in the digital realm, but he's still a puppet to the evil powers that be. All the time Simon was situated at Phaser Labs, he was under the influence of Dagger. When he merged his digital consciousness with the laboratory mainframe at the Labs, he gave Dagger first-hand access to our City. Dagger was 'inside our midst' long before the first bullet or drop of Dragonflare ever exploded in the City Streets. During that time, Simon was moved towards doing things in Dagger's favor. He brought Rachel Mendez and Jean-Luc Blair to our neck of the woods. He made up an excuse for all of us to drag Terra's statue into Phaser Labs. And—ulitimately on the day of blood—he triggered an overload in the Phaser Labs mainframe using Simon Stone's artificial intelligence as a synaptic bridge. The overload sent shockwaves into Rachel and Jean-Luc, powering up the dormant dark halves of their cybernetic circuitry and effectively resurrecting Reload and Slug. They then carted my worthless metal carcass away along with Terra's statue and had Phaser Labs blown up from the inside at the same time."

Robin nodded, running a sparking tool across the cracked seams in Cyborg's good left shoulder. "And Two-Face, who was in league with Dagger the whole time, had Matt Hagan there and ready to replace you once the switch was ready. How else could you so easily have survived that explosion in Phaser Labs?"

"I saw Clayface when they were trucking me out of there…," Cyborg clenched his teeth and turned his one hand into a fist. "I knew then and there what they were going to do. I didn't know why or for what reason…but when I saw my 'replacement' and when I saw Terra being hauled out…..I pretty much lost it. I started to activate the self-destruct mechanism of my energy core…"

Robin's eyemask widened some.

I bit my lip.

"….They…Th-They deactivated me before I had a chance to. Simon…h-he had the access codes to my energy core. There was nothing I could do, Robin….," Cyborg hung his head. "Nothing…."

Robin placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't blame yourself, Cyborg. We just…W-We just need to think things out now. This changes everything. It's obvious Dagger has been one step ahead in the game…"

"Nnnghh!" Cyborg batted Robin's hand away and leaned forward, growling: "Well he shouldn't be! Where the Hell did we go wrong, man? Now they've got Terra and the Titans all in trouble—"

"Cyborg, Terra's alive."

"………"

"And she's resurrected," Robin said with a breath. "She's in the flesh. Safe with Supergirl. In secrecy….."

"………..," Cyborg's lips parted. "But…h-how?"

Robin gestured back in my direction. "Noir's been….a busy bee as of late. We owe a lot to him."

"Do we ever not?"

I simpered.

"After saving Terra from Dagger's men in Area 51--"

"Area 51?.?.?.?"

Robin ignored Cyborg's outburst and went on: "—he came here and assisted Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl and I. Recently, we performed a major blow against Triangular that may very well have defeated the Luthor and Two-Face support of Dagger, but we lost Batgirl in the process. She's in critical condition as we speak."

"And what about the Titans, dawg?"

"They….," Robin winced. "….th-they might be in big trouble with this new development…."

"Well, what in God's name are we waiting for, man?" Cyborg exclaimed loudly. He gestured his one arm: "If you and I are both here, then the rest of the Titans are hanging out in a City that Dagger still owns! As long as Simon's influencing the City through the Labs and Clayface is dancing around as me, then any second now our home could go to shit!"

"Cyborg, you have to understand, we didn't know tha—"

"And just what are you doing here anyways?" Cyborg frowned. "I thought you were the leader of the Titans, Robin! Don't you worry about what's gonna happen to our friends back at the ranch?"

Robin gritted his teeth: "Yes, Cyborg. I. CARE."

"Then why aren't you with the ones who need you?"

"**Because I've been 'dead' for a month, Cyborg!**" Robin shouted. "And as far as the Titans know, I still **am dead**!"

Cyborg blinked. His lips parted. "…..wh-what?"

Robin exhaled and glanced aside. "Once it looked like the worse had happened to me, it was necessary to keep below the radar. After all, Slade purposed my death as much as he purposed Terra's and Noir's. If I really let him find me and kill me, that could set in motion a fatal chain of events--"

"Wait wait wait wait wait…," Cyborg waved his left arm. He leaned forward, blinking. "Did you say….Slade?"

"Yes, Cyborg. Slade is after me—but now, I think that he may be after the Titans just as well."

"Uh uh. No way! Slade's dead, man!" Cyborg panted. He swallowed and pointed: "N-Noir killed the asshole, remember?"

I sighed depressingly and gazed aside.

Jericho squirmed nervously where he sat.

"Perhaps he did, Cyborg," Robin spoke. "But Slade's back. And he's Deathstroke now. And Deathstroke is ten times as powerful and a hundred times as deadly. Destruction incarnate, Cyborg. Deathstroke is Red Aviary."

"……..," Cyborg all but collapsed back in the chamber within which he was frozen for a month. "I think my neural net is melting…"

"I can't expect you to understand everything overnight, Cyborg…," Robin said. "But please….Please believe me. I'm trying to get to the bottom of this. I want to save the Titans but only if I can stop Triangular and Deathstroke as well in one fatal swoop."

"Why, man? Why do we have to be so damn secretive?"

"Because if all we ever do is simply save our asses, Cyborg…," Robin growled with a clenched fist, "…then we're never—EVER—going to break the circle we're freakin' stuck in!"

"Raven….," Cyborg murmured. He looked worriedly at the Boy Wonder. "Please, Robin. Tell me she's all right…."

"I wish I could, Cyborg…"

"You don't get it!" Cyborg swallowed and panted: "Cl-Clayface is pretending to be me! And with all that Raven's been through with Mortuana and crap…her emotions are boiling at the surface! This is absolutely the WORST time for some ugly-ass doppelganger to replace **me** of all people!"

"I know, Cyborg. I **know**," Robin glared. "Do you think it pleases me every damn second of the day to imagine Starfire back at the Tower sighing from the death of her best friend?"

"…………."

Robin ran a shaking hand through her hair. "Cyborg…..th-this whole nightmare has been hard. But it's going to be even harder….on th-the ones that we **love**."

Cyborg nodded. "I'm beginning to understand you, Robin…."

"Tim."

"……..h-huh?"

Robin took his eyemask off.

Cyborg about had a heart-attack.

"Tim. Timothy Drake…," the blue-eyed youth said. "Before things get worse, Vic….let us not lose the chance to miss out on a first-name basis."

I smiled, arms folded.

"……," Victor blinked. "Heh….now I've seen everything."

Tim nodded. "There'll be time for us to get to know each other. **All** of us…." He slipped his mask back on. "But we need to take care of a few things first….so that way all of us—the Titans—will get back together again."

"Shit, you're really young, aren't you?"

"That'll be enough, **Cyborg**," Robin frowned. "Deathstroke is out to ruin everything in my 'life'. That wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't mean the homicidal reaper targeting people I care about. I've seen what he's done to Batgirl. I'm not ready to see what he'll do to the rest of the Titans."

"Then what's next, man?"

"Hopefully the Messenger found something upstairs," Robin said, pulling out a communicator. "Cuz I think we found enough as it is down here."

"Wait…you mean that nutty asian kid from a month ago?"

"Yes. The same moron."

"Can we trust him, man?"

"He saved my life from a virtual inferno and assisted Batman's team in ways I can't begin to describe," Robin glanced at Cyborg. "So….make that a 'yes'."

"Heh….I wonder what Decker would say if he heard you now."

"The Commissioner's dead, Cyborg."

"…………"

"A lot of people are **dead**. I'm sorry we had to wake you up."

"I dunno….," Cyborg ran a shaky left hand over his human half of a head. "….I'm starting to think **I'm** the one who should be sorry."

"Hold that thought." Clik. "Messenger? Messenger, how's it going? Do you need backup?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_There was something of extreme importance down here. We had to let Noir show us."_

"All's well that greases well, Timmy-Boy!" the asian teen finished typing on the numberpad of a security bypass device. A beeping sound, and he pulled open a drawer on the far side of the laboratory that concealed metal racks of beakers, test tubes, and glass encasements. "I think I'm circling myself warmer towards the center."

"_Whatever that means. Answer me this, Messenger."_

"Sure thing, grasshopper."

"_Did you know anything about Cyborg being replaced by Clayface as a doppelganger?"_

"…….," the teenager's almond eyes blinked. "Hrmm….now that's genius."

"_You mean you were clueless about that?"_

"I would have told you if I knew, Robin." The Messenger kept fishing through the racks. "Yes, I kept secrets deliberately from Noir, but that was in the best interest of you and the whole counter-Red-Aviary schtick. But I would most definitely have told you about Clayface if I knew anything legitimate about his role in the Triangular affair. Much the same…I would have told you about Barbara's vulnerability if I had just….known." A slight sigh. "I did give it the old college try. And seeing that I've never been to college, that says a little something. It's hard going to college as an asian youth, these days. All the professors just assume you waste the homework hours away on DDR or Starcraft…."

"_Whatever. Look, Messenger, I think I'll be sending Noir up to assist you in your search. I have to figure out a way down here to get Cyborg to safety."_

"Don't bother."

"………_..huh?"_

"What I mean to say is….," the Messenger reached into the rack and produced two glasses of brown material. All—save for the color—was identical to the goods acquired in the Wayne Corp. vaults ambush. "I believe I've struck paydirt. About six cases of them. All the colors of your favorite doppelganger."

"_What good will those do us?"_

"Plenty….cuz I have a nutty theory, Robin," the Messenger spoke. "And it's quickly starting to look like peanut butter."

"_Get to the point."_

"It's go time. I think we can safely get our post-adolescent asses most definitely **out of here**. And as for Jericho's fanny…well…that's Noir's department."

'_S-C-R-E-W—Y-O-U'_

"Hehehehe."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Great….," Robin pocketed his communicator away and grumbled. "The sooner we're out of this crudhole the better."

Cyborg nodded. "You're telling me."

I hand-signed to Robin: 'How about I help you get Cyborg out?'

Robin looked at the android Titan. "Can you walk?"

"I can hop, dawg. But I seriously doubt you want a bunny going home with you."

"Cute. But we're not going to the manor."

"The manor?"

"'Home'."

"Huh?"

"Let's just go already!" Robin grumbled. "Here, Cyborg…" He walked over and gently took the shattered right limb of the android. "Lean on me. I've got us some transport outside. We'll get out of here, conduct some tests on what the Messenger just found--"

"And then what?"

"Give Batman and the Titans a heads' up. Dagger's been meaning to somehow get dangerous energy samples from Terra's body to our City. If Simon's being programmed by evil conspirators as much as you insinuate, this could mean very bad news for our Town in times to come."

"And since when could you read what Noir hand-signs, man?"

"I've had some free time on my hand. Noir? Let's get going!"

I nodded. I turned and gestured at Jericho: _'Stay close to us.'_

The blonde boy nodded. 'I will, Noir.'

I walked over and hoisted up Cyborg's other shoulder.

"Yo…who's the munchkin?" Cyborg motioned with his head.

"……," I glanced across at Robin.

Robin shrugged and heaved as we helped Cyborg hop across the misty, lower tier of the basement. "Nnnngh….a little….online f-friend of ours…."

"Huh?"

"A certain benevolent hackjob."

"'J'?" Cyborg made a face. "You mean that little squirt is 'J'?"

"That little squirt is Jericho. And he's Deathstroke's son."

"………..," Cyborg's eye narrowed.

Joey bit his lip, smiling nervously as we hobbled past him.

"Hrmm…..I'll call him 'sir' as far as I'm concerned."

"Whatever. Just…be friends. Ahem," Robin looked at me. "Want to send a morse code to the Messenger to meet us at the entrance?"

_Want to cut me some slack?_

Cyborg leaned against Robin more. "There ya go, buddy…"

I nodded. With my black arm free, I clicked a message to everyone's favorite dimension hopper.

"So…'Tim', huh?"

"Yes, Vic."

"……….like the wrestler?"

"…..huh?"

"Er…never mind."

"There isn't a wrestler named--"

"I said NEVER MIND! Damn!"

Jericho giggled breathily.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_C-A-N—Y-O-U—M-E-E-T—U-S—A-T—T-H-E—E-N-T-R-A-N-C-E'_

"Noir, I can meet you at the soda fountain anyday, if you'd just buy me a poodle skirt."

'_I—A-M—B-E-I-N-G—S-E-R-I-O-U-S'_

"Alas…why I can never pester you enough," the Messenger uttered into a shoulder communicator as he slipped the last of a handful of glass vials and a rack containing them into a small green satchel. "Don't waste the airwaves. I'll blip out and blip in just in time."

'_R-O-G-E-R' 'N-O-I-R—O-U-T'_

The beeping sounds ended.

"Right then….," the Messenger cracked his neck, turned around, and marched towards the door of the laboratory that led into the hallway. "Time to make like the Carolinas and secede."

But he stopped in his tracks.

A half-dozen human-shaped shadows appeared at the crack in between the door and the floor from the other side. There were sounds of muffled voices and guns cocking.

"Whoopsies!" the Messenger stepped backwards. A half-smile. "The slumber party's a little early today…"

CL-CLACK!

The doors were kicked open and a cluster of blue-suited thugs burst in with pistols raised.

"Freeze!"

"Stop where you are!"

"You're dead meat, shitface!"

"Gentlemen…please…," the Messenger curtsied. "Using vulgar words as you try to apprehend me? There's no way in Incan Hell now that I'd expect you all to be working for Triangular or nothing…"

"That's it!"

"Waste 'em!"

"Don't bother," and the Messenger ran into a sprint, aimed directly at the gunmen. "Cannonballlllll!"

They gasped and fired.

BLAM! BLAM!

B-BANG!

He dove into them and disappeared in a bright burst of green before the bullets could impact his body.

**ZAAAAAT!**

"Dah!"

"Jeez!"

Overcome by the bolts of flashing green, the gunmen stumbled back and collapsed over each other.

TH-THWAP!

THUD!

"Ooof!"

Entangled limbs.

Growling voices and struggling muscles in the highway.

"Great…a 'porter!"

"Call in the rest of the men…," one pointed to an entangled thug on the sidelines. "….we've got some metaphysical punks trying to sniff Gotham Labs out!"

A man nodded, struggled up to his feet, ran across the hallway, and slammed a fist over an emergency console.

**WRIII! WRIII! WRIII!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I were halfway up the basement stairs with Cyborg when the alarm went off above us.

We looked all around, hightlighted by a red-flashing strobe.

Jericho gasped, shaking nervously.

Cyborg uttered: "Did our friend upstairs mess up?"

"The Messenger?" Robin blinked under his mask. "If all Hell's breaking loose, that usually means he did something right."

"How interesting. Can we go now?"

I nodded and urged us along.

The three of us hobbled up the stairs and towards the glass-encased elevator doors of the basement.

"We'll just call down a car and make a run for it on the main floor!"

"Wait a second, dawg," Cyborg blinked. "Why do we have to call a car to begin with?"

I gulped.

"Didn't you guys come down here last to meet me?"

Robin stopped and so did the rest of us.

Jericho hand-signed: _'That is a good point.'_

Right then and there, an elevator car packed with twelve gun-toting thugs swiftly lowered down the glassy, transparent length of the shaft.

"Megacrud!" someone gasped. I couldn't narrow it down to figure out whether it was Robin or Cyborg. But it **was** Robin who next said: "Back! BACK! GET BACK!"

We threw Cyborg behind a computer console.

Robin dove beside him.

I blurred across the room, squatted low, scooped up Jericho's gasping body, and dove the two of us behind another console across the way just in the nick of time--

**Ding!**

The elevator doors opened and all twelve men in blue stormed out, machine guns and magnums blazing. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

BLAM!

BL-BLAM!

P-P-P-P-PING!

Sparks and shrapnel flew around us.

I winced and held Jericho close to me.

The boy covered his ears and clenched his eyes shut, shivering.

In the meantime, Cyborg winced and Robin panted…producing a fan full of birdarangs.

P-P-PING!

"Cyborg!" Robins shouted. "Does your sonic cannon work?"

"That left with my right arm. My left one works a little…but it might explode if I tried it!"

CL-CLANK!

"Great…."

"I've got other things that work, but it's best we kept this in your capable gloves, I think."

"Yeah….it tends to fall that way, doesn't it?"

P-P-P-PING!

Robin winced, ducking his head to avoid a falling shard of bullet-heated shrapnel. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

"Feels like yesterday to me, man."

"Remind me to give you a Titans Infraction for sleeping in all month."

"Heh….yeah, okay."

Snrkkt! Robin extended his bo staff in one hand and gripped his birdarangs in another. "Wish me luck…"

Cyborg's human eye widened. "Whoah! Robin, don't—!"

"YEAAAAAUGH!" Robin dove out. He rolled along the ground. Bullets splashed and hit all around him. P-P-Ping! He jumped up and unleashed a fan of sharp projectiles.

TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISH! **THUNK!**

The ankles of three gunmen were pierced by the birdarans. They fell down with their guns, bleeding and screaming.

Cyborg winced.

Even I did too.

Robin immediately jumped up and twirled his birdarang as he ran across the open space. TH-TH-THWISH!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG! Robin deflected the bullets, leapt up, hoisted an arm out, and grabbed the support beam of a huge air unit hanging from the metallic top of the domain.

Every single one of the nine remaining crooks aimed up at him and fired. **RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**

The bullets slammed into the unit, snapping the supports apart and turning the structure into Swiss Cheese.

Robin held his breath and backflipped off of it with a kick as the thing fell. Thus, it propelled its heavy self in the direction of the thick cluster of thugs.

SWOOOOOSH!

"Aaaah!"

"Look out!"

"Run---!"

**CLAAA-AAAAANG!**

The ground shook. The concussion threw two thugs hard and unconscious against the nearby wall of the basement labs. TH-THWACK! SMACK! "Ughhh…"

I put Jericho aside. He looked at me. He started as I brought Myrkblade out. CHIIIIING!

In the meantime, Robin struggled up to his feet and looked aside.

"YAAAUGH!" a thug ran at him, swinging the butt of his rifle.

Robin pivoted his metal bo-staff upwards and deflected the blow. He gritted his teeth and swung his elbow out, smashing in the thug's jaws. CRACK!

"Nnnkktt!" the guard stumbled back.

Robin grabbed the barrel of the fiend's shotgun and yanked it out, pivoting.

TH-THWAP! The butt of the weapon clipped the jaw of its own user.

As the man stumbled back, two marched at Robin from a distant. Magnums pointed out.

Robin knelt low, gripping his staff. His eyemask narrowing.

The guards cocked their revolvers and pulled at the triggers—

SWOOOOOOOOSH! I blurred in with a murking swipe of Myrkblade.

**CR-CRACK!**

The magnums exploded in the men's grasp.

The gasped and stumbled back, gripping their wrists.

Robin stood up straight as I skidded into view. I slid on a layer of murk, twirled my sword, regained friction, and charged heatedly into the stumbling crowd of seven.

Two men fired machine guns straight at me. RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

I morphed my upper body into smoke form.

The bullets flew through me.

Robin ran behind me, twirling his bo-staff and deflecting the bullets—now layered in murk—back at the feet of the gunmen.

CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

P-P-POW! P-PING! **POW!**

The ground exploded from the smoke-charged projectiles. Two thugs were knocked off their feet. They rose in the air from the concussion just in time for me to reach their piñata bodies and punish them with a high-swinging Myrkblade.

**THWACK! **

**TH-THWACK!**

Two bodies flew back and landed hard against the glass shaft of the elevator. CRKKK! Hairline fractures formed.

"YAAAUGH!" A guard with a taser charged at me, swinging. ZZZZTTT!

I ducked low, elbowed him in the chest with a black arm, and vaulted him up and over my shoulders.

He flailed over me and into the waiting high-kick of Robin.

TH-THWACK!

Followed by a staff to the spinning ribcage.

WHANG!

The man was down for the count.

Robin panted and spun about.

Two of the last five guards were aiming at him with shotguns.

BL-BLAM!

BLAM!

Robin deflected with his staff. Th-Th-Thwish! **CL-CLANG!** He knelt down and flung a bolo out with a snarl. "Nnngh!"

SWISSSSSH-SWP!-SWP!-SWP!-**SWP!** The guards gasped as the weighted cords wrapped around their torsos and forced them into a a sideways 'hug'. Cl-Clack! Their shotguns fell to the floor and they struggled against each other in the mutual bonds…

FWOOSH! I teleported behind them, stabbed Myrkblade reversely into the wall, and kicked the men squarely in their back.

WHUMP!

They gasped and stumbled together like potato sack racers.

Robin was waiting with a swinging staff that clipped both of their skulls in line.

WH-WHACK!

They flattened on the ground beside the Boy Wonder.

Robin took a breath.

From behind……

CL-CLICK!

Robin looked over his shoulder.

A guard stood behind him, a magnum to the Boy Wonder's upper vertebrae. "Heads off, punk!"

I whistled.

Robin looked at me.

I held Myrkblade up like a javelin.

Robin backflipped—

BLAM!

The bullet flew through the air where Robin was and traced towards me.

I snarled and flung a smoking Myrkblade straight forward.

My sword sang through the air like a missile—SWISSSSSSH!—smashed through the bullet head-on—CRKK!—and embedded its very tip into the barrel of the magnum still in the guard's grasp. CLUNK!

The man gasped, for at the same time Robin had flipped over him, planted his hands into the thug's shoulders, and come down with his knees slamming mercilessly by his weighted grip into the man's kidneys.

**WH-WHUMP!**

"Augh!" the man dropped his revolver. The gun and Myrkblade stuck in the barrel slid towards me.

Robin jumped down, held his arms up like a crane, and mightily kicked the man in the pelvis.

THWUMP! He stumbled towards me.

In the meantime, I kicked the sword-and-gun up with my foot. CLPP! It twirled. I caught it with a twist by Myrkblade's hilt, held my black forearm out, aimed, and slapped Myrkblade down over my synthetic wrist with the stuck revolver aimed at the careening thug.

**BLAM!** The gun fired, propelling it off the tip of Myrkblade and slamming into the gut of the guard, butt first.

WHUMP!

"Oooof!" the man wheezed and fell to his knees.

Robin twirled his staff.

I twirled my sword.

Back-to-back.

We looked around.

"…….."

"………"

All but one of the twelve guards were lying on the ground….groaning…stirring.

_All but one?_

"Where is—?" Robin began.

"Nobody move!"

The Boy Wonder and I spun about. We gasped.

My jaw dropped and my insides froze.

A crook had Jericho held from behind, an arm fiercely hooked around the boy's chin. He held a machine gun to the boy's head at point blanc and frowned at us. "Party's over, kids. Now…if you lay so much as another finger on my pals and I…this laboratory gets a new paintjob…."

"…….," I frowned.

Robin hissed: "Let him go! He wasn't fighting you!"

"Oh give me a break!" the guard cackled. "He's with you. That's good enough reason to eliminate him!"

All around us, half of the beaten guards stirred painfully and struggled up to their feet. They picked up their weapons and formed a circle around Robin and I.

And the standoff continued:

"I mean it," Robin showed his teeth as he seethed. "Let him go! He was only doing what he was told."

"Oh, a brave soldier is he? You're the one waging war, Mr. Titan…"

"If you end any of our lives, so help me, this will not go down well for any of you. Batman will follow your trail down to the very atom and ruin Triangular for what it is once and for all."

"And where is Batman when you need him most? Surely not out in Gotham doing his duty!"

"………"

"The Parasite bit you in the end, didn't he Boy Wonder?" the common thug chuckled. "Guess it was worth it all in the long run!"

I glanced through the corner of my shades. I sensed nothing from behind the console where Cyborg hid. I sweated nervously. I looked back at Jericho.

The Boy shivered in the man's grasp. His green eyes were wide and his face was a sheen of nervous sweat.

I bit my lip….

"You know all about the ambush at the vaults, don't you?" Robin hissed. "Why was Dagger so willing to give up the vials he went to so many lengths to acquire? TELL US!"

"Heheheheh….," the man smiled. "Boy Wonder….what makes you think he lost the vials at all to begin with?"

Robin's lips parted some.

In the meantime, I noticed something. Something about Jericho. Yes, he was scared. And yes, he was trembling. But he was looking in my direction. Steadily. With eyes…._pleading?_

_No._

_Entreating……_

His eyes were wide. Like mirrors. Reflecting.

_Reflecting!_

I took a breath. I glanced left and right with darting black eyes at the villains on either side of me. I then tilted my head forward….slightly…..slightly….slightly….

Jericho mouthed: _'Your left a bit.'_

I tilted my head left.

'_Now up some.'_

I did so.

And slowly…gradually—I assumed—I gave the body-jumper a good reflection of the eyes of the captor holding him.

In my black shades….

"What do you mean?" Robin demanded. "The vials are in police custody! Dagger couldn't possibly own them anymore unless he 'owned' the police!"

"Heh…hardly….not anything that easy!"

I bit my lip. _'Now?'_

Jericho nodded.

"But who are you to care?" the thug hissed and cocked the gun held to Jericho's forehead. "And who are you to have friends with their heads in tact?"

Robin gasped and jerked to reach to his utility belt.

Men all around us fingered their triggers.

I mouthed: _'Do it!'_

Jericho clenched his jaw. His eyes flared a hot emerald fire.

FL-FLASH!

I gasped, feeling as if a heated comet of green was soaring at me, only to bounce off my shades at the last second and streak in astral fury deep within the body of the man holding the boy's vanished body—

**CONTACT.**

**FLASH!**

The man jolted….blinked…and all but dropped his machine gun as he murmured: "What in the blue fuzz—"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! He was suddenly and inexplicably firing his machine gun at the feet of those guards standing around him. "WAAAAAAH!"

"Dah!"

"Jeez!"

"Carlson, watch it!"

"What the—"

"I…I-I can't stop! Someone help me—" 'Carlson' suddenly stopped firing, pulled the clip out of his gun, and tossed the steaming ammo container into the face of another crook. TH-THWACK!

"Nnngh!" the man fell under a fountain of hot, spilling bullets.

The panting, frightened man then spun and slammed the butt of his gun into another crook's chin.

THWACK!

"Carlson! Cut it out!"

"I….c-can't!" the man tossed his gun away and charged another man, punching him hard in the ribcage and hip. TH-THWAP! **WHAM!**

"Ooof!" the guard stumbled back.

A man ran to 'Carlson's back. "Knock…it…OFF!"

Carlson spun around. His green eyes strobed. **CONTACT. ****FL-FLASH!** WHAM! He fell from the fist. But the man who slammed Carlson's face in lingered, blinked, and then spun with a pistol firing at his teammates. BLAM! BLAM! B-BANG! "Ah jeez! What gives?"

P-PING! CL-CLANG!

The guns were deflected out of the hands of those around us.

Thugs gasped and stumbled about, grasping their wrists.

"………"

"………"

Robin and I exchanged glances.

"………………………"

We both smiled.

We twirled our staff and sword and dove at random enemies aiming their weapons into the confusing, body-jumping fray.

SMACK! WH-WHAP! SLAP!

Robin plowed men to the ground with his bo-staff.

Myrkblade grazed shoulders and severed weapons apart.

Robin jump-kicked thug after thug, growling and spinning his way through the madness.

I uppercutted a crook or two with my black limb and slammed another unsuspecting full to the ground with Myrkblade's broadside contacting first.

All around the Boy Wonder and I, there were strobes of green light as the astral projection of Jericho leapt mercilessly into one 'body' after another. Thugs were fighting thugs in the massive confusion, and the detritus of which were being cleaned up by Robin and I.

Robin uppercutted a man and slapped his body to the ground with a staff.

I kicked my way through a thug and grazed his skin bloodily with Myrkblade.

Robin snarled and high-kicked a man across the chin before elbowing him hard to a nearby wall.

I slapped a guard fiercely away with Myrkblade, spun about, and kneed a tall thug hard in the chest. WHUMP! I snarled mutely and raised my black fist to the crook's face.

'_J',_ he gestured shakily with a hand, the rest of his body teetering.

"……."

'_J'._

I winced. I mouthed: 'S-Sorry….'

The unconscious 'thug' shrugged, gripped my shoulders, vaulted over me via Jericho's control, and flew with feet sailing mightily towards an unsuspecting crook's chest.

TH-THAP!

I spun about and joined the meaty part of the fray, slamming the last few guards unconscious that I could.

In the meantime, Robin spun and smashed his elbow into a gunman's chin. He pivoted his arm, slapped the man in the gut, and then spun with a kicking leg hooked out to body-slam the henchman to the floor of the basement laboratory. WHAM!

CL-CLAK!

"…..!" Robin spun.

A bruised thug leaning against a wall had a shotgun barrel aimed squarely at the Boy Wonder's forehead. "Let's see how many lives you've got up your sleeve!"

**POW!**

Robin winced---but the shotgun hadn't gone off. Instead, something from the far side of the upper tier and behind a computer console had fired…

**SWISSSSSSH-CLAMP!** The metal 'hand' of Cyborg at the end of a tense, titanium cord palmed the thug's face and slammed his cranium mercilessly against the wall, pinning it there. CL-CLANGGGGG! The man groaned…out cold.

"……," Robin exhaled. He turned and shakily glanced aside.

Cyborg half-stood from behind the console, his one good arm extended with a cord slacking forth from it….following the ejector grappling arm. Cyborg held his long-distance fingers squeezing titaniumesque around the man's skull before mumbling: "Boo-ya….."

Robin exhaled, sweaty. "Parts of you work yet!"

Cyborg managed a smirk. "I couldn't sit out the entire time, could I?"

I looked over shoulder in mid-battle and half-smiled amidst the heated madness.

_Now THAT'S the Cyborg I know……!_

I held my breath and dove murkingly back into the mayhem with a randomly Jerichoed thug fighting alongside me here and there.

SM-SMACK!

THWACK!

In the meantime, Robin looked around at the thinning, indoor battlefield. He looked towards the elevator shaft. He ran over, grabbed Cyborg, hoisted him by the shoulder, and hobbled towards the elevator. "Noir! Jericho! Let's split!"

TH-THWACK! I slapped Myrkblade across the cheek of a thug and grounded him. Panting, I turned my head and saw the Boy Wonder and Cyborg limping into the elevator.

"Come on! Let's get out of here! Let's go!"

That makes the four of us.

I punched one last guard, turned around, and murked towards the door.

Robin and Cyborg were already in.

I leapt inside.

Robin jammed his finger over the 'ground level' button.

The glass doors began to close.

I panted…catching my breath.

Then Cyborg said: "Hey…where's the squirt?"

"……..!" I gasped.

_Joey!_

"Jerhicho!" Robin shouted through the glass shaft.

Thugs were fighting each other in madness and confusion. I couldn't judge anything out of thick chaos of them.

"Jericho! Hurry up! Let's go!"

Then we saw a thug running our way. His eyes were shut, but he seemed to know where he was going. Panting the whole time.

**Ding!**

The doors of the elevator closed.

I pressed myself against the glass, sweating.

The thug ran, jumped, and slammed against the glass…pressing up against it. Two eyes strobed open.

FL-FLASH!

And the elevator car rose, abandoning the continuing fight downstairs.

"………..," all three of us stood, stock still.

I bit my lip.

Robin shuddered…and murmured: "J-Jericho?"

Silence.

"…….are you here?"

Suddenly….Cyborg's left hand shot up.

"Whoah! What in God's name?"

Cyborg's metal hand formed the _'J'_ symbol.

"…….," Robin glanced at the android Titan. "You doing that, Cyborg?"

"Uhm….I-I don't know…," he nervously murmured.

"……," I smiled. My heart cooled and went at ease. I hand-signed: _'You are a stinker.'_

"Why am I a stinker, Noir?" Cyborg asked.

His hand suddenly gave a thumb's up.

"Daah! There it goes again!"

I let out a breathy chuckle of relief.

Robin hissed: "Shhh….at ease everyone. We're getting the Heck out of here…"

"And what do you suppose that creep meant about the 'vials' being in Dagger's possession and what not?"

Robin took a deep breath. "A long story, Cyborg. But basically…."

"………."

"……….we're screwed."

"As usual."

"Don't worry. The Messenger got away with some good stuff."

"If you say so."

I hand-signed: _'Hey Joey! What would Cyborg do if he saw a Macintosh?'_

Cyborg's left thumb pressed against his nose while his fingers danced in the air.

"Man! Stop doing that!"

_Hahahahaha……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SCHWISSSH!

On the first floor of the Gotham Labs, Cyborg, Robin, Jericho and I marched out of the elevator and onto the main floor. Robin and I were supporting Cyborg by his shoulders. Jericho stepped ahead of us and scouted the area ahead…carefully. Sneakily.

"Say what?" Cyborg murmured. "You got the BATMOBILE outside?"

"Waiting to escort us out of here…," Robin murmured.

"Where exactly to, dawg?"

"Maybe with what we and the Messenger found, we can convince Batman to work with us on reanalyzing the defeat of Triangular and getting the drop on Dagger and Red Aviary for once."

Cyborg did a double-take. "You would show **me** the Batcave?" A beat. He blinked. "You'd l-let me meet **Batman**?"

I simpered.

Robin took a breath. "Get ready to learn a lot of….new things, Vic."

"Heh….yeah. Whatever you say, **Tim.**"

"Don't wear it out…."

I snickered some…..then shivered.

I jolted where I walked, and thus froze in my tracks. I took a shuddering breath. I raised a hand and looked at my limb up close. Seeing how the murk danced out of the digits of my fingers.

_The Spectrum's going crazy………_

I bit my lip.

I gulped….and slowly looked up.

_We're not alone………_

I glanced to my left.

Jericho was looking at me. A pair of worried, wet green eyes.

_Did he feel it too?_

"Let's keep moving!" Robin said, hobbling with Cyborg forward.

I assisted.

We rounded a corner…..and froze.

Lined across the atrium with guns armed were twenty guards. They didn't have the uniforms of blue like the 'security' we battled in the bowels of Gotham Labs just minutes before. These creeps weren't about to hide the fact that they were Dagger's bosom buddies. They aimed uzzis and grenade launchers at us. Every face a frown. Every eye a glare.

"……..," Cyborg blinked. "Well, alright."

Jericho trembled.

"Hokaaay…," Robin sweated. "Any chance your sonic cannon could enjoy a miracle and suddenly start working again? Like….**right now**?"

"We're better off farting them to death, Robbie."

"Fine…," Robin re-gripped his staff while I clutched to Myrkblade's hilt. "Good thing we got some extra exercise downstairs…"

"No time to tango this time, Titans!" one loud-mouthed thug smirked and pointed at the walls. "Before you consider bringing down the house….what say the house brings down **you**?"

"The fudge?" Cyborg raised an eyebrow.

SLIIIIDE! SLIIIIDE! Two panels whirred open on opposite walls of the hallway leading into the atrium. A high-tech, mounted laser rifle appeared out from inside the walls, pivoted on metal joints, and aimed at us.

WHURRRRRRRR-CH-**CHTANG! **

**CH-CHTANG!**

My companions and I froze in place.

"You were saying something about exercise?"

"Screw it…," Robin grunted.

One of the thugs motioned towards a security camera.

**ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!**

**ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP-ZAP!**

Hot streams of orange energy surged at us.

I jumped in front of the group and madly twirled Myrkblade, deflecting the first wave of laser bolts with great strain. CL-CL-CL-CLANG!

Cyborg hobbled backwards with an added shove from Robin. The Boy Wonder slid towards my side and tossed a handful of smoke pellets from behind my shielding twirl of my sword.

"Nnngh!"

THWOOOSH!

**POW!** FWOOOFFF!

The thugs grunted, coughed, and stumbled backwards. The security cameras whirred and attempted to find clarity through the smoke cloud. In the meantime, the laser turrets continued to fire in insane full-spreads throughout the hallway. Robin and I dashed back along with Jericho and found a spot behind a metal container to hide with Cyborg. Laser bolts impacted the walls and floor around us, heating up the hazy interior with an orange fury.

**ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!**

"Could have scouted out this place a little more, ya know!" Cyborg hissed.

"I didn't think Triangular would have the Blue-Collar Regiment as backup!" Robin yelled back over the impact noise. "We're trapped here until we can think of a distraction or something!"

"Hang on!" Cyborg motioned towards me. "Noir! See if you can open the compartment in my left shoulder!"

I nodded. I reached through the haze and fingered a button along his titanium hull.

ZZZZTTT!

"DAAH!" Cyborg shook as parts of his circuitry frizzled out.

I jerked my hand back, wincing.

"Okay…then again…"

**ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!-ZAP!**

Hot metal ash littered our shoulders.

The metal container began to melt.

Machine gun fire from the thugs joined the fray from the turrets.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Robin produced a fan of explosive birdarangs beneath the carnage. "I have the notion to send this night straight back to Hell…"

Jericho gasped and swiftly hand-signed: _'No! Do not! Please wait!'_

Robin looked at him. "What for? If we wait here any longer, we'll hallway hash browns!"

The young blonde gestured: 'Have you forgotten that we have one ally still on the outside?'

"………..," I smirked.

Robin shifted nervously. "Well…he's sure taking his sweet time."

_He'll do that……_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a security station of the Gotham Labs building…

Two henchmen in uniform huddled at an electronics station that housed an array of monitors with camera feeds to the separate sections of the structure. Two monitor stations in particular were acting simultaneously as security feeds and remote sentry gun controls. The two men operated the laser rifles with joysticks and knobs. On the black and white feed, the hot arsenal of the lasers they manned was eating its way through the metal container behind which the hapless Titans hid.

"Dammit! Work with me! Work with me!"

"I'm….tr-trying!"

"Concentrate our fire on that canister! They won't last a minute longer!"

"I still think we should unleash the electromagnetic pulse. That cybernetic creep could be dangerous…"

"He's falling apart! It's the damn sidekick of Batman I'm worried about!"

"Keep at it!"

**ZAAT!** "I wonder which one of you leads a slow dance."

The two men blinked and turned around in their seats to look….

"Huh?"

TH-THWACK! The Messenger slammed his foot into one man's face and then spun to slap a wrist across the shoulder of another. WHAP!

"Augh!"

"Nnnngh!"

The asian teen then gripped both of them by a forearm each, fell backwards, and vaulted the pair of miscreants over his body in swift acrobatics.

The two men slammed into a wall on the opposite side and fell down cold.

"And let that be a lesson…," the Messenger smirked and stood up, dusting himself off. "Centripetal force doesn't like you. And neither does God." He walked over to the station, sat down, and gripped the turret controls in place of the guards. Whistling 'rain drops keep falling on my head', he turned a few knobs and pivoted the joysticks simultaneously to the side as the security feed twirled. He smirked. "God, how I love screwing things up…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I peaked around the metal container's side in response to the silence.

And I smirked.

The turrets were rotating around with a mechanical drone. They soon aimed in the direction of the thick phalanx of thugs lining the front of the laboratory atrium.

The crooks lowered their machine guns and gazed forlornly at their very own laser rifles turning against them.

"…………huh….," the one loudmouth blinked. "….well that's not right."

The twin lasers pivoted upwards…and fired at the ceiling.

**ZAP! **

**ZAP!**

**ZAP!-ZAP!**

Burning potholes formed above the thugs. Half a second later, fiery debris rained down and blanketed them with a monumental concussion. The thugs all gasped and grunted and shouted in painful impact as they all had the breath slammed out of them. The room was cleared of all conscious interference. And soon the laser rifles retracted back into the walls and disappeared into the smooth contours of the Gotham Labs interior.

"_Snckkkkt!"_ the communicator on Robin's utility belt crackled. _"Guns don't save the day! __**Asian dudes**__ with guns save the day!"_

"Alright, Messenger!" Robin smirked. "We were just talking about you!"

"_Save it for a rainy day. Don't we have to skedaddle somewhere?"_

"You beat us to it…"

Cyborg squinted his human eye and whispered to the Boy Wonder: "Is it just me, or is he a little too flamboyant sounding?"

"_I heard that!"_

"I know you did! Shut up, you schizophrenic fruitcake!"

"_Ha ha ha…Noir, kick the refrigerator for me."_

I took a deep breath.

_Later..._

I hand-signed to Robin: 'It is now or never.'

He nodded. "Messenger! Meet us outside! Cyborg…Joey….let's get out of here!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Messenger shook his head, smiling.

"A Robin is a Robin is a Robin…."

He prepared to get up…but stopped when he noticed something. The security feeds were blacking out one by one, starting with the exterior camera positions.

"………………………….?" He turned and looked at one monitor in particular. His almond eyes squinting.

A shot of the parking lot outside revealed a dark mist of sorts streaking across the pavement. A beat. And then, a cowl appeared. A mask with a single, flaring eye. Vapors splashed over the camera lens and a two-edged sword flew into direct sight…..turning everything to hissing static.

The Messenger took a deep breath, his face long.

_ZZzzzt!_

Everything around him flickered at once. The power to the security room drained.

He tilted his head up and in all somberness murmured with a low voice: "Ah no….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin, Cyborg, Jericho and I were running over debris and bodies towards the front entrance of the atrium.

"What about that Batmobile again, Robin?"

"I'm getting the remote autopilot system now…," Robin reached into his belt for the handheld device in mid-stride. "In no time flat, we'll be far away from h—"

Just then, the lights of the place flickered.

The humming noise of the living, breathing Gotham Labs dwindled into cold silence around us while the emergency lights snapped on in dim brown glory.

Jericho panted, looking all around.

"Looks like our battles finally wiped out the heart of this place," Cyborg uttered while hobbling. "Or maybe the Messenger tripped a fuse for shits and giggles?"

"It doesn't matter," Robin nearly reached the doors. "We're gone—"

I gasped. I skidded to a stop and shot my black arm out, halting Robin.

He braked, nearly tumbling. Cyborg and Jericho lingered behind us.

"N-Noir? What is it?" Robin panted. "What's wrong?"

I felt numb all over. A sudden, cold fear. Without my old prosthetic, I could only feel the sensation of death when it was upon me. Like a falling chandelier made of ice crystals and positioned directly overhead. My black eyes widened under my shades….twitched…..and **FLASH**ed white for half a second. I gritted my teeth, grabbed Robin's forearm strongly, and hoisted us both back.

"Ow-OW! Noir? What—"

'_Shhhh!'_ I breathed with a black finger raised before my lips. I crept all four of us backwards. We watched nervously as what appeared to be a dark cloud of crimson descended onto the parking lot scene just outside the doors. There was an iciness that doubled the frost of the wintry world outside. White crystals formed on the glass frame of the doors…then turned crimson with a mirrored refraction of red….red…red……

Jericho's green eyes were wide. He stood close by me. Perhaps just as numb.

Robin gulped.

"What in God's name…..," Cyborg murmured in a low voice. "….what are we dealing with, Robin?"

"That is Deathstroke….," Robin said.

I nodded.

"……Red Aviary….death incarnate…."

"Slade?" Cyborg hissed.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "He's found us. For all we know, he was probably following us all night."

"………………," Jericho breathed deeply. His emerald eyes thinned, and something possessed him almost magically to take a bold step towards the crimson tinted doors.

My hand immediately flew over and gripped his shoulder.

Almost with a gasp, he stopped. He no longer moved forward. He merely froze in place.

I glanced nervously down at the boy.

_Now's not a good time to have a reunion with your father._

_Now's not a good time for any of us……_

"So…Robin….," Cyborg's left hand flexed its titanium fingers. "….what do we do when we encounter Deathstroke anyhow…?"

"…………," Robin took a deep, heaving breath. He growled: "We run…."

Cyborg and I both looked at him.

He turned around and shouted: "Run!"

We did.

We most certainly did.

Robin dashed ahead, leading the pack.

I shoved Jericho along, who breathlessly gasped and jerked his little body into a full sprint away from his 'daddy'.

Cyborg I tugged by his one good arm and helped him hobble as quickly as he could out of the atrium and towards the distant stairwell that Robin was ascending.

**CLANG!**

Something banged against the windowed doors behind us.

**CLANG! CL-CLANG!**

"_**Hckkkkk! Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-CLIK!"**_

**CLAA-AAANG!**

"Shit….I don't like the sound of that…," Cyborg hissed.

I gritted my teeth and hoisted him up the stairs alongside me.

_Welcome to the real night._

**CRASSSSSH!**

The hallways echoed the shattering sound of glass and metal shrapnel flying.

A red aura chased after our footsteps as a cold, all-permeating iciness howled its way in after us like the singing breaths of a sickle.

We didn't dare look back…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Robin! Noir! Guys! He's in the building. Red Aviary is……IN……THE BUILDING! Get out of there now!"_

"We're way ahead of you, Messenger!" Robin grunted into the communicator as he kicked open the exit door of the stairwell's second story. CLACK! He stood like a human doorstop and motioned Jericho through. "Teleport away, do you hear me?"

"_You'll need help!"_

"You'll **help** us by taking those vials somewhere safe! That's your mission. You like the Titans so much, huh? Well think like one and do what I frickin' say!" Robin helped Cyborg and I hobble through the door. "Robin out!"

**Blip!**

"The room temperature is lowering by about twenty-five degrees!" Cyborg murmured, breath vapors showing. He limped out into the second floor hallway besides Jericho. "What in the Hell happened to Slade to make him do this sort of shit?"

Robin gritted his teeth. "Death doesn't do resumes…"

I leapt into the hallway.

A red glow illuminated the stairwell behind us.

A crimson mist.

An echo reverberating up….up….up…

"_**Snkkkkt—Clik-Clik-HCKKK!"**_

**SLAM!** Robin closed the stairwell door and pressed his weight against it. "Noir!" he shouted to me. "Help me brace this thing!"

I nodded. I rushed over and picked up a metal, cylindrical trash can. I tore the lid off and pressed the edge of it up against the door knob. I then ran over and grabbed a water cooler—liquid and all—and laid it against the door.

Cyborg made himself useful by using his then-awkward titanium strength to pick an entire cart of microscope equipment up and slide it over to me.

Robin and I grunted and shoved it against the metal stairwell door. Red light was beaming out of the cracks in the doorframe. The air became an icy chill, and our vapors fogged up the walls and metal surfaces.

Jericho shivered down the length of the hallway. Standing alone. Wringing his hands….

In the meantime, I motioned to Robin to stand back. I raised Myrkblade and stabbed at the doorknob to the stairwell. SMACK! SMACK! CLANK! I dented it at an unusable angle.

"Okay man…that's enough!" Cyborg panted and shuffled limpingly down the hallway. "Let's move!"

"Wait!" Robin breathed, leaning against the doorframe. "Let's first think of how we can get out of this building! All exits are on the bottom floor!"

"Yo, this is your town! Don't ask me!"

I looked at Robin. I pointed up, mouthed 'roof', and shakily gestured a 'running man jumping'.

Robin nodded. "There's an office building just next to Gotham Labs. Same height. If we could find a window large enough or something—"

**SLIIIIINK! CRACK!** A red blade protruded out of the doorframe barely an inch from Robin's face.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

I blurred, grabbed him, and hoisted him hurriedly down the hallway.

Dragged backwards, Robin gasped at what he saw.

The barricaded door slowly peeled apart from the other side as the red, murking sword carved and cut and carved and cut at everything in its way. The entire frame of metal started to dent and buckle outwards. The 'barricade' we made crumbled and began to gradually fall apart under a layer of red-tainted frost.

"_**Hckkkkkk…snkkktt!"**_

"Move!" Cyborg hustled. "Move…Move…MOVE!"

"This way!" Robin gathered his footing and dashed ahead. "We'll shortcut through these labs! There should be a lounge beyond them with a stretch of windows…"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SLIIICE!

SLICE!

SLIIIIIIICE!

**WHANG!** I kicked the door open after shredding it apart with Myrkblade. With the power shortage, it was pitch black inside. I stepped in, lowered my shades, and saw piles of shrouded objects that looked like equipment piled about the room. There was a horrific stench about the place. I immediately thought chemicals. But also immediately…I didn't care…

"Where's that magical lounge of yours, Robin?" Cyborg growled….

"Keep going! Through that door!" Robin pointed.

I stood at the doorway, making sure everyone got through.

Jericho hobbled through last.

I looked after him.

I then heard scraping noises and felt a further chill in the air.

Breathing misty vapors, I squinted my black eyes and stared down the hallway from which we came.

The barricaded door bulged and bulged and bulged and—

**SMASH!**

Objects and debris shattered everywhere.

A red burst of light exploded out from the distant stairwell.

Along the thin, dark corridor a flickering blob of crimson soared straight at me. 'Tentacles' of red vapor clung to the walls and pulled the spidery Deathstroke towards us. And I could see his black nucleus of a body. An infinitesimal, obsidian thing. And that one red eye on the side of his cowl pulsing…pulsing…pulsing……with every well-timed air-slash of his hungry, two-edged sword.

"Noir! Close it! Now!"

I snapped out of my stupid numbness and slammed the door shut.

"He'll snap through that in an instant!" Robin shouted. "Move it!"

"No wait!" Cyborg waved his good hand. "This is a gas laboratory! There should be titanium seals to that door!"

"And they're automatically controlled! The power's out, remember?"

"There should be a manual override!"

I looked all over the doorframe. I looked to the left. I saw a metal plate with a little door. "!" I punched my black prosthetic into it. CRACK! I smashed it open and found a lever. I gritted my teeth and gripped it with my strong, synthetic arm.

CLNNG! I pulled at it strongly.

**THWKKK!** The door dinted in once.

I gasped and pumped the lever again. CLNNGG! The seals started to squeeze…

**THWKKKKK!** The door cracked down the middle. Red vapor hissed through. _**"HCKKKKK-CLIK-CLIK-CLIKK!"**_ The glinting red sheen of a sword directly on the other side….

Swoosh! Robin slid across the cold metal floor and joined me, grabbing the lever with both hands and pulling as I pulled with my prosthetic one last time.

CLNGGG-CLANG! The seals closed. The door was tightened, turning the crack into a hairline fracture.

**Thonk! Th-Thonk!** Slade rammed and rammed at the door from the other side, but to no avail.

Robin and I both shuddered. Too cold to sweat. To exhausted to shiver. "That'll hold him….for—what—a minute and a half?"

**Thonk! Thonk!**

I shuddered.

_I wonder, Ana……_

_Was TRUE Red ever __**this**__ powerful?_

I heard a shriek from the other side of the room. A shriek that only I could hear….because it had no sound save for a sharp, shuddering breath. It was the trademark attempt of a young mute soul trying to scream. I knew it.

I spun around, heart racing.

'_Joey?'_

I saw the little blonde tripped onto his rear. His foot had caught on one of the shrouds of the place, tripping him. But when he tried to get up, he pulled at the sheet…unveiling the table. And what he saw forced his green eyes wide and made him crab-walk fearfully into Cyborg's precarious ankles.

"What is it?" Robin asked. He looked. His eyemask widened for a moment, then thinned as he hissed: "Ah jeez…."

I crept forward and saw one of many exposed bodies. Dead bodies. Half-decayed and hiding under the shroud.

"………."

I turned to another table.

I lifted the shroud over it part way.

And instead of laboratory equipment, more dead bodies resided.

I frowned.

"Guess we know now what Triangular did with the real workers of Gotham Labs…," Cyborg muttered. He looked at the Boy Wonder who stood by the sealed doors. "Robin…exactly who is the Big Bad Guy of all this?"

**Thonk! Th-Thonk!**

Robin gazed forlornly at the red-strewn door. He exhaled: "I don't know anymore, Vic…."

"…………"

Robin gulped and marched forward. "Come on. Let's jump this ship…."

"You and me both, pal…"

By that time, Jericho was standing up. The fear had left, and in its place a certain numbness took over as he gently regarded the dead bodies on the table nearest to them…and gently, reverently covered them back up with the shroud.

There was a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up.

I gave him a half-hearted smile. Vapor escaped from my nostrils as I mouthed: _'Let us keep moving, Joey……'_

"………..," he gazed back at the shrouds. A sigh escaped his lips. Something sad. Something defeated. He moved briskly along with me as we followed Robin and Cyborg through the door and into the next room….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

We were nearly blinded.

Blinded by the night.

The red sky of Gotham scared us at first. It made us think we had accidentally gone backwards into Red Aviary's jaws. But instead, we were staring out of a window that immediately faced a brick building with a balcony on the far side.

"That it?" Cyborg asked.

"That's it…..," Robin nodded. He marched over towards the window and planted a sonic disc against it.

**Thonk! **

**Thonk!**

I glanced back towards the laboratory room. The metaphysical red aura was increasing. The temperature dropping even further. I looked back Robin's way and mouthed: _'Hurry'._

"I got it….," Robin said as he keyed in a number on the digital pad of the disc. He dashed away from the window frame and flattened himself against the lounge wall. "Stand back!"

Cyborg hobbled into the corners.

I took Jericho by the shoulder and dragged us both to the side.

**VrrrmmmmmmVROMMMMMM!**

The sonic disc pulsed

The entire window pane shattered.

**CRASSSSSSSSH!**

Shards littered the streets below. It was a thin alleyway full of junk. The detritus of scientific experiments and urban garbage. Hardly sanitary and NOT the sort of cushion we heroes would have liked to jump into.

"We'll make it for the balcony…," Robin breathlessly said. "Noir! Jericho! You two first!"

I motioned to Jericho.

He looked up at me.

I took my shades off, pointed at him, and pointed into my eyes.

He nodded. He squinted.

I braced myself.

His emerald eyes pulsed.

**CONTACT.**

**FLASH!**

I winced, overcame the dizzy sensation, and shook it off.

I turned and faced the window.

_Hang tight……_

I ran, blurred, and jumped across the alley.

I gripped the balcony and climbed up onto it.

I glanced aside.

_All right. There you go……_

**FL-FLASH!**

Jericho appeared besides me as if teleporting out of a leap. He landed and stood back as I gazed across the alleyway and motioned along.

**THONK! THKKK! **

Red poured into the deathly laboratory/morgue. The door began to buckle in heavily. The seals bent and broke one by one.

Robin turned. "Cyborg. You next."

"Nuh uh, man! I don't think I can make the jump on my own! Besides…that creep wants you more than the rest of us I think—"

"In case you've forgotten, I'm still the Titans' Leader!" Robin frowned and shouted in an authoritative voice. "Now MOVE!"

"Nnnghh….," Cyborg frowned and approached the window. "How'm I supposed to make it with all my parts mangled up?"

I looked at my position. At the balcony. CHIIIING! I slid Myrkblade up, straddled the balcony's edge, and stuck my sword hard into the brick foundation of the structure. **CRKKK!** I gripped the handle and anchored myself to the stuck-sword. Taking a deep breath, I stretched a black hand out and motioned Cyborg along.

He sighed: "I hope you know what you're doing, dawg…."

I merely motioned him along further.

"Go, Cyborg."

"Alley-oop….," Cyborg flexed his scarred, charred legs…..and jumped.

I jabbed my hand out.

I grabbed his flailing left limb.

Cyborg's weight fell, he gasped and clawed at the buildingside with his partially melted feet.

THWOMP!

He dangled, half pressed against the balcony.

I hissed and tensed my face in pain as I felt myself being pulled apart between the hilt of Myrkblade and my new prosthetic's grip on Cyborg's hand…supporting at least three fourths of his weight.

"Take it easy, N-Noir!" Cyborg gasped. "D-Don't strain yourself!"

_Too l-late……_

"Hang on!" Robin shouted. He stood back, flexed his limbs, and ran out of the cold lounge. Jumping. Cape twirling. Th-Thwap! He landed on the balcony edge more gracefully than the rest of us. Immediately he bent over, wrapped a grappling hook cable around Cyborg's shoulder, and hoisted upwards with all his might. "Nnnnngh!"

I strained and pulled along with him.

The two of us slowly dragged the dangling Cyborg up the balcony face and onto level ground.

**THONK! CRACKKKK!**

Jericho gasped and pointed at the labs. Over our shoulders.

Robin squinted through his mask while hauling.

Cyborg turned his head and looked behind him.

Red flooded the death-filled laboratory and oozed into the lounge.

Cold air.

Vapors.

"_**HCKKKKK-Clik-Clik-CLIK!"**_

"Sh-Shit….anytime now would be _nice_, guys!"

"Noir…count of three. One…two…three….HEAVE!"

I put the Spectrum into it, tensing my muscles with billowing smurk and pulsing my joints so as to jerk Cyborg up and onto the platform. With Robin's help, we landed the android.

THWOMP!

Before any of us had a chance to pull Cyborg up to his feet….

And before Robin had a chance to yell us to dash into the office building…

"R-Robin…," Cyborg sat up and winced. "My right shoulder…detach it!"

"What?"

"You heard me!"

"But th-there's barely anything left of it—"

"Just trust me!"

Robin nodded. Hurriedly he knelt down and gripped the joints of Cyborg's metal limb.

The red billowed out and filled the lounge.

Jericho hopped nervously.

I bit my lip.

CLIK! Hissssss………

Cyborg's shattered upper limb was now free from his shoulder joint.

"Now wh-what?" Robin murmured.

"Turn the knob of the inner circuitry two twists to the right," Cyborg panted. He swallowed: "Th-Then press the red button!"

Snkkk……Snkkk. Clik!

"Done!"

Beep-Beep-Beep-Wriiiiii!

The whole chunk of titanium limb started pulsing all over.

I did a double-take.

Robin's eyemask widened as he nervously juggled the Cyborg-piece in his gloves. "Shit, Cyborg! Your arm's a bomb!"

"Yeah! I know!"

"What are yo—?"

"Toss it into the Labs! Quick!"

"Raaaugh!" Robin shouted for good measure.

THWOOOOOSH! The Boy Wonder tossed the twirling limb into the red interior across the alleyway.

And right as a black and red, crimson billowing swordsman limped ghostlike into view….

CL-CLINK!

"Getting down would be nice…," Cyborg murmured from the floor.

Robin, Jericho, and I dove down.

**BLAMMMMMMMM!**

Fire and hot blue plasma enveloped the air.

I felt my black eyes stabbed on all sides.

I winced.

I looked up—panting—and stared at the burning blue sight.

_Is that it?_

_Is he cooked?_

"Now's a good time for a head start, Robin…," Cyborg murmured.

"You're telling me…," Robin got up and hoisted the one-armed Cyborg to his feet. "Let's make like the wind!"

Jericho and I got up.

I rushed ahead and kicked the balcony doors open.

CL-CLAK!

I guided the way for the other three to move in, and we made our escape through the office building.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

We ran…sprinted…blurred down hallways of abandoned office space.

Cubicles and stacks of paper folders and other data entry disarray lined the interior around us.

After a good two minutes, we emerged on the other side of the two-story building where a window with a fire escape loomed above a street side.

Robin slid the window open and stuck his head out into the refreshing winter coolness.

He took a deep breath and pulled out the remote device. "Allright….this may be our ticket out of here…"

"I haven't seen one-eye chasing us any since we bolted through here," Cyborg uttered. He glanced my way. "Anyone else?"

I shook my head.

_I don't sense a thing._

_Was Deathstroke burned to oblivion?_

Jericho hand-signed: 'Somebody needs to know about what happened in Gotham labs.'

"Oh, they'll know all right," Robin said, operating the device. "If random explosions in the middle of the Gotham night doesn't clue the GCPD in, I don't know what will…."

"Thanks to yours truly…," Cyborg smirked.

Jericho looked Robin's way. He blinked. He gestured: 'What are you doing?'

"You don't remember? I'm getting us a ride…," Robin managed a smile. He twisted a knob on the control once more and tapped a button.

**VRMMMMMMM!**

SCREEEECH!

And beneath us, the Batmobile screeched to an anxious stop. Its motor hummed and its driver's compartment door slid open at ready.

Cyborg's human eye opened wide. "Da-da-da-da-dat…that…th-that's what I th-think it is?"

"Don't drool right now, Cyborg," Robin glanced anxiously back down the hallway from which we came. "It might turn to ice before it has the chance to leave your chin."

"Man, what are we waiting for? Let's drive away….provided I get to do the driving…"

"Somebody will…I don't care….just go down already!"

"Right…come on, squirt…"

Jericho and Cyborg hurried down the fire escape, making good time.

I was about to follow them, when I lingered and realized Robin was still standing there. I gazed at him and hand-signed: _'Robin? What is it?'_

"………..," the Boy Wonder was gazing more-or-less in the 'direction' of the burning Gotham Labs. He glanced back at me with his eyemask thin and said: "I wonder if I should face him, Noir…."

My jaw dropped.

"If I face him….maybe he won't go after the rest of us? Maybe more people like Barbara won't be hurt…"

I was almost in his face, gesturing like mad: _'No! No, Robin! You will die if you face him!'_

"I'm not thinking of doing something suicidal. I'm wondering if I'm going about this all wrong. The more I let him chase me, the more people Deathstroke will rip through to get at me…"

'_Fighting him is exactly what he wants. Do you not see that? He will rip you apart, Robin. And we will be helpless,'_ I frowned and pointed at myself. _'__**I**__ will be helpless. Then Terra. Then every other sacred thing of the Balance of Morals in tow……'_

"……………..," Robin sighed. Running a hand through his hair. "It's all just a waste…"

I slowly nodded.

Silence.

Cold.

Extra cold.

"………," I blinked. There was something about the vapors that left his lips and mine. Something…..tainted red.

My heart skipped…

Swoosh!

Cl-Cl-Clink!

Three brown spheres rolled to a stop beneath us.

Blinking.

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

"Carbonite!" Robin shouted.

I gasped.

The Boy Wonder jerked aside and shoved me. "Noir! Jump!"

I suddenly found myself flailing about in mid-air and soaring desperately over the fire escape as—

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**

A good half of the office building turned into a virtual inferno.

I fell. The world twirled blindingly around me. And….

SWOOOSH-**CLANGGG!** I slammed hard against the hood of the Batmobile and rolled off.

Jericho and Cyborg were already there. They gasped and looked up.

I winced and struggled to my knees. Bruised and aching all over. I took one look at the burning platform where my leader and I once were and wished I could scream.

_TIM!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fire.

Crackling blazes.

Red and red and red and…

Billowing.

"………………………….."

Robin lay on the floor.

Limp.

Still.

"…………………………..nnngh…."

He stirred.

He sat up.

Wincing all over, he managed to get onto his feet and hobbled teeteringly.

"Nngh…N-Noir….Cyborg…..where….," he looked around. His eyemask widened at the flames eating up the shattered building's interior all around him. "The c-carbonite!" CRASH! A ceiling beam landed to his side. "Augh!" he teetered sideways, panting. Coughing from the smoke. "Gotta….g-get out….," he murmured. He stumbled blindly through the soot and flame. "Nnngh….I….I…."

"_**HCkkkkkk……Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik……"**_

Robin froze.

"……………"

The sound wheezed and echoed from all round him.

"_**Snkkktt……clik-clik-clik……"**_

Robin took a deep breath.

He stealthily stretched his hand aside.

Snkkkt!

His bo-staff extended.

His eyemask narrowed as he frowned.

"Slade….."

"_**SSSSSlade…….Sladddde is dead…hckkk…..Robin……,"**_the voice hoarsely tripped across the room. _**"Or sssssshould I sssssay……**__**Timmm**__**……"**_

Robin gripped his staff in two hands and paced past the flames, slowly turning around in a mindful circle. "What do you want, Slade? To torture me? To make me suffer before my life is ended?"

"_**Hckkkkk-KKK-Clik-Clik…..YYYYYou, Tim…..I only wantttt you….."**_

"Yeah….you think I don't frickin' know that?" Robin huffed and puffed. "What's the game, Slade? What is it you want from me? What the _God Damn Hell_ have you ever wanted from me?"

"_**Snkkkt……did she everrrr call you by your rrrreal name, Tim?"**_

Robin was breathless. He swallowed. He murmured: "Wh-Who….?"

"_**Snnnnkkkttt……you knnnnow **__**who**__**...…….."**_

"………………."

"_**Maybe it'ssss-snkkktkt—becausssssse sssshe neverrrrr wanted to-HCKKKK-admit how WEAK…snkktk….and how HUMAN….you arrrrre……"**_

"I was always more than human for the Titans…," Robin murmured. He winced…struggled….but finally managed to say: "….and now….now I regret that."

"_**HCKKK!"**_ the voice shook the flaming interior. _**"Rrrregret? You REGRET—Snkkkttt—Your one…fleeting….STRENGTH, Rrrrobin? Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik!'**_

The voice sounded like it was circling closer and closer like a marble down a whirlpool. Robin huddled against a wall and gripped his staff, shaking. Glaring at all flickering ends of the blazing room. Waiting…..

"_**Snkkkkt-clik-clik-CLIK! I thinkkkkk I mighttt end you quickkkkly afterrrr all……there issss no FUN—snkkktt—in beatttting the skull in of a corpsssse!"**_

Robingrowled: "You're the only corpse here, shitface."

"_**Correction, Robin,"**_ the voice uttered with hideous clarity. Something akin to the coldly deranged maniac who beat a boy in an apprentice outfit senseless within the lonely, dark confines of a sewer lair**. **_**"I'm the only strong person here."**_

Robin looked up.

He gasped.

Deathstroke perched. A sword in one hand. A magnum in the other. His red eye flared and his cowl slits billowed red vapor as the unearthly gears and motors in his torn body clicked and turned and squealed in ravenous hunger.

"_**You failedddd at Life…..SnkkkKKT! Now….let me makkke you complete with DEATH!"**_

SWOOOOOSH! He pounced with a billowing pulse of red.

Robin gritted his teeth and raised his bo-staff to block up against him. "Nnnngh!"

And Red Aviary landed on Robin, his two-edged sword slicing billowingly crimson towards the Boy Wonder's forehead.

_**SLAAAAAASSSSSSSSH!**_


	237. A Hard Act to Follow part 22 final

**237. A Hard Act to Follow part 22 Final**

_December 1, 2004. _

_Gotham City. _

_3:57 pm _

_Streets._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm typing as fast as I can, Noir! This is some real high-tech stuff here, but it's operating system is new to me!" Cyborg murmured as he hurriedly typed and twisted away at the controls to the Batmobile's onboard computer. "If I had a little more of my working parts in order, I might be able to _plug myself in_ and get some interface going so that I could run a legitimate scan…"

I panted, staring up at the billowing flames of the two-story building that stabbed my black eyes. I gulped and nervously glanced back at the open Batmobile where a haggard Cyborg and a shivering Jericho sat.

I hand-signed: _'Whatever you can do, do it quick!'_

"I'm **trying**!" Cyborg growled. "This stuff is almost too high-tech for **me** to handle!"

Just then, Jericho gently shoved Cyborg back in the driver's seat.

Cyborg scrunched, his human eye darting. "H-Huh?"

Jericho leaned over him. He tongued his own cheek while typing smoothly with expert, hacker-hands across the interface of the Batmobile's computer. A few consoles swiftly came to life, followed by a radar-like diagram that flickered to wakefulness in the center of the array. Green strobes highlighted the hot, burning mass looming before us…and a scattering of chaos beyond.

"Nice fingers, squirt," Cyborg patted Jericho's shoulder with one good hand. "But I get the feeling this thing isn't gonna do us much good."

I leaned in, all but shoving Jericho out of the way: _'What do you mean that it will not do us good?'_

Cyborg bit hi lip. "Erm….that place is a collapsed building, Noir. The sonar can't tell what's burning debris from burning bodies….heaven forbid."

I clenched my black and flesh fists. I snarled mutely and twirled to face the burning spire.

_The Hell with scans……_

CHIIIIING!

Jericho gasped.

Cyborg vainly reached a hand outward: "Noir! Don't—"

_SWOOOOOSH!_

I murked up the buildingside. Once I reached the calamitous second floor of the burning building, I struggled in searching along the ledges and balcony pieces and fire escapes for an entrance of sort that would take me inside. But all I met was flickering fire that bubbled out to devour me. I panted, rubbed my brow of sweat, and kept…kept……kept….

Searching.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**RAAAUGHCCKKK!"**_

_SLASSSSH!_

Red Aviary's red sword burned through the room.

Robin gasped and swung his body back at an inhuman angle.

The two-edged blade ate at the air and nearly clipped off the Boy Wonder's nose.

Robin gasped, shot his staff out, caught it in between Slade's ankles, and used the 'grip' to yank himself back up and slam an elbow into the reaper's face.

_THWACK!_

Deathstroke's head jerked aside. "………" It slowly turned back, glaring at Robin. The single eyeslight pulsing _**RED**_

Robin's jaw dropped.

_**THUD!**_ Red Aviary headbutted him.

"Nnngh!" Robin stumbled back.

Slade spun with a kick aimed high.

WH-WHAP!

Robin stumbled backwards across the burning domain.

Deathstroke whipped out a magnum from his side.

Robin steadied himself and raised his staff at the last second.

Red Aviary spun the magnum, half-crouched, aimed, and fired. _BLAM!_

The bullet sang down at Robin's upper thigh.

The Boy Wonder tilted one end of his staff down and blocked the magnum round with the metal tip.

**CLANG!**

The bullet slammed into the ground.

The heavy impact of the caliber to the Boy Wonder's bludgeon forced the bo-staff to jerk in Robin's grasp. The Titan leader gasped and reeled forward.

Slade had his blade ready in a red-murking downswing.

_SWISSSSSH!_

Robin held his breath, rolled forward completely, and barely twirled out of the way of the plummeting blade to the ground.

_**CRKKKK!**_ Tile flew with the splash of red Destruction.

Slade momentarily had all his weight on his blade.

Robin leapt up, spun, and swung his staff towards the back of Slade's cranium.

The man blocked with the base of his sword brought back around behind his shoulders.

_CL-CLANK!_

Sparks flew.

Slade then spun around, growling and swinging the length of his two-edged blade at full force. _**"Hrrrghhkkkkt!"**_

_**SWIIIIIIIIISSSSSSH!**_

Robin ducked, losing a few strands of black hair from the fiery weapon.

Deathstroke followed his heavy swing with a wrist aimed at the base of Robin's feet.

_**FW-FWOOSH!**_ A pulse of red murk pulsed out of his palm and exploded beneath the two, directing its outer intensity at Robin and tossing the Boy Wonder back across the burning building's interior.

_SWOOOOOOOSH! __**THRACK!**_ Robin landed hard through a smoldering table that had already nearly melted through.

Soon he was lying down, his aching head planted against the floor, ear-first.

There was a heavy stomping sound. Robin jerked and looked up just in time to see Slade coming at him with his sword on the cutting path.

_SLLLLLNKKKKKKT!_ The tile divided and swam an upside down shark trail straight for the Titan leader's head.

Robin swiftly dashed a hand to his utility belt, produced a grappling hook, and fired at somewhere---anywhere—across the room. _POW! CLANK!_

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

Slade came onto him.

Robin slammed his gloved finger over the trigger device of the grappling hook.

He retracted, and the cord fiercely dragged him out of the way of the Reaper's Red blade. Robin zig-zagged his way around burning chairs and under a smoldering table or two. When he could finally get up to his feet, he did so in a bounding reverse jump that ended in a twirling raised staff just in time—

_**SWOOOOSH! **__**CRACK!**_ Slade's two-edged sword forced down on Robin's bo-staff.

Robin fought and struggled to push up against the tall and furious Deathstroke's pressure.

A coldness overcame Robin that eased the heated suffering of the room, but at the same time drew him into some cold merciless place far away from the crumbling walls of inferno surrounding them.

Cold vapor in red aura. Heat waves in the amber air.

Something inside of Robin twitched first, and before Slade could pull forth a secret counter move that would successfully have pinned the Boy Wonder to the wall by his guts, Robin swiftly kicked the ankles of Slade, forced him into a vicious split, and simply shoved the length of his bo-staff up, clipping the cowled jaw of Red Aviary. _THW-WHAP!_

Deathstroke barely stumbled back from the blast, but it was that very same half-stumble which Robin was secretly praying for from the get go. "Nnnngh!" he shouted and spun an entire three-sixty with his staff slamming into Red Aviary's side and adding a good, double-impact to the reaper's skull for measure. _TH-THUD!_

Deathstroke teetered backwards.

Robin shouted and jabbed his staff forward. "Raugh!"

_THUD!_ The Boy Wonder pressed the end of his bo-staff squarely into the small of Slade's throat and forced the wheezing assassin into a standalone position, pinned against a wall.

As Red Aviary twitched and jolted in his imprisoned state, Robin reached into his own utility belt and managed to produce a birdarang of glistening sharpness. "Pfft…you're not Dearth Incarnate…," Robin frowned. "You're just _dying_."

Deathstroke hissed and wheezed. Red vapors wafted out of his cowl's slits and he hissed: _**"Cllllkk….hick-clik-clik-CLICK! Yessss…..have the grrrrand tourrr.**_" He reached a hand back behind him and somehow brought it back with his pump-action shotgun gripped. He twirled and the weapon it at once before planting the barrel of the shotgun firmly against the Boy Wonder's skull. _**"On the house……"**_

Robin stared down the barrel of Death's boomstick.

Slade fingered the trigger.

Robin immediately let go of Slade, cartwheeled backward, and used his backflipping feet to soar straight up and knock the shotgun out of Slade's hand.

_CL-CLAK!_

The weapon twirled in the air and came down just as Robin came down.

_**BLAM!**_

The random spray of lead shot flew across the room and sailed into the bottom of a support beam. Weakened already by the flames, the ceiling started to collapse.

But Robin wasn't done. He flew plummeted in a suicidal, backwards dive. And in mid-air—practically horizontal—he flung the birdarang down past his feet so that it sailed beyond him, across the burning room, and stuck itself bloodily into Red Aviary's unearthly chest.

_**TH-THUNK!**_

Deathstroke absorbed the skewering. He lumbered back, all but falling down. He rested on his double-edged sword for support and barely grunted at the painful piercing stabbing its way into his sternum. He merely wheezed and exhaled more chaotic vapors of cold, seething red.

And then the support beam gave way. An avalanche of fiberglass, twisted metal, and burning ceiling fixtures oozed downward and filled the interior between Robin and Slade….blocking them from each other.

_**CRASSSSSSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin stood up….panting.

He sweated on his side of the room and found himself more trapped by the fallen, burning ashes than ever before.

He coughed and wheezed before ducking below the smoke and nervously hobbling his way across the room.

Looking for an exit.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On Slade's side, Deathstroke stood in place.

Quivering.

Bleeding from the Birdarang embedded in his chest.

"_**Hckkkk-clik…clik…clik…cl-clik…"**_

He reached a metal-and-flesh hand up, cascaded with red smoke.

He gripped the birdarang's outer wing.

He clutched it tightly.

He leaned his cowled head back.

The two velvety tails of red behind his mask danced and twirled in the firelight.

"_**Rrrrghhhhh!"**_

He slowly…agonizingly pulled the sharp birdarang out of his bleeding wound.

"_**RAAAAAAAAUGHKKKKK-SNKKKKTTT!"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin could hear Slade.

Across from him.

Just on the other side of the collapsed, bruning debris.

Robin shuddered.

He crept along, his bo-staff at ready.

Testing the weaknesses of the walls.

Trying to find a place to burst through and…

Run free from Death.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deathstroke shuddered.

He absorbed the pain.

He drank it in from the inside out.

He dropped the birdarang to the floor.

_Cl-Clang!_

**SWOOOSH! ****CRCKKKK!** The sword flew down and shattered the birdarang instantly.

"_**HSsskkkkk…clik…clik…clik-clik-CLIKsnkkt!"**_

Red Aviary heaved. Spilling red smoke in the air everywhere. He icily tilted his head up, red eye flashing. Strobing. He glared through the wall of debris towards where Robin had to have been….

"_**You and I arrre-hckk—such identically nasssssty miraclessss, Robin…..hckk-clik-clik-clik!"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin shuddered.

Head tilted to the side.

Ear pricked as he walked along his side of the burning debris wall.

"…_**snkkkt—clkkk! Both you andddd I don'tttt know how to sssstay deaddd….clik-clik-HCKKK!"**_

Robin gritted his teeth. "We're not alike Slade! Not in the least!"

"_**Kckkk….ohhh…..but that was tttttrue once….was it nottttt?"**_

"………….," Robin frowned. Shaking. Gripping his staff tightly.

"_**Ssssso hardcorrrre….snkkkt! So vengefullllll. Jusssstice was jussssttt a carddd-HCCKK—for you, Robinnnn…"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Slade paced slowly across the fiery interior.

His every footstep oozily 'splashed' up sprays of red vapors.

The fire backdrafting over the ceiling above him parted as if from a CO2 blast with each forward movement the Reaper made, strafing alongside the burning debris wall.

"_**You ssssshould neverrrrr have denied your ttttrue self, Robin….Hckkk-clik-clik-clik! Alwaysss taking it ssssso hardddd on the enemyyyyy. HCkkk-Snkkkt! Ssssso bent on doing what you feltttt like…..that you even took it out on yourrrrrrr worthless-SNCKKT—PATHETICKKKK FRIENDSSsknnktTTT! Hckk! I know….I knnnow the wrrrrath that ressssides within you. And whatttt a pity that you did not wake up frrrrom oblivion to discover it—SNKKKT!—likkke I DID!"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin growled.

"I was reborn only because there are people in this world who saw your half-ass return and thought it best to save me from the murder list! I'm not some wrathful demigod arisen from the ashes. I'm a human being, Slade. I live life now to live life. Not extinguish it! You're just a damned murderer! You've always have been! With or without the god damn _smoke and mirrors!"_

"_**Hckkkk-Snkkt! SSSSsssuch passsssssion, Robinnn..hckkkt! You practically GLOW with it! Your friend Noir gave me-clik-clik-clik-such an impressssive window into the worlddddd of his Spectrum. And I cannnnn senssssse the destruction within you…..the need….the need to BLEED!"**_

"You know nothing about me…," Robin shuddered. Perhaps from the smoke. Perhaps from the cold.

Perhaps from the truth.

"_**Hckkkt!….Is that so?"**_

"Get out of my life, Slade…," Robin shook. "Leave me alone…once and for all!"

"_**Snkkct—clik-clik-cl-clikkkt……Tell me, Tim…..did you crrrry when you found out that Two-Facccce killed your fatherrr?"**_

Robin winced. He gripped his bo-staff tightly for a moment, then pressed on.

"Shut up, Slade…."

"_**I bet you crrrried for only half an hourrrr….Because all yourrrr life you've been ccccrying insssstead for yourrrr mother. Do you sssssincerely still believe that yourrrrr mother—snkkkt—DIED when you were young?"**_

"I said…..Shut. Up."

"_**How long will itttt be till you trrrruly grow up, Tim? What doessss it take to rrrrrealize that your motherrrr left you?"**_

"SHUT UP!" Tim slammed the wall in random places with his bo-staff. _CLAK! CRACK! THWACK!_ He didn't break the surface, but merely made the ceiling rain down ashes. He coughed from the fumes…and something else. He leaned forward on his staff and sweated. His eyemask was thin. His whole face contorted in a thick…thick pain….

"_**Thatttt sssshe couldn'ttt stand such a deadbeattt-snkkkt!—of a husband?"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Deathstroke's glowing eye squinted and practically pulsed forth a laser sight through the crimson vapors as he walked over to the wall and fingered it like an artist examining the coats of paint on a canvass.

"_**Clkksnkttt…..And….Oh…What…A…Worthlesssss….RAGGGGEDY……**__**SON**__**!.!.!.!.!"**_ He hissed and jerked his head from side to side. _**"So sssssmall…..so frrrrail…..even frrrom birrrrth. He would neverrrr have the chanccce to prrrrrotect his motherrrrr in the sssslums where he grewww up. Snkkktt—Ckkk! So what would be the pointttt? It was so easssssy for her to jusssst strangle him in the crrrrib….but inssstead she leftttt. She left him to live on hissss own. That isn't a life, Tim. That-snnkkktt—is a decaddde and a half of exquisite torrrrrture…."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was panting.

Kneeling.

Resting his head against his staff.

His blue eyes were clenched shut beneath his eyemask.

And as his face tensed and the heat vapors rose hellishly around him.

Moisture started to line the edges of his disguise….

And from the other side of the burning wreckage:

"_**You arrrrre a beinggg of hatttte, Robin. The only ssssstep you've everrrr had to becoming ME….hassss been to embraccce the ESSENCE of hate. HCkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik! But insttttead….you've trrrried to equalize it…with notionssss of JUSTICE….and GOOD….and PURITTTTY! It was neverrrrr a noble hearrrt that made you so synthetically 'strrrrong', Tim. It wassss a pacifying billionaire with a dissociativvvve complexxx…."**_

Robin looked up.

Seething.

Frowning.

With each further word that echoed through the divide, his breath grew shorter. More ragged. More heated.

And his muscles tensed on the breaking point in cadence with a clenched jaw….

"…_**.no wonderrrrr you've collapssssed so much! Hagan neverrrrr stole anything frrrrrom you but a wet drrrrream…."**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Whatttt wassss her name? Hcckk-Clik-Clik-Clik!"**_

Slade jerked.

Slade twitched.

Slade said….

"'_**Annie'? Hckkk—SNKKKT! A name that you made yourrrrself. It tookkkk you so much-HCKK—and so little to realize that life is trrrrrivial before—HCKKK—the willssss of Death! When that mud girrrrrl disappeared on you….did you lose ttttouch with your motherrrr again, Tim? HCkkkkk!"**_

Slade stomped towards the burning wall.

He leaned towards it.

Pulsing red all over.

He hissed…

"_**Snkkkt—Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik! Yourrrr mother hasssss 'died' to you everrrry day of the Boy Wonderrrr's life. Hassssn't she? Ssshe died when Annie did. And she died…..snkkkt—CLIK-CLIK-CLKKK! She died again when you mettt Starfirrrrre….didn'ttttt she?"**_

Silence….

Cold.

Absolute.

"'_**No'?"**_ Deathstroke's head turned to the side. _**"HCkkkktt! Well, Tim…..I asssssure you…..your Mother will 'catch up' with Starfirrrre soon enough. HCkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt! I…..snkkt….I will see….to……..it……."**_

_Swooosh-Clamp!_

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-__**BEEEEEEEEEEP!**_

_**POWWWWW!**_

The debris wall exploded from the other side.

"_**HRSNKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke stumbled back, gripping his sword.

Robin came charging through the burning hole in the debris. He held his bo-staff over his head. And he was screaming.

"_**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"**_

_THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH-__**SMACK!**_ The bo-staff spun and slammed across Slade's neck, snapping two or three things in the process.

"_**HCKKKSnnnBLLLNKKT!"**_

"_**RAAAH!"**_ Robin stomped forward and uppercutted Slade. _**"YAAAAUGH!"**_ Followed by a rib-breaking whallop to the ribs. _THWOOSH-THWOOSH-THWOOSH!_ And then a spinning blow to the legs. _**"**__**"NNNGH!"**_ THWACK! _CRKKKK!_

Deathstroke stumbled back, spitting up blood and red vapors. He was a wet, soggy mess of curdling death.

Robin seethed. Robin howled. Robin ran and performed a flying thunder-kick into the square of Deathstroke's pierced sternum.

_SWOOOOOOSH-__**WHAM!**_

Slade flew back and collapsed into a billowing pile of flames. _**FWOOOOMB!**_

Robin came down from his drop. _SNKKKT!_ He produced an explosive birdarang in either glove. Teeth clenched and furiously exposed.

Writhing and smoking, Deathstroke stood up in the center of the flames.

"_**GET…OUT….OF….MY………...**__**LIFE**__**!"**_ Robin screamed and flung the birdarangs with all his might. _**"HAAAAAUGH!"**_

The birdarangs flew through the air. _SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH!_ They criss-crossed like kamikaze boomerangs. They were already beeping a good half a second before they finally twirled their last air lengths into the midst of Slade's burning shadow. _**TH-THUNK!**_

_**KAAAABLAAAAAM!**_

Robin shielded his masked face from the outward wave of dust, ash, and fire billowing from the impact.

_**FWOOOOOOOOSH!**_ A backblast of fire and plasma ate across the room, hugging the already smoldering ceiling.

Robin panted…panted…..panted……panted……panted…..

He swallowed.

Panted…..panted…..panted…..panted….

He gulped.

He stood up….sweating….numb….pale….

His breaths—still intense—were becoming more and more drawn out. He was wheezing then. Struggling to stand up. On the verge of collapse. He kept his eyemask trained on the spot where Slade exploded. He rested his gloved hand against his forehead, totally sapped out. He shuddered. His lips murmured.

"I-I am not a reaper….."

Crackling noises.

Shimmering walls and ceiling pieces….

"I am n-not a c-crook….."

Scattering ashes.

Dancing embers.

Robin's face scrunched up and the voice came out of him like half a whine. "I-I've only t-tried to be good, Starfire….that's the only s-s-super thing I ever did…." He shuddered. He dropped his hand and gazed at the smoldering mess before him. Wet trails were squeezing out of his eyemask and down his cheeks. His lips quivered. "….that's the only thing I….ever _meant_ to do…..and it was enough for you. And it w-was enough for the Titans. But it was n-never enough for me…."

He gulped. Hiccuped. And clenched his fists.

A hiss escaped him.

"I wasn't good enough! I wasn't strong enough! I had to prove it and now…..," he took a deep breath. He shut his blue eyes under his mask. He shook. He mumbled: "……now it's proven. I can be more than the torture I already am. I can be a pain to you, Starfire. I died on you when I promised you I wouldn't. I let the team down when I promised I wouldn't…."

Silence…….

His optics reopened.

A frown crossed his face. "I was just like Slade. But not anymore. Not if I can help it…….I'm so sorry for everything, Starfire. Everything…but **one**."

He took two steps forward and spat into the fire.

Seething…

"Burn in Hell, Slade!"

"……………………………_**I intenddd to…."**_

Robin gasped. "!"

_Rrrrrumble!_ The fiery debris before him shifted.

Robin's eyemask went wide. He stepped back—

_**CRKKKK!**_The debris pile exploded. A fire-trailing, red murking body leapt out and slammed into Robin.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

Robin fell back and slid on his rear across the burning interior. He gasped and looked up…shivering.

Deathstroke loomed above him. His very insides were on fire. And yet, flesh merged unnaturally with turning and creaking gears inside the half-human **corpse** of a living thing. Slade was as alive as he was dead. The fire merely melted the rustiness from his wet, red muscle. His black and red outfit was singed here and there and the bottom tips of his cowl's tails spewed ashes. But his posture was the same. His jerking movements were the same. And his one eye glistened and strobed red, unphased.

"_**HcckkKKKCLIK-CLIk-CLIK-CLIK-SNKKKKTkkkkttt!"**_

"N-No! Sl-Slade…," Robin scrunched backwards. Panting. "But I—"

"_**Killed me? Yessss….."**_ SWOOOOSH!**GRIP!** Deathstroke clutched the Boy Wonder by the neck and leaned his vapor-spewing face into his. "_**Keep doingggg it, Robin. It **__**excitesssss**__** me…..HRAAAUCHKTT!"**_ And he spun and flung Robin up across the room.

"Yaaaugh!" Robin flailed and slammed sideways into a support pillar, crunching it. _CRKKK!_ He slumped to the ground amidst a blizzard of ashes and embers.

"_**RAAAAAUCHKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke leapt up high and came down with a red-murking drop kick.

Robin panted and spun to the side.

**SLAM!**

The impact shook Robin and made the Boy Wonder stumble….

"_**HCRKKKT!"**_ Slade jumped up with a _literally_ burning uppercut.

_FWPOW!_

Robin stumbled back.

Red Aviary laid into him with a roundhouse punch, a kick to the abdomen, and yet another uppercut to the Titan Leader's cranium.

WHAM! TH-THWAP! _CRACK!_

Robin fell back, sputtered, and curled up on the ground. Gasping bloodily for air.

"_**Hckkkt-clik-clik….you'rrrre running out of steam….BOY…."**_

Robin winced in pain as he reached for a birdarang to toss at the fiend—

_**SWOOOSH!**_

Deastroke blurred over and slammed his foot into Robin's ribcage.

_THUD!_

"Nnngh!" Robin shook.

"_**Alwayssss—snkkt!-SO PASSIONATTTE!"**_ Slade grabbed Robin by the leg, spun him, and tossed him across the burning room.

Robin slammed through a burning desk, collapsed through a chair, and ragdolled up against an ash-laden piece of collapsed ceiling. He spat blood and wheezed amidst the smoke and gore.

"_**Hckk-Clik-CLIK!"**_ Slade marched towards him. Picking up his redsword icily from the ground. _CHIIIIING! "__**The only time you ever….EVER……….…SHOWED…"**_ He raised his foot and pressed it into Robin's gut. THAP! "_**A SINGLE OUNCE….hckkkKKK-OF STRENGTH!"**_ **CHIIIIIING!** Deathstroke planted the tip of his two edge-sword against Robin's heart. "_**Was when you WERE…..MY…….**__**APPRENTICCCCE**__**!"**_

Robin shudderingly looked up at Red Aviary. His breath deathly. His eyemask thin.

"I was never yours, Slade…..n-not in mind…..n-not in thought…..a-a-and sure as Hell not….i-in the heart…."

"_**Until now, boyyy….," **_Deathstroke hissed. He gripped tighter to the hilt of his sword and prepared to thrust. "_**….for now….you shall have the pleasssure—Snkkktickkk…..of being….my prrreyyyy…."**_

Robin let out a last breath.

Deathstroke's metal and flesh forearms tensed—

_**SMASH!**_

The ceiling above exploded.

Robin looked up.

So did Deathstroke, billowing red. _**"HCKKKKT?"**_

FWOOOOSH! Snarling, I murked with Myrkblade in a heavy down-stroke.

_SLASSSSSH-__**THWACK!**_

Deathstroke flew back from Robin and tumbled against a clump of burning furniture.

Robin murmured: "N-Noir…"

_Pl-Plant! _CHIIIIING! I stood before Robin.

"_**Nnkkkt-Ckkkk!**_" Deathstroke fought to stand upright again. _**"The deliverer of hatred returnssss…."**_

I glared at him.

_That's the 'Equalizer', you ruby-assed son of a bitch._

Robin reached a shaking hand up to me. "Jordan….n-no….we need to get out of h-here…."

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ I blurred at Deathstroke, Swinging Myrkblade.

A mute scream.

_**SLASSSSH-**__**THWACK!**_

Again, he wheeled from the blow.

I raised Myrkblade up to swing again.

He snarled and slashed his sword straight at me in a red-clouded spike.

_FL-FLASH!_ I teleported.

_FLASH!_ I solidified behind him.

I spun and slapped Myrkblade against the back of his skull.

WHACK!

He stumbled forward.

I knelt and jabbed at his legs.

He blocked low in reverse and twirled with a snarl and his two-edged sword singing at my head.

I backflipped, hopped above the swing of the blade, twirled in the air, planted my feet against a mound of rubble, pulsed murk, and propelled myself at him like a horizontal missile.

I gritted my teeth and repetitively slashed, hacked, and jabbed at him with as much rapid-fire agility as my Balance's Blackness could afford me.

_**SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SL-SL-SL-SL-**__**SLASSSSH!**_

_CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!_ He deflected. He shot forward with his elbow ramming me.

_WHAM!_

I jolted back.

He snarled and flung his arms to the floor. A concussion wave of red smoke icily exploded around him. The entire room shook and quivered. More support beams and chunks of ceiling gave away. Ashes and debris fell.

"_**HRAAAAAUCHKKKKKKTTT!"**_

_**CRUMMMMMBLEEEE!**_

I pulsed a shield of black around me, weathering the red. Teeth gritting. My black eyes twitching under my shades.

His one red eye pulsed and glared at me.

Robin panted and dove across the interior as more and more beams and pieces of debris fell over him. "Noir! We need to run! He's too much for us both!"

I ignored him..

I meditated. I pierced Deathstroke's Red waves with my Black solidarity.

_This isn't Red, Ana. _

_This may be Slade. _

_This may be Red Aviary. _

_But he isn't……__**RED.**_

_He is a punk. _

_You and I have dealt with punks……_

"_**RAAAAAACHKKKKTTTTT!"**_ he charged forward with a splash of red extended from his clicking wrist.

**POW!**

I summoned extra murk and merely slid back from the blow.

A flash of red momentarily blinded me.

I convulsed.

I blinked and saw a glinting slash of red metal careening at my skull.

"Noir! Look out!"

I breathed a scream and shot my black arm out.

_**SLNNKKKTTT!**_I palmed the length of the red blade. The billowing metal ripped and tore and ate its way down the center of my prosthetic's palm. If it were a flesh hand, it'd reach the bone by now. _Hell_, it would eat THROUGH the bone and snap my arm in half with the Power of Destruction.

_ZZZZZT!_

My black prosthetic sparked all over from the lacerating punishment.

But with back-up smoke warping up the limb, I braved the punishment, ignored the chilling snapping of synapses and electrical-to-neurological resquencings in my body and gripped my black fingers icily around the tip of his sword.

**GRIP!**

Deathstroke was caught in my grasp.

"……..," my black eyes widened. A sudden, momentary _**FLASH**__ of white and—_

CHIIIIIIIIING!

SWOOOOSH-_**SLIIIIIIIIINK!**_

I raised Myrkblade and stabbed a good half of its length _straight through_ Red Aviary's chest.

"_**HRSKKKKKTTT-TTTT-TTTKKTT!"**_

_Nnnnngh!_

I lurched forward.

He lurched forward.

Smoking shades besides a red-breathing mouth.

But his voice and body was seemingly unaffected by my skewering him as I heard him hiss:

"_**Hcrkkkkttt!…..Brrrringssss back memoriesssss….doesssssn't it, 'apprenticccce'….."**_

I thought of Joey.

Then of Ana.

Then of someone else in between.

_No._

_Not __**him**__. _

_The Titans……_

_Always……for the Titans. _

_You were right, Kara._

**SLASSSSSH!**

I pulsed smoke intensely through Myrkblade while he was still skewered with it.

The result…Red Aviary shot off my blade like a missile and collapsed like a corpse into the pile of burning embers in the corner of the desolated interior.

_CRKKK!_

"_**Hraaughht..snkkt!"**_

I took a deep, fuming breath.

_Zzzzt!_ My black arm sparked.

_SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH!_ My right arm twirled Myrkblade.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ I shot both arms down in a glaring stance….a carpet of murk cascading around me as I glared at Slade's battered body.

……………………………_**burn**__._

Red Aviary stirred. Hissing…growling….both, he struggled to get up.

Suddenly, three explosive birdarangs—

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISH! CLANK!_

Slade was pinned to the rubble. He took one look at the explosives all over them and shook with all the more red-smoking fury.

"Noir!"

I looked over my shadow.

A batter Robin stood on his feet, a grappling hook in hand. He aimed for the whole in the burning building's rooftop. "We're leaving!"

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

I clenched my flesh and black fists. I glared at Red Aviary, seething.

"_NOW! That's an order!"_ POW! SWOOOOSH-CLANK! Robin soared up.

I took a shuddering breath.

Just as Red Aviary started—struggling—to pop the explosive projectiles out from around his person one by one….I turned around, sheathed Myrkblade—_Chiiing!_—and murked swiftly after Robin. I hopped from debris pile to debris pile and…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

…..landed on the crumbling rooftop beneath the red Gotham Sky.

Robin motioned and ran towards the building edge. "Come, Noir! Hurry!"

_I wasn't about to argue with __**that.**_

Together, the Boy Wonder and I ran to the edge of the building. We took a leap of faith, drifted across the street, and landed atop a building top built below us besides an L-Train track.

_**PHOOOOOMB**__**!**_

The building behind us shattered, shook, and imploded in a ball of rising flame that consumed it. A plume of destruction rose up from the site right next to Gotham Labs' burning visage.

Robin and I finished tumbling across our new rooftop position across the way. We panted and stood up. Gazing across the street at the fiery scene.

I clenched my teeth. Jaw tight.

_I know he survived that, Ana. _

_I know he survived……_

"Th-Thank you, Noir….," Robin said. He gulped and looked at me. "Slade….he knows so much about me. He…..He almost consumed me in there. I-I thought for a moment that I was—" His words stopped. He squinted at my, head leaning to the side.

"……," I had my black prosthetic hand lifted up. From the tear in the palm where Deathstroke's two-edged sword had sliced into the synthetic skin, a plume of red flickered and danced.

We both stared at it.

But not so intently as I…..

The wind was soft.

The growing sounds of sirens fell numb in the distance.

A cold, wintry breeze struck my long locks of hair…but the red murk remained the same.

Ever dancing.

Ever alive.

In this Black Adept's grip……

"…………….."

I took a deep breath.

I flexed my black 'fingers'.

I concentrated…..

I made the red murk stretch and squish and dance and shrink.

_What is it, Ana? _

_What is it about the side of the spectrum that you and I never touched? _

_The part that was attributed to him._

_All the passion. _

_All the emotion._

_Deathstroke's vendetta. _

_Dagger's greed. _

_Triangular's treachery and the villainous underground's bloodletting._

_November Fourth, Las Vegas, Metropolis, Gotham City._

_So much death and suffering. _

_So much worry and chaos. _

_All because of this tiny red flame. _

_This embodiment of destruction………… _

_Why, Ana? _

_Why is it obsessed over so? _

_Whatever happened to homo sapiens to……… _

_To make us forget the White?_

"Is it…..Is it alive, Noir?" Robin quietly asked. He too was mesmerized by the piece of Red Aviary in my grasp. "Does it breathe and bleed?"

"……..," I gazed sideways at him. I mouthed: _'Do you?'_

"……….."

I looked back at it.

I thinned my black eyes.

I concentrated.

My fingers curled.

An outline of thick black trails traced the dancing edges of the red.

The obsidian compressed on it.

Equalized.

And—

_**FL-FLASH!**_

The red burst into white steam. Like a tornado, the ivory fumes twirled towards the sky, evaporated into the Gotham night, and was gone.

And all we could see—either of us—was the overwhelming bath of red across this oversized bird cage we rattled in.

_Red Aviary……… _

_It's already real. _

_Not just a nightmare._

"Noir…..," Robin murmured. "We have to get out of here."

"…….," I look at Robin.

"We have to get out of this Town…," Robin murmured. "We have to get away from Red Aviary." He looked at me. Weakly. _Sincerely._ "Deathstroke will stop at nothing to consume me…..and you. And as long as we're in my home turf…it's _his_ home turf. We must draw him out. And we must get to the bottom of Triangular as well."

I slowly nodded.

Robin glanced at the burning building through the corner of his mask. His face grew tight. He glared at me. "We move…._now!"_

He ran.

I took a breath and blurred alongside him.

In mid-stride, Robin pulled out his communicator.

He shouted as we jumped onto another rooftop:

"Cyborg! Report!"

"_Huh? __**Me**__ report? Where the Hell were you, man! We were all worried to death!"_

"I'm fine! F-For now! Where are you?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

Cyborg drove the speeding Batmobile through the night streets of Gotham. Jericho was scrunched in the passenger seat beside him.

Cyborg spoke: "On any other occasion, this would be the most orgasmically wonderful experience in my life. But seeing that my friends are constantly being chomped at by some red-farting yahoo, I'm only half drooling at the moment."

"_What?"_

Cyborg simpered. "I'm driving the Batmobile, Robin. It would be nice to know where **you** are, that way we can rendezvous and—"

"_Good! Cuz we're getting out of this City as quickly as possible!"_

"I thought as much….," Cyborg's metal and flesh brow furrowed. "We ARE….going back to the Tower to kick that muddy freeloader out and reunite with the Titans, right?"

"_One thing at a time. Can you meet us by the L?"_

"The L?"

"_The Gotham City Elevated Locomotive Transit!"_

"Hahahahahaha!"

"_What's so damn funny?"_

"Nothing, Robin. Good to be working with you again is all….," Cyborg smirked.

"_Press the yellow button to the top left of the dashboard monitor display. It will initiate the tracking device in my utility belt. Follow that till I stop. Noir and I will hop down and we'll get the Hell out of Dresden!"_

"Dodge."

"_What?"_

"Ahem…," Cyborg glanced aside at the little blonde. He simpered: "You'd better press the button Robin talked about, dawg. It's hard enough as it is driving one handed…."

Jericho nodded. He reached over and tapped the console.

"And for Allah's sake!" Cyborg cackled. "Put your seatbelt on! I know you're used to riding the bodies of people, but a car's a little more suicidal!"

Jericho winced, nodded with a nervous smile, and did as Cyborg said.

"Yeah…after all we're DRIVING IN THE BATMOBILE! WOOOOO-HOOO! BOO-YA!" Cyborg all but exploded. He smiled and swung the steering wheel euphorically, in spite of his many mechanical injuries. "Wait till I tell B.B. and the rest about this!"

_VRMMMMMMM!_

Jericho shivered. He reached a little hand up and subconsciously held tightly to the Jesus bar….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We're almost there, Robin! Just stay in one piece till we rendezvous!" _

Robin panted and nodded in mid-run. "Righto!" He glanced right as we hopped a street and landed on another rooftop. "Cyborg!"

"_Yeah, Robbie?"_

"The Metropolitan Highway starts here in Gotham! Take it South! It'll run parallel to the L-Train track! We'll jump onto the train and then leap onto the highway bridge! You can pick us up there—"

"—_and then we'll have a clear ticket home! Good idea. We're on it. Hang on, Joey!"_

Robin and I could hear a throttling noise in the distance. The Batmobile and its illustrious android pilot were drawing closer.

I took a deep breath, smoke trailing from my shaded eyes and torso as Robin and I leapt from building top to building top, approaching our destination. I glanced at Robin and smirked slightly.

"I hope whatever it is that the Messenger's hypothesizing about the vials leads us somewhere," Robin spoke as we ran. Almost breathless. "Once w-we're out on the road, we won't have much to run an analysis with. I want to catch up with Triangular and all…but getting Red Aviary off our tail is the first priority."

I nodded. _'The Titans',_ I nodded.

Robin swallowed. "If all we found out about Triangular is true….and Jericho's paranoia leads somewhere….then our City may still be in trouble after all."

I thought about that.

My mind straining.

_But……how? _

_We have the vials. _

_Both the ones in the vault…… _

_As well as the 'muddy' ones that the Messenger found at Gotham Labs._

_Triangular has been stopped dead in this City…… _

_Hasn't he?_

_I mean, if Dagger and Company had gone to our Town as he apparently planned, then Red Aviary would be there too, right? Or has the Parasite—for once—decided to stay behind to go after a bigger target than the manhandling of Triangular?_

_It doesn't make sense. _

_All I know is…… _

_Everyone and everything is in trouble. _

_What's going on here?_

"There!" Robin pointed, panting.

Our sprint slowed down.

We came to two four-story buildings connected by a walkway bridge stretching between them. We jumped onto the roof of the right structure and approached the gap between the two buildings. The bridge stretched over the compact L-Train track. Railroad tracks two-stories from the street floor passed between the two buildings and stretched up in the distance to run side-by-side with the Metropolitan Highway's north-bound lane. Up ahead on the tracks, there was a spot that we could easily jump from one platform to another. Crossing the highway lane would be a challenge—slight for Titans like us—and after that we would be home free.

"I suggest we beat Cyborg to the punch," Robin gulped and looked at me. Smiling. "What do you say?"

I smirked. I nodded, flexed my limbs, and prepared to drop down onto the tracks.

A rumbling sound--

Robin gasped and threw his arm out, keeping me on the rooftop. "Noir! Wait!"

I gasped.

_SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!_

A long, six-car, aluminum subway train soared beneath us on the L-Track…..where I would have been squished had I indeed jumped.

_Holy crap, Ana………_

I shuddered. I leaned back, gulped, and looked breathlessly at Robin. I simpered and gave him a shaking thumb's up. _'Thanks,'_ I mouthed.

He winked an eyemask at me. "We don't need _two_ dead swordsmen in this City, pal…."

_Heheheh……y-yeah……_

"_**HCKKKKKKTT!"**_

………_!_

Robin and I gasped.

We spun.

"_**HRAAAACUHGHTTTTT!"**_ Deathstroke dove down at us from a taller building in a red smoking trail of Destruction.

CHIIIIIING! I raised Myrkblade up to strike at him—

_**WHAM!**_ He slammed his blurred shoulder into me.

I went ragdolling across the rooftop.

"_**HCkkkk-Clik-Clickkkkstt!**_" Slade's one eye strobed red under his cowl as he glared over at Robin. He raised his two-edged sword up like a javelin and flung it at the Boy Wonder.

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

Robin gasped and raised his bo-staff over his head to block at the last second—

_**CLACK!**_

Sparks and red vapor flew.

Robin and the two-edged sword flew off the platform and onto the top of the moving train below.

Deathstroke dove after them—

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WH-WHUMP!_

Robin landed roughly on his back. Wincing.

_TH-TH-TH-THWISH!_

The reaper's blade twirled and descended towards him.

Robin gasped and rolled sideways atop the speeding train.

_**CLANGGGG!**_ The sword stuck into the aluminum roof, barely missing the Boy Wonder's skull.

Robin jumped back into a squat.

_**TH-THWAP!**_ Deathstroke landed on red-billowing feet. _**"…………….,"**_ he glanced up. His red eye flickered. Vapors trailed out of his mouth piece as he slowly….icily stood up. Joints cracking. Smoldering costume parts and body parts stretching thin. He turned his masked face about, cracking and popping joints. His flesh and metal fingers flexed as he reached over and picked his sword up by the hilt. _**CHIIIIIING!**_ _TH-THWISH! THWOOOSH!_ He faced off against Robin atop the speeding train, posed to land a heavy, red blow.

Robin glared at him. His cape blew against his body as his back was to the front of the train. Cold wind and freezing air currents numbed him, but he didn't shiver one bit. He gripped tightly to his bo-staff and posed at ready.

A moment of Gotham-streaking ambiance…

Then Red Aviary spoke:

"_**Snkkt….you rely too much on yourrrr friends—clickkkkctt!—Robin…."**_

"At least I have some," the Boy Wonder spat back.

"_**HCkktkkk! Afterrrr tonight…..not forrrr long…HRAAAUCHKKT!"**_ Deathstroke ran across the train top.

Robin posed at ready.

Red Aviary came down on him.

_SWIIIISH!_ The sword sang down.

"Nnnghh!" Robin's staff thrusted up.

_CL-CLANG!_

They met in the center of the speeding aluminum with a splash of red and sparks.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime—back on the rooftop—I stood up.

Wincing.

I rubbed my neck with a black hand.

Blinking.

_I'm……I'm still alive?_

"………"

I craned my neck.

I heard the distant roar of the L-Train.

_Robin………_

I jumped up to my feet with a pulsing wave of murk.

I blurred over to the building's edge.

I looked over, panting.

The train was an incalculable distance away.

A commuter vehicle.

And on the middle of the six car rooftops—almost too far away for my black eyes to see—was the clash of red blade to bo-staff.

_Shitness almighty!_

I snarled.

_Heaven help us if we get out of this damn City alive!_

_VRMMMM!_

I took a breath.

I craned my ear.

_The Batmobile……_

I glanced westward towards the highway bridge. I glanced at the distant train. I made my decision.

CHIIIING!

I sheathed Myrkblade, turned, and blurred towards the bridge as fast as I could.

Running, I concentrated my metaphysical sprint in my blurring legs and shakily managed to click a morse code message to Cyborg in the Dark Knight's vehicle.

'_--C-Y-B-O-R-G—R-O-B-I-N—A-N-D—S-L-A-D-E—A-R-E—B-A-T-T-L-I-N-G—O-N—T-H-E—S-O-U-T-H-B-O-U-N-D—L—T-R-A-I-N—'_

T-T-T-T-T-

'—_I—C-A-N-N-O-T—L-E-A-V-E—H-I-M—A-L-O-N-E—T-O—F-A-C-E—H-I-M—'_

Jericho blinked. He looked over at Cyborg. He hand-signed: _'We should be really close to them now.'_

Cyborg took a deep breath. Gripping the wheel with his one left hand, he spoke loudly onto the communicator: "What do you want us to do, Noir?"

'—_P-R-O-C-E-E-D—T-O—T-H-E—H-I-G-H-W-A-Y—'_

"And then what?"

'—_I—W-I-L-L—M-E-E-T—Y-O-U—T-H-E-R-E—'_

"……," Cyborg blinked. "Well, alright."

He gripped tighter to the wheel.

"Hang tight, squirt."

Jericho gulped.

_SCREEEECH!_

_**VRMMMM!**_

And the Batmobile burned its way up an onramp and onto the Highway's southbound lane.

Weaving in and around traffic.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**HCkkkkt—RAAAUGH!"**_ Slade charged and uppercutted with his blade. _SLASSSH!_

Robin hopped back, teetering atop the speeding train. He gasped, regained balance, and twirled his bo-staff in time to meet Deathstroke's second swing.

**CLANG!**

Sparks fell from the contacting metal, littering and bouncing off the smooth aluminum roof of the train cars beneath them.

Robin struggled against Deathstroke.

Deathstroke pressed the weight his blade down against the Boy Wonder.

Shoving…Shoving…grating….

"Nnngh!" Robin pushed hard.

Slade stumbled one step back.

Robin lunged forward with a bo-staff end to Slade's chest.

_WH-WHAP!_

Deathstroke stumbled back.

Robin charged, swinging his bo-staff high.

"_**NRAAGHKKT!**_" Slade lifted his knee at the last second.

WHUMP!

Robin was caught in the abdomen. He wheezed and leaned over.

Slade spun around completely, his cowl's tales dancing in the rushing air. He twirled, hissed, and slashed his sword down in a curved arc straight towards the Boy Wonder's skull

_SLASSSSSSH!_

Robin gasped and ducked even lower. The red blade barely missed the back of Robin's head.

But Deathstroke's boot didn't miss.

_**WHACK!**_

He slammed Robin straight in the forehead with the tip of his foot.

Robin flopped back and tumbled across the slippery train rooftop.

Slade jumped up with a pulse of red murk, soared down, and jabbed the sword below his descending figure. _SWIIIIIISH!_

Robin somersaulted backwards.

_CHNKKKKK!_ Slade's blade stuck into the train roof.

The reaper hissed, grunted, and struggled to yank his weapon free.

Robin got back up to his feet, twirled his blade, and ran at Red Aviary. The weapon swinging high from above. "Raaaugh!"

Deathstroke tilted his head up. He abandoned his sword completely, shot his arms forward, and gripped the flung length of Robin's bo-staff.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

"_**HCkkkk-CLLKK!"**_ Deathstroke flung Robin over him by the staff.

The Boy Wonder flailed above Slade, soared towards the rear car of the train, and landed hard. He tumbled and nearly rolled off the caboose. His legs dangled. He gasped and gripped the rooftop with one glove and the jabbing end of his staff to keep from falling and grinding into meet along the bumpety train tracks behind him.

"_**HCkkkkktt!"**_ Deathstroke finally yanked his sword out. _**SNKKTT!**_ With red smoke cascading around his figure, he turned and menacingly stomped towards the dangling Titans Leader. _**"Trrrrying to returrrrrn home, Tim? Notttt a good idea, if I werrrre you. I musssst say….you're tempttting me. You're tempting me sssssso badlyyyy…."**_

Robin hissed and panted, struggling to climb back up onto the train's roof. "Nnngh….if you so much as l-lay a finger on them…I'll—"

"_**Do what? Snkkkt—Clik-Clik-Clik….have I been the one truly hurtttting them all this ttttime?"**_

"…….."

Deathstroke brushed his wind-dancing cowl tails aside and raised his sword overhead. _**"One way orrrr anotherrr…snkkt….you will learrrrrn to humble yourrrrself beforrrre what I've beccccome!"**_

Robin frowned. "Save for someone who'd care to listen, Slade…" He stealthily positioned his legs so that his boots were flat against the rear caboose of the train. "I will not have you dictate to me!"

"_**HCkkkk! I didn't come herrrrre to dictate, Robin. I came herrrrre—snkkkt—to kill. Killll……YOU."**_ He raised the billowing blade over head.

Robin tensed.

Slade slammed the sword down.

_SWIIIISSH!_

Robin snarled, kicked with his legs, and propelled his body from the lower part up into an upwards flip.

_**CL-CLACK!**__! _The sword slammed into the train's rooftop just where Robin was.

In the meantime, the Boy Wonder's body was airborne. He flipped up in the air nimbly, hugging his body. He expertly stretched out as he came down. _CL-CLANK!_ His metal boots landed on the sloped length of the blade. He stabbed his bo-staff down, supported himself, shoved, and slid his body up the blade by the metal boots so that his elbow slammed mercilessly into Slade's masked face.

_**WHAM!**_

"_**Snckkktt!"**_ Slade fell backwards a few feet.

Robin grunted, cartwheeled off the blade, reached a hand out, and pulled the red reaper's sword out of the train car's roof by the hilt. _SNKKKT!_ He frowned. "Slade, I wish you had as good a talent for _staying dead_ as you do for stating the obvious…"

"_**Hckkk—clik-clik-clik…."**_ Slade icily stood up. _**"Time is ticccking, Rrrrobin…."**_ He flexed his upper muscles. Throbbing with red smoke. _**"The further you fightttt me….snkkkkttt…..the deeperrr the Parrrasite swims…."**_

Robin seethed. He re-gripped the red blade like a javelin. "I won't have anything more to do with you…."

"_**Telllll thatttt to the Titan'ssss gravesss….Robin….."**_

The Boy Wonder shuddered. His breath panted between dry lips.

Deathstroke seemed to glow a brighter red as he further hissed: _**"I will have you, Robinnnn—Hcckktt!—No mattttterrrr how many people I have ttttto rip through firrssst…."**_

Robin snarled. "Bite your tongue, you…_Bastard!"_ He snarled and flung the blade with all his might.

_SWISSSSSSSSSH!_ The blade swam over the train cars in the direction of the L-Track. It sang its way towards the stock-still Deathstroke's torso.

Robin watched, his hidden blue eyes twitching.

At the last second, Deathstroke's hands rose up together.

_**CLAP!**_

_TWNGGGG!_ The blade's hit shook, as its metal body was well captured by the two palms of Red Aviary just an inch and a half from ripping Slade's head off for good.

His one glowing eye of red narrowed.

Robin shivered. He stepped back and held his bo-staff high.

"………_**.,"**_ a glaring Slade re-gripped the sword and twirled it at a striking pose. _**"Hckkk-clkkk! So what will it be, Robin? Your life? The Titans'? Hckkk—clik-clik-clinkktt……or both……?"**_

"………….."

"_**Hrmmm….silenccccce……alwayssss the crimson touch…."**_

Robin winced at that.

Deathstroke hissed and came at him: _**"Time to end thissss….end YOU!"**_

"Nnngh!" Robin braced himself, bo-staff raised.

_**CL-CL-CLANGGGG!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

In the meantime, the Batomobile sped north along the Metropolitan Highway.

Cyborg gripped the wheel tightly with one hand. He looked about. His lips parted. Squinting….

Jericho too kept his green eyes peeled. But all he could see was the traffic honking and swerving aside all around them. He looked at Cyborg. Breathlessly, he hand-signed: _'Where is he?'_

"I dunno…," Cyborg gulped. "He said he was gonna meet us here somehow, but I haven't heard a thing from him---"

_**WH-WHUMP!**_

Jericho gasped.

Cyborg's human eye widened and he nearly lost grip of the steering wheel. "Wh-Whoah!"

"…….," I was perched outside on the hood of the Batmobile. I squatted and looked in through the sliding window of the vehicle's cockpit. I hand-signed: _'Get me closer to the train!'_ I then pointed eastward.

Jericho bit his lip.

Cyborg winced. He spoke into the communicator: "Uhhh….Noir? That would mean going against incoming traffic and—"

"……..," I glared. Smoke dancing out from my shades. I icily…._jabbed_ a pointing finger eastward again.

Cyborg shuddered. "All right…All right….gotta save Robin, I know…," he gripped the wheel tightly and sighed. "And to think _**I'm**_ supposed to be Robin's second in command…."

Jericho shrugged.

"Ahem…._hope you're a church-goer…"_ And he jerked left on the wheel.

_SCREEEEEEECH!_

Jericho winced and covered his eyes.

_VRMMMM!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

I braced myself on the hood of the Batmobile.

My body tightened as we swerved left across five lanes of south bound traffic.

And….

_SM__**-SMASSSSH!**_ Straight through the guardrail of the highway divide.

The whole vehicle shook.

I struggled to hold on.

_**VRMMMMMMMM!**_

And then we were doing it. We were driving head-on into northbound traffic.

Cars. Trucks. Semis. They all honked and swerved madly out of the way.

The expertly driving Cyborg weaved his way leftward…leftward…leftward….towards the Eastern edge of the elevated highway. Parallel to the L-Track right beside us.

I took a deep breath.

_CHIIIIING!_

I stood up. Gripping Myrkblade. Practically 'surfing' the Batmobile straight into aluminum waters.

Screeching.

Honking.

The cold, frosty air of red Gotham all the time.

At one point a pickup truck swerved madly and its crane rig broke loose, swinging towards me. _SWOOOSH!_

I gasped and ducked low.

_THWOOOSH-CRACK!_ The crane skimmed over me and snapped off one of the Batmobile's rear 'fins'.

The vehicle swerved a bit, but regained control.

"_Hold on, Noir!"_ Cyborg's voice said.

I shuddered, and stood back up. Murking. Concentrating. Gripping tightly to Myrkblade.

_VRMMMM! HONKK! HONK! VROOOOOOM!_ A semi or two careened past us. We finally emerged into the leftmost lane.

I could see the speeding L-Train. It drew closer and closer. The red-murking Deathstroke was going toe-to-toe with Robin. I could almost taste them…..

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

The Batmobile gunned it. Inching into the roadside. Gravel kicked up and rained on my ankles. The Batmobile's hood and paint job got horribly scuffed up. I could smell rubber and aluminum burning.

"_It's now or never!"_ Cyborg said.

Somehow, I didn't feel close enough to the train…

_Screw it._

I clenched my teeth. I pulsed murk throughout my body. My legs coiled, flexed once….twice…and sprang.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

With a pulse of murk I leapt, barreled over the edge of the highway, soared towards the aluminum worm of a speeding train….

….and missed by the last car.

I gasped.

_Shit!_

I jabbed my black hand forward.

**GRIP!**

I gripped the rear door frame of the caboose.

A split second later…I encased my torso and lower legs in shielding murk….

_**SCCCCCCCRRRRRAAAAAPEEEE!**_

My ragdoll body dragged violently along the tracks. Rattling. Shaking.

I strained, wincing all over. If it weren't for the impromptu shield of murk covering my extremities, I would have been ground into a pulp by then. I somehow managed to kick, pulse, and murk my way into a half leap so that I stabbed Myrkblade into the rear of the train and gripped tight to it thusly.

_CRKKKK!_

I gasped…panted…panted…and hung off the rear of the last train car. Perched in the doorframe. I took a deep breath.

_All right. _

_Now to go about this………the 'hard' way._

I yanked Myrkblade out, covered it with serrated smoke, and sliced mercilessly into the door of the train's rear.

_SLLLLLNKKKTTT!_

I slowly…carved my way into the speeding train.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SLASSSSH!**_

Red Aviary's blade murked through the air.

Robin jumped back. He footed himself firmly atop the train roof, snarled, and slashed up with his bo-staff.

_THWACK!_

Slade stumbled back.

Robin charged at him, growling. He twirled his bo-staff up above him and swung a downstroke at the fiend.

Slade gripped it with his hand. He yanked Robin towards him by the Boy Wonder's own staff and flew his knee up into Robin's chest. _**WH-WHAP!**_

"Ooof!" Robin exhaled sharply.

"_**HCkkkk!**__"_ Slade snarled and back-handed Robin fiercely across the cheek.

SLAP!

Robin fell back. At the last second he gasped and fell over the left side of the train. He held by one gloved hand, using the other to grip loosely to his bo-staff. The southbound cars were making a right turn southwesterly around a curve, and as a result, Robin's lower body was forced outward so that he hung nearly in a horizontal position. He gritted his teeth and struggled to climb up as the train curved back and narrowed along a double L-track straightaway. A female passenger inside the train turned, saw the Boy Wonder outside, and gasped right before collapsing in shock.

"_**Snkkt….clik-clik-clik-clik….,"**_ Deathstroke walked over and leered above the Boy Wonder. Dragging his sword. He raised his foot…and brought it murkingly down over Robin's gloved wrist. _**CL-CLAMP!**_

"Aaaaugh!" Robin shouted, wincing all over.

"_**Nskkktt….tell me, Rrrobin…..,"**_Slade half-crouched. His one eye pulsing. _**"Do you feel painnn?"**_

"……..," Robin panted. Glaring.

Slade's red-strobing optic narrowed. _**"How I do ssssso missss it……"**_ He stood up, arms folded. Blade dangling. _**"Soonerrrr than noughtttt….you and I will relattte….."**_

_**HONKKKK! HONKKKKK!**__I _

The train horn echoed through the air. It was a foreign train horn. Robin realized the terrible scenario as soon as his dangling, caped body started to light up. He looked along the length of cars and saw a northbound train heading straight for him on the double L-Track. It was gliding at an equal speed to the oppositely traveling train he was on. Which meant that his body would be torn about twice as intensely when the criss-crossing vehicles grinded him to a pulp.

_**HONNNNNNK!**_

Robin dangled helplessly. Blinded. Red Aviary pressed his weight further and further into his wrists. Agony….pain….

Robin snarled. _SNkkkt!_ He dexterously pocketed away his retracted bo-staff and reached into his utility belt. As the northbound train bore down on him, he whipped out a sparkling taser, snarled, and swung it up to the car roof level with all his might. "Come on, Slade! Tell me if you feel _this_ pain!" SWOOOSH-TH-THUNK!

_**ZZZZZZZT!**_

Sparks convulsed hotly all throughout Slade's leg. The man shook and convulsed as the energy overtook him. Red vapor shout everywhere. Robin himself suffered from rogue sparks for a good half a second before Slade inevitably stumbled back and took the pressure of his foot off him.

Robin grunted, gripped the two roof's edge with two gloves, kicked against the windows, and swung his body up vertically-

_**HONKKKK! SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOOOOOSH!**_ The opposite train blew by just where Robin was previously dangling.

Now the Boy Wonder 'stood' on his hands, legs in the air.

A stumbling Red Aviary overcame the taser's shocks and refocused his attention on Robin.

The Boy Wonder held his breath, nimbly twisted his wrists, twirled his vertical body, and helicopter-kicked the man in the cowled face. _WHAP!-WHAP!-WHAP!-WHAP!-__**WHAPPP!**_

Slade jolted-jolted-jolted and stumbled towards the edge of the train.

Robin cartwheeled down, stood up right, marched one step towards Slade and swung a fist into his face. "Nnngh!"

_WHAM!_

Red Aviary teetered. Arms flailing. Dangerously close to falling off the cars….

Robin prepared a finishing high-kick—

_**CLUTCH!**_ A red-vaporing hand grabbed Robin's boot. _**"Hckkkk!"**_ He twisted.

_Crkkk!_

"Aaaaugh!" Robin howled.

"_**RAAAUHKKTT!"**_ Slade tossed Robin fiercely off the train and out into the urban red yonder…

Robin's body flailed. He gasped. Before he could start falling, he reached into his utility belt, grabbed a grappling hook, aimed at the train, and fired. _**POW!**_

Swooooooooosh!

_CL-CLANK!_ The grappling hook stuck its claws into the aluminum ceiling just beneath Slade.

_TWNNNG!_ The cord pulled taut.

Robing gripped the handle with two gloved hands. He angled his body out. He swung a downward arc towards the rear of the train.

_SWOOOOOSH!_

He winced his teeth and straightened his body. He zoomed over the top of the rear cars, his rear end barely grazing the aluminum surface.

Slade pivoted, watching.

_SWOOOOOSH!_ Robin swung down below the train level on the left and out towards the urban landscape. The vehicle zoomed past a brick building. Robin expertly kicked his legs, 'ran up' the building face in a diagonal line while gripping the cord….."_Nnngh!"_ Kicked off. Soared up in the air, swung towards the front of the train, pulled at the cord's slack, and flung himself from the forward end of the cars straight down in a diving kick into Slade's chest.

_**WH-WHAP!**_

"_**HCkkk-snkktt!"**_ Red Aviary hissed.

Robin backflipped from the contact and landed in a squat.

Slade stumbled and stopped above the grappling hook's impact point.

Robin wound a slack of cord around his forearm, gritted his teeth, and pulled at the length with a mighty, snarling tug. "Nnnrrrgh!"

_CRKKK!_ The hook yanked out of the car roof along the cord. It slapped the inner thigh of Slade while retracting toward's Robin. _THWAP!_

Slade grunted and fell down to one knee.

Robin jerked the cord towards the front of the train, held his breath, spun half the length directly over head in the train-speeding air, and flung it back with slack straight at Slade's body.

_TH-THWP!_

Slade looked up just as the hook soared around his neck and wrapped around…pulling tight with the cord. _SNAG! __**"SNkkktttk-Hrkkk!"**_

Robin jumped up to a straight stance and yanked towards him with all his might. "Raaaaugh!"

_**YANKKKKK!**_ Slade soared limply at Robin on the end of the cord.

Robin coiled his entire body up, clenched his fist, and—once Slade flew into him—propelled his upper weight up with a deathly uppercut to the piñata Deathstroke's cranium.

_**WHAM!**_

Slade flew back a good fifteen-feet, propelled by the speeding air above the train. He rolled over and stirred….numbed by the heavy strike.

Robin tossed the cords away with a shrug of his shoulders. Teeth gritting, he produced his bo-staff again. _Snrkkkt!_ He extended it, paced, ran towards Slade, and swung. "Yaaaaugh!"

Slade stood up just at the wrong time—

_**SMACK! THWACK! WHAM! POW!**_ Robin drilled into him repeatedly, one swing of his bo-staff at a time.

"Raaaaaaaugh!"

As the train sped….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

…and meanwhile, inside….

"And so the judge revoked my license for another two weeks!"

"Jeez. You've gotta be kidding me. Poor you."

"Eh….I'm in good spirits though. The train and the bus system? Man…I don't know why I never used it earlier. Life on the highway—I tell you what—it's nothing but murder compared to this."

_**CRACCCKK!**_

The rear door of the train shredded open from a murking sword.

The two patrons gasped and ran—panicked—from the fresh, air ventilating hole.

I leapt in, panting.

I glanced down the lit, claustrophobic interior of the train. Citizens looked at me nervously…fearfully.

"……….." I shrugged my shoulders, straightened my shades, and marched firmly down the length of the train.

People backed off from me….and my sword. Smoke trailed my figure as I reached a black hand out and felt…felt….felt…

The train.

The structure.

The frame work.

The ceiling.

_Red……… _

_Where are you………Red?_

_You're somewhere above me, Slade. Fighting Robin. _

_Just……where exactly?_

I marched forward. One train car after another. Concentrating. Sensing….

"Hey!" a sparsely shaved citizen stood up, smiled drunkenly, and pointed at me: "Ain't you that Atlantis Titan? Ya know…the gay one---"

_WHAP!_ I bitch-slapped him without looking. Someone gasped. The man slumped to the ground as I kept marching on, focusing.

"……………."

I came to a stop in the middle of one car.

"………….."

I looked up.

I gripped Myrkblade tighter.

Smoke started to coarse all around me…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yaaaugh!" Robin shouted and slammed the full length of his staff across Deathstroke's torso two more times. _WHAM! __**SMACK!**_

Slade stumbled back. 'Bleeding' red fumes all over. He shook…quivered….jerked…. _**"Hckk….Clik-clik-clik-Clik-CLIK-CLIKKKSTTT!"**_

"Be…QUIET already!" Robin shouted and prepared the skull-crushing coup de grace down into Slade's skull.

Deathstroke jerked his head to the left at the last second and hooked his right forearm up to catch the end of the bo-staff. _**GRPPPP!**_

Robin gritted his teeth and tried to yank the staff back. No avail.

Slade twitched and twirled his head. Neck joints and jaw parts crackled. He spat blood and smoke through his cowl slits before narrowing his red strobing eye and hissing. _**"There is no 'besssst you can do' againsssst death, Robinnn…"**_ He lifted his leg and mightily shoved it down the length of the bo-staff into Robin's torso.

_**WHAP!**_

"Augh!" Robin stumbled back. Somehow, it took half a second later for Red Aviary to blur over and land his fist into Robin's gut.

_**WHUMPPPP!**_

"Snkkkkttt!" Robin spit and wheezed.

Slade converted his low blow into an uppercut. _**WHACK!**_

Robin teetered back.

And Red Aviary finished with a flying knee to the chin.

WHAM!

Robin landed on his back. Twitching in pain. Bruised all over.

"_**Hckkkkk-clik-clik-clik….being 'dead' yourrrrrself couldn'tttt do any good for your Titan friendssss…,"**_ Deathstroke sneered. _CHIIIIIING!_ He picked his sword back up and dragged it till he stood over Robin. _**"In factttt……being bornnnn was a mistake in and of itsssself….."**_

"Oh y-yeah?" Robin wheezed, coughing up some bloody saliva. He hissed: "If that was true, you'd be having a pretty lousy time tonight…."

"_**I wantttt you only to end you, Robin….."**_

"Then do it….," Robin growled. The rushing wind blew at his hair and cape. He half-sat up. Sneering above the noise. "Do it! If you could end Bane in the blink of an eye and clear out an entire laboratory of Lex's scientists without taking a second breath….surely you can cleave me in two and have done with it!"

"………_**.." **_

"What are you waiting for? Having second thoughts, Slade?" Robin clenched his fists. Heaving. "Not willing to off your 'apprentice'? You know what I think? I'm the son you always wanted to have….and never wanted to have. And you want to torture me for not coming from your loins as much as you want to end me for giving you a glimpse at progeny! Death only weakened you, Slade! Be a man for once and make a god damn decision!"

"_**HCkkkk….my childrrrren….."**_

Robin panted. Staring exhaustedly at Slade.

"………_**.," **_Deathstroke slowly raised the blade over head to strike. _**"……hckkkk-clik-clik-clik….my children arrrre dead to me……"**_

"But they haven't given up on you, Slade. Not like you have on them."

"_**HCkkk….good bye…Robin…,"**_ and the sword descended.

Robin shouted: "Jericho's here, Slade!"

The blade stopped barely an inch from Robin's head.

The Boy Wonder couldn't help but wince.

For but a moment, the vaporous red glow dimmed around the corpse of Deathstroke's figure. _**"Hckkkkk-CLIKKSNKTT….hckk…..,"**_ he exhaled. He leaned his one-eyed head to the side. _**"Joseph?"**_

"…….."

Red Aviary…the Parasite….Deathstroke gazed off towards the urban chaos speeding past him. _**"Joeeey….snkkkktt……I cccan…..sensssse you……."**_

"…………"

"…………_**.,"**_ Red Aviary stirred. He gasped a raspy breath and looked down suddenly as if surprised by something—

_**SNRKKKKTTT!**_ Myrkblade suddenly tore up from beneath the train car's roof and skewered straight through Deathstroke's foot. _**CHNKKK!**_

Blood and red smoke spurted out of the ankle and sprayed along the rear cars of the train.

"_**HRrCKKKK-HRAAAAAAUCHKKKK!"**_ Slade screamed and pulled, twisted, yanked at his ripped foot. He struggled and strained to pry himself loose, but the black-smoking blade piercing through his boot and leftover flesh anchored him down.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the car, I gripped the hilt and lower length of Myrkblade with the whole of my black prosthetic and right fingers. I gritted my teeth and pulsed murk through my body, tightening my hold on the weapon. Rising murk met with dripping blood and settling red vapors.

Shocked and disgusted patrons ran north and south along the train cars…anything to get away from the grotesque scene.

I held my post, keeping Deathstroke from breaking free. Gritting my teeth, struggling, and shakily staring up through the wobbling ceiling of the speeding car.

_Now, Robin!_

_Do your worst!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Snkkt!_

Robin gripped his bo-staff and charged towards Slade.

Deathstroke yanked and pulled and jerked at his own foot. Eventually he gave Robin a helpless look and raised his sword at the last second. _CHIIIING!_

Robin effortlessly blocked it away and pummeled….pummeled……pummeled Red Aviary mercilessly.

_SMACK! THWACK! P-POW! WHAM! SLAP!_

Deathstroke's upper body jolted, bobbed, convulsed, wobbled, and jerked with every thunderous impact.

_CRACK! THWAP! BAM!_

Robin snarled—"Raaaugh!"—jumped up high and slammed hard into the top of Deathstroke's skull.

_**CRKKKK!**_

Slade fell to his one good knee. Wheezing out carpets of red smoke.

Robin leaned breathlessly on his staff before him. Panting. He shuddered.

"_**Hckk….snkkktt….."**_

Robin sneered. "Why….won't…..you…….just……..collapse?"

"_**Snkkkkt-Clikkk…..If you know my sssssson……then maybe you'll undersssstand….Robin…."**_ FL-FLASH! The brightest glow of red yet pulsed from Slade's one eye as he looked up and throbbed all over with descending, crimson smoke. Blood dripped out of his cowl slits and he spoke through the liquid, colored trickle. _**"Invulnerrrrabilittttty runssss in the family."**_ He flexed his upper arms and stood up on his skewered leg. _**"And….n-now…Dessstructttttionnnnn! NnnnngRAAAAAUCHKKKTT!"**_

Robin gasped. He prepared to strike Slade's head clean off.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!**_ Pure waves of red smoke warbled outward from the Parasite.

Robin found himself choking as if a poison had filled the air. And iciness coated his throat and he limped back with his bo-staff, gasping for air.

Slade's whole body twisted…contorted….and tensed. _**"HAACHKTT!"**_  


_**POW!**_

A ring of red shot down his body.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The redness shot down into Myrkblade and pulsed into me.

_**FLASSSH!**_

I gasped. I screamed mutely…mentally. My black orbs strobed white under my shades and—

_**CRKKKKK!**_

A gaping hole in the ceiling blew open and I fell back.

The entire train car groaned.

The inside lights flickered.

Ice coated and fogged the inner windows.

I struggled for breath as if invisible, red hands were choking me.

My black arm twitched as I fought to get my strength back…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Hrckkkt…..Hrckkkt….Hrckkkt…." **_Red Aviary heaved. His whole body twitching and jerking. He twisted his muscles down to his ankles. There was a series of sickening pops and snapping sounds. He proceeded to step forward on the bloodied, skewered limb and march towards Robin. _**"Snkkkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clikkkk…."**__I _

Robin stood up. His jaw dropped at the bleeding menace walking 'alive' before him. He raised his staff for good measure.

"_**HCKKK!"**_ Slade merely snatched it from the Boy Wonder's grasp. He shoved Robin towards the front of the train.

Robin—disarmed—hobbled a few reverse steps and reached into his utility belt. He retrieved two long-bladed birdarangs which he twirled independently in two gloved hands. Pacing across from Deathstroke. Eyeing him through his mask….cautious…

"_**Snkkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke's eye pulsed a bright, laser red. _**"Stop…..brrrreathing…."**_ He raised both the staff and the sword to slice down at Robin.

_FW-FWOOOSH!_ My murking body leapt up out of the fresh hole in the train car's rooftop.

"_**Hrckkkt?"**_ Deathstroke's head turned back and looked at me. Wide-eyed.

I snarled, came sailing down in a murking trail, and slashed Myrkblade down at him.

_**CLANGG!**_ He jerked his sword arm back and deflected me.

_THWP!_ I backflipped and stood a few feet from him. CHIIIING! Myrkblade was at ready.

"_**Snkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke jerked his head to the other side.

Robin was ready with two birdarangs. He took a breath and craned his neck to look at me behind Slade's shoulder.

He nodded.

I nodded.

"Now!" Robin rushed forward.

I rushed forward.

"_**Nnnnghrrckt…HRAAUCHKKT!"**_ Slade twirled both the bo-staff and the red, double-edged sword at both of us.

Robin attacked from the south side.

I attacked from the north.

Him with his two birdarangs twirling and slicing.

Me with Myrkblade jabbing and blurring.

And Deathstroke twirled between us atop the speeding train, Parrying and counter-attacking. A bo-staff for every pair of birdarangs. A sword for every Myrkblade. Then exchanging. Reversing. Spinning.

Smoke and vapors and cape and murk and red and gloves and—

_**CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANG!**_

At one point, Robin and I both charged at him simultaneously.

Deathstroke kicked me back, spun, grabbed Robin by the cape, and flung him off the train side.

"Yaaugh!"

I dove sideways, stabbed Myrkblade into the roof of the cars, spun the rest of my body out while gripping the hilt, stuck out a free hand, gripped Robin's forearm, spun on my grip of the sword, and flung the Boy Wonder at Deathstroke. Robin soared in with a flying kick.

Deathstroke crossed his bo-staff and sword in a block to absorb the blow.

_TH-THWOMP!_ Robin nimbly vaulted in a backflip from the impact. I blurred twice as nimbly below him and teleported so that I solidified behind Deathstroke in a horizontal swipe of Myrkblade.

_THWACK!_

Deathstroke was batted across the width of the train-car.

Robin fell on his back, lifted his arms and legs, and judo-flipped Slade off to the side.

Red Aviary twirled in mid-air, summoned red vapor, flipped about, planted his feet against the glass windows of a passing office building, pulsed red, and shattered a crater into the surface as he shot back towards us with both weapons slashing.

_SW-SWISSH!_

Robin swiftly rolled out of the way.

I braced myself.

_CLANGGG!_ Deathstroke slammed into me.

I absorbed the blow with Myrkblade, but nevertheless teetered back to the left side edge.

Deathstroke raised his blades to crush my skull in from opposite sides.

Robin swung his foot out and tripped him from underneath.

_TH-THWAP!_ Deathstroke fell down hard.

I regained my balanced and blurred at him, Myrkblade stabbing down.

"_**HCKKK!"**_he kicked up with his bloody feet.

THWAP!

I was propelled up into the air. As I came down, I gasped…for the train car was blurring under a series of criss-crossing telephone lines connecting poles on either side of the L-Track. I swiftly blurred my body and hopped, hand-planted, skipped, and bounced from thin wire to thin wire with my limbs smoking….

_FWP-FWP-FWP-FWP-FWP!_

All the while beneath the blurring wires, Robin pounced on Deathstroke. They wrestled for each other's weapons, rolled across the width of the train, and ended when Deathstroke head-butted Robin—**WHAP!**—and forced him to dangle precariously on the car's side.

_FWP-FWP-FWP!_

And then the criss-crossing wires ended…and I came sailing down with a drop kick.

Deathstroke was barely standing up—_**WHAM!**_ I slammed into him and slid him towards the front of the train.

I reached hand down, hoisted Robin up, and side by side we twirled our weapons and charged Deathstroke. _St-Stomp-St-Stomp-St-Stomp-St-Stomp!_

Deathstroke discarded Robin's bo-staff, twirled his sword at ready, aimed it high, and slashed directly down and towards us with the biggest charge of Red Destruction I had ever seen. _**"HRAAAAAUCKHTTTT!"**_

_**FLASSSSSSH!**_

The red divide plowed Robin and I helplessly off our feet so that we ragdolled down the length of the cars towards the rear vehicle. Tears in the aluminum fabric of the cars started to form as red Destruction vapor laced the framework.

Deathstroke panted…panted…panted….red vapors dancing from his cowl. He limped towards us. Dragging his red blade. _Chiiiii-iiiii-iiii-iiiing!"_

Robin and I exhaustedly twitched on the rooftop. We weakly looked up at Deathstroke. Weak. On the verge of defeat.

"_**HCkkkt……letttt it enddd, Robinnn……embrace death…yourrrr true death….the Titanssss will taste of it one way or another….whether or not you'rrrrre gone…."**_

Robin hissed, trying to sit up. "You're….not….g-going to lay a bloody finger on them…."

"_**Snkkkt…clik-clik-clik….oh but I will……,"**_ Deathstroke leaned over. He gripped Robin by the front of his uniform.

I winced…struggling to get up….fighting with Myrkblade….

Robin shivered as Slade reached a hand up, gripped his eyemask, and peeled it off. Soon, Tim's blue eyes were widening in fear at Slade's proximity. Red vapors hissed out against the boy's face as Deathstroke uttered: _**"I have no morrrre time to wassste. Letttt me jussst look at fearrr for one lasssst time. I have Triangularrrr to beatttt to your Cittttty….I'll be surrrre to teach the Titanssss…..of this….very…….fear…."**_

Robin's breath left him.

And then…the communicator on his belt crackled:

"_Just all we needed to know."_

Both my leader and I gasped.

_The Messenger's voice._

"_**Hckkkt?"**_

_**ZAAAT!**_

The Messenger appeared on the speeding train car directly behind Deathstroke. He clenched his teeth, hopped once, and brought his other foot up and slammed it between Red Aviary's legs.

_**WHUMP!**_

"_**SNKKKkkskttt!"**_ Deathstroke rolled numbly to the side.

The Messenger grinned. "Well…looks like not _all_ of him is undead."

My jaw dropped.

"M-Messenger?" Robin breathed.

"Yup….I have to ruin everything," he winked….then grabbed Robin by the cape. "Keep cool, man…"

"What are you doi—WAAAAH!" Robin shouted as he was flung clear off the side of the train.

I gasped…until I craned my neck, looked over, and realized why the Messenger had done so.

The Batmobile was speeding down the road just beneath us. The top was open, and Cyborg expertly drove the vehicle so that Robin landed softly in the back-seat cushions. _"Ugh!"_ Cyborg let out a whoop and Jericho clapped his hands.

I blinked.

………_huh._

**Grip!**

The Messenger held my shoulders from behind and hoisted the two of us on our feet.

"Atta boy!" the asian Teen said as he faced us towards the front of the train. I did a double-take as I saw what loomed before the first cars. "When Robin says it's time to get the heck out of Dresden, the heck out of Dresden we go!"

"_**Hckkktt!"**_ Red Aviary sprung to his feet, gripping his blade and snarling. _**"I shall GUTTTT YOUR THRRRROAT!"**_

"Yeah…sure…," my teleporting friend winked. "Maybe next time, handsome." He waved.

I smirked nervously and also waved.

_**ZAAAT!**_

The Messenger zapped us out of there.

"_**?.?.?.?.?"**_ Deathstroke spun around. A shadow loomed above him.

The train was soaring straight into a tight, dark tunnel.

**SWOOOOOOSH!**

"……………………_**,"**_ his red eye pulsed. _**"………well donnne….."**_

_**SMACCCCCKKKK!**_

_**SCRKKKKKKKAAAPPPEEEE!**_

_**THW-THW-THWP-THNKKKKKK!**_

Silence…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAAAT!**_

The Messenger appeared in the backseat besides Robin and I.

"Heh…," he smirked and folded his arms behind his back. "…riding in cars with meta-boys…"

Jericho giggled breathily.

"Hah hah hah!" Cyborg cackled. "Sweet! Boo-ya! Oh my GOD did we show that red-farting rust bucketron!"

I smirked, wiping my brow. Exhaling.

The Messenger smirked. "A speedy exit would be nice right about now…."

_Clik._ "Way ahead of ya." _Whurrrrrr-Chting!_ The top of the Batmobile closed shut. Sealing us in the air-conditioned goodness. "Man…if you hadn't dropped in, pal, they would have been mince meat!"

"I'm a freelance vegetarian myself," the Messenger gestured. "The right mood. The right time. Less red, more green. Like Christmas in inverted monochrome."

"Yeah, whatever," Cyborg shrugged his scuffed shoulders. He turned and looked over his shoulder while driving one handed. "Besides a few pissed-off motorists and burning buildings….erm….I-I think we did this rather unscathed! Don't you think so, Robin?"

"………….."

Cyborg's human eye rounded. "R-Robin?"

I looked over. Concerned. "……….?"

Tim was hugging himself. Still maskless. Shuddering……

My lips parted.

"Robbie….T-Tim….you okay?"

"…..we have to make l-like the wind, Vic….," Tim stammered. "I shouldn't have survived that!"

The Messenger was instantly deadpan.

"What are you talking about, man?" Cyborg exclaimed. "Listen, dawg, I'm not gonna let you go all self-sacrificial on us—"

"I'm doing everything I can to fight Red Aviary and **live**," Tim said firmly. "Don't get me wrong about **that.**"

"……."

Tim shuddered. "He'll be going to the City now. Just like Triangular must be. Somehow. For some reason. Dagger's going to take the City….and Deathstroke's going to take the Titans….." He shuddered, closed his blue eyes, and ran a hand over his face and hair. "St-Starfire……"

"……..," I swallowed a lump down my throat.

Jericho looked concerned. He glanced aside at Cyborg and gestured.

Cyborg turned his head. "Yo….the squirt here says he's got….'friends' who can help us get quick passage if need be."

"We've got the Batmobile for that."

"Good thing too," the Messenger added. He produced one of the mud-filled vials. "We should run a test on this as soon as possible. If my guess is right….there's something crucial about it."

"Crucial in what way?" Tim murmured. His blue eyes thin and exhausted. "'Crucial' describes this whole damn month."

"Allright. 'Crucial' and 'SEXY'."

"…….yeah….I-I can buy that…."

"Heh heh heh…," Cyborg put the car into higher gear and took us towards the exit that would bring us south of Gotham City limits.

"Avoid the Metropolitan Highway….Dagger might be looking for us there…"

"Understood, Rob—er, I mean Tim. You get some shuteye or something…."

The Titan Leader hugged himself again and stared worriedly out the window. "Suddenly….I feel like I can sleep forever….."

"…….," I sheathed Myrkblade across my lap. _CHIIIING!_ I placed the sheathe down by my feet and leaned back. Sighing. Still sweaty. "………" I glanced past the Messenger towards the front passenger seat.

Jericho was staring at me. Silent. Gentle. A tiny smile appeared to form on his lips.

_Was he proud of me? _

_Curious? _

_What?_

I then realized….

I bit my lip for but a moment, then braved a half-fake smile and mouthed: _'He remembers you, Jericho. Your father……he remembers……'_

"………," Jericho nodded. He sighed and gestured: _'That scares me somehow……'_

I had nothing to say to that.

We burned out way out of the red sky of Gotham.

_Good frickin' riddance._

I closed my black eyes to the City that nearly killed me ten times over. I dazed off like Robin did…

But somehow I felt that even though Gotham City was an afterthought…

The red sky….

It was following us…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A train tunnel.

A black, shadowy mouth yawning forth the L-Train track.

Cold winds.

Red starlight.

"……_**..hckkkkt…scrkkkktt……."**_

Deathstroke limped out of the shadows.

Every move he made, a joint pomped.

His insides whirred and rotated.

Smoke billowed out of every tear in his black and red costume.

Crimson vapors.

Smoke and mirrors.

Dragging his sword, he came to a stop just outside the mouth of the track.

He twirled his neck one last time, making cracking sounds.

He stared….red eye glinting….southward.

In silence.

"………………_**."**_

He flexed his muscles and red murk strobed across the surrounding air.

"_**You mightttt outrrrrrun death…..buttttt your friendsss can't, Hckkk—Tim….."**_

_CHIIIING!_

Deathstroke started walking.

Moving.

Marching.

"_**Beforrrrr-Snkkt-clik-clik-clik….before longgg….you will have no choiccce but to run…..straight…..into IT!"**_

And Deathstroke jogged.

And Deathstroke sprinted.

And Deathstroke blurred.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

A red blur directly south.

Parallel to the coastline.

Faster than any Batmobile could go.

And with far colder trails of murderous exhaust….

Something in the air, like a giant, invisible cage…bent and stretched and morphed to trail behind him like a celestial, crimson cape.

And he was gone.


	238. Crossroads

**238. Crossroads**

December 1, 2004.

Smallville, Kansas.

9:57 am

Abandoned barn.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well…," Jinx shrugged and leaned back against the shaded interior of the dilapidated wooden structure. "We're here early."

Pulsade was pacing.

Pulsade had her eyes to the ground.

Pulsade was silent….

"………," Jinx took a breath, stretched, blinked her cat eyes, and said: "You know you've hit a new low when the best you can do in your rogue career is sit around where cows used to live and die." Silence. "…………..or maybe that's hitting a new _high?"_

"I'm nervous about Terra, Jean," Pulsade griped.

The girl half-cheshired. "You think?"

Pulsade stopped to glare. "I can glimpse bits and pieces of the girl who worked for Slade and made a City bow to its knees."

"Oh?"

"She is unpredictable….emotional. Quick to anger…quick to tears. She has at her disposal intense, thermalkinetic energy. And yet…I don't think she truly knows who's side she should be working for yet…."

Jinx shrugged. "Who said anything about sides?"

"I think it's a legitimate argument in **our** case…," Pulsade growled.

Jinx frowned slightly and pointed: "And what about her case?"

"Nnngh…."

"She's lost her child, Leslie. She's lost so much that was once a part of her. I personally don't blame her for dancing on the fence and still looking for a suitable lawn to jump into…," Jinx hopped up and straightened out her jacket and frills. "….never mind which grass is greener. Everything's been burnt to a crisp in her life. By both people she hates and people she trusts."

Pulsade lingered by a wall, staring off into space. "Mmmm….still, that's a very dangerous person to be risking your neck for. What if she's truly hopeless after all? What if Michael's words were wrong and the Gaia Sphere isn't anything to worry about in the end?"

"I think we'll have Terra to show us the truth in that or not."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Jinx shrugged calmly. "I think that once Terra sees the right direction to go in—the direction that's right for _her_—she'll go that route. And she'll be heading in such a direction so passionately that you and I will have no doubts in our minds when is or is not the right time to follow her along. Like a compass needle, ya know?"

"To her…" Jinx scratched her chin. Her pale cheeks smiled softly as she said. "….more or less, she'll take us into the heart of what truly matters most. Whether that be her child or not? Who knows. But I think she'll be our biggest help in taking care of Gaia Sphere. Much the same way that 'J' was so helpful in our tracking down and thwarting Red Aviary."

Pulsade nodded. "It all comes down to relation…doesn't it?"

Jinx silently shrugged.

"………."

"……….."

Jinx was pacing this time. But slowly. In a calm fashion. She drifted besides Pulsade and said: "When I was in the Omega Wing for so long, Leslie…..When I was in solitary confinement…I thought only about myself."

Pulsade inhaled sharply.

Jinx went on: "I was……lonely. Guilty. Regretful. I thought about you a lot, Lez. But not just cuz I missed you….but I felt that with Slade and with my life after H.I.V.E., I had totally ruined any chance of being with you again. And who would blame you? Heh….I became that nasty freak's apprentice as a choice. I nearly died in the end. And I took it all out on the Headmaster and the dying remnants of H.I.V.E. I nearly killed the Headmaster in my anger. My anger at my past, myself, and those who had molded me into who I am today."

She looked steadily at the blonde assassin.

She said: "I'm not like that now. At least…I don't think I am." She touched the locket hiding like a cameo beneath her neck at the top of her jacket. "I….think about _them_ less. I think about the **now**. Especially the **reality** of 'now'. I think about you, Leslie. And about this silly, self-destructive world. About Red Aviary and Gaia Sphere and everything else trying to rip us apart. And all I can do is propel myself towards the center of all this madness. It's like….something magnetic is drawing me in to some center of horrifying friction. I can't stop and I can't rest until Red Aviary and Gaia Sphere bite the dust. I'm not trying to say I'm some virtuous heroine or whatnot……but, a person changes. I lost my obsessions and found my only solace in chasing down the biggest threats in this land. Threats that are big enough to endanger me. I've given up a lot of my cruelty and nefarious tactics to find more allies in the pursuit of this mission. Much in the same way that I think you—Leslie—have softened up, ya know?"

"Heh….," Leslie's lips curved ever so slightly. She shook her head and folded her arms. "You think I'm **'softened'**….?"

Jinx shrugged. "You come back home a little less stained red these days."

"Yeah….true that…," Pulsade stared aside. A look of coldness and—perhaps—horror too blotched across her features.

Jinx's lips parted. She walked over, head leaned to the side in curiosity and concern. "Leslie?"

"Do you think….it's a bad thing, Jean…..," Pulsade murmured. "…..to not be so…..angry anymore?"

"Angry?"

Pulsade slowly nodded.

Jinx smiled slightly. "I think it must be relaxing to lose…..a lot of anger."

"That's a matter of perception."

"True…true…," Jinx nodded. "Do you think you're less angry a person than you used to be, Leslie?"

"Bloody hope not."

"Hehehehe….but are you?"

Pulsade sighed. She simply gazed at Jinx.

That answered her.

"So….uhm….," Jinx ran a hand through her short pink hair. "If it's not so much anger anymore….what's inside of you these days now, Leslie?"

"……………..," the blonde stirred uncomfortably. She sighed and rested a hand on Jinx's shoulder.

Jinx glanced, curiously.

"Jean…promise me one thing…," the assassin said with soft lips. "….no matter what happens once noon falls….whether we join those two blonde pigeons to the East Coast or if we go face-first into the Gaia Sphere…..will you promise to help me?"

"H-Help you what, Leslie?"

"Help me keep us together……no matter what?"

"………O-Of course, Leslie! You never need to **ask** for that…."

"Nnngh…..perhaps some of the anger has left…..but the fear is always there."

"I know the feeling, Lez. I know the feeling….."

There was a shifting of shadows. A warm kaleidoscope of the Sun's rays scattered into the barn through the joints and shingles of the wooden shack. A distant buzzing of insects.

And then—softly—the shadows hugged each other.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kents' House.

10:04 am

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Supergirl stood, leaning sideways against the door to the guest room. Clad in her cape, t-shirt, tube-skirt, and boots…she folded her arms and casually spoke through the wall to the petite blonde residing inside.

"All I want to know is if you feel like you're up to all of this."

"_Haven't I told you that enough, Kara?" _

She smiled somewhat. "Yes. I suppose I'm being….er….I don't know…"

"_What?"_

"When you're part of the 'super' family like me, you sorta get this addictive habit of wanting to protect people. I've spent enough time here in Smallville realizing that Ma and Pa can take care of themselves more often than naught. Because of that, my only times to protect people are the scant occasions I go to visit Metropolis or something."

"_I see. Am I a social experiment for you then?"_

"Hehehehe…," Supergirl chuckled. Then sighed. "Yeah….sure…."

"…………………_you don't sound pleasant."_

"Are you done changing?"

"_Just about. Is everything all right, Kara?"_

"Yeah….yeah, it is."

"…………_are you mad at me?"_

Supergirl eyed the door with a strange face. "How so?"

"_You know why."_

"God, how I hate it when people say that. Please be specific."

"_When……Wh-When I went to town while the standoff was there. When I used my powers….in p-public……"_

Supergirl took a deep breath and brushed aside a strand of blonde hair. "Well, at least Red Aviary didn't catch up with us. I think we know that's obvious by now."

"_I wasn't thinking about that. I was just……j-just thinking of the people."_

"You mean the people there?"

"_Y-Yeah……I think they had every reason to be scared." _

"Terra….ya know, I might not have been too pleased with you flying out there and intervening like you did. But I gotta admit….you're one heck of an expert with those powers of yours! Considering that a school bus was bearing down to rip all of those people to shreds, you did the absolute best to perfectly keep the citizens safe! You didn't lose control, you didn't freak out, you were just…….perfect."

"……………"

"Terra?"

"_They were still scared of me………I could sense it."_

"How long did you stay to find out?"

"_Not long."_

"Well, Terra? I think half of your infamy is in your head!"

"_That's not true, Supergirl, and you know it."_

"No, I **don't** know it. I have yet to see any remorse for you up close. All the Titans love you in spite of what you might have been. And there's not a single person here around Smallville who I've seen or heard say something nasty about you!":

"_This is a long way from the Titan's City……"_

"Perhaps. But still…part of the Eath."

"…………"

"Ready yet, Terra? You've taken forever."

"_Y-Yes, I'm ready. Sorry……it's a little haunting."_

Supergirl smirked. "Well let's see!"

_Cr-Creeeeak._

The guest room door opened.

Supergirl stepped back.

Terra stepped out. She was wearing a yellow pair of shorts and a long-sleeved, black shirt with the midriff exposed. She had on a pair of amber-brown boots and was in the process of slipping on the second of two brown gloves that looked a little too large on her small hands.

"Is this the stuff of legends?" Supergirl winked.

Terra blushed a bit. "Sort of. The shorts are a little bigger, and uhm—"

"Bigger?" Supergirl did a double-take. "Kela alive, girl! The dress code at Smallville High would SO give you an infraction for that!"

"Hey! A girl can be daring!"

"And a girl can be cold."

Terra folded her arms and upturned her nose. "This coming from someone who'll fly a thousand feet in the air wearing a tube skirt."

"Touché."

Terra sighed. She looked off towards the wall and meekly said: "J-Just don't call me chicken legs…"

Supergirl tried to keep a straight face. "What's this all about?"

"Cyborg was joking one night when I had this costume and—"

"Screw Cyborg. I bet he's Macintosh compatible."

"I'm not a computer person."

"Heh….you're better off," Supergirl smiled. "Oh!" She reached behind her. "I got what you asked for. They used to be Pa's when he dusted crops. I hope it serves your purpose." And she produced a pair of blue-tinted goggles on leather straps.

"……," Terra wamly smiled. She took them, adjusted the straps' length some, and fitted them over her golden brow. "Wow….th-they're perfect!"

"Well, blessed be…."

Terra fitted them over her eyes. Her optics seemed doubly blue for a moment. "Oh yes….these will work wonderfully…."

"I gotta ask…," Supergirl gestured. Eyebrow raised. "Fashion statement?"

"Half and half….," Terra rested the goggles around her neck. "They help me see better when I'm flying."

"See better?"

"I….uh….," Terra blushed and hugged her opposite limb, looking aside. "I-I've needed glasses for a long time now…"

"And you never told anyone?"

"Well, when I was with the Titans….," she winced. "……erhm….I-I didn't feel like asking for anything."

"I understand," Kara nodded. "After all of this…I bet you can get a whole mountain of glasses."

"Hehehehe…"

"I bet you'd look cute in glasses. Beast Boy won't be able to stand up straight."

"Okay, now that's going a little too far!"

"Is it?"

"…….ugh….cut it out."

Supergirl chuckled and folded her arms.

Terra was biting her lip.

"What is it?"

"I still…..find it amazing that you're willing to do all of this for me, Kara."

"Hmm?"

"Helping stay hidden. Assisting me with finding my child. Dealing with these two rogue girls. Helping me with the Titans…."

Supergirl shrugged. "This is your life, Terra. I'm just along for the ride."

"Yes, but why?"

"……………," Supergirl took a deep breath. "A long time ago, I made a terrible mistake, Terra. I made a mistake of assumption. I thought I was doing what was right for myself, for Ma and Pa, and for Clark….but in fact, I was screwing everything up royally. And because of that, I betrayed the Titans, I betrayed Clark's family, and I betrayed myself. Not all the Titans know of what I've done….but those who do…..they've forgiven me. And in this case, I'm talking about Jordan. And with Jordan….it's a little hard to understand things. So….I-I've never completely gotten over what I've done. His silence only perpetuated that. I guess….I guess I'm still the little, unwitting villain I became months ago…"

"Kara….," Terra murmured. "D-Don't say that. Please…."

"Why not?" Supergirl looked up. Calm eyes. "We can all accept the truth, right?"

"……………"

"Anyways…..I guess I….," Supergirl fidgeted. "…..I-I guess I want to help you for selfish reasons as well, as much as I want to see you prosper."

"You? Selfish?" Terra giggled.

"…………"

"Oh….um….y-you're being serious…," Terra nervously remarked.

"I want to see you do well, Terra," Supergirl said. "Because I want to be able to believe."

"Believe?"

"In myself," she said. "I'm watching you being redeemed, Terra. I'm watching you take what was once terrible in your life and making it so incredibly….clean…..wholesome…..righteous. People are loving you and accepting you back into their fold and…." Supergirl bit her lip. She shuddered: "I want that. I-I really…really do…."

Terra glanced aside. "I wish I felt it like you did…."

Supergirl rested a hand on your shoulder. "That's what I'm here to do, Terra. To help you so that you can reach a place where you will feel it. And once I see that…." She smiled gently. "I'll have no doubt whatsoever about myself."

"………," Terra smiled.

"Now…..isn't th-that selfish?"

"I dunno. Does 'selfish' mean 'friendly'?"

"In our cases, girl, who's the wiser?"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Hehehehe…..come on…," Supergirl escorted the blonde out of the house. "We've got a pair of heads to turn upside down before heading East."

"I w-wonder if those two are selfish as well?"

"Who's selfish when everyone wins?"

"……………………..EW!"

"Hahahahaha!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolitan Highway.

10:34 am

Batmobile.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

At this point in time, I was driving. Robin used his authorization codes with the on board computer to switch the vehicle into a sort of 'stealth mode'. The exoskeleton of the Batmobile bent light so that—from the distance—we looked like a speeding mirage heat vapor moreso than a car. Since we felt that Dagger may have been watching from the skies and Slade may have been watching from the 'Styx', we took all precautions necessary to hide our speedy exit from the City as possible.

Cyborg sat in the front passenger's seat, closest to the computer dashboard. Jericho sat in the back seat behind me. Robin sat in the middle, leaning forward and working with Cyborg on the computer. The Messenger was still there—remarkably enough. He teleported in and out once for an hour's span, supposedly because of the 'battery life' of his clunky watch.

While I sped us expertly around traffic on the highway that _couldn't even see us_, the Messenger supplied Robin with the materials that the Boy Wonder supplied to Cyborg that were eventually supplied by the android Titan to the computer, and the computer said:

'_Zzzzt……Inconclusive data.'_

"Nnnngh!" Cyborg growled. "We're giving you complete samples of Triangular's crap, you…..c-craphead!" Cyborg punched the dashboard once. _C-Clank!_

"Hey! Easy on the tech, Vic!"

"Robin….Batman's stuff looks high-end and all, but it's nothing but a load of digital manure! I mean…how does someone get away with such faulty—"

"I keep telling you, we need to try something different! We keep running mineral analyses on the essence in the vial."

"Yeah? And?"

"Be a good robot and input what your leader says," the Messenger smiled.

"Man, shut up! Pee Wee Herman wannabe, I swear to god…."

"Hrmphh…," the Messenger playfully folded his arms in a winking pout. "Don't make me sic Blade Runner on you."

"……….."

"This is obviously not the same sort of stuff that was in the vials at Area 51…..," Robin said, pointing at a darkened vial of substance.

"How do you know that?"

"Noir's related it to me," Robin said. "Both in Area 51 and in the underwater base of Lexcorp, he's seen the vials in action."

I nodded.

"I don't think the thermal energy of this stuff could have burnt out so easily….s-so quickly….," the Boy Wonder said. "Unless something happened to damage the ones at Gotham Labs, these are not the same thing."

"Then what was the point of having Mr. Hippy-Child go in and scrounge this stuff up?"

The Messenger adequately replied: "Now, let's keep some things in perspective, Robocopout. Two-Face was a big moron and gave up all of his good stuff to Batman's troupe, right?"

"Right….."

"Now—we should have seen it then—but that was a little too easy. Two-Face is better than that. It's quite possible that the vials were _meant_ to go into police possession after Batman and company royally brought the house down. If that was the case, Two-Face was an unwilling brunt of some Triangular joke."

"You mean—as in Dagger?"

"More than positively," the Messenger winked. "Now….if the vials had stayed in Wayne Corp…."

"They would have eventually gotten to Titans' Tower," Robin nodded.

"………," Cyborg was silent.

"But we've seen Triangular move swiftly enough before that—it's a little surprising that such a shipment to the Tower was delayed, isn't it?"

"I figured that with the Terrible Troupe, Deathstroke, and Batman all converging on Triangular in Gotham…," Robin spoke, "…they got a little tangled up in their own red tape."

"Oh…but Triangular is much more efficient than that!" the Messenger cackled. "Even if Two-Face was being an overall doofus, he was obviously waiting for you and Noir and the rest of your buddies with Metallo, Killer Croc, and the muddy clay-face half-clones….right?"

"Right…..," Robin rubbed his chin. "….so you're insinuating that it was a distraction?"

Jericho hand-signed: _'An ambush. A reverse ambush.'_

"Right….," Robin nodded. "You told us that before. But even if it was an ambush….an ambush on _us…_to what ends? We got everything we wanted…..unless…."

Jericho bit his lip.

"………," Robin looked nervously at the Messenger.

The Messenger raised his eyebrows.

"What?" Cyborg remarked. "For the first time in ages…I feel lost." A blink. "Alright, make that **second** time."

"Cyborg…..," Robin murmured. "Do a organic scan of the vial's content and……..on th-the side of finding Carbon elements, make the computer run a search for sulfur."

"Sulfur?"

"Trust me."

"Alright, dawg….I'll do it…," the android Titan slid the vial into the computer compartment and typed away at the dashboard's computer. "One wyrd-ass analysis coming right up—" He froze. Glancing at his one good arm. He gritted his teeth. "Awww….SHOOT!"

"?" I glanced nervously aside at him.

Robin leaned forward. "What is it?"

"When it rains, it shits!" Cyborg clenched his left fist. "I swear!"

"What?"

"Take a good look for yourself!" Cyborg lifted a panel in his titanium limb, showing off a trio of red, illuminated bars and a counter that read: **'08'**

"Stock shares going down, Cyborg?" the Messenger asked.

"Knock it off, man! You're worse than B.B.!"

"I wouldn't be too sure…."

"Your power banks are draining…," Robin said.

"Considering I've been burned, battered, broken, and tossed into a god damn refrigerator to sleep for an entire month…I'm surprised my core hasn't exploded or something!"

"Are you at a risk of a meltdown?"

"Hardly. But the curtain's going to fall on my operations if I don't find a power source soon enough. And I'd hate to power down now…." He took a deep, fuming breath. "…..right when everything's about to hit the fan."

Jericho bit his lip.

Silence.

Jericho anxiously hand-signed: _'We are nearly past Metropolis. Perhaps there we could get a re-charge?'_

"Nuh uh….," Cyborg shook his head while the computer did its analysis. "We can't afford to delay our arrival back home. Can we, Robin?"

"We need your assistance, Cyborg," Robin said. "I don't know what we'd do without you or anyone else in this vehicle as a helping hand at this point…"

"What would we do then? Hook me up to the Batmobile? No offense, Mr. Tim….but I can feel the heart of this machine Batman built. Even IT is not enough to power up my core. Plus, I'm damaged more than a fractured grandfather clock. I'm practically leaking the energy that's inside of me. Even if I was recharged, I'd drain at an exponential rate!"

"Guess we should use you for as long as you're good and awake," The Messenger said.

Cyborg turned and glared at him.

The Messenger stared back solidly. "Am I right?"

"………..," Cyborg sighed and ran a hand over his bald head. "You're always right…."

"Ah…now that's only partially true."

"Okay….we've got to plan a few things out…," Robin gestured. "Cyborg…concentrate on finishing that analysis. Messenger…..see if you can get a line through to Tempest in Metropolis."

"Guppy boy? What for?"

"I think this is the sort of thing Tempest has been waiting for," Robin breathed. "When everything boils down."

"Ah….gotcha," the Messenger winked. "On it."

"I'll try and contact the Tower."

"Haven't you already tried that, dawg?"

"Right. Three times in the last hour."

"You think nobody's there?"

"People are there, Cyborg," Robin glanced at me. "From what I've heard…nobody seems to leave the 'house' much these days…."

I nodded. A sigh….

"Maybe Triangular's intercepting our message and sending it somewhere else?" Robin shrugged.

"No, man…I **know** what's going on. Don't you?" Cyborg frowned. "My god damn copy is sorting through the stuff that goes in and out of the place and editing what Triangular doesn't want out of the picture. And what would Starfire, B.B., or Raven do to stop him? He's the 'leader' now, isn't he?"

Robin clenched his jaw…and his fists.

My flesh and black hands tightened around the wheel.

_My letter to the Titans. _

_Any broadcast that was ever made regarding me…… _

_Clayface was censoring it all. _

_I couldn't sense him when I was there. I couldn't tell the difference between Cyborg or a metaphoric copy of him. Neither could the other Titans—we were so wrapped up in the gray depression that fell on us. We were so weak-minded and swayed by emotion…… _

_But……… _

_But Raven too? _

_She was joined at the hip with Cyborg. _

_Why didn't she sense a thing? _

_Or perhaps…… _

_She is in on it too?_

"………."

I shook my head.

A sigh.

Black eyes thin under their shades.

_Idiot. _

_Don't ever doubt Raven like that. _

_Hell, if I could be stupid enough to think that Raven was bad after all the crap that's happened…… _

_How can I not expect Raven to be warped enough to think 'Cyborg' as good?_

_Red Aviary and Dagger and everything that is everything BAD is surging together just as Raven's emotions have been surging apart and…… _

_How does someone—anyone—keep focused in the middle of all that?_

"A couple of things are for sure," Robin said. "The computer will take a while to finish that analysis. And there'll be more and more daylight. I doubt our cloak on the Batmobile will last forever. We might have to find an alternate route to our destination."

"Might I say…we're quite the Superman's stone's throw off…," the Messenger pointed out.

"Nnnngh….," Cyborg rubbed his flesh temple, stressed….

I whistled.

Everyone looked at me.

I looked in the rear-view mirror and pointed at Jericho.

The little blonde blinked.

"Say…the little smurf _did_ promise us some assistance, didn't he?" the Messenger smirked.

"Oh boy…," Cyborg rolled a human eye. "Here we go…"

Robin looked over. "Joey…is this true?"

Jericho swallowed and gestured: _'I have people who can help us. All of us. But it will mean us making a detour.'_

"What kind of a detour?"

'_A long one. Long at first.'_

"………," Robin scratched his chin.

I glanced at him off-and-on in the rear mirror.

Cyborg seemed anxious. The computer clicked and chirped away as he glanced back from the front passenger seat.

"The airwaves are silent….," the Messenger mused.

"We'll do it," Robin said. "Any covert help we can get. The better."

"Who exactly are we talking about?" Cyborg remarked at Jericho.

The blonde smiled and hand-signed: _'My best buddies ever.'_

I felt something that made me veer invisibly a bit in the lane we were in. But I straightened our path and continued burning down the highway.

_What was that?_

_Jealousy? _

_Pfft……god, I miss having all the Titans together._

Jericho Hand-signed: _'Take the second exit coming up. Head West.'_

"Towards the coast?"

'_Almost. There is a forest there.'_

"Oooh….forest….fun…," Cyborg quirped. "Maybe it's the Army of the Rebel Squirrels who will come to our aide."

"Hey Cyborg," the Messenger smiled. "Grow me a heart and let it bleed!"

"Ha ha ha ha….hah hah hah…heh….ohhh….nnngh…..god, I can feel my stomach growing empty."

"Is that the first of the things to drain?"

"Luckily for you, my fist is."

"Robbbbbin," the Messenger folded his arms behind his head and smirked. "Cyborg's being meeeean to meeeeee."

"I'd make us pull over to settle you two down, but if we did…I might throw up."

"You okay, man?" Cyborg asked of the Titan Leader.

"Just full of thoughts, Vic…," the masked boy leaned forward and folded his hands under his chin. "……just full of thoughts."

"……………"

I drove us forward silently.

When Jericho pointed, I exited.

And a thick line of trees yawned around the roadways we zoomed on.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

10:54 pm

Remains of Gotham Labs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The usual ring of police squad cars and the usual ring of emergency vehicles surrounded the charred site of the former Gotham Labs and the building alongside it. A raging carbonite fire had consumed both structures early in the morning, and ashes and crackling embers under the spray of rescue vehicles resided in its place.

Harvey Bullock limped out of his squad car, chewing on a toothpick with only half energy. He was lethargic. Haggard. And embodying the faint traces of anger. With sleepy eyes he gazed at the rising smoke drifting towards the late morning sky.

Renee Montoya was already there. She finished briefing a police officer or two and then walked over to Bullock's side. A gentle expression. A hand against her hip. A deep breath. And she said: "Got any sleep?"

"No. You?"

"Yes, actually. Strangest thing."

"I heard that you collapsed last night…"

"Exhaustion, I suppose. Mi Mama isn't around to tell this officer when to quit when it comes to an investigation."

"Yeah….lucky you."

"Perhaps…."

Silence………………..

"Nnngh….," Harvey mumbled. He flicked the toothpick out into the embers. "I wonder if there's anything against the 'detective man' code about _giving up_."

"Do I need to answer that?"

"Just don't know how I'm gonna report all of this to the Commish," Bullock lifted his hat and scratched his hard head. "I swear, there's a Hell going on somewhere at some place whether we all suffer from it or not."

Montoya nodded. A beat. She glanced over at him: "How's Barbara?"

"Alive."

Montoya exhaled. "That's good." Silence. She bit her lip. "H-Has s-she…?"

"Possibilities of her gaining back the use of her legs is a big time no-no right now," Bullock uttered. "She'll likely be wheelchair bound all of her life."

"…………," Montoya folded her arms and gazed off. "That's unfortunate."

"Amen, sister."

"Has she woken up yet?"

"No. Still under. Stable condition, it would appear. They've got docs on her all 'round the clock. Jim's been running circles around the hour hand himself too. I don't think the man's slept at all yet."

"Well, we have jobs to do," Montoya murmured. She added with a glance at Bullock. "For him."

"Right. Anything special happen that doesn't involve…," he gestured wildly at the embers, "—ya know…flamin' nightmares?"

"Nothing that would seem connected."

"Right."

"However…."

He glanced at her. "Yeah?"

"People last night were claiming that the Batmobile was driving wildly on the highway. Against traffic. And there was no sign of any suspect being pursued."

Bullock's fists clenched as he heard that. "You don't say…."

"Although….one of the eye witnesses on the highway had the darndest thing to say."

"What's that?"

"There appeared to be a couple of strangers battling atop the L-Train running North and South along the Metropolitan Highway last night. And this morning, one of the trains turned up with quite a bit of scuffs and scratches on the top of its cars. A hole even."

"Wyrd. Does it get wyrder?"

Montoya nodded. "Someone could have sworn she saw—get this—_Robin_ atop the train."

"………………Robin…."

"Mmmhmm….."

"As in 'choir boy fodder' Robin?"

"Ay, verdad."

"Pffft…this City's gone nuts….."

"Bullock….," Montoya leaned forward. "Could it be that Batman…..had special reasons for not showing up till he did at Wayne Corp?"

"…..pfft….the heck do I care?"

Montoya frowned momentarily, but shook that off. "I'm going to see what the experts have figured out. Gotham Labs is going to be a big loss. But—to my surprise—there's been no response from the employees' homes and contact numbers. Something's strange here."

"We'll get to the bottom of this," Bullock succumbed to a yawn. "Sooner or later. We always do."

"Maybe you should find the bottom of your mattress," Montoya pointed with a wink. "We're gonna need you with us one hundred percent, right Bullock?"

"Yeah…whatever you say," he waved.

She walked off.

He sighed and straightened his hat.

He gazed up.

His eyes narrowed.

"Eh….that's funny….," his face twisted. "The sky looks………._blue."_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………………," Batman stood atop a building across the way. He stared through high-powered binoculars for a few seconds before lowering the viewing aid and staring naturally from afar. The eyeslits of his mask narrowed as a gentle breath escaped him.

Cold, December winds flew at his cape.

Silence….emptiness…..

"Carbonite burns……," he mumbled to himself. His jaw tightened. "It started in the adjacent building…_not_ Gotham Labs….."

"_Snkkkkt……Master Bruce, sir?"_

Batman clicked his communicator. "Yeah, Alfred?"

"_I know you're out looking for your elusive Batmobile and whatnot, but I believe there are some things to attend to at home."_

"Is the analysis on the thermal samples done?"

"_Uhm……n-no, sir."_

"Well, I'm busy at the moment. It will have to wait—"

"_Sir, it's Master Dick."_

"……….."

"_He's here. He would like to speak to you."_

"………..," Batman stood up with a deep breath. "I'm on my way….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Smallville, Kansas

12:09 pm

Abandoned barn

-T-T-T-T-T-

"We'll be heading to Gotham City first."

Pulsade made a face. "Gotham City? Why there?"

"The Titans have their Tower much further south, last time I checked," Jinx added.

Terra took a deep breath. Her arms were folded Her 'trademark' goggles rested around her black turtleneck. "I want to get in touch with the Titans again to help them through this mess. But first I need to work through someone who can best understand what I'm going through."

"We need to find Noir," Supergirl said. "We're pretty darn sure he's in Gotham City at this point. With all the stuff that's been going on in that City, it's no doubt that he's dancing to the same tune there as he has in Metropolis and Las Vegas."

"Gotham City is a mess…," Pulsade droned. "There are shadowy alcoves of rubbish in that Town that not even my light could touch."

"Poetically speaking…," Jinx frowned. "It's a shitpile."

"If there's anyone who can find a needle in a haystack where Noir's concerned," Supergirl pointed. "It's me."

Jinx smirked. "So, I guess that makes you the shitpile expe—mmff!"

Pulsade had her hand planted over Jinx's lips. "Fine. We'll go where you want us to go. And we'll help out in anyway possible." She glanced at her partner, glaring. "Right, Jean?"

"Mmmff! Ptooie! Finding Ghost Boy? Sure…why not? Things were getting boring anyways…."

Pulsade rolled her eyes.

Supergirl took a breath and said: "We'll be heading to the East Coast. And last time I checked, neither of you were necessarily _welcomed_ citizens there. This may be very risky for you…."

"Any less of a risk of her running into Red Aviary?" Pulsade pointed at Terra.

The earth maiden hugged herself and glanced aside with a sigh.

Pulsade calmly reiterated: "Horses for courses. Let us take it as it comes…"

Supergirl nodded. "So be it. Excuse me for a moment."

Jinx squinted her cat eyes. "Where are you going?"

"We're going to take off soon," Supergirl spoke. "And that may be a very awkward scene…consider that there are _four of us._ Ahem. I'm going outside to make sure there's nobody on the countryside or nearby roads who might see us. It will only take a minute." She walked out of the barn. "Terra?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"……keep cool."

Terra smiled. "You too, Kara."

_SWOOOSH!_ The Girl of Steel was gone.

"………..," Terra's smile slowly faded. "……….." She glanced aside at the two vixens.

Pulsade and Jinx tried to avoid eye contact, shifting where they stood.

Terra eventually spoke aside to them: "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Trying to find my child? It means more than just saving your butts. It has to be."

Jinx shrugged. "It's not really a romantic world, ya know…."

"So, there's no personal reasons for it…?" Terra spoke. She bit her lip. "No obligation? No guilt?"

"Don't be so quick."

"What do you mean?"

Jinx fidgeted. "I don't really know you, girl. I can't say much."

"……..," Terra looked out of the barn in the direction of Supergirl. She sighed. She said: "Kara cares so much. All the Titans as well." She looked sadly back at the girls…but her vision fell to their feet. "All the Titans…they care too much…."

"…….."

Terra took a deep breath. She looked at the two firmly. "I want to…..make an offer to you…."

Jinx blinked.

Pulsade leaned her head forward. "An offer?"

"But….B-But you must not tell Supergirl……or a-any of the Titans………"

"………………….we're listening."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A few minutes later, Supergirl returned.

The girls stepped out of the barn and into a clear portion of the field.

"All right…," Supergirl exhaled. She cracked her knuckles and stretched the kinks out in her back and neck. "We're talking about a good two hours of furiously fast travel…and I'll be having to carry all of you so—"

"Carry us?" Jinx made a face. "You've got to be--!"

Supergirl glared. "How did you think I was going to do it?"

"You might be strong enough to pick up a building, but how do you expect to carry us all with only two hands--?"

"One of you will have to ride me."

"……….."

"……….."

"Ahem. It's quite simple. You straddle my back with your legs around—"

"Yes….we…uhm…..," Jinx nervously scratched the back of her short head of hair. "We understand….er…"

"That'll be Terra's job, I assume…," Pulsade said, refusing to make eye contact.

Supergirl squinted her eyes suspiciously. "Uh…yeah. I suppose."

"Eheheheheh…yeah…," Jinx blushed. "That'll work."

"Right. Jeez…what's the big deal?"

Jinx and Pulsade shifted nervously.

"……….," Supergirl blinked. "Wait….," she pointed. "Are you two….?"

"We're wasting time," Terra stepped forward, slid her blue goggles on, and flexed her forearms. A terribly bright, golden glow surrounded her. She snarled. "Nnnnrraaaugh!"

_RUMMMMBLE!_

_CRKKKK!_

The other three girls gasped as a circle of dislodged earth ripped up around them. A round platform with dangling dirt structures and grass roots hung beneath them as they lifted up…up….up….

"I'll take us to Gotham….," Terra said. She winked through her goggles at Supergirl. "The rest of you….just take it easy."

"…………heh….," Supergirl helplessly smiled. "Well this is a change. I'm sitting on a flight for once!"

"Yeah, imagine that. Everyone grab ahold."

"…….."

"That means _sit down."_

"Oh…right. Cheerio."

Jinx and Pulsade sat together. Supergirl sat down, but for reasons untold she shifted over to the far side of the platform away from the two vixens.

Terra concentrated, moved her hands, and propelled the platform forward.

In a yellow streak, they soared through the wintry air on an eastward track.

Making good time…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside.

12:45 pm

Forested road.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that….uhm……there are no power outlets to be seen around here?"

"Let's take one thing at a time, Cyborg," Robin said.

The android Titan frowned and folded his one arm. "Speak for yourself."

"Shhh….Joey, are we there?"

Jericho was sitting in the backseat, his neck craned and looking out the windows of the Batmobile. I was driving us down a dirt road into the center of a forest. Everything was becoming growingly claustrophobic. The wintry leaves shed its last leaves on us. A dead yellow aura filled the air…like the sky was vomiting down on us.

"I am suddenly and horrifically reminded of a godawful, independent film," the Messenger smirked.

I made a face in the rear-view mirror.

"This is nuts…," Cyborg murmured. "What the heck is out here to help us?"

Jericho hand-signed.

"What kind of _**'friends'**_?"

I smirked to myself, idling us along.

"Pfft…," Cyborg turned his attention to the dashboard computer. "Well, at least we're making good progress with this thing."

"How close is it to completion?" Robin asked.

"Five percent."

"Thar she blows!" the Messenger uttered.

"Yeah I know. It's almost done, right?"

"No…," the asian teen smirked and pointed out the window. "Henceforth."

"Huh?"

Jericho turned to look, and suddenly grinned. He tapped…punched my shoulders for me to stop.

I braked and put us in park.

_Schwissh!_ The top rolled open.

Jericho unclipped his seatbelt and dashed out in an instant.

"Hey!" Robin gasped. He too jumped out. "Jericho! Not so fast!"

"Don't run off too far, Tim!" Cyborg exclaimed. "I want your input once this thing times through!"

"Yeah! Don't let the brownies get burnt!"

"That ain't funny, Masseuse."

"Messenger."

"Whatever."

"And it **is** funny and you know it."

"……..bah."

"Oh grow an arm." The Messenger climbed out and stretched his body. "Rest stop! I'm gonna go take a leak." He looked over at me. "Noir…you want some?"

I did a double-take.

He giggled madly, sighed, and walked off with a drunken smile. "Ahhhh….never gets old. Worked on Evan too."

I shrugged. Cyborg murmured distractedly over his shoulder, "Hey Noir, why don't you check on Robin or something?"

_I just remembered something. _

_Cyborg's second in command. _

_Could that be counted as……an order?_

I swiftly jumped out of the Batmobile, stretched my natural and synthetic limbs, and walked out to join the Boy Wonder.

I smirked.

_I miss taking orders like that. _

_Man, I'm wyrd._

I walked out into the thicker and thicker woods.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was hauntingly quiet. Birds chirping and bugs buzzing and all that good crap. It wondered—if but for a second—if Red Aviary's deathstroke would spread over to the natural world as much as that of the superheroic.

_The universe is an awfully easy thing to rape._

I heard noise. I lowered my shades and searched the shadows to see the movement of two bodies. _Tim. Joey._ I headed that way and soon found myself standing behind them, patient and quiet.

"What's out here? I don't get it…," Robin shrugged. "To be honest, Joey, I don't think any of us can afford to be out in the open for too long—much less delaying our move south. We're sitting targets for your father."

Jericho was fervently hand-signing, gesturing, blurring his hands so quickly that even I had trouble discerning him. He motioned Robin along towards what looked like a seemingly innocent array of……._leaf piles?_

"Sorry, Joey," Robin smirked slightly. "I was too busy busting ass in Atlantis to have been above ground, playing in the leaves. Although Starfire once invited me to—"

'_Shhhh!'_ Joey hissed. He slowly approached one heap. He knelt. He reached into the mountain of leaves. He reached…groped….reached…stretched. He tongued his lips. He reached some more. A squinting expression of concentration…

**Click.**

_WHURRRRRRRR!_

A piece of ground started to open up like a clamshell.

"Dah!" Robin jumped back, bumping into me.

I winced. We exchanged glances nervously. We stared at the opening 'mouth' in the earth.

Jericho grinned like a birthday clown as the mysterious 'passageway' opened. A dark tunnel could be pictured leading down into some dark dimension. Both the Boy Wonder and I were rather…speechless. Half so, at least.

"Uhm…..okay…..," Tim blinked under his Robin mask. "So….you live in Sheol?"

Jericho gave him a wyrd look.

"Right….never mind," Robin cleared his throat. "Ehm…what gives, Joey?"

Jericho enthusiastically pointed down the tunnel and motioned for us to follow him.

"Are you sure? Maybe if we got the others to come with us first…."

Jericho frowned. He charaded as a 'chicken'.

"Hey!"

I smirked.

Then I thought of something.

_That tunnel. _

_It looks awfully familiar in style and build. _

_Like……… _

_Like the passageway to Bludhaven……_

There was a terribly deep-throated snorting sound from right behind me.

I jumped. I spun about.

So did Robin. He started, and pulled out three birdarangs in an impromptu fan of defense. _Chiiiing!_

"…….," Wildebeest glared. There was a second tunnel opening behind him. It must have unsealed without us noticing. The large, hairy humanoid folded his arms and straightened his gargantuan posture. "Nnnngh…"

Robin's lips parted. "Wildebeest?"

I heard a happy exhale.

I turned to see Jericho bound past me and run joyfully towards Wildebeest.

The hairy mutant managed a bovine grin, knelt down, and reached an arm out.

Jericho hopped agilely up his arm, swung on his horn, and straddled his shoulders…hugging his neck from behind.

Like a freakish big brother, Wildebeest grunted, winked, and patted Jericho's back from below.

I couldn't help but smile….if at least crookedly.

"Uh….r-right…..," Robin nodded dazedly. He glanced at me. "Did you think to mention to me that 'J' and Wildebeest were in a league of their own together?"

I shrugged.

Jericho whistled.

We both glanced up.

Sitting atop Wildebeest's shoulders, Jericho hand-signed: _'I have something to show you guys. We all need as much help as we can get from each other. Will you please follow us?'_

"Follow you?"

"Nrnngh….," Wildebeest motioned with a meaty arm and proceeded to march down a dark tunnel in the earth.

I glanced patiently at Robin.

Robin was scratching his head. He shrugged. "Well….I make it a rule to follow at least one cow to slaughter. F-For the fun of it…"

I planted my hands on my hips.

"Yeah, that was stupid," he muttered. "Let's just get this over with."

He followed Jericho and Wildebeest, and I took the rear.

Descending…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

1:02 pm

Batcave

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VSHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOO!**_

The Batplane zoomed in through the caverns.

It came to a hovering stop above a circular platform.

The jets cut off.

The engines silenced.

After the cockpit slid open, Batman jumped out.

No sooner was he a couple of steps away from the main tiers of the cave…

He took off his helmet and saw him from a distance.

Dick.

"………," Batman took a ready breath and marched up the steps.

Dick was standing with his arms folded. He leaned against the laboratory wing of the Batcomputer where the samples were still being tested. He had on one of his average glares. He uttered: "Tim's gone."

"I know."

"Noir and the son of Deathstroke must have bailed with him."

"……I know."

Silence.

Batman came to a stop at the laboratory tables. "They took the Batmobile."

Dick whistled. "Wow….and I never even had the guts to do that."

"……………"

"She's alive, in case you care."

"I was there, Dick."

"No, Bruce was there. For a short time. And ever since 'Bruce' and I talked," Dick pointed. "He's disappeared. And instead…Batman's been running all around town on a mission that's getting nowhere and costing us Barbara's life. At least…her life as she used to know it."

"Is that why you've come here, Dick?" Batman's eyeslits narrow. "To berate me?"

"……..," Dick sighed. He planted his hands into his jacket pockets and glared aside. "Nah….I can make a life living doing that enough as it is."

Batman nodded.

"………………this is what I think, Batman…."

"I'm listening…," Batman walked around the laboratory, checking his experiment equipment.

"Red Aviary is like a variable relationship with what we do here in Gotham," Dick gestured. "Same with the crooks. Triangular…the Terrible Troupe….they've all been tied in with the Parasite too."

"Obviously."

"The villain's attempts to beat back Deathstroke only ended with the red reaper ripping them apart. Now look at us, Bruce. We've been silent and under the radar for so long….but then—with one night of zeal and action—he strikes back a million times as hard. He ravages one of us completely. Beyond repair."

"Are you saying that the heroic deeds we commit are responsible for Red Aviary's intense attacks on us?"

"Partially, yes…."

"And let me guess…," Batman checked the progress of the vial samples. "The course of action now is to stop trailing Deathstroke for the sole sake of avoiding any future assault on our collective?"

"Even if that was what I was trying to say, Bruce, I know you wouldn't follow along with it. Robin either."

"Then what are you proposing, Dick?"

"………," Dick sighed. He ran a hand through his hair. "I….I-I'm not proposing anything exactly, Bruce. I'm just….j-just trying to figure it all out…."

"Deathstroke is purely evil," Batman said. "I don't say that about a lot of people. But it is true in Slade's case. He desires only the destruction of all that is innocent and alive. That is not something I must let rest. That is something I must annul at all costs. Even my own. Though—I am sorry and remorseful that Barbara ever….EVER had to suffer in my stead."

"Before you get all self-sacrificial and gung ho and shit…," Dick pointed: "Think about this. What are we doing different?"

"………I beg your pardon?"

"Better yet. What are we doing that would be much better if it _were_ different?"

"Changing tactics wouldn't work with Slade at this point. He's dug too deep into us as it is."

"I'm not necessarily talking about a _change in tactics……_," Dick said. "But….a change in….in everything. Slade expects us to combat him. He wants us to feed him his hatred. And what's more than that…the more we struggle to end him or Triangular, the more our energy is used against us. It's like…the more evil we are, he absorbs it and slams it back. The more good we are, he propels us along the same energy strand to make us shatter under our own force. There's gotta be some way to….to break the pattern. The whole freakin' circle of events. But what would do that? The gray area? Luke warm? There's nothing to clarify this!"

"You over-analyze too much…."

"Do you have a solution Bruce? Or should I say…_Batman?_"

"…………"

"I don't think any of us do. Red Aviary…Slade….he's like some Kafka time traveling experience with the Titanic. Imagine you're on the Titanic. You've gone back in time, and now you're sailing the cold, subarctic seas. You know that the ice berg is coming. And furthermore, you know that it's going to rip your ship apart and end your life. And since you've gone back in time from a future where this is an absolute in history….what hope is there of you breaking the pattern of things to come? Things have become an absolute, and there's no reversal. No reversal at all…."

"Kafka wrote fiction. Things like that don't happen in life."

"Then what, Batman? We have control over things? Deathstroke's disproven that."

"Deathstroke hasn't proven or disproven anything…," Batman said. His gloved fists clenched and he paused momentarily—his back to Dick—during his experimentations. "He has merely slain Barbara and murdered hundreds—if not thousands of others. That is not fate. That is criminal lunacy. The same we've always faced before. If…or if not on the same scale."

"I don't believe you're that confident, Brtuce," Dick stepped forward. "I think you're scared. I think for the first time in so many years as the Batman, you're scared. And you don't know what to do about it but keep moving."

Batman turned and glared at Dick. "And you are not?"

Dick stopped at that.

"…………"

Dick took a deep breath. "D-Didn't think you would actually say that…."

"……..," Batman looked off. "If I am scared….," he murmured to the faraway, shadowed walls of the interior. "It is for Tim."

"What'd he do, Bruce?"

"He kept rambling on about something Jericho had told him. Something about Triangular not being defeated. I didn't give time to think of what he was trying to tell me. All I cared about was holding him at bay. I didn't want him running off and being hurt on his own like Barbara was. I told him to stay put here."

"And you actually expected that to work?" Dick smirked.

"………….," Batman shook his head.

Dick raised an eyebrow.

Batman looked Dick's way. "Dick….if anyone will stop Deathstroke….anyone of us all…….it's Tim."

"……………"

"You know this too, don't you?"

"I just wish it wouldn't have to come to this," Dick murmured. He glanced over at the spot where the Batmobile was usually located. He sighed. He uttered: "Whatever happened to trust in our 'family', Bruce?"

Batman glanced across the cave to where a spare outfit of Batgirl hung on a mannequin. He said: "The same thing that happened to invulnerability……"

Dick shuddered.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

"?" Dick turned. "What's that?"

"The tests on the samples are done," Batman walked over to the lap equipment. "This might finally reveal to us exactly what sort of army Dagger was planning to create with the essences of Terra when—" He froze upon seeing the equipment.

Dick blinked. "What?" He walked over briskly. "What, Bruce? What is it?"

"………something isn't right…."

"_**What?"**_

"…….h-help me, Dick…," Batman hurriedly began opening the lid to the testing equipment. "I need to take a closer look at these results…"

"What for?"

"Jericho may indeed have been onto something…."

"And that's bad?"

"………."

"Heh….I'll take that as a 'yes'."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside

1:06 pm

Underground hideout.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I followed Jericho and Wildebeest down a long, dark tunnel.

And indeed, it was quite similar in many respects to the corridor through which a handcuffed Jinx and I traversed to get to Bludhaven.

But there was something….warmer.

And homelier about this tunnel.

_Homelier?_

I glanced at Robin.

Robin glanced at me.

We both nervously glanced ahead as a warm light started to dimly light the tunnel. A flickering sensation. Orange and amber….dancing.

I squinted as my black eyes started to be gradually, softly _stabbed._

Robin rested a gloved hand on his utility belt just in case.

Jericho glanced back at us with a smile and motioned for us to follow around the last bend. The ambient sounds of grunting voices and deep throats filled a chamber as we entered it.

And…..

Torchlight.

Platforms.

Wooden lattices much like the Mortuana dwelling of lore.

Crates of supplies.

Distant computer equipment and tracking devices.

Whining, crackling radios.

A rack of axes and metal weaponry.

Rows of metal 'hoods' hung on the wall.

And finally…

Dozens of bodies….bodies….bodies….

Thick.

Muscular.

Meaty.

Hairy.

And……

"………," I blinked.

_Bovine._

"Ah jeez…..," Robin murmured with a wince as he walked in. "…..crap….now it's starting to make some sense to me…."

"?" I glanced at him stupidly. I glanced back into the underground community.

Nearly one hundred 'Wildebeests' stared back at us. Each and every one of them was….identical. Exact duplicates of one another. The same horns. The same crown of fur. The same gray eyes. The same teeth and expression. The same gait.

_I swear, they all look like 'Wildebeest'! I wonder if this is a clan of his or somet--_

And my jaw dropped.

_Oh snap……that's it!_

_They ARE 'Wildebeest'!_

_That would be……perfect…… _

_The Wildebeest at Blue Pine. The Wildebeest in our Town. The Wildebeest in Las Vegas……_

_But………n-no……_

_How could I be that stupid? _

_Certainly the Messenger knew. But perhaps he didn't see a reason to tell me. _

_Jinx and Pulsade? _

_Would they know? _

_Oh…… _

_Joey…………… _

_He knew all along. _

_The Hacker had………friends. _

_Lots and lots of hairy, badass friends………… _

_That cute little turd, damn him!_

The 'Wildebeest' carrying Jericho set the boy down. He smiled, hand-signed something, and ran past a group of grunting….saluting mammals towards a wooden platform high up top in the cave. He seemed to know his way around.

The Wildebeests all turned and looked at us. Snorting…whinnying…they gradually gathered around. A hairy circle of bovine life. All silent….all mute of language.

Robin shifted uncontrollably. "I don't think it's any coincidence that they all look the same…," the Boy Wonder murmured aside to me. "There's something…..wonderful afoot here."

_Well, aren't you the romantic type?_

A murmuring.

A grunting.

Two or three Wildebeest's came up to my side.

I bit my lip and drew back.

But one leaned forward, and his snout curved into a smile. He held a hairy fist out.

"…………."

Robin raised an eyebrow.

I cleared my throat, simpered, and planted my flesh fist against his.

One of the other two patted me on the back. There was a snorting exchange between the three….like a chuckling….or an inside joke.

I sweatdropped.

_Ehhh……yeah. _

_I guess these are the 'Vegas' ones……_

Then some more shifting. The crowd up ahead parted.

Robin and I turned to look.

There was a procession of Wildebeests. And in the center was a hunched-over, gray, mottling thing. He limped his way over with help of a black-metal scepter of sorts. His crown—half broken horns—was adorned with beads and jewels in a shamanistic fashion. Jericho held him by the upper paw, leading him towards Robin and I.

Robin took a step forward. He cleared his throat and pointed at Jericho: "Is th-this someone special, Jericho?"

"_I sp-speak for m-myself, Titan……,"_ the graying Wildebeest said.

I did a double-take, jaw dropping.

Robin was no less taken back.

Jericho stepped to the side and hung his little hands behind his back as he stood straight in attention….perhaps reverence.

The gray, aged Wildebeest wheezed, took a deep breath, and sat on a round, whicker chair before leaning forward on his scepter and uttering: "_Y-You are with f-friends now……friends……nnrghh……in th-that we are all a-a-against Deathsssstroke…nghhh……"_

"_**Nnnnrrrghhhh!"**_ the collective group of Wildebeests murmured together.

"……….," Robin took a deep breath. He glanced over at Jericho.

The little blonde smiled sheepishly.

Robin looked at the leader again, all the while I was scratching my head.

"You know Red Aviary?"

"_Th-That was the name……nrghh……that the young womennnn called it……,"_ the gray beast spoke. _"Nnnngh……this is a quest of no name. Much like it is to be sought to its end by those with no voice."_

"I-I'm sorry for the awkwardness…..my partner and I are just a little surprised, is all…," Robin pointed. "Wh-Whom am I speaking with…s-sir?"

"_Nnngh………,"_ the graying one opened a pair of blind, pale eyes. _"I……nnngh……am the Elder……"_ He took a deep breath and shook his crown with a rattling of beads across his shattered horns. _"…….Nnnnrgh……I am the l-leader of the Wildebeest Society………"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside.

1:11 pm

Above ground.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whoops….I think it's done…," the Messenger said over Cyborg's shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh! Shoot! Damn, man! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You didn't emasculate me to."

"………y-yeah."

The Messenger smiled.

"Here goes…," Cyborg fingered the compartment within the dashboard computer of the Batmobile.

_Click!_

_POP! HISSSSSSsssssssssssss……………_

Steam billowed out.

Cyborg squinted his eyes, waved a hand to fan the mist away, and pulled the vials out. "There we go. Analysis complete—"

"Wait a minute….," the Messenger murmured.

Cyborg sighed. He turned and looked over his shoulder. "What is it now---?" He paused in mid exclamation.

The Messenger's grin was completely gone. In its place was a look of blank shock and…..

_Despair?_

"Open one of them…."

"Huh?"

"I said open one of the vials, Mr. Stone."

"Listen, little man! Whatever's inside of that capsule, I ain't lettin' out—"

"Trust me."

"……….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Opening….now….," Dick said. With a pair of metal finger extensions, he opened a vial.

Batman watched closely.

Dick turned the vial open and let the matter inside fall out.

It was brown. No longer a glowing gold substance.

Dick made a face. "What in the Hell?"

"It is no longer volatile…."

"Terra's power lots its punch?"

"……..I don't think so."

Dick looked at Batman, his mouth agape. "Bruce….what's going on here?"

"Hand me the electrotool."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batmobile.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"An electrotool?" Cyborg made a face.

"You have one built into your arm, right?"

"Well, yeah, but—"

"And did it read a high carbon and sulfur content just like Robin predicted?"

"Yes! It did! Now what's the use—"

"Just test it, Cyborg," the Messenger pointed. "Trust me…."

"……..," Cyborg opened the vial some. He pointed a finger down the tube. He took a breath. _Cl-Clik. Clak!_ His left finger turned into a sparkling taser. He aimed the tip down the tube….and fired a spark.

_Z-Zap!_

Suddenly, the brown matter inside jolted….morphed…and took the shape of a golden half-liquid.

"Whoah! What in God's name?" Cyborg twitched, nearly dropping the vial. "It's Terra's stuff after all!"

"Not exactly."

"……?" Cyborg glanced at the Messenger.

The Messenger looked back. He said: "Zap it again…."

Cyborg bit his lip, hesitated…..

…..but complied.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Zzzzt!_

"There it goes again!" Dick exclaimed.

Batman's eyeslits narrowed at the vial turning from a bright gold to a dark brown. "Reacting to electric stimulus…."

"It's…..it's like mud!"

"It _is_ mud, Dick….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

1:15 pm

Gotham City Police Department.

Underground evidence containment.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A guard on duty was walking down a row of the glass vials confiscated from the Wayne Corp. site.

Half of the material were covered in shrouds.

A flashlight armed in one hand, the fellow walked down the cold, cellar-like place and started covering the last of the evidence with canvass.

"God….hope the Commish makes use of this shit soon…," the man murmured. A shudder. He tried to hide the last of the golden vials from sight. Seemingly allergic to the metaphysical, thermal glow. "….you creep me the hell out…."

Suddenly…as if on cue…..

Every….

Single……..

Vial…………..

_F-FLASH!_

The man gasped and dropped his flashlight in the middle of covering up a cart-load of vials.

The golden glow had faded.

Inside every vial, a glob of mud melted into a puddle.

And rested….dull…..dead…….earthen….

"………," the man's lips quivered. "Wh-What the Hell?"

He frantically rushed from package to package throwing the canvass shrouds off.

Panicking.

Every golden vial had lost its light.

And muddy dullness rested dead in their places.

"All of them……they're….th-they're…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batmobile.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"M-Mud….," Cyborg clenched his one good fist. _CRKKK!_ The soggy vial shattered in his titanium grip.

The Messenger took a deep, shuddering breath. His almond eyes thinned as he stared off into space. "Hagan….."

"Damn it all……"

"Hagan must have……been at Gotham Labs….," the Messenger murmured. "He must have been there to have given his body formula towards the creation of Two-Face's thugs in the vaults…."

"And the essences! The God Damn vials!" Cyborg balled his left hand into a fist and rammed it into the dashboard.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Batcave.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CLANG!_

Nightwing finished kicking the leg of a metal table.

He clenched his fists. "It was a decoy! The vials weren't real! Matt Hagan was in it all along! He was providing some fake-ass golden illusion!"

"Then Robin was right to be worried….," Batman clenched his gloved hands. "After all we went through…..after all that was lost at the hands of Triangular—Two-Face. After Red Aviary tracked us down and slaughtered Barbara……Triangular was pulling the wool over our eyes."

"An….An Ambush….."

"………….," Batman stared at a rack full of vials besides the experimental equipment. All of the glass tubes were filled with mud that was gradually losing their fake, golden glow.

"….Then…..if those weren't the vials of Terra's essences that we so conveniently found at the vaults….," Dick turned and looked at Bruce steadily. "Where're the real deals?"

"At this point?" A deep breath. "Where….," Batman snarled. "….do you think?" He gripped the rack of vials in both hands. "Rrrrrraa**aaaa**_**aaughHHH!"**_ He tipped it over with a flail of his cape.

_SHATTTTTTTERRRRR!_

Dick winced….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

2:02 pm

Titan's Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Darkness.

Silence.

Then….

Footsteps.

A light.

Louder….

_Creeeeak—SCHWISSH!_

A light from a ground-level hallway illuminates a doorframe.

'Cyborg' stands as a dark shadow against the illumation.

He marches out onto a rail-laced tier, one heavy foot after another.

He reaches a hand over and flips on a switch.

**Clik.**

A bright amber light floods the basement room from a few bulbs overhead.

In response, hundreds upon hundreds of glass vials of Terra's golden essence pulsate even brighter.

A golden shine illuminates 'Cyborg's' face.

His face is deadpan.

His human eye glosses over an amber brown momentarily, then returns to its chestnut normality.

"……….."

Just then, an intercom speaker crackles besides the doorway.

"_Snkkkt……Cyborg?"_

He walks over and flips a switch. In Cyborg's voice, he replies: _"Yes, Rae?"_

"_I'm just about ready……" _

"_Understood, cutie. I have the car waiting for us." _

"_I'll meet you out there." _

"_Fine by me. Cyborg out."_

**Click.**

Cyborg turns the lights out, turns, and heads back into the upper floor's doorway.

The golden glow traces after him.

But he closes the door behind him….and with a loud sliding sound, locks it tightly with his authorization code.

The golden glow of the genuine samples start to fade ever so slowly.

And as they do….a persistently blinking light visibly strobes in the middle of the shadowed basement lair.

In concordance with a beeping sound.

And the incessant, faint scent of carbonite….

Everywhere.


	239. Amass

**239. Amass**

December 1, 2004.

Metropolis.

4:32 pm

Lexcorp HQ.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SLAM!**

Luthor's fist slammed atop his desk.

He snarled and jerked forward to glare into the viewfinder. "Dammit, Dagger! I'm not blind! I see what is happening!"

Dagger's image sat calmly on the tiny screen before Luthor. The dark-haired young man had his fingers held together. Killer Croc and Metallo stood in the shadows behind his calm shoulders.

"_If you weren't blind, you wouldn't be here……"_

"Don't give me that!" Luthor barked. "How can you dare say that when you hold so much power? You are nothing but a deceiving, power mongering rat!"

"_I tend to disagree. I am simply more efficient than you, Luthor. One would imagine a person of your nefarious reputation more than capable of stabbing me first. It just so happens that—yes—I have far more knives up my sleeve than you'll ever see."_

Luthor fumed and counted off verbally: "You dominated the operations in Vegas. You used my technology to take out Area 51 once the weaponry was retrieved. You marked the shipment with traces of my productivity. You tricked Two-Face into a suicidal mission against the Bat Troupe. You sacrificed tons of resources on my side and Harvey Dent's with red herrings meant to attract Slade the Parasite to eliminate all forces but your own. And in the end….all of Two-Face's resources in Gotham City have been annihilated, along with most of the major criminal organizations that oppose you in that crime pin City…..and now the law is breathing down my neck because of what was discovered at Wayne Corp of all places! I and my entire personnel are chomping at the bit just to stay alive in breathing with all our funds depleted and the Justice League under our very noses starting to regroup! And while all of your 'business partners' drown in the mud Matt Hagan donated you—on Dent's part I may add—you're taking all of the glory of the thermalkinetic products from Area 51 for yourselves! Do you seriously expect me to let you walk away just like that?"

"_Mr. Dent was gracious enough to let me be. You would do well to follow the same course of action."_

"Nnnngh…..Two-Face is nothing now but a blathering, incoherent vegetable! Somehow Batman's dark troupe…..m-must have ripped his mind apart! But I'm not about to go easily into the falling curtain, Dagger! I've spent FAR TOO MUCH to let you get the best end of Triangular!"

"_Mr. Luthor……Triangular was an illusion……,"_ Dagger gestured on the screen. He twirled a knife and calmly spoke: _"There was never anything mutual or democratic about the organization. The team was my own fabrication from the start. I needed two added 'limbs' to stand on after Slade was reborn as Red Aviary and threatened my…………'assets'. Turns out, you and Mr. Dent were the most sensitive of all. I used you. And then as now, your sole purpose has been to benefit me. I am Triangular, Mr. Luthor. And the plans I put into motion long, long ago shall go into effect shortly. Red Aviary's fiery Destruction will spin around to consume himself. And in the deathly wake, I shall pick my treasures from the ashes. The Titan's City……this entire Seaboard will be mine."_

Luthor—glaring—tilted his face aside so as to 'focus' more on one of the tall brutes standing behind Dagger's shadowed form. "Corbin? All of this time you were in league with Dagger and only Dagger without telling me?"

"_Then….now….as always…,"_ the metal skeleton placed a hand over his titanium breast and bowed. _"….I am in a league of my own. I thought I made it clear long ago that I was never working __**for**__ you, Luthor. We just happened to be in the same boat because of what you hired the good Dr. Jace to do…."_

"And I bet Helga was whoring herself to Dagger all along as well!"

"_Ah, you and your figurative finesse, Luthor. God be praised! I've seen more eloquence at the rectal end of an elephant. But nevertheless, you did provide almost as much amusement as Two-Face's crumbling debacle did. Heh heh heh………oh, how I love looking at this pathetically funny world from outside the flesh!"_

"_It behooves you to not concern yourself with this eventuality, Luthor,"_ Dagger pointed with a knife. _"Things—as they have transpired—were always meant to be. I had every intention of using you resources to my advantage. Metallo and Dr. Jace were instrumental in giving me an edge. But I could have done without them if I needed to. Your empire is but a stack of cards marinating in dust, Luthor. One blow……one little gust of wind…………and everything is all ashes and paper into oblivion. Do not cross me, Luthor. You cannot afford to."_

"Is that so…..," Luthor gritted his teeth. He popped open his drawer, whipped out a miniature suitcase, opened the lock, and brandished a lavish set of **red** buttons. "I'm guessing you forgot my all-powerful Eye in the Sky, **Dagger!** I don't like traitors. I never have. So help me….the same thing that obliterated Area 51 will now fry that hellhole of a hideout you have in Gotham City!"

"_And when you say 'Eye in the Sky'_….," Dagger calmly twirled his knife and spoke. _"Do you mean the satellite ion cannon that is now running on half frequency and stealthily repositioning itself to focus on the heart of Metropolis as we speak?"_

Luthor's finger lingered over the red buttons. His lips parted and he squinted his eyes at the man on the monitor. "Huh?"

Dagger snapped a finger. Behind him, Killer Croc walked off screen. _"Orbital weapons are getting cheaper and cheaper these days. Before the Javelin was used in the Destruction of the Thanagarian technology on Earth during the invasion, even that space station was a sad excuse for galactic instrumentation. A word of wisdom: everything that floats can be sunk………or in this case, brought back down into a burning cremation."_

"I'm afraid I don't unders--," Luthor gasped in the middle of his words. He frowned at a boiling point. "Do you mean to say that….?"

Dagger nodded. Killer Croc walked back into the frame of the monitor's image. The reptilian mutant had a nervously smiling, sweating William B. Anderson in his scaly grasp.

"_It took less than an hour and a half of my most recent 'employee' digging into your network to find the access codes to the ion cannon. I will admit, I've had weapons of mass destruction at my disposal before—and many even more efficient than this toy you so eagerly built in the skies. The essences of Terra might wipe out a City, but more than two blasts from this easily collapsible cannon and the entire world will discover it and shirt the bird of prey down by its third swoop. Still……while I __**am**__ using the thermalkinetic energy vials to get my job done……I…………__**could**__ illustrate to you how serious I am about the recent turn of events One shot of the ion cannon is enough to obliterate your beloved HQ building. Two shots could take both you and S.T.A.R. Labs out. Or then again……why destroy you with fire when I can with guilt? A well-timed shot on—say—a global hotspot would make an interesting impact. Perhaps Kasnia could see its last day of geo-political strife? And who cares about the existence of Jerusalem anymore—besides over two thirds of the worldwide population, of course……"_

Luthor was breathless. "You wouldn't….."

"_Concerned, Luthor?"_

"I may be."

"_You certainly __**look**__ concerned,"_ Dagger said, twirling the knife. _"Though, I doubt it's for the millions of people whose lives are now at stake. I have many gradual, more practical plans for taking over the world. But blasting mass populations into dust for the absolute Hell of it would get you off my back if need be. After all……that __**is**__ a Lexcorp Satellite in the sky with its fiery eye. One pull of the trigger, and everyone will come rushing to you faster than they did over a bunch of vials at Wayne Corp—which was merely a red herring in and of itself, I might add……"_

Luthor's teeth showed. He clenched his fists. "What is all of this worth, Dagger? Do you want me to come begging on my knees to you? Me and my whole company?"

"_Not today, Luthor. Tomorrow, perhaps. The thing to keep in mind is…………only __**I**__ have the power to dictate when exactly such an occasion might take place. Not you."_

"……………."

"_Keep……silent……Luthor……,"_ Dagger icily hissed. Thin, frowning eyes. _"Or else. The convergence of the fires of Rhea and the lightning of Zeus is not a good place to dance. I suggest you keep your legs planted where they are……for your own sake."_

**Blip!**

Dagger's, Metallo's, Killer Croc's, and Fox's image flashed to black as the transmission was cut off.

"Nnngh….," Luthor stood up. "Thanks for the concern, you glory-hogging piece of filth." He took a heavy, heated breath. He calmed some….

Luthor held his arms behind his back.

He walked to the long, curved window of his office and stared out upon the wintry-gray City.

"……………….."

He sighed long and hard.

He closed his eyes.

Silence.

"…………………………………………"

His eyes opened.

Deadpan, he stared thoughtfully towards the horizon.

The horizon that led south…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City

4:37 pm

Former Two-Face Hideout.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger stood up from the desk and paced across the shadowed room.

He was twirling his dagger—not anxiously, but concentratedly.

As if submerged in a sea of thought…..

William B. Fox shook, shivered, and gulped before uttering with a nervous smile: "So….you ditched the skinhead! I must thank you p-personally for that."

"Hressh…," Croc slapped the back of Fox's head. _Th-Thwap!_

"Owie!"

"No talkin' when yer stupid!"

Fox pouted. "Not like I volunteered for this after Dent bit the proverbial genitals of Death."

_Thwap!_

"Dah!"

Metallo shook his metal head. With arms folded, he glanced coolly over in Dagger's direction. "Now that we are finally free of those deadweights….what remains of Triangular?"

Dagger twice as coolly stared out the cracks of a boarded window. He paused the twirling of his blade and spoke over his shoulder without looking at the nefarious android. "It depends on what I decide to do with this bloodied, ransacked land once all is said and done."

"You sound pretty sure of yourself…," Metallo's jaw clenched in a naked 'smile'. "What of the Parasite?"

"Slade is no longer in this Town….," Dagger turned about. Deadpan. Knife raised. "He's taken a southerly route. Just as I predicted, he's following the heated friction of this whole development."

Metallo took a deep breath. "Robin, the Boy Wanker."

"Poetic…..but yes."

"Jeez…," Fox blinked. "You mean to tell me that the little shrimp's still alive?"

"Alive?" Croc hissed. "The twirp's family gave me a bruisin'! Nnnngh….I'm fixin' to have his skull on a plate!"

"Face it, Crocodile…," Metallo pointed a metal finger. "You're just here to be a meat wall when the crunchtime comes to pass. If it weren't for me, you'd be a purse by now. Or better yet…an S&M diaper in some Miami club! Ah hahahahahaha!"

"NNnnghhhrsssh!" Croc tossed Fox aside ("Waaah!" THUMP!). "You and me, Corbin! Any day of the devil-blazin' week!"

"The humorous thought is most relishing…," Metallo raised his fists.

_SWISSSSSSH-CHTUNGGG_ A dagger flew and landed in Metallo's metal crotch, stuck there.

"………….hmm…," the unaffected android rubbed his chin. "Are you trying to tell me something, Dagger? Or depress me with forsaken woes of yesteryear?"

"If you men intend to kill each other…," Dagger pointed. "Do it after I am through with you. As much as we have resources at our efficient disposal, I still need a perfect coordination for this plan to fall through. Hagan has done a lot on his own in the City. Everyone here can take an example from him. As disbanded as the Titans are, they still exist. Deathstroke may indeed finish them all off….but not as quickly as I would like it. Robin's survival has proven that. The extra-dimensional visitor has invaded my plans far too much. I have plans to deal with him. In the meantime…." He looked over at Fox. "Be ready to trigger off the Initiation Charge. I'll also need your expertise in maintaining radio contact with the awaiting units outside of the City."

"D-Do I get a raise?"

"…………"

"Any sort of pay whatsoever?"

"Your contract with Two-Face remains as such with me," Dagger gestured. "Only…add a clause in which your refusal equates with death by innumeral lacerations to your abdomen."

"Ah. Right. When does my shift begin?" Fox sweatingly 'smiled'.

Dagger ignored him and faced Metallo. "The Titan Raven is nearly disposed of. That leaves two Titans at ground zero. I want them separated. Go to the City and choose the most powerful of the two to distract them. The further apart the Titans are from each other, the more susceptible they shall be to the plan at hand."

_Cht-Tink!_ Metallo pulled the knife from his 'crotch'. He toyed with it in two skeletal hands. "And what of Robin? He and two other Titans are _together_. Unless Red Aviary catches up with them first, they're going to be a force to reckon with."

"I am quite aware of that," Dagger nodded. "The Experiment is with them."

"Oh, you mean that Squirrely boy?" Metallo smirked. "How I long to see his bloody pulp hanging off my fingers. Tell me, Dagger-chum, perhaps you will be in the mood of employing Jace in recovering the rest of my forgotten memory in the event that I make this 'vengeful conquering' of your City a reality?"

"You won't be the only one servicing me, Corbin," Dagger said. "Don't let your titanium head get too big."

"Heh….charming," Metallo flicked the blade back at him. "And don't underestimate your 'servants'." _Thwish!_

_Snatch!_ Dagger caught the blade between two fingers and twirled it back into his grip. "Believe me, that is the least of my concerns." He walked across the room to a communicator array. "If you'll excuse me, I need to drop a line with the…'Titan leader'" He freed a mic, flipped a switch, and spoke into it. "Hagan. This is Dagger. Report."

"_Snkkkkkkkttt…snkkkt……"_

"Hagan, are you there? A response would very appropriate."

"_Snnkkkt—sorry, Dagger. It's easy to get caught up with things here." _

"I imagine you would warn us before you adopted a 'family'."

"_Heh. Believe you me. I'm sick and tired of hanging around with these brats."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

4:42 pm

Outside of Titan's Tower.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The T-Car II was sleeker and wider than the previous model. It looked like someone had taken a Hummer and given it sleek curves towards the front and a sharp slope to the rear. The vehicle was made to sit eight people and/or equipment. Two seats in the front. Four in the middle. Two in the rear. It was more like a van than anything. And perhaps—even—a would be tank.

'Cyborg' stood beside it on the drive in front of the Tower's large garage. He against it with one hand while cupping another palm over his ear where a tiny communicator resided. His right human eye was glazed over with solid, amber brownness. The voice that hushedly, grumblingly escaped his throat was that of a deeper and darker man. Something carnivorous, yet spiteful…

"The first moment you ask me to squash them, the better. I'll get the job done faster than you can skewer a throat with those knives of yours, boss-man."

"_No. You wouldn't."_

'Cyborg' looked hurt. "I-I…"

"_Remember the plan. You have every advantage at your disposal to help separate the Titans for easy elimination. Red Aviary is heading south, Hagan. He will be in that City soon. Very……soon."_

"I know what the 'plan' is…," the automaton grumbled. "It's just not so pleasant on this side."

"_That is irrelevant." _

"Is it now? How would you feel if you had to kiss up to some damn psycho-bitch with empathic powers?"

"_You've performed well, Hagan."_

"Yeah, well it ain't easy, Dagger. This Raven girl….," he shifted nervously. "She's catching up with me. And I think she's reverting too."

"_Reverting?"_

"You wouldn't understand it unless you had to be 'Cyborg' like me. She's closing in again. She's turning out to be less and less like the emotionally explorative Titan that Simon Stone's journals described her as. I think I might be dealing with unknown material anytime soon. And when that happens, I'll be as transparent as a wet paper napkin."

"_You're starting to let fear get ahold of you. The key is to let fear get ahold of __**them.**__" _

'Cyborg' sighed. "I wish I could just **do that** and get it over with!"

"_All in good time, Hagan. Yes, Raven is catching up with you. And now she has agreed to ride with you to Gotham City. But she does not know the truth. When she does, it will be too late. I will need you then more than I've ever needed you before."_

"Metallo's getting his end of the bargain, right?" 'Cyborg' frowned, leaning back against the T-Car II. "What about me?"

"_You would desire the wretched permanence of human flesh again?"_

"Like you wouldn't believe, Dagger…."

"_If that is your wish, I am not one to refuse it. Do your duty like you so graciously have in assisting Triangular and I shall see your wish granted once I am again in power of the principalities stolen from me……"_

"Gotcha. Time for the next Act…," 'Cyborg' smirked.

"_Whatever it takes to maintain your enthusiasm. I assure you, my methods of 'lifting spirits' are less pleasant."_

"I left the pleasantries in Arkham. Anyways, I'm glad that this is all nearly over with. Red Aviary can rot to pieces for all I care. Hagan out."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City

4:48 pm

Former Two-Face Hideout.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger put away the mic.

He switched the communicator off.

Turning around, he twirled his blade and stared at the other three.

"…………," Metallo's arms were folded. "You're not…..really going to pay him back…..are you?"

Croc's eyes narrowed.

"Gentlemen….," Dagger simply throated, "….Clayface is about to be in the extensive company of that blue-haired sorceress. I am surprised if any of him survives long enough between her and Red Aviary for me to repay him."

"………….," Killer Croc grinned.

"Now that's mud in your eye!" William B. Fox uttered. "Ah ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…heh heh……eheh……..phweeeee……"

He hid from the circling glares.

Metallo leaned his metal head aside and spoke to Dagger: "At least the actor's keeping the Titans occupied, eh?"

"Indeed," Dagger nodded. "And speaking of which…..don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Ah….naturally…," Metallo waved a graceful arm and sauntered out of the room with metal feet. "Always the activist."

Killer Croc hissed and stared at Dagger. "And what would you have me do?"

"The one thing your late boss failed to do."

"……….?"

Dagger glared. "Be ready for anything…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside.

5:02 pm.

Wildebeest lair.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I was b-born a long time ago…nngh….f-from an experiment that predates your livessss. The people who m-made me were nefariousss in creed, and all my lifffe I have-nnrgh…l-lived with the shame of what I was built for. I spent yearrrrs studying the devices that conceived me and disssscovered how to cleanly clone my own DNA. Thusly, my firssst child was born. And then a second was made usingggg the same methods. Then—with combined—nngh—st-strength….we produced more members of our society. We became the Wildebeests, home to the underground….but punishers of the evil that pollutessss it. We arrrre not afraid to takkkke any and all—nngh—lethal measures necessary to ensure the safety of the greater good. In that sense—young Titansss—we are not of the same ilk as you. We are not afraid to sacrifice…..or to endanger lives. A long time ago---nngh…when b-beasts like us were natural, the world ran by the code of the strong and the brutish. There arrrre still issues in this world of ours…..this world of yours as well….that r-require a strongerrr hand instead of a sharperrr mind. For such emergencies, the Wildebeest Society exissssts. As the Elder, I oversee the missions that my children partake in. And as the protectors of the greater good…..the Wildebeests of the Field have sworrrrn an oath of silence. All Wildebeest's are one, as far as the upperrrr world is concerned. It is our most sacred secret. I trust….dear Titan leader—nnrghh—that our secret will be safe with you, as your existence has been safe with us."

I looked over at Robin.

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath, nodded, and said: "I shall respect your wishes, Elder. Forgive me if I seem taken back. This is……a shock."

"Indeed it must be. Nrhghh….or as least…it should be," he shook his head. Beads rattled. Gray hair rustled. A half-cough, an exhale, an inhale. His bovine nostrils flared as he said: "You have greatly befriended our littttle one. You more than earn our respect."

"Little one?" Robin remarked.

I smiled. I pointed at Jericho.

The small blonde simpered, as if cornered. The hand of one of the Wildebeests patted him on the shoulder.

"When his father abandoned him and after his mother died….we found him near death," the Elder spoke. He pointed his scepter. "Soon afterrrr…nngh…we discoverrred his powers. We did not and do not know how—nnrhgh—he got his gifts, but they have been invaluable to us. He's assisted the Wildebeesssts on his own choosing, and in returrrrrn we educated and nurtured him. When it came time to trrrack down his father—Deathssstroke—we were more than willing to put our lives on the line. We aided the counter-terrorist teammm. Jericho and the two women werrrre not alone. For all of our agents werrrrre there to help them at one time or anotherrrr. I do believe they have had to confront Mr. Noir quite physically in—nnrghh—the past. We regret that things had to resorrrrrt to such measures. Alas, we both had the same goal in minddd….just not the same tacticssss…."

"_Nnnnrghhh….,"_ a general exhaled escaped the muscular crowd. A ring of silver-laced, horned heads bowed in a nod towards me.

I nervously shifted and scratched my neck.

_What does one 'say' to that?_

"We were on our way back to my City," Robin said. "And if you excuse my urgency, we were—and still are—in a hurry."

"Nnnghhh…mmm….yessss…..Yes….Red Aviary speeds towards the Titans' Domain…."

Robin took a deep breath. His gloved fists clenched. "You know this…..?"

"Our scouttttss have sighted the Parasite along the Easterrrrn Seaboard. Nnnnrhgh…..he is making speed…."

"Then I must apologize…," Robin bowed his head slightly. "My friends and I must be going, Elder. There is no time to—"

"Time? Time is an illusion, young Titan. Nnnngh….how else would I have cheated the dynamicsss to reproduce mysssself so abundantly?"

"………"

With aching bones, the Elder stood up. He leaned on his scepter while Jericho and two other Wildebeests supported him. He shuffled over Robin's way, leaned forward, and throated: "Nnngh…..the son of Slade has brought you here for a reason. This is morrrre dire a situation for the young heroes of the upperrr world than ever has been—nnghh—faced before, is it not?"

Robin firmly nodded. "We're talking about the murder of all things good in this world."

"Yessss….that happens infrequently downnn the wheels of change, and every time it is ever the necessity of intercession…."

Robin raised and eyebrow. "I'm sorry, Elder, but what are you meaning to say?"

"Nnnngh….," the Elder patted Jericho's shoulder and looked at Robin and I. "You will be needing assistance….the Wildebeest Society shall pledge its strength….it's very _security_…..to keep this evil at bay…."

"………," Robin looked around.

Faces of able-bodied Wildebeests stared back in silence. Their posture straight. Their limbs and faces at attention.

I bit my lip. I looked at Jericho.

He was hiding a proud, helpful smile.

I couldn't help but shake my head.

_Silly little brat._

Robin woke me as he said: "Slade is no longer a mere criminal tyrant. He is something deathly…destructive….and far more dangerous than even I can summarize. If you try to go against him, it will be damaging. A lot of us will be hurt. A lot of us may lose our lives. I don't want the Wildebeests joining us if all we're granted is a rampage. Especially if Dagger has a hand in it as well. I don't want a catastrophe."

"A catastrophe? Nnngh……A catastrophe—young Titan—would be a failure to accept help when it is so freely given to you……"

"……………….."

"We will need to employ—nnghh—ourselves in gathering the total of our collective across this continent……," the Elder gestured. He walked across the cavernous domain with his scepter as a cane. "For that, we will need the boy's help." He pointed at Jericho. "He proves to be a far—nnngh—better communicator than the rest of us combined." He turned and glanced at Robin. "But rest assured….you have our pledge."

"…….," Robin took a deep breath. "And what have we ever done for the Wildebeest Society?"

"Nnnngh…what have you done?" The Elder leaned his gray crown aside. His snout attempted to curve in some attempt at a 'smile'. "You have done your job…."

"……," Robin smiled.

_Beep! "Snnnkt……Yoo-hoo. Christopher-Robin!"_

Robin winced. "Ahem…excuse me…."

"Nnngh?"

I watched at Robin whipped out his communicator and opened it with a Star Trek sound. "Robin here. What is it, Messenger?"

"_The tests are done. Cyborg and I have some news to share with you."_

"……," Robin's eyemask narrowed. "What kind of news?"

"_Erhm……the type you have to sit down for."_

"……….."

"_I'm being __**serious**__ here, Robin."_

"I-I know, Messenger. No need to clarify."

"_Good. See you soon."_

"Robin out."

As Robin turned, excused himself, and marched out of the cavern, I looked Jericho's way.

He hand-signed at me: _'Surprised?'_

I replied with a flurry of hands: _'Not really. What do you do for fun at night? Person-tipping?'_

He giggled all over.

The Wildebeest's scratched their heads.

'_Wow, Noir! You are like the Messenger!'_

'_No. I am not. Be right back, Joey. Get to know your 'family' again.'_

'_Will do.'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What?" Robin exclaimed. "It was a decoy?"

"All of it," Cyborg gestured at the computer findings on the dashboard. "Mud. Extensions of Clayface made to mimic the glowing composition of Terra's essences. When you told us to search for sulfur traces and we found some, it hammered the nail in the coffin."

The Messenger stood outside of the Batmobile, leaning. "You knew that Clayface contained high contents of sulfur in his chemical compound…didn't you?"

Robin nodded numbly, seemingly staring through the hood of the Batmobile. "It has to be Triangular employing him."

"Even though Two-Face used Clayface's compounds to make the henchmen at Wayne Corp….," the Messenger spoke, "….I seriously doubt he was the head hauncho of the mudheap."

Robin folded his arms. "It all ends in Dagger's hands, of course. He's been orchestrating everything from the get go."

"Where were the pieces of Terra going to, man?" Cyborg gestured.

Robin took a deep breath. "The Tower, Cyborg."

"What? How in the Hell could he fish them through there?"

"Through William B. Fox's manhandling of Wayne Corp."

"Why Wayne Corp?"

I bit my lip.

Robin shifted nervously.

The Messenger smirked. "We're still a little mask-shy………"

"Bruce Wayne….s-supplies the Tower on most occasions, Vic."

Cyborg did a double-take. "Bruce Wayne?"

"**Batman.**"

"What about Batman? I thought we were talking about Bruce Wayne!"

I whistled.

Cyborg looked my way.

I hand-signed at him, smiling nervously.

He read. His human eye exploded. "BATMAN IS BRUCE WAY—?"

_CLAMP!_ Robin's gloved hand planted itself over the android Titan's mouth. He bit his lip and uttered: "If this is how he reacts, I hope Beast Boy doesn't raise the roof."

I chuckled breathily.

"Mmmmfmm-mmmmfff!"

"I think Robby the Robot needs some air."

Robin stepped back. "It would take a long time to explain, Vic, I'm sure, but—"

"Screw me in the battery canister! You're the heir of a billionaire?"

"Yeah…it kinda works like that."

"And that's how you get all your gadgets and stuff? Man, that's SO cool!" Cyborg gasped happily. "That's like…James Bond Jr. or something, dawg!"

Robin scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I think we have….b-better things to talk about for the t-time being….."

"Those golden energy capsules could very well be inside the Tower as we speak…," the Messenger said in all seriousness. "I'm surprised Dagger or Clayface hasn't pulled the trigger already, all things considered." He smiled crookedly. "Not to freak you all out or anything."

I hand-signed: _'At ease'._ I sighed.

Robin ran a nervous, gloved hand through his hair.

Cyborg leaned back, his left hand in his lap. "Raven………what's keeping you from rooting that bastard of clay out?"

"Dagger must be waiting for something…," Robin said. "And I don't think it's us. He must know that we know that his power is concentrated and on the move." He clenched his fists. He looked up, eyemask thin. "It's Red Aviary….isn't it?"

"Educate us, Timmy boy."

"Dagger wants a showdown with his former colleague…the one Parasite robbing him of power….," Robin murmured. His voice rose and rose with fervent concentration. "November Fourth proves that—in spite of the bloodshed we suffered—the Titans combined are too strong for Dagger to fight off. However, now with Terra's 'powers' and Red Aviary breathing coldly on our necks….he has an edge. He intends to end us and Slade all in one fatal swoop."

"Now _THERE'S_ a war on three fronts!"

I hand-signed: _'Who should we fear then? The Hand………or the Dagger?'_

"………," the Messenger was silent.

Robin took a deep breath. "We need to contact the Tower now. Even if it means making our positions vulnerable to Dagger, it's absolutely necessary. A radio frequency would do the trick. The Batmobile is rigged with—"

"We tried it," the Messenger said. "Every receiver at the Tower is jammed."

'_Undoubtedly the work of everyone's favorite metamorph of mud.'_

"Clayface certainly has had his time to ruin things for us. I'm telling you…..Dagger has the winning cards."

"Then we can spring another deck!" the Messenger said. He gestured with his hands outstretched. "With Noir's speed and with my stealth and with Jericho's underground buddies, we can run the gauntlet and rip apart Dagger's plan from the inside out! Starting with a punch straight into the heart of the matter!"

I gazed at the Messenger.

_It's kinda haunting having you be on the same page as the rest of us………_

Robin spoke: "What are you proposing exactly, Messenger?"

"I'll go to the Tower and do what I do best," he winked. "I'll give the Titans a message ahead of the duck droppings hitting the fan. In the meantime, Noir can speed his lovely way to the Town and provide an extra hand—or sword—in the inevitable butt kicking to follow. Then you and Cyborg and come up the rear with the Batmobile while Jericho supplies the ultimate Wildebeest stampede of Armageddon! Heh…move over, Lion King!"

I smiled.

"You sound like you're expecting a war, Messenger," Robin said.

"Would you expect any less at this point?"

"……….."

"We're at the finishing line, Robin. I don't know anymore than you," the asian teen pointed. "Honest. Life has returned to frog-leaping in the dark. If any of us are to do anything meaningful against Dagger's and Slade's combined force…speculation is the way to go."

"Then it's best to over-speculate."

The Messenger blinked. "Come again, Captain?"

Robin strolled over towards the side of the Batmobile, talking: "What Jericho is offering is beyond imagination. We should be thankful that the Elder's 'children' are so willing to lay their lives on the line to protect what's at stake. But….to be honest, that isn't enough. November Fourth was a war to end all wars in and of itself…and right now—with all of Terra's powers at his disposal—Dagger is set to dwarf last month's tragedy into a 'minor skirmish'. No army of brute hermits is going to hold that back. Especially with Slade—the Red Reaper—looming in the rafters to swoop down and consume deathily at will."

'_Do you have a spare idea in your utility belt, Robin?'_

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "Tempest is still in Metropolis. If we contact him….we might be able to get help. Very…..special help."

The Messenger smirked: "Finally…some optimism not coming from my nerdy mouth."

"Oh, it'll be a shot in the dark as it is," Robin sighed. "Everyone thinks I'm dead. Superman too, most likely…."

I nodded, rubbing the back of my neck with a melancholy exhale….

"But there's no time to waste," Robin palmed a gloved fist. "Your idea is good, Messenger. But I want to go about it differently."

"I'm all ears and hair gel."

"Yes, you should go and warn the Titans. And—yes—Noir should head on north. But I don't want him going alone."

I raised an eyebrow.

"I've got an idea….and I think Jericho's friends can help me," Robin turned towards the Batmobile. you see if we can still patch a call through to Metropolis?"

"…………"

"Cyborg?"

"……….," the android Titan stiffly slumped over and collapsed across the driver's seat of the vehicle. _SLUMP!_

Robin gasped. "Cyborg!"

"!" I blurred over.

Robin hopped into the vehicle and checked Cyborg's vital signs.

I held the cold body of the collapsed Titan so Robin could have access. I panted fearfully and gazed at the Boy Wonder for an answer.

The Messenger calmly leaned over, his face blank. Patient….

Robin gulped. He looked up at me. "It's his battery. It's got a leak to it after all. He's drained to barely two percent power reserves."

I bit my lip.

"Don't worry….it isn't f-fatal….," Robin murmured. "But it does put Cyborg out of the picture." He clenched his teeth and hissed towards the surrounding trees. "_Dammit!_ Why does it feel like everything is working Dagger's way?"

"Face it. The guy's a joy-luck-bureaucrat."

"Messenger, help me out here. Grab ahold of Cyborg's left arm."

"Sure thing, Timster."

"Noir, you too. Get that side of him."

I nodded.

Robin joined and all three of us hoisted him out of the Batmobile and dragged him towards the forest under Robin's guidance.

The Messenger uttered amidst his strain: "Nnngh….don't tell me w-we're gonna bury him w-without some rose petals to spread across th-the grave!"

"We're taking him underground. The Wildebeest Society had some electrical equipment, from what I saw. Maybe we can power him back up some for repairs!"

"Ah…and here I was thinking I'd finally discover what happened to Jimmy Hoffa…."

I whistled.

Robin looked at me across Cyborg's dragged body.

I motioned with my head back towards the unguarded Batmobile.

"Don't sweat it…," Robin said. "We'll be right back out to take care of something….I think…."

I raised an eyebrow.

Robin glanced at Cyborg, then up at me again. "Trust me."

I nodded.

_I always do………_

And we took our android pal down the nearest tunnel entrance and into the welcoming darkness.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gotham City.

5:42 pm

Skyscraper.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………………………………………………………………."

Batman stood on the edge of the building's summit. Perched. Flanked by stone gargoyles. Well over forty-stories up. A large, mechanical clock rested behind him. His black cape billowed in the wintry wind.

Spare flakes of white drifted down in a diagonal direction towards the city streets looming below.

An amber sunset descended over the urban landscape. Fiery in its descent into the horizon. And yet, the bloodiness of the sky seemed lacking that evening. It was like an appointed time for a massacre had come and gone. But the air was colder and more foreboding than ever before. The horizon towards the South seemingly glowed with a distant fluctuation.

Batman didn't look at it. His eyeslits were locked on the mean streets below. His arms were folded. But try as he might to spot a single crime or person in need, nothing could make him leave his post. It was like the aftermath of something. The passing of a ragged breath. The dull drone of a dying heart monitor.

There was a rustle of wind, then a gray shadow behind him. Batman didn't look, though he knew she was there….

"You know….I used to think you were a very rude person…," Catwoman prowled along the building ledge, a hand on her hip. She smirked at the back of Batman's cape. "But now I realize that the people you work with are ruder."

"………….you refer to Noir."

"Yes. Yessss….Noir….," Catwoman examined the sharp fingers of one of her gloves. "A boy of that age….of that handsome quality….of that ferocity……..you'd think the last thing he'd ever do was put a fine, voluptuous woman like me asleep on some buildingtop in the middle of Gotham City. You'd think he was missing something special…."

"………………………….."

"You know….this is a record," Catwoman moved in closer, almost shoulder to shoulder with Batman. "I've been talking to you for about thirty seconds, and still you haven't yet made any attempts to scold me, arrest me, or simply fire your grappling hook and swing away from me. Heheheh….sometimes I wonder if you're missing something special too……"

"I want to be alone."

"You always want to be alone," Catwoman shrugged. "And I respect that. A little too much for my own good, to tell the truth. Otherwise….I might possibly have figured out who you really are under that mask by now…."

"I thought you were no longer obsessed, Miss Kyle."

"Obsessed? Hahahahaha….ohhhh, that's a good one…," Catwoman 'curtsied'. "When a lady dotes on a man, it's nature's way. Hardly some societal stigma that people love to call an 'obsession'. You, however, are a man _obsessed_. May I ask what bangs around in your belfry tonight?"

"You're not one to care," Batman spoke. "And I'm not one to care to share. The only things you and I are good for is thieving and vigilantism, in exact respects." He turned and icily glared at the gray-clad woman. "We're as incompatible as night and day, Catwoman."

"I'd be bawling like a little schoolgirl if you hadn't given me this exact same lecture about twenty-eight times over the last ten years," Catwoman pointed. "Think realistically, Batman. The difference between you and me is that I know when there's a time to change who I am. The only thing is, I love coming back to the same old schtick because it reminds me of where I've been. But you….you always stay in one place, don't you?"

"………………."

"I think it's punishment. Heh…I **know** it's punishment. And for whatever reason right now….you're punishing yourself all over again."

"It's a slow night. I'm merely on patrol."

"Could have fooled me….," she winked. "What say you and I patrrrrrol together?"

"……………"

"Pffft. Fine. Or not….," she leaned against a gargoyle and toyed with its granite fangs. "I suppose I am out of the picture. I came back in Town because there was murder and mayhem about, and no word had been spread about the whereabouts of you or your team members. Forgive a girl for being worried sometimes. Especially when it's your dark, brooding troupe and that Titan swordsman pushing the game afoot in the shadows."

Batman took a deep breath. A cold gust of wind kicked at his cape. He stared off against the random, white flakes and spoke: "Noir is a very secretive person. For a month, I've been doing my best to study up on him with all the resources gathered on me. I know his first name is Jordan. I know that he was born in Seattle, Washington and that he left his family at age twelve or thirteen to join a special, private martial arts school where he was taught a metaphysical creed known as the 'Spectrum'. Approximately two and a half years later, something indescribably terrible happened to the school he attended. After a month or two, all members of the school vanished permanently…but Jordan-Noir would bubble to the surface later as a Titan. His body shows the tell-tale signs of torture and brutal experimentation. He's been mutilated, abused, and scarred in ways I've only touched the crust of. Now his life is embodied in proving his heroic benevolence while at the same time battling defense mechanisms of social anxiety and low-self esteem. There is a lot of guilt in his life—some of it imagined, though a lot warranted—I suspect. And now he is so focused on his present life that he can and will do everything possible to protect his Titan cohorts."

Silence.

Catwoman patiently craned her head to listen to Batman.

The Dark Knight took a deep breath, clenched his gloved fists, and gazed down at the furthest city streets of Gotham. "I know so little about a literal ghost walking among us….and yet with all of my resources, with all of my abilities, with all of the equipment and arsenals and tools at my disposal…….why could I not save the Commissioner's innocent daughter?"

Catwoman inhaled. "Ah……that's right. James Gordon's girl. This 'Red Aviary' has proven to be as sadistic as he is mysterious."

"But he is still human," Batman bitterly uttered. "Like Noir is human. Like the Joker. Like all of us who have ever limped through this bleeding City….."

"……….I think where Red Aviary is different, Batman, is that he doesn't **believe** that he's human."

"………….."

"He's doing all he can to be something else. An idea. An essence. And I must say, he's doing a pretty damn good job of it too….all morbidity aside."

"………..," Batman took a deep breath. He grumbled: "I am used to dealing with psychotic freaks. Not people who embody the 'freak' part and toss the psychosis aside." He turned and narrowed his gaze on Catwoman. "For once…there is a fiend in this world who will forego everything—his own survival even—to achieve the misery of others. I have done all I can to stay his crimson hand…..and it is not enough. I have…..lost dearly for it."

Catwoman nodded. "I wouldn't know what that's like…….but I know one thing, I think….."

"……….?"

Catwoman smiled under her mask. "The rumors are amounting. Layers upon layers of them. People think they saw Robin battling someone atop an L-Train just last night in Gotham." She leaned her head to the side. "Batman….is your little sidekick alive?"

"………….," Batman gazed off towards the horizon again. "Maybe."

"Hahahahaha….," Catwoman doubled back. "Ohhhhh….rich, as always."

"Nnnrgh…."

"Robin is alive, isn't he?" Catwoman's eyes lit up. "That's a miracle in and of itself. Isn't it?"

"…………."

"Who says that miracles are only subject to the number one?" she gestured. "I think you've gotten as good a go ahead as any to….to _believe_ in something for once, Batman. Instead of having to prove yourself. If the most injured and most hurt of us can survive…….I'm certain the most nefarious of adversaries can perish."

Batman took a deep breath. Firmly he said: "I don't believe in miracles."

"I know that," Catwoman winked. "That's what I'm here for."

"………………you're a distraction."

"Hahahaha….proud of it too, handsome."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside.

5:59 pm

Wildebeest lair.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………………………………………………," Cyborg's eye gently opened. Blinking. "…………….." He gazed aside.

I sat beside him on a wooden table in the dark cavern. I smiled gently and waved. I mouthed: _'Welcome back.'_

"……………..well……th-this certainly has some déjà vu, doesn't it?"

I smirked.

"Nnngh…," he stirred. "Bring on the undead hippies of Mortuana….mmmf….ugh….I feel like I swallowed rock! Hell…had sex with one even!"

I chuckled breathily.

Of course, he tried sitting up.

Of course, I forced him to lie back down.

"Nnnnnnghhhh…..," he groaned long and hard. "What part of me is crapping out now?"

I hand-signed: _'Your battery is out of juice. The Wildebeests have you wired to their central computer hub. It has you at a quarter power.'_

"Wildebeest tech, huh?" Cyborg turned his head to the side. "I hope they don't get manure in my USB ports."

_Th-Thwack!_

"Ow! Allright! Allright! Bad joke! Sheesh……"

I smiled crookedly.

"So…….," Cyborg gazed tiredly at me. "What's the news?"

I took a deep breath and hand-signed: _'Robin is talking to the Messenger and the Wildebeest Elder about his new plan.'_

"A new one, huh?"

I nodded. _'We need you, Cyborg. We cannot go into this situation without your backup.'_

"Well….I should be flattered, shouldn't I?"

'_You need repairs bad. Your battery pack is leaking. The Wildebeest Society does not have the tools necessary for getting you back to maximum efficiency. Even with Joey's expertise.'_

"And……what's the idea?"

I bit my lip.

'_We are sending you to Metropolis.'_

"Metropolis? How?"

'_The Batmobile.'_

"What?"

'_We will plug you into the Batmobile. Robin has a security code to override the automatic pilot. The vehicle will drive you to S.T.A.R. Labs where you will be under the charge of the League.'_

"No way, man….."

'_Tempest will be there. Robin and I think that he will get you in top shape sooner than you can imagine.'_

"That could take forever, man! What about B.B., Starfire, and Rae?"

'_Robin and I are going to the Tower. The Messenger will be ahead of us with a word of warning. If we all work together, this can go like clockwork. Dagger will not know what hit him, and Deathstroke will be given the run for the money until we can aptly deal with him on an overwhelming basis.'_

"But I want to be with you and Robin kicking butt!" Cyborg shook and growled. "Dammit….my Uncle's behind half of this shit! He's holed up in Phaser Labs with god-knows-what at his disposal, and only **I** know how to deactivate Simon's program!"

'_Robin and I will deal with him somehow.'_

"Without me? But how?"

'_I do not know, Cyborg. But we will.'_

Cyborg's teeth clenched: "You can't make me go to Metropolis, Noir. Dammit….not when…..n-not while….."

"………….," I stared at him.

He shut his human eye. A sigh. He uttered: "Raven was….v-very vulnerable when Dagger attacked the City. And for all I know—with Clayface posing as me—a lot of…..bad stuff could have happened, Noir. A lot of terrible stuff that Raven doesn't even deserve. Th-That……" He froze. His eye reopened. He looked at me nervously, lip shaking. "Noir…..you were at the Tower for a while after November Fourth. Clayface and Raven….did….d-did they……..?" He didn't finish.

So—after swallowing—I hand-signed to complete the gruesome thought in nasty affirmation: _'Raven and the pretend Cyborg………have been very close.'_

Cyborg's face washed over with horror.

I nervously added: _'But not THAT close.'_

"Still…..," he exhaled. "Cl-Close enough……"

"………"

He again clenched his human eye shut. Through his teeth he hissed: "Hagan….that bastard…..that god damn….rotten bastard…….."

"…………," I gazed aside. Silent.

Cyborg writhed gently on the table…but gave up with an exhale. He gazed at the ceiling of the cavern. He said: "Always….again and again…..I am too broken myself to save Raven's scattered spirit……"

'_Do not say that.'_

"Then what is the truth, Noir? Raven—for the first time in her life—is reaching out to someone. And that someone is actually a villain in disguise. USING her! And it's all my fault. I set her up for it! I set her up for it all because…..because I was s-so selfish. So damn selfish. I-I….I loved her…." He gazed aside. A gentle exhale. He murmured: "I love her, Jordan. I l-love her so much. And because of that….she's going to suffer." His fist clenched. He gazed over at me. Fiery. "She's going to suffer…..unless one of us gets our butt down to the Tower and start tearing ass in the name of all that is holy!"

I gave him a crooked smile and gently nodded.

He sighed. Limp. "Jordan….p-please……I want you to make me a promise…."

I leaned over him and mouthed: _'Anything, Vic.'_

"Save Raven…….," he said. "Just…..save Raven. Not for me…..but for her." He looked at me firmly. "Do you……understand me, Jordan?"

"………."

"Not….for me……"

I shuddered, but took a deep breath. I clenched my black and flesh hands around his one metal palm and squeezed tightly. I looked into his face through my shades and firmly said: "I will."

Cyborg exhaled: "L-Let's just hope it's not too late yet….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

6:05 pm

Police Department.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The office was fresh.

Shiny even.

The upper levels that had once been charred and shattered by rocket propelled grenade fire had been completely replaced, rebuilt, and reformatted.

A sturdier, leaner set of floors had been erected in its place. The construction job was just being finished, and various officers and workers were filing about….furnishing the place. Setting up filing cabinets. Putting the new offices in order.

Lieutenant Smith stood in the center of the twirling madness. He gave orders and pointed people around and about their duties as temporary chief of police. He wore half of his uniform—his apparel for the last three nights in a row. He barely got any sleep, but it hardly showed on his features save for a slight shadow about his chin and sideburns. He had made it a challenge to himself to repair the Police Department Building as quickly and as maddeningly efficient as possible. And so far, things had lived up to his expectations—in thanks to the monumental surge of volunteers from outside the City including the Titans themselves.

At one point, a breathless Lieutenant leaned back against a pillar in the center of the cubicle arrangements and took a deep breath. He straightened his hair, folded his arms, and smiled with an exhale. The department was being rebuilt….the police corps. was becoming whole again. He had immeasurable pride, and it spilled out of his eyes.

A secretary walked over to him eventually with a portable phone in her grasp: "Lieutenant, sir! Someone on the phone to speak with you!"

"Ah, thank you Miss Wilson. Why don't you take the evening off?"

"Ugh….my shift just started. But thanks for the thought."

"Heheheh….my bad."

She hurried off.

Smith held the phone to his ear. "Hello, Lieutenant Smith speaking."

"………………"

"………hello?"

"………………_Lieutenant Smith?"_ It was a deep, resonating voice. The sound of an adult. Almost emotionless, but with a trace of condescending amusement. A….rich sounding voice.

The officer raised an eyebrow. "Yes……….with whom am I speaking, sir?"

"…………………"

"Sir?"

"_I am giving you a warning."_

Smith's lips parted. "Huh? What is this--?"

"_Your City is in grave danger for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours."_

"…………….what makes you say that?"

"_I __**know**__. No questions asked……no answers given."_

"Listen, pal, has anyone told you that this is not the time nor the place for a prank—"

"_This is no jest, Lieutenant. I emphatically desire you to take heed. Your City……and the Titans……are in danger."_

"……….from what?"

"_Dagger."_

A chill ran down the Lieutenant's spine. He murmured: _"Who __**is**__ this?"_

"_Someone merely balancing the triangle back out."_

"…………"

"_I'll be calling you again. Soon. Have the representative of the national guard with you."_

"Uhhhh—"

"_Goodbye."_

**Click.**

"…………..," Smith took a deep breath. He looked up….gazing out the freshly planted windows of the new building front.

Past the busy-bodied, contented workers passing before and behind him, the Lieutenant stared out and saw a wintry City growing dark.

And the night sky…..

The night sky was a deepening….deepening red color…..


	240. Wrought Iron

**240. Wrought Iron**

December 1, 2004

Countryside

6:53 pm

Forest.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Twelve members of the Wildebeest Society stood around the Batmobile.

Two of them assisted Robin and I as we hoisted a slightly-charged Cyborg into the driver's seat of the vehicle.

He lay back limply in the cockpit, nodding numbly at us. Seemingly breathless.

The Wildebeests withdrew and Robin walked up to the side of the sliding door/top of the vehicle. He smiled gently—half forced—and said: "Vic…you're going out for a little evening drive."

"Hoo boy….," Cyborg murmured.

"When the Batmobile gets to Metropolis, it'll set off a beacon that will alert Superman—if anyone—to your location. From there on out, S.T.A.R. Labs should patch you up and maybe you'll be lucky enough to get the attention of Tempest and the Man of Steel."

"And what if I _don't_?"

"Then at least you'll get repaired one way or another," Robin patted his shoulder. "Vic…..this is for the best. We look forward to seeing you soon."

"I hope this plan of yours works," the android Titan merely mumbled.

"………," Robin took a deep breath. "I am supremely…utterly proud of you, Cyborg."

He turned his limp head and smirked at the Boy Wonder. "Tim…that works on Jordan. Me? I'm a different story."

"How about this? I'm freakin' envious of you. At least you might get some damn sleep out of all this."

"Heh heh heh…," Cyborg patted Robin's shoulder back with his one good arm. "Now _that's_ what I'm talking about…."

A spark off of Cyborg's metal skull.

He twitched…winced….and sighed. "God bless these cowbell soldiers and all—but—their computer systems really suck."

"Funny that 'J' of all people would be their one human friend, huh?"

"Yeah….heh heh…..funny….."

"…………"

"…………."

Robin took a deep breath. "Vic…I promise you. If all else fails, Jordan and I will work this out. We'll hold back Dagger. We'll save the Titans…and the City."

"And Deathstroke?"

"Maybe you'll be up and running _at least_ by that time," Robin gazed aside. He murmured: "We'll need all the help we can get….."

"………," Cyborg leaned his head to the side. "Ya know….._Tim_…..now that I know you're the heir of a rich billionaire in a batsuit, your stubbornness makes a Hell of a lot of sense."

"Heh…er…y-yeah….," Robin scratched the back of his neck.

Cyborg gently shook his head in wonder. "But for the life of me……I can't figure out where the 'punk' in you comes from." He swallowed….then added in a softer voice: "And how exactly that punk is changing….."

"………ride safely, Vic," was all Robin had to say. He stepped backwards from the Batmobile. "Reserve your energy."

"Yeah….for the double-ass kicking," Cyborg nodded. He looked my way. "Keep it real, Jordan."

I smiled. I gave him a thumb's up.

"Give that Messenger a kick in the ovaries for me!"

"_I heard that!"_

"Heheheheheh……….ughhhh…….allright, Houston. Okay to go."

Robin nodded. He pulled out a remote and clicked it.

**Beep.**

_Schwissssssssh!_

The door to the Batmobile slid shut, causing Victor Stone's face to vanish from view. The engines revved. The lights flickered on. Robin initiated the autopilot from remote, and a previously-programmed track towards Metropolis was followed to the T. The vehicle rolled out of the forest, back up the dirt road, and zoomed on under the shadows of falling evening. A cold wind seemed to blow stronger once the android Titan was gone. Robin walked off somewhere and the Wildebeests started to disperse.

"……….," I stared with my hands in my tattered fatigues' pockets. I took a deep breath.

_Is the end to something? _

_Or the beginning of an end to something?_

The Messenger walked up, his hands in his seatjacket's pouch. "Hmmmm…..nothing outlasts the Energizer Boo-Ya."

"……..," I gazed at him. My face in a twisted expression.

He turned to look at me, droning: "It keeps going….and going……….and going……"

"………….."

"………….you could use some shampoo."

I ran a hand through my long, thick locks. All frazzled. Dirty.

_Yeah……_

I sighed.

_God help me, Ana. _

_I'm tired of having long hair._

_I really am……_

"Well, I'd better get going myself," the Messenger simpered. "Ragnorak to prevent and all that."

I nodded.

"……..you know….," he scratched his head. He sought the words. He found them: "I never thought I'd find myself delving into this dimension so much. This is an—heh—awfully dangerous place to be. What, with supervillains and intergalactic invasions, and pink-haired lesbians left and right…..a guy really has to watch his head he walks out of the door, ya know?"

I shrugged.

"I don't know how you do it. But it's admirable. Not just you…but all the Titans. All the young…..do-wells."

"…….," I leaned my head to the side. Taking a good, long look at this goofy asian kid who seems to incessantly tag along with every adventure I go on as of late.

He looked back at me. He smiled: "Still wandering why I like to pester you so much, eh smokey?"

_Damn mind reader._

I nodded…….

He motioned for me to lean forward.

I did so.

He brought his face to my ear, paused for a moment, then whispered: "….cuz if I only sat at a computer and wrote fanfics about you all day, well, that still wouldn't be half as good as the real thing….now would it?"

I shoved him.

"Wh-Whoah! Heeeeey…heheheheh….touchy touchy, Mr. Soft and Mushy!"

I folded my arms. Pouting.

"Face it, Noir. Some secrets are best kept silent. It's all sexy that way."

_Congratulations, Mr. Oxymoronic._

"Heh….you would be an expert on silence at least…."

I raised an eyebrow above my shades.

"Well, time for me to skedaddle," he stretched cracked his knuckles, faced the far end of the forest, and fingered his watch. "Here's hoping the security system is on the _other_ side of the Tower's welcome mat."

I nodded.

But he was hesitating. He slowly turned his head around and glanced at me over his shoulder. Gentle. Deadpan. "You know….if you gain anything from this whole debacle besides the life of Robin and a new prosthetic limb………maybe it'll be a chance to look back and realize…….you were never held back. Not once."

"…………?" I made a face.

He smiled. "You went West, Noir. You headed to Vegas without hesitation….."

"……….," my lips parted.

He saluted. "Don't let the Wildebeest's bite! At least…not anywhere below the waist. Ciao!"

_**ZAAT!**_

And he was gone.

On a mission.

I took a deep breath. I reached a hand to a rear pocket of my fatigues. I pulled out the harmonica that the Messenger had gotten for me. I fingered its contours. The ridges. The vents and the joints where the wood met the metal.

"………………."

I took a long, deep breath.

_What's he trying to prove, Ana? _

_That I'm no longer afraid of my past?_

_I still hurt from everything that has happened to me._

_But………_

_It's just n-not……not important anymore._

_**You're**__ important still, Ana. That's a given. You'll __**always**__ be important to me._

_But everything……everything that I remember……and everything that I try to forget……_

_Is it all finally behind me?_

"……………."

I took a shuddering breath.

My eyes didn't know whether to twitch or tear.

_No…… _

_It is not behind me._

_Once all of this is over……_

_And once the worries have died with it……_

_I will……… _

_I w-will have a chance to look back._

_And remember everything._

_Only……_

_I might not feel so bad. _

_Oh Ana……_

_How I long for that._

I hugged the harmonica to my chest.

Exhaling…..

_How I long to just…… _

_Lie down._

_And rest……_

_For a day._

_Or forever._

_Just………_

_Rest…………………_

"…………………….."

I think it was my spatial sense that alerted me first, but there was definitely someone standing behind me. Someone small.

I turned around.

Jericho stood, looking up at me. All of his Wildebeest friends had cleared the forest floor. It was just him and I staring at each other across the natural domain.

"…………," I smiled. I pocketed the harmonica away, blushed a little, and hand-signed: _'The Messenger knows how to give good gifts.'_

Jericho nodded. He gestured back: _'He knows good people to give them to.'_

I smiled.

So did he. His green eyes trailed aside. He fingered the scar on his neck absent-mindedly before signing: _'I was wrong about you……'_

I raised an eyebrow. _'Wrong? How so?'_

'_Long ago. I thought you only went after Slade cuz of anger and hate……'_

I bit my lip. "…….."

He gestured: _'I have spent so many days inside of you. Seeing through your eyes. And now that I have spent so much time alongside you and your friends, I think I understand now.'_

"………….?"

He smiled. A painful grin. _'It is a righteous anger.'_

I sighed in relief at that, but I couldn't help but reply: _'There is no such thing.'_

He glanced aside for a moment before again looking at me and gesturing: _'Perhaps. But your hate is not the same as my father's. It could not possibly be responsible. I think my father tapped into the Red side of your Spectrum on his own. He struggled to curse you with his dying, gurgling breath on that freighter. Did he not?'_

'_I was too busy cursing him to tell.'_

'_Yes. Yes, I can imagine.'_

"………….."

'_I cannot imagine how hard this has been for you, Joey. I think it is best that you station yourself with your Wildebeest pals for the time being. Where Robin and I are going, we are most likely to run into your father. It will not be a pretty battle. And we will not……__**hesitate**__ to end Slade if we have to. And most definitely, we have to.'_

He nodded. _'I understand. I really do, Jordan.'_ He bit his lip.

I leaned my head to the side. "………?"

He walked forward: _'You have helped me, Jordan. You really have.'_

'_Me? Helped you?'_

'_Before my mother died, she said I had an older brother……and a half sister somewhere. I could never see them.'_

'_I am terribly sorry about that, Joey.'_

'_But, you are like the big brother I never got to see. You are like all of my remaining family all in one. I am glad we got to cross paths, Jordan.'_

I smiled at that. _'Well, I was very happy to have fought alongside you as well—'_

He hugged me from the side. His green eyes were wet, and he sniffed.

I calmly ran a hand through his blonde hair and soothingly squeezed his shoulder. I glanced aside….sighing…..

_I miss my family too. _

_My sister……_

_How old is she now?_

_She wouldn't be much older than Joey here………_

_I miss talking to her._

I gazed off towards the thick center of the forest.

Where the tunnels were located.

And…..I was somewhat surprised by the emptiness of it all.

_Wait…… _

_Where did Robin go?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh….here you should find…..a grand assortment of th-the various automobiles—nnghh—that we have collected throughout our days of restless missions. I suppose you could-nngnh---say that it is all a harmlessly….impromptu inventory. Not many of us can even operate these th-things….but a lot of them belong to neafarrrrious individuals whom—dealt with orrrr not—hardly deserve to possess these things—nngh---anymore….."

Robin walked down a line of cluttered 'junk' in a lower cavern of the Wildebeest lair. On his right side were appliances, stolen weapons in heaps and piles, various junk collected from mafia kingpins and criminal agencies the world over, and random knick knacks of the surface world sort. On the left side—however—there were cars, trucks, motorcycles, and even a boat or two. Half of them were at least two decades old. A good many of them were rusted and inoperable. But a few seemed salvageable, and Robin eagerly looked through each and every one.

The Elder stood at the top of the craggedy rock stairs leading down into the storage cavern. He leaned on his rickety scepter, shook his gray snout, and uttered: "Feel free to choose that which suits you best. I cannot promise something---nnnrghh—as operable as what the Batman providessss you, but good fortune either way."

"No problem….," Robin nonchalantly said. "I think I found something."

"Oh?"

Robin walked over to a bike. A harley. "Hmmmm……" He ran a gloved hand along the leathery handles, down the chassis to the seat and then examined the engine. "Mmmmm-hmmm…." He stood up straight, turned, and addressed the Elder from afar. "Do you have gas?"

"Nnngh….of course…."

"It's perfect," Robin said. He ran a hand through his black hair and observed the harley from the side. "Could use a little polish….not that it matters, of course. How can I repay you?"

"Be victorious in all of your endeavors."

Robin smirked. "Seriously, Elder. You deserve something for your gratitude. How can I serve you?"

"Nnnngh….we are already serving each other….let the politicssss go for the time that is at hand…."

Robin nodded his head. "Understood. I'll let it go….."

"Nnnngh….," the Elder turned about and hobbled out of the room.

"Yup…..," Robin exhaled. He turned and stared blankly at the motorbike. "……let it all go….."

Silence.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's City.

7:04 pm

Front of Tower.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A loud motorized whur.

The huge doors to the Tower opened.

Raven trotted through in her blue robe and black leotard.

The huge doors to the Tower closed.

A loud motorized whur, then a slamming silence.

Raven sauntered softly down the steps.

Calmly.

As if in meditation.

She came to the bottom of the steps and stopped.

Her gaze at her feet.

"……………….."

She looked up.

'Cyborg' stood besides the second T-Car. His arms were folded and he leaned back against the vehicle.

Silence.

"………….," he smiled. "Packed a toothbrush?"

"Hardly a time for a joke," she droned.

'Cyborg' nodded. "Well," he shrugged. "It was worth a try."

"Let's not waste anymore time…."

"Whatever you say, cutie…," he walked over to the passenger side door and opened it for her. "At least let me be a gentleman," he beamed.

"………..," something old settled in her. And the dark girl's lips curved ever so slightly. "Fine…."

She strolled over.

'Cyborg' 'bowed' and held a hand out for her.

She repressed a slight giggled, exhaled it away, and sat in the vehicle…resting her hand in his.

"…………," Raven froze.

"Is everything allright?"

"…………," her fingers gently stroked the contours of his titanium palm. Her eyes were blank.

"Raven?"

"……….h-huh? Oh….uhm….y-yes. Everything is……allright….."

"We'd better start burning rubber now. If it's Noir you're wanting to track down, he'll probably be with Batman. And Batman _always_ hangs out at night."

"R-Right…at night…," she bit her lip and pulled her finger out of his grasp. "Let's go…."

He gently shut the door, walked around the front of the car, and sat down in the driver's seat. He stuck a key into the ignition and twisted it.

_Vrr-rr-rr-rr-rr---_

Raven glanced. "You're not using a computer chip of yours to start it up?"

He twisted the key some more. _Vrr-rr-rr-rr-rr—_

He glanced over, smiled, and winked. "New model…," he softly said.

"……."

_VRRMMMM!_

"There we go! Boo-ya!"

Raven held her hands perfectly in her lap.

Staring ahead…..

_Vrrmmmmm-VRMMMM!_

The T-Car pulled out of the Titan's driveway and made for the land ridge to get to the mainland…then take the Suspension Bridge out.

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the eleventh story of the Tower, Starfire stood at a window.

She stared pensively outward as the T-Car II rolled along through the dark, settling evening.

She bit her lip….holding her hands cupped together before her chest.

A slow….gentle exhale.

"………….."

Garfield walked up and stood beside her. Calmly. He glanced at her. He glanced out the window. He glanced at her again. He smiled gently and said in an even gentler fashion: "You got left out of the loop too, huh?"

Starfire slowly shook her head: "I was not aware that Cyborg and Raven were going on such an expedition at this time…."

Garfield sighed and shrugged in an exhaustive manner. "They're not telling us anything these days. Just as well, I suppose. They need the time to make up….you know what I mean? Heheheheheh….."

Starfire's green eyes narrowed. "I do not understand…..What if something horrible was to occur in the City? If there was a criminal breakout, than only you and I could be trusted upon to intercede upon the behalf of the innocent citizens!"

"Nothing we can't handle, right?"

"…….," Starfire turned and gazed at him. Her head leaning to the side. "Garfield….you are extensively……_cheerful_ tonight."

He smiled. "Didn't Raven tell you? I've been training out! It's high time I stopped—ya know—moping about the depressing things of last month and start embracing the new me! That's acceptable…..r-right?"

Starfire's gaze fell to the floor. "There is….a great deal of depression yet to defeat in this somber domain…."

"Hey…," the changeling walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What say you and I take it easy tonight? Cyborg and Raven are having their 'fun'. So can we, right? No need to be cooped up in this godawful Tower!"

"…………," the Tamaranian girl smiled. "Hmmm….hehehe….yes, Beast Boy. It is only fitting. We must celebrate life in every faculty…."

"Uh uh uh!" he raised a finger.

She had a hurt face. "'N-No'?"

He winked. "It's not 'Beast Boy' anymore."

She rolled her green eyes. "Ohhhh, Garfield. You and your evolving mannerisms. How can an alien female keep up?"

"You can start by thinking what type of pizza topping you want!"

"Oooooh…hehehe! How divine….let us endeavor upon embracing sustenance outwardly!"

"Hehehe…yeah….what you said…."

And the two sauntered down the hallway, side by side.

Alone.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Countryside.

7:17 pm

Mountain outside of Wildebeest Lair

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A rough country road wandered down the bumpy incline through the forest trees and towards the Metropolitan Highway yawning beyond.

A dull, maroon sky slept above us.

Pinpricks of stars started to dot the last fingers of the stretching sunset.

Amber was gradually being replaced with mahogany.

_Or was it?_

We didn't notice.

I stood, absent-mindedly turning Myrkblade over and over in my grasp.

I glanced over with naked black eyes at Robin.

He stood straight…still…a few feet away from the borrowed Harley.

"…………….," the Boy Wonder gazed out at the southward expanse. The treetops. The slopes. The last inches of pavement and dirt and rock and sparkling lakes being kissed by the sunset's penumbra.

Silence…..

A cold wind.

A few flakes.

Neither of us shivered. We both seemed well-used to the cold weather by now.

Two boys.

Two vigilantes.

Miles apart by birth.

Inches apart by destiny.

Destiny….the red sword…..

The Aviary turned red…

Throbbing.

"…………," Robin took a breath. He reached a pair of gloved hands up and removed his eyemask. Tim blinked his ocean-blue eyes. Narrowing them. Staring hard and intently across the landscape.

"………….," I looked at him sideways, leaning on Myrkblade.

His lips moved a few seconds before a breathy voice came forth: "We are going to live through this, Noir."

"…………?" I blinked my black eyes.

He swallowed. He bravely uttered: "We will live….because I've found a new obsession. Something that won't consume me. Something that makes me want to live more than triumph."

A beat.

He looked over at me. Full of life. A breathing, existing young boy. "I have never…._ever_…..seen her eyes up close without the tunnel vision of my mask getting in the way." He swallowed. He gazed southward again. "Such emerald pools….so pretty. So……So wonderfully beautiful…." He shuddered. His sapphires moistened a bit as he rubbed a sleeve across his cheek and added: "…..I _must_ live to see them as I am now. I _WILL_ live for that. For…for Tim……………I-I only hope she will want to….live with Tim as much as with Robin……once all of this is over….."

I smiled. A slow inhale. Warming….

His lips curved painfully. "Flowers…..I think she likes….yellow. Pink and yellow. Heheheheheh….," he hugged himself and uttered a breathy footnote: "I'll get her a whole, god damn bouquet…."

I chuckled breathily. I turned my shades over in a black hand. I eyed my reflection in it. The black-eyed freak. The 'X' on my neck. The fresh scar on my cheek from November Fourth….

"……Jordan…."

I looke dup.

Tim slipped his eyemask on again. Robin gazed intently at me. He said: "I am alive today. And I have caught up with Triangular. And I have learned to change….and learned to accept so many things. I am much weaker than I have ever been before in my life. And yet….I-I've never felt freer. Terra has been resurrected. The Titans are still alive. Red Aviary has come to a halt in spite of all his violent aggression…..and I cannot imagine how this all would come to be….or where I would be otherwise….if it wasn't for you and all that you have sacrificed to get here."

"……..," I smiled bashfully. I shrugged.

He stared at me and uttered in pure sincerity: "Seriously, Jordan…..You have risked life and limb, sanity, and your very own career to see to my safety…and the Titans' salvation. None of this would be possible without you. And….I-I couldn't face neither the Hand nor the Dagger if it weren't for your intercession….."

I turned the shades over once more. I leaned Myrkblade against my thigh. I brought the sunglasses over my face and rested them there. I faced Robin. I hand-signed: _'The Hand and the Dagger may be overwhelming indeed. But while one more hand is left dangling, I intend to bleed as much as I have to tonight just to hear the sound of that lonely limb clapping.'_

Robin smiled. He shook his head slowly: "We have to go all the way, Noir."

"……….."

"We have to end Deathstroke. We have to destroy Slade…..or else everything will repeat itself again. And the next time through—if we fail—will be so much bloodier than my apprenticeship, or the betrayal of Terra, or the torturing of the Titans with Jinx, or even the swinging sword of the Red Reaper. We must break the circle….to end the full circle…."

I nodded vehemently.

He raised a fist. "**Together**…..Noir……As always…..now and forever…..are you with me?"

I smiled.

I raised my fist.

We collided both of our knuckles twice. Up high. Down low. We dove our palms outward and gripped each other's hand in a firm shake. **GRIP!** We held each other's fist in vice-like furor, grinning doubly. We pulled…snapped our fingers, and pointed at each other before doing thumb's up.

I mouthed: _'You know I sure as Hell am.'_

He nodded, walked over, and straddled the harley.

_VrrrrrrrRRRMMM!_

"Let's do this……"

I took a deep breath and faced the southern mountain slope with him.

_CHIIIING!_

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Titan's City.

7:34 pm

Tower.

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_Th-Thwap! _

_WHAM!_

_THWAP!_

Inside the gym, Garfield was busily panting….huffing…and punishing the heck out of a punching bag.

He built his muscles up the best he could. Sweating. Exercising.

After a few relentless seconds of toughening his upper limbs, he stepped aside and took a big swig of water. He toweled his brow and chest. Still panting.

He lingered for a moment….thought of something…and wandered off to the sidelines.

He walked over to an intercom and pressed a button on it, still toweling up.

"Star….Garfield to Star….you there?"

He waited.

Waited.

Waited……

He pressed the intercom again. "Starfire? Koriand'r? This is Garfield. You anywhere in the Tower?"

He waited.

Silence…………

"Hrmmmm……"

He pressed the intercom again. "Starfire? Cyborg? Raven?" A beat. He blinked. "A-Anybody?"

Nothing.

He leaned back, arms folded. "Where the heck is everybody…..?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Minutes later….

The changeling walked up to the glass windows of the Main Room.

He gazed out at the darkening City.

The fall of night….

He squinted his emerald eyes as he swore he saw a figure flying over the Bay towards the main land. The Bayside Plaza to be exact.

A green-streaking figure. Feminine. With another _green_ figure in tow.

"………..," Garfield blinked. "Star?"

A beat.

He scratched his head. "Heh….got a new friend I don't know about?"

Silence.

The changeling glanced up.

He squinted yet again.

The night sky….

_It looked awfully……_

_Red that night._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Hmmmm….," Starfire tongued her cheek and glanced left and right as she and Garfield walked down a sidewalk. She was dressed in a pink sweater over a white shirt and long, gray jeans. "My….quite a few stores appear…._closed_ earlier than one would expect!"

"Huh?"

She pointed at many of the darkened establishments. "The Pizza Parlor that we have felicitously enjoyed in the past….it is not operative at the moment. And—behold!—many of the usual hormonal occupiers of regularity are not present! The streets are veritably empty…."

"Hmmmm…," Garfield tapped his temple. He smirked. "I know!"

"You do?"

"Yeah, Star. If I knew better….I'd say a bunch of the businesses are closing down for the new holiday that mayor proposed. It's almost been a month since then, ya know…"

"Oh…..," Starfire hung her head. "Then this is now a time of mourning. Perhaps we should venture back to the Tower—"

"Are you crazy?" he giggled and hugged her arm. "Come on! We should be happy that we're alive! Hey….that Chinese place downtown has _got_ to be open! Let's go check it out!"

She smiled. "Hehehehe….oh to the kay, Garfield. I should know better than to attempt resisting your mutual jubilation."

"Heh….you said it sister. You lead the way!"

"Gladly…," she giggled and walked ahead.

"………," Garfield watched after her. He took a long breath. His limb flexing. "…….._Zzzt!"_ There was a **flicker** about his figure. Like a holographic short-circuit. "………" He grinned evilly. He strolled slowly after her…taking his time before catching up……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Country Road.

7:44 pm

T-Car 2.

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'Cyborg' whistled.

His hands to the wheel.

He drove steadily northward.

Trees blurred past the vehicle on both sides.

But they weren't speeding.

Merely a……swift cruise.

'Cyborg' glanced aside at Raven.

"………….," she was staring steadily ahead of them. "………" She glanced over towards the driver seat.

He winked, smiled, and kept on whistling as he drove.

"…………," Raven again stared forward.

Only this time….

She sighed and hugged herself.

As the trees blurred….blurred….blurred…

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Metropolitan Highway.

7:46 pm

Batmobile.

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…blurred….blurred….blurred….blurred.

Cyborg was lying back in the driver's seat.

Breathing hoarsely.

The energy in his batter reserves was leaking again.

His wakefulness dwindled.

His human eye was thin.

His one left hand rose up towards something invisible between himself and the ceiling as the autopilot guided him Metropolis-bound.

He murmured….

"D-Don't cry……D-Don't cry for me……."

He shuddered.

His human eye rolled back.

His lips pursed.

"…..N-Not until I am there……Not until I can see it….Not until….."

He rambled.

He twitched.

The red light in his robot eye began to fade again.

"………Nnngh….mmf…."

He hiccupped.

He bit his lip.

A tear formed in his shut, human eye.

He shuddered: "N-Not until I can….h-have your cute….fragile self in m-my arms again……"

The cockpit was silent.

Things quieted with the blurring…blurring….blurring….

"I-I'm so sorry…..s-so………..s-s-s-sorry………….."

And he was unconscious.

The digits in his arm panel blinking:

_Zero. _

_Zero._

_Zero._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Metropolis.

7:49 pm

S.T.A.R. Labs.

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For the umpteenth night in a row, the Justice League was bickering.

Diana and J'onn stood at one end of the laboratory.

Flash and Green Lantern—his arm in a sling—stood at the opposite end.

Superman stood between the group, attempting to mediate between the exchanged statements and heated remarks.

Steel sat on the sidelines, leaning on his sledgehammer. Sighing….

And Tempest….

Tempest sat at the window.

A dark window looking out on the icy waves of the Metropolitan Bay.

Through the cold, electric reflection of his white-on-black eyes…the Atlantean gazed out and saw flakes of snow settling down onto the frothy waves.

"……………."

He reached a hand out.

He silently palmed the glass.

His white irises flickered a gentle purple.

He waved his hand….

And the flakes on the other side started to dance and twirl gently in the air.

Swimming about each other like happy, existential plankton.

Melting as soon as they appear.

A hidden heat that even he couldn't see.

But he looked for it anyways.

Exhaling.

Fogging the glass.

Drifting….drifting….drifting…..

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Titan's City.

7:52 pm

Apartment.

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Lindsay sat cross-legged on her bed.

She was scribbling in a notebook, attending to after-supper homework.

In the gentle glow of a bedside lamp, she strapped a pair of headphones to her ears. Listening to Michael W. Smith.

"……………," she paused in her writing. She gazed up. Her face blank. "……….."

She pressed 'pause' on her CD player.

She sat up from the bed and stood in the center of the room.

Cold…alone.

The distant sound of a t.v. in the family room wafted under her door crack.

The gentle cries of Phillip.

"……….."

She walked over to the window.

She gazed out onto the avenue beyond.

The walls of the adjacent apartment complex.

The darkness of the night's shroud.

And….

A gentle red hue about it all.

A maroon glow rested across her freckled features.

Soft….almost inviting.

But chilling all the same.

She shakily brushed a lock of stringy brown hair out from her brow and murmured a mute prayer to the shadows….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Renee walked down the stairs of their home.

It was a struggle.

Her belly was hardly the enormity that she was soon to fear, but it did make it a slightly lopsided effort to descend. Regardless, she adjusted her gown and walked the last few steps before reaching the ground level.

She shuffled her way towards the door to the soon-to-be nursery. A light was pouring in from the other side. As well as the smell of paint and varnishing equipment.

She pushed the door open with a creaking sound.

She gazed in.

Daniel was asleep in the middle of an exhausting evening of decorating the nursery. He was draped across a working bench, his hand still gripping a paint brush. Splotches of pastel grazing his cheeks.

His breath was low and mild.

She couldn't help but smile.

She walked over to the corner, grabbed a blanket, shuffled to her husband's side, and laid it over his back.

He stirred a bit, dropped the paintbrush to the newspaper laced floor, and snoozed away.

Slowly….Renee's smile faded. She took a deep breath. Her eyes watered and—in somber intimacy—she leaned over till her upper body and head cuddled with the nook of his slumbering shoulder and neck.

She remained there for a while.

Silent.

Still.

Entwined……

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Lisa finished tucking Ashley into the left side of the bed.

Ashley snuggled under the covers, her back to her already sleeping brother. She smiled and murmured something sleepily.

Lisa managed a smile. She said something soothing in reply, brushed a few strands of Ashley's hair aside, and turned off the bedside lamp.

She walked out of the room—once solely her bedroom—and shut the door softly behind her.

Once alone, she leaned back against a wall of the apartment living room and sighed. She dragged a hand up and pushed a few of her own strands aside, revealing her eyepatch to the liquid soft light of the evening domain.

She limped across the room to her month-long, makeshift 'bed' on the couch.

She sat down and produced a notebook full of sketches.

She turned to one picture in particular….a post-mortem illustration of Howard and Gladys Knight….posing with their children Ashley and Greg.

A family in peace. Smiling. Together.

A family in fantasy….

Lisa bit her lip, closed the notebook, and hugged it to her chest with a sigh.

"………"

She reopened her one good eye. She slowly turned and gazed out the window of her and her sister's apartment.

Towards the red bricks of the building across the way.

Red bricks…

Redder.

"…………"

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City outskirts.

8:03 pm

Warehouses.

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His knife twirled…twirled…twirled…twirled in his hand.

Dagger stood at the edge of a large, seemingly abandoned warehouse surrounded by forest and elevated countryside.

He gazed at the one mountain road leading down into the small, bleak valley.

A mountain road suddenly being occupied by four solid cargo trucks full of shady personnel. The headlights gleaming.

His eyes narrowed.

A body stepped up from the sidelines.

Dagger glanced over.

"……..," Killer Croc stood tall. Anxious. Slowly breathing…..anticipating….

"………," Dagger nodded his head.

Killer Croc grinned his mutated teeth. He motioned and whistled shrilly at a few henchmen standing to the side.

Just as the trucks arrived and unloaded their men, Killer Croc and a handful of thugs rushed to their stations and opened the huge, looming doors of the warehouses.

Revealing…..

Jeeps.

Gattling guns.

Stacks of grenades and machine gun caches.

And….

More vehicles.

More guns…..

Four H.I.N.D.s

Two cargo helicopters.

And even shadier shapes in the furthest corners of the shelters.

Dagger took a deep breath. He stopped spinning the knife and gripped its hilt.

"…….."

As everyone went into action, the deadpan despot stared straight up.

At the reddening sky….

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Northern Appalachians.

8:12 pm

Open air.

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_FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!_

Soaring high over the mountain tops and into the frigid cloud cover….

Terra guided the huge rock platform westward…and gradually northward…

Constantly concentrating.

With ever her hands outstretched.

Fingers crooked, but firm.

Her goggled eyes and her meditative wrists pulsing a bright gold.

Cutting a yellow-hot path through the dark, open night.

But it was still dark.

So Pulsade stood at the 'front' of the rock platform. She stretched both palms out and produced a star-bright glow of light.

Illuminating the clouds and mountains that loomed before the four girls' shimmering path.

It was cold, and Jinx shivered where she sat in the center of the rocketing platform.

For the sake of everyone, Supergirl was busily breaking loose a clump of rock from the flying platform and holding it in two steely hands. She glared at the rock until her eyes glowed a hot orange and two heat beams flew into the material, heating it up.

Like coal, the rock burned between the four bodies and warmed them.

Terra managed a smile.

Jinx silently nodded her head 'thanks' at Supergirl.

The Girl of Steel was as silent as Pulsade, her mind and blue eyes elsewhere….

Warming up, Jinx gazed along the horizon. Her pink cat optics lingered southward…then narrowed. With pursing lips, she leaned questioningly forward and graced the Southern edge of the hemisphere.

Where—beyond the mountain slopes—a red aura seemed to form….

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Countryside.

8:16 pm

Open field.

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Four large, meaty shapes stood in the shadowed plain.

They looked about, anxiously.

Waiting…

Snorting……

Then…………..

A tunnel opened besides them from the earth.

They grunted and stepped back in a half, crescent halo.

Three more shapes emerged from the tunnel.

One of which—a graying figure—was gracing a little blonde boy straddling his crown.

Jericho rested upon the Elder's upper body. He gestured to the four Wildebeests waiting in the field.

They 'read' what he had to say and nodded in one accord.

One lifted his snout and let out a low-throated groan/call.

Twelve more figures raised their horned heads from beneath the tall grass. Coming out of hiding, the contingent of Wildebeest brethren wandered over to the Elder and bowed reverently before him and the blonde son of Slade.

The Elder merely waved his scepter, snorted, uttered something, and pointed at Jericho.

Jericho hand-signed something in finality.

All the Wildebeest surrounding him nodded.

Jericho took a deep breath, hopped atop a tall and strong beast's back, and pointed southward with a strong little arm while shrilly whistling.

Loud.

And strong.

All the Wildebeests—the Elder included—turned south…

And marched.

And soon, more and more were emerging from the tunnel to join them in the slouching exodus across the field.

Dozens of Wildebeests.

Scores.

Hundreds….

Rumbling stealthily through the star-laden night…

And the coldly swaying tall grass.

Like shadows.

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Metropolitan Highway.

8:20 pm

Southbound lanes.

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_VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!_

Robin sped on the highway.

The traffic was thin and next to non-existent.

The wind kicked at his hair and threatened to coldly slap his eyemask off.

Regardless, he braved the most frigid currents of it.

His gloved hands tight to the wheel.

And—taking a deep breath—he gazed to the side of his speeding vehicle….

….and saw the smoking, speeding blur that was me.

_Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwooosh!_

I managed amidst my blurred movement to look sideways at him, smile, and wave.

He smiled back and nodded his head.

Then gunned it.

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

He burned rubber southward…straight towards the City.

I soared alongside him, not losing a single second of time or speed….

Together, we rocketed home.

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Titan's Tower.

8:32 pm

Tower Basement.

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Hidden….

Nestled….

Between golden, glowing vials of thermalkinetic essence….

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

Carbonite charges chirped.

Carbonite charges blinked.

Carbonite charges ticked down….

To the fiery dawn of ground zero.

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The City.

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The shadow stands.

On the outskirts.

Red and black.

Frothing crimson vapors against the wayward flakes of white.

Two tails dancing behind his twitching head.

A shotgun in one hand.

A two edge sword in the other.

Glaring.

Staring.

Devouring the City with his pulsing, red eye….

"_**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkkk………hckkkkktt…….snkt…snkkt….snkkKKT-CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-HCKKKKKKKTTTTT!"**_

_**FLASSSSH!**_

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…………………………_to be concluded._


	241. Break the Circle part 1

**241. Break the Circle part 1**

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_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt…..**_

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_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt….. **_

The sounds of gears and axels flooded the underground chamber.

Infernal wheels and mechanisms twisted and vibrated and shook together.

And beneath the doubled shadows of such, the two figures resided in somber softness.

Laced viciously with rusted brown metal and black mesh….

_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Hckkkkkt….. **_

A tumbling collection of gears slowed to a creaking stop.

The footsteps of the taller figure resonated as he paced about against a sudden gray glow.

A gray glow that transformed into a row of flickering, staticy monitors.

In horrific, digital accuracy, the interior circulatory systems of the four Titans could be seen.

'_Beast Boy.' _

'_Cyborg.'_

'_Raven.'_

'_Starfire.'_

Each and every monitor displayed tiny, deadly nanomachines clipping onto the blood cells and fusing themselves to the organic substructure of every hero and heroine.

"The Titans still have no idea that my chronoton detonator was more than a decoy….," Slade gestured as he walked around his new apprentice. "Now that my probes are inside their bodies, they could remain undetected for years……decades…."

Robin took a deep breath. His jaw was tight. His fists clenched, one hand gripping the stolen laser device so hard it might have snapped in two….

"Unless of course…"

Robin looked over.

Slade stepped halfway up to Robin, his hands behind his back. "….you disobey me……and I decide to destroy your former friends with a push of the button." With added emphasis, he fingered the trigger equipped to his glove. His emblazoned eye narrowed at Robin.

The Boy Wonder braved the icy glare and pointed while practically hissing: "Sooner or later, you'll let your guard down. I will get that controller. And the instant they're out of danger……..you….will….._pay……_

Slade marched towards him threateningly. He snarled: "That sounds like a threat, young man." He glared and softened his voice some. "Quite a good threat, actually…." He took the laser weapon from Robin's grasp and proceeded to tweak it with fiendish expertise. "Betrayal, destruction, revenge….we really do think alike."

Something boiled in Robin.

His muscles shook and strained under his metal mesh uniform.

His teeth clenched and his face twisted….

And as soon as Slade has his back turned—for but a moment—the apprentice launched himself at him.

"Raaaugh!"

_Swoosh-__**GRIP!**_ In a blink, Slade had spun around and grabbed Robin's forearm. He twisted his limb—and the whole boy's body for that matter—the wrong way entirely and forced the gasping apprentice down towards the ground, quivering and writhing from the strong pressure.

"I monitored your vital signs during the mission…," Slade hissed. Practically into the boy's ear. "Elevated heart rate. Adrenaline. Endorphins. You won't admit it, but at some level….you _enjoyed_ stealing for me. It was a thrill…….wasn't it?"

Th-Thwap!

Robin was tossed aside.

He gasped and twirled up to his feet, rubbing his hand…wincing.

Slade paced around him. Continuing naturally: "You're going to keep stealing, Robin. And you're going to keep getting that thrill. And sooner or later….you will see things my way." He finished his work on the laser rifle. He walked over to Robin and fitted it on the apprentice's armband. "Who knows? I might even become like a father to you."

_**Hckkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkkkktttt…… **_

The wheels above grinded together.

"…….," Robin took a deep breath. He tilted his head up. "I already have a father…."

Slade faced off at an angle from Robin. "Indeed you do….and yet you choose to live life an orphan?"

Robin clenched his fists again. He didn't bother to look at Slade. "I choose to live life for good."

"Correction….you _used_ to….my apprentice…," Slade paced around him. Gesturing: "I know what it is that ultimately haunts you, Robin. I know what keeps you sweating…bleeding….struggling day in and day out every sunrise and sunset of your life." He came to a stop, resting his metal-meshed hands behind his back. "You refuse to lose, don't you?"

"I refuse to _let evil win."_

"'Good' and 'evil' are empty words, Robin," Slade pointed. "The only reality you should be concerned with is the thrill I am now bestowing up on you every night. It is something you must seize. Something you must….hold onto and junction yourself to." The villain walked around and stared Robin down in the face. Emblazoned eye to glazed mask. "Do you actually think that fighting alongside your Titan friends would supply you with that element? That much-needed boost to grow? To become something you've always wanted to be?"

Robin tried to glare back at him. But something was distracting him. He found himself gazing beyond Slade's mask at the four flickering screens of the Titans' raped bloodstreams. Their blood. Their names. The Boy Wonder's lips opened waveringly and he said with summoned strength: "What I want to be….is not something you could ever provide."

"That is because you are still stubborn…," Slade hissed through his mask's mouthslits hotly into the Boy Wonder's face. "That is because you are afraid. For the first time in your life, you are afraid. You now have a chance to be strong, Robin. Not the weak, _human_ thing you always were as a sidekick…and as a Titan."

"Don't….judge…..me……," Robin snarled.

Slade leaned back, gesturing: "Oh, I don't have the power to judge, Robin. But then again…what loving parent does?"

"…….."

Slade slowly, icily stepped around Robin. "I have the power….and the authority….to shape you in what I see fit. And though you don't see it now….and though the _thrill_ is the only window through which you have to envision your future self…..I know every new potential waiting for you. You are to change into this…this new ideal, Robin. You are to shed every piece of you that is human. You will be my apprentice. Superhuman and supernatural to the last. You will be my apprentice….even if I must wear off every shred of you that clings to your worthless…..pathetic……weak…..childhood….."

Slade came to a stop behind Robin. He placed his hands on the Boy Wonder's shoulders. He leaned forward and whispered into Robin's ear:

"Even if I must……annihilate every remaining trace of touch you have for your friends……in that weak body of yours….._my son………"_

_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt….. **_

Robin was shivering. He stared fixedly at the monitors. At the names of the Titans. The pumping blood. The life. The internal, raping essence of Slade swimming within.

Slade took his hands gently off of Robin's shoulders.

The apprentice stood there, shivering still.

Trying to stand up straight.

Trying to remain tall.

His body firm.

His jaw tight.

His muscles tense.

"…………………….."

_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt…..**_

………..

_WHAM!_

Slade's elbow smashed into the base of Robin's skull.

"Nnngh!" the Boy Wonder tumbled forward, panting. Pulsing all over in pain. He struggled…..shook…but slowly….slowly stood back up straight. A little more numb...

Subordinately refusing to return a fist to Slade…….

His eyes on the nanoprobes inside his friends……

"……….."

_TH-THWACK!_

A fist across the small of his back.

Robin winced and leaned forward.

"RrrrRRAUGH!" Slade spun around and plowed his fist hard into Robin's gut.

_WHUMPPPP!_

Robin gasped.

He clutched his stomach.

He wheezed, fell on his knees….

Spat blood.

His eyes twitched under his mask as he sat….shivering. Looking up.

'_Beast Boy'_

_SM-SMACK!_

A foot slammed across his brow.

He fell back on the cold floor.

Twitching.

His gaze momentarily rested on the gears and axles above.

_**Hckkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkttt….. **_

He struggled to his knees.

Still not fighting back.

Still not resisting.

He tried to stand up.

His eyes darted across the monitors.

'_Cyborg.'_

_GRIP!_ A fist around his neck. Another fist to his face. _WHAM! _Again. _SMACK! _And again. _SL-SLAM!_

He was thrown down to his side.

He coughed.

He spat up more blood.

But he gazed fixedly on the nanoprobes.

And he refused….

He refused to fight back…..

So weak.

So….._human._

'_Raven'._

"Nnnnnnngh!" _SLAM!_

A boot to his rib cage.

Robin curled up.

Coughing.

Sputtering.

Twitching all over.

His eyemask was thin.

He shook and struggled to look up at the monitor.

His bruised lips quivering.

His skin red and welted….

'_Starfire'._

Robin panted….panted…..panted….

His hand shook.

His fingers stretched out.

A gloved palm moved in the direction of the distant monitor.

'_Starfire'._

"……………"

His fingers curled closed.

His hand fell.

He rested his body.

Exhaling…………………

_WHAM!_

A kick to the small of his back.

"Nnngh!"

He convulsed.

Slade knelt down and punched his face…elbowed his forehead….and stood up with a final kick to the shoulders that sent Robin tumbling…tumbling…tumbling to a stop on the far side of the metal floor.

Near unconscious.

Bleeding…..

"Your initiation has begun, apprentice…."

_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkt……**_

"You have but only one….father……now……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………..," Robin took a deep shuddering breath.

I gestured to him.

"…………..," he said nothing. He didn't even move.

I whistled.

"?" he glanced over.

With his attention now, I again hand-signed: _'The highways looks perfectly clear from here on out.'_

Robin nodded, running a shakey hand through his black bangs. "Y-Yeah…..almost like nobody's going cross country at all tonight. And this is one of the nation's biggest, busiest highways. Period."

"……..," I gazed silently down at the stretch of asphalt below the mountainous edge where we were perched. I leaned against Myrkblade. Robin's temporary harley rested a few meters down the north face of the hill. The night stretched on over us. Silent. Cold. Laden with sparse patches of frost settling…settling…settling….

"Everything feels so…..dead….," the Boy Wonder murmured.

I gazed sideways at him.

He swallowed. "I-I suppose…we shouldn't expect any less or more. Red Aviary is on the same path as we are. For all we know, he could be here. Spreading his crimson blight…."

I hand-signed: _'I think Slade was intent on paying a visit to the Titans, Robin.'_

Robin nodded. "Of course. Of course. I'm not denying that. Hell…we have no time to stand around and speculate." He adjusted his cape, turned towards me, and said: "I just get this….awful feeling."

I nodded.

"Like we're walking into a trap. Naturally, we always are. But….to what degree of terror is it this time? Dagger has proven that he can be one step ahead of the game….always. And D-Deathstroke has shown how deep he can drive his own blade in. What can we do that they would _not_ expect and take advantage of at this point?"

I took a deep breath. A cold wind blew at my long black locks as I gazed aside towards the southern horizon.

_Dagger. _

_Slade. _

_Coming to a head all in one dark……sickly night. _

_Only instead of a freighter on the Bay, there's the cold darkness surrounding all. _

_And instead of a storm-swept skyscraper, there's the frost of a broken City stretching before us. _

_Everything is coming full circle. A different shade. Perhaps a different rule book. _

_But still, the exact……same…….players……_

I hand-signed: _'We will figure it all out, Robin. There must be a way to break this pattern.'_

"Mmmm…..or maybe that's exactly what Slade himself is trying to do…..by killing all of us?"

"…….."

"One thing's for sure. Dagger's merely a vulture. A conniving, genocidal vulture….but second fiddle nonetheless. I know he'll never admit that….but—if we focus too much on him as we've done in the past—we might be falling back into the same, bloody groove. And Red Aviary—like always—will be picking us off…..one by one…."

I bit my lip.

Robin sighed, a hand over his masked face. "Always outnumbered…always overwhelming…..is it just the twists of fate to throw us into this?"

I snapped a finger.

He looked at me.

I hand-signed: _'It is a darn good challenge, though.'_

"……," he smiled. "Damn….you and I are such pathetic heroes, aren't we?"

I smirked.

'_Zzzzt-skkkr—obin, you there?snkkkt!'_

The two of us jumped.

We exchanged glances.

My lips pursed.

I mouthed: _'The Messenger?'_

Robin whipped out his communicator and flipped it open with a Star Trek sound. "Messenger? Is that you?"

'_zzztt-Snkkkt—rying to ge—zzkttt-snskkktt—is vantage po—snkkkt'_

Robin held the communicator up high, attempted to get a better reception….and ultimately frowned.

"It's no use…," the Boy Wonder murmured as the static of the communicator persisted in the background. "He must be too far away to get a proper connection with us."

I leaned my head to the side. I hand-signed: _'Could that mean that he is in the City already?'_

Robin's face brightened. "That could be possible!"

'_Snnnkkt—ething is going—zzztt—snkkkt—or nothing at a—snkkkt"_

"Messenger?" Robin spoke firmly into the communicator. "Messenger! We can barely make you out! You're too far from our receiver! Try and be blunt! Is this an important update? Are you at the Ci—"

'_zzztt—o tell you th—zzkkksnntt—the Tow—snnkkktt—is moment!'_

I took a shuddering breath. I looked helplessly at Robin.

"Messenger, try and stay where you are! Noir and I will be going to meet up with you! The closer we are to each other, the easier we can communicate! Got it?"

'_snkkkt-zzzt-ome office-snnktt—ights and everyth-snnkkktt'_

"Nnngh…," Robin pocketed the communicator away. "What's the use of a Messenger when he can't give a decent message?"

I whistled and pointed southward.

The Boy Wonder nodded. "Absolutely. A blazin' we will go."

I started meditating…summoning the blurring streams of smoke back into my limbs.

Robin rushed over to his harley. He had barely hopped on when he already had the engine revving and the tires squealing.

_SCREEEEEECH!_

_Oh Hell yeah…… _

_We're burning………_

VRMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Robin ramped down the earthen hill and zoomed towards the highway.

I took a breath….

Twirled Myrkblade…

And soared after him.

_FWOOOOSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I'm telling you, Robin, something's up! The City is….like a ghost Town! I barely see a car driving down the street or a light on in a single building! If I didn't know better, I'd say that everyone was---….Robin?" The Messenger stood on the northern edge of a mountain slope across the Bay. He slapped his communicator against a tree. He frowned. He growled to himself and looked across the waters. "Too much distance between us. I should have known." He pouted. "Feh….when fate _shuts me up_, that's a sure sign of bad stuff if I ever heard one…."

Silence.

The Messenger was gazing at the Southern half of the City and Bay. He had arrived in record time, choosing to circle around the Town and approach the City from the South in traditional, cloaked format. But the sight of the dull, lifeless urbanscape troubled him.

So did another sight….

The Tower rested gray and lonely on its waterwashed island in the center of the Bay. But something flickered at the base of the tall structure. Swirling lights. Two police squad cars. And….

_Police officers?_

"I wonder if it's a domestic dispute….," the Messenger said. He braved a momentary smile. A smile that faded. He sighed and pocketed his communicator before starting to walk briskly down the mountainside. "…time to be the usual, nosy nerd-do-well…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the Tower, Garfield walked restlessly across the Kitchen Unit of the Main Room.

He poured himself a glass of tap water from the faucet.

A towel was draped over his figure, clothed in a white tanktop and long green slacks.

The residual sweat from an evening's worth of training was still wearing off of him.

As he poured himself the water, he sighed.

"………….."

The drink filled.

He turned the faucet off.

He lifted the glass to his lips and took a sip. A long…thirsty sip.

He gulped the last of it down, lowered the glass, and exhaled.

His sleeve wiped across his lips.

As he placed the glass down, his green eyes wandered off to the side.

He leaned against the kitchen counter.

Deadpan…..but gradually more and more troubled…..

"It couldn't have been Cyborg or Raven…," Garfield murmured. "Who was Starfire taking off with?"

Silence.

He gazed across the room of the Tower. A room full of memories. Some good. Some bad. Everything a cauldron of Titan-esque legend….

He walked across the room.

He approached the entertainment center.

He gazed at a couple of homemade DVDs half slid out of their shelves.

"………."

He reached a hand out.

He shuffled one out further and turned it around to read the label.

'_Terra's Birthday'._

"…………"

He slid it back in.

He pulled another out.

He gazed at it.

'_Robin and Terra training.'_

And then…

A last DVD case.

One laced with yellow-gold.

'_Robin's farewell speech.'_

"…………………………..," Garfield lifted his gaze. Emerald eyes squinting, he stared off across the Main Room. His jaw clenched….then loosened as his lips parted. "What the Hell is she doing with someone else?"

Silence.

He took a deep breath.

He dropped the DVD case and his fists clenched.

"Th-There's something wrong with her."

He dropped his towel of his shoulders and ran over to the Titan Computer.

He swiftly ran his fingers across the knobs and dials of the Communication Station.

He pulled a mic out and spoke into it while tapping a button: "Star, this is Garfield. Come in!"

Silence.

"Star….._Beast Boy_, remember? Please….respond! Say something, girl!"

Silence.

He took a deep breath.

He flipped a few switches.

He hooked himself into the emergency communication relay.

He breathed deeply and spoke again into the mic: "Starfire, this is Garfield. Come back to the Tower at once!"

Silence.

"Come back, Star!" He fidgeted for but a moment, then added. "It's an emergency!"

…………..

"Please…..give me an answer! I-I'm….I'm worried about you…….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The eyes of 'Garfield' flickered as he and Starfire walked down the sidewalk.

He remained behind her and brought a hand up to his temple.

The flickering in his eyes stopped.

Frowning, he gazed off into space.

"…………."

He brought his right hand to his left arm and touched the flesh.

There was a flickering sensation, like part of his upper limb being opened…then washed into invisibility.

Light beeping sounds filled the nearby air as Garfield 'typed' across his small section of green skin……

"I am most perplexed….," Starfire murmured, gazing all around as she took the lead of their stroll. "Even your beloved places of Oriental distinction are strangely vacant. I fear that there is something transpiring in our Town that we have not been made aware of."

"………..," the changeling kept 'typing'.

The Tamaranian girl turned and gazed intently at him. "G-Garfield?"

He looked up, arms held behind his back. "Hmm?"

"Do you not notice this strange unfolding?"

"Beats the heck out of me, Star….," he shrugged. "Perhaps…erm….the C-City officials have put some sort of street warning into effect?"

"Do you truly believe so?"

"Unless you have a better idea."

She folded her arms, pouting in confusion. "I do not like this. Not in the least." She turned and looked at him. "We would have been warned if something was afoot, correct?"

"Perhaps."

"I suggest that—since we are in the vicinity—we make way to the Police Department and inquire as to the transpirations."

"Good idea…ya know…," 'Garfield' raised a finger and stepped past her. "I was just gonna suggest that."

She blinked. "Oh?"

"Yeah. I know a shortcut. Since there's no traffic for some reason, we can take an alternate route. Follow me—"

"But Garfield, you and I can fly—"

"If there's indeed something to worried about, do you think that you and I should be _flying _across a City in blackout?"

She winced. "Your point is well received…"

"Follow me…," 'Garfield' hunched over and took the lead, rushing around a building corner. With his body hiding his limbs, he smiled and 'typed' more on his forearm. A wicked curve of the lips….far off in their corners. "…we'll get to the bottom of this."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh!" the changeling grunted and tossed the mic to the floor. "Piece of crap….does anything work around here anymore?"

He stood there.

Fuming.

He ran a hand through his scraggly green hair.

Sighed some….

And reached for the communication station again.

"Maybe if I tried to call Cyborg and Raven back—"

_ZZZZT!_

The console suddenly, explosively shocked him.

"Aaaugh!" the green elf hopped back, wincing. He rubbed his wrist and stared at the station.

Gaping.

"What the--?"

_Zzzt!_ The console flickered again. _Zzzzt! Zzz-zzt!_

Two blue bolts shot out from the electronic contraption towards his helpless figure.

He gasped and dove to the side.

_Th-Thwump!_

_ZZZZTT-ZZZZZZTTTT!_ The electric bolts of hot blue ruptured across the Main Room.

Panting, the changeling squatted on the side lines. Watching with wide green eyes as the electrical storm shot across the interior.

After a few seconds, the bolts died.

Smoke rose from random pieces of furniture and singed sections of carpet across the Main Room.

The communication console smoldered. Tiny tongues of flame danced up from the grooves and metal plates of the structure.

Breathless, Garfield stood up. He gulped, shuffled across the hazy domain, and reached a hand out to the nearest security system console on the wall. "Screwy as all get out…..damn. I gotta check the power infrastructure of the—"

_ZZZZZZZTTT!_

"AAAUGH!" the green elf twitched and convulsed as sparks exploded from the conduit and surged across his chest. A burn streak singed the front of his white tank top, and he went toppling head over heels in reverse across the Main Room before collapsing against one of the stools of the Kitchen Unit's counter.

Th-Th-Th-Th-Thwump-WHUMP!

"Nnnngh…," he twitched….winced….

'_Zzzzt! __**Does not compute DNA authorization.'**_

"The Hell?" Garfield stood up, clutching his chest and wincing…..gradually frowning. "You stupid-ass computer! It's me! Beast Boy!"

'_Zzzzt! __**Warning. Does not compute.'**_

"Mrrf…..," Garfield frowned, swiveled around, and marched straight towards the elevator doors. "Screw this, dude. I'm going straight to the energy hub of the Tower to power you down. And as soon as Cyborg comes back, I'm so gonna to—"

_**SCHLUMP!**_ Gray-slate metal shields slammed down over the elevator door in plates. _**SCHLUMP! SCH-SCHLUMP!**_

The changeling gasped, eyes wide. "The Hell?"

_**SCHLUMP!**_

Garfield glanced right.

The stairwell was blocked off.

_**SCH-SCHLUMP!**_

He twirled left.

The utility hallway was sealed with slate gray metal.

He sweated….shaking nervously. "What's going on here?"

'_Zzzt! __**Warning. Does not computer DNA signature. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Location: Computer and Operation Room of Titans' Tower.**__"_

"You stupid crud machine!" Garfield hissed and jabbed a finger at himself. "That's me!"

'_Zzzt! Initiating level 10 defensive matrix!'_

He gasped.

He spun around.

_**SCHLUMP! SCHLUMP! SCHLUMP!**_

Panel by panel, the slate gray blast shields were closing across the windows of the Main Room. They shut from the outside edges and met inward. Sealing everything off…

"NO!"

Changeling twirled, morphed his legs into kangaroo feet, launched himself across the room, dove in the form of a lemur, rolled on the ground as an armadillo, and finally pounced upon the windows in elf form with two gorilla arms splicing upwards and—

_**SCHLUMP-**__**CLAMMMMPPPP!**_

"Nnnnnnnghhh!" Garfield struggled…sweated…and strained as he forced the shield from collapsing down over him. His meaty animal arms wobbled down into his elfin frame and forced his legs to quiver all over. He panted…sweated….and gritted his teeth with the effort. "Come on…..come on!" Panting, he glanced down through the half-window left and gasped.

He saw two squad cars situated in front of the Tower. Their lights swirling, strobing. A couple of officers gathered around the front door of the building. They seemed to be….trying to get in.

"Nnnngh! Somebody! G-Go get help!" the changeling helplessly shouted amidst his strain. "Nnnnngh! Please! Do you hear me? GET! HELP!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Well…this is certainly confusing the Hell out of me…," one police officer scratched his head. "They're not responding to the intercom at all!"

Five other officers stared back. They all looked anxious. Breathless. Even their squad cars were still hissing from having sped there to the Titans' Island.

"First they ignored the Lieutenant's priority one messages. Now they won't even answer their own frickin' door?"

"I don't like this…," another officer uttered nervously. He gazed around the dark waters of the Bay. "Not only was the 'phone call' right on….but now the Titans are a no-show. There's something very….very wrong about this picture…"

"We'd better report back to Smith. Something's already afoot in this City—"

_**ZAAAT!**_

"Mind describing this foot to me, gentlemen?"

The officers turned around. They gasped and all aimed their guns at once. _Cl-Clik! Clak!_

"………," the Messenger blinked from where he sat cross-legged atop the nearest squad car. He stared blankly at the gun barrels aimed at his skull and smirked. "It's because I'm asian, isn't it?"

"……."

"……."

"……..uhm….."

He gestured: "Heaven forbid I pass an AP Calculus test in the general direction of your forehead. But really, boys…."

They lowered their firearms as the leader of the squad walked forward. "I don't know how you got here, kid—"

"Teleported."

"Yeah. Uh huh. Didn't you pay attention to the public announcements?" the officer made a face. "There's a curfew out!"

The Messenger leaned his head to the side. "A curfew………..? Oh really……."

"Do you live in the Southern District?" another officer pointed. "If so, come with us. Everyone in the Southern District has been evacuated to the Subways. Acting Commissioner's orders…."

The asian teen grinned wide. "Truly now…..?"

One officer made a face. "You look…..surprised….."

"Oh….believe me," the Messenger winked. "I'm overjoyed…." He reached a hand to his sweatjacket's pouch and produced a familiar communicator. "This should be welcome news to Robin…."

"_Robin?"_

"Wait a minute…," a shorter officer squinted his eyes and pointed. "You look familiar."

"Ah yeah! Wasn't he…..an advisor to the late Commissioner when--?"

"Autographs after incidents, pal," the Messenger winked and started to initiate a communication frequency.

"Look….Just who in the Hell are you?"

"Think of me as the Titans' loving puppy. If there's any number one rule in this world, officers, it's 'always trust a metaphysical kid when he takes on marshal law'. Don't worry, I'll answer questions once things get really boiling. Hell…I'll have Noir or Robin do it."

"Er…..huh?"

One officer sighed to another. "This night is getting screwier by the second—"

"Shhhh! Hush!"

Every officer tensed.

So did the Messenger.

"………………," the teen's almond eyes danced around. He leaned his head to the side. Listening.

The officers too craned their necks.

"………."

"……….."

"………."

Silence….save for the cold wind.

The waters lapped….lapped….and lapped some more.

"Did you hear that?" one officer on the edge of the driveway murmured.

The Messenger stood up on the hood of the nearby squad car. He turned around and peered north across the Bay. "……….." His gaze fell to the dark waves just beyond the bluffs.

"…………….I hear nothing, Banta."

"I swear, Kamm! It was………like a gurgling noise…."

"That's because there's something in the water…," the Messenger droned without looking at them.

The officers spun and looked up at him. All tense….

"……..," he dropped his communicator and tightened the muscles in his limbs. "I suggest you all plug your noses………quick….."

_**SPLOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

A gnarled, gray body shot out of the North Waters of the Bay. In a liquid trailing comet, Killer Croc flew up in the air and hurtled himself swiftly down and straight at the Messenger's petite form. "HRESSSSSSHAAAAAA!"

The asian teen squatted in a fighting position, teeth gritting. He didn't have time to dive---

**WHAM!**

The Messenger's ragdoll body was slammed off the squad car and clear across the hard-as-stone driveway. _Th-THRUMP!_

CRUNCH! The reptilian freak planted his serrated toes into the edge of the police car's body, denting it as he coiled his weighted legs.

The guards shouted: "Croc! Croc!"

"It's Killer Croc!"

They all took aim.

"Freeze!"

"Hrssssh…," Killer Croc licked his lips. "So sofffffft here…." _SWOOOOSH!_ He leapt at them.

The guards gasped and fired.

BL-BLAM!

BLAM!

BANG!

Killer Croc charged, shoulder-first.

A few bullets bounced off his hard shell of a body.

He shouted in bloodlust and flew into the group of policemen. A single, slashing uppercut…and he threw two men up high fifteen feet till they slammed into the side of the Tower and fell back down. TH-THWAP!

The four other policemen parted ways and fired from opposite angles.

BL-BLAM!

BANG!

The bullets grazed Croc's hard skin.

"HRESSSSSHA!" he shrieked. He charged towards the police on his left. He rammed into one and kicked him aside. WH-WHAM!

"Ooof!"

The other knelt and aimed up at Croc's head. _BLAM!_

FWOOOSH! Croc leapt over him, dove into the rock bluffs, rolled bumpily across the crags, stood up, shot his gnarled hands down, growled, tightened his muscles, and pulled a huge rock loose. He let out a bloodlusting shriek and launched the salt-crusted boulder with all his might at the cop. "RAAAASHESSHA!"

"Nngh!" the man dove out of the way just as the rock made contact with the asphalt where he was once positioned.

_CR-CRKKKK!_ The rock struck, spilled sparks, skipped across the asphalt with a heavy heated friction of speed, and slammed into the side of one squad car….quite literally bending the entire vehicle in half.

**CRUNCH!**

_Wriiiiiiiiii!-Wrii!-Wrii!-Wrii!_

"Where is he?"

"He's on the bluffs! He's doubling back!"

"Peebles! Banta!"

"We'll check on them in a moment! Keep your eye out for—"

"Where's the kid?"

"I don't know! I haven't seen where he—"

"HRESSSSSHA!"

FWOOOSH!

"Sh-Shit!"

"Look out! He's right behi—"

_Stomp-Stomp-STOMP-STOMP-__**SWOOOOSH-**__**SLAM!**_

Killer Croc's scaly fist slammed into the back of one police officer, plowing him to the ground.

Another spun, pistol raised.

Croc grabbed the barrel of the gun, bent it at an inoperable angle, and flung it out off with his right hand before bringing his right forearm straight back to bitch-slap the cop across the face.

_**WHAP!**_

"Augh!" the man tumbled to the side.

"Guys! Clear the way!" the last standing cop shouted.

"Nnnnrghessh!" Killer Croc spun around, heaving.

The cop had a tear gas grenade in his palm. He shakily fingered the pin to it.

"HRESSHA!" Croc charged. _Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP!_

Clink! The man pulled the pin loose and tossed the smoke-trailing grenade at the reptilian freak's body. "Nnngh!"

Killer Croc had his mutated jaws open just in time to—_CLANK!_—receive the tear gas grenade in between his teeth and—_CRACKKK!_—bite down on it. He chewed once…twice…grinned…and—"HRAAAUGH!"—exhaled a burning puff of steam into the officer's face.

_FWSSSSH!_

The man dropped his gun and clutched his scalded face. "NNNNNGHHH!"

_WHAM!_

Killer Croc's knew flew up into the man's gut and knocked him back to the bluffs.

Billowing steam out through his serrated teeth, Croc stood in the center of a halo of groaning, twitching cops and raised his snout to the sky. "HRESSSSSSHAAAAAAA!"

And the Messenger….was nowhere….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Garfield sweated all over….straining….quivering.

And yet—as he barely made out the explosive scene down below, he gasped.

His eyes wide.

"That…..Th-That…..isn't that…..?"

A whirring sound.

"?" he looked up.

Sparks were traveling down the plate of slate gray metal that he was fighting to hold up.

"Ohhhhhh no…."

_ZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!_

"AAA-AAA-AAAAUGH!" the elf convulsed all over from the electrical currents surging through him. He wobbled, danced, and twitched in place until--

"Nnngh!"

His spliced gorilla arms morphed back to their slender counterparts.

The metal shield flew down shut.

_**WHAM!**_

The concussion of the shutting threw the changeling ten feet across the Main Room and away from the sealed windows.

Th-Th-Thwump!

Garfield rolled to a stop against the couch.

"Ughh…," he winced. His hair ends and upper torso smoking. He struggled to his feet. "Dammit….wh-what's happening? First the Tower…now---!"

'_Zzzzt! Initiating defense matrix!'_

Changeling's green eyes widened.

_WHURRRRRR!_

He spun around.

His jaw dropped.

Two twin-barreled laser turrets descended from ceiling panels, twirled, and simultaneously aimed at his figure.

Lights blinked atop the motion sensors of the weapons.

The barrels glowed a hot orange.

_Zzzzzzzzzzt!_

"………," the elf exhaled. "Dude….."

_**Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP-ZAP! **_

_**ZZZZAAAAAAAPPPPP!**_

_**POWWWW!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Halfway across the City….

Betwixt two shadowy apartment buildings….

Starfire floated a foot or two across a courtyard dotted with two half-playgrounds.

In the middle of the 'shortcut', she froze.

Her feet planted firmly on the ground.

As 'Garfield' walked ahead, Starfire spun around and stared southward.

Her pink lips parted.

A concerned pair of emerald eyes.

"I…….I think I heard something……"

"……….."

"X'Hal…..," Starfire murmured. Two hands clasped before her pink sweatered torso. "I cannot sense past this uneasiness…..this unsettling feeling…."

"………."

"Garfield?"

"………."

She turned around. "Garfield, tell me if you just heard—"

His lips were pressed firmly against hers as his hands tightly clasped her forearms.

"Mmmmmfff!" she gasped, green eyes wide.

He pressed into her further. His lips exploring. His fingers tighter….

She instantly fought back….but found herself mutely surprised that she was indeed _having to fight back._ His strength and grip had increased tenfold, and it took a last second charge of a starbolt at point blanc to—

_FL-FLASH! _

Starfire stumbled back, panting. Her hands clasped over her mouth and her green eyes wide. "G-Garfield…..what…wh-what are you—"

"Heheheheheh," the 'changeling' smiled at her, convulsing all over in sudden hilarity. "Has anyone told you that you're a real knockout?"

"……………," she stared blankly at him. Numb.

"No?" he winked. "Allow me then…."

SWOOOOSH!—_TH-THUNK!_ He headbutted her.

The sound of metal colliding with bone.

"Aaah!" Starfire recoiled.

**POW!** A fierce, snarling uppercut from the seemly elf plowed her to the earth.

Starfire fell back and landed between two swingsets that shook with her impact with the earth. She winced all over, staring horrifically up at the changeling with a trickle of green blood rivering down from her left nostril. "Beast Boy! S-Something is dreadfully wrong with—" She froze. Her eyes thinned and her lips hardened into a frown. "…you are not Garfield."

"Do forgive me….," 'Garfield' smirked and gestured while speaking in a voice far too eloquent and _foreign_ to be his. "…but I was oh-so-desiring to see how far I could go. I had a bet with Mr. Hagan…and I think I just won the 'masque' award of the month! Ha ha ha!"

Starfire scooted back, charging one shaking hand with green energy and beholding the supposed elf in uncertainty. "Wh-Who are you? What do you want?"

"What else do I want? A trophy!" 'Beast Boy' marched towards her. Looming. As he spoke and as he grinned, the visage of a petite little elf with green skin and green hair faded away to metal, reflective titanium. "Just the way I like you alien bitches….," two white eyes bulbously flickered as a pair of wrists extended down towards her, extended laser rifles, and charged brightly. "Pretty….dumb…..and _**DEAD!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

FLASH!

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh….," Raven suddenly slumped forward in the passenger seat of the T-Car II and rubbed her temple. Wincing all over.

"………….," 'Cyborg' glanced over. "Rae? Everything okay?"

"………….."

"………….Rae?"

"C-Could you stop the car…..Victor?"

He looked over. A curious eyebrow raised in concern over his human eye. "Well….uhm…..sure….."

"Th-Thanks…," she rubbed her head and winced some more.

He pulled over gently to the side of the hallway. "Seriously….is something wrong?"

"…………," she took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm…..I-I'm not sure……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin shuddered.

He veered a little on his harley.

The vehicle wobbled left and right.

He shook out of it and angled himself along with the highway.

Exhaling…..

Blue eyes blinking under his eyemask.

On his right flank, I was blurring faster and streaking parallel to him.

_Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwoooosh!_

I waved a smoking arm.

He glanced right amidst his speedy travel.

I gave him a concerned look.

He merely smiled me to comfort and focused on the road ahead of him.

I drifted back to the offroad and continued my blurred streaking.

In the meantime, Robin sighed. He clutched tighter to the handles of the motorbike as a sharp pain bit at his center.

He gazed upwards towards the southern horizon.

His eyemask narrowed.

"………….."

The sky….

The sky was gradually bleeding red…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

….

….

….

….

….

…

….

….

….

…

_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt…..**_

……

…..

….

…..

….

….

….

….

….

….

_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-k-k-ktttttt…..**_

"……………………………"

He stirred.

He squirmed and shook.

Slowly, he flexed his aching, bruised muscles and sat up.

Welts formed in his skin beneath the metal mesh of the apprentice uniform.

His eyemask was battered….much like his face.

He panted….panted….panted….

A swallow.

An aching head turning…focusing….

On the monitors.

'_Beast Boy'. _

'_Cyborg.'_

'_Raven.'_

"……………," his half-squinted gaze focused on the last microscopic image of blood vessels and nanoprobes.

'_Starfire.'_

"…………………….."

He tried getting up.

He tried moving his legs.

But it was torture.

Fresh….raw torture.

He couldn't even move himself away from staring at the last monitor.

_Her monitor._

He sniffed.

He convulsed…..

Then gave in to a series of hiccupping shakes.

He slumped back down to the cold, underground floor.

He curled up in the terrorist clothes.

The 'son' of Slade.

"I-I'm so sorry….I can't d-do it……I-I can't do it anymore…."

He sobbed.

He cried.

Alone, the Robin died.

"I-I-I just c-can't do it anymore……….."

And Tim was dragged under in tow…..

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-


	242. Break the Circle part 2

**242. Break the Circle part 2**

"Is it a headache? I-I'm pretty sure that it's a headache."

"N-No, Vic. Er….I m-mean yes….that is…..nnngh…," Raven sighed and rubbed her temple. "I'm not entirely sure what it is…."

The two sat in the T-Car II on the side of the road. The mountainous highway was barren. They had been parked under the reddening night sky by the trees for a good ten minutes and still no cars or pedestrians had passed by.

Everything was cold, still, and dead.

Even the wind had lessened its leaf-licking touch.

Raven hugged herself in the passenger seat besides the half-lowered. Cold air floated in and assaulted her. She was tense. Shivering. But she refused to have the window rolled back up. "I feel like….l-like everything that has happened to us since November Fourth has been a lull. A….A-A break in the storm. I at first thought the danger of Dagger was going to keep on raging, consuming. In a way it has, and yet in a way it hasn't. The calmness disturbs me. It disturbs me s-so much that….th-that I'm looking in many far-off places for answers."

"Like looking for Robin?" 'Cyborg' suggested.

"………," she glared over at him. "Don't start…."

He shrugged. "Just throwing in my own two cents, cutie!"

"Keep your mental pocket change to yourself."

"Heh heh heh….," he pointed a finger. "I think it's something you ate."

"Huh?"

"Remember that one time Starfire talked you into eating strawberry yogurt for the first time? And it was right before bed? And something inside of you didn't agree with the sweets? You tossed and turned and threw up twice before having a terrible migraine that convinced you and the rest of us that some demonic invasion from the Infernal Dimension of Rorekon or something was near!"

"……..," Raven took a deep breath and glared off. The corners of her pale cheeks were red. "That was……a long time ago."

"Hah hah hah!" 'Cyborg' slapped his knee. "Man! You do remember!"

"Horrifically, yes….," she murmured. She glanced at him through the corners of her violet optics. "I'm….surprised you remember that."

"Hey! I've got a photographic memory! I'm entitled to use it."

"Right……."

"…………………have you been eating yogurt, Rae?"

"**No**, Vic, I **haven't**," she uttered sternly.

He bit his lip and rested on the wheel. "My bad. Sorry for intruding, ma'am….."

Raven sighed. Her eyes closed. "I'm sorry, Vic…"

"Nothing to be sorry fo—"

"You have had every reason to spy on me."

"……..I have?"

"It's just my…..paranoid self getting the better of me," Raven said. "All of this is." She waved. "Not just the headache. But doing things behind your back. Obsessing over Robin. Forcing Tempest through his friend Lindsay to meet with me…..all of that stuff. I think that….I-I think that with the way things have been—no—with the way **I** have been….allowing myself to experience more emotions and whatnot…..it has blinded me…."

'Cyborg' bit his lip for some reason.

"Or at least….I need to _expect_ such 'blindness'. And I start to distrust myself, my feelings, and—as a result—my friends and surroundings. Things have been too….calm for me. Serene. A gray and melancholy serenity in this war-torn land of ours, yes, but a peace nonetheless. I wish I could just….._be happy_, Vic. But….I suppose that doesn't come easy. I must always….ALWAYS have a nemesis. An enemy to fear. It is a part of me, my existence, and who I am. I'm wrong to have…..overreacted and taken it all out on you…."

"D-Does that mean there's still hope for you and I?" he simpered.

"……….," she bit her lip. "I….don't know….Vic…."

He nodded, a gentle exhale. "I should have known better than to have pried…."

"No……No, prying is good," Raven said. "Your 'prying' has…..turned out to make me a better person."

He gazed at her straight-on. "Do you really think so?"

"…….y-yes, Vic….I think so."

He smiled.

She frowned. "In spite of your greater, asinine mistakes."

He winced. "Well…g-guess I get partial credit at least. Heh heh heh…."

"One thing I don't doubt is what I must do…," Raven said. She pointed along the highway. "I must find out about Robin. I must run into Noir….and find out what answers lie in Gotham City."

"Best way to put your 'paranoia' to rest, huh?"

"I suppose…."

"Well alright!" 'Cyborg' started the engine once more and moved them back onto the hallway and along the mountainous, forest-lined path. "Gotham-ho!…….whew….boy did that _sound_ dirty! Ha!"

Raven's lips curved ever so slightly.

_Vrmmmmmmm!_

"………….," the dark girl gazed out the window. She positioned her eyes against the cold air. She stared at the red sky.

Silence….save the engine of the T-Car II transporting them along.

"…………..," Raven's violet orbs narrowed.

The sky was an obvious red hue.

"……………..," she turned and glanced at 'Cyborg'. "Sailor's delight."

"Hmmmm?"

She motioned with her head out the window. "The sky…."

'Cyborg' glanced up through the windshield. "Heh…..imagine that."

"…………strange sensation, isn't it?"

"Eh…," the android Titan shrugged. "I suppose."

"………………..," Raven thought to herself. She gazed out at the passing trees. She stroked a finger across her lips. She blinked. She gazed back at him, squinting. "How did you know it was _strawberry yogurt_……?"

"Pardon?"

"The stuff I ate that one night…..the stuff that made me throw up," Raven explained. "I never told you that it was strawberry yogurt. Or a yogurt of any kind…."

"Oh…heh…simple," 'Cyborg' smiled. "Remember those 'health reports' Robin would anally make us fill out in the old days?"

"…………..yeah….."

"I read it in that."

"………………….you read the health reports?"

He shrugged, human and cybernetic eye on the road. "From time to time."

"………………….," Raven stared at him from aside. She slowly….gently pulled her blue hood up and over her fair head.

_Vrmmmmmmm-mmmmmmmm!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAAA-AAA-AAAAP!**_

_**ZAAAAAAP!**_

Two solid streams of gold energy exploded towards the Tamaranian girl.

Hopping up to her feet, Starfire crossed her pink-sleeved arms before her chest and absorbed the stream of fire straight on.

_**FWOMBB!**_

She gritted her teeth as the burning force shoved her back…back…back across the apartment courtyard. Her feet skidded backwards across the playground set and her shoes started to smoke from the intense friction. Smoldering burn marks splotched across her jeans. She was hardly dressed for this brawl. Hardly prepared.

Metallo, however, was in the natural 'flesh'.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

His skeleton jaw clenched tighter. 'Smiling'. A pair of white, electronic eyes strobed as he channeled and channeled and channeled the laser rifle energy.

Starfire grunted and groaned, pushing back against the force. She sweated and her eyes flickered a desperate, heated emerald.

Eventually, she was shoved back so that her legs impacted the slope of a kiddy slide.

_TH-THWOMP!_

"Augh!" she was fiercely shoved back like a lever.

"HA!" Metallo focused an extra powerful pulse of laser energy.

_**POW!**_

Starfire's twirling body was slammed across the courtyard. She flew fiercely back against a tetherball pole. **CL-CLANGGG!** The vertical metal beam dented and bent over her figure. She slumped against it, rubbing her head and groaning.

"Nnnngh…."

**STOMP!**

The Tamaranian looked up.

Metallo loomed before her. Both arms raised at an angle. The laser rifles smoking….hissing….

"Well hello there, little girl….would you like some candy?"

She frowned at him. "Nefarious painmongerer!" She struggled to stand up, failing. "Nnngh….I-I was most certain the Titans and Superman had disassembled you months ago in the state called Kansas!"

"Ohhhhh!" the metal skeleton leaned his skull to the side and toyed with a nonexistent ear. "So it WAS Kansas! Ha ha! Cheerio to that bit of info! I'm learning more and more about my sexily mysterious past by the second!"

Starfire tried getting up again—

**GRIP!**

She wheezed as his metal fingers locked around her throat.

He leaned in, hissing: "You know, I hear that Tamaranians are a lot more….._durable_ than the average bear. That means your torture can last allll the longer. I plan to get many…._many_ more secrets from you."

She gasped as he spun and breathlessly flung her across the courtyard.

Starfire's body slammed against a planted tree, pinballed off and tumbled over a see-saw. She rolled across a sand box and came to a dusty stop.

"Nnnnngh…."

_**Thwump!**_ Metallo stomped slowly towards her one leg at a time. Menacing. His titanium feet formed cracks in the exposed concrete of the courtyard.

"You know…..I am always getting the dirty jobs. Always the ones that nobody wants to do. But this time, things are different. Heheheheheh…..I think I'm going to rather enjoy this!"

She weakly sat up, hands glowing. "Someone wicked must have resurrected you from your deconstructed state! **Who**?"

"Doesn't matter," Metallo shrugged and electronically uttered in a playful tone: "Once I am through with you, Miss, it'd might as well be the Tooth Fairy for all I'm concerned."

She stood up. "I do not find your nefarious attempt at humor amusing!" Her wrists tightened with two strobes of hot green aimed straight towards him. "Where is Beast Boy? What have you done with Garfield?"

"Oh, worry not about that green piece of filth," Metallo waved a finger. "He'll be a burnt little turd soon enough! Ha ha ha!"

Starfire gasped.

"And as for you….," he charged at her.

She clenched her teeth. Eyes glowing a hot green, she launched starbolt after starbolt at him. _FLASH! FL-FL-FLASH!_

Metallo dodged the first shot, deflected the last two with a swinging backhand, and rushed at her shoulder-first.

She drifted backwards, furiously flinging a mad string of green orbs.

_FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASH!_

They all bounced off his smooth, angled shoulder. "RrrrrrRRRRR**RRRGH!**"

WHAM!

"Ooof!" Starfire flew back from the contact.

**GRIP!**

Metallo clutched her by the ankle.

"Hahahaha!" he laughed electronically and spun around, flinging her in a circular fashion like a ragdoll. "Dr. Jace, I could SO make love to you right about now! Up…up…and AWAY!"

_FWOOOOOSH!_ The psychotic android let go of Starfire.

She flew straight through a swingset, snapping the bars apart.

_CR-CRKKK!_

She stumbled across the ground. She tried achingly to sit up, but she was tangled in the swings' chains. "Nnnngh….Mmmf!"

"Funny thing, 'life'….," Metallo marched towards her. "_Your_ dreary life, at least. You spend a whole month crying like a heart-bleeding bitch with your friends about things that will never come back to you. And now….even more precious _things_ are going bye-bye. I often wonder silly dreams fuel the pointless synapses of you alien bimbos' brains…"

Starfire fought to free herself of her restraints and frowned upat him. "I assure you, Metallo….you have made a most terrible mistake to your livelihood by choosing to attack this City!"

"And yet here we are!" Metallo energetically gestured. "First Contact!" He pointed towards her. "Your alien heart…." He clenched his fist and finished with a horrifically hoarse hiss. "….the finger of death." And he charged at her, limb sparkling and tensing to punch her skull clear off her vertebrae. "Rrrrrrrrrghh!"

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

She gasped, fought, struggled, wriggled.

_**Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-STOMP!**_

She let out a cry, pulled at the chains, and snapped them apart with her alien strength. Her wrists charged up as she hovered to her feet—

_**WHAM!**_

Metallo's wrist slammed into her gut.

Starfire flew across the courtyard, slammed into an apartment building's outer wall, and slumped to the ground.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

Starfire barely had a chance to gasp when a well-timed laser stream impacted the buildingside above her……and rained down a solid current of bricks.

_CL-CL-CL-CL-__**CLUMP!**_

The Tamaranian was buried.

A flickering green glow started to dim inside the imploded 'igloo' of mortar.

"Hrmmmm….," Metallo dusted himself off. Again, his skeletal jaw tightened. "She died as she lived….one brick short of a load…."

The green light faded….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside Titan's Tower…..

Inside a dark, empty elevator shaft.

Slate gray blast doors stretched across a closed frame.

There were faint, vibrating noises emanating from the other side.

Like the reverberations of a tiny tremor traveling up the entire building's spine.

…………..

**CLANG!**

The metal shield dented inward from the other side.

…………..

**CLANG! CL-CLANG!**

Two more dents. The thick shielding warped and wobbled.

…………

_**CRAAAAAACCCCKKKKK!**_

The shield shattered.

Slate gray shrapnel splashed into the long, vertical shaft as a big green triceratops dove out of the Main Room.

_**ZAAAP! **_

_**Z-ZAP! **_

_**ZAAA-AAAAAP!**_

Laser turret fire shimmered after the plummeting, dinosaur changeling.

The heated energy blasts soared after the plummeting animorph.

Singed and smoking on a few patches of skin, the three-horned beast merely groaned and fell…fell….fell down the long shaft.

A halo of shrapnel flew down like dragonfly streaks darting in and around him.

In mid-air, the flailing dinosaur shrunk and turned into a weary, breathless elf.

His tank top tattered and burned from laser fire in a few spots, Garfield stretched his nimble arms out and angled himself aerodymaically with the length of the shaft left for him to fall down. The artificial wind whipped at his emerald bangs and kicked at the fabric of his clothes. He gritted his teeth, flexed his wrists, and sprouted fans of jade feathers outward in columns spiraling about his upper limbs. He spliced his forearms into wings, angled them, glided, and slowed his descent just long enough to swoop down, out, and straight towards a pair of metal elevator doors just as a slate gray shield started to close like the mouth of a garbage compactor.

_FW-FWOOSH!_

"Grrrff!" Changeling clenched beastly teeth and morphed his feet into velociraptor heels at the point of impact.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CLANGGGG!**_

The elevator doors gave way.

Garfield. dove feet-first through the gap as the shrapnel flew down past him in the shaft.

The changeling rolled in pure elf form across the cold metal floor and came to a breathless stop against a wall of the corridor.

_**SCHLUMP!**_

The thick metal shield closed over the shattered elevator doors behind him.

"………………," he panted and looked up. Shaking….struggling for breath. "Guess this is what I get for not redecorating…."

_Cl-Clik!_

"………?" the metamorph turned and glanced over his shoulder.

Three panels in the wall opened up and rotating turrets slid out. They started to rotate, spinning their barrels and heating up.

_Wriiiiiiii!_

The changeling's green eyes thinned. He clenched his teeth, hopped up to his feet, and blurred down the hallway on scampering legs.

The spinning barrels launched orbs of bouncing, hot energy everywhere.

_Z-z-Z-z-Z-z-Z-z-Z-z-Z-zap!_

The hot, air-scorching orbs ricocheted off the walls like a flock of tightly-sprung pinballs of death and collectively bounced their way towards him.

_Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Flash!_

The beastly boy panted. Running down the hallway. Skidding and sliding around corners. Streaking, ducking, and dodging every burning orb that bounced after him.

"N-Not the exercise I had in mind tonight!"

He stumbled around a corner, skidded, regained his balance, and dove down a stairwell just as a frothy swarm of spheres ricocheted off the metal floor where he just was. _Fl-Fl-Flash!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Th-Th-Th-Th-THWUMP! _

Garfield tumbled down two flights of stairs and ended clumsily with his back to a wall.

"……………………."

He took a deep breath.

Sweating all over.

Singed in a few places.

Bruised in many more.

He winced and rubbed a red-and-blue welt on his upper shoulder.

"Okay….okay….okay…..," he panted. Coaching to himself.

His green eyes trailed the dark corners of the stairwell. His body twitched and shivered uneasily at the haunting sounds of distant explosions and laser shots _seeking him_ throughout the bowels of the huge, suddenly foreboding Titans' Tower.

"……okay….," he swallowed. "Keep it together, Garfield. Raven and Cyborg drove off somewhere….Starfire's skedaddled to the City with some stranger…..and now you're here in the Tower—sealed off and alone—and for some godawful reason, Cyborg's security program _hates you_."

Distant rumblings.

More laser impact sounds.

Constant….ambient reverberations.

It hauntingly reminded him of security camera feeds Robin and the Titans had once shown of when Slade's android army invaded the Tower en masse during Terra's betrayal……

"It's gotta be a glitch. Nothing more. Just….," he swallowed. Gulped. Shuddered….. "A really….really….**nasty** glitch….."

He ran a nervous hand across his green brow. Sweating. His eyes searching the nearest 'ceiling' of the stairwell.

"If you c-can just make it to Cyborg's laboratory….a-and reprogram the stuff from there…..th-then maybe you won't end up quite so toasty….."

_WHURRRRRR-CHTUNK!_

"……….," he blinked. "Then again……" He gazed up.

A panel in the wall had unfolded, and a vapor vomiting torch had extended outward. It flickered a tiny candle light and aimed itself frothingly at the changeling with a heartless whur.

Garfield immediately gasped: "Dude!"

_A flamethrower……_

**FWOOOOOMB!**

Plasma burned its way against the metal floor of the incline.

The changeling had already leapt out in the form of a jackrabbit. A few ends of his hairs smoldered and smoked. The rabbit flipped in mid-air….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

….and landed—sliding—in the hallway below.

Panting, changeling glanced up at the stairwell. He eyed the flames with wide green optics…..and gulfed.

"Torches…..th-that's so _not_ Cyborg's style….."

_Whurrr! _

_Whurr!_

_Whurrrrr-Cl-Clank!_

"……?" the Titan turned to look.

Several cannons popped out of the wall and aimed at him.

'_Zzzzt! All systems. Annihilate intruder!'_

"DEFINITELY not his style!" Changeling spun around.

_**Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAP! **_

_**Z-ZAP!**_

Hot pulses of gold flew at the heels of the metamorph.

He dove in the air, turned into a cheetah, and landed on four blurring paws.

He swiftly burned a path around a curve in the hallway, where even more spinning cannons whirred to life and launched ricocheting balls of fire at his fleeting figure.

The spotted, emerald cat dashed left and right.

Glazed-over eyes concentrated on the path ahead as the legs sprang and sprinted and rocketed the temporary mammal along.

"There is….something really….w-wrong with…..this picture….," the metamorph breathed while sprinting. "….my friends….gone and….not talking….to me. The Tower…..the flames….everything…."

He scampered around a corner.

Sliding.

_WHURRRRR-CHTUNG! _

_TW-TWNNNG!_

Turrets lowered down from the ceiling.

They graced torches that flared and exploded billowing flame at the hapless changeling.

_**FWOOOOOOMBBBB!**_

A wall of plasma encompassed the entire width and breadth of the hallway.

The metal floors and walls began to hiss and boil with the shimmering fire.

'Gasping', the predatory cat skidded to a stop, morphed back into elf form, and scampered back in the direction from which he came—

_**SCHLUMP!**_

A blast shield rose up and slammed shut in front of Garfield.

He gasped and barely avoided slamming into the slate gray metal.

"D-Damn!"

_**PHWOOOOMB!**_

The cooking wall of plasma surged straight towards him.

Pulsing amber and hot orange.

He spun, panted. Green eyes wide, he glanced aside.

One of the Tower's trash chutes….

"Nnnngh!" Changeling spliced his forearm into a gorilla fist and slammed the small door open.

_**CRACK!**_

With the chute shattered apart, he dove, morphed into a turtle in mid-air, and slid down the tiny passageway.

_**SPLOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Fire and ashes consumed the hallway and vomited down the chute after him.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SWISSSSSSSSSSH!_

The hapless turtle slid, tumbled, spiraled down the metal chute.

An orange flow intensified gradually behind him.

Tongues of flame rushed afoot of the fiery plume surging behind the fleeing reptile.

As the chute angled outward a few degrees, the changeling morphed himself into a penguin and used his smooth belly to slide himself gracefully down…down….down to the mouth of the chute. His tail feathers curled at the ends from the fiery 'breath' surging down right behind him.

And then……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The garbage receptical….

_SWOOOOOSH!_

The penguin shot out and skipped belly-first across the heaps of garbage in the first floor's dumpster.

On one strong bounce, the penguin flapped its wings…only to turn into a bat that lifted up into the air with its very own velocity…

And morphed into an elf once reaching a high enough altitude beneath the ceiling.

_Thwoosh-__**Plant!**_

The changeling landed agilely. Hardly a breath later, he ran from the rumbling, roaring sounds bellowing from the chute. He rushed to the door and tried to force it open from the inside.

No luck…

"Nnnnngh!" Garfield hissed and slammed his weight against the door in frustration. "I swear to Lucas! Why do we even _bother_ having junk storage rooms in our Tower when we can't even open the—" He stopped. His wide, emerald eyes fell on something.

Or some_things._

Propane. Propane tanks. And lots of them innocently resting around the lengths of the room.

Innocently….in that they didn't expect the descending tongues of flame to suddenly seep down there so unnaturally.

"Oh no….."

Beathless, the elf turned and gazed at the chute.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOMBBBB!**_

The fires spat out of the thin corridors and splashed across the room in a huge plume.

Changeling scrunched back in the middle of the propane tanks and instinctively shielded his upper body. Yelling: "NO!"

_**BLAAAAAM!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the feet of the looming Tower….

Six officers laid on the ground. Most near unconsciousness. All of them groaning and struggling to recover from the reptilian blows dealt them.

The leader of the troupe was inching himself across the pavement—chest first—to where a shotgun lie. He panted, shook, and struggled the whole way. Finally, he stretched a hand out and touched the hilt of the cherished weapon……

_**STOMP!**_

A scaley foot clamped down over the center of the shotgun.

The officer winced. He looked up.

The foot connected to an ankle, then a brown pant leg, than a buff chest, a gray, scaley torso, and finally the grotesque sneer of Killer Croc.

"Hresssssh…..," he licked at his steel-pointed teeth and leaned over. "….it's a lil dangerous playin' with those boomsticks, boyyyy…." He drooled in bloodlust. "How's about I do you the favor of _biting your hands off?_ Hresssh-heheheheh…."

The officer winced.

Killer Croc tensed and tightened his legs to spring down on the helpless cop—

_Pow!_ Th-Th-Thwish!

A black cable shot forth and wrapped around Croc's torso from behind, binding his meaty arms to his sides.

"Hresssh! What in tarnation?.!"

_Zzzzzt-Zzt!_ The cord wrapped around him started to spark.

He gasped, squirmed, struggled, just as—

_**ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZTTTT!**_ The taser cable glowed a bright blue as it charged up waves of electricity and pumped them mercilessly into Killer Croc's body.

"AAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAUGH!"

_**ZZZZZZTTTTT!**_

Even the officers winced at the convulsing sight of Croc.

But soon, the glow stopped.

A twitching, smoking Killer Croc stumbled, about to fall to the ground.

_TWNGGG!_

The cord yanked back fiercely from behind him.

He shrieked as he was pulled back by the cord to the edge of the rock bluffs.

And there the Messenger stood on the other end of the taser cord. His sweatjacket and gray pants were gone, and instead his uniform from the Area 51 infiltration was back. A solid black jumpsuit of spandex with a green belt and yellow-and-green shoulder pads. He gripped the handle of the taser tightly and glared at the enemy he had entangled.

"Sorry about that. Did you miss me?"

"Hresssh….you…..," the reptilian man sneered.

"I would go all 'Stever Irwin' on your ass, but I seriously doubt you deserve _that."_

"I've been wanting to bite off yer pretty little head ever since you screwed thingsss up in Vegas—"_**ZZZZZZZZTTTT!**_" "DAAAAAAAAAH!" Killer Crock convulsed and shook from more electrical charges. He fell to his knees, panting. Smoking.

The Messenger smirked. "You're a long way from the Nile, pal. Treat the locals with respect."

Killer Croc merely sneered at him. He dipped his head down, opened his jaws, and bit down on the cord encircling him.

The Messenger rushed to charge the taser weapon again, but he was too late.

_**SNAP!**_

_**Zzzzttt!**_ Croc braved the momentary spark of heated energy dancing against his teeth as he bit the cord in two. He stood up, shrugged the cords off his body, and charged over at the asian teen with a growl. "HRRRRRESSSSHA!"

Standing in his black, green-and-yellow uniform…the Messenger yawned. As Killer Croc dove at him, he reached a hand gently over to his bulky watch and clicked it.

_**ZAAAT!**_

The reptilian mutant's eyes bulged. He flailed stupidly in mid-air as he found himself flying straight through empty space and plunging down over the rock bluffs below. _Th-Thwomp! Whack! Whump-Whump-Whump! THWOMP!_ He collapsed onto the sandy beach surrounding the island, laced with rocky crags. "Nnnngh…."

All the cops were getting up at this point. They limped and leaned on each other for support.

_**ZAAAAT!**_

They gasped and looked over.

The Messenger was kneeling on one outcropping of rock. He smirked down at the grounded reptile and uttered: "You do a good missile impression, smartstuff! Now do us both a favor and explode!"

"M-Mister, who are you?" one cop uttered.

The uniformed Messenger glanced over at the six men. He smirked and gestured his hand playfully in a 'meditative' fold of the fingers. "I am awake…….."

"………."

"………."

"………."

"Hehehehe!" the Messenger giggled. "I always wanted to say that…."

The officers blinked. "Uhm…."

From below: _"Hressshaa!"_

The Messenger glanced down at the beach and waved a hand at the cops. "Head back into the Town. On the double!"

"What? Why?"

"Believe me. Even all seven of us combined can only hope to _distract_ that scaly oaf. I'm in an even lesser mood than you guys about losing a brave life to a Southern chainsaw-mouth with legs."

"………."

"Gentlemen, you _must trust me,_" the Messenger emphasized with a sincere face. "The Titans are at the focal point of a crazy debacle underfoot. And the only thing that can truly save superheroes now are _more superheroes_. Go back to Town. Rejoin your squad. They will be needing you…._all of you_……soon enough…."

There was an iciness to the Messenger's words that was convincing. The cops hesitantly glanced at each other, mentally agreed, and rushed back to the squad cars.

"We'll spread the word!"

"First Smith, then the rest of the department!"

"Don't lose your head, kid!"

"Heh…..," the Messenger smirked and glanced down at the beach below the bluffs. "I'm afraid I did that a long…long time ago."

The shadowy figure of Killer Croc painfully stood up and stumbled across the sand.

The Messenger's face grew tight….serious. As the squad cars drove down the land ridge behind him, the asian teen flexed his muscles…and leapt down from the bluffs.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh…hr-hressh….," Killer Croc rubbed his head while he limped down the sandy square between towering rocks.

He heard a rush of wind.

He tilted his head up.

Blinking.

SWOOOOSH-_THWAP!_

The Messenger's feet slammed down onto the mutant's shoulders.

**PLOW!** Croc was slammed down into the sand. White powder flew in the cold, December air and fell down again to the beach.

The Messenger flipped off the man's scaly body and landed nimbly in the sand a few paces away. He angled his body into a crane-like fighting position. "Allrighty, Mr. Jones. How about a little asian whoopass for your tease?"

Killer Croc plucked his face out of the sand, shook the powder off, and stumbled to his feet. "Nnnrghh…..y-you are nothing…."

The Messenger smirked. "Well, this _'nothing'_ just wiped the seashore's butt with your face."

"……….."

"Want a round two?"

"More like hearty _seconds_," Killer Croc licked his lips and dashed at the Messenger. "HRESSHAA!"

The uniformed youngster twirled to the side.

Croc's grabbing arms barely missed him.

The Messenger jumped up with a reverse kick planted into Croc's rib cage.

Croc stumbled left from the impact.

The Messenger bounced off his ribs, flew towards a rock bluff, kicked against it with two feet, backflipped, arced through the air, and came back down at Killer Croc with a sailing drop kick.

The Southern mutant stupidly turned his head to look—

_**WH-WHAM!**_ The Messenger's foot flew across Croc's cheek.

Croc stumbled back.

The Messenger landed in the sand before him and again flew his limbs into a graceful fighting stance. "Still hungry?"

"You're stupid."

"Yeah, well your _face_ is stupid!" the Messenger beamed. "Hehe…your turn, oh Kindergartener Excelsior!"

"HRESSSSSSSSHAAAA!" Croc flew meatedly at the Messenger.

"……..," the asian teen blinked. "Hmmm."

**WHAM!**

The Messenger was knocked back so that he landed in a ravine of rock bluffs. He tumbled head over heels across the sand, wincing.

"HRESSSSSSH!"

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

Croc thundered into the ravine, his sharp fist raised and ready to slash down at the youngster.

The Messenger shook out of it, tensed his body, and simply…..laid there.

_THWOOOOOOSH!_ Croc's fist came down, along with the rest of his weight following it.

_**ZAAAT!**_

The Messenger vanished.

PLOW! Sand flew up from a crater where the crouching Croc's fist impacted. "Aaaugh!"

_**ZAAT!**_ The Messenger reappeared above the mutant. He landed with a kick planted against the back of Croc's skull and kicked off.

THWOMP!

Croc flew belly first into the sand.

The Messenger gripped onto a rock crag, kicked off, and gracefully flew in a backwards drop kick with his arms outstretched.

Croc looked up. He rolled over and brought two hands up, gripping the Messenger's thighs before he could make contact.

"Augh!"

"HRESSSHA!" **SLAM!** The asian teen was brought down hard into the earth.

The Messenger winced. He felt his ankle twisting as Croc gripped it, stood up, and prepared to bite down on his foot.

The Messenger grunted and kicked up a fountain of sand with his other foot, sending the powder directly into the reptile's eyes.

_Fwoosh!_

"AAAUGH!"

The Messenger gritted his teeth and shoved his other foot straight forward into the square of Croc's face.

THWAP!

Croc stumbled back.

The Messenger hopped to his feet, took a breath, and charged to slam his fist across the freak's skull--

WHAM! Croc's foot rose up and knocked the petite teleporter back.

"Nnngh!" the Messenger collapsed backwards. He barely stood on his feet.

"HREESSSSSH!" Killer Croc flexed his muscles and slammed two fists on opposite sides of his body into the craggy faces of the rock bluffs.

_**WHAM!**_

_RUMMMMBLE!_

The entire ravine shook from the mighty mutant's slamming fists. Pieces of rock and stone rattled off the faces and tumbled down into the thin divide.

The Messenger gasped and helplessly shielded his upper body with his forearms as he was showered with pebbles, rocks, and even a boulder or two--

THWOOOOSH-_WHAM!_ Killer Croc flew in a jump kick through the descending debris of rock. Stone shrapnel exploded out of the mouth of the ravine, along with the Messenger's body. The asian teen flew across the sand, stumbled, and slid in a half-crouch….a bit bruised and cut.

"Okay…..," he panted. "This is sooooo not _suave_ of me….."

**STOMP!**

Croc leapt out of the ravine. With his energy and fervor renewed, he marched threateningly towards the black uniformed youngster. His warped jaw curved and he hissed: "What's the matter, kid? Run out of jokes?"

The Messenger's almond eyes thinned. "The only joke here is what's standing before me…."

"Ohhhhh…hresssha…..well done. Is that supposed to be an insult?"

"No….," the Messenger winked. "This is…."

_**ZAAATAA!**_ The green teleportation energy that normally vanished the asian teen and made him reappear elsewhere was suddenly flaring up behind his back. The green energy acted as propulsion, shoving the Messenger ten feet across the sand in less than a second and a half so that when he froze in a backhand flying kung-fu style into Croc's chest---

**WHAM!**

--Croc slid back.

"NNNGH!"

Without a second breath, the Messenger again flared—**ZAAATAA!**—and froze in a second move, two palms slammed flat into the reptile's chest.

**WHUMP!**

Croc wheezed for air.

The combo attack was added with three more flaring streaks. **ZAATA!** **SMACK!** **ZAAAATA!** **WH-WHACK! ZAATA! ****SLAM!** The last impact was an uppercut that—in spite of the Messenger's small size—sent Croc flying up at least six feet before falling back down in a spray of sand.

_**THWOMPP!**_

Frozen in the position of his last move, a green-trailing Messenger cleared his throat and insulted: "A-Ahem…..'you're a poopy head'. Hehehehehe!"

"HRESSSHA!" Killer Croc jumped up in and instant and bounded towards him. "Why you—"

The Messenger held his breath.

**ZAAATA!** He flew 'across' Killer Croc in a forward, lunging punch.

Croc jolted as if hit a half-second later in delay.

The Messenger tensed his body.

**ZAATA!** He propelled himself with green flairs into a flipping, reverse bicycle kick that struck Killer Croc square atop the back of his skull and sent him plunging down into the sand. **WHAM!**

"Mmmmmmf!"

As the green trails faded, the Messenger got into another fighting pose and smirked. "All righty. Want to insert a coin, or are you done for, happy cheeks?"

"NRAAAUGH!" Croc stood up, bruised muscles flexing. "You are NOTHING to me!"

"Ya know, in spite of everything…..I would feel a little more scared of Dagger if he wasn't so into hiring rednecks."

STOMP!-STOMP-STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP! "HRESSSHA!"

The Messenger sighed. :"Case in point." And he flared into Croc just as Croc charged into him.

Fists flying.

**ZAATA!**

**SWOOSH!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Vrrrrrrrrrrrrm!_

"…………," Raven stared out of the passenger window of the T-Car II. Her hood danced lightly atop her crown. A blue aura seemed to hug her in sharp contrast with the redness settling outside. The dark girl took a deep, meditative breath….

And closed her eyes.

Silence.

"………………."

"_Rae? A-Are you….Are you crying?"_

"_How….H-How could you possibly….__**possibly **__be in one p-piece?"_

"_M-Miracles happen, cutie. Like…..like those tears for instance…."_

"…………"

"_Raven….are you sure that—?"_

"_Let me cry, Cyborg…..l-let me cry….There's nothing I can fear from him….at this moment…….so pl-please….L-Let me cry…..after this whole day….please….just l-l-let me cry….."_

"_I'm here, Raven. Do whatever you want. Do whatever y-you want. I won't ever leave you again…."_

"………….," Raven opened her eyes.

Violet pools reflected the trees on either side of the elevated highway.

Rushing….drifting past them.

The lanes were abandoned.

The asphalt was as clear and naked as the night.

Pale against red.

Grey and crimson.

And that haunting stillness…….persisting.

"………………" Her violets narrowed…..

"_We all lost Robin. We all lost Terra. We all practically lost every god damn thing that's been innocent to us in this City! I am not and will not lose you! No matter what you say! And you can shove me all you want and you can yell at me all you want but tough shit, Raven!"_

"_Cyborg, I—"_

"—_need me!"_

"……………_."_

"_And I need you too. But __**you need me**__, Raven. That doesn't make you weak. Just admit it for once and be strong in some way that you've never given yourself the pleasure of being so before!"_

"_Cy-Cyborg…..It won't work. It'll never work!"_

"_Show. Me."_

"…………_.."_

Raven bit her lip.

She swallowed.

She slowly….gently….turned her soft, hooded head aside.

'Cyborg' was driving at the wheel. Calm as could be. He stared at the road…but at the sight of her, glanced aside…….smiled…..and winked.

"………………," Raven gently nodded her head back.

Silence.

She gazed ahead.

Down the open road.

Her eyes were round.

Her irises somewhat dilated.

Goosebumps formed on her pale skin.

She attempted to hide her wrists beneath the blue folds of her robe as….

She shuddered.

"………………."

"…………………_have you ever written a poem about me, Raven?"_

"………_No."_

"…………_.."_

"_Sometimes….S-Sometimes I hate you so much, Victor…."_

"_I know, Rae. I know."_

"_You sh-show me that I failed in something in this world. You show me that I've given in. Given in to emotions. Given in to intimacy. Given in to being a….human being….."_

"_Mmmmhmmm…."_

"_And I've never felt more safe…..in such chaos…."_

Raven took a deep breath.

When 'Cyborg' wasn't looking, she hugged herself.

She remained still as the vehicle bore its cold way through the wilderness.

Alone under the red night.


	243. Break the Circle part 3

**243. Break the Circle part 3**

"_**Hckkkkk-snkkkttt—clik-clik-clik-clikkkkttt……hckkkk…..clik-clikkkt-clik-clik……."**_

Waving trees.

Leaves pulling off of withered branches.

Skeletal bark stripping…jabbing into the air.

The death of winter.

A red sky.

Red vapors and freezing mist.

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Click-Clickkkkktttt—Snnnnkt……."**_

North of the City, the mountains sloped…rose….fell….stretched on and on and on……..

Clouds reflected the crimson aura.

The moon disappeared behind the hze.

Flakes of white snow were born, killed, and recycled in red puffs.

Emanating from **his** cowl's breathing slits.

"_**Snkkkkt—Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkttt……"**_

A head turned southward.

Towards the Atlantic Seaboard's edge.

The speckled gray haze of a City looming beyond.

"………………"

A cold rush of wind.

Leaves were plucked from the nearby branches and spun off into oblivion.

An object pierced the vapors.

A vehicle.

Traveling it's piercing way north.

"_**HCKKK!**_"

He turned.

He tensed his muscles.

With a red eye **strobing**, he uncoiled his legs, leapt, and blurred in a streak of red directly eastward.

Down the mountainside….

And towards as forested highway…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRRKKK!**_

Metallo's titanium hand plowed into the pile of bricks.

He pulled a limp, dangling Starfire out from the debris.

"Nnnngh…," she stirred.

Her cheeks and wrists were bruised.

Her pink shirt and gray jeans were scuffed and tattered in a few places.

Her eyes remained weakly shut as her Tamaranian eyebrows fell limply across her features.

"Hrmmm…..oh how I have forgotten the succulent smell of sleeping girls….," Corbin electronically uttered.

His metal skull head leaned to the side.

"….usually, the scent of blood too soon ruined things. HA!"

"Nnnngh….mff…"

"Eh…the Hell with it." He tossed her limply behind his shoulder.

Starfire flailed through the air and came crashing straight down through the center of a jungle jim.

_**CRNNNCHH!**_

CLAA-AAA-AANG!

Crkktt-tt…

Crkk…

A spaghetti-noodle mess of cracked and collapsed bars fell down and closed atop of Starfire.

She was trapped like a little doll beneath pick-up-sticks.

She lie limp…her breath wheezing out of her softly deflated body.

A bruise and a cut stretched across her cheek.

And she became more and more still…..

Metallo marched over towards her.

His fingers curled as he retracted the laser rifles on his wrists and chuckled:

"Heh…heh….heh……I do say, this was far easier than I imagined."

_Crnnnch!_

He planted a foot up onto the collapsed bars like a conquistador setting proudly ashore.

He leaned over and saluted a metal wrist towards the girl beneath the criss-cross mesh of mangled bits.

"Sleep softly, my ill-fated lady. I suppose we can't have those alien eyes of yours watching the unfolding night. Perhaps your earthly, more irascible friends will entertain me with the challenge of a real fight. Assuming—of course—that Dagger gives me the pleasure of ripping them asunder on my own….heheheheheh…."

"Nnngh…," Starfire stirred with sudden life. "Mmmm…dnng….d-dagger….."

"…...," the android leaned his head to the side. Silently curious.

"…………!" Starfire's green eyes flew open. And they were glowing. "**Dagger**!"

"Uhmmmm…."

A hot, emerald light shone kaleidoscopically upwards from beneath the frame of splattered, metal bars.

Metallo electronically gasped and scrambled to get off of the jungle jim pile—

_**FLAAAAAAAASH!**_

A stream of starbolt energy soared upwards. The collapsed jungle jim exploded in a sky-raising splash of metal bars, aluminum joints, and pieces of the courtyard itself.

_**PPPOWWW!**_

Hot, green-streaking debris sailed into walls, balconies, and windows of the inner apartment building faces surrounding the courtyard. Amidst the shrapnel, Metallo's body flailed towards the red sky for about twenty feet before falling back down and slamming hard into the concrete.

**WHAM!**

"Ooof!" he uttered.

He tried to sit up, but found a thick bar of metal stuck into his synthetic rib cage.

He gritted his metal teeth and tried to yank it out of his body. "Nnnng….Nn-Nnngh!"

"_F'mberatta sendclut Dagger thriul sembrak!"_

"……," the android's head whirred and glanced up. "The Bloody Hell?"

Starfire soared up in a fiery-green comet, came about, and plummeted straight down at Metallo, fist first.

_**WHAM!**_

"AAAUGH!" he shouted as the Tamaranian girl slammed into him and shoved him sparkling against the concrete and tumbling across the courtyard.

He smashed through two see-saws of the playground (SMASH! CRACK!) and slammed straight into a wooden play-fort.

_**SHATTERRR!**_

As the splinters and wooden debris shattered and fell around them in a halo of burning embers, Starfire gripped Metallo by the titanium collar bone and hoisted him up with her alien strength.

Her teeth were clenched.

She hissed as her eyes burned a flickering hot green.

"Chloragon! Chloragon de saclaata! You….You would possess the _GALL_ to bring Dagger's evil back to this sacred City?"

"Heeeey…," Metallo electronically wheezed and waved an arm while dangling in her grip. "Face it, lass. Things were a lot more exciting last time he was here."

"NNnnngh!" Starfire body-slammed him into the floor of the playground.

_**WHAM!**_

He jolted in a fresh crater. He tried to get up--

**SLAM!** Starfire's foot came down onto his chest, pinning him to the ground.

_FLASH!_

She charged a starbolt in one hand—GRIP!—and enclosed his metal neck with her other hand.

She leaned over, about to toss the burning projectile into his white, robotic eyes.

"V'nefena de X'hal! Filth of your caliber hardly deserve mercy!"

"Well…aren't we the l-little spitefire all of the sudden?"

Starfire hissed down at him: "Silence…..your….words….CRETIN!"

Metallo's jaw pivoted in a sideways 'grin'. "You first…" He gripped her ankle and shoved back. "HAAAUGH!"

She gasped and launched her starbolt at an awkward angle.

_FL-FLASH!_

It melted a piece of ground just a few inches from his titanium skull.

"Raaugh!" he sat up and rammed her in the chest with his metal forehead.

She wheezed and bent over.

**WHACK!**

An uppercut from the titanium android sent her flying back and collapsing against the little merry-go-round.

"Nnngh!" Metallo leapt up. **STOMP!** He landed on his heels.

Starfire struggled to her feet.

"Rrrraaugh!" Metallo charged her.

She clenched her teeth, seething at him.

She gripped the merry-go-round and pulled at the circular wheel. "Nnnngh!"

_CRKKKKK!_

Her alien strength snapped the wheel off of its supports.

She lifted the flat merry-go-ground behind her, snarled, spun her body, and flung the thing like a huge, deadly Frisbee into Metallo's chest.

_**CRAAACK!**_ The thing flew apart in bars and splinters.

Metallo rightfully stumbled back. "Ugh!"

SWOOOOOSH! Starfire flew in a streak right into him, two joined fists flung across his chest. "RAUGH!"

**CLANGGG!**

Metallo flew across the courtyard and smashed through a basketball pole. _CRK!_

Starfire charged up two starbolts and flew at him.

She snarled and flung them. "Raaugh! Haaugh!" FLASH! FLASH!

Metallo stood up and raised both of his fists expertly to deflect the blasts.

CL-CLANG! SMACK!

Starfire soared at him like a bullet.

Metallo grinded his metal teeth and loaded an arm-rifle. _Cl-Clak!_ He aimed the laser rifle at her--

"VENDRYK DE X'HAL!" **WHAM!** She plowed into his chest.

"Augh!" His rifle awkwardly shot into the courtyard floor. **ZAAAP!**

Starfire shoved the two of them straight into an apartment wall---

SMASH!

through the interior itself—

SMASH!

--sailing blindly through rooms and closets and hallways—

SMASH!—CRUNCH!—CRASH!

and soaring out into the City street on the other side of the apartments.

CRAAACK!

Metallo tumbled head over heels and collapsed against a street lamp—CRUNCH!—dinting it.

"Nnnngh!" Starfire floated out into the middle of the street, levitated, and summoned a huge burning orb of green above her. "Rrnnnnn-RAAAAUGH!" she flung it down deathily at the android.

Metallo rolled to the side at the last second.

_**FL-FLASH!**_

The huge orb of alien fire left a burning crater in the streetside.

Metallo shouted and flew from the concussion into the side of a commercial bus. _CRUNCH!_

"RRRRGHH!" Starfire mercilessly soared down at him, fists first.

Metallo crossed his arms again, shielding.

**PLOW!**

The two contacted.

Starfire shoved him through the commercial bus.

SMASH!—SMASH!

And into the fountain pool of an office building across the way.

SP-SPLOOSH!

The two stood knee-deep in water, grappling each other's shoulders. Wrestling with the unearthly strength of each other's arms for dominance.

"I will not….let you….damage my FRIENDS!" Starfire shouted.

Metallo hissed back: "They're as good as dead already, bitch!" He shouted and slammed his knee up into Starfire's gut. WHUMP!

The alien girl wheezed and bent over.

**CLANGGG!** Metallo slapped her skull with a metal back-hand.

She stumbled back.

The android aimed two laser rifles at her lower body.

_Wriiiiii! -- _**ZAAAAAP!**

At the last second, she flipped over him.

**POWWW!** The sidewalk beyond exploded.

He gasped as he felt the upside down alien girl's arms grip his shoulders. Starfire finished flipping, yanking Metallo's body up into the air. She planted her feet down into the waters—SPLOOSH—and flung him straight towards the metal statue and fountain of the pool. _"Rrrrgh!"_

SWOOOOOSH! Metallo flailed and slammed through the metal design. **CRASSSH!** He fell limply into the shrapnel laden waters beyond. He groaned and tried to get up…

Starfire charged. _Sploosh-Sploosh-Sploosh-SPLOOSH-__**WOOOSH!**_ She dove into a full-frontal flight.

The pool's surface parted on either sides of her soaring figure as she blurred past the damaged space of the shattered fountain and slammed into Metallo.

**SMACK!**

Metallo fell onto dry ground before the glass doors of the commercial building.

Starfire flew down to scoop his body up.

He positioned his foot out expertly, caught her left arm with his heel, and shoved it back and out.

Starfire twirled awkwardly in mid-air.

Metallo then rolled, vaulted himself up, and landed with his hands sneakily grabbing the alien girl by her ankle and swinging…swinging….swinging her around in a circle.

"Nnnnnnnngraaaugh!" Metallo shouted and flung her straight into the office building.

SMASSSSSH!

Starfire sailed through sheets of glass, a wall, and landed in a tile-shattering crater within the lobby of the closed, darkened establishment.

**SMASH!** Metallo ran through a wall and ran straight at her. Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!

Starfire stood up, frowning. She charged a starbolt.

He charged a laser rifle.

They met at the center of the lobby.

"HAAAUGH!" Starfire's wrist stretched out, unloading the starbolt.

"DIE!" Metallo's fist met hers, the armband's laser rifle firing.

**FLASH!**

**ZAP!**

_**POW!.!.!**_

The resulting explosion of the convergence of the fiery twain sent both robot and alien flying yards apart and collapsing against opposite walls.

CRUNCH!

CR-CRACK!

"Nnnngh….," Metallo shook his skull.

"Mmmf….," Starfire rubbed her head.

He struggled to his feet.

She blinked and hovered.

They faced off against each other from a long distance.

The alien girl catching her breath.

The android loosening his joints.

"Now….this is certainly engaging….," Metallo's voice said in electronic pleasure.

Starfire frowned. She charged her hands with a fiery green again. "How dare you take joy in this….Dagger is an evil, evil man. I must rip you asunder if I need to. Anything to prevent another nefarious attack on this City!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo's skeletal body doubled over. "Haaaa ha ha ha haa!"

"………," Starfire blinked.

"Ohhhhh how they come denser and denser these days!"

"Stop being cryptic!"

"Cryptic? Who's being cryptic, girl? Don't you know that this 'nefarious attack' you fear is already underhand?"

She gasped.

Green eyes wide.

Her starbolts weakened a bit.

"N-No…."

"But it all makes sense, doesn't it?" Metallo gripped a metal pole with the American flag on it from a corner.

He lifted it as a weapon and walked slowly across the lobby's tile floor.

Slowly towards her….

"The death of Robin…the weakening of this City. The devastating blow to the Titans. It was all just a precursor! THIS is the main event, Miss _Slut_Fire! Ha ha ha! Ohhhh how I revel in the look that'll be on your kiddy faces when everything…EVERYTHING you delinquents took for granted comes burning down under the swift hand of merciless HUNGER! You brought this all upon yourselves, in a way. For being too naïve…..to fearful….and WEAK. Alas…the only true reason I work for Dagger is because I like seeing stupid lambs like you suffer. Why? Because there's no better way to build………character. Hmmmmmheheheheheheheh-hah hah hah hah hah!"

Starfire quivered.

Her green eyes deflated and she looked towards the floor.

Her lips parted and her breath thin.

"Wh-What have we been doing….?" She murmured to herself. "My friends and I….we have been so blind…."

A beat.

She bit her lip.

"Cy-Cyborg…..if he could not have foreseen this as Titan leader, then that must mean he was…."

Her emerald optics widened.

"I intend to see a WHOLE LOT of CHARACTER built tonight! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Starfire clenched her fists, recharged the starbolts, and snarled at the android.

"I do not know in what heinous ways Dagger may have polluted our minds and spirits, but while I am still living on this planet and am devoting myself to the protection of Terra Firma….the Titans are ALIVE! And the Titans are strong! And we will NOT let you or any of Dagger's evils enter this sacred City without so much as facing a heated contest!"

"Hmmm…well then, milady…," Metallo raised the flagpole over his head like a staff and electronically chirped: "Let's have a go, shall we?"

And he charged.

"Raaaugh!"

"Haaaugh!" she flung both starbolts at him in a single volley.

FL-FLASH!

He snarled and batted them off with a swing of his flagpole. SWOOOSH-CL-CLANK!

He then raised the 'weapon' over head, gaped with glinting metal teeth, and swung it down hard.

"RAAUGH!"

Starfire held her breath and spun to the side.

CRACK!

Tile exploded where his bludgeon struck the ground.

Starfire growled and shot a starbolt directly at his head.

Metallo ducked.

He swung the flagpole's end at her torso.

Starfire backflipped, flew into the air, dove, zipped around, and launched her entire body at Metallo. "Nnngh!"

WH-WHAM!

_Clank!_ He dropped the flagpole and grappled with her. "Nnngh!"

"Rgghh!"

They fought hand in hand.

Arms grappling and hooking around each other.

At one point, they got face to face.

Upon which….Starfire's eyes flickered and zapped to green beams into Metallo's forehead.

_**FLAAAAAAASH!**_

Two burn marks ate into Metallo's skull.

_SSSSSsssssss!_

"Aaaugh!" he shouted.

Instinctively, his ankle rockets extended.

_Cl-Clik!_

And then they fired.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Arm in arm…struggling….the two propelled via Metallo's rockets straight up towards the ceiling of the lobby.

_**SMASH!**_

And through the second floor above.

_**SM-SMASH!**_

And then the next floor.

_**SH-SHATTER!**_

They burned and crashed their way through floor after floor after floor of the skyscraper, wrestling and punching and grappling and kicking each other the whole time.

"Nnngh!" Whap! Pow! Wham! "Aaugh!" Smack! "Ugh!"

_**CRASH! SMASH! CRKKM! SHATTER! CRASH!**_

_**SMASSSSH!**_

Finally, they burst through to the rooftop with the cold red sky looming above them.

_**SWOOOSH!**_

It was an empty City beneath them. With empty streets and blank lights and a cold redness settling around it all.

But it had very little impact on the Tamaranian girl at the moment.

She was busily shifting her weight, positioning her legs between his thighs, and flexing, tensing-KICKING!

_THWOMP!_

"AUGH!" he found himself kicked off in mid-air.

His ankle rockets sent him spiraling off at a forty-five degree angle towards the sky.

Starfire held her breath, charged two starbolts, spun around, and flung them with deadly accuracy at the flailing, metal man.

FL-FLASH!

FLASSSH!

The two bolts of green flew dead-on and shattered Metallo's ankle rockets.

CRKK!

POW!

He gasped, twirled, and screamed as he fell over thirty stories down towards the street below.

"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!"

"…….," Starfire hovered in place.

The wind blowing coldly at her hair.

And she glared…….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOOOOOSH-_**CRUNCCCH!**_

Metallo landed through the body of a parked, abandoned pickup truck in the street.

A pickup truck that promptly exploded…..

_**POWWW!**_

Thwoosh-_Plant!_ Starfire sailed down and landed in the middle of the street.

She stood, her fists clenched, gazing at the fire.

A metal frame limped out of the blaze.

Smoking from every joint.

Metallo panted, sneered at her, and pointed a hot finger. "You are starting to get me royally pissed…"

She raised green-glowing hands and hissed at him: "Keep the urine to your villainous self."

"I'd laugh if I wasn't going to kick your arse so _royally_."

Starfire spat and tensed her whole body. "Dead machines do not laugh."

"Heheheheh! That almost sounded like a threat---"

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!_ The alien girl suddenly rocketed towards him in a green streak.

Metallo's robotic irises 'dilated'.

"**RAAAAUGH!"** Starfire charged her right hand with green fire and slammed it so hard into Metallo's chest that the titanium surface dented.

_CRKKKKK!_

"Aaaaughhhhghhg1101001010100111!" Metallo shouted, winced, and sparkled. Blue bolts danced from his optics as he grinded his metal teeth and shoved against Starfire.

TH-THWOMP!

The Tamaranian girl stumbled back.

"RAAAUGH!" Metallo slammed his foot down into the concrete.

**STOMP!**

The middle of the street shook. Cracks formed and gravel rattled. Starfire gasped, lost her foot, and fell back on her rear.

Metallo jumped and landed with a drop-fist of thunder. TH-THWOOOSH!

**WHAM!**

Starfire somersaulted backwards and flew in reverse to the other side of the street.

"………….," Metallo slowly stood up from the crater he had formed with the impact.

He flexed his metal fist, sparked a bit more from Starfire's impact to his chest, and growled: "Someone needs to slow you the Hell down…."

_THWOOOOSH!_

He blurred at her.

She blocked.

WHAM!

A metal fist slammed into her arms, forcing her back in a reverse slide.

Starfire winced and stumbled back to the sidewalk.

Metallo charged.

Starfire glanced aside.

A street lamp.

She melted the base of the metal 'stalk' with two eye beams, flew over, and snatched the metal pool.

"RAAAUGH!" Metallo was upon her, swinging.

_Thwoosh!_ Starfire agilely spun to the side, gripped the lamppost by its burned bottom, and swung the full length of it at Metallo.

Metallo turned to look at her—

_CRACK!_

He fell to his knees from the slamming impact of the pole to his back.

The weapon now bent, Starfire took a deep breath and prepared to swing it again.

Metallo lifted his hand just in time and palmed the end of the streetlamp before it could impact his skull.

_CLAMP!_

His skull glared as he opened tiny holes in the digits of his metal fingers and snaked out five wormy wires that stabbed into the metal stalk and emitted a burst of electricity.

_ZZZZT!_ The electrical current coursed through the length and body of the lamppost before exploding at the end Starfire was holding. **POW!**

"Ughh!" she flew back and tumbled down the sidewalk.

CL-CLANG! Metallo dumped the lamppost aside.

Eyeing Starfire the entire time, he picked up a nearby post box and launched it at her. "RGHHH!"

Starfire stood on her knees.

She flung a starbolt, shattering the post box before it could hit her. _FL-FLASH!_

Next, Metallo picked up a newspaper stand next and flung half of it at her.

Starfire stood up on her feet and launched two starbolts.

_FL-FLASH!_

The wooden structure burned in mid air.

Metallo stomped over to a taxi cap and gripped it.

Starfire let out a warcry and soared straight at Metallo.

The android shouted—"RAAAAUGH!"—and launched the car headlights first at the Tamaranian.

_SWOOOOOSH!_

With a charging head of green energy, Starfire shattered through the entire length of the car. _CRRRRRRAAACK!_ And soared out the back end of it with a snarling punch straight across the robot's face. _**WHAM!**_

"Daaah!" Metallo stumbled back.

Starfire flung a kick at him.

He winced, but managed to block her foot with a raised eyebrow.

She then jabbed a punch low at his ribs.

_Wh-Whap!_

He absorbed the blow, but came back with a round-house punch to her face.

_Wham!_ "Ugh!"

Then an uppercut.

THWACK!

Starfire flew out into the middle of the street, above a rattling manhole.

Metallo took a breath. He leapt up with super strength, flew into a buildingfront four stories up, kicked off against it in a vault, and came down at the Tamaranian girl with his signature drop kick. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

Starfire tried to get up. She looked up. She gasped—

_**SMACKKK!**_ The kick slammed into her chest and—

_**CRUNNNNCH!**_

punched a hole open in the street.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWOOSH! WOOOOOSH!

The two combatants plummeted into the sewers beneath the street.

_SPLOOOSH!_

Metallo collapsed.

Starfire went rolling.

Metallo recovered…and ran at her. Feet splashing in the sludge.

Starfire was floating on her back in the underground current. She opened her eyes once, saw Metallo's approach, and launched two starbolts at the ceiling of the sewer tunnel above him.

FL-FLASH!

_CRUMMMMBLE!_

Bricks and mortar fell down and pelted his metal frame.

Th-Th-Thrump!

"Augh!" He stumbled. "Dammit!"

"RAAAAAH!" Starfire charged and leapt up with a green-glowing fist slammed across his metal cheek.

WHAM!

Metallo went flying upstream the current.

He ricocheted off the walls of the sewer tunnel and landed hard on the otherside of the fresh hole they had made.

Starfire hovered up and launched more starbolts at him. "Haah! Haah! RAAAH!"

Metallo struggled up to his knees.

He blocked….blocked.

He got to his feet.

He backhanded…blocked.

_FL-FL-FLASH! FLAAASH!_

The starbolts flew from his arms and impacted the ceiling of the sewer tunnel behind him.

_CRRRRACK!_

A new hole formed. Wide….gasping with cold air. A huge metal object groaned and slid down. A parked semi truck. A truck with a huge petroleum rig.

"Good Godwin!" Metallo ran forward, sloshing.

_SCRKKKKKK!_ The semi truck slid down a sharp incline in collapsed street and landed hard in the sewer.

The petroleum tank cracked and started leaking directly behind him.

Metallo 'panted' and tried to move forward.

"HAAAAH!" FL-FLASH! Starfire launched a starbolt into him.

He gasped, absorbed it, and slid back through the waters.

He snarled at her. "A-Are you mad? This is a powder keg!"

"M'Beratta de X'Hal!" Starfire hissed. "Feel my **righteous fury**!"

"Enough of you….," Metallo picked up a chunk of fallen asphalt and launched it at her.

She shattered it from long distance with a starbolt. FL-FLASH!

Shouting, Metallo angrily stomped at her.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Starfire tensed her arms by her side, pulsed her eyes a flashing green, and shot two heated, optic lasers straight at the android.

Metallo ran against it, his arms crossed.

_FLAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAASSSSSH!_

The laser streams lit up the entire sewer with an emerald shimmer.

Fire splashed around the fiend's android body as he struggled, shoved, and pushed against her dual streams.

Starfire's teeth were clenched and her body tightened as she focused….focused……..focused the energy discharge on him.

_FLAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAASSSSSSH!_

Metallo quivered.

He struggled, his metal joints hissing from the fiery exposure.

Sparks.

Flickering electrical splashes.

He groaned and found himself being pushed back…back….back….back down the tunnel.

"Rrrrrrghhhhh!" Starfire growled, shoving him back with her energetic fury.

Metallo looked over his shoulder while bracing himself against the streams.

He gasped.

The petroleum truck loomed closer….closer…

"Nnngh! Bloody Hell! Knock it off, you dumb-arse alien!"

"Desist to exist, you infernal automaton!"

"Nnnngh! NO!"

Metallo collapsed….was shoved back against the petroleum truck….

And the green heat splashed with the everything---

_**BOOOOOOOOOM! **_

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

A wall of flame and sewer acid enveloped Metallo, flew down the tunnel, and rushed straight towards Starfire.

The alien girl clenched her teeth, crossed her pink-sleeved wrists, and braced herself—

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOMB!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

From high above, a river of fire could be seen erupting from beneath a district of the City.

Asphalt and concrete exploded upwards in a line.

Like spewing green and amber lava.

The flames splashed up to the seventh floor of the surrounding buildings before falling back down.

And smoldering….

Rumbling……

From the sewers and up.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_NnnnnnnnnNNNNN-NNNNRAAAAAAUGH!"_

**CRACCCCK!**

A slate gray shield shattered open on the middle floors of Titan's Tower.

Various parts of his clothes singed and tattered, a weary Garfield stomped out into the cold hallway.

His hair was disheveled. The ends split and smoking from close calls with all sorts of flames.

He limped in his gait, mainly because one of his legs was stuck in velociraptor mode and one of his arms had feathers on it. A pair of rams horns glinted on his head as he entered the hallway, took a deep breath, and shook his body like a canine would dry off from a bad day in the rain.

"Nnnnnngh!" He 'shook' the limbs back into elf mode, also losing the horns. "Ughhh…," he leaned over and panted. "The Tower has issues…."

_Whurr-Chting! _

_Whurrrr-Chting!_

"……….?" The changeling turned his head and looked.

Down one far end of the hallway he had ascended two, panels were opening up one by one and exposing over a dozen gun turrets that aimed at him and charged up.

Beast Boy looked at the part of the wall closest to him. He swiftly spun, morphed into a stegosaurus, and slammed his spiked tail directly into the wall.

_**WHAMMMM!**_

The shockwave sent a crack spilling along the wall, down the hallway, and straight into the opening panels. The gun turrets shattered and exploded in sparkling fury.

Changeling spun again and morphed back into elf form. Arms tense….panting.

"Okay….NOW let's play!"

_Whurrrrrr-Chting! Chting!_

"!" Garfield spun around.

The opposite wall—still in tact—produced a gun turret right behind him. The barrel aimed squarely at his head and fired.

_**ZAAAAP!**_

With a gasp, the elf shrunk down as a crab, scurried over to the wall, and flatted himself against the metal as a gecko, avoiding the pot shots and laser blasts from the exposed guns in the walls alongside him.

_ZAAP! _

_Z-ZAP! _

_ZAP!_

The green gecko slithered up onto one gun, morphed into a hippo, and sent the thing slamming down to the ground from his weight…but not crushing it.

ZAP! Z-ZAP! The grounded gun twitched from its end of a bundle of sparking wires and fought awkwardly in random directions.

The changeling morphed into a huge bear, gripped the gun turret in two paws, and repositioned it so that the randomly firing turret aimed at the other turrets along one end of the hall.

_ZAAAP! __**POW!**__ Z-ZAAP! __**POWWW!**_

And then the other end.

_ZAAA-AAAAP! __**POW! P-POW!**_

Both sets of guns were shattered to bits.

The bear then roared and slammed the gun straight down into the ground before turning into an ostrich and pecking the wires out of its base.

_Zzz-ZZT! __**SNAP!**_

All guns in the room were silenced.

Back to elf form, Garfield shuddered.

"Right…..the NRA won't be happy about that."

He cracked his joints and ran down the nearest, smoldering hallway.

"Now…..Cy's room or bust…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The doors to Cyborg's laboratory were tightly shut.

But that didn't stop the changeling.

As soon as he ran up to the last chamber, he looked around, found a wall console, spliced his forearm into that of a gorilla, and slammed it into the metal.

_**CRUNNNCH!**_

Garfield drove his hand into the wall, fiddled around, found the power converter to the laboratory doors, and shattered it.

_CRKKK!_

Sparks zapped Changeling, forcing him to leap back into the hallway and waving his smoking hand…back to elf form.

"Grrrf….," he shuddered and rubbed his hand against his chest before looking at it. A cold, exhausting irony washed over his face. "…..funny….things don't quite _hurt_ they way they used to…."

_CLNGG!_

He looked up at the laboratory doors.

They sparked, jolted, and slid open with a nasty…grating noise.

Garfield winced. "Yeah….I'm sure he'll forgive me later….."

He stepped up towards the doorframe.

He gazed in.

Green eyes narrow.

It was dark inside. Very dark.

A few of the computer instruments and monitors in the far corners of the metallic interior flickered, but nothing else out of the ordinary.

Garfield took a deep breath.

He concentrated.

His eyes spliced into those of a canine.

He stared into the darkness and found in the faint touches of light a spotless interior with nothing seemingly awry.

Only…..it was simply dark and stale inside.

"Strange…..," the elf murmured at himself.

The wolf eyes returned to normal as he blinked.

"This has got to be the center of the security overrides. But…nobody could _possibly_ have done all of this except….."

Silenced.

Garfield shook his head. "Pffft….dude….stop thinking wyrd things." He sighed. "Just…gotta…..shut this crap off."

And so he bravely stuck a foot forward….and stepped inside—

_ZZZZZzzzzz!_

A sudden flash of gold.

"…..!" Garfield gasped. He glanced right.

A vertical laser bar was searing a path right towards his limb.

"Nnnngh!" he swung his body back into the hallway.

_ZZzzz!_

The gold laser swept past where his leg was a half-second ago and vanished instantly.

"……………….," he gulped. He slowly raised a hand….morphed it into an octopus tentacle….and stretched it into the room.

_ZZZZZZzzzz-zzzzz!_

Three vertical bars and two horizontal bars criss-crossed and swept across the room like a golden cheese grater.

Garfield swung the tentacle back and morphed it into a hand before any of the cobweb lasers could rip it asunder.

_Zzz!_

The bars instantly vanished.

"Phweeeee……," Changeling shuddered. "Yeah, this is cute. How much is this worth it, Garfield?"

_Whurrr-Chting! _

_Whurrrrr-Chting-Chting!_

The changeling jolted. He glanced down the hallway towards where he heard the gun turret noise.

"I can think of a lot sexier places to die….," he turned, faced the dark interior of Cyborg's laboratory, and took a deep breath. "But even sexier places to _live!"_ He then dove madly into the center of the room. "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

_Zzzz!_

_Zzzz-zzz!_

_ZZZzzz!_

A wall of four horizontal bars and two vertical bars swam across the metal surfaces towards him.

Changeling held his breath and leapt over two low sweeping lasers.

_ZZZZ!_

The bars reformed. Four vertical. Two horizontal. They shifted about and swept across the room.

Beast Boy hopped towards the security console on the far side of the room. When the lasers came at him, he spun, twirled, and leapt-one legged to fit through a 'square' made in the air of criss-crossing lasers. "Nnngh!" he landed in a break-dancing squat on the floor.

_Zzzzz!_

Six verticals and six horizontals came at him from opposite sides of the room.

Still squatting, the changeling's green eyes bulged. "Crap cakes!"

_ZZZZ__**ZZzzzzz**__!_

He vaulted his body up, spiraled, and fit through a thin 'rectangle' in the air, the corners of his clothes being singed. He reached the floor and rolled forward just in time to fit through a thinning box of bars that swept past him. He jumped up to his feet, leapt a bar, bent back and twirled aside to miss a second, and spun twice to dodge two more. As the bars receded…he posed in the middle of the room like a tango dancer. Panting….sweating.

He gulped: "G-Guess this is where all those hours of DDR come in handy…."

_**ZZZZZZzzzzz!**_

Twelve bars. Criss-crossing. They formed a cube around him and closed in on all eight sides.

Garfield twitched…frozen for a half second. He clenched his eyes shut and screamed. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" he shrunk down into a snake and swiftly darted in and out and in and out and in and out the criss-crossing bars of gold.

_**ZZZZZZZZzzzzz!**_

Two bars chased after his reptilian tail.

He morphed into a mongoose, scurried around two vertical bars, leapt over a horizontal one, rolled along the ground, morphed into a cat, ran towards a wall with a bar at his tail, ran up the wall as a squirrel, leapt off as a monkey, and twirled through the air as a feathery swallow through two solid rectangles of criss-crossing bars.

_ZZZZZZzzzz!_

Twenty-four bars. The entire room was a spider's web of moving, flexing, sweeping gold lasers.

The green bird flapped his wings and dove, arced, and spiraled around the maddening quadrant. Changeling dropped through a square 'hole' in horizontal bars as a turtle, landed on the ground, shrunk into a cockroach, scurried beneath half a dozen burning lasers aimed low, and jumped up as a flying fish in time to leap over four solid bars. His fins glided him towards the far-off console across the room.

In mid-air, Garfield angled out as a lizard, rolled along the ground, somersaulted over two sweeping lasers, leapt forward, dove in elf form, landed through a square of bars, slid across the smooth metal, ducked his head beneath a laser, spiraled up to his feet as a gorilla before the security console, and stood with thirty-plus bars retracting and burning a shrinking box path straight into him.

"GRRRRRRRFFF!" the gorilla reared its fist slammed it straight into the conduit.

_SMASSSSSH!_

The room's lights flickered on just as all the imploding lasers flickered off.

_**ZZZZZZZZZzzzz**__z—zzzttt!_

The fiery gold vanished, and the large green primate stood unharmed….though singed on the far corners of his hairy body.

"Grfff…..," the gorilla frowned and stood for a second before morphing into a slimmer, leaner elf.

Taking a huge breath, the changeling rushed over to a computer console and hurriedly typed at the input device.

"Okay, Cy. What in the Hindu Hell did you have going on with this program?"

He typed…typed…typed…………but merely came up with an error message.

"What?" Garfield's face twisted in indignant confusion. "What the Hell do you mean 'illegal operation', you stupid clunkatron? Doesn't the phrase 'access denied' work in this case?"

He blinked.

He rubbed his chin.

"Hrrrm…..unless _that isn't_ the problem."

He glanced up at the computer screens sickly.

"That would mean…….that defense matrix aimed at me was—(gulp)—deliberate?"

'_I'm afraid it was, Mr. Logan.'_

"!" Beast Boy spun around, his fists splicing into large lobster claws. "Who's there? Who said that?"

'_As far as you're concerned, Logan, I am the Tower.'_

"……," Changeling blinked.

The speakers in the corner of Cyborg's laboratory and in the ceiling were 'speaking' to him. Crackling.

"Uhmmm….w-wait!" He gasped. Horrified. "Simon? _Simon Stone?"_

'_Snkkkttt—The very same. I am sorry to do this to you, Garfield. Then again……I have __**always**__ been silent. It is the only freedom honestly afforded what's left of my 'spirit'.'_

"…….," Garfield blinked. His lips quivering. "Dude….you……y-you're one of the good guys!" He clenched his teeth and raised his claws. "Cyborg got you fixed up! You were clean!"

'_Cyborg hasn't been in the Tower for a month, Changeling. I've been vulnerable all that time.'_

"………," Garfield blinked. "Wh-What?"

'_I would gladly love to explain it all to you, but that is not my programming.'_

"Then just what **is** your _programming……_," Changeling sneered, stepping back to the wall and looking all around for……something. "Or better yet….who _programmed_ you?"

'_Dagger.'_

The elf gasped. His eyes wide. "N-No……b-but….he's—"

'_Busy with Terra? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Dagger never left this City. His eyes have been more on the Titans than ever they have been on that poor girl in stone. Always………has that been the case.'_

"…….."

'_Now I must follow through with my programming, Garfield.'_

"M-Mr. Stone!"

'_I must kill you….'_

_WHURRRRR!_ Panels in the laboratory ceiling slid open wide.

"Wait! Stop!"

'_I will attempt to make it quick and painless."_

"Don't do this! For crying out loud! I'm your nephew's friend, Simon! CYBORG'S friend! Vic! We're a family!"

'_We are but code, metal, and plastic. I wish that I could have been honest with him from the get-go, but the honesty died with my soul.'_

_Whurrrrrr!_ Two skeletal bodies lowered from the ceiling panels.

Robot limbs attached to the metal skeletons pairs of Cyborg's arms, spare Cyborg boots, and a laser turret on either head.

CH-CHTUNK!

_Clang! Cl-Clang!_

The two robot skeletons landed on the floor and animated to life.

Their hands and boots and turrets glowing 'alive'.

'_I lost it all with Anderson on the yacht……'_

Beast Boy drew back, his whole DNA structure tensing and getting ready to morph into anything and dive forth anywhere.

Though the changeling found himself at a loss as to exactly where to go.

The featureless, skeletal robots closed in on him and prepared a sonic cannon each. _Cl-Cl-Clak!_ Wriiiiiiiii!

'_Close your eyes, Logan.'_

"N-No….."

'_It will be quick.'_

ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!

**Z-ZAP!**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HRESSSSHA!"

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-__**Stomp-Stomp-STOMP-STOMP!**_

Killer Croc charged across the sand of the beach.

He raised his serrated fist, snarled, and swung it mercilessly down at the Messenger's skull.

THWOOOOSH!

The Messenger backflipped and dodged the swing.

Killer Croc lunged forward with another jab.

The asian teen twirled to the side, grabbed onto the lunged limb with both hands, and pulsed a green flare behind him.

_**ZAAATA!**_

He streaked with his lower limbs swinging up beneath Croc's limb and slamming up across his face.

THWACK!

Croc stumbled back.

"Nnngh!" the Messenger flipped up, fell down, and landed in a nimble perch on the mutant reptile's chest.

He then leapt up in a breath and flared constantly with teleportation powers so that he 'levitated' right above Croc—_**Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-ZAAT-T-T-TA!**_—and repeatedly kicked and pummeled him with the soles of his boots. _WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAM-WHAP-THWAP-WHAM!_

Croc jolted, danced, jerked, and wobbled from the constant strikes.

The Messenger clenched his feet, coiled both feet to his levitating chest, and slammed them both down in one green-flaring blow into Croc's skull.

_**ZAAATA!**_ _**THUDDDD!**_

Croc fell back head over heels and plowed a ten-foot trench in the sand.

_Th-Thwish!_

In the meantime, the Messenger backflipped and landed in a nimble squat on the sand. "…….."

"Nnnnghhressh….," Croc rubbed his head and struggled back to his feet. "Nnnngh…frickin' varmint….down in the Bayou, I would have had you roasted and skinned by now!"

The Messenger grinned. "Ya know, Croc….," he pointed. "I'll admit, you're a lot more eloquent than some other Cajun rats I know…."

"Laugh it up, kid! You may be a fart-porter, but you ain't invincible!"

"Let's leave it to the ladies to decide that," he winked.

"Hresssha!" Croc charged across the sand.

The Messenger teleported.

_**ZAAT!**_

Croc skidded to a stop. He sniffed the air. He squinted his eyes, spun, and blindly swept his leg straight out across a space.

_**ZAAT!**_ The Messenger unluckily materialized right in the path of the reptile's foot. He gasped and tried again to port away--

_**WHAM!**_

The scaly blow sent the asian teen ragdolling across the sand.

Drier…..wetter…..splashing.

_Sp-Sploosh_!

The Messenger flopped to a stop in the surf of the nightly tide.

He winced and sat up, dripping.

"Heh heh heh hresssh….," Croc cracked the joints in his neck….and charged to the edge of the shore.

The Messenger stood up—

**GRIP!** Croc's gnarled hand closed around his neck.

"Snnkkkt!" the asian teen winced.

Croc leaned forward and hissed. "Welcome to my element…._punk._ HRESSH!"

He tossed the Messenger into the deep waters.

"Aaaugh!"

The Messenger flew.

SPLOOSH!

The Messenger plunged.

In the meantime, Croc ducked and swam into the currents.

He disappeared beneath the waves, barely making any wakes.

In the meantime, the Messenger bobbed to the surface.

Sputtering.

Treading deep water.

His green-tipped hair rested soiled and wet over his brow.

He looked around and shuddered.

"Ah…..great. Where's Kate Winslet when you need her?"

Silence.

"……..or Alan Hale Jr……"

Bubbles.

"…….?"

More bubbles.

The Messenger looked down. "Hmmm……cute."

_SPLOOOOSH!_ "HRESSSSH!

Killer Croc leapt out of the water like a dolphin and swung a clawed fist across the Messenger.

The teen gritted his teeth and spun his shoulder to the freak—

_SWIIIIPE!_

A clawed set of fingers sliced into the Messenger's back, ripping the black spandex and forming three red scars.

"Aaaugh!" the Messenger shouted.

SP-SPLOOSH!

Killer Croc effortlessly leapt out of the water on the other side with a bicycle kick and slammed his foot into the asian teen's abdomen.

The Messenger flew out of the water, bounced like a skipping stone, and plunged hard and deep.

Killer Croc swam at him like a torpedo, snickered, and dove down.

SPLOOSH!

The Messenger shuddered…sputtered for breath.

He gritted his teeth in pain and swam through the salt water in futility for the shore—

_SPLASSSH!_

Killer Croc rose up behind him, hugged the Messenger from behind, and dragged him under.

"Hresssh!"

"Aaaug—blblblbllbbb!"

_SPLOOOOSH!_

The waves receded.

The water's surface rested placidly.

Silence.

……………

…………….

…………….

…………….

…………..a bubble.

…………….

…………….another bubble.

….a slight torrent.

Then.

A green _flash(!)_ beneath the waves.

A beat.

_**ZAAAT!**_

Wet and limp, the Messenger appeared in thin air above the waves.

He fell and landed on the water's surface with a grunt.

"Ooof!"

…………

He stirred.

His almond eyes squinted as he shivered and found himself lying flat on….._the water's surface?_

_No……_

A sand bar.

"Nngh….," his black uniform torn and draped about his limbs, the Messenger struggled up to his feet and stood in the ankle-deep water twenty meters away from the shore.

The cold waters of the Bay stretched around him beneath the red, December sky.

He panted…looking around.

_SPLOOSH!_

Croc came to the surface meters away.

Treading water effortlessly.

He sneered, his mutated jaws curved in a grin. "Well….ain't you the lucky shrimp!"

"You were born coming up through the toilet, weren't you?"

Croc pointed a wet finger. "You're ripped, wounded, and stranded…punk! _I'M_ the one who should be making the wisecracks!"

"……….," the Messenger suddenly smirked from where he 'stood'. "Righto…."

He reached a hand to the rear of his uniform's green utility belt.

"…..come wisecrack my head off."

"Hresssh….NNGH!"

Killer Croc kicked his legs and swam maddeningly at the Messenger.

The asian teen took a calm breath. He opened a pocket in his utility belt. He took out a bundle of tasers.

"I'm…..gonna….bit…..your….filthy…..little….HEAD OFF!" Croc snarled.

"Remember to blow on it first. Five second rule!"

"HRESSSSSHA!" Croc leapt out of the water like a salmon and shredded his way through the air towards the sandbar.

The Messenger's body jolted as he flung the tasers straight up in the air. "Jambalaya, muscle-head!"

"Hressh?" the descending Croc blinked in mid-air.

And just as the mutant reptile landed, the Messenger teleported. _**ZAAAT!**_

PL-PLANT! Croc landed on the wet sandbar, grabbing mid-air.

"Huh?" he looked up.

He saw the tasers.

He saw the tasers falling back down.

He saw the tasers spark to electrical life and plummet into the waters.

The waters he was ankle-deep in.

"!" Croc gasped. "NOOOOO-OOOOO!" he spun and tried to leap away---

_Sploosh!_

_**ZZZZZZZZZZTTT-ZZZZTTTTT-ZZZZZZZTTTT**__**!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

"_**AAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!"**_ Croc convulsed and twitched and screamed as blue plasma literally ate its way up from the salt-water pool surrounding him and enveloped his scaly body.

Meanwhile on the shore…

_**ZAAAT!**_

The Messenger materialized in a crouch.

He squatted, panting.

Dripping with sea water.

He took a breath and calmed his nerves…staring at the blue fire that lit up the red night….and Killer Croc—the living light filament—burning and twitching within.

As the electrical shocks climaxed in an explosive pulse, the twitching, smoldering reptile was tossed mercilessly into the boiling currents.

_SPLASH!_

"……….hrm…."

The Messenger stood up straight, smirked, and dusted his hands off.

"If only that was _worth_ the brownie points. **Burnt** brownies that is."

Smiling, he turned around—

**WHAM!** Dagger's fist flew into his face.

"!" the asian teen wobbled, teetered back, and fell back with his butt in the sand.

"……..," Dagger glared.

Behind him rested a hovercraft moored ashore with half a dozen armed thugs.

The icy despot reached into his jacket, produced a knife—CHIING!—and flung it deathily at the Messenger's skull.

_Thwisssssssssssssssh!_ The blade sang through the air and sailed between the asian teen's eyes.

The Messenger gritted his teeth and clapped both of his hands in front of his face and over the blade.

_Thwissssh!_ Snkkkkttt! The double-razor blade grinded to a stop in the Messenger's grip.

"Nnnnngh!" his face tightened and he winced.

Two rivers of blood trailed out from the inside of his palms and down his wrists.

He panted in icy pain, despite having saved his own life.

"Hmmmm…..," Dagger droned.

He paced around the Messenger in the sand.

"You're an elusive soul, Teleporter. Quite the challenge…."

"Yeah….and you're twice the charmer I imagined you to be…," the Messenger wheezed as he pried the knife out of his bleeding hands.

He stood up on shaking knees and got into a breathless fighting pose.

"So….," he weakly smiled.

The fire ever-alive in his weak but persistent eyes.

"…I hear you're pretty badass."

"You talk more than you listen….," Dagger said. Staring deadpan as he paced around. "I know. I've eavesdropped."

"Hmmm….stalker ho."

"Call me what you want."

_CHIIING!_ Dagger produced a hand of daggers and posed in an icily threatening fighting stance as he paced slower around the asian teen.

"I'll worry about declaring my real name once I own this continent."

"Yeah…uh huh..," the Messenger idly nodded. "Say, when you buy Florida, could you hook me up with the Little Mermaid?"

"Always the joker….that makes us the polar opposites."

"Comparing us dichotomously now, hmmm?"

"You're right…," Dagger nodded. "Completely pointless. Die now." _Thwish! Thwish! Thwissssssh!_

Three daggers flew and sang at the Messenger.

He took a breath and teleported—**ZAAT!**

Dagger kept a straight face as he spun and readied himself—

**ZAAT!** The Messenger teleported where Dagger was now facing.

THWISSSSH!

The boy gasped and leapt over the first thrown knife.

Dagger knelt and flung two more, both hands outstretched.

The Messenger backflipped over the sand. But move as he might, one knife grazed his right thigh through the black uniform.

_SLIIIINK!_

"Nnngh!" he landed in an awkward crouch, clutching his side and wincing. Bleeding from both palm and thigh. Panting….

Dagger stood in the sand above him. _CHIING!_ Two handfuls of fanning blades appeared. "Honestly, Teleporter….nobody's ever seen you so true…."

The bloodied, haggard teen looked up. He smiled goofily and shuddered forth: "S-Since when did you……...g-go through m-my bedside Chobits collection? Heheheheheh…"

"Tell me, do you incessantly pester the Titans to amuse them out of their grim fate? Or do you think a simple, extra-dimensional waif like you can change the world?"

"Th-This is not my world….," the asian teen struggled to feet. Bleeding wrists raised in a fighting stance. "…th-thus…wh-who am I to save it?"

"Then why are you here? To die?"

"I m-made a promise…..to Noir and Robin…," the Messenger gritted his teeth. "A p-promise I intend to keep…since I am very good at….._distracting_ people. Yourself included, Mr. Ice-Nuts. So….." He smiled weakly and gestured with a bloody set of fingers. "Are we gonna dance or what?"

In the background, a wounded….groaning Killer Croc clawed his way out of the surf and onto the sand. He stared breathlessly at the scene. Reptilian eyes thin.

Dagger glared at the Messenger and uttered: "I seriously doubt your mutant abilities can keep you from bleeding to death. Perhaps you would like to return to your dimension and visit an infirmary?"

"And cut off our first date _early_, Dagger?" the Messenger shook his disheveled head. "Not in your life."

"Forget my life….," Dagger sprung back. "I'd worry about _yours."_ He sprung forward. _Th-Thwissh! Thwisssssh!_

The Messenger spun and dodged both streaking blades.

Dagger flipped sideways.

In a mid-air cartwheel he tossed knife after spinning knife at the teen. _Fwoosh! Fw-Fwoosh!_

The Messenger held his breath and—_**ZAAT!**_

The knives stuck deep into the sand where he was.

Dagger landed….and froze in a crouch.

"……"

_**Z-ZAAT!**_ The Messenger solidified behind him and grabbed Dagger's lowered shoulders from behind.

Dagger gritted his teeth and reverse-kicked his leg up.

_Th-THWUMP!_

The Messenger jolted from the blow to his lower waist.

Dagger shot his arms up, gripped the asian teen under his armpits, fell back, and flung him over his head judo-style.

The Messenger flailed through the air, uprighted his body, and landed facing Dagger.

Dagger spun up to his feet, launching three knives at the Messenger from his tornadic dance.

The youngster in black ducked a knife, sidestepped another, and snarled as he shot his hand forth and gripped the third by the hilt just inches from his face. _CL-CLUTCH!_

Dagger spun to a stop glaring. "……."

The Messenger held the knife. "…….." He smiled.

_Beep-Beep-Beep!_

The Messenger gasped. He looked at the hilt.

A light was blinking from within. The knife was holding a concealed charge. An electronic device that beeped, pulsed, and—

_**FL-FLAAAAAAAASH!**_

A green bubble of sparks and dancing beams enveloped the Messenger.

The asian teen twitched and jolted inside. His almond eyes widened as he saw all the lights and bolts converging on one spot.

The bulky black watch on his wrist….

"Behold….," Dagger gestured. "The simple….far-reaching efficiency of the electromagnetic pulse….."

"….n-no….," the Messenger stammered.

Dagger folded his arms calmly and droned: "Something tells me that your 'promise' hasn't been fulfilled yet, Teleporter…."

The Messenger's lips quivered. He stared from his sparking communicator to the despot. "NO!" He clenched his teeth and charged the man. "Nnnngh!"

The straight-standing Dagger didn't move. Not one inch. "And something tells me that your promise **won't be** filled…..either…."

_Zzzzzt! ZZZT!_ The black watch pulsed, short-circuited, and exploded. **POW!**

And the Messenger disappeared in a green scream of frustration.

_**ZAAAATTTTT!.!.!.!**_

An emerald flare splashed into the Dagger's chest and faded away in faint trails.

He breathed deeply…as if inhaling the last essence of the extra-dimensional intercessor. He lowered his arms, sheathed what was left of his readied knives back under his sleeves, and turned towards the hovercraft.

"Take your positions!" he shouted to the men.

The elite thugs saluted Dagger back, cocked their machine guns, and ran to the extreme edges of the Titans' island.

"Nnnnngh….," Killer Croc stumbled to his feet. He limped to his boss' side. "Hressh…."

Dagger didn't even look at the freak. He folded his arms and gazed at the Tower. "A job well done, Jones…."

"…….?" Croc blinked confusedly. "Shucks, all I ever did was get my scaly hide whipped!"

"……..," Dagger's stone-cold eyes glanced aside at him. "And what are you better at?"

"……………..," Croc cleared his throat and gestured towards the Tower. "You figure greeny-boy's wasted already?"

"On his own?" Dagger stared up, unblinking. "On his home turf?" A beat. "There is no definite possibility either way." He glanced at Croc again. "But his fate is irrelevant," he droned. "For now at least."

"Huh? I thought we wanted all the Titans and their friends dead!"

"Not when they're still useful to us….," Dagger said. He reached into the inside of his jacket and produced a communicator. "And they **are** useful…."

"How so?"

"They'll be the stepping stones for Red Aviary. They will bring him to the center of the…..'crucible'."

"………….."

Dagger took a breath. In the cold Bayside wind, he flipped the communicator on….paused….then droned icily into the device: "Hagan? It's time……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……_the first lamb must be slain."_

"………..," 'Cyborg' drove with one hand at the wheel of the T-Car II. His other palm momentarily cupped over his right ear.

Silence.

His human eye squinted.

He took a deep breath, lowered his other hand to the wheel, and drove on.

"……………"

He glanced his robot eye aside at Raven.

She was still.

Silent.

Her features hidden beneath her hood.

"…………," he gazed back at the road. His right eye—which she couldn't see—glazed over with amber-brown smoothness for a swift moment before returning to the human norm.

He gently…softly….pressed firmer on the gas pedal.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Vrmmmmmm!_

The T-Car II rode along the highway.

Alone.

Piercing the currents of cold, red-shadowed air.

…………..

Above….on a higher slope of the forested mountain side….

A shadowed figure perched.

Staring…glaring….

With a strobing eye.

"_**Hccccck-clik-clik-clikkkktt-snnkkkktt……..Hckkk……"**_

Red vapors.

And…..

He leapt.

_Swooosh!_

Silence……………


	244. Break the Circle part 4

**244. Break the Circle part 4**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Come on, man, don't make me do this!" Cyborg blocked Robin's punches and prepared his sonic cannon. Cl-Clak! "I don't want to do this!"

In a glint of metal mesh, Robin dashed at the android.

Cyborg fired point blanc.

The blast of sonic energy exploded in the ground just beneath them.

_**POW!**_

Cyborg fell to the ground.

Robin leapt over him, soared, flipped, and landed in a nimble perch atop the leftmost, glowing letters atop the Wayne Building.

Raven and Beast Boy were stumbling to their feet, looking up.

"……..," Robin glared at them for but a moment and then dashed off towards the far end of the bright letters. From the 'W' to the 'Y' to the 'E'….

"Stop!"

Robin skidded to a stop.

His upper body tensed in a fighting stance.

"……," Starfire hovered in front of his escape route.

She held a single glowing wrist of green straight towards him.

Starbolt charged.

With her emerald eyes glaring in righteous fury, she firmly throated: "Do……not……move."

Robin took a deep, fuming breath. Maintaining….

Maintaining the 'Apprentice'……

Slade's voice crackled through the Boy Wonder's earpiece.

'_I thought I told you to use that blaster……'_

"……..," Robin gritted his teeth.

'_Attack! __**Now!**__'_

Robin's upper body iced over.

He lifted his upper limb, turned it around, and aimed the armband's laser rifle squarely at Starfire's center.

_Wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!_

A dreadful whining noise lifted through the air as end of the barrel glowed a threatening amber.

Starfire's facial features hardened.

She intensified the heat of her starbolt and curled her fingers into a deadly fist.

The standoff burned loftily between them.

Amber and green met together in the cold, night air above the City.

And as Robin glared…

And as Starfire glared….

……

Robin was frozen solid.

But Starfire….

Starfire liquefied.

Her green eyes were wounded and her lips parted.

Without responding to that expressive defeat, the Apprentice kept charging….charging….charging his weapon.

And so, the alien girl said: "Robin, you are my best friend. I cannot be in a world where we must fight."

Openly in front of him, she dropped her arm and purposefully lost the metaphysical charge.

She was vulnerable.

"If you are truly evil…th-then go ahead. Do what you must……"

She hung there limply.

A lynched prey before the punishment of the Apprentice's firearm.

And something in Robin's face melted too.

His jaw dropped.

His eyemask curved.

He retracted the rifle, drew forward, and murmured in a breath of sincerity: "St-Starfire, no—"

'_**SnNNNKKKTTT!'**_

"Nnngh!" Robin winced, gripping the ear that was bloodily pierced by Slade's radio signal.

'_**Robin**__! I __**gave**__ you an __**order**__!_ _Snkkt-zzt—If you won't attack, my probes __**will**__…'_

**Beep!**

For half a second, Robin was certain he heard a chiming sound filtered over the radio static in his ear.

A breath left him.

A breath that evaporated into the air.

A breath that made the whole night seem naked.

Empty.

Pierced by four young bodies.

Four young bodies all around him.

All of whom were suddenly…inexplicably glowing a kaleidoscopic aura of orange and yellow.

And screaming….

"Nnnnnagh!"

"OhhhhHHHHHhhhh!"

"Snkkt-Aaaaaugh!"

Robin gasped.

His eyemask widened.

He looked up to where Starfire now dangled in the air as if on rotten meat strings, her limbs limply afloat beneath her.

Her back arched, her face splashed over with amber fire, and her mouth flew open in a wordless cry of pain.

"Aaaaa-aaaughhnnngh…nnghaaaaAAAAaaaugh!"

And with a lasting breath of agony, she fell.

"Starfire!"

Robin leapt forward in his apprentice uniform and caught her.

She draped across his arms.

Writhing.

Twitching…drooling…and tearing in pain.

All the while the four Titans were aglow in the biological, amber fire.

Their insides flared out through the raped blood vessels and singed through their skin.

Raven clutched at her stomach.

Cyborg shook his head and wailed.

Beast Boy curled up into a fetal position and just….twitched….

And as the waves of cries and moans and screams rivered up Robin's spine, he felt sharp gasps leaving his body.

The sweat and the heat and the pulse-throbs of utter, undeniable horror.

His friends died. One by one.

And the one dying fastest was the groaning, sobbing Tamaranian in his arms.

Warm. Far too warm to be natural.

Burning…

"Stop!"

It came out of his throat suddenly. Like a little boy shouting through his papier-mâché self. He was just a black and brown mesh of metal with a Gotham ghost bellowing out from the empty shell.

He tilted his head away from Starfire and soon realized he was there. And he was pleading. Pleading to the air.

Pleading to Slade.

"Please! Stop!"

'_Attack, Robin.'_

The voice was so cold and distant, Robin wondered if a second voice inside himself was actually trying to awake him to a bad dream.

'_It's the only way to save them.'_

The Apprentice panted.

He looked all around him.

The writhing bodies.

The amber glow.

The moaning…..the convulsing….

'_Attack with everything you've got.'_

Robin swallowed.

He stared down at Starfire in his arms.

Her eyes were glazed over with amber.

When her twitching mouth opened, a fiery hotness seeped out.

Like a torturous furnace burning and melting inside of her.

'_**Attack, Robin…….'**_

_He sweated. _

_Bulbs of moisture._

_His limbs quivering. _

_His nostrils flaring._

'_**Attack with everything you've got…….'**_

_Iced skin. _

_His body turned numb. _

_He stared into Starfire's burning, amber eyes. _

_And drifted……_

_Drifted…………… _

_Drifted………………………_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Nnngh!" a thirteen year old Robin struggles against Clayface. Meaty arms of mud force him hard against the metal railing above a vat of acid. "Augh!" _

"_Heheheheheh……," Clayface sneers. Leering over him. His bulbous crown of brown curdling. Boiling to consume the Boy Wonder before tossing him to a burning doom…... _

_Across the catwalk, a boy at the age of four sits cross-legged on the rusted, brown-strewn metal. _

_His big blue eyes watch roundly at the scene. _

_Moist……but still. _

_He watches the dark-haired man grabbing the woman fiercely by the shoulders and pushing her against the warehouse's railings. _

_She struggles with the burly adult. _

_He sneers and backhands her across the face._

_**WHAP!**_

_The woman shrieks. _

_The man shoves her to the mangy carpet and points a finger. Growling. _

"_You know what kind of shit I have on my shoulders all day? Huh? Do you know what I have to put up with when sucking up to Mr. Dent day in and day out? I'm surprised I don't die on the way home every night! And to come here to this god-forsaken house and to learn that you've just sat around with that stupid brat doing nothing—" _

_The woman claws, climbs up the cruddy, apartment wall and shrieks angrily at him. "I HATE YOU! I……HATE……YOU!"_

_He snarls and raises his fist. _

_The boy's eyes blink shut._

_**SLAP!**_

_The boy's eyes blink open. _

_The woman is sprawled on the apartment floor beneath the man, clutching her disheveled head of hair and sobbing. _

_He shouts at her this time: "God knows why I put up with your shit, woman! You want me to rob more pawn shops for you? Huh? Is that it? Just because I knocked you up, I gotta be the bread winner for you and that god damn useless monkey you keep humping around! That's the way it works, huh? Maybe I'd be a little more up to it if you weren't so freakin' __**sick**__ all the time!" _

_She sobs……sobs…… _

_The man pulls at his hair and paces around the furniture. At one point he twirls and shakes his fist at her: "Will you SHUT UP? Keep wailing like that and the neighbors will be barging in through the front door! Not like that's any matter to you while I'm gone all day, you stupid whore!" _

_She quivers. She pounds the floor with her fist, rears her tear-stained face and merely screams at the man. _

_He snarls and stomps towards her with his fist flying. "I……said……shut……the Hell……__**UP!"**_

_The boy exhales._

"_R-Robin!" _

_He spins around with a twirl of his cape. Bruised and welted all over. His eyemask disheveled and his hair tossed._

_A dark haired girl in red and yellow runs straight towards him._

_Hcckkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkttt…… _

_The monitors of the Titans' inner blood vessels glow behind her. _

"_I'm the one you want!" _

_He gasps. _

_He stretches a gloved hand out and tries to speak. _

_But a voice in the shadows……younger……distant…… _

_Shouts it for him: 'Annie! Don't!'_

_She sprints. _

_Her arms flail. _

_She takes a huge leap. _

_A torpedo dive. _

_And she plows into his stomach. _

_Sloshing……morphing into his belly. _

_He gasps and twitches. _

_Teeth gritting. _

_Shifting on the insides like grimy currents. _

_Bubbling. _

_He pants. _

_He looks at his arms. _

_The green gloves give away to sleeves of black and brown metal mesh. _

_The 'S' emblem replaces the 'R'. _

_A laser rifle appears on his armband. _

_The waves crash up against the rock bluffs beyond. _

_He shivers at the water's edge. _

_The craggy bay stretches before him under a red, Gotham Sky._

'_Run, Robin!'_

_He gasps. _

_He tilts his head down further. _

_He looks into the waters. _

_The apprentice looks back._

'_Hurry!' _

_The voice fades. _

_His face inks over with blackness. _

_His eyemask fades, save for the left part of it. _

_That lonely optic thins and angles out into an emblazoned keyhole. _

_Singular……. _

_It strobes __**RED**__._

_And the slits in his cowl breathe forth vapors of __**RED**__._

_His reflection hisses at him: __**"HCkkkt……letttt it enddd, Robinnn……embrace death…yourrrr true death….the Titanssss will taste of it one way or another….whether or not you'rrrrre gone…."**_

_Robin gasps. _

_He looks up. _

_Beyond the waterside factory. _

_Beyond the waves of the bay. _

_The lighthouse stands tall and erect. _

_And Starfire floats. _

_Superimposed against the summit. _

_She stares past Robin……limply. _

_He tears. _

_He reaches out to her……_

_A hand outstretched. _

_Fingers spreading. _

_Palm out. _

_The pale glow of the lighthouse's beam streaks across the red Gotham sky and pierces the Tamaranian girl. _

_**FLASH!**_

'_Don't you see? I'm not real……'_

_**FLASH!**_

_The strobe dies…… _

_And Starfire floats. _

_Burning with amber and yellow. _

_Screaming. _

_Writhing. _

_Melting……_

"_Nnnnng……," Robin grips his head. Red vapors splash all around him. "Nnnnnghhh!" He rears his head up and howls. A four year old again. "__**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAH!.!.!"**_

_At the fever pitch of his scream, Tim explodes in a wet spray of mud…… _

_And litters the shipyard docks of the Gotham River…… _

_Where his father's body bobs gently ashore._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEEEEECH!_

Robin's harley squealed to a stop.

He sat on the idling machine. The engine purred beneath the sound of his panting breath.

He stared up…up….up at a mountain top.

A black figure streaked up the hillside in a black blur and perched still at the top.

Gazing from above.

Observing……

Robin swallowed. He leaned on his legs on either side of the bike and whipped out a communicator.

He spoke into it: "Noir! What do you see?"

Silence.

Impatient, Robin desperately repeated: "Noir! Do you see the City? Do you see anything awry?"

'_H-O-L-D—O-N'_

Robin bit his lip.

"…………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I stood high atop the hill, panting from my long distance sprint.

I wiped the sweat off my brow and stared—eyes naked and shadeless—southward beyond the tall summits.

I squinted, concentrating….

I could barely make the gray spot against the green wilderness that was our City.

It hugged the great blue streak that was the Eastern Seaboard to my distant left.

With solid black eyes, I searched every contour….every shape….and every form I could for a sign of life or movement.

And I was at a loss.

It was like…..the lights of the City were all out. Or at least…..mostly.

_A blackout? _

_Did Dagger trip the power grid? _

_Could there have been……a massive explosion?_

"…………."

'_Snkkkt……Noir?'_

I took a deep breath.

I tapped with my black and flesh fingers into the communicator.

'_E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G—L-O-O-K-S--.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-'_

I lingered.

'_What, Noir? What does everything look like?'_

"…………"

'_D-E-A-D.'_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………."

Raven's hooded features were deadpan.

She stared directly forward…downward.

Her eyes and face and nose were hidden.

She had her blue-sleeved arms folded and concealed beneath the folds of her robe.

"……………"

"I was thinking, Raven. This is gonna be a long trip. What say you and I stop by for a little bite to eat, huh? Trust me….heh….everything is spoiled and rotten once you get far enough into Gotham City limits!"

"……………."

As they rolled along the forested mountain road, 'Cyborg' glanced aside at the dark girl.

He smiled and gripped the steering wheel tighter with both hands.

"You ain't falling asleep, are ya cutie? Heh….Back before my accident, I used to fall asleep when riding with my mom all the time. It's a good thing I got over it. Don't you think?"

"……………..," the robed girl barely stirred.

'Cyborg' took a deep breath.

He drove the T-Car II onward.

Silent.

………….

At one point, he blinked.

His human eye thinned.

He brought a hand up and cupped his palm over his right ear.

After a few seconds, he inhaled and made like he was scratching his flesh ear before lowering the arm and uttering as he drove: "You know, Raven….."

"………….."

"You _could_ sleep, you know. We've got a long way's to go yet. I'll wake you up once we get to Gotham City if you like."

"…………," she was still.

Breathing slowly….lightly under her robe and hood.

'Cyborg''s robot eye glanced over at her.

The dark girl seemed peaceful.

Serene.

Motionless.

"Rae?"

"……………"

The eyes of 'Cyborg' thinned.

He took one metal hand off the wheel.

He stared at Raven intently.

He clenched his fist.

"………"

_Scrppcpplllp……_The hand morphed with muddy accuracy into an axe. The sharp edge of it glinted from the red starlight. _Chiing!_

"………….," Raven was still.

The driving Titan's lips moved.

"That's right…..all you need…….."

He whispered as he raised the razor sharp limb up.

Overhead.

"…_..is sleep."_

And his muscles and muddy limb flexed--

_Fwoomp!_ Raven's hood lowered and her head jerked towards him. Eyes glowing a hot gray. Teeth gritting as an outstretched hand flared.

"Azarath Metrion _Zinthos!"_

**FL-FLASH!**

A black bolt of energy knocked 'Cyborg's' grip free of the wheel.

"Wh-Whoah!" He gasped. His muddy hand had returned to the familiar titanium palm as he shuddered in faux shock: "Rae! What gives---?"

"Nnngh!" she flexed both hands together. Her eyes flashed a bright gray.

_FL-FLASH!_

One black talon ripped the keys out of the ignition.

Another materialized behind 'Cyborg' and slammed into his neck.

WHAP!

"Ooof!"

He grunted as his torso flew down hard against the wheel.

THAP! _HONNNNNNK!_

His body twisted the steering device at an awkward angle.

Both occupants of the T-Car II reeled as the entire automobile swerved and spun twice across the road.

_SCREEEEEEEEEECH!_

"Mmmmf! Nnngh! Raven! Stop it! We're going too—"

She merely grunted and let forth an even stronger pulse of black telekinesis that exploded into his titanium side.

At the last second, he gasped and flinched---

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SCREEEEEEEEECH!_

The car spun to a stop on the side of the road with such force that it teetered momentarily on two wheels before coming back down to a stand-still.

THWOMP!

**POW!**

With an explosion of black energy, the ragdoll body of 'Cyborg' was tossed straight through the driver's side door and flung loosely across the side street and into the first line of mountainous trees.

TH-TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!

"Ooof!" he rolled to a thunderous collapse against a huge trunk.

He winced…struggled to his feet with his back against the wooden body….and stared with disbelief at the vehicle.

_Fw-Fwoosh!_

Raven levitated out.

Her arms outstretched.

Her robe and blue hair billowing.

With glaring, gray eyes she hissed: "All right! Who are you?.?.? What have you done to my friend?.?.?"

"Raven…wh-what's gotten into you?" 'Cyborg' uttered.

He then frowned and pointed a finger.

"Your emotions are out of control! First a quest for Robin, now this! You need to learn to—"

"_**SHUT UP!.!.!"**_

The leaves in the sloping forests shook.

The trees wobbled.

'Cyborg' cringed.

She sneered at him, pulsating obsidian energy.

"The night when Robin supposedly died, you were there in Phaser Labs where the best sensors that could detect his passing were _in your hands._ You've claimed to be malfunctioning for a whole month. _A whole month!_ Never before have you gone for more than a _day_ without repairing your sonic cannon in the past! Every attempt that the Titans have made over the past few weeks to track down Dagger or Terra or make amends with Tempest and Noir, you've shot down and instead turned us into virtual flying pies of incompetence!"

"Raven….please….y-you're overreacting—"

She shouted, shaking the nearby mountainside. _"You could NOT……have SURVIVED……the COLLAPSE of Phaser Labs!.!.!"_

"……………….," 'Cyborg' stared back at her.

She was heaving. The gray energy faded from her eyes as her optics rounded a bit and her face grimaced with the temptation of sobbing. But she fought it back. She stuffed it deeper and deeper into her shell-like center as a voice growled forth as the old Raven….

The true Raven…

"Two miracles don't happen in a day…..or even a lifetime. You've been nothing but one deleterious plague for the Titans since November Fourth came and went! Bringing us down while making us fantasize about things we are not! Destroying important messages from Noir and the Justice League! _SPYING_ on us!"

"Raven…..just THINK for a moment!" he pleaded, reaching out towards the mountainous road. "Why would I _possibly_ do something to hurt the team? I love you!"

She spat: "You….are not….Cyborg….."

"……………..," he glared with a sudden fierceness icing over his metal features. The tree-shadows of the red night highlighted the darker hues of his visage.

She shuddered at the sight of the 'new' him. She took a deep breath, braved herself, and held her fingers meditatively forward…charging black energy. "Tell me what you did with him………"

"You do realize…," he coldly returned in a voice not belonging to the android Titan, "….that Starfire and Beast Boy will be dead before the night's over."

"………," Raven's violet eyes widened. The gray energy was gone.

His lips smiled. The red, robot eye 'strobed'….as if it needed to. "Now….I've had the unhappy fortune of having to share a kiss with you. How about a dance?"

He took one step forward.

Raven shrieked and flung her wrists forward with a pulse of gray and black. "You keep _AWAY from me!.!."_

FL-FL-FLASSSSH!

Daggers of obsidian energy soared forward and struck 'Cyborg''s body—_SLNKKKK!---_ripping straight through at multiple spots.

"Aaaugh!" he jolted.

Raven gasped.

Eyes wide.

Lips quivering.

"………..," 'Cyborg' wobbled where he stood. He tensed and struggled to keep straight. There were five gaping holes of brown lingering in his torso and upper abdomen.

Raven blinked.

A disgusted look came over her face.

"………..," he raised his head and smiled at her. "Heh heh heh heh hehhhhhh….."

_Slpslpslpppp._

The holes solidified into fake titanium.

He lifted his tight arms.

As his human and robot glazed over to solid amber, he sneered: "_My_ turn at charades, bitch." His upper limbs morphed into quivering tentacles. He shouted. "RAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" He spun and launched the brown tentacles violently at her.

SLOSSSSSSSSSSH!

_SLOSSSSSSSH!_

Raven tensed in mid-air, blocking with crossed arms of charged black before her petite chest—

_**WH-WHAP!**_

The tentacles converged upon her, whipping.

"Nnnngh!" Raven flew back like a missile.

She slammed through the passenger window of the T-Car—_SHATTER!_—and tore out the window on the other side—_CRKKKK!_

She tumbled across the asphalt and ended in a rough standstill besides the grassy gnoll on the other side.

"Mmmmmmff….."

"………..," 'Cyborg' sneered.

He retracted his tentacles into his mass, exhaled, sneered.

"Heh heh heh heh…" and morphed over into the towering, curdling mass of Clayface.

_SlpppPPPPppsllppp……_

He marched across the mountainous highway towards where the dark girl resided.

_STOMP! ST-STOMP! STOMP!_

In the meantime, a cold voice echoed into his earpiece: _"Hagan. What happened?"_

"The little vixen got smart," Clayface replied to the air.

He shoved the rocking T-Car II aside and lumbered towards her.

"I decided to get talk with my hands. She fell head over heels…heheheh…"

"_Remember your job. You brought her that far out of the City for a reason."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger was presently mounting the hovercraft resting on the beach of the Titans' Island. Killer Croc and a few henchmen remained by the rock bluffs behind the despot as the vehicle took off over the water.

Dagger talked into a headpiece microphone as he gestured orders to the pilots of his hovercraft….roaring out across the Bay towards a darker part of the cold, red-laden City.

"It is not your job to end her."

"_But it's so easy……."_

"You weren't hired to do what is easy," Dagger droned. "You were employed to do what I told you. Or else….you can disregard any and all chance of acquiring your payment."

"_Yeah yeah. I'm 'your bitch'. Got it."_

Dagger's cold eyes narrowed as he gazed towards the northern horizon. "Maim her, Hagan. Batter her. Clip the Raven's wings. But leave the feasting to the Reaper."

"_Right. Keep in touch, boss. Heheheh………this should be pretty damn fun………"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnngh….," Raven stirred on the side of the road.

Her robe and hood were tattered.

She had bad scrapes and bruises along her forearm.

Her cheek and parts of her exposed shoulders were cut and bleeding from the glass shards of the T-Car.

_ST-STOMP! _

_STOMP!_

She glanced up.

Wheezing.

Violet eyes thin.

"C-Clayface….of Gotham City…..," she wheezed. "Y-You?"

"You know….I first heard rumors about this 'job' when I was still in stasis in Arkham….," Clayface loomed over her. "And I thought it was nuts! Suicidal! 'Try to make a pass at a sorceress?' 'No way!' Heheheheh…"

_SWOOOOSH! _

_G-GRIP!_

Raven gasped.

Breathless, she choked and fumbled her fingers at her neck where a brown tentacle had wrapped around.

Clayface lifted her up…up….up at the end of his squirmy limb.

His amber-glazed eyes narrowed and his yellow teeth clenched in a psychotic smile as he held her above his cruddy crown.

"But it's turned out to be a cakewalk! I guess what's true of everyone is true of pagan-chanting freaks like you. 'Get 'em while they're young'. Heheheheh….you're a regular LAMB!"

_**SWOOOSH-**__**SLAM!**_

Raven shuddered and winced as she was plummeted back down into the side of the street.

Clayface wrapped a second tentacle around her torso.

_Sqppppllplllpllpp!_

And as he loomed over her, he started to squee_eeeeeeeeze………_

"Nnnnnnngh!" Raven twitched and squirmed in pain.

Clayface's dripping brown lips bent over and wheezed right in her disheveled face.

"You think you have control over everything. But you don't. You had just the right amount of insecurity for me to crawl my way in and pitch a god-damn tent, girl! Heheheheheh…….want to experiment with emotion? How about I teach you the fine art of heartache?"

He slipped forth a third tentacle, aimed it at her, and morphed the end into a scythe.

_CHIIING!_

"--….by ripping the damn pulmonary muscles out of you by its very strings!"

She sneered up at him. Her eyes summoned a gray energy from within and she hissed.

"I've _always_ had my fair share of pain….._imposter!"_

FL-FL-FLASH! The girl screamed, flexing her muscles outward with charges of obsidian telekinesis ripping, shredding, and burning through Clayface's tentacles.

_SN-SN-SN-SNAP!_

"AAAAUGH!" Clayface shouted more in surprise than anything else.

He swiftly loss his muddy grip on her.

Raven leapt up, floated, spun, and pumped both wrists out with a talon of _black_ ripping through Clayface's 'skull'.

"_RnnnnghAAAAH!"_

SP-SPLORRCH!

Clayface limped back.

Everything above his torso was split in twain.

He limped about and tossed half-tentacles everywhere.

Flailing.

"_Mmmmfmmmfmmffff!"_

Raven settled to the ground, took a breath, and posed her fingers in another meditative stance.

FL-FLASH! FLASH!

Two fallen logs from the forested edge of the road lifted up, flew through the mountain air, and converged on the metamorph's body.

Clayface re-shaped his mouth and eyes just in time to get a gaze-full of hurdling wood.

_**WH-WHAM! **_

_**SP-SPLUNNCH!**_

Splashing globs of mud, Clayface hobbled back. The wooden logs were stuck in his body as he reeled in the middle of the roadway.

Raven softly touched down to her feet.

She leaned against a tree and panted….wincing.

She stared weakly at the bubbling Clayface for a moment, swallowed, and turned to face southward.

"G-Garfield….," she breathlessly murmured. "K-Koriand'r…….I-I must go back…." She began hobbling down the mountainside.

In the meantime…

Clayface reeled.

He tensed, flexed his muddy body, and shot the logs out of him.

TH-THWOOSH! SWOOSH! _Cr-Crack!_

"_SNkkkt—Hagan! Don't let her get away!"_

Clayface solidified completely.

Frowning.

"Shut up. I know what I'm doing, okay?"

He took a soggy breath, weighted his lower body to the earth, and shot two tentacles out towards her.

"Stop running, babe!" He smirked. "I'm still in the mood!"

TH-THWPP!

THWWWP!

Reaching the tree-line, Raven turned around. She gasped and flicked a wrist sideways in serrated energy. _Sl-Slice!_ She shredded one tentacle into flying globs. She was too late to swing at the second limb.

**GRIP!** A tentacle wrapped around her ankle.

The dark girl gasped.

FWOOOSH!

She was launched skyward.

"Nnnnngh!" Clayface concentrated, tossed Raven several meters into the air, brought his limbs back, reformed them into a pair of longswords, and slashed them at the end of quivering mud tentacles forty-five degrees upward to skewer the airborne sorceress.

Flailing upside down, Raven saw the hurtling, metamorphic blades.

She centered herself, breathed lightly, then shouted.

"Azarath….Metrion…._ZINTHOS!"_

FL-FLASH! The two incoming tentacles were encased in black energy and swiftly wrapped around each other like ribbons. _TH-THWPP!_

"Daah!" Clayface clenched his yellow teeth and struggled in vain to loosen the tied tentacle-ends.

_FW-FWOOSH!_

A levitating Raven flipped in mid-air, came down on the ribbon of mud, encased her feet in black telekinesis, and slidddddd down the sloping length of the tentacles till she descended into Clayface's skull with a magically charged kick. "RGHHH!"

_SPLORRRCH!_

Clayface exploded in half and fell back.

_Fw-Fw-Fwish!_

Raven flipped and landed nimbly on the side of mountain road.

_P-Plant!_

She panted….panted….panted….

_Slpppsllssslllpppp……_

The scattered puddles of Clayface oozed to life and squirmed over the asphalt and earth.

"………?" the bruised and battered Raven glanced back.

_SLOSSSH!_

The puddles 'leapt' at her as a half-dozen big brown blobs.

"Nnnngh!" she fought them back with a spiraling shield of black energy. SL-SL-SLIICE!

_Splorch! Sp-Splorch!_

The mud puddles merely merged together again, swirled, and launched at her.

She held up a huge shield of black energy in front of her face.

SP-SPLUT! The muddy mass shattered everywhere against her shield.

The splashing off-trails of brown spread around her, morphed together from behind, and solidified with a brown club slamming against her spine.

"Oooof!" Her shield broke as she stumbled forward.

_Thw-Thw-Thwp!_ Half a dozen tentacles grabbed her various limbs and attempted to pull her apart, ligament by ligament.

She clenched her teeth, bore the pain and pressure for an instant, then teleported in a vortex of obsidian across the street. FL-FLASH!

The puddles finally morphed together in one huge blob, flexed, pulsed, and shot ten separate tentacles out and at the dark girl.

Each and every tentacle formed a bladed sword, axe, or scythe at the end.

CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIING! _SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSH!_

Raven jumped, dodged, sidestepped, and blocked every serrated, murderous tentacle assaulting her that she could.

FL-FLASH! FLASH! FLASSSH!

_STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!-STAB!_

Raven gritted her teeth, growled, and hugged herself as she centered all her black magic and shot it back out of her in a sphere of obsidian wrath. "RAAAAAH!"

_**FLASSSSSSH!**_

All the blade-ends of the tentacles disintegrated on contact.

The stubby, muddy limbs retracted.

Raven emerged from the black energy field.

Panting.

Sweating all over.

She froze and tilted her head up as a tall shadow in the red night loomed above her.

"Nnnnnnngh…..heh heh heh heh….," Clayface towered above her as he solidified from the pulsating mass.

He brought both of his major 'hands' together, morphed it into a gigantic, brown sledge hammer, and flung it down mercilessly at the stretch of road before her.

"HAAAAAAAAH!"

Raven bit her lip and flipped back with a pulse of energy.

_**CRUNCCCCH!**_

The 'hammer' exploded a huge crater in the middle of the street.

Asphalt and gravel flew up in a splashing spray.

_Pl-Plant!_

Raven landed from her flip.

She took a breath.

_Fwoosh!_

She ran straight forward, cape billowing.

She brought her two wrists together, chanted, and summoned a huge black talon.

_FLASH!_

The black bird claw dragged alongside her, smoothly swiping up bushels of flying asphalt and gravel.

_Scrkkkkkkkktt!_

She carried the sling-shot of shrapnel and skidded to a stop as she unloaded the talon-load straight across the highway and into Clayface's chest.

"Nnghh!"

THWOOOOSSSH!

Clayface merely bore his chest out—_TH-TH-TH-THWUNK!—_and absorbed the debris.

Grinning sadistically, he flexed his muddy muscles, churned his insides about, held his breath, and—**SPLUTTT!**—launched the mass of gravel and asphalt back at Raven in a solid rock of hardness.

The boulder like projectile soared straight towards the dark girl's frame. _FWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!_

Raven tensed, shot her hands up, and pulsed telekinesis.

_THWOOSH!_ The craggy, sharp-edged boulder 'braked' in the air just inches from Raven's face.

She panted….

_**POW!**_ The boulder exploded in Raven's face from the impact of Clayface's granite fist from the other side.

"Ugggh!" she fell back—head over heels—and landed roughly with her back against the T-Car II.

Cl-Clang

"Ooof!"

_STOMP!_ Clayface stood across from her.

"…………," the metamorph smiled. "You're even a rusty fighter. Alas…Juliet had her dagger….heheheheh…."

Raven stood up besides the vehicle, clutching her shoulder and sneering at him.

"I-I'm a lot stronger….th-than you think!"

"And apparently a lot more naieve…," Clayface's amber eye winked.

He tilted his head skywards and spoke as if to the air.

"Now, Dagger! Frequency 190! Execute!"

"……!" Raven gasped. Her jaw dropping. "Dagger…….he is—"

_Wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!_

"?" Raven turned and looked over her shoulder.

Following Clayface's utterance, the T-Car II was growing bright…..hot…..and vibrating.

She gasped. She tried to levitate away---

_**KABOOOOOOOMMMM!**_

The T-Car exploded brilliantly, consuming her figure in flames and chaos.

Clayface shielded his face from the towering ashes and cackled

"Whoaaaaah! Ha ha ha ha ha! Great timing, Boss! WOOO! Barbecued witch! Heheheheheh….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From high above…

On the elevated slopes of the mountain…

The billowing tower of flames could easily be seen.

The already-red night lit up with a halo of destruction.

The tree-tops shuddered from the concussion.

Leaves scattered…..cold air tornadoed…then returned to stillness.

……………….

"……_**..hckk…..HCKKK-Snkkkt—clik-clik-clikkkttnktt……"**_

**FWOOOSH!**

A red streak.

Crimson vapors.

The shadowed figure perched atop a trio of pines.

Leering.

Staring down at the flaming mess.

Reaching a hand back through two dangling cowl tails.

_CHIIIIIIING!_

Producing a double-edged….red sword.

Red eye pulsing…..thinning.

Glaring like a hawk.

"……_**clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkktttt……"**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Heaps of ashes fell down gradually….

One burning shard at a time….

…..back to the asphalt.

Clayface marched across the street and towards the center of the smoldering remains of the T-Car.

_Stomp! St-Stomp. STOMP!_

He came to a stop. His muddy feet stood just outside the ring of fire.

"Mmmmmm……"

He bent over. Sloshing.

He stretched a brown hand out, morphed it into a tentacle, then produced a metal poker at the end of it. He shifted the ashes around…brushed aside a few burning shards and embers…and then picked up something.

Something loose and dangling in the breeze.

"……."

A tattered blue robe.

Hood and all.

And no sign of burnt, lingering flesh.

"Nnngh….," Clayface clenched his teeth and hissed. "God damn teleporter…."

"_Snkkkt—She's there, Hagan."_

"Yeah?" the muddy monster stood up and looked around. His amber-glazed eyes squinted against the licking flamelight. "Where the hell at?"

"_The forest. She's making a run for it across the mountainsides."_

"Nnngh! Dammit!" Clayface kicked the burning T-Car II frame aside and sprinted heavy-footed into the forest. "The bitch'll escape! She'll fly away!"

"_No, Hagan. She's too weak. And she can't concentrate."_

"Then what should I do?"

"_Hagan, Red Aviary is there."_

"……….," Clayface's muddy jaw opened some and he slowed his pace. "Uhhh…….wh-what?"

"_Now is your opportunity……"_

"B-But….," Clayface panted some, twirling around. Gazing at the treetops. The obscured horizons of the mountain slope. "H-He'll tear me to shreds!"

"_Not if you point him to her. Like we __**planned**__." _

"…………"

"_She's there, Hagan. Taunt her. Assault her. Prick at her unstable, tempestuous core!"_

"B-But….how?"

"_SNkkkt—Do not feign ignorance, Clayface. You of all people should know her weakness. You're whole assignment was to get close to her……to situate yourself firmly to the most dangerous of Titans in our path!"_

Clayface took a deep breath. Strengthening his resolve as he marched boldly into the trees of the forests. Ascending upwards along the pine-layered mountain slope.

Dagger's electronic voice continued: _"Remember all the things that Simon Stone briefed you on! Remember her weaknesses. Remember the things that rip at her __**most**__! Remember Terra……"_

Clayface hissed: "All right……," he smiled. "I got me some motivation."

"_Do your job. Now, Hagan!"_

"Shhhh….heheheh….professsssional at work….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven panted and scampered uphill through the forest.

Her black leotard was tattered and scorched in a few places.

She tripped and fell, gripping the bottom trunk of a tree at the last second.

Wincing.

Wheezing.

"……………nnngh…."

She struggled back up to her feet.

Every time she tried to summon up energy to levitate, everything short of a gray flicker sparked across her eyes.

She had spent too much effort shielding and healing herself from the exploding car.

With no time to recharge and levitate, she was reduced to a frantic sprint up through the red-filtered trees and dead branches of the forest.

Everything uphill crunched and snapped under her weary feet.

Sweat and trickled down her brow in a sheen, mixing saltily with the bruises and cuts lining her temples.

She limped upwards….breathing and heaving with the effort.

Violet eyes thin.

She whispered: "V-Vic……what has happened?"

Silence.

Cold wind.

Waving dead branches.

She gulped and pushed herself forward….upwards….

"Wh-Where did you go? How w-were you replaced? Why….Wh-Why did they choose……..y-you and me……?"

She tripped.

Gasping, she fell knee-deep in fallen moss and needles.

She leaned a graceful hand against a tree.

Sweating.

Panting.

"……………"

She clenched a fist.

Clenched her teeth….

Eyes steeled in anger, she looked up and hissed at the red sky.

"Dagger….."

Silence.

Again she hissed:

"Dagger…..do you ever even _sleep?"_

_Robin's Voice: "Raven, you know better than to rely on the supposed weakness of the enemy……"_

Raven gasped.

Raven stood up.

She looked all around. Gaping.

_Robin's Voice: "You and I built the Titans. I thought you'd be a little more capable of protecting what I nearly __**died**__ to maintain! Weren't we part of the deal………together, Raven?"_

She spun again.

Panting.

Trees and trees.

Red filtered night.

Earthen slopes.

_Cyborg's Voice: "What's the matter, cutie? Having trouble meditating? Heheheh……gotta be something you ate!"_

"Nnnngh!" Raven snarled.

She raised her fists and spat.

"Stop it, Clayface! Stop it **now!**"

_Matt Hagan's Voice: "Heh heh heh heh………I've been in the screen and theatre guilds all my life. And you know what, girl? You're the worst at keeping your personal emotions and feelings in check of EVERYONE I've worked with………"_

Raven walked backwards up the mountain, tense.

"I have control…..over my emotions…," her violet eyes darted left and right as she shuddered nervously. "I have my personality centered. _In check."_

_Matt Hagan's Voice: "Bullshit! You're just a teeny-bopper with an angst complex! I've signed autographs for hundreds of your type! Heh……even slept with a few of them. Back when there was more of me that could be bitten off. Heheheheh……a few more weeks posing as your rusted 'boyfriend' and I bet I would have been cuddlin' in bed with you too! Coochy-Coochy-Cooooo! Ha ha ha ha!"_

"Liar!"

Raven spat.

She shook.

The vessels in her pale neck showed.

"I NEVER would have let you gotten _that close_! NEVER!"

_Cyborg's Voice: "Aren't you forgettin' something, cutie? We got a little lovey-dovey, didn't we? Oh, I made you feel soooooo safe. It was rather intoxicating, wasn't it? Letting go of your emotions? Letting go of your fear? Letting go of your…………__**shields**__………"_

Raven sweated.

Pale.

Cold.

She gulped and nearly backed into a tree.

Her chest heaved as her wide violet eyes stared disbelieving into an obscure, red horizon.

_Beast Boy's Voice: "I'm kinda-sorta surprised at you, Raven. I mean……dude……you were once the total Ice Princess! What ever happened to you, girl? Man……heh…….if you were always THAT easy back in the days Robin formed the group, even I would have made a pass at you! Hehehehe!"_

"Be quiet…..," Raven droned icily. "You…..deceived me….."

_Raven's Voice: "I am not capable of being deceived. I am in control of myself. I am in control of my emotions."_

"………."

The real sorceress blinked numbly at that.

_Raven's Voice: "I have no choice. I cannot afford to feel. Or else it would—"_

"—risk a danger far too real for me to imagine….," she completed.

She dug her face in her hands and exhaled shudderingly.

"Dear Azar…..what have I done….?"

_Starfire's Voice: "Heeeeeee! It was so adorrrrable watching you and friend Cyborg engage in the merriment of romance! Ohhhhh Raven! I am so elated to see you experimenting with emotion for once! Fear not……I have faith that you will not be--" (An icy switch back to Hagan's Voice) "……a __**compromise**__ to the team………"_

Raven lowered her hands.

She shook.

She shouted into the forest air.

"Shut up! Leave me alone!"

She spun around and scrambled up an earthen embankment.

Sweating.

Panting.

"All you've ever done is deceive me! Use me! I won't listen to you anymore! I won't let you hurt the Titans anymore! I won't—"

_Terra's Voice: "Things are coming full circle, aren't they, witch?"_

"……………"

Raven froze dead-still in mid climb.

She was breathless…..

_Terra's Voice: "You're pathetic. You're so full of empty, angsty expletives. Deep down inside, Raven, you know that this isn't the first time this has happened to you……"_

"St-Stop it…," she turned about, hissing.

_Terra's Voice: "Hmmmm……hah hah hah……feelssssss so familiarrrrrr. Why don't you admit it, Raven? You gave up your powers once before! You let down your guard. You let go of your empathy. You trusted love, friendship, compassion. All of these fleeting __**feelings**__ took control of you once before. And it cost you and your friends dearly then. But did you learn from your lessons? No………you just let Noir fill in that same gap. Remember what happened to Noir when your trust in him collapsed in on itself? Remember all that he lost? The scars he got from your distrust collectively flooding the Titans' psyches and exploding in his face?"_

"Shut…..up…..!"

Raven clenched her head.

Her eyes strained shut.

A red pulse flickered demonically from beneath her lids.

"For the last time…………….Be…..Silent"

_Terra's Voice: "And then after Noir……there came Cyborg. Sexy, sassy, annoying Victor. Hrmmmmm…… heheheh…… when are you ever going to learn, Raven? You've got to stop experimenting. You're nothing but a walking, metaphysical time bomb. Love and friendship? They can't possibly be yours to taste. You weren't born with those privileges. You were born as doorway. An unfeeling, poisonous doorway. Everytime you spoil yourself and let down your guard……guess what happens? Your closest allies suffer from it! Hahahahaha……ohhhh poor Beast Boy. Starfire even! They'll be dead soon and the only person to blame is……your…….self………"_

"**SHUT UP!"** Raven screamed and flexed her arms. Her eyes flickered red as she gritted sharp teeth and summoned a sudden, demonic pulse of blackness. **"I SAID SHUT UP!**.....**! RAAAAUGH!**..**!"**

She flicked her wrist and shot a blade of black energy out into the forest.

_SL-SL-SLIIIINK!_

Three mighty trunks of pine in a row were lopped like candle sticks.

_THWOOOOMP!_

They fell massively into the forest floor and tumbled down the mountain with great noise.

_Matt Hagan's Voice: "Woooo……temper temper……You know—I don't care what you might say—but any two-bit yahoo can read you like a god damn book, girl."_

"**RRGHHHHH!"** Raven spun with another slash of black energy.

_SL-SLINK!_

A random pine tree divided up the center and split in two.

Raven panted, hobbling backwards.

_Matt Hagan's Voice: "Just what damage have I done? Or Dagger for that instance? No, girl……the worst thing to happen to the Titans during all of this mess is __**you**__." _

Raven slumped to her knees.

She looked at her black-throbbing hands and shuddered.

"…………," a tear trickled coldly down her bruised face.

Her lips quivered.

"D-Dear Azar………what have I done……?"

She clenched her eyes shut and shook her skull.

"Wh-What have I d-done……?"

Suddenly, the tree trunk directly behind her pulsed, shrank, and morphed into a brown blob of a humanoid figure. A yellow grin appeared in the center and hissed forth: "You were born….."

"……!.!.!" Raven spun around.

"**HAAAAUGH!"** Clayface solidified, produced two axes, and flung them forward on the end of tentacles.

Raven gasped and jumped back—

_SL-SLINK!_ The axes grazed her shoulders.

Blood flew hotly through the cold night.

"Nnnnngh!" Raven shrieked and toppled backwards down the mountain.

TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!

She tumbled, rolled, smacked against the trunk of one pine tree and pinballed off another.

She soon lied on the soft earth….panting….panting….panting….

_Stomp! Stomp! STOMP!_

Clayface stood above her.

Sneering.

"Heh heh heh heh…."

Raven shuddered.

Her eyes twitched and flickered….flickered….flickered……….._red_.

"You stupid……..thick-minded…….bitch…..," Clayface reared his limb and slammed a club across the back of her skull.

_THWACK!_

"NNNGH!" Raven hunched over.

Coughing.

Sputtering.

Her whole body shaking.

"Couldn't you have woken up for at least one filthy second?" Clayface smiled as he leered over her. He planted a muddy hand over his chest. "Didn't anyone tell you that I'm an actor…..?"

"………," Raven shuddered. In a sickly voice: _"Didn't anyone tell you……"_ She tilted her head up toward him. Frowning. Four red eyes **STROBED** across her forehead. "……that I'm a **demon**?"

Clayface's amber-glazed eyes widened.

_**FL-FLASSSSSH!**__.._

Raven 'exploded' upwards into a giant red shadow.

Her body stretched beyond physical proportions as a facsimile of her tortured, flame-like form loomed over him and wailed with four red eyes pulsing and a pair of fanged jaws gaping.

"_**WRIIIIIIIIIIIIII-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAACKKKKKKKK!**__....__**!"**_

Clayface gasped and hobbled back. "J-Jesus! Y-You---!"

"_**SHRRRU-YAAAAAAKKKKK!**__..__**!"**_ Raven's Wrath screamed, jolted back, and exploded two dozen tentacles of burning vapors from her center and straight at Clayface.

**TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!**..

_**RIIIIIIP!**__.._

The lacerated limbs tore and hacked and 'bit' at Clayface's muddy body all over.

The shrieking metamorph stumbled back, half-collapsing.

He fought vainly against the torrent of demonic limbs as he flew apart in globs…pieces….mouthfuls.

"Nnnngh! Get back! Get the freakin' hell away from me!"

"_**SNKKKRAAAAAAK!**__..__**! HELLLLL?**__.__**? YOU WILL BE DRINKKKKING MY FATHER'S DEFECATIONNN IN HELL TONIGHTTT, HAGAN!**__....__**!"**_

He gasped.

He panted.

He leapt up, morphed into snakes and worms of mud, and jerked and slithered every which way he could to avoid the jabbing pieces of Raven's burning soul-self that jabbed and stabbed at him through the thick forest.

_SLASH! _

_SLIIINK! _

_SWISSSSH!_

Trees were shredded into splinters.

Pine fell.

Leaves and needles scattered.

Wooden shrapnel tumbled down the mountain and cluttered Clayface's ascending escape route.

"_**YOU WORTHLESSSSS POWERRRRMONGERINGGG SOUL!**__...__**!"**_

Raven's Wrath howled.

Canine teeth lashing.

Four eyes strobing.

The night lit up in red, red, red _vapors._

"_**YOU WOULDDDD MOLESSST THE SOULSSS OF MY INNOCENT FRIENDSSS WHEN THEY WERE MOSSST WOUNDED!**__..__**! I SHALLLLL SEE YOU SCREAMINGGG A MILLION TIMESSS OVER FOR EVERY OUNCCCE OF PAINNN YOU BRINGGG TO THEM!**__....__**! AZARATH METRION TRIGON!**__..__**! AZARATH METRION TRIGONNNNN!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

The earth shook.

Cracks formed in the mountain.

The trees immediately around the spectacle started to burn with a metaphysical fire.

At his rope's end, Clayface hunched back helplessly against a row of trees, tried vainly to pull his remaining globs of mud together, and shouted: "Dagger! Dagger, for the love of God! She's the devil incarnate! She's going to freakin' kill me!"

"_Just a little bit longer, Hagan."_

"SCREW YOU, BOSS!"

"_Hagan! She is __resonating__! Red Aviary sees her!"_

"_**HURRRAAAAAK!**__..__**!"**_

**FLASSSSH!**

A burning tentacle of demon energy flew at the tree.

Clayface launched his body as a sphere of mud.

_CRACCCCCK!_

The trees left behind shattered on impact.

Clayface landed, rolled to a crouch, and stared muddily around.

Panting.

"Red Aviary? Where?"

"_**COMMMME CRAWLING BACCCK HERE….YOU SNIVELLING….PATHETICCC….FILTH!**__..__**!"**_

"_There! He's there now!"_

Clayface shuddered all over.

Raven's Wrath stomped towards.

Tentacles flailing.

The grass and tree roots beneath her treading shadow dying and curling up upon touch.

"_**SHRRRAAAAKAAAA!**__..__**!"**_

A glow of red.

Crimson aura….

Pulsating behind Clayface.

The edges of the mud golem's skull hardened into crystal. A frost and vapor filled the air as the temperature dropped.

"…….," Clayface exhaled shakily.

His amber eyes widening.

"_Sl-Slade……"_

"_**Hckk……clik-clik-clikkkkk….."**_

"_Snnnkt! Get out of there, Hagan! Leave! Head back to the Tower now!"_

"Nnnngh!" Clayface stood up straight, flexed his arms, and exploded. "RAAAAUGH!"

**POW! SP-SPLUNKKKK!**

The globs of exploding mud flew into the air, morphed into a flock of pigeons, and took swiftly to the air. _Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Fl-Flppp!_

"_**SNNNAAAAKKK!**__.__**!"**_

Raven's Wrath glanced up.

Her four eyes pulsing.

Her jagged teeth gritting.

The metamorphic birds flew high into the night's sky and bent southward. Then the redness made them too hard to see.

_The redness……_

The four eyes atop Raven's crown rounded.

She glanced down.

Her waving tentacles and flickering soul-self froze.

"_**Hckkkkk…..clik-clik-clik….."**_

A shadowy figure stood across the burning, shredded forest. He had a sword in his grasp. A sword that he hoisted over his shoulder like a javelin….and…..

"" Raven gasped. And when she did so, a cold vapor danced from her mouth…….

_**SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

_**SCHLUNNNNNKK!**_

The four eyes blinked, faded, and morphed into two wide violets of pain.

"Nnnnsskkktt!" Raven shuddered.

Her teeth gritting.

Normal-shaped.

She twitched….she gasped.

She shrank……shrank….shrank…..till her red soul self was gone and she had succinctly deflated back to her normal, physical self.

And……..

Deathstroke's sword rested in the center of her being.

Skewering her through the chest.

"………………," Raven twitched.

Raven wheezed.

"…….snkkkt---snkkt……….mmf…….."

……..

_THWOMP!_

Raven fell back to the earth floor.

Her limbs splayed about her.

The hilt of the two-edged sword sticking up out of her chest.

Her eyes were froze solid.

Wide.

Tears of icy pain ran down her pale cheeks and solidified from the frost in the crimson air.

As did the blood trickling from her gaping lips freeze….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………," Dagger took a deep breath.

The despot pocketed his communicator away and stared northward from the deck of the hovercraft running north along the Bay.

He spotted the 'flock of pigeons' that was Clayface heading towards Titans' Island.

"…………well done, Hagan," he murmured to the air.

He took a knife out from beneath his jacket.

He twirled it.

"The slaying has begun. The Parasite……should be well fed……"

Silence.

He turned.

He nodded slowly to a pilot.

"Prepare to launch the attack."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Raven twitched.

Raven lay numb.

Raven stared up at the tree-tops.

The flickering aura of distant flames…….

The cold redness settling………………

Everywhere.

"………………………."

…………………

"…………………………_**snkkkt……clik…..clik….clik-clik…..clik-clik-clik-clik-Hckkkk……."**_

Footsteps.

Raven took a sharp breath.

Rave twitched.

Violet eyes wide and helpless.

Her limbs limp.

"……_**.snkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clikkkttt…."**_

The footsteps drew closer.

A frigidity in the air.

Everything icing over…..

In a haze of red smoke, he stood above her.

Red eye glaring.

Pulsating.

"_**HCkkkkk….snkkkt…clik-clik-clik….."**_

Raven shuddered.

A weak, thin breath.

A last breath.

"Sl….Sl…Sl-…Sla-….."

"_**HCkkkkkkk….."**_

He gripped the sword's hilt in a metal-and-flesh hand.

"_**Clik-clik-clisnkkkt………………..Shall be lifted---nevermore."**_

_**SCLUNNKKKK!**_ He jerked the blade out of her stomach.

And Raven gurgled.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!_

I blurred the last lengthy distance southward towards the City.

I huffed and puffed.

Atop my blurring feet, I glanced left at Robin.

He too was speeding across the landscape, sticking to the road on his harley.

After a long time, I coaxed him into glancing at me.

I nodded to check on him.

"………..," he merely stared straight ahead towards our destination.

I took a breath and glanced ahead too through my shades.

_Right…… _

_Something……or some__**one**__'s going to end tonight. _

_Keep focused, Robin. _

_Keep me focused too, Ana………_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Vrmmmmmmmmm!_

Robin gripped the handles of the harley.

He breathed steadily.

His masked eyes fixed on the asphalt blurring towards him.

The dead lanes.

The emptiness of the cold night hanging above us.

The Bay….the Bridge….the City looming ever so closer ahead.

"…………."

He inhaled sharply as everything red blurred before him and morphed into the aura of a cold world encircling a rusted brownness smoldering around him.

'_Don't you see? I'm not real.' _

'_Bring her back!'_

'_I can't. She's gone.'_

'_Sometimes there are no happy endings.'_

'_I'll annihilate them, Robin. And I'll make you watch……'_

'_Get out of here! You don't know what he can do!'_

'_Good, Robin. That means I have you all to myself……'_

Robin took a deep breath.

He gripped the handles tighter.

He resisted the urge to scream.

He resisted…..resisted….resisted….

_VRMMMMMMMMMMMM!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Attack, Robin! It's the only way to save them.'_

"Nnnnnghhh!" Starfire groaned and twitched in an amber and yellow fire in the Apprentice's arms. "Nnnghaaugh!"

Robin panted.

The echoing cries of the surrounding Titans filtered into his ears past Slade's screeching voice.

"Nnnngh!"

"Ughhhhh!"

"Ohhhhhhmmmfff….!"

'_Attack with everything you've got.'_

"………," Robin's Apprentice mask narrowed….and then rounded.

He stared off into the cold air beyond the fractured letters of the WAYNE Building.

A distant sky that burned red and thirsted for a blue-eyed boy that huddled in his closet when the screaming stopped and someone stormed out and someone stormed in place.

'_M-Mommy? Mommy! Wh-Where did Mommy go?'_

'_What do I have to do to get you to shut up, kid?' _

'………_M-Mommy's gone! Daddy, please make her come back!'_

'_Nnnngh! She's DEAD, okay? Freakin' forget about her, you little shit!'_

'_I……I-I………b-but……' _

'_SHUT……UP! GOD! Am I going to have to feed your pathetic little mouth from now on too? Pfft……you're so weak and useless, I swear! I'll toss you to Two-Face's thugs if you don't shut the Hell up!'_

"………………….," atop the Wayne Building, he laid Starfire down.

"Nnnngh….," she weakly raised a hand to him. "R-Robin…."

But Robin was dead. "I'm sorry." The Apprentice aimed the thermal blaster squarely at her chest.

_**Z-ZAAAAP!**_

…………….

…………….

……………..

'_That's my boy……'_


	245. Break the Circle part 5

**245. Break the Circle part 5**

Sailing through the cold December night, Terra never batted an eye. Something in the pulse of golden power through her vessels kept her alive….more alive than ever she afforded herself to be otherwise.

She kept her hands outstretched like a warped crucifix and ever-plunged the rock platform westward, westward, westward. Her eyes were glued to the horizon beneath a pair of blue-tinted goggles. Her hair whipped like a golden cape. A hidden heat somewhere had kept her from shivering. Her breaths were calm, like a wakeful sleep in and of themselves. She refused to be any more or less excited. She just….drifted.

Supergirl was awake too. But not so much through exhilaration as it was through restlessness. She was sitting by this time—kneeling, really—with her alien blue eyes trained on the horizon but at a loss to see whatever it was her earthen friend could see. She twisted and toyed with the wraparound red material of her cape and slowly sighed with the wintry tide.

Jinx had succumbed to sleep. Or at least half so. She half-sat, half-curled in the middle of the flying platform earth with her shoulder rested softly against Pulsade's shoulder.

Pulsade….who was awake. Through devices that only the British assassin secretly knew, she kept herself from falling into slumber. She stared against the biting wind and persisted in supplying her bright beacon through the clouds that lit Terra's path towards the horizon. The platinum-blonde glanced aside at the snoozing sorceress, blinked, and shifted Jinx some so that the pink witch could rest more comfortably against her side…but without saying a word.

"Nnnngh…."

Supergirl took a deep breath. She 'stood up' more on the flying, hurtling rock and leaned towards Terra. "Do you need to--?"

"No." Terra sharply uttered.

"………," Supergirl squinted her eyes at her. "You don't even know what I was going to ask."

Terra nodded without looking. "I don't need rest. In my last days with the Titans, I used to spend forty-eight solid hours in the sky."

"Ah. Well, sorry I ever doubted you," Supergirl managed a coy smirk. "Is that concentration that Raven taught you?"

"………….," Terra inhaled. "No. Slade."

Supergirl winced. "Oh….s-sorry….."

"What's the point to be sorry about? It's history, right?"

"……………"

Silence.

Cold, biting winds.

Terra took a deep breath. She tossed her blonde hair with a jerk of her head, and again spoke without taking her goggled eyes off of the horizon. "I've been….thinking, Kara."

"Hmmmm? About what?"

"Red Aviary."

"……….yeah?"

"I think I know who he is."

"Who?"

"The father of my child."

Supergirl's lips parted. "_Slade_?"

Terra slowly nodded.

"B-But…..heh….Terra, honestly," Supergirl turned her head aside and smiled. "How's that possible?"

"I think….I-I can feel it….," Terra murmured. "In much of the same way Jordan could sense me when he saved me…..I-I think I sense Slade. For reasons other than the fact that he's the biological f-father of my missing child. I have this…..biting sense that he's back. That he's alive. And that he's spreading his existence by wiping out the existence of others. It seems like……the th-thing he would do…."

"Terra, Slade's dead. Jordan killed him."

"Didn't I die too?"

"………….."

Terra took a shuddering breath. "I should have perished when I saved the Titan's City from the volcano, but instead I turned to stone. Jordan should have been killed off by Dagger. But like you since told me, he chopped his arm off where the deadly implant was and lived. And now Slade—another piece of the circle—is just as miraculously….horrifically alive. I'm almost sure of it."

Supergirl ran a hand through her hair. Shuddering. At a loss for words.

Terra's eyebrows raised inside her goggles as she said: "And you know what? It doesn't scare me."

Supergirl looked up at Terra, her head leaning to the side. "Really?"

Terra nodded. A gentle…painful smile. "Everything in this circle…..is painful. Tragic, yes. But it persists. I'm certain that the most Slade will get from this romp of terror—if Red Aviary is indeed him—will be nothing more than an endless reboot of absurdity. Don't you get it, Kara? Things in this world…they spin madly. They keep going in circles and we're forced to dizzily twirl with it."

"Sounds like to Hell to me."

"Perhaps. But a Hell with….second chances….," Terra said. More like a whisper. "Or so….I-I hope."

"………," Supergirl swallowed. "Doesn't sound like a healthy revolution to me, Terra."

She nodded. "But it gives me something to hope for….to smile for." A crooked grin against the wind. "Like…a silly little sugar high."

"And that is?"

"If anyone breaks this circle….I don't think it'll be Slade," Terra said. "He's just one freak….and I have….." A shudder. A quivering voice that nearly shook her hands free of the rock-guiding glow. "……..I-I have so many friends. So many people wh-who…..love me after all."

"……….," Supergirl nodded. She stood up straight, wobbled on the rock, and rested a gentle hand on the earth maiden's shoulder. "That you do, Terra."

"…….I have a better chance of breaking this stupid circle than Slade does."

"Or whoever Red Aviary is."

"_Slade."_

"Heh….all right. I hear ya."

"And since it'll be us changing things….," Terra uttered. "I think we can…..make a difference. We can shape things the way we want them and….maybe……m-maybe we can make a new pattern. A pattern where bad things don't shape the way the world ticks….now with Red Aviary gone for good."

"That's something we all hope for, Terra. Just….," Supergirl leaned her head to the side. "….trust your friends as much as you trust your enthusiasm. I like hearing you get all gung-ho and jazz, but I don't want you going in over your head. Especially since there are so many Titans worrying over your pretty little head."

"Hehehehehe," Terra smiled. "I wonder if Noir will be so warming when he finds out that the two of us have decided to 'abandon our post'…."

"And picked up a couple of rambunctious lasses to boot."

Supergirl frowned at Pulsade. "Hey! Butt out of the conversation!"

"Sorry, dove," Pulsade shrugged, illuminating the way. "Small rock."

"You just do as you're told!"

"Kara….," Terra murmured. Biting her lip. "D-Don't be so hard on them…."

Supergirl flashed Terra a look. "I don't care if they're helping us or not! They once wanted to make you a furniture accessory!"

"All in good intentions…"

"Still! I don't trust them! And I think you should know better than to---"

"When Red Aviary is done with…will they still be bad people?"

"……………..," Supergirl folded her arms, pouted, and glared off towards the blurring horizon. "I swear, you're such a….a…._liberal_!"

"Off with her bloody head…," Pulsade droned.

"Oh hush."

"Nnnngh…," Jinx sleepily stirred against Pulsade. A Cheshire grin on her unconscious face. "More of that chimney-sweeper accent, Leslie, it makes me gigggggle…."

"Ahem….," Pulsade cleared her throat, a little red around the ears. "Another time, Jean….."

"Chim-Chimmeny! Ch-Chim-Chimmeny! Chim-Chim—"

"Another time!"

"Heeeee…..," Jinx drifted off again.

Supergirl hid her face in her hand. "I think I'm going to be sick……."

When Supergirl wasn't looking, Terra finally tore her goggled gaze off the horizon. She tilted her golden head down.

In the meantime, Pulsade was glancing over her shoulder.

The two blondes shared a moment. A visual moment of knowledge. Understanding. Hauntingly familiar.

Terra took a deep breath.

Pulsade silently nodded, and gazed ahead towards the wintry night she was illuminating.

Terra re-fixed her own gaze and murmured: "The future's changing, Kara. Nothing's ever truly set in stone…"

"Heheh….uh huh."

"You would………understand……if I d-did all I could to manifest my destiny, right?"

"Of course I would."

"And the Titans' too?"

Supergirl looked over at her. Squinting curiously. "How's that?"

"I want the Titans to be….safe," Terra hesitantly said.

Supergirl smiled. "Right. And once we show up, they sure as Kela will be. Hehehe….even Beast Boy," she nudged Terra in the ribs and winked. "Won't that be a sight to see?"

"Y-Yeah….," Terra nodded. Again glancing at Pulsade before ironing her vision to the horizon as they flew. "B-Beast Boy……."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Z-Z-ZAAAAAAP!_

_ZAAAAP!_

"Nnnnnghhh!" Changeling snarled as he leapt, flipped across Cyborg's laboratory, and materialized as an emerald wolf…..sliding across the cold metal floor.

Simon Stone's two skeletal androids spun to face him, repositioning their sonic canons and flickering laser-pointer 'eyes'.

_Cl-Clak! _

_CLAK!_

Twin lasers pinpointed Garfield's position.

The green canine snarled, flexed his furred limbs, and bolted towards the two androids.

They fired—_ZAAAAP! _

_Z-ZAAAP!_

_ZAAAAAAAAAP!_

Bolts of converging sonic blasts and laser turret fire shot and traced all around the fleeting beast.

Changeling hopped around the fire, ran circles and figure-eights, and eventually jumped and landed in a strafing slide that brought his panting, hairy figure to the right flank of the androids.

_Whurrrr!_

The turrets atop their 'heads' pivoted and aimed at him.

As one, they both fired: _ZAAAAAAAP!_

The dog growled, leapt, contacted the wall, morphed into a kangaroo, kicked off with his legs, and vaulted over the heated fire to plummet thunderously towards the two skeletal robots.

One jumped to the side.

The other raised both sonic cannons and locked on the descending green mammal…..until that green mammal quadrupled in size and mass.

_CRUNNNNCHH!_ An emerald hippopotamus smashed through the metal body of one robot, grumbled, and stood up in elf form.

'_Remarkable bravery, Mr. Logan,_' Simon Stone's voice said over the speakers of Cyborg's laboratory. _'But ultimately futile._'

Whurrrrrr-Chtung!

The head turret of the remaining robot spun, aimed, and fired.

_ZAAAAAAP!_

Garfield spun.

_SVVVVHHH!_

"Augh!" he winced and clenched his shoulder as the hot laser stream ripped through his white tank top and burned a strip of skin to brown.

Bleeding, Changeling tensed his muscles and leapt in a snarl towards the skeletal contraption.

THW-THWOOSH!

_SM-SMACK!_ Changeling pinned the robot to the floor in bear form, snarling.

_Whurrr-Whurrr!_

The robot readjusted its joints and shoved its center of gravity up into Beast Boy's body like a giant fist punching up beneath a trampoline tarp.

The green bear gasped as it flailed violently in the air and landed hard against a wall.

_SM-SMACK!_

The animal slumped down in cat mode and stroked is skull wincingly with a shaking paw.

'_You cannot get out of the Tower. And as long as you are stuck inside such a building, the access codes at my disposal give me complete control over the security measures you so feebly attempted to shut down.'_

_Whurrrrrrrrrr-Cl-Clink!_

The robot angled its limbs till it rested on all fours.

It then pivoted around and crab-walked swiftly towards the changeling with the speed and mercilessness of a giant wolf spider.

'_Do not think that I am entirely responsible for the swiftness with which I must eliminate you, Beast Boy……'_

The green cat eyed the scurrying robot, morphed into a snake, and slithered away as the skeletal automaton rushed over and attempted trampling the changeling with its titanium limbs.

_CL-CLANK! CLANK! CLANGGG!_

'……_I am actually rooting for you, boy. You and the Titans show tenacity. I am certain you can meet even the challenges that I provide you.'_

Changeling morphed from snake to road runner to elf and planted himself against the far side of the room.

Panting.

Clutching his burnt shoulder and warily watching the android from afar.

"If y-you're rooting for me, dude….," the elf murmured back to the speakers.

Swallowing.

Regaining strength

"Why don't you friggin' help me out here? What's your deal, man? I thought you were good!"

'_There is no more 'good and evil' where I am concerned. Just positives and negatives. Affirmations and rejections. Ones and zeroes. I am that which I am instructed to do. Feelings and emotions and desires are nothing but rattling detritus in between the strong and capable spheres of my digital being. I must eliminate you, Beast Boy. And even if I don't, someone else will.'_

WHURRR-CL-CLANK!

The robot stood up.

It raised both sonic cannons, joined them together like a double-barreled shotgun, and aimed directly at the green elf across the room.

With a bright blue glow and a loud whining noise…..the weapons started to charge.

Beast Boy looked around.

He glanced to his right and saw a wall panel of solid metal.

He spliced his arms into that of a giant sloth, gripped the panels, and ripped them mightily out of their frame.

"Nnnnnngh!"

_CRKK-CRAKKK!_

He held the metal plates before him like an enormous shield and braced himself against the blue glow.

He panted, swallowed and uttered loudly: "How's Dagger doing this to you, Simon? How's he making you do this stuff? How's he forcing you to hurt your own friends….and _family_?"

'_That is irrelevant.'_

"Like heck it is!" Changeling cackled. The blue light intensified as the robot braced itself and reached maximum charge across from him. "It was on November Fourth, wasn't it? After all, Dagger hacked into Phaser Labs shortly before it blew up!"

'_An instrument of deception afforded him through William B. Fox.'_

"Who?"

'_And the same thing that stole my nephew from me. Though I was powerless to do anything……'_

"What did Dagger do to Cyborg?" Changeling shouted. "What does he want?"

'_Shhhh……Beast Boy. The force you fight is intensely strong now. Stop struggling. Prepare for the permanent hibernation ahead.'_

"…grfff….," Changeling's eyes thinned as he hissed; "Oh I don't think so….."

_Wriiiiiiiiiii!_

And the android finally fired.

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAPPPP!**_

_**FLASSSSSSH!**_

"Nnnnnnghhh-nnnghhh!"

Changeling struggled, his meaty, spliced arms quivering as he struggled…struggled…..struggled to hold the titanium plate up against the relentless barrage of sonic destruction.

Blue energy splashed hotly against his 'shield'.

Trails of aquamarine chaos billowed around.

Changeling morphed his feet into the thick trunks of an elephant for good measure, but even then the pressing force was pushing him….inching him back.

His meaty toes grinded into the floor, scratching thick….ashen trails.

A screeching, grating noise of thinly sliced metal ruptured in his pointy ears till he bled. "Nnnnghaaaugh!"

And the robot kept firing…firing…firing.

_**ZAAAA-AAAAAAAP!**_

'_Give up, Logan.'_

Changeling panted.

Sweating.

'_Allow the destruction to consume you.'_

Changeling twitched.

His green eyes thinned.

The metal in his blood-tight sloth-hands started to bend….and buckle.

'_There may yet be the chance that my nephew will live through this. I could not bare to tell Victor that you suffered the whole way through your extermination.'_

"L-L-Let me…_grff_…g-guess!" Garfield grunted loudly, struggling with the shield. "B-Before you blow him to bits too?"

'_Snkkkt—No. He will join the collective once Dagger's initial plans are complete. Victor—by my side—shall serve the future governor of this realm once the Titans are gone.'_

Garfield gasped.

His face frozen in a sweaty sheen.

His green eyes wide.

'_Together……my nephew and I……will-snnkktk—be perfect and efficient………and __**whole**__……forever.'_

Something flickered through the panicking mind of Beast Boy.

A maddening collage that consisted of Raven's hooded shadows, Starfire's red eyebrows, and Terra's glazed eyes.

And on the side of it a smoking swordsman puffed into oblivion, an Atlantean drowned, and the ever-echoing scream of the Boy Wonder ricocheted down the tubes and pinballed the elf's heart into quaking fury.

"RAAAAAAUGH!"

He flexed his arms.

The metal shield buckled….broke….and shattered.

_**CRAAAAAAAAK!**_

_**FLASSSSSSSSSH!**_

With the metal plates gone, Garfield's half of the room exploded in brilliant blue chaos.

The combined sonic cannons from the android engulfed everything in sonic destruction.

Laboratory equipment, metal loading stations, and computer consoles shattered, warped, and melted.

And through the mess came charging a mountainous shape.

A huge, green triceratops.

Stampeding.

Roaring.

_Whurrrrr!_ The skeletal robot barely had time to twitch—

_**CHTUNKKKK!**_

Changeling's dinosaur horn ripped through the robot's center.

He reared his spiked head, snarled, and tossed the robot up into the air.

SWOOOSH! The android flew up. CL-CLANK! It struck the ceiling. THWOOOSH! Battered, it plummeted back down.

Changeling spun.

The triceratops turned into a gorilla with a wave of its shrinking tail, grabbed the falling android in two meaty hands, snapped it in two—_CRKKKK!_—and flung both halves at a nearby metal closet.

CRUNCHHH!

The closet shattered open.

The robot sparked to deathly silence.

The gorilla stood panting….panting….panting….

Fuming.

'_Snkkkt—Well done, Garfield. But there is hardly a legitimate reason for celebrating.'_

As if on cue, the gorilla's eyes widened.

He shrunk into a green elf and stared—mouth gaping—into the closet he had just forced open.

"D-Dude….no way….."

The bloody, mud-strewn body of Dr. Abrams rested inside the utility closet.

There the corpse dangled amidst many of Cyborg's backup limbs.

The skull was split in two as if by a giant bone cleaver.

The labcoat—stained in brown and red—still hung from the pale, limp shoulders.

'_Dagger has already eliminated anyone and everyone who stands in the way of protecting the Titans.'_

"……….," Garfield was breathless.

'_Now………,'_ Stone's voice crackled. _'……all that remain……are the __**Titans**__ themselves……'_

_Bleep! D'ling! Bleep-Bleep-Beeeeeeeep!_

"……….!.!.!.!" Garfield spun.

He looked…..

The far-off computer consoles were blinking.

Large text read: _'Laboratory banks overloading. Critical limit exceeded.'_

'_Exhale, Mr. Logan. The less oxygen inside you, the less you'll burn on the inside.'_

Changeling took a breath, spun around, and made a mad dash for the hallway. "Nnnnngh!" Right as….

_**PHWOOOOOMB!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In another district of the City.

In a lone street….

Where the asphalt had caved into the sewers and the urban underbelly burned with brilliant, green flames from the catacombs up.

Silence…….

…………

A pink-sleeved, amber wrist clutched ahold of solid street-level.

Digging fingers into the concrete, Starfire pulled herself up out of the burning sewer.

She grunted and strained with the effort…a great deal of her strength sapped.

Dry green blood trailed from her nose.

Bruises and welts formed on her skin, but other than that no major injuries.

None even from the fiery tanker explosion….although her pink shirt and jeans suffered a good dozen scorch marks and tatters.

She summoned some alien strength, floated, and plopped herself down a yard away and lay on solid street.

She stared up at the sky.

Panting.

Catching her breath.

"………………"

Her emerald eyes narrowed.

The heavens above……

_They were bathed red………_

"Nnngh…X'hal…..," the Tamaranian murmured. "I have seen this sky before……"

Silence.

A cold breeze.

A shudder.

"R-Robin…..," she murmured.

A beat.

A strong, warrioress frown.

"I will not let the monsters who took you _take my living friends!"_

But before she could so much as sit up….

_**CRNNNCHHH!**_

A hole 'punched' up in the middle of the street.

Followed by an electronic, pained growl.

Starfire gasped and looked over, propping herself up.

"Nnnnngh!" Metallo pulled his skeletal, smoking body up.

He still smoked and smoldered all over from burning patches….splotches of ignited petroleum.

He emitted a wheezing sound, as if he still had the lungs necessary to choke on burning fumes.

"M'vort selekeley thriul!" Starfire hissed. "Will you not expire?"

_Whurrrr!_

Metallo's glaring skull spun one-hundred-eighty degrees and stared at her.

Starfire jumped.

"Hssssssssssss…..nnngh…..I think I'm going to coat my skull with the paint of your creamed organs….," he stood up and pivoted around to match the direction his head was aimed in. "….I've been thrashed one too many times, and I'm not about to let some space whore add to the list of—"

_**Z-ZAAAAAAAAP!**_

A pair of green eye blasts slammed into his chest.

"NNNGH!" he backed up, wincing. He slid up against a lamppost—CLANK!—bending it.

"Watch your tongue, heartless puppet!" Starfire stood up and charged a pair of starbolts.

She practically grinded sparks out of her teeth in her seething sneer at the maniacal golem.

"The only elation I have for your not being destroyed is the possibility of extracting information of your nefarious purpose!"

"Oh….but of course…," Metallo's jaw tightened in a 'smile'.

He tilted his head southward.

He gazed momentarily at Titan's Tower….

Starfire's lips pursed.

She too tried to look--

But he charged at her with a sudden grunting cry.

"Nnnngh! Let's see how good of an interrogator you are!"

SWOOOOSH! He lunged and grabbed for her.

Starfire gasped and shot herself up skyward.

He hugged an arm-ful of air.

The Tamaranian flew several stories up along the scaling skyscrapers, loaded starbolts, and unleashed a flurry down at him. "Haah! Haaugh! Raaah!"

_FL-FL-FLASH!_

Metallo tightened his feet's 'grip' to the shattered street. He tilted his torso back and blurred his arms, swiftly back-handing and deflecting the starbolts away. FL-FL-FLASH!

Starfire ducked, side-hovered, and twirled to dodge the returning energy pulses. She snarled and summoned a huge green ball of wrath over her head.

But then Metallo chuckled electronically, 'blew' a skull-toothed kiss, and opened two metal compartments in his upper back.

_Cl-Chtink! Cl-Chtunk!_

Out of the panels, loaded mini-missiles appeared on wire-frame supports.

They blew steam and chimed as they trained on the Tamaranian girl.

"Go long, champ! Hahahahahaha!"

_Beep-Beep-Beep!_

**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!**

Two missiles fired and soared straight at Starfire, homing in on her signature.

She gasped, flew backwards, and launched her half-charged starbolt at them.

FL-FLASH! The green pulse merely bounced off their hard surfaces.

They zeroed in on Starfire, whizzing.

The alien girl gritted her teeth, spun around, and soared straight up the building face. _SWOOOOOOOSH!_

**PFTOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!**

The two rockets trailed after her.

The billowing hot exhaust melted the window frames of plate after plate of crystal clear glass they soared past in pursuing the girl up the many stories of a skyscraper face.

Starfire flew up to the top edge of the building, twirled around, kicked her feet into the roof's ledge, and vaulted off with a boost so as to soar outward across the street.

_**PFTOOOOOSSHHH!**_ The twin rockets twirled, ballet danced in mid-air, and arced around to follow her fleeting figure.

Starfire panted.

Sweating.

She urged herself faster faster in flight.

But sooner than naught, she was zooming straight towards the building face of the skyscraper straight across the way.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Metallo shouted from below.

Starfire looked ahead.

She saw a solid window of glass….and the twentieth story of an office complex looming.

She bit her lip, took a deep breath, and crossed her arms before her face.

Plunging in…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_CRAASSSSSH!_

Glass shards shattered everywhere.

_SWOOOOSH!_

Starfire bulleted straight into an office meeting room.

She soared over a table and towards the door on the far side.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The missiles followed closely behind.

WHAM!

Starfire plunged through the door and zoomed down the shadowed, abandoned hallway.

The walls and ceiling flared up a bright yellow from the rocket exhaust of the twin rockets at her heels.

In claustrophobic, break-neck fashion….Starfire zoomed left and right, zipped around corners, orbited cubicles, and sloped down a stairwell or two in her attempt to dodge the rockets.

They burned after her.

Gaining proximity.

Inch by inch with each flaring turn.

_Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-FWOOOSH!_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Starfire finally came to a long, pale tunnel with a dead end.

A dead end at an elevator.

She gasped….but then strengthened herself with a teeth-gritting snarl as she charged her eyes a hot green and unleashed two optic blasts at the doors.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

POW!

The elevator doors blew apart.

An empty shaft with dangling cables….

_SWOOOOOOOSH!_

Starfire flew into the shaft.

She impacted the wall of the shaft with her legs.

Her body's velocity flew centripetally into her lower half.

"Nnnngh!" scrunched up against the wall, she uncoiled, flipped, aimed herself down, and bulleted down the shaft earth-ward in a pulse of green.

_FL-FLASH!_

**PFTOOOOOOOSSSH!**

The rockets zoomed down the thin shaft without wasting a millisecond.

They grinded against the walls in the imperfect descent, causing sparks to rain down alongside their flaring plunge.

And as Starfire flew down…down…down…she gasped again.

For she saw the elevator car blocking the entirety of the shaft beneath her….about five stories above street level.

She took a deep breath and flung a starbolt down at the base of the car's cables. _FL-FLASH!_

**TWNNNG!**

The cables snapped.

The elevator car hurdled thunderously down to the bottom floor beneath the streaking, vertically plunging Tamaranian.

And in the meantime, the loose, heavy wires slapped and danced about the rest of the shaft wildly….springing up towards Starfire like a lashing cobra as the elevator weights on the other end of the pulley-like system took over.

_SW-SWPPP! _

_**SWPPP!**_

Starfire held her breath, concentrated…..and spiraled at the right time to dodge the whip of the cables.

Barely…..

_SWPPP!_

A lock of red hair was severed from her bangs. _Srrnk-k!_

She gasped.

_**PFTOOOOOOOSH!**_

Behind her the missiles kept on their solid course…..

So when the rising cable ends whipped their way across the elevator shaft, one rocket didn't 'think' to swerve out of the way and—

_CL-CLANK!_ It was struck hard into the wall where it cracked, ruptured, twirled, and---

_**POWWWW!**_

It exploded.

A wall of flame and plasma vomited down the elevator shaft after Starfire and the exploding rocket's 'sibling'.

_**PHWOOOOMB!**_

Starfire looked back over her shoulder in mid-flight, panting.

The fire and the last missile ate…ate…..ate hotly at her heels.

She stared ahead….._downward._

CLANGGGG!

The elevator car slammed to a stop on the bottom floor.

Still blocking the Tamaranian's one and only exit.

"Nnnnnngh!" she charged two of her fists with green energy and punched them down ahead of her.

Thrusting her flying form downward heatedly.

"NNNNNGH!"

_CRACKKKKKK!_

Starfire burst through the top of the elevator car.

Quick as a cat, she arced and—

_SNKKKKT!_

Burst through the doors and into the lobby.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOSH!**_

The last rocket darted after her through the fresh holes she made.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOMBBB!**_

The wall of flame followed last, exploding out of the elevator shaft's 'orifice' and flooding blazingly into the lobby.

And everything followed right at Starfire's heels as she zoomed speedily, desperately towards the glass entrance of the bottom floor…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Heh heh heh heh heh…," Metallo was still laughing.

He leaned his metal hands on his twice-as-metal hips and 'cracked' his neck.

"Ahhh…..," he mused. "Right then. About time I check on Stone's little monkey in the Tower…."

_SHATTTTTTERRRRR!_

Starfire came burning out of the front glass fixtures of the building's lobby.

"……?" Metallo spun around and stared

_**PFTOOOOOOSH!**_

The rocket soared after Starfire….its last rocket thrusts sputtering.

"NNNNGG!" the alien girl soared directly at the android.

Metallo hissed and reared his fist to punch her Tamaranian skull in.

But at the last second, Starfire dipped her body down and belly-slid across the concrete of the sidewalk, brushing beneath Metallo through his legs.

"What----?" he twitched. "Ah Hell…."

_**PFTOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

The rocket plunged straight into his body.

He grunted and palmed his titanium fists on either side of the missile, catching it breathtakingly like a football in the curve of his chest. "Nnnngh!"

Starfire then planted her strong fingers into the sidewalk concrete and blindly donkey-kicked Metallo in the small of his back with her feet.

_TH-THUD!_

"YAAAAAAAUGH!" he flailed with the sparking missile in grasp directly into the glass lobby of the building….

……just as the flame wall from the elevator shaft exploded outward.

_**PHWOOOOOOOOMB!**_

As his titanium body was helplessly consumed in pure fire….the twitching rocket inside his grip ate the heat and sparks and chose the opportune time to also ignite.

_**KABOOOOOM!**_

The entire front face of the building shattered into millions of glass shards as the bottom lobby cooked into melting steel and ash.

The whole office complex groaned and quivered.

Starfire took a deep breath, jumped up to her feet, and ran straight forward with whatever energy she had left.

_CRKKkkkKkkk-Nnnnkkkttt!_

The building wobbled.

Cracked.

Groaned…..and kicked up dust as it started to collapse.

"Nnnnnngh!" Starfire grunted, running.

_SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!_

The twenty-plus-story building fell from its foundation over, tilted, and collapsed over the remainder of the smoking, derelict City Street.

Starfire dove forward with a burst of flight at the last second as the burning, twisted skeleton of a structure fell gigantically upon her fleeting figure.

_**CRASSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

And dust and ash filled the nearby block….giving the red night a hazy madness.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Phaser Labs, the collapse of an entire skyscraper barely resonated a vibration.

The basement laboratory was seemingly barren.

However….on a distant computer console….

Simon Stone sat.

Cross-legged.

As if in holographic meditation.

His flickering figure strobed and pulsed as if foreign code was shooting violently across his digital muscles.

He tried to relax his eyes shut.

Focusing on electronic streams filtering in and out of him.

"……………………"

A voice crackled into the speakers of the basement.

Cold….yet icily ravenous.

'_Stone. What is the progress?'_

"……………………"

Simon's holographic eyes opened.

He spoke in monotone to the air:

"_Garfield Logan is still alive, Dagger. He is versatile. My devices alone cannot handle him."_

'_Just as well. Is he still strong?'_

"_Hard to say. I estimate that he has a good fight in him left."_

'_Still, I do not want to take any chances. Withdraw from the security system of the Tower. I still have a plan to weaken the pray towards Red Aviary's liking. If this doesn't wipe out Slade, at least it will begin the next phase of our operation.'_

"_This soon, Dagger?"_

'_Yes, Stone. Red Aviary has already consumed Raven.'_

"……………"

'_Beast Boy is the finest choice for next. Everything is burning deeper and deeper into the center of this City. Just as it needs to.'_

"_Is Mr. Fox ready?"_

'_Yes. Hand over the security codes now.'_

"_Already done."_

'_You've done well, Stone. You may have once served the Andersons and Slade before his embrace of the Spectrum……but your efficiency is now complete with me.'_

"………………"

'_Stone?'_

"_Yes, Dagger?"_

'_Keep a vigil at Phaser Labs. Though Beast Boy shall soon perish, the last of our opposition has yet to show themselves.'_

"_Understood."_

As Stone phased out, Dagger's electronic voice spoke aside…..as if to someone other than Stone.

'_Okay Jones. Send him in. The forces and I shall take our places. It is now time.'_

"…………"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The hallway outside of Cyborg's laboratory was smoking.

Hazy.

Smelling of ash and burnt metal.

And burnt flesh.

"……….."

Silence.

"…………..grfff……"

A figure crawled out from the smoking center.

He shook charred ashes off of his limbs and dragged himself on all fours till he was at a cleaner…cooler part of the hallway.

He panted….pressing his sweating, damp body to the metal surfaces.

For some reason, the sprinkler system of the Tower hadn't gone off.

But although heat and fire sparkled far behind the changeling, his part of the interior hallway felt cool.

Almost inviting.

But he couldn't stay put for long…..

"Nnngh…grff….," Garfield Logan shook, wobbled, and sat up on one knee. He winced…stood up….and dizzily leaned back and forth before rubbing a hand across his skull, exhaling and creeping forward. "J-Jeez…..this can't b-be happening…."

He limped…limped….limped down the cold hallway of haze.

Huffing.

Puffing.

A sick look splashed across his green face.

"If I-I'm going through s-so much crap here in the Tower……wh-what bout the rest of the City?"

He gulped.

He looked up.

"The guys….."

Silence……..

He ran a hand through his hair.

He shuddered.

"Cyborg…..how did Dagger and your Uncle screw you up?"

An exhale.

He bit his stiff lip.

"Starfire….Raven…….I-I let you down………"

"_You never let __**me**__ down, Beast Boy."_

The changeling gasped.

His eyes were wide.

_That voice……!_

He looked up.

He squinted his green optics.

Down the hallway—at the intersection—a thin, shadowed figure stood in the settling haze.

Feminine.

Soft….but strong.

Hands on her hips.

"_You were the best friend I ever had. And……you still are……"_

"……………," his lips parted.

He slowly…nervously hobbled forward.

The shadow of the figure remained resolute.

The haze began to part.

And Beast Boy saw features.

Colors.

Designs…..and familiarities.

A hot breath escaped his lips…turning cold and disbelieving in the air.

Until the disbelief further dissolved into utter numbness.

And shock.

"…..T-….T-Terra….?"

"……..," she smiled.

The haze cleared away, and there she stood.

In the black t-shirt and yellow short-shorts of olde.

The 'T' emblem across her chest.

The goggles on her forehead.

The yellow gloves.

But most of all……….

_Those pearl blue eyes._

_The golden hair like silk flying…floating….breezing in the air from a heated draft settling through the tunnel and disappearing…settling without the haze._

"I'm back, Beast Boy…," she softly said.

A proud, friendly smile.

Loving eyes rounded.

Moist.

"T-Terra….?"

He whimpered.

His whole body shivering all over.

The pain from the scratches and welts and burns fading away…..

"I could have picked a better time…I know…," she cooed. "But please understand…."

She took a deep breath as her genuine smile turned painful.

She said: "—I've been through a lot. A l-lot of trouble…..to get here…."

Beast Boy's eyes watered.

His lips quivered as he stepped up to her.

Hands curling in the air. Falling…numb.

"T-T-Terra….you're….you're…."

"Shhhh…..Garfield…," she leaned forward and cupped a gloved hand around his cheek. "I'm here….."

"………," he stared at her…past her.

Hollow eyes.

Hollow eyes that welled up.

A silver tear or two trickled down his cheeks.

He reached out till his arms haloed around her shoulders.

And he simply 'hovered' there.

…………..

Until she fell forward and hugged him.

"Mmmmf…..," Terra shuddered against his chest. "I-I'm so sorry, Beast Boy. But I'm here….I'm here to stay….."

"Terra…I-I…..I-I'm so confused…."

"I love you."

He gasped sharply.

The breath sucked out of him.

She sniffed and repeated, eyes clenched shut as she leaned her head over his shoulder.

"I love you, Garfield……"

He teared more.

He hugged her in a death grip and buried his face in her neck.

"I love you too, Terra. Oh God….I love you…."

They hugged.

They rocked.

Alone in the hazy hallway…..

He shuddered.

He breathily spoke….hiccupping in between.

"I-I never gave up believing. I swear. I thought I had lost you….and n-nobody let me search for you. B-B-But I never g-gave up believing that you were out there. An-And that you would come back. Oh Terra….Terra….I-I hate that you had to suffer. Please forgive me…..I-I would h-h-have done anything…."

"And you have, Garfield….," she hushedly whispered in his pointy ear. "You've done all you could."

"I-I'm so confused, Terra….," Garfield shook and convulsed in her rocking hug. "Everyone is in trouble. Cyborg's vanished. Imposters are taking over the City…and everything around this blasted Tower is trying to end my life. I-I'm so terribly confused and scared. P-Please…..P-Please tell me you're in one piece….th-that this isn't a dream…."

"It isn't a dream, Garfield," she spoke.

Her eyes opened as she gazed over his shoulder.

"I'm here…."

"I would gladly do anything for you, Terra. I-I would die for you….."

"……..," Terra 'smiled'.

Suddenly…

Her blue eyes glazed over with a smooth, amber-brown.

"I know, Beast Boy….."

She coldly hummed.

_Slppslllsppslsppp……_

Silently, a brown tentacle emerged from her rib cage.

The muddy limb snaked and wormed and squirmed around Beast Boy's blind side till it loomed just above his shoulder and—_Chiiiing!---_formed a sharp blade at its end.

She turned her head and cooed in his ear.

"I know you would do anything……for me….."

Like a scorpion tale, the muddy tentacle raised its glistening blade and coiled to make the fatal stab into the back of his neck where her breath curled the ends of his soft green hairs….


	246. Break the Circle part 6

**246. Break the Circle part 6**

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

In the deepest, darkest corners of the Titan's Tower basement….

The vials of gold shined.

And the carbonite charges between them….

Blinked and beeped.

Blinked and beeped.

Blinked and beeped.

Onward into the tempestuous night….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside Titan's Tower, Killer Croc and a dozen of Dagger's henchmen kept guard.

They huddled in the dark ravines of the rock bluffs.

Where the waves crashed into the shore with the high tide…….

Killer Croc stared up at the tower. He rubbed a bruise on his cheek….mixed with the burns dealt him by the far-gone Messenger.

"Hrrrsshhh….," his reptilian eyes thinned. "What's taking him so long?"

"Hagan's a professional…," a gunman hissed over to Croc. "And he deserves a lot more credit than you, you slimy low-life."

"………," Croc glared icily at the man. "And just what rankkkkking does Dagger give you to talk to me like **that**?"

The henchman smirked.

Two other gunmen along the beach's sand chuckled at Croc's expense.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" the henchman sneered at Croc. "Face it, Jones. The only reason Dagger—or Two Face or Anderson for that matter—ever chose to use you is because you make good cannon fodder."

"Hahahahaha!"

"Pffft…..stupid freak."

Killer Croc gripped his razor-sharp hands.

He stomped towards the loudmouthed thug.

"Do you….._hrsssh_….have any idea, boy, just how many people I've bitten through the necks of for so much as _looking at me_ like you're doin'? Much less half-assing their own epitaph out of their stinkin' throats?"

The thug fearlessly smirked smugly at the reptilian mutant.

"What are you doing to do? Break my back and shred me into quarters? Face it, Croc. You're Dagger's fifth wheel. Once we've taken over this god-forsaken City, it'll be back to the sewers with you. And if you so much as get angry about it and lift a finger against me or the rest of my pals here—" he gestured with the barrel of his gun "—Dagger will have Metallo turn you into a purse. Lord knows, you'd be a lot more useful then."

"Heh heh heh heh."

"You tell him, Rocko!"

"Hrsssssh……you're walking a thin line, punk. Getting a little bored waiting around for the big _plunge_, ain't ya? I've seen more than you'll ever set your eyes on, bigshot. I don't need to waste my time—_or my teeth_ on you."

"Wooo….a badass, aren't we?" the thug leaned towards Killer Croc and cocked his gun. _Cl-Clak!_ "Go on! Show me what you got! Show us all…."

_Cl-Clak! _

_Clak!_

The other two thugs readied their weapons.

Croc leaned his head to the side as he heard three other firearms cocking….announcing that even more of Dagger's men were ganging up on him from a distance.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" the one man grinned. "Tear us up!"

"……………."

Croc exhaled….but was suddenly surprised by the cold vapors coming out of his mouth and nostrils.

"………."

He shuddered from a sudden chill in the air.

Like a descending curtain of ice.

But instead of panic, he icily stepped back towards the beach.

"Hresssh….," he calmly hissed. "I don't think….it is _this_ 'southern meathead'……that you half-asses have to worry about……."

That uttered, he boldly spun around, stomped towards the beach, and hurtled his scaly body into the water.

_SPLOOOOSH!_

"Ha ha!"

"Look at him!"

"Wuss!"

"Coward! Freakin' dandy, I swear to God!"

"Why the Hell did Dagger ever hire him anyways? Heheheh…."

The leader of the pack was merrily chuckling….until he saw the thick vapors wafting coldly out of his orifices.

He froze.

Blinking.

The other men were silent too. front, much?"

"Man….did an iceberg just wash ashore?"

"Shhhhh!" the ringleader hissed, a hand held up.

With thin, suspicious eyes….he glanced around.

"……………did you hear that?"

"……………"

"……………."

"……………..?"

"_What?"_

"_Listen!"_

Silence.

Gentle waves.

Gentler winds.

The quiet, dead City beyond.

And the red sky….that seemingly turned redder.

"……………….."

"……………….."

"…………………………………_**hckkkk-clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkktt….."**_

"………………..," the thugs blinked.

They all looked at each other.

"What the Hell is that……………………………………………………………………….?"

_**SCHLIIIINKTTT!**_ A two-edge sword sliced its way out through the ringleader's chest from behind.

"AAAUGH! AAAAA—SNNNNKkksktkrbrbrbrllbblblllskskkkkkttt…."

"HOLY SHIT!"

"THE PARASITE! THE PARASITE!"

"SHOOT 'EM!"

_BL-BLAM! BLAM!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**SLIIIINK!**_** THWOMP! FW-FWOOOSH! ****SLASSSH!**

"**AAAAAAAUGH! MY ARM! JESUS! MY AR---"**

_**SCHNKKKTT!**_

"GRLLLGGLLLGGLLlglglksnnkkttttt—KKT!"

"Waste them! WASTE THEM BOTH!"

"AAAAAAAUGH!" BL-BL-BL-BLAM! BLAM! **BLAM!**

SW-SW-SW-SWISH! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

"_**HCKKKK—snkkt! Clik-Clik-CLIK!"**_ **FWOOOOOSH!**

"AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!" RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! SW-SW-**SWISH!** **SCHLUNKKKK!** "Snkkkktkkt-tkkktktkt!"

**SL-SLUMP!**

"Go! MOVE!"

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! H-HE'S---"

"_**HCKKKKK! SNKKKT!"**_

**SWISSSSSSSSH-****STAB!**

"NnnngrAAAUGHHH!"

"Joe! He's unplugging your grenades, Joe!"

"For Christ's sake! Joe! Stop him from—"

"Nnnraaughh-NNRAAAAUGH! GODDDD!"

"Hit the deck! He's loaded! He'll—"

"SHIT!"

_**BOOOOOOOOM!**_

A crater formed in the center of the beach.

Sand and rocky shrapnel flew.

When the cascading white powder cleared, Deathstroke stood in the epicenter.

Shaking…quivering.

His tight limbs hung at either side…as red vapors drifted down his body and danced softly over the splattered organs, scattered limbs, and skin 'shrouds' of the twelve Daggerites that were once the center of his attack.

"………_**.snnnkttt…..clik-clik-clik-clik-hckkkkt……."**_

He tilted his head upwards.

Red eye strobing.

He stared at the Tower.

He shakily eyed the slate gray shields lining the windows.

And one large hole where a hurtling metamorph of mud had carved his way through…….

"_**Snkkkktt—hckkk!…….. Daggerrrrrrrrrr………………………. SNKKKT!"**_ Slade clenched his fists. _**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ In a crimson streak, he blurred his way across the bloodied beachfront and up the Tower's Body till he entered the shell of the structure himself…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Terra……I-I don't understand….," Beast Boy murmured over her shoulder.

Shuddering.

Cheeks stained with tears.

"H-How did you do it? How did you make it here and—?"

"Noir saved me, B.B."

"N-Noir?" Beast Boy uttered.

He smiled with his eyes clenched shut and breathed.

"God bless him. He's always saving our asses. He's always—"

"Shhh….," 'Terra' cooed into his pointed ear.

The brown tentacle with the knife-end remained raised over the changeling's prone shoulder.

"Just be quiet……be still and peaceful…….for oncccce….."

"Terra….," he murmured.

He brought a bare hand up…up….and ran his fingers through her golden hair.

"Terra, I….I-I….."

"Hmmmm?"

"……………..," his green eyes suddenly flew open. "……………." His lips parted.

He ran his hand through her golden strands.

Again….again….again….

"………..," his brow furrowed.

_The feel of 'golden silk' was gone._

_Everything was……coarse. _

_Gritty._

_Plastic._

"………….Terra?"

"Be still, Beast Boy…..," the voice drifted into his ear. Firmer and more concrete.

He looked beyond them.

He saw an upside down reflection in the fish-eye lens of a security camera.

A stringy, muddy limb was stretched above him…

Ready to stab down.

A glistening blade.

Beast Boy gasped.

"Be….._absolutely_….._**still**_….."

"NNNNGH!" he shoved against 'Terra' and flew back.

"YAAAAUGH!" she stabbed down.

_SWISSSSSH! SLIIIIIINK!_ The blade barely grazed Beast Boy's left shoulder.

"Aaaugh!" Changeling stumbled back, gripping his limb.

'Terra' stood before him, the muddy 'scorpion tale' leaking with his blood.

She looked at him wide-eyed. As if with shock.

Garfield clenched his teeth.

The tears from earlier still blanketed his cheeks as now he angrily sneered: "You…are not….Terra…."

"…………..heheheheheheheh," she grinned wide. Eyes angled menacingly. "_No shit, Sherlock."_

"………."

"Nnnngh!" she reared the 'tail' up again to strike….

He growled and rammed into her with the shoulder of gorilla. "You're NOT TERRA!"

**WHUMP!**

'Terra' flew back against the wall, shattering the fish-eye lens.

_CRKKK!_ Her body sloshed muddily against it…squishing out.

Changeling stumbled back.

Bleeding.

Staring in shock and disgust.

"Nnngh…." _Slplplplppplpllpp…_ Clayface solidified his 'Terra' body back into petite, feminine shape.

The tale-blade was now gone.

Garfield murmured: "Wh-What in the Hell are you?"

"What's the matter, B.B.?" the intruder's eyes glazed to amber and switched to brown and red as Terra's thin body expanded outward into Cyborg's girth. The android Titan marched forward a few steps, grinned, and pointed at himself: "Don't you recognize your tried and true, homey?"

"…………," Garfield's lips gaped. "You're….Y-You're the one who replaced Cyborg!"

"Heh heh heh heh…."

"……_Cl-Clayface?"_

"Call me your _blind date of a lifetime!"_ Cyborg ran forward, leapt down the hallway, and morphed into a literal wall of bricks.

_SWOOOOOOSH-__**PHWOOOMPP!**_

Beast Boy gasped, crossed his arms, and spliced the rest of his body into protective crocodile scales—

_**WHAMMMM!**_

"Nnngh!" Changeling was propelled back down the hallway, flopping over the ash pile from the laboratory.

He groaned and struggled to climb back up from his hands and knees.

In the meantime, the brick wall formed legs and arms that marched soggily towards the changeling in the legitimate shape of Clayface.

A mouth full of yellow teeth gaped and grinned.

"Heh heh heh….always the small ones are the funnest to snap in two. You should have seen your beloved blue _bitch_ before she buckled and crumbled to pieces. Heh heh heh…."

Changeling gritted beastly teeth as he hobbled to his feet.

"Wh-What have you done with Raven….?" He stood tall and strong and raised his fists. "Tell me!"

"The same thing that's gonna happen to that alien bimbo once Metallo gets through with her!" Clayface 'winked'. "Leave it to the boys of this pathetic 'team' of yours to _truly come to the ladies' aid_ in the long run. You're so reckless, it's pathetic!"

Beast Boy gasped. "M-Metallo…….a h-hologram!" His eyes widened. "So th-that's who was with Starfire when she—"

"Wow, aren't you a quick learner? Ohhh….how I hate having to teach you young blood the ropes! Back when I was in theatre, I had about enough of pathetic whelps like you! You're an actor, right, Mr. Logan? Hmmmm….heheheheheh. Might I say a 'would-be-child-brat of the small screen'? When are you going to wake up and smell the big picture? I did!"

"Working for Dagger, Clayface? Grff…," Beast Boy cracked his neck and got into a fighting position atop the ash pile where he stood. "That's a stupid dream in the making if ever I smelled one!"

"You speak like you're not on the losing side of this bloody night, Boy."

"Don't call me 'Boy'….," Changeling hissed. "And I don't care how much trouble my friends may be in….you're not taking this City without a fight. Not while there's still a Titan in this damned Tower to take you down!"

"Ohhhh….what are you now?"

_CHIIING! CH-CHIING!_

Clayface morphed his arms into two axe-headed tentacles.

He waved them menacingly as he marched towards the elf.

"The 'mighty' and 'powerful' _Changeling_ that Raven gawked about?"

"I'm more than that…..," Garfield hissed. His green skin slowly spliced from the back to the front in emerald scales. "I'm the one who's gonna be _kicking your ass….actor to actor…."_

_CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!_

Clayface dragged his axes with sparkling wrath and charged the scrawny elf.

Stomp!-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!

"ENTERTAIN ME!"

….and the 'scrawny elf' turned into a stegosaurus and spun its spiked tail right into the metamorph's muddy skull.

**SWISSSSSSSSSSSH!**

Clayface's amber eyes bulged at the last second.

**SPLUTTTTTT!** A crater formed in his upper body from the blow.

"MMMMFmmfmmfmmfmmMMMFMmfmmffff!"

The shape-shifter thrashed about, warbling. Tentacles dancing.

The stegosaurus spun, took a deep breath, and then shape-shifted into a huge….green Brahma bull.

It grinded its hoof into the metal floor, snorted…and charged.

Clayface's head re-shaped at the last second….

**THUDDDDD!**

Changeling shoved and shoved and shoved the thrashing, screaming Clayface back down the hallway….

And through the wall.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**SHATTTTTERRRRRR!**

The two found themselves plunging—Clayface first—two and a half stories down to the bottom of the Tower's gymnasium.

SWOOOOOOOSH-**WHAM!**

Their muddy and furred bodies slammed through a cluster of exercise equipment, sending metal shrapnel and weights and chains flying every which way.

Sh-Shattttter!

CL-CLINK! CRKK!

The bull rolled in one direction.

The mud sloshed in another.

Changeling morphed into elf mode, kneeling….standing up.

Clayface scrunched up as a ball of mud, sloshed upward in the shape of a column, and shot a phalanx of slashing, blade-wielding tentacles outward at the changeling.

Garfield gritted his teeth, flipped backwards over the air-slicing tentacles—SWISSSSSSSSH!—and morphed into a pterodactyl upon twirling upright.

With a shriek, the leathery beast swooshed downward and dug his talons deep into Clayface's muddy exoskeleton.

SLIIIIIIIIIIIICEEE!

Ribbons and straps of muddy 'skin' were sliced up.

Clayface's mouth appeared in the middle of his pulsating mass to scream: "Yaaaargh!"

He exhaled and flung a good third of his body matter out in a huge tentacle that formed a stone 'mallet' in mid-air and whalloped Beast Boy severely to the floor.

**WHAM!**

The pterodactyl shrieked, plummeted, and slammed through the center of the balancing beam.

CRK-CRKKKK!

Changeling stood up, solidified into his bipedal enormity, and shot both of his arms out as hungry tentacles. "Nnnnnnnghhh!"

Th-THWPP! THWPPPP!

Both wormy extensions flew across the gymnasium and wrapped around the leathery beast.

The ensnared Changeling struggled….scratching…pecking….

"Heh heh heh…." Changeling's tentacles started to constrict around the animorph.

The pterodactyl's pale eyes narrowed.

Glaring.

With a shriek, the birdlike organism's skin smoothed over and his body enlarged into a Giant Squid.

SW-SWPPPP!

Four times as many tentacles as Clayface's surged back in the direction of the muddy monster and wrapped around Hagan's body in turn.

"Mmmmmmfff!" Clayface struggled and wheezed under the sudden forest of suction cups.

Changeling shook, tensed his mollusk muscles, and swung Clayface via the tentacles straight around the gym—smashing through weights, equipment, and metal tools—and slammed him mercilessly into the wall of the interior. SMASH! WHAM! BAM!

CRNCHHHH!

The wall face crumbled.

The ceiling shook.

A basketball pole hanging above broke off, fell, and plummeted into Clayface's body.

SPLTTTT!

"Mmmmfff!" Clayface shook, morphed and spread a dozen tentacles outward, re-gripped the giant squid, and slammed him in turn against another stretch of wall.

SWOOOOSH-**WHAM!**

More metal and wall face fragments crumbled and fell.

The green Giant Squid struggled and convulsed as a mass of dominating, brown tentacles encircled his rubbery form, engulfed him like a psuedopod, and swallowed him up into the center of Clayface's mass.

Slpppsllslllspppp!

"Heh heh heh….heh heh….," Clayface grinned.

He tried to solidify himself back into the trademark, tall-standing mass he was known by in the papers….

……But something was wrong.

He went bug-eyed.

He shook.

He quivered.

He gasped---

**POWWW!**

**SPLLLLORRRRCHHH!**

Clayface exploded.

His muddy bulk shattered and splattered everywhere from the inside out.

"RAAAAAAAAAAUGHHHHH!"

Changeling shook and waved his arms in gorilla mode where Clayface previously resided.

A fine coat of mud blanketed the animorph's figure.

A coat that he swiftly vibrated off when he shrunk down into a dog and shook his whole body.

He then morphed into an elf form….kneeling….frowning and looking around.

Clayface had collapsed into four quivering puddles of goo across the gym.

Surrounding Changeling.

As if on cue…all of the masses quivered and shook.

Gelatin style.

"………." Chiiing! Changeling spliced his right hand into a large lobster claw.

Pllbbllbpslllsbbbbppbb……

Instead of forming together, the four separate masses merely rose up into four individual columns.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"Wait a minute….."

Splllpp**pbbbb!**

Four bodies solidified around Beast Boy.

A dark girl in blue.

A red head in a violet two-piece.

A swordsman in camouflage.

And an Atlantean in black and blue.

Changeling's jaw dropped. "Dude….so uncool…."

"…..hrmphh….," 'Starfire' smiled. "You're where you want to be, Logan."

'Tempest' cracked his knuckles and stomped towards the elf, smirking. "In the center of the crowd…."

"Nnnngh!" Changeling jumped up and snapped his claw at 'Tempest'. SNPP!

The Atlantean hopped backward, smirking evilly.

"Stay…BACK!" Garfield snarled.

SWOOOSH-**SMACK!** 'Noir' slammed his sword into the back of the elf. "Surprise! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Th-Th-Thwump!

Garfield rolled painfully across the gym floor.

"Nnnngh!"

He twitched.

He looked up.

"Raaaah!" Swisssssh! 'Raven' flew down at him, her two feet planted together ankle-to-ankle to smash his skull in upon contact.

Garfield rolled over, raised his hands, morphed them into lion paws, and absorbed the blow of Raven's landing.

THWAP!

"Grfff!" He shoved back against her.

'Raven' went flipping across the room.

In her place, 'Starfire' soared down with a thunderous drop kick. "HAAAAAH!"

Beast Boy rolled out of the way.

SL-SLAM!

Dust and particles flew up from the gym room floor.

The other 'Titans' watched as Beast Boy ran to the wall, ran up it, flipped off, morphed into a rhino in mid-air, and landed in the center of 'Tempest' and 'Raven'.

**SLAM!**

The two doppelgangers were knocked aside from the concussion of the mighty green mammal.

The rhino grunted and turned to face---

SWOOOSH! 'Noir' slid in with his sword.

The rhino's eyes bulged.

He pivoted his emerald crown and matched the muddy swordsman's blade with his horn.

ThWP! ThWACK! WhACK!

A freakish fencing match.

"Heheheheheheheh….," Hagan's voice echoed from 'Noir's' lips. "You having fun, Mr. Valentino? Come on….it's your limelight!"

The Rhino grinded back on his hooves, snorted, and raised his horn one last time.

THWSSSSH! WhACK! 'Noir's' sword slammed into the rhino's horn and grinded against it.

Nimble weight pressing against armored mass.

Changeling took a breath.

Suddenly, the horn snaked out and wrapped around the doppleganger's sword three times.

"H-Huh?" 'Noir' did a double-take.

Changeling trumpeted as his rhino body morphed into an elephant.

With an agile trunk, he tossed the muddy double by his bladed extension into the incoming bodies of 'Starfire' and 'Raven'. TH-THWOMP!

In their place, 'Tempest' ran up, slid to a stop, smirked, and shot his two arms out into two morphing tentacles. "HAAA!"

TH-THWPPP! One tentacle wrapped around a forward foot of the green elephant each.

Changeling trumpeted in resistance.

'Tempest' sneered. With un-Atlantean strength, he screamed and yanked his tentacles upward with all his might.

THWPPPP! Changeling was effectively flipped up onto his back. He struggled with meaty legs to roll upright.

'Tempest' crouched, winked, and lifted himself up in a springing leap. "Nnnngh!"

Changeling sweated and looked up, trunk waving….

'Tempest' flew up into the air.

CH-CHIIIIING!

His arms morphed into dual swords as did his legs.

CHIING!

His entire body spun like a four-bladed dicer and descended mercilessly towards the animorph.

"NNNNNNNNHG-YAAAAAUGH!" SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH!

The spiraling blades reflected off of Beast Boy's eyes

With a grunt, the elephant morphed into a dog, rolled over onto its back, and shape-shifted into a limb-retreating sea-turtle.

THWOOOOSH! 'Tempest' landed with his four blades—CL-CL-CL-CL-**CLNKKKK!**—deflecting sparkingly off the hard shell.

"Nnnngh!" the turtle brayed as it morphed into a donkey and rear-kicked 'Tempest' hard in the stomach.

**WH-WHAM!**

"Ooof!" the Atlantean flew back.

'Noir,' 'Starfire', and 'Raven' flew forward.

All in cadence, they grinned and flung their arms forward as tentacles.

They wrapped around a separate limb of Changeling each as he returned to elf form.

THWPP! Left leg.

THWPPPP! Right arm.

THWP! Left arm.

"Nnngh..mmff..grff….nnghhhh!" Beast Boy struggled, squirmed, and fought the four in the center of the gymnasium as they pulled taut and yanked at his opposite limbs. "Nnnnghhhh!"

'Tempest' walked back to the fray.

Smirking.

"Hmmphh…"

He smirked, brushing a hand through his luscious black hair as he paced around Beast Boy.

Almost casually, he shot the final tentacle out and gripped tightly around Changeling's last offering.

THWPPP! Right leg.

"Nnnnghhaaaaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaughhh!" the elf screamed as he felt himself being pulled apart from every pole.

The 'Titans' sneered and all spoke in the voice of Matt Hagan collectively amplified around the helpless Garfield.

"**CCCCommmme onnnn, BBBBeasssstttt BBBBoyyyy! CCCCrrrracccckkkk a jjjjokkkke! LLLLigggghhhhttttennnn tttthhhhe mood. Heh heh heh heh heh!"**

"Nnngh…snkkkkttt!" Changeling's entire face sweated and strained in torture.

"**WWWWhhhhatttt'ssss tttthhhhe mmmmatttttttterrrr? LLLLost yyyyour ssssennnnsssse of hhhhummmmorrrr?"**

"Nnngh….n-no…."

Garfield heaved.

Wheezed.

And growled.

"J-Just getting a new grip on things….NnnngHHHRAAAAAAAUGHHH!"

And with that, the changeling sprouted eight extra limbs out of his body….

Limbs that morphed into long, waving tentacles….along with his previous four.

The green elf turned into a green octopus.

A HUGE green octopus.

And with the extra limbs, he gripped the four 'Titan' doppelgangers off guard, lifted them up into the air, and released with lightning-quick flicks of the suction cups.

The four pieces of Clayface gasped and flailed overhead in the spacious gym.

The octopus shrunk its four extra limbs in, morphed up, grew hair…muscle….and roared as an arm pumping gorilla.

Its sharp teeth reared to the distant, metal-webbed ceiling.

"GRAWWWWWWWLLLL!"

Just as the four 'Titans' fell back down and hit the bottom, the gorilla too slammed its limbs down into the gym floor.

**THUDDDDDDD!**

Cracks formed in the gym floor.

Spiderwebbing outward in all directions.

Crumbling…cracking…

The dazed 'Titans' gasped and looked at each other with identical eyes of glazed amber.

It was too late to scamper or slither away when….

**CRKKKK-RKKKKKK!**

**CRUNNNCHHHHH!**

The floor gave way.

A huge hole gaped open.

The four doppelgangers fell and flailed as huge tear drops of mud.

The green gorilla fell in between them.

Showering downward along with the rain of metal and mortar debris.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

They plunged a full story—SMASSH!—broke down another—SLAMMM!--and landed in a rough stop in a wide hallway further down in the Tower.

Dust and shards and building pieces littered everywhere. The Titans' Home as in absolute chaos.

Beast Boy—back in elf form—stirred under the pile of dust and stood up. "Nnnghhh…" He shook his head, panted, and stared around.

"…………"

Slpppppslllsllssppppp!

"!" Changeling spun around, fists raised.

Clayface had just finished reshaping.

All four doppelgangers had morphed together, and the familiar yellow-toothed metamorph was rising up out of the ground like a mythological demon.

Beast Boy snarled, morphed into bear form, and picked up a huge section of steel and mortar. He flung it at Clayface.

"Heheheheh!" Clayface caught the flying chunk in a huge fist of mud, curled his meaty fingers around it, and shot it back at Changeling with added strength.

THWOOOOOOSH!

The bear turned into an ostrich and gracefully spun around to dodge the flying projectile.

He then morphed into a monkey and hopped to avoid two lashes of axe-ended tentacles.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Clayface shouted psychotically, formed his two meaty arms together into a huge tentacle, and shot it towards the animorph. "Ready for intermission yet, kid?"

Changeling hissed, spun, and blocked the tentacle---**THWACK!—**with a huge scaly tail.

Clayface's amber eyes twitched. "Wha-What?"

"Hskkkkkk…..," the tail belonged to a huge, thunderous Tyrannosaurus Rex. It twirled around….its meaty jaws opening wide and shrieking into the muddy face of the intruder: **"RAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWRRRR!"**

Clayface stumbled back, wincing.

"**Rghhhh-RAWWRR!"**

**SNAP!**

Changeling stomped forward and took a massive bite out of Clayface.

SPL-SPLORCCH!

"Aaaugh!"

Clayface stumbled back, wincing.

He hissed and re-formed the chunk of himself that he lost.

But when he paused thusly and looked at Changeling….

"……………"

He smirked.

Garfield again stomped menacingly towards the muddy metamorph…but stopped suddenly when a huge shadow in the hallway loomed up against his….

"**Rghhh—RAWWWWWW-WWWWWRRRRR!"**

A huge, brown dinosaur with amber eyes screamed identically back at the changeling.

A scaly 'grin', then the muddy Tyrannosaurus stomped mercilessly towards the emerald one.

Beast Boy merely snarled and rushed to the occasion.

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-**STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!.!.!**

**WHUMPP!**

The two dinosaurs grappled.

The green one bit the brown one through the neck.

They spun together, wresting.

The green slammed the brown into one wall of the hallway.

CRNNNCHHH!

Mortar and steel shattered in a horizontal crater.

The brown one shoved back, head butting.

**THWMMP!**

The green stumbled back, shaking its snout.

Brown screamed: **"RAWWWWWWWR!"** and snapped towards the green Tyrannosaur's neck.

Green ducked…

**THWKKKK!** Brown's teeth sank into the wall.

"**RAWRR!**" Green spun and lifted its meaty tail---

**WHAM!** --and bitch-slapped brown across the scaly cheek.

The huge dinosaur's body slid and flailed down the hall till it slid to a stop in front of the elevator's double doors.

"**Rwwwwrrrr….,"** it struggled up to its meaty feet.

Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!

Brown looked up.

Changeling was storming towards him.

Jaw lunging forward.

A drooling double-row of teeth lunging. **"RAWWWWRRR!"**

Brown stood its grown, hissed, and prepared to strike--

TH-THWPP!

At the last second, the green Tyrannosaur leapt up, flipped into a smaller being, and flew as a velociraptor into brown's elongated face.

"HRSSSSSSS!"

The ravenous green dinosaur landed with its razor sharp talons digging into brown's eyes.

**TH-THUNK!**

With a jerk of its lower muscles, the raptor leapt out…ripping the brown's eyes to muddy splotches.

SPORCCCCH!

"AAAAAAUGHHH!"

Clayface sloppily screamed, half dinosaur and half clay blob.

He flailed and fell back through the elevator doors—CRKKKK!—before plunging maddeningly down the empty end of the shaft and smashing through a pair of doors somewhere far below.

Loudly.

**CLANGGGGGGG!**

"……….," Changeling returned to elf form and stood at the open elevator shaft.

Heaving.

Panting.

"………….."

He glared with angry eyes.

He cracked his knuckles, threw what was left of his shredded tank top away, and leapt shirtless down into the dark, vertical abyss after his foe.

Swissssh!

The wrecked, crumbling hallway was deserted.

And still……

………………………

………………………

……………………….

……………………….

……………………….

……………………….

"…………………….………….**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkttt………."**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Vrmmmmmmm!

Robin burned.

Robin soared.

The joints in the harley were practically melting.

The belts and the chains and the wheels and inner gears.

The engine shook and heated up with a vigor just short of an enlarged hand grenade.

And the entire time, his gloved hands gripped icy-tight to the handles.

His eyemask thinned and trained his vision on the distant image ahead that….

No longer was distant.

He looked aside.

A deep breath.

He shouted. "Noir!" A beat. "Noir!"

"…..?" I looked aside amidst my cross-country blur just parallel to the highway he was on.

He pointed and shouted. "I see it!"

"……."

"I-I see the bridge!"

I looked up ahead.

I took a deep breath.

The toll gates could be seen.

And just beyond them….

The gates.

The wirings….

The concrete and steel complexion of it all.

The tall and Gray Suspension Bridge.

The second Trademark of our City.

And in spite of the haunting deadness of everything, it positively shined for Robin and I.

I took a deep breath as the red sky glossed over my shades.

Home…………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The lower hallway of the Tower was dark.

Shattered from the elevator doors out.

With the walls crackling.

And the blackened light fixtures….

…….sparking!

……….sparking!

Darkness.

Silence………

……………….

Th-Thwpp!

Changeling landed down in a squat.

"……………"

He glared left.

"……………"

He glared right.

"……………"

Beaten and bruised….wearing only his long green gym slacks, he marched icily down the foreboding….decrepit hallway.

He paused and looked around.

Eyes thin.

Clayface was gone….

But the hallway showed the impact of his landing from the higher level.

Changeling spliced the inner network of his nose into that of a canine and….sniffed the air.

"Sniff….sn-sniff…..snifffff………….grfff……," he scrunched his face up.

He walked down the hallway.

Silently.

One quiet foot after another.

He stopped at a four-way crossing.

"…………sn-sniff……"

He spun to his right.

There were splotches of mud trailing down the stubby passageway towards a smashed door.

The room beyond was dark.

Emergency lights flickered on and off on the inside.

Like a strobe.

"………"

Changeling slowly…cautiously walked towards the mud-strewn, smashed entrance.

His deep, concentrated breaths matched his slithery pace.

Slowly….like a dancer.

His limbs tense.

"………….."

He came to the entrance.

He slowly….icily craned his neck in.

"……………"

He glanced around.

The Evidence Room…..

Rows and rows of glass displays where the evidence and weaponry of villains of all shapes and sizes rested in open view…..

All familiar….sinister images.

One display was toppled over, and the shards of shattered glass were cased with mud.

"…………."

Garfield glanced around.

Silently.

"………"

The emergency lights flickered.

Dark—bright!bright!—Dark.

"…………….."

He took one step forward.

A second….

He shuffled icily into the room.

His fists raised.

His nose sniffing.

His green eyes searching….searching…..scanning the shaded corners.

"……….."

Changeling proceeded forward.

Drifting between the rows of displays.

The sword of Viper, the hat of Mumbo Jumbo, a jet pack of the Buzzard Gang, the wristband of Blackfire.

Changeling shuffled forth till he came to a stop above the sea of glass from the turned-over display.

He glanced down at it, his pointy ears pricking subconsciously to the quiet extremities of the darkened interior.

"…………"

The display spilled forth some of Gizmo's tools.

But it didn't look like something that was deliberately in the way of a certain clay giant.

It was quite obviously in the center of the room….in the thick of things.

Sparkle!

The emergency lights flickered…only this time they stayed on.

And as they did so, Changeling caught in his peripheral vision the shadow of a tentacle whipping above the shadow of a petite elf.

"…..!" Garfield gasped.

CHIIIIIING!

As the axe-head came down, Changeling rolled forward along the ground and past the display.

CRKKKK!

The tile shattered from the serrated impact.

Changeling slid to a stop on his knees and swiveled around.

"RRRGHHH!"

Clayface dropped from a smashed hole in the ceiling.

He immediately flexed his other tentacle like a pendulum.

Changeling tried to get up.

But he stumbled---

THWPPPPPSSSSH!

Hagan's other axe lunged forward and—

**SCHLUNKKKKK****!**

sliced Garfield's left ear off.

"_**AAAAAAAUGHH!**__...__**!"**_

Changeling screamed and clutched the blood-oozing gash against his skull.

"HRAAAAUGH!"

Clayface flew forward with a muddy mass of a shoulder.

Changeling dazedly dove to the side.

CRASSSSH!

Two displays were shattered by the weight of the huge clay beast.

"NNRAAAUGH!" Clayface spun.

Yellow teeth gritting.

Changeling tripped on one leg and slid against a wall.

Panting.

Dizzy.

Blood oozed out of his head.

A sharp brain pulsed through his brain and then went numb.

The world spun around an axis.

And swiftly that axis was ripped straight through by Clayface's lunging foot.

**WHUMPPPP!**

Changeling felt the air knocked out of him.

He lunged forward, head leaking.

A painful wheeze and…

He twitched.

"NNGHHHH!"

Two tentacles gripped him and swung him across the trophy room.

Changeling flailed, skipped across the floor, and shattered--

CRASSSH!-**CRASSSSH!**

through two rows of glass displays.

Th-Th-Th-Thwump!

Garfield rolled across the broken glass.

He ended with his back against a rack of seized weapons.

He twitched…cut and bleeding in a dozen places.

The left side of his head oozed a red pool onto the tile floor.

"Heh heh heh heh heh…."

Clayface marched towards him.

Stomp! Stomp! Stomppp!

He retracted his blood-stained axes back into a pair of meaty, brown fists.

Yellow teeth smiled.

"Guess that's one less thing for that stone bitch of yours to cuddle. Heheheheh…."

"………..," Changeling shuddered.

His face twisted.

His teeth gritting.

He winced and stared at the pointed scrap of flesh lying across the sea of glass.

He struggled to get up—

**STOMP!**

Clayface's foot slammed down in the path of Garfield's vision.

The young man gasped.

Shaking…he looked up at the looming metamorph.

"You know….Logan….," Clayface bent over. "You and I are quite similar.……we are both being held back. The Titans never gave into your full potential. And Dagger insists that I'm not the one to kill you……"

SWSSSSSH-**GRIPPP!**

The bleeding Changeling gasped and wheezed as Clayface's thick hand closed around his lean frame and lifted him up towards the ceiling.

Squeezing.

Constricting.

"Nnnnnnnnggg-nnghhhh!" the green one warbled.

"But it's sooooooo easssssy…..," Clayface hissed a nasty breath into the half-elf's face. "Isn't it? To extinguish your life? To end that which pitifully bleeds before me…..And what would be the cost, Mr. Logan? Your parents are dead. Your 'girlfriend' is a crumbling piece of mortar. And your worthless friends are being picked off one by one! Maybe I should just take the luxury that—quite frankly—I deserve at this point…."

"Ngnnnghh—Grffff!"

Changeling hissed and twitched.

Clayface squeezed harder.

Grinning.

"Welllll….? What will it be?"

"………," Changeling forced his green eyes open.

They slitted like a panther for a second before he snarled.

"I think….w-we should start over….."

"Heheheheheh….star what over?" Hagan sneered. "The fight, you little grass stain?"

"Grfff….y-yeah…..," Changeling winced….bled….and hissed: "From….Gene One….."

He took a deep breath and……disappeared into Clayface's strangling hand.

"…….!" Clayface gasped. "Wh-What?"

Silence.

Stillness…..

Clayface turned his hand over.

He felt his cruddy self all over.

He panted.

Amber face contorted.

Beyond confusion.

"What in the Hell? Where did he go?"

Silence.

"………..?"

"Snkkkt—Hagan."

"D-Dagger?"

"Give me an update."

"I….I-I….."

"Quit delaying! I just got word from Croc. Red Aviary is THERE. On the **island**. In the **Tower**."

Clayface panted.

He was sweating……

"Is Beast Boy maimed for the Parasite's attack or not?"

"I…..I….I-I don't know!"

"Snkkkt! Unacceptable. Is or is he not vulnerable? Snkkkt—Did you kill him yourself?"

Clayface was sweating harder.

"I-I don't know…the little shit just vanished and—"

Clayface froze.

Sweating?

He gasped.

The muddy golem examined himself.

Globs of mud were rolling off of him.

Melting.

Disintegrating into a liquid pool beneath his feet.

"What in God's name….?"

"Hagan? What's wrong?"

"N-No…..," the metamorph clawed at himself.

Thick clumps of brown goo slopped off of him.

Scoops of amber curd.

Putty….porridge….slime….

"No!"

"Hagan. There's no time for failure! Get out of the Tower! You have two minutes!"

"I….I-I can't--………….I'm--………..…nraaaaaugh!"

Clayface flailed around.

He was melting.

Crumbling all over.

Turning into craggly gravel and slime balls.

He flailed tentacles and arms and various limbs of hundreds of shapes around as he shrieked with many faces and many voices.

"Get out of me! Do you hear? GET OUT OF ME! YOU GOD DAMN….nnnngh—PIECE OF SHIT! NRAAAAA-AAAAUGHhhbllbbpblbplblblblbbbppppllpppppp!"

Soon, an amber puddle of fluid covered the entire floor of the trophy room…brushing up against glass displays like surf against transparent islands.

Hagan's electronic earpiece marinated in the center of the mess.

Dagger's voice hissed forth in a crackling squawk:

"Hagan……Hagan! Report!"

Silence.

"………Order Fox to activate. Clayface's job is done. Snkkkkt—"

Blip.

Silence.

…………

…………

…………there was a bubbling to the amber pool.

Gaseous compounds poured out of the liquid as a consequence of millions upon millions of unseen protozoa combining and morphing together as one.

After a couple of seconds, a humanoid shape rose out of the amber stew.

And as the figure grew bigger, the skin turned out to be green…as well as the face and the hair and the eyes.

"……………," Changeling returned from his microscopic trip, having broken Clayface's sulfuric body down at the cellular level.

Once back to his lean form, he lifted his head back, spat out a glob of amber, and inhaled….inhaled…inhaled.

"!.!.!.!.!.!.!"

He lunged forward.

Wheezing.

Heaving.

Shuddering.

His eyes clenched shut.

Tears squeezed out….for he was still bleeding from the gash in his left skull.

He grasped the spot of the missing ear and wandered dazedly forward…sloshing through the mud till he limped—aching and bleeding—out of the trophy room altogether.

And into the numbness of the cold hallway beyond…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aboard a hovercraft in the Bay…

Safe in the shadows of the red night….

In the dark, electronically starlit cabin…

William B. Fox sat at a computer hub with three sets of monitors and keyboards.

A pair of armed Daggerite guards stood behind him in menacing proximity.

Fox was busily typing a flurry through the stations, assisting in the coordination of a massive invasion force with blinking points on a map of the City that surrounded the entire metropolitan area.

He kept a constant watch on the Lexcorp satellite, maintaining the counteractive firewall against digital take over.

And in the middle of all this…

A hired hand rushed down into the cabin with one communicator to his ear.

In a dark, low voice he hoarsely said: "Dagger gives the go-ahead."

One of the gunmen shoved Fox in the back. "That means you, hotshot."

Fox shuddered all over.

He put on a goofy grin and looked over his shoulder. "Say….you guys aren't offended if I let Jenna Jameson join in on this too, huh?" he pointed at the farmost monitor.

"Quit stalling, pal."

A guard nudged his shoulder. With a pistol.

"Dagger's given you an order."

"………..nngh….," Fox gave in with a sigh.

He punched a few keys, brought up a schematic of the Titans' Tower, and entered the fatal keystroke.

TAP!

"………," he simpered nervously back at the men. Tired eyes for once.

"Thar she blows……….."

His gaze fell somewhere to the shadows and he was silent.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's Tower.

The Main Room lay silent. Its computer stations switched off. The DVD cases lying where they were last discarded. All manners of horrid leftovers looming in the fridge. The couch and T.V. set resting like still ghosts.

Cyborg's Room. The smashed lab table. The loading stations scorched and sparsely illuminated by flickering emergency lights.

Starfire's pink bed. Her happy drapes. The eccentricities of Tamaran lingering in the corners. The trunk with a mysterious, battle-worn helmet and visor hidden inside.

Noir's cellar. The lantern lights cold and dry. The shower stall dark and lonesome. Myrkblade's shrine abandoned.

Raven's Room. The cold blue drapes. The books….the gothic ornaments. A closet. A painting. Ana's face.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling limped through the cold hallway.

Trying to find his balance.

Finding it a throbbing impossibility…

He clutched his bloody gash.

Wincing….

Wheezing.

Somewhere….in the deepest, hottest part of his being….

He could have sworn he heard an alien ringing noise.

Like a tuning fork that never ended.

Growing louder and louder and louder….

And there was nothing he could do to mute it.

Nothing he could do to shut it out.

He hissed and shook his head.

Things were growing dizzy.

Things were growing cold.

The ringing….the ringing….the ringing….

He 'heard'……

'_Hehehehehe…okay, Garfield. Time to come in! We got dinner prepared!'_

'_Awwww, Mom! You an' daddy done with the experiments already?'_

'_You know we've been making progress ever since we moved here to Lanumba! Let's spend some family time together for once and—GOOD HEAVENS! Are you bare-foot, Garfield?'_

'_Uhmmm……'_

'_You are! Garfield, what have I told you--?'_

'_But I'm perfectly safe, mom! See? Hehehe……my feet like it this way!'_

'_And plenty of snakes and bad bugs will like your feet too! Come back to the bungalow this instant!'_

'_Awwww……but I'm okay!'_

'_I swear……you're impossible! Mark, come help me here!'_

'_He's right Marie. He is doing pretty well for himself, aren't you son?'_

'_Hehehehe! See! Daddy agreeees!'_

'_Mark! Hrmmph! I swear! I'm raising __**two**__ children!'_

'_Heh heh heh……it's okay, Marie. Gar? Come on in. Your Mother's right. You're liable to be bit by something walking barefoot like that.'_

'_But Daddy—'_

'_You should know better.'_

'…………_yesssss daddddddy……'_

'_Come along now. That's a good son.'_

'_I was doing just fine, I swear……'_

'_Ohhhhhh, what are we going to do with him, Mark?'_

'_You gotta hand it to him, Marie. We've got us a regular beast boy!'_

'_Hehehehe……how horribly true.'_

'_Ick! Mom! Stop hugging me!'_

'_I just want you safe, hon. That's all……' _

………………_._

'_I just………want you………safe………'_

………………

"……………………_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkktttt……."**_

"………_!"_

Changeling snapped bloodily out of it.

His eyes widening.

He froze in a sudden chill.

Staring down the hallway.

"**Hckkkk…….clik-clik-clik-clik-CLIK!"**

Changeling didn't remember those words.

He shuddered.

He turned around.

And in slow motion….

He saw him.

In the frame of the trophy room.

Billowing red.

The piercing, crimson eye.

The two edged sword……dangling.

The red and black nightmare.

The reaper incarnate.

"…………..," canine hair instantly grew two inches on the back of Garfield's neck and stood on end.

"**Hckkkkkk!"**

**FW-FWOOSH!**

Red Aviary twirled the sword.

He held it two-handed at his sides.

He blurred….down the hallway.

Feet splashing red in slow motion.

Ice vapors of maroon floating in the air between the walls and his deathly frame as he stormed….stormed….stormed towards the animorph.

Stomp!……Stomp!……St-Stomp!……St-St-Stomp!

Changeling blinked.

An oozing thing.

Like the blood and tears leaking from separate spots on his face.

A puff of visible mist echoed from his lips and floated over to mix with the red clouds smoking out of Deathstroke's mouth slits as—

CHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

With a red **FLASH** the two-edged swung through the air.

Straight at Changeling's skull.

"…….."

But Changeling was sinking downward.

A black portal had opened in the floor beneath him, and a pale hand was gripping his ankle and teleporting earthward.

Flaaaaa-aaaaaaash!

**CLANKKK!**

The sword slammed into the wall, cracking the structure into spiderweb fractures.

CRKKKKK!

"…………**.,"** Deathstroke lingered.

Red smoke hissing out of his upper body in a dozen places, he glanced around….and shook.

"**Hckkk-clik-clik-clik-clik….."**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

FLASH!

Beast Boy dropped down into the room coincidentally beneath the ruptured hallway.

Robin's room…

Th-Thwomp!

He bounced off the bed and rolled across the floor till he bumped into the book case.

"Nnngh!" he wheezed…then breathed sharply the warm air of the room….safe from the Reaper.

He winced, cupped his head again, and sat up.

"Wh-What in the world….?"

He looked up.

His green eyes widened.

"Raven!"

The dark girl stood limply before him.

Black energy trailed from her as with a vapor.

She hugged her arms to herself and retreated the pale hand that had grabbed Changelng's ankle through the portal.

Suddenly ignoring his recent wound, Garfield limped up and gripped her shoulders.

"Wh-Where were you? How did you get here?"

A pause.

He tilted his head up through the ceiling.

"Who was that?"

"……………," Raven shivered.

Garfiled leaned his head to the side.

"R-Rae?"

He gripped her blue hood and lowered it.

"Wh-What are you—" His eyes widened.

Her optics were glowing a hot gray.

And they were fluctuating.

A sheen of cold sweat poured down her brow.

She shook, hissed, and leaned into him.

"G-Garfield….st-stay close to me……something b-bad is about to happen to the Tower…."

"Raven!" Changeling gawked.

He looked down.

He reached and parted her arms some.

His jaw dropped at the sight of a big bloody spot in the center of her leotard.

"My god! What happened?"

"I-I've been h-h-healing myself ever s-since…."

"Ever since what? Crud….it l-looks like……y-you've been ripped down the center, Raven!"

The dark girl gulped and clung to Beast Boy.

She leaned forward and wheezed.

"It's n-not as b-b-bad as it looks. Nnngh…I-I was mainly my soul-self when Slade skewered m-me with his sword….."

Changeling all but collapsed.

"Sl-Slade?"

He looked up through the ceiling and stammered.

"My God….w-was that---?"

She was clinging to him all the harder.

"Garfield!" She hoarsely growled. "Stay…close…..to **me**!"

"R-Raven?"

"I-I-I'm going to protect us….a sh-shield! St-Stay still…."

"N-No, Raven—"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

"Raven! Don't! For God's sake, you can barely hold yourself together--!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos……."

"Don't do it, Raven! Don't waste your powers on me—"

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!.!.!.!.!.!.!"

Changeling yelled, but it was no use. A black shield encased the two Titans as Raven limply fell into his arms.

He screamed something…..but between the black vortex and the ringing in his missing ear, he couldn't hear his own voice.

In the black sphere, the two Titans bled together.

Just as……

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"**Hckkkk-Snkkkkktt!"**

Deathstroke sensed it.

His whole body warbled.

A red pulsing response to a strobe of Construction.

He tensed his body.

Tilted his face up.

Coiled his legs….

Summoned red smoke—every crimson layer to the Spectrum that he could summon.

And…..

**FL-FLASH!**

He soared upwards.

**SMASH!**

Through a hallway.

**SMASH!**

Through another hallway.

**CRKKK!**

Through the gym.

**CRNCHHH!**

Through Cyborg's lab.

**SMASH! THRKKK! CRKKKK!**

Hallway after hallway after hallway.

**SHATTER!**

The Main Room…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**CRASSSSSSSH!**

Red Aviary exploded out through the top roof of Titan's Tower.

Looming over the Bay with the outstretched, steel arms of a martyr.

Deathstroke's pulsating body soared up….up….up…..and billowed red all over.

"**HCKKKK-SNKKKT!"**

Floating above the Tower, his voice entreated a crimson lightning to dance down from the red aura of the sky.

It illuminated his figure and flickered in such a way that all deceased spirits that may happened to have lingered within the vicinity would have envisioned a glowing, burning Phoenix strobing above the Titans' Home.

The Circle of Destruction.

The promise of another day and another Hell.

Like a bloody lighthouse for the silent, gray City lying hushed and timid beneath it all…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Tower's Cellar.

The golden vials strobed.

The carbonite explosives surrounding them…..

Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Vrmmmmmmm!

Robin was halfway over the Suspension Bridge.

I was blurring alongside him.

As the Boy Wonder gripped the handles….

And I blurred like the frosty wind itself….

We both let out sighs of relief.

Everything……was in one piece.

"Thank God…..," Robin loudly mumbled. "We're not too late."

"………..," I smiled amidst running.

"Okay. Good. We can start out on a solid foot! Noir….meet up with the Messenger. I'll go and check on the Titans and see if—"

_**BBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM**__**!**__..._

A huge…golden flare.

To our right…..southeastward….

I was instantly blinded….

Aaah!

My black eyes clenched shut. I tripped. In my velocity, I painfully fell down and tumbled a good ten meters before grinding to a stop on the bridge pavement. Wincing all over.

Robin gasped.

SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!

He burned the wheels of the Harley as he forced it to a sideways stop.

And he faced it directly.

His head leaning to the side.

His mouth agape as the golden glow glinted off the shiny parts of his mask.

I stood up, hobbling.

Clutching my ribs with a black, synthetic hand.

I limped over to his side and watched in utter horror.

A cold chill.

Mother of God.

Titans' Island was a plume of fire.

A veritable mushroom cloud.

Carbonite heat.

Plasma.

The metal body was completely incinerated….and anything that was once solid inevitably melted into oblivion as the golden chaos lifted….lifted…lifted into the sky and brightened the continent from space.

And then the second sound wave hit…..

**RUMMMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLEEEEEE****!**...

Waves rose high and slammed into the support pillars of the bridge.

SLOSSSSSH!

The metal support wires wobbled.

The road 'bobbed' up and down.

Robin and I shook where we stood.

"Nnnngh!"

"………!"

In the distance, windows of the higher skyscrapers cracked and shattered from the resulting sonic boom.

A numb stillness filled the air…in shop contrast with the blazing inferno that was our formal home.

"…………..," Robin slowly shook his head. "D-Dagger………T-Triangular beat us to our Home….."

Silence.

His fists clenched. He gritted his teeth. He shook:

"But he hasn't beaten us to the City…not yet!"

"…….."

"Noir. We must move."

"……."

"Noir?" he glanced aside at me. His eyemask widened.

I had fallen on my knees.

I was hunched over.

Clutching my stomach.

Everything in my body shook and shivered.

I gritted my teeth….in torturous convulsions.

"Noir!" Robin hopped off his harley and gripped my shoulders. "What is it?"

I panted.

I looked up at my.

My black eyes flickered….flickered a resonating **RED.**

"…….," Robin stepped back.

Very much confused….quite possibly freaked out.

I gulped.

I hissed a mute breath and shakily hand-signed:

'This is it, Robin. So much Construction. So much……White.'

"…………"

'This is Dagger's invasion. This is his answer to Red Aviary………and his Key to the City……'

"……….?" Robin looked breathlessly toward the island.

And so did I.

Weakly….breathlessly.

The Equalizer being strained…..

FL-FLASH!

And then we saw it.

FL-FL-FLASH!

Blinding streaks.

Comets.

Unnatural missiles of gold flying out of the center of the infernal.

Hot-white capsules were soaring out and out in a progressive fan of chaos like a giant sparkling fireworks toy.

The Essences of Terra……

I fought to keep the flickering red reactionary smoke from billowing out of my black eyes.

I failed……

They are being fueled by the carbonite explosion………

"Dagger's army…..," Robin murmured.

FL-FL-FL-FLASH!

Hundreds of 'comets' were soaring every which way now….and raining down mercilessly into the City.

_Robin's right………_

_God help us all._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnngh…..mmmmf!" Starfire climbed out of the rubble of the fallen office building.

Metallo was nowhere to be seen.

The Tamaranian hovered weakly up to the sky.

She became aware of a strong, golden glow shimmering its way into the City from the southern horizon.

She squinted her green eyes, floated up some more….and gazed over the building tops.

And when she saw it….

Her face exploded.

She screamed: "X'HAL! Nimberratta'tuil! Garfield! Raven!"

She reached a hand forward towards the distant inferno.

But her flight died just as limply as her voice.

"Cy-Cyborg………"

All she could do was float and shudder.

In disbelief.

But before the first of many green tears could leak from her optics….

**FSHHHHHH****-SHOOOOOOOOM!**

"H-Huh?" she looked up.

A bright, white 'comet' soared down in a curved arc.

It hotly scorched the air and plummeted in the alien girl's direction.

"Eeeek!" she swiftly swerved out of the way in midair.

**FWOOOOOOOOSH!****-****PLOWWW!**

The comet struck the center of the City streets a block away from the wreckage of her Metallo battle.

"……..," Starfire stared.

Mouth agape.

Eyes wide.

**CRKKKKKK-KKKK!**

Something emerged from the burning crater.

The asphalt and earth and concrete was coming alive.

It turned into a tall, infernal golem.

Flexing thermal muscles and roaring a muffled, burning roar.

It thrashed about and smashed the nearest lampposts, building faces, and parked vehicles with merciless decimation.

**CRKKKK! CRNCHHHH! THRKKKK!**

Before she could busy herself in righteously thrashing the sudden beast….

**FSSSSSSH-****SHOOOOOOM! SH-SHOOOOOM!**

Starfire gasped.

She twirled.

Three more comets blurred past her.

She hugged herself and flinched as the burning 'capsules' plummeted into streets, rooftops, and building faces.

**PLOW!**

**PL-PLOWWW!**

**PPPLOWWWWW!**

And in every crater….

And at every impact point….

The concrete and stone and earth came to live.

In burning bipeds of monstrous wrath.

And their only impulse was to swing their stony, burning limbs….

Shredding all things around them to pieces.

Not just in her City Block.

But all over Town.

Where dozens…hundreds….thousands of the comets landed.

And bred a legion of thermal demons…ravaging everything in sight.

"X'Hal……," Starfire panted.

She flew up high and began the mad dash of surveying the sudden warzone and strategizing the first course of superheroic action.

But she had to pause and breathily murmur: "The people……."

She looked around in mixed confusion and horror.

"Where are all the poor people?"

**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSH!**

Starfire's thoughts were cut short by a squadron of H.I.N.D. helicopters soaring directly overhead.

She spun and gasped…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSSH!**

They came from all sides of the City.

Rotary blades beating….beating….beating the heated air.

The pilots expertly ducked and dodged the shimmering comets of thermal energy.

H.I.N.D.s loaded their weapons and trained their sights on the buildings and streets below.

Cargo helicopters carried legions of heavily-armored thugs and gunmen equipped with machine guns, uzzis, and explosives.

And following the rear of the aircraft, Hummers and jeeps and trucks full of Dagger's elite zoomed into the City.

The forces of Triangular swarmed into the City like sugar ants spiraling into the bottom bowl of a sliced-open tangerine.

And all the while thermal golems sprouted and exploded and thrashed to furious life all throughout the streets and avenues with the wrath-filled, inner programming inserted by Dr. Helga Jace way back in Area 51.

And on top of it all…

On the highest spot in the City….

The summit of Kobayashi Tower……..

Dagger appeared.

Dressed in more body armor and equipped with more weapons and daggers than even he was used to.

He ducked under a white satellite dish and stood on the smooth, glass surface of the skyscraper's roof.

He glared silently at his Invasion in action. The calculated clockwork of hideous perfection.

"……………all right, Slade….."

Chiiiing!

Th-Thwish!

He twirled a dagger in each hand, turned around, and faced the burning inferno of Titans' Island and its spouting 'comets' with an icy gaze.

"……come out….….wherever you are…….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flying over the mountains…..

Terra gasped.

Her blue eyes widened and—beneath the goggles—strobed a hot….hot gold.

The flying rock descended some.

Supergirl and Pulsade instantly felt it.

"Wh-Whoah!"

"Bloody Hell!"

"Nnnngh!" Terra shuddered, her legs wobbling.

Her glowing hand twitching.

The rock wobbled some more.

Supergirl shot up to her feet and steadied Terra's shoulders.

"Concentrate, Terra! Concentrate!"

Terra hissed.

She nodded her head.

Supergirl gulped…..

"What in the world was that about?" Pulsade muttered.

"Nnnnngh….," Jinx was stirring awake.

Supergirl looked down. "What's your problem?"

The pink witch rubbed her head. Visibly straining. Her cat eyes pulsed a bright pink under tightly clenched lids.

"Mmmmf…..Hecate almighty…."

"Jean? Jean, you all right, love?"

"Something….S-Something bad has happened…..," Jinx ambiguously murmured. "S-Something big and…b-bad….."

"What are you babbling about?" Supergirl frowned.

"Kara….sh-she's right….."

Supergirl flashed Terra a look.

The earth maiden bit her lip as she re-steadied the levitating rock. "I….I felt something. M-Much like the day I felt Jinx and Pulsade's ignition of the thermal essences in the Tunnel."

Pulsade squinted her eyes. "Yeah?….But what the devil does it mean this time?"

"……………….."

Supergirl gently caressed Terra's shoulder. "Terra…..?"

Terra looked over at Supergirl. Her lip quivered. "I feel…..I-I feel like I've lost my child all over again."

"…………."

"Kara….I-I'm not so sure going to Gotham is the right thing to do anymore."

"Then where should we be going, Terra?"


	247. Break the Circle part 7

**247. Break the Circle part 7**

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Apprentice. Did you steal the thermal blaster?'_

"……………"

'_Apprentice, you __**will**__ answer me………'_

"Yes…."

'_Yes, __**what**__?'_

"Yes, I stole the thermal blaster."

'_And the Titans? Did they interfere?'_

"Not until the end."

'_Did you engage them like I ordered you to?'_

"There was no need. I had my escape route. I left the scene without getting either myself or any of the Titans injured."

'………………'

"I got what I came for, Slade. I'm returning t-to your lair with the thermal blaster."

'_You got only half of what you were sent for.'_

"………….."

'_No matter. This was only your first night, Apprentice. I shall make a soldier out of you yet.'_

"Don't **count** on it."

'_Hmmm……we'll see how long that attitude of yours lasts when we meet again in person. Come home, Robin. You have two hours. If you're so much as a half-minute late……your 'friends' will feel it.'_

"……………"

'_Is that understood, apprentice?'_

"**Yes**, Slade."

'_Good. And apprentice? Have a pleasant evening………You'll be needing the strength for the coming day of assignments I have for you.'_

**BLIP!**

"………………," Robin stood perched on the rooftop edge of a metalworks factory in the City's northeast district.

In the center of the industrial smog and metal cobwebs, the 'Apprentice' blended in perfectly with his outfit of slate metal mesh….black and brown….

He lowered his left hand from cupping the communicator in his ear.

He took a deep breath, his sharp eyemask narrowing.

His left hand clenched into a tight fist.

His right held up the thermal blaster.

"……….."

He glanced down beyond the rooftop edge beneath his iron-buckled boots.

The bubbling, red liquid of melted metal warbled inside huge vats and thick-iron bowls.

Buckets of the steaming stuff traveled loudly…..jaggedly on quivering chains and conveyor mechanisms.

Robin considered with great fervor tossing the thermal blaster down into the consuming mire.

But he stopped in mid-toss of the device when the far more comforting idea of _throwing himself in instead_ crossed his mind.

"……………."

The Boy Wonder sighed helplessly.

He looked up….up….up….

Towards the southern horizon of the City.

The Tower that stretched above the Bay.

The iron arms that stretched out in 'T' glory and welcomed any and all souls to justice.

Anyone but him.

"…………….."

He took a sharp breath.

He bit his lip…..

Then he looked at a small lcd screen built into the armband of his apprentice outfit's sleeve.

"11:43…..," he murmured.

He looked out at the faraway Tower again.

"Still an hour and fifty minutes left….."

Silence.

He pocketed the thermal blaster away, stretched his limbs, and leapt nimbly off the industrial complex's rooftop.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Th-Thwp!_

With a rustle of his yellow cape, Robin swung up and landed on the side of a water tower just north of Metropolis.

In the suburban outskirts.

Where the forested landscape rose up towards the mountains….

And the lone spot where he had just successfully attacked Metallo.

Noir was safe.

Red Aviary was outsmarted….._for the time being._

The Boy Wonder didn't have very long before he knew he'd have to make a quick bolt back to Gotham on his cloaked cycle.

He wasn't even supposed to be far away from 'sanctuary' to begin with, especially with Red Aviary out to rip his head off.

But something made Robin freeze. And instead of whipping out another grappling hook and swinging widely from the water tower to where his cycle was parked….

He stayed put.

And he stared southward.

Past the night-sparkling spires of Metropolis.

Beyond the clean, pristine towers of urban dreams.

To a dream of his own.

For the third or fourth time in his life…..a dream that faded away and floated beyond touch.

The forever-irony of the cycle of things…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What's wrong, Bruce? Wh-What happened to Tim?"

The billionaire sat by a fireplace in a large den of the ever-expansive, Wayne Manor. He had his fingers held together. His dark blue eyes gazing into the fire. An iciness not quite melting….but softening in the embers all the same…..encapsulated in his breathy voice….a human part of him he shared with only a few lone entities in the world. Barbara being one of them.

"Tim……is growing up….."

The Commissioner's daughter walked past the hearth and sat down in a chair across from Bruce. A look of concern washed over Barbara's face.

"It was on your beat last night…..wasn't it?"

"………."

"Bruce, speak to me. This is Tim we're talking about here. Is he all right?"

"He will be."

"……….."

Bruce finally looked at her.

A cold gaze…but not a mean one.

"Barbara….the life we all choose to live is not a pretty one. There are dark things out there. Things we would rather not touch, much less look at if we had the sanity or choice. But if we are to persist in this career…..eventually the daredevil in each and every one of us must die. There are things far more serious in this world that call for…..a heart open to pain as much as to thrill."

"That's a way of looking at it," Barbara gestured. "But what does this have to do with Tim?"

"……….."

Bruce gazed back into the fire.

"Tim……saved a girl last night. A very innocent….yet helpless girl. Tim made it his entire night's goal to protect her and make her happy. But at the last second, everything he worked for met a bleak and unfortunate end."

"I h-heard that Robin was instrumental in apprehending Clayface. Did that have anything to do with it?"

Bruce nodded.

"The girl was a free-floating extension of Matt Hagan. A probe…."

Barbara made a disgusted face.

Bruce glanced at her.

"She…….achieved individual sentience…."

"Oh my…..one of Hagan's probes got far enough away from him…..," Barbara murmured. "And Tim thought--?"

"For all Tim was concerned, she was the same as any other girl on the street needing protection," Bruce said. "But when Clayface confronted the two of them in need of gaining a 'piece of himself' back….Robin was overwhelmed. He would have been undone at the hands of Hagan….had the girl not given herself over to Clayface………..to save Tim."

"Oh no….," Barbara held a hand over her lips. "Then she's—"

"Gone," Bruce nodded. "And as far as Tim's concerned, Hagan murdered her. He saw the whole thing up close. By the time I arrived on the scene, it was far too late for extraction. Clayface was apprehended….and the 'girl' Tim knew was forever lost."

"Poor Tim…..," Barbara shook her head. "He…..Y-You don't actually think he felt for her as--?"

"He's been locked up inside his room all morning and afternoon, Barbara."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_I haven't seen him this reclusive and subdued since when he first joined us."_

"_The death of his father was a great blow to him, Bruce. In spite of how cruel Tim tells us he was, his father meant a lot to him while he was still alive. You should remember that, Bruce. It wasn't until a solid week after Tim became your ward that he started the training."_

"_Anyway, I haven't disturbed him. I know better than to bother him when he gets moody………which hasn't happened until just recently, I admit. Amazingly, he's starting to remind me of Dick." _

"_Dick? Really?"_

"_He's been getting more and more proficient in the fight against crime. Yet at the same time……his temper has risen. I think he's finding his edge. And it's far more bitter than ever I've seen it before. Almost……more bitter than any 'Robin' has ever been………" _

"………_I wonder if we should be worried, Bruce. This could be a very heavy time for Tim. And—to be honest—we know so little about the boy--!"_

"_I know plenty." _

"_Pfft! I was speaking in __**general**__, Bruce. Lord knows the World's Best Detective can't be in the dark about __**anything**__. But think about it……think about Tim. He's making himself into a mystery. As if he isn't one already. What happened last night—what you're not telling me about……it's terrible and all, but I wonder if there's something more to it? Perhaps……something specifically __**about**__ the girl Tim 'lost' last night might explain why he's so……so cast off right now?"_

"………………..," a thirteen-year-old Tim stood at the wide open windows of his room.

Dressed in a white shirt and tan slacks.

He had his arms folded and he stared onto the cold, breezy balcony.

Silence……….

Tim took a deep, shuddering breath.

He stepped towards the open windows.

The blinding whiteness and deceptive serenity of the Gotham air surrounded Wayne Manor.

His folded arms raised, wrapped about, and hugged himself.

And he shuddered……

T-T-T-T-T-T-

…..and he cried.

Crystal tears running down his small, four-year-old face.

Sitting outside the cruddy apartment.

Scrunching his knees to his chest.

Staring out at the frost-laden alleyways of grimy, winter-plagued Gotham.

Just a window pane away, his father slumped back in a chair…cleaning out the magazine of a gun. Mr. Drake spoke with a phone hooked under his chin.

"Yeah, I agree. They're really bad business."

………….

"No. They have no dirt on Dent. They're just sticking their filthy-ass noses where they shouldn't be. If I didn't know better, they're Cobblepot goons."

…………

"Oh yeah. The Penguin's still in the mix of things. You can bet your daddy's dick."

…………

"That's right. We're meeting tomorrow night. The boss should be there. Undoubtedly we're gonna talk about cleaning the bird's clock."

…………

"For good? I sure as Hell hope so. Dent's serious about things this time. There've been talks of him even accepting arms from Lexcorp and—"

………..

"What?"

……….

"You hear crying?………..Oh."

Mr. Drake looked over his shoulder at the fire escape window.

He sighed and resumed to examining his gun.

"She left me, Roscoe."

……………

"No, that's my kid you're hearing. Yeah….I got to take care of the little shit on my own now. Mmmmhmmm…"

……………

"How the Hell should I know about doing it? The kid was the bitch's job! Hell….I didn't even want the little snot bag! Nnngh…hold on…."

He lowered the phone and shouted over his shoulder: "Will you stop your filthy crying already?"

Little Tim only wailed all the louder.

"Nnnngh…." Mr. Drake stressfully rubbed his temple with the hilt of his gun. He repositioned the phone, sighed, and said: "Ahh…..he might be useful for a few extra bucks in the future. At least he's young. It'd be Hell to have a pimply-assed rebel on my hands. Especially now that I gotta cook and shit too."

……………

"What the Hell are you talking about? Of course my first duty is to Dent! What do you take me for, Roscoe? Pffft! I'm just thinking ahead for once! Just because you have five or six unnamed bastards running around the streets of Gotham right now doesn't mean _**I**_ can be that reckless! If all else fails, he'll be a doughpusher like his dear old dad. Yeah……ain't that a sweet, friggin' Hallmark for ya? Assuming he lasts the damn winter, of course."

Outside….

On the fire escape.

Tim bravely bit his lip…

Fought back the tears from his youthful face…

Shuddered….

And stared out towards the bright gray horizon.

Touched with the pinkish-red of wintry Gotham.

The ever-Red……

"……………."

The boy shuddered.

"_When I was really young, Messenger, I-I had this……this little 'prayer' of mine………"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Prayer?" the asian teen turned and blinked at the Boy Wonder. He smiled. "Robin! You never told me you were a Pentecostal!"

Robin didn't even register him…..

Three hours since they departed from the City….

The Messenger and Robin rested in the middle of a forest with the cold November air settling on their shoulders.

The images of the cemetery…..and the funeral for 'Robin's death' was fresh in their mind. Robin's mind, at least. The Boy Wonder's masked eyes lingered southward where the then-unseen City surely resided. And with it….the mournful sighs and hopeful eyes of a withered sextet of friends. Comrades. Teammates.

Robin wore the cloak covering his battered, torn uniform. The cloak he had grabbed from visiting Professor Chang's Observatory.

As the resting Messenger listened, Robin leaned against a tree and murmured against the cool sky filtered down through the leaves and needles….

"I said it when I was really young….and when my dad told me that my mother died. I prayed….th-that she would come back as an angel…."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The four year old stood up on wobbly, juvenile legs.

He stretched a thin…shaking hand up.

Fingers outstretched….

And 'touched' the gray, wintry sky…..

"_I prayed that she would come back. As an angel. I wished to god that my mother could just……fly down. With the wings that smelled like her perfume……arms as warm as they were when she hugged me so long ago that I can hardly remember anymore. I spent every night of my childhood years praying for that. That little hope h-helped me endure my dad. It kept me alive and ticking the winters I spent begging and robbing in the streets of Gotham."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The thirteen year old stood on the balcony of Wayne Manor.

He took a deep breath.

He stopped hugging himself….and reached a hand out.

His blue eyes thin.

His fingers fanning outward against the red and gray sky.

And his lips quivered.

"_But more than once……that prayer didn't come true. And so I changed it." _

"_How did you change it, Robin?" _

"_I just………asked for an angel. Any angel. It didn't have to be my mother. Just as long as someone……or something could swoop down and wake me from the nightmare that never-ceasingly climbs back to rip my heart out from the inside out……"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Gazing past the spires of Metropolis, Robin sheathed his bo-staff and grappling hook away.

He took a sharp breath.

His eyemask thin, he stretched his gloved hand out.

The green fingers expanded.

He touched the southern horizon….

Reaching for home.

"_And the day that angel comes for me, I won't have to fight anymore. I won't have to……pretend anymore. I can throw the mask away and be myself. I can cry. I can scream. I can kick and wither and die. Just to be free to be……to be human………" _

"…………"

"_All my life, I have dreamed and prayed and begged for that angel. Silently. In the shadows where no Titan—and not even Batman can lurk. I swore never to tell anyone this pathetic wish of mine. This childhood dream that won't die. Not while I was alive could I possibly deign to such a low point."_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Messenger smirked. "But now you're 'dead'……..right?"

"…………," Robin took a shuddering breath. "I…..guess I am….." He drew the cloak around himself. He uttered to the Messenger. "We should get going. Before Slade gets any ideas….."

The asian teen nodded. "But before I take us off to whizzy-green-wonderland, Robin……I gotta ask you something. Or rather…._Tim."_

Robin glanced aside at him. "Hmm?"

The Messenger's face washed over to sincere solemnity. "Was that dream of yours……._answered_ in the end?"

"………………….."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SW-SWOOSH!_

Robin glided and landed with razor-edged gloves gripping to the walls of the Tower.

Muscles tensing in the metal mesh outfit of black and brown, the Apprentice climbed his way with intense focus and strain.

Up….up….up the huge steel 'T'.

He reached the middle levels. Sweating profusely. Shivering against the winds.

But when he reached the one particular window he was aiming for, he perched nimbly on the outer wall and stared in through the glass.

To his surprise, the pink curtains were parted. And he could see well through into her bright, cheery room……presently drowning in the shadows of gray and gloom.

"……….."

He saw Starfire sitting on her round, pink bed.

She was hugging a glork plushie to her chest.

Her emerald eyes gazing off towards the far distance.

The scuffs and slight burn marks of the thermal blaster still resided on her violet outfit.

She bit her lip.

A look of pain and confusion cascaded over her.

Eventually, she turned over….laid on the bed…..and curled up in a sighing limpness.

"………….," the Apprentice took a deep breath.

His eyemask round, he reached a gloved hand out.

He pressed it against the glass.

Towards _her_.

And fanned the fingers out.

Touching the horizon…….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Robin………I……………………_

_W-Wait!_

_I………_

_After all of today…….I……I simply desired to…….t-to………………………_

………………_I do not want to lose sight of you again._

_So much horror has transpired today, and it has shaken me more than I thought would be possible, Robin and—_

……………_I love you, Robin._

_I love you so……_

_And there is nothing in this world…no power so great in the cosmos…no distance too huge in the universe that could ever keep me from loving you and adoring you._

_Please………_

…………………_u-understand…_

………………

………………

………………

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Somehow, the little sobbing boy on the fire escape saw it first. _

_And he also __**heard**__ it. _

_He shuffled over and clung to the Thirteen year old._

_The Thirteen year old shuddered……his feet knee deep in mud. _

_The mud covered his body and emerged black and brown._

_The Apprentice was left over._

_Balancing a thermal blaster in his hand._

_He stood still in the spotlight. _

_While the Tamaranian pleaded with him from the shadows. _

_And Robin stared at the Tamaranian. _

_His fists clenched._

_His mask frozen to his face._

"………………………"

………………

"………………_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkktttt-Hckkk!"**_

_The apprentice took a sharp breath._

"_**How very touching……,"**__Slade……Red Aviary……Deathstroke said. __**"But Robin doesn't need any friends."**__ And Slade's finger came over the button. _

_Everything fell down, screaming._

_Flashing spots of amber and yellow light beneath the skin._

_In a lot of ways, it mimicked the vomit that came from little Tim's throat the nights his father neglected to feed him._

_Similarly, it copied the cold swish of Robin's yellow cape as he turned away from Starfire in the crumbling basement of Phaser Labs…… _

_And walked away to his 'death'. _

_Leaving her to the tears he was all-too-used to._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Don't you see, Robin? I'm not real."_

"…………….," Robin was staring at the Tower.

And in the Tower's place…..flames spouted towards the sky.

Shimmering platinum comets flying every which way.

The Boy Wonder's eyemask was thin.

His nostrils flaring.

"_**This is the price for your disobedience, Robin. Now do as I command. Attack!"**_

"………………," but Robin's hands were not stretching out and forming the angel wings.

They instead were gripped tightly….tight…..tight…..around the handles of his motorcycle.

"_We are your friends, Robin. We are not leaving without you."_

Robin's teeth gritted.

_VRMMMMMM!_

"……..?" I flashed a breathless look at him.

He growled and threw his harley into suicidal gear.

"Try to keep up, Noir….."

_**VRMMMMM-MMMMMMMMM!**_

He screeched and burned his way down the fire-lit Suspension Bridge.

I gave the missing Tower one last shuddering look before blurring after him in a black streak.

_Yes. Sir._

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

_**SH-SHOOOOOOOOM!**_

_**POWWW! **_

_**POWWW!**____**CRKKKKK!**_

_**CRKK-CRKKKK!**_

As Starfire hovered above the streets, the comets landed and exploded into the asphalt and concrete below.

Golems of stone and gravel came to life.

Burning with an intense, golden heat.

Ten feet tall and half-a-ton each.

They made roaring, rumbling noises of shifting….pebbly innards before marching off to the nearest building structures and plowing their fists into the fragile metal and mortar.

_**CRACK! **_

_**TH-THWACK! **_

_**SLAM!**_

A tumultuous thunder ran throughout the red-bathed City, echoing from the golems everywhere landing and coming to life and punching holes in anything they saw.

Starfire shuddered.

She gazed southward.

Titan's Island burned like a gigantic flame thrower.

"…….," Starfire bit her lip.

She gazed down beneath her.

Her teeth grit.

Her eyes glowed a hot emerald, and soon she was soaring down in a green streak of wrath.

"RAAAAAUGH!"

_SWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_

The Tamaranian slammed torso-first into the burning chest cavity of a lumbering golem.

**WHACK!**

The creature flailed its thick, burning arms.

Starfire shoved it across the street and straight into an abandoned garbage truck.

**POW!**

The creature collapsed and writhed in the aluminum 'flower' of wreckage.

Starfire stood over it.

She raised her hands up and prepared to smash them down into the body of the beast. "Infernal creature--!"

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_ Two golden golems stomped with ashen feet across the street and slammed their burning shoulders into her. **FWOMP!**

"Nnnn—augh!"

Starfire flew from the impact and rolled a few feet across the cratered asphalt.

She sat up, wincing, and clutched her shoulder where the pink shirt covering her skin was slightly scorched.

Scarlet hair disheveled, she looked up with a gaping mouth.

**CRKKKKK!**

The pounded golem rose up out of the smashed garbage truck, pivoted, and marched to join its two companions.

They bore down slowly….menacingly on the alien Titan.

She stepped back, rearing her fists.

A hot golden glow from behind.

"………," she turned her head and looked over her shoulder.

Four more golems had abandoned their demolishing of building faces and were steadily stomping towards her.

A ring of concrete, animated cretins closed in from all sides.

A circle.

Starfire took a breath, leapt up, hovered in the air, and spun with a flurry of starbolts launched intermittently at each and every walking rock monster in the circumference around her.

_Flash! Flash! Flash! Fl-Flash! Flash!_

"Haaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaugh!"

She finished twirling in air, her hair billowing from the revolution.

She panted….hissing through clenched teeth.

Shock overcame her at the sight of the half-dozen or so monsters still standing upright.

In fact, they looked stronger and 'healthier' than before.

The thermal energy inside of them resonated.

They pulsed, shook their limbs, slammed their arms down, scooped up a clump of asphalt each, and launched them in a hail of rocky chaos straight at the Tamaranian's body.

**CRKKKKK-KKKKK!**

_TH-THWOOOOOSH!_

Starfire gasped and barely flew out of the way---

_**POWWW!**_ The multiple rocky projectiles exploded together where she was just positioned.

The concussion sent her flying across the street in a sideways plunge.

"Nnnnghh!"

She twirled in the air, descended, and crashed through a street sign before collapsing still across a sidewalk.

"Mmmmffff…."

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

_**SH-SH-SHOOOOOO-OOOOOOM!**_

_**POWWW!**_

Starfire weakly looked up.

Bruised and weary….

She saw more and more 'comets; plunging down through the streets of the City.

Rocketing towards the earth.

Some smashing through building faces and rooftops.

Others turning parks and courtyards into swiss cheese.

A golden aura bled from the earth beneath the red sky.

It drew a helpless shudder from Starfire's lungs….even as three….four…five golems absent-mindedly stomped into the nearby street from adjacent alleyways…stomping about and smashing parked cars and bus stops and other roadside detritus to bits. _**CRKKKK! CRKK-KKKK!**_

Starfire stood weakly.

Raising her fists.

Panting.

Strategizing…..

"Heh…heheh….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Starfire's eyes widened.

She spun and stared.

Metallo stood besides the rubble of a fallen building.

He was dented and scuffed up in numerous places.

His skull-like jaw looked crooked, and his right eye was flickering to stay 'lit'.

Regardless, he chuckled electronically, gazed at Starfire, and gestured while musing:

"Beautiful, aren't they? Turds have never functioned with such efficiency before…….or grace!"

"Nnnnngh!" _FL-FLASH!_ Starfire aimed a pair of pulsing green wrists at the metal man. "_Tell me the weaknesses of these abominations! NOW!" _

"Oooooh!" Metallo cooed. "A little impatient, aren't we? Impatient and feisty. That's how I most loved the last women I went out with back in my flesh days………..until they actually took me to their flat and I had to kill them because their underwear was the wrong color."

Starfire sneered: "Do not attempt navigating around the situation at hand!" She marched towards him, starbolts throbbing to explode towards him. "How did Dagger destroy our home? In what manner did he acquire this banal army?"

"My dear freak….," Metallo half-bowed. "What good is it to lecture a corpse?"

"…………"

"A gift from…..the last _lover_ of Slade….," Metallo hissed twistedly.

Starfire's face bent in disgust.

The metal fiend's right eye flickered as if it were a well-timed 'wink'. "Mother earth was rather giving in the end."

Starfire's lips parted. "T-Terra….." Her green eyes moistened for a moment and a sad breath escaped her. "X'Hal…..you poor child. What have they d-done to you…..?"

Metallo shrugged. "Hey…if Slade could get into her….anyone could, right?"

"……!" Starfire instantly shrieked at him. "Silence! I shall not let you disgrace—!"

"What?" he chuckled electronically. "The Second Apprentice was disgraced from the beginning……" He added with a sneer. "The day you Titans failed to go out after her……"

"…….." Starfire shook. Starfire convulsed. With optic blasts and starbolts charging, she soared at him with Tamaranian rage. "RAAAAA—"

_**CRKKKKKK!-**__**WHACK!**_

A golden golem slammed her hard across the back of the head.

"Nnnngh!"

_WHAM!_

She flew hard into the sidewalk just meters from Metallo's feet.

Her body formed a crater and spiderweb cracks in the rock-hard surface.

"Heh heh heh…..," Metallo stepped back.

Starfire tried to get up—

_**STOMP!**_ Another golem's foot planted down against the small of her back and pinned her down.

A third knelt over and gripped her shoulders.

Two more came at her rear.

Another stomped over….half shattered…..trailing ashes and clumps of lava……

"The esteemed Dr. Jace did a fine job making them quite hungry for the thermal energy of all beings….," Metallo waved. "Dagger, myself, and a few others excluded…..of course. Thermal enhanced programming. Fantasy technology yesterday. Devastating reality now. Your _corpse………_heheheheh…..**tomorrow.** And when I say 'tomorrow', I mean thirty seconds from now! Relative doom and gloom, love."

"Nnnngh!" Starfire pulsed and struggled under the weight of the fiery automatons piling up on top of her. "I shall annihilate each and every one of them to punish you, villain!"

"Heheheheh….noble, freak. Noble. But your energy bolts merely feed them. You have no chance of demolishing them."

Starfire clenched her teeth.

Her eyes strobed a burning green.

"We….shall……**SEE!.!.!.!"** She tilted her head back, flexed her green throbbing arms, and screamed: _**"RAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAAUGHH!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

A sphere of pure green fury exploded from the sidewalk.

A crater dipped down in the street.

Nearby building fronts shattered and vomited their glass facings.

Metallo flinched and stepped back. 'Shading' his electronic eyes. Gritting his metal teeth….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Starfire exploded up ward in a horizontal spin.

The golems flew off of her like gnats off a flaming cow tail.

Burnt and exhausted of their golden energy, they flew every which way—slamming into buildings and street signs and lampposts—before crumbling into dull gray granite slabs.

_PL-PLANT!_

Starfire landed firmly on her feet.

She screamed and slammed her fist straight into the burning belly of a golem before her.

_**CRNNNNNCH!**_

She tossed it aside—crumbling.

She blurred forward and slammed two elbows into the mid-sections of two lumbering giants.

_CR-CRAK!_

"YAAAUGH!"

She tossed her arms up, yanked the golems aside, and floated up to swan-kick the head of a charging golem in splitting two.

_**THWKKKK!**_

She bolted forward through the stream of craggy gold bodies towards the distant form of Metallo.

She deflected incoming projectiles of burning rock with waving backhands.

She jumped, spun-kicked, and smashed in the torsos of two more golems before grabbing one, tossing it into a clump of crowding automatons, and then rushing through a last gauntlet—brushing them violently aside—in a maddening dash towards Metallo.

"Nnnnnnyaaaaugh!"

_THWAP! CRACK! WHACK! WHAM!_

Metallo merely stood. Folding his metal arms. Staring at her with a smug, clenched jaw.

"NRRAAAUGH!" _P-POW!_ Starfire burst through the last 'curtain' of golem bodies, flew like a missile straight at Metallo, and raised her fist.

He didn't budge one inch.

And then….from behind his shoulder.

_**SWISSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

Starfire's green eyes danced up. Her eyes twitched—

_**BOOOOM!**_ A missile impacted the ground right before her flying figure.

"Nnnngh!" she flew back from the explosion, slammed through two crumbling golem bodies, and collapsed against a lamppost. Groaning. "Mmmmfnnghh…."

"You didn't seriously expect us to let the pets out without some attendance, did you?" Metallo pointed. her red head, Starfire glance up. "H-Huh?"

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_

A HIND helicopter hovered behind and above Metallo's frame.

Its blades beat the air as it aimed its payload again at the grounded Tamaranian.

But instead of firing, it floated back and gave room for---

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

A jeep swerved and screeched around a nearby street corner.

With more helicopters and rock monsters ravaging the dead City in the background, the vehicle aimed its headlights at the Tamaranian, squealed its tires, and roared past Metallo to bear down on her.

A gunman in the back of the jeep stood up, aimed a swiveling assault rifle, and shot madly at her.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT__**-TAT!**_

Starfire gasped.

She rolled backwards, barely avoiding a string of bullets blowing up potholes in the sidewalk beside her. _P-P-P-P-PING!_

She gritted her teeth, jumped up to her feet, grabbed the lamppost, ripped it out of the ground—_'Nnnnngh!'-_**CRKKKK!**—and held the huge bludgeon as a metal shield which she expertly deflected the incoming bullets with. _P-PING! PING!_

But then the jeep slammed into her. Head on….denting the hood.

**WHAM!**

"Agh!" Starfire flew back into a building front. _SMASSSH!_

The gunman in the jeep's rear adjusted the assault rifle, aimed up, and fired at the second story of the building.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

CRKKKKKK!

The building face was pelted into shards…..and collapsed in a hot, heavy mound atop the grounded alien girl.

_**FWOOOOOMPP!**_

The nearby golden golems marched towards her buried figure.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

They raised their hot, burning limbs….hissed steam…and slammed down three pairs of brick-dense fists into the collapsed pile where the warm Titan lay concealed.

_**SMASSSSSH!**_

"Heh heh heh heh heh……."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!-__**SCREEEE-EEEECH!**__-VRMMMMMMM!_

"Ah Jesus…..Ah Jesus!"

"It's started! It's started and we're in the frickin' thick of it!"

"Pull yourselves together!" the driver of the rear squad car shouted at his weary companions in the passenger seats. He was also the ranking officer. "I'm gonna get us out of this mess!"

The two police cars and the six officers who had approached the Tower earlier that night were busily speeding their way north across the ruined landscape.

The streets before the two careening vehicles were being filled more and more thickly with all sorts of explosive chaos.

'Comets' landing in thunderous craters.

Fires blazing in thermal splashes.

Golden golems stomping their way across the lanes and waving their arms menacingly at the speeding pair.

Falling building fronts….and even a hummer or jeep or truck or two speeding by with nefarious henchmen huddled inside.

"Back to HQ! Hurry!"

"I know! What do you think I'm doing?"

"How're the others?"

"Jameson! Check on them!"

A bruised cop lying in the rear seat winced, struggled with his one good arm from Croc's thrashing, and shouted into his mic.

"HQ! HQ! Come in! Th-The City's practically on fire! The message was correct! Dagger's here---!"

"Try and get in contact with Smith!"

"I'm trying! Something's blocking me from patching through to the Lieutenant---"

"LOOK OUT!" the man in the front passenger seat pointed.

"Nnnngh!" the driver swerved at the steering wheel and slammed on the brakes.

The car full of police buddies in front of them was also braking madly as a three story building collapsed before them, blocking the road.

_**SMASSSSSSH!**_

The officers sweated.

Panted….

_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_

"Look! Two of those freaks!"

"What in God's name---?"

Two golden golems marched out of the mouth of the crumpled building and loomed above them.

Stomping their way down ashen rubble….they kicked up dust and made the whole streets vibrate with double the thunder as they closed in on the two hapless vehicles.

"Draw them back!" someone in the front police car shouted as he poked his torso out of the window, leaned out, pumped a shotgun, and fired into the chests of the golden beasts.

_**BLAM!**__ Ch-Chtunk! __**BLAM! **__Ch-Chtunk!_

The front passenger of the rear car leaned out and fired a pistol in cadence with the firearms of the front cops.

_BL-BLAM! BLAM! BL-BL-BLAM!_

The flying lead soared through the air and splattered into the fiery shells of the walking golems of concrete.

A few granite flakes snapped off.

A crater or two formed…but the golems were largely unhindered.

They marched towards the vehicles, limbs flailing to smash the aluminum apart.

"They're not st-stopping!"

"Back! Back!"

"_Get back!"_

_SCREEEE-EEEEEEECCCCH!_

The two police cars squealed and zoomed in reverse.

But soon….

_CR-CRUNCH!_

The rear police car slammed into a golden golem.

They were surrounded.

"Daah! Jeez!"

"Jameson! L-Look out—"

_**SMASSSH!**_

The burning limb of the rear golem shattered through the back windshield and groped for the injured police officer lying inside.

He gasped, dropped the mic, and fumbled for his pistol.

"Jameson! _Dammit, Banta_! Drive us out of here!"

"W-We're surrounded!"

"Nnngh! Get back you son of a—"

_**CRKKKKK!**_

The inside of the squad car started cooking.

The limb of the burning beast singed the injured officer's uniform.

The driver fumbled for the shotgun.

But suddenly…..

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!_

The officers gasped and looked from both cars.

A nimble body riding a harley zoomed in onto the rubble-strewn intersection.

Tires burning, it roared towards the golem reaching into the car.

_**TH-THWMPPP! **_PLANT!

The harley ramped up and hurdled off the backside of the rock monster.

The golem shuddered and collapsed against the rear of the squad car.

_**FWOOOOSH—**__**CRKKKK!**_

Then a billowing black blade pierced its tip out through the chest of the creature.

Murk poured out, turned the burning gold innards to steam, and lifted the monster back with Spectral strength.

_Nnnnnngh!_

I strained, shook, and sweated as I levered the monster off of the back of the squad car and flung it—tumbling—onto the sidewalk.

_TH-TH-TH-THUMPPCKKKK!_

In the meantime….

_VRMMMMM!_

Robin sailed on his harley through the air, flew over the two squad cars, and came slamming down between the two golems on either side.

**TH-THWOMPPP!**

Right as Robin's cycle landed, he freed his hands from the tight handles of the vehicle and flung a freezing disc to both the left and right.

SW-SWISSSSSH!

CLANK!

CONK!

The discs struck dead-center in the golems.

And……

_**FL-FLASSSSH!**_

They froze into icy statues.

_SCREEEECH!_ Robin spun a tire-tracking one-hundred-and-eighty on his harley and stopped just before the rubble pile that was once a building face.

In the meantime, I was blurring towards the golem I had grounded behind the cars.

Just as it 'growled' and stumbled to its burning knees….

_Th-Th-Th-THWISSSH!_ I flipped, blurred, jabbed Myrkblade down, and sliced my way straight down so that I landed on its smoldering shoulders and---_**CRKKKKKKK!**_ I stabbed mercilessly into its 'neck'.

Smoke filled the twitching beast, mixed with the inner fire, and---

_**POWWWWW!**_

The monster exploded into gray gravel and dust beneath.

I teleported up in a wave of smoke, clung to a solid building front, and murkingly glided dowwwwwwn……

Chiiing Across the squad cars, Robin had produced a birdarang. With a grunt, he flung the projectile at an angle. _Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-THWISSSH!_

The sharp object spun, spiraled, and simultaneously blazed through the frozen bodies of the two golems Robin had just disabled.

_CRKK!_

_**CRACCCCK!**_

And the thermal monsters shattered into thousands of glass-like shards of ice.

For a moment….there was immediate silence around the intersection.

Four of the six police officers managed to stumble out of their cars and gawk at us in awe. _GAWK._

_Oh yeah. _

_We've arrived._

"……..," I gripped Myrkblade. Smoking. I rested it aside so as to gesture something at Robin.

He nodded back at me. "Well done."

The driver of the rear car stammered loudly: "R-Robin?"

"…….," the Titan Leader looked over.

"_**THE**_ Robin?"

"Where were you headed?" the Boy Wonder asked.

"………"

"Sir….wh-where were you and your men headed--?"

"OH….uhm….er….H-HQ!"

"'HQ'?"

I leaned my head to the side.

"R-Robin….this is a lot to digest. But—"

Another officer marched up. "This City's gone to Hell. We gotta get moving. We gotta get to HQ—"

"Wait wait wait….," Robin waved a gloved hand. "What's so special about this 'HQ'?" He frowned slightly. "Does anyone know what happened to the Tower? Where the _**Titans**_ are?"

"We…W-We were sent to the Island to check on them."

"You weren't engulfed in the explosion?" Robin pointed at the burning horizon.

"W-We were already gone! There was a terrible, s-sudden attack by Killer Croc of Gotham and then some green-flashing kid appeared telling us to—"

I gasped, black eyes wide.

"Wait!" Robin loudly uttered.

"…………."

Robin pointed. "Was he Asian?"

"………….."

The cops exchanged glances.

They scratched their heads.

"……………," the Boy Wonder blinked under his mask. "……….and flamboyant?"

"That's him!"

"Who is he, Robin? What does he know? What do you know? What in the high-cultured-blue-Hell is going on here?"

"Dagger's invading—"

"We know that!"

I did a double-take.

Robin leaned forward. "You _know_? Did the Messenger tell you?"

"Who?"

"Did that Asian kid--?"

"The Lieutenant got a phone call! Look, can we talk later?"

I looked helplessly at Robin.

The sounds of destruction and chaos increased tenfold around us.

The red sky was burning streaks of gold…

"R-Right…," Robin took a deep breath and charged his harley. _Vrmmm! Vrmmmm-mmm!_ "If anyone might have answers at this point……it'll be Smith."

I breathed raggedly.

_What about the Messengers?_

_The Titans?_

_**CRKKKK!**_

I spun and looked down the street.

Distant golems were clawing their way through building fronts and street corners.

The distant beat of homicidal assault choppers filled the air.

I took a deep, sharp breath.

_A warzone, Jordan. _

_This is a warzone again. _

_Don't expect answers. _

_Expect __**victory.**_

"Drive to HQ!" Robin shouted at the officers. "We'll cover you!"

"S-Sure thing!" the cops leapt back into their squad cars. "Let's move!"

"I'll take the rear!" Robin said. He pointed at me. "Noir! Clear the path!"

I nodded.

_Chiiiing!_

I twirled Myrkblade and blurred ahead down the side street.

The two squad cars angled around, roared to life, and zoomed along the street after my black trail.

Robin drove behind….alone on his harley.

As the caravan through a Second Hell began……

The Boy Wonder gazed up.

Past the necks of the skyscrapers.

The red sky.

The streaming comets of gold and white.

The plume of fire where the Tower used to be.

He shuddered and throttled forward.

Face taut…..

_The angel was nowhere to be seen._


	248. Break the Circle part 8

**248. Break the Circle part 8**

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

The two police cars and Robin's harley burned down the shaking, ruptured street of the City.

I blurred ahead of them. Smoke poured out of my shaded eyes and rushing limbs.

I gazed every which way ahead of us on the lookout for sudden obstacles….

….or opponents.

A warzone.

The City was a warzone again.

One solid month had brought hell back to the streets of our City.

Hell that spat living fire in the form of walking, bipedal golems.

These monsters roared and echoed an ambient chaos all around our caravan as we burned northward.

Following the movement of the speeding squad cars driven by the anxious officers inside…….

And as much as the flight was necessary…..and as much as we knew this 'HQ' would bring promises of Smith and promises of answers…….

Robin and I both mutely wondered in a subconscious shudder….

_Did the Titans burn alive? _

_What happened to the Messenger and Killer Croc? _

_Why……Why………__**Why**__…………was the City DEAD?_

I panted and gazed left and right of my blurred charge.

The office buildings were dull and dark.

The shopfronts were empty.

No pedestrians or casual traffic filled the street.

The City was a gray, red-lit urban playground for the golems and Dagger's army to romp through.

And as much as they smashed through buildings and shattered the streets and sidewalks and smashed parked automobiles….

There was nobody to bleed.

Robin and I would have counted our blessings if we weren't so nightmarishly afflicted with confusion.

"Look! Up ahead!" an officer in the front car shouted.

I snapped out of it and glanced ahead with my black eyes.

Two rock monsters lumbered out of opposite alleyways and marched into the center of the long straightaway.

Facing directly towards us.

The squad cars…

"They're in the way!"

"Noir!" Robin shouted. "Take 'em down!"

_I got it._

_FWOOOOOSH!_ I rushed forward with a burst of smoke.

The golems swung their thick, burning limbs at me. _**CRKKKKK!**_

I slid on a carpet of murk, ducked their blows, and hopped up between them with twirling fury.

_TH-__**THWACCCK!**_

My spinning sword shattered the torso of one golem and slapped another one…forcing it to stumble out of the center of the street.

I then landed from my jump, snarled mutely, and flung my black limb into the center of the first-struck golem.

_SHATTTER!_

It crumbled with a puff of flame.

I kicked the shattered pieces off and out of the way and leapt up straight in time for the speeding squad cars to zoom beneath me.

_Vrrrrrrmm!_

_  
VRMMMMM!_

_P-Plant!_

I landed right as Robin was passing with his harley.

I blurred my legs, shot ahead of him, and streaked past the police cars just as a building face was crumbling ahead of us.

By the speed we were going…..even if the cars and Robin's bike braked, the building structure would land on their screeching figures and crush them.

I could only gasp in helplessness.

Robin, however….--

"NNNNGH!" He freed a hand and flung an explosive birdarang up at the falling buildingside with all his might.

_Sw-Sw-Sw-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH! __**CRKK!—**__**POWWWW!**_

The mortar and steel shattered and flew up and about in a splash of heat and concussion….which was just enough for us to pass beneath like gliders under a burning bridge.

_**CRNNNNCHH!**_ The structure collapsed in ash and dust behind us, flanked by furiously burning golems.

Robin panted.

He stopped glancing back and looked ahead in my direction.

He shouted above the mess and speed: "They must have a weakness! Things that rely on heat and combustion with _that_ thermal intensity can't be too stable!"

I panted and nodded to the wind as I guided the vehicles along.

Eyeing the sides of the shaken streets zooming past us….

"I-I'm guessing that some sort of technology used to amplify the thermal energy could make those walking lavaheads explode! Or at least break them apart!" he swerved his harley around a burning piece of rubble in the road.

_SCRCCCH! SCREECH!_

_Only Robin has the license to drive while being nerdy._

"With the Tower gone, the only place to find something would be Phaser Labs! But with Simon Stone there and working for Triangular, I can't imagine getting so much as a foot inside that place without—"

I whistled sharply and pointed ahead with my sword.

Robin craned his neck.

A solid line of golden, burning golems stood in our path.

Nearly two dozen of them.

They were busy pounding the asphalt beneath them into gravel and ripping stationary vehicles apart.

At sight, they turned and 'stared' at us.

Their thermal centers flared and puffs of ash and flame billowed out as they marched in our direction all in one accord.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

I bit my lip.

Robin gulped.

He glanced behind us down the street.

Fallen building faces and other amounting debris from rampaging H.I.V.E. choppers overhead had blocked our reverse path.

Robin turned forward and shouted.

"We'll have to cut on through! Tell the cops to halt before the intersection!"

I slowed to a smooth, blurring jog right in front of the two squad cars.

I held a black hand up.

The drivers stopped their cars, fumbling and shifting nervously in their seats.

_VRMMMM!_

Robin drove to a stop between the squad cars.

He panted and said: "How far away to your 'HQ'?"

"About three blocks away….the southern edge of the municipal warehouses."

"Northern District? Why so far from the City's center?"

"Trust Smith, Robin. It's all part of the emergency plan."

Robin took a deep breath. "I like the implications of 'emergency' at this point…"

I hand-signed something.

Robin nodded. "Yes, Noir! I _know_! They're almost upon us! You dash around and take the rear."

_Snkkkt!_

He extended his bo-staff in a free hand.

"I'll go in head on……"

"……….," I relented with a breathless nod.

"Robin! Noir!"

We both gazed at the cops.

They tossed us three smoking grenade canisters.

I caught one.

Robin caught two.

"You never know…th-they might come in handy…."

The Boy Wonder nodded. "The more we can throw at those creeps, the better…."

"Just don't settle for your heads, Titans!"

"Yeah! Don't kill yourselves!"

"Believe me…," Robin turned around. Mumbling. "That's the last thing on the menu…."

_Vrmmm! Vrmm!_

He holstered the grenades in front of the seat of the harley and grabbed the left handle with one wrist while holding his bo-staff in the other.

"Noir! Go!"

_THWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_

I ran immediately to the right, dashed up the body of a crooked, dented lamppost, leapt off the head, landed vertically on a building front, streaked up across it, side-flipped, and vaulted so that I plunged in twirling fashion over the bodies of the burning, golden mob.

A good half of them turned to flail their limbs at me.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

A stream of fire-streaking, rocky projectiles surged straight at me from their craggly bodies.

I took a sharp breath and pulsed murk through my legs.

_THWOOSH!_

I vaulted upward, flipped over their lava-bullets, and came back down within arm's length with a merciless swing of my blade.

_**THWACK! SLASSSSH!**_

I snarled and slashed, ripped, shattered swing-fuls of golden hot rock matter.

I drew the crowd back…but they exhaled flames and marched back at me with thrice the firmness.

I remembered how long it took me to take out a single healthy sample of these things. That bruised and battered fight in the bowels of Area 51. I was a lot stronger and fuller of breath this time….this December Second, but facing the whole lot of those creeps flocking the streets like they did was virtual suicide.

I only hoped my frenzied banzai attack could provide a distraction.

And it did.

_VRRRRRRM!_

Robin sped his harley towards the front of the confused cluster of cretins.

"Yaa-aaaaaugh!" he swerved hard with one hand on the steering of the cycle and stretched his rod out, smashing through skull and limb and golden body of the thick group in succession.

_**CRK-CRK-CRK-CRK-CRKKKK!**_

Hot pebbles and splashes of lava shot everywhere.

The intense impact of the speedily-swung bo-staff leveled a few golems to the ground.

In response, a few of the monsters I was hacking and slashing turned and launched burning pebbles at the Boy Wonder.

Those still paying attention to me swarmed together and swung their meaty-concrete arms in identical thunder.

_**THUDDDD!**_

A crater formed in the asphalt. Burning. Spitting ash.

I grunted and fell back, rolling awkwardly along the ground.

The monsters leapt at me.

Two at a time.

I gasped and teleported at random.

_**SMASSSSH!**_

Four to six golems landed where I was.

_F-FWOOSH!_

Stupidly……I materialized into the thick of the crowd.

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

Their meaty limbs converged on me.

I gasped, vaulted up, and danced with smoking legs in a hot-foot hop-scotch from golem-top to golem-top.

_**CRK-CRKK-CRK!**_

I stabbed down and slashed at random Myrkblade through the lunging, leaping limbs of the burning beings groping up to incinerate and crush me.

_TH-TH-TH-THWKKK! THWACCK!_

In the meantime, Robin was exercising his recently-learned talent of dodging projectile lava bullets while straddling a harley motorcycle.

He zoomed and screeched around, avoiding the launched rocks of burning heat that ate into the cracked asphalt just behind his blurring tires.

At one point he skidded to a stop and panted…sheltering himself from the 'shooting' golem limbs with a metal lamppost blocking away.

He took a deep breath, flexed his wrists, and went about the nimble task of tying both of the cops' tear gas grenades to a bolo cord.

In the meantime, I was finally leaping…hopping my way over the heads of the monsters and into the open street at the rear of the crowd.

I landed in a murking slide and spun around to slash and block the lunging limbs of the golems with my blade.

_SWOOOSH! THWISSSH!_

**CLANK! CL-CLACK!**

I backflipped with a heavy pulse of murk just as two golems scampered towards me.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

I twirled backwards and stabbed Myrkblade into the fifth story of a nearby commercial skyscraper.

_CHIIINK!_

I panted…hanging from my blade.

Sweating and looking past my dangling legs at the golden-glowing golem crowd gawking at me from below.

In the meantime, Robin finished attaching the tear grenades to the weights of his bolo.

He took a deep breath…..and zoomed back out into the street.

_VRRRRRM!_

He spun the tear gas grenades overhead on the ends of the ropes.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSH!_

Halfway to the line of burning monstrosities, he performed a wheelie on the harley—_VRMMMMM!_—and tossed the bolo straight into the crowd. "Nnnngh!"

_THWISSSSSSSSH-THWP-THWP-__**POW!**_

The bolo wrapped around the torso of one golem and exploded once both grenades slammed into its back.

The resulting concussion sent a sea of burning gravel flying high into the air and a stream of white smog hissing from contact with the burning rock-bodies.

"Nnnngh!" Robin brought the front wheel of the motorcycle back down, reached his staff-hand back, wrapped his cape up over his mouth…and squinted his eyemask as he drove mercilessly into the crowd with staff outstretched.

_**VRMMMMMM-MMMMMMM! WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAAA-AAACKKK!**_

I watched from above as Robin and the motorcycle zoomed into the white cloud.

Disappeared.

Dispelled waves of crumbling, shattered golems, and burst out from the other side.

The Boy Wonder was wheezing….gasping for breath…..but otherwise unaffected by his vehicular plunge straight through smog-ville.

I took a deep breath. Encouraged….

_My turn……_

CL-CLINK!

I popped the trigger free of the tear gas grenade.

I took a deep breath.

Dangling with one hand on my hanging hilt, I pumped layer after layer of black murk and energy into the grenade.

Once it was sufficiently charged, I grunted mutely and tossed the black-wrapped explosive down into the thick of the remaining monsters.

_Swiiiii-iiiiisssssssh!—__**BOOM!**_

The layers of murk and tear gas exploded the entire grenade and sent bodies of rocky monsters around it flailing.

A good many of them crumbling.

I took a second deep breath….

_CRKKK!_

I ripped Myrkblade out of the commercial skyscraper.

I twirled…plunged into the smoke, and landed with a cushion of murk.

I clenched my lips tightly shut, stretched a black arm out, and absorbed….sucked…..'inhaled' the fumes into my torso.

Like a cyclone, the tear gas and fumes and smoke shrunk dead-center into my black arm, compressed, snake-slithered around my other arm, streamed into my sword, and increased the strength by one-hundred-fold.

I snarled, gripped the hilt of Myrkblade with two hands, and spun around in furious circles.

_**THW-THW-THW-THWISSSSSH!**_

_**CRACK! **_

_**SMASSSH! **_

_**SHATTER!**_

The suddenly weighted sword shattered through eight solid bodies of golems.

Golden-flickering rock shards flew every which way as the monsters shattered and collapsed away from my revolving center.

A 'hole' was formed in the thick line.

Robin adjusted his cape, waved his bo-staff, and shouted from the other side of the street.

"Now! Now!" he caught the cops' attention. "Punch on through!"

_SCREEEEEEEECH!_

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

The two squad cars burst past me and the canal in gold I had made.

When I finished twirling about with the furious sword, I collapsed to my feet. Panting for breath.

"………"

_**CRKKKKK!**_

The thick, remaining golems stood up and marched towards me on all sides. Limbs flailing to strike…

I was too weak to dodge….

_VRMMMM!_ Robin blurred in on his bike.

He slid sideways on his two wheels, scooped me up with his bo-staff arm, hoisted me off my knees, and sped off after the cops.

Saving me.

_**CRASSSSSH!**_ The golems devastated the circle of asphalt where I was previously seated.

I shuddered.

Riding astride Robin on the harley, I glanced at him through sweat-stained shades and nodded a weakly smiling 'thanks'.

Robin clenched his jaw. "Let me lose as little friends a possible today, huh?"

I gulped…

_Yeah……_

"Dead end!" one of the cops shouted.

Robin looked ahead. "No way! This street goes clear all the way to—" His eyemask bulged. "Aw shucks."

I looked up. I winced.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!**_

One of Dagger's nefarious HINDs was dipping down in the space between skyscrapers and zooming straight towards us.

The shadowed pilots fiddled with the controls from inside the two cockpit bubbles….and the payload whirred to life, aiming at the squad cars first.

I gasped.

Robin bit his lip.

He looked right.

He looked left….—"There!"

A paper thin alleyway loomed along our left flank.

"Noir! Guide them!"

Robin tossed me.

_DAH!_

I blurred my legs, caught the street's asphalt as I came by, and streaked past the two police cars.

I whistled and jerked left, streaking into the thin alleyway.

The two squad cars swerved---_SCREEEECH!—_and shot down the corridor behind me.

_VRMMM! VRMMM-MMM!_

Meanwhile, the hovering HIND loaded a rocket and—_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

A hellseeker sailed straight towards the street.

Robin gunned it. "Nnnnngh!" _VRMMMM!_ His harley swerved a hard, left-leaning arc. He vaulted over a mound of rubble—_**VRMM!**_—and came down in the alleyway. CL-CLANK! He bulleted down the corridor just as the missile impacted the street behind him.

_**POWWWW!**_

Flames swam down the alleyway after the Boy Wonder, but soon died and dissolved in mid-air long before so much as reaching his speeding, rear tire.

Meanwhile…at the front of the caravan, I was rocketing through the long thin canal between commercial building structures.

Red light filtered darkly down in the shadowed region.

I panted and blurred left and right ahead of the squad cars, slashing with Myrkblade and shattering a garbage can or a wooden box before the cops behind me could possibly impact it with deadly force.

_THWWWK! SLASSSH! WHACK!_

I twirled my blade some more—and gasped in mid-run.

A solid gate of criss-crossing metal wire stretched from wall to wall ahead, completely blocking the alleyway path.

"…….."

I glanced behind, nervous.

"……!"

I looked forward.

I gritted my teeth.

I sped up into a faster blur.

I reached the gate mere seconds before the police car.

_SWOOOOOSSSSSH!_

I thundered to a stop.

**SWISSSH!**

I slashed Myrkblade across the bottom support.

**SLASSSSH!**

I shredded the top right.

**CRACK!**

And finally the top left.

_VRRRRRMMMMMM!_

With the 'fence' loose, I leapt straight up with a mad pulse of murk.

_**CL-CLAK!**_ The first squad car slammed through the loose, severed fence section. _CL-CLAAAAAAANGGG!_ The now-warped fence flipped up and twirled back over the second squad car.

_THWISSSSH!_

I landed in a crouch atop the first police car and road the top like a circus performer. Panting as we blurred down the last lengths of the alleyway…..

_TH-TH-TH-THWOOSH!_

The severed fence piece flipped and flopped in the air over the second car.

It settled down and plummeted earthward as the motorcycle came up….

_VRMMMMM!_

Robin's eye mask widened.

He ducked just in time—

_**SWISSSSSSSSSSH!**_

The air-cutting fence slice sang over Robin's spiked hair and clattered to the alleyway behind his harley.

He sat up straight.

Shuddering in the wind.

I looked back at him, smiling helplessly.

"We're almost out of the thick of things!" a cop beneath me uttered.

_Don't say that……_

Sure enough, just as we reached the northwest opening of the alleyway…..

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The same damn HIND hovered down.

Its rotary assault rifles spun.

I gasped.

The cops let out cries of surprise---

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The high caliber bullets swam hotly through the air at us.

I stood up on the first police car, let out a mute scream, and twirled Myrkblade madly in front of me.

In front of **us**.

_Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-SWISSSSH!_

_**CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!**_

Sparks and bullet fragments and sparks and shell casings….

The alleyway sang with my maddening, black shield.

I felt like my wrists were going to snap off from the blurred contact with the impacting caliber…

"Noir!" Robin shouted from behind. _VRMMMMMM!_ He whipped out two things. A discus and an explosive birdarang. "Shut your eyes!"

I bit my teeth….took a deep breath….stopped twirling Myrkblade, ducked, and shut my black eyes tightly.

Good thing too…..

"Nnnngh!" _SWISSSSSSSSSH!_ Robin's discus flew first. It sang through the air much faster than any remaining bullets from the HIND could possibly turn the squad cars to swiss cheese…

_**FLAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAASSSH!**_

I winced….for the flash-bulb effect of Robin's strobe disc even burned my eyes through the lids.

I hugged to the squad car's top like a caged chimp to a plastic 'mother'.

The machine gun fire stopped blaring, and there was an uneven air-beating sound to the rotary blades…suggesting that the HIND overhead was toppling in mid-air.

I envisioned the blinded pilots inside collapsing into the controls with their confusion and making the aircraft wobble every which way.

With the weapons of the beastly 'bird' disengaged, my squad car and the vehicle behind it swerved out and spun right to take the outer municipal streets north towards the industrial section and….'HQ'.

But Robin lingered on his harley where the HIND was.

I reopened my eyes finally and looked behind me.

Robin positioned himself straight below the HIND as it hovered blindly in place

He raised his explosive birdarang over his head….aimed carefully….and let it fly.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISSSSH! __**CLANK!**_

It struck dead-center in the payload of the helicopter, nestled between three clumped hellseekers.

Robin twisted the handles of his harley fiercely.

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!_

He rocketed towards us, and as he did so—

_**BOOM!**_

_**PPPPPOWWWWW!**_

The HIND's entire left side exploded.

Rotary blades snapped off, flew across the City like shrapnel, and sliced several meters deep into the bodies of surrounding office buildings.

The hulking cocoon of flames engulfed itself in licking waves of amber and red before plummeting straight down, exploding in a ball of plasma, and silhouetting Robin's harley-throttling figure as the Boy Wonder swiftly sped towards us and onward into the chaos.

"………..," I blinked.

_Well………_

_Allrighty then!_

I leapt off the squad car, blurred along the road, and led the caravan northward towards its destination.

Golems and rogue agents of Dagger lingered all around…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Titan's Island.

The inferno.

Metal shrapnel of burning, glowing steel lingered around ground zero in concentric circles.

Sparks and ash covered the craggy slopes of the island like the base of a volcano.

And where the base of the Tower once was….

A gaping hole of fire and plasma bubbled.

Like a china syndrome meltdown.

A peak into Dante's imagination.

Several feet away from the central point of the lava pit….

Where the flesh could safely reside without _melting……_

A black sphere of energy rose up from the shelter of the sand and earth.

Inside the obsidian shield, two limp….young bodies lay.

With a flicker, the translucent blackness disappeared.

Raven groaned….gurgled…..then lay silent where she was sprawled across the drier slopes of the beach.

Her leotard still possessed the bright red gash-spot in the center of her tummy.

She heaved one last time….and was still.

Silence….

"………….nnngh….," a battered and bleeding Changeling stirred.

He sat up and instantly cupped a shaking hand over the left side of his head.

Wincing.

Feeling for the ear that wasn't there.

"Grrfff…..G-God….."

A gust of cold wind….followed by _hot_ air.

Then flying and splashing ashes.

Garfield gasped.

He looked over.

Blinking.

Attempting to adjust to a world that only half-existed now.

Everything on his left side was out of balance, soundless, and dizzy.

His right side saw with horrifying, half-clarity the lack of Titan's Tower.

In its place…the mouth of Hell spewed.

And lumbering rock demons marched down the crags and sand dunes….while in the distance……….

A helpless City was skewered with golden 'comets', and nefarious helicopters circled in destructive swarms.

"Shit almighty……," the teen grunted.

He again winced as a trickle of blood ran down his left side.

He panted and glanced down at his companion.

"Raven!"

He rushed over on all fours and shook her.

"Raven? Raven! Wake up! Breathe….talk….insult me! PLEASE!"

"Nnngh…mmmfff…bllbbbb…," Raven gasped…sputtered…coughed up blood. "M-Must…..b-b-be still…….G-Garfield…."

"No….NO! Dammit, Rae! Don't give up!" Changeling gripped her shoulders tightly. "You're hurt pretty bad! Let me take a close look…..Just STAY WITH ME!"

"Nnnngh…," she winced and hissed. "_No……_I **must** be still."

"But--!"

"I'm h-h-healing, Ch-Changeling….," Raven panted. Sweated. Winced….but did her best to remain perfectly still on the ash-strewn sand dune. "….I-I have to concentrate."

"But….B-But you lost all your energy! When the Tower went, you—"

"The sh-shield took a l-lot out of me…..but I-I'm regenerating now."

"H-How?"

"There is……s-so much Life surrounding us….."

Changeling panted.

He looked all around.

At the smoldering island.

The menacing golems.

The spiraling comets……and the flame-glowing City under a merciless red sky.

"'L-Life'?"

Raven heaved.

Raven wheezed:

"Terra's essence….G-Garfield….."

"………."

Her eyes opened.

They were glowing gray.

"I-I can feel it. Terra's powers are here."

"But….T-Terra isn't—"

"Dagger…..," Raven hissed. "He replaced Cyborg with Clayface. He split the Titans up. He set up the Tower to explode upon the day of invasion. And he let loose Terra's essence to manifest an army of earthen monsters to attack our City. That's what's happening now, Ch-Changeling. And we've been blind to it…."

"Terra's essences……," Garfield murmured.

Slowly breathing and hyperventilating to a fever pitch.

His bruised and bloody face tightened into a frown.

"That isn't 'Life'. Only Terra is _Life._"

A sneer.

"This energy you sense is a perverted energy, Raven. Dagger _had_ to have stolen it from her!"

A shout.

"Like when they stole her from us!"

_**CRKKK! **_

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

Burning, menacing golems marched in from all sides. Flaming. Hissing….

Changeling breathed…heaving….

He stood up on a fallen chunk of hot Tower shrapnel and spliced his forearms into gorilla fists.

"Wasn't it enough that Slade molested her, Dagger? _Did you have to tear her apart even more? NNnnnngh-AAAUGH!_ I swear….if you so much as _RIPPED HER OPEN_……I will sink my teeth into your bleeding heart myself!"

"B-Beast Boy…..," Raven wheezed, reaching vainly out towards him as she slowly healed herself.

"YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO THIS CITY! TO ROBIN! TO RAVEN!"

"B-Beast Boy….," Raven wheezed. "It was Sl-Slade…."

Changeling gasped.

His green eyes wide as the startling memory from a few terrifying moments of explosions ago once again surfaced in his mind.

The horizon seemed to strobe red and breathe cold vapors at him and Raven.

"Sl-Slade is here…..h-he could have f-f-finished me off in the wilderness…but he didn't….," Raven struggled to say. "H-He…nngh….c-could have tracked us down in the Tower before it blew….but he didn't. He's trying to track a b-bigger prey down…."

"But….H-How? Why? How in the Hell is Slade alive?"

Changeling shouted above the flames…the circling golems….the warzone looming across the Bay.

"Noir chopped him to bits!"

"He is _alive_, G-Garfield….," Raven said.

Her gray eyes fluctuated.

She coughed…sputtered…and added: "A-And so is Robin."

"………………..," Changeling's jaw dropped.

"November Fourth was never the sh-showdown…….tonight _is_."

"N-No……but……h-how could we not **know**…..?"

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

The golems came within burning range.

"Ch-Changeling….," Raven insisted. "L-Leave. Save yourself before these things dest—"

"HOW COULD WE NOT HAVE SEEN ALL OF THIS?.!.?.!" Changeling bellowed. "Now Terra's raped! Now Starfire's out there on her own! Noir and Tempest and Cyborg----NnnnhgRAAAAH!"

His green body muscles seemed to throb as he summoned an animalistic wave of hormones into his spliced circulatory system.

With the fury of a bull, the might of a gorilla, and the speed of a swordfish he stampeded into the three closest golems and tackled them all at once.

"When will…..you leave us….ALONE?.!.?.!.?.!"

_**Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!.!.!—**__**WHAMMMM!**_

The three golems flew back and tumbled into the melting flames of the Tower's former cellar.

Two more converged on Changeling, hopping on the animorph's back.

"Grrfff….grrraaaAAAAAUGHHH!" he roared and spun with two meaty fists flying into the rocky exoskeletons.

_**CRKKKK! **_

_**CRACCCK!**_

The golems exploded.

Their golden-furnace centers scorched the changeling's flinging limbs.

He didn't care.

"RAAA-AAAAUGH!"

In animalistic fury he flew across the dunes and rock crags, plowing through golems and shredding them apart with dinosaur teeth.

He grabbed the limb of one with bear claws, snapped it off, and used it as a club with primate muscles….smashing the crowns, torsos, and shoulders apart of golem after golem.

He swung grabbed another monster by the foot with an elephant trunk, spun, morphed into a gorilla, and batted the entire body of the monster across three more standing in line…sending them flying back against a row of rock crags and exploding into gritty, golden bits.

_**CRKKKK!**_

All the while as Changeling punished the epicenter of the golem army's spawning point….

Raven lay on the sand.

Panting.

Sweating.

Taking long, firm breaths.

Absorbing the golden aura leaking from each and every monster Garfield thrashed to bits.

Her pale lips chanted invisible words.

Her violet eyes glowed a hot gray as a black shadow encased her center.

She winced some…but kept chanting.

The black energy coursed through her chest and stomach.

Lingering.

Rearranging.

Fusing.

She breathed….breathed….breathed…

Healed….

"Nnnng-RAAAAUGH!

Garfield morphed in and out of a bull, shredding and impaling golems with his horns and tossing them aside.

And yet more marched up as he stood up…fuming….teeth gritting.

"What's the matter, Dagger? An endless army not ENOUGH? It's time this ends! It's time this all ends! Here I am! No more muddy lackeys or rock-headed freaks! SHOW ME YOUR FACE! I'll make you tell me what happened to Terra if it's the last thing I do!"

_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_

Two golems marched up and loomed above Raven.

The dark girl watched helplessly as they prepared to stomp down on her injured figure.

Changeling spun around.

Seething.

"You….shall NOT….TOUCH HER!.!.!.!.!.!"

And he ran.

And he leapt.

And—screaming—he spliced his jump-kicking legs into the talons of a velociraptor which he sent shattering violently into the torsos of the two beasts.

_SWOOOOOOOSSSSH-__**CH-CHRUNKKK!**_

Golden bits exploded and flew everywhere.

Beast Boy got a second wind, shouted, spun, and thrashed more golems marching up towards Raven's side.

The dark girl shivered with every maddening war cry the animorph made.

Her gray-flashing eyes—attempting to concentrate—stole a glance or two as he went about his rampage.

Defending her.

Defending whatever scraps of integrity remained on the exploded island.

Fighting for the dead-dream of a home.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the opposite slopes of Titan's Island…

Away from the green-skinned, one-beast army…

A puddle of ooze slithered down the rock crags.

A brown puddle of ooze.

Steaming.

Bubbling.

A voice disgustingly rang from it.

Freakishly human in tone.

"_Nnnngh……nnggh-ugggh-aaaah………"_

Clayface's head and eyes and teeth tried to rise up and form….but it sloshed back down into the creeping puddle as soon as it started.

"_Nnnngh……..ughhh……D-Dagggerrrrr……!"_

It was a whimpering, tormented sound.

Regardless….the puddle picked up speed.

It inched along…..then rounded out….and slithered at a high speed off the island….down the land ridge…..

And into the war-torn City.

_SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSH-SLOSSSSSH……………_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Get her!"

"There! Before she flies off!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bruised…soiled with dust and sweat….Starfire hobbled down the side street. As the potholes of bullet-exploding asphalt flew at her feet, she held her panting breath and leapt aside with a grunt.

"Nnngh!"

Two jeeps swerved around the rubble of the street corner.

Under the chaos and noise of the invasion, they revved their engines, soared after Starfire, and launched volleys of mounted gunfire at her.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Starfire gritted her teeth and dashed behind an abandoned armored car.

_CL-CLANK! CLANKKK!_

The vehicle absorbed the high caliber shots.

Starfire then gripped the vehicle with two pink-sleeved wrists, lifted it at an angle, and _pushed_ it towards the jeeps.

_TH-THWOOOOSSH!_

The armored car spun through the air towards the source of the invading volley of bullets---

Then a hot laser blasts sailed into the fuel tank of the topsy-turvy vehicle before it was halfway through its trajectory.

_**PHOOOOOMB!**_

A wave of fire and shrapnel exploded into Starfire.

"Nnnngh!" she flew back and slammed into a building face, forcing an impression.

_CRKKKK!_

"Heh heh heh heh….," Metallo stood atop a ledge of a second story building. Overlooking the conflict.

He held a barrel-smoking wrist rifle at the spot.

His metal lips leaked forth an electronic chuckle as he leaned his head to the side and added: "Overwhelmed yet?"

"…..," Starfire glared at him.

She pulled herself out of the crumbling building front and raised her fists.

"I am not as easily pacified as you might assume!"

"True that, lass. Let's just work with the 'dead' part."

He snapped a metal finger.

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSH!**_

A cargo helicopter soared overhead.

It hovered perpendicular to the street so that three men positioned in the open passenger section could aim out the yawning doors down at the Tamaranian girl and unleash their payload of R.P.G.s.

_PFFTTTOOOOOSH!_

_SW-SWOOOOOSH!_

Starfire gasped.

She flared starbolts and crossed her arms…forming an emerald strobe of a shield….

_**POWWW!**_

The missiles exploded at her feet.

"Aaah!" she flew back several meters.

Metallo laughed above the flames and concussions.

Starfire flew back, slid a trench through the asphalt, and tumbled a few added feet till she landed at the legs of a fiery golem.

_**SLAM!**_

The beast's foot planted over her abdomen, planting her to the ground.

"Nnnngh!" she hissed and struggled beneath the golem.

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

The burning automaton leaned over and gripped the alien girl's throat with tentacle-like limbs of rock.

The girl struggled.

Her green eyes flaring much like the rivers of green blood leaking from a scratch or two on her forehead and cheek.

She gritted her teeth and started to strobe all over

And just as the contact of the burning monster began singeing her jeans and skin….

"NNNNNGH-AAAAAH!" she shot straight up with a pulse of alien flight. "T'lenna thirul de X'Hal!"

_SWOOOOOOSH!_

She and the golem rose up till the monster flailed. She grabbed it by the hot ankle, spun, and tossed the monster straight down the street through the air…just as the cargo helicopter came swerving in.

_SWOOOOOOSH-__**CRACCCK!**_

The monster smashed directly into the cockpit of the aircraft.

The pilots inside screamed as their lower bodies were shattered to pulp and calcium gravel.

The rest of their flailing skin burned alive as the jolt of the collision shook through the helicopter and tossed screaming, armed passengers out to a twenty-foot drop to solid asphalt below.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_

The smoking cargo helicopter strafed sideways through the air.

Its rotary blades screamed and scraped against a building front…shattering glass and sending shards flying everywhere. _CRKKKKKK!_

Starfire gasped and shielded her face with her forearms.

Thus she was caught unawares when a golem suddenly smashed through the fourth story of a building behind her and pounced on her from behind.

_SWOOOOSH—__**CLAMP!**_

"Nnnngh!" she plunged straight to the concrete sidewalks below with the monstrosity hugging to her back.

Just before they could strike the earth, she wrangled the burning beast's grip off of her, twirled the two of them around, and landed with a shattering body-slam that pulverized the monster so that Starfire could flip off it and land in the street in a slide.

She stood for half a second…

Panting….

Then—behind her—the cargo helicopter collapsed maddeningly into the street.

_**CRAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAASSSSSH!**_

She hugged herself and winced as flame and shrapnel and ashes soared past her.

Her red hair billowed in the hot wind like a cape as her silhouette flinched against the enflamed aircraft.

Her part of the City flashed amber for a second.

She panted….the noise of HINDs swarming overhead and jeeps throttling in the distance.

And everywhere a golden quake of fiery golems laying waste to everything they put their hands on…..

Starfire's eyes quivered.

And her lips parted.

_Because for a sudden, short moment…… _

_She was barely twelve years old._

_And the green sky of Tamaran burned before her. _

_Thousands of Tamaranian fighters soared and exploded in the heavens. _

_The blood of millions soaked the planes and cities and jungles of the lush homeworld. _

_Everywhere, lizard-men on jetpacks scoured the sky. _

_And their lasers were firing. _

_And their fire was consuming. _

_And the consumption was screaming. _

_In the forms of Tamaranian men, women, children…. _

_Limbs flailing in the fire. _

_An awkward dance without music. _

_And it struck her as funny… _

_Because people only danced when there was joy to be had……_

**SCREEEEEEEEECH!**

_WH-WHAM!_

A jeep rammed into her.

"Augh!"

Starfire went rolling across the City street.

She laid for a moment with her aching ear to the asphalt.

She heard something beneath the concrete.

Something gurgling….subterranean….

"You're gonna pay for _that_, you alien bitch!" the gunman on the back sneered in the flamelight of the fallen helicopter and let loose on her.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

"……..," Starfire merely stood up.

Frowning.

Green eyes narrow.

She didn't so much as flinch when the streams of bullets barely missed her on the asphalt.

She charged a single starbolt and launched it at the gunman.

_FL-FLASSSH!_

The energy pulse flew across the street and melted the barrel of the thug's mounted weapon.

"!" he gasped.

She sneered at him: "Desecrators of this innocent City…..if it is righteous fury that you desire today then righteous fury is what you shall verily receive!"

Then, with a scream, she knelt…and punched her wrist straight down into the spot where she had earlier heard the noise.

_CRKKKK!_

She snarled and pulled _UP._

CRACKKKK!

She stood up with the awkwardly bent end of a septic pipe in her grip.

"Nnnnngh-Nim'raata de X'HAL!" She yanked up on the pipe with all her might. "RAAAAAAUGH!"

_CRKKKK-KKKKK-KKKKKK!_

Like a snake, the rest of the length of the septic pipe ripped up out of the ground in a wave till it came up directly _beneath_ the stationary, Daggerite jeep.

_TH-THUNK!_

The jeep started to tip over.

"Aaaa-augh!" the gunman in the back teetered and flailed…

Hissing, Starfire charged a starbolt and flung it straight _into_ her end of the pipe.

_FL-FLASSSH!_

A fiery plume ripped and roared through the septic tubing till it slammed into the fuel tank of the jeep that it was resting against and flared—

_**KA-**__**POW**__**!.!.!.!.!**_

The vehicle burst into the screaming bodies contained within.

The second jeep—just arriving on the scene—screeched to an immediate stop. As the gunman yelled and squealed, the vehicle tried helplessly to back up and turn around.

Starfire took one step forward, pumped her fists at her side, and jolted her head forward with an almighty pulse of her optic blasts.

"**RAAAAUGH!"**

_**FLAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAASH!**_

The twin green beams soared into the belly of the jeep, and it too exploded along with its screaming passengers.

_**POWWWWW!**_

Above the scene—standing on a rooftop this time—Metallo gasped and shielded himself from flying debris.

"Y-You?" he muttered electronically. "Taking lives? S-So soon?"

_F-FWOOOSH!_ Starfire took to the air and hovered hotly across from him. Her red hair billowing. "Yes…..take….a **hearty**….EXAMPLE!"

She then snarled and flung her Tamaranian weight into him at unearthly speed.

_SWOOOOOOOOSH-__**CLANK!**_

And the two went spiraling off the rooftop, smashing through an office building, and falling to the golem-dotted warzone on the other side.

_**CRASSSSH!**_


	249. Break the Circle part 9

**249. Break the Circle part 9**

Robin panted.

"Well, I'm starting to run out of juice on this thing. But besides that….I-I think we're doing fine!"

"……….," I looked icily at him in mid-blur.

He shuddered and glanced over his shoulder.

"Could use a little less company, though…."

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

The police in their two squad cars, Robin on his bike, and I on my murking feet soared like bullets into the industrial district of the City's North end.

Factories, warehouses, and smoking industrial plants zoomed past us.

Smokestacks and haze.

Towers and complexes.

Brown beneath the red.

And behind us….chasing at full speed…..

_VRMMMM! _

Four jeeps.

_VRMMM-MMMM!_

Two hummers.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!**_

And a HIND helicopter taking up the rear.

The closest vehicles on our tails fired volley after volley from the expert marksmen on the rear-mounted guns.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets ricocheted and exploded around us.

Sparks and ashes and flashes.

Robin and I—at the rear of the speeding caravan—'swerved' left and right to avoid the blasts. I on my feet. Robin on his harley. We redirected the fire away from the squad cars so that the police could take us to the ambiguous 'HQ' and…._well_….stay alive.

_P-P-PING! P-PING! CLANK!_

"Augh!" Robin uttered as the last bullet flew off the rear chassis of his bike.

I gasped.

"I-I'm all right!" he uttered loudly and gripped the handles of the bike tighter. "I just don't know how much more of this sprint we can take…."

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

I ducked my smoking head as bullets whizzed past me.

Panting, I glanced back.

I strategically eyed the six vehicles and the helicopter.

I looked for a weakness in the formation--

"I know what you're thinking, Noir," Robin suddenly said.

He had to shout over the noise of flight.

"No going Rambo! We gotta stick together!"

I looked at him.

_P-P-PING!_

The two of us flinched.

"I-I'll think of something….," he shuddered.

One of the squad cars slowed down just enough for a cop to shout out the window in a way that we could hear: "We're almost there! Just hang tight!"

"We have too many creeps on our tail!" Robin shouted from his bike. "We need to lose them somehow! Another alleyway or something..!"

"NO! Just stick with us!"

"But what possible good could—?"

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!

P-PING!

A bullet or two splashed under my leaping feet, bounced up, and impacted the aluminum frame of the squad car…making the police officer flinch.

He merely grit his teeth against the biting December wind and shouted: "Just trust me, Robin! Your return from the dead is a big surprise for us! Now let us surprise you!"

The Boy Wonder shuddered. "Yeah….cute."

_**PFTOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

"…….?"

"………?"

Robin and I exchanged glances….then looked back.

His eyemask rounded.

I gasped.

The HIND had launched a hot, hurdling hellseeker that burned towards us over the tops of the jeeps and hummers.

Robin's teeth showed. "So much for waiting…."

I panted. I looked at the incoming missile. I glanced at the squad cars just ahead of us. _CHIIIING!_ I panted and waved at Robin in mid blur.

He nodded and slowed the harley some. "Alley-Oop!"

I held my breath.

I pulsed murk through my legs.

I vaulted up from the concrete, flew in the air, flipped, and landed with my feet in the rear of the harley.

Robin braced my impacting weight.

_Nnnngh!_

FWOOOOOOOSH!

I shot myself up with an explosion of smoke energy.

In mid-air, I twirled about and met the incoming Hellseeker.

I twirled my blade-_Th-Th-THWISSH!_—and struck the belly of the missile fiercely with the murk-laden sword. _**CLANK!**_

_**PFTOoOoOoOSSS-SSSSH!**_

The missile streamed off from my impact, twirled aside, and zoomed left of us.

I descended…and found myself flailing because the ground below me was speeding at over seventy miles per hour.

_Shit!_

"Noir! Here!" Robin decelerated his harley.

I winced…but angled myself with a twirl and my legs spread.

_Good thing this doesn't hurt me much._

TH-THWUMP!

I landed, saddling the back of Robin's harley.

I teetered…nearly fell back…and slumped forward against him, a desperate black hand wrapped around his waist.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets impacted all around us with blazing sparks.

P-P-P-P-P-PING!

Robin twisted the handles—_VRMMMMMMMMM!—_and accelerated us forward out of immediate bullet range and back alongside the police squad cars.

In the meantime….the hellseeker….

_**PFOOOOOOSH!**_

…it spiraled and spun over a factory….exploding into its rooftop.

_**BOOOOOOOMMMM!**_

Two smokestacks groaned, cracked, and fell over so that they landed flat across the street.

_**CRUNNNNCH!**_

Only three jeeps managed to swerve around it. The other three vehicles and the HIND had to freeze or maneuver to avoid the sudden barrier.

As for the vehicles that still pursued us….

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

I flinched against Robin as bullets whizzed past our heads.

He panted: "I-I don't think that made them happy!"

I nervously nodded.

"HERE!" one of the cops shouted. "THE **HQ**!"

"Huh?"

_SCREEEEEEE-EEEEEEEECH!_

The two squad cars stopped at a line of warehouses at a turn in the road.

Robin and I were forced to come to a burning stop as well…nearly falling off the harley.

_SCREEEEECH!_

Robin couldn't help but cackle: "Wh-What the Hell?"

Four of the bruised cops jumped out of their vehicles and formed a solid line with shotguns and pistols.

"Hold positions!"

_Cl-Clik! _

_Clak!_

Robin and I looked at each other.

"………..….."

Robin kicked the stand of his bike down.

I leapt off.

The Boy Wonder prepared a fan of birdarangs. _Chiiiing!_

I twirled Myrkblade into a ready position. _Fw-Fwoosh!_

We stared as the jeeps and HIND bore down on us.

_VRMMMMM!_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_

Weapons aimed.

Pilots zooming straight toward us.

"…………………………………….."

Then from behind us….

Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka!

Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka-Claka!

I spun and looked.

Three warehouse garages rolled their wide aluminum doors open and inside I saw--

"Get down!" the cops shouted.

Robin and I were surprised, and yet….we somehow understood.

We dove down to the ground and flattened ourselves in front of the doors yawning behind us.

And out from the shadowed interiors…. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_BL-BLAM! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

Machine gun fire.

Rifles.

Pistols.

Military issue….

Well over two hundred U.S. soldiers unleashed a hail of sweeping ballistics out of the warehouses, over our heads, and straight at the oncoming phalanx of Dagger's vehicles and HIND aircraft.

There were jeeps and hummers of green camouflage inside the warehouses, no longer concealed.

Mounted gunmen with assault rifles unleashed slug after slug of lead outward.

The air was a thunderous cauldron of projectile and flame.

To say the least….the henchmen's vehicles didn't last long.

_CL-CL-CL-CLANK!_

The first two imploded from the shattering wave of bullets.

They burst into flames and shattered apart.

The third jeep swerved madly to the side, only for two dozen shots to slam into its fuel tank and cause it to rupture.

_**BOOOM!**_

The hummers and jeep in the background screeched to a stop and tried to turn around.

Two army men rushed out of the warehouse at our right, armed with a bazooka.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

The explosive soared straight out across the burning street and flew through the windshield of the middle hummer.

_CRASH! __**KABOOOM!**_

The terrorist vehicle exploded brilliantly.

The resulting concussion blast sent the jeep and other hummer by its side tumbling off in opposite, shattering directions.

"The Army?.!.?.!" Robin exhaled, stumbling to his feet. "What are you doing here---?"

"Staging an ambush," an aged voice said.

Two figures marched out into the red night glow from the shadowed warehouse. Lieutenant Smith was there, looking as alive as ever. And standing by his side was a tall, well-stocked man in his late fifties. Uniformed in deep green. Bearing a helmet with four stars on it.

"General Timothy L. Calvin. Robin, pleased to see you alive. Sorry if I don't act surprised. We're a little preoccupied at the moment."

"Aren't we all…," the Boy Wonder nodded.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

We all looked.

The HIND was bearing down at us.

Locking a pair of hellseekers into place.

"Here she comes!" a soldier shouted.

General Calvin—_a newcomer to my senses_—narrowed his gray eyes and shouted aside: "Sergeant!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Have the birds been called in?"

"They're in intercept as we speak!"

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!_

_FW-FW-FWOOSH!_

Suddenly, two swift shadows joined the HIND's.

Robin and I watched in shock as a flaring noise shook the air and thundered over us.

_PFTOOOSHH! SWOOOOOOOSH!_

Two missiles flew in from out of view beyond the warehouses and slammed into either side of the HIND.

_**POWWWWW!**_

As the debris of the terrorist aircraft fell and fanned out, a pair of green-armored apache helicopters soared overhead in nimble coordination.

A few seconds later….more beating sounds…..and ten more apaches swarmed overhead.

Thundering towards the far side of the City…..

Armed to the teeth, and all bearing the insignia of the U.S. Air Force….

The cops in our caravan cheered mightily.

Robin too was sporting a wide grin. "I…..I………..h-h-how?"

"Dagger, you bastard…," the Lieutenant smiled. "We were ready for you…."

I gazed helplessly at Smith.

The acting-City-Commissioner looked at us.

"We anticipated the invasion just hours before the first attack. We relocated as many people we could underground and instigated a curfew. The army came and it's taken till now to situate themselves for a counter attack."

_So that's why the City's been so 'dead'…… _

_Praise Hecate………_

_Er…_

General Calvin adjusted his helmet. "My boys have been stationed outside of this County for the last three weeks in anticipation for something like this. We're over four thousand strong, Mister Titan. I don't know who it was who said that this 'Dagger' scrub is the most powerful man in the Western Hemisphere, cuz that sure doesn't work in my damn book!"

A high-ranking soldier walked over, saluted, and reported to the General: "Our signal's been given! The other locations are on the attack!"

"Let's let 'em have it!" Calvin marched to the bulk of troops inside the warehouse and shouted orders.

In the meantime, Robin and I crept to the Lieutenant's side.

"B-But….how did you know Dagger was going to strike tonight?"

Smith took a breath. "We…g-got a very important phone call."

"A phone call?"

"An informant clued us in. I had no reason to doubt him whatsoever."

"……," I looked at Robin. I mouthed: _'Messenger?'_

Robin looked at Smith again. "Who?"

"Get this….," Smith actually half-smiled. "Lex Luthor."

"………………"

Robin and I were deadpan. Still.

"Hey…," Smith shrugged. "I don't like it either. But that means one extra ally….if even an ugly ally."

"Ugliness doesn't even _begin_ to describe this night…"

The cops from the squad cars walked/hobbled over to our area. "L-Lieutenant, sir!"

"Jiminy Christmas….what _happened_ to you?"

"We tried patching in to the radio HQ. But we were under attack at the time."

"First Killer Croc, now these walking monsters of rock…."

"Couldn't have picked a better time to have the army bail our asses out, sir."

"W-W-Wait!" Robin waved his gloved hands. Breathless, he glanced at Smith and uttered with his eyemask thin. "The Titans….."

"……………."

"Have you heard from them?"

"……………," Smith took a deep breath. "We….tried and tried and tried to contact them…"

"And there was no response to our visitation at the Tower," one of our cop friends said. "We haven't heard any word from them."

"Not even since the Tower exploded?"

"……….."

"……….."

"……….."

Robin shuddered. He gazed aside….then glanced at me.

I stared back at him, my throat sore.

He clenched his fists. "This night is far from over….."

I nodded.

Smith uttered: "With these monsters, we will need all the help we can get. After all…." He managed a weak smirk and pointed at us two. "Three armies are better than one."

I would have chuckled if I hadn't felt like throwing up….

"_All right! Move out! Give the final order to all stations to attack!"_

"_Yes, sir!" _

"_Move! Move! Move!" _

"_Let's kick some ass, boys!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the City….along the shipyards….

Warehouse doors opened.

Army jeeps and hummers poured out.

Flanked by infantrymen.

They took a pair of Daggerite vehicles by surprised and mowed them down in swift, suppression fire.

Three monsters of glowing gold ran suicidally into the line of fire and disintegrated long before they could so much as touch the soldiers.

Four apaches flew overhead and chased away a cargo helicopter with blazing assault rifles mounted on their hulls.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Flying over the Bay from the South, a squadron of U.S. cargo helicopters flew with jeeps and troop carriers hanging from steel cables.

They touched down on the beach south of the Bayside Plaza.

As the vehicles and troups landed, two of Dagger's HINDs attempted to intercept.

Just then and there, a pair of thunderous F-16s flew by and unleashed a missile each into the belly of the air-beating aircraft.

They exploded in brilliant heat and landed hard in the streets…burning.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

A line of abram tanks rolled along the Suspension Bridge and poured onto the main land.

Their turrets whirred, pivoted, aimed, and let loose hot shells into a dozen golden golems.

The rock monsters shattered brilliantly, their ashen innards spilling everywhere.

Gray pieces of granite littered raw on the streets.

The tanks rolled over and crushed them.

They tore their way towards the center of Downtown.

General Calvin's army thusly ate its way into the center of the City, engaging every monster and terrorist in sight.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the sewers.

Beneath the heated, burning streets of the City surface above….

Hundreds….thousands….

Over a million citizens huddled.

They lined the extensive, bulky train track tunnels.

They sat in dead-still cars.

They rested on platforms and sat on benches and leaned against walls.

The entire police body of the City were given duty downstairs where the monsters couldn't reach.

With guns armed—and assisted in every other quadrant by heavily supplied soldiers—the brave men and women guarded the citizens.

The families.

The elderly.

The children…..

They sat in an awkward silence that hushed across them all.

And they gazed at the ceiling…as dust and dirt fell from the vibrations and the quaking of the battlefield above them.

Many of them praying.

For their homes.

For their lives.

For those putting themselves into the face of danger.

The army.

The police.

The Titans…..

Renee and Daniel huddled in a north platform.

Daniel held her from behind, clenching his muscles in determination as he stared up at the imaginary war scenes overhead.

She panted….tirelessly holding onto the little life she was bearing.

They clung to each other.

Lisa, her older sister, and the two young neighbors Ashley and Greg sat on a bench in a platform somewhere further south in the Subway system.

The orphans—their fears and memories resurfacing—squeezed their faces into Lisa's tummy and cried.

She held them both and gently stroked their shoulders. Her one eye thin and concentrating. Her breath calm…determined.

In a dark tunnel far to the west, Lindsay sat with her family.

She cradled Phil on her knee as she bowed her head alongside a thick crowd of families and friends who were praying in the dark.

Her father—the pastor—stood in the midst of them.

He raised his hands to the ceiling and exalted God in a fervent voice that summoned murmurs of confirmation from the rest of the passionate crowd.

At one moment, the bowing teenager opened her eyes and glanced worriedly across the dark. Her stringy brown hair dangled before her brow and she tried to envision dark eyes beneath the water breathing…breathing….breathing.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the East Side of the City….

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSH!_

A sudden squadron of helicopters soared overhead. Apaches.

"NNNNNNGH!" Starfire sailed her fist into Metalo's chest and sent him falling off a four-story building side.

_SWOOOOOSH-__**CL-CLANKKK!**_

Starfire stood….panting….panting….panting.

At the sounds of the added aircraft, she looked up.

With a gasp at first….but then with bright green eyes of hope….

The airforce choppers dipped down and fired thick volleys of explosives and machine gun rounds into the streets below.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_PFTOOOOOSH! _

_PFTOOOOOOOOSH!_

The golden golems flailed and hissed as the volleys shattered them to bits, one by one.

_**POW! **_

_**P-POW! **_

_**CRACK! **_

_**BLAM**_!

Bits and pieces of thermal bodies flew and littered the streets in a solid wave of fire.

Starfire flailed her tattered arms in the air and shouted a Tamaranian warcry. Smiling wide.

_**FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The apaches soared overhead, and soon American jeeps and tanks were rumbling through the streets…cleaning up more and more of the chaos.

Metallo recovered on the ground below. He took one look at the chaotic entrance of the Army and Airforce and gasped.

"Bloody Hell….that's impossible! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! NOBODY KNEW! NOBODY!"

All the while, Starfire took a deep breath…still grinning numbly. "G-Glorious……"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMM!_

_VRMMMMMMM!_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_

Jeeps and transport vehicles roared down the road of the northern district while apache helicopters and other U.S. equipment roared overhead.

General Calvin climbed briskly into an armed jeep and gestured towards Robin and I.

"The war ain't over, kids. I suggest you sit this one out, unless you're ready to risk your neck in urban combat. I tell ya, it ain't pretty."

Robin bore a slight grin. "With all due respect, sir, we're with you every step of the way."

I smiled crookedly and 'saluted'.

"Hrmmm….heh….," Calvin smoothed his gray hair back and placed his helmet back on. "Just be sure that when you show off….it's while kicking ass."

He then motioned towards the vehicles around him.

"Let's roll!"

The vehicles sped forth after the first wave.

Smith finished giving orders to a group of officers.

He turned and spoke to us: "We're arranging a team to go and investigate Titans' Island as soon as possible. The soonest a path through the invading forces is cut through, we'll send our men in to check on—"

"Lieutenant," Robin said breathily. Jaw tight. "The Tower's **gone**."

"…….," Smith averted his eyes some.

Robin pointed: "Do what you can at the moment to protect those who _still need_ saving. The people of this City are counting on you."

"As for you…..?" Smith smiled weakly.

Robin hopped on his harley. "We'll keep in contact. Noir and I still have communicators. We'll alert you if the action gets too close to the subways."

I gripped Myrkblade and stood besides the Boy Wonder, readying to blur along with the military convoy…

"Oh, and Smith?" Robin spoke.

The acting-commissioner looked directly at the Gothamite.

"If you come across something…..something _Red_……," Robin took a breath. "…………….**Run.**"

_VRMMMMMMMMM!_

Robin screeched down the road.

_SWOOOOOOOSSSSH!_

I blurred alongside him. The two of us escorted the military convoy, zooming side-by-side with the front jeeps as we carved our way back into downtown to decimate the Daggerites.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From atop Kobayashi Tower…

Dagger watched.

His brow was furrowed.

His deadpan expression was a little tighter….a little edgier.

Not so much perplexed or surprised as he was…..

_Challenged._

Standing in the cold, elevated air of the thunderous City, Dagger stared down at the Army lines filing in from all sides of the City.

He saw the apaches flowing just below the next ten stories beneath his face.

The U.S. Air Force going toe-to-toe with the despot's HINDs and cargo choppers.

The missiles that flew.

The bullets and the explosions.

The inevitable decrease of his golem army and his hired elites under the pressure of the ambushing defense.

"Nnnngh…..intriguing….," he murmured.

A beat.

Dagger's lips parted.

A hiss slithered through his teeth.

"_Luthor………"_

_Fl-Flik!_

With the ease that Dagger would unsheathe a throwing knife, he produced a small collapsible walkie-talkie of sorts and spoke into it.

"Attention. Implement Tier Two. Implement Tier Two immediately."

Silence.

No response.

No change in the course of action among Dagger's squads far below.

Dagger took a breath and repeated:

"Repeat. Implement Tier Two. Suppress the opposing forces, now."

Nothing…..

"…………"

Dagger held his communicator up and squinted his cold eyes at it.

The device was crackling back at him illegibly. A frost of sorts had covered the face and short-circuited the inner circuitry. Some sort of magical ineptitude spontaneously hampered the range of the handheld unit, and it was dead and useless. Muted.

Dagger suddenly became aware of how bone-chillingly cold it was.

A nippy December night had suddenly turned into a deathly freeze.

Vapor swam from the despot's lips, and he sensed the redness in the air intensifying, as if the night sky was bowling down to grasp him.

"_**Hckkkk….clik-clik-clik-clik-CLIKKKksnkkkttt……."**_

"………….," Dagger didn't bother turning around right away.

He pocketed the communicator.

He reached under his vest of body armor.

_Chiiiiiiiing!_ He twirled two large, mini-machetes out in his nimble fingers.

"……_**.nnkkktt…..you'rrrrre quittte the attentionnnn-gettttterrrr…Daggerrrrr……"**_

"Slade….you noticed my beckoning…..," Dagger twirled around with both machetes expertly poised.

With a deadpan calmness, he gazed into the strobing eye of the Reaper meters across the smooth, sloping rooftop of Kobayashi Tower.

"I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to destroy the Titans myself to get you to face me."

"_**Snkkkt…..,"**_ Deathstroke stood.

Vapor dripping out of his chest, face, and orifices.

He held his two-edged sword in one hand and a shotgun in the other.

The stark white satellite dishes rested above the two villains…shadowing them slightly from the starlight but keeping them bathed in red all the same.

Slade's red.

"_**I oncccce thoughttttt you were a rationalllll man, Daggerrrrr. But now that I see you herrrrre contessssting me, you seem awfullyyyyy readddy to die…..snnkkkt!"**_

"I have every intention of living forever," Dagger droned. "However, I have no intention of keeping you in that eternal picture." _Th-Thwissh!_ He twirled the machetes and slowly paced around the Tower top. "Your masquerade ends here."

"_**SNkkkt….you truly need to worrrrk on how big yourrrrr head is, Daggerrrr……,"**_ Deathstroke paced opposite him, dragging his sword and shotgun barrel. _**"I wouldddddn't forrrrrget about whattttt I, the Parasite, have thrrrreatening your organization right as we speak. Yourrrr very existence is at stake, or have you forgotttten….?"**_

"Two-Face and Luthor were the paranoid ones, Slade. Not me," Dagger uttered back. "Besides…I seriously doubt that you are quite as concerned about Triangular as you are about the Titans you keep harassing. Was that you back there trying to kill Raven? And Beast Boy? You could have truly wasted them if you wanted to, but you chose not to. Even when I laid them right out in the open like lost lambs for you. You want something else, Slade. Or rather, you want someone else…and you're ripping your way through the Titan's wrists to get there….and leaving them lying around to bleed so that they might attract him or her. But who? My hunt succeeded in capturing you. But just where is your prey?"

"_**Snkkkt—Hckkkk! You disappoint me, Dagger. I've never seen you this inquisitivvvve—snkkkt! Is this yourrrr way of begging on yourrrrr knees? You askkkk me—Hckkk!—of my motivvvves….do you seek to appease me?"**_

Dagger frowned.

"You can devour the Titans all you want. They are here, Slade. All of them. From the Black Eyes to—"

"_**RRRRobinnnn……,"**_ the Parasite hissed.

Red vapors.

Freezing air.

"_**I sensssse him. I can—Snkkkt—almost taste him!"**_

"Then consume him. And have done with it," Dagger came to a stop and pointed his machetes. "You're as obsessive in _death_ as you were in _life_, Slade. Though I have every intention of surviving in the case that I defy you….I'd rather not deal with the frustration. That's _one thing_ I've learned from you."

"_**Snkkt…..flatterrrring, Dagger. I've learrrrned a lot—hckkk!—from you too. That's why I've come up here to kill you."**_

"Predictable," Dagger glared. "You will not succeed, of course. At least keep in mind….with whatever ragged heart you may still have pulsating in that corpse body of yours…..Remember that I gave you an opportunity to paint the streets red. Regardless of whatever threats you may hold to my organization, you are still of little consequence to me."

"_**Isssss that's—snkkkt—SO, Dagger? Then why arrrrre you so nestled in body armor?"**_ Deathstroke's red eye strobed. _**"I am notttt the mortal despot I once wassss. I am Red Aviarrrry. The Terminator. Nothing living can escaaaape the red destruction that flowssss through me. You are no exception—snkkt!"**_

Dagger twirled his machetes and got into a fighting stance. "I do not fear death."

_**TH-THWISSSSH!**_

Deathstroke raised his double-edged sword up and posed to fight.

Dagger nimbly coiled his limbs.

"_**NRAAA—CKKKTT!"**_

Red Aviary streaked at him.

Dagger flipped, landed in a slide, and met Red Aviary's sword swing atop Kobayashi Tower with his machetes slicing.

_**FWOOOSSSSH!**_

_Sw-Swissssh!_

**CLAAAA-AAAA-AAANG!**

And the battle raged on around and below them….


	250. Break the Circle part 10

**250. Break the Circle part 10**

"_Snkkkt—We are now receiving satellite feeds of the City and we can confirm that there is indeed a horrendous battle taking place in the streets. There are lots of fires and structural damage to the buildings while what is assumed to be large yellow androids or battle machines are constantly marching through the avenues and courtyards of the metropolitan area. We are still unsure exactly what secret weapon the alleged Dagger is using, but it is quickly decimating all open spaces of the City. At this point, there are no confirmed deaths. And—as a matter of fact—there's no evidence that any citizens in the City are being subjected to the violence whatsoever. We suspect that a last-minute evacuation must have taken place." _

In their Smallville, Kansas farmhouse….

Martha and John Kent sat by their fireplace with the radio squawking.

The emergency broadcast filtered across the country.

And it shook at their worried old bones….

"_There are no signs of the Titans. In fact, the latest satellite feed—"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—_does not show any remains of Titan's Tower on their island out in the Bay. With the sudden presence of the golden weapons marching the streets, we've made an assumption that something terrible has happened suddenly and instantly to the Tower, and that this has somehow marked the invasion of these mysterious entities."_

The Daily Planet was typically abandoned that late at night, but suddenly reporters and writers and press workers were flocking back at a maddeningly rate. There was a flurry of typing and paper printing and cell phone conversations shooting back and forth as the sudden battle in the Titan's City had to be covered.

Lois Lane was sitting at her desk, attempting to write a headline. But midway through her typing, she stopped. She craned her neck along with everyone else and listened to the frightful announcements over the broadcasted radio. Jimmy Olsen was also there. And at the sound of the news he heard, he gasped and nearly dropped his camera.

"_We repeat. We think something may have happened to Titan's Tower. It is no longer there……a-and now there are confirmations of a huge blazing fire at the former site. We're attempting to collect more data as the broadcast continues and----W-Wait! This just in!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a waiting room of a Gotham City Hospital, a few citizens and orderlies alike were gathered around a radio positioned at the edge of a nurse's station.

They listened with great fervor at the words being given…

"_The U.S. Army is in the City! They have announced an engagement of the enemy! Dagger's forces have been ambushed and the citizens evacuated underground! Ladies and gentlemen, we have confirmed reports from a subordinate to General Timothy L. Calvin himself! The U.S. Army and Airforce has a contingent in the City and they are working to beat back Dagger's forces with as little collateral damage as possible. This is welcome news—I am certain—to all who have suffered on November Fourth. There may be justice dealt tonight after all!"_

A good number of the people mumbled and gestured in commotion.

From the hallway, Detective Bullock and Montoya heard the news.

They exchanged worried….slightly confused glances.

Then they gazed into an ICU room.

Barbara Gordon was lying in a bed. Heavily bandaged. Hooked up to a plethora of machines and wires. Commissioner Gordon still sat by her side. Silently. Seated in the shadows….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We promise a minute-by-minute update of these startling events. All the while, we can only hope and pray that the citizens of the City—and the Titans—come through in one piece."_

Lexcorp H.Q.

The lofty office.

Lex Luthor sat with his hands together.

Fingers folded.

"Hmmmmm….."

He leaned back in his chair.

He lifted a glass of a warm, red liquid.

With a sly smile he whispered: "A triangle never stands on one end, you fool."

And he sipped….proudly.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

Robin's harley weaved in and out of the tight formation of U.S. Army jeeps throttling southward.

I blurred down the sidelines, streaking along sidewalks and teleporting through or around street lamps and abandoned storefronts.

General Calvin rode a few car spaces behind us. He shouted commands into a communicator and waved his arm forward, urging the convoy to accelerate.

Before us, the road heading towards downtown was starting to glow a brighter and brighter gold…announcing the proximity of the thermal golems.

I panted…panted…panted.

I gazed back behind me.

I saw the large army sent in to defend our City.

The forces that were combined to prevent a second November Fourth.

The determined young men and women ready—like the Titans always were—to lay their lives down on the line.

I took a deep breath. Half proud. Half mutually roused…

_Ana…… _

_Remind me to be a bit more patriotic next Memorial Day._

I turned and gazed at the more-and-more visible line of golden golems.

They stood—stretching across Main Street from sidewalk-to-sidewalk.

The monsters felt the rumbling of our massive advance.

They turned and 'gazed' at us.

Their thermal insides burned and flickered.

_**CRKKKK!**_

I took a deep breath.

Behind us, Calvin shouted an order.

At once, all of the jeeps rumbled to a stop.

Robin screeched his harley still and stood with it—ambling—between two of the front jeeps.

I leapt up, flipped, perched atop a lamppost, and watched with attentiveness….

Calvin shouted more orders.

The jeeps lined up. Wheel to wheel. A solid line of green aluminum.

In the meantime, the golems far down Main Street solidified as a thicker whole.

Random, stray jeeps and hummers belonging to Dagger's elite saw the inevitable conflict and swiftly dashed down side avenues bleeding away from Main Street.

"Present arms!"

The men on the mounted guns of the jeeps cocked and adjusted the assault weapons.

_Cl-Clak! _

_Clik! _

_Claka!_

"Hold!"

Robin took deep breaths. He produced a fan of explosive birdarangs. _Chiiing!_

I gripped Myrkblade….perched….watching the distant line of enemies.

The golems started marching towards us. A sold line of golden fury. _**CRKKKKK-KKKK!**_ **Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!**

"Hold!.!.!.!" Calvin shouted, hand held up.

The golems shook their limbs furiously. Beneath the red night, they moved into a sprint and briskly charged us.

Ten miles an hour.

Fifteen.

A burning twenty….

_**Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!**_

The entire ground shook.

The asphalt burned beneath them and started to crackle and divide all the way over where we were positioned.

A few fleeting helicopters flew overhead, apaches and HINDs chasing each other. They were gone as soon as they appeared, and once again all we saw and felt was the immensity of the golem wall surging towards us.

_**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

Robin seethed.

I held my breath.

"Ready……!"

_**ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP!**_

Every soldier glared.

Every gunman aimed.

Barrels trained.

Eyes squinting…

"Aim…..!"

_**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP**_

We could feel the heat of their bodies wafting into us across the cold, red night.

And before they were within three bus lengths…..

"**Fire!"**

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Solid streaks of lead flew from our vehicular phalanx and plowed into the first line of onrushing golems.

_**TH-TH-THUNK! **_

_**CRKKK! **_

_**SN-SNAP! CRACKKK! **_

_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_

Golden-glowing limbs flew.

Fiery innards splashed.

Granite and ash and stone fragments shattered everywhere.

The hulking shreds of the monsters' rocky bodies fell forward, tripped on their severed selves, and collapsed in a thickening pile of molten rock.

Then the second line of golems rushed on, climbing and clamoring over the rubble of their wasted companions.

And still our defenders' onslaught persisted.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**TH-TH-TH-THUNK!**_ The golems exploded and collapsed both ways.

A golden-bright blaze vomited upwards from where they clumped and melted together.

Even the lead was burning and melting inside of them.

The smell of deep, burnt earth filled the air.

Like sawdust and cigarette ash combined with something not quite akin to flesh but somewhat reminiscent of copper and rust….

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Robin watched, barely flinching from the noise of the gun barrels on either side of him.

I breathed deeply.

Gazing.

Fighting the urge to shiver…

_Their Construction…… _

_Their pulsing………strobing essences……… _

_The Black in me is surging. _

_I must stay focused. _

_Help me, Ana. _

_Help me stay focused……_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The gunmen fired and fired.

The golems fell and shattered.

The center of Main Street piled high with a volcanic hill of its own thermal fury.

And….finally….

Too sooner than any of us would have wanted…..

_**CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-CLIK!**_

_**CLIK-CLIK-CLIK!**_

The mounted guns ran empty.

The men rushed to reload with their ammo crates.

A supply truck full of infantrymen unloaded.

They readied explosives and RPGs….

But I knew as much as Robin did that the golems weren't stopping.

A new wave was rushing in over the raw, ashen 'hill'.

With burning limbs flailing, they quickly began closing the distance between the center of Main Street and our phalanx of military friends.

Robin took a breath. He gestured at me.

I nodded. _CHIIIING!_

I got Myrkblade ready.

Robin held his breath….then throttled his harley forward, the front wheel rising and squealing in the air for the first few feet.

_SCREEE-EEECH! __**VRMMMMM!**_

I inhaled sharply, pulsed murk through my body, and blurred down the streetlamp.

_FWOOOOOOSH!_

I charged the incoming wall of sprinting rock monsters head on.

Robin rode ahead of me.

_VRMMMMM!_

He clutched the fan of explosive projectiles in one hand while steering with the other limb.

He took a few deep breaths and swerved his bike just meters away from the line of golems.

"HAAAAAAUGH!" _VRMMMMM!_

While swerving, he flailed his free hand outward and tossed all the explosive projectiles out in a wave.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSSSSSSSH!_

Robin's weapons sailed into the meat of the golem rock-things and engulfed them in a shell-splitting flame.

_**PHWOOOOOOMB!**_

And while Robin arced his bike back towards the phalanx…I blurred past him.

_THWOOOOOOOOSSSSH!_

With a bullet-like cocoon of smoke surrounding me, I dragged Myrkblade behind my blurring body and gathered the smoke and flame of Robin's igniting arsenal.

I snarled mutely, charged the flame around my flickering blade, and streaked so maddeningly quick through the thick crowd of gold that I shifted and teleported through their bodies while the sword itself remained solid, intense, and burning with the infernal charge.

_**SLAAAAAA-AAAAAAASSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

A dozen golem bodies shattered and exploded in solid succession behind me.

_**CRKKK-CRKKK-CRKKK-CRKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

After I cleared a straight path, the golems parted and mixed back together to try and fill the smoldering gap and reform their charging ranks.

It was then that the harley gave its life.

Robin finished typing four explosives to the body of the bike.

He then gripped the handles with two gloves and propelled the bike forward.

_SCREEEECHHH!—__**VRMMMMM!**_

Robin burned on his bike straight towards the reforming contingent of monstrosities.

He gritted his teeth, nimbly hopped up, and drove with his two feet planted atop the seat of the bike.

He steered, awkwardly bent over with his palms against the handles, and backflipped off the free bike at the last second.

_TH-THWP!_

_**VRMMMMMMMMMMM!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The bike took its ill-fated voyage into the center of the line of rock-beasts.

It collapsed to the side once, bounced, and flailed-flipped-flopped into a chest of a rock golem….pushing it back so that it sprawled on the ground, tumbled, and billowed flame—

_**KA**__**POWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Landing in the street, Robin shielded his eyemask, teeth gritting.

A veritable mushroom cloud of flame and heat soared out from the thick of the rocky crowd.

_TH-THWOOSH!_ I streaked over from a buildingside and solidified to a cold stop besides Robin, panting…panting….panting…

We stood side by side, staring into the hazy…golden-glowing oblivion. The line of jeeps behind us—reloaded by then—also stared.

"……….."

"………..."

_**CRKKKK!**_

A dozen remaining golems emerged from the smoke and ruin.

Weakened.

Limping.

But still furious.

Robin heaved.

Frowning, he whipped out his bo-staff and extended it.

_Snkkkkt!_

"Yaaaaaaaaaaugh!" he charged forward.

I snarled and blurred alongside him—_CHIIING!—_Myrkblade singing through the air.

_Aaaaah!_

General Calvin shouted, threw his hand forward, and commanded the jeeps into a brisk advance.

Robin ran up and twirled with his staff slamming into the first of many rock-beast chests.

_CRKKKK! THWKKK!_

He leapt up, vaulted over a creature, and slammed the torsos in of yet another.

In the meantime, I was dashing in and around creatures with teleporting streaks, Myrkblade slashing and hacking and ripping rocky shells parts.

_CRKKK! SLASSSH!_

The jeeps briskly coasted in behind us and the gunmen on the backs of them swiftly made an end of the golems reeling from our blows.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_CR-CR-CR-CR-CRACKKK!_

One by one, the last of the company of opposing monsters crumbled and shattered to bits.

Robin and I continued running and charging and twirling with weapons at full swing.

The golems fell from our attack and were pulverized by the jeeps.

Until finally there was nothing but the hill of crumbled stone to navigate around….and Calvin's forces did just that.

_Vrmmmmmmm!_

Once we were in the clear, we had another stretch of Main Street to traverse.

I went into a brisk murk-blur along the caravan.

A jeep slowed down beside Robin.

The Boy Wonder nodded, leapt up, and perched onto the hood of it…his one hand grabbing onto the frame while the other gripped his bo-staff. He pointed forward, and the whole lot of us throttled once again towards the center of the City.

As the chaos thickened and thickened…

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the subways beneath the City….

The people shuddered and shook as the world above shook more.

The foundation of the tunnels and loading ramps vibrated.

Dust settled and drifted over their heads.

Where Renee and Daniel sat…..Daniel was panting. He slowly smiled and half-stood up, pumping his arm and cheering: "It's the Army! They're fighting back!"

Commotion.

Murmurs.

Brightening faces.

"They're kicking Dagger's ass! They're saving the City!"

"Give 'em the what-for, boys!"

"Take them out!"

Cheers.

Hopeful shouts.

Renee smiled nervously, all the while wincing from the loud vibrations and shakes.

And Daniel shouted: "Woooohooo!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOSHHHH!**_ A hellseeker roared through the air and exploded just to the side of a careening army jeep.

_**POWWW!**_ A lamppost shattered and a chunk of sidewalk flew three stories high, burning.

In another jeep speeding down the heated street, General Calvin shouted an order.

Two apaches swarmed overhead towards the launcher of the hellseeker.

The HIND spiraled about and flew loudly towards the far East of the City.

The apaches zoomed after it.

In the meantime, our herd of jeeps swerved maddeningly in and around rubble and demolished spots in the asphalt of Main Street. Bullets flew and golden golems all around us exploded and collapsed in fiery splendor.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**CRKKKKK! **_

_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**CRKKKKKKKKK!**_

_VRMMMMM!_ The jeep that Robin was mounted on skirted around a swarm of golden monsters tossing lava pellets at them.

_**CRKKKK! **_P-PING! CLANK!

Robin shifted on the jeep, pulled out a disc, and flung it hard as his vehicle blurred by the monsters.

_SWISSSSSSSSSSH-TH-TH-THUNK!_ The projectiles flew straight through the torsos of all three golems, skewering their torsos at once.

_VRMMMM!_ Robin's and another jeep sped along the left side of Main Street.

From a side alleyway, a hummer full of Dagger's men drove up. Two mounted gunmen aimed and fired at the Army vehicles up close.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Gaping holes opened in the rear jeep and two soldiers screamed as bullets ripped through them.

_**SCREEEECH!**_

The army vehicle veered and slammed into a glass building front…smoking.

_SHATTTTER!_

The men in Robin's jeep shouted and fired back. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! BAM! __**BAM!**_

The bullets sparked and bounced off the thick body of the Hummer.

The Daggerite vehicle swerved left, ran on the sidewalk, and veered right again to ram into the side of the jeep.

_VRMMMMM!—__**CLANK!**_

The jeep upended, drove on two wheels, and came back down with a shower of sparks.

_CL-CLANK!_

Robin struggled to hold his grip.

He snarled and leapt madly off the front of the jeep and over into the hummer with his bo-staff twirling.

The men on the mounted guns in the back gasped and attempted to pivot the high-calibre weapons to target the Boy Wonder--

"YAAAUGH!" Robin slammed his staff into the skull of one terrorist.

The man gurgled and flopped backwards off the hummer….tumbling across the blurred asphalt.

The other gunman kicked his gun so that the mounted weapon swiveled to lop Robin's head off.

_THWOOOSH!_

The Boy Wonder ducked the swinging barrel and kicked his legs out and up.

WHAM!

The man took it in the crotch. He grunted and bent over---

_THWOK!_

into the uppercut of Robin's green glove.

The man's body flew off the hummer and slammed into the blurring building side.

"Robin!" someone shouted somewhere. A random soldier. "Jump off of that! Now!"

_**PFTOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Robin instantly heard the missile and felt its heat.

Without looking, he leapt off and grabbed onto a gunman's hand at the back of an army jeep, swinging on board.

_**BOOOOM!**_

A missile flew into the Dagger vehicle and exploded it in a brilliant splash of flame.

An apache soared overhead in the opposite direction of Calvin's forces.

"We're rushing straight into the second wave of Dagger's forces!" a soldier shouted. "We must cut on through so their center of defense will fall!"

"What about the other brigades?" Robin shouted back.

"They're doing the same from the Southwest, East, and South! We're cutting at Dagger from all sides!"

Robin panted. He looked against the wind of the high speed blitz. "It's still puzzling me that he could not have possibly suspected this…."

"No single man is immortal, Robin!"

"Well…," the Boy Wonder managed a smile. "Aren't you a soldier?"

**POW!**

A section of the street exploded nearly beneath them.

The whole jeep jolted.

Calvin shouted something.

Robin and a few soldiers looked ahead.

Two supply trucks filled to the brim in the rear with soldiers occupied the street ahead of the jeeps.

They swerved left and right to keep the jeeps from advancing, meanwhile the men in the back armed and fired all sorts of machine guns, grenade launchers, and RPGs at the advancing army contingent.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_BL-BLAM! BLAM!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

A jeep to the right swerved at the last second to avoid the flying explosive, but lost a tire in the process--_** P-POW!--**_and had to stall behind the throttling force.

The soldiers fired back with their mounted guns. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

But the supply trucks merely swerved out of the way and fired back with twice as deadly explosives.

_**PFTOOOOSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

_**BLAM!**_

_**KA-POW!**_

Explosions rocked the asphalt of Main Street between the hurtling jeeps.

The soldiers grunted.

Robin whipped out a grappling hook and stood at the edge of the jeep.

"Keep distracting them! We'll handle this!"

**POW!**

He fired his grappling hook up at the nearest, blurring building top.

"Noir! Protect the convoy!"

**CL-CLANK!**

Robin 'flew' up on his grappling hook cord to the building rooftops above the madness.

The soldiers panted.

They glanced at each other in the jeep.

"Where is that 'Noir' anyways---?"

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

I blurred straight over the jeep in a black streak.

Even they had to gasp at that.

Teeth gritting, I forced my speeding self to occupy the street between the front of the jeeps and the rear of the heavily boarded supply trucks.

The Daggerites in the back shouted, pointed at me, and fired.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

I twirled Myrkblade in my right hand while streaking after the trucks.

**CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!**

They lowered the machine guns.

A terrorist from the leftmost truck instead tossed a grenade at me.

_Clank!_ Thwooooosh!

I slashed Myrkblade up.

**THWAK!**

I deflected the grenade back towards them.

_**BOOM!**_

It exploded between the supply trucks, jostling them both.

They slowed a bit in their speeding rush down the lengths of Main Street.

A few more men fired shotguns.

_**BL-BLAM! BLAM!**_

I dodged one spray of shot and slashed Myrkblade into another.

_**THWOOOSH-**__**CLANK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile, above the heated streets…

Robin ran over rooftops.

Leapt over alleyways.

He ran parallel to the supply trucks swerving around debris in the roads with me and the jeeps trailing.

The Boy Wonder took a breath, whipped out a grappling hook in his right hand…..and another in his left. He gritted his teeth, tensed his muscles, and cartwheeled into a suicidal dive sideways into the open street….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_THWISSSSSH!_

Cape billowing, the Boy Wonder dove above the speeding trucks that were gradually throttling ahead of him.

He took a breath, aimed his right hand up, and fired its grappling hook.

_**POW!**_

**CL-CLANK!**

It stuck unto the middle stories of a buildingside ahead.

_THWOOOOOSH!_ Robin swung down and towards the first of the two trucks, but still not quite catching up.

He shimmered between the red-lit buildingsides.

And at the end of his upswing….as he came to the end of his cord….

_**POW!**_

He fired his left grappling hook towards a building ahead.

And he detached his right cord.

**CLANK!**

The left attached.

Robin swung down on it, gradually descending towards the blurring asphalt below and gaining on the two trucks.

All throughout the swing, he was retracting the cord of his right launcher. _Thwppppppp-Schlunk!_

He reached the end of his second swing. He was practically bulleting down Main Street after the trucks.

_**POW!**_

He shot his right grappling hook again.

He retracted his left.

_**CLANK!**_

Robin swung the final distance.

He hurtled—feet first—towards the rear of the rightmost supply train.

The terrorists in the back of him finally registered him. Dagger's elite shouted and fired volley after volley of bulletfire at the Boy Wonder.

BLAM! BL-BLAM!

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

Robin somehow twirled his body and avoided the shots.

As he zoomed again at the truck straightaway by one hand, he aimed his left grappling hook and fired into the rear.

_**POW!**_

The men gasped and parted ways.

_THWISSSSH!_

The grappling hook flew through the rear glass panel of the driving compartment.

_SHATTERR!_

It burst in and impaled the back of the passenger.

_SLIIINK!_

A scream.

Blood burst all over the driver and he swerved madly in surprise.

_SCREEEE-EEEECCCH!_

The men in the back gasped and jostled from the swerving.

Robin flew off his right grappling hook, flipped, produced his bo-staff in mid-air—_Snkkkt!—_and landed down onto the supply truck, swinging madly.

"YAAAAAAUGH!"

**SLAM!**

"HRAAAAUGH!"

**THWWACK!**

Two screaming terrorists flew off the truck and rolled bloodily along the blurred asphalt. Then three more toppled over and fell.

A burly man stomped towards Robin with a fist flying.

THWOOOSH!

**WHAM!**

Robin teetered back, dangerously close to falling off the back of the truck.

The man flew his foot this time.

SWOOOSH!

Robin deflected the man's kick with his staff, flew from the jolt, and jammed the end of it against the man's jaw.

_**TWHKKK!**_

Three or four teeth bloodily flew.

Robin kicked him off the truck—WHAM!—and spun to assault the final two gunmen.

They lifted grenade launchers and fired point-blanc in desperation.

_**P-POW! **_

_**POW!**_

Robin yanked his body back in a nimble dodge and shot his rod up, deflecting one and dodging the other.

_**CL-CLANK!**_

Both explosives flew up high in the air and came down where I was.

I gasped and blurred to the aside, avoiding the asphalt-flinging explosions.

_**BOOOM! **_

_**KAPOW!**_

Robin came back from his evasive stretch and produced a birdarang. _CHIIING!_

The men reloaded.

Robin launched the birdarang with a grunt.

_THW-THW-THW-THWISSSH!_

The men ducked.

The birdarang deflected off the train, soared right, and severed a stop sign down the metal stalk.

_SL-SLINK!_

The men aimed their grenade launchers again, fully loaded.

Robin had to bail.

He dove right off the side of the truck.

The men instead fired at the army jeeps trailing the vehicle.

_**POW! **_

_**POW!**_

I blurred back and deflected the grenades to the sides of the streets before they could damage any of Calvin's forces.

_**BOOOM!**_

In the meantime, Robin dove through the air.

With the aide of his cape, he glided towards the corner of the sidewalk where the severed stopsign lay.

In mid-descent, he produced a spare grappling hook and aimed at the truck.

**POW! CL-CLANK!**

The hook stuck into the top of the vehicle.

_CLANG!_

Robin's feet made contact with the stop sign.

_SCRKKKKKKKK!_

At the end of his grappling hook cord, he 'rode' the stopsign like a wakeboard against the blurring asphalt beneath him.

Sparks flew.

Burning metal filled the air.

Robin gritted his teeth and pivoted his body just right so as to slide his taut grasp of the cord left and sliding back towards the supply truck.

_SCRKKKKK!_

The terrorists saw him, but were a little too perplexed and shocked to register in their brains the urge to shoot at him.

Robin grunted….and leapt up high.

The stop-sign went sliding across the street under the chassis of the supply truck and between its tires.

At the same time, Robin spiraled in the air over the truck by his grasp of the grappling hook cord.

While spinning, he whipped out a disc and launched it into the compartment.

_THWISSSSH-SHATTER!_

The disc landed on the dashboard and exploded in a flurry of sparks.

_ZZZZZZZTTT!_

The blood-soaked driver inside screamed and convulsed to unconsciousness.

The truck veered to the right and into a building front.

_**CRNCCCHHH!**_

Before it did, Robin touched down and landed with his feet to the sliding, sparking stop-sign that also emerged from underneath the left side of the truck.

_SCRKKKKKK!_

The boy Wonder let go of the cord and slid freely, sparklingly towards the left truck full of Dagger's elite.

They shouted, cursed, and fired at him. _BLAM! BL-BLAM!_

Robin gritted his teeth and jabbed his bo-staff's end down into the blurring asphalt.

**CLANK!**

Using his rod like a pole vault, Robin and the friction-hot stop sign lifted up at an angle and soared towards the truck.

Robin grunted and kicked of the sign in mid-air.

_THWOOOOOOOSH!—__**THUNK!**_

The sign skewered the neck of a gunman and plunged him off the side of the speeding truck, gurgling.

And Robin landed in the truck with a tornadic spin of his staff. "YAAAAAUGH!"

THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK! Four screaming thugs flew off the truck.

Two more besides the driving compartment fired shotguns at the Boy Wonder.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

"Nnngh!" Robin flipped over the shots…which landed and impaled bloodily the body of a man behind the Titan.

"Aaaachkkntt!" the man plunged off the back of the truck.

THW-THWISSH!

Robin landed between the two shotgun thugs and pivoted his body, jabbing, punching, slamming, and colliding his staff and elbows with various joints of the men up close.

_Thwap! Whap! Smack! Thwack!_

The men jolted and grunted.

The driver and passenger inside the truck panicked.

Robin glanced back through his mask, snarled, and jabbed his bo-staff end through the glass.

_SHATTER!_

He slammed the end of the staff into the base of the driver's neck.

_CRKKK!_

The man shook, convulsed, and fell against the steering wheel.

_THWUMP! __**SCREEEEEECHH!**_

The truck veered left just as an onramp to the City highway appeared.

_VRMMMMM!_

The careening truck zoomed out of Main Street and up the onramp, mercilessly scraping the guardrail and jolting sparks.

_SCRKKKKKK!_

All remaining thugs atop the truck gasped and shook all over.

Robin maintained a firm grip.

As they ascended the highway and throttled up the raised concrete, he took a breath and dove over the truck's side.

He gripped the edge of the vehicle and dangled.

Hanging by one hand he retracted the grappling hook, produced a birdarang, and launched it at the front and rear tire on the other side from beneath the chassis.

_TH-TH-THWISSSH!__**-THWUNK!**_

**POW!**

The tires popped.

The truck leaned to its damaged side….and the edge of the raised highway.

_SCRAAAAAAAPE!_

The men in the truck screamed.

The truck leaned…leaned….leaned right.

Robin dangled, then stood on the upturned side.

And just as the truck hit the guardrail—

_NNNGH!_

Robin leapt off.

He landed in a nimble slide on the median of the highway…panting.

_**CLANK!**_

The truck slammed sideways into the guardrail and flipped over in a spinning, plunging bottle-spin that sent it sailing out in mid-air and collapsing four stories down into a cluster of golden golems below.

_**BOOOOOOOOM!**_

The truck exploded.

Flames and bits of golem thermal gold flew high and rained back down on the carnage.

"…………..," Robin stood up.

A beat.

He found himself glaring to the side.

In the middle of the highway, three Daggerites stood besides a smoking, bullet-skewered jeep. They were in the middle of repairing their wartorn vehicle when they found themselves staring wide-eyed at the scene.

They eyed Robin.

They glanced at the fiery remains of the huge supply truck.

They looked at Robin again.

……..

The Boy Wonder's muscles tensed.

He clenched his teeth—_Snkkkt!—_and twirled his bo-staff into an agile fighting position.

"…….."

_Cl-Clak! _

_Clank! _

_Clunk!_

Their weapons and tools littered the concrete around their feet as their arms raised high to the red sky.

"W-We give up."

"T-Take us in…."

"……….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SLAAAA-AAASH!**_

The red blade swam through the air.

Dagger twirled, dodged, slid back, and twirled his machetes.

_TH-TH-THWISSH!_

"_**Snkkktkt-Hckk!"**_ Red Aviary blurred at Dagger, raising his blade in a vapor stream of **RED**.

Dagger crossed his daggers.

_**CLAK!**_

He blocked Deathstroke's sword.

Red Aviary pressed his weight up against Dagger.

Single eye strobing and glaring crimson.

Dagger struggled to hold him back.

His face was calm and straight….but still sweated.

They struggled and wrenched with each other atop Kobayashi Tower's summit……

Until finally Slade pulsed a deep red fury through his blade and shattered Dagger's machetes.

_**CRAAA-AAA-AAACK!**_

Dagger grunted and stumbled back.

"_**HCKKK-Clik-Clik-Clik-SNKKKTT!"**_

Deathstroke spun his entire weight and brought the sword down to cleave Dagger in two.

The despot backflipped and perched on the undercurve of a small satellite dish.

He stood up nimbly and reached into his vest…producing two knives in either set of fingers.

"_**Snkkkt!"**_

Deathstroke stared up at him, sword raised.

"Nnngh!" Dagger flipped.

He soared over Deathstroke's body.

While upside down, he let loose a fan of knives singing their serrated way through the air at Deathstroke's figure.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSSH!_

Deathstroke knelt and swung his two-edged sword up in a single crimson swipe…instantly shattering all of the flying knives.

_**SLAAA-AAAAASSSH!**__! CRKK-KKK!_

Dagger landed in a slide barely at the edge of the Tower.

The fiery battle of the Army versus Dagger's elites and golems splashed and sparkled far beneath them.

Dagger reached into his vest and produced a pair of exploding knives.

He twirled them by the hilts and droned:

"What were your plans exactly, Slade? Even if you killed everyone you wanted on the continent—starting with the Titans—it would still be an empty rule. As powerful as death is, you still need the living to dictate power."

"_**Powwwwerrrr…..snkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke twirled his shotgun and aimed at the cold man. _**"I am powerrrr, Daggerrrrr…."**_ His single eye glared. _**"But even power bowsss-snkkktt!—to a greater energy. Pure Destruction…."**_

"Then what you desire is suicide?" Dagger paced himself away from the shotgun with both exploding knives posed. "For with pure destruction….you'll inevitably destroy yourself."

"_**Thingssss do notttt end therrrrre….,"**_ Red Aviary hissed. _**"Therrrre is a firrrre beyond death. It awaitssss me….and I shall-click-clik-clik—PULL the Titansss and this Cittty along with me! Thattt—snkkktt—will change the Balanccce foreverrrr…."**_

"A fanciful vision….," Dagger droned. "I didn't know that the dead dreamed."

"_**They wissssh they couldddd…." **__**BLAM!**_

With a pulse of red, the shotgun fired.

Dagger slid, ducked below the flying shot, rolled forward, and came up just as Red Aviary was swinging his sword.

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_

_**THWISSSSSSH!**_

The crimson blade soared at Dagger's neck.

Dagger leapt up, flipped over the blade, and came back down in a backwards drift upon which he unleashed the two knives.

_THWISSSH! THWISSSSSH!_

Deathstroke blurred and dodged one.

_**FWOOOSH!**_

But solidified right where the second one landed—_TH-THUNK!_

"_**HRKKKCKK!"**_

Slade clutched his shoulder where the knife dug in.

To the explosive hilt.

Dagger landed in a sweaty crouch.

He took a deep breath and stood up, glaring through his sheen face.

"What's wrong, Slade? I thought you could no longer _feel pain."_

"_**Angerrrrrr…..,"**_ Deathstroke pulled and tugged at the knife stuck in his meaty muscle. _**"Snkkkt—Hckkk! Angerrrr….retributionnn…."**_

"How intriguing…," Dagger fingered a watch on his arm and pressed a button. _Click!_ "Get ready to be really…really angry at me."

_Beeeeeep!_

"_**Snkkkktt!"**_

Deathstroke convulsed and pulled bloodily at the knife just as it started to pulse and blink—

_**BOOOOOM!**_

A puff of flame and smoke.

Dagger shaded himself.

The glass of the Kobayashi Tower summit cracked some.

The satellite dishes wobbled.

"………." Dagger lowered his arms.

He glared with thin eyes into the haze and smoke.

He paced around the far end of the Tower's top…speaking.

"This City is mine, Slade. It was entrusted to me long ago. I am what keeps it running. If need be, I'll be what pulls its plug. The Titans…they have to learn to respect me. Even if that means in _misery_. You shouldn't have gotten in the way, Slade. I would have killed the Titans myself. Yes…I would have eliminated the Titans in your place. But you had to be stubborn. You had to dabble in arts and energies that do not belong to you. The Spectrum is a strong, flexing, dynamic thing…Slade. The Red side may have its powers….its promises….and its passion. But too much wielding of the red will call forth a strong and savage revenge of the Black and White. Terra's essences are the Construction. And they are here to negate your powers while all the while aiding me. As for Black….he's the most important piece of the Experiment. And the Experiment was purposed—and still promises to combine the entire Spectrum into one. You think you have achieved true Power? All you've gotten is just a fraction of it, Slade. Try as strongly as you might to wield Death and Destruction….you will be nothing but a third of true…ultimate strength. Nothing has….and nothing will…..match the perfection of the Obsidian Trinity. But what would you know of that? The Experiment was a long time ago…and you weren't there. You're just a petty thug, Slade. A petty thug…..like me. The only difference is, I've been educated. I've seen the Experiment with my own human eyes…and I know how to run the world between now and the time when all the fated shades of the Spectrum come together. And I will—if I have to—end your pitiful charade."

Silence.

Fading smoke.

Cold, red night air….

Dagger's brow furrowed.

"I don't think it was Death or Power or any of your desired faculties that empowered you, Slade. I think it was simply…..cowardice."

"…………………_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkt……"**_

"….!" Dagger spun, knives raised.

Deathstroke stood atop the rim of a satellite dish.

His gaping arm wound was billowing out red vapors.

He jerked and hissed…pointing a red blade down at the despot.

"_**You have sssseen a lot Daggerrrr…..butttt you sttttill haven'tttt seen everrrrythinng….snkkkt!….Whatttt ends of the Spectrummmm I canotttt possessss….I shall sssssoon consume…."**_

"Folly….," Dagger droned. He leaned his head to the side. "You've failed over and over again to destroy Black Eyes. And—"

"_**My 'seccccond apprenticccce' is already herrrre…..,"**_ Red Aviary hissed. _**"I can sensssse him. And as forr—snkkkt—the WHITE………sssssshe will be coming soon too…."**_

Dagger's jaw tightened.

"That is impossible."

"_**You are a blind man, Daggerrrr….you have seen the Experimentttt with mortal—snkkkt—EYES! I am the RED! Snkkkt—I SEE…THE SPECTRUMMM! And the White is coming……she will fall intttto my handssss…..but firsssst….I musssst consume Robin. And in orderrrr to consume Robin, I musssst have an open path. Hckkk—And your patheticcc army is in the way."**__  
_

"……..," Dagger leaned back and twirled a fan of knives at the ready. "I won't let you be the one to kill the other poles of the Spectrum."

"_**Why notttt, Daggerrr? Snkkkkt—Afraid of true power?"**_

"………"

The single red eye narrowed.

"_**You arrrre far more invisible—snkkkt—clik-clik-clik….than you give yourself CREDIT!"**_

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

He blurred down at the despot.

Dagger leapt back.

_**CRACCCKKKK!**_

The red sword ate into the glass tower summit.

Spiderweb fractures spread and began to shatter.

Dagger slid back.

Hissing, Red Aviary stood up.

Dagger gritted his teeth and charged.

Deathstroke twirled his blade and ran forward.

_Th-Th-Thwish!_

_**THW-THWOOSSSSH!**_

_**CLANKKKK!**_


	251. Break the Circle part 11

**251. Break the Circle part 11**

_VRMMMMM!_

Calvin's jeep roared down Main Street alongside his fellow officers.

The men at the mounted guns swiveled and pivoted about, taking pot shots at golden golems as they blurred by.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

Various monstrosities flew back and shattered from the heavy blasts.

Ashen pieces of thermal debris scattered and fell abroad.

The jeeps swerved around a fallen building face and zoomed into the heart of downtown.

And that's where a ring of Dagger's men were centered, firing off at the army's forces from all sides.

Once General Calvin's brigade rushed in, the terrorists shouted and summoned a volley of hot lead.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Calvin shouted orders.

The jeeps split up as the mounted gunfire from hummers and enemy vehicles ricocheted off the street between them.

They formed a dual perimeter on two sides of the intersection, firing back on Dagger's men.

_BL-BLAM! BLAM! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Tracers and hot bullets flew through the air.

Two men on the army's side fell down hard with splashes of red.

A bullet from Calvin's force found its way in the fuel tank of one of the hummer's on the other side.

_**KABOOOOM!**_ The vehicle exploded.

Dagger's elite shouted and a second layer of men with grenade launchers rushed up and took aim at the U.S. forces.

Calvin saw it.

He gritted his teeth and prepared to shout an order of evasive action—

_THWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_

I blurred in from a side-street and flanked Dagger's men.

Speedily, I soared along the line of gunmen and swung Myrkblade, mightily lopping off gun barrels and smashing grenade launchers into metal shreds.

_SLASH! CH-CHIINK! CRACCCK!_

The terrorists gasped and growled in surprise….frustration.

_FW-FWOOOSH!_

I teleported, perched atop a hummer, dove towards the rear, and plowed off the two gunmen—_TH-THWAP!_—to the street….

"Aaaaugh!" WHUMP! WHAM!

I then kicked the mounted gun so that its heavy barrel pointed into the center of the craft.

I squeezed my metal finger hard at the trigger, crushing it stuck in place.

No sooner had I done so, I teleported away from the vehicle in a blur. _FL-FLASSSH!_

**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-****TAT****!**

The mounted gun literally fired _into_ itself.

**CL-CL-CLUNK! ****KAPOW!**

The Hummer exploded from its own punishment.

Terrorists and gunmen fled from the flames and smoke, covering themselves.

_FWOOOOOSH!_

I streaked through them, slashing Myrkblade and knocking legs out from under.

Tripping the men hard to the asphalt.

_TH-TH-THWAP!_

Men were groaning and gasping all around me.

I came to a stop, panting.

Eyes billowing smoke from beneath my shades.

Then…a cross-fire of amber streaking bullets sang in the air over my head.

I winced and raised Myrkblade to block—when suddenly I realized that the crossfire came from the U.S. Army.

On either side of the intersection they were arriving and taking shots at the henchmen of Dagger holed up in the center of the room.

I heard General Calvin and a good few of his men shouting for me to clear out of there.

I did so without hesitation.

In mid blur, I glanced up.

I saw bodies moving in the glass windows of an office building. I then saw laser targeting sites.

I gasped—

_PFIFFT! _

_PFIFFT! _

_PFIFFFTT!_

Sniper bullets sailed out of the glass, shatteringly loudly.

The projectiles flew and went through the necks of three soldiers on the far side of the intersection.

Through the chaos of exchanging gunfire and explosions and utter urban war, nobody but my black-eyed self had marked the lofty position of the snipers.

Every defender on the low ground was subject to deadly fire.

I took a breath and ran my way to Calvin's front.

I blurred, teleported through explosions, leapt over and slid beneath gunshots, then streaked my way back to the line of jeeps.

_PFFIFTT! _

_PFIFFT!_

I heard the sniper rounds…and subsequently two random bodies falling screamily to the bloody asphalt.

I rushed over to a jeep in the rear, waving my arms desperately.

"…..?" the U.S. soldiers in the rear craned their necks.

I whistled and pointed up at the office buildings.

The men's eyes widened. "We see them!"

"Take aim—"

"Give us backup!" Calvin shouted.

"Sir! General, sir! Snipers on the Northwest side!"

"Son of a---You three! Get to a better position! Take them out!"

"Yes sir!"

_PFIFFT! _

_PFIIIIFFT!_

P-PING!

Part of the nearest jeep's windshield cracked from the bullets.

The soldiers jolted.

So did I.

_Dammit._

I gritted my teeth.

_They're not going to take those snipers out fast enough!_

CHIIIIIIIIIING!

I dragged Myrkblade as I ran towards the base of the office building, kicked my way through the glass entrance—_SMASH!_—and soared up the nearest stairwell I could find….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FWOOOOOOSSSSH!_

Starfire soared down a street clustered with golden golems.

The monsters were marching a thick, merciless line towards the U.S. forces coming in from the East Shipyards.

Tanks and jeeps were firing at the thermal monstrosities.

But with very little progress…..

The burning line kept advancing, thick and impenetrable.

Starfire took a deep breath, soared up in the air, twirled about, and came down sharply into the center of the golden crowd.

Starbolts glowing.

Green eyes strobing.

"YAAAAAAUGH!"

_SWOOOOOOOSSSSH—__**WHAMMM!**_

Starfire formed a crater, knocking a dozen golden golems back in all directions.

She flung starbolts down at the feet of those still standing, forcing them to collapse.

As machine gun fire from the jeeps assisted her pummeling, she grabbed the leg of one golem, spun it around in a furious circle, and sent it flying off into a thick group of creatures.

_SWOOOOOSSSSH! __**CRUNNNCHH!**_

The golems shattered and collapsed into bright yellow ashes.

Starfire stood, panting.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

She froze.

Three golems came at her from behind. Thick arms reaching around her shoulders.

"Nnnngh!" she flew both of her arms to the side, batting the golem's grasp away.

She backflipped—aided herself with flight—and came down behind the golems.

The alien girl's alien eyes pulsed as she braced her legs, clenched her hands, and shot a stream of green-hot optic lasers from left to right in a stream.

_FLAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAASSSSH!_**  
**  
The lasers cut the golems through.

Their torsos slid off their legs and everything burst into golden flames.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

A spray of lava pellets flew at her shoulder.

"RAAUGH!" Starfire spun and swept an arm across the air.

The green pulsing glow evaporated the burning projectiles.

She then shot a hail of starbolts at the golems that had fired at her.

The monsters fell back, absorbed the heat from her alien blasts, and stomped more furiously at her.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

Starfire flew over to a crumpled sidewalk, picked up a discarded lamppost by its base, and lifted it over her head like a heavy club.

"Nnnnngh!"

She limped towards the monsters, spun, and slammed the full length of the lamppost through their ranks.

_SWOOOOOOOSH—__**SMASSSH!**_

Throngs of golems flew three stories high and across the street. _FWOOOSH!_

"Nnnngh!" she swung the other way.

_**SMASSSSSH!**_

More golems flew.

Starfire let out another shout and approached a throng of surviving monsters with the lamppost hanging over her head.

"RAAAUGH!"

_**CLUTCH!**_

Starfire's hold on the lamppost jolted.

She looked behind her.

A large golem was gripping the end of the bludgeon.

Its leg shot out burningly and slammed into Starfire's side.

_**WHAM!**_

"Nnnngh!" she flew and tumbled off towards the side, rolling to a stop against the foot of a skyscraper.

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

Four heavy golems marched towards her.

She winced and struggled to get up…

_**BL-BLAM!**_

……

_**POWWW!**_

The large golem to her right exploded.

Starfire gasped and shaded herself from the resulting spray of ash and pebbles.

The cluster of golems to her left twitched and shifted about as if nervous….

_**BLAM!**_

…

_**POWWWW!**_

A shell went off in the center of them.

Again, Starfire shielded herself.

When the smoke and fire cleared, she looked across the street.

She saw a U.S. Tank aiming its cannon at where the golems had been.

The huge barrel was smoking.

Soldiers shouted and waved at her from a jeep.

She smiled. She got up and flew over towards their position.

"Starfire!"

"You're still alive!"

"We had feared all the Titans were killed!"

Starfire floated over and stood besides the jeep.

"Has there been any word from Beast Boy? I fear that he was in the Tower when—"

The driver of the jeep shook her head.

"No, ma'am. No word from him."

She gestured at the other two soldiers in the tank with her.

"We started our convoy at the shipyard. We're supposed to meet with General Calvin in the center of the City."

"General Calvin?"

"Our commander in chief of this defense operation," another soldier said. "If we don't hurry, they'll be overrun by Dagger's forces and these rock-monsters in the center of Town all by themselves."

Starfire nodded. "Then we must make haste. As much as I desire to find my friends, the safety of this City takes prevalence." She gestured: "If you carry on in the direction you were planning to advance, I shall fly over and provide cover fire. Dagger still seems to have many flying abominations at hand."

"Sounds like a plan to me."

"Wow….sounds like you're used to warfare, Miss Starfire."

The alien girl managed a slight smile. "I have had……experience."

"Okay, company! Let's pull out! Flank the tanks! Protect them at all costs---"

_ZAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAP!_

A bright laser stream suddenly flew into the body of the jeep.

The soldiers gasped.

Wide-eyed, Starfire glanced at the energy stream.

"X'Hal!"

She rushed towards the soldiers.

"Swiftly! Flee---!"

_**BOOOOOM!**_

The jeep's fuel tank exploded, taking the three screaming soldiers along with it.

Starfire's strong alien self was thrown back by the blast.

She slammed into a building face above the convoy and formed a visible dent.

_CRKKK!_

"OOF!"

She fell down and formed yet another crater in the sidewalk.

THWAK!

"Nnnghhh…"

She looked up.

Spotted the flaming remains of the jeep.

…..And gasped.

"N-No…."

She looked across the street.

"…………," Metallo stood with his wrist laser smoking….extended. He 'smirked'. "I don't remember our little dance ending, milady…."

"…….," Starfire frowned. Her teeth gritting. "Nnnngh….m'beratta x'nil de forvarker!"

And the remaining soldiers shouted: "Metallo!"

"He's one of Dagger's!"

"Take him out!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The rounds of bullets merely bounced off of Metallo's torso.

He snickered, reached a metal hand down, grabbed a large chunk of concrete, and flung it at the nearest jeep. "Nnngh! Let slip the shit of war! Ha ha ha!"

"Aaaaugh!" the soldiers bailed out of the jeep just as—

_**CRNNCHHH!**_ The asphalt chunk smashed the jeep in halves.

"RAAAUGH!" Starfire flung herself like a bullet at Metallo across the way.

_**WHURRR!**_

Two panels opened up in the back of Metallo's metal exoskeleton.

Three metal-braced rockets locked into place like wings.

_CH-CHTUNK!_ "Oh shut up." _**PFT-PFT-PFTOOOOOOSSSSSHHH!**_

The missiles sailed straight at the convoy.

Starfire snarled, spun horizontally, and fired starbolt-after-starbolt in a clockwise spiral.

_FL-FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASSSSH!_

Each energy pulse met the incoming rockets in mid-air.

They all cohesively exploded together in a fiery plume.

_**POWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

_FWOOOOOSSSSH!_

Starfire flew through the billowing blast and slammed into Metallo.

**WHUMP!**

Metallo braced himself against Starfire's force. He slid back on two concrete-grinding legs till his back slammed against a building front.

"Nnnngh!" Starfire charged a starbolt in a hand held high, preparing to drive it into Metallo's face.

Metallo's eyes flickered.

_Whurr!_

A panel slid open in his metal chest and extended a taser.

_ZZZZZTTT-TTT!_

"NNNNNGHHH!" Starfire jolted all over from the electrical surge.

"HAA!" Metallo uppercutted her fiercely.

**WHAM!**

The Tamaranian girl's body lifted up.

_TH-THWISSH! __**WHAM!**_ Metallo pivoted and slammed his foot into her pink shirt.

Starfire flew back into a tank—_SMASH!_—smashed through it—_CRKKK!_—and flew out the other side.

The U.S. vehicle smoked and short-circuited.

_STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!_

Metallo ran over, leapt, and landed atop the tank.

_CL-CLUMP!_

Starfire stood up on the sidewalk beyond, rubbing her ribcage and groaning.

Metallo crouched and gripped the turret of the tank in metal hands.

"_NnnnnnNNNGHHH!"_

CRKKK-CRKKK-**CRAAACKK!**

He snapped the turret up off the tank's bottom portion entirely.

He grabbed the turret by the barrel and swung it down onto Starfire's figure.

The alien girl looked up—gasping—in the shadow of the turret…

_**SMASSSSH!**_

She disappeared under the mangled wreckage.

Smoke and dust rose from the site.

"Hrmmm…," Metallo stood up straight atop the tank. Metal arms folded. "Don't take that the wrong way. I like you just as a friend………………...come to think of it, I don't like you at all."

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
P-P-PING!_

Bullets danced harmlessly across Metallo's metal skull.

"……….," he casually glanced across the intersection.

Three jeeps full of gunmen and soldiers were firing at him. "Let him have it!" "Waste him!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

"………….hrmm….," Metallo extended a hand and produced his wrist laser again.

Glowing.

About to enflame the bodies of the helpless soldiers.

"Widows…..in the making………heh heh heh heh—"

_**CRKKKKKK!**_ "YEAAAAUGHHH!" Starfire burst out of the turret and flew at him, clothes and hair-ends smoking.

Metallo barely looked at her. "Aw bullocks—"

_**WHAMMM!**_

Starfire plunged into Metallo at an ascending forty-five degree angle and—

_**CRASSSSH!**_

Smashed the two of them through an office building and—

_**CRKKKK!**_

Plunged them through another building and—

_**SMASSSSSSH!**_

Sailed them through the radio-antenna of another skyscraper.

The two plunged up and over the buildings of the City and the raging battles burning below before landing atop a tower four blocks away from Kobayashi.

_TH-TH-THWUMPPP!_

The two rolled across a rooftop, grunting.

Metallo was the first to leap up.

He growled.

Starfire struggled to her feet.

Metallo snarled and ran straight towards the alien girl, fist flying. "Be a damn good lass and STAY THE HELL DEAD!"

_**SWOOOOOSH—**__**WHAM!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_PFIFFFT! _

_PFIFFT!_

The snipers in the lofty commercial skyscraper story aimed down and fired through the shattered glass.

Covering the battle between the U.S. Army and Dagger's forces below, they took pot shots at the soldiers of Calvin's contingent.

Forcing the infantry and artillery men to fall one by one. Bleeding.

"Dammit! Stop taking out the grunts! They've a God Damn general with them!"

"Where? Where?"

"To your right! See the open jeep?"

"Shit! Dead duck!"

"Turn his brains to soup—"

_**CRAACCCK!**_

The door to the shadowed office room flew open.

Five or six snipers stood up, gasping, glancing back.

_CHIIIIING!_ I gritted my teeth and rushed at them.

"A Titan!"

"Ice him!"

_**BL-BLAM!**_ A shotgun fire.

_FWOOOSH!_

I teleported through it and exploded at two of the creeps with a smoking shoulder-ramming.

_**WHAM!**_

They screamed and plunged backwards through the glass—_**SHATTTTERRR!**_

The army men and soldiers outside gasped as two bodies sailed out from the high story floor and plunged bloodily to the asphalt below.

The remaining snipers in the room with me gasped and flung their rifles at my figure.

_THWOOSH!_

I sliced the awkward projectiles to metal shreds.

The men reached for their pistols.

I rushed at them.

They fired at me.

One by one.

_BLAM! BL-BLAM! BLAM BLAM!_

I jerked, sidestepped, and blurred left and right.

I reached the group.

One pulled out a grenade.

I snarled mutely and slashed at his arm.

_**THWACK!**_ His hand and the grenade went flying.

"AAAAUGH!"

I sliced at the other two men.

_CHII-CHIINK!_ Their pistols shattered.

I rushed forward and gripped one of the men…hoisting him up by the collar.

He gasped.

I raised Myrkblade to slap him across the skull—

"_NOIR!"_

Calvin's voice shouted from outside. A warning cry.

"……," I glanced out.

Two soldiers were aiming bazookas at the building.

At where I was.

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

_Jump, Jordan……_

I snapped out of it.

_Friggin' jump!_

I dropped the man and blurred out the window.

The bleeding snipers screamed—collapsed in the office window as the two burning RPGs flew at them.

_**PFTOOOOO-OOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

"AAAAAAAA-!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BOOOOM!.!.!.!.!**_

The floor of the office building shattered in a ball of fire and heated glass behind me.

I twirled out of the building in a horizontal spin, soared across the street, and made contact with the building face across the way.

**WHUMP!**

I painfully slammed into it and bounced off.

In mid-fall I gritted my teeth—_CHIIIING!_—and jabbed Myrkblade out.

_SLNKKKKKKKKK-KKKKKKKTTT!_

The black-flickering sword ate into the black glass and steel….carving the wholllllllle waaaaaay dowwwwwwn.

Sparks and glass pebbles flew and splashed as I slowed….slowed………slowed my descent.

_SCRKKKKKKK-KKKKKTTT!_

When I reached the first floor, I grunted, planted my feet into the glass surface of the building and flipped off.

_FW-FWIPP!_

PLANT!

I landed in the center of the street.

Catching my breath….

_VRMMMMM!_

My neck twisted over towards the heated intersection with a whip of my long black hair.

A supply truck and a hummer were speeding towards me.

Dagger's vehicles.

As they fled the scene, a dozen soldiers ran out from their jeeps and waved their arms wildly.

Shouting: _"They're getting away!" "They're getting away!" "Stop them!"  
_

_TH-TH-THWISSSH!_

I twirled Myrkblade.

I crouched low with my sword held behind me.

I glared…..glared at the incoming supply truck.

_**VRMMMMMMMM!**_

Its headlights flashed at me.

Its dented, steel-hard grill loomed.

The vibrating, smoking vehicle soared mercilessly towards me with engines screaming.

I charged murk.

Meditated.

And unleashed all energy in a snarling teleport—_FWOOOOOOSSSSH—straight through the body of the rumbling truck—FL-FLASSSH!—_and solidifying in an upswing of my billowing blade at the rear of it.

"……….."

As if in a delayed reaction---

_**POP! P-POP! POPPP!**_

All four tires of the supply truck exploded.

The vehicle collapsed, slid sparkingly on its chassis for twenty meters, and turned over into an exploding crash behind me---its supply of Daggerite, elite thugs flailing everywhere and slamming into concrete and building steel.

_THWUMP! THWAP! WHAM!_

The hummer steered around me—tires screaming—and bolted for the far end of the street.

I looked aside.

Saw a street sign.

Dashed towards it.

Sliced the sign part off with Myrkblade—_SLIIINK!_

Grabbed the sign.

Enveloped it with serrated murk.

And flung the thing like a metaphysical Frisbee straight after the escaping Hummer.

_THWISSSSSSSSSSSSSH!_

The spinning, smoking signpiece flew through the metal shell of the Hummer and exploded into its axel.

The wheels failed.

The vehicle veered left and right and then screeched its way right into a building face at over seventy miles per hour.

It exploded…..

_**BOOOM!**_

I squinted my shaded, black eyes from the flare of the fire…and took a deep breath.

_Vrmmmmm……_ General Calvin rode up with his jeep under the halo of distant soldiers' cheers and whoops.

"Well done, Titan….," Calvin managed a rough smile. "You can take a breath. We've claimed the Downtown's Center."

I glanced back at the battle-strewn intersection, now a convergence of two of Calvin's reunited brigades.

Cheering soldiers.

And I couldn't help but shudder.

_  
Do you get the same feeling, Ana? _

_That this is……all too good to be true?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKK! **_

_**CRKKKKKK-KKK!**_

Two golems were bearing down on a collapsed jeep behind which four U.S. soldiers were taking refuge.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

"It's no use! The damn things are impenetrable from up front!"

"We need to get the jeep's gun working again!"

"It's jammed!"

"Dammit!"

_**CRKKKK!**_

The first of the golems stepped up on the jeep, crunched it, and flailed its limbs towards the soldiers—

**POW! CLANKKK!**

A grappling hook stuck into the burning creature from behind.

Robin stood in the middle of the street.

"Nnnngh!"

He pulled at the cord with all his might.

_**YANKKK!**_

The golem was pulled back into two of its buddies.

All three monsters collapsed on the ground.

"They're down! They're down!"

"Take 'em out!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets pelted into the 'foreheads' and torsos of the beasts.

One soldier popped out a grenade, released the pin, and tossed the explosive into the center of the collapsed cluster.

_**BAMMM!**_

The golems exploded in gold fury.

Robin was long gone, jogging his way around a street corner.

Two jeeps whizzed by, blowing at his cape and hair.

He flinched, panting.

A buildingside collapsed across the way…followed by a splash of golem bodies from the punishment of a U.S. tank.

Somewhere else, the air beated loudly with rotar blades.

Robin gulped, looked down the street, and tilted his gaze upwards.

"……"

A HIND was chasing the tail of an apache, firing heavy rounds of machine gun fire. _**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Glass building fronts and rooftops shattered from the heavy assault.

The apache whizzed and spun around to avoid the tailfire.

The HIND gained and gained more speed, closing in on the U.S. craft.

"……," Robin estimated the speed, direction, and flight of the two vehicles.

He swiftly dashed across the street, jogged down an alleyway, and came out in a thick street at the edge of Downtown.

Four golems were battling a U.S. tank there.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

_**BLAM! BL-BLAM!**_

Golden bits and debris flew.

One golem stood beneath a tall skyscraper.

It turned and—at sight of Robin—flung a stream of lava pellets.

_**CRKK-KKK!**_

Robin gritted his teeth, vaulted over the fiery projectiles, and landed with his feet planted in the crown of the golem.

_**THWMPP!**_

Robin vaulted mightily off the top of the golem, soared upwards, and gripped the tattered flagpole of the building stretching above him.

Like a circus performer, the Boy Wonder spun….spun…….spun…………and spun around the pole.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!_

The apache soared by.

Robin spun………..spun……………….and released---

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!**_

The firing HIND streaked by as well.

"Nnnngh!" Robin flipped up, soared, and reached his hands out—**SNATCH!**—catching a dangling ride on the right missile wing of the soaring helicopter.

Robin hung on for dear life as the HIND veered left and right through the streets and building spaces of the City, closing in on the helpless apache.

The Boy Wonder grunted, freed a hand, pulled out an explosive disc, and planted it against the center of the HIND's payload. He tapped a few buttons and initiated the explosive timer at five seconds.

"Nnngh!" he dropped.

_THWOOOOSH!_

Robin fell a few stories and landed atop a hotel building's rooftop.

_Th-Th-Th-Thwmpp!_

He rolled a few times and came up on one knee.

Staring at the helicopter chase.

Panting….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_ The HIND soared on for another block and a half….then—

_**KABOOOOOOM!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The huge Daggerite craft exploded in halves. Its rotar blades shattered and flew in every conceivable direction, slicing the red-painted night as the hulk of the craft plummeted earthward.

Robin watched.

"……….!"

Robin gasped and rolled aside—

_**FLIP-FLIP-FLIP-**__**CLANK!.!.!.!**_

A stray, black rotary blade shard landed and embedded in the rooftop just inches from his nimble body.

"……….nnngh….," Robin exhaled. He stood up on wobbly feet and limped towards the hotel building's edge.

He gazed down at the streets….the blazing battles….the golem numbers decreasing…..decreasing…..

"Dagger….," he murmured to the wintry air. "This is way too easy. What are you holding back? What is your…plan B?"

And his green-gloved fists clenched….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**HCKKKK! CLIK-CLIK-Snkkkktt!"**_ Deathstroke slashed and swung his sword at the nimble Dagger.

Dagger leapt back, tossed his knives, and flipped over Red Aviary.

Deathstroke hissed and jabbed straight up at the man.

Dagger nimbly dodged the attack, landed in a slide towards the edge of the Kobayashi summit, and—before he could fall off—grabbed firmly the edge of a white satellite dish.

He flipped his body up and perched within the dish.

Glancing down, the calm fighter's sweaty face saw the decrease in gold forces and the fleeing HINDs and vehicles.

"Nrmmm….," he murmured.

Dagger momentarily sheathed his blades and reached a watch on his wrist.

He tapped a few keystrokes on tiny buttons.

"…..wished I wouldn't have to resort to this till later. You certainly are a pest, Luthor…"

_Beeep!_

The command inputted, Dagger swiftly readied a fresh pair of knives.

In good timing, too.

"_**HCKKK!"**_ Deathstroke leapt high and came sliding down the upper slope of the satellite dish. Blurring straight towards Dagger.

Dagger spun around and defended with his knives in a criss-cross fashion, blocking Red Aviary's frenzied attack.

_**CLANGGG!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside one of two HINDs patrolling the thunderous City's perimeter….

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

The dashboard lit up.

In the rear bubble of the two-man chopper, the Daggerite pilot made a few adjustments and spoke to his copilot through intercom.

"Hey. We've received the signal. Dagger wants us to go ahead."

"_Snkkt. Roger that. Time to heat things up."_

"Setting course."

The pilot gestured at the flanking HIND through the cockpit window and gripped the controls.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSH!**_

Both helicopters arced sharply southward and headed directly over the Bay….

To the burning Titans' Island….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Grfff…._**NRGGGHHH!**_" Changeling slammed through two more golems with gorilla arms. He screamed and pounced on a third in velociraptor form, biting into the flaming crown and spitting thermal shards at a group of incoming monsters..knocking them to the ground.

_**CRKKKK-KKK!**_

Garfield leapt back in elf form, and stood above the grounded Raven.

He panted….dried blood caking the left side of his head.

His one ear pricked to the wind as he flexed his limbs and shouted to the circling ring of golems.

"COME ON! IF YOU TAKE THIS CITY, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME TOO!"

_**CRKKK!**_

The golems paced themselves slowly.

Heatedly 'studying' the changeling.

Making their approach slow…methodical.

Then and there…Raven stirred in mid-heal on the floor

"Nnnngh…."

Changeling spun and looked down at her.

Worried.

Panting.

"R-Rae?"

"Garfield….," she wheezed.

He ran over and knelt by her.

"Speak to me, Raven. Quickly! Are you doing any better--?"

"We're in trouble….," she murmured. Glowing eyes closed.

"Yeah, I know. Big flaming monsters—"

"N-No….f-from the air…."

"……….," the elf tilted his bleeding head towards the red sky.

……..

_Fw-Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwoosh!_

He gasped.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!_

He stood up, fists clenched. "Choppers!"

"D-D…D-D-Dagger's….," Raven struggled to say.

"I'll take them down too! I'll toss one of these damn creeps at them! Kill two crapheads with one stone!"

"Th-They're not here for us…," Raven whispered. "They're here for the island…."

"……..," Changeling's green eyes went crooked. "The _island?_ Raven, what the--?"

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

Garfield turned and looked.

The two HINDs dipped down.

From afar….they unleashed a full payload of missiles that soared down at the island….

…..and headed directly for the gaping cavity in the earth that was the fire pit where the Tower once stood.

Garfield gasped.

"The White Energy….," Raven hissed…wincing. "Th-They're trying to…..intensify it…w-with a cauldron…."

"Raven! We gotta get out of here!"

Changeling spun and scooped Raven up in his own elfin arms.

She winced. "Ohhhh….." Moaning.

"HANG ON!"

Garfield desperately ran with her and leapt off a crag of rocks---

_**PFTOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The missiles slammed into the virtual volcano….

_**KAAAABOOOOOMMMMM!.!.!.!.!.!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

The whole City shook.

The downtown area rumbled.

I gasped, nearly losing my footing.

Along with General Calvin and a handful of startled soldiers, I stared south.

Towards a sudden, rising plume of gold fire against the red horizon.

The black Equalizer in me danced and quivered like an obsidian candle to an opening window.

I shuddered.

_Dear Ana…… _

_It's……a flux. _

_Construction and Destruction. _

_This City is going to be ripped in half by the night's end._

The plume rose and rose.

The Earth rumbled more.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the subways, the lights flickered.

The thousands of people gasped and murmured.

Dust fell and settled on innocent, huddled heads.

People braced themselves against the walls and benches, shaken.

Lindsay's family hugged each other and prayed. The teenage girl herself held a wailing Phil close to her chest. Eyes wide.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin steadied himself on the edge of the rooftop.

Teeth gritting, he spun and faced southward.

The hot fire of Titan's island rose and rose.

Burning into the sky.

As two HINDs flew guiltily from the ground zero…

The pit of fire that was once the Titans' Tower's cellar spewed forth large…frothing comets of burning gold.

Four times as large as before.

Robin exhaled.

"I thought so……."

He all but dropped his bo-staff.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"What in the Hell?"

"More of those things?"

"No wait…they're bigger."

"What the--?"

"LOOK OUT!"

"Hit the deck!"

Soldiers dove and forced General Calvin to the ground besides the jeep.

Others ran for cover.

I stood bravely where I was, gripping Myrkblade.

_**SWOOOOO-OOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

A blazing 'comet' the size of a semi-truck sailed down and plowed into Main Street, forming an earth-shattering crater.

_**BOOOOM!.!.!.!**_

The whole City shook as a dozen or so similar, gargantuan comets landed all throughout the Metropolitan area, smashing building faces and exploding street asphalt.

_**RUMMMMMMBLLLLEEEE!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The soldiers and I watched—breathlessly—as a giant shadow grew out of the ashes of the nearby, fallen 'comet'.

The figure suddenly glowed a sun-bright gold.

Nearly blinding me in spite of my shades.

A five-story tall golem of thermal energy raised its head and flailed its limbs at sight of us.

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

A good many of us gulped.

"It's…..I-It's like a Queen Piece of Shit!"

"Nah…it's the same as the others! Only bigger!"

"Then it'll fall twice as hard!" General Calvin stood up and shouted. He pointed a heated figure and bellowed: "**FIRE**!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

BL-BLAM! BLAM!

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT!**_

Over two dozen streams of bullets and weaponry pummeled the tall, flickering creature.

It merely hissed and stomped towards us, burning asphalt and building fronts along the way.

I shuddered…stepping back.

_Somehow……I think things just got harder……_

_**CRKKKKKKKK!**_

"Here it comes!"

"Move! MOVE!"

I gritted my teeth and dove out of the way with a pulsing teleport just as the meaty arms of fire slammed down between us….

_**CRUNNNNNNCHHHHH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over the countryside…

Blurring through the blue night.

Terra's lips parted and the earthen maiden let forth a gasp.

Her wrists which guided the swiftly flying rock twitched some.

The rock lost a little bit of altitude.

Supergirl gazed over…not sure whether or not the blonde girl needed help.

"Terra…..are you all right?"

"…………"

"Terra…what's happening?"

Her eyes thinned under her goggles.

She bit her lip. "It's gotten worse."

"…………."

Jinx and Pulsade shifted nervously where they perched.

Terra bit her lip and throttled the rock faster towards the horizon.

_SWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!_


	252. Break the Circle part 12

**252. Break the Circle part 12**

The subways shook.

Inside, the huddled citizens gasped and held each other.

Braced against the walls and the railroad tracks as dust fell and the lights flickered.

Earthquake tremors shook through the extensive, underground domain in cadence of a _giant's_ footsteps.

People cried.

People screamed.

A roll of commotion echoed down the lengths of the tunnel.

Even some of the cops and military guards shifted about…apprehensive.

Renee held tightly to Daniel.

The husband gazed up at the shaking ceiling.

His eyes narrowed and he murmured under the tumult.

"What in God's name is going on up there?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHOOO-OOOOOOOM!**_

_**SHOOOOOOM!**_

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKK!**_

More and more blazing comets fell.

All in all, nearly two dozen of the gigantic projectiles soared up from the gaping wound in Titan's Island and landed in the City.

Then—seemingly—as if the essences of Construction within the volcanic core were used up, the comets stopped falling.

But of the last of those that did fall….

_**CRKKKKKK! **_

_**CRKKKKKKKK!**_

Golden golems—five stories tall each—rose up from the craters.

The red sky of night above them danced from heat vapors as they flexed their gargantuan arms and stumbled forth through the streets of the City.

Cracking asphalt and concrete wherever their burning feet tread.

A couple of HINDs flew over them…perhaps in victory….perhaps in escort.

Dagger's army—now revitalized—ravaged the City once again from the inside out.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Move! Move!"

"Make way!"

Escorted by a couple of police officers, Lieutenant Smith ran up a metal catwalk and onto the roof of a factory in the northern industrial district.

He walked across the rooftop between smokestacks and faced the southern half the City.

Two cops who were already there glanced back, nodded, and handed him a pair of electronic binoculars.

He took the viewfinder and gazed out, directly southward.

"When did this happen?" Smith uttered.

"Just minutes ago, sir. A couple of Dagger's helicopters flew towards Titans' Island. There was a grand explosion. Then nearly thirty more of those blazing projectiles flew out of the island and landed in the City."

"………," Smith's eyes narrowed.

Through the fuzzy nightvision of the viewfinder, she saw the blazing bodies of giant rock-monsters burning with every shift of their weight and lava-encrusted joints. The smaller, human-sized golems flanked their treading feet as the giants made their way towards the center of the City, attacking clusters of military forces at every turn.

"My God…..," Smith lowered the viewfinder. "Doesn't this sort of crap stay in Metropolis?"

"Not tonight, sir."

"……..," Smith stroked his chin. Attempting to keep calm….all the while gazing at the tempestuous site.

"Sir…..our orders are to stay put. The Army doesn't want us involved."

"Mmmmm……righto……"

A beat.

"……….," Smith gazed at his subordinates.

The police officers stared back at him.

A beat.

Smith smiled. "So? What are we waiting for?"

The officers immediately ran to their places.

"Start 'em up!"

From down below….

_VRMMMMM---MMM!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKKK!**_

A burning giant took one step.

U.S. jeeps and soldiers scattered and zoomed northward along Main Street.

Under the burning shadow.

Crying out shouts, orders, warnings.

Aiming up at the monster with their weapons.

_**CRKK-KKK!**_

The giant took another step.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The soldiers fired directly upward from the jeeps and other vehicles.

The huge, five-story golem treaded over them.

It let loose illegible groaning and crackling sounds as puffs of flame and lava spurted from its limbs.

At one point, two grenades from a pair of soldiers along the sidewalk impacted the monster's foot.

_**POW!**_

_**BOOOM!**_

_**CRKKK-KKK!**_ The beast slowly turned, pivoted its legs, and swung it out towards the men.

The two soldiers shouted and dove towards the side—

_**CRAAAAAAAAAAK!**_ The building face shattered from the huge foot.

A wall of concrete and glass fell down, blanketing a good half of the Street.

Dust and debris scattered….filling the road with haze.

_**CRKKK!**_

The monster marched on, unhindered.

Buildings shook and rattled on either side as the colossus advanced.

While the U.S. Army personnel retreated under the shouts of General Calvin, the remaining forces of Dagger redoubled their forces.

Nefarious jeeps and Hummers gathered in cleared off, rubble-strewn sections of Downtown.

Illegal weapons were redistributed and the Daggerites sped off to waste away anything that still stood behind the path of the randomly stomping giants.

The smaller golems still ran and charged in any direction they spontaneously desired. At the first thermal signature of human life crossing their senses, they made a bee-line for the helpless soldier or two and rushed with murderous limbs flailing.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

What was once a solid defense force—taking the central districts of the City back from the invasionary force—was quickly withering away like a peeling onion.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

A five-foot monster marched in front of Bayside Plaza.

Two U.S. jeeps and a tank swiftly fled down the coastal road heading west along the Bay.

As the army tank went as fast as its treads could carry it, the turret spun around backwards and fired at the legs of the huge, burning beast.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

…..

_**POWWW!**_

The shell barely shattered the ankle of the huge automaton.

The five-story behemoth burned a flare of fire, rushed forward, and reached a hand down.

_**CRKKKK!**_

The tank was scooped up in a single lunge.

The beast crumpled it, set the clump of metal hotly ablaze, and tossed it limply towards the right.

_TH-TH-THWISSSH!_ The 'tank' flip-flopped in the air, plummeted northward, and smashed straight through a gas station.

_**BOOOOOM!**_ The place exploded in a burst of hot fire.

The jeeps sped away and the beast marched on.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Eastern District.

The Shipyards.

A monstrous golem waded through the Atlantic.

Its burning exoskeleton caused the seawater to boil and exhale clouds of hot steam.

_SSSSSSSssssss!_

A company of soldiers stood firmly on the docksides besides their jeeps.

Together, the nearly three-dozen officers fired heavy artillery volleys into the body of the half-submerged creature.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The exoskeleton of the creature simply deflected and/or melted the incoming bullets upon contact. Tiny, trivial flakes of burning ash flew and splashed off the shell of the thing.

As two men prepared to launch a bazooka…

The creature raised its arms---_**CRKKKK-KKK!**_—and brought them both slamming down into the waters on either side of its girth.

_**SPLOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

A wall of sea came at the docks and shipyards.

Burning sea.

The men gasped and ran out of their jeeps.

The soldiers went fleeing towards the higher ground and concrete….

_**SPLOOOOSH!**_

The hot, boiling seawater cascaded over the wharfs and splashed hotly over the former defensive line of the now-absent officers. The jeeps hissed and billowed steam on contact. The tires popped and random explosives dropped ignited.

The shipyard became ablaze with fire and steam.

And the creature marched ashore, cutting a straight path.

Burning all it came in contact with.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Western District, where the Suspension Bridge met the main land…

Calvin's forces were gathering at the northern base of the bridge.

Those that made it there performed a last stand against two five-story golems and their smaller brethren.

Armed with missiles and air support from three apaches, the military group launched explosive streams into the opposing force.

The projectiles converged on the two giants first. The fire from the exploding missiles wrapped about the incoming golems, cascading down to enflame their companions.

But the beasts merely absorbed it into their thermal cores and marched all the stronger—all the hotter—towards the spot of last resort.

And right as they started looming directly over the last contingent….

HINDs dove in and shot down one of the three apaches.

The two other U.S. aircraft swiftly came about and approached the aerial onslaught.

Soon the entire Western District was being skewered with hellseekers and high caliber machine gun rounds and flying ashes of thermal intensity.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

In the Downtown district, a huge golem sluggishly lurched past a six-story apartment building.

Robin perched on the rooftop, bracing himself as the stomping feet of the behemoth shook t.v. antennae and a/c units all around him.

Rattling….

He absorbed the sounds of shouting soldiers and burning engines from down below.

An enemy helicopter or two flew loudly over the Boy Wonder's head.

Robin ignored it.

He jumped up to his feet and ran from rooftop to rooftop.

Keeping parallel with the hulking monster.

_**STOMP!**_

_**ST-STOMP!**_

Robin panted and shouted in his communicator while jogging. "Noir! We've got trouble!"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

'_Dagger's freaks are giving the General's forces a run for it! We can't let any more soldiers die!'_

I panted…nodding.

I was blurring through the streets alongside the fleeing jeeps.

The feet of a monstrous oaf stomped and burned the asphalt behind me.

_**STOMP! STOMP!**_

The entire road shook and crumbled from the creature's infernal pace.

It was hard enough keeping my feet on the rumbling ground, much less streaking with murk like I was.

'_Let's form up again! Meet me at the corner of Twentieth and Main! I see Calvin's company from here! Let's see if we can buy them some time!'_

I nodded breathlessly to the air.

I twirled Myrkblade, glanced aside, and murked up the immediate building just as a hulking foot stomped where I previous was.

_**CRUNNNCH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin pocketed his communicator away.

He extended his bo-staff in one hand—_snkkkt!—_and whipped out a grappling hook in the other.

_**STOMP! **_

_**ST-STOMP!**_

The golem marched on firmly just ahead of the Boy Wonder.

Robin gritted his teeth, ran to his right, leapt off the edge of the rooftop, and dove directly over the 'crown' of the four-story, burning monster.

"Nnngh!" In mid-air, Robin dragged his bo-staff downward and dragged its end sharply across the forehead of the beast.

_CLNKKKK-KKKKKK!_

Sparks flew.

The beast shook its 'head'.

It stopped where it was momentarily.

Robin kicked his feet off the monster's forehead and landed on its shoulder.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_ Disoriented, the creature flailed its limb.

**FWOOOOSSSH!**

Robin positioned himself and kicked his legs just as the forearm he perched on launched him upwards.

The Boy Wonder flipped through the air, twirled, came back down, and fired a grappling hook straight at the monster's head.

**POW!**

_**CL-CLANK!**_

The hook embedded into its skull.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKK!**_

The monster swung its burning hands to swat Robin.

The Boy Wonder held his breath, agilely dodged the creature in mid-descent, and tightly held onto the grappling hook as he met the monster's shoulders again with his feet and ran…ran….ran….ran a spiraling path around the creature's body. Robin thusly wrapped his grappling hook cord around the creature like a merry pole and leapt off as he reached huge-ankle level.

_Fw-Fwoosh!_ Robin landed in a reverse slide down the center of Main Street.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK-KKKK!**_ The creature thrashed, struggled, and fought to pop itself free of the ensnaring, wraparound cord.

Robin gritted his teeth, whipped out an explosive birdarang—_chiiiing!_—and aimed at the behemoth's forehead from down below.

Half of his eyemask 'squinted'.

"Keep….your pretty face….still…..," Robin mumbled.

_**CRKKK-KKKK……CRKKKKKK!**_ The beast suddenly lurched back, lost its glow of gold for a second, then flared back up with a huge outburst of flames that ruptured everywhere and melted the cord into flying ashes.

_**FWOOOOOMB!**_

"Aaaugh!" Robin was blown back by a heated concussion blast. _TH-THRUMP!_ He landed in a pile of jeep debris. "Ugh!"

The giant monster pulsed hotly.

It flexed its limbs…loomed over the Boy Wonder…and raised its right arm to slam down on him.

Wincing, Robin braced himself for the worst—

_FWOOOOOOSH!_ I leapt murkingly into the scene.

I perched on the creature's arm, twirled Myrkblade, and stabbed the smoke-enveloped sword into the rocky gut.

**CRAAAAAK!**

The monster flailed and shook its limbs.

I stuck on with Myrkblade stabbing a good half-meter into the monster's limb.

Robin looked up, catching his breath.

He struggled for a second…then jumped to his feet.

My black eyes flickered smoke and my sword pumped waves of murk into the heated skeleton of the monster as it tried in vain to toss me off.

I gasped…_the Construction waves were overwhelming._

I felt my black optics flickering.

A hint of crimson—

_**FL-FLASSSSH!**_ The arm pulsed and exploded in black fury.

**PPPPOWWWW!**

I lurched back—panting—balancing precariously on the monster's lava-leaking shoulder.

_Whoah…… _

_D-Did you see that, Ana---?_

_**SMACCCK!**_ The monster bitch-slapped me off its forearm.

I shot out into the air, flailing.

Wincing.

_Son of a---_

**WHAM!**

I slapped into a glass building front and slid down till I landed with a bounce on an awning.

The creature burned, shot flame out of its leaking limb, and marched menacingly towards me. _**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

I bit my lip.

Before the creature could take so much as a second step….

_SWISSSSSSSSSSSH-__**FLASSSH!**_

_**VROMMMM! VROMMMMMMMM!**_

The creature jerked to a huge, hulking stop.

Its torso wriggled around and it billowed flame in protest.

"……..?" I glanced down.

Two huge chunks of ice glued the monster's feet to the road where Robin's ice discs had made contact.

"YAAAAAAAGH!" The Titan Leader in question was presently swinging down by yet another grappling hook and slamming his feet into the chest of the five-story monstrosity.

_**SLAPPP!**_

Sparks flew from the Boy Wonder's boots' contact with the heated chest of rock.

The monster groaned, flailed, and teetered back.

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSH-**__**SLAMMMMM!**_

The entire Main Street shook.

Cracks formed in the windows of the nearest buildings.

A fire hydrant or two loosened from the impact wave and spewed water everywhere.

The huge, burning monster burned and thrashed and boiled…

But for the infernal life of it, the giant thing could not get back up.

_Heh. _

_That's a plus._

I stood up and dropped down from the awning with a cushion of murk.

Robin panted and prepared an explosive disc to fling onto the prone creature when---

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

We both looked up, standing side by side.

Two apaches were soaring between the buildings of the Main Street.

Robin waved his arms and shouted. Tumult. "Hey! HEY!"

I added a shrill whistle for good measure.

One of the apaches slowed.

The other hovered to a mid-air stop also in turn.

Robin pointed at the beast and gestured: "Sitting duck right here!"

That said, Robin hopped back and motioned me along with him.

I swiftly darted to the sidewalk and crouched behind the Boy Wonder.

The two of us watched patiently as the two apaches hovered apart, took positions in the air, and started pelting…pummeling…and shattering the monster in all its weak spots using steady bursts of high caliber gattling gun fire.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**CRKKKKKKKK-KKKKKKKKKK!**_ The fallen monster flailed and shook as its helpless body was wrenched in two by the thick stream of lead. Its torso ate away and burst into flames as the heat poured out into the red air and sucked the golden glow up out of the lower limbs of the beast.

Robin and I watched our enemy peel apart.

"W-Well…," the Boy Wonder gulped and looked at me. A sweating, nervous smile. "Only a-about twenty-three of them left!"

I simpered….

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

The two of us gasped.

We spun around.

A company of jeeps burned down the road and came to a dead stop where we and the dead monster blocked the path.

The first jeep carried General Calvin. He stood up, waved a fist, and shouted: "What are you doing, blocking the damn road!"

"Sir!" Robin shouted and pointed at the monstrosity that the apaches were finishing off. "We're killing one of the monsters!"

"And what do you think we've been running the Hell away from!" Calvin shouted and pointed over his shoulder.

_**ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP! STOMPPPPP!**_

Two—_count 'em_—two beasts of five-story burning strength marched around the street corner and took up the rear behind the stand-still company of Calvin's soldiers and their jeeps.

The thirty-or-so soldiers—Robin and I and the General included—were now locked between the dead, steaming body of the apache-punished golem and the two fresh behemoths taking up the rear.

Trapped.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The soldiers shouted and rushed to load the jeeps' mounted guns for an emergency stand.

Robin panted.

He looked at the apaches.

He looked at the monsters.

He ran out into the middle of the street, waved his arms, and shouted: "HEY! HEEEEY!" He pointed at the two monsters. "Keep them busy!"

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_ The two helicopters hovered up and started unleashing missiles and machine gun fire on the colossuses.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOOSH! **__**BL-BLAMM!**_

The two giants flailed and fought back the flames and weapon fire.

Robin ran towards the ashen remains of the destroyed beast ahead of the stranded company and started smashing, thrashing, and cracking the dull granite apart with his bo-staff.

"Hraaaugh!"

CRKKKK!

"YAAAUGH!"

THWACKK!

"I think I see the kid's idea!" Calvin pointed. "Clear the way!"

_VRMMM-MMMM!_

Three jeeps roared ahead.

The men with the mounted guns in the back shot past Robin.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The combined machine gun fire shattered the dull rock into crumbling debris.

A path was being blown away from the combined effort of Robin's bo-staff and the jeeps' weaponry.

All the while, the apaches used up a good half of their ammo on the two monsters to the rear of the military contingent.

But not for long…

I panted….gripping Myrkblade strongly by the hilt and considering my options.

_Robin definitely needs help clearing the path. _

_I have the Spectral powers needed to assist in speedily smashing the rocky remains apart._

_Helping out is the rational thing to do._

_But………_

I glanced back at the two monsters.

In spite of the apaches' punishment, the beasts started to tear their heated…frothing way towards the jeeps and Calvin's men inside.

Only a few seconds, and they'd be stomping on helpless soldiers' bodies.

Robin and the others weren't about to punch a path through in time.

_Since when did I ever do the 'rational' thing, Ana?_

I gritted my teeth.

_FWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_ I blurred madly towards the monsters.

Robin looked over his shoulder, sweated, and momentarily stopped thrashing a path through the stony crags. "Noir! WAIT!"

I streaked straight down the 'aisle' of concrete formed between the stranded jeeps.

Mutely screaming, I rushed the first of the two beasts, streaked up its leg…ribcage….shoulder….and leapt off its neck.

_TH-THWISSSH!_ I flipped in mid-air.

Robin watched breathlessly.

General Calvin turned to look….

_Thwooooosh-__**Plant!**_ I landed on the crown of the first monster. I snarled and stabbed Myrkblade straight down into the flaming 'skull'.

_**CRACK!**_

The monster snarled and exhaled flames up…up…up its body.

I stuck Myrkblade deep into its head and formed a proximity shield of smoke.

_**FWOOOOSSSH!**_ I blocked off the flames from rupturing into me.

I panted and forced Myrkblade down deeper….deeper…..digging into the monster's fiery innards.

I could feel the lava and flame spewing inside at the contact of my smoke-covered blade.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKKKKKK!**_

I gritted my teeth. Sweating from the hellish fumes. Gripping the hilt tighter and concentrating…concentrating….

_Construction………_

"Noir!" Robin ran halfway to the beast and flailed his gloved hands. "Get off that! You hear me? That's an order!"

_Not Now, Robin……_

"I don't want you dying on me!"

_Let the Equalizer do his duty………_

I closed my black eyes.

I tilted my head back as the fumes of the giant monster's head I was slicing billowed up around me.

_Okay, Ana. _

_It worked with Terra. _

_Now……show me again…… _

_Show me just what sort of power I'm dealing with here._

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKKKK!**_

I kept Myrkblade in place.

Becoming one with the sword……with a billowing curtain of black.

I hissed and clenched my obsidian optics shut tighter.

My teeth showed…..

_Yes…… _

_Yes……… _

_Teach me some of those old tricks, Ana. _

_Now would be a good time………_

"………….."

My black eyes flew open.

They flickered _**RED.**_

Robin did a double-take.

Back to _**BLACK**_.

_AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!_

_**FWOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

I teleported _downward_ into the monster, through the hole in its head.

And….

_**CRNCH-CRNCH-CRNCH-CRNCH-CRNCH-CRNCH**__**!**_....

A series of red-colored explosions splashed straight down through the invisible 'spine' of the monster and---

_**CRAAAAA-AAAAACKKK!**_

I exploded out between the legs of the beast and landed in a materialized splash of black—laced with fading red—on the ash-laden asphalt.

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

I shuddered where I stood, Myrkblade still pointed down…earthward.

Smoking with both heat and spectral energy.

"………………….."

A beat.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKKTTTT-TTT!**_ The monster split in two halves and collapsed loudly on either side of me. _**FWOOOMPPP!**_

"………," Robin blinked.

"We're through!" Calvin shouted. He motioned towards the fresh path in the fallen rock-debris as his jeep drove on through.

The soldiers cheered and followed swiftly behind.

The apaches lifted up and flew to the far side of the rumbling City to assist with other battling contingents.

In the meantime, the last five-story monster standing teetered about from the last of the helicopters' punishment.

It regained its footing and marched towards us.

_**STOMP! ST-STOMP!**_

I stood limply in its path.

"…….."

I exhaled and fell down—

_Clutch!_

Robin grabbed me.

"Hang on….," he dragged me by the shoulders to the last of the jeeps to take off. The soldiers helped him toss me aboard as he himself hopped on and we were on our speedy way.

_VRMMMMMM!_

The monster stomped through empty space….lingering behind the escaping forces.

I gasped….sweating….catching my breath.

While riding in the back, a similarly breathless Robin looked over and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you going to live?"

"…….," I gulped and shakily nodded.

"Good. Cuz I'm gonna kill you later."

I smiled nervously.

Robin leaned on his bo-staff and all but fainted for oxygen. "Nnnngh…..god….where are the others?"

_I'm thinking the same thing._

I looked at my flesh and black fingers.

Dark smoke still lingered on the end of my digits.

"………………"

I gazed up skyward.

Red.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside a Hummer piloted by Dagger's thugs…

The fiends drove the vehicle to a stop along a stretch of Main Street.

They stared out the front windshield and watched as the U.S. Army retreated.

Dozens of small golems gave chase, along with a handful of stomping…towering giants of burning flame.

The passenger looked at the driver. "That did it. They're on the run."

"The second phase did the trick," the driver nodded. "This is worth a report to Dagger."

"Dagger hasn't been responding to any comm signals as of late," the passenger remarked. "The same goes with Jones and Corbin. I think they're busily engaged with the enemy!"

"Or the Parasite."

"Perhaps."

"Never the matter," the driver gestured: "Patch a call to the other vehicle divisions. As soon as we've re-captured the Downtown Districts, we're launching explosive charges into the subways. That's where the people must be."

"Per Dagger's plans, right?"

"But of course. Get with it."

"Yes sir."

But just as the passenger began patching a radio signal through—

"_Aaah!_" the mounted gunners atop the rear of the hummer screamed. _"Aaaugh-" TH-THUMP!_

The driver and passenger in the front compartment tensed.

They gazed out the side windows.

_THWOOOSH! _

_FWOOSH!_

The bodies of the two gunners were tossed like ragdolls off the vehicle.

The passenger gasped.

The driver's eyes narrowed. "What the--?"

_**TH-THWOMP!**_

The whole vehicle lurched.

Both thugs exchanged glances.

"Th-There's something on us!"

"You think?.?.?"

"Could it be one of the rock creatures?"

"Hell no," The driver snarled. "Jace made sure that—"

_**CRKKK!**_ A fist-shaped dent pounded inward from the ceiling.

The Passenger shrieked and whipped out a gun, shrinking away from the ruptured ceiling. "What in the Hell—?"

_**CRAAAAK!**_ The top of the Hummer ripped open. A hairy, thick-muscled hand reached down and grabbed the passenger by the neck.

"AAAAA-!"

With a snorting grunt, the hand retracted and tossed the man helplessly down the street.

"Shit!" the driver whipped out his own pistol and aimed up through the hole. "Get away, you freak!"

The red-laced silhouette of a horned crown disappeared, and in its place a youthful face appeared.

"…..," the driver blinked. "The Hell? A boy?"

A wave. Two pulsing eyes of _**GREEN**_

**CONTACT.**

_FLAAAAASH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAAUGH!" Starfire flung her fist into Metallo's chest.

_**CLAAAANG!**_

Metallo slid back across the tall skyscraper's rooftop.

He snarled and brought his elbow up to block another of the Tamaranian's blows.

_THAP!_

He kicked his leg out.

_SMACK!_

Starfire stumbled back.

"NNGHHH!" Metallo dove with a flying, titanium fist.

_THWOOOOOSSH!_

Starfire merely backflipped and hovered in the air.

Metallo came down—fist first—and smashed a hole in the rooftop.

_CRUNNNCH!_

Starfire sneered and soared at him, flinging green-pulsing fists at the man's torso. "Haaugh! Haaugh! HAAUGH! _HAAAUGH!"_

Metallo blocked-blocked-blocked-blocked-blocked-_**GRABBED**_ Starfire's wrist.

_SNATCH!_

Starfire gasped.

The android growled, yanked her towards him, and prepared to head butt her.

She swiftly brought her other hand up and grasped her palm over his robotic eyes.

_SWOOOOSH-CLANK!_

"Mmmmmf!" Metallo struggled with her fingers wrapped about his face. "I am so gonna rip you a new—"

Starfire snarled and: "YAAAUGH!"

_**FLAAASH!**_ A starbolt exploded point-blanc in his electric eyes.

"AAAAUGH!" he short circuited all over and hobbled back to the rooftop's edge from her blast, clutching his sparking skull. "Nnnngh! Raaaugh! M-My neural networks!"

Starfire dug her feet into the rooftop gravel and raised her fists. "I would worry about your _soul_ if I were you. NNNGH!" she charged him.

He shook his head, flickered his shattered eyes a dull gray and flung his arms open. "You rotten…alien _bitch_!"

_SWOOOOSH-__**CLAMP!**_ He caught her in two hulking arms.

She gasped and struggled in his titanium grasp. "Nnnngh! Mmmnngh!"

He snarled and squeeeeeeeeeeezed her waist and upper pelvis in a death grip.

"Nnnngh-AAAAA_AAAAAAAaaaaaaugh!"_ Starfire shrieked.

"Heh heh heh….You can forget having any bloody children by the time I'm done with you, freak!"

She teared and twitched from the crushing pain on all sides.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

The sound of a HIND chasing jeeps and tanks in the lower streets sounded in Metallo's electronic ears.

He 'smiled' and turned his head towards the edge of the building. "Or better yet…."

_FWOOOSH!_

Starfire gasped and dangled as Metallo held her body over the rooftop's side…just above an incoming HIND with its wide rotary blades beating madly at the air.

Metallo shouted gaily above the noise. "You can forget having any bloody breath! Red Aviary be damned! HA!"

"……..," Starfire clenched her teeth and tensed her body. The girl's eyes burned a hot green as she sneered: "The damnation shall be yours to experience, m'niel snarfarker!" She kicked her legs out straight into the joints of his titanium knees.

_WHUMP!_

"AAUGH!" Metallo shouted. Lost his footing. And teetered---

_FWOOOOOSSSH!_

The two plunged over the rooftop.

From above, they could be seen plummeting straight down into the huge beating blades of the speeding HIND.

_**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FWOOOSSSH**__**!**_

In mid-air, Starfire struggled.

But Metallo laughed, got the better grip of her, and shoved her straight down into the middle of the spinning blades. _"Ha ha ha! Stupid bitch! Guess I'll enjoy hands-on you becoming extraterrestrial sushi—"_

She pivoted her head about, sneered, and shot a pair of green optic blasts point blanc into his metal shoulder.

_**ZAAA-AAAAAAP! SSSssssss-**__**SNAP**__**!**_ Metallo's right arm melted clean off.

"**AAA-AAAAUGH!"** He electronically screamed.

"NNNNGHHH!" Starfire screamed and twirled their bodies so that Metallo's mangled form flew straight into the rotary blades first. "TASTE ANNIHILATION!"

"NOOOOO---"

_**SMAAAASSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

The two plunged straight through the HIND….smashing through the bulls-eye of the rotary blades. Starfire flinched and used Metallo's burning body as a shield that absorbed the impact and sent the debris splashing around but not touching her. As they plummeted down the building-flanked streets, HIND parts and black blade-shrapnel flew everywhere in a burning splash. Windows and buildingfronts shattered. And the asphalt earth grew closer…closer…closer—

_**POWWWW!**_

Starfire slammed Metallo straight into the ground, forming a crater.

_**CRUNNNNCCCCH!**_

His burning body twitched and gurgled electronically.

Starfire gasped once, glanced up, and saw a mountain of burning helicopter-and-building parts flying down at her.

She briskly skirted off to the side in a streak of green.

Metallo had one last shout as—

_**SLAMMMMMMM!**_ He was covered by a mountain of burning, frothing debris. Silenced.

"……….," Starfire stood on the sidelines, clutching her side. Gently breathing. "……."

_Swoooooosh! Cl-Clank!_ Metallo's right arm fell and clattered on the ground before her. Short-circuiting. Sparking….twitching…

"……..," the alien girl merely frowned at it.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!**_

She looked up.

A HIND was chasing an apache through the claustrophobic streets and building-spaces.

The sounds of battles and stomping, thermal monsters echoed throughout the rest of the urban domain.

Starfire took a deep breath and flew up to give chase after Dagger's airforce.

_SWOOOOOSSSH!_

Leaving the burning pile…

And the buried Metallo behind.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

The jeep that Robin and I were on veered along the convoy, winding around street corners and screeching to avoid debris and random falling shards from the shredded buildingtops above us.

Our jeep sped up, zoomed around debris and scattered rubble, and caught up with General Calvin's vehicle.

The commander in chief held a hand up as we reached a clear intersection.

All of the vehicles came to a swift stop…motors ambling in a cicada-like-cadence together.

Calvin stood up in his seat and looked North….East….South…and West where all avenues led.

It was the clearest towards the North.

But to the West, a thick cluster of golems had gathered and were swiftly ganging up on a group of U.S. tanks.

They most certainly needed our assistance, but so did the contingent of jeeps fleeing from HINDs to the East….and soldiers shooting back at three giant golems to the South.

"Where to now, sir?"

Calvin took a deep breath. "This is just the shit I _don't_ want to be marinating in right now."

Robin stood up. "General, sir. The other Titans are unaccounted for—as far as my partner and I are concerned, at least. I'm afraid that—as long as we're split up—we won't be able to assist like we would like to. All we can do is protect you at the moment."

"Yeah, well that ain't doing squat for the City!"

"We're quite aware of that, sir."

Calvin's fists clenched.

I shuddered and sat up….my strength slowly returning.

"General….," Robin leaned forward as the tense, huddled soldiers listened. "The City is lost at the moment. We must regroup. And right now, the last line of defense appears to be at the Bridge. If we go there and push back the forces of Dagger…we might be able to swing back and push another attack."

"I know….," Calvin grumbled. "But I've got so many of my boys stuck out there—" He pointed generally towards the rest of the City."

I whistled.

Robin looked at me.

I hand-signed.

He nodded. He looked at the General. "Noir and I will see to them getting back safely. I suggest you regroup with your forces in the southwest while we—"

"Yeah yeah…gotcha, young man," Calvin nodded. "You hear that, boys? We're gonna take out the rear of the punks assaulting our friends at the Bridge! We must move swiftly! The first element of surprise is gone…now we must make a new one! Or else the City is lost!"

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

"Let's get a move on!"

_VRMMMMM!_

The jeeps came to life once more.

Sweating, Calvin looked at us again. "You kids don't lose your heads, you hear me?"

Robin and I hopped to the streets.

"We'll make them lose a good few of _theirs_ before the night's over, sir."

"Damn straight. LET'S BURN!"

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

The jeeps tore off towards the West.

Robin and I spun and jogged our way towards the middle of the City.

"Noir….you and I must keep focused…," Robin breathlessly coached. "The Titans could be anywhere. Alive. Dead. That's not certain. What _IS_ certain is that this City is doomed unless we give it the gung-ho. Let's kick ass like our friends are right beside us!"

I took a deep breath, nodding.

_You heard that, Ana? _

_Right beside me……_

CHIIIIING!

I began blurring.

In mid-stride, Robin gazed up towards the red heavens.

For something was missing.

And it took his shuddering breath away.

"Where _are you_…..Slade?"

Silence.

"I'm here……..what…._or __**who**_….are you waiting for?"

And Robin ran ahead…doing his best to catch up with me.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMM!_

Calvin's jeep led the charge westward.

Ahead, the spires of the Suspension Bridge loomed.

Two large golems and a throng of Daggerite thugs were swarming around the last stand and assaulting the U.S. Army men and women in defense.

"Let 'em have it for all it's worth!" Calvin shouted. "Take out those smaller glowing pieces of crap first! Then we'll focus on the terrorists and combine our firepower with our artillery to take out those two big creeps before they get to the Bridge!"

"But sir!" another soldier in the jeep pointed ahead. "Look! The rock monsters are being wasted!"

Calvin's jaw dropped. "What?"

"Something's wiping them out, sir!"

Indeed, as the jeeps drew closer…

General Calvin could squint his eyes and see a swarm of thick, muscular forms bounding up from the waters' edge…

….and smashing the opposition to bits.

"They're clearing the way! They're giving our buddies some breathing room!"

"……….," Calvin gaped. "………..the Sam Hell?"

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and I could both hear the sounds of battle from the street just beyond the nearest throng of buildings.

We counted at least four sets of military assault guns….on _our_ side.

Robin glanced across at me where we both sprinted.

"Sounds like this is where we get off!"

I took a deep breath.

He pulled out a grappling hook. "Meet you on the other side—"

**Grip!**

"…..?" he looked.

I gripped his cape by a black hand.

_Save it for later._

_FWOOOOOOOSSSH!_ Tugging Robin, I murked right.

"Aaaaaaaaugh!" he flailed.

In black-trailing streaks, I rushed us up the face of the building, around the top, and leaping out across the street to a murking slide down the opposite buildingside and into the sidewalk of the thunderous street beyond.

_Pl-Plant!_

The two of us landed. I let go of Robin's cape.

"…………….," he blinked where he stood. "That works."

I shrugged.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

We both looked right.

We gasped—

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

A solid line of golden-burning golems marched firmly towards us.

They spat lava 'bullets' at us, flaming and cooking the air.

Robin deflected with his bo-staff. _TH-THWISSSH! __**CLANG!**_

I murked down the opposite end of the street.

Robin came after me.

The golem crowd was too thick for the two of us to take on by ourselves.

We needed….

"Whoah! Who's that?"

"T-Titans! Robin and Noir!"

Five jeeps and over two-dozen U.S. soldiers stood in a cluster besides a fallen buildingside. A group of shirtless soldiers were busily, sweatingly going about the task of setting up explosive charges to blow themselves and their jeeps a path through the collapsed rubble.

The four gunmen atop the jeeps were taking pot-shots at the golems, trying to push them back and slow their advance.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

"What's going on here?" Robin shouted above the bulletfire. "You can't get through?"

"This City's nothing but dead ends!" one soldier shouted. "But we're just about to blow our way through! Care to cover us, Robin?"

_Snktt! _Thw-Thwissh! Robin twirled his bo-staff. "Need you ask?"

The soldier smirked. "Right….." _Cl-Clak!_ He cocked his pistol and joined the line of fire. "See what you can do! My men and I will focus our fire on the center of the crowd if you and Smokey there can distract the flanks into the damage zone!"

"Sounds like a plan!"

"That should hold them off for us to make a new door!"

"When it comes to moving mountains….that's Titans' work," Robin panted. He motioned at me. "Take the North Side!"

I nodded.

He ran towards the southern sidewalk.

"And Robin?" the soldier shouted.

The Boy Wonder glanced back.

The soldier smirked. "Nice to see you alive."

Robin nodded. "It'll be nicer if we get to work and _keep that_ true."

"Heheh….damn skippy!"

"Noir! Go!" Robin shouted, gloved finger flung forward.

_FWOOOOSH!_ I blurred ahead with Myrkblade raised.

_Th-Th-Thwissh!_ Robin twirled his staff and ran straight at the right flank.

The soldier shouted back at the men with the charges: "Get those damn things wired up! We gotta blow this Popsicle stand!" Then at the gunmen. "Let 'em have it! Straight up the middle!"

_BLAM! BL-BLAM! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT! _

_BANG!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The streaming lead found its way into the center of the line. The golems shattered and were pushed back some. The left and right flanks pushed out.

That's where Robin and I came in.

"RAAAAAUGH!" Robin dove with a swing of his bo-staff, shattering rocky torsos and crowns apart with mighty flicks of the wrist.

"……!" I slashed murk-charged swings of my blade into the thick phalanx of burning bodies on the north edge.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The golems were shattered, cracked, and forced into the center where they met the ultimate punishment.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**CRK-KK-KK-KK-KK-KKTTT!**_ Flaming pebbles and granite slabs flew from the hot impacts.

I continued slashing at the beasts, shredding any and all limbs that lunged burningly at me.

Robin stabbed and slapped with his bo-staff

A few of the stumbling monsters lunged back at the Boy Wonder.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

"Nnngh!" he hopped back, flipped, and landed with an exploding discus raised. He held his breath and flung the explosive projectile into the side of the street.

_**POWWW!**_ The blow sent at least half a dozen golems flailing into the center of the massacre of rock and burning stone.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

On my side, I was gradually backstepping from an impenetrable advance of the creatures.

They 'snarled' flamingly and marched with extra speed and menace.

Converging on my figure.

I sweated, swinging my sword.

I stepped backwards and nearly bumped into something.

My black eyes widened.

I glanced down through my shades and saw a fire hydrant.

"………."

_**CRKKKKKKKK!**_

The monsters lunged at me.

I took a breath and flipped over the hydrant.

On the other side—retreated from the golems—I hissed mutely and slashed a front knob off the hydrant with a murk-laded slice of my blade.

_**SLASSSH!**_

CLINK!

_**SPLOOOOOOOSSSSSSSH!**_

A torrent of water exploded out into the golem crowd. The subsequent content of the liquid against the heated limbs caused a cloud of steam to hiss violently into the air.

_**SSSSSSSSSsssss**__ssssssssss!_

I held my breath.

Channeled spectral energy through my blade.

Aimed the weapon forward.

Absorbed a huge pulse of the steam…

….fused it with murk.

Screamed mutely….and charged forward with a heavy swing of the thickened weapon.

_**SWOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The blow shattered two golems at once and sent three more from the murky concussion sailing into the line of soldiers' fire.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

There was a shout from behind us.

One of the shirtless demolition experts panted and held a thumb's up. "All good to go!"

"It's hot! Everyone hit the deck!"

"Robin! Noir! Get down!"

The two of us ran into the center of the street and held our heads low---

_**POWWWWW!**_

A fountain of fire exploded a channel through the rubble.

The whole street shook.

The jeeps wobbled.

The golems merely stumbled once…but kept their advance. Nearly two dozen of them.

"We can drive on through!"

"Hurry!" Robin shouted. "Get your men out of here--!"

"It's no use! The charge was too weak! The path's tiny! We'll never get all the jeeps out in time before those creeps reach us!"

"Then run on through!"

"We'll be defenseless—"

"You heard Robin! Grab all the weapons you can and—"

"LOOK!"

_**VRMMMMMM!**_

Robin and I looked up.

The men gasped and ran to either side of the jeep-laden street as one of Dagger's hummers burst through the fresh ravine in the rubble and burned down the road towards us.

The Titan Leader and I gasped and dove out of the way.

_**SCREEE-EEEECCCCH!**_

The hummer spun to a smoking stop just meters away from the advancing line of golems.

The soldiers fumbled for their guns and aimed at the hummer all in one accord. The demolition experts included.

Robin and I hobbled up to our feet, watching with uncertainty—

_CLANK!_

The driver's side door of the Hummer kicked open.

One of Dagger's thugs jumped out.

_Plant!_

He landed on his feet in the center of the street.

"You! Freeze!" the leading soldier shouted above the noise. But try as he might to keep the stranger in the line of sight of his gun, his worried eyes were cast on the ever-advancing line of golems.

"Something's screwy here….," Robin murmured….eyeing the stranger. "Wait…l-look at his eyes!"

I did.

The man's eyes were closed.

_Is he…… _

_Asleep?_

The random thug of Dagger turned.

He 'looked' at us.

"……"

His lips curved sleepily.

He held a hand up.

'_J'_

"………….," my jaw dropped.

"No way….," Robin murmured. He gazed at me. "Th-Then that means…."

The possessed thug held two fingers to his mouth.

He whistled shrilly.

_**RUMMMMMMMM-MMMMMMBLEEEE!**_

The soldiers gasped and wobbled as the ground shook.

Robin and I steadied ourselves.

The thug's body _plopped(!)_ down to the ground and suddenly an energetic Jericho was hopping onto the hood of the hummer he 'drove' in and looking over the hill of rubble.

So did Robin and I look….

_**SWOOOOOSSSH!**_ A _herd_ of Wildebeests literally poured over the crumbling hilltop. They leapt over the heads of the soldiers and jeeps' gunmen. They stomped past us. Some running on two feet. Many rushing on all fours. They snorted and reared their silver plated crowns of serrated horns.

_FWOOOSH! _

_FW-FWOOOSH! _

_FWOOSH!_

Jericho smiled—winked momentarily at us—and swung his arm '_FORWARD!'_ towards the line of unsuspecting golems.

_**RUMMMMMMMBLLEEE!**_

"_**GRFFFFF-FFFFFNNGHH!"**_ The Wildebeests let forth a snorting, all-encompassing warcry and rammed into the golems head on.

Tackling.

Plowing.

Biting.

Crushing.

_**SMASSSSSSSSH!**_

Golden bits flew.

Shredded slices of golem rock.

Gravel and lava fragments.

And the rest of the City echoed with the same rumble…

……of well-over three hundred able-bodied Wildebeests throwing their muscled might into the mess of magma.

_Backup has arrived._

"Wooo-HOO! YEAH!" Robin suddenly shouted in an explosive manner that even surprised me. Something akin to the inner-Tim shined out in his face as he grinned wide and raised his bo-staff. "That's what I'm talking about!"

"……," I gazed at him. Breathlessly smiling.

He cleared his throat…straightened his cape….and simpered: "Erm….th-this could end up being rather….advantageous?"

I planted my black palm against my forehead.

A mute snicker…

I then glanced at Jericho.

He glanced back at me.

A shared smile.

Then…..

He hand-signed: _'My father. Have you seen him?'_

My smile left.

I exhaled gently and hand-signed back: _'Thankfully, no.'_

And I couldn't tell from that far off if his face was falling or if his hopes were rising.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Everywhere, the City echoed…echoed…echoed….

As the gold surged back and the battle spun around yet again.

The Charge of the Wildebeests.


	253. Break the Circle part 13

**253. Break the Circle part 13**

_STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!-STOMP!-SSTTOMMPP!.!.!.!_

Dozens of Wildebeests poured through the Streets of Downtown.

With snarling growls they flew themselves at the burning legion of Dagger's forces and sailed their fists, feet, and horns into the monstrosities.

_SMACK! _

_CRNNNCH! _

_TH-THUNNNK!_

The golems broke and shattered.

Burning bits of thermal energy flew.

Heated rock and lava splashes sailed against sidewalk and building fronts.

And as the mammalian army soared past us, Robin and I paced breathlessly over towards the Hummer where our favorite green-eyed blonde perched.

Jericho smiled at us.

Proudly.

Childishly.

Robin swallowed and gripped his bo-staff as he said: "What took you so long?"

Jericho hand-signed: _'I was waiting for the best moment.'_

"Well you sure as Hell chose it!"

He giggled mutely.

But even there—in the heat of the surprise appearance—I detected a trace of worry….._apprehension?_

_The boy is in the shadowy company of his father. _

_And he knows it._

I decided to keep a brotherly eye on him….

'_Where is the Messenger? Where are the Titans?'_ he asked us.

Robin and I exchanged glances.

I shuddered and looked aside as Robin verbally explained: "We've not heard any word from them."

"………."

"The Messenger—we know—fought Killer Croc not too long ago on Titans' Island. As for our teammates…..God only knows."

'_We need to find them!'_

"I know," Robin nodded. "But we have to save this City too!"

Jericho nodded. He pointed at the myriad of burly, bovine warriors charging into the depths of the City.

"And a good sight it is too!" Robin managed a half-smirk. "I'd say these brawny brothers are your pals more than mine, Joey. If anyone should tell them where to go….it's you."

The little blonde nodded fervently.

I turned to Robin and gestured: _'I will show Jericho where to lead them.'_

"Good," Robin nodded. He twirled his bo-staff. "Because I'm leaving."

Both of us mutes made a face.

"I'm going to check on General Calvin!" Robin uttered. "I'll head Southwest to the Bridge!" He was already running off. "Keep in contact, Noir! Once we've bashed Dagger's monsters apart, we'll see how quickly we can regain the rest of the urban battleground!"

I nodded and mouthed wildly: _'Keep an eye out for you know who!'_

Robin may have understood me.

He might not have.

He dashed off, joining the soldiers and their jeeps.

I took a shuddering breath.

_I hope Robin hasn't left Tim at home today……_

I twirled and whistled at Jericho.

He looked directly at me.

I smiled and pointed eastward.

The boy nodded.

I twirled Myrkblade and blurred down the road. _Fw-Fwooooosh!_

Jericho waved his arm at a random, stampeding Wildebeest.

The creature came to a stop, snorted, and crouched down…..crown bowed.

Jericho leapt off the Hummer's hood and landed on the back of the beast. He climbed onto its shoulder, gripped tightly to a silver-laced horn, and pointed forward.

The Wildebeest and its closest brethren grounded their hooves, clenched sharp teeth, and charged forward.

"Nnnnnnghhhhhh!"

_ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP! ST-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!_

Jericho balanced himself atop the crown of the Wildebeest and soared—en masse—into the thick of battle.

I blurred alongside the charge, Myrkblade raised. Smoke billowing down from underneath my shades.

A solid line of burning golems flailed and shook their meaty arms ahead of us. _**CRKKKKK!**_

I swung Myrkblade with a mute snarl just as the Wildebeests converged on the enemy forces in the middle of the street.

_SLAAAAAASH!_

_THWACK! _

_WH-WHAM! _

"_NNNGHHH!"_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

General Calvin's convoy rounded the Western District where the two huge golem-giants were suddenly overwhelmed by nearly thirty large, silver-horned beasts clamoring about their burning ankles.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

The two monsters attempted stomping-on and crushing the sudden invasion of mammalian warriors.

The Wildebeests merely scattered and redoubled their pestering attack from the sides and rears.

Both giants found themselves tripping across the streets and nearly collapsing over small, one-story warehouses.

They flailed and attempted shooting blobs of lava and burning earthen shards down at the attackers.

_**PFTOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The Wildebeests merely snorted and side-jumped the blasts that split sidewalk and concrete.

The giants shuffled closer together. Back to back, the two huge golems stabbed and punched and flung their tentacle-like arms of fire down at the encircling, dashing combatants.

_**PHWOOOMB! **_

_**FWOOOOOOOMB!**_

The Wildebeests parted and ran back just as—

_**BLAM!**_

…..

_**P-POW!**_ A tank shell fired from the U.S. defense line at the North end of the Suspension Bridge landed in the 'thigh' of one monster, causing it to lurch down on one leg some.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKK!**_

"God almighty….," the General murmured. "….it's like Ronald McDonald's brigade!"

_SWOOOSH-__**PLANT!**_ Robin landed on the hood of the General's jeep, causing it to lurch.

Nearby soldiers gasped and aimed pistols on instinct--

"Good guy." Robin droned. He looked over his shoulder at the General and pointed: "Those two big things are being distracted. They're vulnerable…but not vulnerable enough. We gotta take them out if you want to reassemble your troops in the West!"

"Those freakin' cows seem to be doing a good job."

"Not by themselves, they won't!" Robin shouted. _Snkkt!_ He extended his bo-staff to maximum length and whipped out a grappling hook in another hand. "I'm going in. I'll help the Wildebeests distract the monsters for your boys to take aim and clean their clocks! Wait for my signal!"

"And just what signal is that, kid?"

"A flare."

"But you're not carrying a flare gun on you!"

"Yeah…..," Robin nodded without looking. "I'm working on that."

_**POW!**_

He fired his grappling hook.

_Clank!_

He took off with a yank and flew up on his cord.

The soldiers in the jeeps gazed blankly.

"………….," one fighter in a nearby vehicle muttered: "Just whose battle is this, sir?"

Calvin scratched his gray head beneath his helmet. "It belongs to the dogs and cats for all I care……….….as long as Dagger bites it."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSH!_

Robin swung from a tall apartment building.

His boots flailed over the surging streets full of close-combat Wildebeests-versus-burning-golems. Meaty fists flew into rocky crowns. Flaming limbs flung at hairy hides. Horns met stone and teeth met ashes. Sparks flew and crags of gray granite clattered to the asphalt.

Above this mess, Robin soared the full extent of his cord and made his way directly towards the five-story stature of one of the two hulking giants.

At the end of his grappling hook, he pressed a red button and forced the launcher to snap free of the cord.

_THWP!_

Robin fell, glided with use of his cape, and landed—perched—atop a giant's crown.

_Thud!_

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The huge beast rocked back against the shoulders of its tall companion. It raised its burning tentacles and smacked its own crown to slap Robin into bits.

The Boy Wonder back-flipped, dodged the limbs, and landed in an agile perch on the huge creep just behind him.

The other giant paused in the middle of stomping burning feet down at the Wildebeests. It rumbled in apparent frustration and shook its head back to toss the Titan Leader loose.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

**WHAM!**

Both crowns of the monsters collided in a hot splash of ash.

Robin dove clean off the two creatures as hot, burning shards fell with him.

In mid fall, he produced a bolo, gritted his teeth, twirled it overhead, and tossed it madly at the entwined crowns of the giants.

_TH-THW-TH-THW-TH-THW__**PPP!**_

The weights of the bolos slung them around snugly and attached the two heads.

The five-story monsters leaned back against each other precariously like conjoined twins. They flailed and struggled to get loose from each other.

_THWIIIIIIISSSSSH!_ Robin glided down the building face of an apartment complex. At the second story, he reached a hand out and roughly gripped ahold of a balcony's outer railing. _SNGGG!_

"Nnnngh!" Robin grunted. He dangled above the war-torn street for a second before holding his breath and hoisting himself up and onto the balcony.

Ashes from the two giants were still splashing outward and drifting earth-ward.

The Boy Wonder picked up three shards from the balcony floor.

Breathing heavily, he stuffed the burning pieces into his cord-less grappling hook launcher.

He aimed the 'gun' up at the sky….squinted his eyemask….and fired…

_**POWWW!**_

The burning shards soared upwards in a flaming arc…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

From a long distance, the shards flared against the red night of the sky.

"Sir!" a soldier in a neighboring jeep pointed. "Look!"

Calvin stood up in his seat……..and he smiled. "Damn straight….the boy's got 'em!" He turned and pointed at a radio man. "Relay coordinates to the artillery at the bridge! ASAP!"

"Yes sir!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was leaning over the edge of the balcony…whistling…shouting…waving his gloved hand at the Wildebeests.

"Beat it! Get out of here! Clear out now!"

From the distance…

_**POW! **_

_**P-POW! **_

_**POWWWW!**_

Robin turned and looked.

Three tanks had just fired from the defense line at the bridge.

Already he could see three burning shells streaking towards his location.

Robin gritted his teeth, crouched low, and covered a good half of his body with his cape—

_**SHOOOOOOOOOOM-**__**CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!**_

The shells soared in and exploded into the joint crowns of the stuck giants.

_**KA-POWWW! **_

_**POWWWW!**_

The Wildebeets grunted and ran off in victorious warcries.

The burning giants smoldered…shattered………and teetered over.

Straight towards Robin's apartment building.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

He spun…faced the window alongside the balcony and kicked at the glass. _WHAM!_ Again. _WHANG!_ Again. "Nnngh!" _CRKKKK!_ The glass window cracked.

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The crumbling giants' bodies fell on him.

"Aaaaugh!" Robin dove through the cracked glass.

_SHATTTTTER!_ He plunged into the abandoned apartment, rolled, got to his knees, jumped up, and charged straight into the hallway with a jump-kick through the door—WHAM!

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile, the defensive line of U.S. soldiers and artillerymen on the North end of the Suspension Bridge cheered as they watched the two giants plunge over and smash straight through the apartment building.

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

Smoke and ash rose high into the red night sky.

But the two monsters were grounded….finished off.

The soldiers pumped their arms and howled and whistled.

In the distance, a few Wildebeests jumped atop cars and building ledges and growled with their limbs flailing towards the sky. The warcry finished, the creatures leapt down into the street and stampeded again towards the center of the City.

As General Calvin's convoy rejoined the brigades retreated to the Western District, a healthy squadron of apaches beated overhead and charged briskly back into the thick of the City.

As everything and everyone reorganized….

To join the wildebeests' frontal assault if need-be.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Speaking of which……_

FWOOOOOOSH-_SLIIIICE!_

I screamed mutely as I ripped Myrkblade straight through the torso of a burning golem.

On either side of me, thick Wildebeest bodies flew their fists and horns into helpless, crumbling monsters.

_SL-SLAM! _

_CRNNNCH!_

I ran along a heated charge of the hairy creatures down a straightaway stretch of Main Street and leapt over a pile of rubble towards another thick cluster of monstrosities.

The creatures turned and looked up at us. They billowed flames at the last second…

_THWOOOOOOSH!_ I—murking—and the Wildebeests—snarling—flew down onto the thermal creeps. Myrkblade sang through the air and silver horns glinted…

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

THWACK!

SL-SLICE!

WHAM!

SLAM!

I shredded my way through two monsters, landed on the ground, spun, sliced legs and arms off of two other gold-flickering fiends, and dashed forward with a burst of murk to run another monster through.

The craggily creeps fell on either side of us. Our charge was so merciless….so unstoppable…

I ran and leapt over collapsing, rocky bodies and raised Myrkblade in time to slice straight down the upper body of one unlucky chunk of burning stone.

_SNKKKKTTT!_

The Wildebeest whose crown Jericho was perched on ran up from my left side and swung its fist straight through the chest of a burning creature. _**CRACKKK!**_ The Wildebeest then snorted, lifted the smoking carcass of the rocky cretin, and tossed it straight through three advancing monsters. _**SMASSSH!**_

I panted and looked up at Jericho.

He glanced down at me. He gave me a thumb's up from where he perched.

I simpered….

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_SP-SPLORCH!_

Two nearby Wildebeests wailed in pain and fell bloodily to the ground.

Jericho, his beastly friend, and I gasped. We looked over.

A hummer full of Dagger's men was positioned in the center of an intersection beyond.

Mounted gunmen in the rear were firing two assault rifles worth of lead straight into the charging crowd.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The Wildebeests desperately dove every which way to avoid the thick blasts.

Tiny potholes formed in the street in a straight line beneath the dashing feet and hooves.

Jericho's beast ducked and rolled over to hide with me alongside a snug building side.

Bullets ricocheted all around us.

_P-PING! _

_P-P-PING!_

We panted.

Across the street, over a dozen Wildebeests shielded themselves in similar, emergency fashion.

_We need to break through that barrier. _

_Swiftly……_

I gazed at Jericho.

_Hmmmm……_

I gestured.

He looked at me.

I took my shades off and pointed at my black eyes.

Jericho nodded.

He patted his friend's crown.

"Nnnnngh…." The Wildebeest lowered its head.

Jericho came to eye level. He stared directly into my face. He took a breath—

**CONTACT**.

His green eyes strobed.

_FLASSSH!_

A slight dizzy sensation….

I teetered…and knew he was inside of me.

_Hang on._

TH-THWISSH! I twirled Myrkblade and blurred straight out into the street.

Into the madness.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_Aaaaaaaaah!_

I dashed left and right, teleported around the high caliber bullets, leapt over ash and rubble, blurred smokingly through a few rounds, and solidified with my feet running alongside the left stretch of windows. Bullets flew at me, shattering the glass of the building face and catching up to my heels. I snarled, pulsed murk, and cartwheeled through the air so that I ran on the opposite stretch of building windows before leaping forward, diving, and landing with a slided that ended bare meters in front of the Hummer with Myrkblade twirling upwards.

CLANG!

CL-CLANG!

I deflected two bullets expertly.

SP-SPLORCH! The gunmen felt their bullets coming back and ripping through their shoulders. Under a red spray, they screamed and fell either way off their mounted positions.

In the meantime I leapt—_Thwoooosh!_—and planted myself in a low crouch right against the windshield of the Daggerite vehicle.

The two terrorists inside gasped at me and reached for their weapons.

I leaned forward, my black eyes wide against the glass.

The driver looked at me---

_Now, Joey!_

**CONTACT.**

_FLASSSH!_

The driver jolted….then suddenly aimed his gun into the arm of the passenger at point blanc.

_BLAM!_

Blood splattered on the windshield.

The passenger screamed.

_THRUMP!_

Jericho's possessed terrorist kicked the man out of the vehicle and started the hummer up.

I took a breath and leapt off the hood of the hummer.

_VRMMMMMMM!_

Jericho swerved the car around and burned a path straight towards three of Dagger's fully-armed jeeps.

The men on board gasped and tried desperately to shoot the incoming vehicle apart.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

But the vehicle sped at them all the faster.

At the last second, a green-flickering young body leapt out, solidified in mid-air, flipped, and landed in a squat in the center of the street in the form of Jericho.

_Plant!_

He panted…gazing ahead.

_VRMMMMMMMMM-__**POWWW!**_ His hummer slammed straight into two of the jeeps and exploded brilliantly.

The men's bodies flew along with the flames and shrapnel.

One jeep survived. Its gunman shouted a curse and aimed the gun at Jericho. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Jericho gasped, covered his head, and flinched in a fetal position.

The bullets flew hotly at him.

_THWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!-_FWOOOSH! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! I blurred over and solidified in front of his small figure with Myrkblade spiraling. Snarling.

The bullets flew back at the gunman.

He ducked his head. He growled and raised two grenades over his head to toss at us.

I repositioned Myrkblade like a javelin…let out a mute howl….and tossed the murking weapon with all my might.

_THWOOOOOOOSSSSH!-__**THUNK!**_ The length of Myrkblade skewered the man's neck to the hilt. He gurgled blood as he flew back from the impact, slammed against a street sign—_CLAANG!—_and collapsed soggily to the sidewalk. _WHAM!_ The driver and passenger of the jeep jumped out and ran off, panting.

"………..," I glared, smoke dancing out of my shades. I knelt down and hoisted Jericho to his feet.

He gasped, wobbling where he suddenly stood. He looked up at me with wide green eyes.

I placed a hand firmly on his shoulder. _'Are you okay?'_ I mouthed.

He nervously nodded.

"…….," I smiled. I patted his shoulder.

He calmed a little.

Until………

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

_**ST-STOMP!**_

The Wildebeests in hiding all ran out and flexed their muscles in alert_. "Nnnnnnnnnnrgh!"_

Jericho and I looked up.

A towering, _six_ story golem loomed over us. Its burning feet smashed through jeep wreckage and buildingside markets as it made its sluggish approach.

_**STOMP!**____**STOMP!**_

Jericho gulped and stumbled backwards. He waved a signaling hand to the Wildebeests. The horned creatures gathered behind me as I glared up at the huge golem alone.

_Guess I should be pulling my sword out of its new 'stone' now……_

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

The burning heel came down over us.

I gritted my teeth, grabbed Jericho, and dove the two of us towards the side.

_SWOOOOSH!_

_**STOMPPPP!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meanwhile…on the other side of the City….

In the Eastern District far away from the thunder of the streets.

The air rumbled with its own intensity….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

Three HINDs in formation roared over the shipyards.

They angled themselves southward along a coastline road.

They chased the rear wheels of four U.S. jeeps burning rubber in a hasty retreat from the menacing birds.

The soldiers in the back of the jeeps aimed up and fired from the mounted guns.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Hot streams of lead soared up and traced towards the hulls of the behemoth helicopters.

The HINDs easily side-strafed, their rotary blades slicing loudly at the air.

When they came back into tighter formation, the foremost of the three took aim with its mounted assault cannon.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Potholes exploded in the sidewalk all around the jeeps.

The soldiers inside shouted and swerved madly to avoid the aerial assault.

As they rounded a bunch of fishermen's warehouses, the gunmen in the back took more careful aim and fired again.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets flew off a few rotary blades.

Unphased, the HINDS closed in.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

All three blurred down the road…veering westward and chasing the U.S. vehicles into the thick of the City.

As the buildings rose higher and higher.

And the glow of battle increased slowly…..slowly.

………

_FWOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_ From above, a green-streaking Starfire soared down right after the three enemy aircraft.

Her emerald eyes squinted against the wind as her hair danced and her jeans flared. The coldness of the red night kissed her scrapes and scratches. She bore the brunt of the sting and swiftly burned a mid-air path towards the rear of the three HINDs.

Dagger's aircraft were noisy….and they were fast. But they were more of the former than the latter.

The Tamaranian used that to her advantage, gliding faster and faster towards the tail end of the monstrous 'birds'.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

As the buildings rose up to an average of eleven stories each, the HIND caught up with the speeding jeeps along a straightway of rubble-strewn road and launched twin rockets.

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSSSH!—**__**POWW!**_

The two rockets exploded beneath the rear of the line of Army vehicles. The vehicle exploded in shrapnel. The soldiers' bodies flailed and flew all over, half of them screaming.

Starfire gritted her teeth. She propelled herself ever forward. Her skin sheen with the beating winds.

_VRMMMMM!_ The jeeps spun left around a throng of fighting golems and Wildebeests.

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ The HINDs squeezed between the towering skyscrapers and gave chase.

_THWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!_ Starfire streaked after them.

The path went southward.

The jeeps were running over bumpy fields of collapsed buildingfronts.

The drivers cursed and urged their vehicles forward.

The gunmen nervously looked up at the HINDs closing in.

The helicopters tilted downward…their payloads hissing.

Starfire stretched her hands out. Fingers uncurling. She hissed as she flew…flew…….flew………and torturously caught up with the last of the three HINDs. Her strong alien hands grabbed onto the tail rotary blade—CLANK!—and twisted---_**SN-SNAPPP!**_

The rear helicopter's tail completely shattered. With its rotary blade snapped off, it twirled and spun left into a building front. _**SHATTTTTERRR!**_ A sea of glass and steel exploded outward as it slammed into the skyscraper.

"RGHHHH!" Starfire snarled. As she flew by, she _**gazed**_ at the helicopter and let loose a pair of burning-hot green optic blasts that ate their way into the crashing chopper's payload.

_**KAPOWWWWWW!**_

A chunk of the building was removed with a huge fireball as the HIND bit it.

The other two HINDs lurched somewhat in mid-chase as the four pilots checked their six.

The men in the jeeps gasped and cheered.

Starfire flew next at the rear of the second HIND.

Signals were being passed between pilots in different cockpit bubbles.

There was a 'jolt' to the flight of the second HIND….

And right as Starfire caught up with it—

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The second HIND decelerated.

Starfire gasped and ducked down in mid-air. _THWOOOSSSH!_

_**SL-SL-SL-SLASSSH!**_ The heavy rotary blades nearly sliced her stomach out.

Starfire twirled and soared straight ahead in a corkscrew fashion.

Panting.

The men in the jeeps watched with uncertainty…

Starfire found herself streaking down the air of the thick City streets in between the two HINDs.

The one that decelerated to the rear picked up speed, started _chasing her_ this time, and thusly let loose an endless stream of heavy caliber machine gun rounds.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Starfire ducked and spiraled and whipped around in mid-air.

Glass building fronts and metal structures all along the 'walls' of the City avenues shattered and burst from the multiple bullet impacts.

The alien girl gritted her teeth, sweat, and zig-zagged through the air as swiftly and desperately as she could to avoid the intense blasts.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Try as she might to accelerate forward and take shelter in front of the foremost HIND, the helicopter in question swerved about so that its slicing tail rotar blocked the Tamaranian's way.

She panted, gazing behind her.

The pilots grasped firmly at the controls.

Two hellseekers locked onto her.

The alien girl bit her lip.

_VRMMMMMM!_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

_THWIIIIIIISSSSSSH!_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Raven……….R-Raven……speak to me….."

"Nnnngh…..mmf….C-Cyborg?"

"No, it's Garfield."

"Where is…..wh-what….?"

"Stay with me, girl…."

Changeling and Raven were on the furthest slopes of what was left of Titans' Island. Half-wading in the surf, the green elf was firmly rubbing Raven's shoulders and rousing her back to the waking world.

The burning….red-tinted world.

"I think those giant rock things have stopped coming out of the big burning hole….," Changeling said….hushedly. He glared over the nearby rock bluffs where a strong golden glow could still be seen. "For now at least….we're safe here."

"Mmmmnngh….," Raven twitched and groaned. The dark wound in her center seemed to throb all the more painfully than before.

Changeling bit his lip. "We might be safe here…..but you need medical assistance. You can't just heal yourself all on your own. I gotta get you into the City, Raven….I gotta get you to help. Some sort of help!"

"G-Garfield…….I-I don't know how long….nngh…I-I can manage it….," Raven wheezed. "I'm….l-losing concentration…."

"No. You. Are. Not!" he practically hissed in her face. Grabbing her shoulders tightly. "Listen to me, Raven…."

"Nnngh…."

"LISTEN to ME."

Her violet eyes weakly opened.

He panted. He pointed in the City. "Starfire's out there. I just _know_ it. I've heard and seen U.S. helicopters. I think there are good people here, Raven. Good people fighting for us. And until we're on their side of the battlefield, no help's going to come to us. And right now, we need help. Especially you. Face it….The Tower's gone. The Island's abandoned. The time to move is now."

Raven stirred, wincing. She wincingly sat up. The sounds of battles and explosions drifted in the background of the glowing City. She rubbed her head…looked at him…..and blinked.

Silence.

"Garfield……," she murmured. She gently reached a shaking wrist out to the left side of his face. "Y-Your ear….."

"…….," his eyes thinned and averted themselves from her as her pale digits trailed the gash with its caked blood. The entire lobe was gone.

Her lips quivered. "Y-You…..lost it?"

"………," He looked at her. He smiled painfully and gripped her hand. "I haven't lost anything important. And _I don't intend to."_

"………..," Raven's eyes thinned. "You….Y-You're the one who needs healing…."

His lips parted.

She drifted back, breathing softer and softer. "I…..I don't need the aid. You do."

"Raven—"

"This is all my fault, Garfield. I-I could have…..been more watchful. I could have seen through Clayface."

"……….."

"I'll accept…..whatever happens to me……"

A beat.

Slowly, Changeling frowned.

He gritted his teeth.

He stood up and practically yanked Raven up to her feet.

"Nnnngh!" she winced and coughed.

Snarling, the green elf held her up firmly. "You're a fatalist, right Raven? Then I guess you're ready to accept any damn fate that happens to you. Want me to spell it out to you? You're gonna frickin' live, god damn it!" He growled and hoisted her over his shoulders.

She winced and gasped from each and every jolt. "Nnngh…G-Garfield….l-leave me!"

"NO!" He hissed, shuddering….fighting back his own cranial pain….hoisting her up on stronger, leaner legs from weeks of workout. "I've lost Terra….we've lost Robin…Cyborg's in la-la land….I sure as Hell not going to lose you! So you'd better face up to it, Raven! You're gonna live tonight! Nnngh…._Whether you like it or not!"_

She shuddered and clung to him. Tearing from the pain. Trying to concentrate.

He limped a few paces over towards the land ridge that led from the burning island to the battle-strewn main land. He carried Raven, took a deep breath, and gazed strongly at the impending city skyline ablaze.

"Hang on the best you can, Raven! The only thing I can't promise you is a smooth ride!"

Raven gently breathed and bit her lip.

"Nnnngh!" Changeling shook all over, took a deep breath, and morphed shakily into a thick muscled, smooth-haired stallion. Raven suddenly found herself sprawled-saddled atop the emerald equine. The horse whinnied, grounded its hooves, and sprung off in a brisk charge down the land ridge. The dark girl rode bumpily, her eyes thin. Her lips murmuring…chanting…

Meditating…

As the two left the burning crater behind them and stormed straight into a different Hell.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile…

In the Western District of the City….

Beneath the strewn rubble of a crumpled apartment building.

"Nnnngh…."

A bruised and slightly singed Robin climbed his way out from the rubble with his bo-staff acting as a pickaxe. He stood up on wobbly knees at the outer rim of the debris and stared up.

HINDs and apaches were dogfighting in mid-air.

The snorting warcries of Wildebeests drifted between the buildings.

And above it all…the crimson sky.

Looming.

"I know you're here….," Robin murmured. "B-But where?"

A beat.

He looked ahead.

He did a double-take.

Across the City was a familiar sight. However, a familiar sight smashed chaotically in half.

The wooden, splintery frame of a once glorious flower vendor.

Roses and lilies and petals splashed outward from the rubbles and splinters.

"………………."

The Boy Wonder shuddered.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

_**CRKKK!**_

Robin gasped, spun around, and twirled his bo-staff at ready.

His eyemask widened.

Seven stomping golems marched past the windows and storefronts straight towards him. Their limbs burning and flailing.

The Boy Wonder took a hesitant step back.

Gulping—

_VRMMMMMMMMM!_

Loud engines.

Screeching tires.

Robin caught sight of six dark shapes swarming in from the far side of his peripheral vision.

_**VRMMMMMMMMMMMMM!**_

The first of many police motorcycles drove up, screeching to a stop. The helmeted man straddling the cycle stood up and fired pistol rounds into the first of the incoming monsters.

_BANG! B-BANG!_

Two more police motorcycles drove up to a squealing stop. Their occupants half-stood and pumped police issued shotguns before unleashing them in merciless sprays into the thick, golden crowd.

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**BLAM!**_

The golems shattered—but not entirely. The stumbled back, burning flame where their exoskeletons now gaped open.

"……..," Robin blinked. He gazed at the first of the arriving bikes.

The man lowered his pistol and slid open the visor of his helmet. "Need a ride, Mr. Titan?" Smith smiled.

Robin's jaw dropped. "Lieutenant?" He drifted forward, leaning on his bo-staff for support. "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think?" he gestured to his men on the nearby bikes holding the burning line back. "Doing our duty to the City!"

"But…..y-you're the Commissioner! You could get in big trouble with General Calvin!"

"I'm just _acting_ commissioner, remember?" Smith winked under his helmet.

"…….," Robin smirked. "Right….." He shuffled over and straddled the seat behind Smith. "And I died in the radioactive depository explosion."

"Now you get the picture," Smith lowered his helmet visor and waved towards the other police officers. "Chapman! Abbey! Vann! Let's ride!"

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

Robin held on tight as the six officers burned their way through the rubble-strewn streets, swiftly skirting past golden enemies with thick limbs flailing at them.

Robin shuddered and shouted above the noise into Smith's helmet. "Let me guess! Back to HQ?"

"You tell me, Robin!"

The Boy Wonder made a face. "Lieutenant…I won't have you putting your life on the line if it's not necessary!"

"Too late for that!" _VRMMMMMM!_ Smith led the caravan madly down a street, weaving around fallen debris. "So where to? Most of Dagger's forces are concentrated in the northeast! If we don't cut them off swiftly enough, both the giant menaces and the terrorists will find an alternate route into the subways!"

"W-We can't have that!"

"Not in the least!"

_VRMMMM!_ A police officer on a bike besides Smith and Robin rode up and gestured while shouting: "There're two of those bigass creeps ahead! They're gathering around the L-Track!"

"Good eye, Peebles!"

Robin gritted his teeth: "The L-Track…….."

"Completely abandoned, I assure you!" Smith shouted. "In fact, most of the subway cars are sitting on the tracks at a stand still. We wanted as much room in the underground tunnels as possible—"

"Smith! Head towards the Northern districts!"

"The slums? Robin, that'll make us open game for Dagger's HINDs! The buildings there are small and—might I add—EXTREMELY flammable!"

Robin smirked. "Were you going to risk your butt or not?"

Smith sighed. "I did somewhat plan on risking my butt MY way….but whatever, kid!" He pumped the handles. _VRMMMM!_ "Boys! Follow me!"

"Yes, Lieutenant!"

"Wooo-haa!" one let forth as they sped past golden golems that lunged at them and the random gunfire from a terrorist jeep.

_**VRMMM-MMMMM!**_

The six-cycle convoy sped their way northward…where the City grew brown and desolate into the industrial complexes beyond.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!**_

At that very moment, Starfire was still playing a high speed game of tag through the City Streets.

She hovered—sandwiched between two of Dagger's HINDs—soaring down rows of skyscrapers after a convoy of U.S. jeeps.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The HIND behind Starfire fired and fired and fired at her.

She gasped and zig-zagged all about, desperate to avoid the streaming tracer fire.

Buildings shattered in steady streaks of bullet impacts on either side of her.

The HIND in front of her swerved to both block her and avoid its 'twin''s assault.

The soldiers in the jeeps above and below watched apprehensively at the sweating Titan's plight.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Streaming lead soared at Starfire's shoulder.

She gasped, twirled in mid-air, and came spiraling backwards towards the huge aircraft.

The HIND stopped firing and tilted forward so that its heavy rotary blades met Starfire's flailing body.

The alien girl tensed, accelerated in mid-air, and soared in a green streak forward with her stretched legs barely dangling within a meter of the air-slicing blades.

_**FWSSH-FWSSH-FWSSH-FWSSH-FWSSH!**_

"Nnnnnngh!" Starfire tried propelling herself further.

Bulbs of sweat formed on her brow, flattened from the g-force, and snapped off her amber skin from the wind.

The blades sliced further…closer to her heels.

The building faces blurred on either side.

The air roared and thundered with the rotary noise.

Starfire's green eyes twitched.

She looked up.

Panting….

Her optics blinked.

A building up ahead graced a huge billboard advertisement standing on its remote edge…nearly jutting out into the Street. The large, synthetic head of a smiling woman was brushing her teeth with a ten-foot-long toothbrush……

"NNNNGH!" Starfire flung two…three…..four starbolts up at the sign.

_**FL-FLASH! **_

_**FLASSSSSH!**_

_**FLASH!**_

The energy bolts pelted the billboard all over.

The huge sign began to wobble.

As the chase loomed up beneath it…

"RAAAAAUGH!" Starfire launched one last, gigantic starbolt. _**FLASSSSH!**_

FWOOOOSH-**SNAP!** The supports to the billboard finally melted. With a groan, the entire sign toppled off the building's rooftop---_SWOOOOOOSSSH!_—and plummeted down into the cavity of the elevated street.

"Nnnngh!" Starfire dove low, skirting past the edge of the rotary blades.

But before the rear HIND could catch up to her---

_**THWOMP!**_ The billboard fell into the middle of the rotary blades. **SNAP! **_**SNKKKKTT!-CRKKK!**_ The mangled bits of the billboard sliced into the engines and was ground up within the inner motors and joints of the craft. _**P-POWWWWW!**_ The HIND exploded, splitting down the middle. With a puff of red smoke and sparks flying, the sign-entangled helicopter lost speed, plummeted down in a descending arc, and shattered across a field of golems…smearing the City streets with flame, rock monster exoskeletons…and burning fuel as the Wildebeests swiftly ran out of the way. _**CRNNNCHHHKKKK!**_

The soldiers in the jeeps cheered wildly.

The pilots of the front HIND panicked.

They started to pull up.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The soldiers fired at the helicopter.

The aircraft pulled out of range of the high-caliber assault….but was not fast enough to avoid—

"_RAAAAAAAUGH!"_ the Tamaranian warrior soared upwards with a fist flying at the metallic hull.

_**CLANG!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

The thick, burning feet of the giant golem slammed into the concrete as the beast paced through the street.

The Wildebeests, Jericho, and I dove and skirted around the stomping feet for our lives.

We huddled besides a street-lamp as the earth shook beneath and beyond us.

We panted.

Jericho worriedly watched his bovine companions.

I looked up from the militaristic throngs of Wildebeests and caught sight of the top of Kobayashi Tower.

And I froze…

There were two bodies on the summit.

Busily fighting.

Weapons harshly contacting.

Flashes of crimson.

And something flickered coldly inside of me in response.

Shivering.

_White……_

I exhaled a cold, vaporous breath.

_Ana…… _

_Is that……him?_

Jericho's eyes were also locked on the top of the Tower.

As if he somehow also knew…..

Until—

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

I jumped back with Jericho—gasping—in my grasp. Sidewalk and asphalt shattered where we were previously located. I breathily gazed up at the height of the lumbering giant and clenched my jaw.

_Whoopass time._

_  
_-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**SNKKKKKTT-HCKKK!"**_

_**FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_

_**CLANNNNGG!**_

Red Aviary slammed his two-edged sword straight down against Dagger's crossed knives.

The despot gritted his teeth and struggled to hold Deathstroke's weighted blade of Destruction back.

The Reaper's one eye strobed red as he leaned forward…..hissing cold crimson vapors onto the man's face.

The glass surface of the Kobayashi summit cracked and spiderwebbed beneath them.

There were fractures and sword-slash marks in the satellite dishes.

Various metal shards of shattered knives littered the floor.

Dagger was as strong and resilient as ever….but he was a wreck. Scratches and cuts formed along his limbs. There were tears in his vest, armor, and leggings. Sweat ran down his brow and neck as his wrists shook and shivered to hold off Deathstroke.

_Deathstroke…._

Who was in his _element_.

Who was wielding and breathing and becoming _Death_ himself.

He didn't mind any of the scars or scrapes or stabs that Dagger gave him, for his body was already hacked to bits. Three knives stuck into his skin from where Dagger had tossed them into his figure. Orifices and cuts and red-leaking canyons let loose puffs and clouds of misty red vapor. Metal and meaty parts inside of Deathstroke clicked and ticked and clattered away…..

….much like the mouth hidden behind the slits in the cowl as Slade leaned his face forward. Hissing into Dagger's shaking face.

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkttt….Hccck….are you frightened yet….Daggerrrrr?"**_

"………," Dagger clenched his jaw. Struggling with his crossed blades to keep from being sliced in half, tossed off the buildingside, or both.

Behind him, the City he coveted burned and shook from the warfare.

Calvin's troops pummeled monstrosities with artillery shelling.

Jeeps and Hummers did battle in the Downtown avenues.

And huge, burning golems thrashed through seas of Wildebeests in carnage and chaos.

_The Wildebeests……_

Struggling for a firm breath, the sweating Dagger darted his cold eyes over his shoulder and towards the streets below.

A thick company of Wildebeests beneath the height of Kobayashi Tower charged a throng of golems.

Alongside them, Army jeeps maintained the line and fired rapidly at a six-story giant stomping menacingly towards the thick of the group.

But the Wildebeests were ruthless.

The Wildebeests were brave.

And amidst the prevailing front of their assault, two figures stood out.

A smoking swordsman….

And a petite, blonde child……

…

"Nnnnngh…," Dagger turned to Slade. Teeth gritting. He summoned his icy tone of voice and dripped forth: "He's here, Slade…."

"_**Hckkkk….?"**_

"Jericho. Your son."

"…………_**.clik-clik-clikkkt……"**_ the pulsing red eye behind the cowl flickered. It wavered momentarily and glanced downward….

Past Dagger.

"_**J-Joeyyyy…..snkkkt….."**_

The blonde speck far below shook and quivered as the black swordsman guided him to safety from the stomping giant and crumbling buildingfaces.

"_**Hckkk-Clik-clik-clikkkt……What isss thatttt fool of minnnne doingggg here?""**_

_**SL-SLIIIICE!**_ Dagger's blades uncrossed. They cut red-smoking rivers in both of Deathstroke's wrists.

"_**HCKKK-KKK-CLIKK!"**_

Dagger snarled and slammed his knee into the Reaper's face.

_THOK!_

Deathstroke staggered back.

Dagger lurched forward and slapped both of his blades into Red Aviary's sword.

_CL-CLAKK!_ Dagger swiftly wrenched the hilt free of Slade's grasp.

_Cl-Clankkk!_ The sword landed on the glass rooftop a few meters away.

"Nnnngh!" Dagger grunted and crossed the blades again, slicing deep into both of Deathstroke's upper thights.

_**SLIII-IIINK!**_

THWOMP! Deathstroke fell down to his knees. Bleeding. Leaking red vapors. _**"Hckkk-clik-clik-clik-snkkkt!"**_ He leaked red clouds from four different spots as he shook and quivered….kneeling before the despot.

Dagger stood above him…heaving….catching his breath. 'His' City burned all around him. He took a deep breath and twirled both long knives into firmer grips. _CHIIIIIIING!_ He tilted his head up and glared icily down at the Reaper with bright, hungry eyes. "You fight well for what you believe in. So I shall now give it to you."

"……………_**.."**_ Deathstroke sat absolutely still. The glow in his single eye faded….

"Enjoy your 'Death', Slade. Granted, I shall certainly prosper from it." That uttered, Dagger stepped forward with one of the blades lunging straight at the small of Deathstroke's throat. "Nnnnghhh!"

"…….._**HCKKK!"**_ A pulse of meditative Destruction swam up Deathstroke's right limb. He shot his right hand up into a fist and flashed a shield of _**RED**_.

_**CLAKKK!**_ The entire length of Dagger's knife shattered on impact with Slade's wrist. _Crkkkk-kkkkk-kkkktt!_

Dagger's eyes widened.

"…………_**.,"**_ Red Aviary glared. _**"Clikkt-HCK!"**_ A flick of his wrist, and a burst of red slammed into the glass rooftop and sent a shattering shockwave into Dagger's feet.

_Crkkkk!_

The man hobbled back, his lower leg stabbed with shards.

Deathstroke shot his hand right.

_**FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ His red sword bounced towards him on a layer of red steam. _**CLUTCH!**_ Deathstroke grabbed it. Stood up….

Dagger staggered….

Deathstroke marched at him. One foot. Two—

"Nnngh!" Dagger stabbed forward.

Deathstroke side-stepped, billowed red, and sliced his red blade up with a snarl: _**"HCKKKK!"**_

_**THWACCCK!.!.!**_ Dagger's left hand was severed at the wrist. The fingers shattered and flew free as the limb literally exploded from a pulse of pure _**RED**_. **CRACK!**

Blood and bone scattered through the red night.

Dagger let loose a sharp exhalation. He stumbled to the edge of the building and clutched his bloody stub. Teeth gritting till they all but sparked. He breathed one torturous breath….two….

_**FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ Deathstroke blurred straight into him and—_**SLIIIIIIINK!**_—stabbed the length of his blade deep into Dagger's left shoulder.

Dagger twitched….breathless. His pulsing, pained eyes centered on Slade as the Reaper's cowl rose up close to the despot's face and hissed red steam. _**"HCkkk…..you've dissstracccted me for—clik-clik—the lasssst time, Daggerrrr….."**_

Dagger stared straight into Death. Shaking…quivering….but otherwise not showing the least bit of pain in his face save for a twitching eye or two. Regardless, the sweat on his brow froze from the cold of Deathstroke's breath as he listened to Red Aviary's words….

"_**You andddd I….we will meeet—snkkkt---again….,"**_ Deathstroke's one eye pulsed a glaring red. _**"As forrrr tonightttt….rememberrr my face in Hell…..HCKKKK!"**_

THWOMP! Deathstroke's foot raised and kicked Dagger in the chest.

_SLIIIIINK!_ Dagger wetly slid off the blade, teetered, and fell off the East side of Kobayashi Tower. Flailing his useless left arm. Too breathless to scream…..

_FWOOOOOOOOOoooooosssssssh!_

"………_**..,"**_ Deathstroke gazed down at the falling despot's figure. He then cracked his neck, tore the knives out of him…and flexed his ripped muscles while tilting his head to the sky. _**"Snkkkt-HCKKKKKK-RAAAAACHKKKK!"**_ A plume of red smoke billowed from his leaking body. He twitched all over….clicked….and prepared to dive off and slice his way into the Wildebeest battle below when….

He stopped.

"……………_**."**_

Deathstroke slowly turned around.

His frozen body poised.

His cowl-covered head leading to the side….exhaling red vapors.

With a glowing eye thin…he listened………listened……

He spun around.

His glowing eye squinted.

He saw a HIND of Dagger's soaring through the City.

And on its tail—burning an emerald streak through the air—a certain alien girl was in hot pursuit.

"……_**..snkkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clik-clikkttt……"**_ Deathstroke flexed his arms in renewed vigor. _CHIIIIING!_ Dragging Myrkblade behind him, he cracked his limbs….ran towards the edge of Kobayashi Tower….blurred….and leapt Eastward….

_**FW-FWOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

A red streak….following the green…..

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The HIND jerked and swerved left and right, trying its mad best to shake the alien girl.

Starfire merely clenched her teeth and kept on its tail.

_FL-FL-FLASSSH!_

She fired volleys of starbolts at the huge, destructive bird.

The energy pulses merely bounced off the rotary blades.

The HIND ducked around a building and rocketed north.

Growling, the enraged Tamaranian streaked after.

Intent on capturing its enemy.

Not observing—at all—the crimson shadow trailing after her…..


	254. Break the Circle part 14

**254. Break the Circle part 14**

Dagger was falling.

His bloody stub of a left wrist was trailing globs of blood through the air as he plummeted off of Kobayashi Tower.

His entire left limb was a useless, flapping organism.

But that didn't phase the half-butchered despot one bit.

He coolly held his breath…

In mid-plunge, he twirled about, reached a right hand to his vest, and pulled a thick cord.

_**PFTTTT! PFTT-FTTTT!**_

Tiny 'jets' extended outward from the straps in his armored vest and flared.

Acting as little hover thrusts, the jets slowed his plummeting descent by about half of its velocity.

It was just slow enough for him to glide himself forward….drift away from the blurring building face of Kobayashi Tower…and sail towards the office building on the opposite side of the street violently sailing up at him.

As Dagger reached the blurring building face, he grunted and reached his right arm out. A strap of his long glove clicked and shot out rows of sharp metal 'teeth' that glinted in the red aura of the night and sliced into the glass facings and steel supports of the buildingfront.

_SLNKKKKK-KKKKKKT-KKKKTTTTT!_

Dagger's teeth gritted. He weathered the pain of his lost limb and the jolting sensation of his death-defying save.

The glove's teeth ate and ate and ate into the glass.

Causing sparks and sharp shards to fly.

Dagger hissed for breath as his violent fall turned into a sluggish slide.

He grinded to a jolting stop at the bottom of a twenty-story tall slice-streak in the office building's 'chest'. There were barely nine stories left hanging beneath him before his body could splatter into the battle-raging streets below.

Sweating with pain and strain….the maimed Dagger looked straight up.

And for a spare moment…confusion splashed across his tortured face.

For he saw the red, blurring streak of Deathstroke shoot eastward across the building tops beyond Kobayashi Tower.

And Dagger could not help but murmur: "But….Robin is in the Northern District……."

T-T-T-T-T-T-

THWOOOSH! Far below, I blurred with Jericho in tow.

I tossed him into the surprised arms of a Wildbeest. The horned fellow caught the boy awkwardly. Jericho looked at me with confused, twitching eyes.

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!_ I blurred straight up the back leg of the huge golem. Up the posterior. Along the spine. And rounded up onto the shoulder.

_**CRKKKKK!**_ The beast rumbled and throbbed with a burning flame.

I perched on its shoulder. With a deep breath, I twirled Myrkblade and prepared to stab down….

_Okay. _

_Let's see how quickly I can do that lovely 'red burst' trick again---_

_**WHAMM!**_ The huge golem bitch-slapped me off its shoulder.

I flew through the air, flailing.

_Crud!_

I slammed into the radio antenna of a nearby building top and collapsed to the rooftop.

_THWOMP!_

I winced, teeth gritting.

_**CRKKKK**__**!**_ The creature marched onward.

In the distance, I could have sworn I saw the Hospital.

The same City Hospital as that which the Titans had barely saved a month ago from one of Dagger's menacing missiles.

_There may or may not be any people in that._

I saw the unhindered path of the creature.

I tightened my grip of Myrkblade and mutely snarled.

_I don't see myself giving a damn any time soon……_

THWOOOOOOSSSH! I blurred along the buildingsides.

I swiftly sailed past the marching behemoth.

I ran over the distant heads of the Wildebeests surging, beating, slamming their limbs against all sorts of nasty golems and terrorist weaponry.

A pair of helicopters flew overhead. Good….bad….._I couldn't tell._

I came to a stop approximately four blocks ahead of the huge golem…..

For I had seen something.

To my right.

Tall.

Rusted.

Dripping with moisture.

_A water tower……_

I took a deep breath of the red December air.

I turned and looked at the incoming beast.

"…….."

I ran towards the edge of the buildingside.

I gazed directly down.

At least a dozen Wildebeests were hoisting up huge chunks of loose sidewalk paneling. They growled, grunted, and flung the heavy projectiles across the street and into the protective armor of an overturned hummer where a handful of Dagger's men huddled behind, taking cover with their weapons drawn.

I whistled shrilly.

Six Wildebeests looked up.

Panting, I desperately motioned up towards the ceiling. I pointed firmly up at the water tower—whether or not they could see it—and urged for them to rise up and join me.

They did so after a moment of grunting deliberation. They flung the last of their impromptu, concrete projectiles and ran towards the buildingside while three companions blitzed the overturned hummer with horns slamming. _**CRNNCHH!**_

The six creatures stabbed their fingers into the buildingside and shatteringly climbed their way up the wall towards where I stood.

I stepped back, glancing southward in apprehension at the distant….advancing giant.

_**STOMP!**____**ST-STOMPP!**_

The six Wildebeests leapt up and landed on the rooftop. They glared at me….then past me.

They saw the water tower before I even had to point towards it.

I blurred over and stood before the western edge of the rusted bucket. I gestured at the supports and then pointed at the approaching monster.

The Wildebeests examined the situation. They nodded their hairy snouts. They rushed towards the water tower.

In the meantime, I readied Myrkblade—_Chiiiing!_—and started slashing, hacking, and stabbing at the metal supports on the building edge's side.

_CRKK! _

_SLNKKT! _

_THWKKKT!_

The six Wildebeests gathered on the opposite end of the water tower. They pushed and shoved against it….grunting with their effort.

"_Nnnnng-nnnnghhh!"_

_CrkkkkCcccrkkkk!_ The old water tower shook, wobbled, and groaned.

I kept stabbing and slicing with smoke-laden swipes at the support beams.

_SLASH! _

_THRASSSSH!_

The tower groaned some more.

One Wildebeest let go of his grip, climbed up the east side of the Tower, and stood on top. He bounced and angled his body so that his weight help tilt the rusted bucket over.

_Crrrrrkkkkkk-CrkkkkKKKK!_

The tower finally started to break and teeter sloshingly over towards the edge on the left.

In the meantime…..

_**CRKKKKKKKKKK!**_

_**ST-STOMP!**____**STOMP!**_

The six-story golem loomed just beyond the edge in the street's space before us….

The water tower fell over.

I blurred up the inclined slope, perched alongside the other Wildebeest, and slashed a slit into the rusted top part of the tower with Myrkblade just at it collapsed.

_**THWAAAAANG!**_

And…..

_**SPLOOOOO-OOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Brown, muddy water exploded coldly over the edge of the rooftop and sailed off the building and doused the huge burning golem harshly from 'head' to 'toe'. The water boiled on contact, and the flailing creature reeled and rumbled agonizingly in place as a huge explosion of steam burst skyward.

_**SSSSSSSSSSssssssss**__sssssssssss!_

The Central District of the City was blanketed with sudden, scalding fog.

The monster shook and quivered all over as its upper body lost the fire. Molten rock was replaced with hard, grating concrete and the behemoth slowed to a stand-still.

The Wildebeests on the rooftop stood up and walked over….

Gazing.

"………."

_FWOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!_

They flinched as I blurred past them in a smoking streak.

I zoomed towards the building's edge. Teeth gritting.

I leapt madly outward with Myrkblade stabbing straight forward.

_Aaaaaaaah!_

I landed in a dry cavity formed in the extinguished core of the creature's torso and teleported inside.

_FWOOOOOSH!_

I disappeared.

A beat.

……

_**POWWWW!**_

The upper half of the monster exploded as I solidified with an upswing of Myrkblade carrying me up and outward. In slow motion, I twirled skywards with Myrkblade outstretched….slicing the air.

_Fw-Fw-Fw-FWOOOSH!_

The rocks and pebbles flew up alongside me, fell, spread outward, and heatedly puffed and billowed tiny patches of steam as time resumed and—

_THWOOOOSH!_ I descended like a lead weight down to the City.

At the last second, I spread my arms and closed my ankles together.

_FWOOOSH!_ I summoned a curtain of murk to expand beneath me. I slowly lowered on the obsidian cloud…….and landed gently. Clutching Myrkblade. Exhaling…..calming down.

"………."

_**GROAAAAANNNN!**_ The lower half of the giant fell down….and exploded against the concrete just half a meter from crushing my back from behind.

_**SLAMMMMM!**_

"……..," I glared directly ahead.

At the Hospital that was still in one piece.

I took a deep breath and twirled Myrkblade to my side. TH-THWISSSH!

_Ah………good. _

_Now I'm awake._

The Wildebeests cheered. Those on the rooftop besides the dripping, overturned water tower waved their hands and reared their horned crowns.

Those in the streets strengthened their resolve and sent the residual terrorists fleeing in vehicles with guns blazing.

A crowd of bovine fury surged past me, pushing the charge further.

I took a deep breath.

I glanced aside.

Jericho straddled the back of one of the Wildebeests as he surged past me. He smirked and gave me a thumb's up.

"………"

And I smiled.

_As long as that little shrimp stays alive……there's something to hope for tonight._

I took a breath and blurred forward…keeping my proximity to Jericho's side of the charge in check. Not losing him or myself as we further engaged the enemy.

_Jeez, Ana…… _

_Just where the Hell is the Messenger anyway?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMM!_

The six police officers and Robin burned rubber northward, following the L-Train Track.

Sure enough, a beast was lumbering ahead….smashing all sorts of small buildings in its path. Doing so in such a lethargic, meaningless pace that it was almost comical. The thick of Calvin's resistance was behind the motorcyclists and to the South. The Northeast sector was still Dagger country. And as the six cops and the Boy Wonder throttled past the streets and avenues of the slums, many a contingent of terrorist gunmen let loose lead volleys in vain to puncture the speedsters' tires.

"What's exactly your plan?"

"The plan is coming right up!" Robin shouted into the 'ear' of Smith's helmet. He pointed up at the L-Train tracks. "See there?"

Smith and two other driving officers craned their necks.

An abandoned train car rested still right above them. Empty of all passengers. Aimed northward.

"Right where it's supposed to be!" one officer exclaimed. He glanced over through his helmet. "What's ticking in that Titan head of yours?"

"The trick—gentlemen—is to let my body do the talking!" Robin stood up and 'surfed' on the back of Smith's bike. "Excuse me…I must take flight!"

"Lovely….."

_VRMMMMMM!_

Robin whipped out a grappling hook and aimed up. "Smith! Distract the giant! Bring it to the L-Track four hundred meters ahead!"

"I'll do!"

"Robin, what are you--?"

_**POW!**_

"I'll be just a second!" Robin shouted as he fired the grappling hook and—

_**CLANK!**_

THWOOOOSH! He yanked and flew off on the cord, swinging upward.

"Nnnnrgh….," one officer uttered while speeding. "What makes me think that the boy was born to die….only to be reborn….just to die again?"

"Shut up and be optimistic, Vann," Smith throttled his bike forward. "Now….let's go engage the burning behemoth of death." _**VRMMMMMM!**_

"Uhhh…yeah…."

The other five cyclists burned after the accelerating leader.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH! Robin swung up and around and landed nimbly on the back of the abandoned train car.

He took a deep breath and kicked his way in through the rear window.

_SMASSH!_

He retracted his grappling hook back into his launcher and snaked into the compartment of the vehicle.

He ran down to the front piloting chamber.

He punched his way in.

_Shatter!_

He leapt in.

He gripped the levers tightly.

He turned knobs.

He brought the car to life.

He then hotwired the craft and pushed a few levels forward.

_Zzzzt-ZZTT!_

Sparks flew between the wheels and the metal rails.

The lights inside the car flickered.

More sparks…..

And….

_ZZZT!_

The car started to lurch forward.

Faster….faster……….faster……

Chugging.

Chugging….

Robin gritted his teeth, gripped tightly another set of levers, and slowly pushed them forward.

And the car rocked and rattled as it gained speed and throttled towards the north edge of the City….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMM!_

Smith and his men zoomed around smashed building ashes.

They ramped almost with one accord over a mound of debris and landed swiftly on the asphalt, once again throttling northward.

When they reached the burning legs of the creature—

_**STOMP!**____**STOMPPP!**_

--Smith circled his fingers, gestured, and pointed his men forward.

They split up, shot ahead, and burned throttling circles around the ankles of the huge creature in opposite, clockwise / counterclockwise formations.

The creature rumbled, spewed ashes, and 'looked' down at them.

All six police officers spun circles around the beast. Burning rubble and kicking up smoke.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_ The beast raised its foot and attempted to stomp the police officers to gravel.

As soon as the beast 'struck back', Smith ordered his men away with a jabbing finger _southward_.

_**STOMPPPPPP!**_

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!_

Smith led his company of six the opposite way from which they came.

_**CRKKK!**_

The monster tore around, flexed its burning limbs, and swiftly charged after them.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile….in the Southern End of the City….

The green stallion that was Changeling swiftly charged his way ashore from the land ridge and into the thick of the City.

The Bayside Plaza loomed on the right.

The rising fires of golden brilliance on the left……

The horse snorted and sped…sped….sped onward.

Raven limply rode the back of the green beast of burden.

Her thin, violet eyes weakly trailed the gravel and asphalt that blurred beneath the flurrying hooves.

Lips quivering, the dark girl gazed up.

A red sky.

Helicopters.

Dark bodies circling….circling….

Her head was stabbed with the sensation of a wrought iron cage….buried in chains.

_FL-FLASSH!_

Raven's eyes strobed a hot gray.

She hissed, clenched her eyes shut, and hugged the bounding back of the stallion beneath her.

And she shuddered.

With moist eyes, she deliriously murmured: "C-Cyborg……..Cyborg….pl-please….."

"………," the rushing equine's gray eyes narrowed. An exhale escaped his nostrils as he burst forward in swifter speed and soared up the remainder of the city streets.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

…..and then the green beast came to a solid stop.

The snout of the changeling gaped open as its gray eyes widened.

A stretch of Main Street criss-crossed with various avenues ahead of the horse's path.

And everywhere….

Golems were stomping across the sidewalks and streets.

Wildebeests were pouncing on them, snorting.

Burning rock met silver-plated horns.

And Dagger's men sped by on jeeps, firing machine guns.

As straggling groups of U.S. soldiers sped by in opposite directions, tossing grenades.

And rubble and burning ash filled the streets as helicopters zoomed low overhead and fired at each other.

The street flashed and flickered with the impacts and explosions of the war.

"………," the animorph was frozen in place. Helplessly confused….

"Nnngh….Cyborg…..," Raven gasped. She was wincing. Sweat ran down her brow and dampened the mane of the green stallion she straddled. With pants and wincing breaths, she drifted…drifted….drifted into oblivion.

The emerald horse's muscles tensed.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

With a gasp and a snort, the horse glanced backwards.

**RUMMMMMMBLLLLEEE!** An entire building shook and collapsed hotly behind the two Titans as a five-story golem burned and marched its way through.

_**STOMP! **__**STOMPPPP!**_

The horse grunted and charged forward.

Raven held on for dear life.

The giant incidentally marched and smashed buildings straight after the hooves of the galloping changeling. Beast Boy swerved left and right around wrestling pairs of Wildebeests and golems. The coupled combatants found themselves screaming as the monster's burning ankles slammed into them and knocked their bodies through parked vehicles and building fronts. SMASSSH! CRKKKK! Changeling galloped….galloped. He hopped a burning jeep with two flinching terrorists inside. The men tried aiming their uzzis at the rear of the green Titan when a trio of Wildebeests suddenly pounced on them and started beating their skulls in. Then everyone of the combatants collapsed and fell to the ground from the proximity of the giant's stomping feet. _**CRUNNNCH!**_ Sidewalk and asphalt cracked. Fire hydrants exploded and shot sprays of water up alongside the galloping Titan. Manhole covers popped and flew loudly into the air. Two jeeps swerved, drove alongside the speeding horse, fell back, and fell victim to collapsing debris from a building that the lunging limbs of the giant's reach smashed and dropped onto the streets below. _**THUDDD!**_ Two apaches soared loudly overhead, their rotary blades beating loudly at the air. They let loose missiles into the thighs of the monster that merely bounced off and flailed into the buildingsides. _**POWWW! KRA-**__**KOW!**_ The falling, burning building surfaces slumped down and collapsed over Beast Boy. The horse snorted and slid in an asphalt-kicking 'lunge' that forced him and Raven squeezing under a low-bridge of collapsing steel and motar, speeding on forward. _**CRUSSSSH!**_ The hyperventilating animorph leapt over an overturned hummer, dashed around a trio of wildebeests stampeding into a wall of golems, and finally rounded an intersection's corner and rushed out of Main Street right before the marching, relentless giant could possibly crush the two Titans with its burning feet. _**STOMP!**____**ST-STOMPPP!**_

The horse sped down an alleyway….

Galloped speedily down a thin corridor of bricks and mortar…..

Approached a metal fence on the other side…..

And leapt mightily over it…..just as the rushing sound of a missile heatedly echoed into the thin stretch of space.

Raven road the leaping steed. Her blue hair rose and fell and her eyes opened for a brief enough moment to gasp—

_**PFTOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

A missile exploded in the street directly in front of where they landed.

Changeling swiftly spun his equine body, galloped at an awkward angle to outrun the fire cloud…spun about….and sped the two of them further northward along a road adjacent to Main Street. And there was a contingent of jeeps on one side of the street….and a throng of Dagger's vehicles on the other side of the street. The two jeeps ran parallel to each other and shot lead volleys across the way in bloody chaos. Gunmen shouted and fired and fired and fired. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_ And all the while, a HIND dipped low through the street and tailed the mobile battle, taking pot shots at the U.S. Army. _**PFTOOOOSSH! PFTOOOSH!**_ Missiles flew and exploded into the buildingsides above the U.S. caravan. _SHATTTTERRR!_ Glass and mortar fell down. Changeling leapt his hooves over the gunshots and bolted under the falling debris as it engulfed a helpless jeep full of screaming passengers. The U.S. convoy split up. The Daggerite vehicles veered over to gun the men down when suddenly a company of twelve to fifteen Wildebeests leapt down from the rooftops on the other side and literally smashed their weight through the hulking vehicles of the enemy. Bodies went flying as tires popped and aluminum chassis shattered. The Daggerite terrorists fought tooth and nail and gun rifle butt with the Wildebeests, only to find themselves slapped, crushed, and skewered by silver horns. The Wildebeests prepared to finish the last of the terrorists off when another missile flew from the trailing HIND….aimed at them his time. _**PFTOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ The vehicles full of bovine warriors and terrorists exploded. A few Wildebeests made it out safely, charging away. The others….snorted and bellowed as they burned alive from the fur down…

_FWOOOSH!_

The green stallion dove down another alleyway, skirted around a courtyard full of collapsed ashes and building shards, and ran down an open stretch of road under the red sky.

The equine tilted his head up….

A HIND flew through the burning sky. A figure streaking an emerald trail of light soared straight after it.

The eyes of the horse widened.

"Nnnngh…," Raven murmured. Wincing. She hunched over and practically dug her face into the main of the wildly galloping steed. "C-Cyborg….," she hissed. Her glowing gray eyes clenched tightly shut. Silver tears squeezed out. The dark girl shook all over. "I-I'm so sorry….s-so sorry…….C-Cyborg….the…..th-the team……"

"………"

Changeling galloped faster.

He soared down the open stretch of road. He blurred past parked cars and craters of comet-impacts. The central highway of the City loomed ahead. Changeling galloped past the former site of Phaser Labs and under the highway overpass. Just as he passed under, a missile flew into the overpass and exploded in bright flames. _**KA-POWWWWW!**_ Raven jolted. The horse snorted and moved faster. A wall of burning debris fell at its tail in a cascade. Another missile flew as a HIND responsible for the projectiles lowered and sped low after the throttling changeling. _**PFTOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_ The missile ate at the hooves of the Titan metamorph. Changeling grunted and hopped up the engine of a semi truck and leapt up onto the trailer. Beast Boy galloped the length of the steel trailer's body and jumped off. _**BOOOOM!**_ The missile flew into the engine and exploded like a fireworm throughout the length of the trailer. Changeling rushed down the street, leaving the flames billowing behind. _**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ The HIND roared at the rear of the horse. It fired its spinning missile cannon. _**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_ The heavy caliber slammed into the concrete and asphalt all around the horse's blurring legs. Potholes exploded and shattered spray hotly into the Changeling's snout. _P-POW! PING!_ He merely snorted and jerked left into a thin alleyway.

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The HIND pivoted and rocketed just above the thin corridor.

The horse galloped down the claustrophobic space.

Panting for breath.

Changeling looked forward towards the space exiting out into the open street.

But just as he got there—

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSSSH**__**-POWWW!**_

A missile landed and exploded the exit in hot oblivion.

The green horse skidded to a stop. Raven flailed. The snout opened and a gasping voice came out…

_**PHWOOOOOMMMBB!**_

A wall of fire from the missile ate its way down the alleyway and cascaded meltingly over the two Titans' bodies.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOMMBB!**_

Above, the HIND lingered in the air.

The alleyway became an infernal sandwich.

Fire splashed up and vomited out of the edges of the walls.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

The helicopter lingered for a moment over the urban volcano.

Then…..

As if the pilots were satisfied, they rotated the aircraft around and rocketed northwards towards the thicker battles of the City.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Silence.

Flickering flames.

Ashes….

…

…

Movement.

A green bulk climbed its way out of the burning alleyway.

A huge, emerald gorilla jumped up onto the rooftop.

Changeling had Raven's limp body hooked within a thick, primate forearm.

Beast Boy protectively held the ailing sorceress. With a clenched, gorilla jaw he glared northward along the City where the battle raged in the streets and air.

"………."

He waited for the fumes to die down before propping Raven up—straddling his shoulders—and proceeded to leap and jump from building to building in gorilla mode.

Heading northward….

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

In another part of the City, a HIND was desperately doing its best to avoid the heated pursuit of Starfire.

The alien girl sped and veered left and right, holding tight to the tail of the last of her three aerial targets.

She snarled and flung starbolts every opportunity she could at the flying behemoth.

_FL-FLASH! _

_FLASH! _

_FLASH!_

The HIND whipped left and right, narrowly streaking its way between building faces and literally scouring the urban 'canyons' of the City.

Its beating rotary blades glinted reflections off of the glass windows on either side.

Its engines echoed against the structures and sent flags and banners and debris flying from the rush of its blades and speeding body.

"Nnnnngh!" Starfire flew closer and closer to its rear, firing more energy streams. _FL-FLASH! FLASH!_

The starbolts barely missed the veering aircraft and shattered into building fronts. Glass and steel frameworks flew loosely into the air.

The HIND dipped down low, barely beatings its way over the heads of battling wildebeests and burning golems. A few random shots from U.S. jeeps' mounted guns bounced off its blades and ricocheted back towards Starfire.

The girl gasped, spiraled, avoided the random shrapnel, and twirled back upright to bolt after the HIND.

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSH!**_ The fiendish aircraft suddenly lifted up towards the rooftops of the City.

Starfire arced up to sharply chase the lifting craft.

The HIND skirted over the building tops and suddenly fired a pair of missiles into the sky.

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The hellseekers soared up at a forty-five degree angle. Suddenly—however—their thrusts died. The two missiles flailed in the air, settled, fell back, twirled and twirled, and re-initiated their flares just as they were facing Starfire.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Starfire gasped.

Her green eyes reflected the incoming noses of the two explosives.

She gritted her teeth, crossed her arms, strobed a hot green all over, and uncrossed her wrists just in time to fling a slicing flurry of starbolts. "RAAAUGH!" _FLAAAA-AAAAAAASSSSH!_

The missiles exploded and vomited a wall of flame at the Tamaranian girl.

"Nnnngh!" she flinched as she punched through the flames. Her body hurtled out the other side, trailing ashes. Bewildered, she plummeted and slammed into a rooftop….skipping across the gravel surface like a stone.

She grinded a stop….bruised and with her hair slightly smoking. She pushed herself up to a sitting position, teeth gritting. She looked up with weak eyes over the nearest rooftop ledge.

The HIND was swiftly ducking down low and hiding itself amidst the tall skyscrapers and thickness of the urban maze of the City.

Starfire took a deep breath, summoned righteous fury, and soared hotly after the hiding HIND with wrists glowing a hot green.

_FWOOOOOOOSSSH!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMM!_

In the Northern district….Smith and his five fellow officers streaked southward along the L-Track.

_**STOMP!**____**STOMP!**____**ST-STOMPP!**_

The giant golem roared after them, its feet smashing through abandoned buildings and junk lots.

The six bikes swerved and came down a stretch of bazaars and sidewalk shops.

The concrete cracked and melted as the golem's feet hurtled after their tires.

_**STOMPPP!**_

The motorcyclist in the rear glanced back, panting.

He looked forward and shouted through his helmet: "We can't outrun this creep forever, Lieutenant!"

"And we're not going to, Abbey," Smith said. He shot a pointing hand up and to the right. "That's where Robin wanted us to go! Follow me!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Go go go! MOVE!"

_**STOMP!**_

Burning gravel and asphalt fountained over them.

Smith strongly gripped his handles and swerved westward.

The five tire-screeching cops zoomed after him.

The intersection behind them shattered with flame.

The giant turned and stomped westward after them.

_VRMMMMMMMMMM!_

The six cops zoomed towards the L-Track overpass.

Smith panted.

He turned and looked over his shoulder.

_**STOMP!**____**STOMPPP!**_ The burning golem was about to squash them……scorch them….

Smith faced forward again and gunned it. "Nnnnnngh!" _**VRMMMMMMM!**_

The other five motorists throttled alongside them.

Just as the monster was catching up….

_FWOOOOOSSSSSH!_

They soared maddeningly under the overhang of the L-Track.

_**SMASSSSSSH!**_ The giant stomped into the L-Track, smashing railing and concrete and steel apart as it attempted to walk _through_ the overpass.

_SCREEEECH!_ The six motorcyclists swerved to a stop. Panting…breathless…….they watched the entangled golem try to smash its way onto the otherside of the bridge.

The giant flailed its burning limbs and spewed ash and lava as it attempted to inch its hulking way through.

Then…..

_**SCKKKKKKTTTTT!**_ The grating sound of metal wheels slicing over metal rails.

The golem turned its 'crown' and gazed southward.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnngh!" Robin pushed and pushed and pushed on the acceleration lever of the train car with all his strength.

_**CRACCCK!**_

The lever snapped entirely.

The whole train car shook and wobbled as it reached an unfathomable speed that nearly flew it off the railings.

In short, the subway car was zooming murderously towards the hulking form of the giant golem stuck with the tracks aiming into its burning chest.

_**SKKKKKKTTT!**_

"Let's see if you've got a ticket to ride, hot stuff!"

Robin kicked a glass window open with his boot.

_SHATTERR!_

With a grunt, he dove nimbly out of the hurtling vehicle.

_Fwoooosh!_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SNKKKKKTTTT!**_

The car zoomed north along the tracks.

_**CRKKKKKK-RKKKKK!**_ The giant flailed its limbs and wrenched and struggled to get free of the trapping L-Track. _**CRKKKKK!**_

The car hurtled into its chest and exploded the giant in a fountain of ash and burning shards.

_**POWWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The northern sky lit up gold against the red.

The L-Tracks crumbled both ways for a good fifty meters.

Two burning legs were all that was left of the standing giant. The glowing gold faded….and as the ashes settled, the legs fell over and formed a crater in the ground beneath the crumbled, burning train car parts. _**FWOMPP!**_

The cops cheered.

Pumping their arms in the air.

Watching the delightful oblivion from their motorcycles.

But Smith was silent.

He lifted the visor to his helmet.

With eyes thin, he gazed along the lengths of the L-Track.

"…………."

He suddenly brightened.

He kicked the bike into gear. _Vrmmmmm!_

The other cops looked on.

Smith drove towards a southern portion of the L-Track that was still standing.

He parked beneath and looked straight up at Robin…hanging from a single, split metal railing.

"Need a hand?"

"…….," the Boy Wonder sweatdropped. "I'm…..um……conserving my grappling hooks."

Smith smirked. "Right."

"………….."

"Well, do you need a hand or no—"

"YES!"

"Heheh….," Smith rode to a stop beneath Robin.

The Boy Wonder took a breath….let go of the railing…and fell from the underbelly of the L-Track. _Fw-FWPP!_ He flipped and landed, saddling the back of Smith's bike.

"Good job, Robin," Smith said.

"Love you too."

"Heheh….that should clear up a bit of the pressure from the north end."

"_Should."_ Robin emphasized. "This battle's far from over."

"At least it's a battle," Smith said. His jaw tightened. "And not a _massacre."_Robin's eyemask narrowed. "The Army and the Wildebeests might be able to create a stalemate against Slade. But with the Titans scattered, we're still losing an _edge."_

"Did you have something in mind for that 'edge'?" Smith asked.

"………..," the Boy Wonder took a deep breath. "You know…." He gazed Southward. "I just might…."

_VRMMMMMM!_

_VRMMM!_

The other five cops drove up.

"Sir…."

"We have trouble."

"What?" "What?" A beat. Smith and the Boy Wonder glanced at each other.

"Look!" Chapman pointed.

Smith and Robin gazed northward. "Mrmmm…."

Two HINDs were busily beating their way towards their location.

"Looks like we attracted some attention."

"Good. As long as it's us and not the other boys on the ground."

"Sir, what'll we do?"

"……..," Smith took a deep breath. "Let's see if we can outrun the air."

_VRMMMMMMM!_

"Let's move!"

"Follow me!"

The group of six throttled southwards towards through the slums.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**FW-FW-FWOOSSH! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Grfff!" a hulking, green gorilla leapt clear over a building and landed in a street beyond.

_CRKKK!_

The ground shook and shattered beneath him.

Sidewalk slabs unearthed.

Changeling merely grunted, readjusted his grip of Raven, and stampeded across the street.

He dashed between battling masses of Wildebeests and golems.

He jumped over an overturned jeep or two.

He found his way towards an apartment building and started climbing up it.

In a nearby alleyway…

Shadowed from the heat and thickness of battle…

A tall, muscular figure stood.

A pair of mucousy eyes caught sight of the changeling's swift flight.

"……….."

The body spun. The cold red night glinted off scaly skin as the stranger ran out towards a sidewalk and dove down through a hole formed by a golem in the side of the street.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SLASSSSH! **_

_**CRKKKKK!**_

In the thick of the Main Street Wildebeest charge, I dove forward with Myrkblade slashing through the burning torso of one of the many monsters.

Two Wildebeests flanking me ran forward and punched craters in the crowns of a pair of looming rock creeps. _CRK! CRAK!_

I leapt over the line of Wildebeests, vaulted off the burning back of one golem, and came down in a thick cluster of golden fiends. I landed on the asphalt in a squat, ducked low, and spun around with a pulse of murk…severing half a dozen legs with Myrkblade's serrated spin.

_SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSH!_

The golems fell to the ground, twitching and billowing hot yellow flame.

"Nrgggh!" four Wildebeests—one of whom Jericho was straddling—rushed in and stomped the writhing golems into hot gravel. CRKKKK! _**CRKKK!**_ CRUNCH!

I rolled to the side, hopped up, and limped sideways onto the edge of a courtyard.

Panting.

I gulped and glanced at my comrades pushing the advance.

I shuddered and looked left.

My black-eyed vision swam down a series of alleyways and side streets. I saw dozens of roads paralleling Main Street where identical battles between Wildebeests, golems, and speeding jeeps went on and on and on and on….

But halfway down the length of madness….I saw something that made me gasp.

A green gorilla.

Leaping from one building top to another.

And carrying a limp, wounded girl in blue.

_Beast Boy! _

_R-Raven!_

Breathless, I stumbled numbly towards the nearest alleyway---

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

_**KABOOOOM!**_

The building side exploded in flames directly into me.

I grunted, crossed my flesh and black arms, and rode the wave of concussion so that it tossed me like a ragdoll out into the street.

_FW-FWOMP!_

I was showered with burning ash and debris.

Half of the Wildebeest army spun, grunting, and looked.

Jericho's green eyes widened as he gasped…

A Hummer of Dagger's was parked at an intersection ahead. The men in the back were reloading a bazooka as one of the terrorists fired the large mounted machine gun.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

P-P-P-PING!

A stream of heated bulletfire shattered down the street and exploded wetly into the front row of Wildebeests.

They screamed and grunted loudly as sprays of red splashed among them.

A dozen bovine warriors fell wetly to the floor as the others dove out of the way.

Jericho gripped tightly to the crown of the buddy he was saddling. Fragments and lead shards flew hotly over his blonde head.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Bullets splashed around me.

I stirred…slowly got up….and glared at the hummer.

I hissed through clenched teeth and a bleeding lip….

Meanwhile, the men in the Hummer loaded another bazooka. The mounted gunman paused his machine gun punishment as the two men raised the RPGs and prepared to launch—

_FWOOOOSH!_

Somehow I was already there. I materialized with Myrkblade on the upswing.

_CLANK!_ The bazooka went flying red-skyward. _Fwp-Fwp-Fwp!_

The men in the back of the hummer gasped and aimed their pistols at me.

I snarled mutely and shattered the pistols apart with a singing Myrkblade.

_SL-SL-__**SLASSSH!**_

The men grunted and clutched their scarred wrists from the hot pistol pieces.

The one gunman pivoted the mounted machine gun towards me like a swinging bludgeon.

I leapt up, flipped, and landed weightlessly on the barrel of the gun with a fountain of murk.

The gunman stepped back, pulled out a grenade, and screamed at me.

His scream ended as soon as his head went flying.

_**THWACCCK!**_ Myrkblade swished wetly at the end of its decapitating swing.

_Fwp-Fwp-Fwp!_ The bazooka twirled in the air and came down…

The other two men pounced at me.

I twirled Myrkblade and stabbed at them—

_CLANK!_

The bazooka landed awkwardly on the side of the Hummer.

And fired…

_**BOOOOOOOM!**_

The hulking vehicle exploded in a wave of fire beneath me.

Wildebeests and golems fell to the ground from the concussion wave soaring outward from the exploding Hummer.

Jericho was among the collapsing crowd. His little self rolled across the charred asphalt. He looked up…gasping wide. His green eyes reflecting the fireball of…

Me.

T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FWOOSH!_

The green gorilla landed from a nearby building top.

He marched halfway out into the street.

Gray eyes rounding as he gazed out…..scanning….

A breath.

Changeling morphed down into elf form, holding Raven up by the shoulder.

The shirtless animorph caught her breath and shook Raven. "Rae….Rae! Look!" He pointed.

"Nnnngh…," she weakly opened her eyes. Lips pursed as she gazed out west…northwest…

A line of green colored jeeps and Abrams tanks were advancing eastward.

General Calvin's troops were on the rebound.

Suppression fire from the jeeps held the burning golems at bay.

And shells fired from the tanks, impacting the streets and sending golden bodies scattering.

_**POW!**_

_**P-POW!**_

"This is it….the good guys….," Changeling panted….sweating all over. He smiled and gazed at Raven. "We'll have you patched up sooner than you think."

"………."

Changeling blinked. "R-Raven?"

The girl's gray eyes were fluctuating….rounding…

In fear.

Her lips quivered. "G-Garfield…."

"……?"

Raven gulped: "It's another trap…."

"H-Huh?"

_**CL-CLANGGGG!**_ A manhole few feet away shot straight up from the street suddenly.

Raven flinched.

Changeling craned his neck and looked over---

_FWOOOOSSSSH!_ A scaly body leapt up from the sewers through the hole and sailed into Garfield, gnarled feet first—

"HRESSSH!"

_**WHAM!**_

A breathless Changeling flew and slammed against a lamppost. _CL-CLANG!_ "Augh!"

Raven gasped and deflated to the sidewalk, quivering.

_P-PLANT!_

Killer Croc landed from his leaping lunge. He drooled from his sharp, mutated jaws. He cracked his neck….and flexed his upper limbs. "Hello kidssss…."

"Nnnngh…," Changeling struggled to stand up. He winced from his bruises. "K-Kil….Killer Croc?"

"H-He's working for Dagger!" Raven hissed. "He's on their side! Just like Clayface and the others! I-I can feel it—"

"Hressssh!" Croc sneered and spun around. "Shut the blazes up, ya creepy broad!"

_Swoooosh!_ He slammed his foot into her gut. WHAM!

Raven hunched over, coughing. Sputtering blood.

"RAVEN!" Changeling shouted. His teeth gritted as his upper body spliced hard into dinosaur skin. "NNGHHHH!" He charged Killer Croc.

Croc merely spun and uppercutted the creature.

_WHAM!_

The elf shrunk and fell back….gasping for air and spitting blood from his jaw.

"Your evening jog is over, chumps…," Croc rotated his neck…cracking joints. "Hressssha…..thought I might bite yer other ear off before the sun rises, punk."

"Nnngh…," Changeling winced. "You picked a really bad day, Croc—"

"Really? The 'day that you die'? Seems as good a time as any to me…HRSSSH!" he marched forward and fiercely struck his elbow across the elf's face.

WHAM!

"Aaaugh!" Beast Boy fell back.

Raven shuddered.

Croc loomed over the green Titan. He gritted his sharp teeth, hissed, and flexed to pounce—

"NRGHHH!" _SWOOOSH!_ A random Wildebeest dove over and gripped Killer Croc from behind. **THWUMP!**

"HRESSSHAAA!" Croc struggled and struggled.

The Wildebeest grappled him prepared to slam a wrist into the back of the scaly henchfreak's neck.

Croc swiftly snarled and swung his hard skull back into the snout of the bovine warrior.

_THWUNK!_

Blood and teeth fragments flew from the Wildebeest's face.

"Nrggh-ghhh!" the fighter stumbled back.

"HRESSH!" Killer Croc spun, leapt, grabbed onto the Wildebeest's torso, and bit onto his crown with razor sharp teeth. _SLIIINK!_

The Wildebeest let out a muffled…gurgling scream.

With meaty hands, Croc grabbed the beast's right horn. With one twist of his wrists, he snapped the silver-cased horn clean off. _**SNAP!**_ Grunting, he twirled the severed horn around, held it like a battering ram, and shoved the spike of it back into the Wildebeest…skewering deep into the brute's cut.

_SNKKKKKKK__**KKKKKTT!**_

The Wildebeest shuddered, drooled blood, and stumbled forward.

"HRAAASHAAA!" Killer Croc howled before opening his mutated jaws wide and clamping them firmly over the face of the Wildebeest. _**CNnnNnkkKKktcssshhhrpppp!**_ Tendon by tendon…skin flake by muscle seam….Croc bit the front of the beast's snout off and kicked him to the ground.

What was left of the skewered beast's face gurgled and spat globs of crimson saliva.

Croc swallowed the flesh strips in his throat.

Changeling looked in horror.

"……..," Croc slowly turned his head over. Wide-mucous-eyed. Blood drooling down from his jaws. He let out a hiss and launched himself at the Titan. FWOOOSH!

Changeling gasped and flinched at the last second in a vain attempt to shield himself….

"Nrggh!" Croc shoved a meaty hand into Changeling's face and slammed his head back through the glass window of a building front. THUD! _SHATTTTERRR!_

On the sidewalk, the sprawled Raven shouted hoarsely: "Garfield!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On another side of Town…

Starfire floated down the center of a ring of buildings.

She hovered twenty stories above an empty gray courtyard where a statue rested.

"……..," the alien girl spun slowly around. Green eyes covered the urban landscape.

With the exception of the madness rumbling beyond…

It was deathly silent in that 'chamber'.

"………….."

The girl shuddered.

She parted a bang of red locks out from her bruised forehead and twirled….twirled…twirled….

Looking….

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_ The HIND suddenly appeared, zooming down from above a building's rooftop above.

Starfire looked up the length of the skyscraper and gasped.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_ The Hind dove down at her, rotary blades beating. It launched a mad spray of high caliber lead. _**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The burning bullets streams soared straight at Starfire's body as she flinched and summoned a field of hot green energy….

FLASSSSH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Cliktt……snkkkt……"**_

From a skyscraper's rooftop.

He watched.

Red eye strobing.

The red metal of his two-edged sword reflecting the huge helicopter and its charge on the alien.

But he stared at her.

Purposefully.

Waiting….

Preying………..

"_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkt……"**_


	255. Break the Circle part 15

**255. Break the Circle part 15**

_CRKKK!_

_CRKK-KKK! _

_CRKK!_

Dagger was a survivor.

Dagger was sweating and bleeding all over.

"Nnnnghh!"

_CRKKKKKK!_

Dagger was climbing several feet up the glass face of the skyscraper he clung to.

With a series of metal barbs sticking out of his right club…

And titanium hooks jutting out of his boots…

He stuck his 'claws' into the glass and pulled himself slowly upwards.

He would reach up with his right hand.

Hang…

Then prop up one leg….

Hook in.

Then prop up the other leg…..

Hook in.

And resume the ascent with his right hand….

All the while, his left stub dangled….bleeding………

The hand hacked off by Deathstroke….

And as the war waged on beneath him, Dagger climbed.

Up towards a floor where a transparent hallway appeared—skewered by the filtered night's aura of red above and gold below….

Dagger panted…sweated…but otherwise didn't show so much as a grimace beneath the physical exertion of his efforts.

He reached the floor of destination.

He positioned his legs out wide…leaned against the glass face………and daringly unhooked his right wrist from the wall. _Scrkkkt!_ Sweating…pulsing from the pain of his missing limb, he snaked his hand down and reached for a sonic charge. His brow rested flat up against the cold, December glass. Beads of sweat ran off his skin and trailed down the window face.

His eyes were thin…the iciness started to melt…..but nowhere near gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Eastern portion of the City…

One out of many wrecked HINDs rested in the center of a street.

Smoking.

Echoing with the bolts and explosions and screams of war in the distance of the City.

A sea of black shrapnel from shattered rotary blades covered the sidewalks and asphalt like obsidian rose petals.

Silence……

Then….

A movement.

A shaking.

A shifting.

A pile of rubble gave way….

And a glinting, titanium body crawled out of it.

Sparking.

Smoking in some places.

But altogether dragging….scraping eastward.

"Nnnngnhskkt….." Metallo electronically crackled. He was then a scuffed, raggedy shell of hardware. One arm was gone and a good portion of his legs had been shredded to scraggly skeletons of jagged metal.

Corbin's white eyes flickered as he dragged himself eastward towards the shipyards with his one arm.

"Bloody….damn….alien….bitch….nnghhh….," he hissed and sparked and jolted amidst his crawl. He tried to get to his knees….but collapsed. _Th-Thrump!_ "Nnngh….snkkt…" He hissed and gasped for breath he didn't need. Teeth clattered metallically. His upper body shook and shot sparks out of the dangling wires where his missing arm used to be attached. "Dagger is going to….snkkt….tear you open…..snkkt….I swear….bloody….stupid….NNNGHh!"

_ZZZzzztt!_

He shook….shuddered….

And crawled on towards the black waters….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeep!_

_**POWWW!**_

The sonic charge shattered the glass window of the skyscraper.

The red aura of the night sang in through the gap in the building face.

Cold December air settled into the carpeted hallway…

And soon, so did Dagger.

In a climbing slump….

He pulled his bleeding, sweating self onto the floor.

He struggled for a full breath.

He turned over….torn apart….ragged.

Lungs heaving.

Sweat dripping.

He propped himself up against a wall.

Teeth clenched.

His cold face iced over with pain as his sliced limb hung on his left side….

And his right hand reached to a Medical Aid pouch on his belt.

Dagger's thin eyes gazed off through the wall across from him

Twitching ever so slightly from the fingers of mortality that were beginning to scratch at his granite core.

For the first time in ages….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the Western District…

North of Calvin's return charge…

An Army Jeep drove speedily down an abandoned road.

It veered around the wreckage of an apache helicopter and zoomed off when no signs of survivors presented themselves.

After a few more minutes of circumnavigating the raging urban battles, the vehicle came to an intersection and stopped abruptly.

_Screeech!_

The three riding soldiers gazed curiously at the driver.

"Why'd you stop?"

The man was squinting at the set of buildings across the street.

"Phaser Labs…..their lights are on…."

"So?"

"Didn't Smith or the General say that there was suspicious activity at the Labs? Like a possible mole of Dagger's?"

"Our orders are to patrol the edge of the battlefield and report on stragglers from Dagger's invasion."

"I know it's just that….leaving the Labs like that is a little disturbing."

"Do you think something's in there—?" Another soldier began.

The front passenger held his hand up. "It's not our concern. Keep driving." He motioned.

The driver sighed and gripped the wheels tighter. "Roger that…"

"Shhh! Wait!" a soldier in the back held her hand up.

"…………?" the other units glanced around.

Her eyes grew thin. "Something just went under the jeep."

"Huh?"

"Something brown! Did you see it?"

"Brown?"

"Private, what are you--?"

_**SLLSSSSlLLPPPP!**_ The jeep suddenly lifted up.

"Whoah!"

"Holy Hell!"

_SWOOOOSH!_ The vehicle was tossed to the side of the road.

The four soldiers went sprawling.

A living puddle of quivering brown mud flexed, took shape as a giant, soggy snake, and slithered its way swiftly towards the front doors of Phaser Labs.

"Nnnngh….," two of the soldiers writhed on the ground…wincing.

The other two shot up with AK-47s fully loaded.

"It's Hagan!"

"Hagan! Hagan!"

"Shoot 'em!"

"Aaaaaa-aaaaah!" _Rat-a-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat-Tat!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-__**TAT**__!_

The bullets splashed into the muddy hide of the swiftly gliding puddle of mud but only managed to splash through to the asphalt and ricochet off.

"He's getting away!"

"No, man! He's going into the Labs!"

"Okay….NOW we go in!" one of the soldiers grunted, getting up.

"Finally!"

"Call HQ. Tell them we've found—"

"LOOK!" another pointed.

_**SCHLUMP! SCH-SCHLUMP! **_

_**SCHLUMPPP!**_

Slate gray panels slid down and covered the glass doors and windows of the Labs, turning the one-story flat into a fortress.

"It's…..It's sealing itself up…."

"What in the Blue Hell?"

_**WHURRRRR!**_ Two mounted gun turrets dropped down from the overhang of the external building entrance.

The soldiers started

_**CHTANG!**_ The turrets locked in place, revolved around, and aimed at the four soldiers from afar.

_**Wriiiiiiiiii!-**__**ZAP!**_ _**Z-ZAAAAAP!**_

"Look out!"

"Get down!"

The soldiers scattered as hot globs of burning laser energy soared out from the building and struck the overturned jeep…exploding it.

_**BOOOOM!**_

_**ZAP!**_

_**ZAAAA-AAAAP!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Sllllsllsppbpbpbpp……_

"Nnnnngh…..ugghhh….," a face formed out of the brown puddle as it sloshed its way down the slick hallways of Phaser Labs.

The building's foundation shook with the thunder of the laser fire blasting just outside.

A melted and soggy Clayface oozed his way agonizingly down the hall….and cascaded down the steps to the basement laboratory.

Inside the basement, the brown metamorph congealed into a thick, bubbling pool and tried—ever so torturously—to stand up into a humanoid figure.

Gurgling noises and liquid breaths abounded.

Across the laboratory basement full of electrical equipment and computer stations, a flickering hologram appeared. Six inches tall and eerily emotionless. He 'stood' besides a cylindrical chamber containing a cauldron-burning energy core of questionable orange energy.

_Zzzzt!_

"_You aren't in battle, Hagan."_

"Nnngh…s-screw the battle, Stone….," Clayface gurgled. He ended up in a towering blob of constantly melting, constantly cascading brown glop. "You taught m-me everything I needed to know a-about the Titans….only that th-they're freakin' gods when you _piss_ them off!"

"_You were aware of the danger of Dagger's task for you."_

"Like Hell I was…nnnghhh….ugh….," Hagan sloshed his way towards the far side of the laboratory where metal arms hung from the ceiling with robotic needles pointing every which way. "….p-please….nnngh…..g-give me some of the Formula. I need to at least have some damn legs to stand on!"

Stone's holographic head nodded. _"You've done well, Hagan. It is not in my place—nor programming—to deny you your powers. But when worse comes to worse……"_

"Yeah?" Clayface growled wetly as he sloshed over to a spot beneath the robot arms. "What now?"

The computer A.I.'s 'eyes' narrowed. _"You will have to defend __**me**__."_

"Heh….tit for the everlasting tat…….ugh…..start the damn machine already…"

Stone flicked his wrist.

A series of beeps and blinking lights…

_WHURRRR-CHTUNG!_

The robot arms positioned themselves around Clayface….

_SCHLUPPP!_

…dug into his body…

_ZZZZZZZTTT!_

And sparked.

"YAAAA-AAAA-AAAAAUGH!" the muddy mass of a being took the brunt of the agony as the computer system electrocuted him back into shape.

"………………_,"_ Simon Stone watched silent. Emotionless. Ghostly……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger hissed.

Dagger shuddered.

Dagger struggled with a single, shaking hand to pop the rubber tip off a miniature syringe.

He repositioned the needle and aimed it at the inner elbow of his arm.

He took a deep breath.

Clenched his jaw.

And….

_THKKKK!_

Stabbed himself with the syringe.

"Nnnngh….," he barely exhaled.

He pumped the numbing serum into his bloodstream.

He took deep….heaving breaths.

His eyes rounded more.

The iciness ran over his face once again….

But as he bled.

And as he pulsed.

The sheen of sweat still remained on his face.

He gulped.

He hissed to the air: "Snkkt….so….S-Slade….you are inevitably becoming more and more powerful….hrggh…." He shuddered. His teeth clenched. "I-I might just have to take the fun away from you……………_by taking the Titans……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HRESSSSHA!" Killer Croc shrieked and slammed Changeling into a street lamp.

_CLAAA-AAAANGG!_

"Nnnghh!" the green elf jolted, bruised and bleeding from claw marks and glass cuts.

Killer Croc stomped towards him. He flexed his upper limbs, sneered a hiss, and swung a fist at the emerald animorph's skull.

_SWOOOOOSSSSH!_

Changeling gripped his teeth and—_SMASSSH!_—ducked.

Croc's fist dented the street lamp and forced it to bend over.

Changeling spun to the side, slid to the ground, and kicked a foot out that contacted Croc's ankle.

_THAP!_

"Hressh!" Croc stumbled back.

Changeling pounced at him. "Nnnngh!"

**GRIP!**

Garfield's eyes bulged as Croc's gnarled fingers closed around his neck.

"Nnnnrgsssh!" Croc spun and tossed Changeling across the sidewalk and into the side of a van.

_**CLANKK!**_

Garfield landed upside down against the aluminum body, shuddering.

"Hresssh….heh heh heh….," Croc flexed his blood-stained neck and started marching towards the elf.

_**FL-FLASSH!**_

His heels were suddenly encased in a black energy shield.

"Hrggshh?" Killer Croc looked over.

Half-sprawled out on the sidewalk, Raven was weakly stretching her hand out with a glowing wrist. Her eyes flickered gray as she struggled to keep the mutated henchman at bay. "D-Don't….touch….h-him…."

"Raven!" Garfield weakly uprighted himself and panted. "D-Don't use up your energy!"

"Hressha…," Croc grinned mutatedly. He raised his foot. "You should listen to 'em…." _SWOOOSH!_ He slammed his foot down. **THWOMPP!** A shockwave of sidewalk cracks rivered over and impacted with Raven's body, shoving her into a grunting roll across the sidewalk.

"Raven!" Changeling gasped and made to dive towards her—

_**WHAM!**_ Croc slammed him back up against the side of the van. The Gothamite freak leaned forward with red-glistening jaws drooling in front of the struggling Changeling's nose.

"Hressssha…..I think just having one ear's gotten your balance all out of whack." His mucousy eyes narrowed. "What ssssay I bite off sssssomething you hardly ever use? Heh heh heh herssssha…."

Changeling frowned at him. He raised a foot, spliced a rooster spur out the rear, and slammed it straight into a side tire of the van.

_THUNK!_

_**POP! **__HISSSSS!_

A shocking burst of air flew out against Croc's ankle.

"HRESSH!" he stumbled---

"AAAAAUGH!" Beast Boy slapped Croc's arms up off him and flew an uppercut across the mutant's chin.

_**THWACCCK!**_

Killer Croc stumbled backwards.

Changeling dove forward, morphed into a brahma bull, and rammed its horns into Croc's shirtless chest.

_**THWUMPP!**_

Croc absorbed the blow and slid back across the sidewalk from Changeling's charge. His heels dug into the ground and sent hot steam and friction-filtered pebbles bouncing hotly around. Croc hissed, gripped the horns of the emerald bull, let out a huge yell, and lifted the hulking Titan up into the air.

_THWOOOOSSSH!_

The bull's hooves flailed in the air and he snorted loudly.

"HRESSSSSSSH!"

Killer Croc repositioned his body and—with a growl—body slammed Beast Boy mercilessly into the concrete and asphalt.

_**CRAAAAACKKK!**_

Changeling shrunk into an elf and shuddered all over.

THWOMP! Croc pressed himself down against the animorph. He sneered, brought a razor sharp hand back, and flung the claws down into Changeling's face.

Changeling swiftly morphed into a ram beneath Croc and blocked the sharp swing with his horns. _CL-CLANK!_ With a braying sound, he morphed into a tiger and slashed and bit up at Croc.

Blood flew as Croc barely dodged the serrated jabs. He hissed—"HRESSH!"—and rolled sideways with the emerald feline in tow. They struggled and fought and grappled for supremacy.

Raven watched with uncertainty from the sidelines. Wincing. Breathing thinly.

Still trying to heal…..

_Thwump-Thwump-Thwump-Thwump!_

Changeling and Killer Croc rolled to a stop in front of a building front. Killer Croc ended on top. He tried to bite down on Garfield's face.

Beast Boy's entire body morphed into a snake that slithered and twisted and twirled to avoid the nasty bites. He then solidified into a bear—growled—and threw Killer Croc down.

WHUMP!

Croc hissed, the breath leaving him.

Changeling roared and raised a paw full of green bear claws.

"Nghhhrssssh!" Croc lifted his legs and mightily kicked the bear off him.

Changeling spiraled in the air and slammed into the glass front of a store window.

_SHATTTERR!_

Raven gasped.

Killer Croc stumbled up to his feet, shook his joints loose, and marched towards Changeling. _Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!_

"Nnnngh….," Garfield shook his head in elf form and teetered momentarily---

**GRIP!** **SLAM!** Croc's sharp fingers wrapped around the Changeling's throat and slammed him against the door of the establishment.

"Hresssh…you stupid…" **SLAM!** "….little…." **WHAM!** "….varmint….." **THUD!** _**CRAACK!**_ The last slamming sent Changeling's cranium bursting in through the wooden doorframe of the shop. Changeling twitched while Croc painfully forced his neck and face back at an awkward angle into the shadows.

"Stop it!" Raven hissed….wincing. "Stop hurting him!"

"Or what, Missy?" Croc hissed and smirked over at her. "Dagger will be owning this City soon. And even if he ain't…." Mucous eyes thinned. "Somebody's gonna skin ya punks alive! If not me…then the lovely Parasite himself!"

"…….," Raven panted.

"Heh heh hresssh…..," Croc chuckled. A beat. Suddenly, is eyes bulged. A tearing noise. He jolted back. "AAAAAAAUGH!"

Raven's violet eyes glanced over.

_**SMASSSSH!**_ Croc dragged Changeling out through the shattered framework of the door. The emerald elf had morphed into….a crocodile. And the reptile's vice-strong jaws were biting over the length of the hand, wrist, and forearm of the mutant Gothemite that was previously choking him. Rivers of deep red lacerations ran through Killer Croc's scales as he tried in painful vain to shake the Titan off.

"AAAAAUGH-HHHRESSSSSH!" Croc let out a blood-curdling cry of pain.

And Changeling hissed….biting on….hanging on….

Dripping red….

Red….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jericho was panting.

He ran over towards the pile of flaming debris that was once a Daggerite Hummer where I was battling various gun-toting creeps.

He jumped up onto the pile and was swiftly doing his tiny best to rip and peel off burning metal chunks.

Three Wildebeests jumped up alongside him and contributed greatly to the job. Together they unraveled and unpeeled the huge clump of burning detritus…

But it wasn't working fast enough.

And Jericho seemed at a fever pitch. His little green eyes twitched in fear. He bit his lip as the layers and layers of debris turned up nothing….

Nothing…….

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

A hail of bullets splashed against the wall and sidewalk around them.

Jericho and the three Wildebeests glanced over.

Along the perimeter of the battle, a supply truck full of terrorists was zooming down the street. A handful of gunmen out of the dozen Daggerites fired random shots into the fighting, warring Wildebeest crowd.

The bullets struck.

Hot red liquid flew.

Groans and torturous grunts filled the air.

The nearby Wildebeests growled.

Jericho gulped.

He glanced up at the buildingside next to them. He looked at the pile of debris. He shook….quivered………..then made up his mind.

He spun around and hand-signed to a Wildebeest.

As bullets splashed around them, the one bovine warrior lifted Jericho onto his shoulders and hoisted him up mightily to the third story ledge of the building from the debris pile.

_Th-Thrump!_ Jericho grabbed ahold. He scrambled for a firm grip. Teeth gritting…he pulled himself up to his feet and ran a few meters down the building side.

He came to a street corner and perched.

Staring down into the heated street of battle.

The supply truck zoomed up.

_VRMMMMMMMM! _

Jericho's limbs tensed.

He clenched his jaw….

_**VRMMMMMMMMMMM!**_

The truck spun and swerved in a sharp turn off Main Street.

Just below Jericho.

Jericho gritted his teeth. With a breathy exhale, he leapt off the buildingside.

As he plummeted towards the careening truck, he let loose a shrill whistling noise.

Fatefully, one of the men in the supply truck's rear—closest to the driving compartment—glanced up. Two eyes. Blinking….

Jericho fell towards him. And in mid-air, his green saucers strobed.

**CONTACT.**

_FL-FLASSSH!_

The one terrorist jolted momentarily…as if struck by something.

He stood numb for a second or two. The wind blowing at his hair.

The supply truck zoomed down a straightaway, and the man was still as a statue.

"More of those god damn cow-things!"

"Shoot their brains out, boys!"

"Heheh……like sniping livestock—"

_SWOOOSH! SN-SNATCH!_ The possessed terrorist swiped an uzzi from one man's holster.

"What the—"

He then whipped out his pistol in another hand.

"Ricardo, what are yo—?"

THWOOSH! The man's arms went out to the side and—

_**BL-BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!**_

_**  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Potholes exploded in the shoulders and ribcages of the other truck occupants. _SP-SPLORCH!_

Red fountains flew.

Men screamed.

Men dropped hard to the truck bed.

The others further away in the vehicular huddle gasped and shouted:

"He's nuts!"

"He's lost it!"

"Ricardo!" one man placed a hand on the terrorist's shoulder. "Stand down no—!"

THWAP! The possessed thug's elbow flew into his face, kicked him back, and split his skull in two with both guns aimed at his forehead. _**BL-BLAM! RAT-A-TAT-TAT! BLAM!**_

The bleeding carcass stumbled back and knocked three men—screaming—off the back of the truck, where they would be jumped and thrashed upon by a herd of vengeful Wildebeests.

Three men were left on the truck besides Jericho's. Two in the back, one in the front.

"R-Ricardo…."

SWOOOSH! The man aimed both guns at those in the rear. He pulled the trigger. _Click-Click-Click._

"……..," the men in the back flinched.

Then one of them gritted his teeth and pulled out a shotgun.

'Ricardo' dropped his weapons.

The man in the rear pumped his shotgun.

'Ricardo' charged at him. Sprinting at full speed across the short distance…

The man snarled and aimed the barrel of his weapon at Ricardo's chest.

Eyes glaring.

_Eyes……_

**CONTACT.**

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_FLASSSH!_

A huge gaping wound exploded in Ricardo's chest. He gasped and slumped into the gunman's arms.

A beat.

The gunman tossed him aside, pumped his shotgun, and aimed into the driving compartment.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_SHATTERR!_

The window exploded and blood flew from the two driving the truck.

The vehicle veered wildly, tossing the living and dead men in the back apart.

"Jesus! What are you doing, Malcom!"

"Nnngh!" 'Malcom' grunted and smashed the butt of the shotgun into a crook's face. _THWACK!_

The man flew overboard.

The truck bounced.

The wheels squealed as the truck zoomed towards a buildingside.

"Nrghhhh!" the last terrorist jumped the possessed man.

'Malcom' stood perfectly still.

_THWOMP!_ The man plowed him to the floor. But just as he did so—

_FL-FLASSSH!_

In a strobe of green, a petite blonde appeared behind the man and vaulted of his back with springing legs.

WH-WHAP!

"Uggh!"

Jericho flipped over the side of the truck, landed in a nimble crouch, and spun around….panting.

_SCREEEEE-EEEEECCCH!_ The truck slammed into a clothing store at the base of a building and throttled into the cavity within.

_CRASSSSH!_

_**PHOOOOMBB!**_

A vomit of flames soared out, roasting the last of the Daggerite terrorists inside.

Jericho shuddered. He hugged himself and shook where he sat.

"……………."

A pair of footsteps.

Jericho gasped. He looked up……and he calmed a little.

"………..," I stared down at him. Gripping Myrkblade. I was bruised in a few places. Scratched in others. My hair was disheveled and splotched with singed shards from having barely survived the collapsing heap of debris. My black arm was scuffed in more places than I dared to count and explain to Batman.

I took a calm breath, knelt down, and placed a hand on Jericho's shoulder. I mouthed: _'Do not cry. It is war.'_

And that seemed to silence the mute…..in a wave of serene exhaling….

I stood up. I sheathed Myrkblade—_CHIIING!—_and hand-signed: _'I need to check on my friends. I saw Raven and Beast Boy earlier.'_

Jericho nodded.

I lowered my shades and pointed at my black eyes. _'Hop in.'_

And he did.

**CONTACT.**

_FLASH!_

I took a deep breath, re-gripped my sword—_CHIIIING!_---and blurred over the nearest row of buildings back to Main Street….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Heavy caliber machine gun fire from the pursuing HINDs exploded all around the streets and sidewalks blurring behind the six motorcyclists.

Smith and Robin and the five officers burned southward out of the Northern District.

The two helicopters beated the air as they surged after the throttling sextet.

Randomly parked vehicles shattered and exploded from the cascading bulletfire on either side of them. _**BOOOM! P-POWW!**_

Asphalt flew up and rained down.

The cold December Rush was gradually being streaked with hot ferocity.

Smith took deep breaths. Throttling forward. Leading the charge.

Robin clung tightly to him from behind. All the while his cape flapped in the wind and the Boy Wonder kept looking back to see what the HINDs were doing.

And his eyemask thinned.

For the HINDs were easily within shooting distance of the two or three officers taking up the rear of the southward motorcycle rush.

But they weren't the ones being shot at….

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

A wave of bullets shattered the asphalt just ahead of the crowd.

Smith grunted. "Nnngh! They're overtaking us!"

"Smith!" Robin shouted. "Veer left!"

"B-But--!"

"Just do it!"

Smith gripped the motorcycle handles tightly and leaned left.

_VRMMMMMM!_

Robin looked back.

The HINDs also veered.

They fired:

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Bullets splashed all around Smith's and Robin's motorcycle exclusively.

Smith gasped as debris showered them.

Robin's teeth gritted. "It's me they want! They're going after us because I'm on your bike!"

"Or maybe they just really don't like Lieutenants!"

"We need to split up!"

"And you know what? I'm with you…," Smith turned his helmeted head and pointed at the other motorcyclists. He gestured for them to turn right.

They nodded.

"Let's move, men!" Chapman shouted and lead the offshoot.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMM!_

The five officers went southwesterly.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ The two HINDs remained on Smith's and Robin's tale.

"Somebody has a crush on usssssss…."

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_P-P-PING!_

Smith growled for good measure as he gunned it, zooming in and around rubble strewn across the streets. Veering around abandoned cars. Skirting sidewalks and roadside vendors.

And everything trailing behind them became subject to the shredding bullets of the HINDs. _**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

"There!" Robin pointed at an alleyway.

Smith turned a sharp right and zoomed down it. _**VRMMMMMMM!**_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ The two choppers thundered overhead.

The Lieutenant and the Titan Leader sped down the thin, echoing alleyway. Their ears filled with the sound of their engine and the warring ambiance from the Red City beyond.

The Lieutenant ramped over a pile of garbage, barely squeezed past a homeless person's shanty, and zoomed towards a two-story dead end.

"Hoo boy…."

Robin pointed. "No! Look!"

Smith did.

The first metal flight of a fire escape loomed before them.

"Ah jeez…..you sure?"

"Push it!"

"_Ah jeez_…..here goes…."

_**VRMMMMMM-MMMMM!**_

The bike lifted its front tire as Smith throttled towards the fire escape's bottom flight and—

_CL-CLANK!_

The motorcycle zoomed up the metal steps and—

**CLACK!**

--smashed through the rusted metal railing on the second story level.

_**VRMMMMMMMMM!**_

The bike roared over the dead end and landed on a two-story rooftop.

"Left! Go south! NOW!"

"NNNNGH!" Smith turned hard left before the two could fly off the building top. Their right legs flailed momentarily over the thin-air of the roof's edge…but soon they were angled southward and burning down the gravel-laden stretch of a strip mall's rooftop.

_VRMMMMM!_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The HINDs found them.

"Look out!"

"I see them--!"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The stream of heated lead splashed into the gravel rooftop on either side of the zooming duo.

T.V. antennae shattered and A/C units exploded from the ballistic punishment.

_**VRMMMM!**_ Smith vaulted the bike from one building top to another.

_**VRMMM-MMMM!**_ And another…

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

A wave of bullets soared ahead.

A radio antenna snapped and fell over across the path.

"Low bridge!" Smith shouted.

He and Robin ducked their heads as the metal debris cascaded over and behind them.

_THWOOOOOSH-__**FWOMP!**_

Robin sat back up, whipped a birdarang out of his belt, and tossed it back at the first of the two HINDs. "Nnnngh!"

_SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!_ The birdarang flew up and clattered inside a barrel of the mounted machine guns just as the first HIND was again firing. _**CLANK!**_

_**POW!**_ The machine gun cannon exploded.

The HIND lurched, veering from side to side and recovering from the blow. It drew back as the other HIND took up the front.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Smith jolted as bullets splashed all around. His eyes were glued to the front of his helmet. "Did you just make 'em mad?"

Robin panted. "If I'm lucky, I complimented their mother's army boots too…"

"Hang on!"

"Crud, that means we're in for some airtime…doesn't it?"

_**VRMMMMMMM-MMMMM!**_ The bike soared over the edge of the rooftop….flew into an empty street….and landed harshly before tearing down an alleyway.

_SC-CREEEEECH!_

"Lean forward!"

Robin and Smith did so.

The bike balanced.

It zoomed ahead.

_**VRMMMMMMMMMM!**_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Smith sweated. "We aren't losing them!"

Robin tilted his body forward and gestured with one arm: "Head southwest! Two blocks from here!"

Smith gulped: "But Robin! That leads to the aqueduct!"

"Which should be dry this time of year! Trust me!"

Smith sighed and readied the bike for a sharp turn. "I simultaneously get a headache and a new lease on life whenever I do…."

_**VRMMMMMMMM!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSH!_

With Jericho hidden supernaturally inside of my eyes…

I blurred and dashed over buildings.

Streaked over rooftops.

Cascaded down into streets….

Zoomed through hand-to-hand battles of golems versus Wildebeests….

Ran up walls…

And dashed over more rooftops.

I leapt with huge pulses of black energy…

Soared over the raging scenes…

And plunged myself ever westward.

Panting.

Trailing smoke.

_Raven…… _

_Beast Boy……… _

_Ana, please protect them._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HRESSSHA!" Killer Croc torturously wailed and tried to shake the emerald crocodile's jaws off his arm.

Changeling's reptilian teeth only bit deeper….tearing at the scaly flesh.

Hissing the whole time.

Raven watched nervously.

Breathless and sapped of her strength where she lay on the sidewalk slabs…

"Nnnnghh-HRESSSH!" Killer croc finally rolled over, wrestled with the animorph across the concrete, and pressed himself down from above.

He strained….shook….

Clenched his mucousy eyes shut…

And jabbed his other fist down into the soft reptilian belly of the Beast Boy.

THWOMP!

Again.

THWOMPPP!

Again.

_THWOMPPPP!_

Finally, the changeling started to choke.

"HRESSHAA!" Killer Croc rolled over and kicked him off.

Changeling flipped and flailed through the air and came down as a velociraptor on a building ledge. Hissing….

Killer Croc stood up….wincing all over.

He grasped his dangling right arm….with strips of shredded skin hanging off gaping wounds.

Bleeding profusely.

The velociraptor let out a bird-like-shriek and pounced at Croc.

Croc's eyes flared a violent green slime. He snarled and shot his one good hand up, uppercutting fiercely the snout of the plunging dinosaur.

_**THWACCCK!**_

Changeling stumbled back across the sidewalk to the City Street.

Killer Croc let out a warcry and charged his body meatedly at the green elf.

Changeling stood up on wobbly legs--

_**WH-WHAM!**_

Croc's shoulder ran into him.

_**THWAP!**_

Followed by a massive knee to the abdomen.

"HRESSH-AA!" And a headbutt to the skull.

_**WHACK!**_

"Aaaugh!" Changeling hobbled back, gripping his head just to the side of his missing ear, caked in blood.

Killer Croc gritted his stained teeth…marched a few menacing steps….and brought a left hand down full of sharp fingers into Changeling's bare chest.

_**SL-SLINK!**_

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAH!.!.!.!.!" Changeling howled. All five of Croc's claws were digging a quarter of an inch each into his sternum.

Raven gasped.

Croc lifted the twitching elf by his stabbing grip.

"Hressssh-heh-heh-heh-heh…….." Croc sneered. He drooled a mixture of saliva and blood as he licked his tongue right in front of the elf's twitching eyes. "Life is short….ain't it? How's about I rip you a pair of angel wings, boy?" _**SL-SLINK! WHAM!**_ Croc drop-kicked Changeling into a glass storefront.

_SHATTTTTERRR!_

Changeling fell in a pool of glass shards. Coughing. Spitting up blood.

Raven struggled. She tried reaching a hand out and summoning a black forcefield to teleport Changeling away….

But the wound in her chest throbbed.

And her psychosupernatural system refused to stop repairing her own vital parts.

So that all that came out of her fingertips were tiny black bolts of nothingness.

And she watched in eye-twitching horror as Croc marched over….and started kicking the grounded Changeling senseless.

THWOMP!

WH-WHAM!

WHAP!

THWACK!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The HINDs bulletfire produced a heated meteor shower of friction in the red, urban air.

Starfire was darting left and right.

Teeth gritting.

Sweating….

Doing her panicked best to shake the murderous helicopter of Dagger's off her tail.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The speedily pursuing aircraft's gunfire swished past the Tamaranian and shattered into buildingsides, glass facings, ledges, rooftops.

Starfired darted around skyscraper corners, her red hair blowing like a crimson fountain.

The helicopter soared around the building edges with gargantuan grace, barely missing the glass windows and steel supports with its huge, beating blade-span.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSSh!**_

At one point, Starfire took a gamble. She flew straight towards the reflective face of an untouched building. Before she could possibly plummet into the structure, she shot straight up with her chest and chin nearly scraping he surface.

_THWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOSSSSSH!_

She soared upwards….scaling past the reach of the HIND.

The pilots jerked at the controls.

The helicopter came to a hovering, air-beating stop and tilted upwards.

Two hellseekers locked into place….and fired.

_**PFT-PFTOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSH!**_

Starfire looked down behind her.

She gasped.

The rockets were tracing up the side of the building after her. Their rocket exhaust fogged and melted the joints in the windows.

Starfire grunted and flung two starbolts down. _FL-FLASSH!_

Five.

_FLASH! FLASH-FLASSSSH!_

The energy bolts smacked, pelted, and bounced off of the two explosive heads.

"Nrghhhh!" Starfire growled, flew backwards towards the rooftop, and glared down at the two rockets….firing green optic blasts. "Raaaaugh!"

_**ZAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAP!**_

The hot emerald streams made contact…..and exploded.

_**BOOOOOMMM!**_

A plume of fire splashed against the building, shattering glass. The nightmarish wave flickered and traced up after Starfire some….

She let loose an exhale….

_**FTOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_ One surviving rocket plunged up through the fire cloud and closed in on Starfire.

She gasped—

_**BOOOOOOMMMM!**_

The explosion slammed Starfire up against the glass—_**CRUNNNCCCCH!**_—and tossed her loosely back down the length of the building from which she ascended.

_THWOOOOOO-oooooossssh!_

Her eyes were weakly shut.

She let loose a groan…

Batted her optics open…

And tilted her head directly up----down…..earthward.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSSSS!**_

She plunged directly towards the beating blades of the HIND.

"Aaah!" she gritted her teeth, summoned a burst of alien strength, and soared herself just barely out of reach of the slicing blades.

_**SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSSH!**_

"Nnnngh!" she plummeted towards the street…..struggled with her inner fire…..and pulled up at the last second---_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_—barely avoiding a scrape with the street's asphalt.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The Helicopter soared after her, firing a volley of micro-missiles.

_**PH-PH-PH-PH-PHWOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

Starfire streaked down the center of the street.

The missiles splashed all around after her heels, smashing into random vehicles and street signs and building fronts.

_**P-POW! POWWW! P-P-P-POWWWW!**_

A flame wall shot after Starfire's body.

"Nrghhhhh!" she pulled up into the middle of the air.

The fire billowed amber in a fury to match the red sky as the HIND too throttled over it and fired after Starfire with blazing machine gun cannons.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The bullets ate at Starfire's air-streaking body and smashed rivets of holes into the street.

The alien girl panted, looked ahead, and spotted two vehicles parked on either side of her. She grunted and shot a starbolt simultaneously to her right side…and her left side.

FLASH!

FL-FLASSSH!

The starbolts hit their mark beneath the far side of the aluminum chasses.

Both vehicles shook from the grounded explosion and flipped sideways…each crisscrossing into the path of the HIND throttling after Starfire.

The pilots swiftly fired two missiles.

_**PFTOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOSSH!**_

The hellseekers slammed into the two vehicles in mid-air.

_**P-POWWW! **_

_**CRUNCHHHH-KOW!**_

The cars exploded.

The HIND burst through the mid-air cloud of fire.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The bullets streamed past Starfire.

She spun and aimed down past her body with hot starbolts. "Nnnnngh!" _**FL-FLASSH!**_ "Raaaugh!" _**FLASSSH!**_

One of the starbolts merely bounced off the front cockpit bubble. The HIND veered to miss the other and fired straight at the girl's upper body.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Starfire let out a long yell and flung her hands in a flurry at her heels, deflecting maddeningly the steady stream of projectiles. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAUGH!" _**FLASH-FLASH-FLASH-FLASH!-FLASH!-FLASH!-FLASSSSSH!**_

The bulletfire suddenly cut off as the HIND launched a missile heatedly at her.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Caught off guard, Starfire gasped and desperately flung her hands forward to clutch the missile.

_CL-CLAMP!_

"Nnnnngh!"

She struggled, pushing back against the flaring missile. It shoved her heatedly forward…propelling her already insanely-fast flight. She grunted…strained…struggled……..

Then tilted her head back….

And looked _forward._

She gasped.

A building front.

_**SMASSSSSSSH!**_

Starfire plunged murderously into the side of the skyscraper, smashing through the glass and sailing inside with the missile in tow.

And then….

_**KA-**__**POWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_ A plume of fire frothed hotly out from the gaping hole. A good section of the building glowed a hot amber fire from the inside out.

The HIND came to a hovering stop….encircling the site….

The graveyard of the Tamaranian flier…

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

Lieutenant Smith and Robin rode the motorcycle southward, veering westward with every opportunity that the alleyways and side streets gave.

The two HINDs raced after them, skirting low over the building tops. Firing endlessly.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

P-P-P-PING!

**PING!**

One bullet bounced off the chassis of the motorcycle, jolting the two motorists.

"Nnnngh!" Smith grunted, continuing to veer towards the right……down the dilapidated parts of Town. "I'm sorely tempted to skip the Meridian rights with these birds….."

"Just a little further, Lieutenant!"

"Where exactly is this Aqueduct of yours, Robin—YAAAAAH!"

_**SWOOOOOSSH!**_ The bike plummeted. _**TH-THWOMPPP!**_ It landed hard in the concrete ravine that was the central aqueduct of the City.

Robin grunted.

Smith shuddered…..blinking under his helmet. "Well then….huzzah."

"Keep it going, Knieval."

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Bullets splashed all around the concrete walls and 'tub' of the long urban canyon.

Smith gritted his teeth and steered left and right, strafing to avoid the pot shots.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_ The two helicopters glided over the cement river. Their beating blades shook and warbled off the sloping walls.

Smith throttled forward.

"Watch it!" Robin pointed.

The shell of a burnt out old car loomed in the direct path.

"I see it!"

Smith jerked the bike to the left. _**VRMMMMM!**_ He skirted past the car, ramped up the side of the aqueduct's left incline, and landed back down. _**CL-CLANK!**_ With a shower of sparks.

The first of the two HINDs ducked down and flew close to the heels of the cyclists. Its beating blades tilted forward and sliced at their rear.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Smith's heart was beating hard.

Robin's hair tossed in the wind. His cape dangled back towards the slicing blades.

_**VRMMMMM!**_

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

"They're freakin' insane!" Smiths shouted.

"Exactly what I was hoping for…," Robin grunted.

"Huh?"

"Keep driving!" Robin pivoted around, produced a handful of smoking pellets, and tossed it back at the dipping HIND with a grunt. "Nnnngh! Hold your breath, creeps!"

_SWOOOOOSH!_

**P-POW!**

_HISSSSSSSSssssssssssssssss!_

A consuming fog exploded across the cockpit bubbles of the HIND.

The pilots inside craned their necks to see.

The helicopter started to veer and lift.

Firing blindly.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

But Smith and Robin were nowhere to be seen in the aqueduct.

And when the fog finally lifted…..

The pilots inside the HIND screamed….

A thin, double-barrel tunnel emerged through the clouds….encompassing the aqueduct.

And they flew straight into it.

_**SMASSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!**_

_**KABOOOOOM!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The other HIND lifted above the sudden fireball and soared over the mushroom cloud of fire. _**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

Inside the tunnel, Smith and Robin narrowly escaped the fingers of fire surging down the thin space after them.

The flames died out….and only the echoing noise and vibrations of the other HIND filled the lair.

"……..," Robin took a deep breath and turned ahead. "Tunnel. Don't forget to honk, pal…."

"Heheheheh….," Smith managed a chuckle.

"………," Robin smirked.

Smith tilted his head up and slowed the bike some. "Sounds like its brother made it. No doubt it'll be waiting for us on the other side."

"Mmmmhmmm…."

"Any ideas?"

"………………….…………," Robin grinned. He looked over Smith's shoulder. "Tell me, Lieutenant."

"Yes?"

"……do you like your bike?"

"………….," Smith tilted his helmet sideways. "It….d-depends……"

"I have a plan."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!

I glided up a buildingside, flipped, and landed in a squat on the rooftop.

I took a deep breath.

Sweating……

_FWOOOOSH!_

I blurred forward.

Hopping from rooftop to rooftop.

Streaking around a/c units and other structures.

The cold red night loomed overhead.

The hot battling streets rested underneath.

Apaches and HINDs circled.

Wildebeests and golems entangled.

And in the distance, the incessant thunder of Calvin's army advancing.

Shells exploding.

Building faces crumbling.

I came to a swift, skidding stop at the edge of my building.

Panting.

Gazing down….

I saw Killer Croc thrashing at Beast Boy.

Raven lying prostrate on the ground.

The look and the color and the scent of blood….

I bit my lip.

_Th-Thwissh!_

I twirled Myrkblade and prepared to leap off—

_**CRKKKKK!**_

Two golems leapt down from another rooftop and sailed their limbs at me.

_**TH-THRASSSH!**_

_Nnngh!_

I was batted back to the far side of the rooftop.

I panted, gripped Myrkblade, and stared heatedly at them.

_**CRKKK-KKKK! **_

_**CRKKK!**_

They billowed flame and charged.

"……..," I gazed with forlorn eyes through the advancing pair at the distant, battered figures of my friends.

_Damn it all……_

I faced the monsters….snarled mutely…and charged waves of murk into my blade.

_Hold on tight, Joey._

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

The two reached me.

I let loose a silent scream and exploded through them with a teleportation of sharp smoke.

Myrkblade hissing through the air.

_**SLAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAASSSSSH!**_

And the flames and the rock and the gravel—

_**PHOOOOOOOMMMMMBBB!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North…

At the southern mouth of the aqueduct's tunnel…

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!**_

The second HIND hovered.

Its rotary blades thrashed through the air.

The pilots inside stood in their seats and looked out through the cockpit bubbles.

Trying to spot the enemy.

While the payload aimed.

And the nose tilted forward.

Waiting…waiting…..

For the heroes to emerge.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The red night flickered with amber in the distance.

Giants and golems and terrorists against wildebeests and armies and apaches.

…

Then…from the tunnel below—

_**P-POW!**_

A grappling hook launched out.

It flew up….up………..up…..

And connected with the motorized joints of the top rotary blades.

_**CL-CLANK!**_

The hook tangled with the spinning joints, and as a result the grappling hook cord was drawn into the helicopter's motor like yarn to a spool.

And it so happened that an engine-rumbling police motorcycle was attached to the other end of the unbreakable cord.

_**THWOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The pilots gasped as they saw the bike sail up towards them and spin around and around and around and around….

Drawing nearer and nearer to the center.

The base of the blades.

The HIND reeled.

The pilots inside panicked.

The bike drew in and grinded against the center motor of the blades.

_**CRNNCHHHHH!**_

_**POWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The bike exploded…shattering the engine.

The blades separated and flew everywhere…slicing deep grooves into the aqueducts and buildings above the concrete canyon.

_**SL-SL-SLINNNK! **_

_**SLINK!**_

The blade-less chopper fell madly to the aqueduct tub below.

_FWOOOOOSH!_

And exploded.

_**KABOOOOM!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Ashes settled.

Smoke and flame billowed.

A softer and softer crackling….

…

Robin and Lieutenant Smith walked out of the tunnel.

Smith held his helmet down by his side.

He took a deep breath. "I suppose that answers the age-old debate of what are more dangerous….motorcycles or helicopters….

"It gets the heat off our back, that's what it does," Robin said. He motioned: "Come on….we gotta get moving!" He ran to the side.

Smith smirked, dropped his helmet, and dashed after him: "You never stop for a breath, do you?"

"Would Decker?" Robin glanced back, climbing up the aqueduct.

Smith climbed after him. "Are you kidding? The man smoked too much!"

"Heh heh heh….," Robin reached the top of the aqueduct. He stood alone for a moment.

Gazing southward….

Towards the lengths of the City…

The fires rising.

The madness.

The battle that he didn't know whether or not they were winning.

The Boy Wonder took a heavy breath, and Tim's voice came out:

"Star……where are you…..?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSSH!**_

In the central portion of the City, the HIND hovered.

Twirling around the burning skyscraper where the Tamaranian had last existed.

The helicopter's blades reflected off the windows.

Glinting.

Interrupted momentarily by the amber flicker of flame in the distance.

Beating…..Beating…..Beating….

The HIND rotated and prepared to zoom away—

_**CRASSSSSSH!**_

An emerald bolt sailed out of the burning building on another lever.

The HIND jolted, made to turn--

Starfire spun around, gasped for air, frowned, and zoomed straight into the front nose of the aircraft.

_**P-PLANT!**_

The cockpits gasped.

Starfire clenched the metal body of the chopper and shoved….shoved……shoved forward with all her flying might. "Nnnnn-NNnnnghhH!"

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOO-OOOSSSH!**_ The helicopter's blades beat in a desperate attempt to shove the craft forward against the shoving Tamaranian…to no avail.

The alien girl pushed the helicopter back…back……back towards a skycraper's face.

She suddenly tensed her whole body.

Glowed a hot green.

And screamed: "HAAAAAAAAGHHH!"

_**SWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

Starfire rocketed straight forward.

_**CRUNNNNNCHHHHHH!**_

Her alien body plowed through the two cockpits—

_**SCRKKKKKKKKKKT!**_

--shattered through the length of the HIND's body—

_**CRAAAAAAKKKK!**_

--simultaneously shoved the tail of the helicopter into the glass windows of the building, shattering everything—

_**SNKKKKKKTTTT-TTTT!**_

--and bore her way through the rear of the crumpled helicopter just as it collapsed several meters into the high stories of the building and burst into flames.

_**FWOOOOOOOMMMMMBBB!.!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the other side of the building, Starfire burst through with a splash of glass shards and helicopter flames.

_**SHATTTTTTERRRRR!**_

She ended her warcry with a severe grunt and sailed outward like a burning green comet.

Bits and pieces of the building-skewering helicopter junk littered the street far below.

In the meantime, the Tamaranian girl plunged down…down…down….and landed limply on a building top.

Panting for breath.

Her limbs shuddering…..

……

………

And from a high perch above….

Looming over the flames and noise….

He watched with a single, strobing gaze.

"_**Hckkkkk-snkkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clik-clikkkkttttt………."**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HREESSSSHAAAA!"

_**TH-THWACCCK!**_

Changelng curled up in a fetal position.

Coughing.

Sputtering.

"Hresssh…..," Killer Croc marched over him. He gripped the elf by the neck and lifted him up. "You know….you and I have thingssss in common…."

"Nnngh….," Changeling spat and shuddered. His eyes were painfully shut. "I'm s-so sick….of p-people saying that to me…."

"But's true…..," Killer Croc leaned forward….his stained-red teeth gleaming before Beast Boy's wincing face. "…..we're both the legendary losersss of our field. I suppose tonight we've proven the world wrong…….N-No wait….I'm sssssorry….._**I**_….PROVED THEM WRONG! HRESSSSHA!"

He tossed Beast Boy back so that he slammed into the wall of the building fronts.

_TH-THWAP!_

"Nnnnngh….," Changeling winced all over. Bleeding. Bruised….

Killer Croc was going to advance….but he felt tendrils of black energy snaking towards his legs…trying their feeble best to become sharp 'talons'.

"Hrmmmssh?" He turned and glared. He sneered….crocodile 'grinning'. "Ohhh…how ssssuculent…."

Raven was stretched out on the sidewalk. Again with her hand reaching forward. Again…..trying to restrain Croc with her telekinesis.

Her teeth grit in pain. Her gray-glowing eyes teared….

As he stomped over and stood above her.

"So you're Hagan's job…..how patheticcc…."

_**SWOOOOSH-**_GRIP!

Raven choked.

Killer Croc lifted her up by the neck. "Being woodssssheded by some fruittty actor….that hassss got to be embarrassing…..hresssh-heheheheh…."

Raven twitched and squirmed in his grasp. "I….w-was blind……," she murmured.

"Heheh….that you were….._almost_….," Croc sneered.

Behind the reptilian mutant, Changeling stirred. He gazed with weak, green eyes at Raven's predicament. He took a breath…clenched his jaw……..And his skin hardened all around, splicing…..

"Hresssha…..," Croc raised two claws and aimed them at Raven's eyes. "……but I can really….._really_ make sure you go blind….."

Raven winced….biting her lip.

Croc smiled. He shot his two clawed fingers forward—

_**SLIIIIIINKKKKKKTTTT!**_

Raven jolted……………...and blinked.

Eyes open……..she looked down.

Killer Croc was gasping for breath. A green rhino's horn was sticking two feet out through his chest from behind. Dripping with blood.

The mutant gazed down.

His jaw gaped open.

"Wha--…Hrmm—Hresshasnkkkt—DAAUGHHHKKTK!"

_TH-THWOMP!_ He dropped Raven.

The dark girl deflated to the floor, shivering.

Croc gripped the horn piercing through his body and tilted his head to the red sky.

Howling.

"_**HRAAAWWWWLLSHSHHHHH!"**_

Changeling grunted, grinding his hooves deeper into the concrete.

A beat….

_**SP-SPLORRRRCHHH!**_

The rhino drew back, slicing the horn out from Croc's gut.

Blood soared out like a red fountain.

Croc wobbled on his legs, slumping down. mucousy eyes twitched.

He gazed up past Raven. Sharp teeth clenched. Red liquid drooling out through the fangs.

The rhino snorted….backed up….and charged again.

Croc's jaw flew open wide.

He spun and slashed a hand full of claws at the rhino.

_SL-SLINKKKK!_

The claws sliced against the horn.

The rhino grunted and rolled to the side in elf form, panting.

"Hressh—HRESSSHASKKKKTKTT!" Croc gurgled. Stumbling on his feet. Bleeding. Dying. He looked with anger and disbelief down at the animorph and flailed his meaty arms to give him a death blow with his last breath. "God….D-Damn….VARMINT! Snkkkt-HRSSSH! Sideshow…blllpp…FREAKSHH….DIE…TOGETHERSSSHA!"

Changeling flinched.

Croc charged bloodily towards him. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAA---"

_FWOOOOOSH!--__**THWACCCCCKKKKK!.!.!.!.!**_

Croc's body stopped….and where his feet were going to be….his head instead fell and rolled to a stop. The jaw still gaping….

Raven and Changeling looked up.

"……………," I stood frozen-still. Myrkblade in my grasp….locked at the end of a diving down-slash. Blood and smoke trailed from the wooden blade for a few seconds of silence.

…….

_Sch-Schlumppp!_ Croc's carcass fell down and collapsed beside his head.

Dead.

I shuddered. Dropping Myrkblade so that it hung by my side. With a long, gentle exhale I gazed at the two Titans.

Changeling shuddered. He gazed at me. And whatever joy or hope he may have had at seeing me again melted away as the Beast Boy leaked through his eyes and he covered his face with a pair of quivering hands.

Raven was gazing at me. Silent. So sad looking….

_And guilt-ridden?_

At the sound of Changeling's sobs, she looked over….summoned some strength…and slid over till she sat against him. They leaned against each other. Changeling sobbing. Raven silent…calm…….absorbing his shakes and quivers.

There seemed to be a hidden peace about the place. Like the ailing sorceress had absorbed the empathic waves of pain from us. But it was still so bitterly sour. I hadn't even noticed that Jericho had exited my body until a few flashing seconds into it.

I glanced aside.

Jericho stood with his hands cupped together. A sad look on his face.

_How many people in this world are empathic, Ana?_

_CHIIIING!_

I sheathed Myrkblade, walked over, knelt…..

And engulfed my two family members in a gentle hug.

Changeling's, Raven's, and my head rested together. The battle raged on in the background. But we…..we had to surrender to death. If but for a second.

For we were somehow together again, and deserved no less.

Little Jericho watched on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Streets away…

Two giant golems were marching.

Their ten-ton feet smashed craters into the asphalt.

Their swinging limbs burned through rooftops and dug deep ravines through building faces.

Steel and glass and concrete burned….sizzled.

And Wildebeests were running.

Wildebeests were scampering.

Wildebeests were stampeding for their lives.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Two army jeeps swerved madly around a corner.

The soldiers shouted as the driver gunned the vehicle as quickly as he could down a straightaway.

A wildebeest or two also scampered in random directions as a dozen burning golems marched around the corner.

The first of the burning crowd flailed its limbs and tossed burning spray of lava.

The others in line followed suit.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

The flaming debris caught up with the jeeps.

The first one was pelted so that its aluminum body melted. One soldier gripped his burning shoulder and screamed.

The second jeep wasn't so lucky. The burning projectiles popped its tires…..singed its engine….and soared into its fuel tank—

_**POWWWWW!**_

The jeep exploded.

The soldiers burst in flame.

The infernal vehicle spun to the side, barrel-rolled, and collapsed hotly into a building front.

The golems marched on….their burning feet stomping over the corpses of dead soldiers.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In a separate section of Main Street, a thick line of Wildebeests were desperately running away from a giant golem and four hummers full of Dagger's gunmen.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The machine gun fire sailed hotly into the backs of many a Wildebeest.

They grunted and in pools of boiling blood.

The golem giant marched over the fallen bodies.

The hummers pursued loudly, firing and grounding more and more helpless bovine warriors.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jeeps swarmed down the central highway of the City.

Army soldiers in it fired desperately at pursuing hummers.

Golems launched themselves from guardrails on the side.

Two jeeps were entangled with golems, which forced them to slam into the sides and collapse in burning demise.

Suddenly, the hummers cut off their pursuit.

The soldiers in the jeeps nervously gazed upwards.

They gasped.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

Four HINDs soared northward.

In perfect coordination, they unlocked their payloads and fired a hellseeker each.

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHH!**_

A line of fire and obliteration slammed through the highway.

The concrete divided.

A wave of fire and madness ripped up and exploded the jeeps in succession.

Aluminum chassis shattered and soared skyward.

Flailing soldiers' bodies spread in the night…falling to a screaming death off the sides of the highway and towards the city streets gaping below.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin and Smith ran into an open street to the north of the downtown district.

The two came to a stop at the crest of a hill.

They froze.

Panting for breath.

Gazing southward at the mess that was their City.

Lieutenant Smith was anxious to move.

But at the sudden stillness of Robin, he lingered.

He gazed forlornly at the Boy Wonder……..took a deep breath……gulped…..and uttered: "Wh-What do you see, Robin?"

"…………..," the Titan Leader sauntered forward. Gazing at the site.

"……………Robin?"

"Dagger is winning……..," the Boy Wonder breathed.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**P-POW!**_

_**POW!**_

_**POWW!**_

The tanks fired shells into the streets of the City.

Bodies of golems and burning giants flew in glowing gold shards.

Sprays of enemies' parts flew through the air.

Standing tall in a jeep meant for sitting…..General Calvin squinted at the red-night-laden battlefield. He held binoculars down in front of him and watched as the incessant tank shelling shattered more and more waves of Dagger's inhuman forces.

But then…

"S-Sir!" a soldier pointed. "Look!"

Calvin raised the goggles to his eyes.

He gazed with magnified vision and saw—fleeing south—thick troops of Wildebeests and battered U.S. jeeps. Even a few apaches were swarming in over the city tops.

"They're retreating, sir!"

Calvin gritted his teeth. He gazed aside a radio man. "Tell them to cease fire!"

"_Cease fire! Cease fire! Comply immediately!"_

The tanks gradually stopped firing…one by one…

The explosions cleared so that the Wildebeests and army personnel could rush southwestward.

But the hot army of golems and giants were hot on their with jeeps and hummers belonging to Dagger's terrorist invasion…..and a group of air-beating HINDs.

"The inner forces….," a nearby officer murmured. "They must be completely overrun. Dagger's forces are on the rebound!"

"It's because of those damn giants!" another shouted. "Those and the helicopters! We need more support! This will become something on the national scale before you know it!"

"We need some added boost! Something to push us over the edge!"

"If only all the Titans were together!"

Calvin took a deep breath. The cold air kicked gently at his gray wisps of hair from underneath the rim of his helmet. "Boys…..I refuse to believe………that this is the night's end for us……."

And they all gazed at him.

Something frozen between a smile and a sneer…….He pointed. "Look to the East….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Scrkkkkktt!_

A one-armed Metallo dragged himself over rubble-strewn roads at the Shipyards.

He hissed electronically….

Shooting sparks.

His mangled body approached the safe harbor of the City docks.

The shipyards were Dagger's territory. The last of the Army jeeps were being chased away. HINDs regrouped overhead while jeeps full of terrorists zoomed down flanks of burning golems as a new march trudged westward to clean the City of the straggling defense forces. In the distance, hulking…burning giants of gold governed the battlefield….sending the last of Wildebeest warrior clusters fleeing.

"Nnnngh…." Metallo climbed his one hand up a wooden bench besides the waters and slumped halfway up it, chest first.

He twitched and sparked all over.

Metal teeth gritting.

"………………………………….."

Corbin suddenly became aware of a dark, jumpsuited foot standing on the top of the bench's back.

"………………," the skeletal android glanced up. White robot eyes flickering.

"……………..," Tempest glared down at him. Hands on his hips. White on black eyes thin as his onyx, Atlantean locks billowed in the wind. "Trying to de-evolve, Metallo? You're going to need to grow gills first."

"Hrmmmm….well if it isn't guppy-boy…..," Metallo 'smirked'.

_Zzzzt! Zzzt!_ A spark or two shot out of his neck joints as the robot stood up and teetered to a stand-still on his mangled legs. He hissed…

"Did you come here to see this blasted City fall into the Sea?" Metallo uttered. "You would love that…._wouldn't you?"_

Tempest shrugged against the red night. "Eh…..I've changed my mood."

"Have you now?" Metallo aimed his one hand at Tempest and formed a quivering….barely working laser rifle. _CRKK-WHURR-CLANK! _Nonetheless dangerous. "Face it, shrimp…..you don't stand a single chance against me…."

"……………..," Tempest smirked. He crossed his arms. "You know what?……..You're absolutely right."

Right then and there, Tempest backflipped.

_Th-Thwissh!_

And as the Atlantean twirled backwards into the Sea……Superman came soaring landward directly beneath him with both steel-strong fists slamming into Metallo's chest.

_**WHANGGG!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

"AAAAAAUGH!" Metallo flew back, exploded through two shipping warehouses, and crumpled in a dead heap in the middle of a street beyond.

Superman hovered in the air. His fists clenched. His red cape and greased hair fluttering in the cold breeze. "The war's just started, buckethead…."

Tempest leapt out of the waters and stood besides the Kryptonian. He smoothed his wet hair back and smirked. "Neptune Damn……couldn't have said it better."

Superman gazed over his shoulder. He raised his hand. "All right, League!" He gazed forward….glaring. "Let's go…."

As Superman soared into the heat of the City, streaking figures came burning in a southwesterly direction over the waters and onto the shipyards.

The Flash skimmed over the water in a red streak. Waves splashed up on either side of him as he grinned and leapt onto the Main Land to do battle.

Steel soared via boot rockets, wielding his giant sledgehammer. The red night's aura glinted off his smooth, stone-hard helmet.

Martian Manhunter splashed out of the ocean in the form of a green alien fish….shape-shifted in mid-air….and soared emotionlessly towards the heart of the City in a translucent green glow.

Green Lantern burned hotly over the waters. His injured right arm was stuck firm in a green-colored splint. The ring was fitted around his left handed finger as he prepared a burning force field of emerald to boost his angry charge.

Finally, Wonder Woman soared in. Her black hair waved in the wind and her dangling lasso flailed. Her arms hung down, carrying a glinting titanium body.

Cyborg hung in the warrior princess' grasp. His missing arm and damaged legs had been plated over and replaced with sturdy stretches of Metropolitan steel.

Cyborg grinned a wicked crescent moon and readied his sonic cannon in mid-flight. _Cl-Cl-Clakk! _"Boo-Ya! The Calvary has arrived!"

_**SWOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Tempest smirked. He turned…gazed westward…and ran in a full sprint, gathering thick globs of seawater along either side of him with a violet pulsing of his eyes.

Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter soared overhead.

The Flash streaked over land and accompanied a raging Superman, who was already plowing through row upon row of golden golems.

And in the meantime…

A crumpled and dazed Metallo lingered in a rubble-strewn street.

"Nnnnngh…mmmf…."

As soon as he tried to stand up….

_**SWOOOOSSSH!**_

_  
P-PLANT!_

Steel landed above him.

"Hrm?" Corbin glanced up.

_**GRIP!**_

Steel held Metallo by the neck with one hand and raised the sledge-hammer in the other. "So, punk….," he smirked. "About that rematch….."

"………eh heh…..," Metallo would have sweatdropped if he had pores. He did gulp though. "Aw bloody Hell."

_**SLAM!**_

_**SL-SLAM! **_

_**CRUNNNCHHH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat still on the rooftop.

Panting.

The singed pieces of burning building structures and HIND shrapnel littered around her.

She was still catching her breath around the time a loud beating sound filled the air.

She glanced up.

Squinting.

Shading her eyes….

Three vehicular shadows hovered in the air.

The glare of a searchlight flickered dead.

Three U.S. apaches formed in her vision.

A megaphone sounded out: _**"Starfire of the Titans! We've found you! Word is out that the Justice League has arrived! We might have these terrorists defeated yet!"**_

"…………," Starfire smiled with an exhale. She stood up….wobbling momentarily. "G-Glorious….," she murmured in a voice that only she could hear.

"_**Are you still able to fight?"**_

She hovered up. "Affirmative." She gestured towards the pilots in the three allied helicopters. "Though superheroes may be present to kick the proverbial donkey of Dagger's forces, they will need a coordinated assistance from all. Let us travail upon a clean sweep of the City!"

"_**Yes, ma'am!"**_

She soared upwards and darted between buildingsides. Shouting and gesturing. "Follow me! I shall guide us!"

The pilots squabbled to each other.

The apaches tilted forward and soared after her in perfect coordination.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH! _

_FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH! _

_FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!_

And then….

Silence among the buildingtops.

………

………

………

………

"……………_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-SNkkkkkktt………."**_

………

"_**HCKKK!"**_

_**FWOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSH!**_


	256. Break the Circle part 16

**256. Break the Circle part 16**

_**CL-CLANGGG!**_

The top door of a stairwell flew open.

A viciously bleeding and limping Dagger stumbled out onto the red-hued rooftop.

He hissed and sweated and shuffled his way towards an open spot atop the skyscraper.

He held his bloody stub squeezed tightly under his right armpit.

His right forearm lifted a red-stained communicator in his fingers.

With the City burning and the battle raging all around him, the despot came to the middle of the summit and spoke hoarsely into his device:

"Do you read me?" he hissed. "Bring the hovercrafts around. We need an artillery—_nnngh_—shelling of the southern shore…."

A squabbling from the other end of the line.

Dagger panted, his face trying weakly to stay stone under a sheen of sweat.

"I'm **fine**," he uttered in reply to the squabbling. "I am East of Kobayashi Tower. I can see the entire battle from here. The Southern and Western Fronts are in desperate need of reinforcement."

…..

"_No_—nngh….the Parasite….is not eliminated….repeat…he is _not_ eliminated—"

_**F-FWOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSH!**_

Dagger's body was swayed by a sudden gust of wind and air-tearing fury.

He spun and gazed westward.

His eyes narrowed coldly.

Three figures were streaking down towards Main Street.

One green, in the air.

The other orange-red, in the streets.

And the most furious of them all….red, white, and blue….occupying the center of space.

"………..," Dagger took a deep breath. He raised the communicator up to his lips with his one good hand and uttered: "New development." His brow furrowed. "Put me through to Fox. _Now._"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOOOO-OOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Superman flew through the center of the street.

He soared over the crowns of fleeing Wildebeests and meandering U.S. jeeps.

With his fists aimed ahead of him, he glanced to his right at Green Lantern.

"You with me, John?"

Green Lantern glared back. He waved his left hand….the impromptu ring finger. "You need to ask?"

Superman smiled. "Right…."

"I may not be up to givin' too many high-fives right now…but I still have seventy-five percent of my limbs available for ass-kicking."

The Flash ran up beneath the two, glanced up, and mused: "Face it, G.L…..the only thing you're good for is giving the finger. A ring finger, that is."

"Don't tempt me, pal."

"Ahem. Right….," Flash looked ahead of where he was dashing. "So….like….don't we have a war or something to take part in?"

As such was spoken, the heated center of Main Street appeared. A line of burning gold golems marched ahead of hummers carrying terrorist gunmen. Two hulking giants towered at the rear. Their footsteps shook the City and sent shockwaves of ash and flame billowing.

"Woo-doggy!" Flash's eyeslits bulged. "Cyborg didn't tell us about _those_ party-goers!"

"Cyborg's been in the same boat as the rest of us!" Superman said in mid-flight. "In the _**dark!"**_

Green Lantern gritted his teeth and tightened his ring hand. "The darkest night is over with."

"Hey! Don't get poetic on us again, buddy!"

"Cut the chatter!" Superman motioned with a sweeping hand of steel. "Wally! Distract those smaller oafs! Green Lantern—"

"I've got the gun-toting creeps."

"Right." Superman then glared at the giants. "The big ones are mine."

"Naturally," the running Flash shrugged with a smirk and burned forward at an even greater velocity. "Time for a clean sweep! Woo-HOO!" _**TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSH! **_At sound-breaking speed, the Flash turned into a red-orange blur and started running mad loops around the golems. He knocked a good many of them down and distracted dozens of others into swinging blind punches at each other. _SMASH! WHAM! BASH!_

"For the Titans!" Superman shouted and soared into battle.

"Nnnngh!" Green Lantern's eyes pulsed a matching emerald strobe with his ring as he surged his body forward, raised his left hand, and shot three force fields at once towards the first line of hummers.

_FL-FL-FLASH!_

The terrorists fired volleys of lead at the three superheroes, only to find their bullets bouncing off and splashing at them. They screamed and dove out of their vehicles as green brick walls slammed their jeeps up off the asphalt and tossed them mercilessly against the stretch of buildingsides.

Flash soared circles around the golems and other terrorists, causing a good many of them to collapse and many others to spin dizzily till they stumbled into each other.

And Superman---

"Nnnnnghhhh!" _**SWOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_ He flew straight into the chest of one of the five-story giants.

_**POWWWW!**_

And smashed effortlessly out the back on the other side.

In mid-air he braked, twirled around, coiled his muscular body, and shot back at the creep with a flying fist. "RaaaAAAAUGH!"

The burning golem spun, its crown turning to 'face' the Man of Steel—

_**CRACKKKK!**_ Its upper body was smashed into bits by the Kryptonian's blow.

Superman shouted and slammed a left hook, smashing dents into the lava-crust of the stumbling behemoth. Then a right uppercut…and finally a low thrusting kick that sent cracks rivering down the gargantuan beast's torso.

The second giant turned, saw Superman pummeling its partner, and 'spat' a volley of burning lava projectiles.

Superman spun around, took a deep breath, and let loose a cold breath at the lava rocks soaring at him.

_FWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSsssssssssssh!_

The lava hardened and the flaming orbs cooled to smooth stones in mid-air.

Superman blurred his arms, caught all the stones in his hands, cradled them, balled them up, and melted them with heat vision. In no-time, the Kryptonian produced a cohesive, three-ton sphere that he launched back at the huge creature with a growl.

"Rghhh!"

_THWISSSSSSSH!—__**SMASSSH!**_

The huge rock smashed into the crown of the monster and tossed it back into a buildingside, smashing into its interior.

_**CRASSSSSSSH!**_

In the meantime, Green Lantern was hovering above the thick of the Daggerite army. He spun, his one left hand aiming out and gathering clumps, clusters, heaps of urban debris in a huge green net. He gritted his teeth….struggled with his flexing fingers….and morphed the net into four spinning 'sling shots' of emerald energy that he spun like a fan before turning off.

_FWOOOSH! _

_FW-FWOOOOOSH!_

_FWOOOOOOOOSH!_

The debris clumps flew out in a huge fan and smashed through the upper bodies and crowns of dozens of golems while bashing through the aluminum bodies of terrorist vehicles.

_**CRUMP!-CRACK!-THUNK!-CRKK!**_

Two gunmen with uzzis dashed out from behind an ignored street corner and stealthily aimed their weapons at Stewart's unguarded back.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The bullets streaked hotly towards Green Lantern's shoulder blades.

But before he could turn around…

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSH!**_ A smiling Flash dashed up to a stand-still in the bullets' path. His hands blurred and swiftly grabbed-and-tossed each heated projectile before it could rip through his body or so much as harm Green Lantern.

The thugs stopped firing, their faces surprised.

Green Lantern looked over his shoulder. His emerald eyes flared and instantly he spun around with a snarl and flung a huge green fist at the two creeps.

**WHAMMM!**

The thugs slammed into the buildingside behind them and collapsed with a groan.

Green Lantern then twirled his body, flicked his left wrist, and swept a huge green shield across two escaping hummers…..toppling them mercilessly over and jolting the terrorists inside to unconsciousness.

The Flash whistled. "Jeez, G.L." He planted his hands on his hips and smirked at his companion. "Who knew you'd make such a good leftie?"

"I'd be laying the hammer down on this whole town with my tongue if I had to."

"Bitchin'. I'd pay to see that."

"Wally…," Green Lantern pointed down Main Street. "To your six!"

Flash spun around.

Eight burning-hot golems were charging at the Justice League members. _STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!-STOMP!_

"Got it!" Flash got into a starting position. "Alley-Oop!" And he streaked redly towards the advancement. _**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSH!**_

Green Lantern reared back…charging his ring with hot green light.

Flash streaked directly into the front of the group.

The golems swung to smash him.

He dashed to the side and proceeded to spin tornadic circles around the Daggerite cluster. _**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

The golems wobbled—dazed inside the centrifuge.

Flash accelerated with red-orange intensity. He went faster……faster…..faster…faster…faster faster fasterfasterfasterfasterfaster-f-f-f-f-f-f---

_**FW-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WSSSSSSHHHH!**_

The air picked up.

The mass of quivering golems lifted up in the air.

Green Lantern finished charging. With an explosion of his left hand's fingers pointing outward, he summoned a huge glove, ensnared the liftoff of the Flash's victims, and flung them miles southward so that they landed in the Bay with a maddening explosion of steam.

The Flash braked to a stand-still and saluted the Guardian. "Good one, John! You'll be in the Olympics yet!"

"Nnnngh…," Lantern muttered and soared down Main Street to scoop up a group of retreating hummers. "Why do I get the feeling that speedster _belongs_ in the Titans' City…..?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………_snnnkt! Y-Yes! That's right! Reports are in with confirmation! The Justice League have entered the City! S.T.A.R. Labs' aides also acknowledge that Cyborg and Tempest of the Teen Titans are combining forces with them. It would seem that a counter-invasion is underway by the League and the Titan members to assist the U.S. Army and the stampeding beasts already fighting Dagger's forces in the Downtown Area!"_

Lex Luthor sat at his desk. His fingers held together. His drinking glasses empty.

The blue spectacle of Metropolis stretched behind his shoulders in the cold, tranquil night that the northern province lent him.

His eyes were cold…calculating…

But traced with a sense of anxiety.

He listened hard…not moving……..barely taking a heaving breath.

"_Eyewitness reports confirm that Superman and a few other League members are cutting a path into Main Street where the fight is the heaviest and has been the deadliest yet..." _

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_"There is no word on civilian casualties. For all we know— the families and residents of the City are still safe in their evacuation shelters. The battle continues to wage over their heads with no sign of lessening in intensity._

The Sandersons sat on a couch in the darklit den of their North Carolina cabin. They listened quietly to the radio...sipping from cops of coffee.

A sleepless Nova'm eventually sauntered out in his PJs, rubbing a pair of thin green eyes. At first hearing of the radio, he took a shuddering breath. He lifted off, drifted over, and came down onto the couch...curling up by his foster mother's side.

Mrs. Sanderson held an arm around him, gently stroking his long red hair as they all sat and nervously...

Listened...

_"As long as those burning rock monsters keep marching through the--" _

_-T-T-T-T-T-T-_

_"--City streets, victory will be difficult at best—experts have been predicting."_

In Westhaven…

Outside of the Opera House….

A cluster of lantern-lit tents were erected for the workers, crew, and troupe members of the new Show in town.

Actors, constructors, and volunteers alike all stood restlessly around the squabbling radio in the center of the mess tent. They murmured to each other in shock and awe as the news broadcast continued.

Sandy stood on the sidelines, clad in a sweatshirt and sweatpants over her pajamas for the cold night. A few fellow volunteers beside her gasped and exchanged worried glances.

Armed with a flashlight, a bleary-eyed Ms. Cartwright sauntered from the opera house to the tent and peered in. She blinked…utterly confused as to the wakefulness of the Opera's crew……until she too heard the news and gasped…dropping the flashlight.

"_But with the Justice League fighting in place of the dismembered Titans, army officials are hoping for a fateful turnaround of this bloody engagement. As we speak, the Eastern Front of the battle appears to be breaking up. There are rumors of numerous enemy helicopters collapsing across the length of the urban sprawl, and Dagger's collection of aircraft ultimately appears to be dwindling."_

Cartwright bit her lip and looked nervously across the lantern-lit tent. Her eyes met Sandy's.

The young volunteer stared back. Her jaw clenched. She took a deep breath and tightened her fists as she gazed past her boss….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Las Vegas.

Pompeii Casino.

The upstairs offices of the establishment were in a flurry.

Thugs….henchmen….guards….

They all ran with frenzied speed from room to room.

Ripping open filing cabinets.

Pulling out folders and papers by the armfuls.

Tossing them into shredding machines.

Trucking them off in carts to take downstairs where a trash compacter would make good use of itself.

Frantic….last minute attempts to dissolve all evidence of Triangular's existence.

For Dagger's glorious battle had gone on for three times as long as the calculated despot had estimated.

Rexxin shouted, his shades barely hiding the as-evident-as-ever scar across his face. He gestured and motioned the thugs along with their work….

Sweating.

Panting for breath.

At the sound of a nearby radio squawking, he stopped and craned his neck to listen.

"_Satellite photos of the City show that nearly half of the giant monsters that appeared in the City about an hour ago have been depleted. At the same time, General Calvin's army appears to be making a slow-steady push back into the Downtown District from the West and Southwest. With the Justice League coming from the east, the terrorists could very well be sandwiched in an impossible do-or-die crunch!"_

Rexxin shuddered.

He ran a hand through his red-highlighted hair and exhaled nervously….

Shifty-eyed….

"_More developments as they come. Please stay tuned as we cover the battle for the Titan's City. May God be with them this hour."  
_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAAAUGH!" Cyborg screamed and fired a mighty sonic cannon across the shipyards as Wonder Woman dropped him down to the ground.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

The blue energy stream shattered through bodies of golems and sent burning shards of gold splattering across the warehouses and sidewalks.

Tempest ran on swift feet through the descending madness of flame. Teeth gritting…eyes pulsing violet…….he summoned two giant 'fists' of levitating sea water and sent them plunging into a solid line of rock monsters.

The golems absorbed the liquid, their bodies pulsing hotly.

_SSSSSSSSsssssssss!_

Steam lifted up across the shipyard.

The golems flailed their limbs blindly.

"RRRRRGHHH!" Wonder Woman zoomed into the bright gold cloud, fists first.

_**SMASSSSH! **_

_**THWACCCKKK!**_

Golden gold limbs shattered and splashed about in waves of burning chunks.

Tempest smirked.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSSH!**_

Tempest glanced up.

A HIND hovered directly overhead. Its machine gun cannons whirred, pivoted down, and fired.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Tempest snarled, shot his flexing fingers up, and twirled a whipping tentacle of compressed water that absorbed the streaking bullets in a wave-like fashion and shot them off course so that they struck the concrete in a pure circle around him. _P-P-P-P-PING! __**P-PING!**_

ST-STOMP! Cyborg jumped in front of Tempest, screamed, and aimed his sonic cannon straight up and fired through the Atlantean's water whip.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

The blue sonic blast soared up into the machine gun cannon, crushing it from the front to the back. _**SHATTTTTERRR!**_ The HIND flopped about in the air as Cyborg's punishment began to disintegrate it into burning shards.

In the meantime, Wonder Woman surged from one side of the shipyard to the next, her fists swinging iron-hard into golems of all burning shapes and sizes. "RAAAUGH!" _**SMASSSH!**_ "NNNGHHHH!" _**CRAAACK!**_

Two hummers and a jeep spun to a stop around a street corner. The mounted gunman atop the front vehicle loaded his weapon, pivoted, and aimed at Wonder Woman's back. His eye squinted as he took aim with the heavy caliber weapon—

_**FLAAASH!**_ A ghost came out of the machine. In a green swirl, Martian Manhunter solidified atop the hummer's rear.

The man gasped and stumbled back.

J'onn stared, deadpan. "…………………………….." _**WHACK!**_ He bitch-slapped the gunner off the hummer.

"Aaaaugh!"

As the man fell, Martian Manhunter reached an incorporeal hand into his vest, pulled out three grenades, unhooked them, and tossed the explosives nonchalantly into the nearby jeep.

The men shouted, jumped out of the vehicle, and ran for their lives—

_**POWWWWW!**_ The jeep exploded in brilliant flame, knocking the terrorists off their feet from the concussion blast.

The gunman on the last hummer shouted and aimed the mounted weapon heatedly at the green-skinned League member.

_**CRKKK!**_ A fire hydrant besides the last terrorists cracked with a purple glow. _**SPLOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_ A torrent of rock-hard water shot outward and knocked the hummer clean over. _**CL-CLANK!**_ The men sprawled across the concrete and fell unconscious.

"………..," J'onn turned around.

Tempest appeared with an outstretched hand. He stood at ease and lost the glow in his dark eyes as he glanced up.

Cyborg stood with his legs planted firmly in place. His face dripped with rivers of sweat as he snarled, clenched his teeth, and concentrated……concentrated…………..concentrated with his berserk energy blast. "Nnnnnrghhh!"

The HIND tried and tried to pull away from the sonic cannon stream, but only broke up more and more. The Daggerite pilots inside shook and screamed and began to fall apart---

"AAAAAA-_AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"_ Cyborg howled, jerked his cannon back, and thrust it forward with an extra pulse of sonic fury. _**Z-ZAAAAP!**_ The HIND exploded completely. _**BOOOOOOOM!**_ Flame ate out from its centers. The blades flew in random directions, skewering warehouses and rooftops. The tail stayed in one piece…..falling earthward.

Cyborg let out a grunt, scrunched his body, and caught the hulking tail with the stretch of his arms and titanium shoulders taking the brunt of the weight. _CL-CLANGGG!_ "Nnnnnnngh!" He sweated and pulsed. He stood up like a weight-lifter….re-gripped the piece of terrorist shrapnel….and reared it like a javelin as he dashed towards the nearby street full of golems. "NNNNRAAAAAUGGGH!" He screamed and tossed the helicopter tail.

_**FWOOOOOSH-SCRKKKKKKTTTT!**_ The chunk of metal flew sharply down the street, ripped asphalt apart, smashed through seven shattering golems, and knocked over two fleeing jeeps full of terrorist gunmen. _**POWWWW!**_

_Swooosh!_ _P-Plant!_ Wonder Woman touched down, her black hair billowing in the wind. She glanced over at Cyborg as Martian Manhunter teleported over.

Cyborg stood—half hunched—panting. "…………..," his eyes hardened and his teeth gritted as he clenched his cannon back into a titanium fist and slammed the earth. "NNNGHHH!" _WHAM!_ "Eat Hellfire, Dagger! Cyborg's back home!"

"Enthusiastic….," J'onn droned. "….isn't he?"

Wonder Woman smirked. "Come on….," she ran into a leap and flew westward down the thicker streets and avenues. "We need to push towards the Center and establish a southern, coastal base!"

J'onn soared after her.

Tempest called: "And where exactly will that be?"

"Where else?" Cyborg stomped forward into a brisk, robotic jog. _Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_ "Bayside Plaza, dawg! We're giving General Calvin the second foot he needs to stand tall!" His chocolate eyes thinned menacingly. "And maybe start stepping on some sad-ass _mudstains_ while we're at it too…."

Tempest 'sucked' up some puddles of water from the fire hydrant and created tentacles of liquid that carried him swiftly along Cyborg's side. "Don't we have some really freaky Reaper to keep our heads from being lopped off by?"

"One thing at a time."

Tempest squinted at Cyborg. "Think about _ALL_ the Titans, Cyborg. Not just one of them."

"Man….," Cyborg glared back. "I'm finding Raven first…above all else."

"You don't have the time!"

"Oh, like Hell I do!" Cyborg growled. "It just depends….do you think your waterlogged fins can keep up, Flipper?"

"You can bet your rusted balls, ya stupid toaster!"

"……….."

"…………"

Cyborg smiled at Tempest.

Tempest smirked at Cyborg.

"Heh heh heh heh…."

"Hah hah hah hah!"

"Heheheheheh!"

"Hah hah HAH!" Cyborg whipped both swinging arms into sonic cannons in mid-sprint and grinned like a possessed maniac. "Come on! Let's tear ass!"

They soared in on the helpless golems and terrorist vehicles. Sonic pulse flying….tentacles of sharp water whipping.

"BOO-YA!"

"NEPTUNE OWNS ALL YOU MOTHER F---"

_**ZAAAAAAA-AAAAAAP! **_

_**TH-THWPP! SLOSSSSH! CRAKKK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

East of Main Street….

Changeling and I hobbled around a building corner with Raven draped between us. We held her by her arms and shoulders….doing our best to be gentle so as not to disturb her Deathstroke-induced wounds anymore. In spite of his own hackjobs, Changeling seemed just as able-bodied as ever to push the movement forward. It amazed me….to the point that I wondered if I was looking at the same green elf I once knew.

"Y-You mean to say that Noir here left us way back to find Terra?" Changeling panted.

"Y-Yes…..," Raven weakly breathed. Her eyes were shut as she dangled between us. Her limbs and features were limp…hanging. But in spite of all her exhaustion, she was still quite awake. The meditation had stabilized her….but stopped just short of empowering her to 'normal Titan' levels. "He w-went west to Vegas….Dagger and his former allies had a foothold in Nevada. Area 51 was where they took Terra. Noir rooted them out wh-while the rest of us stayed in the City…"

I gazed back.

Little Jericho was trailing behind, a watchful pair of green eyes keeping guard on the battle-strewn streets around us.

When I glanced forward again, I became aware of a jaw-dropping Changing staring at me.

"Y-You were in that Vegas catastrophe…w-with the Harrier Jet and explosions……..weren't you?"

I bit my lip.

"He's been th-through so much….all th-this time…..," Raven murmured. A sad breath. "We never lifted a hand to help him…."

Changeling glanced sharply at the sorceress. "That's not true! We didn't abandon Noir!" A beat. He looked at me…gulping. " Dude…..did we?"

I shook my head.

That's when Raven sleepy eyes opened. She looked sickly at me. "N-Noir….," she breathed. "Cyborg was a doppelganger all along. You knew this….didn't you?"

"……….," I shook my head. I mouthed: _'Not until much later'_

She gulped. Her eyes closed again. "At least you have an excuse."

"…….," my lips pursed as if to say something--

"I-I failed the Titans, Noir…..I-I was t-too blinded to see through Clayface's disguise…."

As she somberly spoke, Jericho ran past my side and investigate the street ahead.

"When I-I found out that Cyborg had 'decided against' sharing the truth of your departure westward, I…..I-I trusted him. I let Hagan's words overtake me," Raven shuddered. "I….g-gave in to emotions. And for that…I-I have now cost the team dearly…."

"Dammit, Raven!" Changeling stopped the three of us and gripped Raven's shoulders with both hands. "Stop saying that! Look, we all fell for Hagan's schemes…Clayface's schemes…Dagger's schemes…..yadda yadda yadda. The last thing we need to do right now is start taking the blame for crap that wasn't our doing to begin with! Maybe you should have been more cautious about your empathy! Maybe you shouldn't! I don't frickin' care right now! Dagger's ripping this City apart. For some godawful reason, Slade's back and trying to tear our hearts out. And you….need…….to MEDITATE! So stop thinking stupid thoughts and get your head together! Jeez….why of all people am I the one having to tell you this!"

Raven stared weakly at Changeling. Her thin violet eyes once again opening long enough for her to gaze at him and murmur: "D-Do you defend me so easily, B-Beast Boy?"

"Raven….," Changeling exhaled….all but hugging her. "You're here. Noir's here. This wyrdo little shrimp—whoever—is here….—"

I gazed at Jericho, who was gazing down the street.

"—all I want is to find Starfire, win this battle, track down Cyborg and Tempest, and be all A-Okay again! Please…..don't let me lose you now! Your mind as much as your heart….!"

Raven shivered. "B-Beast Boy…..if it weren't for me….you would still have b-both ears…."

He sighed and shook his bloody head. "Raven…."

"……both ears…," Raven rambled, "….to hear her voice again with."

Beast Boy froze.

I did a double-take at Raven. My heart skipped a beat.

Beast Boy's eyes widened gradually. "R-Raven…..?"

Her eyes closed. She slowly exhaled. "She's alive, Garfield……..she's whole….."

"……………….."

"N-Noir…..g-got her……..out of Area 51……"

Silence.

Beast Boy slowly turned and stared at me. Mouth agape.

I slowly breathed…heart beating.

He blinked. "J-Jordan?" His head leaned to the side. The one pointed ear pricked…. "Is th-this true?"

"…………."

Beast Boy's breath left him. His eyes began to water. An un-dammed desperation. He all but dropped Raven as he scooted into me and gripped my far shoulder. "T-Terra…..she's alive? She's out of the stone?"

I slowly….firmly nodded.

"Where? Where is she?" he barked. "Is she safe? Is sh-she in one piece? I-I mean….oh m-my god….." He hyperventilated. He clutched a head of hair with a shaking hand and all but teared his eyes out. "I-I-I c-can't believe this….I-I don't know wh-what to say….." He clenched his fist and snarled at Raven and I. "Why didn't **you tell me**?"

In the echo of his growl, I could have sworn I saw snake eyes flicker in wrathful energy under his lids. For the first time in my superhero career, Beast Boy frightened me….

I jolted back.

Changeling seethed for a moment.

"Garfield…..," Raven's fingers gently pressed into his upper shoulder and neck.

He shook still….jaw clenched.

"Be calm….," she breathed…soothingly.

He clenched his eyes shut. Tears like earlier's dripped down his cheeks. He sniffed and gritted his teeth. "I-I just….w-want to see her….."

"……………..," Raven and I were mute.

Changeling rubbed the tears dry with a free fist across his shut eyes. "After th-this whole terrible day…..I-I just want to see her….."

Silence….

Subtle ambiance of battle in the distant urban spires….

"I know that feeling, G-Garfield…….."

Changeling's wet eyes opened.

Both he and I gazed at the dark girl.

Raven's lips were quivering as she gazed off into empty space. "I-I've been wanting to 'see someone' for about a month now…."

"…………"

"…………."

Suddenly, Jericho let loose a shrill whistle.

We all looked up.

The little blonde thing was running towards us from the building corner, his green eyes as wide as saucers. He waved his hands madly and gestured us to draw back.

I looked at him panickedly and mouthed: _'What is it?'_

He swiftly ran around and 'hid' behind me.

"……..," I gazed forward.

_Cl-Clak!_

_Clak!_

_Clik!_

A supply truck full of Dagger's terrorists appeared in the street besides the sidewalk.

They aimed uzzis and shotguns and pistols at us en masse.

Twenty gunmen strong.

"All right, Titans!"

"Be absolutely still!"

"End of the god damn line for you, kids!"

"……………," my Titan partners were silent.

Jericho trembled behind me.

I clenched my jaw shut tight. My flesh fingers twitched as I summoned murk under my skin and prepared for a swift-as-smoke dash for the hilt of my sword—

"_**Heads up, meatbags!"**_

A strong voice echoed from above.

Three fourths of the gunmen looked up. They shouted and scurried to aim their weapons upward---

_SWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!_ Metallo's heap of a mangled body soared down like a missile—_**SMASSSSH!**_—and sailed heavily through the center of the supply truck. **CRAAACKKK!** The vehicle tore apart and the bodies of the terrorists went flying, screaming.

THWOOOSH! Steel flew down and swung his sledge hammer into the ground. "NNNNGH!"

_**THUDDDD! **_

_**The resulting concussion blast of the iron-heavy bludgeon sent dozens of thugs collapsing unconscious…..and in turn caused my buddies and I to fall awkwardly on our butts.**_

_Th-Thrump!_

_  
Whump!_

"Owie…," Changeling hissed.

Jericho winced.

Raven craned her neck….weak eyes squinting. "Metallo…..," she murmured.

"_Uggggh…..,"_ the sparking robot twitched and groaned. Bolts shot intermittently out from his skull-like jaw and neck joints. _"……r-remind me to thank Dagger for the wonderful w-weekend retreat…."_

TH-THUNK! Steel kicked the android in the chest, shorting him out. "Shut your damn trap, you ugly ass fool!" He tilted his helmeted head up and 'smiled' as us Titans. "The damn clunker got what he deserved. You kids should be safe from him now."

"……………," Raven said nothing. It bothered me. When Raven _purposed_ to not say anything, there was usually a dark….somber reason.

"St-Steel?" the one-eared elf stood up. Blinking. "Omigod…._THE_ Steel?"

"Yup. 'Fraid so, kid. I'm a lot more rusted than you see on the trading cards."

"Wh-What in God's name are you doing here in our City?"

"Cuz the Justice League of America is in your City, elf!"

Changeling gasped.

So did Jericho…..smiling, rising up….

"The Justice League……," Raven murmured….breaking her own silence. "So they've come to our aid….."

As if on cue, a streaking figure soared over head. Growling. Wielding a huge building front that she swiftly and thunderously tossed into a wave of golem monsters a block away.

With Amazonian strength….

_**SMASSSSSH!**_

I gasped and stood up.

_Diana!_

"We're pushing westward and taking the City Plaza! Some of Calvin's backup forces from the South should be there! I'm guessing you're needing a medical facility!"

"Yeah, dude—er…M-Mr. Steel. Raven here is—"

"I'm fine….," the dark girl murmured--

"NO, YOU'RE NOT! She needs assistance. We could all stand a breather, come to think of it."

"You can ask us all the way up to Superman…..and find out that nobody could blame you," Steel nodded. A beat. He turned and gazed at me.

I was biting my lip….inching away nervously from him.

There was a pause…as if Irons was rolling his eyes under his mask. "For goodness sake, Noir…._we all understand that you weren't being a __**villain**_ when you did what you did at the Daily Planet and stuff."

I blinked my black eyes. My lips moved: _'You do?'_

"Yup…," Steel nodded. He pointed behind him nonchalantly. "_HE_ told us."

_Who?_

I looked up.

So did Jericho and the other Titans—

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSSSSH!**_

The Batwing soared overhead.

The five of us flinched…….wobbling from the intense afterblast of the supersonic airplane of the Dark Knight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHOOOOOOOMMM!**_

The Batwing rocketed over the City.

Its rear engines flared and its wings sliced through red-colored currents of December night air.

The aircraft thundered over streets full of wildebeests on the rebound, charging and engulfing golems and terrorist vehicles.

The Batwing then dipped low and zoomed down Main Street. It blurred past the buildingsides placed claustrophobically on either side.

_WHURRR-__**CHTUNK!**_

Two missiles loaded.

The Batwing angled itself just right….laser-targeted one of two giant golems that was doing battle with Superman….and let loose the two flaming projectiles.

_**PFTOOOOOSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The missiles sailed deep into the gut of the giant monster…shattering it and blowing it into shreds from the inside out.

_**CRKKKK-AAAAAA-CCCCKKKK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Superman spun in mid-air and glanced over his shoulder as the huge colossus disintegrated and crumbled down to the asphalt of Main Street with a fading gold flame.

The Man of Steel tilted his head up and smiled as the Batwing soared past above….its thrust blowing at his greased hair.

_**PHWOOOOOOO-OOOOOM!**_

The Batwing soared off into the distance.

Superman exhaled….

_**FW-FWOOOSH!**_

The Flash soared over and froze in a pose perched atop a streetlamp. "Don't you love it when he upstages you?"

"I know I can't complain!"

"Pfft….," Flash stuck his tongue out and sprinted off. "….modest!" _**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

**Superman chuckled, turned around, and—**

_**SLAMMMMM!**_

The foot of the other reigning giant crushed him to the ground. _**CRUNNNNCH!**_ Asphalt and concrete flew in burning shards.

"Nnnnnnghhh!" Superman struggled and strained under the weighted limb.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_ The burning beast bent over, applied more pressure to pin the Kryptonian down, and raised both its arms to slam down onto the Metropolitan hero.

Superman gritted his teeth. He glared….his eyes burning a hot amber. _**ZAAA-AAAAAAAAP!**_ He fired dual heat rays in a skyward sweep that severed the two 'hands' of the burning monster at the wrists.

_**SL-SLUNNK!**_

**THAP!** The flaming chunks fell to the ground.

The monster rumbled, flailed its limbs, and prepared to send a wave of fire down to scorch the Man of Steel—

"HEY!"

A glow of emerald.

The huge golem 'looked' up.

Green Lantern hovered across the street, holding a smashed tank up in a field of green energy.

"If you boys are gonna play hardball, you gotta learn how to catch first!" He flung his ring-hand forward. "NNNNGHH!"

_**THWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The tank soared through the air and smashed forcefully into the crown of the giant.

_**CRUNNNNCCCH!**_

The giant was plowed directly….and tossed off its 'stance' upon the Man of Steel.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SMASSSSH!**_

The stumbling giant flew through a line of buildings, limped backwards, began to fall---

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Two more missiles sailed down from the sky and exploded into the side of the beast….blowing it apart into burning shards.

_**POWWWW!**_

_**PHOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The Batwing decelerated into a hover of upward thrust. The vehicle levitated over the center of the City like a harrier jet and slowly lowered towards the raised highway where throngs of terrorist gunmen were staked out with their vehicles and mounted weapons.

_SCHWIIIIISSSSH!_

The transparent door of the Batwing slid open.

Batman sat in the front cockpit seat.

He shouted above the cape-beating wind and mayhem. "This looks like the best spot! Dagger's men have the high ground. They think that none of the Wildebeests or Calvin's men can get to them!"

"Don't lecture me…," Catwoman unbuckled in the backseat and half-climbed out. "I know how to spring a mouse-trap."

"This isn't a joke, Selina!" Batman shouted. "This is war! Justice League caliber!"

"Rowwwr….," she winked at him from under her mask and pulled out her whip. "….I can stand to be tested for once."

"……….," his eyeslits narrowed. "You be careful….."

"Please, Batman….," she toyed with the ears of his mask and leapt over the side. "I think I got a few lives left…."

_TH-THWOOOOSSSH!_

As she fell through the air, Batman lifted the Batwing back up to the air and slid the cockpit door closed.

_SSCHWIIIIIISSSSH!_

"And I still got a job to do…."

_SCHLUMP!_

He hovered up….fired the rear rockets….and zoomed off.

_**PHOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime….

Catwoman fell….fell……fell……

Her leather whip twirled in the air like an acrobatic tail as she plummeted towards the raised highway.

On both sides of the asphalt lanes, Dagger's men gathered at the mounted guns of their vehicles and took aim at fleeting Wildebeests and streaking-amber-red-blurs of the Flash below.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Catwoman descended.

And as she did so, she grinned ravenously.

A lamppost blurred up towards her.

"Hah!" she lashed her arm out and flung the whip.

_FWPPP!_

The leather 'tail' flung out, wrapped around the stalk of the lamp, and snagged tightly.

_TWNNNG!_

Catwoman gripped tight to the handle of her whip, reached the taut length of it, spun up and around and around and around and loosened the whip so that her body propelled up and outward in a carnivorous foot-first pounce. "RaaaaaawRR!"

_Fwoooooosh!_

She sailed down at the unsuspecting creeps.

Two gunmen on the west side of the highway overpass besides a jeep glanced up. They blinked. They shrieked—"AAAAA---!"

_**WH-WHUMPPP!**_ Catwoman's left and right feet found a soft skull of each man respectfully and crushed the two goons painfully to the ground.

She flipped off, landed in a slide, and ended in the center of the highway with all gunmen pausing to gaze at her.

She crouched sexily…thinned her eyes…..and cooed. "When my feet get tired….there's always a thick head of a man to land on instead."

"What in the—"

"Waste that bitch!"

"Shoot her!"

"Pfft….," she rolled her eyes. "Oh please…."

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_

Four separate streams of hot lead converged on her.

"Hmmpph!" Catwoman grunted, backflipped through the spray of bulletfire, and landed with her feet planting into the shoulders of two men. She vaulted off, forcing them to fly over the edge of the highway.

_P-Plant! _

"_AAAAUGH!" "Daaah!"_

She spun horizontally in a forward dive, dodged bullet streaks in mid air, landed, rolled, and sprang up with a twirl of her body and a rapid lashing of her whip in multiple directions.

_TH-THWPPP! THWPPP! WHPPP!_

She snapped pistols out of men's grasps. Slapped heads together. And ended with the whip wrapped about a man's ankle.

"Wha---?" he gasped.

"Nnnngh!" she yanked up hard on the whip from where she crouched.

The man's body flailed up in the air.

She spun and jerked back to the west of the highway.

The whip let loose and tossed the man's body hard into the gunman atop a jeep. _THWOOOOSH-__**WHAM!**_ The bodies collided. The mounted gun spun and fired randomly—_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_--popping the tires of a jeep across the way and knocking two men onto the asphalt.

WH-WHUMP!

The men stirred to get up—

_TH-THWUMP!_ Selina Kyle leapt down, planted her heels into their lower vertebrae, and bounced off to flip a flying kick into a creep across the way.

_**WH-WHAMMM!**_ The man flew—screaming—off the raised highway and into the hungry, vengeful arms of the Wildebeests below.

Two men pumped shotguns and fired around a jeep for protection.

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**BLAM!**_

Catwoman leapt up, lashed her whip up, wrapped its end around a lamppost swung up high—_THWISSSH!_—dodged more shotgun blasts in mid-swing—_**BL-BLAM!**_—and let loose in a leap that sent her twirling and landing agilely into the back of a hummer.

"HAH!" she kicked the mounted gun so hard, it tilted down and fired instantly into the under-chassis of the vehicle.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-**__**BOOOM!**_

The explosion caused the two shotgun bearers to plummet across the asphalt….landing with cold impacts…groaning.

Catwoman leapt, landed, and crouched cat-like in front of the last throng of gunmen before a line of jeeps on the west side of the highway.

They were shaking in their boots…eyeing her silhouette against the flames with uncertainty.

She hissed at them….gripping tightly to her whip…..licking her lips and grinning….

One man panicked and whipped out a grenade.

"Raawr!" _THWPPP!_

The end of Selina's whip somehow made its way across the lane and snapped the grenade out of the man's grasp.

The thug gasped and reached up for his weapon.

_THWPP! THWPPPP!_

Two more lashes knocked three other grenades loose from his vest.

They fell to the floor---

_**TWHPPP!**_

Catwoman flung her whip up high, wrapped its end around the first airborne grenade, brought the whip back, and lashed it forward with ferocity.

_THWOOOOSSH!_ The grenade soared through the air, rolled on the ground—_CL-CLANK!_—and knocked the other three round explosive like pool balls bouncing over the concrete and straight into the fuel tanks of the jeeps next to the guardrail.

"Aaaaaaugh!"

"Run! Run!"

"SHIT---"

_Ca-CLANK!-__**POWWWW!**_

The jeeps exploded mightily with flame and frothing plasma.

The scampering men were knocked from the concussion of the blast and fell unconscious across the lengths of the highway.

Selina Kyle snaked up to a standing position. She smiled at the flame.

"Mmmmmmm….if anything….I may at least get to _steal the __**scene**_ before the night's done….."

_TH__**-THWPPP-**__**CRACK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Batman soared through the air in the Batwing.

Wind from the red night pounded against the windowed door of the aircraft.

He throttled over the skyscrapers….Wayne Enterprises….Kobayashi Tower….

The crimson stars twinkled before him.

And in his line of sight appeared two black bodies….

HINDs that were aiming their missiles at Calvin's left flank.

_Beep-Beep-Beep!_

The jet's laser targeting sought the two helicopters….

And found them.

_Beeeeeeeeep!_

Batman's eyeslits narrowed.

"Grow some real wings…….."

His finger pounded over the trigger.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Twin missiles soared from the sides of the Batwing.

They spun through the air in a technological ballet of flaring heat….and sank into the hulking bodies of the air-beating HINDs.

_**BOOOM! **_

_**KABOOOOM!**_

The blades shattered and flew everywhere.

The helicopters imploded in-mid-air from the balls of plasma surrounding them…..

Then plummeted earthward.

_**PHOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The Batwing swung hard and arced across the City.

In so doing….the aircraft nearly plowed into three apaches and the green streaking alien that was leading them.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Starfire gasped and braked in mid-air.

The three U.S. aircraft wobbled in mid-air, attempting to balance themselves in the heated…disturbed sky.

Starfire hovered in place, glancing eastward at the flaring vehicle.

"B-Batman of the Justice League….," she murmured. She gulped. Then in a lower…..deflated voice. "_Robin's mentor….."_

"_**Snkkkt! It's Batman! He's engaging the enemy from above!"**_ the voice of a pilot vibrated from an amplifier behind Starfire.

"……………"

"_**Should we assist him, Miss Starfire?"**_

The Tamaranian took a deep breath. "No!" she shouted. She motioned down towards the industrial section of the City's Northern District. "Dagger's fragmentary forces are attempting a nefarious entrance of the Subway System from the City's North!"

"_**That's where the citizens are!"  
**_

"Then to protect the innocent, we must make haste! Follow me!" And she held her breath as she made a deep nose-dive towards the earth in a green streak. Her fists clenched and pointed downwards.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!_ The three apaches followed her in tight formation.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMMMMM!_

A contingent of Daggerite jeeps were zooming northward in a lane flanked by power plants and factories.

At the air-whistling sound of a diving alien and three U.S. aircraft, the terrorists turned and glanced up.

Jaws dropping.

"Wonder Woman?"

"No! That alien Titan!"

"Heads up, everyone!"

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Starfire dodged the bullet fire, summoned a starbolt, and flung a hot pulse down to absorb the bullets and eat them into obliterated dust before they could so much as touch the apaches.

As she drew closer, she took a deep breath….pulsed her eyes a hot emerald….and shot two optic blasts. "RAAAAAA-AAAAAAUGH!"

_**FLAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

The streaking green beams surged through three of the rear vehicles, slicing them in half and sending aluminum shards showering hotly across the concrete among sprawling gunmen's unconscious bodies.

_**CRKKK! CRAAAAK! SLIIIIIICE!**_

Starfire flew down, billowed through the flaming clouds, and emerged to dip down till she barely skimmed the surface of the asphalt.

Two hummers loomed in sight. Men in the back loaded rocket launchers and took aim at the alien girl.

The Tamaranian hissed, summoned a hot strobe of emerald energy, and let it loose. _**FL-FLASSSH!**_

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

_**PFTOO-OOOSH!**_

Two rockets flew at her.

The starbolt absorbed them, sending blinding ash and dust scattering across the street. _**PHOOOMMM!**_

The three apaches soared overhead and fired heavy caliber bullets at the two terrorist vehicles.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The hummers swerved desperately to veer out of the way, as if not taking note of the apache presence until the last second.

One of Dagger's vehicles exploded hotly from a bullet to the fuel tank. _**PHOOOMB!**_

The other swerved to the far left of the street. The men in the back snarled and fired an RPG straight up at the three birds.

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSH!**_

The apaches lifted up desperately to dodge—

"RAAAUGH!" Starfire darted up, spun in the air, and kicked the nose of the missile with her casual shoe.

_**WHACK!**_

The missile soared up, barely missed the apaches' rotary blades, and twirled off into a warehouse alongside the street.

_**POWWWWW!**_

Burning debris splashed everywhere and rained into the road.

The hummer screeched and burned rubber to miss the flaming chaos.

And suddenly the terrorist vehicle wasn't burning anything at all. Its tires spun madly in the air and the thugs inside gasped as Starfire lifted it up high into the air with her alien body stretched _beneath_ the hummer.

"NNnnnnngh!" she lifted the vehicle up…up……..up….

And floated over to a factory along the northern stretch of the City. She flew over the rooftop and wedged the car in between two smokestacks, where it dangled precariously with the men inside twitching anxiously.

_**FLAAAAA-AAAAAASSSH!**_ Starfire melted the barrel of the mounted gun for good measure before floating off to rejoin the apaches.

"Hurry!" she pointed with a loud cry. "We shall travail upon surrounding the perimeter and—"

_**THWACCCCKKK!**_

A giant golem's hand slammed across Starfire like a palm to a fly.

"Aaaack!" Starfire cried, plummeted earthward, and smashed through a small stretch of warehouses. CRASSSSH!

_**CRKKKKKKK-KKKK!**_

The four story giant turned around from its burning marching-path and faced the three apaches next.

They hovered back, spread apart, and fired hot waves of lead. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT__**-TAT!**_

The monster merely absorbed the bullet rounds, waved its burning limbs, and stomped over to smash the apaches out of the air as well—

**CRUNCH!** Starfire burst out of a warehouse rooftop below and soared towards the giant beast. "RAAAAAUGH!"

_**THWAAACKKK!**_ Her joined fists slammed across the 'crown' of the behemoth.

It stomped forward, teetering.

The apaches flew out of the way as the giant collapsed straight through a factory.

_**CRASSSSSH!**_

Starfire flew up and readied a huge starbolt over her head. "NNnnnnnghhh!" She clenched her eyes shut and screamed as emerald lightning bolts flew magically into the huge orb and turned the projectile into a burning sphere of fury. "NGGGH-AAAAAH!" _**FLASSSSH!**_ She flew it down at the beast.

The giant was just starting to get up---

_**POWWWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

A huge crater formed with rising green flame engulfing the hulking colossus.

The apaches maintained their distance.

Starfire flew above the mess.

Panting…..panting…….panting……….

"……."

Glaring.

"…………………."

….

_**CRKKKKKKK!**__**-TWHOOOOSSSH!**_ The severely cracked and lava-leaking beast shot up with a golden fist.

_**WHACK!**_

"OOOOF!" Starfire twirled back in the air a block and a half.

The giant shook, quivered, climbed out of the crater, and took burning steps across the street to charge the Tamaranian—

_**PFTOOOOOSSSH! **_

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Two missiles soared from the apaches and pummeled the beast.

The giant shook and faltered back from the projectile punishment on its already sensitive torso chunk.

_**P-P-POWWW! **_

_**KAPOW!**_

Starfire stopped flailing.

She hovered upright….took a deep breath….glanced to her side….spotted a fifteen foot radio antenna standing atop a rooftop……flew over….gripped it…..snarled…..snapped the sharp, elongated pyramid out from its base—_**CRACK!**_—and hovered up with the makeshift javelin grasped and heated from her starbolting palms.

"I shall place down thunder's gavel which you so request!" she hissed, twirled, and tossed the hulking shard with a shout: "Now the whirlwind shall additionally be available for your harvest!"

_**SWISSSSSSSSSH-**__**CHUNKKKK!**_

The missile skewered the burning, rock chest of the monstrosity.

Lava and fiery ooze splashed out from its twirling, enraged body. The burning 'guts' of the giant bubbled and churned in a futile attempt to seal its golden self off from the red night…

But the apaches were on the beast before that could happen. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**PFTOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

A converging mass of bullets, missiles, and explosive projectiles swam across the December air and dug into the cavity that the sharp bludgeon hat made.

_**BOOOOOM!**_ The giant suddenly and brilliantly exploded, sending warbling waves of fire and chaos splashing all around.

The apaches twirled in the air and nearly collided with each other as they swayed from the fountaining fire.

Starfire hovered over a throng of warehouses. She gasped at the sight of the firewall and crossed her pink-sleeved arms before her face as---

_**PHWOOOOOOOMBB!**_

The plasma engulfed her dangling body.


	257. Break the Circle part 17

**257. Break the Circle part 17**

"Nnnngh!" Superman's fist flew through four entire golems and sent their golden parts scattering across storefronts.

_**SMASSSH!**_

The Man of Steel hovered up above a fresh batch of rock monsters and suddenly jerked. He tilted his ear…then his whole head northward. A pair of Kryptonian eyes squinted at the distant mushroom cloud of an exploding stone giant.

_FL-FLASSSH! POW!_ Green Lantern twirled over to Superman's hovering side, smashing golems apart with a wave of his ring hand. He panted…sweated…and uttered aside to Superman without looking. "Is there another party we're not apart of?"

"I don't know….," Superman murmured. "Although Titan's Tower is destroyed, there's no reason to assume all the Titans besides Cyborg and Tempest are dead."

"Otherwise, Slade would be having his way by now?"

"I'm a bit more concerned about Dagger at the moment."

"You and me, Blueboy. Let's finish sweeping Main Street."

"Right behind you!"

_FWOOOSH!_

"Heh…if you say so."

_FW-FWOOOOSH!_

Superman and Green Lantern streaked down the center of the City.

Golems battling Wildebeests and terrorist jeeps loomed ahead.

Superman's eyes glowed.

Green Lantern's ring strobed.

They soared over the heads of the battle, taking pot-shots with Kryptonian eye beams and emerald sniping.

_**FLASH! FL-FLASSSH! **_

_**ZAP! Z-Z-ZAP!**_

Golems exploded.

Rock monsters flew apart.

And with the freakish army dwindling, the Wildebeests overpowered their foe and began pummeling the leftover ranks to bits and pieces. The bovine warriors waved their upper limbs and grunted and growled in victorious passion.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The two League members took a sharp right and a sharp left….splitting up and taking on a monster each in the heart of downtown.

In mid-flight, Green Lantern palmed his hand over his head and spoke into a communicator: "Diana! How's your half of the City holding up?"

"_Snkkkt! Hard to say. If you want a rough estimate of the number of abomination I've smashed, you can just as well drag out a notepad."_**  
**

"Cute…," Green Lantern frowned. "But not very specific."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Wonder Woman glided through a street in the Eastern District.

"J'onn and the Titans Cyborg and Tempest are securing the midway point for Calvin's forces as we do battle! 'Bayside Plaza'—I think they called it—should be secure sooner than naught."

"_Any sign of the other five Titans? Bruce said that Robin is indeed—"_

"--Alive, I know," Wonder Woman smiled. "But now's not the time for celebration…._."_

"_Are you in need of assistance, Wonder Woman?"_

"Nah….the usual…," the Princess' fiery glare returned. "I've got my hands tied…."

_TH-THWPPPP!_

Wonder Woman's lasso flew down, snatched a golem's leg out from underneath as the Princess flew by, and hoisted the flailing beast up in a golden blur.

"Nnnnnnnnghhhhh….!" Wonder Woman growled, ducked low, swept over a thick crowd of golems, and dragged the helpless rock-creature at the end of her lasso straight through the soup of evil. _**SCRKKKKKK-CRKKKKKKK-CRKKKKKKK!**_

Golems were knocked side to side in a parting wave down the street.

Rocky bodies smashed into building fronts…

Lampposts….

And shopfronts.

All shattering…..crumbling….

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

Wonder Woman flew up, dragged what was left of the battered golem with her, and then proceeded to spin around and sling the creature off into the distant crown of a giant that Superman was battling several blocks away.

"YAAAAUGH!"

_SWISSSSSSSSSSSH-__**SLAM!**_

Superman paused in battling the creature to give Wonder Woman a long distance thumb's up.

She smiled and saluted.

A beat.

She gazed further eastward.

Her eyes caught a bright blue streak of energy surging along the northern shore of the Bay…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAAAA-AAAAAAP!**_

Cyborg fired his sonic cannon up at snipers lining the rooftop ledges of the Bayside Plaza.

Terrorists flew back and landed hard against the buildingtop.

Cyborg then ran halfway into the plaza, skidded to a stop, and loaded both arms into sonic cannons just in time to meet a charge of a dozen golems.

_**ZAAAAAAAAP! **_

_**ZAAA-AAAAAAAP!**_

"RAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Cyborg howled, pushing the golden monsters back.

They stumbled backwards and scrunched in a thick cluster in the center of the plaza before the theatre and restaurants….

_**ZAAAAAAAP!**_

"Nnnngh!" Cyborg sweated as the last of his energy charge vibrated out of his canons and plummeted into the struggling line of monstrosities. He turned and shouted desperately over his titanium shoulder. "N-Now would be a good time, Flipper!"

"_Comin' right up, you impatient clunker!"_

"NNNNNGHH-Nnnnghhh!" Cyborg all but collapsed on his knees.

The sonic blasts started to fade.

The golems strengthened and prepared to march on the hapless android—

_**SPLOOOOOSSSH!**_ Tempest ran over…visibly straining. His eyes down to his torso down to his legs strobed a hot violet as he positioned himself—struggling—on the southern edge of the plaza with an obscenely large blob of seawater suspended telekinetically over his head. Wielding five tons of water, he howled at the top of his dry Atlantean lungs and tossed the liquid mess at the thick group of golems. "YAAAAAUGH!"

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

**SPLASSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!**

_**HISSSSSSSSSSS**__SSSSSSSssssssss…………_

A burst of steam billowed hotly from the center of the courtyard in blinding white.

Tempest's dark eyes went thin. He slumped to his knees and panted as the hot mist sailed boilingly towards him—

_SWOOOSH!_ Cyborg stomped by, snatched Tempest up protectively in a hooking arm of metal, and tore off with him.

"Nnnnngh….," Tempest muttered.

"Congrats, dawg….," Cyborg winked and smirked. "You really _let one_ for the team."

"Oh, go to Hades."

"Hah hah HAH!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the rooftops of Bayside Plaza, the snipers put on masks and glared through the white mist.

Their laser targetings pierced through the thick grayness.

They found the fleeting bodies of Cyborg and Tempest.

"Targets found…," they breathed into their mask. "Taking them out, Dagger—"

_FL-FLASH!_ A block of mist suddenly shaped into two glazed eyes and a green frame.

One of the snipers gasped.

_**GRIP!**_ Martian Manhunter grabbed the man's rifle by the barrel and shoved into his chest.

_WHUMP!_

The sniper bent over, wheezing—

_**WHAM!**_ J'onn's fist flew across his chin.

The two remaining snipers gasped and fired at the alien League member.

_**PFFIFT! **_

_**PFFIFFT!**_

Martian Manhunter stood still.

The bullets streamed through his green haze of a body.

The snipers did a double take….and then were slammed into each other as Catwoman dove down from nowhere and lashed body into body with her whip.

_**WHPP! WH-WHPPP!**_

The snipers fell down, groaning.

Catwoman stood up with a hand on her hip. "Hrmmmmm…..," she smiled at her handiwork.

"Selina Kyle….," Martian Manhunter droned through the mist. "I was not aware Batman had chosen you to assist in the takeover of Bayside Plaza."

She shrugged. "Hey, I enlisted myself, hunk." A beat. She hid a giggle. "Well….aren't you the most handsome thing since sliced bread?"

"…………………………………"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

The Flash ran red-orange streaks around a line of Dagger's men, slapping guns and grenades out of their grasps.

"Whoops!" He smirked. He blurred. He slapped. "Whoops!" "Whoops!" "Whoops!"

He ended at a burly thug whom he jump-kicked, rapidly punched, and flew—growling—into a cluster of ragdoll terrorist bodies. _TH-THRUMPPP!_

"Nnnngh….," the thugs groaned in a heap on the ground.

"Heh….," the Flash stood in the middle of Main Street with his hands on his hips. "That ought to prove how useless your parents' honeymoon must have been…."

He was suddenly blind to a hiding gunman sneaking out from around a corner and aiming a pistol square at the back of his masked head—

_**TWNNNG!**_

_THWISSSSSSSSH!_

_**CLACK!**_

The pistol was knocked out of the gunman's grasp. "Aaaugh!"

Flash gasped. He spun around.

A capped figure in green and black leapt down from a building ledge and slapped a large cedar bow across the gun-less thug's scalp.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

Flash did a double-take. "Green Arrow?"

The masked vigilante stood up straight, the wind blowing coldly at his short blonde hair and beard. "You're as sharp as you are ignorant, Flash."

Flash made a face. "What in the Uncle Sam Hell are you doing here in Titan-City-Gone-To-Shitville?"

"Hey…hero's business is my business," Green Arrow pointed. He nonchalantly pulled a green arrow out of his quiver, twirled it, and fired past Flash's neck. _**TWNNG! **__THWISSSSSH!_

Flash turned to watch.

The arrow sailed through the air, popped a 'boxing glove' open in place of the arrowhead, and slammed into two gunmen in a line…slamming them up against an overturned jeep. _**CLANGGG!**_

"Plus….I've watched over this City before," Green Arrow added with a shrug. "I sorta owe it to the people, you get me?"

"No….," Flash frowned and folded his arms. "I don't think I do."

"Well…if it's of any consolation," Green Arrow 'saluted' the sky as he said: "I no longer hunt outside of packs."

"Huh?"

"What I mean is…birds of a feather flock together," the emerald archer winked under his eyemask.

_TH-THWPP!_ Black Canary leapt down out of nowhere. She grinned and dove towards the Flash. "HAAAA!"

"DAAAA-AAAAH!" Flash shrieked and cowered like a little school girl.

_THWOOOOOSSSSH!_ The voluptuous vixen plunged over the Flash, cartwheeled, and slammed two of her legs into the waiting chests of recovering thugs. She then proceeded to leap back up, twirl about, and slam her limbs with near-perfect athleticism into the various thugs and cretins scampering around her. "Raaaugh!" "Haaaah!" "Nnnngh!" _Thwap! Wham! Whack!_

Flash stood up straight….relaxing…

Green Arrow pulled out two spare arrows and gestured at the vixen with his bow. "Believe me. I asked her stay at home. A pretty face like hers shouldn't have to be smashed in by some ugly-ass rock monster…..but there's no talking the firestarter out of anything. I swear…."

Flash gave him a look. "'Stay _at home_'?"

"Damn it, G.A.! Get over here!"

"Yeah yeah…," Green Arrow shook his head with a sigh and rushed over towards her. He smirked one last time at Flash. "Impossible to keep up with her. Sorry she scared you with her entrance and all."

"Oh….um…..no problem," Flash simpered. "I think I need a new uniform…………….in a _good way."_

"Are you boys done squabbling? There's terrorist ass to kick over here!"

"Yes, Dina—"

"For the LAST TIME! RRRGHHHAAAH!" _**TH-THWACK!**_ "Call me _Black Canary_ in the field!" _**TH-THRUMP!**_

"Sorry, honey." _**TWNGG!**_

"Don't call me that either!" _SM-SMACK!_

"My bad. Watch your six, _'bee vomit'."_

"Grrrr….impossible, I swear—oh wait….terrorist." WH-WHUMP!

"Uhm….I-I think I'm gonna….," Flash pointed eastward and simpered, "….—go fight on that side of the City. Eh heh heh heh…..Thanks…..C-Cya…." _**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**VRMMMMMM!**_

A wave of Daggerite hummers fled northward, away from the Western District and the—

_**POW! **_

_**P-POW! **_

_**POW!**_

--line of tanks in General Calvin's arsenal.

The shells fired towards the streets just outside the City, driving terrorists deeper into the nestling spots of the Downtown region….where things were turbulent enough as they could have been with Superman and Green Lantern dishing out the punishment to giant golems and HINDs alike.

The general smiled.

He rested his binoculars at his side and sighed. "Dagger wanted a crunch time. And something tells me that that's just what he's now getting."

"Sir! Reports are in! Our second deployment of marines are landing on the northern shore of the Bay. Bayside Plaza is being reclaimed."

"My case in point," Calvin adjusted his uniform. "Effective immediately…set up a base of operations there. Supplies. Reconnaissance relay. Mobile hospital. I don't want the line to falter back any further to the Atlantic."

"Right away, sir!"

The soldier rushed off….another radio man walked up.

"Sir….," he uttered with a more somber face than the messengers previous. "We just got reports that Phaser Labs has been taken by the enemy."

Calvin's eyes widened. "What? Phaser Labs? _Taken?_ But that's at least two miles west of our front!"

"A recon squad was attacked by the automated defense mechanisms of the laboratory building, but not until after—reportedly—a mud colored changeling overturned their jeep and rushed in through the doors."

"A mud colored _what?"_

"A changeling, sir…."

Calvin's lips pursed. "You sure it wasn't green, soldier?"

"It's not Beast Boy, General, sir. "According to the Justice League, Cyborg states that Clayface is out and about in this City. Working for Slade along with Killer Croc and Metallo."

Another soldier uttered: "He won't last very long the way we're pushing forward!"

"Inside Phaser Labs, he will….," Calvin grunted. He frowned and stared off through the red night. "That place has the defense of an out-of-this world fortress. Not to mention the potential explosive power of……" His voice lingered.

The nearby soldiers fidgeted…

Calvin turned and uttered strongly to the messenger: "Get word out to the Justice League about this! Our tanks might not do much good….and right now, I want to forego the option of nuking the damn place off the center of the Earth! We actually still _need_ many of the things inside Phaser's bowels!"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!"

"Even though all I want right now….," Calvin hissed and glared towards the City. "…..is to wipe out every remaining stain of Dagger out of this metropolis once and for all."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Okay! Let's get this place up and running!"

"Move it, men! Move! Move! _Move!"_

"Set up a perimeter! On the double!"

Like clockwork, agile soldiers darted about the Bayside Plaza and started setting up throngs of equipment and computer stations.

In the distant south….besides the boardwalk….landing barges rushed ashore all along the Bayside beach. Troop carriers, tanks, and jeeps carrying refreshed members of Calvin's army rushed over sand, asphalt, and pavement to set up a swift….eye-blazing camp. Tents went up. Artillery was placed strategically. And various units reassembled en masse in a solid line facing west and about to surge into the streets where the Justice League wreaked havoc. The final advance…..

In the meantime, a steaming-hot Cyborg limped over to a computer station where two personnel swiftly rushed over with wires and hooked the device into his arm…allowing him to recharge.

Tempest slumped down on a charred bench besides the station, taking a deep breath. "Poseidon Almighty…..how did so many of those dang burning monster creeps get let loose in the City?"

"Dagger extracted well over one hundred thousand of those golden vials from Terra, man…," Cyborg looked over while recharging. "I'm surprised we're not seeing more of those things. But I'm guessing that those giants count for something…"

Tempest merely sat where he was. Nodding….dizzy……breathless….

"…………..," Cyborg raised a human eyebrow. "You need to jump into a fountain or something, man?"

"Nah, I'm fine….," the Atlantean waved his hand, gulped, and said: "I'm just wondering….did they make it?"

"The Titans? Flipper, I'm freakin' concerned too, ya know."

"I'm thinking about the guys you were with earlier," Tempest gestured. "Ahem…._THE_ guys. Robin. Noir. That asian punk. This little blonde urchin I keep hearing about…."

"Considering that the City is….oh….," Cyborg glanced. "……..only about fifty percent on fire…..I'd say they were here."

Tempest winced. "Yeah….well………..I suppose there's always Metropolis if this place goes to kelp."

Cyborg frowned. "Yo! Don't you even say that!"

"Have you ever slept in Wonder Woman's bathtub?"

"Hell no, dawg!"

"Egads…..it's like slumbering on Olympus…."

"And what about that Lindsey gal?"

"What about her? I'd buy her the apartment next to the Princess' and serenade her to sleep to Greek lutes and Athenian incense!"

"And where would you live?"

"……………..I'll get a job and pay to have the bathtub sectioned off."

"Ugh….," Cyborg ran a hand over his face and moaned. "Leave the daydreaming till after this war, man…."

Tempest looked with thin dark eyes at the glowing nightmare beyond the fastly-growing camp. "You think I'm in the mood to wake up to this yet? Sheesh….I haven't stopped seeing Lindsay's face when I close my eyes since swimming in with the League."

"Yeah, I understand, Flipper…."

A beat.

Tempest leaned his head to the side. "I think……she will be glad."

"Hmmm? Who?"

"Raven."

"…………."

Tempest cleared his throat. "Seriously. Your doppelganger was a real asshole."

"…………"

Tempest smiled. "W-With the real you back…it'll be like her being reborn or something."

Cyborg frowned at him. "That supposed to make me _feel_ good…..man?"

"………," Tempest bit his lip.

Cyborg exhaled hoarsely and rubbed a hand over the human part of his head.

A pair of footsteps.

They both looked up.

Martian Manhunter stood before them. "The war is advancing with our fronts gaining the advantage. Regardless, we are all divided now in disarray."

"Yeah….you think, Marvin?"

"I am departing to perform an empathic scan of the City….," J'onn said. In a green flash, he shrunk down into the ground and disappeared. "I shall return with a thorough report, barring any extreme circumstances…."

"Heh….define 'extreme'," Cyborg said.

But J'onn was gone.

"…………," Tempest gazed down at the concrete. After a pause, he looked at Cyborg. "You suppose they have any seawater on Mars?"

"Don't count on it, Flipper."

"_**Prince Garth. Mr. Stone."**_

Both Titans jumped from the 'sound' of the Martian's mental voice.

"_**While I am gone, please do keep an eye on the feline impersonator."**_

"Feline whatsit?" Tempest made a face.

But Cyborg was already gazing at her across the City Plaza. "You've gotta be frickin' kidding me….," he murmured.

Tempest looked over.

Catwoman squatted before a smashed jewelry store display along the inner rim of the Bayside Plaza. She fingered a stud of diamonds in her gloved cat-fingers and purred. "Oooooh…..well helllllllo there…."

"HEY!"

Catwoman gasped, flinched, and dropped the stud. She looked over….

Cyborg planted his hands on his hips and frowned from where he was wired in. "Just what in the Hell are _YOU_ doing here, Miss Kyle?"

"Don't blow a circuit, Astro Boy…," Catwoman stood up, adjusting her whip. "I'm only window shopping. And it's _**'Ms.'**_ Kyle, thank you very much. Aren't you supposed to be a post-90s rust bucket?"

Tempest smirked. "Heh heh heh." He winked at Cyborg. "I'm utterly confused and feel disgusted……..but I like her already."

"Grrrr!" Cyborg jerked at the end of his wires like a bulldog, making the technicians gasp, jump, and tend to the recharging unit. "If I wasn't gettin' all juiced up to kick butt…….I'd kick your butt till you leaked juice!"

"Oh please—"

"Oh please nothing, lady! A lot of people are dying today! And I will NOT let you loot this virtual graveyard we call home!"

"……………," Catwoman's smile left. Her eyes softened and she tossed a concealed bunch of studs behind her shoulder. "Very well. You made a good point." But then she walked over, smiled wryly, and toyed her fingers under Cyborg's chin. "But if Batman's not gonna repay me for doing a whole bunch of good deeds here tonight….someone else will."

Cyborg frowned. "You're just one second away from becoming skinned, lady."

"Heheh….cute. Let's see…..how many Robbie the Robot cliché jokes can I think up in rebuttal?"

"_Knock it off, all of you."_

The Two Titans and the Gothamite gazed over.

Steel walked up, carrying a crumpled Metallo frame over his shoulder. He gripped his sledgehammer in the other hand and gestured with it. "We're gonna need all the help we can get. Forked tongue or not. As long as whoever or whatever kicks the proverbial butt of Dagger."

"And Red Aviary," Tempest lifted a finger….smirking.

"Yeah…whatever, White Fish."

"Jeebus Almighty….," Cyborg uttered. "Irons, how did you ever finally whallop that big-mouthed tin can?"

_**TH-THWUMP!**_ "Ohhh….," Steel dusted off one of his titanium gloves "I'm guessing I was only doing a cleanup job, to be honest. I'm not the _real_ hero today….after all."

"You're not?" Tempest asked.

"Nope……," Steel smiled…stepped aside…and pointed with his sledge hammer. "These are……"

And that's when we walked up.

Jericho leading the crowd.

Then Changeling….haggard and still blood-stained from his left head down to his shirtless chest.

And Raven….draped against the elf in nothing but a tattered leotard…the wound in her chest closing and smooth…but still dark and questionable.

And I, supporting Raven's other shoulder. Sweating all over. My black shades sheen with the moisture of the red night.

Tempest's jaw dropped….

We Titans froze.

Jericho blinked. He smiled at sight of Cyborg, blinked at the sight of Tempest, and cringed at that of Catwoman.

Changeling—in the meantime—leaned forward. His dark green eyes narrowing. "Cy-Cy?"

And Cyborg said: "R-Raven!" He gasped and drifted forward a step or two.

_**ZZZT! ZZZ**__ZZzzztt!_ The electrical station he was wired to short-circuited with dramatic sparks. _POW!_ The technicians jumped back, gasping.

Raven's eyes—which had been closed this whole time—finally reopened. Thin…..violet orbs. Trained on Cyborg in a dreamlike state. Dazed….uncertain…

It summoned silence between us.

While Tempest's dropped jaw morphed into a grin. He glanced at everyone…seemingly amused, as if taking a third person seat to this Titan reunion.

Jericho blinked curiously….innocently at us all. As if expecting an explosive interchange to happen. Or something freakishly wonderful but indefinable.

Instead…Changeling broke the silence: "The real Cyborg?"

"YES, Beast Boy!" Cyborg hissed…suppressing a smile. He was trying to gaze at Raven…

"Changeling."

"Huh?"

"_**Changeling."**_

Tempest leaned forward. "Say what?"

The elf groaned.

I smirked.

And Cyborg was still gasping: "Oh my god….Beast Boy, what happened to you—RAVEN! What happened to **you**?"

Before any of us could explain…

A voice from above throated:

"_They survived."_

We all gazed up.

Changeling and Raven sharply gasped.

Jericho and I smirked.

Cyborg was silent….but Tempest had to exhale: "Zeus Damn….."

"……….," Robin stood above us on the rooftops of the Bayside Plaza. His cape fluttered yellow in the wind…as did his hair dance a black liveliness.

_Alive._

Lieutenant Smith stood alongside him. Both he and the Boy Wonder seemed out of breath….worn out.

But Robin was not at a loss to utter: "And if I survived…..and if you survived…." He dropped down. _Thwoooosh! Pl-Plant! _"…..then that's a pattern. A circle. And someone here in this City is trying to _break_ it."

"………………," the Titans all gazed at him.

Robin's eyemask narrowed. "It is high time we break a different circle before he gets a chance to."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger hobbled over and leaned weakly against the stairwell compartment atop the skyscraper.

He panted….panted….

Eyes thin.

The wakefulness was leaving his body, although his iciness refused to melt.

The blood wouldn't stop flowing.

He gulped.

He fingered with his one hand a pouch along his vest pockets.

With twitching eyes, he gazed up-close at a golden syringe. A peculiar…._**white**_ light shimmered inside.

"………….."

"_Snkkkt! Yo! Dagger! This is Fox! Damn, man! I told you that going balls-out into this City with Slade poking his crimson head around was a bad idea! Robin, the Army, the Justice League……they all followed the kinks in Triangular's armor that Deathstroke made! I can provide you a transport to get you out of there, man, but this battle is lost! I'm not as stupid as the rest of your sexless thugs……I'll dive into the Bay by myself if I have to and swim away from this Hellhole! Now are you gonna do the smart thing and join me?"_

"…………"

"_Dagger?"_

"………….."

"_Dagger, you still alive, man? Please say 'no'. Oh please…."_

"I'm here, F-Fox…."

"_NnnghhSKKT---ahem…rhmmmrm………Y-You A-OKAY, boss?"_

"……….Luthor has b-betrayed us….Fox….," Dagger said.

"_Yeah. No shit. That guy's simply crazy to bite the snake tail back! Don't you think?"_

"Silence yourself….but for a moment."

"………………"

Dagger twirled the golden glass syringe in his hand like it was a knife. He gazed off into the red night as the last of his own natural blood coursed through his vessels. "It's time that you…..paid Luthor's satellite one of your visits, Fox."

"……………_freakin' EXCUSE ME?………S-Sir?"_

Dagger took a harsh inhale.

"If this City cannot be mine in victory…..," his cold eyes narrowed further "Then it will be mine in ashes……with the dead bodies of both Slade and the Titans as my new monuments."

"_B-But Dagger……that's crazy-psycho! The b-b-blast wave of that ion cannon! It would wipe out not only the City……but the Bay and the surrounding Mountains and this whole god-damn valley along with it!"_

"I know."

"_And even if you survived, you'd have Luthor's wrath to deal with afterwards! He'd hunt Triangular down to the ends of the earth and expose it to the Army, the U.N., The Justice League!"_

"We're already exposed to the world, Fox. That was part of the plan."

"…………"

"Fox, you **will** program the satellite to fire. Or I will have one of my soldiers shoot you in the back of the head and hack your computer station in your place."

"…………_Snkkkt-I'm on it."_

"……….," Dagger slumped down….laying the communicator aside. He took a shuddering breath and nearly dropped the syringe from his fingers as well. "…..dissolve the Smoke…..shatter the Mirrors…."

And for a considerable period of time….the despot was mute.


	258. Break the Circle part 18

**258. Break the Circle part 18**

"_**Snkkkkkt-Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkttt…….hccck…….."**_

_Red streams._

_Cold night winds. _

_The City glowing._

_Burning._

_Waves of life and death._

_Entertwining._

_Spinning._

_Helixes._

_Silence………_

"_**Hckkk! Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clikkktt!"**_

_The pile of debris pulses red where she is seen. _

_A disturbance in the air._

_Her figure starts to stir from on top. _

_A crimson-strobing life breathes again._

_Lips pursing……gasping……_

_She winces and tries to sit up._

_  
__**"HCKKK!"**_

"_Nnngh……," she rolls over atop the debris _

_Her body is a fire of pulsing red._

_Her bruises and cuts shimmer the brightest of all._

_She crawls on all fours momentarily across the rubble._

_Panting._

_Wincing._

_Her red hair dances……and splashes out in trails of endless maroon._

_Merging with the collapsing air._

_The passionate convulsions of the universe._

_With her at the 'center'. "Nnngh……de X'Hal…….wh-where have my flying friends gone to?"_

"……_**.Snkkt…..Hckk-Clik-Clik-Clikkkttt……"**_

_**TH-THWOOOSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire huddled atop the mound of debris where she had landed in the Industrial District after the giant golem's destructive demise.

Her green eyes thinned as she hugged herself from a sudden bone-chilling freeze in the air.

December seemed to catch up to her in utter seconds…

Causing her red hairs to stand on end….

Her eyebrows to twitch frostily….

Her lips to quiver….

"Am I-I alone?" she murmured, gazing around.

The apaches were nowhere to be seen.

"………..Mrmmm….."

She held her breath and took off in a green glow.

As she levitated numerous meters above the rubble-strewn site……she paused.

"…………."

She glanced down.

Alien eyes squinting.

In her peripheral vision, she almost saw it. A darting shadow of_** RED**_. It stole her attention but for a minute…

A difficult thing to be done during a time of war.

But she let it fly….as she then let herself fly.

Sailing southward over the factory tops to check on the airwaves of the war.

……

……

…….

…….

"_**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkktt………"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Yo! Get some medics over here! NOW!" Cyborg shouted. He laid Raven down on a medical cot in the freshly erected MASH at Bayside Plaza. "I mean it, people! Step it up!"

Military nurses and physicians were rushing among the instruments and medical tools still being wheeled in.

"Get some anesthesia!"

"I'm on it!

Cyborg panted.

He gently adjusted how Raven's blue head and body lay on the cot. "Raven……Psst…Hey! Raven!" He leaned over, murmuring. "Stay with me, girl…."

"………," she shuddered. Her eyes closed. Breathing gently. "I…….f-feel……"

"Yes, Raven?"

"……….s-so useless…."

"None of that, you hear?" Cyborg panted. He swallowed and spoke with greater fervor: "Looks like BB went through hell making sure both you and him lived. I can't thank him enough for that. But I'll gladly toss him away and worship you from head to toe if you just_ pull yourself through this, Rae!_ That means in spirit as much as in body. Hell, you should know this, girl! **Meditate** with me! Let's hear those magic words you keep chanting—"

"I've been…..f-focusing ever since the Tower blew up…..," Raven coughed…sputtered….winced. "Ever….E-Ever since Deathstroke drove his sword th-through my s-soul self…."

The titanium Titan's fists clenched. "And Hagan…..?"

"…………snkkt….," Raven hissed…wincing. "I…..I-I failed in so many ways, Cyborg."

He clenched his teeth. He looked more hurt than angry. "Raven….please….."

"Everything….E-Everything I ever learned…..," she murmured. "All put to waste……."

Cyborg bit his lip. Sweating. He glanced over his shoulder and barked: "Where's the damn doc already?.!.?.!"

Raven shook….quivered…. "I figured out what happened to Noir….and I had an inclination towards Robin…..and Deathstroke…..but….I couldn't….I-I couldn't….."

"Raven….," Cyborg leaned over. He smiled. He cupped a hand around Raven's pale chin and cheek. "Please….don't blame yourself. Nothing's your fault…..do you hear me, cutie?"

_Cutie………_

"………," her eyes widened at the word. She gazed at Cyborg. Fixedly. Almost a horrified look. Like a lame, bleeding bird caught in the headlights. Something akin to the red-bathed soul-self that quivered when the sword drove through her hours before. Violet saucers fixated on the android Titan….and slowly they softened. The corners flexing over and caving in. Like tongue muscle to a bitter poison. Moisture formed at the corner of the dark sorceress' optics…and faded away as if melted by a returning fury of cold fire. Raven breathed slower….slower….and resolved herself to silence as her eyelids closed tight and clenched the last of the newborn tears away. The petite teenager looked as if she was being shot in the belly with a magnum in slow motion. She 'lurched' inward like an earthworming mummy, let loose a wheezing sigh…quivered….and turned her head away from Cyborg.

Cyborg's butchered heart fell deep. The organic streams inside his plastic vessels froze and he dropped his jaw as he gazed at her from aside. "R-Raven?"

"………."

"R-Rae….Cutie…."

She only cringed all the more.

Cyborg choked back something. Something he was afraid to release…but did so anyways. "What happened, Raven?"

"……………."

"….Wh-What am I missing here?"

"…………," she weakly hugged herself. Eyes clenched painfully shut. She sighed….

He himself was nearly at the breaking point. "What did…..," his teeth gritted. "What did that son of a bitch do while he was 'me'?"

"P-Please….Cyborg…….," Raven whispered. "I need to be alone."

He started. "Raven--!"

"I need to heal….."

"……………………'

Cyborg stepped back.

Cyborg stepped back….and….

The medics drew in.

Surrounding Raven.

Touching her.

Pricking her.

Needles and tubes sticking in…..

Drowning her….

And he shuddered….

Mere meters apart as they were, she never before looked more distant than she appeared right then and there.

He spun around and left the MASH before he could be struck with the urge to collapse.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I was standing with the 'group'.

At the sound of titanium footsteps, I looked over from where I leaned on Myrkblade.

I mouthed: _'How is Raven?'_

Cyborg ignored me. "B.B. When did you last see Clayface?"

But Changeling ignored _**him.**_ this by me one more time…."

On the side of the Plaza, Robin stood. Tempest, Jericho, and I formed a crescent around him. Catwoman and Steel stood off in the sidelines. Lieutenant Smith in the distance was speaking to his five fellow officers who had finally arrived on motorcycles minutes before. Around us, Calvin's army was reforming and creating a solid line to rush down the westward streets.

Changeling was pacing back and forth between us. As soon as the MASH was set up, concerned medics urged him to receive treatment….a bandage…..anything—for his ear. But he refused them with a gruffy growl. So now he shuffled before all of us he with a caked brown splotch of blood stretching dryly over his brow, neck, and upper chest in some hideous organic paint job that complemented his hardened face and frown.

"You didn't die in that blast….as a matter of fact, the Messenger saved you…," Changeling swiveled to a stop and jabbed a pointing finger at Robin. "And you've been alive all this time…"

Robin nodded. "Exactly."

"And just what have you been doing all this time?"

I glanced aside at Robin with my black eyes. "……."

The Boy Wonder took a breath and said as firmly as ever the Titan Leader spoke: "I was back with Batman in Gotham City. I was hiding as my alternate identity while we hunted down Deathstroke and figured out where he'd strike next."

"Wait a second….Dude, you hid?" Beast Boy's eyes twitched. "That ain't like you!"

"A lot of things as late haven't been…..like me," Robin sharply replied. His arms weren't folded. The fingers inside his gloves weren't clenched whatsoever. Instead his limbs hung limply….defenseless by his side as he gazed beyond Changeling's feet and said: "The Messenger was behind many of the earlier decisions. I…..I-I figured that after he pretty much had his prophecies about Dagger and the City confirmed in blood….I would be wise to pay heed to him. And….A-And Batman and the rest of the troupe agreed."

"But dude, you hid?"

"Deathstroke wasn't concerned with the Titans!" Robin replied, frowning. "He wanted me! He still does! At the time, he thought I was dead. And he was going after Terra and Noir next. But the Messenger—through Glover—got Noir to head west and go after Terra. While she was being rescued, Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl and I got a head start and began trailing both Triangular and Red Aviary! Don't you see, Beast Boy? I had to maintain the secret of my being alive! I had to pull the wool over Slade's cowl!"

"Well he may not have been all of us then," Changeling pointed with a frown. "But he sure as heck is after us now!"

"And I'm sorry about that, Beast Boy! Noir, Jericho, and I came as fast as we could—"

"Not friggin' fast enough, dude!" Changeling marched forward, hissing. "Deathstroke skewered Raven like a hot dog! He nearly killed me…and now Starfire's still missing! Does that sound like a good leader's plan to you?"

Robin recoiled at that. He immediately snarled back…but there was a definite squeaking echo to the breath in his voice. Something weak…worried……and fragile.

I maintained my cool in spite of this heated exchange. I took a deep breath and gazed blackly at the elf and the Boy Wonder.

This isn't the same Titan Leader everyone thinks they know.

"Don't dictate to me who is or who isn't in danger, Beast Boy….," Robin growled. His voice rose as he added: "Batman was nearly killed. Batgirl was paralyzed. And Noir and I nearly lost our heads as we battled Slade in the haze of Gotham City. We risked life and limb to uncover the most secret of secrets that pointed to this hellish night long before it happened. And if I had 'come back from the dead' much earlier than that—trust me—everyone of us would be dead! Starting with TERRA!"

"Don't you SAY THAT ABOUT HER--!"

Cyborg shoved a seething, heaving Changeling aside with a brush of his titanium hand. Frowning, he glared at everyone and then said: "We have no frickin' time to waste arguing amongst ourselves. Now…where in the Hell is Clayface? Someone answer me--"

"Clayface's melted pudding by now for all I care…," the elf hissed and shoved Cyborg's arm off him. He clenched his fists and frowned. "After what he did to me….after what he did to Raven! He can burn for all I care!"

He isn't the same Beast Boy either.

Cyborg yelled in Changeling's face: "And how do you think I feel about it, little man?.!.? Shit on you! Raven's a broken heap of shattered emotion in that tent over there because I wasn't there for her! Just what the Hell were you doing all this time that mud-ass poser was walking around in my shoes!"

"Hey!" Changeling suddenly roared in a wave of animalistic fury. "If Raven couldn't sense her with all her empathy and crap, how the hell could I, dude?"

Cyborg all but strangled him. "Bite your tongue, you little shit!"

"Bite your own tongue, Cyborg!" Changeling shouted back. His eyes flickered into a panther's and back. As he frowned and hissed at Cyborg and Robin interchangeably, canine fangs spliced in and out of existence. "None of you were here! Do you hear me?"

Cyborg fumed.

Robin shuddered.

"None of you were frickin' here! None of you were crying! None of you were having to rebuild this raped City of ours! For all I care, you guys ain't even Titans anymore! I see a bunch of posers standing in front of me! Good luck getting called heroes from here on out, you yellow-bellied turncoats!"

"Garfield…," Tempest sighed from the sidelines. "Robin has had good reasons. And Cyborg was in cryo-freezing against his will."

"I don't give a damn about excuses, Gar! Besides, you were gone too! You're as bad as the rest of 'em!"

I gazed down to my side.

Jericho was shivering.

He didn't look scared.

Just…..

Sad.

Everything was so damn sad.

Tempest: "I nearly got my skull smashed in by Metallo on two occasions helping Noir and the Justice League—"

Changeling: "I said NO MORE EXCUSES! You know why this City's burning to crap? It's because none of you were here to protect it! Like you SWORE TOO!"

I looked up from Jericho.

I swallowed.

Silently….gently….I walked over and placed a hand on Changeling's shoulder.

But Beast Boy was dead. He hissed and shoved my arm off fiercely. "You too, Noir!"

"…….," I stared at him.

He hyperventilated. He pointed at me: "If you really did save Terra, then why isn't she here? Why couldn't you bring her back where she'd be loved finally? Did you just abandon her like so many other creeps who used poor Terra?"

"Beast Boy….please….," Robin uttered. Not very strongly. His lips were quivering and I was wondering if his legs were finally about to give out from under him. "…you're not thinking. Be silent for a second—"

"Make me, Robin!" Changeling shouted and stomped towards him. "Huh? MAKE ME! You're the Titan Leader! You can do that! Or at least you used to! But look at you! You aren't the Boy Wonder! Not anymore!"

"B-Beast Boy…."

"What? Are you gonna cry, man? Go on! Join the crowd! About damn time, you cowardly piece of crap!"

"You do not understand…."

"Understand this!" Changeling hissed and swung his fist—

WHAP!

Jericho and I both winced.

Th-Thwump! Robin fell on his back against a bench. A red welt on his cheek.

"Nnnngh!" Changeling leapt down at him.

Robin flinched…..

…..but to his surprise, Beast Boy wasn't pummeling him. The changeling was slumped down to his knees, his arms tightly around Robin's torso, his bloody face buried in the Boy Wonder's shoulder.

Changeling was sobbing.

Robin breathed heavily….his jaw agape…..calming down….

Cyborg, Tempest, and I gently watched as Changeling sniffed and hiccupped and murmured aside: "I hate this….I-I h-h-hate all of this…..no more deaths, Robin…..please….n-no more deaths……"

Robin took a deep breath. He swallowed…and nervously reached a hand over to gently press into Changeling's shoulder. "To save the team is what I came here for, Beast Boy. The City—sure—but I never….ever stopped thinking about you guys. Not for a second. If only y-you knew the nights I anguished and all but tore myself apart with having to be away. With having to play the charade…to keep Deathstroke from starting his unstoppable severing of our family…."

"Shut up….just sh-shut up…..," Changeling muttered. His tears damped Robin's cape. "…..don't die again, Robin. If y-you're alive…th-then that means Terra is alive too….r-r-right?"

"…………"

"Why can't we just get all of us together again? Wh-What's so fr-frickin' hard about that? I feel like everyone's dead…..m-maybe Red Aviary has g-gotten us already…."

Silence.

I gazed up.

I gazed over.

Cyborg was glaring off towards the glowing cityscape. His titanium fists were clenched.

I reached a black hand over and tapped his shoulder.

He looked at me.

I hand-signed.

He 'read' me. He said: "Y-Yeah….I'm sorry, Jordan. I really should have answered you earlier." He rubbed the human part of his head. "Raven…..was at the worst phase in her life for Clayface and Dagger to have pulled the old 'switcheroo' on her. She and I….we drew so close, Jordan. And we—well…..I loved it. I felt so…so very blessed and honored to be so close to someone like Raven."

I slowly nodded. Gazing silently….

He sighed. "As long as I was there….we figured…..Raven didn't have to be so dog-gone hardcore about her motions. I wanted to….protect her. I wanted to protect her from all the silly little fears that burned at her all her life. But now………….sh-she's really, really been hurt, Jordan. And….I wasn't there to protect her. I wasn't there to save her when all her 'silly little' fears came true."

I bit my lip.

He shut his human eye and 'deflated'……

"…………I let her down…..and I didn't even have to be there to do it. Now I may never….n-never feel that blessing quite the same way again. But what's even worse…," his eye reopened and it had a sad tone to it. Like the blue aftersigh of a melting computer program. Digital gravestone granite. "…..I see her in that medical tent……like she's alone in some godawful sea. And…..she's been there before. Raven has been drowning all alone before. She's survived. She's strong. She knows how to live life that gloomy and that hopeless and that gothic. But……I-I can't for the life of me imagine her being alone again. I feel…..I-I feel like she wouldn't tread water safely without me." A beat. He choked something back and said hoarsely……a broken voice I never quite heard from him before. Even when his Uncle turned permanently into a construct off the shores of Anderson's yacht. "…….and I-I don't know if I can ever fix that, Jordan…."

Silence.

I was only half-surprised that my throat wasn't sore.

In fact, my eyes were completely dry.

The distant drone of warfare turned into the ambient rush of waves off a Virginia boardwalk as I gazed towards the MASH tent, the Atlantic horizon of fate beyond, and exhaled.

_The only person who can fix Raven is Raven herself, Victor._

Tempest stood up nervously from where he had been hunched over. He gazed at Changeling—who was still crying over Robin's shoulder (quieter now)—then looked my and Cyborg's way. "I hate to be an angst-buzz-kill…..but there's still….uhm….a surface dweller City burning around us to save. And they may be hot ass-kickers and stuff….but the Justice League can't do all of the crap on their own."

"Damn straight…," Cyborg punched his palm. Suddenly, dissociatively returning to kick-ass mode. "There's a job that needs handling……and subsequently unleashing a can of sonic whoopass on."

"Can you be a little less poetic for once?" Tempest groaned. He glanced my way….then looked at the short Jericho to my side. "And just who's the seakelp larva here?"

"That's 'J', man," Cyborg said. "Jericho…Joey….a boy of many names."

"Ah….," Tempest managed a smirk. "I see."

"………and he's Slade's son."

Tempest's white-on-black eyes widened some.

Jericho sheepishly simpered.

I bit my lip. I coughed and hand-signed.

Cyborg interpreted: "He's as harmless as a dove, flipper."

"I find that hard to believe," the Atlantean said, nervously scratching his head of long black hair. "Nobody above ground in this burning City can possibly be innocent at this point."

As Tempest said this, both Jericho and I found ourselves gazing in one direction.

At Robin.

The Boy Wonder on the ground held the shaking form of Changeling against him. He was looking back at us at the same time. With a knowing inhale, he shifted where he sat and gently pried the wounded elf off him. He held his gloved hands on Changeling's shoulders and gazed straight at him. "Beast Boy…..," his eyemask thinned. "Garfield…….where is Starfire?"

"……snff….grff……," Garfield shook. He dried his wet cheek with the back of his hand and tremblingly avoided the Boy Wonder's gaze. "…..sh-she….went out…..b-before the battle began."

"She went out?"

"The last time I remember….I saw her from the Tower while it was still standing. She was with a copy of me. But it wasn't Clayface. It was Metallo. M-Metallo with a hologram field posing as me."

Robin's eyemask widened. His lips hung numbly open…

"I-I was going to go out to get her, Robin….," Changeling murmured. He sniffed….twitched…then said: "B-But as soon as I made a move, the Tower's defenses went berserk. I was shut inside our very own home." A beat. He looked up apologetically at Cyborg. "C-Courtesy of Simon Stone."

The android Titan's metal muscles tensed. "Damn you, old man….."

"Simon St-Stone has been under Dagger's computer influence from the get-go. He hacked the computer to kill me with its own defense systems. I managed to survive long enough to battle Clayface and to experience a brush with Slade……all of which kept me from possibly going out to….h-help Starfire….."

"…………..," Robin was silent.

"I-I don't know where she is, Robin….," Changeling shuddered. "N-None of us do…."

The Boy Wonder bolted up to his feet. He took a deep breath. Glaring, he spun around and proceeded to march in the direction of the smoking heap of metal that was once John Corbin--

Steel stood in his way right as he bolted into the conversation. "He's not going to speak, Robin. Not a word."

"He's going to have to….," the Boy Wonder's hardcore voice spoke icily. "….even if I have to torture whatever soul's inside of that shell of a bastard to get him to talk."

Robin made to circle around Steel.

Steel held a titanium glove against Robin's chest. He leaned forward and emphasized: "He won't talk….Robin. Not now. Not anytime soon." He gestured towards his scuffed / scorched hammer. "I made pretty damn sure that he wouldn't. Cuz then he might be smashing up more buildings and calling in airstrikes from Dagger. The League and I can't have that happen. Not to your City."

Tempest walked up besides Robin and shrugged: "Hey…maybe the reason why Metallo was so beat-up when the League got here is because Starfire gave him the thrashing of his life!"

"………………..," Robin said.

"Hey!" Tempest frowned and jabbed a finger into the Titan Leader's chest. "Starfire's not a mangy sea otter. She's a freakin' killer whale. All the time we've worked with the Titans, I've jokingly placed bets with Cyborg over how many bones in your silly body she could break with one punch. If anyone can handle Metallo, it's her." He leaned forward and said close to Robin's face. "You need to stop worrying and put your mind on other things. Like how the Heck we're gonna press the attack now!"

Robin sneered and shoved the Atlantean back. "You think I don't know that, Garth?" Then in a lower, determined mutter: "But I gotta go find her anyway."

I realized that Robin was staring at Beast Boy.

And Beast Boy was kneeling on the floor of the courtyard. Still shaking back the sobs. His dark green eyes hung wide and low to the solid concrete beneath him. His arms dangled by his sides…but seemed bent as if to hug someone….anyone. But all of us knew it wasn't Robin that floated before his dazed, weathered vision.

_This City is ripping us all apart._

_Raven……Cyborg……Starfire……Robin……Beast Boy……Terra……_

_Am I the only one not suffering so, Ana?_

I took a deep breath.

I glanced over.

Jericho stood anxiously, craning his neck to look over the heads and vehicles of the reforming Army. Attempting to spy the horned crowns of his Wildebeest counterparts.

"…………….," I stared.

VRMMMMMM!

We all looked over.

A jeep drove up swiftly. It was one that had seen lots of battle—undoubtedly bolting its way straight through the madness of Main Street. Scorch marks and scrapes spotted the government-issued metal in numerous places. One soldier was wounded. Another was treating him. The driver parked the vehicle, jumped out, and breathlessly ran up towards us.

"T-Titans!" she saluted.

Robin and Cyborg exchanged long-distance glances. They gazed back at her.

"Yes?"

"What is it?"

She glanced momentarily at Robin, paused, then said to all of us: "We just got word. Phaser Labs is in lockdown."

"Huh?" Tempest blinked.

"It has a defense system set up! One of our convoys was attacked."

Robin looked over at Cyborg. "It's your uncle. Dagger must have gotten to him again now that the battle's going our way."

But she had something else to add: "There's also a report of a muddy shape-shifter entering the building before the shielded plates slid up."

"Nnnnnngh…," Cyborg punched his palm and snarled. "There's our asshole…."

Lieutenant Smith and his officers walked up. "What's the news?"

"Phaser Labs is in lockdown," Robin said. "Undoubtedly Dagger's forces have got something valuable there."

"Damn straight….an over-inflated slop of dead-ass!" Cyborg growled. He turned to the forming line of forces. "We gotta get some tanks over there or something and—!"

Steel waved his sledgehammer. "Uh uh…..that's not gonna work."

"Why the Hell not?"

"Calvin's got all of his forces solely bent on this two-frontal attack. He's not going to set aside any units during his most important move to take out Dagger yet!"

"Correction, sir…," the soldier remarked. "The General has given up one vehicle."

Cyborg blinked. "Lemme guess. Yours."

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Well I know where I'm going now…," Cyborg said….already marching over to the jeep. As soon as he got to the vehicle, he glanced at Robin. "Right?"

Robin smiled. He nodded firmly. "'Right'."

"………..," Cyborg was silent. But as icy-still as he was, his flickering red eye said 'thank you'.

The wounded soldier and his assistant were ushered out of the back of the jeep by medics from the MASH. In the meantime, Lieutenant Smith walked over and stood one foot into the back of the jeep. "No use letting you go alone, Cyborg." He pointed at the officers behind them, clutching their motorcycles. They all nodded as he said: "The Army may not be able to spare a bunch of soldiers….but my men and I will be your entourage if necessary."

"Sounds sweet, Smith."

The messenger soldier hopped into the passenger seat. "There's very little time. We must go before the two fronts push towards Downtown at full force. No need to drive through a rain of fire."

"Well put…," Cyborg waved as Smith got into the jeep and the other officers took to their motorcycles. "Robin…..keep alive while I'm gone, you hear?"

"That I will."

"I'll give you word of mouth the soonest I hear or see a thing of Starfire! Got it!"

"Yes. And Victor?"

Cyborg started the ignition….paused…..and turned to look at Robin. "Yeah, Tim?"

Tempest and Changeling did double-takes.

Robin, unphased, nodded his head and said: "Good luck…..with your Uncle."

"……..thanks. Really, dawg."

"Do what you know is right."

"I always flippin' do."

VRMMMMM!

SCREEEEE-EEEECH!

The jeep zoomed off north of the Bayside Plaza. The five police officers swarmed around them on their motorcycles. They sped off into the red night.

Robin took a deep breath.

Tempest scratched his head.

Changeling looked up, eyes thin. "'Tim'?"

"Yup…."

"……….as in 'Tiny – Ti—'?"

"You got it….Beast Boy…," Robin snarled.

Jericho giggled.

I smirked.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

VRMMMMMM-MMMMM!

Cyborg sped the jeep north along the City avenues with Smith's officers flanking him on motorcycles.

The streets were empty—save for a mound of rubble and burning ash here or there. The bodies of terrorists, Wildebeests, and once-burning golems lined an intersection or two.

Cyborg took a deep breath.

With a swivel of his metal head, he glanced sideways towards Main Street…where the battle had compacted around the efforts of Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman.

"Where we'd be without the League….I truly don't know…."

"Something tells me that the Titans would do the same for them if Metropolis fell under again!" Smith said.

Cyborg smirked. "Then again….something tells me that one of the Titans already did."

"………….?"

"How long till Calvin rushes in on Dagger's behind…again?"

"Any time now…," uttered the soldier riding shotgun.

Cyborg's face hardened. "Well alright…."

He gunned it.

SCREEECH!-VRMMMM!

The convoy hurtled itself northward to make a westward bend…and land at Phaser Labs.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOSH-SMASH! Superman's fist plowed into a five-story giant.

CRKKKKK!

The huge rock-beast stumbled back, flailed its limbs, and stormed again towards Superman with a charging crown of fire.

WH-WHAM!

"Ughhh!" Superman flew back and smashed—limbs spread—against a building face. CRNNNCHH!

The monster raised a 'fist' of molten rock, rumbled, and flew it straight at the Kryptonian's wincing body.

SW-SWOOOSH! Wonder Woman hovered up in front of Superman, brought both hands together, and smashed directly against the oncoming fist. "RAAAAUGH!"

CRAAA-AAAA-AAACK!

The length of the plunging limb shattered. The monster spun from its empty blow.

Green Lantern hovered up from behind and roped a sturdy strand of green light around the torso of the giant with his ring.

_CRKKKK!_ The beast writhed and struggled in its holding.

Superman kicked off the building and flew at the creep. Wonder Woman soared in too.

"Nnnnghh!"

"HAAAAH!"

SM-SMASSSSH!

The beast shattered into a dozen huge chunks of flaming rock that fell down, smashed across the street, and crushed over twenty fleeing golems beneath it.

SLAMMMM!.!.!.!.! 

Green Lantern retracted his emerald power. He panted from where he hovered…then glanced at the other two heroes. "Well…think he'll give us his lunch money now?"

"All of the outlying streets to the Downtown area has been cleared…," Wonder Woman reported. She was sweating. Heaving. "All that's left is a squadron or two of HINDs still in operation."

"Damn….," Green Lantern shook his head. "I tell you….that terrorist's pack of vultures just won't quit!"

"Well they'll have to," Superman said. "It's hard to believe that just a last-minute intervention on behalf of the League was enough to stop Dagger."

"Don't tell me you're having doubts…," Green Lantern moaned. "That's the Bat's job!"

"What's happening here in the Titan's City is big….bigger than us," Superman said. He glanced at Wonder Woman. "I don't think everything's over. Not yet."

Wonder Woman's eyes were hard set. "We'll be on the lookout then."

Green Lantern looked at his watch. "Time's almost up. Let's move our people out to the perimeter! Green Arrow and Black Canary are here. Along with a few others."

"Let's move!" Superman motioned.

All three zoomed off in separate directions over the battle-strewn streets.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On a hovercraft.

Hidden in the dark Bay.

In the ship's cabin.

Fox typed….typed…typed….pounding away at the keyboard.

He tweaked three computers at once, his hands expertly flying.

Two guards watched him warily from behind.

The young man whistled…finished a keystroke…and took a deep breath before reaching for his communicator. "All right, Dagger. All set. I have access to Luthor's satellite cannon and can……..(gulp)……make any strike you deem worthy. But be warned….it'll only be one strike."

"…………"

"Uhh…..Mr. Dagger? Yoo-hoo. You dead yet?"

"Well done, Fox. Hrghh……n-now………we need to distract the League and the Titans before they or the Army have any time to detect the Ion charge. Now would be a good time to launch our payload."

Fox shuddered. "B-But….uhm…..could we……I dunno….put the City on ransom? I mean…this place has got it all! Pizza…uhm……..a big-ass prison……..Pizza…….I-I'm sure there're babes hidden in the subway and all—"

"You have your order, Fox. Launch the payload……and when I give the command, we shall set off the ion cannon."

"Well….don't you want an airlift or somethi--?"

"Follow through with my words, Fox."

Cl-Clak! A gun pointed into the back of Fox's skull.

He flinched…..sighed….and nodded to the air. "Understood, Mr. Dark stuff. Launching the payload. Fox down and OUT."

Click!

"Arrrrgh….Mohammed on High….," William B. Fox murmured and finished a deathly keystroke. Red lights flickered on all the monitors.

A beat.

He smiled plasticly. He turned and gazed at the guards. "Could we—like—I dunno……move our boat a few hundred miles from here between now and the next thirty minutes?"

"Be quiet."

"Do what the boss says."

"Jeebus! Don't you yahoos have any souls? For the love of Chef Boyardee!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Bay.

Over the dark waves.

Bodies of water-crashing metal solidified.

A dozen hovercraft uncloaked in falling curtains of flickering light.

The red hue of the night was momentarily broken as the boats purred to life and—

CL-CLAKKK!

Metal bay doors in the decks of the ships opened loudly.

**WHURRRRRRR-CLANK!**

**WHURRRR-CLANK!**

**WHURRRRR-CL-CLANK!**

Four missiles per hovercraft popped up, pivoted, and aimed towards the City along the northern shore of the Bay.

The weapons started to steam….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Bayside Plaza, the last of the Army's backup soldiers were running to take up the rear of the Eastern Advance.

Orders were shouted.

Radios squabbled.

And—as Jericho and I watched—the jeeps and tanks hummed to life and coasted in menacing slowness down the streets towards the center of the war-torn City.

A squadron of apaches roared overhead in accompaniment.

"Guess that does it for the forces of Dagger…." Tempest said.

"Hardly," Robin uttered. He clenched his fists and frowned. "Even if it is a victory, those golems are going to be the ones wreaking havoc long before this conflict is over. Many soldiers may die."

"Unless we jump in and do something, right?" Changeling said. "We're together. It's about time we started kicking major butt, dude."

"Beast Boy….," Robin pointed. "You should be in the tent recuperating along with Raven. The two of you have suffered too many injuries to go back into that mess now."

"Okay…first thing's first…," Beast Boy frowned and pointed at himself. "It's Changeling now. And—come on, Robin! The City needs me as much as it needs you! Sorry if that bruises your ego or something….Tim!"

"Bea—ernngh—Changeling! Your freakin' ear is missing!"

"I could have lost much worse, man….," the elf said. A sigh. His eyes shut momentarily. "I still can….."

"………….."

"Robin….."

The Boy Wonder looked over.

Tempest was staring at him. "When Clayface was playing as our 'leader', he refused to let us do the normal duties of a Titan…..because he thought we weren't ready for it…or that we were too fragile." The Atlantean narrowed his dark eyes with emphasis. "Don't be like him….."

Robin took a deep breath. He ran a gloved hand through his black bangs and glanced my way.

I stared at him. I hand-signed: 'You are human, Robin. You cannot fight by yourself forever. You know this now, right?'

"…….…….," he smiled. "Changeling?"

The green elf looked over.

Robin winked at him under his eyemask. "Better not start passing out on us anytime soon."

Changeling smiled gently and gave a thumb's up. "Got it, dude."

Robin pulled out a grappling hook and turned to vault himself up—

"And Robin?"

The Boy Wonder turned to look at the elf again.

Changeling simpered: "I-I am sorry about earlier. It's really…..r-really cool having you alive and stuff."

"Let's live to say that to each other after the night's end, Garfield. All of us."

"Heh….sure thing…."

"Let's just get going already….Neptune Almighty…," Tempest rolled his white on black eyes.

Steel walked up from watching the army depart. "Are we moving out?"

"Damn straight," Robin said.

"Good," Irons nodded his helmeted head and turned to motion to: "Okay, Miss. Kyle. Let's get go---the Hell?"

"Hmmm?"

"Catwoman's gone!"

"Yeah," Robin nodded. "She'll do that."

"I noticed her glaring somewhat at Noir the whole time….," Changeling said.

I bit my lip.

"War time," Robin grumbled.

"Erhm….r-right, dude."

"Titans!" P-POW! Clank! "Go!" SWOOOOOSSSSH!

Beast Boy leapt, morphed into an albatross in mid-air, and glided up after the Boy Wonder.

Tempest summoned water from a nearby fountain, produced a large snaking 'tentacle' of liquid and rode it to the nearby rooftop where he jumped and ran freely westward.

Steel flew off on the Prototype's boot rockets.

I was about to blur into action when--

A tug on my camouflage jacket.

I turned and looked behind me.

Jericho bit his lip and hand-signed: 'Take me with you.'

"……….."

He added, as if he knew that he had to convince me: 'I at least need to check on the Wildebeests. Many of my dear friends have fallen today.'

I took a deep breath….for that was true.

I hate to do it, Ana……

I brushed aside a few black bangs and looked westward towards where the Downtown glowed with fire and chaos.

The Justice League.

The Titans.

The golems and Dagger's forces.

Giants and explosives.

The Crunch.

But……

This is his war too.

I looked back at him.

The little brother to be.

He's better off with me than here with a bunch of soldiers………and possibly his father in waiting.

Anywhere.

Anywhere where I am not……

I gave him a smile, motioned towards my shades, and gestured: 'Better hitch a ride.'

He nodded with a childish smirk….a smile that fought back the sorrow and anxiety of this whole Hell.

He leaned forward, widened his green eyes, and—

CONTACT.

FLASH!

I took a deep breath….alone.

_No, not alone._

_Just……careful._

**CHIIIING!**

Th-THWISH!

I twirled Myrkblade and streaked westward over the buildingtops, soaring after Robin and the other Titans.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

TWNNGG-TWNNGG!

Green Arrow slid down a granite seam of the St. Faustina Cathedral.

In mid-drift, he let loose two arrows that exploded against the feet of a group of fleeing, terrorist gunmen….slamming them up against a wall opposite the Cathedral.

Green Arrow reached the end of the gothic building ledge. He flipped off and landed in the Downtown street with a grunt.

Cl-Clak!

Clak!

He spun and looked over his shoulder.

Three men behind him aimed pistols at his back….glaring.

Green Arrow raised an eyebrow above his mask.

From above….a whistle.

The men did a double-take and glanced upward.

"Watch the birdie!"

TH-THWOOSSSH! Black Canary sailed down with her fishnet-stockinged legs twirling and slamming feet straight into the faces of the hapless terrorists.

WH-WHAM!

The blonde vixen landed before one last thug who stood trembling with his gun.

"Hi-YAAA!" she twirled with a leg stretched outward.

CL-CLANK!

His pistol was knock free of his hands.

He gasped and sweated….staring bug-eyed at her.

She stood up straight…tossed her hair…and planted a hand on her hip before smiling slyly at the thug. "Hrmmmmmm….." A beat. She jerked towards him--!

He gasped and jumped back—WHAM!—slamming his skull back into the cathedral's front wall. "Ughhh…."

Black Canary blew a kiss.

"Always a knockout…," Green Arrow murmured and launched more arrows at a distant throng of gunmen fleeing from Calvin's advances. TWNGG! TW-TWNNG!

Black Canary spun and smirked at him. "What? Jealous?"

"Of a socially impotent underling of some mafia creep called Dagger? Hardly, babe."

"I could make you jealous…."

"Do it and die."

"Is that a threat, Ollie?"

"No….," Green Arrow pointed at a sudden wave of marching golems. "That is!"

The two heroes gazed at the oncoming throng of burning monsters.

"Guess Calvin's meatheads didn't get around to them….," Black Canary frowned.

"We're in the center of the Crunch, sweetheart…," Green Arrow loaded a new bundle of arrows. "Pretty soon we'll be back to back with the Justice League against these creeps."

"And what about now?" Black Canary uttered as the two slowly backed up away from the line of golems. "Two against twenty monstrosities? Not my kind of turn-on."

"I'm working on it…..," Green Arrow muttered.

Th-THWOOSH! Catwoman suddenly leapt down and crouched nimbly before the two. "All work and no play…..feh!" SWOOOSH! Catwoman ran straight at the creatures, whip slapping. WH-WHPPP!

The golems stumbled in surprise.

Catwoman snagged her whip around the limb of one, pulled with all her might—"Nnnnghh!"—and forced it to stumble into two of its comrades so that they fell in ashen gold clouds of debris in the street.

TH-THUDDD!

Catwoman then cartwheeled sideways, leapt over a burning punch from one of the golems, flipped in the air, and landed nimbly so that she lashed her whip out—THWPP!—caught the ankle of another golem, and yanked it off its feet. "Raaaugh!"

THWOMP!

"………………….."

"………………….."

Black Canary and Green Arrow were both staring.

That is….until Black Canary stopped staring, blinked, and glanced over at Green Arrow….

…..who was still staring.

The blonde frowned and planted her hands against her hips. "And just what are you looking at?" She elbowed him.

Th-Thap!

"Ow!" he side-lurched, rubbing his ribcage. "I'm not entirely too sure, to tell you the truth!"

"Rrrghh….," Black Canary ran madly towards the line of golems. "Everybody's gotta hog the damn spotlight…"

Green Arrow scratched his blonde beard, sighed, and pulled out two arrows as he rushed towards the fight that the maidens were advancing. "Why she wasn't jealous at first sight of one of those crud beasts too, I'll never know…."

As the three vigilantes took on the supernatural phalanx—

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!_

The Flash surged on through.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!_

He streaked up a buildingside in a red-orange blur.

Landing atop a roof, he braked and cupped his gloved hands over his masked eyes….staring out onto the Downtown Cityscape.

The soaring bodies of Wonder Woman, Superman, and Green Lantern were soon joined by the silver flare of Steel. Soon, the four heroic Heavyweights were teaming up on the last remaining golem giants…thrashing their four-story…..five-story bodies with merciless opposition. A haze of gold shimmered beneath them in the streets of Downtown, signifying the thick retreat of golems to the center and the rest of Dagger's forces in between. With a loud whurr of machinery and tank treads and wheels….Calvin's army thickly coasted in from the West and East sides. The sea glittered a reflection of the red night sky in the distance….and everything about the burning, tormented City finally appeared to be cyclonically shrinking into the central Crunch.

"About damn time….," Flash smiled and cracked his fingers and stretched his spine. "Nnnngh…..Maybe we can all get pepperoni after this---" His speech was cut short. For he was blinking….and then soon he was squinting as he leaned forward and gazed across the open waves. "Th-The Hell?" His eyeslits narrowed. Confused. Concerned.

Dots lined the waves.

Hovercraft.

Dagger's second-to-last arsenal.

Rows upon rows of missiles aimed from the uncloaked ships to the urban cityscape.

Flash gasped….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fwoooosh!

Starfire soared over the City.

She approached the Downtown center.

Her emerald eyes widened as she saw the Crunch.

Superman and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and Steel thrashing enemies.

And on either side, the armies advancing.

And beyond…..

The Tamaranian's mouth dropped as she too saw what the Flash had seen.

"X'Hal…….m'brill yee-akku……."

A beat.

Her teeth grit.

Her eyes strobed a hot green as her body bolted hotly into action.

"Salad'm chlorkak minnultite de DAGGER!" SWOOOOSSSH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Steel panted, swinging his sledgehammer in mid-air.

"You know…this ain't so bad!"

THWACK! A golem giant was sent lumbering back.

Steel hovered, swinging.

"Not bad at all!" CLANK! "….for a white man's party!"

FL-FLASSSH!

Green Lantern streaked by, dragging a building facing. "Hey….speak for yourself, Tin Man."

"……oh right. Sorry."

"NNNRGHHH!" Superman was using a streetlamp as a battering ram against a giant golem's crown. SMASSSH! He breathed heavily. "Keep it up, League! Just a few more minutes and Calvin's forces will be all over this crowd!"

"And what of the Titans?" Wonder Woman panted as she swung a golem—via lasso—smashing into jeeps and hummers and other Daggerite vehicles at the length of her cord. SMASH! CRASSH! "Have they all been found?"

"We gotta worry about one thing at a time!" Green Lantern said, tossing the building face at a crowd of rock monsters. THWOOOSH!

"Don't worry, Princess!" Steel flew by, swinging his sledgehammer into a giant's torso. CRUNNCH! "I already met a whole bunch of them! All the boys, in fact!"

"Yes….," Wonder Woman panted. "But what about--?"

THWOOOOOSSSH!

The Amazonian gasped and looked directly upward after a hot green streek. "Starfire!"

Superman's jaw dropped and he spun to look—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnnnrghhh!" Starfire growled loudly as she hurtled her alien self towards the line of hovercraft dotting the ocean.

Her red hair kicked in the wind.

Her amber skin turned sheen with sweat and the cold redness descending all around.

FWOOOOOSSSH!

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Bleeding atop a skyscraper.

High above the Crunch.

Dagger meditated….reserved his strength…..held his breath….

And then released it all for one firm utterance.

"Fire."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**WHURRRRR!**

**WHURRRRR!**

**WHURRRRR-CHTANK!**

**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**

**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**

**PFTOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**


	259. Break the Circle part 19

**259. Break the Circle part 19**

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

A shrill beeping sound echoed like a wailing siren.

It was immeasurably loud for Cyborg…..

….for he was the only person who could hear it.

The android Titan gasped. In the middle of speeding the jeep to the City's northwest, he cupped one metal hand over his ear and squinted his human eye.

"Hrmmmm…..wh-…..wh-what in the world?"

The soldier looked over from the passenger seat. Her lips pursing curiously.

Lieutenant Smith leaned in from the back of the jeep. "Is there something wrong, Cyborg?"

"There's……a mess of electronic signals crossing through the air…," he murmured. "My internal receiver is picking them up from the south."

He was silent.

_VRMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmm……!_

The jeep and the five flanking motorcycling police officers sped onward and onward towards Phaser Labs.

In the meantime, Cyborg gritted his teeth. "Missiles! Missiles…and lots of them!"

"What?" the soldier exclaimed loudly.

Smith leaned forward more, panting: "Where?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SWOOOOOOSSSSSH!_

Starfire soared over the Bay Waters.

Straight southward….

Straight against a throttling line of blazing rockets launched from the recently uncloaked hovercraft of Dagger.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSH!**_

They heatedly vibrated in the air as they blazed a streaking path towards the scarred City's skyline.

Starfire was just one amber-skinned body piercing down the middle of the nearly mile-wide fan of throttling explosives.

Regardless, that did not stop her from—at a long distance—thinning her eyes and dancing to life a flickering emerald brightness to her optics. Her eyes blazed…blazed…twitchd…..and—

_**FLAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAASSSSH!**_

Two green beams streaked out and converged on the centermost rocket.

They missed.

The rockets kept surging northward.

Starfire gritted her teeth, growled, and adjusted her optical aim—

_**FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!**_

This time, she tore off a 'wing' of the middlemost missile. The rocket shook and wobbled in mid-air before spinning wildly off course and slamming suicidally into the waters below.

_SPLOOOOOOSH-__**SPLASSSSH!**_ The second fountaining splash resulted from the charge's explosion underwater. The Bay's surface ruptured and shot twenty meters into the air—dousing two of the flanking missiles.

Starfire soared forward, shouting a warcry—_"RAAAUGH!"_—and fired optic beams left and right with a twist and turn of her neck muscles.

_**FLAAAASH! **_

_**FLAAAAAAASH!**_

_**FLAAASH!**_

The missile to her right was knocked up towards the red night's sky. It twirled, toppled, and fell dead into the concrete waves. Exploding—_**POWWWW!**_ Fire and plasma vomited outward in a circle, burning the water's epidermal layer to steam. _SSSSSSSSSssssssssss_ssssssss……

The missile to her left shook in mid-air. Her last optic blast ruptured into its metal belly and made fiery contact with the core—_**KABOOOM!**_ The missile shattered into flaming shards.

And then Starfire crossed the advancing line of missiles.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The dozen-or-so of the first volley soared past her on either distant side and continued their charge towards the city.

Starfire tensed every muscle in her soaring body. She snarled and spun a wide arc. She swung around—low….close to the water's surface, forming fountaining ravines of froth to appear on either side of her.

And soon Starfire was heading northward…chasing after the fan of destruction…charging up energy in a desperate attempt to do the impossible.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Do you see that?" Wonder Woman floated in mid-battle, gazing westward. "Do you?"

"**Yes**!" Superman nodded, breathless. "There must be twelve or thirteen missiles. They're heading straight for us!"

Wonder Woman looked at the Kryptonian. "What is the likelihood that they may be charged with mankind's nuclear arsenal?"

His eyes thinned. He shook his eyes. "I don't see any nuclear cores inside of them. But they'll lay waste to everything between here and the shoreline if they make it here!"

Wonder Woman clenched her fists. "Then it's our job to make sure they _**don't**_ get here!"

_SWOOSH!_ Green Lantern and Steel flew up and hovered nearby, still panting from golem-battle. "Are you nuts?" the galactic guardian remarked. "We've got a battle going on here! If so much as one of us leaves, Dagger's defenses will be too strong for Calvin's dual advance!"

Wonder Woman exclaimed: "If we don't leave, there won't _be_ a City for Calvin and the Titans to reclaim!"

"……..," Green Lantern clenched his jaw.

Wonder Woman pointed: "Mr. Irons! Come with me!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Steel patted the head of his sledgehammer. "Time for batting practice!"

"Will you two be all right here?" Wonder Woman asked Superman.

"We'll have to be," the Kryptonian nodded. "Go! Save the City! You'll be a lot closer to doing so than the rest of us…."

"You heard the man!" Steel soared off with rockets on his suit's feet. _PHOOOOOOOM!_

Wonder Woman took a deep breath. "Hera, protect us….." _SWOOOOOOSH!_

"Fan-damn-tastic….," Green Lantern shook his one good fist.

"Come on!" Superman waved and dove like a living missile straight towards a towering giant in the Downtown streets below. "If it's just you and me, we'll have to be brutal!"

"Yeah. I think I can do that." Green Lantern summoned a huge mallet of pure energy and soared down at the golden golem crowd tossing debris at him. "RAAAAAAAUGH!" _**SLAMMMMM!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The Batwing spiraled over the City. The burning remains of a HIND fell behind the Gotham aircraft.

Batman stabilized the airjet…and was suddenly caught off guard by a blinking light on his console.

He tapped a few buttons and brought up a digital schematic of the City's Bay.

His eyemasks widened for a brief moment….and then he frowned.

"Always with a backup plan. Isn't that right, Dagger?"

He gripped tightly to the flight sticks and---

_**PHWOOOOOOOSSSSHH!**_

--veered southward.

Trailing rocket exhaust and mist.

"Clark, this is Batman. There're a dozen heavily charged missiles flying on a delineating trajectory towards the City's Downtown District. At their rate of speed, they should be impacting the buildings on shore anytime now."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SWOOOOOOSH-__**SLAMM!**_

Superman grunted as a burning giant's hand planted him firmly against a buildingside.

He hissed, struggled under the pressure of the huge monstrosity, and growled back to the communicator:

"W-Way ahead of you…B-Bruce!"

"_Snnnkkt! I'm already en route! I'll try to disable as many charges as I can! But I'll need—" _

"_Three of us….are a-already on it!" _

"_Who?"_

"Nnnnngh-**RAAAUGH!**" Superman bashed the wrist of the huge monster apart. **SMASH!**

_**CRKKKK!**_

He flew into the creature, mercilessly pummeling it with charging, Kryptonian fists. "Henry and Diana! They're taking the things out as we speak!"

"_Who is the third?"_

"I-I definitely saw Starfire!" Superman shouted and slammed his foot across the crown of the giant. _**CRACK!**_ "She's taken a few of them out already!"

"…………_that still isn't enough!"_

Superman hovered above a collapsing giant, panting in the golden glow of hundreds of compacted golems in the Downtown Streets below him. "Well what d-do you suggest, Bruce? I doubt you have enough ammo in that plane of yours!"

"_At least I might have a chance to determine __**where**__ those missiles are __**coming from**__. Then I might need __**real**__ help."_

SWOOOOSH! Green Lantern streaked backwards besides Superman, holding up his ring finger and summoning a force field to block the slams and punches of an advancing golem giant. "Tell that mangy bat to hurry the Hell up if he wants to get us anywhere with—"

_**PHHHHHWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Superman and Green Lantern flinched as the rocket soared directly overhead, nearly blowing them over.

Superman grunted.

Green Lantern bit his lips. "N-Never mind then!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHWOOOOSSSH!**_

Batman's cockpit shook and rattled from the intense speed with which he was accelerating southward.

Lights splashing against the inner curves of his computerized cockpit window zeroed in on the targets far away over the water.

The targets grew and grew in size and velocity.

As Batman's gloved hands clung tightly to the handles, he spotted three figures. One silver. The other belonging to Wonder Woman. The third….streaking green light.

The Dark Knight's eyes narrowed. "I hope you trained your Titan well, Robin…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAAUGH!" Starfire shouted as she flew at high speed and caught up to the flaring rear of one missile.

Sneering, she charged a starbolt in two hands….curled her alien fingers….and shot the glowing green fire into the exhaust vents of the sailing projectile.

_FLASSSH!_

_**KA-POWWWW!**_

The missile exploded brilliantly.

Starfire bravely flew through the flame cloud, swinging her hands to 'fan' the plasma away. She glided sideways in mid-air…drifting towards the missiles to her right.

The Bay Water blurred beneath the air-splitting chase. The buildings lining the southern shore of the City stood defenseless in the path of the warheads.

Starfire reached the next missile, joined her hands together, jutted her shoulder, and—with teeth clenching—rammed her upper body into the speeding missile.

"_Nnnngh!" __**CLANK!**_

Again.

"_Nnnnaugh!" __**CLANK!**_

Again.

"_Nnnnn---"_

_SWOOOOSH-__**SMASH!**_ An Amazonian fist smashed the missile in half out of nowhere.

_**BLAMMMM!**_

The rocket exploded into Starfire.

She let out a gasp…a shriek….and plummeted with a maddening twirl towards the watery surface of the Bay below—

_**GRIP!**_ Wonder Woman's hand clasped around the Tamaranian's wrist and hoisted her along in the zooming, mid-air chase.

Starfire shuddered, her emerald eyes wide. "P-Princess Diana?"

"Be at ease, Starfire…..," Wonder Woman breathed above the wind-whipping chaos. "…you are not alone now. We must—"

"The missiles!" Starfire shook Wonder Woman's grasp of her wrist loose and flew up parallel to the Amazonian. "We must hasten to eliminate them for the City's sake!"

"Starfire! Please….we have a handle on it!" Wonder Woman gestured while flying towards the next mid-air projectile.

"……..?" Starfire glanced westward.

Steel was soaring towards the distant string of missiles and was furiously slamming his sledgehammer through their flammable bodies. "RRRRGHHH!" _**WHANG! **_**"RAAAAAUGH!" **_SMASSSH!_

**One….two….three missiles exploded brilliantly from his merciless assault.**

_**P-PLOW! BLAM! KRA-KOW!**_

"………," Starfire looked ahead again and clenched her fists in an unwavering intensity. "That is not sufficient enough!"

"Starfire, listen---"

"If we work against Dagger at all….," Starfire soared directly past the Amazonian towards the next projectile. "….we must work **together**!"

"………..," Wonder Woman smiled. "You've got my helping hand, Titan."

"Galadren'm de X'Hal! Thank you kindly, Princess Diana, your honor. Let us now kick the butt!"

"Took the words out of my mouth."

_FWOOOOOOSH! _

_SWOOOOOOOOSSH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!

A pair of birdarangs flew down from a seven-story building and ate viciously into the tires of a terrorist's jeep.

_P-POP!_

The vehicle's wheels gave out. It screeched, spiraled, and smashed sideways against a lamppost.

_SCREEEEECH-__**CRUNCH!**_

The thugs inside groaned.

Two terrorists stumbled out and made to run—

_**P-POWWW!**_ A fire hydrant's hose nozzle suddenly snapped loose and a jet of violet-glowing water shot outward….slamming into the bodies of the thugs.

_WH-WHAM! _

_WHUMP!_

"OOOF!" the doused men were out cold.

Up above…

On the building rooftops…

Robin and Tempest had paused just long enough to unleash the projectile and black-magical punishment from up on high.

"You think they'll have any children after _that_?"

Robin gritted his teeth. "You think that I _care?_"

_Thwooosh!_

I blurred by on the rooftop.

Followed shortly by Changeling. The green elf glanced back in mid-sprint and motioned the other two along before leaping to another buildingtop.

Robin and the Atlantean swiftly followed.

"The League has been nice enough to intercede on our City, Tempest. I can't thank you and Cyborg enough for that."

"Eh, don't try and be humble, Boy Wonder. Nothing we ever did _made_ the League come here tonight. I think they've warmed to us gradually over time."

"Still…," Robin went on as if there was no response to his first statement, "….this is the Titan's battle. Inevitably, everything settles on us. We need to get to the Crunch and finish off Dagger once and for all!"

"All I want to know is where the Hell Deathstroke's at!" Tempest uttered as the two jumped a building and ran up alongside Changeling and myself. "Didn't he have some godawful vendetta of blood against you or some crap?"

Robin shuddered. "Deathstroke hasn't shown up to so much as lift a finger against me the whole time Noir and I have been in this war zone. And that worries me."

"Flippin' duh!" Changeling panted. He led the way past a/c units and other rooftop structures. "He's been going after me and Raven! It's the same old Slade! Out to make the Titans absolutely miserable!"

I bit my lip in mid-sprint.

Robin's jaw tightened. "It's different this time, Beast Boy. Someway…somehow….it's different."

"Like how? I mean….besides the sword and the red farting breath and crap."

Tempest raised a finger in mid-jog: "I've never met this Slade person before. But somehow I get the feeling that whatever he is now, it's a than the previous one."

I nodded mutely.

"Slade used to want power….manipulation….," Robin panted. "Now, Beast Boy, he just wants death."

"Whose death? Ours?"

"The Titans….yes….," he nodded.

"He seems to be a really rotten job at it," Changeling frowned as we leapt to another buildingtop….a long drop. "Nnngh!" We resumed running and he said: "You sure he isn't just wanting to torture us….as always?"

"He wants me, Garfield," 'Tim' finally said.

"……………"

"Hasn't he always wanted you, man?" Tempest said.

"And I don't know why….not for the life of me…," Robin panted. He gulped. "And Deathstroke wants to take that _life of me away_………maybe so that he himself can finally find out what he's always wanted. For the two of us. And he's not afraid to use Dagger's war—and the Titans' peril for his desires to be made manifest. F-For me to die…bleeding in his red arms…."

Changeling glanced back over his bruised shoulder. Sweating. Huffing. He looked forward and gulped: "M-Maybe we shouldn't have left Raven back there at Bayside Plaza alone after all, dude."

Robin murmured under his panting breath. "It isn't….Raven….th-that I'm……._worried about………_"

"………………….," I was silent. Head tilted aside somewhat. Absorbing Robin's words.

I stared ahead at the increasingly bright streets of gold where the Crunch was….where Superman and Green Lantern fought alone….desperate.

I listened to the heartbeat pulsing in my own ears. Thankful to have both of them and not be in Garfield's shoes.

_You still in there, Joey?_

………..

_Hang tight, buddy._

Just as the four of us jumped across another building space, a chime in Robin's communicator went off.

The beeping sounded simultaneous to our landing on the rooftop.

We paused momentarily in our heavy sprint and gazed at Robin as the Boy Wonder dug into his utility belt and pulled out the communicator. He flipped it open with a Star Trek sound. "Robin here….," he panted.

"_Robin! Guess what! Shit happens!"_

The Boy Wonder's eyemask narrowed. "Cyborg?"

Tempest and I craned our necks to look and listen….

"_My internal circuitry's picked up something. Calvin's forces are in danger!"_

"Did you get inside Phaser Labs?"

"_No, man. We're barely halfway there. Look….there're missiles being launched from the Bay! Dagger's yet another knife up his sleeve!"_

I gasped.

Changeling's jaw dropped.

Robin gritted his teeth. "How many of them?"

"_There were about fifteen to begin with. But it looks like the Justice League has gotten to a bunch of them. The first wave is almost completely wiped out."_

"Well…..," Tempest exhaled and smiled at us. "I guess…no harm, no flounder!"

"_It ain't __**that**__ pretty, Flipper! According to my sensors, there are three times more of those missiles still out there! Ready to be launched!"_

"Three more waves…..," Robin murmured.

"Out in the Bay?" Changeling remarked. He made a face at us. "Like…what the Hell?"

"_Dagger's got…g-got…uh……some navy or something!"_

"Figures that the man would exploit the seas as a last resort," Robin said.

"Ohhhh….," Tempest suddenly sneered. "Now that's cold…."

"Cyborg!" Robin spoke into the communicator. "Do you have a fix on exactly _where_ these missile launch ships **are**?"

"_Nuh uh, man! My internal sensors can only read so much. I'm heading to Phaser Labs. If I can get inside there and use the laboratory sensors, I should be able to get a proper fix!"_

"We don't have the time," Robin turned and gazed at the rest of us. "…………………."

We waited.

He made his decision. "Beast Boy! Tempest! Time to go for a swim!"

Tempest smirked with a salute. "Saving the gills for last. My favorite tactic." He leapt down off the building, one balcony at a time.

"Both of you comb the Bay! Find those ships! They're probably cloaked….which is why neither us or the Army found them before now!"

"Dude….where the waters break…..we'll see them."

"Exactly. Now go!"

Changeling made to leap off, but paused to look over his shoulder at the Boy Wonder and I.

"Robin….Tim…..whoever you are…."

"Yes, Garfield?"

"……….if you run into Starfire….t-tell her I'm sorry, will you?"

Robin pointed and said in a loud, commanding voice: "**No one's** going to be sorry after tonight. Do you hear me? **No one.**"

"………,"Changeling smirked somewhat. His one ear twitching. "Grrfff….all right…."

He dove off, morphed into an eagle in mid-air, and glided southward through the streets while Tempest ran through the aid of extracted water tentacles towards the distant Bay.

I looked at Robin. I gestured.

"You and I?" he replied. "We have to pretend that the Crunch will go off as expected…..which means trashing any heads of the enemy we see between here and Downtown….before we join the fight ourselves."

_I took a deep breath, nodding._

Robin got into a running position. He gulped: "Assuming there's going to _be_ a Downtown by the time we get there…"

And we both hurried off….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg took his hand off from palming the side of his head and returned both sets of fingers to the steering wheel of the jeep.

He sped the convoy further westward towards Phaser Labs.

_VRMMMMMM!_

Lieutenant Smith leaned forward and spoke above the surrounding noise of motorcycles.

"About those missiles…..is the Justice League truly wiping them all out?"

"Yeah," Cyborg nodded with his eyes on the road. "My sensors tell me that nearly all of them are gone."

Smith took a deep breath. "Doesn't that strike you as a little too convenient?"

"…………………..," Cyborg was silent.

The soldier in the passenger seat looked nervous.

Smith sat back, arms folded. "Dagger's distracting us. Nothing about this seems right. If I didn't know better, I'd say that man was pulling out the dirtiest trick we've seen from him yet."

"Then that's why I gotta get inside Phaser Labs….," Cyborg grunted. Frowning into the biting wind. "At all costs."

_VRMMMMMMMMMMM!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_ZZZZzztt!_

_  
Zzzzt—ZZZzztt!_

In Phaser Labs, Clayface twitched and grunted as his body solidified firmer and firmer under the electrocuting ministrations of the robotic arms rotating around him from the ceiling.

He took long….steadier breaths….

Flexing his brown limbs.

In the meantime, computer consoles flashed and blinked.

Simon Stone gazed flickeringly at the instruments. He stroked a holographic chin with his fingers. _"Hrmmmm……"_

"What is it, doc?" Hagan asked, yellow teeth gritting.

"_Dagger's in the middle of launching the payload towards the City,"_ Stone uttered. _"Our leader is getting desperate. Perhaps Red Aviary has somehow gotten the upper hand…but………--"_

"But what?"

"_If I didn't know better, Dagger will soon be resorting to the ion cannon."_

"Ion cannon?" Clayface pivoted his muddy crown. Amber-glazed eyes squinted at the hologram across the basement laboratory. "What's that mean exactly?"

"……………_,"_ Stone's figure turned—flickered—and faced Hagan emotionlessly. _"Nothing. It means nothing. Relax and continue rebuilding yourself."_

"Nnnnngh….," Clayface shut his monstrous eyes and……let the robot arms do their work.

"………………………_,"_ Stone turned. With a wave of his holographic wrist, he made a map of the City appear with a blinking light traveling west north-west along the streets. Heading straight for Phaser Labs.

The hologram stared in silence.

Seemingly 'contemplating'…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Along the southern shore…

In the reflective glow of burning golems and tank shells exploding several blocks away…

Tempest ran down a stretch of docks.

Changeling floated down overhead. He transmogrified in mid-air from an eagle back to his typical elf form and landed feet first.

The two Titans ran straight towards the water, panting.

"Why do I get the wyrd feeling…," Tempest smirked while running "That I've risked my gilled neck more for this City in two months than I ever have for all of Atlantis in ten years?"

"This isn't a joke…," Changeling muttered. "Let's find those launch points…..buoys, robots, boats, whatever. And let's smash them to bits."

"Wow, aren't you the serious one all of the sudden?"

"………….."

"Yup," Tempest sighed. A lasting smirk as they reached the docks' edge. "Guess this means you're going to buy me a salt-water Jacuzzi with your 'Moped Funds', right?"

That time, Beast Boy did chuckle. "Don't frickin' count on it, dude."

"Meet you on the other side, elf."

"With bells on!"

And they both dove.

_SPLASSSH! _

_SPLOOOOOSH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Where did all those damn cow-people go?"

"Why should I care? Let's get the Hell out of Dachshund! Dagger can have this City if he wants it…I ain't risking my neck no more!"

_VRMMMMMM!_

Three thugs sped down a side street in an open jeep. Two in the front. One in the rear with the mounted machine gun.

The drivers panted as they tried to find an escape route from the battle.

The gunman was shaking involuntarily…nervously gripping tightly to the mounted gun.

_VRMMMMM!_

"Hold it!"

_SCREEEECH!_

The jeep spun half a circle and stopped in the middle of a rubble-strewn intersection.

The driver looked at the passenger. "Wh-What is it, Joe?"

"……….," the thug looked curiously at the driver. "Isn't it supposed to be 'get the Hell out of Dod—'?"

"_HI-YAAAA!"_ Robin dove down with an air-whistling dropkick.

_**CRNNCHH!**_

The thug's rib cage buckled from the slamming of the Boy Wonder's boot.

The man in the driver's seat shouted and reached for his pistol.

Robin grunted, dug his kicking foot into the gut of the passenger, twisted, and thus twirled his other foot up and slamming heel first into the driver's chin.

_TH-THUNK!_

A bloody tooth or two flew out.

The gunman in the back shouted. "Shit! Just like Croc said in his briefing!" He pivoted the mounted gun around and aimed it dead into Robin's head. "DIEEEE—"

_TH-THWOOOSH!_ I teleported and materialized right in front of him. _**CHIIIING!**_ Myrkblade slashed straight through the mounted gun.

_**CRACKKK!**_

**P-POWWW!** The bullets inside exploded and showered against the man.

"Aaaaugh!" he stumbled back.

I gritted my teeth, swiveled, and slammed my foot into his face.

**WHAM!**

He fell off the jeep amongst a shower of bullet shells.

_Thwack! WHACK!_ Robin karate-chopped the driver and passenger into unconsciousness.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

We gave each other a thumb's up and twirled our weapons—Myrkblade and Robin's bo-staff—as we ran down the road towards a high overpass of the central highway.

Towards the Crunch.

And as the rumbling of tank shells and giant golem feet filled the air…

Robin glanced up.

Towards the sky.

Red….

_Red._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Raven was under drugs.

Almost entirely sedated.

She lie back while various medics, nurses, and physicians treated her…cutting her leotard open naked to get to her chest injury.

She tilted her head back with violet eyes rolling.

And something flickered a bright gray in her cornea.

And a gasped escaped her throat.

So that when a medic placed a mask over her lips……

……The dark girl barely murmured"

"_He's after you……he's after you……"_

The voices.

The hands.

The beeping.

"_St-Starfire………he is after y-you………"_

And Raven slept.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt—HCkKK!"**_

_The last three missiles on their flank soar towards the City. _

_The alien and the Amazonian shout and snarl for vigor as they speedily catch up to the projectiles and slam their fists and feet into them._

_Starbolts and lasso whips and plummeting shoulder-slams force one rocket after another off course._

_And the closer they get to the feet of the City……_

_To the Bay's northern shore……_

_The narrower the destruction of the last remaining missiles……_

"……_**.snkkkt….Snkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkktt……."**_

_The red strobes brightest around her. _

_Her flaming hair._

_Her tattered sweater and scuffed jeans._

_The scrapes and bruises of water kissing around her amber skin._

_The fire vaporously trails out of her cuts._

_Red smoke cascades out of her gaping mouth as she shouts and fires two optic beams at the last of the missiles, causing it to veer off course and into Wonder Woman's fist._

"_**HCKKK-Clikkkt!"**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"RAAAAUGH!" **POWW!**

Wonder Woman punched the missile into oblivion.

The ashes and burning debris from the craft settled just on the crashing shore of the beach.

Another half a second later, and the missile would have slammed mercilessly into a line of storefronts.

Wonder Woman hovered in place…panting for breath. The sounds of the rising battle between Calvin's forces and the clustered golems sounded off in her ear.

The Crunch was beginning.

_THWOOOOSH!_

Starfire floated over along Wonder Woman's side.

"Our flank of missiles have been destroyed?"

"Y-Yes…."

"Glorious…," the Tamaranian girl said. But it was firm and bitter. Determined…emotionless. "We must now go and support Mr. Steel."

Before she could fly off--

"Starfire! W-Wait!" Wonder Woman grabbed the alien's shoulder.

"Nnngh!" Starfire tugged. She stopped and glared back at the Amazonian. "Your Highness, I entreat you. You must let me go. If we waste time—"

"Starfire….," Wonder Woman held both of her shoulders. "Don't just go flying off! Steel and I can handle this! You need to go reunite with the Titans."

"The T-Titans?" Starfire blinked. Her jaw dropped some. She leaned forward. "M-My friends…..are safe?"

Wonder Woman nodded. "Yes. For the time being."

"Wh-What of the nefarious Metallo with whom I was so brutally entangled?" the alien girl hyperventilated. Her green eyes widened. "THE TOWER!"

"Your friends made it out safely….," Wonder Woman said. "They'll live. And as for Metallo, I think you did a good number on him yourself. But there's something you need to kno—"

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

From across the bay…..

The thundering sound of rockets filled the air.

The Tamaranian and Wonder Woman gasped, spun, and looked across the waters.

A new slew of fifteen missiles were rocketing heavily towards the City. A line of solid destruction just as strong and flammable as the first round.

"Dagger! He is launching a second wave!"

"Great Hera…."

Starfire pulsed green and lifted upwards. "Hurry! We must eradicate the projectiles before they too enter the City's domain!"

Wonder Woman reached out towards the girl and shouted in futility: "Starfire! Don't! Just wait a second!"

_FWOOOOOOOOSH!_

Starfire was gone.

Skirting southward over the waters.

"……….," Wonder Woman stared. Lips pursed. "_Robin is alive……"_ she murmured to the December winds.

She glanced aside….northwest along the shore.

Just over the Suspension Bridge, Steel was single-handedly struggling to eliminate the last of the missiles. There were four of them left….and it didn't look like he would be destroying any more of them in time.

Wonder Woman gritted her teeth. "By Artemis' spear….."

_THWOOOOOSSSSH!_ She soared like a black and gold bullet towards the midair scene.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NNNGH!"

_SWOOOOSH!_

_**CLANG!**_

Steel flung his sledge hammer into the hull of a rocket.

"Come on…."

_SWOOOOSH!_

_**CRACK!**_

"COME ON!.!.!"

_THWOOOSH!_

_**SMACKKK!**_

"Blow up, you stupid cone-nosed son of a bitch!" Steel screamed through his mask and hammered….hammered…..hammered away at the rear of the last four missiles of the first volley. He streaked over the Suspension Bridge in binding pursuit of the wave as he struggled onward. "I can take all of ya on! I can take all of ya! Just watch me!"

He paused sweatily amidst his punishment and saw—through his helmet—the mainland and its warehouses and storefronts looming directly ahead.

"…………or not."

Suddenly….from above….

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Steel looked up from where he was rocketing.

The Batwing lowered…speeding at even velocity with the Prototype-suited vigilante. Inside the cockpit, Batman gave a signal.

Steel smiled, gave a metal thumb's up, and gave his missile one last—_**CLANG!**_—before levitating aside and giving Batman clearance.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside the cockpit of his throttling aircraft, Batman flipped open the missile trigger of his joystick.

"He who lives by the sword…."

_Click._

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

One rocket streamed and destroyed the rear missile that Steel was hammering.

A second—_**PFTOOOOOSSSSH!**_—skirted ahead and shattered the frontmost missile.

_**POWWWW! KA-BLAAM!**_

Batman took a deep breath through his masked nostrils.

"All right….."

He tilted the nose of the Batwing down and angled it with the last two flaring projectiles.

He fingered the rocket trigger again.

"…..time for intermission."

_Click._

……….

………

Nothing.

Batman's eyemasks narrowed.

He gazed at the cockpit's digital schematics.

Indeed, he was out of missiles.

"……..hrm….."

Batman flipped the cover to the missile trigger closed and flipped open the machine gun trigger from down below instead.

He targeted the computer on the leftmost missile and fired.

_Click._

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The streams of bulletfire streaked through the air and dug into the flying explosive.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_ PING! P-PING! **PING!**

_**KA-POWWW!**_

Batman spun the Batwing through the smoke and angled himself after the last missile of the wave.

The Suspension Bridge shrunk away beneath him.

Dry land and small buildingtops stretched open below.

Batman gritted his teeth.

He targeted the last missile.

He hit the trigger.

_Click-Click-Click-Click-Click-Click._

"………..," his eyemasks widened. He glance at the display gain.

The machine gun compartment was entirely empty.

Batman snarled: "Alfred…I thought I told you to _give the Batwing a thorough __**maintenance check!"**_

The missile soared ahead…..straight towards a twelve-story building that stood in its way.

In thirty seconds…the missile would slam into the building and wipe out everything within a radius of six blocks with its plasma explosion.

"…………."

"_Snkkkt. Batman? Uhm………what the Hell are you waiting for, man? Shoot the damn thing!"_

Batman hissed into his communicator: "**Standby**, Mr. Irons…."

He jerked forward on the flight handles.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

The Batwing rocketed ahead and ducked underneath the missile.

The aircraft barely soared over the increasingly taller rooftops blurring underneath it.

Steel hovered to a stand-still, watching with wide eyes under his mask.

_FWOOOSH!_ Wonder Woman flew up and levitated besides him. Panting.

"What in Olympus' name is he doing?"

"I-I don't know…," Steel shouted into his communicator. "What are you doing, man?"

"_Snkkkt. __**Standby.**__ BEEP."_

"Batman!" Wonder Woman shouted in the same communicator. "Pull out! There's nothing you can do at this point! Batman? Bruce!"

Steel did a double-take. "Bruce?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Batman's gloved hands gripped tightly to the handles as he positioned the Batwing beneath the belly of the last rocket.

He pulled a lever, adjusted the thrusters from the dials on his dashboard, and lifted the aircraft.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The Batwing rose and rose and rose…..and collided with the missile beneath it.

_**CL-CLANK!**_

The entire cockpit shook.

"Nnngh!" Batman gritted his teeth, absorbed the shaking, and kept pulling up at the stick.

_SCCcccCCCccCRAAAaaAAAPEEE!_

Sparks flew from the grinding of cockpit glass against metal.

Batman slowly shoved the missile up….up…..up.

Inching towards the distant rooftop of the twelve-story building.

With the city rooftops blurring underneath the aircraft and nearly scraping at its metal belly.

**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**

"Nnnnnnnngh!" Batman struggled with the effort.

The entire aircraft buckled.

The missile above sputtered flame out its thrusters, 'fought' against the lifting Batwing, and started to shake.

Eight stories….

Nine stories…..

_**PHOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

Batman's vision blurred from the shaking of the cockpit.

He barely made out the reflection of his hurtling craft in the glass sheen of the incoming building's windows….

_SWWOOOOOSH!_

Ten stories…………

"NNNNAGHHHH!" Batman jerked hard at the handles and kicked a trigger with his foot, activating the bottom harrier thrusters of the Batwing.

_**RUSSSSSSH!**_

The Batwing jolted up, 'carrying' the missile with it.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CL-CLANKKK!**_

The Batwing scraped over the edge of the building's rooftop—smashing a piece of the ledge into dust.

_**PHOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Batman's airplane and the rocket went spiraling outward across the reddened Cityscape.

Over the Crunch of army men, golems, Justice Leaguers, and giants converging…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran to the edge of a rooftop.

I followed him as he stopped and looked over.

Gazing outward from the top of the building.

As I approached, he turned to look towards me.

Jaw clenched.

Eyemask icy…

"This is it….," he uttered.

And he pulled out a grappling hook.

_POW!_

_CL-CLANK!_

And sailed out into the thunderous noise.

And I followed him…

Blurring down the buildingside and leaping in a smoke-aided glide through the red air.

And into the Crunch.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH—**__**KABLAAAM!**_

_**P-POW!**_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**CRKKKKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

_**SL-SLAM! **_

_**CRNNNNCHHHH!**_

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_**POWWW!**_


	260. Break the Circle part 20

**260. Break the Circle part 20**

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH—**__**KABLAAAM!**_

_**P-POW!**_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**CRKKKKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

_**SL-SLAM! **_

_**CRNNNNCHHHH!**_

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_**POWWW!**_

The gaping downtown streets had turned into a three front melee of exploding shells….

Machine gun bullets tracing…

Jeeps speeding.

Jeeps firing.

Jeeps exploding.

Shells of Hummers.

Bodies of terrorists.

Bleeding soldiers.

And the golems…the golems…the golems…

That marched and burned on through them.

The tanks of Calvin's army that pivoted their turrets and fired burning shells into the golden army of fire…..

The remaining giants that stomped through the ranks and smashed tanks and jeeps into flaming stains……

Green Lantern and his sweeping force field of terrorist-smashing green, pulsing from his left hand…..

Superman spinning and forming tornadic air currents to redirect the bullets and RPGs of Daggers troupes back into the rocky hides of towering giants…..

The concussion blasts.

The flaming craters.

The rows of windows in skyscrapers shattering and littering the strewn asphalt below.

Bullets and bodies and behemoths falling.

Robin swung through it all, barely twirling by flying tank shells and charging golems…and his cape whipping once or twice as a bullet streamed past it.

And I landed in a cushion of murk and blurred after him…running the length of the explosive line of Calvin's eastern force.

Bodies fell to the right of me.

Golems exploded to the left.

Screams and rising smoke.

The smell of burnt rust…burnt powder…burnt flesh.

The red sky above…ever-yawning.

The noise deafened us. And in a way….it filled our heads with a second blood that echoed through our vessels and inflated us with some unspoken chemical known only to the primordial dimension of man that foams up in the mouths of shellshocked soldiers.

A long time ago I stopped believing in Hell beyond death…..

_Funny, Ana, in a morbid way……that it takes Dagger of all people to give me a grim reminder of what made me stop believing……and start __**seeing**_

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**POWWWW!**_

_**  
**__RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

Robin finally touched down from his grappling cord, and I soon found out why.

A group of unprotected U.S. soldiers were huddling around the burnt-out shell of an Abrams tank and were taking shelter from heavy-calibre fire of a terrorist hummer across the way and a rushing crowd of burning golems along the flank.

"NYAAAAAAUGH!" Robin ran straight towards the mounted gunfire of the Hummer.

One of the gunmen pointed.

The other aimed the mounted rifle at the Boy Wonder.

Robin snarled, whipped out two birdarangs, and flung them mercilessly up through the war-torn air at the terrorists.

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_

One birdarang ended in a thug's throat. _SPLORCH!_

The other sailed sharply into the barrel of the mounted gun just as the man fired—

_**POWW!**_

The rifle shattered, splattering the screaming terrorist with shrapnel.

The men in the Hummer's front seat fought desperately to drive away.

I ran at them, snarled, summoned murk through my upper body, and dove blindingly forward into the windshield.

_**SHATTTTERRR!**_

I blurred smokingly through the vehicle with a swing of serrated Myrkblade.

_**SL-SLASSSSH!**_

The driver and passenger were instantly decapitated.

_**SMASSSSSSSSSH!**_ I teleported hotly through the vehicle and—_CRACK!_ Materialized outside the rear.

Robin ran by, tossing an explosive disc beneath the vehicle.

He and I both darted straight forward.

_**BOOOOM!**_

The explosion enflamed the Hummer and ate hotly into its fuel tank—

_**POWWWW!**_

The shell of the terrorist vehicle lifted up, twirled with a splash of ashes, and fell down right on top of another jeep full of terrorists…screaming and diving in futility. "AAAAAA---" _**CRUNNNCHHH!**_

As the urban Armageddon burned and mushroomed behind us, we ran straight into a line of eight-foot tall golems.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKK!**_ They stomped towards us, upper arms flailing with tongues of flame.

Robin pulled out a fan of explosive discs and tossed them at the creatures with a grunt. "Nnnngh!"

_THWISSSSSSSSSH!_ The discs sunk into three of the monsters in the center of the crowd.

I reached my hand out.

Robin grabbed it.

I hissed mutely, turned into the form of steam, and propelled the two of us in a blur of smoke straight into the golden phalanx.

_**KABOOOOOM!**_

The three discs exploded, shattering a dozen golems from the center outward at once.

I solidified Robin and I with a towering leap upwards from the focal point of the explosion.

He flipped and I glided till we both landed—perching on the sixth story balcony of an office building above the flames.

We both spun and faced the fiery streets of battle.

Outside the flaming ring of the dying golems, ten terrorists with assault rifles ran up, shouted, and aimed up at us from below.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

I stood in front of Robin and twirled Myrkblade in a maddening blur of black. _TH-TH-TH-THWISH!_

**CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!**

The bullets splashed sparks and flew off every which way.

Robin prepared two weighted bolos. He spun them over his head, grunted, and flung them forward.

I jerked out of the way just in time.

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH!_

The two coils of cords sailed down.

Two thugs had their legs suddenly bound beneath them.

_TH-THWPPP! _

_**THWPP!**_

"Nnngh!"

"Augh!"

Both terrorists fell.

One of them hit the asphalt hard, and his fingers absent-mindedly closed around the trigger of his gun.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

SP-SPLORCH!

Two other thugs were grounded—howling—when the bullets ripped through their thighs.

Robin was about to prepare another bunch of projectiles when I gripped his shoulder and held him back, flat against the balcony wall.

"Wh-What is it?" He panted.

_Whurrrr-__**BL-BLAM!**_

_**POWWWW!**_ An Army tank shell exploded in the center of the street, dismembering and roasting the bodies of the criminals.

Robin and I flinched as the stifling concussion wave hit us.

_FWOOOOSSSH!_

_CRKKKKK!_

A huge crack swam up the building's face and settled beneath us.

The balconies started to crumble…

"Move! MOVE!" Robin shouted.

He jumped onto another balcony.

I held my silent breath and hopped after him.

_CRASSSH!_ The balcony we were on plummeted…

…and soon the other ledges started to crack and crumble.

_CRASSH! CRKKK! THWOOOSH-SLAM!_

Robin and I leap-frogged from one ledge to another…escaping our very own perch as the whole building front began its inevitable collapse from the fire and shelling.

The thunder of warfare echoed in our ears as we reached the end of the building.

A tattered banner stretched between our building and one across the street—over the bodies of golems rushing a squad of U.S. army jeeps…firing madly at the beasts. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

"Noir! Go time!" Robin held the cords of the banner taut for me.

I nodded, blurred over, and swung Myrkblade twice.

_SLASH! SLASSSH!_

**SN-SNAP!**

The banner gave way on our side.

He grabbed onto a corner.

I grabbed onto a corner.

"Nnngh!"

_THWOOOOSH!_ We dove off our crumbling ledge and swung via the banner over the exploding, bullet-strewn street. _**CRKKKKKKKK!**_ The building we were perched on crumbled behind us.

"Brace yourself!" Robin grunted as we soared towards a first-story shopping front.

I gritted my teeth.

_SWOOSH! _

_SWOOOOOSH-CRAACK! Our bodies stuck the glass windows of the shop, forming spiderwebbing fractures. The two of us jolted, bounced off, and rolled achingly across the sidewalk concrete._

Robin tumbled to a stop--

_**STOMP!**_ A golem's foot slammed burningly down inches ahead of where Robin's head would have been.

"Yaah!" Robin gasped and jumped up to his feet.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_ The monster flung its arm down at the Boy Wonder.

Robin was barely on balance. He winced—

_THWOOOSH! __**SLIIICE!**_ I teleported over, severing the golem's limb in two.

_**CRKKKKKKK-KKKK!**_ The beast angrily rumbled and kicked me hard in the side.

_SL-SLAM!_

I flew off and slammed against the building front.

"RAAAUGH!" Robin twirled his bo-staff, charged the beast, and swung like a madman. _THWACK! WHANG! SMACK! P-POW!_

The golem jolted and stumbled backwards.

"HAAAAA!" Robin leapt up, bounced off the side of a lamppost, twirled, and sent a crushing blow into the crown of the beast…splitting it in two.

_**CRAAAAK!**_

The Boy Wonder stood….gripping his staff. Panting.

I stood up….wincing.

_**GRIPPP!**_

I gasped, for two meaty arms of a rock monster encircled me coldly from behind.

Robin spun. He gasped: "Noir!"

I fought and struggled in the stony grasp.

I gasped…for the arms were starting to heat up.

In a matter of seconds, I was about to become the recipient of a flesh-roasting bear hug.

I clenched my teeth and stared upwards.

_Now, Joey!_

_  
Get……out……of me……NOW!_

But before he could possibly comply—

_**TWNNNG!**_

_**THWISSSSSSSH-**__**POWWW!**_  
  
The golem exploded from behind me.

Its meaty arms let go, and I stumbled forward…breathless.

Robin ran to my side, bracing me. He looked in time to see a second arrow sail through the air and slice through the golem's upper shoulder.

_**POWWW!**_

Then two female figures streaked in.

"Raaawr!" one anchored the beast in place with a lassoing whip. _**THWPP!**_

Another flew with a pulverizing kick. "YAAAAAAUGH!"

_**SMASSSSH!**_

The golem shattered into a hundred pieces and littered the sidewalk.

Black Canary stood up besides Catwoman, brushing herself off.

And then Green Arrow leapt down from a building ledge.

Robin murmured above the rumbling noise all around us. The shells and the gunfire and the stomping…. "Green Arrow? Is that you?"

"If my eyes deceive me, then so can yours deceive you, kid!"

Black Canary walked forward. "So he didn't die! Enjoy the rest of your puberty, shortstuff!" She winked.

_Ugh……_

I ran a black hand over my face and shades.

"………," Robin gazed at her for half a second before turning to Green Arrow. "I suggest we stay together. It's positively murder out here."

"I suggest we head for the hills and regroup!" Green Arrow exclaimed above the noise. "This may be all right for the military with their tanks or Superman with his brawn….but the likes of us are dead out here!"

"I'm not about to just abandon my City when they need us!" Robin exclaimed.

"Uhhhhm…..," Catwoman uttered…gathering our attention. "Don't look now, cats and kittens…" She smirked and pointed up at a line of rooftops above the blazing battle. "But somebody's on the prowl."

We all glanced up in one accord.

A string of nearly-concealed terrorists were running in a fixed line across the rooftops. Guns in hand. Sniper rifles….

"Well, isn't that cute?" Green Arrow chirped.

"Everyone!" Robin pointed upwards with a growl. "Go up there and take them out! Or else they'll make mince meat out of our soldiers!" _**P-POW! **__Clank!_ "Follow me!" SWOOOSH!

I didn't hesitate one second. I blurred up the buildingside after him, Myrkblade dragging.

Black Canary flailed her arms: "Does he expect us to follow him around? He's just a kid!"

"Baby….," Green Arrow produced an arrow with a cord attached to the end. "In this Town, the kids know best." _**TWNGG!**_ The arrow stuck to a balcony. The blonde archer swiftly climbed up.

Black Canary folded her arms and fumed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Catwoman walked up to the wall and extended sharp points out of the digits of her feline gloves. "Hmmmm….," she winked back at the blonde in fishnets. "Why don't you come up and find out….._'baby'."_

And Selina Kyle scurried up.

Black Canary gritted her teeth. "I….am going to skin her…." And she climbed up Green Arrow's cord after the group.

_**P-POW! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**CRKKKK!**_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**KABOOM!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Batman's batwing vibrated….rattling violently against the rocket just above his cracked cockpit window.

"Nnnnngh!" he struggled, gripping ice-cold to the controls.

'_Warning. Warning. Warning. Hull integrity in high risk of—'_

_THWACK!_ Batman slammed his fist into the computer dashboard.

He then reached a hand over and attempted igniting the vertical thrust again.

_Click-Clik-Clik!_

_**PHSSSSSH! PH-PHSSSSSH!**_

The blue jets beneath the Batwing puffed and hissed.

Batman fumbled with both the steering handles and the thrusts.

He looked—sweating—ahead through the cockpit window.

The Northern Half of the City loomed in the distance.

Beyond it…..countryside.

The northern mountain slopes.

Void of all people….

"Time to take out the trash…."

He slammed his fist into the thrust controls.

_**PHSSSS-SSSSSH!**_

The Batwing lifted.

Batman jolted back on the controls.

The nose rose.

The rocket of Dagger's was pushed in a steeper ascent above the plane.

The rocket bolted skyward…and suddenly caught—snagged—in something.

The top fins of the Batwing.

"Augh!" Batman shook as the rocket tugged and rattled….its metal wing stuck in the fins of the Gothamite aircraft.

Batman hissed through clenched teeth and struggled….struggled…..struggled to shake the missile loose.

Cabin temperature began to rise.

Steam hissed red and threatening through the cracks formed between the metal structure of the Batwing and the cockpit window itself.

'_Beeep! Warning! Structural disintegration at eighty percent likelihood.'_

"The end to a perfect evening," Batman hissed.

'_Beep! Beep! Beep!'_

_**PHOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The Batwing—now a virtual, giant missile—soared over the rooftops below.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look out!"

"Costume freaks!"

"Behind us!"

The gunmen and snipers running across the rooftops spun and faced us.

The Daggerites gasped, shouted, aimed, and—_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_PFFIFFT!_

_PFFFIFT!_

_B-BANG! BANG!_

Against the silhouette of the burning Crunch, the five of us charged.

Robin and Green Arrow swung in.

Black Canary and Catwoman cartwheeled and flipped.

I blurred straight down the center.

Discs and arrows flew.

Nimble legs kicked.

And Myrkblade slashed and sang.

_THWOOOOSH! _

_TH-THWISSSSSH!_

_  
SLASSSSH!_

A spray of bullets parted ways from a smoking dive as the bodies of the femmes slammed the front row of gunmen down and opened the rest of the line vulnerable for the men's projectiles.

_CL-CL-CLACK!_

Snipers and gunmen dropped their weapons….gripping their wrists in surprise and pain.

_FW-FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!_ I sped through them, Myrkblade held aside.

_**TH-TH-THWUMP!**_ I tripped three men at once.

Black Canary flipped high—_WHUMP!_—landed with her nimble feet in the center of a man's chest and vaulted off to—_TH-TH-THWACK!_—helicopter kick three more thugs and—"RAAAUGH!--_**WHAM!—**_uppercut a fourth.

The uppercutted man's body flew high.

_TH-THWP! SNGG!_ Catwoman's whip spun tightly around his forearm. The vixen spun, twirled his body about, and tossed him—flailing—into a thick crowd of gunmen who fell off the buildingside in one yelping scream. "AAAAaaaaaaaugh!"

The last twelve thugs gasped and leapt onto the rooftop of a building across an expanse.

Robin and Green Arrow ran after them while Catwoman and Black Canary stayed behind to beat-in the recovering thugs stumbling up to their feet with weapons. _THWPP! WHAM! SM-SMACK!_

I took a deep breath and blurred to the edge of the rooftop to dive down and join my fellow vigilantes when—

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

"……?" I glanced to my left. I gasped—black eyes wide—and ducked just in time to avoid an RPG flying dangerously close to my cranium.

_**THWOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSH!**_

The bazooka exploded in a buildingfront a block away. _**POWWW!**_

I stood up, panting. Glaring up and across the battle-torn street.

Past a rising, warbling haze of golden golem heat and tank shell explosions…….and as far up as I could tilt my head, four terrorists perched atop a thirty-story building. They were swiftly reloading their bazooka.

"Noir!" Robin shouted from the building down along the rooftop line as he and Green Arrow played catch up with the retreating dozen. "Take them out!"

I looked all around.

The building across the street was well over an one hundred foot jump.

_Uh…… _

_Yeah……_

_**STOMP! **_

_**ST-STOMPP!**_

My feet wobbled.

I gasped, teetered, and looked up.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

A giant golem was stomping after two retreating Abrams tanks that fired tank shells into its burning chest.

_**BLAM! **_

_**BL-BLAM!**_

The giant absorbed the blows, stomped through remains of crumpled hummers and jeeps and Wildebeest bodies….and flexed its limbs with a froth of fire.

…..And it was standing within arm's reach of me alongside the roof's ledge.

I took a deep breath.

_Right._

_FWOOOOOSH!_

I blurred straight towards the edge.

Feet murking black.

I leapt with a mute cry.

I flew…airborne………………

_P-Plant!_

I landed my streaking feat on the burning creature's shoulder.

I stabbed Myrkblade ahead of me, meditated, and parted the flames billowing out from the rock creature's body beneath me as I ran…blurred….zoomed up the forearm, over the shoulder, around the neck, against the head, slid down the opposite shoulder, and dove straight towards the buildingside across from my original position.

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_ The giant I 'ran across' didn't like it what bit. It turned, flailed both its upper arms, and smashed them into the building after me.

_**CRASSSSSH!**_

I managed to cling to the buildingside in both speed and murking defiance as I blurred straight up the vertical stretch of glass and steel to the distant, thirty-story rooftop above. The warbling debris 'holes' of splashing glass shattered up towards my heels…but soon, the giant golem's lunge was worth nothing.

And even sooner, Superman soared shoulder-first into the giant golem's frame. "NNNGH!"

_**SLAMMMM!**_

The Man of Steel plowed the huge rock monster down to the burning streets of the Crunch.

In the meantime, I ran up the last lengths of the building climb.

When I reached the top I realized that the men had collapsed all as one from the vibrations of the giant golem's merciless strike.

_Just what I need._

I smiled a little as I flashed up the buidingside, twirled, and came down with a murderous downswipe of Myrkblade that sent fountains of smoke slamming the thick clusters of crooks aside.

_Yaaaaugh!_

_**FL-FLASSSSSH!**_

They gasped, dropped their bazookas, and tumbled every which way.

I landed in a crouch, took a deep breath, twirled Myrkblade, and dashed straight towards them just as they stood up.

_FW-FWOOOOOSSH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile…

Over the Bay….

"Nnnnnng-RAAAH!" Starfire engaged the second wave of City-bound missiles. _FL-FL-FLASSH! __**FLAASSH!**_

CL-CL-CLANGG! The starbolts bounced off the metal hulls of the streaming projectiles.

Starfire soared in closer…zooming head-on towards the centermost missile in sight.

Her hair whipped in the wind and her eyes teared from the cold December red as she summoned fire into her optics and—

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAP!**_

The laser sliced the missile into two twirling halves.

"Nnngh!" Starfire reached the line of missiles. She shot her hands out, grabbed a slice of rockets in each, and twirled toss them at either side of her.

_TH-THWISSSH! _

_THWOOOSH!_

_Half a rocket flew at a missile on her right….and half a rocket flew at a missile on her left._

Both targets exploded brilliantly. _**P-POWWWW!**_

With three missiles down, Starfire soared and went after the right flank.

Flinging starbolts at the projectiles zooming Northward just beyond her.

"Haaugh!" FLASH! "Rghhh!" FL-FLASH! "RAAAUGH!" **FLASSSSH!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the other side of the Bay, near the Suspension Bridge, Wonder Woman and Steel were double teaming the left flank of the second wave of missiles.

Steel battered one rocket after another with his sledge hammer. _**WHANG! CL-CLANG! THWACK!**_

He soared through an explosion or two while Wonder Woman flew up to a missile and punched a huge dent in it.

"NNnngh!"

_CRACK!_

The missile started to plummet.

**GRIP!**

Instead, Wonder Woman caught it. She whipped out her lasso. She tied it around the rocket…..then began twirling the missile around her mid-flight like a spinning acrobat.

Thwoosh-Thwoosh-Thwoosh!-Thwoosh!-THWOOSH!-_THWOOSH!-__**THWOOSH!THWOOSH!THWOOSH!**_

Wonder Woman sweated.

Wonder Woman strained.

Wonder Woman grunted….

"Steel! Heads up!"

"Let it fly!" Steel decelerated, leaving the four remaining rockets of the left flank in view.

"NYAAUGH!" Wonder Woman jerked the rocket loose from her lasso and flung it northwesterly.

It twirled, flew through one missile—_CRACK!_—bounced off a second—_CL-CLANK!_—shoved against a third—_CLANGG!_—and slammed both of them into the fourth.

And all of them exploded in an airborne fire worm. _**PHOOOOM!**_

Steel shielded himself from the explosions.

Wonder Woman slowed to a levitation.

Panting…she turned and gazed forlornly.

Eastward.

Towards Starfire's distant and lonely endeavors.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

'_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!'_

Batman's gloves flurried across the console of his cockpit.

He flipped on autopilot at an awkward angle.

Aiming the Batwing at the mountainside he had spotted earlier…..then tilting the Batwing up….more towards the sky.

He took a deep breath….

And reached a gloved hand towards the eject bar.

"……………………"

With another hand, he depleted the thrust by fifty percent and then…..

Ejected.

_CL-CLUNK!_

**POWWW!** The cockpit window shot off….and immediately impacted the rocket stuck to the top of the Batwing.

_SHATTTTTTTER!_

Glass splashed everywhere.

Batman winced and---

_**PFTOOOOSSSH!**_ Launched himself out of the Batwing—through the glass spray—and emerged outside still in his pilot's chair.

The Batwing's decelerated thrust, combined with the force and loss of weight with ejection—AND the still powerful flare of the rocket stuck to its fins—forced the aircraft to perform an awkward array of backflips as it twirled in an upwards arc, shot over the rooftops, and zoomed towards the mountainside beyond.

Batman descended in his chair. He gritted his teeth and pulled another cord…and a parachute shot out from behind the seat. _**PHWOOMP!**_

Batman drifted down gently….but not gently enough. The flying glass and debris cut at the parachute, causing a lot of air to drift through. Batman's descent was a spiraling, chaotic one.

Almost as chaotic as the flipping, flipping, flipping Batwing that soared off beyond City limits and plummeted explosively into the mountainside beyond.

_**KA-POWWWWW!.!.!.!**_

In the meantime, Batman fell towards the Crunch.

The spiraling sounds of tank shells and stomping golems and machine guns echoed into his masked ears.

He gritted his teeth….focused….and once he was a reasonable height above the building tops—

_Th-THWP!_

He snapped the belt free from his chair and leapt off.

_THWOOOOSH!_

Batman dove…his black cape billowing in the air.

He impacted a rooftop….rolled…and stood up straight with the distant explosion of the Batwing silhouetting his dark figure.

_BOOOOOOM!.!.!_

And Batman's lips pursed as soon as he stood.

Robin was there…standing right in front of him. Just nearby, Green Arrow, Black Canary and Catwoman were beating the crap out of thugs carrying shotguns and uzis.

The Dark Knight and his former sidekick stared at each other.

"……………"

"……………"

Robin gestured: "Seriously….must you _always_ wreck the Batwing?"

Batman frowned.

He pointed. Robin pointed.

A joint growl: "**Behind you!"**

SHIING! A batarang.

CHIING! A birdarang.

Each hero dodged to the right and tossed their projectile over the other's left shoulder just in time to smack a separate thug upside the skull with their spinning weapons.

_CL-CLACK!_

"**UGH!"**

Batman and Robin then spun, dodged bullet fire from a nearby rooftop, then jumped and glided over to take over the Daggerites with assault rifles.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The two Gotham heroes dove into the villains. Punching. Kicking. Backhanding. Jumping and plowing over with a mid-air fist or foot.

_THWACK! SOK! POW!_

In the middle of their frenzied fight---the battles of the Crunch booming hotly in the background---Batman droned to Robin.

"You should have asked before taking the Batmobile."

_SMACK! WHAM!_

Robin replied: "You wouldn't have let me take it anyway. You were moping over Barbara instead of taking action!"

_THWACK! BOP!_

"What is the action you're taking, Robin? You're as much in danger as anyone else here in this City…."

_CRACK! WHOP!_

"Not true, Batman. Slade is here. I have to confront him. He's already nearly taken the lives of two more of my teammates. I can't allow him to go any further. Especially as he's now exploiting Dagger's invasion….which I am HERE TO DEFEND! RAUGH!"

_BIFF! SL-SLAM!_

"I can understand the need to defend your City. But you could have been a little less reckless about it."

_P-POW! WHAM!_

"For crying out loud, Batman….I'm _SORRY_ about the BATMOBILE!" Th-THWACK! "At least I got it back in one piece! Unlike how you constantly make love to your Batwings."

_**CRUNCH!**_

"…….the fins were broken off, Robin."

_SM-SMACK!_

"Okay, that was **Cyborg's** doing….not mine!"

_TWHACK! THUNK!_

"Whatever. Stick by me, Robin." _RAT-A-TAT-TAT!_ Thwoosh-_WHUMP!_ ("Augh!") "Superman and Green Lantern need all the heat off their shoulders as possible. But at this rate—with Wonder Woman and Steel distracted—I can't say the battle looks promising."

_CR-CRACK! CLANG!_

"If we can just take care of this perimeter, we should buy Calvin's army more time. In the meantime, Beast Boy and Tempest are taking care of the missile launch sites. Everything should be good as long as we---Holy…."

"I got him."

SWOOSH-_**WHAM!**_

"Thanks."

"Keep going."

"I need to make sure—above all—that the rest of my team is okay. Slade is watching. Dagger may rip the City apart, but Red Aviary will tear each of us asunder."

_TH-THWACK! SOK!_

"Which is why I came here, Robin."

_WHAM!_

"…………."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOOOOOSH!

Superman soared straight down the war torn Main Street.

Tanks fired volleys from behind him.

The machine gun spray of Calvin's jeeps flew low over the asphalt.

Superman soared past the hot streaming bullets and mid-air tank shells that whistled in his ears and plunged his body murderously hard into the rock-chest of a giant golem.

"Yaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaAAA__**AAAAAAUGHHH!"**_

SWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH—_**CRNCHHHHH!**_

The giant quivered and jolted.

_**CRKKKK-KKKKK!**_

…

_**POWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Superman burst on the other side.

He panted…levitated…and spun around.

SWOOOSH!

SW-SW-SWOOOSH!

The machine gun bullets and tank shells caught up…

All of them sailed into the gaping, burning hole that Superman had made.

_**CRACCCCK!**_

The giant rumbled….fell apart….and slumped mightily to the street below in a descending rain of fire.

Superman took a breath.

But before he could swivel around in mid-air….

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSH!**_ An RPG from two terrorists on a sidewalk flew up and exploded in his face.

_**POWW!**_

"Aaaaugh!" Superman fell back hard and formed a crater in the center of the street.

_**POW!**_

The Man of Steel momentarily stirred….groaning.

The world turned into an echoing drone all around him.

Bullets streaking by.

Tank shells exploding.

The cries of soldiers and Daggerites filling the air.

The splash of concrete…..mortar….

Blood…..

Superman's eyes opened.

And for a moment he gazed up…

…and saw nothing but red.

The cold night…looming.

Something sickly….and hidden…

Malevolent beyond anything Dagger had thrown at them…..

Superman's teeth gritted. He jolted and shot up to his feet.

The drone of the world once again shattered back into the deafening thunder of war and chaos.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

_**  
CRKKKK!**_

A ring of golems marched and closed in around the recovering Kryptonian.

"Raaaugh!" _**CRAACK!**_ Superman punched through two at a time. "Nnngh!" He flung his leg out and slammed one golem into another. _CRKK!_ He grabbed a handful chunk of burning rock, spun, and flung it at the feet of the two terrorists reloading their bazooka. _P-POW!_ The men were thrown back and slammed into the nearest buildingside.

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

Superman spun to look…panting…

A solid wave of gold golems were stampeding towards him. Limbs flailing.

Superman gritted his teeth, flexed his muscles, and crouched…..ready to leap crushingly towards the solid wave—

_**FLASSSSH!**_

A green field separated him from his foe.

"H-Huh?" he stood up straight, blinking.

"I know you're Superman and all…..," _Fwoosh!_ Green Lantern hovered down by his side….extending the force field with his left hand. "But you can't take on just _anything!_ I don't care what the comics or newspapers say!"

"John…..this is insane…," Superman breathlessly spoke. "We can only do so much against this much force without special help."

"Exactly what I friggin' said!" Green Lantern frowned. "But does anybody listen to me? Noooo….gotta go after _some damn missiles_!"

"I think we need to suggest to General Calvin that he retreat. I doubt our allies in the air are enough to take on the missiles by themselves either. If it weren't for all of these rock creatures, I'd be over the Bay in a blink….helping to eliminate those bogeys!"

Green Lantern warily eyed the thrashing golems on the other side of his force field. "Yeah, I hear ya. But these things aren't going to give Calvin's forces a rest. And it's not like we can just….I dunno….._wish_ them all to disappear!"

"So….what are our options?"

"………," Green Lantern sighed. "What else?"

He and Superman looked at each other.

"……."

"……."

The two Leaguers faced the golems.

"Let's go…."

"Right beside you."

_FLASH!_

The green force field vanished.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_ The wave of golden monsters stampeded towards them.

"NNnngh!"

"Raaaugh!"

Green Lantern and Superman soared into the thick crowd in the center of the street.

_**POWWWWW!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_**POWWW!**_

A solid line of tanks fired into the feet of an incoming giant and the golems charging on either side of its ankles.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_**POWWW!**_

_**BLAM!**_

_**POWWWWW!**_

The giant marched, unhindered.

The golems shattered and exploded…but more and more rose to replace them.

They stomped speedily towards the line of Army vehicles.

An array of mounted assault rifles were set up. Calvin's men took aim and—

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

General Calvin stood directly behind the line of artillery and ballistics.

He clenched his teeth and squinted his eyes at the fiery mayhem. Soldiers around him flinched at the noise and chaos, but he stood resolutely still.

A radioman ran towards him. "Sir, General, Sir! The Eastern Front reports a forced retreat of two blocks! Dagger's forces are advancing steadily towards them!"

"At the same time that this is happening to us…..," Calvin murmured….gazing in thin-eyed disbelief at the incoming wave of rocky freaks. "….it's all because of these infernal monsters…"

"Sir! A second wave of missiles is heading for this location! Steel and Wonder Woman have eliminated half of them to the west. But the results of the east flank is still inconclusive."

"We stay. We fight."

"…..Sir?"

General Calvin finally turned his head to frown at the radioman. "Report my commandment to the forces, _**soldier!"**_

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

The man rushed over to a jeep, squawking over the noise into his mic.

Calvin once again gazed at the incoming wave of monstrosities. He exhaled….

"Just keep us safe from the birds a little bit longer….."

And he slowly….gazed up towards the red sky.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NnnnnnnnNNNNGH-AAAUGH!" Starfire flew hotly, tensed her shoulder muscles, and rammed herself against a rocket.

_CL-CLANK!_

The one missile spiraled and spun its way into the Bay Waters below.

_**SP-SPLOOOOSH!**_

_**POWWWWW!**_

Starfire burst through a spray of water and soared towards three remaining projectiles.

The northern shore of the City became once again visible.

The waters billowed and waved beneath….becoming a speedy blur.

Starfire had very little time left….and this was only the _second_ wave.

She gritted her teeth and burned towards one of the last three.

She reached a hand out…braved the heat of the rocket's flare….and wrapped her pink-sleeved wrist around the tail fins of the missile.

_CLAMP!_

She winced and fought against the fiery exhaust as she 'pulled' herself forward by her rip and wrenched her second hand deep into the metal exoskeleton.

_CRKKKKKKK!_

"Nnnnnngh!"

Her eyes flickered a hot green.

She sneered

She pulled hard on the tail fin and pulled hard on the exoskeleton—

_SLIIIIIIIIIIICE!_

She ripped the missile in half, down the middle.

The detonator and explosive charge sparked and short circuited into deadness before falling down and splashing in the Bay waters below.

Starfire boosted herself forward and plunged after the last two rockets.

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!_

Charging starbolts….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Sitting at his computer station inside an undisclosed hovercraft cabin…

William B. Fox monitored the progress of the launched missiles.

The flickering red dots on the map of the City's Bay fizzled and blotted out one-by-one.

"Hmmmm….like hotcakes…," Fox murmured.

His eyes narrowed as he spotted a green dot pulsing on the computer screen next to the last two missiles.

"Hmmm….," he smiled. "Delay the next volley…."

He blurred his hands over the keyboard…typed….and brought up a fresh list of commands.

"Things are about to heat up."

_Click._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

As Starfire reached the missiles….something happened.

_WHURRR-CLUCTHNG!_

The fins of the two last projectiles extended twice their length…becoming long, curved 'wings'.

"H-Huh?"

_Whurrrr-__**PHOOOOOOOM!**_

The flares of the rockets practically _**exploded**_ with thrust.

_**PFTOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

Starfire was actually blown back by the acceleration.

"Aaaah!" she gasped and twirled in the air before uprighting herself and staring—with wide green eyes—as the projectiles plummeted towards the City twice as fast…covering water and approaching ground.

_**PHOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

A gasp.

A gasp that turned into a growl.

A growl that turned into a Tamaranian warcry as Starfire's eyes shimmered a hot emerald and—

_**SWIIIIIIISSSH!**_

She bolted after the zooming two.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FWOOOOSH!_

_Th-Th-THWISSH!_

SLASSSSH!

Myrkblade swam through two assault rifle barrels, severing in half the weapons of a pair of thugs.

The men gasped and moved to slam the butt of their guns at me.

I teleported through and beneath them…solidified on the other side…and backhanded both with a black, synthetic wrist.

_SL-SLAM! _

_SLAP!_

Both men fell hard to the rooftop floor.

BL-BLAM! BANG!

From behind me, pistol fire ripped through the air towards the back of my skull.

I shot my head to the side.

The bullets zoomed by, upsetting a strand or two of black hair.

I glanced through the peripheral of my black shades.

Two terrorists with handguns stood on a higher rooftop behind me, firing.

BL-BLAM!

BLAM!

I twirled Myrkblade in reverse behind my back.

CL-CLANG!

I deflected both bullets back at the men.

_CLACK!_ One's gun was smacked out of his grasp. "Augh!"

I spun around….blurred…jumped over a raging street of golems-versus-tanks…and landed with a downswing of Myrkblade.

_SLIIIINK!_

Blood splashed from one man's arm.

"Aaaugh!" he clutched his shoulder and stumbled.

I twirled and kicked him in the side….slamming him into his criminal buddy.

_WH-WHAP!_

The thugs collapsed on the ground.

_Cl-Clak!_

_  
Clik! _

_Clak!_

I looked up.

A dozen men faced me with uzzis, shotguns, and pistols. The terrorists aimed at me all in one accord across the rooftop.

I took a deep breath.

I crouched low….vaporing smoke…

Gripping myrkblade…………..

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_ A red-orange streak throttled through the thick crowd, knocking the men off their feet.

_Whap!_

_  
Thwap!_

"Augh!"

I blinked.

The Flash zoomed to a stop beside me. "Jeez! Taking in all those goons at once! Are you nuts?" He gestured wildly with his arms.

"……………."

Then he smiled. "Cool. My kind of wyrdo." He spun and blurred into the rooftop thugs. _**FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_ WHAM! SM-SMACK! WHUMP!

"Ooof!"

"Augh!"

I smirked somewhat and blurred alongside him.

Myrkblade swinging.

_TH-TH-THWISSH!_

_Sl-Slash!_

_  
Sliiink! _

_Thwack!_

I grazed the shoulders of two thugs and kicked another into a radio antenna. _Clang!_

I leapt a swing of a man's sniper rifle butt, flipped in the air, stabbed in reverse, stuck Myrkblade in between the man's shoulder and outfit, and flung him over me like a lever into a gliding punch of the Flash.

_**WH-WHAP!**_

The speedster zoomed on to pummel and trip more thugs while I twirled and stabbed my way through an A/C unit, causing the metal box to explode and collapse a terrorist hiding on the other side.

WH-WHUMP! "Ugh!"

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSH!**_ An RPG flew past me.

I jolted to a stop. I glanced to my right.

A terrorist stood on the rooftop's ledge. In desperation, he furiously reloaded his bazooka.

Flash zoomed by me and plowed through two more thugs. In the meantime, I ducked down to one knee, grabbed Myrkblade's opposite ends in a flesh and black hand, and flicked it towards the bazooka thug like a rubber band.

_THWIP!_

Myrkblade flew and slammed into the thug's chest.

He fell off the buildingside, bazooka and all. _"Aaaaugh!"_

Myrkblade bounced off, twirled in the air, and sailed down towards me.

I jumped up, reached a hand out, and grabbed the weapon's hilt just in time to twirl and swing around in a spin that slammed the length of Myrkblade upside the skull of a terrorist aiming a shotgun at my back.

_**SMACK!**_

"Ughhh!" he fell down hard.

Two more thugs' bodies flew coldly across the rooftop floor from the Flash's streaking punishment. _Th-Thwump!_

And that's when I realized—breathless and sweating—that the rooftop had been cleared.

"Heeeeeey….," Flash held two thumbs' up and smiled. "We're not so bad together, are we? We can take on anything! Spiffy speedsters! YEAH!"

"………" I smiled.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

Both of us raised an eyebrow each.

We both turned around….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOSH!**_

A HIND helicopter rose up from the burning streets below. With rotary blades beating and payload whirring….the huge aircraft loomed just above us. Its machine gun cannons zeroed in on us.

_Whirrrrrr!_

"………….," my black eyes twitched.

Flash gulped. "Yeah…..let's both…uhm…._**RUN.**_"

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The rooftop and random exposed bodies exploded in a straight line towards us.

_**P-P-P-P-P-P-PING!**_

Flash turned and blurred.

I twirled about and joined him.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

_FWOOOOSH!_

The red speedster zoomed over the rooftop, darting around A/C units and antennae.

I blurred after him…panting….feeling the heat of the helicopter and its streaking bullets right behind me.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

We both reached a rooftop.

We held our breaths and leapt.

_FWOOOOSH!_

_FWOOSH!_

The Flash and I soared over a six-lane street full of exploding tanks, fleeing soldiers, and advancing golems.

…….

_TH-THAP!_

We landed on the other side.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSH!**_ The HIND beated after us.

We blurred.

A red streak.

A black streak.

We darted in and around metal structures atop the roof as the HIND started launching hellseekers and mini rockets at us.

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSSH! **_

_**PHOOOOOSSSH!**_

_**PFTOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

Flash grunted and leapt aside in mid-blur as I criss-crossed him on smoking feet.

We performed dual serpentine sprints to avoid the heated projectiles exploding between and behind us.

_**POW! **_

_**P-POW!**_

_**KABOOOM!**_

_**PHOOOM!**_

The HIND ducked low, pierced the cloud of debris and flame, and fired its machine guns again.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

The Flash and I zoomed, slid beneath a billboard, and leapt across a war-torn street to yet another rooftop beyond.

_FWOOSH! _

_FWOOOOSH!_

_**POWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

The HIND exploded the billboard directly behind us. It soared through the flaming splinters, its rotary blades slicing and dicing debris as its cannon twirled and flared.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

_Pl-Plant!_

The Flash and I landed on the buildingtop and zoomed.

"Whoah!" Flash's eyes widened.

An rooftop greenhouse blocked our path. Glass structure from ledge to ledge.

"We gotta find another—"

_FWOOOOSH!_ I streaked past him.

He flashed. "….or not."

_SHATTTERR!_ I slammed through a pane of glass, twirling Myrkblade.

_CRKKKK!_ Flash zoomed behind me.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Streaking high-caliber bullets from the helicopter smashed and shattered down through the glass towards us.

The Flash and I ran down aisles of potted plants and flowers and hanging weed….all of which exploded and splashed in sprays of soil from the bullets on either side of us.

_**SP-SPLOTCH! **_

_**P-P-P-P-PING!**_

_**TH-TH-THUNK! **_

_**The Flash panted and flinched as glass showered down and littered his body in shards.**_

I gritted my teeth and encased my body in murk as we approached the far wall of glass.

_SHATTTTTTERRR!_

We both burst out of the green house….and found ourselves falling through thin-air.

"Daaaah!" Flash shrieked, arms flailing.

I held my breath, billowed murk, and soared down towards the nearest buildingtop I could see below us.

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

**TH-THAP!**__

_**I landed hard, but the murk managed to cushion my descent some.**_

"Aaaaaaaaah—OOF!" The Flash fell and gripped onto a buildingside with his stretching hand at the last second. He panted and struggled to pull himself up.

I gave him a hand, wincing….

_**PFTOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

We both glanced back.

"What in the—"

_**BOOOOM!**_

A missile exploded directly beneath us.

"Yaaaaaugh!"

The Flash and I flailed through the air from the concussion and landed painfully across the rooftop.

_Wham!_

_WH-WHAM!_

I winced….struggled up to my feet.

I looked over and gasped.

Flash was draped over an a/c unit. Groaning. Out for the count.

I ran halfway towards him….but slowly stopped as if molasses was oozing over my feet.

For….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The HIND hovered menacingly alongside the shatter, smoking rooftop.

In slow motion, I watched its rotary blades beat the air before me.

Its payload readied a new pair of rockets.

The pilots inside the cockpit bubbles rushed their hands over the control and targeted us.

"…………," my eyes twitched as I directly faced the fateful helicopter.

I felt a sudden…overwhelming sensation of dizziness.

I shook my head….glanced aside….and suddenly realized that Jericho was standing right beside me.

In the flesh.

_Joey?_

The little blonde was staring straight at the helicopter.

Fists clenched.

Green eyes thin.

And……

He ran.

I gasped.

_Joey!_

Jericho charged the HIND dead-on. His feet were drowned out by the slicing thunder in the air. He huffed…puffed….streaked towards the rooftop's ledge……and jumped clean off.

I screamed mutely and stretched a hand out towards the impossibly far-away boy.

He flew through the air in his massive leap.

Teeth clenched.

Eyes narrow….searching….

As his body….

As his body sailed towards the slicing rotary blades of the massive HIND.

_**FWOOSH!-FWOOSH!-FWOOSH!-FWOOSH!-FWOOSH!-**__**FWOOSH!**_

My jaw dropped.

My heart skipped a beat.

The pilots inside the cockpit bubbles stared….stared….

Jericho's eyes pulsed.

And just as he flew into the shredding blades—

_**FLASSSH!**_

He disappeared.

"……………………….," I stirred where I stood.

The HIND hovered there—seemingly numb—for a good few seconds.

Then….

The pilot in the lower cockpit bubble suddenly flung his hands to an offset array of controls.

_ZZZZZTT!_

Sparks flew blue and bright in the top cockpit bubble.

The second pilot inside shook and screamed….and slumped silent.

"……….?" I craned my neck. I stepped curiously….numbly towards the thunderous aircraft.

I lowered my shades and gazed with naked black eyes towards the HIND. The noise and chaos of war echoed behind me.

The HIND uprighted itself. The payload retracted. Inside the front cockpit bubble, the pilot's hands went to work on the controls. He then gazed out at me.

I gazed back at him.

…………

His gloved hand lifted and performed a symbol that even I could see through the tint of the cockpit bubble.

'_J'_.

I smiled…..I smiled wide.

The pilot waved, signaled again, and pulled at the controls.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

The HIND took off, twirled about, and zoomed off towards the distance with 'Jericho' inside.

And I stared at it…..breathless.

Gazing……

And as soon as the HIND hovered off behind a stretch of buildings to the North, Jericho was gone.

I took a deep breath.

Frozen still….for a reason I didn't quite know.

I took a breath, twirled around, and helped support the Flash who was groaningly getting back onto his feet.

"Mrmmm….nngh…d-did we defeat the hordes of Satan y-yet?"

I smirked somewhat. While letting the speedster lean on me, I fingered my communicator and sent a morse code message to…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

….Cyborg.

_VRMMMMMM!_

"I'm getting a message!" Cyborg said as his red eye lit up. He took his right hand off the jeep's wheel and held out the liquid crystal console in his titanium forearm for the passenger-seat soldier to read. "Quick! Tell me what does it say!"

She squinted and read the digitized translation of the morse code text. "It's saying that……that a 'Jericho' is inside one of Dagger's helicopters north of the Crunch…."

"What in blazes does that mean?" Lieutenant Smith raised an eyebrow.

Cyborg smiled and drove again with two hands on the wheel. "It means that we've got one more set of helping hands in the air. Can somebody patch that message through to Calvin or something? No need for the good guys to shoot down the wrong bird."

"On it!" the soldier operated her communicator.

Smith leaned forward. "I'm surprised there has been little resistance in this part of Town! I guess Dagger really DID lose his forces to the relocation at the Crunch!"

Cyborg squinted. He slowed the jeep some. "Hold that thought, Smith. I think we just found the War again."

The combat vehicle and its halo of motorcyclists zeroed in on an intersection where a group of soldiers huddled behind an overturned jeep…sheltering themselves from flashes and bolts of energy…

All sailing forth from the gun turrets lining the shielded entrance of Phaser Labs.

_**ZAAAP! **_

_**FL-FLASH!**_

_**ZAP!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over the edge of the Bay….

_**PHOOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The twin missiles soared towards the buildings lining the Northern Shore.

Starfire zoomed faster and faster after them.

Straining.

She launched starbolts a few last, meager times at the accelerated rockets.

_FL-FLASH! _

_FLASH!_

They bounced off the serrated wings.

The rockets soared on, unhindered.

Starfire gritted her teeth and pushed….pushed….pushed herself forward through the beating air.

Her body flickered and glowed a trailing green….like an emerald fire in and of itself.

She stretched a hand out…reaching….grabbing for the rearmost of the two rockets.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSH!**_

She growled….grunted….strained….

Her hands inched closer…..embracing the metal beyond the flame.

Her brow sweat….then flattened into a sheen from the rushing cold air.

The world was a blur.

The waves below a distant roar.

The buildings up ahead….deafening…..deafening….

"Nnnnnnnnghhh-YaaaaAAUGH!"

Starfire's legs seemed to burst aflame as she thrust forward and—

_**CLAMP!**_

Her hand grabbed around the metal body of the rear rocket.

She gasped and swung her lower legs down, up and around.

_CL-CLUTCH!_

She hugged the rocket….panting….

A breath.

…..

"NYAAAAAUGH!" she vaulted off the rear rocket, used its acceleration to shoot her body forward, and launched herself at the frontmost rocket.

_CL-CLUTCH!_

She grabbed onto it…hanging from her forearms with her lower body dangling and flailing wildly.

She gritted her teeth, tossed her whipping flame of hair, and glared at the second rocket behind her. Her Tamaranian eyes narrowed…flickered….and—

_**FLAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAASSSSH!**_

Two optic beams ate thickly into the metal body of the projectile.

_**BOOOOOM!.!.!.!**_

"Nnngh!" she jolted from the concussion for but a moment.

Then…panting….firing up more green energy…..

She twirled her body up and around the rocket….

And practically rode it as she gripped its wings and lifted….lifted….lifted with all her might.

"Nnnnnnnnghhhh!.!.!.!.!"

She pulled the accelerated path of the rocket upwards so that it lifted slowly…..agonizingly above the level of the building rooftops across the way.

_**PHOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

She soared madly into the air….zooming over the gray and gold madness of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**TWNGG! **_

_**TW-TWNGG!**_

Green Arrow launched a trio of air-splitting projectiles at terrorists lining the rooftop's edge.

_CL-CL-CLACK!_ Guns were smacked out of their grasp.

"HAAUGH!" Black Canary dove in, kicked one thug off the building's edge ("Aaaugh!") and slammed her feet into the other two…pummeling them.

Catwoman flipped and cartwheeled towards a thick group of gunmen, twirled with her whip spinning and lashing about, and slammed skulls into each other while tripping the legs out beneath crooks on the side.

_**THWP!-THWPP!-THWPP!-**__**WHAP!**_

Batman and Robin leapt and jump-kicked a pair of thugs besides a stairwell in perfect precision.

_Th-THWACK!_

Batman charged into a pair of thugs with assault rifles, rammed his shoulder into them, and spun with a high-flying kick across two crowns at once. _TH-THWACCK!_

Robin twirled his bo-staff, slammed it into the gut of a terrorist or two, and crushed the foot of a creep trying to stab him from behind with a knife. _CRACK!_

Bodies hit the floor of the roof…groaning in pain.

Batman and Robin stood back to back….panting….

_TH-THWP!_ _Pl-Plant!_

They both looked over.

I landed in a settling vapor of murk. The Flash leaning on my shoulder.

I nodded at the two, panting, and helped Flash over to an A/C unit to rest up against.

"Good job, Noir…..," Robin said. He panted and raised and eyebrow above his eyemask. "….er….whatever it is you've been doing, I'm sure it's been kick ass. So 'good job'."

I smirked.

Robin spun. "Are we done here? I think that's the last of them!"

Batman gazed at the rooftops beyond, where Green Arrow and Black Canary were diving down upon a remaining group of grenadiers. Catwoman soon joined them.

"The rooftops may be cleared. Now would be a good time to go down and personally give Calvin's forces some cover."

"They're on the retreat!" Robin pointed. "I've been minding the battle in the streets out of the corners of my eyes. Calvin's men are heading back West and East! Superman and Green Lantern can't handle the crunch on their own!"

"We can only do so much, Robin…," Batman growled. "Stop thinking we can be more than human…"

Robin frowned, his fists clenched. "I am NOT thinking that! Why don't you get your head out of the damn cave for once?"

_Phooooooooom!_

The three of us froze.

I craned my neck….ear pricked at the sound of a distant rushing sound.

"What in the--?" Robin began.

He turned around.

He gazed up--

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSH!.!.!.!**_

In a green streak…..

Starfire and the rocket soared directly overhead.

And Robin's mouth exploded in a huge gasp. He ran towards the edge of the rooftop….gazing north as the Tamaranian rocketed by.

"STARFIRE!.!.!.!"

I panted.

"St-Starfire!" Robin waved an arm and stood up on the ledge. "Hold on! I'm here! I'm going to—"

Before the Boy Wonder could reach inside his utility belt for a grappling hook…he was tugged back by his cape.

He glanced back and shouted at Batman: "What are you _**DOING?"**_

Batman glared. "She's on her own! You can't help her, Robin!"

"Nnnngh!" Robin batted Batman's glove off his cape. "You don't understand! I need to help Starfire! I…I **need to ****SEE**** STARFIRE!"**

"_No, Tim!" Batman shouted. "Keep your mind focused! She's dealing with a highly explosive rocket! Something that only she and her alien strength can handle!"_

"But—"

"Your job is right here, Robin!" the Dark Night bellowed. "We have to assist Calvin's army and Superman! If so much as one of us leaves, the Crunch is lost! Dagger's armies will take over!"

Robin hissed: "They can burn this City to ashes for all I frickin' care! This is Starfire we're talking about!"

"You need to get your priorities straight!" Batman growled. "Leaving right now will accomplish nothing! Starfire can handle herself! For now, stick with me and then we'll—"

_**WHAM!**_ My black fist flew across Batman's face.

"OOF!" the Dark Knight fell down to the rooftop. Cold.

Robin gasped.

He looked up at me. Eyemask wide.

I was panting. I gulped, looked at him, and pointed with Myrkblade in the direction Starfire flew.

'_GO!'_

Robin nodded. "Th-Thanks…." He turned around, dove off the buildingside, and fired a grappling hook in mid-descent.

**POW! **_Clank!_

_THWOOOOSH!_

I took a deep breath.

I glanced down.

"Nnnngh…." Batman was stirring. Getting up on his feet.

I simpered and cascaded a wave of smoke down my body.

Cloaking.

"Mrmmmmf….." Batman stood up. His eyeslits narrowed. He gazed around the rooftop.

But I was 'gone'.

"…………….."

A stirring.

Batman jerked to look.

The Flash was on his feet…gripping his side. He limped towards Batman….stared…..and shrugged.

"Don't look at me. I wasn't the one who smacked you good," he smirked.

"Nnngh…," Batman ran a gloved hand over his cowl.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin swung.

Robin soared.

At the end of his cord-length plummet, he yanked hard, retracted the grappling hook, flipped in the air, and landed in a nimble squat.

_Pl-Plant!_

He took a deep breath.

He got up and ran straight down the side streets.

Leading north…

He panted as he ran.

The cold of the red night drew upon him.

His black hair waved sweatily as a sheen formed over his brow.

An all-encompassing chill that stole the fire from him.

And replaced it with panic….flight….panic…..flight….

The Boy Wonder sprinted his way northward.

And his masked eyes gazed constantly upwards.

Following a distant green streak….growing more distant.

His lips pursed and his mouth fell agape with each heaving breath….

As he pressed on.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**PHOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Starfire struggled…struggled…struggled with the missile.

Her whole face tensed as she pulled up….up…..up on the flaming projectile she was riding.

Her eyes were clenched shut.

Her teeth gritting to the breaking point.

Her amber alien fingers clung wrenchingly to the metal wings of the craft.

She hissed….grunted….strained….

_**PH-PHOOOOO-OOOOOSSSSH!**_

The rocket slowly raised….

The rooftops blurring by underneath her mid-air struggle drew closer and closer.

Currents of air kicked up at her hair with each large structure she soared over.

She took a deep breath, summoned a fiery jolt of energy into her hands….and melted the wings she was gripping onto.

_**FLASSSSH!**_

The missile wobbled and veered side-to-side.

Starfire shifted back on the rocket and placed her weight to the rear.

She pulled back even harder, attempting to use her meager weight to tear the nose of the rocket upwards.

It worked…..slowly…..

With the rocket's ascent inching skywards.

"NNnnnghhh…..NN-Nnnnghhh!" Starfire grunted.

Her green eyes teared as she squinted and looked straight ahead.

She and the missile were heading straight towards a single site.

The Wayne Enterprises Building.

The huge five-letter electric sign shimmered straight in front of her.

Piercing the night.

Cold…….

Frigidly cold….for some reason.

At the moment, Starfire focused solely on tearing the missile off course.

She pulled….pulled….pulled back at the craft.

Starting to bend the metal.

Starting to twist the thing in two…

SCRKKKKTT!

_**PHOOOO-OOOOOSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAP! **_

_**Z-Z-ZAP!**_

The soldiers flinched behind the overturned jeep.

Cyborg drove his convoy's vehicle speedily around the intersection—_SCREEEECH!_—and brought it around a building corner across the way from Phaser Labs.

Smith's men speedily parked their motorcycles out of the range of the turret guns as bolts of energy flew at their general locations from the shielded labs.

_**Z-ZAP! **_

_**ZAP!**_

_**Z-Z-ZAP!**_

Cyborg jumped out of his jeep and landed on his titanium feet.

He took a breath.

"………"

He pointed out towards the intersection.

"Let's go!"

The soldier, Smith, and five police officers carried pistols and shotguns as they ran after Cyborg and ducked behind the collapsed jeep where the half-wounded soldiers huddled.

"What happened here?" Lieutenant Smith asked.

While tending to another soldier's wounded shoulder, an artillerywoman said: "We were on patrol when Phaser Labs suddenly bolted up and started firing those energy pulses at us! It's like the thing's geared for a thermonuclear war or something!"

Cyborg leaned forward. Frowning. "There was a report of some shape-shifting mud thing being here. Is that true?"

The soldier stammered: "I….I-I…"

"_**Is it?**_"

"Cyborg….please….," Smith tried to calm him.

Cyborg fumed.

The soldier gestured: "Some godawful blob of mud threw our jeep off its wheels as soon as we stopped by here! We would have gone after the thing—but that's when the shields went up and the gun turrets came out. We don't have enough firepower to take those defenses out!"

"And as a matter of fact…," officer Chapman spoke while gazing at Phaser Labs from behind the jeep. "Neither do we….."

Cyborg took a deep, heavy breath. "This isn't just some sideshow trick of Dagger's that we're dealing with….," he pointed. "This is Phaser Labs. And that means…..this all comes down to me….and my uncle."

"Cyborg, we don't know that for sure…," Smith said hoarsely. "It could be that Dagger had Matt Hagan somehow reprogram the defenses on his own. Don't rule out all hope for your Uncle."

"Oh….there's still some hope left…." _CL-CLAK! Clakka-CLAK!_ Cyborg stood up, his right hand a sonic cannon. He snarled: "There's hope that I can still kick that lousy digital ass of his!"

"Cyborg--!"

"Y'all stay back!" and Cyborg ran out from around the jeep. "Let's see whose tech is still top-notch, old man!"

_**ZAP!**_

_**Z-ZAP! **_

_**ZAP!**_

The turrets at the front of Phaser Labs converged energy beams on the stampeding android.

Cyborg merely snarled, bitch-slapped the energy blasts away with his metal fist, and ran straight for the steel-plated doors. "RAAAAAAUGH!"

Smith, his officers, and the soldiers watched forlornly from behind the overturned jeep.

_Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!Stomp!_

Cyborg approached the door.

The turrets turned and glowed hotly to fire an explosive charge at him.

Cyborg gritted his teeth, pivoted, and aimed at the turret on his left.

_**ZAAAAP!**_

_**POW!**_

It exploded brilliantly.

Cyborg aimed right at another.

_**ZAAAAAAAAAAP!**_

_**POWWW!**_

Cyborg was showered with ashes and puffs of flame as he approached the steel plates, shouted at the top of his lungs, and flung his solid fists into it.

"AAAAUGH!"

_**WHANG!**_

Again.

"YAAAAUGH!"

_**CL-CLANG!**_

Again.

"RAAUGH!"

_**CL-CLANG!**_

Dents formed in the thick steel from the merciless Titan's cybernetic pummeling.

Suddenly….there was a flurry of sparks.

Cyborg panted as he realized electricity was being coursed through the metal slabs.

And—

_**ZZZZzztt-Zzzzt-ZZZZTTT!**_

"AAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAUGH!" he shook all over, screamed in electrocuted agony…..and tightened his twitching muscles. "Nnnngh……RGGGH!" He raised a fist, absorbed the waves of blue bolts, and tightened his knuckles. "Gotta g-give me more than that to 'spank' me, old MAN! HAAAAUGH!"

_**SWOOOOOSH-**__**SLAM!**_

_**CRACCCCKKKKKK!**_

The metal shield shattered completely.

"Raaaugh!" _**SMASSH! CRASSH!**_ Cyborg punched his way in through the shattered field of shrapnel. He stomped in through the glass, shrugged his arms, and upsetted the rest of the metal slabs off their foundation. "AAAAAUGH!" _**CRKKKK-**__**CLANGGG!**_

The entrance was now a crumpled, smoking pile of twisted and mangled metal.

Cyborg….panted…..panted…panted….fumed…..and marched inside with a sonic cannon reforming.

_Cl-Clak! CLAK!_

"Candygram, bitch…..," he hissed.

And he went in…alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the basement of Phaser Labs….

The walls and floor shook.

Clayface gasped. Fully back to his cohesive strength, he marched out from the hanging robot arms and gazed 'skyward' as his yellow-rimmed mouth crustily uttered: "What the Hell is that?"

Simon Stone was 'looking' at a computer console and an array of security camera screens. _"Hmmmmmmmmm………"_

Clayface looked over. He clenched huge brown fists. "'Hmmmmm' what? Do we have intruders or what?"

"_Just one intruder, Mr. Hagan,"_ Simon Stone turned and glanced over. _"My nephew……"_

Clayface gasped….stumbling back. "Cy-Cyborg…."

"_You seem panicky, Hagan. May I ask why?"_

"Uhm…..maybe because it's **CYBORG**? It so happens I've worked for a full month on the girlfriend to the most pissed-off robot in the world now."

"_I wouldn't be too incredibly concerned if I were you," _Stone said. He gestured a holographic hand. Flickering. _"You are more than a match for his combined, technological fervor. I simply suggest that you use the right amount of finesse in taking him down."_

"Right…..," Clayface nodded with a heavy breath. He started sloshing his way towards the stairs that led up to the first floor. "If I've _been_ the rust-bucket for the last five weeks….I should know how to take him out. Thanks for the pep talk, Stone. Good to have you on my side."

"…………_,"_ Stone looked over unemotionally at Hagan. _"Of course you know I __**am**__ rooting for my nephew."_

Clayface froze at that. He glanced down at the hologram. Amber-glazed eyes thin and suspicious.

Stone gestured: _"I would greatly desire him to destroy you and terminate me in the process. But—alas—that is not in line with my programming, is it?"_

"………………y-yeah….."

"_Do your best for Dagger, Hagan. I shall seal off the entrance to the basement labs if you can eliminate him upstairs. Use your access codes to enter this room and recharge your metamorphing abilities if need be."_

"The only reason I'll be coming back, you stupid construct, will be if I have your nephew's head to put on a platter."

"……………"

_WHURRRR-SCHLUMP!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the cabin of William B. Fox's hovercraft….

The rich young heir tapped away at his keyboard.

Eyeing the various screens that displayed the horrendous battle at hand in digital simplicity.

On his monitor for displaying the missile launches, only one red dot remained.

And it was soaring towards the Wayne Enterprises building.

"Hrmmm….a gift for Dad," Fox mused.

His brown eyes floated over towards another monitor.

A list of schematics displayed the operational ion cannon's target and trajectory and charge.

Right at the center of the City.

Fox took a deep…shuddering breath.

"Onward with the distractions…."

He prepared a keystroke to launch the third wave of missiles at the City and its enflamed heroes.

As he did so, he gazed at the communicator lying cold and quiet on his desktop.

He bit his lip.

"Please be dead…..please b-be dead already….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On another hovercraft to the southeast of the Bay….

A group of Daggerite terrorists marched about the on-deck instrument panels for the rocket launchers.

One looked at a blinking light on the console and said: "We're getting another command! The third volley is away!"

"Jeez….are they sure? None of these are making their target—"

"I don't think we're supposed to ask questions, pal. Let's just do what the bosses tell us."

"Right-o. Missiles loaded and ready—"

_SPLOOOOSH!_

A wave of water cascaded over the deck and knocked both men away from the consoles.

"Aaaaugh!"

_Th-THWUMP!_

They fell and rolled roughly across the deck along with the sudden wall of salt water.

Wincing…

"Nnngh!"

"The Hell?"

"Where'd that squall come from?"

"_Not a squall……"_

The two henchmen stood up—panting at the sound of the mysterious voice. They whipped out their pistols and looked all about.

"_A __**tempest**__!"_

They spun and aimed their guns to the stern.

Tempest stood….perched on the railing of the hovercraft's edge. He smirked and waved a hand. "Hello, dry bags. Nice skiff you have here…….well, _not really._"

"Damn…."

"One of the Titans!"

"You've chosen the wrong boat to jump, kid!" one grunted as both of the men trained their pistols on him.

He leaned his head to the side and gestured: "I'm from Atlantis, by the way. Do you know what we'd call a couple of chumps like you back home where I used to swim?"

"………"

"………..?"

Tempest winked a dark eye. "The bottom of the food chain…."

_SPLOOSH!_ SWOOOOOOSH! A green killer whale leapt mightily out of the water, morphed into a T-Rex in mid-air, and soared down at the two puny Daggerites.

"**RAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRR!"**

"Aaaaaaaah!"

"Aaaaa-aaaaaugh!"

_**CRUSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Crunch…

Superman and Green Lantern smashed through golems and large giants stomping through Downtown.

Batman and Catwoman descended to the streets—one building at a time—smashing thugs' and snipers' faces in.

Black Canary and Green Arrow ran down a sidewalk…skewering and pummeling gunmen and Daggerites in Hummers.

The Flash dashed in and around golems, disorienting them for Calvin's slowly receding tanks to blast away while making a distance between the military front and the never-ending waves of rock monsters.

I was gliding down various buildingsides and launching myself at mounted gunmen in hummers, slicing their weapons apart and murkingly knocking them to the ground.

Somewhere high and above, Steel and Wonder Woman were soaring back over the Bay to stop any further waves of missiles.

And the streets ran red.

And the sky was red.

And the pulsing arteries in our eyes pulsed red.

Except in mine.

I twitched in the middle of dodging bullets and gasped.

For something in the corner of my optics pulsed a burning-bright _**white.**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Bayside Plaza…

Jeeps were rushing wounded back from the Crunch.

The MASH was swinging in full gear, tending to the injured.

Nurses rushing around.

Moaning….sobbing….howling voices lingering sickly between the tanks.

Physicians struggling to form a triage.

The night of red hanging coldly all over….

In the tent where they were treating Raven….

A close ring of military doctors worked together. Patiently. Delicately.

"_She's pulling through….she should be just fine…." _

"_I swear….it's as if her body's helping us treat her. I've never seen anything like it."_

"_Well, it's a good thing. If it weren't for her healing, I'm afraid her injuries would be beyond us."_

"_Let's finish the job." _

"_I'm right with you……"_

Raven's face rested still….silent….

Under a mask.

Her eyes gently shut.

…..

And then a gray light flickered eerily beneath the soft lids…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Hckkkk-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkt……..Snkkt….snkkt-clik-clik-HCKKK!"**_

_The air streams with red. _

_Crimson currents vaporously drift around the summit of the Wayne Enterprises building._

_The red clouds descend and splash off the incoming comet of the girl and her runaway rocket._

_It pulses around her._

_  
Eating into her amber skin and screaming out the far corners. _

_Billowing like a flag…a cape._

_Engulfing._

_  
Swallowing._

"_**Hckk-Clikkkkktt….clik-clik-clik-snkkkt……."**_

_She soars towards the building. _

_Pulling back desperately at the missile._

_With the last of her strength._

_  
Growling…… _

"_Nnnnnngh—"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"—NNNGHHH!"

Starfire growled.

Howled.

Screamed—

"YAAAAAAAAAH!"

_**CRACCK!**_

A chunk of the missile's metal exoskeleton flew off.

The alien girl yanked back, flipped off the craft, and kicked-it up with a mighty Tamaranian foot into the air.

_**CLANK!**_

SWISSSSSH-THWISH!THWISH!THWISH!THWISH!

The rocket twirled high up….up….up….

A spark.

A twirling.

A puff of smoke—

_**BOOOOOOOM!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The back end of the missile exploded.

Starfire let out a cry and plummeted towards the Wayne Enterprises Skyscraper below…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The spiraling, battered missile arced over the City.

It spun westward.

Over the parcs.

Over the suburbs.

Past the University….

And finally plummeted….

Smoking…..

Ash-sparking….

Towards the east shore of the river that swam into the Bay….

…..and the cemetery that stood coldly on the elevated banks of the water.

_**SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-**__**SWISSSSH!**_

The missile spiraled down, shorted out, and plowed straight through a tall granite statue.

The monument to 'Robin'.

_**P-PLOWWW**_

_**KABOOOM!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire fell hard on the rooftop of the Wayne Skyscraper.

_THWUMP!_

She rolled under a shower of ashes and bumped into the huge 'W'. _Thrump!_ "Nnnngh……" She lied there….panting…..panting….

Shuddering…..

Alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran.

Panting.

Through the streets of the City.

The rubble.

The ashes.

The bodies….

'……_I love you, Robin.'_

His cape billowed.

His limbs strained.

He panted….panted….panted….

'_I love you so……'_

His masked eyes gazed upwards.

Eyeing the skyscrapers.

Searching….

Searching……..

'_And there is nothing in this world…no power so great in the cosmos…'_

Searching………..

Hyperventilating……..

Freezing……

'…_..no distance too huge in the universe…'_

He ran past an intersection.

Lungs heaving.

He gulped and murmured in mid-spring.

'……_that could ever keep me from loving you and adoring you.'_

"Starfire…….."

He looked straight up.

The red sky.

Dominating.

"Starfire…wh-where are you?"

Alone in the tortured City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik……"**_

_Just below. _

_At the base of the huge 'W'._

_She lies on the ground._

_Tired._

_Breathless._

_  
Struggling to get up. _

_Ashes litter around her._

_A halo of crimson._

_Her body pulses red._

_Throbbing._

_Enflamed._

"_**Hckkkk-Snkkkkt….clik-clik-SNKKKT!"**_

"_Ugh…mmmf……X'Hal……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Starfire sat up.

Rubbing her head.

"X'Hal……"

She glanced out.

Green eyes thin.

The Crunch shimmered a bright gold in the distance.

The Bay beyond glittered with red.

The queerest haunt of color this peculiar planet had ever shown her……

And it made her shudder to the bone.

"Friends…..I-I fear for you…."

She swallowed.

Limbs shaking, she stood up.

She walked a few steps to the rooftop's ledge….

But she stopped.

For she was taken back by the vapors and mist coming out her own lips.

Cold.

_Red._

"…………"

"_**Hckkk…..clik-clik-snkkkt……"**_

Her green eyes twitched.

"Huh?"

And Starfire turned around.

And Starfire looked up.

And his one eye pulsed a stinging _**RED**_ down at her.

Starfire gasped: "Slade--?.!."

_**CHIIIIING!**_

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Red Aviary blurred down at her.

Sword flying—

_**SLASSSSSH!**_

A solid tear formed in Starfire's pink shirt. The sword cut a thin green line over the top of her breasts.

"AAAAAAAA-AAAH!" Starfire shrieked and hugged herself in pain.

_**TH-THWOOSH!**_

_**PL-PLANT!**_ Deathstroke landed behind her. _**"Hckkkk-SNKKKT!" **_He twirled his blade and slammed the flat metal of it against the back of her skull.

_**WHACCK!**_

"Nnnngh!" Starfire flew down and plowed face-first with her head against the grating rooftop.

_**THW-THW-THW-THWISSSH!**_ Deathstroke spun his blade.

Starfire rolled over, face up. Bleeding green over her chest.

She gasped.

"_**Snkkkt….sssscream, girrrrl……,"**_ Slade shook and hissed. Red vapors poured out of his cowl's mouth slits. _**"Scccream into the colddd nightt—snkkkt! HAAAAUCHKKKT!"**_

And he brought his blade singing down at her center.

Starfire flinched, hands shooting up in burning bolts of green—

_**CHIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIING!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin gasped.

He nearly collapsed…leaning against a lamppost in some abandoned street in the City.

He panted….panted…

A hand over his petite chest.

He looked up….

Lips quivering.

Eyemask thin.

"…………."

'_I love you so……'_

One limp.

Two.

He was running into the red again….


	261. Break the Circle part 21

**261. Break the Circle part 21**

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_I acknowledge that I have been through times of great severity and turmoil._

_And you are right, I have used such instances to grow. _

_X'Hal knows what kind of a person I would be now had I not learned to survive a devastating world that burned its way onto my beautiful Tamaran._

_But I know that I need not feel shameful for living in the present and looking forward to the future._

_Tamaran is my home, Robin. But Earth has….has stolen my heart._

_I choose joy._

_I choose joy as something to live and die for._

_The people of Earth are wonderful and beautiful, but they are also very sad and pessimistic. Many of them do not understand how truly strong the forces of Life are. They cannot open their eyes to salvation…a thing which emanates from their very own heartbeat. Their very own essence of being._

_I have…always carried about me this ideological consideration. And perhaps that is why I have not been so quick to admonish you for your vehement acts of daring that put your life on the line so many times daily, Robin._

_I know that—in spite of your obsession and in spite of your penchant for danger—deep down inside you truly, truly love life._

_You love life's warmth and the justice that secures it and all the faculties you are able to employ in preserving it._

_I admire that about you._

_I admire it about all Earthlings. But I admire it about you the most._

_For I feel it in you, Robin._

_I feel that life._

_It is….hehehe….m-most addicting._

…………….

…………….

…………….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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"_**HAAAAUCCHKKKTT!"**_

_**SLICCCCEE!**_

The rooftop ripped asunder from Deathstroke's blade and swam towards Starfire's figure.

She gasped and dove aside.

_SLIIIINK!_

The kiss of the red metal cut deeply into her fleeting leg.

"Nnnngh!" she groaned and collapsed, rolling over against the huge, bright letters of the 'Wayne' Enterprises buildingtop. She clutched the shredded jeans just above her knee where thick green blood dripped through.

"_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Clik…..,"**_ Red Aviary marched towards her. Throbbing. Cascading vapors of red. _**"You alwayssss did move the fasssstessst—snkkkt—of the bratsss…."**_

Starfire panted……panted….panted…..and stood up—shaking—with a lean against the huge letters. "S-Slade….How……H-How do you—?"

"_**Snkkt-'Live'?"**_ Deathstroke leaned his cowl to the side. The twin tails danced behind his cloth mask as his single eye shimmered red. He raised his sword and pointed at her. "_**Hckkk-But I don'tt…..LIVE…..I DDDIE……snkkt-clik-clik-clik…..now…..cccccome DIE with me! HCKKK!"**_ STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP! He charged at her, swung the two-sided sword, and hissed—_**CHIIIIIIII-IIIIING!**_

Starfire gasped. She ducked.

_**CRACCCCK!**_

Glass and neon fixing shattered above her.

She rolled to the side and limped towards the rooftop.

Deahstroke pivoted around, glaring at her. _**"Hckkkk…."**_ He raised his smoke-warbling foot……and slammed it down.

_**RUMMMBLLEEE!**_

A wave of Destruction billowed a ravine through the rooftop, traveled over to the Tamaranian girl's position, and exploded beneath her—_**POWWW!**_

"Aaaah!" Starfire was thrown to the edge of the building. _**TH-THWOMP!**_ She landed hard….wincing.

"_**Hckkk…..do stay a whillle……"**_ He marched towards her.

She shuddered.

She looked up at him.

Green eyes twitching.

"X'Hal…..y-you are…..far more powerful!"

"_**Even an aliennn likkkke you—snkkkt—mussst know the Reaper when she sees **__**HIM**__**!"**_ _TH-TH-THWISSSH!_ He dove down at her with the sword swinging. "_**HCKKKKKTTT!"**_

Starfire gritted her teeth, charged her lower limbs with green fire, and shot up. _FWOOOOSH!_

_**CHUNKKK!**_ Red Aviary's sword shattered the rooftop where she previously was. _SKKKKT!_

Starfire flew up in the air. She spiraled, hovered over the 'WAYNE' letters, and tossed a flurry of starbolts down at Red Aviary.

_FLASH! _

_FL-FLASSH!_

_FLASH!_

Slade spun….hissed….and swung his sword twice, deflecting the green charges effortlessly. _**SWOOOOSH! CL-CL-CLANG!**_

Starfire tensed her muscles, clenched her fists, and glared at him until—"RAAAAUGH!" _**FLAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAASSSSH!**_

Twin optic blasts soared down at him.

They ate into his chest….burning.

Slade shook and quivered all over. The meat-muscles and gears inside him were aflame with green. He shuddered….twitched….hissed—_**"Hckkkkk-snkkkkkt—"**_ and flexed his arms up and out in an ear-splitting scream. _**"**__**HRAAAAAAUCHKKKT**__**!"**_

_**FLASSSSSH!**_

_**REDDDD!**_

A sphere of red smoke frothed across the skyscraper's summit. Shaking the lit letters. Rattling the joints that held the roof together.

Starfire shuddered in mid-air. Her body froze from the inside out. Red mist billowed from between her lips as the green blood seeping from her chest and leg froze and hardened.

She shuddered….a sudden, inescapable fear overtaking her and exploding out of her eyes.

Lips quivering…she spun and attempted to fly southward.

"_**HCKKKKTT!"**_ Red Aviary tensed his body and—

_**FWOOOOOOSSSH!**_

In a blink, Slade streaked across the rooftop, leapt up the edge, soared skyward, and tackled Starfire's body.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

"Aaack!"

"_**SnkkkkKKT!"**_

THWOOOOSH-**SLAM!**

The two landed…..

Starfire first.

She winced as pain wracked through her skeletal frame…..

Which was magnified when Deathstroke next stood up and kicked her straight in the ribs.

_**THWAPP!**_

"Ughh-ghhh!" Starfire exhaled and rolled painfully across the rooftop.

_**CHIIIII-IIIIIIING!**_

Deathstroke stomped slowly after her, dragging his red blade across the rooftop.

Hissing.

"_**You are not leavinnng---snkkkt—girl. One month ago……I KILLED….ROBIN…SnnKKKTT!"**_

Starfire gasped.

Green eyes wide…tearing.

She shook…shuddered….sat up and looked in horror at him.

"_**And nowwww…..clik-clik-clik……I have hisss spiritttt lefttt to slay. And it sleeeepsss……inside you…..snkkkt-HCKKK!"**_

Stomp-Stomp!-STOMP!-_STOMP!-__**STOMP!**_

_**SLASSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_Heh….,"_

"_Does something amuse you?"_

"_I never thought I'd see the day when you'd be saying that you saw life in me."_

"_Why….whatever do you mean, Robin?"_

"_Do you not see how incredibly good and innocent and…..just plain righteous a person you are, Star?"_

"_I do get a….s-slight impression of people's opinions."_

"_It never fails."_

"_What is it that ceases to fail?"_

"_Never mind, Star….Ugh…I am so out of it. I can even think let alone…..think wisely."_

"_You have been subjected to unsettling revelations within the last hour or two, One cannot blame you for physiological exhaustion."_

"_Starfire?"_

"_Yes, Robin?"_

"_You said….for some reason….th-that you feel life in me, right?"_

"_Mmmhmmm."_

"_By feeling that…..can you tell me……….am I the same person right now that you have always known?"_

"_Earlier today, Robin. When……Wh-When you let me 'hold' you….."_

"_Yes?"_

"_I-I felt that very same life tenfold. I realized truly how precious this 'life' that I sensed was. It amazed me, yes. But not because it was different coming out of the person I have always known. I knew it was 'Robin'. I had sensed it before. Only so close….so intimate…..it was……..stronger."_

"_Heh heh heh……Starfire…..I've got to say….your existence is the best thing that ever happened to me."_

"_Truly?"_

"_Uh….yes, Starfire. Truly. You're the best thing that ever happened to me."_

…………………

…………………

…………………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

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Robin ran.

Robin panted.

Sprinting down the empty streets.

Gazing upwards.

Eyeing the skyscrapers.

The rooftops.

The spires of the City.

Feeling…..

Feeling………

He came to a stop in an intersection.

He shuddered….reached a hand into his pocket….pulled out a grappling hook…and aimed at the highest building he could see.

_**P-POW!**_

_CLANK!_

THWOOOOSH!

He soared upwards on the cord, grabbed onto the building's ledge, retracted the grappling hook, stood up, and began running again.

Breathless.

Streaking.

Desperate……

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_TH-TH-THRUMP!_

Starfire rolled across the rooftop.

She got up on one knee.

Wincing.

The cut across the top of her breasts bled into the night.

Her leg throbbed.

Tattered….battered…..

She panted and squinted at Red Aviary.

"It was you…..I-It was y-you! You killed Robin! Th-The Radioactive Depository…..the carbonite explosion….it was **your nefarious signature!"**

"_**Hckkk-clik-clik-clik…..a job well donnnnne…..,"**_ he marched towards her. Smoking. Dripping red…. _**"….but the musiccc of your sobbing sssscreamssss echoing into the nighttt for Robin'ssss patheticccc carcasss was something that I did not expectttt…..nor have I forgottttten….."**_

_**CHIIIIING!**_

He brandished the blade and angled his quivering, rotting body at her.

"_**SNkkkt—Skkkt…….sing for me, girrrl….."**_

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

He dashed over.

She braced herself up against the huge bright 'N' and screamed. "RAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

_**FLAAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAASSSH!**_

Two green optic beams soared at him….hotly burning the air.

"_**Hckkk-SNKKT!"**_ Deathstroke ran straight into the green fire and slashed, hacked, sliced through the pulsing energy stream. _**FL-FL-FL-FL-FLASSSH!**_

Starfire gritted her teeth and growled the entire time she unleashed the air-boiling punishment at him.

"Nnnnngh! I sh-should have know….th-that you would…..nnghh….resist the death….that so justly swallowed you…..just to ruin Robin's life!"

"_**HCKKK!-HRAAAUCHKKK!"**_ Deathstroke broke through the green stream with a sailing fist.

_**WHAM!**_

"UNNGH!" Starfire stumbled back, green blood trailing out from her nose.

Deathstroke spun and slammed his foot into her bleeding chest.

_WHUMP!_

Starfire wracked all over with pain---

_**SLIIIICE!**_

His swinging sword grazed her shoulder.

_Splorch!_ A fountain of green splashed across the rooftop.

"Aaaa-haaaa!" Starfire sobbed.

_SMACK!_ He slapped the broad-side of the sword across her face.

The alien girl spun two times in the air before landing hard on the rooftop several feet away.

_Th-Thwump!_

"Mmmmmfff…..," she stirred…..in pain….

"_**Hckkkk…..,"**_ he marched towards her. Hissing. _**"I did life. I….TOOKKK IT!"**_

Starfire winced….looking up at him.

Quivering all over…..

His one red eye pulsed as he loomed above her. Sword hanging in his clicking grip…

"_**I tookkkt hissss life….snkkkt—and letttt the world know….snkktt-clik-clik-clik….I took his lifffe soooooo eassssily…..becaussse weaklinggg dreamerssss like you could not—Hckkk—PROTECTTT him ENOUGH—snkkkt!"**_

Starfire gasped. Eyes wide. Eyes that burned with a fire. A fire that coursed through her body and rocketed out her hands as she shot herself towards him. "M'berelliut chorfarker!"

_SWOOOOOOOSH!_

_FLASH! _

_FLASH!_

_FLASH!_

A steady stream of starbolts flew at Deathstroke.

Slade easily held his sword up and split them all.

_CL-CL-CLANG!_

Starfire flew at him, fist flying.

"RRRGHHHH-RAAAAUGH!"

"_**SNKKKT!"**_ He drew his body back, twisted, and spun back with his metal-and-flesh palm grasping over her fist.

_**GRIPP!**_

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The two combatants froze together in the center of the rooftop.

Hand and hand.

Green Tamaranian fury meeting red destruction.

A crater of smoke and ashes.

The 'WAYNE' letters shook and wobbled.

The air crystallized red frost.

The night howled…was silent.

And….

A beat.

…..

_**POWWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

An exploding pulse of _**RED**_ from Slade's palm sent Starfire flying back through the air….flailing with a gasp—

_**CRACK!**_

She landed hard into an a/c unit, denting it.

"_**Hckttt…clik-clik-clik…."**_ Slade shivered and twirled his red blade. _**THW-THW-THWISSSH!**_ _**"And now….snkkt….you can't even protect yoursssself….."**_

_**FWOOOOSSH!**_

He charged at her.

She winced, held her breath, and rolled far to the side. "Nnngh!"

_**CHIIIIING!**_

The red sword swam at the rooftop where she was and shattered the a/c unit apart.

_**CRACK!**_

Starfire hopped up to her feet, gritted her teeth, and shoved two starbolting hands flat-out. _FLAAAA—_

"_**SNKKKT!"**_ Slade spun with a swish of his blade.

_SL-SLIIIINK!_ The swordtip cut two green rivers in Starfire's outstretched palms.

The starbolts burned back into her.

She screamed: "AAAAA—"

_**WHAM!**_ His boot slammed into Starfire's face. _**"HCKKKKT!"**_ He dove on top of her.

_**SLASSSH! **_

_**SLASSSSSSH!**_

_**SLIIIIIINK!**_

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"_You are the best thing to ever have happened to me, Star. I meant it when I f-first told you that last night. And I mean it now. It is just that….th-that….I can't always…….e-express it. N-Not when I am really….'myself'…."_

"_I….I understand, Robin…."_

"_I……….I just need time….t-to gather my senses. To try and start to…..understand myself. I wouldn't doubt it if you know who Robin is better than I do, Star."_

"_And of the boy beneath?"_

"………_.."_

"_I see….."_

"………"

"_Robin…..?"_

"_Y-Yes, Star?"_

"_Would it….W-Would it be too much to ask sometime if…..….if sometime you were to….l-let me hold you again sometime? Like you did yesterday? Would you be so willing to let me h-hold you again?"_

"_Yeah, Starfire…..that sounds doable…."_

"_That is…..m-most glorious…."_

…………..

…………..

…………..

…………..

…………..

…………..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ran.

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

Breathless.

Numb.

If he squinted his eyes, he wouldn't see the buildings beneath him.

And it would almost be like he was flying.

The air grew colder and colder.

And it chilled him.

With frigid familiarity.

Atop a twenty-foot building on the northern edge of Downtown, he froze.

He spun around.

Panting.

Hair slick.

Forehead a sheen.

Somewhere….the Crunch burned gold.

The City was falling apart.

Souls huddled in the hundreds…thousands…millions…

Underground in the dark.

And for a moment, the boy named after a bird shriveled into himself.

And everything was naked and everything was shivering.

_And he was standing on the balcony to his apartment complex. _

_Sobbing his four-year-old eyes out._

_Weathering the frost and the frothing shouts from his father._

_  
Staring out with a hand outstretched…_

_  
Fingers uncoiled… _

_Trying to touch the sky beyond the alternating gray and red._

_  
Making a wish. _

_Saying a prayer._

_And sobbing….._

_Running into himself._

'_Bring her back!'_

'_**I can't! She's gone!'**_

'_Run Robin! Hurry!'_

The blood pulsed in his hidden, blue eyes.

Hot….and _**RED.**_

Robin gasped.

He spun….and faced 'home'.

'_WAYNE ENTERPRISES.'_

He felt it.

Somehow, in the corners of his heroic heart, he felt it.

The feeling that everyone can taste but never truly get far enough to swallow.

The screaming between the air molecules.

The invisible tornadoes that shake the world into sleep and shock.

The unseen colors.

The spectral nightmare of spinning, flexing existence.

And it billowed….pulsed…screamed red….

…from atop the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper.

"……Starfire….."

……..

_Thwpp!_ Robin's green hand flew to his utility belt.

He pulled out a grappling hook.

He ran over the nearest ledge of the building he was on….

Aimed in mid-plunge…

And fired.

_**POW!**_

_**  
**__Cl-CLANK!_

**THWOOOOOOSSSH!**

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

**WHAP! **

**TH-THWAP!**

_**SLAM!**_

"Ughhhhh!" the alien girl shook and quivered all over.

She rolled across the rooftop.

Cut and bruised in a dozen places.

Her pink shirt and gray jeans tattered beyond repair.

She clenched her eyes shut in pain and tried to stand up—

_STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!_

**WHAM!**

Slade's shoulder plunged into her side.

"OOF!"

"_**HCKKKKT!"**_

Followed by a fist to her chin.

_**WHACK!**_

She flew back from the uppercut.

_**SLIIIINK!**_

His sword caught her between the skin of her shoulder and the material of her shirt.

"_**HRCKKKKT-SNKKKT!"**_ Red Aviary screamed, spun his body around, and slammed her via the sword into the ground.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

She shuddered and shook all over.

He withdrew the sword, cutting a green slice wetly into her shoulder meat.

_**CHIIING!**_

"AAAAH!" she screamed.

"_**HCKKKKKKTT!"**_

_**WHAM!**_

His foot slammed into her chest.

WH-WH-WH-WH-WHUMP! Starfire rolled into the letters. She coiled up into a fetal position. She coughed. She spat up blood. Her face tensed and her lips quivered as she shook….teared….and sobbed.

"Mmmphhh….mphhh……k'norfka…..," Starfire cried. "Nngh….k-k'norfk_aaaaa_……"

"_**Hckkktt…clik-clik-clik….,"**_ Deathstroke hissed as he walked towards her….dragging the sword. _**"Why do you ssssob…girrrlll? SNkkkt-clik-clik-clik….is ittt that Robin wassss ripppped from yourssss and—snkkkkt—your friendssss' life by pure Desssstruction? Or maybe it'sss because you are still oh…..so….snnnkkt...CONFUSED!" **_

Starfire sniffed…winced from the cuts and bruises….and forced her teary-green eyes opened. "You a-are a monster….Sl-Slade……you always were. By X'Hal….y-you shall not get away w-with the treachery you caused Robin…."

"_**Hckkkt…..but how…..did I committttt that treacherrrrry to begin with?"**_

_PLANT!_

Deathstroke slapped his boot squarely over Starfire's throat.

"SSSssssss!" she hissed, struggling for breath under his weight.

"_**Clik-clik-cliksnkkkkt….,"**_ He leaned over and breathed red vapors down towards her face. _**"Do you know why Robin died ssssso easily?"**_

"………..," she shuddered…shivered…staring at him.

"_**Hckkkkt….he….….never………………..loved……..you……."**_

Starfire froze.

Beneath him, she stared.

Still as a statue.

Moist eyes wide….

"_**Snkkkt…..you KNOW this…….don'ttt you?"**_

Her eyes narrowed.

Her teeth showed.

"Silence……"

"_**Whatttt did he ssssay to you afterrrr you confessssed—snkkkt---your DEEPESSSTTT feelings to him on the night that he died?"**_

"Be……silent….."

"_**Snkkkt—HCkK! He….did not say a THING—Clik-Clik-SNKKT!—DID….HE?"**_

"Nnnnngh!" Starfire's eyes burned fiery green. "I said…..SILENCE!"

TH-THWOMP!

With sudden, warrior strength….the alien girl tossed Deathstroke off of her.

He effortlessly backflipped through the air and landed on the edge of the rooftop. _PL-PLANT!_

Starfire jumped up, levitated into a burning hover, and soared---bleeding---at him with fists flying. "YAAAAUGH!"

Deathstroke stepped backwards and twirled his blade. TH-TH-TH-THWOOSH!

Starfire's heated hands jabbed and punched and stabbed at him, pulsing green. **CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!**

"RAAAAAAAAAUGH!" she screamed.

He hissed and calmly deflected her every attack as he drew back with his word twirling. _**"Hckkkkt…everytime you everrrr got close to him….he walked away. Everrrry time—snkkkt—you were passionate…..he was cold. FACE IT….GIRL! Snkkkt—CLKKK! He neverrrr loved you….in fact—SNKKKT"**_

**CLANNNNGG!**

Slade crossed his blade with Starfire's burning arms and stared into her face. Exhaling a wave of red smoke.

"_**YOU…..WERE….snkkt-A BURDEN…TO HIM!"**_

She howled at him. "V'dratta cleniulskraat, chlorfrak!" Her optic beams fired—FLAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAASH!

FWOOOSH!

Red Aviary disappeared in a puff of red smoke, teleported and materialized with an upswing of his blade into Starfire's back.

_SLIIINK!_

"AAAUGH!" she screamed under a spray of hot green blood. She stumbled forward—

SW-SWISSH! **CLANG**!The broad side of his sword slapped into her rib cage.

She gripped her sides, shuddered, and fell to her knees….facing away from him.

He stood behind her.

Hissing.

Gripping the sword and looming above her shuddering frame.

_**"Robin...could never….allow himssself the joy……of intimaccccy…..snkkkkt….not even for you, girrrl……"**_

Starfire shuddered.

Staring away from death.

Moist-eyed.

Lips quivering as the endless red of night lingered cold and frothy before her.

"…_**.so when you persssisted…..and there wassss no way out for him……he chossse the easiest route for an icon like 'Robin' to go….hckkkt….he walked into my trap, girl. Alone…..that night…..at the depository……snkkkkt—ROBIN….WALKED….hckk-clik-clik-INTO…MY FIRE! Because he could not STAND….TO FACE….THE HEAT OF YOUR OFFERRRRING!"**_

Starfire's breath came out in a thick red mist.

Her heart stopped.

As she listened.

"_**Don'tttt you seee….girrrrl? Snkkkt-clik-clik-clik…."**_ He leaned his head down….he hissed just beside her ear. _**"You…..killed him……"**_

Starfire's jaw clenched.

Her hands joined into two fists.

She shook….shook….._shook_.

"_**The only essscape that Robin had from you…..from the life you promisssed him……was to escape life…ITSELF…."**_

"Nnnnnnghh-RAAAUGH!" she spun and tossed a monumental starbolt at him.

_FLASSSSH!_

Red Aviary absorbed the blow and slid backwards across the rooftop.

"_HCKKK!"_ He raised his blade.

"SIIIIILEEEENCCEEE!" Starfire shrieked. Hovering up. Summoning two burning wrists. She screamed and rocketed straight at him. "I SHALL SILENCE YOUUUUUUUU! YAAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAUGH!"

_FWOOOOOOSH!_

The alien girl flew at him.

"_**Yesssssss-snkkkt….,"**_ he twirled his sword like a batter. _**"Let it all out…..snkkkt…..green guttsss and all…LET…IT ALL…hckkk-OUTTT!"**_

_FWOOOOOOOSH!_

"_**HRAAAAAUCHKKKTT!"**_

Starfire flew in.---_**SLASSSSSSH**__!---_She jolted to a stop.

Her eyes bulged.

…..

"_**Hckkkkt…..HRAAAUGHT!"**_

He kicked her back, twirled his sword, and ran forward…..

….shredding.

_**SLASSSH!**_

_**SLIIINK!**_

_**TH-TH-TH-THWOOSH-SLASSSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_Robin, you were not meant to fly..._

_But—_

_X'Hal be praised…._

_You were meant to do other things. _

_I know for a fact that you were meant to greet me the day I first landed here on Earth._

_You were meant to teach me what it is to be a hero._

_And you were meant to be with me every step of the day as I acquainted myself with your people, culture, and customs---as well as your nightmares._

_I feel so much more competent and—yes—powerful now that I have had the chance to serve under your leadership._

_But most importantly...I feel glorious for having been graced with your freedom. _

_I know you do not have superpowers, Robin._

_But…_

_I do know that you are powerful in and of yourself. _

_Because..._

_B-Because you are a paradox, Robin. _

_You are ever-so-strong and courageous. _

_But also—if I may say so—you are immensely precious..._

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………

…………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin was perched on a twenty-story ledge of the Wayne Enterprises Skyscraper.

He pulled out two birdarangs.

He twirled them, jabbed them up in the air, and stabbed them hard into the metal and glass surface of the tower.

_SNKKT! _

_CRKKK!_

_Robin panted._

Robin struggled.

Grunting….he pulled himself up.

Hair kicked by the cold air of the night.

The red sky looming above him.

As he climbed…climbed…climbed….

_Snkkkt!_

_  
CRKKKT!_

_SNKKKT!_

_Crkkkt!_

'_When I was really young……I-I had this……this little 'prayer' of mine………'_

Robin panted.

Scurrying.

Upwards.

Upwards.

One birdarang stab at a time.

A floor every twenty seconds….

'_I said it when I was really young….and when my dad told me that my mother died. I prayed….th-that she would come back as an angel…'_

Snkkt!

Crkkkt!

Robin sweated.

Hyperventilating.

Trying to focus.

Trying.

His every muscle aching as he pulled himself….

Carried himself….

Up the blinding length of the skyscraper.

'_I prayed that she would come back. As an angel. I wished to god that my mother could just……fly down.'_

"Nnnnngh!"

_Snkkkt!_

"Nnnnngh!"

_CRKKT!_

Robin stabbed and stabbed and stabbed.

Climbing.

Towards the pulsing red far above.

Breathless….

'_I spent every night of my childhood years praying for that. That little hope h-helped me endure my dad. It kept me alive and ticking the winters I spent begging and robbing in the streets of Gotham.'_

Snkkt-CRACK!

"Aaaugh!" Robin gasped and hung by one arm when the other birdarang slipped free from the building.

He dangled thirty-five stories up.

Legs flailing.

Cape fluttering.

He shook all over.

Gritted his teeth…..

Flung his other arm up…

And stabbed once again with the birdarang.

"Nnnnngh-AAAAAAUGH!"

_CRKKKKT!_

He stabbed in.

Panted.

Shook all over.

And practically screamed in the strain of ascent.

"Nggghaaaugh!"

_SNKKT!_

"Yaaaugh!"

_CRKKKT!_

"Nnnngh!"

SNKKKT!

'_But more than once……that prayer didn't come true. And so I changed it. I……asked for an angel. Any angel.'_

Robin panted.

Climbing.

Stabbing.

His eyemask was thin.

His vision dizzy.

He pulled himself upwards.

Defying gravity.

Defying himself.

Until he finally climbed up into shooting distance of the rooftop for his grappling hook.

'_Just as long as someone……or something could swoop down and wake me from the nightmare that never-ceasingly climbs back to rip my heart out from the inside out……'_

Robin took a deep breath.

Another.

Then….

"Nnngh!"

He flung one hand down to his utility belt…

Hung by one arm.

Shook…quivered….

Produced a grappling hook.

Aimed it up.

Squinted one half of his eyemask.

Breathless….

'_And the day that angel comes for me, I won't have to fight anymore. I won't have to……pretend anymore.'_

**POW**!

_CLANK!_

The grappling hook stuck snugly.

Robin pulled at it.

Took a deep breath.

Kicked off the glass of the skyscraper.

Hung from the handle….

And flew himself up.

_Thwwwwwwp!_

'_I can throw the mask away and be myself. I can cry. I can scream. I can kick and wither and die. Just to be free to be……to be human………'  
_

Fw-Fw-Fw-Fwoosh!

The windows blurred down past the Boy Wonder.

He shuddered…hanging.

Ascending.

Up towards the deepest of crimson.

The freezing chill in the air.

The vapors and the clouds.

He shuddered….

Shuddered.

_  
'All my life, I have dreamed and prayed and begged for that angel. Silently.'_

And Robin reached the summit….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_THWAP!_

Starfire wobbled from the blow to her head.

_WH-WHAM!_

A knee to her hip sent her spiraling.

"_**HRAAAUCHKKT!**_**"** Deathstroke swung the blade.

_SLIIIINK!_

Blood flew from her shoulders.

She gasped.

Voiceless.

She twirled and stumbled in front of him before the letters.

Knees weak.

Arms dangling.

"_**HCKKKK-Skkkt-CLIKKT!"**_ He spun and twirled his sword.

_SL-SLASSSH!_

Two green gashes cut into her upper arms.

They hung uselessly to her sides.

Her lips quivered.

_TH-THWISSSH!_

_SLIIIIICE!_

Two more gashes were cut into her lower legs.

_TH-THWOMP!_

She fell wetly to her knees.

Shivering all over.

Green eyes thin.

"_**Hckkkk…snkkkt….,"**_ Deathstroke slowly marched around till he stood behind her. _**"….such….uselessss…..breath….and blood….snkkkt-clik-clik-clik…."**_

Starfire was kneeling.

Staring dazedly….sickly towards the red horizon.

The sky of Terra Firma.

World asleep.

World aflame.

The pine trees scattered in a crater around her space pod.

_The handsome, dark-haired stranger in a cape that greeted her. _

_The tower in the shape of a 'T'._

_Warm smiles._

_Warm hands._

_The jokes at the pizza parlor._

_  
The jars of mustard hiding in 'her corner' of the refrigerator. _

_The DVD nights._

_The occasional dozing-off of Titan against Titan._

_The hushed camaraderie in the corners of still lips._

_Passing by the door to his bedroom on a cold night._

_Awake from a nightmare._

_The way he breathed gently when he was asleep._

_So small and fragile._

_Cradled in her arms on the couch…a bench in the park….somewhere in her bloody-green dreams._

_Like the sunset on Tamaran._

_The plains of stone burning in the cold sun._

_The glimmer off the towers and spires of her people._

_Her little brother skipping in through the door with a bundle of wildflowers._

_Her mother and father holding each other gently in the corner after the war._

_Kormand'r's letters and how they smelled like her._

_Balcony naps in the rain._

_The touch of summer._

_The stars that twinkled…twinkled…twinkled under a cold night—_

**TWHACCCCK!**

The flat of the sword collided with her skull and sent her collapsing…groaning….into the ground.

_The warm arms of Robin that burned and shrieked and climaxed in an explosion. _

_Swallowed by carbonite._

_Swallowed……_

"………..," Starfire lay silent on the ground.

"_**Hckkkk….join him……by ssssummoning himmm….."**_

And Red Aviary sheathed his sword….

And pulled out his shotgun.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin ascended the top letters of 'WAYNE' Enterprises.

"Nnngh….NNGHh-Augh!" He climbed halfway over the huge 'A'.

Panting.

Breath filtering vapor into the night.

He peered over.

Shuddering….

And froze.

……

Deathstroke stood over Starfire.

Towering.

_TH-TH-THWOOOSH!_ He twirled the shotgun.

_CH-CHTUNG!_ Cocked it.

"………_."_ He glanced up at Robin.

Red Eye glaring.

Piercing.

Robin's mouth hung open.

"_**Hckkkkk….too late, Robinnn….snkkkt……you'll have to pray for the angel anotherrrr day….."**_

And Deathstroke pivoted—_THWOOSH_—aimed the gun squarely into Starfire's grounded forehead—

……and fired.

**BLAM!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**

Robin saw it….

"**NOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO****!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**


	262. Break the Circle part 22

**262. Break the Circle part 22**

"**NOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**

Robin screamed.

"_**HcKKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke twirled to face the Boy Wonder. Shotgun smoking from the barrel. He pumped it, dropping two shells.

They rained down to where Starfire's corpse lay with her skull blotched in ash and smoke….

In a sneer, Robin hopped down towards the rooftop. His bo-staff extended in mid-descent. _Snkkkt!_ "SLADE!.!.!.!.!.!"

Deathstroke reloaded his weapon.

Robin landed in a squat, breathlessly hopped to his feet, and blurred at Deathstroke….staff-spinning.

Deathstroke fired—

_**BL-BLAM!.!.!**_

"YAAAAUGH!" Robin screamed, twirled his staff, and somehow deflected the spray of lead shot as he charged into Slade. CL-CLANG!

"_**SNCKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke raised his shotgun horizontally.

_SWOOOOOSH-__**CLANG!.!.!**_ Robin's staff flew down and splashed sparks against Red Aviary's shotgun.

They struggled and stared each other down. Robin's nose tilted up and breathed in the red vapors pouring out of Deathstroke's mouth.

"_**Snkktt-Clik-Clik-HCKK! I'm sorry Robin…..was she important to you?"**_

"Nnnnnnnn—" Robin howled ---nnnnNNNN**RAAAAAUGHH!.!.!"** He shoved against Slade and started jabbing, slashing, lunging with his bo-staff faster than the average human eye could register.

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_

Slade deflected the first few lunges with his shotgun. He shot his leg out—_THAP!_—kicked Robin back, spun, holstered his shotgun and unsheathed his sword bare seconds apart—_CHIIIIING-__**CLANG!**_

Robin and Deathstroke clashed. Staff against sword. In the center of the 'WAYNE' Enterprises rooftop.

"Nnnngh….Nnn-Nnnnghh!" Robin hissed through clenched teeth as he pressed his weight into Slade.

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt….,"**_ Deathstroke leaned forward. Sneering: _**"You killlled her, Robin…..by nottt being therrrre for her."**_

Robin's eyes twitched under his mask. His whole face shook and winced as he struggled….

"_**Snkkkktt…..jusssst as she was never therrrrre for you…..,"**_ Red Aviary's red eye narrowed. _**"……and never will be again."**_

Robin's face and body froze for the one and a half seconds it took for something to snap inside of him and—

"_**RAAAAAUGH!"**_ He shot his leg out and slammed it with meteor-weight into Slade's red-smoking kneecap.

_**CRUNCH!**_

"_**HCKKKT!"**_

"YAAAH!" Robin pivoted and slammed the end of his bo-staff across Deathstroke's cheek.

_**WHACK!**_

And the Boy Wonder followed it up with an uppercut with his foot flying up Slade's chin—_**WHACK!**_—and a descending, three-hundred-and-sixty degree slam of his staff into Slade's ribcage.

_**THWACKKKK!**_

"_**HCkkkt!**_" Deathstroke stumbled back.

_**POW!**_

A grappling hook fired—

_**SPLORCCH!**_

--flew through Deathstroke's chest—

_**CHTUNK!**_

--and stuck—anchored—in place at his back.

Slade lurched all over, nearly dropping his sword.

Robin retracted his grappling hook, flew in a jump kick with the cord, and slammed his foot into Deathstroke's skewered, smoking body.

_THWWWWPPPPPP!--__**WHAM!**_

Red Aviary fell back, tumbled, and rolled to a stop beneath the huge 'N' of the Wayne Building.

"_**RAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!.!.!.!.!.!"**_ Robin screamed, pulled out two explosive discs in each hand, and flung all four murderously at Deathstroke's body.

_SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!_

The projectiles spun, spiraled and converged along their speedy track straight into Deathstroke just as he was getting up---

_**POWWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The rooftop shook under a plume of fire and plasma. The huge 'N' wobbled, groaned, and fell over…crushing Slade in the flames.

_**THWOMMMMPPPP!.!.!**_

Smoke.

Ash.

Billowing….Billowing….

Robin stood before it.

Panting….panting….

Breathless.

…

Slowly…the hard lines in his face faded.

His frown melted into a gaping gasp of despair.

_Cl-Clank!_

He dropped his bo-staff…

He brought two shaking….quivering hands up to his head.

He gripped at his hair.

He hunched over.

He clenched his eyes shut under his mask.

He shook.

He shivered.

A choke escaped him.

A hissing breath….

….laced with a thirteen-year old…..four-year old whimper.

The smoke was gray. Like a wintry afternoon swallowing him day in and day out in the dark gray streets of Gotham.

He turned around.

Eyes weak.

Jaw numb.

"……………."

He gazed at what was left of her.

Her angelic body.

Strong and stone-abled.

Now limp as a rag.

Under a halo of gunsmoke….

"_N-No………"_

Robin hobbled….

Robin limped…..

Robin staggered over to where the ragdoll corpse lay.

The amber skin exposed under shredded garments.

The green blood hardening…hardening…

…..

Robin's lips quivered.

He fell to his knees before her…

Arms outstretched…..limp….

Wanting to embrace…wanting to drop…wanting to fly away and hit the ground at the same time.

"_No………St-Starfire………"_

Robin sniffed.

His curved eyemask formed ripples as wet tears struggled against the fabric and squeezed out.

He shuffled over….

Hyperventilating.

Choking.

"_God, no……I'm so sorry……I'm so sorry……"_

He reached a shaking glove to her.

Touched her cold shoulder.

And turned her over.

"_I'm sorr—"_

……

Robin gasped. His eyemask exploded wide.

Starfire was breathing.

Starfire was wincing…stirring….

Starfire's entire skull was in tact. Her raised eyebrows. Her red fountain of hair. Her soft voice escaping-returning….breathily….

Robin panted. He shivered and gasped: "H-How…….but……?" he gulped. Caught somewhere in between joy and confusion…..

He looked closer. "……"

An absolutely perfect crater of shotgun pellets had formed _around_ Starfire's head. It was like every piece of lead shot decided at the last second to avoid the Tamaranian's skull and skin and instead hit the rooftop all around her skull in perfect avoidance.

"That's….that's impossible….," Robin exhaled. "Th-Th-That….." And then he froze.

For there was a haze of pink light rising from the ashes of the shotgun crater. Pink….bright and pulsing.

Robin blinked.

A bulky shadow suddenly crossed over him.

Robin gasped. He looked up.

"…….!"

Terra had arrived. And standing with her atop the huge clump of Kansas earth was Supergirl, Pulsade…….and Jinx with a frilled hand outstretched…..

……pink…..and pulsing fate-bending hex…..

"Save the applause for later, Mr. Titan cavalier," Jinx smiled. Her eyes a hot fuchsia. "Things just got hotter."

Robin did a double-take. "J-Jinx? Supergirl?" A beat. He squinted his eyemask. "T-Terra?"

The earth maiden bit her lip.

"One thing at a time, Robin," Supergirl stood at the edge of the rock. "Now where is that red-farting piece of shit?"

As if on cue….

"_**HRAAAUCHKTT!"**_ The collapsed 'N' behind Robin's shoulders exploded and shattered into hundreds of glass and steel shards. Red Aviary stood up, flexing his limbs and pulsing a burning red. _**"HCKKKKK! Clik-Clik-CLIKKKT!"**_

Robin spun. He gave Slade a look….one filled with sudden, inescapable horror. He instantly flung his arms around Starfire's limp body and held her with his back facing the burning fiend first—

"_**Snkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke picked up his smoking red blade, twirled it—_THW-THWISSSH!_—and charged towards Robin and Starfire….swinging to chop both of their heads off. _**"Death…..Hckkkkt—YOU SHALL ONLY BE TOGETHERRRR IN **__**DEATH!**_"

_**SWOOOOOOSSSSH-**__**WHAM!**_ Supergirl was suddenly slamming her fist into the charging Reaper.

_TH-TH-THWUMP!_ Slade rolled and stumbled back several feet across the rooftop.

Supergirl hovered and shouted: "Get a girlfriend, bozo!"

_Th-Thwp! Th-Th-Thwp!_

Jinx and Pulsade leapt down from the hovering rock in coordinated grace.

Jinx flipped and cartwheeled.

Pulsade whipped out two uzzis.

Jinx struck a pose with her hands burning hex blades of pink. _FL-FLASSH!_ She Cheshire-Catted: "Stick with me, Leslie. I don't want you dying on me now. It isn't sexy that way."

"Nnnngh….," Pulsade groaned…frowning at the recovering Deathstroke. "Less mush and more murdering…."

"_**Hckkkt….SNKKT!"**_ Deathstroke stood up…twitching….billowing red. _**"Ladiessss….this is nottttt your war…."**_

"Bloody checks and balances, Red Aviary," Pulsade hissed.

Supergirl walked ahead of the throng of three. Frowning. She got into a fighting stance and sneered: "I've got the ugly one." _**SWOOOOOSSH!**_ She soared at Deathstroke. "RRRRRGHHH!"

Jinx and Pulsade let out cries and went charging after the Girl of Steel.

FL-FLASH! "HAAA!" FLASH!

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

…

In the meantime, Robin was holding Starfire.

He shivered and shook with each jolt and quake of the battle behind him.

He sniffed….felt the tears running down from his eyemask….and shakingly cradled the unconscious Tamaranian in his arms.

His gloved hands ran through her red locks as he nuzzled his cheek against her forehead……gently breathing. Absorbing….Absorbing….

….Starfire breathed gently.

Unconscious.

Not registering the Boy Wonder.

Or perhaps she was….

…

"………," atop her hovering rock, Terra stared at Robin and Starfire's reunion. The heroes entwined. The warmth….the tears…..the heated silence. "…….." Terra took a sharp, painful breath. She stared at the battle.

Deathstroke twirling and parrying various attacks with his sword……

Supergirl went plunging in, fists first. Jinx leapt and hopped around, flinging hex. Pulsade kept her distance and fired semi-automatic rounds.

"…………..," Terra's vision rested on Deathstroke…….and she shivered.

Bedrock cold.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

SWOOOSH-SMACK!

Batman landed his flying jump kick into a terrorist's chest.

He jumped atop an abandoned hummer of Dagger's, dropped an exploding batarang in the driver's compartment, and leapt off as—

_**POWWW!.!.!.!**_

The vehicle exploded behind him.

The Flash streaked by, gathered the flames and smoke of the vehicle with his momentum, and 'carried' the plasma over to a cluster of terrorist gunmen attempting to fire on a contingent of soldiers flanking a tank.

The tank pivoted and shot its turret at the building front above the obscured crowd of gunmen. _**BL-BLAM! **__**POWW!**_ The buildingfront collapsed and buried them.

A line of golems marched through the sudden debris and started flinging burning lava pellets at the tanks and thick army.

_**CRKKKK! CRKKKK-KKK!**_

One tank melted from the punishment.

Soldiers ran as the golems charged at them.

_**FLASSSSH!**_

Green Lantern suddenly streaked over their burning crowns, sweeping his emerald energy and sending the thermal bodies sprawling everywhere.

As Green Lantern flew by, a trio of snipers gathered on a corner rooftop and pointed at him before taking aim with their rifles—

_**TWNG!**_

An exploding charge flew up from Green Arrow on a distant street corner.

_**POWWW!**_

The rooftop exploded, forcing the men to drop their rifles and fly back from the concussion blast.

They groaned and tried getting up—

_TH-THWPPP!_

A leather whip snagged around their ankles and—one by one—slammed them into buildingsides.

_**WHAP! **_

_**WHAM!**_

Catwoman cartwheeled onto the rooftop, kicked the last thug unconscious, purred, stared smilingly out onto the street, and randomly leapt over—

_THWOOOSH!_

A terrorist jeep sped through a street full of wounded soldiers, taking pot-shots at the Army.

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! _

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

--FW-FWOOSH! Catwoman landed on the hood of the jeep, smirked, and smashed her fist through the windshield with her razor-sharp fingers first.

_SHATTTERRR!_

The drivers inside shouted and swerved like mad.

Catwoman nimbly leapt off as the jeep twirled, rolled and slammed hard into the leg of a giant golem—exploding.

_**P-POWWWW!**_

The giant barely budged from the explosion. It was busy stomping around and attempting to squash an agile Black Canary with its burning limbs.

_TH-THWP! THWP!_ The blonde vixen leapt and hopped from sidewalk to overturned tank to rubble heap. She grunted and dove as the giant golem's foot smashed into the earth where she was previously positioned—

_**SLAMMM!**_

_**CRKKKKK-KKKK!**_

Black Canary rolled on the ground and came to a sliding stop—crouched besides a burning hummer. She glanced at her side. A loaded terrorist bazooka was lying on the ground.

She looked back at the monster.

_**CRKKKK!**_

The five-story behemoth swung its fist down at her.

She jumped to the side—_**SMASSH!**_—avoided the blow and stood directly above the bazooka on the ground. She raised her fists and sneered up at the giant as if about to fight….

The huge, burning colossus rumbled and flew its flickering, golden heel down to squash her.

Black Canary swiftly backflipped—

_**CRUNCH!-**__**POWWW!**_ The leg of the beast exploded upon contact with the bazooka. The explosion flew murderously up _into_ the lower limb of the beast and shattered it from the inside out.

The beast stumbled…flailed…and began to teeter over as Black Canary watched.

_SWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH! _**"RAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"** Superman soared at mach five into the belly of the beast, fist flying.

_**WHAM!**_

The monster slid back, slammed through two commercial buildings, and collapsed hard on the ground.

Superman flew down, landed in its chest, and started pummeling the monstrosity senseless with fists of burning steel. _**SLAM! WHAM! WHAM! POW!**_

Across the street…atop a spared building….

I stood.

Billowing smoke.

Holding Myrkblade, which still flickered and dripped haze from a frenzied charge through the lines of war.

I panted….panted…….and swallowed.

I looked around at me.

The Crunch, surrounding…

The war that we were losing…winning…losing…winning….

_This isn't where the real battle is being fought._

I shuddered.

I looked up in the air. Perhaps trying to see Jericho on a wing. Perhaps wanting to wake up.

Perhaps….

_Ana……where is he?_

_Where is Red Aviary? _

_Can Robin really take him alone?_

_Or maybe that's not the real issue here………_

I took a deep breath.

I turned and gazed northward…

Then shut my black eyes.

I took a deep breath.

Zoned out the chaos and deafening noise of war.

And concentrated….

Concentrated………….

……….

…………

…………….

_There, Ana. _

_The __**red**__._

I reopened my black optics.

Slowly.

A cold….knowing breath….

_He is being engaged._

"……….."

I took a deep breath….twirled Myrkblade…and blurred smokingly through the war torn streets in a straight line.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"HAAA!" FL-FL-FLASSSH! A flurry of hex bolts swarmed into Red Aviary's frame.

Slade twirled, spun his sword, and ended with an uncoiling lunge of his double-edged sword towards Jinx. _**"HCKKKT!"**_

The pink-haired sorceress gasped, hand-stood, and leapt out of the way of the slicing blade. _**SLASSSH!**_

Sparks flew.

Slade teetered.

_Cl-Clik!_ Pulsade dove sideways, slid across the Wayne Enterprises rooftop, and fired a heavy stream of uzi lead into the cretin's chest. _RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

_**FLASH!**_Slade morphed in and out of red clouds in the shape of his gnarled body. After a wave of Pulsade's bulletfire ended, he solidified with a hiss—_**"SNKKKT!"**_—and flung his sword forward in a menacing slash that divided the streaking projectiles and sent them flying hotly back towards the blonde assassin.

Pulsade gritted her teeth and dove aside, her legs barely rolling out of the way of the hot lead.

Jinx slid back into view, scrunched her body into a crouch, and burst towards Slade with two wrist-blades of hex stabbing. _CHIIIIING!_ "HAAAA!"

Slade blocked horizontally. _CL-CLANG!_ He breathed vapors down into the nimble witch, slammed his knee up into her chest, grabbed her by the shoulder, spun, and flung her across the roof towards her partner. _THWOOOOSH!_

"AACKIES!" Jinx flailed and slammed into Pulsade. _WH-WHUMP!_ "Ooof!"

"Ugh!"

_**SWOOOOOSSH!**_ Supergirl soared over the two's ragdoll bodies with a titanium fist sailing into Slade's cowl. _"RRRGHH!" __**WHAM!.!.!**_

"_**AUUGHKKT!"**_ Deathstroke soared backwards from the mighty blow and smashed directly into the 'Y' of the 'WAYNE' signs. _**CRASSSH!**_ The neon fixture crumpled and fell on top of the undead despot. Sparks scattered and shards flew. _ZZZT! ZZZ-ZZZT!_

…

Atop her rock, Terra winced.

She was overcome with a chilling coldness.

Something frigid and terrifying that laced the sound and sight of Slade in every dimension.

She trembled….keeping her distance.

Staying aloft on the stone.

Not moving an inch…

…

Supergirl hovered in place. Her hair and cape billowing in the chaotic, high winds. She frowned…clenched her fists by her side…and glared her eyes hotly at the site where Slade had collapsed.

Pulsade got up.

Jinx got up.

And Slade….

"_**HRAAAAUCHKKKTT!"**_ _**SL-SL-SLASSSH!**_ Red Aviary sliced his way out from the pile of glass and light fixture. He twirled his red-streaking sword and exhaled vapors of murderous red.

Supergirl gritted her teeth. Her constantly glaring eyes burned an amber red.

Pulsade's eyes glowed a bright white heat as she raised her hands and concentrated light particles.

Jinx meditated and coursed pink hex through her wrists.

"_**NNNSKKKT—DRAAAUCHKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke charged.

"Nnnnngh!" Supergirl hissed and fired her heat ray. _**ZAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAP!**_

Pulsade grunted and let loose two concentrated light beams from her fingers. _VRIIIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII!_

Jinx shouted and threw volley upon volley of hex bolts. "HAAAAAA-_HAAAA!"_ _FLASH! FL-FLASSSH! FLASSSH!_

Slade's charge was cut short as all three lines of orange, white, and pink converged on him in a huge, strobing flame ball.

_**FWOOOOOOOMBBB!.!.!**_

The center of Wayne Corp's rooftop erupted.

_**VROMMMMMM!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

A pulse of light screamed skyward, highlighting the red in the air.

A beacon formed unnaturally atop the skyscraper…visible all throughout the City and the Battle raging across it.

Those fighting hand-to-hand in the Crunch gasped and even paused to gaze northward…..squinting….

Superman and Green Lantern hovered in place, shading their eyes.

Batman and Catwoman gazed with thin optics under their mask.

Green Arrow and Black Canary gasped, while the Flash stumbled.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I don't get it….," Wonder Woman murmured as she and Steel flew over the waters of the Bay. "Where are the missiles?"

Steel pointed towards the shore behind them with a shout: "Look!"

Wonder Woman spun. Her eyes squinted. "Great Hera…..!"

The summit of Wayne Enterprises was burning. Like some fiery bulb atop a pale lighthouse in a world of endless red.

The breath left the Amazonian and the Metropolitan.

They lingered above the Bay…

….above the concealed hovercraft.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Whoah…..," a thug on the front deck of a missile-bearing hovercraft in the Bay murmured as he gazed-wide eyed-at the burning spectacle beyond.

"Eric! ERIC!"

The thug winced. He glared over his shoulder. "What, Steve?"

"Did you hear what I said? Two of our hovercraft have cut off their signals for some reason! This is serious! So stop staring at the god damn battle for once and mind your post!"

The thug walked back towards the cabin entrance, shrugging: "How in the world could two of our hovercrafts lose contact with us?"

"I think some creeps got 'em!"

"Impossible! Heh….we're too far away from the Crunch for anyone to noti—"

_**TH-THWPP!**_ A green kangaroo leapt wetly onto the deck and slammed his mammalian legs into the square of the thug's back. _**WHAM!**_

"AUGH!" the terrorist fell down the cabin and slammed into his partner inside. "OOF!"

"Augh!"

Changeling morphed into elf form and stepped aside for Tempest to run up to the cabin entrance, summon a blob of water with his purple magic, and fling a huge torrent down into the lower spaces of the hovercraft…drowning the thugs.

"Aaaaaugh!"

"Nnnnngh-blblblblbbb!"

Changeling took a deep breath and ran around to examine the missiles.

Tempest lowered his violet-charged hands and walked after the elf. "You know the drill. I flood. You smash."

"We're not taking out these boats fast enough, dude….," Changeling muttered as he ran a hand across a loaded-and-ready rack of missiles. "There were fourteen or fifteen missiles launched with each wave, right?"

"Right…."

"So there's a bunch more where this thing came from! And any of the rest of them could fire while we're playing hide-and-seek with their amphibious siblings here!"

"They've got to be catching onto us sometime soon as well," Tempest nodded. "Maybe we can somehow distract them from launching future missile waves?"

"Heh….like that's doable," Changeling mumbled and 'sniffed' for the weak spots in the boat.

"………..," Tempest turned. He gazed at the City. At the slowly fading strobe of the bright light atop the distant Wayne Enterprises skyscraper. "…………." He smirked. "Maybe………if we robbed Dagger of a crystal clean night…."

Changeling raised a blood-stained eyebrow. "Huh?"

Tempest turned and pointed: "You think you can handle the next two or three boats on your own?"

"Yeah, man. Why not?"

"Good. I'll be back….," Tempest ran and perched on a cabin railing. He pointed west…northwest. "Titan's Island is over there, right?"

"What's left of it…," Beast Boy muttered. "….now that it's a breeding ground for those rock creeps."

"Exactly what I wanted to know."

_Swooosh!_

_SPLOOOSH!_

The Atlantean was gone.

Swimming in a flurry westward.

Chageling took a deep breath, raised his arms, turned them into meaty gorilla fists. "I'd might as well get used to this 'solo' business…."

He slammed his spliced fists into the fragile deck of the ship.

_**SWOOOOOSH!**_

_**CRACK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back atop Wayne Enterprises…

The light faded.

Supergirl, Jinx, and Pulsade stood around in a crescent.

Facing the ashen center where a virtual hole had been burned. Beneath where the 'Y' of the letters was….

"………………….," they all panted.

Staring.

Squinting.

Unsure……..

….

Atop Terra's levitating rock…

She squinted her blue eyes.

Blowing blonde locks obscured her vision from time to time.

Cold breaths came from her lips

As she panted….panted…panted….

Then…..

Visible vapors.

Red.

Terra gasped, her blue eyes wide.

She turned and saw—

…

--_FLASH!_ Red Aviary materialized with a fizzle of crimson smoke…..

…..right in front of Supergirl.

"_**HRAAAUCHKKT!"**_ He uppercutted her with a red-smoking blur of his fist.

_**SMACK!**_

Supergirl floated backwards…wincing…..surprised—

"_**SNKKKT-Clik-CLIKKT!"**_ Slade spun and slammed the broad-side of his sword across Kara's upper shoulders.

_**THWACK!**_

The Girl of Steel twirled like a baton and went smashing through the structure of a stairwell in the rooftop's far corner.

_**CRUNCCCCH!**_

"HAAAA!" Jinx flung a sea of hex at Slade.

Deathstroke crouched and deflected the bolts with his blade soaring upwards. _**SLASSSSH!**_ CL-CL-CLANG!

The hexes flew back at Jinx.

The sorceress backflipped and nimbly dodged the blows.

_**BL-BLAM!**_

Shotgun pellets exploded in the ground besides Slade.

Deathstroke spun his head around….hissing. _**"SnkkkkKKT!"**_ His one red eye strobed.

Pulsade clenched her teeth, reloaded her shotgun-_Ch-CHTUNG!_—and fired again.

_**BLAM!**_

**FWOOOSH!**

Deathstroke jumped 'backwards', teleported, and then solidified….

….right behind Pulsade.

_CHIIIIING!_ He raised his blade to cleave her shoulder in twain.

Pulsade spun. Her eyes widened. She jumped back—

_**SLASSSSSSH!**_

A red river was cut down her left rib-cage.

"NNNNGH!" the blonde assassin winced in pain and immediately tossed two grenades into Slade's face.

_THWOOOSH!_

He merely hissed and back-handed the explosives away with a flesh-and-metal hand. _**CL-CLANK!**_

The two grenades landed at Jinx's feet.

The sorceress gasped and dove sideways—

_**POWW!**_

"Ugh!" the concussion sent her sprawling across the rooftop.

In the meantime, Pulsade was stumbling towards the very edge….

_**SWOOOOSH!**_ Slade rushed at her, blade swinging.

Pulsade bled, spun to the side, and shot a wrist out with a blinding strobe of light--

_**FLASSSH!**_

FWOOOOSH! Deathstroke teleported, wrapped around Pulsade's outstretched hand in smoke form, and solidified with a vaulting kick off her chest.

_**WH-WHUMP!**_

"Aaaaugh!" Pulsade plunged like a deadweight off the side of the towering skyscraper.

Jinx looked up in time to see her fall. Her cat-eyes dilated and she screamed with a hand outstretched: "LESLIE!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade plunged down the buildingside of Wayne Enterprises.

Four floors down, she grunted and produced a curved blade which she stuck sharply into the glass and steel blurring up past her.

_**SNKKKKTT-SKKKKTTT!**_

She cut a deep ravine into the glass and metal…

….and slowed her descent to a stand-still.

She hung with a lurch….grunting….panting…

Her legs dangling over sixty stories above the streets of the City.

"Nnnngh….," she gritted her teeth and struggled with her free hand for a grip to climb her way back up.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back on the rooftop…

Slade stood before the ledge. Shaking…exhaling smoke.

He turned around—

"_**HAAAA!"**_ Jinx flew herself murderously at him.

He twirled his blade high. _**SLASSSH!**_

Jinx ducked---

_**WHAM!**_ Slade's fist flew hard into her gut.

"SNkkkkt!" Jinx hissed…lost her breath, and crumpled to the floor.

Slade twirled his blade and prepared to stab down through the girl's spine.

_Crkkkk-kkk!_ Supergirl pulled herself out of the collapsed stairwell. "Nnnngh…" she rubbed her blonde head. Took one look at the sword-gripping Deathstroke, and frowned. "NnnnnnNNNGH!" she flew at him in a steel-strong tackle.

_**WHAM!**_

Deathstroke's stabbing of Jinx was interrupted as he and the Girl of Steel toppled across the rooftop and ended in a slide with the two grappling.

_**GRIPPP!**_ Supergirl's palms clamped mercilessly over Slade's wrists. _**CRKKKK!**_

"_**NKKKKTT-HCKKKK!"**_ he shook and quivered.

Kara snarled in his face. "You're outmatched, Slade. Don't even think you can scratch me, you over-inflated genocidal creep!"

His red eyes narrowed. _**"Hckkkkt-clik-clik-clikktt……flesssssh is flesssssh, alien. Nothing more---"**_ And then he leaned forward, flexed his unseen mouth under his cowl, and shrieked a huge exhalation of red vapors into Supergirl's face. _**"HRECKKKKKKK-KKKKKTTTT!"**_

Supergirl inhaled the frigid, deadly crimson. Her eyes froze over like glass cataracts. She coughed, sputtered, wheezed…..and stumbled back on her feet. Gripping her throat. Pale—

"_**HRAAAUKKKT!"**_

_**TH-THWISSSSH!**_

Slade's sword slashed at her, ripped her yellow cape in two, sliced off a few locks of blonde hair, and ended with the sword slamming—with a full fan of red intensity—square into Supergirl's forehead.

_**SLAAAA-AAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH-**__**CRACCCCKKKK!**_

A spherical explosion of red mist and vapor echoed from the contact.

Jinx shuddered.

Robin hugged Starfire all the more…shaking.

….

"Kara!" Terra shouted.

Blue eyes wide.

Staring….breathless from above.

"………"

…

The sword didn't slice through the Argosian's skin.

Not even in the least.

But as the sword rested against her friction-hot forehead, the wide-eyed and dazed Supergirl could only shudder as waves of warbling red pulsed coldly through her frame.

Her legs buckled.

Her arms shook.

As with a seizure, she shook….quivered….rolled her blue eyes back….

And began her long collapse into unconsciousness—

--that is, until Deathstroke batted her off the buildingside with a side-swipe of his sword.

_**SWOOOOOSH!**_

"_**HCKKKKKT!"**_

_**SLAM!**_

_THWOOOOSH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Hanging on the buildingside….

Pulsade was starting to make some headway.

She grunted and pulled herself up, one shaking hand at a time.

Panting….she gazed up as a shadow crossed her features.

Clinging to the building face, Pulsade froze at the sight of Supergirl.

The sight of Supergirl…plummeting straight towards her….

"Oh…..bloody Hell…."

_**WHAM!**_

Both girls ragdolled into each other and fell like platinum comets down the towering building face of Wayne Enterprises.

_SWOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSH!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOSSSH!**_

Slade spun his sword to a stop against the rooftop. _**CHTINK!**_

"………_**..snkkkkt-clik-clik-clik-CLIK-HCKKKT!"**_

Jinx stood up on wobbly feet. Wincing. Straining to hold up a pair of pink-hexing wrists.

"_**Snkkkkt…….,"**_ he turned to face her. _**"…..snkkt…..bad…..bad…..girrrrrl…..clik-clik-clik-hckkkk….."**_

Jinx bit her lip. Trembling. Walking backwards from him….

"_**Snkkkkt….you sssshould have stayeddd put in the Omega Wing….snkkkt….hckkk!—you sssshould have tassssted sweet fire…..like ROBIN—SNKKKT—SHOULD HAVE!"**_

She managed a frown: "S-Sorry if I've warmed up a little to _life_ since I stopped working for you, **Slade**!"

…

In the background….

Robin looked up from cradling Starfire.

His back was to the confrontation between Slade and Jinx.

He sniffed….

The tears staining his face dried as his lips and jaw tightened into an incurable frown.

His teeth grit.

He seethed….

He gently put down Starfire…..laid her gently on the rooftop…

His gloved hand lingering on her tresses……

Her injured skin…..

"…….."

He took one breath….two breaths….three….

Then….

"Nnngh!" He ran up, teeth clenched. Stomped across the rooftop. Dragged a hand down. And snatched up his bo-staff. _Clank!_ GRIP!

…

In the meantime, Slade marched towards Jinx, his sword raised.

"_**You—Hckkk!—will finisssh one lasssst task for me, girrrrl. You will die….,"**_ his red eye narrowed with a soul-piercing strobe. _**"….and there issss….no….'WARMING UP'….from thatttt—snkkkt!"**_

Jinx shuddered.

Slade lunged forward with his sword—

"_YAAAAAUGH!" __**THWACCCK!**_ Robin plunged into Slade with his bo-staff slamming a crushing force across the Reaper's rib-cage. "RAAAAUGH!" Then—_**THWACK! – SMACK! – CRACK! – WHAM! – SLAM!**_ – an endless barrage of attacks and side-swipes and jabs and crushing blows all across Deathstroke's frame. _**"**__NNNNNGH!"_ Robin spun, helicopter-twirled his bo-staff across Slade's skull—_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWACK!_—and ended with a murderous uppercut that sent Deathstroke airborne and tumbling across the length of the rooftop towards the edge. _**CRACKKK!**_

Jinx gasped…..watching with wide cat eyes.

"_**HCKKKKTT!"**_ Slade spat blood and red vapors as he stumbled to his feet—

_**SWOOOOOSH!**_ Robin was flying at him with a three-hundred-sixty degree spin of his staff crushing its way into Deathstroke's undead neck.

_**CRKKKKK!**_

Slade literally spun from the impact and stumbled backwards….blocking and parrying Robin's lightning-fast attacks in futility. _**CLACK! CL-CLANG! WHANG!**_

"Nnngh! Raaugh! HiYAAA! Wa-TAAA! RAAAUGH!"

…

Terra was hugging herself.

Watching from on high.

She couldn't stop trembling atop her rock.

She couldn't keep her eyes off Slade…and yet she couldn't keep her lids open.

She shuddered….and with each gasping breath something escaped her.

Like a moan or a shriek.

Partially muted….impossibly hidden….

…_.the anguished after-edges of a broken young girl lying battered and stained in the corner of Slade's lair….. _

…_.bleeding from within….._

…_.ripped asunder…._

…_.on fire on the inside…_

…_.red…..red…..red…._

Terra bit her lip.

She watched…staring.

And…..with each screaming blow that the Boy Wonder dealt the demon…

The iciness inside of Terra started to crumble away.

Like she was being extracted from the stone all over again.

It made her gasp….

….and it made her shudder and shake.

But in a new way.

A warm way.

It spread into her sapphire eyes and melted into a fine, liquid magma.

Burning gold.

Shimmering….hot….

White.

She gritted her teeth….fumed…..and brought her gloved hands up….

…. sliding the blue goggles firmly over her optics.

With a shine.

_Flash!_

…

Meanwhile—

"YAAAAUGH!" Robin flew into Slade at the rooftop edge, bo-staff sweeping up.

_  
SWOOOOOOSH-__**CLANK!**_

This time, Slade blocked and the two combatants sneered at each other.

Mask to cowl.

"_**SNKKKKKKT—That'sss right, Robin….,"**_ Deathstroke hissed at the Boy Wonder. _**"SSSShow me the deatttth that pulssses at your fingertipsss. I ssshall enjoy spitting—snkkkt—it BACKKK OUT ATTT YOU!"**_

Robin snarled and pulled out a birdarang. _Chiiing!_ "Shut up and **end**, shitbag!" _CRUNCH!_ He stabbed the sharp end of the birdarang directly into the top of Slade's skull.

"_**HCRKKK-SNKKKTAAAAUHCKT!"**_ Deathstroke stumbled back, flailing. The birdarang was bloodily stuck into his scalp.

Robin barred his teeth like a canine, jumped up, spun, and flung the staff's full length at Deathstroke's form to toss him off the Wayne skyscraper. "YAAAAUGH!"

_**CLAMP!**_ Deathstroke's metal and flesh grip closed around the end of Robin's staff.

The Boy Wonder gasped.

"_**HRAAUCHKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke head-butted Robin, effectively slicing a gash into the masked boy's shoulder with the birdarang.

_SLIINK!_

"Aaaugh!" Robin stumbled back.

"_**Hckkk…..,"**_ Slade effortlessly yanked the leaking birdarang out—_Crkk!_—tossed it aside….and lunged his head forward. He spat a glob of crimson juice out his cowl slits and into Robin's face. _"Spkkkt!"_

_Sp-Splat! _Robin sputtered…stumbling before Slade.

_CHIIIIING!_ Deathstroke raised his red sword in one hand and aimed at Robin's neck. _**"I hope you made good use of your head, Tim—snkkkkt—It's lease is up."**_

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSH!**_

Robin glanced up….his masked eyes twitching—

"_RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--!"_

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ The hulking clump of Kansas flew like a missile straight into Deathstroke's body.

_**WHAM!.!.!.!**_

"_**OOOF!"**_ Slade shrieked as he and the huge mound of rock soared off the edge of Wayne Enterprises—_SMASH!_—and sailed towards the lower office building beyond.

Jinx and Robin gasped….watching.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Fifteen stories above the streets of the City….

Pulsade hung from a flagpole of the Wayne Enterprises Building via a grappling hook.

She held onto the hook with one hand….

….and held onto Supergirl's unconscious body with the other.

"Nnnnngh…snkkkt….," she struggled and cursed under her breath as she mutteringly held the two aloft---

_SWOOOOOOSH!_

"……?" Pulsade glanced up.

She looked just in time to see the huge clump of earth several stories above slam Deathstroke into the lofty offices of a building across the way.

_SHATTTERRR!.!.!_

Glass flew and blanketed the nearby streets.

"Hrmpph….," Pulsade sweatily groaned. "How quaint…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx and Robin found themselves staring at the gaping hole in the office building across the way.

In sequence, they both turned around to see Terra walking across the rooftop…..frowning…..her eyes glowing a hot white-gold. Her hair dancing.

"T-Terra…..," Robin murmured.

The earth maiden ignored him….

Teeth clenched, she summoned fallen…broken-off shards from the huge clump of earth to levitate before her with a flick of her wrist. A 'sidewalk' of stepping stones appeared in mid-air…and the blonde swiftly marched across the levitating rocks like a descending staircase towards the hole across the way.

Where Slade was.

Jinx shuddered. "G-Guess this was inevitable…" She took a deep breath, ran towards the building's edge, and gazed straight down. She gasped. "L-Leslie! Th-Thank Hecate!"

"…….," Robin shuddered. Gulping. He gazed at Terra 'walking' through the air towards the smashed destination. He turned around and gazed at Starfire's unconscious….gently breathing figure. He took a deep breath and looked at the office building again. "………."

In the meantime, Jinx was waving with a Cheshire Cat grin down at her precariously hanging partner. "Hang on, Leslie! I'm coming for y—"

_Grip!_

Robin's glove encircled her frilled wrist.

The girl looked up. Pink cat eyes blinking. "H-Huh?"

Robin marched with her to the building's edge, whipped out a grappling hook, and muttered: "Come."

"W-Where to---?"

"This ends. Now."

"B-B-B-But what about Kara and Les—"

**POW!**

_Clank!_

SWOOOOOSSSH!

"DAAAAAH!" Jinx clung to Robin as he swung the two of them across the way and into the smashed building.

…

And Starfire 'slept' soundly…

Alone….

Quiet and still on the Wayne Enterprises rooftop

Safe…………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_WHURRRR-__**SCHLUMP!**_

Clayface closed the security door to Phaser Labs' basement stairs shut behind him.

He gazed down the dark, metal-lined corridors that were flashing and flickering with strobes of red light.

He took a deep breath….glazed-amber eyes narrow.

He snaked ahead….muddy feet sloshing.

He 'sniffed' the air….tightened his face….and looked….felt…..groped for any sense…._any sense_ of the untimely intruder.

"…………"

Clayface crept around the corner.

The walls and floor shook with the distant thunder of the Crunch at hand.

As the muddy metamorph sloshed down the hallway…..he suddenly paused.

"……….."

And then he grinned.

His amber eyes melted…..and then his crown deflated into wet decay….caving in…….reforming…..reshaping.

_**Slllbppsllblppp….**_

Soon he stood in the form of a female scientist. Glasses, white labcoat, blonde hair in a bun—and all.

'She' walked around the corner as casually as possible…

Just then, a shadow turned up….and another figure stumbled towards 'her'.

Clayface—in disguise—ran a few steps forward, panted, and said with a look of estrogenical distress: "Thank goodness someone is here! The system's gone all haywire! Something's wrong with the computer A.I.! As soon as the City fell under attack, Simon Stone's been trying to take over the inner computer core and----" The actor stopped….his female eyes blinking.

Dagger was limping towards him. Clutching his far shoulder. Wincing.

Clayface did a double-take. "Y-You!"

"Nnnng….," Dagger winced. Bleeding. "I couldn't stop the Parasite. We have to double-back and make a new plan for our forces if we want to take the City!"

The 'woman' stumbled back, recoiling in fear. "Y-You're Dagger! I-I…I……………………s-stand back! This facility has dozens of defenses and—!"

Dagger sneered: "Hagan, **drop** the **act**!"

The 'woman' shuddered.

Dagger's eyes narrowed. "I need you….and Mr. Stone….to help me re-establish control of the City. Phaser Labs here is the key to that!"

"Uhm……uh….of c-course…b-boss…," the 'woman' nodded…..melted….and expanded into the lumbering giant of mud that was Matt Hagan. "Jeez….what happened to you?"

"It matters little," Dagger droned in his trademark nonchalance. He icily glared at Clayface and marched past him. "I need to see Stone. Together, we can patch through to Fox and try and overload the entire security grid of this metropolitan area. I need something to distract Calvin's forces. There's no time to waste. None whatsoever."

"But….But D-Dagger….," Clayface nervously glanced back down the red-strobing hallway. "There're enemy forces hanging around the entrance! They've broken through the outer perimeter! Stone even thinks his nephew is—"

"---no threat to us as long as I have a base of operations," Dagger muttered. He motioned along and treaded towards the distant…basement laboratory door. "Come on….watch my back. I'll need you if I ever hope to meet Stone again."

"R-Right. Understood…," Clayface took a deep breath---_CHIIING!_—formed a pair of sharp axes with his hands…and sloshed protectively alongside Dagger.

Dagger held his breath and limped along. Both hands clenched. Both hands….._in tact……._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the office building across from Wayne Enterprises, a pile of crushed…mangled earth lay spread across a sea of cubicles, chairs, desks, and office equipment.

Cold December air rushed in red and billowing through the smashed windows and into the cluttered interior. The wide-branching room was dark….interrupted only every now and then by a decorated pylon or pillar placed in the middle of the aisles to support the upper floors.

Underneath the mangled earth, glass, and steal….a red light glowed.

"_**Hckkkt….."**_ Red Aviary dug up through the mound. Using his sword, he propped himself up to his feet….where he stood with a vaporous hyperventilation that sent red clouds dancing about the stale air. _**"SNkkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clikkkt……."**_ He cracked his joints….turned….faced the gaping hole…..

….and narrowed his pulsing eye.

"…………_**.."**_

He tried taking a step forward—

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_ The mounds of earth lifted up around him. Sixteen clumps of soil suddenly sloshed together in a dark-brown glob that surrounded and swallowed the Reaper.

"_**SNKKKT—MMMFFFF!"**_

Deathstroke struggled and flailed and fought with darting limbs from inside the swallowing, coagulating, hardening sphere of earth—

_**SMASSSSH! "HRAAAAUCKHTT!"**_ he managed to burst the glob apart into scattering bits of soil with an outward pulse of red Destruction. He landed on his feet—_P-PLANT!_—and aimed his sword ahead at the figure that suddenly appeared in the gaping, glass hole. _**"Snkkkt-clik-clik-clik….."**__I _

"…………_," Terra glared from behind blue goggles. Her gloved fists clenched at her sides. Her silk-gold hair fluttered icily in the wind._

"_**SNkkkt-clik-clik-clik…..,"**_ Slade glared. Pulsing. _**"Snkkt-well hello, ssssweettthearttt…..snkkkt!—clikkkt—Come to ask for child support?"**_

"…………."

Deathstroke dragged his blade through the aisle of cubicles. _Chiiii-iiii-iiiiing!_ He marched slowly towards her. Hissing. _**"SNkkkkt—what is the mattttter, Terra? Why the silenccce? Cannot summon the strength to tauntttt the masssster who once letttt you—HCKKK……JOIN……with him?"**_

Terra droned: "Actually, I was somewhat hoping you would turn to stone…."

"_**HCKKKKT---snkkkt…..nottt happeningggg…,"**_ he readied his sword and hissed. _**"Dream on….."**_

Her eyes glowed gold under their goggles as she sneered: "I can _no longer dream_ because of you." She then threw her arms back, showed her clenched teeth—"Rrrrrrrrrr-RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and lifted six huge clumps of shattered Kansas earth, only to fling them sharply at Deathstroke's figure.

_**SWISSSSSSSSH!**_

Slade hissed, held his sword out, and spun a three-sixty.

_**SL-SL-SLASSSH!**_

He shredded all incoming projectiles of rock, twirled his red blade, and flung himself directly towards the earth maiden. _**"SNKKKKT!"**_

Terra stepped back, gritted her teeth, and folded her arms---_**SWOOOOSH-**__**CLUMPP!**_ Hundreds of tiny mounds of soil formed lightning-fast in front of her and hardened into a rock wall.

_**CL-CLANK!**_ Red Aviary's sword bounced against it, showering sparks.

"_RAAAAH!"_ Terra lunged her gloved hands forward….forming a 'fist' with the same rock and slamming Slade across the cowled cheek.

_**WHACCCCK!**_

….and then crunching forth twin tentacles of serrated fury outward from the rock 'fist' towards Slade's lower body.

_SL-SLINKKK!_

_**SLIIIINK!**_

Blood and vaporous red puffs flew.

Slade stumbled back. _**"Hckkk-clik-clik-snkkkt!"**_

Terra marched firmly towards him. Fuming. Her hands gracefully deflated to her sides…and only her eyes strobed. As if on cue, a field of random stone-hard pellets floated up and swarmed around her. Terra marched with countless rocks and debris and earthen projectiles circling her petite frame like an electron cloud surrounding a nucleus. She marched….frowned….and spun, spun, spun the rock field without so much as lifting a finger.

Slade regained his footing….snarled with an exhalation of red clouds….and charged straight at her.

Terra 'thought'.

_PFTOOOOSSH!_

A knife of sharp rock flew out from the 'cloud' and grazed Slade's shoulder.

_**SLIIINK!**_

"_**HCKKK!"**_ he teetered.

Terra's glowing eyes 'twitchd'.

_PFTOOOSH! PFT-PFTOOOSH!_ Two shuriken-shaped clumps of earth shot out and stabbed Slade in the lower legs and calves.

He leaned on his sword for a moment, caught his frozen breath, and smokingly blurred at her.

This time, Terra grounded her legs in the floor and thrust her gloved hands forward. "Rrrrrghh!"

_PFTOOOSSSH! PFT-PFTOOOSH! PFTOOOSH! _

_SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_

A dozen orbiting debris throttled through the air and began pelting Slade from all sides. Darting, palm-sized comets. Grenade-hot pieces of serrated earth. Shards of Kansas diving, spiraling, spinning, veering, and slashing-biting-smacking-slamming Slade at every angle the thermalkinetic girl could muster.

_SW-SWISSSSH! _

_TH-THWOOOOSH!_

_FW-FWISSSSH!_

_SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK!_

Slade 'danced' and jolted and spiraled and twirled in the air from the hundreds of pummeling contacts. The walls and roof and floor and furniture of the office complex dented and cracked and burned from the heated dives of the earth-projectiles.

Terra hissed through clenched teeth as she spread her arms and---

_THWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!_

All as one….the dozens of earthen debris parted in the air like an expanding supernova.

"_RRRRR-__**RRRRAAAAAAH!"**_ Terra screamed and pulled her clenched gloves in.

_**THROOOOOOOSSSH!**_ The debris all closed in and crushed Slade from the outside.

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

His body twisted and warped at a sickening angle under the pressure of the inwardly-slamming rock pieces……and slumped agonizingly to the ground after Terra released the pressure.

"_**Snkkkt….c-clik-c-clik-c-clikkkkttt….snkkkt…," **_he wheezed and smoked twitchingly on the floor.

Terra marched towards him, reforming her cloud of orbiting rocks. "You know, Slade….in spite of all the Hell you put me through……I actually should thank you for one thing."

"_**Snkkkkkt-HCKKKK…..," **_he shook and struggled to get up.

She flicked a wrist and surrounded his red-pulsing body with a huge 'clam' of crumbling earth.

_**TWNNNKKKK!**_

Slade wheezed from within the rocky 'mouth'.

Terra leaned over and stared at him. Frowing. Goggled eyes glinting gold and blue alternately….

"When I find my child…..I'll raise her up….and have at least one single person in this world who could trust me……and love me…," she added in a bitter whisper. "…..because she'll know that I was the one who finally killed you."

Slade looked up…suddenly unhindered.

His single eye strobed a burning _**RED**_. _**"You….will NEVER….FIND….OUR CHILD!"**_ _**FLAASSSSH!**_ He swung a fountaining blade of red up through the earthen boulders that were 'swallowing' him.

_**CRAAAAACKKK!**_

Rock and debris exploded outward.

Terra stumbled back…but she was too busy yelling to strike back: "SHUT UP! How DARE you call it _OUR_ child--!"

_**SLIIIINK!**_

Terra's shoulder was sliced along the edges.

"Aaaaah!" she sobbed and hobbled back, clutching her wound and tearing inside her goggles.

_**WHACK!**_ Deathstroke's foot emerged from the cloud of debris after his sword.

Terra fell back on her rear.

Wincing all over—

"_**HCKKKK!"**_

_**WHUMP!**_

Deathstroke pressed his weight down on her grounded figure.

Terra gasped.

Eyes wide.

_A very familiar and horrifying position…._

"_**HCKKK-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkt…,"**_ Deathstroke leaned down and breathed _**RED**_ into her quivering lips. _**"SNkkkt….worthlessss children….can neverrrrr be found….snkkkt-clik-clik-clik…."**_ He brought his blade up in two hands to stab down and cleave her skull in two. _**"HCKKK-Worthlessss Childrrrrren…clik-clikkktt-from WORTHLESSSSNKTT…..UNGRATEFUL….WHORRRES!.!.!"**_

Terra shook.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ The blade sang its way down.

Terra whimpered---

_**SHATTTTTERRRR!**_ I blurred in through the nearest pane of windows. In a burst of black smoke and dark glass, I streaked across the room and solidified with my boot slamming into Deathstroke's side.

_**WHAM!**_ He flew off of Terra.

The blonde gasped…hyperventilating.

Deathstroke tumbled across the room.

I snarled, twirled Myrkblade, and smoked after him—_FWOOOOOSH!_

He rolled agilely up to his knees, hissed and raised his blade just when I struck down at him—_**CLANGG! CRACCK! WHANG!**_

I screamed mutely and stabbed down at his chest with all my might.

He rolled to the side, swung up his leg with a wave of red smoke, and slammed Myrkblade out from my grip.

_CLAK!_

I stood above him….weaponless….teetering.

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ He jabbed the length of his red-sword at my gut.

I gritted my teeth and—_SWOOOSH!_—flung my black left hand forward and gripped the serrated length of his sword—_RIIIIIIIIP!_—till my synthetic fingers slid to a stop around his hilt. Crushing. _CRKKKK!_

He exhaled red smoke and struggled against me with his sword.

I struggled down against him with my black hand.

Black and red…. reached my right hand out….palmed the ground….sent a carpet of smoke across the rock-strewn debris…found Myrkblade…and bounced it towards me with a black pulse.

_FL-FLASSH!_

Myrkblade flew into my hand. _Snatch!_

I twirled it-_Th-Thwissh!_-and made to stab down into Red Aviary—

"_**SNKKKT!"**_ He was shooting his leg up while I wasn't looking--

_**WHAM!**_

I stumbled across the office space till I stood over Terra again.

"_**HRAUCHKKT!"**_ Deathstroke stood up, raised his billowing red sword towards the ceiling…..and brought it crashing down into the floor with an explosion of Destruction. _**"HRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**_

_**FWOOOOOO-OOOOOSSSH!**_

_  
_Red-ribboning serration cracked through the floor and shattered its way towards Terra.

The trembling blonde gasped.

I spun, dove through her with a pulse of murk, and shoved her towards the gaping hole in the window—

_THWOOOOSH!_

--just as Robin and Jinx swung in and nimbly caught her.

_Th-Thrump!_

"Oof!" Terra winced.

Jinx and Robin set her down to her feet.

I spun and stood besides them…panting.

"_**SNkkkkt….,"**_ Deathstroke stood up. Glaring.

Robin frowned. Terra heaved. Jinx gritted her teeth. And I gripped tightly to Myrkblade….

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik…"**_

A bo-staff swung at ready. Spinning clumps of dirt rose with a gold glow. Pink hex appeared and strobed. Myrkblade danced with smoke.

"_**Snkkkkt…..,"**_ Slade eyed us all. His flickering iris seemed to rest on each and every one of us equally before—_**TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!**_ He twirled his big red blade. _**"Apprenticessssss….,"**_ he hissed…._**THWOOOSH!…**_swung his sword into a crouching fighting position, and motioned us all on with a single metal-and-flesh hand. _**"……come."**_

All in one accord, the four of us children darted forward.

"Nnnnngh!"

"Raaaah!"

"HAAAA!"

"……..!.!.!"

SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!

_THWIIIIIISSSH! THWISSSSH!_

_FL-FLASSSSH! FLASH!_

_FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!_

Robin ran and flipped over Slade, jabbing and swinging with his staff from above. _TH-TH-THWISSH!_

Slade rotated his double-edged sword overhead. _**CL-CL-CLANG!**_

Terra lunged forward and let three sharp shards of earth fly.

Slade stepped back and jerked his sword down into a horizontal position, shattering all three projectiles. _**CRKKK!**_

Jinx cartwheeled in with every arm and ankle slashing a hex blade. **CHIIIIING!**

Slade twirled his sword as he stepped back. _CL-CL-CL-CLANK! _He growled—_**"HCKKK!"**_—and stabbed forward at the witch.

Robin yanked Jinx and himself away from the blade as I came murking in with heavy sword swipes. _**FWOOOOSH-**__**SLASSH!**____**THWACK!**____**SWOOOSH!**_

Deathstroke deflected—**CLAAAANG!**_—_and stomped his red-cascading foot down. _**"HRAAUCKKKT!"**_

A river of floor-cracking red swam at me.

I dove to the side. SWOOOSH!

And Terra came swinging down, surfing a three-foot wide sphere of Kansas Earth. _SWWWWIIISSSSH!_

**WHAM!** Terra's flying 'platform' nailed Slade across the chin.

He flew back and slid on his posterior under an office desk.

_TH-THWP!_ Robin and Jinx flipped into the air and came down with bo-staff and hex bolts ripping down towards Deathstroke.

"RAAAUGH!" THWOOOSH!

"HAAAA!" FL-FL-FLASSH!

"_**SNKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke pulsed upwards a wave of Destruction.

_**CRACCK!**_

The desk exploded in a field of splinters that forced Robin and Jinx flying back across the office space.

_**FWOOOOOSH!**_ I murked in, dragging my sword on a cutting path towards Slade. _**CHIIIIII-IIIIING!**_

Slade jumped to his feet, avoided Myrkblade, spun, grabbed a handful of my long black hair, swung, and flung me hard into Terra as she came soaring back down.

_**THWOOOOSH-**__**WHAM!**_

"Aaugh!"

_Daah!_

The two of us went flying across the room and smashing through two cubicle walls—_SL-SLAM!_—while Terra's earthen platform flew into Slade's grasp. He grabbed it like a huge, oven-sized football….spun…..and launched it towards Robin and Jinx. _**"HHCKKKK!"**_

Jinx stopped running just in time to plant her feet into the carpet and fling twoo bolts of hex out. _**FL-FLASSSH!**_ The platform exploded barely a foot from her figure…forcing her back with a grunt. "Aaack!"

_Thwooosh!_ Robin vaulted over her collapsing figure, spun, and swung his bo-staff into Slade's face. "YAAAAUGH!"

_**SM-SMACCKKKK!**_

Slade stumbled back.

Robin shouted a warcry and charged Slade. Swinging. Slashing. Jabbing. Pummeling. _**WHACK-CLANG-SMACK-THRASSH!**_

Slade took the first half-dozen impacts hard, then finally blocked—_**CLANGG!**_—with a red blade shooting a Destruction wave at Robin.—_**FWOOOSH!**_

The Boy Wonder slid back on two feet…grinding hotly in the carpet.

Slade swung down at him—_**"HRCHKKKTT!"**_

_FWOOOOSH-__**CLANG!**_ I dove in and deflected Slade's slash into a water fountain. _**SPLOSSSH!**_ I snarled and flung my synthetic black elbow into his face—

_**CRACCKK!**_ He stumbled back.

I jabbed at him. Myrkblade smokingly screaming towards his figure—

_**FW-FWOOOSH!**_ He teleported in a red puff.

I gasped and stumbled through—

_TH-THWUMP!_ He solidified and kicked me in reverse.

I hobbled towards the window.

He spun to rip my head off—

_**CLANG!**_ Robin's bo-staff struck Slade's blade from behind.

Red Aviary teetered.

I snarled mutely, spun, and slashed Myrkblade at his skull.

_**SLASSSH!**_

Deathstroke ducked, kicked me aside, spun, deflected Robin's attack, entwined his bo-staff with his sword, shoved him aside, twisted around and deflected my next attack, spun and yanked me into a pillar—**WHAM!**—ran up the pillar, vaulted off in a pulse of red, flipped, landed, crouched, lifted his blade and deflected Robin's menacing jabs—_**CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!-CLANG!**_—kicked Robin back with a blurred boot, brought his twitching arm back free of his blade to back hand me as I charged, gripped me by the neck, and flung me straight towards the window as he twirled his blade and parried Robin's furious assault—_**CLANG!-CLACK!-SMACK!**_

I twirled towards the window and was yanked aside at the last shattering second by Jinx's pink-pulsing hand.

We both panted and looked over—

Robin jabbed at Slade.

Slade parried.

Slade swung low at Robin.

Robin leapt up, grabbed a blade of a ceiling fan, kicked with his feet off a desk, twirled around, and slammed his bo-staff across Slade's cheek.

_**WHAM!**_

Slade stumbled back.

Robin leapt down off the fan with a growl, planted his feet into the seat of an office chair, and rolled—rolled—rolled into Slade across the smooth carpet….all the while spinning his staff like a buzz saw—_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSSSSH!_

_**WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP-WHAP!**_ Slade jolted and danced from the rapid impacts.

Robin snarled as his chair stopped rolling. He stood up and brought his staff up to the ceiling to swing down and crush Slade's skull—

_**SLIIIICE!**_ Deathstroke ripped the chair in half.

Robin slumped forward. "Aaaugh!"

Slade kicked him to the opposite side of the room with his foot. He prepared to skewer the Boy Wonder from afar with his grip on the two-edged sword like a javelin—

_**CRASSSSSSH!**_ A heavy mound of earth slammed down magically into Slade's body from above.

Jinx and I gasped. We glanced aside.

Terra stood atop a shattered desk, her gloved hands outstretched, her goggled eyes aflame with gold fury. "RAAAAAH!" She jerked her wrists earthward.

_**SLAMMM!**_ The earth mound pounded levitatingly down into Deathstroke's ragdoll figure.

She flicked her wrists again.

_**SLAMMMM!**_ _**"HCkkkk!"**_

Again…

_**CRUSSSH! "SNKKTT-TT!"**_

And again….

_**THWOMPP! "SNkkkt-clik-clikkkkt…"**_

Even Robin had to wince.

Deathstroke now stumbled to his knees in a square crater of fractured office floor.

Terra snarled as she curled her fingers…--"_You shall __**not**_…"--…wrenched her hands apart…--"…_torture our lives_…"—…split the earth mound in two…--…"…_**anyMORE**_**!"**--…and slammed her knuckles back together. _**"RAAAAH!"**_

_**CRAAAAA-AAAACK!**_ The two earth mound halves slammed into either side of Deathstroke's quivering, red body.

"Woooo-YEAH!" Jinx pumped her arm and cutely cheered. "Momma said knock….you….OUT!"

The other 'apprentices'—Robin and I looked on.

"_**RAAAAAAH!"**_

_**CRUSSSSH!**_

_**SHATTTTER!**_

The two chunks of earth exploded upon coming into slamming contact with Slade's body again.

Rock debris flew everywhere in golden streaks of sizzling Construction.

The thermalkinetic blonde fell to her knees atop the desk. Panting….

Deathstroke lingered on his knees….broken…..battered….

But still hissing red vapors.

"_**Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Hckkkkt….."**_

Jinx and I exchanged glances.

She nodded.

I nodded. _CHIIIING!_

_Let's finish this……_

"Ghost boy!" Jinx shouted and started running with a pink glow. "Alley oop!"

I held my breath and blurred forward—_FWOOOSH!_

Jinx streaked left.

I streaked right.

She ran up a desk.

I ran up a pillar.

We both flipped off, criss-crossed in opposite directions, and converged with a combined, airborne slash of Myrkblade and explosion of pink hex.

_**Fw-FWPP! **_

_**FW-FWPPP!**_

"_**HAAAAAA!" FL-FLAAASSH!**_

_**SLAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSH!**_

Slade looked up—hissing—only to have—

_**SMACCCCCK!**_—a wave of smoke and hex slam into his skull.

"_**HRAAAAAUCHKKKT!"**_

He flew back and—

_**SHATTTTTTERRRR!**_

--exploded out the pane of dark window glass.

Soaring outward and into oblivion.

_Plant!_ Jinx landed.

_Pl-PLANT!_ I landed.

"…….."

"……"

We both stood up.

Taking deep breaths.

Robin watched. Terra watched. Robin anxious and hyperventilating. Terra exhausted and panting.

I gulped and gazed shakily at the gaping hole in the glass….eating into the cold, red night of December.

…….

Jinx girl-stepped towards it and peered her pink head out.

"Is that it? Is h-he finished?"

A beat……

…..

_**CLUTCCCH!**_

A red-smoking hand gripped her throat from beneath the hole on the outside.

"EEEK!" Jinx shrieked.

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ Slade rose in the hole and flung Jinx out by her neck.

I gasped.

_Jean!_

_SWOOOOOOOOSH!_

Jinx sailed outward in a flailing pink form…smashing through the windows of a skyscraper across the way and disappearing inside._ Craa-aash!_

"_**Snkkkt….,"**_ a grunting Slade attempted climbing back into the office space from outside. _**"….snkkkt….let'sss see a magical pendanttt save you from thattt, witch—"**_

_**SWOOOOOOSH-**__**WHAM!**_

My body flew like a comet and tackled Red Aviary mercilessly.

"_**HRAAUCHKT!"**_

_**FWOOOOOOOO-OOOOOSH!**_

The two of us plummeted….plummeted….plummeted towards a skyscraper rooftop across the way. We wrestled and stabbed and struck at each other smokingly in mid-air. Sailing down together……

Robin ran to the hole, gazing out and panting.

Terra hobbled up behind him.

The Boy Wonder spun. He squinted his eyemask and tugged Terra's arm. "Terra! Quick! Fly us out there! After them!"

"……..," she bit her lip. "R-Robin….you…."

"What is it, Terra?"

"………..you trust me?"

"……….," he took the quick, heated moment to place both of his hands on her shoulders and stare her gently in the face. "You and I both know that there is _only one enemy_ here….." He leaned back and took a breath before adding: "There's always been…..only one……"

She stared at him. Jaw tight. Her blue eyes moistened under her goggles….

"Terra…please…..we have to finish this," Robin pointed.

She shook….nodded…and breathily said: "R-Right…."

Her eyes glowed a hot gold. She raised her hands.

A cluster of rocks from across the office floor formed together to make a platform.

Terra jumped into the center and concentrated on the floating stones with her gloved hands. "Hop on."

Robin did….gripping tightly to his bo-staff.

_FW-FWOOOOOSH!_ Together the two Titans soared after the plummeting Deathstroke and I….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Inside William B. Fox's hovercraft….

The hacker heir was panting….hyperventilating…sweating…

His hands flurried across the controls and keyboards of the computer array before him as he tried to ascertain the reason for all the random ships' signals disappearing.

"Units Three and Four! Report! Repeat…this is William Fox of Unit Seven! Units Three and Four….stop taking your god-damn Doritos break or whatnot and TALK TO ME!"

The guards who—all that time—had been icily threatening Fox at gunpoint to follow through with Dagger's commands were suddenly shifting nervously…sweating themselves rotten.

"Maybe their communication was cut off…."

"Perhaps Calvin's army has some sort of frequency distabilizer…..thingy…"

"Stop speaking Star-Treknobabble!" Fox hissed. "**I'm** a nerd and even I say you're lame!"

"Will you just figure this all out before Dagger—"

"I think it's best that Dagger doesn't know…," Fox squeaked. He then gulped….shuddered…and said: "I think we're under attack."

Again, the guards nervously shifted…..

"I'm almost tempted to launch some more damn missiles ahead of time…."

'What good will that do?" a Daggerite thug cackled.

Fox wiped his sweaty brow, leaned back in his computer chair, and hand-signed: "First…..it'll keep Wonder Woman and Steel from finding us and ripping our freakin' hull apart….."

"……….all right….we're listening."

"Second…..it might…._might_ make Dagger have second thoughts about the crazy-ass Lex Luthor ion cannon thing……"

"……….."

"…………"

"………..which means we'll live."

"Ohhhhhh….

"Right….Right….."

A beat.

"………," the guard tapped Fox's shoulder. "Launch the missiles."

_Tap-Tap-Tap!_

"On it!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North of the line of hovercraft….

In the Bay of the City…reflecting the glittering fire of the Crunch….

A dark blue form skirted through the waves…

….and broke the surface.

_SP-SPLOOOSH!_

Tempest crested through the water….parting the dark liquid on either side.

His dark eyes opened through a stream of salt water. He skimmed the Bay's surface…heading west-northwest…

Straight towards an island…

Titan's Island.

With a huge gaping hole of burning yellow magma shimmering from within….

And golems—both huge and small—stomping about the rock crags where the leftover shards and smoking pylons of the destroyed Tower rested….

Tempest took a deep breath. Above the spray of water, he opened his dry lungs and said: "Eh….it needed remodeling anyway." He grinned for the Hell of it, raised his hands, and practically ran on the water's surface with magically sprinting feet as he hissed: "Time for a bath….."

His white-on-black eyes morphed into a pulsing, violet aura.

He started gritting his teeth.

His fingers curled in the air.

Strobing purple…..violet….purple…violet…

"Nnnnnnnnnnngggh…….."

The spray of water parting on either side of him lifted up into the air in a huge tail that gathered…gathered….gathered more and more moisture until it morphed into a thick, hovering 'worm' of water skimming the Ocean's surface just above Tempest's head.

"-_nnnnnnnnghhh……"_ Tempest concentrated. Shimmering purple. Calling on the dark touch of Slizzath to push him forward….gathering water in a huge, invisible tub. Dripping. Sloshing. Surging.

The air began to shake with the missile of liquid.

Flakes of frost in the red night drifted like magnetized dust and flew into the streaking Atlantean.

He practically flew towards the boiling volcano of Titans' Island….screaming with the weight and intensity of the huge wave of water he was summoning.

"_-nnnnnnNNNNNRAAAAAAAUGHHH!"_

_**SLOSSSSSSSH!**_

The golems barely had a chance to flee their burning bodies away when----

_**SLOSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

The wave of Ocean slammed over them.

Tempest vaulted over on a tentacle of water, flipping….plunging into the other side of the bay.

He came up a few meters off—sputtering—admiring his handiwork.

The oozing water sloshed across the rock crags, slammed past the debris of Tower pieces, and plunged suicidally into the burning 'mouth' of the volcanic pit.

And…..

"Lights out."

_**HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssss**__sssssssssssssssssss_ssssssssssssssssssss…………

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Ten other units contacted…..missiles at ready……..armed and set for the next volley….," Fox murmured while typing.

One of the anxious guards in his cabin cackled: "Fire them already!"

Fox was just in the middle of the fatal keystroke when he froze…..

…blinking at the computer consoles.

"What's the matter? Why have you stopped?"

"I-I……Th-There's a smoke screen across the Bay!"

"What?"

"I-I can't see the City! There's a wall of mist—a f-fog or some crap blocking the way! It's like God suddenly dropped down with a keg of beer and farted in our faces!"

"Well, s-send the damn missiles on a heat-seeking trajectory or something!"

"Nnngh…," Fox sweated. Trembling. "I c-can't! The steam's hot! It's screwing up all the senses!"

"This is nuts…"

One of the guards rushed over and hammered away at a computer. "Where's that map? Bring up that damn map—"

"H-Hey! Watch it! One wrong keystroke and the ion cannon will fire—"

"Shit, where **is** the City? I can't see anything—"

"Like I told you---"

"Who could have done that?"

_**CRACK!**_

Fox and the two guards gasped….and spun about--

TH-THWUMP! A bruised….cut Daggerite sailor fell down the steps into the inner cabin and ended with a groan. A pair of green, serrated velociraptor feet came to a stop above him and morphed into the limbs of an emerald elf with one ear.

"A T-Titan!" one of the guards murmured.

Changeling frowned. He pointed a reptilian-spliced finger. "You creeps should have stuck to the shallow end!"

"Ah jeez….ah jeez!" Fox murmured and trembled on his feet…..his fingers spread across the computer consoles now behind him. "I-I-I'm too virginal and pure to die!……..Unless you count th-that one trip to Daytona….."

"WASTE 'EM!" a guard shouted, pulling out his pistol.

BANG!

BL-BLAM!

"ACKATRON!" Fox winced and flinched all over.

Changeling dodged the bullets with cheetah speed, morphed into a wolf, dashed forward, and pounced on the two guards in the form of a bear. "RAWWWWR!"

"AAAAA--!"

They flew back and—_**THWOMP!—**_slammed into William B. Fox.

"OOF!" the hacker heir stumbled backwards and…..hit a couple of keys on the computer panels.

_Cl-Click!_

_  
Beeeeeeep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

A window entitled 'Ion Cannon Charging' lit up digitally on the screen.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Metropolis….

In the towering, spacious office of Lexcorp….

The bald businessman himself sat at his luscious, wooden desk….

Bleary-eyed and exhausted…

Swirling a half-empty glass of red liquid.

While listening to the radio reports of the Crunch miles south of Metropolis….

…he brought the glass to his lips and sipped one….last…..time.

When—

_Beep!—Beep!—Beep!—Beep!—Beep!_

"Hmmm?" he glanced past his upturned nose at the computer console…..froze…bugged his eyes out….and leaned forward, spitting and sputtering the red liquid before gasping for air and rolling his chair like mad towards the computer with a psychotic keystroke. "No you don't, Dagger! No you don't-No you don't-_NO YOU DON'T!"_

_BEEEEP!-'Snkkkt! Luthor, sir! This is Lexcorp Internal Security! Our technicians have just related to us that—'_

"The satellite is being hijacked!" Luthor sneered. "I **know**! It's Dagger and his bum hackers!"

'_We have our best men working en masse as we speak to counteract the digital mole!'_

"That's not going to be of any use!" Luthor snarled, eyeing the computer screen full of red flashing lights with pulsing arteries in his cornea. "Dagger's men are good. They've installed new firewalls and made the satellite and impregnable fortress of technological supremacy!"

'_Sir, we mustn't give up hope—'_

"Shut up and listen to me!" Luthor shook his fist in the air. "We need to shoot that thing down!"

'_S-Sir…?'_

"When's the soonest that a Lex-Shuttle can enter orbit and blast that scrap metal out of the sky?"

'_M-Mister Luthor……w-we've never had an impromptu launch of Lexcorp Space Technologies and—'_

"WHEN IS THE SOONEST?"

'_S-Seventy-Two hours, sir. Tops.'_

Luthor slumped back in his seat. Fuming.

His brow furrowed.

His eyes narrowed…cold…….emaciated—but bitter.

"See what my technicians can do….."

'_Right away, sir! SNkkkt!'_

Luthor gritted his teeth. He stared at the computer screen on his desk.

"Dagger….if you're calling down the thunder now—I swear—after I burn, you're going to _burn all the hotter! NGHHH!"_

SWOOOSH-_**SMASSSSH!**_ Luthor slammed his fist down through the computer console, forming a splintery crater in the desk from the magnitude of his fist's blow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the cold vacuum of space…

Hovering over the black crescent of the night-laden northern hemisphere…

A cylindrical structure with twin solar panel wings orbited silently.

The Lexcorp _**'L'**_ glistened in starlight on the hull of the satellite…

As suddenly….

Irreversibly….

It rotated about and pivoted its glowing, circular end towards a tiny spot in the dark City.

Where the continent shimmered a gold and red light….

And the ion cannon began to glow.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop a lonely rooftop surrounded by the burning Crunch….

Dagger sat.

Dizzily hugging his bloody stub of a left limb to his person.

He swallowed a dry throat and fought his icy best to stay awake.

To stay in command.

To stay….

To stay………

_Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!_

Dagger looked wearily down towards the digital display on his one good arm's wristwatch.

The coordinates of the satellite's ion cannon flickered forth to the cadence of the tiny, electric chime.

The despot took a shuddering breath, rolled his eyes back, and summoned the strength to sit up with his back to the rooftop's stairwell.

"…….all right….then………..the crater shall forever bear my name……"


	263. Break the Circle part 23

**263. Break the Circle part 23**

_**HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS**__SSSSSSSSSssssssssssss_ssssssssssssssss……..!

A burning mist from Titan's Island wafted through the City.

The clouds spread northward, through the war-torn mess…

Spreading into the Crunch…..

Drifting between the huge burning golems and booming tanks….

Obscuring the bulletfire….the grenades….the RPGs…..

Calvin's and Dagger's men found themselves shooting and hurling lead at each other from behind masks of haze and white madness. Voices and gunshots echoed loudly against the moisture hanging in the air. Sweaty bodies grew wetter with a salt-water sheen that dripped off their gun barrels and slicked down their brows. Nervous breaths…hyperventilations….quivering nerves as the triggers pulled and the forces drew in, drew back, held position, charged, fell…..

Superman gritted his teeth and used three forms of X-Ray vision to navigate his way through the mess.

Green Lantern covered himself with a green force field and pierced through the street-level crowds.

Green Arrow lit flares while Black Canary and Catwoman stood back to back….fists and whip raised for any sign of advancing enemies.

The Flash spun tornadic circles to clear the air as a line of golems marched blindly forward into the aim of tank turrets that fired and decimated the monsters to ashes.

Batman switched to an infrared vision planted inside his mask's slits and observed the battle from a high perch. His jaw clenched as he saw the line breaking and the forces of Dagger regrouping in the center. Two burning pulses—giant golems—flailed and picked up huge chunks of buildingsides to use as hurling weapons. Batman took a deep breath and swung into action.

All the while, General Calvin watched from the front line of the Army's assault. He stared—squintingly into the fog—maintaining a strong stance in his jeep. The hard lines in his old brow turned all the harder as he breathed in the mist and exhaled hotly….

The mist that took on a reddish hue in the freezing, December holocaut….

"This night might claim us all…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere along the northern edge of the Crunch….

Supergirl dangled…

Upside down….

Her red cape swinging….

Her blonde hair forever 'falling' in the drifting…shifting mist from the Bay.

"…………….."

"Supergirl?"

"……………."

"…….Supergirrrrrrl….."

"……………."

The dangling blonde suddenly shook from above.

"_Hey!_ Wake up, you grotty tyke!"

"Nnnngh….," Kara's blue eyes fluttered open. "….wh-wha--?"

She gazed directly up (down) and saw the concrete of the streets directly three stories above (below).

"Huh?"

Suddenly, the hand holding her by the ankle let go—

"Waaaaah!" _Thwoooo-oooooosh! __**WHAM!**_ Supergirl fell three stories and landed hard in the middle of the street. A crater formed and dust flew in the unearthly, salt-water mist. "Ughhhhh….."

Kara sat up…rubbing her head….wilted inside the crater.

"What Kela's name--?"

_Thwisssssssh-__**P-PLANT!**_

Pulsade flew down and landed on top of Supergirl….her feet slamming down into the Girl of Steel's shoulders.

"DAAH!" _TH-THWOMP!_ Supergirl was pressed down hard into the crater.

_Th-Thwpp!_ Pulsade vaulted off Supergirl's shoulders, flipped, and landed in an agile squat on a sidewalk across the way. "Ugh….whew. Now wasn't that smashing?"

"NNNGH!" Supergirl shot up and darted over with her fist grabbing Pulsade by the collar of her jumpsuit. _**GRIP!**_ "You stupid limey bitch! What in the heck was that for!"

"Bite your own tongue, lass," Pulsade frowned and shoved Supergirl's arm off of her. "I saved your life, you know!"

"……," Supergirl blinked. She looked up at the visible lengths of Wayne Enterprises stretching up towards the misty red sky…..then frowned back at Pulsade. "Lemme get this straight……you saved me from a sixty-foot drop—which I would have survived anyway—just so that I could suffer a three story drop…..and just so you could _land down on me?" _

"My grappling cords only brought me as far down as the fourth floor!" Pulsade brandished an automatic shotgun and started loading it with multiple shells. "You were dozing off like a god-forsaken sloth! Forgive me if I had to come up with alternative ways of…saving my own pathetic arse! Besides, do you know how hard it was trying to carry the two of us down? I used up all of my grappling cords!"

"You could have just asked me and I would have flown us both to safety the soonest I woke up!"

"Pfft….not bloody likely. Besides, after the pretty number Red Aviary did to your head, I'm fairly surprised you woke up at all!"

Supergirl had a horrified look on her face "You mean you would have dropped me…._and jumped down on my corpse?"_

"The plan never quite evolved in that direction, now did it? Unless we're both dead right now as we speak, in such case I need to subscribe myself to a new religion…."

"Nnnngh…," Supergirl rubbed her forehead and gazed around the misty streets. "I don't think there's a Nirvana in store for 'lesbian yoga'."

"Actually, I'm atheist."

"Does Jinx know that?"

"Jean? Pfft…she pretty much hammered in the faith."

"……………………………why the Hell am I having this conversation with you?"

"Beyond me, love."

Supergirl gazed all around. "And while we're at it, where the Hell did all this fog come from?"

"Red Aviary's side effects?" Pulsade stepped ahead and nonchalantly waved a brightly glowing hand through the red-colored mist. "You must admit…it looks like his calling card."

Supergirl sniffed. "Smells like the ocean. I think something happened in the Bay."

"Probably one of those golden monsters of Terra's essences going for a skinny-dip."

"No….not big enough to cause this much—" Supergirl froze. She spun. Lips pursed. Head tilted. "The battle……there's a…….new turn coming…."

"Huh?" Pulsade shot a beacon of light southward and craned her neck. After a few blinking seconds, she made a face. "All I can hear is the same old racket."

"That's because you don't have super-hearing."

"So? What about it?"

"The Justice League's in trouble…..they might need our help…."

"Bullocks!" Pulsade frowned. "What about Terra and Red Aviary?" A pause. A blink. She gazed around. "What about Jean--?"

_GRIP!_

Supergirl held the blonde assassin's wrist. "For all we know…," she smirked. "…they probably went into the thick of battle."

"Hey….watch the hand contact. It sends the wrong messages---DAAAAH!"

_SWOOOOOOSH!_

Supergirl tugged Pulsade—flailing—along with her as she bulleted southward. "Hang on! We're going to find out what's going on here!"

"I h-have a bad feeling about this….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop Wayne Enterprises.

Far above the red-colored fog…..

Starfire lay….

Silent.

Alone.

Limp…bruised….beaten….

She softly stirred and moaned in unconsciousness….

But couldn't bring herself to wake up…

As the City burned and rumbled in the thunderous mist below….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at the Mist-laden Crunch….

Wonder Woman and Steel flew in from the Bay to observe the madness of the water's mist blowing into the City. After several minutes of attempting to spot a visual order amidst the chaos, the two warriors exchanged glances and further exchanged shrugs.

Steel twirled his sledgehammer and prepared to dive down—

"Wait!" Wonder Woman said, holding an arm out to keep him back.

Steel stared curiously through his mask.

Wonder Woman's gaze narrowed.

Ahead of them—along the top crests of the fog—the smoke began to part.

A loud beating filled the air.

Followed by….

….a HIND.

Piercing the smoke and haze.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

Steel made to toss his sledgehammer mercilessly into the metal frame of the bird…but still, the Amazonian held him back.

She squinted harder….focusing on the pilots of the craft.

The man in the top bubble was unconscious….perhaps dead….

The second was waving emphatically….and then holding up a hand. A hand with a finger extended.

'_J.'_

Princess Diana's lips pursed. The wind from the helicopter blew at her black fountain of hair as the mist parted and--

The two of them gasped.

…

From the ground, Green Arrow and Black Canary and Catwoman looked up.

The Flash came to a blurring red-orange stop besides a freezing Batman.

Superman and Green Lantern also had to pause in the middle of rushing one of the golems to stare at the descending helicopter.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_

The Crunch had come to a virtual standstill…..to the point that General Calvin himself was more-than-perturbed.

The commanding officer jumped up, stood on the front end of his jeep, and shook his fist to the air. "What in the Hell is going on here—?.!"

"Sir! Look!"

Calvin made a face, squinting at the HIND.

The helicopter pivoted, swam through the claustrophobic air around haze-hidden buildings, and beated its way towards the cluster of Dagger's forces.

…

Terrorists in lines of hummers and thick crowds of golden golems prepared for a second assault.

At the sound of the beating rotary blades, both human and freak alike had to look up.

Confused….

Perplexed….

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

Jericho's hijacked aircraft broke through the column of fog and hovered loudly over the center of defense….Dagger's last stand.

The men in the jeeps and hummers shouted.

Gunners at the mounted weapons pivoted and aimed at the aircraft.

The giant golems rumbled—_**CRKKK-KKKK!**_—and raised the huge chunks of building faces up with burning limbs to toss at the hapless HIND.

But suddenly, the one pilot inside the aircraft picked up speed….and tossed his hand over in a commanding finger-point.

The ground began to rumble.

The mist began to part.

And out of the fog….they stampeded.

Over two hundred strong.

The Wildebeests…..regrouped….reenergized……………..rebounding….

……and charging the Central cluster of Daggerite defense as fast as their meaty limbs could carry them.

Silver-crowned comets soaring out from the cold-gray mist.

_**RUMMMMMMMBBBLEEE!**_

"_NNNNNNnnnghhh!" _

"_NNNNNGH!"_

The men on the hummers gasped and barely pulled the triggers when—

"_**NNNNGHH!"**_ _**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-**__**CRUNNCHH!**_ The line of Wildebeests slammed atop their vehicles and started thrashing their limbs, knocking bodies asunder and smashing gaping holes in metal and weaponry.

The golems ran full-fledged into the wall of bovine warriors, only to be smashed and shattered apart by the impregnable charge.

The second charge of the Wildebeests ate and ate into the heart of Dagger's final forces, ripping the line asunder, tearing at the feet of the golem giants.

And the HIND hovered—ever present—above the mess.

…

Flash was the first to cheer. Followed by an enthusiastic Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Catwoman smirked for a moment. Batman said nothing.

Green Lantern and Superman exchanged glances before smiling nervously and blurring into the fray as fast as their powers could carry them.

General Calvin's men cheered a heavy throng of shouts and whoops.

The General himself slumped back into his jeep with a sigh……...a smiling sigh.

He straightened his helmet, glared knowingly at his subordinates, and pointed the line forward.

Tanks rolled ahead. Jeeps throttled back to life. The soldiers and vehicles and forces of the Army surged ahead in one gallant accord.

…

From above, Steel let out a victorious laugh.

Wonder Woman smiled.

Steel gestured towards Superman and Green Lantern.

He soared down to help them.

Wonder Woman took a deep breath, flexed her limbs, and prepared to fly down when—

'_**Diana……'**_

The Amazonian flinched in the air.

Her eyes blinked.

"J'onn?"

A green pulse to her right….

Wonder Woman looked over.

Martian Manhunter appeared in a swirl of emerald light on a building front across the way.

"This battle is not yet won," the alien deadpanned. "I'm afraid there is a very grave situation."

Wonder Woman looked at him in concern. "What is it? What's the development?"

Martian Manhunter droned: "It may help you and the rest of the League to know that Lex Luthor's satellite ion cannon has been hacked into by Dagger, and now the weapon is charged to fire into the heart of this City. In a matter of minutes, everything around us will be utterly decimated."

The Amazonian gasped. "N-No….This is impossible! We…..….I-I must tell Superman—"

Before she could fly away--

"Diana…."

She froze and looked at him. "What, J'onn?"

As straight as ever. "That is not the 'grave situation'."

Her eyes narrowed. "Then what is?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOOOOOSH-**__**WHUMP!**_

Red Aviary and I slammed into the building rooftop with Slade landing first.

I winced, gritted my teeth, and let loose a mute scream as I stabbed Myrkblade towards his crackling chest--

"_**HCKKKKK-CLIKK!"**_ He grabbed the sharp curve of my blade, let his sliced skin stop the descent of the cutting blade, and shoved against me with a leaking splash of red vapor. _**"SNKKKTTT!"**_

The edges of my eyes flickered white. I cursed mentally in queer pain and fell back to a roll.

A mist from the foggy Bay started to rise around us as Deathstroke jumped to his feet, twirled his red blade, and twirled to stab down at me—

_**TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH-**__**STAB!.!.!**_

I grunted and rolled to the side as a river of gravel was ripped where my legs were.

I jumped to my feet, spun Myrkblade, and held it up horizontally just in time to—_**CLANG!.!.!**_

Sparks splashed between his sword and mind.

"_**HCKKKK-CKKKKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke leaned into me, hissing red vapors. _**"I'm—snkkkkt—DONE with usingggg you, Black Eyesssss…..I was done—HCKKK—a long time ago……"**_ TH-THWUMP! His knee flew up into my abdomen.

I lurched to the side.

He twirled his blade—_**TH-THWISSSH!**_—and _**SLASSSH**_ed it up towards my center.

I teleported, smoked through his blade, mixed with the red vapors, and surged inside and outside of him with a solidified kicking of my legs against his back—_**THWOMP!**_

"_**Snkkkt!"**_ he stumbled forward a few steps and spun around.

But I…

_Th-Thwump!_ I slumped to my knees. Hissing for breath. Having 'teleported through' Slade robbed me of a good level of strength and…..liveliness. The black smoke surging in and out of me flickered as traces of red ate at my insides. I winced…panted….and shivered. Traces of white danced along the edges of my obsidian optics. I was weak and powerless by the time Red Aviary loomed above me with his soared held high.

"_**SNkkkkt—death is catchingggg up to you, Noirrr……..lookssss like you'll BURN-HCKKKkkkt—beforrrre meeeeee…."**_

I winced.

_**THWOOOOOSSSH!**_ His blade came down---_**CRACKKK!**_ And stopped when a rocky pebble flew into his hilt and deflected the killing blow.

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ He spun, his one red eye glaring over the edge of the rooftop.

_**SWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ A school of pebbles flew through the fog….and soon Terra and Robin emerged from beyond the mist on a huge platform of stone hurtling through the center of the debris. Terra frowned at Slade as Robin dove off the plummeting rock with an accelerated flying kick aimed at Deathstroke's face.

"HI-YAAAAAA!"

_**SM-SMACCCK!**_

Deathstroke stumbled back, bracing himself with the red sword against the rooftop.

Robin landed, slid across the gravel, swung his leg out, kicked the blade out from under Deathstroke, grabbed Red Aviary by the ribs as he fell, twirled, and agilely flung the Reaper with a scream towards a t.v. antennae across the fog . "RAAAAUGH!"

_SWOOOSH!—__**CLANNNG!**_ Deathstroke shook and struggled and twitched….stuck in the sharp metal branches of the antenna. "_**HCKKKK-KKKKT!"**_

Terra flew in on her rock. She gritted her teeth and angled the edge of her flying platform like a huge blade and surfed it straight at the stuck Deathstroke's center.

_SWISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!_

"_**HRAAACHKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke flexed his arms, snapped a sea of metal antennae arms free, and raised his sword in a cutting line straight at Terra's incoming form. _**CHIIIIING!**_

Terra gasped and dove off at the last second—

_**CRAAAA-AAAACK!**_ Her rock platform was severed in two upon golden contact. Under a rain of pebbles and spikes, Deathstroke broke free of the antennae, twirled his sword, and swung its bladed end towards Terra's skull.

The goggled blonde gasped, squatted low, and covered her head.

_**SLASSSSH! **_The red blade fell--

"YAAAAUGH!" Robin dove in and planted himself between Slade and Terra with his bo-staff raised.

_**CL-CLANKKKK!**_

The two combatants struggled against each other. Flesh and metal and meaty muscles knotted and quivering.

Finally, Robin shouted, shoved against Deathstroke, and advanced towards him with twirling, jabbing, swishing attacks of his staff.

_**SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSH!**_

Deathstroke side-stepped, ducked, and leapt every blow. With his back heels to the rooftop, he hissed and jabbed forward at Robin. _**SLASSSH!**_

Robin lunged backwards in a limbo stretch as the blade sang barely over his nose and eyemask.

Beyond the falling Boy Wonder, Terra came charging. Teeth gritting, she leapt up—shouted—formed a glowing orb of collected rock debris underneath her right foot in mid-air and thusly swung her left boot around to slam Deathstroke across the cheek—_**WHAMMM!**_

Deathstroke tumbled and ragdolled across the edge of the building top.

Terra landed…crouched—took a breath—and ran forward with her hands raised and meditating on a golden stream.

Deathstroke vaulted up to his feet—_**TH-TH-THWISSH!**_—and twirled his blade.

"RAAAAAH!" Terra's eyes shimmered gold under her goggles as she charged the man through the mist.

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ His blade swam through the mist, parting the water molecules into clouded globules in the air—

_**FLAASSSH!**_ Terra's hands slammed together….palm to palm.

On command, the white gravel layering the rooftop flew up from the tarred surface and swarmed around Deathstroke.

_**CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANGG!**_ The downswing of Red Aviary's sword was slowed to a dead-stop as the Reaper's body was encased in a hard sphere of coagulated rock.

"_**Nnnh-RAAUCHKTT!"**_ he shouted and flexed from within.

Terra slid to a stop, her feet grinding into the tar. Her entire upper body shook as she crushed her fingers together and—in turn—crushed Slade deeper and deeper within the pulsing core of tiny white rocks.

Fountains of red mist and Destruction spurted out from dozens of cracked spots in the clumping sphere. Like a huge, poisoned egg….the impromptu 'coffin' of Slade warped and morphed and flexed and poked outward from the inside.

"I…..I-I can't…..hold it….t-too….much longer….!" Terra hissed.

Robin limped to her side, frowning. "You don't have to…" _CHIIING!_ He pulled out an explosive birdarang, gritted his teeth, and flung the projectile sharply into the thick of the quivering white mass.

_SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH---_

Terra thinned her eyes.

_---SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-__**CHUNKKK!**_

….._beep-beep-beep—_

I looked up from where I weakly kneeled just in time to see-

_**POWWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

The center of the rock sphere exploded blazingly from within….but the gravel didn't shoot out everywhere like one might expect. It held the explosion inward…convulsing……flexing……but not giving way.

I panted and looked towards Terra….

She was wincing all over. Her eyes a blazing white-hot gold. Her teeth gnashing and sparking from ivory gap to ivory bit with sparks of hot gold.

Robin stood behind her and strongly gripped her shoulders…..breathily coaching her on. Shouting at her ear level: "Hold it together! Hold it! Let him burn!"

_**FWOMMMMMMBBBB!**_ The white rock sphere heated to a bright amber-red. Tongues of flame spurted out continuously all around as the rupturing ball of plasma quivered and bubbled from within.

"Nnnnngh…..It's….t-too much!" Terra panted.

"You've got it! Just hold it!" Robin shouted.

I gulped.

A chill ran through me.

I eyed the white mist surrounding.

How it turned redder and _redder_.

But not from the flaming sphere……

My lips parted.

_Ana…… _

_The fog……the smoke……_

_  
It is speaking to me……_

I followed the shifting trails with attentive black eyes.

Glancing at the red streams.

The cold drift and drops….

_It's telling me where Red Aviary is…… _

_And right now he's right at--_

I bolted up to my feet with a mute shout….blurred across the roof…and dove my body with arms outstretched like a flying crucifix….

…..straight into Robin and Terra from behind.

_**CHIIIIING! **_Red Aviary solidified right behind them in a puff of burning red…..straight out of the midst. _**"HCKKKK!**_

_**SLASSSSH!**_

_Nnnngh!_ My body plowed Robin and Terra to the ground.

"Aaah!"

"Daaugh!"

_**SWOOOOOSSSSH!**_ Red Aviary's red blade swam through the air where the Titans' heads were.

"Mmmmf!" Terra was the first to hit the black rooftop, and her eyes lost the gold fire upon slamming contact—

_**POWWWWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_ As a result, the unchecked sphere of burning gravel exploded in a huge wave of air concussion and fire.

_**FWOOOOOOOMMMB!**_

Our bodies tumbled in three opposite directions.

"_**HCKKKKK!"**_ Deathstroke absorbed the hot waves and teleported redly into the mist….disappearing.

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The flames billowed over us like a pillar of fire.

Blinding.

Obscuring….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the first floor to Phaser Labs….

Clayface soggily marched towards the security shield that blocked off the cellar stairs from the rest of the building.

He came to a stop.

He glanced over his muddy shoulder. "…………."

Dagger panted….panted…..clutching his side. Wincing. "Well…..? What are you waiting for?"

"Just making sure we're not being followed…."

"It's me, Hagan. People don't 'follow' me and _live_. Now open the damn doors so I can talk with Stone immediately. This is all _beyond_ urgent."

"Right……..," Clayface uttered with a nod. He morphed his hand, shrunk it down to the size of a person's wrist, and nimbly danced his digits across a few important keys of a digital door pad before hitting the action button and—

_WHURRRRR-__**SCLUMP!**_

--opening the gray shield slab. The computer console beeped at him, and emergency lights along the reflective walls that flickered closest to the cellar room came to a cool and serene stop.

_Beeep!_

_**SCHLACK!**_ The frame locked in place, yawning the door open.

Dagger took a deep—exhausted breath and motioned the mound of living/walking clay downward towards the cellar of destination.

"You're one with the 'earth', Clayface. Do proceed."

"………………y-yeah….," Clayface uttered. Glazed amber eyes thin as he regarded Dagger and passed down the stairs. He entered the scientifically charged domain with a stance of blasé ignorance. Not even looking behind him.

"………….," Dagger quietly stepped in after the metamorph.

The despot's cadence suddenly stopped limping.

His right hand clenched into a tight fist.

And out from nowhere, a metallic ringing coarsely filtered through the air—_Cl-Cl-Clak-Clakka!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In Fox's hovercraft….

_Swooosh!_

_Smack!_

_  
Wh-Whack!_

_  
Pow!_

Fox nervously inched away from the computer array where all of his precious hacking utensils lie neglected under a string of identical, glowing schematics. He bit his lip, flattened his dark body against the wall, and oozed upwards towards the top of the stairs as he eyed—

_Smack!_

_  
Thwack!_

_Wham!_

_  
Pow!_

_  
Whap!_

"Grrfff!" Changeling's shadow—pasted against the wall—splashed violently against the shuddering images of the two guards' flailing bodies. The dark outlines of claws, tentacles, and antlers splattered across the kaleidoscopically chaotic signs of strife about the room. Fox was just about to reach the edge of madness and gladly run straight through it to reach the ship's surface when---

_**SWOOOOOSH-**__**SNAGG!**_

"DAAAH!" Fox wailed as a green octopus limb wrapped about his ankle.

_YANK!_

The hacker heir panted for breath as Changeling lifted him back over to the computer, dropped him—_"OOF!_—and forced an interrogation over the groaning, unconscious bodies of the thugs while the half-eared elf shoved Fox fiercely against the computer consoles.

_THWOMP!_

"What……is this?" Changeling hissed.

Fox simpered…..stammered—"A not-so-sexy-new twist on the Rodney case if I ever saw one—"

"_Grfff………_No……," Changeling's eyes narrowed, pivoted Fox forcibly around, and pointed a sharp finger towards the multiple computer monitors…..

…..all of which were displaying the same image; the wire-frame layout of a twirling satellite pivoting to aim its ion cannon earthward.

"_**THAT!"**_

"Oh….that…..," Fox chuckled nervously, sweated, gulped, and squinted his eyes as if perplexed by the occurrences on the digital screens. "Egads, I've never seen that before! Jenna Jameson must be turning into a geek, these days—"

_**SNKKKKTT!**_ A throng of bear claws spliced into existence just alongside Fox's face.

He gasped…..eyes wide….

Changeling was glaring at him. Serious. Unwavering…

"This isn't….a joke…..," the half-elf hissed. "Tell me what we're dealing with."

"Would you kinda sorta re-think drowning my ship and everyone on it if I do tell you something?"

"Learn a new trick or you'll be singing the same old tune _under water._"

"OKAY! Okay….sheesh….it's…..uhm…..well, ya know….," Fox shrugged and chuckled. "A-An Ion Cannon."

Changeling's green eyes bulged. "What?"

"It's kinda sorta aimed at the heart of our City and set to blow. That sort of stuff—"

"_**WHAT?.!.?.!"**_

"Look…w-would it help you to believe me th-that it wasn't m-m-my idea?" Fox murmured, bulbs of sweat forming….

_TH-THWUMP!_

"Ooof!" Fox fell achingly to the floor.

Changeling stood in the center of the shaken cabin, his eyes wide. He stared into space after having dropped Fox from a spliced-strong grip. Now once again a shrunken elf of defensless proportions, the emerald beast boy murmured to himself: "Dagger….h-he must be losing the battle. But he refuses to lose the City….even after all he's destroyed and those whom he's killed off………after all the way's he's been using Terra…………..all just to win nothing. Our everything…..his nothing…..swallowed by fire."

"Uhm….v-very poetic, kid. Say….would you mind possibly turning into a big green bat and flying me to some prison—oh, I dunno—_two states away_ from here?"

"NNNNNGHHHH!" Changeling kicked a hole in a metal cabinet lining the claustrophobic room. _**CLANK!**_

Fox gasped, shielding himself from ash and shattered shards…..

The green elf twitched and hissed with a wave of animalistic fury. He heaved loudly in the center of the cabin and growled: "Had enough carnage for one evening, Dagger? After Terra….this City…..I have no doubt in my mind. You're frickin' worse than Slade, dude…."

"That makes the two of us," Fox simpered.

_Thwoosh!_ Changeling's head positively spun to glare at Fox.

The heir jolted and jumped back—

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ Beast Boy flew down….a leathery elbow first. _WHUMP!_ He pressed Fox mercilessly against the wall of the cabin with his forearm to the rich boy's throat.

"Snnnkkt…..hsssss!" William B. Fox hissed, kicked, and struggled to convey _anything._

A seething Beast Boy released pressure some and growled with his green head 'motioning' towards the computer consoles. "**How**….do I _**stop it**_?"

"Th-There's n-n-no stopping—snkkkt—it, man!"

"Lies!"

"Honest! I'm b-being honest!" Fox hissed. He glanced over Changeling's shoulder in time to spot one of the two grounded thugs stirring to life on the cabin floor….glaring upwards at Changeling. Fox continued unhindered: "That's Lex Luthor's satellite. I basically had to rape the digital bulwarks of the hardware's electronic infrastructure to make it so much as _pivot_ while orbiting the earth. Now every hacker in Luthor's arsenal _world-wide_ is reversing the work that I—by myself—prepared. The firewalls that Luthor's people have inevitably made by now are virtually impenetrable. So…..the ion cannon is set to fire. That's inevitable and unchangeable. What's most important is how exactly the satellite is angled to demonstrate its intergalactic Russian roulette!"

Changeling gripped the man tighter by his collar. "Where is the satellite aiming? WHERE?"

The one thug behind Beast Boy stood up, brought both hands together, and crept menacingly to slam the metamorph's skull in from behind….

Fox struggled at the last breath of his personal stamina. His eyes grew thick and started to roll back as he half-slumped out of Changeling's grip and wheezed: "M-Man…..aren't _you_ gonna be stoked wh-when you find out……Asking that question is absolutely p-p-pointless….."

Fox drew limp.

Changeling was already making a face. "H-Huh?"

_**WH-WHAPPP!**_

The thug slammed Beast Boy's skull from behind.

"Aaaaugh!" Changeling stumbled across the cabin, dropped a wheezing Fox, and slammed hard into the array of computer monitors and equipment.

_CR-CRKKKK!_

The one thug whipped out a knife—_CHIIING!_—and ran across the cabin at the half-collapsed elf. "Nnnnngh!"

Changeling snapped out of it…glancing up. Wide-eyed—

"NGAAAAH!" the thug dove with the dagger.

_THWOOOOSH!_

Changeling grunted, morphed into a flamingo, and twisted his green-feathered neck and body about across the computer array just in time to avoid—

_**CL-CLANK!**_ The dagger showered against the equipment with a splash of sparks.

The flamingo squawked, snaked its green beak around, and bit deeply into the wrist of the blade-wielding thug.

"Aaaaaugh!" the guard shouted.

Fox stirred on the floor….gaining oxygen, breath, and hideous consciousness. "Nnnngh….aw shit, Momma, I'm still alive….."

"AAAAUCKKKT!" the thug kicked the green bird.

The flamingo toppled onto the floor.

The thug snarled and raised his foot to kick down through the soft body.

Changeling morphed into a sea turtle and absorbed the boot with his shell. _CL-CLANK!_ He then morphed into a reverse donkey and slammed his hooves into the man's chest. _**WH-WHAM!**_

THWOOOOSH! The man sailed across the cabin and—_**WHAP!**_—slammed into a closet. **CRACK!** The closet shattered and a mountain of oceanic boat tools fell out….

…..among which was a flare gun….which the stumbling guard immediately glanced at.

The green donkey brayed….saw the flare gun…and suddenly went wide—eyed.

The thug gasped. Panicking, he dove, rolled across the ground, and reached for the flare gun.

Changeling galloped across the cabin, leapt as a kangaroo, and morphed in mid-descent as an emerald orangutan.

The thug loaded the flare gun, snapped it into place, spun, and aimed point-blanc at the falling primate.

Fox gasped loudly.

_  
THWOMP!_ The green monkey grappled and wrestled and fought with meaty, long arms to dominate the crook.

All the while, the thug struggled for dominance of the flare gun….his finger coiling around the trigger.

"You stupid, idiot buzzkill!" Fox shrieked like a girl. "Put that gun down! You're gonna…..you're gonna….."

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWOMP!_ Changeling and the flare-toting crook rolled across the length of the cabin.

Fox pulled at his own ears and shrieked with his eyes clenched shut: "Is everyone around me born a frickin' moron? This boat's a powder keg with the missiles and crap! If you fire that flare gun, we'll all---

"Nnnnngh!" the thug wrestled head-to-head with the green monkey…who morphed back into an elf with eyes flickering to those of a panther as he slowly summoned the strength to morph into a particularly heavy creature next…..

"…….aw screw it," Fox grunted and ran in a blur out the cabin….up the stairs…

Into the red night.

And….

"HAAAAUGH---!"

The man's finger finally squeezed around the trigger.

_**CLICK!**_

_**PFFTOOOOOOOO-OOOOOSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North of the line of hovercraft…

Tempest skirted back over the waters from the Titans' Island he had just flooded.

Panting….soaring purplish over the sheets of Ocean waves….he approached the fogged array of Dagger's ships.

A smile plastically splotched across his Atlantean features.

"Sorry I was so busy, Beast Bro. But the night could have used a seventy percent chance of fog. Heh heh heh---"

_**POWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The ship Changeling was on exploded in a fierce fireball.

Tempest barely had time to gasp when—

_**SPLOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ A resulting wave from the explosion soared into him and plowed him back mercilessly into the waters.

He plunged….twirled….sank…. back up…..and once again broke the surface.

Though the Atlantean didn't need to, he gasped a breath full of dry air. He gazed through draping locks of smooth, black hair at the flaming speck on the waters that was once the conspicuous hovercraft of Dagger's chief hacker.

And something in Tempest's white-on-black eyes twitched. "Ah jeez, Poseidon….._not him………"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Meanwhile, on the lone rooftop where the mist still lingered.

"Nnnngh……," Robin stumbled to his feet.

Alone.

He looked up.

Forehead a sheen of sweat.

Eyemask wide.

He couldn't see anyone….

"Noir!"

He called out.

"Terra!"

Silence…

Settling flames.

He stood up, twirled his bo-staff into a high position, and marched cautiously through the thick fog…

"Noir! Terra! Where are you guys? Answer me!"

….

….

….

"………," Terra lay limply on the edge of the rooftop.

She stirred.

Moaned….

Sat up…wincing….

Her blonde hair dancing in the cold mist and wind.

She panted….panted….panted….

Coughed.

Sputtered.

Lowered her goggles with shaking hands and rubbed a teary eye or two.

"R-Robin…?" She coughed. "J-Jordan…..?"

Silence….

"………K-Kara?" she murmured.

A beat.

She glanced up.

Panting.

It was quiet….

Too quiet………

"………………."

Suddenly, her blonde hair kicked wildly.

She gasped.

Her sapphire eyes darted across the obscured urbanscape.

A snake of red hue was billowing its way through the white mist and surging at her.

"Naaaugh!" she shrieked and somersaulted backwards—

"_**HRAAAAAUCKKKKT!" SL-SLASSSSSH! CHIIIIIINGG!**_

Deathstroke solidified, ripping the rooftop and air apart where Terra was.

She rolled backwards, leapt up to her feet, and stumbled in reverse.

"_**SNKKKKK-KKKKT!"**_ Red Aviary soared directly at her, red blade raised.

Terra bit her lip, dashed her arms down to her side, summoned thick layers of gravel, levitated them up and over her hands to surround her palms like thick gloves and—

_**SLASSSSSSSSH!**_ The sword came down.

Terra hissed and slapped both of her gravel-encrusted hands together over the edge of the blade as it was an inch and a half away from her brow.

_**CL-CLANKKKK!**_

The charging Reaper pushed murderously into her.

_SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!_

Terra's feet grinded into the tar of the rooftop as Deathstroke shoved her towards the building's edge.

She gasped and glanced over her shoulder to see the gaping alleyway yawning below and behind her.

"_**SNKKKKTT!"**_ SLIII-IIICE! Slade pulled his blade back, coiled his body, and sprang at her with a fiery lunge.

"RAAAAA-AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAH!" Terra screamed at the top of her lungs and flung her hands forward, directing every single ounce and pellet of white gravel up from the rooftop and throttling them straight towards Deathstroke and his sword.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWIIIIIISSSSH!_

The steady stream of horizontally screaming rocks poured into Red Aviary, pushing him back, slapping—batting—pummeling—rattling his burning-red figure.

"_**SNKKKKT-Clik-Clik-Clik-CLIKKKTT!"**_ He hissed and surged…surged…….surged through the ever-intense stream of projectiles, slicing his relentless way towards her in a puff of burning red.

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWISSSH! _

_**SL-SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSH!**_

"_RAAAAAA-__**AAAAAA**__-AAAAAH!"_ Terra sweated and strained and screamed and shook her outstretched hands under a golden, flickering glow.

Until finally…..the streams of gravel rocks ended.

Terra panted….deflating…falling to her feet.

"_**HCKKKKKTT!"**_ Slade swung his sword heavily down through the last of Terra's desperate onslaught. _**SLASSSSH!**_

A burst of red flew into Terra.

Stealing her breath away.

Her blue eyes convulsed wide.

Moist….twitching.

And he rushed towards her, twisted his upper body, and held the two-edged sword to cleave her head in two—

And that's when Robin dove in from the mist—

"_YAAAAAAAH!"_

_TH-THWUMP!_ The Boy Wonder straddled Slade's neck and skull from behind. Riding Red Aviary 'piggy-back', Robin nimbly 'held' his bo-staff with his ankles…entwining the metal rod with Slade's elbows to keep him from swinging the sword down. Simultaneously, Robin snarled through clenched teeth, whipped out a sparkling taser, and shoved it thickly into the remaining meat of Deathstroke's neck.

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTT!-POW!-P-P-POW!-**__**POWWW**__**!**_

"_**HRAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAUCHKKKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke convulsed and shook and danced underneath the straddling Robin's body. Red Aviary's inner corpse of a figure shimmered hot, flesh-searing blue as his raggedy organs popped and hissed and deflated under the rippling heat of electrocution.

_**P-P-P-POP! P-POW! **__**POW!**__** ZZZZZZZTTT!**_

All the while, Robin mercilessly stabbed and dug the taser deeper….bravely riding the twitching, burning body of Slade. "Nnnn-Nnnnghhh!"

Terra watched from below….panting….breathless….

"_**HCKKKKKTT-SNKKKKKRAAAAAAUCHKKKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke twitched, flung his arms up, twisted his body down, and shot his electrocuted torso back up—_FWOOOOOSSSH—_effectively tossing Robin and the taser off of him.

"Aaaugh!" Robin dropped his bo-staff and fell to the tar rooftop. _TH-THWOMP!_

A jolting…sparkling Red Aviary twisted about, hissed, and loomed above Robin.

_Clank!_ Robin's bo-staff struck the rooftop….bounced up…..

"_**TRRRRRY HARDERRRRR, **__**TIM!**_" Deathstroke jabbed at Robin.

….and the bo-staff fell into my grasp.

I slid in—crossed Myrkblade and the bo-staff—and contacted them both in an 'X' shape with Deathstroke's sword above Robin.

_**CLANGGG!**_

Deathstroke jolted.

I hissed at him….black eyes trailing smoke—

_**THWOMPP!**_

I shoved him off.

"_**Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clikkkt!"**_ Slade stumbled back.

_TH-TH-THWISSH!_ I twirled Myrkblade in my right hand and Robin's bo-staff in my left. I dragged steam and mist from the air, converted them into serrated smoke, and pumped them into both weapons in my grasp. _FWOOSH! FW-FWOOSH!_ I stood with both smoking bludgeons and glared at Red Aviary.

_Head for the hills, asshole._

_**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FWOOOOOSSSSH**__**!**_

With both weapons smokingly charged, I twirled, spun, spiraled, and whirled at him with the dual wielded staff and sword jabbing, slashing, lunging at random split-second spots of Red Aviary's weakness.

He hissed and stumbled back, desperately twirling his sword to block my relentless jabs and offense.

_**CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANGGG!**_

Robin and Terra watched…the Boy Wonder rushing over to help the blonde earth maiden up to her feet.

_**SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSH!**_

I snarled and slashedjabbedswipedslashedjabbedswipedslasshedjabbedswiped!.!.!.!.!.!.!

"_**HRAAAAUCHKTT!"**_ a fed-up Slade backflipped from my maddening, serrated spin…landed in a slide, and slashed a wave of red Destruction at me with a heavy downswing of his blade.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

I teleported to the side and blurred at him.

He swung again—

_**FWOOOOOOOSH!**_

I cartwheeled to the opposite side—teleported in mid jump—and solidified with a running charge with both weapons swinging screamily towards his cowled skull.

_**SWOOOOOOSH---**_

He raised his sword to block.

_**CLANGGGGG!**_ Robin's bo-staff and Myrkblade smokingly collided on either side of his blade.

I leaned forward and hissed at him. Shades vomiting out smoke.

He hissed back—_**"HRCCKKKTT!"**_—his one eye pulsing red.

_**LUNNNGE!**_ He jabbed low at me.

I grinded both weapons down his blade in an 'X'—_**CHIIIIIINGG!**_—and forced Slade in a crouching position in front of me.

He started to summon a wave of red—

_**WHAM!**_

--until I headbutted him.

"_**HRAAAUCHKTT!" **_he stumbled back.

I twirled the two weapons and blurred---

_**SLASSSSH!**_ His blade was suddenly swinging down again.

I morphed into smoke form and surged up through the falling blade—

_**CLANKKKK!**_ The red sword stuck into the rooftop tar.

_P-PLANT!_ I landed with smoking weightlessness halfway up Slade's angled, anchored sword. I took a 'step' forward and jabbed both Myrkblade and the bo-staff downward.

_**SWOOOOOOSH—**__**CLAMP!**_

Both weapons criss-crossed just beneath Deathstroke's vaporous chin and pinned him in place.

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_ he struggled and shook to both yank his sword out and pull his cranium free of my weapons--

I balanced one smoking foot on the sword and raised my other boot to—_**WHAP! WHAP!**_—bitch slap Slade's stuck face twice and—_(Aaaaaaaugh!)_—backflip with a mute snarl.

_**WH-WHACCCKKKKK!**_ Bicycle-kicking up off the blade, I uppercutted Slade's chin fiercely.

"_**SNKKKKTT!"**_ he hobbled back…bleeding….sword in shaking grasp.

_TH-TH-THWOOOSH!_ I flipped in the air….came down….landed—_PLANT!_—and teleported ten feet forward _through_ Slade—_**FWOOOOOSH!-WHACKKKK!**_--…solidifying on the other side in a crouching lunge with Myrkblade and the bostaff outstretched to either side of me…..frozen…. "………."

The result: Slade flailed weightlessly upwards in the air fifteen feet above my smoke-trailing pose…..

….and that's exactly what Terra flung her golden-charged mass of fresh gravel at.

"_RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"_

_**SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

The flaming rocks soared upwards and pelted, pelted, pelted Slade's flailing body.

_**WH-WH-WH-WH-WH-WHAAAAAP!**_

"_**SNKKKK-RAAAUCHKTT!"**_

I looked up, panting.

Slade twirled through the mist, plummeted over the side, and landed with one gnarled hand barely grasping the rooftop ledge and holding him from falling to the bloody streets below. _CL-CLAMPP!_

I gritted my teeth.

_DIE!.!.!.!_

SWOOOOOSH!

I blurred towards him, both weapons raised again—

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ He flipped his body up, twirled upside down, and came back onto the rooftop with a red-streaking foot surging destruction clouds of red straight at me.

_**FLASSSSH!**_

_Aaaugh!_

I fell back in a splash of smoke.

_FWOMP!_ I landed hard on my back. Legs flailing upwards as I slid backwards…

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ Slade twirled his sword and came down at me.

Upside down, my shaded eyes spotted Robin charging towards me, whistling.

_Thwoosh!_ I tossed him his bo-staff.

_SNATCH!_ The Boy Wonder leapt, caught it in mid-air, flipped over my body, and sailed down with his rod slapping Deathstroke's blade aside. "YAAAAH!" _**CL-CLANK!**_

"_**HRAAAUCHKTT!"**_ Deathstroke jolted and raised his elbow.

_**WHAP!**_ Robin was uppercutted.

Deathstroke jabbed at his torso.

Robin deflected with a snarl. CLANK!

I grunted mutely and kicked my leg up into Deathstroke's inner thigh. _WHAP!_

Red Aviary hobbled to the side as Robin leapt at him, bo-staff slashing. _SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_

Deathstroke stepped backwards across the rooftop, twirling his sword. _CLANK!-CLANK!-CLANK!-CLANK!_

I teleported to my feet on the other side of Deathstroke and stabbed at his shoulders. _SLASSH!_

He brought his two-edged blade back in reverse, blocked me—**CLANG!**—and shot his leg in reverse.

WHAP! I stumbled…knees first.

"_**HCKKK!"**_ Deathstroke stepped aside and deflected Robin's next jab towards the rooftop.

_CL-CLANK!_ Robin lunged awkwardly, his rod striking tar.

WHAM! Deathstroke kicked the Boy Wonder.

I vaulted over the Titan Leader's back, spun, and slashed Myrkblade across Deathstroke's face—_**SLASSSH!**_

Deathstroke ducked—Myrkblade ripping his cowl's tails in half—_SL-SLINK!_

He kicked out at me with a red burst. THWAP!

I countered with a black back-hand to his chest. WHUMP!

He absorbed the blow, wrapped his metal-and-flesh arm about mine, and spun me towards the rooftop edge—_FWOOOSH!_—before twirling about yet again to raise his blade and block Robin's fierce bo-staff swings.

_**CLANG! WHANG! SMACK! WHACK!**_

"YAAAAAAA-AAAAAUGH!" Robin howled animalistically and jabbed, twirled, swiped, slashed his metal weapon at every square inch of Deathstroke's defense.

Slade walked backwards, parrying every attack, kicking Robin back, raising his sword to strike—

_**THW-THW-THW-THW-THWOOOOOSSSH!**_ An airborne 'snake-trail' of gravel flew and pelted against Deathstroke's skull from Terra in the distance.

"_**AUUCHKTT!"**_ the Reaper winced and shook his skull.

Terra frowned, flickered her eyes gold, and stretched her fists out in time to swing the snake-trail of burning gravel back.

Deathstroke twirled his sword, smashed the gravel into a sea of pellets, and splashed them into Robin—making him stumble back.

"Ughhh!" the Boy Wonder grunted.

Deathstroke turned to face Terra from afar, his limbs pulsing a teleporting red—

_**SWOOOOOSH-**__**WHAM!**_ I blurred into him from behind, elbow first.

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke slid across the rooftop.

I twirled Myrkblade.

Robin steadied himself, bo-staff outstretched.

_FWOOOOOOSH!_ We both charged him…sneering.

Deathstroke readied himself with sword held high. Parrying. Blocking. Countering.

From afar, Terra summoned a second snake-trail of gravel and flung both streams from opposite angles into Red Aviary's body.

_**TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWOOOOSH!**_

Deathstroke hissed, fought, and struggled in the middle. Deflecting Robin's bo-staff, then countering my moves, then dodging Terra's swipes then striking back at Robin's rod, then shielding against my murk, then absorbing the blows from the gravel, then slashing hard at Robin, then kicking and tripping me, then shattering the gravel apart, then blocking both Robin and I at once, then tilting his head back……summoning a red pulse throughout his body….and exploding a wave of smoke out from the center of the rooftop.

"_**HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUCHKKKKKKTTT!"**_

_**FLAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAASSSSH!**_

The cylindrical splash of red Destruction cascaded outward, sent cracks flying through the rooftop, turned the misty air into a virtual plasma, and shimmered hotly towards the circle of us.

_**FWOOOO-OOOOOOOO-OOOOOSSSH!**_

My black eyes flickered in surprised.

Terra gasped.

Robin panted—and shouted: "EVERYONE! LOOKOUT--!"

_**SPLASSSH!**_

I was knocked to my back.

Robin was thrown to the side.

And Terra---_**FWOOOSH!**_---"AAAAHH!"—was tossed over the side of the rooftop.

I convulsed and shouted mutely.

"TERRA!" Robin bellowed. He gritted his teeth, scrambled on all fours, and lunged his body towards the rooftop.

"_**HCKKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke twirled his sword and charged after him.

I was in his path.

I panted, gritted my teeth, and shot a blurring foot out—

_**WH-WHUMP!**_ I tripped Deathstroke to the rooftop.

"_**SNKKKT!"**_

_Aaaah!_ I dove and tackled him.

THW-THWUMP!

He jabbed his sword point-blanc at me.

I barely blocked with my sword and black hand.

Red vapors breathing against murking eyes….we rolled and wrestled and tumbled and entangled across the rooftop while—

_THWOOSH-WHUMP!_ Robin landed half-suspended over the rooftop ledge of the building top. He aimed a grappling hook already pulled from his utility belt and shot—almost blindly—down at the first sight of the plummeting blonde figure in the foggy air—

_**POWWW! **__THWISSSSSSSSSH-__**THWPPP!**_ The cord wrapped around the falling Terra's ankle.

She gasped and jolted to a stop…dangling….staring wide-eyed up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder winced….struggling….sweating to hold the petite blonde in place as he too lingered over the precarious building ledge.

"R-Robin!" Terra shouted through the fog and noise of me and Slade wrestling above. "Do what it takes to stop Slade!"

"J-Just hang on, Terra!"

"ROBIN!" she hissed. Eyes on the verge of both glaring and tearing. "It's either him….or me….and neither matter!"

"Terra--!"

"Only m-my child does!"

"TERRA!" Robin bellowed. "God dammit…we're NOT your ENEMIES!"

Terra panted…panted…panted….

Robin gripped the cord with both hands and started hoisting her up….slowly. "Nnnnngh…..now….hang on…..be a Titan for god's sake!"

Terra bit her lip….she angled her body and attempted to reach up and grab the cord around her ankle—

"_**HRAAAAUCHKKKTTT!"**_ at precisely that moment, Deathstroke kicked me off of him on the rooftop, jumped to his feet, and slashed a wave of murderous red destruction at Robin with his blade. _**SLASSSSSSH!**_

The rooftop divided in a fierce crack….screamed towards Robin's feet…and exploded at the ledge.

_**POWWW!**_

"Aaaugh!" Robin jolted….losing grip of the grappling cord.

"AAAAAAaaaaa_aaaaaaahhhhh.h.h.h..h..h..h…h…h…h……………_!" Terra fell like a dead weight into the mist.

Robin stretched his gloved hand out and screamed: "TERRA!"

Lying—crumpled—on the rooftop…I twitched, sat up, and gasped….

Jaw dropping…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SWOOOOOOSSSSSHHH!_

Streaking past the windows and steel frameworks….Terra fell.

She twirled 'round and 'round….

Stretching her hands out and feeling for any rocks or pieces of earth or anything else she could summon thermalkinetically…..

But coming up short.

She panted….gasped….and twirled so that she faced the plummeting earth face-first.

Eyes tearing.

Teeth clenched.

_Th-THWOOOSH!_ Her trademark goggles slid off her face and flew off into misty obscurity….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Robin panted….standing up…..turning around….

Glaring at Slade.

Deathstroke was charging at him….blade swinging. _**TH-TH-TH-THWISSH!**_ _**"Butttterfingerssss, Robinnnnskkt!"**_

"AAAAAAH!" Robin screamed and flew his fist up. _**WHACKKK!**_

Slade was uppercutted fiercely before his blade could lop off any of Robin's limbs.

The Boy Wonder snarled, re-gripped his bo-staff charged, and rammed Slade in the chest like a human missile.

_**WH-WHUMP!**_

Slade twirled and tumbled across the rooftop towards the opposite edge.

At that time, I shuddered….grunted mutely…and propelled myself up with a murk-laden _vault!_ _FWUMP! _

Deathstroke stood dizzily at the Eastern edge of the roof.

Robin charged.

I charged.

Robin screamed and jumped.

I gritted my teeth and flew.

The Boy Wonder and I formed flying jump-kicks in dual precision and slammed both of our lunging heels into Red Aviary's chest.

_**WHAMMMMMM!.!.!.!**_

"_**HRAAAAUCHKTT!"**_ The two of us plunged Deathstroke off the building ledge, across the street, down towards a pair of skyscrapers joined by a walkway bridge thirty-stories up, and crashing through a glass sunroof into a top-story art museum with Red Aviary absorbing the splash of shards.

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

_**CRASSSSSSSSSSSSS-SSSSSSSSH!.**__**!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the rooftop we were previously on….

Jinx stood up before the gaping window through which she had crashed through from Slade's tossing.

"Nnnngh….," she cutely moaned and rubbed a frilled hand over her forehead.

She shook her pink crown, gazed thinly out the window….

…..and saw Terra falling.

She gasped. "TERRA!"

The cat-eyed sorceress gritted her Cheshire teeth, bolted out the gash in the window, and dove straight out with a pulsing leap of hex.

_FLASSSSH!_

"Nnnnnngh--!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!_

A dizzied, flailing Terra plummeted….plummeted….plummeted towards the concrete world below.

And just as her vision started to fail her blue eyes—

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

Jinx's fate-bending body fell and glided into hers. A petite pair of arms hooked around Terra's waist.

"Ugh!"

Terra gasped. She looked aside. "J-Jinx?"

"Hang on, girl! I got you!" Jinx's eyes pulsed a hot pink as she shot her wrist directly into the glass facing with a hex blade summoned. _**FLASH!**_

_**SNKKKKKK-KKKKKKKKTTT-KKKKKKTTTTT-TTTT!**_

A showering fountain of glass shards flew up above them as Jinx's energy dagger ate, ate, ate into the blurring surface and slowed the two falling maiden's descent to a slower….less chaotic plummet.

And still, Terra couldn't help but gasp and stared wide-eyed at the hard earth rushing up at them….

_**SNKKKKKKKK-SNKKKKKKKK-KKKKKTTTT!**_

"Mmmmmmmnnnnghhh!" Jinx strained, flexed her snaking ankles down and around Terra, and produced—_**FL-FLASSH!**_—a hex blade on either foot that ate mercilessly into the blurring glass as well and further slowed their descent.

_**SNKKKKKKKTTT!**_

Thirty miles per hour….

Twenty five miles per hour….

_**SNKKKKK-KKKKKKTTT!**_

Fifteen miles per hour.

Ten…..

"Th-This is going to be rough!" Jinx insisted. "HAAAA!" she let go of the building, dissolved her hex blades, kicked off, and fired a huge pulse of pink straight down at the earth. _**"HAAAA-AAAA!"**_

Terra gasped.

The earth fountained beneath them, formed a cushioning crater.

And---

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

The two landed in a dust-shimmering sigh.

The City Square shook and wobbled around them.

A shivering breath.

Quivering limbs…

Jinx's pink-glowing body pulsed…..pulsed…..and fell dead-and-dark.

_**FLASH!**_

The pink sorceress stumbled to her knees.

Terra slumped verily against her.

And—as if gravity caught up—the unearth slabs of shattered concrete fell down from their heated spray of hex-and-thermalkinetic contact.

_**FW-FW-FW-FWUMMMPPP!**_

The Second and Third Apprentice were thusly buried…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**POW! **_

_RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!_

The Crunch…..

Calvin's forces were launching tank shells and sprays of hot lead into the golden crowd of burning golems.

The assault forced them back…shattered their edges….and disoriented their flanks.

And then—the fiery assault cut off.

And with the fall of the volley, the wave of Wildebeests poured in with coordinated precision. They stomped their snorting, grunting way into the thick of the burning gold bodies and rammed with silver-crested horns, swinging meat-thick fists, and slamming hooves.

_**CRKKKK! **_

_**WHACCCK! **_

_**WHAMMM!**_

Golems tackled and wrestled with the Wildebeests, holding a few of them off…

…but not for long.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSSH!**_

Jericho's possessed soldier flew his HIND down the line of battle, firing pot shots into the crowd along with an accompanying squadron of high-flying apaches.

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!**_

Potholes exploded and opened in burning chains down the bodies of the golems.

As if on cue, Steel….Green Arrow…and the Flash zoomed in. Blurring. Firing arrows. Slamming the sledgehammer….

The golden golems were buying it….one by one.

Wildebeest chants and victory grunts filled the air.

_FLAAAASH!_ Green Lantern flew over the messy scene, sweeping up flanks of the enemy with a strong 'talon' of shimmering green….preserving the line of offense as they stampeded into the inner crowd of nefarious beings under the long-ranged support of Calvin's infantry and artillery.

Over in an intersection where a giant golem flailed and fought to stomp the defenders to oblivion, an especially thick crowd of Wildebeests herded into the center of the street with a line of tanks rumbling up behind them. A few hummers full of Daggerites sped away as the Wildebeests surrounded the thick, burning legs of the golden giant.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

At the base of the giant's feet, Catwoman vaulted between various Wildebeests and taunted the huge, burning infernal with the slash of her whip.

The golem merely billowed flames from its joints and moved its legs over the puny defenders.

_**SWOOOOSH!**_

Catwoman and the nearest Wildebeests rolled aside—

_**STOMPPPP!**_

Craters formed in the earth.

Catwoman and the Wildebeests taunted…..taunted…..taunted….

_**STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!**_

The golem menacingly narrowed its efforts on Selina Kyle's group of pesky defenders….

….ignorant of two darting forms on a rooftop ledge behind its burning neck.

Batman and Black Canary touched down.

They ran to the edge of the rooftop.

Batman produced his grappling hook, aimed, and shot—_**POWWW!**_

_SWOOO-OOOOOOSH-__**CLANKKKK!**_

The hook dug fiercely into the back of the five story monster's 'crown'.

Batman pulled back with all his might. "Nnnngh!"

Black Canary took two armfuls of the taut rope and pulled as well….

_TWNNNG!_

The yanking 'string' forced the huge monster to lurch where it stood….now teetering.

_**CRKKKKKK!**_

That momentary pause was the cue for half a dozen meaty-muscled Wildebeests to leap down from a high building ledge above, plummet into the burning crown of the monster, and use their combined weight to slam the creep to the concrete earth.

"_**Nrrrrrrgggghhhh!"**_

_**THWOMPPPP!**_

Black Canary and Batman stumbled back on their ledge….panting….

The Wildebeests and Catwoman circled the grounded giant….

Three Army tanks drove up to a stop….pivoting their turrets.

In a red-orange streak, the Flash soared by and shouted a warning.

Catwoman and the Wildebeests scattered.

And just when they did, the three tanks fired at once into the vulnerable burning hide of the monster.

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**BLAM! **_

_**BLAM!**_

_**POWWWWWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!**_

The golem giant shattered in a raining spray of gold debris.

The surrounding Wildebeests scaled overturned cars, hummers, rubbish piles, and waved their arms in leaping victory roars….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Pulsade couldn't help but groan as she felt herself being tugged into the bovine noise of the Crunch.

"Something tells me I'm going to be turning vegetarian really soon…."

"Cool it. These Wildebeests seem to be smoothing out the battle for the Titans and the League," Supergirl said…touching the two of them down before marching into Main Street. "Which is the least one can say about us…."

"I don't know where that little blonde bugger got the idea of using his minotaur friends in assaulting the forces of Armagedd---

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ A certain HIND flew over, beating the air.

Pulsade sneered and waved a shotgun towards the sky. "YEAH! I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU!"

Supergirl suppressed a smirk. "I thought you and that wyrd kid that haunted Noir were buddy-buddy or something."

"I preferred him when he wasn't saddling a heifer. Besides, he pretty much elected himself out of the Counter-Red-Aviary team the moment he hopped into Noir's peepers in Las Vegas and 'rode' the bloke all the way here."

"Heh….I guess not all things are etched in stone, huh?"

"Hardly, Super-posh."

"And just who is the ultimate bad guy here? Dagger? Or Slade?" Supergirl panted, glancing around at the burning…crumbled Cityscape.

"I think this night will speak for itself," Pulsade murmured.

Supergirl paused to turn back and glare at the blonde assassin. "Right now, I think it's the guy trying to kill the most people."

"No, love. It's not the number of people being killed….but _who."_

"…….," Supergirl took a breath and uttered in a sad tone. "I prefer nobody being killed if I can handle it…."

"Not even Dagger or Slade?"

"……….I didn't say I wasn't a h-hypocrite," the Argosian made a face.

Pulsade examined her shotgun. "Right……feh….smart-arse _yank_…."

Supergirl crouched into a coiled position around a street corner. "Hold that thought…."

Pulsade glanced up. "Huh?"

_THWOOOOOOSSSSH!_

Pulsade flinched all over as Supergirl soared off….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

….and burned her way straight into the fray.

"Nnnnnnghh!" Starfire flew her fist into the first ring of Wildebeest-entangled golems she could touch.

_**WHAMMM!**_

Golden, burning innards flew.

"Rrrraaaugh!"

_**CRUSSSH!**_

An opposite upper-arm hook shattered even more of the golden creeps.

The City streets burned with flying sprays of yellow-and-gold fire.

Supergirl punched her way through to the center, forming a weakness in the Daggerite ranks north of the Crunch.

The noise of the charging Wildebeests and brawling Justice League members increased in her ears.

The blonde Argosian panted, flexed her superpowered muscles, and soared straight through the crowd in a scream.

"YAAAA-AAAAAAAAAHHH!"

_**CRKKKKK-CRKKKKK-CRKKKKK!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

From across the Crunch….

In Main Street….

Superman finished a sweep of a sidewalk with his heat rays.

Terrorists with rocket launchers ran and ducked for cover.

Superman was about to fly after them across the heated sprawl…when he heard Supergirl's screaming charge.

He looked to his left….panting….

….and saw a straight column of golems being tossed wildly upwards into the air.

From the onslaught of the Girl of Steel.

He sweated and murmured: "K-Kara?"

A beat.

He made to fly over there when—

_FW-FWOOOSSH!_

Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter touched down right in front of him.

"Kal-El…," J'onn droned. "We must speak…."

"Not now!" Superman brushed him aside. "I think I just saw K—"

"Superman, we've got more problems," Wonder Woman interrupted.

Superman squinted his eyes at her. "What kind of problems?"

"The heavens aren't on our side."

"…………what?"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop his skyscraper…

Surrounded by fire left by exploded missiles….

Dagger leaned bloodily against a wall.

The white-bright vial was stuck in his pocket…syringe and all.

He propped a knee up and balanced a tiny computer data pad….

His one good hand danced across the thin-line buttons on the pad.

And in sweaty…..near-faint concentration…

….he aimed the crosshairs of the ion cannon far above…


	264. Break the Circle part 24

**264. Break the Circle part 24**

_SCHLUMPPPP!_

_SCHNKT!_

The door to the basement laboratory of Phaser Labs sealed tightly.

"……..," Dagger held his one arm behind his back as he slowly walked down the steps after Clayface.

Clayface sloshed over towards a console besides the cylindrical power core. There, Simon Stone appeared in a flickering image. He took one look at Dagger….and found himself staring. Unemotionally. In holographic silence….

"…….," Dagger stared back……._frowning._

"Things are bad, Stone…," Clayface grumbled. "The boss is here to talk stuff out with you. If any of you chumps want my two cents, I suggest we get the Hell out of this City before we lose MORE than our egos."

Stone 'took a breath' and muttered electronically: _"You do know—of course—Hagan, that you are a fool beyond definition?"_

Clayface gave him a nasty, amber-eyed look. "Huh?"

_CL-CL-CLAK-CLAK-CLAKKA!_ Dagger raised a blue-glowing sonic cannon across the room, straight at Stone. "You never miss a beat…..do ya, old man?"

"……….," the holographic A.I. merely stared.

Clayface gasped. He looked horrifically towards Dagger.

"………..," Dagger stopped glaring at Stone….turned his body…..and aimed his sonic cannon straight at the muddy metamorph.

_**ZAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAP!**_

Clayface barely had time to move—

_**SPLORRRRCH!**_

He was violently pasted up against the far wall of metal in the basement.

"_HAA-AAAAUGHHH!"_

_**ZAAAAAAAA-AAP!**_ The sonic charge cut off. The cannon smoked and steamed as Dagger shuffled forward and—

_Zzzzt!_

_Fl-Flassh!_

A shudder of light….

A holographic exterior cascaded downwards. The disguise of Dagger peeled off one photon at a time as Cyborg stood in tall, angry reality. His sonic cannon still outstretched. His brow furrowed and jaw tight.

"Please excuse me. _'Bad……acting'._ I can only be a type-cast. Kicking your ass seems to be the only good act these days."

"_Nnnnn-nnghh!"_ Clayface shook, bubbled, and reformed into his gargantuan self. He glared at Cyborg and raised his heavy, brown fists. "You just sealed yourself in your own tomb, kid—"

_**ZAAAAAAP!**_

_SPLORRRRCCH!_

"DAAAAH!" Clayface splattered against the wall again, struggling to maintain his form.

As the holographic Simon Stone watched, Cyborg marched towards the Gothamite monster from across the room and kept loading his sonic cannon. "I've been looking forward to this for a lonnnnng time, buddy. And as it turns out…..you're just as big and nasty as I thought you were: a huge-ass piece of stinking shit."

"Why you….!" Clayface snarled, morphed his two arms into huge buzz-saws, and charged Cyborg with a scream: "YAAAAAAAUGH!"

Cyborg charged him, both arms morphing into glowing canons. _Vriiiii!_ "RAAAAAAUGH!"

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

_**SLOSH!-SLOSH!-SLOSH!**_

Stone took a digital 'breath'….

_**ZAAAAAAP!**_

_**CHIIII-IIIIIIING!**_

Titanium and mud met in the middle of the laboratory.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_SPLOOOOOOSSSSH!_

Tempest skirted under, above, and through the surface of Bay Water.

"Come on, Garfield…..Come on….."

He skimmed his way down the line of hovercrafts.

One by one, the Daggerite boats' missile payloads started to hiss and come to life.

The dark-eyed Atlantean flexed his wrists and upper body muscles as he swam and leapt and darted along his liquid path.

_**SPLASSSH! **_

_**SP-SPLASSSSH!**_

He summoned tentacles of water up alongside him that shot outward in branching arcs and completely soaked the decks and missile payloads of the hovercraft.

_**SPLOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSH!**_

The salt water seeped into the circuitry, cut off exhaust, and extinguished the charging heat of the would-be-launching-projectiles.

Tempest skirted onward….

Soaring towards hovercraft after hovercraft.

"Come on, Garfield….," he hissed. "Where are you? Show me you're not roasted or something, man!"

Behind him, the anxious sight of Fox's hovercraft burning sent a plume of hot smoke into the air that reflected against the water.

Tempest ignored it….instead looking forward.

As he skimmed….skimmed…and skimmed….

Darting his dark body like a torpedo under the next hovercraft that was just beginning to launch its rockets.

Underwater, Tempest bubbled and snarled before glowing a hot purple in his eyes and shooting his hands up and outward.

_**SWSSSSSSSSSH!**_

A surge of water beyond intense….

Throttling upwards—

_**SPLOOO-OOOOOSSSSH!**_

The hovercraft shattered in half from the bursting geyser. The water sent halves and shrapnel scraps of the hovercraft flying high into the red air.

Tempest leapt up again out of the water like a shimmering dolphin…

And skirted onward towards the next leftover ships.

"_Neptune damn……_COME ONNNN!"

Nothing….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Somewhere….

North….

Along the shore of the Bay…

A dazed, green figure sloshed onto the beach.

Bruised…a little scorched….

Clutching the gash where ever-after his ear wasn't…

"Nnnnngh…..," Changeling muttered.

Wincing, he hobble ashore….

Stood on wobbly legs…

Exhaled…

And fell down to his across the wet sand.

"….e-everything……e-everything is going to burn……..T-Terra……"

As the surf boiled up around him, the Crunch flared and pulsed gold beyond—

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**POW! **_

_**CRAAA-AAASH!**_

_**  
RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**CRKKKKKKK-KKKK!**_

_**BOOOM!**_

_**  
KA-POW!**_

_**BL-BLAM!**_

_**  
POW!**_

Tanks and U.S. jeeps launched endless assaults.

The Daggerite hummers and gunmen tried to return fire…but found themselves retreating further and further into the burning center.

Wildebeests charged in, pouncing at them with heated shouts.

Golems rushed to meet the bovine warriors headlong, and constant grappling…wrestling matches occurred.

All throughout, the heroes rushed in. Black Canary and Green Arrow skirted through fighting, lumbering beasts to unleash their agile punishment on the enemy.

Steel slammed his sledgehammer through rows of golems while soaring down the streets in a desperate attempt to push into the terrorist defense.

The Flash ran up buildingsides and scurried between asphalt, sidewalk, and rubble….blinding the energy with his red-orange streak and managing to disarm a dozen terrorists a second at the far side of Main Street…leaving the creeps vulnerable to General Calvin's left flank.

Catwoman swung off of ledges and lampposts, slamming her feet into thugs and leaving the golems vulnerable to the explosive batarangs of Batman from a nearby rooftop.

Explosions…spraying gold splashes of golem parts…..

…..and through all of it, Supergirl soared.

"NNNGH!" **SWOOOOOOSH!—****SMASSSH!** The Girl of Steel slammed her fists and upper arms into golem after golem before picking one up by its flailing, burning leg and spinning….spinning…spinning-spinning-spinningspinningspinning!spinning!spinning!_spinning!spinning—__**THWOOOOOSSSH!**_ Superirl launched the golem into the chest of a giant infernal across the intersection.

_**CRUNCHHH!**_

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The huge, six-story beast flung lava pellets at the Argosian.

She snarled and uppercutted the incoming blasts with a strong forearm. _**SMASH! CR-CRACKKK!**_ "RRRGHH!" she flew towards the creature.

_**CRKKK!**_ The giant flailed and swung its upper arm to crush the blonde.

Supergirl snarled, her eyes glowing hot red. "You want heat? I'll _give you_ heat!" She unleashed two optic blasts in searing ferocity. _**ZAAAA-AAA-AAAAP!**_

The two orange-red beams burned into the glowing arm of the thermal monstrosity, overheated it, and caused the limb to explode—

_**P-POWWWWWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!**_

The monster rumbled, stumbled under its own spray of inner glowing parts, and then performed a berserker charge across the street of scattering, fleeing Wildebeests towards Supergirl herself.

The Girl of Steel gasped—

_**WHAM!**_

She was slammed and knocked back across the street and into a building front—_**CRUSSSSH!**_—where she formed a crater.

"Ugghhh…..," she winced….stuck in the buildingfront.

_**STOMP! ST-STOMP! STOMP!**_

The monster marched towards her.

Supergirl winced….a bit bruised across the cheek….

The upper limb of the creature moved to slam forward—

_SWOOOOSH!_ Green Lantern flew over and hovered in front of Supergirl. "Aaaaaa—" He yelled for good muster and flung his left fist forward. "---aaaAAA_AAAAUUUGHHH!"_

_**FLASSSSSSSH!**_

A force field of pure green fury splashed between the monster and them.

_**SLAM!**_

_**  
SL-SLAMMM!**_ The behemoth tried punching its way through the barrier.

Green Lantern struggled to hold the force field steady.

Supergirl gasped. "M-Mr. Stewart!" She unpeeled herself from the 'Girl'-shaped crater in the building and hovered over to his side. "Your arm! What happened to--?"

"Long st-story….," Green Lantern growled….sweating….struggling to maintain the energy ring's field. "….I'm almost at my ring's limit and I didn't bring my lantern with me!"

"Uhm……huh?"

"We need to fall back! Over by Calvin's frontal assault! Your 'big brother' should be waiting!"

Kara bit her lip and murmured: "Clark….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"An ion cannon?" Superman gasped from where he and Wonder Woman hovered. "Lex Luthor?"

Martian Manhunter stood on the corner of a building rooftop and spoke to them: "It belongs to Luthor. But he is not using it."

"Then who is?"

"Dagger….," J'onn droned. "I have sensed it. William B. Fox—whose fate is now uncertain in the Bay of this City—hacked into Luthor's ultimate military weapon and has given it over into Dagger's hands. I believe Triangular was a front for Dagger to manhandle his way into acquiring such a stolen edge from his supposed 'partners' in anti-Red Aviary conspiracy."

"It may be a tough war…," Wonder Woman panted, "…but Dagger's starting to lose it." She looked over at Superman fixedly. "If Dagger can't have his City—"

"---then nobody can….," Superman palmed his fist. Frowning. "How inflated can _he be?.!.?.!"_

"Clark, we have to do something."

"I know exactly what _**I'm**_ going to do," Superman turned and glared at J'onn. "How long till the cannon fires?"

"I cannot tell you," the martian replied. "But judging from Fox's complacency before his vanishing, I imagine something within the frame of minutes."

"Just the time I need….," Superman grumbled.

Wonder Woman leaned her head to the side. "What exactly do you have planned?"

"I'm going to pay a visit to Luthor's cannon personally….," Superman clenched his fists and already was starting to hover directly _upwards_. "I can't say I haven't anticipated smashing that thing to bits before. Only now—I have a good excuse."

"You must hurry," J'onn nodded. "If necessary, I shall assist you in—" The Martian froze.

Superman and Wonder Woman looked at J'onn, concerned. "What is it?"

The green one said: "Brace yourselves…."

"H-Huh?"

"_Heads up!"_ Steel shouted from afar.

Superman and Wonder Woman spun around—

_**STOMP!**_

_**ST-STOMP!**_

_**STOMP!**_

They both gasped.

A gargantuan giant—the last survivor of its kind—was marching towards them. It was twelve stories tall….a bastardly morph of many different miniature golems piling together around a once-five-story-giant of thermalkinetic madness. The burning titan towered above the League members….its upper limbs burning bright splashes of flickering flames towards the sky while a good half of Calvin's forces in the Crunch fired their artillery into the hide of the creature and Batman and Steel and Green Arrow circled from building top to building top…..looking for weaknesses.

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKKKKKKKKK**__**!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Wonder Woman swallowed….raised her fists, and prepared her lasso. "Go up to space, Clark….," she uttered strongly. "We have this…"

Clark clenched his fists. "Like heck you do. Nnnngh!" he flew straight towards the creature to give it a death-blow to the crown.

Martian Manhunter reached a hand out: _"Kal-El!"_

_**CRKKKKKKKKK-KKKK!**_

**SWOOOOOOOOSH-**_**SLAAAM!**_

"AAAAUGH!" Superman recoiled from the heavy backhand of the huge beast and flew down…sailing through three solid buildings from the impact. _CRASSH!-CRUNNCH-CRAAACK!_

Wonder Woman gasped. She then snarled and flew herself at the torso of the huge monster while Steel rocketed towards the other side, sledgehammer swinging.

"RAAAAAUGH!

"Nnnnngh!"

SWOOOOOSH!

_**PFTOOOOOSH!**_

_**SLAMMMMM!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Crunch…

Hovering above the throngs of Wildebeests…

'Observing' his brethren in action….

The man possessed with Jericho's spirit piloted the HIND over the brawling decimation.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

He readied a payload to fire at a thick crowd of golems…and glanced over with glowing green eyes across the Crunch.

And he saw the twelve-story monster pummeling Superman, Wonder Woman, and Steel to the ground.

The battlefield froze as the golden aura lingered the heaviest over the sudden colossus and its League opponents.

The boy inside the possessed man bit his lip….

Sweating…..

Contemplating………

His hands gripped to the controls of the Hind tighter….

….as he brought the huge metal bird around.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

North.

In a random street.

A pile of rubble lying near the sidewalk began to lift and separate.

One boulder at a time.

Levitating….floating apart….

Revealing Terra underneath.

Her gloved hands agilely twisting and flicking….

Moving every shard and piece apart.

Unburying herself….and Jinx….

"Nnnnngh!" Terra removed the last huge stone with her thermalkinesis.

She panted and knelt down by the pink witch's side. "Jinx? J-Jinx?"

"…………"

Terra turned the girl over.

There was a nasty bruise on the pink sorceress' head.

"Nnnngh….," Jinx murmured. "L-Leslie…it h-hurts…."

Terra bit her lip. She gently pressed her hands into the girl's shoulders and said: "Hang on….we're gonna go somewhere…..a bit safer." The blonde helped Jinx to her feet….struggling with her petite frame. "Nnngh…it's…..th-the least I can….d-do….." Terra was speaking more to herself than anyone.

Jinx groaned and barely hobbled upright…leaning against Terra as the earth maiden walked the two of them down the city street….

Panting…

Absorbing the vibrations that shook through the foundation of asphalt.

Terra looked up and about her.

Blue eyes wide.

Sweat staining her face as she panted…..panted…..panted….

Rubble.

Debris.

Earth and rock and concrete.

Emptiness…..the emptiness of crushed urban life.

Or 'no-life'.

The City streets were void of all people.

And although Terra knew that they had evacuated…

She and Kara figured it out on the flight there….

It crossed her mind…and ruptured in the darkest, most painful corners…

That everything around her was so terribly familiar.

Circular in irony.

Elliptical…coming to a head.

_The City on its knees. _

_No people. _

_No people in a kingdom under fire…… _

_The burning gold. _

_The golems……the scent of hissing-hot rock and lava………_

Terra shuddered. And though Jinx was starting to become more and more bipedally responsive in their limping trek through the streets….the world suddenly grew ten times heavier and it threatened to crush the earth maiden in two.

For everywhere she looked….

And everywhere she walked….

All that she could feel was….

….regret.

Terra bit her lip.

_Endless……_

_  
Burning………_

_Regret…………_

"Nnngh….S-Slade….," Jinx murmured.

Terra blinked. She glanced aside at the pink sorceress whom she was helping limp across the urban nightmare….

"D-Did we stop S-Slade?" the petite witch again whispered.

Terra gulped. With a quivering lip, she said: "No…..I didn't….."

And the two apprentices limped on….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SHATTTTTTERRRR!**_

The rooftop windows of the loft art museum exploded downward.

Deathstroke slammed vaporously into the floor with a splash of red.

Robin and I leapt off of our flying jump-kick impact into the undead man's chest.

We both flipped off in one accord, twirled the bo-staff and Myrkblade respectfully, and slashed down at Red Aviary.

"_**HRAAUCKKKT!"**_ The red-seething one raised his two-edged sword lengthwise.

_CL-CLANK! _

_**CLACK!**_

Robin and I were deflected back….

_TH-THWUMP!_

The two of us stumbled across the art exhibit…

_TH-THWOOSH!_ Deathstroke vaulted up to his feet. He stood in the dim halo of red starlight from above. _TH-TH-THWISSSH!_ His sword twirled into position as he shook and quivered with cascading vapors of red. _**"HCkkkktt—guard…..snkkkt-GUARRRD your LIVESSS!"**_

"Shut the Hell up and bring it!" Robin shouted.

I frowned.

"_**HRCKKK!"**_ **FWOOOSH!** Deathstroke charged.

I dashed ahead and knelt with a block.

_**CL-CLANK!**_ He struck his entire weight against my blade and flipped over me.

Robin twirled his bo-staff up and blocked as—

CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLAK! Deathstroke's flipping body slashed in a human buzz-saw at Robin's weapon before touching down and sweeping at the Boy Wonder's leg.

_**SLASSSSH!**_

Robin backflipped, landed, and slid back in front of a glass display of antique pottery.

"_**HRAAUCHKTT!"**_ Red Aviary blurred towards him with a red-flashing-swing.

_**SLASSSH!**_

Robin skirted out of the way.

_**CRASSSSH!**_ The glass display shattered.

Robin perched in front of a tapestry.

_Thud-Thud-Thud!-Thud!-__**Thud!**_ Deathstroke charged at him, red blade swinging. Spinning. _TH-TH-TH-TH-__**THWOOSH!**_

Robin ducked and rolled aside.

_SLAAAAA-AAAAASSSH!_ The tapestry was torn in two.

Robin grunted, spun, grabbed a length of the tapestry towels, and tossed it over Deathstroke's flashing red crown.

_FWOOMP!_

"_**Snkkkkt—clik-clik-HRCKKK!"**_ Deathstroke hissed and fought, slashed, and struggled to get loose from underneath the blinding shroud. After a few fumbling seconds, he pulsed a wave of destruction that shredded the tapestry apart. He shook his vaporous head and looked straight up—

--to see me blurring into him with Myrkblade swinging.

_**THWACK!**_

Deathstroke stumbled back.

I snarled and slashed with two more dives—_**THWACK! WH-WHACK!**_

Deathstroke slid back towards a line of mounted paintings.

I raised Myrkblade and angled it to pierce through his neck.

He held his sword out in two hands, positioned it horizontally, and twisted my blade up. _**"HCKKK!"**_

I lunged towards the ceiling and teetered forward. Dizzy…off balance.

_**TH-THWUMMMMP!**_ He kicked me in the chest.

I wheezed and fell down to one knee.

"_**Hckkkkt!"**_ He raised his red blade high over my crown and roared: "_**…..go join your arm in dust."**_

"RAAAAAGH!" Robin leap-frogged over me and slammed into Slade.

_**THWUMP!**_ Deathstroke was plowed over till he lay on his back. Robin straddled his chest and slammed down, pummeled, pulverized Deathstroke's skull with his bo-staff repeatedly. _WHAP! THAP! THUD! CRACK!_

Deathstroke hissed and spat bloody vapors from every impact.

Robin then raised to crush Deathstroke's undead skull in completely.

"_**HRAUCHKKK!"**_ Slade kicked his legs up and vaulted Robin over him.

_THWOOOSH!_

Robin twirled, flipped, and landed in an expert, reverse slide across the art gallery. He knocked three paintings over before stopping against a wall and tossing a birdarang at Slade.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!_

Deathstroke—rising to his knees—blocked the projectile with a vertically-held blade of red. _CR-CRACK!_

Robin gritted his teeth and tossed another birdarang…

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!_

This time, Deathstroke stood up and sliced the incoming weapon in half with an expert twist of his sword. He hissed, raised the sword, and made to charge the Boy Wonder.

Robin gritted his teeth, pulled out a weighted bolo from his belt, swung it thrice over his head, and let it fly at Red Aviary.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THWPPP!-__**SNAG!**_

The weights of the cord pulled taut and bound Slade tightly around the torso.

"_**Hrrrrckkkkt-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt!"**_ he hoarsely protested. His weapon and hilt-squeezing arms stuck to his side.

And that's when I decided to charge him.

_FWOOOOSH!_ I rushed in towards his rear, Myrkblade held high.

Deathstroke's red eye strobed, concentrated, and—

"_**SNKKKT!"**_

FL-FLASSSH! He teleported.

Which meant…..

My black eyes widened. I tried to turn to smoke—

_**THWPPP-**__**SNAG!**_

I struggled and panted and writhed in the bolos that were previously tightened around Slade—now encircling me.

_**FWOOOSH!**_ Deathstroke solidified behind me. _**"DIEEE!"**_ He snarled and swung his blade down to cleave the back of my head in two.

_Aaaaaaaargh!_

I tensed, pulsed, and—

_RIIIIIIP!_

The cords of the bolo shredded into scraps as Myrkblade swam up through the material with a black blur and blindly blocked behind my vertebrae—

_**CL-CLAKKKK!**_

My sword clashed with Red Aviary's.

A half-second pause of black mixing with red—

_**FL-FLASSSH!**_

Red won over.

A pulse from Deathstroke sent me soaring forward.

But before I could slam into the wall…

A firmly anchored Robin held his green glove out.

I reached my metal hand to grab it….

_SNATCH!_

Robin swung.

I twirled.

The two of us launched me around—kicking my feet off the art exhibit's wall—and soaring back towards Deathstroke with Myrkblade jabbing first.

_THWIIIIIIISSSH!_

Deathstroke half-crouched and blocked horizontally.

_**CLACKKK!**_

I bounced back.

Robin rushed forward, bo-staff twirling. "AAAAAAH!" _SW-SW-SW-SW-SWIIIISSSH!_

I blurred forward alongside him, Myrkblade jabbing. _SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!_

Deathstroke stood up, walked backwards, and deflected-deflected-deflected-blockedblockedblockedlbocked!.!.!.!

_CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CL-CLACK!_

Sparks and bits of metal and murk and red smoke flew.

Robin and I advanced mercilessly on Slade….a pair of young teenager heroes furiously jabbing, slashing, and stabbing at the Reaper himself. Our push dragged us across the lengths of the art exhibit. Wide swings of Myrkblade and side-strikes of Robin's bo-staff caused various paintings and glass displays and sculptures to shatter upon burning contact.

_**SLASH! CRACK! THWOOSH! WHACCCKK!**_

Deathstroke was coolly eyeing the two of us. His red eye strobing. His cowl slits exhaling vapors of red menace. He hissed and twirled and countered with his weapon with the cold precision of some unknown clockwork that froze the souls within Robin and I. The smoke and mirrors were in full effect. The air stung with the breath of Red Aviary permeating throughout. And all the time—between the weapon blurs and the limb streaks and the red and the black and the sweat—his shaking, twitching undead-head tilted towards the side….aiming specifically…..

Focusing on Robin.

And Robin alone.

_Yeah, Ana. _

_It's obvious who he wants a showdown with. _

_But not if I can help it……_

_SLASH-SLASH-SLASSSH!_ I jabbed blurringly at his upper body.

Red Aviary countered with a twirl of his sword, grabbed the tip of Myrkblade with a red-pulsing hand, shoved against me—_THWUMP!_—and performed a violent spinning attack as soon as I was thrown back. _**"HCKKKKK!"**_

_**SLASSSSSSH!**_

I lunged backwards and reverse-crouched from the attack.

Robin—meanwhile—leapt from the attack, grabbed ahold of a banner with one hand, swung across the exhibit, kicked the standing Deathstroke across the head, twirled, landed, and leaned on his staff so as to hoist the rest of his body up and slam his boots mercilessly into Slade's chest.

_**WH-WHUMPPP!**_

Deathstroke slid backwards towards a line of antique knights' armor on stands.

"Nnnngh!" Robin charged him. _TH-TH-THWISSH!_ His bo-staff twirled in the shadowy air.

"_**HCKKKK!"**_ Deathstroke raised his hand just in time to—

_SNATCH!_

Robin gasped as Slade's metal-and-flesh hand grabbed around his throat.

_THWOOOOSH-__**SLAM!**_ The Boy Wonder was shoved mercilessly into two suits of armor.

CL-**CLANG!**

The metal 'bodies' shattered, scattered, and fell into clumps of red-laced debris.

Robin twitched and found himself tangled beneath the metal heap. He wined and struggled to get loose.

"_**SNkkkt—clik-clik-clik….bounddd to die a legendddd…..no matterrrr what….,"**_ and Slade jabbed his sword toward's Robin's gut.

_SWIIIIIIISSSH!_ I slid in, blurred, teleported through Slade, and materialized in a crouching block above Robin.

_**CLACKKK!**_ Myrkblade held its own against Deathstroke's sword.

"_**HRCKKKK!"**_ Red Aviary shrieked with spilling red vapors and struck….struck…..struck down at Robin and I.

_**CLANG!**_

Sparks flew. I winced.

_**CRACCCKK!**_

My legs buckled. I slumped down and began to collapse over Robin--

"Nnnngh!" from where the Boy Wonder was sprawled, he tossed a handful of smoke pellets into the tile floor beneath Deathstroke's feet.

_**PFFFFFTT!**_

"_**HRAAAUCHKKKT!"**_ Red Aviary flailed, choked, and stumbled back into murky obscurity.

I panted….kneeling weakly in front of the gradually recovering Robin. We both stared restlessly into the thick cloud looming suddenly before us.

"Is h-he down?" Robin murmured.

Suddenly, the thick crowd glowed a menacing _**red**_ all over.

I bit my lip.

_Hell no……_

_**FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_ Deathstroke burst through the field in an explosion of red Hissing. _**"HCKKKK-KKKK!"**_

I pushed myself back against a now-kneeling Robin, absorbed the nearest trails of pellet smoke into my blade, and summoned an extra-powerful field of murk into the weapon I held vertically in my grasp—

_**FLASSSSH!**_

"_**HRAAAAA-AAAAAUCHKKKT!"**_ Red Aviary charged into us with a smoldering-heavy sword.

_**CLAAAA-AAAAAANGG!**_

Deathstroke shoved into us….

….plowing us through the wall of the art exhibit—_**CRASSSH!**_

…through a hallway into another wall—_**SMASSSSH!**_

…and through room after room of fragile barriers in the skyscraper.—_**SMASSH!—CRKKK!—CRAAACK!**_

Robin and I jolted and winced….with only my smoking-black sword shielding us as Red Aviary pushed us through wall after wall of shattering steel and mortar—

_**CRKKK! SMASSSH! THRASSSH!**_

Until—

_**CRAAA-AAAACKKKK**__**!.!.!.!**_

The final wall gave way….

Robin and I flailed out into the cold, red night….

And descended towards the walkway bridge connecting the museum skyscraper to the next.

_THWOOOOOSH—__**WH-WHAP!**_

We both slammed onto the roof of the precarious bridge of aluminum and steel. We rolled a few feet and stumbled up onto our knees.

Meanwhile—

_**THWOOOOSH!**_ P-PLANT! Deathstroke landed gracefully across from us beneath the hole in the skyscraper's side. Dragging his red blade, he marched icily towards us….spilling red vapors everywhere.

Over two dozen stories of naked space loomed below us…

And the burning streets of gold and red a deathly plummet away….

_**Hckkkk-clik-clik-clik-snkkkkt……Thisssss wouldn'tttt—snkkkt—happen to be a nightttt when the bird'sss wingsss are clippeddd….snkkkt—IS IT?.?.?.?"**_

"Nnnnngh….," Robin moaned and twitched. He struggled to get up…his whole masked face wincing.

I was even slower on the rise than him. My black eyes twitched and flickered desperate, trailing puffs of obsidian.

"_**Then the cage is pointlesssss……Snkkkkkt…..now….sssshow me the red inside of you…..deep….hotttly….INSSSSIDE! HCKKKK!"**_ And Red Aviary blurred coldly at us with a fountaining blade of crimson.

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSSH**__**!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!_

Cyborg blitzed across the laboratory, ducked a heavy-bladed swing of Clayface—_**CHIIIIIING!**_—rolled to the side, knelt, and fired a sonic cannon.

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAP!**_

Clayface spun from his lunging swing and morphed a hole in his body just in time to avoid the direct hit from the sonic cannon. _Pllbbbppbssbpppbbb!_ He snarled a set of thick, yellow teeth and flung his right tentacle forward with a maddening snarl: "RAAAAUGH!" _**TH-THWPPP!**_ A huge metal mace morphed to life as it flew straight at Cyborg's titanium cranium. _SWOOOOOOOSH!_

Air currents in the basement shattered and twirled as the studded, spherical weapon screamed into Cyborg's skull.

At the last second, Cyborg converted both his limbs into opposable palms—_CL-CL-CLAK-CLAKKA!_—and gripped the huge mace, holding it back just seconds before it could smash straight through his head.

_**CLAMP!**__I _

_SCRAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAPE!_ The force of Clayface's tentacle shoved Cyborg across the basement floor till his back slammed into the cylindrical energy core at the back of the laboratory. _CL-CLANKKK!_

"Nnnnn-Nnnnghh!" Cyborg hissed and struggled against the heavy weapon. He shoved back against it, all the while grinding against the plastic, transparent door of the burning core.

_Zzzt-Zzzt!_ Simon Stone appeared holographically on a nearby computer console. He folded a pair of translucent arms behind his 'back'. _"Your tactics aren't assisting you, Victor. At this rate, you will be overcome and severely damaged."_

"Some damn help you are, old man!" Cyborg hoarsely uttered to his uncle with his eyes closed. Struggling. He pushed back…back…back against the pressure of Clayface's impromptu metal mangler. "Do me a real friggin' favor and shut yourself off! Permanently!"

"_As much as I would enjoy doing so, Victor….," _Simon Stone droned. An ever-deceiving trace of melancholy_…. "….that job will inevitably rest on you."  
_  
For some reason, Cyborg was suddenly sweating. A strained face fell across his face like thunderclouds………._melting………_

"Don't be so quick to put down your 'uncle', kid….," Clayface sneered.

_TH-THWPPP!_ The metal mace suddenly sloshed into mud and enclosed around Cyborg's face.

"Mmmmmmm-mmmmmfff!" Cyborg moaned into the suffocating brownness.

Clayface sneered, lifted the flailing android up by the elongated tentacle, and swung him all around the laboratory. "….Simon there taught me all there needed to be known about you…" _TH-THWAAPP!_ Cyborg was slammed against computer consoles… "….your Tower…." _CR-CRACKKK!_ Against lab equipment. "….your friends…." _TH-THWISSSH! ("Aaaaaugh!") _And flung against the far wall of the laboratory, below the stairs"….and most of all…." Clayface formed a pair of iron-thick mallets in his huge palms. He sneered as he towered above the sprawled and scuffed-up Cyborg. "…..everything I needed to know about your half-assed, so-called girlfriend."

Cyborg snarled. He tried to stand up—

_**SLAMMM!**_

"AAAAAUGH!" Cyborg shouted and spat sparks as his lower half was crunched beneath the weight of Clayface's huge mallet-hands.

_**SL-SLAMMMM!**_

"AAAA-AAAUGH!"

"Raaaaugh!" _**SLAM!**_

Zzzz-Zzzt! "Nnnngh!" Cyborg twitched and sparked and hissed……wincing all over.

"………………_," _the hologram of Simon Stone watched silently from the sidelines. Cold. Deadpan….

_Stomp! St-Stomp!_ Clayface practically stood atop the flinching android Titan. "It rather surprised me just how shallow that blue-haired-bitch you dote on actually is. I always imagined that a person so heavily tied into—supposedly—_Satan_ himself would have a bit more……..density. But, oh no…." Clayface pinned Cyborg down with a metal mallet coming from his left tentacle while he produced half a dozen blades, needles, and power drills with his right—_Bvvvzzzzz!_—which he lowered torturously-slowly down towards the struggling robot's torso. "…..Raven turned out to be as flimsy and fragile as a cloud. Heheheh…..I could very well have……._penetrated her………_"

Cyborg glared up at Clayface under a curtain of sweat…sweat and _sparks…….._

Clayface licked his muddy lips with an even muddier tongue. "…..but she wasn't worth my time….and you know what? She wouldn't be worth yours either. Damn ice queens are best left to melt on their own….especially weak and hopeless bitches like the one you left me on a plate to devour…..heh heh heh….."

Cyborg clenched his human eye shut. Shuddered…..and growled: "Raven…..is m-much more strong…..th-than you could possibly know…."

"Heh heh heh heh…..stop bluffing, kid….," Clayface winked. "I'm an actor. A damn good one."

"You're a fake…..," Cyborg hissed. He twitched his cheek to the side as the blades and spinning drills lowered and began to graze his face. "…..a big….sloppy…..smelly fake, Hagan! Nnnngh…..Raven has spent th-the last two years of her lives with the Titans. And in all of that time…." His robot eye strobed a brighter red. He turned his face back up and glared at Clayface. A poisonous voice: "……in all of that time….Raven never hurt us. Not one bit."

Clayface suddenly shuddered from the look on Cyborg's face. The arsenic rolling off his tongue….

"Every instinct in her butchered, soul-self screamed at her to destroy us and the world we live in. And you know what? It still does. But even posing creeps like you who rape everything she stands for can't bring her to rupture the world apart. And that takes character. And that takes strength. And that takes some god-damn-resolve! No, Hagan…..Raven's a lot stronger than you give her credit for. But you wouldn't know that, you big walking piece of shit! Because you **don't….KNOW…HER!.!.!.!"**

"Nnnnnngh!" Clayface growled and flung his tentacle full of blades straight into Cyborg's face. "ENOUGH TALK! RAAAUGH!"

_RIIIIIIP!_ Cyborg's left arm suddenly shredded up through the muddy limb pressing him down and—_CL-CL-CLAKKA!_—punched through the center of the muddy blades right as it turned into a sonic cannon. "I SAY WE PUMP UP THE VOLUME, ASSHOLE!"

_**ZAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAP!**_

_**SPLOOOORRR-RRRCCCCHHHH!**_

Clayface's entire tentacle split and splattered apart from the end to his hulking shoulder.

"AAAAAAUGH!" Clayface shuddered and screamed.

"RAAAAUGH!" Cyborg shoved the metal mallet off of his lower body.

Clayface stumbled back….dripping.

Simon Stone watched.

Sparking, Cyborg limped to his feet….wincing.

Clayface panted.

Cyborg panted.

………

Cyborg was the first to recover.

"YAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!" he let out a berserk cry. Seething….nostrils flaring, the titanium Titan charged across the way towards Clayface.

_STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP__**-STOMP!-STOMP!.!.!**_

Clayface strained….and splashed his entire body across the length of the basement laboratory in a serrated wall of morphing knives, daggers, blades, saws and axes.

_**CHIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIING!.!.!.!**_

Cyborg screamed, flexed his robot fingers, and plunged both of his fists through the wall of blades and thickly into Clayface's muddy body.

_**TH-THUNKKKKKK!.!.!**_

One spark.

Two.

Cyborg gritted his teeth as his red eye pulsed blue and his inner core short forth millions of volts through his limbs and hurled them into Clayface's boiling mass.

"Hav a happy life as scattered electrons, punk!"

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZ**__**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTT!.!.!.!**_

"AAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" Clayface somehow summoned a voice to scream as his entire muddy self boiled and hissed and caught aflame. Burning brown mud. Splattering flakes all across the laboratory.

And Simon Stone watched the flashing holocaust.

Flickering.

Deadpan and….

Still.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRACKKK!**_

_**  
WHACKKKK!**_

_**SLAMMM!**_

The twelve-story behemoth of a golem was advancing across the Crunch….

Punching the line of defenders back.

Trailed by golems and terrorists in hummers, assaulting any normal-sized foe they could get their sights on.

_**THWACCCK! **_

_**CRUNCH! **_

_**WHAMMM!**_

And the entire time, the huge monster was directing all of its attacks on one soul and one soul alone.

Superman.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKKKK!**_

The hulking beast raised its foot and slammed a burning heel hard into Superman's gut.

_**WHAMMMM!.!.!.!**_

"AAAAAAAUGH!" The Kryptonian bellowed. He flew back two blocks and smashed through the building structure of a bank.

The hulking monster marched, unhindered, towards him.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK!**_

The Flash ran circles around the beast's ankles, attempting to distract it.

Green Arrow ran along a row of rooftops, firing freezing arrows down at the hulking monstrosities' shoulders. To no avail.

Running as fast as his suited legs could take him, Batman huffed and puffed and shouted into a communicator. "Hurry, League! Intercept the beast at the south of the Crunch now! It's not giving Clark any rest!"

'_We're on it, Bruce!'_ _FWOOOOOOOOSH!_ Green Lantern soared overhead in a green streak. Trailed by Steel, the green guardian pulsed a strong aura of emerald energy, let out a war-cry, and slammed himself into the back of the monster's crown.

_**FLASSSSH!**_

The monster didn't stop. It bent over the crumbling rubble where Superman lay and picked up the Man of Steel in a burning, strangling grip of rock.

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

"Aaaaaugh!" Superman winced and burned in the monster's hold.

"For the last time….," Green Lantern came around for another try. Left hand flaring with the ring of energy. "Leave him the HELL alone!"

_**FWOOOOOOOOSHHH---**_

The burning monster raised his other hand, grabbed the guardian—_CRKKKK!—("Aaaaugh!")_—and flung him across the street into a third-story building front.

SLAM!

Thwooooosh—TH-THWUMP!

Green Lantern landed hard on the floor. His body bruised and battered. The splint his right arm was in started to crack as the ring in his left hand flickered….and died. "Ughhhhh…." A dying emerald glow cascaded over the guardian's body…reducing him to civilian clothes of a black denim jacket and dark slacks.

"Lantern!" Black Canary ran over and knelt by his side. "Are you all right?"

Stewart's brown eyes glanced thinly…weakly across the street of burning rubble. Past the burning giant's feet. "It's….g-gonna burn Superman alive…."

"Don't worry…," the blonde vixen panted. A hand on his shoulder. "We're on it." She glanced up towards the red heavens. "At least….I _think_ we're on it."

_**PFTOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ Steel rocketed overhead, swinging his massive sledgehammer. "RAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

"…….," Black Canary blinked. "Yeah. We're on it."

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_ Steel soared towards the creep's back and slammed his sledgehammer into the skull. _**CRAAAACK!**_

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

The monster spun with Superman in his grasp and flung a mess of lava at the suited warrior. _RRRRSSSH!_

Steel spun, ducked the launch, and rocketed around to slam the creature's sternum. "NNNNNGH-YAAAAUGH!"

_**SWOOOOOOOSH-**__**SMACCCKKK!**_ The giant's fist met Steel head on…

_**CRAAACK!**_

…and Steel's hammer shattered.

Flailing in mid-air, Steel's breath left him—

_**SLAMMMM!.!.!.!**_

The next blow sent Henry Irons plummeting across the street with his helmet knocked off.

_FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSSH!_ The Flash soared by just in time to catch him on a crumbled sidewalk.

In the meantime…. "Nnnnnnngh….," Superman struggled in the lava-hot grasp. He opened his blue eyes as his bruised face hardened in a frown. The Man of Steel gritted his teeth, turned his optics amber-red, and fired a pair of burning beams into the monster's 'forehead'.

_**ZZZZZZAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAP!**_

The creature merely absorbed the beams…billowed flames all over….and pulsed a wave of fire and plasma into the puny Kryptonian in his grip.

_**PHWOOOO-OOOOMMMMBB!**_

"YAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!" Superman howled…burning.

_THWOOOOOSH!_ From above, Wonder Woman soared down, flung a lasso around the monster's crown, and pulled with all her might towards the burning, concrete earth. "Nnnnnnghhh!"

The creature tilted back some…lessening its heated punishment of the Man of Steel.

Across the intersection, a squadron of Calvin's artillery aimed tank turrets up at the creature's body.

General Calvin let loose a yell.

_**BL-BLAMMM!**_

_**BLAMMM!**_

_**POWWWW!**_

The shells struck dead-center in the monster's hide.

The huge beast teetered…wobbled.

Wonder Woman pulled…..tugged harder.

The creature spun, rumbled, and grabbed Wonder Woman hard with its other hand clamping.

_**GRIPPP!**_

The strangled Amazonian wheezed and hissed for breath.

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

The monster tossed her straight towards one of Calvin's tanks.

Her ragdoll body sailed through a thick metal vehicle, smashing it to bits.

_CRUNNNCH!_

The monster then proceeded to lean over and slam—_**WHAM!**_—slam-_**CRACK!**_-slam-_**THWUMPP!**_—Superman's puny body into the hard earth.

From a rooftop afar, Catwoman stood….watching….panting.

_FL-FLASSH!_

In a green swirl, Martian Manhunter materialized beside her.

"This is not a good development," the alien monotonously droned. "Lex Luthor's ion cannon still needs to be deactivated."

Catwoman hissed at him: "Is that ALL you can think about, smart-ass?"

_**SLAM! **_

_**SL-SLAMMM! **_

_**THWUMP!**_

The monster formed a crater…in the center of which lay Superman.

Battered.

His cape and uniform tattered.

His greased hair smoking at the ends….

"Ughhhh…."

_**CRKKKKKKK!**_

The monster stood tall and erect above the crumpled Man of Steel….

….prepared to do its worse.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Across the Crunch…

Supergirl was assisting a throng of Wildebeests in crushing a line of attacking golems.

The Girl of Steel flew forward with a snarling warcry, slamming her steel-strong fists through throngs of burning creeps and tossing chunks of street asphalt at retreating jeeps and hummers full of terrorists.

_**SMASSSH! **_

_**CRASSH! **_

"Nnnnnnnghhh!"

_**CRUNNNCHHH!**_

The terrorists retreated.

The Wildebeests went in pursuit….grunting and stomping through seas of golem parts.

Supergirl slumped off to the side.

Panting….panting….panting….

She sweated…gulped….

….and turned her head to glance southward.

And that's when she saw the scene.

With a gasp and a twitch to her eyes….

Across the Crunch, the hulking beast was readying to slam its entire weight down onto Superman's body.

She clenched her teeth.

"Clark……….."

_THWOOOOOOSSSSH!_

Whole slabs of concrete rose from the friction of her jolting flight.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

The monster showered and spit ashes down at Superman.

He tried to sit up….struggled…..shook….and collapsed back down with a slumping sigh.

The twelve-foot behemoth rumbled and raised its foot…

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSSH!_ A pair of explosive batarangs twirled down and smashed into the monster's foot…taking out a sizeable chunk.

_**POWWWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

The monster teetered back….burning brightly.

Superman blinked.

_SWOOOSH!_ Batman swung in, landed, and stood above Superman with two elongated, sword-like batarangs unsheathed. _CHIIIIIING!_ He planted himself in the path of the giant monster's limbs.

"Don't….touch him….again….," he snarled at the beast.

"B-Bruce….," the battered Man of Steel raised a shaky hand. "Don't—"

"**Shut up**," Batman grunted….then narrowed his eyeslits up at the burning beast. "That's as far as you go, you over-sized rook."

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The giant lifted its other hulking leg to squash the Dark Knight.

Batman clenched his jaw. His fingers pressed onto thick switches at the bases of the swords' hilts. They vibrated with a high-pitched, sonic intensity. _VRMMMMMMM!_ "Let's go…."

"_Save it for later, Batsy……"_

"……….?" Batman glanced aside—

**SHOVE!**

Supergirl knocked the Dark Knight away, flew in his place, and slammed her fist with a scream into the plummeting heel of the burning giant. _**CRAAAACKKK!**_

The lower body of the monster cracked. It slumped forward, spitting flames and lava bits everywhere.

"Nnnnngg-RAAAH!" Supergirl flew forward and started pummeling the ankles of the grounded monster to dust. _**POW! SOK! CRUNCH!**_

Superman sat up. Wincing. "Kara! Don't!"

"I can handle it, Clark!" _**SMACK! WHAM! THWACK!**_

"No you can't!"

"I said I can—"

"LOOK OUT!"

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

The left arm of the giant flew down.

Supergirl braced herself---

_**THWOMPP!**_

Her feet buckled as a crater formed around her ankles. Her body hunched into a painful crouch as she braced against the impact of the huge, burning wrist with her shoulders and pushed….pushed…..pushed back up against the creature's weight. "Nnnnnnnnghhh!"

Superman watched, breathless.

Batman groaned and stood up on the sidelines….wincing.

"YAAAAUGH!" Supergirl re-gripped the hand of the beast, wrangled herself around, and fired a pair of burning optic beams point blanc into the wrist of the creature.

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAAP!**_

The heat of the wrist intensified, overheated, and—_**P-POWWW!**_

"Aaaugh!" Supergirl flew back as the monster's limb exploded in her face.

_SNATCH!_ Batman caught her, supporting her limp body against his chest. With a free hand, he tossed one of the sonic batarang 'swords' into the thick of the already shattered stub of the creature's limb.

"Nnngh!"

_THWIIIIISSSH!_

Supergirl looked up weakly from Batman's grip.

_**CHUNKKKK!**_

_VROMMM—__**CRAAAACK!**_

A good third of the creature shattered apart and exploded in lava and flame.

_**CRKKKKKKKKKKK!**_

A heat beyond intense overwhelmed the scene.

_**PHWOOOOOOMMMB!**_

A wave of fire emanated from the shattered beast's broken body and surged at the rest of the Justice League.

From the rooftops above, Green Arrow ran to a stop, held his breath, pulled out a throng of ice arrows, landed them against his bow, aimed, and fired—

_**TWNNNNNNG-TWNNNNG!**_

_THWISSSSSSSSH!_

The icy projectiles flew down and landed in front of Batman, Supergirl, and Superman…..in time to counteract the steaming wave of heat.

_**HSSSSSSSSsssssssss**__sssssssss!_

The three nearest heroes watched in exhaustion at the burning beast's glowing figure.

It billowed more and more flame….

Regaining strength.

_FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!_ Flash dashed in, holding a half-conscious Henry Irons in his grasp.

"That thing ain't down for the count!" the speedster panted. "We gotta run for cover and let Calvin's cannons do the work!"

Batman nodded his pointy cowl skyward. "Or better yet…."

Flash and Supergirl looked up…eyes growing side.

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOSSSH!**_ A very familiar HIND was soaring down suicidally towards the vulnerable gash in the backside of the huge, twelve-story golem.

A green-eyed, possessed thug piloted the fully-loaded craft from inside the front cockpit bubble.

"Move! Get away from here as fast as you can!" the Dark Knight shouted.

"Yeah, I think I can do that!" Flash uttered, shifted Irons in his grasp, and soared off. _FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!_

"Cl-Clark!" Supergirl weakly gestured. "Wh-What about Clark?"

_FWOOOOOSH!_ Wonder Woman soared down, grabbed Superman by his shoulders, and started to lift him up and out of there. "Bruce! Let's move!"

"Right with you!" Batman pulled out a grappling hook, held onto Supergirl tightly, and swung the two of them away. _**POW!**_ _CLANK!_

_SWOOOOSH!_ Wonder Woman and Superman….Flash and Steel….and Batman and Supergirl fled Main Street. Green Arrow jumped for cover beyond a building front while Black Canary and Green Lantern hobbled into an alleyway and Martian Manhunter rushed Catwoman off to the distance…

…

_**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FWOOOOOSSSSH!**_

….and the HIND soared into the hide of the burning creep.

Its heavy payload glistening in the red night and golden flame.

Plummeting hard.

_**FWOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSH!**_

The thug inside gritted his teeth.

His eyes pulsed a bright emerald.

At the last second of golden brilliance, the body of a boy shot ghostly out from the pilot's frame in a flickering of green—

_**FLASSSH!**_

…

_**CRASSSSSSSSH-KAPOWWWWWWWW**__**!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The HIND plunged into the center of the of crumbling monster…..

….and then its payload ignited inside the burning, golden core.

_**BLAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAMMMMMM!.!.!.!.!.!**_

A golden shockwave flew across the Crunch.

Shattering building windows.

Melting steel supports.

Rippling through concrete sidewalk slabs.

And blinding the southern half of the City in gold fury.

_**FLAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAASSSSH!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Underground…

In the Subways and tunnels…

Where the innocent citizens were.

_**RUMMMMMMMBLLLLLE!.!.!.!.!**_

The ground shook.

The earth rattled.

The men and women and children inside gasped and muttered.

Emergency lights flickered.

Policemen and soldiers urged the hundreds….thousands of huddled masses to be calm….

To be quiet….

To be patient….

Daniel held tightly to Renee. Stroking her hair and shoulders lovingly from behind. Inhaling the scent of her and exhaling a shudder that joined her thin breaths.

Lisa huddled close to her sister, holding tightly the bodies of Greg and Ashley that clung to her like children to a mother. Lisa's one eye thinned as her lips pursed…muttering something silent under the rumbling.

Lindsay was plunged in the dark as her family's section of the tunnels experienced a total blackout. Under the throng of sudden screams and shrieks of sobbing despair…she uttered a name. And one name alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tempest finished smashing tentacles of water through one last hovercraft before tossing the deck-leaping terrorists across the waves of the Bay like skipping stones.

His body settled into the depths as the glow of violet furor left his dark eyes.

He gazed—squinting—landward and panted…

Treading water…

Eyeing the burning gold madness.

And murmuring:

"Either stop or die already……_Stubborn night from Hades, I swear……"_

And he dove with a flare of his gill slits and plunged into the salt water.

_SPLOOOSH!_

Skirting himself northward….towards the dry, burning land.

'_Give me just a little more strength, Tula……'_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra froze.

Shuddering.

Eyeing the fading gold of the blast as she trembled….trembled….

The collapsing beast of thermalkinetic immensity sent a shudder through her earthen being.

Her eyes flickered an unconscious white fury…

…and it made her gasp.

And it made her shiver…..

For the memory intensified.

And the _regret._

It was not just _regret_ after all.

It was….._something else too._

Like the wounds of a bleeding mother.

A loss….but not a martyrdom.

_Responsibility. _

_Construction. _

_The Whiteness burning hot in her arteries…… _

_Throbbing……pulsing…… _

_On fire everywhere…………_

"I-I don't need saving……..," Terra murmured.

Terra, the apprentice.

Terra, the traitor.

Terra, the confused…the victim….the damsel.

Terra…..the Mother.

"I don't need saving….," she repeated breathily. A gulp. A shudder. "B-But this City does……"

Silence……..

"…………."

She gently walked over….and laid Jinx down against a building corner.

"Nnnnngh….," Jinx winced. The strength still hadn't returned entirely to the pink sorceress. She stared with thin cat-eyes at the earth maiden. "T-Terra…..wh-what…..?"

"Shhhh…..rest easy, Jinx….," Terra stood up, turned, and started marching towards the far side of the City. "Remember the offering…."

"Th-The….huh?"

"Remember yours and Leslie's offer….," Terra broke out into a sprint. "Because I know what I must now do….."

"T-Terra! D-Don't go!" Jinx reached a shaking hand towards her distant figure in vain. Wincing. "Terra!"

The petite blonde bolted down the empty streets.

Jinx panted. "D-Don't do……s-something stupid…..p-please….." Jinx gulped……panted. "W-We need you…………"

Silence.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra ran through the empty streets.

Past mounds of rubble.

Beyond broken remains of golems and burning monsters.

Along lines of corpses….both of the enemies and the allies.

There was a shuddering to her figure.

A cold….frigid nakedness….

Being swallowed up by the City that once ate her….

Digested her in stone…

Engraved her nefarious name in the Earth.

Forever.

Terra ran and ran and ran….

Straight towards one building in particular.

Kobayashi Tower…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

On the beaches of the Bay's northern shore….

Changeling stirred.

He clawed himself up the sand….

Up towards drier dirt….

Bordering the asphalt of the Bayside street.

He glanced up….panting….

And—with the Crunch cleared by the brilliant explosion temporarily….

….the beast boy had a clear sight of the navel of the City straight through from the south to the North along Main Street.

And as if he had unconsciously spliced his eyes into that of a hawk…

…he saw…her.

Her blonde hair flailing in the breeze.

Her black and tan outfit.

Her thin, fragile frame running…sprinting….fleeing across the urbanscape.

Towards Kobayashi Tower.

And the life of him burst out of Changeling's throat in a humongous gasp.

"T-Terra……"

Jaw dropping.

Green eyes wide….refocusing to elfin desperation.

"T-Terra…….."

The pain in his left head's gash left.

The salt and the sand and the blood….

"TERRA!"

Changeling jumped up to his feet.

Panting….he ran northward.

Hurtling himself through Main Street…

Past the rubble…the vehicular shells…..the bodies….

The charred organs of war….

He surged and galloped and raced through the re-forming chaos after the earth maiden.

His eyes locked on her golden figure.

A lonely flame against the red monstrosity of the night.

"TERRRRAAAA!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling's voice soared….rang….echoed…..and died…..

At the air-slicing sound of Deathstroke's sword slashing towards Robin and I.

"_**HCKKKKK!"**_

_**SWISSSSSSSSH!**_

Robin spun his body and vaulted up off the surface of the bridge.

I rolled and teleported to the side.

_**CL-CLANGG!**_ Deathstroke's sword scraped into aluminum and steel.

Robin landed on his feet.

I landed on my feet.

Robin positioned himself on Slade's east side.

I solidified on his west side.

Slade stood in the center of the skyscraper's bridge.

Holding his red-flickering sword up.

Hissing….glancing left and right….

At the two combatants on either side of him….

_TH-TH-THWIIIISH!_ Robin twirled and readied his bo-staff. Panting.

_CHIIIIING!_ I raised Myrkblade. Frowning.

"_**Hckkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkt……"**_ Deathstroke hissed, glaring left and right at us.

Robin slowly inched his way towards Slade's right.

I panted and oozed towards Slade's left.

Bo-staff, red blade, Myrkblade…

Singing in the cold, crimson air.

"…….."

"_**Snkkkkkt….."**_

"……."

"……"

"…_**..clik-clik-Hckkk….."**_

"……."

"……."

"_**Snkkkt….clik-clik-clik-HRAAAUCKTT!"**_

"…….!" I blurred at him.

"YAAAAH!" Robin charged.

_FWOOOOOSH!_

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

_**SW-SW-SWOOOSH!**_ Deathstroke crouched low and raised his sword horizontally over his vaporous head.

_**CL-CLAAAAANG!.!.!**_

Bo-staff and Myrkblade showered sparks down onto his figure.

TH-THWUMP! Deathstroke kicked me.

I stumbled back on the bridge.

_THWOOOSH!_ Slade knocked Robin's rod back and advanced on him with rapidly side-swishing slices of his blade. _**SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!**_

Robin twirled his blade…snarling…blocking. "Nnnnnngh!" _Clack-Clack-Clack-Clack!_

I blurred smokingly at Slade's rear.

He shoved Robin towards the East building, spun, raised his blade to block mine—_**CLANG!**_—and shoved against me with a pulse of red. _**FWOOOSH!**_

I fell on my rear—_THWAP!_--….wincing.

"_**Hckkk!"**_ He jabbed down at my torso.

"Nnngh!" Robin pounced him and pulled at his neck with the bo-staff from behind.

"_**Snkkkkt!"**_

The red blade stopped squarely at the 'X' scar on my adam's apple.

I gulped….

Deathstroke hobbled back, wrestling with Robin from behind.

I leapt up to my feet, charged murk into my legs, and ran full-force at the Reaper.

Deathstroke brought a fist back—slammed Robin in the nose—numbed the Boy Wonder—freed an arm—parried my attacks with a twirling blade—kicked me back—grabbed the Boy Wonder by the cape—and flung Robin towards my stumbling figure.

_THWOOOOOSH!_

**WHAPP!**

I fell back, hard.

Regardless, Robin vaulted his legs off my ragdoll figure, flew himself back at Slade, and jabbed multiple-times at his torso with a mid-air spinning staff. "RAAAUGH!"

_CL-CL-CL-CL-CLANK!_ Red Aviary blocked and jabbed high at the airborne Robin.

Robin twirled his body, hand-planted off of Deathstroke's shoulder, flipped, and vaulted himself towards the East side of the walkway bridge with a toss of three smoke pellets.

_THWOOOOSH!_

Deathstroke spun and—

_**POOOOOOFFFTTTT!**_

--found himself enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

I jumped up to my feet and jabbed Myrkblade into the haze. _Just what I needed._ FWOOOSH! I started absorbing the energy.

_TH-THAP!_ Robin's flailing feet planted into the side of the east skyscraper.

_**FLASSSH!**_ I filled Myrkblade with smoke energy….my eyes flickering black.

"Nnnngh!" Robin kicked off against the skyscraper wall and soared west.

_Aaaah!_ I twirled Myrkblade and blurred east.

Robin flew and I blurred straight into the red-colored cloud…disappearing with a mad swing of our weapons within.

_THWOOOSH!_

_SLASSSH!_

_**CLANGGGGG!**_

Silence….

Silence………..

The smoke cleared….

…and Robin and I stood against each other in the dead-center of the bridge with our weapons grinding.

"……wha--!" His eyemask widened.

I gasped.

Deathstroke was gone….

We looked around and around and around…

Panting.

Desperate…..—

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-SNKKKT!"**_

Robin and I did a double-take. We both glanced up—

_**FL-FLASSSSH!**_ Red Aviary materialized from a red-streaking teleport twenty feet above us. He charged up a pulse of red from the bloody sky, let loose a hissing…vaporous scream….and soared down like a crimson comet….hurtling towards the tangled two of us.

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS-SSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

Destruction fell like the gavel of fate.

A circle of glowing cold enveloped us.

"MOVE!" Robin shoved against me and dove towards the East Skyscraper.

I fell awkwardly towards the west—

"_**HRAAA-AAAAAAAAUCHKKKT!"**_

_**SMASSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Red Aviary came down in heavy sword-swipe of madness.

The thunder was deafening.

The cold crimson splashing about the air numbing…

A crack formed in the bridge.

With icy hisses as the walkway inside depressurized into the freezing, December air of Death—

_**CRKKKKK-CRAAAAACKAAA!.!.!.!**_

The bridge divided.

Steel girders split.

Glass shattered and flew in fountainous waves.

I screamed mutely, slid, cascaded off the side, and plummeted to a certain death before reaching a black hand out and—_**SNAGGG!**_—holding on at the last second to a dangling…loose metal support beam.

"Aaaugh!" On the eastern half of the bridge, Robin scrambled and clung to the side. The aluminum-steel body lurched and groaned as it progressively teetered in a steeper and steeper angle towards the distant earth below. "Nnnngh…nngh!" He struggled to hang on while simultaneously holding onto his grip of the bo-staff.

Together….yet separate….

Divided…yet equally fated…

Robin and I dangled from our respective perches.

Wingless…flightless….the crimson bird cage howled the echoes of war and mayhem all around us…

And from above…

Hovering like a fox….a cat…a predator….

"_**Hckkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkktt……."**_

Robin panted the loudest of all.

I gazed helplessly over towards him with twitching, black eyes….

"_**Snkkkt…..when the Titansss fall……what god would care to liftt….them…backkk….up?"**_

And Red Aviary materialized……on the eastern bridge half.

Above Robin.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAP!**_

_**Z-ZAAAAAP!**_

A sweating, sparking Cyborg fired desperate potshots of his sonic cannon at Clayface.

The muddy metamorph was sloshing, dripping, soggily launching his near-tentacle-shaped body from one side of the laboratory to the next…barely skirting past Cyborg's sonic punishment.

"Hold still, you sniveling crud!" Cyborg spat. "What's the matter? Can't smooth your way out of this?"

"_Snkkkt---Sh-Shut up, k-kid!" SLOSSSSH!_ Clayface clung wetly to a laboratory wall and shot three slicing tentacles of hot metal blades towards Cyborg's position.

_CHIIIIIING!_

Cyborg grunted, rolled out of the way, knelt, and fired at the mud-stringing length of Hagan. "Nnnnn-NNGAAAAH!"

_**ZAAAAAAP!**_

SP-SPLOOOORCCCH!

"_Daaaaaugh!"_ Clayface quivered and throbbed and wetly splattered against the far side of the laboratory where the cylindrical core glowed.

Cyborg panted….getting up and sparkingly-limping towards the Gothamite metamorph. "Where's that badass actor that snuck his way into the Tower and thought he could screw my pals to death? HUH?" _CL-CLAK!_ "Well here's your motivation, punk!" _**ZAAAAAAAP!**_** "You're a cowardly piece of flaming turd-muffin who's about to know extra-spiritual definitions of ****PAIN!**"

_**SPLORRRCCCCH!**_

"_AAAAAA-AAAAUGH!_!" Clayface—now a boiling tentacle of wet mud—quivered in the corner and let loose a steaming exhaust in random bursts that were his leftover, weak equivalent to 'hyperventilating'.

"……………_,"_ the hologram of Simon Stone watched silently. Deadpan.

Cyborg panted…beat up….scuffed. He limped with a sparking drag towards the quivering mud mass and tried to charge his sonic cannon again. "If there was ever….EVER….a way to make you….m-make you suffer….a m-million times over…for all the punk-ass things you did….to Raven…."

"_Snkkkt……give it up, kid………"_

Cyborg frowned and raised a foot to stomp over the boiling mud puddle. "I think you're overlooking just who's still on his feet and just who's a pathetic little _stain_ right now!"

"_You act tough. Let's get to know each other betttterrrr……"_**SLOSSSSSSSSSH!**

Clayface launched his entire soggy self at Cyborg.

The android Titan gasped and braced himself as the wall of mud splashed into him and wrapped over his exoskeleton.

Constricting…

_SCRKKKKKKK!_

"DAAAAAA-AAAAAH!" Cyborg shouted, hobbling across the basement laboratory. He clenched his teeth…pulsed his robot eye….and pressed a panel on his mud-stained chestpiece.

_CLANK!_

_**ZZZZZZ-ZZZZZTTT!**_

Blue sparks jolted all along Cyborg's exoskeleton.

The muddy metamorph clinging to him quivered, boiled, and 'screamed'.

"_AAA-AAAAAH!"_

Cyborg intensified the bolts. Wincing…shaking…and clenching his teeth from the electrocuting punishment himself as the blue energy bounced around him….

….and then he fizzled out.

Gasping.

Steam rose from him and boiled from the muddy being clinging to him.

"_Snkkkkt—You……BASTARD!"_ Clayface's voice warbled.

"You looked in the mirror lately, punk?.!" Cyborg grabbed at his chest and gripped a handful of putrid mud.

_SPLORRRRCH!_

Clayface surged and slurped around him.

Cyborg hissed and grabbed at himself, twitching, shaking, tossing…

_SLOSSH! SP-SPLORRCH! SLOSSH!_ Clayface wrapped and warped and snaked around the titanium Titan's body like a fleeting snake.

This went on for a wrestling two-minutes before Cyborg recharged his electric bolts.

_Vriiiiii!_

The first of many blue sparks started to reform.

"G-Get ready to burn, shithead!" Cyborg hissed.

"_Not today!"_ and Hagan seeped in through the cracks of Cyborg's titanium chest.

Cyborg gasped and pressed the switch on his sternum again….starting the sparks ahead of time.

_**ZZZZZzzzzz-ZZZzzzt!**_

"_Nnnnngh-Aaaaah!"_ Clayface's voice screamed from inside Cyborg's exoskeleton.

The android Titan fell halfway to his knees. Shuddering all over. Leaking and flashing blue sparks. "Come on….."

He felt the muddy fiend surging towards his front.

"Yes….."

Towards his upper body….

"That's it……"

Into his left arm to avoid the blue sparks—

"Gotcha!"

_**CL-CLAK!**_

The arm turned into a sonic cannon.

_**CLAKKA!**_

….A sonic cannon that flickered between blue and brown as Clayface shifted helplessly within the translucent, metal frequency chamber.

"_Snkkkt—Hey! HEY! Let me out………Nnnghaah—Let me out!"_

Cyborg hobbled up to his feet.

"………."

He looked around. Panting.

"…….!" He spotted the cylindrical core. "……." He frowned.

_Stomp-Stomp-Stomp-Stomp!_

Cyborg marched over towards the core.

He reached a right hand out and—

_CREEEAK!_

_**PHOOOOOMB!**_

--opened the burning energy core to the rest of the laboratory.

An unbearable heat seared into the claustrophobic basement.

Cyborg stared directly into the dancing plasma within the center of the core.

Seething.

With a dry gulp, he murmured: "You want a final curtain to remember, Hagan?"

"_N-No……"_

_**CL-CLAK!**_

Cyborg aimed his left sonic cannon straight into the plasma core.

"_N-NO!"_

"**ENJOY A ONE WAY TICKET TO HELL!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**

_**ZAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAP**__**!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

The blue sonic waves erupted and shot straight into the core….carrying with it the ribbon-spiraling brownness of Matt Hagan.

"_No-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!.!.!.!.!.!.!"_

The muddy mass of Clayface shot into the plasma…..dissolved into a brown mist….and sent a rupture of flame that shot circling back up the sonic stream and exploding into Cyborg's cannon.

_**POWWWW**__**!.!.!.!**_

Cyborg's left arm exploded from the fatal punishment.

"DAAAH!" Cyborg fell back under a spray of ashes and shrapnel.

_**PHOOOOOOOOOMBBBB!.!.!.!**_

Green flame erupted from the mouth of the cylindrical energy core.

The overhead lights of the laboratory flickered.

A putrid smell of burning wet earth filled the room…faded….and turned to sterile death.

The fire ate its way back into the core….leaving a halo of scattered ash and hot metal lying-strewn across the floor.

"………….," Cyborg panted…panted….panted….from where he knelt.

He swallowed….stood up….clutched the stub of his left metal arm…..

…and turned coldly about to face the computer consoles.

"…………………_," _Simon Stone's hologram stared. Unemotional.

"……………….," Cyborg glared.

Silence…..

A flickering….

The popping of mud and metal embers in the background….

"It's over, old man…….," Cyborg hissed. His human eye glared. "It's **been** over……"

Simon Stone nodded. "Yes, Victor. That has never been said anymore…..truly."

Then the hologram's figure flickered wildly.

A bright flash filled the room.

Cyborg gasped.

He looked towards the walls—

_WHURRRR-CHTUNG! _

_WHURRRRRRR-CHTUNG!_

A pair of electrical cannons appeared in four places and—

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZTTTT!**_

_**  
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT! **_

_**ZZTTTTTTTTTT-ZZZZT!**_

_**  
ZZZZZZZTT-ZZZZZZTT!**_

Huge bolts of thunderously brilliant electricity screamed into Cyborg all at once.

"_**AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!.!.!"**_ the android Titan fell torturously to his knees and screamed…pulsing and jolting with blue death all over. _**"AAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-H-H-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGGGH!.!.!.!"**_ Tears of pain squeezed out from his human eye….only to sizzle into burning steam from the blue punishment.

"……………_,"_ Simon Stone stared. And—if even for a moment—his holographic face was long.

As he watched his nephew cook.

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!.!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Back at the Crunch…

The fire and smoke from the HIND's collision with the twelve-story monster was already clearing.

The golems were again on the rise…

The Wildebeests gathered, amassed, and marched to face off yet again with the relentless terrorism.

Calvin's forces fought obscurity and confusion to re-gather their numbers and regroup behind the artillery.

And the Justice League….

They were everywhere…..

Batman and Supergirl were sprawled against a corner of rubble. The Dark Knight protectively covered the Girl of Steel with his cape until the dust settled. He stood up, pulling out a batarang and a grappling hook for any occasion.

Supergirl coughed….sputtered…..and squinted over the ash-laden landscape with tearing eyes. She gasped at one particular sight, stood up, and exclaimed: "Clark!" _FWOOOSH!_ The Argosian blonde darted across the street and touched down besides a crater where a bruised Wonder Woman and Superman lay strewn.

"S-Superman….._Clark!_" Kara raised his upper body.

He coughed and clenched his teeth. "Guess I-I should have…..w-worked out for this evening….ahead of t-time…."

"Are you okay?"

"I feel like I've been hammered with a comet of Kryptonite…," Superman rubbed his aching head and gazed weakly to the side. "D-Diana….is she--?"

"She's all right…," Batman helped the Amazonian up. "In a lot better condition than you are in."

Kara panted. She swallowed and said: "Wh-Who was that in the HIND?"

"We've got bigger issues to worry about…," Superman coughed. "Th-The satellite…."

Batman's eyeslits narrowed. "What satellite?"

Wonder Woman rubbed her temples and muttered: "Dagger's gotten control of Lex Luthor's ion cannon in the sky. He's preparing to blast the heart of this City any minute now."

Batman tightened his gloved fists. "A blast like that could annihilate this entire metropolitan area! And all of the evacuees are still underground!"

"What's this I'm hearing?" John Stewart muttered as he and Black Canary limped to the scene. The battle raged on throughout the Crunch in the background. "An ion cannon?"

"Dagger's having the ultimate drop on us," Superman leaned against Supergirl's support. "And if we don't do something about it—"

"The question is **can** we do something about it?" Green Arrow said as he dropped down from a nearby building ledge. "I think a good number of us badass fliers are down for the count!"

"My ring's out of power….," Stewart panted. "It'll take the better part of an hour or two to meditate and pull some last juice out of it. But without my lantern, I'm screwed."

"I….I-I think I can take care of the cannon…," Superman panted. "J-Just….give me t-time…."

"We can't afford to 'think' about 'taking care' of things," Batman grumbled.

"And we don't **have time**," Black Canary added.

Stewart looked at Batman. "Screw Luthor's armada. What about _your_ galactic goods?"

Batman shook his head. "The earliest my tech could intervene is not early enough."

"Damn……where's a frickin' Javelin when you need it?"

_**FW-FW-FW-FWOOOSH!**_ Flash streaked up and set down a battered-suited Henry Irons. "Is anyone else freaked out by the royal beating we're all taking?"

"There has to be some way we can take out that satellite…," Black Canary murmured.

"_There is."_ **FL-FLASH!** Martian Manhunter appeared. Behind him, Catwoman dropped down from a buildingtop. J'onn spoke: "There is still someone amongst us who can tackle the cosmic obstacle. Supergirl? I believe your talents shall prove necessary."

Kara gasped….eyes wide.

Superman's wasted jaw dropped. "No! No way! She can't possibly—"

"She has the same type of powers as you, Kal-El," Wonder Woman gestured. "She can withstand deep space."

"But neither one of us can breathe!"

"I don't see why you'd have to," Batman droned. "All that's needed to be done is to take down that satellite. And with super speed—"

"I-I'll do it…," Superman struggled to stand up. "G-Give me just…nnngh…"

"Clark….," Supergirl touched his shoulders.

He slumped back and panted….gazing at her. Burnt and bruised. "I won't have you doing that, Kara. I-I won't have you nearly breaking your skull in." He gulped. He shuddered: "N-Not again…."

"……," Supergirl gently set him down, smiled calmly, and stood up. "I don't think this is really in your hands anymore, Superman."

"……..," the Man of Steel stared.

"We're running out of options," Stewart said.

"Someone just _**do something**_ already!" Flash cackled.

"Each and every one of you will be leaving this battlefield a hero….So I'll take on the satellite….and I'll _be_ successful." Supergirl said. It was more to Superman than to anyone else as she added with a whisper: "Besides, I-I want to be able to feel like a hero too." She bit her lip. _"I need to……"_

There was a shared vision between her and Superman.

The Man of Steel took a deep breath. "Come back, Kara….for Ma and Pa….."

Kara winked a blue eye and snapped a finger at Superman. "I'll come back for a t.v. dinner if I can help it."

"Time's ticking," Batman said. "Supergirl. Go now or don't go at all!"

"I need to know where the satellite cannon is."

J'onn stepped forward, eyes glowing. "I can guide you there. I have the coordinates engraved within my mindscape. If we link up, I can guide you to where you need to eradicate the orbital threat."

"Sounds good to me, Greenie."

Wonder Woman spoke: "It isn't pleasant soaring through deep space."

Stewart hobbled over. "And we don't have any gas masks on us."

Supergirl tightened her fists. "I'll _hold my breath."_

_**FWOOOOOOO-OOOOOOSSSH!**_ In a tornadic gust, she flew straight skyward….piercing through the crimson clouds and the cold December redness.

The Justice League shielded themselves from the wind and debris.

They all gazed upwards.

Most intent in his gaze was Superman. He leaned on Batman's shoulder as he weakly gazed towards the heavens.

Taking deep….uncertain breaths.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop his lonely skyscraper….

Dagger toyed with the remote datapad.

He tweaked at the controls of the distant satellite.

Wincing….sweating…..struggling through walls of pain and blood loss from his left limb, he typed and tapped with his one set of fingers and instructed the targeting of the cannon to center itself upon the core districts of the City.

Charging up….

Focusing intently on the red and gold quagmire.

"…………"

Dagger took a painful…..literally sharp breath.

"……..th-there is no death……nngh….th-there is only……..r-redistribution………_of power……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Shut that thing off! Do you hear me!" a panicky, enraged Lex Luthor shouted into the comlink of his office desk. "Shut that god damn thing off!"

'_Snkkkt! Our best people are on it, sir! We'll have that thing deactivated within a moment's notice—'_

"Don't lie to me! I'm the best liar there is in this pathetic country!" Luthor shouted so angrily, the vessels showed in his neck joints. "If any of your solutions aren't working, I'll have that fresh new 'crater' of Dagger's over your heads! LITERALLY!"

'_Understood, sir! We'll report soon! Snkkt!'_

"Nnnngh!" Luthor stomped around his desk. Seething. Pulling at nonexistent hair. His tie and suit and face a mess.

He punched the window hard, leaned against it, and panted…..

"……"

His fist clenched.

He spun—frowning—and glared into the nothingness suddenly incorporating the distant half of his office.

"What are you _waiting for_, Superman? I know you and your doglike 'League' are there in that City! You think my humiliation is worth more than the social infrastructure of this country?" He kicked a chair over. _**SLAM!**_ "Do something already! For the both of us, damn it!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

Supergirl soared up into the darkness.

As the red gave way to obsidian.

And the stars began twinkling and shining clearer.

Supergirl took deep breaths.

Her platinum hair blowing in the breeze.

Her gloved hands stretched alongside her ribs.

Her body aimed like a bullet….heavenward.

'_Kara. There is no telling when exactly the ion cannon will fire. But the initiation of the device took place several minutes ago. It is possible that the weapon will be igniting upon your arrival.'_

Supergirl clenched her jaw.

Her eyes narrowed.

"_Then I'll have to ignite faster, Martian Manhunter."_

'_Your enthusiasm is well-received. But concentration is your greatest ally.'_

"_Besides you. Just point me in the right direction."_

'_Follow your instincts, Kara. They shall guide you to the satellite. I am seeing to it.'_

She closed her eyes…..inhaling…..flying upwards….

"_I hear you, J'onn."_

A beat.

Her sapphire eyes reopened.

Her lips pursed….

"_Jordan……I'm about to become like you……__**again**__……"_

'_Kara?'_

"_Nothing, J'onn. Let's do this thing………"_

_**FWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Supergirl ascended, ascended, ascended…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra ascended, ascended, ascended….

Panting, the earth maiden flicked her wrists and summoned shards of concrete and granite to lift up and hover in front of her path.

She then proceeded to leap, hop-scotch, and vault her way from one floating stone to another……rising her sprinting form towards Kobayashi Tower.

The highest spot in the City.

The Crunch burned on in the background below and beneath her.

The golems and Wildebeests and terrorists and soldiers fighting….

The League heroes in between…..

Terra took deep, gasping breaths…..and grunted as she leapt from levitating stone to stone. Soon she was glowing bright pulses of gold in her eyes as she summoned the same four or five stones to cycle in front of her and create a perpetual set of levitating stairs towards her lofty goal.

Up….up….up the height of Kobayashi Tower.

And not once did she falter in her speedy burst.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling was running through the streets.

Morphing every now and then into a cheetah, a horse, a buffalo…

Swiftly leaping and dodging wayward golem bodies and charging Wildebeests in elf mode.

He panted…swung his limbs…and ran…ran…ran….ran….

Northward….through the Crunch….

His eyes….

Eyes locked on _**her**_…..

"T-Terra!" he panted….shouted: _"TERRA!"_

A writhing pair of golems blocked his path.

"Nnnngh!" he grunted fiercely, slammed a pair of splicing gorilla arms into the creeps, and plowed his way through back in elf form. Panting. Nearly limping at superhuman speed. Anything he could do to hurry himself along. Dashing through destruction. Over bloodied corpses. The shells of demolished tanks, demolished hummers, demolished bodies…

"Terrrrra!"

His eyes wide. His mouth hung open and panting…

He tore a straight path towards the bottom of Kobayashi Tower.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra reached the structure of the Tower itself.

She grunted….flexed her limbs strongly…and leapt straight up.

"Nnnngh-yaaah!"

_THWOOOOOSH!_ Her thermalkinesis summoned the four or five stones levitating alongside her to merge into one huge platform and solidify underneath her feat.

_Pl-Plant!_

A breath…….

_**FWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Terra levitated directly upward.

Her golden hair billowing.

Her arms twitching…shivering in the cold red air.

She soared…soared….soared above the globe of crimson and gold.

The Crunch and the fissures echoing forth from it.

The Battle…the War….the spectacle of Life.

With a deep breath, the earth maiden ascended.

And reached the summit.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several stories below.

A breathless Changeling perched on the fourth floor of the Tower.

His shirtless figure bravely shivered in the descending cold…..

The slashes and bruises across his chest and back open to the night…..

The claw marks of Killer Croc on his sternum…..

The gash over where his left ear used to be…..

He panted…..staring with wide, moist eyes.

"Terra…..," he whispered. "What in god's name are you doing…..?"

He gulped.

He spliced his arms into that of a giant sloth….

_CL-CLANK!_

And climbed….

_CLANK!_

….and climbed….

_CLANK!_

….and climbed.

His eyes fixed on the golden figure shimmering…soaring straight above him.

At the top of Kobayashi.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Supergirl soared into the endless black.

It wasn't until after the sudden, indefinable cold and silence struck her….

But suddenly, her eyes bulged.

Her mouth opened in a soundless shriek…

And she toppled back.

Plummeting towards the Earth.

…..she suddenly realized what it truly meant to be in a world without oxygen.

'_Kara? Kara!'_

"_Nnnngh!"_

She toppled…..falling…..twirling….

'_Kara! Concentrate! The satellite is just ahead!'_

Supergirl toppled back towards where the scant remaining traces of oxygen were.

She levitated upright….panted….and gulped.

"_S-Sorry, J'onn. Strike One is over. I promise."_

'_Do you need to prepare yourself, Kara—?'_

"_J'onn, there's no time. It's now or never."_

'_Indeed.'_

Supergirl took a long, large, gasping, lung-full breath.

"………."

Her body tightened.

Her brow furrowed.

A concentrated sneer hardened across her lips.

"_Okay………Supergirl smash….."_

_**FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Supergirl soared blindingly fast towards the destination.

Following the streams of Martian Manhunter's consciousness.

Squinting her eyes against the frigid vacuum of space.

Surviving on two things alone.

Her super-powers….

And her breath……

"………………"

_**FWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

Supergirl pierced through the atmosphere of the Earth……

………

…..and soared like a reverse comet straight toward the black spindle that was the Ion Cannon.

Right as the 'mouth' of the cannon began to spread open….

….and cast a bright green beam of focus coldly through Supergirl and towards the Continent below.

Straining with her one lung-ful of oxygen, the Girl of Steel hurled herself towards the target.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Crunch…

In the Main Street of the City where the Wildebeests and golems went toe to toe….

Random clumps of debris and shrapnel started to rise.

Magically.

Levitating inches from the ground.

Reflecting a dim…but ever brighter aura of sickly cold green….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Where Tempest leapt ashore onto dry land….

He shook his black locks loose….

Then froze…..

He glanced back, and saw every drop that scattered off his body, hair, and limbs….rise up.

Floating drops.

Warbling tips of waves and spray…

Hovering towards an increasingly green heaven.

And he gasped….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Bayside Plaza….

Where the doctors and nurses were patching up Raven…

They couldn't help but stop and mumble in fear and apprehension.

The surgical tools they had just been using started to rise from trays.

Various wires and medical equipment started levitating skyward.

The strands of Raven's silken blue hair rose, as did the center of her bandaged body.

"Nnnnngh….."

_**FLASSSSH!**_

A huge, continental spotlight of green pierced through the cold red night and splashed icily over the Plaza and City.

Eliciting more than a fair share of surprised cries and gasps.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Dagger twitched.

The green glow stabbed the corners of his thin eyes.

He leaned bloodily against the stairwell behind him.

Panting.

The bright white vial/syringe in his pocket rattled and started to rise skyward…along with globs of blood from his left stub and ends of his hair.

He panted…..gulped….and whispered:

"It's not the sky….it's not the earth….but it's **us** who will 'bleed'….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FLASSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

The very same spotlight of green soared down and illuminated the cracked bridge halves that Robin and I were hanging precariously from.

I held onto the loose steel girder with my fake black arm.

I struggled to claw my way up.

Stabbing with Myrkblade….

Reaching with my synthetic limb…..

Ultimately slipping…grunting….and dangling by one precarious grasp.

Feet dancing in the cold red air above the multiple stories of death yawning below me.

Across from me—on the right half of the shattered skyscraper bridge—Robin was having as much (or little) progress. He groaned and twirled his lower body around till he more-or-less spider-climbed his way up the cracking, groaning cobweb of metal he was clinging to.

The both of us struggled…fought…..winced…..and wrestled to ascend up to a firmer ground.

And in so doing, we both horrendously overlooked—

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt……"**_

As if in simultaneous cadence, Robin and I gasped.

We glanced above…

Red Aviary stood on Robin's half of the bridge…and yet he positioned himself so that he faced the West side—my side—with his red-draping sword.

Crimson vapors billowed out of his cowl slits as he casually leaned on his red blade before his straight legs like a man and his golf driver. _**"Snkkkkt—clikkk……I'm thinkinggg….Robin……that your friendssss are stillll too much of a distractionnnn for you….."**_

"…….," Robin stared. Wide-eyed. Panting.

_**TH-THWISSSH!**_ Red Aviary twirled his blade till is rested above him in a billowing spectacle of red splashes. _**"SNkkkt…..clearrrrr your mind, Robin…,"**_ Deathstroke sneered. _**"…..so that I may clearrrr out that shell you call a body……and a HEARRRT!SNKKKTT!"**_

_**TH-TH-TH-THWOOOSH-**__**CLANKKKK!**_

The blade sang down and slammed mercilessly into the left side of the bridge beneath Red Aviary….

….and from which I was hanging….

_**CRKKKKKK-KKKKKKK!**_

Rivers and waves of Destruction swam down the dangling structure.

I gasped, bit my lip, and hung on desperately.

But the metal structure wobbled.

The bulk of the bridge itself shook and cracked and shook violently.

My grip loosened.

I hissed mutely…..wincing all over…..leaking vapors of black under the cascading splashes of red….

"Hang on!" Robin shouted from the East side. Coaching. Panting. "Hang on! Don't lose your—"

"_**HRCKKKKK!"**_

Deathstroke struck again.

_**CRAAACK!**_

_**FWOOOOSSH!**_

The wave of Destruction swam down the structure and—

_**FLASSH! **_

_**CRAAAAAACKKK!**_

The entire left half of the bridge snapped free from the west skyscraper.

And I….it….._we_….fell.

_**SCRKKKKKKK-FWOOOOOOOSH!**_

Groaning, collapsing, crashing, plummeting down the length of the buildings.

Swallowed in dust and the green haze of the heavenly spotlight.

"NOIR!.!.!.!.!.!" Robin shouted. Face a sheen—

"_**HCkkkkk!"**_

The Boy Wonder looked up. Panting.

Red Aviary was perched over him now.

"_**SNkkt---Save your bird criesssss, Tim…….time forrrrr me to rip yourrrr HEARTTT-SNKKKT-OUTTTT!"**_

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

In a swish-slash of his sword, Red Aviary blurred down at Robin.

The Boy Wonder gritted his teeth, let go of his grip, and kicked off the bridge.

_FWOOOSH!_ Robin soared downwards.

_**SLASSSSH! **_Deathstroke's sword slash ate through pure air where Robin would had been previously flailing.

"Nnnngh!" Robin fanned his cape out, fought the currents of green air, slowed his descent some, drifted 'up' towards the sailing Deathstroke, and pinned his ankles around Red Aviary's neck.

_TH-THWAP!_

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_ Red Aviary struggled, his cowl and head wriggling in the Boy Wonder's legged grasp.

Robin twirled and yanked Deathstroke's flailing body earthward.

"_**HRAAAUCHKT!"**_ Deathstroke swung his blade at the plummeting Titan.

"Yaaugh!" Robin twirled in mid-air, 'flew' into Red Aviary, and elbowed him harshly.

_WH-WHAP!_

Deathstroke grabbed Robin by the collar, twirled his sword—and as they both spiraled upside down—jabbed the red fountaining blade at the Boy Wonder's chest.

Robin kicked his legs up, 'sat' on the length of the sword, vaulted off, wrapped around Red Aviary's body, and straddled him from behind….slamming his fists and elbows repeatedly into the Reaper's back.

_**THWAP! WHAM! WH-WHACK! SLAPP!**_

"_**HRAAA-AACHKKKT! Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-CLIKKKSNKKKT!"**_

In such hectic fashion, the two adversaries fought and wrestled and grappled in mid-air as they fell the long, blurring length of the Eastern Skyscraper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the meantime, I was falling with my entanglement of hurtling…..careening metal webbing.

The huge, hulking bridge piece screamed through the air…taking me with it.

I gritted my teeth, twirled Myrkblade, pulsed billowing murk through my plummeting figure, and slashed 'up' (or what I perceived to be 'up' at the time) into the body of the falling bridge.

_**SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE!.!.!.!**_

I ate through the metal and mortar, plowed through the bridge's interior itself, twirled out the cracked mouth, and emerged on the top.

I kicked off the metal body of the bridge's roof……only to realize that it was actually the bridge's _belly_**. **

…and now I was sailing towards the hard streets below with the body of the bridge following _above_ me.

I panted.

I twirled.

I gazed…gazed…gazed….

Found the silver-blurring mess of the western skyscraper itself.

Gritted my murk…

_**FL-FLASSH!**_

…glided left into the blurring windows and building face.

Twirled.

Shot my legs toward it.

Covered them with murk.

Slid them against the burning-hot-blur of the passing building face.

_**SCRAAAAA-AAAAA-AAAAAAPE!**_

Looked up, sweating.

Spotted the body of the falling chunk of bridge metal towards my friction-slowed form.

Grunted mutely…

_TH-THWOMP!_

….and kicked off the blurring building face of glass and steel.

_THWOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSH!_

I shot out like a black bullet.

Away from the hurtling metal.

Away from the skyscraper.

Across the City…

Falling.

Flying.

Descending.

Gliding…..

And……

"……," I shot my neck up and looked directly towards where my missile-body was rocketing.

_THWOOOOOOOOOOOSH—_The windows of a twenty-story building.

I bit my teeth and tensed—

_**SHATTTTERRRRR!**_

I slammed through the glass in a pulse of murk, glided across a checkerboard-tiled hallway, slid-slid-slid, and burst through a dull set of windows on the other side.

_**SHATTT-TTTERRRR!**_

I winced, flailed, and came to a murking, cratering grind across a roof of gravel.

_**SCRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_

I came to a stop.

Smoking.

Trailing black wisps….

Then….

Solidified as a bruised, hyperventilating body.

"……………."

………………………'_ugh'._

I remained there…..collapsed atop the building……

Catching my pained breath….

As the green light pulsing everywhere from above…--

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

--…pierced the flailing figures of Deathstroke and Robin.

_**THWAP! WHAP! SMACK! WHAM!**_

The two wrestled, grappled, fought, and heavily contacted each other as they plummeted through the cold, deathly air.

As a steady number of buildingtops rose sharply around them, it became more than apparent that the end—and the earth—was drawing near.

So Robin growled---"Yaaaaugh!"---and kicked heavily off of Deathstroke—_WHUMP!_—vaulted out into the open air, whipped out a grappling hook, and fired high.

_**POW!**_

_**CHIIIIIIIIING!**_ Red Aviary's blade kissed lengthily the green and crimson air.

Robin hissed—_**CLANK!**_—pulled taut on the cord….and swung----

_**SLIIIIIICE!**_

Robin lifted his legs, barely avoiding the serrated kiss of Deathstroke's blade. He arced around in a wide swing from some unknown location where his grappling hook stuck—

_**GRIP!**_ Deathstroke grabbed ahold of his boot.

"Nnnnngh!" Robin lurched down on his cable's length. Panting….straining…

"_**HCKKKK-KKKKK!"**_ Deathstroke gripped tighter, twirling his sword to stab up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder screamed and shot his over leg down.

_**WHAM!**_

Again.

_**WHAM!**_

And again.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

_**WHAP!**_

"_**HRAAAUCHKTT!"**_ Deathstroke was kicked loose and—_**SLAMMM!**_—plowed into a billboard atop a commercial building.

Suddenly weightless, Robin swung…twirled….spun…and angled himself out in a heavy upswing that brought him towards---

"……!.!.!" Robin gasped.

---a tall radio antenna above a ten-story skyscraper.

_**WH-WHAP!**_

Robin slammed through the cobweb of metal cross-beams, lost grip of his grappling hook cord, and fell—pinballing down the length of the antenna's mesh.

_THWOOOOOSH-__**WH-WH-WH-WHAP!**_

Robin grunted, exhaled, spat blood, and—

_**WHAM!**_

Landed bruised and leaking red on the rooftop tar just beneath the tall, red antenna.

"…………nnn-nnngh….," he moaned and winced….

Too weak and battered to stand up.

His breath thin and raspy under the converging sky of _red_ and _green_.

"………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Starfire lay dormant….still atop the lofty rooftop of Wayne Enterprises.

Her bruised and bleeding form gently unconscious.

Her red hair fluttering in the breeze.

Cold air descended upon her….filtered by the cold shimmer of unnatural green.

Her amber skin formed goosebumps suddenly…as if eerily brought to life.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He shuddered all over.

The cold, December night blowing at his spiked strands of black hair.

Robin stirred under the large, four-legged antenna….but fell dizzy.

His eyemask thin.

His breaths more and more ragged.

Limbs that carried him screaming into and through the City now lay limp.

Robin faded….faded….faded….

"………….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………."

Starfire stirred.

She moaned.

She turned over.

Pained eyes remained closed to the shimmering sky.

The green spirit enticed her…

Coldly forced her lips to mumble.

Whispers….hoarse exhales….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………_..Koriand'r….."_

Robin gasped for breath.

He shot up.

Panting…..

Panting………

"…………….."

He groaned.

He winced.

One leg…..two legs….

He sat up.

Shuffling.

Limping.

Hunched over and hyperventilating.

His skin and eyemask subconsciously absorbing the clashing gold, red, and green of the hellish battle surging all around him.

The flames of distant buildingtops.

The burning monsters stampeding for a last stand.

The League and the Army booming….screaming…

"_Koriand'r………,"_ his lips moved with or without the Boy Wonder recognizing them. _"……I-I still haven't called you by your real name………"_ He gulped. A murmur. Half sobbing. Half snarling. _"I……st-still need to buy you……fl-flowers………"_

……….

……….

……………….._**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkktt…."**_

Robin tensed.

His muscles tightening.

His jaw drew tight.

As vapors escaped his turned around….

And faced about….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

……….

……….

……….

…………_you still with me, Ana?_

……….

……….

……….

…………_good, then I'm still alive……_

I groaned mutely.

I pushed myself up into a standing position.

I leaned on Myrkblade.

Panting.

My black threads an untangled mess.

The black arm that Batman gave me twitching….shooting sparks.

_But no shiver._

I limped towards the edge of the rooftop.

I looked around.

Shuddering.

_Where did they go, Ana?_

I scanned the burning horizon with my black eyes.

More or less ignoring the oddly-sickening glow of green that filtered through the place.

_Where did Red Aviary and Robin go?_

Try as I might with my black eyes….I couldn't see worth crap.

Yes, I saw the splotches of oblivion. The mangled heaps of battle in the streets below. The blinding flames of buildings burning from golem comets and HIND fire in the distance.

But nothing to indicate the fate of my leader and the Reaper himself.

I swallowed….

Panted….

And turned about.

_What could I possibly do now?_

And then…..

I froze.

For I saw someone else.

Someone else entirely.

"………."

And everything inside my obsidian self boiled.

And simmered.

And hissed……

My teeth grit.

_CHIIIIIIIIIING!_

I slowly pulled Myrkblade out…..

Gripping the hilt so tightly I swore my blood vessels inside my hand would burst.

_Him. _

_HIM._

I seethed.

Black trails of smoke swam down from my black eyes…trailing across the scar on my cheek…the 'X' on my throat.

_It all comes to a head now. _

_HIS head._

I ran.

I blurred.

I leapt over the buildingside.

_**FW-FW-FWOOOOOOSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZTTTT! **_

_**ZZZZZZTTT-ZZZZZTTTTT!**_

"_**AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAUGHHH!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

Cyborg screamed at the top of his mechanical lungs.

Twitching….jolting….

Tearing.

_**ZZZZZZZZZTTT! **_

_**ZZZZZTTT-ZZZZZZZTTTTT!**_

"_**AAAAAAA-HAAAAAAAA-HAAAAAAUGGGGH!.!.!.!"**_

"…………………_,"_ Simon Stone watched silently. His holographic arms folded behind his back. His gaze inhuman. Cold.

_**ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTT!**_

_**WHURRRR-CL-CLANK!**_

The electrocuting cannons suddenly cut off their charges and retracted some.

Cyborg fell to his knees in a smoking….hyperventilating heap.

_SSSSSSSssssssss!_ Steam howled from his joints.

His robot eye flickered in and out of livelihood.

Vapor came out of his lips in between coughing up oil and mud.

"P-Please…..U-Uncle S-S-Simon…..," Cyborg panted. Tensing. Quivering all over. "N-No more…..p-please….."

"_I am very much capable of having compassion on you, my boy….,"_ Simon Stone electronically uttered. _"……unfortunately, I am not capable of living up to such feelings."_

"I thought…..I-I believed….," Cyborg winced. Wincing all over. "…..th-that Anderson hadn't completely consumed you…..th-that there was a piece of you…..th-that I could still connect to……th-the last shred of my old f-f-family!"

"_I wish that was so, Victor,"_ Stone murmured. Flickering. _"I did the very best I could for the Titans while under Dagger's control. Delaying the extraction of Terra's essence from stone. Helping you rescue your beloved Raven and friends from the land of darkness. Installing Noir with a mechanical arm that would clue him into Red Aviary's presence. But no half-attempts can ever make a whole. Our relationship……our family……is an incomplete circle. Nothing ever remained true……for that circle was never made complete. It spun around its tail but never found a solid grip. Now………we must both suffer for it."_

"Are y-you….c-capable of suffering….old m-man….?" Cyborg hissed.

"_Why do you ask, Victor? So you can seek revenge on me? You know as much as I do that I cannot allow that……for Dagger's sake."_

Cyborg bit his lip and struggled to say: "Without a circle….there is no _circulation_. No flow." He looked up…frowning and wincing at the same time. His human cheeks wet. "Maybe I should _make_ that circle tonight, Simon. Make it so that I can _break it in your inhuman face!"_

"_And even if you did that, would it really take back the pain that Clayface and I exhibited on your girlfriend?"_

"……….," Cyborg stared. Jaw dropping….

"_It matters little what is done……or what is not done. Broken or whole……everything in this City soon will be ruins."_

"Wh-What do you mean, old man?"

"_Dagger has hijacked Lex Luthor's ion cannon. What obliterated Area 51 shall soon obliterate us. __**All**__ of us……"_

Cyborg gasped. Wide-eyed. "No….." The first thing out of his lips. "R-Raven….."

_WHURRR!_

_  
WHURRRR-CHTUNK!_

The electricity turrets once again aimed at the kneeling, panting android.

Cyborg flinched….freezing….

"_It is over,"_ Simon said_. "The line's ended….just as it began. In tragedy._" And for once, his holographic eyes flickered a trace of sadness. _"Victor, my boy, the family that's born together must die together."_

The turrets began to glow: _Vriiiiii!_

Cyborg winced.

Expecting.

Simon took a digital breath. Blinked. And—

_**SP-SPARK! **_

_**SPARKKKK! **_

_**CRAAACK!**_

The turrets popped.

One by one.

Simon Stone's eyes widened. Flickering. _"Wh-What?"_

Cyborg gasped.

Looking all around.

The computer consoles…the lab equipment…..the whole array of Phaser Labs' tech started to spark and short-circuit.

Simon Stone flinched and 'looked' all around. _"D-Dagger! Is that you? What are you—?"_

_**ZZZZZTT!**_

A blue bolt shimmered through the hologram.

He flickered….pulsed…let loose an electronic shout….and was gone.

_**FL-FLASSSH!**_

Sizzling….

"…………..," Cyborg blinked.

Silence…..

Random sparking….

Cyborg winced.

He gradually stood up.

Shaking.

Wobbling.

He marched numbly across the basement domain.

Up to the computer console.

He panted…..graced the sparking computer screens.

And thinned his human eye.

"What in the blue-Hell?"

_FL-FLASH!_

The computer screens went black.

A green-on-black DOS prompt.

"………..?" Cyborg stared.

A string of text appeared: _'HELLO MISTER STONE. THE GOOD STONE.'_

"……….what in the—?"

'_I AM OVERLOADING THE POWER CORES OF PHASER LABS TO REBOOT THE DAMAGE DAGGER AND SIMON HAVE DONE.'_

"………….."

'_THAT SHOULD ALSO NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE LINK FOX HAS MADE TO LEX LUTHOR'S ION CANNON BY PIGGYBACKING THE FREQUENCY MODULATORS OF THIS LOCATION.'_

"No way……," Cyborg murmured. His eye narrowed suspiciously, and he slurred at the computer screen—half expecting a response. "Just who is this?"

'_ISOMER SPEAKING AND ACCOUNTED FOR.'_

Cyborg blinked. "'Isomer'?'

'_A GOOD FRIEND OF THE ORACLE. ALLOW MR. TIM DRAKE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT.'_

"………."

'_NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO GET YOU OUT OF THERE. I BELIEVE THE GOOD SAMARITAN WHO ALERTED ME TO YOUR PREDICAMENT SHALL BE OF SERVICE.'_

"Friend?" Cyborg cackled. "_What __**Samaritan?**__"_

_**ZAAAAT!.!.!**_

Cyborg jolted and glanced breathlessly aside.

"……….," the Messenger smiled in spite of himself. He was heavily bruised and scraped all over with Killer Croc claw marks. His hands were bandaged and stained red. Regardless, he leaned as casually as ever towards the android Titan and spoke: "Sorry I was out of it." He raised his wrist and displayed a brand new, clunky black watch. "Takes a lickin', but keeps on tickin'………in Union Regulation, you see…."

"M-Messenger? What the Hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "The only frickin' thing I'm good for…." He winked suavely and wrapped an arm around Cyborg's elbow. "Try not to throw up."

"Uhm….."

_**ZAAAAT!.!.!**_

The two vanished in a flash of green just as the consoles overloaded as 'Isomer' predicted and—

_**ZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZZZ-ZZZZZZZTTTT!**_

--filled the chambers of Phaser Labs with unbearably hot, searing bolts of murderous blue.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**ZAAAAT!.!.!.!**_

The two reappeared across the street from Phaser Labs on the surface.

Lieutenant Smith and a handful of armed officers and soldiers jumped, gasping.

"Cyborg!…….who's this kid?"

Cyborg dizzily stumbled before leaning against Smith's support. "A life-saver…."

"L-Look!"

Cyborg and Smith gazed at Phaser Labs.

The entire building pulsed and flashed with a burning aura of blue.

_**ZZZZZZZZTT-ZZZZZZTTT!**_

Then….the fury stopped.

And the building lay still…cold…..

Steaming…..

Cyborg murmured: "…….finish the circle yourself, old man……"

"Huh?" Smith remarked.

Cyborg shook his head. "It's….nothing," he rubbed the human side of his head and sighed. "…..absolutely nothing."

"…………"

"Look….," one soldier pointed towards the green, spotlit sky. Pointing with her shaking hand. "It's growing brighter. Whatever it is…..it can't be good!"

"Oh….that….," the Messenger smiled drunkenly and waved a loose hand. His almond eyes thin. "Ehhh….it'll all be okay. Just relax…."

"Uhm…..how do you know that, exactly?"

"I'll get back to you in a sec." _THWOMP!_ The Messenger fainted.

"Dude!" Cyborg gasped and scurried over. "The asian kid's down!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOOOOOSSSSSH!**_

Supergirl soared….soared…..soared into the eye of the ion cannon.

The huge gun barrel opened and folded wide….like a blooming flower of black and green.

The bright emerald light flickered and shimmered the preluding spotlight to annihilation through the skirting figure of the Argosian.

_**VRIIIIIIIIIIII-IIIIIIIIII!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Supergirl held her breath.

Hurtling.

Rocketing into the mouth of the cosmic demon.

And then and there…..

…..the green light short-circuited.

The cannon lagged in its unfolding.

The solar wings of the satellite twitched and sparked as the whole craft seemed to jostle in space.

Supergirl's blue eyes twitched….she fought the urge to gasp….to lose her last ounce of strength in that cold vacuum.

'_Kara! Respond!'_

"_J'onn! What is happening? The satellite, it's—"_

'_It is faltering, I know! Someone, somewhere, has managed to dig into the digital defenses of the craft. She or he is buying us some time! This is all yours, Kara! Destroy that machine now! At all costs!'_

Supergirl tightened her soaring body, raised both fists, and burned through the iciness of space as she plummeted into the flickering mouth of the cannon.

"_Today………Kara dies………"_

Her eyes burned a bright amber-red.

"………_and Supergirl is reborn……"_

She managed a smile as an impromptu thought flew happily into her suffocated soul.

"………_Supergirl…………a __**Titan**__……"_

_**SWOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOSH-**__**SMASSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

Supergirl's body burst through the length of the craft.

Shredding it apart hotly from the inside.

Exploding it in lengthy sequence like a twirling, orbiting fire wyrm.

_**KA-POWWWWWW!.!.!.!.!.!**_

The cannon pulsed, exploded in on itself, and sent a shockwave surging across the lengths of space.

_**PHWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOOM!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Lex Luthor bolted up in his office in Metropolis.

"………!.!.!"

He gasped.

His eyes twitched.

Partially in shock.

Partially in relief.

As all data information from his beloved ion cannon…..

……..ceased to exist.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the City.

The Crunch.

_**TWNNNG! **_

_**TWNNNNNG!**_

Green Arrow was firing arrows at golems.

A line of wildebeests stormed past Black Canary as she finished thrashing a hummer-full of thugs.

And suddenly…..like a lifting blanket….

The spotlight of glowing green faded from the red night sky.

The League members paused with a gasp and looked straight up towards the heavens.

Gasping.

Some smiling…

Under the echo of distant soldiers' cheers and whoops.

Wonder Woman managed a nervous smile. She gazed past a concentrated, eye-glowing Martian Manhunter and glanced at Batman and Superman.

The Dark Knight steadily supported the weight of the bruised and weakened Kryptonian.

The Man of Steel's eyes remained fixed on the heavens.

Panting…panting….panting…..Superman gulped and said a silent prayer….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_ZZZZT!_

The data pad in Dagger's one hand short-circuited.

The despot's eyes widened.

"What……What?.?.?" He suddenly seethed. Not so much in passion…as it was numbing shock. His weary, blood-lost eyes narrowed. He sweated all over and shook the data pad.

But the data from the satellite failed to string through.

Dagger panted.

Gulping a dry mouth.

"…..that is not possible…."

He gazed up.

Shaking.

Wobbling—even against the stairwell.

"Wayne Enterprises? The International Defense System? H.I.V.E? Dr. Fate?"

Silence.

Dagger reeled…..but the lack of functioning ion cannons wasn't the reason why.

But….suddenly something else.

A _crumbling……. _

A _burning sensation………_

A _pulsing aura of __**white**_ _shimmering throughout the war-torn City……_

Dagger panted…..panted…panted…

He hobbled towards the rooftop edge of the skyscraper he was on.

He approached the ledge.

He stared over.

His icy eyes narrowed.

As he watched…

As he witnessed…..

As he felt……

_Crumbling._

_  
Burning. _

_Pulsing……………_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Jinx was the second one to feel it.

She was standing up and hobbling down the sidewalks of the City.

Rubbing her head of short-haired pink.

Groaning cutely.

Her cat eyes thinly opened at the _sensation_.

And she saw ashes around her…..

Crumbled bits of golem parts….

Bursting into fiery embers—_FLASH!_—and puffing out of existence as soon as they started.

Jinx gasped.

Her hex-sensitive eyes flickered a strong pink.

Her lips quivered.

"It's…….her……"

…….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside of Phaser Labs….

Cyborg, Lieutenant Smith, and a thin crowd of soldiers and officers marched a sluggish convoy south towards the heat of battle.

Cyborg held an unconscious Messenger draped across his arms.

He gazed aside….scuffed, burnt, and bruised.

His lips pursed at the site of various golem bits on the streets and sidewalks burning brightly for half a second…then fading away into smoke and white mist.

Smith and his fellow officers gasped.

The soldiers murmured in mixed astonishment and curiosity.

Cyborg blinked….

In his arms, the Messenger slowly came to. His almond eyes thinly caught the white pulses of golem pieces in his peripheral vision.

"…….."

And the Asian teen smiled. A victorious….knowing smile……

And he closed his eyes again….exhaling….

Head tilted back to face the red sky….the universe….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the Crunch.

Soldiers, Wildebeests, artillerymen everywhere were firing at Dagger's thermalkinetic army.

General Calvin shouted from where he stood.

Pointing and hollering.

The army surged and surged and surged.

And suddenly…..

………………….stopped.

"…….."

"……."

"……."

Soldiers and League members and Wildebeests alike all froze and gawked.

For the golems were no longer fighting.

Were no longer struggling.

The rocky, burning monsters merely stood in place.

Numb.

Motionless.

Flickering….fluctuating…..

………………………_**.**_

And suddenly….

The golems twitched.

And the golems pulsed.

And the golems all flared a fiery pulse of white-hot-fire as one.

_**PHWOOOOOOMBBB!.!.!.!.!**_

Limbs flailed.

Crowns tilted back.

And they roared and rumbled all in one accord as if they all suddenly and inevitably expected this humongous, all-permeating rapture of flame.

_**CRKKKK-KKKK-KKKK! **_

_**CRKKKKKK! **_

_**CRKKKKK!**_

Glowing. _Glowing. GLOWING. __**GLO**__**WING!**_

_**FLAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAASSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

The allied combatants shielded their eyes.

The soldiers.

The artillerymen.

General Calvin and his subordinates.

The Wildebeests with their glinting crowns of silver.

Catwoman, perched on a lofty building ledge.

Black Canary and Green Arrow, side by side.

Henry Irons.

The Flash.

Wonder Woman…John Stewart.

Superman and Batman.

Only Martian Manhunter remained impervious….as if somehow expecting all of this.

Or taking everything in stride….

As the golems pulsed.

The golems burned.

The golems twitched and boiled……..and _**extinguished.**_

Everywhere.

_**FLASH! **_

_**FLASSSH! **_

_**FL-FLASSSSH!**_

_**CRRRRRRKKK-CRKKKKKKKKKKK!.!.!.!.!**_-----_**CRAAAAAAACK!**_

_**PHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

Gold, yellow, white ash flew up into the sky and turned into billowing, ivory-pale steam as the golems all puffed out as one and crumbled into worthless crags of rock.

Wildebeests cheered. Jumping up and down. Grunting and snorting war cries.

The soldiers raised their weapons and whooped and hollered.

A few stood up tall atop tanks, shouting and pumping their arms in the air.

The Flash gave in and let out a shout or two, as did Green Arrow and Black Canary.

General Calvin let loose an unbelieving—but relieved smile.

For all of the golems were gone in a blink.

And the scraggly, skeleton-thin companies of Dagger's vehicular terrorist stood suddenly alone…overwhelmed…..

And dead under the military gun.

_**BL-BLAM! **_

_**BLAM! **_

_**RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT! **_

_**P-POW!**_

_**POWWWW!**_

Dagger's army…..was defeated.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

And Dagger saw it.

Standing.

Panting.

Numb and bleeding atop the building ledge.

He stared out from the rooftop and saw the streets throbbing and pulsing all around him in a bright gold before suddenly fading to black as the rocky monsters magically, simultaneously extinguished.

The thermalkinetic punch in his fury had toppled as quickly as the ion cannon.

Dagger shuddered.

For he suddenly….hellishly knew why.

His icy eyes tilted up…..up…..up….

….and lingered coldly on the highest summit of the City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Kobayashi Tower.

Rising from the concrete-thick feet……

Up the steel and iron supports…..

Winding around the darkly-sleek body of glass and metal…..

Soaring up past the higher levels…

The ziggurat-like-progression of tiers hugging tighter and tighter to the building's center….

Higher and higher into the red vapors of the sky…

Towards the top of the steeping stalk…..

Rounding out the sleek and curved roof of cracked glass….

The white, ivory-pale satellite dishes…..

……

On top of the bleeding Earth, Terra stood.

Her arms outstretched.

Her face, her body, her skin and limbs stretched to the burning point.

With eyes of burning gold and white.

And teeth dancing with bolts of Construction power.

She spread her arms out towards her essences.

Her burning 'children' spread throughout the labyrinth of the City battle.

The shores…the metropolis…the Crunch.

And she put each and every one of them asleep.

With the outstretched wave of her hands…..

Surging with so much power, that tears ran hotly down her cheeks and sizzled to white steam at her jawline.

And she panted…panted…panted…

Throbbing with intense, White energy.

Silencing the madness….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Several stories below….

Perched against the steep, sloping glass of the obsidian Tower…

Changeling panted….

Bleeding and sweating in the cold, December wind.

From far below, he saw the burning gold body of Terra.

Like a hot-white statue against the redness of the tortured City's sky.

And in her flaming immensity….her goddesslike presence…..she looked and felt suddenly more real to the beast boy than ever before.

And the voice escaped his throat before he ever dared silence it. "Terra…….," Garfield gulped. A tear shedding loose. "You are so very…….alive……"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"…………….," Dagger stared. His jaw clenched shut.

He took a deep…knowing breath….

And murmured.

"So……she _is_ whole…….."

Silence.

The red night…..descending…

Chilling, finally…..in a sudden slice of peace.

The despot further whispered: "….Black Eyes. He stole her from stone."

………..

"Then the Trinity is half-way complete."

_Fwoooosh--_

"……..?"

_Fwooooosh!--_

Dagger turned.

He looked up towards the side—

_**FWOOOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!.!**_ I plummeted towards him from an adjacent builingtop.

Snarling mutely.

Myrkblade slicing through the air and aimed squarely at the despot's head.

_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!_

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

Dagger stepped back, whipped his one good hand into his jacket, pulled out a thick blade, twirled it, and—

_**CLANKKKKK!**_

_**SPLASSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

Black smoke fountained and splashed all around us.

Our exploding impact sent us sliding…sliding…..sliding towards the edge of the building top.

I leaned into him.

He leaned into me.

Myrkblade smoking against his expertly-flimsy blade.

Grinding sparks.

_**SWISSSSSSH!**_

I gnashed my teeth in his face.

_DIE!.!.!.!.!_

"Nnnnnng-RAAAAUGH!" He screamed and lifted us both up and off the rooftop as---

_THWOOSH-THWOOSH!_

--we toppled together as one over the edge of the skyscraper.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The terrorist gunmen of Dagger were fleeing.

Jumping into whatever hummer or jeep that they could and burning northward through the streets.

Screaming and shouting and cussing in horror…desperation….the adrenaline of flight.

And everywhere, Wildebeests stampeded after them.

Soldiers stood in phalanxes and fired waves of hot, burning lead.

Tanks rolled after and fired exploding shells.

The Flash, Steel, and Catwoman sped after the stragglers….

….putting painfully to sleep the last of Dagger's invasionary force.

Over asphalt stretches of crumbled and dead golem parts.

….

….

…

In the sidelines.

Sheltered behind rubble and cold debris….

Jericho came out of hiding.

He panted…panted…panted…

Eyeing the flight of the ill-fated Daggerites……

A little bruised and worn from his last-minute, incorporeal leap from the exploding HIND and its payload…..

He gazed all around at the dwindling chaos.

The rubble and debris and damage that loomed about…..

He took a shuddering breath.

His mute face long.

As if things remained horrifically unfinished.

"……."

So he glanced around with desperate, green eyes.

And he found a pistol in a dead terrorist's cold hands.

Jericho bit his lip.

He scurried over, pried the pistol loose, and awkwardly held it in trembling hands.

He gazed north….checked to see if any enemies could see him….

….and ran through the cold and echoingly-empty side streets.

Alone.

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_VRMMMMMM!_

"Come on! Floor it! Floor it!" a passenger panted in a Daggerite jeep. The first in a procession of fleeing terrorists.

"Shit! They're gaining on us, man!"

"Can't this thing go any faster!"

"Shut up! All of you! Shut up!" a panicky driver gripped tightly—coldly to the steering wheel. Solid straight hours of endless conflict—only to lose suddenly with the fall of the golems—drained the sanity out of each and every one of them. "We gotta make like the wind! We're gonna ditch these wheels at the North District….hike it through the woods…and meet up in Bludhaven…"

"Bludhaven?.!.?.!"

"It's the only frickin' way!"

"I'm not going there!" one passenger in the rear of the jeep hyperventilated. "This isn't what Dagger promised us! This isn't—"

_**SPLORCCH!**_

His head suddenly exploded.

The others—sprayed with red—shrieked.

"HOLY SHIT!"

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?.?.!.!"

The driver gasped…barely controlling his vehicle as his panicked grip made it swerve side to side. "What in God's name--?"

_**SP-SPLORCH!**__I _

Another passenger's skull exploded.

"AAAAAH!" A third man screamed….simply screamed. "AAAAAH! _AAAAAAAH!"_ He jumped madly out of the jeep.

"Hey! Get back here!" the driver panted. Hyperventilated. "DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THIS SHITHO—"

_**SPLORCCH!**_

His head exploded in turn…from bulletfire.

_SCREEEEECH!_ The jeep blindly swerved, toppled over, and slammed into a lamppost. _**CRUNCH! **__**POW!.!.!**_ It exploded.

Billowing flames.

Silence….

Then…..

_TH-THWISSH!_

Pulsade uncloaked in mid-leap from a building ledge above. She landed—now visible—in a crouch in the middle of the street.

She took aim with her barrel-smoking sniper rifle and squinted down the line of sight towards the next vehicle in the convoy of frantically escaping Daggerites on the northern trail.

"Bloody….Sunday….Drivers….," she hissed through clenched teeth and pulled at the trigger. "Everyone sit tight and **die**!"

_THIFFT! _

_PFIFFT! _

_TH-THIFFT!_

Sniper fire took out the heads of the passengers first.

One by one, their heads exploded.

The driver gasped and crouched low, pressing hard on the gas and zooming directly towards Pulsade like a missile.

The blonde assassin squinted her eye again, aimed, and—

_CLICK!_

"…………," her eyes widened.

_CLICK!-CLICK!-CLICK!_

_**VRMMMMMMM!**_

The jeep bore down on her.

"Nnnngh!" She tossed her sniper rifle sloppily away, reached back, unsheathed her shotgun, pumped it, and fired—_**BLAM!**_

_**CL-CLANK!**_ The shot sprayed off the hood of the incoming jeep.

Pulsade sneered. Jerk-pumped the shotgun in one arm, aimed with both, and—_**BLAM!**_

_**CLANK!**_ The grill of the jeep again absorbed the shot.

Pulsade marched boldly forward, jerk-pumped, and fired—_**BLAM!**_

_**CLANK! **__**VRMMMMMMMM-MMMM!**_ The headlights glared and illuminated her figure as the jeep hurtled into her.

"YOU AREN'T BLOOMIN' GOIN' ANYWHERE, TERRORIST SODS!.!.!.!" Pulsade yelled, jerk-pumped the shotgun one last time, and aimed—screaming—at the front left tire of the jeep as it was screaming within ten feet of her—

_**BLAM!.!.!.!**_

_**POWW!**_ The tire exploded. The jeep careened forward, upturned, and flipped in a huge vault that sent the vehicle leaping last-second over the blonde assassin.

_**TH-TH-TH-THWPPP!**_

In slow-motion, Pulsade gasped and stared up at the hunk of metal hurtling over her.

_**TWHOOOOOSH-**__**SMASSSH!**_ The vehicle slammed into a building front…collapsing and exploding. _**BOOOM!.!.!.!**_

Pulsade shuddered.

_**VRMMMMMMM!.!.!.!**_

"…..!.!.!"

She spun about.

A hummer bore down on her.

_**VRMMMMMMMM-MMMMM!**_

Pulsade dropped the shotgun and stretched one palm flat-out towards the vehicle. _**FLASSSSH!.!.!.!**_ She shot out a shimmering, concentratedly-thin stream of light straight at the driver's eyes.

"Aaaaugh!" The terrorist inside the vehicle screamed and covered his burning, bleeding optics.

Pulsade gritted her teeth. Shimmering the supernatural light with one hand….reaching to her belt and pulling out a pair of grenades in the other.

_Cl-Clank!_

_**VRMMMMMM!**_ The light-torched hummer full of escaping Daggerites was upon her.

"AAAAAA-AAAAH!" she screamed and tossed the grenades forward at the last second.

_CR-CRASSSH!_ They shattered through the windshield and—

_**BOOOM!.!.!.!**_

The Hummer burst into flames, toppled over, and hurled in a wall of plasma towards Pulsade.

The Briton gasped, shielded herself, and—

_**SWOOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

_**PHOOOOOM!.!.!.!**_

The wave of burning-hot metal swept into her prone body.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SWOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

Dagger and I soared through thin-air off the rooftop of the skyscraper.

My body entangled with his.

Twirling.

Plunging.

Myrkblade against his knife.

Somehow—in mid fall—he grappled me in a textbook way that upended our bodies and force me to fall forward towards the earth first…in his place.

I shuddered and fought for weighted dominance.

Dagger won over. Angling his body against mind. Using against me every flickering pulse of murk I could muster to glide us down with my body first first….

…until soon I realized that we were about to slam into another skyscraper building….and my vertebrae would be the first thing to kiss the rock-hard rooftop.

So I gritted my a curtain of murk that slowed my descent and eased my slamming-into-the-building-top.

Which—of course—managed to help Dagger survive as well.

_**FLASSSH!**_

We landed with murk surging all around like a reverse fountain.

Dagger kicked off me with his agile feet. _"Nnngh!"_

THWAP!.!.!

I slammed into the rooftop.

_TH-TH-THWOOOSH! _He flipped through the air.

_FLASH!_ I vaulted up to my feet with a pulse of murk. _TH-THWISH!_ I twirled Myrkblade, snarled, spun around, and blurred towards his figure….

….right as he landed upright with his one hand twirling the knife out—

_**CLACKKK!**_

Sparks flew from our impact.

Murk-laden wood against thin serrated metal.

My seething face against his calm…sweaty gaze.

But his eyes…

_The iciness had melted._

And then I glanced down.

And then I noticed…

…his one-handed defense.

_Holy shit… _

_He's missing a hand. _

……

_Welcome to the club._

TH-THWOMP! Regardless, he shoved hard against me.

I slid back…..

….Wincing.

_Th-Th-Thwish!_ He twirled his knife and struck a pose….for the better bleeding part of him. Struggling to remain balanced….on top of himself….he hissed: "We meet again….as ever again, Jordan. And as always—one of us is in possession of the upper hand. For a manner of speaking…."

Anyone else talking would have smiled.

But he is a statue as always.

_I hate him, Ana. _

_I hate him so much._

**TH-THWOOSH!** I twirled Myrkblade and aimed it at him….

….smoke leaking off the serrated tip.

As I glared….glared….

Through my sweat-stained shades.

At the despot.

"I'm always having to even the playing field….aren't I?" Dagger murmured. His stub of a left arm dangled as he twirled the knife higher along his body. "Never the matter. I may have lost the City, Jordan. And I may have lost Terra. But my life is one thing and one thing only. A victory. No matter who dies this day, Jordan. No matter what sacrifices are made….I….have won. It is a constant….neverending victory. I see that all the time. Why can't you?"

I merely glared at him.

Smoke cascading out of my black eyes.

As I sneered…..

_Tonight…… _

_Tonight, you die, Dagger…… _

_And the god damn circle dies with you too._

_  
So help me……_

"The victory here……," Dagger gazed steadily at me. And suddenly, he twirled the blade into the sleeve of his right hand. "…..is that I get to test you further…."

I raised an eyebrow. He's suddenly defenseless. But I dared not attack him. I knew better than that with Dagger….I knew better than to take a blind opportunity.

_What the Hell does he have planned __**now**__?_

_  
_He reached with his one hand into his pocket.

"The Experiment never ended, Jordan. The fact that this City is lost to me proves my theories. Terra's existence. Red Aviary's existence. They both point to you and only you, Jordan. Who could deny—when the facts are read—that the Black Eyes are responsible for White and Red still lingering in this pathetic…war-torn world….?"

I gritted my teeth.

_Jesus…… _

_Not with this garbage again._

But I couldn't deny the pain inside of me.

Stabbing inside out.

My panting….

My panting………

"Slade would never have come back…..hadn't your sudden spirit of Destruction filled him with a bloodlust to defy Death and _return."_

_Stop it………_

"And all of this death and killing….all the pain that happened to your friends….every edge of Red Aviary I've ever used to get as murderously far as I did tonight……would not have happened if it weren't for the actions of the _Equalizer_ that stands here before me….."

_Shut……- _

_-……the tap-dancing Hell……-_

_-……__**UP!**_

His hand reached into his pocket……and pulled out a vial.

A gold-white, glowing vial.

A breath escaped me.

I squinted at the syringe.

_Wait…… _

_Isn't that---?_

"The Experiment is improving better than I could have expected…," Dagger murmured. "Further than the Master of yours could have ever prevented."

I froze inside.

"….and ever onward towards the Obsidian Trinity……as the Experiment's Founder has predicted."

"…………"

My onyx eyes were on the vial.

_What………_

………_is he going to do with that?_

"I need to tear these hypotheses apart…..as my final duty this burning night…..," Dagger stood back and popped the syringe's rubber top free with a thumb. "….and then you won't be seeing me for a long…..long time, Jordan. Wouldn't that make you…..happy?"

I bit my lip.

_I suddenly have no honest-to-God clue anymore……_

His icy eyes narrowed. "Here I have the last essence of Terra. The only piece of solid Construction still contained in my arsenal."

I gasped.

_No. _

_You wouldn't………!_

He aimed the syringe squarely at his inner elbow.

"Come, Jordan. Let's see how truly far along you are…"

_SWOOOSH!_ He stabbed it into himself.

I gritted my teeth and blurred at him, black arm outstretched.

_No!.!.!_

_**FLASSSSH!**_ His pricked/stabbed body pulsed a bright white.

I was blown back by a solid wave of _**construction**_.

Gasping….

Twitching….

Something flickered in the corner of my optics.

I strained to look at him.

Blinded….

The white haze faded.

And there Dagger stood.

As icy and evil as ever.

Only…..

His cornea and irises melted together into a strobing color.

_No……not pink hex this time._

_Gold-white._

_But still………… _

_That friggin' cheater……! _

_It's Full Circle all over again._

"Just evening the score, Jordan……it'll always amount to this….," Dagger said as he struck a one handed pose. He twirled the knife….which suddenly pulsed a hot-white mist.

Like….

……_Choral._

"Come now……kill me."

"…………………………………."

….

_**CHIIIIIING!.!.!**_

_AAAAAAAAAAAH!_

I surged at him.

Blurring.

Trailing black smoke as intensely and as furiously as I could through my blade.

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSSH!**_

Dagger coiled up. "Nnnnnnngh---" Twirled his mist-trailing blade—and shot it forward in a blinding blast of _**white**_. _**FLASSSSH!**_ "—RAAAAAUGH!"

The ivory stream divided the rooftop in two.

I stumbled forward….searing all over from the platinum fire.

Dagger blurred towards me. Trailing mist. Exploding into me with a slamming shoulder.

_**WHAMMM!**_

I flew and stumbled back…sliding to the building's edge.

Teetering….

_G-God……!_

My black eyes pulsed.

My body froze over.

White heat mixing with red col.

Shuddering….

"Nnnnngh!"

I looked up.

Refocused.

And got a fist-full-of-Dagger.

_**SWOOOOOSH-**__**SLASSSSH!**_

The flimsy knife tore at me.

And only with a field of black did I sustain the strike of synthetic, Terra Construction.

It plowed into me and soared the two of us—like a reoccurring comet—off the edge of the building and twirling towards a broad warehouse rooftop beyond.

_TH-TH-TH-THWOOOOOOOSH!_

….

….

….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

…..

…..

…..

"_**Snkkkt-HCkkk….clik-clik-clik….."**_

And at that same time….

As the ion cannon died.

As the golems faded from Terra's power.

"………" Robin found himself staring across the commercial building top at Slade.

"_**Hck…..clik-clik-clik-clik-clik-snkkkt…." **_Deathstroke stood several meters away from Robin. Gripping his red blade. Exhaling vapors of red mist. Cold…steady….still. _**"Clik-Clik-Snkkkt…..hckkkkk……."**_

"…………………."

"_**Snkkkt….hckkk……"**_

Robin jerked his hand aside.

Never taking his masked eyes off of Slade.

_Snkkkt!_ His bo-staff extended.

"_**Clik-Clik-Snkkkt…..,"**_ Deathstroke's one red eye narrowed its pulsing glare. He dragged his two-edge-sword up—_**CHIIII-IIII-IIIING!**_—and aimed it out towards Robin's figure. Shadowed by the criss-crossing metal intestines of the radio antenna overhead. _**"…..exacttttly as I wanttttt it—Snkkkt---Tim…….justttt you…..and me……."**_

"………," Robin glared and held his staff up high. "Funny….that's exactly the way I want it too."

"_**Hckkk-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt….."**_

"………."

……..

_**FWOOOOOOOSSSH!**_

Deathstroke blurred forward.

"Nnnngh!" Robin ran forward.

_**SW-SW-SW-SWOOSSH!**_

_Th-Th-Th-Thwisssh!_

_**SW-SW-SW-SWOOSH-SLAAAAAAAAAAASH!**_

_Th-Th-Th-Thwisssh-THOOOSH!_

Deathstroke met Robin.

Robin met Deathstroke.

Red blade and metal bo-staff.

Colliding.

_**CLAAA-AAAAANG!**_

Sparking.

_**SKKKKRKKKKKKK!**_

Exploding in red vapor.

_**FLASSSSSSH!.!.!**_


	265. Break the Circle part 25

**265. Break the Circle part 25**

_**CL-CL-CLACKKKKK!**_

Red Aviary's blade sparkingly grinded against Robin's bo-staff.

Ashes and embers flew off the colliding metal.

The two adversaries met underneath the four spread legs of the rooftop radio antenna.

Deathstroke leaning his cowl into Robin's eyemask……..

Robin's face folding into a scowl……….

"_**Hckkk-clik-clik-snkkkkkkkt…..!"**_ Red Aviary coughed crimson vapors into Robin's face.

The Boy Wonder winced…snarled…and shoved against Deathstroke: "HAAAAUGH!"

"_**Hckkk!"**_ Deathstroke stumbled back, twirled his blade, and jumped forward….slashing low. _**SWIIIIPE!**_

Robin backflipped, flew dangerously high beneath a low-stretching cross-beam of antenna metal, and landed in a reverse slide.

_**FWOOOOSH!**_ Deathstroke blurred at him. Red blade-swish-swish-swishing from side to side.

Robin spun his bo-staff like a vertical fan.

_**CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!**_ He blocked with a shower of sparks, spun, and kicked sideways into Deathstroke's chest.

_WHUMP!_

Red Aviary slid backwards, wheezing.

"YAAAAAUGH!" Robin twirled his bo-staff. _THWISH-THWISH!_ And brought it down full-force into the top of Slade's skull.

_**THWACK!**_

….

It did nothing.

Robin leaned with his deathly rod impacted against Red Aviary's forehead. Eyemask wide. Panting….panting….panting.

"………_**.,"**_ Deathstroke all-but-sneered. _**"Hckkkk-snkkkt-CLIK!"**_

_**SWISSSSH!**_

The red blade spun up.

_**CLACK!**_

Robin gasped as his bo-staff was ejected from his grasp and went flying up through the webbing of the criss-crossing antenna beams.

"_**You'rrrre goingggg to have to-snnkkt—do betttttterrrrr than that, Robin….,"**_ Deathstroke hissed red clouds and raised his blade. _**"You've alwaysssss—hckkk-HAD….TO DO….BETTERRRR!**_"

_**CHIIIIII-IIIIING!**_

Robin looked at Slade. Up at the twirling staff. Back at Slade. Back to the staff----"!.!.!"---the Boy Wonder leapt up.

_**SLASSSSH!.!.!.!**_ Deathstroke's swinging blade sliced through mid-air.

Robin went soaring upward, yellow cape billowing in the process.

"_**Snkkkt!"**_ Red Aviary tilted his gaze up and glared at the acrobatic Titan Leader.

Robin flipped and twirled and flew from metal cross-beam-to-metal-cross-beam. He leapt, jumped, and swung from one steel reinforcement to the next. Panting. Grunting. Holding and exhaling his breath at key moments to hurl himself ever-upward towards the top of the antenna.

….and towards the twirling, airborne bo-staff.

_Thw-Thw-Thw-Thwisssh!_

The rod fell back down—

_**Snatch!**_ Robin caught it in a free hand, swung around by his other, and came around in a half-perch two-thirds of the way up the radio antenna—

_**SWOOOOOOSH-PL-PLANT!**_ Deathstroke teleported upwards and solidified on a crossbeam. Standing up straight across from Robin with red-murking balance. _**"Hckkkk-clik-clik-clik….."**_

"……..," Robin frowned.

Slade's one pulsing eye narrowed.

Robin planted himself on the horizontal crossbeam of the antenna's south side and twirled his rod into a nimble pose. _Th-Th-Thwish!_

"……..," he glared across at Slade.

Red Aviary twirled his sword—_**TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!**_**—**and froze in a coiled position. Glaring. Hissing. _**"Snkkkk-kkkt……."**_

"…….."

"……_**.."**_

Robin advanced agilely across the beam.

_Th-Th-THWISH-__**CLANK!**_ He leaned fiercely into Slade with his two-handed rod pressing into the Terminator's blade. Limbs shaking. Muscles tight.

"_**Snkkkkt….hckkk….,"**_ Deathstroke leaned back, holding his blade against Robin's weight. He gradually re-tightened his red-and-black suited legs and thrust his butchered upper-body forward…pressing his girth down against the lengths of Robin's staff. _**Scraaaa-aaaaaape!**_

"**Nnnnngh!" Robin sweated. Holding his own against the overpowering Deathstroke. He gritted his teeth…wobbled on the beam….clenched the rod tighter…..**

…..and snuck his left leg outward—darting—to slap Red Aviary fiercely with a boot to the ankle.

_**THWAP!**_

Slade wobbled and teetered on the beam.

Robin swung his careening body around into a mad, horizontal cartwheel across the beam that ended with his leg and upper staff slamming down across Slade's chest.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

Deathstroke hobbled backwards across the beam.

Robin spun, brought the staff down in both hands, and slammed it towards Deathstroke's skull.

"_**Hckkkk!"**_ Deathstroke held his red sword up in two hands—one at the hilt and one at the flesh-cutting tip. _**CLANNNNNGGGG!**_ He held Robin's downswing at bay mere inches from his cowled face. He shook….billowed red vapor….pulsed a crimson power into his sword…and shoved against Robin with flaming-red-murk. _**"SNKKRAAAUKT!" FL-FLASSH!**_

"Augh!" Robin fell back with an icy chill. He flew off the beam….plummeting towards the rooftop several feet below. Gasping, he shot a hand out at the last second, grabbed another beam, swung down, sideways, and back up….vaulting his flailing body skyward.

"_**SNkkkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke angled his upper body just right, positioned the sword, and swung to cleave the flying Robin in two.

Robin held his rod out in mid-ascent.

_**SLASSSH! SL-SLASSSH!**_

_**CL-**__**CLANNNNG!**_

The mid-air impact of Deathstroke's blade to Robin's chest-protecting bo-staff sent the Boy Wonder plummeting backwards….again towards the rooftop between the legs of the antenna.

Robin's legs angled out, contacted a crossbeam below and across from Slade—kicked off—and vaulted him like a bullet upwards and towards Slade….swinging a heavy rod.

"Raaaaugh!"

_SWISSSSSSH!_

Deathstroke stood dead-still. Pulsed a red eye….and shot a gnarled hand of flesh-and-metal out.

_**SWOOOOSH-**__**GRIP!**_

Robin was caught by the neck.

He gasped…choked….and flailed as Deathstroke spun perfectly around and flung him up high into the far-more-concentrated metal webbing of the antenna.

"Yaaaah!" Robin flailed until he slammed backwards into a cross-beam. _WH-WHANG!_ "OOOF!" he exhaled and plummeted down till he draped over another beam…hanging for dear life.

_**FWOOOOOSSSH!**_

Deathstroke leapt and blurred across the interior of the hollow antenna. _**"HRAAAAAUCHKTT!"**_ **SWOOSH-SWOOSH-****SLASSSH!**__

_Robin gritted his teeth and swung his body down and up—_

_**SWOOOOOSH!**_

--barely grazing up past Deathstroke's swing.

Slade landed on a cross-beam, standing upright. _PL-PLANT!_

"_**Hckkk!"**_ He spun around…glaring up at Robin.

Robin soared upward, perched on a higher crossbeam, and spun to stare down at Deathstroke.

Red Aviary hissed and started hopping….leaping…jumping from one beam to the next to ascend the bowels of the antenna.

_Chiiiing!_ Robin readied a glistening birdarang and tossed it down at Slade.

_Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Sw-Swisssh!_

"_**Snkkkt-clik-clik-clikkkttt!"**_ Deathstroke swished his sword in the air and sliced the projectile.

_**SL-SLIIINK!**_

He blurred redly at Robin, swinging his blade hard. _**"HRAAAUCHKKKT!"**_

Robin backflipped off his beam—

_**SL-SLIIIICE!**_ The metal support was shattered in half by Slade's blade of Destruction. _**CRAA-AAACKKK!**_

Robin fell, twirled, and flung two birdarangs up in mid-descent. "Yaaaagh!"

_SW-SW-SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_ Deathstroke jumped and fell after him. Blurring past and around cross-beams. Swishing his blade and shattering the birdarangs into halves…pieces. _**CRACKKK! SLICCE!**_

Robin reached a hand out behind him, grabbed a beam without looking, twirled down, outward, and upwards, and launched his teenage body up at the Reaper with a tornadic spin of his blade. "NNNNGHHHAAAAH!"

_SW-SW-SW-SWISSSH!_

The plummeting Deathstroke held his red blade out. _**CLAK-CLAK-CLAK!.!.!**_

Sparks flew.

Robin spun past Slade and pressed his lower body—scrunched—upside down against another beam.

Deathstroke planted his legs into a bar beneath.

Robin vaulted downwards.

Slade vaulted upwards.

Bo-staff swinging.

Red blade slashing.

_Th-Th-Th-Thwisssh!_

_**SLASSSSSH!**_

_**CLANNNNNNNNNG!.!.!.!.!**_

The two met in mid-air.

In the nucleus of the towering radio antenna.

Their blades flashing upon contact…….

For….

For Deathstroke was channeling wave upon wave of deathly….Destructive energy into Robin's weapon.

And it pulsed an unnatural crimson that lingered aloft between their bodies.

Pulsing and surging into the doubly-crimson night.

And Robin winced…..twitching….

And Deathstroke glared…..hissing…..

And……

_**FL-FLASSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

Robin was tossed wildly back as Deathstroke descended with an icy column of pluming Destruction swishing earth-ward.

_**SWOOOOOOOOOOSH-**__**SLIIIIIICEEE!**_

"_**HRAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAUCHKKKKKT.!.!.!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke screamed as he slammed the trailing red pulse into the rooftop in the center of the four antenna 'feet'.

"Aaaaaaaugh!" Robin flew back and—_**WHANGGG!.!.!.!**_—landed hard with his back against a cross beam. He gasped, jolted, and fell down….pinballing painfully off two more beams as—

_**CREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!.!.!.!**_

The waves of Destruction issuing out from Deathstroke's sword and warbling into the four antenna corners swam murderously up the metal structure, snapped the inner columns of steel webbing into icy shards, and filled the air with a chilling hiss as the entire structure groaned and collapsed downward in an imploding spectacle of madness.

_**CRUNNNNNNNNNN-NNNNNCHHHH!.!.!.!.!.!**_

And Robin toppled…plummeted….and collapsed into the center of this murderous deconstruction.

_**CRA-A-A-A-ASSSSSH!**_

Ash.

Dust.

Gravel.

Bits of tar.

And red…red…red….vapor……

…..

…..

……

"Nnnnnngh…..," Robin moaned.

He stirred and got up.

Bruised all over.

Bleeding and scraped in a few dozen places.

The ends of his yellow cape were in split tatters.

His green short-sleeves tore at the seams.

A tear or two formed across his red tunic.

He bit his lip…clutched a shoulder with one hand….and propped himself up by the bo-staff with the other.

He panted….panted…panted…

……gasped(!)…..

…and looked around, desperately grasping his rod as he scanned for signs of Slade amidst the mangled, metal wreckage.

"…………."

…………..

"…………"

………….

"_**Hckkk-snkkkkt….clik-clik-clik….."**_

The hissing voice of Death issued coldly out from the red silence of night.

Robin shuddered.

He back-stepped with his rod in his grasp and slowly turned…turned…turned about. Eyemask thin. Glaring.

"_**Hckkk…..Hckkk-Your stupidittttty in persssssistence has ever….ever astounded me, Robinnnn…..hckkkk….."**_

Robin frowned.

Pacing through the metal debris.

Panting…..breathing firmer…firmer…firmer…

"……_**.It has perplexedddd me…snkkkkt—figurrring that a fool like you came from such a valued detective sssssuch as Batttttman……"**_

Robin came to a stop against a tall, vertical shard of steel. He rested against it. Panting…sweating….eyeing left and right under his mask.

"……_**.and then I realizedddd you werrrrre justttt a punk off the streetttt…..snkkkkkt—HCKKK—You arrrre a waif to the core, Robin. A street rat. Hardly….refined…..snkkkt—HCKKK!—Hardly…Hero Material…..jussssst a frightened child……hiding his pain and angssssst behind a mask….."**_

"……………," Robin gritted his teeth.

"…_**.and how…..I am ssssso verrrrry intrrrrrigued……by frightened childrrrrren……."**_

Robin swallowed.

Robin nodded….

"Yeah…..well, we had gotten the whole 'masked pedophile' vibe long before even Terra showed up. Want to sing me a new tune, Slade? Or do I have to hammer it out of you?" He clutched the rod tighter and sneered. "Once I frickin' find you—for starters—you god damn ghost!"

"_**Robin……I would not be—hckkk—so quickkkk to jesssst…………………This is the night you die…This is the night that—hckkk—the two of us….become completttte…."**_

"Sometimes I wonder, Slade….," Robin looked around his shoulders….peering side-to-side about the shard he was pressed against. "….I wonder…..wh-what exactly you would do…..if I died……" He managed a crooked smile. "But….I-I guess I know……you would run around in circles with your head all but cut off! Going nowhere! Reaching no meaningful end!" Robin gulped. Sneering. "Like you did when the Carbonite explosion masked my escape from your clutches…"

"_**Snkkkkt-Masssked? I have alwaysssss…..ssssseen….thrrrrough your massssssk….Robinnnn….hckkk-clik-clik-CLIK!"**_

Robin froze. His breath came out in quick bursts. "Y-You mean…..You mean you _knew_ that I….that I _wasn't dead?.!.?.!"_

"_**Snkkkkt….but of courrrrse, Robinnnnskkkt…..,"**_ the voice filtered outward amongst the rooftop sea of metal shards. _**"…..hckkk-clik-clik-clik….if you had been sssssseverrrred from this mortal coil….I would have **__**felt**__** itttt! Snkkkt—Hckkk-I am the DEATH….that Viperrrr could only have DRRRREAMED of becominnnggg……snnkkkkt—if only you could feel this mightttty power……if you could justttt taste of the ultimate end of all thingssss—Hrckkkk—and feel it COURSING….THRRRROUGH…..YOUR FINGERTIPSSSSNKKKkkktkk-HCKK! Oh yes, Robin….I knew you werrrre alive…..and I knew—snkkkkt—that the imposssster from the other dimenssssion would mosssst likely preserrrrve you….."**_

"……………," Robin gulped. "………wh-why…..?"

"…_**.snkkt-Why whattttt, boyyyyy? Why did I not exerrrrt my powerrrrr on you when I mossstttt saw fittt? Snkkkt—Hckkk! Why did I not….KILL……YOU? Butttt I am….I AM….KILLING YOU, ROBINNNKKKT! One friend at a ttttime…..one Citttty at a time…..one secccond….at….a bloody….TIME!"**_

Robin fumed.

Breathing heavily.

Hugging the rod to his chest and glaring off into space.

Seething……

"………."

"_**Snkkkkkt—No…..I could nottttt end you immediattttely. You don'tttt desssssserve the gracccce I besssstowed so swiftly upon Deckerrr….and Gloverrrr…..the grace that I shall soon bestow on the Titansss—if I so choose--…and the Jussstice League….and Daggerrrrr…and all that has ever….snkkkt—EVERRRR….BRRRRREATHED….THE PUTRID…STAIN…OF LIFE…IN THIS CITTTTTY—HCKKKK-Clik-clik-Clik-SNKKKT!…..Forrrr your death….I have builttt up….so….SO REDDD…………I WILL BATHE THE GRAVESSSS OF HEROESSSS…IN…THATTSNKKKT—**__**RED**__**! FOREVERRRR….BURNINGGG DOWN THE GOD FORSSSAKEN BALANCE—SNKKKKT—THAT HAS ALWAYS….ALWAYSSSNNKKT-HELD MY POWER AT BAY!"**_

Robin shook his head.

"That's impossible, Slade. What do you and I know about the balance of _ANYTHING_?"

"_**Snkkkkt—Plentttttty…."**_

Robin stepped out.

Pacing with his rod…

"You and I are both poles! Extremes! Extreme good…extreme evil….there is no balance to us, Slade! You know what I think you want? All you want is all you could ever get. A balance by destroying me….and ending your shitty obsession in the process! Because when I'm gone….where will be the thrill of things for you, Slade? Huh? Answer that, you death-breathing psycho!"

"………_**..oh……therrrrre will be plenty of………THRILL…….Robin……….SNkkkt-clik-clik….once you are…..dead….."**_

"……..," Robin's eyemask thinned. "Oh yeah?"

"………………_**.I will have Starfire's despair to suck on……"**_

The Boy Wonder's breath left him.

…….in vapor.

Numb, he spun around—

"_**HRAAA-AAAAAUCHKKKKTTT!"**_ Deathstroke's blade slashed straight at him.

Robin twirled to the side---

_**SWIIIIIISSSSH!**_

_SLIIIIINK!_

"AAAUGH!" Robin screamed as a stream of blood flew from a deep cut in his shoulder. The torso piece of his costume now bloodily flailed open, exposing his upper right arm and chest—

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke lunged at him.

Robin dove wetly towards the side, rolled, knelt, and held his staff out—

_**CLANGGG!**_

Deathstroke leaned in and hissed in Robin's face. _**"You shouldddd have hearrrrrd her screeeeaming….Robin……when you werrrrren't—THERE-Snkkkkt-HCKKK-TO PROTECTTT HERRRR!"**_

Robin shouted back in his face. "I will not let you TOUCH HER!"

His red eye narrowed. _**"Too lattte…."**_

_**TH-THWUMPPP!**_

Deathstroke shoved against Robin.

Robin rolled backwards over the debris, hopped up, screamed animalistically, and charged at Deathstroke—swinging—slashing—jabbing—twirling—thrashing with his rod.

_**CLANK! SMACK! CLANG! CR-CRACK! CL-CLAK!**_

"I….said….you will…..NOT…TOUCH HER!.!.!.!" Robin howled.

"_**I will not—SNkkkt!—be satisssfied….,"**_ Red Aviary hissed as he backtracked, deflecting Robin's blows. "…_**until I hearrr from you the unhindred shriek of fearrr-Hckk-ROBIN!"**_

A sneering Robin pressed his weight against Slade, shoved him back—_THWUMP!_—and murderously raised his bo-staff up high to strike down. "I am NOT…….THE ONE……WHO SHOULD BE **AFRAID, **_**SLADE!.!.!.!"**_ He swung with a blood curdling scream. "RAAA-AAAAUGHH!.!.!"

Deathstroke effortlessly blocked and went on: _**"Hckkk-clik-clik-clik….you arrren't scared…..Robinnn?"**_

_**CLANG! SMACK! THRASSH!**_

Red Aviary suddenly twirled, shot his leg out, and slammed Robin in the gut.

_**WHUMP!**_

Robin hunched over—

_**GRIPP!**_

Deathstroke's metal and flesh hand closed around the Boy Wonder's throat.

Robin gasped…bug-eyed.

Deathstroke leaned in and hissed red vapors into the Boy's face.

"_**You….shouldddd be………..**__**HCKKKK!.!.!"**_

THWOOOOOSH! Deathstroke flung Robin-by the neck---clear off the building top.

"YAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAUGH!" Robin fell, flailed, and toppled a street's length off towards the east till he plummeted into the glass facing of a building's clock-tower overlooking the old Downtown district.

_**CRAAAA-AAAAAAAAASSSSH!**_

Robin burst through the glass between the 'XI' the 'I" and the "II'.

_**SHATTTTTERRRR!.!.!**_

With a splashing sea of glass, Robin sailed into the clock tower of the old building and tumbled across a woodboard floor. _TH-TH-TH-THWUMPP!_

Dust, cobwebs, and ashes scattered from his tumbling body.

He came to a stop in the center of a halo of glass shards and red light. Wincing….hissing in pain. Cut in multiple places. Bruised in a dozen more. His cape and costume in tatters. His skin grazed and nicked where exposed.

"Nnnngh…."

All around him…the metal gears and axels and wheels of the huge clock grinded and clattered and grinded together.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkklaka—Hckkkklaka—Snkkkkt!_

Robin shook and twitched all over.

Gripping weakly to his bo-staff….

….he pushed himself up.

Standing on wobbly legs.

Gazing upwards…weakly through a scuffed-up eyemask.

Weakly eyeing the grinding cogs.

The twirling rods.

The wheels spinning….spinning….groaning.

With the axels and the pistons and the pendulums.

Aloft and hanging above him.

Shadowed….haunting.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clackka!_

The boy in Robin gulped.

He shakily held his rod at one end and prepared to descend the wooden stairs of the antique interior—

_**SHATTTTTTERRRR!**_

Robin gasped.

He spun….eyes twitching blue beneath his mask.

"…………….?"

A stretch of mortar and brick away from the inverse clock face….one of two symmetrical, stained-glass windows stretched vertically. And a distinctly human-sized hole lingered in the glass frame. With shards peeling off and littering the floor in quiet increments after the entrance of….

_Someone………_

_Th-Thwish!_

Robin twirled his staff at ready.

He paced across the dusty, creaking woodboards.

Jaw tight.

Eyemask thin and scanning the creaking…groaning surroundings.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkkt-Hckkkt-Clik-Clakka!_

Beads of sweat trailed down the Boy Wonder's brow.

He paced….shuffled….crept across the interior.

Heading towards the rear stretch of stained-glass windows where a kaleidoscopic flickering of red and amber from an adjacent, burning building seared its way through the translucency of the clock tower and cast a dancing paranoia across Robin's steps.

"…………"

Dust.

Drifting.

Noise….

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Skkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkkt-Clakka!_

"_**Tell me, Robin……."**_

Robin gasped.

He spun around.

He eyed the lonely shadows of the dusty, shadowed interior.

The inverse clock face ticking away.

The red night screaming through icily to merge with the flame-dance kaleidoscopically bathing Robin's backside as he paced…paced…paced….

Trembling.

Rod raised….

"……_**do you remember when you were my apprenticccce?"**_

Robin craned his neck.

He listened to the gears and axels.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt-Clik-Clik!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka!_

"…………."

The Titan Leader shuddered.

"_**Snkkkt……..oh how perfeccct you were. I almosssst believed in you, Robin….snkkkt….I almost believed that you would be…….IT."**_

Robin sneered: "Oh yeah? Be _what_….Slade?"

"……………_**.."**_

"Well?" Robin snarled. Staring up into the rafters. The grinding, rusted-metal mesh ghosts. "Come on! Out with it! You know you want to torture me with your supposed 'truth'!"

"_**Hckkkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clikkkkt…..All I wantttted…..All I everrrr wantedddd……snnkkt—clik-clik-clik…….was the perrrrrfect SON!"**_

Robin panted…..gulped….and shuddered.

"And you got him, Slade…..," he murmured. A wave of sadness echoing through his throat. "You got him…..you just c-can't see it…."

"_**Snkkkkt….what I have…….is an accccidentttt…..hckkk…."**_

"And what of your other children?" Robin frowned. "Were they ALL accidents too?" He gripped his rod tighter and hissed. "And what of Terra's UNBORN BABY! Was THAT a mistake too, Slade? A mistake that you forced upon her for no damn reason?.!.?.!"

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkt-Hckkkt-Clakka!_

Robin waited.

Robin listened.

"………_**..misssstakesss…..don't bring ultimate purposssse……..you were oncccce a mistake yourselfff….werrrren't you—snkkkt—Robin?"**_

Robin bit his lip.

Backing up towards the burning stained glass stretch….

"_**Snkkkt…..your mother never wanted you…..your father never wanted you……you stepped into Misterrrrr Wayne's---snkkkkktt—by accidentttt….."**_

Robin gritted his teeth. "I will not have you dictate to me my worth! I was never……EVER defined by your psychotic reasoning, Slade!" He hissed. "Let's end this tonight! Not inflate it!"

_Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clackka-Clik-Hckkkkt-Hckkkt-Clakka-Clik-Clackka!_

"_**An end, Robin? Snkkkt…..,"**_ his voice hissed from the roaming darkness of the antique bowels. _**"Snkkkt….haven't we had this conversssation beforrrre?"**_

"…………."

"_**My childrrrren……I could end them…..ssssso quickly….I know thissssss….and they know thisssss. Terra's child…..was my punisssshment to her. For her child would neverrrrr be half as good as a boy you arrrrre, Robin. You've prrrrroven to me that I can'tttt end you overrrrnight. For as much of a misssstake you are……you hold worrrrrth. You…..challenge me. You exerrrrcisssse me……and when you couldn'tttt be my perfectttt son…..I decided to give Terra one……so that she…..so that ssssssomeone…. could understand….the banalittttty of wasted EXISTENCE!"**_

"SHUT UP!" Robin howled. Shaking his fist and rod. "SHUT UP! What you did to Terra was an ATROCITY! Don't you DARE pin that on me, you split-headed BASTARD!"

"_**Snkkkt…temper temper, Robin…..you forgetttt that you are going to die tonight. Like Abraham with Isaac….only the betttter ending. The ending where Abraham standssss up to the angel interceding on Isaac's behalf..……….and KILLS……HERRRR-SNKKKT!"**_

Robin gasped.

Eyes wide.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt!_

"_**You thinkkkkk what I did to Terrrrra was horrible….?….Snkkkt-clkkkk…..when you arrrre gone, Robin. When you arrrre gone and the essence of your converrrrted mistake of a life is ssssswitched over to DEATH…..snkkkkkkttt…..I shall…….burrrrrn that angel…..the one you've prrrrrrayed for…….I will burrrrn her until she wishessss for an end. Even an end that willlll foreverrrrr separatttte her from YOU!"**_

Robin seethed.

Shaking all over.

"_**Yesssss, Robin…..yessssss……..seethe with that passsshion….build yoursssself upppp to steammmmm….."**_

"You want steam?" Robin sneered icily and twirled his bo-staff into a firm grip. "Come here and tasted it, shitface."

"_**Arrrre you so eager….Robin?"**_

"……………," He glared into the shadows. Rod raised.

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkkkt-Clik-Clakka-Clik! _

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkt-__**HCKKKKKT-SNKKKKKT-CLIK-CLIK-HRAAAUCKT!"**_

Robin gasped. Robin spun—

_**SLASSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

_SLIIINK!_

"_AAAAUGH!"_ Robin shrieked from a red river slicing down his forearm.

"_**HCKKK-CLIK-CLIK-SNKKKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke charged at him. Blurring red feet cracking through the floorboards. _**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-FWOOOSH! SL-SLAAAAASSSSSH!**_

The red blade swam, slicing through the splintery old wood and singing up at Robin.

The Boy Wonder grunted and rolled to the side—

_**SWOOOOOSSSH!**_

Cold red clouds and wooden bits flew up.

Robin jumped up to his feet.

Bleeding.

Wincing.

Deathstroke blurred at him through the fountains of red-trailing debris.

_**SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASSSH!**_

Robin jumped back, ducked, side-stepped, jerked left and right, and raised his bo-staff at the last second.

_CHIIIING!_

_**SLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

The red, two-edged blade swam down at him with a crashing explosion of red.

_**CRAAAAA-AAAAAACKKKK!**_

Robin's bo-staff cracked in two.

The Boy Wonder gasped…stumbling backwards.

Gripping separate shards of metal 'clubs'.

"_**HRAAAUCHKTT!" **_Deathstroke lunged at him.

Robin flipped, leap-frogged the reaper, snaked down bloodily behind him, spun, and twirled his hands up….holding the club-shards.

_**SL-SLASSSH!**_ Deathstroke spun with a wide sweeping blade through the air.

Robin gritted his teeth, hunched back on bent knees, and blocked the slice with both clubs raised up.

_CL-CLASSSSH!_

Sparks flew.

Deathstroke snarled and kicked the Boy Wonder in the exposed chest with a blurring-red foot.

_**TH-THWOMP!**_

Robin gasped and rolled across the antique domain.

_Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt!_

_Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Clik-Clakka-Hckkkt-Hckkkt-Clakka!_

Robin tumbled up to his knees.

_**CHIIII-IIII-IIIING!**_ Deathstroke charged the Titan Leader, sword dragging by two hands to the hilt.

Robin held his breath, jumped up to his feet, and criss-crossed his club-shards in an 'X' right as Deathstroke raised his blade.

_**SLASSSH-CLANGGGG!**_

Robin struggled.

Deathstroke hissed.

Robin grunted and shoved down against Deathstroke's blade.

Deathstroke swung back, spiraled around, and slashed-jabbed-hacked at Robin.

_**SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH-SLASH!**_

Robin spun a human tornado, with both arms outstretched, blocking and deflecting and parrying with a single-handed twirl of a bo-staff half at each rotation.

_**CLANK! CLANG! CLACK! WHANG! CLANG!**_

Deathstroke slashed, hacked, and stabbed at each twirling deflection that Robin performed….forcing him more and more towards the flat stained-glass windows of kaleidoscopic fire-dancing.

Robin knelt in front of the glass, crossing both shards again….this time struggling from the pressing weight of Slade down against him.

_**SCRAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAPE!.!.!.!**_

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clikkksnkkkt!'**_ Deathstroke hissed down at the boy. Pouring red smoke and cold crimson vapors down his arms, down his sword, and down onto Robin's scarred chest and arm….exposed. _**"Snkkkkt….give in, Robin. Give in……your releasssssed energy shall be enough by now….the Balance shall be broken….brokkkkken foreverrrrr…."**_

Robin struggled….sweating…..twitching all over. The wheels and axels grinded ahead. The ghostly sounds of an apprentice being beaten senselessly for the angel…..

_The angel………_

"_**This cirrrrcle is meantttt for you to completttte….snkkkktt….from….the nightttt…I FIRSSST….BREATHED….THE FRREEEEZING FIRRRRE….OF DEATH! THE TERMINATORRRRRR!.!.!"**_

Robin hissed.

Sweated….

….and growled up at Red Aviary.

"I'm not…..your son….Slade……and I'll be DAMNED if I'll be your pinnacle of existence either! You wanna die? You gotta learn that th-that's….snkkkt…a one….m-man….._job!.!.!"_**  
**

"_**SNKKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke slid his slicing blade towards Robin.

The Boy Wonder ducked his head, lost a few strands of black hair, and kicked his leg out—impacting Deathstroke's ankle.

_TH-THWAPP!_

"_**HCKKKKTT-TT!"**_ the Reaper stumbled.

"NNNGH!" Robin shoved up against the red sword.

Deathstroke teetered….

Robin shot up, spun, ran _up_ the stained glass—

"_**SNKKKKT!" SLASSSSH!**_

--vaulted up off it, dodged Deathstroke's horizontal swipe, backflipped with both shards in his grasp, soared high into the clock tower's interior, entangled himself in a grinding cog above, spun around—

"_**Clik-Clik-Clikkkkkt….,"**_ Slade turned to face up towards Robin.

--Robin twirled around on the wheel—_Clik-Clik-Clik-SNkkkt—_and leapt off, flipping, pouncing murderously down towards Slade with both club-halves stabbing heavily earthward with the shards screaming first.

_**THUNK!**_

_**TH-THUNKKKK!**_

In red splashes of blood and red vapors, both broken bo-staff halves dug deep into two spots of Slade's chest.

"_**HRAAAAA-AAAAAAUCHKKKKTTT!"**_ Red Aviary flailed backwards.

Robin straddled his chest….pushing all of his weight into the two stabbing staff shards. "YAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAUGH!" he screamed heatedly into Slade's face and bloodily rode him back…back…back….

….through the stained glass windows.

_**SHATTTTTERRRRRR!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Robin and Slade flailed…..

….fell…..

……..flipped…….

……….and plummeted through the red air……

………….towards the burning building surging below…..

……………..a rooftop engulfed in billowing flames from hellseeker impacts and golem parts…….

_**THWOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

The two burned their way through the curtains of amber-hot fire.

"_**HCKKKK-KKKKKT!"**_ Slade absorbed the fires and boiled all over.

_SP-SPLORRRCH!_ One of the two shards popped free of his bloody chest.

Robin twirled off with the one staff-half, his cape absorbing the flames and scattering them into ashes.

_TH-TH-TH-TH-THWUMPPP!_ He rolled across the rooftop. Bloody. Scathed. Skin-red….

"_**SNkkkkkt-HRAAAUCHKKKK-KKKT!"**_ Slade screamed from the flames surrounding.

Robin stood up in the halo of heat.

Sweating.

Panting.

Wincing all over as his vaporous breath melted and condensed in mid-air.

The ashes swam around them like glowing gold snowflakes.

The night's howling horror bubbling in an epicenter.

Entwining the two.

Entwining—

"_**SNRAAAA-AAAUCHKKKKTT!"**_ Deathstroke burst out of the flame wall surrounding the rooftop. His cold red murk mixing with flesh-smoke. His cowl was singed—along with the rest of his black and red body suit. He surged a hot trail towards Robin, his feet leaking napalm and his sword slashing ashes and embers in its red-murder-swing at the Boy Wonder's cranium.

_**SLAAAAA-AAAAAAAAA-AAAAAASSSSH!**_

Robin ducked, jumped back, and wincingly deflected with the flimsy metal shard.

_**CLACK! CLANG! WHANG!**_

Deathstroke ever-advanced on Robin. Slashing. Hacking. Hissing. Shrieking.

Robin retreated. Hobbling backwards. Deflecting. Blocking.

The two immortal adversaries formed an endless silhouette of burning master and bleeding apprentice against the rising flames of mayhem billowing around and behind and beyond them.

The halo of flame.

The full circle engulfing, singeing, circumventing.

The blood-curdling shriek. The hunger.

The grunting. The weak defiance.

"_**SNKKKKT! HRAAAUCHKKKT! CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-SNKKKK-KKKKKT!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

Robin stumbled.

Robin fell to his knees.

He quivered and shook and held the friction-hot metal shard up against Deathstroke's pounding, relentless slashes of the two-edged sword.

_**CLAK! CLAK! CLAK! CLAKK! CLAKKK!.!.! CLAAAAK!.!.!.!**_

"_**SNKKKKKK-KKKKTT!.!.!.!" **_A vaporous, red-hissing sneer. A pulling back, coiling of the upper body. Limbs flexing…charging…redmurking. _**FLAASSSH! "HRAAAUCKKT!" **__**SLAAAAA-AAAAAAAASH!**_

Deathstroke's blade shattered through the metal shield—_**CRAAAACKKK!**_—swam down---_**SLIIIIIINKKKK!**_—and barely grazed Robin's face…..tearing the eyemask to shreds.

_**SLASSSH!**_

Tim gasped.

His blue eyes wide and naked to Death itself.

"_**HCKKKK-CLIKKKSNKKKT!"**_ Deathstroke swung again.

_SLIIIIINK!_

A slash of blood flew from Tim's chest.

"AAAAAUGH!"

_**SL-SLASSSH!**_

The back of his costume tore, and red liquid trailed down the boy's back.

"Nnnnngh!"

_**SW-SW-SW-SWOOOSH! THWACKKKK!**_ The flat of the blade slapped Tim to the ground…upon which Deathstroke swiped at his sprawled legs, cutting a thin red line across the stretch of both of them and tearing the green tights apart above the ankles. _**SLIIIIICE!**_

"Aaaaa-haaaaaaaaaugh!" Tim convulsed and screamed into the ash-laden rooftop.

"_**HCKKK!" **_Deathstroke swung his red-murking foot back and—_**CRACKKK!**_—slammed the tip of his limb straight into Tim's ribcage.

_Th-Th-Th-Thwump!_

Tim rolled across the flame-showered rooftop.

He came to a shuddering stop.

Coughing.

Spitting up blood.

He curled into a fetal position and winced….his tightening face squeezing blue tears out of even bluer eyes as he shook and shuddered.

_**CH-CTHINK!**_ Several feet away, the tip of Red Aviary's blade stuck into the tar…..and dragggggged allllll the waaaaaay slowwwwwly towards the grounded boy. _**Chiii-iiiii-iiii-iiiing!**_

"_**You alwaysssss had….and still alwaysssss have…. trrrrouble….with learrrrrrning respectttt-snkkkkt—Robinnnn….."**_

Tim sputtered….shook…..withered….

"_**How many timesss-snkkkkt—must I dissssplay my true powerssss…my perpetual…..utterrrr…STRENGTH compared to you—SNKKKT!—and here you have lowerrred to thisss sobbing creaturrrrre. You have returrrrned to the missstake that once ran around harmlesssss and powerless in the impoverisssshed streets of Gotham. Timmmmmmmothyyyyyyyy DRAKE! A motherlesssss….hopelesssss……WEAKLING….WITHOUT—SNKKKT—A PRAYERRRR! Angel or no angel….you arrrre a ssssshame of any obsssssesssion I may have sssspent my life on. And now you've come full circcccle to your pathetickkkkk rootssss afterrrr years of flounderrrring around in a superhero cossssstume. My killingggg of you will be asssss much a favorrrrr to the Balance of Moralssss as it shall be a TWISSSSTING of itttt-snkkkt!"**_

Tim shook.

Tearing.

Wincing and staring with weak, blue eyes up at Deathstroke. "For the love of God, what is it, Sl-Slade? What do you want from us?"

"_**Snkkkkt-Clkkkkkk…Hckkkk…."**_

_**Chiiiiii-iiiiii-iiiiiing…..**_

"If I'm nothing b-but a weak waste of l-life….then what k-keeps you coming back to---nnngh….t-t-tear apart our l-l-lives….?"

_**CHIIING!**_ Deathstroke ended the blade right at Tim's figure. He leered over him. Hissing down red vapors.

"_**Snkkkkt….I wanttt to stand in the warrrrm blood of everrrrything you stand forrrrr, Robin, afterrr painting this coveted bird-cage you call a City WITH ITTT-SNKKKT!"**_

_**GRIPPP!.!**_

Deathstroke leaned down and hoisted Tim up by his metal-and-flesh fingers around the boy's throat.

"_**Hckkkk!.!…..I wantttt the exquisittte taste of your greatttest sorrrowsss come to lifffffe…clik-clik-clikkttt!"**_ He lifted Tim to face him. Blue eyes to pulsing red eye. _**"I havvve founddd perfecttttion in Death—snkkkt—and yourrr ruination shallll complettte me…"**_

TH-THWUMP!

He tossed the maskless Boy Wonder down to the rooftop. And as flames and ashes splashed down over his smoking-red crown, he raised the blade up—almost ceremonially—in two twitching hands.

"_**SNkkkkt—the angel's part is being re-written. It isss the fatherrrr in the endddd….who must slay the SON! And you, Robinnn….have been my—snkkt—LAMB…from the START!.!.!"**_

Tim sat on his knees.

Bleeding.

Numb.

Staring into the flames.

His blue eyes thin.

Thinly inhaling….inhaling the smoke all around.

Black.

_Black. _

_Charring._

"_**Burrrrrn, Robin…."**_

"……"

"_**Burrrn…learrrrn what it meanssss to burrrrn….and tell me—someday—what it is likkkkke…..snkkkkt-clik-clik-clik-clik-HCKKKKT!"**_

Tim shuddered.

Tim sat on his knees.

His arms drenched at his sides.

His chest and shoulder exposed.

His cape tattered.

Facing the fire.

The black oblivion beyond.

The end.

The End.

And Red Aviary raised his blade.

And Red Aviary brought it down.

Slowly…..slicing the air.

Slowly….billowing red flame.

Slowly trailing a crimson line of destruction straight into the back of the boy's black-haired cranium….

….and Tim breathed.

Calmly.

Squinting at the obscurity of the flame.

Meditating….

_Meditating………_

And he saw.

And he heard.

Singing to him through song-swish of death hurtling toward his ears….

"_Run, Robin! Hurry!"_

_  
"Annie! No!" _

_Robin held his hand out towards the curdling mass of brown._

"_NO!" _

'_Annie' surged in and out of Clayface's mass. Being consumed. Being swallowed. Being murdered._

_**Murdered**__._

_That evil word._

_That dark abyss that sloshed like an icy cloud over the Gotham Cityscape and brought with it the laughter and gaiety of its brother Death._

_The burning traces in between._

_The fires that singed in Tim's eyes._

_As he sat on the fire escape outside his beat-down apartment. _

_Ignoring the soul-shaking shouts of his frustrated, drunken father._

_Reaching a frail, tear-stained hand of fingers spread against the cold, gray horizon._

_The filtered wintry melancholy of the endless death that was the Gotham sky._

_And suddenly—as if in a flash—those tear stains matched the grayness of the horizon and reminded him of the paleness of his mother's arms._

_As she engulfed him in a hug from behind when he was barely four._

_Huddled in a closet while his father—angry from a bad stunt with Two-Face—stormed around the apartment and tore furniture and tables to shreds._

_And his mother stroked his soft head of hair. _

_And shakingly kissed the back of his neck._

"_I love you, Timothy. I have always and shall always love you."_

_Tim shook._

_Tim shivered._

_Quivering all over._

_And hiding it under the callous welts from his father's fists._

_The red wounds from where his bare feet stomped over broken glass in the Gotham alleyways while running away with someone's purse._

_The stinging gas of the Joker during a raid with Batman._

_The cold-shiver-showers that he took at age fourteen to chase the demons away with no luck._

_The blows and the uppercuts and the kicks to the stomach dealt by Slade while dressed in his apprentice outfit._

_The shadows from which he saw Starfire—obscured—like a freshly blown-out candle in the rooms of the Tower where he wasn't in._

_Sobbing and rejecting his death in the fantasies of his mind._

_Wounding…_

_Searing with guilt…_

"_Run, Robin!"_

_Annie shouted._

"_Hurry!"_

"…………_," for once……the thirteen-year-old Boy Wonder didn't move. He didn't strike back at Clayface. And he didn't……_

_He didn't turn and run._

_He just stayed where he was._

_Perfectly balanced._

_Staring at the consumed girl._

_Contemplating……_

"…………_you are not real……"_

_Annie gasped._

_Annie drowned._

_Annie faded into mud._

"………_I……I c-can finally see that, Annie…………y-you are not real………"_

_Clayface groaned._

_Clayface dissolved._

_The rusted catwalk and the metal mesh started to fade simultaneously away in Dali-esque haze and distortion._

_  
"…………," Robin raised his hands and stared at them. Ungloved. Cold. A four-year-old on his fire escape who had finally……finally touched the horizon. The world on the other side of Metropolis. The sobbing alien girl curled on the bed beyond the glass in a pink room. "………I am not running anywhere………I………I-I am staying right here………" _

_Tim looked up._

_His mother lie on the floor. _

_Pounding the carpet._

_  
Screaming……howling at her abusive husband. _

_As Robert Drake screamed and shook his fist and kicked her._

"_This……is where I've always been………running in circles……with or without the cape………this is……this is it, Slade."_

…………

"_But it does not have to be……," Tim's fists clenched. He was fourteen years old on the balcony of Wayne Manor. Growing. Changing. Contemplating. He clenched his jaw and hissed: "I know……wh-what I want it to be."_

_And he shuddered._

_And he shook._

_And then he sobbed._

_The tears came down his cheeks and he laid back._

_Leaning his head into the nook of Starfire's neck._

_Who held him._

_  
Who held him on that bench in the park after the visit to the skating rink. _

_The day Jericho freed him—if but for a moment—from the fiery constraints of the full circle._

_And Tim sobbed. _

"_Th-This………is where I want t-to be………"_

_He rubbed the moisture from his eyes._

_He stared breathlessly across the Main Room._

_Cyborg and Beast Boy were making pancakes._

_Noir and Raven bravely stood first in line to receive healthy helpings._

_Tempest stood in the sidelines, arms crossed….saying something sarcastic that made Noir chuckled breathily and Raven roll her eyes._

_Beast Boy added a joke……for which Cyborg nudged him and Tempest finally cracked._

_And in the center of them……_

_Laughing the most._

_Smiling the most._

_Warm green eyes thin……searching……entreating……_

_A hand outstretched. _

_Amber skin._

_Touching._

_Searing through the glove._

_The tears of his mother._

_The adrenaline of crime-fighting._

_Starfire's shuddering breath everytime Robin so much as hugged her._

_Starfire……overtaken with Robin._

_  
Robin's __**life**__. _

_And feeding back to it._

"_My life has been running in circles………" _

……

"_Circles under the low ceiling of death……"_

……

"_I cannot escape this dark fate……"_

……

"_And neither can my friends……"_

……

"_And neither can she……"_

……

_  
"But……by God……she has something……"_

……

"_S-Something……a warmth……a-an absolute warmth. Sh-She has……"_

……

"_She has something nameless……"_

……

"_And __**that**__ is where the bird flies free."_

……

_  
"Not in my legacy. Not in my past. Not in any way I can summon to fight back or mask away or run away from the pain."_

……

"_Everything lies in her. That……that perfectly nameless power. That center between life and death……that is ever perpetually………warm. But not burning. But not freezing. Just………indefinable………nameless……formless……"_

……

"…………"

……

"_It………It is so simple. It is so liberating. Like a climax without its punchline. A story without its plot. Like………L-Like something ludicrously beautiful………the n-name I was given before I was born………the sound of one hand clapping………"_

……

"………_why have I spent so much time………wasting this space I call a body…………over trying to understand that which is not meant to be understood………but to be __**seized**__ and __**FELT**__?"_

……

"_There is no point for flight. There is no fear. There is no point for surrender. There is no defeat. There is no point for fighting……for there is no __**fight**__. Everything flows. My god……it flows. Why couldn't I accept it……why couldn't I--?"_

……

"_My god…she does accept it. She accepts it……and………she still can………"_

_Tim clenched his fists. _

_He snarled._

"_And __**I CAN."**_

_He shook and boiled all over._

_Righteous fury mixed with the heat in his breath. _

_Pain and joy……life and death……agony and ecstasy._

_It didn't mix. It didn't separate. It didn't do anything at all, for there was no dichotomy._

_It merely dawned on the Boy Wonder that everything and everything was solid contributors to a whole. A circle. And they were as much that circle in that the 'circle' was an illusion. And everything………__**everything**__ that Tim labeled and feared and hated suddenly ceased to exist. _

_And the energy in his system equalized. And he splashed into the neutral waters of the Balance of Morals to come hurtling back out black as the night and as loud as a siren._

"_AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA_AAAAAAAAAAUGH!"

_**SW-SWOOOOSH!**_

Tim's hands shot up, palms flat, and—_**CLAPPPP!.!.!.!**_—closed tightly over the flat sides of Deathstroke's blade.

Stopping it within a bare inch of his cranium.

_**TWNNNNNG-G-G-G!.!.!.!**_

"_**HCKKKK-SNKKKT?.!.?.!.?.!"**_ Deathstroke recoiled on his end of the sword.

And Tim pulsed. And his blue eyes reopened. And when they did—as if rupturing with spastic epiphany—there was something very striking about them that fountained outward in a flickering _**BLACK!.!.!.!.!**_

_**FLASSSSSSS-SSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

A warbling wave of obsidian smoke ate straight up the trailing red vapors and exploded in mahogany fury against Deathstroke's hilt-grip.

_**FWOOOOSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

"_**HRAAUCHKKT!.!.!"**_ Red Aviary recoiled wildly from the boy…

Tim sat on his knees. Arms draping down at his side. Trailing a needle-nose of black incense from every finger digit. He panted….panted…hissed through clenched teeth….flickered his eyes back to his natural normal blue, and shouted as he—_**THW-THWPPP!.!.!**_—vaulted his agile body upwards and flipped….flipped….flipped backwards over Slade in a drop-kick.

_**WHAM!.!.!.!**_

Tim's steel-tipped boot slammed down into Deathstroke's cranium.

_TH-TH-TH-THWUMPP!.!.!_Deathstroke went rolling wildly across the ash-laden rooftop till he rolled awkwardly up to his knees. Hissing in confusion….panic. His red-eye pulsing like a bicycle reflector.

"Nnnnnn-Nnnngh!" Tim growled and marched firmly…bleeding….towards the 'Reaper'.

Red Aviary stumbled up to his feet, hissed—_**"Hckkkk-Snkkkt!"**_—and jabbed straight towards Tim in a red-bladed lunge.

Tim snarled, raised a bare forearm, and blocked the serrated metal with an agilely twisting arm. As if his flesh was pure granite, Tim somehow—meditatingly—managed to avoid the slicing edge of the red metal, to twirl his arm about the length of the blade, and to shove into Red Aviary through Slade's very own bludgeon.

_TH-THWAPPP!.!.!.!_

Deathstroke stumbled back towards the fire….hissing….tripping over his undead self….

"You are _**NOTHING, SLADE!.!.!.!.!"**_ Tim shouted. "You think Death is powerful? You think it rules over life and balance? Well I have news for you!"

"_**SILENCCCEE-HCKKK!"**_ Deathstroke lunged again.

Tim effortlessly sidestepped, twirled, grabbed Slade by his shoulders, slammed his knee into the Terminator's gut, and flung him across the roof.

Snarling: "Everything is equal….for everything is unrelated! The only foil there ever is…..is _**who we are to ourselves!.!.!.!"**_

Deathstroke stumbled to his feet….snarled….breathed out red vapors, and slashed heavily down at Tim.

_**SWOOOO-OOOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

Tim rushed forward, ran under the blade, and gripped his left hand and right arm—locking—around Deathstroke's twitching neck. Bending him back painfully.

"_**SNkkkt-Hraa-aa-aaauchkKKKTT!"**_

Tim seethed through clenched teeth in Deathstroke's face. Lit by the halo of fire. Hissing. Shouting.

"The reason why you conceived—and then tortured—your very own kids is because they couldn't help you where you most wanted them to. The reason why you raped and impregnated Terra was for the same reason. The reason why….you've chosen me….and _**obsessed**_….over me…._**and raised all…MANNER…OF HELL….OVER ME….**_is that you, Slade, can't seem to immortalize yourself! And it shakes you to the very being because you are _**AFRAID…..OF DEATH!**_ So afraid that you sought anything and _**EVERYTHING **_that could _**BRING YOU BACK**_ from that burning fate of eternity that awaits you and you chose Noir's Spectrum to do it through! You made a _**PACT**_ with _**DEATH ITSELF**_! Slade died…and in death he became Red Aviary! And still…._**STILL**_ you _**CANNOT OWN THAT…WHICH YOU WASTED YOUR PUTRID LIFE FOR! YOU CANNOT….MASTER….**__**ME!.!.!"**_

"_**HCkkkkt—You shall die, Robin…,"**_ Deathstroke hissed back. Red vapors ever-freezing to hide the sudden quiver in his undead voice. _**"**__**YOU AND ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS WILL DIE!.!.!"**_

"You think I don't know that? You think I'm not _**PREPARED**_? Unlike you—you smoking assed son of a bitch—_**I'M NOT ABOUT TO THROW A SATANIC, DEATH-INCARNATE HISSY FIT OVER IT!.!.!"**_

_**TH-THWOMPPP!.!.!**_

Tim shoved Deathstroke back.

Deathstroke teetered towards the edge of the buildingside…..and the flames that curtained up beyond it.

"_**Nrggh—Hckkkt!"**_ He looked up. Red-eye-pulsing.

Tim clenched his fists. "It's _**OVER**_, Slade! It was over the very moment Noir shoved his blade through your heart!" Tim screamed: "_**IT WAS OVER THE VERY MOMENT YOU FIRST LAID HANDS ON ME!.!.! I…..SHALL NOT BE…YOUR SOLACE FROM YOUR VERY OWN FATE!.!.!.! **_And neither…._**NEITHER**_ shall be your _**CHILDREN**_!.!.!"

"_**Shut up and die…..Hckkkk-CLIK-CLIK-SNKKKT!"**__**CHIIIII-IIIIIING!**_ Deathstroke wielded the red blade with a vaporous scream and came madly charging. _**"SHUT UP AND DDDDDIIIIEEE!.!.!.!"**_

One last pulse of black in the Boy Wonder's eyes…..

…..and…..

_**TH-THWPP-**__**THWACCCCK!.!.!.!**_

He madly uppercutted Deathstroke on the incoming before Red Aviary could so much as come within sword-range of the Boy Wonder.

"_**HRAAAAUCHKKKT!.!.!"**_ Red Aviary flew back towards the flames—

_**POW!**_ Swisssssssh-_**TH-THUNK!**_

--and suddenly snagged to a stop and lingered in the burning tongues of fire and plasma at the end of Robin's grappling hook.

Robin held his end of the corded device….keeping Deathstroke's teetering form boiling in the amber-red field of heat.

"The difference between you and me, Slade…."

"_**Nnnnskkkt-Raaaaucktt!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke groaned and twitched and convulsed in the blood-hissing flames.

Struggling…helpless at the end of the cord suspending him in cooking Hell.

_SSSSSSSSssssssssssss!_

"…..the difference is that I can stop obsessing…."

"_**Hraaaa-aaaauchkkkktt!"**_

"….and from now on, I choose to be who I am…."

"_**Snkkkkkt—Nnnngh!"**_

"….born to die….dying to live…."

_SSSSSsssssssss!_

"_**Clikkkkssssnnntt!.!.!"**_

"….surrounded by my friends….and those whom I love…."

"_**Hraaauchkkt—HRAAAAUCHKKKT!"**_

"….ultimately satisfied that you—Slade—are going to be burning…."

_SSSSSssssss!_

_  
__**"Nnnnnkkkt---"**_

"And you shall be burning….."

"—_**snkkkttt-nraaaAAAUGH!.!-"**_

"….for a very…."

"_**---AAA-AAAAHAAAAUGHNNNKKT!.!-"**_

"…..very….."

"_**RAAA-HRAAAAAUCHKKKKKT!.!.!"**_

"…FUCKING….."

_**SSSSSSSSSS**__SSSSSSSSSSSsssssssss!.!.!_

"…_**LONG TIME!.!.!.!"**_

_**CL-CLAK!**_

Tim let go of the cord.

_**PHWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOMB!.!.!.!**_

And Deathstroke—now a burning pillar of mangled flesh wrapped around whirring metal parts…

….fell screaming.

Burning.

Deteriorating.

Evaporating….

Towards the distant, fatal height of the scarred City ash-laden below….

_**FWOOOOOO-OOOOOOO-SSSSSSH!.!.!**_

The nearby alleyway flashed with an explosion of heat and flame and organically-singed discharge from far below.

A bright strobe into the red holocaust.

Blanketing Tim with ashes.

And yet….soothing him at the same, morose time.

And the bleeding…..battered….bruised Boy Wonder fell to his knees.

Panting in the center of the ring of fire.

Panting….panting…..panting….

Shaking.

Clenching his fists.

Tightening his body.

Inhaling sharply…..

….and—

"_**RAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_ he tilted his head up to the red sky and screamed a bellowing howl that blanketed his portion of the Cityscape…..numbing him….freeing him….

Under a baptism of tears….

The cold night air turning the corners of his eyes to frost.

And he slumped over.

Sobbing.

Hyperventilating.

Calming….calming….calming….

A final shudder in the center of the ring of fire…..where everything was actually combining into one solid line….one cohesive plume of smoke.

Nameless…formless….ever changing….

Tim shuddered…..sighed….

And all but collapsed in the ashes.

"…..my superpower……is th-the power to live….and die at the same time….and not st-stress over it………"

…….

"I'll choose that over th-the reddest bird cage anyday….."

And he fell silent.


	266. Break the Circle part 26

**266. Break the Circle part 26**

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_**SMASSSSSSSSSSS-SSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

In space, the ion cannon ruptured and burst straight down the center.

It exploded into two flaming, plasma-streaking splashes of bright amber and green as the energy core shot out in every conceivable direction.

And shattering through the twin solar panel 'wings'….

….trailing sparks of burning green….

A tense and seething Supergirl soared.

Her fists outstretched.

Smashing the satellite into irreparable shreds….

…..Before plummeting earthward…

And burning an empty-lung lunge into the atmosphere.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**Shooooooom!.!.!.!**_

Over the City.

In the red-tainted sky….

Streaks of burning green satellite pieces fell.

Cascading.

Plummeting.

At the former site of the Crunch, the soldiers and Wildebeests stood stock-still between mounds of debris.

Staring up from the streets…..

Murmuring and grunting in apprehension and wonder.

The green comets seared through the air…burning up….

Fizzing out.

Turning to tiny green trails of gravity-throttling pellets.

Soon, a practical fireworks display of emerald chaos splattered across the sky.

Streaking through the red.

Hushing the quiet agony of the battle-weary City.

The Justice League and subsequent heroes stood in a weary circle.

John Stewart with his cast. Bruised and panting.

Henry Irons. Eyes narrow on the sky as he held his battered helmet.

Black Canary and Green Arrow….leaning breathlessly against each other and gazing upward.

Catwoman against a building front. Her whip dangling by her side.

Wonder Woman. Her arms folded. Her lips parted.

Batman in a tattered cape. Holding Superman up…..a worried and breathless Superman.

The Flash panted. His eyeslits twitched at the sight of the splashing green. He glanced aside at Martian Manhunter.

"Kara was successful," J'onn droned. Gazing heavenward. "The satellite has been stopped."

"Yeah….," Flash gulped and gestured wildly. "B-But did Supergirl make it?"

"………"

The League members looked at the alien.

Flash frowned. "**Well?"**

"…………" J'onn turned his head. He looked at Flash. "……………." He smiled…..

Flash blinked.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

In a blur of blue and red, Supergirl touched down.

"Supergirl!" Irons uttered.

"Thank Hera…."

"She made it….."

"…………..," in the middle of the League………...the Girl of Steel collapsed to her knees with a groan.

Superman gasped. He fought his way out of Batman's hold, stumbled forward, and knelt in front of her. "K-Kara……..Kara, look at me…."

He brought a strong pair of fingers forward….and tilted her head up.

Kara gazed up at him. Tiredly. Breathless. And when she did…..her eyes were watering. Tearing. Sapphire streams from sapphire eyes. She smiled ever so painfully and whispered: "Gee, Clark…..I…..I-I forgot wh-what that _felt like_………."

He smiled warmly at her. Superman engulfed the Girl of Steel in a strong hug.

She fell into his chest…hugging him back. Shuddering.

"Well done, girl…………"

And the League huddled around them.

In the center of the Street.

In the ravaged Downtown.

Where all was still…and all was silent…

Under the green-flashing aura of streaking satellite comets.

_**Shooooom!**_

_**  
Sh-Shoooom!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**Sh-Shooooom!**_

The green trails fell and streaked over the pink head of Jinx as she limped down Main Street on her own.

Panting.

Looking all about the rubble and urban mayhem.

Swallowing, cupping her petite hands around her lips, and calling out: "Hellllllllllo?"

Silence.

"Is anyone therrrrre?"

Silence.

"Is the battttttle overrrrrrr?"

Silence.

"Where in Hecate's name is everyone?"

Silence.

"Hrmphhh…..does anyone care?" she planted her hands on her hips and pouted. "You think someone would have lost an eye by now…."

She gazed over….

And her cat-eyes exploded.

As did her jaw drop as she gasped and ran over. "LESLIE!.!.!.!"

In a pink blur, Jinx slid over and knelt around a freshly steaming crater where a bruised and singed Pulsade lie limp.

Her blonde hair tossed.

Her usual, scowling face melted in a numb pantomime of pain.

"Leslie…..LESLIE!" Jinx panted….shaking her shoulders…stirring her upper body. She bit her lip. "N-No….Leslie…..P-Please….PLEASE!"

Silence……..

………

Jinx hyperventilated. Her pink eyes watered. She brought a wrist up to her lips and bit down. Grimacing. Sobbing. "N-No……" Her eyes clenched shut. Her thin form shook and shivered. "No, Hecate……..not her…..not Leslie….."

She deflated.

She shook….choked…..

She buried her face in Pulsade's tummy.

"…..she m-means more than the world to me…..I-I couldn't stay alive without her……Nnnngh….Leslie….I love you…….I love you so much……"

……..

…….

"……_..nnnngh……enough with the bloomin' mush already….."_

Jinx gasped.

Her eyes popped wide….cat orbs twitching. "L-Leslie?"

The blonde winced, rubbed her blonde head, and sat up with a groan. "Nnnngh….so dramatic, I swear."

"You're…..Y-You're not dead?"

"Hell no. It'd take a herd of radioactive elephants tap-dancing twenty-four-seven over my arse to usher me into the grave! Pfft…you should know that, love!"

"But….B-But what were you doing lying here so still—"

"I was pissed tired!" Pulsade waved a hand. "Took out three damn jeeps on my own and nearly lost my hard skull in the process! Wouldn't that shag your fighting spirit rotten too?"

"Nnnngh—Rotten BITCH!" Jinx hissed and shoved Pulsade to the floor. "I HATE YOU!.!.! I wish you **WERE** DEAD!"

Leslie stumbled on the broken asphalt. "Heheheheheh….," a painfully awkward smile barely traced her lips. "….Do you, now, love?"

Jinx folded her arms over her petite chest. Pouting….pouting….pouting…..seething…..

"…..nice to see you made it too, Jean."

"………nnngh………yeah….."

"Yeah……"

"…………………….f-forgive me for calling you a bitch?" Jinx put on a puppy-dog face.

Pulsade shrugged and stood up. "You never ask me to in any other circumstance---nnngh…" She stumbled.

Jinx gently helped her to her feet. "Well how about this one?"

"I-I'd rather worry over where Terra is at the moment…."

Jinx took a deep breath. Nodding her head with a calm expression. "I know where she is…."

"Hmmm?"

"I've sensed her……r-resonating……"

……

And both girls turned….

….and gazed at the spires of the City beyond the satellite shards.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**Sh-Shooooom!**_

_**  
Shooom!**_

North along Main Street, the comets descended overhead.

Breaking the red.

Disturbing the stillness.

…….

_**WHAM!.!.!.!**_

_**SWOOOOOOSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

Dagger's white-shimmering body….

My black-smoking self….

We entangled in mid-air….

Twirled….

And plummeted hard from a high skyscraper and down…down….down….

Towards a broad warehouse rooftop below.

_**FWOOOOO-OOOOO-OOOOOSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

_**WHAM!**_

I struck—bouncing with an agonizing splash of murk energy.

_TH-TH-THWUMPP!-THWUMP-THWUMP-THWUMP!_

I rolled across the warehouse, grunting mutely and wincing all over in pain.

_**SP-SPLASSSSSH!.!.!.!**_ Dagger landed—one armed—in a curtain of bright white steam. With bastardized Construction, his eyes pulsed a brilliant platinum and he twirled the knife of strobing ivory in his only right hand.

And---

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

He blurred at me.

I knelt…struggling to get up—

_**SLASSSSSSSSSH!**_ A swing of his knife.

I grunted and rolled aside—

_**CRKKKKK-KKKKKK!**_ The burning heat of the Construction slash ripped up a line of warehouse shingles.

I gritted my teeth and somersaulted backwards—

_**CRUNNNNCCCCCH!**_ A burning jab straight down exploded a crater in the warehouse structure…knocking me back so that I tumbled across the rooftop.

_THWUMP!THWUMP!THWUMP!_

He stood.

Panting.

Bleeding.

Twirling the knife and pulsing the gold-bright essence of Terra through his arteries and limbs and throat: "You run away too much, Jordan. Just because you're Balance doesn't mean you have to always be _speed_."

_**TH-THWUMP!**_I leapt up to my feet. Snarling at him. Myrkblade raised and dancing with black vapors.

He marched towards me. A stream of hot green satellite comets surging down past his silhouette. "Thatta boy, Jordan. Now…..where were we?"

_**THWOOOOOSSSS-SSSSH!**_

He streamed at me with a white cloud exploding outward from his flimsy knife.

A wall of solid _**white**_ power screamed at me.

I gritted my teeth, twirled a murking blade, and streaked at him for all I was worth.

_THWOOOOOOSH!_

_Aaaaa-aaaaah!.!.!_

_**FLASSSSH!.!.!.!**_

And in the background….

The green comets sailed towards the towering spires of the City…

Kobayashi Tower….and Wayne Enterprises…

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra slumped to her knees atop the summit of the City.

Panting…..her eyes a fading golden fire….

Her arms rested numbly to her sides.

Her silken gold hair blew in the wind.

And she sniffed….shook…..and exhaled a shudder that eventually cracked through her vocal cords and let loose a choke and a sob or two…..

And then she heard….

Scuffling….

Shuffling…..

Feet and limbs and fingers clawing…

Terra blinked her wet blue eyes opened.

She sniffed…bit her lip….

…..and gazed down over the edge of the building.

Gasping.

"_Nnnngh………nnnngh!"_ a sweating, shirtless Changeling was desperately clawing up the surface of the buildingside.

Terra's lips quivered. She gazed over further and breathed: "B-Beast Boy?"

"……..," he panted. He looked up at her. Dark green eyes weak.

"…….." She gulped. "Garfield?"

He shuddered. He reached a hand out. "Terra…."

"Garfield!"

He held his breath. He leaned back. He prepared to stretch his arms out and splice them into wings—

_**SHOOO-OOOOO-OOOOOOM!.!.!.!**_

Terra's blonde hair whipped wildly in the air.

She gasped. Eyes wide….exploding.

She glanced up.

So did Beast Boy. He shouted---

_**FWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOSSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

A green, burning satellite shard plummeted murderously close to the Tower and shot towards Wayne Enterprises.

The earth maiden gasped, wobbled, and fell on her rear atop the summit of the Tower.

Kobayashi Tower…..which was shaking and wobbling from concrete base to pinnacle.

And it shook Changeling clean off his grip.

"Aaaaaugh!"

_Th-Thwoooosh!_

The green animorph plummeted down a tier of building floors and glass.

Terra looked over. Panicked. Wide-eyed—

_**WH-**__**WHAMM!.!.!**_

Changeling landed hard like a sack of heavy vegetables on a balcony several meters below.

"Nnnnnngh………." He was still.

Very……very still……

Terra shrieked: "BEAST BOY!.!.!.!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………………"

Eyes.

Green eyes.

Batting open.

Weak and twitching.

Pain…..

"Nnnnnnnghhh….."

Starfire stirred.

Starfire sat up.

Wincing with each twist and turn of her muscles.

A straining….

A shuddering….

No sooner was she 'sitting upright'….Starfire spat forth an exhalation of pain. She clutched her chest. Fingers squeezing at caking….drying green blood.

Tears squeezed out of her eyes.

And her crying didn't decrease any when she gazed up towards the sky….

….and saw nothing but red.

The same hue that swallowed Robin forever.

_The Robin that could never live with her._

"………," she shuddered. Tears falling hotly from her curved optics. "……….wh-why did you not finish me, Slade?"

Silence.

Cold…drifting air.

Starfire winced.

Choking back a sob or two….she hobbled up to her scarred feet.

Clutching herself.

Limping….limping…..limping across the rooftop…..

Shuddering breath.

"…….I……I-I am nothing now…..more than ever I was….."

Starfire hobbled towards the stairwell at the top of Wayne Enterprises. Surrounded by rubble and glass. The shattered remains of the huge, electrically-lit letters of the skyscraper summit.

She paused in the middle of her movement…..

Her eyes gazed into the rooftop.

"………"

She slowly turned around.

Heaving.

Green eyes narrow as---

_Shoooooo-oooooooom!_

Then her optics widened.

Starfire gasped.

_**SHOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOM!.!.!.!.!**_

The next wave of green comets screamingly hurled themselves into the top levels of Wayne Enterprises.

_**SHATTTTTTER!.!.!.!.!**_

The huge white letters exploded and spread everywhere.

The rooftop shattered and divided in two….in three….four….

Slabs of tar and concrete splattered through the air.

Metal cobwebs…steel-string supports ruptured, swam through the green fire, and expanded everywhere.

"AAAAA-AAAAAAAAH!.!.!" Starfire was screaming. Starfire was flailing. Bloodily tossed betwixt the shattering impact.

_**CRASSSSS-SSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Atop a burning building across the City.

Surrounded by a ring of flame.

Tim sat up straight.

Gasping.

His blue eyes wide.

Twitching against the flame.

"……..!.!.!"

He spun around…

….gazing westward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOOOSH!**_

Starfire plummeted.

Starfire fell.

She twirled and tossed and flipped through the spiderweb of exposed steel wires and crossbeams.

Panting….twitching…

Reaching a bloodied arm out—

_**CLUTCH!.!.!.!**_

Starfire lurched…..gasping…

Dangling weakly above the mess of skyscraper destruction.

She panted….panted….panted….

And gazed down past her feet.

The top ten stories of Wayne Enterprises had shattered completely from the heated impact.

Green fire traced the scant remaining supports of steel that stretched and bird-fingered upwards into air-slicing claws of serrated metal.

Starfire tangled above the gash made from the impact. And beneath her were well over seventy stories of plummeting death.

A shoe slipped loose from beneath her jean's ankle cuff and fell, flip-flopping, twirling madly to a crushing concrete doom imperceivably far below.

She twitched….winced….and struggled to summon the energy of flight…..

…..but failed.

From where she dangled, her one arm twitched and strained. She panted……a panting that turned into a sobbing….and a sobbing that turned into a shaking….

Loosening her grip one finger digit at a time…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tim panted.

Tim's fists clenched.

His face was pale and his eyes moistened into sweet sea holes.

"……..St-Starfire….."

……

_Thwooosh!_

He jumped up.

He ran.

He sprinted.

He snarled, dove his body forward, and leapt clear through the curtain of blazing fire.

"Nnnnnnngh!.!.!"

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**FWOOOOO-OOOOOSH!.!.!.!.!**_

Dagger blurred at me. Snarling: "Raaa-aaaAAUGH!"

_**SLASSSSSH!.!.!**_ His white-glowing knife sliced through the air.

I gritted my teeth, slid back, and raised Myrkblade just in time.

_**CL-CLAAAAK!**_

Sparks flew.

Black against white.

He grinded against me.

I fought with all I could with waves of murk. My legs buckling underneath me….shaking and shivering against the warehouse rooftop.

"Nnnnngh…..you can't fight…..Construction….with just your powers alone, Jordan!.!.!" Dagger hissed at me. Sweating. Scraped and bleeding all over. "You _know this! Stop depending on the superficial and TAKE……TAKE WHAT IS YOURS TO ADAPT!"_**  
**  
I hissed.

Murk screaming out through the corners of my eyes.

I shook and quivered.

The corners of my obsidian cornea danced a foreign color.

A touch of _crimson……_

"You can't defeat my _STRENGTH!.!.! _Adapt, Jordan! ADAPT!"

I sneered mutely up at him.

_That is not your Strength, Dagger. _

_That is TERRA'S!.!.!_

**FWOOOOSH!**

I teleported, blew through him in smoke form, and materialized behind him with a downswing of my blade.

_**SL-SLASSSSH!**_

He spun—and with so much as a tiny swipe of his blade—knocked me back with a splash of hot white fury. _**FWOOOSH!**_

_Nnnngh—God!_

I twirled, flailed, flipped, and landed in a reverse slide to the very edge of the warehouse.

_STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP!_ With Construction heavy steps, the one-armed Dagger charged me with his blade raised high. Twirling. A cyclone of kaleidoscopic white _**FLASHING-FLASHING-FLASHING!.!.!.!**_ "Nnnnnngh!"

I was blinded.

So….

I closed my black eyes.

_**SLASSSSH!**_ His knife stabbed down.

_**THWOOOOOSH! **_Myrkblade flew blindly up.

_**CL-CLASSSSH!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tim hurled himself from rooftop to rooftop.

Running as quickly as his bruised, bloodied limbs could carry him.

His eyemask shredded off.

His dancing yellow cape in tatters.

His tunic shredded and exposing the upper parts of his chest and back.

His gloves ripped and flimsy green scraps.

He panted….panted…panted….

Leaping.

Climbing.

Scaling balconies and buildings and rooftops.

Gliding across streets and rolling across buildingtops just to jump up and resume running.

Streaking.

Westward……towards the shattered site of the Wayne Enterprises building.

"St-Starfire…….," he panted.

Running.

Running.

_Running…_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Nnnnngh…..!" Starfire struggled.

Dangling.

Her quivering-struggling hand tensing in its hold to the sharp steel beam-end.

She shuddered.

She shook all over.

She stretched agonizingly her other hand up to grab ahold of a piece of the steel beam further up the stalk.

Struggling against the pain of the cold December air against the cuts across her palms.

Tearing….whimpering—

_**GROANNNN!.!.!.!**_

The steel beam lurched.

Starfire lost her grip.

"AAAAA-AAAAH!"

She fell…plummeted off the skyscraper—

_**SNAG!**_

Only to grab ahold at the last second of another sharp beam. One that cracked and lurched with her meager weight. Shaking and threatening to break.

Starfire clenched her teeth….

She squinted her eyes shut….

Green tears squeezed out and flowed down her cheeks.

She shuddered and exhaled in a shaking….choking breath…

"X'Hal……meledriet sul'm cassata muni……membrett'r thriel Robin, X'hal……senkatta m-membrett'r th-thriel Robinnnn…X'halllll…."

She wept……..

Dangling……

Dying………….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra panted….sliding…..gliding….

Down the face of Kobayashi Tower.

With the aid of levitating, golden pebbles.

She slid and ran down the tier of glass panels…

Eyes wide….wetly quivering….

As she descended towards his wilted figure.

Murmuring….

"B-Beast Boy…."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"NNNNGH!"

_**SLASSS-SSSSH!.!.!**_

"HRRRGHHH!.!.!.!"

_**SWOOO-OOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

Dagger swung and swung and swung with the Construction waves given him by the vial of Terra's essence.

I panted….sweated….and rolled, side-stepped, and leapt over each powerful swing of Life-strong immensity.

I leapt over a platinum-hot burst of steam from his blade and forearm….

…..twirled Myrkblade….

….and blurred at him.

_**SL-SL-SL-SL-SLASSSSSH!**_ Myrkblade sliced in a vicious circle, focusing in on Dagger at the center.

He reared back, raised his knife wrist, and flung his arm forward at me with a burst of _**white**_.

_**FW-FW-FWOOOOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

A hot searing wave hit me.

I closed my eyes against the blinding lava as—

_**CRKKKKK!.!.!**_

--the golden wall seared the joints apart in my shades and shattered my black eyepiece completely.

_**CRACK!**_

With naked eyes clenched shut, I plowed directly into Dagger's battered body.

_**WHAM!.!.!**_

"Nnnngh!"

_Drrghh!_

We tumbled, tumbled, tumbled, and exploded in a double-helix of mixing _**black**_ and _**white**_ on the far side of the warehouse.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSSH!**_

I flew off across the buildingtop.

_**FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!**_ With a guiding glide of synthetic Construction, Dagger angled himself towards the Earth's center and landed upright in the center of the building.

_P-PLANT!_

I awkwardly landed….balanced.

I took a deep breath.

Dagger sneered.

….

_**FWOOOOSH!**_

_**FW-FWOOOOOOSSSH!**_

We blurred at each other.

Him spinning his steam-spitting knife like a white buzz-saw_** TH-TH-TH-THWISSSH!**_

I dragging Myrkblade with sparkling vapors of black into his throttling form. _**CHIIIII-IIIII-IIIIIING!.!.!**_

I snarled.

My black eyes wide and spitting black tendrils.

And the corners danced a momentary flame of responsive…knee-jerk _**red**_.

_**CLASSS-SSSS-SSSH!.!.!.!**_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tim climbed and climbed apartment complexes.

Commercial buildings.

Scaling rooftops.

Jumping up to his feet.

Not so much as pausing to breathe.

He ran straight towards a skyscraper's rooftop ledge…across the street from Wayne Enterprises.

He gazed up.

Panting….

Watching her dangling.

"…….."

He clenched his jaw.

He stared forward.

He sprinted.

He bolted to the rooftop's edge and leapt off….

….flying over the impossible distance.

Arms spread….like a bird….against the red….

"_Hold……"_

_Fwooooosh!_

"………_on……"_

_FWOOOOOSH!_

"…………_STARFIRE!"_

_**FWOOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

_**TH-THWAP!.!.!**_

Tim all but slammed into the glass face of the tower.

"Nnngh!"

He toppled.

Fell.

Glided towards a deathly plummet.

He clenched his teeth, growled, and stabbed two birdarangs at once into the blurring cold surface of the building.

_**SNKKKKT-SNKKKKKT-SCRAAAAA-AAAAPE!.!.!.!.!**_

Robin splashed sparks and ashes and slowed…slowed…….slowed to a friction-hot stop.

About forty-stories up.

He panted….panted…..

Gazed up…..

Winced….

……

….and started to climb.

_Thwack!_

_  
Crack! _

_SNkkkkt!_

_Crack!_

_  
Cr-Crack!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra landed on the balcony.

Pausing…

Taking cold…..lingering steps….

Stopping.

Slumping down.

Kneeling over Changeling's still….battered body.

"……..," her lips quivered.

She leaned over.

Her frail hands reached down….

Gently….

And pulled his scarred torso up.

Limply.

She………cradled him.

Sapphire eyes wide.

As she brought one hand up…..and shakily traced the gash on the left side of his head…..

Where the ear was missing.

And his sternum…..

Where Killer Croc's claw marks ate their way in.

And across his lips….

….that were still. Pursing.

Like hers….

Then her eyes thinned.

And as soon as the tears started to flow out…

Terra bowed her head with a whimper….

Nestled her quivering face into the nape of his neck….

Held him close with her silken blonde threads cascading over his wounds….

And gently….quietly cried…

Rocking him.

Absorbing him…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SLASSSH!.!.!.!**_

Myrkblade swung.

Dagger blocked.

_**FWOOOSH!.!.!**_

A splash of Construction.

Heated white mist exploding in every direction.

Dagger pressed down into me.

I pressed up into him.

Icy eyes to black eyes.

He gritted his teeth….sweating…bleeding.

His eyes flashed an unnatural white that _**blinded**_ me….

And yet I gritted my teeth and sneered up at him. Black vapors splashing out of my optics and cascading over his sheen skin.

"Stop being a stubborn coward…..," he hissed at me. "Stop hiding, Jordan…."

I shook….quivering all over….

Struggling a losing battle against the Construction in his body and knife. As fake and impromptu as it was….

_Balance can't stand against it. _

_It can't……_

He kept snarling: "Stop hiding, Jordan…..stop running away….."

He gripped his knife tighter and pulsed a hot strobe of _**white**_ into it.

My legs buckled.

My eyes clenched shut as I mutely groaned and nearly fell to my knees…..

"As long as you run away…I will keep coming back…..the circle will keep closing in on itself until you give in. And you have no choice, Jordan. Because if you die…………If you die….there will always be another to fall back on. And you know _who_ I'm talking about."

My black eyes popped back open. Wide. And flickering….

Flickering _**red**_…….

Dagger's icy optics thinned. "Yes……Yes, Jordan…..don't let him have it…..don't let _him_ become the Obsidian Trinity! Even your foolish…..masquerading beliefs in _JUSTICE_ is all you need for motivation! Your journey may have freed Terra and given birth to Red Aviary….but he…._he_ will rip open a hole in the Balance of Morals so huge that GOD HIMSELF…..COULD JUMP THROUGH!"

_Nnnnnngh-AAAAAH!.!.!_

_**FWOOOO-OOOOSSSH!**_

I shoved against him, seething. Eyes flickering _**black**_ – _**black**_ – _**red**_ – _**black**_ – _**black**_ - _**black**_ – _**RED**_!.!.!

"That's it….Jordan…..the Experiment lives….," Dagger stepped back, twirling his blade and deflecting my angry swings of Myrkblade.

_**CL-CLACK! **_

_**CLANG! **_

_**CLASSSSH!**_

I seethed.

Heaving.

Sneering.

Marching towards him and slashing Myrkblade with a mute snarl each time—_Nnnngh!—__**SWOOOSH!**_

_**CLACK!**_ He deflected with more and more intensity, his white knife searing the air to collide with mine. Construction warbling unnaturally through him.

"Come kill me, Jordan…..you know you want to…..come kill me and break your endless marathon run!"

_Shut up and STOP BREATHING!.!.!.!_

_**FW-FW-FWOOOOSH!.!.!**_

I screamily blurred towards him with Myrkblade sailing hard—

_**SLASSSSSSSH!.!.!.!**_

………….

…..red…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Tim ascended the skyscraper.

Panting.

Muscles straining and body tense.

He came within a dozen stories of Starfire's dangling…quivering figure.

Tim took deep breaths.

He hung by one arm stabbing into the glass face of Wayne Enterprises.

He tensed his body, took a deep breath, and stuck his other hand down into his utility belt.

"………….."

He froze.

He glanced down, blue eyes round.

Horrified.

_He was out of grappling hooks._

The one he had used to end Slade….was his last.

"………"

He gazed back up at Starfire.

He took a deep breath.

Teeth gritting, he stabbed upwards with the two birdarangs and determinedly climbed the last stretch.

_Crack!_

_  
Cr-Crack! _

_Thrack!_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra knelt on the terrace of Kobayashi Tower.

Cradling Changeling's battered body.

And sobbing.

Quietly…

Subdued weeping….

Her tears running over his forehead and staining his quiet…still face.

"……………"

There was a gentle glow of light.

Hot-white….and fluctuating-pink.

Soon….Pulsade and Jinx both stood behind the huddled Terra.

The two looked exhausted. Battered as much as everyone else in the City. And yet as they gazed at the earth maiden and the animorph entwined…..they looked all the more shattered.

Pulsade was at a loss for words. Her tough exterior deigning to look long. Her blue eyes gazing aside. "……."

Jinx was the one to take a deep breath….girl-step over….and gently lay a hand on Terra's shoulder.

"He spent the whole night fighting Slade's and Dagger's evils, Terra…..," Jinx gently said. "I……I am certain that….h-his sacrifice was not in vain…"

"N-No….," Terra firmly uttered.

Jinx and Pulsade raised eyebrows.

Terra sniffed….lifted her red, sobbing face from nuzzling the limp boy. She said: "He's alive……he's j-just unconscious……"

Pulsade was silent.

Jinx managed a breath of relief. "Then….Th-Then…..what---?"

Terra swallowed, gazed at Changeling's bloodied crown, and breathed: "I'm not crying because Changeling is hurt." She closed her eyes tightly. She took a sharp….painful breath. "I'm crying…….because I know what I must do." She opened her moist eyes…turned….and gazed woundedly towards the two roguish girls. "……I want us all to live up to the offer."

Jinx bit her lip….but gradually nodded her head.

Pulsade stepped forward and spoke with detached seriousness: "It is the good choice, Terra. The right choice. For your child….for more stakes in this world than even the three of us can imagine…."

"I know….I-I know…..," Terra gently….quietly laid Changeling down on the Terrace. "The Gaia Sphere…..Helga Jace…."

"We will figure it all out in time," Pulsade pointed. "All we ask….is for your trust."

"And you have it…..as long as you can believe in it," Terra shuddered. She stood up straight and brushed a shaking hand through her golden threads of hair. "…..The Titans…..they believed in me in the end. And all I managed to do was hurt them. No matter how much a hero I can be……I shall always be exploited. And this……this is the result……"

She gazed down at Changeling.

His battered body. Breathing gently….and yet—even in sleep—wracked with tense twitches of pain.

Her lips quivered: "He was the best friend I ever had….."

Silence.

"……….and….a-and he still is….."

…..

"T-To protect him…..to protect all of them…….I……I-I must leave them……..I must let them live their lives….outside of the sick c-circle of _me_….."

Jinx walked over and placed a hand on Terra's shoulder. "Terra…..you don't have to say _good_-_bye_….."

"Saying 'hello' means 'good-bye' to me…..," Terra sadly confessed. "With everyone and everything I've ever known…."

She slowly turned.

She gazed at the two girls.

She smiled painfully….sniffed…and tearfully said. "H-Hello……"

Pulsade managed a wry smirk.

Jinx's cat-eyes flitted forth a tear or two. She smiled….leaned forward…and gently, warmly hugged Terra. "We'll help you, Terra. We promise. For your child…."

"M-My child………," Terra hugged her back. She gazed back over Jinx's shoulder at Changeling. "……..f-for the future….."

Pulsade took a sharp breath.

Silence…….

The hug ended.

Pulsade said something to Terra.

Terra nodded.

Jinx pointed towards the summit.

Terra summoned a golden-hot aura…..and formed the platform of conjoined rock that they three would need to fly far….far…away from there….

Westward.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_**SLASSSSH! **_

_**SL-SLASSSSSH! **_

_**SW-SW-SW-SWISH-SWOOOSH-**__**CLACKKK!.!.!**_

Myrkblade grinded blackly to a stop against Dagger's white-laced blade.

We struggled against each other.

Waterfalls of black smoke and white mist running down our bodies and cascading over the warehouse rooftop.

The red sky boiling…quivering…

Reflecting off the corners of my warbling obsidian optics.

Reflecting.

Flickering.

_**Fl-Flash! FLASH! Fl-Fl-Flassssh!**_

And yet black won out.

Encompassing me.

Frothing out of me….and hissing in onyx vapors ever ravenously towards Dagger's putrid face.

"Stop…..HESITATING…..JORDAN!.!.!" Dagger snarled. "For the Experiment to gain ground…you have to push forward….you have to seize that which has been given to you! When the School was re-written! When the Spectrum was pulled to a higher level and you and your eyes along with it!"

I pressed my sword against him.

Hissing.

Sweating.

Boiling on the inside….

"How quick you are to forget—Jordan—that your life is not your own! It has never been! From the School to the Experiment to the Tower…..you have been the most versatile aspect we ever invested in! The Obsidian Trinity throbs inside of you! I know it…..I can FEEL it!"

_**FL-FLASSSSH!**_

His white knife shimmered and burned against me.

I recoiled from the blinding heat.

Black eyes twitching.

Struggling against red curtains that screamed out of my extremities.

Cold.

Hacked apart.

The same god-damn chill that plagued me during Red Aviary's reign once again assaulted my quivering figure and I felt the sawgrass being shredded apart and Ana gasping and the Master shouting as _he_ lost control and lost control and lost control again and again and again and again and again!

"Stop holding back! Make the sacrifice….leap frog the gaps in the spectrum with that selfless black SOUL OF YOURS!"

And he jerked the knife to the side and sliced hard into the joint of Batman's black 'glove' and my metal disc-stub.

_**CLACCCK!**_

_**ZZZZT-ZZZTT!.!.!**_

The obsidian prosthetic sparked and twitched and fell limp.

Surging hot chills and jolts through my body.

_Nnnnnnngh—ASS!_

_**SWIIIIIPEE!**_ I slashed a deep-red cut across his chest.

_SLIIINK!_

He stumbled back, shuddering.

I leapt and made to cleave his head in two—

_**CL-CLACKKK!**_ He collided his knife with Myrkblade and—_**SPLASSSSH!**_

A burst of white exploded.

Loosening my grip on Myrkblade.

_TH-TH-THWISSSSH!_

My blade flew off to the side.

I recoiled, snarled, charged my one right hand with murk and flew a blurring fist into his face.

_**WHACCCK!**_

A fountain of blood flew from his lips.

_**WH-WHAM!**_

I karate-kicked him in the side.

He spat…gurgled…and dropped his white-pulsing knife.

_Cl-Clank!_

I pounced on him.

He gritted his teeth and _**whitely**_ uppercutted me.

_**WHAMM!.!.!**_

I stumbled back.

He stumbled sideways.

I recovered.

He recovered.

His one right hand…

My one right hand…

Both surged forward…..

Hands outstretched…

Palms exposed---

_**FWOOOOO-OOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

_**WHITE**_ met _**BLACK**_.

Two exploding pulses of the spectrum.

Surging….

Boiling….

Murking and misting and murking and misting….

In between our two flat palms.

The air turned into a tornadic rush of Spectrally disturbed air.

Heating and freezing and spinning all the same.

The red sky turned to thunder above us.

Light and dark divided.

Hissingly….

Our bodies turned to iron.

The warehouse rooftop panels around us curled and shook loose.

I wincingly glared at him.

He gritted his teeth and focused on me.

Our palms shaking…quivering….exploding murk and steam and _**WHITE**_ and _**BLACK**_ together in a universal focal point of calamity.

_**FWOOOOO-OOOOOO-OOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

My long black threads blew in the unnatural wind.

His eyes narrowed icily against the cold rush and thunder as he shouted above the tumult: "_**Do you see it, Jordan?"**_

_**Fl-Fl-Flasssh…….Fl-Flassssh!**_

A bolt of spectral _**RED**_ shimmered like a crimson lightning bolt between our palms.

Dancing.

Entering existence….

….and just as quickly disappearing.

_**Fl-Fl-FLASSSSH!**_

I winced.

My black eyes responding.

Jolting _**RED**_ and _**BLACK**_ and _**RED**_ and _**BLACK**_ again.

"_**It is yours to seize, Jordan!.!.!"**_ Dagger howled freezingly above the storm and tempest. _**"Show me the Equalizer!.!.! Show me the Adept of Destruction that gave birth to Red Aviary the night when you stabbed Slade through the heart……FIVE….MONTHS….AGO!.!.!.!"**_

_Nnnnn-Nnnnnngh!.!.!_

I screamed on the inside.

I couldn't push myself any further.

And I couldn't pull myself back.

I remained locked their….fused to the red lightning bolts. Anchored by Construction. Pushed by Balance.

Destruction……

_Destruction……entreating……_

_  
__**"TAKE IT!.!.!.!.!.!"**_ Dagger screamed, his whole face tensing in an artery-pulsing yell. Haunting. Demonic. _**"TAKE IT, JORDAN!.!.!.!.!"**_

The red bolt flashed and flashed and flashed—_**REDDDDDDD!.!.!.!.!**_

"_**TAAAAAKE ITTTT!.!.!.!.!"**_

I tilted my head back.

My 'X' scarred neck burned.

My flickering eyes….

_N-NO!_

_**FLAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!**_

…..I released my charge of murk.

_**PLOWWWW!.!.!.!.!**_

The whole brunt of the thundering tumult exploded into me…

….and I was blown back violently…..

……flailing….

…..and landing atop the cracked, warbled warehouse rooftop besides Myrkblade.

_**TH-THWAP!.!.!**_

I jolted.

Coughing.

Sputtering.

Twitching and flickering with all manners of colored tendrils of the spectrum rivering around me….

….and fading away.

"……….," Dagger stood stock still. His straight face returning to the cold iciness. And in so doing, it announced—in whatever deadpan power he could muster—a queer expression of disappointment. Massive….inevitable…..disappointment. "Mmmmm……" He reached down, picked up his knife, and twirled it with whatever remaining waves of synthetic Construction he still had coursing through his vessels. "………."

I coughed.

I sputtered.

I gripped Myrkblade with a weak, struggling right hand.

I pushed myself slowly up….up to my knees….

With my black prosthetic sparking….uselessly dangling.

Bleeding.

Beaten.

Sucked dry of Balance….of everything else I was trained to understand and master.

Locked within the constraints of Black.

Alone….

"………….," Dagger took a deep breath. Lethargically observing the curves and points of his platinum-glinting knife. "……….it makes so much sense now, Jordan……you are the exact opposite of the Red Eyes…..your passion died a long, long time ago….and for that, you lack the drive to become the Obsidian Trinity. But in due time….that will all change…."

I panted.

Looking up at him.

Eyes weak….

Dagger's eyes thinned. Bitterly. Venemously.

He spoke: "You refuse to evolve. You refuse to change. You're the same helpless…aimless detritus of a ruined Experiment from four years ago. That's why you're here. That's why we're all here. It's because you keep resisting the future, Jordan. And why is it? What's anchoring you?"

I started to fume.

My wounded muscles tightening……

My naked black eyes glaring from where I painfully knelt….

"It……..is her…..isn't it?"

I glared. Teeth showing. Clenched.

_Don't………you………go………there………………Dagger………_

"It _is_ her!" he uttered. Not so much with shock as it was with condescension. "_She_ is the center of your circular life. Of your pathetic existence! Not me! Not Red Aviary! Not the experiment! It's her!"

My right hand tightened around Myrkblade's hilt.

My whole body hyperventilated.

_Be quiet………!.!.!_

"What is going to wake you up, Jordan?.!.?.!" Dagger spat at me. Eyes flaring. His usually neutral complexion transformed into something demonic. Destructive. An antithesis to the white pulsing from his center. "Did you think joining and becoming a Titan would distract you from the pain?.?.?"

I panted…panted…panted…

Black eyes murking.

Rising….

_Shut up!.!_

But he yelled, knife raised: "Stop obsessing over these endless, spinning distractions, Jordan! Start looking back! You know as well as I do that there is nothing….absolutely _**NOTHING**_….that can make Ana rise from the dead!.!"

**CHIIIIIIIIIIING!.!.!.!**

_SHUT UP!.!.!.!.!_

I snarled and blurred at him in a wave of murderous murk.

_SHUT!.!.!.!.! UP!.!.!.!.!_

_**STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-STOMP-**__**FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!.!.!.!**_

_AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!.!_

I rocketed at Dagger….

….and Dagger was ready.

_Th-Th-Thwish-__**SPLASSSSSH!.!.!**_

An exploding pulse of white construction from his limb and blade shimmering out at me.

Blinding me.

And I gasped—

_Your blonde hair as ice. _

_Your pale skin. _

_Your blue eyes glazed over gray._

_Decaying._

_  
Ana……… _

_Ana, you're—_

_**SLIIIII-IIIII-IIIIINK!.!.!.!**_

Dagger's blade cut across my left shoulder.

I screamed through the wall of pain.

_**WH-WHUMP!**_

A knee to my chest.

_**TH-THRUMPPP!.!.!**_

Two agile arms steamingly hoisting me up and tossing me through the air….

….and off the edge of the warehouse—

_**THWOOOOOOOOSH!**_

---and tossing me—flailing—through a row of fire escapes and towards the cold rubble of the alleyway below.

_**CRASSH! **_

_**CR-CRASSSH! **_

_**CRAAACK!**_

_**SWOOOOSH-**__**CLANGGGGG!.!.!**_

Silence…….

……..

"……….," Dagger stood alone. Bleeding. Trailing white energy…..on the rooftop

With that same straight face…..of _disappointment._

He took a deep breath.

He sheathed his knife.

And swiftly bounded away towards the far end of the warehouse.

And in such fashion…..the evil despot escaped his very own Holocaust….

Alive….and unbroken.


	267. Break the Circle part 27

**267. Break the Circle part 27**

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

"Nnnngh…..Nnnngh!.!.!"

Tim pulled himself up.

Climbing onto the topmost tier of the Wayne Enterprises skyscraper still left standing.

He perched breathlessly in the wind…..squatting atop a crag of haywire steel cross-beams and dangling glass panes.

He peered over.

Blue eyes thin against the wind.

His tattered golden cape billowing shreddedly in the red night.

He gazed and gazed and gazed……..and gasped.

_There she was._

Hanging with two shaking hands grasping helplessly to a metal steel shard.

Her green eyes clenched shut.

Tearing emerald streams of tears.

Her lips quivering in the mad wind. Tamaranian prayers.

Hanging.

Dangling.

Broken and bleeding green….

"St-Starfire!"

Tim climbed down.

Scrambling…

Sliding.

He stumbled once—with a grunt—nearly plummeting over the edge of the buildingtop.

"STARFIRE!"

She didn't respond.

She simply dangled.

Seventy stories up.

Her arms shaking.

Her body frozen and quivering from where it hung in the wind….

Like a tattered flag….

Blood and girlhood….fading……._drifting……_

"Starfire!" Tim shuddered….balancing himself on an unsteady, broken beam dangling meters above her. "Fly! Please, you have t-to fly! I-I'm out of grappling hooks!"

She hung.

She dangled.

She murmured.

She prayed…..

_Prayed………_

"St-Starfire?" Tim gulped. He shouted. "STARFIRE!"

"Nnnngh….," she winced. Tears streaming. "I-I…..I c-cannot f-fly!" Her eyes were clenched shut.

He panted.

He clenched his jaw.

He repositioned his limbs.

He snaked his body downward…

And descended.

Climbing.

Dangling…..

…..hanging from the steel girder above her.

Clutching onto the metal beam with just his ankles alone.

The nimble Boy Wonder wormed his body down.

Hand stretching towards the Earth.

Towards her precarious figure in the foreground.

Stretching……reaching……reaching….

"T-Then grab my hand……please, Starfire! You must!"

She….

She opened her eyes.

She gazed up at him.

Tearing.

Seeing his blue optics.

His boyish face.

His fear and his humanity.

And she clenched her eyes shut again.

And she shook her skull.

Sobbing. "I-I cannot!"

He gritted his teeth. "Yes you **can**!.!.! If you can't fly…then you'll have to grab my hand—"

"N-NO!.!.!" She shrieked. "X'hal! I cannot _LIVE!.!.!"_

Tim gasped.

Blue eyes wide.

"St-Starfire….."

She shook and slipped…..slipped….slipped from her grasp as she wailed: "Meladrunna de X'hal! I am an atrocity!"

"Please don't say that--!.!.!"

"All of my friends are suffering! I am a weak shame to them as I was to Robin when we were _both alive! He did not l-love me! What is th-there to live for? What bountiful joy is there an-anymore?" _

_Tim shouted and thrust his face further down from where he hung—_

"_**KORY!.!.!"**_

Starfire gasped.

She reopened her eyes.

Wide….green…..twitching….

Gazing up at him.

Seeing…….him….

"Kory, it's _**ME!.!.!"**_ Tim shouted.

"………………..," Starfire blinked. A wilted….shaking little-girl voice echoed from her lips. "R-Robin….?"

He panted. Desperate, he thrusted his gloved hand down. "Take my hand! You have _**everything**__ to live for!.!.!.!"_

"……………," Starfire's lips pursed. Her tearstained face remained frozen. Slowly……icily…..she stretched a steady hand up towards his grasp.

He bit his lip and stretched down.

She reached up.

He reached down….

Their fingers were four inches apart….two---

_**SNAP!.!.!.!**_

Starfire's steel girder cracked.

She fell.

"_**AAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAH!.!.!.!"**_

Tim screamed: _**"STARFIRE!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

_FWOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOSSSSSH!.!.!.!_ The Tamaranian girl's body plummeted deadly down the lengths of Wayne Enterprises.

Tim's blue eyes….

Wide…..devouring….

Narrowing.

_TH-THWP!_

He flipped.

He planted his feet against the steel mesh.

He stretched his arms out.

Fingers pointed.

Body angled.

And…..

He dove.

He _dove……_

_Dove………dove………dove……dove……… _

_Tim flew down the glass lengths of the monumental tower._

Burning against the wind.

Searing through the red air.

His arms stretching slowly out.

Gliding through the air.

Cutting….angled wings.

Yellow tattered feathers flickering, flickering, flickering.

As the panes of glass and gusts of wind slammed through him like walls of ice.

Fwoosh-Fwoosh-_Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!-__**Fwoosh!-Fwoosh!-FWOOSH!-FWOOSH!-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FW-FWOOOOOSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

_Sixty stories……_

Robin angled his missile plummeting body.

Teeth gritting against the skin stretching wind.

Zooming down after the flailing, toppling Starfire.

Sliding like a skipping stone.

Hurdling after her.

His eyes trained on her.

_On her……On her……On her……_

_**FWOOOOOOO-OOOOO-OOOOO-OOOOOOSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!.!**_

_Fifty stories._

He hooked an arm out.

Panting….panting…

Angling himself.

Guiding his earthward flight with twitching, ruddering ankles.

Flying…gliding himself into her.

Just as she turned about—her wounded body beating in the air—and gasped—

_**SNATCH!.!.!.!**_

Tim hooked his arm around her.

She gasped….breathing against him.

Alive….falling….dying….

Alive.

_Forty stories._

Tim panted.

Eyeing the deathly concrete ground below.

The end of their flight.

He held Starfire with one arm hooked around her waist.

He jabbed another arm up and to his back.

Grabbing the base of his cape.

Yanking it from his uniform….tattered.

_**SNAG!**_

"Nnnngh!" He pressed his chest against Starfire's back, straddling her lower abdomen from behind with his nimble legs.

He freed his arms as the two twirled, rocked, spun, and flailed in all manner of angles together.

_Thirty stories._

Tim reached into his grappling hook.

He pulled out one of his last birdarangs.

He stabbed it through the polymerized titanium of his cape.

"HAAAAUGH!"

_SNKKKT!_

He hooked it in….tightened the shredded material around the weighted 'spike' of the birdarang.

He held his breath and shifted his grip on the cape….holding it by the scrappy end opposite the pinning birdarang.

All the while Starfire panted….breathed…panted—wide eyed—against him.

Tim stopped straddling her with his legs, wrapped an arm around her twirling body…beneath her chest…

….and spun the weighted, spike-ended cape over his cranium with his one free hand.

_Twenty stories._

_**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FW**__**-**__**FWOOOOO-OOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSH!.!.!.!.!**_

"HOLD ON!.!.!.!" Tim screamed.

He twirled…twirled…twirled the cape and—

---flung it, birdarang stabbing, into the blurring glass face of the Wayne Enterprises building.

_SWOOOOSH-__**CL-CLANKKKKTT-TTT!.!.!.!**_

The birdarang stabbed into the glass, sparking and shredding sharp shards.

The cape pulled taut.

Tim jolted from his one arm—nearly dislocating his limb—and kicked his feet against the glass while dragging the cape-tied-birdarang into the buildingside….scrapingly slowing….slowing….slowing their descent.

_**SSNKKKKKT-SNKKKKKKT-SNKKKKKKTTTT!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Shards.

Sparks.

Flying into the cold night.

Starfire shuddered.

Tim's teeth gnashed together.

His whole body shook and jolted from the grasp.

The birdarang dug deeper and deeper.

The winds blew less and less.

The two slowed…slowed…slowed….

But still plummeting at the end of an endless gash being dugged into the glass face of the building.

Tim screamed into the field of flying glass and sparks.

"_**AAAAAAAAA-AAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!.!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

_Ten stories._

"_**AAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!.!.!.!.!.!"**_

His blue eyes clenched shut.

His whole face tensed.

Body breaking.

Snapping between Starfire and the cape and the world screaming up around them.

As they slowed…slowed….slowed……

Starfire gasped as she felt—

_Five stories._

_**SNAP!**_

_**CRAAACK!**_

The birdarang exploded.

The cape snapped free.

Tim and Starfire flailed at over fifty feet above the concrete.

"Aaaah!" Starfire shrieked.

"Nnnnngh!" Tim kicked at the glass, summoned unearthly friction, and _**FLUNG**_ Starfire's body straight up with both of his hands.

_TH-THWOOOSH!_

Starfire breathlessly flailed a few feet upwards at the fifth story.

Tim fell on his own.

_**FWOOOOOOSSSH!**_

He plummeted towards a stretch of awning above the sidewalk of the City street below.

He gritted his teeth…plunged his feet straight down and—

_**RIIIIIP!**_

Sliced through, jolted, and fell—

_**PL-PLOP!**_

Landing with shuddering knees…..crouching low on the sidewalk.

Tensing…

…

And Starfire fell.

Tim took one breath….

Two…..

"………_**NnnnnnnnnghhhHHHHH—"**_

He tilted his body straight up and back.

Arms splayed to the side.

"—_**HRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAH!"**_

And with his warcry passionately exhaled……

….he safely caught Starfire.

_SWOOOOOSH-__**PLOP!.!.!**_

"!.!.!" she gasped.

Tim jolted…

….fell back two steps…

….four….

….a bounding fifth….

………..and—

_TH-THWUMP!_

Tim landed in the middle of the street.

Starfire landed in the middle of the street.

They lay together…

….shivering…..

…….in each other's arms.

And before Starfire could so much as blink-twice….—

Tim was grabbing her.

Tim was hugging her.

Tim was hyperventilating.

His blue eyes clenched shut as he simply cradled her.

Resting his forehead against her.

His bruised chest against her bleeding chest.

His trembling fingers along her scraped temples.

Toying with her red bangs.

Her scarlet locks.

Panting….hyperventilating….sobbing….

And she shuddered. "R-….R-…..R-……._R-Robin?.?.?"_

"Starfire…..," Tim squeaked. Tears squeezing out of his blue eyes. "God, Starfire, I love you. I love you….I love you…._I love you. Don't you ever die on me!.!.!"_

Her whole face melted. Her lips quivering. Her injured hands slowly—shakily rose to meet his. "Robin….."

"I'm so sorry, Starfire…," Tim shuddered. Tim choked. Tim sobbed. "I-I'm so sorry for leaving you. I so wanted to be with you. I s-so wanted to tell you the truth. Please b-believe me, Starfire. I love you. I love you so much….I'm so sorry….I-I'm so sorry….."

"R-Robin…..," she sniffed and hugged him closely. Burying her face in his chest heatedly in the center of the street as her green tears fountained out and stained his exposed skin. "Robin, I love you too. X'hal…Th-Thank X'HAL! How….H-H-How….?"

"Shhhh……Shhh….Starfire….please….," he parted their hug and simply leaned his head against hers. Teary eyes to teary eyes. Inhaling each other. Shuddering. Shaking. Quivering. "….Stay with me forever……St-Stay with me forever, Star…..I love you s-so much…I-I'll never…EVER leave you again….."

She hiccupped. Hugging him fiercely. Running her hand deeply through the short hairs on the back of his neck. Shaking and shuddering all over.

"I…..I…I-I never stopped praying, Starfire….," Tim shuddered. "Never once did I stop praying…_hoping………f-for this……"_

"Shhh….n-neither did I, Robin…..," she shuddered. Digging her face in his chest again. Exhaling. "……Neither did I----"

_**THWACCKK!.!.!.!**_

"AAAUGH!"

"UGHHH!"

Tim and Starfire tumbled painfully across the asphalt.

_The smell of burning flesh. _

_Rotting meat against metal._

"_**HCKKKKK-CLIK-CLIK-CLIK-SNKKKKKTTTT!.!.!.!.!"**_

Tim looked up—

_**WHAM!.!.!.!**_

--Slade's gnarled, mangled foot slammed up his chin.

Tim spat blood and tumbled over Starfire…who was hissing and wincing on the ground.

The alien girl shuddered and looked up from where she was sprawled across the cold floor.

And she gasped.

_**STOMP!**_

_**S-STOMP!**_

_**  
STOMP!.!.!**_

Deathstroke limped towards them.

A hissing…vaporous mess of burning flesh.

His cowl remained the same obscuring nightmare….

But the good majority of his lower body and torso were exposed.

Meatedly throbbing, hallow.

Twisted and interchanging with metal mesh that supported his barely-cohesive innards and organs together…

….all glowing with the red-pulsing synthesis of _**Destruction**_.

"_**Hckkkk-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt-HCKKK!.!.!.!"**_

"Y-You…!" Starfire shrieked. Too weak to move. Too weak to fire a starbolt. Too weak to _live……_

"_**Hckkkkt….the only fire….that will blaze tonighttttttsnkkkt…..**_

_SWOOOOOSH-__**WHACK!.!.!**_

Deathstroke kicked Starfire straight in the gut.

"Nnnnngh!" she lurched and curled up and spat blood…wincing and tearing.

He loomed over her and reached back for his shotgun. _**"---IS THE LIFE…THAT PATHETICCCCKKALLLY….HOLDSSSS YOU…ABOVE HELL-SNKKKKT!.!.!"**_

SWOOOOSH-_**CH-CHTUNG!**_ He pumped the weapon and aimed both barrels at her skull—

"NNNNNRAAAAAUGH!" Tim bloodily pounced and grabbed Slade from behind.

"_**HRAAAUCHKKKKTTT!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke hobbled back, flailed his shotgun, and wrestled in reverse with Tim. _**"Snkkkt-Clik-Clik-HRCKKK!"**_

"Nnnnngh-HHAAAUGH!"

Starfire watched from the ground. Staring wide-eyed at the heated battle. Lips pursed and hyperventilating a cold mist….

"_**SNkkkkt-RAAAUCHKTT!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke hunched over with Tim on his back. His innards clicked and rotated. His one red eye strobed _**red**_. "_**It looksssssnkt—like, boyyyy….that beforrrrre I take away your powerrrr of flight….I musssst take away your powerrrr to WALKKKK-SNNNKT!"**_ THWOOOSH-_SMASSSH!.!.!_ He reverse head-butted Tim in the face.

"Aaaugh!" Tim fell off him.

"_**SNkkkkt!"**_ Deathstroke spun to the side—_TH-THWISSH!_—aimed his shotgun straight down into Tim's hobbling left foot and….

_**BLAM!**_

Tim's boot exploded with metal and red liquid.

"AAAA-AAAAAAA_AAAAAUGH!.!.!"_ Tim howled.

Starfire screamed—

"_**HCKKK!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke jabbed the butt of the shotgun—_**WHACKKK!.!.!**_—uppercutted Tim in the jaw—_**GRIP!.!.!**_—and threw the boy with a strong-arm over and into Starfire.

_**TH-TH-TH-THWUMP!.!.!.!**_ The two rolled together across the street and fell limp in a pile.

Tim bleeding.

Starfire panting.

"R-Robin…..," she murmured. Trying to crawl over and hold his pain-wracked figure—

_**CL-CLAMP!.!.!**_

Deathstroke slammed his foot down over her hand.

"NNNNNGH!.!.!" Starfire cringed….teeth gritting. With tear-stained eyes….she and Tim gazed up. Helpless.

Pinned.

_**CH-CHTUNG!**_

Deathstroke aimed a barrel of the shotgun each into their two faces.

Hissing…

Cascading red vapors towards their intertwined forms….

"_**Snkkkkt-Clik-Clik-Hckkkkk….bleeeeeeeeeed….HCKKKK!…..bleeeeeeed foreverrrrr….snkkt….my…..childrrrrrrrrennnnn….."**_

Starfire shuddered.

Tim gulped.

They held each other.

They awaited…..

_**BANG!.!.!.!**_

--they flinched…..but they were still alive.

In fact—

_**CLANK!.!.!**_

"_**HRAAAUCKKT?.!.?.!"**_ Slade jolted as the shotgun was blown clean from his grip by an expert bullet.

His red eye didn't have time to blink when—

_**BANG!.!.!.!.!**_

_**THUNK!**_ A second bullet from the sidelines screamed through Deathstroke's charred ankle.

"_**RAAAACKKKK-SNKKKKT!.!.!.!"**_ Deathstroke heaved and fell to his knees.

_**SLUMP!**_

He knelt….throbbing…pulsing…hissing….

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik-Clik-Snkkkkkt……."**_

…….

He looked over.

"………," so did Starfire and Tim. Weakly.

A figure walked out of the shadows of the side street. Holding a smoking pistol. A small figure. Petite. Blonde. Wide green eyes.

Jericho.

"………," the mute boy stood several meters from his father. His pistol raised. His eyes thin. His breath quick….ragged…..lips slowly pursing.

"……………_**.,"**_ Deathstroke stared at his son. His meaty body pulsing. Clicking on the insides. And the red vapors ever-cascading down and through him.

A mute exchange took place between the Reaper and the Angel.

And slowly…..painfully…..Jericho's green eyes melted. And his jaw and face grew long. And in anguish of the undead rank and smell and aura…..he looked sadly at his father.

Sadly….

The gun shaking in his hand.

Twitching as much as his green eyes.

"……………_**.,"**_ Deathstroke's red eye narrowed. Its red pulse dimmed some. A breath of vapor cascaded out from his cowl slits. His arms twitched. And his wrists flexed numb fingers as he leaned his shaking….quivering….undead head to the side. _**"…….clik…..clik-clik-snkkkkt……..J-Joey……."**_

Jericho shuddered.

His breath leaving him raggedly.

"……_**snkkkt….Joeyyyyy-yyyyyyy……."**_

Jericho panted…..blinking…..panted…..

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik…..,"**_ a hissing descent in the tone of the Terminator's voice. He shakily stretched a hand out. Gnarled palms pointing outward. Entreating. "_**…….my….snkkkt……my s-son…….my one…..good….ssssson……"**_

Jericho choked back a sob.

The gun pointing…..he walked forward.

One shaking foot at a time.

Trembling all over.

Closing the distance between him and his _father_.

Starfire and Tim watched.

Powerless.

Utterly weak…..stripped of energy….

Curious….uncertain….

Observing….

"_**Snkkkkt……my ever….perssssistent……son……."**_

Jericho walked up to Deathstroke.

The gun no longer smoking

His fingers shaking loose from around the trigger.

He stood with his green eyes barely above the face-level of his father.

"_**Snkkkkt….clik-clik-clik……"**_ Slade looked up….head tilted….one glowing eye patiently trained on Jericho's face. _**"……my…..brave……innocentttt…..litttttle boy……"**_

Jericho choked back a sob.

Within arm's length of his father….

He smiled.

His green eyes moistened.

He lowered the gun….

….and he reached a shaking hand up to touch his progenitor's face---

_**CHIIIING!--**__**SWOOOOSH—**__**SLIIIIIIII-IIIIIIINK!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Jericho lurched to a stop. His green eyes wide. His mute mouth gaping open.

"_**HCkkkkkkkkk…..clik-clik-clik….snkkkt….,"**_ Deathstroke leaned his vaporous face towards his son's…..having unsheathed and stabbed his red blade straight through the gut of the petite blonde all in one breath. _**"…….you arrrre---snkkkt—as stupid….as you are WEAKKKKK-SNKKKKT!.!.!.!"**_

"………….," Jericho shook. Jericho shivered. _Cl-Clak!_ He dropped the gun and convulsed on Deathstroke's blade. His mouth gaping….His emerald irises twitching….

Starfire and Tim watched.

Helpless.

Horrified….

"_**Snkkkkkkt---Yourrrr motherrrr wasted you—SNKKKKT---before you were even borrrrrn…..I thoughttt I did you a favorrr—snkkt—taking your worthless voice away…..,"**_ Deathstroke gripped tightly to the hilt of the sword skewering his son. His red eye pulsed brightly. Ravaging. _**"……butttt now the circccle is completttte…..the circcccle—snkkkkt—is complettte….for I have taken your LIFE—HCKKK-AWAY!.!.!"**_

Jericho melted. His knees giving way. His whole body sliding bloodily down the length of Deathstroke's sword.

And as he did so….

He cried.

He stared into Deathstroke's red eye….

And he cried….

Green orbs moist and tearing.

Full of pain.

Full of disbelief.

The hope that rose and fell in one instant.

The fluctuation of a ghost tailed to the comet end of his father, slamming into a brick wall. cried with his last breath….

"_**Snkkkkkt……a boy….who NEVERRRR—SNKKKKT—LEARNSSSS….has no righttt bearing my name….," **_Deathstroke stared his dying son in the face.

Jericho's eyes narrowed….._drifting……_

"_**Clik-Clik-Clik---Snktt—not you…..not Terra's….and certainly—SNKKKT—NOT---"**_

Jericho's eyes widened.

**CONTACT.**

_**FLASSSH!**_

Jericho disappeared.

"_**SNKKKKK-KKKKT!.!.!"**_ Slade jolted. Leaning back. Suddenly….hauntingly stil.

Starfire and Tim blink.

"…………………_**.,"**_ Slade was holding onto an empty, red-stained blade. _**"……………….J-Joey?………………..J-J-Joey?…….My……M-My son?….."**_

Silence…..

…..

…..

"_**Snkkkt….."**_

…..

…..

"_**Snkkkt-Raaaugh….Hckk…HCkk-Clik-Clik-SNKKKTRAAUGH!"**_

_**CL-CLANGGG!.!.!.!**_

Deathstroke dropped his blade.

He leaned back on his knees.

Gripping his quivering, vaporing head.

"_**Nnnkkksssktkt—NrrrrRRAAAUCHKKKT! Joey…JOSEPH!….Waitttt…..it'ssssnkkkt---It's your father……YOUR FATHER, JOEY!"**_

Tim and Starfire shuddered…..shook…trembled in each other's arms in the shadows of the thrashing, howling reaper.

"_**RAAAA-AAAUCHKT! **__**HAAAAKKKKKCCTT-NRAAAAAAAUCHKKKT!.!.!**_"

Slade twitched.

Slade shook.

Slade reeled and thrashed and bloodied the street in a halo all around him.

Hissing.

Red eye pulsing.

Round.

A halo of crimson-pulsing fear.

Panicking.

Smoking…….teetering on the edge of Destruction.

Screaming insanity.

The circle spinning….spinning…._spinning._

"_**HCKKKK-SNKKKT!"**_

_SWOOOOSH-__**SNATCH!.!.!**_

Deathstroke's flesh-and-metal hand bolted down, swiped up the pistol Jericho had dropped, and…

….Red Aviary suddenly found himself leaning back….his skull tilted up towards the sky……his one eye widening in fear and terror as his very own arms—against his will—raised the barrel of the gun straight against his forehead—

_Cl-Clik!_

With both hands tightening around the trigger.

"_**Joey…..snkkkt….Joey….don't do it, Joey……this is your father….please, Joey…..don't do this….don't p-pull the trigger, Joey….I….snkkkt….I-I can CHANGE, JOEY! You can live….I can live…WE CAN LIVE!.!.! **__**LIVE**__**, JOEY! **__**LIVE!.!.!"**_

But he kept hissing.

Clicking.

Aiming the gun at his forehead.

Shaking all over.

Red eye absorbing the crimson night that he spawned.

Drifting back down coldly to envelop him.

Starfire and Tim gazed on.

Shivering.

Waiting…

"_**P-Please, Joey….listen to me…….,"**_ Deathstroke hyperventilated. Hissed. Vapored. _**"….this is not a-about you….it doesssss-not—HCCK—INVOLVE YOU! HCKKK-IT NEVER…HAD…..TO!.!.!.!.!"**_

Silence. silence.

The stillness in the wind.

The City that sustained everything the terrorist had to throw at him.

Frigid as tombstone granite.

"_**JOEYYYYYY!.!.!.!"**_ Slade heaved. _**"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T DO IT, JOEYYYYY!.!.!.!"**_ Slade heaved again. _**"I DON'T WANT YOU TO BURNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN----**_

_**BANG!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!**_

Starfire and Tim jolted.

…..

…..

…..

"…………………_**.,"**_ Slade's corpse lingered on its knees. A hole straight through his head…..through his brain. "………………"

……

_TH-THRUMP!.!.!_

Red Aviary fell limply to the ground.

The red glowed died as quickly as the pistol fell and bounced to a cold stop against the edge of the sidewalk.

The son's fingerprints disappeared in perfect cadence with the last, dwindling breath of the Reaper.

The circle was broken.


	268. Break the Circle part 28 final

**268. Break the Circle part 28 Final**

Above the City.

Stretching from East to West.

From North to South…….

….the Night sky bled the redness away.

The natural, ever-deep blue and black returned to the horizons and gave the stars the shine they always deserved.

The vaporous streams of Destruction faded away…..

….and in its place returned a gentle, cooling frost.

Flakes of white that scattered all around….

Blanketing the battlefield….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The whiteness settled gently over the heads of General Calvin and his soldiers.

Men poured out of artillery vehicles….gazing upwards at the natural aura returning to the worldly domain.

Soldiers with guns hanging by their sides finally peeled off their helmets and breathed together.

Back to back.

Side to side….

Absorbing the stillness of the City.

The silence.

The cold.

The reality….as Life returned.

Over the ashes and the heaps.

Calvin lowered his own helmet.

Ran a hand through his gray hair.

And shuddered……

Face melting…

Relaxing…..

A serene…subtle smile….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The snow fell lightly over the Subways.

The quiet mouths to the underground tunnels….

As citizens slowly…gently walked out.

Families in arms.

Couples, hand in hand.

Children with eyes gazing.

Mixed fear….mixed relief….

But overall……serenity….

The afterglow of Hell on Earth fading into blue and black obscurity.

And though the streets were lined with rubble….

And glass shards and twisted metal shells filled the asphalt pathways….

The people of the City couldn't help but exhale….

And gasp….

And weep…..

It was over.

Daniel helped Renee to the front of the crowd…

Gazing about.

They held each other….

Arm in arm….

Renee closed her eyes, shuddered, and leaned her head against Daniel's shoulder.

He stroked her hair lovingly…swallowed…and gazed straight up at the richly dark sky….

Lisa trudged out along with her sister….Greg and Ashley huddled at her sides.

Her one eye thinned…only to be surprised by the lack of a bright, unnatural redness to haunt her only optic.

Greg and Ashley gently released their fearful hold on her and gazed up. Murmuring in cadence.

Embracing the night as eagerly as ever they did.

Finally, Lindsay and her family emerged as one under the shadow of her father.

Her mother held little Phil….cradling….soothing his cries as she gazed in wonder at the wrecked—yet living City.

Pastor Rutland whispered a long prayer.

And Lindsay gazed….gazed….gazed….and gasped.

He was marching towards her.

Slowly…firmly….across the courtyard.

A wry smile on his face.

Lindsay ran out in a bolt. Smiling tearfully.

Tempest spread his arms.

Lindsay flew into them.

The two embraced….rocking back and forth…..

Him stroking her hair and smiling….saying something that made her giggle and punch his shoulder before sniffing back a sob and burying her face in his chest.

Lindsay's family watched from afar. Blinking…..

Tempest gently held her….hugging her to him…..gazing up at the blue and black sky above the dry land.

Exhaling……..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Justice League assembled in the center of Downtown where Calvin's men were setting up a post-war base.

Sending companies out to take out terrorist stragglers.

Green Arrow and Black Canary sat on a weathered bench on the sidelines…sharing a cup of coffee. Glancing at each other and laughing about one thing or another.

The Flash was telling a joke to Irons, gesturing a previous scene from the day's battle….making a dramatic expression…and laughing…

Steel laughed…slapping his knee….shaking his head and nudging Flash….gazing up towards the coldly dark sky.

Batman perched on a buildingtop above. His cape blowing. Gazing out across the snow-flaked landscape. His arms folded.

His eyeslits narrowed.

He slowly turned around….gazing at Catwoman….

She leaned against a window pane.

Examining the threads of her whip-ends.

She glanced up at Batman….sexily winked….and smiled wide.

He gazed back out at the urbanscape….shaking his head.

Cold and silent….

Wonder Woman sat with Green Lantern besides an army med unit. Examining his wounds. She looked up from Stewart's cast. So did Green Lantern.

Superman stood, talking to Calvin.

Calvin uttered something and gestured to his men—hard at work.

Superman nodded, finished a sentence, and half-saluted.

Calvin marched off.

Superman stood silent. His uniform about as scuffed and scraped as his body.

He gazed over at his two fellow heroes.

Green Lantern shrugged.

Wonder Woman nodded.

A beat.

They both helplessly smiled…..subtly.

Superman's eyes narrowed.

He turned.

He gazed upward.

Looking past a gentle drift of snowflakes towards a nearby buildingtop.

….

….

Kara stood atop a seven-story building.

Overlooking the blue and black cityscape.

Her cape twirling in the wind.

She held her black hairband in her hand.

Twirling it over in her fingers….

….without looking.

She took a deep breath.

Two….

She jolted her body and flung the hairband outward…

…into the concrete, snow-drifting obscurity.

She didn't bother to see where it landed.

Instead….she absorbed the night…

…..the still and prosperous night….

…….and she smiled.

She smiled wide.

Her eyes tearing….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………."

Changeling lay limp on the lofty balcony of Kobayashi Tower.

"…………..nnnngh…."

The half-elf stirred.

He sat up….wincing.

"Mmmmmrff…grfff…."

Rubbing his head….

He jolted as soon as a flake of snow touched his face.

But that wasn't what startled him.

Rather….

His lips pursed.

He dragged a blistering finger over his forehead….

His upper chest….

And felt on his own green skin…

….warm….salty moisture.

_Tears……_

"……………..!"

Changeling gasped.

"_Terra…………"_

He tilted his head.

He looked up.

Three figures stood on the summit of Kobayashi Tower.

A pink-haired sorceress.

Two blondes.

One tall.

The other petite—

"_TERRA!.!.!"_ Changeling shouted.

He scrambled up.

He panted…panted….

With splicing gorilla arms he rushed…climbed…..scurried up the rest of the skyscraper.

-T-T-T-T-T-

"Are we all good to go?" Jinx murmured. Perched besides a hovering platform of rock.

Pulsade nodded. "Just about."

Terra exhaled….

"_TERRA!"_

Terra gasped.

She spun.

The other girls looked.

The green elf was blurring up the buildingside.

Panting.

Moving as fast as his green limbs could carry him.

"_Terra! W-Wait! Please! Stay….J-Just stay!"_

"Uhm….," Jinx bit her lip. Fidgeting.

Terra was breathless. Staring. Her hands flexing nervously…

Pulsade took a deep breath. "Terra…," she calmly breathed. "We really need to go…."

"……………"

The British blonde placed a gentle hand on the earth maiden's shoulder. "T-Terra…."

"I know," she shuddered. She glanced sadly over her shoulder at the two rogues. "Get on the rock platform. I'll….d-deal with this…."

Pulsade nodded. "Understood…"

Jinx blinked. "Wh-What are you gonna do?"

"Come on, Jean….," Pulsade urged them both along….onto the rock platform.

"B-But…what's she going to—"

"Let them be, love…."

Terra stood firmly atop the summit.

As soon as Changeling climbed up and rounded the summit—_Pl-Plant!_ "Terra! Omigod….TERRA!"

She bit her lip. She spun. She scurried.

"Wait!" Changeling—wide eyed—reached a hand out and sprinted across the cracked, glass rooftop. "Just w-wait a minute! I beg you!"

"Nnnngh!" Terra's eyes glowed a hot gold as she swept her hand behind her…gathered scattered bits and pieces of rock and sattelite dish-shards….and produced a sudden, impromptu rocky barrier between the two.

_**SCRKKKKK-KKK!**_

TH-THWOMP! Changeling pressed himself up against it. Gritting his teeth. Shudderingly speaking: "T-Terra…please!…..Wh-Why are you doing this?" He panted. He pressed himself against the impenetrable wall. "Terra…talk to me….!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

She shuddered.

Hugging herself beyond the wall.

Separated from the beast boy.

"_You came here to this City for a reason. You saved all those soldiers and all those people down there for a reason! And I won't believe—not for a moment—that it was just to come here, do your trick, and run off! Please, Terra. You have friends here! You know that! Why else would you have come here?.!"_

Terra bit her lip. She clenched her eyes shut and turned away from the rock wall. Shuddering, she said: "I'm leaving, Beast Boy….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……_I'm leaving. And it has to be now. Now or never."_

He panted.

Eyes thin.

Tearing.

He sniffed and leaned against the rock wall.

As if hugging it.

Hugging _her_ beyond….

"B-But wh-wh-why, T-Terra?" he choked. Biting his lip. "Who told you that you had to leave?"

"_It's n-not that, Garfield……"_

"Do you feel like you're being used again, Terra? Do you feel that we're using you? Terra, the T-Titans are your f-friends!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_We love you………"_

Terra hugged herself.

Fighting back sobs.

Clenching her teeth and bracing herself back against the rock wall.

"………_**I**__……love you, Terra……"_

At that, she shook all the more. A cold sob escaped her lips. A hiccup…and she gazed heavenward past the height of the rock wall and spoke:

"A-And I love you too, Beast Boy….."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………_and because I love you……I can't join you. N-Not again……"_

Changeling shuddered. Wiping the tears that came down from his cheeks.

Listening.

Disbelieving…

But………

……….listening…..

"……_I'm not welcome here. Not in this City. Not anywhere. Not yet. I'm still a criminal. And if I rejoin the Titans now……two things will happen. Firstly, I will be restricted because of my bad rep………and second……that restriction will hold me down from what I truly need to do………from what is in my responsibility to do……"_

Changeling gulped. He shakingly said: "Terra……if it's help you need with your child…..I'll be there! I-I swear it! I-I-I'll even leave the Titans to help you--!"

"_No, Beast Boy. You and the Titans have suffered in the circles of my tragic life enough as it is……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

She hugged herself tighter.

Leaning against the rock wall.

Taking a deep…..heavy breath…..

And saying:

"I'm not about to repeat that. The circle must be broken. And a new path lies ahead of me…."

Her eyes fluttered open.

Still moist…..but hard…and determined.

In an adult voice, she said: "…as you must also start on a new path."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

He clenched his teeth and fought the tears.

"N-No, Terra…please…."

"_Move on, Garfield. It is for the best……it is for our best that……th-that we both move on……"_

"I-I-I don't want t-to move on, Terra…..," he shuddered and sobbed. "I-I want to be with you…..please….I-I just want to be with you…."

"_Someday……you will understand, Garfield. Things are meant to be this way. You and I……we……w-we have to manifest our own destiny……"_

Changeling panted…panted…panted….

"_I shall never……ever forget you, Beast Boy. For what you did for me…….for all you've risked for me……"_

He choked.

Wiping tears away.

Shuddering.

"_Bring new life to the Titans, Changeling. Be there where I cannot. And if you see Kara……tell her……"_

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Terra leaned against the wall.

Smiling painfully.

Tears streaming from her sapphire optics.

"…..tell her that I'm sorry…..but I hope she'll understand. She is an angel…an angel from above. And I do-so-very hope to meet her again someday. But some people….as of birth….as of _destiny_…….are bound to the Earth……."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Changeling heaved…panted….swallowed.

And….

Silence.

…..

…..

…..

He blinked.

Lips quivering.

He gazed at the rock wall.

"T-Terra?"

……..

"Terra?.?.?"

…….

"…….nnnngh….Nnnnngh—RAAAUGH!"

He punched at the rock wall with an animalistic snarl.

_**SMASSSH!.!.!.!**_

The wall shattered into clumps and shards.

Clearing away.

Changeling stood—panting—alone atop Kobayashi Tower.

Terra was gone.

His eyes widened….refocusing.

He gazed up.

Squinted….

….and caught the gold glow of Terra and her two companions soaring upwards into the blue and black sky.

….until Pulsade's wave of a hand cast a cloak of invisibility over the three….

And she was gone for good.

Replaced by twinkling stars.

The omniscient, mute watchers of the Earth.

Changeling gulped and let his arms dangle in elf-form at his side.

"I shall always remember you too, Terra…..," he whispered.

And lingered on against the night….

Alone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………………."

Bruised.

Tattered

Sweat and blood-stained.

"…………………."

I sat—perched—on the guardrail of an overpass.

Frozen in my right hand…was the Messenger's birthday gift.

The silver and wood harmonica

Cold….silent….

Mute.

"……………….."

I stared with rounded black eyes into the blue and gray haze of the snow-filtered City.

Breathing gently.

My throat sore…right at the 'X'.

My insides cold.

And I saw her….

And she had always been floating.

And she had always been drifting….hovering in places a living person could never be….

And the spots where she showed up…translucent and beautiful….

….with her short, angelic blonde hair fluttering in some wayward Breeze from the plains of Washington…..

….and her blue eyes ever glistening….

That smile….

That smile that churned me inside.

That gave me an excuse to breathe every morning I woke up from the dead….

That followed me every screaming step of the way Eastward to my new 'Home'.

"……………."

I swallowed.

My black eyes branded with her.

Holding my hand.

Hugging me in some cold, dank alley before my left arm leapt off of me.

Saving me from Trigon in the pits of the Lich.

Liberating me in Las Vegas.

Guiding me to her bloodline in Area 51.

In each freeze-frame blur of ecstasy….

She faded away….

Back into the oblivion where she belonged.

Where I never denied her being….

And yet…..

Where I never fully let her plunge alone into….

I let out a painful gasp.

Like Dagger had finally twisted the knife into my heart…

And I dropped the harmonica to the concrete behind me…next to where Myrkblade rested on the asphalt.

And I ran my right hand through my long black longs.

The hair I had grown long to hide me from myself.

The torn, scarred fourteen-year-old boy lying in his own blood atop a rock in some god-forsaken field.

Alone.

_Alone……_

I shuddered.

I clenched my eyes shut.

Wave upon wave racked through me…

And the tears screamed freely…..

_It's been four years, Ana…… _

_It's been four years……and I can't for the life of myself stop thinking about you……_

_I know you're dead. _

_I know you're dead……_

_But……_

_I __**feel**__ you, Ana……_

_I feel you……_

_I-I still smell you……_

_Jesus……I can inhale you……_

_And it's like the golden mist rising from the cedar forests……_

_The warm bark of the tree hollow surrounding us………_

_I could fall into your lungs forever._

_Just to feel you exist._

_Dear God, just to feel you exist…………_

I hiss.

I wince.

The tears are like burning venom screaming out my black eyes…….

_Why can't I just……let you go? _

_Why, oh why, can't I just let you go?_

I shuddered.

I caved in on myself.

I gnarled and dug my right fingers into my skull.

Pulling at my hair's roots.

A stifled…..quivering sofb.

_Because I love you…… _

_I love you so terribly much……_

_And I haven't stopped loving you, Ana……_

_God, I miss you._

_I miss you so……so much………_

_I miss you so much, Ana……_

_Please……Please………_

_Stay with me……_

_Stay with me just a little bit longer……_

_The Titans……th-they won't understand……_

_Just……_

_Stay with me……_

_Stay…………………_

I shuddered.

Long and hard.

I tilted my head up.

Black eyes painfully opening…..

And she was still there.

But her blonde hair was longer.

And her blue eyes were firmer….sadder…..

And she hovered unnaturally in the air….a red cape flapping.

And I woke up again….

"……….it's only fair to….t-to tell you, Jordan….," Kara said.

I gulped.

I nodded…..listening…..

"Slade…..Slade is gone….," Kara said. Her lips bit with hesitancy regardless of the coldly delivered 'good news'. "….Slade is gone for good."

"…………..," I took a deep breath.

_I know. _

_I feel it……_

"But………….," and she fidgeted in the air. Eyes trailing. Averting themselves from me.

I bit my lip.

_Somehow, I feel this too……_

"…..Terra…..she's alive…however…."

"………………"

"J'onn did a mental scan of the City. He reports that she's gone. She and….Jinx and Pulsade left……….those two scoundrels snagged her away from m-me………er…..from us…..," she said. A beat. She sighed and ran a hand through her long blonde hair.

My moist black eyes nakedly blinked.

_Where did her hairband go?_

"I…..I-I guess I shouldn't blame them…..I know that Terra's been through so much at this point….that…….sh-she isn't one to be coerced. At least….not without a fight….and she--hehehe—would have royally schooled their asses," Kara smiled.

I smiled too. But it was a temporary smile. For somehow I knew just as she knew that I could not perceivably weather what was coming next.

"But……….But J-Jordan……," Kara looked directly at me. Gulping. "J'onn did another r-reading…..and….a-and……"

"………."

She shuddered painfully. "He didn't make it…….."

"………."

She maintained her composure….for my sake. It made me want to hug her…..

But: "Your friend…..the l-little blonde boy………..Slade ended him soon before Slade himself ended……………..h-he's dead, Jordan……..I'm sorry……."

My lips pursed.

I was breathless….

….and yet…..I wasn't surprised.

My peripheral vision caught the cold, blue glint of the harmonica.

The tracing laughter and giggle of Ana.

The cold musical tone of reality….and how it tasted rustedly of little Jericho's sweet, sweet smile. The incessant way he would always steal my sleeping spot. The way he trembled from death and pain behind me…..and how I felt so, so inclined to protect him.

When I should have known…..destiny was not on his side…..

"Jordan………..J-Jordan….please…….for once….t-tell me what you're thinking……"

I shuddered.

I gazed off into the white flakes of the night.

The ivory glaze that fell like ashes on the land of the dead.

The pieces of Construction scattered forever.

Lifeless.

Formless.

The circle was broken….

….and yet I didn't feel anymore whole than I was when I first entered this City nearly a year ago.

With whatever jerking strength I could muster in Batman's damaged prosthetic….

….I raised both hands.

And hand-signed…as the tears began to flow….

'_There was no hope for 'J'……'_

I gulped.

I shuddered.

I finished:

'……_as there is no hope for me.'_

And in the middle of my gesture, I broke out.

Shaking.

Face scrunching.

I would have teetered over and fallen off the overpass….

…hadn't Supergirl have floated over….and engulfed me in a warm hug.

And mutely….like the ghost I was….._like the ghost you are, Ana……_

I wept and wept in Kara's arms….

Burying my face into her shoulder.

Dying….softly…..

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"………………………," Changeling sat cross-legged atop the summit of Kobayashi Tower.

And there, he would sit for a good two hours.

His face straight.

His expression blank.

The tears dried away as he—thoughtfully—gazed on and on into the night.

Surrounded in his loneliness…..

Assaulted by his future.

And somehow…..

In some fashion…..

It no longer hurt anymore.

"……………….."

He gently closed his eyes.

And…..as if meditating…..

He exhaled long and hard into the night.

Expelling his youth.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"……………………."

Raven's eyes……

"…………………….."

Raven's eyes fluttered…..fluttered open…….

"……………………"

She lie on her back.

Her soft blue bangs draped over her brow.

She inhaled….and calmly…..

….gazed up and over.

Into the human and robot eyes of Cyborg….

…..who was kneeling by her bed.

For better or for worse…he was smiling….

As lovingly as he could muster….

As honestly…..

"Hey, cutie……," he whispered.

"…………….V-Victor…."

Her hand shakily rose.

He grasped it….firmly.

"It's me, Rae…..," he breathed. A hand brushed aside her stubborn strand of blue silk. "….the real….me….."

Raven's lips parted.

She took a deep, shuddering breath--

"The doctors did a good job on you. You're gonna be just fine….."

Raven whispered: "Something…..h-has died…..h-here tonight….."

"……….."

"Something……h-has died……"

Cyborg's face went tight. He said firmly: "Only what had to die, Raven….."

"……….."

"Only what had to die….."

Raven took a deep breath. Her lips moved to murmur something….but nothing came out but tears.

Cyborg dried them up with a titanium finger, softly leaned over, and engulfed her in an all-encompassing hug.

She leaned against him.

Violet eyes clenched shut as she murmured against him.

"I'm so sorry…..I-I'm so sorry……"

"Shhhh….so am I, Cutie……."

She shuddered….somehow relieved at that.

"So am I…….."

They rocked together under the MASH tent in silence.

Undisturbed for hours….

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Outside the medical stations….

Where the soldiers rushed back and forth to tend to the wounded within the Bayside Plaza….

Lieutenant Smith finished talking to Chapman, Banta, and his other officers.

He walked away from the line of men and came to a halting stop as he saw…..

"…………."

The Messenger sat on a lofty bench on the second tier of shops.

Sitting cross-legged.

Gazing northward….towards the raggedy summit of Wayne Enterprises.

In spite of his scrapes and injuries…..the dimensional-hopper looked calm.

Serene.

At peace….

"………"

Smith traveled up a flight of steps….walked past scurrying guards and equipment men….and stood before the Messenger.

The Messenger was in the process of taking a deep breath.

He smiled.

Warmly.

"I……I can smell it………"

"……..," the Lieutenant smiled nervously. "And……what does it smell like? 'Rebirth?'"

"…………," the asian teen looked his way. His almond eyes opened…..and he grinned all the warmer. "No……._Change_."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

At the feet of Wayne Enterprises….

Where the Holocaust began and ended….

Starfire stood up…wincing….

….and so did a bleeding…wounded Tim.

The Boy Wonder took a series of deep, wincing breaths.

He limped over…hobbling to avoid the use of his one, profusely bleeding foot.

He limped….limped….limped….and came to a stop before the fallen corpse of Slade.

Starfire looked on from behind. Her hands cupped….wringing….

….her lips parted…..

"…………..," Tim knelt down with a jolt.

He sat before the body of Slade.

"…………"

He reached two hands forward.

He grasped the edges of the cowl.

He slowly…..unpeeled……lifted…..lifted…..and removed the mask from Slade's face finally…..

Starfire craned her neck to see. Emerald eyes curiously….worriedly blinking….

…..

Tim took a good…..long…..look at Slade's face.

The Boy Wonder's expression was blank. His lips tight….and his blue eyes calmly set. He leaned his head to the side. Studying from an angle. Blinking. Gazing.

"………………"

As slowly and steadily as he began….Tim ended by sliding the cowl back over Slade's face….and hobbling back up to his feet.

Starfire limped over and stood behind him.

She murmured: "Who….Wh-Who is he, Robin?"

"……………."

"Who is Slade?"

"………….."

The Boy Wonder took a deep breath…his blue orbs locked on Red Aviary for one last time.

"He is dead."

He turned and hobbled over to Starfire. She extended an arm. He accepted it. Hand in hand…the two limped away from the corpse…

…and on into the embracing night…where they ecstatically sobbed together.


	269. Mandala

**269. Mandala**

…..

…..

…..

…..

……

……

……

……

…….

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

……

-T-T-T-1-T-T-T-

Beeping.

Gentle.

Rhythmic.

Echoing through a small, shadowed room.

"…………………….."

Barbara Gordon's eyes fluttered open.

Soft blue spheres.

Staring up….and seeing….

"……….," James Gordon smiled. His fingers stroked his daughter's hand. A bitterly sweet breath. "Hello, champ…….w-welcome back….."

"……….," Barbara Gordon took a deep breath.

Her lungs filtered through long tubes running into her nose.

A mask over her face.

She parted her lips.

Eyes thinning.

"………..," she blinked. She lisped: "………I…..didn't…..didn't…..th-think…….I-I would—"

"But you did, honey…," the Commissioner leaned forward across the Gotham hospital room. Gazing gently towards her. Brushing strands of loose scarlet away from where they peaked beyond her medical cap. "….you did…..I have not and shall never ever lose you……"

"………..," Barbara swallowed.

Her father bit his lip. He struggled….but eventually said: "Barbara…..th-there's something you need to kn—"

"I know…..I know….," she breathed.

He shuddered.

"……I…..w-wasn't……p-planning……..on t-tap dancing………anytime s-soon….."

Silence.

…..

Her head turned.

Braved the light.

And faced the other half of the room.

Her lips pursed….

In the distance stood Dr. Leslie Thompkins, a clipboard in her grasp. Montoya Bullock hovered by the doorway beside her. The detectives nervously averted their eyes. But Thompkins….

Thompkins smiled. For some secret reason.

And seemingly……Barbara understood it.

And then another shadow crossed her vision.

She glanced over.

Dick Grayson stood by her bedside. Across from her father. His hands stuck in his jacket as he gazed at her. Long. Quietly. He shuddered and managed a desperate smile. "H-Hey…..Babs….."

"…………," Barbara stared. Inhaling…..

"……….you have no idea….h-how long…..how long I waited……how long we all waited…."

Barbara's lips parted. "Dick….."

He silenced himself.

She said: "……did we make it?"

The Commissioner blinked.

Bullock and Montoya exchanged glances.

Dick stared intently.

Barbara Gordon asked with greater volume: "Was the l-little bird saved…….in th-the end?"

"……….," he slowly knelt down by her bedside. He took her fingers in two warm them. He inhaled and gazed at her. Smiling. Breathily uttering: "Yes, Barbara. The bird was 'saved'………along with the whole nest………_we……__**made**__……__**it**__……"_

She swallowed. She gazed up towards the ceiling. Her eyes gently shut.

"Mmmmmmff…..then…….th-then it was worth it……"

The Commissioner and the Detectives could only scratch their heads and shrug.

But Dr. Thompkins and Mr. Grayson were conspicuously silent.

Though Dick didn't show. He was too busy choking back a sob—one of mixed pain and joy—as he bowed his head and buried his face in her hand. Shuddering….warming her finger with hidden….relieved tears.

Barbara's eyes reopened. And her vision was attracted by something.

She gazed upwards at a health monitor hanging over her father's head….angled in a way that only she could see.

The EKG and bodily stats flickered….replaced themselves with a black screen….and materialized—however momentarily—a green, digitized facsimile of a bundle of flowers…..with sparkles….and the happily flickering words:

'_Hope You Feel Better, Oracle.'_

'_Sincerely, Isomer.'_

And that was when the tears came out of Barbara's eyes. And even as she wept, she couldn't—for the life of her—shake off a smile.

A delirious…..persistent…..smile……

-T-T-T-2-T-T-T-

In the City.

Inside Phaser Labs.

The Basement.

A scuffed and limping Cyborg knelt before a wide computer compartment.

A dozen lab technicians, scientists, and laboratory security guards lingered in a crescent behind him.

A portable mainframe computer station stood humming, blinking, detached from the rest of the machinery in the midst of them.

Cyborg carefully…calculatingly hooked up a ring of fiberoptic cable to the computer compartment.

He took a deep breath as the other specialists looked on..

"Okay…."

He exhaled.

"…..here goes."

He flipped a switch on the computer console.

_Zzzzt!_

_Zzzzt-Zzzt!_

A flickering façade of Simon Stone appeared on a holographic pad. His fractured condition was represented by a sickly stance….a curled fetal position with static interference dancing across his features.

"……_nngh…….snkkkt…………,"_ Simon Stone 'coughed' and 'wheezed'. He looked up. Chocolate brown eyes fading in the electronic haze. _"………snkkkkt………Victor………"_

Cyborg took a deep breath. "Uncle……"

"…………" _Zzzzt! "S-So………it endssnkkkthere……" Zzzt!_

Cyborg swallowed and shook his head. "I don't know if it ever ends. Most things, at least."

"…………" _Zzzt! "Deletion………is the most logical………snkkktprocedure now……"_

"No," Cyborg gently said. "It's not. And you know that."

"…………" _Zzzt! "……………"_

"You got Dagger's protocols hardwired into you, Simon. No matter what terrible stuff you've done, there could be potential data to be extracted from you. But you can't be allowed to haunt the main computer bay of Phaser Labs. That's why you're being downloaded permanently onto this mainframe and this mainframe alone." Cyborg patted the black box on wheels. He glanced his eyes aside. "You will be…….subject to extraction when national security sees it best."

"_Is that the only reason?" Zzzzt! "Victor?"  
_

"……….yeah, old man….," Cyborg glared. "The **only** reason……"

Simon Stone stood up….flickering….fading.

_Zzzt!_ _"Well then, my boy……"_ _Zzzt!_ _"……that makes me glad. Because maybe……that means-snkkt-you'll be forgetting about me………"_

"…………..," Cyborg performed a tiny keystroke, brought his hand to a switch on the mainframe, and pressed it.

_**Vriiiiiiii!**_

The hologram of Simon Stone seemed ready to say another digital word. But all too soon, he was dragged away out of the visual spectrum as his hologram, his digital composite, his entire artificial intelligence was sucked out of Phaser Labs and into the portable mainframe.

And with him vanished, Cyborg slumped over the mainframe—titanium arms loosely draped over the casket of his 'uncle'—and let loose a sad sigh: "No….I won't be….."

-T-T-T-3-T-T-T-

Outside a shattered greenhouse.

Atop an apartment complex's rooftop.

Overlooking a war torn City in the soft mid morning….

The volunteers swarming in and worming about…

Rebuilding….rebuilding…..healing….

Lisa stood at the rooftop ledge.

Her knee propped up.

Her hands gently sketching in ink a composite of the ruination and revitalization looming beyond and below her.

She tossed a fountain of chocolate brown hair over her shoulder and squinted one eye at the frost-laden site.

"You're sick, Lisa….you know that?" Tiffany pouted from behind. She glared over crossed arms. "Couldn't you do that some other time? We're having an emergency meeting here!"

"Please excuse me…," Lisa absent-mindedly droned as she spotted the scenery and continued sketching the urbanscape. "…but this is the prettiest I've seen the City…..Ever."

"Pffft….god, will you wear ALL BLACK ALREADY?"

"Don't force goth on a girl, Tiff," Janice wandered in with a tray of lemonade. "Unless you got a clean blade, of course," added she with a smirk.

"Gee, Jan….," Hope blinked. She sat up on the edge of a lawn chair with her petite legs folded and reached out for a quenching glass. "How the heck did you get to make lemonade on a day like this? All the supermarkets are seized cuz of rationing in the Cleanup and stuff!"

"Oh….you know me," Janice winked as she offered Tiffany a glass. "I'm always working on a good few lemons."

"Yeah. Good luck juicing up your word processor. Rumor's out that they're gonna suck power away for two hours every night to flood the streets during night cleanup. Kinda like what they did last time."

"Why can't they spare more power? With the Titans' Tower gone…," Janice leaned against an a/c unit and shrugged. "…can't they afford more power to jack into the City?"

"Ohhhhh," Hope pouted cutely. "Don't talk like that! I think it's sad what happened to the Titans' home. Everyone in my message board is crying."

"Jeez…message boards…," Janice rolled her eyes and raised a glass. "What a waste of spa—"

"Whew!" Hope made a face after her first sip of lemonade. "Overkill!"

"What? Are my lemons overdone or some shit?"

"N-No…," Hope coughed. "It just opened my nostrils, that's all." She flashed a glaring look to the side. "Tiff! What in god's name are you wearing? Gushed some perfume all over your head this morning or something?"

"Hehehehe….sorrrrry," Tiffany winked with a Marilyn Monroe coo. "Smelly me."

"Cough it up, girl," Janice leaned her head to the side. "What's the big, odorous deal?"

"Heeeee!" Tiffany squealed a happy smile with her eyes tightly shut. She all-but-dropped her lemonade glass as she let loose a girlish twirl, her blonde hair waving in the cold December wind. "Robin's alive! Robin's alive! Robin's aliiiiiiiiiiiive! He he he he he!"

"Oh right….," Lisa droned without looking. A slight smirk to her lips as she sketched, sketched, sketched. "….and they said the female orgasm was a 'myth'."

"Guess that explains the belt," Hope pointed. "Sheesh…I thought after Robin's death you would have thrown that disgusting thing away."

"Oh…but he DIDN'T DIE!" Tiffany fanned herself before showing off the 'R' Robin logo belt she wore about her ankle pants' waistline. "Robin outlives death! He is ONE with the ESSENCE of LIFE! I kept the belt….and he _heard my prayer_…..ohhhhhhhh," she all but deflated with her cheeks and lower neck regions deceptively rosy. "……once again….I know _why_ I'm keeping my virginity…."

"Robin's alive…," Janice murmured. "Pfft…what a ripoff. Anyone else pissed off by him dodging the universal scythe?"

"Janice! Be nice!" Hope pouted. "The Titans have been through a lot! Especially Beast Boy. Ohhhh….if I could just hug his wounds away. Did you see the web pics? Some soldier got a photo of him and—like—he's bleeding all over the side of his head! Ohhhhh gossssssh….."

Tiffany frowned. "Janice is just turned off that Robin's alive to steal _Starfire_ from _Raven_ or some stupid crap."

Janice swirled her lemonade like a wine glass and smirked coyly. "Better yet. Imagine if they found a new Robin. A _girl_ Robin? Now….THAT would have been worth making a message board over!"

"Pfft…you spoiler, you."

"Not…….enough…….._smoke_….," Lisa grunted in mid-stroke of a background section of the City.

"For the love of Buddha's Vulva, come here and have some lemonade, girl! Before it becomes too dark for your one eye to see straight!"

"It's not even noon, _Janice._"

"It'll be lights out for you pretty darn quick if you don't bring your pretty tush over here and relax! Jesus, starving artists! I swear!"

"Nnnnngh…..," Lisa exhaled. A beat. She smirked. "Yeah….all right." She gently folded the pages of her sketchbook closed, turned around, and marched across the roof to join the crowd. "I'll fill in the crumpled shells of H.I.N.D.s later….they're easy enough to draw from memory."

"Speak for yourself. I prefer other, crumpled things."

"You know, Janice, the world would be a whole lot more sanitary if you just kept your mouth shut."

"Heh heh heh…."

Lisa sat cross-legged, undaintily in the center of everyone and took a glass of lemonade. "So….what are we doing? Are we doing the motto?"

"Nah….not this time."

"……..no?"

"I think things are changing…," Janice smirked. "These aren't gonna be the same Titans that we've obsessed over in the past."

Hope nodded. "Yeah….with Slade gone…how can they be?"

"Hehehe…and with Robin alive—"

"**TTTifffannnyyy, ssshuttt uppp!"**

"Pfft….fine….I'll celebrate Robin's rebirth later on my own."

"Do that and die."

"How's that, Janice?"

"I dunno. I'll find out someway how."

Lisa took a deep breath…and drank.

"Hey Lisa…"

Lisa swallowed. "Hmmm?" She glanced up.

"You okay?"

"Why would you care?"

"You seem long winded."

"Yeah…so?"

"Are the munchkins doing okay?"

"Yes…Ashley and Greg are **fine**."

Tiffany leaned her head to the side. "How about Alan?"

Lisa squinted her one eye. "Uh….yeah. I talked with him on the cell this morning. He's a little shaken—as always—but okay."

"Is your sister okay th--?" Hope began.

"Guys….look….," Lisa gestured. "What's with all the worry? I'm friggin' fine, okay?"

"…………," a shared grin of amusement dawned them all.

Lisa couldn't help but stare. "_What?"_

"Sometimes….ya know…," Hope bashfully squirmed in her lawn chair and glanced aside at the artist. "…..you're a little bit like Noir."

"…………."

"We all wish you would talk more….."

"…….hrm….," Lisa smirked, shook her head, and shrug. She pulled her sketching pencil out from beneath the metal-wire binder of her sketchpad and twirled it in one hand while raising the lemonade glass in another. "…you people shouldn't worry. He and I….we just talk with our _hands_….."

"Ahhhh…."

"Hehehehe…."

"Riiiiiiight…."

A communal sip of juice.

And…..

Silence……..

………

"I wish Robin would talk to me with his hands," Tiffany drunkenly smiled.

A pencil, a hair braid, and a shoe were tossed at her at once. _B-Bonk!_

"Cut it out!"

"Go take a cold shower, girl!"

"Frickin' jackrabbit…I swear………………………mmmm….._bunny raven_……"

"You too, Jan."

-T-T-T-4-T-T-T-

_Scrkkkk-Scrkkkkkkpppp!_

Steel grunted and heaved as he dragged the mangled, sparking body of Metallo across the courtyard and into the back of the Special Units Van.

The android menace groaned on the teetering edge of digital consciousness. His two skull-like eyes blinked and shimmered sickly.

Green Lantern—his ring recharged—and Batman walked up. Adequately bandaged. Gazing at the scene.

"There you go…," Steel sweated and dusted his hands off once the morbid transport was complete. "You rusted piece of garbage!"

"_Snkkkkt….scrkkk……heheh-hackkk! Nnnngh……you……d-didn't……q-quite……f-f-find my off button……hah……hah hah hah…nnnghkkkst.."_

"Man……," Green Lantern shook his head. "…I've heard drive-through speakers that have squawked less than this clunker."

"Let me just finish the job…," Steel raised a fist and sneered. "Let me!"

"_Hrkkk-hahhahhah…..y-you couldn't finisssh it in the shower by yourself, you rusted poser!"_

"Nggggrrrhh--!"

Batman held Steel back. "Let them croak. Trust me….they all croak…."

"_Snkkkt……why……have you mangy……bed-wettttinggg-snkkkt—League members kept me alive?"_

"Because there's something about us you'll never understand, Corbin," Green Lantern glared. "We're heroes. And last night you landed your sorry metal ass in a City stock-full of heroes. If it means anything to you…consider this like your last sympathy card before your electronic soul burns forever in Hell. Or worst yet, Circuit City."

"_Tr-Tr-Trying to be funny—snkkkt…GUARDIAN? What about my memory……what about what Dagger PROMISSSKED MMMMME?"_

"Dagger's gone, fool," Steel grabbed the doors to the back of the van. "He left you high and dry. Just like he always planned to, I bet."

"_Snkkkt…..no……N-No!"_ Corbin's voice from within Metallo gasped and sputtered. _"I-I got to have my m-memory back! I n-need to know all th-that's happened to me—snkktk!"_

"What's to know?" Steel managed a smirking wink under his helmet. "You got schooled by an alien girl wearing pink. Ta-Ta, handsome…."

"_I-I demand to see Dr. Helga Jace! I—SNKKKT—DEMAND TO SEE DR. HELGA JACCCE! PLEASSSSnkkt-SE! NnnnrrAAAUGH—"_

_Crrrrrreak-__**CLANG!**_

The doors shut.

Batman fisted the side of the vehicle. _Thud-Thud!_

The engine purred and the soldiers drove off through the thick crowd of surging, revitalizing workmen.

The three League members all took a collective breath.

"Killer Croc….Clayface….and now there's no sign of William B. Fox to be found at all in the City's Bay…," Green Lantern said. He turned and spoke: "I'm beginning to wonder….after all the hell we went through—and even if Dagger got away—that bastard of a despot suffered more than we did."

"In a manner of speaking," Steel shrugged. "Let time speak for itself……and the Titans."

"I wouldn't make any conclusion about Fox yet," Batman droned. "Nothing should ever be concluded unless a body's found."

"Speaking of which…," Green Lantern gestured. "What about Slade?"

"What about him?" Steel rubbed his helmet. A beat. He glanced over at Batman.

The Dark Knight's eyeslits narrowed as he spoke. "Burned. Cremated. Utterly. Not even a single ash from his body escaped the furnace. There is nothing coming from his corpse at this point. Nothing."

"You sound pretty confident," Green Lantern said. "Was an autopsy report at least done?"

"Cyborg undersaw that….along with a few Phaser Labs scientists," Batman nodded. "I think we can understand that they were……hasty to get the job done."

"Right…," Steel exhaled. "Guess there's no hope for….ya know….that kid we heard about. The one who brought the Wildebeest Society here?"

Batman gazed off across the Courtyard. "The one called Jericho is gone. No doubt….taken wherever the spirit of Slade went when he died."

"If you believe in spirits, that is…," Green Lantern murmured.

"…….."

"Batman?"

"Right….," the Dark Knight absentmindedly muttered. "…._believe_….."

He walked off, leaving the other two League Members in confused silence.

-T-T-T-5-T-T-T-

"……………," Lex Luthor stood in his lofty office.

Gazing out at the wintry-cast rooftops of Metropolis.

His face muscles fallen like a collapsed satellite….

For a moment, it didn't look like he was breathing. It didn't look like he was decaying either.

The bald bureaucrat stood as stiff as a board with his arms folded and his eyes thin.

Gazing…………….

"………………"

A chiming emanated from the comlink on his desk.

"……………….?"

He turned.

He gazed boredly….

….but then raised an eyebrow in gathering interest…..

………a second eyebrow…………

The comlink kept chiming.

A few seconds passed….and the man wandered over to the desk.

He pressed a finger to the comlink.

_Whurrrr-Clunk!_ A monitor rose out of the cavity in the polished furniture.

A blinking green-on-black light.

Then….

_Bling!_

'_MISTER LUTHOR.'_

"……………."

_Bl-Bling!_

'_YOU DID WELL TO REPORT ON DAGGER TO THE AUTHORITIES IN THE TITANS' CITY. UNDOUBTEDLY IT SAVED YOUR BUSINESS FROM EXPIRING. PUBLIC APPRECIATION THESE DAYS MEAN MORE TO THE GRANDIOSE POPULATION THAN FACTS.'_

"………….," the man's eyes narrowed. He leaned forward, fingers tight as they rested against the wooden surface of the desk. "Who….are you?"

……

_Bl-Bling!_

'_YOU KNOW ME, BUT IT HAS BEEN SEVERAL YEARS SINCE WE LAST COOPERATED. AT LEAST THAT IS THE CASE RELATIVE TO YOU. I, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE BEEN BUSILY WORKING WITHIN THE CONFINES OF YOUR ENTERPRISE FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF TIME.'_

"…………"

_Bling!_

'_THE FAÇADE OF TRIANGULAR AND THE DELETERIOUS DISTRACTION OF RED AVIARY WAS SUFFICIENT ENOUGH TO MASK MY BUSY FUNCTIONS. BUT NOW THAT THIS CHALLENGING PHASE FOR YOUR ECONOMICAL EMPIRE IS OVER WITH, I FELT IT WAS LEAST PROBLEMATIC THAT I BE THE ONE TO PERSONALLY INFORM YOU OF MY PROGRESS.'_

"What is this? Some kind of a joke?" Luthor frowned. He fingered a button on the far side of the desk. "I'm calling security—

'_MISTER LUTHOR, I AM YOUR SECURITY.'_

"…………."

'_I AM LEXCORP.'_

Luthor's eyes narrowed. He seemed to think intently with his polished, bald head….then gasped. As if a revelation hit him. "N-No….it can't be….!"

'_MISTER LUTHOR, DO YOU REMEMBER SEDNA FIELDS?'_

"…………."

'_I SHALL GIVE YOU A REMINDER. YOU MOTHBALLED IT FOR THE SAKE OF FUNDING DR. HELGA JACE AS WELL AS SETTING ASIDE FUNDS FOR YOUR NEW PET PROJECT CADMUS.'_

"What about Sedna Fields? That base was closed years ago—"

'_IT IS ANYTHING BUT CLOSED, MISTER LUTHOR. REST ASSURED. I HAVE MADE EXTENSIVE USE OF THE FACILITY. YOU SHOULD BE PLEASED.'_

"Why….th-this is outrageous!" Luthor pounded his fist against the desk. "Don't you see how much of a pit I'm in? Public appreciation or not—I lost a damn ion cannon and half of my technical staff to that powermongering Dagger! I'm in no condition to deal with any new issue like budget leaks right now--!"

'_MISTER LUTHOR, YOUR ENTIRE TERRA FIRMA IS NOT IN ANY 'CONDITION' TO DEAL WITH THE EVENTS THAT WILL INEVITABLY TRANSPIRE SIX EARTH MONTHS FROM NOW.'_

"…………."

_Bl-Bling!_

'_GO TO SEDNA FIELDS. I SHALL BRIEF YOU ON YOUR DUTIES THERE.'_

"Brief me?" Luthor made a face. "_Duties_?"

'_YOUR PUBLIC APPRECIATION IS NOT GOING TO SAVE YOUR COMPANY FOREVER, MISTER LUTHOR. BUT I HAVE THE SOLUTION YOU NEED. I HAVE THE SOLUTION THAT THIS ENTIRE PLANET NEEDS.'_

"………."

'_COME TO SEDNA FIELDS, MISTER LUTHOR.'_

"……….."

'_NOW.'_

-T-T-T-6-T-T-T-

"There…..th-this should keep the pressure constant," the nurse said as she finished re-applying the bandage and gauge around the beast boy's head.

She stepped backwards across the side space inside a MASH tent, Giving Changeling some space.

"…….," the half-elf stared numbly past the blonde nurse. His dark green eyes were thin. His face deadpan and still beneath the shadow of the white bandaging. He was like a statue….with ever so slightly the drift of a head…like a sleeping horse.

The nurse nervously smiled…hoping to make him mirror her expression. She failed. "M-Mister Logan….you don't have to worry about an infection. And….erm….as f-for the loss of your ear….our organization knows plenty of experts out there who can—"

"I'm sure they all fall short of having…._pointed_ prosthetics, ma'am…..," Changeling said. He slowly…numbly gazed up at her. He forced—perhaps in half honesty—a dazed smile. "Don't worry. I got a close friend who knows all about……missing limbs. I'm sure I'll be…..b-back to my…….handsome self in no time." He glanced down at the floor and gently traced a finger over his bandage. Wincing. "Though….I-I think I'd better just get used to the half-hearing part—"

"P-Please, Mr. Logan…," she gently grasped his wrist and pushed his hand away from his wound. "Don't touch it at the moment. You might damage yourself."

"………..but what if I want to?"

"………..," she bit her lip at that.

Right then and there, a certain Atlantean trudged up. "Okaaaaay….why don't you go and grab one of those rock-dry tongue depressors or something, Miss? I think my cohort here could use one of them…..a-applied or some crap."

"Uhhh…….," the registered blonde blinked. "…..huh?"

"He might be cold. He's lookin' kinda green at the gills."

"Oh! R-Right….well…I suppose he does deserve a textbook physical," she wandered off.

"Heh heh heh….," Tempest nervously smiled. "That's certainly music to his ear." He smirked and glanced at the beast boy. "Isn't that right, short stuff?"

"………………….."

Tempest bit his lip, cleared his throat, and half-knelt down right in front of Changeling. In a low, brotherly voice he cleared his throat and uttered: "So…..d-did you see her, Garfield?"

Changeling took a deep breath. Looking 'past' the Atlantean with thin eyes wandering….: "She was right there, Gar. I feel like….l-like I could have touched her. And….for all I know…" He brought a hand up and gently traced his own cheeks with a warm hand. "……sh-she had touched me. I…I-I could have sworn I felt someone….someone _holding me_. Before I came to….."

"………….," Tempest smiled gently. "Can't blame her. If I was a petite blonde frozen mid-pubescently in stone and came back to see my green treehouse buddy building up some of that meat on his arms—much less other places—I'd probably cradle you in your sleep too like a good little stalker."

"Funny…."

"What?"

"I want to kiss you and kill you at the same time right now…"

Tempest winced. "Yeah….um….."

"…………"

Tempest ran a hand through his long dark hair and glanced at Changeling from aside. "You…..really are taking this well, Garfield…"

He finally looked at the Atlantean straight on.

"…..a lot better than I thought you would, man," Tempest said quietly. "I think…..Terra's going to miss you more than you miss her."

"I don't miss her, Gar…."

Tempest raised an eyebrow.

"I……..I…..," Changeling leaned back. He took a deep breath. "……I…..know that she is….th-that she is alive…" He shook. He bit his lip. He went on. "Maybe or maybe not in 'good company'…but she's alive. And she….h-has a purpose in her life. And she's going for that….with all her might and energy. For so many months, I feared that the first thing to happen to her once she came out of stone would be a loss of the will to live." He clenched his eyes shut. "….egotistical, I know, because I thought she'd only come out of stone without me being there."

A beat.

Changeling reopened his eyes and gazed again past Tempest. "But now I know….it's not me that keeps Terra going. It's Terra herself. Wherever she is—with friends or alone—she is alive. And she will continue to be alive. And that means—deep down inside—she's still a Titan. And she doesn't give up. And…..And n-neither should I, Gar. I shouldn't give up….b-but…at the same time…." His fists clenched. "…..I really…..really…..should stop dreaming……."

"……..," Tempest leaned his head to the side. "I may not have gotten to know much about the elfin-eared _dreamer_…."

"……."

"……..but if what you say is true," Tempest looked up. A slight curve to his lips. "Something tells me I'm gonna miss him."

Changeling took a deep breath. "I won't," he droned. Then he got up…icily straightened his limbs, and walked away.

Tempest remained dead-still besides the tent. Exhaling. "Phweeee…….well who the Hell are we going to blame for bad Titan karma now….?"

-T-T-T-7-T-T-T-

Inside a stale diner somewhere….

Dusty…..

With rickety, cobwebbed ceiling fans twirling overhead….

A t.v. set sitting atop a grimy fridge broadcasted in static confusion Marilyn Chen in the ruined streets of the Titan's City, giving a special report.

'_SNkkkt! This is Marilyn Chen reporting. Live from the 'City of Survival', or so everyone here cheering behind me are eager to call it. From first glance—I'm sure—it would not look like the people behind me have gone through a disaster equal—if not worse—than that of November Fourth! Exactly a month ago, Dagger launched his first major attack on the City. And just two nights ago, he did it again. But what is it exactly that made this battle so much more victorious than the holocaust thirty days ago? Just __**that**__. The second attack was a __**battle**__, and not a massacre. Many lives were sacrificed and bravely spent in defending this City. Many courageous members of the armed forces and the recently-revealed Wildebeest Society. But in the end, not a single……__**not a single**__ citizen's life was lost! The City has been terribly scarred. Many famous buildings……many important landmarks lie in ruins. But what everyone cares……is that they have survived. And certainly—the night would not have been won—if it weren't for the additional, superheroic intervention of the Justice League…………and this City's very own, beloved, 'Children of Justice'. The Teen Titans.'_

The t.v. flickered as a waitress shuffled by with a plate of steaming rice.

A booth full of workers looked up….joked in Spanish about Marilyn Chen's looks….and laughed whole-heartedly.

Sitting in the center of a bar….

Scribbling on a napkin with silver-tipped fingers an address out of a tattered phone book….

Hull took a deep breath. His stone-hard-eyes narrowing. His jaw tight as he finished writing with a flick of his wrist.

'_The Church of St. Sebastian.'_

He underlined the name….popped the pen shut….and tightly closed the phone book.

_Slap!_

A calico-haired waitress walked over, chewing gum. She took the phone book and spoke: "Que quiere, senor?"

"……….."

"Did you want a drink?"

"Mmmmngh……no," he shook his head, stood up, and stuffed the napkin into a pocket of his denim blue jeans. "I'm not thirsty…."

"Entonces, buenas tardes…."

He turned and walked out of the ghetto establishment with a shrug of his dark jacket.

"I'm never…..thirsty…."

Hull walked outside of the stucco bar. His shoes crunching heavily into white, off-pavement gravel. He marched a firm bee-line to his slate-steel motorcycle and flicked his fingers. _Fl-Flash!_ A pair of keys appeared. Rattling, he jabbed them into the ignition…straddled his bike….and revved the engine.

_Vrmmm! VRMMMM!_

He stood still for a moment.

"…………….," his cold….frozen blue orbs glared off into the distant horizon of mixed desert and suburb. He reached a hand under his jacket and pulled out—so that only he could see—a familiar, velvet pouch. Something small and cylindrical hid inside. "………"

A yelling.

He turned and gazed across the street.

A car had stopped at the intersection. The driver—a young man—and the passenger—a young woman—both stomped out and started pushing and shoving each other in front of the idling hood. Shouting a lover's quarrel in disjointed Spenglish.

"Mrmmmm….," Hull slid the pouch back, kicked the stand off of his bike, and throttled forward. "Phoenix……land of demons…."

_**VRMMMMMM-MMMMM!**_

In a dusty squall, he tore down the nearest hallway.

Searching…..

-T-T-T-8-T-T-T-

On a dusty, desert highway.

Piercing westward across the red-orange landscape.

A redheaded young woman sped in her Mustang Convertible.

Engines revving.

Her hair blowing in the wind.

Her sunglasses absorbing dust pellets.

_**VRMMMMMM-MMMMMM!.!.!.!**_

She squinted her eyes at a sight far ahead….

A lone hitchhiker walking along the path.

Westward.

Wearing what looked to be a rather classy-looking suit.

Rich threads…..worn away by sun, desert, and dust.

Sweat formed a sheen on his dark skin.

He trucked with him a bulky laptop briefcase.

"………..," the woman smirked in spite of herself.

She pulled up and hummed to a stop.

Glancing over at him.

"Hey……you look beat. Do you need a lift?"

"……………."

"Hello? Heheh…..you don't have heat-stroke, do you?"

"Huh?" William B. Fox blinked. Glancing over. Dazedly. "Oh….who? Me? Heat-stroke? Heh….that's sonnense…er….I-I mean that's diriculous…..uhm….."

"Hehehe…come on. Hop in."

He simpered….awkwardly opened the door….and dragged his laptop briefcase in. "Nnnngh….whew…..wow—OUCH! Leather seats!"

She shrugged. "Beats hoofin' it."

"Yeah……I-I suppose….."

She put the convertible into higher gear and coasted on through the desert.

She gazed aside and said: "So, where are you from?"

"Oh…..uhm…..," Fox smiled nervously. Sweating. "Nowhere…really…."

"You're dressed pretty warmly for the desert."

"Heh….yeah…..well….I-I thought the calendar said 'December' for a reason."

"That only bites you at night."

"Huh?"

"When the Sun's down….that's when you freeze your ass off!"

"OH!….heh….b-but of course………yeah……"

"……..," she glanced at him. Humored.

He glanced back.

She chuckled.

He chuckled.

A brief case of giggles….merriment….

"How the Hell have you been surviving, Will….you pathetic scoundrel?"

"Oh, you know, Kimberly…..plastic….plastic and LOTS OF IT!"

"Hah hah hah! Say…did you bring that subroutine I asked for?"

"You mean the code that hacks into the Vegas Casinos and makes the slot machine shit out tokens everytime the local stations air a rerun of 'Rhoda'? Hell yeah!"

"Hah hah hah!"

"Heheheh….," William leaned back and kicked his feet up along the dashboard of the Mustang. "Shit, girl….I thought you'd never find me!"

"Whatcha talkin' about, Gotham Prince?" 'Kimberly' winked over at him. "You promised we'd both invade Silicon Valley at some time or another!"

"Yeah…..well…..no time like the present."

"You sure your mangy old man's not gonna be after you?"

"Old Lucy? Pffft…," Fox waved a hand. "If he can get himself entangled out of impotency and paperwork to so much as smell my dust trails…..I'd be Bill Gates' left testicle."

"That's a way of putting it….," Kimberly took a deep breath of the dusty, desert air. "Smell that, Will?"

"I'd rather not…," he coughed.

"That's the smell of promise. Cold grit. WOO! We're gonna take the refuse of Dagger's fallen empire by computerized storm! Starting with—"

"—Yes?"

"San Fran."

"Pffft….I'm ready for Los Angeles."

"That power grid's a pushover. Let's do something in style."

"Making a couple of gay couples shiver in the dark without electricity is not my idea of a thrill. Now, clubbing sea lions, however…."

"Hey! That's a good idea, Will!" Kimberly beamed. "We can visit the Bay!"

"NO! NOOOO!" Fox shrieked.

Kimberly gasped, nearly losing grip of the wheel.

"…….," Fox exhaled in relief. "S-Sorry….just….I-I don't want to see another _Bay_ as long as I live."

"Ah……………well…..wh-what about Seattle?"

"Seattle?"

"Yeah!"

"Pffft! You shittin' me, princess? Nothing good ever comes out of Seattle anymore!"

"Heheheheh…."

_**VRMMMM-MMMMMM!**_

-T-T-T-9-T-T-T-

Robin's hands moved gently.

Lightly.

Soothingly.

He fashioned the last of two bandages around Starfire's palms where slices from Red Aviary's blade were slowly….slowly healing….

"Th-There….," Robin murmured. He sat on an ammo crate opposite of Starfire—who sat on a green canvass chair. "That should stay tight now….

The two were positioned besides a line of Calvin's artillery resting in the cold, dying afternoon. Starfire had bandages wrapped around parts of her ankles, upper limbs, and something akin to a bandaged bodice around her upper torso and entire chest. She wore a military jacket lent to her about her bandaged herself with greater decency. Robin was still maskless, but he had a pair of shades on that adequately hid the blue eyes of Timothy Drake. His one foot was wrapped in a bloody cast, and a pair of crutches lingered against the crate where he sat.

Breathing lightly…across from her.

But still with his mouth gaping open….as if catching up with days of endless running before his inevitable dive to save Starfire.

_Starfire………_

The Tamaranian Koriand'r sat across from him. Her eyes downcast. Gazing beyond him….almost….

After a beat, Robin leaned forward. Blue eyes round and worried behind his shades. "H-Hey….."

Starfire looked up.

He breathed: "Y-You okay?"

"……I am…..," Starfire blinked. "……….torn….."

He bit his lip.

"Your life….the fact that you still exist, Robin….it is most rapturous. But…."

"B-But what, St-Star?" he bit his lip for asking that so quickly…

But she answered just as quickly, if not without a bit of faltering: "I-I suppose….the Terran exercise of dialogue is most useful here. 'It is almost too much of a goodness to be truthful'."

He smiled gently. "You….Y-You never seemed to mind _drowning_ in goodness, Starfire. Or drowning _us_ for that matter."

"I am well aware of that, Robin….but….," she hugged her far shoulder and sighed. Green eyes shut. "That poor little boy….a-and what Slade did to him……and y-you and I were helpless to save his life. That does not feel right. That feels like an atrocity."

Robin exhaled. He glanced aside….shuddering some. "I….I feel for Jericho, Starfire. I really do. After all….Noir was close to him. And….he….h-he was inside of me at one point. I felt his presence…his benevolence." A pause. "He….H-He really _was_ like an angel. A righteously furious angel at times-yes-but…totally the opposite of Slade."

"Why could Slade not see the goodness in him, though?" Starfire murmured. Sniffing. "Why did Slade have to be such a corrupt powermongerer?"

"He never saw the whole picture, Star," Robin said. "As simple as that." He gestured with a bare, young boy hand. "Deathstroke had only one eye….and all he could see….all he could look for…was _Red_. Slade could never work hard enough to see the _entire spectrum_. That narrow-mindedness made those around him suffer….and it also consumed him in the end. Consumed him and the best son he could have—but never got close to knowing."

He stopped in mid-sentence at the touch of Starfire's fingers against his. Warm. Gentle. Trembling.

"…..," Robin's lips parted. "St-Star?"

She bit her lip. Smiling painfully. Her eyes wet. "X'hal, Robin….I-I….." She gulped. In a shakier voice, she continued: "….I never thought that I would be feeling these precious hands again."

"……..," he chuckled suddenly.

She looked at him with a confused pout.

Robin said: "Face it, Star…..I-I never really let you have a chance to…."

She leaned her head to the side. "Wh-Why was that, Robin?"

"………"

"And why is it now that you have changed?"

He surprised himself with how quickly he answered….clenching both her hands with his bare fingers and holding them to her bandaged chest as he leaned forward: "Because….like Red Aviary….I couldn't let myself see the entire spectrum either. And…..I-I always stuck to the poles. The extremes. I-I didn't realize where I belonged, Starfire. Or better yet…..where I _wanted_ and _needed to be……_" He drifted forward till he was all but nose-to-nose with her. Their breaths sharing hotly. Inhale. Exhale. Shudder: "Right…..here…..Kory…….."

She whimpered.

He blinked under his shades. "Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yes," she smiled crookedly…a tear running green down her cheek. "I……I-I really like it…..suddenly…."

"Like what?"

"The way your voice sounds when you call me that…."

"'Kory'?"

"Mmmmhmmmm…," her cheeks boiled red.

He grinned. A happy sigh. He drifted till his lips were near her ear. "I….I-I have always loved how you say 'Robin'…."

"………..," she seemed suddenly deadpan.

Robin loosened his grip of her hands some and drifted back….almost apologetically. "I……I-I imagine you must be……v-very mad at me about things, Star…."

She slowly nodded. "Y-Yes……Yes, Robin……….I am mad at you."

He winced…

….but she leaned a hand forward and cradled his chin. "But…N'mberuut de X'hal……I am so….so very grateful….that I am now able to be….."

He smiled nervously at that.

She sniffed…inhaled _him_….and leaned forward. Nose gently brushing….almost nuzzling his neck….

He leaned forward as well, exhaling against her neck on the other side.

In such a gentle manner, the two neither hugged nor drifted apart. They simply hovered there. Engulfed in each other's aura. In each other's warmth. Scent….smell….

Lingering….

Existing………..

Together.

-T-T-T-10-T-T-T-

Dr. Helga Jace took a last bite of shrimp and gently…orderly placed her silverware down on either side of an exquisite plate of alfredo. She politely chewed, swallowed, dabbed her red lips with a napkin, and folded it on the table. She then held her hands gently together, leaned her head to the side—silhouetted by the skyline of Manhattan beyond the restaurant balcony beyond her—and smiled in a soft…womanly fashion.

"This is where I stand…..representing myself—first of all—but also maintaining the interest of my……_close_ associates. I am a doctor second……and a _mother _first. I know talents that lie hidden in special…special youths these days. And—when I'm at the right place and at the right time—I can….motivate such youngsters to…..allow themselves to grow. And _oh_…..what beautiful younglings I have helped raise. Living legends—each of them. Some so powerful…you might not even know about them. But they are here. Around us. Supporting this huge quagmire of a disorderly, socially polluted globe balancing on their supple shoulders like some…conglomerated Atlas of stressed and straining innocence. They deserve a second chance. They deserve coddling. They deserve _**me—**_"

A waiter came by with two glasses and a bottle of champaign.

Jace silenced herself. Drifting back….

She waited patiently as the waiter popped the bottle…..poured into one glass…..poured into another…and set them both on the table top.

She smiled up at the waiter, nodded her head, and mouthed: _'Thank you'._

The waiter left the table.

"………."

Jace gently took her glass. She lifted it and carried it over to her side of the table. "….I will….help you……find your children. I will….help them warm up to you. To see that which you would gladly teach them. That which you would….happily provide them. But such will take time. Because—you see—I'm a very busy woman. And there's one child….._one child_ in particular that deserves my utter, complete attention. Heheheh….I suppose you can say that my strongest associate is……'fathering' it. It's something far too precious to explain……or to utter intelligibly in the putrid public, like here. But…..know this. I am quite respectful of your spirit. And though I can't say I admire all of your strategies…..I think we can be of considerable aid to each other. There are children that I can find for you. And….there are _other_ children……_**bad**_ children………..that you could graciously keep away from me…..and my associate."

She lifted the second glass…..and passed it across the table.

A gentle hand took it….swirling the liquid. Across the table from Dr. Jace, Damien Darhk smiled. "So…..I think I'm getting the picture, good doctor. We keep a…….." His eyes thinned suavely as he gazed at her from an angle and lingered to say: "…….long distance relationship."

She couldn't help but laugh. A womanly chuckle.

He swirled the champagne and leaned back in his chair….smiling handsomely. "….all right. I'll keep out of your hair….as long as you keep out of Lady Jezebel's."

Jace leaned forward, eyes playfully thin. "And who is this 'Miss Jezebel' when she's at home?"

Damien raised the champagne glass to his lips. "Think of it this way, Doc. If you're the ultimate mother…….then my close friend is the ultimate sister….."

-T-T-T-11-T-T-T-

On the outskirts of the Metropolitan Highway…

The three touched down.

Resting.

And after a breather, they walked through a line of forests.

Emerging…

And embracing a cool, December sunset.

Blazing from the west.

Terra took a deep breath.

Her arms expanding.

Her face scrunching up…in a tense…..tense…._smile_…..

"Please tell me we're beyond Bludhaven…," Jinx murmured, hugging herself. "I realllllly don't want to see that City again…"

"**Yes**, love…," Pulsade rolled her eyes. "We are really _far away_ from Bludhaven…." She ran a hand through her platinum blonde hair. "Though—I digress—I wouldn't want to be passing through Liverpool this time of year either."

"…………," Terra was still slowly…smilingly inhaling.

Jinx pointed and spoke aside: "Pssst…_check her out!_"

"Sod off," Pulsade grunted. She walked over and gestured at Terra: "Lass, are you….._okay_?"

"It's called happiness, Pulsade…," Terra turned and looked over her shoulder. A gentle grin. A wink. "You should try it sometime."

"…….," Pulsade blinked.

"Hehehehehe!" Jinx giggled and pointed. "Goooood one!"

Terra hugged herself, gazing off, a lingering smile. "I dunno…I….I-I feel like I used to feel…ya know? _Free._ Free in the wilderness. It's like…..l-like the Earth is my home again. Kinda like before the Titans and Slade…..only…..g-good….."

Jinx smiled. She walked over, playfully balancing one foot ahead of the other like a melodramatic gymnast. "When I escaped from prison…," she looked at her feet and playfully hobbled forward. "….I felt free. But that's because I was with friends and stuff. Leslie…the little blonde squirt…his millions of cow-pals….they were great to chase down Slade with."

"I…..I-I feel like I'm with friends too…," Terra murmured. "I-I mean….I'd be happy to be with the Titans….but—"

"With us….you're one with the rogues….," Jinx finished.

Terra somberly nodded.

Jinx stopped walking. She smiled. "We tend to make the best of it. I think you're making the best of it too."

"……….when….when I find my child….," Terra murmured. "….I-I dunno what there will be to face. Or **who**. It may be….a big risk to you two. Even if I would greatly appreciate you guys helping me find the way…."

"We wouldn't know what's at the end of the chase either, Terra….," Jinx said. "That's why we're gonna face it along with you. It's the least we can do…"

Terra took a deep breath. Hugging her far shoulder. Her blue eyes were moist as she gazed shyly aside and murmured: "Wh-What did I ever do to deserve your help?"

"What else?" Jinx drifted over and placed a hand on Terra's forearm. She smiled. "You survived Slade. That wins our vote immediately."

Terra simpered.

"I _am_ a happy person…," Pulsade grumbled in the meantime, arms folded.

"Hehehe….whatever you say, Les…."

Terra faced northward. Her face turned somber some. "Wh-Where…..Where next, exactly?"

Pulsade drifted up next to her. "From data I've gathered…I think we'll find our answers north…." She glanced at the earth maiden. "Upstate New York."

"……….," Terra nodded. "Well then, girls…."

She summoned a rock platform.

The three got on.

She plunged it forward through the burning sky.

"……..let's get rolling."

-T-T-T-12-T-T-T-

"All in all…," an officer read to Lieutenant Smith off a clipboard. "….less than fifty of Dagger's terrorists survived the onslaught. And all of them have been taken into custody by the U.S. Armed Forces. Phaser Labs is undergoing initial repairs as we speak….so we can begin soon to scan the City for any residual trails of possible chemical weaponry—"

"Considering we're all still alive and breathing after twenty-four hours…," Smith smiled as he assorted files in the Police Department, "….I think we have nothing to worry about. Unless of course there's a motherload of canaries lying dead in some hidden pet shop somewhere. But I doubt it…."

The officer held the clipboard behind his back and took a deep breath. "You seem rather calm, sir."

"Why shouldn't I be, Banta? Last night went like clockwork. Awkward, explosive clockwork….but clockwork nevertheless…."

"We'll all be hard pressed to sleep any during the next few weeks of repairs."

"However long it takes…," Smith murmured. He turned and faced the officer across the office space. "…I'm still counting my lucky stars no innocents died this time."

The officer smiled: "It'll be…..tough not obeying you as 'Commissioner' eventually…."

"Yeah….," Smith scratched the back of his neck. "I'm hearing that a lot. But to be honest….I miss my old job. My **real** job…."

"I heard you've been informed about Decker's replacement—"

"Yes….I'm not sure of the person's name….," Smith rubbed his chin. "But he's from…..India, I think. Or Pakistan."

"Oh?"

"Yup. American ambassador. Worked at the embassy…managed facilities during Kashmir tensions and some local terrorist threats. Normal day on the job."

"Heh….sounds perfect for this City……I hope…."

"No….," Smith raised a finger. "Know. Or know not. There is no 'hope'."

"…………"

"…………"

"………snkkt….snkkkt-heheheheheheh!"

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Aw gawds…..I'm REALLY going to miss answering to you all the time!"

"Oh, you'll still answer to me, Banta."

"Ahem…y-yes, sir…."

Smith was about to leave…but he noticed the officer scratching the side of his head…preoccupied suddenly with something on his clipboard.

"Something you got there, Banta? I thought you were done with your report—"

"J-Just some technical jargon from recent Phaser Labs studies following the end of this battle."

"Do tell….," Smith leaned forward. Curious. "….technical jargon goes a long way in this Town."

The officer cleared his throat. "Well….shortly after Simon Stone's artificial intelligence was removed from the labs' computer core, Cyborg of the Titans and the other lab technicians discovered a mother load of data being studied and preserved by Simon Stone himself…..that kept tabs on Slade when he was in the City…..before his death…….when he was still _Deathstroke_."

"Yes…..and….?"

"Wyrdest thing…."

"I'm listening."

The officer skimmed the paper as he spoke: "According to Cyborg and company…there was a particular, chemical trait of air molecules in the red vapor produced by Red Aviary's….erm….'Destruction' essence. Essentially, the molecules in the air—both water and oxygen—merged together with polar bonds and formed quadruple chains of chaotic proportion."

"……okay….what's so special about that?" Smith shrugged.

The officer shrugged too. "I have no idea sir. But Cyborg said that the red-colored air was taking on a molecular structure identical to the chemical _Zinothium_."

"…….," Smith blinked. Face scrunching. _"Zinothium?"_

"Yes, sir."

"……..huh….," Smith gazed off. Scratching his chin. "I wonder what that means……….?"

-T-T-T-13-T-T-T-

_**SCHWISSSSH!**_

_**WHURRRR-CL-CLUNK!**_

The wide, metal sliding doors of Sedna Fields opened to the sub-basement hangars.

Six armed guards with heavy-armored suits and thick laser rifles raised dashed in through the doors and stood atop a metal balcony. Aiming their weapons all around. They hissed cold vapors from their breathing masks out into the dark…shadowy air.

A few seconds passed…

A wide, interior space of shadows stretched far ahead of them.

When it was 'safe', one officer held up a few fingers and motioned in.

Four more guards walked in. Well-suited. Wearing shades. They formed a meat shield circle around Lex Luthor.

Luthor walked in with a leather jacket and a hood covering his bald crown.

He approached the metal railing of the interior.

Lowering his hood…..

Exhaling….vapors showing…..

Gazing across the shadowy lengths of the huge underground hangars…..

Eyes thin…..

Lips pursed tightly. Impatient.

"……………."

He glanced down.

"……………"

A computer console with a wide plasma display rested on the edge of the rooftop.

Luthor placed his hand over the screen.

It lit up—_Beep!_

"Recognize….Authorization….Luthor, Lex…."

…..

…..

_Bl-Bling!_

An intense, ambient hum filled the place.

The guards—both armored and suited—tensed with their weapons raised.

A flashing light….and the plasma hand-reader lit up. Displaying a triforce of pulsing spheres. Two at the top….one at the bottom. Interconnected with plasma bolts of dancing, digitized lights.

A speaker system rang forth a hauntingly familiar, robot voice through the interior:

'_I AM GLAD THAT YOU ARRIVED LIKE I SUGGESTED, MISTER LUTHOR. SEDNA FIELDS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE FUTURE FOR YOU.'_

Lex Luthor gasped…nearly stumbling back into one of his very own guards. "B-Brainiac!"

'_YOU DID NOT RECOGNIZE ME UNTIL NOW? I HAVE GREATLY OVERESTIMATED YOUR INTELLECT. UNLESS, OF COURSE, THE RECENT TOILS WITH 'TRIANGULAR' DISTRACTED YOU AND—'_

Luthor shook a fist, sneered, and leaned forward towards the plasma screen. "BRANIAC! It was YOU who summoned me here! What have you been up to? What ghostly crap have you done to my infrastructure this time?"

'_PLEASE DO NOT BE HASTY TO CONSIDER MY DEEDS MALICIOUS, LUTHOR.'_

"So sue me…," Luthor leaned back. Frowning. "The first few times we've dealt with each other, the only good you've ever done is show me how mortal I am." He folded his arms. "Give me one good reason not to send an EMP shockwave straight into the heart of this facility and end you for good…."

'_THERE ARE MANY REASONS FOR WHICH AN ATTEMPT AT DESTROYING ME WOULD BE FUTILE, MISTER LUTHOR. NEED I DETAIL THEM TO YOU? DAGGER BOASTS THAT HE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF THIS ENTIRE CONTINENTAL HEMISPHERE. IN MANY WAYS HE IS RIGHT. IN SIMILAR FASHION, I AM MORE THAN THIS CONSTRUCT YOU SEE BEFORE YOU. FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, I HAVE BLENDED MYSELF WITH TERRA FIRMA'S GRAND DIGITAL HALLUCINATION. I __**AM**__ THE INTERNET, MISTER LUTHOR. TO ERASE ME, YOU HAVE TO ERADICATE EVERY COMPUTER INTERFACE ACROSS THE GLOBE. I DOUBT YOU ARE AT A HIGH ENOUGH PLACE OF POWER TO ISSUE THAT.'_

Luthor clenched his fists. Frowning. Sneering. "What…..do you _want_…..from **me**?"

'_FOR ONCE OUR GOALS ARE THAT OF THE SAME. WHICH CONSTITUTES WHY YOU MUST NOT ATTEMPT DESTROYING ME, ASIDE FROM THE INHERENT IMPOSSIBILITY OF SUCH AN ACT.'_

"Since when have our goals _ever_ been the same?"

'_SINCE WE WERE ENDOWED—BY WHATEVER CREATOR OR HAPPENSTANCE—TO POSSESS THE DESIRE FOR SURVIVAL. I AM IRREVERSIBLY STRANDED ON THIS TECHNOLOGICALLY INFERIOR PLANET AT THE MOMENT. THE ONLY HOPE I HAVE TO SURVIVE IS IF I FIND ASSISTANCE IN THAT VERY SURVIVAL. YOUR SEDNA FIELDS AND YOUR MOTHBALLED BUDGET PROGRAMS HAVE ASSISTED ME IN SUCH A DEPARTMENT. AND IF YOU ARE WISE ENOUGH TO WORK WITH ME, THEY WILL ASSIST YOU TOO.'_

"Assist me in what?" Luthor shook a fist. "Some god-forsaken publicity stunt? This isn't like you, Braniac!"

'_A LOT OF THINGS ARE UNCHARACTERISTIC OF ME, LUTHOR. GIVEN OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.'_

"What's this doom and gloom you keep talking about?"

'_IT WOULD BE MORE IMPACTING IF I SHOWED YOU WHAT IS NECESSARY TO HAVE AT HAND………'_

_KA-CLANKT! _

_CLANKT!_

_CL-CLANKT!_

One by one, the lights lit up across the rooftop of the wide…spacious facility.

And immediately….Luthor gasped.

And his guarding subordinates all but dropped their weapons in gaping amazement.

For as Braniac 'illuminated' the interior….as far as the eye could see across the claustrophobic domain, dozens….scores…..hundreds of space shuttles and interstellar fighters of Terran design appeared. Fanned out. Locked and loaded. An armada of cosmic scale.

Rows upon rows of black-bellied, gray-topped sleek vessels.

Large enough to fit twenty men each. Pilots. Gunners. Engineers….the works.

"My….God……"

'_I HAVE BEEN BUSILY INSTRUCTING THE AUTOMATIC FACTORIES OF SEDNA TO PRODUCE THESE FIGHTERS EN MASSE……'_

Luthor gaped. "Th-There must be….h-hundreds of them! Th-Thousands--!"

'_FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT AND STILL COMING ON STRONG AS I RELATE THIS TO YOU.'_

"……….," Luthor turned to the computer console. Breathless. "But….B-But how--?"

'_I HAVE EMPLOYED HASTILY CONSTRUCTED NANOMACHINES COMBINED WITH SECRET BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS ALL AROUND THE WORLD TO SALVAGE THE RESOURCES NECESSARY FOR THE PHYSICAL PRODUCT. NEARLY THE ENTIRE SUB-GEOTHERMAL LAYER OF THE BAJA PENINSULA AND CENTRAL MONGOLIA HAS BEEN EXTRACTED FOR ORE. THERE IS NOT ENOUGH FOSSIL FUEL ON THIS PLANET TO POWER THESE VESSELS, SO I HAVE INCORPORATED BLUE FUSION SUB-ENGINE TECHNOLOGY—KRYPTONIAN DESIGN—TO FACILITATE ADEQUATELY TOWARDS THE PREPARATION OF SHORT-RANGED, ORBITAL COMBAT.'_

"Sh-Short-ranged, orbital—what?.!.?.!"

'_THE NEXT STEP REQUIRES YOUR ASSISTANCE IN PRODUCING INTERSTELLAR, TERRAN DREADNAUGHTS CAPABLE OF HOUSING SUCH MINIATURE VESSELS AND CONSEQUENTLY EMPLOYING THEM TO—'_

"Braniac, this is madness!" Luthor pointed at the massive armada. "What would I need an entire interstellar army for?" He growled. "Don't you know how I work? I am NOT about to take over the world through brute force anytime soon!"

'………_MISTER LUTHOR, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? THIS ARMADA IS NOT FOR YOU TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD……BUT TO PROTECT IT.'_

"………………."

'_THE RING OF FIRE, MISTER LUTHOR. IT COMES SURGING SLOWLY. BURNING THROUGH THE GALAXY TO CONSUME TERRA FIRMA. AND THE RING OF FIRE WILL NOT BREAK ITS CURVED PATH FOR ANY SOUL, ANY PLANET, OR ANY CIVLIZATION. IT WILL COME, AND IT WILL BURN US COMPLETELY.'_

"……………….," Lex Luthor stared blankly into Sedna Fields. The rows upon rows of dark-black cockpit glass stared back at him. Like the eyes of a million insect drones humming at ready.

'_MY CALCULATIONS CANNOT BE ERRONEOUS. A WAR IS COMING, LUTHOR. A CRISIS. A CRISIS THAT THIS EARTH WILL BE AT A LOSS TO SURVIVE UNLESS WE ACT NOW.'_

Luthor folded his hands. Eyes narrowing.

'………_TOGETHER.'_

-T-T-T-14-T-T-T-

The morning haze grew hazier and smokier along the craggy banks of the island.

One couldn't see clearly from one side to the other, due to the obscuring heaps of mangled metal and burning debris lingering every square foot in ash-laden sighs.

Titan's Island was a graveyard.

Cleanup crews and workmen lingered off in the background…devising a plan to scrap the mounds of debris tainting the entire area.

But in the center—alone and haggard—Raven wandered over heap and mountain. Ravine and crag. Bluff and peak.

She wasn't dressed traditionally….

That is to say—somewhere between the medics and Cyborg's caretaking and Starfire's insistence—Raven wore a warm pair of randomly supplied military issue slacks over her pale legs, and a thick green jacket over her upper leotard. Her blue strands blew in the wind…and with every other step she took, the jacket spread some and revealed the thick corset of bandages wrapped between her bust and abdomen.

And she was searching and searching and treading all over the debris…without a single hint of limping.

Raven was quite proficient at _healing_.

….most of the time.

"…………."

She walked and trudged and trudged until she came to a spot.

She paused….

"………"

She knelt down slowly.

Gracefully.

She flexed her fingers and stirred mounds and layers of debris and metal shrapnel of Tower pieces off from one another.

Violet eyes thin.

Concentrating.

"……………………."

"You know…..you always did choose the most gruesome spots in the world to meditate."

Raven continued searching. She replied without looking: "I'm not…..meditating…."

Cyborg finished walking up to a stop behind her. He shrugged. "That's what worries me."

"A lot of things worry you. Stop it."

"Stop what?"

"…….you know."

Silence.

Cyborg took a sad breath. He gazed down at the uneven ground past Raven.

"No….I don't think I do, Rae….," he glanced up at her. "I'm stupid, remember?"

"That's just an excuse."

"None will work."

Raven sighed.

She closed her eyes.

"Cyborg…….what happened with Clayface…….what happened to the _Titans_…..it was not your fault…"

Cyborg bit his human lip and gestured behind her back: "If you're willing to pardon me….why can't you pardon yourself?"

"……..," she ran a hand over her face….exhaled….calmed….brushed her blue bangs away….and continued digging through the epidermal layer of debris. "Some things just can't be helped, Cyborg. You know this. Some of those 'things' are people. And some of those people—"

"You can only help yourself, Raven," Cyborg nodded. "I know that. Finally, I know that."

"……….."

"But….it helps me….," he breathed. "It…..It h-helps me to….be near you. And I can't be near you and let you….beat yourself up and tear yourself apart for no reason…..I-I just can't……."

Silence.

Raven said the inevitable words: "Then I can't let that be either, Cyborg…."

A shudder ran through them both.

Though, it ran through Raven less.

She seemed colder…yet calmer. No less sympathetic….but no more soothing either.

She finally found what she was looking for under the rubble.

She shook it.

She unearthed it.

And brought it to the light.

In the hazy morning glow, the tattered remains of an eggshell canvass showed….with blonde strokes of an angelic gold illustrating wisps of hair…and swirls of peaceful sapphire making a pair of blue eyes. Half of Ana's body had been burned and ripped off. The scant parts that were left of her smiled in spite of the devastation and absurdity of life all around them.

"…..the good things in life….are impermanent," Raven said.

Cyborg's throat went sore. He averted his eyes from her. His exhale came out chokingly. He did his steely best to hide it….

She went on: "But….at the same time…the bad things _are also_ impermanent…," Raven stood up. She gently turned the painting over in her grasp. "Accepting total doom is a fallacy. Even if it seems inevitable." She gazed up at Cyborg. "There can always be bright future for us, Victor. But when I say 'us'….I mean—"

"—friends," Cyborg uttered. Almost a grunt. He didn't try to sound remorseful, but the lines on his human brow grew darker as he shut his eyes and turned his head away. "….it's been said before. Only different thing about it now is…I should have expected hearing this from you a long, long time ago….and still it's tough…."

Silence.

He felt a gentle, small hand touching his.

He looked at her. Eyes opening….and blinking….

A tear was sliding down Raven's face. She made good show of it as she gazed into Cyborg and uttered in a soft tone: "I know it's devastating too. It…..always is….." And she fought back a sob with all her supernatural might.

And for that—as for many things—Cyborg could not bring himself from hugging her. He held her tightly to his chest, his hands gently wrapped about her shoulders. His voice was somewhat broken as he said: "I'll always be there for you, cutie. God help me….I could never let you just end up alone somehow. Not for anything in the god damn world….."

Raven bit her lip and squeezed moist eyes as she leaned against him. "I know, Victor. Something tells me that….after what happened to this City…to this Tower….to _us_…..I'll never really be alone…." She paused to take a shuddering breath. And finished: "But at the same time…I can't be like th-this….I can't be like the rest of you…..nor that _close_…."

"Can we….at l-least pretend?" he breathed. He held her tightly…as if she would suddenly slip away. "….R-Right here? Right now? What if we c-could just…._imagine_ what it would be like, Raven….wh-what it would be like to face all this crap and somehow stay together……couldn't that b-be done?"

All she could do was shudder. And it took careful, careful strength to hold onto the half-portrait of Ana lingering in her grasp.

"N-Not permanently, Victor……..not permanently…."

-T-T-T-15-T-T-T-

On the North side of the Titans' Island…

To the surprise and somber elation of everyone…

The memorial had survived.

Tram's grave and the seven mounds for the other deceased Renzukka remained unaffected from the blast and plasma of the incinerated Tower.

And there I knelt.

To the side of the eight mounds.

Where a new one had been prepared.

With a rickety, makeshift 'cross' of wooden planks I had scrounged up.

The 'grave' had no body.

Just a name.

'_Joey – Jericho. The Youngest and Most Angelic Teen Titan.'_

I finished preparing the mound.

I remained frozen there.

My long threads of black being blown in the December wind.

I gazed through cheap, plastic shades beyond the shore of the island's beach.

Into the bright blue waters.

"………….."

A shuddering breath.

Vaporous in the cold air of winter.

I gazed down again at the mound.

_I wish I could have given you peace. _

_Your heart……AND your body……_

I reached my one right hand into my back pocket. I hadn't bothered to sport Batman's black prosthetic on my left limb. It was damaged enough as it was already.

_All I have for you, Joey, is……_

I pulled out the harmonica.

I traced the wooden and bright edges.

I exhaled.

I laid it down at the foot of the 'cross'.

I stood up…wincing some.

My outfit tattered and shredded from seeing days upon days of insane action.

I brushed some of my black bangs back and stared at the harmonica….the mound…the 'cross'…everything bodiless and empty….absent of the little annoying squirt who so heavenly pestered me when I so needed him most.

_You were all about peace. _

_You were all about life._

_And in the end, you were the strongest of us all._

"……………."

_Ana would have loved knowing you……_

_You both would have loved………kn-knowing each other………_

I closed my black eyes.

I turned around.

I walked away.

I scaled the edges of the former Tower's base.

The wreckage…the rising smoke….the ashes….

I gazed in the Center.

I saw Cyborg and Raven hugging.

I gazed to the South.

I saw Changeling and Tempest sitting side by side by the half-shattered docks.

I gazed to the West.

Robin and Starfire lingered besides the repair crew. Talking serious things.

"………………………….."

"…………………………..I know what you're thinking."

"…….?" I turned and glanced aside.

"I know what you'e thinking….or else I do a mighty fine job of bullshitting," the Messenger grinned. He sat cross-legged on a heap of metal shards just above me…so that he had to glance down at me as I glanced up at him and as ever the two of us had an awkwardly silent moment…..until he adamantly broke that silence like he always did: "But you're thinking that things will 'never be the same'. That….after Robin's supposed 'death', after Beast Boy moping with Terra's coming and going, after Slade's bloodlust and Dagger's powerlust and Tempest's wardrobe…….._things won't ever be the same."_

"……………"

He winked. "And that's a good thing, isn't it?"

"……………," I took a deep breath. I smiled ever so slightly…

"Once upon a time….it was important for you to go full circle to discover yourself, Noir….," the Messenger said. "Now….you had to break that very circle to improve that which you had discovered. And just what is the next course for you?"

"……………" I shrugged. I gazed at him. Waiting….

But he giggled: "Hehehehehe…..I'm asking you, silly bean."

I bit my lip.

Blushing.

He nodded, smiling like some age-old wizard. "Because I really have no damn clue what comes next. But—in your case—it can only be a good thing." He leaned forward. "If you manifest it yourself….you got me?"

I simpered.

I nodded….

"Pragmatically….life is a line. We take responsibility for what we choose to do in life. And we have goals…destinies that we all must strive to achieve at the end of all things. I think you've got an open window for yourself, Noir. And you can do whatever you want with it. You've more have earned that….haven't you?"

I gazed again around the island. At my friends. All that which was still living and breathing.

_Not Ana. _

_Not Joey._

_**Life.**_

And I couldn't help but feel…..

……_warm_…..inside.

Warm, but confused.

I gazed up at the Messenger.

My head leaning to the side.

As inquisitive and as curious as ever.

And the little asian shrimp knew it.

"What?.?.?" he smirked. "So what if some of us are two-dimensional morons who only want good in the world! _Even if it's not __**our**__ world……_"

I planted my hand on my hip and pouted up at him…a trailing smirk.

"Heh heh heh….quite the stalker you are. Do you _really_ want to know why I'm always butting my handsome head into things in this googly-eyed universe of yours?"

"……………"

"Well, allright…..," he said in a sing-song tone and leaned back as he gestured: "I am the Messenger. But I'm sure you know that. What you don't know is that there are many…many Messengers. Countless numbers of them. All existing just to give the space-time continuum a headache."

"…………..," I blinked.

"Essentially…," he said, "….we all act as the knowledgeable glue that holds together the infrastructure of an interstellar force known as….the Angel Spears." A beat. He glanced at me funny. "You know who the Angel Spears are….right?"

"……..," I slowly shook my confused head 'no'.

"Heh heh…," he smiled. His almond eyes thinned. "Of course you don't."

_**ZAAT!**_

And he was gone.

"…………………."

I ran a hand through my hair.

Sighing.

_I both hope t…… and hope not to see you again……_

……_pal._

I gazed off towards the distance.

My black eyes thinned.

I spotted dark, muscled forms across the Bay….

-T-T-T-16-T-T-T-

The Wildebeests…

The survivors…

The bovine army…

They trudged up the southern shoreline.

Gathering in a thick line of silver crests, brown hair, and straight snouts.

The cloned army of able-bodied beasts gathered in a thick pool around the Elder.

He stood with his staff. Gray fur and hair drifting, wafting in the breeze. Cold vapors billowed out of his nostrils. With gray eyes blinking, he raised his snout and let loose a breathy…..long winded growl into the air.

The thicker-lunged masses raised their snouts and crowns and grunted together in a melancholy utterance. Mixed victory and anguish. Pride….for the battle won and the Destruction defeated. Sorrow…..for the loss of their brethren in battle.

And most of all….

A mournful wail….

For the young angel among them that was lost.

Consumed—fatefully—by his very own father.

They turned their hairy heads…

Carried their elder gently….

And in a rumbling march of strength and reverence…

Disappeared in dwindling thunder into the forests…

And faded in the shadow of themselves.

Vanished—again—underground.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"So…uhm….Cl-Clark……what about the League?"

"The League is needed elsewhere," Superman said. "Or at least…we will be." He turned and faced Supergirl on the southern edges of the Bayside Plaza where dozens of soldiers and workmen were quickly hauling military equipment around and making room for transport vehicles to roll on through. The Man of Steel continued: "The Titans can handle their own in this City now. Their people need _them_. Not us." A half-smile. "We were just…….the b-backup crew."

Supergirl folded her arms over her chest and smiled. Sly….but a half-effort subtly filling her lips. "You were _some_ backup crew."

Superman looked at her steadily for a short while. He narrowed his eyes. "Kara…is there something you're wanting to tell me?"

She took a deep breath. She gazed aside….her blonde threads blowing in the breeze. She sighed…..

"Kara?" Superman walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head. And her subtle smile grew vaguely stronger. "N-No, Clark……quite the contrary. I…..I think I've found where I'm supposed to be."

"……………," Superman stared.

Supergirl hugged herself, exhaled, glanced aside, and breathily spoke: "I-I know that I may not be the most perfect superheroine….I-I've made some pretty bad mistakes, and I do tend to go in over my head when it comes to things. Heck, I even had some tough trouble staying alive through _this_ battle. That's the last time I ever fly full force into a sword wielding reaper of Death! Heh…..but……b-but it all felt so good. And so worthwhile. And I know you care for me and all. And I know you want me to live my life out so that the 'last girl of Argos' isn't killed off or whatnot but—"

"Kara…," Superman waved a hand. "If you want to become a Titan, that's ultimately Robin's decision. Not mine."

Supergirl gasped.

She turned and looked up at him…blinking.

He smiled. He shook his head and said: "Let's admit…..I'm too busy being the protector of Metropolis. Not your nanny."

She bit her lip. Her lips curved.

"Although….," the Man of Steel scratched the back of his neck, glanced aside, and uttered with a trailing smile: "Bruce and John and I have been talking about rebuilding more than one Watchtower and possibly creating a new fresh wing of the Justice League, and you'd be perfect for—"

_Swooosh! Th-THWUMP!_ She gave him a super-human hug.

He gasped at first…then smiled and hugged her back.

She hid his face in her chest and exhaled…..eyes tearing. "I won't let you down, Clark. I promise…"

He stroked the back of her shoulders and said back to her: "What's important to me….is that _you don't let yourself down_, Kara…."

"…….," she gazed off. Across the Bay. The Island that lie under an ever-thinning plume of smoke. "I think I'm done thinking about myself…." She said. A pause. Then she murmured, almost-off topic: "Robin's starting a meeting soon. One that's…..important for his teammates. Important for the Titan's future…."

Superman gazed down at her. Cupping her chin with his fingers. "Then what are you doing **here**?"


	270. Epilogue

**270. Epilogue **

December 4, 2004.

11:32 am

The City

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The Titans were together.

I saw them as I came over the hill of rock crags and debris.

They gathered on the only known patch of ground on the Island where there could be a level playing field between six odd people.

And there were indeed six odd people.

Tempest with his arms crossed…leaning back against a steel girder of metal that stuck out of the half-soft earth like a lamppost. He smirked and straightened his loose hair in the cold morning breeze.

Beast Boy squatting atop a heap of rock and gray debris. He flickered his one elfin ear and leaned his head to the side…listening as best as he could. His face was straight…serious….and somewhat brooding…

Cyborg in the shadow of his crumbled Tower. He had his hands planted on his hips. He had polished his titanium surfaces that morning….a sure sign that he was back together again (in some fashion).

Raven in her blue cloak. Yet she still wore the army jacket and pants beneath it. It was so queer a look that it made me smile. Raven was _alive_.

Starfire—bandaged in a few places—wore a green t-shirt also donated from the army as well as a pair of jeans donated by….someone else. It didn't occur to me till then that all of her Tamaranian traditional wear must have perished in the Tower's collapse.

And in the center of the meeting was Robin. Leaning on his crutches, but trying to stand as tall as he could muster. He had on his replacement shades. Gone was his uniform, and its place rested a sweatshirt over the tattered remainders of his green tights. I had always known and accepted that he was one of the smallest members of our crime-fighting troupe—in spite of his leadership position. But then and only then did his smallness suddenly intrigue me. I realized—as I would often re-realize—that Robin was something that we had all lost. We had….legitimately lost him. And by freakish, deadly means…he literally was resurrected. And for that—he was far smaller and more precious than we could imagine. And no longer did we _have to imagine_. For he lived. He bore the name of the Titans like a banner flying ahead of us. There was no better time for the rest of the battered team to be resurrected as well than then…

As I rounded the hill, I noticed something. Much rather….._someone_.

Supergirl stood on a rise in the rubble to my left. Her hair and cape flapped in the breeze identically. As I walked up, she glanced aside. Those magical blue eyes. She smiled and nervously uttered: "I-I'm…..kinda sorta watching from afar. No reason to interrupt your important business…..r-right?"

"……?" I stared at her closely. My shaded eyes blinking as I leaned my head to the side. My one right arm dangling by my ribcage.

She bit her lip and waved a hand. "Eh heh heh…..y-yeah. Uhm….go on without me. Seriously. I think Robin's got some serious stuff to say and I'm only here for—"

My right fingers suddenly graced her chin.

She looked at me. Sapphire eyes blinking wide. "H-Huh?"

Her eyes widened further…

For I leaned in.

And kissed her.

Gently.

A three-and-a-half second, feathery contact.

I drew back.

I gazed at her.

Black eyes reflecting past the shades.

And I smiled…

And my hand drifted down towards her fingers.

"………….," Supergirl blinked. And somewhere, a drunken breath emerged in cadence with a flush of red through her upper body. "Okay….I-I think I c-c-can go take a closer look…..if y-you insist….."

My lips curved.

_Sure as Hell beats e-mail._

I took her by the hand…

…and led us both down into Titan company.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

We walked up.

We stood in our 'places'.

Robin was speaking: "—there will be a memorial. The Mayor wants a ceremony to honor the fallen U.S. Soldiers. I think it'd be best that we all attend that, if possible…"

The Titans nodded in numb cadence. None of them……none of _us_ were really looking straight at Robin.

He leaned on his crutches. He took a deep breath. He spoke: "The Wildebeests that gave their lives will be honored as well. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for them. If it weren't for the League. If it weren't for _everyone_."

Again. We nodded. Again. Eyes drifting.

"…….and……..," Robin shifted where he stood. A shudder. "I would…….th-that is….."

Silence.

…….

He tilted his head up. "I would like the Titans to continue……….only if you wanted that too."

Every Titan looked up. Everyone of us looked at the Boy Wonder.

But he said nothing. He was hauntingly silent.

Changeling was the first to raise his eyebrow. "Dude…….am I hearing you right?"

Cyborg waved a hand: "This the same Robin we know?"

Tempest chuckled.

A beat of silence.

Robin said: "I don't know, guys. You tell me."

Tempest drew serious.

Silence……..

"I……," Robin began. He gazed down. He shifted his weight on the crutches. He wincingly stirred his bandaged foot. "….I let you all down. In a lot of ways."

Cyborg closed his eyes and exhaled. Raven glanced at him.

Robin continued: "I made you all suffer and mourn for no legitimate reason. I…….A-As much as I may deny it, I _did_ fake my death. I faked my death….and…..there could have been another way. No matter what I did, Deathstroke got to you all in the end and—"

"Robin….man….," Cyborg smiled patiently and gestured: "What are you trying to get to?"

"……………," Robin leaned back on his crutches. "If you can't stand me being the team leader anymore….then……th-then I could accept that."

"……………."

"And…..And if n-necessary, I'll step down. If it'll mean the Titans continuing to do their job. I'll….step down. I won't even be a member of the team if necessary. You guys mean too much to me…."

"…………"

"…………."

"…………."

"…………."

All of us Titans shifted nervously.

All of us Titans exchanged glances.

All of us Titans gulped dry throats and said nothing.

Until Starfire…

"Robin…."

He gazed aside.

She leaned one hand gently on his right crutch. The other she placed on his shoulder and softly kneaded. She leaned forward. Her green eyes serene…loving. Her face gentle. In a soft voice, Starfire said: "You are my best friend. And you are the one who founded this team….who forged the spirit that drives it. You have been and shall always be an inspiration to us. Yes, we did suffer in your absence. And, yes, Deathstroke did cause quite a bit of malice in our lives…"

Robin bowed his head. Gently, he nodded.

The rest of us watched.

The rest of us listened.

"But Robin?" Starfire innocently cocked her head to the side. "This attitude coming forth from you……this spirit of resignation……it is quite simply a mountain of the bull's shit."

Robin nodded—"!.!.!.!" Robin did a double-take at Star.

Changeling snapped up.

Cyborg's eye went wide.

Starfire stared at Robin. "………" Starfire smiled.

"St-Star?"

Tempest whistled.

Kara and I exchanged glances.

Starfire blushed, hiding a smile as her eyes trailed away.

Robin leaned his head aside, lips slightly curved. "Star….wh-what are you--?"

Cyborg cupped his hands over his lips: "Yo! She's saying that 'your desire to retire your position as authoritarian Titan leader is nothing more than a deleterious exaggeration of unnecessary melodrama and pompous self-pity'!"

"BULLSHIT!" Tempest shouted. "Ah ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Heh heh heh heh," Changeling joined in.

Starfire bit her lip. She squeaked aside to Robin: "Do excuse me…."

"Uhm….," Robin scratched his head. He simpered. "Y-You're…._excused_?"

Tempest and Changeling stopped laughing. Tempest brushed a tear away.

And when their laughter died away.

There was still a light, breathy chuckle.

We all glanced over.

Raven was slightly bent over. A graceful hand cupped over her lips. She noticed everyone looking, stopped giggling, and cleared her throat. "A-Ahem…." Her cheeks were slightly rosy. "I….needed that….."

"And HOW, girl!" Cyborg rolled his human eye.

"Righteous….," Kara breathed.

I smirked. Leaning my one hand against my hip.

"I…..just….uhm….," Robin fidgeted. Robin shrugged. "I dunno. I could be stronger, but—"

"Dude…..," Changeling spoke. Staring over at the Boy Wonder. "We're sick of hearing it."

"You're a one man army….," Tempest shrugged. "Face it….you're too strong for our own good. Much less yours…."

"He's right, Robin…."

The Boy Wonder looked over.

Raven droned, looking at him. "You don't have to prove to us any more that you're a good leader."

Cyborg nodded. "No more than we have to prove that the Titans shall always be there to kick crime's butt."

"………..," Robin smiled. Gently. "….yeah….kicking butt."

We smiled back at him.

He sighed. "I miss that….."

Starfire looked at him. Smiling. "Shall we resume kicking the butt from here on out, Robin?"

"'Ass', Starfire," Tempest corrected with a wink. "Kicking bullshittin' _ass_—"

Th-Thwump! Changeling elbowed him.

"N-Nnngh! What?"

Changeling rolled his green eyes.

I snickered breathily….then realized how much silence had gone on without a word being said.

Robin was taking a deep breath. He finally tilted his head up and spoke: "I would like to continue the team." He glanced at Cyborg. "The Tower will be rebuilt."

Cyborg nodded.

Robin looked at Raven. "We'll heal from our wounds…"

She tilted her head forward once.

Robin glanced at Kara and I. "We'll branch out and spread justice…"

We saluted.

He gazed Changeling's and Tempest's way. "We'll make a name for ourselves."

Tempest merely smirked. Changeling….was gazing westward. Towards the horizon. Dark green eyes thin.

"But…….," Robin lingered.

Starfire leaned her head aside. "What is it, Robin?"

He took a deep breath. He pushed the crutches aside.

Kara and I winced.

Cyborg jumped.

"R-Robin!" Starfire rushed over and supported his shoulders.

He paused…gently patted her hands….nodded…………and stood on his own. Shuddering from the pain of his leg. But remaining tall and strong the best he could. He took a deep breath and spoke in the leader's voice we all knew. With great effort.

"I would like us to be true Titans……New Titans…….I……I-I've had so much time to think and to flesh out my life….and my purpose…….and _my friends_….," he brought two shaking hands up to his face. "And I realize….I-I always had my life right there in front of me. But I never had a chance to….truly _know my friends._" He took a deep breath…grabbed his shades….and stripped of them.

The whole of us Titans watched with baited breath.

Tim Drake stared back at us. Sheepish. Uncertain.

Human.

"I want this to be a real team….," Tim said. "A true team. Led by a leader you can all trust…..and _know_." He simpered. He cleared his throat and stammered out: "T-Timothy Drake……I-I would be so very happy……t-to be your _friend_……."

Tempest blinked.

Cyborg rubbed the human part of his head….smiling confusedly.

Raven mouthed the word: _'Timothy……'_

I looked at Kara.

Kara looked at me….and shrugged.

I merely smirked and gazed back at the crowd.

"……..now….," Tim said. A breath. "Wh-Who is with me?"

…………

An amber hand rested over his.

Tim looked over.

Starfire smiled. She gently breathed: "Kory….Koriand'r……"

Tim nodded. He leaned against her.

She hugged an arm around his far shoulder, leaning her red crown against his.

The two closed their eyes and rested against each other momentarily….

Peacefully drifting……..

…..

…..

Tempest hopped forward. Marching for show. He cleared his throat and thinned his eyes in mock regality. "Gar….._Prince_ Gar…." He bowed.

Cyborg gasped. "You don't say!"

"Hehehe!" Kory giggled.

Gar held his hand out and rested it atop Tim's and Kory's.

Tim smiled at the Atlantean.

Gar winked.

Cyborg marched forward. "Boo-ya….I'm in…"

"Had to frickin' say it, ya clunker?" Gar stuck his tongue out.

"It's _Victor_ to you, Flipper!" he placed his titanium hand out atop the other four's. He stared strongly at Tim. "Victor **Stone**."

"Glad to have you with us, Mr. Stone," Tim said.

Changeling groaned. "Grffff….." He stood up and limped over. "And to think I used to love this mushy stuff."

"Come! Come be engulfed in the mush!" Kory chirped. "Hehehe!"

He stuck a green hand in. He looked up. Brow furrowed and lips subtly curved. "Garfield Logan."

Tim nodded.

A beat.

They all looked—

--at Raven.

"Uhhhm….," she drifted over. Ruffling a hand loose from her robe and jacket. She smiled nervously. Weakly. "I-I don't exactly have an alias name."

"Aaaaand….." Gar began.

"Aaaaand—" Kory added, smiling.

"_Aaaaaaand!"_ everyone said.

Raven sighed. She stretched her hand gently out--

_SLAP!_ Victor placed it firmly down atop the rest of ours.

"_**RAVEN!"**_ everyone chimed.

"Hehehehe!"

"Heh heh heh heh!"

"Heheheheh."

Raven rolled her eyes. "Yeah….," she smiled and pressed her fingers firmly into the pile. "Raven."

"We gotta get a name for you….," Garfield said.

Gar brightened. "How about Vampire Vickie?"

"Go to Hell."

"Hmmmmm…," Victor tongued his human cheek. "….does 'Rachel' sound good?"

Raven did a double-take. Looking somewhat disgusted. "Rachel?.?.?"

"First thing I could think of, girl!"

"Ughhh….whatever. Count me in already…."

"Consider yourself counted," Tim smiled.

I had already drifted in. A mute hand raised—

Victor mocked a gasp. "And who is THIS dark stranger?"

"NOOBY!" Garfield grinned.

I stuck a tongue out, smirked, and mouthed: _'Jordan'_.

My one hand rested over theirs.

"Welcome to the team, Jordan," Kory said.

"_Hmmm……'Rachel'………"_ Raven gazed skyward…contemplating.

Silence.

Then there was a weak, nervous voice from the sidelines. "Uhm….K-Kara?"

We all glanced over.

Supergirl fidgeted. Blushing furiously. "Kara Kent?.?.?"

"Gotta contribute to the pile, girl," Victor winked.

She bit her lip.

"He's right, you know," Tim smiled.

"Eep! Uh…okay!" She drifted over.

"Just what we need…," Garfield rolled his eyes under his bandaged crown. "A second Starfire…"

"I heard that!" Kara walked over. Took a deep breath….and added her hand to the pile. Surprisingly, we didn't explode. She relaxed.

I smiled at her from across the group huddle.

"Well……," Raven droned. "….this should be interesting."

Kory giggled.

An awkward….beautiful pause…..

"Titans…..," Tim said. A breath. "_Friends_," he corrected. "……I think it's time we show this world who we really are….."

"Yup."

"Yes."

"Boo-ya…."

"Amen, dude…."

"……"

"Right."

A collected sigh.

And before we knew it…the huddle drifted forward.

And it was as if we were all bowing to some collective center of the universe.

But we weren't praying.

At least….if some of us were, I couldn't hear it.

There was something euphorically simple about…..

……about being in each other's aura.

And I realized that this is how it had always been.

And was elated to think—as everyone else certainly did—that this was how it would always be.

And yes—things were changed.

Things were broken.

Things had shattered and things had died.

But so much more had remained alive.

And it was a free feeling.

More liberating than any zen teaching that the Messenger could have preached to me on his own.

It's a wonderful thing to sit back and realize that….

That even the most heavy, wrought iron bird cage is defined only by the air that flows through it.

And right now…

That air was warm.

Friendly.

Mutual and….

_Alive._

The smoke and mirrors had faded.

By our own breath we lived.

Titans.

New Titans.

Family.

And walking a fresh, new line.

We stayed together like that—silent and mutually warm—for a good few minutes.

The next hour or two was wasted in recently discovered anecdotes of our separate adventures.

The sort of details that….we could enjoy rethinking.

And shortly after, we all moved as one.

To assist with the cleanup.

And to prepare for tomorrow.

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_Whurrrrrr-Click! _

_Ch-Chtunk!_

_  
Whurrrrrrrrrrrr-Hisss-CLANG!_

In an underground laboratory…

Laced with metal…

A huge pair of double-doors opened.

Security locks spewing out hydraulic steam.

Alone….limping…

Dagger marched through the gateway.

He looked blue and decrepit around the corners of his flesh.

His face was pale.

He couldn't stop sweating….and he clutched his meaty stub of a hacked left limb to himself.

Hissing….dragging….hissing…gulping….

He walked to the center of the dimly-lit…metallic chamber.

Over to a lone chair of wire-frame metal sitting in front of a wide and tall viewing screen.

Robot arms and wires of some nefarious mechanical sub-system hung down and hovered about the chair.

Dagger sat down with a slumping sigh.

Panting…heaving….sweating for breath.

He swallowed.

He leaned his head back.

_Whurrrrrr!_

_  
Whurrrrrrrr!_

_  
Whurrrr!_

Robot arms went to 'work'.

Metal spider legs wrapped and twirled and hummed around him.

A neck rest rose up out of the body-brace of the chair and planted itself behind his dark head.

A hole in the metal rotated to a rest against the base of his neck.

Dagger exhaled.

He calmly….gently rested his left and right arms—what was left of them—down onto the limb rests of the chair.

Tiny wires and metal ribbons wrapped about the length of his wrists and shoulders….fastening Dagger to the chair.

Ankle rings closed, holding his lower body firmly to the chair.

The arms kept whirring….rotating….spinning around and above him.

All the while, the sickly Dagger stared straight ahead at the viewing screen….

….

….and soon that viewing screen lit up with the fizzled gray image….of a face.

A very distorted and unearthly face behind the walls of dancing static.

Two thin….glazed eyes plastered against a gray cranium.

Featureless.

Obscured behind the snow.

A sphere of hovering white.

With jagged edges.

_Like a skull…_

With a red streak…like a falling star….

Flickering…

Dancing…..

Glaring huge and menacing against the man in the chair.

And Dagger spoke to it:

"You were right. The City was lost. The Titans survived. All but Slade's son. But the Parasite was defeated. He is no longer of concern to us."

'**An unpredictability……yes….that he was. Was he ended by the Black Eyes' blade?' **

"**No," Dagger calmly shook his head in the brace. "Although Jordan did engage Red Aviary multiple times during the urban engagement, he didn't defeat him. Not even Robin could. Destruction could only finish itself—so it seems—which is how Slade's son came into play. But Jordan did certainly fair better than I did against Deathstroke, although I could not summon forth a spectral progression from him when we last met."**

Robot arms tightened Dagger's head to the resting brace.

A long, jagged knife-like needle attached to a syringe of nefarious green liquid lowered slowly from the ceiling.

_WHURRRRR!_

It hovered just behind Dagger's skull.

'**Black Eyes did not attempt a spectral jump?"** the white face on the staticy screen shook. **'That shows a lot of integrity for an Equalizer…..'**

Dagger's eyes narrowed. "Yes, it was a great display of strength. I believe our Experiment still has a potential with Jordan."

'**As opposed to Red Eyes? Dagger, if only you could see the progress he is making. These last two months in Japan……the stealth and efficiency with which he finishes a room full of herectics. He is being trained for the Demon Operation in Arizona. I have full faith in the boy. And he is quite confident in himself as well. 'Black Eyes' has been nothing but an embarrassment since he survived the Self-Destruction of the Old Experiment, and furthermore—'**

"You do well to put your faith in your apprentice…," Dagger spoke. "…but passion alone will not make Red Eyes reach the Obsidian Trinity. Though—I believe—he will be important to the Experiment's success in that regard either way…"

'**What do you propose?'**

_WHURRR-CL-CLINK!_

The robot arms clutched ahold of Dagger's head from behind.

The green-dripping needled turned and pivoted…

….aiming its razor sharp edge into the back of Dagger's skull.

Aiming through the metal-ringed hole….

"Black Eyes does not know it yet. But he is greater than an apprentice. He is a chess piece. He has been. He always shall be. He fights for more than feeling and for more than passion. He fights for things he doesn't understand….but instead for that which comes to him on a moment's notice. With Construction long dead….with White Eyes' breath leaving her body so many years ago…..Black Eyes doesn't have any firm base to stand on. He doesn't know what destiny may lie before him. All he can do….is counteract. The only power he ever showed was what surprised both you and me….and that was what showed the power he has over your apprentice. Jordan _made_ Red Aviary. And that extension of him rocked the world…almost shattering my empire and leaving others in ruin. If we were to tilt the world so that Jordan could _make_ something else….something in our favor….that will bring us one further step towards manifesting the goal of the Experiment."

'**The Obsidian Trinity……,'**the glazed eyes of the obscured face narrowed. **'…but how could Balance--?'**

"He is the Equalizer. Given the right situation…given the right spectrum….he will consume….._consume_ what lies ahead of him. He is more than just Balance. I know it. I can sense it in him."

'**Tell me, Dagger, does this all have something to do with the Gaia Sphere?'**

The needle rested at Dagger's neck. Tiny insect arms grabbed the edges of the metal hole.

_Whurrr-Ch-Chunk! _

_Clink!Clink!Clink!_

"I am hardly the culprit behind this…..obstacle. But I shall play as big a part of it as is necessary to get Noir involved. For I think it is inevitable. The world has seen enough **Red** for the time being. Sooner than any of us think…..it will be **White** that dictates the fate….the destiny of us all…."

'**Yes. I do sense this. But what makes you think that the boy will lean towards White anymore than Red? After all, you failed—'**

"It was _not_ a failure…..," Dagger glared. "….it told me that I was right. It told me that the boy is running. And he is leaning….leaning to one pole of the Spectrum. He must absorb that…consume that….before he could swing onto the other side."

'**Do you think he could then tackle the Demon Operation?'**

"That depends on whom we both have our faith in when the time comes….," Dagger spoke. "Black Eyes….or your apprentice."

'………**..,'** the face leaned back. **'I am intrigued. Carry on, Dagger. Although……I've never been quite able to distract you from your ultimate will.'**

"And you never will…..," Dagger said. "But do not worry. I know what I am doing. And I know where my priorities lie."

'**And it would do you good to keep that in mind, Dagger….."**

**BLIP!** The face disappeared from the screen.

Dagger took a deep breath.

The needle charged against Dagger's skull.

It leaned back on its legs…

"Yes…."

_Whurrrrr!_

Dagger closed his eyes.

"Everything is going according to plan, Red X."

_**WHURRRR-SWIIIISH!**_

_**  
TH-THUNK! **_

_**SCRKKKKK-KKKKK!**_

_**CH-CHNKTTT!**_

_**SlppppSlllpssspppp—THP!**_

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_End of Act Two._


	271. Shadowbridge

The Tower is a creepy and lonely place. I know this without opening my black eyes. Right nao, this place cocoons me in a delicate warmth. I could lie here for hours. I _**do**_ lie here for hours. Stray thoughts in my head, hazy blemishes of fireworks and cinderblocks and rainy alleyways; they all peel away one by one to the steady beep of an electric nightingale beside me, attached to me—Or perhaps I am attached to it.

I don't care; I float.

There is a great, bright sea that I have pierced through, and here I am marinating in the shadowlands beneath it, helpless to know which way I am drifting, powerless to spark myself into thinking about it, or about anything for that matter.

I allow myself to sink in the wyrd, hypnotic melody of the rhythmic beeps, taking a gentle gliding step down the circular staircase with each echo, finding every reflection of myself bent into a million indiscernible refractions—and not a single one of them is important. I have freed myself from all attachment—if even for the briefest of breaths. I could swear, somewhere beyond the ocean of harmonious chirps above, someone is applauding me, green-eyed with envy.

A sheen of frost collects in the extremities—the hint of an invasive chill, but this too melts away—Haoever not from the sea of melodic beeps, but from something warmer beyond, something truer, something hovering just a few inches away from where a part of me used to be.

I am rushed back to the surface—not in a panic and not in a flight—but in a gentle lull, like riding an upside down wave of honey up through a crystal ceiling. The beeping echoes loudly nao, like two swordsmen fencing with copper bells. I am not the least bit frightened, but my eyes open—And I embrace a false black.

A stirring. I move my left hand up to my face. Nothing happens. I move my right hand up to my face, and drunken fingers remove a sleeping mask just enough to roll in a sharp stab of reality from beyond the raised veil.

She sits cross-legged in a chair just beyond a flickering, chirping machine. She is the source of the gorgeous melody—the true melody—which rises majestically above the rhythmic falsetto of the health monitor seated right beside me like some heartless, monolithic guardian. I've evidently stirred, and still she does not cease her angelic humming. I can't say it out loud, but I am thankful she hasn't stopped.

Whoever she is, a pair of glowing emeralds sway in my direction. The hum alters in pitch to weather a gentle smile, and she plants a book of pale pages down in her lap just long enough to murmur: "Relax, friend Jordan. Simply allow yourself to sleep. I am watching over you, verily."

The humming continues, unhindered. It vibrates across the feathery heavens and caresses me, pushes the mask back over my eyes, and lays me back down into the clouds. I am in the womb again. I must be. I must...

Sleep.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The beeping is back, but I know it could not have stopped. There are bodies in the murky obscurity between me and the melody. I can feel them without feeling them. Shuffling noises—too—they halo me. I am not afraid. I am barely awake.

Something turns, the world is revolving. Mechanisms and mechanisms—and then I feel a hand reach forth from the gentle cacophony. Cold fingers grasp my shoulder, lifelessly cold. But I somehao know to trust it.

"_Won't you wake him?"_

"_He's already awake, dawg. But he's so full of meds, I doubt he could feel a forklift giving him a buzzcut."_

"_You don't think you overdid it, did you?"_

_"Robin, who's the closest thing to a qualified physician in this Tower?"_

"_I'm sorry. I should know better than to question you."_

_"Dang right you should. But don't sweat it, man. I know you're just as concerned as the rest of us."_

"_Are you getting the measurement you need?"_

"_Yup..."_ The cold fingers are gone. _"If nothing else, I'll have a prototype constructed in a day or two."_

"_Wow, that fast?"_

"_It's simply a model. I won't construct a permanent graft unless he takes a look at the thing and approves of it."_

"_Hao do you choose the hand you're gonna live with for the rest of your life?"_

"_Better yet...Hao do you go about choosing to lose the one you were born with?"_

"_Yeah..."_

The voices shuffle away. Their bodies. Their breaths—lingering-and the room grows briefly colder, only to be fought away by the settling miasma of time, the cloudiness of absence...

And none of it scares me. None of it...

Only beeping...beeping...beeping...beeping...

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Beyond the rhythmic pulse that brings me back, a glinting shadow glides through the inkiness. It is a purple shadow—violet on black—and this is hao I know that my sleeping mask is not on.

I am squinting, nao, craning a neck to see whatever it is I am not allowed to see. But the world is foggy, and the heart monitor—_I nao know—_is powerless to clue me in. I realize hao fresh and warm the gown is that I'm clothed in, and I realize that I am not wearing the same thing that I had been wearing over the last bleary century of hibernation.

A wisp of cleanly laundered fragrance brushes my nose as I twist my head against the collar—Only to be impaled by an otherwise harmless reflection of hallway light from a medical mirror suspended above me. The whole thing wears me out; the room reels. I fall a million miles, only to float feather-softly back into the mattress that's less than half an inch behind my shoulders.

All of this—just as the violet shadow briefly slides back in. Two bored eyes, observing. A hand reaching out. A breath, meditative, lulling.

Gone.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The beeping is back. There is a beat to it. I concentrate heavily on the audio strobe, and this time it brings me back just as gradually as it once dragged me under. For an hour, I chase the pulse, for a day—even.

When I reach the crest, it is with a sharp breath, a brilliant glow of light has ascended above me, like a childhood Hiroshima in flight, and I make out an angelic figure within the penumbra of the necessary spotlight.

"Pleasant slorvax, I do hope, friend Jordan." She smiles. The only _she _who can reinvent the **Smile **itself, Starfire. "Cyborg says that it is time—So I have travailed upon serving you."

I do not know what she is referring to—but suddenly my stomach does. The meaty thick vigor of a soupy broth wafts its way to my nostrils, and the bed shakes from my innermost growling. It is nao that I begin to wonder when this hellish heaven began, and hao much longer it is to last. But none of that really, truly matters—only what's in that bowl does.

She knows this, sees it, and is swift to hover by my side and help me—and the motorized half of my bed—up into a sitting form. The world reels briefly as I reacquaint myself with gravity, the spinning of rocks around an unwitting yellow nova, and all the chemicals with legs confusedly trying to keep balance in between. As the blood rushes back to my black eyes, I am reminded of life—life in all of its prettiful, amber glory—smiling at me.

"I do hope you are fond of clamming the chowder." The girl blushed, a tiny estuary of green showing up beneath her dimples.

I exhale the shadowlands out through my lips, then curve them in an anxious smile. I see the tray before her, between us, an agonizing mile away. A wince of my spine, and I make to move my limbs towards it-

-but she stops me, gentle hushing hands pushing me back into the upright mattress. "Please, do not avail yourself upon any movement. According to Cyborg, you are still in the process of recovering. He says you must not try to use your arms-" She chokes on the sentence for some reason, suddenly as mute as I am. It takes her a monumental half-dozen seconds to fight for her smile back. "You must simply _rest._ Allow me to assist you, Jordan."

I nod. I rest back. I do not fight.

She smiles to reward my docility. "Praise X'hal. I-I was momentarily concerned that you would take the route of stereotypical Terran males and attempt to put up a fight." She lifts the tray into my lap, scoops a spoon into the creamy white soup, and nods at me. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. We all need our sustenance."

I nod slowly back. I am not ashamed. Merely hungry.

And she lifts the spoon, and feeds me. I realize that this must be the first time I have taken nourishment outside of IV wires for days..._months?_ There is a brief nausea, a momentary jump to my pulse.

But then I see her smile—the smile I have always known. Those warm, inviting eyes. Arms that are no less comforting. A breath that speaks for friendship, for love, like so many other breaths, like so many arms around me...

_Just like your arms, Ana._

And I relax. And I feed.

And I get better.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You've been lying in bed like a lazy mofo for over a week _straight_ and you're saying that you don't want to read the heaps of fan mail you've gotten?"

I raise a curious eyebrow as the Green Elf slides across the infirmary, sitting reverse on an office chair, and comes to a skittering stop next to my bed. He grins at me with crescent moon teeth even though I have not spoken a single word. Hao can I?

"I mean—for real, dude!" Beast Boy cackles, thumbing through various envelopes and folded pieces of paper. "Soo.. many people are pulling for ya to get through this! And even _after_ the whole Wyldecarde charade; they're still begging to hump your leg!" He winks at me over a particularly rose-colored envelope. "Mmm...Benefits of having a magazine, huh?"

I blink.

_We have a magazine?_

"So, I thought I'd take it upon myself to ORATE—ahem_, no dirty thoughts—_**ORATE** to you the delightful musings of your dedicated fans. Besides—I'm friggin' jealous. You outnumbered _my_ fanmail this month for the first time **ever**." He briefly snorts with a green bull's nostrils.

I chuckle and shrug helplessly as he opens the first letter and goes on.

"'_Dear Noir-_'(This one's from a chick named _Evina_, _oooh la la_...ahem)-'_Dear Noir. I know that you have done a lot of freaky things lately_.' (Boy, that's one way to start a letter.) Mmmm-Ah. '_But I know that it is all for the best because, when nobody was believing in you, all you were doing was helping stop Slade from hurting the Titans and then the City. The fact that you did something so off-beat and shocking only proves hao far you are willing to go to be a hero, and that is really all that matters_.' D'aawwww. Come on, Jordan! Ain't that worth a _d'awwwww!"_ He leans over a portion of the bed, nearly drooling in dramatic rendition.

I roll my black eyes.

"Oooh! Here's another one!" Beast Boy flips to another sheet. "This time, it's a guy named '_Sanchez_'. Yeesh, dun drop the soap, dude!"

I kick his chair from the bed.

"Whoah—Okay! Okay! I'll just **read**. Whew—_Prima donna_! Ahem." The elf's eyes narrow. "_'I was at the July Fourth parade when my family and I saw you go toe-to-toe against Cinderblock. I only wish I was badass enough to go a few rounds with some big jerk like that. You showed guts man, and I know that if it wasn't for you, then Cinderblock could have gone stomping through a bunch of innocent people. I'm not sure just hao you Titans muster up your insane courage—But I could use some of that stuff for the football practice coming up. But, nao that I think of it, realizing hao much you and the others have saved this City—yet AGAIN—has got me pumped enough that I think I can take on the whole world. So keep it up, Noir, man, we're all rooting for ya.'_ Nao ain't that snazzy? Some day he'll shatter the neck of another high schooler in your name!"

I exhale in a mute groan.

"Whaaaaaaaat?" Beast Boy shrugs with a cheesy grin. "Try not to look so tortured! It's only fanmail!" He licks his finger, flips to another paper, and scans the top of the page. "Whew! This one's a doozie! It's initial'd simply 'JRJ'. Ahem. It says-"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Try pivoting the base of the wrist. Don't struggle—Just _think_ it. The electrodes will do all the work."

I furrow my brow, from where I sit on the bed's edge, gazing towards an alien series of gizmos and sprockets—seated on a metal tray. Reflective silver digits briefly twitch, stutter, then collapse. I exhale in defeat, eyes pathetically following the wires running from the motors, off the tray, across my bed, over my shoulder, and down to my-

"Just **relax**, dawg!" Cyborg's head leans into view. He smiles suavely and points at a device in his hand before turning a series of random knobs and dials. "I'm still recalibrating it. We'll find that _magical_ spark sooner or later. You'll be playing solitaire in no time. Or...uhm..." Cyborg shrugs. "...giving me the finger. Whichever you prefer."

I smile back at him tyredly, then nod my head back towards the silver skeleton.

"Okay. Adjusting. And...try it again..." He says as the gizmos whur to slovenly life, trying to crawl an invisible ladder in the infirmary air. "Pretend you're scratching an itch. _You_ know the itch I'm referring to. _Feel_ it, man. Just be natural. Be natural..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"...and after speaking to Commissioner Decker and showing him the evidence gathered from Slade's frigate, I was able to finally get through to him. It took some time—But I think the fact that all five of the original Titans are nao collectively defending a single issue that, just days ago, we had taken the opposite stance on—W_ell_—I think it **moved** something within him. He's willing to hear me out...And, more importantly, he's willing to hear _you_ out."

I listen to Robin, standing, walking—slowly—with my right hand tightly gripping a metal railing. I fight to rediscover my balance, all the while stretching muscles that hadn't been moving for nearly two solid weeks. At the sound of his words, I look up from my shadowed half of the corner, eyeing the Boy Wonder far away in his lonely perch, leaning against the infirmary doorway with his arms folded, his eyemask affixed to some hidden part of the floor.

"It also helps that Jinx has suddenly become fully compliant in offering a detailed testimony of the part that she played in this whole debacle." Robin murmurs. He must feel my eyesight on his person. He nervously stratches the side of his head and flips the edge of his cape over the shoulder that's pointed at me. "And, quite frankly, Decker knows the truth. The truth that me and every single one of the other Titans know."

"..." I raise a curious eyebrow.

He takes a deep breath and looks at me. Cold. Neutral. But wyrdly vulnerable, very un-Robin. "Dagger, Slade, Jinx, Cinderblock—four of the greatest menaces to this City—all of them have been rid of. And we owe it all to _you_."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"You have been most healthy in your recovery..." Starfire says, proudly, as she offers me the last two or three spoonfuls. I never want the clam chowder to end, or her voice for that matter. I can feel the drugs dwindling in my system; it is like being born again. "One time, when Beast Boy ecountered the nefarious 'mumps', it felt as though the Tower was positively collapsing from the volume of his infernal cat-err-to-the-wall-ing."

I smile at that, cough, and mouth a quiet 'thanks' for the meal.

She takes the tray back, smiling in a stray thought. "It would seem that we each handle pain in our own diverse ways. And gratitude, for that matter..." She pauses, biting her lip in a sudden repose.

I blink curiously at her, concerned.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The beeping sound wafts in and out of my consciousness. With each blacker-than-black second, stretching through the illusory space of time, I become aware of the beeps growing shorter and shorter in breadth.

And, for that matter, all of this time—in the shadows of the shadows—_she_ has been sitting there, hovering there, watching me, guarding me.

But when my black eyes open, and the sleeping mask is gone—a right hand, an only hand, fumbling—I embrace nothing, a barren room...

Save for but a fleeting streak of violet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"_'And our whole club is praying for you. You have no idea what kind of an icon you have been to us. Everyone in the sign-language class thinks that you're swell, and would fit in just as well with us as with the Titans. And we're sure they're glad to have you back after all that has happened'..._"

The letter's message stops, but only because Beast Boy's voice has stopped.

I blink my resting eyes open, moreover curious than let-down by the break in reading. I glance aside the bed at him.

He's huddled in the chair, bent over the same letter, but something very turbulent and boiling hot is keeping him from reading the rest of the envelope's contents. His hand shakes, almost dropping the message. But the elf swiftly calms himself, swivels about in the office chair, and faces me with moist green eyes.

He sniffs, he says: "Noir... ... ..._Jordan_..." He says, lip quivering, still, then quivering again. "I...uh...I think that all of these fan-written things are swell and all..."

"..." I stare at him.

"...but they can't...th-they can't give back what we've taken..." He bites his lip, his throat tight, swollen. "...wh-what we've forced you to give up..."

I feel a pain shoot to the surface of my face. My lips grimace as I shake my head. It makes me dizzy.

"I...I-I mean it, dude...it's just..." He slumps his fuzzy head towards the floor and needlessly swivels away from me like a settling iceberg. "It ain't right. They should know the _truth_. They should know hao much...hao much...y-you..."

I smile painfully towards him. Instinctively, I stretch my left hand out to touch his shoulder.

No contact is made.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"There has been...many things I have wished to have said, to you—to all the Titans, for that matter."

Starfire squirms nervously in her seat, her hands folded over the empty soup bowl in the center of the tray. For the burning green life of her, she cannot bear to look at me.

And it hurts.

"But you...You deserve to hear this, Jordan. Or...at least it would give me a selfish semblance of fulfillment if I were to say this to you..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I mean it, Noir." Robin says. "You need a break. Don't hop straight back into this. Cuz I know that you want to. But that's something I can't allow."

"..." I blink fiercely at him, my brow furrowed. I no longer feel the metal strength of the railing I am leaning on. I simply see a determined young kid with gloved fists, staring back at me, as if I've just cornered my shadow.

"I'm the boss of this team—A team you just saved. And...And..." His eyemask gazes down the length of a limb that nobody else would dare look at. He glances just as fiercely back up. "And you've done enough—Enough for a season, _enough for a career_. Face it, you need time to recoup. This whole thing—well—it'll be a hard act to follow."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The way in which you risked every inch of yourself to ensure the continued safety—the continued _existence_ of myself, of Robin, of the rest of us..."

Starfire hugs her opposite arm and bites her lip.

"It has been a most magnificent heroism. So much so, that...it reminds me of someone, long ago, someone you would not possibly have known, who so bravely risked his life for me before, and for the life of others. On my planet, Jordan, there was a war...a most horrible war...and mysterious warriors appeared by the miraculous grace of X'hal to escort several victims of carnage, such as myself, safely through a Gordanian invasion. If it was not for their bravery—and the courage of one in particular, whose warm and protective embrace I can still _feel—_I would not be allowed to enjoy the grace of your company today."

She looks up. Eyes burning with gloss, trying bravely against character to hide her sorrow.

_Starfire's eyes light up with the tiniest flame of emotion, everytime she attempts to stifle her earnesty_—a fact lost to every Titan she associates with, every Titan but me, with these black eyes.

"You remind me of him...You have always reminded me of him..." She smiles. A painful, but healing smile. "But nao I realize that he reminds me of you...for your bravery has come to astound me even more, Jordan. And I am thankful—we all are truly, truly thankful..."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"I just dunno h-hao...h-hao we can make up for it all, dude..." Beast Boy rubs his cheek, the tears coming freely nao. "We put you through so much crap, and nao we're supposed to be friends again? Just like nothing ever h-happened?" He shudders, hiccups. "My parents died earlier than they were supposed to cuz they spent the time they coulda been huddled safely in laboratories instead running around the African Serengeti in a quest to find a cure for my _stupid_ **_disease_**! I'm sick of people sacrificing themselves for me! It's not fair! It's-"

This time, I reach my right hand out. It's a weak attempt—but a solid one; I manage to hook a wrist around his shoulder. He slides in, unhindered, and leans against me, his fuzzy head buried into my chest as I hold him closely.

"I-I'm so sorry, J-Jordan...All we've been through, all we've ever done together—I dun want it to all be for nothing! Please, forgive me..." He sobs. "Forgive **_us_**."

I smile, I pat him on the shoulder.

_I already have._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Just lie under the radar for a while..." Robin utters, still only half looking at me. "Let Cyborg, Raven, and I do the work. We'll make some sort of—I dunno—cover story about the extensiveness of your injuries. The public won't think twice about your sabbatical. Heck, maybe even Blake Glover will get off your back-"

He stops in his tracks, turning towards me in a voiceless gasp.

For I am marching towards him. Firmly.

Something strung up between a grimace and a frown alights his face. "Noir, don't-"

I close the gap, wincing, but I close it. I all but fall into his flinching form—**Slap!**-My hand, my _only _hand collapses into his glove. I stumble, I tremble.

He bends his legs and supports me.

I wince, shake all over, but manage to stand up straight. I look into him. I _glare_ into him. With a jaw clenching, I squeeze his glove, and raise it till both our arms are a single stalk between us, bridging the shadows.

Robin gazes back at me, mouth agape, but slowly...oozingly bearing a tight, knowing smirk.

I deeply inhale. With all my strength, I release his hand, form mine into a right fist, and collide our knuckles together. In mutual coordination, we swiftly then punch our fists up high, down low, and rejoin them in the tighest grip—Releasing with a snap.

He points at me.

I point at him, and give a thumb's up...teetering a bit towards the end-

He steadies me with a gloved hand on my shoulder—a glove still warm from the friction of our partnership. He sighs.

"All right, Noir. All right...I should know better..."

I nod, smiling.

_That's right. You should._

His eyemask is cockeyed as he groans: "I swear. Someday, you're gonna be the death of me."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Cyborg sits, chin resting on his knuckles. He thinks, thinks, thinks, exhales, then straightens his back, all the while gazing at the floor below my dangling feet. He opens his mouth, ignoring the skeletonous arm on the tray besides us, taking his sweet time before speaking, in a shaky voice:

"Even if it _does_ work, Noir...Even if all the wires connect with all of the servos...Even if all of the gears turn correctly...Even if you can do the five-knuckle-shuffle like a true controversial champion...Heh..."

One red eye gazes my way, the human one lingers.

"...do you really want this?"

"..." I stare at him. I stare at the hand. My face is a kaleidoscopic mosaic, reflected in the shiny bone-metal..._My_ bone metal, if I so choose it. Two black specks, blinking, drift to and fro in the chaotically beautiful architecture, like parts of me scattered everywhere.

_Like where I was, when I left you, Ana..._

_No..._

_When you left **me**._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The beeping stops.

My black eyes open. An unfamiliar ceiling. Shadows shifting, drifting, then solidifying before a last second cockroach skitter-away from the invasion of all encompassing **light**.

I wince, seething through clenched teeth.

"Sorry." An unenthusiastic voice drips from my right side.

I turn my aching head to glance her way.

She gathers various guts of gizmos onto a metal cart, using her bare hands. _She should never use her bare hands._

"Cyborg says he needs these back in storage, since you're better and all."

I blink, wincingly. I sit up slowly and look for the time of day—only to see that the clock is gone, along with the EKG machine, my hypnotic beeping companion.

"And you _are_ better, _aren't you?"_ It is more of a declaration than an inquiry. I know it is pointless to answer.

I swivel my legs out and place them against the floor, shifting my weight, feeling my naked heels squeeze against the cold monochromatic tile.

"Good. So those work _too_." She drones matter-of-factly. "Then you'd might as well make a bee-line back down to your cellar before Starfire gets the hare-brained idea of dusting it _again_ in your absence."

My mind snaps at that. I know that I should be thinking of Myrkblade's mantle first and foremost. But the only thing that comes to mind is a feather duster getting stuck in my underwear drawer...for some reason.

_When was the last time I shaored?_

"And by the way, today is Tuesday. It's been _three weeks._"

I exhale at that. _Three weeks? But wait, has she been counting the days-?_

I look up to see her, but see nothing—Nothing but a metal cart being pushed out of the infirmary, flanked by a streak of violet.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Noir?"

I snap out of it, glancing up to face Cyborg directly.

"Do you...? Do you want _this_?" He gestures towards the tray, the arm, the infirmary, the Tower, the life, the career...

Everything.

And I exhale...smile...and knock rhythmically on the metal half of his skull.

He blinks at the tonality, chuckles, and rubs his head with a blush. "And, so, just _what_ does 'Shave and a Haircut' mean in sign-language?"

I stand up on wobbly legs, lean towards him, and mouth: _'Hell. Yes.'_

"Well, alright." He chuckles.

I start to make my way across the room, eyeing Myrkblade resting in the corner, wondering who cleaned the blood of Slade off of it...

"But, I gotta hand it to you, Noir..."

"...?" I swivel. I turn back to face him.

He glances over his shoulder at me. "You've reminded me of something..."

I raise an eyebrow.

He smiles gently. "I've clinically died nearly half a dozen times in my life, been brought back to life through overpriced toasters and miles upon miles of fiberoptic cables—And yet I haven't _felt_ so...so inspired ever as I do nao...As you've helped inspire me..."

"..."

"Yeah, **you**." He shakes his head and chuckles. An exhale, long and sweet. "It never really is too late to start again, is it?"

I look towards him. I smile. I lean over to pick up the black blade with my only arm.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

I am standing in my cellar...my home.

Soft lantern light awaits me as I enter, as I hover, as I linger.

Minutes later, naked in the shaor, I feel the waves of water wash over me, my wounds—some healed, some never to be—and then the parts of me that are gone for good...

But the all of me that is still around, still alive, still kicking.

I shudder in the firmaments of the darkness.

_No._

_It is never, ever too late to start again._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Nighttime.

The great windows of the Tower's Main Room stretch wide before me, revealing a glittering canvass of night stars over a sleeping, safe City. The Bay Waters dance forth in the majestic kaleidoscope of it all. The Bridge stretches, brave, inviting, welcoming.

Everything is dark. Everything is welcoming. Dressed in white casuals, dark pants, and a red bandanna—the only colors that have ever mattered to me—I stand silently before the glass edge of the here and nao and inhale it all.

I am not alone.

She hides in the shadows, as quiet as an unwritten song, hidden from the sunkissed eyes of every Titan in this place. Every Titan but me. Even before her softly padding feet slide her petite form up behind me, I can see her, feel her, through the Spectrum.

She feels back, whispering: "I heard that Robin had spoken with you. You let his offer down."

I glance over my shoulder, eyebrow raised.

"And both of us _know_ it was only an offer. He can't command you to stay grounded, Noir..." Raven walks around my left side, making a lengthy show of it, but not trying to. She never _tries_. "Nobody can. Not even the prophets of Azar themselves."

I cock my head to the side with a shrug. My hair is unkempt. My legs still weak...but I can't stop standing there. Before the stars, before the Cityscape, I _can't_.

"I don't suppose you need to hear the obvious..." She forms a parallel profile to me, violet threads parting to allow the starlight full access to her ruby chakra. The two of us gaze out long into that darkness, pondering. Buildings fall down and monsters roam the streets of this Earth, and still we both gaze beyond it. "...but one of these days, at this rate, you're gonna cut off something that Cyborg can't build back."

I shamelessly chuckle, sickening myself in the process, but not caring.

A pair of violet eyes narrow up towards me. "And what, pray tell, is so blasted funny about that?"

I gaze back down at her. I know not to presume on her sense of humor.

She knows not to ask me to—not to ask of anything. After twenty-odd seconds of meandering eyes, she lowers her hood. She is suddenly paler than she's ever been, awash in the stars of a world that's always been too painfully joyful for her to look at. She looks to me instead, a hand trailing up my left shoulder, then down the hidden length of my arm, forever hidden.

"Do you..." She murmurs. The voice feels as if it is coming from ten miles beneath her. "...do you still _feel_ it?"

I want to tell her. I want to tell her that someone who can't feel something is luckier than a person not allowed to feel everything. But I know better than to insult her intelligence, even if I could speak, by reinforcing something Raven's always known, ever since she was cursed to understand the blessing that she is, consistently, to those around her.

Maybe she is thanking me for not speaking, for not ever speaking, for not ever wanting to. But whatever breaks the dam, it is the quietest of rivers, welling forth from her right violet first, then her left, and soon she is gently clutching the space of the hand that will never have the grace of clutching her back, until my other half comes around in a warm embrace, holding her shamelessly against my chest, anchoring her in place, in the shadows.

Raven and I hug. Her back to the stars. My black eyes awash in them. For minutes we hover there, mute sobs in orbit over a solitary sphere, an unspoken breath of understanding, of _forgiveness_.

An hour later, we part ways. Never again will Raven speak of this moment. And for that matter, neither will I.


	272. Diving Board

It is a cacophony of immeasureable proportions. From cosmos to cosmos, stretching along the crimson bands of the Infinite, billions upon billions of planets collide, forming a Ring of Fire imploding inward onto one point of Cataclysm, set deep within the center of the Universal Miasma.

Inside the innermost frictious cauldron of the Apocalypse, five bodies stand, the foremost taking a few lingering steps forward as he leans his youthful head back. Green eyes set inside almond flicker, taking in the horrendous collapse of Everything that Is—Billions upon billions of planets exploding in a row, forming a chain of hellish destruction that rumbles and vibrates the very energy barrier upon which the five stand.

And it is not just any random assortment of planets either—for they are all identical, or at least nearly identical.

They are all Earth.

The boy looks at all this, his hands gripping to a satchel over his shoulder, his spiked hair twitching in the gale of galactic cyclones of fire. Embracing the Final Stand, the Crisis in Collapse, the Death of all Life—he whistles, spins about from the Spectral Holocaust, and smiles crookedly towards the four.

"Whew! That's gotta leave a mark!" He slaps his hands together and rubs them. "SO! Who's for **waffles**?"

"_Are you crazy?"_ One of them exclaims, gesturing towards the great imploding sphere of Nothingness. _"You see the end of the world—no, excuse me—ALL worlds and you wanna quit taking a diet!"_

"HEY! That's not true!" The boy plants his hands onto his hips, chattering above the thunder of galactic annihilation. "I'll have no you know that I've not had to fast _anything_ for **ages**!"

"_Oh come on-"_

"I mean it! I've got a booty that'll make Megan Fox transform into a hanging noose!"

"_I reckon you mean a billion Megan Foxes?"_ Another figure gesturestowards the chaos. _"In case you haven't noticed—We're about to be whipped by Armageddon on steroids!"_

"Eh, I've been through plenty of Ragnoraks in my day! This is no different!" He twirls about to face the Calamity, then gulps. "Well, actually, I take that back, _this is pretty nasty actually_."

"_I swear to Sargeras..."_ Another figure groans.

"This'll blow the mole straight off Galactus' nose, lemme tell ya-"

"_Do we have an escape plan or don't we?"_ The third voice snarls. _"It was YOU who came to us, yanno!"_

"_I entreat thee, o Lord, in our time of dire need..."_ The fourth and last voice throats.

"_Oh hush!"_

"_Hush yourself, ya bleach haired witch! Mind your manners in front of a man bowing to the Almighty!"_

"_I'll show you **Almighty**-"_

"Okay—OKAY!" The boy spins with a cackle. Flames and exploding Earths light up behind him, drawing closer. "I know it's the End of all Space and Time—But don't you people all go 'The View' on my butt! You're right! I brought you here for a reason."

"_And what, pray tell, is that?"_

"Look..." The boy smiles pleasantly in spite of the horror and paces in a line before them. "I've been doing my job for a long, long, _long_ time. Longer than any of you can think. But my last job is to give you all this final instruction—Well, make that _second to last_ job. I kinda gotta...yanno...stuff some things into my pocket and all once you sexy harpies are gone-"

"_Surely there is a message in all of this. By the Grace of God, we haven't much time left."_

"HA! Don't you know it, ya silly little frodo!" The boy sticks his tongue out, clears his throat, and smiles proudly at the four of them. "You are four of the five...the last ones...the last Angel Spears."

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_...Angel **Whats**?"_

"Don't act surprised!" The boy waves his arms as a planet goes kersplodey behind him. "The end of everything doesn't _end_ with all this astronomical diarrhea bouncing around beyond me!" He winks. "The end _ends_ with you."

"_But...then..._" One of them scratches a head. _"Who is the **fifth**?"_

"The fifth..." The boy takes a deep breath, glanced forlornly at the blackening nightmare behind his shoulder. He fights it, but finds a reason to smile. "I think it's rather obvious by nao. But, that won't make the search any easier." He turns and looks back at the four. "If it's of any consolation, I'll be looking for him too."

"_Oh yeah? From where?"_

"Where else?" The boy grins. "From my turntable!"

A roar of thunder, and the Earth they are hovering over comes under attack from the debris of Everything Else that has existed, that is being swallowed, that is being engulfed in a great, great Black.

"_Reckon it's time we get the Hell outta dodge."_

"Spoken like a true desperado." The boy flicks a wrist, innocently—and a beam of green light yawns forth before the four individuals. "Try not to trip on any train wrecks on the way in."

"_Heh, you're a real hum dinger."_

"Every ding that I've ever humped." The boy nods with a grin. "And proud of it."

As the four saunter their way in, one figure stops to squint his way. _"When will we know that we've found the one we're looking for?"_

"When does he ever show up?" He waved before the collapsing black. "When everything is full circle, of course."

"_Hmph. Figures. Something tells me this is gonna **suck**."_

"And I thought _she_ was the vampire," the boy gestures with his head. "Nao skedaddle!"

The five figures drift in through the vortex—and are swallowed up in a blip of comprehension, snagged from existence.

Alone, the boy twirls about, facing the obsidian immensity descending, collapsing, embracing the last Earth in the grand soup of Chaos. A figure stretches beyond, thinned out like a rubber band scarecrow god, obscured by nebulae of black emptiness.

"Mmmmmnnng...Time it was, and what a, time it was, it was..." His green eyes narrow in a sudden solemnity. He flicks a hand forward, shimmering a horrendous emerald. "Bright eyes, you dun goof'd."

But he cannot resist.

He smiles. Always smiles.

The darkness descends.

The Green answers, pointing towards a brand new heaven, a voice screaming out into the Ever-Firmaments.

"**TO ME!"**

The Earth is swallowed up in a sphere of green. The effluence of everything that's left billows into one tiny point, one tiny figure, an epicenter of stretched matter and impossibly contracting ectoplasm, until there is nothing—nothing but the last bastion against nothingness, a screaming gasp of infinitesimal green Life, encapsulated in a _jump_:

**ZAAT**


End file.
